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!

I have found the perfect answer today to worshipping God in a church without having to leave the comfort of my room. The answer is the virtual church ‘Church of Fools’ just launched by Ship of Fools.



It’s a bit hard to get in to ineract as at the moment 25 fills the building but you can walk around as a ghost and listen in on peoples conversations which satisfies my nosiness no end. The concept is interesting as it is aimed at fringe people – check it out although I will be really really upset if you manage to get in properly before I do.

I’ve been to London today. I do not know what it is about the city but I seem to love it and thrive on the business and anonymity of everything that is going on around me. I come back energised and particularly love Covent Garden. It’s a great place to sit with a drink, chat with friends and just watch people (although today I was working for the majority of the time).

As I watched the anonymous faces some thoughts came to mind … as they do.

It was apparant that each anonymous face was different, whether this be in age, gender, walk, style of dress, or whatever. It was fun trying to guess where people were from or what they were doing. They were even different in how they walked around the place; some were purposeful, focussed and walking in a rapid straight line. Others kinda drifted from here to there, stopped, went back, turned around, watched the entertainers and so on.

I found myself wondering if both the rushers and the meanderers were not unlike the lost sheep wandering that Jesus spoke of in Mark 6. Those in need of a Shepherd. And that kind of brings me back to what we were discussing the other day; that every one is different and no one model, idea or style will suit all of these people. They need a shepherd that will be relevant to them. Actually, I thought, they already have one; they just don’t know about him. So, how are they going to find out? The only answer I could come upo with was that those who already know him have to find ways of interacting so they can share the info. We need to become ‘mission minded’ Christians and not relax and think our one style Sunday morning will wok for everyone.

At the Phuture sight, Kim Hammond thinks about The Characteristics of a Missional Church – definitely worth a read.

CMS (Church Mission Society) are staging events called Blah to discuss what is happening as far as church and mission goes in todays society. This looks like it will be an excellent night – and it’s free! Tall Skinny Kiwi has an amazing blog and seems to know a lot about what is happening in emerging culture and this is a unique chance to experience his views and bounce stuff of others.

I have not had a chance to get to a Blah yet but I’m making a bigger effort to get to this one. If you want to travel up on the train together and chat about it on the way back give us a shout!

Just looking around tonight – a little case of imsomnia I fear – and found this blog by Messy Christian. Raises a big and challenging question. Post a comment – what do you think the answer is?

Well, its been a great week. Do you ever have those weeks when bizarre things just seem to happen? Well I did, and it all seemed to happen on Monday.

I got home from the GYFC office to learn that the pet rabbit had been eaten by the fox. My eldest (10) was in floods of tears and quite treaumatised, my youngest (6) was confused and wondering where the rabbit had vanished to while my daughter (8) very matter of factly told me ‘Damn fox ate the rabbit’ with a weird smile on her face.

It does not end there! We were sat down to dinner when we heard this massive crash upstairs. No one seemed too bothered apart from me so I left them all eating and went to investigate. To cut a long story short, I found next doors cat trying to eat the pet gerbils.The next 10 mins saw me chasing this cat and shouting at it trying to get it out of the house. No matter which way I went it just seemed to go further up the house until it jumped out an open window in the loft! ‘Oh **** I’ve killed next doors cat’, I thought!

The cat had actually managed to cling on to the guttering, pull itself to the top of the roof, and them spent the next 5 hours lying on the ridge tiles in a taumatised state! I was wondering how I, the YFC evangelist ‘supposed to be nice’ Christian was going to tell my neighbour that I had effectively killed his cat. Thankfully I did not need to!

Looking back the images must have been very comical (and they did produce a laugh when I shared them in my sermon this morning).

The whole incident did set me thinking. It’s amazing how different people will all react differently to the same incident. The rabbit killing is a prime example. If we take that on in our faith I guess it is not a surprise that we all react and relate differently to Jesus.

I guess the real challenge and issue comes when we learn whether we can cope with people relating differently to God than the way we do. Too often in the evangelical church this has not been the case. If you do not think this view or if you don’t like that style of worship then you do not fit. In some places we are even made to feel that we are not real Christians, or at best sub-standard Christians, if we take this view or that one.

I like to think that we can be better than that and that we can move on from this. It would be great if more could acknowledge and celebrate our differences in how we relate to God, and felt able to chat and question more, as this must then give us a bigger, better and more complete picture of who God is.

Well the research this week has paid off – but the question now is ‘Do you know Jesus’.

It seems that all the stuff about who he is is ok – but really, it is all about whether you know him or not isn’t it.

We can do loads of stuff – but if we don’t know him then its all worthless. Kinda makes you think whether it is worth working your butt of in the church or with some organisation at the expense of your own relationship. Well .. i don’t think it is!

Check out this link for a cool prayer/sermon

jesus
Posted by HelloI was asked at the weekend to preach on Sunday. The passage I have is from John, chapter 7. The immediate ‘theme’ to look at is ‘Living Water’, but I don’t want to go that route and it seems quite ‘samey’.

It strikes me that the chapter has a lot about people discussing, arguing and fighting over who they thought Jesus was. This does not sound very different to today.

A question for you, though, that has come to me – if you had lived with Jesus would you have believed that he was the Messiah , the Son of God?

You see, I would immediatly say ‘yes, of course, bound to have!’ The first few verses of chapter 7, however, show us that Jesus’ own brothers were taking the mickey out of him something rotten. All because they did not believe that he was the Son of God.

How can it be that you live with Jesus for years and yet not believe him to be who he says he is?

Is that complete blindness or stubborn arrogance of not wanting to believe?

I am attemtpting to start this blog again and using the relaunch of blogger as a good excuse to relaunch the shiny headed prophet.

I don’t know what I am going to blog about … so we will have to wait and see what comes out of my shiny head.