Emerging Scotland meet up

I went along to the Starbucks coffee shop in Glasgow last night to meet some folk for the first time.This came about through the Emerging Scotland site and a desire to put some faces to the people who post there.
Firstly let me say Starbucks would be the last place I would ever go to meet with anybody in town just not my scene.SO I went along feeling a but stupid and nervous not knowing anybody.But I’m glad I went it was great to meet people who are on a journey that is open and honest .

After some general chat I found myself in full flow and relaxed .So a big thanks to those who listened to my chatter and to those who chatted back.

Emerging Scotland

At last someone has got it together enough to give us Scots a place to talk all things emerging.Please sign up and give us your thoughts .

http://emergingscotland.ning.com/

Brian Mclaren in Glasgow

On Monday night Brian Mc spoke about his book a new kind of Christian.I have no problem with his challenge for us to find new ways to express the kingdom.Although I think he may have been stretching it a bit with one or two of his examples.

Whatever expression of the kingdom we come up with it must have Jesus at its centre.It is in him and through him we see and hear and feel what the kingdom is.Jesus used all that was around him at the time to explain the kingdom .And I feel that in order to communicate with this culture we must seek to do the same.As we long as we seek to make sure we are not diluting the kingdom Jesus gave us.
We also have to remember that the kingdom that Jesus gave us cannot be fully grasped and in some ways will always be a mystery to us.I like that about Jesus and his kingdom.

During the question time chaired by Kieth Short I felt we got a glimpse of the heart of the man again.He is not asking us to throw the baby out with the bath water.
New forms of Church are here and more are coming what we must do is look forward and not seek to be always looking back and blaming those behind us.After 2000 years its only to be expected that there is a bit of a mess.Our job is to pick our way through that and find the way forward holding all that was good dear to hearts and gently rejecting all that failed because the one thing that is certain is that we ourselves will make mistakes.

Brian Mclaren in Perth.

Let me begin by saying my time in Perth was a real blessing as I was able to catch up with a few friends and try to make some new ones.Alistair and Pat Macindoe were a real blessing to me as always and it was great to spend some time with Dave Beck again.

Let me start by being honest.Since I have no background in theology much of what was being said was difficult for me to grasp.But it was good to be stretched and to think about my faith.

What challenged me the most was the talk of our narratives.Brian tried to explain where he stood on biblical narrative.I don’t want to try and explain his stand point as he is in enough trouble without me adding to it.

But it made me think of how I look at the bible story.This is not the same as not believing the story but its about the lens through which we see it. One example of this is how in many ways we have removed the Hebrew story from our minds and filled it with the Greek world view.I don’t believe we can grasp the fullness of the story if we forget that Jesus was being proclaimed the king of the Jews.

This make the story of salvation much greater than a short prayer we might ask people to say in order that they experience salvation.To the Jews salvation was much more than just going to heaven even if it was about that at all.It went much deeper than being forgiven for sin (although that is great).There saviour was going to do much more than that.For me that puts the kingdom of God back at the centre of the story.

Watching Brian worship and listening to him share I felt a man who loves God and his word a man who wants to encourage us to see the whole picture that God is giving to us and to avoid being to narrow in or approach.This does not mean he is right in everything he says and people much smarter that me challenged him all weekend.His response was not always perfect but always gracious.Making sure that we knew that he is not advocating we have to give up all we hold dear but that we should at least be brave enough to make a safe space to talk about the things that really matter.

I do not agree completely with his new narrative but he made sure we understood that at the centre of his narrative was Jesus and that makes him ok by me.

Brian Mclaren in Scotland

The network church’s Scotland http://www.networkonline.org.uk/ which our church is part of, together with EA Scotland are bringing Brian Mclaren to Scotland he will be speaking in Perth,Edinburgh and Glasgow the dates are Dec 5-9 and details can be found here.http://www.eauk.org/scotland/brian-mclaren-in-scotland.cfm