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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.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007Does some Mumbo-Juymbo make sense?I think I would like this, if i understood it:
Simon, you love that lingo don't you? [lol] You may notice a vaugue similarity to Walter Bruggeman, here. Posted by: Mark | 2:08 pm |
Tuesday, January 23, 2007Uganda
 I have a REALLY deep and meaningful post up my sleeve ... but i just don't have the brain power today. So instead I will just say that it has almost suink in today that we are planning a trip to uganda in the summer. I can't believe it might happen - but over the last cople of weeks things have started to slot into place ... you know, in a God sort of way. As it stands at the moment we are going with the 3 boys ... plus 5 young ladies [ages 13-25 approx]. Yesterday when i should have been spending my lunchtime at "outwork" preparing for the talk at alpha that evening i actually spent it reading the wikitravel entry on uganda. Very distracting. Time to get planning. We are going to go to the orphanage I mentioned before, particularly to spend time with and support our friends the Browns, and work in the orphanage. Hey, and who knows what else! I have uploaded the video of the brown's house that I showed at the last CCN Family Meeting at Parklands here, in case you fancy another viewing. Also I have just got to mention that at alpha last night 4 people said that they want to get baptised - i'm pretty excited... Posted by: Mark | 5:30 pm |
Saturday, January 20, 2007new toy
 After the Christmas need to convert my office into a bedroom. i am just about resettled. i took the opportunity for a bit of a reshuffle. In the reshuffle in particular i realised that despite a 19" CRT monitor being great for the picture size, it is not so great for the remaining desk space - nor the back contortions required to get a good veiwing angle at said desk. And so I have 'invested' in a new monitor - a 19" windscreen LCD [Acer 1916WAS in case your interested!]. A bargain from ebuyer and its GREAT! Share the joy... Other random things: - REALLY IMPORTANT. I never realised until recently that the income you declare to get tax credits [not income tax - child tax credits, working tax credits] is your gross income MINUS you Gift Aid giving. Honestly check it out. So any giving to the church or other charity organisation should not be included in the declared income. That little fact has meant that we have had a rebate ... ;o) - Jo did a really cool messy game at JFC last night. Spelling words with alphabet spaghetti. Really cool to have a team messy game! - I have upoaded a little windy day vid: take a look - the new blogger setup has "labels" for blogs. I have been going back and adding labels to some of the old ones. sad but true! It means now you can filter for themes like: cafe church; reinventing evangelism; mission etc etc. I just keep changing my mind on what the labels should be ... - oh and this is my 300th post. in ... errm .... 40 months. Some of them have been quite good ... my first post may have been the best. Labels: random Posted by: Mark | 10:19 am |
Thursday, January 18, 2007Missional Community and Work
 The picture above is of a sculpture at Launde Abbey. Yes we were there again last Sunday, no tree climbing this time though. It was another Alpha away day, and another amazing time. There are times when you just HAVE to beleive in God! ;o). The rest of the week has proceeded fairly normally - loads of great stuff going on: last night another 'mum' from our kids club "JFC" said she wanted to do Alpha. She came to the History of Christmas Dinner, and was so amazed by the evening, it was great fun, she said, and i didn't get preached at at all!! Honestly, I said, that just isn't our style... Yesterday I was at King's Bible College to take my first Tutorial of the year. We are planning to work through Chalkies book "The Lost Message of Jesus" [always fun because of the controversary a small bit of it raised...]. Anyway, this week we had no directed topic planned in. So we discussed this: "Our Theology [what we think about God] should influence our Missiology [what we think about mission] which should influence our Eccleisiology [what we think about the church and do as church]. If we reverse any of these we end up on the wrong track". It was a really good discussion, despite nearly loosing a couple of people along the way. What do you think about that? Anyway, on talking about missiology, we were trying to work out where mission starts. I think it is imperative that we understand the mission starts with God [missio dei] AND that mission starts with the activity of God in creation, i.e. not after the fall. Plus, i think it is important that we see people as having a mission [a purpose] in creation. For this we looked a little more in depth at Genesis 2:2-5. I remembered looking at this during our "mission month" a few years ago [remember that?]. I particularly remember the shock when I suggested that work was there before the fall!! lol! I relooked at my brief notes form then, and decided to share them with you! Man's mission/purpose in creation: relationship with God, relationship with each other [community] and Co-creativity with God:Posted by: Mark | 5:40 pm |
Saturday, January 13, 2007Church enters MySpace
 It has happened, the churches web presence has spread and entered "MySpace". I have to confess when i stubbled upon a few friends myspace pages recently i did set-up a page for myself. but then didn't do anything with it - no nothing! So imagine my joy when Adam suggested we need a church myspace page. Ok i admit it, it is stretch beyond my current web world. But anyway i think it is pretty cool, and i am looking forward to linking people up! Visit: CCN MySpace Group CCD, our sister church in Derby is still trying to work out some kind of "web policy" for what it's all about - and in some way make their site look interesting and attractive ... get with the programme guys!! Our web raison d'etre has always been pretty clear for me - a place for community, and as part of our communal life it woud in some way express our DNA: living lives of worship; making disciples; Creating community; reaching in love; including in opennes and invitation; reproducing[fruit bearing?]. Seems to work for me!! ONe thing I am not quite so sure of - how does it relate to the blog?! So thanks to Adam. and of course happy birthday. Here's to my new friend ;o). it is actually wierd to think that i have only known him for a couple of months. There is just this niggling concern, as with any new friend that they have some strange, hidden obsession - something like, i don't know, transformers or superhero's or something... Posted by: Mark | 10:39 am |
Thursday, January 11, 2007Stuff happens
Stuff happens. What do the world's religions have to say about this vexing existential problem? Taoism: Stuff happens. Who gives a stuff? Hinduism: This stuff has happened before and will happen again. Buddhism: The stuff that happens doesn't really. Zen: What is the sound of stuff happening? Islam: The stuff that will happen will happen. Judaism: Lord, why is this stuff happening to me? Evangelicalism: Jesus, we praise you and just wanna ask why this stuff isn't happening to someone else? Catholicism: Stuff happens because you deserve it. Open Theism: Stuff happens to God too. Pentacostalism: Tuffs appensh. Anglo-Catholicism: Verily, verily, stuff happeneth. Atheism: Stuff happens. Then you die. No more stuff. Rastafarianism: Let's smoke the stuff ht: connexions ; Maggi Dawn Labels: humour Posted by: Mark | 11:01 pm |
Tuesday, January 09, 2007Practices for Growth PodcastI managed to successfully record the preach on Sunday morning [i know it shouldn't be so surprising]. Actually audacity is a pretty simple and yet impressive programme which can take the mic straight into the laptop, and then edit it later. Fortunately today i also remembered how to reduce the MP3 file size! Oh and here is "Fortress Maximus" Adam's "Transformer of Great Price" [let the listener understand...]  So here it is: for those who fancy a listen/re-listen! Labels: discipleship, podcast Posted by: Mark | 12:28 pm |
Friday, January 05, 2007New Hope, Uganda
 On Sunday i showed a video of our friends 'pad' in Uganda. I hope people got a feel for things! We called them today, because it was Steve Brown's birthday yesterday. It was amazing to call from here through to their mobile phone at Kasana. Quite strange really! If you want to keep track of how they are getting on they have a blog. Go and Visit: www.blodsblog.blogspot.com. I also stumbled on a movie on Goodle Video by the leaders of the Centre. Watch it here. The website that gives more information is here: New Hope Uganda. Labels: browns, mission, uganda Posted by: Mark | 4:52 pm |
Thursday, January 04, 2007Christmas has come and goneI am coming under much pressure to blog something. It's fair enough i suppose seeing as the last post was before the long passed advent candle was even first lit. So sorry about that. It feels particularly wrong when an old friend Barbara Ruddy commented on the last post yesterday [old in terms of time past, not her age...]. That seemed wrong that she didn't have the latest info to comment on! So anyway highlights of Christmas: 1) The history of Christmas dinner. I weas so pelased with how it went. Nearly 80 people ate a [nearly - jo didn't get her pigs in blankets] full Christmas dinner. Comedy moment of the evening was singing twelve days of Christmas in a round. Very silly. One friend of ours commented that it was the most fun she had over Christmas! 2) Christmas Eve Service. It was great to her Dave's brother Terry was most likely going to be home for Christmas [and he was. Reuben prayed that for him the day he had his operation. I managed to resist the rtemptation to tell him that was an unrelaistic prayer ... oh me of little faith!]. It was great to hear that the caretaker had been givent he all clear from throat cancer. It was great to sing some carols in a meangful way. It was great to have a visitor say they wanted to do an alpha course. I enjoyed getting the kids to tell silly Christmas jokes. What more can you ask for? Oh and it's all about presents(ce) in case you forgot. 3) Little cable ties. every single toy that the kids got was secured in its box by little metal ties twisted as tightly as they could be. WHY OH WHY? i nearly took a photo of one and put it up here on Christmas day. If i cold find one now i would [there musty be one around here somewhere!] 4) An amazing present from Maddy - a wireless media streamer. its great. take a look here. 5) A funny present from one fo my bro's - Series 1 of Sledgehammer on DVD. Looking forward to watching that... 6) It was great to spend time with my family - both immediate and extended. They are all great. It should be noted that Asher [age 4] says that the proper Christmas has not come yet and that we need to keep the Christmas tree up until it does. What is the proper Christmas? When it snows... I am not sure the tree will last that long... And so it is a new year. Maybe that is another post! Labels: festivals Posted by: Mark | 9:34 am |
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