"You Got it!"

Last week I was speaking to someone in Levenshulme who is part of our community groups. She wouldn't say she was a person of faith but our conversation showed that faith is so much wider than the limited boundaries we Christians often place upon it.

I spoke of our desire to be an inclusive and non-judgemental church. The response came: "Well yes that's kinda the Jesus model". And I thought, "You got it!" - Shame so many of us self labelling "Christians" seem to miss that one!

May we learn more and more what it means to be inclusive church valuing all as people lovingly made in the image of God's self.

Stakes are high

BBC news says today: "The UK may have to cut emissions of greenhouse gases by 90% by 2050 so the aviation sector can continue to grow". Am I missing something, surely the idea is that the aviation sector shouldn't grow? The report continues, "The failure of aviation to play its full part could mean that the rest of the economy has to reduce its emissions by 90% instead of 80%". A higher target for household and industry carbon reduction can only be good, but the aviation industry can not be allowed to fail on their target - The stakes are too high and we know that air travel contributes highly to the issue of global warming. As someone blogging who likes flying and admittably does fly, I wonder whether the time has come to re-think our attitude to flying, particularly on short distance cheap flights? If the demand isn't there then maybe the airlines will need to rethink. Off now to turn a few lights and items on standby off!!!!!!

"trendy-arty-liberal"

"A new style of liberal Christianity is slowly emerging. Because it is not a coherent movement with a bullet-point agenda it gets ignored, but it could almost be seen as a new wing of the church. It is most simply summed up in a pejorative way: trendy-arty-liberal. To put it more positively, this new style of Christianity is defined by a confidence that contemporary culture is a resource rather than a threat". Theo Hobson, reporting in the Guardian newspaper, reflecting on Greenbelt Festival.

Some call it Post-Evangelical, some call it progressive theology, some don't like to box it. The Guardian refer to it as trendy-arty-liberal. A growing number of Christians it seems to me are uncomfortable with both the Evangelical and the Liberal classic theological viewpoints and seek a third way (or may be several ways). Sadly many still find little support or understanding from churches in their neighbourhood and rely on Greenbelt as an annual fix. I wonder what a network of Greenbelt value churches might look like and how they might be significant to so many disillusioned by the still growing judgemental beliefs held in the name of Christianity, or is that me just being judgemental too?