What is the church for?

We are embarking for the first time in my Deanery on an interesting discussion about mission. We do face some very tough choices as a Diocese but instead of fear and pessimism we are launching out I hope into a time of faith and possibility. May it be so.

A five year old who is not yet a follower of Jesus in our local school asked a great question walking to see us today that we all might do well to dwell on.

Here it is:

"What is the Church for?"

Answers on a postcard and you need to answer the question in a way the little person can understand please (no Phd required)...,

These are a few of the things I have come across that I shared with my fellow Vicars about mission.

1. Keller on Urban and Missional

2. Christianity rediscovered


3. What does a missional community look like?

4. The Radical Reformission (I didn't share this. My dear local Vicar pals would not be blessed reading Driscoll methinks though there was an insight or two for me personally that were true gems)

Reformission is a radical call to reform the church's traditionally flawed view of missions as something carried out in foreign lands and to focus instead on the urgent need in our own neighborhoods, which are filled with diverse cultures.......who desperately need the gospel of Jesus and life in his Church. Most significant, they need a gospel and a church who are faithful both to the scriptural texts and to the cultural contexts ...........What I am advocating is not an abandonment of missions across the globe but rather an emphasis on missions that begins across the street, like Jesus commanded (Acts 1:8)


5. An Alan Hirsch piece in Leadership called 'Defining Missional'


6. The Church Army website is worth a click about on.


7. Keller on Vocation which a colleague in a neighbouring parish asked me for so I re-read it and was reminded how good it is.


Lastly, maybe the child's Mum and Dad are as confused about the church as their child who asked 'What is the church for?' and the whole family might do well to watch this. The new A of C in waiting might want to give it a watch too. 

He will not revive mice

'The most critical need of the Church at this moment is men-the right kind of men, bold men. The talk is that we need revival, that we need a baptism of the Holy Spirit-and God knows we must have both-but God will not revive mice. He will not fill rabbits with the Holy Spirit.

We languish for men who feel themselves expendable in the warfare of the soul because they have already died to the allurements of this world. Such men will be free from compulsions that control weaker men. They will not be forced to do things by the squeeze of circumstances. Their only compulsion will come from within- or from above. This kind of freedom is necessary if we are to have prophets in our pulpits again instead of mascots'

A.W.Tozer, This World: Playground or Battleground?

From 'Epiphanies of the ordinary', Page 161

For the pod: The frustrations of a fixer

A friend recommended this talk and I am very pleased they did. I had already spotted it but being honest I was not disposed to listen to a Mothers Day talk about 'fixers'. I wrongly assumed I was clearly not the target market. There are some real and anointed nuggets of wisdom in this talk and it will be one I am pretty sure you will pass on to others in your churches and to friends.

I have also been thinking and praying a lot for parents (lone and married) with teenage children these last few weeks and trying to read, pray and listen to some things to assist my understanding. A friend told me of a bunch of ten lads being mentored by a Christian project and one of the ten was being bullied because 'he had a father'. Boris is on to this issue too and is looking for mentors and he is even advertising for them on our buses. These are our days. Although it was a while ago, I do seem to remember I have actually been a teenager, as we all have, but I wasn't born again but was blessed with married parents and a loving home.

It is quite complex for many I know parenting in a Christian home when you were perhaps saved in your twenties and come from a non-Christian or nominally religious background and have no parenting discipleship models to follow. It is often said that it's not the job of the youth worker in a church to do discipleship it's the parents job but many parents simply don't know how a 'Christian home' is supposed to function despite their desire to be one. The worries when all is seemingly not looking like it is going to plan in the teenage years for any parent, Christian or not, can be extreme and very, very painful. I happened upon this teaching from Micah called 'Parenting with hope in the worst of times' and it required me to listen to it twice as there is much to chew on and process. A pal is really not a fan of the Doctor but I have to say he makes my brain work and is in most people's view quite a handy expositor. At very least you can work out why you disagree with him.

I am open to any recommendations on the issue of teenagers, mentoring, teenage church going or lack of it , grace, parenting and the gospel for those not from Christian homes, children and the new birth and any other things you may have discovered and found helpful.

Epiphanies of the ordinary

"What is a classic book? For me it is one that stands out from the pile, one that you re-read, one that you recommend, one that you give as a gift and anticipate delight in the receiver. It is a book that makes me laugh out loud, or causes tears to fall down my cheeks, or forces me to put it down and pray or worship or confess; one that make me utter involuntary gasps of delight at its insight....By all these criteria [there are a few including being able to give it to a Regis Professor and a non-Christian alike], Charlie Cleverly's new book qualifies as just such a classic"

Simon Ponsonby from the Forward to Epiphanies of the ordinary

I saw Charlie, my old Vicar, at a conference recently and he told me he had written a book. He then followed this up by immediately asking me if I knew what an epiphany was and I had a surging fear that my epiphany would be my inability to define epiphany or my admission of my well-known ignorance of the liturgical calender. As it was, I did pretty well and for those in doubt of its meaning all is made clear on the first page so you can relax. I told him about Barnes and suggested he read 'Why plant churches?' and he went away rather enthused anew about planting which made me happy.

Not days later, I was in the Christian bookshop in my mothers village (growing up it always mystified me you could have a shop that only sold 'Christian books' and I used to peer in through the window and observe the weirdos inside. How ironic that I am now one of them). Anyway, there on the shelf as I browsed was Charlie's book and I underwent a mini-epiphany and had a sense that I should 'pick up and read'. I am so glad I did. Less people seem to read books these days and even less make space to while away time in a book shop. Why bother when you can facebook and witter and twitter. Abraham Lincoln once said that were he to have five hours to cut down a tree he would spend three of them sharpening the saw. My conviction is saws get sharp by reading and this, dear friends, is a 'saw-sharpening' read. 

I read once, it might have been in Graham Tomlin's Provocative Church, that the main reason that people cease attending church is that they don't encounter God. Funny that one isn't it? For all our religious hoop la's, liturgies, sermons and choruses, the vast majority of people seem to be leaving our ceremonies having not met the person in whose name we have all gathered and sung and with little passion to serve him or make him known to others. That was certainly the reason I stopped attending church. At one point, Charlie recalls Jackie Pullinger pointing out to him that to 'serve the poor' is patronising whereas to 'serve among the poor' allows you to admit you are one of them [Page 154]. We are all so very poor these days, in a soul rather than material sense - at least I feel so- but I'm longing for change as I think are many others. This book helped me with both the 'what' and the 'how' of that change.

There is a wonderful line in the warm-hearted film Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (which you should all go and see not least because it is about fly-fishing which I have just been doing) when Ewan McGregor turns to Emily Blunt while watching muslims at prayer and says "I can't remember the last time I went to church- doesn't everyone these days go to Tescos instead". Now, if this 'God-absence' is true corporately, which I think it is, how much more is this not the case for people individually. And I'm talking to Christians now. If you have read the bible at all you will have read of people who actually encounter the living God. I mean really meet him and as a result are flattened face down and changed forever through it (Isaiah 6). They get up different, changed, joyful, amazed, abandoned, sold out and 'fragrant'. 

'My burden in writing this book is the desire that there might be a few more 'fragrant saints' around- and that that number might include you and me' [P.53] 

As the forward suggests, this is a book to be read slowly a chapter a day perhaps as part of your devotions or might I recommend you perhaps take it on your next holiday or take it away for the weekend or on retreat. Whatever you decide, do dwell on its contents deeply. There are too many good things to mention about this book. Firstly, it is very honest and Charlie shares some of the most intimate highs and deepest lows of his life. He is also refreshingly honest about his failings. He quotes many of his ancient mentors and there are too many quotes to share in full but I will offer one at the end. I used the Ortberg quote on page 2 from 'The 'We' we want to be' (it's worth reading this article in full) to start a sermon recently. He writes movingly about suffering and about his family story and the one phrase he uses repeatedly is what he calls 'Learning to lean' which is a line I now have carved on my heart. Who among us is not learning to do that and needful of doing it better?

The biblical score draws particularly on John's revelation, Moses and on Song of Songs among others. Whilst I attended St Aldates, Charlie preached through Song of Songs and that series will forever colour my emotions of my studies and life in Oxford. Reading similar thoughts again here was an opportunity to revisit that complex and catch-all word 'love' - it's meaning, nature, its outworking and how we might manifest more of it in each of our inner beings. If this book is about anything -it's about love. I was also moved anew by the call for unity and I know God has lain similar John 17 questions and desires within me that Charlie describes. Attending the first Love Oxford and listening to an African Pastor's tearful plea calling this nation back to the gospel was a real 'moment' for me- dare I even say 'an epiphany'.

As I near the time I will serve and lead a church of my own I have been thinking much about what that means so Charlie's wisdom and experience was truly timely for me. I have been praying about what this might demand of me, of the cost and of whether or not I will have the courage and teachability to 'learn to lean'. If I don't I have no doubt I will be utterly snookered. Most of all I have, more than ever having read this, a desire for a fresh encounter with Jesus and that he would open my ears and heart to hear his voice and then be obedient to it. 

I end with some words of Charles Finney from a sermon he wrote in 1843 and make the request that you might pray for Charlie, pray for me, pray for the church, pray for your church leader and pray for yourself and no matter how ordinary you feel believe epiphanies will come [Page 61]. We all so need them. 

'Nothing can make us stable Christians but to behold his glory, a revelation of Him to us. No excitement, no intellectual  acumen, no strength of logic, nothing can secure us but a revelation of God to our own souls. We should therefore persevere and insist that this be done for us, that we see God's glory, and be fixed on Him. The church should pray for ministers and for candidates for the ministry, that God would reveal to them the deep secrets of His love and mercy; that He would open to them the ever-flowing fountains of exquisite and perennial blessedness to let them drink from there and never thirst more. 

He goes on to exhort churches to 'feel how much they can do for their ministers by praying the heavens open, and letting down on their hearts such rays of glory......as that the spirit of the Highest shall come upon them, and the power of God overshadow them, and transform them from men of clay, to angels of mercy and power to a fallen world'

Blogoliday

Prosperity with purpose

"God wants to bless

We believe God prospers people so they can have enough for themselves and enough to share. We call it “prosperity with a purpose” After all, if we're broke, how can we be generous to others?"

Someone who listened to a speaker last week showed me this and asked me what I think. I have been mulling on it for a few days and it comes from the website of a church I like and a preacher who blessed me. For some, you will think this smacks of the prosperity gospel but let's be really honest- this theology is not in great danger of catching fire currently in the C of E. We lean in entirely the opposite direction and far too often have a prayer-less, faith-lacking poverty spirit that holds little prospect that God can and does provide for our needs and the needs of others.

As it happens, I have been summoned to hear of the dire financial trouble my own diocese is in and perhaps there is something for us to learn from this extraordinary city-shaping church (love the way they stamp 'DONE')? The word 'crisis' has been used. We're seemingly broke-ish or that's the way it's sounding and if so we don't then have enough to be generous with and that's a problem- a real problem. Do we opt for 'austerity' and cuts, as appears to be the gloomy plan, or go with the penty French and spend a bit to get a bit and pray a bit to get a bit? One may ask what on earth have we have been spending all the money on and why has it borne us such poor returns? And we are not the labour party on Question Time so please let's not blame the bankers for this. Only in the C of E can we organise a meeting to deal with a 'crisis' and have it in the diary for eight weeks time:)

It's also good to consider the C of E's purpose. The website is right in saying resource needs motion. Without a clear articulation of purpose you are unlikely to direct your resources with wisdom and effectiveness. Now might be good time for a fresh look at what it means to be a church on a mission and ask the question why, in so many places, do we not appear to be on one.

I have also been reading 'The blessed life' by Robert Morris which Craig Groschel says he recommends to everyone (penty prosperity literature as the title goes on to say '....: The simple secret of achieving guaranteed financial success' but it is an interesting read. You'll always sell a few copies with a title like that though). Fear not, I am not about to buy a white suit, a sports car and launch a telly channel and in truth theologically and temperamentally this sits uncomfortably with me but let's all have a think together and see where we land shall we?

Might it be timely for me to buy my Bishop a white suit and a copy of the book? Seriously, do pray for him and his team. He needs wisdom.

It's just a thought so don't bite my head off.

How can I be anointed?

I haven't written a thought for a while so here is something I have been thinking about.

Recently, I went to listen to a speaker who taught on what he called 'impartation' or 'the anointing'. Who doesn't want a bit of that if it's on offer? He, as far as I could work it out, had a great measure of the Holy Spirit (told via his amazing story) and he was able to impart this to us through the laying on of hands or us being in range/the realm of his anointing (Numbers 11 was the text). He was also, so I understood, able to impart the gift of healing. He talked of a baptist pastor somewhere in the States (these people are never in Droitwich) who wanted to remain anonymous and had been prayed for by him and his church has grown as a result from 300 to 3000. How cool is that. He seemed a good fellow though and I enjoyed listening to him- particularly his stories of revivalists.

However, there was much for me to ponder and a good measure charismatic hoop la followed which I have always rather enjoyed being around. The penties do joy and expressions of emotion in abundance, which the C of E is not, it must be said, often accused of over-doing. As an aside, I heard that a penty pastor I listened to last week was bought a Porsche by his church for his birthday which I must say would up my joy-o-meter a tad:) I must chat to my Bishop about my perks being a bit under-gunned.

Maybe it's because I was so bored as a child in church but the idea that God shows up on occasion and does stuff, as in Acts, has always seemed more in line with the Bible than that he doesn't. It also makes the prospect of 'going to church' frankly much more exciting if you might witness a few signs and wonders as the launch pad for the preaching of the gospel instead of a tuneless Victorian hymn badly played on the organ. I have no recollection of God doing anything out of the ordinary in the hours of BCP I sat through as a child but maybe I missed them. Some clever' o might say well look at you now ordained n'all, but to be honest I don't attribute much of my story to my experience of parish choral matins.

This is a ramble but my question is can you really 'impart' what you have of God to someone else? Of course you can teach/disciple and of course you can pray and encourage but the idea that some people are bic lighters who make a living clicking them under you and I and then selling us the book for £14.99 I am not yet totally convinced- or am I? Reading 'The anointing' by RT Kendall (a super book by the way) taught me it's not so much what you have but who you are and what you do with it that matters. Was Saul anointed? Of course he was. Was he also an egotistical pride-filled nut bag who lacked the character to carry it- answer again yes. Every tradition has it's heroes- Newman, Whitfield, Edwards, Wigglesworth, Wimber, Willard, Merton, Lloyd Jones, Nouwen, Piper and Keller. But the idea that if Tim Keller laid hands on me I could have what he has is a folly - filled notion. He is the product, as we all are, of his faithful study and diligent and prayerful walk with God over many decades. Yet my charismatic theology does allow me to believe in a gift or Spirit-filling to be passed from others and Acts suggests as much. I have been prayed for by hundreds of people down the years and a few of these occasions have been times of significant encounter.

This is not a detailed exploration of 'second blessing' theology which I am not quite sure about (despite MLJ becoming convinced in his later years which in and of itself is compelling and is laid out in 'Joy unspeakable'). I think I believe doctrinally and experientially in what a pal calls 'more' which means I am a third, fourth and fifth blessing man. Since my day with the anointed man I have been doing some reading, praying and study. I found 'A beginners guide to prophecy' by Jack Deere interesting and a help and have been reading afresh the accounts of signs and wonders in Acts. This has been made all the more real by a wondrous event that occurred recently in our morning service. If you witness a wonder whether you wanted to or not you have a theology of wonders.

The healing at the gate beautiful in Acts 4 is helpful. When Peter preaches there seem to be three factors at work that 'enabled' the wonder.

1. Being filled with the Spirit v 8
2. The name of Jesus v 10
3. Humility and ordinariness v 13

Number three is the often ignored and widely lacking factor and character trait. I would love the anointing but am not so keen on the process of being humbled which, with my heart, is most necessary and reading scripture might involve some suffering to boot. Why else would we be told to pray for perseverance?

'God repeatedly tells us how much he values humility. "This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word" (Is 66:2). There are actually people that God Himself esteems. This is an amazing fact in itself, but who he esteems is even more amazing. He does not esteem the rich, the beautiful or the intelligent; He esteems the humble. David tells us this: "Though the Lord is on high, he looks upon the lowly, but the proud he knows from afar" (Ps 138:6)....Humility is the pathway to friendship with God. It is very simple: God deals with the proud at a distance, but with the humble it's up close and personal. Jonathan Edwards said the hardest sin to detect is the one that lies at the bedrock of most of our other sins is pride. If that is true, I wonder if the opposite could not be said about humility: It is the most difficult virtue to acquire. Humility is the virtue to which our flesh is most opposed, because it is the soil from which so many other virtues grow. One thing is for sure: Everyone who is famous for loving God throughout scriptural history is also exceptionally humble'

Deere, The beginners guide to the gift of prophecy, Page 72

This is where I have landed for the time being. To be 'anointed' is to be filled, reliant on Jesus and humble and to receive this is grace to you even though it may be hard and costly. All wonders are grace. If we highjack grace and 'commodify' it it surely ceases to be grace. It is in danger of becoming a grace-less ministry of works, effort and trying to get something that God bestows by grace rather than short cuts. The truth is none of us should want the anointing without character first. It will destroy us. It is given by grace alone and not by methodology or work or cleverness or whizz bangs. Grace matters. And when we lose grace we have, it seems to me, lost everything.

Ps

If you do feel moved 'of the Lord' to buy me a Porsche then do feel you can get in touch....

The most truthful thing

I share a quote from a new book I am reading written by my old Vicar. I share it because I want you to be blessed by it and because it holds within it everything our souls seem to be seeking. A real encounter with God.

Forgive us (me) that so much dead religion in its various forms has been and is being dished up by so many and to so many (but to rapidly reducing numbers in these days) as the gospel of Jesus. Forgive us too that, despite this, we persist in it anyway even though it brings so little transformation to hearts, lives, minds and society at large.

As Charlie quotes:

[Tony Jordan script writer of Eastenders and The Nativity] ...'speaks about his discomfort with 'organised religion', as he calls it; with people who say to me if you come through these doors, walk down this aisle, sit on that wooden bench, and sing these hymns in this order, I have got God in a little bottle under my pulpit and I'll let you have a look'. He says, 'I don't think that was God's intention.'

He concludes his findings so far about Jesus: 'The only thing I know for sure is that the words I read as coming from Jesus Christ are the most truthful thing I have ever read. As a blueprint for mankind, it is so smart that it couldn't ever have come from a clever philosopher.'

Epiphanies of the ordinary,
Charlie Cleverly, Page 27

You should read this book......

Fuel for our joy

Puritan Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity:

If anything can make us rise off our bed of sloth, and serve God with all our might, it should be this, the hope of our near enjoyment of God forever.

via Desiring God

Saturday blog-sweep

Francis Chan on missional gatherings

Rick Warren has some crucial teaching on comparison and envy

Five points on Church and Place

How to cultivate mighty faith

 'Alone together' and the impact of Digital Technology

Five steps to becoming a more interesting person

On Desert Moments

Pocket: a vitual storehouse (via J R Briggs)

Pastorfashion.com is sadly not a joke. Give me strength- as if squinty eyed Whitfield would have been more effective in skinny jeans.....

Expectation

Nicky Gumbel: "Rick why do you think God uses you so powerfully?"

Rick Warren: "Because I expect him to"

Albert Hall, London, May 2012

Candles

Someone gave me a book again and put a mini-clothes peg in the chapter they felt I must read. It is entitled 'Instruction in Soul-winning':

"The fact is, the day is very dark. The heavens are lowering with heavy thunder-clouds. Men little dream of what tempests may soon shake that city, and the whole social fabric of this land, even the general break up of society. So dark may the night become that the stars may seem to fall like blighted fruit from the tree. The times are evil. Now, if never before, every glow-worm must show its spark. You with the tiniest farthing candle must take it from under the bushel, and set it on a candlestick. There is need of all of you."

The Soul-winner
Advice on effective evangelism
Charles Spurgeon, Page 219

Pentecost 2012

For the pod: Is Christianity Masculine?

My dear pal has preached a sermon on one of the touch point issues of our day. The title I think is a flip of the coin to Piper's contention about God and masculinity at a recent conference. It is part of a brilliant series of teaching through Romans. I will perhaps reflect some more about the many good and helpful things he observes from scripture but in the meantime why not have a listen. I wonder if it convinces the Bishop of London, who is a great and weighty leader, who I listened to yesterday at HTB? He was sandwiched between Christine Caine (a woman who seems to have some unction to speak in church and lead methinks: :) and Rick Warren and offered us some timely wisdom. The Lord Bishop is not currently I think in favour of the ordination of women and were he to be he would in my view by a shoe-in for A of C- he probably ought to be anyway. By the way, what Rick Warren doesn't know isn't worth knowing but that is a post for another time.

Marriage and other matters

A range of views covered on the presenting issue of the week as initiated by President Obama and the ASA. Oh for the day when mission, evangelism, the future of the church, families, parenting, the poor, justice and prayer are agenda item one rather than homosexuality. Here are just a few things you might want to check out.


1. First- I Love Rick Warren's tweet


The 3 #SeasonsOfSex in an aging marriage: Tri-weekly. Try weekly. Try weakly.


Looking forward to hearing him speak tomorrow in the Albert Hall. Anyone who can write a tweet as good as that is going to be blinding.


2. Same-sex marriage makes a lot of sense


3. How to win the culture war and lose a whole generation


4. I had never heard of Lauren Winner and now I have had her books recommended to me twice. You might want to check out 'Still' and 'Real sex'


5. Matt Chandler and others on the issue of homosexuality.


6. Andrew Goddard's grove booklet called Homosexuality and the Church of England is an interesting read.


7. Keller on Sex and Keller @ Google on Marriage

Saturday blog-sweep

1. God fearing to God jeering

Christianity will die of ignorance because, shamefully, so many of our young people haven’t been taught the tenets of the great Judeo-Christian tradition which underpins their country’s laws, institutions and culture. Christianity will die of materialism, which measures out life in phone upgrades. Finally, Christianity will die out because people like me, who are supposed to believe in it, are too hesitant to nail our colours to the cross. Lord knows, many of us have sighed with Woody Allen, “If only God would give me some clear sign! Like making a large deposit in my name in a Swiss bank account.”


2. Cranmer is in trouble with the ASA


3. What is better?


4. Why Google and friends might disappear


5. The Pornography Talk
6. How to buy happiness
7. Top 10 most read books in the world

Ten Resolutions for staying alive to God in Nature

A dear lady in my church pushed a book through my letter box and told me I MUST read it. She said to keep it as she has bought five copies to give away to others. It is one of the most gripping pieces of theology I have read in a while.

Did I mention that the fly-fishing season has started? A friend sent me an email this week saying he had won a days fishing on the Test (possibly the finest trout river in the land and perhaps the world) in a raffle and did I want it. The answer was obviously yes.

To celebrate my joy I share with you the Resolutions of Clyde Kilby, Literature Professor at Wheaton, about enjoying nature taken from the Pleasure of God (Footnote from The Pleasures of God, Page 95):

 1. At least once every day I shall look steadily up at the sky and remember that I, a consciousness with a conscience, am on a planet traveling in space with wonderfully mysterious things above and about me.

2. Instead of the accustomed idea of a mindless and endless evolutionary change to which we can neither add nor subtract, I shall suppose the universe guided by an Intelligence which, as Aristotle said of Greek drama, requires a beginning, a middle and an end. I think this will save me from the cynicism expressed by Bertrand Russell before his death, when he said: “There is darkness without, and when I die there will be darkness within. There is no splendour, no vastness anywhere, only triviality for a moment, and then nothing.”

3. I shall not fall into the falsehood that this day, or any day, is merely another ambiguous and plodding twenty-four hours, but rather a unique event, filled, if I so wish, with worthy potentialities. I shall not be fool enough to suppose that trouble and pain are wholly evil parentheses in my existence but just as likely ladders to be climbed toward moral and spiritual manhood.

4. I shall not turn my life into a thin straight line which prefers abstractions to reality. I shall know what I am doing when I abstract, which of course I shall often have to do.

5. I shall not demean my own uniqueness by envy of others. I shall stop boring into myself to discover what psychological or social categories I might belong to. Mostly I shall simply forget about myself and do my work.

6. I shall open my eyes and ears. Once every day I shall simply stare at a tree, a flower, a cloud, or a person. I shall not then be concerned at all to ask what they are but simply be glad that they are. I shall joyfully allow them the mystery of what Lewis calls their “divine, magical, terrifying and ecstatic” existence.

7. I shall sometimes look back at the freshness of vision I had in childhood and try, at least for a little while, to be, in the words of Lewis Carroll, the “child of the pure unclouded brow, and dreaming eyes of wonder.”

8. I shall follow Darwin’s advice and turn frequently to imaginative things such as good literature and good music, preferably, as Lewis suggests, an old book and timeless music.

9. I shall not allow the devilish onrush of this century to usurp all my energies but will instead, as Charles Williams suggested, “fulfill the moment as the moment.” I shall try to live well just now because the only time that exists is now.

10. Even if I turn out to be wrong, I shall bet my life on the assumption that this world is not idiotic, neither run by an absentee landlord, but that today, this very day, some stroke is being added to the cosmic canvas that in due course I shall understand with joy as a stroke made by the architect who calls himself Alpha and Omega.

Worry not

'Don't worry about the future, worry quenches the work of grace within you. The future belongs to God, He is in charge of all things, never second guess him'

Francois Fenelon

No limits

You don't live in a random world ruled by chance, you live in a world ruled by the God of Exodus and Easter. He will do things in you neither you nor your friends would have supposed possible. He is not limited by anything you think you know about Him. He is not boxed into the cramped dimensions of your ignorance or your despair'

Eugene Peterson, Five smooth stones for pastoral work

Why do trees sway?

G K Chesterton once said " ..that there are two kinds of people in the world: When trees are waving wildly in the wind, one group of people thinks that it is the wind that moves the trees, the other group thinks that the motion of the trees creates the wind. The former view was the one held by most of humankind through most of its centuries; it was only in recent years that a new breed of people had emerged who blandly hold that it is the movement of trees that creates the wind. The consensus had always held that the invisible is behind and gives energy to the visible; ' Chesterton reported with alarm ...' that the broad consensus had fallen apart and that the modern majority naively assumes that what they see and hear and touch is basic reality and generates whatever people come up with that cannot be verified with the senses. They think that the visible accounts for the invisible'

Saturday blog-sweep

1. Colson's new birth impact (via Trevin Wax)


Being "born again" took on modern significance when Charles Wendell Colson penned his 1975 memoir following his release from prison using those two words as his title. The book is part testimony and part theological forensics, as Colson's trained legal mind attempts to describe in factual statements based on evidence what exactly took place in his consciousness when he was "born again." At its heart, the book serves as an admission of guilt—not just of crimes associated with the Watergate scandal, but of a condition of the heart rooted in human pride. In the words of C.S. Lewis, pride was the "spiritual cancer" that had eaten away Colson's capacity for "love, contentment, and common sense." Yet, as one born again, Colson gave evidence now of just the opposite.


2. The Cohabitation Effect


Couples who cohabit before marriage (and especially before an engagement or an otherwise clear commitment) tend to be less satisfied with their marriages — and more likely to divorce — than couples who do not. These negative outcomes are called the cohabitation effect.


3. Ten Great Biographies


4. Rescuing church from a Facebook culture (via Dash House)


But, as I think about my son’s future, and even about life in the modern day, I have to ask the simple question: What affect does “social media” technology have on the way we view church?  What affect does it have on the way we conceive of life in the body of Christ? 


5. 50 is the new 30 for Church leaders


And here is my contention: You simply couldn’t lead a meaningful Kingdom movement before the age of 50. You could maybe start one and plant seeds for it. But in terms of leading one, growing one, sustaining one…I wonder if you have to be 50 and older.


6. The Pleasures of God is a desert island book.


7. 5 Historical Misconceptions rundown (via Mark Meynell)

Disintegration

'No amount of introspection, self-discovery, seeking for the buried parts of our experience can bring wholeness if we make diversity and discovery our ultimate values. There is a mysterious centre to our being, hard to describe or discuss, yet indispensable to our integrity. Modern man's greatest problem is that he has lost contact with this centre and he experiences overwhelming feelings of disintegration'

Alistair Campbell, Rediscovering pastoral care, Page 14

For the pod: Would you like to come to a party?

If you are a Christian you have a story.


A lady who we baptised  on Sunday made many of us weep when she declared through tears at the end of hers:


"Jesus has saved me" 


This is Martin Luther's testimony:

'I felt myself absolutely born again.  The gates of paradise had been flung open and I had entered.  There and then the whole of Scripture took on another look to me.' 

The Great Reformer, like us all, had a whole host of stuff that took place before this moment like being a Monk and working in a theological college that you can read about in Here I Stand. He was, like so many of us and certainly me, a bit religious but not born. You can probably track the grace of God in your life through people, church experience, divine intervention, invitations, books, divine appointments, parents, teachers, exposure to Scripture and prayer and ultimately God's grace and mercy that saw you born anew (Part 1 and Part 2).

It is a good exercise to do some time in your journal. I did it when I filled out my application form for the C of E and they requested my story- 'From birth to today'- and expected me to fit it on one page. I wrote it in size 8 font as I remember and was ruthlessly honest. They really did actually have an application form which as I write this now does seem a tad weird. The man interviewing me thought me absolutely bananas as we went through it together, particularly when we got to the section on visiting the Toronto Vineyard. But they did ask.....

Off the top of my head here are a few pre-new birth highlights:

1. Being taught the Lord's prayer as soon as I could talk
2. The words of the BCP from an early age.
3. A primary school teacher reading me the story of the passion aged 6
4. An encounter with the Holy Spirit on a Hebredian island aged 11
5. A Charis-maniac service in Coventry Cathedral aged 13 on my confirmation retreat.
6. Playing Rugby with a Christian
7. The conversion of my sister
8. A visit to an evangelical church and witnessing people 'worship' in song.
9. Exposure to expository preaching
10. New birth through the proclamation of the Gospel by an evangelist in Jesmond Parish Church in Newcastle.

Since then of course my life has been absolutely perfect, unhindered and easy :)

Incidentally, I reread these which are well worth taking some time to work through if you are interested in what it means to 'grow'.

I love hearing 'What happened ?' accounts. This one by Jay Pathak is great and moved me and it also made me smile. It all seemingly started when a Christian friend asked him to a party.

There really is great power in testimony and this is the sort of story I might send to someone seeking after God.