the red pill

Last Friday, my wife gave birth to our beautiful baby girl, Hope. Thanks for all your prayers, she delivered at home, in a birthing pool, and both of them are doing really well, if very sleepy. Our son is adjusting well to the presence of an even littler one, and is going to be a wonderful big brother. I'm taking a couple of weeks paternity leave, so won't be around churchworld much, but there are some reflections I want to share about midwives as a picture of church, and about the appropriateness of a baptist minister's daughter being born into water! The details...7lb 13oz, born at 10.05am, labour lasted 14 hours. And here's a pic of some skin-to-skin time we enjoyed last night.

Here's the postcard we're using to advertise the Later Service - any comments?

Time to tip the cap to ASBO Jesus once more. Things are a little busy in our house, with the very immanent arrival of our second child, so I missed this yesterday, but am copying it here for your edification. Wonderful 'toons, take a look if you haven't yet.

Yesterday I was with 90 other people sharing together in a Café Church training day. It was a good time to meet some old friends, and to make a few new ones. The aim of the day was to equip and inspire churches to plant congregations into coffee shops in their localities. On the whole it was a good day. Juliet Kilpin led a session on connecting with the wider community, and with her blend of humour, passion and compassion challenged us about a number of things, including the way that churches have hindered, rather than helped, people make meaningful relationships outside the context of churchworld. Worrying stuff. I’ve written elsewhere about the need for church to be more experimental, and today sees some of that working out in Bromley. We switch (for the next 3 months at least) from having a pattern of two services (10.30 & 18.30) to having three (10.30, 16.45 & 19.00). The 16.45 “Sunday Break” will be a classic-style service, for those who appreciate a more traditional flavo