For those who might be interested here is a download of a talk I did at Neighbours & Nations, Coventry on the 18th Feb.
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BlogHere are the thoughts and news of the people in our community. Leave a comment as you wish. If you want to join the blogging ask Mark.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008A card from Uganda!
  We got this card from the Browns in Uganda this morning, so I thought that I would put it up here! Is it clear enough to read? You can keep up to date on their blog: Brown's Latest Online Diary There you will discover that Steve has just had Malaria, and that they are waiting for legal guardianship of Silas. They would appreciate your prayers! Labels: browns, mission, uganda Posted by: Mark | 12:02 PM |
Thursday, March 06, 2008Do you really want to live within your own resources? Part 4Here is the last post on this topic!! 5)Be conscious of consumerism
6) Enjoy what you have
7) Help and pray for those caught in debt
Do you really what to live within the limits of your own resources?? Labels: discipleship, mission, money, social justice Posted by: Mark | 3:56 PM |
Wednesday, March 05, 2008Do you really want to live within your own resources? Part 3Here are some threads that I want to draw out: 1) Have an eternal perspective on wealth
2) Operate out of faith and trust, not fear and worry
3) Honour God with your money
4) Be wise with what is entrusted to you
That'll do for now!! the last four tomorrow!! Labels: discipleship, mission, money, social justice Posted by: Mark | 12:55 PM |
Tuesday, March 04, 2008Do you really want to live within your own resources? Part 2Take a look at these passages: Luke 12:16-21 - Parable of the Rich Fool "this is how it will be for anyone who stores things for himself but is not rich towards God" Luke 12:27-34 - Do not worry "Provide for yourselves purses that will not wear out ... for where you treasure is there your heart is also" Luke 14:12-14 - Banquet hosting "Don't give in a way that you will be repaid." Luke 16:10-13 - entrusted with worldly wealth "You cannot serve both God and money" These are awkward passages, deeply challenging, which we wrestled with bravely [mostly!!]. Tomorrow I will draw some threads through them. Labels: discipleship, mission, money, social justice Posted by: Mark | 12:45 PM |
Monday, March 03, 2008Do you really want to live within your own resources? Part 1
 Money is the big issue of our day. Money worries concern UK adults more than any other social issue, over terrorism, immigration, climate change and gun crime. Why is that when we are amongst the richest people in our global village, where 53% live on $2 per day or less, and 43% live without sanitation. [See Miniature-Earth.com]. It seems that our privileged position has brought us "money worries" and ... debt!! This "rich" economy is built on consumerism - which relies on consumer spending their hard earned pound to keep the cogs turning. Hence the US plan to try to kickstart their flailing economy with a cash injection to the average John Doe to get them spending again. How warped does that sound!! We are bombarded with attempts to get us to spend our cash on things we "need", "want" and "deserve". Hence the fact that the average household debt not including mortgages is £9,052. A figure that increases to £21,051 if you take out those people who don't owe anything. Debt is a serious problem for many in our society. But does our debt stop us spending? No! 27% of people with debts have increased them in the last 3 months. Debt is a helter skelter, and many of us and our friends are on it. Our economy needs us to spend, we are driven to spend, we are marketing fodder and we oblige. The drive to "have" overrides the stress and the worry of debt. This was my starting point yesterday when I decided, bravely [I thought!] to talk about money. It may have been a little depressive? I realize now that I made things worse on hte cheeriness levels by taking us to the words of Jesus. We are looking at Luke's Gospel at the moment, and I have been struck by his references to Jesus talk of the poor and how we should view money. To start, compare Matthew 5:1-11 with Luke 6:20-22. And I'll post more tomorrow on what Jesus view of it all is [honest!]!! Note: debt figures from Credit Action UK Labels: discipleship, mission, money, social justice Posted by: Mark | 10:19 AM |
Wednesday, May 23, 2007Community DreamsThis is a really interesting post by Jason Clarke on Community. The first point grabbed my attention in particular. It was a good reminder that community in and of itself is an illusive goal. Community is a by-product of doing something meaningful together. It really links with what Bonhoeffer said about loving the idea of community more than the reality of community itself. The idealism of community is the surest way to kill of community. This is the heart of the Gospel - to love peope against the odds. There are always surprising ones, ones that hit hard against us in our consumerist, individualistic society, where the personal rights, and the freedom to choose are the highest values. Hence we could baulk at 'renouncing choice' and having 'clear rules' and needing 'leadership'. The post is based on reseearch into communities and actually the list resembles that on the 'building community' page, based on research done by Randy Frazee. I firmly believe that the essence of church is community, but just to say that isn't enough it seems. thoughts? Labels: church, community, discipleship, mission Posted by: Mark | 1:56 PM |
Friday, April 27, 2007Family ValuesI thought this was an interesting article. I am posting it here so i look at it again! Changes in family life need not threaten Christians UPDATE: Still haven't had chance to consider this further, but here is Adam's response from the comments: An interesting article that doesn't really contain much on the surface that I would disagree with… Labels: discipleship, mission, social justice Posted by: Mark | 7:45 AM |
Tuesday, April 17, 2007Missional Living
For those who might be interested here is a download of a talk I did at Neighbours & Nations, Coventry on the 18th Feb. In retrospect I have called it:
Tuesday, March 13, 2007Catch upWe are back from the conference! Hurrah! A good, if tiring, weekend. Realy good to catch with friend old and new! Today I have had my tooth drilled good and proper. Not pleasant, but the floppy lip thing has worn off and other pain killers are keeping pain at bay. So much so that I have managed to sort out the latest podcast today: Full Flavoured Spirituality with Simon & Gaynor Shaw. Enjoy! Oh and if you are bored you really must watch this: Bono's NCAAP acceptance speech. "God, my friends, is with the poor and God is with us if we are with them. This is not a burden, this is an adventure.” [ht TallSkinnyKiwi] Labels: conferences, mission, podcast Posted by: Mark | 4:18 PM |
Wednesday, March 07, 2007Parable of the Lost SonI am doing some preparation for a talk I am doing on the parable of the lost son. After some searching I found a painting that I had seen a while back [it was on the laptop that got nicked!!]. I would really like your comments on it. Honestly, please comment on this one! Do you like it? What about it adds to you perception of the story? Is there anything about it that you don't like? or something that subverts the story?  Leave me a comment!! Labels: conferences, mission, reflective, theology Posted by: Mark | 9:58 AM |
Wednesday, February 14, 2007Random ThoughtsHaving returned from a lovely little break away with Maddy, I return to the fray that is life. A couple of random thoughts: 1) A nice little post by my older brother at Instamatic Theology called "Lotto as plot-twist". Not sure whether i agree or not, but liked the Coupland quotes. They link to the mumbo jumbo post, and maybe shed a tiny bit of light? 2) While I was away I read the "Memoirs" section at the start of "The Cost of Discipleship" by D Bonhoeffer [see other quote here]. I don't know if you know much about him, but he was an amazing guy. He was killed by the Nazi's for opposing the regime on the basis of his faith, even though much of the rest of the church was supporting it. He was influencial in the Confessional Church for a good while, but then he felt even they weren't against it enough. There is much going around my head about issues of empire, post-christendom and how the church shouldn't line up with the dominant system at the moment. If only there were time to blog about it! Anyway a couple of quotes form the memoirs were interesting: Thus all kinds of secular totalitarianism which force man to cast aside his religious and moral obligations to God and subordinate the laws of justice and morality to the State are incompatible with his conception of life." p24 "He felt that the Confessional Church was more concerned with her own existence and inherited rights than with preaching against the war and with the fate of the persecuted and oppressed. Thus it was Bonhoeffer who first brought home the full lesson of the Oxford Conference to the Lutheran Church in Germany, namely, that the life of the church must be linked to the life of the people." p25 I trust you can see there the interesting balance of "difference" and "relevance"; "engagement" and "counter-cultural subversion" in the way the church relates to the wider culture. 3) This links with our conversations on Sabbath [as a day] recently as we discussed "the practice of rest". It struck me that the early church celebrated "the Lord's day" on a Sunday to mark his resurrection. However this was a work day. They decided to mark a pattern of life that was out of step with the wider culture. They didn't expect the rest of the wider culture to shut-down with/for them, nor did they try to fit their pattern with the rest of their culture. I really don't know quite what to think about that. And of course Happy Valentines Day! Labels: mission, random, theology Posted by: Mark | 12:56 PM |
Tuesday, January 30, 2007Does some Mumbo-Juymbo make sense?I think I would like this, if i understood it:
Simon, you love that lingo don't you? [lol] You may notice a vaugue similarity to Walter Bruggeman, here. Posted by: Mark | 2:08 PM |
Tuesday, January 23, 2007Uganda
 I have a REALLY deep and meaningful post up my sleeve ... but i just don't have the brain power today. So instead I will just say that it has almost suink in today that we are planning a trip to uganda in the summer. I can't believe it might happen - but over the last cople of weeks things have started to slot into place ... you know, in a God sort of way. As it stands at the moment we are going with the 3 boys ... plus 5 young ladies [ages 13-25 approx]. Yesterday when i should have been spending my lunchtime at "outwork" preparing for the talk at alpha that evening i actually spent it reading the wikitravel entry on uganda. Very distracting. Time to get planning. We are going to go to the orphanage I mentioned before, particularly to spend time with and support our friends the Browns, and work in the orphanage. Hey, and who knows what else! I have uploaded the video of the brown's house that I showed at the last CCN Family Meeting at Parklands here, in case you fancy another viewing. Also I have just got to mention that at alpha last night 4 people said that they want to get baptised - i'm pretty excited... Posted by: Mark | 5:30 PM |
Thursday, January 18, 2007Missional Community and Work
 The picture above is of a sculpture at Launde Abbey. Yes we were there again last Sunday, no tree climbing this time though. It was another Alpha away day, and another amazing time. There are times when you just HAVE to beleive in God! ;o). The rest of the week has proceeded fairly normally - loads of great stuff going on: last night another 'mum' from our kids club "JFC" said she wanted to do Alpha. She came to the History of Christmas Dinner, and was so amazed by the evening, it was great fun, she said, and i didn't get preached at at all!! Honestly, I said, that just isn't our style... Yesterday I was at King's Bible College to take my first Tutorial of the year. We are planning to work through Chalkies book "The Lost Message of Jesus" [always fun because of the controversary a small bit of it raised...]. Anyway, this week we had no directed topic planned in. So we discussed this: "Our Theology [what we think about God] should influence our Missiology [what we think about mission] which should influence our Eccleisiology [what we think about the church and do as church]. If we reverse any of these we end up on the wrong track". It was a really good discussion, despite nearly loosing a couple of people along the way. What do you think about that? Anyway, on talking about missiology, we were trying to work out where mission starts. I think it is imperative that we understand the mission starts with God [missio dei] AND that mission starts with the activity of God in creation, i.e. not after the fall. Plus, i think it is important that we see people as having a mission [a purpose] in creation. For this we looked a little more in depth at Genesis 2:2-5. I remembered looking at this during our "mission month" a few years ago [remember that?]. I particularly remember the shock when I suggested that work was there before the fall!! lol! I relooked at my brief notes form then, and decided to share them with you! Man's mission/purpose in creation: relationship with God, relationship with each other [community] and Co-creativity with God:Posted by: Mark | 5:40 PM |
Friday, January 05, 2007New Hope, Uganda
 On Sunday i showed a video of our friends 'pad' in Uganda. I hope people got a feel for things! We called them today, because it was Steve Brown's birthday yesterday. It was amazing to call from here through to their mobile phone at Kasana. Quite strange really! If you want to keep track of how they are getting on they have a blog. Go and Visit: www.blodsblog.blogspot.com. I also stumbled on a movie on Goodle Video by the leaders of the Centre. Watch it here. The website that gives more information is here: New Hope Uganda. Labels: browns, mission, uganda Posted by: Mark | 4:52 PM |
Wednesday, November 29, 2006Alpha Away Day
 We had a great Alpha away day on Sunday. Lots of fun: as shown in the photo - is this emma's first ever tree climb? Doesn't she look very ... errr ... reflective!!  We went to Launde Abbey in Leicestershire. Very pleasant setting - it is a site that has 'been been prayed on' for 1000 years continuously. They also have a cactus greenhouse. This cactus puzzled me a little. Spicky leaves I can understand - "try to eat me and you get pricked". But spikes that are like cotton threads??? What is it gonna do? "try to weat me and i'll tickle you" ... hmmm ... "Intelligent design" or "Evolution" or "7 day creation" ... hmmm.Also of course we had a great day of conversation and meeting God. I'm not gonna put details up here of course, but just to say that God is pretty amazing... Posted by: Mark | 8:56 AM |
Monday, October 02, 2006A busy weekendWell it has felt like a busy weekend to me. Good but busy. It was great to be able to put on a "marriage vow renewal service for Mark and Dione, and their girls Eleanor and Bethany. It was a really special occasion i reckon. And didn't rain at the wrong time!! thanks to all those who helped. We also went up to an emcf celebration in Derby on Sunday. It was a fun event and great to go out for a meal afterwards together. We [the norridges] then took the opportunity to visit a good friends Adam and Karina. They are planting a church amongst the asylum seekers & refugees of Derby, as well as the ethnic minorities, called International Community Church. They do an amazing work, with incredible amounts of different types of people in, around and through [and living in] their home. It seems they have a significant group of Fasi speaking Iranians. It all blows my brian!! They also run the Beat Cafe in Derby's Arboretum Park. While on the subject of Cafe's, we are getting set up for our very own Cafe Alpha. We are plannning to have a 'welcome' event next sunday at 4pm, and then kick off for real the week after that [at 4pm upstairs in the cafe in the centre of town that isn't nero's!]. We're pretty excited by this ;o). More planning/training tonight at my place!   Labels: alpha, cafe church, mission Posted by: Mark | 2:02 PM |
Tuesday, August 08, 2006A New Innovation
 Last Sunday was our CCN Family meeting at Parklands Community Centre. It was a great morning. Really fun to have some guests come along. And really great to be able to invite Pete Wiliams back [in fact Pete AND Mirriam ;o)]. I asked Pete to speak about "God's Heart for the Nations", which he did admirably. Our particular innovation was to use Audacity to record the preach, and be able to save it as an MP3. Aren't we cool?!?! If you want to listen download here: Pete Williams: God's Heart for the Nations [4.3 MB]. Posted by: Mark | 2:40 PM |
Tuesday, July 25, 2006Decline of the ChurchJason Clarke has posted some thoughts and notes from a lecture on the decline of the church in the UK. It is fascinating reading, and great to get some real flesh on the often anecdotal statement "the church attendance is decreasing". One of the major things to note for me is the difference between the UK and the US. SO much of church talk is compared to the US, which forgets that there is a background church attendance of 40% there compared to less than 7.5% [1998 figure] here. Here are some of Jason's thoughts: 5. Surveys on church attendance in UK show: 1979 - 12%, 1989 - 10%, 1998 - 7.5%. The trend is downards You'd better head over here to read the rest [and/or take a look at his notes!] Posted by: Mark | 11:51 AM |
Wednesday, July 12, 2006Forum For The FutureWell, after so long I clearly am not going to get around to blogging more from the conference I went to in Germany. I managed two: one on cultural shifts and one introduction. So I have decided to give you chance to download my notes. I can type pretty fast and so they are fairly comprehensive. Go on take a look ;o). Click here. Labels: church, conferences, mission Posted by: Mark | 12:42 PM |
Wednesday, May 17, 2006Innovation ConferenceMy brother reminded me last night that I had promised more stuff on the conference. So I feel suitably spurred on. My previous post covered the first half of the first session [of 7, and each session was 3 hours!! The Germans, eh?!] by Gerard Kelly. He did one other session which I want to mention. I will do more of the stuff by Alan Hirsch, but not session by session [hopefully!]. Firstly he suggested 3 shifts since the millenium: 1) A philosophical Shift The main point here was that he thought that there was a more positive outlook generally. From teh end fo the world feelings at the end of the millenium [Independence day etc] to the 'open space' of a new millenium. I want to agree with him on this, but I am just a little bit skeptical. Someone challenged him about it and he was fairly defensive! Maybe he also thought he was pushing it to say it was a 'cultural shift'. What was good at this point was his retelling of 1 Kings 19 and Elijah's confrontation with the prophets of Baal. He focussed on what happened next: Elijah is fearful and runs for his life, and then is deeply depressed. He followed the story all the way through to Elijah wanting the presence of the Lord - but it wasn't in the mighty wind, it wasn't in the earthquake, it wasn't in the fire, it was in the whisper. From the Drama of Mount Carmel to the Whisper of Mount Horeb. Now that is something I have never heard preached on that story!! Gerard related this to a required change of mindset and models. This is a journey of GENTLENESS. Not of confrontation, not narrow triumphalism where we feel good because we have made our point. But finding those people open to the work of God in their lives - they are out there in millions. They are asking the question but don't now Jesus makes the difference. They can't engage on Mount Carmel because it is too loud and brash, but rather find God in the whisper. 2) A sociological shift From the obligations of Christendom to the freedom to consume. Sociologist Grace Davey says the biggest cultural change for Europe is the collapse of the state churches. A huge number of people who have opted out of state religion. People no longer want to go to church because they think they ought to. Bu8t we have tended to keep the people we have through obligation and draw others through guilt!!! When you remove Christendom model of going to church because they ought to, there are spaces for new kinds of churchwhere people go because it does them good. [interesting note: apparently in Scotland they made charitable status of organisations dependant on the good that they do for the community. And guess what: some churches protested!!] 3) A theological shift This I really liked [although not strictly theological!!]: A shift from what is true to what is real. In todays world in order to discuss truth you must discuss what is real. Therefore we must root our theology in what is real; Real experiences, and hopes and fears, real creation. Truth must be lived out in authentic human relationships, to demonstrate its reality. Here was a great illustration of what reality deos for you. The artist Caravaggio painted two pictures of the Supper at Emmaus. The first was in 1601 at the height of his 'playboy' lifestyle.  The second in 1606 after he was in exile from his own country. The paintings reflect this reality shift, the nature of gritty realism.  Here's a [real] truth: It is when things go wrong that people see what your faith means. [Hmmm this conference thing to take a while to get through!! Anyone actually interested?!] Labels: conferences, discipleship, media, mission Posted by: Mark | 8:58 AM |
Friday, May 05, 2006The Da Vinci Code
 Everyone has heard of the The Da Vinci Code I am sure!. I read the book on holiday last summer. Whilst a literary master piece, it was a good holiday read with a gripping flow of narrative, with the added spice of scandal. It seems to me that the latter, the scandal msut be the primary reason for its huge sales. What feeds the desire for that scandal? a number of things, it seems to me: 1) The suspicion of authority And many others no doubt, but I think it interestingly reflects our postmodern, post christian context. Just a thought. Anyway, I am intending to use this post to collect links to response to the Da Vinci Code. The hype is only on the increase with the Film being released on May 19th. We have a discussion night on the Book/film on May 24th, so you'd better get reading!! [note: beware of spoilers in all of these links!!]
Film Reviews: Summary: Disappointing
Labels: mission Posted by: Mark | 8:28 AM |
Wednesday, January 18, 2006Cafe Church - FRWY.ca
 In keeping with my general tradition of posting about examples of cafe church that I find, here is another. By the look of the website this looks to be a great example. FRWY.ca café is an innovative, non-profit coffee house and community commons that was started by a progressive, urban, artistic, missional church community called The Freeway Their selling points are great!: great coffee | art space | live music | dj showcases This is a really interesting outline of the idea of Third Place. For example: There are essential ingredients to a well-functioning third place. They must be free or inexpensive to enter and purchase food and drink within. They must be highly accessible to neighbourhoods so that people find it easy to make the place a regular part of their routine -- in other words, a lot of people should be able to comfortably walk to the place from their home. They should be a place where a number of people regularly go on a daily basis. It should be a place where the person feels welcome and comfortable, and where it is easy to enter into conversation. And a person who goes there should be able to expect to find both old and new friends each time she or he goes. Do places like this really still exist? Clearly the good old English pub is the prime example - but things are changing on that front aren't they? Anyway, to appreciate it all you also need to see their church blog, the colloquy. Enjoy! The only downer of the whole endeavour is that they haven't got a good grgaphic that I can put on this post!! Labels: cafe church, mission Posted by: Mark | 1:20 PM |
Friday, July 22, 2005An unsettling weekI have spent time with 3 interesting challenging sets of people over the last week: 1) A friend of mine who is planting a church amongst asylum seekers and refugees in Derby. They have amazing opportunities to help and bless people in nightmare situations. There have also been some amazing opportunity through a community arts project to help refugees and asylum seekers express themselves through art, including art festivals, that they have been heavily involved in. They have looked into opening a community cafe, and have just been offered a building from the council for use as a cafe at a low rent in the area they are working into. These guys challenge me greatly on their pursuing of everything that God has for them, and their trust and faith that God will provide along the way. 2) Another friend of mine from Derby has pretty much decided to take his family to Uganda to work at an orphanage there [his kids are 5 and 3]. They want to up sticks and go [whilst raising funding of £1000 per month]. I find this hugely exciting. I find it hugely challenging. How quickly is it possible to settle down into an existence that removes the radical call of God from our expectations? 3) More friends who are relocating to New Zealand, cos they feel God has said it. They leave in 4 weeks and there are so many unknowns on houses, schools, culture change, leaving family [some of which they know they will never see again...]. Again the singular focus of obedience to God, the constant ear open to God's leading and moving. The belief that they can be part of the mission of God. These three encounters unsettle me. Partly because I too am desperate to see my life in service of God for the glory of his kingdom. Partly because I am constantly evaluating whether my ears are open to hear anything from God. Partly because in two cases I am loosing close friends. But let me say this. I believe in the church being involved in the nations. I believe that is God's heart. I believe that our involvement at many levels is crucial to remove our parochialism, our focus on the here and now of our 'hard lives' and lift them up to God's worldwide purpose, the big picture, our ability to get excited what God might even do through one of us. I don't care what the 'excuse' is, what has to justify it - we must be involved we must put our small offering on the altar of God's great purposes in the world. Let me tell you there are people out there in many parts of the world making a huge difference for the people around them and for the kingdom. Could that be you? Labels: mission Posted by: Mark | 11:25 AM |
Thursday, June 23, 2005Malt Cross   [this reminded me of the matrix]  [amazing glass roof] On Tuesday it suddenly came off for us to finally visit the Malt Cross in Nottingham. So Maddy, Asher, Rhoda, Michelle and I went on a mission to find out what this place was like and what it was all about. For a small entrance, the building is very tardis-like, concealing an amazing interior - a place with real character and interest. It is a fairly unique setup in many ways, not least in that the building is owned by a trust, and the 'business' is run by a team on the ground, but under the auspices of an ecumenical setup involving many churches in Nottingham. I guess the heart of it and the interest factor from our point of view is it's raison d'etre. It is not a cafe-bar ofr a cafe-bars sake but rather, i think, a place, or better a "space", for life. They talk about creating a safe place to create: relational space, creative space, thinking space, sacred space. I guess the foudnation of this is the 'community' that is created within the cafe that people can be part of place in the midst of that the opportunity for creativity, thinking, and spirituality. Those relationships are built within the staff and the staff's relationships to the 'guests'. Creativity is explored through the bands and acts they have on their stage and the art gallery they have in a back room. Thinking is encouraged through the relationships, and, they said, discussions events. Finally they have a 'sacred space' prayer room out the back as well. It sounds early days in their journey, but there is much to be inspried by and learn from. Things that struck me: - one of the main guys prayed for 5 years around nottingham for a place like this, before the Malt Cross became a possibility. - the heart and vision of the guys running it to see disciples being formed in the context of the cafe community - crushed maltesers and coffee beans sprinkled on the mochas - the similar ideas to what are in my head - great building, but even so they felt constrained by it Anyone else? All of my photos are here [you may have to register to view them, but it is a great service anyway. I recommend clicking slideshow] Labels: cafe church, mission Posted by: Mark | 3:34 PM |
Wednesday, May 11, 2005Reinventing Evangelism, part 10 10. We must allow time for people to process both intellectually and emotionally what they have heard and experienced. Well, there it is, point 10 - the last one. I think this is a point that many will have already embraced. The profile of Alpha has brought this very much to our attention - forming belief is a process. We could take it further though - we have been obsessed by the conversion moment - and to be honest Alpha still pushes for that. The journey into being a disciple of Jesus takes time. Christianity is not a one-shot deal that gets you into heaven. We are 'saved' for life, for a transformed life that begins now, that affects the world around us and which will be made complete when Jesus returns. Increasingly as people want to determine what is authentic they need time for trust to develop - trust of us, the followers of Jesus, and trust of Jesus himself. That why uit is imperative that we are an inclusive community. That we allow people to belong before they can say that they fully believe. They will find Jesus in the midst of his community. That takes work and movement on our part to reach in love and include in openness and invitation. Hope you enjoyed this little series of blogs!!! Labels: mission, reinventing evangelism Posted by: Mark | 2:08 PM |
Monday, May 02, 2005Reinventing Evangelism, part 9 9. We must be open to the possibility that God has something significant to teach through the person(s) with whom we are sharing the good news. I don't know of you remember Maddy doing a little slot on Peter and Cornelius. I love the idea that Peter was changed by the experience - his prejudices challenged, his paradigms blown apart. When you think about this idea, it is hugely different from the traditional model. That could be best envisaged by the 'crusade' event - the evangelist stands behind the microphone, describing the benefits of the cross for those listening, and if they like it they are invited to front or to raise their hand. Communication here is one-way - from the Christian to the non-Christian. We are challenged in this penultimate point to change the communication model - to move from one-way to two-way, from monologue to dialogue, from 'talking' to 'conversation'. There are many skills that need to be brushed up on for this to be a reality that go beyond practising telling your 'testimony' - it might include 'reflective listening' and 'the art of questioning'. And will certainly require a change of heart and a change of posture on our part. It is a learning posture - "what can I learn about God, truth and seeking through this conversation partner?".
You might be pleased to know that there is just one left!! Labels: mission, reinventing evangelism Posted by: Mark | 5:23 PM |
Thursday, April 28, 2005Reinventing Evangelism, part 8 8. We must invite people to become involved in a community of believers as the first step to believing. If there is any one of these that I would put as a number 1, then it would be this one. I have often been fascinated with the "saved and added" theory based on Acts 2 - and often have heard people say about doing the saved bit but not the added bit. I think this is barking up the wrong tree. Gordon Fee asks whether fromt he bibles point of view, you can know you are 'saved' if you are not part of a community of believers. But this goes further, and this is why it is important. This is not a new 'evangelistic technique', rather it is born out of a good theological understanding of God's intentions - it goes beyond individuals to a community - the forming of the people of God. It also takes seriously a changed world that forms belief, not through rationalistic proofs alone, but also through experience that something produces what it says it does, and that adds meaning to life. It deals seriously with people who do not respond well to 'being told' something, but are used to forming ideas through many different relationships and media. It also takes seriously Jesus' example in the Gospels, where he is constantly found eating, sharing with, talking to, being blessed by, healing all kinds of different people, many of whom the religious leaders would not have even considered worthy of their time. Go and read it again, he says it far better than me!! Where and who are the people who belong to our community but who are still on a journey to faith? Labels: mission, reinventing evangelism Posted by: Mark | 10:15 AM |
Wednesday, April 27, 2005Reinventing Evangelism, part 7 7. We must communicate in a clear, caring, compelling, and compassionate manner. There is a lot here that draws together thought from previous entries. I think there are two things i will highlight. Firstly, it is clear here that the evangelist encounter people where they are at. In order to do that he/she starts as a listener. It is a missed opportunity to assume where the gospel engages with this person - it will engage, if in fact it is "good news", but we must listen to fully realise where and how. Secondly, the message of good news is not jsut a 'message' a sequence of words, it is a live giving, life changing, life renewing message of transformation that also includes actions, thoughts and prayers, in addition to the normal conversation skills of listening, questioning and talking. Secondly, this section made me challenged me on this aspect of urgency. I guess i feel urgency has been an excuse for quick-fix evangelism, simplistic one-size fits all responses to people that deals purely with "their soul" and doesn't embrace people as "wholes". Urgency then cannot mean "not thought out" or "not holistic" or "cheap and easy", maybe more it means "intentional". This is not an easy-come easy-go lifestyle, it is a 24hour day reorientation around Christ, that pulls us constantly out of our selfish, individualistic lives, and points us unrelentingly to God and our neighbour. This intentionality is not a pulling up by the bootstraps, but not being scared of working really hard for the sake of others as we allow the energy of the Spirit to have its full way within our hearts - we are impelled and sustained by the Spirit of Jesus to live for the benefit of others. Labels: mission, reinventing evangelism Posted by: Mark | 11:47 AM |
Monday, April 25, 2005Reinventing Evangelism, part 6 6. We must assume that God is already at work in a person's life prior to the arrival of any evangelist. I heard at the weekend of someone who was just back from visiting China. In a conversation, they were asked what their job was, "Bible Teacher" he replied. "What's the bible" the new friend said. "a book about God, and particularly about Jesus". "Who is this person Jesus" came the final reply. Ah! Where do you start!! That is surely primary missional question: "where do you start". We can no longer assume basic understandings of anything. We must start by listening, listening to connect with those points where God has provided ready soil to see the gospel seed planted. The places where God is already at work. This fact, more than any other, I think, makes our daily lives exciting. Who knows when we walk out of our front doors who we will meet, what God is doing in their lives, and how, in whatever big or small way, we will participate in God's work. It is enought want to get those communication lines open with God before you go, so you are ready to hear his promptings. In addition to hieghtening the expectation and excitement, it also takes the pressure up. You do not have to go out drumming up excitment, bringing in converts, doing God's work for him; God is already out there doing his stuff. Can you see it? Labels: mission, reinventing evangelism Posted by: Mark | 2:32 PM |
Friday, April 22, 2005Reinventing Evangelism, part 5 5. The Church must share the good news in the context of the marketplace of ideas and beliefs. Star Trek [original series] to Star Trek Next Generation was a huge shift. From James T Kirk [William Shatner], who strolls in to any new world, all guns blazing, putting wrongs to right to Jean-Luc Picard [Patrick Stewart] the diplomatic, philisophical leader. From a conquering mission to "the prime directive" of non-interference. That is until the Borg. The Borg is a collective, they absorb everything into themselves, and are no respecter of persons. The Borg have a "no tolerance" policy - and that is the the one thing that starfleet and Jean-luc Picard can't stand - the prime directive goes out the window... the one thing that is not tolerated is intolerance. Here we are called to be secure enough in God to not be forced into a defensive posture, and to return into conversation with every area of society. Genuine conversation where both parties are there to learn. These are the kind of healthy conversations that allow people to genuinely engage with the realities of our faith. It is at that point that we discover whether our faith actually means anything, or whether it is an irrelevant collection of ideas and theories that make no difference to the lives we lead or the world we live in. Does the gospel have anything to say about the environment? abour world poverty? about AIDS? abouyt education? about the NHS? Between us all we better hope so and it better be a message of hope. And we better hope that it has a positive affect on the way we live now and not return us to our well guarded 'circle'. However 'rolerance' is not a destination, because it is not enough. Tolerance says "well that is fine for you, do and get on with it". Jesus called us to a way of love and service. To love our 'enemies', to bless those who persecute [act for their good], to be part of bring the holistic biblical vision of "shalom" [wholeness in every area of life] and justice for the world. That is far beyond 'live and let live'. It is a dynamic engagement with where people are it a way where they experience the loving in-breaking kingdom of god in their lives ... in us, thaking that humble, loveing, serving posture. Labels: mission, reinventing evangelism Posted by: Mark | 3:38 PM |
Thursday, April 21, 2005Reinventing Evangelism, part 4 4. We understand that decisions for Christ must express a commitment to be a disciple of Christ. I have quoted one of Dallas Willard's points a lot lately. I goes something like this: "Your systems are perfectly designed to acheive the results you are getting". To put it another way, the means by which we do something, the way we do it, the programmes we have, all "form us" as people. They inform our beliefs and our actions, our values and our priorities. This quote, then, applies to churches as much as it might apply to a car assembly line [not in anyway making more association than that!]. What then is the 'end result' of church? What is our output? I am interested in 'producing' disciples, people equipped, trained and envisioned to live life int he way of Jesus wherever they find themselves. This articles makes the fantastic point that this is clearly also the result of our 'evangelism', which is why the evangelistic task and the church task are so similar - it is just helping people whatever point they are on the journey. In that sense we are all individualls and all at a different point. This quote focuses on Matthew's Gospel. Why? It contains the most used by evangelists when they want us to 'get out there'. It also contains most guidance on living this Jesus following life, not least in the sermon on the mount. It is therefore an appeal once again not to get compartmentalising and to read these gospels as whole books, and therefore get closer to a more complete gospel. Again: "The contemporary church has to face the urgent challenge of its failure to turn decisions for Christ into disciples of Christ."Wow, the church needs some evangelising, never mind anyone else!! Labels: mission, reinventing evangelism Posted by: Mark | 10:34 AM |
Wednesday, April 20, 2005Reinventing Evangelism, part 3 3. Our conviction must be that evangelization emerges from the heart of the Church rather than being fabricated at the periphery. If I have communicated anything to anybody over the last couple of years, that fact that I love that section will not be surprising. It captures the idea of "missional community". Firstly that mission is at the heart of what church is, not as an activity, but as an identity. If we ARE the body of Christ, then the way that we LIVE incpasulates, or better incarnates the nature of Jesus to the world. Would we be happy to read of Jesus spending his days hiding in a closet? NO! We are glad to here that the prayer closet was a place he visited - but it wsan't a destination!! Secondly this mission is not an individual one, it is one we engage in together, as a body, as a community. It is in that network of relationships that the Spirit can be found residing, that the Gospel is demonstrated practically, and that learning and belief forming occurs. You know what? I find that very relieving and releasing!! You will notice that that latter point is picked very well by the Alpha course set-up. Labels: mission, reinventing evangelism Posted by: Mark | 1:44 PM |
Monday, April 18, 2005Reinventing Evangelism, part 2 2. We must communicate the gospel as the story of God's saving mission in the world rather than as a series of abstract propositions. I do know if this helps some of my questions about our worship and learning. I am hoping the Phbil Norris at the Retreat Day will also help us with this. If the gospel message is about understanding a new story then we need a multiploicity of ways opf accessing that new story and living in it, and inviting others to live in it to. That is what I dream our church gatherings will be primarily about - helping each other to continue to live in the story of God. Wehave talked before about how logical proofs/arguments are not convincing for many these days - they respond 'well that's lovely for you'. We need more creative ways of living and communicating the story in a way that communicates with their lives and invites them to see things differently. Labels: mission, reinventing evangelism Posted by: Mark | 12:57 AM |
Saturday, April 16, 2005Reinventing Evangelism, part 1 I stumbled upon this magazine from Fuller Seminary a couple of weeks ago looking at the challenge of evangelism int he 21st century(link from here. This is a great selection of articles, very helpful constructive and worth a read! The last article is a kind of summary, so I thought I would 'serialise' it here. It is written by Eddie Gibbs [who wrote Church Next, among others], and is called "Reinventing Evangelism". He summarises it into 10 points - so that'll be 10 posts!!
A corporate, holistic and global gospel message is all that will do to do justice to the work of Jesus. The trouble is that we have minimalised it into 'my' relationship woth God, 'my' forgiveness of sins, 'my' ability to get into heaven. We find ourselves, rather, caught up it a great and wonderful plan for the world, a plan of redemption and recreation for all things. A gospel that is good news for the poor, that brings justice, that brings hope - the hope of resurrection that started with Jesus and ends with all things! A resurrection life that starts now in us and through the work of the Spirit. A resurrection life that is breaking out into every area of life and society. Labels: mission, reinventing evangelism Posted by: Mark | 7:12 AM |
Wednesday, February 23, 2005Church at "St. Arbucks" By John Fischer [cheesy title, but obviously a topic i have to post here!] Okay, since coffee shops and specifically Starbucks have been coming up a lot in these devotionals (and in your responses), I feel compelled to tell you another story inspired by the caffeine bean. I recently heard about a group of guys who meet regularly at a Starbucks to study the Bible, pray and share their lives together. Since their experience is so much like church, they have come to rename their meeting place "St. Arbucks" instead of Starbucks. It's a very clever idea and something that might catch on, especially when you consider how important small group fellowship is in the life of a believer. from purposedrivenlife.com, thanks to Rhodes and her friend emma we couldn't believe by the way, quite how many starbucks and neros we saw in our wander around london - hundreds!! Labels: cafe church, mission Posted by: Mark | 8:45 AM |
Wednesday, November 03, 200410 Questions Two and a half years ago when I was first considering my move to Northampton I had lots of questions. To be honest i still have lots of questions, but I think they are slightly different now. Today I remembered a set of 10 questions that REALLY bugged me in relationship to the kind of church I was dreaming of. I still think these questions are good ones, so I thought I would share them with you! Before I do, I should say that I am convinced that questions in general are crucial to learning and to change. Many of us struggle with unanswered questions - they make us insecure and unsettled. But if we do not ask the 'right' questions we will not get the 'right' [i.e. most helpful] answers. The refusal to ask the difficult questions is also the refusal to change!! Often, as I am sure you know, the key to unlocking a situation that isn't getting anywhere is to change/rephrase the question. Why don't you try that sometime? This by the way is why I love chatting to my friend Adrian White - he is one of the best question askers in the business!! So here are mine from 2.5 years ago: 1) Where does church fit into a busy world? 2) How does church become a healer of the ill of constant speed and pressure of life not part of the problem? 3) How do we get out of the busyness of doing church and release being church? 4) How do we de-cloak the powerful message of the gospel? 5) How do we live a unified life of love together that includes being community and reaching out? 6) How do we release some energy to serve the world? 7) How do we stop commuting to church and start being church? 8) How do we truly see the body of Christ in ministry with no 'clergy/laity' divide? 9) What sort of people are our churches producing? 10) Are we able and ready to make the changes and sacrifices necessary to get there? Labels: church, mission, reflective Posted by: Mark | 2:17 PM |
Wednesday, January 28, 2004I have been talking for a while about how to start a Home Church in a cafe. Rhoda is starting make friends with the Caffe Nero workers. This link could give us some clues: TallSkinnyKiwi: Cafe church. Come on, let's do it!! Labels: cafe church, church, mission Posted by: Mark | 4:22 PM |
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