Grown up christianity

1 Corinthians has been making us think a lot about freedom.
One of the tensions is the fact that freedom is risky. How much should we give people freedom to make mistakes? Lots of us are formed by our experience of being part of youth work at church, where a priority is keeping young people safe, protecting them from the dangers of being sucked into a world that they are ill equipped to handle (though maybe equipping them should be more our priority than protecting them). We want to give people clear guidelines, black and white principles which very quickly become rules.

I remembered yesterday one of the experiences of moving from studying a subject at school to studying it at University. There was a moment at the start of our study when our lecturers would say 'remember all that stuff you were taught at school... well good though it was, things are not as simple as that'. We had to unlearn as much as we learned in those first months.

I wonder should we have the same milestones in our Christian life. Moments when we say 'Remember that stuff you were taught in youth group or Christian Union? Well good though it was, things are not as simple as that.'
Relating to God as adults requires us to own the freedom that he gives us, and that includes the freedom to make and learn from our mistakes.

emerging church

This is one of the movements i am most inspired by. Can I recommend emergingchurch.info and also blogs by andrew jones and a friend of mine si johnson as starting points.

It is a movement shaped within postmodernity, reimagining church incarnate in the 21st century. There are many overlaps between emerging church and what we are up to at COTC
however as ever when it comes to movements i tend to rather exist on the margins (it is a personality thing).
One of the things which defines church on the corner which is different from many emerging churches, is that we deliberately exist within the anglican church, valuing much of the tradition and cultural heritage that anglicanism brings us, but doing church in a way which is intended to be prophetic both within that tradition and in the cultural milieu of London.
If there is a critisism I have of some emergent christianity it is the rearranging deckchairs on the titanic one. It sometimes seems to be about cosmetic change in church practice rather than systemic change in the hearts and minds of the people who form church communities.
I am really grateful for the work of those pioneering new models of church and worship outside the structures of establish church, and i hope we can support and learn from what they are doing.

ownership

I have had some good chats at tinderbox with people in the last week or so, and one of the themes that has struck me is that of ownership.
there is a heirarchy in most churches based on theological punching power, the more bible knowledge, the more coherent in their orthodoxy the greater status and respect.
This creates an environment where creatives and right brainers are made to feel less significant or spiritual, where as the reality is that the qualities they bring are crutial to our attempts to reimagine church. I want to grant ownership as much to these creatives as to those who feel comfortable in a church environment. I want these people to shape who we are and how we exist as church as much as the theologians and lefts brainers among us.
Here is our first attempt to do so

a prophetic church

1 Corinthians 14.
The essense of prophesy is knowing God and communicating that with others, not in second hand words, but through our own encounter with the living God.
It can be what we say and the way we live. We need to be a prophetic church, hearing and knowing God and sharing that with each other and with those outside.
Prophesy reflects the character of God, it is his spirit that brings life and truth. Prophesy is a gift of God, the ability to communicate his truth in words that people can understand.
Prophesy also requires work:
Prayer
Study
Thinking
Listening
conversation

Morning prayer

Over there on the side bar I have added links to the CofE's orders of Morning prayer, evening prayer and night prayer
I know that for many of you the idea of liturgy is a major turn off, but I have come to really appreciate these patterns of worship. The great strength of liturgy is its greater perspective of God; it is beyond our own often limited thinking. I find prayer so often dominted by whatever is going round my brain at the time, I obsess on my own stuff when I know I should be worshipping, interceding and so on.
The depth and beauty of the language, the rich biblical and historical tradition lift me beyond myself and give me the peace that comes from seeing God as he really is, and seeing my small but significant place in his creation.
Practically I find it best to actually speak out the words and the readings, and in the pray for maybe three specific things in the part set aside for intercession. The links update each day, so you always get the set readings for that day. Sometimes there is a prayer by Saint somebody or other that confuses me, but other than that it is really good. Reading chunks of the Old testament systematically is really good too. I tend to only do one of these a day, whichever is appropriate. Try it - you may hate it, or it may really work for you.

'And now I will show you the most excellent way.’

In time of crisis, at a time when religion is hijacked for evil purposes we need to remember the essense of Christianity. 1 Cor 13 feels like such an appropriate passage to be looking at in the light of last weeks bombings.
When religion goes wrong, as it so often does, this essense which often seems so trite, a pop song cliche, ‘all you need is love’ but this is the essense we rediscover.
Love subverts the whole heirarchy of evil, corruption, violence and retribution. It defines God, and it should define the church.
The way of Jesus is the way of love. Other centred, self sacrificing, turning the other cheek, forgiving, welcoming, generous, fighting opression and the things that enslave.

This is Gods call on our church.