Thanks Erwin!

Having devoured Erwin McManus’ fabulous book, The Barbarian Way a couple of years back it was so cool to go and hear Erwin speak at Kerith Community Church in Bracknell this weekend.

It was such a good day…inspirational on all kinds of levels.

Erwin is such a dynamic, engaging and challenging speaker; it’s hard not to be motivated by what he says. A special word too for the beautifully produced short films which acted as bookends to each session. Each was a poignant and thought provoking film which made you really think. Amazing stuff.

There was so much to compute…so much good stuff to take on board that I’ve not had time to put my thoughts down. I’m still processing it all. I’m kinda hoping there’s someone better and brighter than me who was there, who is going to commit their thoughts on the day to the blogosphere! Hopefully, though, as the days go on I can actually manage to get some of my response down on paper.

Most significantly I was glad that through all the teaching, Erwin constantly brought us back to Jesus.

Also, it was fascinating to hear something of the story of Erwin’s tribe - Mosaic in LA and the rich diversity of the community there. One phrase that jumped out to me

…”we like people who are not like us”.

I love it!

It was great too to hook up with Neil Nakamoto from Mosaic, one of I think eight guys who’ve been travelling with Erwin on this European trip. A kinder and more gracious guy you’ll struggle to find. Knowing that Neil, Eric Bryant and Adrian Kohler are on staff at Mosaic with Erwin must mean those guys alone make up part of a rocking team!

…wonderful too to finally meet Sam and Rachel Radford from Mosaic in Sheffield, all the guys from The Salvation Army in Histon and fellow Twitterer Ben Pocock

Anyhow…an awesome day...I bought my copy of another Erwin book, “Wide Awake” – looking forward to reading it.

Thanks, Erwin!

If you know nothing about Erwin or Mosaic, the stuff online is really worth checking out.

The Forgotten Ways

Those lovely folks at Amazon were kind enough to send me a copy of Alan Hirsch’s The Forgotten Ways + reactivating the missional church, so I’m looking forward to getting on and reading it. Alan’s buddy and writing partner Michael Frost’s work has featured heavily on johnnylaird lately, as Michael’s book EXILES has had a profound – and even unsettling - effect on the way I look at being/doing Church. It’s always a good sign when a book is so good you want to share it with someone else, so I’ve passed my copy of EXILES over to my buddy in Sheffield.

If The Forgotten Ways hits the spot like EXILES, it will be a good read.

I’d also ordered Alan & Michael’s collaborative effort - The Shaping of Things to Come - at the same time as The Forgotten Ways, so that should be pitching up shortly.

For more on Alan Hirch and The Forgotten Ways check out the new(ish) blog

Sheffield

At the weekend, Jan the kids and I shared a great weekend with some good friends in Sheffield. It was fantastic just to hang out in their beautiful home with their wonderful family and just ….chill. Thanks for your hospitality, guys!

On top of that, we were able to bounce around some thoughts about mission, Kingdom, community and what is means to be Church.

Also, it was interesting to hear about St Thomas Church Sheffield, and the way things are done there.

Check our their site to get a perspective, and the vid’s worth a watch to see how they are connecting with the student population in the city.

J