Darren Rowse talks about the missional ethos of Living Room.

An Austrailian church leader, Darren Rowse, leads a church with a missional emphasis and a non traditional style. He talks about the experience on a podcast. Podcast: http://inthepursuitofgod.com/mattersoftheheart/2006/03/29/ fascinating-approach-to-church-australias-living-room-church/ Living Room: http://www.livingroom.org.au/blog/ Matters of the Heart: http://www.inthepursuitofgod.com/mattersoftheheart/ The group follows a seven week cycle:

1. Large Gathering Both groups meet together and have a teaching orientated night.
2. Spirituality Tour One member of the group shows the group around their life, perhaps giving the group dinner at home and then a tour of their life, talking about where they find God in their life.
3. Reflective Night A more medative night, experimenting with different ways of praying drawing on ancient monastic tradition.
4. Bible Night Dialogue over specific passages.
5. Topic Night A visitor will guide the group through exploring a particular topic. eg. "Food and Spirituality".
6. Real Life Spirituality Talking about each persons journey and life of faith.
7. Bring Your Own Worship Every member of the group brings something to lead the group in a "worshipful experience". Often the evening revolves around a topic.

Lin Liang Ren sentenced.

Mr Justice Henriques sentenced Lin Liang Ren to 12 years for the manslaughter charges and six years for the facilitation charges, which he ordered should run concurrently. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/lancashire/4851194.stm

Media Row over Norman Kember’s appology

Some things sadden me, and the fuss that has surrounded Norman Kember's time in Iraq is one of those things. I'm not sad because I have a particular axe to grind. I had never heard of Christian Peacemaker Teams or Norman Kember until after he had been kidnapped. What saddens me is that I have a suspicion that the Media have jumped in and made assumptions. The Christian think tank and news agency, Ekklesia, have just published a list of how they understand the fuss and row over Christian Peacemaker Teams and Norman Kember. It seems that they think the media have jumped the gun. They address the following allegations and make it clear that they are not speaking on behalf of the Christian Peacemaker Teams, but just how they see it.

• Allegation: Norman Kember and the Christian Peacemakers have been slow and grudging in thanking the soldiers who rescued them.
• Allegation: The CPT thank-you only came after criticism by people like General Sir Michael Jackson.
• Allegation: Norman Kember’s arrival statement was disrespectful to the armed services.
• Allegation: The Christian Peacemaker activists imperilled the lives of soldiers and others by their recklessness.
• Allegation: Christian Peacemaker Teams went to Iraq for publicity and to cause a nuisance.
• Allegation: CPT parachutes in and parachutes out of conflict zones.
• Allegation: CPT’s actions are naïve, foolish, ‘self-indulgent’ and ‘not at all Christian’.
• Allegation: Dr Kember is declining to speak about his captivity or rescue.
• Allegation: The military operation to free the three proves that non-violence doesn’t work.
• Allegation: Christian peacemaker Tom Fox was tortured before he was killed – which may have taken place in an escape attempt.
• Allegation: CPT has achieved nothing in Iraq, unlike the coalition forces.
• Allegation: There is no legitimate role for Christians in a situation like Iraq.
• Allegation: CPT had no possibility to refuse military protection and no grounds for doing so.
• Allegation: The military had no choice but to intervene to save these misguided activists, and every right to ignore CPT’s request not to do so.

http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/content/news_syndication/article_060327cptmedia.shtml

Shocking…

Watch this: http://www.controlarms.org/teleshop/

Hospital’s and blood stained tissues

I had the opportunity to visit the A+E department of the Royal Lancaster Hospital (RLI) today. Don't let that worry you too much, all the kids are fine, and are being looked after by Justine and Doug at the moment. It was Louise that was suffering with an infection or something round her eyes. She is much better now and is upstairs dozing after a bad nights sleep. Every experience I have had of the RLI has been good, I have visited more times than I can count and the cleanliness practices and staff are, on the whole, very helpful. A+E was a different matter. The staff were ok but the cleanliness was poor. There were some blood stained tissue and empty dressing packs all round the cubicle that Louise was treated in. I was busy getting myself a little steamed up about it (you know what hospitals are like, you don't have much to do but get worked up) and then I remembered something that helped me get a little bit of perspective. Millions of people world wide don't have access to clean water, let alone a clean hospital. Here was I sitting in a hospital, with family up the road looking after my kids while my wife was treated within two hours of arriving at the hospital. It is easy for us to complain about hospitals, and yes, in some cases we probably should. It is much harder to remember that we are far better off than many, many people. Sure I was worried about Louise, and I don't like the sight of blood, that aside, things are still good for us in the uk. Interesting information about clean water can be found here: http://www.wateraid.org/uk/what_we_do/the_need/ Interesting information about what the BMS (Baptist Missionaries) do to promote and support healthcare abroad: http://www.bmsworldmission.org/section.asp?id=161

Norman Kember Arrives Home.

The media has been full of Norman's release from captivity and the armed forces role in it. Today he gave a statement part of which read:

"I do not believe that a lasting peace is achieved by armed force, but I pay tribute to their courage and thank those who played a part in my release.

I thought the media crticism of Norman was a touch harsh. You can read the whole thing here: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2103663,00.html

Morecambe Bay Cockling Trial Ends (Updated)

The Morecambe Bay Cockle Picking Trial has come to an end today. Lin Liang Ren: Guilty of 21 counts of Manslaughter. David Anthony Eden (Snr.): Not guilty of facilitation. David Anthony Eden (Jnr.): Not guilty of facilitation. Lin Liang Ren was also found guilty of facilitation and perverting the course of justice. Lin Mu Yong and Zhao Xiao Qing were also found guilty of facilitation. More from the BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/lancashire/4832454.stm

Identifying Postmodernism, Reflections on Steve Taylor’s approach.

Reading "Seeking definition: postmodern" in the first chapter of Steve's thesis "A New Way of Being Church" is both a bit like seeing a maze from a helicopter andstanding in the centre of the maze wondering how you got there and which route will get you out again! It is the most postmodern way of defining postmodern that you can possibly get. Steve suggests that the word used to describe the postmodern reflects the stance or approach that the author takes. He offers four categories. 1. The labelling critique Uses: Hyper-modern; ultra modern; liquid modernity; post-modern; post modern; Post Modern.

All of this reflects critical questions about the relationship between modern and the postmodern and whether one emphasises continuity or discontinuity. Page 15

Reading: Oden, The Death of Modernity in The Challenge of Bauman, Liquid Modernity, Cambridge: Polity Press, 2000 2. The lens critique Uses: postmodernity, Postmodernism. This describes the sociological or philosophical lens that peopleview the cultural shift through. One who sees sociological change (technological,global, capital) will refer to it as postmodernism. Those who see the change through the philosophical lens (deconstructionism) will refer to it as postmodernity. 3. Paradigm Critique Uses: Post-Modern

At it's most simplistic, 2000 years of history are divided into threeparadigms: pre-modern, modern and postmodern. Page 15

Steve acknowledges the over simplicity but uses it to show how the term is usedto describe a shift in cultural awareness. Reading: Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago: UCP. 1962 Pillay, Text Paradigms in context. Missionalia 18, 1, 1990, 109-123 4. The Colonising Critique Postmodernism is simply another way for the west to impose an "oppressive meta narrative that homogenises cultural diversity through a western way ofviewing the world" (Page 15). Reading: Sardar, Postmodernism and the other, London: Pluto Press. 1998 He concludes his definition with simplicity its self:

In essence, this debate is about how to accurately name cultural change. It isabout ones angle of looking, whether sociological, philosophical or historical. Yet despite this debate, I have not read any author who thinks culture is the same now as it was fifty years ago. Thus when I use the term, I will, like all the authors above, be referencing a cultural shift, the fact that our world today is very different from a world fifty years ago. Page 15-16

Encountering the God Squad

On Friday I met Rob for lunch (nice lunch Rob, thanks). Walking back through the university campus, we came across a group singing. They were quite clearly the god squad on a mission, "Oh yes, you get all sorts in here" said Rob, indicating a tent pitched in the middle of the square. I can't help feeling admiration for people who have the guts to stand in squares and declare their faith, but sometimes I wonder about the effectiveness of that style of mission. The majority of people put their head down and skirt round the edge (as I did). Last weekend, there was another god squad group in a shopping centre in Telford (unfortunately I didn't get to see this one). Mark, takes a slightly different perspective on mission. Not one for standing in the centre singing God songs, he arranged for an art installation called "holy ground" to be placed right in the centre of the walkway. Shoes surrounded a central "thingy" and the stories of the spiritual journeys that the people who had once worn the shoes were written up for the shoppers to read. Although both groups were doing their best to communicate their faith, they took different approaches. The first is a fairly traditional approach to evangelism, and perhaps people are hardened to it. They spot the "god squad" from a mile off and attempt to avoid them. Mark's approach seems to have drawn people into the story. You can read Mark's accounts of the Holy Ground here.

Libby and Belle

Louise was reading Beauty and the beast to Alice. Libby toddles up and peers over the page. Louise: That's Belle Libby: (leans over the book and sniffs) Louise: No, I said that's BELLE. Libby: (leans over the book and sniffs)

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