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.

Culture

Those of us who read Scripture often assume this passage from Romans talks about the “culture” outside of our faith community…our ekklesia…our Corps. I wonder how much it can also be applied to the very culture of our tribe.

Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking... The Message

• This son of the regiment is becoming increasingly troubled by our excessive use of Christianese and the tendency to retreat into our Salvationist culture bubble.

• This CSM is finding it hard to cope with our love of the acronym…IHQ, THQ, DHQ, ISB, YPSM….and occasionally toys with the idea that some of those letters represent anachronism as much as acronym. Why do we have to talk in riddles?

• This uniform wearing Salvationist is struggling with the weekly donning of the blue serge..

I don’t have a problem with being visually identified with The Salvation Army. In fact, I’m glad to be so, but I’m not a great fan of the particular FORM of uniform we’ve worn since the early ‘70s or thereabouts.

I’m no longer convinced that the uniform in it’s present form is broadly recognized by society at large....

Many folks seem not to be able to distinguish it – particularly when we are wearing white shirts- from any number of similar uniforms. Security staff, Airline or Parking attendants etc.

White shirts aren’t always that slimming!

I find serge heavy & uncomfortable

Sundays are the only day of the week I have to wear a tie

Somehow our buttoned-down starched uniforms don’t speak to me of this radical Army of Salvation

I’m a big fan of The Salvation Army’s Red Shield logo, and would rather see that employed more readily as part of our uniform


Yet…..I am a Salvationist…probably to the core…inspired by the words of William Booth when he said “I’ll Fight”…but first, and most importantly I’m trying hard to be a follower of The Way of Jesus.
Love God, Love Others

Mucky Paws

Hat tip to Stewart Cutler for pointing me in the direction of elegant little Abbotsford Parish Church site, and in particular Mucky Paws, described by their Rev Roddy Hamilton as “A collection of contemporary liturgies and creative moments from the last month in Abbotsford.”

There’s a simple beauty which seems to come out through everything done at Abbotsford. Check the Photo Albums for a glimpse of that beauty.

If you want some wonderful original liturgies, just bounce Roddy Hamilton an e-mail through the site, and he’ll kindly oblige

One of the liturgies I received is just beautiful:

The Jesus we miss

When we’ve finished with the theological discussion and the denominational differences
may we discover you, O Jesus, laughing at our debates
When we’ve repeated all our creeds and affirmed all our doctrines
may we discover you, O Jesus, looking for hand to feed the hungry
When we’ve preach all the sermons and established all our church credentials
may we discover you, O Jesus, drinking tea with the left-outs
healing saviour
and human friend
prince of peace
and heavenly rebel
wisdom to the wise
and comforter to the lost
Lord of glory
and companion on the road
We come to meet you
the Jesus we miss
who explains all of heaven
in the squeezing of our hand

rgh
30th January 2009
Epiphany 4B
Jesus, everyday, seeing

Qnoomaharvestf 09

Are you going to Qnoomaharvestf 09?

Its a kind of diginetworkingworshipyonlinecommunity held in Bognor..we all wear dark framed glasses & whisper talk in ancient Hebrew

Why Bognor?

It’s what Jesus would do...and at qnoomaharvestf we are big on WWJD (and curries)...also it’s hard to say Bognor without smiling

How much will it cost?

£1500.early bird £1700+free spectacles+qnoomaf tee..retweet for place in prize draw..free coffee all week for emergent churches!


When asked if Macs were compulsory, Qnoomaharvestf founder and chief cultural maven @darrinreeves said

..Macs are so qnoomaharvestf '08. '09 we are living Celtic tradition, writing on animal hides whilst listening to the wind...

Here's a man who clearly knows what he's talking about!

Jason’s thoughts on Movements

I love this fabulous post - The Thing About Movements - from Jason Salamun’s excellent LIVE FREE blog.

From where I sit – as a Salvationist – it’s a timely reminder, and so good that I wanted to share it here:

If you want to kill a movement.

Institutionalize it.

Make it the norm.

Get people comfortable.

Movements are like kites, they need a wind to rise against.

Movements tell a different story than what is being told.

Movements require an antagonist.

If you look at movements in history, this is a common thread.

Jesus sparked a movement of love against the backdrop of a fallen world.

America was a movement of freedom against the backdrop of a monarchy.

Rescue Missions are a movement of generosity against the backdrop of poverty.

But.

If you want to ignite a movement.

Don’t just find an enemy.

Find a cause.

A rallying cry.

A better story.

Fix your eyes on it.

Advance in that direction.

And don’t stop.

When you encounter some wind.

Grin.

Because it’s not just resistance.

It’s traction.

And you’re on your way to becoming a genuine movement.

Just make sure you’re moving in the right direction.

Thanks Jason!

Jason is founding Pastor at Project Church in Rapid City, South Dakota. Read his blog – it’s much better than mine!

HT to Karen Yee Lim at SayConnect for the pic It speaks to me of life and energy, and I'm always glad to see a Salvationist in uniform who doesn't look like a security guard! ;-)

Conference Junkie?

OK.

I confess.

Given the right set of opportunities…being in the right place at the right time…having the available funds….I could easily become a conference junkie.

In some ways it’s just as well that I’m this side of the Atlantic, because this early part of 2009 has seen a raft of fascinating events that I would loved to have been able to get to.

Since January 09, we’ve seen The Idea Camp and Catalyst West, and now Q.

For me, there’s something hugely attractive and stimulating about these hothouses for stories, big ideas and vision casting.

Web presence is high in all of these cases, so you might want to check them about.

HT to Q for the pic

The real deal...

Check out Headphonaught's blog for this account of this weeks trip out on the Sally Army Soup run in Glasgow.

This is the real deal.

HT to Thomas for the pic.

St George

Happy Saint Georges Day to all my English buddies!

Let’s do lunch!

An interesting bit of synchronicity for me here:

The Times are running a piece today called "the rise of the office canteen", outlining corporate efforts to vastly improve the food and lunchtime environments of workers.

It’s a good little read, if a bit idealistic & utopian. I’m sure many people grinding away at work will barely recognise the places described, but its fun all the same.

…From the Fairtrade chocolate to the in-house sashimi, everything is free in the state-of-the-art staff restaurant ….

Freshly made sultana muffins, a Victoria sponge and paninis are on today…

… everything from home-made yoghurt with seasonal compôtes to superfood salads…

I guess it’s no surprise - because it’s The Times - that it sounds like the Sunday Supplement brought to life!

They do give some great tips on how make a cracking lunchbox of delicious sandwiches, though.

This notion of the hip packed lunch slots in nicely alongside the fabulously inventive GRAZE idea I’ve just come across.

The funky people at GRAZE produce wonderful little biodegradable cardboard lunch boxes full of healthy goodies for you to snack on through the day. You order online, and it comes whizzing through the post to you. Nice idea. Nice food…Really nice site.

(HT to @james_brooks from ArtistsforChrist for pointing it out)

Thanks to The Times for the pic

Mahalo Revolution Hawaii

Redeemer!

I know my Redeemer Lives.

That's the life changing message of Easter.

Space Up!

This is not new news….but it’s new to me.

I wouldn’t mind getting my hands on one of these funky little beasts should they ever materialize.

Hope it doesn’t go the way of the Microbus, which never arrived.

HT to Autoblog for the pics

Happy Birthday Ev!

For each of my nephews and niece I posted a little Birthday tribute, so it would be remiss of me not to do the same for my sister-in-law, Evelyn…even though it’s day or two late!

Ev is my allie
One half of an outstanding dynamic duo, Don & Ev
My vacation running partner
An outstanding example for her kids
A mighty prayer warrior
The one who encourages me that there is life beyond the internet, and that grocery shopping online is not the answer to all my woes! ;-)
Love you my sister

Do we need a WIRED UK?

If you know me well at all, you will know that I’m a bit a magazine head.

It seems to me that I’ve been interested in mags, and have poured over their content week in week out for most of my life.

I was even prompted at one point to title a blogpost “My life through magazines”.

Having said that – and this is hugely out of character; I’m not a natural cynic – I’m finding it really hard to drum up any enthusiasm for the new UK version of WIRED, which hit the streets earlier in the month.

Despite having read the original US version of WIRED for years, the positive endorsements of some of my trusted Twitter buddies and even a tiny piece of direct Twitter dialog from UK Deputy Editor @BenHammersley I still haven’t shelved out and bought a copy.

It may be that I’ve become increasingly drawn to online mags like Worldchanging and Inhabitat or that my world feels increasingly borderless and connected. Geography, identity and time zone feel less fixed and fuzzier now that the internet is not simply an add-on or a tool but something that is woven deep into the minutiae of daily life.

The natural extension of this for me is this: does a mag that purports to look to the future really need some kind of localized version? I’m not sure it does

Is there something in all of this, or am I just turning into an awkward little beggar?

Don’t take my word for it, though. Check out WIRED UK for yourself. It will fly or die regardless of what I think.

If I buy a copy, I might have to eat my words

Third Culture

hhhmnnn.....interesting


Third Culture Video - Short from Newsong Media on Vimeo.

Thanks to Tom Elenbaas for this: Love. Jesus. Simple

It’s a rare thing when someone else’s blogpost resonates so deeply with your own experience.

Today, I found one such post. It so articulately sums up my own feelings that it bears sharing here.

Here’s what Tom Elenbaas writes with the heading…

Love. Jesus. Simple.

I love to think on deep things. Really, I do. I like puzzles (not jigsaw, I’m horrible at those… but puzzles about reality and what’s meaningful). I like thinking about complex things and trying to come up with solutions to difficult problems. It’s sick, I know, but it’s who I am.

But I’m also realizing how simple my faith could be, and probably should be. Love God; Love People; follow Jesus. That pretty well sums it up.

Of couse life is complicated and throws all kinds of difficult, confusing, demanding, and complex things our way, but I’ve been thinking a lot more about just trying to love God, love people, and follow Jesus more in everything I do. It’s simple, but not easy. In fact, it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever tried to do. Loving God is hard, and some people are just difficult to love. And yet I find that the more I love God and love people, the more I like who I am becoming. Simple. And following Jesus, well, that’s really hard. Jesus cared for the poor, spoke against the cultural streams of his day, became an outcast, didn’t have much stuff or security, was misunderstood by his friends and family, was humiliated, tortured, and killed all with complete non-violence and even deeper love at the hardest times.

I wonder how much I could change if I just tried to love God, love people, and follow Jesus and let the rest take care of itself? If I’m honest, I’m not sure I’m radical enough to be that simple, although I’d really like to be.

I love to think on deep things. Really, I do. I like puzzles (not jigsaw, I’m horrible at those… but puzzles about reality and what’s meaningful). I like thinking about complex things and trying to come up with solutions to difficult problems. It’s sick, I know, but it’s who I am.

But I’m also realizing how simple my faith could be, and probably should be. Love God; Love People; follow Jesus. That pretty well sums it up.

Of couse life is complicated and throws all kinds of difficult, confusing, demanding, and complex things our way, but I’ve been thinking a lot more about just trying to love God, love people, and follow Jesus more in everything I do. It’s simple, but not easy. In fact, it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever tried to do.

Loving God is hard, and some people are just difficult to love. And yet I find that the more I love God and love people, the more I like who I am becoming. Simple. And following Jesus, well, that’s really hard. Jesus cared for the poor, spoke against the cultural streams of his day, became an outcast, didn’t have much stuff or security, was misunderstood by his friends and family, was humiliated, tortured, and killed all with complete non-violence and even deeper love at the hardest times.

I wonder how much I could change if I just tried to love God, love people, and follow Jesus and let the rest take care of itself? If I’m honest, I’m not sure I’m radical enough to be that simple, although I’d really like to be.

Blessed

I’ve been really enjoying the teaching of Erwin McManus on the Beatitudes at the Mosaic Podcast.

If you want to explore Jesus’ teaching from that famous Sermon on the Mount, the podcast is a great intro….

Thanks, Erwin

HT to Mosaic for the great pic

Haiku: kinda

I like this blog

You might like it too

You can tell @jasonsalamun if you do

Erwin McManus coming to Belfast & Bracknell

There’s surprisingly little out there about this event on the web yet, but I was glad to hear that Mosaic’s Erwin McManus is heading to the UK in May 2009.

Willow Creek UK are hosting Innovate at venues in Belfast & Bracknell.

Erwin is a passionate follower of Jesus and a gifted communicator constantly looking forward and stretching his audience.

His preaches get a regular airing on my iPod via the Mosaic podcast, so I’m hoping to have a free slot in my diary to get along to the Bracknell event


HT to Team Burbank for the Erwin pic

Oxted Bikes

It’s intriguing that a number of the very few blogs coming out of my little home town of Oxted have a bit of a bike theme going on.

Check out Rural Phlogging by @Crossy, and a new discovery for me - Pelz's Triathlon Page.

There’s also a reference to riding in Oxted at this old post on Jason Tolmie’s fabulously dark, and disarmingly honest blog.

(Disclaimer: If the occasional sweary word offends you, don’t go there)

Big thanks to Jason for this excellent biking pic.

Mahalo for the tees

Just thought I'd share a pic of these great long-sleeved tees from the guys at Revolution Hawaii.

Great ministry
Great clothing

Check out their Facebook Group here

Mahalo for the tees, guys

From web to face-to-face

I’m looking forward to hooking up with This Fragile Tent’s Chris and Michaela Goan in Dunoon later in the month.

It’ll be a long drive for us from Oxted, but Chris’ description of the weekend makes it sound so exciting:

The next of the years meetings will be at Chris and Michaela’s house in Dunoon.

They live in a big old house with great views over the Clyde, lots of corners to chat/be quiet/pray/debate, and open fire, good company and a warm welcome… Posh it ain’t, but it is at it’s best when full of people.

Hopefully this will be a chance to meet up with new and old friends, share some ideas and to find out some specific stuff about what has been happening in Dunoon.

We will also use some of this time for prayer and retreat- setting up some prayer and worship stuff.

Depending on how things go, we might watch a film about new church stuff in Canada, do some music- who knows?

You are invited to come for as long as you like- an afternoon, a day or stay over for the weekend- we have quite a bit of space, and other members of Aoradh have more…

Personally, we believe that time spent sharing and making community is beautiful, and we hope you will not rush away.

Perhaps as we celebrate the Kingdom, we also build it.

Put People First/Strangers into Citizens

There are two campaigns coming up that have grabbed my attention, and have received the backing of my tribe….one at a national level, and one at a grass roots local level.

Put People First has an official statement of support from The Salvation Army in the UK and Ireland:

The Put People First event on 28th March has the full support of The Salvation Army. The church service and the march through London are a perfect opportunity to ask members of the G20 to consider the well being of the world's most vulnerable people. The Salvation Army is an international movement, part of the universal Christian Church, committed to meet human need and work for social justice without discrimination. It is a privilege to join with the voices of many others to call for action on poverty and climate change.

The second campaign – Strangers into Citizens – has been picked up and promoted by Salvationist leaders in the East End of London in Stratford and Stepney, which in itself is interesting. The East End has for hundreds of years been a hugely diverse area with waves of immigration from all over the world over many generations. It is also the place where The Salvation Army first came into existence in Victorian England as a response to the crippling spiritual and material poverty that gripped society.

It’s an interesting reflection for this time & place that The Sally Army’s work in Stepney uses “Hope:asha” as a pre-fix to it’s Salvation Army moniker.

The Ashes2Asha blog is a good place to find out more about “Strangers into Citizens”

Here’s how they describe who they are:

Hope:asha - The Salvation Army in Stepney has been described in many different ways. Often we're referred to as a church, 'corps' or Christian community, but equally we're seen as a community group or local community activists. We hope we're all these things and more, as we show our dedication to Jesus Christ and to the Stepney community in which we live. Oh, and if you're wondering, 'asha' means hope in the Bengali language.

Check out the Facebook Group for further information on The Salvation Army supporting Strangers Into Citizens

Peppermint Filled Piñatas: “Breaking Through Tolerance and Embracing Love!” Audio Version

A couple of Christmases ago I picked up a copy* of Eric Bryant’s excellent Peppermint Filled Piñatas:

I read it twice over on that holiday, as I enjoyed padding around our family base for the period, deep in snowbound rural Pennsylvania – a world away from Eric’s home in LA, and the location of Mosaic, where he does life, family and faith together with a richly diverse community of Jesus followers.

The good news is the Audio version of Peppermint Filled Piñatas is now available.

I’m so glad the subtitle of the book is “Breaking Through Tolerance and Embracing Love!”

I’m not comfortable with others simply “tolerating” my family, friends, and colleagues who have a different racial, cultural and social background to me. I want them to be embraced and loved!

Thanks, Eric, for this great little book…look forward to hearing the Audio version.

* For me, the highest recommendation of a book, is when I’ve passed it on to another, so my hard copy of Peppermint Filled Piñatas is currently with @MrsAjp

The “open plains of front line mission”

For some days I’ve been thinking a lot about a phrase that Phil Wall used in a piece I had blogged about earlier in the month here.

(If you haven’t read it already, I recommend that you do)

Talking about The Salvation Army (think Christian mission movement, not thrift store) Phil says this:

…numbers of our brightest and best(are)leaving, choosing the open plains of front line mission rather than the ball and chain of religious structural dogma …

I’m wondering who they are - not because I believe they don’t exist - because clearly they do. I can think of a number of specific individuals who I guess are pursuing this route, but I’ll refrain from mentioning them in case I’m barking up the wrong tree. There are some great people in this bracket, though.

In starting to wonder who these people are, it making me think does it…can it…include those who are skimming around the increasingly fluid edges of our Movement?

It makes me think quite how many of us fall into this categorization?

Can it include those radical Salvationist voices who still find themselves within the Army in one way or another - although perhaps in a quite different place in terms of their calling, role and purpose than the one they started in?

There are also a good number of outstanding people who have left the employ of The Salvation Army, and gone on to initiate or contribute to dynamic and vital ministries, while still being wholly committed to their Salvation Army community at a local level. Phil with HOPEhiv and his friend and colleague Russell Rook of Chapel Street would be prime examples, and there are many more.

It’s interesting and exciting that in recent years that our tribe has become a lot more open to dialog with other Jesus followers either through individual relationships or more concrete partnerships other Churches and organizations. It seems - thankfully - that we are less likely to cut ties with those who – for whatever reason - could no longer adhere to all of those distinctives that for some make us The Salvation Army. (There’s room a whole other blog post on that subject alone!)

It’s also good news to me that there is now a greater degree of diversity in the various expressions of Church found with our The Salvation Army.

I’m encouraged that there is more than enough room for communities as diverse as the 614 Network, Hope:asha, Raynes Park Community Church and The FRWY within The Salvation Army. They are just a few examples of the huge variation in expressions of Church which find themselves within the Sally Army.


HT to West Sonoma County, CA’s West County Gazette for the pic

Oxted makes the papers

It’s a huge rarity for my home town to make it to the national papers, and a cursory blog search rarely throws up anything of much interest, so I need to give a shout out to @crossy of Rural Phlogging for bringing my attention to this front page article from this Weekend’s Torygraph.

It’s worth a read if you want to get a little peep into Oxted life!

HT to Phil Aylen for the wonderful picture of the quite beautiful Stoneyfield in Oxted

Two Chris’

Let me point you in the direction of this excellent & fascinating post from Chris Goan at This Fragile Tent, where he wrestles with the concept of friendship and the internet.

I found Chris’ great piece hot on the heels of spending a wonderful day with another Chris on Saturday.

Chris & Dana Byers and their fantastic kids spent a good part of the day with us…feasting on a sumptuous breakfast at Casa Laird, walking around our pretty little home town in the sunshine (yes! It’s back…or at least it was…periodically), fizzing around ideas & sharing our stories together. We had a really great time.

I mention this because our relationship is one that started entirely online, and has quite quickly moved to being an actual face-to-face flesh & blood friendship.



In his blog post, Chris Goan says this, drawing his conclusions about a study he references in the post:

“So, what can we make of all of this? The study clearly takes the view that on-line contact is not enough, and indeed may be problematic.
I still hope however, that when used well and purposefully, on-line connections might facilitate community building. This is where I still place my energy……..
…..It is almost as if we humans were made to find our highest expression in community. As if we were wired and plumbed for this.”

I was so glad to move from online to real community with Dana & Chris Byers, but am glad I can stay so closely and regularly connected with them via the internet.

Here’s to the next big breakfast, guys!

'Andy's Angels'

A good friend of mine, Andy, who I’ve know since I was about 13, was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma in his right femur in early last year. Since then he has had the primary tumour removed by replacing his right knee with a Titanium one and had six months of chemotherapy.

In November 2008 Andy had secondary tumours removed from both lungs, and is now finishing a course of radiotherapy to his leg. He’s not free from Cancer yet so will be closely observed over the coming months.

Andy’s blog gives a full and frank account of this stage of his life.
One of my other friends, Stuart – who I blogged about previously here - from the same time has stepped up to the plate and responded.

In a recent e-mail Stuart said this:

I have been profoundly impacted by my friends fight, having already lost my uncle Roger at the age of 47 to this horrific disease. So, I have decided to use something that I enjoy doing in order to raise as much money and profile as I can for Andy's chosen charities. So, throughout 2009, I will be running a series of races, varying in distance from 10k (6 miles) to Half-marathon (13 miles). Having done two marathons in the past both my knees and the rest of me will enjoy, and be able to achieve far more mileage, by avoiding a third!!

The race series starts THIS Saturday with the National Cross Country Championships, Parliament Hill, Hampstead Heath, London.

Andy's wife Sara and sister Lyndsay also run and so we have all come together under the banner of 'Andy's Angels' and you can follow our progress by visiting
'Andy's Angels' already have 5 races in the diary with more to follow!

There are two ways that you can support these efforts:

You can become an 'Active Angel' and join the AA team of runners (and have your very own AA running vest!) and help raise money for the charities.

If this interests you I’d be happy to hook you up.

Or, secondly, please consider becoming an 'Angelic Sponsor' through donation.

A site has been set up where donating is made as simple as possible - we can even claim the tax back from Gordon B via the click of a Gift Aid button. So please visit here

Any donations will be regarded as a donation to the 'race series' as a whole irrespective of how many races are finally run by the team throughout 2009.
You can follow all the events, get in touch, make suggestions and comments all via Andy's blog:

Follow on Twitter @Andys_Angels

Any help, support and monies, of course, will be gratefully received!

Not only by Andy and his 'Angels' but by the host of charities and other families that will be helped by your generosity as we continue to fight this horrific disease.

The Big Yin’s “Journey”

I love a good travel show on TV, especially when the guide/host/travel companion is as engaging as the downright hilarious Billy Connolly, so last night’s “Journey to the Edge of the World” on ITV was a blast.

Billy – a clear candidate for greatest living Scotsman - is as much a force of nature as the staggering places he’s visiting on this tour of the northern tip of Canada. He’s someone who appears to be so in love with life and people that he’s almost fit to burst. There’s a richness to the relationships that he quickly builds and it’s just so good to see people laugh – really laugh - in that uncontrollably silly way that is so cathartic.

It’s also fabulous to see Billy’s openness and sheer joy when dealing with others.

Inspiring!

Thanks, Big Yin! We can learn a lot.

Catch it if you can

HT to ITV for the great pic

Pernell

Glad to see that Pernell Goodyear is blogging again after quite a long hiatus.

Visit Pernell for perceptive stuff about the way of Jesus, mission, stories about his tribe, The FRWY, and all kinds of other good stuff.

Two minds

There’s an event coming up coming up in April at Mariner’s Church in Irvine CA.

Much as I’d love to, I’m not gonna get to CatalystWest….can’t afford to at this point.

However, that’s by the by.

What I’m really trying to explore is quite how I feel about it emotionally.

On one hand…

• The line up of speakers is exceptional. Each and every one of those who’ve been invited to speak is someone I’d be really keen to hear speak. There are one of two who I would consider friends, or have met in person and been hugely impressed by their sincerity, integrity & passion.

• I have a lot of time for the various groups/ministries behind the project, and have felt huge benefit in being able to draw on the resources they’ve made available online and in print.

• The themes that will be explored are exciting and close to my heart

• You can’t beat a good conference!


On the other hand …

I’ve become nervous of the “bigness” so often displayed in the Western Church that can if we’re not careful seems at odds with the Jesus we read about in Scripture and the poor and disadvantaged who He calls us to serve.

I guess I have the same sense of struggle when I visit grand Cathedrals and marvel at their scale and grandeur.

Am I hyper-sensitive and thinking too much, or is there something in it?

In any case, the site is well worth exploring

Any thoughts?

“Yet we are not without hope”

OK. This is a basically a Sally Army orientated post, but if you are reading this, and you’re not a Sally, there’s a lot of good stuff to chew over.
Phil Wall writes in his usual powerful and compelling way on the subject of hope, here at The Rubicon.

Challenging as ever - especially for those whose tribe is The Salvation Army – Phil pulls no punches when outlining some of the realities of the state of Western Salvationism. For some readers, it might make them wince a little, but for me, it’s imperative that we stare those realities straight in the face.

As Phil, says: “Yet we are not without hope”

No matter the difficulties that seem to confront us on every side, when we choose Hope over Fear, Spirit over Religion, Idealism over Cynicism, Mission over Tradition, Sacrifice over Comfort, Reliance over Independence, such an Army we become.

Thanks to @primitivesalvo at ArmyRenewal for pointing me in the direction of this great piece.

Amazing Grace...

COLLIDE Mag: The skinny on Los

Many of you will already be familiar with Carlos Whittaker, but if you are not, this piece in Collide Magazine gives the skinny..

Los was amongst the first bloggers I started to read on a regular basis a few years back, and continues to be a favo(u)rite

If you don’t follow Ragamuffin Soul, I recommend that you do, and get yourself hooked up with @loswhit via Twitter

Trumpets!!

I love this silly surreal little ad...

Bring on the trumpets!

Mia's Six

Happy Birthday my beautiful girl!

I'm so proud of my wonderful daughter, and thank God for her every day, but particularly today.

I love you, Baby!

Lookin' forward

I'm looking forward to hooking up with Chris & Dana for breakfast later in the month.

Janet's started preparing already! ;-)


Invasion: The Byers from kevin ely on Vimeo.

Chick Yuill's New site: Anvil Ding

I'm so glad that Jesus following speaker, writer, broadcaster and marathon runner has a new website at, for some, the curiously named Anvil Ding

Chick and his wife Margaret have been part of the lives of our family for years and years now, and remain inspirational teachers, pastoral mentors and dear friends (as well as the couple who conducted my Wedding to Janet ), so I'm so glad the Chick finally has a profile on the web.

Anvil Ding is definitely worth keeping a close eye on

Tallskinnykiwi on Something Beautiful Podcast

I’m looking forward to hearing Andrew Jones on my buddies’ podcast, Something Beautiful

Andrew AKA Tallskinnykiwi always has interesting things to say about Jesus, Church, culture and community so no doubt the Something Beautiful 2.5 will be well worth a listen.

Something Beautiful’s Jonathon, Thomas and newish co-host Stewart have been doing an excellent job since starting this great little podcast a little while back, so if you don’t listen to it…you should!

If anyone’s interested, here are the other podcasts that I regularly listen to:

Catalyst
Home Brewed Christianity
Imago Dei
Mars Hill
Mosaic
Slipstream
Vox Venaie

…you may want to explore them as well…

Our Gaz

One of my best mates in all the world has started a blog

Go and visit him, say "hi", and offer some encouragement.

Tell him Johnny sent ya!

Rabbie!

Aly Bain plays a beautiful version of Robert Burns' classic poem, My Love is Like a Red Red Rose

O my Luve's like a red, red rose,
That's newly sprung in June:
O my Luve's like the melodie,
That's sweetly play'd in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonie lass,
So deep in luve am I;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a' the seas gang dry.

Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi' the sun;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
While the sands o' life shall run.

And fare-thee-weel, my only Luve!
And fare-thee-weel, a while!
And I will come again, my Luve,
Tho' 'twere ten thousand mile!

June 25th 2009 Scotland will celebrate Burns' 250th birthday

If you're feeling the strong pull to go home, check this out

24/7 Prayer

...good to see that the incredible 24/7 Prayer Movement Leader, Pete Greig is featured on the most recent cover of RELEVANT Magazine.

24/7 is one of those movements that search for what God is blessing and rides the wave!

In the beginning there was chaos, naivity and passion...but they followed the Spirit and have blossomed in ways they would never have imagined.

Check out these short movies for a flavo(u)r

Whatcha lookin' at?

Salvation Army Corps sites – what’s the Point(ful)?

I’ve been meaning for some time to make a little time & space to say how much I like this little site, which I stumbled upon searching to find reasonable examples of Salvation Army Corps (Church) websites.

To be honest, I’ve found very few good ones indeed - which is a shame because I know that many of the actual ministries with such a poor presence are alive, active and engaged with their community. It’s just that their online profile belies that. Really very few are aesthetically pleasing, sufficiently functional and/or using current web standards.

I guess it begs the question. Is it important to have a great site?

Pointful.ca is one of better local Sally Army ones.

Check it out!

If you know any others, or I’m talking out of turn, please let me know

"Standard" gets religion...or not

London's evening rag, The Evening Standard, published two faith stories side by side this evening.

The first concerned the removal of a supposedly "unsuitable" and "horrifying..." crucifix from a Church in Horsham, West Sussex.

Check the whole article here

Now, I'm going to take the piece itself with a pinch of salt, because journos almost always allow any story to spin uncontrolably away from reality. Feel free to draw your own conclusions.

I did like the unsubstantiated quote, allegedly made by a congregation member:

"Next they'll be ripping out the pews and putting sofas in their place, or throwing out all the Bibles and replacing them with laptops"

Sounds like they just might be.......EMERGING! :-))

The second story has been rumbling around for a while, namely the "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life" poster campaign on the side of buses and in tube stations.

I for one am quite grateful to Ariane Sherine and the British Humanist Association for shelving out a reported 140 grand to stimulate the dialog about God and faith.

Visit their site to see a rare picture of Richard Dawkins smiling!

Ed Dobson’s Year

Looks like the story of Ed Dobson’s year long quest to live like Jesus has gone stratospheric in the blogosphere, following an interview on ABC News

I’d first become aware of Ed’s year during a recent visit to Mars Hill in Grand Rapids, MI.

Sadly, the clip on the site has led to a slew of pretty ungracious attacks in the Comments section of the ABC site …together with some more supportive responses to Ed’s efforts. Most of the vitriol is related to Ed’s admission that he’d voted for Barack Obama.

As an aside, you might want to check some excellent pics of Ed at Brian Kelly Photography

Book Haul

I’ve had a major book haul over the holidays.
New purchases to get my teeth into in the coming weeks:

ReJesus – by Michael Frost & Alan Hirsch
The New Conspirators : Creating the Future One Mustard Seed at a Time – by Tom Sine
Pattern Recognition - by William Gibson (HT to the Headphonaught for re-igniting my interest in Gibson)
Crazy Love – by Francis Chan
In Defense of Food – by Michael Pollan
The Peoples Bible: NRSV …“Relying on the best insights of historical-critical, liberationist, postmodern, and postcolonial interpretation”

Also, I finally got the chance to replace my copy of Mike Frost’s EXILES: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture, which by way of highest recommendation I had given away to a friend.

Plus copies of Trailrunner and Ministry Today thrown in for good measure.

Hope all this reading material for the daily train ride to the office doesn’t get in the way of me listening to the Something Beautiful podcast! ;-)

Mars Hill visit

I was glad to have the opportunity - together with my family - to visit Mars Hill in Grand Rapids this morning.

Although Rob Bell wasn’t around today, having become a regular listener to the podcast and like many felt the benefit and influence of Rob’s writing & teaching it really was good to check out the community there. I’d been looking forward to it for some time, and the day didn’t disappoint.

Although I don’t want this to come across like some kind of Secret Worshipper/consumer test thang, I thought I’d outline a few impressions….they’re all good.

Today’s teaching came from Ed Dobson, sporting a spectacular beard of quite literally Biblical proportions. At first I surmised this was just Rev Dobson’s particular preferred fashion arrangement, but he unpacked a little of the back story as part of his oratory. We learned that Ed is coming towards the end of a year of living as closely as he could in line with the teachings, example and life patterns of Jesus. Local rag, The Grand Rapids Press gives it’s take on the story here. It’s worth the read.

Aside from the fascinating facial hair story, Ed spoke powerfully from Luke 1v67-79.

Look out for the podcast at the Mars Hill site in due course

Above and beyond the Teaching and the Worship, a few things that impressed me:

• The unassuming building that somehow reflected the character of the Church
• The genuinely warm welcome from individual folks, despite the size – I guess about 3,000 people – of the congregation. It felt authentic and unstaged
• The obvious attention to detail right across the board. All the handout materials were well displayed plentiful, easy to understand, aesthetically pleasing and consistent
• Good coffee, in eco friendly cups!

God bless Mars Hill. It was a pleasure to drop by.

Baruch El-Elyon!

HT to Grand Rapids Press/Emily Zoladz for the Ed Dobson pic

The Peace of Jesus

Truly He taught us to love one another;
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother;
And in His name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
Let all within us praise His holy name.
Christ is the Lord! O praise His Name forever,
His power and glory evermore proclaim.
His power and glory evermore proclaim.

May you and yours feel the peace of Jesus this CHRISTmas time...

Pax

J

Empty Church?

HT to Dana and Chris for the heads up about this post about Empty Churches on Billy Ritchie’s blog.

A couple of paragraphs caught my attention:

Now the church is more than a building its people but somehow I think that one of the reasons these churches are empty is because they stopped serving their community a long time ago.

How about us all looking at this a different way. At the same time as this decline there is also stories of growth all over the country. Many churches taking on building projects. What if we all forgot denominational divides and gifted each other property. What if a church on the edge of closure struggling to keep up a building were to find a church that was bursting at the seams and say here is your answer.

….some really interesting things to think about.

Thanks, Billy

Fox!

This little fellah was wandering around in our office car park a few minutes ago....our London, densely urban, gated office buildings.

Slow down

I’ve become interested in the slow movement over the last year or two, as I often struggle to justify and see the real core benefits of the extraordinary pace of urban life these days. Quite regularly it feels like the wheels could fall off at any given moment.

With this in mind, it was good to have an article from the excellent online ‘zine Worldchanging bounced over to me via Twitter flagging a book by Carl Honoré, In Praise of Slow…something I have to check out.

There’s another site you might want to visit that focuses on the SlowHome. Lots of interesting bits about healthy vibrant neighbo(u)rhood, beautiful eco design and architecture.

In a not entirely unrelated piece in London’s throwaway freebie commuter rag this morning , the METRO listed Michael Pollan’s In Defense Of Food as one of it’s Food Books of the Year. Although I can’t say it’s a maxim I’ve wholeheartedly adopted yet, Pollan’s

“Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly plants”

mantra has a lot to be said for it. Maybe a good New Year Resolution for me.

Also, anyone who champions the idea of leisurely meals in the company of friends as the way forward gets my vote!

IAMSECOND

Now this is a site worth exploring!

IAMSECOND

My tribe

Thanks to Chris at This Fragile Tent for giving me the heads up about this Salvation Army Christmas appeal ad

Isaiah 58 (The Message)

“What I’m interested in seeing you do is:

Sharing your food with the hungry,
Inviting the homeless poor into your homes,
Putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,
Being available to your own familes.

Do this and the lights will turn on,
And your lives will turn around at once.
Your righteousness will pave your way.
The God of glory will secure your passage.
Then when you pray, God will answer.
You’ll call out for help and I’ll say “Here I am”

Luke 4

This little story has been brewing for a while…

Once a month – usually the second Sunday - Janet & I get together with some friends, have some lunch together and share what’s been going on in our lives over the previous weeks and look at Scripture.

DVD…

On the second Sunday afternoon in November we looked at Luke 4 as part of a DVD we’ve been using as a starting point for our discussion.

E-mail…

The following Monday morning, I received the week’s overview of a daily e-mail I receive from Ian Adams:

Greetings morning bell people

The Church is in the 'kingdom' season this month. This time encourages us to look for the new thing that God is doing, to seek God's better-world-now breaking in and breaking out all around us, even to open ourselves up to somehow becoming a sign of that state of 'shalom'.

This week’s morning bell will take as its starting point an insight into Jesus’ own sense of God's new thing being done in and around him, as told by the Gospel writer Luke. You can find the passage in Luke 4.

Pace bene!
Ian

…then I received the first of the week’s daily “Morning Bell” e-mails working through some thoughts inspired by Luke 4, outlined here from The Message:

Jesus came to Nazareth where he had been reared. As he always did on the Sabbath, he went to the meeting place. When he stood up to read, he was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll, he found the place where it was written,

God's Spirit is on me; he's chosen me to preach the Message of good news to the poor,
Sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind,
To set the burdened and battered free, to announce, "This is God's year to act!"

He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the assistant, and sat down. Every eye in the place was on him, intent. Then he started in, "You've just heard Scripture make history. It came true just now in this place."

Podcast…

On the way to the Office on that same Monday, I randomly selected a podcast to listen to on the train….Mars Hill…Walter Brueggemann, journeying through Isaiah, in that wonderful expansive raspy passionate way he has when teaching. Brueggemann made reference to the passage in Isaiah 61, which Jesus recalls in Luke 4, as he quotes scripture.

...again from my most regularly read version, The Message...

Isaiah 61

Announce Freedom to All Captives
The Spirit of God, the Master, is on me because God anointed me.
He sent me to preach good news to the poor, heal the heartbroken,
Announce freedom to all captives, pardon all prisoners.
God sent me to announce the year of his grace—
a celebration of God's destruction of our enemies—
and to comfort all who mourn..

Radio…


I’d excitedly been sharing this increasingly consistent series of prods with my friends from our Small Group, by firing off an e-mail each time another one came along.

Here’s the one reply I received from one of those friends:

Was listening to Premier yesterday and the thought read during one of the shows was Isaiah 61 v 1 couldn't believe it almost word for word Luke 4 v 18…

Youtube…

Then, last night I was noodling away on Youtube, having seen a little vid by Rick McKinley of Imago Dei in Portland who had been the target of my search, and found one of the clips of Bono and Bill Hybels, and ……whaddyaknow? It’s those passages again!

Check out the vid:

Freeway

Check out this little bitty promo vid for an upcoming show, which features - among others - my blogging buddy, top man...Pernell Goodyear of the Freeway in Hamilton ON.

Struggling

I’ve been really struggling to keep pace with the blog lately. I’ve had thoughts to share and things to say but haven’t been able find the time to tap away at the keyboard and get them added.

So, with that in mind, here’s a bit of a round up:

1. I’ve been meaning to spread the word about this positive and inspirational post by my good buddy and Grumpy Old Git, Andy Greig. I’ve known Andy and his family since we were young kids, so it’s been painful to see him go through such a heavy thing, and wonderful to see him coming out the other side.
2. Glad to hear via Alan Hirsch’s blog that his new book with Mike Frost – ReJesus – has been released in the US. Hoping to pick a copy up when I visit the States for Christmas.
3. It’s been good to hook up (at least in a cyber-stylee) with Chris & Dana Byers of Lifechurch.TV here in London.

Maybe in the New Year we can turn the virtual to actual, and we get a chance to meet over a coffee.
4. A few changes due to the johnnylaird blogroll: Stewart Cutler will go in, as will the other good people from my Twitter tribe who blog; namely Rob G-T, Theresa, Alex and John.
Then there are a few good friends, whose input to the blogosphere has dried up, so they’ll come off the blogroll.
5. While I’m talking about Twitter; it’s interesting that there’s a little bit of a local connection thing happening for me there, where guys who live in our around my little home town are slowly connecting via Twitter. Hi guys!
6. Although I’ve mentioned Something Beautiful before, I wanted to give a little shout out to JB & Thomas to say thanks for the consistently good content they are putting out. A weekly podcast with co-presenters working on opposite sides of the pond is some undertaking, especially when JB & Thomas have daytime jobs, families and all manner of community & tribal connections to maintain, and the guys do it…beautifully. Big up Something Beautiful!
7. ABC Pastor and Randy Bohlender have moved and spruced up their blogs a little. If you don’t know these guys - and even if you – it’s worth checking out their stuff; always fresh & thought provoking.


I’m sure there’s more to say, but that will have to be for another time.

In the words of my blogging buddy, Ian Adams…

Pace Bene!