Pastor Steve's Blog

Finally a new blog!

Sorry I have not been blogging, I could give you all kinds of excuses but I won’t.
Life is busy, but it is also good.
How has life been for you?

I am trying to enjoy life to the best of my ability. This may be a challenge for most of us, especially if you are facing the pressures that life holds or if you are going through a difficult time. You may not enjoy all the things that happen to you but they are still valuable for a successful life. Enjoying life is an attitude; it’s not a state of being. Have the attitude that God loves you and He is for you. If you believe that, life will be enjoyed rather than endured.

I think it is important to belong,
Belong to what you may cry?
Anything is the short answer; it may be a club, movement, church or a family. In short we feel complete when we are part of something greater than ourselves; isolation brings dissipation, whereas unity brings strength.
The really important thing here is though; what do you give to your immediate community?

We tend to think of the benefits of what community does for us, that’s not a bad thing, but stop!
What is far more important is what we do for community. Our level of contribution has a direct coloration with our receiving

Gal 6:7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.

I don’t mean to be blunt but, be faithful to something other yourself. Be faithful to those round about you. Be faithful to your church, be faithful to your leadership, they care for you so return the favour. Paul the Apostle was a great man, a great Apostle, he loved people, he lived to help them know God better, yet he didn’t always receive the same love back.

Phil 2:19 But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send
Timothy to you shortly, that I also may
be encouraged when I know your state.
20 For I have no one like-minded, who
will sincerely care for your state.
21 For all seek their own, not the things which
are of Christ Jesus.

These are sad words, Paul had nobody he could rely on, no one in his life was faithful except Timothy. Character is a choice not a talent, let’s choose to be faithful, choose to be a support. Choose to be a part of one another. God has got great things for us, but it means being together, called His church a body. A body has many parts but one purpose.

Let’s get the job done together!

I love you and I appreciate your support.

Pastor Steve

Hi Church

I expect like me you were saddened by the tragic death of Michael Jackson earlier this week. He was undoubtedly an extremely talented man and unfortunately an extremely tortured and damaged person.

He had that strange aura that made it seem like he was more than human, as if he had some eternal quality about him, the same could be said for Elvis Presley.

“Michael was a man that craved love and affection, he felt safe in the company of children”

The truth about these people is that they are just like you and me, they have talents but they crave the same things as the rest of mankind, they want love and acceptance just like us, Michael seemed to like the company of kids, he appears to have had more difficulty in interacting with adults. Children are very honest and they just accept you the way you are and I think Michael liked that. It is not uncommon for grown men with these problems to let the relationship become sexual, if this happens it causes great emotional and psychological damage to the children which can last a lifetime.

Did Michael fall into this? I don’t know, I certainly hope that he didn’t for the sake of the children. He certainly was the product of a dysfunctional abusive childhood, I pray that he hasn’t passed that legacy on to other children. Most people who have suffered dysfunction pass it onto their children, sin begets sin.

There are some lessons we should take from Michael’s life, when you have so much money, influence and status nobody tells you no. Michael should have been told no many times, his plastic surgeons should have said no, his management should have said no. If nobody says no then it leads to over indulgence and self control issues, we need to give accountability to others, we need people we can trust to tell us the truth. I have a mentor, he is a pastor and his name is Ron, I have asked Ron to point out anything in my life that is detrimental to me or this church, I might not like to hear negative things about myself but I know it is important for me and the people I pastor. We need that place of humility. Michael was surrounded by people that made money from him, you can’t trust people like that.

We also have to take the lesson for our children, it is often said that if we give our kids too many presents it will spoil them. I don’t believe this is true, if it was then Christians would be the most spoiled people on earth because God has given us the most gifts of any father. We spoil our children by not disciplining them, we don’t tell them no, we don’t give them godly healthy boundaries. We have to teach them self control and we have to teach them to think of others before ourselves, selfishness is a human trait that is inherent to us all. It takes training to change that.

I have had a sneaking suspicion about Michael’s mortality for some time now, you can’t live a life like his and it not catch up with you at some point, usually sooner rather than later.

Galatians 6:8
8 For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, ………….

I’m sorry Michael’s life has ended this early and I am sorry for his family. While you still have breath you can make a change for good, you can affect your children, you don’t need to let the past affect your future. Make your decisions good ones.

Pastor Steve

18/03/09
Hi Church

It’s an exciting time in our church; we are getting closer to fulfilling the purpose that God has set for FCF:

“To meet the needs of our church & community through the word & power of God”

“This is what is exciting for me, seeing people coming into leadership and the destiny that they are called into.”

We recently started a new connect group on a Wednesday night, the existing group was bursting at the seams so we split it in two. The new group started but unfortunately the existing group still has the same number of people going to it, I can’t figure it out, we split the group but it is still the same size. God’s calculator doesn’t work like mine and I’m glad for that.

Both groups now have pastors that lead them and they are doing a great job. This is what is exciting for me, seeing people coming into leadership and the destiny that they are called into. I am hoping to start a third group before the end of the year. These groups will provide pastoral care and support; they will also identify potential leadership. The people that are raised up through these groups are the future of FCF and are the ones that God will use to affect our area and beyond.

Leadership is a privilege as well as being a challenge; it tests our character and can expose some areas that we wish it hadn’t. I have been disturbed to see how we have elevated gifting over character in the body of Christ in recent years; the case of Todd Bentley has highlighted this. He was promoted as God’s man for the now, many ignored the questionable doctrines and practices, therefore those who should have known better and asked deeper questions must surely now be embarrassed by Todd’s inappropriate relationship, alcohol problem and subsequent divorce. Only after his hasty new wedding is Todd looking to be restored, surely we can’t just press on with our sin and then say “I’m sorry” , we all make mistakes and have to repent but we can’t deliberately be in rebellion and then expect to carry on as if everything is ok. Todd Bentley will probably be back ministering within a year as if nothing has happened. Jesus Christ deserves better from his ambassadors, our standard should be higher than the worlds not lower. J Lee Grady has written a great article on this very subject:
http://charismamag.com/index.php/fire-in-my-bones/20080-no-more-monkey-business-in-the-ministry?utm_source=MailingList&utm_medium=email&utm_content=stephen.stewart1%40ntlworld.com&utm_campaign=FIMB+03-18-09

Church let’s show what real leadership is all about.

We appreciate all you are doing in our great fellowship!

Pastor Steve

30/12/2008
Hi Folks
A New Year is nearly upon us, I don’t remember it being this cold at New Year for a very long time.
You may be reflecting back to the summer we never had, we don’t spend much time reflecting do we? Life is so busy it demands we think about all the things we still need to do right now.
Reflecting is important as it helps us make sense of how we have got to this particular place in our lives, if we don’t recognise the reasons for our failures then we are bound to repeat them over and over again. We also have to repeat successful patterns to stay successful

We also have to repeat successful patterns to stay successful

When I talk about being successful I’m not talking about the size of your house, car & wallet. Success is about how you feel on the inside regarding yourself and your situation. All the money in the world won’t help if you have a poor self image.

Let me tell you an amazing secret, your daily routine determines your success or failure! I know what you are thinking, what has my daily routine got to do with anything? When you put stability into your relationship with God it has a great by product, you find stability in every area in your life. The thing to remember is that God always wants the “firstfruits”, in other words put God first.

I am looking forward to 2009, I am expecting God to do great things, although this is dependent on how much you can give over to Him, give Him the firstfruit of your time, energy, money, faithfulness. If you do this you will have a great 2009 too.

Pastor Steve

01/08/2008

I’M BACK……….Just in case you hadn’t noticed we were away on holiday, we spent two sunny weeks in Spain, Benidorm to be precise. Benidorm has 140 skyscrapers (buildings over 20 floors) that’s more than New York, the weather was great, (34-36 each day) apart from one night when there was an awesome electrical storm which was great entertainment from our 9th floor balcony. The beach was great, very clean with golden sand and good water for swimming.
“You had a great time then” I hear you cry……..actually no! You need to have you wits about you the whole time in Benidorm. It is Spain’s biggest tourist town with about 50,000 holiday makers during the summer, this means that it attracts rouges and thieves; you can have your picture taken with a little monkey down on the promenade which sounds cute, unfortunately it is trained to pickpocket you while you hold it. There were a number of instances when shopkeepers tried to con us and I had to assert myself in the name of Jesus.
It was good to have some time to chill out and think about things, I realised even more that my heart is not so much my own ministry but rather helping you in yours, I want to devote more time to challenging you to rise to the greatness that you are called to. The key to impact community is teamwork, we are far more potent together than apart, I want us to explore what our skills combined can achieve.
It is also my desire to spend more time having social time within the fellowship; relationship is based upon trust, as we spend more time together we should hopefully build up that trust. The second half of this year we are going to have a BBQ, open mic night & then a ceilidh. We will also continue to have our cinema & meal nights.
I have added a few pics for all you sad people who enjoy that kind of thing……..
Pastor Steve (PS: Snow white and the 7 dwarves are made completely from sand)