If you have heard about the FaSt game because of Greenbelt and are looking for info, you can find the poster lower down under the blog for the 16th Feb and the review by clicking on the links on the right. Moulin Rouge! divx
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Category Archives: Zzzz … Old Stuff
Motivation and Love
I been reflecting a lot recently on my motivation and was reminded of this paraphrase. LOVE: A PARAPHRASE OF 1 CORINTHIANS 13
If I talk a lot about God and the Bible and the Church, but I fail to ask about your needs and then help you, I’m simply making a lot of empty religious noise.
If I graduate from theological seminary and know all the answers to questions you’ll never even think of asking, and if I have all the degrees to prove it and if I say I believe in God with all my heart, and soul and strength, and claim to have incredible answers to my prayers to show it, but I fail to take the time to find out where you’re at and what makes you laugh and why you cry, I’m nothing.
If I sell an extra car and some of my books to raise money for some poor starving kids somewhere, and if I give my life for God’s service and burnout after pouring everything I have into the work, but do it all without ever once thinking about the people, the real hurting people-the moms and dads and sons and daughters and orphans and widows and the lonely and hurting-if I pour my life into the Kingdom but forget to make it relevant to those here on earth, my energy is wasted, and so is my life.
Here is what love is like–genuine love. God’s kind of love. It’s patient. It can wait. It helps others, even if they never find out who did it. Love doesn’t look for greener pastures or dream of how things could be better if I just got rid of all my current commitments. Love doesn’t boast. It doesn’t try to build itself up to be something it isn’t. Love doesn’t act in a loose, immoral way. It doesn’t seek to take, but it willingly gives. Love doesn’t lose its cool. It doesn’t turn on and off. Love doesn’t think about how bad the other person is, and certainly doesn’t think of how it could get back at someone. Love is grieved deeply (as God is) over the evil in this world, but it rejoices over truth.
Love comes and sits with you when you’re feeling down and finds out what is wrong. It empathizes with you and believes in you. Love knows you’ll come through just as God planned, and love sticks right beside you all the way. Love doesn’t give up, or quit, or diminish or go home. Love keeps on keeping on, even when everything goes wrong and the feelings leave and the other person doesn’t seem as special anymore. Love succeeds 100 percent of the time. That, my friend, is what real love is!
MAYC
Busy few days, tomorrow Dave is doing a day on Community Organising and Liberation Theology, then in the evening I travel up to do a workshop at the MAYC conference in Rugby on Wednesday, and back for a visit in Frome on Friday. On one hand I hope it snows as much as
Calvin but I don’t want to get stuck. I guess I want all the benefits and none of the pain.
Why??
Why are there many more adverts on TV for the Army, Airforce, and Navy than for Nurses, Health workers, Teachers etc. Watching TV this weekend I would estimate that the adverts for the forces have out numbered the caring services by about 3 to 1.
New Uploads
I have uploaded the flyer for the FaSt game, which are selling quite quickly so if you’re interested get in touch soon. I have also upload the poster for The Occassion.
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Fairness in a fallen world
I have been in the middle of some complex negotiations at the moment but been very away of the need to maintain integrity. I have been thinking about what is fair and how can we reach a fair conclusion for all parties. My general approach is to sit down and have a chat, but what I think fair, another may not. No one wants to give away too much, people have their own ideas about how much they will compromise. I guess in most circumstances people keep arguing back and forth until a conclusion acceptable to all is reached. How kingdom centered is this approach? I hate the cards close to the chest attitude, but how different is this from saying what we think is fair. Is it really possible in modern society to lay your cards on the table and say this is what I think is a fair price or deal? Do people think that is your opening gambit and expect that you will change? Often people want to come out a winner. Can fairness and openness work in a fallen world or do you become complicit in the process and start lower so you end up with the price that is fair?
Which way?
more links including two third way links one to the magazine site and one to a Mennonite initiative.
In the church but not of the church or vice versa
Went to look at some houses today and saw a great one just need to sell ours. The state of flux around moving has been triggering all sorts of thoughts about church. Dropped in on some friends in Chard and Mark came out with the statement as joke that we need to be “in the church but not of the church”. Reflecting I was unsure whether it was the right way around. The alignment of church and state, the issues around what church has become, and the need for a new theology of church, has all caused me concern over the past few weeks. I want to be around the people and explore and grow towards community but am not sure of the current associations. All this reminded me of the Anabaptists, and I came across the article by Anne Wilkinson-Hayes
“>The key task of the church in this era is to reinvent herself for mission With the history of the Anabaptist’s I was encouraged to see the continued movement that the title of the article suggests. Following on this theme I am really into a notion that I am currently calling Process ecclesiology that sees the missionary endevour (when well thought out and open ended)as church. I am yet to fully develop the concept but began to explore it in Off the Beaten Track. But I think Howard Snyder is spot on who states “The church needs liberating from it has become in order to be that which God intends.â€? Whilst the concept is hard to address in brief the key points would be
1. Holistic mission is about changing society, ourselves and individuals.
2. Mission should happen in-front of church not out-from church, and the danger is the latter holds back real change and reinforces control.
3. An acceptance of the Regnocentric position means that Tacking is about helping society and individuals become fully human which is also being and growing church.
4. Church is a broad concept that is about process and outcome, and tacking is church.
5. All of this is framed by the ethics of Christ with Orthopraxis being a key concept.
So where too next with Process ecclesiology?
I like the ups and downs of life
It has been one of those weeks and it’s only Thursday, I had a nightmare start, forgetting minutes, power cable for the laptop and all those sorts of things. Then some great stuff happened, some fantastic times in lectures, in the past four days it seems that so much has happened. As I reflect on the rapid ups and downs of the last few days I feel far closer to God and as if I’ve been washed around with him in the sea of life. It has been a great process as I think about the current pulls of the tide and even with the stress of having the house on the market and all that entails I’d still rather be in the sea of life than anywhere else at the moment.
Is America being selfish?
I thought it was time for rant, but I was so down about Americas attitude towards climate change and the Kyoto agreement, and hearing the news today about their attitude to Browns proposal for debt relief and the G8 just made want to scream. Is it an attitude held just at the top of government or is it a widely held protectionist position arising from the masses. The few Americans I know are as concerned about debt in Africa as many of my UK friends but what is the groundswell opinion. Has consumerism pervaded so deeply that now it is translated into what I can only describe as an overt SELFISHNESS that seems to be the motivating factor and attitude the white house holds as a plumbline when deciding on most issues but particularly towards debt and climate control.