{"id":85,"date":"2014-04-03T12:00:22","date_gmt":"2014-04-03T12:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.risen.org.uk\/?p=85"},"modified":"2014-04-03T09:56:19","modified_gmt":"2014-04-03T09:56:19","slug":"blog-april-3rd-alpha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/?p=85","title":{"rendered":"Blog April 3rd – \u201cAlpha\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Alpha\"<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0Alpha Logo<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.risen.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/13-Track-13.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

\u201cWho Am I To Judge?\u201d from the Mustard Seed Songs’ musical \u201cHis Story.\u201d Sung live by Ron Long and the Mustard Seed Soul Band at the Ferneham Hall, Fareham<\/p>\n

So I was knocked out with the simplicity and absolute belief that Mr Milliken (Mr Mill\u2019s dad)\u00a0 had when he said \u201cYes\u201d \u00a0to my question as to whether his wife, who had died two years previously, was in heaven.\u00a0 I took Mr Milliken back to his sheltered accommodation in Titchfield,\u00a0 \u00a0not too far from the venue for the\u00a0 Heat Discos and, with my son Chris, listened in awe to his stories of being a Missionary in the Belgium Congo.<\/p>\n

The next day I rang Mr Mill to say how amazing I thought his dad was – he of course agreed with me. I told Mr Mill that I felt I wanted to go to Midnight Mass that evening and would he come with me. \u00a0Mr Mill said that his church did not do Midnight Mass but that he would go with me to the church near Crofton School – Holy Rood.<\/p>\n

Now most Christmas Eves I would be down the local pubs to have more than a few beers with ex- students so I was rather embarrassed about missing out the Red Lion and going \u201cnext door.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0However I thought it would be worth it as the heavens would, no doubt, open up for me and I would experience something \u201cspiritual. \u201d However nothing happened in the service apart from the singing of \u201cOh Little Town of Bethlehem\u201d and a sermon on the visit of the Wise Men ( I know that does not sound very complimentary to Holy Rood but it does get better I promise!)\u00a0 At the end of the service a member of Crofton School\u2019s Senior Leadership, Paul Knight, told me he was doing an Alpha Course \u00a0(an introductory course on Christianity) and would I like to go. I thought \u201cNo Way!\u201d\u00a0 Paul is now a dear friend and a Trustee of our charity Mustard Seed Songs, but at that time he was simply a member of the Senior Leadership Team so there was no chance of me going to an Alpha course led by him.<\/p>\n

All that Christmas holiday I kept bumping into Paul – every time I was invited to a mince pie afternoon he would be there and each time ask the same thing – would I go on an Alpha Course? It turned out that he was not actually leading the course – just attending. He also said that my old mate Paul Hiscock of the Tech department was going so I did soften a bit but not enough to say \u201cYes.\u201d At the final mince pie afternoon Paul asked me again and exasperated I said \u201cPaul I can\u2019t make Wednesdays – I am coaching Basketball\u201d He replied \u201cIt\u2019s on a Tuesday.\u201d I was speechless – I had run out of excuses and so found myself one Tuesday passing the Red Lion and praying (well not really) that I would not be seen going into the Church opposite to my first Alpha night.<\/p>\n

I was greeted by a smiling person (obviously a \u201cDo Gooder\u201d I thought) and presented with a badge with my name on it.\u00a0 I expected everyone to be wearing Jesus sandals and when I saw that someone actually was I decided to beat a hasty retreat.\u00a0 Paul Hiscock had been trapped by the Vicar so no help there – but then I smelt the curry. Now curry is the staple diet of PE students and teachers so I decided to delay by escape until after I had sampled the curry.<\/p>\n

During the Chicken Korma I spoke to a lovely lady called Margaret who asked me what I was doing there and when I had difficulty in answering, reassured me that she too was unsure why she was there.<\/p>\n

Tasty curry over – perhaps I should give the Vicar a chance? He looked a pretty cool guy and was not wearing a dog collar – not that I had a problem with that – So here we go to the ice cold pews for a boring sermon on Christ dying for my sins just like my past experiences as a choir boy. Actually no not at all! We went upstairs in the Church Centre to a warm and pleasant room with sofas – all rather nice and relaxing. The Vicar, Michael Christian- Edwards (appropriate name I thought) who has also become a dear friend started off with a joke and quite a good one at that – the laughter relaxed everyone and then Michael talked about whether or not Jesus really did exist. I really enjoyed the talk and even more the opportunity to ask questions afterwards- which I did in abundance. What about this and what about that – Michael answered all my questions with patience and great knowledge. I went home thinking I wonder?\u00a0 But there was no way really that I could ever become a Christian – what would my mates say? \u00a0I would be a laughing stock – \u201cJesus Freak\u201d \u00a0and \u201cBible Basher.\u201d\u00a0 However I went back the next week and then the next and then\u00a0 the next \u00a0and then, and then – \u00a0well I\u2019ll tell you that in next week\u2019s blog.<\/p>\n

Song this week is from our first musical \u201cHis Story.\u201d\u00a0 It is sung by Ron Long who was the \u201cHis Story\u201d Stage Director for all our productions until the last one at Ferneham Hall where he switched to performer and sang \u201cWho Am To Judge.\u201d\u00a0 It is probably the first song that tells a story in the musical theatre genre and so is very much a forerunner for \u00a0Risen!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0Alpha Logo \u201cWho Am I To Judge?\u201d from the Mustard Seed Songs’ musical \u201cHis Story.\u201d Sung live by Ron Long and the Mustard Seed Soul Band at the Ferneham Hall, Fareham So I was knocked out with the simplicity and absolute belief that Mr Milliken (Mr Mill\u2019s dad)\u00a0 had when he said \u201cYes\u201d \u00a0to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ken-shearsmiths-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=85"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85\/revisions\/89"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=85"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=85"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=85"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}