Pop charts and Bishops remarks
Nice post by Rob on Lord Carey's comments on UK Christians feeling squeezed and attempts to put a retired Christian band in the charts.
Couldn't have put it better myself!

Andrew Jones on John Piper on Emerging Church
Just a link to this post by the itinerant Tall Skinny Kiwi, giving a wider perspective to Piper's interesting video piece.
Nice work!

UPDATE
Andrew has another post adding balance to his previous one. Again helpful thoughts!

Plus more storms for Piper for inviting Rick Warren to speak at a conference.See Scot Mcknight's thougts here

New Church Forms
When I started this blog in 2004 part of exploration in thinking was around emerging church, new ways of church etc. Since then courses have developed (such as Cliff College's MA) to equip and resource people around the emerging church and contextualising church in a 21st century mission context (or before anyone else points it out, to think about how church flows from mission in this context).

And new experiments are happening.
And all this is definitely different in the UK than USA (even the language has different overtones).

But I was beginning to wonder what ever happened to this thing.Various people have commented how the "movement" has changed (see Andrew Jones post here).
And then I was encouraged at Baptist Union Council to hear a re-newed emphasis on church planting. Perhaps easier to encourage then resource? Never the less the intention seems to be there.

And "inherited" churches seem to be talking at least about being more intentionally missional.

Not sure where I'm going with this, other than I was struck by a post from an old mate Michael.
It's on an Anglican site and is undoubtedly Anglican-centred. But here's a quote that struck something, it kind of makes me go "Yes, but...":
"There is no doubt that new times call for new ways of being church. The new country stands before us, but the whole church must make the journey into it. For those whose understanding of the times gives them a sense that perhaps they can see a little further ahead, there is always the temptation to rush on alone or with a few others in tow. But what seems to be required at this point is patient endurance that is held in tension with prophetic creativity. If pioneers catch glimpses of the new country, then they must speak of it wisely."

Children, Youth, Baptism
As a Baptist, baptism is important! I was reminded of this in the preaching at an event I was at on Sunday evening.
But a recent conversation with another minister re-ignited some thoughts about baptism and children and youth.

If baptism is on profession of faith, and not the sprinkling of children, is there an age or level of understanding needed before baptism? I've heard it argued that we need to find ways for children to publicly declare faith that are not baptism, so that baptism can be done when a young person is of an age to make a lifetime type of commitment to the way of Christ. In many ways that sits well with me. But I'm not 100% sure.

I'm sure we know of many younger people who have been baptised only to wander away, but then the same could be true for adults. I'm sure we do need to take preparation more seriously (catechises?).
But the question remains - if an 8 year old wants to be baptised and has an understanding of faith (all be it an 8 year old's understanding), should we go for it or not?
I think I'll need to reflect some more!

All you ever do is criticise...
Been meaning to re-start the blog after a deliberate break for a week or so now. Finally getting to it!
And only to link to a great post by Scot Mcknight on criticising (except he's American so it's got a "z") the church (here).
Gems such as this:
"if you want perfection, don't look to the church. If you want the ideal, don't look to the church. If you want a perfect fellowship, don't look to the church. If you want the utopian society, don't look to the church.

But if you want a gaggle of cracked Eikons, sinners and mistake-makers and sometimes goofed up and sometimes incredibly loving and joyous and devoted, then look to the church. You'll find that kind of group, but not the perfect group."
But check out the whole thing, as it's good stuff!

Post-Christian Britain
So the media is reporting a new survey which tell us what we've known for ages: the church in Britain is in decline and according to the piece in The Telegraph:
"Researchers describe a large proportion of the country as the “fuzzy faithful” who have a vague belief in God but do not necessarily belong to a particular denomination or attend services".

The article ends with the C of E spokesperson trying to talk things up.
And there are some signs of life and resurrection.
But I think it's a continuing call for those of us within the church to continue the journey of faithfulness, reimagining and bold experimenting, and to work out what a marginalised post-christendom church looks like in 21st Century Britain.
And to think seriously about where connecting points for faith-sharing begin, without pre-supposing prior knowledge.

Change, jobs and funding
Great post from Roy on redundancy and change, at a time when funding issues are affecting many.
I think the call for creativity and re-imagining how we do things is vital, but painful.
Part of the shift to post-Christendom for sure.
Andrew Jones (who has his own redundancy post) has some posted some stuff in the past about missions and the recession (start here).

My concerns for youth ministry echo Ian's thoughts that I referred to a month or so ago. For many youth stuff or anything experimental seems to be the first to face the chop. But if we are going to do anything about the hemorrhaging of the younger generations from the church, now is the time for more investment. It is certainly not the time to be moaning and asking to go back to the safety of Egypt!

Baptist Ecclesiology
Interesting article on US Baptists and emerging church in the Baptist Standard (ht to Andrew for link).
Love this phrase from the final paragraph:
"Baptist history might offer an alternative explanation—ecclesiology is more defined by the practices of a Spirit-led community than by assent to the statements of a modern theological meta-narrative...the emerging church movement may provide hope for reformation to Baptists ignorant of the difference between modern truths and Truth incarnate"

Evangelism
Some great thoughts on being on the receiving end of (inappropriate?) evangelism on the tube from Dave Gorman.
Thanks Dave. Those of us within the community of faith need to hear those reflections.
(ht to Lewis for the link)

Youth Ministry and Support in Credit Crunch
Great thoughts from Ian (and commenters) around engaging adolescents and supporting youth ministry in a time of financial restraint.
Quotes:
"I am very concerned that youth work seems to be an immediate target for cuts"
"Yes, I know I am biased BUT I passionately believe that any further steps back from the Churches engagment with adolescents is to fail the young people we should be serving AND to miss out on how much we can learn from them."
A hearty "amen" from me!

Youth Ministarz
Song about youth ministers. Nice one. (ht to Brian)



Best line: "Youth ministers have beautiful wives...how do they do it?"

Support
Doing some reading & thinking (and hopefully some writing for a booklet for churches in the LBA) about support for youth workers, both paid and volunteer.
It's summer and quiet time for blogs, but just wondering if anyone had any good stories or ideas for supporting those engaged in youth ministry. Negative stories would be quite easy to collect, but I'd like to hear some good practice ideas...

(I was hoping for a cheesy pic to go with this post, but couldn't find anything naff enough!)

Decline
Here's great thought provoking quote:
"The declining church always assumes that the solution to youth ministry is programmatic. If only they could get a good leader! If only they could find a great curriculum! If only they could renovate a room in the building for youth meetings! They fail to recognize that the solutions to youth ministry, like the solution to decline in general is systemic"
(Thomas Bandy in M. DeVries Sustainable Youth Ministry)

Valiant Men
Been reflecting on a 1 Samuel 10:26. Saul has been anointed king and it says in the NIV he went home "accompanied by valiant men whose hearts God had touched".
I deliberately didn't put a picture with this post, because it would have set the tone (probably with a stereotype) about what a "man of valour" would look like.

Different translations render this phrase quite differently, from "young men" to "men" to "brave".
But I think the key is the 2nd part "whose hearts God had touched".

Anyway it got me reflecting personally about my heart. But also about all that "church is too feminine" stuff that you hear recycled around and (in my opinion) the awful "wild at heart" stuff (that I posted about back in 2005). How do we raise up "valiant men" without pandering to sexist, machismo type models?

The challenge of ethnodoxology
Been thinking about worship in a multicultural city such as London, a bit this week. Partly prompted by stuff from my dissertation a couple of months back, partly by some colleagues and partly by some input from Muyiwa at our worship training day last week.

I think the answer may partly lie in encouraging home-grown worship, both in music and beyond.
To encourage communities to express worship in songs that are birthed from within the community rather than simply buy the latest "Now that's what I call worship" type CD. Or at least take existing songs and use them as tools rather than recreating the "album version" like a dodgy covers band.

Confession: I'm actually a big consumer of worship music, I own lots of albums (it helps to have a producer friend), and hunt for free stuff online. But I know at the same time I have gotten lazy and have not written any music for a long while. Pete Ward charts the rise and place of the worship music industry well in Selling Worship, which I shall add to my re-read list!

Rambling thoughts I fear, but helping people authentically express worship is a huge thing. I think music and singing do still (and always will) be a key part of that, if only we can be willing to move beyond our own narrow expectations.

I just learnt a new word...
Intinction - was new to me (as a word rather than as a way of doing communion).

Mind the Gap
I've very much appreciated Jason Gardner's Mend the Gap.
It's a book that has resonated very much with my heart for the church, in fact it's one those books where you think "I wish I had written that"!

There's so much in it about how youth work may not be the only answer for the church's reconnection with younger people, about how we can be church together, and about how we ended up here.

A couple of quotes:
"The answer the church has found [to the generation gap] is not to equip the older generation to relate better to the younger but to appoint someone else to do it on their behalf" (p149)

"If we see the role of youth workers in our churches as subordinate to the role of Senior Pastor, then it seems that we're guilty of viewing children and youth as 'becomings' and not 'beings' in their own right" (p155)

"what teenagers look for in a church is a tangible fervour for God" (p163)

This will definitely make it onto my list of books recommended for churches to read when thinking about youth stuff, especially as it's from a UK perspective. Which makes me think what else would be on that list? But that's for another post I think!

Baptists together
This week we were away at High Leigh again with a small group of "district minsters" from the LBA. The Association is divided into 10 districts of 20-30 churches in each. Our conversation was around trans-local ministry (apostles anyone?), supporting pastors and other such stuff. Was a good time, and re-enforced the notion that we are to be "inter-dependent" despite our insistence on the autonomy of the local church.

On a separate (but maybe not totally unrelated) note, stumbled across this post from Nigel Coles, asking whether the Baptist Union should be more wikipedia than Oxford Concise. If you're a Baptist it's worth a read.

Pastors in the snow
Monday - Wednesday was our annual "Pastors Consultation" at High Leigh. Like many things it was affected by the snow, with only about half the delegates making the first day, but a good number made it by Tuesday. I actually got there quicker than normal thanks to the quiet roads, although it did take me 20 minutes to pull out of the parking space outside my flat.
Anyway it was a good time, and the vending machine still has 5 Alive in a can!

Our theme was "living togther in love", a vital theme for churches in a diverse city such as London. Was great to hear some stories of churches working out how to do this, bringing groups together etc., as well as honest comment about the struggles and pains of church life.

Weather permitting I'm due back at High Leigh again next week...

Back to college
Was back at Oasis College again yesterday. Back to the same group of 2nd year youth ministry students talking all-age worship.
It was based on a training I do for churches and groups, which seeks to raise questions as to why you'd even think about doing all age, as well as thinking about how we got split up in the first place!
It's amazing how much we assume that the way things are now is the way they have always been (or should be). Without fail everyone said their churches did the whole "kids in for the 1st part then out to groups" for their Sunday services, based on a kind of "educational model". And we forget our obsession with "generations" is a relatively new thing, largely driven by marketing.

Anyway it was a fun session, and in the 2nd part we spoke about some practical stuff, around if you are going to do "family services" how you can do them better.