winding the path

A couple of weekends ago I was away with a bunch of students from Liverpool Uni discussing church and what our dreams for the future might be. On the Sunday morning we had a 'scratch' worship service where different people prepared different parts of the worship - it was creative and insightful, pciking up many of the threads of discussion from the weekend. One of the things we'd discussed over the weekend was the concept of journeying with Jesus into the unknown, and one of the students, Tom, wrote the following poem for the worship...

The distant ocean sings to us,
we ebb, we flow,
Its waves beckon us.
And though we cannot see,
we feel its force tugging, pulling and luring us us in.

Our forethathers talk of the 'Great Drop',
how one by one, we rose out of the valleys, drumming up power,
gathering in size and pace,
pushing away the rocks,
before we powered over the cliffs.

For now the sun beats on our backs.
The current fuels our hearts,
though how easy it is to be consumed elsewhere,
to drift away from the others.
As the forces trap us,
forcing us into new channels.
As the vast lake encapsulates us
and we feel we're not travelling at all.

Ultimately we hold onto each other,
for the river always finds a path,
carving a way through the landscape of our time.
We may not share the force of our ancestors,
we may not be a flood of the nations,
but we live in promise, not hope,
for one day we all chance to swim amongst the oceans waves.

Thanks Tom for a great reflection (and for your permission to post it here!)

Malcolm C

Is Jesus Wonderwall?

THIS should be well worth seeing! Thanks Sanctus 1 for the tip off.

A pastor's response to a difficult question

Brian McLaren has a short post here that seems to wonderfully demonstrate how we might hold together our first two 'core' values - i.e. Christ Centered and Open.

(via Paul Robert's blog)

dream on

This Sunday Dream (Haydock) is experimenting with a new gathering that we’re calling ‘Dream on’. There’s clearly a group of people who want a chance for more than the monthly alternative worship service. More depth, more chance to get to know people, or just more.

‘dream on’ will aim to keep the dream vibe but follow a different format that will include a short talk and opportunities to interact. We’re going to have a go this Sunday (8pm) and then review the format, time, venue, etc.

...btw, it seems worth having posts like this one appear both here and on my blog (I'm greedy :-)

Richard White

Postcard

Dream's Postcard is now up on Steve Taylor's blog - go see!

love without agendas

Prompted by Judith P's post, I finally watched Rob Bell's 'Bullhorn' dvd (from the Nooma series) that's been sitting on my desk for ages!! Rob, in his own laid back style, sets out the kind of 'Jesus' love that would revolutionise the Church and mission. So much of our 'friendship evangelism' is precisely that - friendship with an ulterior motive. How many times have I heard in the past that I must have 'non-Christian' friends so that I can convert them?!

To this, Rob says "If I'm loving someone with an agenda then it isn't really love." He goes on to remind us that people need us (I presume that's followers of Jesus he's referring to by the 'us') to listen to their story, not to preach at them or try to convert them. How we love others is how we love God.

I guess this love is what stands behind Dream's desire to be open to all. We're not there to convert or even convince, but to provide resources and a space that will hopefully enable people to engage with Jesus and to see how he inhabits their story.

In doing so, we must live with and celebrate the loose ends, questions and differing points of view as we journey together with and towards Christ, never forgetting that we love because God first loves us. It's time we started trusting the God of love with each other, and loving for love's sake.

Malcolm C

I Have A DREAM

At DREAM in Haydock last night we were asked to offer our ideas and visions for the DREAM network. One thing I'd love to see is a release of creativity of all kinds as part of our worship, spiritual searching, and reaching out. For me that will most usually be expressed in visual images and animations. Here is one image that just "happened" and it came to represent a lot of what I think DREAM is about ("centred, creative, connected") ... check out our C.O.R.E values for more.



Don't say "I'm not a creative type" ... each of us is created in the image of a creative God, so his creative spark is in all of us. My creative outlet is often visual arts - what's your creative outlet?

Come on, get creating!

Richard Lyall