Paul led the Sunday Service on 6th June which was broadcast to an audience of around 900,000 on BBC local radio stations across England and via BBC Sounds. The service focussed on the work of Street Angels and Festival Angels and included hymns, prayers, a Bible reading and a talk from Paul.
Listen to the service here. Here is some of the feedback: The head of BBC local radio called it a 'cracking service' Listeners said: "would like to thank you for your amazing Sunday morning services at 8am. At 8am on a Sunday morning we have church in bed. It is a very blessed time. I can't thank you enough." "Loved the modern music in the service this morning." "The service was great this morning. I was born a Christian and I loved how it wasn't overly religious!! I really enjoyed it! I'm going through a bad patch at the moment and I just stood and listened to it. I just thought it was wonderful. Please do more of these!" "I'm not overly religious but this really captured my imagination!" "enjoyed the service this morning. Loved the music, especially the ‘I need you’ and the Blessing. Thanks to all concerned." "Another great service, many thanks." "An enjoyable morning service. Thank you" "What a lovely service I really enjoyed it" "Very powerful – Very challenging - what wonderful people makes me feel very inadequate." "Good to hear a service from the street angels straight to the point and wonderful" "GOD BLESS THE STREET ANGELS and may we all be salt and light in the world THANK YOU" "The Street Angels service I found to be wonderful and very challenging readings songs and testimonies from various groups and areas which I very much enjoyed listening to." "Thankyou for this morning service so different but so much to the point .What wonderful people to give there time when the majority of us are safe in our home , this really is God working in society" "Today's was a lovely service - in the words of my wife, "that was worth getting up for!" In our rush to return to 'normal' I think we need to stop and think if what we were doing before as 'normal' was in reality working!
This last 15 months has shown us that a lot of what was essential we can do differently and life still works! For example many can quite happily sit at home and work without the need to be physically together in an office. We can easily run a meeting on Zoom without the need to spend (often) several hours travelling to a venue to be together. We can be connected and do community from our sofa. I am finding physical meetings have become a time of value that is more focussed on the people and not the business agenda. A refocus on building one another up: supporting, connecting, valuing time spent in one another's presence. This is a great opportunity to press pause and be creative with new ways of doing. The world I find myself in the most is connected to charities, organisations and church. Maybe this is a great time to press pause on what this sector does and return to the simplicity of what we do! Certainly within Christian organisations our simplicity should be around love God and love people - all we are about should be a demonstration as to the reality of this (and recognise that God can be at work through all and in all!) I found this the other day on Facebook written be a former pastor Jim Palmer (in relation to church life) and think it can be really helpful as we re-discover and be creative in the days ahead: Putting church over community Putting orthodoxy over love. Putting certainty over wonder. Putting teaching over conversation. Putting polished over real. Putting explanations over empathy. Putting answers over questions. Putting membership over friendship. Putting prayer over action. Putting services over self-care. Putting style over substance. Putting appearance over authenticity. Putting functionality over beauty. Putting religion over spirituality. Putting numbers over faces. Putting holiness over humanity. Putting accountability over acceptance. Putting heaven over earth. Putting meetings over relationships. Putting reputation over risk. Putting superiority over humility. Putting charisma over compassion. Putting the afterlife over the herelife. Putting doctrine over reason. Putting hierarchy over equality. Paul is featured on a new website Christian Creative Directory - see Paul's listing here and do add a review. From Reviews:
"Paul is one of the most friendly, kindest and inspirational people I have had the pleasure to meet. To get it out there I have a pagan heart, Paul has always respected this and has always included me in everything and I respect him fully for this. I have had the pleasure if working alongside and supporting Street Angels and also have jumped into the odd zoom Christian Service and found him an eloquent speaker and a friend to all. His Street Angels book is a favourite read and if not for his vision I think there would’ve been a lot of discord and lives lost on the streets at night." "With a real heart to ‘seek the peace and prosperity of the city’, Paul has an inspiring track record of transformational initiatives that help the church to love the people in front of them in practical ways." |
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March 2022
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