Testing out flock

A long time ago I read about a new browser that offered all sorts of advantages over Explorer. Based around Firefox, Flock integrates photos and blogging tools into your browser. Using straightforward drag and drop technology, you can blog away to your heart's content.

Apparently it also handles RSS feeds, but I haven't looked at that yet because it took a little time to set up the blogging tools.

Get it here if you want to try it.

Blogged with Flock

A view from here to the Lakes

Just in case you don't know what the English Lake District looks like...

it looks like this...

Does God still love me when I …

If you are at all like me, then you’ve asked this question in some form or another at some stage of your life. If you’re very like me, then you’ve asked it at least a 1,000 times if not more. Somehow it’s always a struggle to accept that God loves me. That when God says, “I love you”, that’s the end of the matter. There are no if’s, no but’s and no whatever’s when it comes to God’s love for you and me.

I need a regular reminder of this truth because everyday the reality of God’s love gets chipped away at in my heart. Things I do, things I say, things I don’t do and things I don’t say, eat away at my beloved status before God.

So here’s a favourite reminder of this simple truth for all of us who need to remember:

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom.8:37-39)

Lost is life’s default mode

You don’t have to do much at all to get lost. Trust me, I know about such things. On Sunday we found ourselves on top of a fell somewhere in the Lakes, with no visible path to be seen. We knew it should be there, we were confident we knew where we were, but the path had disappeared under bracken. It is a path that hadn’t been travelled for some time.

In this situation “lost” is a relative term. We knew where we were, we even knew where we wanted to be as a next destination, there was just this little problem of no recognisable path to get there.

I wonder how many people live their lives with no visible path?

I wonder how many Christians hide the path?
I wonder how much Jesus longs for us to live life on the path so that others might see the way and follow it?

The wonderful lakes

So here I am in the Lake District, my favourite part of England, with my extended family for a week of walking, laughing, more walking and lots more laughing. Now I’m not a seasoned pro when it comes to walking, and my dodgy knees are likely to complain as I cajole them to drag my not insubstantial frame up and down hills and fells. On the other hand I just love to walk. Leave the car parked behind the rented house and search out a footpath to follow up and over a peak, or preferably these days, around one.

I’m fully kitted out for these sojourns into the wilderness of the Western Lakes. I have my GPS (that the thing that tells me just how lost I am), I have my whistle (although with my young great-nephew in tow, one is not often in need of anything else that would fall into the broad category of “loud-noise-making-device”), and I have my walking pole, waterproof jacket, walking shoes/boots (depending on terrain, weather and blister count), embarrassing hat (not to me but to those with whom I walk) and most important of all…. fruit cake. No adventure is complete without a suitable piece of fruit cake to enjoy on the way.

So why do I do it? If I end up with sore knees and sore feet and temporary deafness (don’t forget the nephew) why do I keep walking? Well I guess it’s because I enjoy the walk and I enjoy getting slightly lost and found. Unless I’ve walked the route before (and that offers no guarantee) I usually take a wrong turn here and there. The GPS has been a great blessing over the years I’ve had it. At least now I can look at the position and check where I am on the map. I’ve never been great at map reading anyway, the GPS helps solve that problem.

Discovering an old path, getting back on the right path and emerging at your final destination after anything from a few miles to too many miles, is just plain simple fun. And then there are the views. If you’ve never explored the Lake District, you won’t know what I’m talking about, but if you have, or if you know a similar hill strewn landscape, you may well know the joy of climbing a few hundred or even a few thousand feet just to see what it look likes from there.

The other great delight is the food you can eat, because you know that tomorrow is another calorie burning adventure. So, as I write I can hear tonight’s chefs rummaging in the kitchen. Very soon the air will be filled with the wondrous smells of “Italian night”, and the pastor gets to eat the pasta!

A Proud Dad

We've been away on holiday this last week, and so we were not around the radio or the TV much to hear the annual debate about GCSE's getting easier year by year. As a father of a 16 year-old I've sat up at night trying to help and support my daughter as she dealt with the pressures of coursework for a wide range of subjects. The pressure she felt was enormous and I'm glad it's over for her at least until next year and A Level deadlines start to appear.

Anyway, whether you think GCSE's are easier now than ever before, I want to celebrate my daughter's achievements. So here's the news...

Ally sat 10 GCSE's and got 8 A's, 3 at A* and 2 B's.

Way to go Ally, I'm really proud of you.

Now, what did we decide was the going rate for A's, I think I owe you a small fortune!

The Subversive Church

Over the next 10 to 15 years, the landscape of our ministry here in Cotton End is going to change significantly. Within 3 miles of us an expected 5,500 to 8,000 new homes are being built. A whole new town is under development, and it’s really exciting. I can’t imagine ever being presented with such an opportunity more than once in a generation or more as a church. But when I talk to people about this opportunity one of the first questions that I consistently get asked is: “are they building a church?

Why, when we all know that church is about people not buildings, do we constrain our thinking about new church in new communities so quickly to buildings? And anyway, with 8,000 new homes being built, why can’t we see them all as possible places of worship, places from where we can serve the community? If you’ve got a building, you need a minister, and if you’ve got a minister you need a house for the minister and family. Suddenly starting a church is about having thousands of pounds before you start. When you start with people, all you need is imagination. When you need a building, rent it.

I think we can be, should be, more subtle than bricks and mortar. I want to do something subversive. It seems to me that Jesus was subversive. He undermined the common viewpoint, he chipped away at preconceived ideas and challenged conventional wisdom. He dropped thoughts and ideas into the hearts and minds of his hearers, he offered love unconditionally, he called the people to follow him and he went to them in their places of need and lived among them. He started a worldwide movement without a building and without a budget, although he had access to all the resources of heaven.

For me the excitement comes from the thought of doing church in a new way for this new community. I want the church to grow with the community, to become part of the community’s DNA, so connected with the community that it influences and affects and transforms the community as it grows. It means meeting the community where it is, serving it where it is, and influencing it where it is.

I guess that’s harder work. It’s much easier to open a building and then blame the community for not wanting to come and share in worship it doesn’t understand and talk a language it hasn’t learnt.

A great post

Jeff Noble has written a great post about forgiveness and the problem of sin that I really enjoyed reading. Check it out here.

The men of Issachar again

I asked some time ago where the men of Issachar had got to, and I'm still wondering about it. Like fellow blogger Jeff Noble, I'd like to be one if only I could figure out what it means to be a man of Issachar.

If you remember, they understood the times and knew what Israel should do.

To be a modern-day man of Issachar may not relate to making political decisions (the context of the OT verse), but maybe it does. Maybe it's time we thought less about whether we elect the right Christians to office and more about whether we are electing people who can understand the times and act accordingly.

Anyway, when I began thinking about men of Issachar, I was thinking primarily about the church and the need to understand the times and act accordingly as God's people as we seek to bring his message of hope and transformation to a world desperately in need of both.

I just wanted to let you know that I'm still thinking about it, and while I'm thinking about it, here's a description of someone who might fit the bill.

Ezra had determined to study and obey the law of the Lord and to teach those laws and regulations to the people of Israel. (Ezra 7:10)

According to the context, this was the reason that the gracious hand of his God was with him.

The wonder of God's mercy

The wonder of your mercy Lord
The beauty of your grace
That you would even pardon me
and bring me to this place
I stand before your holiness
I can only stand amazed
The sinless Saviour died to make
A covenant of grace

Justice is getting what you deserve. If you want justice, then God will give you justice.

Mercy is not getting what you deserve. If you will forgo justice, then God offers you mercy. God does not punish us as our sins deserve (Psalm 103)

Grace is getting what you don't deserve. I don't deserve his love but I receive it as the free gift it has always been.

Today is a great day to live in the grace of God.

Perplexed and concerned

As I watch the events unfold in Lebanon and Israel, I can't help but wonder about where it all fits. I know Christians who are strong supporters of Israel and I don't want to cause offense, but it bothers me that the evangelical community seems unwilling to challenge Israel in almost any circumstance.

The political situation in Palestine is volatile and complicated. I know that. I know that Israel suffers attacks from all sides too, but I'm not sure that justifies what I see on the news in these days as Southern Lebanon is bombarded from the air and from the ground. While we argue about the theological implications of the State of Israel, and wonder why other countries continue to supply arms to both sides, people are dying. Violence begets more violence and the innocent seem to suffer most.

Has our theology of Israel in some way contributed to the problems? Have we unwittingly given credence to a skewed view of what is right and wrong for the Middle East?

And still the innocent suffer.

For all those verses in the Bible that speak powerfully and profoundly about the place Israel and the people of Israel have in the heart of God, it also speaks boldly about responsibility too.

As I casually read Habbakuk again this last week (I was looking to put to a particular verse into it's wider context) I came across this comment from the prophet.

The violence you have done to Lebanon will overwhelm you and your destruction of animals will terrify you. For you have shed human blood; you have destroyed lands and cities and everyone in them. Hab.2:17

Do something radical

Reading Shane Clairborne's book Irresistible Revolution reminds me that we are called to live radical lives for Jesus. The question, for me, has always been: What does a radical life look like in my world. Now, I don't mean my world in the sense of the world I make, simply in the sense of the world I currently inhabit. What does it mean to be a radical follower of Jesus Christ in 21st century rural England?

In the end it might mean pretty much the same as it does in metropolitan London, or suburban Wimbledon (I've experienced both). Perhaps we look for radical in the wrong place. Perhaps, for some at least, radical means rethinking one's perspective on the job and career you choose. For some a change is in order, for others the job remains but the ethos changes.

Perhaps the most radical thing we can do is to love each other, and to keep on loving each other despite our best efforts to be unlovely. When I seen pain and heartache in the church, I remind myself that Jesus said that our love for one another would be a symbol of our having been with him, of being his followers.

Perhaps today is your day for doing something radical and loving the person who has hurt you most deeply. It won't be easy, but I guess radical never is.

Where's the fruit?

Came across this quote from Mark Twain on the Ordinary Attempts blog.

Go out on a limb. That’s where the fruit is.

Finding Jesus in the real world

A recent comment on this blog got me thinking. How do we find Jesus in the real world? More to the point, what makes this the real world in the first place? I guess we mostly use “real world” to define what we experience day-by-day. But just because it’s our daily routine, it doesn’t necessarily define what’s truly the “real world”.

As a Christian the kingdom of God, not my usual daily experience, defines my normality. As Jon Ortberg might say, what I experience as normal is actually usual, normality is the kingdom.

So, with that in mind, finding Jesus in the real world becomes an expedition to discover examples of the kingdom of God breaking in to our current “usualness” and transforming it into God’s normality. I don’t believe in a fully realised kingdom, I believe in a now-and-not-yet kingdom. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t expect God to break in and change my reality into his reality.

Perhaps then, finding Jesus in the real world isn’t as hard as it might look. I can see Jesus in the work and ministry of the church as it seeks to serve and care for the community, as it seeks to share the good news of Jesus in both practical and verbal ways. I see Jesus in the real world when the church gathers to pray for someone recently diagnosed with cancer. I see Jesus in the miracle of their healing and I see him too in the gentle ministry of the church as it offers comfort when healing doesn’t come.

As a minister of a local church, I’m privileged to see Jesus at work through his people almost everyday of my life. The truth is I’m not very observant so I don’t readily recognise it. Oftentimes I'm so preoccupied with the state of my own soul that I just don’t see the hand of God in anything. But then I remember a man called Jacob, whole stole his brother’s birthright and as he ran away encountered God in the most unexpected place. His comment was simply this: Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.

The men of Issachar

...men of Issachar, who understood the times and knew what Israel should do... (1CH 12:32)

I wonder where the "men of Issachar" are for our times?

David was about to crowned king. This was God's plan and purpose, but it hadn't been an easy journey. Saul had tried to kill him, and David had spent a long time as king-in-waiting. But it's these men of Issachar that intrigue me. How did they read the times? How did they know what was the right thing for Israel to do?

As a church leader I look for my own men of Issachar, who can help me as I search for God's pathway for the local congregation I'm privileged to lead.

Has God ruined my life?

When was the last time you heard someone share their story of a relationship with God and say, "God ruined my life." We're so used to the language of blessing that I suspect we've forgotten what being blessed is actually about. It's not about having all the stuff we want, or all the security we want. I'm not too sure exactly how to quantify it because quite honestly I'm very comfortable thank you very much. I am blessed in so many ways.

Perhaps that's why I get concerned some days. Perhaps it's because I wonder if being a Christian ought not to be a little less comfortable and a little more challenging. I've bought into the spiritualising mythology that makes this dangerous, exciting and mystical journey with the awesome living God something more docile and less demanding.

I believe that we're facing the opportunity of a life-time. An opportunity to do church differently, to become the ordinary radicals (to quote Shane Clairborne) that can, in God's hands, become world changers. I dream of being part of a local community of faith that lives a radical Christianity. A place where wholehearted following of Jesus is normal. The problem is I'm not sure what it looks like in rural Bedfordshire.

But this I do know. There are opportunities coming, opportunities that God is going to put before me--is putting before me--to live a different life. I'm guessing I'll still have stuff, I'll probably accumulate more, but I want to love God with all my heart, soul, strength and mind. I want his purposes to be my highest priority, and I'm so grateful for his grace and forgivenness when they are not.

Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. My God you will say, if I do that my whole life will be ruined.

Soren Kierkergaard, quoted by Shane Claiborne in The Irresistible Revolution p71

Love, courage and wisdom

In responding to the comments on the Quiet Revolution post (thanks guys), I thought there was something I'd read in Shane Claiborne's book that was relevant. Having found it (it was right at the front!), I'm not sure it quite touches the spot I thought it did, but for the record here's the quote:

Love without courage and wisdom is sentimentality, as with the ordinary church member. Courage without love and wisdom is foolhardiness, as with the ordinary soldier. Wisdom without love and courage is cowardice, as with the ordinary intellectual. But the one who has love, courage and wisdom moves the world.

Ammon Hennacy (Catholic activist 1893-1970)

I'm not sure where it touches on the idea of optimist and pessimist, but I do see a line to follow when it comes to loving and criticising the church. I need love, courage and wisdom if I'm going to help the church become what God wants it to be, if I'm going to help it move. I guess I need a dose of humility too, so that I remember that I'm not all I'm cracked up to be, and might not always be right!

July 7th remembered

I can't begin to imagine what it must have felt like in those moments directly before and after the detonation of the bombs on buses and trains a year ago. I can't imagine what it feels like now a year later for those injured or bereaved or both. I don't want to insult or upset them. I want to remember.

I want to remember that violence is not the answer.

I want to remember that there is a better way, that the world can be different if we will only follow the One who truly makes a difference.

War is not the answer.

I believe it is time that someone took the brave step and declared peace rather than war in the world.

The battle of the Somme, the London bombs, the devastation in Iraq and Afghanistan, the weapons of war being built in North Korea and Iran, in the UK and USA. Have we learnt so little from a century of wars?

A Quiet Revolution

I've just finished reading Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell and started on The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne. Both these books were recommended to me by my friend Andy White, to whom I'm very grateful for two good reads.

In the early pages of Irresistible Revolution I read this:

There are those of us who, rather than simply reject pop evangelicalism, want to spread another kind of Christianity, a faith that has as much to say about this world as it does the next. New prophets are rising up who try to change the future not just predict it. There is a movement bubbling up that goes beyond cynicism and celebrates a new way of living, a generation that stops complaining about the church it sees and becomes the church it dreams of.

Irresistible Revolution p24

I love the idea of becoming the church we dream of rather than complaining about the church we are. If it's time for a change, then it's time we changed, it's time we made the changes.

Over the last few years I've been deeply moved by the sense of vision and commitment our predecessors had when they built the church in which we currently worship. Without their commitment and courage, we wouldn't have a church over which to get frustrated. We owe them a lot. We owe them the drive, committment and passion to leave a legacy for future generations. They left us a building and a history. It may be time that leaving a building is less important, but a history will always be significant.

I've listened to the cynics who reject the church (not just here but all over the country) and I remember the words of the song Jesus loves the church. Imperfect as it might be I want to be someone who makes a difference. I want to part of a generation that stops complaining and start becoming the church of God's dreams.

Living the life

On another blog (eyesturnedoutward.com) Andy White has been reflecting on some obstacles to living an outward focused life. I wrote one post about misunderstanding as an obstacle. It's made me think about some of the issues surrounding living a life for and with Jesus as leader and forgiver, Lord and Saviour to use more traditional language.
I thought about this and began to wonder about the concept of holiness. I've always found holiness to rather like a bar of soap in the shower. The more tightly you try to grip it, the more likely it is to slip out of your hand. Sometimes it seems that the more you try to define holiness, the more it eludes you and you drift towards legalism as a solution.
So I'm not going to define it as anything more than living like Jesus lived, and that's where I see the hurdles appearing. How do we live like Jesus lived? How do we do what Jesus would do?
As a local church leader I get plenty of opportunities to see what happens when we don't manage to live like Jesus lived. And I'm not just talking about other people's lives I'm talking about my own life too.
This isn't a one size fits all solution, but I've noticed that sometimes the root issue is trying to live a double life. In other words we live like followers of Jesus when we're around other followers of Jesus, but we live like non-followers when we are with non-followers.
I remember Jim Packer saying: The problem with North American Protestantism is that it is 3,000 miles wide but only half and inch deep. The double life approach leads to shallow Christianity and shallow Christianity will not produce lasting fruit.
So I ask myself: How am I doing? Am I living like a follower of Jesus?
This isn't a complete programme, perhaps there isn't one. Maybe it isn't even a complete thought! But as a work-in-progress I wanted to think out loud for a moment.