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Pilgrimage, in its many forms, has been very much a part of my Christian walk for about the last 7 years (See Boiler Room Rule link on the left). Tomorrow I’m off to Lindisfarne on my next stage of journeying and seeking God. I was going to write something as a suffix to the action at the end of the last sentence, but that would have been all wrong. It really is all about seeking Him for who He is, and seeing what happens.
So, probably on Tuesday, depending on the weather, I’ll be spending 10hrs+ on Cuthbert’s Isle, just off Holy Island, on the north east coast of England.
I have no idea where God is going to take this. There are plenty of things that I would like to talk to Him about, but I’ve found before that His agenda can be quite different to mine! If you get a second, I would really value your prayers as I seek Him over the next few days.
Thank you!

I had the privilege of accompanying Pete Greig, 24-7’s International Director and ‘sporter’ of many a dodgy haircut over the last few years, as he travelled up to Liverpool to speak at Merseyfest.
We had a great time talking about many of the challenges and excitements of running 24-7, and spent some valuable time talking about how we might deal with the next few months.

Continue reading Merseyfest

So, that’s it! Transmission is officially over!
Yesterday evening was our last main evening together, and we had a fantastic time of prayer and praise, with people leading us in prayer in about 20 different languages from people groups all over the globe.
As we were challenged to go out and live lives radically committed to Jesus in all the areas where we were involved, Tre Sheppard from Onehundredhours encouraged us all to get really practical and meet with those with similar callings to be accountable to each other and use our visions for each area of science/medicine, arts and media, politics, education, business, church etc. for the glory of God.

Continue reading Transmission – fin!

Meeting room setup, parking, registration, initial sessions, main meetings. Its all go…
Yesterday was hard. The news about London shook us all here, and we joined with the YWAM team in crying out to God for mercy. Our plans were secondary.
After a few hours, we returned to the business of getting Transmission ready to go Friday night. The task of getting the Factory ready is indeed a major undertaking. Thankfully its not just us – the YWAM camp that is combining with Transmission have already been meeting for the last couple of weeks, and so we have a small army painting, repairing doors, hoovering, repairing windows, laying carpet, and setting up sound and visuals. It’s a big job.
Please pray for those who will be arriving over the next 24hrs. With the London transport system the way it is at the moment, delegates and speakers alike could have a really hard time getting to us. Please also pray for good weather – it was challenging earlier today setting up our bookings computers on a wet pavilion!

Well, today’s been a real roller coaster! Thankfully the weather improved enough this morning for us to be able to patch the hole in the marquee, so we now have a 300 seater white canvas behemoth at the centre of the campsite. Looks great.
We then got some fairly startling financial news. Our web account provider doesn’t clear funds until one month after they were initially paid. This would be no problem if everyone had paid to come to Transmission a month ago, but this being the 24-7 community, most have paid in the last week! Thankfully, some friends have come to the rescue with a bridging loan. Phew. Could still use a few more people showing up for the weekend, but at least we can meet our financial commitments.
Preparations in the Factory have been going really well, and most of our volunteers have been painting or putting in electrical wiring today. We’ve also had a couple of amazingly task-focussed types churning out our site signs – there’s a lot of them!
Tomorrow the real fun begins. Team leaders arrive and have their first meetings, and we have a load of site setup to complete before delegates arrive on Friday. Keep praying…

Well, we’ve been here for a couple of days now, and we’re experiencing all those little niggles that happen when you’re preparing a festival 😉
Although we’re seeing a few problems, we’re also sensing a building excitement about what God is going to do through Transmission. We had a great prayer time this morning, and everyone is now running around trying to do all those lovely tasks we need to complete over the next couple of days.

Continue reading Transmission update 1

Those mad fools! People are still being inspired by the story of that small group of people, trying to be obedient to the whispers of God, in a dilapidated old pub in Reading around 4 years ago.
So here I am at the launch of the City Boiler Room. Abbess Jude Smith is giving an inspiring talk between times of deeply God-connected worship lead by a band made up of some great friends of hers from Luton. Looking around there are people here who have paid a much higher price than I to be a part of this thing. I guess it reminds me of the hope that we have that God will use these Generation X monasteries to glorify His name in a really powerful way. As I write this, I find myself challenged by that sentence. Maybe God will do something really powerful through the Boiler Room movement. But maybe it’ll be something much quieter. Changed lives. Lives lived with hope where there previously was none. Journeys shared for a time before paths diverge…
…I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.
You can find more of the story of 24-7 in the book Read Moon Rising, and more information on Boiler Rooms at www.boiler-rooms.com.