I’ve just finished reading Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell.  I know it’s taken me a while to get round to this but I’m kind of glad I waited because I think I’m probably in a place now where it makes more sense to me that it might have when it came out a couple of years ago.

The book is full of gems.  For me, Bell’s engagement with the Jewish Jesus is illuminating and helpful but the line that struck me most was:

If it’s not good news for everybody then it’s not good news for anybody.

His explanation is that if person X starts to follow Christ that should be good news for the Muslim next door or the Hindu across the road because person x will be a better neighbour.

I’ve asked the question ‘What difference does it make to the world that we follow Christ?’ in a few sermons over the past months.  I think Rob Bell’s observation gives at least a place to start looking for an answer.  The Good News isn’t just Good News for us.  It should be Good News for the people we live with, the people we work with, the people we share our street with, the people we meet and all the people we come into contact with.

The lectionary for this week is Matthew 25: 31-46 (the sheep and the goats/i was naked, hungy, sick, in prison) and in his Chocolate teapot for 28 Nov Roddy Hamilton has posted some thoughts:

There is no way Jesus intended to start a church. Nothing he did was designed to grow a great institution that has fought over how many angels you can get on a pin head, the colour of cups in the cupboards and who should be allowed to use them, should the minister raise three fingers representing the Trinity during the benediction, should we stand for the bible, what should be the balance of hymns between traditional and contemporary etc, etc, etc. You can add to the list as you feel the need.

All Jesus did was tell folk there are forgotten folk in the world and there ought not to be, there are people who starve and there shouldn’t be, there are folk imprisoned in memories and pain and guilt and marriages and illness who should rather be free to life fully, there are people who can’t afford clothes for their own backs let alone their children’s backs and that is a shocking thing to let happen. Sort it.

The principle is dead straight forward. This is quite simply all there is to do as a church, a nation, a company of people, an individual. Here, and rarely anywhere else will you find Jesus. He never said he’d be found among those who wanted pews or those who didn’t, those who wanted everything sung with the organ or the piano, those who wanted Moody and Sankey or those who wanted John Bell.

But he did say, if you want to find me, look among the poor.

Which bit did the church fail to understand?

My answer? All of it.

We, the church, the supposed people of God, the followers of Christ, have forgotten that the Good News should be Good News for everyone.  If it’s not Good News for everyone then it’s not the Good News Jesus was talking about.

Any thoughts?

Last night I had the privilege of filling in for Thomas, the regular co-host of the Something Beautiful Podcast. Thomas is ill and so asked me if I could step in and chat with Jonathan about his interview with Dave Schmelzer, author of Not The Religious Type.

Jonathan and Dave talk about stages of faith, signs and maths, then Jonathan and I have a chat about some of the issues raised in the interview.

This episode of the Something Beautiful Podcast is now avaialable HERE!  Have a listen and let us know what you think!

Lawrence Moore’s brilliant lectionary blog Disclosing New Worlds is back!  A superb resource for anyone who preaches or who wants to get some great insights and commentary on the weekly lectionary passages.

The second part of my chat with Thomas about Seth Godin’s new book ‘Tribes’ on the Something Beautiful podcast HERE.

We talk about change, cycles, leadership and faith in a Starbucks… complete with coffeehouse sound effects!

I mentioned that I had recoreded a discussion on Tribes for the Something Beautiful Podcast… well it’s edited and part 1 is online now… HERE.

Some further thoughts:

Tribes are everywhere.  We are all part of tribes.  Tribes form around interests and passions.  Tribes are big and small.  Tribes share a sense of purpose and belonging.

Godin’s book is one that all churches should read.  Not just church leaders.  But church people.  This is a book for leaders.  Some of those leaders are already leading tribes but some are waiting for their moment or waiting for their tribe.

So, what’s the book about?

Faith, Religion and Heretics.  Those aren’t necessarily words you would expect to read in a marketing book, but then Godin isn’t just any marketer.  He’s a heretic.

Faith, according to Seth, is a good thing.  Faith is something we all share.  Some have faith in God, others faith in Apple or Starbucks but that faith is mostly that the world can be better, that we can do better.  Faith helps us to reach further, to attain, to aspire.

Religion, well that happens when people who share a faith get together and start a club.  There are rules for the club and sooner or later those rules become more important than the faith they were made to celebrate.  This happens because people want to protect the status quo.  People want to preserve their faith.

Heretics are the people who lead change.  Martin Luther was a heretic.  Joan of Arc, Ghandi, Rob Bell…

Rob Bell?  Yes, Rob Bell.  The connection is that heretics change the rules.  Bell started a new church.  A new kind of church.

The thrust of Godin’s argument is that there are lots of people who are waiting to be led.  People are dissatisfied with the status quo.  Others have left their religion and are out there with their faith waiting and hoping for someone to come and lead them.  Waiting for someone to inspire them.

These people need leaders.

Leaders are all about how it could be.  Managers are about how it is.

Leaders are about what’s possible.  Managers are about what is.

Leaders deliver change.  Managers deliver the status quo.

Simple really.  Leaders lead.  People want to be led.  They want to form tribes around ideas and create movements.  Once the tribe is formed the leader’s role is to tighten the tribe.  To find ways to bring people together, to deepen relationships and to grow the tribe… if the tribe wants to grow.

Sound familiar?  Sound like something you want or need?  What’s the catch?

Leading is hard.  It takes committment and effort.  It takes people who don’t mind being called a heretic.

Seth Godin’s audiobook Tribes is available on iTunes ahead of the release of the book in a week or so.

This evening I’m meeting up with Thomas aka Headphonaught for a chat about Tribes (book or audio), the new book by Seth Godin.

Our chat is being recorded as part of the Something Beautiful podcasts so I’ll try to speak clearly and even make sense.  All I’ll say for now is that I liked the audio book and it resonates with lots of the things I’ve written about and spoken about over the past few years so expect lots of soapbox rants!

I’m home for less than 24 hours between a team meeting in Derbyshire and a training event in Nairn.

It’s funny how ideas come together.  The other night I watched a couple of TED talks.  One was from Eve Ensler of Vagina Monologues fame who spoke passionately about ’safety’ and how people who try to stay safe miss the point of life, to live it.  I also watched Philip Zimbardo talk about how good people turn bad.  A fascinating, if rushed, talk about his work exploring what causes ordinary people to to evil things.

Finally, on Wednesday at my team meeting we spent the morning hearing Martin from Spinnaker Trust’s thoughts on Nehemiah and his rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem and how Nehemiah inspired and enabled people to build walls and gates.

I’m not sure where this thought is going but it seems to me that walls work two ways.  They keep people out and they keep people in.  I’m not sure either of those is a good thing but gates also seem to serve similar purposes, to let people pass between in and out.

I was struck by Ensler’s talk, particularly her story of a brave African woman who was brave enough to stand up against genital mutilation in her culture.  It seems that if she had sought safety then nothing would have changed.

I was struck by Zimbardo’s thoughts on how people do what their environment tells them to do.  It’s not necessarily about being told to but being in a culture which makes it ok or infers that you should act in a certain way without checks or balances.

I was struck by how Nehemiah wanted to restore the city but to do that he needed to build walls, to define it and to defend it.

Sometimes it seems that our desire to keep people safe actually puts them more at risk because walls divide and gates, while allowing people through usually have gatekeepers who check that only the right people come and go.  Walls create in and out, them and us, for us and against us.  I like the idea of Nehemiah mobilising the community to restore the city but I’m not sure we will restore our cities by building walls.

It all seems like a bit of a blur.  I feel as if I’ve been here forever and it’s only been 2 and a half days.  It’s not one of those ‘when will this end?’ kind of events, just one that has you up at 7am and not in bed until very late.  When you get to my age that starts to take its toll!

Saturday

Saturday was a much better day than Friday.  As you would expect, people had some time to get to know each other a little better and so there was a much more settled feeling to the day.

Mark Yaconelli was first up with words which brought tears.  He spoke about Sabbath, about being loved and being free.  He told captivating and moving stories of forgiveness and wholeness and of brokenness.  How often do we stop?  Just stop to let God catch up with us and to love us?  How often do we look around?  Are we missing our lives as we race through them at break-neck speed, too busy or scared to stop and look around?

Follow that!

A two hour chat about social media seems strange and very inadequate but none the less it was productive and the people in our group this morning engaged with the topic with thoughts on creativity, collaboration and authenticity.  I’m glad I spent the time reorganising and the structure helped I think.

For me the rest of the day was one watching, talking and swimming.  It was good to meet some old friends, some new ones and to take some time out for a swim.  Good to stretch and work some joints and muscles after sitting on the floor for most of the day.

The evening was spent at a Burn’s Supper with haggis and poems and some brilliant speeches.  Star of the show was Ishbelle with a superb performance of Tam O’Shanter.  A ceilidh was to follow but not for us as lack of sleep caught up with us.

Sunday

The sabbath day dawned far too early!  This was to be no day of rest with two debate sessions today.  Mark Yaconelli spoke on Peter and Cornelius and their battles to overcome their traditions and accept each other and to work out how the gospel was to work in a new world with new rules.  He also spoke of his surprise at how many people had told him that they managed to hold back their tears yesterday when he spoke.  His questions was ‘Why?’  Why would you want to hold them back?  Why are you scared of your emotions?  Why do you hide from your brokenness?  Isn’t that where we find healing and strength?  Isn’t that where we need God most and are most likely to meet him?

Again our session followed straight after but this time one of the event sponsors, The Scottish Bible Society, were to take the first hour to give their thoughts on Media and the Bible.

It was one of the most frustrating hours of my life.  Social media was compared to the Tower of Babel, a man made enterprise of arrogance and self-importance.  A place where man is more important than God.

I disagree completely, not just on this interpretation of social media but of our culture and the place we find ourselves in with God.  This is not the days of Babel.  We in a world that follows both Christ’s death and ressurrection and the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, both of which have changed the way we relate to God and to each other.  That’s how I began our half of the session and I went on to make the case for the benefits of sharing our creativity and collaborating on our journey of faith using tools like social media to help us on that road.

I’ll write more tomorrow as it’s far too late… so, to be continued…

Where has the time gone!?!?!  I’ve known about NYA2008 for ages and been working on it for months and I’m still not done!  How come?

I got the programme information today and it looks amazing!  Some really good stuff happening about mental health and the human library sounds fascinating.

My sessions?  Well, Authenticity, Information, Privacy and Participation are our headings for an adventure in Social Media.  Sound interesting?  I hope so.

I’ll be blogging as we go along and posting on the wiki.  If you’re not coming you can follow the back-channel chat (or just backchat) on twitter.  Follow us over the weekend, or say hi!, using NYA2008 in your tweet.

Anyway, I’ve been thinking about last night’s thoughts and I think my obsession with this event is about making a difference and seeing the value it has.  If not then it really is an obsession and I need help!

Now, no more of this procrastination.  Back to work!!!

I’ve posted talks by Clay Shirky before.  This one is from TED a while back but seems somehow more relevant now than it might have been a few years ago.

His ideas about collaberation seem to chime with my own thinking about the church as an institution and the problem it faces.  The church is an institution seems based on knowledge and control of that knowledge and access to it.  There is of course nothing wrong with striving to deepen our knowledge but my concern has always been that to set apart a whole class of people as the keepers of that knowledge devalues the insights and discoveries of anyone outside that group.

It seems to me that Shirky is talking about the same thing when he talks about the potential of open source collaboration and free access.  The problems for the church in that prospect are the same as for any institution.  If anyone can contribute and if that contribution is to be valued, or at least proves to be valuable, where does that leave the institution as it no longer has a monopoly on knowledge, insight and understanding.

If the church has set itself up based on that mediation of knowledge and structures itself to maintain that mediated access then Shirky’s vision of open source, open comment, the long tail and grouping knowledge and information through tagging and sharing means big trouble for the institution… but a big future for communities of believers.