malcolm chamberlain

I love this t-shirt slogan - a whole lot more honest perhaps than the famous "God said it, I believe it, that settles it" one. Get it from 'here'!

Labels: fun, theology

this is brilliant...

Labels: fun, worship

there have been so many bomb blasts in Pakistan in recent months that I have not blogged about them for fear of repetition, even though I have been praying for friends in that troubled country. But today's blast in Peshawar, which has killed over 90 people, can't pass by without comment.

Labels: news, Pakistan

Labels: alternative worship, Dream, Greenbelt, worship

Labels: alternative worship, Dream, Greenbelt, worship

This is a really interesting and challenging conversation prompted by Mark Berry's initial honest post about his struggle with the church's unstated expectation that pioneers will become pastors. I'm particularly stuck by Mark's comment later in the thread where he writes, in response to one person's practical question, "I don't think it necessarily means moving to a new place... but about keeping true to gifting in community... as I say it seems to be generally accepted/expected that Pioneers will become Pastors, but that assumes that leadership is held, I wonder what might happen if leadership were not held..."

Labels: leadership

This is great news - justice at last after a long fight for freedom.

Labels: news

I'm recovering and catching up after another great Greenbelt. The highlights of this year's festival for me were...

• Athlete on Monday night - the best music set at Greenbelt for a good few years (in my humble opinion)
• Gene Robinson - for a man who has been lambasted and judged by so many you can't help but be moved by the grace with which he speaks about issues that he is deeply passionate about, be challenged by his clear teaching, and be blown away by his deep personal spirituality and faith. I don't care if it does get me into trouble (with some) for saying so, but his seminars were definite highlights of the festival for me, and are well worth downloading if you missed them
• Rob Bell - the queuing was a pain but I can't think of a more effective and absorbing communicator in the Church of today
• the Long Worship in New Forms on the Monday (see photo above) - yes, I know that I was involved in organising and running it, but maybe for that reason it was moving to see so many people (over 900) connect with God in the space in so many unique and personal ways
• the atmosphere and catching up with friends - but that's always a highlight of Greenbelt!

Labels: Greenbelt

Greenbelt begins at the end of this week - I can't quite believe how quickly it's come round (did I say that last year?) but I'm really looking forward to it again. This year there's a pretty good music line-up too with Athlete heading the bill on Monday night. The new Greenbelt iPhone app has really helped in trying to work out which things I'm going to try to go to - I've got loads of stuff on my 'favourites' page, though I know realistically I won't get to half of it!!

Labels: churchless faith, emerging church, Greenbelt

This may sound like a rant (because I guess it is!) but I am getting fed up with the complete rubbish (I could have used a much stronger word here) that is being churned out by the US conservative right concerning Obama's proposed health care reforms.

Labels: debates, news

I saw U2 at Sheffield Don Valley Stadium last Thursday and they were great (as always!) This is the 5th time I've seen them and I don't recall seeing the band look so relaxed and obviously enjoying themselves. The music was tight, the set and visuals jaw-dropping, and the birthday celebrations for show designer (and former Greenbelt mainstage link-man) Willie Williams was a nice extra touch. Thirty years in the business and they've still got it - best band in the world?... You bet!

Labels: popular culture

Further to my last post, I received another email this morning, part of which reads...

Labels: musings, news, Pakistan

I was horrified to receive an email just a few minutes ago that read...

"... on the night of July 30, 2009 in the village of Korian Toba Tek Singh, that falls in the Pastoral and Episcopal jurisdiction of Faisalabad Diocese – Church of Pakistan, some Muslim extremists set on fire about 75 houses of the Christian community and 2 Churches of the locality were also damaged.

The Diocese of Peshawar Church of Pakistan condemns this insane and brutal act of violence against peaceful poor Christian communities and on behalf of the Church of Pakistan humbly appeals to all partners and friends to pray for the comfort of the affected families and where possible extend support for the rehabilitation of victims of this unfortunate incident. "

Sadly attacks like these are all too frequent and rarely reported in the Western press. If you are a praying person, please do pray for the families affected, and for the wider Christian community in Pakistan living in fear of further attacks. Pray too against the misguided religious loyalties that lead some people to commit such barbaric acts.

The Pakistan Christian Post gives more information 'here'

update... BBC news report (and video) 'here'

Labels: news, Pakistan

update... as Steve so rightly points out in the comments, the forecast I put up here before is for the wrong dates - doh! This looks a little bit better...

Labels: Greenbelt

'This' is an interesting article by Rowenna Davis from the Guardian comparing religion and environmentalism. Dave Walker offers some interesting reflections on it 'here', not least the observations that "many... find it important to combine religious belief with environmental action."

Labels: mission, politics, spirituality

Chris Moyles and his breakfast team talk about an experience they had of 'lively' Christian worship. Stay with it until the end - it's a fascinating insight to perceptions of the church...



hat tip... Church Times Blog

Labels: church, popular culture

I love this from nakedpastor...

I've been asked to write something about sacraments for some pioneer ministers in Liverpool to comment on as part of their networked learning, but I’m keen to open the discussion out more widely, so feel to comment whoever and wherever you are! Be warned, this is quite a lengthy post for this blog!

I’ve blogged before about Eucharist 'here', following a conversation I had with my Bishop about what policy I practiced in admitting people to Communion who have not been baptised, let alone confirmed. I remember feeling a bit uncomfortable with the question until he assured me that he wasn't trying to catch me out! He went on to recommend a book by Timothy Gorringe called 'The Sign of Love' and lent me the book, which I reviewed 'here'. The gist of Gorringe's argument is that the Last Supper was, for Jesus, a continuation of the table fellowship that had so characterised his ministry, and through which he had included those often considered outsiders by the religion and culture of his day. Gorringe sets out a clear case for Jesus using table fellowship redemptively, which culminates in the Last Supper. Therefore, he suggests, Communion should be offered widely and becomes, for many, the means of connecting with God's grace and the community of faith. Rather than admission to Communion following on from baptism, Gorringe argues that the Eucharist should be offered unconditionally to all, and may itself become a significant part of a person's story leading them to a fuller identification with the community of faith.

For some time I've been unsatisfied with the Evangelical Anglican fudge concerning invitation to receive the Eucharist! I used to trip off the standard "if you love the Lord and know him as your saviour then you are welcome to receive", thinking I was being radically inclusive by not demanding that participants be confirmed. But I've become dissatisfied with this because it is still surrounding Jesus' unconditional table fellowship with certain requirements, those being ‘loving Jesus’ and ‘knowing him as saviour’, so why not go the whole hog and demand the traditional Anglican line of confirmation?! Nowadays, in my parish ministry as well as in pioneer ministry, the invitation I give is totally open – something like "if you'd like to come and receive you are welcome to do so - this is not my table or the church's table, but Jesus', and he welcomes all." I'm not sure how this would go down at a Bishop's team meeting, but given the fact that Eucharistic ministry seems to be so central to emerging churches because, in its mystery and non-cerebral engagement, it is missionally attractive, it seems that the Spirit is leading us to step down from our hierarchical protectionism regarding gifts of God's grace and get back to the Jesus way of offering hospitality to all.

In a similar way, my position on baptism has changed over the years too! I used to want to put baptismal candidates (or the parents and godparents of children being baptised) through a thorough course to ensure that they properly understood ‘the gospel’ (or, at least, my version of it) before going ahead with baptism. Now, as with Communion, I have a much more open approach. There is a significant difference with baptism, however, and that is that the candidates or their sponsors are making some public statements of belief and intention regarding life direction (turning away from all that is against God and turning to Christ). For this reason, I like to meet up with parents and godparents to go through the words of the service, so that they know in advance what is being asked of them, and try to answer any questions they might have, offering in the process alternative arrangements (such as thanksgiving or dedication services) if they felt unable to make these statements with integrity. But that said, I don’t see it as my role to ‘judge’ whether they are taking the rite seriously or being completely honest with me. If they say they are ok with all this and that they want to go ahead then that’s good enough for me – after all, baptism too is a visible sign of God’s grace, so who am I to ring-fence it or deny access to people? Surely it is between them and God, and the sacraments are God’s initiative and invitation, not ours.

In pioneering mission all of this takes on a sharper significance in that we want members of the new emerging community, who may not yet have owned faith personally, to be fully included in all aspects of community life and worship. What do we do if we are involved in taking a baptism and someone else in the community shouts out, “I’d like to do that too”? Do we insist on a future baptism after some instruction or do we simply baptise them there and then? It seems that the way of John the Baptist, and Jesus following him, would have been to simply get on with it!

And what about the words we use? At Dream we often write our own Eucharistic prayers, rooted contextually in the community and the occasion, but that has gotten us into trouble in the past! Should pioneer communities be restricted to the authorised form of words that the Church of England (or whatever sponsoring body) has decreed acceptable or should there be liberty to reframe sacramental worship in the culture of the host community? And I haven’t even touched on the ‘lay’ or ‘ordained’ question! When it’s a recognised and often stated fact that many ‘fresh expressions’ are lay-led (surely a cause for celebration!), what is gained by shipping in an ordained person from outside the new and fragile community just so that the community can experience the grace of Jesus’ table fellowship? If the Eucharist is a visible demonstration of the physicality of God – God incarnate, flesh and blood, bread and wine – why can’t we allow it to be fully incarnate in a community that has no ordained person present?

This is a splurge of thoughts and I’m looking forward to the comments, but just to finish it’s worth mentioning that I am seeing people beginning to identify with Christian community and own faith for themselves through their experience of the sacraments, be it in emerging church or conventional church communities. Being welcomed into the mystery of the Eucharist, or being trusted to take on the promises of baptism without a faith grilling, has enabled people to feel included and a sense of belonging - that they are a part of what God is doing, that they matter. My fear is that our past (and still current) attempts to ‘uphold the integrity’ of the sacraments, by building walls around them, have only served to undermine their integrity as tangible vehicles of God’s grace and unconditional love.

Labels: community, emerging church, mission, musings, theology, worship

Theo Hobson has posted an interesting (but not entirely accurate!) observation about the Dream flash mob on the Guardian's 'Comment is Free' site, in which he states,

"This might sound like the trivial stunt of a few oddball God-botherers to you – I beg to differ. I think it the most significant bit of Christian culture I've come across in years. It's one of the first "alternative church" initiatives that has made me feel positive about this vague movement."

Sadly, some of the comments there are less than constructive so I added my own (under the user name 'foxile') - scroll down and contribute if you want! Read Hobson's post here.

Labels: Dream, mission, worship

What a difference a year in football makes!! At the end of last season it was all doom and gloom for Leicester City, made worse by the fact that Forest were promoted and Ben was able to have a good gloat on the pages of his blog. But how the tide has changed - Leicester City are League 1 champions at the first attempt, and Forest are struggling for survival in the Championship!

I remember Ben telling me at the end of last season that it would be grim in League 1 (after all, Forest did struggle to get out of it!), but I have to say that, a few dodgy away grounds aside, I've quite enjoyed winning nearly every week!! Even so, I'm looking forward to the challenge of next season and a push towards the Premiership. Of course, it would be poetic justice if Forest are relegated but, if not, it will be fun beating them next season! Congratulations Leicester - bring on the Championship!

Labels: news

Dream did their first Guerrilla Worship on Saturday in the new Liverpool ONE shopping mall in the city centre. The Times religion correspondent, Ruth Gledhill, writes that this is "thought to be the first time 'flash mob' has been used to generate a 'random' act of Christian worship." If you want to read more about it, go here, but take a look at the below video!

One Dream member who took part commented: I was on the middle level at 4pm and was amazed to watch almost the whole concourse clear, with people making their way up the steps, shoes in hand. Store assistants were coming out the shops pointing and saying "there's another one!" "what's going on?"

Great stuff!!




update... we've had over 1000 YouTube viewings in the first two days of the video being posted, and made it onto the TimesOnline website and the Church Times blog! Read all about it by clicking the links!

Labels: Dream, mission, worship

I've just finished reading 2 Samuel, and have once again been struggling with the apparently bloodthirsty God found in its pages, and how we understand this portrayal of God as followers of the Prince of Peace. And then I came across this interesting post by Matt Stone at Glocal Christianity, which explores how, as Christians, we must read the Old Testament through the reframing lense of the New Testament. Matt argues that we cannot see the Old Testament in and of itself as a 'Christian text', since it is clearly Jewish and is upheld by other faiths as Scripture even though they might come to differing conclusions about God. If we follow this line, the Old Testament becomes a 'Christian text' when it is reframed by the New, such that we reinterpret what we find there. Matt writes:

"I find the movie Sixth Sense provides a good analogy. If you have seen that movie, starring Bruce Willis, then you’d know that the ending of the movie has a killer twist. In the final moments Bruce Willis’ character has a revelation that reframes everything that was going on up to that moment.... The realization affects his identity and transforms his entire story.... For Christians the coming of Christ is, similarly, a killer twist. Jesus transforms our understanding of God, and hence, our understanding of the Old Testament and how we read it. Reading the Old Testament in isolation from the New Testament is like watching Sixth Sense but walking out fifteen minutes before the climax. You’ll never understand Christianity by viewing it that way, and you’ll never truly understand the Old Testament by reading it that way."

If I understand Matt correctly, the New Testament is the Christian's 'text' (in a Derrida sense) - our interpretive framework through which we see the world, including the Old Testament. Of course, Matt makes a huge leap in the final line of the above quote as other faiths would certainly argue against needing the New Testament in order to "truly understand the Old Testament", but as a Christian believer myself I'm happy to go along with him here!

The question remains though... what do we do with the Old Testament narratives of the boodthirsty God and the faithfulness of his people being seen in their willingness to comit mass slaughter? Do we simply reject such texts as ancient misconceptions of God, based on the new understanding arising from the teaching and sacrificial example of Jesus, or is there a more subtle way to reframe the Old Testament?

Read Matt's whole post here

Labels: musings, post-modernity, theology

Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, was interviewed on Al Jazeera English by Sir David Frost on 12 March 2009. He spoke about the threat from domestic terrorism in Pakistan saying that the 'situation is very grave'...

"The situation in Pakistan is extremely dangerous. I would say it's very grave. I think Pakistan faces a mortal threat, not from India, but from domestic terrorism. And that domestic terrorism is so grave that I think that politicians in Pakistan need to come together.

At the moment the politicians are pointing their fingers at each other. In fact they should be coming together and pointing their fingers at those who threaten the Pakistani people and those are terrorists on the Afghan border, terrorists in the Punjab who struck with such deadly effect in Mumbai and terrorists who after all claimed the life of Benazir Bhutto in December 2007."

Labels: news, Pakistan, politics

this is great news!!!

Labels: justice, news

I'm just listening to my 'advance order' copy of the new U2 album, that arrived this morning and I have to say that so far (8 tracks in) it's great! OK, so anyone who knows me knows that I'm an unashamed U2 fan (why should I be ashamed about it?!!), but this really is a great album!

Q magazine gave it a full 5 stars (but then they love U2 too!); NME gave 7 out of 10, despite a pretty critical review (maybe U2 are not 'alternative' enough for NME). The only negative review I've seen to date is from Time magazine... but then what do they know about music?!!

Labels: popular culture

Once again Jon Birch comes up trumps! If you get a chance, check out the brief conversation arising from my Tuesday post, and add to the discussion.

Labels: fun, musings, theology

Mark's in the news again!! This is a pretty interesting article from the BBC, looking at how the church in Telford is engaging (or not) with what it calls the 'spiritual-but-not religious brigade'. It features 'Safe Space' and even a quote from 'emerging church guru' Ian Mobsby (is that a title that he's been officially given?!)

Read the article and then go to Mark's blog to read his reflections on it...

Labels: emerging church, popular culture, religion, spirituality

What I love about blogging is that no matter how quiet you might be (and, let's face it... this blog has been pretty quiet of late!), there's always a chance that someone new will visit your blog, pick up on a previous post and continue the conversation. And so, I was grateful to get a notification of someone adding a new comment to 'this post' that I originally wrote 2 years & 2 months ago (to the day!)

If you want to read the original post and conversation, including the new contribution 'click here', but I thought I'd post my latest response for those who are short of time...

'Anonymous', please don't think that I was suggesting that the pursuit of knowledge is a bad thing - in fact, quite the opposite. What I was challenging in this post is the viewpoint held by some that they already have 'The Truth', and so leave no room for God to disrupt their faith with fresh revelation, or, indeed, to have their 'knowledge' challenged and possibly changed by another person's 'knowledge'.

It seems from reading Scripture that God is often in the business of disrupting and even subverting people's 'knowledge' about him. One such clear example is Peter's vision in Acts 10 in which God seems to be telling Peter to disobey the Word of God (or, at the very least, Peter's understanding of it) concerning what is clean and unclean.

Of course we must study and be learners as followers of Jesus, and seek to understand more and more as we journey with Christ and one another. However, surely a religious viewpoint that leaves no room for surprise and fresh perspective is one that has given up on learning, believing it has already arrived at 'The Truth'. It seems to me that such a viewpoint has also jettisoned the very essence of faith.

What do you think?...

Labels: musings, theology