URBANarmy ....??

I've thought long and hard about URBANarmy.

Our day-to-day life will be changing, we're going to a college environment where the issues are remote from our Poplar experience. I am worried that URBANarmy will not be what it has become! I am committed to blogging as the discipline of reflecting and writing has become an important part of developing thoughts and ideas for me - so maybe a change of blog?

"you can take the officer out of the inner city but you can never take the inner city out of the officer!" .

Nevertheless "you can take the officer out of the inner city but you can never take the inner city out of the officer!" My heart will always be for the marginalised and broken, the fragmented communities of our cities and their issues. Once I have got my bearings I hope to get involved in several projects that will give me focus. Camberwell is pretty inner city - go and sit in Kings College A&E (ER) and see what the night brings - URBANarmy will become my accountability - hold me to it!

No more stories of Patrick, Victor etc... you'll have to visit Bram for them. But I hope to find other people, others stories to teach me more of what the Kingdom of God is about and about how my life is to be a life of mission that models and speaks of that Kingdom.

Maybe a change of blog will happen one day - but for now URBANarmy will roll on for me probably more than for you!

---

The picture above is - "Camberwell Flats by Night" by David Hepher

Comments

Keeley said…
i think you should keep urban army at least it will remind you of poplar and all us lovely lot lol
9:59 PM
Yadah said…
Gordon, those cadets need some teachers to get them out of the theory of ministry and into the "real life" of ministry. I pray that your passion for ministry will disturb them enough that that will cry out to God for that deep intensity to press on.

I have enjoyed this blog. I actually can imagine you writing about experiences with the college students where you've taken them out to the streets. Watching them interact (or not) with the marginalized might be interesting. Teaching them to give and love beyond anything they've ever experienced before would surely be gratifying to you.

You never know . . . those might be some topics for the future.

(Of course, it'd be interesting to see how the "top brass" deals with someone who is so passionate about "real people".)

Press on, brother . . .
1:33 PM
Andrew Bale said…
Gordon - good to put a face to a name over the weekend!

Just wanted to say that the following sentence "My heart will always be for the marginalised and broken, the fragmented communities of our cities and their issues" prompted me to say "Hallelujah!" out loud!

This should be (will be again soon) the war cry of every Salvation Army Officer the world over.

When you've finished in A&E try goind down to the 'green' I'm told it is a veritable 'market' for every form of chemical addiction going.

God bless you, Kate and the family we will , as always, pray for you

Much love and prayers

Andre
7:27 PM
Gordon said…
Andrew - Good to meet you over the weekend - I was hoping you would've been in sackcloth (it was Railton that did that wasn't it!?).

Keeley - I think I would struggle to forget you all!! after all I have a framed picture of craig :o)

Thanks Yadah for the encouragement.
7:45 PM
Thomas said…
SAVE THE CHILDREN!

SAVE THE RAINFOREST!

SAVE URBANARMY!
6:53 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A bit of sally bashing....

Came across a good bit of Sally bashing over at salvationsoldiers I have to say we try and make sure that everything we raise goes into projects that build local community in Poplar but hopefully if you read this blog you get that sense anyway.
Read more

Lost Voices of Mission...Fred Brown

Image
Along the world famous Oxford street in London's Westend; nestled in among the classy frontage of designer shops there is almost an unnoticeable, unimpressive wooden door. It is more or less alongside The Regent Hall's main entrance onto the busyness of Oxford Street. People pass the wooden door oblivious to the equally unimpressive wooden steps that go up three storey's to what was Regent Hall's youth club. When I was 10 I played on these bare wooden steps totally unaware of the significance behind and upon which I played. Many years later I discovered a university youth work course - as an induction to Youth Work - stopped outside this insignificant wooden door to point out that Youth Work as we know it in the UK started behind this door. ...whether that be the surbanite flower people that flooded the Westend to express their free love; or the hard core drug community this unimpressive wooden door became the 'portal' that blurred encounter between church an
Read more

Types of Christian Spirituality...

Image
It is easy to think and to limit ourselves to a single approach to Christian spirituality. A 'if it works for me it should work for you approach' tends to narrow our appreciation of other ways which actually impoverishes our experience of spirituality. Urban T. Holmes has developed a means of exploring spirituality and helps develop an appreciation through discovering links between spirituality, temperament and predisposition. The diagram illustrates his ideas together with potential inherent dangers. The vertical continuum speaks and helps us understand our relational orientation to God. This ranges from engaging with God through understanding and theological process to a more emotive response. Horizontally speaks of a persons preferred means of pursuing the spiritual life. Kataphtic speaks of affirmation and the need of something tangible in an individuals spirituality- this may take the form of worship, art, even imagination with the use of metaphors, symbols and images play
Read more