URBANarmy

I've been at college today. The Salvation Army Training College - where I am also a tutor in Mission Studies. A visiting lecturer was fabulous. Spoke well. Communicated. But I saw something new. PFS - Pomo Fatigue Syndrome! I could see in the faces of the students, prospective Salvation Army ministers. I thought of this quote. "Someday when enough of us have gotten through to the other side of this transition, we can use ministry and gospel and neighbours and grace and other words we love, never needing to use the P-word again." (A is for Abductive Sweet, McClaren) Incidentally - not that many people leave comments - but any ideas about the characteristics of an institutional church. What distinguishes a church as institutional? Words like hierarchy, centralised, uniform (!), inflexible, controlling come to mind – any others

Dasani Coca-Cola pulls plug on Dasani …. "COCA-COLA is facing new humiliation and losses of at least £40 million after being forced to postpone the introduction of Dasani, its "pure, still water", in Europe. Company chiefs have accepted that Dasani as a brand is so vilified in Britain after it was exposed as a purified version of Sidcup tap water that the product stood no chance of early success on the Continent." Now there’s an idea. Bottle up tap water. Put it in a flash bottle. Trendy label. Edgy name then sell it. Except for one thing – people don’t buy the inauthentic anymore. However flash the bottle. Trendy the label. Edgy the name – the product has got to be real. When the world looks at the church what do we want it to see? The bottle, label and name or the product?

Mr Hopgood died last night. Mr Hopgood who shuffled around Poplar with his outlandishly large suitcase. Mr Hopgood who shuffled around with his rain damaged hat, his trousers too large, his shoes too tight, his encrusted coat. Mr Hopgood that had the longest fingernails I’d ever seen. Mr Hopgood who no-one wanted. Mr Hopgood had a story. They say a brilliant mind that for some unknown catalyst went over the edge. He spent most of his adult life in hostels refusing to bath or on the streets. He came to us in the winter frozen. He came to sleep and to eat. There he would find warmth and tolerance among the mothers and their children. Then at 1:30pm after a lunch off he would shuffle. It broke our hearts. We couldn’t get him into any hostels. Social services didn’t want to know. Because he smelt because he wouldn’t engage with resettlement programmes, because he would always represent a failure on their bureaucratic tick-lists. Well we fought. We fought social services; we fought ou...

I can’t pretend that today has been good – it hasn’t it. It could have something to do with Patrick’s contributions to worship…! It could have something to do with too many people content to watch on as the Gordon and Kate one man/woman band show rolled in for their entertainment. It could have something to do with my guitar strings slipping every song. It could have something to do with the toilet leaking what toilets leak best "let your living water flow!" It could have something to do with being stretched to the limit with pastoral issues that wouldn’t be right to even hint at here. It could have something to do with I need a holiday! I can’t pretend that today has been good – it hasn’t it. But then we sang together "Let us press on then, never despair, Live above feeling, victory's there; Jesus can keep us so near to him That nevermore our faith shall grow dim." Live above feeling eh…? Straight from mopping up from the toilet disaster I g...

We had our Men’s Fellowship last night. Poplar Men Together. PMT. An indoor Barbecue – steak, burgers, prawns and lots of smoke! To be honest being behind on my preparation for Sunday, having not seen the girls all day and wanting to have spent some time with Kate – I didn’t really want to be there! I don’t think I can describe the cocktail of personality ingredients that made the evening. Conversation ranged from The Passion of the Christ, to the best seafood restaurants in Padstow, Cornwall, to the political upheaval in Zimbabwe. Interspersed with those tall tales of past conquests, adventures and who has eaten the hottest curry that seems to be in the DNA of all blokes. It was quite some evening! When conversation changed and stories of suicide attempts emerged I recognised the importance of this group. I recognised that I was glad I was there. I looked around the group and saw a group of men by and large broken by the past. I saw a group of men drawing strength from one a...

Jason Clark post on the Immature Emerging Church caught my eye, made me think. "Let’s face it. The youth ministry culture is extremely susceptible to fads. Those of us in youth ministry are in love with the new. Add the adjectives 'newest' or 'latest' to stuff, and we’re interested…." Writes Duffy Robbins in an essay called Postmodernism Youth Ministry in Adolescence: A Look at the Culture of Youth Ministry. Has mission become the latest ecclesiastical glamorous fashion icon? No? Will mission ever be trendy? If it ever is what does mission lose? If ever it is what does mission gain?

Andrew to Dag in Douglas Coupland’s Generation X “I don't think my mother really grasps the concept of ecology or recycling," I start to tell Dag. "At Thanksgiving two years ago, after dinner, my mother was bagging all of the dinner trash into a huge nonbiodegradable bag. I pointed out to her that the bag was nonbiodegradable and she might want to consider using one of the degradable bags that were sitting on the shelf. She says to me, 'You're right! I forgot I had them and so she grabs one of the good bags. She then takes all of the trash, bad bag and all, and heaves it into the new one. The expression on her face was so genuinely proud that I didn't have the heart to tell her she'd gotten it all wrong…” This struck a chord with me as I listened to someone this week expound the demands of post-modernity and the missional role of church but through out used an evangelical lexicon and language of modernity.

"But the Emperor has nothing at all on!" said a little child at the edge of the crowd. "He's naked. The man in the crown is naked." ."Listen to the voice of innocence!" What the child said was recognized as the wisdom of innocence. Soon it ran through the crowd faster than the shuttle of a loom. The fabric of truth was woven and became the snapping flag of reality. "The child is right. The Emperor has nothing at all on!" someone cried out. Ever read THE EMPEROR'S NEW CLOTHES by Han Christian Anderson. Emerging church for the post-modern era seems so mono-cultural but that is where its success will lie. It is a community for the like-minded, the similar, and the cloned – yes all firing out their little natty brands and tags but in terms of missio dei - firing blanks. There will be those that will not fit in. Those that we are sacramentally called to minister to. Those not like you and me. Those who wouldn’t give a monkey’s abou...

Brendan came to the kitchen hatch in our community lounge. Our breakfast club was just finishing. "I need to see Gordon". Brendan is always in control. His voice commands action. An ex Royal Navy Captain he is used to pressure and not showing any signs. But there is something wrong. "Son I need you to come through here", I wander through with my cup of tea and we sit. "You guys have found me!" I look quizzically as Brendan is a frequent visitor. "For 51 years I haven’t heard from my family and your missing persons unit has found me". Brendan doesn’t do emotion. His eyes well up. "My sisters wanted to find me and now they have". I didn’t know whether I should apologise or be enthusiastic. I shut up and let him continue. His voice drops to a mere whisper, I strain to hear… "my brother died two years ago…no-one told me…can you write to them for me and tell them I’m sorry…very sorry…tell them to write". We chat further, I ...

Today has been good, really good. Some Sunday's I get the dread feeling that something is going to go off, someone is going to fall out with someone else and sense of church is rock bottom. But today has been really good. It is hard to identify why particularly. Perhaps it was because there seemed a oneness. Perhaps it was seeing Andrea and her friends Wei Wei; Mingshu; Fungming and Meho still intrigued and coming. Perhaps it was seeing two new people come into church for the first time and settle really quick. Perhaps it had something to do with having 19 different nationalities in worship today - it seems to add a profoundness to "making disciples of all nations" that is missing for me. Perhaps it had something to do with how people engaged with their regrets and hurts to walk away. Perhaps is was because the hall was packed - due to some friends from Norway. Today has been good!

e~mergentkiwi points to a full e~mmersion in a postmodern pool where the old labels might well wash away in the missiological waters of incarnational mission? I like that. I like Maggie’s take as well. There is strength to be gained by difference. Like those ants you see on wildlife programmes - or Balamory! - that cling together to become one in all their differences to cross rivers etc… Our theological labels only hold significance in terms of stimulating missional creative tension within the communities we are called love. A clinging together rather than pulling each other down. The problems start when our debate becomes insular, parochial pre-occupied. When we sit around and rather than see how our differences propel us to living out the gospel – we judge each other, score points, win arguments. Yes there is a need for debate, dialogue – perhaps we need to be certain about why. My girls are at the moment watching Chitty Chitty Bang Bang – I’m sure that they are not ...

"Imagine for a moment that you are God (and if this is too easy, beware!). Imagine that you love the whole world (something that more than a few Christians seem to doubt about God). Imagine that you also love the church, and you have commissioned the church to express your love to the world in word and deed. Imagine that you have two churches in a certain town, one preoccupied with gathering to learn more and more of your love but consistently avoiding any outward focus, while the other rejoices to gather in celebration and rejoices even more to scatter in service and get beyond its four-walled world. Which church would bring more joy to your heart?" (A is for Abductive Sweet, McClaren and Haselmayer) Hmmm.........!

Driving home from a morning’s teaching at The Salvation Army training college I’m getting vexed! Why is it that every traffic light is red? In my frustration I try to make the stopping every two minutes a positive thing and start to look around. Then I see them. I see them walking slowly. I see them heads down. I see them on the park bench. I see them stood around watching. I see them sat on the step of the off-license with their blue plastic bags. Everywhere I looked aimless people. No where to go, no one to talk to; no one to listen; no reason; no incentive - nothing. I arrive back at church. There is Tommy, fingers yellowed from nicotine, face a mosaic of fresh and old scars, alcohol breathed fumes offer a light relief from the smell of his socks! "My life is a mess…" he starts, I listen, encourage and comfort as the luncheon club looks on. As Tommy leaves I get thinking about a question a reporter asked me about HRH. "Is Prince Philip the most important...

It’s not everyday you have the Duke of Edinburgh - Prince Philip, Queen’s Husband - drop in on your youth club. It’s not everyday you see your youth worker catch the monarch’s husband as he trips on the stairs or to hear HRH ask us if we had started breeding yet! It’s not everyday you see local inner city estate kids mingle with royalty. It’s not everyday you see informality of youth undercut the formality of Pomp and privilege. "Yo Phil..."; "Heh Princey..." It’s not everyday you see the underprivilege of the privileged and the privilege of the underprivileged alongside each other. I looked at the Prince and I looked at the young people of our club and I wondered who was more underprivileged! This paradoxical picture will probably mature into a more reasonable reflection one day!

Thankfully we live in an era that talks about holistic mission. We live in an era that calls us to be 'kingdom people' and not 'church people'. That distinction helps keep evangelism real. A quote I re-visit frequently suggests: "Kingdom people seek first the kingdom of God and its justice; church people often put church work above the concerns of justice, mercy and truth. Church people think about how to get people into the church; Kingdom people think about how to get the church into the world. Church people worry that the world might change the church; kingdom people work to see the church change the world" (Howard Snyder). Such thinking is perhaps unpalatable to those that have bought into the McGavran-style church growth principles and 'means to an end' mission. Programmes with strings attached – however noble – simply do not cut an authentic edge. . It is hard to see how anything we do with a ‘hidden agenda’ reflects Jesus' spirit...

Maggi Dawn poses the question What does Emergent want? Thinkers or celebrities? From 5 months of observation it would appear that the major voices driving the emerging church debate are probably thinkers that have become minor celebrities in the world of 'blogosphere'. However let's face it there are not a whole host of people in the real world who know TallSkinnyKiwi; liquidthinking; Real live preacher; Jordan Cooper etc... Could it be that the ever increasing cloud of institutionalism is gradually moving in and over and through the emerging debate. Celebrities; Guru's; Conventions; it won't be long until we see little TM marks after every thought as like Tom Cats spraying their territory the thinkers vie for credibility and a book contract. I had to smile at Liquid thinking What Trend we have in Jesus... but how near the truth is that? We're often ducking under the “I want it?” demands of our 4 and 8 year olds while out shopping - we try to get the...

Andrea returned. Two other friends to house group on Thursday. Four more to worship today including a Japanese friend. Only Andrea is a Christian - the others not. Interestingly they all took an unlit candle as symbolic of wanting to start of journey with Christ. "Why do you do all of this?" Wei Wei asked as we looked around the church and what we do through the week. It is good belonging to a church that provokes unsolicited questions; intrigue and interest. It was good not to feel guilty about any hidden agenda’s, concealed motives, veiled intentions. Totally liberating to talk about grace, to talk about loving as God loves, amazing to discover that ‘unconditional love’ crosses all cultures. What a privilege to be able to proclaim. Who knows what will happen – I know that I was presented on a plate full permission to outline the liberating news of Gods grace. No nifty evangelism programme; not a video and workbook package in sight; no natty sketches on the back of a n...

Highlights I’m trying to put my finger on the highlights and lowlights for me this week.. :: The privilege of spending quality time with my family :: Our international night :: Spending time with the house group I go to :: Andrea turning up out of the blue :: Andrea brining a friend to church within hours of discovering we were a church and not a library! :: Andrea and her Friend brining another friend to their local house group :: Picking some tinned produce – for our food parcels - from a posh company in Canary Wharf and watching Patrick introduce himself as the Director of Space to the bemused manager of the company. :: Patrick’s naughty knowing smile when he overheard me telling someone! :: Top conversations throughout the week :: The Maureen moment :: Spending time with a friend I don’t get to see enough of and to share stories. :: Finding a coffee bar that if I could write a book – I would write it in there!! Lowlights :: Madrid Train Blast - Seeing the...

I finished my parental duty of the school run and I rush back to the available for our parent and toddler group. Kate is teaching this week so the responsibility falls to me to open and to be around. I was really late on Tuesday I don’t want to have a repeat of the teasing etc… Time is tight, I have been talking to a parent at school that we are becoming friends with (no evangelistic agenda – just friendship for friendship sake, quite a strange concept for us Christians these days!). We have arranged for her daughter and her to come over next week for the kids to play together. I break into that half run half walk thing through the high rises, dodging the broken glass and worse that you don’t want on the bottom of your shoe. A quick glance at my watch and I know the half-run half walk thing has to pick up pace. It is pretty obvious I am going to be late. I then see her. Maureen head down, shoulders heavy. “Hi Maureen…” I say in that professional pastoral way that ignores the pro...

Jason Clark posts this over at this blog... How many people hide behind the growing term, "missional church". We can locate ourselves as christians in a post-christian country, and declare we need to be missional. And we get rid of sundays, teaching, preaching, training, planning, and have candle, ambient music, food, and say we are missional. Or are we just hiding from what the modern church avoided all along, real mission. As I read Roland Allen, and Vincent Donovan, and Lesslie Newbigin, I think they would see through our of postmodern trendiness, and ask, well has getting rid of all the things from the modern church freed you for mission, real mission, serving the community and each other? Or is it great idea we hide behind to fool ourselves and cover our lack of confidence and self centredness? ::smoke screen... ::postmodern trendiness... ::freed for mission... ::serving the community and each other? ... ::great idea to hide behind... Hmmm...! Pers...

Every now and then something happens that bowls you over. Our church is busy . Open from 8am to 10pm most days. Breakfast, Luncheon, Youth clubs, Parent and toddlers, counseling, worship, discipleship classes lots going on. Apparently we have a theology of space - most of our youth club have a theology of spaced, (that's unfair sorry!) - if that means being a church that sees worship as having our doors open everyday, if that means being a church that makes itself totally available for whoever - I guess we have! Sometimes the days merge into each other and you just keep slogging away trying to build community in this fragmented society. Andrea, a young woman of perhaps 18, 19 came to the kitchen hatch and explained to our cook that God had told her to look for a church and she accidentally found ours. I find Andrea bible. We talk. I show her around. I explain that our concept of church is strongly based with our local community that we try to love unconditionally! She asks ...

A couple of posts recently caught my attention. " as a person of color I'm growing concerned about the emerging (postmodern) church…. i feel that though i am seen as a brother, our worlds don't connect. it's as if i were from another planet. .." The second regarding women can 'GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS' . Has drawn quite some debate. Maggi Dawn comments “ Whether 'Emergent' is 'emerging' for the sake of the Calling of God, or whether it's merely an obsession with all that is cool, hip and postmodern, for Heaven's sake (and earth's too) it needs to catch up with the rest of the world before it makes itself look like a complete idiot.” From our perspective I find it hard to see many of the people that call us family and church fitting into or being able to engage with any kind of emerging designer set up . These people are not designer people. The relevance they seek is unconditional love. When a debate is parochial people ...

Saturday was quite a night. For several years we have sought to celebrate the cultural diversity we as a church have been gifted with. So several times a year we celebrate with food and music something we call 'Lift Him Up – International'. Saturday was great and I have struggled to discover what it was that made it for me. Perhaps it was seeing our small church packed to the seams with enthusiasm. Perhaps it was the 15-20 different nationalities that were represented. Perhaps it was our singing in Ibo; Twi; Shona; French; Swahili; Lingala; Yoruba; Ndebele; Setswana; German; Spanish and even English. Perhaps it was seeing a oneness in all that difference, seeing old and young joining together to celebrate as God’s assorted children. I struggled to put my finger on what made Saturday memorable. It came to me. We were tidying up afterwards and all the time we were kept amused by the laughter of my daughters. Something, someone was entertaining them. We looked and it was Jam...

You need to know Sid and Maureen…. Sometimes all you can do... "…and what about you…how are you?" There is no answer, I continue to drive but look at Maureen. Her look is resolute on the road ahead, but I can see her heart is breaking. I try to understand what is coursing through her emotions. It’s difficult, you see I can’t get close to imagining what it must feel like to not be able to cope with looking after your husband anymore. I can’t get close to imagining what it must’ve been like to decide that your husband couldn’t come home. I can’t get close to imagining what it must have been like to say it is time that Sid goes into a home. Sid schizophrenia has worsened. He’s been on a secure ward in a hospital for months a slight improvement means he needs to be discharged but Maureen has decided that he can’t come home. So we are on the way to visit him in his new flat within a special complex. I glance at Maureen, the silence of seconds feels like minutes, her m...

Quite frequently I find myself engage with the 'old/new wineskin' conversation regarding church. Probably used it frequently myself. I find myself drawn back to what we were told were the 'old wineskins' to see if they truly were old before they were thrown out! I’m mulling over the role of church in society. Historically I look back and see the church as pre-runner of our welfare state; education system; health care even protection. I look back and see church that people turned to for help and assistance in the whole of their lives. I look back and see church with a definite role and place in society. I look back and see church that acted with no other agenda but that of what needed to be done – I’m not sure that is a wineskin that should’ve been thrown out. I wonder exactly what the old wineskins represent? I know that society evolved and much of what the church were central to was passed on to state responsibility. I wonder what was lost was the ethos whi...

Thomas came into church today, just to say hello, just to see how we all were. Thomas comes to our youth club and can quite often represent a handful. There are issues. He has been excluded from school on numerous occasions; he’s been part of our education project that looks to work with such young people that don’t respond well to the school environment. Now he’s unemployed, looking for a job. There was something special about the fact that this young man wanted to come and say hello. There is a trust, a special relationship of authenticity. Our conversation lightened my heart. It was lighter still when this young man started a conversation with Patrick sat waiting for his lunch. Full of respect despite Patrick’s notoriety. "So you have no goals when you work with young people? Surely the reason you do what you do with these young people is to get them saved?" a conversation a few hours later and my heart sinks lower and lower. I try my well-worn message of grace centred ...

I have just seen a disturbing picture. Farah Fawcett. Whoever made the decision to print the picture of this old woman needs to know the effect it has had on me. I lived for Thursday nights and Charley! She was part of my transition into young adulthood. I can close my eyes now and still see that picture of yesteryear that every male between 35-45 has locked away in their memories somewhere. But now? The plastic surgeons knife cut lines of lies into that beauty. Barely noticeable as at first the deception goes un-noticed. There is something inherently ugly in a 60-year-old looking 30. She has been robbed of the beauty of natural aging that speaks of experience, trust and knowledge. Her stretched skin over her cheek-bones speak of inauthenticity. Her distorted lips and chin scream sham, pretense, charade, con. We’ll leave my analysis at the neck-line I think! Where has that beauty gone? Left alone people would have celebrated that unbridled attractiveness, beauty. I wonder to wha...

Interesting programme on BBC2 last week. I was out at Youth Club so didn’t get to see it but have just watched it on video. " What the world thinks about God ", a mixture of panellists made observations. A concluding comment by British comedian and agnostic Sean Hughes made my ears prick up. "I wish you would all get back to what religion is about, which is a love of mankind…" Isaiah 58:6-7 "The kind of fasting I want is this: Remove the chains of oppression and the yoke of injustice, and let the oppressed go free. 7. Share your food with the hungry and open your homes to the homeless poor. Give clothes to those who have nothing to wear, and do not refuse to help your own relatives." The heart of religion?