Posts filed under 'Church'
U.S. atheists using hair dryers to ‘de-baptise’
A group of atheists have devised a ritual of de-baptism in which they dress up like monks and use a hair dryer to take away “the stigma… and the stain of baptismal water.”
Leading atheist Edwin Kagin blasted his fellow non-believers with the hair dryer to symbolically dry up the holy water sprinkled on their heads in days past. The styling tool was emblazoned with a label reading “Reason and Truth.”
Add comment August 19, 2010
Books I have read: Alternative Worship
This year at 
summer camp we tried to use more alternative worship experiences for the young people and leaders to encounter God, one of the key resources we used was Alternative Worship by Jonny Baker and Doug Gay. We were based at Quinta Christian Centre this year which has limited internet access so being able to take some physical resources such as this book was really helpful. The book is shaped around the Christian year with sections on:
- Advent and Christmas
- Lent
- Easter
- Pentecost
There were lots of exciting sessions, resources and prayers and although we didn’t use too many (mainly because we’d already prepapred what we wanted from sites as Proost). The CD-Rom is helpful but not set out in the most logical way.
If you’re beginning to explore different ways of meeting with God this is a book that summarises a wide range of different ways.
Add comment August 17, 2010
Books I have read: Plastic Jesus
One of the books I read whilst away on holiday was Plastic Jesus: Exposing the Hollowness of Comfortable Christianity by Eric Sandras. The book is a challenge to subruban comfortable Christianity which so often misses the actual point. Living in Tonbridge, certainly a good example of suburbia from the UK I thought it would be an interesting read, which had been recommended by my friend Jon. The book looks at a number of big issues:
- Identity
- Calling
- Doubt and discourafement
- Discovery and learning
- Intimacy with God
- Brokeness
As I read the book I was reminded of some important truths:
The Father’s total love and acceptance for Jesus wasn’t based on performance. It was based on relationship. Jesus was loved because of whose he was, not because of what he did. (p. 35)
As crazy as it sounds, it’s as natural for God to pursue us as it is for us not to pursue him. (p. 41)
Suburbia gives us shame in our brokeness; Jesus gives us hope. The church often says, “How could you?” The Holy Spirit says, “I still love you.” Our culture finds no value in broken things; God finds redemptive value in them. (p. 144)
It was a refreshingly challenging book, one that reminded me of the ease for which we settle for less.
Add comment July 31, 2010
Books I have read: I Sold My Soul on Ebay: Viewing Faith Through an Atheist’s Eyes
I spent some time sitting in the park with Daniel this afternoon finishing I Sold My Soul on Ebay: Viewing Faith Through an Atheist’s Eyes by Hemant Mehta. In summary if you’re involved in church work this is a MUST read.
The book tells the story of how Mehta, an atheist, auctioned off on ebay the opportunity for the winning bidder to send him to church. Jim Henderson, a former pastor won the bid 
and asked him to attend a number of churches and critique them. This book is Mehta’s findings which he writes in a wonderful style, regardless of your standpoint on the question of God and religion. Mehta shows why his reputation as the Friendly Atheist is well deserved.
His key findings are summarised in chapter 9, highlighting first some things churches are doing right:
- Top-notch preachers and speakers
- Community outreach
- Energy level and passion
- Dialogue featuring opposing viewpoints
- Relevant Sermons
And in contrast these were some of the consistent negatives he found with churches:
- A lack of sensitivity to nonreligious people
- Too much time devoted to singing
- Not paying attention in church
- Distracting behaviour during worship
- Lack of opportunities to ask questions
- Religious extremism
- Confusing rituals and traditions
- Intrusive projection screens
I always find it very hard to get useful feedback about how church is run, feedback is very subjective and normally just from Christians, this is a very helpful and thought provoking book.
Add comment July 19, 2010
World Cup Service and Final
Having showed most of World Cup 2010 on the big screen we ran a shortened evening service, followed by a showing of the final on our big screen.
We started by singing a couple of songs and then moving into an update from our church football teams. From there we watched a clip from the Onside 2010, a DVD produced by BMS that looked at the Street Child World Cup. We linked into the Street World Cup by praying for a number of our young people who were leaving that week to go to Mumbai for a two week mission, working with Oasis India. I then preached a short (11 minutes) sermon using the following points as reasons the World Cup reminds us of the Christian life:
- There’s a prize to win
- There’s a team to play on
- There’s training to be done
- There’s a captain to follow
- There’s a perfect referee
Having whizzed through these points we again used the Onside DVD, this time watching a two minute clip of Kaka’s testimony. Following this we closed the service and started the coverage of the Final.
We saw over 70 people start the evening watching the final, unsurprisingly, given it’s stop-start nature due to the constant fouls and it being the night before a school day we saw numbers decrease at the end of normal play, before extra time.
The service seeemed to go well, although attendance was well down in comparison with a normal Sunday evening – a number of people didn’t want to come because it was about football, a number of others were watching the game at home with family and friends, whilst others had lost interest because England has been knocked out two weeks earlier.
What did you do, if anything, for the World Cup Final?
Add comment July 18, 2010
Books I have read: AND: The Gathered and Scattered Church
This week I finished AND: The Gathered and Scattered Church by Halter Hugh and Smay Matt, the second book in the Exponential Series. AND is written by Hugh Halter and Matt Smay (authors of The Tangible Kingdom). It’s big idea is to attempt to bridge the divide between attractional and misssional models of church – regardless of denomination, size, context etc. As pastors of Adullam, a “congregational network of incarnational communities,” Hugh Halter and Matt Smay share a passion towards a missional/incarnational approach to church (the “scattered” church), but also acknowledge the point that “gathering” is inherent in the definition of the word “church” - ecclesia (“the assembled ones”).
I found this book a frustrating read, I’d thoroughly loved reading Exponential: How You and Your Friends Can Start a Missional Church Movement (check out my review here) and so had really high hopes for this book given the ease and relevance of the previous book. The topic seemed to be continuing in the same vein – a frustration with the way church happens but an understanding not to throw the baby out with the bath water – the importance of missional community but that often leads back into attractional gatherings and so they can’t be separated into two types of church, they must be linked.
As someone who works as a youth minister in a larger UK-based Baptist church (around 650 adult members) I see this tension played out often: at times we’re guilty of being too mono-stylistic in our worship, but in the same vein our three Sunday gatherings are in worldly terms “succesful” and see a number of people joining the church. There is no sense in which we could suddenly swap to being an incarnational set of communities but we do need to re-evaluate and embrace some of these theologies and concepts.
The book starts well with strong arguments that neither attractional nor missional churches will ever completely best serve a community or the purposes God has for the local church but it seems to get lost in chapter five. This chapter is based on “The Two Structures of God’s Redemptive Mission” by Ralph Winter, which you can read here. Winter writes about sodalic and modalic communities where modalic communities were originally founded around the idea of a “Christian” local synagogue, and sodalic communities were more linked to Paul’s mission to the gentiles.
It was at this point the book seemed to swap from story (which is how Exponential had been written) too much more theory, and it didn’t seem to give a flow to the book’s direction. The only clarity I found in the second half of the book was a challenge to smaller communities to re-evaluate how they gather together, and how to embrace some of what it means to be a church gathering, but as someone working in a larger church setting I found surprisingly few challenges or encouragements on how I could embrace and involve the house church movement within my larger church setting. If the book had gone more in that direction I think I would have found it more of an interesting read but instead I felt frustrated that it highlighted key problems for the Western 21st century church but didn’t seem to encourage us to wrestle with them if we’re based in a larger church gathering already.
3 comments July 17, 2010
Books I have read: Exponential: How You and Your Friends Can Start a Missional Church Movement
I’m a little late with my review of Exponential: How You and Your Friends Can Start a Missional Church Movement by Dave Ferguson and Jon Ferguson but I’v
e just loved slowly reading this book. Each year I write a summary of my favourite books (2009 in review: Books) and I would expect this book to make it onto my 2010 list.
Dave and Jon Ferguson lead Community Christian Church which is an innovative multisite missional church with eleven locations in Chicago. They are also co-leaders of New Thing (https://www.newthing.org/) an international network of intentionally reproducing churches.
This books takes on the theme of how you can help create missional churches through four parts:
- Movements start with 1
- Reproducing tribes of 10-100
- Reproducing communities of 110-1,000
- Reproducing movements of 10,000s
The real big theme throughout the book is high quality simple thinking leading to more people being given opportunity to have a life changing encounter with Jesus. So much of the way they work is broken down into simple steps, for example: following Jesus, the way leaders are developed, small group development, seven moves to reproducing a site/campus.
The concept that resonated most with me is how they are intentionally attempting to reproduce leaders all the time. They are very deliberate that as many leaders as possible have an apprentice who can either take over from the present leader – constantly allowing young talent to come through, or allowing teams to divide providing capacity for growth, or allowing the present leader to be promoted to a bigger role without any fear for their present role. Every apprentice leader has a path they can take that leads them from being an apprentice all the way through to being a network leader, and as they learn they all use the same model:
- I do. You watch. We talk.
- I do. You help. We talk.
- You do. I help. We talk.
- You do. I watch. We talk.
- You do. Someone else watches.
This has really challenged me as we’ve seen our youth ministry grow fast this year we’ve been stretched at times, and we need to invest more into developing new leaders, not always being reactive to positions needing someone to fill them. I was appointed with the title Youth Team Leader – my theme at the moment is stepping out of some of the face-to-face youth ministry and allowing others to step up to the plate, and being more intentional in supporting them, and then developing the next set of apprentices below them so we can continue to expand and grow.
I loved this book and would recommend it to, if you need some convincing go read a sample chapter of Exponential: How You and Your Friends Can Start a Missional Church Movement here.
1 comment June 26, 2010
Theology and Ministry Links
Some posts from the world of theology and church ministry:
- Why a Church Covenant?: Justin Taylor writes on the need for covenants.
- Seven mistakes I made in ministry: Thom Rainer gives her some helpful recommendations.
- How Creation Speaks and Ministers: really helpful reminders linked from John Piper’s 1987 sermon on The Pleasure of God in Creation from Psalm 104:31.
- Life in Those Old Bones: Ed Stetzer writes on the future of denominations in America: “Given all that, call me a cautious believer in the idea that we can do more for the kingdom of God by doing it together with people of common conviction–which usually means in a denomination–than by doing it alone.”
Add comment June 24, 2010
Church and the World Cup
We had a great time (except for the result) showing the England game last night, in our new youth room, with over 65 people of all ages and backgrounds squeezing in to watch the game on the big screen. It was a great atmosphere with lots of noise and excitement – watching the football is so much better done in community than on your own. We’re going to be showing the rest of the England games in the church (with up to 350 seats available) and doing a special evening service followed by a showing of the World Cup Final:
What are you doing at church linked to the World Cup?
Add comment June 13, 2010
World Cup prayers
With a slow start to the World Cup, two draws to be precise, I thought it’d be good to highlight blogging Bishop Nick Baines prayers for the World Cup. The Church of England press release said:
The prayers, for personal use or during church services, were specially written by the Rt Rev Nick Baines, Bishop of Croydon, and the Communications Office in association with National Worship Development Officer the Rev Peter Moger.
Bishop Nick said of the prayers: “More than half the population pray at some time* and everyone will be affected by the World Cup in one way or another, so it makes sense to have some prayers for those that want to use them. This isn’t just about football; it’s about the rainbow nations of the world celebrating together with the people of South Africa.”
Prayers for all those involved in the World Cup
Lord of all the nations, who played the cosmos into being,
guide, guard and protect all who work or play in the World Cup.
May all find in this competition a source of celebration,
an experience of common humanity and
a growing attitude of generous sportsmanship to others.
Amen.
God of the nations, who has always called his people to be a blessing for the world, bless all who take part in the World Cup.
Smile on South Africa in her hosting,
on the nations represented in competition and
on those who travel to join in the party.
Amen.
A prayer for those simply not interested
Lord, as all around are gripped with World Cup fever,
bless us with understanding,
strengthen us with patience and
grant us the gift of sympathy if needed.
Amen.
2 comments June 11, 2010
Christmas is coming…
Nick blogged about Christmas is coming and the 2010 Christmas Poster from ChurchAds.net. As Christmas is launched earlier and earlier I think this could be quite a powerful poster. Certainly one I’d be happy to use with our youthwork, maybe for a series on Advent, in the run up to Christmas.
Add comment June 10, 2010
Mishandling Twentysomething Males in the Church
Zach Nielsen points out a great post by Dr. Anthony Bradley:
I am pained, for example, by the number of guys directed to seminary or formal ministry who never should have been because church communities were confused about what is normal for men in the church. I have several friends from my seminary days who are now not only out of vocational ministry altogether but also working in vocations that are completely disconnected from the church. Many are finally, at nearly 40 years old, working in vocations that they originally set out to do before they were misdirected by the whispers of church people who confuse spiritual maturity and vibrancy in young men with a “call to ministry.” This trend actually reveals the sad state of an American evangelical gynocentric church: Spiritually interested young men are the exception rather than the expectation. These men tend to stand out because their twentysomething men peers are generally absent in most churches and many of the others present are going through religious motions, attending because of parental legalism, or because of girlfriend or wife pressure. This vocational mismatch is actually not good for the church because it can put leaders in positions they should not be in and usually negatively affects the entire church community in the long-run. We can avoid this.
Add comment June 8, 2010
Theology and Ministry Links
Some posts from the world of theology and church ministry:
- Researcher anticipates further church decline in 2010s: Peter Brierley, says that all the main denominations, except Pentecostals, will decline in the next 10 years, with the Church of England set to experience the sharpest drop in attendance.
- Sermon Application Help: the application grid from 9Marks is helpful for those preparing sermons.
- Workflow and Timeline for Church Media Arts a great free pdf to help you get your head around the concept of who should be talking to who, when it makes sense to have those conversations, what deliverables hit at what interval and more.
- Creating Environments: Mark writes on how one of the leaders crucial roles is to create environments that facilitate what it is that God wants to do in people’s lives.
- How do I organize my weekly schedule as a pastor?: Brian Crofts summary of how he organises his week.
- How can I make sure I am regularly shepherding everyone in the church?: Awesome post again from Brian (if you hadn’t guessed yet, his blog is a great help to church leaders), and love the concept of 1 leader doing this for every 100 church members.
- We Have a Statistical Problem: Tim Stevens bravely asks the question, does church actually make any difference.
Add comment June 5, 2010
Books I have read: Trade Justice in the Ready Made Garment Industry of Bangladesh
This morning I finished Astrid Vaswani’s sabbatical study report on Trade Justice in the Ready Made Garment Industry of Bangladesh. Astrid is the assistant minister at Tonbridge Baptist Church where I work. She’s recently completed a 3 month sabbatical looking at the topic of trade justice in the clothing industry, and as part of her sabbatical did some research on the industry in Bangladesh visiting a number of projects and factories.
Her report of 89 pages is available at church and makes good reading. She starts by giving a background to Bangladesh, and the garment industry, then looking at the industry challenges and labour and working conditions. Astrid then writes 30 pages looking at the concept of ‘the poor’ and ‘justice’ in the Bible and how that links with our economic structures.
If you go to TBC don’t just read the summary report I encourage you to get hold of the full report and wrestle with it – look at what kind of consumer you want to be, and want systems and accreditation should be put in place for the protection of others.
Add comment May 5, 2010
Tom Wright retiring early to take university job
Surprising news today that the Bishop of Durham, Tom Wright is retiring early to take up a professorship at St Andrew’s University. Like others I have mixed feelings on this, it will be a blow to the evangelical centre within the Church of England, and Rowan Williams who values that breadth and skills that Tom brings to General Synod and wider, but it’s exciting to see such a great communicator and author hopefully going to have more time to do that.
Here’s more from The Times:
Dr Wright, 61, who will take a chair at St Andrew’s in Fife in September, soon after his 62nd birthday, could in theory have remained at Durham until he was 70.
As Bishop for the evangelical centre, and one of the top five Church of England bishops, he carries authority because of his position but also has added value by virtue of his skills of communication and of intellect.
He will be badly missed by his troubled Church, where he has served as the leading voice attempting to help Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, maintain unity from the evangelical side. Dr Wright has been a figurehead for centrist evangelicals who wish to uphold Gospel truths while remaining within the mainstream Anglican Communion, currently facing divisions over the ordination of homosexuals.
Dr Wright, who decided to return to academic life after enjoying a sabbatical at Princeton enabled him to complete a seminal new work on St Paul, said: “This has been the hardest decision of my life. It has been an indescribable privilege to be bishop of the ancient Diocese of Durham, to work with a superb team of colleagues, to take part in the work of God’s kingdom here in the North East, and to represent the region and its churches in the House of Lords and in General Synod.“I have loved the people, the place, the heritage and the work. But my continuing vocation to be a writer, teacher and broadcaster, for the benefit, I hope, of the wider world and Church, has been increasingly difficult to combine with the complex demands and duties of a diocesan bishop. I am very sad about this, but the choice has become increasingly clear.”
//
Add comment April 27, 2010
Foreign Office apologises for Pope ‘condom’ memo
I can’t believe the story in the Sunday Telegraph tomorrow: Ministers apologise for condom insult to Pope. The Government has apologised to the Vatican over official documents that mocked his forthcoming visit to Britain by suggesting he should bless a gay marriage and even launch Papal-branded condoms. The ideas in the paper didn’t seem to seriously plan an itinerary, but instead just went to extremes.
The proposals, which were then circulated among key officials in Downing Street and Whitehall, also include the Pope opening an abortion ward; spending the night in a council flat in Bradford; doing forward rolls with children to promote healthy living; and even performing a duet with the Queen.
In reference to the hugely sensitive issue of child abuse engulfing the Catholic Church, the Government document suggests that the Pope should take a “harder line on child abuse – announce sacking of dodgy bishops” and “launch helpline for abused children”.
The document was sent out by a junior Foreign Office civil servant with a covering note admitting that some of the plans were “far-fetched”.
Recipients of the memo were furious at its content and an investigation was launched. One senior official was found responsible and has been transferred to other duties.
David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, was “appalled” to hear of the proposals, according to a source close to him, and blamed “a colossal failure of judgement” by officials involved.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: “This is clearly a foolish document that does not in any way reflect UK Government or Foreign Office policy or views. Many of the ideas in the document are clearly ill-judged, naive and disrespectful. The text was not cleared or shown to Ministers or senior officials before circulation. As soon as senior officials became aware of the document, it was withdrawn from circulation. The individual responsible has been transferred to other duties. He has been told orally and in writing that this was a serious error of judgement and has accepted this view. The Foreign Office very much regrets this incident and is deeply sorry for the offence which it has caused.”
Add comment April 24, 2010
Youth Mission Trips – part 4
Last week I wrote about some of the questions we’ve been asking about our youth mission work, the new wider more inclusive structure we’re trying to use, and our focus in local mission. Today I want to write a little on our mission trip in the UK, and tomorrow I’ll write about our international mission trip, and then finish the series on Thursday with a post on how we’re linking up those who want to do a year out.
A key value for our mission trips was about us developing a long-term relationship with the project that we partner with. We wanted this to be an opportunity for our year 10-11s (14-16 year olds) to take the lead on. The project we’ve chosen to be involved in is to support Strode Crescent Baptist Church in The Noise on Sheppey. Dave Baxter, one of our previous youth ministers is now the minister at Strode Crescent and we have a great relationship with him and therefore Strode Crescnet.
We sent eleven young people to go and help with their Christmas edition of The Noise. Our young people were involved in running two days of holiday clubs for children from the local community, and helping to lead an all-age carol service for families, as well as spending time together as a team worshipping and receiving teaching and ministry. The young people had a great time, made some wonderful friendships and were really challenged by getting involved in mission in a different community. We’re looking forward to many more years of partnering with Strode Crescent.
Where do you do mission within the UK?
1 comment April 13, 2010
Books I have read: Dysciples
Last term in our youth work we used Krish Kandiah’s Dysciples: Why I Fall Asleep When I Pray and Twelve Other Discipleship Dysfunctions, adapting each of the chapters as a short talk and response. With chapters that include:
- Why I feel I am going nowhere
- Why I shout at God
- Why I won’t step out of my comfort zone
- Why I struggle with Jesus’ teaching
- Why I’ve heard it all before
- Why I feel such a hypocrite
- Why God seems out of reach
- Why I can’t move mountains
- Why I want to be the best
- Why my mind wanders during communion
- Why I fall asleep when I pray
- Why I can’t tell people about Jesus
- Why I could never be a missionary
The young people I work with really related to a lot of these feelings and frustrations. The short chapters were easy for a number of our younger leaders to take a topic and share some of the faith journey alongside Krish’s theological thinking with the young people. It seemed to get a number of the young people really thinking and wrestling with these issues.
I thoroughly recommend this book.
Add comment April 6, 2010
Theology and Ministry Links
Some links from the world of theology and ministry:
- I Stand with John Piper: Scot McKnight writes very well on the fallout around John Piper inviting Rick Warren to Desiring God Conference.
- Persecuted Christians?: great piece by Nick Baines on whether Christians in the UK are really being persecuted.
- Ten Questions That Unchurched People ARE NOT Asking!: Hilarious post by Perry Noble
- Seven Characteristics of Highly Evangelistic Christians by Thom Rainer,
- John Piper’s Upcoming Leave: “I asked the elders to consider this leave because of a growing sense that my soul, my marriage, my family, and my ministry-pattern need a reality check from the Holy Spirit.”
- The Spirit of Caleb: Mark Batterson writes a wonderful post about a lady who has done 47 mission trips since she turned 65!
Add comment April 5, 2010
