way out west

Ignatius of Loyola

Warning blatant blog plagiarism below ;-)

Paul Fromont (Prodigal Kiwi - and long time friend of ours) posts this from Ignatius of Loyola...

insisting on God’s presence in all things, [Ignatious] denied a group of Jesuit students in his day, permission to prolong their morning meditation time. Instead he reminded them that rather than spending lengthy time in prayer, “they should strive to seek the presence of God in all things – for instance, in association with others, in walking, looking, tasting, hearing, thinking, indeed, in all that they do. It is certain”, he said, “that the majesty of God’s presence, activity, and essence” is in all of these things. 

...great quote & more ancient missional thinking! Cheers Paul.

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

Things that make me sad...

There are lots of them; poor people being sacrificed on the altar of the "free market", Fat Cats paying themselves huge bonuses despite taking the world to the brink of economic ruin (Ok that makes me more angry than sad), the dehumanisation of people because of race, gender, sexuality, wealth etc., mindless violence etc. etc.  but in this instance it's something seemingly less significant than Global poverty or injustice...

Today what saddens me is when *we* the church of Christ talk about banding together against other Christians... or one strain of Christian thought "winning the day" against another... or when someone uses language such as "insidious"!  This language (and attitude) saddens me because it reminds me of the violence perpetrated on Sunni's by Shia Muslims and vice versa (in the modern world) and on Catholics by Protestants and vice versa (in days gone by)... this linguistic violence amongst those who aspire to a Gospel of shalom saddens me... and demonstrates how little we have changed since the days we burned "heretics" in the town squares of Europe!  Maybe I'm being naive (or too (neo)liberal) but this makes me so very sad!

It amazes me when modern Christians talk about "traditional" (or "orthodox") doctrine - traditional to whom?  Surely "traditional doctrine" is Roman Catholic or even Eastern Orthodox - their "tradition" is older and longer lived than any post-reformation "tradition" what about the "traditional doctrine" of Judaism?... My "tradition" starts with me... as I seek to understand, with my baggage, in my context - holding in tension the various wisdoms of the past, a desire to have integrity and to be authentic to what I feel God is saying at this time and my own ignorance and failings.

I don't want to have an argument with anyone about this, about who may or may not be right or wrong... look we may not agree, but can we not struggle to put aside our pharisaical arrogance and demonstrate some grace, some sacrificial and humble love???

John 13:34-35
Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other.

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

Are we all Tree Huggers?

Brian McLaren on how he sees the "Emergent Conversation" on the Share part of the Fresh Expressions Web Site

If you think of a cross-section of a tree, the outermost ring of the tree is the part of the tree that represents its current life in relation to today's weather conditions. So if you think of a big historic beautiful tree, maybe this part is the Catholic part of the tree, and this part is the Anglican part, and here's the Presbyterian part and the Pentecostal part. There are all these different parts of the tree.

But the whole tree in today's world is living in a time of great change. We don't even know how to describe it, so we stick the prefix 'post' on things. We say post-modern, post-colonial, post-enlightenment, post-Christendom. We use this word 'post' because we can tell it's changing, but we don't exactly have a handle on what the change is and means. But it's putting stress on the whole tree.

So a Catholic who's part of that outer ring in a certain sense has more in common with a Pentecostal on the outer ring than he might have with a Catholic who's dealing with the issues of the institution that are two or three rings in. So ... I like to talk about the emergent conversation. It's a conversation among Christians in many sectors of the church about what it means to be faithful to Jesus Christ in this time of change.

The beautiful thing about a conversation is it's not a programme. We're not saying: 'Here's the way to do church. For £40 we'll give you the programme.' We're saying, 'No, let's get together. Let's talk. Let's experiment. Let's share our ideas. Let's look for fresh expressions and what it means to be followers of Christ, and let's learn from one another.'...

...There won't be a 'one size fits all' answer in this, but what we will find then is the growing edge, the green edge of the life of the church. And that's not against what's happened before. It's being faithful to the tradition of the church. If we were to think of a cross-section of a tree, each of those rings represents the emerging church of our various eras and we're just continuing that tradition.

Technorati Tags: Blogging: Emerging Church: Fresh Expressions

Ian Mobsby on *that* Radio Programme ;-)

My dear friend, mentor, Mooter, Fresh Expressions associate missioner and "co-star" ;-) posts his views and reflections...

Whilst I found the interviewer to be very cynical/negative, there is much in the broadcast to reflect on. This interviewer called me a 'Guru' in this interview - a title I never asked for and I find demeaning.  I think it was deliberately used to bring a negative feel to what I said, nuanced to make my words sound wishy washy and cultic. Interesting that they missed out my main focus of assisting Spiritual Tourists to become go-travelling Christian pilgrims.  I think the interviewer gives Mark and Safe Space a difficult time, implying that what they/we do is not authentically Christian.  Unsurprisingly, I dispute this, and think the Interviewer has taken a particular track that doesn't go into the depth I would expect of the BBC. You can listen to the broadcast on iplayer  here for the next week.  The argument could be the same as that raised from someone coming from a very traditional perspective.  I don't think the Interviewer understands an understanding of contextual mission or the differences between religion and spirituality - and that at its best, spirituality arises out of authentic religion.  It is a shame that the programme did not explore the place of hospitality and relational mission more deeply.

Technorati Tags: Blogging: Christianity: Emerging Church: Fresh Expressions: Missional: Radio: Spirituality

Illustration Friday

How good is this!?  The idea seems to be a theme is posted and artists respond, their work is then blogged on Illustrationfriday.com...

Illustration Friday is a weekly creative outlet/participatory art exhibit for illustrators and artists of all skill levels. It was designed to challenge participants creatively. We believe that every person has a little creative bone in their body. Illustration Friday just gives a no-pressure, fun excuse to use it. No clients looking for a particular thing. No one judging the outcome of the work. It's a chance to experiment and explore and play with visual art

Illustration Friday is a weekly illustration challenge. A topic is posted every Friday and then participants have all week to come up with their own interpretation.  Topics are picked each week from a list of suggestion that have been emailed by participants.

Another helpful part of Illustration Friday is the art forum. The art forum is meant to build a creative community. A safe place to discuss creative issues, ask questions or just get feedback on your work. Want to find out how to get a certain texture? Ask. Want to find people in your area to start an illustration group? The art forum is a good place to start.

It was started by Penelope Dullaghan, ht to Alexia for the link.  The artists produce work in all sorts of media inc.  digital, collage, paint, pen & ink, pastel, silkscreen, watercolor, woodblock, intaglio, monotype etc.  all the images link back the artists own site.

You never know I might even have a go ;-)

Technorati Tags: Art: Blogging: Web 2.0

Created to be creative

Love this short prayer written by Mark Scandrette and Adam Klein:

Created to be creative
We enact our destiny
Embracing the energy of the Spirit
To risk making beauty
With our whole lives
- Amen

It really chimes with my sense of seeking to be creative rather than simply productive... that the process of creating can be much richer and more beautiful than the end product... for example anyone can make Art if the aim is to create whereas not everyone can produce a work of Art that others would wish to hang in their living room... knowing a number of "professional" artists many say that once a piece is finished it has gone from their consciousness and their are on to creating/dreaming the next piece.  I want to encourage people to express and explore their God reflecting creativity rather than judging it against human standards... so go on take some risks.

Technorati Tags: Art: Blogging: Poetry: Prayer

Emerging (etc) Blogs

How about this for a comprehensive list of blogs! ht to Hugh Hollowell for putting them together... a labour of love!?

Technorati Tags: Blogging

more on the inauguration and technology

an amazing pic ht Matt Rees

Matt questions whether technology is blocking us from the reality of the experience ("Why experience the moment when you can be looking at a rendering of the moment on a tiny screen while taking a crappy photo")  I guess we get used to looking at the world in digital (I found myself asking the same question in Africa last year - whilst viewing everything through the camera or video) and we want to record and share the experience... going back to my previous post, we now want to share the experience in the moment, not just afterwards, we want to make our feelings/opinions known, we want to know how others are seeing the same event... so I guess there's the paradox - we are in danger of losing something of the reality of the moment by experiencing it through the digital lens but at the same time we gain from the simultaneous perspectives of others.

Technorati Tags: Blogging: Culture: IT: Photographs: technology: Web 2.0

Atheist Bus ad...

Catching up on Blogs I came across a very funny pic on the blog of Bassist extra-ordinare, Social Networking addict and all round top bloke Steve Lawson... made me laugh anyway!  Especially as there was a news report last week about a Christian Bus Driver refusing to drive a Bus with  said advert on it...

Steve's pic...

Technorati Tags: Blogging: Culture: Humour: News: Photos

Missional Tribe

Following on from the Missional Synchro Blog last year (that sounds wierd!) a bunch of like minded folk have got together to explore an intentional network,  over to Bro Maynard...

Based on conversations and relationships among a few of us “instigators,” recognizing a need for connecting missional-minded practitioners following a major synchroblog on the topic last year, have furthered a conversation about what a connecting-space of this nature might look like. More recently, it appears that the time is ripe for gathering missional stories and front-line reports of incarnational engagement from those who have been “moving into the neighbourhoods” around them. These stories are meant to encourage and inspire others who are on a similar journey to our own. A group of us have therefore instigated a network called Missional Tribe — more of an egalitarian social network than any sort of commission-issuing authority-bearing network of affiliates. In other words, it is a centered set gathered around a common interest in all things missional rather than a bounded set of those who fit a particular doctrinal statement or denomination. Whosoever will may come.

...so far it's in a kind of beta until the launch (or epiphany!) on Jan 6th.  7 Second (!) preview available here - http://missionaltribe.org/

Technorati Tags: Blogging: Christianity: Emerging Church: Media: Missional: Web 2.0