Fascination

Here's something I read a few weeks ago that has stuck with me since like a Jack Russell terrier on a postman's trouser leg.

"In many churches today there is a strong emphasis upon evangelism – equipping people to share the good news of Jesus. There are programmes to train people for this, to help them deal with the questions of postmodern people, to help them persuade people of Christian truth so they will want to become Christians.

Five years ago I was doing research into evangelism in the church of the first three centuries. And I was puzzled: the early church was growing rapidly, but in early Christian literature there are no training programmes for evangelism and practically no admonitions to evangelism. Why? I concluded, not least through reading what early Christians themselves said, that the church before the conversion of Constantine was growing because it was living in a way that fascinated people. It spoke to their needs; it addressed their questions; and it didn’t so much persuade as fascinate people into new life. Early Christians believed that, in Christ, God had begun a vast movement of reconciliation that had incorporated them; so they had renounced violence, converted their swords into ploughshares, and stopped studying war. This was something they had experienced, and that had given them a new way of living."

It's from 'Becoming a Peace Church' by Alan and Eleanor Kreider. Available as a pdf download here (scroll to the bottom of the page).

Fascination - Alphabeat (Official Music Video)

Stand on me

I was watching an old episode of 'Minder' the other week (the original and best, on ITV4). At one point when some sort of deal is being done Arthur Daley says: "Stand on me", meaning you can rely on me, one of his many sayings. It got me thinking about reliability. I'm sure this should have featured in one of the lists of gifts in the New Testament, because it is a quality I have come to realise is right up there in the top three of what I look for in people I work with.

This last few weeks we have been working hard to get the next PeaceWeek ready. This involves encouraging everyone and anyone to join in and contribute something, and it has been good once again to see a number of people do just that. But not so good has been a few who have said they would take on a job or use a particular skill or gift to enhance one of the events, but who have then not actually done anything at all. In some cases that job has had to to be picked up by someone else already over-committed, in other cases that thing will just not be happening.

Jesus had something to say about servants who say they will do something, but don't actually do it, and servants who say they won't do it, or winge about it but, at the end of the day Brian, actually do do it. In the case of these few individuals who said the equivalent of "Stand on me" it has ended up causing, to use another Daley phrase: "A right lot of ag."*

Who was it said: "When all is said and done, there is a lot more said than done"?

*Aggravation

A piece of history revealed

We've been doing a lot of work on our house over the last few months. It began with damp problems in the hall (the inspector bloke said we had the full set: dry rot, wet rot, rising damp, weevils and wordworm), which meant new a damp course and replacing the floor. There were also problems in the dining room. So the upshot is a lot of replastering and redecorating. Cue lots of mess and expense, but considering how long we've been in this house with very few major problems we can't really complain. Anyway,when we stripped the wall over the stairs this long buried archeological treasure was revealed. It's a piece of ancient artwork dating back to a previous redecoration (we, er haven't re-papered the hall very often, just repainted). It has been carbon-dated to the year 1985 when Judith was pregnant with Daniel and feeling unwell. So, before it gets covered up again we thought we would exhibit it to the world. Does anyone have the address of the Turner Prize people?

White is a colour

We're trying to re-decorate two downstairs rooms and hall for the first time in years and at the weekend we went shopping for paint. Armed with a 15% off voucher for Homebase we pulled up outside to see they were also doing a 'Buy 2 get one Free' offer on Crown paint.

After some debate about what colours went with what, we rolled up to the check-out with 9 tins of paint (spot the arithmetic), only to discover 'computer says no' to our third free tin. This also puzzled the Homebase staff, and as there were very few other customers in, several of them, including the manager, gathered round to try and find out what the problem was.

Eventually we worked it out. The offer was on Crown coloured paint, and we had one tin of white. It appears white is not a colour. According to Crown at any rate. In the end, at the insistence of the manager, we got another, tenth, tin free.

This made me think about the term 'people of colour' which I hear a lot to describe people who are not white, often used by those very people. To me this term implies that white is not a colour, and therefore the default by which everything else is measured. But surely the whole point is that white IS just another colour, like any other.

All bets are off!

At about 11.30 this morning I passed by our local shops and saw this scene. The security blind at the betting shop had jammed and two blokes were desperately trying to free it, watched by a gaggle of the regulars also desperate to get in and have another tilt at the tote. I don't know if or when they got it open, but maybe some money got saved today.

All people are equal. But some are less equal than others.

So Russell Brand has been sacked and Jonathan Ross suspended for their offensive joke played on Andrew Sachs (I wonder where the sacked/suspended line intersects with the audience figures). Quite right too - this was a no-no in a number of ways, not least that it was broadcast despite a request not to from Sachs.

OK, so for an up to date measure of what does and does not cross the line marked 'Too Offensive', we can now say publicly offending and upsetting a 78 year old man is clearly on the wrong side and there will be punishment.

How about a 68 year old man who fairly regularly has his sexuality questioned (because he happens to be single) and beliefs ridiculed (but only because he's a Christian - they wouldn't dare if he was a Muslim)? That does not appear to be a problem to the Guardians of PC.*

Or how about the glee with which some 'edgy' right-on people greeted the news that an 82 year old woman was suffering with dementia? All because they didn't like what she did when she was Prime Minister. Too far? Apparently not.

And nether, it seems, is the constant use of the name 'Jesus (and/or) Christ' as an exclamation on radio, TV and in print, either side of the watershed. I've blogged before about when Lenny Henry expressed how his heart still skipped a beat when he heard the 'n' word... which is what mine did a few minutes later when he used 'Jesus Christ' as a comic swear word. One is not OK, one is. Why are both not OK?

I remember the aforementioned Jonathan Ross apologising to the TV audience for a pre-watershed 'F' word from the stage during Live 8. But no notice was taken of a number of exclamatory mentions of You Know Who. One is not OK, one is. Why are both not OK?

It's all a matter of taste. But whose?

(*Cliff Richard. I was going to add 'not that I'm a fan', but that would be pandering to the Laws of Cool. So I'll leave you guessing.)

Why I Don't Go To Church

The other day I read this article entitled: "Why I don't go to church." It questions our assumptions about the word 'church' and how we use it, and how far we have drifted from the Biblical definition. Church = PEOPLE - we ARE the Church. How can we 'go' to it? Not only the building/organism confusion, we have also lost a sense of there being One Church, not in the universal sense (we seem to at least pay lip service to that concept), but in a geographical sense - as in "the Church of (fill in name of city)" - which is how Paul addresses his letters.

This of course means we have a shared responsibility for our city. All of it. All of us. Which has implications.

The photo is of the only church building I've ever seen that gets it right. "Meets here..." should be a compulsory add-on to all church building signs!