As we continue to make our way through the lockdown here is the playlist you have been waiting for. Enjoy
Has been a part of BeachcomberFX since his arrival in the North East in 2014. He is well travelled (at least in the UK) having lived in Manchester, Nottingham, Derbyshire, Southport, Doncaster, Berwick and Edinburgh. Supporter of Newcastle United, will watch any sport.
Here it is!
The March mixtape for you all to enjoy. April is now upon us and I will be asking for your choices as the month progresses. If you want to know more about the mixtapes check out January (with a little bit of an explanation about the monthly mixtapes) and February with a little bit of an explanation about the monthly mixtapes. We also have a special Lockdown mixtape being put together.
Has been a part of BeachcomberFX since his arrival in the North East in 2014. He is well travelled (at least in the UK) having lived in Manchester, Nottingham, Derbyshire, Southport, Doncaster, Berwick and Edinburgh. Supporter of Newcastle United, will watch any sport.
Here it is!
The February mixtape for you all to enjoy. March is now upon us and I will be asking for your choices as the month progresses. If you want to know more about the mixtapes check out the January one here with a little bit of an explanation about the monthly mixtapes.
Has been a part of BeachcomberFX since his arrival in the North East in 2014. He is well travelled (at least in the UK) having lived in Manchester, Nottingham, Derbyshire, Southport, Doncaster, Berwick and Edinburgh. Supporter of Newcastle United, will watch any sport.
Welcome to the first in our BeachcomberFX mixtapes!
The idea behind these mixtapes is to create monthly lists of songs that have resonated with us in some way. Maybe you had a tough week and this song helped get you through or your choice makes you feel amazing whenever you hear it. It could be one of those songs that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand on end or your eyes fill with tears when it is player. It may even be a song that brings you to a place of connectedness with God.
Each month those who are part of BFX can add one song to the mixtape and each month we will release the list for others to listen too. And so here is the BFX Mixtape for January 2020.
Has been a part of BeachcomberFX since his arrival in the North East in 2014. He is well travelled (at least in the UK) having lived in Manchester, Nottingham, Derbyshire, Southport, Doncaster, Berwick and Edinburgh. Supporter of Newcastle United, will watch any sport.
Racism is a social issue which we ALL need to address. This is a small preliminary collection of online resources gathered by Dr Alison Phipps, myself and others which offers various kinds of advic…
Rob Wylie is the founder of BeachcomberFX and guides its leadership team. He has worked in the North East for over 20 years and has vast experience from various roles he has held. He has a passion for Fresh Expressions of Church and Pioneer Ministry as well as beer, beaches and Miniature Schnauzers.
Hi folks, this is really worth a read, powerful personal story about the situation in ‘The Jungle’ – Calais
Rob Wylie is the founder of BeachcomberFX and guides its leadership team. He has worked in the North East for over 20 years and has vast experience from various roles he has held. He has a passion for Fresh Expressions of Church and Pioneer Ministry as well as beer, beaches and Miniature Schnauzers.
In the past I have led lots of weekends away for young people. They were always memorable times of building faith and encouraging friendships, as well as being loads of fun!
I have just come back from a rather different weekend away with a great bunch of folk who are part of several groups of people with whom my wife and I connect, the main group being Sunday@thepub.
It feels like we have been building up to this weekend for a while now and it just felt that now was the right time. I have been wanting to explore a deeper sense of community than we can find when we meet on a Sunday night in the local pubs that have become our ‘church buildings’. These are great spaces to create community, but we have limited time to develop them.
Because of the diversity of the group and the fact that not everyone comes on a Sunday night it was important to allow people the chance to feel part of the group but to keep some of the elements of what we are about on a Sunday night and to explore some elements of corporate worship and discussion.
There were many highlights about the weekend, opportunities to share in small groups, to walk together, to have space to be alone and relax together. We allowed space for worship encounters through liturgy from various sources, as well as through creating stations for people to wander around, a community space for discussion and dialogue about ‘rules of life’ and the things that we do that we consider to be ritualistic.
The main highlights for me were eating together around a huge table… it brought to mind the last supper as we sat around the table, eating, drinking, laughing, sharing conversation. There was something Holy about those moments. As I have thought about it I have imagined Jesus doing the same kind of thing with his friends, I have imagined him eating and drinking with all kinds of people some of which were the wrong people in the eyes of the religious leaders.
New Testament scholar Robert Karris says this ‘In Luke’s Gospel Jesus is either going to a meal, at a meal, or coming from a meal’. I love this idea, meals are about welcome, they speak of friendship, generosity, and dependance on others who have prepared the food and they embody God’s grace and enact mission by their very nature.
Another highlight was our walks, we would stop and pause along the way at various times for a reflection, we would choose to sometimes walk with others and sometimes to walk alone, we had the opportunity to play on the beach and to drink in the surroundings. All of these experiences are about connection, connection with others, with ourselves, with nature and of course with God. There is also a rhythm to walking which can help in understanding these connections in a deeper way, each step an opportunity, a reminder of the simple things that God can so often speak into.
This was our first weekend away, but I doubt it will be our last!
Rob Wylie is the founder of BeachcomberFX and guides its leadership team. He has worked in the North East for over 20 years and has vast experience from various roles he has held. He has a passion for Fresh Expressions of Church and Pioneer Ministry as well as beer, beaches and Miniature Schnauzers.
All eyes are beginning to drift towards Brazil for the Fifa World Cup and as they do so many of us football addicts really do believe the sentiments behind this quote from Bill Shankly:
‘Someone said to me ‘To you football is a matter of life or death!’ and I said ‘Listen, it’s more important than that’.’
Bill Shakily
But is it?
We know that during the World Cup when England play that domestic violence goes up. Human trafficking also increases during big tournaments such as this and the Olympics. The issues that go on in the world don’t just stop because some famous player starts to kick a ball about… So we in the North East of England want to raise some of the concerns that each of the countries in the world cup are facing at home, these issues are many and numerous… but it will give us a chance to pray if that’s your thing, or just to be still and remember.
So this will mainly be on twitter but you will also be able to view the posts on facebook and blog. The main premise is to follow this and follow the #NoWorldCupFantasy and each day you will see a focus on one or more of the countries that are playing in the World Cup.
So why not join us?
To follow #NoWorldCupFantasy go to –
dchurch – dchurch blog
Twitter – @dchurchtweet or @RWileECoyote
Rob Wylie is the founder of BeachcomberFX and guides its leadership team. He has worked in the North East for over 20 years and has vast experience from various roles he has held. He has a passion for Fresh Expressions of Church and Pioneer Ministry as well as beer, beaches and Miniature Schnauzers.
After returning from our latest lent pilgrimage, we walked from Seaton Sluice to North Shields in the damp and fog… it sounds worse than it was! It was actually quite a beautiful experience, as we have wandered over the last few weeks we have picked up various things, today we looked at various large stones that were resting in the sand. They had some lovely patterns on them, some were obviously fossils from times gone by and others had just been worn away by the sea and shaped by other stones washing up against them.
Each time we have walked the things we have seen have changed depending on what’s going on… the tide, weather, human activity etc. It’s always changing… It was a reminder that change is always around us, it’s part of life… each day is different, it brings its own joys, sorrows, trials and tribulations. As well as the change that goes on that we may not often see or notice, the kind of change that takes place as the sea washes over stones and as rock rubs against rock, subtle and gentle… but over time obvious.
It’s true that sometimes change can be very difficult to cope with, I believe though we must not be scared of change… I realise as I type this that it’s easier said than done! And for me over these last few years I have not handled change very well, and a little bit of me kicks myself for letting change get to me!
As I have thought about change and considered our various reflections that we focused on during our Lenten wanderer pilgrimage that actually these 40 days were a huge turning point for Jesus and maybe he was changed through it, changed to focus on his journey.
I pray that I may be able to focus and follow on the journey that God has marked out for me, with all its change… and I pray this for us all.
Lord,
what you ask of my life seems so right.
It is how I want to live,
following your Son, Jesus, so closely.
And yet I fail so often to stay on that path.
I cannot do it alone, loving Lord.
I need your help and guidance.
I need to remember your love for me
and I want to remember
how very much I need you in my life.
Rob Wylie is the founder of BeachcomberFX and guides its leadership team. He has worked in the North East for over 20 years and has vast experience from various roles he has held. He has a passion for Fresh Expressions of Church and Pioneer Ministry as well as beer, beaches and Miniature Schnauzers.
This time of year is always special to me, the reason is that the darkness of winter starts to give way to the promise of spring and summer and I love that! I am not a winter person and I always look forward to the opportunities that spring brings, the chance to enjoy longer days and to get out and about.
Lent for me has always been connected to winter, the idea of wilderness and tough hard times breaks forth into the joy of Easter. I think that’s why I have always found it difficult to get my head around giving something up for lent, it seems to say to me that the in the midst of winter and cold we also have a sense of denying ourselves which is tough, this is maybe though the point!
After saying all this it has been interesting to see that many people in recent years have taken something up for Lent… and with that comes the thought of opportunities and new hopes and you know what… I LIKE THAT! I think it’s where I am.
When the concept of beachcomber FX was brought in to reality one of the first things I wanted to do was to bring something into the mix that would mean taking something up, not just for lent but also for the long-term. So the idea of pilgrimage and walking… or in our case wandering was an obvious one to make.
On our first walk we gathered in North Shields on the fish quay and I read our opening reflection from Kathy Galloway:
It was a busy day on the coast, there were so many people around and as we walked I was enjoying connecting… connecting on so many levels, first of all with the folk who had come to wander with us, some of whom I knew and others I didn’t, it’s always great to hear what is going on in people’s lives, the joys and the sorrows.
It was a busy day on the coast, there were so many people around and as we walked I was enjoying connecting… connecting on so
I enjoyed connecting with strangers as they were enjoying themselves walking, playing and cycling with family and friends. Big smiles all around, topped off by wedding photographs being taken, witnessing again the connection of two lives beginning a new adventure together.
And then of course there was the connection with nature, I love living on the coast… so much to see and it always changes… the sky was brilliant! All of these things remind me of the connection between my faith in God and God’s connection with me. I’m looking forward to wandering again over these next few weeks to see what other connections I can make.
I was meant to close with this prayer from St. Augustine at the end of our wander but it just felt right to just continue to be connected to each other and creation, so here it is to close this blog.
All shall be Amen and Alleluia.
St Augustine
We shall rest and we shall see.
We shall see and we shall know.
We shall know and we shall love.
We shall love and we shall praise.
Behold our end which is no end.
Rob Wylie is the founder of BeachcomberFX and guides its leadership team. He has worked in the North East for over 20 years and has vast experience from various roles he has held. He has a passion for Fresh Expressions of Church and Pioneer Ministry as well as beer, beaches and Miniature Schnauzers.