Tuesday, 19 December 2006
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Currently Reading
The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical
By Shane Claiborne
see relatedsoil-breaking in the garden of ideas
I am very much aware of how time passes so quickly. It's almost four months since I began to work alongside the churches in Edinburgh city. It's probably to best part of six, if not eight, weeks since we began this conversation. I realise how we need to press on rather than letting things stop, and for identifying a sustainable pace to this. My apologies for not getting back to you sooner.
There does need to be a space and place to explore thoughts and ideas and to try some out. Here are some things we might like to look at:
- What might a "celtic community" look like today?
- What are the things that beat at the heart of a city like Edinburgh?
- What might happen if a group of people decide to be missionary together?
- What if the default setting of the kingdom of the heavens was "yes"?
What are some of the big questions for you at the moment? How would you be able to pursue these thoughts at this moment in time, given families, work, and everything else?
Here's my present reading list:
- The Irresistible Revolution (Shane Claiborne)
- Christianity Rediscovered (Vincent Donovan)
- The Present Future (Reggie McNeal)
- The Dream Center: A2 Case Study (Willow Creek)
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Comments (5)
Hurrah, that appeared where I thought it would.
I'm reading " A generous orthodoxy", I'm about half way through,
and I'm reading "The Celtic Way of Evangelism", also half way through.
My head is buzzing with ideas.
<LI>What might a "celtic community" look like today? <LI>What are the things that beat at the heart of a city like Edinburgh? <LI>What might happen if a group of people decide to be missionary together?These 3 are good questions! I don't think I have any answers!
<LI>What if the default setting of the kingdom of the heavens was "yes"?I don't understand this one!
"What are some of the big questions for you at the moment? How would you be able to pursue these thoughts at this moment in time, given families, work, and everything else?"
What does God want me to do next?
(He brought me to Edinburgh, called me to preach in the Methodist church, repeatedly tells me to stay put in the church I'm in.........but what next?)
Welcome to the conversation, barefootpreacher. I like the name; does this mean you long to be more in touch with the word of God?
It sounds like the next step is to figure out the next step with others (appropriate for barefootpreachers) - community certainly is God's answer to a lot of our quandaries. What are some of the ideas you mention, coming out of your reading of 'A Generous Orthodoxy' and 'The Celtic Way of Evangelism'?
For the default setting of the kingdom being "yes" see 2 Corinthians 1:19-22. Again, thinking on Genesis 2:15-17 (in the original gardenofideas), it strikes me that "yes" is what God wants to say to us. How does this compare with the basic setting of churches when a fresh idea, thought, or dream comes along?
The ideas are still buzzing round my head, I've started jotting some of them down in a note book, I'll post some more up here when they crystallize a bit more/depending on when the kids let me on the computer!!
I've now finished reading "The Celtic Way of Evangelism", I think its great upto chp6 but found chp 7 slightly disappointing (ie no specific answers for us, and many of his examples aren't really Celtic at all), seriously applying chps 1-6 to our own situation seems like a very good idea. And yes I'm sure a lot of this has to be worked out in community.
I've also read more of "A Generous Orthodoxy", a lot of what he is saying I agree with/have already thought. I read his chapter about Anglicans last night and agreed with it, and as thats where I started and still feel is where my deepest roots are, I found it interesting that he says something along the lines of Anglicans never having become "Modern" and hence have less problem than some with becoming "postmodern", I'm still thinking about that one.
The part I have some reservation about is when he uses the terms "Holy Spirit" and "the Spirit of Jesus" as if these were interchangeable, he seems in parts to be compacting the Trinity into 2 persons instead of 3, I may be misinterpreting what he means. I still can't find my book about Eastern Orthodox theology (I suspect it was a library book), but I think the Celtic Christians and the Eastern Orthodox have similar views on the Trinity and the Holy Spirit, which are different to those in the "Roman" and most protestant churches.
I'll explain about the name later.
Hope you had a good Christmas and a Happy New Year Geoffrey. I didn't realise you still had your xanga site. I understand Edinburgh was cancelled on new year's eve!
You may have seen I am reading Soul Cravings, Erwin's latest. It's good and I'm looking to start my other Christmas gift, Blue Like Jazz soon. I must get into Brian McLaren as well, although I can't be doing with a Trinity of 2, spoils all my images etc.
I’ve been jotting things down in reply to the question: What might a "Celtic community" look like today? I’ll try and bring the jottings together:
A modern day Methodist, Celtic, Monastic Community
Would
<LI>Have a name. E.g. "Salt and Light" <LI>Have a purpose: spreading the gospel/saving the lost. <LI>Have a rule. Something like: We commit ourselves to being a Methodist, Celtic Monastic, community of people, existing to spread the Kingdom of God. Following a regular pattern of prayer and meeting together. <LI>Have a daily pattern of prayer for each member to use. <LI>Meet as a group on a regular basis, i.e. twice a week. Living separately but meeting regularly. Remaining "in the world" but not "of the world". In recent history most groups of people forming alternative communities seem to go off and buy a big house in the country, become very inward looking and forget about the rest of humanity. Celtic church communities seemed to be the opposite of this, living alongside other people for their benefit. People involved would need to live within easy travelling distance of each other (15-20mins by car?) and not at the opposite ends of Scotland. <LI>Both of these meetings would be primarily for worship, once on a Sunday and once mid week. <LI>On a Sunday the community would worship together (but not necessarily in the same place each week). Maybe going round as a group to the 5 different churches in Edinburgh, plus worshipping in an outdoor location on occasion (May to October only). Current pattern of preachers travelling around the circuit without friends, colleagues or family members feels increasingly uncomfortable and odd, and prevents relationships developing. <LI>Midweek the gathering for worship could include all members of the community, plus be open as a public act of worship to all comers. This way everything the community did together would also be open to others, so it wouldn’t become exclusive or separated off. <LI>Be inclusive – containing people of all types and reaching out to people of all types, i.e. not just reaching out to a specific type of person. To be both Methodist and Celtic a community has to be inclusive in the widest sense. When I commented that some of the examples in "The Celtic Way of Evangelism" chap 7 were not Celtic, what I meant was that they were not inclusive. Rather they were ministries aimed at very specific groups of people (which is a good and necessary thing in those situations he described), a truly Celtic community would contain a complete cross section of the population. <LI>The community would work together to prepare people for mission (TCWE chap 4 page 47-48).By being Methodist we might mean:
<LI>Accepting a variety of theological views, "think and let think". <LI>Believing in the 4 Alls of Methodism <LI>Using an annual Covenant service <LI>Openness (including an open table for communion). <LI>Singing culturally relevant music. <LI>Using discipleship and small groups. <LI>Being rational/logical. <LI>Being inclusive.By being Celtic we might mean:
<LI>Being Monotheistic <LI>Being Trinitarian <LI>Loving nature <LI>Believing in natural revelation <LI>Working really hard at understanding and identifying with people <LI>Using the imagination/intuition/emotions. <LI>Using story telling <LI>Seeing evangelism as a group activity <LI>Going alongside people and staying as long as necessary (not hit and run evangelism) <LI>Accepting that belonging comes before believing, use the Celtic model of reaching people (TCWE, page 53).By being monastic we might mean:
<LI>Having a rule of life <LI>Taking discipline seriously <LI>Regular prayer <LI>Regular worship