As for me and my house

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The preacher this morning made reference to this verse as a Joshua moment.
“And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” Joshua 24 v15 KJ

It got me thinking about a modern interpretation of it. It has always been read as a way of saying me and my family (and in ancient times the rest of the extended household or servants etc) but I wondered how a literal interpretation could help us today. There is something implied in the text about going Gods way with everything you have. Obviously for most people our house is our biggest asset but I was thinking how it is also a place of privacy and a sense of my space and the tendency to see it as mine which could take us away from following God. If we were to commit to the literal version it would get us to question how we use our house, and reflection on how we opened up our life and house would help us encounter God in a deeper way.

Regarding Henry trailer

Retreat for men – ‘On being a man’

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On being a man –
A weekend retreat for men in beautiful north Northumbria
May 4 – 6th 2007

This is an introductory retreat on masculine spirituality which will explore and touch on several themes including exploring our perceptions of being male, Jesus the man, wounds of the father and further steps to developing a mature masculinity.

I am a member of the Northumbria community and lived at the mother house for 3 years which had a major impact on my spiritual formation. The Community is a dispersed community interested in exploring a new monasticism informed by Celtic spirituality and the desert fathers and mothers. The community is situated in the middle of the countryside – 10 miles form Holy Island.
I would like to invite you to experience the hospitality and rhythm of the community in the wilds of north Northumberland while also focussing on what is means to be a man in this introduction to masculine spirituality

For more info about the community, my work with men and to book please go to there website at http://www.northumbriacommunity.org

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Steve Has posted a great article on Incarnational Missiology for the emerging church. The points he raises are well formed and insightful. I particularly liked the last link to the incarnation “a controlled death”. Here is a snippet

And that is the ultimate call of Christian ministry; that we must be prepared to die to self (literally or metaphorically). It is, of course, a scandal even today. It is a scandal to an institution that it is called to renounce all power and privilege. It is a scandal to the rich and the spiritually powerful that we are called to assume the form of servants – without question and without motive. It is a scandal that the Body of Christ is called to give up everything that it has in order to model Christ.

I have been working a lot recently with how we can more truly let our Christology shape our Missiology which in turn should shape our Ecclesiology. In retropect I can see a lot of this process in Off the Beaten Track. It also provides a good check and balance process as we move into and think about new ways of being church.

Calling Youth Workers in M5

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FYT have faciliated a network of youth workers in M5 area between Taunton and Bristol. Rob has taken this on for us and If you are in this area it would be great to see you. Details below

I am just contacting you all about the FYT M5 network meeting which most of us had attended previously. As you can see Emma has handed over the facilitating of the group and the meeting venue. Part of the vision of the network is that we all have ownership of the group and every 18 months/2 years another church or organisation would take over the running of the group. This means we can tap into our contacts and bring them along to do a presentation and also see some new faces.
As Living Waters Church does a stint, I want to build on the excellent teaching and ideas we have had before. And I have lined up some speakers to come and speak at our events. This will hopefully include:

The George Muller foundation – on networking and church partnerships
Roy Maguire from the YMCA – on youth justice
Lynda Richards PCSO – on peer mentoring and youth watch within schools
Tim Blasdale – PYO North Somerset
Pete Worthington designer of 24-7 prayer website – ministry through the net
Richard Passmore – FYT

In addition to this as we cover a massive geographical area, and generally our only contact time has been at the meetings. I see an area for us to develop is as an internet community. Part of this is to promote and let other churches know what is going on in our areas. To enable this I have had an account set up which is:
m5@living-waters.org.uk

If any of the group wants to send out an e-mail or info to this address it will be circulated to the entire network database. I know we all have busy schedules with some times being more manic than others, but I would ask for your support as the network develops, by inviting new people from your area to come along and to use the internet network to keep us all connected to each other.

Lastly the first meeting will be on Friday the 9th March @ 10.15am. The venue will be No 24 Old Street Clevedon BS21 6BY (see website www.living-waters.org.uk for directions) Drinks and cakes will be on ready supply. At the moment I am anticipating we meet about every 2-3months does that sit well with everyone? And could you let me know if you are intending to come?

If you have any more ideas or just want a chat drop me a line on 01275 344955 or rob@living-waters.org.uk

Have a blessed day

Rob England

Portsmouth

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As promised here Coal Miner’s Daughter movie full is the file from the session today. If you want to discuss any points or have any questions feel free to leave them as comments and I will respond. You may also like to check out the articles particularly the Tacking church which links with the session today. There are also a variety of other resources related to todays sessions including info the FaSt game, and redefinitions of church.

Votes for 16 year olds and other news

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The Government has announced the first wave of 40 Respect Areas. The Department for Education and Skills is investing a further £6 million for parenting classes in the 40 areas in 2007/2008.

‘Raising inter-agency working to a higher level’
The National Association of Connexions Partnerships are being funded through the Children’s Workforce Development Council to run four one-day conferences for the different occupational groups who work with young people. It will be a chance for practitioners to reflect on the implications of the ‘integrated working’ agenda and have conversations with colleagues.

Futurebuilders England, the government-backed investment fund to help the third sector deliver better public services, is running a series of free regional roadshow events for regional infrastructure bodies to help build understanding of how Futurebuilders works and how to help others to apply for investment.

Votes at Sixteen
Jo Swinson (LD, East Dunbartonshire) has put down an Early Day Motion calling on the Government to allow a free vote on giving people over the age of 16 the right to vote.

The sound made me do it !

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Last weekend I had to do a presentation on the history of therapeutic drumming. Like many others on the course the discussion went back to sound and vibration. The first sound we hear is our mother’s heartbeat, a pulse, the life force.

My presentation was about sound and movement (dance) I started by describing how it is so natural for young children to move to the beat. When my 2 year old hears music he moves his body, he can’t help it, it is impulsive, natural, part of who he is. The older we get – we lose this ability and lose connection with our body.

While researching I was reminded that sound was at the core of creation – when God spoke.. “let there be light� there was light. Sound was connected to something physical happening. In Hebrew the word “Dabhar� which we translate as ‘word’ implies deeds and actions not just words, accomplishments not talk and creation not verbalising.

Dabhar is active, imaginative and playful.

I like this… so much better then boring old words….so many said, texted, written that are meaningless, pointless and powerless… less is definitely more.

Let there be Dabhar !!

Matrix

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Another thing I won’t be able to attend but a good conference for full time youth workers. The Matrix is here

and if you have not been before or were not sure sounds like a good line up and worth the time and effort. You know when you reach that point and are not sure if you have the energy to go and listen to someone else talk but feel it would be good and could do with a pick me up ….well Iain Hoskins who I work with at Bristol CYM is one of the key note speakers, and is a great communicator I find listening to him better than a crispy toasted cheese sandwhich after a freezing night on detached work. And I dont mean dull cheese on toast but when you take out the grill bit and grill the cheese in the pan till it goes brown and crispy and you have to prise it off then slap it between two bits of bread with mayo. Never tried it well try the Matrix as well!

freedom to flourish

200 years since the abolision of the transatlantic slave trade how do we express freedom in Christ today?
Take time out to think about how today’s youth worker can help to continue to make an impact on the lives of young people.

the matrix 2007 will examine through four averarching themes the role of the youth worker

…. as theologian

…. as leader

…. as missionary

…. as prophet

This will enable you to develop as a youth worker, drawing on the theological and socialogical perspectives. There will be space for personal reflection, dialogue with other practitioners, relaxation, laughter and focussing on God.

Organised by:

Churches Together in England
Baptist Union of Great Britain
Centre for Youth Ministry
United Reformed Church
The Church of England
Frontier Youth Trust
Youth for Christ
Scripture Union
AMAZE
YWAM
YMCA
MAYC
CYFA

Gideon Salvage Duty

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MSC Napoli beached ship

On Sunday afternoon my family and I went down to Beer Head (cliffs) to have a look at the beacked container ship MSC Napoli off Branscombe.

From this BBC News item I see that foreign language Bibles are being washed up. As a Gideon (! who’d have thought it eh?) part of me wonders if I should try and procure these items, however there does seem to be a bit of argument about the legality of picking up salvage. I just hope that they won’t be wasted. I’ll keep my ear to the ground (or should that be seabed?) on this one.