SPIN LIKE THE WIND-the blog of Nigel James.

WALKING WITH THE SPIRIT.

Last week was another block of study at Regents College in Nantwich, and I enjoyed a fascinating time exploring the Spirit of God in the Old Testament. My research paper will be on the role of the Spirit in the book of Judges-specifically in the lives of Othniel, Jephthah, Gideon and Samson. I'm approaching this with the usual mixture of excitement, expectancy, trepidation and tension. I want to deliver an academically robust piece of research, but I also want to learn more from the living Word and have an encounter that pushes me deeper into the ways of the Spirit. Talking of encounters, I eventually met up with Pastor Joe Corry, on Friday afternoon. He's a good friend of my mate Elliot Lewis, and every time Joe has been speaking in South Wales I've been somewhere else. Joe's church has been experiencing a powerful move of God over the last few months and he's been helping other churches experience similar as he travels around Belfast, the rest of Northern Ireland, the Irish republic, and mainland UK. It's worth reading some of the testimonies on his church web site.

On Saturday. Mark Beacher from Ignite joined me to travel up to the Firm Foundations Festival which is organised by The Boys' Brigade. Nearly 20 years ago, Gary Smith and I were part of the team that had the original vision for Firm Foundations and brought the vision to reality. I hadn't been back for about 5 years or so, and really enjoyed catching up with friends- some  I'd known for nearly 30 years. My theme, linking into the overall weekend theme of Hope 08, was 'Change My Friends'. I preached about the friends who carried the paralysed man to Jesus-it was their faith that moved Jesus to action Mark Beacher gave his testimony, which fitted in perfectly.

Today we are barbecuing at home (in the rain) and enjoying some time with our friends The Frosts. Then Gill and I head down to our caravan for a few days break. I'll be preparing a sermon for City Temple on Sunday- The Holy Spirit, Our Director of Mission.

STUDY!

I'm currently on a couple of weeks of study for my Master's degree- this week "Pauline Pneumatology' and next week 'The Spirit in the Old Testament' - I'm enjoying the seminars greatly and looking forward to writing 2 research papers over the coming months. Not sure what the subjects will be yet, but over the last couple of days I've been drawn towards Paul's metaphors for the Holy Spirit- a seal, and a guarantee/deposit in particular, so it may well be that I delve deeper into them.

IGNITEHOPE HIGHLIGHTS.

I've now posted a photo album of the IgniteHope weekend. Here are some personal memories:
*The non-stop work of Mike, Ruth, Ben, John and Nathan. Legends!
*The Community Policeman in Ely joining one of the social action teams on his day off, so impressed was he with the idea.
*Getting all the young people and team leaders to stand up and clap along to 'We Will Rock You' each morning before I started the teaching.
*350 people booked in by the Thursday morning before, 800 people squeezed into the marquee 36 hours later on the Friday night.
*YFriday on the Friday night and Saturday morning really encouraging the young people to get stuck in and work hard for the Lord-And they gave me a copy of their new CD/DVD.
*Seeing the wide variety of churches involved.
*Spending some time with Jeremiah from New England, back in Cardiff to see what we were up to.
*The enthusiasm and commitment of the team leaders-they'd all payed for the privilege of being involved.
*Teams bringing unchurched people back in with them in the evenings and some of them giving their lives to Christ.
*Chatting to Andy Hawthorne about India- he wants to give some tithed money from The Message Trust to build an Ignite India church.
*Loads of volunteer stewards from City Temple.
*Flares party band on the Monday night-my kind of music.
*Having Naomi Hill back involved with Ignite for the weekend.
*Our team pastor, Nick Bradshaw-doing a great job and loving it.
*My wife Gill working on the Ignite merchandise stand all weekend.
*Visiting 11 projects in the afternoons, first with Nathan, then John and Jeremiah, then Nathan again, and seeing loads of stuff going on.
*A great picture of the church- gathering young people in the morning for worship and teaching, calling out place names and seeing the teams meet up and head to the social action projects in these communities and take the love of Jesus, watching them all come back in the evening and hearing the good news stories of what had been going on and seeing people come to Jesus.

MORE THAN WE COULD HAVE HOPED FOR.

The IgniteHope weekend exceeded every expectation. With over 450 young people meeting each morning for worship and teaching, over 100 adult volunteers involved, and nearly 800 people in total gathering for the evening meetings. Each afternoon, over 20 teams went back into their local communities to engage in social action projects- graffiti clean up, gardening, painting, car washing, rubbish removal, and loads of fun days. I managed to visit a total of eleven different projects and was amazed at the enthusiasm and the energy of the young people I saw. I'll post a gallery of the weekend soon, but here's a photo of me in a rare moment of relaxation with my grand-daughter Hannah. There have been so many stories told about the weekend already- not least about the 31 young people who gave their lives to Christ in the evening meetings. In another post I'll list some of the great things that we heard about over the 4 day duration of IgniteHope.