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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.
Wednesday, February 23, 2005Church at "St. Arbucks" By John Fischer [cheesy title, but obviously a topic i have to post here!] Okay, since coffee shops and specifically Starbucks have been coming up a lot in these devotionals (and in your responses), I feel compelled to tell you another story inspired by the caffeine bean. I recently heard about a group of guys who meet regularly at a Starbucks to study the Bible, pray and share their lives together. Since their experience is so much like church, they have come to rename their meeting place "St. Arbucks" instead of Starbucks. It's a very clever idea and something that might catch on, especially when you consider how important small group fellowship is in the life of a believer. from purposedrivenlife.com, thanks to Rhodes and her friend emma we couldn't believe by the way, quite how many starbucks and neros we saw in our wander around london - hundreds!! Labels: cafe church, mission Posted by: Mark | 8:45 am |
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
 tenbyten Posted by: Mark | 2:59 pm |
Thursday, February 17, 2005what a cafe church invite thing might look like??????? [I liked it and so wanted to show it off!! Basically ignore the titles and dates ... well let me know which titles you like!]  Labels: cafe church Posted by: Mark | 8:58 am |
Monday, February 14, 2005Beautiful Feet Well, commiserations to Beautiful Feet on Saturday night. I think it fair to say that CCN were a bunch of pretty faithful groupees!! In fact the night would have been EVEN quieter if we hadn't been there [i have a feling that that statement isn't as profound as it is in my head...]. A disappointing second place aside [it was surely a close second place by the way!!], overall it was a good night. I don't think I have ever laughed at a band as much as I laughed at Dweeb!! One rubbish and one passable photo from the night [you can choose which is which!]...  
Posted by: Mark | 12:04 pm
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World Press Photo Prize - Sand Storm  This is for Rhoda, cos I know she likes all that extreme weather stuff ;o) All winners can be seen here [note: some "spot news" ones are quite disturbing...] Posted by: Mark | 10:43 am |
Thursday, February 10, 2005Fair's fair... here's a photo i call evil mark... 
Posted by: Mark | 4:30 pm
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A couple of pictures... Here are a couple of pictures that i have christened "evil em" and "evil mica". not sure why...  
Posted by: Mark | 11:30 am
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Grace After Mark's talk on grace last Sunday I decided to re-read a shortish paper i wrote on Grace while a college. I am not sure whether it is particularly good, but I thouhgt you might suffer a read!! I tried to track Grace as a biblical theme, rather than pick favourite verses from Paul's Letters. Therefore i tried to see how Paul thought about God before his conversion that helped him understand the gracious act of God he experienced on the Damascus road. I found it interesting, I hope you will too: God's grace through the Ages Thinking of Paul, it makes interesting addition to Mark's point on Sunday that "God has a problem with Pride" [!], in the sense that it takes humility to accept God's grace. It takes the acceptance that I can't do it on my own, and that I can never even contribute to paying back the grace I have received. On the Damascus Road, Paul's pride must have been shattered, and he must have been forever convinced of the undeserving nature of the grace he received: “the incomparable riches of his grace expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus” Posted by: Mark | 10:13 am |
Tuesday, February 08, 2005your daily dig "The whole person is on the one side open to God, and on the other side open to other people. The isolated individual is not a real person, for a real person lives in and for others. This idea...could be summed up under the word love. We become truly personal by loving God and by loving other humans. By love, I don’t mean merely an emotional feeling, but a fundamental attitude. In its deepest sense, love is the life, the energy, of the Creator in us. We are not truly human as long as we are turned in on ourselves. We become whole only insofar as we face others, and relate to them."Posted by: Mark | 9:49 am |
Monday, February 07, 2005An Australian Joke... A big-shot Sydney lawyer went duck hunting out near Gilgandra. He shot and dropped a bird, but it fell into a paddock on the other side of a fence. As the lawyer climbed over the fence, an elderly farmer drove up on his tractor and asked him what he was doing. The litigator responded, "I shot a duck and it fell in this paddock, and now I'm going to retrieve it." The old farmer replied, "This is my property and you are not coming over here." The indignant lawyer said, "I am one of the best trial attorneys in the country and if you don't let me get that duck, I'll sue you and take everything you own. The old farmer smiled and said, "Apparently, you don't know how we settle disputes in Gilgandra. We settle small disagreements like this with the "Three Kick Rule." The lawyer asked, "What is the Three Kick Rule?" The Farmer replied, "Well, because the dispute occurs on my land, first I kick you three times and then you kick me three times and so on back and forth until someone gives up." The attorney quickly thought about the proposed contest and decided that he could easily take the old bugger. He agreed to abide by the local custom. The old farmer slowly climbed down from the tractor and walked up to the attorney. His first kick planted the toe of his heavy steel toed work boot into the lawyer's groin and dropped him to his knees. His second kick to the midriff sent the lawyer's last meal gushing from his mouth. The lawyer was on all fours spitting and gasping when the farmer's third kick to his rear end sent him face-first into a fresh cow pat. The lawyer summoned every bit of his will and managed to get to his feet. Wiping his face with the arm of his jacket said, "Okay, Now it's my turn." The old farmer smiled and said, "Nah mate, I give up. You can have the duck." from backyard missionary Posted by: Mark | 1:11 pm |
Friday, February 04, 2005U2's Where is the Love 
I know we all love it. I thought you might appreciate this fairly intelligent and enlightening review of the album... The story goes that Bono asked Christian songwriter Michael W. Smith earlier this year if he knew how one could dismantle an atomic bomb. After replying that he didn't, Bono simply answered, "Love. With love." Posted by: Mark | 2:30 pm |
Thursday, February 03, 2005Protesting Protestants An Inclusive Church Conference Post One message that came out through the conference was the issue of protesting. As protestants, Brian McLaren said, protesting is inherent in our psyche. Mistakes anmd difference are wrong and mean you have got to be kicked out. And the consequence is that within protestantism, we are defined by our distinctives, until the next group comes up with the next 'latest thing', that is the new 'right' - this is what Brian called the "practice of being righter than thou". This results in us being very narrow in our view of what is church and what isn't. Do they conform to this rightness that defines what we are? Although this started theologically with the reformation, noting of course that the mainline reformers did not want a split with the catholic church, these days all sorts of lines are drawn around all sorts of practices from seeker-sensitive, to purpose-driven, to G12, to cell, to megachurch, to house church, to prosperity etc. These distinctives all too easily become lines of division. The point was made that the nature of the breadth of the catholic church is that renewal comes to the whole church through difference at the fringe. The pithy phrase goes: "the fringe innovates and the core imitates". Those on the fringe try all sorts of new stuff, some which works, some which doesn't [with the support and encouragement and 'room' given by the core]; the core watches with fascinated interest, and picks out of the innovations that can then be brought into the core. This seems to me to be a great model. The trouble as protestant protesters we tend to see people doing things differently on the fringe and then chuck them out as heretics!!! I guess I kinda see that working in the Charismatic movement. Late 60s all sorts of charismatic groups are forming, many of them kicked out by the denominations because of it. As time goes on this charismatic things developes establishes itself, maybe even 'settles' a little to the point where the treasures brought by the charismatic movement start to feed their way back into denominational churches. In many parts of the country you will find very little difference between a charismatic church and the local Anglican church, apart from the building they meet in. If we can take this long-term view of things, born out by experience, maybe, in this time of cultural transition, we can encourage innovation, even things we have 'concerns' about and wait excitedly to see what God is doing on the fringe and anticipate the life that will soon be fed back to the core. Posted by: Mark | 10:38 am |
Wednesday, February 02, 2005Phone for Free!!! 
I finally tried Skype today. My brother, Jonny, had downloaded it, so we decided to give it a try. It is a computer to computer phone connection and all it requires is the skype software on both computers, and a mic and speakers - then you are all set to speajk to anyone in the world for free!! Pretty cool! It is remarkably clear too. just add "thenorridges" to your contact list!! [by the way did i mention my older brother, Paul, has started a blog called Instamatic Theology?] Posted by: Mark | 3:17 pm |
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