The Christmas reflective service went very well last night. See Barky's blog for a few more details. I deliberately asked as many people as I could for feedback and it was all very positive. There is such a need for 'space' in this world. It seems to me that everyone's trying so hard to make Christmas special without quite knowing what would be special. There was a little confusion as people arrived - the church was quite dark and some thought it was closed! Others walked in and were confused by the setup as it wasn't obvious where to 'sit'. A little friendly direction did the trick though.
The important thing for me was that I met with God. My reaction to reading that would be to ask 'What do you mean?', but maybe that's something we can explore in the future. I just know that I received a reassurance along the lines of 'It's OK, it'll all work out in the end'.
I had a discussion with one person who was asking where the Holy Spirit fits into all of this (i.e. the ways of doing church that we are attempting to explore). I suppose one answer is everywhere, but the question echoed some of my thoughts of the past weeks. Maybe this is another subject we can address soon.
Merry Christmas to everyone!
(If you're reading this you're probably the sort of person whose mind is trying to analyse the deeper meaning of the word 'Merry' (or if you're really sad 'everyone'). Stop it and have fun!)

It's been an interesting few days. Mad panic to produce a tender for a lot of equipment for an urgent requirement, then the deflation last night when we found out we're not getting the business. Still my team won our table tennis match last night which sort of makes up for it.
This Sunday night is a "quiet reflection" christmas do, and I need to read a meditation on the incarnation. As we didn't get the big order I won't have to rush off to the USA, and might have time to produce some images on Powerpoint to go with the words. That'll help a lot if I can. Also, I've produced a CD with an hour's worth of heartbeat from the womb, and another CD with Martin Wroe speaking "Flesh of our Flesh". All this and our cell group are very encouranging.
Some friends at another church have recently experienced a major split, and I have friends on both sides of the fence. The issues for some are major, and some are just puzzled, overall it's very sad. Listening to stories from both sides is extrememly confusing as they are mostly contradictory. I can only assume we're dealing with differing world views.
I long to hear from God. I know all the usual stuff people say to that, but I want to hear Him speak to me again - I don't care if it's like He's done before or in some other way. In the past there were steps I could have taken to 'encourage' Him to speak (probably to put me in the right frame of mind to hear, but there we go). Things have changed and those methods no longer seem relevant (or real), so I live with the longing.

Well I wonder if this "Blog this" link actually works. I guess I'll see in a minute.

Well, it's nearly Christmas and things are really hectic at work. I find this muddles my mind for other things. I'd like to be creative to contribute to a reflective Christmas do that some of us are supposed to be planning, but finding it very difficult when my mind is full of work-related issues all of which are urgent.