david derbyshire's blog

CharisMissional - my new blog

2011-08-11T18:00:00.078+01:00

Just to let you know that I’m now blogging at CharisMissional.

After blogger here on blogger for a serveral years now I decided it was time to move to WordPress. In doing that I thought I could perhaps re-launch the blog with a bit of a clearer focus. Some time ago I posted a little post about the word CharisMissional. The more I’ve thought about it the more that seems to be where I’m coming from.

Why CharisMissional?

Don't worry, I'm not trying to start a new movement or anything, it's just my attempt at a witty name for the blog! The word CharisMissional is a blend of the two words – charismatic and missional – that I feel are both important to my Christian faith. The new blog will be dedicated to helping other Christians learn about the gifts of the Spirit and mission and hopefully to share their own insights and experiences in these areas.

What Will Happen To This Blog?

I hope to keep this blog going. I will post here any thoughts or comments that don’t really fit in my new blog. One of the reasons for the new blog was that I realised a lot of my posts were about Christianity, mission and those sort of areas. I’m not sure yet what will now appear on this blogger blog now. Perhaps reflections of a more personal nature or other topics that I’m interested in. You’ll have to wait and see. Also there is still plenty of stuff on this blog that I’ll revisit and keep on linking to on the new one.

In the meantime please feel free to follow me at CharisMissional.

Community Fun Day 2011

2011-08-01T15:45:00.030+01:00

Yes, it’s that time of year again! Last weekend we took part in Ladywood Community Fun Day. In this photo you can see Philipa who ran the Grow Well stall.

This year we didn’t have a Prayer Tent but our church was still very much involved. A couple of years ago our church helped on the day as our worship that weekend. This year we were meeting on the Sunday but still a number of people put in a lot of work to serve the community. Members were stewards for the event, helped put up and take down the stalls and tents and were litterpicking throughout the day. It was noticable how no litter was there at the end of the day.

My friend Harry from Karis Neighbour Scheme did a sterling job of pulling a lot of the day together. I think he was exhausted by the end of the day. Many people from the local community took part.

Nettes and I did some surveys for WorkShop – the local job club that we are running. We were trying to find out what sort of help people would appreciate and also publicising WorkShop at the same time.

For the accounts of the fun day in previous years see:
2010
Community Fun Day
2009
Reflections on the Community Fun Day
Prayer Tent at Community Fun Day

For more of our photos on flickr see:
Dave and Nettes photos

Alan Hirsch explains how Christians can use de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats

2011-07-08T15:46:00.027+01:00

Alan Hirsch

One of the leading advocates for missional living, Alan Hirsch, recommends using Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats as a possible tool when brainstorming new direction or ideas for your organisation or church or even when doing a group Bible study. You may recall me blogging about Alan Hirsch and contemporary apostles and what he said about how we can be apostolic. Well, this is really just a footnote to that post.

Hirsch describes Edward de Bono as ‘no theologian but definitely the leading specialist in creative learning processes.’ I have a number of de Bono books and have enjoyed them over the years. One key to understanding where de Bono is coming from is in his book Parallel Thinking. There he maintains that argument and debate are easily abused by being adversarial. He admits that there might be gentler discussions in which a genuine attempt is made to explore a subject but ultimately he sees our common approach to discussions as flawed. In its place he proposes what he calls parallel thinking. In other books de Bono outlines practical ways to do this. One of his most famous methods is the Six Thinking Hats.

In the Forgotten Ways Handbook, Alan Hirsch outlines de Bono's Six Thinking Hats. ‘The six hats’, he says, ‘represent six modes of thinking and directions to think rather than labels for thinking.’

Six Thinking Hats

The six hats can be summarised like this:

White Hat: Think of white paper and so data and information. What information do we need to know about this situation? What would you like to know? What do you need to know?

Red Hat: Think of fire and warmth and so emotions. What are your immediate instinctive feelings about the situation?

Black Hat: Think of the black robes of a judge. What are the dangers and difficulties of the situation? What are the problems?

Yellow Hat: Think of sunshine. Think of the positive and optimistic viewpoint. What are the benefits of the situation?

Green Hat: Think of vegetation and growth. This is where you think creatively about the situation. Suggest changes and modifications.

Blue Hat: Think of the sky. This hat gives us an overview. How would you organise the thinking about the situation? For example, propose a sequence of hats to be applied to the situation for all group members to take in turn.

In a previous book with Michael Frost, The Shaping Of Things To Come, Hirsch described the six hats like this: ‘Participants agree to switch hats for a period of time in order to take a certain approach that they would not normally take to the problem. While wearing a particular hat, each participant is committed to thinking only as that hat allows… You don’t need actual hats, just the imagination to think and speak in different modes.’

Group Discussion and Planning by Anyaka

One good way to organise a time of thinking about something is for everyone in the group to take the same hat for a given period. So for example everyone might think positively about an idea using the yellow had and then everyone think critically using the black hat and so on. In debates only some people tend to see the positives, whereas those on the other side tend to see the negatives and people don’t tend to think much in any of the other ways. Six hats thinking gets everyone working in every direction that is needed.

An important point for Hirsch about the six hats is that ‘the method produces fuller input from more people. In de Bono’s words, “it separates ego from performance.” Everyone is able to contribute to the exploration without denting egos.’

I love this method. I wonder where we can actually use it. Any ideas?

Related post:
The Forgotten Ways: Apostles in the Emerging Missional Church

Praying for Saint Phillip’s

2011-07-02T16:33:00.065+01:00

Robert Pickles

Nettes and I had a good time this morning praying in what used to be Saint Phillip’s Sixth Form College. This is a building that has stood empty for some time and is now rented by New College Birmingham. New College works in association with the Birmingham Bible Institute Family that includes Birmingham Christian College. Robert Pickles gave us a guided tour of the building explaining that the plan was to use some of the rooms there for the college, but there was more space than they needed. He was open to suggestions that may be acceptable uses for the rest of the space, such as opening the canteen as a community café, renovating and using the sports hall and even using rooms for a social enterprise.

Paul & Jackie had invited us there to pray. They work with the homeless and run a Drop In one day a week at the Ledbury Centre. They have been helping decorate Saint Phillips along with some of the guys who go to the Drop In. Paul & Jackie and some others usually pray every other Saturday about the work with the homeless and the Drop In. This time they had decided to come to Saint Phillip's to pray that these premises would be used for God’s Kingdom as New College moves in there and to pray about possiblities for other projects that might be explored. Paul and Jackie are looking to eventually move the Drop In into larger premises as it is outgrowing our little church building and are hoping to explore the possiblity of using some of the space at Saint Phillip's.

New College, Birmingham

Another idea that has been mooted as a project for the local area is to have local artists and artisans set up a social enterprise running workshops teaching people their skills. It could be that they also have exhibitions and sales. This is the sort of project that might be feasible to be run from a place like Saint Phillip's.

We prayed for some time in the canteen gathered around Robert and Hazel Pickles. It is great when Christians get together at grass roots level to pray like this. But we were also talking about the importance of church leaders getting together. We were saying how we know of local leaders in the area getting together to pray. Robert also mentioned an initiative called 2020 Birmingham where leaders across Birmingham from a number of different groupings are working together with an aim to plant twenty churches in the Birmingham area by the year 2020.

Finally we broke down into two or threes praying in different areas of the centre. I went with Nettes into the small kitchen. Among other things we were praying that the kitchen would serve wholesome food and not be tempted to go the fast food route but to serve healthy, locally sourced produce and for the café to be a fair trade café and possibly even a training enterprise.

This is all very exciting!

Related posts:
Down And Out In Birmingham
More Thoughts On Social Enterprise

is there a place for silence in our worship?

2011-06-23T16:10:00.022+01:00

On Sunday in the midst of our sung worship we had a wonderful time of silence. These times don’t occur very often but when they do they are moments to cherish. I don’t mean the silence that occurs when a change over is happening or at the end of the meeting. Nor do I mean a time of quiet meditation while the musicians play. This was a time when we just paused in total silence for several minutes just contemplating God. To my mind it was perhaps what the psalmist was meaning when he wrote ‘Be still and know that I am God’.

I might be wrong but I got the impression that this wasn’t planned. We sung with great fervour for a time and then we stopped and went into this time of contemplation. It was great to be silent not rushing onto the next song or contribution. It wasn’t awkward or embarrassing. Certainly I wasn’t wondering about the next thing we were going to do and why it wasn’t happening. I was just caught up with God and longed for that time to continue.

It doesn’t have to be spontaneous to be great. I believe there can be a place for announcing a time of silence when something has been said that would be good to spend some time meditating on. We could even schedule in such a time beforehand. I love these times too. I just wish they were longer and more often. But I can appreciate the feeling that people will lose concentration or think that the next person wasn’t prepared to do what they needed to soon enough. So I can see why after a short time we can feel the need to move on to the next thing.

Times of silence like this are nothing new. We have had them on occasions before. I remember them becoming very frequent for a time in one church I was in many years ago. I have longed for those times to return.

In his book Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster mentions the discipline of silence. He sees it as important that we spend time alone with God in silence just listening.

Also it has been appreciated in our homegroup when we have had a time of silent reflection and jotted down our thoughts on something before launching into a discussion.

The Big Silence

Last year, I was inspired by The Big Silence on the BBC where people spent days in a monastic retreat in silence. Some of them actually did appear to experience something deeply spiritual. Not long after my little daughter Callie wanted to spend a day in silence. Even though she only managed a couple of hours she enjoyed the challenge.

Silent mediation has always existed in Christian traditions. Protestants have tended to lose this emphasis. Evangelicals and Charismatics have journeyed even further away from this. We forget how little time we allow for reflection. But perhaps silence is returning in a new way.

So let us be open to these moments in our worship, both in our own private devotions and with others. Let us not be embarrassed to pause and not say or do anything except to contemplate God and listen to his voice. Yes, I believe there is an important place for silence in our worship. I trust that we will cherish these moments.

See also: Celebration of Discipline

Passing on the Gift of the Holy Spirit

2011-06-18T18:48:00.018+01:00

Last Sunday in Sunday School we were praying for some of the children to receive the Holy Spirit. As it was Pentecost we were looking at the story of when the early church were first baptised in the Holy Spirit. After briefly telling them of my own experience I gave the children the opportunity to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

It is now thirty years since I first experienced the Holy Spirit. In a small Pentecostal prayer meeting I began to speak in a language that I had never learnt. I didn’t really understand what I was getting into. To tell the truth I didn’t even believe everything I was told about it at the time. But the result of this experience was one of overflowing joy and a desire that everyone could experience this too.

There wasn’t any mighty rushing wind or fire but I would see my experience as similar to what happened to the early church at Pentecost. Of course not everyone’s encounter with the Holy Spirit should be a carbon copy of mine but I do believe that God wants to fall on all his followers in a special way. The Bible calls this the ‘receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit’. Being a gift it is freely given. As believers all we need to do is ask and keep on asking.

In a way receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit opens wide the door to moving in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. And I believe we can express these gifts very naturally as part of our authentic relationships with each other. Gratitude is a natural response to receiving a gift. And gratitude often results in generosity. If we are invited to someone’s house for a meal we may take a bottle of wine and on a later date invite them to ours. We may even copy our host’s role model and start inviting others into our home.

Over the years I have come to realise that exchanging gifts like this is a mark of the Spirit at work. Whatever God gives us we pass on. It is what we as Christians do. The Spirit inspires us to become more like Jesus to other people. We serve each other and we serve the world.

So whenever Christians gather it is an opportunity to exchange gifts. This may mean praying for each other or speaking God’s word to each other. But it actually involves far more. We share our lives together. We share food. We share our possessions and even our money when the need arises. There are many gifts we can bring to each other both inside and outside of our worship gatherings - our time, our energy. We just need to ask God and to think more creatively.

Thirty years ago I received this gift of the Holy Spirit and God enabled me to begin to give to others in a way that I'd never really done before. Last Sunday I had the chance to give these children an opportunity to receive this gift too. My prayer is that as a result God's giving will be multiplied through them.

What is Spiritual Warfare?

2011-06-10T12:54:00.039+01:00

I just came across a post from (e)mergent Voyageurs on the topic of spiritual warfare. Interestingly Jamie Arpin-Ricci doesn't see spiritual warfare as praying ‘against the principalities and powers’. Instead he interprets it as referring to resisting human injustice for example in political terms.

He writes this post in the context of being missional and in response to this question:

“How does a ‘missional’ Christian stand against the systems/powers of injustice in the world? What are the weapons of your warfare?”

He takes two main passages from the Bible:

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 6:10-12, NIV)

And:

“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete.” (2 Corinthians 10:3-6, NIV)

Jamie sees Ephesians 6 as a mandate to confront people responsible for injustice, suffering, exploitation and marginalising the poor. This is how we stand against the ‘powers’. He sees these ‘powers’ as refering to the unjust systems of our world - presumably with spiritual forces behind them.

He interprets 2 Corinthians 10 like this:

Firstly he sees it as indicating that we should live in the ‘opposite spirit’ to that we wish to overcome. For instance, we should live generously and not support businesses that perpetuate the poverty we wish to overcome.

I would add that too often we stop reading before the end of the story of the Prodigal son and miss the point that Jesus was making. Let us not be mean spirited like the Prodigal's elder brother but instead let us remember to embrace those on the margins who need someone to stand up for them.

Secondly Jamie points out that we should bring the light by researching areas of injustice and publicly speaking out about them. But we do need to take care that we protest appropriately in a Christ-like manner.

Thirdly he concedes that this should involve prayer. This is essential to centre our own spirit as we work against evil. But prayer is only part of the action and we should not downplay the importance of our lifestyle and our protest in spiritual warfare.

I would also add that 2 Corinthians 10 appears to involve challenging evil within the church and not just outside. It may even involve rebuking our friends. And what if they don't agree with our challenge? Yes, there is a place for church discipline but I think it is important to say that when Christians disagree we should do so ‘on our knees with open Bibles’. We need to accept that sometimes we may have to agree to disagree and still stay friends.

Overall I tend to agree that spiritual warfare is more about standing up for what is right than it is about shouting at the devil.

Check out Jamie's original post here and let me know what you think.

Justification: Has Wright Got It Right?

2011-06-05T21:26:00.015+01:00

In this book Justification, N.T Wright challenges the historic evangelical (especially reformed) view that justification is mainly to do with the imputing of righteousness – that is that Christ’s righteousness is treated ours. Wright does believe that we have been given a right standing in Christ but he sees justification as more to do with being declared righteous. Wright sees justification as more corporate – we are declared righteous because we are ‘in Christ’ - part of God’s people both Jew and Gentile – rather than purely an individual right standing before God. His is the more holistic ‘bigger picture’ view.

The Future of Justification

Piper’s View of Justification

Wright wrote this book in response The Future of Justification – a critique by John Piper of Wright's previous writings. In that book Piper championed the tradition view of justification criticising Wright’s view as departing from this. Piper emphasises elements that Wright leaves out such as the idea of human rebellion that he sees as an offence against God’s glory that deserves condemnation.

Many may find Piper’s outline very familiar and almost synonymous with how the gospel was presented to them. He talks of the law bringing condemnation - everyone falls short of the Law and so needs a substitute - no-one can earn their righteousness. The Pharisees are just one example of this universal inclination to over-the-top law keeping as a way to receive eternal life.

It only by grace through faith that Christ takes our punishment and we receive his moral righteousness imputed to us so that God’s wrath is taken away, our sins are forgiven and perfection is provided for us.

Wright’s View of Justification
God’s original intended purpose, Wright says, was to rescue the whole world from sin and death. By the world he means the whole of creation with mankind in the centre. In other words, we are put right to put the world to rights.

He sees the law as a school teacher. The plan was for Israel was to embody the law and so be a light to the nations but they failed. Interestingly, rather than seeing the law as a way to earn salvation Wright says the Jews in Jesus day saw their works as a badge of their covenant identity. Justification by works refers to their attempt to keep the law out of love and obedience to God as a sign of their Judaism. Their main concern wasn’t what they must do to get to heaven but longing for the Messiah to come to vindicate their nation.

Wright describes true justification as God declaring righteous those ‘in Christ’ declaring them to be in the covenant because Jesus has allowed his rescue plan to continue to the whole world.

So How Does Wright Get to These Conclusions?
He sees the first century context as the key rather than the teaching of the reformers. He looks at the grand sweep of scripture and draws his understanding from that rather than from isolated verses with predetermined meanings.

Another key is that he takes Ephesians as his starting point and interpret other epistles such as Romans in their light. Wright also emphasises the importance of the continuity with the Abrahamic covenant and the nation of Isreal as we can see in passages in Paul’s letters that are often marginalised by reformed evangelical interpreters.

He carefully examines the cultural context of first century Judism. He looks carefully at the original Greek words and even criticises the NIV translation at points. The second half of the book goes through Galatians and Romans in some depth as well as putting them in the context of books such as Ephesians. He also does a fascinating exegesis of 2 Corinthians 5:21 in response to Piper’s point that this shows imputation to be central to justification. Interestingly he argues that this verse refers to the apostles embodying the message of reconcilation.

Justification

So Has Wright Got It Right?
It appears to me that actually Piper has quite a lot in common with Wright. Their view of the gospel and of the future is really very similar and some of the points appear to be more points of emphasis. Wright does talk of individual salvation and forgiveness of sins. Despite what Piper says, I would say that he is clear on this. It’s just his emphasis is much wider than the individual. Also Piper is keener than Wright on talking about God’s wrath and condemnation.

Some may accuse Wright’s view as veering away from evangelicalism. Nevertheless the debate between Piper and Wright is done in a very gentlemanly fashion without any name calling. Piper refuses to condemn Wright as preaching a false gospel. The only hint of this as in one endorsement quote on the back of Piper’s book that said ‘Piper will not allow believer’s to put their trust in anyone other than the crucified and resurrected Saviour’ - perhaps implying that Wright would.

We do need to be careful about new interpretations. We should not overturn centuries of understanding lightly. There are interesting parallels with the ideas of getting back to a first century understanding that has come out of the house church movement. But there have also been red-herrings such as pre-millennialism and Zionism that have arisen comparatively recently.

One problem I have with Wright’s ideas is that he sees God’s righteousness as purely his faithfulness to his covenant with Abraham. Whereas Piper sees God’s righteousness as his faithfulness to uphold his glory in all that he does. Piper may win this battle but I’m not convinced that he wins the war.

Though it is not without problems Wright’s controversial work appears to me to be very Biblical. I have much sympathy for his overall view on Justification. If you are serious about understanding this subject then I would recommend you getting your head around Wright’s book. If you’ve read Piper’s book then you must certainly read Wright’s or your understanding will be severely lacking.

Related post: N.T. Wright and the Gospel

do we need a close circle of friends?

2011-05-28T17:13:00.017+01:00

circle of friends by
Jenser (Clasix-Design)

It is interesting to look at how Jesus related to people and see what we can learn about how we can relate to people today but I think we need to be careful about taking some aspects of this as being too prescriptive.

I have heard it pointed out on more than one occasion that Jesus had three circles of friendships. He had a large group who he related to more than just the crowds who followed him: the seventy two whom he sends out in Luke 10. He then had the twelve disciples with whom he developed deeper friendship. Finally he had were three closer more intimate friends Peter, James and John – his 'inner circle', so to speak.

I may be wrong but I wonder how much of that pattern is one that we should seek to copy and how much it reflects the culture of Jesus time. Jesus was a Rabi and this pattern of relationships could easily be following that social norm of the time.

In a more individualistic culture that we find ourselves in today many of us may struggle to identify our 12 or our 3 best friends. Those of us who have been through the University experience often found that we did develop close friendships then - particularly those of us who spent some time in a hall of residence. Some of these people we may have kept contact with over the years. But today how many close friends do we have? Perhaps we all think that other people have closer friends that we do.

It is perfectly natural for our closest friendships to be our household especially for those of us in a nuclear family unit. Groups of singles sharing houses may find the same thing. And looking at Jesus for our role model also raises questions about cross gender friendships as he also had close relationships with women such as Mary & Martha and Mary Magdalene.

There may be quite a variation in the number and depth of friendships we have and in what different groups may prefer to do together. We would do well to look beyond the stereotypes. In a recent men’s meeting we were discussing these issues and found that there were as many men who wouldn’t be interested in watching football together as there are who would be.

best friends by
therapycatguardian

It was also relief to many of us to hear that others too felt they had a larger circle whom they may feel that to some extent they can be fairly open and honest with but we may not have relationships with an inner circle as Jesus had. Yet we still agreed that on the importance of building friendships and relationships.

As Christians we believe that we cannot express our faith fully in isolation. The Bible refers to church as a community of people – the body of Christ. It also encourages us to reach out to those outside the faith and to seek to be a good influence to those around us. So taking steps to get to know people better is something to be encouraged.

For instance it is good that we should help each other with using our practical skills. If you enjoy doing DIY or gardening and others have jobs that need to be done then this could be a good way to help. There are character strengths that we can help each develop by being more open and honest in discussions within various groups in the church. And anyone in such groups can be seeking God as to the way forward for the group and sharing their insights with their group. And hopefully we have friends outside our local church from whom we can learn.

Yes, there are other places that we can turn to develop a skill or get help with a weakness. I am someone who benefits from reading books and information on the internet and doing courses. Also we may have networked with people through social media and use them to find out nuggets of information or advice that we need. But I do think it is important to find time to relate to people face to face.

Building good friendships both inside and outside of the church community is probably something we all need to work on. But I'm not sure that we should be too worried if we can’t identify that inner circle of a few close friends as long as we are still making an effort to reach out to people.

What do you think?

The End is Nigh? I think not!

2011-05-21T18:01:00.024+01:00

It has just gone 6pm on May 21st 2011 and the world did not end! What on earth was that all that about? Loads of people were talking about a ridiculous prediction of a Christian broadcaster whom some would claim is really a cult leader.

Apparently Harold Camping who may or may not have some affiliation with the Latter Rain movement, who also quote this date, calculated that the end of the world would happen today, yes today 21st May 2011 at 6pm. Well, not actually the end of the world as such, but something called ‘the rapture’. All the Christians would disappear and the rest of the world goes through a really bad time called the tribulation, so he claimed.

Like most Christians, I do believe in the doctrine of the second coming – that somehow in the future Jesus returns to earth and everything changes. But I don't claim to fully understand what this means or how it is going to happen. And I wouldn’t say it’s something that could happen anytime soon. As I understand it, before Jesus returns there is a lot that has to happen. Basically God’s kingdom has to fill the earth. Ordinary Christians have to live for God so much that our cultures are transformed into God’s ideal.

A lot of the ideas associated with the rapture have been popularised in the Left Behind series of novels. The basic idea does come from the Bible. 1 Thessalonians 4 that says that when he comes we will be ‘caught up to meet him the air’. But those who believe premillennialism – especially those of a dispensationalist leaning - have added a detailed timetable to this. A number hold to the idea that this timetable may be kick-started at any moment. They even point to events in the world such as natural disasters and wars as indications that this moment is just around the corner. If you care to examine history you'll find it's an idea that only became popular a century or two ago.

The big problem I have with much of rapture theology is that it breeds an escape mentality. Instead of working for a better world today it implies that we should look forward to being taken of it. Any notion of improving our world by for example campaigning for social justice or the environment is undermined if we believe that it is all going to burn. Is it really worth transforming our culture if it will all be irrelevant soon anyway? All we can hope to do is to preach to people and convert them to our way of thinking before it is too late.

Of course most premillenialists don’t believe that they can predict the date of the rapture. Though some would say that it is likely to happen at any moment soon. It’s just one extremist that some how has gained the attention of the media that has stuck his neck out predicted the date. In fact I would suspect that most pre-millenialists would seek to distance themselves from this loan voice. No-one for one minute should begin to think that Harold Camping’s view was ever a legitimate interpretation of scripture.

If Harold Camping continues his ministry beyond today and his followers continue then they will need to work out some way of resolving the cognitive dissonance that will inevitably occur. Will he discover some miscalculation, as apparently he did after predicting the rapture as 1994? Or perhaps he will say that the end did happen in someway or that God has had mercy because of the efforts of the faithful and so extended the period. Who knows!

In the meantime I suggest that we carry on in our attempts to make the world a better place – as it is most definitely not going to end any time soon.

Is God really a Good Shepherd?

2011-05-18T21:16:00.001+01:00

God wants you know that he will bless you and prosper you. He will lead you to good places to 'green pastures' and 'still waters'. He will lead to you places of peace. He will give you peace of mind and peace in your life. He will give you good things. This is because he is a good shepherd. Every thing he leads us into is good. He knows all our circumstances and is in control of everything in our lives.

But have you ever looked around at what is happening to you and wondered if this is really the case? Sometimes it looks like God has left us. Things go wrong in our life. Our plans don’t always succeed. We don’t always have enough money. We get sick. We get hurt. All this happens often through no fault of our own. We pray and our circumstances don’t miraculously change. They may even get worse. How do we reconcile this with God being our good shepherd? Can we reconcile it?

What is our reaction to disaster hitting? Are we angry at God? Do we wonder how God could let things happen? An old question comes to mind: if God is all powerful and all loving how can he allow anything bad to happen? Either he isn’t all powerful or he isn’t all loving. Of course there is a third option - that we don’t fully understand God. Though much about God has been revealed in the Bible we must never forget that we cannot fully understand him. Ultimately God is a mystery.

Psalm 23 is that is not just about the 'green pastures' and 'still waters'. One of the most wonderful parts of the psalm is that we can 'walk through the valley of the shadow of death' without fear. When the darkness closes in on us God is still there. He is with us in the difficulty. He is leading us through the problems. There is a blessing for us in the middle of the situation not just at the end. That is God being our good shepherd.

I believe in a God who heals. Miracles do happen today. But in my experience I don’t see that healing right away. When it does come it comes by natural means – a body repairing itself or the result of medical treatment. In some situations that healing does not come at all. I don’t know why. But that doesn’t stop me asking. I will still anoint with oil. I will still command a healing in Jesus name. That is what I see in the Bible. But I will also face the facts. There are no simple formulas.

When God does not appear to be answering my response is not to lose faith. It is not to blame God. As Job said, God is the one who gives and takes away. Whatever he chooses must be good by definition – even if in my mind I wouldn’t do it that way. I give thanks and praise to an all powerful, all loving God who knows exactly what he is doing. Yes, God is really a Good Shepherd even when it doesn’t look it.

Callie’s Baptism

2011-05-11T14:22:00.039+01:00

I am very pleased that my seven year old daughter Callie was baptised on Saturday. I captured the moment on this shaky video with my little camera.

Jess produced a much better video that she has put on facebook here and I have made some photos available here.

Some of you may be thinking that seven is much too young for a believer's baptism like this but Callie has clearly made her own decision to follow Jesus. She had been asking about baptism for some time. We talked with Steve and Helen who are leaders in our church and they very responded positively. In fact they were keen to get on with it. So we arranged a mutually convenient date on a Saturday afternoon so that members of our family could come and be part of the celebration.

We believe in baptism by full immersion. But our church doesn’t have a building that is big enough for us all to meet in never mind one with a baptismal pool. For our meetings we usually hire a local community centre or gather in each other's homes. So whenever we want to baptise people we have to think carefully about how to do it. In the past we have borrowed other church’s facilities or hired a swimming pool. This time Steve and Helen offered to host Callie’s baptism at their home using their inflatable pool in their back garden. They have baptised adults in that pool before so they knew it would be big enough to baptise Callie in.

It was a great time with some of the church, some of our family and even neighbours all piled into Steve and Helen’s home. When the pool was ready we went out into the garden. We didn’t feel there was any need to make it into a service as such, so there wasn’t singing or anything like that. Steve just explained about baptism in literally two or three minutes. It was encouraging to hear Callie shouting her agreement: ‘Yes! Yes! Yes!’ We had decided that Helen, along with my wife Nettes, would do the honours. So they knelt down in the pool with Callie and immersed her with everyone looking on.

A big thank you to all who took part including my niece Hannah on towel duty and of course Danni Smith who made this cake.

I would best describe Danni as a cake artist. As you can see the cake also captured the moment. Thank you Jess for arranging this; it’s not something we would have considered. The cake made a great centre piece for our little buffet. As well as food we provided soft drinks for the children and bottles of wine for the adults.

Callie was also blessed with a number of presents. We had bought her a Bible but other people gave her cards and presents too including this wonderful bracelet that tells the story of Jesus.

Christ's Story Beaded Bracelet

It was great to finish the afternoon chilling with Steve and Helen in the conservatory with an incense stick burning.

Phew! What a day!

Celebrating The Royal Wedding

2011-05-02T15:40:00.002+01:00

On Friday Britain has a day off for the Royal Wedding and though many might be cynical of the media hype most are grateful of the holiday and an excuse to party.

For me the whole affair was rather poignant, as the day before was something of a bad news day: two friends in our church both lost loved ones at tragically young ages. But still as my parents used to say ‘life must go on’.

Asbo Jesus 1009

One project that we are involved in our community is our local In Bloom and we had a launch party for it on that afternoon. There were a couple of tents out and Nettes ran a cake decorating stall. Their was some seed planting, balloon modelling, face-painting but the aim was to let people know about our local In Bloom later this year.

Of course this wasn’t the only party on the day. Outside Ladywood Health & Community Centre – the venue our church hires for its meetings – there were some tents, stalls and also bouncy castle.

Round the back in the Ledbury Centre - our little church building – the folks in the Drop In where glad to find somewhere that they could chill out away from the wedding celebrations. The Drop In developed out of our ministry to the homeless and some homeless guys who regularly come to the Drop In were sifting through some clothes that had been donated while others were playing snooker.

Just down the road in the Methodist Church, the local Christian charity that we have ties with, Karis Neighbour Scheme, were having their party.

Karis Neighbour Scheme

Karis do a lot of work serving people in the community generally being good neighbours. This includes work with many refugee and asylum seeker families and it was good to see some of them there.

It was really glad that I popped in to get this picture of Roo as I also saw Phillipa from Karis’s Grow Well Programme - a project that encourages health through the therapeutic effects of gardening and making contact with the natural environment. It was fortunate that she found me as she had lots of free sun flower seeds for me to take to our In Bloom launch but couldn’t find us.

For us the celebrations didn’t finish on the Friday. On Saturday a lot of us from our church piled down to Jess’s to party in the evening with drinks and nibbles.

Then on Sunday our church had a Royal Tea Party for our next Family Church – our alternative style service with fun activities for all the family. We were making bunting, table decorations and colouring in a picture of a royal banquet while discussing the meaning of Jesus parable of the wedding banquet and how God invites us to be part of his kingdom. We even sung ‘I cannot come to the banquet’ before sitting down to our feast.

And finally, today Alex and Ellen a couple from our church are getting married and I love this description of them as ‘kingdom royalty… surrounded and supported by God's royal priesthood’, which is not only apt for this weekend but also reminds us of the wonderful truths of the Kingdom of God. A pity I forgot to charge the camera for that one. Oh well - never mind!

Phew! What a weekend! I can identify with the verger in this viral video:

Christian Symbolism in Doctor Who

2011-04-29T08:28:00.007+01:00

Did anyone else spot the parallels between the Doctor’s death in The Impossible Astronaut and Jesus death on the cross? Of course there is nothing new with using Christian symbolism in science fiction. The idea of the hero dying or at least appearing to die and then coming back from the dead is a well known plot line. And given that ever since the revival of the series Doctor Who has started on or around Easter Saturday it shouldn’t be surprising. I just think there were so many references in this opening that it was worth commenting on.

In the first few minutes of the story the Doctor dies. Interestingly the date of the action in episode is clearly shown on scene to be Good Friday – the day before the story was transmitted. Before he dies the Doctor gathers his friends together for a meal, well actually a picnic, but I think the symbolism is getting a bit clearer here. This is the Doctor’s Last Supper with his companions. They even share some red wine. The fact they are by a lake even shows echoes of Sea of Galilee where Jesus ministered.

The Doctor appears to know that something important is about to happen. He tells them not to interfere as he his assailant appears – a mysterious space-suited figure. It reminded me how Jesus was anticipating his death and expected Judas to turn up in the garden and betray him.

A blast from an energy weapon and the doctor is fatally wounded. But of course in Doctor Who the Doctor doesn’t die he regenerates and takes on a new appearance. So, as he does in the new series, the Doctor stretches out his arms and begins to regenerate - light flashing from his face and hands. Isn’t it obvious now that this pose is supposed to remind us of Jesus death on the cross? The Doctor is then hit again by the energy weapon. He falls down and his companions look on his body. The regeneration is halted. He really is dead.

The gun shots at the space-suited figure as it walks back into the lake reminds me of Peter taking up his sword to defend Jesus. And then his companions burn the body on a boat on the lake in a Viking style funeral reminded me how Jesus' friends prepared his body for burial.

His companions in shock and mourning, despairing yet trying to understand what has happened just as Jesus disciples are portrayed between the death and resurrection. They go into a nearby diner and suddenly the Doctor appears out of the bathroom. The twist on this resurrection scene is that this is an earlier version of the Doctor. It is time travel science fiction after all. And off they go on an adventure. But perhaps it is leading up to some way in which the Doctor will be resurrected after his death later in the series.

Some interesting parallels?

Understanding Atonement

2011-04-22T07:54:00.019+01:00

At Easter we remember the death and resurrection of Jesus. On Good Friday especially we remember the story of the cross and that Jesus died for us. But what does Jesus death actually mean for us?

The answer lies in the doctrine of the atonement. Somehow through Jesus death we can now be reconciled to God and made at one. One way to remember it is that atonement is at-one-ment. But have you ever stopped to think how exactly that works?

Penal Substitution
The dominant understanding of the atonement in evangelical circles has been penal substitution. This basically says that God punished Jesus for our sins on the cross.

Looking back at Church history this interpretation of the Bible can be traced back to Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109) who developed an idea that the atonement involved God’s honour being satisfied by Christ’s obedience where before God had been dishonoured by human disobedience. This was refined further by Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) who saw the atonement as Christ making a substitution for us – suffering for us. John Calvin (1509-1564) went even further with penal substitution – Christ was legally punished by God instead of us and so it is God’s wrath that was satisfied. This has been largely accepted as orthodox evangelical belief but recently as questioning of this really come to the fore.

In recent years a number of evangelicals, most notably for us in the UK, Steve Chalke have spoken out against the implications of penal substitution. Steve Chalke raised the hackles of many evangelicals by referring to this idea as “cosmic child abuse” in The Lost Message of Jesus (2004).

Christus Victor
An alternative view of the biblical teaching of atonement that is being embraced by an increasing number of evangelicals is called Christus Victor. This view emphasises Christ’s victory over the devil (e.g. Col 2:15).

Christus Victor

In his 1931 book Christus Victor Gustaf Aulen argues for a theory of the atonement which he sees as the classic view held by the early church for a thousand years until superseded by satisfaction. Although held by Martin Luther (1483-1586) it did not make its way into Lutheran orthodoxy and was not systematically put together until Aulen did so in his book.

The basic idea of Christus Victor is that Jesus death on the cross defeated the devil liberating the world from the devil’s rule by paying the ransom due to Satan (e.g. Matt 20:28). You see, according to this theory, the Bible teaches that devil ruled mankind and the earth because of Adam’s fall but Christ’s payment set humanity and the world free from the curse but the devil was tricked as he could not keep Christ in the grave so he ended up with nothing.

David Matthew has some quotes and comments about Christus Victor on his website here.

Christus Victor has been held by a few evangelicals since the book was published most notably C.S Lewis. You may recognise the imagery from Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. This appears to be a very powerful view however some have found the idea of God deceiving Satan to be an unpalatable idea and penal substitution remained the prevailing view.

More Than One Explanation
Despite their misgivings not many evangelicals are willing to throw out substitutionary atonement altogether. But a growing number, such as Scot McKnight in 2007 in A Community Called Atonement and subsequent Christianity Today article, are now admitting that there can be a number of legitimate approaches.

Some are beginning to say that penal substitution is only part of the explanation, Christus Victor another part and even the moral example view can be seen as a third part and so on. The moral example view is that Jesus died as an example for us. He sought to influence us morally in showing us how to live a life of sacrifice culminating in his death on the cross. However this doesn’t really explain how sin is dealt with and may not really take sin seriously enough.

Nevertheless appealing to a number of stories of atonement, rather than just one, is an answer that I like i.e. ‘both/and’ rather than ‘either/or’. It is well illustrated here by one church in 2006 when one writer Mark Dever was arguing for penal substitution alone.

The Debate Continues
In this 2011 Christianity Today article Mark Galli looks at and critiques the rise of the Christus Victor view over substitutionary atonement. For instance, he points out this model emphasises that we are victims that need rescuing from the powers evil whereas substitutionary atonement emphasises that we are guilty and need forgiveness that liberates us from our sin. Also rather than just individual forgiveness it emphasises the redemption of the cosmos. He comes to the conclusion that though Christus Victor language is there in the Bible the overwhelming emphasis is on substitution. Perhaps the emphasis on Christus Victor can be understood in a society where we are acutely aware of being victims but becoming less aware of our own failings.

A good response to this can be found on Bramboniusin’s blog here where he questions the dichotomy that Galli draws between Christus Victor and substitutionary atonement without mentioning penal substitution. Doesn’t Christus Victor include the original idea of substitutionary atonement as it is all about Christ dying for us? Perhaps it would be more precise to see Christus Victor as a rival to penal substitution.

And anyway I still wonder if there may be a good case for embracing more than one of these explanations in order to fully understand what it means that Christ died for us. In a post from a couple of year’s ago blogger Mike Morrell having analysed and critiqued the models of the atonement had a go at putting it all back together again here.

I can see that this is far from as simple as I once thought. Nevertheless even if I haven’t got all the detailed sussed this Easter, this I do know: Jesus died for me!

Celebration of Discipline

2011-04-18T20:14:00.014+01:00

A year or two ago I heard that two or three people in our church were reading through a book called Celebration of Discipline. I did a bit of research and found many comments that spurred me on buy this book and study it myself. It is interesting that a book written in the 70s by someone from a Quaker background should resonate so well will so many different groups of Christians today. Some might be critical of what is sometimes referred to as his ‘mystical’ approach. However, I would say that Richard Foster appears to have a grasp of hearing God and being in tune with the Holy Spirit that Christians whatever their background can find beneficial. Recently I have been reading through this classic discussion of spiritual disciplines again and each time I do so I feel uplifted.

Richard Foster takes twelve different practices and outlines how putting effort into them can help us grow spiritually. He classifies them as the inward disciplines of meditation, prayer, fasting and study, the outward disciples of simplicity, solitude, submission and service, the corporate disciplines of confession, worship, guidance and celebration.

I find this book stimulating, inspiring and encouraging. At first the title made me fear that it would make me feel undisciplined and lacking in these areas. But as I began to read I didn’t find that at all. Richard Foster has such a gracious way of expressing even the most challenging ideas. If anything it was encouraging to see that so many things that I do already such as study and solitude can be seen as spiritual disciplines. It also articulates some of the things that I feel strongly about very clearly. I’ve never been someone to spend frivolously so I found that I resonated a lot with what Foster calls simplicity. In no way does this book make me feel that I should to be excelling at all of the disciplines. Instead I feel that what Richard Foster does is outline ideas for each one these that sometimes affirm my experiences and other times make me want to try to develop some of these further.

I love the way each discipline is elaborated giving interesting insights into its other possible aspects. For instance in meditation he talks about meditating on current affairs seeking God for insight, as well as giving practical exercises. I love his ideas for study that include the study of nature and the study of people. There is a good range of ideas on each discipline some much easier to do than others, for instance, he talks about partial fasts from different things as well as prolonged total fasts.

Richard Foster is also careful to point out pitfalls and cautions with the disciplines such as falling into legalism and is very practical about how to do them. He has some good physical advice on how to fast for instance and is clear that corporate disciplines such submission are very open to abuse but he still feels that they are important to explore. He gives very practical stories that show how the disciplines have been used and developed.

I found the structure of the book really helpful. The questions at the end of each chapter helped me in reading in the book. Although some of them are simply factual he also enabled me to think about his points by asking for reaction and even disagreement with his points. The way he clearly enumerates his points also adds to clarity and quick reading of the book. He is perhaps a little more formal and stilted than we are used to in Christian writing today but I could easily cope with that.

There are many copies of this book around that can be picked up very cheaply. So even if you’re not sure about it I would really recommend anyone having a look at this book.

Sod the Difference

2011-04-10T22:38:00.014+01:00

I’ve just been listening to Sod The Difference - a talk from Greenbelt 2008 where Jenny Baker comes to the conclusion that there isn’t really that much difference between men and women at all.

Are Men From Mars And Women From Venus?

Jenny takes to task books like John Gray’s Mars and Venus books even though she admits that plenty of people would say that they have found them helpful and learnt to communicate better. Her contention is that Gray’s books and those like them perpetuate gender stereotypes. Looking at the psychological research she finds the evidence that they are based on very questionable. An idea that has also been touched on by Jon Birch in this recent ASBO Jesus cartoon.

Are Men Wild At Heart?
Jenny is also critical of Christian books such as John Eldridge’s Wild At Heart that looks at masculinity and John & Stasi Eldridge’s Captivating that looks at femininity. Jenny pointed out “there is as much of difference between some of the women as between the women and the men”. She is clear that she believes that “there are lots of different ways of being masculine and lots of ways being feminine. People are far more complex than narrow definitions of masculinity and femininity allow. There’s space for men whose hobby is knitting as well as men whose hobby is boxing and both can be masculine”

But she says in many Christian books like Wild At Heart and Captivating “instead of diversity we are dealt absolutes”. In these books we hear narrow definitions of what it means to be masculine and feminine. For instance Wild At Heart says “Like it or not there’s something fierce in the heart of every man” and if we don’t fit these narrow definitions of what it means to be we are damaged and in denial.

John Eldridge argues that these differences he sees not as cultural but as basic to the way God has created us. Jenny points out that, “discussions of difference can be helpful if we hold them lightly and we see where they fit. But they become a punishing straightjacket if we invest them with more authority than they merit. Any talk of differences can be used in quite a dangerous way.

The Myth of Mars And Venus
“I think we need to resist the use of differences as an instruction manual for how to behave” she says. “And instead take the time to listen and learn and to interact with the uniqueness of the real people with whom we live and work. I think focusing on difference can be an excuse for laziness and a way of justifying immature behaviour instead of doing the work of growing up. Instead of focusing exclusively on differences between men and women – let’s celebrate our sameness – the things we have in common.”

Looking at the psychological studies Jenny comes to the overwhelming conclusion that men and women are not very different at all. Even though some small differences in the brains have been found looking at men as a whole and women as a whole there are no significant differences in many psychological characteristics.

A book that she recommends that looks at such psychological research is The Myth of Mars of Venus by Deborah Cameron. In this book the idea that gender differences are a myth is unpacked. It not just a false belief but it is also a story that has been told for a long time. This is how stereotypes have developed. When we see someone who fits our concept of how we think men or women behave this confirms our stereotype. When we see someone who doesn’t fit we say that they are an exception to the rule.

In conclusion, Jenny points us back to the creation story. The response of Adam to Eve was not that she was an alien from a different planet but that she was ‘bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh”. In other words his initial thought was “Here is someone who is just like me”.

I found Jenny’s talk both scientifically sound and immensely practical in giving an approach to understanding gender differences. Let us approach each person as unique and not be quick to make assumptions on the basis of whether they are male or female.

Time With God 2011

2011-04-06T21:22:00.003+01:00

For the past few years once or twice a year our church has had a 24 hour prayer event that we call Time With God. There wasn’t one scheduled in this year but my wife and I began to feel that is was time for one. So last weekend we arrange it and again had people praying in our small church building around the clock. We had a number of different prayer stations and multi-sensory activities. For instance one was a multi-sensory meditation on Psalm 51 using horse radish source to remind us of the bitterness of sin, grape juice for God's cleansing and honey for sweetness of God's word.

Simple Beginnings

I think the ethos in Time With God has always similar to 24-7 prayer. But when we started we just opened up the rooms in our little church building for people to shut themselves away in and seek God. There were CD players in each room, we supplied people with candles and some guidelines and we encouraged people to write on flip chart paper and blu-tack it to the walls.

People in the church booked times over the 24 hour period which amazingly filled up even through the night. We managed to arrange it so we always had at least a couple of people in the building. The time flew by and some people began to happily book two hours or even more. Each time we did it there were many encouraging stories of how God has touched people during these times.

Getting More Creative
One year someone brought some art materials. Then came the ‘pray dough’ – an activity encouraging us to pray by moulding play dough. People were praying and expressing that prayer not just in written ways but also in pictures perhaps even bringing a newspaper with them and cutting out a headline and writing and drawing prayers around it. As there were so many payers written and painted we set up a wishing line in the hallway and encouraged people to peg out their prayers.

One year my wife and I took responsibility for organising it and took along lots of bean-bags and throws to make a cosy corner, laid out a few books to inspire prayer such as books of Celtic prayers. Other times people had set up one or two prayer stations. We ran with that and arranged for at least one in each room - each one encouraging prayer in different ways often using different senses.

The Beginnings of a Team
The last time we did this we had the sense of beginning to get together a team. Before this the responsibility to organise it had been with one couple who had passed it to another. When we took over we wanted to do more but it was a lot of work laying out the rooms and clearing them away again. It was great when we had one or two others on board – and it was encouraging to see them using their creativity. We also began the idea of having a corporate time during Time With God when there could be more group activities as well as individual prayer.

Even now that one of the team has now moved away to study we still felt there is the beginnings of a team as others begin to get on board. Another time we would like to build on this and get together a bit sooner to plan with one or two more if possible. I think we need to more clearly divide up the tasks so that everyone knows what to do – send out emails confirming this. Perhaps we could even meet again to confirm the plans just before the event.

One thing that we like to do is to bring prayers that have been written or drawn into the following Sunday morning meeting. People have commented how encouraging this is. I think this is an opportunity not just for the team to do this but perhaps to ask others in the church who might not otherwise be involved. It’s amazing what can be done when several people get there and muck in and it’s a lot less stressful than doing it ourselves.

related post Time With God

Church In The Present Tense: A review of a review!

2011-04-01T22:47:00.035+01:00

Church In The Present Tense has recently been reviewed blogger Jonny Baker who works for CMS. Edited by Kevin Corcoran the contributors are Jason Clark, Pete Rollins, Scot McKnight and Kevin himself. The book aims to give a snapshot of these and a few other leaders within what is sometimes called ‘the emerging church’.

Jonny's review kicks off with what some may think as a bit of an unfair comment that the book has no representation from women. I think this is a valid point as an important aspect of the emerging types is they claim to listen to voices from the margins yet apparently lack female leaders or at least need to promote them more. I remember Jenny Baker, one year at Greenbelt, mentioning the lack of female leaders in general in churches when discussing gender issues in her talk ‘Sod the Difference’.

The review then points out how the book clearly shows the different perspectives on theology, mission and church that are held by the contributors. I think this is an important point as many still think there is a monolithic doctrine of the emerging church – so when someone they link with that label says something they don’t agree with everyone gets ‘tarred with the same brush’, so to speak. He points out that in the midst of all the philosophical debating we do need a humility about truth but one that doesn’t stop us saying things that are real such as Jesus really did rise from the dead.

Oddly Jonny doesn't give a rounded overview of the book but instead comments in detail about the two chapters that stood out for him by Jason Clark an 'emerging church' leader who is part of the Vineyard churches.

In his first chapter Jason Clark questions Christians who critique the church having stepped outside of it. Jason sees this as a mistake as such people, he says, have lost contact with church life and ultimately with God’s mission. Jason recommends remaining in the traditions of the church where you are rather than leaving in the search of the latest model. The gist of what he is saying is ‘Don’t be focused on the problems with your church.’ and ‘We need more people around us who verbalise their love for the church.’ Jason lambastes the consumerist faddism of seeking the next big thing whether it is emerging, organic or house church but, rather ironically Jonny comments, then proposes this new model positioned within the traditional church which he calls Deep Church. Jonny points out that people are already writing books about Deep Church so isn’t it just another chasing after the next big thing? But I think Jonny’s main concern is that we need to be shaped in Christian identity as Jason suggest but we also need to be empowered to live in our culture as Christians

Jonny appears to resonate more with Jason Clark’s second chapter on worship. This opens by Jason discussing liturgy, the rediscovery of the church calendar and the catechisms. This is comparatively new to Jason being part of the Vineyard churches but very familiar to Anglicans like Jonny – although Jonny has found new life breathed into these through his own experiences in Alternative Worship. I am very aware that these liturgical aspects of worship have been largely shunned by those in my circles. But I would concur with Jonny’s hope that now they will be opened up afresh. Again Jonny emphasises the importance of mission and engaging with our culture. He feels that these are important aspects of worship in addition to the idea of spiritual formation that Jason Clark outlines.

Even though Jonny rambled on a bit and his thoughts really do need editing I found this a fascinating review. I really must investigate this book further.

Newly found Christian relics may be fakes

2011-04-01T16:03:00.049+01:00

The new find of supposed ancient Christian writings may well be a fake. You may have seen the recent story on the BBC news about the discovery of writings from the first century in a cave in Jordan. This story and subsequent retellings of it contained lots of speculation about the find: Have we found proof that Jesus resurrection was some sort of trick? Have we found some others stories about Jesus that are not in the Bible? The fact is that this find has not even been authenticated yet and the process of authentication takes a long time.

What do we know for certain? A Bedouin from Jordan claims to have found umpteen lead tablets in a cave a few years ago. However they are now in the possession of an Israeli who says that they have been in their family for a hundred years. The tablets have some writing on them and are bound together with wire in book form. The writings have been examined and photographed. But they have not yet been totally deciphered. The few words and symbols that we do understand indicate that they might be from the first century.

The director of the Jordan Department of Antiquities thinks that they could be early Christian writings and might even be more important than the Dead Sea Scrolls. David Elkington an expert who is investigating these relics and trying to get them to a museum in Jordan is quoted by the BBC as saying that they could be "the major discovery of Christian history".

What the BBC failed to mention is that the Israel Antiques Authority dismiss the idea that this find is of any value. A report in the Jewish Chronicle said that experts “absolutely doubted their authenticity”. Church Mouse - a Christian blogger on current affairs whose judgement I trust - gives us some insight in the way that media works, “…in each re-telling,” he says, “the critical bits are left out and some additional piece of speculation is added in”.

But what if these relics aren't fakes? Is it possible these writings could have a profound impact on the Christian faith? Could they prove the Bible wrong? Could they lend credence to other writings that have been discovered such as the alternative Gospels?

I was interested to see in a recent post Scot McKnight pointing to a book Who Chose The Gospels. This book investigates the idea that the four gospels were not accepted until the council of Nicea. The thought that for hundreds of years other Gospels were competing for acceptance sounds intriguing. But the evidence actually indicates that the four we have now were accepted very early on and the others regarded as the work of false teachers.

I would suspect that any writings that are too different from traditional beliefs similarly could be dismissed as the work of Christian sects that were never accepted. But I still think that archaeological finds can help us understand the historical, linguistic and cultural context of the Bible. Writings such as the alternative gospels may well be worth reading along with other writings from the time.

If and when this find is authenticated and deciphered it is possible we could gain some new insight into the world of first century Christians but I doubt it will shake Christianity in the way some have suggested.

Update: It now looks almost certain that they are fakes. Here is Church Mouse's recent post.

Should We Observe Lent?

2011-03-13T19:20:00.001Z

Lent resources are popping up all over the place on Christian sites at the moment. This season is now under way. Our church doesn’t do Lent so things like this still feel very new to me. For a few years now, on and off, I’ve been following the church calendar in my Bible reading programme. I found a book Ancient Future Time by Robert Webber, which aims to introduce the church year to a new generation of evangelicals. Reading it gave me the idea of incorporating into my Bible reading, the lectionary – the plan of Sunday Bible readings that is traditionally used in churches.

I can fully understand those who might cock a snoot at the traditional calendar, especially when some churches follow it too rigidly and it is associated with routines that some find boring. Yet now I find the lectionary is something that I love to dip into and explore. I like Jonny Baker's phrase: that he thinks of traditions like these as a ‘sort of dressing up box’. I am finding the church year gives a rhythm to my devotions that I can use and enjoy as much or as little as I want to.

Lent is about a lot more than just 'giving something up'. But it is not to be approached legalistically. I don't believe that we have to pray, read the Bible, give or fast at Lent more than any other time. But I think there is something powerful when the focus of our Bible reading becomes more communal. I am finding that Lent is giving me an opportunity to join in with the devotions of many other Christians across the world as I dip into these resources during this season.

Just a thought.

Originally posted 08/032009

Will Bell’s Universalism Matter?

2011-03-06T19:36:00.034Z

In case you haven’t heard Love Wins the latest book of Christian author, speaker and church leader Rob Bell will probably be about Christian Universalism – the idea that everyone gets to heaven in the end. I say “in case you haven’t heard” because so many people have heard. I have seen it mentioned recently on lots of blogs and facebook statuses. I say “probably” because it isn’t released until later this month and the publishers aren’t giving the whole game away yet. Will he argue for evangelical universalism, conditional immortality or something else? We just don't know. In the meantime Rob Bell has managed to stir up some controversy across the internet and so generate a lot of publicity for his up and coming book.

So what is the book about? Love Wins is subtitled “a book about heaven, hell and the fate of every person who ever lived”. In his YouTube trailer for the book Rob Bell asks some hard questions about the afterlife such as “Will only a select number get to heaven and billions burn forever in hell?”, “How do you become one of the few?” and “What does this tell us about the nature of God?” He sets up his book as an attempt to answer these questions and to show that the good news is better than we’ve been told. But what he will say is still unclear. He is playing his cards close to his chest.

The publisher’s blurb does make it a little more explicit than his trailer though. It tells us Bell argues “that a loving God would never sentence human souls to eternal suffering”. And it goes on to say, “With searing insight, Bell puts hell on trial, and his message is decidedly optimistic.” This makes it appear that Bell will reject the traditional view of hell as a place of eternal suffering. A lot of people are increasingly convinced that Bell is going to argue for a Universalist position that ultimately everyone gets to heaven leaving hell empty, if he thinks such a place exists at all.

A lot of conservative evangelicals are getting hot under the collar about this. Yes, this book has got Christians talking – especially evangelical Christians. Some refer to Rob Bell as one of the most influential evangelicals in America – especially among young people. But others question whether he is evangelical at all seeing him as having more liberal leanings. I’m not sure how Rob Bell would refer to himself but the fact that he has got so many people talking indicates that he is certainly worthy of the accolade of influential. But I do worry what message some of the less than gracious debating sends about Christianity.

I also wonder why so many who hold the traditional idea of hell appear to fear so much the thought of others being misled by Bell. Do they actually think that he will persuade so many about this? Perhaps so. Rob Bell is an excellent communicator after all. When I read Velvet Elvis I found his words capturing my imagination. But ultimately I don’t think his strength is in teaching Christian doctrine. It might be interesting to see what his position is but I suspect that I will find Bell’s book frustrating. On such a difficult subject as this I would prefer a detailed argument based careful exposition of the scriptures. But perhaps that’s not the case for most Christians.

One of the best books on this topic that I have read is The Evangelical Universalist by Gregory MacDonald (a pseudonym of Robin Parry). This caused some debate but it was nothing like the controversy I am seeing Bell’s book making now. The Evangelical Universalist set out a case from the scriptures that ultimately you can read the Bible as teaching that everyone will be saved in the end. It is well written, thorough and made it clear, to my mind at least, that universalism is a respectable Christian option.

However personally I didn’t quite feel that I could accept the position as there were still some problem passages that left me wondering. In the 80s I had read the chapter of Evangelical Essentials where John Stott outlines ‘conditional immortality’, the idea that hell is annihilation rather than everlasting torment. I found this a more convincing argument and even though the Evangelical Universalist went into more depth I still ended up leaning towards conditional immortality rather than full blown universalism.

Ultimately I am somewhat bemused by the furore over Rob Bell’s book. Having already read these more intellectual offerings I would see both conditional immortality and universalism as just as much possible interpretations of the Biblical teaching of hell as eternal suffering. If I had to plump for one it would be conditional immortality but I wouldn't want to be too dogmatic about that. And whatever Rob Bell argues for, though I may find his writing inspiring, I doubt that his more rhetorical style will cause me to modify my basic understanding of this topic. But I'm sure he will persuade some.

Update: The first review of this book by someone who has read it!

The Forgotten Ways: Apostles in the Emerging Missional Church

2011-02-22T14:00:00.047Z

Alan Hirsch

At last I have found people within the emerging church who have apostles today just as our group of churches do. Recently I have been reading a couple of books: Alan Hirsh’s The Forgotten Ways and the Forgotten Ways Handbook by Hirsch and Altclass. It is so exciting having followed the emerging church movement for many years now and learnt so much from them to see them going in a similar direction to our churches.

Missional DNA
Alan Hirsch begins by asking the question, 'How did the early church grow so quickly?' He then looks for similar patterns in the rise of other Christian movements in history such as in Wesley's time and more recently in China.

Hirsch concludes that we as Christians have within us the ability to replicate these movements today. It’s in our DNA, so to speak, to be missional but we need to dig deep into our collective memories to recall and re-activate it.

Apostolic Genius
What is interesting is that Hirsch sees a return to the early apostolic principles is needed to re-awaken this missional DNA. As I read these books it slowly dawned on me that what he is describing are churches that would refer to themselves as emerging churches that have been pioneered by apostles.

Hirsch describes the following six elements that together formed the life force that pulsated through the early church which he calls Apostolic Genius. He argues a case for developing all these elements in balance as the way forward to be effective at doing church.

Element One: Jesus is Lord
If Jesus is the Lord over every aspect of our lives then any sacred secular divide is abolished. Jesus lordship impacts our work and home life not just our meetings and devotionals.

Hirsch points out that Christ is not just working through the church but is at work in the world around us. We can worship all the time in everything we do and not just in church services.

We should imitate the Jesus of the gospels today not just by showing attitudes of love and forgiveness but also of acceptance of others and a willingness to socialise outside of our Christian friends.

Element Two: Disciple Making
Discipleship is nothing less than every member seeking to be transformed into a little Jesus. It is not just academic learning that is applied but learning that seeks to initially address our behaviour through leading by example, accountability groups and one to one coaching.

We are to learn to embody the message of Christ. Hirsch & Altclass give us some interesting examples such as in our busy consumerist society making time for families and church by working part time, or standing up for social justice or care for the environment by buying fair trade and environmentally friendly products. But the main thrust of discipleship that they outline is encouraging people in spiritual disciplines, empowering them to serve, use their gifts and reach out to others.

Element Three: Missional Incarnational Impulse
God is on a mission and he sends us to be part of his mission. Jesus came to us, to be with us, serve us and to proclaim salvation. We call this the incarnation – God becoming flesh. In the same way we are sent to be incarnational to others to be them, mix frequently with them, serve them and proclaim salvation. This is so much more than just inviting people to meetings.

What we do as a church needs to be built around mission. We need to be relevant to the host community in order to embed the gospel into the surrounding culture through meaningful interaction. Hirsch outlines a number of ideas that have been done ranging from being involved in community groups to turning a church into a recording studio and nightclub. But the challenge is to find strategies that are relevant to your community not copy others.

Element Four: Apostolic Environment
Apostles pioneer new missional initiatives implanting in them the missional DNA as they go. They guard each church ensuring it remains true to the gospel and its missional ethos. Apostles also provide an environment for the other ministries outlined in Ephesians 4:11 to emerge (i.e. prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers) bringing the church to maturity.

Although he mentions people with these specific ministries such as Neil Cole of CMA, Hirsch’s emphasis is that all Christians have within them some aspects of these in varying degrees. For example someone may be mainly prophetic but also have elements of a shepherd and a teacher. On his website Hirsch provides a questionnaire to help you discover your leanings.

Element Five: Organic Systems
Hirsch sees the church as a living organism. Hence he prefers more fluid structures that involve networks of relationship rather than hierarchies. In these networks everyone can freely communicate with anyone else rather than having limited communication via your immediate leader.

Centralised institutions are potential blocks to growth but organic systems are characteristic of movements that have grown exponentially. They have the potential to spread like viruses continually reproducing themselves. If we keep church simple then churches can be easily reproduced.

Element Six: Communitas, Not Community
Rather than developing a sense of community for its own sake Hirsch sees this as a vital by-product of being stretched to your limit. In persecution Christians experience 'the fellowship of suffering'. But also groups that exist for purposes beyond themselves such as influencing the community or reaching people with the gospel develop a much more vigorous cohesion than groups set up with the aim of providing fellowship. If we are taking risks as we journey together on a missional venture then bonding will happen on the way. This is what Hirsch means by communitas.

There is much to learn from these books. Let's go for it. Don’t be afraid of the changes that come. As Hirsch comments, change may be chaotic at times but living on the edge of chaos is the best place to be.

Related Posts:
An Evening With A Real Live Apostle
72 Christian Leaders Meet at Antioch

have we misunderstood the word ‘rhema’?

2011-02-06T14:25:00.007Z

One of the major Pentecostal denominations has a very different understanding of this word to many evangelicals and charismatics. And I think they may have a point.

One of the Greek words for “word” in the New Testament is logos another is rhema. Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Bible Words says that rhema (as distinct from logos) is not the whole of the Bible but individual scripture that the Spirit brings to our remembrance. I have been reading ‘Post Charismatic?’ - an excellent critique of some of the excesses in the charismatic movement. In this book Rob McAlpine describes rhema like this:

Many Christians are familiar with the concept of a ‘rhema word’ from Scripture, even if they have not used that term to describe it. From across the denominational spectrum, stories are told of reading a well known passage of Scripture, when suddenly, a certain verse or phrase seems to jump off the page, and the reader knows without doubt that the Holy Spirit is speaking through that verse or phrase. It is a ‘now’ (rhema) word that is found in the ‘written’ (logos) word of God.

McAlpine then goes on to show how rhema has been used by the Word of Faith movement to mean words spoken in faith that call things into existence. He then explains the dangers of this idea of positive confession and shows how this is not what the Bible teaches. But in doing so he also argues that this distinction between logos and rhema is inappropriate and that these two words are used almost interchangeably in the Bible.

In arguing that the common distinction between logos and rhema does not do justice to the Biblical text he quotes from an Assemblies of God Position Paper on Positive Confession. Here is McAlpine’s quote in bold which I have set in context to show more of the Biblical justification in the paper.

A distinction is generally made… between the words logos and rhema. The first, it is claimed, refers to the written word. The second, to that which is presently spoken…. [However] …the distinction is not justified by usage either in the Greek New Testament or in the Septuagint (Greek version of the Old Testament). The words are used synonymously in both.

In the case of the Septuagint both rhema and logos are used to translate the one Hebrew word dabar which is used in various ways relative to communication. For instance, the word dabar (translated, word of God) is used in both Jeremiah 1:1 and 2. Yet in the Septuagint it is translated rhema in verse 1 and logos in verse 2.

In the New Testament the words rhema and logos are also used interchangeably. This can be seen in passages such as 1 Peter 1:23 and 25. In verse 23, it is “the logos of God which . . . abideth for ever.” In verse 25, “the rhema of the Lord endureth for ever.” Again in Ephesians 5:26 believers are cleansed “with the washing of water by the rhema.” In John 15:3 believers are “clean through the logos.”

The distinctions between logos and rhema cannot be sustained by Biblical evidence. The Word of God, whether referred to as logos or rhema, is inspired, eternal, dynamic, and miraculous. Whether the Word is written or spoken does not alter its essential character. “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:16, 17).

I left Assemblies of God 25 years ago. A quick look at some of their other position papers reminds me that I wouldn’t agree with everything they say. But looking at the verses here this argument sounds sensible.

As this appears to refute such a popular idea I just wondered if anyone out there had any thoughts on this and what the implications might be.

Update: I've recently added a review of 'Post Charismatic?' on my new blog CharisMissional here. I would highly recommend buying this book.

Missional Living

2011-01-23T16:15:00.005Z

This article has been updated and moved to my new blog called CharisMissional.

Can you please follow this link to view the post?

Thank you!

WorkShop - our new initiative

2011-01-08T15:04:00.018Z

My wife Nettes & I have recently launched an initiative that we are calling WorkShop.

What is WorkShop?

WorkShop is a Work Club serving our local community. Ladywood has significant levels of unemployment. There is clearly a need here for activities to engage people as well as enable them to look into paths into training and to take steps towards getting work. Our aim is to get people from Ladywood and the surrounding areas moving towards occupation in paid or voluntary work.

What happens at WorkShop?

WorkShop provides an environment in which to complete activities that get you to think about all your existing skills - even those you never knew you had. Some people may want to find out about training courses or volunteering opportunities. Others may want help writing a CV, or may just want somewhere to start job hunting from. When you come along we will spend some time getting to know you, assessing your needs and suggesting the best activities for you. We aim to be inclusive so wherever you are at please feel free to drop by to see if we can be of help.

We are currently looking at the possibility of a number of different activities including confidence building, keeping motivated, and coping with rejection, as well as interview and presentation skills. We will be having guest speakers from voluntary organisations, local employers and from our local money advice and credit union. We hope eventually that the people who come along will be able do presentations themselves on areas where they have skills or knowledge that may be of interest to others.

As well as helping people into training, volunteering or getting jobs, we hope to eventually help some people set up their own businesses. We’d also like to see an arm of WorkShop develop into a social enterprise, benenfitting the community, becoming self-funding and even providing employment for some of the members. We are continually exploring possibilities but developing such an enterprise would depend a lot on the skills of the group that develops.

What is the history of WorkShop?
We only launched WorkShop in November but already we have spoken to a number of people. We have helped people fill in job application forms and given others advice on how to improve their CVs. We have signposted some people to organisations who provide training and work experience opportunities. There are other people with whom we continue to work and we hope they will form the core of the group.

WorkShop grew out of our vision to see the local church serving the community and we are thrilled to see it taking its first steps. We feel that the time is right for such a venture. This was confirmed when we approached the Jobcentre with a leaflet and learnt that the government are now encouraging Work Clubs as part of the Big Society.

WorkShop has now been launched as a project of Karis Neighbour Scheme working alongside All Being Well. WorkShop is not only partnering with our own church – Church Alive – but also with Church of the Redeemer who have generously donated a room with a number of computers and are helping with our administration.

It’s early days yet but hope something will come of it.

Related posts:
looking into social enterprise
more thoughts on social enterprise
this is my church

The Tangible Kingdom

2011-01-01T10:38:00.021Z

Here is a little video advertising a book that I have been reading recently.

The Tangible Kingdom is an exhortation to Christians to get out of their insular bubble and build relationships with people outside the faith. It is an exhortation first to get to know them, then to help and serve people around you. It is an exhortation to have real conversations about things that matter especially the kingdom of God. That is real conversations – not trying to score points and win arguments – but, out of friendship, listening to where people are at and to discuss openly issues that matter. Our faith is to be lived out in front of people not hidden away in a church building.

Though it is co-written with Matt Smay it contains Hugh Halter’s own story about how he has done just that. It tells how he left a comfortable ministry job to move to a new town, and working as a painter and decorator gathered together a group of people that he went for drinks with. This eventually leads to him planted a church that just keeps on growing. At one point he was offered financial support by one denomination but he declined as they require their ministers to be teetotal. Going for a pint seems to be an important key to Hugh's ministry; it is when he appears to discuss the kingdom best.

The Tangible Kingdom at amazon.co.uk

The book is subtitled ‘Creating Incarnational Community’ but if you’re looking for a theological explanation of the incarnation and the kingdom of God you will be frustrated by this book. Though it aims to outline how we can be relevant to our culture it doesn’t do so in a deeply intellectual way. Some of the writing is a little confusing and it is full of anecdotes and that often failed to enlighten me. I felt that it could have been vastly improved by stricter editing especially of the American colloquialisms and perhaps some deeper research by the writers. But despite all this I felt gripped by the book’s hard hitting agenda.

Halter and Smay’s desire is that Christians won’t just think of evangelism as occasionally plucking up the courage to invite someone to a church service. They want to see churches transformed into communities that are mixing with people around them in order to demonstrate God’s Kingdom in tangible ways. The main premise of the book is that just as Jesus came to this world to be one of us so we should go to the world and rub shoulders with others. Halter and Smay realise that producing such incarnational communities is not easy. But step by step we can begin to move our church in this direction.

As I read this book I found myself feeling that I had heard all this before. But then it dawned on me that I wasn’t doing it! As an introvert I find some of this particular difficult. So I found it particularly interested to read in a couple of places that Hugh Halter regards himself to be an introvert. Chapter after chapter Halter and Smay spell out the fact that we need to get out more – not be afraid of being 'contaminated by sinners' – but instead to be salt and light in our community. Each chapter has questions to ponder and they suggest reading through the book with others, discussing these and taking practical steps to actually do this.

As I said – The Tangible Kingdom is not too intellectual – but it certainly is challenging. It left me feeling that somehow I want to go for this.

Halter and Smay run courses training people in some of the principles in this book. For more details and some more videos visit their website here.

Christmas 2.0

2010-12-24T09:47:00.016Z

It’s that time again! All newsletters and charity gifts posted and our Jesse Tree now complete with items representing the ancestors of Jesus we are relaxing and enjoying our twelve days of Christmas – sharing small gifts around the dinner table for twelve days of the holidays.

Just thought that if you enjoy Nativity plays and singing carols like ‘We Three Kings’ as well as social networking on the internet then you might like this video - Christmas 2.0:

Enjoy!

Re-Enchanting Christianity

2010-12-22T17:34:00.013Z

Recently I have been rereading Dave Tomlinson’s book Re-Enchanting Christianity. Dave’s spiritual journey is an interesting one to say the least. After being one of the leading figures in the house church movement of the 70s he became very disenchanted with a lot of the trite oversimplification of the Christian faith that he encountered in some charismatic and evangelical quarters. This led him towards the Anglican Church, to establish an alternative worship community Holy Joes in the 90s and to write about his unease with evangelicalism, particularly in the light of today’s postmodern culture, in The Post Evangelical.

Re-Enchanting-Christianity

In Re-Enchanting Christianity he continues this journey. But where the Post Evangelical outlined his disenchantment Dave Tomlinson is now much more positive. Taking Paul Ricoeur’s idea of ‘second naivety’ he sees his deconstruction of faith as a precursor to a deeper more mature faith. Rather than staying at a level of taking everything at face value as difficulties come we begin to look more deeply and have to cope with knocks to our faith and the ensuing doubts. Though some have turned their backs on God at such points Dave outline’s a way forward. A synthesis of doubt and faith, he argues can lead to a second innocence of a new simple faith and love for God embracing this issues more comfortably.

Re-Enchanting Christianity points out how the church can be relevant today. In a time when people are no less spiritual what is needed Dave argues is an inclusive faith that addresses people’s spiritual needs without seeing them as potential converts. Hence the church can be a place where people can come with their doubts and questions and be accepted where they are at. If we are all on a spiritual journey learning and growing together then the invitation is simply to travel with us.

There is much that is challenging and liberating that rings a chord with my spiritual yearnings. However I wonder if this is as creative and original as it claims or is Dave’s path towards greater latitude and tolerance one that many Anglicans have trod before? On one level you could see Re-Enchanting Christianity as simply a literature review of a few liberal texts which he uses to question some precious evangelical doctrines. But Dave denies taking a liberal stance instead he refers to himself as "progressive orthodox”. Also Dave is not just an intellectual but has a wealth of pastoral experience. He draws from his experiences as a parish priest in North London, and is able to convey some deep ideas in a very down to earth manner.

After carefully reading of this book again I have concluded that Dave Tomlinson does hold fast to the central doctrines of Christianity despite what some reviewers have said. He accepts the Trinity, the central place of the death and resurrection of Jesus, the necessity of the experience of the Holy Spirit. While he maintains the idea that Christ atones for our sins but rather than taking a penal substation view he takes a view more akin to the Christus Victor model and has a great sympathy for the moral example idea. While this may be a position that is becoming increasingly acceptable among evangelicals it is some of his other doctrinal interpretations - such as those of the virgin birth and Jesus resurrection - that may be open to being misunderstood and be dismissed as going to far by many evangelicals. He also has an annoying habit of throwing in comments that appear to be there just to shock evangelicals.

Dave Tomlinson

Nevertheless there is much to commend in this book. For instance Dave is passionate about the importance of a kingdom orientation to Christian mission. God is interested in empowering the whole person, their interactions with the community and wider society. But that does not mean that God has abandoned the church - far from it. He sees the church with renewed hope as a group of journeying towards God by for example rediscovering the meanings in rituals and liturgy. He sees God’s heart for the church is to be a community that is open to and warmly embraces the world which it finds itself. As Christians we are to have a positive influence in this world by for example caring for the earth, making poverty history, combating AIDS, supporting fair trade, opposing prejudice and standing up for peace and social justice.

Overall I found Re-Enchanting Christianity an interesting and inspiring read. But it was not a book that I could just relax and enjoy. I found myself engaging with the book, arguing with the author and sometimes reassessing my own thoughts on issues. Unless you are prepared to do this don’t read this book.

Should We All Speak At The Same Time in Tongues?

2010-12-18T17:49:00.014Z

In a new article Holy Gobbledygook on his site David Matthew argues for the use of speaking in tongues today but at the same time he is critical of the practice of everyone speaking at the same time in tongues.

He particularly looks at 1 Corinthians 14 and comes to the conclusion that primarily tongues are for private devotions. There is also a place for them in public worship but Paul puts tight guidelines on this such as tongues should not be heard in public without an interpretation. The message in tongues is to be given clear enough for everyone to know it is meant to be a public contribution and is to be followed by an interpretation.

David goes on to show that the quote from Isaiah in 1 Corinthians 14 serves to show that tongue speaking without interpretation tends to put visitors off. Careful analysis shows that it is a reference to foreign languages being a sign of God’s judgement when the Assyrians invaded Israel and carried the Israelites off into captivity. Today people hearing un-interpreted tongues my think, “These Christians are nuts. I’m not coming here again.”

So what do we make of it when someone speaks in tongues in a gathering in a way that is quiet enough for others to know that it is not a public contribution but loudly enough to hear? David refers to such use as ‘unhelpfully intrusive”. He evidently understands that speaking to yourself and to God in 1 Corinthians 14:28 will mean being inaudible to others around you. In a subsequent email discussion David confirmed this.

Interestingly in a recent post by Scott Lencke, as part of a series on speaking in tongues, Scott looks also looks at this verse. Generally he comes to similar conclusions to Dave about tongues and interpretation. But rather than an injunction to remain completely silent Scott sees this as simply not raising your voice but continuing to speak “at a much lower decibel”. I have great respect for Scott’s opinions but I just can’t see any basis for this one. Surely silent means silent!

What does this mean to the common charismatic practice of corporate singing in tongues? Though David sees singing in tongues as following much the same principles as when spoken he does admit that perhaps everyone singing in tongues may be more acceptable in worship than everyone speaking in tongues. Though the Bible is silent on this issue David suggests that it could be seen as similar to everyone worshipping on instruments. But then I must ask: why do un-interpreted tongues cease to be a negative sign to unbelievers just because they are sung rather than spoken?

These ideas have some real practical applications to those of us who use or are seeking to use tongues in our worship gatherings. If you have any further thoughts on this please leave them in the comments below.

5 Links for Advent

2010-12-05T16:43:00.010Z

i-church.org

At this time of year there are usually a few good advent resources and advent calendars around. Here are five that I’ve found this year.

1. i-church

I have found i-church’s calendar here that I am opening each day. Behind each door there is a reflection and a song. At the foot of it there are also a few links that are worth exploring.

2. Paperless Christmas

paperlesschristmas

Paperless Christmas’s advent calendar that I did last year is still there and with my little daughter Callie we are watching the Christmas story being retold in a very contemporary setting here.

3. Ready Steady Slow

There are also some devotions at Ready Steady Slow. They were a bit too wordy for Callie but I am enjoying listening to them.

4. Beach Huts

The link for the beech hut advent calendars on i-church is out of date but I still found them. There are now actually now two sets of beach huts. So this link is two for the price of one! You can find the blog of the Bridlington Beach Huts here and the link for the Brighton Beach huts here. I think the beach hut advent calendars are a brilliant idea as each day a hut is opened with a full art installation themed related to advent or Christmas. Look at the photos and read the descriptions as part of your advent devotions.

5. Proost

If you want some resources to purchase for example for church services then I would recommend looking at proost. There is an outline on Jonny Baker’s blog of what is available here. There are some interesting animations and liturgies that you might find interesting.

God Waits Patiently

2010-11-28T21:09:00.002Z

I thought it apt for the first day of Advent - a season traditionally about waiting - when at church this morning Helen spoke about how God waits patiently. It was part of a series on the characteristics of God and the series just brought us to God’s patience today but this really struck me both because of the season and because of how it spoke personally to me.

Among many verses Helen quoted 2 Peter 3:9:

“The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance”

God is patient with his people. When we sin he could respond with anger but actually ‘he is slow to anger’ and bears with us patiently. Yes God’s timing is impeccable. He came to this earth at the right time, he will come again at the right time and he comes to us to meet our needs just at the right time - whatever we may say.

Patience is rare. We get so wound up when things don’t go fast enough or when we are driving and another driver cuts in front of us forcing us to slow down. We now live at such a pace that we cannot wait for the sort of “slow food” that was common a century or more ago. Helen gave the illustration that someone might even say “hurry up” to the microwave. By the way you might be interested Helen that there is a trend to recapture that idea of slow food. You can find out about slow food movement here and here.

God isn’t like us. His patience is unlimited. It is his nature to calmly endure delay without complaining; to wait with calmness and endurance. But amazingly as Christians we can actually be carriers of God’s patience to others – just as we can carry many of his other characteristics such as his mercy and grace to others. One memorable point was that the fact we are told in Colossians 3:12 to clothe ourselves with, amongst other things, patience indicates that it must be in our wardrobe. I also liked the little insight that we get impatient when we see a lack, a lack of time, a lack of ability, a lack of power but God doesn’t lack anything - yes of course - and with God neither do we.

So when people try our patience – as our children often do – it is to see if our patience is any good. At first it might not be but don’t be afraid they will keep giving you opportunities to develop it!

This really spoke to me not just because I am reading about advent in my own devotions but also because I becoming aware just how impatient I have sometimes been and sense that God is beginning to build this character strength in me.

Thanks for that word Helen.

A Christian Perspective on Positive Psychology

2010-11-20T21:12:00.006Z

Recently I have been reading through some books on Positive Psychology and trying to get my head round these from a Christian viewpoint. In doing so I found this series of talks by John Van Sloten from New Hope Church Calgary. You can find Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 on YouTube. I found these talks really helpful as he looks at one of these books that I have been reading in the light of the Bible. Van Sloten appears to talk regularly on cultural issues relating them to the Bible. I am finding these talks very inspiring and relevant.

Van Sloten’s starting point is that an optimistic outlook gives you more confidence for life – life feels more do-able when we feel positive. He argues that positive emotions and thoughts are a gift from God who made us with positive psychological capacities to give us a full life – to be fully human and to know God fully. For instance, in Martin Seligman’s book Authentic Happiness we find this capacity inside of us whereas in the Bible we find this capacity outside of us – from God – whose Spirit has come to live within us.

John Van Sloten looks at what this worldwide phenomena of positive psychology and he looks at what one particular this key book Authentic Happiness has to say to the Bible and visa versa. I can identify with the way that Van Sloten felt he had to overcome a prejudice that ‘positive thinking’ was denial of truth. But I would tend to agree that there is a deeper understanding in Seligman’s book than I have found with positive thinking or positive confession teaching.

Van Sloten goes on to draw some interesting parallels between the signature strengths outlined and spiritual gifts and fruit of the spirit as defining characteristics that God has given us to enable us to live out of God’s love including loving ourselves – not in a selfish way – but in order to love others.

He relates the psychology phenomena of flow – when you are totally lost in a moment and time stops for you – to the Biblical idea of joy. He sees both of these as being times when we are doing what we are here to do when we are working to overcome a challenge by making things right. Perhaps worship when we are in this flow with God in mind?

He quoted Seligman “Flow occurs when the challenges you face perfectly mesh with your abilities to meet them” He then compares this to something he had often heard Christian preachers say, “Your calling is where your greatest gifts and talents meet the worlds greatest needs.”

As I have been listening to these talks I am getting more and more convinced that there is a lot to be gained from looking at books like Authentic Happiness and other books on positive psychology and examining them from a Christian perspective. Of course it is important to do this with discernment and I am particularly wary of a superficial positive perspective.

How To Make Money Blogging

2010-11-04T09:09:00.008Z

Darren Rowse’s blog ProBlogger is an excellent blog that tells you how to make money by blogging and I have just noticed a recent post that tells me he has also started running on online course. Such bloggers the latest types infopreneurs – entrepreneurs who trade in information. Infopreneurs are not new. They used to sell there own books and recordings of their talks and conferences. Now they blog.

So how can writing a blog make you money? According to blogs and books like Problogger the basic idea is that you write some good stuff – “killer content” and attract readers to your blog and get them to keep coming back for more. You need to understand who you are writing for and develop one or more niche markets but basically you write about what you know or are interested in and find others that are also interested in those things. It sounds like an ideal job!

The money comes from adding adverts with links. AdSense being one of the most common but there are also partnerships with, for example, Amazon and even Ebay that you can develop so that you make referrals to them. This is called “monetizing” your blog. When people click through the ads it earns you money.

You can also sell things over the internet that will interest your niche market. This will probably be books or ebooks based on the content of your blog. Darren says that you shouldn’t worry too much about the fact that you give so much information away for free on your blog – as surprising people do still pay for a repackaged version of your blog with that 10% that you held back. He calls this the bikini effect. The more you reveal just increases the desire for small parts that are hidden!

Looking at Amazon the book ProBlogger by Darren Rowse and Chris Garret (updated to it’s second edition this year) is the best selling book on this subject. But I still think you should take the subtitle of Darren & Chris’s book with a pinch of salt – ‘Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income’! It sounds like a lot of work to even attempt to make it that successful and they don’t recommend giving up you day job until you are getting a reasonable income to live on.

Neverless I might have a go!

Reservoir Mural

2010-10-27T13:53:00.003+01:00

reservoir mural
Originally uploaded by dave & nettes.

As part of Ladywood Arts Trail along with local residents we painted a mural on the wall of the Tower Ballroom on Edgbaston Reservoir. It was really good to get involved with this initiative. Thanks to Phillipa Allenby from Springs To Life and the All Being Well team at Karis Neighbour Scheme.

Prayer and Awareness Day

2010-10-02T17:16:00.020+01:00

In September I went to a day hearing about and praying for those working with the homeless and drug addicts in our city.

Reach Out Network

The day was run by Reach Out Network a small organisation of several volunteers who venture out into the city centre with food that they distribute to rough sleepers in Birmingham. They chat about Jesus and offer referrals to others who work with the homeless.

This was their third Prayer and Awareness Day – a chance to hear from related organisations and to pray for their work. This time it was hosted in the premises of Betel of Britain. We discussed and prayed for a number of projects. Here are just some of the highlights of the day.

life for the world

Patrick Prosser from Life For The World told us how - after setting up rehabilitation centres themselves - they responded to the call to “stop reaching the few and to equip the church to reach the many”. They set up training courses on the best way for churches to rise to the challenge of reaching out to those with addiction without suffering burn out or being taken to the cleaners. They now have a certificate course validated by the University of Gloucester that they are running nationwide and want to start a class here in Birmingham.

redeeming our communities

Patricia Hoskins – project co-ordinator for the Birmingham branch of Redeeming Our Communities, explained how they were linking together organisations such as the police, council groups, residence groups and churches and other faith groups to bring people together in unity to make a positive change in our city. Redeeming Our Communities is planning a launch event at the NIA on the evening of Tuesday 16th November with the aim to map the good things that are happening across Birmingham and inspire people to do more.

Betel of Britain, Birmingham

We also heard from Betel of Britain in whose premises the day was based. This is a Christian rehabilitation community that has bases in a number of UK cities and has links in Spain and the States. We heard the story of one of the members of the community including how community life had changed helped him to get free from his previous addictions. Kent Martin the director of Betel of Britain then spoke about some the difficulties that Betel had been through over the past few years and how he had learnt to develop a deeper tolerance of God's mysteries and learnt to trust God in trials rather than to put God on trial.

This was a really profitable time and Reach Out Network hope to run another Awareness Day in a few months time.

Greenbelt Music Reviews

2010-10-01T16:08:00.000+01:00

If you look closely you might be able to find three of my reviews in the Cross Rhythms’ Greenbelt music reviews this year. I reviewed Grace’s performance of Landskapes, the King\Cave Project and Transcendence. Just search the pages for Dancin' Dave Derbyshire.

Greenbelt's Worship Co-operative

2010-09-16T10:39:00.004+01:00

photo by mr ush

The venue that I frequented the most at this year's Greenbelt was the Worship Co-operative. For many years now Greenbelt has been the home of new creative forms of worship that were pioneered in the 90s as alternative worship. This year instead of having individual sessions run by different alternative worship communities there were four all day worship sessions each one run by a few groups working together with a common theme.

One Friday the theme was peripheral visions and I dropped in and explored prayer stations looking at writing at unusual angles through mirrors, finding a sculpture of a cross that only made sense from one angle and listening to CD with a short talk on the paralysed man while lying on my back. An interesting thought from this was that often disabled people may not be given a choice about what they do or where they go so Jesus may have been the first person to give this man a choice when Jesus asked him to take up his bed and walk.

On Saturday the theme was ‘Here Comes Everybody’ based on Clay Shirky’s book that looks at the power of groups and communication and the Ubantu Theology of Desmond Tutu looking at the African ideas of relationship, community and hospitality. I weaved out names into a tapestry, wrote on a prayer wall and had my photo taken to go on another wall all while images played on screens around the room picking up on the this theme.

Sunday was ‘Life As Jazz’ and it was good to pop in with my little daughter Callie. There were four stations outlining four moods of Jazz: a strident/angry station where we hammered in a nail, a celebration station where we could have a drink of juice at the jazz party, a jazz/blues station where we could be sad or poignantly reflective or a cool jazz station where we could relax as if on a beach and Callie could draw on postcards. I came back in the evening the King/Cave Project was playing.

On Monday morning I found a very different musical style as Blackthorn Crescent were playing some rock songs as I explored the stations looking at the theme of ‘on the edge’. I found this deeply moving as I explored stations that looking out the idea of being an insider and an outsider based on the story of Legion and the story of Hagar. One activity involved writing two labels one with a name you had been called that labelled you an outsider and the other with a name you owned such as a profession or interest. You ripped up the first label and sprinkled it into a mush from which new paper could be made and you new label embedded.

I dropped in for about 45 minutes each time but this venue had me coming back each day to see what was happening each day. And I wasn’t disappointed.

Our Messy Church is called Family Church

2010-08-22T14:49:00.011+01:00

Over August our church has doing other things such as barbecues rather than our usual Sunday gatherings. One Saturday two or three weeks ago and we did our own version of Messy Church called Family Church. "Centred around creativity, hospitality and celebration" our aim was, like Messy Church, "...to help other families that might not have any church connection to discover the fun of following Jesus together."

We had a number of activities including craft, cake decoration, street dance, sports and a spot of bike maintenance. We told the story of Zacchaeus and a number of the children – including our little daughter Callie - sung ‘I am a friend of God’. Finally we all had a meal together. There lots of new people joined us and it was a really good time.

More photos on facebook here.

Birmingham Alive Mission

2010-08-13T11:47:00.019+01:00

Our church recently had a mission. This meant that several of us were busy for a few days experimenting with different ways of having conversations about God and serving people.

Here are a just few examples of the sorts of things that we were up to:

• We delivered some free Christian literature around the houses close to where we often meet and were presently surprised by the positive responses we received. It was good to be a listening ear to people and people remembered us doing community clear-ups, carol singing and free barbeques.

• We chatted with in coffee shops.

• One evening we went out with Paul & Jackie distributing sandwiches and teas and coffees to people sleeping rough in Birmingham city centre – chatting and praying with people as we went.

• A few of the team were out late the following night having a conversation in one of the bars in Bindley Place. The original plan was to head for clubs on Broad Street and I thought it might not be my scene. But they had a good conversation in a quiet bar so I think I’ll join them next time.

• We joined in with a nearby Vineyard Church in their Healing in the Streets. We were impressed how gently this was done and we found many people spontaneously coming to us for prayer.

Throughout the whole mission I really enjoyed the conversations we had both with others and among ourselves. Being an introvert it was encouraging to me to rediscover that you don’t have to be a extravert to do this sort of thing.

This was all very exciting!

Community Fun Day

2010-08-11T11:08:00.008+01:00

Massage
Originally uploaded by dave & nettes.

I have just loaded a few photo's from this year's Community Fun Day onto our photostream on flickr. I have added these to last year's photos in the Community Fun Day set. As a church we were involved in setting up and stewarding just like last year. And we ran the Prayer Tent again.

Related post: Reflections on the Community Fun Day

Should I smack my little girl?

2010-08-09T16:14:00.010+01:00

One of the most helpful inputs that I have had in my parenting has been the positive parenting classes that I did through my local Sure Start. They have a great emphasis on rewarding good behaviour rather than punishing bad behaviour, though we did discuss some suggested sanctions that may sometimes be necessary. Such techniques like you may have seen on TV, in for example Supernanny, have proved to be very effective. So I have always tried to avoid physical punishment in the disciplining my little daughter.

Recently I have been looking at the few verses about parenting in Proverbs and have come to the conclusion that they need some careful hermeneutics. In particular I am not convinced that we can take the verses that speak of a ‘rod of correction’ as a command that to use corporal punishment. Perhaps the ‘rod of correction’ is, as my NIV study Bible says ‘a figure of speech for discipline of any kind’. Could these verses simply be observations of the dire consequences of lack of any discipline?

I can understand that some see nothing wrong with smacking their children and use such verses to support it and see it as a good thing. Perhaps those that oppose smacking need to realise that what such Christians are proposing is using smacking as a consistent and restrained sanction and would utterly condemn losing your temper with your child. Nevertheless I would need to see something a lot clearer in the Bible before I would be convinced that smacking my little girl would be a good thing.

What do you think?

is it time to be a bit more positive?

2010-06-13T21:30:00.001+01:00

I have just come across a recent branch of psychology called positive psychology. Nettes got a couple of books out of the library that I read when I got the chance - Authentic Happiness and Flow.

Authentic Happiness not only describes happiness psychologically but also outlines some empirical research on it. . I liked the way Seligman uses such terms as forgiveness and hope when looking at aspects of happiness from different time perspectives. We were so impressed that we actually bought this book

Flow is about the experience of being absorbed in our work. Flow’s spiritual side is more to do with controlling our consciousness nevertheless spirituality does appear to be an important element in positive psychology.

I am also still reading Spiritual Intelligence – which is written by Christian author Brian Draper and uses the term flow and appears very much in line with what positive psychology is saying.

Positive psychology books appear popular with life coaches and I also have noticed a link to a life coach on the Greenbelt site who recommends some of these positive psychology books.

This new school of thinking appears strong on application and it may be a good counterpoint to some recent thinking that takes a more post-modern or discursive approach. Understanding that each of us is a product of our culture and has a unique perspective is important. But I wonder if such a critical approach to psychology can leave us too cynical. If in the end it leaves you without anything that you can be sure of doesn’t it start to undermine any application? I think I prefer the approach of positive psychology.

I was also lent the book Human Givens which again we so impressed with that we brought. This is about a rapidly growing new approach to therapy taught at Mindfields College. This is the approach being used by in our area by Springs to Life in their All Being Well project. Some have called this approach ‘the missing heart of positive psychology.’

Is it possible to have a positive psychology overdose?

Pagan rituals and freemasonary? All in a day at Wirksworth Carnival

2010-06-01T15:15:00.041+01:00

I’ve just got back from a great day at Wirksworth Carnival. This is an annual festival in the town where I grew up. It was good to see some old friends, see the fancy dress procession with the floats and look around the well dressings.

The Well Dressings are clay plaques decorated with petals that are placed around the town. The tradition is thought to date from medieval times when Christians were thanking God for clean water but they could easily date back further and come from ancient pagan rituals. Today they are simply a tourist attraction put on by local community groups to raise money for charity.

This year I noticed that the Freemasons had a well and that they also had their meeting place the Moot Hall open. So we took the opportunity to look around and have a chat about the history of the lead mining court that is also held in the building, as well as a chat about freemasonary itself. It was refreshing to see a group like this being so open about what they do and wanting to promote themselves in this way.

The Great Trinity Debate

2010-05-27T11:02:00.008+01:00

Scott Lencke has been following an interesting discussion between Trinitarian Rob Bowman and Unitarian Dave Burke, on the theological blog Parchment and Pen. If you are intersted in understanding the Trinity better or in understanding Unitarianism it could be worth a look.

But be warned. It is very wordy.

Enjoy!

time to tackle gluttony

2010-05-15T22:59:00.017+01:00

Just read Did God send Jamie Oliver to the Southern Baptists? and

I am very impressed at how Jamie Oliver is helping tackle the sin of gluttony alongside Christians in a church in Huntington, West Virginia in ABC's Food Revolution.

This is challenging stuff. I am still working on eating more healthily myself - having recently cut out supper. But I've still got further to go.

Update: A review in the Telegraph

Evangelical Scholar Believes in Evolution

2010-04-21T22:27:00.003+01:00

Fundementalist Christians over-react to a very sensible comment and it gets on the news - only in America!

Photos from Easter Sunday

2010-04-11T21:53:00.006+01:00

I've now uploaded several photo's from our Easter Sunday service onto flickr. We had a great time with our Resurrection Party that included breakfast, a quiz and making Easter garden - all as part of our worship to God as we celebrated the resurrection of Jesus.

"Happy Resurrection Day"

pleased that my wife has started blogging again

2010-04-08T12:45:00.000+01:00

Nettes' blog is here

Proverbs Illustrated

2010-03-28T18:04:00.006+01:00

‘Like one who takes away a garment on a cold day, or like vinegar poured on soda, is one who sings songs to a heavy heart’. Proverbs 25:20. Ever wondered what vinegar poured on soda is like? Well it erupts like a volcano as you see in this science experiment.

Last Thursday in our home group we were chatting about a few proverbs over one of our regular bring-and-share meals and Harry did a volcano like this as an illustration. This provoked some interesting thoughts about people may react to ‘pat’ answers or how when we are grieving we might not appreciate happy-clappy-worship songs.

We also looked at Proverbs 6:6-8 and learnt a few things about ants using this illustration I've blogged before and 11:11 using this gif from Andrew Jones's blog. A laptops and wireless internet at home group! Whatever next?

And Proverbs 27:17 ‘iron sharpens iron’ raised some interesting thoughts about mutual accountability and 29:18 ‘without revelation the people cast off restraint’ got us examining our motivation. Thanks for those thoughts too Harry. It was a great.

Messy Fiesta

2010-03-14T20:53:00.007Z

On Saturday my wife Nettes and Simon - a friend of ours from our church - went to Messy Fiesta - a conference all about Messy Church - a technique that took off a few years ago when it was featured on a DVD by Fresh Expressions. Both Nettes and Simon came back very enthusiastic about beginning to do something like this with the families of the kids that come to our kids club.

Today Nettes took Callie and a couple of Callie’s friends from church to Kidz Aloud who run their own mix of Messy Church and Godly Play. A good time was had by all.

These are brilliant ideas for kids and families. If they are new to you please check out the links above and Barnabas in Churches for more details.

honest confession from our Time With God

2010-03-06T09:49:00.020Z

During our church’s ‘Time With God’ last weekend the following quote was written on the wall. - well, actually on flip chart paper blu-tacked to the wall. We were struck at how honest this confession was and I am sure that it spoke to a number of us when we were looking around the rooms:

Lord, I want to know your security
as I step forward and take the risks
that you have called me to.
For too long I have felt over-looked
and not taken those opportunities
because of my personality type.
'Why is it like this?' I cry.
But do I really need to know?
I long to let go of the bitterness
and be born anew.
I gladly share with you the cup of suffering
in my daily hassles.
And sense that as I drink it,
it becomes a cup of blessing to me
and to others.
But only as I step forward
and, at last, take those risks.

‘Time With God’ happens once or twice a year and is a time when our little building is open 24 hours for people to spend time with God. We have plenty of beanbags, throws and drapes and bring in candles and tee-lights. There are usually a few creative installations too. This time there was a cross that Ruth made - to which people stuck post-its with their thoughts and prayers on. Ruth had also put together a rolling slideshow for the evening.

It is often commented that during these times people find God speaking really deeply to them. The prayer above was probably written during someone’s individual time when people tended to stay in one of the rooms as opposed to the ‘corporate times’ we had more people there and they could move more freely around the installations.

The Wisdom of Rules

2010-02-18T21:36:00.030Z

I recently found this video of a lecture from psychologist Barry Schwatz on the importance of wisdom and how this relates to following rules. It is on a site called TED (Technology, Entertainment & Design) whose mission is simply to spread ideas that they feel are worth spreading.

Though I found the link through a post by Brother Maynard there is no indication that Barry Schwartz is a Christian. Yet I am struck just how much this echoes the teaching of the Paul in the New Testament on role of the law.

One quote from the video that sums this up for me is when he says, “The wise person knows when and how to make the exception to every rule.”

You see, just following the letter of rules without appreciating the spirit behind them is what Christians often call legalism. When we listen to some sermons particularly ones that emphasise personal righteousness we can feel brow beaten by our failure to keep the rules. I don't think I'm the only one. The message we hear is "try harder". We hear more rules that we should keep and despair of ever really living up to our Christian standards. Of course this doesn't mean that righteousness should not be preached but that we need an understanding of grace to appreciate how to apply it to our lives.

In the past I have tried to keep as far away as possible from sin that I've denied myself opportunities to relax both with believers and non-believers and many of the positive results that this could have led to. I've got over-anxious about what other might people think in my desire to be 'a good witness'. I can’t go there. I can’t do that. People might think I’m doing something I shouldn't be. Yet in my experience my non-Christian friends were often not as concerned about these issues as I was. They may even have felt my attempt to be righteous was at best silly or at worst unfriendly.

When we hear a preacher give examples of righteousness it is only human nature to deduce from these sets of rules – rules that can easily be misapplied. Unfortunately in sermons there often isn't space to ask questions and point out the exceptions to these rules or to explore what is behind what we hear. If we were to do so we might discover some deeper principles. And we might also be surprised at the variety of ways that each of us applies these principles to our lives.

A simple example is that in applying the principle of self control one person might be more sensitive to being effected by alcohol than another. Of course there is a balance here: on one side we fall into legalism and on the other into drunkenness; the righteous path is the one in between. It is that path that enables us to have a deep and meaningful conversation with our work colleague one evening over a pint or two.

I recently heard a challenging sermon that addressed such areas as our relationships with members of the opposite sex when applying principles of chastity, or faithfulness to our partners, and also brought up issues of honesty in our work environment. I have been asking myself what are the principles that apply in these situations, and how can I really apply them? But asking not only what are the dangers of licence in these circumstances but also what are the dangers of legalism.

I did like Brother Maynard’s closing comment that asking such questioning might not be rebellion or lack of faith as is sometimes suggested, but actually a pursuit of wisdom.

Don't forget to book your Time with God

2010-02-11T17:21:00.032Z

Joe recorded this video promoting our forthcoming 'Time With God'. (I've now managed to load it onto our church website.)

Every few months we have a period when our little building is open for 24 hours for people to interact with God. You can see some of the things that we’ve got up to before here.

It's great to have Ruth on board.

And this time, as well as encouraging people to spend time on their own with God creatively, we are also including times of corporate creative worship. But don't forget we are still aiming to cover the whole 24 hour period and you need to see me to book your time slots.

praying for the homeless as local hostels close

2010-02-05T09:56:00.005Z

Last night we were praying about the ministry to the homeless and in particular the effects that the new government funding strategies will have on the homeless in Birmingham.

St Anne’s Hostel that provides about 40 beds is closing due to cuts in council funding. More imminently Snow Hill Hostel, which is much larger, is also closing although this is to redevelop it into a large number of self contained units for previously homeless people over the next couple of years (see homeless link).

But in the meantime this could cause a crisis of increased number of people sleeping rough in the city. The council are referring people to 24-hour hub services that include housing associations in an attempt to re-house people. Yet it still looks like we might find an increasing demand for our help when the team goes out on the streets with soup and rolls.

It certainly is a time to intercede for those in authority that people might live peaceful lives and won’t have to worry about what they will eat or where they will sleep tonight.

had a good time at the drop in

2010-01-29T16:33:00.005Z

As usual this week I visited the Drop In Centre that has developed out our ministry to the homeless.

This week at the drop in we had a few songs from singer/songwriter Wes Harding who is associated with a local prison chaplaincy. He sounds quite good with just his acoustic guitar.

Afterwards a few of us played our usual game of Mexican Train dominoes – a trend which some of us have taught the people who come to the Drop In.

The Drop In is a safe place for all sorts of people to hang out drink coffee and get a bite to eat. It’s just great being around these guys.

See also this post about the Drop In.

History of Now

2010-01-09T16:12:00.009Z

I've just been watching the first two parts of this fascinating BBC documentary - the History of Now: The Story Of The Noughties. At first I thought it was just going to be a round up of the decade - the sort of thing you get on New Year's Eve. But it turned out to be much more. It's more like a popular introduction to sociology - picking out themes and trends of the decade.

The first part focus on how age has become such a watershed in our culture. The second one looks at class and concludes that though it appears that the barriers are disappearing in fact social mobility has got a lot harder. It also gives the new definition of social class that emerged in the last decade - postcodes. I've been exploring this site where you can put in a postcode and get quite an accurate description of the people that live there. Go on have a go.

I haven't watched the third part yet but the trailer said that it was going to be about globalisation.

The End of Time

2010-01-02T22:08:00.008Z

Callie manged to watch her first full grown up Doctor Who story over Christmas. She joined ten million in the now regularly Christmas tradition. But this was not just another Christmas special. It was David Tennant's final story as the Doctor and featured a show down between the Doctor and the Master.

I felt it was pitched about right for Callie's introduction to Doctor Who. It wasn't too scary and there were some exciting and moving moments. As usual there were a number of moral and spiritual themes. The Doctor reluctantly takes a gun to face the Master. The Doctor's pacifist beliefs win out in the end as he doesn't end up using the gun on anyone. The returning Time Lords plan to ascend into an etheral state and destroy the universe in the process. But of course the Doctor stops them.

It is interesting that the writer R.T.Davies continually plays not just with morality but also with ideas about the afterlife.

Merry Christmas from the Derbyshire family!

2009-12-24T12:13:00.018Z

Merry Christmas from our family! Hope you are having a wonderful holiday. Christmas is a much needed rest for us – it is great to take a break from our busy schedules. I just want to give you this opportunity to catch you on what we’ve been doing this year.

Nettes is continuing to do agency work as a support worker in City College with adults with additional needs/learning difficulties as well as running a crèche for an ESOL group one morning a week for Karis Neighbour Scheme, a charity that has links with our church. Nettes is still also leading our church’s Sunday school. After a recent recruitment drive we have a few more workers. This is good as some children have come up from crèche and we are now running three groups rather than two. But that’s not all she does. After getting a Grade 2 in last year’s module she now has only one more year to go on her Open University Degree in Psychology.

I am still teaching Psychology. This year the merger of Matthew Boulton College and Sutton Coldfield College to form Birmingham Metropolitan College was finally made official in September. As well as teaching some time in the sixth form I still have my evening class although because of funding issues it is not certain that this will continue next academic year. We both continue to visit our church’s drop in centre that grew out of the work with the homeless. Over the summer I went on a trip with them to Stratford. And this year I have taken over some responsibility for the church’s website.

Our little daughter Callie is now in Year 2 and is getting some glowing reports from school. This year she has enrolled in Rainbows. On her birthday she enjoyed a visit to Blakesley Hall with friends, and has had fun sleeping over with her friends on occasions. In the summer holidays she went to Stratford with Nettes and one of her college classes. They all had fun brass rubbing. Callie has just got back from Cadbury World which was a very special treat!

This year as a family we went to Spring Harvest at Easter, which we all enjoyed very much. Nettes and Callie then went on from there to visit Callie’s friend Holly at Ashford in Kent. Over the summer we were very involved in our local community fun day, where Nettes ran a bric-a-brac stall. And then we went to the celebration event for our network of churches that was held in Swansea.

We regularly visit my mum Joyce who is in a residential care home in Birmingham. She is continuing to slowly decline in health. She is now in bed all the time being turned every hour and it doesn’t help having a broken leg that refuses to heal.

Anyway, Merry Christmas! Have a great one! God's richest blessings on you this season!

Recession hits Wesley Owen

2009-12-22T11:02:00.010Z

One of the latest victims of the recession is Wesley Owen - Britain’s largest chain of Christian Bookshops.

Across the country many of their shops look like they will be closing shortly unless more buyers step in. Some have been taken over by CLC and some – including the one in Birmingham - by Australian Christian bookshop chain Koorong who have also taken over the related publishing business of Authentic Books. Authentic Music has been taken over by Kingsway.

Not long ago we saw the collapse of SPCK and possibly this is partly due to a knock-on effect. I also suspect that a lot of people now buy books through Amazon rather than making the trek to their local bookshop. If you consider that a lot of Christian bookshops rely on volunteers then you will realise that situation is even worse than you might have thought.

This means that a lot of the Christian bookshops in the UK are now either closed, for sale or broke. Is this the end of Christian bookshops in the UK? Some like St Andrews still appear to be going strong. But generally the future of Christian bookshops doesn't look promising.

Lord we pray for those affected who might be worrying about their jobs over Christmas. Give them your peace.

HT: Church Times on Wesley Owen

Candle Lit Carols with Wisemen Video

2009-12-20T22:26:00.010Z

We've just got back from our church's candle lit carol service.

It was great that there were so many candles and that there were a few creative contributions. Andy read my advent poem and Nettes did a monologue as Mary with a few slides I'd prepared.

I really enjoyed singing carols such as 'O Holy Night' and 'Little Town of Bethlehem'. (As a family tonight we just put our little daughter to bed and sung 'Away in a Manger'.)

I was out preparing the mulled wine, being careful not to confuse the alcoholic with the non-alcoholic versions, so I missed Joe and Ellie's video. But I just got an email telling me that it's on YouTube. So enjoy...

Jesse Tree

2009-12-06T21:36:00.004Z

It's that time of year again!

Building According To The Pattern

2009-11-29T17:39:00.002Z

Thank you to Helen Watts for a creative Sunday morning.

What Are We Waiting For?

2009-11-27T16:10:00.024Z

Dissatisfied with our own worlds
We step into our HD screens.
To escape the stress of our work
We long for our lives to be changed.

We are waiting. We are longing.
We are waiting. We are longing.

Waiting for the doorbell to ring.
Preparing food, tidying up,
In all the busyness of life,
Suddenly catching breath we stop.

We are waiting. We are longing.
We are waiting. We are longing.

You crossed the threshold to this world
One day you will break in again.
Your kingdom has already come,
So, here and now, please in us reign.

We are waiting. We are longing.
We are waiting. We are longing.

In scary new exciting ways
We’re ready to engage with this.
Open up the conversations.
Creative God you’re worth the risk.

We are waiting. We are longing.
We are waiting. We are longing.

Not passive waiting; active change.
A growing yearning deep inside.
Some attitudes to still adjust.
Dear God break in upon our lives.

We are waiting. We are longing.
We are waiting. We are longing
For you.

© David Derbyshire 2009

wondering about the implications of paradigm shifts

2009-11-25T17:17:00.009Z

I’ve just been looking up some material on the philosophy of science to teach my second years – especially the work of Thomas Kuhn and Karl Popper.

Kuhn said that science exists in a cultural context. This tells scientists what is acceptable to study and what research methods are reasonable to use and what constitutes legitimate data and acceptable evidence. He called this context a paradigm.

He said that rather than seeing science as building one idea upon another actually it involves revolutionary change where one set of assumptions is abandoned in favour of a new set. Scientific disciplines advance through stable periods of one paradigm to moments of crisis or paradigm shift like this to times when a new paradigm is established.

In physics we see a crisis moment when Newton’s theory of gravity was shown inadequate by Eddington’s astronomical observations. Einstein’s ideas were then accepted as the new paradigm. Events such as these have become known as a paradigm shifts.

According to Popper for a theory to be scientific you need to be able to show that it is false. One example that contradicts this is enough. For example the discovery of the platypus shows that not all mammals give birth to their young alive – at least one mammal lays eggs. But actually one example is rarely enough as often there may be other explanations offered. But as these examples build up we slowly loose faith in the way that we thought and start looking for a new way to explain things.

On this basis psychoanalysis can be rejected as unscientific as it cannot be falsified - interestingly according to Popper we can reject Darwin’s theory of evolution on the same criteria. But in psychology we can still see paradigms such as behavioural, cognitive and biological all competing to be today's paradigm.

But across disciplines there is a growing view that an important paradigm shift is occurring. This is a move from 'modern' thinking (that wants everything to fit into the logical propositions of the enlightenment) to 'post-modern' thinking (which based on narrative and is more tolerant of ambiguity). Perhaps that means the new paradigm is tolerant of competing paradigms like those in psychology?

Of course none of this is new. These ideas have been around for decades and I'm probably way behind in thinking about these. But I’m still happily wondering about some of the implications of all this.

at a church leaders weekend away

2009-11-19T17:35:00.022Z

Last weekend it was my privilege to join our church's leaders on a weekend away at Hothorpe Hall with over 150 other leaders from our network of churches.

It was great to see Scott Lencke and his wife Cat and to chat at the dinner table with among others Joel & Beth Tarbutton from New Life Church Letchworth. There was plenty of time for food and fellowship and also teaching, sung worship and loads more. Here are some things that I hastily scribbled down over the weekend.

Geoff Brown spoke on moving on with God. When Israel was in the wilderness they would camp for a time and then move on – lead at the front by the tribe of Issachar – ‘who recognised the times and the seasons and knew what Israel should do’. The climate is changing. In the past churches have split when new revelation came. Now churches are coming together. When Israel moved on they took the tabernacle with them. As we move on there are things we hold on to even if for a time they are ‘folded’ like the canvass of the tabernacle.

Ian Rawley began the next day with some leadership lessons from Nehemiah encouraging us to not to neglect ‘building the walls’ that is not just building the church but also engaging the world. He gave a good critique of post-modern thinking: narrative is important but we must not forget the need to be clear about the church, the gospel and the kingdom. The church should be a safe place. Flat structures are good but there is still a place for leadership and authority.

Alan Scotland encouraged us not to hold back. He warned of the virus of individuality and to beware the illusion of connectedness through media. We need to ensure that we seek authentic community.

In the evening David Latham spoke about the power of God. He was very impressed with our churches especially how we live out authentic community. Something that I noted in what he said was a line from one of Wesley’s hymns: ‘the mystic power of godliness’.

The day ended well with us simply breaking up into small groups to pray.

On Sunday Kobus Swart talked about being in a time of transition. He said that it is God who changes the seasons. He quoted George Barna who had said that by the mid-21st century the church would be totally irrelevant - unless there is a new move of God. Kobus spoke of the present move as ‘the apostolic reformation’ and of his own involvement in working with other very different churches in what he called a ‘city eldership’. In this time of transition we need to hold onto the revelation we have as we embrace the new.

Finally Tim Morley taught us some lessons from Timothy & Epaphroditus (1 Timothy 2) mentioning unity in diversity and emphasising the importance of relationship above gifting.

We finished with a time of breaking of bread and prayer followed by a Sunday lunch together before we all headed home.

Faithworks

2009-11-12T21:53:00.002Z

I’ve recently been looking at the Faithworks site and downloading some of their resources. Faithworks is a Christian organisation founded by Steve Chalke committed to serve the community and influence society as a whole. Their website contains lots of resources to help churches and other Christian organisations as well as individual Christians about how to do just this.

The faithworks site contains some good material to get you rethinking your commitment to building stronger links with other groups in the community. This is something that we are doing as a church and recently we had a great opportunity to be involved with a community fun day.

They have some challenging thoughts about having greater transparency and accountability with finances and the like. This is important in developing a sustainable funding structure and ensuring that not only meet legal requirements but that people have confidence in how things are handled.

There is also quite a lot about developing procedures and policies. Faithworks even have a charter that churches and other Christian organisations can choose to adopt. As a church that values informality being based on relationship rather than hierarchy we are not overly keen on things like policies and procedures. But it makes you aware that some of it is essential such as police checking and child and vulnerable adult protection policies.

An interesting and challenging site.

This Is My Church

2009-11-01T08:11:00.008Z

I have recently taken over responsibility for our church website. I just thought you might like to check it out to find out a bit more about the church that I’m involved in.

The first think that you’ll notice is that it’s got plenty of photos of us. A key to understanding Church Alive is to realise that it is based on relationships. We are in essence a group of friends who gather together in various places and ways both to enjoy each other’s company and to enjoy God.

There are also some sections on what we believe. But this is not dry doctrine. We believe that what we learn from the Bible has practical application to our workplaces, family life and neighbourhoods. And we outwork that in our relationships with each other.

An essential part of what we believe that church means people and not a building. But we do have a small building - the Ledbury Centre - situated centrally to Ladywood in Birmingham - the main urban area which we wish to reach. But most of the time we meet either in the adjacent community centre (most Sundays) or in each other’s homes (most weeks). Though we meet in the Ledbury Centre on occasions we mainly use it as a Drop In Centre one day a week.

On the website you can read about the Drop In Centre and the Ministry to the Homeless And you read about Kids Alive our weekly kids club that Nettes help run. You can follow through the link to a local charity Karis Neighbour Scheme, with which we have a long standing relationship. Through Karis we have developed relationships with people in the area including a number of asylum seekers and refugees.

Perhaps one of our main challenges comes from us being mainly (although not exclusively) white professionals living some distance from Ladywood, which is much more ethnically diverse area with a lot people of a lower socio-economic status. Yet we are finding opportunities to serve our community – particularly the people on the margins - and be like Jesus to them.

We all live very busy lives and don’t always find it easy to find time to do the things we would like to do as a church. Nevertheless I am always amazed how people give generously both of money and time volunteering.

This is my church and I am proud of it.

72 Christian leaders meet at Antioch to seek God about mission, the kingdom and apostles

2009-10-30T09:37:00.006Z

antioch 2009

Thank God for Darwin?

2009-10-27T16:15:00.005Z

Earlier this year we celebrated Darwin’s 200th birthday and next month it is 150th anniversary of the publication of his famous book ‘The Origin of Species’. So it is not surprising that I keep coming across references to the evolution creationist debate when surfing Christian sites. But what I do find surprising is the number of Christian posts that are so positive about evolution. perhaps it just reflects my own interestest. I don't know.

Anyway here are a few of the links that I have found:

Here is a very positive and thoughtful review of the 2009 film Creation which examines Darwin’s relationship to the church in a sensitive way.

The review also has a link at the end to some resources that can be used to host some sensible discussions about the movie.

Nick Spencer author of God and Darwin discusses the relationship between Darwin’s ideas and the Christian faith in this podcast.

Here is an interview with Michael Dowd about his book Thank God For Evolution, which uses evolution to discuss the nature of sin.

And finally, here are some quotes from Charles Foster’s The Selfless Gene - a book that David Matthew rates as outstanding book. It makes a very convincing case for evolution that cannot be easily dismissed by Christians and sees it as compatible with the Bible. If you’re interested you can download a PDF of David Matthew’s notes too.

Of course there still are a lot of fundamentalist seven day creationism ideas out there too. But I am more and more drawn to the idea that evolution as a sound scientific basis and is compatible with a level headed view of Biblical Christianity.

An Evening With A Real Live Apostle

2009-10-21T20:06:00.017+01:00

Last week our church met with Alan Scotland. He had just returned from Thailand and mentioned how micro-industries were being set up to save children from prostitution. Alan works as an apostle and heads up Lifelink International our little network of churches.

Alan discussed with us the role of the apostle and the apostolic ministry. He looked at Ephesians 4 which talks about the ministries of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers which he saw all working together in relationship to produce growth - each ministry being like a different finger of a hand. He talked about how apostles worked together in what he called ‘apostolic companies’. These weren’t just teams working on job but companions who were also friends.

He showed that an apostle wasn’t necessarily a church planter but someone who was sent by God. This might involve pioneering but it might also involve building up the church. Alan himself spends a lot of his time in the background supporting church leaders. Having discussed this tension he went on to explain how the church itself should be apostolic. The true church is a church sent by God on a mission. ‘This mission is glocal’, he said, ‘both local and global at the same time’, as in the HSBC slogan ‘The World's Local Bank’

Alan talked about the diversity of the early apostles and discussed how today each church, he works alongside as an apostle, is unique. He mentioned Jonathon Sax’s book on diversity The Dignity of Difference and discussed how he saw this diversity in the church as being like a family – messy at times. And though it might involve fights and fall outs – it certainly did in the book of Acts – there is a great sense of purpose as we all work together for God.

UPDATE: It is worth checking out the account of Alan's recent visit to Syria with the Awareness Foundation whose work involve dialogue between Christians and Muslims. In the video Alan makes is an impassioned plea for peace in the Middle East.

Callie Enjoyed Godly Play Last Sunday

2009-10-15T13:11:00.019+01:00

On Sunday afternoon I took my little daughter Callie to Kidz Aloud – a kid’s club/children’s church that runs once a month at Carr’s Lane Christian Centre. They alternate between Godly Play and their own form of story telling, building props and acting out the story with a rap. This time they were doing Godly Play.

Godly Play is a very specific way of telling Bible stories based on the Montessori teaching method. The stories are tightly scripted with simple carefully crafted props. This time we heard the story of Moses bringing the people of God out of captivity in Egypt.

After some starter activities we queued up to go into another room for the story. Callie helped carry the Kidz Aloud cloth that holds our badges as we process in. All the children then sat down quietly on cushions and listen to the story teller. (I wonder if by having in the other room explains why the children behave so well?)

The story teller told used a simple sand tray with wooden figures and two pieces of blue cloth to represent the Red Sea. She then led a discussion about the story with some standard question which worked well. We could then respond to the story using different forms of art materials. Callie loved this.

To conclude we had the ‘feast’ a simple meal of grapes & juice but this time also with also some matzo as we had been talking about Passover. Callie was very good helping serve the feast as well as carrying the cloth out at the very end.

Callie thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon. Could Godly Play be something we could do at our little Sunday school? I wonder.

More Thoughts On Social Enterprise

2009-10-09T09:59:00.012+01:00

I am still thinking about social enterprise. Here is one idea:

On the notice board in the Ledbury Centre - our church’s little building - are some leaflets about All Being Well. This is a project serving Ladywood set up in partnership between Karis Neighbour Scheme - a Christian charity that we work with - and Spring To Life – which runs as a Community Interest Company (one of the relatively new legal statuses for social enterprises). All Being Well is run by Jude Greenwood whom I met at the recent Community Fun Day. Jude runs a number of courses such as stress management, assertiveness training and anger management. These look like places for locals to discuss how to overcome their problems and learn principles that they can apply to their lives.

These courses reminded me of the personal and social development courses that I've been to at Fircroft College. The idea is to discuss some really practical psychological principles and apply them to your life. On Fircroft's site there are testimonies of how they have impacted people lives. I assume at Fircroft they are funded like other college courses as we did learner agreements and achieved qualifications whereas the All Being Well courses are funded by the National Lottery. It is clear on the Spring To Life site that they are working with a Christian ethos.

Interestingly I have just noticed that the same people who taught me on the self development course at Fircroft also teach a couple of courses on bid writing and funding strategies. Might be worth doing these courses next?

I seem to remember that one of the original aims the Ledbury Centre was to run projects into the community. It’s great that now we have our Drop In Centre running there one day a week. These sound like the sort of courses that our church was thinking about running when we first got this little building. I wonder if there still are lots of things that could be set up and run in Ladywood. How would a multi-media or multi-sensory approach to such courses go down in our community? Perhaps we could incorporate music or art? A community arts project even? Just crazy some ideas!

Karis Neighbour Scheme probably knows more about the needs in Ladywood and whether there could be any need for anything like this. The examples of social enterprises from Greenbelt made me think along the lines of fair trade stalls perhaps selling eco-friendly stuff as well. But we can see from the All Being Well example that if someone knows what they are doing they might be able to set up social enterprise to get sustainable funding perhaps from a variety of sources to run courses and projects like these into the community.

What do you think?

Looking into Social Enterprise

2009-10-03T10:39:00.013+01:00

I’m currently reading ‘Your Chance to Change the World’. You see, recently I've been hearing a lot about social enterprise - business ventures that aim to help society rather than just make money. This book is a step by step guide on how to set up such a social enterprise by someone who has. Though these ventures may sell products or charge for services, they also get grants both from government organisations and from charities. People may also give donations.

There was a brilliant article on this in the New York Times a couple of years back: Businesses Try To Make Money and Save The World that is quoted in Andrew Jones’s post on the Fourth Sector. Andrew has just been at the Feast – a conference for social enterprise.

There is a growing trend of people starting social enterprises. Hopefully this trend may help bring us out of recession. Many Christians are setting up such projects. Last year Nettes went to some sessions at Greenbelt about social enterprise run by NET - network of entrepreneurial talent. Christians are seeing it as part of their Christian mission to serve the world and the communities where they are based. Over the next year the Jones’s plan to travel around Europe helping to equip what they refer to as missional entrepreneurs.

Also on this topic the Faithworks site is worth checking out. For instance, their Community Audit Pack looks interesting. It is about assessing the needs in your local community. And they have links to information about funding.

You know what? This is beginning to look doable.

Was Jesus like a pirate? Should we be pirates too?

2009-09-26T11:24:00.031+01:00

I have just been reading an interesting blog debate on this subject.

The romantic image of pirates often overlooks their violent criminal behaviour. But historically this behaviour can be understood. ‘Let’s plunder these ships for ourselves rather than for the government’, was the thinking behind piracy in the 17th & 18th centuries. As such pirates are anti-establishment rather than purely anti-social. Their behaviour could be seen as a critique of the established order of greedy capitalism rather than just as personal selfishness. So argues Kester Brewin in a recent series of posts.

Illegal rebellion in this way can be seen as a way of social change. Pirate radio stations originally transmitted new styles of music that the legal radio stations did not. But eventually Radio 1 was born. Similarly, illegal music downloads eventually gave way to legal ways such as Spotify. Change occurs and we realise that the pirates were there before us. In the same way, Kester Brewin argues that Jesus was like a pirate in the way that he broke the religious rules overturning the stated order of his day.

Is there a motif here for Christians? Well, we do seek to be radical and do things differently. This inevitably critiques the established order – both of the world’s way of working and of religious ways of thinking. So why is this idea controversial? I am oversimplifying it, but in an answer to Kester Brewin, Richard Sudworth posts that we should not so easily dismiss Christians with a different revelation who are actually following God. Pete Rollins then takes this up arguing the importance of being considered heretical in order remain orthodox and Richard Sudworth comes back, among other things, playing the faithfulness card.

I think there is an important tension here between producing change by overthrowing systems in order to make progress and maintaining cohesive effective systems. It isn’t that that Kester and Pete are going too far. Surely we should look for innovation and not be afraid to make big changes? But if posible, shouldn't we do this without alienating others? Yes, sometimes Jesus and Christians may appear like pirates but I think there are some dangers with this image and that it needs to be carefully balanced with the concept of faithfulness.

Birmingham Artsfest 2009

2009-09-19T13:25:00.023+01:00

Last weekend we went to look around this year's Artsfest.

On Saturday we had some of Nettes' family with us who took part in the record breaking bhangra dancing. While they were doing that I took Callie to see a a Rainforest Symphony a taster for an interactive children's play by the Play House about the rainforest at the REP. There was plenty to see as we wandered around the stalls and exhibitions and caught two or three of the bands. We dropped in on the Barbar Institute of Fine Arts doing their usual story telling session based around a painting.

On Sunday Callie and I ventured into the city centre again exploring some of artsfest again as we walked over to Kidz Aloud in Carrs Lane Church Centre that happened to be on the same weekend.

I thoroughly enjoy this weekend. Artsfest has now become a regular tradition.

revealing the secret identity of the Evangelical Universalist

2009-09-06T19:56:00.014+01:00

The Evangelical Universalist is just one of the excellent books that I read over the summer. It argues well, from the Bible, the case for universalism – the doctrine that everyone is saved in the end. As this is such a controversial topic it is not surprising that the author published the book under a pseudonym. Many Christians might consider his conclusions as heresy.

Now this book has received some circulation he obviously feels the situation has changed slightly. The author feels that there are now enough people that have read the book and seen that universalism can be argued from the Bible, and so is a legitimate evangelical position – even if they don’t agree with it. Hence he now feels confident enough to reveal his identity.

So who is the Evangelical Universalist?

Robin Parry - the Editorial Director for the Christian publishing house Paternoster Press and author of Worshipping Trinity.

Thanks to Maggi Dawn for the tip off.

The Lord’s Prayer at Celebration

2009-08-27T16:30:00.007+01:00

Last weekend I went to the celebration event of our group of churches. Nettes & I volunteered to help with the 7-10s and so were with them most of the time. Our focus was producing a sort of frieze on large sheets of paper consisting of the words of the Lord’s Prayer that the kids decorated - in the tradition of the illuminated writing of the monks, I suppose, but using felts and glitter instead.

The kids recieved a variety of teaching methods moving round different activities. So when they came to us we were chatting about what the words meant to them or what they had learnt through the other activities as they decorated the letters. One activity I liked was when the children were given a prayer cube that they used both as a learning aid and then to pray with. And they could take these home at the end.

In the final meeting the kids presented what they had learnt and we held up the frieze and to finish off everyone at the celebration reciting the Lord’s Prayer with us.

is it really time for more “ministry prayer”?

2009-08-20T18:14:00.003+01:00

Across the world we may be due another wave of what is sometimes called “ministry prayer”. Last year such a move was sparked off as the ministry of Todd Bentley was publicised across the internet. And now Todd has a new website and appears to be getting ready for a comeback. There was a wane in these times across the world following news that Todd had fallen into an affair. So might Todd’s comeback reverse this trend? I sincerely hope not!

So what's the problem?

Is it Todd's recent divorce and remarriage? Well actually Todd is now going through a time of "restoration". He has made himself accountable to Rick Joyner. This is documented in videos on his new site. Of course falling as Todd did is a very human failing. We can and should learn to rebuild our trust of him in this area.

No, I have a different concern – the whipping up audiences especially using exaggerated claims. Todd claimed some incredible miracles. News media such as ABC's Nightline broadcast concluded that not one of these could be independently verified. Nevertheless his staff worked overtime collating testimonies and medical reports. So what are we to think? I am sure that some people were really touched but also I think there was a lot of hype.

Don't get me wrong. I am a great believer in prayer and I look for God to heal today. But observing the way that phenomena such as this spread makes me wonder to what extent human psychology is involved. And in fact whenever I see people called forward after hearing a motivational message I wonder how much of what follows is due to suggestion. I'm not saying that the emotional manipulation is always intentional. But when the focus is on an individual and their needs people tend to get over emotional. Those that do respond in this way may even start to get dependant on this emotional experience.

In our church we are careful not to make claims we can’t back up and not to whip up emotions. Times of “ministry prayer” are thankfully rare and, when they do occur, often the meeting is formerly closed so that we can get a coffee if we prefer, which I do. But I long for more of God and I feel that sometimes it would be good to respond to him with a physical act but, to be honest, for all the above reasons most of these "appeals" give me the willies.

So what are the alternatives? Well I think we can be more creative. Why can't we have activities in which we can all take part if we want to – not just those “in need of prayer”? Let's not be so intense about it.

On occasions in our worship we have been encouraged write or draw something to give thanks for and bring that forward to be displayed. Once during our Time With God we wrote down things that we were praying for God to get rid of such as debt or injustices and dropped them into a litter bin. I saw a number of activities like this at Prayer House at Spring Harvest this year. And in previous years I have seen many ideas in worship sessions at Greenbelt. On my bookshelf I have a series of books with many innovative multi-sensory ideas by Sue Wallace. The list could go on. I’m sure we can think of more of these ourselves and use them as ways to respond in our services.

More “ministry prayer”? No thanks!

But I would love to see more of these creative and relaxed ways for us all to respond to God. Come on! Let’s go for it!

For a related article by a friend of mine see Catching Men by David Matthew.

Reflections on the Community Fun Day

2009-08-16T17:10:00.065+01:00

I have now added a set of photos on flickr for yesterday’s Community Fun Day.

Instead of meeting on Sunday our church threw itself into supporting this event and many of us came as volunteers. This was our worship. A few helped with the set up and stewarding, Heather & Roo did face painting, I was involved with a team from our church in organising a prayer tent and my wife Nettes ran the bric-a-brac stall. The day was initiated by Karis Neighbour Scheme and lots of local organisations got together to arrange it. Everyone worked very hard. Apologies to any I have missed.

In the prayer tent we offered prayer including prayer for healing and laying on of hands. A few completed prayer-cards and posted them in the box. We had a good time praying with these cards at the end of the day. And we prayed with a few in person, anointing at least a couple of people with oil. It was good being a listening ear. People also took away some of the free resources. There were some booklets, we had printed some of Stephanie's poems on card and printed these downloads on how to pray from an excellent website called rejesus.

It was a steep learning curve for me. I'd never really done anything like this before. But I knew that a few from our church had run a prayer tent last year. So I was very greatful to have people around me who knew what they were doing. It is a lot harder than I realised to put up signs on a tent. And one problem with being in a tent is that your papers tend to blow around. It was very quiet at first and I thought that we might have no vistors. But in the end we were encouraged and felt that all who came to the tent received a blessing.

Across the site some good relationships were built with people in the community. For example, both Nettes and I had a chat with the people from our local LETS. I also met Karis's Jude Greenwood, for the first time, who among other things is an associate of Spring To Life specialising in life coaching. And through this event I met Gwen the minister of the Church of the Redeemer who mentioned that her church was starting a Messy Church.

All in all it was a great day. A special thanks to Annabel from Karis for getting this off the ground!

Prayer Tent at Community Fun Day

2009-08-10T08:49:00.014+01:00

On Saturday a few of us from our church will be running a Prayer Tent at a local Community Fun Day.

We will offer to pray for people in person or give them the opportunity to jot down a prayer or request on a card and post it in a box. We will pray with these cards when we open the box at the end of the day. We will have some other free resources on the stall and trust that people will come along and be blessed.

The other week I was invited to a planning meeting for the event at Karis Neighbour Scheme and it looks like this is now going to be a regular event.

Please pray that this goes well.

Ramblings on The Shack

2009-08-04T19:52:00.016+01:00

I’ve just been reading through this novel for a second time. I started it last year but only got half way through despite it being a slim book. The controversy The Shack is now generating prompted me to finish it, read it through again and to blog these thoughts. I considered putting a review on Amazon, giving it 4 out of 5 stars, but then realised how many reviews were already there. William Young’s book has been a runaway bestseller for over a year now - not bad for a self-published Christian book. The chances are you know someone who has already read it.

The Shack tells the story of one man’s experience God - how this has been affected by a tragedy in his life that has left to him living with depression and a love/hate relationship with the Almighty. This relationship takes an unexpected turn when the protagonist Mack receives an invitation – apparently from God – to spend the weekend together at an old abandoned shack.

The narrative in the book starts off being realistic. At first I thought the book was going to be mainly a detective novel. But then the snowy world around the shack suddenly changes into spring and Mack meets manifestations of the Trinity. Jesus is, as you would expect, a carpenter from the Middle East but Father is portrayed as a black woman called Papa and Holy Spirit as an oriental woman Sarayu. God appearing as female may shock some but Young quickly clarifies that the purpose of this is to challenge religious stereotypes. As the story progresses we are left wondering if Mack is lying unconscious in the shack dreaming or having visions or that perhaps he has died and this is the afterlife. I couldn’t help thinking of parallels to the TV series’ Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes where the heroes’ adventures take place in a dream world while in a coma.

The bulk of the novel is about Mack’s conversations with the Trinity. And there are some moving descriptions of how the three characters relate to each other and to Mack. Unfortunately, Young also tries to explain some of his own theory of the Trinity. It was here that I initially got stuck. It is difficult when discussing the Trinity to avoid the accusations of heresy unless you are a theological scholar, which Young is not. But I didn’t immediately jump on Young’s ideas as error as some have. The first time through I just got bored. It wasn’t until I got past this section and realised the novel isn’t about the Trinity per se but about how we can relate to God in tragedy then the whole thing took off for me again.

The Shack challenges the traditional view of God as distant and judgemental emphasising instead his loving relational nature. This is controversial for some and clichéd for others. However the message of the book clearly comes through: everyone is special to God, he cares, he is not the cause of our pain and we can run to him for comfort. This is not just intellectually argued but depicted in an emotionally powerful way that many have testified has touched them deeply.

The plot works well. The conversations climax as Mack realises how much he blames God for his plight. The dialogue with each member of the Trinity then sensitively unravels this. I loved it, in one of these chats, when Jesus points out that New Jerusalem in the Book of Revelation doesn’t refer to heaven but to the church. The description of the church Young offers is not one of an institution but of a community built on the sort of relationships modelled in Papa, Jesus and Sarayu. As Larry Crabb would say, we join in the dance of the Trinity. Papa condemns religion as man-made deception. And I am still trying to get my head around some of the discussions of law and grace and about how God wants to set us free from the expectations of others.

The Shack has produced heated debates across the internet. Some love it and want the world to read it. Others condemn it as heresy. I agree it is a good book and I’m glad I finished it. I must confess to a few reservations but I would not say it’s heretical.

If you want to read more about this book I recommend fellow blogger Scott Lencke’s lengthy three-part post that looks at some of the main criticism.

Part One summarises the plot and looks at how The Shack stops short of the universalism and does in fact honour scripture.

Part Two defends Young’s description of a non-judgemental God but finds Young’s view of God’s sovereignty lacking and criticises his position on Open Theism.

Part Three concludes that The Shack does not teach heretical views on the Trinity - such as Modalism - but says that Young has not always chosen his words well. It also discusses the reasons for God appearing female.

Also two books published February 2009 discuss the theology of the Shack. Confusingly they are both called ‘Finding God In The Shack’ - one by Randal Rauser and one by Roger E Olson. Skimming the reviews there doesn’t seem much to choose between them but the one by Olson looks a little more critical of Young’s ideas.

I hope you’ve found these ramblings helpful. In the end, whatever we think of this novel, my prayer is that we all learn something about the nature of God revealed in The Shack. I trust we will learn to run to him in times of trouble and not away.

The Future of New Frontiers

2009-08-01T16:07:00.022+01:00

Last year I blogged about Mark Driscoll's prophecy to New Frontiers encouraging them to seek God for a successor to Terry Virgo. So, in the latest post on Terry’s blog, I found it interesting to see him now carefully weighing Mark’s prophecy.

Terry’s thoughts are outlined in the video embedded in that post. Although it was helpful to receive a wake up call in the way that he did, Terry explains, it is unhelpful to think of one person succeeding him as the new leader. Instead he sees the way forward is to acknowledge a number of emerging apostles. In the video Terry also teaches on the role of apostles today and what he calls 'apostolic spheres'.

Terry names John Kpikpi in West-Africa author of God’s New Tribe and Edward Buria in Kenya as a couple of examples of these new emerging apostles. Whether these new ministries will continue to work together under the title of New Frontiers or not only time will tell. But I get the impression that Terry Virgo intends to stay around for at least a few more years.

Getting Married in Church

2009-07-30T10:18:00.019+01:00

Recently I went to a wedding of two of my friends from college – fellow lecturers Dave & Sally.

They wanted to get married in church and attended that church for some time in order to do so yet I don’t think they would wholeheartedly claim to be Christians. But what impressed me about their wedding was the Christian content. There was a clear talk about Christian marriage and prayers for the couple with which I felt a strong agreement.

I have been to traditional church weddings before and found them quite boring and been frustrated that the message was watered down. Perhaps this church was different or perhaps I have changed and over the years become more accepting of Christian traditions different from my own.

Like many people getting married today Dave & Sally had been living together for a while. Nowadays of course no-one bats an eyelid at an unmarried couple even signing into a hotel room together. And a forty year old virgin makes good material for a comedy.

So the idea of wanting to remain a virgin until your wedding is an unusual one. But I am not ashamed to say that that is what I did. Therefore I can understand others wanting to wait and those who become Christians who begin to learn about marriage from the Bible feeling that they should stop sleeping together until after their wedding.

But I wonder if we can also see that a relationship like my friends’ could be considered a marriage in biblical terms if the couple have already set up home? After all, Genesis 2:24 says nothing about a ceremony. People may then want to ratify such an existing relationship legally and before God. Personally, this is how I would see what Dave & Sally were doing on that day.

Congratulations to them and I pray that God will bless their marriage.

Praying 24-7

2009-07-23T13:40:00.043+01:00

Pete Greig from 24-7 Prayer is calling people together to pray for Europe in a massive prayer meeting in Amsterdam.

And people will come. But, when local churches may lament how poorly attended their prayer meetings are, what is drawing them? A longing for more in their lives? A desire for God? A move of the Holy Spirit? Yes, I’m sure it is all of those things. But one element that marks out the 24-7 prayer movement is their use of creativity in prayer. If you’re not familiar with this movement then check out the 24-7 Prayer website to get a flavour of what is happening.

Across the UK and now across the world prayer rooms are appearing populated with people praying in shifts for a week or more around the clock. In a typical prayer room we see prayers graffitied on the walls, we see original pieces of art work sculpted or painted as prayers during the prayer times. There are candles to set the ambience and CDs are often playing.

Another element that may surprise some is the rediscovery of liturgy. In prayer room across the world people are searching out and reading ancient prayers. Celtic prayers and prayers of medieval monks are again touching people as God breaths new life into these words. People in these prayer rooms are also writing new liturgies. Having just finished reading the 24-7 Prayer Manual I want to read Punk Monk for some insights from the monastic traditions that can be applied today.

People can wander around a prayer room looking icons in the form of artwork and read prayers written on the walls or sometimes follow specific trails with items to pray about at various points. Some of this is created spontaneously while to room is open but also a lot of work can go into preparing prayer stations. On occasions, 24-7 prayer rooms have even used labyrinths so that people can walk meditatively around the room as they pray – their attention brought to certain items at certain points. As you can see in this prayer room organised by Bath City Church - log on to facebook to see the photos.

People are being drawn together and motivated to pray. They are finding prayer interesting. They are finding prayer exciting. People are praying: not out of duty, not because they are made to feel guilty, not even as an exercise in self disciple. They are praying because they want to. They are enjoying it.

In our church we have seen a glimpse of this in our Time With God where we do just one 24 hour stint every few months. I long to see more of this. Don’t you?

last week our homegroup went down the tubes

2009-07-20T22:45:00.015+01:00

On Saturday our homegroup went to see Underground - a dance performance by Motionhouse dance theatre. With a simple stage a bit like a climbing frame the dancers rather abstractly portrayed an underground carriage. The dance was an emotionally charged and thoroughly enjoyable experience. It was a half hour performance in the open air in Cannon Hill Park outside the Midlands Art Centre. The MAC itself is still closed for renovations but the arts programmes go on.

It was good to be with our homegroup at the same time as watching the dance. And Callie really enjoyed playing with the other children in our group afterwards. Thanks to Alan for organising this.

N.T. Wright and the Gospel

2009-07-18T10:19:00.050+01:00

N.T. Wright is one of the writers and theologians that have been involved in developing something called the New Perspective on Paul. His views on Justification in particular have recently come into the spotlight following a critique by John Piper in his book The Future of Justification. (David Matthew has some notes on Piper’s book here.) In response to Piper, Wright published Justification: God's Plan & Paul's Vision outlining his views and answering these criticisms. I’m still trying to get my head around this debate. But I have done a little research on N.T Wright and found a few links that I’d like to share.

The Paul Page is a site dedicated to the New Perspective on Paul and contains many articles. N.T Wright himself has written an article called ‘The Shape of Justification’. I found his comments on the relationship between the gospel and justification interesting:

"By 'the gospel' Paul does not mean 'justification by faith' itself. He means the announcement that the crucified and risen Jesus is Lord. To believe this message, to give believing allegiance to Jesus as Messiah and Lord, is to be justified… by faith (whether or not one has even heard of justification by faith). Justification by faith itself is a second-order doctrine: to believe it is both to have assurance… and to know that one belongs in the... family of God… But one is not justified by faith by believing in justification by faith… but by believing in Jesus…

“Let me make it clear that I do not, in any way, drive a wedge between 'the gospel' and 'justification'. They belong intimately together… But they are not the same thing. 'The gospel', for Paul, is the proclamation that the crucified and risen Jesus is the Messiah, the Lord of the world. When Paul arrived in Thessalonica, or Athens, or Corinth, or wherever, we know what he announced, because he tells us: The Messiah died for our sins and rose again... [Whereas] 'justification' is the declaration which God at once makes, that all who share this faith belong to Christ, to his sin-forgiven family, the one family of believing Jews and believing Gentiles together, and are assured of final glorification.”

I agree that it does sound sensible to preach Jesus’ death and resurrection – as the apostles did in Acts - and then teach the principles of justification later when someone has been a Christian for some time. I do wonder if gospel summaries would be better emphasising these facts about Jesus more than trying to explain justification. It is what Wright actually means by justification that needs further investigation.

I have also found a number of videos by Wright on YouTube including this one on what he believes about hell. I don’t think this is a major emphasis of his but some may feel that he is watering down the gospel here. What he says about hell sounds sensible to me but I wondered where exactly he was coming from.

I found this blog entry that pointed me to Wright’s book ‘For All The Saints’ very helpful. There he discusses the fact that universalism – the idea that all are saved in the end – “has gained enormous popularity in mainstream Western Christianity and compares this with the traditional teaching of eternal conscious torment”, and with a “middle position of “the ‘conditionalists’”. He explains that conditionalist teach that, “since humans are not by nature immortal, only those who are saved are granted immortality, so that all others are simply extinguished…” Wright then comments that he doesn’t “find any of these three traditional options completely satisfactory, but I think a somewhat different form of conditionalism may be the best we can do.”

Here I would tend to agree with Wright again. I rejected the idea of hell being everlasting conscious torment some twenty years ago now after reading John Stott’s chapter in Essentials where Stott argued for hell being a place of annihilation. More I recently investigated Universalism. I found it a lot more plausible than I expected but I couldn’t quite embrace it. (For more on this see David Matthew’s notes from the Evangelical Universalist.) I don’t find the Bible that clear on what happens to us after we die. I am looking forward to being with God for eternity but I fear I must agree with Wright that not all will make it but I cannot see that meaning those who don't will burn forever.

Anyway, it looks like Wright’s new book Justification is a key one to get – along with Piper’s book that he is answering. Skimming an extensive review of Wright’s book here I was struck by the reviewer’s comment that told how he previously “favoured evangelism over what I perceived as a liberal concern for social action and justice.” But then “began to explore the work of N.T. Wright.” And found himself “developing a larger theology in which God is calling a people to himself to be a blessing to the world. A gospel which embraced justice and social concern as well as a need to evangelise.” Once again I would say that this reflects my own journey and is an emphasis I would appreciate.

Whether I come to agree with him on justification or not Wright does appear to have some good points that are well worth listening to.

I recommend this booklet: 'Transforming Preaching'

2009-07-14T10:15:00.058+01:00

I just love this little booklet entitled Transforming Preaching by Jonny Baker. I would say that this booklet is a must-read for preachers today. It is in a series on evangelism but it is just as relevent whether you are preaching the gospel or preaching to the church. Jonny Baker looks at how we can fully engage the interest of our listeners. It goes way beyond just having a flashy PowerPoint or the occational visual aid.

Jonny ‘slays the sacred cow’ of the sermon being a long monologue and looks at other ways to engage people in learning about God creatively and interactively. In Jonny’s ‘remix’ of the sermon things look very different. He doesn’t see the preacher as someone who merely spoon feeds information and opinions to the congregation. Instead he sees the preacher as just one voice among many as people are encouraged to take part discussing, interacting and responding in various imaginative ways. Jonny clearly outlines the principles to follow that will get you going in this direction.

This provocative little booklet is now published by Grove Books and can be purchased from them here for £3.50 or from Church House bookshop here. But I’ll let you into a secret: Jonny originally wrote this as a chapter for a book on preaching. When it didn't make the final volume he made his chapter available as a free download from his own site here.

If you have anything to do with preaching then please get hold of this booklet, read it and put it into practice.

Writing a Booklet on Media Psychology

2009-07-04T13:18:00.006+01:00

I am currently working on a booklet for college about Media Psychology. This is a new and interesting area that we will be teaching our second years next year.

There are some old chestnuts like whether violence in the media makes us more aggressive. But now we look at computer games and the internet and not just films & TV. But still the evidence is not as conclusive as you might think. There is also evidence for media like computer games actually being good for us.

The booklet also covers how media persuades us and influences our attitudes and a section that looks at why we are so interested in celebrities and how much we worship them.

If we get to publish the booklet somewhere as a PDF I’ll add the link.

I must read the Blue Parakeet

2009-06-28T21:59:00.005+01:00

I’ve been doing a lot more reading again since I got my glasses. I just want to mention a book that has just gone on to my must read list. It’s called Blue Parakeet and is about how to study the Bible. You can buy it in paperback from amazon.co.uk here and you can read David Matthew’s recommendation of the book here.

Day Out for the Drop In

2009-06-20T14:02:00.026+01:00

Yesterday, our church’s Drop In went on a trip to Stratford. I’m a bit of a nervous driver but I decided to take a risk and offer a few places in my car.

We had a picnic by the river Avon and then half of us went on some boats. There was plenty of time to explore and some of us ended the day hanging out at Starbucks.

I think this was such a treat for the guys especially as a few of them are homeless.

I am glad that I went.

I'm excited about our new homegroups

2009-06-18T10:33:00.017+01:00

This week as a church we are launching our new home groups. As a church we tend to meet in four groups midweek and all together on Sunday morning in a community centre. We have had several months meeting in life stage groups. It was good to be able to discuss some parenting issues in ours and for singles, young couples and the older ones to talk about their life issues. But now it’s time for something new.

There is a feeling that as we reorganise this is an opportunity to deepen our encouragement of each other as disciples of Jesus. I feel that it’s time to get real with each other and to grow in our understanding. It’s time for us to allow each other to all get on board, take initiatives and to play our part. It’s time for us to do more interesting and creative activities together, to discuss the Bible over meals together, and to break bread together as well as a time to be outward looking.

I’m excited about the new groups. So this week I have been reading Houses that Change the World by Wolfgang Simson. And I've ordered The Rabbit and the Elephant by Tony & Felicity Dale from Amazon. These are two good books about church in the home. Though these books are more about small churches that meet in homes there is a lot that can be applied to our groups.

Our group is meeting for dinner this Sunday.

Web 2.0 declared to be the millionth English word

2009-06-10T21:34:00.007+01:00

So says the Global Language Monitor - according to the BBC News. If your're not sure what Web 2.0 means check it out in Wikipedia. In the meantime let us get on with Church 2.0 as we continue to communicate and work together pro-actively.

The Two Halligans

2009-06-08T22:25:00.029+01:00

I just got back from a gig by the Two Halligans. A great pairing of two excellent Christian musicians Rob Halligan and Bob Halligan playing guitars and keyboard to twenty or thirty of us squashed into a living room in a house just down the road.

Many thanks to Mike Rimmer for setting this up.

Trinity Prayer

2009-06-07T08:11:00.004+01:00

God for us, we call You Father,
God along side us, we call You Jesus,
God within us, we call You Holy Spirit.
You are the Eternal Mystery that enables, enfolds, and enlivens all things, even us, and even me.
Every name falls short of your Goodness and Greatness.
We can only see who You are in what is. We ask for such perfect seeing.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be. Amen.

by Richard Rohr.

Thanks to Mike Morrel for the link.