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.

Seminary Courses That Should Have Been

I'm taking a Restraint & Removal course today - taught by a former night club bouncer. Looking forward to it. I think every pansy seminary student should have to take a course like this before starting their ministry. It made me think about what other kinds of courses should be required learning:

Sight & Smell 101: The use of candles, inscence and highly flamable materials in worship
Sight & Smell 201: Drug identification for non-users

Restraint & Removal 101: How to safely remove a stoned teenager who outweighs you after he punches another member of the youth club. I'll tell you all about it later this evening.
Restraint & Removal 102: Weapons - how to remove 'em, how to use 'em. An advanced self-defense course focussing on weaponry. Provides a complete overview of weapons that are commonly found in Churches and youth clubs, including pool cues, mugs of hot tea, candle sticks, and the ever dangerous pulpit Bible. Also includes instructions for creating and maintaining an amnesty box at the entrance to your facility.

Government 301: Police involvement - when to call them, how to give a statement, when to press charges

Sermon Delivery 301: Advanced sermon techniques, including how to out-swear the kids who are listeningtalking while you talk without grieving the Holy Spirit, and proper use of dangerous items for non-verbal sermon illustration - successful completion of S&S 101 is a prerequisite.

That's all I got for now. Anybody else have any thoughts on what should be included in the seminary curriculum?

We burned a goat

As I walked to the gate, the guys from the Hub were hanging out with one of their moms, smoking a cigarette. "Do we have to listen to the talk?" Luke says. "I ain't gonna listen to that f***ing bull-s**t any more."
"If you listen to me for about 30 seconds, you'll get to destroy the goat" I reply.
Luke again: "We get to destroy the goat? F**k yeah, I aint missin' that."
I read from Leviticus 4, verses 27-31, the instructions for making the sacrifice if a person breaks on of God's commands.
"Yeah, but how does that solve the problem? So you sin against God and then kill a goat? What good does that do? The goat doesn't do anything for God. It seems like all you've done is killed a goat - you haven't really done anything about your sin" - Luke, one more time.

I was shocked, and a bit excited. These are exactly the questions I should be asking, but don't because I've been hearing these stories my whole life. Luke and the others were (for once) entering the story of God's dealings with humanity. Beautiful.

We take the goat outside, and after each person lays their hand on its head and confesses something they're ashamed of, we let the boys tear the goat apart. Then, we BURN IT!! Spurred on by the entire can of gray spray paint I used on it this morning, the goat becomes quite a large fire. Then, as quickly as it flared up, it was gone.
No more goat.
No more sin.
Until next time.
Is this all?

Well of course I don't think that's all there is, but I don't feel the need to give these guys the "Well, the goat points to Jesus, who takes away all our sin" answer just yet. Wait until next week, and the week after that. The beauty of it is, these guys aren't going anywhere...they keep coming back, week after week. Maybe I'll never have to give that answer...maybe the Spirit will make these guys work it out on their own.

Sacrifice

It's 4 in the afternoon here. Working on the finishing touches for the East London Gospel Partnership handout and listening to Live. The younger Hub starts in an hour.
Last time we talked to the guys about the provision God made for sin in the Old Testament. Tonight, we're going to let them experience what those sacrifices may have been like. Don't worry, we won't actually kill a goat. We've gotten a pinata from a party store that looks like a goat. We spray painted it grey this morning. A couple of the guys have already been around to see us today, and they were asking if they'd get to beat it with a stick. I told them it'd be even better than that.
The plan is to read them the instructions for making a sin offering from Leviticus, then have them go outside, where they will put their hands on the goats head and say something they're ashamed of. Then we'll tear the goat apart and burn it!

East London Gospel Partnership

Today, the East London Gospel Partnership was born. Well, the idea has been going for a while, but the name is brand-spanking new. Julian and I met with Mike, vicar at the local parish church in Dagenham. Mike's the driving force behind the gospel partnership in our area. The idea is for churches to work together to see ten percent of the population of the area connect to Christ-centered churches. It means partnering together in training, evangelism, and quite possibly church planting. Julian and I are beginning to contact all of the evangelical churches in Dagenham to share the vision and invite them into the partnership. There will be a meeting in June of representatives from all the churches involved to begin putting together an action plan.
I'm really excited to see churches working together, and am hopeful that it will translate into action - you know, the "faith expressing itself through love" kind of idea. Unity expressing itself through shared evangelism and discipleship.
The East London group is part of the larger South East Gospel Partnership.

Pentecost Sermon

Full text of my sermon on Pentecost can be downloaded as a PDF by clicking here. I thought we were doing a family service, where the children stay in, so I had prepared some things for the children to contribute to our listening to the Bible...but alas, I was wrong. I had also prepared a video loop of violent wind sounds accompanied by a flame that continues to multiply...but alas, I forgot the video output converter cable. So it was just me talking...I think it went o.k. Of all the sermons I've done, this one felt most like a lecture, which I'm not really comfortable with. Henk - the guy who helps run City of Peace (the church where I preached) - was encouraging about it, though.
We had dinner with Henk and Elmarie after the service, and it was a really good time. They think about life, ministry, culture, and church in much the same way we do. Also, Somer got inspired to maybe work at Cafe Forever in the kitchen a couple mornings a week to get some food-prep and cafe experience.

Saturday Night

Sermon night. I really don't like writing sermons. I like giving them, but not writing them. Am I just a slacker? Quite possibly. In any case, I'm supposed to be finishing my sermon tonight. It's on Acts 2 - the story of the Holy Spirit coming on the day of Pentecost. A powerful story...I got goosebumps while I was reading some of the background prophecies and teachings of Jesus...'course I was also listening to a little U2, and that might have had something to do with it.
In any case, I'll try to post what I've got here before the night is out for your perusal.

Saturday Afternoon

We met our American friends Jeremy and Mary Ellen and their three children at Holland Park this afternoon. We had a great time together, indulged in a globalized, mass-produced, over-processed lunch at McDonald's that was very satisfying to our tongues and brains, if not to our hearts and colons. Talking about our shared experiences and reactions to moving to London and attempting to begin ministries here was really good. It's good to be with people who know you.

Hell under fire

Great discussion about hell over on tallskinnykiwi. Sparked by Brian McLaren's new book. While it may seem like hell is a bit of a peripheral doctrine, this discussion gets to the heart of the gospel. It's a fairly diverse disscussion, and definitely challenges some of the assumptions I have about the nature of hell, and also about the work of Christ.
So, go check it out. And while you're there (a bit of self-advertising here) look for my comment half-way down the page, and for Brian McLaren's response to my question.

Question 5: Has the western church forgotten Irenaeus?

Apologies for the emphasis on Steve Chalke lately, but this will be the last question from his book; though once I've finished the book I may have something to say about his comments on the atonement...I just haven't gotten there yet.
Chalk claims that the Western church has become engrossed with the doctrine of Original Sin; while it seems to have forgotten the Original Goodness of humanity. He says it was Augustine who led the way for the West. Meanwhile, in the East, Irenaeus was much more influential with his teaching that humans bore the image of God and were "coaxed into full bloom by God's love."
In some ways, I think Chalke is not saying anything all that radical, he's just trying to stir things up by saying it in a controversial way - he basically says Jesus didn't believe in original sin, he believed in original goodness. I guess my question is Has the church in the West really forgotten Irenaeus?
There are two issues embeded in the question. First, is Chalke correct in his reading of Augustine and Irenaeus, and their influence on the West and East, respectively? Second, do we in the West need to rediscover the image of God in people?
In some ways, reformed theology (my heritage) is very good at remembering that people are made in the image of God. However, this understanding is usually used to draw conclusions about the nature of work and creativity, or else applied to discussions of apologetics/evangelism in the sense that people cannot run from the knowledge of God because they are made in his image. Rarely do we hear talk about being enamored with people because as people, they are beautiful. Blue Like Jazz really challenged me to see the image of God in people...to love them because of who they are. I think we could use that reminder a little more often in the reformed Western church.

Welcome Somer!

Somer has entered the blogosphere with Daily Offerings. Her cooking is world-famous (well, people on at least two continents know how good it is anyway), and now she is welcoming anyone who cares to stop by to sample the fare from our table. You'll also find the occasional glimpse into other parts of our life in London. I'm pretty sure her blog looks better than mine (as is the case with our persons as well), and she may have me beat for vulnurability as well. In any case, go check it out.

Question 4: Does God suffer?

Again, this one comes from The Lost Message of Jesus. See Question 3 for the first question Chalke's book raised. Chalke is fairly critical of the Westminster Confession of Faith and other Western Church creeds that claim that God is impassible, or without passions.
I guess I'm really wondering if Chalke is right in claiming that the major creeds assert the impassibility (and by implication the inability to suffer) of God. If he is, I suppose my issue is not so much with Chalke as it is with the creeds. I can see why they would want to shield God from suffering - in general, suffering is seen as a deficiency - if God is perfect and full of goodness and joy within himself, how could he suffer?
On the other side, though, there is the sense that suffering is often brought about not by a deficiency in the person who suffers, but by wrong committed against them by another. My understanding of forgiveness is that it involves acknowledging the cost of what was done to us and the pain it causes, and committing to absorb that cost ourselves rather than demand payment from the offending party. If this is so, God's commitment to forgive us would involve a significant amount of pain...rather than exacting vengeance on us, he absorbs the cost of the wrong we've done. Correct me if I'm wrong (seriously, someone please correct me), but isn't it generally regarded as orthodox to believe that God did not separate himself from the person of Jesus on the cross, but that it was in fact God himself who suffered for us on the cross? (My appologies to my systematics professors at WTS if I have just put forth a grave heresy. It's not their fault.)

Election Results

Seems like Tony Blair has won a third term as Prime Minister (though there's speculation that he may be asked to hand power over to Gordon Brown sometime during that third term...something I don't really understand). Labour lost 47 seats - mostly to the Conservatives. Margaret Hodge, the local MP from the area around Bethel Christian Centre won reelection. The scary thing is that the BNP came in third, with over 16% of the vote.
It's been interesting the different perspectives that people in the church here have on the candidates. Different people support the Conservatives, Labour, the Liberal Democrats, or one of the smaller parties. There is much less of an association between Christians and a specific party here than in the States.
So, congratulations to Blair and the rest of Labour for holding onto control of Parliament, and congratulations also to Michael Howard and the Conservatives for their strong showing and gain in seats.

Election UK

So I had a fun day. Our center was used as a polling place in the UK general election. It was really cool to be involved (even in a very small way) in the election process.
We basically sat outside the center and talked to people we knew as they left from voting. Saw a couple guys from the Hub and a number of the pensioners we know on the estate. The Labour party candidate for our district stopped by to say hello and greet a few people who were walking down the street. Margaret Hodge is her name, and she's also the Children's Minister in the current government under Blair. Another Labour worker was taking voting numbers from people, so he could cross them off the list as having voted. At 5 PM, they were going to start knocking on doors of people who said they were going to vote Labour but hadn't voted yet. Quite a system.
There was also a guy from the BNP (British National Party - quite racist in their campaign advertising). He had gotten permission to sit inside the polling place and check to make sure the poll workers were doing their job correctly. Quite intimidating if you ask me. At 9:30 PM I arrived back at the center to help close things down. The polls were due to close at 10 PM. There was a steady trickle of voters right up to 10. Then a flurry of activity to get all the ballot boxes sealed, packed up, and shipped off to the counting location. And now we await the results.

Question 3: Does God exact violent vengeance?

First, a confession: I'm currently reading The Lost Message of Jesus by Steve Chalke. Don't know if that's a problem for my American readers, but for some over here in the UK Steve's a controversial guy. I've been really encouraged, challenged, and moved by the book so far. Admittedly I haven't come to the most controversial part.
In Chapter 3, Chalke argues that John's definition of God - "God is love" - was the point of Jesus' message, and should control how we read everything else in the Bible. He says that in the Old Testament "Yahweh's association with vengeance and violence wasn't so much an expression of who he was but the result of his determination to be involved with his world. His unwillingness to distance himself from the people of Israel and their actions meant that at times he was implicated in the excessive acts of war..." But this asssociation was born out of love - God's love for his people. Basically, God was willing to get his hands dirty because of his love for his people.
So there's my question: Does God exact violent vengeance? or is violent vengeance the necessary result of his involvement with this world, but not really part of his character?
The only thing I'd add is that this morning I was reading in Numbers, where fire comes out from the Lord and consumes some of the camp of Israel because of their grumbling. Doesn't so much sound like the violence of the Israelites getting projected onto God as it does his vengeance lashing out at them. But I'll stop there, 'cuz I'm still wrestling with this one and more wanted to just pose the question and see where the discussion goes.

Question 2: What does "growth" look like?

This one was inspired by Ivy Beckwith's account of her conversion in Postmodern Children's Ministry. She grew up in the church, and made an outward commitment to follow Jesus at the age of 7. She makes a passing comment that there wasn't a whole lot in the life of a seven-year-old that needed cleaning up...and it got me thinking.
I was raised in the church, and don't remember a time when I didn't love Jesus and believe on him. So what does it mean for me to grow up in the way of following Jesus? See, my behavior when I was seven was a whole lot better than it is now. And let's face it, the church's doctrine of Sanctification is usually defined as growth in holiness - i.e. once a person decides to follow Jesus, their behavior, attitudes, etc. progress (however slowly and imperfectly) from bad to good.
But how does this explain my experience? By almost any standard, my behavior and attitudes have deteriorated since I was seven. As I matured, so did my ability to "invent ways of doing evil" (as one of Jesus' early followers says in the Biblical book of Romans).
I think we in the church need to wrestle with our understanding of what it means to grow in maturity as a follower of Jesus so that our understanding encompasses more than a change in moral behavior and attitudes. The understanding we come to needs to incorporate the reality that many people literally grow up knowing Jesus - and their "Sanctification" doesn't begin at a point in their lives when they've sufficiently matured to be able to sin like an adult. It begins from the very beginning of their lives.

Question 1: Who am I?

Thanks, Doug, for your comment. These questions are significant for various reasons...some are more life-long quests, others are important only for the small part they play in the larger story of my life. But here they are, in order according to when they first arose in my mind during our holiday.
Who am I? Hopefully not being asked in the sense that I need to be committed to a home, but in the sense that I was revisiting my sense of self-understanding.
My first thought about how to answer this question was: I'll read the Bible and make a list of every passage that says something about who I am. So the answer to "Who am I?" would look something like: I'm a child of God, an heir of the king, a sinner, a saint, deeply loved by God, etc. Then I wondered - Am I just a list? Isn't there something more to how I understand myself? I realize that many of those things in the list are profound truths and contain important elements about my relationship with God and other people, but in the end, it's still a list without any reference to my specific life. I mean, those things are true of every person who follows Jesus.
So I started thinking about the pomo preference for story/narrative. The idea that story communicates truth better than generic lists. I like this, though it means the answer to "Who am I?" is currently 26.4 years long, and getting longer every hour. I wonder if there's a way to condence the story of my life into a manageable format - like give little snippets that accurately reflect who I am, though without ever completely answering the question. Kinda like what John did with Jesus, where he says that many more things could be written, though they would fill many volumes, and that what he did write was written so that his readers would follow Jesus.
I guess maybe that's partly what this blog is all about - sharing glimpses of my life. So thank you, for reading and so helping to answer the question "Who am I?" I'll try to tell more stories in the future.

Back Home

I forgot to mention in my last post that the reason for the 1-week hiatus from TV and the internet was because we were going on holiday to Spain. So I didn't have internet access, but a TV was in the room - which we did not watch. So it was partially a forced break, but still a cleansing one.
We stayed at an apartment in Mijas on the Costa del Sol, and true to its name, it was SUNNY!! Seven straight days of bright sun and mid-70s. There was a pool ten steps from our front door, including a separate kiddy pool that the girls loved. We were often the first people on the beach in the mornings, and were joined by at most ten people by mid-afternoon, except on the weekend when it was more crowded. A very relaxing, refreshing week. The girls were semi-independent, which allowed Somer and me to do lots of reading. I finished The Name of the Rose, caught up from two weeks behind on my Bible reading plan, finished Postmodern Children's Ministry, and read half of The Lost Message of Jesus...more on some of those in a little bit. I also came back with about five significant questions...again, I'll share more later.
For now, it's good to be back.

Self Control

So I love my wife. She's right, a lot. We've been doing this read the bible in a year thing. The other day she says to me: "I thought about you today while I was doing the reading. It said 'We haven't been given a spirit of timidity, but one of self-control.' I thought about you and your addiction to television and the computer. You have a spirit of self-control...so use it."
Wow.
So, for the next week, I'll be watching no television, and using no computer. Kind of a cleansing.
See you in a week!

Doing good to enemies

The sermon went well yesterday. See the previous post for a link to the full text of what I said. One of the things that made it good was the discussion afterwards. It was quite a lively time of interaction, and not everyone was in full agreement with each other or with me, which is the whole point. In particular, I had said something about "turn the other cheek" not meaning that people should quietly submit to domestic violence. A woman pointed out that many of the Chrisitans in Eastern Europe during the cold war were willing to submit quietly to the tortures of the totalitarian governments, because they believed they were responding the way Jesus would want them to in light of this passage. I didn't disagree that it was right for them to respond that way, but I did say that just because it was good and right for them to do so, it doesn't mean that every person who encounters violence must quietly submit to it on an ongoing basis. Jesus' words are more in the "wisdom" genre than the "commandment" genre. That is, they are totally authoritative and binding, but that authority will demand different actions in different situations. Make sense? She didn't really agree with me, and I guess that's the point of a discussion. Also the point of this blog...so disagree away!

Rose quote

I've decided to continue providing short quotes from The Name of the Rose as they strike me along the way. I'm about half way through the book, and really loving it.
Adso the narrator writes:
"I was upset. I had always believed logic was a universal weapon, and now I realized how its validity depended on the way it was employed. Further...I had become aware...that logic could be especially useful when you entered it but then left it."

Tomorrow's Sermon

Well, you (whoever you are) have kept me honest, and forced me to finish my sermon before the day I'm giving it. Sorry it's so late, but hopefully some of you will still have time to view and comment beforehand. Here it is, again, as a PDF that will download automatically. I welcome your thoughts, whether before or after the fact.

Eco Quotes

Two quotes from The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco.

"But as you see, heresy in many cases is wed to the revolt against overlords, and this is why the heretic begins by preaching Madonna Poverty and then falls prey to all the temptations of power, war, violence."

"...the order of things must not be transformed, even if we must fervently hope for its transformation."

two good warnings to us who are working for change in the church.

Shockingly Generous

So i'm preaching on Sunday. it's wednesday, and I decided it was probably time to look at the passage they want me to preach on. i open the bible to Luke 6:27-36, feeling very depressed because of another hard night at the Hub. and what does Jesus have to say? "love your enemies. do good to those who hate you...lend without expecting any return...God is generous to the stingy and the wicked, and you must be merciful, just as your heavenly Father is merciful."
I don't know what I'm gonna do...this thing's been bugging me all day. who cares what i'm supposed to say to the church, i feel like this is Jesus speaking right to me. when i read it, the first thought that came to mind was "i should take the guy who slapped me in the Hub out for a meal." i read the passage to Emma (co-worker at Bethel) - just because it was bugging me, and without any prompting from me, she said what I'd been thinking. I'm excited and freaked out at the same time. Tom Wright says this passage is all about which God you know: is it the God of astonishing, scandalous mercy or is it someone else?

The random order

Tonight I cut my wife's hair. I do it about once a month or so. I'm a terrible hair stylist. tonight i managed not to cut any fingers for the first time in four attempts. her hair comes out looking chunky and a bit like it's been hacked with a hedge cutter. it also looks very cool. she makes me do it because she's unwilling to pay money to have a professional do it. I can't stand the thought of paying money to have my hair cut either, so I just haven't had it cut since last year. tomorrow Somer will go buy a $4 cup of coffee at starbucks, then use $12 worth of hair coloring to turn parts of her head pink. i will put a bit of $15 gel in my hair, mostly to keep it from looking like a 'fro, but also because it smells good.
yesterday we went to an 800 year old church, and loved it. It was church of England, and between the Apostles' Creed, the Prayers of the People, and other items from the book of common prayer liturgy, we sang Matt Redman songs and watched a projection from the vicar's Mac.
Eclectic? A bid random? Exactly.

Unity in the church

At LCM's divisional day on Wednesday, John Nicholls spoke about unity in the church. He said when you look at the New Testament, there's very little instruction focused on the individual. Almost everything addresses the church as a community, giving instruction on life together. The splintering of the church in Western world is one of the great impediments to its having a significant impact on society.
John lamented the fact that every Sunday, there are many churches that meet withing blocks of each other (for example, in Ilford, a Baptist, a Catholic, and an Anglican church are all right next to each other on the main road). Other times, churches with only a handful of people continue to meet separately, meaning that several pastors are spending most of their time planning Sunday services, when all the people could easily fit into one Sunday service, freeing up the other pastors to pursue evangelism. He challenged us to think about ways we can be agents of unity - how we can begin to get churches to work together in our communities.
One of my initial thoughts is that maybe the problem of disunity runs even deeper than redundant Sunday services. Sitting together in a building and falling asleep together during a sermon doesn't make for much unity. Having a common vision, a common purpose in the community, and common passion for God and love for one another - these are the things that unite the church. I suggested it at New Life last year, and I'll say it again now: Maybe one of the healthiest things a church can do is call off its Sunday morning services for a month and provide other ways for people to stay connected to each other and pursue worship and evangelism together, so that people learn to focus their lives on worship of God and service to one another, rather than focussing on Sunday.

Lectio Divina # 2

So, I couldn't bring myself to write a monologue (i.e. a sermon) for the Wednesday afternoon meeting. Instead, we did Lectio Divina. If you don't know how it goes, see my previous post on the subject here. It was beautiful. Julian was skeptical of how it would go over with the group (everyone is over 60). But it was beautiful. God met us in a powerful, worship-inspiring, healing way.
We meditated on Psalm 46.

Thank You

I don't even know most of you, but you sent an entire suitcase of gifts with my parents last week. Three packs of Oreos (down to two packs plus four cookies at the time of this writing), five tubs of American peanut butter, several movies (we've already watched three of them), stuffed animals that the girls have named "Boris" in honor of Joe's rubber ducky from Blue's Clues, lots of crafts for the girls, sidewalk chalk (see picture) and so many other things that I can't type them all out. Jesus' love shines through you...Thank You!! May God return your generosity on you many times over.

I'm back...refreshed

We had a wonderful week with my family. The weather was great for the easter weekend, and we spent several days out in the city. Monday we went to Greenwich, as in - Greenwich Mean Time and the Prime Meridian. Here we are at the top of the observatory hill with Canary Warf business district behind us. After a little exhaustion from all the activity, we've had a couple days of minimal time at the centers to recover (Friday is usually finished after moms & tots, and yesterday there was nothing to do at Ley Street because kids are on easter holiday here). I've enjoyed the break from the internet...kind of a cleansing of sorts. But I'm back, with lots of thoughts brewing.

Busy Week

Lots happening this week. The hightlights:
Conflict Avoidance seminar at LCM headquarters tomorrow morning. I'm giving the talk at the younger Hub tomorrow night, then a glimpse of what God's done in my life at the Holiday Bible Club at Ley Street on Wed.
Thursday, my parents and brothers arrive for a week! Yea!! I'm very excited. Also probably won't be blogging much more this week. but we'll see.

Newsweek Article

Looks like the cover story of this week's Newsweek is "How Jesus Became Christ". From Jesus to Christ is a pretty balanced account of the early development of the Church as it centers on Jesus' death and resurrection.
a few comments:
1. I was surprised at how many Americans believe Jesus rose from the dead, and how many say they believe he was sent to absolve the world of its sins (75%! See page 2 of the web version of the article). It reminds me that informing people what they should believe about Jesus doesn't really cut it. As the article itself states, the disciples weren't all that clear themselves about the meaning of Jesus' death and resurrection, and their confusion lasted for quite some time. I'd rather someone follow Jesus and work things out as they go along than get it all straight first before being "allowed" to trust him.
2. The article picked up on some very foundational points in terms of how the early disciples of Jesus saw his death and resurrection. It was the focal point of history and of the scriptures. It forced them to wrestle with the Old Testament and sometimes find meanings there that could only make sense to someone looking back after Jesus' resurrection. The article didn't really mention the fact that for many Christians, we take the Bible to be the work of many people, and at the same time to be God's words. The way the early apostles reflected on Jesus' life/death/resurrection is also God's reflection and interpretation of what happened.
Your thoughts?

Grace Church Hackney

Went to Grace Church Hackney yesterday evening, and loved it. The highlight for me was when they brough the kids into the main hall after the sermon, so that everyone could take communion together. They asked the parents if they wanted their children to receive the bread and wine, and if not, then the people distributing took time to bend down and pray with the child. It was wonderful! We're going to try to get back next Sunday.

Spring is here!

Spring has arrived in London! It has been in the upper 60s the past few days, with bright sunshine! We spent the whole morning at the park, and had a picnic lunch. More pictures here

Fast Emperors

Somer and I saw Fast Emperors play at the Windmill in Brixton last night. they put on a good show. i'm hoping to score a copy of their yet-to-be-released CD today from my friend Luke, who plays bass in the band.
they were part of a 12-band Northern Ireland invasion taking place this weekend at the Windmill. Fast Emperors were the best of the three bands we heard.

Hightlight of the evening: It was our first time out without the girls since we've been in London - many thanks to David and Jan who babysat for us.

Surprise of the evening: the free BBQ out in back of the Windmill, complete with steaks, burgers, chicken, and our favorite - real hotdogs (or at least they tasted pretty darn close to the real thing - I think they just took some plane english sausage and smothered it with barbeque sauce).

betrayal

i led the "talk" at youth club at Ley Street Chapel on thursday night. we always have trouble getting the kids to listen to us (surprise, surprise) so I decided that I would listen to them instead. here's what I did (I should mention that I pretty much stole the idea from Reimagining Spiritual Formation)

Have you ever been betrayed by someone you thought was your friend?

What happened, and how did you feel about the other person?

Each time someone talked (4 or 5 people had things to say) the rest of the group would start making noise (they refuse to keep quite for 15 seconds). Each time I would silence the chatter and remind them that one of their friends had something to say that was important for all of us to hear. After a few times of this, they stayed quiet.
Then I read the very short story from Luke 22 where Judas agrees to betray Jesus. Quite a few of them had good comments about the story, and even connected it to the story of Moses that we had been looking at a few weeks ago.
Then I asked:
Why do you think Jesus let Judas into his trusted circle of friends if he knew he was going to betray him?

That was it. No "this is how you should think about the story" or "this is what you should believe" from me. I just wanted these kids to begin to explore what it's like to connect Jesus' story to their own.

Emergant Tour

Andrew Jones has started a one-week tour of the emerging church. i find it helpful given that I am a late-comer to this scene; and even though i feel like I connect with the way they are approaching church, my personal experience of emerging church is quite limited.
Andrew starts the tour with a vocabulary lesson and continues with a history of the emerging church's connection with the global counterculture.
Enjoy

Emerging Church Discussion

Great discussion on TallSkinnyKiwi on government in the emerging church

Sermon Update

Some of you have been asking for more details about Sunday.
I spoke at a church called City of Peace, which meets at the London City Mission centre called Cafe Forever. The church is mostly people from the Isle of Dogs section of London. A number of the men were away for various reasons, so it was mostly women on this particular week - maybe 15 people in all. Because I don't really know anyone, it's hard to guage how people were impacted...just have to trust the Holy Spirit on that one.
We had a discussion time afterwards, but I didn't introduce it very well. I had planned ahead of time to welcome people to make comments or give their own thoughts because they are valuable and God wants us to be sharing our hearts and speaking into the lives of one another. But instead I just said something like "Now we'll do a discussion?" Kinda lame. Don't know if that kept people quiet or not...several people made comments, but it only lasted about 2-3 minutes.
I think the most valuable thing for me was the time I spent praying and listening to God as I read the passage in Luke over and over.

Luke 5:27-32

The sermon's done...written and given. I'd like to start posting my sermons here for your review/comment, and maybe edification(?). In the future i'd like to post them before hand to give you a chance to help shape the message.
Anyway, here it is, warts and all.
Just so you know, I tend to write out everything I want to say, talk through it a few times so i have a general idea where I'm going, and then talk without looking too much at my notes...so generally it doesn't come out exactly the way I've written it.

Jesus for sinners

i'm preaching tomorrow on Luke 5:27-32 - the story of Jesus calling Levi and having to answer questions about why he hangs out and eats with tax collectors and other sinners. so today is being spent mostly in preparation.
Well...mostly. Right now I'm getting the girls dressed and then we're off to "Play Park", their name for the local park with geese, ducks, a slide, and some swings.

John 4 retold

Steve has a compelling retelling of the woman at the well.
A fairly good challenge to the evangelical church. One of the dangers we face is the tendency to pay lip service to the inclusiveness of the gospel. What I mean is, we'll say "We're all sinners in need of Jesus" with the silent caveat "but homosexuals need to stop their behavior in order to come to Jesus."
Reminds me of the Marrow Controversy.
"It is not sound and orthodox to teach that we must forsake sin in order to our coming to Christ" Auchterarder creed, 1717.

Emerging Church Link

Matt, a fellow WHMer in London, sent me this link to an article by Tom Sine at Mustard Seed Associates. It's a nice quick summary of many of the things that characterize the emerging church.

Give in to temptation

I found this picture fascinating on several levels. I had just spoken to the kids club at Ley Street last week about Jesus' temptation in the desert by Satan. This was handed to me on Monday afternoon when I was taking a couple American friends around Camden Town in central London. I won't tell you what your reaction to it should be. Be free to draw your own conclusions.

LCM Strategic Plan - Part 2

Continuing from the previous post on LCM's new strategic plan, I'd like to offer two critiques.
First, one of the reasons why I've followed Jesus to London is because of John Piper's book Let the Nations Be Glad!. Piper says that missions exists because worship does not - that is, the church's primary commitment is to the enjoyment of God (worship) and we go to people outside the church because we desire for God to be enjoyed by them as well. Now, this applies to LCM's strategy in this way: there is no mention of LCM being a worshipping community. LCM is seen as supporting the local church "in its task of evangelism" (quoting from the Core Values of LCM). The vision and values of the mission do not reflect the dynamic of evangelism flowing from worship. This does not mean that LCM doesn't value worship (most of its centres run worship services on a weekly basis). But my understanding is that even these services are meant to serve the overall goal of evangelistic outreach. LCM also would probably counter that it is not the job of LCM to be a worshipping community - it is the job of the local church. In practice, this sets up two separate communities - the community that centers on the LCM missionary(s) or the LCM centre, and the community of the local church (I'm speaking based on my experiences of the functioning of an LCM centre...I don't know what ministry is like for the work-place missionaries). There is no sense that evangelism involves inviting people to experience the life of a worshipping community.
Julian and I have talked about this to a certain extent as it relates to our decision about where to worship on Sundays. Partly we'd like to be part of the same church that Julian and Laura are part of, simply for the sake of people we're in relationship with at the centre. This would allow the work we do at the centre to flow more directly from the worshipping community at Oxlow Lane Baptist (Julian & Laura's church).
The second concern I have about the strategic plan is related to the first. The plan lays out a model for the relationship between the mission and the local church. It calls this the "City Mission Approach to Urban Evangelism". This approach lays out four concentric circles representing four steps in the development of evangelistic relationships. From outside in they are: 1. Making contact; 2. Building friendships; 3. Relevant sharing of Gospel; 4. Joining a Church
This is a pretty standard evangelical view of evangelism. It relies on at least two assumptions that I would like to question. The first is the assumption that people should only be incorporated into a church after they have been "converted". I'm certainly not the first to question this assumption. Bob, another Londoner with World Harvest, says that people need to become belongers before they become believers - people experiencing a sense of belonging to and sharing in the life of the community of Jesus' followers before they make a decision to trust Jesus themselves. Evangelism taking place in the context of relationship within the life of the church, not as a pre-requisite for experiencing that life. I like the belong before believe model because it helps to remind us that becoming Christian is not so much a one-time decision as it is a life-long process. deciding to trust Jesus is part of that process, but it neither begins the process nor completes it. There may be some who are incorporated into the life of the church who in the end decide not to trust themselves to Jesus' care, but that's o.k. (see Hebrews chapter 6 and the discussion of those who taste the good things of the Kingdom). Much of my current thinking on this idea of becoming Christian is shaped by Reimagining Spiritual Formation
The other assumption behind the four-step approach to evangelism laid out by LCM that I want to question is the assumption that the gospel is primarily information to be communicated. Now, I realize that the overall methodology of LCM indicates that they are very much committed to ministry to the whole person, and the statement "relevant sharing of gospel" doesn't necessarily mean the gospel is primarily information. In practice, however, "sharing the gospel" means communicating a series of facts that must be believed. That's why at every kid's club we do, there's a message about what people need to believe about Jesus or God or the Bible. In fairness, this is probably not so much a strategic decision by LCM as it is a result of the climate of the evangelical church in the UK from which LCM's missionaries come.

O.k. those are my critiques. Maybe in part 3 I'll imagine with you how some of my concerns would affect the practice of LCM. i.e. "What would I do differently?"

LCM Strategic Plan - Part 1

This past Wednesday all of London City Mission gathered for their monthly divisional day. This particular divi-day was devoted to the unveiling of the new strategic plan for the mission. First the things i really like about the new plan.
The plan lists three key goals: LCM will be "a growing mission, an all-the-people mission, and a church-filling mission." that second goal, to be an all-the-people mission, is the continuation of LCM's 170 year heritage of embracing the social outsider - the poor, the immigrant, those in prison, the sick...the kind of people Jesus hung out with. The exciting thing for me is that these guys aren't just talking about connecting to outsiders, they're actually doing it on a daily basis. Another part of this goal to reach all the people is the desire to reach all ages in the city. The general secretary of the mission mentioned that a number of the large city-center churches are planting daughter churches, but that these daughter churches look very similar to their parents - young, wealthy professionals. I have been challenged to avoid the desire to see churches planted that end up looking a lot like me.
Another thing i love about the new plan is the ongoing commitment to what they call "district evangelism". That is, while the mission itself is seeking to introduce everyone in London to Jesus, individual missionaries are assigned a specific geographic or relational district comprised of a sufficiently small number of people that they can reasonably maintain contact with each person in the district. I like the fact that they're thinking along the lines of communities and asking the question "what are the primary communities that Londoners feel part of?" For some Londoners, their community is the housing estate on which they live. so LCM have a centre on the estate. For other Londoners, their community is their work-place, so LCM have evangelists with the Metropolitan Police and the fire brigade. I also like the fact that they are commited to regular contact between an evangelist and her district. The same person going to the same people, sharing the joys and sorrows of life together...Henri Nouwen would be proud.
I have a few critiques, but I'm going to save them for Part-2, which is coming shortly.

Completion of the Temple

For those who did not work with me at the WHM home office, I'm a bit of a table football fanatic. you could say I worship the game. well, we just erected a new temple of table-football-worship in Dagenham at The Hub. Here Julian and I (the two head priests) are conducting the consecration ceremony.

Potty-training

we're doing the potty-training thing...not for me, for my kids. so it was a weekend in for somer and me. didn't even get to a worship gathering today. but, they've both had a fair amount of success! o.k. I'll stop there, with a modicum of decency and privacy left for my children.

Let Two become Ten

Ten Percent - that's the far-out dream of a group of Christians in Dagenham. to see 10 percent of the population of Dagenham be part of the Jesus-worshipping community. this surprised me. you see, when I came to London, i had heard the grim statistics - that less than 10% of the population went to church once a month. but then i found out that in the few square miles surrounding our centre, there are something like 25 evangelical churches. i figured God must be doing something in this burrough that he wasn't in other parts of London.
but then we had a united prayer meeting on Thursday night. i found out from Mike, an anglican pastor with a church building that's 800 years old, that those 25 churches comprise only two or three percent of the population of Dagenham. he pulled me out of my daze and reminded me that there is much work to be done if Jesus is to be exalted as Lord in Dagenham. He wants us to begin praying that God would increase the number of christians in Dagenham to the psychologically significant ten percent mark in the next few years (he gave a target...2015 or something...i don't really remember). This is a crazy dream from where i stand...just the kind of dream i want to jump on board with and pray for, expecting God to show up.

TNIV

Just ordered a copy of the new Bible translation TNIV (Today's NIV). among other updates, it uses gender neutral language. Tim Bednar has a great post on the new tranlation here.
I'm a little wary of the translation because of the difficulty one often finds in expressing the third-person singular in a gender neutral way. "each one must give account of himself" becomes "we must give account of ourselves" - this gender neutral rendering makes it much less clear that it's people individually who must give account, and not a collective group...maybe that's my western individualism getting in the way, I don't know.
i find it interesting that on Tim's site and the TNIV site, the argument is being made that the TNIV more acurately represents the English language as it is currently used among young adults. in other words, young people who loosely fit the description "postmodern" are increasingly using gender neutral language to express themselves. this would not be true of most of the people i know, although most of the people i know are not "postmodern", though they are young. in the small subsection of english evangelicalism to which i'm currently connected in London, men are still very much dominant. i find myself correcting my use of male dominated language, and my collegues react with a kind of mild amusement. i like the idea of a translation that confronts men and our lust for power and control.
on the other hand, i may have reservations about removing the culture-bound elements from the text. i suppose you always do this when you translate from one language to another, but we can't (and shouldn't) erase the patriarchal nature of society in the Ancient Near East. It's often this culture that allows the egalitarian gospel to shine with such dramatic contrast.

Bible Reading Plan

Last week I realized that Somer and I have been reading the same parts of the Bible over and over again - Isaiah 43, Revelation 22:17, Psalm 1, 16, 36. All great passages, but it tends to make us lose perspective. so i've found a bible reading plan to help us read through the bible in a year. you can find it here. i like this guide because you read parts of the old testament and new testament on the same days. i suppose you lose the aspect of the unfolding story that you'd get from reading it straight through. i'm ambivalent about dividing the readings into "family" and "secret". i could do without the extra explanation McCheyne gives...it reminds me too much of presbyterians who still try to think and talk like that today...too much of the good stuff in my heritage is absolutized and therefore made useless. but, the bible reading plan is a good one, so I'll use it.

It's Snowing!

It's snowing in London! Laura called from the car with Julian to make sure we had seen it...they know how much we miss the snow in Philly. The real question is, will it still be around tomorrow morning? not holding my breath.

Airline Emissions

The Kyoto protocol went into effect this week, though not in the U.S. thanks to our unwillingness to ratify it. Pres. Bush claims there are fundamental flaws in the protocol...maybe he's right, I have no idea. One of the flaws that the report I was watching pointed to is the fact that airline emissions are not covered by the protocol - meaning planes can continue to spill as much pollution as they want. I stumbled across a site today that allows you to offset the amount of greenhouse gases your flight emits by contributing a small sum to help plant one or more trees. It's called Climate Care . For my recent flight from Philadelphia to London, we emitted 1.5 tons of CO2 into the upper atmosphere. For £10.50 I can plant a tree that will recover all of that pollution. Pretty cool.

The Ban, The Comfort, and The Call

Had to ban a guy from the Hub yesterday. he was abusive towards the centre staff. not terribly violent, but totally unwilling to obey any of the rules we have in place for the protection of everyone else at the Hub. he was especially hard on me - pushed me a couple times, spit on me, tackled me into a couch, and tried to shove a cookie in my face (this is a guy in his late teens, mind you). also blew smoke in my face...not tobacco smoke either. none of these things by itself would be all that bad, even as i write this i'm wondering if his behavior was all that terrible towards me.
by the end of the night, i was feeling a lot of anger and resentment, and also a bit of shame. why doesn't he respect me? he respects some of the other LCM staff there. why do i let his behavior bother me? should i just take it?
I came home and read the beatitudes from matthew 5 and 6 (o.k., I'll admit it: first i sat and stewed for about 3 hours, and then at 1 a.m. i picked up the bible 'cuz i had nowhere else to go). jesus' words were full of comfort. i was feeling like the lowest, weakest, poorest guy around, and jesus says in his kindgom those people are highly blessed. i don't think i'm reading too much into what he says to see the abuse i took at the Hub as part of what Jesus was talking about when he said that his family is blessed when people abuse and devour them, because they also abused and devoured him. there's something redemptive about suffering abuse silently for the name of Jesus.
jesus also had some challenging words for me last night. he also says in Matt 5-6 that life in his family involves laying down our rights for the sake of others, and putting our heart motives into perspective. take for example what he says about anger in relationship to how i felt towards the Hub lad. i was particularly challenged by his call to pray for our enemies.
i had prayed for this guy earlier in the evening, but it was more of a cheesy Christian prayer "God, please come into his life and make him a believer"; and it didn't really flow from a heart that cared for the guy. After reading Matthew, i prayed that God would bless him with a job, and that his mind would be clear (he's a bit crazy, whether from drugs or what i don't know). i did pray that God would change his heart, but this time out of a desire to see him choose life instead of death, and desiring to see Jesus exalted as darkness is overcome by the light.
the bad feelings aren't gone, and i'm still struggling to figure out how to follow Jesus in the way of wisdom concerning how we as a centre should deal with behavior at the hub in the future, and what kind of relationship we should have with the guys (rule enforcers, friends, mentors, flies on the wall, all of the above?).

One Month

I was writting an update to our prayer team and realized we've been here in London for a whole month! We marked the occassion by driving to Romford in our new car and having lunch at a pub. our first pub visit since we've been here. the whole family ate for under 8 pounds. I had my indian fix for the week.

Car

We have a car! From the great folks at Ichthus Motor Mission . It's a Skoda - kind of a cheap VW. hatchback - huge trunk. about 10 yrs old or so, and in great condition. best part is, it's very cheap. we basically donate a monthly amount for insurance and road tax, plus a small per-mile subsidy to cover repairs. but it's very cheap compared to trying to buy and maintain one ourselves. wonderful experience. God's blessings on Ichthus and the sister/brother who donated the car we're now driving. I'll try to update this post soon with a picture of the car.

City Gates

Visited City Gates this morning. A fairly diverse church. many different countries and races represented, not many of them white. We showed up 15 minutes late and we still got to sing for an hour! we felt very welcome - kids were allowed to stay in the main service and they had a little play area in the back with toys. it was still hard for us to concentrate, and fairly stressful, but it didn't feel like anyone else minded the girls being there, and they certainly weren't the only ones being loud.
It was a fairly mixed group generationally as well. they have a strong outreach to troubled youth that's made some headlines this week - it's losing money from the government in the form of grants because it's too "Christian".
We'll probably go back next week. I'm interested to hear a Charismatic perspective on tongues...the pastor mentioned he'd be saying something about it next week during the sermon.

[update] Thanks, Steph, for the full link to their site.

Many cultures, one Essex

I've spoken at all sorts of different meetings this week. they all feel like they're part of their own universe.
the wednesday afternoon worship gathering at Bethel Centre. spoke on exodus 17 - water in the desert. many of the old people fell asleep during my talk...but julian says they fall asleep every week.
thursday i did the bible talk at the kids club at Ley Street chapel. talked on the exodus as God's keeping his promise, and jesus being the ultimate promise kept - both from God's perspective and ours. not sure how they took it...youth work is still new to me. as are urban kids in general. we again had to call the police, but the boy who was trying to force his way in left before we finished the call and so they didn't come.
today i shared at the evening gathering at Bethel (apparently we have a once-a-month service on Sunday nights). shared our story and a meditation from psalm 36. about 15 people there, mostly older, but there was another family w/ kids.
tuesday i'm doing a talk at the younger Hub.
all very nice. but i feel a bit like i'm on one of those turn-tables that you use to store kitchen gadgets. one minute i'm facing one context, another minute i'm facing another. the worlds don't seem to have much in common, even though the people live in the same parts of town and are from the same country. many cultures, one north-east London.

Groovin'

Starting to groove to the rythm of our life in Essex. Tuesday and Thursday are the l...o...n...g... days. Door-to-door and visitation in the morning/afternoon, plus any odd jobs that need done around the center. Preparation for the evening's activities in the late afternoon, followed by the Hub on Tues and kids club at Ley Street on Thurs. The weekend feels like it starts on Thursday night, though, because Friday is a nice short day, with Moms & Tots in the morning at Bethel, and then the weekend officially starts. Monday is a nice "ease into the week" day, with visitation and general service to people in the community.
I say "our life in Essex" because I'm figuring out that while we are officially part of London, the area we're in has its own ethos. I had one guy tell me I needed to get myself a running suit, a few large gold chains, and a Ford Escort with ground effects that I could drive around in while thumping to the base from my overly large sound system and hanging my elbow out the window. Hmm...
Here are a few thoughts rummaging in my head:
What is the church? - I know, it's vague. But one thing I'm learning about LCM is that it's very self-consciously NOT the local church. The mission seem to have a strong definition of what the church is, but I'm not sure how things I've been thinking in the past fit in with that.
How does handing out newspapers door-to-door bless the community, and how can I get excited about it?
How do I get on board w/ LCM's vision w/o coopting it for myself? Does "getting on board" mean just doing everything I'm asked to do? Somehow I don't think so...but maybe.
your thoughts?

Birthday Update

Well, I had a great plan for how the day was going to go. But, as often happens when living outside your home culture, things don't go according to plan. It took us much longer than expected to get to Ikea. The girls were miserable traveling, and we had only 45 mins before the store closed by the time we got there. When we got home (a full 5 hours after starting our journey), we couldn't get the video chat to work with my parents. Still got to talk to them a little, but it was frustrating. I did find a good Swedish cheese at Ikea and remembered I had a little wine left over from a few nights ago...but I was really too tired to enjoy them properly.
Such is life in another country.