travel notes for a rescued people
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
The Dream network has been asked again to lead a service at this year's Greenbelt Festival, and last night members of 'Dream in Liverpool City', 'Dream in Haydock' and 'Day-Dream' met together to begin to put it together. Planning worship by committee can be a long, even drawn-out, process, but it can also be incredibly creative and inspiring - a powerful act of worship in and of itself. Last night was the latter!We started by reminding ourselves of Greenbelt's overall theme this year - 'redemption songs', before 'mind-mapping' (I think that's the correct way of putting it) our ideas and thoughts. We had some great discussions around the following areas...
- the act of remembering being important to the faith journey; but remembering is not just about calling to mind past events, it's about reminding ourselves of our identity and our future. So often we're trapped by our past, but in the act of redemption we have been released to live in the 'now' and hope for the 'to come'. Faith is a struggle at times, which is why the act of remembering who we are, who we belong to and where we are journeying toward is so important.
- the sense of being strangers both in 'the world' as followers of Jesus, but also often in the church too. One member spoke of only feeling genuinely 'at home' and 'normal' at Greenbelt, and feeling increasingly disconnected from the church. This led us into a discussion about our journey with Christ as part of 'a people' rather than simply being one individual in a group of individuals. We follow in the footsteps of the Israel of the Old Testament as an 'exiled people' who know we've been rescued and are on our way home. We are in the process of 'becoming'.
- the journey of faith being dynamic and engaging rather than static and defined, but with a clear direction, director and end point. The concept of journey is important in Dream, with a high value placed on giving people the space and freedom to make their own journey. Alongside this we place a high value on our journey being Christ-centred and focussed.
- the place of appropriate (not triumphalistic) celebration of the above.
We're not sure yet how this will all work out in the service itself, but it should be a fun and engaging ride! If you're at Greenbelt, look out for us at midday on the Saturday, and come and be a part of it.
I'm Malcolm Chamberlain
from Liverpool, United Kingdom
. I'm married with two young children and, in addition to Liverpool, have lived in Leicester (for the first 18 years of my life), York, Peshawar (Pakistan), Oxford and Walsall. I've been actively involved in the emerging church since 2001, as a founding member of Dream in Liverpool City, and coordinator of the Dream network. I'm currently engaged in research into emerging missional communities, and work as a parish priest and pioneer minister.
