Noddy Holder belting out "I wish it could be Christmas every day" seems to follow me around wherever I go at the moment. But do we really? All that frantic rushing around trying to find the perfect present for the partner who's impossible to buy for or the kids who think you earn a 6 figure sum each month and write their list to Santa accordingly. 

All that socialising with family or friends you barely speak to from one year to the next, and excessive eating that leaves us bloated, lethargic and with a few more pounds to shift (possibly at the Gym that this year we WILL join & we WILL go to.. unlike last year when we joined & went twice & by February had forgotten why we'd joined)?

Alright before I sound like a Scrooge muttering Bah Humbug to dampen your Christmas Spirit I do realise that's not all it's about. The trouble is that each year, due to more desperate marketing in a bid to reach sales targets which require us to spend money we'll spend the rest of the year paying back, it feels like any possible good bits get more squuezed out. Things like: time to relax and unwind from work, reflect on the old year and prepare for the next, bless those we love, share what we have with those in need or even celebrate or at least spare a thought that allegedly the reason we're participating in this consumer frenzy is because of the gift God gave to the world of His son Jesus.


However, for some it is a painful and lonely time that merely accentuates their feelings of social isolation.

Maybe you've lost someone you loved who wont be there to share the celebrations with you
May be you suffer with depression and feel like you've endured the long dark nights for too long 
Or may be you are estranged from your family and friends for some reason and the thought that everyone else has people to turn to at this time simply accentuates your loneliness.*

Whilst suicide rates are lowest in December than at any other time of the year** there is a sharp 40% increase after Christmas in the week leading up to New Year, possibly for some of the reasons I've mentioned. 

The Samaritans report that the highest rates of suicide are for men aged 40-44years old (in Northern Ireland this drops to 25-29 years old), with a sharp increase again in men over 80 years of age. Men are 3 1/2 times more likely, according to their report, to commit suicide than women. (This doesnot however include statistics where the intention is unclear and may be classed as accidental or indeterminate, which may account for some of the discrepancy, men tending to choose more definate and final methods than women)

Advice from Healthline ( a privately owned provider of health information, based in the US) to help overcome depression or social isoloation which may be caused by grief or estrangement from family is:

1. Begin a new tradition- do something different at this time of year- go away, go somewhere different.

2. Give yourself some space to grieve- don't feel pressured by the pressure of all the extra social opportunities

3. Volunteer at a soup kitchen or offer to help a neighbour- remember it's in giving we often receive.

4. Get back to nature- make the most of the time, get on your walking boots and enjoy the fresh air. 


Here at the Northampton Jesus Centre we will be open over the holiday period thanks to a team of faithful volunteers, for just this reason. 

Opening Times
Christmas Eve 7-9.30pm our Step Up scheme is open for anyone on their own. 
Christmas Day- 10.30am- 1.30pm - come & join us for food and friendship
Boxing Day  11.30-1.30pm - we'll be serving a hot meal- fun, food and friendship
 New Years eve 7.30-9pm We will have a special edition of our Stay Dry recovery group for those who are battling with addictions- come and find friends and support. Contact us if you'd like more information about this group.

If you or anyone you know is feeling suicidal please find someone to talk to.
The Samaritans run a 24 hr helpline you can contact them on 08457 90 90 90


Or find out if there is a Jesus Centre near you & pop in for a cuppa & a chat.  jesuscentre.org.uk


If you'd like to donate to help support our services to vulnerable and socially isolated people text JACT00 £10 to 70070

Help us to help them to start again

* information supplied by Healthline
** information from, the Samaritans report on Suicide rates based on 2012 figures.

Renewing our Vision- How do we hear God?

What does it mean to ‘own the vision’?

  
Does it mean we do what’s always been done or from time to time does God want to bring something new to us? And does that mean the original vision was wrong or that God is fickle and has changed His mind? Do difficulties mean that God’s stopped blessing us or can they be opportunities to grab our attention and communicate the new direction or vision? 

Here at Northampton Jesus Centre it’s our 10^th anniversary year and we’ve been revisiting our vision and aims in the light of financial constraints.  Whilst sitting in managers’ meetings talking about ways to increase income and reduce expenditure may not feel  particularly spiritual does it mean that we should down tools, lock ourselves in a room and pray fervently instead or can God speak to us in other ways and if so how? 

Augustine once said “Pray as though everything depends on God. Work as though everything depends on you”.  I like this. I’m naturally an activist and faith that would appear to expect me to sit back and wait for God to do something doesn’t sit comfortably with me. However, running around like a headless chicken can quickly lead disillusionment. As James says in his letter to the church “Faith without works is dead” (James 2:14-16) but in reverse works without faith is futile.

So how do we hear God? And how do we know when He wants to bring some fresh direction to our vision?  These are some of my thoughts on how I’ve sensed God speaking to us in recent days. 

God speaks through circumstances

God will often use circumstances to get our attention. Our financial situation has been a wake- up call that some things need to change. This can either be seen as a negative experience or a positive opportunity.

 Last week I met a woman who, up until recently, had been Director of a successful Christian organisation in the town. They had faced a far more serious funding situation than us, quite unexpectedly and yet when I met her 6 months previously she asked that we pray that either God provide the extra income that they needed or that He guided them to another solution. 6 months later she wasn’t testifying to God’s miraculous financial provision but to a new service model, partnership and way forward. It hadn’t been plain sailing; there had been redundancies and personal sacrifices including her moving aside to let someone else lead the new organisation. Her testimony was that through difficult circumstance God had brought them to a new and better situation.

God guides us through our grappling with issues

Just as the strength of the butterflies wings come from the struggle of the larva to break out of the chrysalis, so we can believe that God strengthens us and trains our character through allowing us to grapple with issues to find a way forward. We’ve been experiencing this as a management team as we are forced by circumstances to examine our service outcomes, income and expenditure and ask questions about how we balance the books whilst at the same time wanting to hear God speak into the vision. None of this activity feels very spiritual and some of it results in very different ‘obvious’ solutions to the situation. However, I believe that in all of our efforts to look at things from a variety of perspectives, we will eventually find an agreed way forward with the confidence that God has spoken into and directed our plans. We don’t necessarily need to be in a prayer meeting to hear God.

 God speaks through others

Sometimes God doesn’t appear to be saying anything to us directly and then we find ourselves in a different situation with other people and they bring a word of direction to us. This happened recently when the Jesus Centre hosted a prayer & praise evening; because we were the hosts part of the evening was given over to praying for the needs we shared. When we got together as managers the next day most of us agreed that this had been a very prophetic and significant event in which we’d heard God speak through others. I had prayed with my Director friend and she had spoken that God was going to do a new thing through these present circumstances and later in the evening the song that several of us felt was prophetically anointed was “Greater things have yet to come” from Chris Tomlins’ worship song ‘God of this City’.  Since then I’ve felt a renewed sense of faith and confidence in the knowledge that God is going to direct our path and lead us into new places.

 God speaks through prophetic wisdom & inspiration

Finally, this appeared to be backed up a few days later in our worship time as a team, which we have each morning before we open the Jesus Centre to the public. I saw two related pictures; one was of a small child clomping clumsily around in oversized shoes, at first enjoying wearing adult shoes but quickly getting frustrated by the lack of speed and eventually falling over.  The second was of someone peering over at a huge oversized footprint, the emotion I felt with it was this person was they were feeling ‘overwhelmed’.  The interpretation I sensed in them was that those of us who are facing the prospect of taking on the shoes (metaphorically representing stepping into the responsibility of the pioneering generation) are either feeling frustrated and out of our depth as we begin to practice stepping into their shoes or daunted by the prospect and like the prints they have made are far too big for us to step into.

 Then I had a 3^rd picture which was of someone walking a new path, making new footprints and another set of footprints leading the way. I brought what I believed the Spirit wanted to say to us to us through this.  God isn’t asking us to step in to the shoes of anyone else; He will work with who we are and lead us in a new direction; all He is asking is that we are obedient and follow Him.

None of this means that the path ahead of us is necessarily going to be any easier but what can seem like overwhelming problems can become opportunities when we see them through the eyes of faith and put our trust in the God who “did not bring us out this far to take us back again” (JF song)