Good time with ICC students in Glasgow if you are trying to find the notes they are on the FYT site here
. Good to meet Chic and hear about stuff going on in Perth and great to spend the evening with the fantastically grounded Hot Choclate Ben movie full and chat to the team. Still here but on my way to aberdeen.The Hills Have Eyes film
I am off to Scotland next week and have 9 training sessions booked in from Glasgow to Aberdeen via Perth and Dundee
Below are some of sessions slides I will be using
ICC
From Off the beaten track to Church on the edge The Outsiders buy Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure on dvd
Hot Chocolate
church-on-the-edge-handout
Blue Horizon
informal education and semi-detached work
informal education and CPR
There is a link between creativity and thinking outside the box, I have often used edward de bonos ideas for creativity thinking for youth work, and it is great for coming up for ideas for parties but when you explain such random ideas to your friends on the invites you do get the odd strange look. Anyway following on from last years weird beard new years eve party this year thanks to creative thinking processes we are doing One for the road – Come as or with your favourite roadsign!
Over at the the FYT blog
I have started a series on values led mission, the first was Powerlessness, and now incarnation, comments and thoughts welcome
We have finally decided on the new name for the project Streetspace, (prize to Paul) and we have been given a grant of 5k to help postion the project, for some admin support and activities for the next year. So all being well we should be up and running again soon and back at the indian resturant with the young people through the winter.A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy the movie
It is interesting what we see as valuable contributions to dialogue about theology, and what criteria people use to make judgements may contribute to theological discourse. Is it a well reserached piece of exegesis, or biblical study? Is it the qualifications someone has? Is it because we view them as sound, or endorsed by an institution?
I am and the church on the edge or flow work is often in the marmite category, people love it or hate it. Sometimes this is because people dont know me and I use lots of short cuts when I speak about the work, assuming that people have a shared understanding which they dont, – so I loose people or lead them to assume a level of heresy that is not true. However I came across this great quote from Gutierrrez and is one which I need to remember when I hear other peoples stories.
Every theology has a universal significance or to put it more accuratly, every theology is a question and a challenge for belivers living other human situations”
Eye of the Beholder movie download Scooby-Doo! And the Legend of the Vampire release
I’m just posting this to add to the archives on the topic ‘Government’ which I (Mark) haven’t added to recently.
Found this great criticism of the activities of Jim Wallis (of sojo.net):
http://www.garynorth.com/public/department61.cfm
One note I want to add is that his criticism of ‘the social gospel’ is specifically a criticism of social works via government. He doesn’t appear to criticise doing socially good things personally (oneself).
Just a note to say Frontier Youth Trust have started a blog, it will be piloted for a while and then reviewed, so please visit and drop us a comment either just to say hi or if you think it will be worthwhile to comment. The posts will come from various team members, Dave Wiles, Nigel Pimlott, Ruth Corless (who is heading it up) Myself, Jo Fitzsimmons, and Pete Hope (although he likes to think he is a bit of a luddite) so the content will be mixed but all around mission with young people at risk. We hope it will be a way of extending our ethos of working with young people at risk towards justice, equality and community; we are a Christian network dedicated to advancing the Kingdom of God and growing ourselves.
I have just started a series exploring Values led mission and would value any feed back.
At the moment I have a three sided mirror in which to reflect on some big questions about change and the nature of the christian message. I am reading Phillip Davies Whose bibe is it anyway for my post grad in practical theology, Reading Pete Rollins The fidelity of betrayal and the third mirror is my own practice side of church on the edge driven by the missiology developed over the past decade or so. All which are provoking me to look deeper at the meta-narrative I think the christain faith and Biblical text carry and the implications for mission.
Davies discusses the nature/approaches of biblical criticism and argues that there are esentially two perspectives, confessional (coming from a theological/faith perspective which he also uses emic, Bible studies and Scripture to differetate those who see the Bible as canon) or non confessional (coming from a humanist perspective where he also used the terms etic, biblical studies and non canonical). His typeology is good and useful but I find his understanding of the confessional perspective (a kind of fundemental/literalist to liberal) limted and dated.
From my third confessional perspective (which I would say borrows from modern emerging church perspectives that in themselves also borrow from traditions although reframed, post modern theory, and mission encounters) sees faith about the redemptive processes that consistantly ruptures our worldview (inc our faith paradigm) and is a series of revolutionary moves
that form and shape a new (at the time) but growing (in hindsight) understanding of God.
So I have no qualms about Davies exegisis of texts as they may help us with the rupture, indeed I approach Biblical studies with this mind (part of the third confessional perspective) and may even argue that this is why we have the text, however Davies would argue that confessional perpectives limit. I would agree when looking at narrow confessional perspectives and that there is a danger of this within the third, but I would argue that biblical criticism from the third perspective more in line with etic approaches than the emic as it demands a rigour and openess that could even beyond a humanist perspective as this a truth understanding that may be less open than the third confessional perpective.
Rollins in both the fidelity of betrayal and how not to speak of God goes someway to underline both the need for a third confessional perspective (although he doesnt use the term) and identifies and develops (particularly in fidelity of betrayal) the perspective as he reflects on the place and notions of truth held within/by the historic confessional perspectives.
Davies exergesis of Abraham in chapter 5 Male bonding leads him conclude “there are no historical or theological truths that need to be won from this, only the wisdom and experience of the tellers.” and the writer may be suggesting that god is much like politican that makes promises that change, and not to be trusted, and that we shoud hold these lightly, esentially that neither Abraham or Yhwh are what they are cracked up to be. So what Davies does is very consistant with a third confessional perspective perhaps even biblical evidence for this perspective, and supports how Rollins develops the perpective as the God we know cannot be G-d as G-d is beyond, more etc.
(sorry about the spelling but spell check not working and low on time)Miss Conception movie
