A challenge...

Watch this and remain untouched.

4 years on...

BBC news tonight is covering Iraq, 4 years on from the invasion.

On Gods politics is this.

Great evening out

Thanks to my brother-in-law Nigel (at the back of the photo somewhere in 2nd violins) I got an excellent seat Saturday night to see the RSNO.

They were playing a fave of mine - New World
along with a bit of Korngold (which I enjoyed) and some Stravinsky (which I expected to like & wasn't so keen)

How should we do church?

Rasberry j2o flavoured.........

A unique and brilliant get-together this week. A couple of hours in the Castle with some excellent folks - chatting about how we would like to be as a group. I hesitate to use the "Church" word. These notes are based on a little list I was scribbling down with a little help.

Things we don't want.

As I suspected we gathered a list of things we dont want, but the list was really revealing and in some ways exciting:

1) No to being passengers , visitors or observers. Brilliant - yes that is an excellent place for us to be starting.

2) Linked to that - no talking of the group in the second person. We take collective responsibility for us.

Other things we want to get free of:

3) History - now that is generally regarded as being a bad idea - "those who ignore the lessons" etc... What people want is a clean slate. Is it wrong/unrealistic to want that? - Well probably yes and no. forgiveness - possible, consequences - inevitable. Which leads neatly on to...

4) Dogma. - that's difficult too. This is probably because almost everyone in the group would tend to be a bit of a post-modern. What I want to be free of is faith in a set of dogma, as opposed to faith in a person. Faith doesn't have to be dogmatic.

Things we love and do want:

1. Genuineness - authenticity. We live in the right county for this - Yorkshire folk call a spade a spade.
2. Community - mutual commitment. (I was surprised to hear that some 30's singles enjoy a link to families with kids.)
3. God expressing himself through us. Christ centered (recognising that our community will normally have people in it who don't experience or want this)
4. Generosity - grace - in the widest sense.
5. Vulnerability
6. Uncomfortableness - challenge.
7. Open to grow by including others.
8. Commitment to spiritual journey. I would say "pilgrims, not settlers"

I wonder if the others are as scared of messing it up as I am?

Theology Group: Vincent Donovan

We talked around the second half of Vincent Donovan's "Christianity Rediscovered" at theology group tonight.

Most stimulating - notes here...

Brilliant how relevant this guy is to truly emergent church - church that is an authentic expression of Christianity in the tribal context. (I prefer the word tribal because I suspect it expresses well the contemporary UK scene)

Hope to see "The Mission" tomorrow night in our Lenten film series.