Okay I have fallen between the two and enabled comment moderation, so I get to read it before it goes public, that way I can delete before anyone ever sees it and still have room to allow genuine anonymous comments that are helpful.
Had a really nice time last night, apart from a girl puking in the van and missing the bucket.
Sat on a step and chatted with a drug dealer, he was very friendly and interested and didn't try to sell me anything, probably my first real chat with one of these guys.
Reading a book called Organic Church by Neil Cole, he makes a great statement " If you want to win this world to Christ , you are going to have to sit in the smoking section"
I like what that conveys, another author Leonard Sweet says in the foreword "This is a post- Christian culture that doesn't think the church has anything to offer it except when we stop doing church the way we have been doing it...People today aren't coming over to the Christian side of the street. We have to cross over to their side if we are to give a hand"
Cole also says we need to " lower the bar of how church is done and raise the bar of what it means to be a disciple".
I have only just started reading the book, but am enjoying it.
By the way anonymous is from Belfast, thats all my sitemeter tells me, in fact I get my most support from N.Ireland but also some of the snottiest comments!a land of extremes!!!!
7 comments:
You'll get lung cancer in the smoking section :)
Reminds me of a friend who was the only survivor in an African hospital when an epidemic went through... She was a nurse and "got their diseases" and had her epitaph ready from Psalm 91... Like Toyohiko Kagawa in Kobe Japan for 14 years living in the slums, pulling the sick and dirty into his little shanty and getting their diseases... Like my wife Dar who to this day has a wart on her finger from her trip to Calcutta, India where she visited Mother Teresa's Sisters of Charity. She spent some time with lepers and has this little wart ever since...
AIDS, Malaria, Food Poisoning... on and on it goes for all the healthy little saints willing to risk it all.
HE was a man of sorrows aquainted with grief, all the while He bore our fall on His shoulders and our sweat on His brow and our diseases into His body... to death and beyond, and scars to prove it.
I wonder if Jesus has scars on his liver!?
Now you have moderated comments, nobody is commenting,at least you get a good debate going about what these anonymous guys say. now nothing.
now difficult to sit in the smoking section here in northern ireland but i like the thought!!
reminds me of something i've been meditating on this weekend. check out revelation 2:13...and the whole letter to the church in pergamum. awesome how they could remain true to Jesus while living in the midst of a place where Satan has his throne.
hope that encourages you - i'll probably try blogging on that thought soon...
I would love to be able to see us finding a way to balance investing into the body of Christ and being solidly in the world and not of it. I think the balance is really the challenge other wise we walk with a limp. I love people championing things but get nervous when it's reactionary or at the cost of something else. Love what you guys are doing!!! Lots of love and prayer coming from Chi xxx
Hey Brian:
I'm loving your blog Brian, its flipping fantastic. Just finished your book as well, and have passed it on to a number of people, who are also loving it!
I just wanted to comment on this post because I love and totally agree with the comment about sitting in the smoking section, we as Christians need to be big enough and confident enough to move outside of our comfort zones to start impacting this world for God.
By the way, sorry for the randomness of this post, because we have never actually met....Yet. Although I really hope we do someday. We do however have mutual friends, I believe you know Mark Dowds and Russell Godward! Hope to hear from you soon mate.
We are definitely called to get out there - and as smokers now have to get out of most UK establishments to have a smoke - with them is where we should probably be.
But there is probably also a case for getting back there, as in rediscovering and reinvigorating the spiritual traditions from our church history, to bring that sense and space for spiritual search and the pursuit of the wonder and beauty of God. A bit of the "awesome" (my son adam's favourite word) back in to our lives?
I think Neil Cole's been to Finland maybe even couple of times, teaching at this leadership seminar. Got one of his teachings. I like the smoking section quote too! It may be uncomfortable, but we're called out of our comfort zones, aye? Need support to do that though, don't think any of us can without that.
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