Epiphany

On the way to a meeting this evening I was listenong to U2 up loud (nothing new here) and thinking about Christmas. "Original of the Species" came on. Just be thankful you weren't in the car - it was loud, and I was singing along (loud, out of tune, words wrong, bad timing) (plus ca change).

I love the track - ostensibly to the daughter of the Edge. I've always seen more there - there is a touch of worship there (references to kneeling) - perhaps normal when considering a child - particularly for a parent.

Then I saw that this (for me) had the feeling of a nativity song.

Wonderful.

• Video link (cannot embed it - it is an official one)
• Lyrics Link

Preach it brother!

Woah - cynicism lives!

Or is it sarcasm? (sorry - too lazy to google the difference)

Way to go (if you are British - because we love cynicism) If you aren't - sorry to say this national trait is not one of our nicer features - but hey somebody needs to say it sometimes...

Well done Simon.

Evangelistic Sermons

Read this today.

I don't think the problem only exists in Japan - I have heard it rather nearer to home.

(Not you Mary/Andy/Kez/Glen)

Dogville

Being home alone last night gave me a chance to watch a film at random. Thanks to Ruth who lent it to me.

The film is intruiging, boring, fascinating, though provoking, and shocking.

It is a lot about Grace - both the name and the idea. Same link as in the U2 song of the same name...

Grace - its a name for a girl
It's also a thought that can change the world

At times the grace is so great that the undeserving recipients accuse Grace of being arrogant. Interesting thought...

In the end grace stops and something else happens - even that has biblical overtones.

Tagged ...

I was tagged by Mark Robinson

I'm not wildly excited by it - but hey - why be a grumpy old git all the time?

The Rules:
Link to the person who tagged you.
Post the rules on your blog.
Write six random things about yourself.
Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
Let each person know they've been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

1. I cannot tell left from right
2. I do sometimes like my music soft and calm
3. I once ran a disco from a Hearse
4. I once did PA for Graham Kendrick with only one mic (and no guitar pickup)
6. I'm not very good with numbers

I have tagged Simon Cozens, Glenn Myers, and Andrew (My son) Only 3 because I am not greatly convinced about these pyramid viral tagging things..... (I suspect they may be less so)

God forbid!

Really excellent piece from that wonderful source of "news" the Onion.

"I'm Not One Of Those 'Love Thy Neighbor' Christians"

No starbucks....

Spent my last Sunday morning reading a book in Costa Coffee, then I read this.

Apostolic plants

Fresh back from an very enervating couple of weeks, I have my blogging face on again (do I hear a cry of "spare us!" - well if I do I'm ignoring it.)

My few days at Grapevine festival were really exciting - despite going to no meetings (I did hear a few on the radio) - I was working in the "Expo" (every Christian event has a different name for the exhibition - and it is often revealing - guess who calls it  "marketplace"?). The buzz came from working alongside some very unexpected Christians (best sort) from "Betel of Britain".  

One sentence description of Betel: "Church planting amongst the addicted and marginalised" (totally fails to do it justice). One word description: "Gospel".  A good write up can be found on the NCVO website.

Normal conversation:  

"WEC - what's that"  

"We plant churches where there arent any" 

"Oh"

"Yeah - in the Sahara, the Amazon Jungle, and in Nottingham - Heard of Betel?" 

"(variable response often positive)" 

"Well that's part of WEC, this guy here's from Betel - let him tell you a bit about it", 

"(later followed by sound effect of innocent enquirers socks being blown off)"

Then from Lincolnshire to Suffolk & Norfolk for my holiday - including some excellent boating in less than excellent weather.  And some reading.  One book I couldn't put down was "Apostolic Networks in Britain: New Ways of Being Church" by William H Kay.  Brilliant stuff - and fascinating - though Ch 19 (Mission) was a bit thin.  The description of mission agencies and apostolic networks in overseas CP was sparse - and not representative of my own experience.

Then home and a quiet Sunday - time to make another stab at "Evangelism After Christendom" by Bryan Stone.

The eureka moment came as I started to reflect on working with Betel, and the two books.  Betel neatly (for me anyway) sums up the key things I got from the two books (so far).  

Betel is a CP project of WEC - and the UK planted churches relate apostolically into the Ground Level Network (under Stuart Bell) - the missing link in chapter 19 of Apostolic Networks in my opinion - and not the only example of WEC relating church plants into apostolic networks.

Betel is a brilliant story of the reign of God here and now - and it grows for that reason. I suspect as I read further on in Evangelism after Christendom there will be other points of contact.

Carbon Reverse

I should be working towards reducing my carbon footprint. My government has a great website to help me. But I am a failure - publicly.

Problem was yesterday. I went for a cycle ride in the morning - got as far as Keighley. 54 mile round trip - bum still hurts. Then time for church (7 miles door to door from home) - couldn't face that on a saddle so I took the car.

Bad move.

We are doing a series called "Reel Spirituality" (love the subtle title Andy!) Watching a film then talking about it. Nice idea after a strenuous day - problem was the film. An Incovenient Truth - inconvenient isn't in it...

For weeks now I've been cycling to Church to reduce my carbon footprint. (And stupidly ever so subtly droppping it in conversation.)

So I'm in reverse gear carbon-wise.

Think I got away with the fact that I had to take the red (gas-guzzling 2 litre estate with a carbon footprint the size of the West Riding) Volvo. Nobody saw me slink away.

Reading and Wriding

Naff title I know - but that's me!

Had my first decent ride of the year today - the canal path is dryer and harder, and when I set out it was mild(ish) so I toddled off to Salts Mill for a decent (if small) cappuchino. Found out I'd overreached myself coming home:

1. The wind had been behind me all the way out.
2. I've not done a 40 mile ride for a while.
3. One small cappuchino is not enough fluid or sugar.

Once revived by lunch and a large cola - finished a fantastic book:

The Islamist by Ed Husain

I have to say (to my shame) I have not read enough about Islam - but I think this book made up well for the oversight.

Ed tells of his conversion to a radicalised Muslim (an Islamist) and then back to a more moderate mystical (Sufi) form which he claims is still the predominant though unvoiced Moslem belief in the UK.

Reading the book you follow his journey, in belief and also on his "Road to Damascus" (yes he understands the allusion - but in his case he goes to Damascus to learn Arabic and find Sufi Moslems and Christians co-existing peacefully). He also finds the Hijab as the traditional clothing of - not Moslems - but Arab Christians! He also sees elsewhere, the horrors of a racist dictatorial regime - in the name of Islam.

All of this makes him all the more keen to pursue the loving peacable form of Sufism he has discovered.

Fascinating for me as an "evangelical" Christian is the parallels between some of the worst facets of evangelicalism and their equivalents in some streams of Islam. One example being the negative effects of "celebrity".

I'd lend it to you - but I borrowed it (from my son).

Sensible Work Shirt

Flash movie removed to protect the sanity of visitors - click here to see the movie.

Humor is everywhere, in that there's irony in just about anything a human does.

Bill Nye

Taking Offense

I've just finished an enjoyable read - "Brick Lane" by Monica Ali - Flora bought it in an airport bookshop. At the end of the book is an article written by the author after the book was published. It is titled: "The Outrage Economy". Clearly Monica Ali took some flak for stuff in the book/film.

As she points out, stock in the market for "outrage" or offense is rising. To put it another way - it is the trump card of the protestor: "I was outraged/offended/hurt (delete as applicable)".

As someone said I think - implicit in freedom of speech, has to be the possibility of giving or taking offence.

But is that a defence for being offensive? Answer: Maybe. I suspect that giving offence is sometimes the only way to make an important point (Jesus did it). But not always.

Sometimes offensive humour works - sometimes it is crap.

Taking offence - that is another issue - I think that playing the "I'm offended" trump card is just fueling "offence inflation".

It seems that some Christians see it is their role in life to be offended and make a lot of noise about it. That is so far from the core of the Gospel. "Im deeply offended" - is such an un-gracious response.

I'm not saying that people who find something morally wrong should stay silent. We do need to speak out sometimes - but let's not fuel offence inflation. We need signposts on the moral map not cowpats.

I find this mental tape a good one to play: "I am not responsible for what happens to me, but I am responsible for my reaction".

Would someone like to remind me of this post next time I act all offended?

Is faith private?

Recently I heard of a Home Office argument when trying to deport an Iranian Christian, that despite the clearly real danger of them being persecuted for their faith, (maybe even being killed) that they could just practice their religion "in private".

Now that is clearly a load of tosh! Faith is not a private thing (however coy we may sometimes be about it).

So I was interested to hear the episode of "Beyond Belief" on Radio 4 yesterday, driving home from Glasgow. (31st Dec 2007) The subject was religion in the workplace - and the key question was - "Can we keep religion out of the workplace?"

The speaker that kept making me shout back at the radio was Douglas Murray A Neo-Con apologist from the "Centre for social cohesion" (I was in the car on my own!)

Murray said "We have to divorce the private spiritual lives of employees and the situation they are in in the workplace" He goes on to point out that (Faith) "Affects your personal life - your spiritual life- it is not something you take to the workplace - it is totally irrelevant."

The totally irrelevant bit really got my goat! Douglas seemed to be appealing to some "higher" form of morality (of his own invention) to rule in the workplace - denying the relevance of any scripture (Christian, Jewish or Islamic)

A refusal to handle alcohol by Muslims in Sainsburys was denounced by Murray as hypocritical, yet he seems comfortable with one set of values at work and another elsewhere.

At the end of the program, Lord Brian Griffiths brough some sanity when he said that is was "Impossible to privatise religion".

Trick is to "publicise" it without being too cocky.. (Glen has a good post on this)

Happy new year...