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.