Jesus was a Carpenter
Reading and hearing about Greenbelt has made me go a little green if I am honest! Here I am stuck in my house doing the huge overdue job of putting in a new kitchen. Nice. It's such a huge job, wooden frame, plasterboarding, plumbing, electrics, plastering (someone's coming to do that), gas pipes (and that), new units ... the list goes on. Phew!! Boy, are my hands, back and muscles in general, suffering. Still I console myself that Jesus was a carpenter. Of 33 years of incarnated life Jesus spent maybe 16+ years (?) working with wood. I wonder what he made? Chairs, tables? I like The Miracle Maker which shows him mounting the sign above the synagogue in Capernuam. I wonder if he enjoyed it, whether he hummed a happy tune while he sawed and carved and nailed. I wonder what he was like to visit, whether people enjoyed his company, even while he worked, whether people enjoyed bein round him even then, I wonder what made him make that step at age 30 (approx) to leaving it all, at least for long periods, to go around teaching, getting disciples, healing, delivering. The incarnation really is mystery.
I know that he didn't plumb stuff and play with electrics (getting electrocuted is quite a buzz - trust me) - I wonder if that is what he meant when he said "you will do greater things than these"?
Went to see this film Donnie Darko at Greenbelt, if you understand it please let me know?
Back from Greenbelt!
Just spent 4 great days at the Greenbelt Festival, heard some great talks, meet some great people and listened to The Polyphonic Spree hum! Which was an experience in it's self!
Friday night we went to a debate on "Is Jesus the Only Way" the panel was made up of Dave Roberts, Maggie Dawn, Mike Riddell and Pete Ward... I think the conclusion was yes of course Jesus is the only way, but that he may not necessarily save people my way, or the so called Christian way! I also bumped into Andy Chamberlain, who leads the Cambridge Vineyard. He’s the author of a book and was speaking on a panel about writing (it was good to see him again).
Saturday we went to a the first of two panels on the “Emerging Church” the panel included the Bishop Graham Cray, who’s working with the church of England looking at mission in a post-modern/christian context. (It was funny to hear him say a number time that Rowan Williams was his boss). In the afternoon we went to another seminar with Graham Cray, this time he was talking about “building community in an individualistic society”. He talked about the drop in community being a result of a drop in social capital… (something the government is talking about) that lack of social capital, means lack of trust, resulting in individualism! He was basically saying the church has lots of Social capital and really we just need to get on with using it within the context of our communities. Later that day Brian McLaren talked about “Theologian as poet”. His point was how our modern view has flatted scripture so we can end up at systemised point and hold scripture together in a very clean cut fashion. But as we look at the bible in more creative way, like a poem we start to see new way of interpretation and understanding. We also said a quick hello to Andrew Jones!
Sunday we missed the service (slept in) but did make it to a panel with Jonny Baker, Doug Gay and Jenny Brown on Alternative Worship. There are some interesting changes going on in the Alt. Worship movement. I found Doug Gay to be a very level headed guy… and really pro church (which was cool) it seems a lot of the alt worship groups are evolving and engaging more in the emerging church debate. Doug in particular seemed to have a more holistic approach to the whole thing… can’t wait to see what comes of it all…Graham will have to tell you what happened the rest of Sunday as I fell asleep at every other seminar we went to that day. I'll also let Graham tell you what happen when he went to speak to Stuart Murray and his wife at the hotdog stand (hehehe)
Monday got up late again…doh! And missed a worship installation Brian McLaren was involved in with the Revive community. Sat in on the second “Emerging church” panel and met some fellow blogger’s for the first time – namely Jonny Baker and Mark Berry.
I’ve been out of the loop for a while - Holidays and stuff, and I’ve just checked out the blog for the 1st time since the Round Table Day in Northampton. To be honest I haven’t blogged much because I found it really depressing. I liked what Graham said on the 12th and thought I’d just briefly share where we’ve been as a church for the past year or so.
Last year we were meeting in a bar in Coventry with about 20 of us. We were kicked out when they wanted to stay open till 2am and couldn’t get out of bed to open up for us at 10am. Anyway there was too much broken glass to have to clear up before each meeting, so it was good to get out. We then moved to Moods, probably the nicest café in Coventry. We’ve been there for about six months and some people have come and some have gone, but then that’s church. It’s been fun to explore ways of being and doing church in such a public space, and challenging as well. And I think Coventry Vineyard is in a healthier place now than a year ago.
We’re now at a point where we may have to move on, it’s getting too crowded and is unfair on the kids. The only venue that seems appropriate is a school hall, something I’ve resisted. But it would mean that there would be room for growth, and space for the kids to learn how to journey inward, outward, etc, etc in their own way.
Any practical suggestions?
A brief interview with Wolfgang Simson (audio)
I'm not sure if I should be linking this, but it made me smile!
Alan Creech does Wolfgang Simson
Attention All Stay at Home Dads
I have officially transitioned into being a stay at home dad. I am actually very excited about it. Having the opportunity to hang out with my 2 sons is a great privilege. My "calling" is them. So, for all of you organic gospel planters out there... any stay at home dads? And if so, are you able to work from home? If so again, do you have any hookups/ connections for me to tap into? Look forward to your comments. Peace!
It's nice to be here! This is my first post on this site. This is a test.
.Posted by: Robb and Cara Lane | 8/15/2003 06:15:00 am |
Thanks to one of Grahams posts last week, I've come across 'On the Incarnation' by St. Athanasius. The introduction by C.S. Lewis is excellent, and like the quotes of his work on the medieval-modern transition in 'A New Kind of Christian' and given me a new respect for him. He has a excellent understanding of how our thinking is influenced by our culture.
"We may be sure that the characteristic blindness of the twentieth century—the blindness about which posterity will ask, "But how could they have thought that?"—lies where we have never suspected it..."
"Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period. And that means the old books."
"Two heads are better than one, not because either is infallible, but because they are unlikely to go wrong in the same direction. To be sure, the books of the future would be just as good a corrective as the books of the past, but unfortunately we cannot get at them."
"A new book is still on its trial and the amateur is not in a position to judge it. It has to be tested against the great body of Christian thought down the ages, and all its hidden implications (often unsuspected by the author himself) have to be brought to light. Often it cannot be fully understood without the knowledge of a good many other modern books. If you join at eleven o'clock a conversation which began at eight you will often not see the real bearing of what is said. ".Posted by: jonny_norridge | 8/07/2003 10:11:00 am |
