feig at St Paul's

those members of feig who were able gathered at St.Paul's church last night for food, drinks, laughter, conversation and a simple Eucharist.

a good time in the candlelight. chilled. deep. full.

cheers Dan, for setting things up and sorting out food!

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when 'we' means 'you'

I received an e-mail yesterday from a lovely and very well meaning person (not someone in feig) about a homeless person they had met. This is a snippet:

"I rather hope there's some way we (the church) can help him in a practical manner. Please would you go and see if you can find him and do anything, if only befriending."

I'll leave you to reflect on what is going on there.

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Chris Neal

good to spend the morning with Chris Neal.

Chris is mission director for Britain and Europe for CMS and has much wisdom.

he's keen to keep in touch with feig and offer whatever might be helpful, and to come to Durham and do a lecture for me at some point.

ace.

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great night

five guys from feig gathered at the pub (the fantastic Raike's House on Southgate street) last night and I have to say it was a very cool time indeed.

the pub is generally good, whatever you happen to be doing, but last night was excellent because not only did we enjoy good beer and lots of laughter, but the conversation flowed animatedly over a whole range of subjects from whether historians should comment on the morality of past ages, to why Israel wanted a king and what Saul being a foot taller than everyone else had to do with it, to ordination in the C of E, and why the book of Job is a rather under-tilised resource in the contemporary church.

we also planned part of feig's Greenbelt worship contribution.

fabulous.

all good.

more times like this at the pub more often.

it's where all the best theology happens after all...

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latest from Proost...

In their July news, Proost bring our attention to:

Dubh - Fractured Broken and Beautiful


Proost write:

"Dubh (pronounced "duv") is Irish for dark (and a bit dubby). It's also the guise for Ikon's own Jonny McEwan who has recorded his first solo album Fractured Broken and Beautiful. You couldn't get a more honest title - it sums up the music perfectly. Made on a laptop, a couple of synths, a kaos pad and samples this instrumental electronica is dubbed out, trippy, warm, mellow, chilled, gorgeous, ambient, almost dub step in places. It's hard to know what to compare it to. It's a very unique sound with a real edge, an instant proost favourite!

If you wonder how you might use it, you can never have enough instrumental music to create a soundscape for worship. I haven't stopped listening to it since it arrived...

This is the sort of release that reminds us why proost exists. It's hard to imagine any Christian label releasing anything like this!

It's currently available just as a download in the audio section of the site though a physical product is in the pipeline in time for greenbelt in a cardboard recycled sleeve as proost gets eco friendly. If you subscribe you get access to it in the downloads area as part of your subscription. If you don't subscribe, then it's getting better and better value - more stuff all the time with more on the way :-) Go on you know it makes sense!"

Worth a listen

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and finally...

This morning I'm writing a 'final report' - a sort of summary of the development of the pioneer project into feig etc etc.

Pretty difficult to capture three profound years in a report.

If you're in feig you'll get a copy (unless, of course, you don't want it... which is fine.)

Later I'm having a 'final meeting' with bishop Michael.

Before that I'm having a 'first-and-final-meeting' with the new city center priest, Nikki Arthy, who starts work in September and will no doubt be wanting to make some connections with the feig community.

This evening I'm attending my 'final canon's meeting' at Dr Hoyle's home.

In between all this I'm trying to start and finish the 'final DMin essay of the year'. 5000 words on mission and Christian education.

After that I will finally slump into my bed...

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Bill Bryson and good news

My wife and I arrived in Durham late on Thursday night. We found our way to St. John's College, where I am to start work in September (Cranmer Hall is part of St. John's) and got the night porter to let us in. Friday was graduation day for third years and there was a big notice in the entrance hall saying:

'Welcome to the parents of graduating students, and to Bill Bryson.'

He was also staying in college - I guess he was speaking at the graduation. Cool eh?

I'd loved to have met him over breakfast, but it just didn't happen.

Anyway - the flying visit to Durham for a school appeal went half well. Far from sorted.

But, as it says on G n El's fridge:

'It will all be alright in the end. If it's not alright, it's not the end.'

Tomorrow I'm leading children's church in the cathedral and then doing home communions for housebound folks.

On another note, just got an e-mail from Canterbury Press who published the 'Ancient-Future' book I wrote a chapter for recently.

It goes:

'I’m pleased to announce two pieces of good news. Firstly, we have today drawn up an agreement with CPI for a US edition of Fresh Expressions in the Sacramental Tradition. With the agreement of the two editors, two UK-specific chapters will be replaced with new chapters by US writers. We do not yet know the publication schedule for the US edition.

Secondly, the book is number 1 in this week’s Church Times bestseller list. Well done everyone!'

Excellent.

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tummies

being ill sucks eh?

not much sleep last night - lots of stomach cramps and very weird dreams and general feeling bad...

so, ill today and 250 miles to drive this evening so that I can sit in a brief appeal tomorrow morning to get our children into the school next to the house into which we are about to move.

if you're the praying kind, I could do with a bit of what you n God have got to offer. cheers.

our 4 year old son is clearly the praying kind.

First thing this morning, whilst I was necking a lemsip and our daughter was complaining that she too felt ill, our little lad put his breakfast spoon down and said, without looking at us:

'God, make these two's tummies better, cause I can't.'

How good is that eh?

Short, to-the-point, full of faith.

I reckon I might try and pray like that more often.



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Ugliness is ingratitude...

I'm into a very big piece of work titled: 'What is the Relationship Between Christian Mission and Christian Education?' and am learning a whole lot from reading broadly and pulling ideas together.

One of the authors whose work I've been looking at is Nicholas Wolterstorff - a professor of philosophy at both Calvin College and Yale Divinity School in the States.

His work over many years has been massively influential in the sphere of Christian education. He obviously says lots of things, but when I read the below, I had to stick it up here. As someone who spent four years studying for a degree in Fine Art alongside a lifetime spent in churches, I can relate to this in a big way:

(he's talking about the planning of school buildings by Christians but this could easily translate to churches, homes, the setting for events, or whatever)

'...I submit that ugliness is ingratitude. Ugliness is irresponsible. Can anyone really believe that God approves of ugliness? Scripture presents God as delighting in his creation. Do you suppose that it is in the ugliness of things that God delights? Be aware that the aesthetic quality of your school says something about you, and then ask yourself, is what it says about me acceptable? And once again , beauty does not require big expense. Indeed, I would offer as a general principle that when people lavish money on their buildings, they almost always end up with monstrosities.'

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cut and paste for general fresh expressions interest from an e-mail bulletin...

'The Archbishops’ Missioner and Team Leader of Fresh Expressions, Bishop Graham Cray, has called for a positive view of discipleship, emphasising what Christians are for rather than simply what they are against.

In the latest edition of expressions, the initiative’s newspaper, Graham Cray says that ‘people who belong to new forms of church need a relevant discipleship that works where they are. It is not about learning a new pattern of behaviour from something which is alien to them.’ Graham Cray has spoken and written extensively about discipleship, recently publishing a book entitled ‘Disciples and Citizens: a vision for distinctive living’.

Also in the new edition American missiologist Brian McLaren, who addressed the 2008 Lambeth Conference, welcomes the increasingly international profile of Fresh Expressions. He says the UK initiative ‘represents a wise move in a faith community and is a ripple that will spread and inspire creativity in other churches around the world’.

The new senior Methodist on the Fresh Expressions team, Stephen Lindridge, has called for the wider church to embrace fresh expressions. Writing his first article for expressions, he adds that ‘much of the great growth seen has been a fantastic encouragement. This vision of what is possible under God should be nurtured into the wider bloodstream of the church.’ Stephen Lindridge, who helped start a fresh expression of church in Gateshead called ‘Mind the Gap’, begins his work with the national team in September.'

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just took delivery of...

'Small is the New Big' and 'Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us' by Seth Godin

Seth's blog is well worth checking out. He's writing for business but a fair chunk of what he writes is a) fascinating and b) fairly easily translatable into concepts worth throwing around in our musings about church.

Here's a little example from his blog that I liked:

'It turns out that a fast-growing trend is also likely to become a fast-fading trend. My analysis: the people who jump on a fast-moving trend are fickle early adopters. This group is most likely to race on to the next thing, and is also least likely to want to sign up for something that feels tired.

Another way to look at it: if you want to stick around for a while, you need to make the difficult sales to the middle of the market or have a ready supply of new stuff ready to entertain the never-satisfied early adopters.

That sounds pretty obvious as I write it, but I wonder why marketers everywhere ignore it? We say we're eager to build a brand for the ages, but we spend all our time and money launching it to the early adopters instead of patiently earning the trust of the middle.'

Plenty right there for stimulating a conversation about fresh expressions of church...