California dreaming – a few pics

Just back from California, after a few meetings in LA and then speaking in a church in San Francisco. Really encouraging time – and great to (re)connect with friends new and old in both cities. Here are a few pics (click on each for the whole Flickr set):

San Francisco

Los Angeles

How God’s Gospel Went Global – An overview of Acts

Every summer, we have an All Souls week away called Cornerstone. Each year we seek to get our heads round one particular book, and this year’s focus was the Book of Acts.

This is how I broke it up (and gave it cringingly contrived alliterative headings):

1. Acts 1: Mission Momentum
2. Acts 2-6: Bound Believers
3. Acts 7: Heinous Hostility
4. Acts 8-15: Aliens Accepted
5. Acts 16-20: Gospel Guardians
6. Acts 28: The Story Doesn’t End Here… (an all age talk for the final morning, not recorded)

There was also an optional evening seminar on Acts & The Holy Spirit. The aim of Cornerstone is both to be a chance to go more in-depth than is ever possible back at All Souls, as well as to have a holiday. So we have an intense start to the day – each session is 50-60 minutes long, followed by 30 minutes of small group discussions – then the rest of the day is for fun and jollity.

These are now all available as an iTunes podcast (or if you prefer, you can get them direct from the host, Jellycast).

For those who are have been asking, the most helpful book in preparation was Chris Green’s brilliant guide to teaching Acts, The Word of His Grace. It’s one of those books to sell your shirt for (though Amazon currently says its temp. out of stoke – I do hope that’s not a bad sign). What I particularly valued in Chris’s stuff was his big picture approach (invaluable for what we were trying to do this summer). He’s plugged away at Luke’s overall structure and purpose and seen how that works out along the way. Because my brain is especially prone to working that way, I particularly found his tables helpful – some of which i nicked, adapted or developed for the handouts.

These are available here:

• Talks outlines
• Background information

London’s Biggest Survey EVER??! If you could ask one question…

In the run up to the series of Passion For Life events next Feb/March, we’re doing this survey at All Souls for non-churchy friends. It takes the question that Rico Tice has used for years as the launchpad for the first evening of the Christianity Explored – and we’re using it to devise the 3 sermons that the boss, Hugh Palmer will preach on the surrounding sundays:

• 28th February 09
• 7th March 09
• 14th March 09

I thought I’d join in the fun and do a Q survey of my own – have cheated slightly by second-guessing some of the answers, but there’s still a space for you to add in your own if you don’t like the suggestions…

There’s a limit to the number of votes this can receive – but click on the survey image (above) to get to the real thing…

Q marks the spot – Treasure Map 14 (November 2009)

Sacred Treasure

• Redeemer Church has seen the light – and allowed part of their sermon archive to be available for free download.
• Some interesting maps of religious distribution in USA from the Pluralism Project
• Jonathan Miller gets the BBC Online 5 minute treatment – and is fascinating as ever (though i would of course take issue with his atheism). He’s a bit crotchety and clearly doesn’t have much time for the notion of a 5 minute interview (e.g. his point that nothing of worth can be discussed in a short time – 3 cheers for that). Particularly struck by his observation that ‘the considerable is often to be found in the negligible’… Do not despise the day of small things and all that…

Topical Treasure

• Travelling to the USA (as I am this month)? This is scary – what the Dept of Homeland Security knows about you when you check in… Big Brother eat your heart out…
• A suggestive chart showing the Generation Gaps in the USA (but with knock-on effects for us Brits) between the Greatest Generation, The Baby Boomers, Gen X and Millennials.
• Here’s an interesting map: can you work out what it represents? Click it to find out. (HT Simple Pastor)

Quirky Treasure

• Ever been to Argleton? No? Well nor has anyone else, despite the fact that it was marked on Google maps.
• Bet you didn’t know this: today (1st November) in 1512, the Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel was opened to the public for the first time. Or that 1st November was the birthday of painter L.S. Lowry (1887) or the day that actor Phil Silvers died in 1985.
• The M1 is 50 years old this year – BBC has some fun archive photos
• 2009 Wildlife photos of the year – stunning as ever. the winner is amazing. But i particularly love this one. Click on it for a description:

• This is extraordinary: the façade of Waterloo Station transformed like you’ve never seen before

To have been a fly on the wall: Graham, Stott & Lewis in 1955

Have been thoroughly enjoying Roger Steer’s new bio of John Stott – very readable and engaging so far. There are lots of highlights, which i’ll possibly touch on when i review in time. But one moment just jumped out at me and sparked my imagination.

Stott had been rector of All Souls since 1950 (which he took on at just 29). Within just a few years he was leading missions to various universities. But he was also instrumental in arranging for and leading the various big mission events that Billy Graham undertook in the UK. In 1955, Graham was invited to lead a mission at Cambridge by the CICCU, just 3 years after Stott himself had done it.

Billy found the prospect of conducting a full-scale university mission at Cambridge increasingly daunting. ‘I am deeply concerned and in much thought about the mission,’ he told John. ‘I have never felt more inadequate and totally underprepared. As I think over the possibility for messages, I realise how shallow and weak my presentations are. I shall be relying heavily on you and Maurice [Wood].’

When Billy arrived in Cambrdige, John arranged for him to talk privately with C.S. Lewis, then a Fellow of Magdalene College. The three of them met in Lewis’s rooms at Magdalene and spent an hour or so together.

‘I was afraid I would be intimidated by Lewis,’ Billy later admitted, ‘but I was relieved to find that he immediately put me at ease. I found him to be not only intelligent and witty but also gentle and gracious. He seemed genuinely interested in our meetings.’

‘You know,’ Lewis said to Billy as they parted, ‘you have many critics, but I have never met one of your critics who knows you personally.’

INSIDE STORY – The Life of John Stott, Roger Steer (IVP, 2009), pp103-104

What a fascinating moment in 20th Century Christian history. Arguably 3 of the most influential Protestant voices of the century meeting together in one room. Oh to have been a fly on the wall for those hours.

Michael Card at ASLP: Suffering on the journey

It was a joy to have Michael Card at All Souls on Monday evening. I have to say that I don’t listen to a lot of (so-called) Christian music (and, incidentally, contrary to popular belief, I actually have listening tastes far beyond U2). But Card’s stuff is one of the very few exceptions to my rule. He has a great gift for lyrical melody; but he has an even greater gift for theological insight. Together that makes a powerful combination. I have always loved his album trilogy The Ancient Faith (which focuses on each of the 3 main OT genres: Torah, Wisdom & Prophecy). It was fun to hear some of them live. And it was evident from each spiel between songs that he has been thoroughly immersed in the Bible and so the insights just kept pouring out.

3 in particular struck me from the concert – not revelatory or new, just vital and important reminders:

• God’s greatest desire is actually our greatest need: our being with him! This is a major thread through OT & NT – as epitomised by the very name given to Christ: Immanuel (God with us)
• There will always be cost of following the one who went to the Cross for us – in the words of one of his 1993 songs, we must all leave things we must leave behind
• Then most affecting was his insight that our sufferings are an integral part of the Christian journey; what’s more they can even be redemptive; they are certainly unavoidable if we follow a crucified Master. Two songs particularly stood out. His meditation on the Book of Hosea (Song of Gomer) poignantly reminds one afresh of the amazing grace of forgiveness; and this one, inspired in part by Psalm 51. It has a slow country feel – not exactly my style of choice, by any stretch – but the integrity and thematic power are unmistakable:

COME LIFT UP YOUR SORROWS
If you are wounded, if you are alone,
If you are angry, if your heart is cold as stone,
If you have fallen and if you are weak,
Come find the worth of God that only the suffering seek.

Come lift up your sorrows And offer your pain;
Come make a sacrifice Of all your shame;
There in your wilderness, He’s waiting for you
To worship Him with your wounds, For He’s wounded too.

He has not stuttered, and He has not lied
When He said, “Come unto me, you’re not disqualified”
When your heavy laden, you may want to depart,
But those who know sorrow are closest to His heart.

In this most Holy Place He’s made a sacred space
For those who will enter in and trust to cry out to Him;
You’ll find no curtain there, no reason left for fear;
There’s perfect freedom here to weep every unwept tear.

I had the privilege of being able to interview him at the start of the concert  - which was fun. As we were briefly chatting that through beforehand, he mentioned how significant one of John Stott’s books had been for him. Brought up in the Bible belt of the Deep South, he had been influenced by its pervasive anti-intellectualism and suspicion of academia. It was Stott’s Your Mind Matters which turned him round and inspired him to go to university and study.

Provocative Child Soldiers Ad

HT: Ads of the World

This time, I’m with Dawkins

One of the RSS feeds I follow is from a provocative little site called irReligion.org – and they never fail to come up with the most irritating and wretched examples of religious people doing really stupid things. Occasionally the site unfairly lays into religious people doing pretty sensible and reasonable things – but that doesn’t make much of a story for them, as one can probably imagine. Anyway, the site is reporting from the sharp end of the (mainly) American culture wars.

I wasn’t expecting great things from this little encounter – after all, Bill O’Reilly does have a certain reputation… But look at this and take notes… on how NOT to do it.

On this one, I was with Dawkins all the way… I mean honestly – it has it all: name-calling, preventing rational discussion, interruption, absurd and incoherent arguments… I’m impressed at how Dawkins managed (mostly) to keep his cool.

Far better, if you’re interested is the DVD of The God Delusion Debate between John Lennox and Richard Dawkins, both Oxford professors. Intelligent, respectful and challenging (despite the frustrations of the format). You can get it through the Ravi Zacharias Trust store for only £9.

Stubborn Belief… in the great pumpkin…

HT to my friend Nancy Heeb for this gem

Some favourite African Musicians

Another list. Just felt the urge I suppose. In no particular order, here are some African musicians whose stuff I can’t get enough of (in no particular order). Not exhaustive, not exclusive, not definitive. Just for a laugh.

• Miriam Makeba (1932-2008) – South African – Mama Africa, lived much of her working life in enforced exile from apartheid era SA. Was, for many, one of the voices of protest outside. Her voice has soul, soul, sweet soul. Somehow evokes a whole generation and era. Nuff said.
• Ayub Ogada (?- )- Kenyan – was given his epic En Mana Kuoyo some time before we moved to Uganda by bro-in-law Jez – but it is now firmly embedded in my mind as the soundtrack of Kampala evenings. Mellow and yet completely compelling, this is trad Luo music given a western mix. Just wonderful. You’ll recognise some of it if you’ve seen the film The Constant Gardener.
• Vusi Mahlasela (1965- ) – South African – has a unique and extraordinary voice and is wonderful guitarist in South African folk style. His voice just has it all – pierces the heart and captures the agony, fury, life, hope, joy and reality of Africa. Just listen to Song for Thandi, or the raw Africa is Dying; or more positive, Everytime. Also, check out his cover (with Josh Groban) of Weeping, and of U2’s Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own.
• Johnny Clegg (1953- ) – South African & Zimbabwean (originally English, born in Rochdale bizarrely enough, but moved to Africa as a child) – he is known as the White Zulu, and formed the first racially mixed South African band in the late 70s. Often sings in Zulu, English and even French. Some great stuff – esp the popular Asimbonanga, and one of my favourites The Crossing.
• Youssou N’Dour (1959- ) – Senegalese – draws on all kinds of different musical heritages, but clearly rooted in trad Senegal folk music (called mbalax). Hugely popular globally, and justly so… He played key abolitionist Olaudah Equiano in the 2006 film Amazing Grace. Sometimes, his voice sometimes evokes Imam’s call to prayer, piercing and resounding above the band. Many will know his duet with Neneh Cherry, 7 Seconds – but check out Chimes of Freedom or the joy of Set and you’re transported to an African minibus taxi.
• Abdullah Ibrahim (1935- ) – South African – a jazz pianist, originally called Adolph Johannes Brand. Does big band stuff, and close-up stuff, all in all, a great and unique sound. As a random pick, I just love his District Six, evoking apartheid’s infamous clearing of Cape Town’s most vibrant community (see previous post) or the exuberance of African Marketplace.

Honourable Mentions: Soweto String Quartet (aka SSQ – exactly what it says on the tin, a string quartet formed by 3 brothers and a mate from Soweto – doing classical-pop-african crossover stuff) and Oumou Sangare (from Mali).

I’ve had the joy of seeing 4 out of these 8 acts live – true joy. But all of these folks have stuff on SPOTIFY (which you must use if you don’t already) – so check them out.