Holidays

I am a bit surprised that we have not seen a blog here from Col after the epic footy match on Wednesday night! what a match that was! After the first half it looked like it was gonna be an embarrassment, maybe 6 or 7 nil. Then they come ouit after half-time a different team [i am not saying which side came out a different team mind you ;o)]. Fifteen minutes into the second half and we were laughing with disbelief - stupiud foul in the penalty area and Liverpool have a penalty to go 3 all. Then even the penalty took two hits to go in! This could be Liverpool’s night!

And it was!

Fantastic evening’s entertainment. Makes you believe God created sport! “A theology of Sport” - hmmm i’ll think on that one!

Tomorrow we go on holiday. A weeks camping with my mum and dad. It’ll be great. I just hope the weather is resonable! Check here if you want to check up on our weather! That is not to say that there will be no blogs here, I might try and put a few surprises in!! Especially on the 1st of June…

Living in the Story

Well, the retreat day has been and gone. My countdown counter is at zero, and i need something other than Christmas to countdown to [because i can alright?!].

What fantastic weather we had on Sunday, a proverbial rose fo a day between two thorns! Tracy Knott did a great job on the weather even though she could make it!! Weather ended up just perfect for our afternoon of cricket, bouncy castle and BBQ. John and Adrian were the star chefs, and not all the food was covered in black!!

Phil Norris helped us through 3 sessions.

Session 1
- the nature of story - it forms our identity
- how we approach the text - entering a stream of history, taking on a new identity as a people with a new story, encountering God and having our view of him adjusted, coming to the text relationally not scientifically - we read it cos we are committed to the author, it is a kind of ‘incarnation’ - need to take it seriously as a divine and human book.
- We expect to meet God in the text - word get devalued, but God’s word is creative/sustaining/enduring.
- Get into the story - need to work in all types of literature, in all kinds of ways to find ourselves drawn into the story and living out of the context of it, stories are powerful values forming mediums and is the way that God has powerfully chosen to frame his text in. We need all sorts of ways to get us into God’s story. The bible has given many and varied ways into the story [cf role of lament psalms]

Session 2
cf an unfinished shakespeare play
Act 1 - Creation - the overflowing generosity of the trinitarian God
Act 2 - Crisis - the fall right from the start includes the promise of redemption
Act 3 - Calling - Abraham’s call “for the sake of the world”
Act 4 - Christ - Climax of God’s story, Jesus images God, kingdom of God initiated but not completed
Act 5 - Church - Church lives in the inbetween times, the kingdom is ‘now’ but ‘not yet’
Act 6 - Consummation - the kindgom come, resurrection, not ‘escapist’ but through death to a new future.

Session 3
- tentative practical ways to make living in the story integral to community life: practical, arts, writing, festivals, breaking bread, song choice, meditation, Christian calender

I should also say that throughout the day Phil threw out loads of theological implications of keeping ’story’ central. Some fo which were fairly provoking. These were not ‘illustrations’ so much as ‘implications’!!

Great quotes:
- “Are we in God’s image or is he in ours?”
- “Theoleogy should always lead to doxology”
- “We are not reading for information, but to formed and shaped as characters in God’s Story”
- “We need to live the life of the future in the present”
- “The drive for the ‘application’ of a text can remove seeing God within the story”

Implications for us:
We need ways to draw people into the text/story rather than filter out the ‘core truth’ and deliver it to people. We need to be drawn in and surrounded by God’s story in a way that causes it to form our reality in a world of multiple competing narratives …… it seems to me.

Lots more to say, but that is a good summary.

Living in the Story

Well, the retreat day has been and gone. My countdown counter is at zero, and i need something other than Christmas to countdown to [because i can alright?!].

What fantastic weather we had on Sunday, a proverbial rose fo a day between two thorns! Tracy Knott did a great job on the weather even though she could make it!! Weather ended up just perfect for our afternoon of cricket, bouncy castle and BBQ. John and Adrian were the star chefs, and not all the food was covered in black!!

Phil Norris helped us through 3 sessions.

Session 1
- the nature of story - it forms our identity
- how we approach the text - entering a stream of history, taking on a new identity as a people with a new story, encountering God and having our view of him adjusted, coming to the text relationally not scientifically - we read it cos we are committed to the author, it is a kind of ‘incarnation’ - need to take it seriously as a divine and human book.
- We expect to meet God in the text - word get devalued, but God’s word is creative/sustaining/enduring.
- Get into the story - need to work in all types of literature, in all kinds of ways to find ourselves drawn into the story and living out of the context of it, stories are powerful values forming mediums and is the way that God has powerfully chosen to frame his text in. We need all sorts of ways to get us into God’s story. The bible has given many and varied ways into the story [cf role of lament psalms]

Session 2
cf an unfinished shakespeare play
Act 1 - Creation - the overflowing generosity of the trinitarian God
Act 2 - Crisis - the fall right from the start includes the promise of redemption
Act 3 - Calling - Abraham’s call “for the sake of the world”
Act 4 - Christ - Climax of God’s story, Jesus images God, kingdom of God initiated but not completed
Act 5 - Church - Church lives in the inbetween times, the kingdom is ‘now’ but ‘not yet’
Act 6 - Consummation - the kindgom come, resurrection, not ‘escapist’ but through death to a new future.

Session 3
- tentative practical ways to make living in the story integral to community life: practical, arts, writing, festivals, breaking bread, song choice, meditation, Christian calender

I should also say that throughout the day Phil threw out loads of theological implications of keeping ’story’ central. Some fo which were fairly provoking. These were not ‘illustrations’ so much as ‘implications’!!

Great quotes:
- “Are we in God’s image or is he in ours?”
- “Theoleogy should always lead to doxology”
- “We are not reading for information, but to formed and shaped as characters in God’s Story”
- “We need to live the life of the future in the present”
- “The drive for the ‘application’ of a text can remove seeing God within the story”

Implications for us:
We need ways to draw people into the text/story rather than filter out the ‘core truth’ and deliver it to people. We need to be drawn in and surrounded by God’s story in a way that causes it to form our reality in a world of multiple competing narratives …… it seems to me.

Lots more to say, but that is a good summary.

Living in the Story

Well, the retreat day has been and gone. My countdown counter is at zero, and i need something other than Christmas to countdown to [because i can alright?!].

What fantastic weather we had on Sunday, a proverbial rose fo a day between two thorns! Tracy Knott did a great job on the weather even though she could make it!! Weather ended up just perfect for our afternoon of cricket, bouncy castle and BBQ. John and Adrian were the star chefs, and not all the food was covered in black!!

Phil Norris helped us through 3 sessions.

Session 1
- the nature of story - it forms our identity
- how we approach the text - entering a stream of history, taking on a new identity as a people with a new story, encountering God and having our view of him adjusted, coming to the text relationally not scientifically - we read it cos we are committed to the author, it is a kind of ‘incarnation’ - need to take it seriously as a divine and human book.
- We expect to meet God in the text - word get devalued, but God’s word is creative/sustaining/enduring.
- Get into the story - need to work in all types of literature, in all kinds of ways to find ourselves drawn into the story and living out of the context of it, stories are powerful values forming mediums and is the way that God has powerfully chosen to frame his text in. We need all sorts of ways to get us into God’s story. The bible has given many and varied ways into the story [cf role of lament psalms]

Session 2
cf an unfinished shakespeare play
Act 1 - Creation - the overflowing generosity of the trinitarian God
Act 2 - Crisis - the fall right from the start includes the promise of redemption
Act 3 - Calling - Abraham’s call “for the sake of the world”
Act 4 - Christ - Climax of God’s story, Jesus images God, kingdom of God initiated but not completed
Act 5 - Church - Church lives in the inbetween times, the kingdom is ‘now’ but ‘not yet’
Act 6 - Consummation - the kindgom come, resurrection, not ‘escapist’ but through death to a new future.

Session 3
- tentative practical ways to make living in the story integral to community life: practical, arts, writing, festivals, breaking bread, song choice, meditation, Christian calender

I should also say that throughout the day Phil threw out loads of theological implications of keeping ’story’ central. Some fo which were fairly provoking. These were not ‘illustrations’ so much as ‘implications’!!

Great quotes:
- “Are we in God’s image or is he in ours?”
- “Theoleogy should always lead to doxology”
- “We are not reading for information, but to formed and shaped as characters in God’s Story”
- “We need to live the life of the future in the present”
- “The drive for the ‘application’ of a text can remove seeing God within the story”

Implications for us:
We need ways to draw people into the text/story rather than filter out the ‘core truth’ and deliver it to people. We need to be drawn in and surrounded by God’s story in a way that causes it to form our reality in a world of multiple competing narratives …… it seems to me.

Lots more to say, but that is a good summary.

Pentecost Sunday

Last Sunday was Pentecost Sunday, a celebration of the coming of the Holy Spirit, and the birth of the church as we know it. We didn’t celebrate it, but if we had this would have been fascinating to look at:

“Pentecost is derived from the Greek “pente”, meaning fifty. The followers of “Christ”, being devout followers of the Hebrew faith, had come to Jerusalem for the Festival of Shavuos: the fiftieth day after Passover (or Festival of Matzoh). Shavuos was a day to remember the giving of the Torah on Mt. Sinai and a harvest festival of first fruits. Devout Jews would spend the night before Shavuos studying the laws and attending morning prayers before breaking their fast with Kiddush: a meal of bread and wine. Knowing this, it is small wonder that the followers in their seemingly drunken state were accused of having imbibed in too much new wine!”

To look at that, you would have to look at the biblical links between Torah [the first 5 books of the OT] and Spirit. Unfortunately we charismatics have not had made much of the link in our theology of the Spirit. The book of Galatians only really makes sense when you understand this, and add the context of Jeremiah 31:31-34 and Ezekiel 36:25-27. At Pentecost there is a shift of ‘Ages’ from the Age of Torah to the Age of the Spirit [it is NOT a shift from the 'Age of Law' to the 'Age of Grace', I know some will struggle to believe me on that, but it is true ;o)]. The age of God’s empowering presence to live as the people of God. The age of the transformation of the heart. The age of the immanent presence of God for all people. The age of God making his home on earth amongst His community. The age of lavish grace-gift giving to people for the service of others.

Are you living in the new age?

[note: thanks to TSK for the definition]