silence …. in a nutshell!

Silence on this blog probably means a busy week … but a week of highlights which I will outline in a  nutshell…

I met up with Ian Mobsby, my mentor, last week. We chatted about a lot of stuff both gathering and Moot based. I find these times really encouraging and just love the opportunity to catch up with other Moot people. I hope to be able to get to their Rhythm of Life Service in a few weeks time. Moot has been a real encouragement to me over the years as well as being quite formational in my outlook and practice.

That afternoon I was excited to attend a governors meeting at Brompton Academy  particularly as we were having a tour of the new build. This is a school I have been connected with for over a decade now and a community I care quite a lot about. It was exciting to see all the planning coming together, but particularly exciting as these has been a long time coming and the young people of Gillingham deserve such a school! You can see the building progress on a live webcam feed on the school website.

On Saturday while Sarah and friends attended a training day at St. Marks I was looked after by 6 children. Some of us watched Tin Tin at the saturday Morning cinema, but i think most fun was had by the 7 of us as we spent the afternoon at the allotment mainly weeding with a little bit of bean and sweetcorn planting and a lot of squealing and running when worms, beetles and slow worms were discovered. We were planning on going for an hour but we were having ‘such fun’ that we stayed nearly 3. Tis was the most fun I’ve had on a Saturday for a little while.

This Sunday was one of those days when the move from traditional Anglican Christian worship to creativity was experienced in its extreme, starting the day at 8am behind the High Altar and ending it in the evening in a pub! I presided at the 8am Book of Common Prayer Eucharist service. The language of this service I find to be quite a challenge, but not as much as the structure with some bits, I think, jarring and seeming out of place where they are. I then presided at the 10.30am Eucharist service which is different in its tradition again (although I do think Common Worship has a more helpful structure.).

On Sunday afternoon the gathering met in Mote Park and we wandered together and chatted generally and chatted faith. It was brilliant to see some new people joining us and seeing our ideas and dreams crossing at certain points. The gathering seems to be slowly growing as a community, rather than just numerically, and I think we are in quite an interesting and key time.

Sunday evening I was speaking, albeit I turned up late (I ‘fess up as I’m sure someone will comment otherwise!) to a group of people from St Stephens meeting in the Huntsman. I spoke about ‘Life as a Pioneer Minister’ and the people had a number of questions. It was a fun experience and I hope I managed to help some people think about mission in a new way.

So … in a nutshell that is the cause of my silence this last week – well that and a lot of talking and listening while in the general Rochester High Street area … I shall be sad to move on from Rochester in September … but time to move on and think about this week in Rochester now!

gathering talk

Yesterday afternoon, the gathering got togther to talk about the future.

I think it is far to say we have struggled to meet our own aspirations and vision over the last few months and so this was a good healthy ‘lets sit down and talk’ kind of meeting. I think we have talked and developed a way forward and i am pretty pleased and excited by this.

I am also pretty excited because we did not all agree on everything. Despite our disagreement it’s clear we can still journey together because this is not an ‘either/or’ situation but a ‘both/and’ as the strength of relationship we have with each other is much stronger than personal tastes or interests.

As we are developing community we realsied that we need to get togerher  lot more than we currently are. I think we have come up with some creative ways to enable us to do this … so we will see / wacth this space / all that kinds stuff!  But … for the moment, and looking ahead, things are looking pretty good and a lot more exciting than they did before we chatted!

If you are the praying kind, though, please pray for the gathering as we seek God’s will for the way forward …. thanks

 

where is Jesus?

the gathering happened last night and we asked the question ‘where’s Jesus’ which was a question prompted from looking at the first

chapter of John’s gospel. We mulled around the idea that these people had been waiting so long for the messiah, that they had been looking and waiting  - and yet when he was there they didn’t actually recognise him. That possibly had something to do with Jesus not quite being the sort of person they expected.

We also thought more about v14 where John taks about ‘the word’ dwelling with us – or, a better translation, ‘pitched his tent with us’. There was something in that statement about God choosing to live with us, but also to move with us …. the whole pitching the tent thing in a nomadic lifestyle could suggest that as you pick up tent and move, then Christ moves with you.

This challenged us as a group to ask ‘so what?’ – as in what difference does this make to us in our normal, run of the mill, everyday lives. I think we were challenged to be aware of where Christ is today, and by that meaning how can we join with Christ and how can we ‘allow’ Christ to pitch his trent with us or dwell with us. Not sure we got there but we are still thinking … but part of that must be that we slow down and notice Christ around us. I shared that, personally, I try to end my day with an Examen type activity. I notice far too often that I have missed something of God in the everyday as I reflect on my day. I am frustrated at my ‘blindness’ and simply pray I could notice more at the time!

So, this week, I think the gathering is asking the question as they wander in their normal lives. ‘where is Jesus now?’ – you might like to join us …

mixed sunday

The blog has been quiet for a while. The reason has been that I have been feeling pretty wordless since Monday and, in time, I will share this but it is not right to do so at the moment.

Last Sunday (am I really that far behind!) was a pretty good day. The day started by taking up a great opportunity to preach St. Augustines, a parish church (which happens to be the parish I live in), in which I have known some people for a little while. It was good to catch up with people and I seemed to get positive comments from my sermon, which got some people asking questions – which is always my aim when I preach! I came away thinking this is a great parish church looking at ways in which it can engage well with it’s community.

In the afternoon we had the first gathering of 2012. I guess we are developing a way of working or ‘tradition’; and it seems to be a developing tradition that at the start of the year we do ‘the journey’ which I have blogged a lot about elsewhere.

The journey gives us a safe opportunity to consider where we are with God and where other members of the community are. It reminds us that the Christian life is a journey of good and bad, of joy and sadness, of cruising and battling. It reminds us that all of these stages are valid, all are necessary, and so all are ‘right’ places to be in in their season. Most importantly, it reminds us, and shows the younger members of our community, that Christianity is real and we don’t need to pretend it is easy. It shows that having difficulties and questioning God are not signs of ‘back-sliding’ but are actually signs of discipleship being taken seriously.

Last Sunday – two totally different gatherings, but both rooted in prayer, faith and worship of the Creator God. That inclusiveness and commitment to engaging with a theological diversity is one of the things I love about the Church of England!

advent gathering

I felt incredibly blessed by the gathering last night. This was our last gathering of the year, and the theme was Advent looking towards Christmas. We held it in a different location as we wanted a bit more time and flexibility that allowed us to eat together as part of our worship.

After reminding ourselves of why we gather while lighting candles around an advent wreath we watched a little of The Nativity Story and then Tom led us in a discussion which helped us get to grips with the story as we questioned traditional thought and listened to other ideas.

In our Open Space time, which is always a time we have to allow us to engage with the story at  a personal level, people were creative in making things, listening to things and writing a carol. I enjoyed the carol writing which was a pretty amazing experience which was written by three groups of people taking a verse each with a theme and part of the story after a brainstorming session. I saw things others had created which were impressive and had clearly helped people engage in thinking about advent and the coming of Christ.

After open space we broke to eat and drink together before returning to share communion, after which we sang ‘Ordinary Extraordinary’, our new gathering carol, and then blessed each other with an Advent Blessing before leaving.

The whole experience was excellent and I think in some way we entered a new phase in our lives as a developing and growing fresh expression of church. I’m looking forward to our life together as the gathering in 2012 as we explore more together. But for now …. thanks everyone for making our Advent gathering such a special time.

meal of passion!

The gathering ate together last night at our home. A great experience with a good chance to share where we are at, what we are doing and how things are going.

Between our main course and pudding we thought a bit about our passions and our talents which led into a discussion of how the gathering reflects these and in fact whether, as an expression of church, that it should.

I adapted an exercise that Jonny put me on to last week but for our purposes concentrated on just passions and talents. It was interesting, although not surprising, to see that a lot of our values matched. There was a lot of passions around justice, family, friends and fun. Those values were expressed in various forms across the whole age span of the community from 7 years to 40 something. It was personally exciting to see the children speak of ‘against poverty’ and ‘championing the needs of people’.

Creativity was also a recognised passion and while we think we are a creative community we are painfully aware that we are not a community that is yet involved in doing something to lesson the injustices we see around us.

In our discussion we started to think and explore about how we might address this and also how our location might enable our mission to make a difference where we are. I think we all agree that although the crypt is a special and particularly sacred space, that is is not the correct space for the gathering to use in the way we use it.

We have become a community that spends a lot of time being creative and worship is fun and challenging. But, we never got together to spends lots of time planning great worship; we got together because we wish to explore being church in a way that makes a transformative difference to our community.

So for our next gathering we are looking to meet somewhere new and explore the advent and Christmas theme by asking local organisations ‘how can we help you make a difference?’ or ‘what is needed’ and see if there is any way we can respond.

Last night was a really positive and exciting gathering … not this time because of creative worship, but this time because of a shared passion to make a difference.

Please pray for us as we seek to move forward.

take shape

I have had the week off.
I have had time to think, to reflect, to read, to watch movies.
I have also done a lot of walking as I ‘tweeked’ the old back after preaching last week.

As the week unexpectedly opened up for me I decided on one day that my walking should be around the Tate Modern. I love the Tate and, apart from various coffee shops, I really miss just popping in and out of this creative space like I used to be able to when I was a member and working in London twice a week when with YFC.

Personally, for me, I find I hear from God through film and art just as much as I do through Bible study.  I find wandering through the galleries of the Tate, and just wandering around the Borough Market area of London to be quite an inspiring space for me, especially when I am feeling dry as I have for the last few weeks.

I found a number of exhibits to be amazing to study. I found myself mentally climbing the stairway. I’m not sure where it is leading, and I’m not sure where I was going as I climbed … but the piece itself was stunning, captivating and drew you into its space.

I was particularly struck however by an un-named piece by Robert Morris. Morris’ piece captivated me and got me thinking as he has exerted minimal control over it’s appearance, effectively giving up control of how the art appears. The piece consists of a number of strips of felt which are suspended and allowed to form their own shape under their own weight. Effectively this means that the shape changes each time this work is displayed. The material determines it’s own shape.

I was challenged by this as I wondered whether God had a message for me in this for the gathering. Sometimes I wonder whether we try to control things, events, maybe even God, just too much. In our fear to not offend, or in our obsession with accountability, or our ideas on what should and needs to be included, there is a tendency to try to force things into particular moulds.

We have been trying to create something new with the gathering. Some of what we do is very creative and different. Certainly some visitors, who are very very comfortable in the Christendom mould, have not coped with our openness, our inclusivity, our vulnerability and our desire to move forward together, learning from each other and encouraging each other.

What we do, however, still looks like a church service … a very relaxed and fdcreative one, but still one nevertheless.

I guess when you try to create something new it’s hard to break out of the mould that you have grown up with. When you have been so used to doing something one way, and so used to hearing that a b and c need to be included or done in a particular way, it then becomes very different to see any other way to do things.

So I wonder … whether in some way, and I don’t know how, that we need to let the weight of our ideas, our dreams and our passions find their own shape. In order for this to happen we need to find out how we can give them the freedom to relax into their own shape.

I’m not sure we know how to do that … … yet!

sunday reflections

Sarah was away at the weekend in Florence with friends celebrating Jo’s birthday. Sounds like they had a great time.

I did as well! Being home alone with the children (for just a weekend!!) it’s quite a cool experience as my children are so amazing.  I don’t know whether it is true for most children, but in the main, ours will tend to run things past Sarah rather than me. With Sarah away stuff came to me and it was a joy being involved in their lives in a slightly different way.

We also took the excuse to catch up with friends either over takeaways or at Nandos … and that was great too. I think this was massively helped by myself not being on the rota for Sunday …

Not being on the rota gave an indication of what life is like for others who do not have a church connection that requires some form of attendance on a Sunday morning. The word that summed up the experience was ‘relaxed’. With no rush to get out the door there were no arguments among people and the day was relatively stress free and happy.

With time being so precious today for families, and for most Sunday being the day when families can get together (I know this is not the case for everyone as people work Sundays too … I know!!) I have been thinking for a while that maybe ‘church’ needs to view Sunday differently.

With the gathering I am wondering whether our Sunday’s together should be more social, with less emphasis and worry on doing something that is worshipful and teaches us … so that the Sunday can be a ‘sabbath’ experience where rest, fun, socialising and eating together can be really embraced. I guess to do that though, we would need to take on a commitment to worship at another time during the week, and that could well be costly and difficult itself … or would it?

Would church on a Wednesday tea time, or a Monday evening really be any more of a challenge than church on a Sunday morning or afternoon? Do we need to think wider than we are …?

Any comments ….

a blessing to others

The gathering got together on Sunday and we considered Heaven. 

We started by looking at our images of heaven, and what we thought heaven was like and what heaven was all about. Nick led us into thinking about if we could describe heaven as a colour, what colour would we choose and why. This was an interesting time as we could see a cross section of colours and reasons … it’s seems we all think very differently about heaven. 

Following this we looked at the video of Brian McLaren and his interpretation of the Lords Prayer and heaven. This is a challenging video … not so much for it’s content, but more for its consequences of taken it seriously. 

Certainly the concept of heaven coming to earth, and our role being involved in that, certainly sits a lot better with us that thoughts of being whisked off to another place. In the gospels we noticed that John the Baptist spoke of the kingdom of God coming; whereas Jesus says the Kingdom of God is here. That’s a pretty distinct difference. Right at the beginning of Mark’s gospel (v15) Jesus asks his listeners to believe the good news. I have always blindly read the ‘good news’ to mean the resurrection story … but we are 15 chapters away from that still in Mark.

I think the good news that Jesus talks of is that the Kingdom of Heaven is here, that we don’t have to wait to be whisked off into another place, and (this is I think really exciting) that we have a role to get involved with God in bringing the KIngdom of God (aka heaven) as a reality in the lives of those we meet. If you watch the video clip that is essentially what a part of the Lords Prayer is saying.

AS the gathering we struggled with what we do in light of this. There is mystery here, the Kingdom of God is here and we can see evidence but it is clearly not ere fully – there is more to come. The kingdom of God is here but there is more to come … and we have a role in working alongside God in bringing in more of the Kingdom.

Clearly we cannot get involved in every single issue or area of need that we see. But … we could get involved in those that we feel God prompt us to. I think how this outplays in our lives as individuals and as the gathering will be a reoccurring question. Yesterday we left with two statements which give us a challenge:

to be involved in the kingdom of God would mean that we will be a blessing to those we meet (Luke 4)

and

if we bring in the kingdom with God it would be like leaving a sweet taste in the mouths of those we meet (Psalm 34)

In our daily lives, how can we be such a blessing to others so that it is like leaving them with a sweet taste in their mouth – that’s not a bad aim for life!

ancient …. future

On Sunday the gathering well … err gathered as we do in the Crypt of Rochester Cathedral. The crypt, or more accurately the Ithamar Chapel, was a particularly great setting for us as we were looking at and trying out the ancient practices of Lectio Divina and The Examen. (We used our own version of the Examen which you can find here).

I think this time together for us was good in that it helps us as we ‘try to travel our journey of faith together while we listen’ as our website claims. Both of these practices, but particularly, for me, the Examen are great ways to connect with the Divine on a regular basis. Personally I use the Examen at either the start or the end of the day and often find myself excited or surprised at how I have met with God throughout normal everyday activities.

These are great ancient practices that can help us on our journey’s into the future.