[NB: All dates are in blue on the calendar to the right.]

I thought I would just write to let you know about the idea behind DCTD and how everyone can be involved! So sorry if you heard this all on Sunday!

I think it is clear that worship is a distinctive of who we are as aardvark. I guess this shouldn’t come as a surprise as the Bible seems to also place a pretty hefty emphasis on worship too (see battle of Jericho, information on Levi duties, Acts, Corinthians, letters to the churches in Revelation and many more…). When I say worship, I don’t just mean singing songs, I mean encountering God. So, in order to be obedient to some of the things that we feel God has been saying to us about listening to him, being holy and set apart, going deeper with him, we thought we would have a go! There is also something about the prophetic - God’s word to us today – that is so entwined in worship and encounter that we feel it is time to explore how the two overlap!

Ruth’s 6-week course called Dancing Your Song was a real inspiration to me – it was exciting to see how the interplay between music, worship, the prophetic and song could happen and it felt like we were touching something new and exciting.  There is something really challenging about having to respond to what you feel God is saying in a moment – and quite exposing! So over the past couple of months the idea has been refined and formed into what is now called Deep Calls to Deep!

Our desire is that as many people as want to embark upon this (hopefully) crazy journey of discovering a deeper level of relationship with God would come along! No special skills are required. This isn’t some elite team of people who will then be unleashed on aardvark, this is us as a family trying to discover something more of the presence and power of God. Hopefully what we will be learning will spill over into not only our meetings, but our lives and the lives of all the people we come into contact with! (I have super-high hopes!)

There are 5 different events throughout each month (NB: the descriptions that follow are but a shadow of what will actually happen when God shows up!)

1st Wednesday 8pm: A night when we look at the theology, the theory, the discipleship and the accountability of worship and the prophetic.

Friday following 1st Wednesday 10pm-2am: Night-watch. The Psalmist talks about thinking about the Lord through the watches of the night (Psalm 63:6

2nd Wednesday 8pm: Dance your song. A chance to explore movement in worship – allowing your body to express something words might fail to convey! No need to be a dancer or have any kind of skills as a mover, just a willing heart to engage in what’s going on.

3rd Wednesday 8pm: musician-led evening to write songs, practice singing prophetically, sing scripture, engage with the word of God in a new way in worship…. and who knows what else!

4th Wednesday 8pm: Open Worship! A chance to try and put all the things we have been working on into practice and amalgamate it all together. Hopefully holy mayhem and madness!!

Although we want to shy away from being heavy-handed and overbearing, because this is a bit of an experimental journey we would really appreciate it if you would think seriously and prayerfully about whether or not this is something you think you can commit to. The Open Worship nights and the Night-Watch are open to anyone, anytime and people are welcome to come and go as they please to those. The other 3 nights we would love to have people come who really want to go on the journey and see where we end up together. Obviously things will crop up or work commitments will overlap, but a decision to come to as many as possible would be amazing!

So, sorry this email is sooooo long! Well done if you are still reading at this point! We kick off this week (Wed: intro evening, Fri: Night-watch) and would love to see as many people as possible come along! Even if you only want to come this week to explore what it might be like!

God bless you all this week and may you have significant, exciting encounters with the living God!

Emma and the rest of the A:Team!

As there are a lot of people away, we’ll keep things fairly flexible, so watch this space or your email inbox for the latest info.

Crisis Centre Ministries, in conjunction with Pip and Jay’s Church and BCAN, run an annual sleep out to raise awareness of homelessness and funds for charities helping to combat homelessness.

What are we looking for?
We are looking for people to get involved and take part in this years sleep out to raise awareness and funding for Crisis Centre Ministries!!
It is a good fun time where people from churches across Bristol come together to experience a little of the hardships that someone sleeping rough on the streets would encounter.

When, where and what times?
We are meeting at Pip and Jay’s car park ( Tower Hill, BS2 0ET) at 10pm on Friday the 4th of March. Hot drinks will be provided before people ‘get there heads down’, it is a very social occasion so people may well stay up talking and praying.
In the morning (approximately 7am) the sleep out finishes and we provide hot food and drinks.

Who will you be helping?
Crisis Centre Ministries is a Christian run charity that helps homeless people and people with addictions throughout Bristol: “Bringing God’s grace and healing love to people with life-disrupting problems”.

The Crisis Centre runs The Wild Goose Café on Stapleton Road which serves approximately 80,000 meals a year, and last year helped 344 people into supported accommodation. They also run a training course which helps the employability of the long term unemployed, helping people onto the road to recovery.

Here is testimony from one of their service users:
“Hi my name is Richard. I’m 26 and live on the outskirts of Bristol, I am married and have a son who is 5. I contacted the Crisis Centre during the first week of November 2009 because unfortunately for all sorts of reasons I had slipped into alcohol dependency. One of the staff at Crisis Centre Ministries gave me an assessment and asked me what I would like to do. As a result of my request and after the staff member and I had visited the doctors a community detox was arranged. This was overseen by one of the staff and my wife. On completion of the detox, which was a real struggle, I started a non residential rehabilitation course at Serenity House. I completed this course of five weeks with further support from the Crisis Centre. I did some voluntary work at the Crisis Centre for a few weeks and on April 19th I started a full time job. I am very grateful to the Crisis Centre.”

Please contact jonathan@crisis-centre.org.uk, or call 0117 942 3088 for more details.

—————

Grace is enough
What is this love
That discharges death
And redeems my life
That covers all my efforts
My works and self righteousness

Grace is enough
To take me to a higher place
When I am ragged and poor
And my strength deserts me
It will clothe me with garments
Woven with gold and silver

Grace is enough
To heal my diseases
And take away my iniquity
To help me understand
That He knows my name
And the nature of His love

Grace is enough
When things don’t work out
According to my expectations
When things are taken away
By the cruelty of life
For He knows the end from the beginning

Grace is enough
To provide hope to my aching heart
And enable life to be lived
In the realty of His great love
It provides access to the beat of His heart
And an energy to relieve the spirit and soul

Grace is enough.
A river that will never run dry
A place of deep pools
With mysterious depths
And refreshing cool waters
Dangerous yet secure

Grace is enough

For He is the source

Grace gathers
It does not disperse
Grace covers
It does not expose
Grace carries
Not pushes away
Grace brings home
Rather than saying goodbye
Grace brings acceptance
Not rejecting what or who I am
Grace is enough.

Video projection involves setting up the laptop and projector, and running the software which displays the songs and any other things we might be doing that week.  It’s easy to use, and anyone who is comfortable using computers can do it – training provided!  If you’re interested get in touch with Pete Osborne.

If you’re able to help with food, get in touch with Chloe Banks.

We will be having a half-night of prayer on the 14th of May; 8pm-Midnight at the Ark.  During this time we will be continuing to seek God for the way ahead; asking him to guide us in the specifics for where Aardvark should go in the next year.  Please come!  We want this to be something we all share; not just the leaders.

I completely agree that we cannot hope to make ourselves acceptable to God through our good works. I agree too that it is an offensive belief! When I wasn’t a Christian I hated that my Christian friends spent all their time socialising among themselves and cacooned in their little cell group while I was out on the soup run or giving blood etc. and yet they claimed that they were the saved ones. I didn’t see how they were better than me – not realising then that it is not about being a “better” person at all!

However, I think that preaching FOR grace in this way can be misunderstood as preaching AGAINST good works. (I am not suggesting this was what Andrew was preaching!)  Ignoring the “missional” work that should come as the result of accepting grace for a moment, I think there is a lot to be said for discipline in faith. Making the effort, especially when you don’t feel like it, is a vital part of worship.

Hmmmm… not sure I’m explaining this very well but I think what I am trying to ask is: how do we practise discipline in faith without letting it become legalistic? Or, alternatively, how do we live in freedom without becoming so lax we let ourselves believe that “anything goes” (like the groups of people that Paul so condemned)?

We have been studying 1 Timothy and Paul says:

“Think carefully before you lay your hands on anyone, and don’t share in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure.” (1 Timothy 5:22, NCV)

Why does the laying of hands require us to think carefully? Anyone care to explain?

Thanks.

How should we treat the psalms? They are, after all, someone’s private songs/poems/things about their life and faith. Should we take them as absolute truth or bear in mind that the people writing them will have had their own agendas and issues? I think most Christians would agree that they are inspired by God but I could be inspired by God to write something and that wouldn’t mean that everything I wrote was a fact.

Perhaps an example would help. I was reading Psalm 139 this morning and it says: “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be”. There seems to be a constant debate over predestination and whether or not our fate is sealed, as it were, and how that affects free will etc etc. If we take this psalm as the absolute truth then there shouldn’t really be an argument – it clearly says that all are days are planned in advance.

In a way this is no different to whether or not we take any of the bible literally, but it seems different to me because the psalms are so personal. Why do they have more spiritual weight than, say, the hymns of the Wesleys?

I’d be grateful for any thoughts on the matter. (Though I would also be grateful if this wasn’t just a debate on predetermination!) Thanks!