Josh hitchiked to Morocco!

Here's a post from Josh Bennett (of Dream in Haydock)

On 27th March in the Easter holidays I and a uni friend of mine set off on a journey. Our destination? Morocco (NE Africa, south of spain across the straight of gibraltar). Our means of transport? Hitchhiking!

Although I was initially skeptical about travelling in this way, by it we managed to cross the lengths of England, France and Spain and (with the help of a few ferries) arrived in Morocco. It was an experience like no other and, amongst many other things, involved the Gendarmerie, french female wine business tycoons and tent-pitching beside the motorway.

I'm telling you all this because we did it to raise funds for Link Community Development, a charity working to improve education standards in Africa.

Please take the time to visit www.justgiving.com/joshuabennett where there is more information on the charity as well as the oppurtunity to sponsor me online. Thanks for reading!

Josh

now - dream to go 24

What if this is it?

What if this is as good as it gets?
The "good old days" we'll look back on.

Live now.
Embrace now.
This is the only moment that truly exists.

If I lived with the awareness of Now and of God here now, life would transform.

Now counts.
Milk now... no mug it!
Trip it up, grab it by the throat and forcefully pursuade it to give up its treasures... "the kingdom of God belongs to forceful people..."

Stop excusing now.
Stop delegating it and postponing it.

Perhaps one of the biggest dangers in life is to spend my time, energy and money seeking out endless ways to distract myself from now. Maybe the kingdom if heaven is here, but I am elsewhere.

The only battles I need to fight are the ones I face right now.

Now is really happening! It's not a role-play or a practise for the real thing.
Now is the real thing.

Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes. (Matthew 6:34 the message)

do you want to be a star?

Liverpool is hosting it's very own contemporary nativity play with local stars (Geoffrey Hughes, Cathy Tyson and Jennifer Ellison) and music from Liverpool greats (The Beatles, The La's, The Zutons, etc). It'll be broadcast live on BBC3 (from 8pm on Sunday 16th December) and repeated later on BBC2. I blogged about it 'here' with a link to the BBC press release.

We've been approached to see if anyone from the Dream network wants to take part as an extra in the Herod scene, which will be at St George's Hall. Are you interested?... If so, you'll need to be available for rehearsals on 13th and 14th of December in the evening (from 7pm) and the afternoons of 15th and 16th December (around 2 - 9pm each day, which includes the actual performance on the Sunday).

The BBC need to know pretty sharpish as to who wants to be involved, so if you're keen and can make the rehearsals (or at least, most of them) drop me an email as soon as possible (if you don't have my email address leave a comment here or email Richard!)

Malcolm

Jesus never spoke to prostitues - dream to go 23

I’m a Reverend you know. It says so on my credit card, and also on a bit of paper a bishop once gave me. Most of the time I avoid the title – I mean it doesn’t really suit my rugged good looks and street cred lifestyle. But sometimes I quite enjoy it. Like on those days when I’m feeling insignificant and overlooked.

Only problem is, Jesus abolished ‘status’. Seriously, he scrapped it. He even arranged an ancient powerpoint illustration as the curtain in the temple that separated the professional holy people from the others ripped apart when he died.

Jesus started a new community where there are no VIPs. Where children, the homeless and the elderly get as much status as doctors, directors, and archbishops. In the early days they took it really seriously. They even made the rich people sit in the worst seats as a reminder.

But soon the rot began to creep back in. Those who were leaders (Jesus had called them 'servants' – the cleaners and cooks for the community) reinvented priesthood – or gave it new names like 'senior pastor'. Those who were followers happily colluded, welcoming the chance to confirm their nobody-ness and escape the responsibilities of “ministry”.

Of course we need different gifts and roles. And of course there are tools for the job. But does the size of the house, office or car reflect a valid need? Or is it just one more attempt to keep the wretched system going and keep the radical words of Jesus at bay?

Someone said that Jesus never spoke to prostitutes* – because he didn’t see them that way. He saw them as precious women made in God’s image. He saw them as sisters, and the daughters of his father. That's status!

(*I stole this wonderful line from a wonderful book called the irresistible revolution)

dream to go 22 - do it badly

If a thing’s worth doing, it’s worth doing badly (G K Chesterton)

Don’t wait to start. Don’t wait to be perfect. Don’t wait to be good at it. Don’t even wait to be average. Pretty well everything that is really and deeply important in life is worth doing, even if the best you can do is to do it badly.

Get stuck in. Get your hands dirty. Get your nose bloody.
Do it with all your heart and strength even if that is only good enough to do it badly.

Jesus told us to do lots of things. I am bad at almost all of them. But I’m going to do them, even if I make a fool of myself in the process. I’m going to love God and you and other people. I’m going to pray. I’m going to give lots away. I’m going to give up destructive living. I’m going to resist evil.

It will really help me to keep doing those things, if you are willing to have a go to, and to do them even if badly, rather than wait until you are somehow good.

Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don't see many of "the brightest and the best" among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn't it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these "nobodies" to expose the hollow pretensions of the "somebodies"? (1 Corinthians 1:26)

Dreamfields

Well I loved getting together with nearly forty of you (including seven children) for our retreat day at strawberry field.

For those who couldn’t make it, you missed

-Chaos over caffettieres

-Malcolm’s brand sparkling new Mac powerbook crashing first time it tried to play a video (no I’m not secretly laughing at all)

-Me ‘preaching’ naked twice (you’ll have to ask someone!)

-Seven lifesize murder-scene type outline drawings of the children.

Seriously it was lovely to be together for a day and to build new friendships. The day was relaxed. The worship was intimate. The commitment to one another and to this crazy thing God’s drawn us into tangible.
There seemed to be a keenness to do this sort of thing again before too long (not sure yet how long is too long).

Thanks to everyone who came and took part.

richard w

Dream Retreat Day (+ children’s programme)

On Saturday 10th November we’re running a Dream network retreat day at Strawberry Field.

Our theme will be Improve your love life!

We’ll be looking at …

-Devotion
-Friendship
-Passion

…as we reflect on growing in love for God, each other and the world around us.

The day will include teaching but also plenty of time for personal reflection, discussion and prayer.

Times: 10am – 3pm (byo lunch, drinks provided)

There’s no charge for the day but we’ll make a donation to Strawberry Field so bring some money.

We’re really excited that for children aged 5-14, ‘Pure Creative Arts School’ are going to run an event for the day exploring similar themes. Cost £10 per child (subsidised by Dream). If you’d like to bring one or more children please let me know asap (by 30th Oct)

Please email to let me know if you are coming.

You can find Strawberry Field here on google maps, but I’ll send better directions nearer the time.

I'm really excited about the day - got a feeling it's going to be special,

richard w