I like this photo essay by Steve Collins called urban church.

I was reading this article in the Guardian Newspaper today. The Archbishop of York , John Sentamu, I have always admired since hearing about his peace vigil back in August 2006, I wanted to go and join him in his vigil but never did :(

Anyway, his collar cutting was as protect against the Zimbabwe president Mugabe. The Archbishop said that Mugabe "destroyed the identities" of his people through oppression and economic mismanagement. "As an Anglican this is what I wear to identify myself, that I'm a clergyman." "Do you know what Mugabe has done? He's taken people's identity and literally, if you don't mind, cut it to pieces. This is what he's actually done to a lot of (people) - and in the end there's nothing. So, as far as I'm concerned, from now on I'm not going to wear a dog collar until Mugabe is gone."

Sentamu urged those who were moved by his gesture to "pray, march, protest and collect money" for Zimbabwe and Darfur - where charities say hundreds of thousands of people are facing starvation.

What a guy, just think how powerful it would be if Christians took issues such as Zimbabwe as much as Sentamu. I recently heard an interview with Brian McLaren talking about his new book Everything Must Change. He made the point that with Christianity being the largest world faith, if Christians took environmental issues (for example) to heart we really could make a dramatic change and truly this world a better place. Unfortunately, it seems to me, that Christians just seem to get into a fuss about issues are just non-issues outside the church.

I'v got into the The Nick & Josh Podcast recently, I really enjoyed their interview with Doug Pagitt (here) and Pete Rollins (here).

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First Year Out: Narrated by the guys himself who spent 16 years in prison (from when he was in high school) after being wrongly convicted of rape and murder.

mission is....

I have fallen in love... with a t-shirt co. in the US. A friend of mine at college told me about them. They are called Threadless, and there stuff is so cool cus its...

There is a post over at Rethinking Youth Ministry about the The Blasphemy Challenge that "Basically, this is a group of atheists, led by a thirty-year-old..., that challenges individuals, specifically youth, to deny, on camera, God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit..."

I found it really interesting to watch the news reports on The Blasphemy Challenge website. I think that the interviewer on Fox (who irritated me a lot more then the atheist), was just trying to argue for Christendom values and not for Christ. I think that this is what people are afraid off, people want nice ‘Christian’ young people who will uphold societies Christendom statuesque, not swear, not do drugs and be ‘nice’ because Jesus was ‘nice’. And atheism threatens the ‘nice’ statuesque. Yet Christendom is not the radical good news of liberation and wholeness through Christ. Christendom is political (Constantine), empire and oppressive. The Blasphemy Challenge is just attacking Christendom, which in the US is on its way out (The Blasphemy Challenge is one of many signs of this) and in Europe is almost dead and buried, and good ridderns, the sooner the last nail is hammered into Christendom's coffin the sooner the Good News of Christ can break through. Christendom has done 10 fold more damage for the Good News of Christ then atheism could ever have done (look at the church in China under a atheistic oppressive regime compared to the church in Europe under Christendom).

The Blasphemy Challenge, are targeting teenagers just like we do, we know that we can manipulate teenagers, and we do, thinking that we are doing it for their own good... yet so are the people at The Blasphemy Challenge. Maybe we just see our own techniques mirrored in the techniques The Blasphemy Challenge and we don’t like what we see.

Lets not let this be yet another Christian crusade to stamp out the unclean atheists, but let us use this to enter into some thought-out intelligent rational dialogue, lets listen and listen some more, accepting that maybe God can speak to the church through the concerns of atheists instead of us just giving more fuel to their fire (like death threats).

Yes, i have not blogged for some time but I think that I will start to again. I dont think that anyone will ever read my oozingz but well...maybe God will?

quality street jesus, originally uploaded by jonnybaker.

How cool is this! Jonny Baker found a Jesus made from quality street wrappers on the holy table in a church in birmingham... theologically reflect on that!

Relevant has an interesting article here by Doug Pagitt (Church Re-imagined: The Spiritual Formation of People in Communities of Faith (Emergentys) , Preaching Re-imagined: The Role of the Sermon in Communities of Faith (Emergent YS),Bodyprayer: The Posture of Intimacy with God) of Solomons Porch church regarding a 'list of tendencies, passions and perspectives of churches that call themselves emerging'. The headings are:

• Emerging Churches strive to be positive about the future.
• Churches within the emerging community are committed to God in the way of Jesus.
• The Kingdom of God is a central conversation in emerging communities.
• The emerging church values communal life – living like family.
• Emerging churches seek to live as missional communities.
• Friendship and hospitality are transformational pieces in the emerging church.
• Communities in the emerging movement value theology.

Stencil Art

I really love stencil art [Sometimes called Gorilla art]. One of the things I love about it is that almost anyone with imagination can do it! [Learn how to]. Also a lot of stencil art you see on the street has a political or at least a thought providing theme.

A few ideas to do with stencil at:

Get a group to stencil a wall at your building to a theme [justice, grace etc].

Do an outside wall with a modern day biblical scene using stencil images from modern day life, how about a old lady with shopping bags at the foot of the cross [Mary]. How about a typical modern day prostitute image being judged by religious leaders, talking to a modern day 30 something Jesus [John 8:7]. Basically how would the gospel stories look modern day and then stencil them out.

I think that this is an amazing piece of art: http://www.banksy.co.uk/manifesto/index.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/4748063.stm

http://www.stencilgraffiti.com/

http://www.stencilrevolution.com/

http://www.stencil.ro/

Taste: Salt is not really a pleasant taste on its own but is strong so will get the point across! Simply put a salt shaker on a table and ask people to put a little in their hand and taste it whist they read a scripture referring to salt... Simple! Here are some passages that you could use:

Luke 14:33-35

In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.

34"Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? 35It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out.
"He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

Colossians 4:5-6

5Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. 6Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

http://www.saltinstitute.org/

http://www.salt.gov.uk/

bible.org has a great intro to theology course that you can download for FREE. You can also get a very detailed PowerPoint and class notes, it really is a great course for anyone who wants an intro to the basics of theology, it also has a great class on Postmodern Epistemology and Does God Still Speak Today? Very well presented even if you don't necessarily agree with the conclusions. From listening to this class on MP3 going to and from work I have gained a wider understanding of the different viewpoints in Christianity as well as understanding, for example, the Orthodox Church.