funky doo

http://davidkeen.blogspot.com/2010/06/review.html at St Aidan to Abbey Manor reflects on 'Rev' from last night on BBC2 and also links to other blogs with reviews so far. Worth a look.
I too would love the clip of the families coming into the church, late and squabbling with each other and Nintendos and phones ringing etc. and the confusion on their faces about where they should be in the book or hymn...I could have done with this last Tuesday at a particular meeting I was at...nuff said!
If anyone can provide the clip - legally...let me know!

how to plant a church

After my visit to Pilgrimage in early June, I have been thinking a lot about church/Jesus planting, particularly through a small group (in Order of Mission/LifeShapes language this is a Huddle).

One of the other delegates from the conference, who I referenced in some of my other posts has recently added to his blog with this post about How to Plant a Church. It brings together, in a really practical way some of my own wondering and thoughts about 'how do we do this?' 

All this thinking goes on in the midst of Andy's continuing exploration of ordained ministry in the Anglican Church - we had an important meeting as a family yesterday - as well as in the crazy humour of the new Rev sit com on BBC2 which premiered last night! A series of crazy contrasts...and yet the call to the church, in it's variety remains. 

 

do I love the Anglican Church this much...?

Reading Rachel Marzalek on Revise Reform today got me thinking about my love or otherwise for the Anglican Church...it's an ever fluctuating relationship! She writes of an experience on the streets and praying and choosing to engage with those around her - including a Christadelphian lady. She embarked on her afternoon with only £1.50 in her pocket and her feet and mouth and ears as a resource. Her conclusion challenged me to think about the Church of England as a 'mouthpiece' and whether I am indeed grateful for that...I've copied her final paragraph her for you but would encourage you to read the whole post: 

I need to unpack all of this, think about what it is God is doing using the Church of England as his mouth-piece, very grateful that he is and that it is something unthreatening to most people. I am left reflecting on the generosity of our faith, its ability to listen to others, its hermeneutical openness and its great process of discernment, the traditions of the last two thousand years by which we have arrived at our doctrine. I am grateful that the voices are many, that the view of God is wide and expansive, that those theologians each reveal something which we can wrestle with. I am grateful that I do not have to follow the interpretation of one man a couple of hundred years ago but that the Anglican faith has wrestled and listened and considered and continues to do so. I am grateful for a living God, who lavishes his children with Spiritual blessings, who is powerfully at work in our lives so that we can feel it, that his word is a living word, pointing to Jesus Christ and that we come to understand it by the power of the Holy Spirit. 

a reminder from a previous post...simplicity and uncertainty

 I re-read this post tonight while I was looking for a link to something else and just want to post it here as a reminder that God knows what He's doing in our lives.

Lots has happened since that post - not least our recent bereavement through miscarriage and the move of churches and progressing ordination for Andy in a very real.

But I still feel the same sense of security in what I wrote in the paragraph headed This is what I know. And I want to hold onto the sense of mystery and uncertainty - and yet real simplicity - that is paramount in our understanding of what God gets up to in our lives. Part of me is glad that this only makes sense with God involved...otherwise I don't know what I'd do!

A bit of a stream of conciousness but I feel affirmed that in an ever changing world and with our ever changing circumstances of the last few months - some things remain certain and God's call is one of those things.

 

 

Blogging on Pilgrimage

The 'ghost writer' of Mike Breen's blog has published some of his comments on the Pilgrimage event that I was also at earlier in June.

Might be useful to compare experiences...!

http://3dchurchplanter.wordpress.com/2010/06/24/my-thoughts-on-pilgrimage/ 

I have to admit that the prospect of anything resembling Missional Communities seems very far off in our present context...but with God, anything is possible...

One of the things I have been doing since returning from Pilgrimage and alongside my fellow Huddlers in our Order of Mission community, has been praying The Lords' Prayer every day at 12 noon. It would be fair to say that at present, it has made a massive difference to my expectation levels and understanding of God's 'comment' in my life...why haven't I done this before!

Dave Andrews and Mark Yaconelli - 2 great days of input!

CMS and other partners have bagged these 2 youth ministry gurus for 2 days in early September, capitalising on them being in the UK for Greenbelt anyway.

1st & 2nd September in Oxford, £25 per day - well worth it. I hope to be there for the 2nd September. Although the 1st might also be free as I was supposed to be at a Vetting and Barring Scheme roadshow which I guess won't be happening anymore!

Check out the details and a link to a pdf flyer here

Pilgrimage Day 4 - Thursday

And so we draw to a close...sorry for the delay between Day 3 and 4. I returned home on Thursday night and we had an unexpected American visitor with us and then I was working on Saturday too. Just catching up now!

Thursday was a day of consolidation. We had some question and answer sessions which I didn't write any notes on and we also had a bus tour of Sheffield to give us an overview of the locations of missional communities. So, my only share-able notes are on the morning devotion. 

1. Devotion by Mike Breen - based on Luke 22: 20 "new covenant in my blood". 

2 Corinthians 5:14 - covenant is about being one. All that is true of Jesus is true of us. Jesus died and so did we.

I am a son of God and men are the bride of Christ - it's not a gender thing but a one-ness thing. 

2 Corinthians 5: 15 if someone has given their life, the only appropriate response is to live your life for them. Each day that has been won by Jesus has been appropriated to us. 

God has won the world back through the agent (humans) who lost it in the first place. Human beings are the method by which God will propagate this message and bring others in. We sometimes ask "Why doesn't God DO anything?" He is - YOU are IT!

v 20 moves from Covenant to Kingdom - ambassadors. Live a life of reconciliation. 

Jesus took the sin (disease) and survived it - and in his resurrection, gave us the antibody. 

Kingdom Vision - Covenant Values --> a single thread of each (Covenant and Kingdom) is articulated in the cross. 

All that is in heaven can be touched by you when you kneel at the cross. 

Synoptic Gospels - primary text is about Kingdom, sub-text is Covenant. John's Gospel - primary text is about Covenant, sub text is Kingdom. Place where the sub text comes out is through the private conversations - like Nicodemus. 

Matthew 27: 51. It's obvious through the Passion narratives that the Covenant is happening...but what about Kingdom? 

Images through this section after and during Jesus' death are of the last day of Judgement - tombs opening, earthquakes, darkness. But is ISN'T the last day...however this is judgement day. The King of the Universe came and judged sin...carried by Jesus on the cross. 

The Kingdom comes in the declaration of judgement upon Jesus...those of us in Covenant with Jesus have had our day of Judgement. It is done and finished. 

Colossians 2:13 Jesus has disarmed the Devil - the Devil swung each weapon he had at Jesus but there was no power in them because each weapon stayed embedded in Jesus body...sin, death, law.

 

 

 
 

Steps of Justice - Prayer Guide is a great little resource...and it's free too for the pdf download.

This is the blurb:
The 30 day Prayer Guide:
Steps Of Justice began from the injustices that missionaries with Youth With A Mission would see while travelling the world sharing the love of Jesus. No matter where we were in the world we would see injustices like, slave labor, child prostitution, unclean drinking water, lack of opportunities for education, lack of medical care, overwhelming poverty, corrupt government, etc… A group of us have asked ourselves what can we do? Then we prayed asking the same question “Jesus what can we do for such overwhelming problems? Out of the cries of our hearts came an answer! It was simple “Take a step, make a difference!” This 30 Day Prayer Guide is our “First Step! We are asking you to take this first step with us! Together we CAN make a difference in the lives of others who are living in complete hopelessness!

http://www.stepsofjustice.org/the-calendar/ - really recommend you get this - it's free but the people doing it are missionaries so maybe you could give more to bless their work.
Either way, get it and use in - in small groups, church, with friends, family, schools and make a difference to injustice, one step at a time...

After my reflections on Pilgrimage over the last few days and the introduction of the 'oikos' idea, I've been doing some cyber reading and came across this useful blog post. Hope it's of interest to some...

http://salishtransplant.wordpress.com/2010/05/25/oikos-household-of-faith/

A little video I made for some training we're doing tomorrow...just to illustrate the diversity and vitality of youthwork opportunities...if you want them!