Seminars and conferences

I'm a bit conferenced out at the moment. You see I spent Friday at a seminar, Saturday doing Child Protection training and the last two days at Holy Trinity Brompton at a Leadership event. It is the proverbial bus syndrome.

Friday was probably the best overall event, but that had a lot to do with the topic and the focused nature of the day. HTB' s conference was much broader, but no less valuable. The mornings were worth the time to attend by themselves.

Have I learnt anything? Well yes I have. Quite a lot actually, but it all needs processing and I just hope I get the time to do that. Okay, so I intend to make time to do that, honest I do! A good conference or seminar should inspire and I think I've been inspired.

I was wondering this morning if some of the things that we think should be our focus as church are in fact the by-product of where we ought to be focusing. For example, if we think that mission ought to be our focus, and why wouldn't we think that, might it be that mission is actually the result of focusing on say spiritual development? When I read Acts one thing strikes. Almost everything the early church did resulted in mission. And that included a church meeting!

So I wonder what really are the core things to which we should give our fullest attention? I have a few ideas but they need work.

Reggie McNeal on missional church

My Spiritual Journey (2)

So I got to 1976 and my discovering that all the time I’d been chasing after God, he’d been chasing me and now I was caught. Some people have dramatic conversion stories, mine almost passed me by. I didn’t realise what I’d done until I was talking with some other guys at college and they could see that I was changed.

Very quickly I became a challenging member of my Christian subculture. I wasn’t about to conform to some imposed pattern that made me just like every other well-behaved member of the small group. I was, and still am, a little bit of a maverick. So I asked awkward questions and sought out deeper conversations.

In 1977, six months after coming to faith, I found myself in Germany at the European Congress on Disciple-making, run by the Navigators. I still have great admiration for this interdenominational organisation. I soaked up a lot of ideas over the few days we were there and it was at that conference that I first felt the gentle nudge of God’s Spirit to enter the bigger picture of God’s plan and purposes in the world. I didn’t know what it would mean, but I wanted to be part of whatever he was doing.

The following year I found myself in a 17-seat minibus travelling through North Africa with 15 other people. It was a trip organised by British Mission, later to become World Horizons. Two significant things happened on that trip. One, I got nudged more clearly by the Spirit to think about full-time ministry in the context of the UK church. Second, I finally connected meaningfully with the woman I would marry! Anne never could tell right from left and that left her at a disadvantage when trying to cross the road in Casablanca. I seized the opportunity and took her hand. We married two years later, which makes this year our 30th wedding anniversary.

Coming back from Africa we wrote to a number of colleges to enquire about possible training. BBI (Birmingham Bible Institute) very wisely encouraged us to find jobs, settle into being married and learn about life outside of the cloistered world of university and education. So we did. For seven years I worked for British Gas in R&D until I finally entered college to study theology.

During those years the call grew and I grew in fits and starts as I struggled to work out my faith amidst the questions and challenges of a church that generally wasn’t working. That’s not a criticism of any of the churches with whom we connected, but just a general feeling of unease that things were not as they should be and that all was not well among God’s people. Neither is it a precursor to my prescription for fixing anything. Even after 20 years of ministry I still haven’t worked that out.

In college I found out that my paternal grandfather had spent some of his life as a missionary in Gambia, and I began to wonder if I was part of a bigger story even within my own family.
College was great and it gave me the chance to explore things in new ways. One of those things was the place of the church in God’s mission. Something I tried to wrestle with in an essay.

More of that next time.

A Contrast Society

In Roxburgh and Boren’s Introducing the Missional Church, they talk about the need for the church to become a contrast society. The church is called to be a sign, witness, and foretaste of God’s dream (p103) for the redemption of all creation. To be this foretaste we must become a people shaped by an alternative story, living by a set of distinctly Christian practices. (103) How each individual church does this will reflect its local community. In other words there is no one size fits all plan, but a pattern of principles that Roxburgh and Boren divide into three sets of missional practices–presence, love and engaging the neighbourhood.

It’s interesting to me that one of the things they pick up on is the practice of hospitality, something that’s recently caught my attention because I was asked to preach about it!
One of the interesting questions then is to ask ourselves what would a contrast society or community look like in my neighbourhood. Before Christmas, sometime in October now I think about it, we did a little experiment in hospitality. We invited our neighbours three either side and five or six opposite to come and meet us. We’d only been in the house for a month or so, and just wanted to get to know them.

Some came, more didn’t. Why was that? Maybe they thought we were the religious nuts that had just moved in and it wasn’t worth the risk of not being able to escape. Maybe they were actually as busy as they said they were. Bt at least we asked, and we will ask again. This is part of being a contrast society in our neck of the woods.

The more I think about being a contrast society, the more it seems to call me to live faith out in full view of others. Not preaching at every opportunity, but of sharing a different life, shaped by a different story, the story of God’s redemptive plan at work in my life.

In the warmer weather I hope we can begin to extend our hospitality through being outside more often than we’re inside. Spending time in the park simply doing life with others, playing games, sharing picnics, hearing stories.

There’s bound to be more to being a contrast society than this, but at least it’s a place to start.

My Spiritual Journey (1)

I thought I might write about my spiritual journey, not because it's particularly exciting or even inspiring. It's just my story and it might help me understand me a bit more.

To find a starting point for one's spiritual journey is always difficult. How far back do you go? For me I suppose I'd have to start with the day I decided not to go to Sunday School. My parents were not church goers, but we were sent to Sunday School. After two weeks I declared it to be boring and that it wasn't for me. Little did I know at the tender age of 4 that I would spend the larger part of my life serving the very institution I appeared to be rejecting that day. Perhaps even then the established church was not a great fit for me!

I also remember asking, at one family meal, why I had to believe in God. Because the adults told me so simply didn't satisfy my young mind, and so at 4 years of age I was already asking deep questions that were getting me into trouble.

I don't remember much about the next 10 years or so. I know that by the time I was 15 or so my questions had become more focused on life's meaning. More specifically about who could give meaning to my life, who had the authority to do that. Existential philosophy appeared to suggest that you do the truth thing for yourself, but that didn't satisfy me.

As I travelled to and from school one thing always caught my eye, an illuminate cross on a church. At the time I didn't understand why or what it represented. It wasn't until I arrived at University that I found someone who helped me understand how to begin a relationship with God.

So there I was, sitting in my room on the last Sunday of the first term in 1976 asking God to do for me what I needed. To forgive me and to give meaning to my life.

Questions, then, have always been a major part of my mental tapestry. Sometimes I ask too many questions, and that paralyses action. Sometimes the questions are a launching point for deeper study and learning. I still ask questions, and for some people I still ask too many as I try to understand what it means to know God and make him known.

In conversation, in the pub

I had my first outing to a local pub the other evening. It was very quiet and I'd arranged to meet someone there for a chat. This is pastoral care, this is conversation, this is just being church, this is just being. For those who might be worrying, I had fruit juice. Actually, as I told my conversation partner, I decided when I was 18 that it was okay not to like beer and to tell other people I didn't like it! So I drink what I like and I like fruit juice.

Back to the story.

The place we went was not busy. Maybe because it was Monday night, maybe because it as cold, or maybe it just isn't busy on Mondays! So we met and we sat and we talked. We talked about all sorts of things. Nothing we talked about was a secret, it didn't need to be said behind the closed doors of an office or study. It was just two people doing life together.

I'm not about to suggest that we convene a small group and all turn up with Bibles next week, but why don't we meet and have conversations more often than we do? Why is it that we find it so hard to spend time together when one of the hallmarks of community is time spent together?

We had a great meal with friends from church the other Friday. I laughed so much at one particular story that I thought I was going to turn inside out! Isn't it time we invited our neighbours and friends into our lives more often? To share our stories with them and hear their stories from them. No evangelistic agenda, just doing life. Could we possibly reimagine church more in the contexts of these relationship than in the context of filling a building once a week?

A few weeks ago someone said to me that they thought the problem with our building is that it was designed to be closed most of the time! Reimagining it to be open most of the time might be a good place to start, but it's not the only shift in imagination we need. More needs to change. Stud walls and paint, extensions and new buildings won't make us more engaged with our community.

If we can't see what God is doing in the space we share with the missing, it's unlikely that we'll fix that without a new imagination. I wonder if there's room for a housegroup for people who don't like housegroups and that doesn't meet in a house?

I think I'm rambling again!

Dealing with confusion

Life can be confusing to say the very least. Just when you think it's going really well, something pops up and send you into a tailspin and just when you think the world is about to crash in on your head, God steps in and does something quite remarkable. It is all very confusing at times.

At the moment it has to be said that life is a little disorienting. nothing that can't be handled if approached properly, and by that I mean with bags of grace and prayer and by keeping jerking knees under strict control!

And so it is that I turn to by daily reading and Blackaby's devotional guide. Here's an extract from today's reflection from Luke's gospel:

God reads the heart and knows the honest pursuit of His will by His children. Jesus drew near to these men [the two on the Emmaus road], walked with them, and opened their minds to what the Scriptures said about Him and about the events of their day. As Jesus was speaking, their hearts burned within them! As they listened to Jesus relate the Scriptures to what they were experiencing, they knew in their hearts that they were hearing God’s truth. Their doubts vanished, excitement overcame them, and they raced back to share the truth with their friends!

If you become bewildered by circumstances in your life, Jesus can reorient you to Himself through the Scriptures just as He did for these two men. From your human perspective, the situation may be confusing and discouraging. It takes the presence of Christ to open your eyes to the truth of the Scriptures. Have your circumstances confused you? You need Jesus to give you His perspective. Once you’ve heard from Him, you’ll be like these two men, excited to join God in what He is doing around you and eager to include others in the experience.

So, if life is a little confusing you know where to turn. Don't turn to the self-help guides, turn to the Bible and walk in the ways of God. It will do wonders for your soul. Trust me, I'm a pastor!

Real Church

Brad Brisco at Missisonal Church Network has posted a great quote from Henri Nouwen. Go read it!

Thinking about Church

A couple of things I've read recently are helping me think about church. The first is from Bill Hybels book Axiom. It's about DNA, but the point that stirred my thoughts was the need to discover a church's DNA and plot the course to a new DNA carefully. As we face the challenge of change, we need to be careful about identifying the DNA of what is ahead of us and about how we become DNA carriers amongst the leadership team and the wider church.

And then I was reading Ed Stetzer's blog and was reminded that fundamental to the church is the call to conversion. This is part of our DNA. The gospel changes lives. It doesn't replace one set of principles with another, it doesn't overlay an extra set of faith values or offer an alternative lifestyle.

The gospel calls for a radical loss of self in order to discover our truest identity. We die to live. We take up our cross every day, we lose our lives to find them. This is not a gospel of self-realisation but a gospel of self-denial. I am not the centre of the universe.

Putting the two together means that if the transforming power of the gospel and a strong expectation of seeing lives transformed, souls saved or won, however you want to phrase it, is not part of the DNa then whatever is formed by that DNA will not be the church. This is not at odds with a desire to see a new expression of biblical community.

Preface it with what you like: attractional, missional, traditional, contemporary, emergent, it doesn't matter, it won't be the church. The church is God's chosen vehicle for his missionary activity in the world. Take that away and you've taken the heart out of the church.

Pastoral Care Training Day

On Saturday I had the great pleasure of spending the day with some great folk from ARC. You can find out more about the church from their website. I met Peter, the senior pastor, at a one-day seminar last March. We began to talk and from there we developed a relationship that led to me leading a training day for them. We talked about pastoral care.

The day broke down into four sessions: An overview; the health-check; how we listen; and developing good practice. The health-check is a simple questionnaire used to identify areas of personal spiritual growth and ministry. We covered a lot of ground, but it was a lot of fun. The group was wonderfully responsive and made me feel wonderfully welcome. And the food was brilliant!

I ended the day shattered but having been inspired and challenged. Surely that's not a bad outcome, to be challenged by your own seminar!

Having not done anything quite like this before, it was a opportunity for me to explore how to plan and deliver something that would stimulate and keep people engaged through a whole day. We did some group activities, but we probably needed more process time. To do that would mean either cutting down the content or lengthening the day. I think we probably got the balance about right.

Missional Church Video

This came via one of the regular feeds I check.

Hospitality and witness-the notes

Here are an edited version of my notes for my talk about hospitality as witness.

If there is any concept worth restoring to its original depth and evocative potential, it is the concept of hospitality.

Henri Nouwen

Does hospitality have a part to play in the witness of the church? Well the short answer is yes, but of course it rather depends upon what you mean by witness and what you mean by hospitality, and just for good measure what you mean by church! In the Ancient world hospitality was assumed and expected. If you turned up in a strange town or village, someone would offer hospitality.

Being so much more sophisticated, we’ve turned hospitality into a business, a marketing opportunity, a degree-level qualification. We offer hospitality on the basis of a return. Not so for our ancient predecessors.

Paul urged fellow Christians to welcome one another, because it was the right thing to do. It honoured Christ and the cause of Christ.

Hospitality was a qualification for leadership (1Tim.3)

Hebrews says welcome strangers... you might be entertaining angels unawares

Jesus: when you did it for the least of these...

Rom 12:13 Practice hospitality

1Pet 4:0 Offer hospitality without grumbling

In Luke's post-resurrection account of the Emmaus road, Jesus is revealed as the risen Christ in the context of hospitality and food. And while the link to hospitality and witness seems rather tenuous at best, there is something about his self-revelation in the practice of eating that at the very least hints at how important eating together can be for a full expression of relationship.

And it’s not the only time. Breakfast on the beach, eating with them during the 40 days between resurrection and ascension according to Acts 1. And we should not forget his words in Revelation 3: Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone will open the door, I will come and eat with them.

If the Son of God himself thinks it is important to eat with his followers, even after his death and resurrection, what role does it play for us?

Hospitality and witness

#1 It Includes

Jesus offered a welcome to strangers. He said: Come to me all you who are weary and carrying heavy loads. Come, find rest for your souls. Hospitality can be a sign of the welcome of the kingdom.

#2 It identifies

Jesus ate with folk that religious people wouldn’t touch with a barge pole. Because of it he became known as “a friend of sinners”.

#3 It celebrates

When Zacchaeus responds to the gospel, Jesus invites himself to dinner to celebrate the event.

#4 It exposes

When Jesus has dinner with a Pharisee his lack of courtesy is exposed. Simon disapproves of the woman who washes the feet of Jesus with her teats, but he won’t even offer water for the job. It’s beneath him.

#5 It challenges

When there is no one to wash the feet of the disciples, Jesus does it himself.

#6 It encourages

The early church met together in homes around meals. They ate together with glad and sincere hearts (Acts 2). This was part of the larger picture of the life of the early church that resulted in mission and growth. In fact almost everything the early church did produced growth. The outpouring of God’s Spirit, the gathering of the early community, the signs and wonders, the early persecution and arrest precipitated a prayer for boldness that resulted in growth. The problem with the Greek widows, the death of Stephen and the scattering that followed, the Spirit inspired boundary-breaking visit of Peter the Jew to Cornelius the Gentile, the conversion of Saul, the planting of the fist Gentile church, the missionary journeys, the argument between Barnabas and Paul, and most amazing of all, a church meeting even resulted in mission.

Conclusion

Does hospitality have a place in the life and witness of the church? Yes it does. Do we practice it often enough? Probably not.

There is so much more to explore around this idea of the hospitality of the kingdom. Even as I presented these ideas there were questions running around my brain. But it is a starting point for more thinking and discussing. Read Wiggy's comment on the other post to see how they are exploring community and hospitality and witness in the summer. All very exciting.

Hospitality and witness

Recently I was asked to preach at the local Churches Together service for Christian Unity. I was given the title and passage for the talk, it was from Luke's Emmaus Road narrative and the topic was "Hospitality as witness."

Now I have to confess that at first sight the only connection with hospitality I could see was that Jesus ate some fish, and the particular text about opening their minds didn't seem to fit the theme too well either. So I began to wonder where hospitality fitted in the kingdom and in God's mission too. Slowly things began to surface as I read through the gospels and thought about Jesus and food.

In the end I must say that my talk was far from the finished article. So many questions were still unanswered in my own mind that I could only present half a survey if that. But there's something here that has caught my imagination. From what I've heard, it caught a few other imaginations too.

Jesus offers an invitation to come, there is hospitality in the kingdom, there is hospitality in that very invitation. Hospitality is an invitation to share personal space and a giving away of time and attention. I have this other phrase wandering around my head too: Sacred spaces in public places.

Somewhere here is an idea about inviting people far from God to share our sacred space on their turf. In the parks and cafes, restaurants and galleries, shopping malls and sports fields.

It's all very fuzzy, but I'd be interested in some comments and thoughts about the whole idea. I think I'll post my notes from the talk too.

Suffering

I don't like to suffer. I don't even like to think about suffering. I certainly don't equate some of the things through which I have to go with anything I see on the news in places like Haiti or Afghanistan.

But I do suffer. Suffer in all sorts of ways, physically, emotionally, spiritually. Just like you suffer too.

How then should we respond? How should we understand what's happening to us?

I was reading Henry Blackaby's devotional yesterday and it was all about the role of suffering. He contends that there are somethings that God wants to build into your life that he can only do through the process of suffering. Personally, I know that suffering is the only route to patience and many times to grace.

There is a positive aspect to suffering. We all endure suffering to some degree, but the good news is that through it we can become like Jesus. Are you willing to pay whatever price is necessary in order to become like Christ? There are some things that God can build into your life only through suffering. Even Jesus, the sinless Son of God, was complete only after He had endured the suffering His Father had set before Him. Once He had suffered, He was the complete, mature, and perfect Savior through whom an entire world could find salvation.

But it's that little phrase, tucked away in this paragraph that gets me and drags me to my knees with more questions about me and spiritual character than it does about the causes and effects of any suffering through which I walk.

Are you willing to pay whatever price is necessary in order to become like Christ?

Am I that willing? Fortunately we live life one step at a time. The measure of our suffering is rarely revealed to us ahead of time, although often afterwards we can see the hand of God preparing us before the suffering comes.

Let's give Blackaby's devotional the last word:

Don’t resent the suffering God allows in your life. Don’t make all your decisions and invest everything you have into avoiding hardship. God did not spare His own Son. How can we expect Him to spare us? Learn obedience even when it hurts!

Phil. 4:4-7

I needed to write a short reflection on these verses from Philippians for a funeral service I'm taking later today. This is always a challenge, to try and say in two minutes what you might take 35 minutes to say any other time. I guess the nature and place of preaching is a subject that will rumble on and on as long as we continue to do it.

Anyway, here's my simple reflection on these great words from Paul:

Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi is written while the apostle is under arrest. He doesn’t know what the future holds for him, it could be a time of great anxiety. It isn’t that Paul isn’t prone to worry. He cares deeply for the churches across the whole region. He is anxious about his own people, the Jews. He’s concerned about the faithfulness of the emerging network of followers of Jesus Christ. Paul is not unfamiliar with the stresses and strains of life that can cause us to become anxious about anything and everything.

But he has a simple prescription to put it all in its proper context.

He’s already told his readers that they shine like stars, that they must “press on” in life and that even prisoners chains cannot hold back the progress of the kingdom. As he pleads with two members of the community who are at odds with each other to agree and as he enlists the help of the faith community to support them, he calls them to respond with worship.

In the Bible worship is always a valid response, whatever the circumstances. Whether pressure, hardship, unrest, loss or even death, worship is something we should always do. And not only worship but also pray. Pray about it all. Tell God what is on your heart and on your mind. Hold nothing back, because he wants to know and he cares enough to listen and is powerful enough to answer. Not always as we think he should, but always he answers.

So, Paul’s antidote to a life of anxiety is simple: Always rejoice, pray about everything, don’t let you mind wander to the bad stuff.

After our reading finishes, Paul’s very next challenge to the church is to focus on the good stuff. The noble stuff, the pure stuff, the lovely and admirable. If it’s worthy of praise, think about it says Paul. Don’t dwell on the negative, rest in the positive.

Rejoice always, pray about everything, focus on the good stuff.

This is not a recipe for a good life, it’s the recipe for life in God’s hands. A life in which anxiety and worry find their proper place.

Would I go there?

Several times recently I've been asked if I would be comfortable going to the pub. It's an interesting question. I've never really been much of a pub-goer. Even in my youthful days when it was all the rage, I never really felt at home in the cultural setting of the lounge of the "Dog and Duck".

The thing is, I don't really have what you might call a pub memory. Now I don't mean that I've forgotten any and every visit. Just last year when Anne and I were waking in the Dales we had a really nice lunch in a typical country pub, and I remember that clearly!!

What I mean by a pub memory is a cultural background. I literally don't know how to behave in those surroundings. Do I sit down or stand at the bar. Do I talk about philosophy or football? What's the etiquette for getting attention when I want to buy a drink? Do I take my used glass or ask for a clean one?

While church should always remain attractive, simply being attractive is not going to change anything much for all those people who do not have a church memory or even a Christian memory. For those people I'd be guessing that as far as they are generally concerned, church does things for church people.

Perhaps if we began to explore how we can help people with no Christian memory discover how to relate to God where they are, we might begin to help them form a memory that will move them towards a deeper relationship with him.

I wonder what that kind of church might look like.

Just wondering

Perhaps the reason I sometimes feel like we're missing the point as we try to figure what being church means in our present context is because we're looking for a new definition when we should be looking for a new imagination.

As Roxburgh and Boren suggest we need a radical transformation of our way of viewing the world if we're going to reimagine the church effectively.

Introducing the Missional Church

Having put down Francis Chan's Crazy Love, I've picked up Introducing the Missional Church by Alan Roxburgh and Scott Boren. Having read the introduction and the first chapter, my head is pounding with thoughts and ideas and memories about why I care so much about the local church.

I care because I honestly believe that there is so much more to being the church than we have discovered or than we practice at this present time. Too often the church is reduced to something machine-like that we maintain and fix. My preferred picture is of a garden we nurture and that surprises us as it grows and flourishes. When something unusual happens with a machine it usually means trouble. Something is breaking down, normality is being interrupted and we must fix it. When something unusual happens in the garden it's often eventful, interesting, and new. It may not need fixing at all. I wonder, for example, if it were just by chance that someone discovered that some plants produce different coloured flowers if they are planted in different types of soil.

When I was at college in my final year of a theology degree, I wrote a paper about reconnecting the church to its mission. As my tutor pointed out, I wrote a lot, but neither of us was sure I'd answered the question I was actually asking. I do remember though how much it meant to me then to try and rediscover the heart of what it means to be the church. I am still asking the questions twenty years on.

What I do know is that I can never settle for anything less than a wholehearted search for God's heart for the church he loves. If all our assumptions must be shattered and all our boundaries broken, then so be it if it releases the church from an internal focus on filling building towards an external focus on releasing the kingdom into communities.

Maybe one day I'll have some answers worth writing down. Perhaps there might even be a PhD in it! Who knows, who cares as long as we get a ste closer to being the church Jesus wants us to be.

Crazy Love

I've just finished reading Francis Chan's Crazy Love. It's a very accessible read but far from easy. The challenge is clear from the outset:

This book is written for those who want more Jesus. It is for those who are bored with what American Christianity has offers. It is for those who don't want to plateau, those who would rather die before their convictions do.

The book is written against the background of a simple question: Has the present-day church missed the point? We've become comfortable, complacent, even conventional about faith. But the Jesus of the New Testament calls us to radical, redefined living through which he wants to change the world.

As Francis Chan points out:

The world needs Christians who don't tolerate the complacency of their own lives.

Will you enjoy reading it? Well, that all depends on how you define enjoy. It should stir your heart and your mind to consider how seriously you take following Jesus Christ as a fully devoted disciple.

Taking control of the chaos again!

It feels good to have taken a little time to reorder my tickler file. Organisation is one of the wagons from which I fall regularly. These days I find it easier to get back on because the basics of my system are fundamentally sound. There are some things to file, but most of the sorting out is done and I now need to remind myself every day to check the file and act on what I find.

I may have blogged about my filing system. Essentially it's an alphabetical system with a drawer for church things, a drawer for home stuff and a drawer that still needs attention! It used to be six drawers, so getting it down to three was quite an achievement in the first place.

I'm planning that 2010 will see some more progress in my improving organisation, and that I'll start tracking things more effectively. The single most important thing for me is getting stuff written down and ordered into actionable tasks. I use Omnifocus, but a simple list is really all I need most of the time.

So, here's to a better organised 2010! Now all I have to do is set some achievable goals in all the other areas of my life!

Responding to Haiti

I read with a mixture of incredulity and embarrassment that a prominent evangelical was telling viewers to his TV show that Haiti had brought this disaster upon themselves.

Perhaps I'm more embarrassed for God, who is being so misrepresented by such a perspective. I don't know.

This morning, as I continue preparations for Sunday, I stood in front of a flip chart and wrote down:

What does the Gospel offer the people of Haiti?

This is the rough outline of my thoughts.

Firstly is does not offer judgement or self-help solutions. It doesn't theorise or theologise about the circumstances. It just gets stuck in and does something.

It offers faith, hope and love.

Love, because an earthquake does not mean that God has stopped loving Haitian people. Love, because loving one another both inside and outside the church is a cornerstone of what it means to be human, made in the image of a loving God.

It offers hope because whilst we can't stop earthquakes from happening, they do not define who we are and they do not define our Haitian brother and sisters. They remain people dearly loved by God and made in his image, just as we are. Death, destruction, poverty, homelessness might describe them at the moment but they do not define them.

It offers faith. Faith that there is a bigger picture, an eternal context for the suffering and loss happening all around us. We live in a fallen world, we cannot escape the truth that sin brings judgement, but that's not the whole story. While we may live in a fallen world, even a judged world, we experience grace in bucketfuls. We see grace as people are pulled from the carnage alive long after the rescuers ever expected to find anything but bodies. I'm sure that over the coming weeks we will hear stories of amazing escapes and incredible survival. We see grace in the financial and practical responses of nations. Grace will abound.

The gospel also offers compassion as people respond with gifts and time and energy and expertise. And it offers compassion as Jesus weeps at the graveside of his friend Lazarus and over the city of Jerusalem. If you think God remains unmoved by tragedy then you are very much mistaken.

If I were preparing this as a sermon to preach, and I may choose to drop my prepared talk for Sunday and reflect on these things instead, then I'd want to finish with a question:

How can we be kingdom people to the people of Haiti?

Three things come to mind.

We can pray. We should already be praying, but we can always pray. We can pray for the grieving, the hungry, the injured, the survivors, the aid workers, those who would look to use the situation to their advantage, all sorts of people need our prayers at this time.

Secondly we can give. Through organisations we know or directly through the Disaster Emergency Committee. It really doesn't matter through whom you give, it matters that you give.

Thirdly we can go. Some may have skills they can offer, some may just have a heart to offer. I don't know what opportunities may or may not exist now or in the near future, but it's worth a prayer isn't it? "God, if I can do something practical, show me what it is, open a door for me to become involved." Next to "Go" on my flipchart I wrote "Habit for Humanity". I was just wondering if later, after the immediate relief work is done, whether they might be involved in some rebuilding work. I can swing a hammer reasonably well. You never know and you should never exclude the possibility that God might call you to be the answer to the prayer you are praying.

So there we go. It's not fully thought through, it's just my response at this moment in time. It's not eloquent, it won't be read by more than a handful of people, it won't be nationally syndicated. But I don't care about that at all. I do care about the people of Haiti who need God's mercy not our judgement.

Idolatry, who me?

Another great article from John Orberg.

How often do we stop and ask what's influencing us most. Have we become a nation of reality TV show worshippers who have transferred those values into church life? Do we covert the church down the road, or worse still do we thank God we're not like them?

Journalling

Well, this year's journal is up and running. I usually start fresh each year, although I think 2007 and 2008 were in the same book. I don't like to waste paper, but it just seems like the right thing to do to start a new year with a fresh journal.

My first entry, in fact my only entry to date, reflects on the life of David. I'm almost at the end of reading through 2 Samuel. Absalom is dead and David is returning the Jerusalem. It's quite a sad picture. The whole thing with Absalom is a mess, but then life can be messy. We all make mistakes.

Maturity probably has less to do with making fewer mistakes than it does with learning to handle them better. We learn how not to get angry quickly, how not to say exactly what we think without engaging our brains first. We learn how to see both sides of an argument, how to listen and reflect back what we hear in order to clarify understanding.

And most importantly we learn how to stop blogging and pay attention to one's wife who's just come through the door!

Promises after the fact

I listened to the interview this morning on Radio 4 with Sir John Major and Baroness Shirley Williams. You'd think from the BBC website that only John Major had anything to say, but that wasn't the case at all. However, John Major had some interesting things to say about how politics needs to change in order to regain the trust of the people who do the electing. (A phrase I didn't ever expect to hear myself using!)

Shortly after the end of his final term as President, Bill Clinton addressed the Labour Party conference. He too had some interesting things to say about what needed to be done with respect to Iraq and issues of worldwide terrorism. I remember him saying how someone needed to ask the question, "Why do they hate us so much?" And I thought he was right. We need to ask that question and not come up with an answer that suggests that it's because we're right and they, whoever they are, are always wrong.

But here's the thing that puzzles me. Do these guys only think of these things after they leave office? Are they so busy maintaining the status quo while in office that they only see the bigger picture with the advantage of hindsight?

Perhaps we need a new cohort or political leaders who will ask the big questions, seek out significant change, risk not getting re-elected in order to make the changes necessary to create a political system that will serve a 21st century society before it's too late.

Truly visionary leaders, I suspect, are seldom concerned with their reputation or even their longevity in office. They are way too busy trying to paint a picture of what might be and what could be.

Is it Monday?

I don't know if it will help, but on the back of my previous entry about journal writing, here's an extract from 2009:

Monday 2nd March '09

Is Sunday or Monday the first day of the week? I know technically it's Sunday, but it always feels like Monday. Perhaps this is because we build up to Sunday. It is the high point. This makes it feel like the end of the week more than the start.

Odd really, because in many ways we are trying to launch ourselves into a new week. Do we come (to Sunday) with all the burdens of a week gone that we have no room, no energy for the opportunities of a new week beginning?

"Lord, I offer up my week to you before it's all used up. There are jobs to be done, sermons to write and things to plan. But before I get too busy, here I am. I give myself again for your purposes. I look not for the grand opportunities but for the simple ways I can serve you. Open my eyes to see where you are at work and show me how I can be part of your big plan."

Another year over

Well, it's the last day of 2009. It's all gone rather too quickly for my liking, but there's little I can do about it now! Slowing down time has never been one of my gifts anyway.

Somewhere around the end of the year I usually read through some of my journal. This year I seem to have written more than in the combined previous two years. Obviously the new pen inspired me! Some of what is written is deeply personal and I hope no-one ever reads it, although I guess when I'm long gone it might provide an interesting insight into the vague wanderings of my mind and emotions.

The year began with lots of entries around the topic of moving on. I really struggled with not being able to talk it all through with the church. I know it would have been more difficult if I'd have told everyone up front what was happening, but that didn't make the not telling any easier. Maybe I'm just unusual, but if I could have found a way I would have made the journey something we all shared.

Perhaps, if you're in a similar position this year, and if you asked me what I thought, then I think I'd say that if the question is do I go or stay, then you can probably involve one or two in the process and maybe more if relationships are good and they understand. If it's just a matter of having decided it's time to move, then wait until you know when and where before you start telling people. Fortunately I was surrounded by a great group of ministry friends who helped me reflect and who prayed with me. Bless them.

With hindsight I can honestly say that I didn't realise how much of an impact we'd made during our time in Bedford. We built some great relationships and we have never felt quite so loved as we did the day we said our goodbyes. I hope every ministry ends as well as ours in Cotton End did.

As the summer approached it became more about the transition and making the move. Eventually we moved in September, and a new ministry began.

My journal is full of all sorts of things. About how weird the book of Daniel gets, irritations over blocked ears and odd 'phone calls from complete strangers perturbed by a documentary and wanting to know about Christian faith as a result. There are deep questions and there are trivial questions. There are prayers and funny stories, and not enough of both! Maybe in 2010 I'll make sure I write down the funnier things of life and ministry, if only to balance out the tough days.

If you don't journal, do give it a try. And persevere. Don't just say it's not for you because you don't write anything for weeks on end and then don't know what to write. I think it took me several restarts and two or three years to get into the habit, a habit I'm still working on and developing.

There is no secret to journalling, you just have to make a start and stick with it. You will be surprised how it helps, especially if you take the time to review. Big themes from your life will emerge, trust me, I know. As I reread my journal one year I realised just how much I'd written about frustration and decided that I needed to refocus my attention in a more healthy way. Without my journal I would probably never have done that.

If I have one personal secret it's having a nice fountain pen with which to write. I love writing in ink. It's not the neatest handwriting, but it just one of those things I like to do. I don't use the pen for anything else, and so if I want to use my fountain pen I have to write in my journal. That keeps me writing.

So go out and buy an A5 wire-bound notebook and make a start. Tomorrow might be the first day of a great journalling journey!

Pastoral Care Training

I'm working away at setting out my notes for a Pastoral Care training day that I'm doing at the end of January. It's quite a challenge because, as usual, I've got lots of ideas and no logical pattern to them! But isn't that always the way.

I'm really pleased to have been invited to do this and I'm looking forward to it, but there is a lot of work to do. I've decided to divide the day into four sessions covering a broad overview of pastoral care, the health-check document (the invitation specifically wants this covered), and then two sessions on practice and skills. My plan is to talk some of the time and then get the attendees to do some work. Rather than give them a model to apply and definition with which to work, I thought it would be better if they came up with their own definition and plan to implement in their church.

I'm using a few resources I've got including David Beer's book on Strategic Church, and two training programmes I've got on the shelves. I hope it will be a valuable day for everyone who comes along. If it works well enough, we will repeat it as part of our training schedule at UBC. If it doesn't then we'll do something different!!

Bill Bailey's guide to the orchestra

I was given Bill Bailey's remarkable guide to the orchestra for Christmas. I saw this some time ago on TV and really enjoyed it, so I was rather pleased to get it for Christmas. I love the bits about the bassoon and the trombones.

Many favourite bits, but here's Bill doing the Doctor Who theme!

Too Ordinary for Hollywood

My Father-in-law likes a good war movie. The only problem is that he usually falls asleep and misses quite a lot of what he's watching. Anyway, because we know he enjoys the bits he sees, we sat together yesterday and watched "The Heroes of Telemark", a classic 60's production that retells a true story with a lot of "dramatisation" thrown in. Which is a polite way of saying history is rewritten to make it a bit more exciting.

The true story is far less glamourous and altogether more ordinary. But since when did that make a good film? I'm not blaming the culture of film-making for the rewriting of history, although one does wonder why they don't set the film in a fictional town with fictional characters rather than tempt you with the idea that what you are watching is true. But this is the essential difference between life and film, reality and drama. Who, for example, in their right mind would move to Midsomer?

No, ordinary life is just that, ordinary.

In our dreams it's a different matter. We are all heroes in our dreams. I don't remember my dreams for very long after I wake up. I know that 45 minutes ago, just before I woke up, that I was having a truly vivid dream, but now the details have faded away almost completely. What I do recall is that it had something to do with saving the world again, I always manage to save the world, and it seemed to involve being able not only to survive the vacuum of space without a pressure suit, but I could hold my breath for an inordinately long time! True Hollywood!

I'm not going to go all psychological about why we dream what we dream. They are just dreams after all! The point is that real life is not a dream and it's not a TV or film drama either. It's ordinary.

In a few hours we're off to see yet more relatives for what will be an ordinary lunch with ordinary conversation. I doubt that we will encounter too many aliens on the Southend arterial road or need to find a diversion around a suddenly erupting volcano. We live ordinary live with ordinary friends and ordinary families.

And yet, it is in this very ordinariness of our lives that our extraordinary God wants to share himself with us and to work through us. He invites us to live our ordinary lives inside his extraordinary mission.

2010 is unlikely to find me involved in solving some intricate conspiracy. I doubt I'll be dodging bullets by hiding behind a car door or abseiling down the outside of a tall building using a fire hose. At least I hope not (I don't do heights very well!). What I will do is meet people, hear stories, share memories, give of myself and seek to follow Jesus Christ as closely as I can. And I'll pray that through sharing in ordinary life, ordinary people will be touched by the wonder of God's love, mercy and grace.

Merry Christmas

Well everybody else seems to be wishing the world a Merry Christmas, so I thought I'd join in!

My plan for the day is a simple one. We've got our Christmas Day celebration at church this morning, then the in-laws will arrive and we will do the present opening. It's all very civilised as we sit down and take it in turns to open presents. After that it's the ubiquitous Christmas lunch. I'll try and get out for a walk in the afternoon, but sometimes lunch can take so long to have and clear up afterwards that we run the risk of being out in the dark!

Hopefully after all this I'll get the chance to do a little reading. I'm currently reading both Crazy Love by Francis Chan and To be Told by Dan Allender. Both interesting books.

Boxing Day is a big day as we travel to see the wider family. It will be a longer journey this year because we've moved further away, adding an hour at least to the travelling time. That leaves little time to make sure everything is ready for Sunday, so I might even grab some time today to do a bit of work.

I know, I should have been more organised and got it all done earlier in the week, but I didn't and I enjoy the quiet of Christmas Day anyway. We don't have a house full of relatives with which to contend! So doing some work doesn't really interfere with the day.

Hope you all have good days too, the kind of Christmas Day you enjoy.

Recycling Bag Stand

I made this simple bag stand for Ally. It's a little more sophisticated than the one I made very quickly when we were in Bedford. That one is still in use, but may get replaced with a version of this one in the future.

Using 34mm square timber, I constructed a simple frame using butt joints strengthened with dowels. I'd never tried this before, so I'll be interested to see how the stand up to regular use in a student house.

There's not much to say about the construction. The two sides are made up first and joined with the three rails to create the frame. It's not just an aesthetic thing to have the bottom open. It makes getting the bag out a little easier. I've also considered making one with a crate on runners for bottles or cartons at the bottom. Version three perhaps!

The top is just another rectangular frame made like all the others. The case clips are on both the front and the back, allowing the bag to be put into the frame and then clamped in position with the top frame. You could just as easily hinge the back. I added some soft closure bumps for cabinet doors to give the frame more grip on the plastic bag.

So far the reports have been good, it's working fine. Another successful piece of utility woodwork!

Seen at last!

Ever since we came to Upminster we've heard the stories about the wild parakeets that live locally. In the summer we could hear them calling, but never quite got to see them. Well, as I opened the curtains this morning, there they were sitting in the tree just outside the window.

With the light behind them it was almost impossible to photograph them, but I gave it a go and although not very clear, here's the proof that these birds really do live wild at the bottom of our garden!

In the first picture you can just about make out the bird sitting in the far side of the tree near the centre of the photograph.

When they fly, they are really obvious as these brightly coloured flashes cross your field of view. But sitting in the tree they blend in rather too well at times! There are at least two others in this picture but I can't see them!

In the second picture there's a solitary bird sitting on a branch on the edge of the tree. If only it was in the afternoon the sun would have been from the right and he would have been beautifully lit! Oh well, at least I've seen them close up (the tree is only 6 or 8 feet from the window).

Today's devotional

More from Desiring God

You can duplicate the words and deeds of a spiritually mature Christian, but you cannot inherit his or her walk with God. Christian maturity takes effort; it comes over time. If you ignore the place of prayer and if you neglect your relationship with Christ, you will not grow in your faith. Imitating the faith of others will not give you victory. Only as you nurture your own relationship with Jesus will your life be filled with spiritual maturity and power.

Discipline and effort

In these days of quick fixes and instant solutions, it's helpful to remember that few things come so easily. Our neighbour teaches the piano. Sometimes I can hear the effort of the pupils as they strive to get their fingers moving to the right keys at the right time. It doesn't always work. The truth is it takes a lot of hard work to become proficient. And I think that's true no matter how much natural talent you might have.

Following Jesus takes hard work too. We'd like to think that it wouldn't, that somehow everything would fall into place. We'd like to think that once we've acknowledged Jesus as leader and forgiver everything would be good and we'd slip easily and neatly into a fulfilling devotional pattern of life. All our prayers answered, no questions left hanging in the air.

But spiritual growth does not happen by accident. If we don't plan to grow then we rarely will grow.

I was reminded of this as I read yesterday from Desiring God:

The Christian life is hard work. Christianity involves systematically striving to implement the truths of God’s Word into your life. Spiritual depth and maturity do not come without consistent effort... There are no shortcuts to spiritual maturity. Maturity only comes through hard work and obedience to what God says.

Perhaps now would be a good time to set some spiritual goals for next year.

Wrong place at the wrong time

I've reached the part of king David's story where he meets Bathsheba. It's a turning point in his life, to state the obvious.

There are very simple lessons to learn and I think of them every time I read the narrative of this sorry episode in David's life.

1. Am I where I ought to be?

2. Am I looking at things I shouldn't be looking at?

3. Am I serving only myself?

4. Am I covering up my errors?

5. Is God going to be happy with what I'm about to do?

I'm sure there are more questions that come from the story, but I wonder what David would have done had he stopped at any of the first three? Had he been elsewhere the opportunity would not have arisen, had he looked elsewhere he would not have been tempted, had he accepted that Bathsheba was another man's wife, he would not have got himself into the mess he did.

Ah well, hindsight, as they say, is the only exact science.

Sacred space/missional space

So the two questions are these: Are we creatively using our sacred space and making it missional? Are we taking space in our community and making it sacred? It's in this intersection where Jesus becomes real to us, and to our neighbors through us.

These are great questions, especially if you are on the edge of making some major decisions about buildings as we are going to be in the next year or so.

How we invest, where we invest and why we invest are all big questions. These two questions are raised in an article that you can read on the Leadership Journal part of the Christianity Today website.

I've been thinking about sacred space in the community, it's one of the main reasons I go to Costa Coffee on a regular basis. I'm not sure how much my being there turns a coffee shop into sacred space, but I'll keep going until I figure it out!

I was thinking the other day about one of the empty units on the high street and whether it cold be turned into an art gallery, a space for reflection. So often our normal Christian response to the high street is to open a book shop, but we all know that these days bookshops, particularly Christian bookshops are struggling. So why not something different?

How else might we create sacred space in the market place?

Three down, one to go!

This is the first year in ages that I've done any Christmas events beyond the typical carol service and all-age nativity. I've had two play group Christmas nativity plays (last week), a parent toddler event today and tomorrow I'm off to one of the local care homes.

The play group events were really good and we must have had over 100 adults in the audience on each occasion. I did the "What's in a name talk" that I'd prepared for that. The parent toddler event was a little more chaotic. You really can't expect such young children to sit still and be quiet, so it was a bit noisy but we had a good time. I had other things to attend to afterwards, so I couldn't stay around and chat which was a shame, but there we are. One can't be everywhere!

Tomorrow's event at the care home will be a challenge apparently. Again, I'll do something really simple and short. Maybe I'll rework the names talk, I haven't made a final decision yet.

After that it's all-age and Carols on Sunday, then Christmas Day and then we're at the last Sunday of 2009.

What kind of church?

This is not an original thought of mine I must point out, but it's a useful observation that bears some thought. It's about defining the kind of church we are, and it goes like this:

There are ABC churches. Attractional, Buildings, Cash.

And there are MRI churches. Missional, Relational, Incarnational.

Now here's a question: If we focus on the ABC's will the MRI's happen? However, if we focus on the MRI's will the ABC's get done?

If we live missionally, build relationships, incarnate the gospel, then will that not produce fruit that makes the community of faith attractive? And it turn might that not cause the church to grow releasing resources for the kingdom both of people and finances?

But then again is that actually the point?

Perhaps the ABC's will take care of themselves, but if we're not careful, even assuming that to be true once again makes them the focus of our efforts not the things that might just matter most to God.

Maybe we need to remember that the only things we can take with us into heaven are our friends and family who find faith.

I guess what we need to do is carefully and prayerfully discern God's call, to seek to join him in his mission and seek out more opportunities to do the work of the kingdom by being followers of Christ.

It got me thinking about something John Ortberg once said about the shadow missions that some churches have. These are the unwritten missions that can draw us away from the mission to which God calls us all. They are not far away from the true mission, but they are far enough to deflect us from our true target.

Perhaps the MRI/ABC question is related to our shadow mission. The need to fill seats, to raise budgets and enlarge buildings could all be positive aspects of our true mission, but they could equally be a distraction from it.

On the other hand I could just be rambling!

God bless the sports commentator

During the presentation of a year in sport on the BBC's Sport's Personality of the Year, I heard one of those wonderful commentary moments. I can't remember the commentator being referenced but I remember the line:

It's deja vue all over again.

Only a sports commentary is worthy of such a line!

Whose Mission?

I came across this great quote from Rowan Williams that certainly provides a great summary of the perspective I think we need to understand, apply and articualte about the church:

“It is not the church of God that has a mission. It’s the God of mission that has a church.”

A chance to talk misisonal?

Is anyone interested in having this kind of conversation here in the UK?

If you have a look at the website you will see that there are book discussions and panel discussions and other conversations, all of which look quite interesting.

My friend Andy White organised a "round table" event a few years ago now to talk about servant evangelism, and this could follow a similar format. Nothing fancy or flash, just a gathering of people willing to encourage each other in the formation of deeper, missional communities.

It's just a thought.

Basic assumptions?

David Fitch discusses the small church as a training ground for new pastors and leaders in a recent post in response to something Tim Keller raised. The post is well worth a read because of some of the important questions it raises both directly and indirectly. I was particularly drawn to his description of the small urban/suburban church:

Their people are living deep within the Christendom assumptions of the West. They still ask question that address “how can we attract more people into our church services?” They largely see outreach as church building centered. Most know few if any non-Christians in the regular rhythm of their lives.

I'm drawn to it because I think it probably describes much of the challenge we face in many of our churches. I've been around church for a long time now, over 30 years, and these questions about why people don't come and how can we get them into the building, our building, have constantly been asked.

I for one am glad that we are finally waking up to the reality that filling our buildings is not the whole answer. There is more to be done in the community, with the community and for the community that just cannot be done from the safety and security of our religious fortresses.

Anyway, have a read of Mr Fitch's post and have a think for yourself.

If God asked you for advice

This is my draft of the second talk I'm planning for a short event.

Imagine for a moment that God gives you a call to ask your advice.

“What is it God? Do you want my help choosing the name of a new species or is it the colour of a new tree that’s got you stumped?”

Perhaps you’d wonder if it was an issue of world peace or solving the problems of poverty once and for all that had caused him to look you up. Of course you might be a little surprised that he called you, but once you’ve calmed down you’re ready to listen.

“I’m thinking of paying a visit and I was wondering what you thought of the idea?”

“Sounds like a good idea, what exactly were you planning?”

“I’m not too sure, what would catch your attention?”

“Well, if I were planning your visit then I think the first thing would be choose a time when communication is good. If you wait until say the 21st century there will be all sorts of communication media available to you. There’s 24 News from the BBC, ITV, Sky CNN etc. We can have you on every channel within minutes and they’ll keep repeating it every hour. That should be good basic coverage, but I think we’d need to do a bit more. You could have you own website and keep a blog. Then there’s Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and even Saga has a social networking site if you’re particularly interested in reaching the over fifties.

I’d suggest a talk show interview and maybe even a documentary series. Perhaps a weekend with Louis Theroux would be an idea. Oh, and have you thought about writing a book or releasing a CD?

I tell you what, we could podcast your messages. Do you have access to a computer in heaven? SMS would be good too if you’ve got a mobile. There will be so many ways to communicate in those days, getting the message out shouldn’t be a problem at. We could even do a free DVD in the Daily Mail.

Having said all of that, you’d need to make a big entrance to get noticed. There’s always things happening in the world, so you’d need to make sure your visit was quite spectacular. And don’t use CGI, they got in trouble for that at the last Olympics, not good publicity. I’d suggest maybe a smoke and light show as you descend from wherever you descend from. That should get you noticed. And do it in America or Europe, somewhere well known. Don’t choose some backwater place, they’ll never get the cameras there in time. Invite a few world leaders and celebrities too. Nothing attracts people quite like a red carpet occasion with everyone dressed up for a party.

Lastly, and most importantly, avoid busy times of the year. Don’t do it at Christmas time. There’s way too much going on. People are stressed out enough doing all that shopping and cooking and eating to cope with anything else.

“So you wouldn’t arrive as a baby then, born in a stable in an obscure town in the Middle East about 2000 years earlier?

“Oh no.” you reply, “that would never work, no one would remember that.

What's in a name?

I have several talks to do over the next two weeks for various Christmas events. Here's a draft one I'm think of using for a parents' group talk.

I guess most of us choose our child’s name on the basis of what we like, or maybe a family name or tradition. Rarely do we think about choosing a name that means something. For other traditions names are chosen more carefully. In the Ancient Near Eastern world, names often came from circumstances of birth. The Bible records many such names. One example is Jacob. I have a great nephew called Jacob.

Some of the names dictionaries have tried to soften the original meaning of the name. One dictionary I found online defined Jacob as meaning conqueror, another said it meant “following closely”. The Bible simply tells us that it meant “he grasps the heel” because that is what he was doing when he was born, hanging on to his brother’s heel. But it was more than just a description of how he was born, it carries with it the connotation of being a deceiver, a con-artist.

I’m not sure my great nephew would want to know this about his name, nor that his illustrious counterpart lived up to his name as he conned his brother, his father and his uncle before God took hold of him and changed his name and his attitude.

It’s not easy choosing a name, and in the end most of us seem to grow up wishing that either our parents had given our names a little more thought or looking for an alternative. And it’s not just the name we are given at birth that matters. There are the unwritten names we are given as we grow up. He’s slow and awkward, she’s not too bright, he won’t amount to much, she isn’t pretty.

Such names can have a profound affect upon us as we progress through childhood and teenage years into adulthood. We carry the scars of all the names that have been written on our souls.
But here’s the good news. We don’t have to carry those names forever. Because of one child who came into the world 2000 years ago, who bore two significant names, who carried those names with him throughout his lifetime and beyond, we do not have to be defined by the names we’ve been called.

As Mary and Joseph prepared to become parents to their first child, a child conceived miraculously by the power of God and according to the purposes of God, they received very clear instructions about his name. He was to be called Jesus. Why? Because it means something special. It means he will save his people. Who are his people? Well the Bible makes it clear that anyone who chooses to trust their life into the hands of God becomes one of his people.

There was a day when some members of his family were asking questions about the sanity of Jesus. “Your mother and brothers are at the door”, he was told as he sat in a crowded house teaching those around him. “Anyone,” Jesus said, “who does the will of my father is a member of my family.”

He was also called Immanuel, which means “God with us”. Not just spiritually present, but physically present. Not just pretending to be human but actually being born as a baby, growing up into a man. Fully God and fully human. As one of the gospel writers put it, “he became one of us”

He had other names too. Names given to him that described what he did: teacher, healer, Rabbi. Others that would describe what he would experience. Man of sorrows, for example. Some names were meant as insults. The religious people called him “friend of sinners”. Personally I think he probably liked that one best of all, for that is what he was and that is what he remains, a friend to all those who know they need forgiveness for their mistakes and the opportunity of a new start in their lives.

So, if you are having or planning to have another child, give their name careful thought. And as you look at the Christmas pictures of the baby in a stable, remember that he grew up to fulfil the meaning of the names he was given. And because he did this, you can find freedom from the names that have brought pain and suffering into your life as you discover the power that is in the name of Jesus.

An answer to my question about gold

A few weeks ago I posted one of my rambling questions that cross my mind. This one was about the advertising campaigns for those companies wanting to buy your unwanted gold. They all naturally tell you they will pay you the best price for your gold and that now is a great time to cash in on your own personal treasure trove hidden away in the jewelry box.

Well, surprise surprise, the best price is well below the real value.

The BBC has done a small survey and discovered what I guess most of us were probably thinking. They took £300 worth of gold, as valued by an independent jeweller, and sent it off to a few companies. The best offer was around £60 which rose to over £100 when the first offer was turned down. Hardly the best price.

So as ever, beware the smiling faces on the ads that promise much but in the end deliver much less. I know these companies will have overheads and processing costs, but just remember they are in it to make money. Quite how much they make from your old gold is up to you.

Who am I?

Who am I, O Sovereign Lord, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far?

2Sam. 7:18

David's question is brutally honest. I don't think he's asking it in the way we sometimes ask. The depressive, woe is me way we might frame such a question. I think he is just asking out of sheer amazement that God could have such a high view of someone like himself.

We've been doing a series about people at church. Just ordinary folk who made mistakes, poor choices and bad decisions. But God remained faithful in the face of their frailty and still used them and blessed.

When I have one of those days when I feel useless and out of place in God's work, I choose to remember that despite my best efforts, God chose me and loved me and called me. And before he ever called me to do anything, he called be to be something. First and foremost I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. That will never change. Anything else comes second. Ministry comes second. Mission comes second. Preaching and pastoring come second. If I am not a follower of Jesus, then I am nothing.

So when I ask, "Who am I Lord, that you have brought me this far?" it's more a question of wonder that the God who created and sustains the universe is concerned for me and has something he wants me to do for him.

New books

Okay, so I've only read one of the last two new books that came in November, but I couldn't resist the review of Crazy Love by Francis Chan on Jeff Noble's blog and Unfashionable: making a difference in the world by being different by Tullian Tchividjian caught my eye as I browsed Amazon.

So, I think I'll read Crazy Love first, just because I'm intrigued by the bit I've dipped into so far. I've still got other books to get to grips with, but you can never have enough new reading about the place!

Confused

Our local fishmonger has a sign up: Now taking orders for Christmas turkeys.

How exactly does a fisherman catch a turkey?

With a line or a net?

I wouldn't want mine caught in a net just in case an innocent chicken or duck gets caught by mistake.

Maybe a more intriguing question is this: Who teaches the turkeys to swim?

Wedding videos

I'm sure by now you've all seen the video of the couple updating their Facebook status at their wedding. If not you can see it here. I for one thought it was really funny and am in no way offended.

But thanks to Ed Stetzer, I came across another great wedding video of the most unusual entrance of the bride. Ed threatened to post it if too many angry pastors commented on the other video. Well here's the link for you watch it for yourself.

Weddings are significant markers but they are meant to be a celebration not a dirge. Well done to everyone who makes their wedding a celebration and who also go on to make their marriages a celebration too.

Desperately seeking connections

As I sat in my favourite public place yesterday I began to wonder how I might connect with people far from God. They were all around me and yet I knew none of them and stood little chance of getting to know any of them either. Simply being there is not enough. But how do I connect, what can I do?

I've had a couple of ideas. A book club is one of them. Not a Christian book club, just a book club. Read a book, talk about it, build some relationships. I always remember Bill Hybels talking about choosing to sail with an unchurched crew, and I think Rick Richardson says something along the lines of doing the things you enjoy doing with folk who are far from God.

As I look at my diary and all the church focused things that I do week by week, I realise how intentional I must become in order to be amongst unchurched people. In fact, if I don't go out to the coffee shop or to the gym, then I am more than likely never going to be anywhere where God could use me if he wanted to. Apart from a few brief conversations at the checkout in the supermarket, I'd always be church-bound.

And that's not good.

If God chooses not to hide in heaven, why should I hide in the church?

So I'll continue to do things others might feel should be reserved for my day off as part of my daily routine in order simply to be available for the work of the kingdom beyond the confines of Christian community. Says he, writing this from the safety of his church study!

Books I've finished!

Yesterday I finished two books. The first to be completed was Rick Richardson's Reimagining Evangelism, and then later in the day I finished off Frank Viola's Reimagining Church. Perhaps there is little left to reimagine, although a friend suggested any Microsoft product but my imagination won't stretch that far!

Both of these books gave me plenty to think about, although much of Rick's book was familiar ground but still very helpful. In fact if you haven't read anything on evangelism for a while and if you've never thought of evangelism as more than a guilt driven task that you ought to be doing but just can't bring yourself to engage in, then this might be the book you need to read.

For a long time now I've thought in terms of a spiritual journey that begins well before "conversion" occurs, for most of us at least. Personally, I can trace God at work in my life back to being 4 years old when I rejected believing just because an adult told me I should. And there were many other transformational moments, some small some big, until I finally understood the extent of God's love for me and the response I needed to make. The book helped underscore these thoughts.

Reimagining Church was a tougher challenge. there were times when I thought about putting the book down because I almost felt it was too critical of the established church. But Viola's heart is in the right place and the established church needs to be challenged. I think he shares a passion for the local church just as much as I do or as a Bill Hybels does.

And let's face it, the business model or military model of doing church hasn't been massively successful in the grand scale of things. We can't all aspire to big budget mega-church programming and neither should we. Small churches have a lot to offer if they can get the model right for their setting. Being set free from understanding the church as a pastor-led, top down, building bound, budget driven organisation that demands constant maintenance is something towards which we should be moving with rejoicing and expectation. At the end of the book there is a really helpful and interesting critique of many of our current models of church. It doesn't set up any particular model as a straw man, and because of this, it is possible to think about what makes for a good model for the church of today.

So, Amazon should drop off a couple of new books today and I'm still trying to get into Allender's To be Told. So I shouldn't run out of things to read this side of Christmas. Although knowing me, I'll need to make sure I have something to do on Christmas Day. I'm usually pretty bored by about 2:00pm!

iPhone on Orange

I was hoping that the introduction of the iPhone on other networks might just spark a little competition, but so far no luck. I was just looking at the tariffs on O2 and Orange only to discover that they appear to exactly the same.

So once again the myth of competition working in favour of the consumer drifts into the ether. Maybe things will be different in March when my contract comes up for renewal!

How do we talk about sin?

I've always thought that the best place to start in evangelism is wherever people find themselves. And by that I don't mean geographically, rather I mean spiritually, emotionally. I remember well the struggles I had personally with the methods that I was taught to take people through a gospel presentation. I remember being mildly castigated for not following the the proper order during one conversation but rather starting with the question I was being asked.

David Fitch has written an interesting post about sin, how we understand it and how our treatment of it impacts our evangelism. I thought his opening up of the basic understanding of sin that most evangelicals carry around with them is really helpful.

sin in the Bible is not only about transgression – (i.e. breaking the law), but also about missing the mark. Sin is not just about guilt but about the powers that enslave us. We therefore have to approach each person with the knowledge that sin will manifest itself in different ways. Our job is to listen and probe for the manifestations of lostness, emptiness, enslavement, and yes guilt, and be available to reflect with the person … always waiting patiently for the Spirit to reveal any sin, brokenness, hurt and/or enslavement that might be going on.

This seems helpful to me because, if the truth be told, most of the people with whom I might have a spiritual conversation know about breaking the law (most of them do it regularly when they drive) but little of the consequences. Therefore rules are to be broken and often there is no price to pay. But ask them about guilt, about loneliness through fractured relationships, about repeating patterns of behaviour that they just can't seem to break, and they will know exactly what you are talking about.

Now I know that there will be many a good evangelical who will throw their hands up in horror at the thought of not taking the earliest opportunity to point out the sinfulness in the human heart. In fact many would accuse me at this point of trying to remove sin from the equation altogether. But that's not true. Like Fitch, I'm wondering if the language we use and the concepts we carry make it harder to get the message across than it ought to be.

Google Wave Preview

Google Wave is now in preview and it is looking rather good.

For anyone involved in group discussions, planning, project writing or anything else that happens by collaboration, this might just be the online tool to do the job. When I posted a link to the video I thought then that it had real potential if it could live up to its billing. Well, my early looks suggests that Google Wave might just be able to do exactly what I want it to do.

I've set up some waves for things like Advent planning, deacons' meetings and thinking about pastoral care. The true test will come when other people start interacting with these waves.

I'll keep you posted!