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Ok, a plea... before I spend £85 on the new Mac operating system... is it worth it? I've never updated operating systems on a Mac before, so is my data and software safe, or will I need to re-install things? can I go back if it is too bulky? Any thoughts? Any advice?
Technorati Tags: Apple Mac: technology
The origin and destiny of God’s people is to be on the road of Shalom which is to live out of joyous memories and toward greater anticipationsWalter Bruggemann in Living Toward a Vision: Biblical Reflections on Shalom (Philadelphia, United Church Press, 1976)
When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house. If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him.'Jesus, sar shalom (the Prince of Peace) in Luke Chapter 10 verses 5+6
Following in the footsteps of the trend setting Andrew Jones... I've started a group on the new web 2.0 application "Prayer Feeder" ... you can read about "Prayer Feeder" here... the idea is simple... "you set yourself up by registering some basic details (name and e-mail address). Then you add a few personal prayer items – a smattering of 'please God' and 'thanks God' offerings. Then you get your friends, family, pets, colleagues and fellow church members, to pray with/for you. They see your prayers requests, and you see theirs. Your 'prayerfeed' is the combined list of prayers from your Prayerfeeder friends." obviously it is possible to set up groups, a la Facebook, where the whole group can post prayers, requests etc. So if you want to join the Telford prayer feeder group, register as a member (free) then search under "groups" and send me a request... and we'll give it a go!
Fink have a new Album out, Jonny recommended "Biscuits for Breakfast" after seeing Fink at The Big Chill... and as usual for Jonny it was a good call... anyway the new Album is called "Distance and Time" and if you like sweet, chilled guitar, laid back vocals and and overall dreamy quality then it is well worth a listen!
Technorati Tags: Music
Larry (Spiritual Conversations) seems to make a habit out of writing these lists, I've posted a couple before... I like them ... eg. "a missional community gathered"... this one is called...
You might have Missional tendencies if...
Though it seems if you read a lot of blogs that "Missional" is becoming the latest label to be scorned... but that's no surprise, it does wind me up thought... first people find a term that works to describe what they are struggling with, then everyone adopts it, then the "inteligensia" determine it is passé, then everyone scorns it... yawn... anyway have a look... my personal favourites are...
3. You feel a greater sense of community in the parking lot than in the pews.
8. You've wondered what God does the other six days of the week.
12. You've wanted to close a 'service' by shouting from your pew, "NOW WHAT?"
13. You sometimes find more spiritual depth and authenticity in the lives of those who do not go to church.
ht to the brand spanking new edition of emergingchurch.info
Technorati Tags: Blogging: Emerging Church: Missional: Religion
Hmmm here's one for the statisticians to ponder... looking at my Blog stats this afternoon I noticed that the number of visits seems to ebb and flow... each week the visits peak on Tuesday/Wednesday before dropping towards the weekend and then beginning to pick up again from Sunday on...so when you look at a few weeks together the top of the bar graph is a nice neat wave pattern!
Ministry cannot be about maintenance, but it is about gathering, about embrace, about welcoming home all sorts of and conditions of people; home is a place for mother tongue, of basic soul food, of old stories told and treasured, of being at ease, known by name, belonging without qualifying for membership.I came across this quote on the web site of "St Benedicts Table" a community in Winnipeg... they say...Walter Brueggemann
At the dawn of the first dark ages, Benedict arose with a vision for community. He did it almost by accident; or is that by providence? Disillusioned by the world of academia in what was looking to be an increasingly threatened and decayed Roman society, Benedict dropped out of school and left town. He went into the wilderness, found himself a quiet cave, and prepared to spend a life simply listening in prayerful silence for the voice of God. The thing is, they wouldn’t leave him alone. First by the ones and twos, and eventually by the hundreds, other young men went out to that wilderness place to sit with Benedict and to seek God in the silence. So many, in fact, that he had to give some structure to their common life, eventually producing the “Rule of St Benedict” that governed community life in a rhythm of prayer, work, hospitality, learning, feasting and fasting. Balance. Boundaries. Safety. Accountability. The communities which continued to be formed around this Rule long after his death kept alive a model – an alternative model – for human life in very, very dark times. He seems a good mentor for us in these changing times, doesn’t he?It never ceases to amaze and encourage me that communities all over the globe seeking to exist and engage in a changing/post-christian culture find a resonance in common themes... in spiritual even monastic rhythms, in eating together, in hospitality, in creativity, in history, in connections, but these communities do not seem to desire separation from the world, far from it these "rules and rhythms" have arisen out of a desire to be incarnate in the world.And the table? Our life is formed around the communion table, and nurtured over various tables of hospitality and conversation. Most obviously there is the coffee table at the back of our worship space, but there are also all those tables in cafes and pubs and restaurants and homes where community is built, faith shared, questions asked.
incidentally our Thursday gathering has become known as "The Table"...
Technorati Tags: Emerging Church: Mission: Missional: Rhythm: Spirituality: Telford: theology
How cool is the new NeoPlanet counter widget... I guess it's the next stage on from Clustermaps... using a 3D actual satellite globe you can see where in the world your Blog visitors come from! get it free for 14days from NeoWorx or alternatively they have an iPhone <cough> lookalike widget called NeoPod.
Technorati Tags: Blogging: technology
ht to Matt for this article on recent research done on themselves by Willowcreek
The research shows that participation in a programme does not equate with spiritual depth/growth. Senior Pastor Hyballs says...
Some of the stuff that we have put millions of dollars into thinking it would really help our people grow and develop spiritually, when the data actually came back it wasn’t helping people that much. Other things that we didn’t put that much money into and didn’t put much staff against is stuff our people are crying out for.Executive Pastor Greg Hawkins admits that his primary concern when he sits in a service is how many people are there, that it has become a distraction for him... he wonders whether it is right that all the money collected at their huge services gets ploughed into staff, service equipment (lights, building etc.) and programmes. He says there aim is to help those who are far from God move closer, and they do this by programmes, classes, etc. Participation in Church activities has become the measure of discipleship! He says that the first thing the research shows is that participation in Church programmes does NOT produce disciples... increasing participation in Church does NOT mean a growing/deepening relationship with God. In fact Hawkins says that many of people who invest most of their time in Church activity say that their Spiritual life/walk is "stalled" and that the most "centred" people, the people whose lives are most centred on Christ/God are the group who are leaving Church and the ones who express the most dissatisfaction with Church. He suggests the "revolutionary" concept that Church leaders should not just listen to staff and leaders but should listen to the people in the congregation. Unfortunately as Matt points out the answer to this is that Willowcreek have written a book and developed a programme, entitled "Reveal", to address it! Oh well, step by step guys!We made a mistake. What we should have done when people crossed the line of faith and become Christians, we should have started telling people and teaching people that they have to take responsibility to become ‘self feeders.’ We should have gotten people, taught people, how to read their bible between services, how to do the spiritual practices much more aggressively on their own.
Our dream is that we fundamentally change the way we do church. That we take out a clean sheet of paper and we rethink all of our old assumptions. Replace it with new insights. Insights that are informed by research and rooted in Scripture. Our dream is really to discover what God is doing and how he’s asking us to transform this planet.The question will be how this research impacts the day to day life of Willowcreek, there is no doubt they have a very powerful voice in US Christendom, so will they re-orientate and will others follow? It would be good if in doing this they begin to point to the communities in the US who have been trailblazing relational/missional community and to challenge the Holy Cows of the evangelical mega-church movement they have promulgated.
Brian McLaren: Finding Our Way Again: The Return of the Ancient Practices
Paul S. Fiddes: Participating in God: A Pastoral Doctrine of the Trinity
Tom Sine: The New Conspirators: Creating the Future One Mustard Seed at a Time
Walter Brueggemann: Living Toward a Vision: Biblical Reflections on Shalom (Shalom Resource)
: your musings :