Time for a little clear up

It’s been a while since I updated the blogroll, so here we go again:

Outies

My good friend MrsParker has given up the ghost as far as blogging goes, having put all her online energy into Facebook, so I have to bid a fond farewell to her space on the blogroll. As soon as you’re blogging again ‘Nit, you’re right back in there!

Innies

• Probably my favourite recent discovery is This Fragile Tent which is consistently imaginative and so easy on the eye, and it has a bit of a Celtic vibe which is always appealling for me

• I’ve been meaning to add Nigel Coles’ The Old Forge for some time. I met Nigel at an Alan Hirsch event earlier in the year, and have enjoyed catching up with his missional musings.

• Lon at Solar Crash also goes in

A few adjustments

• Tony Morgan has shifted to a new home
• Dan Rous is now at House of Rous
• Chris Hinton can now most often be found at Geek-Speak
• Ubertech- man of a thousand blogs ;-) - moves to Faith Life
• Duncan has closed What’s Your Point Caller, and now concentrates all his efforts towards Seven Men
• Jason Clark is now blogging at Deep Church

As always, I’d encourage you to have a a wander towards the various blogs & sites listed…bounce in and join the conversation. If you’ve received a name check here, you might wanna check out the other people who’ve also been mentioned. Chances are there will be some common ground.

This little reshuffle gives me another chance to ramp up my campaign to get Darrin Reeves blogging again. Join the fight, Tweeple.

Tom Sine at Moot

A little later in September I’m hoping to head over to Moot – if my diary doesn’t get too rammed – to hear Mustard Seed Associates’ Tom Sine speak..

Tom has just released a new book called The New Conspirators

This should be an interesting evening for all kinds of reasons:

• It’s always good to hear up close what writers have to say about their own work
• An opportunity to see the work of the guys at Moot, a community who seem to be doing some really interesting and creative things
• Another chance to break outside of my tribal box, and hook up with other Jesus followers. I’ve been really encouraged lately when stepping out a little like this. In fact, I’m starting to feel the stirrings of something very special about the opportunities that are coming my way, and the relationships that are quietly building in the background. There’s a feeling of inter-connectedness and authenticity that seems like a God-thing. We shall see…

This London event is free…..but you do have to book your place.

For booking details you can go here

James

Just a few posts ago I was wishing my niece Victoria "Happy Birthday", and now it's time to celebrate the 18th birthday of the elder of my two nephews, James and Richard.

This week, James hit the important milestone of 18.

James is a man.

A man of honor, and faith, and like all my family, I'm proud to be a small part of their lives.

Walk the way of Jesus, James.

We love you

Stuart Pendred

Check out a really good buddy of mine, Stuart Pendred is a guest on Premier Christian Radio's Breakfast show on Saturday AM (UK time.

We grew up at the same school & Church when we were kids, as part of a tight little group of guys who had such a great time together doing kid stuff.

The interview is scheduled for about 8.20 AM onwards through until the end of the show. Stuart will be having a general chat about hislife and career and then talking about his debut solo album 'Benedizioni'.

Stu is a really top guy, and a good friend. He's been around in my life for a long time, and always has interesting things to say.

Because I've known Stu for such a long time, I feel completly justified in using a completely undignified pic to illustrate this post!

Premier Radio can be found through the channels listed below:

1305, 1332, 1413 MW
Sky Digital 0123
Virgin Media 968
Freeview 725
DAB

Happy Birthday Victoria!

Just wanted to say a big Happy Birthday to my niece, Victoria who turns sixteen today.

We love you Vic.

Have a great day!

When I met & married Janet, I was blessed to be embraced by her wonderful family, who are now such a large and important part of my life, and are so completely integrated into the world view of my own kids. They are now – without reservation – my family too.

Mike Frost in London

I’m looking forward to a couple of events next month featuring Michael Frost.

First off, on October 10th is next.generation.church: rethinking church, mission and evangelism for the 21st century at the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity. Although it’s apparently designed for “younger” leaders, I’m going to go along anyway!

Secondly, on the following day I’ll head over to the London School of Theology for New church, fad or future?

Should be great to have a couple of days to spend some time listening to one of today’s most respected thinkers - and more importantly, practitioners - in the area of mission.

If the days are even close to as valuable as the day I spent listening to Mike’s writing partner, Alan Hirsch, it will be well worth it.


HT to Frosty for the wonderful pic to illustrate this post…..hope no offence is taken by me cribbing it. I’ve been in two minds whether it was ethically correct to use it without prior permission, but it was so good, I just couldn’t resist m’lud!

Peace

Solar Crash

I’m glad to have found Lon’s blog, Solar Crash – where heaven and earth collide - which I stumbled across blogsearching “Erwin McManus”, in light of my current iPod marathon of Erwin’s Mosaic podcasts which I got into during my recent holiday.

There’s lots of thought provoking and creative stuff on there.

Lon also blogs at One Life

Pop over and say “hello”, and tell Lon Johnny sent ya!

Pax

J

Thanks for the pic, Lon

New books from "Mission" Al and Frosty

…really glad to get a heads up that Alan Hirsch has a couple of new books coming out later in the year – a guide book for communities to take some practical steps in the direction outlined in Alan’s excellent Forgotten Ways book, and another collaborative effort with Michael Frost call reJESUS; A Wild Messiah for a Missional Church

…and I quote

This is a radicalizing book that aims at helping the church recalibrate itself around Jesus as the protoypal Christian. It is what I would call a missional Christology. And it is wild!

No doubt, both books will be hugely useful, and create a bit of a stir in the blogosphere.

I’ll be trying to grab a copy of each as soon as I can.

Welsh Retreat

Well, we're back from a couple of weeks of holiday.

Week one, we chilled at home, and I wrestled with an IKEA wardrobe, which seemed to take the whole week to assemble! All the same, it was so good to get up when my body was telling me to do so, instead of when my Blackberry's alarm told me to. It was even better to hang out with Janet, Mia and Noah. I love to spend time with them, and this was the best opportunity to do this for quite some time.

Week two we travelled to West Wales to stay at the beautiful Cerrig Llwyddion in Camarthenshire. This was our chance to really chill and relax in the most wonderful peaceful environment. Check out the site if you are looking for a quiet friendly place for a family break, or a venue for a retreat. The Barn can take up to eight adults. Highly recommended!

The kids loved the easy going nature of the place, and being around the chickens, pigs, cats and Murphy the dog.

Even though it rained pretty much every day, we still mananged to hit the beaches along the Ceridigion coast every day. Mwnt became a favourite.

I didn’t manage to do as much reading as I had planned, but did manage to whizz through one of the Oxford University Press’ cute little Very Short Introductions series on “The Celts”, which was OK, if a little bit heavily skewed towards the Breton part of the equation, with only cursory mentions of the Scots. (hence my interest). As a series of books, though, I think they are worth exploring.

..caught up too with some excellent podcasts from Eric Bryant & Erwin McManus at Mosaic, and various bits from Mars Hill, particularly preaches from Steve Chalke & Phyllis Tickle …just quality stuff.

Thanks to Linda & Julie for making our stay so special. (and thanks for the pic to illustrate this post)

Silicon Roundabout - Riding the zeitgeist

Every once is a while a new buzz word hits the streets…looks like the latest one describes the little cluster of web companies in and around London’s Old Street, which has been dubbed “silicon roundabout”.

Yesterday’s FT and today’s Evening Standard each had a feature on Dopplr’s Matt Biddulph, who coined the pithy little phrase.

Let’s see how big it (the phrase) becomes.

Karl at Q

Glad to share this little vid from this year’s Q conference, which Duncan McFadzean posted at What’s your point caller?



The speaker is Karl Martin of Edinburgh’s MBC.

…really good stuff….and inspirational if you are involved in Church transition.

For a little more background, check Duncan’s post here

Thanks, Duncan!

Something Beautiful Podcast

It’s taken me aeons to get round to downloading these onto my iPod, but I heartily recommend my buddies’ JB and Thomas’ Something Beautiful podcast.

I’m very happy to give them a shout out.

….and while I’m chatting about iPods, podcasts and all that webby stuff, I’m finally on Twitter….or at least I think I am!

Follow me…

Moot thoughts

Love this Summer thought from the guys at Moot

Think about how the warmth and long days allow us to practice presence
Think about how the heat and the sun affect our practice of acceptance
Think about how the light shapes our creativity
Think about how the summer break allows us to practice balance
Think about how the change in routine affects how we practice accountability
Think about how the holiday times form our practice of hospitality

…also gives me an excuse to borrow one of the staggeringly beautiful shots of Scottish – yes, Scottish – beaches at Silversprite.

this fragile tent

It’s encouraging to hear that http Aoradh’s* Chris Goan has stepped up to the plate with a small group to tackle Mike Frost’s Exilio.

I’m looking forward to hearing how it goes.

Chris’ has a new blog – this fragile tent - which already has some really excellent content. It’s well worth a visit.

You’re going on the blogroll Chris!


Aoradh (Gaelic for adoration) is a Christian arts group based in Dunoon, Argyll, Scotland. Members come from many different traditions and church backgrounds, and greatly value the creativity and diversity that this brings to their experience.

Shrinking numbers?

I’ve always thought of these guys & girls as urban heroes of a sort, probably fueled by my love of William Gibson books, so I can appreciate the pathos of this piece in WIRED, which reports the shrinking numbers of of bike couriers in the major western cities.

* William Gibson’s “Virtual Light” had a bike courier, Chevette Washington as it’s main character

Big thanks to CogMag for the amazing images

The Old Forge

...was glad to meet Nigel Coles of The Old Forge at a recent Alan Hirsch event in the UK.

Go visit!

Pax

J

Russ off

Interesting news about ALOVE's Russ Rook...top man, that he is.

Wise words from Mosaic

Some wise words I picked up from my buddy Eric on his blog:

They all bear repeating....

The “conqueror” is the more common strategy for leadership. The “explorer” excavates the talent of those already there. We need to become explorers.

If you keep looking for a new place to speak, you will never become a better communicator. We need to look for ways to have something important to say whenever and wherever we have the opportunity to speak (one-on-one conversations, team trainings, youth ministry, and so on).

If we don’t translate building community with us, then we won’t be able to do this in our teams. We need to move fast but never at the cost of creating community!

We think we have to tone down the Gospel to attract people to Jesus, but we actually need to elevate the understanding of the Gospel (to where Jesus intended) to offer life-transformation to those out there who are looking for meaning.

We need to initiate relationships and conversations with the people others see as invisible.

Not everything has to grow large, but we need to be honest about what we have and are doing and always be a place for outsider.

The more people feel you are speaking to a person, the larger the church can become. The more people feel you are speaking to a crowd then fewer people will want to come.

We need to ask the question: “How do I help the people around me become the people God wants them to be?” We are spiritual leaders, not just leaders.

HT to Keith and the guys at Core Magazine for the pic.

For more of the same, check out MOSAIC & Erwin McManus

Pax

J

Alan Hirsch in UK

Next Tuesday I’ll be popping down to the West Country to hear Alan Hirsch speak at a West of England Baptist Association event at Clevedon Baptist Church

…looking forward to hooking up with Alan, whose books The Forgotten Ways and The Shaping of Things to Come (with Michael Frost), have had such a profound effect on my view of mission.

HT to Willow Creek for the Hirshy pic

Time for spontaneity

I love this piece by my good buddy Duncan, which has just appeared in The Salvation Army’s UK in-house magazine “Salvationist”:

A few stand out phrases:

In our heavily structured lives, do you find yourself not having room to be spontaneous – that if it’s not in the diary a month (or two or three) beforehand, it’s probably not going to happen? It’s not just meals, either; hooking up with friends or spending time with someone who wants to chat with you just gets more and more difficult.

…and…

I often speculate that had Jesus and his disciples just sat and ate their packed lunch and not shared it with the people who had just heard him – no doubt teaching about loving their neighbour, how to live in community with God and each other, and how to live justly – they wouldn’t have had much credibility.

…and…

Time for spontaneity

I struggle to find good quality time to eat with friends and family on a regular basis, and guess this could be true for others…….some of us are so busy trying to do, that we forget just to be. There are many people that need me just to be present and attentive, so that we can both work in each other’s lives – even over a simple meal. Jesus shows us very clearly that sitting down together is central to his work.

Duncan & his wife Anita are co-ordinators of our Fellowship Team at church