A public service announcement!

If you are a UK Driving Licence holder and you licence was one of the first batch of photocard licences issued in 1998 it may very have expired!

I didn't know this, or at least I'd forgotten about it until I got an email from my friend Andy. Because of the nature of ministry, we've moved a couple of times in the last 10 years so our licences are current.

The dates are on the front or your licence, and there's a pdf available from the DVLA all about it.

Is this church?

A couple of days ago I was asked to think about speaking at a friend's church. They are experimenting with a different format on a Sunday evening, doing more 'in-depth' studies. The question is, what do I speak about?

So I had a think and two areas of personal interest came to mind, one of which is the church. This phrase shot into my head:

We shouldn’t confuse establishing and building our personal relationship with God with what constitutes church.

Now it's not a well researched idea, it was just a passing thought, but I wondered if it connected with anyone. It seems to be that we've made the church into an organisation primarily focused on the people inside it rather than the people outside it. It's become an institution, and institutions are usually places designed to keep the insiders from getting out!

So I'd be interested to know what thoughts my phrase stirs within our thinking. I'm not suggesting personal discipleship and corporate worship are unimportant. On the other hand I do question their importance and priority in defining what is church.

One Prayer

I'd be interested to here what others think of this idea and if you were involved last year. I've often wondered if it would ever be possible to unite the churches in my local town around a common theme in this way, although I'd never considered it in quite the way One Prayer does it. In Newark, where I began my full-time ministry, there used to be an annual pulpit exchange, but this is a much bigger concept than that.

The basic idea is to bring together churches across the world for a month of focused teaching, prayer and service. The first week you preach on your 'one prayer' theme and then the next three weeks you use video teaching from other churches.

And it's not just about preaching. There's an offering for projects across the world amongst other things.

Craig Groeschel (Lifechurch.tv) introduces 'One Prayer by asking, "If you could pray one prayer for the church that God would answer, what would it be?"

What an interesting question! My one prayer would probably be around becoming passionate about the missing, although there are many other 'one prayers' that I find myself praying. 

You can visit the One Prayer website here and read more about it.

And now our best guess

I'm not sure what to make of yesterday's pre-budget speech by Mr Darling. What has always worried me about this government is its consistent over optimistic assessment of economic growth. I seem to remember previous budgets and pre-budget reports announcing growth that never materialised. On the other hand, ideologically, the alternatives are not very attractive.

Not that I assume that all that has gone wrong in the economy this year is because of this government and this government alone. There are decisions that were made in the early 80's that must surely share some of responsibility.

The question for those of us who say we trust in God is how exactly do we express that trust in times of economic turmoil. Jon Ortberg, in the talk I watched yesterday, spoke about three expressions of faith: public, private and core. The public expression consists of those things we say we believe but that aren't true. For example, Herod told the Magi that he too wanted to visit the new king, but that wasn't his intention at all. 

Secondly he talked about private expressions of faith. These are things we think we believe but when push comes to shove it turns out that we don't truly believe them at all, or at least don't act upon them as we ought. Peter's denial of Jesus is an example of this. When Jesus tells the disciples that he is going to be arrested and they will all desert him Peter says, "Not me, I won't desert you." But he did.

The third expression of faith are our core beliefs. These are the things that truly shape our behaviour. According to Ortberg we can never deny these core beliefs, we will always act in accordance with them. 

The goal of maturing faith is to align our core beliefs with those of Jesus. When it comes to facing economic uncertainty I suspect our core beliefs about money and financial security, about the kingdom of God and whether we do or don't worry about what to eat and wear will come into clearer focus.

Perhaps Alistair Darling is over optimistic about future growth, perhaps his plans will plunge us into the worst national debt crisis history has ever seen. Perhaps not. I don't know, but what I do know is that if my core beliefs are truly aligned to those of Jesus then my perspective on these things will be different. I'll still question the wisdom of government at times, I'll still seek to steward my finances wisely, but I won't lie awake at night worrying about it all. 

At least that's my intention.

Missional values

I've recently begun to follow the Church Planting Novice Blog. Here are some missional values and practices to consider from a recent link.

Here are five characteristics or “rules of order” for a missional community taken from Frost’s Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture.

1. Bless. We will bless at least one other member of our community every day.
2. Eat. We will eat with other members of our community at least three times a week.
3. Listen. We will commit ourselves weekly to listening to the promptings of God in our lives.
4. Learn. We will read from the Gospels each week and remain diligent in learning more about Jesus.
5. Sent. We will see our daily life as an expression of our sent-ness by God into this world.

Here are the Four Practices we developed for our church, which are grounded in Four Gospel Principles. These principles and practices shape all our City Groups (what we call missional communities).

SHARE life and truth through stories and Scripture

PRAY for one another and the city

ENGAGE people and culture of your community with the gospel

LOVE one another by eating and exercising hospitality

There are elements of real challenge here... eating with others at least three time a week, but that's no reason to pass over the basic principles.

I've almost finished Michael Frost's book from which these principles are drawn.

Understanding History

I'm not a great student of history, never have been. But I don't know if it's as I get older or just as I understand more about the world around, but I'm increasingly interested in understanding history, particularly 20th century European history.

On our recent trip to Barcelona I was intrigued by the presentation of Catalonia's history and the strange gaps as they seemed to me. The complexity of European history seems quite daunting, but worth at least a little dip of the toe in the water. 

So, does anyone know of a good book, or have any suggestions about where to start?

Better Christians or more disciples

When I went to the leadership day with Bill Hybels a couple of weeks ago I was given a DVD in the seminar pack. It was a talk by Jon Ortberg from the 2008 Reveal Conference. Must watch that I thought and finally today I did.

Amazing. Truly amazing. My honest opinion is that if you can get hold of this talk then you quite simply must. It's a powerful presentation of the need we face to challenge ourselves and those around us to become followers of Jesus at the deepest level.

In the talk Jon asks: "Do we admire Jesus or do we follow him?" "Admirers are impressed, followers are devoted", he says. 

The problem is that the Western Church has probably focused most of its efforts on making admirers more than followers. As Jon Ortberg points out we've reduced the gospel to the level of the minimum requirements for securing a place in heaven. We've created users of Jesus and not followers.

A great talk that needs a second and third watch with a notebook open and a prayerful heart.

There's this church...

There's this church I came across called Homepdx. It's a church for homeless people. But it's far more than that. I've just looked at their website and been moved and challenged by their perspective on church.

Their banner line is: 

There is no us and them, only us

Have a read of their "About Us" page, and ponder some of the things they have to say.

Myers-Briggs for Blogs

One of my regular blog feeds pointed me to a site called Typealyzer. It provides a Myers-Briggs style analysis of your blog.

Here's what it said about me:

ISTP - The Mechanics

The independent and problem-solving type. They are especially attuned to the demands of the moment are masters of responding to challenges that arise spontaneously. They generally prefer to think things out for themselves and often avoid inter-personal conflicts.

The Mechanics enjoy working together with other independent and highly skilled people and often like seek fun and action both in their work and personal life. They enjoy adventure and risk such as in driving race cars or working as policemen and firefighters.

And apparently this is a picture of what bits of my brain are engaged when I write.

Hmmm. Very interesting.

You can check your type by visiting Typealyzer.

Thanks to Ian's Messy Desk for sharing this site.

Christmas CD

First of all, what great service. I only emailed them yesterday to ask for a sample and it arrived with the post this morning. First rate!

Having listened once through I must say I'm rather impressed with the collection. I know it won't be to every taste but it's very pleasant to listen to and acoustically well worked.

So, all I have to do now is convince everyone else that it might make a good give away for the village.

Heroes

Must be the day for finding stuff about Christians and compassion. Here's another video that came via an email from Jim Henderson of Evangelism without Additives

Unfortunately the code doesn't work to embed the video in this blog post, so you'll have to follow the link and watch the video there. Just click on Maria Ruiz. All the people nominated are great adverts for selfless commitment to others, the kind of thing you'd expect more of the church to know for.

Maria has been nominated as a CNN hero and you can vote for her if you want to via the CNN website.

Christmas CD

Okay, so I may be jumping the gun here, but I received an email today from someone called Eddie with an offer that looks very interesting and I wanted to pass it on. If, like, me you tend not to open unsolicited emails, then you may have had the email but rejected it. I don't blame you, I normally do the same, but this time I took a chance and read it.

The idea appealed to me straight away. 

I'm always looking for something to give away, especially around our village and especially at Christmas. This year I'd thought about doing little notebooks for shopping lists, but this CD at 53p a copy, might be a really good alternative. Looking at some of the comments on the website (I'll do a link in a minute), a lot of people have been impressed. That's why I'm posting this now before I've had the chance to even listen to the CD.

So. please forgive me if it turns out to be a dud, but I just get excited when I see an opportunity like this. I quite like Celtic music, so I'll probably like the CD anyway!

Here's the link to Beacon Music

Moved to wonder why

I just watched the video on the Compassionart website. Made me wonder why we get so worked up over so many small things when God wants us to have a much bigger heart towards the poor and oppressed.

Once again, Micah 6:8 rings in my ears:

He has shown you O man what is good, and what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with the Lord your God.

I first underlined those words in 1978. I wish they'd been more fundamental to my thinking over the last 30 years than they have. Maybe now is the time, as the church rediscovers God's heart of compassion, for which God placed those words on my heart all those years ago.

CompassionArt

I read recently about Compassionart in an interview with Martin Smith, but wasn't really paying attention to release dates but a friend sent me the link to the site this morning and I wanted to post it here.

Barcelona in pictures (2)

The full album of Barcelona pictures is here.

Church Blog gets a comment!

Wow! The Church Blog elicited a comment for the first time in 8 months and what a comment it's turned out to be. I have my suspicions that the comment comes form someone who trawls the internet seeking to right the wrongs of errant doctrine in the church, but a comment is a comment and deserves to be heard.

What created the stir I hear yo ask? Or maybe it was just a mumble in the background somewhere. Well, it was the the subject of tithing. I preached about it on Sunday and posted the outline on the blog. That's what created the response. 

Tithing always seems to raise the temperature somewhere in Christendom. 

Let's get it straight, I don't think that tithing earns you any brownie points with God and I knows it's all too easy to reduce this thing about giving down to a "what's the least I can get away with" theology rather than a joyful expression of outrageous generosity in response to the grace we've experienced from God.

But I still believe there's merit in the tithing principle as a guide to keep us from getting too proud or too miserly.

So what do you do? Do you tithe? If not, why not? How do you "measure", for want of a better word, your giving if you don't tithe? Is it just a matter of what feels right for you?

I don't ask to be difficult but because I'm interested. Anne and I decided to tithe a long time ago and we do it based on our income before any deductions for tax etc. It just seemed logical to us, and we've been comfortable with that. For us it's never been about the money, it's been about a heart-response to God.

But the comment on the church blog, whilst clear about why the church shouldn't teach tithing, offers little help in terms of working out what an appropriate level of giving is except to say:

NT giving principles are: freewill, sacrificial, generous, joyful, not by commandment or percentage and motivated by love for God and lost souls.

All of which I endorse, but what am I to say to the person who comes to me asks how they are to work out what to give?

Blogging Commandments

Whilst searching for something else I came across these ten commandments for Christians blogs. They come from the Evangelical Alliance, and the original post is here.

1. You shall not put your blog before your integrity.

2. You shall not make an idol of your blog.

3. You shall not misuse your screen name by using your anonymity to sin.

4. Remember the Sabbath day by taking one day off a week from your blog.

5. Honour your fellow-bloggers above yourselves and do not give undue significance to their mistakes.

6. You shall not murder someone else’s honour, reputation or feelings.

7. You shall not use the web to commit or permit adultery in your mind.

8. You shall not steal another person’s content.

9. You shall not give false testimony against your fellow-blogger.

10. You shall not covet your neighbour's blog ranking. Be content with your own content.

Artwork at the docks

The old docks were redeveloped for the Olympics as far as I could tell.

This piece of sculpture stands at the gateway to the port area. It's quite impressive on either a sunny day or even a dull, rainy day. 

Under the sea

Fancy setting sail in this submarine? This is a replica of a very early submersible vessel. 

There's a cutaway version in the museum of Catalonian history that you can stand in to get a feel for what it was like.

I can't imagine it was particularly pleasant!

Bikes for hire

You see these bicycle racks all over Barcelona. For a fee you can get access to these bikes. From what we saw, you enter a key-code and the bikes are unlocked so that you can lift one from the rack. 

When you've finished with it, you just leave it in any one of the 200 racks around the city. 

Barcelona has a network of bicycle routes criss-crossing the city, so this is a really convenient way of getting about with using a car.

We walked everywhere, the knees aren't up to cycling anymore, but we saw plenty of people using these community bikes to get about.