I went back to The Church of Fools last night and actually managed to get in as a real person rather than a ghost which allowed me to interact and chat with people all over the place. It really was quite exciting, although I could not get into the pulpit to preach a sermon.

My excitement about this great achievement is, I guess, rather sad and is probably a good indication that I need to get out more!

I’ve been thinking more on this and I have been quite amazed at how so many people feel a little uncomfortable with it or maybe even threatened.

The idea came up again in a discussion about young people and after thinking a little about what they would want from church someone stated that actually unless they came on a Sunday and met with everyone else then that was not real church in that person’s opinion. Made me smile and think of Jonny’s blog yesterday called ‘the communists are coming'(in particular his last paragraph).

I have been feeling frustrated in this area for quite some time. I do not mean in just the youth church or worship scene. I am being far more selfish than that and thinking of my own pilgrimage. People just do not seem to want to think outside the box. I am not moaning about that, if people are comfortable and happy and journeying their way then that is cool. It is frustrating, though, when others try to get you to admit they are right and that their way is right.

I am starting to think that maybe most ‘established/mature/stable/whatever Christians do not want to push the boundaries and investigate in case they find God to be a fairytale and come crashing down around their ears. What a scary position to be in!

I feel like I am repeating myself, but I do want to ask, where are the thinkers? I’m feeling quite alone here in Kent and wonder if there are many others around that would like to explore together in some way. Don’t ask me to elaborate on that – cos I have no idea!

omaha beach


graves

Can’t finish the day without mentioning D Day and the celebrations over the weekend. Those guys were massively brave and their stories brought tears to me eyes. I found the devotion to the cause, commitment and complete humbleness of these men to be such a great example to me. They were dedicated to a cause, makes me wonder what we could achieve with a mass loads of Christians as dedicated as that to Jesus’ mission.

As Director of Gillingham YFC I get to go to the Fraternal each month. Strikes me as a weird old term as it refers to brothers in some description. Three of the church leaders on the fraternal are women so I’m not sure how the term works! It surely should be changed.

Sometimes fraternal can be dreary as we take 2 hours to decide who will read from the Bible in the Good Friday open air witness. Today, however, we started to hit another plane and I was sorry that time forced us to stop.

We had all noticed a massive influx in church of people from different churches. A lot due to the NHS and schools and such recruiting abroad in African nations and South Africa. The question came from one church leader ‘How do we make church relevant for these people?’. I immediately bit my tongue and did not say anything like ‘It would be good to start by getting relevancy for any people.’ I did not think that would be helpful.

After some discussion I tentavilely asked whether we get a little too stressed in church as we feel that we all need to do the same thing at the same time to be church.

We think of church as family. If I think of my family we rarely do everything together and at the same time. Tom will be on the playstation, Beth on the computer, Joe cycling his bike, Sarah preparing school work and I could be reading the Guardian. Yesterday we only spent about 40 minutes all together despite the fact it was a Sunday. But … none of that stopped us being a family. We were not just a family when we ended the day with a BBQ, we are a family whatever we do.

Surely, the same is true of church. We need to be more inclusive and open in our thoughts of what church is about. If we all do different things does it stop us being church? Should we start to feel threatened or should we start to celebrate the wonder of our diversity in Christ?

It really is good to be back. I use mailwasher for my spam (mainly because it is free) and after just a week away I needed to use it to delete 350 trash emails for me. Most of them were asking me if I would like to buy viagra or increase the size of bits of my anatomy. I want whoever signed me up to so many lists to now own up ‘cos it just ain’t funny. As a sign of true repentance can you buy me a decent spam killer though!

That 350 mails really set my day off. I guess it meant I started on the back foot a bit. I find it incredible that people wish to send out so much junk. It’s not been until this evening that I have started to reflect on my day and think ‘where has God been in all this’?

I could be twee and say I remembered that if you look hard enough in the rubbish you will see the gem hidden beneath all the crap! I am not so sure though if that is always the case.

I guess it could be an ok description of how much junk we have to plough through to find the stuff that really matters. Or maybe more an illustration of how others so desperately want our attention that they are willing to send out millions of mail in the hope that just a few will invoke a response – strikes me to be a bit like church leafleting for the Christmas services, or maybe us that blog our rambling thoughts.

Well we have returned from a very relaxed week in the Loire valley. Wine was good and cheap, as were the cheeses which helped somewhat with the process of de-stressing and resting rather than think about work.

I managed to finish Rabbi Kushner’s new book, The Lord is My Shepherd which is a meditation on Psalm 23. Thoughts coming from a committed Jew gave this book an interesting perspective on a vry common psalm and I am sure that I will blog about that later.

I also managed to start and finish Leonard Sweet’s Soul Salsa – Surprising steps for Godly Living in the 21st Century. I could not agree with all Sweet talks about but some bits resonated and challeneged. One particular quote stayed with me: ‘the essence of the spiritual journey is to discover the sacred in everday things, people and life’. The book is well worth a read if you get a chance.

We are off to the Loire valley tomorrow morning for a well deserved holiday. We are all really excited – especially the children as this will be their first holiday abroad. I’m really excited as I love France … all that red wine and cheese!!!

No doubt I will have some stories and thoughts to share on my return. See ya!

I finally managed to get to a Blah which are run by CMS last night. It was excellent and I am so glad that I went. Andrew Jones (aka Tall Skinny Kiwi)did what he said he would which was: ‘create a media-rich immersive learning environment in which we can appreciate part of the life and teaching of Jesus in Luke 8-10, and draw from it some insight into contextual missional practice among the emerging culture and new media minds.’ We were also able to have a good glass of wine and a laugh.

There was so much to take in that I do not know which bit to share which might enthuse you to come to the next Blah.

I guess I was hit particularly by Andrew drawing out the dual authorship of our emerging culture. In most areas we are able to have an impact, we can discuss, we can add comment (a blog being a particular example). Most churches, however, seem to not so much as discourage this but not really encourage it either.

On a typical Sunday we will all undoubetdly follow a program, someone will preach, we either disagree or agree and then all go home. Maybe we should start thinking about dual authorship a little more so that people really can engage with God.

Andy later took us on a little dream of how we view church. What if church was a party which people were really longing to come to? How would that change

1 – how we thought of and ‘did’ church

2 – what we expected when we came to church.

My first reaction to this was well if we were having a party we would not be inviting everyone and Andy actually said something similar after I thought it (was that God … spooky!!). Jesus speaks of heaven as being like a party … interesting.

Another profound point that hit me again was that we think of church as family but we do not have the same expectations of church family as we do our own families. To be church there seems to be the view that we all need to do the same thing at the same time. Thats not the same in my family. Beth goes off to dancing on a Saturday morning but we do not all want to go with her. We are still, however, a family. On a typical weekday my 3 children will be involved in their classes, I will be in the GYFC office, Sarah will be in her office or classroom. We are all fragmented doing different things but we are still a family. Even when we are all at home, Tom will be playing the playstation, Beth dancing (a recurring theme here!?)in the dining room, Joe in his bedroom connecting with his gerbils, Sarah working on the pc and me watching TV. All different but still one family.

To be church family should we all be doing the same thing at the same time? Maybe not.

As I said, great food for thought. The evening was made even better as I came home on the train with a friemd from church called Mike and over Victoria Station cappucinos we were able to have a good discussion about these issues, church and the value of new, and old media, in our worship. Thanks Mike – hope we can do it again sometime.

Yesterday I was taken aside and told I can’t be a Christian. You can possibly tell from the title above that I was somewhat shocked and not altogether pleased with the comment. Actually, that’s not quite true; I don’t care about the comment so much as to how this person had come to that conclusion. He had purely reached that decision based on a difference of opinion. He was right, and definitely a committed, God fearing, Bible believing Christian (thats not meant to be or sound sarcastic – because he is all of those things),I believed something else and so, in his opinion, I could not be the above things.

It is that restricted, one view, narrow mindesness that really peeves me! I believe it is that dogmatic, black and white, belief system which causes wars and divisons that simply take years to re-build.

In fact, I did not even disagree with this guy. His opinion is that gay priests are a definite no no and that we should kick them out of the church and they should not be allowed to practice. I said I was not so sure that was how Jesus would work today in the church. In truth, I don’t know. I do, know however, that God is a love of God who is looking to accept all without discrimination or the need to earn the reward. I also know that he talked a lot more about looking at ourselves rather than chucking stones at others. The adulteress woman at the well definitely comes to mind here.

How many of us when we become Christians change over night? Maybe the easier question to ask is .. ‘How many of us still have the same sin issues and difficulties year after year after year and feel pissed at ourselves because we have let God down again? I know I certainly do. I still struggle with stuff that I have always struggled with. When I think I am getting better i slip up again.

Maybe that does mean I am not fit to be involved in full time ministry – but I am and it seems that is where God wants me at the moment.

I read in a book recently this little illustration.

There is a storm. afterwards a blind man and a deaf man start to talk about their experience. The blind man talks about loud crashing, a rumbling noise that scared him silly and a mighty whistling wind. The deaf man describes something totally different. His storm was a collection of massively bright flashes, the sky splitting with silver tree like shapes.



I wonder of those two argued and argued. They probably could never come to an agreement, but both were 100% accuarate in how they described their experience. They both experienced very different aspects of a storm. It was not either or but both descriptions together that give the most accurate account of the storm.

If 2 humans can experience a storm in such a conflicting way is it not possible that 2 humans can experience God in ver different, seemingly conflicting, ways? Maybe it is not a question of either/or but more of a both.

As I said above, I don’t know. I don’t seem to be able to give so many definite oinions anymore. All I can say with certainty is that as I journey with God, the black and white issues I once held are becoming grayer all the time.

A big thankyou for Jason Clark for giving me the biggest laugh so far for today (I need to laugh a lot on a day when either Man Utd. or Millwall are going to win the FA Cup … sometimes I just hate the wonderful game!