Going to the doctor in the Czech Republic

Oh how I miss the UK…

Spirituality and shopping

 

It might sound strange, but over the past few days I have been thinking about how and if a Christian spirituality affects our relationship with shopping. I mean, I’m a student, so I can’t really afford particularly expensive clothes and accessories anyway, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t have the desire for them! I’ve also noticed many times in the past that I often won’t think of clothes, shoes etc until I go into a shopping centre, or walk past some lovely boutiques… and then I find myself thinking that I really need that particular pair of shoes/trousers or handbag. I wonder if a Christian spirituality should be confronting the blatant and crude consumerism of the West? Should we be convicted about how we view what we really need and what we buy just because we can and we want to? Or do we just buy buy buy like everyone else and believe that our actions are justified? I really don’t know… I ‘googled’ spirituality and shopping, and most of the links that came up related to shopping for books on spirituality… (!) but I only really found one interesting link Seeking a Spirituality of Shopping – by Martin L. Smith (of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington) I would appreciate any thoughts that you have about this post!

The People formerly known as The Congregation

(A challenging and interesting post from Bill Kinnon’s blog, the original post can be found here. Although it is obviously from an American context, there are certainly parallels for some churches in the UK. Enjoy.)

Let me introduce you to The People formerly known as The Congregation. There are millions of us.

We are people – flesh and blood – image bearers of the Creator – eikons, if you will. We are not numbers.

We are the eikons who once sat in the uncomfortable pews or plush theatre seating of your preaching venues. We sat passively while you proof-texted your way through 3, 4, 5 or no point sermons – attempting to tell us how you and your reading of The Bible had a plan for our lives. Perhaps God does have a plan for us – it just doesn’t seem to jive with yours.

Money was a great concern. And, for a moment, we believed you when you told us God would reward us for our tithes – or curse us if we didn’t. The Law is just so much easier to preach than Grace. My goodness, if you told us that the 1st century church held everything in common – you might be accused of being a socialist – and of course, capitalism is a direct gift from God. Please further note: Malachi 3 is speaking to the priests of Israel. They weren’t the cheerful givers God speaks of loving.

We grew weary from your Edifice Complex pathologies – building projects more important than the people in your neighbourhood…or in your pews. It wasn’t God telling you to “enlarge the place of your tent” – it was your ego. And, by the way, a multi-million dollar, state of the art building is hardly a tent.

We no longer buy your call to be “fastest growing” church in wherever. That is your need. You want a bigger audience. We won’t be part of one.

Our ears are still ringing from the volume, but…Jesus is not our boyfriend – and we will no longer sing your silly love songs that suggest He is. Happy clappy tunes bear no witness to the reality of the world we live in, the powers and principalities we confront, or are worthy of the one we proclaim King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

You offered us a myriad of programs to join – volunteer positions to assuage our desire to be connected. We could be greeters, parking lot attendants, coffee baristas, book store helpers, children’s ministry workers, media ministry drones – whatever you needed to fulfill your dreams of corporate glory. Perhaps you’ve noticed, we aren’t there anymore.

We are The People formerly known as The Congregation. We have not stopped loving the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Nor do we avoid “the assembling of the saints.” We just don’t assemble under your supposed leadership. We meet in coffee shops, around dinner tables, in the parks and on the streets. We connect virtually across space and time – engaged in generative conversations – teaching and being taught.

We live amongst our neighbours, in their homes and they in ours. We laugh and cry and really live – without the need to have you teach us how – by reading your ridiculous books or listening to your supercilious CDs or podcasts.

We don’t deny Paul’s description of APEPT leadership – Ephesians 4:11. We just see it in the light of Jesus’ teaching in Mark 10 and Matthew 20 – servant leadership. We truly long for the release of servant leading men and women into our gifts as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. We believe in Peter’s words that describe us all as priests. Not just some, not just one gender.

We are The People formerly known as The Congregation. We do not hate you. Though some of us bear the wounds you have inflicted. Many of you are our brothers and our sisters, misguided by the systems you inhabit, intoxicated by the power – yet still members of our family. (Though some are truly wolves in sheep’s clothing.)

And, as The People formerly known as The Congregation, we invite you to join us on this great adventure. To boldly go where the Spirit leads us. To marvel at what the Father is doing in the communities where He has placed us. To live the love that Jesus shows us.

Addendum: This is a polemic. The first-person plural pronoun, “We”, is not used as Pluralis Majestatis (the Royal We) but rather is based on the post-charismatic/post-evangelical conversations that are occurring in the blogosphere. I have no more right to speak in this voice than any other person living in the liminal reality of the church in 21st century.

Please note also that I have many good friends who lead within a more traditional church context for whom I have great love, as well as deep respect. They are doing their very best to be missional within their worlds.

Christ is risen! Phil is baptised..!

What a wonderful Easter Sunday! I hope that your day was filled with the joy and hope that comes from knowing that Christ is risen indeed..! On this great day, Phil was also baptised… and I had the honour of being involved in his special day. As I’m practicing to be a minister (ie, minister-in-training/ student minister… whichever you prefer!) I got to practice my baptising skills on my darling husband! We had a great service at a nearby hotel, where there is a round pool, which was really cool as everyone could stand around and see Phil getting dunked. Phil gave his testimony superbly and Hazel did the reading: it was really great that she could be here to be part of Phil’s baptism weekend. Ian (our church Moderator) and I actually baptised Phil, and it was really special. It was fine getting him under the water, but it took a bit of a shove to get him back up to standing afterwards! Obviously, being a little short, it was a bit of a challenge… but it was fine in the end! Here are a couple of photos… Notice the white baptismal robes..! Aren’t they great? Phil and Ian were particularly excited about the prospect of wearing robes. We had the choice to wear them or just wear our normal clothes, but the boys were all for the robes… so I thought I would also… I felt truly angelic!

Ian and Phil going into the pool.

Ian and I getting ready to dunk Phil.

Unfortunately, we ran out of space on the camera for post-baptism photos, but don’t worry, he really did make it!

Have a wonderfully relaxing Monday..!

Good Friday

I can’t get the wee youtube box to actually open on this post… but check out the video below… its worth a look. It helps to remind us that today, we remember that something truly incredible happened.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kKcf9BS3KA

Unrequited love…

 

Last week was a strange week for Phil and I… we were offered the opportunity to return to bonnie Scotland, and Edinburgh in particular… and the plan seemed water-tight, until we had some very helpful and enlightening talks with the Rector of IBTS, and my Course Leader. Basically, we could have gone back to Edinburgh, and I would have done an Internship at Bristo Baptist Church. Although there were so many things that attracted us to this option, for a number of reasons, it wouldn’t be really the wisest idea at this stage. The key issue is which Baptist Union my ministerial formation and acceptance into a Baptist church I would go through. The Baptist Union of Scotland (BUS) is more conservative than the Baptist Union of Great Britain, which is more experimental, more willing to accept women as ministers and has more opportunities open to me than BUS. But it was a difficult decision to make, because both Phil and I miss our friends in Edinburgh very much. We also would like to be closer to our families. But we love Prague too, so its really not the end of the world..! I also don’t think that we’re really ready to leave yet. So, it’ll be one more year in Prague for us. We’ll probably finish up here around this time next year. The whole confusing time also made us realise how much we would like to be ‘at home’ in the near future… which was something that I think we maybe hadn’t realised so tangibly until then. But I think its good that we recognised it, and it means that we can plan for next year a bit better with that desire in mind.

Anyway, after that trauma… Phil and I both managed to get pretty bad colds… which has been horrible. I usually just get on with things when I get ill, but this time has been worse and I spent the morning in bed with a very sore head. Fortunately we have some wonderful American friends who gave us some DayQuil which has helped. God bless Americans for inventing seriously strong cold and flu drugs!

I’m trying to focus on my last 2 essays for this year. I would then have completed my first year and will hopefully get admitted into the Dissertation writing stage. At the moment I’m thinking about writing on the emerging church/church on the margins, and what the ‘established’ church can learn from this movement. I’m also interested in the missional church… if you want to find out more I’ll post some links on a new page soon.