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Some thoughts on singleness
Redeem:Women is a chance for the women in Redeemer Central to get together every couple of months, spend time worshipping together and praying for one another, and listening to teaching that is relevant and specific to women. Last Saturday, we spent some time together looking at issues around singleness, and how we address singleness within the context of church community.
Tags: Life, Made me think, Redeem:Women, Relationship
The times, they are a-changin’
I like Friday afternoons in work. My colleagues are a little more disciplined than I am through the week, and come in early every day, building up enough hours to let them take a half day on Friday. I am not so good at doing that, so inevitably I end up spending Friday afternoon in the office by myself, putting in the time. We have been listening to Cool FM (local radio station and thorn in my flesh) all week, and my head is mashed with the sounds of Basshunter, Cheryl Cole, and other such non-musical geniuses. But my colleagues have just left, I made coffee, switched off the radio, and pressed play on the CD player. I am now listening to the graceful, never-gets-old sound of the master himself, Bob Dylan. The first track on my disc is ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’; there is something about his voice, the questioning of the lyrics, the quiet rhythm of the guitar, that just instantly makes me feel calm, relaxed, happy. Bob Dylan makes me smile.
Tags: Church, Faith, Music, Relationship
Officially cool
A few years back my brother won a competition with a plan to set up a business where coolness can be bought for £5.99 with a certificate and badge to prove it in case anyone is in any doubt! The concept behind this is really taking the mick out of how people buy approval in the form of Converse shoes, an iPhone, or by subscribing to the newest social networking site. People are so desperate to be considered ‘cool’ that they will chase the latest label in order to prove it to those around them.
Tags: Identity, Life, Relationship
Privacy and community
One of the biggest subtle challenges to the gospel in western society is the cult of privacy.
Tags: Community, Life, Relationship
Meaningful engagement with random strangers
I popped into Tesco on a Sunday afternoon a couple of weeks ago to pick up a few bits and pieces, and I had a pleasant, but ultimately unfulfilled experience. I was strolling along with my little trolley, taking my sweet time, stocking up with fruit and veg, and balancing it out with a healthy helping of cheese and wine. Nothing too unusual about that. But there I was, strolling along in my own little world, thinking about the price of tomatoes, when I spotted this other shopper. A male shopper. A handsome male shopper. A handsome male shopper without a wedding band. No trolley; he was carrying a basket. Hmmm. Shopping for one. Interesting.
Tags: communication, Community, Life, Relationship
Doing life with gospel intentionality
One of the central things we do at the moment in Redeemer, in the lead up to launching, is Citygroup. We meet as a community of people every Wednesday in the Oh Yeah Music Centre, right in the heart of the Cathedral Quarter in Belfast city. It is one of my favourite parts of the week. We chat over coffee, worship together, spend time in God’s presence, talk about our values as a community, and encourage one another. About every 3 or 4 weeks, we do a session called Total Church. Total Church is a great book that we’ve been working through together; its subtitle is “A radical reshaping around gospel and community”. Certainly reflects our goal within Redeemer Central, to be a church that reshapes the way communities see church and encounter Jesus. Last week’s session was really great. We were looking at evangelism, and talking about living ordinary life with gospel intentionality. A lot of what we discussed resonated with me, and my own particular story.
Tags: Christianity, Church, CityGroup, Life, Relationship
Adventures of living with a church planter
Again I'm in a privileged position of being able to support a family and a church plant and witness first-hand how much work is involved, although I know I don't get to see or hear everything that goes on. I may be living with David and Trish but there are still boundaries regarding the church plant – which is quite right and a good thing too – I don't want the responsibility or burden of knowing all that happens. There are pastoral issues and lots of other things I don't know about. Yes, I knew David and Trish before joining the church plant team but that doesn't give me a right (or a need) to know everything. After all I'm a church plant team member like the rest of the church plant and I fully acknowledge and understand there are issues and decisions we don't need to know about and I trust decisions made on our behalf. I feel privileged to have witnessed first-hand in Serbia what a church plant team have to deal with. That was a great training ground and made me really appreciate the eldership of churches (and the role some wives play) – from outside looking in you cannot see how much goes on unless you are able to spend time with them. I was able to do that and am able to do that here in Belfast too.
Tags: Church planting, Leadership, Life, Relationship
The end of poverty begins here
I like being in Belfast city centre. I love it on winter evenings, when I can get all wrapped up, plug in my earphones to music suitable for an urban stroll, pull my hat down over my ears, and walk along in my own little world through the crowds of people. I love Christmas market. I am pretty excited that it will be back in front of the city hall in just a few short weeks, and I can go and spend extortionate amounts of cash on mulled wine, cheese, sliced meats, olives, and all kinds of stuff that I can usually get much cheaper in my local supermarket. I like the atmosphere of the city on those nights; people seem a little friendlier, the world seems a little slower, and the mulled wine always hits the spot.
Tags: Community, Hope, Life, Made me think, Relationship
Being single and accepted
For the first time in a long while I feel accepted. I'm not talking about my status in Christ – I know I am accepted, even if at times I do forget that important truth. As a single person I feel accepted in a church environment – but not because I am single, I feel accepted as a person. At Redeemer Central we are a family. Before I came to Redeemer that meant something completely different. I felt on the fringe of the church family being a single person. I had good friendships with the small group I was in but not fully accepted by the rest of the church. I'm having difficulty explaining what I mean, I'm not even sure I can describe it in words – I had many friends and spoke to lots of people but when it came to the church corporately it felt as if I was an outsider being an unmarried, childless woman in my 30's.
Tags: Identity, Life, Relationship
Redeemer online: get connected
The world is now a very connected place and much of that is due to a small phenomenon that snotty nosed geeks refer to as the ‘interwebs’ or what Peter Kay calls “t’internet’’- you may have heard of it. The Internet which launched in 1995 is starting to grow up thanks to a social networking revolution and we at Redeemer are big fans. Our desire is to be connected to as many people as we can and use these technologies to share the Gospel of Jesus.
A Psalm for Redeemer
Over the weekend some members of our team moved into Belfast. Previously they had been travelling a 20 mile journey from outside of the city to be with us. It was such a great feeling to see a big van parked outside of their new house, they had finally arrived. What was even better was the crowd of people stood next to the van ready to help unload it, carry boxes, plumb washing machines, lay carpets and fix boilers. These people are Redeemer Central.
Tags: Christianity, Community, Life, Relationship
Not another post about Christians in the workplace…
I’m serious about following Christ and I fully believe that fact should affect how I work and those I work with. So why do we sometimes find it a struggle to live it out in the workplace? To be completely honest about it, in my previous jobs the fact that I was a Christian probably hasn’t made much of a difference. Well I’ve recently started a new job and it’s got me thinking. What can I do differently this time to demonstrate and put into practice what I really believe? In Tim Chester and Steve Timmis’ book ‘Total Church’ they talk about living life with “gospel intentionality”. It has really hit home with me. Work is where I spend most of the day; nowhere else am I going to meet so many different people and have such a chance to be a Godly witness. How do I work with “gospel intentionality”?
Tags: Relationship, Workplace