HopeforMuslims - a Wind in the House of Islam

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Celebrated Christian author to visit the UK

Dr David Garrison, author of the acclaimed book A Wind in the House of Islam will be taking part in a speaking tour of the UK in June. The ‘Hope for Muslims’ tour aims to be a catalyst for more prayer and more action on reaching out to our Muslim neighbours.

In his book, Dr David Garrison concludes that never in the history of Muslim/Christian interaction have we seen the response to the Gospel we are seeing today.  It is a story of how, in answer to prayer and in response to a religion that is becoming increasingly divided, thousands of Muslims are choosing to become followers of Jesus. Dr Garrison tells us that today, in more than 70 separate locations in 29 nations new movements of Muslim-background followers of Christ are taking place.

Dr Garrison defines a movement to Christ to be at least 100 new churches started or 1,000 baptisms that occur over a 20-year period in one people group. His research involved seeing many of the churches for himself and systematically interviewing more than 1,000 Muslim background believers from the groups he details.

Dr Garrison will speak at venues in Scotland, Northern Ireland, moving down through England, finishing in the London area on 21st June. The tour will end as the 30 Days of Prayer for the Muslim World begins, coinciding as always with the Muslim fast of Ramadan. This prayer movement, which began in 1993, has been one of the keys to the move of God we are seeing. We want to see the wind of God's Spirit continue to blow right across the Muslim world, including right here in the UK.

Dr Garrison’s book, A Wind in the House of Islam will be available for sale during the tour and from selected Christian bookshops around the UK.

Hope for Muslims is an initiative of a wide range of mission agencies of the Global Connections network.

For more information contact:

E: abower@globalconnections.org.uk

T: 01926 487755

W: www.hopeformuslims.org  www.windinthehouse.org  www.30-days.net

Further information

About the author

For nearly 30 years Dr David Garrison has been a missionary pioneer with the Southern Baptist International Mission Board. His faith journey has led him to study a dozen languages and travel through 100 countries.

Dr Garrison currently lives in Colorado with his wife of 35 years, Sonia, and two of their four children, where he serves as the Southern Baptist International Mission Board’s Global Strategist for Evangelical Advance.

About the book

There are nine rooms in the House of Islam. A wind is blowing through every one of them.

A Wind in the House of Islam explores the stories of more than 1,000 Muslim-background followers of Jesus Christ from each of the nine rooms in the House of Islam. Join Dr Garrison in this amazing journey of discovery, tracing the work of the Holy Spirit as He blows through the House of Islam.

Dr Garrison travelled a 250,000 miles into every corner of the Muslim world collecting interviews from more than a thousand former Muslims who have given their lives to Jesus Christ. These Muslim-background believers were interviewed because they were part of larger movements of Muslims to Christ in their communities. He asked them, “What is your story? What did God use to bring you to faith in Jesus Christ?” Along the way, Dr Garrison discovered that we are in the middle of the greatest turning of Muslims to Christ in history. These historic movements are taking place all across the Muslim world, from West Africa to Indonesia.

Book review

A Wind in the House of Islam by David Garrison

This book is inspirational.  It contains all the serious research of an academic treatise, yet is easy reading and faith building. A Wind in the House of Islam tells the remarkable story of God's activity in drawing millions of Muslims to faith in Christ.  This mass movement of the 21st Century (just 12 years!) is set against the historical failure of the church's mission in the previous centuries.  Given that Islam is the last major people group to respond to the Gospel, these stories and events are highly significant. Each of nine major regions of Muslim-dominated countries is examined and while the response to Christ is proportionally higher in some than others, every region is telling the same basic story. Dr Garrison has given us a window into a world many of us knew little about, have been troubled by and have judged by the media's fear-ridden headlines. Behind those headlines we learn that God is powerfully at work!  I commend the book: it will illuminate your understanding, warm your heart, raise your spirits and encourage your prayers.
Reviewed by Andrew Kane - Teaching Pastor, Christ Church Woking

Supporting resource

30 days of Prayer for the Muslim World is a prayer guide for those wishing to pray for Muslims.  The 30 days of prayer coincide with the Muslim fast of Ramadan. 

For further information or to order a prayer guide, please visit www.30-days.net

Prayer from Afghanistan

I love this prayer from John Carden's book: A Procession of Prayers: Meditations and Prayers from around the world.     It's (appropriately) in the chapter on the Mystery of Christ's Epiphany to Wise Men.  (p 55)  The picture is one I painted ages ago, in Oil Pastels from a similar image I found on the web..  I suppose that for me this blog is an appropriate response to 9/11 - and a prayer for the country of Afghanistan

And so, that is why, at nightfall when my people are asleep, kneeling barefoot, close to the altar of my little chapel, I become their intercessor - like Abraham, Jacob, Moses, like Jesus. A stick of sandlewood sends forth its fragrance, the symbol of all those who today are worn out with their labours in suffering, heavy with all their hopes - all of those who today have fallen asleep thinking only to meet a Judge - to them I present him as their Saviour, and I introduce them to the eternal Nuptials. All those little children who were born this day I make children of God. All the prayers said today in the homes, the mosques, I transform into an 'Our Father'. My heart is nothing more than a melting pot, where, in the fire of Christ's love, all the dross of my people is turned into gold - and through my lips it is the whole of Afghanistan who cries that 'Abba' to the Father that the Holy Spirit inspires. 

'Fishing in Utopia' or 'Where's Walleye'!

'Fishing in Utopia' is a Grantis Book by Andrew Brown (2008) subtitled 'Sweden and the Future that Disappeared'.   So its all about Sweden and I'm in Stockholm reading it at the moment, but reflecting on the fishing in Finland, which is as near as I have been to Utopia in terms of fishing.   The A6 pastel painting above is inspired by the view on arrival at a Lake house in Ahtari (picture below) The dark deep waters awash with Pike, Perch, Pike-Perch and the more elusive Walleye

I'm not a fisherman but I enjoyed fishing on this occasion with Harri and his son, Joel.  We went our at least twice a day for a few hours at a stretch. Lake trolling I think its called, dragging a line from a small motor boat with a bright yellow and black lure.  Very relaxing.....   I enjoyed watching the shifting scenery and the beauty of creation. As well as the game of chance, which people call fishing.  I thought the game should be renamed: 'Where's Walleye'!      

Harri and Joel  are very much at home on the Lake and fishing almost runs in their blood. They have been going to Harri's parents' summer house for years and fishing the Lake, particularly in search of Walleye, which they think is the best fish in the Lake.   And at the end of the day you bring the fish back like ancient maniners/ hunters. And eat and sauna and fall asleep happily after the late sunset (10pm) comfortably exhausted.   That's the life.......

A quotation from the 'Fishing in Utopia' book, seems appropriate: 

Fishing anywhere is a form of enquiry. The patient watchful wonder of the fisherman seems to me to be the root of all science. In sea fishing this mapping and bringing of order from the formless, shifting waves is especially ambitious. Attention broods over the water like the spirit in Genesis, moving, casting, until suddenly all the possibilities are narrowed into one taut line. Perhaps this explains why I have always sought the sea at times of upset and disturbance in my life. The fish comes like an answer, the rod in my hand a divining instrument.'  (p83) 

     

I'm a little bit more like a fish out of water.  Someone even called this picture 'the old Man and the sea'. But inspite of looking out of place and uncomfortable (some people say I look cold), I am actually having an almost 'spiritual experience' as brown described. watching, brooding ..... and I did manage to catch a 2 kilo pike, which I also later filleted and we had it for breakfast, smoked along with 4 perch that Joel had pulled effortlessly out of the water and into a bucket on board. I have to admit I enjoyed the experience immensely. Going out in the boat and watching the changing scenery, coupled with the fishing lottery......  'will I, won't I' catch one today?      It really is pretty addictive......

Joel, being a pre-teenager, would also go out on his own whenever he had the chance for even mor efishing opportunities. And so I did a quick pastel stetch of him fishing alone,  which I left him as a momento of our 'fishing in Utopia' trip.

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning

Another oil pastel of a girl partying, inspired by a series of large painting I saw in a London Restaurant.  The originals were done by Paul Lemmon as part of an Exhibition: 'a Slice of Lemmon' put on by the Art Movement.  Other picture featured  in previous blogs

Given the near freezing temperatures it made me think how COLD it is on a Saturday night in Winter Woking when you are just dressed up to party. We were on another 'street angels' shift from 10pm on Saturday night til 4 am on Sunday morning.  

'Saturday Night and Sunday Morning' was the name of a novel by Alan Sillitoe (1958), which was made into a film with Albert Finney (1960). Over half a century ago. It portrays life in the raw, in the urbanised sprawl of the industrialised Britain. The drudgery of factory work as a machinist during the week and spending wages at the weekends ,"drinking and having a good time".  Nothing is new under the sun   and the same pattern continues for many ...... The traumas of the week are played out at the weekends

Mind you we cannot see beyond a small glimpse of what people are going through. As Street Angels, we meet people 'by chance' on the streets and get involved with a  few for a short period of time.  I was patrolling with one of the newly commissioned angels – ‘the reinforcements’ which meant we could now cover Saturdays as well as Friday nights.

It always starts out quiet with people intent on going out and ‘having a good time.’ So that’s the time we walk and talk and get to know each other and greet one and all.  Galaxy Cabs have constructed a new control centre – and we met the Pakistani owner and ended up talking about his father who died early in the year aged 102!  He had served in the British army and been evacuated from Dunkirk.

Michelle from Maybury was very drunk and had been kicked out of RSVP and couldn’t get into Chameleon. She was sitting on a wall on her own  and could hardly sit straight. We stayed with her and tried to get her to contact her friends.  She was COLD in her minimalist dress. We walked her to MacDonalds and sat with her for a while. She wouldn’t have a coffee but ordered a burger. And we couldn’t stay there all night. Outside again we tried a space blanket, but she just looked like an oven-ready chicken.  It was only when a policewoman suggested she go home that she agreed, so we found a taxi and that we thought was that.

It was only later we discovered she had been sick all over the back seat and the taxi had returned to base. She had stumbled out and according to the taxi-driver was escorted home much later, by the police. As I said you only ever hear part of the story…. 

Otherwise the usual picking up bottles,  and giving out our trademark 'lollipops and flip flops' (not so many tonight). We also got called out to the other side of Woking Railway station in response to a radio call about a distressed girl,  but whatever the situation was  had finished when we arrived.  Back on the Chertsey Road, a couple were having an argument opposite Subway but they made it abundantly clear they didn’t need any ‘interfering do-gooders’. We just ensured CCTV kept an eye on it, cos the girl had banged her head against a shop window lots of times  

After 3am the Chameleon punters spilled out onto Chertsey Road and a fight broke out on the street    It looked like 10 against 2. But it was really difficult to work out what was happening   I thought they were messing about.  But one lost a number of teeth, the other had cuts a round his ears. The odds were certainly stacked against the two guys.  The angels, called a police officer and talked to the guys afterwards as the police took verbal statements and generally calmed things down. One thing I learned from the incident is how very difficult it is, as a witness to a fight, to work out what is going on. I’ve no idea how people stand up in court and tell ‘the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth’.  I’m sure CCTV camera’s help. But so much is open to interpretation.

At the end of the shift, in the wee hours of Sunday morning, as we were making our way back to base, we met Mark, a bouncer at one of the clubs, who had been in the army ('The Vikings') and was wounded in Helmand. He knew my fellow angel well from the army camp in Pirbright. I was impressed at his cheerfulness, given all he had been through. Funny how some people seem to come through trouble and rise above it, discovering the newness of Sunday morning, whilst others seem to fall victim and get stuck in the perpetual round of Saturday nights.........

The undefended Leader

The painting is another copy of Sieger Koeder's, the catholic priest-painter. As you can tell I like his pictures. This time it is Jesus washing the feet of his disciple. The ultimate example of Servant leadership. I particularly like the idea of Jesus face reflected in the water of the bowl he is using. The story has inpsired many to go and do likewise....

The Undefended Life

I have been reading Simon Walkers book: ‘The Undefended Life: Recovering God’s Freedom to Live Beyond Fear’ (2011) whilst on holiday. Leant to me by a colleague, so I needed to finish it before I get back. I have ordered the trilogy from Amazon but they did not arrive on time. I’ll read them later: ‘Leading Out of Who You Are’ (2007); ‘Leading with Nothing to Lose’ (2007) and ‘Leading with Everything to Give’ (2009)

Simon Walker has developed the Personal ecology profile, based on his brief introduction to the theory of `Human Ecology’ (2009)

The Undefended Life book I’m reading, deals with the theology behind his undefended leader trilogy. He draws on people like Jurgen Moltmann: ‘The Crucified God’ (1974) and ‘Trinity and Kingdom’ (1981) and Paul Fiddes: ‘Creative suffering of God’ (1988) and ‘Participating in God’ (2000)

I like the 4 characteristics of the undefended life he has developed (p 101)

(i) ability to live life as Gift;

“Love is what we are born with, fear is what we learned here” (Anon)

(ii) living in the present moment;

Wherever you are, be all there (Jim Elliott)

(iii) relinquishing control but taking responsibility;

Maturity is the freedom to live an undefended life (Melanie Kline)

(iv) taking risks

‘If a man wishes to be sure of the road he treads on, he must close his eyes and walk in the dark’ (St John of the cross)

You can follow more through the web presences

www.theleadershipcommunity.org

www.undefended.org.uk

I found myself agreeing strongly with lots of what he has written, so I quote a great chunk of one particular passage on leadership (page 100). It captures some very helpful insights into the type of servant leadership Jesus epitomised when he washed his disciples feet:

Leadership itself is an act of followership. There is no such thing as leadership in the sense of executive agency and decision-making that we often take it to mean. The leader is not in the business of taking decisions about the things that happen. Rather she should be in the business of responding to the leading of God’s Spirit.

The only kind of leadership possible is described in John 5:19, where the Son describes his following of the movements of the divine Father. The chief quality of the leader, then, should not be the capacity to make decisions or be visionary, but rather to listen and be attentive.

It is startling that we often seek to train our leaders to be better communicators (by which we mean ‘speakers’) believing that leadership is some act of persuasion. In fact, we should be looking for individuals who have cultivated a stillness of spirit such that they can attend to the movements of God. We should look for leaders who are sensitive to the tone of the room, to the unconscious voices in the discussion. We should be elevating women and men who have an awareness of the spiritual dimension to life, that runs in parallel to this world.

I am not in the slightest bit interested in following men and women who can depict some grand vision, or who have a confidence about ‘the way we should be doing things’. I want to follow and learn from the men and women who struggle with the pain in the world and who are generous, kind, self-effacing, seeking to learn, fragile, patient, still and free, those who have known failure and not been crushed. I want to follow the one who can laugh at him- or herself and who does not try to achieve mighty things.

As someone once said: ‘The immature man seeks to die heroically for a cause; the mature seeks to live humbly for one’

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As an alternative to the WWJD wrist-band (what would Jesus do), I have often thought it should read DWYSTFD – which sounds like a place in Wales! ‘Doing what you see the Father doing’, which is, after all, just what Jesus did:

The son can only do what he sees the father doing because whatever the Father does the son does also. For the Father loves the son and shows him all that he does (John 5:19)

'Woof, woof': a walk on the wild side

I did this picture to remember Jess, our Border Collie for many years. We had lots of fun and great walks and good memories.

The picture evokes some of those walks ...... But also a sense of looking out at the wilds and contemplating the beauty of what is out there... Beauty to be enjoyed. Country to be explored. An adventure to be had.

When Jess died last year we buried her at the bottom of the garden, her garden, under a pile of stones in the midst of a wild patch - a sort of memorial pile of stones, a cairn.

MEMORIALS

Sometimes the Church is also thought of as a sort of memorial in a very positive way - ('do this in remembrance of me'). Walk around any ancient church and you get that sense of faithfulness over the centuries as people have worshipped and prayed in the same location. A great sense of tradition and history. The very stones cry out .....

Stones also act as a marker, a beacon. They can point in a certain direction. They were put there for a purpose - maybe to mark a trail. What they were for is not always obvious. It requires local knowledge, a sense of history.

But there is a danger of just becoming just a 'pile of old stones' - a memorial to the past. The church must always be dynamic, changing, relating to the context and the times. a message that is vibrant and fresh. Good news to all people.

RELIGION SAVES

I picked up a copy of Mark Driscoll's book 'Religion saves; and nine other misconceptions'

I liked the title but as I read on I was less enamoured with the content. It was a great idea:

'Driscoll set out to determine the most controversial questions among visitors to Mars Hill Church website. IN the end 893 questions were asked, and 343,203 votes were cast, and in Religion Saves Driscoll answers the nine questions receiving the most votes. in his responses Christians and non-Christians alike will find much to convict, to encourage and to shock them out of complacency'

It was democratic process of arriving at questions to address. Almost a bit of Crowd intelligence or Crowdsourcing. But the answers are not postmodern, wisdom of the Crowds, more the modernist, authoritative voice of the individual. And he is outspoken and frank.

Three questions deal with sex and dating, two questions cover the emerging church, then there is one question about Calvinists and Armenians, one covers the differences between Protestants and Catholics, and lastly the difference between old school and new school Calvinists.

But I was most interested in Question 2: The Emerging Church.

Driscoll talks about 'The four lanes of the missional church highway'

1 Missional Evangelicals

2 Missional House Church Evangelicals

3. Missional Reformed Evangelicals (his preferred position) and finally

4 Emergent Liberals who he particularly critiques - Brian McLaren, Doug Pagitt and Rob Bell.

The first 3 positions are more or less the same... changing the church from within. He argues the last road is however reinventing the Christian faith. And to be avoided....

You can watch Mark Driscoll's video addressing the issue of 4 Lanes of the Emerging Church or look on the Mars Hill Blog

Facing different paths and wondering which direction to take

At the end of the chapter he cites Tony Jones:

'Emergent Christians. too, are pushing over fences and roaming around at the margins of the church in America. Once domesticated in conventional churches and traditional seminaries, more and more Christians are moving into the wilderness. They occasionally wander back, feeding off the structures and the theologies of traditional Christianity, but they never stick around long. Attempts to redomesticate them will fail. They've gone feral.'

In the video Mark Drscoll adds 'I think they've gone off the highway and are lost out in the woods.....'

where the wild things are, the place of adventure and fun, not just of sterile domesticated orderliness. I was left wondering which one I would prefer to travel on ? The well worn highway or the uncharted byway.....

"Two roads diverged in a wood and I took the road less travelled by, and that has made all the difference" (Robert Frost)

I was surprised by the strength of the opinions he cites about these emergent leaders: 'Attempts to redomesticate them will fail. They've gone feral.'

And Driscoll ends the chapter even less ambiguously (and less graciously): 'This must have been what the apostle Paul was talking about when he said false teachers are 'dogs!'

Well all I can say is 'woof, woof'........

.... walkies anyone?

Love Wins - The Prodigals' return

I've been reading Rob Bell's 'Love Wins' - a very easy read. My son had been reading it and his enthusiasm was contagious. Described as 'a Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived'. Have a look at the introductory video on Rob Bell's website to get some of the questions behind the book.

It advocates a more inclusive position on the whole question of Salvation, and particularly looks at sticky issues of heaven and hell, propagating what has been called a 'wider hope'. It has caused quite a stir in evangelical circles, especially across the Atlantic. The Evangelical Alliance have a response by Derek Tidball, which is starting a conversation.......

At the heart of the book is the story of the Prodigal son. One of my favourite stories. More of that later ....

I have been compelled by this story - we used it when I was in Karachi working with drug addicts. Everyone seemed to find their place in the narrative. We were heavily influenced by Kenneth Bailey's 'The Cross and the Prodigal' looking at the story afresh 'through Middle Eastern Eyes' which seemed to help in a Pakistani context.

Henry Nouwen also took me deeper in the Return of the Prodigal Son, meditations based on Rembrandt's painting, which I also visited at the Hermitage in St Petersburg ( I wrote a blog post on it in April 2001)

So I had to have a go at painting my own 'impressionist' version of part of the Rembrandt, concentrating on the detail of Father's embrace of the returned younger son with older brother looking on, rather judgementally, from the shadows.

Back to Rob Bell's book. He has a chapter: 'The good news is better than that' (Ch 7) in which he describes three stories within the one story.....

The younger son who as he heads home in shame after squandering all his money, is convinced he's 'no longer worthy' to be called his father's son. That's the story he's telling, that's the one he's believing. Its stunning then when he gets home and his father demands that the best robe be put on him and a ring placed on his finger and sandals on his feet. Robes and rings and sandals are signs of being a son. Although he's decided he can't be a son anymore. his father tells a different story. One about return and reconciliation and redemption. One about being a son again. (165)

There are two versions of the same story The son's and the father's. And the younger son has to choose which one to believe, which one to trust and to live in. His own version of events or his father's.

Same it turns out for the older brother. He too has his own version of his story. He tells his father 'All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours (he cant even say his brother's name) who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes come you kill the fattened calf for him!' So much in so few words. One sense he has been saving it for years and now out it comes, with venom. (166)

The father isn't rattled or provoked. He simply responds 'My son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours..... But we have to celebrate and be glad because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found' (167/165)

Its the same issue of which story to believe. His own story of slavery and his father's meanness and cheapness and how unfair it all is. Or his father's redefinition of the narrative. The father tells a different story. about sonship not slavery, about the abundance of resources not their scarcity, and a redefinition of 'fairness' which is replaced by grace and generosity. People get what they don't deserve. Parties are thrown for younger brothers who squander their inheritance' (168)

The difference between the two stories is , after all, the difference between heaven.....and hell (169)

to be continued.....

Chetan Bhagat: cricket, call centres and culture

I recently returned from India. At Hyderabad Airport I managed to pick up the 4 copies of Chetan Bhagat's books for 95 Rs each (just over a £5 for all). And I read them all whilst on the trip. He is India's best known and most read English writer, having written 4 books - two have already been made into movies.

five point someone - what not to do at IIT - the student days of Hari, Ryan and Alok (the film is therefor called '3 idiots') as they navigate a life at the bottom of the rung at India's prestigious IIT university they discover a little more of what life is about. The Bollywood film is called '3 idiots'.

one night @ the call center follows the lives of a group of call centre operators who get an unexpected call from God which forces them to re-evaluate the meaning of their lives and what they want to achieve. The film is simply called 'Hello'

the 3 mistakes of my life follows Govind a young entrepreneur in Ahmadabad in 2000 as he sets up a cricket shop with 2 close friends. Everything is challenged as he comes to terms with three big mistakes he makes in the face of life's unexpected twists and turns.

2 States: the story of my marriage is what happens when Punjabi boy meets South Indian girl and they discover that a love marriage involves more than just 2 people. Its about 2 extended families indeed 2 cultures coming together.

I've had a couple of reasons this week to think of the books - India winning the cricket World Cup - which reminded me of Govind in 3 mistakes and the boost to his business when India won the cricket

I also had reason to talk to a call centre in New Delhi recently over a lastminute.com airline ticket re-booking. And the staff could not have been more helpful. Mind you, having read the book I was all the more polite and sympathetic. It really does make a difference how you talk to people. And One night has made me think more positively about call centre workers and even the possibility of God intervening in their lives .... So next time you're connected to Bangalore or New Delhi, say a little prayer....

On Call

I was asked for a review of a book for its Korean publication

The Society for Missions to Africa and the East, now known as Church Mission Society (CMS) was founded in 1799, well over 2 centuries old. Many thousands have gone out from the west, following the CALL to ‘preach Good News’ and to take the Gospel into all the world.

This has resulted in enormous changes in society with the establishment of health and social services, educational institutions, agricultural work, community development and well as the founding of many churches.

My own mission journey over the last 25 years, took us as a family to Pakistan to work with drug addicts and subsequently as a CMS Regional Director to work in Europe, Middle East, Central and South Asia and more recently journeys into East Asia.

I have seen that Mission is indeed changing as we respond to the mission of God - ‘missio Dei’ – and do what we see the Father doing. The call to mission is as relevant as it ever was. This year 2010, conferences in Japan and South Africa have been echoing the call of Edinburgh 1910. But there has been a major change in mission since then - a southern shift – with the Global South taking a lead and seeing new waves of people released for God’s mission in the world.

CMS is continuing to be ‘on call’ as an organisation in Britain and Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa and South America. The CMS office in Korea, based in Seoul, represents a part of a shift in CMS as it moves its work from being based in Europe to becoming autonomous organisations in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

This book which was written in one context - the Global North – drawing on the vast experience of mission over two centuries. It will find echoes in other wider and emerging mission contexts in the Global South. It has now been translated into Korean – the second largest formal missionary sending country in the world and its impact could be greater than the English version. It will help many to explore their own sense of call in more depth.

This Korean edition is an exciting new development. It will be particularly useful for individuals exploring their own call as well as pastors and churches wanting to send and support their people in mission. We are more and more discovering that the church is indeed ‘Mission-shaped’. This means that individual Christians are also ‘mission-shaped’ and being ‘on Call’ includes mission on our doorstep with our own neighbours as well as, for some, working internationally.

This book is a resource for all in the same way as the gospel is a call to all.

The book is available at Cross Rythms and at CMS (THE CMS ONE IS CHEAPER!)

A Church Times review at the time of publication in 2001

web (downloadable) version of Stuart Buchanan's useful book on Christian vocation for mission. available here

local-global mission

I came across this quote which I liked:

"Mission is everything the local-global church is sent into the world to be and do as a participant in God's mission and every person and gift the local-global church receives in Christ's name and way. The missional practice of the local-global church must be holistic, with activities of evangelism, compassionate service, and social justice. God's loving mission is two-way; it includes both giving and receiving. Every person, religion and culture has material, intellectual, aesthetic, social, affective, and spiritual values that the other can receive."

Sherron K. George, "From Missionary to Missiologist at the Margins" in Teaching Mission in a Global Context, eds., P Lloyd-Sidle and Bonnie Sue Lewis, (Louisville:Geneva press, 2001)

A colleague used the same article as a basis for a reflections she gave Available on FULCRUM

'Educating for Contextual Mission'

by Dr Cathy Ross, CMS Crowther Centre

365 ways to change the world

I bought the book over New Year in Honiton. And I use it reasonably frequently to inspire me. (not quite daily) Every now and again, I post a link on Twitter.

I like the idea of reading it alongside my devotional material as a sort of practical prayer resource. Faith needs to work itself out in action.

It is certainly worth bookmarking the website 365act '365 ways to change the world'

It inspired me to get back blogging after a nearly 2 month break! (too much travelling)

I was also inspired by the FreeHugs campaign started by Juan Mann watch the video and read the story

Finally (for now) another website we are what we do expounds a simple equation

Deep and Wide: the Poustinia and the Labyrinth

My 2 themes for this year have been:  DEEP and WIDE. They were the themes I took up for our recent sacred:space (4th July) as part of a search for a spirituality for mission. 

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.                                                                                               (Eph. 3:14- 19)

'DEEP' -   the POUSTINIA 

Deep is about going deeper -  spiritually, mentally, personally, faith-fully   'being rooted and established in love'    

I personally have found a 'Poustinia' helpful ( I have built one in the garden) And the following quotes are all from Catherine Doherty's book   Poustinia - Encountering God in Silence Solitude and Prayer 

POSUTINIA means 'desert'  but usually represent a hut in the woods, where in the Russian Tradtion, a Poustinik would go to pray.   It is ‘a quiet, lonely place that people wish to enter to find the God who dwells within them’ 

An entry into the desert, a lonely place, a silent place where one can lift the two arms of prayer and penance to God in atonement, intercession, reparation for ones sins and those of ones brothers’ 

         The Poustinik enters his Poustinia and takes humanity with him. He lifts that humanity before God, with all its pains and sorrows, joys everything 

  

         He would arise and go into the place ‘where heaven meets earth’ departing without any earthly goods, usually dressed in the normal dress of a pilgrim…. A simple handwoven shirt of linen, down to his ankles.....He took along a linen bag, a loaf of bread, some salt, a gourd of water & a staff

Let your Poustinia be a quiet secret garden enclosed, for it is a hallowed place, a holy place where the soul enters to meet God. It is not a show place to be discussed and shown off’. 

‘But the essence of the Poustinia is that it is a place within oneself’

'WIDE' -   the LABYRINTH

Wide is about impacting society more widely -  I have found the concept of the Labyrinth very helpful. It is about wandering into the complexity of the world, on a 'journey to the centre of the earth'  into God and back into the world. ('There and Back again') 

The Labyrinth is also a metaphor of a spiritual journey - a pilgrimage 

"A beautiful spiritual tool -- a pattern, an emblem, a walkway -- has captured my attention and my heart.  The labyrinth is its name."-   Jill K. H. Geoffrion

"Why does the Labyrinth attract people?  Because it is a tool to guide healing, deepen self-knowledge, and empower creativity.  Walking the labyrinth clears the mind and gives insight into the spiritual journey.  It urges action.  It calms people in the throes of life transitions.  It helps them see their lives in the context of a path, a pilgrimage.  They realize that they are not human beings on a spiritual path but spiritual beings on a human path.  To those of us who fell we have untapped gifts to offer, it stirs the creative fires within us.  To others who are in deep sorrow, the walk gives solace and peace.  The experience is different for everyone because each of us brings different raw material to the labyrinth.  We bring our unique hopes, dreams, history, and longings of the soul."
-   Dr. Lauren Artress, Walking a Sacred Path, p. 21

"Walking a Labyrinth is a personal meditative activity and can be understood as a path of contemplation or prayer for people in seeking the Divine or seeking peace without regard to any particular religious tradition."—The Hingham Journal, 9/04

Some see these mysterious traditions as 'esoteric' 'occultic', 'new-age', 'deceptions'   The folowing quote is from  lighthouse trails research  'exposing the dangers of new spirituality' 

"Programs and practices rife with occult methodologies and techniques have been in the works at churches and youth ministries around the country:Taize, Lectio Divina, The Labyrinth (prayer walk), Renovare, guided imagery, Walk to Emmaus, Cursillo, Centering Prayer, Ignatian Awareness Examen, The Jesus Prayer, and The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, to name but a handful." Tom McMahon - The Berean Call

But I think there is so much that is good and helpful in these practices. Hence the whole experimental nature of sacred:space 

"Stand by the roads and look And ask for ancient paths, Where the good way is, And walk it it, and find rest  For your souls."  -   Jeremiah, 6:16

I believe it is possble to be orthodox and generous ( see Brian McLaren:  Generous Orthodoxy)

to be 'deeply rooted and profoundly open' . 

Deep AND wide  

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Eph.3:20- 21)

Mapping Dialogue: essential tools for social change

I have been reading a book recommended by a colleague: Mapping Dialogue:   Essential Tools for Social Change by  Marianne Mille Bojer, Heiko Roehl,   Marianne Knuth, Colleen Magner (Taos 2008)

This is a practical book of tools for consultancy with many ideas and suggestions  

•  “conference designed as a coffee break’   
  
• ‘Networked conversation modelled on natural communication’ 

These are great for finding new ways fo constructing dialogues and getting people involved in real conversations to being about transformation. World cafe is now becoming well established as an alternative conference structure.  

You can read a book review  or better still the whole book is shared online  on scribd.com.   This remarkable site hosts thousands of online books  on a whole range of subjects. And its all FREE   

  

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