Winter break

Hi everyone. As discussed at the last meeting, SofaChurch is going to have a rest from Thursday evening meetings until February 18th. I'll send an email round with some more details, please get in touch if you have any questions. Merry Christmas, see you all soon.

Bridge to Terabithia

26th November

"Imagination is a wonderful thing. It leads us to places and events far beyond our experience. It allows us to dream and to hope. Movies and books often tie into our imaginations to help us on our way to these strange and wonderful places. Imagination can seem like an escape from reality, but often imagination provides the hope that allows us to move to a new way of living."

Read a full review here.

Finding God outside Church :: in the poor

This evening we'll continue our series on ways of encountering God outside church by looking at the idea of the 'sacrament of the poor'; we'll listen to a recording of an amazing talk by Tony Campolo that really moved me when I first heard it, and then bat around some ideas.

Fashion update!

So sorry to have to cancel the meeting last week. We'll re-try this on the 12th November. This evening we'll be discussing how to find God in relationships.

---

Blame Geoff. Week before last we were discussing how to find God in the Arts, and we listed art forms that we haven't yet touched upon in SofaChurch, so we could try one in the bonus fifth Thursday (29th October).

So, we are going to try fashion design.


Please bring:

An item of clothing that you can 'improve'
Sewing things
Scraps of material
Scissors
Mannequins (optional)
Anything else you can think might be useful

The Mission - 22nd October

This month's film is The Mission, an oscar winning story about the experience of a Jesuit missionary in 18th Century South America.

Finding God outside Church :: in nature

And we might even have a game of conkers!

Lemon Tree - 24th September

A few years ago at school we had a talk from an Ofsted inspector to help us prepare for a forthcoming inspection. He told a story where he was chatting to a pupil at a school he was inspecting. He told the pupil that he was impressed by the beautiful flowers along the main drive leading to the school. The pupil replied "Oh, you mean the Ofsted flowers!"

The other day I was looking at the God TV website and I noticed they have a current campaign to raise money to plant a million trees in Israel to "prepare the Holy Land for the return of the King". They are asking people to donate £15 to buy a tree, and they currently have over five hundred thousand trees pledged.

Now, I don't want to be judgmental, but from what I know about Jesus there would be many other things he would prefer us to spend fifteen million pounds on in preparation for his return. How about doing something to help people who are starving, like he told us to? I don't think he would be very pleased that his followers were pissing around planting Ofsted flowers when they should be trying to advance the kingdom that he will bring in completely when he returns. Do they think it will be a nice surprise for Jesus, that they have managed to keep this campaign a secret from him? The instigators of this camapaign say that "We believe this incredible prophetic action will be a blessing to the Jewish people and the land of Israel. Through this simple act of obedience God will reward us beyond all we could ask or think, for he who blesses Israel shall be blessed. (Numbers 24:9)". Leaving aside the question of whether we shouldn't be trying to bless the Palestinian people a bit to redress some of the vast injustices they have suffered, this quote reveals that the true incentive for this is simply to get a good return on your money - you invest £15 and you'll be guaranteed much more in return thanks to a spurious and selective interpretation of a verse in the book of Numbers. I don't know how much of your £15 "God TV" takes, but I'm guessing that it is not nothing. The whole thing makes me mad.

Anyway, rant over, this leads me to introduce September's film, The Lemon Tree, a story about the troubles in the West Bank and the security wall. It is supposed to be a great film, with much to discuss afterwards.

A Churchless Faith - 10th September

I'd like us to think through some of the points raised in Alan Jamieson's book A Churchless Faith, which analyses why so many people choose to leave evangelical/charismatic churches and to consider if we can develop our 'outreach' to such people.

Challenge 4 :: Grow

Grow something that we can either eat or decorate the table with at the Christmas celebration meal.

Challenge 3 :: Bible

Read, study and reflect on Isaiah chapters 1 and 58

Challenge 2 :: Talk

Talk to someone who doesn't ever go to church about their spirituality; where do they find depth and meaning in life?

Challenge 1 :: Journal

Keep a journal of times in your days when you do find God. This could possibly take the form of a gratitude journal, where you make a habit of each day writing down three things that you are grateful for that happened that day. As well as your own personal journal please feel free to leave comments here so that others can share your experiences.

Finding God outside Church

A group of us discussed the forthcoming theme last Thursday and came up with some areas to look at and some challenges. All of this is designed to help up to recognise 'thin places' - times where the barrier between this life and the spiritual realm becomes thin and permeable. Here are the areas we'll investigate in the coming weeks:

17 September :: Finding God outside Church - in the mundane
1 October :: Finding God outside Church - in nature
15 October :: Finding God outside Church - in the arts
29 October :: Art project
5 November :: Finding God outside Church - in relationships
19 November :: Finding God outside Church - in the poor
3 December :: Finding God outside Church - in rites of passage
17 December :: Celebration party

We also came up with four challenges/homework tasks/assignments. These are optional, of course, but highly recommended! (I think we'll scrap the idea of collating the work into a book, too few people in the group seem up to that.)

Tim - sorry, in updating this I have deleted your comment about Dave Tomlinson's book Running in to God. We'll refer to that throughout, no doubt.

Greenbelt review

(With apologies to those who didn't come and are sick of all the talking about it)

I thought I'd make a space on the blog for people to share some of their highlights from GB; what they enjoyed, learned, times of encountering God.

I came across two very interesting articles in the Guardian today. I think that both should be generally of interest to sofachurchers even if you didn't get to the festival.

A very English revolution - In Greenbelt we see a new style of Christianity, defined by the idea that the modern world is a resource rather than a threat.

An atheist goes to Greenbelt - What happened when we sent a staunch atheist to a Christian arts festival to talk with evangelicals? Can Jessica stay out of the arms of Jesus?

Also making the news was the revealing of the results of a survey to find the 10 worst Bible verses:
The Bible's bad bits: silent women, mass murder and a weary concubine.

The Lion King...

...will be this month's film. Thursday 27th August. Come and relive a classic.

The sculptures

After surviving two sessions of plier induced blood blisters, flying screws and hot glue burns, this is what we created!

The brief was to make a sculpture to represent the addictive nature of communications technology; how it can a real draw for us and very hard to let go of. So we made kind-of technology demons...

The photos are on the sofachurch flickr page.

Mulling over a cuppa!!

On Thursday (13th) a group of us met at Tesco's Costa for a cuppa and to review cafechurch over the past 6 months. There was a general concensus that this exciting new project has been well-received, offering a refreshing alternative to more 'traditional' forms of church, enabling folk to chat informally about a wide range of contemporary issues and to build friendships. Although we discussed the possibilities of moving to an alternative 'venue', we all agreed that continuing in a neutral, community environment would make it more accessible.

Anyway, in our short time together a variety of interesting issues were raised, that we feel warrant further discussion. And what better place to do this than here on the blog! So here goes:

• Do you think cafechurch should be targeting a specific sector of the population? If so, how will this influence the topics covered, time/format of each event etc?
• How can we increase the profile of cafechurch within the community?
• What role does 'evangelism' have within contemporary culture?
• How should we best deal with the financial implications of running a cafechurch project: the fees, publicity and administration costs, and 'who' should actually pay for the refreshments at each event etc?
• In what ways can we raise the profile of prayer?

Your contributions to this discussion will be greatly appreciated, particularly as we prepare for more cafechurch events over the coming months. Thank you!

Sculpture phase II

This Thursday (20th) we'll be making something out of the bits of old unwanted communications technology that we dismantled previously.

One of our core values of SofaChurch is creativity, and this is a great opportunity to get together as a group and make something out of nothing, and in doing so worship the God who makes good things out of bad.

You don't have to have come to the previous meeting to come this week, they are stand alone events. If you can bring a glue gun that would be very handy.

cafechurch, August 13th

There will be no cafechurch next week, but keep watching this space for news of the next event.

Sculpture update

We had a great time dismantling old printers, TVs and modems and we now have a big box full of interesting bits. We decided to do the actual creating of the sculpture in three weeks' time, so if anyone is free to come along on 27th August and help you'd be very welcome.

Sunday closing

This afternoon will be our last SC:Sunday get together for the meantime. It might be that we want to restart things again at some other time, but for now it seems that we're all that bit too busy/tired!

We'll be at the SC room today at 2pm for anyone who wants to join us for a walk.

munch:itch:ouch

Just to publicise a new website I've done for those with children who suffer, like Kitty, from food allergy induced eczema. Please pass the address on to anyone you think it might help.

munch:itch:ouch

Sculpture

On Thursday 6th August we'll have a go at creating a sculpture out of old communications technology waste - old TVs, computer bits etc. A bit like the Wee Man in the picture, but not quite on such a big scale perhaps. It should be really good fun, suitable for all ages.

I put a post on Freecycle for stuff five minutes ago and have been offered four TVs already... If you have any junk sitting aroung waiting to be dumped please bring it along. We could also do with borrowing hot glue guns (to stick stuff together, not to be built into the sculpture...) if anyone has one please.

Incidentally, there are some great other art ideas on this website. I love the idea of moss grafitti!

August plans

We are nearly at the end of the second of our long discipleship themes; we have now thought about how we should deal with money and technology as followers of Jesus. I hope that everyone has found something useful in these. The next theme will be 'Seeing God in Everyday Things', more on that later. But I thought that we'd wait until September to start this and do some more creative, fun, kid friendly things through the summer holidays.


30 July :: Celebration meal, 6.30 at the Fishburne's
6 August :: Sculpture project
13 August :: cafechurch at Costa Coffee, Tesco's Crewe, 7pm
20 August :: Film night -The Lion King
27 August :: Photography
(29-31 August :: Greenbelt festival - contact us if you'd like to come too)
3 September :: Start of the new theme - Seeing God in Everyday Things - coming up with tasks

Monthly Sundays?

Hi gang!

Just a quick post to sound you out on some thoughts Andy and I have had.

SofaChurch:Sundays have been very minimally attended for some weeks (though it's always a treat to see you, Andrea!) We were wondering if we need a bit of a re-think. We'd appreciate your thoughts regarding the following possibilities. Thanks all.

* Keeping SC:Sundays as they are

* Changing it to a different day of the week

* Making the events monthly (ensuring they are well publicised)

* Dropping the socials for the meantime

Communications technology celebration meal

We're nearing the end of this topic, and as normal we plan to mark the end with a meal together and a chance to reflect and recommit ourselves to God. I thought that this time we'd have a barbecue at our house. Children very welcome! It will be on Thursday July 30th, with an earlier start of 6.30. It would be very useful to know how many of you can come so I can buy the right amount of food, so please let me know. As normal the food will be as local and ethical as possible.

Gran Torino

This week's film is Andrea's recommendation, and is supposed to be very good. Starring Clint Eastwood, 15 rating.

RSPCA Open Day

For today's Sunday outing we'll be going to the RSPCA open day at Stapeley Grange. Highlights include animals aplenty, stalls and the Allsorts dog display team. Meet at the SC room as normal at 2pm.

Greenbelt freshers

This is a post for people who've been to Greenbelt or have camping experience (you don't have to be a SofaChurcher, btw) to post their tips to help everyone else. I'll get the ball rolling...

Positive uses of technology

A slight change to the published schedule; we should be finishing off the current series with a celebration meal this evening, but we're not organised enough for it this week and haven't given anyone warning. So that will have to be in two weeks' time.

So this evening we'll have a look at the topic we tried to do last time - how technology can be used to enhance our lives as followers of Jesus. Come along and pick up some new ideas and share your own. The meeting will be led by Susie.

Sounds like us, Mr Bell

I was just listening to a talk by Rob Bell* (how holy for a Saturday night?) on the Mars Hill podcast and this section jumped out at me. I instantly nabbed the Mac from a bemused Andy (who was only trying to find a new house for us) to tap it out for you to read.

This could certainly be written about me: how about you?

"For parents, sometimes you'll hear the story: "I'm so concerned about my child, they've gone off on a search; they've left the church; they've gone off and they're reading this speaker or this one," and there's a tear in the parents' eyes. "We raised them, they went to church, they went to Sunday School, they heard all the stories: what's happened?"

I would argue that what happens naturally, developmentally, when you've grown up around a particular faith tradition, is that you've grown up knowing, which is different from knowing.

And so oftentimes, what the search is and what looks like a departure, may actually be the most healthy thing imaginable, because this kid - this adult - may have come to a point of realising that, "I know, but I don't know; and it's not enough for me to just know about, I want to know."

And so sometimes what happens is that the Christian community freaks: "They're reading this, they're exploring this, they're talking about this!" When the Christian tradition should celebrate that this person is not satisfied just to 'know about', they want the full epigonosis** enchillada!

And at the very moment when as Christians, we should celebrate someone who says, "I actually want to know what it is that I believe and I want to live it. And I want to sift and sort and I want to know what's out there, because I want to have an authentic understanding of my own journey and what it means to believe and live in the world." At that moment, the church should be cheering the way because there's no fear.

Instead the church freaks, shuts down and reinforces all of the closed, narrow-minded stereotypes this person has in the first place. Because perhaps what's happening - perhaps - this person has realised that I don't just want to know, I want to know. And we should celebrate that impluse wherever we find it."

* Main speaker at Greenbelt this year - yay!

** Greek term meaning something along the lines of 'super-knowledge' (makes more sense in the context of the rest of the sermon)

Because I'm worth it...

Pick up any magazine at this time of the year and you'll be sure to find at least one article telling you how you can lose those surplus pounds to look great in your bikini on the beach.*

If, like me, you've had just about enough of feeling crap about your body and eating in crazy, unhealthy ways in order to try and look like a 12 year old, come along to this weeks' Cafe Church where we'll be looking at the whole area of body image and self-esteem.

Highlights include a 'his and hers' interview featuring our very own Rev. Austin for the boys' view, and yours truly giving the no-holds-barred experience of being a girl of the Kate Moss generation.

Why do we spend so long worrying about our appearances? Who gains from our preoccupation with image? Why is beauty considered so much more desirable than other traits? Why can we only start to feel good about ourselves when we look a certain way? And how might God prefer us to think about our self-worth?

Hope to see you all there for more question (and tiffin square**) chewing over.

* Er, what bikini? And what beach?

** Unless you're on said bikini diet, that is.

Sunday rest

Anyone around this Sunday afternoon for some Sunday afternoon fun? 

Thought I'd check who's around before planning the activity. And the picture? Oh, any excuse to show off my beautiful boy.

Engaging with technology

This weeks' SofaChurch will continue our look at technology and the effects of communications technologies in particular on our lives. 

This week we'll be thinking about the more positive sides of new technologies, focussing especially on how, as Christians, we can keep up to date with and exploit newer methods of communication to get some positivity out there.

Hope to see you there.  

Dogma

This weeks' film is Dogma, produced by controversial Catholic producer and film star, Kevin Smith.

(I'll ask Andy what to write about it as my recommendation would be along the lines of: "Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Salma Hayek and Alan Rickman - something for everyone there.")

So, to quote Andy:

"The film is a very irreverant and crude comedy that explores how God and humans relate to each other. It caused an outcry in Christian circles when it was released. It's certainly not for you if you can't tolerate bad language (it's an 18 because of the copious amounts of swearing - sex and violence is fairly minimal)."

Portrait

Couldn't resist showing you this caricature done of me at a family party the other night - genius, huh?

I'll get a picture of Andy's up here soon too (though he's less than keen: you'll soon see why...)

Railway walk

This Sunday we'll be wandering along Alsager's beautiful Salt Line railway. 

Bring waterproofs, comfy shoes and a picnic tea. We'll meet in the SC room as normal, between 2 and 2.15pm. 

(Sorry about this next bit, but you have to do this sort of thing when you're doing a Christian blog post:)

There'll be no sleepers on Sunday afternoon, as we're on track for a sunny weekend. We'll be chuffed to see you all there, but don't forget your snack to chew chew (etc). 

cafechurch :: Street Doctor

On Thursday 11th June we are holding our next cafechurch event at Tesco's Costa Coffee in Crewe. This month our theme is Street Doctor; come and discuss ways of staying healthy and how to lead a balanced life.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

SC:Sunday gets Messy

On Sunday 14^th (this Sunday) we will be having Messy Church for all ages at St Andrew’s Church Hall on Bedford Street in Crewe* 4.00-6.00.

At Messy Church there are craft activities, games, refreshments, worship and a meal together. Great for families to come together with ready made fun!

This time the title is ‘1+1+1=1?’. How can this be right?!? Come along and find out.

Book your tickets in advance – Children 4 years old and over 75p, all 16 and over £1.25. Contact Revd Austin on 01270 215866.

*Instead of meeting in the SC room as we usually do, we'll head directly to St. Andrews Church Hall.

SC:Sunday is a load of rubbish

Hi all! Just so you know, this Sunday is guaranteed to be a load of rubbish...

The plan is to turn cardboard boxes into something else - literally whatever you fancy. Boxes and a variety of crafty bits will be provided, but if you have any unwanted bits kicking around at home, please do bring them (cans of paint/tester pots/tissue paper/wallpaper/buttons/wrapping paper etc).

If the weather's as bad as it is today, we'll stay in the SC room; if it's too nice to be indoors, we'll head either over to the church field or to our back garden and get creative (and messy - hoorah) there.

Hope you can all come!

Pie Rolling 2009

The pinnacle of the Cheshire sporting calendar takes place this Saturday - the annual Wybunbury Fig Pie Wakes. Please come! if you haven't been before, its a great little village event with Morris Dancers and the like, culminating in a competition where you have to roll a pie the furthest distance down the hill.

Festivities begin at 1pm, first pie rolled by the Mayor at 3pm.

I haven't entered for the last two years but am making a comeback this year. If you would like to enter you need to buy a ticket from the Post office or either pub in Wybunbury. Next step for me is to dust off my wooden practice pie and get to work on my rolling technique...

Is SC like patchwork?

A piece of patchwork is made from many fabrics that used to be part of bigger pieces of fabric - some sheets, some shirts, others dresses. The best patchworks are made of many different patterns, colours and textures. Although most of the squares are completely different in appearance, in a conventional patchwork each square needs to be exactly the same size.

Patchworking starts small. You kick off by gathering loads of different fabrics that you like and think would work well together.

You cut them into squares, then sew a few of them together to make a long row. Then you do another long row. You sew those two rows together along the long edge. As the rows are sewn together, the patchwork becomes stronger.

As you work, the squares that used to be on the edge of the patchwork gradually move into the centre of the new whole. But that doesn't make them any more important than the new squares arriving on the edges.

One patch on its own is no use at all. It's only when the patches are attached to each other that they complement each other, become beautiful and have the potential to be useful again.

A small patchwork can look lovely as a placemat. A bit more work and it can become a nice tablecloth. A lot of time and effort later you've got a quilt to cover a double bed. All lovely items and very pretty, but each completely different in its appearance and uses.

Some people don't go much for patchwork. Others think it's stunning and spend a fortune buying quilts and cushion covers. Perhaps part of the appeal of patchwork is the sense of history and work behind the finished piece and the stories behind each square - what they used to belong to and how they came to be part of the new whole.

Community thoughts

Hi all. This post may sound incredibly scary, but please read on and don't be too frightened (yet!) These are nothing but very early tentative musings...

I was just listening to Kitty's Disney album, and on it is a song I think from the Piglet's Big Movie, called A Few Good Friends. The lyrics keep 'nudging' at me in a way that sometimes things can do. This is making no sense at all, so I'll explain...

A few years back, Andy and I heard a guy at Greenbelt (I know, I know - enough with Greenbelt) called Tom Sine. He talked about ideas of Christians living in community. To sumarise his ideas (and completely butcher his book, Mustard Seed Versus McWorld) his thinking is that by sharing resources, people stand a better chance of affording housing, having more disposable income to be generous with and don't have to work every hour under the sun to pay huge mortgages leaving no time for voluntary work or fun. The other bonuses of the idea included shared childcare for families and more of a sense of family for singles.

I think the idea is that everyone sells their homes (if they have them), clubs together and buys either the land to build on, or an existing suitable building. Then each family/couple/individual has their own private flat with all the normal rooms in it, but there are areas for the group to share: a common room/lounge, laundry room, garden, veg plot, dining room etc. They might then decide to share use of cars/computers/garden equipment/babysitting services, have a rota for once a week communal meals or whatever they wanted.

I just wondered what everyone's initial reactions were. I'm not suggesting we do this (at least not formally - tee hee). Just putting the idea out there to see what your immediate reactions are.

Go on then - let's be having it. I tend to be quite an idealist, so do be honest and tell me if you think this is plain crazy, stupidly risky and would never, ever work in a million years...

Church sign fail

Both of these are from failblog.

Television, drug of the nation?

The week after Atonement we'll discuss television as part of our ongoing reflection on communications technology. Is is a harmless way of relaxing and sharing in a culture, or is it a pernicious way of controlling our minds?

Atonement

This month's film is Atonement - rating 15. Thursday 28th May, 7.30. As usual, after the film we'll discuss how it can inform our faith.

Canal walk

This Sunday we're planning to go for a wander along Nantwich canal if the weather's not too bad. We'll gather at the SofaChurch room at 2'ish, then make our way there at about 2.15pm. After the walk, we'll head back to the room for a cuppa until 4.30/5pm. Hopefully the weather will be a bit brighter than it was last Sunday! 

BTW, if the weather is terrible on any of the Sundays, we'll stay in the SofaChurch room and either play board games together or Andy will organise some fun running-about type games in the hall for the kids (and big kids) while we natter.

Going Public in Private

This week as part of our communications technology theme we'll listen to a really interesting Greenbelt talk by John Bell of the Iona Community. He goes into various issues of relevance to us in our journey, it is highly recommended listening. Please join us if you can. If you cannot I can lend you a CD, or you can buy an MP3 recording of the talk here for £2.

As manifest in me-centred worship and the mobile phone, our inner selves are now fodder for public consumption. What are the pros and cons of psychological and spiritual nudity?

Communications technology discipleship tasks

Here are the challenges for out new theme - how communications technologies can enhance and detract from our journey of faith. I hope that there is something here to grab you all. No obligation, of course, but it would be great if as many people as possible have a go.

1. Have a technology fast. Give up some form of technology that you might be a little bit addicted to, and see if God talks to you in the gap. What that means will vary from person to person. It could mean no TV for three months. It could mean no email after 6pm. It could mean no mobile phone for weekend. It would be great to hear how you found it.

2. Create some silent time and space to meditate on these Bible verses:
1 Kings 19:11-14
Luke 5:15
Psalm 4:4

3. Try out a new form of communication technology in worship. Make a Nooma video. Make a video-link with another church. Podcast SofaChurch. Start twittering.

4. Write down your reflections and make a pledge to do something differently with regards to your use of communications technology.

With all of this, again we aim to publish the responses as a way of marking the progress we've made.

In the mean time, please post your thoughts, ideas, tips, resources on the blog so that we can share our ideas.