way out west

Pirates and Privateers (in praise of half baked ideas!)

...our faith is always under threat from blockage, from those who would control access to forgiveness, to grace, to truth. We need good Christian pirates to plunder and raid these places, to demand that these goods are released for all.

From Kester Brewin's entertaining and challenging series of blog posts "A plea for Christian Piracy" to which Richard Sudworth writes a critique...  I do find the writing and thinking of Kester and Pete Rollins helpful and in many ways inspiring and I have great respect for Richard and am in no place to argue (I'm no way near intellectual or academic enough!) with his critique... so I'm not going to try!  I would say that both Pete and Kester are helpful for me not just for what they say but for the way they say it... they both dwell in a narrative world, they speak in stories and ideas which translate... I can grasp what they are saying and in doing so I can even critique them myself... someone once said that all the best ideas where at some point "half baked"... it seems to me that these blog "discussions" often assume that each speaks in complete and formulated theories and it becomes a case of "which camp are you in" (some of the comments to Richard's post for example)  I like half baked ideas, I guess that's why I find Pete and Kester helpful, not because they offer a complete package for me to adopt or not but because they tell stories which leave space for me to reflect, to work through.

Technorati Tags: Blogging: Christianity: Culture: Emerging Church: theology

The Long Worship Photos

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Originally uploaded by Mark Berry

Our photos from The Long Worship - the all day worship experience put together by ourselves, Feig, Dream and Grace for Greenbelt 09, are now on Flickr.

Toasting Marshmallows

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Originally uploaded by Mark Berry

around the fire

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Originally uploaded by Mark Berry

Around the fire

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Originally uploaded by Mark Berry

Following on from my thoughts on gifting etc. safespace met in Tam and Jem's garden last night around their firepit... Tam led us in reflecting Moses and the burning bush... on who God made us, what gifts we have and what our "role" is in the community, on who/what we are called to be and how each of us is called to lead... so around the fire we had Pioneers, Managers, Pastors, Prophets, Spiritual leaders, Encouragers, Healers, Evangelists, Artists etc. and there are are only a handful of us! We reflected on Moses not knowing his role until he bent down and actually and physically picked up the staff... I guess this confirms my thinking from the week about leadership and my role... Praise God! Oh and we toasted marshmallows too! Happy days!

Leadership/Gifting discussion on Fresh Expressions

As requested I posted the below Blog post as a discussion starter on the Fresh Expressions Facebook page (Here) and it seems to have sparked a bit of a conversation... I'd love to hear more peoples thinking... go join in :)

Technorati Tags: Blogging: Christianity: Church of England: Community: Culture: Emerging Church: Fresh Expressions: Leadership: Missional: Ordination: safespace: Web 2.0

Pilgrimwear

I found this Tshirt a couple of months back... A perfect Tshirt for those with a pilgrim spirit!

Pioneer and/or Pastor?

Just at the moment I'm struggling with energy, it's not tiredness in the traditional sense, it's more a sense of being de-energised... this morning feeling incredibly down I began to reflect on just why I've been feeling so down/depressed for the last week or so... it's fair to say life isn't easy, financially things are tricky for us as a family but I began to realise that there is a deeper personal/spiritual issue for me... I'm a Pioneer, a creative etc. I need new challenges, new projects to sink my teeth into, to get my creative juices flowing again.

In the business world it seems accepted that entrepreneurs are always entrepreneurs, they specialise in "blue sky thinking" and they then work with managers and administrators... the worst thing to do with a new product/initiative is to leave it in the hands of the inventor!  Yet in the Church it seems to be assumed that a pioneer will gradually morph into a manager/pastor... I'm beginning to doubt this model.  There is nothing wrong with managing, and we all need to manage to some extent, but as a Pioneer I'm finding it's killing me!  When I worked in the Theatre a project would last 2/3 months then it would be time to move on to the next challenge, I could never be (and never was) a stage manager who would stay with the show for the foreseeable... I had to move on... I'm beginning to realise this is my nature, I'm energised by risk, by new problems to solve, by the creative dynamic... when left to manage something I stuff it up, not by making a mess of it but because I find myself gradually drained and I lose the energy needed and I get distracted or just thoroughly demotivated... and as hard as I try I can't find energy from nowhere!    With the creative bit between my teeth I get told off for being a workaholic, without it I can turn into a couch potato!  I'm not sure what the answer is, but it worries me that the CofE has put a lot of work into developing the Pioneer Ministry stream (both Lay and Ordained) perhaps assuming that once they have started new things they will cease to be pioneers and become Pastors... I just wonder how sustainable it is to wind up all these Pioneers if we are going to sooner or later squeeze them into being something they are not?

Technorati Tags: Church of England: Entrepreneurship: Fresh Expressions: Leadership: Pioneer Ministry

St Brendan by Brian Whelan seen at Greenbelt 09

Brian Whelan

Greenbelt 09 - The Long Worship Liturgies

This year Safespace joined with Feig, Grace and Dream to create The Long Worship - a day long (10-6) worship experience focused on Time, past/present/future... as part of the day we prepared 4 small hours liturgies, each around 15/20mins long.  They had three elements - 1) the psalms and themes of the Benedictine Small Hours (Terse, Sext, None and Compline) - 2) an element of the Eucharist/Communion (Confession, Peace, Bread & Wine, Sending) - 3) space to read from the evolving liturgy created by the participants ("The Work of the People" or the Wall liturgy - created from 840 words on cards which could be stuck on the wall a la fridge magnet poetry).  You can download the four liturgies below...

Technorati Tags: Prayer: Telford: theology: Greenbelt: puppy: Mission: Rhythm: safespace: Greenbelt09: Fresh Expressions: Community: new-monasticism: Spirituality: alt.worship: Poetry: Anglican Church: Church of England: Worship: Bible: Christianity