As I prepare to begin my MA in Mission (Celtic Mission and Spirituality) course in the autumn of this year, I’m starting to think towards the big D….the dissertation. Although I haven’t had any formal conversation with the college yet, my current thoughts are to make a study of Celtic New Monasticism…in particular, what role … More Renewal of the Church?
The next three: 7. Nurturing common life among members of intentional community. Community happens either intentionally or unintentionally where people are. We’re relational beings, so community is gonna happen. However, you can have static community (read OAPs in a rest home) or an active community (an Army, a football team etc). What happens in active … More 12 Marks of New Monasticism: 7-9
I mentioned at the end of the last post the 12 Marks of New Monasticism. Now, let me start by saying that one of the reasons this thing fires me up is because I think that Primive Salvationism had the whole New Monastic thing going on long before Bonhoeffer coined the phrase and before people … More 12 Marks of New Monasticism: 1-3
Funny, I was watching Ugly Betty last night. I don’t know if you watch it, but basically one of Betty’s ex-boyfriends confronts her about the fact that she’s working in a fashion mag when she wanted to be a serious journalist. She’d forgotten her vision. Like I said, the Army stuff is difficult mainly because … More Looking to the years to come
I’m not one of those who’d say that I find prayer particularly difficult. God was very real to me from the beginning of my Christian faith and it always felt natural to develop a relationship through prayer. I remember in those months of searching before becoming Christian of uttering some very real prayers and having … More Shaped Prayer
Every church, in essence, wants to do things ‘by the book’ (meaning the Bible). Yet, it is surprising that many of the ‘sacred cows’ we have in the church have little foundation in the New Testament at all. Here is a list (with help from Frank Viola and George Barna) of some of the post-biblical, … More Doing it by the Book?
One of the things I get asked incessantly these days is “are you settling in?” I guess I hear it so often because I’m part of a big collection of people here at Trinity. When I hear it I need to remember that it’s very likely that this person probably hasn’t asked me before and … More Settled?
I remember, some years ago, preaching a sermon on Ruth….about the wheat famine in Bethlehem, her moving away, and upon hearing rumour of their being a harvest due, she returns to Bethlehem (literally, the House of Bread) with her new family. My colleague preached on the passage a few weeks ago and it brought it … More Rumours around cold ovens
Those of us who find oursevles on the ‘Wesleyan’ side of the fence when it cmes to theology have a beautiful contribution to make on the theme of God’s activity in the world. Its not exclusive to Wesleyans of course, its biblical but the Calvinist would roughtly define the same idea as ‘common grace’ – … More Prevenient Grace
I’ve been an avid reader of Alan Hirsch’s stuff over the last couple of years. Firstly, there is the excellent ‘The Forgotten Ways‘ , truly on of the best books on activating a missional form of church and I’d even go as far as to say its one of the best books on mission I’ve … More Shema Spirituality
Andrew S M Clark 