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ASBO Jesus offers this image of church:
So what do you reckon?
Is church a demanding whirl of endless activities from which there is no escape?
Is it something where we can stand and watch others beign whirled round endlessly while we choose to opt out of getting involved?
Do we get spun round so hard we fly off and land up splatted on the ground?
Is church all the fun of the fair?
Is it all of the above?
How do we find the balance?
Just for information...
If you know where I now minister, you can access recordings of our services online via our website.
Not much posting this week - I have a few meetings and then, next week, will be at Baptist Assembly (Scotland) and am looking forward to discovering this expression of Baptistness.
Regular readers of this blog know that my maternal grandmother was Jewish (which means that I am racially Jewish, just) and may know that my grandparents moved to Glasgow at the start of World War 2 to be further from Hitler's reach because even though she had 'married out' her entire family would have been on his hit-list for extermination. My grandparents, via a convoluted route no doubt, spent most of their lives as active Christian Scientists (often defined as the classic misnomer being neither orthodoxly Christian nor scientific; but who am I to judge?) and were for many years caretakers at their local church in Glasgow. Yesterday I tracked it down, only to discover that it is now a Hindu centre and their former caretaker's flat a suite of offices. It all seemed quite curious and somehow quite fitting given their own history.
So if you ever wondered why I am quite the heretic I am, maybe it is simply in my genes...?!
For anyone who is interested here is the PDF version of my Five Core Values material. Not for those of a 'narrow-shallow' theological disposition or for anyone seeking facile material. Views expressed may or may not be mine, or yours. Citations are not complete, nor is there there a bibliography so please don't sue me if you are the author or blame me if you can't find the books alluded to. 'For use at your own risk' who knows, you may even hear GOD!!
Yesterday morning I was givng my computer a much needed tidy up, deleting files that relate to a life now past and the retention of which cannot be justified (nor is it deisrable). Thankfully, being a fairly systematic kind of a person I went through each folder to check rather than just ditching eveything, which meant I did rediscover the odd gem that I had long since forgotten, including a set of study notes I'd developed on the 'Five Core Values' theme I currently exploring with my new church. I was quite impressed with what I'd written all that time ago, and was mildly amused that coming at it afresh I was still saying a lot of the same things even though I'm choosing different Bible passage upon which to preach.
Alas, I may be turning into Theresa of Avila who never seemed to be able to remember what she had written (the Interior Castle drove me nuts with its constant 'I can't remember if I've said this before' references) but I do think that the material I developed for Dibley stands another airing, so I have been tidying it up and shuffling it around to fit with the order in which we are exploring the threads here. Once I have it done, I may well post a PDF version here or at the website of my now place. At least unlike Theresa I can do a quick electorinic search to see whethe ror not I've already said something...