The Salvation Army and uniform

The doors opened at S21 this morning and the rush was almost overwhelming.

In the queue was Richard.

Homeless for so long.

Got him fixed up with shelter a while back.

Don't think he's going back there much by the look of him this morning.

He was drunk.

But not as drunk as I've seen him.

He had been in the hospital since 4am because he had called an ambulance for another local vagrant, who has cancer, who was so ill that he couldn't get up off the floor.

I looked at Richard.

He still has the hoodie on I gave him last Christmas. I gave it him off my own back because he was so cold one night last Christmas, so cold that his ears were a shocking mixture of colours, a kind of grey, blue, navy, purple colour.

It is a hoodie with a Salvation Army Red Shield badge emblazoned on the front.

This hoodie has caused me so much grief this year.

I've already shared on my blog, how in the summer, someone came running into S21 shouting, "Gary, one of your soldiers is drunk on the street and can't get up."

About five times I've had Salvationists from other places maybe visiting Durham for the day, and deciding to pay S21 a visit, telling me how wrong I am to allow him to wear the hoodie, one lady speaking out a classic statement, "It is an insult to the uniform to allow a drunkard to wear something with our crest on"

I gave it him because his ears were blue.

I gave it him because he was sleeping in a dirty rat-infested doorway in minus 10 degree weather.

I gave it him because he needed the hood around his ears.

I gave it him because he was desperately cold.

I gave it him because I didn't want him literally freezing to death.

I wasn't thinking, "Oh, this hoodie may insult the uniform, I'd better not give him it"

It was all I could give him, to help him right there and then.

So here he was this morning nearly a year later. Drunk again, still wearing the hoodie, coming for his soup.

As he sat down he began to cry.

He had already lost his friend, who he knocked about with on the street last year. He died in a bus shelter.

His new mate was now in hospital and probably won't be making it out of there.

Richards own life was laying heavy on him this morning.

I got him a coffee and let him settle, then we talked.

He said something profoundly moving.

"I looked at this badge on my hoodie today it reminded me of all the kindness I've been shown by the people at Sanctuary 21. It reminded me of the time you gave it me when I was cold. It reminded me that my life needs to be different. I can't carry on like this. I'm going to die too. And I don't want to. At least looking at this badge helps me to believe I have something to live for."

I thought of those words spoken by a lady that day, "you shouldn't let him wear that, it's an insult to the uniform."

It so stirred something up in me I felt like sharing it today.

It stirred up an anger.

But I'm not writing this in anger.

No not at all.

I write it just at the point the anger has subsided into sadness.

The times I hear all these crazy opinions on the Salvation Army and uniform. "We should wear it, No we shouldn't wear it, that kind of thing.

You know.

Hats or no hats.

Suit or T-shirt!

That kind if thing.

I can show you people who have left because of those arguments.

I can show you people who have been really wounded by those discussions.

I am frightened by the preciousness there still seems to be floating about the Salvation Army about a thing such as simple as what people should wear.

I have my own thoughts on it, but won't share them because it just adds to the daft war of the clothes war.

No.

I'll try my best to keep focussed on those who desperately need a saviour.

If I've insulted the uniform I am really and truly sorry.

I really mean that.

But it seems that God is using that black hoodie with a shield on it to speak to Richard, a guy who is so broken and lost its frightening.

Whatever your views are about wearing a uniform? One thing I would say is, and I'm speaking to myself too, we had better make sure we are serious about why we wear it, and it had better be about spiritual reasons only, otherwise believe me we look pretty daft in suits that look like they are from the shop that time forgot.

I'm pretty sure it is time to throw all we have into our mission and not spend hours getting frustrated about what everyone is wearing or not wearing.

I am so glad that Richard is wearing the Army shield on his chest. It reminds him of the unconditional love of Jesus working through the unconditional love of his children.

It also reminds me this morning that the only fight I should involve myself in is the fight for the lives of those who feel they are without hope.

That's why I choose to be a part of the Salvation Army.

That's the fight I'm going to focus on.

That's the cause, to fight for justice and to rescue the lost.

I pray that will be the only fight the Salvation Army worldwide will focus all its resources on.

I really do.

PS.

I also ask if you have a spare moment, that you would pray for Richard. He's right he is in constant danger from the alcoholism. We are really praying hard
And doing what we can to save him. But could do with some extra prayers going up. Thanks guys. Gaz

A word about worldliness

This girl came up to me recently and started to just pour out some stuff going on in her life.

I was just giving one of our receptionists a minute to go to the loo.

I am not a gifted receptionist.

I'm actually rubbish at it.

But in the five minutes (it was longer but I don't want to embarrass the receptionist!) I was sitting at reception? A girl in her late twenties came in and just started talking.

The essence of what she was saying was said with a pace and a hyperactivity that was breathless in its delivery.

She started with a statement.

"The world is just not enough!"

I thought she was going to talk about the James Bond movie.

But she continued.

"I'm sick of striving to achieve, to keep up with the Jones, to buy bigger, better and more, and to keep up with the latest iPhones! Im sick of always wanting more from the world. I'm sick of it!"

I said?

OK!

That was the sum total of my experienced and considered reply!

I'm such a brilliant pastor!

And an even better receptionist!

Not!

But it's weird because she was speaking out something that had been on my mind for a while.

A super fast thought had popped in my head just the other day that hasn't kind of left me.

But I was finding it hard to make sense of it.

It was this.

"The world can never satisfy the world."

So since then God has rolled that thought out in the everyday life that I lead. He has rolled it out like a silent movie flashing before my eyes.

It started with a scripture my wife Dawn gave me, after I'd shared with her about the thought that had hit me.

1 John 2: 15-17

15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father[a] is not in them. 16 For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.

I spend most days amongst people who have nothing.

Materially they have absolutely nothing.

People who spend there lives grasping at the world to provide the alcohol or narcotics they need to keep the DTs away or even keep them alive. People who everyday of there lives run a race of survival that is tiresome in its out working.

Even they are looking to the world for to provide that stuff.

So many people look to the world to provide contentment and scientific answers or material satisfaction to what life is all about.

I met a guy the other day who is so far in debt because he had bought a "prestige" car with money he didn't have, just to feel successful and fit in with the what the world says.

To fast track the story.

His wife had left him because he couldn't pay the debt.

He was so devastated, he turned to the worlds other suggestion that he should drink to numb the pain.

He lost his job.

He lost his dignity.

He ended up sleeping in a cold doorway with the ultimate worldly prize?

Nothingness.

I had my arm around him praying words of comfort over his life.

I was flipping mad with the world I can tell you.

It tells lies, offers false hope and can come as an angel of light to many.

The world can never satisfy the world.

Never.

So here is the thing for anyone who feels this is resonating with them.

Don't listen to the world whispering its pseudo promises of more more more.

There is another way.

Another voice.

A true hope.

A reality.

This morning as I picked up the mail at S21 there was a brown envelope.

Marked Gary and Dawn.

I opened it and two sheets of crisp white paper fell out, along with a freshly folded picture cut outbid a news paper.

The meticulously written letter was a message of encouragement from someone who had been ministered to at s21 by one of our team.

The picture was a great one. (I include it at the bottom of this post)

It was of Felix Baumgartner of parachuting from space to earth fame, before he jumped from Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio De Janeiro.

But as I looked at this picture, I saw a man in the hand of Jesus.

And in that one glance at this picture, my first thought was there is no place I would rather be.

Than being held by the hand of Jesus.

Someone facebooked me last night.

And asked me a very direct question.

"How do you know when you have been called."

As I pondered my reply.

I could only answer something like this.

"Because I was sick of the way my life was heading. I was wandering aimlessly down the road to nowhere. I was sick of striving to be liked, to fit in, to be popular, to get everything that I could that the world was seeming to offer me. The more I had the more I felt empty. I had a massive desire to help people and make a difference in the world, but I couldn't because I was of the world. And in all of that came what I know was a call to a different path.

The world can't satisfy the world.

"If anyone is in the world, the father is not in them."

Ouch.

"The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever."

It's true.

What the world offers will jog on eventually.

It'll just disappear.

But whoever puts themselves in the will of God?

Puts ourselves into His purpose.

Puts ourselves into His hand.

Will really live.

Live now.

Live to the maximum.

Experience truly life changing transformation.

Live forever.

The world is not enough.

The girl was right.

But God is more than enough.

Believe me.

Take a look at the pic below. Allow God a moment to speak to you.

Blessings.

Personal prayer Rhythms

Sanctuary 21, like a number of other components of the worldwide prayer movement build our communities up and out of a relentless rhythm of prayer.

In monastic daily life, throughout history right up to today, disciplined, rhythmical prayer has taken place, often around eight times a day or even more. These prayer gatherings would have specific names such as matins, vespers, and compline. These would mark very specific services that happened at strict times throughout the day and night.

Obviously in the traditional monasteries would involve set liturgies, mostly involving the reading or singing of the psalms, with pre-planned scriptures and prayers included.

This discipline can teach us so much today.

The communities that claim to be a kind of new monasticism, especially the exciting growth of the high street monasteries and prayer communities maybe interpret the way the rhythm is carried out differently, but the discipline remains the same.

Disciplined regular prayer rhythm is a fantastic tool to use for not only community prayer life, but personal prayer life too. It is good to establish a lifestyle of prayer and establishing a personal rhythm has been proven to work throughout Christian history.

This blog post today gives us a little bit of an idea about setting up a personal rhythm. Of course it is only a glimpse from my own personal experience so there is massive scope for your own personal development of a prayer rhythm.

The main thing is that a life built on prayer is likely to be an effective missional life.

So here goes.

Setting the rhythm

Every day at twelve o’clock the bells on Durham Cathedral chime, calling people to communion.

That’s one of the reasons that church bells are for, to signify the hour that worshippers need to go to church. Before electronic communication they were the only way to gather people together.

In all monasteries at the hour appointed to gather to pray the rhythm, the monastic bell is rung to remind the monks and nuns to pray. Today in the UK we do have a wealth of communication tools at our disposal. Mobile phones, tablet computers, landlines, iPods, mainframe computers. For those who haven’t got access or don’t wish to have access to technology, we have diaries, wall planners, whiteboards, and if all else fails? We have post it notes!

If we are to develop a personal rhythm of prayer then we need a monastic bell of some kind!

It’s amazing how those reminders still work. Maybe it’s a challenge to set a personal rhythm right now today?

So a little challenge!

What is your monastic bell? Do you have one to remind you to pray? Maybe you can set an alarm on your phone or other device?

What to pray?

A common difficulty we all come across is what to pray?

You can have a thousand things to pray for but sometimes we go to pray and we find it hard.

Recently I have developed a way of praying that I call templating.

Definitely not a new thing, as many people write prayer lists etc.
But templating is great way to bring alive a personal prayer rhythm.
It involves spending time writing down the crucial things personal to you that need praying for.

Whether it’s for yourself or for others, or indeed a situation.

For instance, recently we have been praying for the wider vision to plant other Sanctuary 21s in other Cities.

The way we decided to construct this specific rhythm was to write out an initial template of prayer directed towards this.

We set it out under four headings.

Thanks

Hopes and dreams

Requests

Mission outcomes

Under these headings we wrote simple prayers. Things that really needed praying for.

We stick to that template and pray it at 10 am every day.

Simply following the template.

Then when we could either see the prayers being answered or situations changed, we simply deleted, changed or added new prayers to the template.

Basically it is a living breathing constantly changing template.

But what it does is keep us focussed and for some reason ultra watchful for answers and moves of God.

Templating is a great way of keeping your personal prayer rhythm sharp and meaningful.

Draw up a template today. Start committing a time of day to pray it and stick firmly to it.

You will be amazed how exciting it can be.

Ways of praying rhythms

Here is a fact for you. We all pray differently.

There are lots of exciting ways of praying rhythms. Templating is one. Being creative, by utilizing the things you like to be creative in. Art, music, dance, whatever floats your dinghy really can be used to definitely float Gods dinghy! Using them in a prayer is a way of cutting through the dryness that can occur when involved in the hard work of maintaining a prayer rhythm.

I don't want to write a big dossier here of ways of praying a prayer rhythm because its futile. The truth is there are untold ways that people connect with God in prayer.

Me?

I just like to get down to business and talk and listen to God.

How to pray Rhythms is up to us as individuals. Using our own characters and ways but not being frightened to step out beyond the comfort barrier to experience new things

Rhythm creates lifestyle

Throughout history, rhythms of prayer have proved effective.

However as important as they are to keep a flow of prayer securely in place, we need to push out beyond the set prayer time into a lifestyle of prayer.

This is very important.

The prayer of the righteous person is powerful and effective. (James 5:13-16)

Righteousness is about relationship with Christ.

If we are not in a living, breathing, 24/7 relationship with Jesus then we will miss out on the righteousness that Jesus offers us through his Holy Spirit living in us.

Which in turn, according to this scripture, will mean our prayer can be none effective?

Prayer is the main communication in our relationship with Jesus.

If we aren’t talking and listening to God?

All the time? Well as much as we can?

We are struggling to be in relationship with him.

So learning to develop a lifestyle of prayer is important.

What do we mean by lifestyle of prayer?

It means we bring every part of our life to Jesus all the time.

Talk to him, listen to him on everything?

It strengthens our relationship with him and our trust levels rise.

We tap into the righteousness of Christ
That makes us ultra- effective in prayer.

These are just little glimpses into some experiences of personal prayer.
The one thing to take today is the importance of earnest prayer or disciplined rhythms of prayer.

In Acts 12 I love that picture of the church earnestly praying for Peter who was imprisoned at the time. Earnestly means with passion and fervour. Those fervent and passionate prayers were pivotal in Peter being spiritually rescued from prison. And a passionate and fervent personal prayer rhythm could be equally pivotal to someone who we are praying for.

I pray today that you will have been encouraged to put prayer first in your life.

And that a rhythm of prayer would flow from your heart direct to God himself.

Shifting the balance

Finding solace in a bacon sandwich and a coffee was the last thing I expected today.

But that's what happened.

I went in to S21 this morning with the best of intentions. I went in ready to face up to whatever God would have me do today.

But it wasn't a good morning at the office.

Not good at all.

So I did something I don't normally do.

I just gave up on it this morning.

Put my iPad in my backpack.

Put my coat on.

And headed for the coffee house in Durham.

For the rest of the day!

And I got myself a bacon sandwich and a coffee.

And they tasted good.

And I suddenly felt the life draining back into me.

I'm glad I hit the coffee house because it has given me a couple of hours to just reflect, work a couple of things through in my head, and most importantly, pray.

The pressures of ministry hit me this morning.

I was having one of those mornings where you actually wonder whether your ministry is making any difference to anyone's life. Whether its making any difference to my own life even. I've been feeling lately that I am beginning to be desperate for a new challenge. So anything right now that crops up that is remotely difficult to handle seems to just intensify those totally negative feelings.

Then just before I walked out of the door of S21 with my backpack on and a temptation in my heart to just walk right on out of officership forever (sounds dramatic doesn't it? It wasn't that dramatic really) a lady called out to me from the prayer room.

She said she had been praying and had felt God ask her to write something to me. (I hadn't seen her that morning and didn't know she was in the prayer room.)

This is what she wrote.

"Gaz

I really want to thank you today for the day you were at the prayer hatch at Sanctuary 21 just when I needed the connection that would be a ladder to Heaven. That was a couple of years ago maybe, but praying in the Sanctuary today saw the prayer hatch again. I remembered you, your faithfulness, your help, and I knew I had to thank you. Even if I have before. Thank you, thank you, thank you. In Jesus name, hallelujah. Gaz, let all the striving cease and the pain be released in the blessed name of the the Messiah. Lynda."

She wrote it on a piece of green card.

My mind went back to that very day.

Lynda had lost her husband on that very day. I was manning the prayer hatch out on to the street.

She came and wept, and we prayed and I gave her some words of comfort.

She has been coming to S21 to pray ever since.

And as I took my first bite of my very comforting hot bacon sandwich today, I had just read this message that she had just placed in my hand. My countenance lifted. The heaviness seemed to just jog on.

I guess God had used me to make a difference in this lady's life?

And I thought to myself how timely that message was.

Just when I thought I may have had enough really.

When stuff like that happens?

Something or someone seems to come along to shift the balance a little.

It made me smile (and cry) today.

It also reminded me that God is around.

All of the time.

With his hand out ready to rescue us from whatever.

Whenever.

And he is always ready to remind us we can all make a difference to someone.

However we feel.

Shifting the balance

Finding solace in a bacon sandwich and a coffee was the last thing I expected today.

But that's what happened.

I went in to S21 this morning with the best of intentions. I went in ready to face up to whatever God would have me do today.

But it wasn't a good morning at the office.

Not good at all.

So I did something I don't normally do.

I just gave up on it this morning.

Put my iPad in my backpack.

Put my coat on.

And headed for the coffee house in Durham.

For the rest of the day!

And I got myself a bacon sandwich and a coffee.

And they tasted good.

And I suddenly felt the life draining back into me.

I'm glad I hit the coffee house because it has given me a couple of hours to just reflect, work a couple of things through in my head, and most importantly, pray.

The pressures of ministry hit me this morning.

I was having one of those mornings where you actually wonder whether your ministry is making any difference to anyone's life. Whether its making any difference to my own life even. I've been feeling lately that I am beginning to be desperate for a new challenge. So anything right now that crops up that is remotely difficult to handle seems to just intensify those totally negative feelings.

Then just before I walked out of the door of S21 with my backpack on and a temptation in my heart to just walk right on out of officership forever (sounds dramatic doesn't it? It wasn't that dramatic really) a lady called out to me from the prayer room.

She said she had been praying and had felt God ask her to write something to me. (I hadn't seen her that morning and didn't know she was in the prayer room.)

This is what she wrote.

"Gaz

I really want to thank you today for the day you were at the prayer hatch at Sanctuary 21 just when I needed the connection that would be a ladder to Heaven. That was a couple of years ago maybe, but praying in the Sanctuary today saw the prayer hatch again. I remembered you, your faithfulness, your help, and I knew I had to thank you. Even if I have before. Thank you, thank you, thank you. In Jesus name, hallelujah. Gaz, let all the striving cease and the pain be released in the blessed name of the the Messiah. Lynda."

She wrote it on a piece of green card.

My mind went back to that very day.

Lynda had lost her husband on that very day. I was manning the prayer hatch out on to the street.

She came and wept, and we prayed and I gave her some words of comfort.

She has been coming to S21 to pray ever since.

And as I took my first bite of my very comforting hot bacon sandwich today, I had just read this message that she had just placed in my hand. My countenance lifted. The heaviness seemed to just jog on.

I guess God had used me to make a difference in this lady's life?

And I thought to myself how timely that message was.

Just when I thought I may have had enough really.

When stuff like that happens?

Something or someone seems to come along to shift the balance a little.

It made me smile (and cry) today.

It also reminded me that God is around.

All of the time.

With his hand out ready to rescue us from whatever.

Whenever.

And he is always ready to remind us we can all make a difference to someone.

However we feel.

A funny thing happened on the way to the prayer room

Last Sunday was a chaotic day in the life of the City of Durham UK.

It was the first freshers day in a week of freshers activity.

Brand new students and returning students saturating the city with a fresh blast of life.

We had S21 service at 10.30am.

So we had chaos outside on the street. The police were trying to organize the ever increasing traffic, I saw a new student arguing with her parents, really sending them into a kind of frustrated melt down.

Inside our building, people were arriving out of the chaos in the streets into the Holy chaos that is S21.

I was down to preach, so I retreated with my earphones in place to one of the prayer rooms to kind of quieten my heart and get focused.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the prayer room.

The police brought a guy in who was shaking, and obviously all too familiar to us now in the throws of lack of alcohol. The police asked if we could look after him. So I asked him if he wanted to sit through our service and I would chat to him afterwards.

He agreed to do that.

After the service he was in tears. He spewed out this cacophony of mess that his life had become. He was a former lawyer, but now he was homeless, he was an alcoholic, he was penniless, he was family less, he was dirty, disheveled and he seemed to have lost any sense of spirit and life.

He needed a drink.

He was a chaotic mess.

He wanted to get to another city to try and sort his life out with his family. So after feeding him, praying with him and listening to him, we gave him a bus ticket to this other place.

He kept saying, "I've been an alcoholic too long."

Which was uncanny really.

Because.

In the service I had preached from Deuteronomy 1 which sees the people of Israel after being freed years before from captivity, still hanging around in the wilderness (Mount Horeb) and not having taken possession of what God had promised them, a new land, a new future, a new glory. God gives them a message. "You have stayed in this mountain too long. Break camp and take your journey." Then he says, "Go and take possession of the land that The Lord swore to your Fathers."

When I stood in the chaos of the world last Sunday morning, then sat in the chaos of a broken mans life, another verse from the message bible dropped from my head to my heart.

Psalm 51: 7
God, make a fresh start in me, shape a genesis week from the chaos of my life.

And today as I have reflected on this, genesis speaks of new beginnings, new opportunities, new life.

And this verse became a prayer for the chaotic things we see every day.

I was going to write something else today, but for whatever reason I more than felt God prompt me to write this.

So I guess there maybe people today feeling the heat of the chaotic world.

I guess there maybe people stuck in a rut.

There maybe somebody who has stayed on a particular mountain way to long?

And got a bit comfortable there?

Like Gods chosen people.

Maybe you have got so comfortable you haven't taken possession of all that God has for you?

Hey guys I guess right now you know what that mountain is?

God says break camp!

Get off the mountain, get out of the wilderness.

Following our service on Sunday we had someone give their life to Jesus for the first time.

I saw the dreamy realization of stepping into something new and right.

I saw it in her tearful eyes.

I saw a genesis week beginning in her heart.

So for all of us who have stayed on the mountain too long?

This scripture prayer is for you.

God, make a fresh start in me, shape a genesis week from the chaos of my life (Message)