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.
Saturday, December 31, 2005
Thursday, December 22, 2005
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.
Saturday, December 17, 2005
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!)
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!)
Sunday, December 11, 2005
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?
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.
Friday, December 09, 2005
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.
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
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.
Thursday, December 01, 2005
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?
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?
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