Manly Worship?

It has been argued time and time again that contemporary worship songs are 'too feminine'. Love songs to Jesus are labelled 'Jesus is my Boyfriend' songs and regarded as stumbling blocks for the 'man's man' in the church. There are too many phrases like 'pouring out my heart', 'you're beautiful', 'I love you'; songs are filled with lyrics loaded with girly words such as precious, lovely and 'darling of heaven'.

I have three initial thoughts on the subject.

Firstly, a lot of the 'Jesus is my boyfriend' style songs are in fact written by men. Tim Hughes, Ben Cantelon, Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, and a whole host of other male contemporary song-writers. How does singing these songs written by these men of God make worship 'too feminine'?

Secondly, How is it that men are happy to use 'feminine' language to say that a curry was 'beautiful' or that their team's goal was a 'lovely' strike, or that their car drives 'like a dream' but as soon as they're in church trying to engage in worshipping God - who is far more beautiful and lovely than any dish or sporting achievement or vehicle - feminine language is a stumbling block?

Finally, I do agree that variety of language, themes and styles can only be a good thing in the Church's worship repertoire. The psalms are full of a blend of masculine and feminine poetry. We do need to widen our scope for describing our emotions and thoughts and theology and expressing our worship. But refusing to worship using songs because they're 'too girly' is not the answer.

Blokes of the church, Man Up!

The Big Story: Part 1

The Bible. It’s true the 'good book' is actually a collection of 66 books and that those sixty-six books are divided into two testaments, the old made up of 39 books and the new with the remaining 27.
It’s true that some of those books are historical books, same are poetry books some are visionary books some are letters and prayers and songs.
It’s true that many different authors from different eras in history contributed to the books that have been canonised (that is they’ve been especially and prayerfully selected and compiled and set apart as being holy)...
But while all this is true, there is One Big Story that threads its way through each and every page. Whether it’s blatantly obvious and explicit or shrouded in mystery and hidden away in some kind of cryptic prophesy... the Big Story is there. All the books are interconnected and entwined and meshed together. All part of The Big Story.

** This picture illustrates all the cross references between every chapter of every book of the Bible**

And so it begins, Genesis chapter 1, beginning at verse one...

“In the beginning... God”

The Big Story began long before the first words of Bible were even scrawled on the first piece of parchment. And like all good stories, we’re introduced to the leading Character - God.

Throughout this story we discover all about his character and personality as he gradually reveals more and more about himself. This story is all about him, and he was there at the beginning, in fact, he was there before it began. He has always been there. He is truly eternal, which doesn’t just mean that he will never die but it means he has always been. He is God.

When he calls himself ‘I AM’ in the Second Book, called Exodus, he isn’t lying. He just IS. He always has been, he is right now and he always will be. And he is Perfect and Unique, and he’s unique in his perfection. He is unlike anything or anyone else ever. The One and the Only. Supreme and Sovereign... He is God.
Thankfully for us he knows that he is God – because if he didn’t know he was God it would prove that he wasn’t God but he does know that he is God and he loves the fact he’s God and so all is right with Everything.

So, we have our lead character. We are introduced to God. A God who is and always has been one and three - a mysterious trilogy of deity within one perfect and unique God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in an eternally perfect and loving relationship – “God in three persons, Blessed Trinity”. The Hero of our Story, God, is different. He is perfect community and yet he is one. He is love, and also lover and beloved. He is God. He is Holy, set apart, distinct. And before time began, before anything was ever created, before even the slightest hint of a big bang, God was – Father, Son and Spirit – in perfect loving community within Himself. Worthy of all glory, all honour, all praise…

Hello?! he hasn’t done anything yet! Often in our songs and in our prayers we praise God for what he’s done, which is a good thing, but He hasn’t done anything at this point and yet that doesn’t have any effect whatsoever on how worthy he is, on how amazing he is, on how holy he is, on how great he is. He is God which means that by his very nature, the very essence of who is he, the very core of his being, by the innate, natural, inherent basis of who he is… he is entirely and exclusively worthy to be worshipped! We worship him primarily and wholly for Who He Is because He. Is. God!

It’s a good start to a story isn’t it?

Don't React. Respond.

In our relationships, whether at home, work, out and about wherever we may be and whatever we may be doing we can either react or respond. At first glance the two are not all that different but there is one distinct difference between the two that makes one for better for us to use than the other. The main difference between the two is control.

Reactions are automatic. Isaac Newton said "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." You can’t help it. It just happens. It's like watching someone belly flop from a high diving board – the moment you hear that slap of flesh on water you can’t help but ‘oooooohhh’ That’s a reaction.

Responses are controlled. They involve time to reflect, consider one’s actions and make your move. Responses are far more helpful in relationships than reactions. But they take a lot more work to master.

If there was one person who lived a lifestyle of reactions and learned this lesson the hard way it was a guy called Peter. Peter was one of Jesus’ closest friends. He was one of his apprentices, his followers. Peter had a habit of reacting rather than responding to various situations... and we’re going to look at a couple examples of his rashness and see how we can learn from his mistakes.

Everything changes

Change is everywhere.

As mentioned in my previous blog, a lot has changed for me personally lately; new job, new flat, new wife! But the changes go further than that. There is change as the leaves on the trees turn from green to gold. Change in the route of the bus as it goes on diversion due to roadworks totally avoiding my intended destination and leaving me with a walk to work in the rain, which was the very reason I took the bus in the first place.

From the roof of our block of flats there is a fantastic view of the London Skyline. From Canary Wharf to the east, across to Bank, St Paul's, London Bridge and over to the west towards the London Eye and into the distance. Classic buildings and cathedrals are merged with flats and warehouses and punctuated by high rise office blocks, towers and skyscrapers.

Dotted in amongst the established landmarks are new developments. Cranes feature prominently in the London cityscape. Virtually every view of London now has a crane in it somewhere.

The city is changing, developing, upgrading, expanding, enhancing, adapting, evolving, growing...

The city is only a reflection of the people who live within it. We are infatuated with change, upgrading to get the latest apps and gadgets, relaunching and recreating our wardrobes and image. We want bigger and better and faster and we mould the city accordingly.

The main question is...

Are we changing for the better?

Will a multi-billion dollar skyscraper provide inspiration for a more sensible pace of life?
Will the latest this-or-that create a more tangible sense of community and belonging or just add to the ever-increasing loneliness epidemic that floods our cities?

At Church.co.uk and Oasis, there are exciting plans to developing the site. It's our 2020 vision. By which time London will have anything up to 14 new high-rise buildings either completed or under construction. But the development of the Oasis Centre and the Church.co.uk premises is not the goal. Our vision is to transform the community.

We want to provide for those who need help.
We want to be a place where people feel welcome and safe and accepted.
We want to work with people to develop the area into a place where families want to live rather than feeling trapped by circumstances.

A building can never in itself achieve that. But a Church with a passion for Jesus and what he has asked us to do can!

Change is here to stay.

All change please. All change.

Wow. The past three months have been jam-packed and lived at a furious pace.

Not a lot has remained the same. I no longer live in the little box room at college on the top of the Hill, I'm in our perfect new flat on the Monopoly board. It was pretty empty for a while; just an air-bed and a couple of bookshelves for company. We were then joined by a table and chairs, a TV stand (but no TV, that's a rant I shall save for another time!), a proper bed and lots, and lots of other little bits.

I spent the summer growing into my new job as Head of Music and Arts at Church.co.uk, spending a lot of time working with Southside Radio and building relationships with the Old Vic Tunnels. The Tunnels team gave us plenty of opportunites to let our budding radio reporters review shows, interview artists, directors, producers, and generally experience the fantastic atmosphere in the Tunnels. If you get a chance to go, you will not be disappointed.

And last, but certainly not least, on 18 September I got married to my beautiful Kathryn. It was a perfect day surrounded by friends and family and with God at the centre where He should be. We then spent the rest of the weekend in Oxford, a week in Venice and a week settling into our home together.

Now we're pretty much back down to earth and ready to begin 'real-life' together.
That hopefully explains the rather large period of silence since the last blog and this one. Regular service will resume shortly. Thank you for your patience.

A Lesson from Tiepolo

I had the opportunity to visit Dulwich Picture Gallery recently. It’s a fantastic place with a great collection of artwork and a real sense of history. Within the collection was a particular painting that caught my eye.

A painting by Giambattista Tiepolo called ‘Joseph receiving Pharaoh's Ring’. It was painted around 1733-35 and is a beautiful, fine piece of work and well worthy of a place in the gallery. But it wasn’t so much the artist’s skill that caught my attention, or the style or the colours he used.

It was something far subtler.

Something I read in the little description hanging next to the piece.

It informed me that one of the characters in the background, the more distant of the two trumpeters, is actually reckoned to be a self-portrait. Tiepolo painted himself in the story. And it was this idea that sparked my thoughts. This was a fantastic concept

– putting yourself in the story.

It’s a technique that could revolutionise reading the Bible. Stories could come to life by imagining yourself in the story. Where would you be? Would you be front row or somewhere in the background? What are the sights, the sounds, the smells?

Imagine the scenes around Jesus while he toured the countryside teaching, performing miracles, meeting people, having a laugh with everyone around him. Where would you be? Trying to sneak closer to hear him more clearly? Hoping to catch his eye and ask for a miracle? Trying to avoid him because he was teaching things a bit too risky and too close for comfort?

What about our worship songs? How different would they be if we wrote songs with ourselves in the stories? Would they be simple little ditties about how much we love God, or would they be drenched in real emotion rooted in a more intense understand of the story of God? What themes would emerge from inside the narrative rather than a safer location on the sidelines?

Paint yourself in the story. Let me know what you see.

Adventurous (Different Eyes: The art of living beautifully)

The pop-culture way of doing Christian ethics is to constantly ask ‘What Would Jesus Do?’. And whilst this is quite a handy little catchphrase and reminder, and wristband, and pencil, and t-shirt, and CD holder, and egg cup... it’s harder than it seems because we don’t have a guidebook of what Jesus would do, we’ve only got a few random accounts of thing Jesus DID do.

Three and a half years worth of touring and teaching condensed into 4 gospel with an average of about 20 chapters – that’s not a lot for an Ethical resource or advice guide. But Jesus never came to give as a guidebook. He didn’t come to give us a moral A-to-Z he came to show us How – to – See.

Jesus taught in a way that demonstrated character. And he gave dozens of stories and sketches of how to do it. Take the Good Samaritan for example: That is not a story to store away in your memory just in case the next time you’re travelling on the motorway you find a guy who’s been beaten up and left for dead. It’s giving a glimpse of how to imitate God. It’s not necessarily about rules and regulations and religion.

Pope John Paul said this: It’s not that the gospel has changed; it is just that our understanding of it is slowly growing. We’re all still learning about Jesus. We’re still learning about loving God with our heart and soul and mind and strength. We’re still learning who our neighbours are, let alone about loving them. And our whole lives are set towards getting to know Jesus. We have to pursue Jesus. To keep studying him. To keep figuring him out. He’s the most complex man in History – to think we’ve got him all sussed out is both arrogant and, well, just plain stupid!

I’m getting married in September and I was given this advice a while ago: Don't marry so you can stop pursuing women. Marry so you can perfect the pursuit one woman for a lifetime. We’re called as a church to perfect the pursuit of Jesus for a lifetime.

In order to know what Jesus would do, we have to know Jesus, and in order to know Jesus we have to follow Jesus. Jesus said ‘follow me’, not ‘follow a set of concepts or a code of conduct or an institution’. It’s about being his follower, his apprentice, learning from him, learning what he’s like and copying him.

The reassuring thing about following Jesus is that he knows where he’s going. There is an end to the story. We all like a happy ending. And this story has got a cracker. From the first moments of Jesus’ ministry on earth he had a goal in mind. This was more than a pipe-dream or a good idea. Jesus was working to bring about the Kingdom of God; To challenge the wayward earthly interpretations of religion and politics and social justice; He wanted to bring people’s attention to a way of living beautifully. And as well as having a goal in mind, he had a strategy. Reaching out to the poor and the sick and those on the margins. Speaking up for people who couldn’t speak. Loving the unloved. Giving people a new, fresh start. He wasn’t just waiting for the new heaven and new earth to arrive, he was ushering it in. It was starting to arrive there and then. And as a church we can join in: The Church’s cry is: if the future looks like this, let’s work to bring it here, now! We don’t have to wait to be involved in the Kingdom of God.

I used to work with Spring Harvest Holidays. Part of my job was heading up the 11-13’s team which took a lot of energy and effort. I should probably add too that my sleep patterns are fairly erratic at the best of times. I often go through spells of insomnia and one of those spells was at SHH. Sleep deprivation and youth work don’t mix. It was the end of one of the morning sessions, we finished at midday and had about two minutes left before we could let the kids go and to get their attention I said “We’ll see you tomorrow morning, and you know what tomorrow is...?!”

Thursday? Water fight day? Talent show day? Could have been any of those but me and my sleep deprived head said... IT’S CHRISTMAS! (It was August! My team glared at me. The kids got excited and ran out) The following day we did Christmas: Toilet paper snowmen, Christmas decorations, carols, party food. The Works.

Most of the kids that week were staying on the following week so we thought we’d carry the theme over... and what happens the week after Christmas?

NEW YEAR – in the middle of a baking hot day in August we had a New Years Eve party. We had party poppers and food and dancing. We sang Auld Lang Syne and we counted down to Mid-night at 12 noon. it was brilliant!

Unbeknown to me and my team, the pastoral care couple were sitting just outside our venue with a woman in floods of tears. Her marriage was breaking down, she’d been quite ill, because of all this her kids were struggling at school and her prayer was ‘God, I wish this year could just start again’. And at that moment, I sent 150 11-13year olds running past her screaming at the top of their lungs HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

The New is here Now! We can choose to live beautifully now. We can follow Jesus now. We can know Jesus now. One day the kingdom of God will be established in full but we can be adventurous and be part of it NOW!