 |
Welcome |
 |
More about us |
 |
Diary & Information |
 |
Community Café |
|
Clubs |
|
Contact Us |
|
Movie pages |
BlogHere are the thoughts and news of the people in our community. Leave a comment as you wish. If you want to join the blogging ask Mark.
Monday, June 28, 2004International Summer Academy I trawled the pictures and finally found one with our beloved Rhoda in it. Nice! Thought I would pull it over here so you can all appreciate our star footballer in action: 
... did I say "in action"? ... Posted by: Mark | 1:47 pm |
Thursday, June 24, 2004A radical institution? You know when the going gets tough, the tough get going. The church of England has a seen a radical drop in attendance recently. When you survival depends on it you really start thinking out of the box. And no one can accuse the Archbishop of Canterbury of backing off from the challenge. In fact these two news stories show the extent of movement that is commencing. Article 1: Archbishop points to first century for ideas of mission shaped church Article 2: Church embraces new way of Mooting about the Moot Community Now the Charismatic movement, that is my Christian heritage, has always seen itself as the radical edge of Christianity, particularly over against 'the traditional churches'. As I read these articles I can't help but ask, who is more radical now, them or us? For example, the Charismaric movement headed the way in contemporary worship, but now loads of songs that we sing are coming from the likes of Matt Redman et al at Chorleywood. I want to honour that, and certainly value it, but it is also clear that we [the charismatic movement] are still resting on a previous success. Will it take 'failure' in order to wake us up to the need to keep following the Spirit's movement? Posted by: Mark | 11:12 am |
Tuesday, June 22, 2004
 Pub ChurchI really like this: www.pubchurch.com. It is a great, well designed site, and has added to my thoughts on what church would look like in a cafe. What do you think? Of course you would also want to look here: cafe church and here: cafe church. Any more people have found? Labels: cafe church, church Posted by: Mark | 1:11 pm |
Monday, June 21, 2004
 Vacuum Cleaner Churches
This quote is being quoted in a number of places. It was made by Alan Roxborough back in 1993. A quote before it's time I shouldn't wonder. It so reflects my desire of missional church - rooted in communities, engaged with the world around, incarnational mission, transformational at its heart. Love it! "...We need a movement of God's people into neighborhoods, to live out and be the new future of Christ. It must be a movement that demonstrates how the people of God have a vision and the power to transform our world. This is not the same as current attempts to grow bigger and bigger churches that act like vacuum cleaners, sucking people out of their neighborhoods into a sort of Christian supermarket. Our culture does not need any more churches run like corporations; it needs local communities empowered by the gospel vision of a transforming Christ who addresses the needs of the context and changes the polis into a place of hope and wholeness. The corporation churches we are cloning across the land cannot birth this transformational vision, because they have no investment in context or place; they are centres of expressive individualism with a truncated gospel of personal salvation and little else. Our penchant for bigness and numerical success as the sign of God's blessing ony discourages and deflects attempts to root communities of God's people deeply into neighborhoods. And until we build transformed communities there is no hope for a broken earth." Oh and while I am here, you gotta read this: Archbishop of Canterbury likes the Simpsons Posted by: Mark | 1:19 pm |
 The Wimbledon Blog
Well, as promised, here is a blog announcing the exciting start of Wimbledon. Can we really hope this year for more from our one English Tennis superstar, Henman? We wait with baited breath. Why is it that sport gathers a country together in way that nothing else does? How come it produces such unity and patriotism? [apart from the rioting of course]. The other significant interest of course is Navratilova. What is she doing back? is 9 championships not enough for anybody? The news is that she has produced the first win of the championship - she is through to the next round. Any bets on how far she will go? By the way there is a football match on tonight... Posted by: Mark | 1:00 pm |
Friday, June 18, 2004Do we feel any better? Did you watch the match last night? Did it make you feel any better? Or did you watch a film, Liz? Not particularly convincing, it seemed to me. I guess we can just be grateful France didn't loose, bizarre, I know, but that really would have added stress ... Anyway, the possibilities of progressing to the quarter finals are fairly good - we have just got to draw or beat Croatia. We wait and see ... In the meantime a picture of boy wonder: 
Posted by: Mark | 11:24 am |
Monday, June 14, 2004Reasons to be cheerful? After last night, there aren't many reasons to be cheerful. The BBC are trying here. Doesn't work for me just now. Can't think what to say. Gutted... Liz, hope you enjoyed your films. Posted by: Mark | 12:03 pm |
Wednesday, June 09, 2004
The more surfing ones of you will have noticed the updated Diary page. Sorry for the delay in all that. In addition the welcome page should also be changing any minute!!! On the diary page I have added all the Euro 2004 matches that England could possibly be playing in. Thought you would like to know!! The hope is to get the matches set up to be projected onto a screen [of some form] in my back garden and get a whole crowd of people watching there. Details will follow!! All I need is a phono lead long enough and a gazebo ... Come England! Have you got your car flag yet? [picture unapologetically nicked from Steve Gee's Vineyard Website] Posted by: Mark | 5:33 pm |
Tuesday, June 08, 2004Patience Rhoda, this one is for you!! This maybe a little more helpful than "Patience is love stretched out" [katching]. This is Henri Nouwen on Patience: "Patience is a hard discipline. It is not just waiting until something happens over which we have no control: the arrival of the bus, the end of the rain, the return of a friend, the resolution of a conflict. Patience is not waiting passively until someone else does something. Patience asks us to live the moment to the fullest, to be completely present to the moment, to taste the here and now, to be where we are. When we are impatient, we try to get away from where we are. We behave as if the real thing will happen tomorrow, later, and somewhere else. Be patient and trust that the treasure you are looking for is hidden in the ground on which you stand." Personally, I think that is rather more helpful and profound!! ;o) Posted by: Mark | 10:19 pm |
Monday, June 07, 2004Spiritual Formation Questions After the long list of questions i am recommending using as we "spur each other on to love and good works", I thought I had better post them here as a reference!! I think I will also put them on a piece of paper to hand out. 1 How would you describe your relationship with God and your neighbour in the last week? 2 Have you experienced God in some fresh or memorable way in the last week? [we need to notice what God is doing] 3 Has someone expressed God's love to you this week in word or deed? [simple things - someone lets you into a car queue, someone treats you well] 4 Have you been able to express God's love to someone surprising this week, especially the poor, elderly, lonely, needy? Have you gone out of your way to connect with someone outside of your social network [i.e. someone different from you]? 5 What good things in life are inspiring you to offer gratitude to God and others in the last week? [good things in life] 6 What have you been worrying about recently? [expression of care not judgment! opportunity to share burdens] 7 How's your soul? Have you been finding inner peace this week? 8 Have you cared for your soul in some way in the last week? 9 What spiritual practice or discipline are you concentrating on and how is it going? [silence, solitude, simplicity, fasting, sacrifice, study, worship, service, prayer, fellowship, confession, submission etc] 10 Have you forgiven or asked for forgiveness in the last week? 11 Have you been practising joy? [thinking about good things today, get beyond the negative] 12 What small acts of kindness have you done this week? [listening, smiling, serving, getting someone a coffee, praying behind someone's back etc] 13 Did a bible passage help you in any way this week? 14 What experiences of prayer, reflection, meditation, spiritual reading have you had this week? In addition I stumbled on some other list of questions here and here, for the more inquisitive!! Posted by: Mark | 4:36 pm |
|
