photo opportunity!

here's a very funny photo from Jonny Baker's blog!

centreforyouthministry
Originally uploaded by Matt Rees.

meant to post this last week..

here's a photo from my retreat last Monday/Tuesday which i meant to post last week but forgot. i promise this wasn't posed! i REALLY WAS sitting at the desk by the window of my room praying, reading and writing and i took this at some point.

meant to post this last week..
Originally uploaded by Matt Rees.

ash wednesday @ hOME

last night was our ash wednesday service at hOME. we continue to find the liturgical year a source of inspiration for the rhythm of our worship in hOME. last night i prepared a meditation based on the idea of lent being a time when we strip away stuff. we made some individual 'pass the parcel' type packages, each with 11 layers. each layer represented a different way of defining ourselves that we are encouraged into by our culture which we need to strip away: things like being defined by our jobs, our sexual attractiveness, our education, our independence etc. each sheet had a meditation, some questions to ponder, some pictures, and a prayer. in the middle of the space there was a table with a big pot and 3 candles on it. people went to different parts of the room and found some private space. they then proceeded to remove the first layer of the parcel. once they had spent time considering and praying they went to the table in the middle of the room and set fire to the piece of paper to symbolise letting go of that way of defining ourselves. in the middle of the package was a small bag of soil and some thoughts based on Gen 2:7 about adam being formed from the dust of the ground. people were encouraged to take the soil away with them and keep it in their pocket. the idea being that the soil would remind us of our true nature every time we touch it or see it. after a time of sung worship we then used the ash from the burnt paper to sign each other. we then had a short time of discussing what we are and aren't defined by and then finishing with some prayers. It was a great night.

ash weds1
Originally uploaded by Matt Rees.

my first african visitor!

very pleased to see that, according to hitmaps (see the bottom of my sidebar on the left of this page (click on it)), i have recently had my first African visitor. welcome, whoever you are!

ash wednesday @ hOME

ashwedflier
Originally uploaded by Matt Rees.

time for some different criteria for succesful ministry?

this (from Jordon Cooper) is spot on and well worth reading all the way through:

Adopting a missionary approach will require changing the scorecard. Church scorecards currently reflect member values: how many show up, pay up, and participate in club member activities. There are the numbers used to compare one church with another--the numbers that denominations ask for in their reports. These numbers establish the pecking order among clergy. The bigger the better and the more respected by club members of other churches.

A missionary church culture will need to begin keeping score on things different from what we measure now. These may include how many ministry initiatives we are establishing in the streets, how many conversations we are having with pre-Christians, how many volunteers we are releasing into local and global mission projects aimed at community transformation, how many congregations are starting to reach different populations, how many congregations use our facilities, how many languages (ethnic and generational) we worship in, how many community groups use our facilities, how many languages (ethnic and generational) we worship in, how many community groups use our facilities, how many church activities target people who aren't here yet, how many hours per week members spend in ministry where they work, go to school, and get mail.

Until we start making heroes of people who decide to be and act like missionaries, we will fail to turn club members into missionaries. Until we bless people who "go out" from us to reach people who may not come to us, we will continue to have a kingdom vision that is shrink wrapped to church programs and church real estate. Until we start adopting school and hosting community food banks and teaching parenting seminars for people who come to us for food, we will keep fostering club member mentality.

trinity to split

just as we were all coming to terms with 'Busted' splitting up it seems that the Trinity are going to go their separate ways due to 'creative differences'. read all about it here.

special edition billy graham ipod

i think this is going to be a big hit. more details here.

billygrahamipod
Originally uploaded by Matt Rees.

groove armada in Oxford tonight!...

well half of them anyway! Tom Findlay plays a DJ set tonight at a a night called 'Simple' at the Bully on the Cowley Road. The BBC has an article about it and also some interesting comments by Findlay on the direction the clubbing world is going in. read it here.

groove armada
Originally uploaded by Matt Rees.

TNIV online

i've been waiting for this. the latest version of the NIV - the TNIV - is now available online. the NT has been available on a free download for a while. now they have released the OT as well. unfortunately it's only available at the moment as a PDF but they will soon launch a web version with 'go to' and 'search' facilities. i like the TNIV. i've persisted with the NRSV cos it's less sexist and apparently the most accurate of modern translations. but a lot of the time i find that it just doesn't read as well. so i've gone back to the NIV but i often find myself cringing at the preponderence of male-centric language (even when the original language doesn't require it). the TNIV deals with that - it's basically a non-sexist NIV.

the incompatibility of religion and rock?

'athelete' have just released their album. their single - 'wires' - has got right under my skin. they did a free gig in Oxford the other night that i was supposed to be going to until there was a ticket mix up at the last minute. they are christians too. christians making good music. whatever next. the fact that they are christians has led the guardian to publish an article about people of faith in rock (Cliff Richard, Yusuf Islam etc.) and the relationship between their faith and their music. i was quite intrigued to read this quote by the editor of the NME, Conor McNicholas:
"The problem with religion is it’s never cool. At the heart of all religions, there’s a notion of control, and that’s the opposite of rock’n’roll’.
Is McNicholas right? My experience is that rock and roll tends to squeeze a lot of people into the same mould. i'm talking about the rock and roll cliche. sex, drugs and rock and roll. it's not very imaginative. kicking out the jams and not being told what to do normally just means being told what to do by somebody else - namely the guardians of the great tradition of rock and roll. so, rock and roll purports to be all about freedom but it just replaces one form of control for another.
at the heart of the christian gospel there lies a profound mystery - that freedom comes as we lay down our right to freedom and 'submit to the father of our spirits and live'. As Leonardo Boff put it: 'obedience is the greatest free decision one can make for God'. Christ models for us the paradox that freedom comes only through laying down our lives to the will of God. rock and roll : faux freedom.

transcript of the Larry King show...

...is available here.

brian mclaren - 'Time' and Larry King slots

you already know how much of an influence Brian Mclaren has been on me and we were really pleased he could come and visit hOME in December when he was over for the emergent conference. well, Time Mag (US) has just run a feature entitled 'The 25 Most Inflential Evangelicals in the USA' and Brian has made it in at No.17 (of course i knew all along that the list was alphabetical and certainly didn't need Rich to point this out to me in the comments - just messin with you all!). He has also just appeared on the Larry King show with a number of the others that appeared in the Time article and apparently Bri did us all proud.

mclaren
Originally uploaded by Matt Rees.

the 4 nations slam

great night last night. after an early evening speaking engagement i headed down to a packed Zodiac nightclub in Oxford for the 4 nations poetry slam. for those unfamiliar to the world of poetry slams (last night was my first time but they weren't very gentle with me), let me explain. it's a bit like a performance poetry version of Pop Idol. teams compete by entering individuals (tho there were some group poems last night) who perform a poem (within a set time period - 3 mins i think). The poem is then scored by pre-selected judges in the crowd who hold up score cards. last night there were 4 teams from 4 nations - UK, USA, Canada and Ireland. there are 2 semi-finals (which last night were USA v Ireland, and UK v Canada) and the winners of each heat go through to the final. last night the final was between the USA and Canada. It was a rockin night - some great, poignant (and often hilarious) poems by some great characters. the BBC carried a piece on it here. Tho I stayed for the whole slam i left before the result was announced so perhaps someone could enlighten me - it looked like a very close call between the two teams in the final.
One thing that struck me was how many of the poems seemed to be searching for a re-enchantment of the world. asking and pleading with us to stop and notice the wonder of the world that we live in. cajoling us to see tired and familiar things with a sense of awe and almost reverence. people in hOME like Naomi have blogged before about how they wished church could be more like this sort of gathering and on last night's evidence i think i can see why.

slammin'
Originally uploaded by Matt Rees.

retreat

on retreat the next couple of days at Stanton House just outside Oxford. can't wait.

Meet the Fockers

saw this last night. loved it. just as good as the first one i thought despite what some reviews have said. De Niro was brilliant as usual. Dustin Hoffman had me in stitches. Even Barbara Streisand was good. a great Saturday night movie.

Meet the Fockers
Originally uploaded by Matt Rees.

Free Groove Armada CD....

...in today's Guardian Newspaper. 10 tracks - some by Groove Armada themselves (a live track 'At the River' + a couple of others) and then some tracks they've selected by other artists. definitely worth getting if you're passing a Newsagents.

habbo hotel

my previous link to the Habbo Hotel was broken - it is now fixed and you can get there from here too.Lent begins a week on Wednesday (Ash Wednesday) and we're going to run a weekly study group there, reading Christina Baxter's 'The Wounds of Jesus'.

combo_1
Originally uploaded by Matt Rees.

emergent convention, San Diego

wish i was going to this. top range of speakers and seminars and general dudes and dudesses.

Online Lent Group in the Habbo Hotel

we're gonna run an online Lent Study group meeting weekly again this year in the Habbo Hotel. We'll meet once a week during Lent which starts on Ash Wednesday - Feb 9th this year. The book we've decided on is the Archbishop of Canterbury's Lent Book for 2005 - 'The Wounds of Jesus' by Christina Baxter, Principal of St John's Theological College in Nottingham. I'm not sure if something like the wounds of Jesus has ever been studied in the virtual world of the Habbo Hotel before.

welcome to our world

last night Pip and I hosted an 'orientation evening' for people who have been expressing an interest in getting connected to the community of hOME. we were surprsied and pleased to see 12 people turn up to our small house. i had prepared a very basic powerpoint presentation which i hoped to show from my Mac via an S-Video lead. only problem is that our TV will only display a PAL signal and Macs output is NTSC. newer tellies can cope with both. ours can't. so the presentation was in Black and White. Not that impressive then!
anyway, we survived. we're so pleased to be growing but it does mean we are faced with the usual challenge to integrate new people into our community. i guess these are the points where people (myself included) can hanker after 'the way it was' if we're not careful. But we are called to be a community that draws people into relationship with each other for the sake of the mission of God in Oxford (in all it's variety). I, for one, am looking forward to welcoming these new people to our world.

Peyton

hedkandithemixwinter04
Originally uploaded by Matt Rees.

there is a DJ/Producer called Peyton and the more stuff of his that i hear the more i like. it's just great funky house on a gospel tip. we saw in the New Year this year dancing to his track 'Higher Place' (ably span by DJ Gareth) and there is a great track by him on the recent Hed Kandi release ('The Mix: Winter 2004) - both of which i think we'll be using in our worship sessions soon. Anyway, if you're intrigued to find out more about Peyton (who's got a very interesting background - raised in a hyper-Pentecostal environment) go to the Hed Kandi site here.

what I'm doing today

we're getting some beautiful sunny, crisp, winter days here at the moment and Oxford looks particularly beautiful when the weather's like this. so i'm going to stop working at home soon and relocate to the Bodleian library where i'm going to work on planning the upcoming hOME weekend away and also the hOME orientation evening tomorrow night. we've had quite a few people expressing an interest in joining hOME recently so we're gonna host an evening to give them a handle on what we're all about.
I'm also gonna hit Blackwells bookshop (consistently voted the best bookshop in the UK - it rocks) this afternoon to try and and find a good Lent book for us to read. Does anyone have any suggestions? We're gonna run an optional (isn't everything we do 'optional'?!) study group, meeting on-line at the Habbo Hotel each week during lent. last year we ran a group studying Nouwen's 'Return of the Prodigal Son' but we were hampered by poor technology so this year we are hoping for a better service from Habbo.

submission, U2 and Cholla Bread

i enjoyed last night's hOME-central worship focus service. the theme was the spiritual discipline of submission (which must have been a really odd one if you were coming to hOME for the first time). i tried to point out that it was the latest installment in a series we've been doing on the spiritual disciplines. we showed the film I'd made (a great excuse to learn how to use iMovie and iDVD). i was listening to the new U2 album the other day and as i was listening to the track, 'Sometimes you can's make it on your own' (which Bono wrote for his dad i think) it struck me that you could imagine God speaking these words to the human race (if you have the CD have a listen). also it kinda fitted in with the theme of the service so i used the Hebrews ? passage "...how much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live", and developed a kind of music video and burnt it on to DVD (so glad i decided to go for a Powerbook with a superdrive). i think it worked.
later on we celebrated communion with Cholla bread and a nice french Cabernet Sauvignon. when i was buying it in M&s's the guy ahead of me in the checkout queue said that it looked like a nice supper which led into an interesting conversation as i told him he was kinda right!

quiet week on the rees blog

probably the quietest week since this blog started in fact. but it's not indicative of anything. just bin busy. Tai Chi on Monday night - followed by late night leadership meeting. it was great to see Rich Johnson yesterday when he escaped London for the day to see the Oxford posse. we had some good chat and talked about Ian Stackhouse's book - Gospel Driven Church - which is causing a bit of a storm at the moment. today I've met with my spiritual director this morning and taught a session for the guys spending a year working for the mother church (St Aldates). This evening I have finished a short film I've been making for the hOME worship service tomorrow night. i've been using iMovie and iDVD for the first time - they rock. never made a film before. never burnt a DVD of my own stuff before. hopefully it won't show tomorrow night. more details of the film after i've shown it.

more apple eulogising - sorry!

ok - i promise this will be my last bit of Apple eulogising (at least for a while!). i was just reading an old post in one of my favourite blogs - that of Karen Ward, pastor of Church of the Apostles in Seattle. She says,
"if you wanna understand emerging pop culture and technology and find clues into emergent church praxis, *watch apple computer* and the ethos of their products (like garageband...). it is not by accident that many alt/emerging worship geeks have embraced apple products for making it easy to integrate video, music and graphics to use in making media art for the emerging church."

the new, contemplative, you

i think this is the year for going deeper...an internal journey of the spirit...studying the spiritual disciplines has made me re-focus on what the mystics call 'the interior life'. this is key i think. i've had enough of shallow spirituality. never mind the width, feel the depth. i went to a Tai Chi class the other night. i know, i know, some of you will have issues or concerns with that. but i weighed up the pros and cons and made a decision that i am comfortable with. it's really about breathing, relaxation, and controlled movement. and the Christian tradition has been sooo poor when it comes to a spirituality of physicality. i want to recover something of that whole side of what it means to be a spiritual being; and seeing as there are so few resources for this within the Christian tradition i am happy to discerningly look elsewhere.
Last night in my huddle we were discussing the discipline of solitude and silence. and it occurred to me that i can't remember the last time i did nothing. now my wife would probably be surprised to hear me say that...but I'm talking about NOTHING AT ALL. e.g. sitting on a chair, no music on, not watching TV, not reading, not talking to anyone, NOTHING. and just waiting. i'm going to try it sometime this next week. i think perhaps I/we don't do that because we are afraid of what we may encounter. so we fill our lives and time with much clutter so we don't have to look too deeply within.
at the end of our huddle meeting we spent between 5 and 10 minutes in complete silence together as a group. it was rich and powerful.
silence, solitude, Tai Chi, retreat - these are going to be important things for me this year i think.

iPodshuffle

iPodshuffle
Originally uploaded by Matt Rees.

Being a new devotee of Apple i have been keeping an eye on the MacWorld event in San Francisco that's happening at the moment. this is the main event for Apple each year where they launch new products and software etc. Anyway, they have just announced and launched the above product - the iPod Shuffle. It's very, very weeny and light, plugs straight into your USB port on your computer and can hold about 250 songs which can be loaded randomly from iTunes or selected by you. There's no screen so the whole idea behind this product is you don't know what song you're gonna hear next - they're using the strapline : 'Give Chance a Chance'!. It's gonna be cheap too (starting at $99 - don't think it's released here yet). I think it's a great idea. More info here.

cultural relevance and compromise

the charge is occasionally levelled at those involved in emerging expressions of church, that "they have given up too much ground in order to be relevant". it's a comment that we should take seriously, and i welcome the challenge to think through what we are doing. i do want to say two things in response though.
firstly, the goal is not to be relevant. relevance still implies distance i.e. i'm not really like you but i'll try harder to be a bit more like you. i think that if we take incarnational mission seriously, cultural relevance becomes a bit of a misnomer. i mean, Jesus didn't have to try to be like a first century Jew - he was a first century Jew! Paul said, 'i became all things to all people in order that i might win some'. so the goal is not relevance but incarnation - not to become like those that God has called us to - to serve, heal and bless - but to become one with them.
but that's almost a bit of an aside - what about the main question...have we given up too much in our pursuit of this?
well, perhaps. there is a fine balance here. when a community is incarnated in a culture there will always be a danger of cultural capitulation and compromise. ironically, this is what i perceive happened during the enlightenment/reformation. here, the church, influenced by the values of the culture around it - and particularly by the enlightenment's obsession with the individual, reduced the gospel to a primarily individualistic notion i.e. it's about individuals becoming individual Christians, rather than being about the people of God for the sake of the world.
so, let he who is without sin be the first to cast the stone. let those who accuse the emerging church of selling out to the culture be careful to make sure that the theological tradition that they are proud to be a part of has not itself been compromised.

new leadership for a new year

at the beginning of 2005 we are having a bit of a leadership re-structure in hOME. as i blogged about a little while ago i am moving towards a more functional rather than positional view of leadership. with that in mind we have appointed a deacon and a warden for the community of hOME in a kind of retro type way. even tho we are part of the Anglican tribe we are not thinking of the role of deacon in the way it's usually used in the Anglican tradition. instead we are using it in the Acts 6 way - someone with responsibility for the distribution of food. so we have appointed Steve to serve as our deacon, catalysing the whole community into a greater degree of involvement in social justice issues etc. we have been making it clear that Steve will not be there to 'do' all the 'ministry to the poor' but rather to make us a community that is more involved in this kind of mission as a whole.
Jim, our new Warden (the term has already taken on Peter Kay undertones!) will watch over the borders of the community and also be involved in taking some responsibility for the finances of the community.
We are also hoping to appoint an artist-in-residence and maybe even a resident theologian too.

companions on the journey

been away the last 24 hours reconnecting with 'my boys'. it's a little group i'm part of consisting of 4 of us that were in theological college together - me, Rog, Paddy, and Mark. we meet together 4 times a year and rotate round, visiting each other's homes in turn. this weekend we've been in Bristol at Roger's place. we don't always do this but this time 'the wives' came too. we had a lot of laughs and even a few tears and it's always so good to be with those guys and hear where we've got to on our journey, pray for, and prophesy over, each other etc. there really is no substitute for people who've walked with you over a period of time. i really appreciate those guys and the challenge and support that they bring to me. we had some tough stuff to talk about this time but i know that that's only gonna take us deeper and make the bonds stronger, so it's all good.

the thinking behind busyness

brilliant piece from Jonny blogging from a Youthwork conference he's been on where one of the speakers shared some fascinating insights into why we prize busyness in church so highly. everyone in any form of church leadership MUST read this now!

He is a She

just found out today that our kitten is not a he but a she. this means we are going to have to readjust our language as we've been using entirely masculine language for him and calling him 'Dexter' (after Colin). i suppose we might just go for a neutral 'Dexie' as using a completely different name for him/her now would be just too wierd. hmmm. anyway, we took her for her first jabs today and as a result she has been asleep under the sofa upstairs all afternoon! ahhh drugs.

The Mother Ship

The Mother Ship
Originally uploaded by Matt Rees.

as a new convert to the cult of Apple I thought that it was appropriate to share the love by uploading a few photos from my visit to the Apple Store yesterday. What a great place. unlike any other store i've ever been to. i mean, when was the last time you went to a shop and there was a lecture theatre in it? i managed to get a slot with a genius (see photo of 'Genius Bar' below) - tho i had to wait for a cancellation as they were booked out for the whole day. Even tho the guy i saw was undoubtedly a Mac genius he wasn't able to solve my problem - to do with getting the bluetooth on my Mac to recognise my XDA as a phone rather than as a computer so i can send SMS messages from my computer - he was a nice guy anyway. I attended the worskhop on using GarageBand (a fantastic free music composing software suite that comes with new Macs) and learnt how to make tracks. I put my new skills to work on the bus on the way back to Oxford - composing a piece of music called 'Oxford Tube' - how original!
Si Kirby read my blog yesterday morning, found out i was coming to London for the day, phoned me up, and we met for coffee on the Tottenham Court Road after I'd spent 2 hours in the Apple Store.
It was great to see him and we had a good chat and put the world to rights.

Genei at work

Genei at work
Originally uploaded by Matt Rees.

me at the pilgrimage site

me at the pilgrimage site
Originally uploaded by Matt Rees.

we wuz robbed!

carrollclanger
Originally uploaded by Matt Rees.

i've seen it all now! possibly the worst refereeing decision of all time. Spurs last night were denied a famous victory at Old Trafford by a terrible refereeing decision that denied us a goal that SO clearly was! Granted we were on the back foot most of the match - as you would expect to be at Old Trafford - but we defended so well, didn't get rattled, passed the ball around beautifully. LOOK AT THAT PHOTO ABOVE - how can anyone not see that the ball has crossed the line!!

i've been re-converted!!

not in a spiritual sense! but i have finally made the switch to a Mac after getting a fantastic deal on a refurbished Powerbook from Apple. I have seen the light! and i think i can see what all the fuss is about! Today I am making a pilgrimage to the Apple Store in London where, amongst other things, I will be going to a workshop on how to use a fantastic program called GarageBand so that I can become the next Orbital. hmmm. seriously though, I'm hoping to use it to create new worship music for hOME.

the anger of God

I was leading the morning service at our mother church (St Aldates) this morning (I am preaching there this evening) and as i led the intercessions which were obviously focused on the earhtquake and tsunami victims i found myself overcome with emotion. i found myself asking the congregation whether they were able to feel the anger of God, the rage of God, about the ravaging of his good creation by the forces of destruction. it's a perspective i hadn't previously considered but i think that God is generally very angry about this whole situation.
congrad gempf has posted some staggering before/after pictures from the New York Times photo journalists. see them here.

New Year's Day Walk

walkin and a talkin
Originally uploaded by Matt Rees.

quite windy then!

quite windy then!
Originally uploaded by Matt Rees.

Steve enjoying some proper refreshment post walk

New Year's Day 3
Originally uploaded by Matt Rees.

The Vicar of Dibley and 'Making Poverty History

had another fine New Year day walk today - which is becoming something of a tradition round these parts.
after tea, crumpets and a DVD back at Chez Rees with friends Rich, Steve and Felicity Pip and I settled down to watch the New Year's Day episode of the Vicar of Dibley (as an Anglican clergyman you are required by law to watch it - like saying the Daily Office). Boy am I glad we did (said in an American accent)! It was like one long promo for Richard Curtis's campaign 'Make Poverty History' - which was fine by me (far more tasteful than the Xmas day episode which was quite frankly crap I thought).
2005 is a big year in the campaign for debt relief/trade justice/poverty eradication - particulary in the UK as it's our turn to chair the G8 this year. Richard Curtis has apparently set aside the whole of this year to work on the campaign instead of writing decidedly dodgy rom com scripts. looks like Hugh Grant won't be doing much this year either then - which is a bonus. find out more and sign up for the Make Poverty History campaign here.
Happy New Year.

restoring lost wonder

mike starkey's book
Originally uploaded by Matt Rees.

getting our new kitten this week has really made me think about the lack of wonder in contemporary life. i have found myself getting a bit goo-ey over the little chap while i have just sat there and watched him play etc. it's been a new source of wonder for me and it's made me realise that i pay little attention to wonder in my life.
last year i read Mike Starkey's wonderful book - God, Sex and Generation X : the search for lost wonder - and i've been thinking about it again the last few days. As far as I remember, Starkey talks about mission in terms of restoring wonder to people. a kind of re-sacralizing of the world i guess (if he doesn't talk about that then someone somewhere should do!). i like that idea. at the end of the book he lists things that you can do to restore lost wonder (like take kids to the zoo etc.). I would definitely add 'get a kitten' to his list.

blogging is catching on

it seems that blogging is really beginning to catch on. there was a major piece in the Independent yesterday which you can read here. apparently the thing all of us bloggers now need to fear is comment spam on our blogs (which will ruin blogs in the same way it ruined usenet groups). what is up with spammers? what is it that gets them out of bed in the morning? i just don't understand the motivation of a spammer.
Anyway, here are some famous people's blogs (I make no apologies for linking to celebrities - how many of you bloggers out there link to Andrew Jones or Maggi Dawn!)

Jamie Oliver
Moby
Anita Roddick
Anna Kournikova
William Shatner
Alicia Keys
Gillian Anderson
Gene Simmons

Getting Catty

are you R2D2 in disguise?
Our kitten has arrived! we collected him yesterday. i realise i may be losing all my manly credentials here but he's so cute!!! and bundles of fun. we're calling him a 'he' but we're not absolutely sure that he is male at the moment but we'll find out next week when we register him/her at the vet. i'm sure you will all be pleased to know that he has succesfully used his litter tray a couple of times. he is playing a lot, being very adventurous, and making lots of R2D2 type noises. we will announce his name to the world when we are sure of his sex

Boxing Day

enjoying a quiet Christmas at my parent's home in North Wales. plenty of fine food etc. etc. amongst other presents my wife gave me, I was delighted to receive the final special-edition DVD of the Lord of the Rings trilogy - The Return of the King. Apparently, if you were to sit down and watch all three extended edition DVD's now you would need to set aside over 12 hours. and have a trained first-aider on standby i suggest.
anyway, not much to post but i did receive a very funny junk e mail today which i have cut and pasted below:
____________________
Become a legally ordained minister within 48 hours

As a minister, you will be authorized to perform the rites and ceremonies of the church!

Perform Weddings, Funerals, Perform Baptisms, Forgiveness of Sins
Visit Correctional Facilities

Want to start your own church?

Press here to find out how
____________________________


I don't think the link will work from here - I hope not anyhow! (oh - I just checked it and it does so go ahead and get legally ordained, start your own church - it's the new punk). Anyway, Happy Christmas friends!

free mp3 downloads

for those of you that have been stimulated by some of the thinking that the guys in emergent are doing at the moment (and for anyone in hOME who enjoyed the evening we had with Brian Maclaren a couple of weeks ago) there are MP3's of the sessions from Emergent's U.S. conference with Walter Brueggemann available here. Brueggemann is one of the most progressive thinkers and writers on the Old Testament. I've downloaded them but haven't listened to them yet - saving them for the long car journeys over Christmas. There are some panel discussions available for download too.

m y l o - my lord!!

mylo
one of the guys from hOME (thanks Nita) has given us the Mylo album - Destroy Rock and Roll - for Christmas...and I've been a naughty boy and opened it already. and am i glad i did! this is an extraordinary album made by a guy on his computer on the Isle of Skye. It's the catchiest slab of electronica i've heard for a long time : fat bass lines and beats, some great samples etc. - very, very impressive. The title track opens with a sample from an American preacher calling down the judgement fire of God upon a long list of musicians (including U2 and Band Aid - hilarious!). 'Scotland's answer to Royksopp' say The Face. For more acolades and a review go here. You need this album in your life!

Leadership : Positional or Functional

I thought we had slayed this beast but it seems there's still quite a lot of thinking on leadership around that sees it more positionally than functionally i.e. it's a position you hold rather than a function you carry out. Of course even those who see leadership positionally acknowledge that there is a certain functionality to leadership but would see it as flowing out of a place of position i.e. you do what you do out of the place you have been given.
I just can't buy into this. we must see leaders as those in the community of faith who have certain functions (which they do on behalf of the community) rather than people who have a certain status e.g. a priestly class.
I guess if there is a positional side to leadership it is one of being the last and the least - that's the position : servant of all.
As I'm writing this i'm wondering how it connects with a view of Ephesians 4 where it is the people themselves (i.e. apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers) who are the gifts to the church rather than what they do per se. But i don't think Paul is talking about different kinds of leaders there (read the text - he's writing to the whole church and he says "to each of us grace has been given....some to be apostles etc.) so perhaps that's the answer.
what we do certainly flows out of who we are but those of us who are leaders in the church must never see who we are in a positional sense of status.

Suzie starts blogging

My friend Suzie Lipscomb has started blogging! View her blog here.

time to switch your web browser?

firefox
I've recently switched to using Mozilla Firefox as my web browser instead of Internet Explorer and I'm already finding it much better. there's a great search bar where you can search in Google, eBay, Amazon, or Dictionary.com - and if you use bloglines to read blogs then you can add in an alert to notify you (by use of a little red dot) if there are any new blog posts in any of your feeds. It will also automatically update and transfer all of your favourites and bookmarks etc. from IE. So...down with Internet Explorer and up with the Fox. Get your free download here.

kitten

just woken up after a night on the tiles (more like a sticky floor) dancing to Lottie (see post below). got to bed at 3am so knackered now but it seems like Jim (who was also there) was up at 8.45am judging by his post. Thought she was good but not as good as last two times i have seen her. it seems that the current flavour of the month in the clubbing world is for a more electro sound, which is great for a while and then gets a bit too much.
anyway, in about an hour Pip and i are going to meet a kitten that someone is giving to us. i know - it's supposed to be a baby substitute...yada, yada, yada...but anyway, it'll be a lot of fun to have around i think. so the question for the day is : what should we call him?? My current favourite name is 'Dave' but Pip doesn't seem to be so keen. Any of you have a suggestion?

a story of the Northumbria Community

"A terrible fire ravaged the whole building, and when, afterwards, she went back to inspect the remains of her office all she could do was shake her head and be grateful that she had not been in the building at the time. certainly none of the files of papers had survived.
With one backward glance her eye fell on a tiny blackened vase still standing on the charred remains of her desk. she had a new office now in a different place and was able to move in there instead. well, little vase, she said, you and me have survived and you shall come with me into my new office.
it stood in the usual place on the corner of her new desk, but when people came in she noticed a difference in their reaction. Before they would say,
'Oh, what a beautiful vase.'
Now, since it had been through the fire, they said,
'Oh, what beautiful flowers.'"

where religious art and Little Britain meet!

oh dear!

The First Laydee of house!

Lottie
Tonight Lottie plays the Zodiac club here in Oxford. a posse of the hOMEies will be making an appearance. can't wait! this is the third time i will have seen her play and she has rocked the house every time, so tonight should be a stonker! 'AVE IT!

Jim starts blogging!

great to see Jim blogging. i'm not sure how he can comment on films though as I'm not sure he's ever made it through one without falling asleep! Anway, find his blog here.

Wedding Anniversary - quite eventful

me, the missus, and Colin Dexter

Just got back from our wedding anniversary trip all the way up the road to the Randolph Hotel. Those of (the many of) you that follow this blog will know that a little while ago - when Pip and I went to 'An Evening with Colin Dexter' - we won a night's B&B for two at Oxford's prestigious Randolph Hotel. So we arrived there yesterday lunchtime and found that they'd upgraded us to the Presidential Suite (we were expecting a bog standard double although there's not really any such things as 'bog standard' at the Randolph). This is where Bill Clinton stays when he comes to Oxford we were told by the concierge. It was HUGE! Two bathrooms, lounge, biggest bed you've ever seen etc. with a view out over the Martyr's Memorial etc.
We booked a table downstairs for an evening meal and I'd just ordered the wine when the manager of the hotel came over to us and said "we've got a little surprise for you" and then Colin Dexter appeared! Those of you that know Morse will know that Colin (we're on first name terms now!) is the author who wrote the original books. Those of you that don't know Morse may as well navigate away from this page now! As you know I am a massive Morse fan so we were absolutely dumbstruck as he pulled up a chair and sat with us for about half an hour talking away. We took the above photo in the Morse Bar in the hotel which the hotel named in honour of Oxford's most famous detective. As we said goodbye Colin gave us his address and told us to drop him a line to see if he could arrange for us to be extras in the forthcoming progs they're going to make based on Sergeant Lewis (or Inspector Lewis as he will be then).
So we had a great time topped off by a fantastic breakfast this morning.
A two and a half hour extended lunch with Pete Ward after that brought me back to earth with a bump!

the emerging church mono-culture

i'm loving the new adbusters mag (which I previously blogged about). i've been reading through the 'media and culture' section and there's a very interesting article by Nicholas Klassen about cultural homogenisation. Apparently, "in Africa, two thirds of film screens show American movies; CNN beams to the farthest regions of the planet; Disneyland outposts in Paris and Tokyo will be joined by one in Hong Kong by late 2005; American-english is becoming the global language".
Obviously this has loads to do with new technology creating a global village. whereas cultural diversity was previously protected by geography and distance, satellite technology, mass accesible air travel and the internet have given rise to a globalised culture.
Klassen's article made me think about how culturally homogenised the emerging church could become (or is becoming). I love what's happening all over the western world (cos it is primarily in the west) with the re-thinking of church - and i continued to be inspired by the stories I read. And i think perhaps a homogenised global culture will inevitably, and possibly rightly, give rise to a culturally homogenised response from the emerging church as it incarnates itself in the new culture. but should we not at least be asking the question as to how helpful it is for us to collude with this process? emerging churches look very similar in places thousands of miles apart. how do we keep a local flavour? is it important for us to do so?

lest we forget

It's my day off. i'm sitting on the sofa enjoying the benefits of wi-fi. Lemon Jelly are on the stereo. and i've got a bottle of Black Sheep Ale (a really fine real ale) on the go. there's a roast dinner in the oven consisting of organic chicken, locally grown roast vegetables, and herbs from the garden. a bottle of nice red wine is being left to breath. sometimes you've just got to stop for a moment, give thanks, and think of how good life can be.

mmmm nice

thoughts in progress I

have you ever wondered where we get this idea from that repentance means 'saying sorry to God for the things we have done wrong'? try as i might i can't seem to find this idea in my Bible. if i'm missing something really obvious will someone please let me know!

let adbusters feed your imagination for creative resistance

thanks to a tip off from Jonny I picked up the new edition of adbusters mag yesterday (I also bought my copy of the Band Aid single so I ended the day feeling very 'right on'!). some of you will remember that i blogged about taking part in a Buy Nothing Day Demo a couple of Saturday's ago. adbusters are behind that whole anti-consumerist protest movement. Anyway, the mag looks fantastic and is full of great material to fund counter-cultural resistance. it's organised into different sections - media, the environment, commerce etc. i highly recommend you getting yourself a copy - it's available in Borders.

adbusters mag

doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God

one of the ideas that's been going round my head a bit after last week is this idea of the difference between justice and mercy. Maclaren illustrates it this way:
if you're standing at the side of a river and you see someone drowning and you help them and pull them out of the river, that's mercy. Perhaps, as you're standing there you see more people - lots perhaps - also in danger of drowning. so you help them too. at some point though, someone needs to go upstream and find out why all of these people are ending up in the river and hopefully stopping it happening. that's justice. we need both and the church needs to be involved in both. some people in the church will be better at one and some better at the other. we need people who have a vision for feeding the hungry, and people who have a vision for dealing with the causes of their hunger (trade justice etc.).
but we must take this more seriously. i think it's all about how we understand the gospel - but i'll say some more about that at another time.

tate

while i was in London I finally managed to fit in a visit to the Tate Modern. it's HUGE! there was some interesting stuff going on but for me the whole experience was the thing. it's like the Tate building is a Tate experience which is itself the artwork. don't know what that means exactly but it sounds good.

tate

a sane voice in a crazy world

been without blog access for the best part of last week, so I'm gonna blog about it all in a moment but before I do i just wanted to let you know about the latest video by Sarah Maclachlan. we're probably all familiar with how pop videos these days cost millions. instead of doing that Maclachlan has made a vid for $15 and decided to do some really worthwhile things with the money that would have been spent instead. the video she has produced catalogues what she's done with the money. It makes you wonder whether it is absolutely obscene for this amount of money to be spent when we live in a world where there are however-many-gazillion people living on next to nothing. But then are we saying that art is a luxury only to be enjoyed when all the world's hunger problems are sorted out? Ben Bell - a real art nut - questions whether the national gallery should be shut down until everyone in the world is fed. That is the question. I saw a bit of TV yesterday that was talking about the life of Britney Spears (it's Ok - my wife was in the room!). apparently she spends $6000 a day on hairdressers etc. etc. this is just plain immoral. obviously Britney's hair is not art but you know what i mean. anyway, the Sarah Maclachlan video can be seen here.

Sarah Maclachlan

more craziness

my time away didn't start particularly well as Jon and I went to see Spurs v Liverpool in the Carling Cup on Wednesday night. it was a dreadful game which saw the Spurs first team eventually (after extra time and penalties) go out to the Liverpool youth team. embarassing! the best part of the evening was the banter of the season ticket holders around us. At one point, when one of them said that we are apparently going to buy Neil Lennon from Celtic, one of the other said that we'd be better off with John Lennon - in fact why don't we buy all the Beatles, they'd be better than the muppets on the pitch. After this performance he's got a point. Went to stay with Paddy after the match - so as to be in London for the conference that started the next morning. good to see him albeit briefly.

atouba

Emergent Conference

spent Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the Emergent conference (co-hosted by Steve Chalke's Oasis) in London. It was billed as a three day 'conversation' but most of the conversation took place at the front. It was great that they tried to make space for dialogue but it kinda felt like we were observing other people's dialogue rather than taking part in it ourselves (I'm speaking on behalf of the rank and file 'punters' here). There were a couple of slots for regionally based groups to come together to talk but these felt kind of token. somehow i've got to balance that critique with a recognition that i didn't want to spend 3 days listening to people i've never heard of from places like Swindon talk in a group context. i really went to listen to Brian Maclaren (whose books are really helping me to articulate stuff i've been feeling for a while - i say 'helping', it's bloody uncomfortable!). there was some great content from Brian, Steve Chalke (sadly still at the centre of the storm), and Doug Pagitt (whose seminar was one of the highlights of the 3 days - you really should get his book). I guess the overarching theme for the 3 days was getting away from a gospel that is focused on the individual to one that is focused instead on the world - discovering the mission of God in the world and then, as church, learning how to participate in that rather than telling people it's all about them! you know, as Brian says, we have a personal computer, a personal phone, a personal hi-fi, and now we have a personal saviour and a personal route to heaven when we die! we are in danger of re-translating John 3:16-17 into - 'For God so hated the world, that he sent his only son, to save the church, so that the church may be saved and have eternal life. God did in fact send his Son to condemn the world but the church is ok cos it's not in the world anymore'!!!
Steve added into this some good stuff on the Myth of Redemptive Violence but nothing that Walter Wink hasn't been saying for years. people do need to hear that stuff though.
a guy called 'Fuzz' who was on one of the panels on the final afternoon left us with a tantalising thought : what if, after 9/11, Bush had stood up and said, "I'm a Christian, and because I'm a christian we're not going to seek revenge for this terrible atrocity that has been committed. instead we are going to forgive those who have done this, and we're going to pray for them". Can you imagine how different the world in which we live would be if he had said this!!!
So overall, a good few days. nice to connect with people like Jonny who introduced me to a guy called Hadge. I think, though, we need some new models for how to do conferences that preserves the input from those in the know but gets beyond this expert/audience speaker/listener dichotomy. sorry about the long post - well done those of you who have made it this far!

brian and steve

daily prayer resource added

just added a link to the re-Jesus daily prayer site (it's on my links sidebar under 'ancient-future daily prayer'). it's really one of the best daily prayer sites i've come across. it has scripture, meditation, and creative prayer ideas and is updated daily. have a look!

in the marketplace of ideas...

b.n.d. nov 04

On Saturday I took part in a demo for 'Buy Nothing Day' (see previous post). Just handing out literature about ethical consumerism/fair trade, giving out free cups of tea etc.

I did it for two reasons : i'm looking for contexts where i can build relationships with people outside of church; and i believe in this issue...i happen to think that people of Christian faith have something important to say about these things. I think the first factor without the second factor lacks integrity i.e. i'm only here to try to convert you. So it's important that I can put my hand on my heart and say that this stuff really matters to me.

We've been talking in hOME about how we do mission and one of the phrases that's been used is 'mission in community around activity' i.e. we build relationships with each other and with people outside of church around doing something together. This, I think, is quite similar to some stuff that Pete Ward talked about in Liquid Church, and also the notion of communitas put forward by Hirsch and Frost (may their names live forever!). (communitas being about uniting around a common quest a la 'the fellowship of the ring' sort of thing). So we look for contexts in our locality where we can, with integrity, engage in relationship-building around a common activity like sport, or community action groups (like culture-jammers/buy nothing day etc.)

What was quite funny/intriguing was the amount of groups who were all hitting the streets to promote their 'thing'. So we had church carol singing groups, the Jesus Army, some sort of Parade, Christian Aid etc. I did have a moment of schizophrenia when the Jesus Army band stopped right next to us and decided that would make a good place to sing their songs about the 'blood of the lamb' etc. I was asked by one person whether i was part of the Jesus group and I (quite thankfully) said 'no' and sent them off to a man in a brightly coloured denim jacket and fluroscent cross. I'm just not at all convinced by this idea that singing songs on the street achieves anything at all - judging by the reactions of some of the people walking past the Jesus Army it just got their backs up.

the big chill

the legendary 'big chill' festival happens each year at the beginning of August in the grounds of Eastnor Castle in Herefordshire. Sadly, I have never been. I've wanted to go for the last couple of years but it's always clashed with the New Wine conference. Next year Pip and I will probably opt for the Big Chill and we're hoping that a posse from hOME are going to come too. It is supposed to be far and away the nicest summer festival. The Big Chill are pioneer advocates of everything chill-out - so who's up for a blissed out long weekend then? for more info go here.


the big chill 2004

Phoenix Night II

another great night last night at the Phoenix last night. did a review of the 4 spiritual disciplines that make up the 'inward disciplines' - meditation, prayer, fasting, and study.
when it came to prayer there was some interesting discussion (and it would have been great to have had more but time did not allow) about the classic traditional "if it be your will" prayer tag-line. I was suggesting that actually you don't find that line being used that often in prayers in the bible - with obvious exceptions like Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. the feeling from Rich was that was a different order of "if it be your will" prayer. in fact the word "if" doesn't actually appear in that prayer. What Jesus actually says is "nevertheless not my will but yours be done". When we use that phrase it's often because we don't know what the will of God is but that's not the sense that you get when Jesus prays - it's more of a struggle to submit himself to the will of God that he already knows. so when jesus says that phrase it's about him laying down his agenda not questioning what the will of God might be.
most of the rest of the time in the scriptures people don't use that phrase in the same way that we often do (and certainly how i was taught to pray). I think that's because there is a such a sense of being in synch with God we already have a sense of what his will is and therefore we're free to pray with a greater sense of confidence and authority. so there's a challenge there to keep 'in step with the spirit' and then pray from that place. I know that could sound like presumption - and there's always the chance that we can get it wrong - and what I'm saying is not meant to suggest an arrogance or over inflated self-confidence when it comes to prayer (thanks for your comment last night on this point, Justice) but i still think we can pray more confidently and more humbly at the same time.
anyway, i am beginning to really love our nights in the Phoenix bar.

Buy Nothing Day

In our struggle against consumerism we need more initiatives like 'adbusters' and 'buy nothing day'. The British buy-nothing-day is coming up on November 27th (this coming Saturday). here's a quote from the site:
"The challenge is to try simple living for a day, spend time with family and friends, rather than spend money on them. People make a pact with themselves to take a break from shopping as a personal experiment or public statement and the best thing is - IT'S FREE!!!"
It's not going to cure us of our consumerist impulses overnight - but it's a start. Give it a go!


'buy nothing day' promo pic

i've seen it all now

this is classic! a ten year old piece of toast has fetched $28 000 in an ebay auction because the face of the virgin Mary is apparently visible on it. now where did I put that potato that resembles Nicky Gumbel? read the article here.

virgin mary toast

busy blogging day....nothing to do with mental block on talk (see previous post) honest!

just read an interesting article in the Times online edition. It's good to see that in most people's opinion the church comes just behind the local shop and just in front of the local post office in contributing to a sense of local community! well done the church! Ben Bell asks what would happen if everyone who helped out on an Alpha course went and worked in a local pub on that night instead. interesting question. below are the results of the survey. you can read the whole article here.

SPIRIT OF THE AGE
Which one place within a “community” contributes most to social interaction and develops interpersonal skills?
Local pub 58%
Church 14%
Post office 11%
Shop 16%

Which of the following social activities do you do more frequently?
Go to the local pub with friends 43%
Play sport 11%
Go to the cinema 26%
Play bingo 3%
Hold dinner parties 15%

Why do you go to your local pub?
To get drunk 6%
To socialise and meet friends 62%
To get out of the house 2%
I don’t go to pubs 23%
Other 3%

Blessed are the Cheesemakers (where would we be without the Life of Brian)

doing a talk on Weds morning this week on the verse 'Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of God'. really struggling to come up with something worth saying without getting deep into the pacifist/just war debate. i think i may have to plunge headlong into it. if anyone has any (interesting or otherwise) perspectives on the verse I'd be overjoyed to hear from you!
I do think that, when it comes to the Beatitudes, Jesus is primarily referring to the disciples and those who would follow in their footsteps. Otherwise we have Jesus saying that the poor are blessed just for being poor which just doesn't sound right to me. Interestingly in the parallel passage in Luke it says that Jesus turned to his disciples and 'Blessed are you who are poor' etc. So perhaps the Beatitudes are there to describe the character of the disciples : poor, mournful, meek, hungry and thirsty for righteousness, merciful, pure in heart, peacemaking, persecuted. When we are like this we will know the blessing of God upon our lives.
It's hardly a 25 minute talk though! I'm gonna need more than that!

mum's birthday

today is my mum's birthday. gawd bless 'er.

mum

study

reading Richard Foster's book : Celebration of Discipline : has made me think about a number of things. One of them is the discipline of studying. I have decided that - as part of my Rule of Life - I am going to set aside some time regularly to study. I have also decided that this should not be study for a talk I have to do or anything like that but study for the sake of study, or rather, study for the sake of spiritual formation. I am going to make a list of things I would like to know more about and then just study them to enlarge my understanding. I happen to live in one of the best cities in the world for studying, with one of the best libraries in the world. There's a picture of a bit of it below. It's called the Bodleian library and I have a Reader's Card. I would be a fool not to use it.

a bit of the bod

amazon wish list

at the bottom of the sidebar I've now added my Amazon.co.uk 'wish list' so all you lovely people who want to buy me a Christmas present now have no excuse!

woops!

band aid 20

well I got it wrong about the new Band Aid vid. it certainly wasn't being similtaneously shown on all 5 major channels at 6.05pm last night. you can't trust anyone these days. i did see it for the first time later on on BBC3 and again this morning. I think I'm gonna have to disagree with Rich - I think it's quite a good re-recording. I like most of it apart from the Jamelia/Will Young bit. the Radiohead/Thom Yorke dimension really adds something and I thought Bono acquitted himself quite well. Anyway you can download it here.

huddle

in our huddles this month we are studying the first part of Richard Foster's classic book - Celebration of Discipline. The book is divided into 3 parts : The Inward Disciplines, The Outward Disciplines, and The Corporate Disciplines. We're looking at part 1 this month. Tonight me and the boys had a really good discussion about the discipline of fasting.
I think, for me, the danger is to make the disciplines an end in themselves. but actually they are just simply a means to an end. There's lots of good things in our culture, but i don't want to be a man who is squeezed into the world's mould (in the negative sense). I think the disciplines are there to provide a context - to put us in a place - where God can mould us and shape us instead. That's the goal.

A Manifesto for Corporate Worship

A couple of weeks ago we had a night at hOME where we reviewed the vision behind what we are about. one of the things i presented was a 'Manifesto for Corporate Worship'. Now before you all get on your high horse I know that worship is about the whole of our lives etc. but this is a set of values that relate specifically to our times of gathering together, as a community of faith, to express corporately our worship of our God. below are the 11 points that i think inform what we are doing in this aspect of our life together. some of these things are already coming through strongly and some are more aspirational at this point. anyway, see what you think.
_______________________________

A Manifesto for Corporate Worship

God centred : Our worship is not primarily for us. It is for God. We will not indulge ourselves in worship but seek to honour and reverence God before everything else.

Passionate : We want to not be ashamed of an enthusiastic response to God in worship. We will not judge each other for displaying an exuberance before God in worship. We will not judge each other for NOT displaying an (outward) exuberance before God in worship. We aspire to not care what others think of us but to be abandoned to God. We want our worship to be intimate but acknowledge that it is sometimes hard to be intimate with God in front of others. We recognise that passion can be expressed in many different ways.

Honest : We are not into putting on a show in public that does not really reflect who we are or where we are at. We will attempt to find the balance between being honest about our situation as we come before God in worship on the one hand, and CHOOSING to worship God despite our circumstances on the other hand.

Experiential : we do not seek to be ‘seeker sensitive’ but to allow our worship to offer the opportunity to experience the presence of God

Creative : We want our worship to be creative because this is a reflection of our being made in the image of the creator God. We want to distance ourselves from worship that is routine, formulaic, and unimaginative whilst at the same time seeking to avoid doing new things for the sake of doing new things. We aspire to be a community that welcomes artists of all kinds just for who they are and also as those who can help us to honour and delight God by the creation of beautiful, imaginative acts of corporate worship.

Rhythmic : Whilst honouring and highly valuing creativity and originality in our worship we acknowledge the value in a sense of rhythm in our worship which will incorporate the various liturgical seasons of the church year, and a daily rhythm of prayer.

Holistic: we want to bring our whole beings before God in worship so we want to see worship happening that connects us on a mental, spiritual, physical, and emotional level to God. We want to see all of our senses engaged in the worship of God.

Home grown: (linked to creativity) we want the worship of this community to arise first and foremost from this community. That means that we will not import or buy in pre-packaged worship from elsewhere but look to develop our own worship materials because we want our worship to be an offering to God that represents who we are. At the same time we want to acknowledge that we are also part of a wider church both historically and contemporarily, so we will express this by our use of historic material (e.g. creeds) and material from other parts of the church because we do not exist in isolation from the rest of God’s people.

Communal : we seek to recognise that God is far more interested in a people than in a bunch of individuals engaging in a privatised spirituality. Therefore we aspire to worship God in community. That will mean joining together in liturgy, song, meditation, study of scripture etc.and collaborating to create worship material. It will also mean being sensitive to each others needs in the communal setting.

Spacious : In our corporate acts of worship we want to create space for people to encounter God in many and various ways. We recognise that people need a variety of different kinds of space in order to connect with God : physical space, musical space etc. the worship we create will recognise the importance of space.

Open : we want our acts of corporate worship to be accessible to those who are not-yet Christian and for our worship gatherings to be spaces where people can encounter God
__________________________________________________________________

Buy a piece of the moon - an acre to be precise - Buy 1 get 1 free

Buy a piece of the moon - an acre to be precise - Buy 1 get 1 free
lastminute.com are now offering the opportunity to buy a piece of the moon. with only 40 or so shopping days till Christmas the offer has come at just the right time. i'm particularly pleased to see that for a limited time only you can get 2 acres for the price of 1!! follow the link above. we like to own things, us humans.

links

i've finally got around to adding some links to my sidebar (scroll down) and will continue to add more as time goes by.

The Da Vinci Codswallop

Mirror.co.uk - THE DA VINCI CODSWALLOP
I for one really enjoyed this book - in fact I couldn't out it down and read it in a few days. i realised at the time that it was complete codswallop - enjoyable codswallop though (by the way, what is the eytomology fo the word 'codswallop'?) - but i thought it was interesting to read this article about it in The Mirror today (have i given myself away?!). It's not often you find a newspaper commenting on how Jesus was divine after all with proof texts to boot! Hilarious!

Band Aid II

apparently the song's crap (Rich Body) but we should buy it anyway (Rich Johnson). I haven't heard it yet so can't comment. I do know that they are broadcasting the new video on Thursday evening this week (6.05pm) similtaneously on all 5 major channels (is Channel 5 a major channel?)

the weekend - part II

Jim

Jim - who has to be one of the most generous guys I've ever met - threw a party for about 25 of his friends on Saturday night. I am lucky enough to be one of them. Some top tucker, top chat and one of the finest firework displays the world has ever seen made it a top evening. Thanks mate!

the weekend - part I

Martin Jol - Spurs Head coach - the face says it all

The North London derby on Saturday lunchtime - featuring my beloved Spurs against our arch-enemies Arsenal - proved to be something of a classic. we lost 4-5. it was an extraordinary game of football. we opted for the 'one step forward, two steps back approach' as we kept scoring and then giving away a goal at the other end. It certainly kept me and Marchy on the edge of our seats in the Radcliffe Arms, Jericho. Still I'd rather see us lose like that than lose 1-0. there i go again trying to look on the bright side!

am I charismatic?

am i really charismatic? in all honesty...how many genuine healings have i seen in the last five years beyond the "my back was aching a bit but it seems a bit better now" variety? How many genuine prophetic words have i heard, beyond the "i feel the Lord is saying the word 'truth'" variety? i'm not blaming everyone else - how many people have I healed? (and before you start telling me that it's not me that does the healing it's God go and read the account of Jesus sending out the 72 - he told them to heal the sick (it should go without saying that it's by the power of God)). How many prophetic words have I given that have had any weight? well, ok, a few but not that many.
where is the expectation that the kingdom of God really can break in and change things dramatically? perhaps we spend a lot of time maintaining the illusion of expectation but really we aren't that expectant. sure it happens in Africa and China - pretty much anywhere really apart from the unbelieving UK.
if being charismatic means believing and seeing on a regualr basis the supernatural in operation then I'm probably not one. but i do speak in tongues so i guess that gets me in the club.
i know this probably sounds very cynical but i think it comes from a place of frustration with church and a desire to see our walk match our talk.
and another thing...Simon preached a really good sermon this morning on 1 Corinthians 12 and the gifts of the Spirit. but i wonder whether we need to understand that in the context of worship i.e. when the church gathers together for worship the Spirit manifests his/her presence by giving gifts to the different believers so that the body may be built up as it is gathered. In other words the gathered part of that concept is key. i.e. it's not about us personally and individualistically being given gifts of prophecy or whatever to take away with us - you cannot remove the gifts from the context of the body gathering for worship. that's where the gifts make sense. it's not about praying that an individual will receive the gift of prophecy as everyone is heading to the back for a cup of coffee. it's about the church gathering and the Spirit being invited to come and the expectation that when and as he does so he will manifest his presence in certain ways as we are worshipping together.
that's what i think Paul is getting at in 1 Corinthians 12.

hOME had the first of its (our) monthly worship nights last night. we have begun exploring a new pattern of meeting through a 4 week month. week 1 we meet in huddles, week 2 we have a central meeting with a worship focus, week 3 we meet in huddles again, and week4 we have a central meeting in the bar of the Phoenix cinema (that i have previously blogged about) with a discussion/learning focus. i guess if there's a five week month we'll have a party.
we are trying this pattern because we slightly felt like we were cramming a lot into our usual twice monthly hOME-central meetings and we wanted to take more time over what we were doing without feeling like we were in a rush. Not that the worship-focus was devoid of teaching or the learning-focus devoid of worship. We had a 10/15 min spoken worship (liturgy etc.) beginning last time we met in the Phoenix. And last night Pippa did a 10 minute homily, and Kate did a meditation based on Mary and Martha. We also had some great prayer stations provided by Jules, Naomi, and Justice. Jon, Tom and Lois led us in some sung worship. Jim supplied his usual talents on the visuals (some great VJing last night). I led communion (we were slightly caught out by the number of people there so we ended up with a bit of a long queue for bread and wine!). Nita and others were welcoming people with a friendly word and a drink. Rich was running the PC that displayed the words for the songs and liturgy. and Oli played the bongos. quite a team effort! It was great to see everyone combining like that to create a great evening of worship in lots of diverse ways. there was a real sense of space and unhurriedness..an opportunity to take time to focus in upon God and encounter him in different ways.

music plasma

music plasma is a great site where you can enter the name of an artist or band you like and watch while it creates a kind of musical family tree, plotting your artist in relation to other artists of a similar ilk. particularly good when you know you need some new music in your life and you want to explore some unfamiliar artists.

unspiritual Christianity

it is almost a cliche today to talk about the re-spiritualising of our culture. we are continually told how people today are more open to the spiritual side of life than they have been for a long time. one of the most interesting things for me - a deeply sad observation - is that the church is seen as being unspiritual. if someone is spiritually curious the last place they will think to look to explore the spiritual side of life is church. it's not a very spiritual place.
Carol Midgley of the Times illustrates this point in a recent article (which you can read here).
I found it really interesting that she contrasts 'religion' with what she calls 'holistic activity'. to me it highlights how badly wrong the church has got it for such a long time. isn't christian faith supposed to be a 'holistic activity'!!
we need to recover a holistic Christian faith that impacts our bodies, minds, souls, spirits etc. etc.
that's why I'm glad that at our home-central worship service this coming Thursday night one of the prayer-stations will be exploring 'body-prayer' i.e. using our bodies to pray. this will be uncharted territory for some of us but we must be willing to re-spiritualise church if we are going to connect with the world around us.

hi priest

a little while ago the Church of England in their wisdom decided to make me a priest. i just got given a photo of the occasion - here we are out the front of St Mary's church in Bloxham, near Banbury, where the service took place, with Charlie (my boss) and the missus (on my left) and some of the guys from hOME - (you can click on it to see it larger should you so wish).


they'll let anyone in these days

seeking the kingdom...building the church

time for some extrovert processing. a thought has been buzzing round my head for the last few months and it is to do with what we are called to do. in my job/vocation - serving the missional community of faith which is 'hOME' - i spend a lot of time doing churchy type stuff.
but as i read the New Testament it would seem that we are called to seek the Kingdom more than we are called to build the church. the latter task God (in Christ) reserves for himself ("I will build my church"). Now obviously one of the ways God builds his church is through human beings. and i don't think I'm saying that we should therefore pay no attention to church. but what is the relationship between 'seeking the kingdom' and 'building the church'.
Perhaps I've overstated the case. Paul does say in 1 Corinthians 3 that he is an 'expert builder' (it would seem he never had a crisis of confidence!) who laid a foundation which someone else is now building upon.
but it's something to do with focus I think. am i more focused on running a church or on looking for signs of the kingdom.
hmmmm..unfinished thoughts.

more on Bush

I've been wondering about the Christian vote in the U.S. election. my guess is that most of the evangelical Christian vote went to Bush and that's probably because of his stance on pro-life and homosexuality. these are seen to be big Christian issues. but isn't the fact that he refused to ratify the Kyoto treaty on Climate change a big Christian issue? isn't his aggressive foreign policy a big Christian issue?
it's not that issues of human sexuality or abortion are un-important but i do wish we Christians could think more widely about what is and what isn't a Christian issue.
i guess as long as he's pro-life nothing else really matters.

you go away for 24 hours, come back and find that the world's gone mad

exactly!

Chris and Annie at New Wine meeting

busy week

it's been a busy week in my world. had a st aldates staff away day on Weds in a place called Clanfield. We hada guy come in and do some Myers Briggs stuff. I am an ENTJ apparently although the J/P thing was quite borderline. spent the whole time trying not to think about that classic episode of The Office when they get the trainer in and Brent ends up going home to get his guitar!

The last 24 hours I have been in Reading at the home of Chris Russell for an extended overnight meeting about New Wine. I am privileged to be a part of the team that co-ordinates the 'emerging church' side of New Wine. We have been talking amongst ourselves and with John Coles who came for the first (pre-curry) part of our meeting about changes that will be made next year. can't say any more than that right now but watch this space.

Emergent Conference

Just booked into the UK Emergent Conference in December in London. If you're interested you can book in here. I'm currently reading Brian Maclaren's book : 'A Generous Orthodoxy' (I guess I'll blog about it when I've finished it) so it'll be good to go and hear him. He came and did a younger leaders day here in Oxford last September and was very good value then.


Brian Maclaren

bonfire night

on Saturday night me, Pip and some of the home-eys went to the annual round-table bonfire and firework display in South Park, Oxford (not named after Cartman and Kenny I assure you). Those of us that had previously lived in Edinburgh - myself, Justice, and Rich - were being a little bit superior about the fireworks ("you haven't seen fireworks till you see the display at the end of the festival" - that sort of thing). but they were really good and everyone made the appropriate 'ooh' and 'ahh' noises at the appropriate points.
I was asking why we had our night this weekend instead of next weekend. Apparently the queen has her own firework dude - 'keeper of the royal fireworks' or something. and he's a clergyman that lives in Oxford. He does the Oxford firework display the week before Bonfire Night so that he can go and do the Queen's on the day itself. So there you go.


bonfire night in South Park