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!