Did you know that Taste + Aroma = Flavour? Taste happens in your mouth; we taste salt, sweet, sour and bitter. But aroma happens in your nose. If you eat some chocolate while holding your nose, you will just taste sweet and maybe a bit of salt. Then let go of your nose and you will get the real chocolate flavour.
You need to use both senses to get the full flavour of what you are eating.
It is like our relationships with our friends who don’t know Jesus. Sometimes, we only use our ears. We listen to our friends and sympathise with them, but we are reluctant to tell them what we believe. Sometimes, we only use our mouths, we answer all their questions and tell them everything we know, but we don’t actually listen to them and understand where they are coming from.
Last night I got into the bath at about 1am with a nice glass of The Balvenie 12 year old single malt after a long day. The combination of hot water, strong alcohol and reading really helps me switch off. I decided to peruse my bookshelf for an interesting read for the bath. I’m pretty good at starting Christian books but by the time I get to the last 100 pages I can never be bothered to finish them. So I decided to start yet another book. My mate had recommended ‘The Reason for God’ by Tim Keller a while ago. So I bought it and never started it. I sat in the bath and started to read. The introduction is really good. One thing he said particularly stuck with me:
I am currently on a train to York. When I arrive, which hasn’t happened yet, I will be over three hours late. My train broke, I was put on a coach with no air conditioning, was travel sick and missed a connection.
I am not in control.
Whilst on my nightmare journey I had a text from a mate who was gutted because his mate Jim, who came to Student Alpha on week 1, cant come on week 2 because of a party and heavy work load. We had prayed together that Jim would be there as he had some great God chats on the first week. My friend had to surrender that frustration to God.
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The leadership team of G2 are in the process of planning their vision for the next 5 years at G2. It is invigorating to see how much vision, energy, commitment and skill we have been blessed with in our leaders. We met in Starbucks the other night to present our visions to the team. We are now sharpening them and will share them with the church in the new year.
The leadership team is:
Rob and Hannah Ainsworth – cluster leaders
Josh Cockayne and Miriam Swaffield – cluster leaders
If you're interested in exploring the Christian faith, or maybe just find traditional church difficult, then G2 might be for you. Read more about G2 here.
