Spanners

I think it was Rob Bell in Velvet Elvis who said if someone was to create a religion as opposite as possible to the thing Jesus set out to do it would look remarkably like the pop christianity most nations have got going on at the moment. It's scarily true. The words and antics of Jesus in the Bible mess with the Sundayish, soundbitey, rigid religion most people see in the Church.... (This is the latest from Jon Birches cartoon blog, Asbo Jesus, and I think he does a cool job getting these anomolies across!)

G R E E N B E L T

We are looking for a ride there, can you help us?!

bringing home the bacon and breaking up the bike

This week I started a new job at Oxfam GB co-ordinating their Outreach programme, part of the mobilising-youth-to-act-on-global-poverty strand of the organisation. I love it. It is, however, in Oxford. A 4 hour a day commute. I could knock it down to 3 hours with a bike, so yesterday we invested in a 30 year old green folder which is rather retrotastic and goes like the wind (or at least a breezey whisper.)
So don't ask me why at this very moment Tim is out the back taking it apart with his pocket knife and a teaspoon under the guise of "adding new inner tubes".

and more on that...

crazy, was just abroowsing and came across a rad article by Geoff Ryan on church and buildings too... on the rubicon.

brring brring

We were down in the gardens a couple of weeks ago hanging with my grandparents when one of their friends from church came along and told a story about the antics of his grandson that afternoon. All the family had been standing around in the driveway chatting when the little 7 year old lad came round the corner on his bike, ringing his bell and yelling on the top of his voice "Watch Out! Holy Spirit coming through!"
I Love It!
The wee chap has grasped something the rest of us just want to keep forgetting.
There are so many places to go with this, but I am going to delve quickly into bricks and mortar with Shane Clairborne....
"There is something precious about corporate worship, but corporate is whenever two or three of us gather with God. We must resist the ancient temptation to centralise worship, especially at the expense of justice for the poor. The human made temples will be split open, and no stone will be left on another, jesus says. Acts 17.24 reminds us that God "does not live in temples built by hands." The scriptures remind us that we are God's temples, that the spirit lives in us. And in a very special way, as Jesus says in Matthew 25:40, in the least of these we find Jesus in disguise. Perhaps we are just as likely to encounter God over the dinner table or in the slums or in the streets as in a giant auditorium."