headwayyouth- phil smith's blog

Sat on plane...

Well how's about this for moblogging, I'm sat on a stationary plane on the tarmac of Heathrow while a tire, which apparently has a nail in, is replaced. Take off delayed by one hour, which means we'll be at the hotel for about three... Great! While sat on the plane I'm being entertained by Henri Nouwen's, 'Wounded Healer'. this particularly made me smile, and it will serve as my final words in this country; "the Christian leader, minister or priest, is not one who reveals God to his people- who gives something he has to the who have nothing- but one who helps those who are searching to discover reality as the source of their existence... In this context pastoral conversation is not merely a skilful use of conversational techniques to manipulate people into the Kingdom of God, but a deep human encounter in which a man is willing to put his own faith and doubt, his own hope and despair, his own light and darkness at the disposal of others who want to find a way through their confusion and touch the solid core of life. In this context preaching means more than handing over tradition; it is rather the careful and sensitive articulation of what is happening in the community so that those who listen can say: 'you say what I suspected, you express what I vaguely felt, you bring to the fore what I fearfully kept in the back of my mind. Yes, yes- you say who we are, you recognise our condition.'"

The joys of greenbelt...

Had a great time at greenbelt. Some of you will have read on pete's blog about feeling at home, well for me home is at greenbelt. It's funny because zoe and myself hardly went to anything but unlike soul survivor or spring harvest or the like what makes greenbelt isn't the programme it's the people and the feel of the whole place.
Yesterday myself and zoe sat in a discussion group on 'Churchless faith' and one guy shared in the midst of the session how he'd been hurt by his local church at a time when he was really struggling with his own sexuality. Nowhere else could he have stood up and said those things, but such is the unique atmosphere at greenbelt that there was no fear of rejection or judgement. It's a place of love and acceptance and at a time when I find myself asking a lot of questions about church, that is a nice place to be. Really enjoyed the proclaimers, the tiny tea tent (of course) and hearing jenny mcintosh and dave tomlinson talk about 'churchless faith'

Loving greenbelt

Been working hard at greenbelt so not been to much but having a great time! Heard pete ward talk about selling worship, got my groove on to estelle, caught a bit of richard rohr and enjoyed a pint of organic ale. Hoping to go to a bit more today!

Woolworths- meeting all your alt worship needs!

Just been down to Woolworths- as you do- and on the way out caught glimpse of a DVD called Audiovisualize and it was reduced to £1.99. Bit of a bargain I thought, so I got it and it's cracking. If you've seen the Grace- Images for Worship video, it's the same kind of thing "somewhere between film-making, digital art and music videos". 

So all you wanabee VJAYs, if you live near a woolies, get yourself down there and get searching through that bargain bin!

Newsgroups

I've subscribed to a couple of newsgroups recently that may be of interest to those in the blogosphere:

1. alternative emerging for anyone interested in Alternative Worship or Emerging Church. Its a chance to discuss theories, share creative worship ideas,tricks and tips, and a place where you can ask practical questions such as "How do we get started" or "where do you get your music from?"
2. 20s-30s initiative, which lou put me on to. the aim of which is to
   • Share stories & experiences of church
   • Hear about initiatives that are going on (perhaps some in your area!)
   • Share questions, issues & resources with each other
   • Offer support & encouragement to one another
   • Pray for one another
   • Enable us to meet together

The alternative/emerging group is quite quiet at the minute, i guess most of them will be on their way to Greenbelt, but the 20s-30s initiative is as busy as ever and well worth a look! In this latter group there's recently been a discussion about worship leading in methodist local churches. I felt the discussion was reinforcing the status quo so tried to introduce the idea of worship curator, which Pete put me onto during my time at Cliff. If you're interested this post from Jonny Baker and particularly this article from Mark Pierson will probably make you think!

Greenbelt '05

After packing and moving on Monday the holidays have officially begun. Well, I say holidays...

On Saturday Zoe and myself are off to Greenbelt. Can't wait. As Ian is keen to highlight, yes we are staying in a B & B, but it's not all the easy life. While there we're working (a bit) promoting the wonderful activities of Highway Projects... so if you're going pop along to the Emporium and they'll be a bit for rediscovering palestine, you'll probably find me somewhere there!

Besides the work I'm also really looking forward to the Proclaimers on Saturday night, the wonderful Giles Peterson on Sunday night, hearing Maggi Dawn and meeting up with plenty of like minded peeps at 2pm on Saturday over some organic beer.

After Greenbelt I'm straight off to Jordan with the afore mentioned Highway Projects... can't wait. There is an internet cafe round the corner from where we're staying (which serves beer in ice cold glasses) but i'm not sure how often i'll be able to get there...

Moving house!

Spent all day today packing boxes preparing to move house (staying in Darlington just moving into a nice manse!). Sad to leave the old pad but looking forward to pastures new.

A Churchless Faith

Earlier this week Maggi linked to this article by Craig Bird. If you haven't read Churchless Faith, this seems a good teaser/book review. I especially liked this bit, which made me and Zoe smile a lot!

"He [Jamieson] compares them [dechurched] to travellers who abandon a luxury liner in mid-cruise. They grow tired of the endless buffets and entertainment, the carefully designed activities, or the captain who makes all decisions about the ship's speed and direction. Longing to experience what is not on the itinerary, they sell all they have to buy a small boat and leave the well-travelled sea lanes for uncharted waters. For these "leavers," Jamieson says, the danger of going it alone is still safer than the scripted sameness of conformity."

Towards the end of the essay Bird tries to make some recommendations. In particular he (and Jamieson) suggests that we become 'leaver sensitive' and as we have focused on the need to go to those outside our churches so we should go to the dechurched.

This for me raises an important point. The Christ and Culture debate (contextualisation and all that) is often treated as something very tangible- like us going to them is simply a physical movement. For me this article highlights that with the complexity of modern networks, what is needed is no longer a physical move but an emotional and spiritual move. The mission of the church is now less about geographically coming alongside people and more about understanding people and realising why they're so blooming angry with the church and it's leadership.

All quiet in the blogosphere...

Christian blogs seem to be fairly quiet at the minute so you might want to check out feedster top 500 which tracks the most popular blogs each month. Engadget got number one, tallskinnykiwi is (i think) the top emergent blog at 381.

Greenbelt

Just been checking out the Greenbelt line up and I'm humoured to see the proclaimer are on Sunday night and absolutely chuffed to see that Leo Hickman is speaking... Can't wait!