It’s Fair Trade Fortnight and in amongst it I’ve noticed how many of us think that it is OK to exploit one person as long as we are doing it to help another person.
A vague example: Church A is doing good for poor people M by supplying them with useful thing T. In order to do as much good for poor people M as possible, Church A is buying useful thing T as cheaply as possible. However, this means that Church A is participating in the unfair exploitation of poor people Y.
Hmmm. This is actually incredibly entrenched in our lifestyles and is not just true of the establishment called church, but is also true of the people called church.
I can’t give a pet solution to this, as the only thing we can do is to be 100% sure that we are doing God’s will. Hopefully an awareness of this issue will help us hear…
Category Archives: Zzzz … Old Stuff
Role play on early church
I have posted a role play that is great and I use loads. It explores the early church well, and enables people to see the differences in the new testament churches.
Base%20Christian%20role%20play.doc
In Memory
I heard over the weekend of David Sheppard’s death. It is with sadness that I reflect on a man, a bishop and lord who helped me be me. A champion of the poor, FYT and the city, his words matched his life, unafraid to speak out. A man of his day who in many ways was ahead of his time, but whose life and words will continue to influence many for decades to come. If you don’t know about him read some of the blogs and tributes but better still read his books.
Is church the rich young ruler?
I have been doing quite a bit of follow up work on Off the Beaten Track, and as ever when I start doing talks and workshops my thinking develops. I am thankful for community as it helps me think and grow. However I have had a thought that just won’t go away and the more I chat about it the more angles I see.
When I was reading the parable of the rich young ruler the other day I was struck by how Jesus’ word in verse 29 and 30 resonated with John 10v10 “life in all it’s fullness.”
This was my start point for the question Is church the rich young ruler? I could argue the similarities throughout the passage. One issue for me is that like the rich young ruler the church has sought to keep the commands all it’s life, but still we know something is missing, and if we are not demonstrating life in all it’s fullness by keeping these, what is it that is hindering us? What do we need to take off?
Will we get through the eye of the needle as we are?
Do we need to the challenge to go away disappointed for a while so we can recognise where we have gone wrong?
Does our wealth and new initiatives that come and go hide our disappointment to well?
The Rich Ruler
18A certain ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
19“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good–except God alone. 20You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.’”
21“All these I have kept since I was a boy,” he said.
22When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
23When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth. 24Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! 25Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
26Those who heard this asked, “Who then can be saved?”
27Jesus replied, “What is impossible with men is possible with God.”
28Peter said to him, “We have left all we had to follow you!”
29“I tell you the truth,” Jesus said to them, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God 30will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life.”
In and out of Context – Denmark
I had a great time in Denmark, the cultural differences were a challenge and I enjoyed the dialogue. It was strange to be speaking in a context where I knew little about the culture but am always on about the need to contexualise the message and methods. If you were at the SALT session and are after resources, most of the stuff is on the right and if you hover the mouse over a dialogue will expalin what is what. If you want to continue the conversation about new forms of church, or have any other issues you want to raise, feel free to post a question in the comments space below.
Gentile Church
Well (in response to the question I posed at the end of my last post) I reckon we have plenty of Jewish traditions (adapted):
1) The worship leader (High Priest).
2) We come into the House of the Lord.
3) We come into God’s presence.
4) We come into the Holy Place.
5) Worship narrowed down to singing instead of it being our whole lives.
6) Ecstasy – no, not that ecstacy!
7) Lots of singing.
So I’m ready for a remodel! 🙂
Now, what is a sensible attitude to existing tradition?
I think that if we are going to learn something from the OT it is more
likely to be in the realms of justice and community incorporating economics,
social care, empowerment, etc.
Always wanted to do this
I always wanted to be a jet setter but I still haven’t been out of Europe. However I reckon posting from airport as the plane is delayed is the closest I will get. Serenity download
Snowed in by God
Quick post as I am off to Denmark to do some stuff with youthworkers over there. Hoping I get there as there is heavy snow at the moment. It seems that where ever I travel I run the risk of getting snowed in at the moment. Last week I woke up to several inches of snow in Rugby where I was speaking. Maybe it’s connected but I have been thinking a lot about believing in God, and whether it is actually possible to believe in God and does that imply if you don’t believe He ceases to be, if so our current concept of believing in God is a bit of a non starter (feel free to comment or slate me on this). As God is fact in my view, maybe it is more about making space for Him in our lives (an old pre-Christian idea). This space may not be about the Christian ideas of inviting Him in, but more about the recognition of Him in all and through all. When we don’t don’t make the space does He snow us in so we can’t miss Him?Serenity film
Getting it right
Mark has joined Sunday Papers and will be posting from time to time. However it also means that as I have tried to change some of the settings the formatting has gone a bit wonky, please stick me whilst I work it out. For some reason the blogs have moved to the right any suggestions on how to get it back welcome.
More Parables for FaSt
The Party
Sarah had always had it easy, her father earned money, pots of money. He was well known through out the town for the many lucrative businesses he owned. He had several houses in this country and abroad, and the house he lived in with his family was more a mansion than a house. They had expensive cars, wore expensive clothes and had a great life. So when it came to throwing a party for Sarah’s twenty first they weren’t going to skimp on anything. They started looking for a venue big enough to hold what would be the party of the year. They would invite Sarah’s friends from the private school she attended, her father’s business acquaintances her mother’s friends, the ‘ladies who lunch’, and all the great and good of the community.
After much searching they found the only venue big enough for such a party, was the local football ground. They arranged to put Marquee’s up on the pitch, and booked the country’s top caterers. They sent out invites, on the highest quality handmade paper, each individually printed in gold ink. Everyone knew this was going to be a party to remember.
After weeks of preparation the day of the party finally arrived, the family dressed up in their finest clothes and got into the limousine that was taking them to the football ground. They arrived early to welcome all their guests.
When they got there, what a sight beheld them, the tables were laden with a vast array of food. There was the best food from the Far East; Cantonese, Chinese, sushi. Top Indian chefs had provided a decadent display of dishes. There were the most exquisite European dishes and even burger and chips! Whatever food you fancied it was there.
It was soon eight o’clock when the guests were due to arrive and the family stood waiting to greet their guests. But eight o’clock came and went, then eight thirty and still no guests. Sarah and her family couldn’t understand why no one had arrived. They’d had a few apologies from guests who had other commitments. Some had business meetings to attend, some were going shopping in New York, and some were just too busy to fit the party into their already tight schedules.
They started to wonder whether their friends were not arriving because they were over awed by such a party and that’s why they hadn’t come. They even began to worry if it was because the football ground backed on to the local estate, they were afraid to park their Mercs and Beamers on the street’.
Could everyone have other things to do? Did everyone have some excuse? What had they done to offend people? They hadn’t been boasting about the party, they just wanted to celebrate the happy occasion with all their friends and family.
Two hours went by and still no one had turned up. The family were disappointed and the father was thinking about how all the food was going to waste but it smelt and looked wonderful, his mouth watered and his belly rumbled. Then he thought if all our friends, and business acquaintances, and ladies who lunch and all the great and the good of the community won’t come, then I will go and find people who will.
He left the football ground and the first people he saw was a bunch of lads from the local estate. One was even sitting on top of a phone box sniffing the air, where the tantalising smell of food was wafting. They were talking about what was happening at the football ground and as the father approached the lads looked over at him with curiosity. The father plucked up the courage, cleared his throat and addressed the lad sitting on top of the phone box.
‘What’s your favourite food young man?’ He asked.
‘Chicken Tikka Masala and chips,’ the lad replied
‘We’ve got bucket loads of that in there’ the father gestured back at the football ground. He asked the other lads what their favourite food was, they each said something different. The father told them there was food and drink enough for everyone at the football ground, to go out and grab their mums and dads and all their friends off the estate. To tell them they were all invited to a party.
People piled in, they weren’t what Sarah expected but the evening was a great success. The band struck up, the people were jubilant, Sarah made friends with people she’d never spoken to in her life. Her mother had more fun than at a thousand lunches with her friends and the father surveyed the scene with a smile on his face, this truly was the greatest party ever.
The%20Party.doc