Monthly Archives: March 2011

The Traveller’s Rest- A Pain In The Arts.

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I have no doubt that we are entering an era where the artists will become the shapers. While in the UK, the first morning I woke up I saw that artists will awaken the dreams and creativity in others – even when those dreams have been squashed. (Martin Scott)
The land in which bards and minstrels rejoice; (Translation of  Mae Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau)

Maybe the poet is gay
But he’ll be heard anyway
Maybe the poet is drugged
But he won’t stay under the rug

Maybe the voice of the spirit
In which case you’d better hear it

Maybe he’s a woman
Who can touch you where you’re human

Male female slave or free
Peaceful or disorderly
Maybe you and he will not agree
But you need him to show you new ways to see

Don’t let the system fool you
All it wants to do is rule you
Pay attention to the poet
You need him and you know it (Bruce Cockburn “Maybe the Poet”)

 

Art For Art Sake 

When I read the post from Martin concerning the artists I was very excited. I have a resonance with this and a great sense that much is already taking place in the area of the arts. The problem in spotting what is going on is that the painters and photographers are not just painting religious pictures or taking pictures of church buildings, perish the thought. The novelists are not writing about people being born again and the poets are not rhyming heaven with Devon. The bards and song writers are not overtly proselytising through their lyrics and the playwrites are not writing skits for church seeker friendly service. They are creating art just for arts sake. They are not creating sub-cultures but are creating in the culture, shoulder to shoulder with artists of all beliefs and none. They need to be given the freedom of the city. They need to cry freedom in the Nations. For too long we have wanted the artists to submit themselves to our churches thus stifling the gift within them. Not allowing them to be creative because we have wanted them to use their gifts for evangelism or worship. To bless the body or win the world. We have wanted to own them as our own. Make them building dwellers and settlers when their gift makes them a nomadic, sporadic, travelling, spontaneous people. We have not appreciated that in being creative they just carry the DNA of God without having to say a word. Infact I believe that every artist whatever his or her belief carries the DNA of God. Creativity only has it’s roots in one place. I want to repent on behalf of the Body of Christ for trying to tie you down because we have not understood what you were carrying. You are a gift to the margins and we wanted you only in the centre. You just wanted friends to stand with you and all you got was confrontational leaders laying on the guilt trip of lack of commitment and accusing you of wayward lifestyles. It is time to take down the harps from the poplar trees. It is time for creativity to open doors. It is time for the artists to lead us into the margins. It is time to be the shapers. It is time to awaken the dreamer in  us all.

The Art of Parties

In times of recession the stage is ripe for the artists. People are looking for an antidote to the depression. In the 80′s there were the New Romantics who ushered in a new style in many senses of the word. Designers and musicians and singers cross polinated and created a new scene where people found joy despite the desperate situations around them. In times of wars and rumours of war the stage is ripe for the bards and poets, just ask Bob Dylan. It is ripe for the photographers, the image of Kim Phuc from Vietnam will always haunt us. The scene is set. There is a blank canvas. It is time for the artists to step up to the plate. We need the images, the words, the tunes, the design. We need the unpredictable and spontaneous. David the bard was a man after God’s own heart. The Bible is so full of prose and imagery and yet the church is so empty of expression. The language of the Scriptures is so creative and yet our sermons so bland. We need to see the Word in the Book of Kells as images and not just in our translations as black and white words.

How Great Thou Art

I see gatherings of artists like the Inklings all over the world. Meeting to share and create. The Inklings was an informal literary discussion group associated with the University of Oxford, England, for nearly two decades between the early 1930s and late 1949.[1] The Inklings were literary enthusiasts who praised the value of narrative in fiction, and encouraged the writing of fantasy. Although Christian values were notably present in several members’ work, there were also irreligious members of the discussion group. (Taken from Wikipedia). It was to this group that Tolkien and Lewis belonged and first shared the Lord of the Rings and Out of the Silent Planet respectfully. Here are a few quotes that I like and say bring it on in 2011;

 “There were no rules, officers, agendas, or formal elections.”

 Meetings were not all serious—the Inklings amused themselves by having competitions to see who could read the famously bad prose of Amanda McKittrick Ros for the longest without laughing.

The Inklings and friends were also known to gather informally on Tuesdays at midday at a local public house, The Eagle and Child,Later pub meetings were at The Lamb and Flag across the street, and in earlier years the Inklings also met irregularly in yet other pubs, but The Eagle and Child is the best known.

Eagles and Lambs….very interesting.

I finish by agreeing that it is the day of the artists. Come on you painters, drawers, photographers. Come on you bards, poets, lyric writers. Come on you singers and musicians. Come on you designers and architects. Come on you story tellers and playwrites. It is time to fly. It is time to soar on eagles wings. Your wings are no longer clipped to domesticate you. Fly wild, fly free. Be creative and let the imagination run wild. And as you create God will be shared with the world through your images, your words, your lives. Just as David minstered to Saul, you will minister. The blank canvas of the world is yours to claim. We are sorry for being a pain to the arts. Now the baton has been passed on… the story continues.

Spain from the pen of Giles Tremlett

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Giles Tremlett writes for the Guardian. He also wrote an excellent book that helped us navigate our way through Spanish history and in particular the Civil War (Ghosts of Spain).

Yesterday he put a few blogs out about Spain. Here are the ones I have read with a few quotes to follow:
Spain’s lost generation of graduates join wave of migrants in search of jobs

With 20% unemployment at home, he [Luna] thinks he can do better in Britain. During the last 10 years booming Spain was a magnet for immigrants, attracting 5 million foreigners. Now Spaniards are talking of a return to the mass emigration of 1960s, when 2 million left looking for jobs in northern Europe. “I only see jobs for exploited interns who earn €300 (£263) a month. That’s barely enough to cover the costs of getting to work and back every day,” said Luna. “Opportunities are scarce in a country with youth unemployment over 40%.”

Luna is not alone. The number of Spaniards living outside the country has increased by 20% over three years as unemployment among Luna’s “lost generation” of young workers has climbed to 43%.

At-a-glance guide to Spain

There are now 47 million people in Spain, 7 million more than a decade ago. This has nothing to do with big, happy Spanish families and everything to do with big, happy families from Ecuador, Romania and Morocco. About 5 million immigrants came in just eight years.

A potted history reads like this: Invaders from north Africa made Spain part of the Muslim world in the 8th century. Seven centuries of sluggish reconquest ended in 1492. Cunning royal marriages and clumsy navigating (by Columbus) gave Spain a massive empire covering bits of Europe and much of South America in the 16th century. Everything went downhill from there, ending with the loss of its last major colonies in the 1890s, a civil war in the 1930s and four decades of Franco. The turnaround came with the 1978 democratic constitution.

Spanish men are said to be the largest brothel-goers in Europe.

In 2009 Spain boasted the world’s ninth largest economy. Now it is 12th, overtaken by Russia, India and Canada.

New Europe: fresh information uncovered in stolen baby scandal
There is currently a baby trafficking scandal that has been making the news in Spain…

The scandal of the babies stolen, trafficked, sold or given into illegal adoption after being taken from Spanish maternity clinics by a network of doctors, nurses and nuns has continued to grow with fresh revelations in several newspapers.

The most startling came in El Mundo, which revealed the case of Almudena González, who was deemed to have died aged just four days old in a hospital in Badajoz, eastern Spain, in 1990.

Her parents have done tests to match the corpse they were given with their own DNA only to discover that the baby they buried was not their daughter.

Francisca Monge said the baby girl had been born healthy and was sleeping peacefully at her side in Badajoz’s Materno Infantil hospital when a doctor on a night shift came in and whisked her off for tests.

The baby was said to have died the following day and a refrigerated corpse was handed over for burial.

Her parents will on Monday add their case to that of hundreds of other families who have asked the country’s courts to find babies that died under suspicious circumstances. The hospital is investigating.

Cities: Laodicea / giving

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Giving and finishing. Laodicea seems to get some bad publicity – maybe due to the understanding of the term ‘luke-warm’ or maybe because of the (erroneous) Dispensational take on it. Here though is a rich city, and one that can see things brought to a conclusion. Timing is a key – we should not expect these places to be as ‘advanced’ as others but to come more to the front as shifts come.

Chapter 8: Laodicea.

2011: women, artists & streets

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Our decade of reconfiguration (I prefer this term now to what I was calling it: rebalancing)

I have posted before that I had a dream at the beginning of 2010 that this decade will see a major global reconfiguration (a see-saw was in the dream and from the sky came 20 on one side and 10 on the other – indicating the unbalanced nature of the world… then came down 11 with a momentum, the see-saw swung but then eventually swung back… each year came till 20 one side and 20 the other – total different scenario at the end of the decade).

This morning I read an article that captures the current ‘climate’: Why we revolt. Definitely worth a read.

Women at the forefront:

The article documents the action of Asmaa Mahfouz, a yong egyptian woman who had spent itme in prison, who posted:

Four Egyptians have set themselves on fire to protest humiliation and hunger and poverty and degradation they had to live with for 30 years. Four Egyptians have set themselves on fire thinking maybe we can have a revolution like Tunisia, maybe we can have freedom, justice, honor, and human dignity. Today, one of these four has died, and I saw people commenting and saying, ‘May God forgive him. He committed a sin and killed himself for nothing.’ People, have some shame.

She called for the gathering in Tahrir Square on January 25th that became the Egyptian revolution.

Almost 2 years ago the Lord told us to watch for the women throughout the Islamic world, that they held the keys to the downfall of dictators and also the very spirit behind oppressive Islam.

Artists:
I have no doubt that we are entering an era where the artists will become the shapers. While in the UK, the first morning I woke up I saw that artists will awaken the dreams and creativity in others – even when those dreams have been squashed. I spoke this where I went. I then met artists. Then I stayed in a home with an awesome piece of art, by a guy who had had a most challenging background – who is now helping others find an expression in art, and who has picked up some great commissions: with the Hilton Hotel and also John Lewis. [Some notes here about him.]

The yesterday had a phone call from Jennifer Moore… some of the very tough scenarios that has happened over the past 3 weeks in the Leatherhead area. We need grace, we need the manifest presence of the Lord.

So a prayer today is for the women and the artists that will help with the transformation of the streets.

The Traveller’s Rest- In The Mainstream

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A Catalyst for Change.

This week I was posed a few questions that made me take stock of where I am at this moment in time. That is always healthy I think, stops me just idly passing time by without keeping focused. I was asked a couple of questions by my friend Gareth who was part of the Bethel ‘church’ in Tonyrefail, a guy who is also on a journey of reformation and change. Then this same week I was posed a question by my wife Allison. I realise more and more that although many people’s honest appraisil of our current situation is very similar, knowing there must be change, where people are at in this journey of change is so different from person to person. I think this is good and healthy. Like children we all develop at different rates and all end up having unique lives, I believe the same is true for all those living for a new day. We have to be very careful not to dictate our own conclusions onto anyone else, each individual needs to discover their own pathway to finding a new day. We share, we equip, we provoke, we challenge, we tell our story, but we all need to realise that our own story is unique. For example my wife Allison still feels the need to link into a local church situation. At first I was quite miffed but now I understand we all flow the way we need to in our own time and space. We both agree that the day of church meetings is over, but where we are on the journey is different. We need to be free enough with each other to let each other walk our own path without control, manipulation, guilt, superiority of revelation etc. David and Jonathan had the greatest covenant relationship, and yet their personal revalation and perspective of what they were seeing and doing was so different to the other, yet no one forced the issue on the other. They freely released each other into their own conviction. We need more covenant relationships like this. This is being a catalyst for change… And on that subject back to the questions.

Question time.

Gareth asked me; maybe you need to be back in mainstream to be a catalyst for change. At least I think it was a question!! What he was getting at was that I needed to be back in ‘church’ circles to bring change from the inside. There are many who have felt called to this. I, too, was in this position for many years in Tonyrefail. Changing, realigning, reforming etc. Where did it get me? Nowhere but running around in circles, looking after my back that many wanted to stab, a life of loneliness as people got offended and hurt. And like my neighbours here in Penygraig who bought an old house and are trying to redevelop it, the more work they do on the place, the more work needs to be done. Would have been easier to knock it down and start again. The passage about the new wineskins once spoke so clearly to me, no one can pour new wine into new wineskins. What does no one mean? Everyone except me? Jesus was concerned with not just having the new but preserving what was already there. The old will never change in so many circumstances why risk damaging everything? Best to keep the new wine for it’s right place, the new wineskin. Back to the question, coming back to mainstream to be a catalyst for change. Two things struck me. What is mainstream? I believe I am already in the main stream and everything else is just a distracting tribitury. I am already a catalyst for change standing where I am right now. As we can all be.

Then Gareth asked me do I ever think of starting a new work? Just it being called a work makes me feel uncomfortable now. It is nothing about work at all. Grace and grace abundantly. But have I thought about doing gatherings/meetings etc? Yes I have. I often think about maybe doing something. Hiring a hall and getting people together to sing, share, laugh, encourage etc. There are still occasions where I miss being with others in such situations. I could do it and there would be people to come along, but the more I think the more I realise there is no peace about it. Does that mean I will never organise a gathering? No, I feel there is times ahead to share stories and journeys. I see a gathering called The Traveller’s Rest where those on a journey can find a drinking hole. But a sporadic, unpredictable gathering where there is no membership or structure to it all. A bit like the old raves where on the spur it just happens and a few posters and word of mouth invites get people together for unique one offs. But to start a new work? No thanks. What I am doing is the place of the new anyway.  A move of God that cannot be touched by man, controlled, manipulated, just flows each day as the Spirit leads, can never be put in a box or labelled. Why would I want to give that up for another work? I believe there will be gathering times but a new work, I think the tide has changed.

The Tide Is High But I’m Moving On

Allison then asked me on a separate occasions, do you think you will ever go back into church life? I said no. There is no going back. I sense God is doing a new thing. It is not fully realised yet but it is a new thing where we can say there is nothing new under the sun. Jesus and others have walked this way before us. It is a new path but a rediscovered path. Pioneering and yet not the first. The momentum will build and build but will not look the same anywhere. Every river will flow with the contour of it’s own land. That is what will make this so unpredictable. So exciting to some who love the challenge of the new, but frustrating to others because it will not be labelled or be in a position to be copied and pasted. Everyone will need to rely on God and their own initiative and the relationships of reality that they have around them. What will it look like? It will look like God, who is unfathamable. So we may as well just accept that normality is extinguished from Christianity forever.

A couple of vital links

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I try to read / skim around 30-40 blogs most days, and of course it is more skim than read (using a blog reader that automatically delivers them rather than going to the blog sites helps a lot!!!). Here are two I recommend and will highlight in particular recent blogs on both.

Lybia: what do we make of it?

Dyfed Roberts blogging always gets my attention and he wrote recently on Lybia (and has done since that original blog). Try it here.

How about this statistic from that blog:

Since the arms embargo was lifted in 2004 a total of €834 million worth of arms have been sold to Libya by EU countries.

Roger Mitchell is completing his PhD and is a great resource. He is putting together some comments about kenarchic politics (kenotic being to empty oneself). Try this one to start and be provoked: Make children a priority.

Happy reading!!! Well maybe not happy reading – but valuable reading.

Interesting Scripture #10

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Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar… the word of God came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness (Luke 3:1-2).
It is worth reading this Scripture in full to get the impact of it. Luke of course is a historian but I think he writes this for a bigger reason than simply helping us plot the time (chronos) when this all happened. He is interested also in the kind of time (kairos). He is also indicating the nature of a God-movement.

The political and religious scenario did not give space for change. But our God is a God who initiates change. The question is how does he initiate that change: the word of God comes to an individual in the wilderness.

He does not replace Caesar with a ‘born-again’ Caesar. He does not initiate change from the top down. Of course it is good to pray for the right people in office, it is right to make our voice heard, but if that is done without a corresponding movement from the wilderness we are in desperate trouble.

I do have considerable concern about teaching that suggests we need Christians in the places of influence. If that is all we could end with a christianising of everything – often leading to an inoculation against the presence of Jesus; or a colonisation and marginalisation of others (the crusades come to mind).

Pray for those in authority, but change does not come through the ‘right person’ in Number 10 or the White House. The desert and the place of obscurity.

Remind me one more time as to where our faith had its origins… did the ‘wise’ men find him in the palace or the cow-shed?

I think this is also a strong reminder to us as we live through this decade and discover that there is such a shift in the political world around us.

Chester – a visit

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I have visited Chester a number of itmes since 1999. That first visit involved praying into the battle of Chester, variously dated but around 613AD. At the battle around 1200 monks from the large nearby monastery of Bangor were killed, adn the result of the battle was a significant divide between, what we might call, Welsh and English was established.

Being welcomed in is a great experience and makes a huge difference. Andy and Sue Glover were my hosts and my respect for them – and many others – is very high as they have sold them for the redemption of the land. It was great to re-visit this time (the last time being October 2008). A lot has shifted since then with new boundaries. Boundary changes are significant, and thankfully the body of Christ has been more prepared for this than most organisation in the area. Fresh boundaries call for fresh content within those boundaries and always present an opportunity for that to take place. For my first time I was able to visit Ellesmere Port. I sense a key to EP was a revelation that there had been a recent offence in the land of Ellesmere Port. Three people present all witnessed that this was a reference to a fairly recent brutal killing of a gypsy boy. I saw this as an offence that needed to be removed.

Chester is in the process of raising the profile of its history with an increase of festivals rehearsing the Roman roots of the city (although it has an earlier Celtic origin). This is very typical of cities when they are looking for identity. We prayed into the possibility of dialogue with the council about celebrations of the future of the city.

The arts – an emphasis I have carried in this visit to the UK – is something that has to be present to re-awaken hopes and aspirations.

Amongst many other aspects two stand out for me:
the days of mourning are over and that from now on there will be boundary changes for situations there but they will not need to fight for the establishment of boundaries, for they will fall for them in pleasant places.

My final lunch there was with Rob and Aliss Cresswell. They have opened a shop in the town – yes it sells some Christian books, but also much more. Calling it Spirit it has attracted all sorts of seekers, including those who want their chakras aligned!! They have seen demons cast out and people healed right there in the shop. Last night I came to Manchester and am staying with Andy and Kat Knox. We were talking last night that seeing the supernatural presence of the Lord breaking in is not a good idea but a necessity.

Chester – poised for advance.

Arts

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When away from one’s home there are always fresh possibilities that come to mind. When in Birmingham I began to prophesy about arts and about walls that would be painted – to discover that the day prior there had been that very discussion. That is always encouraging!! However, what really began me thinking was that there is a lot of creativity locked up in people who find themselves in marginalised, disenfranchised scenarios.

In those situations the gifts are suppressed. The arts will re-awaken such gifts.

Tomorrow I go to a situation where some wonderful healings are taking place. In that kind of setting – I wonder if another aspect will be the release of the arts. God is good and God is BIG.

If change flows from the margins, part of the issue is the release of confidence and giftings in the margins of society.

10 types… or many more to come?

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Tallskinnykiwi has just revisited a blog about emerging chruches and has updated a former list from 5 to “10 types of emerging church that will no longer upset your grandfather”. [Big error here... Mar 25th 2011: now having read the article one more time I see he posted this 'revisit' at the end of 2009...]

Makes a good read.

The one that interested me was #10 which he suggests will mushroom.

Social enterprises leading to missional communities, often buried deep inside urban centers. A decade ago these were sanctioned as “ministries” and “mission stations” and “projects” but eventually, everyone had to go to some church on Sunday. Now they can emerge as their own church without a lot of fuss. These types of emerging church, which I think will mushroom even more in the next decade, are the least likely to use church language. Not even emerging church language.

Interesting.

The Traveller’s Rest- The Paid Pastor; biggest opponent to the Priesthood of all believers.

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Money makes the church go round (in circles)

History keeps repeating itself. It has to because nobody listens.

God has never wanted a professional clergy! There I have said it, and I say it as one who was a full-time paid pastor for nearly 20 years. Just as God never wanted to have a specially chosen family line to be the priests to serve in the tabernacle and then the temple. God always sees a priesthood of all believers, it is just that many chose not to take the responsibility and call, and want to divest their call on an individual or a few individuals. The people at the time of Moses said, you go into the presence for us, we’ll just stay at home until you tell us what God wants to say. God wanted to walk int he cool of the day with everyone. Everyone wanted to watch someone else do it. The same is so true today. That is the same stinking thinking behind the paid pastor who is called/chosen/gifted to do the God stuff for us so we can just turn up and find out what God is up to. Individual relationship and responsibility is replaced by the professional man paid to do the job.

We pay you!

In some places it is spoken (yes I have been told, but we pay you to do it), in the rest it is just silently implied. We pay you to do a job. I would be trying to get my 2 willing and 60 unwilling volunteers to walk in their calls or gifting, but at the end of the day they were not being paid to do the work of ministry I was. That meant that I like many pastors ended up doing every job under the sun, from leading and preaching to visitation and counselling. Kids work, youth work, prayer meetings and on top of all that the admin and DIY. It did not matter that someone else could do it alot better, and that is why they would get frustrated with you and you with them, I was paid to do it. To look after the whole church. To do all the business. To make sure everyone is fed, watered, healthy etc. No wonder burn out is so high. No wonder disillusionment seeps into many pastors lives. But who cares about him, it is his job. He is paid to do it. After all the rest of the congregation, the laity, have their own jobs and responsibilities. They have their own family life. The pastor is their Moses, He can do the God stuff for them while they live their lives. He can pray and seek God and visit everyone at the same time. He can prepare all the sermons while he paints the ceiling and cleans the toilet. He can counsel me on raising children, marriage, bereavement, while he keeps his own house in order. After all we pay him to do it. And as in my case not paid very well.

Professional clergy must go.

That may seem like a brash statement but if we are ever going to see the release of everyone into their gift and call. The release of the priesthood of all believers into every sphere of life, all taking the responsibility of finding and discovering God at their own threshold and workplace and community. Then something drastic has to happen. The paid pastor has to be laid down. I cannot find one in the Bible anyway. It was about the all living and serving God where they were. Yes there were times when finance was released to the apostles, but this was not to employ them it was to look after them as they travelled. The rest of the time they worked, like Paul mending tents. We treat this as if it is a bad thing, but I believe God is calling many back to tent making in these days. But won’t the sheep be scattered and in danger of being eaten by the wolves? Maybe, but we have to take the risk if we are ever going to see the light permeating the darkness in this nation again. It is time for the body of Christ to grow up and cut some apron strings. You cannot hang onto mummy churches apron strings forever. The world is looking and ripe for a mature faith. A faith that works. A faith that is built in the life of hard knocks and not in the hidden world of church life run by the few. The paid pastor in many situations is only doing his job, what he is paid for. Following years of tradition and expectations. The model passed down for many generations, but with no Biblical roots. It is time to restore and get back to God’s original intention. For the whosoever to know and serve Him. The responsibility and call of all and not the chosen few. The day of the professional paid priest is over. It is time for the day of the Saints. Is this a scary thought for those that are paid? Yes. Will it happen overnight? No. But do we see that things need to change? For that answer it is over to you.