URBANarmy

Great article in the Leadership Journal. Here are some edited highlights. "Biblical justice involves making individuals, communities, and the cosmos whole, by upholding both goodness and impartiality. It stands at the centre of true religion, according to James, who says that the kind of "religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world" James 1:27. Earlier Scripture says, "The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern" (prov 29:7) As we experience the wholeness that Jesus offers, we are to carry his justice forward in the world. Both individual transformation and community transformation are part of restoring wholeness. While morality and immorality are birthed in the human heart justice is centred in God's heart. We are to purify our hearts whose desires lead us to sin. With transformed hear...

Commissioning last year was conducted by The General, as part of his sermon he highlighted what Luther saw as the characteristics of a minister of religion. Study - mind Prayer - heart Affliction - empathy completed only then with action I wish I could find the reference as it resonates with Catherine Booth's thoughts of officers who should be people of head, hearts and hands. The strength of WBC for those who can see it is the commitment to encourage a framework of knowing, being and doing. There is a difference between the function of training that is shaped by the 'essence' of ministry and that of a function of training that is shaped by the 'form' of ministry. Luther's characteristics are a good reminder of what should shape what training should take. I've just seen the plans for the new reception at WBC; when it is finished will be dominated by Jeremiah 3:15. "I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledg...

"You have seen many things, but have paid no attention; your ears are open, but you hear nothing." Isaiah 42:20 " I'd forgotten this until looking through my ipod, but I doubt the person I performed the Heimlich manoeuvre on will. If WBC allows people who are 'without thinking theologically' to be commissioned 'without thinking theologically', TSA in the UK has more than a few problems. There are people who approach theological thinking in the same way that Kenny approached his baked potato. For some unfathomable reason people do God the discourtesy of forgetting to chew. Forgetting that they have been created with a brain to think, they swallow down whole chunks and then wonder why they start to choke on what Robert Jay Lifton calls thought terminating cliches. What is amazing is that for some they'd rather continue going red in the face, blue even puce. Morisy quotes Gwend Griffith-Dickson as a possible reason. High levels of emotion tend to...

I have a place of random and incomplete thinking. Generally as thoughts occur I jot them down with the idea of revisiting them. They often represent those off piste moments when listening to the thoughts of others as they preach. Sometimes the result of a good conversation. Sometimes something seen on TV or on the radio or thoughts that are inspired by reading. They end up on the evidence of God that is in my pocket, better known as an iPod Touch! Anyway 23 days ago I wrote this down. I suspect it was in what we call a 'spiritual day' at college when something was said that made a connection with the area of thinking on essence, function and  form. Holy living is the essence (desire) Spiritual formation is the function (intentionality) Christlike action and thought is the form. (expression) These thoughts feel incomplete for me, but the new label of random and incomplete thoughts will make a hospitable home for now.