Two things that rocked my socks

I checked out the street art tunnel that was given a make over by Banksy and co. It is amazing, and if you are ever by Waterloo you should fully check it out.
On Sunday I went to a church to hear Jim Wallis speak. I really dig this man, the first book of his I read, Gods Politics, was probably the first book I read that articulated all the things I was quietly leaning towards. He is doing other talks in the UK in a couple of days, see here. And is also doing the whole world I think.I love this picture, its from the Banksy tunnel. I don't know what it's intention was, probably not how I took it. But I took it to be like, here is this little Godly being, so clearly mysterious and connected with something Big, stamping out a denial of what so obviously created him. It is like what we do when we fail to be all about love. (Hehe, sorry, is that a bit of a big leap?!)

At the Jim Wallis talk, Steve Chalke also spoke and he just commented on the new atheism movement (E.g, the God Delusion by Dawkins) and pointed out that the place that Nietzsche and new atheism leads you to is that there is only one absolute- the survival of the fittest. Understandably this is the absolute opposite to the Jesus thing- laying down your life for others! So, instrumentally following Jesus would lead society into a healthy, well, cohesive space.

So I thought this was a good perspective, unfortunately history doesn't attest to this does it really. Which is pretty sad. But it's not unredeemable, its not too late for followers of Jesus to begin loving to the point of laying down your life for people so that the "God is Dead" idea and what it leads to not only becomes a horrible option, but an impossible one.

If you're chatting to God anytime, or if you're free on Fridays...

Beautiful Things

There are some awesome DVDs called Nooma's, with a guy speaking about various stuff. We watched one today called YOU. In it he says:
"These first Christians believed that Jesus resurrection had implications for the entire universe. Their tradition had taught them that the world is broken and desperately in need of repair and that at some point in the future, God was going to put it all back together. For them, this future restoration had nothing to do with leaving this world; it was all about the restoration, the renewing and the reclaiming of this world."

We also had to day in church, the kids choir singing a funky little song with the words "Do something beautiful, go do something Jesus would"...

And that is where Jesus, his life and words make sense, eh? In places where people are doing beautiful things, right here and now. Not looking to the ol' pie in the sky thing.

On that beautiful things note, a powerful 5 minute film and song by Stop the Traffick, a crowd of people and organisations passionately trying to bring about change in one of the worlds most evil scenes, is here.

A new home

This week we are moving in, along with two friends, to Nine- a flat at the back of our church. We have spent the best part of a year turning this derelict dump into livable lodgings, putting up new walls, pouring paint everywhere and ferreting around the streets and skips of london for household goods (We got some awesome carpet that way.) Finally we are ready to move in! We are pretty excited. Our hope is that it will be a loving home of:
hospitality
prayer
creativity
simple living
responsible living
generous living
radical living...

It is based up in Soho so engaging with the community will be exciting but pretty challenging. We'll be taking it pretty slowly and seeing what happens.

We are inspired by:
New Monasticism
Boiler Rooms
614
and all the other little homes around the world that are carving out alternative ways of living in their community.

A wholly new chapter begins...

Spies, terrorists and ploughshares.

Check out some kiwi Jesus loving activists bursting their local war mongering bubble here, a little bit of news worth a watch. They are doing nice things with Isaiah 2- the chapter in the Bible that speaks about how God inspires people to turn their swords in to ploughshares. Nice work.

I read somewhere yesterday a crazy statistic about how 86% of the global arms trade comes out the only 5 permanent members of the UN security council. There is some proper nasty hypocrisy spinning around when it comes to arms and war. We desperately need some of these leading countries to get serious out peacemaking eh?
(Beautiful Picture pinched with huge thanks from this blog!)

I wrote this as I was revising for my Child rights Exam.. I don't think it's quite the ticket...

A match is on. In the blue corner we have the Transnational Corporations who make up over half of the 100 worlds largest economies. In the red corner we have the children of the world... 2.2 billion of them, one in two of which are in poverty. It is a David and Goliath match. Both are fighting for their rights.. the children for their right to life, an adequate standard of living and the right to an education. The Corporations; for the right to make as much profit as possible.

In the crowd, a noisy bunch fill one side; governments with banners waving the words "We are your fans! We will lower our taxes and subsidise you if you come to our country!", Neo liberal economists screaming "Go unbridled capitalism: Economic growth is good for all!" and small factory owners gushing "We love you! We will keep our wages so very low and conditions sparse to maximise efficiency and help your profits!"...

On the other side an equally fierce crowd made up activists chanting "Freedom from poverty for all!", Nuns yelling "Children are more important than business!!" and academics yeilding flags with the message "Child Rights over Profit!"

The children take a deep breath as the Corporations eye them up, a frightening gleam in their eyes remincent of that evil guy with the net in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

The bell rings...

(PS If you haven't see the Corporation, it's a must)