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I enjoyed the conference on New Monasticism, jointly organised by the Anabaptist network, and the Northumbria community.
Not being part of either of these networks, but interested in both, we went along without much of an idea of what the event would be like. We found it both encouraging and inspiring.
The morning sessions included a time of worship led by the Northumbrians who took us through their morning office. Then Pete Askew of the community introduced Stuart Murray Williams of the Anabaptist network, and Roy Searle of the Northumbria Community. Roy plays cricket with my old P.E. teacher!
There followed two talks - one about Anabaptism, which I went to, and one about the Northumbrian community which Kel went to. I found the explanation of the history of Anabaptism very interesting, and was able to corner Murray Williams at lunch time to quiz him on whether Anabaptists, with their adherence to non violence and peace making, can take an active part in politics outside of anarchism. His answer boiled down to: “there are a number of different opinions about that!”
I also bumped into Mark Berry, the emerging church leader from Telford, who I recognised from his dodgy hair do. It was nice to have a chat, after having commented on his blog occasionally and read a lot about what he’s doing over there.
Other emerging church types knocking about included Ian Mobsby from Moot in London, and Ian Adams from Maybe in Oxford among others.
Brother Samuel from the Aglican order of Franciscans added a touch of gravitas and extra dollops of wisdom. Although he’s not a ‘new monastic’ it is fair to say that his order is less than ancient itself! I really agreed with his remark that one of the key things for a committed ‘monastic’ type community is that they work together manually. His comment ‘there is some very deep spiritual wisdom in making bread’ is so true.
After lunch there was a choice of workshops - I went to a discussion between Ian Mobsby and Brother Samuel - conparing and contrasting the old monastics and the new. Just how monastic are the new monastics? Good question. One of the main themes coming out, and well made by Mobsby and others, was that its more about being frianrs than being monks.
The distinction being that Monks tended to seclude themselves, while friars went out into the community to live out their faith. This is true to a degree, but of course only really applies to certain streams of monkism. Anyhow, I liked the concpet of ‘re-friaring’ the church, but it’s easier to say re-monking!
This session allowed more of a discourse between those in the meeting and the speakers than the first session had - which was very valuable.
More conversations and question and answer sessions followed, with a final session of worship in an Anabaptist style, which included a lovely way of singing the Shema Yisrael among other things.
In all, Kel and I were both really encouraged by what we saw, and the people we met. There were a lot of different types of people there, from the rather posh, to the decidedly not posh - from the emerging church smoothies to the Jesus Army. I’d have liked to have seen some more of the missionary community there, and perhaps some of the 24/7 folk, but that would have just been more icing on an already rich cake.
Well done to all the organisers, I thought it provided a good platform for those who are interested in finding out what others are doing in this area, but arent perhaps able to make all of the connections themselves! Looking forward to more.
I’m in Grimsby now, having eventually got up here last night after a thoroughly enjoyable, if slightly tiring wonder around the UK. In edited highlights - the trip consisted of a cup of tea with Wes Sutton, leader of the Oasis Trust ‘church.co.uk‘ network, at the Oasis base in Waterloo. I was really impressed by what the network is doing in Waterloo, and excited to hear their plans for other projects, some alreadty on the go. Later that evening I returned to the same building, to hear Shane Claiborne speak about his experiences living as an Ordinary Radical. I found out about that event by signing up to a Chrisitan Anarchists mailing list, even though I’m not really an Anarchist. (Shhhh! Don’t tell!)
That night (Wednesday) was spent with Kyber and Mrs Netikos, at their flat in South London. Conversations ranged from virtual reality, to killlng sheep with bolt guns, to archery. And places in between.
Next day, I got to spend some quality time with a friend who wants to expand his clothing company to include a fully ethical range. He’s already working as hard as he can to ensure his suppliers meet the hghest standards of looking after their workforce, and is trying to integrate organic and fairly traded materials into his supply chain. Seems like I’ll be able to help him, which is great.
A bit of a rush over to Euston station then, where I was able to grab a few minutes with Dan Radice of Cokoon. It was good to find out what he’s up to, and to consider what possibilities there are for the future.
Off on to Northampton then, to spend some time with Julie, who is planning to join World Horizons in the summer. I also got a chance to meet Julie’s church, which is an interesting ecumenical fellowship in the heart of the town, very engaged with their community, and offering a whole load of services, from a shoppers coffee shop, to counselling rooms, and various other things throughout their five separate congregations.
On Friday I headed to Shrewsbury via Birmingham - Shrewsbury is home to Ian Matthews and his family. Ian is now working for Zondervan in the UK, but I remember him from our first meeting over ten years ago, when he came to work on a late and unlamented Christian magazine that I worked on at that time. Ian became a friend then, and has remained so, despite not having seen him for a long time.
It was fascinating to see how he and I, through very different paths and in relationship with very different people, have arrived at a very similar place theologically and philosophically (although he’s a left wing libertarian, and I’m not) - it was as surprising as it was encouraging. We both share the same desire to find a way of living in community as families that really works well - I think we agreed that the ideal scenario would be for a group of families to form an open cooperative, the co-op would then own the property, and the families would pay rent to it. Given that it nullifies the effects that personal ownership of property have, and allows for a vaiety of people to live in community in a wholesome way, it seems like the best option. Now, if we could find some other families in Grimsby who were up for that…
A reunion with Kelly and the kids (hooray) meant a short journey to Walsall where we spent the night, and after dispatching the kids to their Grandparents, we went off to the New Monasticism conference in Coventry - which was excellent. I shall blog further details of that soon.
A last laid back drive along the A46 took us all the way to Grimbo - and tea.
The news about Paul Lister, and his determination to ‘re-wild’ his own patch of the Scottish highlands is a classic story of contemporary Britain, and it has a lot to say about the situation facing the church in this fair isle too.
First there is the fantastic story of the multi millionaire businessman, who having bought his own patch of Bonnie Scotland has decided to return it to the way nature intended, spending millions on bringing back boars and moose, planting native trees and plants, and even making desperate attempts to bring back wolves and bears too.
Then there’s the problems - he has fenced his estate in, enraging the walkers and climbers who have the hard won freedom to explore them thar hills. More than that, if his estate is fenced, then it cant be a wilderness, its a zoo, and in a zoo you cant let the nasty animals eat the nice ones!
Its a story that will go on and on until one day the money runs out, or somebody lets Lister have his way. On a personal level, I have a lot of sympathy for the idea of re-wilding the countryside, but in all honesty I cant see it happenning in the UK. The British countryside is a vast money making machine, reintroducing animals like wolves into it would sound a death knell for shooting estates and sheep farms for a start.
And this leads me on to the church.
I would dearly love to see the church re-wilded. Like Scotland, the church has the appearance of wildness. But in reality the wild place it once was, is no more. Just as Scotland has been tamed, its natural appearance transformed, and many of its natural inhabitants hunted into extinction, so the church is practically unrecognisable from what it once was.
Like Scotland and its over abundance of red deer, which many think are beautiful and pretty wild in themselves, the church has become overpopulated with grazers, who roam around looking pretty, fighting with each other and generally just munching up the foliage.
It is the high population of red deer which means that Scotland will be unable to re instate its natural vegetation, the red deer just scoff it. A consistent cull of red deer is already necessary just to maintain the vegetation it has got. The heather that has come to be the symbol of scots mountainside is in fact a weed, a parasite which smothers the growth of anything new, or anything ancient which seeks rebirth.
The venerable scottish thistle can still be found, bristling in its spikyness - but its not a very attractive plant really, not when all those thorns get on your fingers.
In the church we have our own flora and fauna - we might consider our traditions and practises as flora - they cover the church, they appear to be the distinctive feature of the church, and all too often they smother the birth of anything new, or the re birth of anything ancient.
Where a venerable outpost of early Christianity exists, its often too spiky for us to cope with.
What is the answer for Scotland? First bring back boars - we need pigs who root around and stir up the ground. In the church, we too need those who will root around, make a mess, be a bit dangerous - dig stuff up, turn it over, make a noise.
Bring back predators - lets be honest whatthe church needs like a hole in the head (I should know, I’ve got a hole in my head) is more deer. More people to look pretty, but be good for nothing but shooting. We dont need those pew fillers, those ‘Christians’ who refuse to let the notion of discipleship affect their lives in any way other than what social groups they mix in, and what they will watch on tele.
Lets get some wolves in, who will kill these deer, or at least scare them off. Lets reduce the deer number, whittle them down. Lets get some bears in too - big brutes who can really make some impact on the world.
Lets find some of that old vegetation which has died out, and encourage it to grow again. Lets embrace the dirty, the dangerous, the wild.
Lets say no to the sanitised version of church, and say yes to re-wilding.
But lets not put a fence around it - instead of creating a zoo which looks like a wild place, lets create a real wildness - that spreads like a virus over the world. And guess what, that needs the estate managers, those who have grown fat and confortable on the money making activities of the church to change their ways.
Lets accept the fact that making a living out of this is not what its about, this is not an enterprise! Its not a business! This should be a wild place, with wild people and wild ideas - ideas about changing the world, about self denial, about love, about compassion, about God.
Let’s pray that God, who is the ultimate multi millionaire, will re-wild us, killing off those who are having a negative impact, and planting new growthin the old vegetation. I see signs of wildness, shadows of it, pockets of it… I see it in World Horizons, I see it in the Simple Way, I see it in alternative worship, I see it in the new monastics… but I long for the day when the real wildness will break out, and we’ll be back to the way we should be.
(Except now I’m worried that I’m a deer, when I ought to be a moose, or a pig, or a wolf… or perhaps a red squirrel. The red bit is right anyhow.)
I am really looking forward to going to the ‘New habits for a new era?‘ New Monastics conference on May the 3rd. I had the schedule emailed through a few days ago, and it looks great.
The day kicks off with worship followed by introductory sessions to Anabaptism and the Northumbria community,
After lunch there is a choice of sessions: including - Chip off the old block? (Brother Samuel, Ian Mobsby), Street-level monks? (John & Deanna Hayes, Ru & Ben Brown), Ebb and flow (Pete & Catherine Askew),Home-made habits? (Karen Stallard, Sally Nash), and Into Great Silence (for those who have heard the other stuff already.)
Other good stuff follows, but I’m already struggling to decide which bits to go to.
Looking at the quality of folks participating, this shapes up to be a really good conference.
I personally am really inspired by the potential of this growing movement to make a significant impact on society. When Antony became the first hermit monk, back in the first couple of centuries AD, he did it as much to get away from the complacency and compromise of the church, as he did to get away from society.
I think we are seeing a similar discontentment with shallow living arising again in the church, and the growth of interest in new monasticism is an indicator of that. But what we need to be sure of, is that we ourselves dont fall into the same trap, and become just another stale Christian gimmick.
See you there?
Today was an important day for us, we officially told the community here that in August, our family will be leaving South Wales, and heading back up the road to Humberside, from whence we arrived some four years ago.
Part of our trip away over Easter was spent talking to folk in Grimsby about our thoughts and plans for this time, and as we had already talked it over with our leaders, and family members etc, today was the last part of the journey in terms of telling people our plan.
In fact when we originally planned to come down here, our plan was that we would remain for about two or three years. The death of our son this time last year meant that any thoughts of moving on at that time were shelved, and I’m glad. This last year in Llanelli has been very special.
What will this mean for our work? My work will carry on much as it does now, although obviously I’ll be less involved in the day to day life of the community here. The plan is that I will return to Llanelli once a month for meetings, and from time to time the whole family will come down together.
Why go back to Grimsby? The reasons are many and varied. But most importantly we just feel it is the right thing for us to do. Unfortunately it does mean leaving this lovely part of the world, and our happy home for something quite uncertain. We dont know where we’ll live, how we’ll afford to pay a normal rent, or how we’ll cope so far from the Welsh beaches we love so much! But with uncertainty comes excitement, excitement at what God has got for us over the next years, and the thrill of moving into destiny.
Its no secret that Horizons is something of a monastic community in its own way, and I think that is something we’ll be looking to grow around us in Grimsby too. Kelly has a strong vision for enabling local church to move outwards from within… in other words not being totally reliant on ‘mission agencies’ for the initiatives in terms of overseas trips, but being able to call on resources that will allow them to go themselves.
Thanks to a cheap rent, we live on very meagre income at the moment, unless we can find similarly cheap accomodation (unlikely 
) we’ll have to find ways of earning more money. Possibly I’ll take more writing on again, or maybe there’s another way. We’d love to open a coffee shop, but so far that hasnt worked out in planning yet.
I will of course continue my work with organic cotton, which continues at its usual snail’s pace! And lots of other interesting opportunities are floating around too - so we’ll just have to see what happens.
In our meeting this morning Gareth spoke about the question of ‘why are you here?’ referring to here in Llanelli - not on the earth :) His answer was ’so that God can change you.’ I can testify to that, we’ve been changed a lot over the last four years, and I’m thankful for it.
Lets just see what the next few years have in store…
Yup this time makes it number four, and surely that’s enough for anyone! Let’s just see if there can possibly be any more marriages, it’s quite possible of course that Keith is arranging these himself, in the hope of snagging a bridesmaid..?
I am delighted to see that Keith Smith now has internet access in his mud house, he doesnt yet have running water, but after four years of doing without both water and power, he can now write emails, surf the web, and crucially blog - from his home in Burkina Faso!
Of course this development while on the one hand welcome, has led the good mr Smith to consider - ’should I now be moving to somewhere more remote?’
Macy Lou Jones is still in critical condition, but is doing well, we are optimistic about the outcome of her treatment. She is of course still very ill, and we’re not getting complacent just yet.
She’s in Great Ormond Street Hospital, where she was airlifted at the weekend. She’s got the best care she could possibly have, and it seems like the knife edge is broadening out!
We’re all really pleased with the progress she has made, but it is still one step at a time.
see previous post on Macy Lou Jones here.
Gareth Jones is the leader of World Horizons UK - his two week old daughter, Macy Lou is critically ill.
After catching a virus, she grew very ill. She has now been diagnosed as having blood poisoning, and her internal organs have begun to stop working.
She is being flown tonight to Great Ormond Street hospital in London, where there is a unique machine which can properly oxygenate her blood.
It has been a major battle to get her to this point - she has until late this afternoon been too poorly to move. She is currently reliant on heart and lung bypass machines.
Please will you join us in praying for her? She needs the touch of God to heal her body, and her parents Gareth and Helen need all the support we can give.
Macy means ‘weapon’ and Louise means ‘renowned fighter’. These names are significant – Macy is in a fight for her life, our adversary would love to steal her away, and even more he would love to divert our attention from the truth of who our king is.
Our heart’s cry, our desire, our desperate plea is that God would show his great power and heal our little sister.
Please pray for her.
well the conference has finally been and gone - months of planning and arranging turned into just over forty eight hours of eating, drinking, chatting, meeting, singing, listening, praying, more chatting and some sleeping.
One of the big successes of this year’s conference was a little installation thingy we made, called ‘my face’ - we made a kind of web, or grid of string, onto which people were invited to attach a card we supplied them with. On the card they were asked to put their picture, (we asked them to bring one in advance) and some information - the kind of stuff you might find on one of the dreaded social notworking sites knocking around the internet these days.
As well as that, we asked them to put down some of their hopes and dreams, so that when others read them, they immediately got to know a little something about that person, which perhaps they wouldnt know otherwise.
It turned out to be a popular feature which went down well, and gradually filled up over the weekend. I reckon its the kind of thing you could do at any conference pretty easily, and which certainly provides a good talking point if nothing else!
I met loads of people at the conference, and it was a special time as usual, I’m looking forward to next year’s - which I shall not be running!
Is this undeveloped ground ripe for transformation into a cotton farm?
I sent out an email tonight about the cotton project I’m working on, given that I’m back off to Phnom Penh again in a couple of weeks, I thought I should try and update people.
For those of you who didnt get the email (my fault for certain!) I’ve pasted most of it below - happy reading.
First a quick catch up: About three years ago I was prompted to begin working on setting up a fair trade garment business in Cambodia. The vision for this enterprise was to enrich and empower impoverished people, make great clothes and make an impact socially and environmentally. This is part of what I see as taking the gospel – the good news of the Kingdom of God – to the many people who are least reached in the world. The bible tells us that the kingdom of God is justice, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, there is no getting away from the fact that this affects bodies as well as souls!
Cambodia like many countries has many who live in dire poverty, and that has been made unusually bad in some situations, by the dreadful civil war which wiped out huge numbers of Khmer people, and set the development of the country back many years.
Anyway, the garment enterprise hit a number of obstacles. One of the key factors was that upon investigation, it transpired that none of the ‘ethical’ manufacturers in Phnom Penh that I met, were using materials which were totally ethically sourced. Instead they were relying on imports of poor quality materials, which had been produced in questionable conditions. In short – there were severe supply chain issues.
On investigating this further – I realised that the best way to take this project forward would be to start from the ground up, and work on developing the raw materials. In particular I could see the amazing potential offered by organic cotton production in Cambodia. I was inspired by what I saw of other organic cotton projects in other countries.
One particularly successful project was set up in India – the aim of that project was to alleviate the plight of small holder cotton farmers who were struggling for survival. The project’s stated aims were: “to address the problems of bankruptcy, rural-urban migration, deteriorating soil and water quality, crop vulnerability to pest attacks, and market access in an effort to create economically, environmentally, and socially sustainable livelihoods for smallholder cotton farmers. The objective of the project was to create more vertical supply chains to open the market for organic fair trade cotton.”
This project has gone on to be successful in every way – an evaluation survey of some of the small holders later found that: “90% reduced their indebtedness, 98% experienced less financial hardship, 58% saw a check in urban migration, and 100% attributed reduced incidences of illness in their families to the adoption of organic cultivation.”
You can read more about the Agrocel project here and visit their website too.
My aim is now to establish a project with similar redemptive qualities in Cambodia.
Last year I visited Cambodia again with some friends who were able to advise me on different areas of production. Together we visited potential sites for growing cotton, and made a number of contacts who were interested in helping with the project in different ways.
In particular we were taken to a village where some land is available for the start of such a project – it is peopled by former Khmer rouge soldiers. The village also has a school set up by an NGO to teach agricultural techniques. In some respects it seems like an ideal place to start the project.
This summer along with the rest of my family I visited Phnom Penh for a few days, and during this visit I was introduced to someone who had previously grown cotton successfully just outside of Phnom Penh.
At the beginning of November I will return again to Cambodia – this time for two weeks, to try and see if I can marry the diverse elements which currently exist together, and try and get some cotton growing. Of course this is only the first hurdle. Although there exists a huge market for Organic cotton, because there is currently none grown in Cambodia, finding someone either to buy the raw cotton, or to process it locally still remains a challenge. However this does not seem insurmountable – the possibility of seeing real transformation at a community level is getting closer!
I would like to ask you to pray for the project over the next few weeks – this is likely to be a crucial time.
After last year’s trip I ended up wasting a lot of time by being distracted - I don’t want to waste time like that again.
My hope is that through this project, and others like it, we can make a significant impact on the lives of people in desperately needy communities. Moreover, as Cambodia is heavily dependent on garment production for its export economy, and currently it imports all its raw materials – we could make a significant impact on the economy of the nation should organic cotton production take hold in Cambodia!
I’m some way out of my teens, but I still want to see the world changed – I hope you do too.
If you are willing to pray for this project, these are some points I’d like to ask for prayer on:1) That the links in the chain would fall into place – that none of those important links would be missing!
2) That funding would come through in order to pay for the materials and so on which are necessary if we are to get this thing started.
3) God’s grace for both my family and me, as we are apart again.
4) Wisdom and discernment as I deal with lots of different people – all with different motivations.
If you know of someone who might be interested in being involved in this, or another organic cotton project, then please direct them to me, a basic description of the project is to be found on the organic cotton project page of this site.
If you have any questions – about any aspect of this project, I’d be delighted to try and answer them.
if you liked hearing the podcast with Shane Claiborne which I mentioned a while ago, you might like to check this out, it’s called ‘Finding your calcutta’ and it’s available from the Mars Hill church website, along with a load of teaching from the likes of Rob Bell and others.
In fact, if you are so inclined, you can subscribe to a regular podcast from Mars Hill. Currently you can download the last 12 weeks teaching, which include two sessions entitled ‘God is Green’ - which I am looking forward to hearing.
Been working on some stuff for the World Horizons Conference in January - something I’m probably going to use in some way is this rebranding of some of our favourite saints…
So which one do you like the sound of most?
one of the Extremists?
Brendan – Into extreme sports – sailed a boat made of animal skins from Ireland to America.
Aidan – Mad for cross cultural mission – took the harsh Northumbrians the ‘milk of less solid doctrine’ and defied his patron by giving away his horse!
Columbanus – Political radical – denounced the royal court and got exiled for it!
one of the Artists?
Brigid – contemporary artist – founded a school of art.
Columba – the original bootlegger – copied a bible without permission.
or one of the Welsh?
Illtyd – old soldier – after giving up war (he was apparently one of King Arthur’s knights!) he set up a mission training school.
Samson – reluctant abbot – kept trying to hide from people but they kept finding him, planted various churches and a monastery in Brittany.
David – militant vegetarian – lived an austere life and gave no quarter to comfort – his symbol is a leek!
Might go for some video stuff on this I think.
It’s been great reading the guest blogs on backyard missionary from Jarrod McKenna - who has written eloquently about Ghandi - and the outworkings of what he said. The latest addition to the series is no exception!
McKenna seems an interesting an intelligent guy - and I was able to take a few minutes to read more about the work he does in Australia this morning. Seems like he’s in the same line as Shane Claiborne - the prominent activist from the US, and indeed the two reference one another here and there.
McKenna’s thoughts make inspirational and encouraging reading for anyone who wants to embrace the radical nature of the Christian faith - just as Shane’s book provides a good platform for those who want to learn what it means to live a Jesus following life - rather than just ‘be a Christian’. I did enjoy McKenna’s comment that if he were to write a book, it wouldnt be ‘how to live as an ordinary radical’ but rather “A how [not] to”.
McKenna also quips that: “Maybe our book would be called ‘The Resistible Revolution’ or ‘The Very Resistible Revolution’.”
I particularly like the focuses on peacemaking and community which both of these guys espouse - in my view this is integral to Christianity.
I would encourage anyone interested to read more about what Jarrod has to say in his guest blogs on bym, and to take a closer look at both the Simple Way community and EPYC in Oz.
one of the many happy tasks I’ve been plugging away at recently - is planning the UK conference, which we will hold on the 4th to 6th of January 2008, at Cefn Lea Park - nice place - especially if it snows.
so from the look of the graphic below - can you tell we’re devloping a celtic theme this year?
We’d love you to come, I’ll post more about it as time comes along, and you should be able to read more on the World Horizons UK website…
We did a half hour devotional on thursday - based around the idea of journey, and using the voyage of saint Brendan as an outline model - I’ve pasted it below in case anyone would find it useful.
Our guys found this a really useful exercise - good for relationship, good for personal reflection - good fun, worth a try!
As followers of Jesus, we are all on journeys, both as individuals in our personal spiritual walk, and as a group – on an adventure together.
Navigatio…
Today’s devotional time is based around the concept of journey, and we’re going to use as a starting point the story of Saint Brendan the Navigator, who sailed from Ireland to America in a small boat made of animal skins.
To follow the voyage of Saint Brendan, we are going to split into groups to take our own journey. Each group will be given a number 1 to 5, and they will each start at the corresponding station in the journey (group 1 at point 1, etc.) At the sound of the bell, each group will move to the next station on their journey, one person should read aloud to the group whatever is on the sheet found at that station.
At each point there will be a small piece of the story of Brendan the Navigator’s journey, and an exercise to do, either individually or as a group.
After the 5 points have been visited, the groups will return to the meeting room.
Text for station 1) Brendan set sail from Ireland – not knowing for certain where he would end up. He embarked on a journey – desperate to reach the promised land. His desperation led to him setting sail into the unknown, in a boat made of wicker and cow hide.
Reflect for a moment on what lengths you would go to, in order to pursue God’s calling. Are there places you would refuse to go to, or lengths to which you would not extend yourself? Ask God to reveal these to you, and ask him to help you face your fears.
Text for station 2) Brendan chose fourteen monks to accompany him on his journey, but as they were about to set off, three others asked to join them. Two of these were motivated by wrongful thoughts, and were found out.
Reflect and ask God to reveal to you any wrongful motivations for things you are involved in, and ask him to root out of you any pride, selfishness, or desire for earthly gain.
Text for station 3) The story of Brendan’s journey was long regarded as totally fanciful, until someone attempted a similar voyage, and found it is actually possible to sail across the Atlantic in such a boat.
Reflect on the inadequacy of human knowledge – how little we know of the world around us, and how much less we know of God. Ask God to help you to hold your own beliefs in humility, and respect others – even when they seem crazy.
Text for station 4) One of the amazing parts of Brendan’s voyage is a story of finding Judas Iscariot on a rock in the middle of the ocean.
Share with the group the one Bible character (excluding Jesus) that you would wish to meet and talk to today…
Text for station 5) Brendan the navigator set sail with no map, no gps, no rescue service as back up. He relied on the courage of his firm convictions, and a dogged belief in his mission.
If you feel able, share with the group a challenge that you would like the courage to take on. Keep it short, and don’t elaborate too much – allow others to share the burden with you.
Note: If you are interested in reading about the voyage of Saint Brendan yourself - the translation of his famous account can be found here.
is this one by Andy Wilson of 24/7 prayer, who has moved to Canada to found an urban monastery. Monasticism and community expression of Jesus following has been something that has captured my attention very much recently, we’ve been delving into some of the old style meditation patterns at World Horizons, so expect more of that soon…
a good point he makes here
the word missionary is a difficult one for most of us - particularly missionaries!
In Cebu I was lucky enough to meet a couple who are good friends to my mum, hello guys…
You can read about them at Anselmic’s place.
It was interesting to compare the differences between the sort of work they are doing, and the way their mission works to the way WH works and the way WH workers operate in the field, (got to be said, I prefer the way we do stuff… horses for courses and all that 
.)
thanks so much to those who have written to me recently concerning the organic cotton project, sorry if I havent written back yet, I will!
A couple of interesting updates on the cotton thing, I met a guy in Cambodia who may be able to supply me with some very special cotton seeds, he’s an incredible bloke who has been experimenting with a whole load of cool agricultural things, including odourless pigs - yeah honestly! Pigs who live in a deep litter of rice husks, the manure gets absorbed by the husks, consequently it doesnt smell, after a few months he mucks the blighters out, and uses the manure and husk compost to grow stuff. I’m not going to tell you how he farms fish…
I have also applied for some funding to take this project forward, if I can get the cash together I shall be heading to Cambodia again in October/November time to see if we can get some of these seeds planted. Woo hoo.
While we were in Cambodia, I was reading Shane Claiborne’s book, The Irresistable revolution, which I can thotoughly reccomend as an interesting and challenging read. I am thinking of reviewing it here, but I am sure you’ll find interesting text about it easily enough yourself.
One of the main points it left me thinking about is community and relationship, and how we live Christianity. Interestingly enough Maggie Dawn writes about that on her blog at the moment.
all details here, if you can go, then I reccomend it!
Good gracious, there was me thinking they were busy hiding in caves and plotting Jihad, but in fact they are reading Brian McLaren and posting comments on tallskinnykiwi, in a desperate attempt to muddle us so much, we are incapable of resisting their tyranny!
And here’s me just wanting to talk about carbon footprints…
Yes, if you didnt know this, read all about it here, thanks to mr skinny kiwi for the tip off!
Now if you dont mind some muslims are keen to establish a Kaliphate in my backyard, and I want to check they are paying the workers a fair price for weaving those headscarves and veils….
In case you cant be bothered to read the article (who can blame you) here’s a highlight: “If the world is to be saved from Muslim conquest, it will be America who does it. And if America is to be saved, only conservatism can do it. And if conservatism is to be saved, it will be those Bible-believing patriots who do it–those conservative, evangelical Christians who are the bedrock of the American way of life.”
Cool huh!
I came across this old post from Keith at under the acacias.
Perhaps due for an update, and maybe renaming: “wwjb - what would Jesus buy?”
dont forget the celebration!!
It starts this weekend - and they tell me it wont be raining! For those interested in names, I can tell you that Godfrey Birtill will be there on Sunday night, but I can also tell you that whatever day you go - it will be a riot.
Yeah ok, I know I’m not supposed to be in Llanelli at the moment, but I am. I had too much work to finish off before disappearing entirely, so after the Saturday evening meeting finished at the Biker’s rally - I hot footed it back to Wales, narrowly avoiding the floods which apparently were all around us…. arriving at the blissful hour of 4am on Sunday.
Anyhow, time to share a few pics of our friends at CMA, the brave ones who made it to Thirsk in the rain, and managed not to get flooded out on the first night!
Ray and friends, Salvationists from Chatham. Great meeting you boys!
“Oh bru…” Peter ‘eats a lot of breakfast’ Psaros and the guys from CAB, a cool biker band from South Africa… these guys are great company, and they know how to rock… which is always an advantage in life.
One of the things I like about CMA, is that its like a family, a bit like World Horizons. And in any family, there are all sorts of people, clean cut, a bit on the rough side, young, old, normal, nutty…. oh yeah - we’ve got em all
And here’s God’s own mod, in full flow - admitting to his past of running away from bikers and rockers, sadly he didnt get chased off the stage.
God bless CMA, if you’re into Bikes yourself (of any sort - they even accept scooterists!!) you could do worse than get in touch with them. They run a free tea and coffee tent at lots of major bike rallys, say hello from me!
From this year they are also helping to supply our overseas workers with motorbikes, and given many of our people live in the sort of places that are best navigated by bike, then you can imagine what a great blessing this is.
A good time was had by all - despite the rain.
this week is again crazy, hence hardly the time to post any blog entries! Tomorrow packing up to go away, off on Friday to see some people, then on to Thirsk for the weekend with Gareth representing World Horizons amongst our frineds in the Biker/Motorcyclist community, then next week preparing to go off to Cambodia again, and then to see my folks in the Phillipines - and while we’re away… the kitchen will be getting sorted out! Blimey, maybe no more slugs will get in after that.
Plus, I really need to get my accounts done.
In terms of blogging, I really want to post something about the correlation between madness, magic, mental illness and mystery… I might get time next week.
a little while ago I had a conversation with someone who for the purposes of this post will remain nameless, but the conversation was about mission businesses:
him: “I’m trying to work out what you are, are you an entrepreneur?”
me: “errr, dunno.”
him: “it’s like you’re, maybe an activist… or something.”
me: “hmmmm.”
maybe he had picked up on the occasionally rather marxist nature of my declarations, but without knowing it, he had hit the nail on the head - aspirationally anyhow.
for me, business, mission, mission business, business as mission, whatever, is all about activism.
my definition of activism: ‘to be engaged in intentional action to bring about change’
for me, this is the gospel, the good news of the kingdom of God.
the poor can be fed, not because manna is falling from the sky (maybe it is in some places, but not here), but because we can feed them. we can be the change we seek. by the power of the holy spirit within us, we can see God’s kingdom come on earth, as it is in heaven… we can redeem the ground that has fallen away.
at the moment I’m feeling increasingly uncomfortable with the comfort I live in, and increasingly concerned that God is challenging me about it.
although I’m not very old, I’ve seen quite a few places, and lots of different people, more than enough to know that while it may not feel like it, I’m amongst the most priveliged people in the world.
millions of people live a level of existence which I can’t even comprehend.
I watched that Will Smith film ‘Pursuit of Happyness’ the other day, which I found thouroughly depressing. not only was the main character’s life through the film a long string of hardship, broken only by a few touching moments of parenting, but his dream was also depressing - he wanted to become a stockbroker.
he had no obvious desire to change the situation of those who suffered alongside him, only a desire to better his lot, to do ‘what it takes’ to become wealthy and comfortable.
what a contrast to another man, a man who had the opportunity of great privelige, and reliquished that opportunity out of love for others, a man who was homeless, a man who was despised and mocked by the very people he loved. betrayed, abused, denied, beaten… he gave up everything and instead identified himself with the poor and suffering.
that same guy (he was called Jesus) was approached by a rich man who wanted to become his follower, the rich man wasnt able to give up his wealth, so Jesus remarked to his followers about how difficult it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.
and yet we fat lazy christians continue to seek after wealth and privelige? we put our money into tax exempt savings accounts, and buy nice cars?
oh dear…
God help me to be the activist I want to be,
not the self righteous inactivist I really am.
and you like a little hip hop,
and want to make some noise about the issue of gun and knife crime, which blights our cities…
then you might be interested in this.
Wizdom of Greenjade and the Gunzdown initiative writes:
Hey peeps,
GREENJADE will be doing a FREE anti Gun/Knife crime event called Stop Da Violence being held in memory of both Charlotte Polius and Adam Regis who were both born on the 1st July and whose lives were taken as a result of being stabbed in an act of violence.
The event will be held at the ARC, 66a Sebert Road, Forest Gate, London, E7 0NJ on Sunday from 6pm and would love to invite you all down to make a stand against Gun/Knife Crime.
Stay Safe,
Wizdom
a good interview with Jonny Baker is available on the Allelon site, Jonny is interviewed by Alan Roxburgh, who is an intelligent and insightful interviewer - although looking at him on his site, he does look a bit like Hannibal out of the A team!
Again this is a good listen, as was the earlier interview with Andrew Jones, which proved to be very illuminating too.
I do like the description of Jonny as a ‘younger leader’, very tactful… younger than who would be my question…
I must say though - Jonny may not be ALL that young, but he’s certainly a great thinker, a great do-er, and a great writer, great leader, I reckon he’s probably a great guy altogether… typical!
I picked this link up from Mark Berry’s great blog the other day, and only got a chance to listen to it tonight. It’s a challenging call to a radical lifestyle which eludes most of us, including me.
If you read about him, please dont be put off by people calling him naff things like ‘the coolest Christian ever’ he has something important to say, and I dont get the impression that he is so ‘cool’ he’s stuck up his own orifice, on the contrary, living in community probably helps him have a very healthy sense of self.
I personally find voices like Claiborne’s both encouraging and convicting at the same time, his is a call to a very different way of living, one which presents massive challenges to all of us.
While I like to think I identify with what he says, in my heart I know that I fall way short of the standard that he and others in his community set in terms of how they live together, I guess he’s a kind of John the Baptist voice, he looks a bit like him too. With glasses though…
Perhaps because I’m ignorant, or just not well enough versed in the right literature, but while I am well aware of the phenomenom of ‘new monasticism’, I hadnt heard of Claiborne before, I am glad I now have. Well worth checking this out.
He also has his own homepage, should you wish to read more, and cant be bothered to google him…
Talking of Mark Berry, by the way, I think he will be hooking up with us in South Wales sometime in the autumn, to lead an evening of prayer/worship. Should be fun.
The excellent Steve at Emergent Kiwi asked a few days ago whether there is a place for the mission agency. I think the question was, ‘is there a mission agency for the missional church?‘ That original post has been followed up by this one and this one.
This has provoked some interesting responses, not least from Jonny Baker, whose opinion is always worth hearing (in my experience) and whose blog is great.
Jonny seems a little defensive of his position as a mission agency worker, Steve felt that he was going to be got at by mission agency people for saying he doesnt think there is a place for the mission agency in mission.
Its interesting, especially for people like me, who are so called missionaries. I work for World Horizons, which is in a sense a mission agency, except that we arent.
We are a movement, a group of people who work together, from various different places around the world, and have a common cause, to bring the good news to the unreached, and most importantly to follow our God.
We are a distinct community within the church, as we share a common culture, (across denominational, national, ethnic and etc boundaries), but does that make us para church? I dont see how.
We are all part of the church, most of us are linked to at least one local fellowship, usually more than one. We generally work in the context of local fellowships, but we work beyond that too, we’re one with the global body of Christ.
Jonny’s agency, CMS, have been around a lot longer than us, (about ten times as long) and they have their own perhaps more distinct identity. But the way I look at it is this, in any fellowship I have been part of, no matter how small or large, there are always delegated tasks, someone to wash up, someone to write stuff down, someone who leads some prayer… etc.
I agree that the idea of an agency existing completely outside the church is dodgy, that’s a sect isnt it? but lets be clear, there arent many of them knocking about - I dont think anyhow.
Missions are more or less relational, WH is very relational, to the point where we’re somewhat inefficient. others are very efficient, some have lots of money, others none. Some like CMS pay people, others like WH dont pay anyone.
But the thing of it is, that we’re all in this task together, we as the church are in it. It makes sense to use specialist skills where they exist, and to consolidate things where we can. But its not good to consign as para church groups which exist as part of the church.
I dont think this is what Steve Taylor was doing by the way, my impression of him is that he is a great guy, who is pioneering a wonderfully missional fellowship in new Zealand. I am sure he uses resources from time to time in order to take their expression of mission forward, and those resources will be produced no doubt by specialist groups.
I must say though that both Steve and Jonny are much better versed in all this sort of thing, especially the language and meanings than I am, and I may have missed some vital points along the way… forgive me if I have. Just my two pennorth (never shy of giving that - ho hum.)
its monday - I’ve been back at work today!
and to round the day off, a cftn meeting which tonight was in a nice old church - funny there’s loads of cool old churches round here, but I’ve hardly been inside any of them.
anyhow, I found this evening’s meeting encouraging.
a lot of people talk about revival, and in general I tend to be a little shy of joining in, cos I find that often there is a measure of self indulgence in it all. Tonight though I was reminded of how the Welsh revival brought great good to many nations around the world, bringing peace, and justice to hundreds of thousands of people.
then war broke out, in Europe we all started killing each other, and many of the young men saved in the 1904 revival never returned from the trenches.
in Korea, where revival had hit in 1907, the Japanese invasion had more new believers killing each other.
this celebration comes from a pure desire to see God remove the blockages which saw the dying off of the movement of his spirit 100 years ago.
I’m pleased to be part of it, as I believe the intent to be pure, and the plan to be simple.
so if you want to sing to God, and to join with others from all around the world doing so in Llanelli’s wonderful surroundings, then check out the site.
there was a good video shown tonight which explains the vision very clearly, I’ll see if we can youtube it, and then you can see it too!
Driving back from the a meeting a few weeks ago (May 10th), I was listening to Material World on BBC radio 4. It’s a great programme, which makes scientific matters interesting and accesible even to dullards like me.
In this particular edition, they were discussing cafe scientifique, which I had never heard of before (shame shame shame).
Cafe Sci, for any as ignorant as me, are informal settings where anyone can go and hear about some scientific topic, and enter into open discussion. There is probably one near you, see the Cafe Sci website.
So there were a few key quotes that made me laugh, because of how they echoed things I have heard about new expressions of Church.
Here’s a couple of great examples:
“… lets get away from the stuffy way of presenting…”
“… its really difficult to get an audience… we put a lot of effort into trying to reach folk… its easy to reach academics and students, but we want people who have never thought of science before… reaching them is the challenge…”
“… people may never cross the threshhold because of prejudices and past experiences…”
“… the japanese government think that cafe scientifique is a way of getting people to like science again, and its very much not that, its not a science establishment attempt to recruit support, its about making science democratic, and letting the citizen contribute…”
“… we have to constantly tweak it…”
“… some scientists are much better than others at talking!”
All good stuff.
I’ve put up a page which gives a basic overview of the organic cotton project I’ve been mumbling about. Please let me know what you think!