pub-space began last night (not an official name: I nicked it from mark berry because it does what it says on the tin).

we figured an obvious entry point into Christian community is a city-centre pub frequented regularly by those in the community.
It's not exactly a new idea, I know, but it worked well.

We're not holding a worship service in a pub or doing pub evangelism or having any kind of set agenda - the community meet to worship and specifically focus on God another time.

Pub-space is just that: space for us to be with each other that has no hidden catch, no alterior motive. at the same time however, it's not all there is.
For those who want it, it can function as a portal into the wider life of the community. (which is why it needs to be well and truly tourist-free. you know who you are...)

twelve of us met last night. it was a laugh.

looking forward to next time.

I read about Second Life (www.secondlife.com) in the Guardian a few weeks back and have just been checking it out.

You have an 'avatar' (your virtual persona) and live in a virtual world where you can do pretty much anything that you can do in the 'real' world.
Second Life is turning over millions of real dollars as people buy and sell virtual land, build stuff and basically live out their fantasies.

One guy says:
'I work in a daycare centre for children, in Texas... My Second Life feels more real than my real life; it's the one where I feel pain. Today, I've spent about $100 (real dollars). I bought an outhouse for my piece of land...'

I'm wondering about strolling into Second Life with a virtual dog-collar on (I might give myself a massive afro as well...).

Seriously though, could a church emerge in an online world? I think there's potential.
Universities are staking out places on Second Life to offer virtual courses and the BBC recently rented an island on the site to hold a music festival.

Someone's going to do online church there. You heard it hear first...

Guy and I spent Friday morning reading and discussing chapter 5 (Living as Community) of this.

It's inspirational and also pretty challenging.

This is how the chapter kicks off:

'In our current cultural crisis, the most powerful demonstration of the reality of the gospel is a community embodying the way, the truth and the life of Jesus.
Healthy community is the life of Jesus living in us and through us. For community to last, our love for one another must be surpassed only by our love for Jesus. If the relationships are grounded on anything other than Jesus, the community will fall...' (Jonathan Campbell, Seattle)

There is a sub-section in the chapter titled: 'A people rather than a place, a community rather than a meeting.'
I guess the main point is that church is people gathered around Jesus before it is anything else.
The other stuff (meetings, buildings, programs etc etc) should be made to serve the community (who are seeking to serve God), not the other way around.

In a way this is stating the obvious, but in reality this so often this seems to get lost so that what appears important is not community but all the extra stuff.

I've been listening to this 1999 album (Black on Both Sides) by Mos Def. I was well into hip hop back in the day...
I've just heard the opening lyrics in a new way.

He's reflecting on the fact that one century is nearly up and another is about to begin and he says:

'alot of people bin asking what's gonna happen with hip hop. I'll tell you what's happening with hip hop: Whatever's happening with us. Hip hop's goin where we're goin...'

It makes me think about people asking:
'what's happening with the church?'

I guess you could give the same answer: 'Whatever's happening with us.'
'Church is going where we're going and if we're going to new places (in our thinking) then that's where church is going too.'

That's not to take God out of the picture. He's in the middle of the picture. But if God is doing new things in us, and we're being honest about that, then the church is going somewhere new too, right?

intense time discussing a whole lot of stuff about the Christian faith with Gareth and Eloise at our place last night.
Going from creeds, to Jesus, to the Trinity, to Genesis, to the fall, to religious experience, to trying to keep it simple in one go was lots to cover.

looking forward to next time. Hopefully we'll be able to zoom in on something more specific.

I guess what struck me was that getting to know God and what that means for the way we live each day takes the rest of our lives and is often hard work because it involves an ongoing shift in our world view.

Good to have lunch with Rob Cook, head of theology at Redcliffe college, today and talk theology and the way we change our ways of seeing as we go on in our journey with God.

'church' at Dan and Ruth's place last night. (I know that we 'are' church, that we don't go to church. Having said that, we do 'meet' as church and meeting is obviously crucial.)

Good to have Nick and Carrie join us from Australia. They're part of an emerging church over there called 'East' and are a couple of years on from where we're at. Great to hear what they had to say about their experience and the challenges they face. They have a committed core of 15-20, a similar size fringe and regular visitors.

We talked about emerging churches needing to remain small in order to keep the relationship dynamic properly alive. But then you have to balance this with not becoming a clique. very tough.


Looking forward to meeting with Gareth and Eloise this evening to eat and talk God and life...

I dig Tracey Emin who once wrote: 'I need art like I need God'. I bought this book about her in the Tate in St Ives.
I wanted the bigger one but it cost £40...
She gets written off too easily as a lightweight, publicity-hungry, drunk bad-girl but the reality is that she's got some pretty interesting things to say about abuse, existence and life in general.

great holiday (apart from a little incident with a drunk dude in the Sloop Inn threatening to kill everyone).
I love St Ives.

I was preaching on Sunday morning at two services at the cathedral so I had to prepare my sermon before I left.
When I got home I read it through and realised it was really boring.

at least taking a step back gave me the chance to spot that before delivering it. I reckon more preachers could do with a week away from their work before dishing it out to the faithful...

obviously this brings up the whole deal about the place of formal preaching in the emerging church. No reason to have someone stand up the front and drone on and all that.
I guess I'm up for a bit of whatever. In some contexts a traditional preach is what's needed and in others it's not. Perhaps the thing is being prepared to ask the difficult questions and being radically creative where necessary.
I've definitely been blessed by listening to some inspired sermons in my time.

In the morning we're off to St Ives.
no blogging for a week. just lots of walking, surfing, playing, reading, eating pasties and wandering around the Tate and back street galleries.

our third meeting of church and the first with the log fire.
two more people joined us. this made seven. seven is two more than five which is one more than four.
food (amazing shepherds pie thanks to Rach and great birthday cake thanks to Ruth), worship, scripture, lots and lots of discussion and also prayer.
when church works well it is a beautiful thing - a taste of eternity.

Paul Hobbs, Dan and I were out walking and praying this morning.
It rained.
It is good to be out praying because you see stuff you didn't know about. Being out early means you also get to see the city before it wakes up properly.

The whole thing made me think about prayer and the emerging church. I'm quite up for seeing stuff and just praying about it as it comes. I think this is an obvious way for a Christian to behave - praying for the community.
I know that others feel that this kind of prayer is too tied up with particular traditions in the church - traditions that they might have been hurt by and are trying to leave behind.
But I guess its a case of not throwing the baby out with the bath water.

For me, the main thing is praying in ways that make sense to me - ways that feel real.
I'm just as happy with vocal, spontanious prayer as I am with more formal, liturgical prayer or with complete silence.

It is Rachel's birthday tomorrow so no blogging.

I have called a blog-fast to underline the importance of this feast-day.

I've just got back from a day conference where Richard Giles, the guy who wrote this, was talking about what it is to be 'Anglican'.

He covered all kinds of stuff. All very interesting, but one of the things I found most helpful was the fact that Anglicanism is characterised by a feeling that we haven't arrived yet. There is a sense of journey.
I like this. I think it's probably quite attractive to people outside the church because a journey can be undertaken together. You can walk beside someone on a journey, which is better than telling everyone that the place you've arrived at is the best and only place to be.

Richard also reminded us that members of the early church were known as 'followers of the Way'.
It wasn't until later that the label 'Christian' was slapped on.
'Christian' is a great thing to be known as, but perhaps 'followers of the Way' would also be quite helpful in our culture?

I had to preach to sermons at Hucclecoat this morning but could I get to sleep last night?

no.

I watched in dismay as 1am, 2am and 3am came and went.
I must have dropped off at some point because I definitely woke up at 7am.

During the bleak hours, I tried all the old-skool remedies that I could think of but there are none to recommend.

I'm not sure about blogging at the weekend...

anyway, it was good to spend a few hours yesterday with Dan in various locations, discussing an advent themed worship journey in the hidden parts of the cathedral, and a weekly forum for spiritual discussion in the city. We're after accessible community and this needs access points.

Good also to meet with Colin again, a chaplain at Gloscat, and talk about networking with students who might be interested in this expression of church.
Lunch with Joe and Kim Knight is always good. thanks for coming guys. Joe is a wise voice on my Council of Reference.

I enjoyed putting the final touches to my sermon for Hucclecoat this Sunday. I'm preaching on the first chapter of Daniel.
It's been challenging to think about how Christians are to be distinctive in a 'pagan' culture.
I reckon our distinctiveness is not in what we are against or for, but in living out a credible alternative to rampant consumerism and individualism.

I'm off to buy an axe now.

We've got an open fire and I need to chop wood.

I was talking to someone about Banksy again last night.
This piece, thrown up on the Israeli security wall, made me think about the way in which the people of God are called to live out hope in apparently hopeless places.

Banksy is pretty mobile and gets his stuff up where it's going to have an impact. What he paints is brought to life by its location.
I reckon those involved in fresh expressions of church can learn alot here.

I just walked past one of the homeless guys that I see alot in Gloucester. He was sitting on a bench, draining a can of lager, and looked wasted.
As I got level with him I noticed that his T-shirt said 'Live Fast Die Young'.
I found it ironic.

I went to visit my Muslim friend, Mustaffa yesterday. He runs a little Muslim bookshop in the city. I go and talk to him every couple of weeks. He's pretty evangelistic and keeps trying to show me DVDs of priests who've converted to Islam.
We always go deep when I see him. I tell myself I'll only say hi, but before I know it an hour has passed and we're into the doctrine of the Trinity or whatever.

Yesterday was also the second meeting of 'church'. Claire joined us so that makes five. Five is one more than four.
We ate food, Dan led some reflective worship, we pulled around something from 1 Corinthians about 'gifts' for building up the church and we had a bit of silence and we prayed.
All good.
Maybe not church just yet, but we're definitely getting there.

I'm enjoying this by Bob Mayo et all. Bob was my neighbour at Ridley so perhaps I'm biased, but he's a serious thinker and has some worthwhile things to say.

I was challenged by this at the end of chapter 8:
'Much of electronic culture is based in a consumerist story that has crept into a host of the forms of life at work in the wider society and in the church. This is a profoundly distorted story... The resistance will need a story of its own, one more powerful than the consumerist.' (Tex Sample)

we all rely on electronic culture - you're consuming an electronic blog right now - so how do we see clearly enough to see where the story is distorted and seek to change it?

I spent Saturday wandering around the Tate Modern in London. The place was packed. The queue for the Kandinsky exhibition was longer than both my arms.
People love art and its even better if you can look at it in a space that lifts you out of yourself.

Cathedrals and art galleries. Art galleries and cathedrals...

(Tacita Deans huge chalk drawings were amazing. I love the idea of pieces of art on display that anyone could rub out.
This is one of her seven canvasses. The set was titled 'roaring forties'.)