Guys, any chance of a roundup of the Round Table for those of us who couldn't be there? I trust you had a great day.
.Posted by: Jonathan | 6/30/2003 04:45:00 pm |
A Theology of Sleep
A week age last Saturday I went to the Paul Stevens Day conference. He was excellent it was just a little bit too warm. Anyway something he mentioned was his theology of sleep. SOUnds a but mad, but breifly it runs something like: Sleeping is an expression of your acceptance that God is in fact control of the world. To go to sleep peacefully on your bed demonstrates that you are leaving your life and the rest of the world in God's hands. Letting him be in control, trusting him. I actually thought that was quite profound. I mean - I know when i can't sleep it is often 'cos I am frustrated with something in life [or someone], or worried or whatever. Letting go of those things and finding peace in them can come [I would imagine!] if I really let God be in control demonstrated by my own peacefulness.
Psalm 4:4 - "In your anger do not sin; when you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent. Selah"
Big thanks to Steve, Graham and Mark for Saturday's event. We (Orion, Sam and myself) had a great day (gutted we had to leave early). Jason did a fantastic job with the talks and discussion. I think I'm still processing it all, particuarly the atonment/Iranaeus/Christus Victor stuff.
Dear All,
RE: ORGANIC CHURCH ROUND TABLE (10am to 4pm)
Parking
As I said in the info sent out last month there is some limited parking at the St Giles Church. I need to set aside one space for the person bringing the PA. If you can’t get parked there please head for St Johns Car Park (all day parking is about £4:20). Below you’ll find directions from the M1 to this car park.
From M1 Junction 15 (NOT 15A IF YOU ARE COMING FROM THE NORTH) to St. John’s Car Park
Come off Motorway at Junction 15 /A508 (Signposted Northampton East)
Follow the A508 in to Northampton
Stay right and follow the road under the roundabout (a very large roundabout known as the Queen Eleanor Interchange)
The A508 has now merged into the Nene Valley Way (A45)
Come off the second junction of the Nene Valley Way
At the roundabout take the first exit onto the Bedford Road.
Over the first set of lights, you will see a park on your left and a BMW dealership on your right.
At the next set of lights turn left on to Victoria Promenade,
You’ll reach a small roundabout, turn right (the third exit) in to St. Johns Car Park
Walking from the Car Park to St Giles Church
As you walk out of the car park, head up the hill following signs for Town Centre. You’ll be walking up a small road called Swan Street. At the top of the road is the back entrance to the “Derngate Theatre” follow the road as it bends to the left. You’ll come out on to the Guildhall Road, turn right up the hill with the theatre to your right and the museum to your left. At the top of Guildhall Road you’ll see the Town Hall in front of you and a ASK pizza to your left. Cross over to Town Hall and turn right down St Giles Street. Follow this road down to the end, on your way you’ll pass the post office on the right and the Goose on Two Streets pub on you left. When you are nearing the end of the street turn left into St Giles Terrace. You’ll see St Giles Church on the right and the building we are in on the left.
You can find maps here: www.organicchurch.org.uk/maps/
Also here is my mobile phone number if you get lost 07743 663175
See you all Saturday
A quick notice about the new design organic church site. Be warned, you will need a browser that supports web standards to fully appreciate the design. The chances are you already are using an up to date browser.
If you are concerned about the domination of Microsoft and are looking for an alternative to Internet Explorer , I recomend Mozilla for PC users and Safari for Mac users.
Hey I like the new look blogger!
Just a quick post to tell you all about some new resources from emergant (but there only any good if you've got broadband, Graham!)
> Dear All,
> We have online and free, a series of MP3 files from a series of talks
> by Dallas Willard and Todd Hunter, that we have permission to reproduce.
> They are at http://resources.emergent-uk.org
> If everyone hits them at once the server may go down, so come back
> later. we'll leave them posted for a couple of weeks, as they take up
> a lot of server space, but wanted to make them available.
> Thanks
> Jason Clark
The next installment!
"...[in those teenage days…] Life was charmed without politics or religion. It was the life of children of the children of the pioneers – life after God – a life of earthly salvation on the edge of heaven. Perhaps this is the finest thing to which we may aspire, the life of peace, the blurring between dream life and real life – and yet I find myself speaking these words with a sense of doubt.
I think there was a trade-off somewhere along the line. I think the price we paid for our golden life was an inability to fully believe in love; instead we gained an irony that scorched everything it touched. And I wonder if this irony is the price we paid for the loss of God.
But then I must remind myself we are living creatures – we have religious impulses – we must – and yet into what cracks do these impulses flow in a world without religion? It is something I think about every day. Sometimes I think it is the only thing I should be thinking about." [Life after God, Douglas Coupland]
My brother Rob sent me this link:
Jesus was not a Christian, He was a Jew. God, however, is Spirit and cannot be confined exclusively to any particular religion including Christianity. He’s not Jewish or Christian or Hindu or Buddhist; yet, He is all of that if we want or need Him to be, while at the same time, none of it conclusively, because He can't be and, in fact, is not limited to a person's or culture’s perception of Him. read more
It's coming...the new look organic church blog will sooooooooooooon be here!!!
Thanks to Jonny!
Taking care of the poor - the responsibility of the church or of the govenment? ... personaly, I think its the resposibility of both of them, but an interesting article... America is a funny old country isn't it?
.Posted by: jonny_norridge | 6/18/2003 11:15:00 am |
"He said that duration doesn't mean anything to a dog. Whether you go to the corner shop for ten minutes or whether you go to Hawaii for two weeks, all your dog experiences during your absence is a 'sadness event' of no fixed duration. 'One hour ... two weeks - it's all the same to your dog ... Brent then said that humans are the only animal able to feel the pain of sorrow that has been stretched out through linear time. He said our curse as humans is that we are trapped in time - our curse is that we are forced to interpret life as a sequence of events - a story - and that when we can't figure out what our particular story is we feel lost somehow" (Life After God, Douglas Coupland p181)
"Brent said, "Hey - you're always interpreting your dreams. Here's an idea - why not try interpreting something else. Why not interpret your everyday life as though it were a dream, instead. Say to yourself, 'A plane's flying overhead now - What does this mean?' Say to yourself, 'It's raining so much lately - What does this mean?' Say to yourself, 'Today I thought I had rediscovered Laurie [long lost sister] - but it turned out it was someone else instead. What does this mean?' I think this makes life an easier thing. I really do" (Life After God, Douglas Coupland p208)
The search for meaning in life comes to the forefront in a world that has lost its story. Where everyone is dislocated from everyone else, dislocated from something that holds it all together. We find menaing in all sorts of things because of our Christian outlook. "God knows what he is doing", "God provide this ...", "This didn't happen, but God is in control and protecting me". Conciously or sub-conciously we are drawing a thread through our lives that hold it together. SOmehow believing that the 'random' events of our lives are being weaved into a tapestry of God's great design, his great story. Things that seem random to us, we believe, could be fitting into the weave of others lives that brings it all together into a wonderful pattern. The search for 'meaning', 'reason for living', 'purpose' is what we can hold onto through random, painful, difficult, fun, trying, boring times of our lives. It is a gift we have to bring to others around. The loss of a story to locate ourselves means people look at people such as us with puzzlement and not a little bit of intrigue as they see what it could be like to find yourself with meaning.
Whilst reading an article at Allelon by Kevin Rains I came across another 'verses list'... eg: "Supporting missionaries vs. Sending missionaries". What is it with all this dichotomising [is that a word]? Ironically the people creating all these lists of putting things into boxes are the very people trying to comunicate with a postmodern culture.
... just an obeservation... actually I'm probably guilty of the same crime, thinking about things I've written reciently - modern baggage? or the only way to express the shift in culture and approach?
From the same website mentioned below!
Can this church website really be for real? I just love the thing about the KJV being the only real bible and the Gospel Tracts link.... hehehehe lol - I've just picked myself back up off the floor! Go and have a look, it will make your day! :o)
.Posted by: Central Vineyard | 6/16/2003 12:10:00 pm |
Well, I have certainly neglected my blogging duties over the last little while - apologies. There is just so many other things to keep my mind occupied - leading a church plant, working on programming an Ipaq, Maths tutoring, oh and the family, in fact there is even a few DIY jobs started...
Still the ability to find God in the realities of life is a constant quest. People say to me "the stuff of life [read: washing up, cleaning, day-to-day stuff] stops me living life". It is amazing how easy it is for us all to slip into that mentality. What it reveals is that life for us is "leisure time", or "social time", or "church stuff", or "time relaxed with my spouse" - whatever it is for us. The reality is that the "Stuff of life" is in fact "life". The challenge is to find meaning in those things, otherwise we will spend life frustrated and depressed! A spirituality of the everyday is beginning to allow enjoyment in & to find God in the realities of the day-to-day. Realising that the "stuff of life" is in fact "life" can be a depressing, boring reality at first sight. But there is an opportunity to find a depth of meaning and enjoyment in our lives not by trying to minimise and avoid 'stuff' but exploring what it might mean to call these things 'worship' or 'ministry' or 'prayer' or 'discipling'. Starting to realise that following Jesus means redefining where happiness, significance, meaning etc etc come from - allowing them to be God-defined rather than media-defined.
I just read this interesting quote from the whatischurch weblog (taken from Inc. magazine). The comments in the square brakets are Mike Bishop's. I find it very releasing, it's also interesting that this comes from a business magazine.
"In an antiheroic organization, the company can be about something more than the charismatic hero, more even than the hero's "vision" for it. The leader and the company [the pastor and the church] aren't one and the same. The antiheroic leader -- who is guided by who-not-how ["Who can do that?" instead of "How can Ido that?"] and is always inviting others to take their turns leading -- makes room for others to feel proprietary about what the company is. That encourages people to imagine meaningful ways they can help form the vision and make it real. They see an unusual chance to have an impact...Instead of the parent-child relationship that exists between charismatic leaders and their followers, the antiheroic leader ends up with an organization of adults [read...people who are following Jesus instead of you]."
"Give up being a hero and, suddenly, you don't always have to perform like one anymore. Not only don't you have to supply all the momentum, all the know-how, all the emotion, [how many times have I heard - "your church won't grow unless you do something about it - blah], you also don't have to fear that if you stop, so will everything else. When it's all about you -- the cult of the charismatic CEO -- you're separated from others. Being a hero is lonely. As an antihero, you get to be a part of what you've created. You get to be fed. At a time in American life when it may be what people crave as much as anything, you get to be part of a community ."
Here's a treat for any Douglas Coupland fans, a scanned interview from ThirdWay magazine, from a few years back. There's some excellent questions in there, including:
"...your own observation is that our culture has lost its sense of story, both corporate and individual. Do we really end up living life in the present as a series, as you say, of 'interconnected cool moments'?"
- you can read the article youself to find out the answer.
I also highly recomend 'Girlfriend in a Coma' by Coupland. I remember reaing last summer and thinking... I must read this every year to make sure my focus hasn't become about doing rather than being. I would take out some of my favourite quotes, but I bought the book for Mark' birthday and I don't want to ruin it for him. However, shortly after reading the book I read an article from Relevant Magazine about worship which bought up similar issues, here's a quote:
"Yet, there is another aspect of worship that transcends the profession of God's goodness: the participation in God's goodness. This is where the music stops, for it has done its job of ushering. The worship leader can lead no further: it is our job now to participate in the love of God. Paradoxically, this participation implies "being" over "doing": Be still and know I am God. This imperative stillness-this post-"doing" quiet-is a bit intimidating to most people, and so we simply don't go there. Instead, we buy one worship CD after another, hoping to somehow fill the void of stillness with God, to no avail. We're busy and do not handle being very well; we ignore it at all costs, and we continue to do, do, do ... as our sales conferences bear constant witness. Therein lies the deepest disconnect.
"So. What can this paradoxical worship look like to those of us who have a hard time knowing the nearness of God without the help of Rebecca St. James? One word, friends: mindfulness. Annie Dillard once wrote, "I only know enough of God to want to worship him, by any means ready to hand." We need to learn how to be aware of the constant closeness of God in silence, in the constancy of our every breath. We need to be mindful of smallest wonders: it is all right there in front of us. Taste and see ... "
Happy Birthday Mark!
(ooh, I'm going to be so embarrassed if my memory has failed me here!)
