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.