Chris Jefferies

Moving House

DailyToast

Well, we did it. We moved from our old home in St Neots, to a small house in Stratton. The old village of Stratton is on the northern edge of Cirencester, mostly between the roads to Gloucester and Cheltenham.

The 18th of April was the big day. We drove down to Cirencester, collected the keys to our new home, and our furniture and boxes of possessions arrived the following day. And I do mean boxes – and boxes – and more boxes – and yet more boxes! The garage is packed to bursting, the house is full of clutter, but we’re sorting through it all and making progress. The lounge is tidy now, the kitchen is functional, and we should have a little more time from now on to explore the area and begin to live our lives again.

I’ll be writing again soon to tell you more about the house, the town and the countryside all around.

I love the European Union

DailyToast

Mark Rice-Oxley writes a wonderful piece in the Guardian today, ‘The EU is Sixty‘, in which he enthuses about the wine, the food, the freedom from border checks and visas, and so much more. In particular he writes ‘[The EU] helped my generation fall in love with
Europe’.

Paris1964 Not just your generation, Mark. I’ll be 69 next birthday, and I well remember a school trip to Paris in 1964. A passport was necessary and there were about 13 Francs to the Pound. The photo is taken from a street photographer’s post card of our party magically created while we toured the palace and gardens of Versailles.

We had a wonderful week, the Eiffel Tower, Montmartre, the Louvre, the book and picture sellers along the banks of the Seine, getting lost on my own and having to ask the way in French, ‘Ou se trouve la Place de la Republique, s’il vous plait?’ Until I visited Paris on that school trip, Europe was a mysterious place that was far away and not very real. For me, Europe became a real place where trees grew, people lived – it was just like home but different in so many interesting ways.

For me, the EU is a glorious and precious thing. Far from perfect, of course, yet worth preserving. I heartily wish that the UK would remain in the EU and influence it for good. I wish we could see it as a partnership. We Brits are split in our views on this, more or less 50-50. Oh, OK, nearly 52-48 if we have to be pedantic about it, but certainly not the ‘overwhelming majority’ for leave that we hear about sometimes.

I hope we can remain well integrated and on good terms with our neighbours. Half of us wanted that nine months ago. Half of us still do.

Season’s Greetings

Brrrr.. It’s cold outside, so it’s good to be inside with friends and family. Warmth from a heated home is one thing, but the heart warmth from people who love us goes deeper and lasts longer. Spare a thought for those without home or friends or family this winter – if you know someone like that, find a way to make them feel loved.

Spread a little happiness, spread a little warmth.

With love to friends and family everywhere.

PS – See a full size version of the photo

Other years

2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020
2019, 2018, 2017, 2016

Forgotten ways renewed

Whatever your views on faith, discipleship, mission, community or the nature of church, this book will encourage you to fresh thinking.

JDMC

Ten years ago a significant book was written by a guy called Alan Hirsch. He titled it ‘The Forgotten Ways’ and in it he laid out his thinking about a new paradigm to explain the rapid flourishing of movements such as the early church.

forgottenways2

A few days ago a new edition appeared with significant changes following ten further years of thinking about explosive missional movements. Alan has refined the book by adding new examples, making some changes to the terms he uses, and making even more persuasive arguments.

The new version is a great book; read it! Whatever your views on faith, discipleship, mission, community or the nature of church, this book will encourage you to fresh thinking. It will take you down some rarely travelled roads, through unexplored countryside, and it will open new vistas and opportunities.

There are a few links below, you might explore these if you are new to Alan’s thinking. And if you’re familiar with the first edition you’ll certainly want to read the new one.

For more on Alan, check out his personal website
For more on the book, visit Google Books or Amazon
For Alan’s other books, here’s the full list

In the book, Alan writes

The twenty-first century is turning out to be a highly complex phenomenon where terrorism, disruptive technological innovation, environmental crisis, rampant consumerism, discontinuous change, and perilous ideologies confront us at every point. In the face of this upheaval, even the most confident among us would have to admit, in our more honest moments, that the church as we know it faces a very significant adaptive challenge.

He’s absolutely right! But what can we do about it? A very plausible answer will unfold as you read this book.

Faith Camp

‘If you love me you will do what I say’. It doesn’t come a whole lot clearer than that!

FaithOrKnowledge

Donna and I drove to Peterborough last night to visit Faith Camp 2016 and listen to Colin Urquhart’s opening message for the week. Donna likes to get along to some of these large meetings from time to time, and Colin always has good things to say – often about discipleship in one way or another.

This time he spoke about whether we truly love Jesus. We say that we do, but are we willing to obey him? Jesus told his disciples, ‘If you love me you will do what I say’. It doesn’t come a whole lot clearer than that!

Personally, I don’t favour using structure and hierarchy alongside the fundamental family nature of church. But that doesn’t mean I don’t value the good teaching that can be found wherever and however Jesus’ people gather. And Colin’s teaching was certainly good. Here are a few highlights.

Jesus didn’t talk about love, he just did it. Love breeds love over time. All his disciples loved him.
We’re not called to examine our own sinful hearts (we can’t see very clearly and are likely to miss a great deal). We are to ask him to search our hearts and show us what we cannot see.
If we don’t know ourselves, we can’t do what he wants us to do. We have to deny ourselves daily or we cannot be his disciples.

If you’d like to hear Colin for yourself there’s a selection of recordings on line.