Unmissable…
Watch this right to the end, to where he speaks about (and for) ‘The Carpenter from Nazareth’.
I have been enjoying some great lunches out over these last few weeks, catching up with old friends before leaving Cheltenham for Liverpool. I thought I might do a little series on my lunch guests, all of whom are unsung heroes of course (the best kind of heroes are unsung ones).
Last week I tucked into a plate of falafels in the company of one Jamie Hill. Jamie is Youth Officer for the Bible Society (I think that’s his right title), and an all round good guy. I first got to know Jamie when we both on the staff at the last place I used to work. Jamie is an accomplished musician who once dedicated a version of Walk On to me, a tribute I will not forget.
Jamie is known for many things, not least as the former front man for the recently disbanded band, Quench. So it seems fitting that I post up one of his and their songs, Who do you say I am?, followed by a promotional video for the Bible Society featuring JH and filmed in Cheltenham’s Pittville Park.
Jamie Hill…Bluesman, GoodNewsman, Standinyourshoesman…
blather: foolish talk, nonsense
gather: to come together
church – ekklesia (Gk) – gathering
I have been wading through a pile of missional writings – books, papers, journals, scribblings – in preparation for my new role in Liverpool, and I have been thinking about all the ‘missional terminology’ we tend to use as ‘Christians’ in order to define the people we are seeking to ‘reach’, like…
Unchurched
Never-churched
Non-churched
Non-Christian
Not-Yet-Christian
Pre-churched
De-churched
Re-churched
Unbeliever
Non-believer
and so on and on…
Many of these terms begin with a negative – un, non, never, not. In using such terms are we not defining people by what they are not, and not by who they are? How does our fellow humanity receive such descriptions of themselves? Is this ‘us & them’/'in & out’ talk? Outsider language?
And what can we do to avoid using it? I kinda think that the clue might be something else I am thinking about, which is the possibility of doing ‘Church’ as removed from the Christian sub-culture(s).
Did Jesus use this kind of language?
Jesus wasn’t preoccupied with building ‘The Church’, or ‘churching’ people. He was more about ‘announcing the Kingdom’. Paul and the Apostles too. Announce the Kingdom and the Church will take care of itself.
People (yes, people) will gather.
