Sunday Fellowship: Church without the church, but also mostly just church.

When we went down to Southampton a couple of weeks ago we joined our friends for the Monthly Quaker "youth" outing to the Southampton Sunday Assembly. For those of you who don't know, the Sunday Assembly was started in 2013 as an idea to take the best bits of church such as communal singing and gathering together, but without any of the crappy religious bits that obviously makes actual Church rubbish. Here are their four point summary (see, they even shirk the three point sermon):

• We are a secular congregation that celebrates life.
• We have an awesome motto: Live Better, Help Often and Wonder More.
• A super mission: A Sunday Assembly in every town, city and village that wants one.
• An awesome vision: To help everyone live life as fully as possible.

So we went along and it was just like church. Actually, it was closer to some of the funkier churches in Southampton such as New Life or Vineyard, perhaps even a little CU at a push. There were the funky folk, the quirky outsiders, the poets and the rebels. After an initial slightly awkward meet and greet time with coffee and tea the service got under way with some singing of traditional pop songs (Cold Play's "Fix You" was rather enjoyable) followed an excellent poem on apathy by an American member of the congregation. The main sermon was also good, by local poet come song writer Grant Sharkey about maintaining a line between love and anger (and included the term 'binge thinking' which I rather liked). This was followed by the short five minute talk (which went on for nearer 30) and tried to get us to share nice things that had happened in the past week. We then prayed together. No, I mean we thought together. There was even a collection!
It was good. Nice people and a friendly atmosphere, just like a good church should be and quite often are. It was markedly young, as seen by their twitter banner and I suspect most of my church would feed out of place and not as a result of the lack of God. Indeed I barely felt there was a lack of God, just that no one mentioned him or tried to avoid mentioning him (actually Grant accidentally did). This was simply church re-imagined by young people who failed to be taken along to a CU while at university. Or perhaps they were taken along to a CU, or similar funky modern church where they were prayed at or otherwise intimidated into being saved, resisted but secretly enjoyed the whole thing.
Perhaps I'm being a little facetious. I'm sure there are plenty of reasons why people were there, but I certainly wouldn't be surprised if a number were ex-evangelicals, some of them had that look. Either way there is something other actual churches could learn: people like to sing together, and do pretty much everything else that Church does. It's not even the preaching that puts people off, though no doubt some of the older traditional stuff has. We just need to loosen up a little and funk it up. But at the same time I certainly don't want to loose all the lovely silver backs we have in my local Church - they bring such warmth, love, vision and stability that should be treasured. Also they are most certainly not all stuck-in-the-mud bores who don't want change. Lets all sit together and learn from each other. It is hard to be a cohesive living church of all ages, but God really can help, even if some have to pretend not to have heard about him.
PS. The idea of giving new people different coloured mugs so everyone knows who's new and who's not is a wizard idea.
2015-08-17

Public speaking at emotional times is not my strong point

To say I'm weepy at the moment is an understatement. I was on the skype to Mum last night in a veritable flood of tears. This parenting gig is tough.
Now any of you who were at my wedding ceremony in Cheltenham will know all to well that I have a tendency for the odd tear or two when faced with the task of speaking at a celebration. Well two weeks ago, on Mr Sir's first Sunday (when Nana was also visiting) I was on the rota to do the Church readings. I had practised the reading first thing that morning, reading to him lying in my arms and tears came rolling down my face splashing onto his. By half ten Dr K was giving a feed so Nana and I went along and took up a pew ahead. I went up to the front to do the first reading and stayed for the hymn between the two readings. All fine, Dr K had not made it yet - perhaps they'd not make it in time, which was a shame as I'd hoped to have him there. During that intervening hymn I felt myself going, trembling, failing to get some of the lines out. I was taken back to my Mum's wedding and the reading I did - I was again in floods of tears the hymn before (and probably during the reading too, though I can't fully remember that). Things were not looking good for my second reading. I got up to the lecturn and turned round to see that Dr K had arrived at the back with a swaddle of my son. I was a gone. I struggled through, broken, faltering, welled up with the joy and realisation of being a dad, resonating with the love that Jesus had for his disciples (the reading was about Thomas).
After the service we were greeted by so many of our church family. At 5 days old it was pretty special to have him there and he behaved like a little star, looking frankly angelic asleep in our arms. Most of the ladies admitted that they were equally in sympathy tears as I 'read' - a comment mirrored at my wedding, crying is clearly an effect I have on women. Amusement aside I was so honoured to do that reading and have him there, safe and well after a nine month journey (with a longer 2.5 year journey before that).
Following the service and coffee Nana drove us to the Rosie for a midwife weight check. All good - weight up and heal prick blood test done (returned all clear). We then went to Waitrose for his introduction to nice super market shopping (and only his second ever shop experience after our local greengrocer).

Welcome to Waitrose shopping
2015-04-26

#funkworship

Had a lovely meet with our new minister who will be with us in Histon from September. Some funk worship could be on the cards. I am excited about the prospect of change, though it could be big for the church. More thoughts another time, but if you are passing on a Sunday do stop by and say hello, we are the big yellow/grey brick church opposite the Barley Now and bike shop. Histon Methodist Church
2015-03-31

100 Years (Not Quite). #silence

Silence at 11 am on the 11th of the 11th (or the 11th of the 11th if you are American). Hard to believe that 100 years ago there was still 4 years of war still to play out. Many dead, many not from my nation, many from the "enemy". War should cease, but I fear fighting never will, it seems so much an integral part of life. Sadly we are just exceptionally good at it.
2014-11-11

Rev. Ernie Clarke

Today I heard the sad news that our beloved family friend who married me died this morning. He was my minister when I grew up in Cheltenham and I shall always remember him for his Christmas services which included a magic trick which sometimes went drastically wrong. He was a wonderful man and I was so lucky to have him preside over my wedding service.

Ernie
2014-10-27

Was Jesus Really Perfect?

Google is making me question the perfection of Jesus. It's frequently preached that Jesus was (/is) perfect. I've just had a quick check (ironically, using google) and come up with two results:

Matthew 5:48

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

2 Corinthians 5:21

For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

The first half-implies that because Jesus is God and God is perfect that Jesus is also perfect, but it's not explicit. The second is written by Paul, so doesn't count. There might well be others, but most seem to be about his divinity which I'm not questioning here, just the perfection. Did he never check a girl out and thus commit mini-adultery in his mind? Really?
Why google is giving me reason to question this is that if something is perfect, or perhaps the more perfect something becomes or attempts to become, the less perfect it appears. With Google, it used to just work. They did one little thing really well, not perfect, just better than others. But now they're trying to do everything and seem to be under their own self delusion that they are the best at everything. You could just brush this off under the consideration that they have relinquished their earlier claims and simply become evil. But as a user, the more they have conquered each aspect of life and tried to second guess actions - pre-emptive searches, google now, map routes - all these things are essentially suggesting to us that they've got our back, they're always there with the answer, they're perfect.
But of course they aren't and increasingly little flaws which previously you would overlook on a rough object, become increasingly noticeable and annoying. The way google navigation speaks in an almost but not quite human way, the auto complete which fill out when I didn't want it (& the reverse), chrome spell check's inability to suggest "anti-aliasing" from "antialiassing", the blandness of their search results, the advertising of things I've just purchased. All these little niggles are getting more and more annoying each passing day. There is an analogy with computer generated animation - the closer they get to simulating reality, the more those subtle slight differences like the odd jerk of a limb, appear to break the impression. Whereas with a cartoon, Wile E. Coyote runs out over the ravine, pauses then falls - fine. Even with my blog posts now, I leave one spelling mistake and it breaks the flow, whereas before there were hundreds and all was good (fun at least).
Perhaps It's human nature to seek out flaws in others. Certainly people who give that impression of being perfect (confident, cleaver, happy all the time etc) really tend to grate on me. I fear that if I came across Jesus and he was this perfect individual then either the tiny flaws he did exhibit would stick out like logs in the eyes, or I simply wouldn't like him.
2014-08-20

It looks like my stigmata is flaring up again...

I trust this is a good omen
2014-08-18

Greenbelt - I'm Going, Are You?

Greenbelt is an awesome festival of music, art and faith taking place over the August bank holiday weekend (25th - 28th August) at Chelteanham Racecourse.
Are you going?

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From the 'About Us' section of the website:

Quest, not formula; journey, not destination; dance, not doctrine.
John Bell, 2004

"There might seem to be a huge gulf between a Suffolk pig farm and a racecourse in Cheltenham, between the Jesus People’s Lonesome Stoneseventies musical and a dancing Archbishop Rowan Williams celebrating communion with us, between 1974 and 2003. But the Greenbelt story collapses such differences."
(I was there then, dancing right next to the dancing Rowan Williams!)