Author: andymoyle

David Beckham expressed surprise recently when his 10 year old son asked if he could have a tattoo. With two fully tattooed arms himself that’s not really surprising! The power of example is strong, and as the old saying goes, “children hear what you say, but believe what you do”, a sobering thought for parents!

I lived abroad, in a country where the Highway Code existed but was definitely not adhered to. The first time I saw a car take a shortcut the wrong way around a roundabout, I was shocked. Soon realising this was common practice, I got used to it. One day I approached a roundabout, it was quiet, and the thought entered my head to take the shortcut and go the wrong way. Not long ago that had been inconceivable to me but the power of example had exerted its force over me and was now influencing my behaviour!

All of us need role models. For any person to be an example worth following, what they say and what they do need to match up. Jesus had some strong words for religious leaders who were good at telling people what to do, but not so good at actually doing it. Jesus set the ultimate example, so often his actions spoke much louder than His words, the final expression of this being his willingness to lay down His own life on our behalf, so that death no longer had any power over us. Try reading what Jesus actually said and did whilst on earth, that’s an example worth following!

Claire Dallas
King’s Lynn Christian Fellowship

In my many trips to the Amazon churches in Brazil I have heard many stories. One that I am reminded of at Easter is the story of a missionary visiting a new tribe who lived on land almost totally surrounded by fast flowing rivers.
The tribe believed the river was the home of evil spirits and although an epidemic was raging through the tribe they would not cross the river for fear, to get help.
The missionary had to find a way to get them to medical help and so as they watched him as he waded out into the river. They would not follow him. He dived under the waters and swam emerging by the bank on the other side. Lifting his arms he cried “Come on”.
Seeing he had discredited their fears, they cheered and followed him through the waters. The great news of Easter is that Jesus went through the river of death, submerging into it, crossing over it and rising again on the other side. Romans 6:11. Easter proves Jesus is the resurrection and the life, he kicked the ends out of the grave and turned a dead end street into a highway to heaven for all who will trust and follow him. Happy Easter.

Paul Randerson, Senior Pastor
Kings Lynn Christian Fellowship

What kind of a person are you? Are you “active”, the kind of person who is always busy, organising the world around you and looking for creative solutions to life’s challenges? Or are you the more “passive” type, a bit laid-back maybe, happy to let life just happen?

You might not be comfortable being asked this question. We tend to think of passive people in a rather negative way, often unfairly, I think.
Next week is Holy Week for Christians. We focus on Christ’s Passion – not burning desire, but passive submission and suffering. We begin on Sunday, remembering Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, riding on a donkey and being greeted by palm branches and crowds crying “Hosanna!”

Very quickly, though, we move from celebration to despair.

On Good Friday, we stand at the foot of the cross and witness the crucifixion of Jesus. Stripped naked, beaten and nailed to a cross, he is absolutely passive – powerless, he can only submit to his fate.

But he, the Son of God, is at the same time supremely active. Through his death and resurrection, he offers all of humanity new hope, new life. Active life to be lived to the full.

Sally Kimmis
Curate, King’s Lynn Minster

It’s a time of change for the Church – a new Pope and a new Archbishop of Canterbury. But is it a time of hope, or anxiety? Do we want things to change, or stay the same? Most of us want what we find comfortable and only changes that make us more comfortable.
It’s Lent. We think about Jesus’ time in the wilderness struggling with how to fulfil his life’s work – the way that would lead to his crucifixion. Perhaps for Jesus, these 6 weeks sharpened his imagination to understand the people to whom he wanted to give life. So Lent could be a time to exercise our imagination – to try to see life from other people’s perspective: people who are hungry, homeless, abused, migrants, refugees and people who are different – black, or gay perhaps. So many people have suffered because other people have lacked the imagination to understand how life is for them.
The people that followed Jesus thought he would make them comfortable. Those that he made uncomfortable, rejected him. Only after his death and resurrection did people see that there was far more to him than they had imagined. The truth changed them – more than they imagined possible.

The Revd Canon Christopher Ivory

King’s Lynn Minster
Rural Dean of Lynn

I’ve just cooked a lasagne for the family tonight. Not a hint of horse-meat, so it’s a lasagne rather than a lasagneigh! It’s healthy, made from low fat mince with low Shergar content too. The horse-meat scandal has been an unbridled disaster for the supermarkets, that has made many of us hoof it to the local butchers instead.

Why the furore over eating horse? I’ve knowingly eaten some interesting meat over the years – Alligator in the U.S. (tasted like chewy chicken) and Forest rat in Niger (tasted like chicken with claws), so I have no problem eating horse meat if that is what is on the menu.

There are three main issues in the whole scandal. Firstly the fraud – somewhere down the food chain someone is lying about what goes into the meat. Secondly our obsession with eating cheaply and quickly, with meat at every meal, means we can be eating “mystery meat” that was pressure washed off the bone. Thirdly our food is travelling a long wasteful way to get to us.

God hates dishonest measures – that’s in the Bible! Our food processing plants and supermarkets need to learn that. Eating in Bible cultures was far more social, simple and fun too. Families gathered together to eat and talk. Jesus gained many followers talking over meals. So let’s eat slower, together and talk about life, enjoying good food with family and friends.

By Andy Moyle, The Gateway Church

Apart from faith and family my two main passions are music and photography. I distinctly remember the first time I was deeply moved by a piece of music I was a 9 year old boy at the time.. My parents gave me my first camera – a Kodak Brownie 127 – a year later and I used it for the first time during a family camping holiday in mid-Wales. I took several pictures of some chickens that visited our tent each day on the search for scraps of food.

Photographers love cameras and all the associated equipment. Which was my favorite camera shop? Jessop’s of course. Music lovers pass many hours browsing through LPs and CDs at record shops. Which was my favorite shop? Yes, you’ve guessed it, HMV. Unless you are not a watcher of TV news or a reader of the papers, you will know that both of these long established and very well known retailers have gone into receivership and are no longer trading. For me, and for many others like me, this is very bad and very sad news indeed.

Many would say to me, “shops are a thing of the past, internet retailing is the future”. I would reluctantly have to agree with them and say that this new age of buying and selling has many advantages over the old way of bartering for goods over the counter but think what we are losing – community.
The Post Office closed suddenly in the village where I lived some years ago and I remember the profoundly negative effect its demise had on village life. It seemed that something of the village died that day. The number of people walking back and forth from the village centre plummeted and there were far fewer opportunities and much less reason for people to leave their homes and bump into friends and neighbor for a catch-up and a mardle (gossip). Community life was severely damaged.

Do you know, it’s possible to go to church on the internet these days. For some time there have been “Virtual Churches”. You can hook up with them to experience worship, teaching, prayer and to become part of an “on-line community”. I can see the attractions at this time of year….. No getting up for me at some unearthly hour on a Sunday morning and making my way to church on a dark and freezing cold morning. All I would have to do would be to crawl out of bed, go downstairs, fire up my computer and lead my services from the comfort of my own study. I could even record the material, broadcast it automatically and take Sundays off. Now there’s a thought!

But Jesus didn’t come just to teach us facts about the kingdom of God, or to encourage us to sing songs and pray in isolation. No, he came to show us and to encourage us to build a new community. And true community can never be virtual. True community means being with people, sharing the same space, breathing the same air. Seeing one another, talking with one another, and even touching one another. Church is community – church people are in community with one another and with God – and that is why it can be such a life giving, joyful and essential thing to be part of.
James Nash – Rector of the Church in the Woottons