The Team Talk

Jamie was in America doing 'Soccer' Camps for churches. See below for what he has learned-

18th July-

 I am currently in Cleavland state 'Old Broklyn' which is the 4th most violent city in the states... its very differEnt from the last camp. Alot of the coaches are worried about this week but being from the streets im OK with it and just chilling with my peeps and homies. The field we are using is alot smaller then half of a regular football field and we have to accomodate 107 children with 8 goals. The grass is all dead the ground is hard and the surface is uneven. Im half expecting to stumble across a bullet sooner or later! Sirens and gun shots can be heard some what frequently... feels like home. Besides the thugs and such the first day of camp went pretty well,only 1 child attempted to start a fight with a coach and he was 9 so we can sort him out eaasy enough. we are expecting around 22 more children tomorrow so it could get pretty hectic. Glad all is well at home, hope to hear from you soon, My host family are in there 60's at least which is great because its like staying with your grandparents and you get to stay up late and eat lots.
Tonight however was the downside, i have just spent an hour playing dominoes, i thought that dominoes was making them all fall over, however.
Congrats to Ben and Liga let them know i said hi, Congrats to Tim on his ferret, i think they will be extremly happy togeather.
Tell everybody i say hello and send my best, the coaches would like prayer for this week especially as we are indeed in the hood.
Missing everyone

Jamie

6th July

 Notes from a discussion we had today, really good helped alot and relates to what we are doing at church. Let me know if you get it and what you think.
Interaction between the football culture and Christianity
Hopes and Dreams - Success, wealth, fame, recognistion Performance - Valueyourself and others

Loyalty - Stand by youre team no matter what

Competititvness - Have to win to get what you want

Gender - More/less of a man/woman

Acceptance - Football is all you need Excitment - Highgs and lows, fully living the football culture.
Related passages in the Bible;
Read;
Phil 3: 4-9 Luke 12: 22-34 Gal 5: 22-26 Mark 10: 42-45
John17: 20-21
1 Cor 12: 27 Gal 6: 4 2 Cor 10:17-18 Phil 2: 4 1 Thess 5: 11
Hebrews 10 23-25
Col 3 16-17 John 10: 10 Peter 3: 3-5a John 13: 34-35 Matt
22: 34-40 1 Thess 5: 11
Rom 5: 1-5 1 Cor 13
Interaction between football culture and the Church Football Culture and Church Tottenham were founded on a christian basis, founded by a man called John 'Ritcher?' look it up.
Football in the community begins!
Liverpool founded by... Everton! Everton set up began as a football in the community scheme by a christian, again look it up for more detials, interesting stuff. Find a book called 'Thank God for football' all about christians in football and what teams were founded by 'Christianity'
Who left who? Why did the church disengage itself from football? Has it?
Explain, discuss. To what extant has it left football or visa versa. To what extant has football left the church? Again discuss! And I expect feedback !!
Are churches afraid of buisness? too much money involved in football could be risky? How do we as the church re-connect?
Issues, problems with culture differance in football and church.
Enjoy.

 How not to give away 'Freekicks to the Opposition'

BRIAN HOUSTON: How do we stand against the devil?   Eph 6: 11-12: “Put on the full armour of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual realms”.   How do we stand against the devil – we give no A.P.O.P

• We give no advantage: 2 Cor 2: 10: “I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake – in order that Satan might not outwit us.” Note – if you do not forgive – the enemy may take advantage!
• We give no permission: Luke 8:32: “The demons begged Jesus to let them go into the pigs, and he gave them the permission”. It is not that you should be asking and praying that the devil would leave you – it should be the opposite: the devil should beg you that he is allowed to be alone!
• We give no opportunity: 1 Peter 5:8: “The devil is an adversary and a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour”. This must mean that there are some people whom he cannot devour! But you can live your life so that you give no opportunity for the devil to devour you.
• We give no place: Eph 4: 27: “and do not give the devil a foothold”. We give no place for the enemy in our future, in our finances, in our health. God’s promises to your life are not the devil’s place.

  Like a good goalkeeper, we cut every angle – we do not give “free shots”!   How do you cut every angle which the devil tries to use in your everyday life?

• Attack on marriage – do not say “my marriage is under attack” and go home grunting your wife…and do not just watch TV
• Attacks on other relationships?
• Attack on your health and your body – note that you need to be reasonably fit to your age to do what you are supposed to do!
• The enemy will attack your finances – do you use your Amex to pay your Master card debts, and your Diners to clear your Amex balance, ending up with an effort to use your telephone card to clear your mounting (and very expensive!) debts.
• Attack on your church

  Do you cut all the angles which the enemy is trying to use in your life? Do you give free shots?   ·        Do you speak negatively – or do you speak life? Do you have defeat mentality? ·        Have you given the enemy an advantage by refusing to forgive? ·        How do you apply the “give no A.P.O.P to the enemy”- principle in your life?

Who Do We Play For ? (Following Jesus)

 Jesus was radical, modelled his life on servanthood and faithfulness.

He taught that God's kingom is now, we need to be different.

How do/ will people that I come into contact with know that Jesus is important to me?

Phil 2 : 5 'Your attitude should be the same as that of Jesus Christ'

Collosians 3 : 13 '... clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience'

Who am I serving?

Who am I trying to promote?

God or me?

Who is driving me?

Possessions? Popularity? Pressures and deadlines? Guilt? Bitterness?

Or am I driven to living God's kingdom HERE and NOW

Community is like a team- are we signed up to really supporting each other?

Have we signed a contract?

How can we improve as a team and as team players?
“The power and double blessing of an Agreement”

“The reason why much of the work done by the body of Christ in the spheres
of creation (home, work, church etc) has little effect is that it is done
with little or no agreement”
Matthew 18:18-20:

Take this most seriously: A yes on earth is yes in heaven,

and no on earth is no in heaven. What you say to another is eternal. I mean this. When two of you get together on anything at all on earth and make a prayer on it, my Father in heaven goes into action. And when two or three of you are together because of me, you can be sure that I’ll be there.

2 Thessalonians 1:11-12:

We pray for you all the time – pray that our God

will make you fit for what he has called you to be, pray that he will fill your good ideas and acts of faith with his own energy so that it all amounts to something.
- If the people we value and love trust us regarding the things we desire to
do, we are able to experience so much more strength and agreement in
relation to those works.
- The power that comes from affirmation and agreement, and in particular
that which comes from our Father God through mentors, friends, family and
those in authority, is crucial: whatever the culture we identify with – be
it church or societal – those who are affirmed will live and thrive, and
those who are not affirmed will remain weak, become destructive or simply
die.
- You are the church and you have the agreement of heaven to be and to
build that church in ALL of life and work. We need to seek agreement (to
pursue and do what is good) from peers and mentors in our work setting (and
in everything what we do).
- What is there to agree on? Jesus is placed right there with you in every
area of your life, and he is seeking to fill creation through the work you
do and the relationships you engage in. Whether home or office, we need to
be looking for agreement in relation to our struggles and heart desires.
- When you find agreement, write it on your wall, date it for future
reference and keep creating!
For further reading: Oliver Thwaites: Church that works 
Think about applications for
Us as a community?
Your work setting?
Your family?

Your “team” (whatever it might be) – or you personally as a team player?

PAUL: Top striker with firepower of knowing the strength of the Best!
Last time we identified Paul as the leading star striker of Christians FC. Not only was he a top striker, but he was also a leader and team player, ready for big games, hungry for more training and blessed by visions and revelations as we read from the Bible. How did Paul avoid the temptations of indifference and pride which come with success?
Since Friday mid-day we have been reading and hearing about the two sides
of George Best: one one hand he was a genius as a footballer - on the other
hand his success led him to a personal destruction.

We can find the Old Testament version of George Best in King Uzziah.

Reading 2 Chronicles 26 we learn that he was so successful that everything

seemed to go his way. But the strength and success wen to his head. Arrogant and proud he fell. In the end he was ilolated and disqualified from Royal Cemetry.
So what was Paul's secret? In 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 we head that Paul had a handicap which kept him in constant thouch with his limitations. His handicap and desire to know the strength of the Best saved him from spiritual indifference and pride. Paul's firepower was his initimate
relationship with Christ - the Best.
Questions:
- What keeps you from spiritual indifference?

- Do we think that Supporters Lunch is not that important?

- Do we have a commitment of praying for each other and the needs of the Community members during the week?
- What keeps you from falling into pride?

Sol Campbell and St Paul

Just like Sol Campbell's transfer from Tottenham to Arsenal Paul's transfer from Pharisees United to Christian FC caused a great deal of contoversy. Paul was the star man, the captain, the chief destroyer of the Christians who shocked the world by his conversion to Christianity.

But while Sol was a defender Paul was a goal scorer as Phillipians 3 v12 - 14 explains-

Pressing on Toward the Goal

 ¹²Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. ¹³Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

What was Paul's transformation? He looked forward, he pressed on towards the goal, forgot what was behind.

The application? Look forward, accept forgiveness for the past, move on with God.

Where are you in God's Stadium?

On the left hand side there is a link to God's football stadium. If life was a football stadium where would God want you to be?

What's the point? Why are we here? The Westminster Catechism (don't ask who wrote this, but they were clever people) Says the point of life is to 'Glorify God and enjoy Him forever'.

So the Brazil football team really did see the point of life when they prayed to thank God for their 2002 World Cup win and walked around with T-Shirts saying '100% Jesus'.

You see the point of life is not just to win, get as much as you can, get a good job, big car, big house, nice wife etc.

The point is to do your best, but thank and praise God for what you have. To glorify God is to recognise that without Him we are nothing and life just doesn't mrake sense. When we achieve something let's acknowledge that without God we just couldn't have done it.

David Beats Goliath (1 Samuel 17)

In the words of coach Joe, although a familiar story we forget 'how crazy it is'. In WWE terms (wrestling) it was like 'Big Show' versus the scrawniest little kid you could find, as Goliath said to the Philistines- 'Am I a dog that you come at me with sticks?'.

As we know David was the victor, but what gave him the advantage over the nine foot plus muscle man?

• David knew he was chosen by God (1 Sam 16 v 6-10).
• David saw the situation through God's eyes not by ours.
• David's faith was secure and he believed in his God given abilities.

So David knew that God had chosen the shepherd boy with the stick and the sling. He didn't have to wear anyone else's armour, sword or go and work out for a few years. With God on his side David knew he couldn't lose.

The message for us?

God has chosen YOU, He has given YOU all the gifts you need; do not focus on what OTHERS have or what OTHER people want you to be like; look through GOD's eyes and have faith in GOD.

Nice one Joe.

Raikkonen Wins From 17th on the Grid!

Using the F1 language (and as evidenced by the Japanese Grand Prix this morning!), you may have position 17 on the starting grid (and therefore all the odds against you) but you can still be a winner in the actual race if we have the right attitude and are determined to do your best!

Joshua faced several challenges: He followed Moses, he had to conguer mighty Jerico, he had to cross the Jordan with more than one million people. But he did it.

The fact that we belong to the team of the Best does not mean that we do not face difficult circumstances in our lives. Sometimes it feels as if the opposite were the case!. Moreover, there is always the temptation to blame others when things do not go well (harsh or unfair referee, bad boss, lazy colleagues, too much work to do etc).

Depite our respective circumstances, Jesus wants us to have a "can-do-anything-for God" - attitude. We need to spend time with Him and to be filled by His Spirit daily to have that attitude. As a Community Jesus wants us to inspire each other to be of Olympic caliber in our every day walk with Him - to motivate each other to stand tall with the help of the Best despite our circumstances!

‘Simply the Best’

For those who unavoidably missed the Supporters Club Sunday Lunch at Harri and Heidi’s you missed great hospitality and a great team talk. In a  calm, composed and intelligent way reminiscent of North London’s other great continental coach, Arsene Wenger and with the full backing of Tina Turner, Harri reminded us that in following Jesus we must aim to be ‘Simply the Best’-

‘We want to be the best in football and everything we do BUT most importantly we need to recognise that Jesus is the Best, and it is the blessing of knowing the Best that makes the difference  in our lives’.

For further training read John 6: 68 and Joshua 24:15.

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