benbell

The Complex Christ

Met up with a couple of mates from church the other day to discuss the possibility of reading a book together. I brought a number of books to the table and the one that stood out was The Complex Christ (signs of emergence in the urban church)by Kester Brewin. This particularly appealed as Kester is writing from within London and has a passion for urban theology. Kester is speaking at the protest 4 bash tomorrow so I hope to get along to hear him before going to Highbury to see Arsenal vs Southampton.

Brian McLaren

A friend of mine tells me it is a mistake to challenge readers to think because readers simply want to hear what they already know and agree with, expressed with minimum personality and maximum blandness. …… But another friend told me that learning is not the consequence of teaching or writing, but rather of thinking. So a playful, provocative, unclear, but stimulating book could actually be more worth your money than a serious, clear book that tells you what to think but doesn’t make you think - Brian McLaren A Generous Orthodoxy..

Inspirational writing and challenge which needs to be heard by me and all others who preach/teach and lead services here at St Stephen’s and probably much wider than that. Obvious challenge to Youth Workers too.

British Sausage week

This week is British Sausage Week! With over £600 million spent on sausages and 266,500 tonnes consumed in the last year, it seems we (the British) like sausages!

In a recent survey people were asked the big question: Why buy sausages? The most popular answer given was: Because I’ve run out at home!!

Why not celebrate one of the all time great foods by going and buying yourself some proper good sausages - from a good butcher. and do your best to steer clear of the cheap supermarket 'bread, cereals and fat' brands. If not from a butcher the Sainsbury's 'taste the difference' range are good.

Barcelona

Was in Barcelona over the weekend with 11 other guys on a stag weekend. It’s a wonderful city full of art, good food and great cava. They love their graffiti – it’s every where, some of it is good but there is a lot of crap!
The whole experience of going to another city is hugely invigorating. Why do so many people insist on going to the countryside for breaks? Barcelona is a city full of artistic flare, innovation, and energy. It has a number of food markets the biggest of which blew my mind, the quality of food especially sea food was incredible.
A highlight was visiting ‘La Sagrada Familia’ , one of Gaudi's most famous works in Barcelona. It is a giant gothic-style cathedral that has been under construction since 1882 and it's not expected to be completed for another 80 years! One of the entrances tells the story of the nativity, the other the story of the Passion (pictured). I was amazed at the opportunity to talk to some of the guys I was with about the story of Jesus and my faith prompted by this building. I was asked on my return whether I could have had the same discussions if we had been looking around St Stephen’s here in Islington – the answer is no! The statues, decoration and artistic narrative gave opportunities that our often bare (protestant) church buildings don’t.

Carol Service?

Had a really great time with David (vicar), thinking about our Christmas services.
I have been feeling a little uncomfortable about the idea of having a ‘Contemporary Christmas Service’ again this year.
We normally try and do something that is creative, thought provoking and has a few carols thrown in as well (sound familiar?). Many people are invited Via our Christmas card - a flyer that goes to every home in the parish – and personal invitations to friends and family.
Our desire is always to try and facilitate a connection with God and maybe provoke people in to considering – wait for the cliché – ‘the real meaning of Christmas’. We have often thought that these services were good as A. church members told us it was good! And B. very often lots of people came.
However in my experience we very rarely got any where near what our real desire for the service was.

We spent a good long while once again grappling with many of the big questions – how do we effectively communicate the Good news, why don’t non-churchy people seem to get what we are on about! – and then we started getting somewhere, having drawn very few conclusions to our ‘big questions’.

We have decided that we will have an open air vigil, praying for peace, both in the world and in our community. It will probably take place in an open space in the middle of an estate in which we have many friends and contacts. We will post candles through peoples doors with an invitation to come outside and take part in the evening, light their candle and pray for peace. This will be accompanied by music, visuals of news stories from the past year and hopefully a big fire (cos we like fires!).

Much more excited by this than the idea of doing another carol service. No invitations to come inside, no pressure to 'put on a good show' just people joining together to pray and reflect.

Jesus blood never failed me yet

Have rediscovered the cd ‘Jesus blood never failed me yet’ by Gavin Bryars. It came up in conversation with friends whilst talking about the rhythm and repetition of the ‘Jesus prayer’. I tracked down a copy and it is still as fresh and emotionally moving as the first time I heard it.

Bryars whilst working on a film about people living rough in the Elephant and Castle area of London, recorded a piece in which a number of the men they were filming sang songs and told stories. After the film was completed he took some of the discarded soundtrack, cut and looped a couple of lines of an old mans song –
“Jesus blood never failed me yet
Never failed me yet
Jesus blood never failed me yet
There’s one thing I know
For he loves me so ….”

Finding that the old man’s song was in tune with his piano at home, he set about arranging some simple musical accompaniment.
This led to the writing of a full piece of music which lasts for an hour and a quarter, and climaxes as the old man is accompanied by the enormous gravel filled voice of Tom Waits.

Bryars genius is the recognition that this loop is powerful in itself and so the musical accompaniment holds the simple song in reverence and never dominates. The music only facilitates the piercing humanity of the song.

Rock Paper Scissors

from the Guide (in Saturday's Guardian)

The world rock paper scissors championship finals are currently taking place in Toronto. Although this timeless playground hand-to-hand game is unlikely to be televised, it remains a popular participation sport, although one riddled with controversy over the introduction of a new all-conquering fourth symbol, dynamite (same as rock but with thumb up).This site has two purposes: to preserve the ancient rules that have been passed down from generation to generation (paper beats rock, rock beats scissors, scissors beats paper) and to promote the zen of RPS where your opening "throw " says far more about you than any horoscope ever could. It also has some great terminology - three rocks in a row is called an Avalanche, while a player who over-uses the paper move is a Bureaucrat.

Space Invaders

Space invaders - Urban art at it’s best. Refreshing, intelligent street art

'Since the early 90’s the aliens have been reproducing in the cities across the world like a virus. By placing these micro-organisms within a system, Invader has similarities to a hacker and transforms cities into a virtual video game. Using mosaic tiles due to the durability and resemblance to pixels each invader has its own characteristics. Locations vary from strategic popular spots to secluded almost hidden spaces. Invader is one of the most significant artists of the current urban art movement.' - taken from the website

Galleries, like churches are so often intimidating, too quiet and full of curators who are up themselves – one of the attractions of street art for me is that it is utterly public and is placed within the fabric daily living, it just pops up and makes you smile.
Art that exists outside of galleries is as controversial as that inside galleries, but at least it is accessible.

A lesson for the church?

Youthwork and the Mission of God

A friend of mine has recently started doing Youth Ministry for a his church and asked me if there were any books I could recommend to him on the subject.
I of course recommended one of the all time greats 'Youthwork and the Mission of God' (frameworks for relational outreach) by Pete Ward. This has been a hugely significant book for me and has brought a great deal of shape to our ministry among young people here at St Stephen's and in the surrounding community.

Why am I writing about a book which was published a good few years ago (1997)? well my friend discovered that it is now out of print and is selling for £50 on Ebay!!!

My Neighbours

Went along to a meeting of local residents and agencies involved in the Estate I live bang next door to.
The meeting was held to present to findings of a local survey about the problems on the Estate.

You suspect that
a. there is a serious problem and
b. people really want to find solutions
when a meeting such as this is chaired by the Local MP (Chris Smith) with the council leader and all kinds of other people there.

Many problems and issues were identified including Prostitution, Drug dealing, Major vandalism and Car Crime, however the young people on the estate were identified as Public enemy number one.
It is the case that they are some of the toughest young people around but outside of youthwork circles there seems to be little interest in actually helping them.

The estate consists of Four Blocks, which make up four sides of a square. Half are managed by the local council and half by a housing association. One of the most popular solutions proposed by local residents was the Building of a wall between the two halves!

It is very unlikely that this will happen, but I am still left amazed at the fact that a Big old dividing wall seemed to some to be the only solution.

Please pray for us as we see how we might work with other Youth work agencies to help young people on this estate.