the red pill

There are occasions when I'm not so proud to be British. The way that the establishment rolls out the red carpet to leaders of oppresive regimes sickens me. I really hope that someone, somewhere had chosen the music to accompany the arrival of the Saudi royal at Buckingham Palace as a kind of comment.

It's a strange day. 20 years ago today I had the encounter with an evangelist that would go on to reshape my life completely, and all because of a dear old saint who prayed. Alma was one of those easily-overlooked-on- earth heaven shakers. Alma prayed and things happened. It being Halloween , and Alma being what some would describe as a prayer warrior, intercessor, spiritually attuned (pick your favourite term, or tell me of a better one), she was certainly going to be at the prayer meeting in church that night, to pray for God to touch the lives of young people especially, and to ask his protection for those who might be opening themselves up to less than helpful spiritual experiences on that day when darkness seems just a touch darker still. That early evening, as she waited for her bus, Alma spotted some graffiti  left by a local gang, a list of names and tags. Alma, being Alma, took out a notepad and wrote down the names as best she could, struggling to make out what ...

This coming Sunday in Cafe Church we'll be thinking about how advertisers seek to entice us into gaining our sense of identity through the consumer choices we make. I like this video on the subject, and may well use it on the night. The text is: I am product. Your senses reel at the sight of my seductive branding. Your feelings of inadequacy heightens without me. I complete you. Arms laden with disposable carrier bags filled with me, you feel a sense of purpose briefly kindled in your lonely soul. I am built in a plastics factory by unhappy people in a land you've never been to. Shipped in bulk, stacked high in warehouses nationwide, I provide you with a sense of individuality you could not otherwise achieve. You are Target Market, my End User Consumer. You need me, feed frenzy, buy me use me break me. Buy another. I am worth the vice grip stress of debt. You are worth what you paid for me. Indulge yourself. Suckle on the post-consumer afterglow. Tell your friends. Key in your ...

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Seems like I’m forever catching up Well some highlights since last posting, or from about that time but I haven’t had a chance to yet. We had Ruth and Glen Powell come for dinner whilst they were touring the country. They live and work in Sydney, Glen for the Uniting church, encouraging fresh expressions, Ruth for NCLS Research, an organisation that researches church trends in Aus. Glen and I had corresponded through the youthmultimedia group I’m part of, and so it was a good chance for us to meet up properly, to hear about their work, to see if there are ways that we in Bromley might get involved with some of the excellent qualitative as well as quantitative research that Ruth does. Another wonderful online connection. I searched on facebook for some old friends who we’d lost touch with from our days living and studying in Lancaster. They too had experienced fertility problems, and we were overjoyed to discover they had a daughter about the same age as our son, having had treatment in...

The Youth Camp that we'd organised for August had to be hastily re-arranged as the field we rent was waterlogged. So last week, instead of taking our young people and youth leaders away for a week, we ended up offering a shorter, MiniCamp, based from Bromley, but with several trips out. The first day was a trip to Thorpe Park, a theme park with very good rides, and very long queues. I hadn't been to a theme park for a very long time (aside from one summer working in one in my student days) and it wasn't until i had safely shepherded the lads i was looking after into their seats, and got strapped in myself that I remembered "Oh yeah, rides, kinda scary..". The second day was at the seaside, based in Whitstable, and included the rather surreal moment of ten of our group in the sea swimming and playing, being watched by ten on the beach huddled under raincoats, towels, umbrellas to keep dry from the rain. Friday we went up into London to do the Big Bus tour, a boat t...

There’s a lot to catch up on, so today will probably be a multiple posting day. Let’s start with the good news, something I’ve been meaning to share for a while. Following fertility treatment, we’re pregnant again (well, I say “we”…). It’s 14 weeks ago today we had a third course of treatment in Northampton – the first course resulted in our son, the second, last summer, was unsuccessful – and that makes my wife 16 weeks pregnant, baby (who is currently referred to as Hope) is due the 2nd week of February, about a month after our son’s 3rd birthday. We’ve had a couple of scans, the first, at 8 weeks, allowed us to see the heart, and even hear it, and then we had another a few weeks ago that enabled us to see all was well again. It’s the strangest thing, catching a glimpse of this person who we’ll not meet for so long. “Surely you knit me together in my mother’s womb”. We’re blown away by the grace that has been extended us, and consider ourselves hugely blessed. We know, after having 1...

I've just started reading Kester Brewin's book "Signs of Emergence". I'm only 30 pages in but already convinced it's brilliant, it has to be, it agrees with many of my own preferences... I wish I could write half as eloquently as he does, he explores so beautifully the situation of the contemporary UK church. One passage I wanted to share with you comes in the middle of the introductory chapter. Brewin has challenged the opinion that the route to the revitalisation of church is the personal holiness of members, arguing that it is because what churches offer is "boring, unchanging, irellevant, says nothing to them (church leavers) about their life, and was completely unconnected to their experience" that church attendances have declined so sharply. (by the way, is there any kind of matrix developed that could chart the pace of change in western society? I have a hunch that if we could compare the stats on church decline with the rate of change in soc...

I'm aware that not all of my readers are people of faith, and that I really ought to do more to try and convince the heathen. So I'm posting this video as an effort to increase my evangelistic impact.

I heard the news today that a second South Korean Christian worker has been killed by the taleban in Afghanistan. May God be gracious to those who remain, who grieve, who question and who continue to work for peace. Pastor Bae Hyung-kyu, 42, the leader of the team was the first team member to be killed by them earlier last week, his body was repatriated to South Korea yesterday. Shim Sung-min was aged 29, and was an IT worker, his body was found beside a road yesterday evening, local time. The taleban are calling for the release of prisoners. I'm glad it's not me that has to make the tough decisions here, and I pray that God would give them grace and wisdom.

I've read a few good books lately having had a holiday, and also hitting a stream of inspiring reads. I read Sex God by Rob Bell, and found it a really helpful book. Both as a pastor and as a frail human this book helped me reflect on a good number of relationships from the past and present. His analysis that we are meant to be human, not angels nor animals is wonderful, worth reading the book just for that insight. I also read Revolution by George Barna, a very good analysis of the growing phenomenon of faith outside church in the US. I wonder if it translates to other cultures well, It didn't fit the UK but could see some useful stuff in it. On holiday i read Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow by Peter Hoeg, a really great, twisty, windy thought provoking and moving murder mystery. This was set in Denmark and Greenland, and being rooted in a culture other than the ones i guess i tend to read about (UK, US, Aus) added a whole other level of involvement. I finished Steve Tay...

Andy Goodliff has kicked of a meme from his blog. I normally give these a wide berth, they do seem a bit self-indulgent, but because (a) Simon Jones completed it then tagged me to do it next and (b) because this one might actually tell you something useful about me, I decided to do it. Andy kicks it off with a quote from David Ford’s book “The Shape of Living” ... be alert for some key passages of the bible to inhabit in a special way. Hans Urs von Balthasar has said that often a saint's whole life can be seen as living out just one verse of scripture. One rich verse or story can be essential to our vocation, as we come back to it year after year, and find further dimensions to it. The great words, verses and passages of scripture and the liturgy are like houses which, as we study, pray, suffer and love, are made habitable with our own furnishings, pictures, meals and children ...' Andy then invites people to “post that verse or story of scripture which is important to you, w...

So, this is either: a, a random moment to make your day brighter; b, a profound comment on the way that some people will only accept our leadership as long as we do it their way; or c, a trip down memory lane. Take your pick.

Last night I did something I hadn’t done before, it’s always a risky/fun/scary thing to do in church world. I was on the preaching plan to speak in our current series on the Psalms, Songs of Experience . It’s a short series where we’re looking at a selected group of psalms that have a particular experience that they speak about. Last night was Psalm 139, a psalm that reflects on being known by God, and a little about knowing God too. So far so normal. However, I’d had an idea that instead of doing a straightforward preach - something I love doing but suspect (no, am pretty convinced) has become increasingly culturally irrelevant as a means of either communication or as a learning experience – I would approach the text in a different way, by involving other people in a conversation / dialogue about the passage. One of the delights of coming to a new place is the new friendships that develop, and especially those with people who have a heart to see God’s kingdom established. In the last ...

Back at the start of March this year I blogged a little about a sermon I was preparing on the second half of Acts 11, suggesting it would be the first of many posts on the subject as I felt it was a passage that has some useful things to say to people in the emerging church context. Well, I’m sorry to keep you waiting if you have been… In the passage (Acts 11:19-26) there are some things I want to flag up, about the relationship between the more established church and the church that was emerging in a different cultural context. The church in Jerusalem although it was in its infancy, was also the church of the beginning, and so could have considered itself normative. I find it interesting to see the response of the Jerusalem church to the news of many people becoming Jesus-followers in Antioch. They send one of their own leadership to take a look and see. In many ways one might have expected them to send Peter, given his recent experience with God’s move amongst gentiles, but instead t...

I’ve just finished reading Rob Bell’s latest book, Sex God . It’s written in the same style as Velvet Elvis, with that mix of storytelling, exegesis, and one line statements and thoughts. One of the things I like about his books is that he writes pretty much as he speaks. If you hear his podcast, or watch a Nooma dvd or read his books, it’s the same style, and it’s a relaxed, informal yet informative style that I find draws me into his thinking and invites me to explore with him the topics he’s raising. Sex God is his exploration of sexuality and spirituality. He argues that we are not to fall into an extreme idea of human identity with regards to sexuality, saying that these extremes are to think of ourselves either as angels (all spirit) or animals (only bodies), but that as embodied spiritual beings we are to exhibit the best of both of those. Sex, he says, is a spiritual act, that expresses the fulfilment of promise and commitment. He also claims that it is to be a foretaste of ...

I don't know what the world is coming to. Yesterday evening I took our dog, Sally, to a local park for a run. It was in that in-between time of day, 20.15, so not late, but not early. As I walked into the park I saw a group of three teenage lads, wearing hoodies, kicking a football between themselves and laughing loudly as they listened to music on their mobile phones. Only, the laughter was because they were good mates really enjoying a kickabout, and the music was opera (!), and as I passed by with my cheery, "Hi" one reached into his pocket and pulled out - no, not a knife - a tennis ball, and said "I just found this mate and we're not using it, do you want it for your dog?" Kids these days huh?

Hi, If you're looking for the blog with the Assembly YouTube clips we used you'll find it at http:www.assemblytubes.blogspot.com I'll write more later, but we've just had a great time, with a run of three really good late night chatshows that have got me thinking of a very different way of doing church, we've had cafe church, how about Cabaret Church? More on this later....