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.