Eek - I'm an evangelist!

I don't really like the word "Evangelist".  It conjurs up visions of shouty men in the middle of town telling people that they're all going to hell at the tops of their voices.  Either that or suit-wearing professional speakers who hold big Christian rallys in stadiums.  Not me at all, and, despite my strong Christian faith, I don't consider myself much of an evangelist.

However, the word originates in Greek and its original meaning is that of a "bringer of good news", and the word is also used to denote someone who is enthusiastic about a cause.  And that's what I was for a few weeks earlier this year!

A man called Tom launched a thing called the "Swindon Cycle Challenge".  This was a friendly competition, with lots of prizes, that got companies across Swindon trying to get their staff riding bicycles.  As a slight aside, I thought that this was a GREAT way to promote cycling.  The organisation provided lots of promotional material and incentives for people, as well as having a good webstie, updated often, with associated email updates too.  They did everything but provide the bikes!

Anyway, as a member of the little sports and social committee at work I took it upon myself to promote this within my office.  I truly became a cycling evangelist!

It was pretty hard work.  I had to do a lot of haggling and persuading.  Some people thought I was a bit weird and there were lots of excuses that people gave for not getting out and riding a mile or for 10 minutes on a bike, despite the offer of free cinema tickets, cycle accessories, and entry into prize draws for those that did!

I was even referred to as "Swindon's answer to Lance Armstrong".  Hah! I wish.

But I think that it's important to promote cycling, make people realise that you don't have to fire up your car to do that short journey.  I'm aware that not everyone can commute by bike like I can, and that if you have children or luggage then it's not really an available option.  But there are LOTS of journeys that could be done by bike, and there are lots of good reasons to do them by bike!

This process has been a real challenge to my faith.  Cycling isn't the only good news I believe I have to share.  I'm willing to become renowned in my workplace for being a cyclist?  Am I willing to become renowned for being a follower of Jesus?  That's a whole world more scary.

Somehow, talking about faith is awkward and embarassing.  Our culture isn't one where we talk much about beliefs, especially if they are controversial.  Talking about cycling, or what music you like, or what football team you support is OK.  But I wonder what would happen if I decided that I needed to be, not a Lance Armstrong, but a Billy Graham; telling people not about two-wheels, but about hope and joy and goodness.  What would the reaction be?  Would it even be acceptable?  Could I use my sports and social club to help promote a prayer group or to advertise church services and events?

I just don't know, and, at the moment, I don't really know how to start finding out.  But I should take courage (ah...that's where encouragement comes from); I've now been an evangelist, it wasn't that scary, it got mixed reactions, but the whole cycle challenge experience has given me a new confidence to talk, not just about cycling, but about my faith too.

Proverbs for our Times

Here are some wise sayings that seem quite relevant given the current credit crunch:

• "Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle."
• "The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender."
• "Don't guarantee to pay someone else's debt.If you don't have the money,you might lose your bed."

And here is some ancient wisdom that would seem to apply to our current binge-drinking culture:

"Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaints? Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes?

Those who linger over wine, who go to sample bowls of mixed wine.

Do not gaze at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly! In the end it bites like a snake and poisons like a viper. Your eyes will see strange sights and your mind imagine confusing things. You will be like one sleeping on the high seas, lying on top of the rigging.

'They hit me,' you will say, 'but I'm not hurt! They beat me, but I don't feel it! When will I wake up so I can find another drink?"

This advice, all highly relevant in our world today, is straight from the Bible, from the book of Proverbs.

It's amazing, both that wisdom from thousands of years ago is still relevant today, and that human nature has moved on so little in that time.

New Game....New Dangers

I need to write about this incredibly important subject to warn you of the dangers of a sport that I've recently taken up.

This sport requires:

• excellent balance;
• pin point precision;
• dedication and repeated practice of repetitive actions;
• a good head for numbers.

Yes, I'm not kidding. I've taken up darts!!!

We have a cultural change program going on at work and we have a glorified sports and social club in our office. One of the things this little committee (that I'm a part of) have done is install a darts board.

And I must confess, I've really rather taken to the game, but it's also caused me some problems. I should add the the squeamish can read on, there are no descriptions of gory holes in the head or feet coming up.

Darts Players and Culture

I'm slightly baffed by darts players and culture. Given the list of attributes above, you'd maybe expect the stereotypical darts player to be a geeky, thin, glasses-wearing mathematician type.

So it's slightly confusing that it's mostly played by hairy, overweight man who've spent too long in the pub.

And what's with all the women that are forced to follow it. IF you ever watch it on the telly there's always bikini-clad models walking around. At work, we ordered the board, surround, scoring machine and a few sets of darts from a company called Red Dragon Darts. When it arrived it came with a catalogue which was more soft-porn than precision sport. I don't link to their website for similar reasons - I almost couldn't condone them as supplier!

Bizarre.

The Game

The game is quite addictive you know. Having invested £12 (not much really) in my own darts (it's much better if you get used to a set that you always use) I not only play the odd game, but I'm practicing by playing solitaire "round-the-clock" - hit all the numbers from 1 to 20 in order.

You have to get worse before you get better too. When you start you could hit pretty much anything, but, aiming for twenty, as you do, you usually end up hitting anything from 12 through to 18. 12 and 18 give you pretty good scores. As you improve that range narrows, and you start hitting more 1's and 5's. These are NOT good scores. This is the stage I'm at.

As for hitting doubles...that's a different matter altogether.

Dangers!

I said it was dangerous. Shortly after I started playing my shoulder started to ache. I thought this was a general wearing-out type pain, but then Sally said "Maybe it's the darts?", and I think she's right. It puts a lot of tension on very specific parts of the arm, and the repetitive action can certainly take it's toll.

Also...you may remember my stomach pain from my long bike ride a couple of months back (see the bottom half of this post), well, I reckon this has actually turned out to be darts-related too. When I throw my arrows I tend to lean forward and put all my weight on my front (right) leg. I think my hip flexor was getting quite a lot of strain put on it by this with the result that cycling made it flare up and become painful.

Not kidding...you can really do yourself an injury playing darts. And not necessarily one that involves being hit with a pointy stick.

You have been warned!

You alright?

Some will know of my occasional anti-Englishness.  Sometimes our over-politeness causes huge complications.

My classic example being the "Do you want the last ....?" question, which actually means "I want the last .... ?".  Why don't we just say what we mean?

This has been bugging me a bit lately with people who use phrases like "How ya doin'?" and "Alright" as a brief greeting.

Normally this happens in a situation where, by the time you've said "Fine thanks, how are you?", the person you've just passed in the corridor is too far away for a proper conversation to begin.  But if I just say "Fine thanks", I feel that I've not taken an interest in how the other person is doing.  They've asked me, it would be polite to ask them back?

Answering "Alright?" with "Alright?" doesn't seem to make much sense. But if we're treating the initial "Alright?" as a greeting then I guess that's...for want of a better word...alright?

I prefer to use peoples' names.  "Hello" by itself doesn't work for me.  But "Hi James" or "Morning Paul" has a higher value - it implies that you know something about them, even if it's just their name.  It shows that I know who they are!  And it encourages me to learn people's names.

OK, OK, maybe I just think too much.  But I think this is important.  We can take a little piece of communication and use it for something more useful.  What if I don't just know someone's name, but I know that they're little baby girl is in hospital.  Then my "Hi James" can become compassionate: "Hey James, how's your girl?".  Then suddenly we're having a real conversation.

That would be more than alright with me!

Nothing Changes

Back in April I read this article in the Guardian and tore it out and left it on my bedside table for comment. Sorry for taking so long to getting round to it.

About 4,000 years ago...

Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the LORD descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, the whole mountain trembled violently, and the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder. Then Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him. The LORD descended to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain...And God spoke all these words:

• “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
• “You shall have no other gods before me.
• “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below...
• “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
• “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates...
• “Honor your father and your mother...
• “You shall not murder.
• “You shall not commit adultery.
• “You shall not steal.
• “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
• “You shall not covet ... anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear...

This year...

The internet was awash with gossip because the Joseph Rowntree Foundation had descended upon it. The news stories were served up from it and the internet trembled in anticipation at the announcement of their latest social research findings, and the sound of the journalists grew louder and louder. Then the journalists spoke and the voice of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation answered it. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation descended to the internet and sent their press release to the news web sites...and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation spoke all these words:

"I am the Jospeh Rowntree Foundation, who has surveyed 3,500 people, and have revealed a strong sense of unease about some of the changes shaping British society:

1. "you shall build stronger communities;
2. "you shall not be selfish;
3. "you shall not be greedy consumers;
4. "you shall have good moral values;
5. "you shall have strong families;
6. "you shall not make victims of young people; and they shall not perpetrate anti-social behaviour;
7. "you shall not comsume too much drugs and alcohol;
8. "you shall strive to remove poverty and inequality;
9. "you shall be tolerant and inclusive of foreigners; and they shall respect you;
   
10. "you shall not partake in crime and violence."

When the people saw the research report and heard the radio reports and read the newspaper commentators, they trembled with fear.

Nothing Changes

I hope you get the point. The lists have their differences, but it seems that "social evils" have changed little since the time of the Israelites wandering in the desert.

As a Christian, I despair slightly. God gave these commands in order to protect His people, to help them. Jesus summed the laws that God gave as 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' and "Love your neighbour as yourself".

Have we not learned? And what will it take for God to get the point across to his people, the whole world?

"Blessed are they whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the LORD. Blessed are they who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart."

Back to Church Sunday

Churches are amazing organisations and, despite the fact that they should (in my opinion) be quite free of bureaucracy, they are organisations and they need structures involving lots of people in order to function.

One of the structures that we have at our church is the Church Meeting. This happens every other month, and we had one last night.

One item on the agenda was an initiative called 'Back to Church Sunday'. This is a Sunday in September that has been picked out as a day to invite people that used to go to church back to church.

I'm not sure what I think of this. Surely every Sunday is potentially a "Back to Church" Sunday, or a "Go to Church for the First Time" Sunday. And I think I'd rather have ongoing encouragement to invite friends along than only be encouraged to do it on a specific day. Churches should ALWAYS be open for people to come back to.

Also, what will the service be like? I'm expecting it to be "special", which doesn't seem right because what if the people we invite come back the next Sunday and find it's different?

It IS a good initiative - as you can see, it's already got me thinking about how open our church is to newcomers, and what I can do to try get better at asking people along. I will support it and try to join in. And maybe doing a one off event like this will kick-start something bigger and ongoing.

But I think we need more than just one day for this...it should be an ongoing part of our Christian lives.

Spiritual Networking...what might that look like?

We were at a wedding yesterday and had the fortune of staying over with good friends. Friends that we know REALLY well and easily slip into deep conversation with.

While we were there someone mentioned that they miss this deep conversation and that they wished they were better at using email to prompt discussion on important, spiritual, theological matters with us friends that they were close with.

The two IT techies in the room immediately saw the problem solving opportunity and in no time at all we'd coined the phrase "Spiritual Networking". If you can use the Internet to do "Social Networking", why can't you use it to stimulate your spiritual life too?

We're not really sure what this looks like yet and the idea is developing. I think it's a closed online community where people post and respond to each others thoughts. Is it as simple as a bulleting board, or discussion forum? Or is there something more?

We're looking at how to get something like this going on a small scale. Google Groups, Yahoo Groups, a shared Blog, a closed Facebook Group and various other suggestions have been put forward, but I think we just have to choose one and go for it and see what happens!

General Easter Update

It's been a while and we're off on holiday tomorrow so here's a few thoughts to jot down before I go.

Easter and "The Passion"

It's Easter Sunday. Easter is obviously a hijacked pagan festival - witness the eggs and bunnies that symbolise new life as spring approaches - heck the date of easter even changes with the lunar cycle! But, regardless of that, this is the time when Christians celebrate that Jesus rose from the dead and brought us a new and different sort of life. God has forgiven us of the wrong we've done and we can follow Jesus in faith knowing that he died and was brought back from the dead to live forever. I join with the many today who shout "Hallelujah" - Praise the Lord!

It's been a good time of reflecting on what Jesus did and why it means so much to us. It
saddens me that people have so little understanding of the man at the centre of the Christian faith. I'm not the sort to ram it down people throats, but if they ask I'll happily explain, and highly recommend, my faith, that I have come to see as the truth. But the
occasions to explain to people are sadly limited, even at this time of the year.

Encouragingly, this year, the BBC has done a screening of a 4-part film of "The Passion" - the events of the last few days of Jesus' life. This has been very interesting to watch. Many have tried to interpret the events in their own ways down the years. I like the BBC's attempt. It feels quite real and give you a good sense of what Jerusalem was like at the time, and some insight into why certain people may have done what they did on that first Easter. What it lacked for me was a spiritual element - little prayer, no angels, no miracles, no fear of God. I thought the pharisees more interested in what was going on that then disciples. It felt earthly, lacking a heavenly God. A tale told, but somehow lacking the essence of what was really going on. A political revolution was definitely going on, but the "kingdom of God" seemed relegated to little more than a nice-to-have desire of the heart. I think it lacked...well...passion!

But good on the Beeb for showing such a thing. And don't get me wrong - it was a REALLY good re-enactment of what happened - captivating and compelling. It was just very non-committal too.

Oh, and there seems to have been a lot of chocolate around. Not sure what that's about.

Small Group Leading

I attend a thing called a "Small Group". This is a group of about 10 people from church who meet during the week to chat, pray, study the bible and share news together. Small groups are an important part of church life as they enable people to connect and meet in God's presence in a deeper way than you can in a larger group on the Sunday.

This week I led the group in a study. It was the first time I'd done this for a long time and it seemed to go down well, but I'm not entirely sure. It's always hard to judge how these things look from the other side. I really enjoy preparing and leading groups like this and I hope I'll get to do it again.

Garden

With 3 days off before our trip away, we were meant to be gardening. Both digging and planting. But the weather's been AWFUL. Snow, sleet, hail, rain, gales, freezing temperatures. So that'll have to wait. Longer days are coming so I suspect some evening digging may be required. We've not planted a thing yet and only have a small patch of weedless garden.

House

So instead we've been concentrating on the house. Sally's a star with painting and has made great progress on the dining room. We've committed quite a lot of the last couple of days to tidying up the edges and we're VERY nearly done. Here's the before and after:

As well as painting we've also put up another nice light. I confess, I thought this was a bit over the top for the small room, but Sally loves it and it is a beautiful thing and we got it for half price.

Wiring the new light in was interesting (as are most thing involving the electrics in our house). We have "loop in" wiring, so three cables come in from the ceiling; power in, power out, and the loop to the switch. This makes for a complicated bit of wiring to get the light connected up. However, in this fitting, the live and neutrals seemed to be wired backwards. All the black cables were where the reds should be, and vice versa. A quick chat with my dad and a few diagrams later and it appeared to be safe. After all, the previous fitting worked!

It seems that normally you have the three live wires tied together with power coming back from the switch to the light on the "spare" neutral cable. In our case, we had the three neutrals tied together with the spare live coming back from the switch. From a "logical" circuit point of view this means that the switch is on the neutral side of the light, rather than the live. There was no reason why it shouldn't work. And, indeed, it does!

I'm sure I should be more scared of electricals than I am. I'll get a nasty shock one day.

Rats!

Darn it. The rats are back. We've heard vague scratchings recently and dismissed it, but they were definitely up there last night. I can only see one little hole outside that they might be getting in. We've put fresh poison down and some proper rat traps in the loft. Grrr....

Cycling

Not much going on on the cycling front. I've been doing longer trips into work and back and generally enjoying being out on the Felt. Both bikes need a good clean which I was hoping to do this weekend and haven't got around too. Oh, and I had to replace another spoke on the Raleigh. Not sure how this one broke but fixing it was easy having done it before.

Had other transport problems too when the car started spluttering a bit on the way back from the outdoors show. Kwik Fit fixed it with a new clamp on the exhaust - the existing one had come loose. They charged me £2. Bargain!

Other Developments

There are some other interesting developments going on that I can't really talk about too. These are very much connected to our spiritual and church life and involve some interesting changes that are going on around us. Some of this is stuff that we thing God has been telling us might happen in some way over the last year so it's very exciting seeing how that might come to fruition. Please, if anyone's reading, don't ask us any questions because we can't answer them. I probably shouldn't even be putting the teaser out.

More will be apparent in the coming months, I hope!

Holiday

And so to probably our most anticipated holiday so far. We're only going to York and the Lake District, but we've both had such a hard few weeks at work that we REALLY need it. We're looking forward to our first bit of fell walking on our own (how will we get on without a more experienced guide?), and we'll hopefully have a rest in there too.

I will probably be quiet for a few days, both Blog and Twitter-wise. Back with some photos on Saturday!

Rugby and Self Belief

I'm a big rugby (UNION!!!) fan.

I don' t know why. Football is a great game; incredibly skillful, beautiful to watch, exciting, entertaining. But I just think that football players are rude and obnoxious in comparison, there's the minority of violent fans, and these external factors often ruin my enjoyment of the game.

Rugby is a game for thugs, but, even in the professional version, they remain polite and respectful throughout and the players are humble and intelligent. Plus, it's MORE beautiful to watch when played well, MORE exciting and MORE entertaining.

Only my opinions of course.

So...without a club to watch (Swindon Supermarine anybody?) I get very excited when the 6 Nations comes around each year and this year has been no exception, especially as England seem to be pulling themselves up a bit after their dismal first half of the World Cup last year.

I've been thinking recently about the big famous guy - Jonny Wilkinson. A while back, after winning the World Cup in 2003, he was injured a LOT and whenever he tried to come back to the game he got injured again. I was really thinking that his career was over.

And here he is, kicking the points that win games for England again, breaking points records, charging into wince-inducing tackles, and chucking the ball around like gravity doesn't exist. How did he get from there to here?

I've had a lot of injuries and illness lately and I'm recovering from that myself. And, I can tell you, it feels great. But at the time it was really hard on me and a lot of that was psychological.

I believe that a big part of Wilkinson's recovery is psychological. When he speaks about it, Wilkinson says that his kicking is all about his mental focus and I believe that he applied that to his recovery. In the same way he pictures the ball going between the posts from 50 metres, he pictures himself being well, recovering and playing again. And it's not just me - even the 6 Nations commentators have been talking a lot about his incredible "self belief".

I'm quite inspired by this. I know that a lot of my recovery was actually thinking I was better. Yes, I believe that God helped with my psychological process (there's a LOT of encouraging words to boost your self-esteem in the Bible), and I hope that I'm mentally a bit tougher for having gone through it. But I also see how important it is that we think positively, even when we're in pain or distress.

Having said all of that, tomorrow is the final day of this year's six nations, and I don't think any about of positive thinking on behalf of myself or Jonny Wilkinson will reduce the number of points that Wales and France have. We've no way to win.

Perhaps if I start thinking about 6 Nations 2009 now...

Dress Codes

Another comment that I made on another persons Blog that I wanted to copy here. It took me a while to write and contains a funny story from a business meeting, so I wanted to include it as a "note to self" of my own.

The other-Blog author, is actually a friend of Sally's, but he's an excellent writer and has been keeping a very entertaining Blog of his time as an Englishman in Brazil. His writing was one of the things that inspired me to take up my own note taking here, but the quality and entertainment value of his posts is far greater than mine.

Links:
- Maps and Legends: Dave Maclure's Blog
- The specific post I commented on

---
In response to "Things I love about Brazil #25: informal dress codes"

I'm still reading and still enjoying your writing. Hope you don't mind. I particularly like your random numbering of "things I miss...things I love..."!!

I was thinking about dress codes the other day. I was in a business meeting with a supplier. The guys from the supplier company were both wearing suits. But us as "supply-ees" were, at best, smart casual. (In amusing contrast, someone had bought along some Chuppa Chupps lollipops, so we were all sat there eating kids' candy...in suits...bizzare)

It reminded me that I hate wearing suits. I feel like a fraud in them. It's not who I am. But I am pretty clean-cut, and I find myself frowning at people who dress really scruffily. And yet, that's who they are. They'd feel like a fraud wearing what I wear. I don't wear suits, but I AM a clothing snob!

Brazil sounds like the kind of place where you can just be yourself. Whereas in England we're forced to dress certain ways at certain times. I wonder why that is and what it achieves?

Hmmm...

Book: Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell

A friend of mine used to keep notes on books she had read and films she had seen. I hope to occasionally jot down what I think of books, films, maybe music here. Not reviews, but reminders to me of what the thing was about and what I thought of it.

I've just finished reading "Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith", kindly loaned to me by a friend.

It's a book about...well, I'm not sure what. It's a general overview of what the author - the "pastor" of a large, fairly liberal church in Michigan - thinks about Christianity I suppose.

It's a controversial book for some. I agreed with most of it but had problems with some things. I'll just give a very quick overview of the chapters (or "movements" as he calls them). Forgive any use of church jargon that you don't understand, it's hard to talk about these things in a brief way without using words that either mean nothing or are loaded with meaning.

The chapters have names, not numbers, and are as follows:

Jump is about the building blocks of faith. He touches on "creeds" (statements of faith) and explains how they are useful but need to be flexible (like springs, not bricks), and why it's OK to have questions and why joy is important.

Yoke is about different teachings, truth, and how it's important to interpret the Bible. By this he means both understanding what the writings would have meant to their original audience 2000 years ago, and in terms of re-applying what is said to our culture today. His biblical, historical and cultural knowledge shines through the whole book and is very interesting.

True. I suspect this is a controversial chapter and I found it difficult myself - especially his notion of finding truth around us. I agree that you can find elements of truth outside of what's written in the Bible but he seems to think that, if it seems OK to you then you can call it truth. I'm a bit more fundamental in that I think there is an ultimate truth to find, and that you can find things that are "good" outside of that truth, but not all the "good" things are "true", or indeed helpful. I do agree that we are too inflexible with our beliefs and application of truth and that this is bad, but I found Bell to be too soft with the general notion of truth itself.

Other bits of this chapter were good with stuff about how God is everywhere but we don't always recognise it, and about taking our faith with us into our whole lives...good stuff!

Tassels is about being real with ourselves and healing of the soul. There's some of Rob Bell's story of how he came to lead this huge church and then have a bit of a breakdown and what that all meant for him and how God helped him through it. He explains how we also need to go through a similar process sometimes. Pretty nitty-gritty stuff that's easy to read and hard to actually be real with, but full of great truth. Includes a great section about the sabbath!

Dust is about "discipleship"; that is, being called by and following in the teachings and life of Jesus. Again, lots of historical and cultural background make some very interesting reading but other then a good feeling about being chosen, I didn't feel it challenged me much.

New is about grace and the process of being "made new" which happens when we believe in Jesus. Essentially about how we get forgiven for "sin" (the wrong stuff we've done)
and how, if we believe in Jesus, this happens by what God has done and not by anything that we do. It's about being who we were meant to be and making the world more like it was meant to be. There's a call to action in there somewhere and a challenge to be people who "bring heaven to earth".

Good continues the theme talking about renewal and how heaven isn't somewhere that we will be going, but rather somewhere that the earth will one day be. It's coming here, rather than we're going there. Rob Bell's real frustration seems to come out here as he talks about what the "church" should be. This is what it's all about. Creeds, teachings, truth, healing of the soul, discipleship, grace, all leading to us - people that follow Jesus - being people who lead a life of serving God and serving others in order to bring the goodness of heaven to earth. Phew.

I enjoyed the book. It was a good and easy read. Rob Bell writes in a very conversational style and obviously is a very knowledgeable and wise man. I'd love to read more of his explaining of the Bible and the Jewish culture and traditions.

A few things I didn't like - aside from where I didn't necessarily agree with him.

I think he overuses metaphor. Bricks, tassels, velvet Elvises, superpastors, tour guides. It peters out after a while but at the start he really overdoes it, stretching the analogies further than the springs on his trampoline.

And I think he's not challenging enough. He makes some good points but, as I said before, a warm feeling is about all I got. Maybe it's the conversational tone? It made me want to think about things, not to actually change them.

The overall feeling I'm left with is that he should be writing a different book. Perhaps if he focussed more on the history and less on the philosophy I'd find him a better read? But then, if he did that he'd be writing a completely different book. And I think I quite liked the book. But I might need a second read to be sure. Martin, can I borrow it a bit longer???

Waste Neutrality, the Eden Project, and saving the planet.

Wednesday of our holiday in Cornwall, and a visit to the Eden Project! You mostly hear good things about it but occasionally you meet someone that thought it was rubbish. I can see why people might not like it but I thought it was fascinating, beautiful, educational and inspiring.

A visit to the Eden Project raises lots of questions about our planet. I'd probably fall into the category of very-nearly-green-hippy. Partly driven by my faith - my belief in a creator and in our duty to look after His creation - and partly driven by science and common sense, I believe we should reduce, recycle and reuse as much as possible.

I've been having a lot of conversations at work about being green. Mostly with people who slightly mock the concept of being overtly, or overly, environmentally friendly. Mostly with people who think I'm silly for cycling in the rain (but that's another issue altogether). I feel in a minority there.

But most of the discussions aren't actually about the concepts of waste, wastefulness, packaging, reuse of materials and consumerism. Most of the discussions are about "Carbon Footprints", which I don't really understand myself and which, to me, seem to be just marketing to make us feel good about buying a product or service. But I don't actually get what it means to put a tonne of carbon dioxide into the air! In contrast, I DO get what it means to put a plastic bag in a landfill. It means that I've wasted some oil - a precious natural resource that will, one day pretty soon now, run out - in order to produce something that I've then discarded on a big heap and which will sit there being a plastic bag in the way, for a VERY long time.

I'm all for being carbon neutral. But I'm more for thinking about how much stuff we use and throw away. And by "use" I include "burn to make energy", which means that my concept of "reducing" includes lowering emissions, but, so I think, seems to be a more holistic approach.

What's this got to do with my holiday and the Eden Project?

Well, there aren't many things that I don't like about the lovely cottage that we're staying in, but one thing that bugs me is that we can't recycle. Everything is thrown in the bin (well, we're going to take some stuff home with us too). This means that in 5 days we've produced about 2 times as much waste as we'd normally produce at home. It's shocking how, without compost and recycling, it mounts up so quickly.

In contrast, the Eden Project was keen to talk about how it was trying to be "waste neutral". Reducing the amount of waste that they produce, reusing items where it is possible, recycling what's left, and buying recycled goods (and thus creating demand for recycled products).

It's expensive, and it sounds like hard work and lots of thinking. They declare it to be "a philosophy for life". It's a challenge to all of us. It's a challenge to me! How much do I think about the waste that will be produced by an item that I buy? How often do I get lazy and throw something away because to take it home and recycle it would be too much hard work? Am I willing to pay a bit extra for something that's locally sourced, recycled, or in "green" packaging?

One other thing that I wondered was, are we doing enough? That is are we DOING enough?

The Eden Project sells lots of books. Mostly books about being green and ethical. It's good to read (or write!) an article or book about this kind of thing. It's good to be inspired by the wonders of nature on display at the Eden Project and feel protective of our amazing planet. It's good to read about how others are adopting this philosophy for life. It's good to think and ask the questions.

But when we get to the supermarket, or need to travel somewhere nearby, or book a holiday, or are throwing something in the bin...when we have a choice to make a difference...what are we actually going to choose to do?

How do I know if I've got spiritual gifts?

We've been doing a thing at our church called a SHAPE course. SHAPE is an acronym, standing for "Spritual Gifts, Heart, Abilities, Personality, Experiences". It's intended to help you look at those five things, think a bit about what things you have that fit into those categories, and work out what things you might be able to do well in serving God.

The Spiritual Gifts bit was first and, as you might expect, raised the most questions.

It's clear from the Bible, more so in the New Testament, but also in the Old, that God gives particular "gifts" or abilities to people and he does this "by his spirit"...that is, those abilities are specifically given by God in a "supernatural" kind of way.

From my point of view, gifts of the spirit fall into two categories:

1) things that are always obviously of God when they happen, such as:

• healing
• prophecy (speaking God's thoughts to groups of people)
• words of knowledge (when God tells you something - like prophecy but different)
• miracles
• tongues/languages and interpretation.

I will call these the "difficult gifts" - because it's more difficult to believe that we have them, and requires more faith to use them...I think.

2) things that might be of God but you can never be sure, such as:

• music
• administration
• hospitality
• wisdom
• teaching
• leadership

I specifically draw a line here between the "difficult" gifts and the "non-difficult" gifts because this is the main thing I want to speak about.

In my experience the "difficult" spiritual gifts are less commonly found. I know lots of people who seem to be blessed by God with real ability in music, hospitality, and teaching. I know few prophets, healers and miracle workers.

Yet it doesn't make sense to me that God would distribute the gifts unevenly. In fact, because he's such an awesome God who should choose to reveal himself and his thoughts to his people, I would expect to see MORE healers and prophets than the easier things.

Which makes me wonder if maybe there are lots of people that are healers, prophets, miracle workers, etc that don't know if they have those gifts? And if this is the case, how do we nurture these gifts in people? How should the church encourage people to "seek the greater gifts" as the bible says? How do we know if we have the difficult gifts if we don't have opportunities to try and use them? How shall we go about discovering who our prophets and healers are?

This is really the main thing I've learned from the SHAPE course. That we should be praying and asking God for the difficult gifts - he tells us to do this. But how practically should we be trying out these things if we think that God has given them to us?

Movements and Organisations

A friend has given me a very interesting little book to read to read called "Accompanying young people on their spiritual quest".

It's a cracking book and very well written (that's very high praise from me!) and, oddly, my first interesting thought about it is not about the book's key subject.

While discussing how the church perceives young people it introduces the topic of Movements and Organisation.

In this case the "movement" is the Christian religion. The notion being that the "church" (by which I mean the global body of people who profess faith in Jesus Christ) is not static. To quote the book "its thinking and practices remain open to question and open to change".

Yet any large "movement" requires some form of "organization". Which poses a problem, because organizations have boundaries and procedures which limit movement.

It's a continual challenge, I find, at work, in my local church, in my friendships and relationships, even at home, to be disciplined and organised, and yet, remain open to change. On the one hand I'm a very organised individual who likes order and structure and gets annoyed when things are out of place. On the other hand, I retain the right to change my views, move on, do things differently. There is a creative part of me that likes to operate outside of formal structures.

It's important not to become legalistic about anything, especially in the Christian faith where the central concept is love: a thing that has no real boundary or definition and which, practically, can be expressed in many, many ways. AND it is a thing which means different things to different people. It can't be given an organisation because it's too woolly to pin down to a process.

Organising can be difficult for the similar reasons. What organisation works for one person may not work for another. Some churches have very set forms, called liturgy. Written out words that are spoken or sung during a service. Some church services are entirely based around such liturgies. Others have no written form whatsoever. Who's to say what's right. Horses for courses isn't it?

Which all leads to much confusion. How do we love? How do we organise? How do we not become legalistic?

We see in the bible how Jesus, our role model for all that we do, interacts with children. "Become like them" he says, as he gives the legalistic priests a good telling off about their stubborn ways. Yet when faced with a large group with some work to do Jesus organises them, splits them up, gives them instructions, and sends them out.

One of the "Accompanying" book's ideas is that children represent the movement side of church, wanting to grow, but not necessarily according to the rules of the church organisation. I wonder what we can learn from them about moving on, and about growing in our faith and in who we are as people. I wonder if we need to rebel occasionally against strict organisation. I wonder if we need more chaos in our lives or the other way around?

I've love to draw a conclusion, state something profound that I've learned from thinking about this and say what I'm going to do about it, but I think this is probably a journey. One of those things that we'll never get right, and a balance that we'll always be tweaking with.

One thing I've learned since becoming a Christian is that answers aren't always necessary. Sometimes it's just as important to just ask the questions.

Weddings

Yesterday was the wedding of some good friends of ours. A brilliant day, great church service, good worship, very much a wedding where God was present. A real sense of two becoming one and a change of status in their relationship.

It was interesting going to a Christian wedding with a mixed bunch of people (some who would prefess a faith in Jesus and others who wouldn't). It made me wonder what other people make of Christian weddings.

I always find Christian weddings special. It's not just a spoken commitment with a bit of ritual wrapped around it. The parts of the typical English wedding ceremony are all very meaningful to Christians; from the opening words of the vicar, the songs, the ceremony itself, the prayers, through to the final blessing at the end.

The marriage is centered on the vows and the commitments made in them, and it usually marks a very deep change in the couple's status. Often they have abstained from sex before marriage, and probably haven't lived together. And, of course, there is the real sense of celebration of the bride and groom as individuals, and as a newly formed couple.

Whereas, admittedly not all of them, but most church weddings of non-Christian people, I find a bit false. It's odd to hear people speaking and singing things that they don't necessarily believe, and I find it odd when the party afterwards is made more important than the marriage itself. This is not a sensation that has been exclusive to my Christian life. I went to a church wedding of some friends even before I started finding out about God and it just felt awkward.

Yet I find myself wondering what other people make of it all. Do people who don't follow the Christian faith find Weddings of believers different to weddings of non-believers? Does it seem "special" to them? Does it seem more meaningful? I wonder what our worship looks like from the outside?

Of course, I don't wish to devalue the marriage of people who don't follow Christ. The commitment of marriage is incredibly special and I support it, uphold it, and respect it however it is done. I would much rather people get married, if it's the right thing for them to do, than not get married!

But as a little windows into the lives and rituals of believers, I wonder how these ceremonies look and feel to others, what effect it has on them, and what we might be able to learn from their experiences.

Storytelling

"It's dark, it's cold, my skin is wet from walking through dense fog, and I want to know the way home. Keeping my hands in my pockets, I shiver and shuffle around in my coat and draw it closer. I'm lost, in a place I don't know very well. I don't recognise anything. Signposts tell me the way to streets and landmarks I've not been to. I walk past the odd person I don't recognise - well, why would I? I know that home is nearby, somewhere, and yet, without a clue as to where I am, I could be out here all night..."

A story? A metaphor? A parable? Is it real? Is it trying to tell me something? What is it?

I love the medium, the magic and the mystery of storytelling. It's an art that we've lost in modern times.

I discovered it at Lee Abbey Summer Camp in Devon when I met a man called Simon - a really fun and interesting man who was a storyteller in his spare time. He taught us some of the tricks of the trade in a short workshop and I was hooked. He could communicate ideas, facts, morals, history, dreams and sometimes just stories, in such a captivating way. It was amazing.

I like storytelling as a means of communicating and I think that we should do it more. Jesus told lots of stories to communicate important things to people in memorable ways. Many will know the story of the Good Samaritan, and maybe the Prodigal Son.

Yes, storytelling is a very good thing. So why then do I find it so overused?

In church services people pepper their talks, sermons or messages with little anecdotes to draw you in or make the points more practical. Yet I find this dilutes a talk rather than enhancing it.

In modern non-fiction books (and especially in books that fall into the "Christian Living" category) I find myself wallowing in stories and struggling to get to what's actually being said.

I'm currently trying to work out my love-hate relationship with storytelling.

I THINK that what I see in talks and books are short anecdotes - not proper storytelling as such. And these are useful. But I think we need to be careful how, and how much, we use them, otherwise our message gets diluted, or our audience drifts off at the thought of another of so-and-so's tiresome tales.

What I saw Simon doing at Lee Abbey was REAL storytelling. He didn't need to add to it, or explain it. The story itself - and the way he told it - was enough. Sometimes he left you with questions, but that was OK; sometimes that WAS the point!

Rob Bell of the Mars Hill Church in the US does a good mixture of both in his "Nooma" videos. He tells a story. One story. That's his parable, that's his hook to get you in and to give you something to remember. But then he develops that story into a message. And it works. We saw one of these videos on Sunday night. I'd seen it before a few months ago and it was very familiar. I can tell you all about Rob walking along the beach telling the story, his little boy wanting the thing on a strap that will hit him in the face and screaming "I WAAAAANT one" and "I NEEEED it" when daddy knows better. And not just because I wrote about it in my "Sunday evening brain dump".

I'm fed up with the books I'm reading full of anecdotes, and I don't connect with preaching that mixes up powerful truth and personal tales; they make me feel like a guy who's lost in the fog who wishes he could find what he's really looking for. A story should get to the heart of the matter, it should be told passionately, and it should teach a simple truth.

Yes, I'm not really sure what to make of storytelling. I'll keep trying to work out what I make of it. I'm sure there's no perfect formula but I just think it's a means of communication that we could use better. I'll keep struggling with my books - there are good, real-life illustrations in there that make a point real. I'll keep listening to my preachers and teachers because, after all, they're far wiser and more knowledgeable than I about most things.

And hopefully the signposts and the people I come across will help me find my home.

Sunday evening brain dump...

Another Sunday evening Brain dump then.

Things to write about:

• Sunday evening's talk at church
• More on social networking
• Thoughts on Work
• Storytelling!
  

Sunday Evening's Talk at Church

Before I write this, a vague note about how I intend writing about my faith here.

I do have an assumption that no one else is reading this, that it's all for my own benefit. Yet I feel compelled to write as if I'm talking to someone that really doesn't understand what my faith is all about.

Why? A few reasons:

1. It will be a good exercise for me to get me using non-Christian language to talk about my Christian experiences - we have far too much jargon that we use within Church and it must be completely baffling to those outside. Hopefully I'll explain things as I go along.
2. It may help anyone that MIGHT be reading to understand what I'm talking about.
3. It will probably help me write clearly and say what I want to say rather than using words that I only half know the meaning of.

With that in mind...

Church service was good tonight but raised some questions! The music was excellent with lots of songs about being thankful - really got me in the mood.

The talk was based around a video by an American guy called Rob Bell. The video is called "Kickball" and is about wanting things and needing things. It explains how if we see God as "our father" (as the Lord's Prayer starts), he should know what we need better than we do. If, as children, we got everything that we asked for, then that would actually be really bad. So, if we see ourselves as God's children - a picture often portrayed in the bible - then we shouldn't expect to get everything that we ask God for in prayer because He knows better than we do.

The video also said some stuff about how God is "good" - by which we mean ultimately good; a concept that we as humans probably can't quite grasp - and as such, if we don't get what we ask for then it's because God has something better in mind.

Which is all GREAT. Only it's set against the week that just went by when I discovered that:

• a couple I know are breaking up after being married for 2 years - seemingly without much hope of reconcilliation
• an wedding I was going to has been cancelled
• a friend of mine is really struggling with her faith because she has an illness which, despite lots and LOTS of faithful prayer has not gone away - she's not been healed despite our asking a God who we believe can miraculously heal - and also because of some other sad events that have happened to people close to her.
  

All of these things happened to people who've followed Jesus INCREDIBLY faithfully for many years. Amazing, amazing people who've trusted our "good" God through thick and thin.

Now, people do have choice, and relationships are difficult, so I can see how the break-up and the wedding problems can come about because of the actions of people. God's will is (probably) for those relationships to work out, yet things don't work out because we're not God's puppets, subject to his every whim. We have choice and we can choose to do the wrong thing. Though I add that I don't know where those relationships have gone wrong and at what point wrong choices were made and by whom.

But a seemingly-pointless death and an illness that won't go away? People don't choose them! How could God have something better in mind?

This is, of course, the age old question of suffering for which there are many standard answers, most of which are pretty useless unless you already have faith in God. Faith is defined in the bible as "being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see" - choosing to believe despite the fact that sometimes evidence is to the contrary.

My response tonight? Well, I'm going to struggle on. I'm going to pursue my faith. And I'm going to change the way I pray. If God knows better than I then my prayers should be asking him what he wants for me, my family, my friends, etc, rather than me coming to ask him for what I think I want or need.

Please don't thing that if you read that you can tear my faith apart. My God has done some amazing things and I could tell far more stories of God being GOOD and not giving me things because he has something better in store. That IS my general experience.

I DO believe that he'll pull through in the situations I've talked about, and I look forward to sharing that journey here. Probably with myself but, hey.

Social Networking

So, we discovered Facebook today, as stated. What an odd thing.

MySpace has been my only real experience of online Social Networking so far. It has been around for a while and I really don't like it for anything other than reading up on the plans of some of my favourite bands...especially the up-and-coming Iko. MySpace is too cluttered, has too much advertising and is too much about self-promotion. It all seems a bit random and chaotic.

But I was invited to Facebook by a fairly sensible person that I trust the opinion of. It was also mentioned by some other very reasonable, humble and grown-up people over the weekend I just spent with friends in Swindon and London. So I signed up to see what it was all about.

I was oddly compelled by it for a few hours. Interesting seeing who I knew was on there and what was on their profiles. There was a strange sense of fun in searching for crazily titled "groups" to be a part of, such as "Wintles" and "The Magic Roundabout, Swindon, Society".

But...what's the point? What need does this social networking serve? I know who my friends are and I can chat to them or email them if I need to get in touch. Friends Reunited gave us the opportunity to reconnect with lost classmates and colleagues but, well, we probably lost touch because the friendship wasn't that strong and, heck, I can hardly keep up with those people I've NOT lost touch with.

It was fun for a while but I quickly got bored. It'll be interesting to see if it serves any purpose over a longer period of time.

The only real thing that redeemed it today was the finding of another Ross Wintle. Seems I'm not so unique after all!

Thoughts on Work

Going back to work last week made me realise that I'm not very happy there at the moment. My boss is being great and doing all he can to make thing better though. I'm praying that God will show me what I should be doing to make my work life better. I may have a sabbatical later in the year or something.

Storytelling...will have to wait for another time. I leave you (or possibly just me) with an inspiring article from a Christian youthworker who's getting alongside kids in very much the same way that Jesus drew alongside the rejected people of his day.

Christian Aid Week...how do the poor see us..

Had a very good Christian Aid Week service at church this morning. Lots of good use of CA's resources and an interesting sermon based on Luke 7:36-50 - the story of a woman, probably a prostitute, worshipping Jesus by pouring expensive perfume over his feet.

The key thing I took away was the need for forgiveness. It's a word that's passed around lightly in Christian circles but the concept of forgiveness is hugely important.

In the context of the story from Luke's gospel, Jesus accepted the woman and forgave her wrongdoing (though I suspect it wasn't entirely her fault she was in the situation she was in).

In the context of Christian Aid, it was noted that we all exploit the third/developing world and maybe we need them to forgive us of that.

It may not always be out of choice; it's hard to find clothes/coffee/chocolate/electrical goods/etc that have not involved some form of exploitation of cheap or forced labour, child labour, sweatshops and unfair pricing, and when you can find them buying them can be prohibitively expensive.

Yet, in any case, I suspect that if you invited a child labourer from the developing world into your house you'd feel quite guilty and they'd be aghast at the wealth and luxury of even the poorest Briton.

How does that make us feel about what we buy and where it's come from? It makes me want to be even more scrupulous about my consuming of stuff. I'm the first to admit that Fairtrade isn't a silver bullet that will cure all the world's trade ills, but it's a start and it's my vote to say that people should be treated and paid fairly and justly and that I'm willing to stump up a bit extra of my relatively-vast amount of cash to achieve that.

But, as I said, we have limited choice.

The problem is that, with trade, we're such tiny parts of a huge machine. We CAN - we MUST - do our bit but so much of our choice comes from the big corporations that sell us stuff, and that, fuelled by our consumer culture. Without a major shift in how our western society as a whole plays the trade game, we won't be turning around and asking for forgiveness any time soon.

What DO people do...

Feeling low again today so had a quick prayer whip-round.

Got me thinking...what do people who don't believe in God do when I tell them I'm not well? The obvious response from a Christian is "I'll pray for you", and through that God can speak to us and get us to see the situation through his eyes and show us ways to help. But the non-believer has no where to go.

I'm so blessed to have friends who can pray, believing it will make a difference. And it does.

Easter Is...

My first Blog from work! Lunchtime. Sandwiches...inevitably from Marks and Spencers...

Easter is upon us. It is Holy Week. And the shops are full of Easter merchandise hoping that the sun and the temptation of copious quantities of chocolate will spur people on to spend their hard earned reddies.

But what's it really about?

M&S have a series of signs up:

Easter is...
eating together
Easter is...
giving gifts
Easter is...
all good things
Easter is...
simply chocolate

OK, so the first three probably redeem themselves by bearing a passing resemblance to things that actually happened at Easter. After all there was the last supper; probably the most remembered meal in history; and Jesus is the greatest gift of all and a very good thing! Yet the symbols of fancy wrapping paper and gravy-coated beef don't quite cut it.

Easter is a celebration of the greatest life ever lived and the greatest death ever died; a chance to remember the meaning of life and to celebrate the man who brings us reality and eternity.

Easter is...the best celebration ever. Hallelujah!