Time With God

I have now added a set of photos on flickr for last weekend's Time With God. Please feel free to have a look and read some of the 'writing on the wall' and 'washing line' prayers.

For those that don't know, for a few years now our church has done a 24 hour stint - every 6 months or so - where our centre is open for people to spend some time with God. People have the option of candles, music and the chance to write on the wall – actually on flipchart paper that we blu-tack on the wall. Two or three years ago we started bringing in art materials too and on one occasion we had some prayer stations including last time the idea of writing or drawing your prayers and pegging them to a washing line. We have always said that how people spend the time is between them and God. But this time the feeling was that at least some of the time was to be spent in intercession for the world.

So last weekend we were busy bringing in more candles and throws and beanbags. We provided people with loads of suggestions for prayer including local items and information on international issues such as the current financial crisis. Helen made displays about Christians that we have relationship with including some in Zimbabwe. We used visual prompts such as a globe and maps. For example, Nettes & I laid out an activity to turn weapons fashioned out of tinfoil into ploughshares as people prayed for peace. We also placed some herbs in the kitchen to eat while people could read a meditation on slavery and a prayer for those enslaved today.

Steve Watts, our elder, was excited about finding a set of ‘soaking’ CDs that someone had loaned to us for the time. He soon began to meditate on God relaxing on a beanbag. Through the night we were praying, worshipping and producing pieces of abstract art. People came and went in the early hours of the morning. I had a good time praying with Jackie early in the morning about liberation and we were writing out things that we wanted to get rid of in our own lives as well as in the world - such as fear, insecurity and poverty - and throwing them in a waste bin. On Saturday, Nettes and Callie went and Callie took part by painting a picture of heaven and by praying for China. Callie is only five.

We received some really positive comments about the event and hope to do this again later in the year.

Don't be a shadow

We’ve just finished Time With God which I will blog about later this week. But I just wanted to say that at our church prayer meeting last week we had a good time of silently waiting on God. One phrase that came to my mind was inspired by one of Steve’s photos displayed in the room. (Unfortunately I don't think Steve is on flickr so I can’t link to it.) This phrase has stuck with me all this week: Don’t be a shadow that blocks the light – be transformed so that people can see God in your relationships. I thought it might be worth a mention.

Soup Run

A group of us were out last night in Birmingham with Paul and Jackie Atkin giving out soup and rolls as well as some blankets, from a van. We had a good time chatting and listening, building relationships with those we met - even though one homeless guy was drunk another a bit aggressive to his mates. Paul prayed with one man. I had a good conversation with another who asked about enlightenment! Soon we got onto exploring what Jesus meant when he said to love our enemies. And one chap was just walking around the van until we left because he felt it was a safe place.

Related posts:
Down and Out in Birmingham
Churches really are working together

Why I am so proud of my wife

I met my wife Nettes eight years ago through a Christian dating website – Christian Connection. I have so many reasons to be proud of her. I love her creativity. I love her artistic talent. The list could go on.

We have always tried to share the domestic chores and child care but I find that Nettes is often left doing more than her fair share. I know we’re not the only ones. But I think she is extremely patient with me.

I love her heart for doing mission here in the inner city of Birmingham. I love the way she reaches out to people. She just loves mixing with people in the neighbourhood. I love the way she has made friends with asylum seekers. And I love her enthusiasm to meet people through our church's Drop In.

This week she came home with a bundle of leaflets about social enterprise. A friend had set up a successful social enterprise called Sport4Life. "Here are some organisations we could contact to see if we could do something like that," she said. "Perhaps this could be the next step with the ministry to the homeless?" I just love the way she is always striving to move forward in God.

I love you Nettes. Happy Saint Valentine's Day!

Sea Parable

Sea Parable is a moving little three minute cartoon by Andi Mac that encapsulates all of Church history and the Church's reluctance to evangelise. It really packs a punch.

Thanks to Jonny Baker for this link.

Charismissional

Currently as a church we are discussing spiritual gifts. And recently on this blog I posted about missional living. So when I found a set of articles that link these two I was understandably excited. Charismissional is written by Robbymac, Brother Maynard and Emerging Grace (now Kingdom Grace). These three appear to have had similar experiences of being leaders in charismatic circles only to become disillusioned by extremes and abuses. But having left their positions they still find themselves passionate about the gifts of the Spirit. In their new settings they are now finding a new outlet for these gifts in missional living. Go on have a look.

Hope in the Snow

"Re-awakener of the earth…
your promise is there to be seen, this day…
be the care that creates the world and renews in apparent barrenness…
For I know that buds will burst from their hard shell,
and spring will follow winter,
and so may I know your unseen hand..."

from the celtic wheel of the year
by tess ward

I nipped out and took this photo of the Viburnum tinus 'Eve Price' in our garden. Flowering with red blossom it looked lovely covered in snow. I thought the photo went well with this prayer from the little book I use for my devotionals. So I put the two together in this post.

25 Things About Me

on facebook here

Is the Bible the Word of God?

There is an interesting discussion on this following this cartoon at ASBO Jesus. I would certainly say that no one version is more inspired than another.

I would also add that literal interpretations must give way to responsible hermeneutics. We must appreciate, for example, the symbolic nature of the book of Revelation and also think carefully about the style of the creation narrative. Too much energy has been wasted debating creationism - Indiana Jones like explorers are even trying to find Noah’s Ark!

I agree that God speaks to us today through the Bible and points us to Jesus who is the word of God. But should we call the Bible itself the word of God too?

On top of this the doctrine of inerrancy has been a big red herring for many Christians. I like David Matthew’s notes on the book Spiration of Scripture that show us we can reject inerrancy and still call the Bible the word of God.

So is the Bible the word of God? Even though I would call Jesus the word of God and I don't think we should always take the Bible literally and I wouldn't agree with inerrancy, I still think that ultimately my answer is... 'Yes! the Bible is the word of God'.

What would you say?

Related Post: Fear, Faith and Change: part of a series on the Awareness Course that compares how Islam interprets Quran with how Christians interpret the Bible.

Update: Here is a good article by Aaron Rathburn. Aaron is a blogger who is connected to the same network of churches that I am: Biblical Inerrancy From The Bible or Enlightenment?

Churches really are working together

Tomorrow and the following Friday I’m covering for Helen in our Drop-In while she and Steve go to Africa for a week. You may recall that I blogged about the Drop-In and our mission to the homeless just before Christmas. But what stuck me today was that fact that there will be other Christians there: Christians who are not part of our church or our network.

Christians from different churches working together is not new. But over the past few years we seem to have increasingly been involved in outworking this idea. For instance, just before Christmas we were involved in a massive food parcel programme with a couple of other churches in our neighbourhood through Hope 08.

It’s not just in one off projects that we are getting to work together. There are couple of people in our church that work for Karis Neighbour Scheme. This is a Christian based charity that works with a number of churches showing neighbourly acts of kindness. It was featured on Secret Millionaire last year. My wife also organises a crèche for the ESOL classes that Karis runs. Through this and Karis’s Welcome to Ladywood project we have had the privilege of meeting refugees and asylum seekers who have come to Birmingham.

We also know people through an organisation called Restore that encourages people in a number of churches to befriend asylum seekers.

And now we're involved in a Drop-In and ministry to the homeless that are also supported by Christians from other churches. Yes, we really are all working together to serve our community.


Update: I've now created a set for the Drop-In on flickr.

One Million Decide To Follow Jesus Through One Website

Seriously. This is no joke. Just over one million now have decided to follow Jesus by clicking through LookingforGod.com. Of course it’s more than a click. This website, which is already in many languages, leads people through a process that at the end invites them to pray a prayer of commitment. Over at GodRev.com you can watch the decisions in real time and Google Earth them you want to. Thanks to Andrew Jones for showing me this. Andrew has met Eric Celerier the author of this site and has heard some exciting stories.

In order to protect the responders the site only tells you to town or city where the person on the internet accessed the site from. Many of these decisions are coming from countries where Christians are persecuted and where the church is known to be growing. Locals could well respond with violence if they knew any more precise details. So I don’t think there is any provision to put people in contact with churches.

I would not blame people for being sceptical. The site admits that decisions don’t make disciples. And the gospel message comes over a bit too simplistic and sentimental for me. Perhaps I need to recapture a bit of naivety. One million is some claim but if only a tiny fraction of those are sincere it's still thousands swept into the kingdom. "By setting up this website", Andrew explains, "a transparent process has been created that tells its own story". Each person leaves their record behind. I have no problem believing a million people have confirmed that they have said the prayer on this site. I just wonder what exactly that means.

The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe

I’m enjoying re-discovering some Christian classics to read to Callie. This is an abridged version of C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe illustrated by Christian Birmingham. I have also recently read her a version of Pilgrim’s Progress. And at Christmas we brought her The Children's lllustrated Bible and have worked out a plan that takes her through all the Bible stories in a year. Callie loves books.

Zehnder

I have had a few new reviews of mine added to the Cross Rhythms site. This means that as well as my carols I’ve had a couple of good gospel albums to listen to over Christmas. But recently I’ve also been listening to the album Going Up? by Zehnder. Thanks to Mike Morrell of the Ooze for sending me a copy.

Zehnder is a Christian band from Los Angeles led by twins Tim and Tom Zehnder. Going Up? is mainly upbeat rootsy pop rock but with a range of instruments and styles mixed in. You may be surprised to here the touch of choral and the touch of world music in there. Zehnder are good but what makes the album for me are their lyrics rather than their voices. I’m not sure why the track that they are pushing is Spirit Born - based on John 3 – but you can get that on a free download from their site. Perhaps it’s just because it is so catchy but I can't help wondering if it's to ensure they get recognition by born again evangelicals.

Anyway for me, the more downbeat track I Believe is the stand out of this album. The lyrics show a degree of honesty about struggling with faith that is very rare in Christian music:

In times of war, in times of doubt,
In desperate times you scream about.
In times of pain and times of loss,
Those desperate times up on the cross.

I believe, help my unbelief. I believe, help my unbelief.

In times of joy and times of bliss,
On sunny days you never miss.
The times with you, together free,
Bring Heaven here with certainty.

I believe, help my unbelief. I believe, help my unbelief.

And oh the grief, to say goodbye,
Sing out wailing through labored sigh.
Swing white hot fury to black despair,
Dare you to find your God in there!

I believe, help my unbelief. I believe, help my unbelief.

You can buy the album from from CD Baby or from Zehnder themselves.

Noodles for Christmas Dinner

This Christmas we were invited to Christmas dinner by some friends of ours Yumi and Yenfu. Yumi cooked an amazing meal for us of noodles, rice, cucumber, sandwiches, chips, chicken, gammon... it just kept coming. When we had just about finished a pile of sausages appeared.

Nettes got me a camera for Christmas so of course I took it along to try it out. Here’s Callie just about to tuck into the feast. You can see a few more of my experiments on flickr.

Down and Out in Birmingham

On Thursday afternoon, I went round the city centre with Paul Atkin giving out some presents to some homeless guys. Between us we must have given away about a dozen packages, each containing a hat, a scarf, a pair of gloves, and a pair of socks, toothbrush, toothpaste, soap and deodorant. Many of the guys shook our hands and one even gave us a big hug. He said that he had wanted some gloves for some time and that it was lovely to wear a new woollen hat. Many of us had donated the contents and Paul had already given out lots of these presents and has since packed some more. Paul knows these guys as he has been working with them for about ten years now.

Paul came to our church when he married Jackie this year. Our little daughter Callie was one of their bridesmaids. Since then our church has launched a ministry to the homeless headed up by Paul and Jackie. They spend their time talking to people and helping people in practical ways such as showing them the right forms to fill in to get a flat or distributing clothes, blankets and sleeping bags that have been donated.

On Fridays, we use our little church building as a Drop In Centre. People will come for a coffee & sandwiches, play pool or dominoes and to do some art. I have been dropping in myself for half an hour or so most weeks and mixing with the people. This Friday, Steve our church elder, made us all a glorious curry as a Christmas treat. There was about thirty of us there and we knew that several would be sleeping on the streets that night. We have seen a number of people from the Drop In join us in our Sunday church gatherings at the community centre. And not surprisingly last week there were many there for our church’s Christmas dinner. It is just great to be around these people.

There is a very good account of what we are doing ministering to the homeless in Birmingham, from the website for our network of churches – Lifelink International. It is worth watching the videos. They are not just people talking. There are some good shots of the Drop In and the work on the streets. It gives you the flavour of what we are doing.

Advent

'I got a bit confused about Advent yesterday. I thought it was about Christmas, a good friend tells me it's about when Jesus will return and then Wikipedia cleared the whole thing up by letting me know it's about both!' blogged Carla from 24-7 Prayer. I can identify with this as someone who has only discovered the Christian calendar in the past few years while I have been using the lectionary as a basis for my Bible readings. Anyway here I am again in Advent.

As I write this Nettes and our little daughter Callie are busy with our now traditional Jesse Tree. This year Nettes constructed a papier-mâché tree based on a South American Tree of Life. We just love searching for new ideas. Here are some that we recently found. If you want an alternative idea for a decoration – I think this one might be appropriate in our economic climate. Or if you want to see an art project in the community what about this for an advent calendar? There are loads more on this post by Jonny Baker. I’m sure there are many more ideas around?

The Church That Is Left Behind

My wife, Nettes, brought this book back from a leaders’ weekend with our network of churches. I was very interested as I’m in the process of reading Perriman’s the Coming of the Son of Man. Perriman’s book is such a tight argument that I can’t skim it without losing the plot. So I may be wrong, but from our conversations the two books appear to be converging on similar conclusions. Kobus’s book looks lighter and spends more time outlining and debunking pre-millennial theology especially extreme dispensationalism. The title is of course a reference to the best selling series of novels based on pre-millennial theology.

Having leaned towards an amillenial or postmillenial stance for many years, and more recently been interested in the transmillenial viewpoint, I tend to forget that many Christians either haven’t thought about this or, particularly in the States, have pretty much swallowed the whole pre-mill/dispensationalist argument. So I was amazed to see this hidden camera stunt on Aaron Rathburn’s blog back in September. You could only do this in America :)



I guess in some quarters these ideas are still going strong. Hopefully Kobus’s book will provide a much needed antidote to some in our circles who have picked up some of these thoughts from the God Channel or maybe from the Left Behind novels themselves.

God Bless Barack Obama

It sounds like euphoria in the States for many now that Obama has got in. The internet is full of OTT statements about this new president. It seems in Britain that many are pleased as, compared with Bush, he appears to have a very different approach to Afghanistan and Iraq. The general feeling is that we will be glad to see the back of Bush who pulled us into a war that we did not agree with. It is with these issues that I feel Obama could be a champion of righteousness and justice. Some Christians may disagree but personally I feel this is a greater issue than Obama’s stance on abortion or gay marriages.

All this talk about change for the better reminds me of when Blair became prime minister. I wonder how long it will last. I also wonder how much of his popularity is due to media hype, as we heard so much more about Obama than McCain in the lead up to the election. But if Obama can take America - and the rest of us - through the current financial crisis well and handle the Middle East and the War on Terror sensibly I think he has the potential to be one of American’s greatest presidents. I also hope that Obama’s election will be a step forward for racial equality in the States. But who knows? Only time will tell.

Thanks to Jack Thielepape and Kris Kros on flickr for the photo.

UPDATE: I've just seen this little book by a Christian publisher. It's a biography that emphasises Obama's faith in Jesus and is written for kids aged 9-12. It looks good.

Interfaith Dialogue

I’ve just got back from watching my little daughter Callie’s assembly on Diwali. Being such a multi-cultural school means that many different festivals are celebrated. When we were praying together Callie recently asked if I would pray that she will remember to talk to people about Jesus – which I did. But also I reminded her to listen to other people and ask them what they believe.

Interfaith dialogue is a major theme in the Awareness Course that a small group of us are still working through in our church. We would not identify with fundamentalist Christians who see evangelism as a monologue, yet we do believe that that our message is of vitally importance. Topics we have looked at recently - the incarnation, Christ’s mission to preach good news to the poor and the sending out of seventy in Luke 10 – all show that we do have a vital message.

An arrogant fundamentalism can be very dangerous and often gives a very wrong impression of religion. I’ve just been reading in Erling Thu’s blog about his visit to Orissa and accounts of the Christian’s being violently persecuted by fundemetalist Hindus. Yes, I heard about battles in the story of Rama and Sita this morning but I know that fighting is not what the Hindu faith stands for. These accounts need to be understood in their cultural context in the same way that the battles in the Old Testament do.

Surely true religion involves humble conversations about our faith without hurting one another, even though we are fervently convinced of its truth? Unfortunately, the term 'interfaith dialogue' has become associated with ideas such as 'all roads lead to God' and 'you tell me your truth and I'll tell you mine'. Is it possible to rescue this term and learn from it the idea of listening to others ideas and beliefs with interest as part of a more humble way of doing personal evangelism? What do you think?

Update: See this related post by Daniel Story on respecting those who don't believe.

Time With God 2008

Last weekend our church did our regular Time With God. This is a 24 hour period when our building is open for us to pray, read or however we want to spend some time with God in a similar way to 24-7 prayer. We have candles, music and plenty of paper for people to draw a picture on or write down prophecies, scriptures or prayers to hang around the building. This time as a family we contributed a few beanbags for the ‘comfort zones’. And there was some play-dough to work with as we prayed. During the night I made a model of the ‘body of Christ’ by making many small figures and molding them into one. I spent some praying with others, did a bit of reading but for a lot of the time I sat in God’s presence with the lights off and the candle burning. As we discussed the time on Sunday morning I was encouraged to hear that others had lit the candles and turned out the lights too. Some whom a few years ago would never have dreamt of doing so. And it was great to see the prayers that people had written pegged out on the 'washing line'.