Category Archives: Uncategorized

Ira Glass receives an award for his, ‘stupid magic trick’

Posted on by
Reply

The name Ira Glass probably doesn’t mean much to many people outside of the US, but his radio show This American Life, is a wonderful repository of modern storytelling that deserves to have a global reach.

Ira’s unique ‘conversational’ tone of voice isn’t what you would expect from a radio host, but it works. It works, not really because of what he says, but because of the stories the programme shares.

Just take a look at the list of favourite shows.

  • Show 360: Switched at Birth (25th July 2008) – On a summer day in 1951, tow baby girls were born in a hospital in small-town Wisconsin. The infants were accidentally switched, and went home with the wrong families. 
  • Show 241: 20 Acts in 60 Minutes (11th July 2003) – Instead of the usual “each week we choose a theme, and bring you 3 or 4 stories on that theme” business, we throw all that away and bring you 20 stores-yes, 20-in 60 minutes.
  • Show 175: Babysitting (5th January 2001) – Stories of babysitters, and what goes on while mom and dad are away that mom and dad never find out about.

Anyway, this week Ira was given an award for what he describes as his, ‘stupid magic trick’, putting quotes together in an order with some music, by the Academy of Arts and Letters. I reckon his acceptance speech is worth a watch.

Christian Resources Exhibition 2013

Posted on by
Reply

The Christian Resources Exhibition is a strange mix of things. Amongst the hundreds of stands you can find people who will design your new church building, put in stained glass, supply the chairs, build a stage and install lighting, cameras and the sound system. There’s organs, music books, coffee suppliers, church website builders, clothes for the clergy and books, books, books… oh, and more books.

Groundwire stand at CRE 2013

Groundwire stand at CRE 2013

For the last three years Wycliffe Bible Translators have exhibited there, but with the steady decline in visitor numbers and the lack of foucs on global mission, the benefits don’t seem to come close to covering the costs.

That’s not to say that there aren’t some great things there. My two highlights this year were Groundwire and Damaris.

I fell into conversation with Matt on the Groundwire stand (a very cool accident). They give people the opportunity to ask questions about faith in an online chatroom. It can be as anonymous as you want.

Groundwire is an international organisation whose aim is to provide those in need with the opportunity to chat online with a spiritual coach 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We aim to provide spiritual advice based on the teachings of the Bible. We are here to help those in need, those with questions, fears and worries. We are here to assist people who are feeling lost, addicted, sad, confused and in pain. We care and want the best for each person as an individual – we don’t ever want anyone to think they had nobody to talk to, nobody who cared, nobody who would listen.

Damaris at CRE 2013

Damaris at CRE 2013

The other cool session was by Damaris, who provide discussion resources based on current movies.

I was impressed by the fact that the resources were used by so many different organisations and while there is the opportunity to discuss spirituality it doesn’t have to be a Christian group that uses the material. Scouts, Guides and the Women’s Institute are amongst those signed up.

 

After life?

Posted on by
Reply

Have you ever asked the question, “Is there life after death?”.

One of the central claims of Christianity is that there is life beyond the grave and that when we die we have something more to look forward to. What that may be can be the subject of much discussion, but certainly we know that it’s there.

Of course, that certainty is a result of the evidence that has gone before us. The Bible tells us that Jesus died and rose from the dead. In that one act he proved his divinity and showed that there is so much more to life, and death, than what we may see at first.

But, can we believe the accounts? Over time there have been ideas and theories that attempt to discredit the resurrection story. So did it really happen?

Focus, the organisation to which I give some of my time as a trustee, have produced a series of videos on the subject of the resurrection, dealing with many of the arguments that would claim it didn’t happen. Over the next few days I’ll post the videos here for you to watch. If you’ve got comments or questions you can join the conversation on the God: new evidence Facebook page, where someone will be happy to respond.

Of course, if you’d like to watch all the videos right away, you can find them at focus.org.uk and just follow the link to Videos > After Life? >

Video 1

Time off and the Olympics

Posted on by
Reply

Did you see it? The Olympics? No… don’t care…? Oh well, I loved it. I even managed to get holiday during the second week.

From the beginning of the opening ceremony, when the camera started following the course of the River Thames to the end of the closing ceremony where the athletes started drifting back to their rooms wondering whether the Who had finished playing or not. It was excellent.

Even good old Auntie Beeb who gave us the option of watching all the sports all the time. Too much, maybe, but really do I care? And yes, they probably focused too much on Team GB, it would have been nice to have heard another point of view, but then we did win 65 medals, 29 of them gold – not bad for a nation of 60+ million. Imagine what we could have done with more people (OK, silly idea, we’d need a bigger island or two).

While some nations may have found the opening ceremony quite bemusing in places, I quite liked the fact that it didn’t have much in the way of interpretive dance. Jennie Pollock, who comments on culture on her New Song 40 blog, found something redeeming – even in the darker patches of the show.

Did you watch that? Last night, the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics. Did you watch?

It was incredible, amazing, superb, outstanding.

It was the most fantastic outpouring of British creativity, humour, pride and joy.

It made me cry, at several moments. This is the land I love. This is my home. This, warts and all, is part of me.

You really should read the whole of her post, O Thou Who Changest Not

 

 

Words of wisdom

Posted on by
1

"People are people, not projects"

I’ve got a few things scattered around my desk with ‘wise words’ written on them.

This block of wood, which stands on top of a speaker, came from last year’s Global Connections Conference in London. I think the phrases were my reflections from the various sessions, so other faces carry such gems as:

  • “Love one another”
  • “God hasn’t finished with the UK Church”
  • “Discipleship is a lifestyle, not a job description”

are on the other sides.

Pinned to the board above my desk is, “How can mission agencies help your church get excited about local and world mission?” Again, I think this is from a Global Connections event.

From time to time I look at these and wonder what they mean for me now. Any suggestions?

 

Wise stewardship of wealth

Posted on by
1

“While the third of the world that are reached, the Christians, receive 97% of the resources, the third of the word that’s ‘least reached’, receive less than 1%. This is a great injustice.”

So says Mike Frost in the second of these videos (see below) from Global Interaction. But, what should our response be?

On a Facebook discussion the initial reaction to the statement seemed to be, “Yes, but it’s not that simple”, followed by a slightly heated tangential conversation about how do you determine whether money is being spent by the wealthy western church on itself, or whether it’s giving it away sacrificially.

I acknowledge that there is a slightly messy patch in the middle about where the money goes and what it’s used for. Money that goes to the church probably pays upkeep for a building, which may be used for worship services, but may also be used for community services which could also be seen as mission.

But, I think this discussion is a good way for us to give our excuses and to avoid making tough decisions. The west is wealthy enough to worry about having buildings in which to put on events… others don’t even have clean water… how much do we care?

One commentator suggested that 95% of the church’s budget should be given away and that the community should learn to live on the 5% that’s left over. Could we? What would church look like if that were the case in reality? Or what about 50/50. Could we at least do that?

Loads to blog about – and not so much time to do it in!

Posted on by
Reply

The last few weeks have been insane – wonderful in so many ways and plain busy in others.

I usually have pretty good energy levels, but I’ve found that the more I’ve been stretched at work the less energy I’ve had to put into other things. Finding a way to switch off in the evening has been tough and I tend to find that, as soon as I lay down to go to sleep, my mind fills with all the things of the day that need thought.

There are competing priorities too.

My wife is number one priority, and just making time to be with her is important. Not just being there physically either, but actually giving her attention is important. Too often I can be in the same room as someone and my mind be somewhere else entirely. It’s a useful trick on occasions, but not great for a relationship.

Then there’s things like work and church stuff. Both of which I enjoy immensely but can take various levels of attention and dedication.

Oh, and there’s me. I require a certain level of input and exercise. I have noticed recently that I’ve been generating a lot of material without getting a lot of input. It’s the kind of thing that leaves the creative tank empty. Plus, I have a mind and body that needs looking after. I need exercise – and that just takes time.

So the blog has been put to one side for a while. I’d like it to come back soon, but honestly, if you’d like to hear more from me you’d be better making friends on Facebook than reading this.

All that being said, I wanted to share this picture with you. On Monday I was on one of the passenger ferries from Tower Bridge to Embankment following a meeting. The weather was beautiful. On the 15 minute journey we passed, The Tower of London, HMS Belfast, the Shard, the Globe Theatre, Tate Modern… certainly beat sitting on the Circle Line.

Boxing Day: Liverpool v Blackburn Rovers and meeting Alan Kennedy

Posted on by
Reply

It has been a few years since I’ve been up to Liverpool to watch a game of football. When I was a student in the city I seem to remember going most weekends, but now, living in the south, there are fewer opportunities to go and it’s even harder to get tickets.

This Christmas though, Tany managed to get her hands on a ticket for me so I spent Boxing Day morning driving north to watch a game of football.

Got to say, the game wasn’t anything special. Liverpool should have won, but not because they were brilliant, more because Blackburn are really poor.

The real highlight though was meeting Alan Kennedy in the pub after the game. Not an official thing, he was just there and so were we. He scored the winning goal in the 1981 European Cup Final, and was kind enough to shake our hands and spend a couple of minutes talking about the game.

Of course a visit to Liverpool wouldn’t be complete without a trip to the Tavern Co for breakfast. This used to happen quite regularly when we were at university, but back then it wasn’t with the kids.

Festivals present Christianity as belonging to the white, western and wealthy

Posted on by
8

Every year I receive a pile of invitations (usually phrased as ‘offers’ or ‘opportunities’) to take a stand to a Christian event to tell people about Wycliffe Bible Translators and what we do around the world. To decide whether it’s worth going or not I’ll look at the programme to see what’s happening as part of the main event and see how geared it is towards mission.

So, I’ve just done a very quick survey of the speakers booked for some of the bigger Christian festivals due to take place in 2012. Here’s what I found out from their websites.

  • New Word Alive – six main speakers over one week. All white, mostly male, from either the UK or US.
  • Spring Harvest – Four speakers, all from churches in England.
  • Keswick Convention – One main speaker for each of the three weeks. All male, from Australia, England and Scotland. Although, listed under ‘Other Speakers’ is Calisto Odede from Kenya.

I tried to find out about Soul Survivor, but they haven’t released their 2012 programme and I couldn’t easily find anything from 2011.

Maybe I could make a special mention of Greenbelt. Whose lineup at least includes a smattering of people from ethnic minorities and non western educated. But then, artists are better at not conforming.

After looking at the list of speakers I did a quick search for the part that world mission plays in these events.

New Word Alive

Their vision and values statement says…

With a huge variety of gifts from preaching to personal relationships, or childrens work to world mission, we will open up possibilities, provide examples and encouragement and seek to motivate and equip Gods people to serve him and his world.

If you type ‘mission’ into the search box the top 13 results are a product from their shop, then there’s a link to their vision and values before giving a link to how an organisation can exhibit.

Spring Harvest

SH state in the header to their Beliefs page,

Within our stated aim to ‘equip the church for action’ we seek to encourage Christians to think about their faith, to be transformed through the renewing of our minds and to engage in the mission of God in the world.

Their website shows that they give money to support good causes. With the exception of Bible translation that was supported as part of Biblefresh in 2011, there’s nothing that has a primary aim of sharing the gospel.

Mission is mentioned, intertwined with the theme of ‘the Church‘ for 2012. There’s also the prospect of something multicultural on the last day.

Day 5 – God’s brilliant idea: ‘Make them one!’

The church the New Testament foresees is multicultural, multi-national and multi-lingual. The name given to this people in the Bible is the Bride of Christ – beautiful, sparkling and deeply loved by God. We will explore the joy of our diversity; embracing the call of God to reach every tribe and culture and escaping cultural captivity to express love for the ‘other’.

But, I wonder how that gets dealt with when there’s only speakers from the UK.

Keswick Convention

It was less easy to find out about Keswick’s approach to mission because their website isn’t as searchable as the others. I know that they have a fund to support those involved in mission who want to come along to Keswick, but like most other events, the main place for a mission profile is in the exhibition space.

Conclusions

Maybe I’m being overly simplistic, but I do believe that actions speak as loudly as words (even if we aren’t as conscious of the message when it’s delivered in non-verbal ways). So, I could read into these events that…

  • Senior Christian figures are usually white, male and from the west.
  • Music and sung worship is the most important part of your faith after the main speakers – just have a look and see how important ‘worship leaders’ are to selling events.
  • Mission is about improving the physical condition of those living in poverty or those that are abused and is mostly supported by giving money.
  • Mission exists in the exhibition space, where organisations pay a great deal of money for a small plot, travel to and from the event and accommodation for one or two staff. It does not play a part in the main event.

Cynical?

What me? Maybe… but honestly, I’m more than a little tired of being told about a ‘great opportunity’ from the organisers of one event or another, who want mission agencies to come along and exhibit so that they can tick a box and say they’ve ‘done mission’. If world mission was important it would get more than a drafty tent hidden somewhere in the vicinity of the main hall.

Look, I am aware that these events do a lot of good. There are great speakers and leaders who are white and male and deserve to have a platform. I know how great it is to sing praise songs with a good band who’ve prepared in advance and can stay in tune. I also believe that it’s important for Christians and the church to lead the way in bringing people out of poverty and give them hope. And, believe it or not, I understand business well enough to know that great events cost money and you have to bow (just a little) to public pressure and give the audience a bit of what they want to get bums on seats.

However, I think there’s a danger that events like these can become so focussed on breaking even that doing what’s right comes further down the agenda. We feed people what they want to hear, rather than the truth and we allow people to consume what’s safe and fun. Maybe that’s also symptomatic of western Christianity… and maybe that rant is best left for another blog post.

Also…

Simon Cozens has also written on a similar vein on his blog (HT Kouya)

Mission resources and video

Posted on by
Reply

The audio from last week's Global Connections conference, 2020 Vision - Mission in times of uncertainty, is now available on the GC website. Personally I'd direct you to Eddie Arthur's opening message and presentations by Richard Tiplady and Gerard Kelly. Not that they were necessarily better than any of the others, it's just that they presented in ways that particularly engage me. Personal taste and all that.

I also know that Wes White was quite brilliant, but I think I'm going to have to listen to him a few more times for it all to go in.

It was truly an excellent conference, although, my personal highlight came in the evening discussions in the bar. Wisely, we didn't record these times, I'm not sure the jumbled mess of our conversations would be editable, but the relationships, understanding and insight that these times generated were well worth losing extra sleep for.

LICC have shared a video of Alister McGrath's lecture Why God won't go away on their YouTube channel. It's a response to the New Atheist movement and worth a watch when you have 90 minutes going spare. The video is at the bottom of this post.

Finally, OSCAR, who provide support services to the UK mission community, have set up a group on LinkedIn. If you're on the social networking site and have an interest in mission you may want to take a look.