Home...for a while

We've arrived at our new home. Our friends Jim and Steph have opened up their top floor to us again, and after a week of staying with family in Baltimore, we are here in Philly. The girls are a bit confused by all the moving around...they have said several times "Daddy, I want to go home." And this while we're standing in their new room!
This next week I'll be working on putting together a presentation for supporters about this past year, and also about our future plans, so maybe as I'm doing that I'll post a couple thoughts along those lines - looking back and looking forward.

Oh yeah, and Happy New Year!! For my East Coast friends, we've got about four hours to go.

Back in the USA

We arrived in Baltimore yesterday to a warm welcome from all four of our parents and all three siblings (plus one girlfriend). Our first meal in the States? Chinese food from China Legend, the place that catered for our wedding. Today we visited my brother who works at Starbucks and did some food shopping. Somer's making Spicy Mince Lamb for dinner - check her blog soon for full details. I've been walking around all day in a bit of a daze - it feels a little more than the tiredness associated with jet lag. I just feel out of sorts. More on this later, if I can sort it out.

Leaving London

Watching Ice Age, our favorite Family Movie Night movie. It's almost over...just enough time to give a quick update on our last week in London. We've said good-bye to all our friends. Had a nice party at Mums & Tots on Friday, and saw some of our friends that we hadn't seen for a few weeks, which was really good. The kids at Ley Street's youth club were really nice on Thursday, they gave me some chocolates, a Christmas ornament, and a few good-bye cards. We took a break from packing this afternoon to swing by the local mall, where several churches joined together to do singing and give away free hot chocolate and soup to cold shoppers.
As part of our family preparation for leaving, we've been telling each other stories from our year over dinner this past week. I would suggest a topic like "What did you like about London" or "What don't you like about London" or "Who are some of the people you met in London", and then let the stories flow. The girls had lots of fun with it, and I think it was good for our family's collective memory. I'll try to blog some of those stories over the Christmas holiday, if I can find some time. But until then, it's "Goodbye from London" (unless I can find a spare minute to blog at Heathrow!)

Emerging Discouraging Today

Today was the carol service at Bethel. It was a good service, and contained many of the elements that I find very attractive in the emerging church movement. But let me start at the beginning of my Emerging Discouraging Today

We woke up (some of us later than others...ahem) and got ready to go to church. We have to leave about 45 minutes before church starts in order to get there with time to chill with people before the service. But today, the car wouldn't start. It was too cold, and the battery had died overnight.
None of our neighbors had jumper cables.
After checking askmen.com I decided to try to push-start the car. Well, that was a total disaster, and after about 10 minutes and four runs up and down the street, my legs were shaking and my lungs burning. I felt faint and sick for the next half hour, and while laying down with a cold cloth on my head I fell asleep. I woke up to find the sky clouded with smoke (see previous post). So we didn't get to church, and I was very discouraged, both because I couldn't get the car started, and also because I had really been looking forward to church this morning.
Not to worry...we had the carol service at Bethel to look forward to. At that didn't disappoint...sort of. Here are some of the elements I really liked about it. I'll say up front that these are elements that connect to themes within the emerging church, even though Bethel itself is neither a church nor emerging.
1. A reappreciation of Scripture as story - specifically Jesus' story: We basically read the Christmas story, weaving the different gospel accounts together into one. There were different readers for the different speakers in the story, but nobody acted anything out...it was just good story-telling.
2. Yes, I'll admit we had the room lit with candles...if you are in an emerging church, you know this is a very "non-emerging" thing to do; if you aren't in an emerging church, you think this is the definition of emerging church...but hey, it's Christmas, and you just gotta have candles.
3. We saw the entire evening as celebration. So we gave out drinks as people came in. We had gifts at the door for each person as they left - and not cheesy gifts either. Somer made and hand-wrapped a packet of Peppermint Barkfor each person. We wove a few songs into the mix of the story, because every good party needs some singing. And then, of course, lots of food at the end.
4. A missional focus - we had invited all of our friends who were not church-goers to come along, and had set aside a few reading parts for a couple of the younger Hub guys. Somer's friends from moms & tots were coming, as were a number of our friends from the estate. And here, I think, is where we stopped emerging and started looking a lot more traditional, and in the end why my day was an emerging discouraging day. Because none of the people we had invited came. There were a fair number of people at the service, but they were all Christians, all church "insiders".
There was only one person there who I think was not a Christian - a woman from a different faith.
Maybe that's because the service wasn't really as "missional" as we thought it was. Maybe the whole idea of "missional service" is an oxymoron.
What are your thoughts?

Oil Depot Explosion

There was an explosion early this morning at a fuel depot outside of London. The BBC has some haunting pictures, as well as full coverage. By mid-afternoon the smoke had spread to Ilford, where we live. The sky was not completely black, but the sun was obscured. It felt like any other cloudy day...in fact, I didn't even know it was smoke until our friends told us what had happened.

Carol Service

Sunday evening Bethel is hosting a carol service. We decided to make it a little less "traditional" and a little more welcoming. We'll be serving drinks as people come in (after all, what kind of host makes her guests wait for 45 minutes before offering them refreshment?) Instead of singing a bunch of songs that most people who haven't stepped into a church don't know, we'll only be singing 3 carols, one of which will be led by the children from our moms and tots group (if any of them will actually sing in front of people). The focus of the service will be telling the story of Jesus' birth. To do that, each member of staff has been assigned a different character - but it's not like a play, it's more a dramatic reading. At key points, some of the words spoken by the characters will be displayed on the overhead projector (yes, it'll even be multimedia!!) Of course we will finish the evening with food provided by Somer. We are also putting together small gifts to give each person who comes.

John H

Congratulations, John, Gotta Serve Somebody was the Dylan song I played at The Hub on Tuesday. It went over fairly well. One guy thought it was Bob Marley!

Bob Dylan and the First Commandment

The Hub starts in ten minutes. Tonight the talk is on the first commandment. So I'm playing a Bob Dylan song for the guys, and then saying a few words. First person to guess which song I'm playing will get a prize...I'll title the next post in honor of you. Post a comment with your guess.

Meeting Witches

Well, not so much witches, but a witch.
Met her while going door to door today in Ilford.
She didn't want our literature - said she was a Pagan. Being the inquisitive guy that I am, I asked her what "Pagan" meant. She went on to explain that she believes everything around us is alive. She celebrates the cycles of nature, believes in a duality (god and goddess), and has a specific goddess that is "hers". She belongs to a coven of witches with whom she celebrates nature and worships her goddess, and she's even a chaplain for Pagans in prison.
I asked her about Harry Potter - she laughed and said it had nothing to do with her reality - just a pure fantasy.
She said the church has often misunderstood Pagans and accused them of worshipping Satan; but she said she doesn't worship Satan, and doesn't even believe he exists. She said she did think that Jesus existed, and the was a good man, but not the son of God. She also mentioned how she doesn't like "Born again" Christians because they can't tolerate anyone who disagrees with them. I told her that I believed that Jesus said he was the only way to God, and that I believed he was telling the truth. I asked her if she thought it was possible for me to believe that and still respect and value people like her. She said 'Yes'.
Very interesting. Wasn't sure where to go with it all...it was a little freaky because she didn't open the door more than a crack during the whole conversation, so all I could see of her was one eye (talk about playing into the bad stereotypes of witches).
I asked her if I could pray for her before we left and ask God to bless her. She said "Sure...well...you're not going to pray that my soul gets converted, are you?" I said "No, I'll simply ask God to bless you." And I did. As I recall, that's what the founder of World Harvest used to do when he'd meet people in their shops...pray God's blessing on them.
When I was finished, she said "And may my goddess bless you." Hmm...
Anyway, does anyone have any thoughts about this? Just kind of wondering if I did the right thing...I can be really nice to people, play away from all the negative stereotypes of Christians being people who hate everyone who doesn't agree with them. But in the end, has my interaction with this woman honored Jesus?

Generous Orthodoxy

Catching up on a few things, including posts I've promised to write but haven't gotten around to yet. For Daniel and others who have asked, here is my take on Brian McLaren's A Generous Orthodoxy.
I find myself in strong agreement with the notion of a generous orthodoxy that McLaren advocates. A theology that is well-researched, well-thought, and strongly held. But also a theology that is aware of its own short-comings, that listens to those who think differently (and not simply for the sake of shooting them down when they're finished talking), and that is willing to be taught by Word and Spirit. Generous Orthodoxy seeks to find a different way from the old Liberal/Evangelical divide, a divide that strangely enough is formed on mutually agreed notions of "certainly and knowledge" (see pg. 24). Whatever you think of the actual beliefs McLaren writes about, I love the way he holds his beliefs, and hope that, in this sense, I will also uphold a generous orthodoxy.
Now, in terms of what he actually believes...
The chapter "Jesus: Savior of What?" ends with me still wondering what Jesus is the savior of. I totally agree that the gospel Evangelicals preach is too introspective, too self-focused, sometimes too "salvation from hell" focused. McLaren says Jesus saves the world by exposing evil, pronouncing forgiveness, and teaching how to do good. But there just doesn't seem to be much power there, in my opinion. I find the (slightly) more traditional approach of Union with Christ to be a much more powerful and life-giving way for understanding Jesus as savior. But then again, the chapter has forced me to think carefully about what I believe, and I guess that's McLaren's point.
To be honest, I could point to a number of things I found unclear or less than appealing in the book, but in the end I think it did its job in that I was forced to think about hard questions in new ways. So it's definitely worth a read.
One final thing I really liked was the part about why he is an Anglican. He said that there is an incredible diversity within the Anglican communion in terms of theological views, but the communion is not held together by everyone believing the same thing. McLaren says its the Liturgy, the beauty/mystery of the Liturgy, that holds Anglicans together. Even as they interpret that liturgy differently, there is unity within the communion because they hold it in common.
Anyway, those are my two cents and thirty minutes worth on McLaren

Family Movie Night

In the middle ofFinding Nemo with the girls. Just took the second round of pizzas out of the oven...waiting to eat my 1 piece, after spilling my other piece all over the top of the oven, and making things worse by trying to rapidly remove it (a la the fivev-second rule) and thus smearing the cheese and sauce everywhere. It's more like 3/4 Family Movie Night because Somer's not around. She's off having High Tea at some fancy hotel downtown in honor of our friend Mary Ellen's first baby in the UK (they have three others, all born stateside). The kiddos are ready for dessert...gotta go.

Wisdom

So, what does it look like to preach the gospel to teenagers who could care less?
I've been wrestling with that for a while. At the Thursday night youth club that I help run, we have a slot in the evening for a "talk". It's supposed to be an evangelistic talk of sorts. But to be honest, I just get kinda depressed every time I have to think about it, because the kids rarely listen...usually they're just laughing or texting or taking pictures of each other with their mobile phones.
So this past Thursday I was going to have them listen to a Bob Dylan song instead, and talk about its implications. But I didn't burn the CD properly, so it wouldn't play. Having to come up with something on the fly, I came back to a theme that's been bouncing around on the edges of my life for the past couple of years: Wisdom.
Wisdom is all about how to live life in the world that God has made. The cool thing is that wisdom applies to everyone, even if they don't want to have anything to do with God, because everyone lives in the world God has made. So I picked out four proverbs, including my favorite: The one who answers before listening is a fool and a shameful person (Prov 18:13). It was really funny because there was a group of boys that were goofing off and not listening, and one of the other girls said "Oh, so this proverb applies to those guys". Brilliant!
We also looked at a proverb that talked about parents being the pride of their children, and one about not taking advantage of the poor.
Was this preaching the gospel to the youth club? Hmm...don't know. I do think that Jesus' good-news about the kingdom of God starts with the assumption that there is a King, and that his world needs setting right. And maybe that's where it starts for this group...seeing that the world they inhabit is supposed to work a certain way, but that "way of wisdom" has been broken. Will they get that out of one lesson? Maybe - there was at least one girl who said "I can see that children should take pride in their parents, but it doesn't usually happen that way."

Deputation

Speaking at a church tomorrow for "Deputation". LCM have a great system, in that none of their missionaries have to raise their own personal support. Instead, churches and individuals give to the mission as a whole, and then each missionary is assigned a couple weeks worth of deputation visits to supporters each year. So tomorrow I'm going with Julian to talk about our work at Bethel. I'm supposed to be pulling a short scripture message together...but I have no ideas at this point, and it's past midnight...

Update: Deputation went really well. I ended up just reading from Proverbs 18:13 and telling how that verse had been kind of a theme for us. I talked about what I have learned/valued about LCM this year: Their commitment to patient, long-term engagement with a community; Their engagement with the entire community, not just a select portion; and the way they uphold and promote the unity of the church of Jesus.

New Books

Just a quick update on the books I've added to my "reading list". White Teeth was recommended as a good book for understanding life in London. I'm a little over half-way through, and it's a great read. Very interesting to read it at the end of our first year here.
Exclusion and Embrace is a bit of a challenge. I'm reading it for the Emergent Theological Conversation at Yale that I'm attending in February. So far it's good, but ocassionaly I have a hard time following Volf's line of argument. I do love his focus on the centrality of the Trinity and the self-giving love of God as expressed in the cross. May do some more discussion here at a later date.
The Character of Theology is a good book, though the most academic of the three. For me, that means it's slow-going. But it's worth it. Franke provides a good reformed perspective for doing theology from within the emerging culture.

Learning the Faith

This past week we took a bunch of the people from our Wednesday group at Bethel to a hotel/retreat centre in Kent. We were by far the youngest people in the group...all but one were over 70. Somer and I were the drivers (me in a 15-seater borrowed from the Ford factory in Dagenham, and Somer in our car with one woman who couldn't climb the step into the bus). We had a good time and came back exhausted from all the driving.
Probably the best part for me was seeing our girls take part in the holiday. The older crowd took the girls on as surrogate grandchildren, buying them balloons, candy, and coloring books. The girls, in turn, took to walking around the tables at meals and greeting each person in turn. The reason this scenario was so appealing to me is that Somer and I want to teach our faith to our children by having them participate in the practice of our faith right from the start. We've actually seen this "learning through participation" taking place all through our year here, and this week just captured it beautifully.

Diwali

Today is Diwali the Hindu festival of lights. There are fireworks going off everywhere around us. They've been going for at least the past hour. I walked out into our back garden and didn't know which direction to turn to watch...I kept spinning around to catch the bright flashes in the sky. Really puts Americans' celebrations of 4th of July to shame in terms of sheer volume. In fact, fireworks have been going off for the past four days...with each day getting more and more intense. Our neighbors were out on Sunday in their back garden, so we got a bit of a private fireworks display (though it scared the girls a bit).
This is one of the things I love about London. The diversity of the city is unbelievable. In addition to Diwali, on either Friday or Saturday the Muslim celebration of Ramadan will end with the Eid ul-Fitr. Also on Saturday is Guy Fawkes Night, which commemorates the failed attempt by several Catholic Englishmen to assassinate the king and the entire Parliament by blowing up the houses of Parliament while everyone was inside. Apparently this is also celebrated with fireworks displays and bonfires, along with burning effigies of Fawkes.

Roasted Seeds

I love roasted pumpkin seeds. Today Andi and Jodie helped scoop out the contents of two pumpkins. Then I cleaned out the seeds, rinsed them, boiled them in salt water, and toasted them in the oven for about half an hour. Crunchy salty goodness.

Pool Tournament

We haven't had the Hub the past few weeks. We've been having some building work done in the back of our center. We still see the Hub guys all the time, though, and tonight we took a few of the younger guys to a pool tournament at another LCM center.
I have to say, we got a sound thrashing from the other center. When we walked in, I was feeling a bit bad for them, because all our guys looked older and bigger than the other guys. But as it turns out, they beat us soundly - winning 19 of 28 matches.

My Theologian/Feminist Daughter

So, my daughter turned three last month, and I think I have a budding theolgian and feminist on my hands. A couple conversations with her recently:
J: Daddy, God isn't real, is he? He's just pretend.
Me: No, God is real. We can't see him, but he is real.
A couple days later she's praying...
J: God, thanks for making me, even though I can't see you. You really are real.

And this one in the car...
J: Mommy, who made me - God or Jesus?

Earlier today, her feminist side came out...
J: Daddy, did God make people and houses?
Me: No, God made people, and he gave people the skills to build houses.
J: Oh, so God just made people, he didn't make houses. But the people make houses.
Me: Right. And when you are older, I can teach you some of the skills to build a house. I can show you how to use a hammer and a saw.
J: Yeah, because I might be a girl, but I can still do those things.

It begins

Our week with the WHM emerging generations team has come to an end. Pat and Jen are staying with us until Saturday, but I returned to work at Bethel this morning. John and Kathy leave tomorrow morning with two of their daughters.
And now the big news...It looks like God is calling us to focus on an area just north of the center of London. Camden Town is a busy market center and hub of life for many people on the fringes of mainstream culture. Islington is two miles east, with lots of young professionals and creatives; and in between is Kings Cross, an area undergoing massive redevelopment. While this is still a sizeable area, knowing that we will focus on Camden/Islington feels a lot more concrete than London as an entire city.
We ended our time together yesterday at Tinderbox on Upper Street in Islington. Team leader John gave all of us rings from Camden market to mark this significant decision in our lives, and then read a passage from The Return of the King to spark our imaginations. And so it begins...

Open Source Theology

We had lunch on Wednesday with Andrew Perriman. Andrew is the originator of the Open Source Theology project, which seeks to develop a collaborative theology for the emerging church. It's a great site with lots of potential value for us as we seek to plant missional churches within the emerging culture of London. I'm hoping to find some time to reflect and get involved in the conversation there...probably after our team leaves next week.

More on the week

Today we met with some with some people from our mission, one of whom has been living here for ten years. Good perspective, and a good time with friends and food. My friend and fellow WTS grad Jeremy was there...I had hoped we'd see him but didn't know what his schedule was.
Pat blogs his perspective on our week together over at teamgimli. See especially this story about how I made him eat Stinking Bishop cheese.

Emerging Games

Yeah, I use emerging just for the heck of it sometimes. Just wanted to give you a little update on our week of seeking God's direction for our WHM team. This morning we met with a couple people from London City Mission. We had a great time, and it reminded me again of how small I am in the face of what God is doing and has been doing in London for centuries. I was also convicted of much of my distaste for the ways of the traditional church...probably needs to be some on-going repentance before the Lord on that one.
We had some very fruitful discussion about different parts of the city and the shape of church-planting. I don't want to give too many details because we're all still trying to process what we've seen and heard and smelled.
Tonight I gave Pat and John a little wine lesson - Castillo San Lorenzo Rioja Reserva 1999 paired with Somer's lamb kebabs. A beautiful wine, classic Rioja - the best part about it in my opinion is the long vanilla finish (oh, and that I got it at half-price at Tesco).
We finished the night with a couple games of Settler's of Catan. John the team-leader hates games, but graciously agreed to play anyway. That didn't stop me from beating him twice.

World Harvest Team

This week we have a couple guys from World Harvest visiting. Pat and John are here with us checking out possible spots for a church plant. We're asking God to show us where the next phase of life/ministry needs to be for us.

Autumn's Arrival

I think autumn might just be my favorite season. There's something about the smell of decaying leaves, the cold, crisp air and the bright sunshine. It reminds me of playing soccer for my high school; and makes me think of carving pumpkins and jumping in leaf piles and building a fire in the back yard to roast marshmallows. While we officially have three more days of summer here in the northern hemisphere, it's definitely felt like autumn the last few days in London.
There's also something spiritual about the change of seasons. And no, I don't want to become a Druid. It's just that there's this reminder that things won't always stay the way they are. The earth is constantly changing; and I think that change is good for my soul. All my senses have been heightened.
I sat outside at lunch on Wednesday to pray. I watched the clouds rush past in the wind and the sun peak through to warm the pavement where I sat. I saw people riding past on bicycles, women walking back from doing grocery shopping, and people rushing past in their cars or airplanes. In all of it I felt some of the delight God feels in his creation, and my praying was furthered by the experience. Yesterday we went to the Tate Modern art gallery. The girls love describing the art to us. Afterwards, we sat by the Thames and ate Chinese at a street fair. Everything felt right with the world. So praise God for autumn.

Rethinking Life with Tuck Bartholomew

Tuck Bartholomew has a great post at Common Grounds Online, discussing the implications of Romans 12 as a communal call to sacrificial living. Tuck writes:
The church is a new humanity in Jesus Christ, and the way we rise from our natural conformity to the broken habits of life is through celebrating, talking, reading, worshiping, thinking, and serving together as God’s people. Paul wants us to press God’s mercy across the spectrum of life...
Whenever I read something like this, my heart always starts beating faster. Partly because it scares the heck out of me. It confronts the way I've bought into the hum-drum stories of comfort, wealth, security that our culture tells.
But it also excites me; because this is what life is all about. Becoming part of a new humanity with Jesus and his people is a story worth being part of.
Go check out Tuck's article, and let it challenge and excite you toward giving yourself in community with God's people for the sake of God's world.

The End of the Story

Ever wonder what's so good about the good news the church proclaims?
Today at Sunday worship at Church on the Corner, Mark gave a sermon in his "Chaos Theology" series on Meaning. Lots of really good stuff - there should be a link soon on his blog (he's probably just getting home from the evening service now). One of the things he said is that in sharing the "good news" with people, the church tends to focus on the mechanism of salvation, without giving much time to the end or the goal. In other words, we talk a lot about the death/resurrection of Jesus (maybe also about his life if we have the extra time) - but then we leave it at that. We tend not to take people to the end of the story of redemption, where God makes all things new.
Here's one practical example of where this might go...bear with me, please, because I'm still working this out and would love your thoughts:
Last night we had lots of storms moving through the area. My children were afraid of the thunder. As they went to bed, we read the story of Jesus in the boat with his disciples. Jesus falls asleep, a storm comes up, and the disciples wake him up in a panic. With a word, Jesus calms the wind and the waves. Jesus is in control of the storms, I told my girls, and he loves you and is here with you now.
Now, everything we read and talked about is true, and I don't necessarily think I should have said any more to them last night. But the story of redemption doesn't end with Jesus calming the storm. And it doesn't even end with him reconciling us to God. It ends with him re-creating the heavens and earth. That picture in Revelation 21 of a new heaven and earth is an unbelievable ending to the story of history. It says that storms - fear, chaos, destruction - are not the final word. Not only are they under Jesus' control, but they don't have the final say. There is a day coming when all that chaos and destruction are gone.
I'm very hesitant to bring it up, but how do you think a story like this might play in New Orleans? I mean, I don't think there's a whole lot of comfort in saying "the storm is under God's control" and "God is good so we have to trust his goodness in the midst of this". O.k., I realize that there's probably some comfort there. I also realize that churches in the surrounding area aren't offering words...they're busy taking care of people, and that's way better than any words at this point. But I think at some point, the church needs to finish the story and say "You know what? This storm sucked. The government's response may have sucked. But all that destruction, all that chaos - they don't have the final say. There is a day coming when there will be no more sea to flood our cities and brew up monster storms. Those storms have their day, but they are not the final word."
[update] I just read this great post by Adam and it helped solidify the vague feeling I had that something was missing in what I said here. It's this: All that help the church is giving people - that's the concrete demonstration that God is making all things new. It's the tangible evidence that the new creation is coming, because it's the new creation entering now. It's the "proof" if you will, that the story isn't over yet.

Uncle Stockton's Tomato Gravy

When I was a kid my family used to spend a couple weeks at the beach with my grandparents and cousins. My uncle used to make this stuff he called "tomato gravy". We've had lots of tomatos from our plants (including this giant weighing in at 1 pound 2 ounces), and I needed something to do with all the tomatoes. So I decided to try my hand at my uncle's recipe. To my surprise, it turned out exactly as I had remembered it. Really brought back the memories from childhood. It's amazing how taste can do that.

Becoming English

To all my English readers (if there are any of you): I apologize up front. I realize that my 9 months in your country have done little toward making me English, apart from the few surface details I'm about to enumerate.
Item 1: I drank tea last Wednesday, and liked it. I'm talking real English tea with milk. If that isn't impressive enough, I also had a scone - no, check that, two scones - with jam and double cream on top, and I thoroughly enjoyed it all.
This was at a party hosted by one of the Wednesday group from Bethel.
Item 2: Cricket. That's right all you Americans, I said Cricket. I figured out the rules, and now I'm hooked. It doesn't hurt that England have been playing very well this summer in the 5-match Ashes test series against Australia. They're up 2-1 with one draw and one match being played as we speak. With about a day and a half left to play, England have about an even chance of winning the match and the test series. You can get scoring updates and a good explanation of the game from the BBC.

Oh, and one more thing: According to a recent advertisement I saw on the Tube (I think it was for Harrod's), it's very English to apologize up front.

People to see

Tomorrow is Divi day at London City Mission. This means we all get together for a morning of singing, prayer, and listening to preaching. I usually dread the day - sorry guys, but it's pretty boring. I found out that it used to be pay-day in the mission, back in the days when missionaries were paid in cash.
But tomorrow I'm looking forward to; because I have people to see:
Norman - the finance guy at LCM, also in charge of their properties. I want to find out if there are other trusts in London that own houses like the one we're living in, who might be interested in housing a church-planter or two from the USA. It's a long shot, I know, but if they exist, Norman will know about them. Plus, he'll probably have a great story to share.
Terry - He's one of the ministry directors. I'd like to get together and just get to know him a bit.
Henk - Runs Café Forever and is one of the elders at City of Peace church on the Isle of Dogs. This guy knows his part of London. I want to spend an afternoon with him, just walking around Tower Hamlets and listening to Henk describe what he sees.

So that's my divi day - it's about the relationships. Oh yeah, and then the Passerelli women meet me and we go to lunch!

Emerging Church and History

Here is Jeffrey Jue's article on the Emerging Church's take on church history - specifically the period of the Reformation. Jeffrey was one of the instructors in my Salvation 2 class at WTS, and I always appreciated his excitement for whatever he was teaching.
The gist of his article is that while seeking to maintain a historical connection with the church that has gone before, the emerging church has largely ignored the Reformation church of the 16th and 17th centuries. This is because emerging church leaders have blindly accepted the view that Reformation theologians were corrupted by the enlightenment and rationalism. They have discounted Reformation theologians as being shackled by modernity, and thus find them irrelevant for today's postmodern world. In his own words:
The Emergent Church is not introducing a new Christianity completely detached from any historical roots. Yet the postmodern periodization of history has contributed to the utter neglect or at the very least gross distortion of Reformation and post-Reformation history and theology. Other than a hollow view of Semper Reformanda, the Reformed tradition is abandoned as a meaningful theological partner in their “emerging conversation” with postmodernity.
Jeffrey goes on to propose that the Reformed tradition has much to offer the emerging church, and he offers three examples of how Reformation theology could be useful to the emerging church.
First, I think the examples he offers are excellent, and could be multiplied a hundred-fold. I'm excited to see one of the faculty at Westminster Theological Seminary getting involved in the emerging church discussion, and hope others will follow suit. [If anyone has knowledge of other articles/sites where WTS profs are offering helpful suggestions for the emerging church, please post these in the comments].

The biggest issue I have with the article is that I'm not sure his assessment that the emerging church has neglected Reformation history and theology is accurate. One of the more influential voices of the global emerging church on the web is Andrew Jones. In this post Andrew mentions a number of churches that are emerging from within the Reformed tradition, and he argues strongly (both here and in a few other posts - sorry I couldn't locate the others, Andrew) for emerging churches to remain connected to their ecclesiastical/theological roots. There are a number of us (Alan, Jerry, Jeff, Michelle, Krissy and Pat, just to name a few) who are seeking to emerge from within a denomination (the Presbyterian Church in America - sorry Pat, I know you're EPC) that has arguably one of the strongest links to the Reformation church and theology. I'll admit we haven't emerged very far yet. But I'd say for all of us that whatever theology we do, it will be strongly influenced by our connection to Reformed Presbyterian churches.
Sure, there may be some within the emerging church who come from traditions that have already neglected the Reformation, and there are others who self-consciously do so on their own, but these do not represent the whole of the emerging church. Your thoughts?

Poofy Hair

O.k. Jeff, this one's for you. Here I am just after my appointment at Toni & Guy's. Notice the classic "Blue Steel" look I have about me.

Wedding Reception

Last night we attended the wedding reception of one of Somer's friends from the mums & tots group. Somer went to her hen party last month - you can read about her experience here. It was about normal for a wedding reception, except that they had already had the wedding a couple weeks ago in the Dominican Republic. They did one of those beach-side weddings. Since the wedding had already happened, they had lots of pictures - it was really quite beautiful. We only knew the bride and one other woman there, so we just kind of hung around and talked to our children. Not the most exciting evening of our time here, but still good.

In Search of the Spiritual

Newsweek article on the rise of spirituality in the USA. Pretty good article. What do you think?

Church on the Corner

This past Sunday we spent the morning worshiping with the folk at Church on the Corner. It was very clear from the first that we were in a place with other people who love Jesus, and that they were there because they wanted to encounter God and respond to him in worship together. We felt very much at home - probably more so than in any other church we've visited since we've been here; even though I had to ask someone if the church was even open when we first arrived (first time in my life for that one). I felt free to express myself physically during the singing and join in the discussion during the sermon, and the fact that they had drinks on the tables during the service made the morning for Andi and Jodie. We sat around at tables, café style.
I chatted with the pastor afterwards, and he described wanting to be a place where non-churchy people could come and not be completely turned off by the atmosphere. Very close to our own hearts - maybe that's why we felt so comfy there. Anyway, I know it's not all about me and my comfort, but we were blessed by our time there. Thanks to Mark and Peter and others who welcomed us so well. Hope this isn't the last we see of you.

Word Verification

I've added Word Verification to all comments. I've started getting spam comments with links to unknown sites. Hopefully the extra step of having to read a word and re-enter it before posting a comment will aleviate this problem...we'll see. Hope this extra step doesn't deter you from commenting, but let me know if you find it to be a hassle.

Violent Reality

Last night I watched Balls of Steel on Channel 4. Ok, I'll admit that there were at least three things I could have been doing instead, the most sensible of which would have been to go to bed. But instead I watched, horrified, as people performed all sorts of crazy stunts, including jumping on the back of strangers, and timing to see how long they could stay on, just like it was a rodeo.
The worst, though, and the reason I'm bothering you with this at all, is that there was a segment in which two men purposely injured themselves with tools, just to see how much pain each tool caused. I've been wondering for a while how long it was going to take before someone combined our society's thirst for "reality" with the alluring power of violence. Maybe this isn't the first instance of a show like this, but it's the first I've seen. The two "stunts" I saw were just insane. First, they tried to see how much pain it caused when one guy used a belt sander on the other's naked back-side. He barely touched his butt when he screamed with pain...it started bleeding almost immediately. But then, the guy came back for more, and had him sand his butt a second time!! He rated it a 9 out of 10 in terms of pain. Then, the same guy put his hand on a block of wood, and his "friend" hammered a nail into the space of skin between his thumb and forefinger. Then they showed a close-up as he pulled the nail out of the wood and through his hand - again, blood came out immediately. He rated this 10 out of 10.
Just a little picture of the world we live in. I don't think this is indicative of the state of British culture as a whole (Channel 4's website has a forum, and from what I've seen, almost all comments on the show are negative). But there are some people who want to see this. Any thoughts on how the good news of Jesus speaks into this setting?

Andi's trip to the Hospital

Well, we're continuing to learn useful things for our planned long-term move to London. Yesterday we learned more about how the NHS works. I'll allay the fears of my parents by saying that Andi is fine...so read the story with a light heart:
On Tuesday, Andi was playing at the beach, jumping up and landing on her back-side in a shallow pool of water. One time, she didn't get her feet out from under her, and ended up smashing her foot underneath her. She cried, and limped around for the rest of the day. She continued to complain about it off and on for the rest of the week, so when we got back to London I called the doctor.
Since the doctor was himself on holiday and in any case couldn't do anything more than look externally at the foot, the receptionist told me to take Andi to Accident & Emergency at the local hospital. We walked in, they took Andi's name and address, and a 15 second explanation of what had happened. The nurse looked quickly at Andi's foot, and then we waited for 45 minutes. A doctor came, glanced at Andi's foot, and handed me a piece of paper and said, "Follow the signs to X-ray". We waited for another half hour at X-ray, then for 5 minutes while the film developed. They handed me the film and sent us back to A&E.
I handed over the films and sat down to wait again. Another couple minutes, and the doctor walked over. "The foot is fine, nothing's broken. Probably just a strain. Give her some pain-killer if she complains about it more."

As an outsider, it felt extremely impersonal. Nobody said more than three sentences to us, and we were just kind of shunted around. I was also surprised at how little interest the doctor actually took in Andi's foot before ordering an X-ray. I suppose he couldn't really tell whether there was anything wrong without the X-ray, but it just seemed like he was taking my word for it that there was something wrong with her foot. When we left, there was no paper-work to sign, nothing to confirm our identity, and really no trace of who we were, except that they took my word for it when I gave our address. It felt really strange.

Back from Holiday

We're back from our holiday on the Kent coast. The LCM house we stayed in was nice, but fairly small. There wasn't really anywhere for the girls to play. Our DVD player wouldn't connect to the TV there, so we couldn't watch the videos we brought either. We ended up coming home a day early because the weather was poor and we didn't want to have to rush around this morning trying to clean up everything and be out of the house by 10 am. I never thought I'd say this, but we actually got a little sun burn here in England. There was a nice beach about an hour's drive from us. When the tide went out, there was probably 300 or 400 yards of exposed sand. The girls really enjoyed it. I'll try to get pics up soon.

Off for a week

I'll be without internet access for a week, as we'll be on holiday in Kent. Somer's parents and sister will be with us as well.
As for my haircut, I'll post pictures when we get back. To be honest, I think it makes me look quite girly - the woman used a blow-dryer on my hair, and it came out quite poofy and a bit round. Anyway, you'll see the pics soon enough.

Last Hub 'til October

We are having some building work done to the center, so tonight's was the last Hub until October. I'm kind of sad about it. Tonight I had a really good time talking to some of the guys about why I'm in England, and what the state of religion is like in their country. But at the same time, I'm really looking forward to the break.
Oh, and the talk at the younger Hub went o.k. - I think I played a bit too much of the Friends episode, and the kids got bored. They engaged a little bit with what I was talking about in terms of all relationships having some sort of parameters, but it could have done with a little less Joey and Chandler. Oh well...at least I enjoyed it.

Tomorrow I'm going to Toni & Guy's Hairdressing Academy to get a £5 haircut by a student...should be fun. I'll try to post a picture afterwards.

Friends

Tonight at the younger hub we'll be watching an episode of Friends. It's the one where Chandler crosses the line. Julian is pretty set on doing the Ten Commandments with the younger Hub group. I'm more ambivalent, but if we are going to do them, I want to make sure that we set the context right. Hence Friends.
Every relationship has certain "rules" that define the terms of that relationship. Most times we don't think about those rules. For example, it's appropriate to slap your teammate's backside after he scores a goal, but it's not appropriate to slap your boss's backside, no matter how great a job she's done. In the case of tonight's episode, Chandler has broken the golden rule of friendship - you don't kiss your best friend's girlfriend.
The Ten Commandments are God's way of defining expectations in his relationship with Israel. It's key that he begins Exodus 20 by saying "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." It's in the context of this love relationship, in which God has brought freedom to Israel, that he gives the commandments.

I'll let you know how the talk does.

Many visitors

Have come and gone this past week. Monday we said goodbye to Rian - a good friend and reminder of home. At the same time, Rebecca arrived from Ireland. She's been doing an 8-month apprenticeship in Ireland with WHM. After meeting her at the train station, my car wouldn't start, so we had to walk home. Yesterday (Wednesday) two more apprentices arrived from Ireland - Chrissy and Jennifer. It's fun to meet them face-to-face, because they were some of the last people I helped recruit in my former role at the mission - though I never met them in person. Somer's sister Amber also arrived yesterday. So there are now 8 of us in our tiny house, and we're loving it.

As for other stuff happening: I took the car to Ichthus to have it fixed yesterday, and I'm picking it up tomorrow - it needed a new alternator and exhaust. The younger Hub has been open all this week during the day - we're having the guys do some graffiti, and tomorrow we're watching Prince of Egypt (don't ask - the guys are really excited about it, I don't understand).

Dan's Offerings

Since Somer's in Ireland until tomorrow, I thought I'd try my hand at a few food-related thoughts, just in case any of you are missing her on her blog.
Monday night we had grilled lamb steaks with rosemary from the garden, Somer's garlic mashed potatoes a'la Dan (i.e. throw some garlic salt in with cooked potatoes and smash them with a wire wisk - clearly the wrong tool for the job, as I discovered after bending the handle), and carrot sticks straight from the bag. Andi and I also shared our first large tomato from the garden - we've been getting cherry tomatoes for a while, but this is the first from the larger variety. It was tasty.
Tuesday was leftovers, but I did make some new peas. The recipe? Buy frozen peas, open the bag and chow down. If you must heat them, throw them in a pot and let them steam as the frost melts and then evaporates.
Tuesday evening before dinner the girls came with me to the younger Hub. The talk was on Jacob and Esau, so we had Pot o' Noodles while I talked about how Esau despised God's promises and sold his birthright for a bowl of soup. They thought it was hysterical that I used the word "soup" - or else they thought I said "soup" in a funny way. I couldn't really tell. Whenever I said "soup" there would be a few seconds of laughter and several other people would say "soup".
The recipe for Pot o' Noodles? If you're that desperate I can't help you.
Somer will be back tomorrow evening, so look for her again on Thursday. Tomorrow is coffee morning/lunch hour at the centre, so the girls will be with me for that.

And Even Three

I realized those last two stories give an unrealistically rosey picture of life/ministry here. So let me give you a third to temper the other two.

Also on Tuesday, I was out with Emma doing doors. I met the first "cultural creative" person I've talked to here in Dagenham. He answered the door, tattooed on both arms, lip and eyebrow pierced, blue hair. He agreed to do the survey. Basically, he's not religious at all. The only thing he believes in is himself. Has no desire to go to church, and there's nothing that really would make him want to go. He was a really nice guy - told us he's a musician, writes songs for bands. "And yet I'm still here in Dagenham," he remarked. Near the end of the conversation, he said something like "Well, I don't exactly look like someone who would believe [in Jesus], do I?" Emma said something about "you should see some of my friends." And I remained silent. It was a perfect invitation into his life and the nature of faith and walking in the way of Jesus as a counter-cultural lifestyle, and I said nothing. Couldn't think of what to say.

Two Stories

On Tuesday Julian received a phone call from one of our friends at the center.
"Julian, I've decided I don't need the Bible you gave me. I'm giving the whole Christianity thing up."
We were scheduled to visit later in the day, so he said we should still come by. Turns out he and his long-term companion had an argument that morning. "I went back five years in my relationship with her," he said. "If I can go back five years in just a few minutes with her, then why should I bother with the Christian thing, because I can go back just as easily on that too."
I was feeling a bit bold that day (who knows, maybe lots of you were praying that day and the Spirit was moving). So I said "You know, I don't think you are the same as you were five years ago." He replied "You didn't know me five years ago, how can you say that?" "Well, I don't think something like this argument would have bothered you this much five years ago." He continued: "Well, it's just that I've been changing so much lately, and now here I am off the path, in the same brambles again, struggling to get out of them." I stuck my grinning face about six inches from his - "And five years ago, would you have been struggling to get out of those brambles?" "Well, no. You've got me there."
We went on to talk about how it's the very people who go straying off the path that Jesus came to seek and save. Since we were supposed to be talking about the parables of Jesus, I paraphrased the story of the shepherd who has 99 sheep in the pen and one out in the brambles. He is passionate about the one who is in the brambles, and when he finds it, he brings it back and there's a massive party in God's house.
He said he was glad we had come, and that we should come back next week to resume our regular study of the parables.

Tuesday night was the last night for Dan, one of the regular staff at the Hub. He has finished the gap-year scheme with LCM. So we took him out for a celebration afterwards. One of the guys who attends the Hub regularly was hanging around after it closed, talking to us while we closed up. We invited him to come with us. Initially I felt like it was a bit awkward. I had been looking forward to having a good laugh with Dan and felt like having this other guy with us was kind of holding us back. In the end, though, we had a really good time. He started asking us what it's like for us to pray. Then we started talking about what happens when you die (sort of brought up by the death of my grandmother a few weeks ago and the questions Andi asked afterwards). I would have loved to be a detached observer at our table - here's a guy who doesn't want to have anything to do with the church, sitting in a pub with six followers of Jesus, asking us questions about our faith. Beautiful.

Summer Friends

They have begun to arrive! Rian arrived Monday night at around 11. She visited the Hub with me on Tuesday, saw Fame with Somer on Wednesday, cancelled a trip to the museums on Thursday because of the bombings, and did family movie night with us on Saturday (we moved it from Friday in order to take her to Belgo on Friday night). We also went to Greenwich on Thursday while Somer was at Cafe Forever and the girls were having their last day of school before summer holiday. We bought their teacher a giant Sunflower to say "thanks". Tomorrow Rian and Summer leave for three days in Dublin. We have an early drive to the airport, and then it's just me and the girls until Wednesday evening.
In the midst of all this, stuff at Bethel has continued unabated - I'll update you more in the next post on that.
When Rian leaves, Rebecca arrives later that day. We're hoping to have some time to pray with Rebecca and dream God's dreams for this city and seek him for how we fit into those dreams. After that, Somer's sister arrives...followed shortly by her parents.

More London Incidents

Two weeks after the major bombings on the Tube and bus, there has been another series of incidents. These don't sound like they're nearly as big as two weeks ago, but several Tube lines have been closed. It sounds like packages exploded on a bus and a few trains, but there were few if any injuries. People reported a burning smell, and a couple people said they saw a man's backpack blow up. I was thinking that it sounded like a copy-cat thing, done to scare people more than anything else. Two minutes after I thought this, one of the news channels had an "anti-terror" expert on, who said the exact same thing. Anyway, just wanted everyone to know that all is well in our neck of London, and hopefully this will be resolved quickly with few people affected.

A proverb and a picture

Any fool can ask for advice,
but a wise person listens to friends.
A fool asks until the desired answer is given,
but a wise person is satisfied with good counsel.

So who do you think I am?

My boss Julian finally gave me the advice I wanted to hear: "Get the vinyl flooring and just put some foam sub-flooring underneath. Caulk the whole thing around the edges, and you're done." I got a remnant of vinyl for £7 (the guy wanted 15, then when I baulked at the price he came down to 10. I asked if he took credit - he didn't - and I said I'd give him the £7 in my wallet. I love bargaining). The foam was £15 per roll, and Somer suggested that we just forget the foam and lay the vinyl straight on the wood. Thinking her advice the best, I bought a tube of silicon and came home. Finished product is above. A few notes for the guys who did give good (though unheaded) advice: This vinyl stuff is not linoleum as I know it - it's actually soft on the bottom and very flexible...feels a lot like carpet with a soft, thin, plastic veneer on top. The moisture basically comes from the tub - splashing kids and a wonky shower head. I liked Jim's idea of painting the floor boards, but they were in such bad shape it wasn't an option. There is some old termite damage - a couple boards had been replaced, and the ones next to them had been generously eaten through, though not badly enough to warrant replacement. Pat's advice was good - but I don't know who to talk to at LCM right now - Andrew is no longer one of the ministry directors, and the three new directors haven't sorted out who is supervising whom. In any case, it would take longer than the day I had left in which to replace the floor - I neglected to mention that I had already ripped up the moldy carpet when I wrote the post. So, the floor is down, the bathroom smells nice (albeit a bit chemically right now) and I spent a day cutting and caulking. Surprisingly, the stuff stays put and lays quite flat. In the end, if the landlord doesn't like it, I'll just take it up before I leave and put the new piece of carpet down, and no harm done.
Thanks for your thoughts guys. And Pat...sorry to have not listed you specifically in my appeal for help. I did know you laid floors, but forgot it at the time I was writing.

Harry Potter

Sitting here at midnight listening to J K Rowling read a chapter from the newest instalment. I'm hooked! She's reading the account of Harry and co. as they explore the Weasley brothers' new shop. Very very cool.

Maintenance

On a couple levels today. First, on the house: Our bathroom reaks something aweful. One really shouldn't carpet one's bathroom if one doesn't like mold and nasty smells in one's house. If Jesus were here today, he would tell the pharisees that they were a carpeted bathroom with a pretty door - nice on the outside, but full of mildew, rot, and foul odors on the inside. In any case, I pulled up the carpet and have a fan blowing to try to dry out the floor-boards before I replace it. Rian arrives Monday, and we want it to be nice when she arrives. I'm debating between putting down more carpet (cheapest idea since we have a spare scrap in the shed that will fit), putting down linoleum on top of the carpet (the floor-boards are too uneven to just do linoleum) an actually tiling the floor. Basically, we're only in the house for another six months, so the carpet should stay moderately fresh until just about the time we're ready to leave...good for us, bad for the next occupant. Thanks to Larry, I know how to do tiling - and it would only cost about £30 for supplies - but I'd have to get my hands on a tile cutter, which would basically double the cost. Linoleum costs £10 for the two square meters I need, but again, I'd have to put it down on top of the carpet. Don't know how effective that'd be on preventing moisture build-up in the carpet. I'm hoping Jim or Larry or one of my other readers might have an idea...please let me know what you think is the best option.
Second, on the blog: if you notice, I've weeded out the side-bar and updated my reading list. Just to be clear, I don't have an advance copy of Harry Potter, it's arriving Saturday like everyone else's, and probably I won't actually start reading it until the following week, since Somer has dibs on it first. But I'm so excited about it I couldn't wait to get it up on the reading list. The other two books there are both really good - especially Gempf's book...but I would be a bit biased, since he's a Londoner.

Incense

My fellow LCMers are starting to think I'm a bit of a pyro. This past Tuesday at the Hub, we decided to take a break from our normal schedule of talks with the younger guys in response to last week's bombings in the city. I had the guys (and girl) write short prayers for the city on pieces of paper. I explained that the Bible gives the picture of prayers from God's people being sweet-smelling incense to him. So after writing their prayers, we went outside and - you guessed it! - burned the paper-prayers in a cauldron along with some incense. A few of them actually took it seriously and wrote prayers for mercy or peace. Many wrote prayers that basically said "God, please punish the guys who did this", although in more colorful language and with a few racial slurs mixed in for good measure. I wasn't sure whether to be uncomfortable with these prayers or not. Certainly David prayed in similar ways at times. It's just that usually the only prayer we let non-believers pray is the "sinner's prayer" - and when you start asking them to pray for other purposes, sometimes it gets messy.

Family Unity

It's been six months since we arrived here in London. I was remarking to Somer earlier today that I feel like our family has become very close. One of the great benefits of not knowing many people in the city is that we do most everything together - just the four of us. I feel like I know the girls better than I ever have (this may also be a result of them growing up). The things we look forward to are things we have planned to do together - family movie night, an afternoon in the park, preaching at city of peace, moms & tots, coffee morning, etc.
Those adventure movies that take a group of disparate people and force them into situations where they have to either get along or die are ringing true for us right now. Not that we hated each other before we got here, but there's something about being on this adventure together that has brought us closer. Probably the church could learn something from this.

Abraham Sacrificing Isaac

Unfinished work by The Hub. Emulsion paint on wood over a pencil traced projection of the original by Laurent de LaHire - 1650
Work was undertaken on Tuesday, 5th July. Projected completion is sometime this week. Several of the guys worked on this painting the entire evening.

London Bombings

There have been a number of explosions this morning in London. BBC quoted the Metropolitan Police Commissioner as saying there were six explosions on busses and London Underground trains. The Underground is completely shut down. I was supposed to be doing door-to-door today, but my co-worker is stuck in central London without a way out to Ilford. Somer is working at Café Forever this morning - closer to the center of London, but not in close proximity to the bombings. I'm looking forward to having her back home this afternoon. Not that you need me to keep you posted, given the flood of news coverage, but I will post an update once it becomes clearer what has happened. We are o.k. and praying for our city.

[Update] - Somer picked up the girls from school around 12:30 and they are all home safely. We just saw a news conference where the police and others clarified some details. It looks like there were a total of four bombs - three on Underground trains and one on a bus. They are saying at least 33 people were killed and a few hundred injured. Some train services outside the very center of the city are resuming, and it sounds like they are hoping to have restored more services tomorrow so that life can go on in the city. We are still having our kids clubs tonight at Ley Street, so I'm off to work in about an hour or so. I'll try to give one more update tonight on how the kids in our clubs are reacting.

Saul: A Play in Two Parts

Act 1: The Blinding Light
As I narrate from Acts 9, one of the boys acts the part of Saul, angrily shaking his finger at the "Christians", receiving a letter from the high priest and then litterally dragging his fellow actors into "prison". God speaks to him on the road, and Saul falls down as though dead. The scene ends with a fantastic outburst when Saul is offered food, but flails his arms about and knocks the food away because he is blind.
Act 2: Sight Restored
I continue narrating the story. Another group of actors takes the stage. Saul is now played by a girl, praying silently to God. God (played by a six-year-old standing on a chair) is pointing to Ananias that he should go visit Saul. Ananias reluctantly goes. Saul's sight is then restored, at which point he is baptized by a small shot of water from a plastic drinking cup. Saul then starts preaching the gospel to the crowds - having somehow aquired a blue-covered Bible, complete with New Testament!

Performed one-time only at the children's club at Ley Street earlier this evening. The group acting part 1 received the prize for best performance, while the second group received a bonus for creative use of a cup of water.

Walking to work

For the first time since we've been here, I walked to work at Bethel. It was a gorgeous day, and Somer had the car at Café Forever. It takes about 20 minutes to get to the housing estate from our house, and another 10 to walk accross the estate to our center. Half-way across the estate, I saw a couple that I knew. They had been to a Christianity Explored course with us a couple months ago. Since then, they have started going to two different churches - going to each one every other Sunday. The woman asked me how I was doing, and whether I had converted anyone recently. Being the good Reformed Evangelical that I am (despite what the Theological Worldview test says) I said "Well, I don't really convert anyone, do I? That's more God's business than mine." The man responded "Well, you converted me, didn't you?" I was a bit surprised..."Sorry?" I said. "Yeah, you guys converted me." At this point in the conversation, we came to the fork in the road - they went their way off to the market, I went on to the center. I have no idea if this guy is seriously converted or not...but like I said before, that's more God's business than mine.
I was just glad I had to walk to work today.

In the garden

Our garden has been a kind of respite for me this spring. I've taught the girls how to plant and water vegetables, and how to know when to pick them. It's been a fun way for me to relax and enjoy being outside. Today we harvested our first crop: two cherry tomatoes, pictured here just before picking. They were delicious.

New Life comes to London

Today we went to Covent Garden to see LCM's café The Vine. We were enjoying the time in the center of the city, in an area where spiritualists, Hare Krishnas, homosexuals, and Goths mix freely with the freakishly conservative tourists and business-people. All of a sudden, I hear a loud shout...in a Philly accent. And wouldn't you know it - my pastor from New Life Glenside is right in front of us.
Angelo and a group of a few other New Lifers were on a 10-hour layover on their way to South Africa. It made our month to see them.

Then I found out that Chris, one of the guys from the College group we used to lead - and a very dear friend - was with them. For the next fifteen minutes, we searched the restaurants at Covent Garden looking for Chris. Finally, he saw me and came running up behind me.
Wow! What are the odds of that? We never come down to the city - we hadn't been to Covent Garden since we moved here! I think God knew we needed a bit of emotional sunshine - a reminder of how much we are loved, and how much we love.
Thanks God! Thanks Chris and Angelo and New Lifers!

Nana

My grandmother passed away this past week. It wasn't totally unexpected, but still a major time of grieving and loss for my family. I couldn't make it home for the funeral, so I had to participate from London. I sent a letter that my brother Mark read at the funeral. Then my other brother Andrew set up a video chat back at my Aunt's house, where the family gathered after the funeral. I got to see my immediate family, plus relatives from New York and North Carolina. It was a good time, but also a sharp reminder that we are living far from home.
Explaining the death of Nana to my children was a wonderful experience. The questions you get from a 2- and 4-year-old are amazing. Andi asked what happens when you die. Honestly, I had to say that I wasn't sure. As far as I can tell, our understanding of what happens immediately after death is speculation. The Bible is very clear that death is not the final answer, that Jesus frees us from fear of death, and that he will make all things new and his people will live forever in this new creation. But what happens between now and then is a mystery to me. The clearest thing I can see is that Jesus says to the thief on the cross "Today you will be with me in paradise" but I'm not sure how much we can build on that.
Anyway, I tell you all this because these are two glimpses into my paradoxical life as a cross-cultural Jesus follower (read "missionary" if you're comfortable with that term). My life is very different from what it would be if I was back in the States, but at the same time very much the same.

Get a Mac [partial retraction]

O.k., so I still think you need a Mac. But thanks to Steph for helping me fix the problem. IE on my machine now displays main content in the right spot...any problems now on Windows machines?

[Original post] Apologies to anyone who reads my blog from a Windows machine. It appears that on some versions of IE the previous post forces all the main content below the sidebar. Not in Safari, though. Just goes to show...you need a Mac! Get one here

Theological Worldview Quiz

So I took a theological worldview quiz. A little surprised by how I scored. Here's the breakdown:

You scored as Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan. You are an evangelical in the Wesleyan tradition. You believe that God's grace enables you to choose to believe in him, even though you yourself are totally depraved. The gift of the Holy Spirit gives you assurance of your salvation, and he also enables you to live the life of obedience to which God has called us. You are influenced heavly by John Wesley and the Methodists. Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 82% Emergent/Postmodern 68% Neo orthodox 64% Roman Catholic 57% Charismatic/Pentecostal 50% Reformed Evangelical 43% Classical Liberal 39% Fundamentalist 36% Modern Liberal 14% What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

Apparently I'm more Wesleyan, Neo-Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Pentecostal than I am Reformed Evangelical. Yikes... but before any of you at WHM decide I need to return home prematurely, take the test for yourself and see where you fit. You might be surprised.

Sermons

Been doing lots of sermon writing and preaching this week. Wednesday was the afternoon service at Bethel. I preached on Ezekiel 47 - you can get the PDF copy by clicking here . The talk went really well. I really enjoyed it, people appreciated my poorly-drawn map of the Middle East, and I think people were encouraged to seek life in Jesus.
Tonight I finished writing my sermon for Sunday at City of Peace. Again, get a PDF copy by clicking here . I'm excited about this one because I've preached on the parrallel passage before for my sermon delivery class at seminary and I've incorporated several of the suggestions my professor made. But I also totally re-wrote the thing from scratch, rather than use the old sermon. I've found that reusing material is pretty tough, and second-time-around messages haven't gone well for me. Please feel free to comment - I will check the comments before Sunday afternoon and try to incorporate feedback from you all.

Environmentalism in the Ancient Near East

When you lay siege to a city for a long time, fighting against it to capture it, do not destory its trees by putting an ax to them, because you can eat their fruit. Do not cut them down. Are the trees people, that you should besiege them?
- Yahweh. Deuteronomy 20:19

Live 8 sadness

Yeah, so I didn't win tickets to Live8. Not surprising, really, since they had 1.5 million entries the first day alone, for a mere 70,000 pairs of tickets.

Oh well, guess I can always bid on them on e-Bay.

Never mind...Sir Bob hath spoken, and e-Bay is apparently the seven-headed ten-horned beast from the abyss for allowing someone to sell their tickets. Not wanting to be singled out for a special anti-capitalist flogging, e-Bay has dutifully removed the listing of the tickets and has rejoined all other globalized corporations as a rank-and-file demon.

Can you tell I'm a little bitter about this one? Guess I'm showing my true American Capitalist colors. I mean, what's the big deal if somebody won a pair of tickets and they want to sell them to make money? It's not like they're taking money away from the charities. They already gave their compulsory £1.50 to enter the "contest". With millions of pounds flying around for the charities, I have little sympathy for those who want to castigate someone for wanting to sell their ticket. I mean, I know it's supposed to be about the poor in Africa and not about the bands, but c'mon if it wasn't about the bands, then why get U2, Elton John, and all the other massive names to play? Why not say "Come to Hyde Park and listen to some poor people play music." Or else have all those big bands, but don't let them play, make people just come and sit with them in the park and quietly pray for Africa.

Smashing Cultural Stereotypes

The English are supposed to be reserved. They like their privacy and don't particularly appreciate Americans who come and vomit their souls all over the place the first time they meet you. Case in point: It took us weeks to find out the names of some of the moms at moms & tots because when they introduce themselves, they don't give you their name. Even if you say "Hi, I'm Dan" they'll respond with "Oh, o.k. Hi."

Or so I thought.

Among the young people on the Becontree housing estate there seems to be no concept of personal privacy. Yesterday the younger Hub was cancelled. As usual, most of the kids turned up anyway. When I went outside the center to tell them it was cancelled, I found about ten teenage boys and girls sitting on the wall smoking. I knew most of the guys and a few of the girls, so we started talking. Three of the girls I didn't know. Here's a bit the conversation:
Are you Australian? No
American? Yeah
Where do you come from in America? Philadelphia
Do you like it there?
Do you like it here? (At this point Luke interjects - "This place is a hell-hole")
What are you? Are you a priest? No, I did training to be a priest.
Are you not a priest because you're married? No, I'm allowed to be married even if I get ordained.
What's your name? Dan, what's your name? (I figured if they were going to be blunt, I might as well get a few names out of it).
What are your kids names?
Do you love your wife?Yes (One of the other girls smacks the one who asked the question). The first girl continues:
What? Maybe they're having a bad patch or something.

So there you have it. Nationality, name, job, family, and analysis of the condition of my marriage, all in the span of two minutes.

This week in London - Youth Clubs

This week at the Hub I had an interesting conversation with Tolga. Emma (a co-worker at the centre) is getting married next week. Tolga and I got to talking about marriage. He said he didn't ever want to get married. "What's the point, he said?" Most of his family has had an affair anyway, and marriages don't often last. Luke joined our conversation, and I asked him what he thought the point of marriage was. "It's to celebrate your love and show the other person how much you love them." It's probably the most interesting and serious conversation I've had with these teenage guys.
We also came up with new rules for the Hub this week. In addition to the usual "No alcohol, drugs, smoking, vandalism, etc." we have "no sexual harrasment" and my favorite "no bad attitudes". We've decided that we need to start getting tough with some of the guys, because we want the Hub to be a place where everyone feels safe, including our female staff and the girls who attend the Hub.
Last night were the clubs at Ley Street. We're really starting to develop some good relationships with some of the kids - especially some of the girls who come from a Sikh background. During story time, one of the girls summed up the story of persecution of the church by saying that the word of God about Jesus could not be stopped. I also had a good game of pool with one of the older guys.
Time to go - I'm actually writing this in the middle of moms & tots on Friday morning. We're having a party for Emma because it's her last day here before she goes home for the wedding.

This week in London - Icons

Just thought I'd give you a quick run-down of the week's events.
Monday I set up a small computer network for our centre while Julian made calls to local pastors about the East London Gospel Partnership (part of SEGP). Then we went and visited the vicar of three Church of England churches. We had been told ahead of time that she is a wonderful woman who loves Jesus but who speaks a different language than most "evangelicals". We spent almost an hour with her.
She is a self-described Anglo-Catholic. Very much on the "mystic" side of the experiencial spectrum. Her "specialty" is facilitating quiet days or weekends for meditation and reflection. She also gave us a thorough lesson on icons...the true meaning of icons, not the misunderstood meaning that many Protestants attach to them. She told us they are pieces of theology, not art. Every element is carefully planned to communicate some piece of theological truth. People hold the icons in high esteem - not because they worship the icon itself, but because they love and worship the God about whom the icon speaks. (Iconography - another Seminary Course That Should Have Been).
All in all, it was a pleasant meeting. She's not sure they will join the East London Gospel Partnership. She doesn't really see eye-to-eye with the more evangelical wing of the Anglican church - the guys who are helping spearhead the ELGP. I think she'd bring some much-needed diversity to the group, and could help the partnership think seriously about connecting with the more spiritual/mystical segment of society.

Trendy Coffee

Yesterday was coffee morning at Bethel Christian Centre. We ran out of coffee, so I was sent to the store to get more. There, I succumbed to the latest trend in global mass-marketing. No, they didn't have any Starbucks coffee. I bought Fair Trade coffee. Then I went one step further, and bought a second bag of Organic Fair Trade coffee. Then I bought organic milk to use in the coffee.
So why do I say I succumbed to the latest trend in global mass-marketing? Because in all honesty, I don't have any idea what "Fair Trade" or "Organic" really means.
I mean, I know Organic usually means that something is grown without using harsh chemical fertilizers or pesticides - but what does it mean that the milk is Organic? Probably the cows weren't given rBGH or antibiotics, but I don't really know why these things are bad, or what other measures are taken (or not taken) to make the milk organic. And what about the organic coffee - what makes it "organic?"
I have similar problems with the "Fair Trade" label. I know it's supposed to mean that producers in poor areas of the world were treated fairly and paid a decent price (usually above prevailing market value) for their products. But who's to say how much is a "decent" price? And anyway, I bought the coffee having no idea how much the growers were actually paid.
The reality is, I bought those products not because I actually know that they are better products, but because a global marketing campaign has taught me to think that Organic and Fair Trade lables mean the product is healthier, environmentally friendlier, and conducive to the promotion of justice. Score one for the new (somewhat subversive) face of global capitalism.

A few notes: I actually like the idea of organic growing. I'm hoping to pick up a book on organic gardening soon. Also, just because I didn't know the specifics behind the organic and fair trade labels when I bought the products doesn't mean you can't find them out. In addition to the above link about Fair Trade, see this link to Wikipedia's extensive explanation of organic farming codes. My issue isn't with either practice, it's with my lack of understanding of them.

Live8 Tickets

I've put in my name for the contest for Live8 tickets. Just sent a text this morning. There seems to be a fascination in the UK with entering contests by sending an answer to a ridiculously simple question via text message...don't really understand it. There are about 72,000 tickets available, and hopefully I'll be the proud possessor of two of them come this Friday. I'll let you know!

Live8 Update

Just found out that the Live8 concert in London is "free". You have to enter a text message contest, which costs £1.5 plus the cost of the text message. So I'm going to enter when the contest opens on June 6. Flying to Edinburgh for the protest march sounds cool, but I think it's in the middle of the week. In any case, the free concert in Hyde Park is more do-able. Plus, it's with U2, Muse, Scissor Sisters, REM, and many others!

Kite Flying

For the past week, the girls have been asking "Is it windy today Daddy?"
Last weekend, I bought a couple of kites for 89p from Tesco. But there wasn't enough wind to fly them...until today.
Click here to see a short movie of Andi flying her kite. There is something very free and beautiful about kite flying. I just ran around under the kites, looking up with my arms spread out, jumping every now and then in a vain attempt to fly along with them.

Anyone know how to put a quicktime file directly into this post, instead of linking to it? Drop me an e-mail if you do.

Can I get a Pound for petrol?

A guy stopped me at the local gas petrol station today, asking if I could spare a pound. He had run out of petrol. He looked scruffy, but seemed legit - he was holding up a plastic petrol can.

"Sorry," I said. "I don't have any cash on me." Usually that's true - I don't carry cash. But as it happened, tonight I had borrowed 6 Pounds from Somer. So I even had a 1 Pound coin that I could have given him. All of this flashed through my head right after the words came out of my mouth.

As I walked away, I began to think that I should turn and give the guy a pound. But I didn't. I wondered what he'd do with it. Was he really legit? Would he steal my wallet when I took it out to get the money? Would he use my Pound for a beer instead of petrol?

As I drove away, I realized that maybe my earlier thinking about generosity hadn't really changed me all that much. Crap!! I hate it that I'm freakishly fearful, analytical, and selfish when it comes to giving strangers money. It's not so much that I should have given this guy money on this particular occassion (though probably I should have). It's more that I don't have a well-thought-out theology of generosity. I don't have a plan for how to give liberally. So when people ask - my gut reaction is to say 'no'.

I really need to take this to the Lord.

Make Poverty History

Make Poverty History has lots of popular support among young people in Ilford and Dagenham. Lots of kids wearing the white bracelets in support of the campaign. Some Christians also getting in on the act, with tallskinnykiwi asking Who is going to Live 8 in Edinburgh? Wish I could go. Anybody want to send me a gift so I can attend? Drop me an e-mail if you're interested.

Tonight I'm giving a talk at Ley Street youth club from Acts 4/5. It's usually called "The story of Ananias and Sapphira" in honor of the two people who die for their deception. But at the heart of the story is the eradication of poverty among the fledgling church in Jerusalem. Chapter 4 ends by saying that the believers shared everything they had, and there were no needy persons among them. The story of Ananias and Sapphira follows right after this - I think - because it demonstrates just how important sharing of property was. Yes, the immediate cause of their death was that they lied to God - but they lied to God on matters of utmost importance to God's kingdom.

I'll be the first to admit that I love money. We haven't given money at church since we've been here in London, and I think that lack of giving is slowly killing us. Part of the problem is that none of the churches we've been to pass the plates - they just have a box at the back. Being the outsiders that we are, we just figured that out last week. But the point is, we need to start giving away more than we are. Anybody who reads this in need of some money? Again, drop me an e-mail if you're interested.

[update] the talk went well, though I hadn't counted on the kids' insanely strong sense of injustice. I had asked a couple of the girls to help by giving them some candy and then asking them to give all of it back during the story. one of them played the part of Ananias and didn't give it all back. when they saw that she kept some for herself...the boys flipped out! In the end, I think the talk was good. They were quiet while I read the poem from Philippians 2 about Jesus emptying himself. The God of self-giving love is the one who motivates demands a response of generosity from us.

Too much Bible?

I never in a million years thought I'd be saying this: Our church service today had too much Bible in it.
I've felt it for many weeks since we've been here - the churches and ministries we've visited and been part of have a strong emphasis on Bible-reading, Bible-teaching, and Bible-believing. My children have been taught songs to sing about the Bible: "Read your Bible, pray every day..." is one of them. I have heard ministry leaders complain that people in their ministries don't know their Bibles like they should: "They don't even know the order of the books". And I've had to sit quietly while people are questioned about whether they've been reading their Bibles every day.
Sometimes I just want to shout - The Bible is not GOD! We do not worship it, we worship God who speaks in the Bible. We do not want to know the Bible, we want to know the Living God. We are not called to join relationship with the Bible, but to be reconciled to God and join relationship with Father/Son/Spirit.
I know there shouldn't be this dichotomy between God and his Word, but today I'm pretty sure I encountered the Bible in church without having much fellowship with the Living God.

United Prayer Meeting

Sunday afternoon and I'm remembering some things that were forgotten that should not have been.
This past Wednesday we had the united prayer meeting for Dagenham. About 11 churches represented - Baptist, Independent, Anglican, Ghanaian-Baptist and others. Becontree Ave Baptist hosted.
Prayer meeting was focussed around 5 or 6 sessions of prayer for specific age groups, starting with young children and going on up through young parents to old age pensioners (that's OAP for short - feels a bit uncomfortable to my American sensibilities - I'm not supposed to call anyone old, even if they're old). After each time of prayer, we sung an English translation of the Kyrie together.
Then at the end, we broke up into groups of seven, took large photocopies of maps and colored our roads on the map. Then we prayed for the people living on those roads. We were also given a photocopy of a set of praying hands and we were told to write the name of one person we'd like to see come to faith in Jesus. Then we placed the names in big bowls on the stage and prayed for all those people we had written down.
In my opinion, one of the best prayer meetings or services I've been to here (apart from the cheesy "praying hands" photocopy - c'mon, does anyone really hold their hands with palms flat together and fingers pointed up when they pray? It's kind of an unnatural position.)

Bank Holiday Weekend

It's another bank holiday weekend here in the UK. Lots of plans for the weekend. Saturday morning Julian and I are playing soccer with others from LCM. We invited some of the guys from the Hub to come with us, and Julian was going to try to call them again tonight - hopefully one or two of them will join us. Then on Monday we're planning to head down to Southend (about an hour east of here on the coast). The Southend Airshow is supposed to be really good. Donna and Tina from moms and tots are going to be there, and we're planning to meet up with them. Hopefully getting to spend a little quality time with them and their "partners". (Partner is the generic term here for the person you're in a romantic relationship with - used for husbands, boyfriends, etc.)
Other than that, Somer and I are having a lazy Friday evening. It's hot here today - in the 80s for the first time all year. The sun is already staying up until close to 10pm, so it's really hard to go to sleep before 11. I'm rambling, and my battery is dying...

Sunday Roundup

Worshipped today at Dagenham Parish Church. We stayed for lunch afterwards with the pastor and his wife. We ate at "The Vicarage". Not only is it the pastor's house that's two doors down from the church, but it also has a sign that says "The Vicarage" above the door - probably as a warning, just in case anyone was confused and wandered there by mistake. We had a wonderful lunch with Mike and Debbie - roast lamb, sausages, parsnips, veggies, and sponge cake with lemon juice, golden syrup and ice cream. Traditional English cooking at its very finest...we loved it. Especially the Lamb with the parsnips...a good combination.

Gospel in Culture

A great discussion going on among WTS grads over at Jerry Fourroux's blog. Click here to join in.

Sharing Our Faith at Andi's Party

Had a great party for Andi this morning. Well, it was great because Andi loved it, and she was the birthday girl. The games didn't go very well, it rained off and on, and I didn't get to spend much quality time with our guests. But Andi, knowing what is most important, called me over to sit with her while she ate lunch. It was like one of those shots made popular by the Matrix - when everything around seems frozen in time, and the actor at the center of the camera draws all the attention. God gave me the grace to see that sitting with Andi was much more important than making sure the kids didn't trample the tomato plants or throw sand out of the sandbox. So we sat and talked.
While she was eating, she said "Daddy, I love my pirate party". In case you were wondering...we did a Dora the Explorer party with a pirate theme. Not the typical girl's birthday party, I know. But our family had fun with it.
Also, we did what our family always does on a person's birthday - we paused to give thanks to God for the life he's given them, and to ask his blessing on their next year. It was cool, because we had two Buddhists and a few non-religious types at the party, and it was the first time we'd done anything overtly Christian in front of them.
We shared our faith with our friends today, and it wasn't forced or artificial. It flowed out of our life. I had thought about it beforehand - but there's a difference between being planned and being artificial. Sharing our faith isn't primarily about telling people things they ought to believe, it's about letting them see, experience, and possibly participate in our faith-response to God.