SPIN LIKE THE WIND-the life of Nigel James: encouraging people to follow Jesus.

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.

MOVING FROM THE ENCOUNTER INTO THE CALL.

I've just posted a new sermon which I've been preaching a few times both sides of the Atlantic. It opens up the Call of Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 6 and challenges us to move from the intimate, cleansing encounter with God into his full purposes and destiny for our life. The version in 'Some of My Sermons' is from City Temple, where I gave a fairly short edition of the talk and moved quickly into ministry time.

IGNITEHOPE coming soon!

This coming weekend sees Ignite embark upon the IgniteHope weekend where we are gathering 500 young people in Sophia Gardens in the centre of Cardiff for an extravaganza of worship, teaching, evangelism and social action. I'll be speaking each morning and preparing the young people to head out each afternoon in social action teams all over Cardiff, the Vale of Glamorgan and some of the South Wales valleys. Teams will be litter-picking, graffiti cleaning, running kids clubs, doing gardening for the elderly, to name just a few things. In the evenings they'll pour back into Sophia Gardens for an evangelistic programme with speakers such as Andy Hawthorne, Naomi Hill and Dai Hankey. Late night concerts finish the day off with Superhero, YFriday and 29th Chapter.
IgniteHope has been a massive undertaking, and I must pay tribute to the team in the Ignite office who have put this together under the wise leadership of Gary Smith. So well done Nathan, John, Ben, Mike and Ruth- all volunteers who have given of their time, their talents, and their passion, to ensure that IgniteHope will be a truly transforming weekend in the lives of Christian young people, those who are not yet Christians, and in communities all over South Wales.

END OF A BUSY WEEK.

The last couple of days have been a bit hectic! Tuesday evening I went with Scotty Wilbanks to eat with the guys in DecembeRadio and then we watched them play in a late-night showcase. They did a very cool thing- bringing a number of people from the Christian radio industry up on stage to sit in on various songs as a thanks for helping with a couple of number 1 hits. Wednesday morning I was up early to catch a flight to Fort Wayne via Chicago. Had a great conversation with one of the Compassion International staff about the value of child sponsorship, on the Chicago flight. In Fort Wayne for just 24 hours, I was staying with my buddy Andy Booth but speaking at the Campus Ministry meeting at IPFW. Ben Gates, the Campus Ministry Chaplain has become a good friend over the last few years- and we are leading a student mission trip to India this June. I met the team and briefed them, as well as talking at the main Campus Ministry meeting. It felt great at Nashville airport to have a married couple come up to me, ask if I was Nigel James and say that they were going to read my book on their flight home!

GMA WEEK

Gospel Music Association conference week in Nashville can be an imposing and consuming beast, but mostly it's an opportunity to connect with old friends and meet some new ones. Over the last few days I've been here with Third Day-they have been promoting their new album and I've been launching the new book I've written about my time with the band. I've spent some of my time with Becca and Elissa Leander, and their parents Don and Thea. Becca and Elissa are a band called The Sonflowerz- I've worked with them in the UK and the USA over the last few years, and they are in the early stages of their career in Christian music. I've also met a guy called Nick Greenwood, who I'd been exchanging emails with over the last few months. Nick heads up RYFO NETWORK and he has a desire to place pastors into tours with Christian rock bands. We managed to sit down with David Carr from Third Day, and Scotty Wilbanks who both plays keyboards for Third Day and produces bands in his own right, to talk through strategy, heart, and practicalities with Nick. A pleasant surprise was seeing Chris Eaton back in circulation in the Christian music scene. Chris is a legendary singer-songwriter, who wrote some massive hits for Cliff Richard. he has a new album on the go, and is involved in an project of Charles Wesley hymns. Gary Smith from Ignite used to book a lot of UK concerts for Chris, and Chris seems ready to start playing live again in churches on both sides of the Atlantic. I also bumped into Louie Giglio who was telling me about his Passion event for students in London soon.

SEVENTY NOT OUT.

Having recently been in the USA and missing my wife's birthday, my daughter's birthday and the birth of my first grandchild, I'm keeping the tradition up by flying to Nashville tomorrow and missing my Mum's 70th birthday on Sunday. But fear not! we celebrated tonight with a meal at TGI Friday, a pink limo to drive us there and a humungous birthday cake.We had a great family night, with Ben and Rebecca joining Bethan to celebrate their Nana's birthday. The limo ride included champagne and Abba, and the meal included the whole restaurant singing Happy Birthday. The family will continue the celebrations on Sunday with one of Gill's famous Sunday roast dinners.

Tomorrow I head to the Gospel Music Association conference in Nashville, meeting up with Third Day and officially launching the book 'Lessons from the Road.'

FINISHING STRONG.

As I get older the more I realise that the secret of a successful Christian life isn't how well you start it but how well you finish it. At the age of 47 I can admit that there are times when I lose enthusiasm and find I'm running out of energy, and at my weakest moments I worry that I might run out of steam- lose my energy and passion and be unable "to reach the end of the race and obtain the prize" ( in the Apostle Paul's words.)
Gill's uncle and aunt, Donald and Sheila, are well into their seventies and still enjoy an active life travelling to visit friends and relatives and are both completely immersed in the life of their local church. Tomorrow, Donald receives a certificate for completing 50 years of preaching as a Methodist local preacher- 50 years, that's one heck of a long sermon. I'm amazed, encouraged, challenged and thankful for a man who has faithfully been preaching the word of God for 3 years more than I've been alive. I'm praying for the same endurance for myself. Well done, Donald, for preaching the Word in season and out of season and for guarding the Gospel.
Incidentally, tonight I was speaking at the 'Offensive' evangelism course organised by Dai Hankey from Ignite. My theme was 'Fuel for the Flames' focusing on LOVE- God's love for us and our love for Him and for our neighbours- The Greatest Commandment. I used Uncle Donald as an example and stated that my hope was for many of the young people present still to be full of the love of God and sharing the love of God in 50 years time. That would be a terrific legacy left from this year's Offensive course. Meanwhile, countless thousands of people in the last 50 years will have had their faith strengthened and stimulated through Donald's preaching.

NEW FAMILY PHOTOS.

Recently Gill organized another fundraiser for the school in India, which included an auction. One of the auction prizes was donated by a teacher friend of Gill's who is also a photographer- it was a free family photo session and Gill decided to purchase it! The results can be seen in the photo album 'New Photos of Family'.

BAT AND BALL.

We've been in upstate New York for a few concerts so yesterday a bunch of us took the opportunity to visit The Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. It didn't take me too long to find a cricket bat amongst the exhibits. There are so many similarities between baseball and cricket- obviously they are both bat and ball sports with fielding, catching, running, and 'outs', the emphasis on statistics, the plethora of literature that each has spawned, and the museums full of memorabilia. I guess that's why baseball is my adopted American sport. One of the displays in the Hall of Fame included some famous quotes.