Imagination Tree: Come on, Parents
Ailsa is really enjoying the Imagination Tree blog as a source of play ideas to do with our kids. What with not wanting to do the TV thing that much, and also having a desire to stimulate our kids’ imaginations in simple ways, Imagination Tree has been a great resource.
Ailsa says:
For anyone who has pre-schoolers, this is a great, fun blog. It’s packed full of creative ideas to do with your kids. What I really like about it is that it gives the kids access to all the kinds of sensory experiences. It’s full of loads of photos and step by step instructions for indoor / outdoor / sensory / artistic activities. As a mum who is at home with my kids at the moment, it’s re-impassioned me to really invest in quality play with our youngest children. I recommend the website really strongly - see it for yourself.
Micro church, macro love
Last summer, I had the pleasure of spending an hour with Shane Claiborne of The Simple Way. In the course of our conversation about community, simplicity and radical Christianity (see a write up here), I asked him about the difference between Christianity in the US and the UK. His answers were interesting and I thought I’d share them here.
Shane: “Oh surely, there are things that are fundamentally different. For better or worse, you don’t have some of the political baggage that we have. I guess you have some of your own but you certainly don’t have the culture wars, the religious right, and those things that have had such a heavy footprint on evangelical Christians in our country. There is a sense, a deep sense I think, in the UK of the culture being ‘post Christian’. It means the end of Christian triumphalism –there’s less of a try to ‘take America (or Britain) back for God’ there’s a little bit more of ‘God’s kind of had his heyday’.”
“Do you think that means that Christians in this country are less confident – or more humble?” I asked.
Shane: “I would celebrate the end of Christian triumphalism – not the end of God’s reign, obviously, but the end of a culture in which because everything’s ‘Christian’ nothing’s Christian. Where you have a Christian empire, Christianity loses its distinctiveness, its peculiarity, you know what I mean? I think communal expressions of Christianity have deep relevance and probably offer more than the mega church. It’s the day of the micro church and the house church and the idea that the gospel is lived out of homes and dinner tables and doesn’t need paid staff…
“Another challenge for you in the UK is that you have a really good social infrastructure. That’s a good thing, but it raises questions of the relevancy of the Church. So, I’m a part of a collective of 20,000 Christians in the States that pool our money together to meet each other’s medical bills. We cover 15 million dollars a year in medical bills. And that’s fantastic – but you don’t need that in the same way if you have an NHS. But you can have a really great social infrastructure and still have deeply lonely people, or have a house but not have a home. When you see the statistics on loneliness, depression and suicide over here, it’s clear that there are things for the Church to do!”
One of Shane’s more famous quotations is “Everyone wants a revolution, but no-one wants to do the washing up”. After talking with him, I was left reflecting that the “micro-church”, the “communal” church, the church of the grassroots, practising love and justice in the small contexts of neighbourhood, street corner and kitchen sink – this is the church I want to be and to build.
Managing Mammon: Challenging the ‘Ethical’
Thanks to Andy for these provocative thoughts on finance (and the state of the C of E!):
I have been ‘ethical banking’ for the last twenty five years with the co-operative bank – I also have an ethical mortgage. The definition of ethical banking is broad and eradicating majority world poverty does not seem to be top of the agenda so I am not overly impressed with the ‘ethical’ stance.
The problem is that there are just too many ‘ethical’ stances that people/pressure groups want to be top of the agenda and so trying to keep everybody happy in a limited market is very hard. I am also not any longer convinced that other banks can so easily be labelled ‘unethical’ when they follow the laws set down by governments duly elected by ourselves. Increasingly I think that left wing (normally well educated champagne socialist) christians like to scapegoat banks which after all only operate according to the laws set by governments that we elect.
I also find it hard to stomach CofE priests (like myself) banging on about such things when we still rely on Church Commissioner investments to keep the CofE going. When we use all the money from our investments and at least ten percent of income each year in eradicating majority world poverty, then we may have the right to speak on these issues. In order to help us to move towards this place, I have a few suggestions:
a) require individual churches to find the stipends for their ministers
b) where this may not be possible, allow churches to twin/be replanted by/link up to churches that can support them financially (i.e. re-instate patronage)
c) require central diocesan officers/offices and bishops to find their own money from willing churches or other sources to free up giving churches from large quotas so that they can give more money to the poor
d) encourage the admission that the CofE has an economically unhealthy dependency culture and encourage regular days of repentance concerning this until it disappears
e) instate healing prayer ministry (across the various types of hpm there are in various church traditions) to heal us from our stinginess – why do we only ask for emotional and physical healing? Seems a bit selfish to me … not least when the book of Acts has lots of people healed of their stinginess as a major work of the Holy Spirit
Finally, I think that God is saying the same as he has done for a few thousand years now: s/he who gives to the poor lends to the Lord.
Is Your Pay Average? (Score Your Salary)
The International Labour Organization has published stats on average incomes. Like all statistics, their strength is mainly to give an impression, but for some reason I found this a powerful exercise and a stimulant to a more generous life. Find out what your earnings might represent in global purchasing power at the BBC website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17543356
Time out
Yesterday afternoon I unashamedly drank an entire bottle of the finest quality solitude.
Obvious statement alert: living in community, life is full of people. People in your kitchen, people in your lounge, people in your garden, people in your hair. As a married man there’s even another person in my bed (and, if any of my children have a nightmare, there’s more than one other person in my bed).
Now I believe a life full of people is the life God calls us to. After all, his commandments can be summed up in the word ‘love’. Ever tried loving on your own? Even the solitary hermit has a community of beloved people in his heart – otherwise, I contend, he is no true Christian.
Solitude
Yet for a life full of people to remain fresh – to remain, in fact, loving – there is a need for times of solitude. I’m not talking about solitude’s rather shallow cousin, sometimes called ‘me time’; I’m talking about deliberate times of aloneness and stillness in which a person comes back to themselves, to their centre – and therefore to God. It may involve prayer (all of life involves prayer), but not necessarily conscious prayer.
So yesterday afternoon I went to a village near the city in which I live. I sat on a bench, overlooking a pool. I read a bit of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin. An old chap came and sat next to me and we said nothing to each other. The sun was warm. I wrote a poem and didn’t worry about the fact that it wasn’t very good. I wondered along a country pathway. I sat next to a field of cows, reading a commentary on Romans. Then I dozed off (it wasn’t the commentary, more the peace and the sun).
And after that, I read some more of the commentary. Then I came home.
That night I spent about an hour listening to someone who’s been pretty troubled and needed to talk. I was able to listen. Not perfectly (listening doesn’t come naturally to me, as my wife tirelessly points
out); but I was able to be there for that person. I don’t think I would have been able to be had I not taken a good long swig of solitude earlier.
That’s the difference between solitude and ‘me time’. Solitude, ultimately, is about community. It resources us for love.
To live in community, it is vital that we make space for solitude.
(This post first appeared at man-with-the-mop.blogpot.com)
When Did Shopping Become an Olympic Sport?
When I preached the other week about the links between rapacious capitalism and a sporting mentality, I had no idea my words would come so true so soon. The following is from the Keep Sunday Special website. Visit the site; sign the petition; and watch this space:
Rumours that Sunday trading legislation will be relaxed for the duration of the Olympic Games are profoundly worrying. The Keep Sunday Special Campaign totally opposes any plans to amend Sunday trading laws in the context of the Olympics. Such a move would be unnecessary and merely a cover for creeping deregulation.
David Cameron came into government promising to makethis country the most family friendly in Europe. But over one million familie share at least one parent working on both weekend days, meaning they have little time to spend with their children at a time when they are not at school. Research by the National Centre for Social Research has shown that Sunday working has a detrimental impact on fathers’ time with their children, especially on playing, reading and teaching.
KSS has always promoted Sundays as a day for shared activities. No changes to Sunday Trading legislation are needed to enable all Olympic visitors to have a great day out enjoying time with family and friends. When did shopping become an Olympic sport? Why are the Olympics deemed to be a special case?
Nor will the proposed changes do anything to increase economic growth as all the evidence suggests that existing spending would not increase but simply be spread over a longer period. And many government sevices, both local and national, would need to function if there was further deregulation.
It is KSS’s view that primary legislation would be needed to change the law on Sunday trading. It would be shameful indeed if Parliament allowed a change to be pushed through in the context of the Budget, especially as there was consultation on Sunday Trading only last year which showed conclusively that there was no appetite to change the law.
Managing Mammon
With the eviction of the Occupy protest at St Paul’s, we’re well overdue some reflection on this site about things financial. So how do you respond to the questions below? Post a comment, or send something to editor@breathenetwork.org.
o What are your reflections on the Occupy movement and the financial crisis?
o Have you protested? Do you work in finance? What do you think God is saying / doing in these times?
o Do you have any tips for managing personal banking and investment?
o Can you recommend an ethical bank? Does ethical banking live up to its name?
o Have you tried any alternative options for saving, insurance or mortgages?
What is Normal?
I love this set I found in Adbusters Feb 2011 (although brace yourself for the cover if you do search for it). The page to the left is renowned French Portraitist Denis Bouvre whose piece is of a Senegalese wrestler . The page on the right is ‘Queen Rocket‘ from ‘13 Queens‘, a piece by AlexandFelix. However the two pages titled ‘what is normal?‘ are intentionally placed side by side thus creating a new comment and dialogue. I couldn’t work out what I liked about them until a friend said “I don’t get it, explain it to me”. Because I was forced to deconstruct and vocalise them, it slowly came clear, an exercise I will repeat.
So I’m not going to tell you what I found but I will offer you a few questions that should help you decode it for yourself.
Take a page at a time and ask yourself:
What are ALL the elements that make up the visual? The colours, materials, props etc?
What do each of these elements represent? What are their origin? What are their purpose?
Now contrast each page’s findings.
You can find alexandfelix and Denis Rouvre’s work here and here
Plus my new site attempting to Redeem Advertising Space designthefuture
Follow the Lent 2012 Consumer Detox
As soon as Consumer Detox was released, people mentioned the possibility of a Lent Detox, so this year I’ve decided to give it a go.
Starting tomorrow I’ll be blogging daily through Lent at this site. I’ll be sharing some of the challenges and successes of trying to live more simply, and expanding on material in the book. A few friends are working through the book over Lent, and this should be a great accompaniment. But I also wanted to make something available for those who don’t have access to the book.
There are also some notes for small groups to use, including some of the most challenging / unorthodox things I’ve proposed for groups to try together. The idea of making a full inventory of what you own, for instance, came from a discussion with the guys at Nomad last year. Crazily, in our society, we barely have enough time to keep stock of the things we own. I hope that, if anything, an exercise like this gives us cause to be more thankful. But then if we could give our list to someone else to pray over (see the notes for more details), just think what might happen…
Enjoy Lent, and may it lead to deeper transformation in all of us.
Hello Goodbye
So I thought I’d make a dramatic entrance with this post about what we value before we exit.
My posts might be brief… (was going to stop there but thought better of it)
and sometimes without much explanation but I hope that the imagery I offer be it found or created will spark debate. To view some of my other public works which attempt to offer ideas contrary to a consumer mindset see:
