One for the road...

Hell week...

 

Who's in, who's out? does Jesus save us all in the end? Does hell have a place in 21st century christian thought? If so what is it? And can you really get to hell in a handbag? Some of these Qs (altho probably not the last one) will be explored during hell week on Jason Clark's blog.

I've been busy organising the guests who'll be posting, kicking off the conversation on 25 February will be Gregory McDonald who's written the book the universalist evangelical.   We've then got a further couple of cracking evangelicals lined up to post their thoughts as well.

I'm off to practice my teeth gnashing but i hope to see you over at the outer darkness, i mean Jason's during the w/c 25 Feb!

What is my blog about?

As I look back over 2007 I can see some clear themes in my writing that I would like to continue exploring in 2008: 

Positve: I remain positive about church, in all its forms and realistic to its flaws as those of us who are in the church remained flawed too.

Creative: my involvement continues in creative worship that involves celebrating and retelling the church calender and making connections across time and traditions of our faith.

Thinking/conversing: a space to engage, share and converse on faith thinking and practice

Constructive: i find myself moving forward in both deconstructing and reconstructing my faith, and it is the latter that is seizing my interest more.  Not just what the problems and shortcomings are but practical lived out realities in which these can be reimaged and relived.  Increasingly i am landing on deep church as the way forward that I want to explore.

Past/present: As I am looking to live my out my faith today I wish to be aware of the culture and context of the communitiy in which I live and the impact of our consumer selfish society - not least how living my faith in the context/light of 2,000 yrs of christian history can allow us to recognise church as a way of detoxing.  How church can be a practice of inconvenient grace, learning to give instead of a me-centric, what i want in the way I want it experience...

Honest: exploring my faith in my life, with all its flaws and limitations.

Here are some posts from last yr that illustrate these themes...

Jan: Why I am growing to appreciate and value all kinds of christian - but especially the old kind... 

Feb: Is the consideration that I might be wrong the new right? or why christians like me shouldn't find [on-going] humility such a surprising revelation...

Mar: Restoring my humanity: personal experiences of Jesus as the way/truth/life...

Apr: The people known as christians...

May: Institutional Church - R.I.P..?

June: The idols of our age?

July: Fiddling on the roof: does a common christian tradition help us find our footing?

Aug: why i'd settle for just being a kind kinda christian...

Sept: worship (singing) and the emerging church

Oct: The journey of constructive deconstruction and reconstruction: celebrating stuckness and other successes...(part 3)

Nov: Part of the great chain of faith...

Dec: Womb with a view: the endings and beginnings of eternal life?

How about you: what themes, topics, thoughts are you looking to explore in 2008?

Because of the ampersand (&) the feed was lost!

I admit i don't understand the web tech that makes my blog work - that's one of the reasons i use typepad as i just type and voila...

So imagine how i have been feeling to be getting regular emails from feedburner who manages my feeds telling me of an error which has corrupted my feed... all the last few blog posts were infected with rogue '&' in the html! I have now rounded up all 85 of them and deleted them and having checked my feed it is now in the clear... hurrah!

I have no idea if this has any impact on you kind folks who read through a feed reader or who have subscribed for updates might have experienced - i hope no disruption!

Which reminds me, could the emerging conversation be subtittled 'both/and...' what do you think???

and the winner is...

thank you to those of you who "voted" on what my next post should be on...  after a lot of careful consideration i've decided to tackle tradition first, mainly because i'm away from thursday for a few days and this seemed like the least contentious topic :)

Hmmm what should I post on next... fiddling? feminism? submission?

Hmmm not sure i'm going to post tonight - i have 3 thoughts knocking around in me noggin and not sure which one i should invite in to sup with me... do you have any preferences on:

1. the mclaren-esque title of: why i'm a complimentarian feminist (who still can't spell)
2. fiddling on the roof - christianity and tradition
3. Who's life is it anyway - why submission is such a dirty word

Cast your votes now [and no florida vote rigging please ;)]

New pages on my blog...

Ah  a new day for me blog... thanks to typepad adding static pages i've added 2...

1. an up to date blog roll - which i'm sure is incomplete, if you stop by here and you have a blog and it's not on the list then leave a comment or drop me an email and let me come sit on your porch...
2. my vanity page - for my  other blog involvement/published articles...

You can access these any times via the link at the top righht of my blog page...

5 things I dig/8 holes i've dug...

Ok, I've been tagged a couple of times for this 5 things i dig about Jesus - so for what it's worth...

5 things I dig…

1. he has a penis
2. he lived/died what he said
3. he shows/offers true humanity
4. he is alive with a funky same/different body
5. church is his creation/project

I've also been tagged for 8 things about me...

1. i have finger nails a girl would be proud to own [well at least says my wife as she files them]
2. my no. 1 love language is touch and my no.5 is kind actions
3. i'll be married for 10 yrs in July
4. i'm reading a letter about the govt pension scheme regulations
5. next i'll read the regulations
6. bet you wish you had my job
7. i hate competitive games of monopoly mainly cos i spend my time in jail
8. and i wonder why i have problems being present in my life, lol...

I've decided not to tag anyone but in the spirit of grace to let you comment either something you dig or something about you... or both :)

Alann Mann starts blogging...

 

I had the pleasure of meeting Alan in r/l on wednesday.  He's also bitten the bullet and joined the blog world, you can read and interact with him here...

I've also realised that since i started using bloglines as my feed reader that my blog list here is well out of date.  So my next project on here will be adding  a seperate page and putting on a comprehensive list of the blogs I read.

Deep Church - a new blogging adventure!

Very excited about a new blogging adventure I am helping Jason Clark organise... it is a blog dedicated to the deep church conversation and you should be able to access it at http://deepchurch.wordpress.com/  or http://www.deepchurch.org.uk .

We hope to have a number of leading practitioners, academics andmost importantly church goers contributing to the conversation, from different traditions, countries and backgrounds.

If you haven't yet got your hands on the book, Remembering our future - explorations in deep church then let me heartedly recomend it to you.  I hope to draw on chapter 2 which is titled, ‘Beyond the Emerging Church’ by Luke Bretherton for parts 2 and 3 of my Institutional Church -RIP posts [see part 1 here].

Thinking blogger awards

Thanks to John and Sonja for nominating me for thinking blogger award.  It's bascially a meme where I nominate 5 other blogs that make me think. So here are my choices [wow this is quite hard!]...

1. conversations at the edge - i often read and listen and reflect rather than comment very much.  For me this is a space to go and learn from others who maybe are not christian in a safe but challenging environment.
2. Joshua Case - this JC reminds me very much of the other JC and of course he inspired vblogging!
3. Rupert Ward - Thinking, compassionate, gracious, challenging and now got a new great looking home!
4. inward/outward - daily inspirational reflections from the Church of the Saviour
5. Decompressing Faith - part of me is always drawn to those on the edge and Lily is a great thinker and writer who makes me think!

Ok the rules are simple - go forth and nominate 5 more blogs of your own.  I think i am supposed to tell you to leave comment here but heh ho :)

So many great blogs out there - so for the rest of us, who else would you nominate [including yourself my leaving a comment]