2013?

Another year done, another one ahead. Sometimes I wouldn't mind taking a break from time! It must be rather nice to hibernate. Sleep through the winter, wake up in the spring. The only problem is that I live in the UK, and no one can predict quite when those seasons will start and end!

So, if hibernation isn't an option, how can I make the most of the coming few months as winter tails off and spring begins to appear? I suppose one thing would be to set some new goals. I'm not big on resolutions because they often lack clarity and measurement. We're all aware of the SMART principles for goals, and it's not a bad place to start, but this year I have a new dimension with my training coming to an end in the next month or so. Hopefully I will pass my final exams by the end of February. I still have my case study to complete before I can book the written and practical exams.

That would make goal number one to complete my case study, and using David Allen's GTD principles, the first physical thing I need to do for that is to arrange the final session with my client. Getting back into the GTD habit wouldn't be a bad thing either. I've rather drifted away from any expression of organisation.

There's lots to do around the house too. I need to tile the kitchen, box in the pipes in the extension, tidy the garage and organise the utility end of it. I need to rehang at least one door, finish the cupboard in the hall and sort out the garage roof!

It seems to me that a few days writing down all the things that need to be done and then setting out  a plan for doing them might not be a bad idea. You don't need a new app or flash bit of software to do this. Years ago I used to take a sheet of A4 and draw three columns. In the first column I'd write down all the things \i was doing and the things I wanted to do. The next column was the rank I gave to all these tasks. The third column was the timescale. This was great for introducing new topics because I could see when time would become available. You could then transfer these things to a year planner if you wanted. I used Excel to create a year planner rather than a paper based one. The key is not to let it get too big. A friend of mine makes great use of project software that allows you to see different layers of projects and plans. i never got my head around that, but something as simple as an outliner light do the job. Perhaps I'll try that this year.

Trying new ways of organising stuff can be a real help because it gives you a fresh start and something new with which to play!

And lastly, it's never to late to start a plan or revise an old one. Just because it didn't work last year, it doesn't mean it can't work this year. Look back and reflect honestly on why things didn't happen, don't get sucked into believing it's because you are inherently bad at stuff, and revise the plan.

Maybe 2013 will be the year that I finally find out what I'm good at! Maybe it will be the year that your plan finally comes together. Who knows.

Why I think the Archbishop got it wrong

You only have to read the headlines about the archbishop of Westminster's sermon to actually come to the conclusion that he got he wrong. He may have a point, he may even have won a few friends among evangelicals, but is a Christmas sermon really the place to attach a government policy? To balance the books, I think the Anglican bishop of York got it wrong too to talk about troop funding or whatever it was the John Sentamu spoke about in his address earlier in the week.

I do believe that our faith has something to say about and to the political world, I'm jut not sure that Christmas is the best time or a sermon the best vehicle for so doing. And I speak as one who has preached a lot in the past! Brian McLaren in his book Everything Must Change raises the question that if our faith has anything to say, it will have something to say about the big issues of our day. So yes, our faith does have something to say about gay marriage and war and poverty and injustice. Using his sermon to focus on one issue, an issue that simply reinforces the stereotype of Christians against whatever it is that is being proposed, doesn't help the debate.

Who is answering the question about the differences between marriage and civil partnership? Is there a difference in law and in the way a civil ceremony is conducted? I don't know, no one is setting out answers to those questions. If our only concern is for some idea that the institution of marriage will somehow be undermined by this policy, then what does that say about the way the heterosexual community has systematically undermined it for centuries if not millennia? You see, we need more than sound-bytes.

There's another reason for my disappointment too. Did either of these sermons point people towards the centre point of our celebrations? Possibly, but that's not what hit the headlines. Carelessly focussing on the wrong issue meant that the amazing story of the incarnation got lost again. We missed a chance to tell the world to good news. We became bad news people instead of good news people. How sad is that?

So there, I've had my little rant. Born out of frustration of so many carol services and events up and down the country that probably missed the same opportunity and so many that didn't but equally don't hit the news.

Really? Still talking about a building?

An almost conversation I nearly had the other day, but narrowly avoided, would have focussed on "church" and how we use that word still. To be honest I just wasn't inclined to get into a discussion that would go something along the lines of:

Them: "We're hoping to have a church soon"

Me: "By that  you mean a building from which to operate rather than a gathered community by the sounds of it."

Them: "Well yes. Oh I know that the church is not the building and all that, but we know what we mean. We need a place to gather."

Me: "Ah, so your group has outgrown your lounge then. Why not start a new group?"

At this point the conversation would follow a pattern where I'd suggest that there are plenty of "churches" already built we just normally call them houses or homes. I'd get called picky or pedantic and then there might be some debate about how would people know where to find "the church" if it doesn't have an identifiable base or building, and so it would go on.

Maybe I am pedantic, maybe I am picky, but it's because I really am becoming more and more convinced that every time we bottle the church and stuff it in a building, we are in danger of institutional crepitus and long term irrelevance. Harsh? Maybe. The problem is that a building demands a purpose and that purpose is usually self serving. It might begin with good intentions, but it can so easily slide into becoming the focus of all our energy and time. We begin running programmes form the building and before you know we are lamenting the fact that people don't come to our building. Except we call it our church, and therefore people aren't coming to our church and the church has suddenly become the building and not the people.

I am no longer committed to serving that pattern of church life. I don't think I've ever been committed to it. In fact, I think a few people believe I ought to be committed because of it! Here's the thing. We do not need buildings to make disciples, and surely making disciples is what we have been commissioned to do. Helping others to become followers of Jesus should be in our DNA.

The longer we stayed attached to the building as the defining characteristic, the further we will find ourselves removed from the people Jesus misses most. exactly how you go about leaving the building and entering the community I don't know. All I can say is that if you ever hear me lamenting not having a building were we can focus our efforts and our worship, just take me to one side and remind of these things. I'll take a building one day if we use in, for and with the community. If all we do is keep it to ourselves and isolate ourselves, then I'm not interested.

Still in Luke 10

I'm not finished in Luke 10 yet, not even with the mission on which Jesus sent the disciples. As they return they report back the outcomes: "Even the demons obey us when we use your name," they say. Had they tried without? I doubt it!

Jesus is clearly excited about what he hears. Perhaps this rag-tag band is finally getting it. Before they get too excited at their new authority he tells them what is really key.

 “Yes,” he told them, “I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning!  Look, I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy, and you can walk among snakes and scorpions and crush them. Nothing will injure you.  But don’t rejoice because evil spirits obey you; rejoice because your names are registered in heaven.”

As this short story comes to an end, I got thinking about the simplicity of the mission and the powerful impact it had. The blessing that comes from the presence of the kingdom seems to be enough to destabilise the powers of darkness. Darkness is simply the absence of light. When light comes, darkness disappears. The absence of light is what allows the darkness to flourish.

Yesterday we began our journey to pray God's blessing down every street in our community. As we walked and talked and prayed simple prayers (I tend to go for Aaron's blessing), it just felt right. There were no flashes of insight, no "power encounters" to report. There were moments of reflection. For example, I thought about how the original planners probably had a vision for the community outcomes for the development we were walking through, and how it probably turned out quite different. Maybe God was telling me not to worry if the end product doesn't match my dream!

In all this, we are simply trying to pursue God and partner with him in his mission. I think that's what Jesus wanted his disciples to do and what he continues to ask us to do.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Grace or vilification?

Let me begin by expressing my personal sadness at the death of the nurse who took the hoax call at the King Edward hospital. Nothing can change the enormous tragedy of these events. When pranks go wrong, someone suffers but surely no one could have predicted this outcome.

So here's my question: Do we show some grace towards those responsible for making the call or do we join the chorus of condemnation and vilification of the two radio presenters who made the call?

I hope someone has got alongside them and shown them some grace. Our actions have consequences and we live with the consequences. They will have to live with the consequences of their actions. Do we need to pour more scorn on their heads?

And if it were you, if it were your error of judgment, would you want grace or judgment? That's not about a licence to do what you like without consequences. It is about a recognition of our imperfection, an acknowledgment of our falleness. We make mistakes. We all make mistakes.

Thoughts from Luke 10

Having decided that our next step is to develop a prayer strategy for our community, we've set out a table of streets, grouped by location from our map. We have just over 150 streets in our community and we want to pray for each one of them. It's not that difficult to work out the logistics and a bit of trial and error goes a long way too. But what underpins the principles and ideas? Well I've been reflecting on Luke 10 as I think about this and here's what I've explored so far.

1. Not alone

It's not a solitary mission, but a shared mission. Jesus sent the disciples out in pairs. That's not rocket science, but it is a reminder that taking a partner with you is strategic.

2. No empires

He instructed them to pray for others to join in. This is not about building an empire but sharing a mission. It's not a case of the workers are few so I'll go it alone, but rather the workers are few, let's pray for more workers to join the party.

3. Go vulnerable

Jesus said to go without spare shoes and luggage. When we go it's not about what we can give to the community out of our abundance. Perhaps that's because it forces us to be dependent upon God already being at work. When we turn up with a ready-made solution what room is there for God to do something extraordinary?

4. Always bless

The prayer strategy that we are going to use is simply to pray God's blessing down every street. We're not "treasure hunting" or seeking to drive out darkness. We just want to ask God to bless the people amongst whom we live. There is a time and place to confront darkness and challenge evil, but let's start by blessing people. That seems logical and valid to me.

5. Don't agonise over the response

If a place is not a place of peace then so be it. We're not going to judge, just to bless. whichever way it goes, the kingdom is here whether people notice it or not. I have this intermittent privilege of serving families at a time of loss. That now includes doing the occasional non-religious funeral. I've blogged about that elsewhere. I'd hope that all the funerals are non-religious in a way because religious usually means rites and rituals without any real depth of faith. On the other hand all the funerals I lead are strongly rooted in a Christian faith perspective even when God is not mentioned and prayers are not said. Why? Because I'm there and I pray. Not at the funeral, but at home, in the car, at the crematorium, just not in the service or with the mourners. I don't agonise over the lost opportunity to share the gospel or missing element of fait, I just do what I can and leave the rest in God's hands.

6. Be prepared to be amazed!

God does some extraordinary things. He has the habit of showing up when we least expect him to and doing something equally unexpected.

So, how complicated is it to walk down your street and ask God to bless the homes and businesses in it? Are you afraid you might bless someone who doesn't deserve it or who might be doing something that doesn't honour God? How righteous do your neighbours need to be before they are worthy of your prayer of blessing? I'm sure that somewhere in our community someone is probably making illicit adult films, planning crimes, taking drugs or evading tax. IT seems to me that praying for them is the very thing I ought to do.

Here's one last crazy idea. In our village we have a Kingdom Hall. What might God do if I pray a blessing on that place!

Allergic reactions to church

Every so often a link passes across my RSS feed that catches my attention.  Quite a long time ago I blogged about a talk by Reggie McNeal about the missional church. It was a talk that sat and listened to one Sunday morning while on sabbatical in 2008 I think. Well, here's a link to a series of talks he gave at a conference in early November. According to the link the videos will only be available until the end of January, so if you're reading this post January 2013 I'm sorry if the link no longer works! Many of the stories he shares and the challenge he presents are in his books and probably available via other links too, so it shouldn't be difficult to find him somewhere on the web talking about these things.

Here's the link.

I noted down a few things from what he says in the first session.


Talking about the rapid growth in the number of people in North America that consider themselves unaffiliated to any religious movement, he spoke about revealing a "precipitous allergic reaction to institutionalised religion". People are not allergic to God or spirituality, just institutionalised religion. If that is true then painful as it may be to hear, no matter how well we might be doing church, people are not going to come. It's a false premise that better worship, more multimedia, shorter sermons and clever drama will somehow attract people into our buildings. It won't. As McNeal says, "Fewer people are interested in becoming congregationalised."

We're building better auditoria than ever, in some parts of the world at least, but people aren't coming. Church has become a vendor of religious services. If doing church well was going to change this tide it would have worked by now. The question is not about how to do church better but how to be church better.

The church is not the point. The mission of God is the point. The Bible begins and ends without a church. No church in the garden, no church in the city.

Instead of  telling the stories of God showing up and showing off (this is one of his favourite ways to describe the nature of God, not as an arrogant deity but as a God who just loves to bless beyond our capacity to imagine). We need more present stories of God-sightings and fewer historical retellings of Pentecost!

Anyway, as usual with Reggie McNeal there are lots of stories and lots of jumping around in his topic, but it's worth settling down with a cup of tea/coffee/hot chocolate and a suitable low-calorie snack to listen to what he has to say.

Kinesio Tape

On Tuesday I drove through rain and heavy traffic to attend a one-day workshop on k-tape applications. We covered about 17 different applications from achilles and plantar fasciitis to shoulders and lateral epicondylitis. Lots to take in, as is typical I guess of these things, and it was really about seeing the range of applications and getting the opportunity to try them out rather than trying to commit them all to memory.

The basic principle was to either preload the target muscle or tissue and then apply the tape with little or no stretch, or to stretch the tape. The tape can be stretched to between 0 and 100% of its capacity and the trick is to make sure the end is anchored before you stretch other wise it peels straight off! 

There are lots of videos on Youtube and elsewhere showing different applications and I guess you can get quite a long way just watching them, but there's really no substitute for working with an experienced practitioner.

So, all I need now are a few guinea pigs with issues that might benefit from taping to see if it works. 

My one-day course was run by John Gibbons and you can find details of future courses on his website.

My thoughts on the press and regulation

I am not a journalist, just to make it clear that I am not writing as someone with a vested interest in the "Where next?" debate about press regulation, but I am concerned. I find myself caught between questions about privacy and wondering how far we should go down a road that could make it easier for stories that should be told to suppressed.

Without trying to stir up some sort of hornets nest, recent revelations and allegations about abuse by high profile political and other figures highlights the issues. Some stories were made up and should never have been told, others were true and were not told. Or go back a few years to the infamous Iraq dossier scandal. How would any proposed regulation have affected that story? Would we have found out about the inaccuracies and inconsistencies? MP's expenses, drug taking in sport, corruption and cover ups by multinational companies, are just a few examples of stories that need to be told. On the other hand, I'm not sure that I need to know about the sordid affairs of so-called celebrities.

What bothers me about statutory regulation is the thought that powerful people will find a way to manipulate it to their benefit, and those editors and journalists who break the law to get a story, any story, surely won't be overly worried about another layer of regulation.

Maybe, more than regulation, we need to find a way to stop feeding the animal of curiosity and gossip that has dragged both our press and our society towards the gutter. Perhaps we have the press we've created.

There are always going to be times when someone's privacy has to be invaded (I use that term cautiously) in order for the truth to be discovered and revealed. The choice is about what truth is in the public interest and how best do we protect both the rights of the individual to privacy and the rights of good journalism to investigate. Not easy.

Towards the future

I've been thinking about names for my business as I get closer to completing my course. without presuming success, I came up with In2Motion as a name and with the help of my daughter have designed the following logo for the job:

It's going to be tough to try and grow a business having never done it before. Hopefully I can quickly establish a reputation for doing a good job as a therapist and trainer. It's really easy to think negatively about one's skills and to focus on what you don't know. But I was watching a programme the other day about a particular sporting figure who had experienced  lot of success and a few failures along the way.

Someone observed about this person that they always seemed to take whatever happened to them and turn it into something that made them better at what they did. Instead of thinking about how bad they were at something, they though about how it could help them become better.

As we've been learning our therapy skills I've had many days when I've thought about how bad a therapist I am and am likely to be. I've thought about how little I know and how much I need to know, about what I've learned and what I've forgotten. But maybe I need to change tack and simply ask how to become a better therapist. Think about how to use my lack of knowledge as a spur to improve learning and my forgetfulness as a drive to improve my retention and recall.

I don't know how to do this, at least not yet. But I do think that forwards is better than backwards or stationary! Maybe you need a new mindset too. Perhaps it's better to have failed at a lot of things rather than never having ventured far from your comfort zone.

Foam Roller!

I've heard one or two people mention using a foam roller so I thought I'd give it a try. You can do all sorts of exercises using a roller, but most people use them for self-massage particularly if they have what they perceive to be a tight ITB (Iiliotibial band).

For those who don't know, your ITB runs from your hip to your knee down the outside of you thigh. It's a band of connective tissue that contrary to popular belief doesn't stretch. What it does seem to do is get stuck to the muscles and other soft tissue around it. If you get pain in the outside of your knee when you run, then you might have an issue with your ITB.

Anyway, I got hold of a roller and tried it out earlier this week. Lying over the roller with my outer thigh on the roller I began to roll up and down along the length of of my thigh. Some areas were rather painful, and if you're not ready for it, it can be really painful. Moving slowly and carefully is the key to using a roller effectively. Knowing something about massage and anatomy probably helps to understand what you are doing and what it should feel like. You can reduce the pressure by controlling the amount of body-weight that goes through the roller, but it's not easy. Rollers come is different densities, so if you find the one you first try too hard, a less dense model might be better.

I experimented with accessing the side, front, and back of my thigh, and it worked quite well. I also had a go at my notoriously tight peroneals (outside of the calf).

The jury is still out on the effectiveness of the foam roller for self-massage, I've only had a couple of goes with it, but it may prove to be a useful tool to have to hand. There are lots of ways you can use the roller for exercise too, so it's not just a instrument of self administered pain!

Daily prayers & daily exercises!

None of us need reminding about the importance of either daily connection with God or daily exercise. okay, so for some the former is not important, but for those of us who share a faith perspective, prayer is a vital element in our daily lives. So how come we struggle with both?

Time, discipline and motivation are probably the three mot common factors for our reason for not doing wither thing well. And they are interrelated. without the discipline we don't find the time, without the motivation we don't choose the discipline and we don't make the time, with the time we lose our motivation. So what can we do?

Probably the best first step in either area, prayer or exercise, is to stop beating ourselves up about why we don't do and start getting disciplined about what we can do. I have days when I lie in bed looking at the clock that ticks away on the wall opposite me trying to work out how much time I have before I need to get up. If I apply a bit if discipline, I just get up and get started. If there's time left over after I've done whatever I plan to do, then that's great. But I'd rather that than waste the time before I start. It doesn't always work, but it's what I aim to do.

The other key factor is to have a plan. Getting up and not knowing what your exercise plan is can be just as big a time waster as staying in bed. So get a plan. The same goes for prayer. Have a plan. Not too complicated, just a simple plan. How about praying for specific things on specific days or following a simple rule like the ACTS pattern. Keep it fresh by experimenting.

The same goes for exercise. If you're going to get any benefit from regular exercise, then it needs to be varied and changed from time to time. And keeping pushing, and keep getting back on the wagon when you fall off.

Write your plan down. Don't try to hold your plan in your head. You can't, unless it's the only thing you do and you have perfect recall of every detail. I have a card with a series of exercises written on it. it acts as a prompt. The same goes for prayer.

And if you really struggle with motivation and discipline, then seek out a fellow traveller. I wish I had an exercise partner as well as a prayer partner. I know I'd be more disciplined if I had one.

A Living Wage?

Yesterday's discussions in the media about the concept of a living wage produced the usual crop of well-worn free-marketeer commentaries about where the money will come from to pay for such an outrageous suggestion. We heard the usual observations about taxes, profits and prices, but no one seemed ready to suggest that maybe executive pay or reducing the income of high earners was a possible source. Surprise, surprise.

A report this morning on the news suggests that senior executives have seen an average 27% increase in their remunerate packages this last year. How many more people could a company employ if the rate of pay for the the CEO was more realistically related to the average across the company. There are of course some exception where CEO's don't take large salaries, but they are rare.

Perhaps it is time we said enough is often more than enough for the few and the many deserve better. If it's possible to calculate a living wage, then why would any employer not want to pay it? Can profit ever outweigh equity and fairness towards both employees and clients?

Choose your values wisely

Very soon Americans will head to the polls to elect a President. Nothing new there. What has caught my eye this time around is some of the thoughts around endorsements and the role of church leaders. It's not a new debate and not restricted the USA. Even in the UK we have discussions about how political the pulpit ought to be or not to be depending upon your perspective. We even get to discussing the case of the opening letter (political with a P or a p?)

The problem with voting in a democracy is that people can vote how they like according to what is most important to them, and that means that they can vote as selfishly as they like too. So our parliamentary elections and American Presidential elections can become more about who will put the most money in my pocket rather than who offers the better solutions to the issues of the day.

Voting according to values is harder than you think. First you have to choose your values, and as if that isn't hard enough, you then have to compromise and find the best fit from the manifestos on offer. And then what do you do when the values you hold dear appear to be better supported by the party for whom you cannot bring yourself to vote!

Anyway, it was interesting to read the other day that the Billy Graham organisation is urging Christians across America to vote for the Biblical values. But which values? Are we talking here about the hot topic values or are we willing to say that actually many of the values we hold dear as evangelicals are not far from being red herrings when it comes to looking for truly biblical values.

If I asked you to list your top three biblical values, what would make your list, and what would be top? Here are my three as I thought about this earlier today:

• Grace
• Compassion
• Equity

When I did a major study of Isaiah I was moved by God's deep concern for these three qualities. How you apply them to the broad, secularised world of politics is not easy, but it's worth some thought. You see I don't think some of the single issues, important as they are, are as important as these. Perhaps they are subsumed into them. And I wonder what shape our political landscapes would take if we looked at our economy from the perspective of grace, compassion and equity.

So, if you're going to vote according to Biblical values in any election, then my I suggest you take you time to weight what is really important to the God who daily renews his compassion, always treats us with grace and regularly calls us to treat others the same way.

A tough week

I wanted to write this post first, but wasn't really brave enough to commit to open view how I've been feeling lately. Even as I type I'm reluctant to give away too much detail. It's been a tough week or so, and to be honest I can't see anything changing any time soon. I've felt really low, I mean really low. It's a combination of things, all of which I fully understand and can analyse and interpret but of course can't shake myself free from. I'm at that point in my training where I can't imagine passing the course and yet I'm desperate to succeed. What I really want to do is to wake up in twelve months time, working in my own reasonably successful practice and with an emerging missional community taking shape in our community.

But that is not where I am right now.

Right now, I wake up each morning knowing that I have papers to write, exams to pass and so much to remember that I'm convinced it is all beyond me. So how do you face each day when you can't see the future and the present is not that bright either?

It's very easy to give trite little answers, to pat someone on the head and tell them to trust God and everything will be okay. But that's not how they will see it. We offer sympathy instead of empathy. Our encouragement is faintly veiled admonishment for failing to trust. I know this because I live on both sides of the equation. I've sat with people who feel this way and sought to help and encourage them, and I've sat felling this way and listened to others trying to encourage to me.

I'm fortunate because I know that while I'm not okay now, I will be. I also know that once I qualify I will face another set of challenges (finding clients who will pay for my services, getting paid work in a clinic or elsewhere etc). I also know myself. I know that while I think my standards are low, they are probably quite high, and although I feel like I've spent my whole life failing at one thing after another, that's probably not true.

The truth is, it's not just been a tough week, it's been a tough fifty years! There are a lot of scars, but life without scars is surely a life without adventure and a life without risk. When I ask a new client if they've ever suffered any injuries, most say no. I don't believe them. I can't believe that anyone can go through life without an injury. Have they never tried climbing a tree, or using a hammer? I'm scarred because I've tried an adventure or two. I'm not adventurous enough to climb mountains or sail oceans, but I've stepped out in faith, I've taken on challenges and I've been hurt in the process.

Perhaps my tough weeks, my sense of failure, my frustration about both the present and the future, is born out of a relentless assumption that there has to be more to life than this, whatever this happens to be. That somehow God has something he wants to do and I need to find out what it is and get involved rather than keep on repeating the same old pattern of things that haven't got us anywhere before or that simply don't work now.

Let me put it like this, and maybe encourage myself in the process:

If God is calling me to find a new way of expressing ministry, of building church, of doing discipleship, then I will have to keep exploring. I will have to keep pushing the boundaries of my thinking, and search out these things. The alternative is to bow to the pressure to conform to a pattern I'm not sure has any value anymore.

It looks more and more likely that I will have to abandon my status as an accredited baptist minister because my current status doesn't fit the criteria. It would seem a shame to have to do this, but if it has to be, then so be it. I think I'd rather get to the end of my life and say I tried everything I could think of trying, than to have sat in a box for several decades and changed nothing.

Doing it this way has a huge price attached. It's paid in emotional and spiritual currency, and that probably explains why I feel the way I feel. I do not offer any solutions, and I do not see this as a well though-out post, but it's just given me a chance to process some thoughts and get them out of my head. With hindsight perhaps I should have kept them in my journal, but maybe my rambling thoughts are just what someone needed to read.

PS No offers or suggestions of counselling please!

Praying for the community

I guess one of the features of our discipleship over the last thirty years has been a heart to pray for the community in which we live. I can't remember when it began, but I think it has its roots in the Make Way events of the early eighties.

Over the years our approach has morphed into other things, taken sharp unexpected turns, and gone through quiet periods and times of complete inactivity! We're not perfect! We've learnt a lot and seen a lot of different things happen. Some have been big and obvious (there's a vibrant church in one place now and it's good to know our community prayers were part of the planting process), some less obvious.

I'm not sure we've always been understood, too often there's an expectation that there will be "results", and there have been times when it seems that for some our prayers have been neither public enough nor  inclusive enough. But there we go, you can't please everyone.

Our aaron'our new community. Something I've done before is to pray Aaron's blessing every time I turn into a new street when I'm out walking. It's simple and in many ways non-theatening or spooky (spiritually speaking). You see you don't need some special revelation about the family at number four or the old man across the street to pray this way. All you need to have is a commitment to bless people. Maybe there is even a principle about the importance of praying a blessing into a place and not just a spirit out of one.

Although I haven't bought the book or researched the project in great depth, I'm quite excited about a resource that has recently crossed my path called the Neighbourhood Prayer Network. I think we might connect with this and if you're interested you might like to have a look at the website too.

Anything that helps us focus on connecting with our community is a good thing. Right? Prayer is something we can all do, whether we walk the streets to do it or not is less important, although don't despise walking! I've been prompted to pray for things I might never have otherwise thought about just by walking down the street with my eyes open (spiritually and physically!)

Ten things we might like to stop worrying about

Okay, I don't have a list of ten things yet, but I've been thinking recently about things that maybe as Christians we should stop worrying about. Now don't get me wrong. Not worrying about something is not the same as having no opinion about it. Far from it. The problem is that when we worry about something it tends to force us to think about it from a defensive position. Rubbish I hear you say. Okay, let's try one shall we. How about gay marriage. Feeling defensive yet? What about multi-faith events? Or try being able to wear a cross to work.

Do you see it now? When we worry about these things we get defensive. Every move by culture or government or employers becomes and assault on our rights, our faith and preeminent position as guardians of all that is right and proper in the world. I wonder how many complaints last week's episode of Red Dwarf got from enraged evangelicals? Hopefully none. Hopefully those of us that watched it were able to laugh at the jokes and ignore anything that might have fallen into the bad taste bucket. Personally I thought it was funny. The presumption that there was only ever one person named Jesus and the confusion that caused just made me think about all the other "rebel leaders" that are hinted at and recorded in the historical records of the time.

Anyway, Red Dwraf isn't the focus of this post, so let's return to the plan.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that when we get worried , we get defensive then we become offensive and we distance oursleves form the very people Jesus misses most. We put distance between them and us and we ask them to change and come over to us, to see it our way, to make the first move.

Jesus didn't do that.

What we need to do is find ways to engage with our culture to show them a better way, to show them just how much they are loved and to reconnect them with the God who loves them. Telling them how morally offensive they have become doesn't seem like a good place to start.

I don't have all the answers and I don't want to criticise those who have stood up and challenged things in the past. But I do remember how ridiculous Christinas looked when they protested too much about "THe Life of Brian" and how irrelevant we appeared when coronation Street was declared to be smutty or whatever Mrs Whitehouse called it. There just has to be a better way.

And if you're still worried about gay marriage, then remember, as someone wrote recently, if we're worried that gay marriage will undermine the value of marriage in our society then we shouldn't worry, the heterosexual community has managed to do that all on its own.

Lord, teach me to listen

I'm sitting in the extension mainly because there's a bit more light in here than anywhere else in the house on this damp and dreary day. The roof lights capture what daylight there is and the big windows help too. It raises one's mood a little. I'm guessing that in a few hours it will get steadily darker.

It's also very quiet.

There is the sound of the traffic going by outside, but it's not overwhelming. Two other sounds invade the space. One is the ticking of the wall clock steadily marking the passing of time, the other is the whirr of a mechanical timer that will bring the light on around 7:00 this evening. I will need to reset it soon to bring the light on earlier as the evenings close in.

Most of the time these sounds are simply background noise that I can filter out as I work, like the click, set at a low level on my iPad, that keeps me company as it follows the rhythm of my typing. I'm unaware of any other sounds, even when I strain to listen.

All this makes me wonder about the priority of listening. If we can filter out the clock and the traffic and the birds, then do we sometimes filter out God? When the disciples went up on the mountain with Jesus and he was transfigured, they did two things. First, they fell asleep. Probably not the first time they fell asleep at an important moment, and certainly not the last time they would do so. Second, they talked, well Peter did. He blurted out something about building shelters to mark the occasion without realising the significance of what was happening in front of his eyes.

God's response to Peter's desire to act, to do something to mark this amazing event that he had almost missed as he napped, was to tell him to stop doing and to start listening. Well okay, he told him to listen and didn't mention the stopping, but in order to listen there are times when you need to stop doing.

So I have a question now: What are you, or am I, trying to commemorate by doing something when we should actually be listening to what God is saying? We are very quick to hear part of it and then make an assumption about the rest. We fill in the blanks and set off without hearing the rest of the story or instructions.

Maybe Peter would have been better off asking Jesus what the significance was of what had just happened rather than anything else he had in mind.

"Lord, teach me to listen to you."


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Dear science

You may have seen a recent picture on Facebook about science and religion that goes something like this:

Dear Religion

This week I safely dropped a human being from space while you shot a 14 year old girl in head for wanting to go to school.

I kinda feel you need a new hobby

Science

Well I began to think about how religion might respond and this is my version of one possible response:

Dear Science

While I am somewhat disappointed in your rhetoric, I take your point. It saddens me greatly that some people choose to abuse and manipulate what I offer in such ways. You must feel the same too. Wasn't it science that gave up the technology of the atom bomb that was "safely" dropped on two major cities in Japan? Time and again you too have offered so much that could have been good that got used negatively. Need I mention DDT, napalm CFC's, or the greenhouse effect.

Man's inhumanity to man has often been done in my name but sadly using your tools.

The truth is we are more like brothers than adversaries. Together we can inspire humanity to search out the answers to all sorts of questions. You, for example, can help humanity explore how the universe came into existence, but you have no answer to the question of why the universe came into existence. You can help humanity discover new ways to reduce disease, eliminate poverty and improve the quality of life for everyone, but you find it difficult to explain why they should do those things.

Perhaps, if you want to throw stones, then you should look for a lower horse from which to do so.

Yours

Religion

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Flying or falling with style?

My diary might not be full, as some diaries appear to be. I may not be juggling meetings and events, relying upon others to be flexible enough to fit in with my plans. I've yet to be asked to lead a national movement or plan a global strategy. I don't even have a proper job.
I'm not handling million pound contracts or invoices, and I haven't made any policy decisions that will affect thousands of people or even a single individual. I have not been asked my opinion on the deficit, the Euro-crisis, or the planned expansion of air-passenger capability for London.
But my life lacks neither purpose nor meaning.
Later today I will lead a funeral service for a family who are not famous, but are in need. They need someone to walk alongside them as they try to work out the significance of their loss. Like many families for whom I've had this same privilege they look to me to help them do this.
This could be my life. This could be what I do, all I do. Anonymously serving people at a time of need. It will not make me rich. It will not make me famous. It will not even pay my bills!
Each time I lead a funeral I wonder why I do it. I get nervous, I worry about making a mistake, about being late, getting the wrong day at the wrong crematorium. I worry about what to say and how best to say it. I wonder if the mourners are just being nice when they shake hands and thank me.
Every so often I get a reassuring call from a funeral directors about a letter they've received from a family thanking them for their work and expressing their gratitude for the small part I played.
I'd like to inspire a generation, I'd like to lead a movement of change, I'd like to recognised for the contribution I've made to bring about a realignment of the local church towards God's mission. But in the end I doubt that this will be my purpose in life.
Sometimes I joke about wanting to find something that I'm really good at doing before I come to the end of my working life. Sometimes I mean it more seriously. Maybe I'm actually good at a lot of things I fail to value in the way God values them because I want something more.
Maybe my life is more significant than I imagine it to be.