bought Thomas a Kempis: The Inner Life (as a gift) at the same time as the Yancey book.

The cover text reads:

'A true understanding and humble estimate of oneself is the highest and most valuable of all lessons. To take no account of oneself, but always to think well and highly of others is the highest wisdom and perfection. Should you see another person openly doing evil, or carrying out a wicked purpose, do not on that account consider yourself better than him, for you cannot tell how long you will remain in a state of grace. We are all frail: consider none more frail than yourself.'

the book is thin and superb.
I'm going to buy more.

just bought this: Finding God in Unexpected Places, by Philip Yancey.
opened it at random in the shop and read something that made me buy it. I love that.

just bought a copy of 'Little White Lies' in Fopp. check out: http://www.littlewhitelies.co.uk/pages/home.php
it's been around a while but I've missed it. worth a read if you're into film.

whilst in Fopp I was also struck by a) struck by a strange girl who aggressively announced 'Ex-Cuse-Me!' every time someone walked between her and the CD displays, and b) a prominent display of copies of the Koran amongst books like 'is it me or is everything shit' etc etc.
Interesting.

I've just watched an item about anti social behaviour on the six o clock news with extra interest.
This is because last night (Boxing day) I was relaxing in front of a film with my extended family when a massive bang (that seemed to be in the room) propelled us all to our feet.
It turned out that two teenagers had come right up to the window with an empty champagne bottle and hit it as hard as they could.
The result was a completly shattered living room window and a lot of upset family members.
Very wierd.
I've tried to think about who I might've offened since arriving in Gloucester but drew a blank.
not good when you've got little kids in the house...

I guess you just have to forget about it and get on with your life. difficult when a new window is taking two weeks and in the meantime we have a lovely chip-board panel up to gaze upon.

the joy of city living!

Other than that Christmas was amazing. The cathedral services (4 on christmas eve, 1 christmas morning) were all different and all good. Lots of moving around the space. Lots of participation. Lots of engaging all the senses. I was able to worship easily and in fact, was pretty moved at several points.
(All of this is completely first time for me. I've never had anything to do with cathedral worship in my life before. Swinging incense around for the first time was definitely an experience...)

couple of days rest and then back to work

happy christmas!
no more blogging. it's advent. we should all be waiting, not trailing round the web.

I have to be at a wedding in an hour or so.
as part of my 'official' training I need to gain experience of weddings, funerals and baptisms.

there's a wedding at a little parish church up the road at 1pm so i'm off up there to watch what's what.
I went along to the rehursal on wednesday evening and now it's the real thing.
the deal is that at the next one I'll do a little something, and then I'll take the one after that...

how good is Manchester?
very.
Great to meet up with Ben, who showed us Nexus and took us to 'Ning' (new Malasian restuarant opened by someone involved in Sanctus), to tell us the Santus story.
Ben and his wife arrived five years ago and fairly quickly hooked up with another couple and spent time meeting to eat, worship, pray etc etc. This is exactly where we're at. It was seriously useful and encouraging to hear how things evolved for them and to ask questions about how they've dealt with particular issues as they've come up.
They have a bunch of good stuff going on now with approximately sixty people involved.
(definitely worth checking out the Nexus website)

I guess one of the biggest things I took away was being reminded not to rush. things evolve at God's pace.
there's no panic, just a need to be authentic and to spend time on relationships.

looking forward to hooking up with Ben Edson (Sanctus1) in Manchester tomorrow.

really interested to hear their story and also to talk about Nexus: night cafe / exhibtion space / venue for one of the Sanctus1 groups (link added in sidebar).
dreaming of doing likewise here in Gloucester.
all in good time...

last night was the first 'pub-space' I haven't been able to make.
sad to miss it. hanging out with new friends on Monday nights has been cool.
doubt if i'll do next monday either - what with it being the 'big day' and all...

we meet as 'church' in our home for the last time this year on wednesday. last week we sent Claire off to her placement with sadness and prayer. we'll miss her. Claire has been with us on placement from Redcliffe college and is now off to Weston Super Mare for a two-month block placement until Feb.

(look forward to seeing you on our retreat at the end of Jan though Claire!)

I'm into Bishop's college this morning to help Michelle (Gloucester YFC) with her end-of-term Christmas assembly.
Dan and I have both made short movies for Michelle to show along with some other stuff.

Dan's movie is a reflective 'what do you expect this Christmas?' type piece.
For mine, we interviewed stacks of kids and teachers one lunch time, asking them about the Christmas story, and then spliced it all together with some careful editing to give a funny take on the nativity story.

I searched high and low for this Christmas compilation by Sufjan Stevens yesterday. could I find it in Fopp, HMV, an independent record store, WHSmiths, or (even) Woolworths..?
no.
if you have it and are bored of it now, send it over...

we had a party at our place last night.
excellent to look around and see a whole bunch of people that we didn't even know six months ago.
it seemed to go well. people enjoyed themselves. candles, tree and log fire ensured a Christmas vibe.
no mulled wine.
or fancy dress.
all good.

I've just bought a lead to go from my mac to the stereo amp, (I know I should have done it ages ago...) so I set up a play-list and enjoyed talking to people instead of changing CDs or djing.

thanks to everyone who came! see you in the new year.

brilliant 'hit and run' trip to Newquay.
great to spend time hearing Jem's story of planting a church there.

when he went, it was just him and his wife and five girls.
no job.
no 'plant' team.
no money or resources from a sending church.
no nothing.

they've grown an authentic, dynamic worshipping community (and without nicking anyone from anywhere else).
I'm inspired. Obviously whatever grows here in Gloucester will look really different to what Jem and the guys have done in Newquay but there are some good principles to take on board.

Tomorrow I'm off to Newquay for 48 hours to be quiet with God.

I realise that Newquay isn't the first destination that comes to mind when thinking of somewhere to be reflective...

I'm going to hook up with Jem Bunce who moved to the town to plant a church five years ago. 'Blaze' meet in a nightclub on Sunday mornings and in homes in the week.

looking forward to catching up with him.
and praying.
and thinking.
and being near the sea.
and having breakfast at 'Bunters'.

great to spend time with Amanda Bruce this afternoon.
Amanda is studying for ordination at Wycliffe Hall in Oxford and is considering doing the pioneer ministry training.

speaking with her brought up questions that come around again and again in discussions around emerging church / fresh expressions / pioneer ministry:

In what ways is a CofE-backed Fresh Expression 'Anglican'?
Does it matter? (it does to the bishop, and it should to the OPM if they were ordained by him and are happy to take a house, stipend and pension from the institution. I guess if we don't like it, we can always get a different job and do FE in our spare time...)

What about leadership succession? If you have an ordained pioneer minister kick something off and eventually they want to move on from the community, does another ordained person come in to lead it?
that would seem pretty odd to the community but what does the institution think?
Again, does it matter? (it does to the bishop).

(It's possible that an OPM could pioneer something interesting and then move on and their community could say to the bishop: 'we don't feel anglican, we don't really need another ordained person coming in to 'lead' or legitimise us, we'll do our own thing now thanks.')

Once you get thinking, this opens up massive questions about the motives of the institution in training OPMs and setting them free to do radical things.
Everyone has an agenda so it can't be that the institution really doesn't mind how these things evolve and whether or not they eventually reside in or outside the Anglican communion. Of course they mind. They want to see new, interesting life springing up from 'within' and refreshing the institution, not leaving it.

(therefore, Fresh Expressions in the CofE, must take certain things as read even if a fair bit of baggage is up for creative manipulation)

How do OPMs hold 'the institution' in tension with the need to be free to grow organically, follow the Spirit and develop with authenticity and integrity?

I don't know.
we're all making it up as we go along...

apparently the Turner prize is a bit crap this year. (the only thing I could bear to study after achieving an E, N, D in my A-levels was art, so I generally look out for the Turner prize with mild interest...)

Arty individuals looking for an interesting alternative could try 'Santa's Ghetto' where Banksy and his mates have put together a little exhibition of work in a shop space they are squatting on Oxford Street.
worth looking at

I went to London on Friday to hook up with a couple of mates from theological college.
Ash Meany, my old neighbour at Ridley, is now the curate at St. Pauls, Hammersmith and Val (we shared a study), is still there and looking for a job. (good old Rowan Williams visited Ridley last week. Val says he's going for a simliarly impressive beard.)

anyway. excellent to meet up and be in London near Christmas.
we started at Nero, obviously, but then decided it would be good to pray for each other and so, went into Corpus Christi Catholic church in Covent Garden.
Had a nice session of mutually affirming prayer and then, just as we were about to leave, the cleaning girl came over and asked if we could pray for her too!
amazing.

I love it when things like that happen.

we visited several decent bars but the best was easily 'Alphabet' in Soho.
it looks a bit stark in this photo but a) this is the basement b) it was full of people when we were there c) the picture doesn't show the atmosphere (which was excellent).
Alphabet gets four-and-a-bit out of five stars from me.

after eating at a five-floor Chinese place, I caught the last train home from Paddington.
At Swindon, where I had to change, they told me the train wasn't coming. ever.
Getting a taxi from Swindon to Gloucester is always fun...

just got this through from amazon.
Arden was a creative director at Saatchi & Saatchi.
if you're into creative gnikniht this is the book for you.

I love this:

'In 1881 George Eastman started a photographic company.
seven years later he changed its name to 'Kodak', an odd choice since it was meaningless and in those days nobody gave random names to serious products.
Eastman's reasons for choosing the name were that it was short; that it was not open to mispronunciation; and it could not be associated with anything else.
Even today corporations cannot think like that.
Only entrepreneurs can.'

good eh?

good to be praying with Paul Hobbs down at the docks this morning as the sun rose.

as we prayed outside the old Mariners chapel, the sun gradually cast its light across the front of the building and brought the sandstone to life.

amazing.

the whole centre of the city will shift down to the docks in the next few years. There's a two billion pound development that's well under way. exciting times ahead.

I hardly ever watch TV but a few weeks ago I accidentally stumbled across 'Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares'.
I've watched every one since.
Apart from being good TV, I can't help finding myself reflecting on it theologically.

Bacisically Ramsey goes into failing restaurants, tells them what's wrong and turns them around.

The number of people, up to their eyes in debt, and running appalling operations, who get stroppy in spite of Ramsey's experience and skill etc etc is unbelivable.

I'd love to see the same concept in church world. It would be ace to see someone who's not afraid of telling it like it is, go into churches and do a Ramsey.

I guess it wouldn't be very pastoral so perhaps we won't see it anytime soon...

ripped this (apologies jonny) from Jonny's blog because a) it's a great flyer, and b) it will be well worth going if you're in London this weekend.
follow the link in the side bar to find out more...

a friend asked me to come into her class and lead a little Christingle service today.

the kids knew a whole lot about the Christmas story, Christian concepts etc etc. They were seven.
I was impressed and amazed.

no one set light to their hair.
or me.

it was a cool little service with lots of participation and an amazing moment when everyone raised their lit christingle in the air and announced that Jesus was the light of the world.

I'm off to Deanery Synod this evening. I wonder if we'll do christingles there?

great to spend the weekend with Pete and Suzie, our old mates from west London youthwork days.
Pete's the London Baptist youth coordinator and blogs at http://levesons.blogspot.com

I took part in the first of the cathedral carol services this evening. The place was packed and as I arrived I was told I had a speaking part because someone else couldn't make it. always good to be dropped in the deep end.
character building...

we moved all over the place during the service. I was impressed with the serioulsy creative use of light, music, liturgy, scripture and prayer. It seemed simultaniously ancient and cutting edge. at one point we were in complete darkness with an unaccompanied chant resonating around the place.
amazing.

I spent yesterday evening with two of the house churches that make up 'City Gates' church here in Gloucester.
We met in a living room, ate cake, worshipped God, prayed for each other and shared stories.

It was a really encouraging time. These guys have been doing this for a fair while. Good to connect with them and remember the bigger picture in Gloucester and the UK. It's an exciting time to be part of what God is doing.

It struck me that although City Gates wouldn't label themselves as 'emerging church', they're are continually emerging in what seems to be a very natural (although not easy) way. They're waiting on God and reflecting continually on what God is doing and how they should respond. They're Kingdom oriented, mission focused, don't have a building and they're network shaped.
they are also refreshingly un-selfconscious.