REDEEM CITIES _ from Box-head* on Vimeo.

Redeem:Cities 2010 - A conference about how the church can transform culture, cities and nations. 

Date - November 16th - 17th 2010

Time 9:30am - 6:00pm

Venue - St Anns Cathedral, Belfast

Guest Speakers - Mark Driscoll (Mars Hill Church, Seattle), David Stroud (Newfrontiers UK) and Tim Chester (Crowded house network and author of Total Church)

Online booking is available here https://newfrontiersevents.org/nf1002/general/home.asp

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MUSIC wise (and in alphabetical order no less) you can expect…

adebisi shank

axis of

bad operator

captain cameron

the cast of cheers

clown parlour

crooksy

daniel peterson

gareth dunlop

iain archer

inertia @ whq

katie and the carnival

la faro

laura hunter,

the lowly knights

maguire and i

more than conquerors

napoleon

not squares

rams pocket radio

silhouette

six start hotel

ski bunny

strait laces

There will be ART from..

alastair freeburn

aly mcloughlin-harte

ana kyle

colette mchugh

emma hopley

hannah wilson

jennifer atcheson

kris platt

neil gillespie

shelly garrett

trisha mcnally

zoe hamill

and stephanie newell – who is this years artist in residence so you can see her at work during the weekend.

Theres workshops and films happening too, and the promise of delicious food + coffee.

Plus being in a tent – always fun.

All for £35. So back to my original thought.. Just go! It’ll be great!

Find out more and get tickets here http://www.forfeyfestival.co.uk/info.html

The exhibition will run from Monday 7 June 2010 @2pm - Wednesday 9 June 2010 @4pm.

Monday 7 June 2010 // 8pm // Official Opening

Join us from 8pm for the official opening of the We Are Belfast exhibition - music, photography, wine, chat - don’t miss it.

Tuesday 8 June // 8pm // Red Barn Gallery

Phil Crothers, Locations Scout & 2nd Unit Director on the Killing Bono film will be talking about the production and art direction of Killing Bono

We Are Belfast // Contribute

We Are Belfast is an exciting new project to create an online image wall made up of photographs of people from Belfast, or places you love in the city. The images will be used to create an installation at the We Are Belfast exhibition.

Do you live in Belfast? Were you born here but now live somewhere else? Want to be part of this unique and exciting art project? Then simply upload a picture of yourself or a place in Belfast that you love. You don’t have to be a great photographer – just someone who loves Belfast. www.wearebelfast.com

For more details contact

Redeemer Info Night ///
When: Thursday 17 June 2010 /// 7.30pm
Venue: Tim and Frances Ebenezer’s house

It would be helpful to us if you could let us know if you are interested. To register for this event email
If you need to know the address of the venue let us know in your email.

Join us at 10:30am, The Oh Yeah Music Centre, Gordon Street, Belfast

What do they believe about Jesus? Was he fully God? And fully man? Do they believe one nature dominated or merged with the other? Do they believe Jesus was omnipresent while lying in the manger? Do they believe that Jesus ever needed to go to the toilet? Was Jesus rich? Did the Father really pour His wrath on His own Son on the cross? Does it matter?

Do they believe the Creation story is literal or figurative? How old do they think the Earth is? Did a snake really talk? Do they believe in original sin? Does it matter?

What about the Old Testament? Do they believe the laws still apply? Would they put to death the person who cursed their parents? Would they tithe? Would they eat a ham sandwich? Does it matter?

What do they believe about the Bible? What translation do they use? Did God say everything He needed to say about everything in those 66 books? Can He speak to us above what is in those books? Do they believe that all these writings were inspired by God and are entirely without error? What about the Apocrypha? Do they believe the book of Jude (which quotes the Apocryphal book of Enoch) should be in the Bible? Does it matter?

Do they call themselves Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, Emergent? Does it matter?

What about the Holy Spirit? Do they believe He is still working in lives today as He did at Pentecost? Do they believe in speaking in tongues? Or do they believe that Pentecostalism is simply a rebranded Montanism? Does it matter?

How many points of TULIP do they agree with? Are they amillennial, postmillennial, premillennial? Do they believe it is ever ok for a Christian to bring a Louis Vuitton handbag to church? Do they read Driscoll, Warren, Piper, Stott, Bell, Ortberg, Carson, McLaren, Jakes, Dollar, Osteen, Claiborne? How often do they attend church? Are they a member anywhere? Are they predestination or free will (and were they predestined to think that)? Do they drink alcohol? What do they believe is the role of women in church? Do they attend a church split? Have they been baptised as an infant, an adult or not at all? Does it matter?

Some of these questions are fundamental, some of them are peripheral. Whether you know it or not, you filter everyone who calls themselves a ‘Christian’ through these questions so YOU can decide whether or not they are saved. The thing is, you don’t get to decide, it’s not your call. Like in any family, you don’t get to pick your brothers or sisters. That’s the Father’s job. You simply get to love and serve.

Ask yourself how many of these questions does someone who calls themself a Christian need to answer ‘correctly’ before they receive your seal of approval. Probably a lot more than God requires.

On numerous occasions, Jesus made it very clear how you will know His disciples - they produce fruit. So, if you must ask questions, let your first one be “is this person producing fruit?” But ask it of yourself first.

for once words are failing me.
my reflective, analytical nature can’t break down and reconcile our relationship.
You love me. You love me. You love me.
You know me.
all my short comings, all my destructive tendencies, all my cynical judgmental thoughts.
You see all of the things in me and still you love me.
it’s this that dissolves me into tears. a steady stream down my face. smudges the make-up I knew I shouldn’t have worn. black streaks over my cheeks and down to my chin.
because I have no words, Lord this is how I’ve resolved to express this feeling of being overwhelmed by You.
to sit here and cry is my most honest worship.

There are many different readings of the biblical narrative but we can reduce them down to two main perspectives. American Pastor and church planter Jeff Vanderstelt, speaking on Biblical Missiology, outlines these two perspectives for us.

“We view the biblical story as either the story of God or the story of humanity.

- If we believe it is the Story of God, then Jesus is the hero. He is the one to whom every part of the Story points. It really is ALL about HIM.

- If we believe it is primarily the Story of Humanity, man is the hero and every part of the Story points to him. Jesus plays a supporting role, but the story is really ALL about HUMANITY.

Your presupposition about The Story will absolutely shape your convictions about the Church’s mission and the embodiment of that mission in your culture.”

At Redeemer we hold the presupposition that this is God’s Story and that it is all from Him, about Him and through Him and for Jesus.

Our new vision and strategy for Redeemer is Kingdom vision and strategy. We are part of something that God is doing. He has promised he will build His church (Matt 16:18), he has been building His Church in Ireland for centuries, and in his grace he has invited us to be a part of this redemptive story, called us onto His mission in this great city of Belfast to share the good news of the gospel of grace found in Jesus.

We, Redeemer, don’t exist for ourselves; we exist for God and for the city. We are not primarily about attending services but bringing service. We are not primarily about running programs but relating to people. We are not about meeting in small groups with only an end unto ourselves but about building missional communities with a vision to multiply and reproduce for the sake of the spreading of the gospel. We don’t go to church… we are the church.

As the church we yearn for transformative change in the lives of the people we engage with in our communities and we believe this will happen by introducing them to Jesus. Jesus is our vision, He is our Hope and in a land where peace has been hard to come by He is the Prince of Peace, bringing Shalom to the people and the communities in our city. The only way to introduce people to our Jesus is to be with the people.  Of course this sounds so obvious it’s silly, but it is simple and true. We will go to the people. This is our ‘radical’ strategy.

We will go to the places the people are and we will worship and exalt the name of Jesus and serve the people there. Yes, we could stay here doing what we are currently do in Central - cosy as it is, but that would be selfish at best and disobedient at worst. Remember, we are part of the Grand Narrative, we are the storytellers and this is an opportunity to tell that Story and be a part of what God is doing in this city. We want to tell people the great redemption story that God came for them, incarnated as Jesus 2000 years ago, lived, died and rose again to bring restoration, renewal and eternal peace with God through forgiveness of sins.

Would it not be amazing to see and hear stories of Jesus transforming people’s lives in Belfast? I believe those stories will be the ones worth publishing; those stories will be the ones we get most excited about and as a result we trust that more people will meet the King and be graciously and mercifully welcomed into the Kingdom like we have.  In this Jesus will take all the glory and that will be our story, more than anything else.

I give only one of my sins
and leave it at the cross
One of many I could chose from
If we all did that imagine the pain and anguish
at the cross
on the cross

Yet, Jesus Christ didn’t only take one of my sins
He took all my sin
He took all mankind’s sins

I cannot imagine the pain and anguish
the suffering He felt that day
He knew what He must endure
and the reason He must endure

From the beginning of time
He knew what was to come
He saw the bigger picture

He felt the betrayal
He felt every lash from the whip
He felt every fist, every foot beating Him
He felt every thorn thrust upon His head
He felt the weight of the cross
as He carried it to Golgotha
He felt every time the three stakes were hit
To pierce His wrists, His feet

Each bang on the stakes
We hit them
With our sin
because of our sin
He felt His Heavenly Father’s wrath

Obedient to death
God’s Will to be done
What love He had-He has for us
To endure that for us
For me

Yesterday we moved on to thinking about the creation narratives.  The question; Do buttercups taste of butter?  I provided an all too hasty, fatherly type answer, which admittedly was based on no prior knowledge of buttercupology.  I suggested that buttercups were so named because of their colour, rather than their tatse.  Unsatisfied with my answer and the speed at which I dismissed her apparent conjecture she objected.  Requesting additional evidence to back up my answer she asked if I had indeed ever eaten a Buttercup.  Pause.  My claim had been exposed as unsubstantiated.  I could answer the questions about the pre-existance of the trinity but was struggling with why a buttercup, doesn’t, as its name suggest, taste of butter.

I then began thinking about other things that I think are true but have not proved to myself.  The list is still open, and getting longer.