How big is your kingdom?

I spent part of yesterday doing some teaching to church leaders about how to be better leaders.  I started off with the premise that John C Maxwell coined as the ‘law of the lid’.  It says that the limit of the kingdom you’re building is determined by how good you are at leading.

This gives us two options.  See, I really want God’s kingdom to grow and be fruitful in Leeds especially among students.  What can I do?  Either I can get better at leading it; or support things that I’m not building.  I’m committed to get better at leading – but I’ll never be good enough as a leader to see God’s church grow enough for my liking – let alone for His!

Here’s my solution: I will encourage, support and pray for things that I’m not building.  I will not get the credit for their successes.  Sometimes their successes will make me look less good.  I will advertise other people’s churches – not because they’re better but because we need each other.  I will support the CU AND I will support the local church – because we need all the help we can get.

We've just released a map (below) pointing students in Leeds to churches who are working together with the CUs for the gospel.  There are 12 churches on my list.  I wish there were hundreds.  There are around 70,000 students in Leeds and I can’t find more than 350 in Christian communities in this city – I’ve been looking for three years now.

I might be able to run a student ministry that, God willing, impacts 1,000 or 2,000 students every year.  Even then, there’s still enough work to go round.  I must encourage, support and pray for that other work. Even if I look less good as a result.

Euro '16 qualification: what a load of rubbish!

Is anyone else utterly uninspired by the qualification tournament for the European Championships in 2016?

I want to see England playing competitive football against the likes of Spain (last in 1996), Italy (once since 1997), and France (twice this century).  I know we'd lose lots but, like rugby union's 6-nations, it's when Europe's best compete that we're interested!

Someone needs to tell San Marino/Faroe Isles/Andorra that they're not very good, never will be, and they should not be wasting our time.

Can we please keep the Euro finals to 16 teams, keep the main draw of qualification to the teams in the world's top 100 and stop allowing Asian countries to masquerade as European to cash in on European football? Please?

Maybe we'd replace pointless qualification games with a Spring series of 4 international games with European nations split into divisions of 5 with annual promotion & relegation?

In case you're wondering England would be in div 2 (on world rankings) against: Netherlands, Belgium, Greece & Croatia. Exciting & evenly matched internationals...there's an idea!!

That would mean missing out on games against the following...

Asian: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Cyprus, Turkey, Israel, Kazakhstan

Currently too poor: Gibraltar,  Andorra, San Marino, Faroe Islands, Lithuania, Latvia, Moldova, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Malta

Would you miss football against that lot? Who's with me?