kirbs

Paperless advert calendar

2007-11-26T11:25:00.001Z

I was sent this link through the diocese yesterday and as the first window got me thinking I thought it was worth sending on to others.

bok.paperlesschristmas | 2007

Come on the gooners

2007-11-25T23:00:00.001Z

DSCF7985.JPG
Originally uploaded by SimonKirby.

Thanks to the kindness of some friends I got to take the boys to see Arsenal v Wigan on Saturday. It was a great occasion it was our first trip to the stadium and it is magnificent, the atmosphere great and while it wasn't the best performance of Arsenal's season, they don't do bad football. While they took a while to come two goals towards the end were the icing on the cake!

There is much excitement in the house..

2007-11-24T11:16:00.001Z

I've just had one of those phonecalls that changes the direction of the day...an offer of 3 tickets for this afternoon's Arsenal game. This will be the first time the boys and I visit the Emirates stadium to hopefully watch a convincing victory over Wigan. Unfortunately 6 first team players including the inspirational Fabregas are not playing...still come on the gooners!

Maybe I should try this again

2007-11-22T12:47:00.001Z

Having at last updated my flock browser I thought I'd try out blogging again you never know it might last longer than a week.

Blogged with Flock

2007-05-14T11:57:00.000+01:00

The Big Four-0

Well I made it and it was a great weekend of celebration. I loved catching up with old friends although I was a little concerned by how many of my former youth group now have kids..suppose that's a hazard of aging. One of the highlights without doubt was the newest boyband in North London doing a Snow Patrol cover version - check them out below they do warm up!

There's a few photos on my flickr site here. Apparently life now begins so here we go...

Here He Comes

2007-05-07T20:34:00.001+01:00

Here He Comes
Originally uploaded by SimonKirby.

Spent bank holiday weekend destroying an air raid shelter in our garden. It was designed to be bombproof and put up a great fight. We had some good father son bonding times with sledge hammers and pick axes. We also made a new friend in as a robin enjoyed the rich pickings we were unearthing. He became increasingly tame over the weekend to the point where he took food from our hands you can see him flying in from the right if you look carefully.

2007-04-23T21:25:00.000+01:00

The Marathon

We spent a great day at the Marathon on Sunday. We were part of a cheering team for Help the Hospices, situated on the Victoria Embankment opposite the Millennium Wheel. Dan from church was running and we were watching out for him while cheering for any one running for Help the Hospice, as well as anyone else as they went past. We were at the 25 mile mark so we saw some pretty knackered runners but it was incredible seeing the endurance of people and particularly the nutters in the fun runner suits. (It can't have been much fun after 25 miles). My appetite has been wheted and I'm thinking I might have to give it a go next year. In the meantime I took a fair few photos some below and more on my flickr site.

What snowball

2007-02-13T13:21:00.001Z

What snowball
Originally uploaded by SimonKirby.

Hope you had fun in the snow - we did!

2007-01-30T22:17:00.000Z

Holy Place

I liked this, might adopt it for ENC...

Why so popular?

2007-01-29T18:26:00.001Z

Grove Road
Originally uploaded by SimonKirby.

Just checking out my popular photos and discovered this one had been viewed 479 times. Now I was baffled why on earth was it so popular then I noticed that I hadn't given it a name (a lazy habit I have) it just had the number created by the camera. Just try guessing what the number was...all I can say is that there must have been a huge amount of disappointment when they found a street in a Dorset village!

If you want to increase the hit rate on your blog a carefully placed number is likely to help!

I have now given it a name...

2007-01-28T11:32:00.000Z

The Holy Lands

I've just returned from an amazing week in the Holy Lands. The Bishop of Edmonton took about 20 recently ordained clergy (4th years snuck in by a whisker) for a week's pilgrimmage visiting sites around Israel. I feel I've learnt huge amounts and am quite embarrassed about my ignorance of the geography and the political situation before I left. While I'm not now claiming to be an expert, having met a number of Palestinian Christians some in the occupied territories, I feel that I have a more balanced perspective than before I left.

We visited some beautiful places and highlights included an open air communion on the shores of the sea of Galilee, a football game in an orphanage in Bethany and a visit to a recreated 1st century Nazareth village in Nazareth. The weather was great so much so that a couple of us even had a very quick dip in the sea of Galilee.

A couple of photos here and more at the side.

Happy New Year

2007-01-02T23:00:00.000Z

I hope you had a good Christmas and are all set for a fulfiling new year. What does 2007 hold? For us 2006 was an exciting year as Emmanuel Network Church was launched. It's been a bit of a rollercoaster with many more highs than lows but loads of new challenges not least what do we do next? The year finished well with carols by candlelight and a party. We then had a great family Christmas culminating in a few days in Dorset experiencing some weather extremes that made for great seas and a river down the road outside the cottage.

And now to 2007, hopefully a significant year not just because I hit 40! Enjoy.

Happy Christmas

2006-12-24T10:28:00.000Z

I'm just enjoying a relaxing morning in the afterglow of Arsenals 6-2 victory over Blackburn made even better by the fact that Van Persie made 36 points for my fantasy football team meaning I take top spot in the church league at Christmas...come on.

The shopping is done, presents are wrapped and I'm looking forward to the candlelit service that we're having tonight for those of us from ENC who are left in London. We've opted for a 7pm carols and communion followed by a party round ours, and are expecting a few family and friends to swell the depleted numbers.

Yesterday while doing some last minute shopping in North Finchley I spotted this stencil graffiti on the wall next to Iceland. Now it might have been there for years and I've never noticed it before and I think it's quite recent. Now I'm no expert on stencil graffiti but I'm just wondering it couldn't be a Banksy could it? I mean why would he choose a wall behind the North Finchley High road, which while functional is fairly soulless, but then maybe that's why. I think it unlikely but that then raises the question are there now loads of stencil graffiti artists out there?

Whatever the answer it made me smile.

I will not blog again before Christmas (probably before Feb knowing my blogging consistency) so have a great Christmas and a happy New Year.

Tagged

2006-12-22T23:21:00.000Z

Ok I've been tagged twice now in 24 hours by Tony and What's your point caller so I'm succumbing to this pressure and trying to think of 5 interesting things you probably don't know about me.

1. Last night Sue and I had a great night out with a few friends at the Jazz Cafe in Camden watching LCGC doing their Christmas show. That saves me doing a separate blog about what was an incredible evening in a great venue. I can honestly say I've never enjoyed singing Ding Dong merrily on high quite as much as when we joined in their "salsa" version.

2. While at bible college I trained to be a pool lifeguard and worked for a summer in a local leisure centre - nobody drowned.

3. I was born in Cardiff in Wales and left after 6 months - I didn't have a lot of say in the decision. The welsh roots do go deeper as my mum's mum was pure welsh descended from Thomas Thomas of the valleys. However I feel truly British as her husband was a pure Scot from Glasgow, and my Dad's parents were both from Lancashire. I do support England when they play anyone else.

4. I lived for a month with my family, on the Peguis Native American Indian reserve north of Winnipeg when training for ordination, looking at how the Church did or didn't do cross cultural mission. It was a fantastic experience for us as a family and we were hosted by Barry and Freda Bear of the Diocese of Rupertsland..surreal.

5. I once got stuck up a flag pole when the flag I was trying to raise put up some serious resistanace. I tried to climb the pole to rescue the flag that had blown free, slipped and ended up suspended by a hook that ripped through my trousers. It was hugely embarrassing but 25 years later I feel released sharing this with the world.

Happy Christmas one and all.

Happy Christmas

2006-12-20T08:54:00.000Z

I've heard it said that "all work and no plaigarism makes for a mighty dull sermon" I'm not sure what it infers about Christmas blogs, except that I've blatantly nicked the mosaic idea from Jonny and Tony as it seemed a great way to put together some of my favourite photo memories from 2006 and then send them to family and friends rather than a newsletter type thing. I'm happy to field questions about the context of the photos or you can just guess.

Have a great Christmas and I hope that 2007 creates lots of great memories for you.

Evil Minded Parishoners Making life Hell for Clergy

2006-12-09T14:33:00.000Z

This article by Ruth Gledhill made me laugh out loud and reduced my mother to mild hysterics as well, when I read it to her on the phone. I am so grateful that ENC falls into the final paragraph!

technorati tags:Clergy, Parishoners

The Boy did Good

2006-12-07T18:38:00.000Z

We knew it was a good photo but we didn't expect Luke to win, but he did and here's the evidence. The gutting thing is I took loads of photos and didn't get close and he took a couple and won! Obviously he's made up not least because the prize money can go into his ipod fund.

Christmas Present Ideas

2006-11-17T10:13:00.000Z

Some good friends of mine Dave & Ian have just launched a new coffee company, the coffee tastes great and the profits are going to be helping some great causes so if you're short of Christmas present ideas why not try them out...

A Beach Hazard

2006-11-15T10:52:00.000Z

Congratulations to Luke my 10 year old son whose photo Beach Hazard, that he took during our summer holidays has made the final 5 of the under 16 entries for the Burton Bradstock online photo competition. I'm a bit gutted that none of my photos made the adult final (and he's delighted). The winner is going to be announced on Tuesday - go Luke!

Weekend Wanderings

2006-11-06T17:04:00.000Z

Saturday morning was my second run out for the ENC football team, after only 20 minutes I pulled my hamstring and had to take over from the ref who was our sub. I was well gutted and my refing was rubbish. In the photo you can just about make me out on the far post before injury, praying that the ball wasn't coming my way. In the evening I limped up to Alexandra Palace with the boys for what has to be one of the best free (donation only) fireworks parties in London. Looking over the city is great on any clear day or night but then seeing some spectacular fireworks with 70,000 others adds to the atmosphere somewhat.

Sunday was our next CIA sunday (Community in action) and we cleared Dave's (a colleague of one of the girls in the church) garden for him. Come the spring he'd like turf and flowers but for now at least we've got rid of an old tree and loads of weeds.

Refreshed

2006-10-28T23:13:00.000+01:00

Just had a great couple of days away recharging the family batteries. We have a lot of people through our home and so it's good to get regular opportunities to regroup. Particularly enjoyed watching the sunset on the beach one evening.

The way things work out

2006-10-24T07:31:00.000+01:00

Yesterday my cousin appeared in an article in the Daily Telegraph "Health Section" telling of the challenges that he and his wife face raising their autistic daughter Yvette. Andy and I spent a lot of time together when we were kids as our mums who are sisters are very close to each other. It doesn't feel like 30 years since we were playing on beaches together in Cornwall, and we had no ideas of the joys and challenges that lay ahead. The article is well written and worth a read not just because he's my cousin but because it gives quite an insight into autism. (Forgive him for being a former telegraph writer, they were the only broadsheet who would give him a job...

Gooooooooaaaaaaaaal

2006-10-21T18:03:00.000+01:00

I'm not quite sure if it's a good idea to take up football when you're approaching your 40th, surely the sensible thing would be to be thinking about retiring. However this morning was my first ever competitive game of football as the ENC team was desperately short. So I made my debut at right back we lost 7-1(the net got quite a bit of abuse) but the week before they lost 9-2 so that's an improvement and generally it was felt I did quite well for an old man. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to get out of bed in the morning!

technorati tags:football

Good Living Tips

2006-10-20T20:45:00.000+01:00

I just finished
it really is one of those books that make for uncomfortable reading but is well worth it. Now the challenge is to put it into practice and there is so much to put into practice. Shane challenges thinking about community living, the poor, tithing, war, the environment, fair trade to name but a few little issues. Practical help for some ideas about ethical and enviromental living comes on this new site good living that I found through Jonny.

technorati tags:Community

Crash chaos

2006-10-20T16:39:00.000+01:00

We live in a cul-de-sac off a main road, yesterday as I headed out at 7.30am to take my son to the school bus I discovered the police had blocked off the stretch of road at the end of our road. We were allowed to drive out and proceeded to pass smashed car after smashed car it looked like something out of a disaster movie. I returned home the other way round the block and had to park up and walk home past the culprit, which according to the newspaper report was a runaway bus caused by a passenger fighting with the driver. Fortunately no one was seriously hurt and I was pleased I hadn't been heading home when it was coming the other way!

Bus crashes as passenger fights driver | News | This is London

See you later alligator

2006-10-16T19:45:00.000+01:00

Saturday night was Sombrero and Salsa night as we sent Caroline off to work with Food for the Hungry in Bolivia. Caroline is going to be the first overseas member of our community as she heads off to work with streetkids in Cochabamba you can find out more about what she's doing here. We're going to miss the passion and challenge that she brings to us, but hopefully through skype and flickr will keep up with what she's doing. Yesterday we said goodbye and I spoke about the challenges we face as we become a family community and it certainly felt like we were saying goodbye to a family member rather than a church member. I also highlighted that we're called to be a very different sort of church from the one we've come from, and was really encouraged by the response as we talked about creatively helping one couple from the community with their housing.

I saw this today

Simple/organic church people have got a cold shoulder from “church” leaders for a decade. Singularity frowns on modularity. They are considered a threat to the system. They are called “house church” but that doesn't really fit what they [we] are doing. Its not house church and its not “small groups” and its not rebellion against church. Its attempting to BE the church as God intended it. Even in the emerging church, finding people who understand that is not an easy task. Nor is it an attractive proposition - if you want to be a well known conference speaker or a local pastor with CLOUT in your denomination which measures success in the cold-war terms of size, weight and longevity (Friedman), then a shift to the emerging-missional-organic church is a VERY BAD CAREER MOVE. It may be great for the Kingdom, but it will NOT pimp your image or make you money or get you on the speaker list at conferences - Most conferences only invite speakers who RE-INFORCE their existing model which in most Christian circles, is the centralized ecclesial model with a tithing system, a set of buildings that need butt-filling and an army of M.Div Seminary graduates who need a position as pastor in the kind of church that theological education has trained them for. Not saying that system is bad, but I am saying it is DIFFERENT and difference is a threat that the promoters of that system do not want to deal with.

on tallskinnykiwi today and realised that my mother's hope of me becoming Archbishop has obviously been decimated by the decision to help set up ENC!

Still I quickly cheered myself up with this mindless but very amusing star wars spoof.

technorati tags:Bolivia, tallskinnykiwi

The Simple Way

2006-10-13T22:32:00.000+01:00

I know another post, what's going on. I've had flock for a while now but am only just getting round to discovering it's full capabilities - it's quite good! Can I recommend this book which I'm only half way through but finding that it's deeply challenging. It's a sort of autobiographical look at the start of the simple way a community in Philadelphia of which Shane Claiborne the author was a co founder. It's a great story with lots to think about and will hopefully result in some orthopraxis as well.

technorati tags:Community

Reading - Anticipation September 30th

2006-10-13T15:43:00.000+01:00

Reading 2

Better late than never a brief post about the day at St Laurences at the end of September. It felt like a really good day about 50 of us pitched up and chatted about what we were doing around the country. Chris Russell kicked off with his 57 questions (it might have been 58) for the church, we will eventually get his notes up somewhere. We worshipped together, ate together, laughed together and decided we want to do it again sometime, so now just got to work out when and where. I'll keep you posted...eventually!

technorati tags:Reading, Anticipation

2006-10-12T21:05:00.000+01:00

Pictobrowser

Thanks to Jonny for the heads up about Pictobrowser. I'm not very good at blogging but I do like flickr and photos and now I can add photostreams, so I have..the ENC launch seemed a good place to start.

Who knows I might start blogging more!

Happy Birthday

2006-09-26T22:47:00.000+01:00

DSCF4326.JPG
Originally uploaded by SimonKirby.

Feeling a bit old/grown up this evening as we now have a teenager in the house. I decided to try and create a bit of an initiation time for Thomas as it's a fairly significant birthday, so last week we had a couple of nights away together and went falcon flying in the New Forest. We had a great time flying a couple of owls and are going to head back to fly the falcons as the rain prevented us from finishing the morning. There's some pictures in the side bar. I really enjoyed the time with him and we spent quite a lot of time sitting on a bench on the cliff top talking about life. I hope we'll have more times like that in the future.

2006-09-20T16:22:00.000+01:00

Emmanuel Network Church are go...

Sunday saw the launch of ENC and my licensing as Minister in Charge, someone pointed out that I'm now MIC @ ENC. There's a brief article and some photos on our website (although the photos are straight from Flickr which you can access from the pictures at the side).

If was a really positive day and the Bishop talked about us being launched in our coracle which was kind of cool.

Chimnea Time

2006-09-14T08:45:00.000+01:00

DSCF4051.JPG
Originally uploaded by SimonKirby.

We have a monthly get together for the guys in the church to drink beer, talk about the challenge's we're facing and the things we feel God is saying to us and needs to change in us. This month it was round the chimnea and it is quite amazing to see the effect of fire on grown men. By the end of the evening anything that could be burnt was being, old travel cards, receipts and sweet packets to name but a few. It wasn't hugely symbolic more pyromania but on reflection it is good to get life's dross regularly burnt up. I suppose the question is how we regularly create the spiritual chimnea that allows us to bring out the rubbish in our lives and effectively deal with it.

2006-09-04T15:04:00.000+01:00

Hope you had a good summer!

I did although it's a bit gutting that the weather is now improving as we return to work and the boys head back to school. I may get round to posting some photos from time away, but while I remembered I just wanted to highlight
30th September 2006
A few friends and have planned this day in Reading and emailed various people about it and are now sitting back to see who turns up. It should be a good day so if you can make it why not join us...

2006-08-04T14:49:00.000+01:00

How should we respond to the latest Middle East crises?

It's a genuine question and I don't have an answer. Today I played a squash league match against Sam (I lost again and should have won - doh). Sam is a young Jewish guy who I've talked to before about faith and Judaism. He's a nice guy, although I didn't like his lack of compassion towards the innocent civilians in Lebanon (it's Hezbollah's fault for using human sandbags). Thanks Andrew for this article which presents a different view and links to Christians in the Lebanon, who at least I can pray for, although I would like to do more.

2006-08-03T10:12:00.000+01:00

Two Blogs in a Day get me

Ok this probably means that there are other things I should be doing but am avoiding...anyhow just wanted to post our church launch invite. More info here at our developing website.

Oh Blog

2006-08-03T10:00:00.000+01:00

White Park Bay
Originally uploaded by SimonKirby.

Not been a great blogger lately - when were you I hear you cry - fair play. July was a great month, the weather was firing on all cylinders. We dipped our toe into community action (you never know I might blog about that) and I got to spend a few days in Northern Ireland hooking up with some old friends and making some new ones through the training network that I'm involved with. This is the beach at White Park Bay, just below the youth hostel where we were staying, it was a magnificent location. As well as quite a few hours talking about training we got to visit the Giant's Causeway and the Bushmills Distillery, so it wasn't all hard work.

One Red Paper Clip

2006-07-12T08:55:00.000+01:00

If you haven't heard about this trade up yet do read the one red paperclip blog it's an amusing quest - it's almost a modern day Lord of the Rings but with the ring substituted for a paperclip and then lots of other things!

Again it shows the huge potential of the internet, of connections, of lateral thinking. The snow globe swap was a big risk but showed an integrity to the quest that paid off big time...

2006-07-04T22:08:00.000+01:00

Bibles, Prayer Books & The Jazz Man

We had a great weekend in Dorset. My folks looked after the boys and Sue and I were able to celebrate her birthday and our 15th wedding anniversary with a couple of days of wandering around shops enjoying the sunshine and a couple of great meals together. On Saturday we headed in to Lyme Regis to get some pasties from a shop whose beef and stilton pasties take some beating and discovored that it was the Lyme Regis Jazz Festival. There was a parade with band and lots of umbrellas (photos at the side) but I'll probably remember the jazz man who was busking for his beer money. I liked the backdrop, he was a great musician although I think the beer that he was playing for had effected his skill. He had a bit of a rant at God halfway through his set and I wanted to find out more about his story, but unfortunately he wasn't the most coherent.

2006-06-27T22:13:00.000+01:00

The Sporting Life

I'm loving this summer of Sport. I was never particularly into cricket I always found it quite boring but my youngest son has taken up the Sport and on Friday night I supported him as his under 10 team won their first match. It wasn't tough supporting him as I read the newspaper with a cold beer on a sunny evening. Then there's the world cup, what a feast of football. OK some of the games haven't been great but our church fantasy football league has added extra spice. It's not just the England matches that count but every match because of the points potential. We're seeing a high degree of competition and I'm quite pleased that my team is holding its own. For further world cup tips check out my eldest son's first attempts at podcasting here.

Challenge Over...

2006-06-22T19:32:00.000+01:00

We did it! It took 17 and a half hours from the top of the first mountain to the top of the 15th, it was a fantastic day and we saw an incredible sunrise over the mountains. By sunset we didn't care what it looked like! Photos linked at the side. Feet and muscles are nearly recovered and we're now talking about doing it again next year...

2006-05-18T10:07:00.000+01:00

Humph

I think that word best describes how I feel about last night's match. What's worse being reduced to 10 men, losing a 1-0 lead, not winning the champion's league or facing spurs fans.

It's definitely the latter - like they've won anything.. At least we still have champion's league football next season.

2006-05-15T20:08:00.000+01:00

Another Great Weekend

At the moment I'm loving what's going on with the Church. Friendships are deepening, there's a greater desire to get involved in making a real difference in the community and our acts of worship seem to be becoming more participatory which is a great move for us as we've come from a fairly front led starting place. This sunday was my birthday celebrations and we started with coffee and croisants at ours then headed to the Methodist church next to where we live to try it out as a venue. It's really good space that they've spend a packet because they discovered asbestos in the roof, they've been very welcoming and are happy for us to use the church after them on a sunday if we want to. It went well and had a good feel. Back to ours for the birthday bbq, then some of us headed to the park for a game of pitch and putt in the overgrown and abandoned municipal pitch and putt, we're thinking of taking it over as the council don't seem to want it...back to the house for more food and a few hands of poker. The boys are proving worryingly good at this (it is lemonade in their bottles and we play for fun not money in case any of you were particularly worried..) it was a great day.

2006-05-09T09:12:00.000+01:00

Tottenhams new strip

I know I really shouldn't be making fun of our fierce rivals pre match food poisoning outbreak but I just can't resist it and thought you might like to see their latest sponsor..I'll stop gloating now honest...

2006-05-08T09:12:00.000+01:00

Oh what fun we had..

At the moment I'm adapting to a new form of life, as I move from being part of a large "busy" church who started their fourth main sunday service yesterday to being involved in leading a small community who are trying to work out what to do with their time and energy. It does mean that I have more flexibility on a Sunday and yesterday was a day when a appreciated the flex.

Our gathering in the morning was very positive as Barry and Kate shared some experiences of kindness that they had received while on holiday in Oz. It opened up a great discussion about whether and how we as a group will be prepared to let our "schedule's" be interrupted for the sake of being kind to others.

We then shot up to a Hindu centre in Hertfordshire to join in the wedding celebrations of Nisha and Ishvar. Nisha is the daughter of one of our neighbours and it was great to be invited to share their wedding day. We had missed the ceremony part of the day but enjoyed the food, and celebration and being part of a different community for a couple of hours.

Back to North London and another community at the Griffin pub in Whetstone, where some of the guys from church were watching the last Arsenal match of the season. I made it for the second half and there were equal numbers of Tottenham (our north london rivals) and Arsenal fans in the pub. It was a significant match as it was the last one at the old stadium, and would decide which of the north london teams would take the remaining place in the champions league. Thierry Henry did his duty and duly scored a hattrick and West Ham did us a favour and beat a Tottenham team complaining of food posioning. Chants of "the tottenham chefs a gooner (our nickname)" reverberated around the pub. Not sure some of my Tottenham friends are going to be speaking to me for a while particularly Matt and Jon who I couldn't resist ringing towards the end of the game. (Jon was trying not to find out the scores so presumably will never speak to me again.)

Got home and was rung up by David who wondered if I fancied going out for a beer in the evening. We spent a good hour talking about how the church is going and reflecting upon the quote on the bar from Benjamin Franklin which I photographed and have posted.

Have a good week...

2006-04-26T10:06:00.000+01:00

Lehmann Heroics

Jens Lehmann single handedly saved Arsenal last night, his penalty save (it was never a penalty), has put us into the Champions League Final. It was the longest 90 minutes of football I've experienced for a while and I've aged even more! The only down side of Lehmann's save is what's going to happen if England face Germany in another Cup Final penalty shoot out...

2006-04-08T15:51:00.000+01:00

Happy Easter

I'm really enjoying this Easter. Maundy Thursday was the renewing of ordination vows at St Paul's, there are bits of the service that I could skip but the actual vows are challenging, including things like "Will you fashion your life according to the pattern of Christ, that you may be a true pastor, by word and example, to the people among whom you serve" By the help of God, I will.

The absolute highlight of the service was seeing John March wearing an old set of curtains - doesn't he look great in flowers!

Today Emmanuel Network Church celebrated Easter with an Easter Feast. A sit down roast for 30 that we cooked at a local retreat house, and we celebrated communion between the courses. My short (and it was) after dinner talk was based on Eugene Petersons book "Living the resurrected life", the chapter headings are Resurrection wonder, Resurrection Meals and resurrection Friends all of which were very apt. Afterwards we had the obligatory Easter Egg hunt and game of football in the garden. It's been a top day, and I hope you've had a very special Easter.

2006-03-23T16:06:00.000Z

Ohh it's been a while

So much to tell you all as well. First it's been a great week for ENC (Emmanuel Network Church if you've not been paying attention), not least because we've been promised some funding to help us get going. Tomorrow I meet the Bishop to talk about "working protocols" whatever those are. We also had a fantastic weekend away in Hampshire, enjoyed walking, talking, eating, drinking, chilling and watching rugby (sort of enjoyed that due to the score.) We also spent time praying and dreaming of where we'd like God to take us in the next year.

Hooked up with Matt last week which was great and then got publicly told off for not telling him about Pray as You Go I was sure he'd have picked it up from a blogger who actually blogs occassionally! It was really good to catch up with him steal some ideas and get a few mac tips (yep I've taken the plunge and am now trying to work out how to right click when you've only got one button..there's a lot of reprogramming going on.)

After much putting the world to rights headed back to London for a meeting at the venue where we're hoping to hold our Easter feast on Easter Sunday (more of that another time perhaps) and to take the boys diving. As part of their scouts badges they got to go diving in Edmonton Green north London. I can't imagine anyone would want to dive there twice as there's not much to see!

Finally I thought I better get round to responding to Steve's (he blogs even less than me) tag

4 JOBS I'VE HAD
1. Lumberjack (allright timber stacker in a building merchants..)
2. Lifeguard (no one drowned)
3. School Cleaner (I was rubbish)
4. Vicar (sort of..)

4 MOVIES/SHOWS I'VE BEEN ADDICTED TO
1. The Professionals (showing my age)
2. 24 - series one and two - why did the others never make it to the non sky channel? Or did I just miss that??
3. The Apprentice (if these are the best entrepeneurs in the UK we're in trouble.)
4. Snow white and the seven dwarfs (by default my son was completely addicted when small so I've ended watching it a zillion times...)

4 places I've lived
1. Cheltenham
2. Norwich
3. Birmingham
4. London

4 countries I would like to visit
1. Canada
2. Canada
3. Canada
4. Did I mention Canada

4 Popular false assumptions about me
1. I've got a big nose (it's a trick of the light)
2. That the grey hairs are natural (I wish)
3. That I know what I'm doing
4. That I don't do pastoral - (I do I just need to see the blood or tears to know it's serious..)

4 people I look like (according to some people)
1. Steve Davis (the snooker player - I had red hair in my youth)
2. Brad Pitt
3. George Clooney
4. David Beckham (the last 3 were blatant lies - just in case I had you fooled for a nanosecond)

4 things to do before I die
1. Complete the 15 peaks in Wales that are over 1000 feet in 24 hours
2. Blog more than once a month
3. Grow a community that rocks
4. Watch the series of 24 that I haven't seen yet

People I tag next
1. Rev TC
2. Dan Bennett
3. Roy Hutchinson
4. Ali Campbell

2006-03-12T14:47:00.000Z

A Day In Town

Yesterday we visited my mother in law whose recovering from open heart surgery at a hospital in central London. The boys didn't particularly enjoy the hospital experience so I took them for a walk and we created a photography competition. The three categories were "most obscure", "least like London" and "Best of the best". The winners in each category are displayed and the rest will be seen at www.flickr.com/photos/kirbs/

Sue got the job of judge and as we each won a category (she didn't know who had taken them honest) the decider went down to our pictures of some phone boxes at Smithfield Market. Thomas WON!

2006-03-07T08:01:00.000Z

I Knew It

This picture (sorry for the poor quality) made me laugh as I met another Priest in town at Costa Coffee. Obviously giving up coffee for Lent would be a mistake...

2006-02-03T22:24:00.000Z

Catching Up

It's about time that I updated my Blog and put a few more links to people whose blogs I read through bloglines. It's been good to reconnect with Tony we overlapped on the same training course and he does a good job at making the clerical outfit look cool. Jon is currently nipping around London on his scooter while masquerading as a curate at HTB, their standards are obviously slipping as he supports Tottenham.Steve has just started blogging and is someone I've enjoyed working with on some of the Em Church stuff we did a couple of years ago.

2006-01-30T14:17:00.000Z

Good to Go!

It's been a great weekend the culmination of which was being commissioned by St Bs and sent out to plant "The Emmanuel Network Church" (well that's the name this week anyway..). After 8 and a half great years I was asked by a couple of people if I felt sad to be going, but to be honest I feel more excited and ready. Over the next few months our community is looking to establish it's rhythm of meetings and mission. I've really enjoyed my time at St B's, made loads of friends and learnt lots about church and people. We're not going far so I'm sure "I'll be back" so to speak.
The rest of the weekend was fun as well, we got to visit Albert Square (UK sitcom set) last week and we had lunch in the canteen at the table next to Jesus (or at least the actor who played him) in Zeffirelli's film. It made me laugh - easily pleased. Saturday we managed to drag the boys around town, although we live 25 mins from the centre of London by tube we don't go in that often. We had a good time strolling around Covent Garden and then heading over to the Natural History Museum via a restaurant where we could get a two course dinner for £5 each thanks to a newspaper vouchers thing. We chose a restaurant in the right sort of direction for the museum booked a table and arrived at Grieg's of Mayfair. I think we pushed the casual dress code to the limit, I didn't order the £1500 bottle of wine and we enjoyed a great lunch before heading to see T-Rex at the museum. (He is overated). Now onwards to see what the rest of life has in store..

2006-01-26T19:41:00.000Z

I or E

Ok we've agreed the name it's going to be Emmauel Network Church, now the only problem is do we spell it with an I which would give us INC as an abbreviated version or with an E when it could be ENC or if we included a The at the front could be TENC or TEN-C. I think I'm spending too much time on detail at the moment....

2006-01-25T15:11:00.000Z

Values and Names

Just working through the core values for our little adventure. So far I've got three key elements:-

To Grow A Worshipping Community – with a commitment to God and each other

To Encourage Discipleship Training – with a commitment to empowering others

To Engage in Mission through Networks – with a commitment to those outside the Church

Now I know they're not that original because I've figured out (and I probably should have got their sooner) that we're just trying to fulfil the Greatest Commandment (to love God with all your heart, soul and mind and to love your neighbour as yourself) and the Great Commission (to go into all the world and make disciples). Sometimes we overcomplicate things...

Now to the name I'd determined by Sunday that we will have a name and it will either be the North London Network Church or Emmanuel Network Church - I'm leaning towards the latter as I really want God to be with us!

2006-01-18T09:34:00.000Z

Great Weekend

Friday night was my leaving party with the staff at St B's. It feels strange to be going after nearly 9 years of being part of the team. In some ways the parting is going to be a bit drawn out as although we're being sent out to start a Fresh Expression of church on the 29th Jan, I will be involved with some weekday stuff at St B's until the summer. After that we will maintain relational links and do some work together so although we're going it's not a complete departure. Having said that the staff wanted to mark the move and hired a function room at a very classy indian restaurant. It was a fantastic meal, followed by some gift giving as well. They came up trumps with the 30 GB ipod. I've now downloaded all my CD's and 60 photos and have only used about 2 GB, still it's a good excuse to update my music collection!

On Sunday Mike Moynagh from Fresh Expressions spent the morning with our team. It was a really good reminder of the need to not settle into our default Sunday gathering mode and focus on mission. Our intention has always been to develop a dispersed missional community however in reality it's so hard not to fall back to default and end up with a gathered service..so the challenge is for more faith and more thinking outside the box. I love the verse in Mark where the father who needs Jesus to heal his son says "I do believe, but help me not to doubt." You can work out why I like it for yourself!

Could Do Better...

2006-01-13T13:56:00.000Z

Fortunately one of my new year goals was not to do more blogging or I'd have failed already.

January is proving a really exciting month as our little community prays about the future and waits for God to point us in the right direction. We're being sent out on January 29th and while I will continue to have a link with St.B's, overseeing the students for the remainder of this academic year, it does feel like this is the start of a new work. On Sunday we've got Michael Moynagh from Fresh Expressions coming to spend the morning with us talking about mission which should be good.

The question that I'm getting most used to being asked is "where is this Church going to meet", and I'm loving it because I don't know and it's not my priority. We will meet together somewhere in North London and there are a few potential venues, but I'm really intending that any building we use short or long term will resource the mission of the community not act as a financial drain or focus for our energy.

It's great being able to start something with a completely blank sheet of paper and so we can work out structures and values with real freedom. I'm intending to gather a steering group this month and a friend of mine, John Chapman, pointed to the Benedictine way on major decisions. This involved the leader of the community asking for every member of the groups opinion, paying particular attention to the youngest and newest members. This being the case I've asked everyone for three names (of which only two can be the same sex) and after I've heard everyone I'm going to invite half a dozen people to form a steering group. This won't be a closed group i.e. anyone else can attend our meetings but it should provide a group who are identified by the community and committed to meeting regularly to discuss some of the community issues and decisions that I need some help with.

At the moment I need some help with a name for our venture having discovered that all the good ones appear to have gone, and that there's a London Network Church and another church called The Network Church in St Albans. We appear to be down to North London Network Church or the Network Community Church, any other suggestions are welcome.

If all else fails we could be Dan's suggestion which no one else has taken and is
the full on God's breakfast ministry of the gospel with signs and wonders and smoke and fire in the power of the spirit of the holy promised preordained messiah beloved son of Jehovah the most high with river of grace and peace and mercy and truth church - it is kind of catchy...

Let's Go fly A Kite

2006-01-13T13:37:00.000Z

Let's Go fly A Kite
Originally uploaded by Kirbs.

Saying Goodbye to 2005

2006-01-08T18:06:00.000Z

Saying Goodbye to 2005
Originally uploaded by Kirbs.

2005-11-26T21:22:00.000Z

Imagining Church

We're trying to think through values for our new venture at the moment. Having recently been through an interminably tedious process for coming up with a vision statement and objectives for another organisation I'm determined to try and make this as painless as possible. I'm being helped in the process by thinking through useful questions. The website Prodigal Kiwi not only asks these great questions:-

Key Questions – the responses to which will sit as part of the core of who we are as a distinctive Christian community.
Who are we as a church in this context?
Why are we here?
Where is God at work?
What will define us as a church?
What will be our character and distinctives?
Our values and virtues?
What is it that we are called to be and do in this place?
What is it that we will tend, protect, and nourish in this place?
Who is God for those in this place where we are?
What is Gospel in this place where we are?

but also has some references to Celtic Monasticism which is also having a significant influence at the moment. I'm thinking that "uncertain, risky and hopeful" has got to be in the mix somewhere. Also had a study day recently with Michael Moynagh from Fresh Expressions who asked the following questions when thinking about principles for starting "Fresh Expressions"

What are your values?
Who will you serve? - churched, fringed, unchurched?
What key people do you need?
What will work? What do people want?
Loving service rather than a worship service?
How will you introduce a spiritual dimension - at the start or later?
How will you sustain the venture?
How will everyone be held to account?
Are your expectations realistic?
Will we take the risk?

Questions, questions, questions - just got to find some answers..

2005-11-15T16:43:00.000Z

A Desert in the Ocean

For the two of you who've persevered and continue to check out my blog despite the lack of updated content, a few more thoughts. Our little church experiment is great fun, two weeks in and we've already got some traditions going (croissants and jam being the most important). This week spent some time considering observing the Kingdom but not until I'd thrown in the poem attributed to my hero of the moment St Brendan. I found the book Desert in the Ocean by David Adam at a Catholic Retreat centre. I've got a couple of his books on Celtic prayers and this one's subtitle is a call to Adventurous living - meditations based on the poem attributed to St Brendan the navigator.

Here's the poem:-

Shall I abandon, O King of mysteries, the soft comforts of home?
Shall I turn my back on my native land, and my face toward the sea?
Shall I put myself wholly at the mercy of God, without silver, without horse, without fame and honour?
Shall I throw myself wholly on the King of Kings, without sword and shield, without food and drink, without a bed to lie on?
Shall I say farewell to my beautiful land, placing myself under Christ's yoke?
Shall I pour out my heart to him, confessing my manifold sins and begging forgiveness, tears streaming down my cheeks?
Shall I leave the prints of my knees on the sandy beach, a record of my final prayer in my native land?
Shall I then suffer every kind of wound the sea can inflict?
Shall I take my tiny coracle across the wide, sparkling ocean?
O King of Glorious Heaven, shall I go of my own choice upon the sea?
O Christ will you help me on the wild waves?

Come ON!

2005-11-06T16:58:00.000Z

Uncertain, Risky & Hopeful

I've been on a bit of a blogattical there are many people out there saying much of what I'd like to say but far more sweetly so I didn't feel any need to join the conversation. However today has been a monumental day in the life of our "church plant" as we had our first worship gathering. We met in a local youth centre coffee and croissants were followed by time spent praying and focusing on getting Christ into the centre of all that we are and do as individuals and a community. Our Bishop has met the team a couple of times and it was he who thinks it all looks rather "uncertain, risky and hopeful". I'm beginning to wonder whether we should be called St Brendan's after the celtic monk who was supposed to get into his coracle (small boat with sail) with his team and say Lord let the wind of your spirit take us to where you want us to go. I like that sense of God dependent uncertainty..bring it on!

2005-09-07T08:50:00.000+01:00

Liminality and all that jazz...

Liminality does sound to me like something to do with the speed limit in a car. Maybe liminality is the speed at which you trigger speed cameras..If you want a better definition check out this article in resonate which describes it as "a place inbetween". Right now I do feel like I'm in an inbetween place and I don't want to stay here for that long, I have a nagging feeling that there are deeper, richer more real expressions of church and faith out there but they're still to be discovered.

I've enjoyed a recent dialogue with a new blog contact and one of his questions keeps coming back to me, he asked "I wonder how many other young\ish Christians there are who feel torn in some way between their roots in evangelical\charismatic churches & convictions but also need to question, try things out, make excursions, and are all too aware of the growing gulf between the church and the growing number of spiritual seekers who are turning elsewhere to meet their need."

It's a great question because I hope that there is a stirring taking place on a scale much bigger than any of us have imagined, rather than a few who talk a good talk.

I want to see more of the transformational power of the gospel working in the lives of individuals and their communities, I don't want to stay in an inbetween place.

2005-09-04T10:44:00.000+01:00

Positive Influences

Having been away for a month, I've just spent some time trawling through some blogs. I'm really impressed with all of you guys who can put stuff out there on a regular basis, I've realised that just as I could never crack writing a regular diary/journal I'm never going to get too regular when it comes to blogging. (Apologies to the 14 of you who do subscribe through bloglines). I'm also concerned that I could waste a lot of time reading other people's blogs because they are fascinating and often very informative.

Thanks Andrew Jones for the link to Doug Pagitt's thoughts about emerging churches which are particularly positive in the face of some of the underlying tensions and criticisms towards the "emerging church". The last year has been interestingas I've had to deal with some misunderstanding about some of the "emerging church" things with which I was involved, as well as pray with and envision a group of people in their twenties and early thirties who want to plant a church. Most of them are not too interested in the debate they just want to get on and make a difference. It was good to read Doug's thoughts, because they certainly reflect our heart. Over the next month we're going to have some key times thinking and praying about what we should actually do, it's exciting but also a little frightening as we do won't to come up with good ideas, we want to be truly inspired. I'll let you know what we come up with...

2005-09-01T19:22:00.000+01:00

A Slightly More Serious Post

Below is the frivolous picture and a few more can be seen if you click on the montage at the side (they are a taster if you're really interested let me know I'll send you all 500). We had an amazing time in Canada it was a wonderful month of beautiful scenery, lots of swimming in lakes and rivers, loads of barbecues and marshmallow roasting, great camping and the adrenaline highlight was definitely the white water rafting!

Now back to reality our eldest son started secondary/high school today - what a shocker how did I get old enough to have a kid at secondary school. I still feel the same as when I was 18, I don't think I look that different either maybe a bit greyer come to think of it. Well he was less traumatised than we were, so far so good he liked his teachers and made some new mates, although I think he'd be quite happy if he didn't have to go tomorrow.

While we were away the church plant team had loads of dreams and visions, I'm just trying to catch up now and am excited about the next couple of months as we start to work towards making some of the dreams reality. I have no doubt it is going to be hard work, but they are a great bunch of people and we're going to have some fun along the way.

It really was back to reality when within minutes of getting back to church I was asked to take the funeral of a young mother from the morning congregation. Tomorrow is Sandra's funeral please pray for her husband Ali and their family as they come to terms with their loss. Their faith at this really horrendous time has been staggering, and in their grief they do have incredible hope for the future and trust in God. It does put quite a lot of theorising into perspective...

A Church I Visited

2005-09-01T19:10:00.000+01:00

A Great Church
Originally uploaded by Kirbs.

OK so it was a great holiday and this vineyard made me laugh big time, situated right next to the lake in one of many beautiful parts of British Columbia. The story of the name can be found at www.blastedchurch.com They sold a nice merlot as well. Although I wasn't too impressed when I told them I was a priest and they said I looked quite like the bloke in their cartoons!

2005-07-24T22:40:00.000+01:00

It's been a while and will probably be a while again...

On a personal level it's been a great term - blogging has taken a back seat to barbecues, planning the church plant and doing life. Tomorrow as a family we head to Canada for a month touring British Columbia, so unlikely to blog again for a while 'cos I'm planning to take a month off from a keyboard as well..have fun.

2005-06-19T17:45:00.000+01:00

The Adventure Continues

It's been a great month so far. First Sri Lanka which was truly an amazing experience that I'm still fully absorbing. The team were fantastic, the people were as welcoming as any I've ever met and the church service was humbling because of the passion of the people in spite of circumstances. The Barnet Press ran an article last week which is not entirely factually accurate (but this is the media) and I'm not greatly into the slant they put on it, however the quotes are pretty much what I said and express something of the experience. Check it out here. Got back and had a really positive meeting with the Bishop to discuss my proposal for setting up some sort of new missional community. Half way through the meeting he said "Simon you don't need to persuade me, I'm very enthusiastic". The next step is that he's coming to meet the team in July...all good so far.
Then I went down to Cornwall to marry my cousin - if you know what I mean. It was a really great occassion and while I was more nervous than usual as most of my living relatives were there to witness my attempts at officiating, it went really well and we had a really good family weekend in Cornwall, which Post Sri Lanka was what we needed.
Next weekend I'm off to attempt the 15 peaks challenge you can find out more about it here and sponsor me here if you're feeling generous. Hopefully I'll make it back with a few good photos and no blisters.

Smiles among the destruction

2005-06-05T07:22:00.000+01:00

Smiles among the destruction
Originally uploaded by Kirbs.

Well I'm back after what were a couple of the most amazing weeks of my life. I didn't manage to blog while away as internet access was extremely limited, however there would have been so much to say. From day one the experiences were challenging to the core, meeting these kids who wanted to teach us how to count in Tamil, smiling for the camera as they jumped up and down on the remains of their homes. Returning with Ramanan (the manager of Samaritan's purse livelihood projects in that area) to his house for the first time since the Tsunami; speaking in a church that had been burnt down a couple of years ago by the hindu youth movement; praying for the sick and seeing healing; building a playground and watching the kids smile as they played; restoring a school from being a refugee camp; helping local fishermen land their catch of Manta Ray; swimming in the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean; hearing the stories of lost loved ones; experiencing the grace of God through and with a fantastic team among wonderful people. It's going to be hard going back to normal because normal is never going to be the same again.

The Sri Lanka Team

2005-05-20T16:12:00.000+01:00

The Sri Lanka Team
Originally uploaded by Kirbs.

On Sunday we head off to Sri Lanka for nearly two weeks to get involved with Tsunami Relief work. Last week we met Mike Freeman the only one without a t-shirt who is our contact in Batticaloa and has helped organise the trip. It was a great day of preparation and only one of the team members couldn't make it due to ill health. Hope to post while away.

2005-05-20T14:59:00.000+01:00

Packing

Just set up a website for sponsorship for the 15 Peaks which means if you'd like to encourage me in my attempts to conquer mountains and raise money for a local youth and community charity you can here .

Now busily packing for Sri Lanka will post a picture of the team soon. We fly on Sunday and will be travelling to Batticaloa on the East Coast. We're going to be building some temporary shelters, rebuilding a children's playground and painting the local school. We're also going to be doing lots of kids clubs. It should be an incredible experience for all sorts of reasons and I will try and post while out there.

2005-04-22T10:20:00.000+01:00

Ahhhhhh

In the course of making some slight template changes last night, I managed to lose my customised template, all links have gone. Moral of this story never try doing anything technical while watching telly at the same time...Off to Norwich this afternoon to see some old friends and do a couple of talks at a church weekend. Need to finish those so links won't return for a couple of days....

2005-04-21T21:22:00.000+01:00

Poker Parties Begin

We've started a Church plant small group, last night was week three, there are ten of us although some more members will be joining shortly. We eat together (very important), talk and pray and last night Eric would have been proud of me as we finished the evening with our first few hands of Poker. Fortunately we weren't playing for money - cos I'd be broke today. Dan (who has recently joined the blogging world and loves a good rant) acted as rule supremo but confessed today that he got them wrong - so we're checking out Poker Rules for next time...

2005-04-19T16:03:00.000+01:00

Recovering the Past

I taught the trainees this morning on the Acts of the Apostles and then the Celtic Christians, couldn't really do either justice in a couple of hours but just enjoyed engaging with Saints from the past who had their idiosyncrises but loved Jesus and loved adventure. If you've not read any Celtic stuff it's well worth it, I know there's a danger of over romanticising the past, but the sense of adventure shines through. Check out Restoring the Woven Cord if you want a good introduction. After the song "I'm coming up the mountain Lord - envelop me within the clouds" took on a whole new meaning last week (see picture and post below), I'm ready for a few more faith adventures.

One occurred at lunchtime when a young guy turned up with his friend at church wanting to see a priest. Having checked that none of the other older, wiser and better qualified ones could meet with him the office sent him my way. He was someone who had a church background had been away for a number of years, had got in to some stuff he didn't like and wanted to follow Jesus again. We talked and prayed and he said he felt happier than when he arrived (which is always encouraging and never guaranteed).

I enjoyed the conversation and look forward to the next one..

Half way up Elidir Fawr

2005-04-18T08:41:00.000+01:00

Half way up Elidir Fawr
Originally uploaded by Kirbs.

We had a great 24 hours in Snowdonia last week on another training trip. However no one told us it was going to snow and we had to abandon our hike after one mountain as the conditions worsened, visibility became very poor and we nearly got lost. I've always thought you needed to be a bit of a wally to call out mountain rescue - I'm not so sure now...

Family and shelter

2005-04-08T16:56:00.000+01:00

Family and shelter
Originally uploaded by Kirbs.

This is the sort of temporary shelter that we'll be building when we get out to Sri Lanka.

2005-04-08T16:52:00.000+01:00

Lots of stuff is happening

First if you haven't seen the Make Poverty History Click campaign yet check out St.Bono and crew at the website.

Second Sri Lanka's happening, I'm taking a team out at the end of May for nearly two weeks to do some Tsunami Relief work in Batticaloa on the East Coast. Lots of sorting out of tickets, insurance and immunisation sort of stuff is taking place. The team is going to be 12 strong and are all in their teens and twenties (except me who wishes I was..) It's an awesome team made up of our trainees and some younger leaders and I'm sure it's going to be an adventure as well as a serious challenge. We're going to be working with Samaritan's Purse International Relief organisation.

Third we're off to the Hills again next week for another training trip for the 15 Peaks challenge. I can't wait, the numbers have doubled and there will be 8 of us next week.

Finally if you know any must visit places or campsites around British Columbia do let me know. We've booked the flights and the minivan and are heading out to Vancouver and surrounding area for a month later in the Summer. Come on...

2005-03-31T21:42:00.000+01:00

Proposal Time

It's time to hand in a proposal to the Bishop for the Church plant. Just trying to make sure we get the building blocks right and in language that is helpful. We've identified three key elements, a worshipping community, discipleship training and mission through networks. Now just got to unpack those in to C of E language. I'm enjoying pulling some of my favourite quotes like this one from David Bosch;

Mission refers to a permanent and intrinsic dimension of the church’s life. The church “is missionary by its very nature,”..and it is impossible to talk about the church without at the same time talking about mission. Because God is a missionary God, God’s people are missionary people. The church’s mission is not secondary to its being; the church exists in being sent and in building up itself for mission..this means that ecclesiology does not precede missiology; there cannot be church without an intrinsic missionary dimension…Unless the church of the West begins to understand this, and we develop a missionary theology, not just a theology of mission, we will not achieve more than merely patch up the church. We are in need of a missiological agenda for theology, not just a theological agenda for mission; for theology, rightly understood, has no reason to exist other than critically to accompany the missio Dei.

2005-03-24T22:44:00.000Z

Just to prove I was up there...

2005-03-24T10:28:00.000Z

Rite of Passage

We've just undergone a rite of passage in the Kirby household as the boys bundled me and gave me a wedgie. (For those of you unfamiliar with this expression it involves yanking someone's pants up to a painful height. It's a past time that appears to take place in school playgrounds around the country and an experience that I haven't gone through for about 25 years!) It's the first time that they've succeeded in beating me, I'm not sure if I should be annoyed that I've now got tears in my eyes or proud that my little men are becoming bigger men.....the joys of parenting.

It's been a funny week in that my dad had major surgery on his neck on monday if you want to see some gross photos check out this website about the procedure. It's funny when you see your parents vulnerable, the good news is that the op went really well and he's back home already. At the same time Sue's had a really nasty ear and throat infection that at one stage was threatening to hospitalise her as well. Hopefully every one's on the mend now and I'm looking forward to some of the creative services that are taking place at St.B's over the next few days to remind us that Jesus died for our sins and our infirmities.

Have a good Easter.

2005-03-21T21:53:00.000Z

A Mountaintop Experience

Last week had an amazing 24 hours in Snowdonia preparing for the 15 peaks challenge. Check out our new blog that's going to keep a record of training trips etc. Suffice to say I love standing on the top of mountains. Got back Saturday and took part in a Palm Sunday service including full passion narrative at a neighbouring parish. I nearly had my head taken off as the vicar symbolically hammered on the church door with the crucifix - black rod style. No one told me this was about to happen and I was standing right behind him at the time. Had an encouraging conversation with a church leader last night about possible networks, gatherings and training for younger leaders, could be fun.

2005-03-13T21:17:00.000Z

A Great Weekend

Just had our first "Church plant team" weekend away. It was a great time, we stayed in three cottages down in Hampshire. There were 14 of us and we chatted about Hopes & Dreams, we went walking in the New Forest and ate and laughed together. More to follow..

2005-03-09T22:38:00.000Z

Made me laugh...

2005-03-08T22:26:00.000Z

Spent the day at HSBC HQ at Canary Wharf on a Post Ordination Training Day looking at "God and Mammon". Saw quite a lot of Mammon, heard quite a lot about ethical business practice, came away wondering when people realise they have enough..

2005-03-07T16:37:00.000Z

Blessed are the Peacemakers

Last night the Archbishop of Canterbury visited St.B's and he was good. He talked a lot about being bringers of Peace, he bigged up "Mission Shaped Church and Fresh Expressions", and he demonstrated and a depth of faith and integrity that isn't always evident from the media coverage. Roy says more if you're interested.

This afternoon Henry (my boss) has been meeting my Bishop to talk about where and how they're going to let me loose. The Falklands were mentioned over lunch but I think it was a joke....

2005-03-06T10:04:00.000Z

Blessed are the Frisbee Throwers

Found this article in yesterday's Times before I read Matt's blog, usually fun to see your friends in the paper even if it is the section that you only read if it's a very slow Saturday..

2005-03-03T16:01:00.000Z

Training for the Future

Just trying to get my head round next term's training programme for our students. They're a good crew and we just celebrated Sam's birthday with a Pizza Hut buffet lunch (so much for the 15 peaks training programme - tonight is Deanery Synod followed by Map reading and Compass skills!). It looks like we might be heading out to Sri Lanka to get involved in some Tsunami relief work at the end of May. I enjoy the challenge of pulling a programme together and seeing what happens.

Rich summarises some good articles that are floating around at the moment (he must have been to bloglines about 10 minutes before me...)

More celebrations tonight as Thomas has managed to get into a good secondary school - sadly where we live they seem to be either very good or very bad and not much inbetween.

We've just had a dicussion in the office about how you should address the Archbishop of Canterbury as he's speaking at St.B's on Sunday night - I figured Archie felt suitably informal and yet deferential...

2005-02-26T21:01:00.000Z

An amazing funeral

Andrew and Catherine were incredibly brave and Andrew's tribute to Hannah was wonderful. I had a serious lump in my throat most of the time and got through several kleenex. It was a funeral with some very poignant moments and yet real celebration of a very special life. More than anything else there was such a sense of hope that this was not the end. I think our faith comes into it's own at crisis times. It puts everything into perspective arguments about style of church, size of church, emerging, submerged or anything else. I was reminded half way through to love the Lord my God and my neighbour as myself..I'll keep trying, and hopefully others may then share Andrew and Catherine's hope.

2005-02-25T11:32:00.000Z

Onwards

Tomorrow is Hannah's funeral at St.B's at 1pm. It's going to be tough and as a church we're feeling it right now. I saw Andrew and Catherine last week and they're doing as well as you can when your daughter has died, please continue to pray for them.

Our staff team has been away to Suffolk to a small place called Christmas Hall. (Check it out not many places where you can get 14 round the table comfortably.) It was a good time regrouping praying, laughing and eating lots. It is a good team to be part of and while we have our differences and disagreements they're a great bunch to have with you at a time like this.

2005-02-13T09:18:00.000Z

Stunned

Very sadly Hannah who was 6 years old and the only daughter of Andrew and Catherine died last night. Andrew is at vicar factory having been a faithful committed member of St.B's for the last 15 years including doing a stint as Church warden.
Please pray for Andrew and Catherine as I can not begin to imagine what they're going through.

2005-02-10T08:57:00.000Z

New Definitions of Success

First please keep praying for Hannah (see previous post) she is still critically ill, and underwent an operation last night to try and get her kidneys working again. My anxieties seem very small in comparison to what Hannah and her family are going through right now.

On a very different note I was struck by this post from Jordan Cooper that's popped on a few sites now.

Adopting a Missionary Mentality
From Reggie McNeal's book, The Present Future. We are having a small discussion on my denominations mailing list and this brought up. I had to type it up and thought I would post it here.

Adopting a missionary approach will require changing the scorecard. Church scorecards currently reflect member values: how many show up, pay up, and participate in club member activities. There are the numbers used to compare one church with another--the numbers that denominations ask for in their reports. These numbers establish the pecking order among clergy. The bigger the better and the more respected by club members of other churches.

A missionary church culture will need to begin keeping score on things different from what we measure now. These may include how many ministry initiatives we are establishing in the streets, how many conversations we are having with pre-Christians, how many volunteers we are releasing into local and global mission projects aimed at community transformation, how many congregations are starting to reach different populations, how many congregations use our facilities, how many languages (ethnic and generational) we worship in, how many community groups use our facilities, how many church activities target people who aren't here yet, how many hours per week members spend in ministry where they work, go to school, and get mail.

Until we start making heroes of people who decide to be and act like missionaries, we will fail to turn club members into missionaries. Until we bless people who "go out" from us to reach people who may not come to us, we will continue to have a kingdom vision that is shrink wrapped to church programs and church real estate. Until we start adopting school and hosting community food banks and teaching parenting seminars for people who come to us for food, we will keep fostering club member mentality.

2005-02-09T08:54:00.000Z

Do you pray?

If you do please could you pray right now for Hannah, she is the young daughter of Andrew and Catherine who are friends of ours from St.B's, who are currently training for ordination at Ridley in Cambridge. In the last 24 hours she's had some type of E coli bug that's badly affected her kidneys and has been moved by ambulance from Adenbrokes to a special renal unit at City Hospital, Nottingham - please pray that she recovers to full health and that her kidneys are not damaged.

2005-02-08T21:13:00.000Z

Crib goch one of the 15 to be climbed...

2005-02-08T20:49:00.000Z

15 Peaks Challenge

Crazy moment of the year so far has to be deciding to try to climb the 15 Welsh mountains over 3000 feet in 24 hours. My best man Chris has organised this a couple of times (info here) now and this year we're hoping to take a few teams from St.B's who are going to raise money for Hope House the youth and community charity we set up a few years ago. Training has started in earnest with a 5 mile run on Saturday after which I was quite pleased I could still walk. First training weekend on the mountains in March - I can't wait.

2005-02-07T16:15:00.000Z

Confirmation

The Bishop of Edmonton came and confirmed 11 of our members last night. Mainly young people with some fantastic testimonies of life changing encounters with Jesus. I got to play Bishop's chaplain and managed to keep a straight face through out, but was sorely tested towards the end when I had to hold the Bishop's crook, with the Bishop standing to my left and my good friend and colleague Rex bleating under his breath to my right. Two blogs in three days - next one will be about the 15 peaks challenge - I know you can barely wait.

2005-02-05T17:21:00.000Z

Welcome Back

OK so much for more blogging this year - New Year's resolutions and all that. It's not that there hasn't been stuff to say, more like too much and never quite sure where to start. Thanks Roy, Rich, and John for missing me! Church plant possibilities are growing, the training programme is going well, then there's days like Thursday when you get to see Nelson Mandela in Trafalgar square.

He's an incredible man and even at 87 gave a powerful speech the full transcript can be found at The Times website. I was particularly struck by the following bit towards the end,

"We thank you for coming here today. Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great. You can be that great generation. Let your greatness blossom.

"Of course the task will not be easy. But not to do this would be a crime against humanity, against which I ask all humanity now to rise up.
"Make Poverty History in 2005. Make History in 2005. Then we can all stand with our heads held high.
"Thank you."

I was there with our trainees and I'm hoping it's not too late for my generation, I certainly want to keep commiting to make sure there's gets greater.

2005-02-05T17:19:00.000Z

Making Poverty History

2005-01-10T09:56:00.000Z

Make Poverty History

We had a good time yesterday at Holy Space our congregation that meets in a local bar fortnightly. We were discussing the Tsunami, the questions it had raised and the response we should make. One interesting thought was how much is our response dictated by the media. A few years ago 200, 000 people were killed in Gujarrat, yet it wasn't an area where tourists hung out or pictures of big waves happened so while it was reported, the response was nothing like as big as it has been this time. How can we insure that our response to disaster and poverty are consistent and not sensational. Getting involved with the Make Poverty History campaign might be one way.

2005-01-05T18:44:00.000Z

Blogger Benefits

Good to see Matt in town yesterday, after he'd been to worship at the apple temple...look at the photos if you don't believe me. It was good to see him after reading his blog in the morning and realising he was going to be in town...a blogger benefit.

I'm sure you're following the stories, pictures and blogs of people caught up in the Tsunami. Our friend Emma is doing well in Phuket, helping with the relief effort here is an extract from a recent email:-

We now know that re-building a primary school will be the main focus of our efforts here. Please pray that God brings the right people here over the next few weeks to get construction under way. There is a large Thai labour force, but we will need skilled builders, joiners, electricians, plumbers, etc to direct operations.

We are planning a party for about 1000 school children at the site of the school on Friday morning. We are trying to get t-shirts for the children printed with the church logo. The press will no doubt cover the event and if lots of children wearing the logo are seen on UK TV, people may be encouraged to donate directly to the church disaster fund. Please pray that the kids have a great time and are blessed by us being there, and that the money comes pouring in!

Check out Emma's website for photos and message board, and ways of contacting the church if you want to give directly.

I think some of the best comments I've read about the faith response to the Tsunami so far were from Jonathan Sacks, the chief Rabbi he wrote in the Times on Saturday:-

The religious question is, therefore, not: “Why did this happen?” But “What then shall we do?” That is why, in synagogues, churches, mosques and temples throughout the world this weekend, along with our prayers for the injured and the bereaved, we will be asking people to donate money to assist the work of relief. The religious response is not to seek to understand, thereby to accept. We are not God. Instead we are the people He has called on us to be his “ partners in the work of creation”. The only adequate religious response is to say: “God, I do not know why this terrifying disaster has happened, but I do know what You want of us: to help the afflicted, comfort the bereaved, send healing to the injured, and aid those who have lost their livelihoods and homes.” We cannot understand God, but we can strive to imitate His love and care.

Let's keep striving...

2005-01-03T20:06:00.000Z

Happy New Year

I hope 2005 is a good year for you. It feels a strange start to the New Year, we had a great time as a family down in Dorset (some pictures may appear at the side), reflecting on what has been a very good year. At the same time I'm feeling overwhelmed by the pictures and reports from South East Asia. They're made personal by the fact that a member of our small group was on a world trip and staying on the coast in Thailand over Christmas. Her hotel was destroyed by the Tsunami, fortunately she was heading inland to the Phuket Christian Centre for a morning service. Emma and her friend Claire have since abandoned their holiday and got involved in helping with relief work. They were featured on the ITN news special last night and are intending to stay out and help with the redevelopment of the area. For all of our questions about where is God in all of this, it's good to know his people (as well as many others) are getting involved in making a real difference.

2005-01-03T19:33:00.000Z

A Happy New Year to you, ours started down in Dorset where we enjoyed walking on the beach, fishing and good food. Hope 2005 is good for you and yours.

2004-12-12T10:12:00.000Z

Values shapeth the future

Just spent 24 hours at The Hayes Conference centre near Derby with our form students, and the other centres from around the UK. It was great to see 50 young men and women who want to see more of God in their lives and are doing something about it. Always good as well to catch up with some old friends and meet some new ones.

I'm trying to work out what our "church plant" might look like, and am trying to ensure that the values shape the structure rather than the other way round. So far a few of the values that we've written down (mainly nicked from others) are:-

Mission
We are committed to reaching our generation and those following (and those ahead) with the good news of Jesus. We believe that the church does not simply stand with the gospel in its missionary approach to culture. Rather the gospel incites conversation with both the culture and church simultaneously. In other words our missiology should shape ecclesiology, not vice versa.

Leadership
Empowerment is one of those overused words of the moment, however we do believe that leadership should look to encourage every member ministry in action not just word. The team leader should be a facilitator who is looking to equip and encourage the individual gifts of team members.

Discipleship
We’re committed to helping each other and those that we lead to become better equipped disciples in the 21st century. We take the issues that they’re facing seriously and believe that the gospel brings a relevant challenge to our culture. If it’s not relevant it will not be heard and if there is no challenge it will bring no change.

Community
We believe the creation of community is more important than the style of programme, although the form and content of the programme are very important to build the community.

Worship
We believe worship should among other things be God centred, passionate, honest and creative. We are grateful for the worship styles that have and continue to feed our own personal and corporate spirituality, but we never want to settle for style over substance and believe that there is more to discover about the worship of God.

Ministry
We believe passionately in the work and ministry of the Holy Spirit in our own lives and communities. We believe that the healing and freedom that He can bring is essential for our peers. We also believe that the work of the Spirit will lead to action, bringing good news to the poor.

Ministry to the Poor is not an option and it is not something that should be done to the poor, our church should be inclusive of the poor, while providing practical opportunities at home and overseas for members to serve the poor.

Well there's a few thoughts let me know what you think...I've also picked up some info about post-intentionality from Gromit apparently there might be a forum in Vancouver next summer sounds like a good excuse for a holiday to me...