I'm a day late on Sunday stuff this week! It was a busy old week including my birthday on Saturday so I’m sorry this is a bit sparse. I have also been working on my lent actions which I will be updating on this week. So in the meantime a few things that caught my fancy online. (I've officially given up trying to use the block quote code on blogger. It sucks.)

Father Stephen posts on the apparent side-lining of belief and religion on his blog on the topic The God who is No God

“In secularized culture, religion is not eliminated – it is placed at a remove. The remove in which religion is placed is anywhere that does not matter, anywhere that does not touch our daily lives. The secular genius of the modern world (including America) was its contention that religion and belief are the same thing. The acquiescence of believers to this arrangement was, in effect, an agreement to render their faith impotent.The fatal flaw in this agreement can be summed up simply: true religion is not a set of beliefs – it is a set of practices. We believe in prayer – but we do not pray. We believe in forgiveness – but we do not forgive. We believe in generosity – but we do not give. We believe in truth – but we lie.”   

Jonathan Owen and Emily Duggan for the Independent:  'Even outstanding women struggle to rise in the CofE'

“Female bishops are on the cards, but the rank and file believe they are excluded from the top jobs…Despite similar numbers of men and women being ordained each year, statistics compiled at Durham University show that male vicars are almost twice as likely to be given a paid post. The figures come as the church debates the issue of women bishops before a final vote in July.” 


Busted Halo – why do we give something up for Lent? 


I was really surprised when someone mentioned this week Lent was about penance. I'd never heard anyone link penance and Lent. I don’t think that is what Lent is about. Here is one look at what it is about.  

“Under the threat of Roman persecution, becoming a Christian was serious business, so their process of preparation was intensive! Then they went through a final period of “purification and enlightenment” for the 40 days before their baptism at Easter. The rest of the Church began to observe the season of Lent in solidarity with these newest Christians. It became an opportunity for all Christians to recall and renew the commitment of their baptism.”



Favourite Tweets of the week:

Digital Camera World: 'Mint Tea': http://bit.ly/w6CSs7  

 

This gets a mention because it is my photo J

Happy Lent

There are lots of folk out there who gripe about Lent, and having just been bored by those who gripe about Valentine's Day, I'm done with by that sort of negativity. "You should show your love for your significant other all year round, not on one day"....."You should give up stuff totally if it is bad for your health/mind, not just for 40 days." Yes, you're right. But that's not the point of either of those celebrations, commercialised and twisted or not.

For me, acknowledging Lent is a very personal positive thing. I could go into the reasons why Lent is a good thing to observe and remember from a Christian point of view but lots of other bloggers have done it a lot better than I could....

Rachel Held Evans: 40 ideas for Lent

Sarah Bessey: In which [it is lent] words need flesh

For years I have tried to take up positive actions as well as give things up. Last year I took labels off myself that I had put on myself, or had put on me. These things may have looked minor on the surface, but my self esteem improved as a result.

In that same vein, and following some ace teaching on my course last week, I am planning on looking at unhealthy belief systems that I live my life by, and that all things being equal, I shouldn't. I originally intended blogging my way through a list of 10 systems about myself, and 10 unhealthy beliefs I have about God. I have changed my mind. As much as I want to be open and honest in this blog, I think the next 40 days are going to be really hard as I try to strip back these systems. Plus I doubt very much I'll solve anything so I plan on just blogging a review at the end. I also doubt I'll get through 20!

So here are some examples of unhealthy beliefs I hold about myself:
I am afraid lots of people I love will drop dead, because it has happened before.
I am wrong to not want children
I shouldn't be proud of my education and wanting to pursue more learning


Unhealthy belief systems I have about God:
If I rest or take a day off, I am letting God down by not constantly making every moment count.
I will disappoint God if I don't do something 'worthwhile' with my life
God gives and takes away indisciminatorily and he might take even more people away from me
If I don't make room and time for God, he s further away from me

So things like that! Daft to some of you I'm sure - not to me. I plan on thinking and praying about these things, as well as taking steps towards rectifying them, or learning to embrace and love them!

What I do already know is that God loves me regardless of my belief systems.

As well as all this I'm trying to do 40 Acts which is encouraging people to observe Lent generously. Ace. The first day's action was to set up a Giving Jar ready to pop coins into whenever we fail at giving up something we've given up. The resulting spondoolies will go to the One Can Trust.

cheers for reading!

Sunday - erm - Saturday Stuff 11/02/2012

I'm pootling off for an intense study week so won't be surfing much over the next week. And as I have just had a bundle of homework put on my desk to do before Monday and the course I am procrastinating wildly. So this weekend's Sunday Stuff comes to you a day early. As for the random cat picture - see 'Fun Stuff' down the bottom!

Krish K respectfully Thanks God for John Piper, and reviews Piper’s ‘Masculine Christianity” from a particular viewpoint.

“Why should the Christian faith take on a particular gender? Should it also take on a particular cultural form? Say an Asian flavor? Should it take on a class too? Should it take on a middle class flavor? Should it have an accent? No. Surely it should contextualize and follow Paul’s desire to become all things to all people?”

See also In A Mirror Dimly’s similar, a somewhat more sarcastic take on the same subject: “The Kitchen has a Feminine feel about it.”

Natalie & Matthew Bowers continue their series on Fruits of the Spirit with Goodness:

“But in the Word of God, goodness is not just OK – the greek word used by Paul conveys something much stronger – it’s about integrity, honesty and compassion. It’s not about just being nice but about actively living for what’s right and true and Godly. Goodness is doing the right thing even when it does not feel like we should.”

I’m biased about this series because it is my sister and brother in law’s creation. But this installment is of particular use to me this week as I have struggled greatly with doing something good in the last couple of weeks, because I really didn’t want to do it. I do feel I have learned something about humility and can develop some habits in this area.

Rachel Held Evans writing for Relevant magazine: When Jesus meets TMZ

“When Christians look to pastors for wisdom on how to better love God and love one another, they become better disciples of Jesus and better lights of hope in a dark world…. When Christians look to pastors to tell them how to dress, what to eat, what hobbies to have, what systematic theologies to prefer, how to vote and what personality to adopt, they become creepy, unthinking clones of broken people—and big red warning flags to a culture that has grown increasingly suspicious of authority figures.”

I’ve been gearing myself up to write something on this topic, but Rachel nails what I feel about the whole Celebrity Christian Culture issue.

Favourite Tweets of the Week:

Bishop Wilson (and a zillion others) tweet from the General Synod’s debate on allowing women to serve as bishops…you can tell how I feel about it from my choice of tweets!

@alantwilson: How simply wrong to think that discriminatory views could never be sincerely and conscientiously held? They were in South Africa...

@AnnamDrew: So, speaker, you're a loyal anglican? Well, so am I and I'm sick of being a second class citizen in my own church #synod

@archaicdamsel: You should be making decision for the generations to come. Not protecting the minority of today. #synod

@womenbishops:  #synod Forcing women bishops to have specified male counterparts is like saying women can drive - but only accompanied by a man. Patronising

Fun Stuff:

This made my day: cat on pitch at Liverpool Tottenham game

It is my birthday soon. If anyone has a lot of money to spare I’d like a Nikon D700 as used by my fave photographer Lily Sawyer.

Sunday Stuff 5th Feb 12

More stuff from around the tinterwebs that I think is worth sharing:

Norman Ivinson at Missional | Musing – ‘Taking Your Time':

“As the Fresh Expressions team has talked to pioneers and heard their stories over the last six years or so it has become clear that a ‘worship first’ model of church forming only really works in a minority of cases. If you really do want to reach the 60% of the population which survey after survey describes as ‘unchurched’ then a different starting point is needed.”

I liked this blog about taking your time to figure out how to start a fresh expression of church because it challenged my notion that good, contemporary worship music will often bring people in.

Fred Clark of Slactivist on ‘Five Women who changed God’s Rules.’:

“Moses and God listened to the women’s argument, conceded that they had a fair point, and changed the rules. In the case of Mahlah et. al. vs. God, God turned out to be an activist judge who ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, changing the law and creating a new precedent. Thus saith the Lord.”

This one makes it on to my list, not only because it is a great view of some often overlooked women of the Bible, but because it shows God will change His plans because of His love for His people. Someone said to me this week that His plans could end up overruling anything I wanted for my life. I don’t believe that is always true. We should seek wise counsel about the course of our lives and pray for wisdom and for God to align our will with His, but we are allowed to speak the desires of our heart and God loves to hear them.  There are many of examples like this in the Bible where God is moved by his people’s cries and pleas and responds. Plus, this goes wider into the realms of saying you don’t agree with something in the Bible isn’t heresy. It is human and we’re allowed to do it.

Bex Lewis speaks to Fresh Expressions on Social Media as a place to practise relational evangelism: 

"I’m not interested in shouting at people to get them to come towards us, I’m interested in relational evangelism."

Fascinating 6 minute chat from Bex on why Social Media is a tool we should look at embracing. With 850million users on Facebook we have a massive pool of people we can reach. How we do that responsibly and relationally is another question on my mind!

Bishop Alan’s ‘No Woman, No Cry’:

'“But how can you be so sweeping?” some will ask. “There are sincerely held theological arguments and motives involved.” Indeed. There always are. There were for Apartheid.'

The Bishop of Oxford brings the old to the new ahead of more musings this week  on Women’s Bishops.

D.C.Cramer on John Piper’s ‘masculine Christianity’:

“In his recent speech honoring the ministry of J. C. Ryle, John Piper concludes by describing the "Eight Traits of Masculine Ministry." However, rather uncharacteristically for Piper, he fails to supply each trait with biblical references, choosing instead to reflect on how Ryle exemplifies each trait. For the benefit of the reader, then, I have supplied the missing Scripture passages that Piper was drawing on for each of his "masculine" traits. Please look these up to get a better sense of what Piper means by each of his "masculine" traits.”

This just speaks for itself - you must look up the references.

Tweets of the week:

@alantwilson (on Church):Start within ourselves, tell it like it is, don't threaten to leave — threaten to stay!

@changingworship :"Most people don't read the bible they read us." #eek

@nickygumbel: Conflict and confrontation are never easy, but they are a necessary part of courageous leadership.

Fun Stuff:

Tiger Bread becomes Giraffe Bread J

Books:

I’m not getting to as many books as I would usually like to because of studying. However, I just started Evolving in Monkey Town by Rachel Held Evans.  Reviews to follow.