XY Tour

Posted by dai hankey on


On Wednesday 8th February 2012, I’m buzzin that my good friend, Dai Woolridge is making his way to Trevethin as part of his XY Tour.

Dai is a phenomenally gifted and creative communicator whose one-man shows are a rare blend of comedy genius and powerful presentation of truth. The XY Tour promises to be no exception.

Here’s what it’s all about:

“There are stack loads of men in the Bible, most of them with great intentions but bar one, none of them perfect. How can we learn from these more hairy, gassy and less able to multi task members of the Bible? How can their choices teach us (both chromosome types), to be better men and women of God today?”

The XY tour is being hosted by Hill City but is open to all. The event will be taking place at Cold Barn Farm, Trevethin and will start at 7pm. Entry is free and a collection will be taken. Refreshments will be provided, including (as you’d expect) quality coffee!!

Copies of Dai’s new book Poetry in Motion will also be available on the night.

Here’s a clip of what to expect:

Hopefully see you there.

Ignite the Gospel

Posted by dai hankey on

There are several events coming up in the next few months that I’m involved in either speaking at or organising. I’ll be posting up information about each of them over the coming days for 2 reasons.

1. So that you can get them in your diary, should you wish to do so.

2. To ask you to pray and inform your prayers (as several weeks of kids not sleeping properly has rendered me exhausted and frankly – in need of prayer!)

Anyway the first is Ignite the Gospel – a youth event that attracts young people from across South Wales. As you may be aware I’ve been involved with Ignite for years and even though I no longer have a formal role with them I continue to work with and support as much as I can as I love what they’re about and I have a very strong friendship with the head honcho – Gary Smith. Anyway, I’m really looking forward to this next Ignite event and am grateful for the opportunity to both rap and also preach the gospel that night! Buzzin!!

The event takes place on Sunday 29th January and is held at the Solus Bar at Cardiff Uni. It’s £3 to get in.

Please pray that God would give me an epic message for that evening and that we would see God’s saving hand at work.

Blessinz.

Plant on the Scarlet Blobs!

Posted by dai hankey on

Just a simple little post to tell you where to plant your next church!

The map below was part a shocking article in Walesonline yesterday that revealed the true scale of child poverty in Wales. The map colour codes poverty across the principality – green being a low percentage, yellow and orange increasingly concerning and scarlet indicating that 40+% of children are living in poverty. Unsurprisingly, the Welsh valleys scored especially high, including my estate, Trevethin, where 46% of kids are deemed to be living in poverty!!

Why do I share this?

Simple – this is an epic church planting map!! I regularly talk to students and young adults who have a huge heart for the lost and a passion for planting gospel-wielding churches, but haven’t got a clue where to go! The Bible is clear that God’s heart beats for the poor, the broken and the marginalised. Sadly, for many years the church has had a different agenda – opting to focus on setting up shop in city centres, out-of-town industrial estates and leafy suburbs, often overlooking the challenge of taking the gospel to the more difficult, dangerous and desperate communities – the scarlet ones! While I agree that ALL people need reaching – the imbalance is nothing short of scandalous!!

Those who know me will know that I’m kind of passionate about seeing the Welsh valleys littered with churches that preach the truth and shine the light of God’s grace. There are more than enough opportunities to plant

So if you are called/interested/pursuing church planting in South Wales but are still unsure where God would have you do it, can I offer this simple advice:

Pray over this map, then go in the name of Jesus and plant on the scarlet blobs!

Simple.

Blessinz.

Your Highlights of 2011

Posted by dai hankey on

As we come to the end of the year it’s only appropriate for us to look over the 12 months that have passed and reflect upon them. While it’s often easy to recall all the challenges and the tragedies we’ve faced, it’s important that we don’t allow dwelling on the ‘bad stuff’ to distract us from rejoicing in the ‘good stuff’! For Hill City, 2011 has been a massive year for us. It’s held massive challenges and yet we’ve also experienced huge blessings. Personally, I want to be a person who doesn’t end the year in regret and despair, but rather in worship and with hope. If you feel the same, please feel free to post a comment(s) below and share. I believe it will give much glory to Jesus and be a great encouragement to others if you did so. (If you’re not used to commenting on blogs it’s really simple and you don’t get any junk mail coming back at you once you’ve done it.)

C’mon people – let’s share what God has done!

Blessinz!

31 Days in the Book of Proverbs

Posted by dai hankey on

This post is primarily for members of the Hill City Church family, though the rest of you are free to listen in too! Essentially what this is all about is pulling together 2 issues that we as a leadership have been asked about loads of times over the last few years at Hill City, namely:

  1. How do I study the Bible better?
  2. How do I live for God better?

Hill City is a very young church and these are timely and important questions that demand a response. Therefore, what myself and my co-pastor, James, are proposing is that we as a church – all of us – dedicate the first month of 2012 to reading through the epic book of Proverbs together. Proverbs is a book that is loaded with nuggets of wisdom. It consists of 31 chapters, which is convenient as there are 31 days in January. What we propose is that we read a chapter each day until we’ve finished the whole book.

It’s our firm belief that studying the Bible together will help us ALL to better understand its truth and live more godly lives as a consequence. Here’s how I suggest we go about it:

TUNE IN: Try to open your Bible at a time when there are minimal distractions (turn off your TV, phone and music!) Before you start reading take some time to pray to God and ask Him to speak to you.

LISTEN UP: Don’t just read the words but listen to what God’s actually saying to you. It might well be that of all the nuggets in the chapter there is one in particular that stands out to you.

GET IT DOWN: Take on board what God is saying. Get it down by writing it in a note book or on a post-it note that you can put somewhere prominent like on the fridge or the back of the toilet door.

LIVE IT OUT: Whatever God says to you – do something about it and watch Him change your life and your world!

SPREAD THE WORD: We want to hear how God is speaking to us as a church through the Proverbs – so here’s what we suggest: Text each other, plaster Proverbs all over your Facebook and Twitter accounts (after all – the Proverbs is essentially King Solomon’s Twitter account!) On top of that, we are going to make space during each Sunday morning service in January for people to share ways that God has been encouraging/challenging/blessing them through the Proverbs.

So there we have it.

See you on January 1st in chapter one…

Bursting At The Seams & Blessed Beyond Measure

Posted by dai hankey on

I meant to post this last night, but frankly I was so shattered I came home and crashed spark out on the sofa instead!!

But what I’m gonna post simply has to be posted as it’s an expression of praise to God and deep gratitude for the people He’s blessed me to work, worship and serve alongside – namely Hill City Church. Last night was our Christmas outreach event – Cold Barn Carols. We have traditionally run a carol service for the community ever since the church was born 4 years ago (though last year’s was snowed off) and they have always been worthwhile.

But this year’s was very, very different!

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