Carol Praise

Don't forget if you have a free evening tomorrow (15th) and are anywhere near Walsall we would be pleased to see you at our Carol Praise event at Pleck Methodist Church, Bescot Road, Walsall. WS2 9AD starting at 7-30p.m. and to be followed by mince pies, sausage rolls and tea or coffee.

Christmas is coming.......

Christmas is coming,
and the shops are going mad
got to get a present for me
dear old Mom and Dad.

I am convinced that the world is going mad and that for shop and v=businesses there is a degree of Jingle all the way as their cash registers ching with the sound of money going into them.

We have just had a new Tesco store open in Walsall and very foolishly on Saturday I allowed my wife and daughter to persuade me to go and have a look at it - not a good move really as it was extremely busy and I was amazed at how much stuff people were buying - I suspect the shops will only be shut for one day and yet you would think people were stocking up for a siege.

At the risk of sounding like Scrooge I am tempted to say Bah Humbug to the whole thing - of course the only thing that stops me is that the story behind all the trimmings and turkey and tinsel has to be the most amazing story ever told, and of course the reality of knowing Jesus as Lord and Saviour gives the whole thing an added dimension that is sadly missing for many of the folk I saw in Tesco on Saturday.

I was just thinking!

Now there's a dangerous thing to be doing but I have to say I was just thinking about a post over on Methodist Preacher's blog about Cyrille Regis a local footballer and his testimony.

Methodist Preacher is in a sense bemoaning the fact that the language of Damascus style conversion is not often heard in our Methodist churches and I do have some sympathy for what he says. I did comment on his blog but have given a little more thought to the matter since and started to wonder whether one of the reasons we don't hear much of this type of testimony is that the sort of experience we talk about was either that far back that some of our folk have forgotten it or because it has never really been tapped into people feel a little reluctant to talk about it.

One of the other things that struck me was the number of people I know who would not be able to say they had a conversion experience as many of them have grown up in Christian homes and seen themselves as Christians for the whole of their life.

If I wanted to be a little controversial I might even suggest that some may never have actually had a conversion experience and may not know the saving power of the risen Lord - but hey I don't do controversy.

My other thought I suppose is that while Cyrille's story might be very interesting it may only have reasonably local appeal especially given it has been a few years since he was playing top line football.

Is it safe?

I have to admit to finding my self wholeheartedly in agreement with Methodist Preacher on a topic he has posted on today. (I hope nobody holds it against me.

I like him can not stand the tripe that is served up in the name of entertainment under the heading of Children in Need!

I have no problem with the concept of raising money for worthy causes and do quite like Sir Terry but having watched about five minutes of it I can no stand any more - I am glad it is nearly time to go out to the Crystal Folk Club at the Liberal Club in Blackheath.

If it runs true to form we will have around 20 artistes and will hear about 40 songs in good company.

Folk on Friday

Its Friday tomorrow and I had a choice of going to a Winter Wonderland celebration which is effectively our works Christmas Celebration or going to Crystal Folk Club.

Crystal Folk Club won the toss as they say. It will be disco music at the Winter Wonderland thing and last year it nearly deafened me.

I had looked at singing a song written by Stephen Foster called Hard Times but having tried it we think it needs a little more work on it along with the Bob Dylan number we are working on.

We will be singing two songs tomorrow night - one concerns a fishmonger in Dublin and the other was song by Brian and Michael who were also know as Burke and Jerk.

I have not given the titles and wonder if anyone will come back with suggestions of what the two songs are called (Perhaps Richard Hall might be the man to answer this one)

Israel and the Methodist Church.

I have said to myself that I would not get involved in the debates that are going on around this issue but as I continue to read the various blogs and comments I have begun to wonder about something in a sense quite fundamental.

My question is 'How many ordinary Methodists know what the official Methodist position is on this topic?' (Or any other topic for that matter)
This probably leads to another range of questions such as 'will the majority of our folk even be interested?' You can't even get them to cross the circuit to attend circuit events so what chance of them taking an interest in global issues?

It may be too that some of our folk would say it's the other side of the world it doesn't concern me! Why do we have to interfere in other people's business? Will it make any difference? What are the government doing?

Whatever we might think or not think it seems that this particular debate could continue for some time to come.

Special event coming soon.

Any readers who may have a spare evening in December would be welcome to join with us on Wednesday 15th December for and evening of words and music for Christmas.
Tea coffee and mince pies will be served at the end of the evrening.