Postmodern Beer!

Here

Brian McLaren at Share The Guide

Kim just left a link to Brian McLaren’s post at Share the Guide.  He talks about why he is not comfortable with the term “emerging church” as it is a further division of ‘the pie’.

For those of you who haven’t heard me espouse the virtue of Brian’s book Generous Orthodoxy, go and buy a copy now!!  Possibly the most influential book I have read!

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Missio Dei – A Further Reflection

I have just read Mission Shaped Church: A Theological Response by John M. Hull and he has some interesting things to say about the missiology of Mission Shaped Church.

Christian Mission is not a mission of the church; but church itself is a feature of mission.  The mission is God’s mission.  God as Father, Son and Spirit turned toward the world that God has made in mercy and compassion, the world in which God has created life.

Hull obviously comes to Mission Shaped Church with a preconceived concept of church as vehicle of mission as opposed to the results of mission.  This is in contrast to MSC’s call to church planting and the building of Christian communities.  Whilst I think that Hull is correct in his assertion, the MSC report was a starting point rather than an end point.  In that sense it has called people for the first time to examine what it means to be “church”.  This was the springboard.  The question is will it still be relevant in 25 years time or will it disappear like Faith in the City?

Emergent Reaction

One of the worrying hangovers of the reformation was that many large denominations are based upon a reactionary movement.  A good example of this would be the Church of England and its early definition of “we’re not Roman Catholic”.  This is seen in the 39 articles of faith as laid down at the time.

Many fledgling movements define themselves as being “not what has gone on before”.  This seems to be a trend running through the emerging church movement as it finds its feet.  This is especially true when you hear prominent emerging church leaders declaring that the emerging church will “kill off the institutional church.  And that is a good thing”.  If the church is to be defined by what it stands for rather than what it stands against, how should the emerging church assert itself in the positive?

Liturgy

I have been using a lot of online liturgical resources lately.  Not only does it save time but it can also provide a good source of inspiration when trying to find ways of bringing alternative services together.  As such I have decided to put them all together on a new liturgy page.  This is for my own benefit as well as others.  I intend to include some of the more traditional liturgies from the historic churches as well as some of the more contemporary and newer work.

To start off with I have put up the Book of Common Prayer (further to my previous post) and Common Worship.  Both of these are Anglican Liturgical resources.

Mistakes I have made…

It would seem that I am a little over zealous in my desire to encourage my more traditional colleagues into the world of alternative worship.  I may have mentioned to them that I experienced an alternative worship form of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer’s Choral Evensong at Greenbelt this year.  And now that is the ‘alternative’ that we will be experiencing next week.

I must learn from this experience!!

😀

When I needed a neighbour…

I was hungry, and you formed a bible study group to discuss my hunger.
I was imprisoned, and you crept off quietly to your chapel and prayed for my release
I was naked, and in your mind you debated the morality of my appearance.
I was sick, and you knelt and thanked God for your health.
I was homeless, and you preached to me of the spiritual shelter of the love of God.
I was lonely, and you left me to pray for me.
You seem so holy, so close to God,
but I am still very hungry – and lonely – and cold.

Sorry, I don’t know where it comes from originally.

Hot Leg – Cocktails

It’s my blog and I’ll do what I want 😀  Here’s the video to Hotlegs new song Cocktails!

The Net Church Huddersfield

I went to a lecture this morning and it highlighted something I seem to have overlooked completely.  There is a Fresh Expression church that extends up and over and around my very house and it is so obviously there that I haven’t even thought to mention it.  Apparently there is wood in those trees!

The Net is an Anglican church without walls that was set up 8 years ago in the Huddersfield area.  It is based upon a church plant without a geographical location.  The Net operates in the networks that people have with each other to engage with the 60% of the population who have no contact with the church on any level.

Check it out at their website!

Worship Idea 16 – Have a Smashing Time

If you are looking for a different way in which to pray for repentance, how about doing it in a dramatic and violent manner?

For this you will need to get some cheap plates and permanent markers.  Ikea or a charity shop will be a good place to get very cheap plates from.  Using the permanent markers, each person is invited to write their sins on a plate.  For the absolution, everyone then comes to smash their plate against some rocks.

Think about how to make it safe – we don’t want to have a Greek Tragedy.  Don’t have everyone coming up all at once.  Put sheets down so that all of the broken crockery can be easily gathered at the end and then throw it away.