Just spent the last week being involved in a project in Ballymena called Spark 07.

Each morning about 170 young people gathered together for worship and teaching before being sent out to 7 different areas within Ballymena to practically serve the people.

It was an amazing week with God doing immeasurably more than we could ever have dreamed of…He took our small offering and used it to impact the lives of both the young people involved and also the people we encountered in the community.

At various stages during this week I had this overwhelming sense that we were part of something so much bigger than ourselves…that there was so much more going on than we could even see…God was playing out His story for Ballymena and we had the immense privilege of playing a very small part in all that…amazing…God is good!

I was also struck by the atmosphere at the thanksgiving service on Sunday night…there was a real buzz about the place…something I’d only ever experienced coming away from a football match or a concert…never in a church!  People were sharing stories about what God had done…how He had used them…the place was full of joy!

So I started thinking…should this not be a more regular feature of church…each Sunday should we not be sharing more stories of what God has been doing in our lives the previous week…should we not be encouraging each other to go out and serve in our schools/workplace/communities/families etc expecting to see God do stuff in and through us…or do we have to settle for simply going into church, passively taking in the service and then going home for our sunday lunch…unchanged and uninspired!