Hat Tip

I want to share this post, not to take a pop at a particular congregation, or to heap specific criticism on my own tribe, but simply to hi-light that sometimes in Church we are so easily tempted to get hung up on all the wrong stuff.

Check out what spasmodic but hard-hitting blogger Matt Little has to say about the time he went to Church wearing a hat.

Books for the last part of the year

I treated myself to a bit of a blow-out on books this weekend. This should keep me in reading material for the train ride to the office...probably until the end of the year.

Here's what I picked up:

Adventures in missing the point

- Brian McLaren & Tony Campolo

An Emergent Manifesto of Hope

- Doug Pagitt & Tony Jones

God is Closer Than You Think

- John Ortberg

Intelligent Church

- Steve Chalke with Anthony Watkis

The Irresistible Revolution - Shane Claiborne

Looking forward to some serious reading.

Do you having any books you are planning to read soon?

CCAT in The Guardian

Good to see Croydon Community Against Trafficking getting a mention in The Guardian in this piece.

Stop The Traffik!

2love

I’m loving these new Tees from The Salvation Army in Australia’s new youth department, 2love which I guess has been influenced by ALOVE in the UK. (The department…not the tee shirt)

…the best of times…..

Just once in a while you have a near perfect weekend.

Last weekend we hooked up with some friends from way back….to catch up, eat some wonderful food in beautiful tranquil surroundings, laugh together, and revel in each others’ company.

…the best of times…..

Who cares if it rained nearly all day!

Peace & blessings

J

Emerging in the news

Thank you to Andrew Jones AKA TallSkinnyKiwi for hi-lighting this piece in the Austin Statesman.

The article features - for the most part - the ministry of Vox Veniae, and the personal journey of lead Pastor, Gideon Tsang and his family, as they

sell their spacious North Austin home and move into a modest 800-square-foot house in an East Austin neighborhood.

I've kind been interested in the ministry of Vox Veniae for quite a time now. Looks like they are doing some great work down there.

In a cool little piece of synchronetic frisson , one of Pernell Goodyear's Freeway buddies, Kev Chen is heading to Texas to work with Vox Veniae, as mentioned in this post.

I like the quote from Gid at the tail end of the piece:

The message of Jesus that is preached in church services means nothing, he says, "if it doesn't change how we live seven days a week."

HT directly to Gideon for the pic. It's him! He has a hugely impressiveFLICKR collection.

Church website story

...if you are involved in the web for Church, you could do a lot worse than checking out this post at Drew Goodmanson's blog.

...really interesting to read about the evolution of Kaleo Church's web presence.

Top work, Drew! (..and thanks for the pic from your blog)

BTW - any Facebookers out there, might also want to check out the Blogging Church group.

Shane Claiborne coming to Roots

It’s way,way...way off, but it’s exciting to hear that Shane Claiborne will be speaking at The UK Salvation Army’s Roots conference next year. The theme for 2008 is “Going Public”

I’m yet to have read his book The Irresistible Revolution - living as an ordinary radical, but Shane sounds like the kind of guy that should be given a hearing at Roots, so I’m pleased he’s going to be there.

For more on Shane Claiborne & his ministry, check out The Simple Way

If you were planning on going, it’s best to book early, as there are usually is a “sooner you book, the less you pay” deal in place.


Other speakers will include Nims Obunge and Jeff Lucas.

LivingHomes

I’ve been meaning to share this beautiful bit of flash about LivingHomes that I picked up via WIRED over a month ago. Check it out.

The whole eco-architectural project is exciting, and there’s some pretty fine & elegant Flash work on the site too.

Take the tour….makes you wanna put down a deposit, up sticks & move there!

Things & saw and did on holiday…in no particular order:

Hung out with Janet & the kids

Slept

Bought some more books in addition to the ones I already had bought to read (Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope & Brian Bailey & Terry Storch’s The Blogging Church ) , and started to read them too.

Worked on the garden….

Enjoyed a ruby with Mr & Mrs Parker

Started to watch Heroes…finally showing on UK terrestrial TV.

Ate

Discovered the joy of sitting down in a Krispy Kreme Restaurant for breakfast

Shopped

Went to the beach at West Wittering

Barely blogged at johnnylaird, but lurked a little on some of my favo(u)rites

Hung out with friends…and usually ate with them

Succumbed to the notion of getting a Blackberry. My Curve arrives any day now

Finally gave into Mac lust, having visited the Mac Store at Bluewater…I want one!

Ate…again

Did the Brighton thing – nearly lost one of my prized Ocean Minded flip-flops/slippahs to the crashing waves on the beach.

Had lots of late evenings, and lazy mornings.

Saw Bob the Builder with the kids at The Science Museum

Facebooked

Visited Winston Churchill’s old stomping ground at Chartwell.

U2 Yahweh

HT to Danielle for reminding me about this vid.