URBANarmy

" Energized by faith seems to be a foundation characteristic . At the heart of these churches and their members is a reality about their awareness of the presence, goodness and love of God. Faith is the fuel on which these churches run." Warren, R (2004) The Healthy Churches' Handbook. Church House Publishing Seems a little obvious on first read through but it got me thinking about the danger of an 'unreality of awareness' theology. It got me thinking about a theology formed out of a self comforting preoccupation with self, turning mission into something it was never intended to me, a theology that turns mission into an activity of church and away from being an attribute of a our missionary God. I've got a feeling that keeping 'the presence, goodness and love of God' real in all that we do communicates to our "Thanks ... but no thanks" post-Christian culture.

Robert Warren's The Healthy Churches' Handbook was a good read this year. Insightful as it was resourceful. I am wanting to keep hold of some of the key points and emphasis - here seems as good a place. He identifies 7 marks of health within church that were revealed in research to churches that were 'growing'. So here they are in no particular order. "Outward-looking focus. These churches were typified not by concentrating on their own life and concerns but by a practical care for the local context, the whole of life and the world in which we live. They are marked by a capacity to enjoy life and feel the pain of the struggles in our world." Warren, R (2004) The Healthy Churches' Handbook. Church House Publishing I've got a feeling that this is more than a once a year 'mission' thing but an ongoing day by day struggle. I've got a feeling that this is more than singing some songs on Sunday but relying on the fair trade stall, and the MPH ba...

Books I've read this year... Kimball, D. (2003) The Emerging Church Vintage Christianity for New Generations Bosch, D. (1995) Believing in the Future: Toward a Missiology of Western Culture Fry, S. (2004) The Stars' Tennis Balls Dodd, P. (2004) My Faith So Far : A Story of Conversion and Confusion Page, N.(2004)And Now Let's Move Into a Time of Nonsense Reader, J., A.(2005)Blurred Encounters:A Reasoned Practice of Faith Morisy, A.(2004)Journeying Out: A New Appraoch to Christian Mission Coe, J.(2001)The Rotters Club Laurie, H.(1996)The Gun Seller Murray, S (2005) Church after Christendom Riddell et.al. (2000), The Prodigal Project. SPCK Newbigin, L (1986) Foolishness to the Greeks : The gospel and western culture. spck Brown, D (2004) Digital Fortress Warren, R (2004) The Healthy Churches' Handbook. Church House Publishing Hosseini, K (2003) The Kite Runner.Bloomsbury Kraybill, D (1990) The Upside-down kingdom. Herald Brookmyre, C. (1996) Quite ugly one morning. abacu...

How do you sum up a day like today? How do you sum up a day when all the characters that shape me were together? Patrick, Judith, Victor etc... together with 80 odd people together as family as opposed being by themselves? How do you sum up some of our African congregation playing all the christmas classics with frail 80 year old Lucy jamming along on her mouth organ? How do you sum up the panic when potatoes simply refused to roast, carrots refused to boil to schedule? How do you sum up being able to drop people home and sense their heart felt gratitude? Bethan got close. "... you know what Dad?.... you really do smell of old people...!" I love being part of the 'visible emerged' church at Christmas even if I do smell of old people!! I'm off for a bath and a bit of a read!!

Ok I close my eyes and I see turkey, I smell turkey, my family say I smell like turkey. Carving for 85 has left an indelible mark! The church is set for the day - the tables are laid, vegetables peeled. We're ready for whatever tomorrow may hold. I hope that the gift that our church is giving, will point beyond what we do, to the true gift that Christmas celebrates. I hope that when all is over and we have dropped everyone home, the mark of Christmas that is 'love come down' will be as indelible as my turkeys!

As soon as we walked in I knew it was a mistake. Basket in one hand two fed up girls tagging along we fought through the crowds in the supermarket. All I needed was some milk, tea bags and washing powder but the aisles were loaded with mayhem, chaos, retail anarchy, people queuing, trolleys loaded high with Christmas booty. We didn't make it to the teabags. We turned and fled empty handed. Tonight I thought of the unbridled lavishness that Christmas unleashes as people over spend to over eat for just one day, a day in which they don't even believe. I thought of the excess that Christmas has become as I stood on the doorstep of a family handing over a donated Christmas hamper. I thought of the festive overload that we buy into to have a good Christmas as I looked into the one small room where this family live. I thought of the 'merry' gluttonous overload that we condone as I looked at the three half plastic bags of shopping in the doorway. She catches me looking at the b...

Carolling with the band always gives you time to think. Largely I felt quite sad last night as the passers by hurried home. Two drunks tried to converse with me. One a Chinese guy that made very little sense to me for what seemed eternity. The comedy of the moment not lost on the city commuters as he asked me for directions to the millennium dome with a mixture of sign language and extremely loud and broken English. But it was Matty that upset me. Matty used to come to our Youth Club - and whenever I see him now he is hammered. I tried talking to this swaying 15 year old, his drink filled eyes struggling to make the effort to focus. As he staggered his way through the crowds I couldn't help thinking about Marcus and the conversation I had with him a couple of weeks ago; about when he started to drink heavily as a 15 year old; about how his mother can't have him in the house; about how he now has a car that he bought for £10 to sleep in. I couldn't help thinking about Ralp...

Stuart Murray observes... if there is "one particular dimension of the gospel distorted by Christendom: it is good news to the poor. Marginal post-Christendom churches may rediscover a radical gospel that subverts condescending 'need-oriented evangelism' (that leaves unchallenged an unjust status quo) and reconnects evangelism with social justice. If the gospel is truly good news to the poor, we have not been preaching the gospel, for the rich and powerful have not found it disturbing and the poor have not found it liberating." Murray, S.(2004)Post-Christendom Church and Mission in a Strange New World. Pasternoster pp. 163. Distorted gospel.... I'm not too comfortable with that? :o(

The carol service at Poplar as ever was a highlight - today was our eighth in Poplar. As we watched the carols from Lincoln Cathedral on BBC, with trumpeted descants, Dickensian singers, orchestrated harmonies - we smiled as we thought back to the variegated chaos that was Poplar's. It is funny what feelings you have when you look out on a congregation - today I felt overwhelming love and joy of being part of the body of Christ that is Poplar Salvation Army. It's a feeling to keep hold of especially as Turkey's, vegetables, fruit, drinks and all the bits and bobs - to make Christmas day a family treat for 80 - need to be picked up. It's a feeling to keep hold of as we start a gruelling week of carolling to raise money for both our Christmas efforts and to help with our local work in the community. It's a feeling to keep hold of in ministry because it can all too easily be eroded away reducing what we do to just a job. I'm glad of moments that leading a carol ser...

I've enjoyed the last three weeks following the thoughts of Professor Robert Winston as he presented his BBC documentary The Story of God . Tonight talking about the ill-perceived 'battle' between science and religion he coined the phrase the 'principle of uncertainty' that he suggests fundamentalists of whatever persuasion whether religious or scientific would do well to cultivate. Perhaps influenced by Heisenberg ; perhaps this brilliant man's scientific mind finds comfort in the mystery that is God. It seemed a shame that most of the Christians he spoke with and interviewed were more comfortable with squeezing God into a box than expressing the struggle that is the mystery of God. The smugness of always having the right answer, the clever rhetoric really wasn't that appealing. A SA songwriter once wrote:- Many are the things I cannot understand, All above my mystery I see; But the gift most wonderful from God's own hand Surely is his gift of grace ...

We got worried this week Ralph hasn't been in. Ralph an amiable alcoholic comes in probably once or twice a month to have a cup of tea and chortle nonsense with us but we haven't seen Ralph for a month. Some phones calls and we discover that Ralph has died. His neighbours disturbed by a smell called the police and they found Ralph. I'm going to miss Ralph and I'll remember him. I'll remember how some weeks he would visit us in his pygamas. I'll remember his unintelligible Geordie accent. I'll remember him telling me stories and laughing, making me laugh so hard because I couldn't understand a thing he said and the more I laughed, the more he laughed thinking I understood. I'll remember his face being tattooless. I'll remember him coming into our Sunday services from time to time (once in a suit and tie). I'll remember the effects alcohol was having on his body, his pain as his body started to give up. Above all I'll remember the glint in...

Today saw the end of the children's Christmas parties that we have organised. Over 130 kids from 6 months to 17 over different nights and parties have partied together and left with a gift. The youth and family workers and volunteers have worked hard! I stole a glimpse of our special needs youth club and saw the looks of joy on their faces. Though not totally involved with that group that un-noticed stolen glimpse through the door became an early Christmas present!

Judith came in today (more on Judith here and here ) with her friend Gary. More recently she has made me nervous by virtue of the drunken amorous advances she makes on me. Today she asks for a food parcel and so I go to go, but as I turn she grabs my arm, looks longingly through drunken eyes "do you like my new glasses...?" I try to be pleasently distant, "umm yeah they seem to suit you..." She lets go of my arm, I head for the kitchen and get a couple of meals together. As I arrive back she proudly tells Gary "He's the one I really like, you know the one I tell you about, the one I fancy...!" Ok my discomfort is growing, I'm grateful that Roz our youth worker has heard my telepathic cries of 'stay with me, please say with me' . I turn to Judith and try to take the sting out of the situation - "Steady on Judith you know I'm happily married" I say with a nervous giggle not really befitting my newly 40-year-old status! She ju...

Seems that Christmas day on a Sunday is a bit of an issue for some churches. What to do on a day when the marginalised feel that extra bit marginal? What to do on a day when the lonely feel that extra bit lonely? What to do on a day when the depressed feel that extra bit depressed? What to do on a day when the broken feel that extra bit broken? Here's an idea .... close! Read more here and here . If ever there is a day on which to demonstrate the fullness of Jesus through community and family it is Christmas day. I wonder if Christmas day is a missional litmus test? Christmas day is an important day for us as church some memories here and here . When the song of the angels is silent When the star in the sky is gone When the kings and princes are home When the shepherds are again tending their sheep When the manger is darkened and still The work of Christmas begins -- To find the lost To heal the broken To feed the hungry To rebuild the nations To bring peace among people To bef...

When we first met Steph six years ago she was homeless. Not stereo-typically homeless, but she was someone who had nowhere when she had to move out from her friend's flat, nowhere but the streets. The best we were able to do was to get her into our women's hostel at Hope Town. Her first own flat went a bit sour and she had to move out of that flat because of local intimidation by kids looking to fund their drug dependence on what little Steph had. Since then eighteen months ago she has been in temporary accommodation. Not anymore. Today I helped her move to her brand new flat, just built. Today as we drove to her new flat with her belongings in the back of the mini-bus, her gold fish slopping its water with every bump and corner - I realised that she had come along way in the time we have known her. There was something else - in the first time since I have known her she was able to hold her head high, there was a new found confidence, a new found pride. We finished carrying in ...

"Sweet, spiritualized syrup ... denying the incarnation ... prostituting biblical truth" Donald Kraybill says it hard - 'either/or', non-holistic mission centred on a blindspot that is non-existent in Jesus' life and ministry probably isn't the way to go! "This false split between spiritual and social leads to a warped reading of the Scripture. It tempts us to turn Jesus' hard sayings into sweet, spiritualized syrup. This dilutes his teaching, making it harmless. We marvel at the atoning death of Jesus but forget he also demonstrated a new way of living.... ... Any gospel which isn't social isn't gospel. God's love for the world produced social action. God didn't just sit in a great theological rocking chair and muse about loving the world. God acted. God entered social affairs --- in human form. Through Jesus, God lived and interacted in a real social environment. Jesus, in essence, disclosed God's social habits. In the incarnat...

I was surprised to see Marcus. I thought I had got him into the system when I referred him to the 'Street Rescue' people who co-ordinate direct access into all hostels whether SA or not across London. You can't get direct access unless you have their referral - which can be frustrating, but isn't a bad system as it tends to flush out those who are genuine street homeless from those who have had an argument with their partners. The system just could do with some flexibility in emergencies. "Marcus, mate what have you done to your face..." I have a vivid foreboding reminder of Tommy , it all seems familiar. Not boiling fat this time, but tomato soup. Marcus explains how he cooks on an open fire in the park. He explains how he opened a tin of soup that was too hot and how it exploded like a shot gun into his face. His face is a cocktail of ill formed scabs, cuts and blisters where he has been scorched with soup. One eye barely open he says "....it's get...

There was something almost humorously macabre about the scene. We went to the outdoor skating rink nestled at the foot of the towers of Canary Wharf. Quite obviously intended for the suits of Canary Wharf to have a relaxing skate before heading off to their gated communities. But tonight as I watched the grace on ice of the well groomed there was an added element to the corporate night out. It was how I imagined Francis Drake singeing the beard of Spanish King Philip II at Cadiz. Whipping in between the gentile suits in 'denimed mufty' were our guys, our senior youth club causing chaos and mayhem. I'm not entirely sure young people from the inner city estates of Poplar were the target group for the outdoor skating rink at Canary Wharf sponsored by O2. But tonight that's what they got! For an hour the mayhem, the chaos was beautiful. The best bit? The 10 minute walk into the lights of Canary Wharf and the 10 minute walk away from the lights afterwards. A big chunk of wha...

I left with Kate's words ringing in my ears - "don't be late back for your birthday surprise". I was to make the journey to Chelmsford to pick up a car load of toys to give to disadvantaged families in the run up to Christmas. I drive listening to the radio and thanking God for the new leader of the opposition. Nothing to do with the fact that the Conservatives have gone with a Tony Blair clone just as Labour have done with that image. Nothing to do with the fact that the impending news of "which David?" which has been frankly a little tedious is now ended. No! it had everything to do with the fact that everyone interviewed made mention of the freshness of youth that he will inject into British politics; his youthful outlook; his boyish charm - David Cameron is 39! Yes I remember being 39 as if it were yesterday. Suddenly turning 40 today is less of an issue!! Driving back to Poplar with the company of a disorientated yet chirpy Furby - I wonder about the b...

We were all nice and warm, armed with tea, coffee and the promise of cream cakes, enjoying each others company. Usually we meet in different peoples homes but tonight our small groups were combined in our 'community lounge' to share thoughts, ideas and enjoy being together. Suddenly we were aware of someone outside peering in. I let in a man new to me, in his thirties, a little wobbly wearing only a T-shirt. He politely said hello to everyone as he dragged in a bulging sleeping bag looking like a snake with indigestion! "Alright guv... I'm Marcus" he shakes my hand. He sniffs and wipes his nose on the back of his hand. "Listen I've got a bit of an issue, a bit of a problem..." That was an hour or so ago. Several cups of tea, and most of the cream cakes later - I've heard Marcus' story and he is right he has got a bit of an issue, a bit of a problem. Sleeping on the streets carrying possessions in a sleeping bag day in day out would be an iss...

It seemed a fun idea at the time. The Times have chosen The Salvation Army as their charity for Christmas. As part of that they have asked me to blog as we work towards what we do over the Christmas period. So I guess I should welcome anyone who stumbles across this blog from the link that is going to be on The Times site ( here ) to URBANarmy. I guess also I should do that disclaimer thing where I am supposed to apologise for my opinions not necessarily representing The Salvation Army's. The point is we are totally passionate in what we do as a church in our community. We are totally passionate about trying to live our lives in such away that our church would be missed from our community should it disappear. We are totally passionate about trying to make a difference with people who probably don't read The Times! So I'm not too sure there is any need for any kind of apology! URBANarmy isn't just for Christmas! A quick flick through some of my key blogs on the side ba...

The skip had been delivered and we start a clear out. Mostly half broken plywood chairs that needed to be laid to rest. I'm in the car park exerting myself as one by one I break the chairs into bite size pieces. I've a good technique of destruction - the pile of plywood mounts. Our community cafe is in full swing and I am drawing some attention as well as a blister or two - I wait. I know it wont be long before people come and help. I know that there are those who won't be able to resist. First to the rescue Patrick, he joins in the carnage, then Victor - as splinters fly we talk and laugh. Patrick is keen to tell us between blows of destruction that he is one of the 'Craig twins'. Victor for once is fairly lucid. Fifteen minutes have gone and so have the chairs. Patrick almost without drawing breath is still telling me gangster stories of being a 'Craig'. Chair carnage finished I put a thankful arm around Patrick "Pat do you mean a Kray* twin...? He l...