What if ??

It is 4am having difficulty sleeping and find myself wondering what it was like before we became the church. I am wondering what it was like for the first ones who choose to believe him and to build their lives around him.

I find myself asking "What if ...? kind of questions. Questions like, what if there were no computers or mobile phones, websites or conference calls. What if there were no fax machines or telephones, no TV or radio, no movies, no multi media presentations. What if there were no sound systems, electric guitars or synthesizers, no leadership seminars.

What if all we had was each other and our stories of our experience of Jesus. No leather bound bibles with cross references and concordances. Just the odd letter from one of Jesus' personal friends sharing some of their thoughts with us about this life we have chosen to live. And if we were lucky may some portion of the Jewish scriptures that we would have read and explained to us once a week. Would it be enough, would we stick around, would we survive as the church of God or would we simply ...?

Schools for Sinners

I came across this quote from Richard Holloway's book and thought it worth sharing. I personally loved his quotation of Augustine's description of the Church as, "school for sinners, not a museum for saints".


"The community of faith is a community of longing, not possession. It is for those who have glimpsed something of the divine, as well as for those who have not, but long to.
It is for those who have achieved some level of discipline and control in their lives and for those who have not, but long to.
St Augustine once described the Church as a school for sinners, not a museum for saints.
It should be as wide as humanity; it should include all who wish to be attached to it; it should welcome their desire to explore the mystery that besets us.'"

From Dancing On The Edge by Richard Holloway, former Bishop of Edinburgh in the Scottish Episcopal Church

Pentecost @ the Edinburgh Festival / Fringe

It is a a regular 'Pentecost' here at the Edinburgh festival. The High Street is a sea of street performers, bemused tourists and folk in every manner of dress distributing glossy fliers advertising shows to satisfy the theatrical taste of one and all. Sixteen thousand acts will be in town over the next three weeks all competing for the attention of an audience speaking in diverse tongues, awash with spare cash and eager to be entertained. Actors laden with fliers hustle in the streets trying to get passers bye to go to see their show. Every man and his dog with any kind of act is competing in the fragile hope that not only will people come to their show but perhaps this year might be their 'break out year' that this year they will become an 'established act' one that can guarantee a committed crowd of enamoured fans.

The site, the sounds and the experience is a living illustration of where the Church now finds herself in this pre-Constantine, Post- Christian Europe. We find ourselves once again like the early Christians competing in the 'market place' for people's attention in the hope that not only will they come to our 'show' but that they will stay and that this year will be 'our break out year'. A year when we will become an established act with a guaranteed crowd. Like Peter and the guys on that fateful day two thousand years ago we hope that God will show up and do something to help us create a 'context for the conversation', a this is that moment that will give us a 'break out year'.

Whereas in the past we may have owned the theatre now we are just one of the many acts competing for people's attention and we had better be good at what we do and deliver on what we are offering because the competition is fierce in 'life's market place'.