URBANarmy

A quick skype call to Nick gave me an insight. Nick in the kitchen listening to podcasts has inspired me. I've just finished a mammoth ironing session with the Roxburgh Journal this is a great resource from an ever improving Allelon . If your thing is mission this is a great resource . Whether you want to express it within an emerging 'fresh' expression or within an existing ecclesiology , seeking to plant or transition, these podcasts so far I am sure will resource you. So far we have had.... Conversations from New Zealand with Steve Taylor : Engaging Missional Imagination in a Traditional Church Missional Life Emerges in the Local Church with Mike Goheen Church Transformation and Culture Change with Darryl Dash and The FRWY in the Neighborhood with Pernell ... all worth it but it was good hearing about Pernell's experience of planting a Salvation Army expression of church within a coffee shop.

Someone emailed me these photos and they made me smile.

Not really sure Manchester Utd turned up today! Report here Nice to finish the season with a well deserved FA cup final victory even with the third team!

The sacraments gets another airing at theRubicon ( here ). Grant brings some light relief to the debate by pointing to this video for reasons not to change the SA position. The infant baptism is my favourite - as I am not sure who was baptising who!

You know what...? I look back to my formative years growing up in TSA , there is a lot I am thankful for? I might know the fingering for C# on my BBb tuba , but there seems to be so much that I feel acutely ignorant about that I wish I had stumbled on earlier. Thanks to a friend sending me a chapter of Ronald Rolheiser's Seeking Spirituality: Guidelines for a Christian Spirituality for the 21st Century to check out, I stumbled into the Paschal Cycle - a journey from Good Friday to Pentecost. Rolheiser puts it like this:- Good Friday: 'the loss of life - real death' Easter Sunday: 'the reception of new life' The Forty days: 'a time for readjustment to the new and for grieving the old' Ascension : 'letting go of the old and letting it bless you, the refusal to cling' Pentecost: ' the reception of new spirit for the new life that one is already living' Or in other words... 'Name your deaths' 'Claim your births' 'Griev...

This looks like it could be useful. Bibme

This weekend I met for the first time and spent a few hours with Geoff Ryan of theRubicon fame. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting this guy. As we drank take out coffee and chatted about TSA's proclivity towards the poor, fragmented communities and dysfunctional families, the irony of sitting in grounds of Holy Trinity Brompton - home of alpha and all things beautiful - while the light faded on the opulence of Knightsbridge wasn't lost on me!

Children of Light This is the end of Dallas Willard! He finishes with a good section on what he calls 'Children of Light' a summary of what his book Renovation of the Heart: Putting on the Character of Christ is all about - it is a good place to start should you want to read what is a dense and in places a pretty hard read if you are a 'cover to cover' person. Here is the section in full:- Thought life. Perhaps the first thing we notice when we get to know their inner life is what they think about, or what is on their mind. They think about God. He is never out of their mind. They love to dwell upon God and upon his greatness and loveliness, as brought to light in Jesus Christ. They adore him in nature, in history, in his Son and in his saints. One could even say they are 'God-intoxicated' (Acts 2:13; Eph 5:18), though no-one has a stronger sense of reality and practicality than they do. Their mind is filled with biblical ideas of God's nature, actions, an...

whether 'lip service piety' amounts to holiness, will probably remain an area that will continue to dog the church for as long as it already has done' Transformation of the Soul Willard's chapter on the soul is basically his conclusion. It is the coming together of all the elements he has explored, it is the culmination of the transformation of the thought life, of feelings, of the will and character, of the body and of the social dimension. In short the transformation of the soul amounts to what is running your life. Willard calls the soul the 'deepest level of life and power in the human being' (pp 175) and introduces the term antinomian - which means against the law - in terms of what the transformation of the soul might look like. Pointing to religiosity he highlights the danger should we think that 'holding the law, and obedience to the law' is the answer to transformation of the soul. Holiness I guess is the key word here, expressed through sa...

It is Anthony's fault I support Chelsea. He didn't have to take me along to Stamford Bridge when I was 10, in the dark ages of bankruptcy and a huge East Stand. He didn't have to introduce me Tommy Langley, Clive Walker and Ray 'Butch' Wilkins. He didn't have to introduce me the atmosphere of The Shed. But he did. Anthony is my big brother and he has a Cup Final ticket and I don't!! Anthony is going to Wem-ber-ley and I am not! I don't suppose anyone has a spare ticket and wants to become my friend?

Ten years ago we said goodbye to two great friends as they travelled back to Brisbane in Australia. Yesterday they popped by for the evening and Kate and I realised what great friends they still are! Today we said goodbye to Paul and Sue Holley again, I hope it isn't another ten years.

Thoroughly enjoyed this film over the weekend. The film was created out of 'homage to the men who who taught us a lesson in humanity' and reflects the 1914 Christmas Day truce when British, French and German soldiers put aside their arms to exchange gifts, sing, celebrate Mass, play football and bury their dead. read more about the film here . With strong themes of pacifism, resistance to authority, compassion, forgiveness, grace, humanity and respect - this a is a good film to get hold of.

A good weekend spent nestled somewhere in Hampshire, but pretty close to both Wiltshire and Dorset! The highlight was being re-introduced to the apparently ancient Viking game of Kubb . ....oh yeah and Chelsea lost out to Manchester United in the Premiership... well done!

If you are going to Roots 07 - have a good time and travel safely. As for us... Boots 07 will be shared with RURALarmy sorry to all those who left the booking for our alternative celebration too late - remember to get in early for next year! If you are in Romsey of Hampshire area look out for us!

I don't tend to watch a lot of TV but here's a dilema. It is House on 5 or Hustle on BBC1. Or I learn how to use the video again!

I have resisted the urge to point out Godtube having seen it a while back on Pernell's . The Times have run with it - here . I can't but help warn any atheists that may read this insignificant little blog, that once they watch this video, they will be able to do nothing but admit the existence of God! Be warned - you know who you are - this could change your life ;o). Godtube ............ honestly!!

I can't help wonder why in all the years I have watched football I have watched my team - whether that be England or Chelsea - win on penalties, I think twice! Chelsea lose out of penalties