Guy Kawasaki on 'creating community'

Jason Clark recently turned me on to this fella - Guy Kawasaki - who used to work for Apple but now, I'm not exactly sure what he does....write books by the looks of things. His blog is fascinating. He's coming from a kind of corporate management angle - which I know is a huge turn off for those of us walking away from a CEO style of church leadership - but I think he's got some real wisdom that is definitely apply-able to church. His latest post is called 'The Art of Creating Community'. He makes 8 suggestions:
1. Create something worth building a community around
2. Identify and recruit your thunderlizards—immediately! (evangelists for your 'product')
3. Assign one person the task of building a community (questionable in our case but he's talking about someone who wakes up in the morning with the building of the community at the top of her/his priorities for the day)
4. Give people something concrete to chew on. (i.e. make the community 'open source' so that people can re-code it for themselves)
5. Create an open system (giving people tools to tweak what's going on)
6. Welcome criticism
7. Foster discourse
8. Publicize the existence of the community
If you can see past the corporate overtones and look for the undertones (great name for a band) then there's something worth taking from this I think. Read the full piece here.

football (non sports fans look away now)

for the first time in I don't know how long, Spurs are in with a shout of a decent league placing and possibly european football next season as a result. The teams seriously vying with us for 4th place are Arsenal and Bolton (I am discounting West Ham because I honestly don't believe they can keep their run going). I have been looking at the remaining games and trying to predict the points haul for Spurs, Arsenal and Bolton from their remaining games to see how things will end up. Here are my predictions:

Arsenal
v Blackburn (a) 1
v Fulham (a) 1
v Liverpool (h) 1
v Charlton (h) 3
v Portsmouth (a) 3
v Aston Villa (h) 3
v Man Utd (a) 0
v West Brom (h) 3
v Man City (a) 3
v Spurs (h) 1
v Sunderland (a) 3
v Wigan (h) 3
= 25 more points
= total of 66 points (4th place)

Spurs

v Wigan (h) 3
v Blackburn (h) 3
v Chelsea (a) 0
v Birmingham (a) 3
v West Brom (h) 3
v Newcastle (a) 0
v Man City (h) 3
v Everton (a) 0
v Man Utd (h) 1
v Aresenal (a) 1
v Bolton (h) 1
v West Ham (a) 1
= 19 more points
= total of 64 points (5th place)

Bolton
v Fulham (h) 3
v Newcastle (a) 1
v West Ham (h) 3
v Sunderland (h) 3
v Middlesborough (a) 1
v Man Utd (h) 1
v Liverpool (a) 0
v Chelsea (h) 0
v West Brom (a) 1
v Charlton (h) 3
v Spurs (a) 0
v Birmingham (h) 3
= 19 more points
= total of 58 points (6th place)

so it looks like Arsenal could pip us to 4th place and the final Champions League spot. If that happens I will be gutted and be looking back to the final minutes of the game at home to West Ham when we conceded an equaliser (thereby losing 2 points) in the final minute, as we also did against Sunderland last Sunday. Those goals and therefore those points, I predict, will be the difference between us playing in the Champions League and the Uefa Cup next season.
It's all an improvement on last year but it'll be a shame to miss out on the CL by a couple of points.
Any other football fans like to disagree with my prognosis?

generalising

I am really enjoying this book - it's a very helpful survey of what's going on and the common themes that emerge from what's going on. i've already found it useful in clarifying my thinking, particularly when there's stuff you know intuitively but you haven't quite put it into words yet. There have been plenty of those moments.
But one aspect of the book disappoints and frustrates me and that is that it seems to continually generalise and perhaps doesn't recognise the diversity of approaches that are going on. Continually we are told that "emerging churches do this" or "emerging churches do that" or "such and such is important to emerging churches". I know for a fact that there is more diversity that this in the emerging church community.
They are doing a great job at picking out important themes, and Andrew Jones is probably right that this is the best book yet on the 'emerging church' but they just need to be more careful about some of their language I feel. Does this resonate with anyone else who has read the book?

Maclaren resonds (or perhaps 'Maclaren gives lesson in how to engage in a conversation')

Thankfully, after Mark Driscoll's awful, unkind post (see my blog entry below), Brian Maclaren has now responded here: an example if ever we needed one (and it would seem that we do) of how to engage in conversation/debate in an irenic, humble, and kind way. Remember people, it's not just about being right.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

some of you will know that the small christian community that I am a part of here in Oxford - 'home' (www.home-online.org) - are in negotiations to buy the lease on a small, independent cinema in Oxford.

We plan to refurbish it and continue to run it as a cinema but then use it for church on Sunday nights - that way it will function as a home for our community and also both a missional and cultural interface. A missional interface in the sense that we expect around 18,000 attendees at films throughout the year who will hear about the church, and missional also in that we will use the cinema as a base for serving and blessing the local community. A cultural interface as our church becomes a patron of the arts (we would hope to show the work of local film-makers etc.) as well as making a contribution to the conversations that are engendered by films in our culture (especially given the important role that cinema has in reflecting and contructing narratives).

We are busy putting together business plans for funding applications, loans and grants but it is clear that although once set up the project will be self financing, the initial purchase of the lease and assets is going to require a fairly significant capital investment.

So we are looking for funders - people who believe in the project as outlined above (and I will happily talk further about it), who can see with the eyes of faith the potential, and who are able and willing to invest financially in the mission and ministry of our community. If that describes you, then please get in touch with me at matt@home-online.org

how not to engage in conversation

Mark Driscoll is the pastor of Mars Hill Church (a Very Important church apparently). In this article he clearly demonstrates how NOT to go about having a helpful conversation on an important subject. Thanks Mark! You can find my comments about half way down.

that bloke's a nutter

I always think it's odd when people walk down the street smiling to themselves but today I became one of them. But it's very difficult not to do so when you're listening to the Ricky Gervais podcast (also available through iTunes). I walked through the city centre trying very hard not to laugh out loud and look like a complete nutter.

The Church Has Left the Building

Really looking forward to heading out to Vancouver and Seattle in April. We plan to spend some time in Vancouver and Vancouver Island and then head down to Seattle where we will be at the Church of the Apostles New Monasticism Learning Party (and it will be great to hang out with Karen and the other Apostles) and then I'll be taking part in Tom and Christine Sine's Mustard Seed Associates 'The Church Has Left the Building' 2 day conference. I am planning on doing a workshop/seminar on the subject 'Slow Church' drawing from the philosophy behind the whole 'Slow' movement (slow food etc.). Should be fun.

apple logo

has anyone else ever wondered whether there was any intentional link between the apple logo and the Genesis account of Adam and Eve eating from the tree of the knowledge fo good and evil? or do i need to get out more?

Spinal Tap

I am delighted to discover that my Spinal Tap DVD contains a commentary done by Spinal Tap IN CHARACTER. I've had the disc for ages without knowing it contained it. It is truly hilarious.

meChurch

where it's all about you. see here.

a weekend of films and film stars

had a pretty film-heavy weekend. started to feel a bit like a Jake Gylenhaal stalker as I saw him in Brokeback Mountain on Friday night (with Pippa and Suzie) and Jarhead last night (with Rich). Enjoyed both films. I think Brokeback Mountain is a landmark film as we're used to seeing gay characters in films but they are usually quite camp. This is the first film that I can remember seeing (though there must be others?) where the gay characters aren't.
The problem is that it's far too easy to pigeon-hole the camp variety. Brokeback Mountain doesn't allow you to do that, which makes it a far more intriguing film. And very sad.
Really enjoyed Jarhead too (for those not in the know, it's Sam Mendes' (American Beauty, beau of Kate Winslet) new film). Set against the backdrop of the first Gulf War it raises some interesting questions about the futility of war. It definitely seemed that some in the cinema failed to pick up on such subtleties. You've got to worry when the young guys in the seats behind you know the names of the guns!
The day was topped off with a fine curry with Rich and Chris, although we were Grouchy Old Men as we had to sit near to a long table of very loud teenage girls. Then as they left we noticed that one of them was Hermione from Harry Potter. Which didn't make them less annoying.

Lewis

those who know me well know I am a huge Inspector Morse fan (one of those little idiosyncracies that either make me interesting or, more likely, a bit of a loser!). Anyway, the much-anticipated spin-off based on Morse's old side-kick, Lewis, will soon be on the telly. There's an interview with kevin Whately, the actor who plays Lewis, here. The show is on Sunday 29th January.

the most perfect song

my friend Rich thinks the most perfect song ever is 'Fake Plastic Trees' by Radiohead. It's a fine song but I think the accolade should probably go to 'Lover You Should've Come Over' by Jeff Buckley. Perhaps we are both wrong. what do you think?

the cult of mac

ok - i obviously can't afford the just announced MacBook Pro but I set aside some money given to me at Christmas to wait and see what Steve Jobs announced today in San Francisco so I've just ordered the new adapter for the iPod (which charges it and hooks it up to your hi-fi) + the tiny remote control that goes with it. sweet. if you too feel so inclined, go here, although judging by the slowness of the apple site at the moment there are a lot of people doing so.

Stop Press : new Mac laptop...

just announced by Jobs - the Macbook Pro...with intel chips, remote control, built in iSight camera. fastest laptop ever. Lordy.

Top Win

Sometimes you just can't beat going down the pub, having a couple of pints with a good mate (good to see you Jim) and watching your team win away from home. well done everyone involved in a thoroughly enjoyable evening!

It's good to walk

The hOME New Year's Day Walk has turned into something of a tradition - i.e. we've now done it 3 times. Had a fine time the other day at near Dorchester where we walked up Wittenham Clumps (the theme song for the day seemed to be "my clumps, my clumps, my lovely Wittenham clumps"! - those of you that have been lucky enough to not hear the latest Black Eyed Peas single will have no idea what I'm talking about). The New Year's Day Walk has become a familiar orientation point for me in my mental world. It's a time to think back to the last one and all that has happened in between and also to think about who was there last year and has since moved on - to call them to mind so that they still live on in the memory of our community.

Paris

we had a great few days in Paris courtesy of Suzie whose Godfather has a flat there (thanks Suze). Saw the usual sights - Eiffel Tower (wonderfully lit up), Musee D'orsay (fantastic collection of Russian art), Les Deux Magots cafe in Saint Germain district (haunt of Hemingway, Satre and de Beauvoir), the outside of the Louvre, Sacre Couer, as well as some great meals out and general walking around. Also saw the new Woody Allen - Match Point - which Pippa and Suzie loved but I wasn't that sure about. Also found a fantastic bar - Au Trappistes - with a great selection of Belgian Abbey Ales. Had a Beelzebub and thought of Karen! Doing 190mph on Eurostar through the northern french countryside was something as well.

Attention Mac Users

i've been having a play around with a new web browser made by Mozilla (makers of Firefox) and made for use exclusively on macs ("mozilla power, mac style"). It's called 'Camino' and so far I'm pretty impressed. It's fast and it's got some great features (like being able to search your history etc.) You can also instruct Camino to not only block pop-ups but also screen out adverts on web pages, which it does pretty well. Fellow Mac users go here to check it out.
Secondly, most Mac users know that Steve Jobs' keynote speech from Macworld San Francisco is the one to watch so I thought I would remind us all that it's happening on Tuesday January 10th at 9am (5pm UK time). You can normally watch a webcast of it pretty soon afterwards on the Apple site. We wait with bated breath to see what he's going to announce this year.

Paris Today

sorry about the lack of a 'Happy Christmas to all my readers' post. have been at my parents house in N Wales for a few days. got back to Oxford last night and today we are heading off to Paris for a few days on Eurostar. We have a friend who has an uncle who has a flat in the Latin quarter, so we get to stay in a top location for free...which is nice.

Ricky Gervais podcast

very funny! go here for RSS feed and links to previous episodes you may have missed.
UPDATE : having just listened to episode 2 it's not for the faint-hearted!

definitely my favourite advent image

i think it speaks for itself.

Re:mix. Re:make. Re:configure. Re:consider.

I'm loving this! San Francisco creative collective Rebar paid the parking meter for a couple of hours in a built up area of downtown San Francisco and used the time to create a garden in the parking space figuring that the time was theirs to do whatever they wanted to with it. Passers by fed the meter to keep it all going, and some sat down on the bench, read the paper, chatted...
I think it's a wonderful idea - a real image of redemption for me. It kinda reminds me of Isaiah's garden in the desert. More info and some wonderful pics here.
Thanks to Jonny for the link.

'9'

We had a great end to the hOME year last night at our carol service - a service of 9 lessons and carols - (idea knicked from Jonny and Grace's re-interpretation of this old tradition). We borrowed a fantastic old Oxford Movement/Anglo-Catholic revival church (as it was set back from the road some of our guys made a brilliant illuminated walkway using tea-lights in jam jars to lead to the church door) for the night (perfect ambience for some pre-service Sigur Ros), lit it, fired up the projectors, dusted off the mirror-ball, and then 9 members of the hOME community re-interpreted the 9 traditional readings.
They were all great - but I particularly enjoyed Jules's use of 'Planet Telex' by Radiohead in the first reading (from Genesis) - "everything is broken, everyone is broken", Esme's dramatic soundscape (which she made herself using Pro Tools) of what the shepherds might have heard on the hillside the night the angels appeared, Chris's imaginative story helping us to put ourselves in Mary's place, and Julet's movement piece (to Nitin Sawnhey) where she danced while holding a light and started high up on the balcony and then moved down and in amongst the congregation to represent Christ the light of the world coming to earth and presencing himself amongst us.
But mentioning these items particularly makes it sound like the others weren't any good, which of course is not true. It's just that some of the pieces impacted me more than others.
Tom did a great job on the music front - unearthing some fantastic re-workings of Christmas carols by electronic composer Mars Lasar (you can find him if you search in iTunes) as well as contributing some of his own pieces. So we ended up singing 9 re-worked carols too which was great.
That was our last service of the year and it felt like a good end to an eventful 12 months.
more pictures are available here.

Churches decide not to bother with Christmas

Apparently some of the mega-churches in the U.S. have decided not to have a service on Christmas day. I say 'why stop there?' Why not go the whole hog and stop celebrating Easter as well? Of course, this is slightly hypocritical of me as our little church has its last service of the year tomorrow night (our carol service - see here for more info) and won't be having a service on Christmas Day. But we were planning to until we realised that hardly any of our small congregation was going to be around. We are small. Willow Creek has a congregation of around 20,000. What's their excuse? Read the whole story here.

Sufjan Stevens Christmas Tunes

absolutely loving the Sufjan Stevens Christmas songs available for download free (for some reason!) here. Thanks to Jonny for the link. I think we'll be using some of these at our Carol Service this coming Sunday.

we do romance too

Just back from a fantastic 24 hour wedding anniversary break at The Falkland Arms (winner of countless Real Ale awards) in a beautiful, classic English, village called Great Tew in North Oxfordshire. Any townie looking for a romantic (4 poster beds etc.) get-away should give it a try.

which '24' character are you?

take the test here!

Holiness

I have been reflecting a little on the Advent Sunday lectionary readings for last Sunday and the coming Sunday. There's a lot in there about John the Baptist. He makes the comparison between himself and Jesus - 'I baptise with water, one comes after me who will bapstise you with the Holy Spirit'. I wonder whether John's baptism has to do with turning from something and Jesus' baptism (with the Holy Spirit) has to do with embracing something.
It's not enough just to turn/repent, we also need to embrace.
I think my concept of holiness for too long has been to do with NOT doing certain things - i.e. defined by absence. I wonder whether I/we need to rediscover (cos there's nothing new) a concept of holiness that has to do with DOING things (that are good) rather than NOT doing things that are bad. i.e. defined by presence (of good things).
You can either try to remove the air from a jam jar by sucking it out or by filling it full of water. i know which one is easier.

Ancient-Future Time

My office is just behind the Christian Bookshop in East Oxford. I pop in once a week for my copy of the Church Times (oh I am so Anglican!). Normally for buying books I use Amazon, or, being in Oxford, we have a fantastic selection of bookshops in the city centre. But this book - 'Ancient-Future Time' - caught my eye so I picked up a copy.
I know that Robert Webber is 'Mr Ancient-Future' (has he TM'd the phrase yet!) and this is one of a zillion books he seems to have published with that phrase in the title, but as we are at the beginning of a new liturgical year I thought he might have some interesting to say about a spirituality that is formed by the seasons of the church year. we'll see.

Teaching Team

we're looking for some new models for how we do teaching at hOME. Last night we had the inaugural meeting of the newly formed hOME Teaching Team.
The idea is to explore some more collaborative teachings styles. At the beginning of each month those with an interest or a sense of calling to wrestle with and teach the scriptures in the context of our community will gather to look at the Sunday lectionary texts for the following month (so last night we were looking at the texts for January). Out of the creative discussion that follows ideas and themes will emerge which people can then take away and shape up into talks (and the plan is that some people will work in pairs etc. and think of creative ways of helping the gathered community to engage with the texts).
We had a really great first meeting. To me, as someone who has spent many hours over recent years sitting alone in a room trying to come up with some interesting and spiritually nourishing things to say from a text, to work on texts in a group setting was a very rich way to approach the task of doing a talk. Especially if, like me, you are an extrovert processor. We were finding that there was a real synergy to this approach as one person tossed out an idea which someone else then developed and added to.
And I like the idea of broadening the teaching base and democratizing it a bit more - taking it out of the exclusive domain of the 'professionals' and releasing more people with a gift/desire/passion for this work, to learn together and from each other.

Sigur Ros

Sigur Ros are playing a one off show at the Hammersmith Apollo in London on March 29th. pre-sale tickets go on sale today. i'm tempted but £25 a ticket seems a bit steep to me.

There's only one Edgar Davids

As a Spurs fan I couldn't let Edgar Davids' first goal for Tottenham go unmentioned on this blog. For my money he is still one of the standout players in world football and he is doing a great job for Spurs. It was great to see him really enjoying scoring his first goal for the club on Saturday.

Bulldog

In the process of switching our broadband and phone over to Bulldog who are offering 8 meg broadband for £9.75 per month. The offer expires at the end of November so get your skates on if you're tempted.

Advent Sunday

Yesterday, of course, was Advent Sunday - the beginning of the church year. A season of anticipation and expectancy. We had our regular Eucharist but added some Advent spice with a short candle lighting ritual at the beginning using the U2 track '40' (in darkness) followed by the Delirious track 'There is a light that shines in the darkness' (I know - I've lost all my emerging church kudos by mentioning Delirious...woops) as Pippa lit the 'Christ' candle at the back of the room and walked into the circle of sofas and then lit each person's candle. Simple but effective. We sang some of our home-grown songs (and it was good to have Martin singing for the first time), read the lectionary readings and Suzie shared some reflections on 'Watching, Waiting and Hoping' (I particularly enjoyed her tie in with the 'buy now pay later'/instant gratification culture we live in). We then prayed the eucharist liturgy together (and Jim has brought back a fantastic chalice and patten from Iona for us to use).
One of the things that I was most pleased about last night was the way people lingered after the service had 'officially' ended and prayed for each other without it being 'organised'. We have been struggling for a while to find some natural ways to incorporate 'prayer ministry' (for want of a better phrase) into our services without reverting to the overly hyped-up practices of many charismatic churches. It was great to see people in 2's and 3's around the place just simply and quietly praying for each other where they sat. I hope we see more of that.

Devon

A dozen of us from hOME went down to Devon for a couple of nights this last weekend. 5 of the crazy fools even went surfing in the Atlantic. I was not one of them. They tried to convince me that a winter wet suit would see me right but I wasn't buying it. I mean, there was snow on the ground for crying out loud. Anyway, a good time was had by all and we got back in time to celebrate Advent Sunday last night (see next post).

The Big Ideas of 2006

Even though I am more sceptical these days of the adbusters agenda after reading 'The Rebel Sell' the end of year issue of the adbusters magazine is always worth getting. I picked up a copy from Borders the other day. Get yours at all good newsagents now!

more on the emergent conversation day

Jonny has reminded me that there is some stuff that really chimes in with what we were talking about on Saturday in the introduction to his book 'Alternative Worship'. Reading his blog post sent me back to re-read it, and i wish I had done so before we went to St Albans as it's really relevant to what we were talking about. here's an excerpt:

"Alternative worship was 'post-charismatic', particularly in the determination of most groups to reject the culture of chorus singing and the worship group with worship leader. We have already noted the time lag between the musical forms (soft rock, easy listening) adopted by the charismatic renewal and the forms current in 'secular youth music'. There was a reaction against a performance-based musical idiom, in favour of one oriented to communal celebration and participation. People were also reacting against a model of the working of the Holy Spirit which stressed immediacy, spontaneity and extemporizing as the true signs of 'the Spirit moving'. The charismatic renewal contained an explicit critique of liturgical tradition as 'formal therefore unfree'. Most alternative worship groups have rejected this opposition and turned to embrace form, set prayers and liturgical patterns. Both the turn from choruses and the turn from an exclusive emphasis on 'free prayer' reflected an aesthetic and a spiritual disillusionment with these forms; a sense that they had produced a culture of banality in worship. A number of groups have retained a strong affinity with the theology of charismatic renewal, which they seek to explore within a new cultural mix."

I found that to be a helpful summary of some of the stuff we were talking about on Saturday.

I am still trying to discover, though, more groups like the one Jonny mentions at the end there - having a strong affinity with the theology of charismatic renewal but seeking to explore that within a new cultural mix. I'm sure there must be more groups out there like that - perhaps similar to us in hOME in wanting to explore the intersection of ancient/future liturgical forms whilst holding on to a charismatic spirituality - I just haven't found many yet. If that describes you, get in touch.

The Constant Gardener

Pip and I went to see this last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. we stopped off at 'The Big Bang' beforehand which is a sausage restaurant (choose a combination from a selection of sausages, mash, and jus - I went for the traditional Oxford sausages with a carrot and swede mash and a red wine jus - delicious). Anyway, it's a really well made film by the director of 'City of God'. without wanting to spoil it for those who haven't seen it yet, it does make you wonder how much of this sort of thing really goes on and how much is covered up. if you haven't seen it yet that will obviously make no sense whatsoever! do go and see it.

photos from the emergent day

Jason has a collection of photos from the Emergent discussion day last Saturday here.

Emergent Conversation Day : The Holy Spirit in the Emerging Culture

Yesterday half a dozen or so of us from hOME went across to St Albans for a discussion day, looking at the subject of the place of the Holy Spirit in the emerging church/culture.
Jason Clark and I facilitated the day with a few minutes of input from the two of us at the start of play to get the ball rolling. we both shared our stories and how we had come to be having this conversation.
my take on it was really about wondering why, as i connect with people from the emerging church and alternative worship scenes, that i keep coming across so many people who could perhaps be described as being 'post-charismatic' i.e. "I used to be into all of that 10 years ago but i've moved on now" - that sort of thing. and i wondered whether the two things (i.e. emerging church and being post-charismatic) necessarily went together.
there was some very helpful discussion about babies and bath water - and how perhaps people had rejected charismatic spirituality becuase it had become so closely identified with a mono-cultural expression of christianity that in distancing yourself from that culture you also distance yourself from the essence of the spirituality behind it because the two have become so intertwined.
so i shared about becoming concerned with some of the things i had witnessed over the years in the charismatic/pentecostal movement - using two phrases - 'revival fatigue' and 'spiritual viagra' - to describe what i had seen. i am particularly concerned about how a purely charismatic spirituality (i.e. ignoring the other traditions) can so easily lead to burn out i.e. it is not sustainable.

i suggested there were two possible responses (although there are probably more):
1. adopt (and integrate charismatic spirituality within) a more 'preaching-centric' view where long term spiritual sustainability is acheieved through a basis in regular biblical exposition or
2. seek to integrate a charismatic spirituality within the liturgical-contemplative tradition to offer increased sustainability.

i said that hOME was exploring the second of these options - we are investigating a spirituality that emerges at the intersection of the liturgical/contemplative (in new forms) and the charismatic. unfortunately we don't seem to have come across too many others attempting to explore that territory.

all in all it was a good day. i was pleased we attempted an open-source approach with people writing up their questions on post-it notes and then self organising them on a wall - leading us into small group discussion and then feeding back.

i thought we lost our way a little bit in the afternoon with the feeding back session. it was probably a little on the long side and also it felt a little like we were struggling to stay on the subject and avoid a general discussion about the emerging church in general.

Giving

I am currently working on the hOME (hOME is our church in case anyone is visiting here for the first time) budget for the coming year.
we are a small and fragile emerging/alt church community with a vision for mission and growth but while we are at the early stages of our community life it's kinda tough making ends meet.
we're getting there and some of our guys are really giving sacrificially which is wonderful.
but if there is anyone else out there in the blogosphere - any individuals or fellow emerging churches - who believes in what we are doing and feels prompted to support our mission then we would be very pleased to hear from you.
you can e mail me at matt@home-online.org

Why Halloween is bad

thanks to Chris for this hilarious photo.

Courtney Pine tonight

I'm looking forward to seeing Courtney Pine play tonight in Cheltenham. A friend of mine once described Jazz as the musical equivalent of speaking in tongues. i'll be seeking the gift of interpretation this evening. Jazz club....nice.

Clustr Maps

I'm glad Rich put me on to Clustrmaps a while back. Now I can see where in the world people who visit my blog are from. I'm pleased to say I have now had visitors from most continents. If you are at all interested - and who wouldn't be!! - then you can see my Clustr Map here.

Jamie Oliver in Italy

anyone see this last night? Jamie Oliver was visiting a monastery as part of his tour of Italy (apparently they had a legendary herb garden). there were some great lines: "I don't even know what religion I am. I think I might be Church of England." and "food is my religion, and the dinner table is my altar". He offered to say grace before meal and got it slightly wrong in an amusing way: "for what we are about to receive may God be truly thankful".
But seriously, it was fascinating to see these decrepid old monks - who had been eating tinned vegetables and the like, much to Jamie's displeasure - come alive with some good cooking. Jamie did a BBQ outside and got them all involved with the cooking - he wanted them to share in the experience of preparing the food and to have a laugh as they did so - and then even had them dancing a little bit to The Cure that he had playing from the stereo of his VW Camper Van.
In a funny sort of way he was a bit like the way I imagine Jesus would have been.

Bishop Richard

Richard Harries, our Bishop here in Oxford, announced the other day that he will retire next Easter. I, for one, have a great deal of respect, fondness and admiration for him though I am aware that he set the cat amongst the pigeons somewhat with the whole Jeffrey John affair. He has always been kind to me and I will miss him.

Saint Eddie of Izzard and the college of preachers

just got my hands on the Eddie Izzard box set which I've been after for a while. still by far and away my favourite comedian even after being given a good run for his money by people like Demetri Martin and Ross Noble.
Someone I once knew wrote an essay in theological college entitled "The Stand Up comedy of Eddie Izzard as a model for contemporary preaching". The point he was making was that a lot of Eddie Izzard comedy is based on his ability to take something that we are overly familiar with - the fact that bees make honey for instance - and play around with it in such a way that enables us to see again how wonderful (and occasionally bizarre) life is.
This is something that good preaching should do (and sorry, fellow emerging church travellers, but i still believe in preaching...perhaps there are some different ways to do it but still..). Good preaching/speaking/chatting/dialoguing should enable us to look again at something we have perhaps looked at a thousand times before, and enable us to see it again for the first time.

confessional

yesterday i worked later than i planned to at the office and therefore when it came time to cycle home it had got dark and i didn't have my lights.
as i set off from St Clements a guy was getting out of his car and just said "lights" as i cycled past. for some reason this kind of thing gives me 'cycle-rage'. of course i was too slow (and cycling too fast) to come back with something witty (like, i could have shouted "...camera, action" or "manners" but didn't think of it in time). so i just looked back and said "what?" to which of course he just shouted "lights" again. i just let it go and cycled off.
i think i'm usually a fairly patient guy. i get a little road-rage occasionally when i'm driving (as my wife will confirm) but nothing too crazy. so why does this sort of thing really wind me up? i guess it could be to do with the fact that there's no chance of a conversation - it's just someone shouting a word at you. anyone care to psychologise?

very funny

this is hilarious! U2 (and friends) as you have never seent them before. thanks to mootblog for the link.

emerging church conversation and discussion day

go here to register.

the gift of our presence

after a night at church where lots of friends weren't there for various reasons I was stirred to read these words from Jason Clark's blog this morning:

"I suggested to our church family that one of the greatest gifts we can give each other in a consumer society is our time, and presence."

"Community, takes time, proximity, interaction, and above all the cost of giving our time to others."

Cutting Edge Retreat

hOME is partly funded by a Diocesan group called 'Cutting Edge Ministries' which has been set up to fund new missional communities in the Diocese of Oxford. i am away for a 24 hour retreat with them and we have some input from people like Stuart Murray-Williams, Mike Moynagh and Pete Ward.
i think when i come on these things i am always looking for a good balance between the conceptual, the spiritual, and the experiential (i.e. connecting with what's actually happening on the ground). i think this retreat (we are just about to start the last session) has had a pretty good balance to it. this morning Pete led a helpful session where we started from our experience of what's happening (which we uncovered by using imaginative journey + the nuts and bolts of how we spent our week last week, what our focus was in the first week we started our 'project' (not a word I like), and also choosing and telling a story from the last two years) and then looking for theological motifs and scriptural texts that illuminate what's actually happening.
as well as that we have had some nice reflective worship, including some body prayer and the use of a Japanese drum last night.

hOME now podcasting

we are now podcasting the talks from hOME. you will find us in the iTunes podcast directory under podcasts/religion & spirituality/christianity and then under the h's. we are about 7 places above HTB, but it's not a league table.
you can also get the audio direct from our web site (and the RSS feed is there too), but as i'm compressing the files they are not playable in Windows Media Player at the moment - some might see that as discrimination in favour of Mac users, but even Windows users can use iTunes these days so it shouldn't be a problem.
the podcasts may seem a little 'old church' at the moment - they are all of me talking, and the talks are a little on the lengthy side. but that's because we are in a new season of the life of the church and are doing some re-envisioning. it won't always be me on the podcast, I promise.

Rant: I hate insurance companies

Last night Pip and I went for what we thought would be a quiet drink in a village pub a few miles from where we live. we parked our car in the car park (as you do) but someone driving a 4x4 reversed into it on their way out of the car park. they didn't stop but instead drove off. we knew nothing of this as we were still inside the pub. Someone who was in the car park at the time came into the pub and asked for the owner of the car. It may not look like much damage but we can't close the door properly and these kinds of bodywork jobs are always pricy.
I called the Police. we were told to go and report it at the Police station. which we did. took till about 12.45am. I didn't do this because i was particularly bothered about them catching the guy (we only had a partial reg number for the car so i knew it was unlikely) but to cover us for when i called the insurance company. I needn't have bothered.
Apparently even though it wasn't our fault, and even though we have a witness, and even though we have reported it to the Police, we are still going to have to pay for the damage one way or another - either directly by paying for the repairs or indirectly by claiming and then losing our no claims bonus. Insurance companies are such a rip off. You pay them hundreds of pounds a year and for what? We have fully comprehensive cover. that is a very misleading phrase. they make sure that whatever happens it's you that's going to be out of pocket, not them. I have no idea why i bother having insurance at all (I know, I know, it's a legal requirement etc etc.) All i know is that this morning we are seriously out of pocket for a car accident that isn't our fault even though we have fully comprehensive cover. that ain't right.

No Direction Home

anyone see part 1 of Scorcese's Bob Dylan documentary - 'No Direction Home' - on BBC2 last night? i taped it as the Spurs v Fulham game was on Sky but i've watched the first few mins today and it looks like great stuff. As i'm also a huge fan of 'The Band' who backed Dylan when he first went electric it was great to see some footage of them on the UK tour when Dylan was getting booed - people shouting 'Judas' etc - because he had moved in from being purely acoustic. Part 2 is on tonight, again at 9pm on BBC 2.

we need a spirituality of the land

Pip and I get our vegetables from the local organic foodbox scheme. yesterday the farm that grows them were having an open day where their customers could go and see where they come from and have a guided tour. i went slightly reluctantly. Pip is far more into this side of things than me and i thought it would just be a load of trendy-leftie, Guardian reading, hippie types. and i was mostly right! but i ended up really enjoying it anyway. the farmer - Ian Tollhurst - looks suspiciously like a hippy to me (see pic) and I am sure there was a small greenhouse or two that he wasn't showing us - tucked round the back with some truly organic herbs being home-grown...if you know what i mean. but it was a very pleasant afternoon, all in all.
Nature is so finely tuned to deliver fruitfulness without the need for artificial tampering. the problem is we have got so used to trying to bend nature to our will rather than working with it and allowing it to shape us. for example, in the post war period farmers were given grants to take out their hedgerows so that they could get combine harversters in and supposedly increase productivity. now they are being given grants to put the hedgerows back in because there is a recognition that the kind of biodiversity that they bring is important for fruitfulness.
Farmer Ian also told us about how they really respect and protect the earthworm population in their fields as earthworms increase nitrogen in the soil which leads to greater fruitfulness. and by looking after some species of local wasp they can keep the cabbage-white moth population down (as the wasps eat cabbage white larvae) and thus reduce damage to their cabbages without the need for spraying them with pesticides etc.they also rotate their crop cycles and leave fields fallow.
here is a place where they have learnt that working with the land rather than against us can yield enormous fruitfulness.
listening to Ian - his passion for the land and for organic farming - made me think about how us city dwellers (and I live in Oxford which is probably considered the countryside by you Londoners!) desperately need a spirituality that connects us with the land. I know that there are some great theologians working in this field (pardon the pun) - yesterday i thought i must give this area some more attention.

Looking to the future

a picture tells a thousand words

Leaving St Aldates

Last night we officially said goodbye and so long to St Aldates church - the church that has been our mother church for the last two years.
It was a good service. they gave me an opportunity to talk for a while about how things had developed and how we got to this point. then they gave us some symbolic presents - a spade, an apple tree, and a rose bush - which were lovely and which tied in with the whole theme of moving on to continue this whole process of planting a new expression of Christian community in Oxford.
there was a good representation of hOME people there and they got us all up on stage and prayed for us etc.
then we all went to Pizza Express.
It felt important to have an opportunity to mark this important occasion in the development of our community, to have a good ending to that chapter as we enter into a new one.
we will always be thankful and grateful to St Aldates for giving us a start in life.

Leaving

tonight hOME is being bidden farewell by our parent church - St Aldates - at a commissioning service, where we will be prayed for and sent out. not that we are leaving Oxford but we are leaving the patronage of St Aldates and becoming more adult, more responsible for ourselves as a community in our own right.
we begin our new season of Sunday night gatherings next Sunday (25th). we did have a great venue for this lined up but it has unfortunately fallen through due to some complex ecclesiastical issues, so, at this moment, we are a hOME without a home. but hopefully we will have somewhere by this time next week. if you are in Oxford and know somewhere great to do church in East Oxford then do let me know!

well done England

i am chuffed to bits with the final result of the ashes series. what a summer it's been. i don't follow the county game too much but i enjoy the internationals. this summer has been extraordinary entertainment. i am truly sad that it is over, especially with legends like Warne and McGrath (not to mention Richie Benaud) making their final bow on English soil. it is an absolute travesty that the ECB have sold the TV rights to Sky - i thought the coverage by Channel 4, fronted by a dream team of commentators, was superb.
i guess my first love will always be football - Spurs in particular. but this summer will always be remembered as the year that the start of the football season was totally eclipsed by the wonderful, wonderful cricket that has been going on over the last 8 weeks.
well done England, but well done all involved - it's been special.

what's your theological worldview? at least i'm consistent

thought i would do this again as i have heard of a few people who re-did it again recently and have come out with a different result. i'm quite interested that this time i come out as almost Roman Catholic!

You scored as Emergent/Postmodern. You are Emergent/Postmodern in your theology. You feel alienated from older forms of church, you don't think they connect to modern culture very well. No one knows the whole truth about God, and we have much to learn from each other, and so learning takes place in dialogue. Evangelism should take place in relationships rather than through crusades and altar-calls. People are interested in spirituality and want to ask questions, so the church should help them to do this. Emergent/Postmodern 82% Roman Catholic 71% Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 68% Neo orthodox 57% Classical Liberal 43% Charismatic/Pentecostal 25% Modern Liberal 21% Reformed Evangelical 18% Fundamentalist 4% What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

iPod nano

it's a thing of beauty. it's the new apple iPod nano

more techie queries

can anyone out there recommend an online photographic service that can develop slides from JPEG's?
also, can anyone recommend a good printer for postcards/fliers?

Discussion Day: The Holy Spirit in the Emerging Church

Jason Clark and I are hosting a discussion day on Saturday November 12th in St Albans.

As we have talked we have mused about why it is that being involved in emerging church/alt worship very often means being post-charismatic. We wondered why that was and whether the two inevitably went together and whether others had questions in this area.

we are wanting to create a space to look at issues around how to express a charismatic spirituality, whilst also being formed by other spiritualities (liturgical, contemplative etc.) and without buying into the UK-charismatic-sub-culture/scene (which seems to dominate the way that charismatic spirituality is expressed).

this will hopefully be a great opportunity to connect with others exploring the same issues. it will be a fairly unstructured day - no big name speakers! so, come ready to contribute and participate.

More info, and booking (it's free!) can be found via Jason's blog here.

windows users getting desperate....

How to Pimp Your Windows XP Desktop to Look Like a Cool Mac Desktop

Blog-geek question

here's one for the blog-geeks out there...i am thinking about switching from Blogger to Typepad and i am wondering whether it is worth the money. one reason is that i have started using ecto for composing blog posts and while it's a great programme it doesn't support image uploading to blogger (but it does to typepad). in these days of feed aggregators don't most people read blogs without visiting the actual blogs anyway? that would suggest to me that there is little to be gained by upgrading. does anyone have any thoughts on this?

for the doubters out there!...

this was taken yesterday at the end of my garden. what a monster! o ye of little faith!!

Michael Moore on Bush's response to New Orleans

the acerbic wit and biting political satire of Michael Moore are once more clearly in evidence in this open letter to George Bush....

________________________________________

MICHAEL MOORE: DEAR MR BUSH

Dear Mr Bush,

Any idea where all our helicopters are? It's Day 5 of Hurricane Katrina and thousands remain stranded in New Orleans and need to be airlifted. Where on earth could you have misplaced all our military choppers? Do you need help finding them? I once lost my car in a Sears parking lot. Man, was that a drag.

Also, any idea where all our National Guard soldiers are? We could really use them right now for the type of thing they signed up to do like helping with national disasters. How come they weren't there to begin with?

Last Thursday I was in south Florida and sat outside while the eye of Hurricane Katrina passed over my head. It was only a Category 1 then but it was pretty nasty. Eleven people died and, as of today, there were still homes without power. That night the weatherman said this storm was on its way to New Orleans. That was Thursday! Did anybody tell you? I know you didn't want to interrupt your vacation and I know how you don't like to get bad news. Plus, you had fundraisers to go to and mothers of dead soldiers to ignore and smear. You sure showed her!

I especially like how, the day after the hurricane, instead of flying to Louisiana, you flew to San Diego to party with your business peeps. Don't let people criticize you for this - after all, the hurricane was over and what the heck could you do, put your finger in the dike?

And don't listen to those who, in the coming days, will reveal how you specifically reduced the Army Corps of Engineers' budget for New Orleans this summer for the third year in a row. You just tell them that even if you hadn't cut the money to fix those levees, there weren't going to be any Army engineers to fix them anyway because you had a much more important construction job for them - BUILDING DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ!

On Day 3, when you finally left your vacation home, I have to say I was moved by how you had your Air Force One pilot descend from the clouds as you flew over New Orleans so you could catch a quick look of the disaster. Hey, I know you couldn't stop and grab a bullhorn and stand on some rubble and act like a commander in chief. Been there done that.

There will be those who will try to politicize this tragedy and try to use it against you. Just have your people keep pointing that out. Respond to nothing. Even those pesky scientists who predicted this would happen because the water in the Gulf of Mexico is getting hotter and hotter making a storm like this inevitable. Ignore them and all their global warming Chicken Littles. There is nothing unusual about a hurricane that was so wide it would be like having one F-4 tornado that stretched from New York to Cleveland.

No, Mr Bush, you just stay the course. It's not your fault that 30 per cent of New Orleans lives in poverty or that tens of thousands had no transportation to get out of town. C'mon, they're black! I mean, it's not like this happened to Kennebunkport. Can you imagine leaving white people on their roofs for five days? Don't make me laugh! Race has nothing - NOTHING - to do with this!

You hang in there, Mr Bush. Just try to find a few of our Army helicopters and send them there. Pretend the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are near Tikrit.

Yours, Michael Moore MMFlint@aol.com; www.MichaelMoore.com

P.S. That annoying mother, Cindy Sheehan, is no longer at your ranch. She and dozens of other relatives of the Iraqi War dead are now driving across the country, stopping in many cities along the way. Maybe you can catch up with them before they get to DC on September 21st.
_____________________________________

feeling like a tourist in your own city

had a great time the last couple of days, post-Greenbelt, hanging out with karen Ward from Seattle who has been our guest here in Oxford. yesterday we had coffee with Pete Ward (no relation!) and then i showed Karen around the sites of Oxford. She was obviously very excited to see some of the locations where they filmed Harry Potter and practiced her english pronounciation of the word 'Potter' (you don't pronounce the T's - well at least you don't if you're doing a London accent). we also drank some nice Belgium beer and smoked some nice cigars, but then you probably wouldn't have expected anything less.
Ian Mobsby turned up today to accompany karen on the next leg of her tour round the UK to see Maggi Dawn in Cambridge. Before they left we had time for a canoe down the river to the local pub for lunch - Ian in front, me at back, and karen in the middle like the Queen of Sheba (all that was missing was a couple of slaves wafting her with big ostrich feathers!).

Greenbelt Pics

had lots of fun at Greenbelt. highlights were Richard Rohr, the two COTA services (the Marvin Gaye Service was fantastic!), hanging out with lots of friends old and new - lots of laughs with Ian Mobsby (Moot, London) and Karen Ward (COTA, Seattle) in particular. see my flickr album with a few (but not many) pics from Greenbelt.

Greenbelt tomorrow

Pip and I are off to Greenbelt tomorrow along with 1 or 2 other homies. really looking forward to it mostly for connecting with people - old friends and hopefully some new ones to. there are some people who i have connected with over the web and it'll be great to meet them in the flesh.

Scottish Holiday II - rain stopped play (temporarily)

found this Peanuts cartoon and it's hard not to feel like this sometimes! we were on the Isle of Mull looking at the weather forecast and it seemed like everywhere in the UK apart from where we were was sunny. so, partly due to the miserable weather and partly to save a bit of cash, we gave up on our idea of taking another ferry out to the islands of Coll and Tiree and we headed instead up to Skye which neither of us had visited before. it's supposed to be really beautiful - that is if you can see anything through the low cloud and drizzle. after staying one night in a very creepy, deserted, hostel (complete with creepy warden and NO other guests) that reminded me of a movie set for some sort of 'I know what you did last summer' type of horror movie, we checked into a hotel where we holed up for 24 hours till the rain passed.
then we decided to cut our lossed and head down to Edinburgh where we have some very good friends and where the festival was in full swing. Our friend Wendy Ball put us up for 5 nights and almost singlehandedly salvaged our very soggy holiday.
by this time the weather had changed for the better and we had some really good sunny days. we saw a great comedian - Demetri Martin - (pictured above): anyone that makes a joke about a guy who paints icons for agnostics is ok with me. you can find some quotes here (if you like Steven Wright you will like Demetri).
With the good weather we even managed a day on the beach on Saturday. the East Lothian coast west of Edinburgh has some great beaches. Pip and I even donned the wetsuits and braved the scottish sea.
after spending some time with our good friends Kenny and Bridget Macaulay and their kids we headed back to Oxford via my parents in N Wales and got back home today. altogether we'd driven 1700 miles.

a city boy in the country

ok - so i thought i had some dial up internet access in the cottage we are staying in on the Isle of Mull but this turned out to be false and so i am writing this quick update in a hotel on the Isle of Iona (cradle of xianity in the UK - where Columba set up base around AD 500) where we've just had lunch. today - Sunday - is the first sunny day we've had since we got to Scotland on Wednesday. I realised what a hardened city dweller i have become when i freaked out for the first few hours after we got on to Mull. i just thought 'this is just too remote and there is so little in the way of human culture, there's no internet, no teletext on the TV (yes there is a small TV in the cottage) and hardly any mobile phone reception' - i felt like i was in the back of beyond. so all of those romantic notions of doing an Andrew Jones and relocating to the middle of nowhere in some sort of monastic wanderlust have been blown right out of the water.
you'll be pleased to know that I seem to have acclimatised a little more now and am having a good time.
tomorrow we get the ferry back to Oban and then out again on Tuesday by ferry to the island of Coll and then on to Tiree on Wednesday.
don't expect any more blogging - we're going even more remote!

holiday time

well, Pip and i are heading off to Scotland this evening. breaking the journey at my parents in N Wales and then arriving in Oban tomorrow evening. Catching a ferry from there on Thurs morning to the Isle of Mull where we will be for 5 days or so and then we're going to catch another ferry to Coll and then on to Tiree which are two beautiful (apparently) small islands even further out from the mainland. Tiree apparently has more hours of sunshine - due to its westerly position - than anywhere else in the UK and it also has some good atlantic surf so we're taking our wetsuits.

i will have some dial up internet access while we're on Mull so there may be some blogging happening but probably not a lot.

we'll be back just in time to go to Greenbelt which we're really looking forward to.

yesterday: a day of jazz and fish

yesterday was a good day. i got my original vinyl pressing of John Coltrane's 'A Love Supreme' through the post via eBay in the morning. then in the afternoon i borrowed some fishing tackle from my neighbour and sat at the bottom of my garden fishing. considering i hadn't fished for around 23 years i was quite pleased to catch 3 beautiful roach - using Babybel as bait!
i do wonder whether i am turning into an old man though - fishing, jazz, golf, and i even smoked a pipe recently! what's happening to me!!
last night was Jim's birthday party - a good end to a good day.