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Encounters at the End of the World
I’ve a growing love for film documentaries and I've just finished watching Werner Herzog's Encounters at the End of the World. Some stunning cinematography accompanied hauntingly beautiful music make it worth the watch alone. In it, he journeys to Antartica to the McMurdo outpost that seemingly magnetically gathers an eclectic oddball troupe of scientists, philosophers, travellers, biologists and skilled workers from allover the globe.
Tags: Glory, Made me think
“I’ve come to a decision…”
Who is a Christian? Who is your brother or sister in God's family? And for whom has Jesus prepared a place? How do you decide? You say to yourself, "I don't decide, only God decides" but you know that secretly you have decided who is in and who is out. So how did you do it? Where did you draw your line?
Tags: Made me think
Do buttercups taste of butter and other musings from the school run.
I have the pleasure of being able to take my four year old daughter to school every morning. At around 8:30am we depart, we walk, she talks, I listen, we arrive. Our conversations of late have plunged deeper into the realm of the philosophical and soterialogical. It began a few weeks back when she began an introductory propositional monologue on the pre-existence of a triune God. After some initial debate she had satisfied herself that God had simply always been there. Over the next few weeks we covered a broad range of topics including the incarnation, reproduction of Guinea pigs, and then death (following the departure of the aforementioned animal).
Tags: Made me think
The Doctrine of Chubbhander
It feels like something is happening within Christianity right now. A groundswell of the dissatisfied within the Church is rising during our generation, a gathering of Christians eager to question and stretch our faith in order to save it and breathe life back into it. (Phyllis Tickle and others have labelled this 'The Great Emergence' - It’s too early to tell if this name will catch on but, if it does, you heard it here first!) The most refreshing thing about this movement is that it feels ok to voice concerns about some aspects of Christianity which have been handed down to us but which don’t feel in sync with Jesus, who He was and what His priorities were. Where in previous generations questioners or doubters may have been labelled troublemakers or heretics, now there is room in many churches for people to be able to say ”I have problems with this. I don’t understand where this has come from. Does anyone else have problems with this? Let’s talk it through.”
Tags: Christianity, Faith, Life, Made me think
The way to happiness…?
I love tea. I love fruit and herb teas - not to say I don’t like the “normal” black tea which has become worldwide known as the UK’s preferred drink at 5pm each day (but that’s another post in itself!). I like to try different flavours - is that the right word? I was introduced to liquorice earlier this year. I love the sweet, have tried the root but didn’t know they did a tea. I find if I’m open-minded when I try different teas it can be an enjoyable experience. I suppose it’s like trying anything new, if I have a preconception about what it’s going to be like there’s a risk of being disappointed. I was pleasantly surprised. I wasn’t sure about liquorice tea - it didn’t have a great appeal to me before but now when I see a pack and need more tea I buy a pack. I have only seen one brand who sell it at the moment (I won’t mention the brand as I’ll have to mention there are numerous other brands of tea available!). This particular brand has a motto or phrase printed on a piece of paper at the end of the string attached to the tea bag - does this have a proper name?...I read them then normally move my focus either onto what I was doing or drinking the tea.
Tags: Community, Life, Made me think
To infinity and beyond
I was loosing some hours on youtube.com last night when I came across a series of video's from Louie Giglio - his name rang a bell. I remember a few people mentioning his name but couldn't remember why so thought I'd sceptically start watching 'Indescribeable'. For the past few weeks I've found it hard to concentrate on things but I couldn't stop watching this - it caught the whole of my attention.
Tags: Faith, Glory, Made me think
Goodness precedes greatness
I thought I would link up this article simply because I enjoyed it. It was written by Jon Foreman (Switchfoot) for the Huffington Post, an online American publication. Although it doesn't explicitly mention faith it implies it throughout. There is a crazy idea that we are living for more than ourselves, that there is more meaning to this life than most people give it.
Tags: Life, Made me think
Grace in dangerous places
On Monday night I went out for a drink with some friends, one of whom happens to be gay. Brought up in the church and a follower of Christ, albeit in ‘another’ place on his journey at the moment we had some fascinating and revealing discussions about how the church (not just our church) can converse with those in the gay community.
Tags: Christianity, Church, Faith, Hope, Identity, Life, Made me think
Everything Must Go - Jesus Christ Superstore
On Wednesday night at CityGroup we had a great time of worship, teaching and discussion. We began our new mini-series Everything Must Go - The implications of being a missional church. Around candle lit tables we sang, listened and threw out thoughts and questions, all incredibly helpful and challenging stuff. The audio of the talk will not be made available but I hope to be able to capture some of what we looked at here.
Tags: Christianity, Church, Church planting, CityGroup, Community, Faith, Made me think, Preaching, Teaching
My Grandad’s chair
My Grandad always sat in the same chair in his lounge. It was his chair, his cushion beside which was his table sat, upon which he could place his drink, TV remote, newspaper and gold half-moon glasses. The chair would be positioned in the optimum TV viewing position. Centre room, 7ft from the TV and 2ft from the door, that way tea could be taken without any TV sight-line infringement. Nobody touched the chair, not even moved it. In a way I am glad the chair was never moved, who knows what kind of museum dust gathered around the carpet indentations would be revealed underneath.
Tags: Christianity, Church, Church planting, Faith, Made me think
Every leader should watch this
An orchestra conductor faces the ultimate leadership challenge: creating perfect harmony without saying a word. In this charming talk, Itay Talgam demonstrates the unique styles of six great 20th-century conductors, illustrating crucial lessons for all leaders.
Tags: communication, Conferences, Leadership, Made me think, Music, Preaching, Teaching
Made Himself nothing
Importance, rank, position. Things we all, at some level, place a great emphasis on. I have found myself, as I have started a new job with a fancier title, getting caught up in a sense of importance. People must listen to me; do they know who I am? People must respect my opinion - I'm an expert after all.
Tags: Identity, Life, Made me think