my Taunton Trip

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I had a great two journeys today to Taunton and back. I arrived in Taunton at about 8.45 am which gave me time for a leisurely walk to wake up before attacking a Wetherspoons breakfast. Great breakfast – although I had a bit of a shock – there were around 20 people in at 9.00am and I was the only one not drinking alcohol!!!! I was also the only one eating! I’ve had breakfast a few times in Wetherspoons and the odd person is drinking – obviously Taunton is a place for hardened morning drinkers! In a way I found it quite sad … but then realised I was falling into the judgement trap as who am I to judge a certain set of behaviours?

The meetings in Taunton were good. It was good to spend some time with Lucy from Taunton YFC, James from Bath YFC and meet Paul from SWYM. It was a good time of sharing and hearing what each other is up to and wondering about how we can work together for the Kingdom. No easy answers – but good to get together to think about it.

Afterwards I had a good management meeting with Richard as we looked to the future before travelling home – all in all a great day. I feel energised today because i have been with people, thinking on my feet, asking questions, sharing, challenging, encouraging …. so much better than paper work!

travelling faith

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I have been thinking a lot about journeys recently. Tomorrow morning I leave early to be in taunton for 10 am before travelling back later in the day after meeting up with some YFC friends.

I have often heard the Christian life described as a journey and I think it is. Alongside this description, however, I also hear arguments over ‘brands’ of worship, particular beliefs, and so on. This frustrates me. People talk of journeys but expect everyone to follow the exact same path.

Why can’t we understand that if we are on a journey that means exactly what it says. People on journey’s are all at different places. The Christian journey reminds me so much of a Hash.

If you don’t know what a Hash is then you need to look here. When I visited my step father in Qatar every chance I got when on holiday we would hash weekly. Tjos of you that know me well that a drinking club with a running problem is probably the club I am best suited for – far more than ordained ministry in the CofE! (in fact maybe a good alternative is to find a good hash in the south east!)

In the hash some loved to run off, investigate all the trails, run back, share their info and then rush off again. Others were happy to run far enough behind the leaders so they did the journey, but no unnecessary extras – in fact I used to hang back far enough so I could work out short cuts! Others walked. Others drove the 4WD’s to the end of the race to set up the BBQ and ensure the beers were cold. The point was this was a community all travelling in the same direction. The over-riding aim was that we moved forward together, not that we all get there at the same time.

If we are going to say the Christian life is a journey we need to take on board what that actually means – people travelling in the same direction, but using a massive variety of routes to get there. If we can do that the experience will be incredibly richer!

why admin?

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Oh how I hate admin days! I was going to file a mass of paper today – but it is still laughing at me from on top of the filing cabinet when I dare to enter the study which I don’t use!

For the last two days I have been planning,reading, writing, filing, absorbing, disseminating … I’ve had enough!
I need people to talk to, to be with, to laugh with.If I ever doubted that we were created in God’s image to be in relationship with other images of God then those doubts have gone!
I’m looking forward to tomorrow when I meet with some people in the morning looking at the arts status of the school I am governor at.
While doing the examen today I realised massively that the parts of the day where I felt most alive where when speaking to people: a friend over the telephone, kicking the football in the back garden, the chat on the doorstep, the email from a long lost friend!

So I’m looking forward to seeing people … but after that it’s more admin, sermon writing, filing …..so if you wish to disturb me, please do!

Messy Mission

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Love Gillingham is getting closer.
We had our final planning meeting today and I think it’s fair to say that, once again, there is a healthy mix of fear and excitement as still too much is ‘up in the air’ for people like myself who like to have a better idea of what is going on. At the moment things do not feel that ordered.

This has worried me today as God is a God of order so there is some part of me that thinks we should have more of an idea 2 weeks out. I took some time to reflect on this and felt God’s quiet voice remind me: but … I am also a God of paradox, and a God of mystery, and a God of story. I am the God who created out of chaotic nothingness. I could go on. If God is all these things, then God is quite messy as well as being ordered. If there can be an ordered messiness then I guess that can exist within the Godhead.

Actually, I quite like the idea of messy God and messy mission. When I say messy, I use it in the sense of things being quite unpredictable but beautiful at the same time. Canoeists and surfers may well have a sense of what I am trying to say. The first day we were in Cornwall a few weeks ago we went to Constantine bay with surf boards and canoes. The surf was messy. It was all over the place, waves were crashing on waves, there was no predictable pattern, but it looked pretty amazing and beautiful.

In a sense all those on the water could do was ride the wave and see where it took them. Others could watch the waves in amazement and try to fathom out what was happening. It was clear, however, where the action was – out in the messiness, in the salty, biting spray. Out there, rather than on the ordered beach, is where all the action was happening.

So,upon reflection I am no longer concerned about how messy things still are. I am, however, still scared that things may come crashing down around our eyes, but I am willing to trust in the messiness of my maker!

breakfast and the race

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There was a great family feel about breakfast together as church this morning before wandering to see the Tour de France cyclists together. There was something quite different about meeting together to eat before going off and doing something. Loads of people wondered why we do not do this more often – but I’m not sure whether at was because we were experiencing an event we liked and saw God within, or whether we all like croissants, pane au chocolat, brioche and fresh coffee! Actually – either reason is good enough to do this more regularly. We have often done church BBQ’s – but this was so much easier to do.

The race itself was quick but fun to be at. The leader had a good few minutes on the rest before the main pack raced through. It was an amazing sight – not an event I would like to be part of and one that looked quite tight and dangerous to me.

It was a good experience to be there – and glad to be able to say that Medway did the tour proud with its support. Maybe we’ll do this again next year.

For those of you interested in the photos, I set up a flickr album.

Tour de … Gillingham?

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The Tour de France comes through Gillingham tomorrow which will be quite an exciting event.

We are going to meet up together in the church hall for ‘petit dejeuner’ before wandering off to watch the 200 float carnival and wait for the riders to sprint through our town.

It’s going to be cool to be part of France for the day!

Shrek 3

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I saw Shrek the Third today with Joe. It’s as good a the other two films and this time the central theme is that of believing in yourself. A couple of times characters are challenged. ‘You don’t have to believe what others say about you … you have a choice.’

I find it amazing that so many films carry a deep morality about them. I would go even further and say that I believe film is a major medium through which God speaks today.

God speaks today to his people, whether they acknowledge him or not, saying: you are accepted, you are loved, you are valuable and you do not have to believe those lies that others have spoken into your lives … you are not a loser, a villain, a mistake, a waste of space … you are purposefully created in the image of the Almighty God.

I still find that a mind blowing thought!

latest free video

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Lose Your Life is the latest free video from The Work of the People.

worship and mission

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I don’t like to waste time, so while my laptop booted up today I read the last couple of chapters of Unofficial God. (errr … yes, the laptop DID take that long and so I had to delete some updates later in the day … but that’s another story)

I was struck by this quote from Frank Weston the Bishop of Zanzibar:

… if you are prepared to fight for the right of adoring Jesus in his Blessed Sacrament, then, when you come out from before your tabernacles, you must walk with Christ, mystically present in you, through the streets of this country, and find the same Christ in the peoples of your cities and villages. You cannot claim to worship Jesus in the tabernacle if you do not pity Jesus in the slum. You have your mass, you have your altars, you have begun to get your tabernacles. Now go into the highways and hedges, and look for Jesus in the ragged and the naked, in the oppressed and the sweated, in those who have lost hope, and in those who are struggling to make good.

Worship and mission are inseperable and feed each other says Bishop Brian. How inseperable should they be? Can we invisage worship being mission and mission being worship simultaneously?

I have always believed that our mission is a true indicator of our worshipful life with God. Our worship, whatever that may be, should be a life changing encounter with Creator God. If we come out of worship the same as we enter it, have we worshipped at all?

How far is too far?

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How far can we take on a culture in order to communicate the Gospel meaningfully within that culture?
That is a question that both Bishop Brian asks in Unofficial God and that Alan Hirsch asks today.
It is something that is of great concern to me as I think about future things … how do we draw the line between incarnational mission and syncretism?
Hirsch has a good answer for discussion here.