joy boxes

At this months St Maxs we have begun to embrace the idea of giving, to each other, to the church and to the community around us. The idea comes from a church in the USA called Mars Hill in Grand Rapids. Here is basics of what we are trying to do ….

Joy Boxes

Here at St Max’s we live a relatively care free existence! But things are changing. We have been meeting as a community for 3 years and during that time we have met in many different places, times and ways and also with lots of different people. One of the things that we have been blessed with is the support from the wider church who have let us use their facilities at their cost. This has meant that we could concentrate on creating and forming a community that reaches people who would not normally consider church or their own faith. But there comes a time when every community begins to grow in both size and depth. We have certainly seen more people wanting to be a part of the community that is St Max’s. So with these changes come more demands on us, loving and caring for each other making sure people new to the community feel at home and welcomed, that they will experience the same reassurances that you received when you first came along that you are accepted what ever your views or lifestyle choices.

Also with these changes comes a growing sense of our responsibilities to the wide church and world, as we continue to become community we must put our faith into action as well as continuing to explore what faith means. This will have implications on all sorts of areas of our lives as someone once said “The more I get to know Jesus, the more trouble he seems to get me into.”

So I would like us as a community to start using Joy boxes!
“Whats a Joy Box?” A joy box is something you can have in your own home as well as at St Max’s, its a place that you can put your money into to support St Max’s but you can also put things in there that are going to bless other people, for instance if you see an offer for buy one get one free, ask yourself could someone else benefit from this free one? If so put it in your joy box to pass on or bring it to St max’s and we will distribute it to those that need it. Or maybe it will be Tesco’s vouchers or Morrison’s vouchers. Maybe you are creative and you can bless someone with something you have made? These are all things that can go into a joy box. If you believe in this community it is going to need your investment, which will mean time and money, sometimes more than you can afford to give. But one lesson I have learnt is that God never asks us to sacrifice any more than he is willing to bless us ! And his blessings always out weigh the sacrifices !

Please come back to me on any of this, I hope that we can be known by our love and generosity for God and each other and in so doing learn more about what it means to usher in God’s kingdom.

Grace and Peace

Ben
Winter 2012

God does some great things!

This months St Max’s is all about Epiphany which loosely means manifestation or appearing. So we are looking at how we see Jesus in and through today’s culture.  I asked Martin, a guy who has been journeying with us for about a year now if he would like to say something about how he views Jesus.  I was thinking he would say a few words and i never expected this ! I have posted (with his permission) his text of what he is going to say tomorrow night.  I love the honestly and realism at what he says, how he is able to articulate his faith in a way that is really refreshing and yet deeply challenging.

enjoy…..

Ben quotes “ This months St Max’s is all about looking for Christ, as the wise men arrived they found Jesus as a child and then went on their way telling everyone about him… but who is he to you today, is he someone you think about and if you do how do you see him? we will be exploring Jesus as a man, freedom fighter, hero, loner, freak and many more ways.”
Its very sad to say, but our western society has been trying to removing Jesus’ deity, and trying to make him a man, a prophet, and not the son of God.
I am still on my journey into faith and, whilst nowhere near an agnostic, I am yet to get anywhere near the unshakeable faith of many people I know. However, the statement above does cause me concern over how Jesus is viewed in today’s society.
These are my thoughts on Ben’s initial statement about today’s Saint Max’s.

Have you ever wondered where Jesus would fit in society if He were on earth today in the flesh? From discussions I have had, He was not the kind of a man that is portrayed by our artists today. They picture Him in a long, flowing, clean robe with almost perfectly groomed hair and beard. I recall the Alpha course I attended with quite a few of you present here this evening, we discussed the traditional view of Jesus as I have just mentioned but, where Jesus was born and raised he would, most likely have been of Arab descent with darker skin and shorter hair. The traditional view is, perhaps, a romanticised, western view of Jesus and this view can be prohibitive in our perception of his actions where we lend a ‘western’ trait to this.
The Jesus in the scriptures was a man among men. He travelled on foot and scavenged off of the land and generosity of the people, not having a place to retire at night, unless provided by some hospitable family. He was a fugitive of the system, hunted by political and religious leaders, who sought to imprison or kill Him. When He did “go to church,” He was usually shunned or asked to leave! I can associate with this statement as, to me, it gives the impression that Jesus was all about bringing people to God to help them and for their sakes, it was selfless, which cannot be said for all men of religion in today’s society and, whilst I still struggle with the idea of a single deity who created the universe and our earth and a lot of scripture, I can identify with this man as I feel he would have a place in today’s society. The closest thing we have in modern society is the person who goes against an authoritarian regime, the old saying goes” One man’s hero is another man’s freedom fighter” so, would Jesus be viewed as an enemy to some regimes in today’s society?
I agree with the tract printed by the Christian Motorcyclists Association titled, “HE WOULD HAVE RIDDEN A HARLEY!” It says: “Jesus the Biker … He was a lot like you and me. The government didn’t like him. The church thought He was weird. His friends were few. What friends He had denied Him. He was persecuted by hypocrites. He hung around people like you and me, not the goody-two-shoes Pharisees. Yes, if Jesus were on this earth in the flesh He would be next to you on His Harley telling you He loved you … enough to die for you.”
Jesus told His disciples, “…If you love me, the things that I do will you do also (John 15: 14). If we would truly be like Jesus, most of us would have to make some radical changes. I don’t see Jesus laying out His Sunday clothes on Saturday night, getting up on Sunday morning, going to church, returning home to Sunday dinner, and calling it a week. That was not His conception of spirituality.
It coincides with my , some might say, suspicion or distrust of major, organized religious events and my recent experience of a foaming-mouthed Jehovah’s Witness preaching to me on my doorstep.
I carry on my spiritual journey because I am associating with how I would see Jesus in today’s society, not necessarily pushing us all to attend church services on a regular basis but to find God, peace and our own place in his family in our own way. We are all unique as human beings so why should we all find God or Christianity in the same way??
I don’t see a man who spent His formative years in a Seminary and then went out to become chief priest or head-honcho of the Pharisees so He could speak at conventions and direct tours to the Holy Land.
I see a man among men, a rebel with a cause. I see Him riding a motorcycle into the circle at a motorcycle rally, shaking hands and offering the peace that passes all understanding to those who are floundering in a world of evil and sickness. I see Him on the highways and byways giving a cup of cool water to the thirsty. I see Him in the ghettos, the prisons, the rest homes. I see Him on the street-corners, spending the night in a homeless village spending His days in the hospital waiting rooms and in the witness rooms at the courthouse. I see Him in the centres for the homeless, offering Himself in service and ministering.
I see him as a person who would appeal to the disenchanted youth of the world, who could, hopefully, turn many of them back from the lives they lead now, involved in crime and having no future, an endless downward spiral.
Unfortunately, the establishment today is viewed, rightly or wrongly, with suspicion and not only by the young!
Hopefully this ‘freedom fighter’ and ‘man of the people’ could appeal to those who feel wronged or undermined and instil some belief into them, whether it be belief in god or just belief in themselves.

My dissertation

So i have nearly finished my dissertation, which is quite amazing as it has seriously nearly finished me many more times! Here is a copy of the front cover, which was actually the most fun bit of it to do! I will post a copy of the full thing when it is finally finished…

Responding to Driscoll

Not that my thoughts matter a jot in this conversation but here is my response to this article

 

There was once a famous preacher who felt convicted to preach the Gospel to everyone who would listen and even those who wouldn’t.  Over time this preacher become world famous, many listened to his every word, many bought t-shirts with his strap lines on them, read the books he endorsed and sang the songs he told them to.

But one day seeing that he seemed to be the only one doing this he thought to himself, what God has asked me to do is so important that surely i must not just be the only one to undertake this vital work for God.  So he began to speak to other preachers.  He realised that these other preachers where not doing the same things as him and therefore they where not as good and they where not saving as many souls as he was.  So the famous preacher began to curse the lesser known preachers for the way in which they went about their work, that they were not saying the right things or being manly enough.  This caused much uproar, with many people being offended and spitting back words of hate and venom about this arrogant preacher from a far off land.

But one old man who had worked, all his life as a preacher in a small village that not many people knew about heard the comments of the famous preacher and decided to he needed to respond to the challenge he had laid down.

He wrote a very unusual letter to the famous preacher asking him if he would come and fight him. If he would step in to a boxing ring and go three rounds with him.  This seemed very strange as the old man was well past his prime and even used aides to help him walk, where as the famous preacher was a well built man in his prime, and although the use of violence was not something he would have been used to this mismatch in this context was of biblical proportions. The letter concluded by stating the only condition to this contest is that the looser must step down from their position in their churches and they must never preach or speak of Christ ever again.

The letter arrived on the desk of the famous preacher and at first he was shocked by the proposal, but then after some thought he realised that it would be great publicity and that he could use this event to further his message and back up his original out cry that preachers need to be much more manly.

 

The date and event was arranged and much uproar was debated, blogged and tweeted about.  On the day of the event the opponents met for the first time in the ring the large famous preach seeing the small frame of the old man knew that there was another narrative at work here.  The bravado, and arrogance of the famous preacher dissolved like an ice cube on a hot plate.  Amongst the cheering crowds the famous preacher walked over to the old man and asked.  ‘Why would you agree to doing this when the odds are so stacked against you?’ ‘Don’t you love Christ?’

The old man looked up in to the famous preachers eyes and said in a small soft voice “Yes i love Christ, and that is why i propose to loose this contest, for I would rather have faith and loose it in the battle of preaching than walk into heaven without any spiritual scars.’

Epiphany

I made this film a while back and though it fits quite nice with the theme of epiphany of making Christ known as the wise men did after seeing him.

 

Big Announcement….

Well…… New Year New Job !!!!!  I can now officially announce that I will be starting a new role this Easter!

I have been asked and have taken a pioneer minsters job in Middlesbrough.

This means that after 5 ½ years in Bridlington we are all moving up north.  We leave Brid on 2nd April and I will begin my new job on 26th April.  The role is an interesting one, I will be working with a great Vicar called Mike Proctor who runs St Cuthbert’s church in Marton, which is on the south side of the city.  My role is really still a blank sheet of paper, I will be working in the community, mainly with those who do not go to church or really consider their own faith journey.  I will also be working ¼ time with young people, which was a surprise when I was officially offered the job and this hadn’t featured in the conversations we had, but it is a pleasant surprise as working with young people has always been something I missed doing whilst in Brid.  I will be working in the local church and supporting and continuing to learn and understand the inherited church.

For me personally, this all feels very strange.  I have never been in this sort of place before, by that I mean the all the jobs that I have ever taken before I have felt at this point that “there is no way that I can do that!” whether it was getting my first job as a hairdresser being a youth minster at a huge church or becoming ordained.  But in many ways I don’t feel that apprehensive about this new role, I feel that I do have a fair idea about my own abilities and I will be able to make something of it.  The apprehension I guess is that I want my working relationships to work well.  I will reflect on my time in Bridlington at a later time, but one of the things that I wish had been better is the working relationships with those around me.  I think I have learnt that with the type of ministry I am involved with, sometimes the horizon lines move so often that there are times when it is hard to make sense of anything that I am doing, and to have the support from the inherited institution, of which I am apart is vital if anything is going to work and thrive.

It will be a big move for us as a family, as it will mean that we step out of the area in which we both have our parents at hand.  It will also mean Becky giving up her job and looking for something for September.

We are sad to be leaving Brid and some of the really great friends that we have made.  But I know that those friendships although will change, will also last.  And the communities of XY and St Maxs will also continue to grow and develop, maybe not in the same way in which they have done.  But again I will save that for another post.

So here’s to the new year, here’s to fresh starts and new beginnings and here’s to blank sheets of paper and to painting great new master pieces of God’s Kingdom on them!

new blog design

Having revived my blog i thought i would give it a bit of revamp. Many of my friends have paid to design and upload their stuff on their blogs, but i still as yet cannot justify doing so. So i am sticking with the free themes that wordpress offer.

Back when i dirst started this blog i though i would call it bluesoul. mainly because i wanted something that was open ended and didn’t give the blog a particular slant in any one direction that would either entice or dissuade other s from visiting. i thought in some ways it summer me up as someone who through the word blue means open sky, adventurous, and always seeking and soul with the spiritual side of me that will not be pinned down by dogma but open to seeking relationship and community with God and others.

So it was a nice surprise that when i actually googled the meaning of ‘bluesoul’ this was the definition of what i found,

Bluesoul , bluesoul meaning , definition of bluesoul , what is bluesoul – A humanist, politically very much to the left, very liberal on most (social) issues. A bluesoul dislikes hypocrisy, racism, homophobia and any kind of intolerance towards minorities or any other marginal groups/people solely for what they are (or were born as).Considers him/herself a complex person by nature, open-minded, very friendly and polite.
Some examples : Famous bluesouls include Noam Chomsky, Slavoj Zizek, Edward Said.

not a bad description as it happens !!!