I sum these topics up on my Twitter profile as biology, web, science, technology, family, faith, history, and travel.
Having recently restarted blogging after a long pause, I’ve been thinking through how best to move forward – what should I change, what should I drop, and what should I keep?
Today’s post explains some of this, I’ll share what I’m doing and what I plan to do next. I’ll consider any comments you may leave, either here on the blog, or on Twitter or Facebook. But here’s how I see things right now.
Buy me a coffee
I’m offering everything I publish for free, but will always be delighted to receive a small gift, especially if you have sold or republished something (though even then it’s optional). Details are at coffee.scilla.org.uk .
Cruising the Gospel
This is a moribund blog that I’m in the process of restarting. I’m not sure yet whether to continue it in its present form, or to roll it into Journeys of Heart and Mind (JHM) as a topic in its own right. Currently I’m inclined to keep it as it is, and perhaps generate some PDFs from each book I complete. See it at gospel.scilla.org.uk .
Gateway
My Gateway site is mainly for my own use, but it’s full of links about Cirencester (my home town in England), local time and weather, some Christian links, local and national news, science and technology links and so forth. Some of you might like to take a peek. If so, head to gate.scilla.org.uk .
JDMC
JDMC stands for Jesus, Disciple, Mission, Church and is an introduction to Alan Hirsch’s Forgotten Ways. To learn more and download a copy to print (or read online), visit jdmc.scilla.org.uk . I need to update this booklet and plan to when I have time, unfortunately the web links in the PDF open OK, but using the browser to return take you back to the title page; I’ve been unable to fix this so far. If you open the links in a new tab you’ll be OK, but it’s easy to forget.
Journeys of Heart and mind
I intend to continue with this more or less as it stands. That means a mix of topics will appear here, articles about all of the things that motivate me as they occur to me (so in no particular order). I sum these topics up on my Twitter profile as biology, web, science, technology, family, faith, history, and travel. Others include photography, astronomy, spaceflight, archaeology and a few more. One thing I will add is a way of seeing just posts on one of these topics at a time, I think that will be useful; not everyone wants to see everything. You’re reading on this site at the moment.
Photos
I use Smugmug to display my photos and will continue with this, but I need to rearrange things in topic folders to make it more usable. Visit photos.scilla.org.uk to browse my all time favourites.
Twitter
My main Twitter account is ChrisJJ, but I have a second account, JHM. I haven’t used the JHM account for a long while, but might post tweets about faith topics there, and everything else on ChrisJJ. My mind is far from made up on this as there are quite a few pros and cons.
Human society seems to bring a certain amount of order to the scene, but it’s a deceptive kind of order. Anyone who has a garden will know that order demands great effort to achieve and continuous effort to maintain.
Some have argued that living things depend on structure and order. And of course, there is some truth in that; but it’s a limited kind of truth. Look at a forest, a coral reef (or any ecosystem) and you will see the most amazing and thriving mess. Colours and shapes intermingled haphazardly, lots of competition for space and light. Every single organism doing its own thing.
Coral reef, a rich mix of species (Image from Wikimedia)
Human society seems to bring a certain amount of order to the scene, but it’s a deceptive kind of order. Anyone who has a garden will know that order demands great effort to achieve and continuous effort to maintain. And much of that effort will involve destruction – rooting out things that grow where you don’t want them, trimming hedges to keep them straight, cutting grass to maintain a smooth lawn, poisoning unwanted insects and fungi. A garden has structure and looks nice, but that structure comes at great cost to nature and requires constant effort from the gardener. Jesus said his Father is a gardener.
Farmer is really a more appropriate English word. And not ‘farmer’ as in a modern monocrop system of extensive wheat or mile after mile of beans or peanuts. Papa isn’t bothered about measured lines and neat grass; his interests are more to do with fruitfulness than with structure. He is not a park attendant, he is a grower of vines and olives in the way they were grown 2000 years ago in Israel, sympathetically and naturally. Farmers in those days were helpers and encouragers of the abundance of the natural, not at all like today’s farmers who are more like dictators armed with diesel fuel, big machines, and farm chemicals.
For those who want to function in a structured environment with clear and appointed leadership roles and a liturgy – be my guest, feel free. Sometimes Papa calls me to be involved in those situations too. But mostly he calls me to the freedom, glory, and abundant life of his original garden. This is a place where you will rarely see a straight line, where men and women do not control the show, where there is no architecture and there are no roads. It’s a place where he invites his children to come and run free and shout with joy in his presence. There is no liturgy, just an outpouring of praise and worship from rejoicing hearts.
And out of the ‘disorder’ of this garden comes a deeper knowledge of the heart of the Most High and a richer walk with him. And the life I experience there in his presence with my brothers and sisters, that life is something I can take into this struggling world. Truly he is the way, the truth, and the life. HalleluYah!
The weak are doubly rewarded, they’re glad to do the easy things and by their childlike faith and trust achieve the hard things too
This is an edited repost of one of my earliest blog messages, originally from 18th December 2002, so almost twenty years ago! In fact, it was my first serious post.
Back in those days I’d been meeting with my sister, Rachael, and some local friends. Sometimes we met in Rugby, at Rachael’s house, sometimes near Wellingborough where one of our friends lived, and sometimes at my home or others in St Neots.
The meetings were always full of spiritual life; we would sit together, share coffee, do a bit of a catch up chat, and then fall into a comfortable silence – waiting, and expecting the Holy Spirit to guide us. These were very fruitful times for all of us. Out of the quietness would come a mental picture, a thought, some Bible verses, a prayer, words in an unknown language, an interpretation, a song, some prophecy. Usually everyone would contribute something, and always by the end of the meeting we would see a clear thread running through the whole, something we could remember that would encourage us or bless us in some way.
The following is what I wrote twenty years ago:
Our meeting reminded me of the seventh day of creation, when He rested. Even God desires quiet times!
The other bit I particularly remembered was, ‘It’s not for us to do, but for Him to do in us’ (RK)
Four of us met and the Holy Spirit led us very gently. We felt encouraged and uplifted, it was a peaceful and quiet time with a variety of words and pictures.
There was a wonderful picture of still water, with a reflection of the Almighty’s glory clearly visible in it; the water also reflected images of us towards him. Our feet were in the water; and he said that we should be careful not to make disturbances as this would spoil the reflection, only if we stayed quiet and very still would we be able to see his reflected glory.
We also had a word that the easy things he wants done are overlooked by the great and the learned, while the difficult things are only ever attempted by the weak and foolish.
Thinking about this afterwards I realised that the great doubly miss out, they miss the easy things because they think they’re not worth doing, and they miss the hard things because they realise they’re too difficult to attempt. But the weak are doubly rewarded, they’re glad to do the easy things and by their childlike faith and trust achieve the hard things too!
We came away encouraged and strengthened – it was a great evening!
A reflection of what is not directly visible – Image from Wikimedia Commons
My thought after the meeting is what I want to emphasise here in 2022. Perhaps we are much too easily impressed by the people in society who are thought to be great in wisdom, or wealth, or skill. Great leaders, great speakers, powerful company bosses. Reputation can be overvalued.
Perhaps we should be more willing to also value weakness, and to notice how the weak are doubly blessed. They achieve this by doing the easy things that the great may overlook or regard of little value, and they achieve the hard things by just doing them, often without recognising the difficulties.
So let’s value the weak and the humble. Let’s notice them, and learn from them. At the same time we can (and should) appreciate the people around us who achieve so much through skill, learning, persuasive speaking, and sheer hard work and persistence. The great are good, providing they are also humble and gentle. Indeed, good motives are fundamental, for both the strong and the weak.
And if you think you are weak – rejoice! Savour the double blessing.
Some questions
If you follow Jesus, could you meet like this? Have you tried?
What advantages are there in preparing the content, structure, and leadership of a meeting in advance?
Are there any disadvantages?
What does Paul mean when he says that all should contribute? (1 Corinthians 14:26) – For more on this question, see my subsequent tweet.
Do we need to talk about Jesus or should we demonstrate his character?
Michael Frost
Michael Frost is a great communicator with excellent presentational skills. He expands our horizons by opening up the truth about church, evangelism, and living as followers of the one who is the way, the truth, and the life.
Michael speaks very clearly about whether we need evangelism or whether it’s better to focus on loving those around us. Should we tell people about Jesus or should we demonstrate his character by touching lives in practical ways? It’s a false dichotomy – we need both. But how does this work in practice? Few have explored this fully, so most of us need to hear it.
Michael’s message is as fresh and as necessary now as it was in 2015 when this video was made. Please don’t miss it!
In part 3 of this series, ‘Like a waterfall’, I shared a vision and some words from the Spirit about how the water in a river is constrained by the banks and bed of the river, and how a waterfall allows complete freedom for the water to respond to the attractive force of gravity. In this post I’d like to share some thoughts about church services and how they affect church life.
Click to enlarge thumbnails
Pretty well all denominations hold regular services, usually on Sunday mornings and often Sunday evenings and a weekday evening as well. They are called services because they serve someone. You could argue that their function is to serve the Father and/or Jesus through corporate worship and praise, or you could take the view that they are occasions where a minister serves teaching and guidance to the congregation who act as a (mostly) passive audience. Services follow set patterns, from a loosely defined prayer/hymn sandwich, to a set of rituals, and traditional and familiar practices like preaching or singing, prayer from the front and so forth. But if we turn to the New Testament we find nothing like this.
It’s true that Jesus and his disciples met together a lot, they travelled the road as a group with many other followers and hangers on, and they ate together and talked a good deal. Sometimes Jesus spoke with the inner twelve alone – often asking them questions, so it was conversational teaching. At other times he spoke to larger crowds. He provided wine when it ran out at an embarrassing moment, he healed sick people, spoke to people, sometimes he touched people physically, and yes – occasionally he went to the Synagogue. But there’s very little here that looks like a 21st century church service.
There are more clues in Acts and Paul’s letters. People did meet together, but the descriptions we get are of participatory meetings with no particular person making decisions about timing and no discernable programme. Certainly, if there was a visitor like Paul present, he might share news or even teach, but this seems to have been done on an ad-hoc basis as and when it seemed useful. We read of people praying, prophesying, teaching, singing, worshipping, speaking in unintelligible languages, interpreting what was said, praising, giving way to one another and so forth. There’s nothing here we’d recognise as a service. People were sharing whatever the Holy Spirit urged them to say at that moment.
So let’s think about the benefits and issues of church services on the one hand, and on the other, meetings with no agenda where people listen to the Spirit and share freely whatever he provides. Which seems most like a waterfall? Which seems most like a fixed channel? If the Spirit urged you to pray, or share a vision, or begin a song, or start to teach – which kind of meeting would offer the most comfortable opportunity? Paul wrote that we should do things decently and not in disorder. But he didn’t write that we should decide the pattern, sequence, songs and speaker beforehand! Somewhere between 100 AD and the Middle Ages, dynamic church life in the Spirit was replaced with restrictive and pre-set formats and traditions. The waterfall became a river!
What are the benefits of a ‘waterfall’ meeting? Simply this: a meeting that is not managed by us has the opportunity of being managed by the Holy Spirit. I say ‘opportunity’ because it’s also possible for us to have an unruly free-for-all in which we all do what we think best without waiting for the Spirit to guide us. Paul warns against this. But if a group of his people agree to be silent together and listen and then express whatever they are given, there will be a sharing of spiritual life with a focus and purpose that is astonishing. We have to trust one another to act gently and kindly, to see, hear and share what we are given moment by moment, to give way to one another, to wait for one another, and to focus on the Master, not on ourselves. And then there is the potential for a meeting in which he speaks and we listen in awe and amazement. Pictures and words, Bible verses and songs, unknown languages and their interpretation, prayer, prophetic words and teaching, worship and praise will merge as he leads us and guides us. We will know when he has finished, the end of the meeting will come naturally and with a sense of fulfillment and purpose. All of us will know that something special has happened and we will go away deeply encouraged, with a sense of direction, and the knowledge that this was another special time in the presence of the King. And yes, it will have been a ‘service’ in the deepest sense of that word, for he has served us and we have served him and his presence was clearly evident and amazing.
Will this fruitful kind of meeting come easily? No it won’t. It will take practice, and it may be difficult at first. GK Chesterton famously said, ‘The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried’. The same might be said of ‘waterfall’ meetings – we need to be willing to try and try again until we learn how to let the Spirit lead us together in this way; but we do need to try! The benefits will far outweigh the difficulties. I’ve been in many meetings of this kind over the years, from tiny groups of just two or three people, up to gatherings of more than a hundred.
Here are a few hints that may help if you want to try this with friends.
Don’t sit in rows, sit in a circle; if there are many people you might need several concentric circles, but you need to see one another. Don’t have a ‘front’, have a centre.
Give Jesus your full attention, and examine the things that just pop into your mind – thoughts, words and phrases, emotions, images.
Don’t be afraid of silence. Use these times to focus on Jesus and his presence in the meeting.
Give way to one another. Many short contributions will be better than one or two long ones.
Don’t have a leader. Somebody might begin with a welcome and to point out the emergency exits or share other important practical details, but then they should sit down and become part of the corporate process, listening and sharing like everyone else.
Allow plenty of space, have a gap in the circle so people can come and go – several gaps if the circle is large. Have space for people to stand, walk about a little, or dance.
If possible, don’t set a time to end the meeting. Everyone will know when it’s finished.
Allow time at the beginning for people to mingle and chat. Consider eating and drinking together, anything from tea and coffee to a pot luck meal. And allow time to mingle and chat again at the end if you can.
There is no ‘right’ format. The purpose of meeting is to be one in Christ, to hear from his Spirit, and to share what each is hearing or seeing. Be open, be flexible.
If you haven’t met like this before, it may be best to begin with smaller numbers, perhaps twelve to fifteen at most.
Don’t prepare what to do or say in advance. Instead come with nothing and be prepared to see and hear and share moment by moment while you are together.
