URBANarmy

I can't help but look forward to seeing Eryn as a Winter Page in Cinderella with The Royal Ballet Company at the Royal Opera house. It'll be a case of blink and you'll miss it but nevertheless well done Eryn!!

I read this I think in the leadership journal a couple of months ago and it interested me. "To be saved was more than just an external pardon by God or an intellectual consent to an idea. For CS Lewis, salvation was an inward process involving the transformation of the whole person by the Holy Spirit and leading to nothing less than mystical union with God. In other words Lewis embraced the ancient Christian doctrine of theosis." Sent from my iPod

Alan Hirsch facebooked some interesting information regarding Søren Kierkegaard and faith development from a forthcoming book authored by Hirsch and Frost tentatively called "The Faith of Leap: A Theology of Adventure and Risk and the Implications for Discipleship, Mission, Leadership, and the Church" "One of the ways Søren Kierkegaard articulated how we move to true maturity is what is known as ‘the three stages’: the aesthetic, ethical, and the religious stage. Firstly there is the Aesthetic Stage : Here the individual lives in what Kierkegaard calls ‘immediacy.’ "At this level one lives within almost entirely devoted to the pursuit of pleasure (what he calls ‘the prisoner of the happy moment’). Life here is profoundly unreflective and lived in conformity with the expectations of the ‘crowd.’ For the person in this stage, the highest goal is self-satisfaction, even at the cost of living an authentic, consistent life. But the end result is that people m...

Geoff Ryan is asking for the word to be put out! Here is the word, consider it out! A reminder that the fourth Urban Forum is taking place this coming January. This time it will take place in downtown Toronto, Canada as a partnership project between The Salvation Army and Church Planting Canada ( www.churchplantingcanada.ca ). The dates are January 26-29, 2011 and the theme is Dependence or Dignity? From Service Provision to Community Development . The Forum website is updated with the schedule of events and information on speakers and presenters, registration form, payment and contact details and a downloadable PDF of the promotional poster. www.theurbanforum.com Please pass the word along to people in your networks who would be interested and find the Forum helpful in their ministry. I'm hoping we see a sizeable, mutli-tribe turnout in January.

You can tell that Jim is a big drinker, one thing you can't tell is how old he is. You can see a glint in his eye, while the street may be a rough place he enjoys life. He brought a book in tonight for a volunteer who he thought would benefit from reading it. Shane Claibourne's 'The Irresistible Revolution', Matthew clearly touched flicked through the pages. With a sigh he turns to us and says "I can't have it ... he has stolen it from a library !" After another closer examination .... "it's from a Quaker library, I'll have to return it!" Trying to encourage him to read the book I hear myself say... "...don't worry they wont say a word!!" Clearly something flawed in the sentiment, but nevertheless compelling. There was something more compelling from Jim. He prayed for us tonight, the staff and volunteers, he sobbed his gratitude to God for somewhere to go.

Jonathan Sacks writing in the Times (3 sept 2010) draws attention to the brilliance of Hawkings and his mind, but points out that while he is an outstanding scientist he is a poor theologian. Apparently, within Hawkings thinking there is a fallacy. Hawkings suggests 'that if we found science's holy grail, a theory of everything, we would know the mind of God and then why we and the universe exist', However Sacks argues should that happen we would know how rather than why. "There is a difference between science and religion. Science is about explanation. Religion is about interpretation. Science takes things apart to see how they work. Religion puts things together to see what they mean. They are different intellectual enterprises. They even occupy different hemispheres of the brain. Science - linear, atomistic, analytical is typically left brain activity. Religion - integrative, holistic, relational is supremely a work of the right brain." So Sacks makes the ...

Looking through my notes I liked what Moltmann had to say about getting the balance right between: Orthodoxy - right belief Orthopraxy - right action Orthopasy * - right emotion * (sic) I may have heard the term wrong but the sentiment still fits