Tonight I caught part of the news for the South east on the TV.

First people were being interviewed about san ‘organisation’. They were saying things like:
‘if only we could get people to come in they would see that we were not boring, stuffy old people’
‘we are quite normal really and like to have a laugh’
‘we don”t ask the children to be quiet anymore’
‘we want everyone to feel they can visit here for as long as they like’
‘we are here for the whole community’

People were then interviewed about this ‘organisation’:
‘It’s not for me’
‘I don’t know where my nearest one is’
‘It’s full of old people’
‘I want something a lot more exciting than that’
‘They watch you whenever you go in there – like you are going to nick something’.

Next I was interested by the response of the people from the organisation again:
‘we want to make the gardens look nice so we are more attractive’
‘we are thinking about more relevant stuff to attract young people’
‘we are building a cafe to attract people in’

All of this made me think … you’ve guessed it … church!

But no! How wrong you can be when you miss the start of a news report.
the organisation in question …. libraries.

It’s interesting to see that with falling figures, like the church has done in the past, they are turning to gimmicks to attract people to them.

A case for emerging libraries maybe?

I must just end the day with a song:

we only need 9 men,
we only need 9 men,
we only need 9 men!

9 men!

we only need 9 men…..

great game

Gillingham 3 Brentford 2

(did I mention we only needed 9 men to win?)

Please don’t ring me tomorrow – I can’t talk as I vented my voice on the referee!

I got to go and see Chris and Tina at Kenilworth YFC today to draw up a mission proposal. It was an early start, leaving the hose at 520am to beat the traffic and do some work before starting the consultation.

There is something strangely weird but refreshing about traveling along the M25 alone. On a number of occasions there was not anther car in front or behind me. It is definitely the way to travel! Instead of arriving stressed and wondering why I had sat hours in the car, I arrived after stopping for a great breakfast and getting some work done.

This is a time of the morning that few of us normally see. Somehow the time seems cleaner and fresher, different things are noticeable, such as birds starting to sing, the silence before the world starts to wake up. In fact, Gillingham looks like beautiful, as does the M25 when seen in this different light.

Seeing familiar things in a different light opens us up to the possibility of seeing new things where once only familiarity bred an unconscious contentedness due to lack of observation and awareness.

Approaching and looking at God in fresh ways can, too, open us to the possibility of a new discovery.

The mission presentation seemed to go well this morning.

Missio Dei and the 5 marks of a mission shaped church from the report of the same name are the backbone of our presentation.

Not long now until we have this assessed at our Easter school, and this morning showed that all the groups hard work has come together with a fairly good presentation.

Today St Mark’s had a vision morning.

It was quite a privilege and exciting to be chatting with around 40 other people, praying, and thinking through where we want to be in 5/10 years time as a church.

Some exciting stuff came out of some unexpected mouths – a possible sign that God is leading clearly and with purpose. I must admit I went under protest, and have returned quite excited.

This is being partly followed up tomorrow in church and I’m really quite sad that I can’t be there as I will be with my mission group from SEITE at St Peters in Aylesham presenting ‘What is a missionary church in the 21st Century’at the 9.00am service. The sacrifice for SEITE cuts again!

I look forward, though, to hear what is said and what happens tomorrow morning – in fact, if I finish in Aylesham in time, I’m going to see if I can get back for at lest the end of the service.

This week I have achieved a personal, if little and insignificant, milestone.

I always said SEITE would not stop me reading fiction as I think reading stuff from the paperback top 10 helps me to stay in touch with what some are reading.

SEITE has stopped me reading fiction – the amount of work has taken some getting used to. But this week – success! I have started a great book ‘The traveler’ which is matrix-y/davinci code-y/ type stuff. Anything written by a guy with a name like John Twelve Hawks has got to be worth a read!

Irony always make me laugh.
I hope I’m not too insensitive because of it!
On Fridays I always collect Beth and Joe from school.
Today it took me a little longer than usual.
The ‘Lollipop man’ was run over on the crossing!
It makes me smile but I hope he’s ok!

Every now and then I look at the Thought for the Day site of Radio 4. Often there are some good gems of just under 3 minutes in length.

I love Giles Fraser who writes a ‘must read’ article each week in the Church Times.

His Thought for Thursday on the ‘radicalness of the Christian message’, and Christians being offended is excellent.

You can read it here, but why bother … listen to the 2 min 58 seconds here instead.

This is a wonderful little video (its a slow start but keep watching to be impressed!) – thanks Roy for the link.

I always love watching this stuff and feel a mixture of both envy (wishing I could do this) and pure amazement at the agility and strength of thee guys.

There is something here I love about seeing a more creative way to go, traveling on a more exciting journey, just because it is more exciting then following the straight A to B route. The parkour route takes a lot longer, it uses up a lot more energy, you get hurt more – but the adrenalin, risk and excitement levels are high all the time.

A message for church maybe – too many taking the easy A to B route for simplicity and speed. We need more Parkour churches, churches that wish to create, see things in a new light, find new routes, re-define the journey, re-imgine how we can arrive, accept we all arrive via different routes, accept we all want to move on in different routes … I’m going into a rant – and anyway … you know what I mean!

This looks very interesting- not sure what I think about it and hope it does not just end up as a gimmick show. Be good to see an English version maybe.

Basically it’s a documentary over a few weeks where a black and white family use make-up to ‘trade places’ and experience the life of being a different race.

Useful exercise and research, or money making gimmick?