The Lord’s Table

On the thirteen year old tape of David Mansell’s that I recently found, he is talking about the breaking of bread.

His basic message was that breaking of bread is not just as symbol but that it is a spiritual reality. God is really in it – although not chemically as though the bread and wine were Jesus literal flesh and blood – but by faith. As we eat bread and drink wine we receive realities not just symbols. It is the body of Christ. Jesus provides the food at his table and he is the food – his flesh is meat indeed and his blood is drink indeed.

His exhortation was to refocus church life so that the Lord’s Table is central rather than the pulpit. We are invited to be with him it is not for us to invite him to our meetings. He was encouraging us to see the breaking of bread as the primary reason for the church to get together rather than to see it as something that is tagged onto our meetings once in a while.

I don’t usually find it easy to listen and take notes of someone talking for a whole hour. But it was gripping stuff.

Technorati Tags: Eucharist

Bread of Life

Bread @ Morton's The Steakhouse
Originally uploaded by Miss Peach.

At last I'm back on line! I'm uploading the last few blog entries that were made offline in my spiritual journal. This includes thoughts about last Sundays meeting. For a bit of fun I've included a relevant photo from flickr.

Last Sunday Barry Fitzpatrick - who has a pastoral role towards our church - was speaking on the bread of life from John 6. He was saying that Christ himself is the true and living bread and that nothing can be a substitute for him, not even bible-study, prayer or church! Though these are good things that we should take part in, they can get in the way of us experiencing the living bread from heaven. Just as bread was a staple food in the middle-east - no potatoes or even rice for them then - so Christ is the staple food for Christians today. Only this divine bread can be truly satisfying. And only this bread endures for all eternity. It was truly inspiring talk.

In the evening I was searching through some old tapes in the bottom of a drawer and found an old tape of David Mansell talking about the breaking of bread that I remember was excellent too. I'm really looking forward to listening to that.

Technorati Tags: Eucharist

Multi-Sensory Pentecost

Nettes and I set aside time regularly to be together with God. This often takes the form of what we call a “Sacred Space”. We create an atmosphere of calm (not known at any other time in our house!) using throws, cushions, relaxing music, incense, candles etc. They are very special times to us and we have had some great encounters with God through them.

Last night we used this time to celebrate the coming of the Spirit. We started, as we often do, by praying - in British Sign Language - for the Holy Spirit to come. Another aid to prayer which we often use is a labyrinth, printed on paper. Tracing the path into the middle, pausing to listen to God, and then bringing the line back out, helps focus our minds on who God is and what he wants from us. Last night, as we did this we began to contemplate the work of the Holy Spirit, and were reminded on the outward path of our task to take God’s message out into the world, as the disciples did after that first outpouring. I found it strangely exhilarating. We also made fans and used them together with poetic liturgy to reflect on the wind of the Holy Spirit.

But the climax of the night was melting ice cubes – in which we had embedded chains – over a candle. We were praying for God to melt our hearts preparing us to receive his power. Melting the ice was slower and trickier than we thought it was going to be. It was a powerful image of God’s patience and gentleness. It reflected the persistence with which he works to enable us to see his power in our lives. We talked about what his empowering means to us and how we limit it. Finally, we broke bread, anointed each other and asked God for this empowering.

Over an hour had passed. It was very late but, as always when we have these times, the hour had flown by. Why do we so often think spending time with God is hard?

Technorati Tags: Alternative Worship

23rd Psalm

We've just been discussing Psalm 23 in our small group bible study. We discovered a pattern that most of the psalms follow. We talked about how God can renew our souls as we sit silently in his presence. But what was really striking was walking through the dark valley. We saw that difficult situations are often the pivotal in the psalms. It isn’t until we go through it that a lot of the things in the psalm make much sense. Until then they can sound a bit like pat answers of happy-clappy people. After going through the time when we might rail at God, God leads us back to a second naivety. God is not just with us when we are happy; God is with us now in the middle of the problems. It is not that we can fulfil God’s purposes when we overcome the circumstances. Overcoming the circumstances is what the Christian life is all about. It is in the middle of this that we can know eternal life – a quality of life that we experience now as we deal with the dark valley of difficulties.

Technorati Tags: Psalm 23

3:16

I really enjoyed taking notes from Anna’s talk this morning at church on what it means to be born again. I find that some talks produce more questions than answers – which, I hasten to add - I don’t think is a bad thing at all. The term born again was used by Jesus when speaking to one Pharisee privately who unlike the others was obviously a spiritual seeker. The Pharisees were hypocrites, judgemental, arrogant and narrow-minded. Perhaps today that is this how people sees ‘born again’ Christians? May be the term ‘born again’ has comes to represent all that some people loathe and fear in the same way the word Pharisee has?

But how would Nicodemus have understood the term? Anna discussed this well. She explained that born of the Spirit means our spirit is reborn… when we are most in sync with the Spirit we are most fulfilled… Jesus is the mediator for us in this experience… God is not monotheistic alone... Brilliant!

Yet I am left wondering to what extent we should understand ‘born again’ to refer to a process rather than a crisis. A journey rather than a destination? Perhaps conversations are more important than conversions after all?

Just a thought.

Technorati Tags: born again

Communication

Communication problems can be frustrating! In all organisations communication is an important key to getting things done whether its college or some other workplace, church or any organisation. I was recently teaching my access class about two major communication patterns in group dynamics. Some organisations to some extent restrict there communication to hierarchies. So messages are passed down in the form of instructions and up in the form of reporting back. But it is easy to miss people leaving them disgruntled. But more recent wisdom is seeing the value of another pattern – one in which everyone is encouraged to communicate with everyone else. This is increasingly becoming practical with email. I think this must be the way forward.

Technorati Tags: communication

School Prayers

Callie has been accepted in the Nursery of a school just round the corner from us. We’ve been searching through Ofsted reports, prospectuses and websites but eventually thought the school nearest her was the best choice. One interesting fact about living in Birmingham is that it is so multi-cultural. So it’s not surprising that the valuing of each other's culture is given a high priority in the school. Great! But in England all school children take part in a daily act of collective worship. Will our multi-cultural locality mean that the worship is not as Christian as in some areas? In the school where Callie will be going there is collective worship in the classrooms three times a week. And during their time there the children also have the opportunity to visit places of worship not just a church building but also a mosque, a synagogue and the gurdwara. Now at home we have taught Callie about our Christian faith and read her Bible stories everyday. Of course we do have the choice to withdraw her from collective worship and not go on the trips. But could these experiences actually be good in helping her to develop her own robust faith? We’ll have to see.

Staying Alive

I found this article interesting. Its about Twelve Australian celebrities sharing their tips on how they have kept their energy and vitality into old age.

• They eat low fat healthy diets.
• They are pro-active in having health checks and prompt in taking any necessary action.
• They watch their weight.
• They are non-smokers.
• They take regular exercise.
• They keep their brain active.
• They take care of their skin by staying out of hot sun and used sun-block.
• They cope with stress both by taking exercise and using relaxation techniques.
• They are early risers - grasping life with both hands.
• They are active in the community in charity and voluntary work.
• They refuse to look back on their lives with regrets that will only make them miserable.
• They are always working on some project that is a challenge to them.
• They all have some belief in something greater than themselves whether they call that God or not.
• They are very positive in their attitude although they are honest in admitting negative thoughts and tough times they have dealt with them well.
• They value their health.
• They are committed to doing what they want to do.

Technorati Tags: ageing, health,

Come Alive This Easter

Jesus came alive physcially so that we can come alive spiritually

This year Nettes and I organised our church's Easter service. We wanted to tell the story of Jesus going to the cross and rising again in some fresh and interesting ways. So as well as some standard readings and songs & hymns – like Hosanna (with the kids processing with streamers) – we also had two or three multi-sensory activities. For the ‘kids slot’ Nettes did a cookery demonstration of resurrection cookies. The ingredients tell the Easter story and the cookies are hollow representing the empty tomb. We also had a table at the front to which people brought items that depicted Jesus agonies on the cross such as a crown of thorns, an alarm clock to represent sleeplessness and a black box to represent horror. Nettes had made a cross for the table – not something we usually have in our church. But first we told the story through a PowerPoint display using paintings of scenes leading up to the cross with sound effects. We watched and listened to these with the lights out. The effect was stunning.

Later that day, as a family, Nettes & I had our Easter dinner of roast lamb and broke bread.

Technorati Tags: multi-sensory worship, Easter

Weekend Away

Last weekend our church had a weekend away at Cloverley Hall with Ian Rossol from Together as our guest speaker. One Friday evening Nettes tells me he spoke about transparency. I was putting Callie to bed reading her the raising of Lazarus from her Bible story book.

On Saturday morning there was a choice of workshops. I went to the one on evangelism. Among other things we did a good role play that highlighted for me the importance of listening sensitively to other people’s views on God.

Ian Rossol then spoke about intimacy with God and how God wants to spend time with us. This was encouraging because our church recently did our second 24-hours-of-prayer. Ian also said, ‘There is a hurting world out there that is waiting for the church to emerge’.

In the evening we had a variety performance in which Nettes read the children’s book A Squash and a Squeeze with me acting out the old lady some kids being the animals. Callie was the hen.

On Sunday morning Ian spoke about on ‘Christ Jesus is riding forth in victory’ and how he is inviting us as a church together to join him. After lunch we had a time of breaking bread.

A good time was had by all.

Active Learning

I was recently told that I’ll be teaching just in the sixth form next year and not any of my adult classes. I’ve enjoyed teaching the Access course and my evening classes. But I’m taking this as an opportunity to rethink teaching and learning strategies, chase out the old and make a fresh start. I think the younger kids are a lot less tolerant of 40 minute talks where they are expected to take notes, even if they are encouraged to ask questions. The challenge is to develop a greater active learning approach – with a much greater variety of activities than just group discussions and feedback that I do. It is very easy to fall into one way of doing things. I think changing things around like this could be a good way to save me from this rut. So I’ve been trawling Amazon - as you can see from the links - for activities and ideas about teaching today I want to get to work redesigning my teaching with as many new ideas as I can. Also it’s an opportunity to really go to town with PowerPoint. But again I want new ideas: I don’t want to just by transfer my notes from handouts to screen but to go beyond bullet-points.

Technorati Tags: teaching, active learning, PowerPoint

The Good Samaritan

Today, Nettes and I were teaching Sunday School. We were looking at the story of the Good Samaritan. Rather than taking the angle about helping people, we focussed on prejudice. An important point of the story is that a Samaritan helped a Jew when Jews were prejudiced against Samaritans. Jesus was showing that loving your ‘neighbour’ doesn’t mean just loving those whom you are close to. It also means loving those who are different from you. So rather than judging someone because they belong to a different group, we should help them.

This may involve changing our attitudes towards that group of people. It starts with changing how we think, but it also means changing what we say and what we do, despite how we feel – a good lesson in itself. Last night, we had been looking at this video about how one teacher taught her class about prejudice. But in our class we simply role played how we can act differently to people. Finally, we draw pictures of different sorts of people – different races, people from different countries, old people, young people, disabled people – on a piece of paper with the verse ‘love your neighbour’ on it as a way of celebrating diversity.

Technorati Tags: prejudice, diversity

Unhealthy Temptations

Looking through the newspapers I’m stuck by the fact that there are many temptations in the world. Illegal drugs lead to more crime. Anti-depressants as a quick fix can be addictive. Morning-after-pills are availably cheaply for teenaged girls. Affordable loans can just get us further into debt. It doesn’t really matter where you live this wasteland of temptation just seems everywhere. Is there no relief from it? Then there is our own anger, arrogance, pride and selfishness to content with...

One headline that stuck a deep chord in me said that the obesity epidemic is a 'bigger threat than terrorism'! The time has come for me to do something about this one: to eat more healthily and get more exercise. I’m going to take a ‘health walk’ once a week. And I’ve picked up some literature on looking after your heart. So I am looking at what I need to cut down on. It appears that saturated fat is a big one. I did order a book from Amazon on getting fit but it’s been delayed - drat it! Nevertheless I’m persevering with this health drive. After a few weeks of buckling down I trust that I’ll have a healthier lifestyle.

Technorati Tags: health, obesity

New Clothes?

I keep thinking that I should really get some new clothes. Probably the most important quality about my clothes is that they must be comfortable. I do try to be smart – especially for college – but I rarely wear very formal clothes. Casual clothes are much more practical for the times I’m looking after Callie. I have one pair of trousers that I keep almost exclusively for college. But one of the reasons I don’t ware them around Callie is because they have zips on the pockets that she might catch herself on. I’ve never been one to search out designer labels. I think that sometime I should get something like a Trinny & Susannah makeover book for men. But really I’m not one for trying to look trendy I just want to be true to myself – not anti-conformist or anything I hope – just my own look, which must be said is fairly ordinary. I heard somewhere that’s the latest trend anyway! I think it is important to look after myself but what’s on the inside is more important to me that superficial looks. I just hope that somehow my good qualities make their way to the surface.

Chaos and Complexity

I was just browsing through amazon and found this book. In psychology there are a number of approaches or perspectives. The most recent one that I was aware of was the postmodern approach where the many, sometimes contradictory viewpoints are celebrated. Now here comes a new perspective that been influenced by ideas in physics that describe how systems have degrees of complexity and chaos. Mathematicians trying to explain the movement of particles came up with this idea. Some order is necessary for structures to exist but too much order means that these structures do not change and so cannot emerge as new structures. A certain amount of chaos means that new structures are produced that maybe better than the old ones. Now this idea is being applied to social systems: whole societies and smaller groups of people. So it fits in with social sciences such as sociology and social psychology. But now psychologists are seeing that these ideas can be applied to the structures in our thinking and behaviour too. It also appears to have some interesting therapeutic applications that have been investigated.

Sorry for such an intellectual post. But I just get excited about things like this!

Technorati Tags: psychology, chaos theory

Miracles Today

I’ve got a sore throat now. Callie’s not feeling well this afternoon either. I was just thinking about my comment last week about Callie making a ‘miraculous’ recovery just before her train journey. It’s just something we tend to say but it probably undervalues the word. There are some interesting discussions of ‘divine healings’ especially with respect to AIDS at the BBC’s Africa blog. The misguided practice of telling people they are healed without any medical verification has lead to much criticism of such miracles such as this article in the Guardian. Yet there does clearly look like things are happening in Africa. As a psychologist I can see that a positive mental attitude can be beneficial for people with AIDS, yet as a Christian I do believe that God heals today. A few weeks ago Richard Dawkins was on Channel 4 questioning Christianity because pilgrims were healed at Lourdes in The Root of All Evil. It’s a pity this couldn’t be balanced with more on these healings of AIDS in Africa. Still in the meantime we have our sore throats to deal with. But talking about God healing AIDS puts it into perspective; doesn’t it?

Technorati Tag: AIDS

Flickr

This week Nettes and Callie have been staying with a friend in Kent. On Sunday night Callie was really sick. It seems a long time since she’s been sick like that. I suppose babies are still building up their immune system so Callie was sick quite a few times in her first year. She slept a lot of Monday while I was at college but she wasn’t sick again. I feared that she wouldn’t be well enough to travel on Wednesday. But by then she’d made a miraculous recovery.

All this means that I had the day off on Wednesday, as I was my day to look after Callie, but she was travelling with her mum on the train. So I’ve been using the time to play with flickr – a new photo-sharing site that I’ve found. If you scroll down you can see some of the pictures that I’ve loaded onto flickr at the right of the blog. If you click on anyone of them you’ll be taken to my flickr page and you can start exploring my photos as well as others from around the world.

Anyway, I better get on with the housework. See you soon Nettes.

Technorati Tag: flickr

Minority Influence

This week I was looking at minority influence in one of my classes. We were discussing how an idea or opinion that at one time is only held by a few can many effect people and may even become a mainstream idea. For instance, this week door-to-door paper recycling facilities have appeared alongside our normal rubbish collections. It doesn’t seem long ago that environmental concerns like this were very fringy. The same could be said for buying fair trade or organic produce. Minority influence has real applications in many areas including my Christian faith.

The most important key to having that influence is consistency: across the minority, in the individual over time and between what we say and do. People may disagree with the minority only to agree later forgetting where the idea came from. But interestingly minorities’ influence is impaired if they appear too inflexible. Encouragingly a snowball effect can sometimes be seen – as the idea gains momentum more and more people are convinced. I think a good illustration of this is the film Twelve Angry Men where a jury is convinced one by one to turn to the view of the one juror who initially votes innocent.

Listen-Talk

A few months ago Nettes and I took part in a communication workshop for couples. We used a method called Listen-Talk to discuss topics such as stress point, a life-change, a difference between us and an aspect that we appreciate in each other. At the end it was suggested that it would be a good idea to repeat this experience on a regular basis. The other night we finally got round to doing some Listen-Talks again. It was great.

A Listen-Talk involves each of us expressing how we feel about something. The trick is that we must listen carefully and not interrupt our partner. We then have to feedback what they have said while they listen to the feedback and correct any misunderstandings and add anything that has been missed. We then feed that back, and so on – until the fist person feels that they have been heard. It’s also a good idea to hold something like a cushion to designate whose feelings are being discussed.

Listen-Talk is very simple method that is a really good resource for our marriage. We just want to keep doing it.

What is my Vocation?

A book that’s very precious to me is Richard Hallow’s Full Time Father. When Callie was born I was in a very fortunate situation of being able to choose how many hours I could teach at college being on a part time contract with the option of overtime – I just cut back on the overtime. If it wasn’t for this book I could easily think of only my paid employment as my proper job. Yes, teaching psychology is a vocation for me but then so is being a dad to Callie and also a husband to Nettes.

I love teaching psychology and I love being a father. I also think that in today’s world it is much more common to have a number of careers in a lifetime. For instance, I worked as a computer programmer at one time and I may do something different in the future. Perhaps I should think of my vocation as everything that I do including every part of my life, my faith and my interests, everything. Or maybe even just in being the person I am, living out what I believe in the many different roles that I play in life.