Mike Rutter’s Weblog…….

I’m loving the new Compassionart album – there are some great songs on it. Have a listen at their website.

Compassionart

Some of my favourite Christian artists have got together for what I think is a really cool project. It’s initiated by Martin Smith from Delirious and has involved about 12 artists writing and recording an album together, with all of the proceeds going to charities selected by the artists. I’m looking forward to the album….

Have a look at the Compassionart  website

Here is a video from the recent Dove Awards where some of the artists sing one of the new songs.

Some friends from my course emailed me the link to this quiz. Some of the questions are a bit leading but it is interesting to do. Have a go….

http://quizfarm.com/test.php?q_id=7095N

My result was :

I’ve just taken the test again and got this result:

I have emerged from the caravan clutching the final draft! Don’t tell anyone, but I actually enjoyed writing it in the end

I am currently sitting in our caravan on our driveway. It is my ‘hideaway’ where I go to avoid children so I can do some work. I broke up for the summer last week (I know I know….part timer, ****** private system etc etc…….just deal with it ok?) I haven’t let myself get into holiday mode yet as I still have a 4000 word essay to write and I know I will never get it done if I start hanging around in my pyjamas and watching daytime tv. Apart from this essay, I have now completed the first year of my 3 year theology degree. It has gone very quickly and I’m sure that the other 2 will be just the same. It has also made me think a lot more about what I will be doing at the end of the 3 years. Ideally I will do vicaring stuff for 2-3 days a week and continue to teach part time for the rest of the week. I’m not sure what the vicaring stuff will look like though. There are a few opportunities but it is difficult to know what to persue. What I do know is that I need to hold on to the reason I originally felt it was right to put forward for ordination which was to be involved in pioneering new forms of church, the same message but expressed differently to the standard Anglican way. I always remember back to ‘Village 87′ which was a Rob Frost mission that I went on back in 1987 (surprisingly). I remember sitting at the kitchen table listening to the rest of the team talk about their faith and about God and realising that I had never experienced what they had and also that I loved the fact that this conversation could happen in such an informal way… around a kitchen table. It may seem obvious now but it was quite revelation to me at the time having been brought up in ‘regular’ church. Since then I have always wanted to help create environments like this; informal places where people can relax and hear about God without all the unnecessary stuff that we often tend to add in churches. I need to say at this point that this doesn’t mean I am against tradition and ritual and all that stuff, I just think we need to look again at the reasons why we do it and ask whether it helps people to hear about God or hinders them from hearing about him. In the church that I help to lead at the moment, G2, we try to create an informal environment in which people can relax and engage at the level they are comfortable with. Of course we don’t always hit the mark, but the intention is there and we have seen it grow over the few years it has been going. Its exciting to be a part of because it is helping people to engage with the message of God which they so often never get to in our churches because all the politics and ‘churchy’ stuff gets to them first. Anyway, I realise that I always need to come back to this original desire to help enable church that is like this.

I went to my friend Christian’s ordination yesterday at York Minster. It was a long service but I found it really moving, probably because I am thinking a lot at the moment about all this sort of stuff. It was great to see Christian ‘get done’ – he even made wearing robes look good, which is saying something

 Anyway, I can’t put off starting my essay any longer -I still have loads to blog about but it will have to come later……

We’ve just had a great weekend in Oundle with Pip’s parents. We don’t get opportunity to go down there that often but when we do we always have a good time. There are so many people that we care about a lot there that a visit is always an emotional time (in a good way). The service at Oundle Baptist Church was really good. The church meets in the local secondary school and is always a joy to visit. There is always a real sense of God there.

On the Sunday we went to visit a farm that were in the process of lambing 1600 sheep. The shepherdess who goes to the church said we could come over and watch and help a bit. It was quite daunting to be standing amongst all those sheep who just stood there and stared at you. In large numbers they can be a little daunting. I think watching the film Babe hasn’t helped! Anyway – the really cool thing was that Joel decided he wanted to help deliver a lamb which he did. I was really proud of how he was up for doing it. He says he wants to be a vet and I suppose this is as good a start as any. The video shows him delivering the lamb. Its a bit ropey in quality as it was taken on my phone but hopefully you can make out what’s happening.

I hate being ill. I have had this cold for nearly a week now and it has been a rough one (and before any of you say it – no it isn’t man-flu!) I was off work on Thursday which I hate doing although it did give me opportunity to catch up on the sleep I have missed due to hacking away all through the night.

I’m still reflecting on the stuff that I heard from my mate on the Men’s weekend. Carl Tinnion was speaking to us all and one of the things he was addressing was how we often lose our ability to dream and imagine what God might be calling us to do. It might be that what we are doing is the right thing, but it might not. He just wanted to challenge us to take risks again, to challenge where we are at and to think about what we are passionate about because believe it or not God likes to work with our passions. Often we think that the stuff we do in partnership with God is not always meant to be something we enjoy. That may occasionally be true, but more often than not God is keen to work with the interests and passions that we have in or heart. So what are they? What could they become? I was thinking about how when I was 18 I helped set up a coffee bar for the youth that were hanging out around my local church. My mate Lee, and myself just said one day, “what if we did something for those guys?”. Together we set it up. It was really hard work, but it was something that we did that had come from our hearts and our desire to engage with these youth. A key thing to mention here is that we did it together and that is something that Carl also commented on, that we aren’t meant to pursue our dreams alone. We operate out of community, as a team. Jesus did it.

I think I have lost some of my ability to dream and pursue what God might have placed in my heart. Some of that is about becoming older and responsibilities changing. But it doesn’t mean I should neccessarily settle for the status quo. So what are my / your dreams and passions? What could this dreaming look like in the future if pursued? Who are the people around us that might share it with us? I think its worth asking these questions again. With God lots of seemingly impossible things become possible. It will involve taking risks sometimes – but then that’s when life becomes interesting!

I was really sorry to hear today of the death of Rob Frost.  A lot of people  probably won’t have heard of him, but to me he was one of the main reasons why I have the faith that I now have.

Rob set up an organisation called Share Jesus International and it was with this organisation that I went on a mission in 1987 to the North East of England. His heart was to enable others to hear about the message of Jesus and he did this by encouraging the church to step out  beyond the 4 walls and engage with people in their communities. It was on this mission in 1987 that I found myself sitting around a kitchen table drinking coffee and listening to the rest of the team I was with, talking about their faith and about a God who was involved and present in their lives. Hearing them talk naturally about God in this way really affected me and helped me on my journey of faith. Ever since then my desire has been to ’do’ church in this way – in a natural environment – ‘around the kitchen table’ where people have the opportunity to hear about God in the same way that they would hear anything else. To hear about God as they were sitting around chatting and having a drink with friends.  That’s why I am currently training to be a vicar in the Anglican Church as a Pioneer leader - as someone who is being given the opportunity to set up churches that have these values. So Rob Frost was a key person in my Christian life and someone that I think will be missed by many.

Read about Rob Frost