It’s been a while since I’ve written on my blog and for that I apologise! So here goes at the start of the year, well we’re still in the first month so that still counts yes!?!
Quick 2014 highlights
Started 2014 with vision to do things differently, yet somehow its taken a year to really start to see opportunities for things to come together. Some highlights for 2014 has to be my annual trip to Momentum in Orlando in September where it’s always a joy to meet many of the artists and musicians we play on spirit radio. as well as hanging out with new friends, making new ones and I did the Ice bucket challenge (ok was that cheating doing it in Orlando?!?)
Another highlight was getting to Barcelona in November to the KKI European conference. It was encouraging to invite Marty with me from church to attend and both of us left the conference feeling encouraged to see something happen again in Ireland to mobilise children, youth and families into mission.
Church on the move – and back in early December in 2014 the church I’m involved with, Cornerstone, moved to Bray to take up residence in an old Church of Ireland building. It’s really exciting to see what God is going to do among us as we seek his direction in the coming months.
In to 2015…
Back to study, as I start the year embarking on an MA with IBI – I’ve felt for a while that I wanted to engage back into study with contemporary issues and look at what is a theological response to them. So in January I took the plunge, in faith and started. The course is an MA in Applied Theology, although I could also opt to do the MA in Transformational Leadership – it’s over 3 years part-time, 2 modules a year, dissertation in year 3. I’m looking forward to see how this changes and shapes me (actually i feel it’s started already) Anyways, it sounds manageable, and it’s certainly helping me to discipline my time! It will also hopefully get me back into writing more and in particular on my blog.
Spirit Radio now in just starting to embark into its 5th year, at the time of writing it is 4 years old! I continue to work in Operations looking after systems, scheduling and adverts making sure they go to air as well as popping up on-air at different times. It’s exciting to be part of a national christian radio station across Ireland. In 2015 should see us reaching to broadcast in more places as more towns and cities come on stream this year.
Another, and a major passion, of mine is to see the children’s ministry develop in my involvement in Cornerstone Church, Bray is starting to come together, at the end of 2014. I believe the Lord is challenging me in how I see myself in this ministry and that He has anointed me as a ‘Children’s Pastor‘ (scary cause don’t really like titles) yet I shouldn’t belittle that or push it aside. I’m encouraged that as we enter into 2015 what a privilege it is to be involved in the church leadership team and take on this role at Cornerstone Church as a pioneer missionary working among children & young people and families.
Do you ever get the feeling that there really isn’t enough hours in the week to carry out all that God has put on your heart? It is right often when we find ourselves overwhelmed to take time out and consider how we ought to be using our time? It may well mean putting things down and only picking up that which God is asking you to focus on! Though this can be hard but so important to do from time to time!
In 2015 I believe it is a year of changes for me. One of the things I believe I is that of the need to manage my time, and this may well mean that over the coming months to seek to release my time away from Spirit Radio technical operations to make more time available for my MA and giving the time to church ministry. Yet there is a dilemma here, cause giving up hours I work for Spirit Radio means a drop in income and this would be silly to do without replacing it with something else. I do believe the Lord is asking me to trust him and continue to move into the things he’s leading me too. Therefore, It means this year I will be making some changes so I can be released to give 20 hours per week to MA & other ministry involvement through church. How? perhaps a mixture of support, funding from ministry or part-time job. All are valid, yet not all beneficial if what one ends up doing distracts from the time that should be given to the Kingdom business! So it is important that in all this I do not take a reactionary approach to funding, but instead a more prayerful discerning of direction as to what is right.
Towards the end of March, I plan to take sometime out to visit the UK and travel to share what the Lord is leading me too in Ireland, where I have known since I was about 9 or 10, when Ireland was first put into my heart, so it’s definitely where I should be for now! At the time of writing I plan to drive over from Dublin probably to Liverpool and hope to visit down to Dorset too, and some places in between. If you can help me with my itinerary to share on the work here in Ireland through Spirit Radio, local church and the christian church here in Ireland I would love to hear from you.
Well that’s about it for this update. I will try to write updates more regularly so please do subscribe to my blog.
God bless,
Richie
Richies.blog 
Leave a Reply