For some time I’ve been thinking that that worship music has been stagnant, the same and really not going anywhere. After much research I think I’ve found the way forward. This is a style that is truly culturally relevant, blessed and embraces everything that is undoubtedly missing from our mundane Sunday services!

Wouldn’t you agree?

There was a recent thread started on the online business forum I’m a member of regarding the sometimes unhelpful and aggressive replies that some members dish out to newbies. The analogy used was that small dogs when protected by fences are happy to bark at big dogs on the other side but if no fence where there then they would not make a noise at all.

The thread raises a number of issues and questions. I get the impression that the basic theme was to highlight the tone in which some existing members first respond to new members but as the OP later points out himself the wider context is whether the forum has a real and deep perception of being a safe place to join, ask questions and get involved.

As it seems the responses of few can make or break that perception lets look at some of the issues that go to make that perception up.

A) The first is how to conduct ourselves as humans - full stop.

B) Then how we conduct ourselves when poised behind a computer monitor (the fence). Do we conduct ourselves any different when writing to a forum post (or anywhere else on the net for that matter) than we would do if we were face to face to the individual. Taking it one step further it is not only the OP (original poster) that will read the response so if we were responding to an individual and then the room suddenly was full of 1000s of others would we then perhaps change the tone?

C) Then how we perceive where we are presenting ourselves. By this I mean do we care any more or less that we are contributing to a community. Before that we would need to acknowledge that community exists to be able to able to make a judgement or not . In addition does the fact that a community exists take any importance over points A & B?

Going off topic slightly It is a seperate debate as to whether we should acknowledge that community exists purely because someone declares community exists. Leave that for another post but for clarification in this case the forum owners have declared that the forum is a community.

If a person doesn’t share that view then they probably wont care how its members are treated. To deny that community exists will mean you deny the spirit of community and its unwritten rules particularly those concerning welcoming, inclusivity, decorum etc. So, there’s no reason for you to work to them and in turn build and sustain the community.

Summer camp many moons ago I remember asking the question to a leader at the time “so how do I know if I’m a Christian or not?”. His reply was something like “well you can normally tie it down to a single event and time that you know and if you don’t then you probably aren’t”.

So off I went and later in the day I said the prayer, you know the one that you need to say to become a Christian, the one that’s not in the bible yet seems to be mandatory to get your tickets into heaven. I know the prayer thing might be helpful to some but it’s equally unhelpful to assume it’s absolutely necessary. Well nothing miraculous happened, and in fact I’m sure nothing happened at all. Well other than some clarity was gained in responding to the question from earlier that day.

It’s not until some 12 years later that in reflection I realise that some time between when I first started going to church and this point now is when I became ‘Christian’ , well that’s not even true really. what happened was that I somehow realised that Jesus was the way and the life for me and so decided to follow Him, becoming Christian kind of has a lot of baggage attached that I don’t really dig. There was no one moment and I guess the structuring of that following/belief in the above sentence still takes place day by day week by week year by year as I continue to ‘try’ to follow Him.

I realised that for many this is the case. They can not name the exact day, time

This morning our morning service was somewhat different in that one of our curates was officially ordained (not entirely sure of the correct name for the affair) this means he can dish out communion and do other stuff that he couldn’t before (well he could but couldn’t according to Anglican rules).

I struggled a lot , not with his ordination - that was great and for anyone to answer a call and serve God in a full time capacity is wonderful but I struggled with the ‘religiosity and tradition’ surrounding the form of events.

I overheard someone else say ‘I don’t know why they can’t just wave a wand and say “there you go you’re done”‘, that whilst tongue in cheek is a very good question. Why did we need the bishop, why did we need the men in the frocks (none of whom introduced themselves so i was clueless who they were but I sussed out the bishop due to the hat and crook), the bling bling, the long sticks as people are escorted up and down the aisle and various other things.

I know we’ve chosen to be part of an Anglican community and I guess it can be argued that it goes with the territory however I don’t really see it as joining an Anglican church and ‘when in rome’ etc

This is tuning into an essay so I’ll think I’ll break it up into 2 or more parts so essentially what I’m proposing is that churches struggle to work together and why that is, what problems that causes, how it might be remedied and what benefits that might bring.

So Part 1: The current situation

From John 13:

34A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

It’s been on my mind for some time, no it’s been on my mind for a long time but maybe more so more recently since we settled in our new church having been looking around.

We often think of being great evangalists - Spreading the good news

Jason Clark is a UK blogger and a good friend whose been blogging about all things churchy and cultural amongst many other things over on his blog www.jasonclark.ws .

I’ve recently joined a new band with a couple of guys here in deepest Norfolk. They’ve been going for a while and have a few gigs already lined up. Anyway one is tonight at the 10 Bells in Norwich.

More info can be found on www.charatersfrombooks.co.uk

The next town along coast from Cromer is Sheringham. They’ve had a very long battle to over turn a planning application for a big new Tescos store pretty much in the town centre. It involved knocking down some buildings and relocating a fire station and a community centre. A full article can be found here

The biggest objection was that it would ruin the community and there were very good pro’s and cons on both sides and I can see the validity in both arguments as well.

Since I’m going to be talking about this thing called ‘community’ quite a lot on here I thought it a good idea to try and give an idea who my communities are and what makes them communities that I’m a part of.

There’s a wide range here and more than one and more than one reason why they are my communities which I’ll probably go into more detail later. There are, for me, three things that make them a community that I’m part of and that is 1) There is something common throughout the group 2) that I feel I belong and 3) that there is a healthy respect of the broad range of differences contained within the community. Again I’ll go into greater detail at a later date as to why I pick those 3 prerequisites above others.

Cromer Parish Church - Church Community:
Gita (my wife) and I have been going here for a few months now. We’re still very much newbies but already feel we’re happy to say we belong. There’s a great sense of welcoming and belonging here and one that’s catchy