The Shack by William P. Young

It is not often that a Christian book comes along that causes such a stir. Having sold over half a million copies in the US within 2 months of being published, what started as self published title originally written only for his children has became an international best seller. Currently at 25 in Amazon’s UK best sellers list this book has the ability to start conversations about the nature of God with those who don’t know Him.  During an ice storm a father receives a hand written invitation to meet Papa at the Shack. Papa is his wife’s favourite name for Father God but the Shack is the terrible place where their eight year old daughter was brutally murdered. By making the journey back to the Shack the father has to again face the pain and loss he had shut inside, but opens himself to God’s healing. The Shack is a book that seeks to provide answers to the question “Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain?”. It also provides a stunning picture of our God in 3 persons constantly at work to draw us back to Him. What others have said about The Shack:

• The Shack will leave you craving for the presence of God.' (Michael W. Smith, Recording Artist)

• 'Clearly the book is speaking loud and  clear to a lot of people' (The Independent) • This story has blown the door wide open to my soul.' (Wynonna Judd Recording Artist ) • “Never will I look at the Trinity in the same way again. … I have entered the shack and   I will never be the same.” (Amazon book reviewer) Read it and decide for yourself.

Jonny Baker on technology and church

Jonny Baker talks about how church can be collaborative. The way social interaction is being changed by Facebook and photo sharing websites like flikr will have an influence on the way we do church in the future because behaviour is changing. There are now church web sites like MyChurch that can be built using social networking templates so church members can comment and contribute. Early days yet when so many church websites are like flatfile databases  compared to relational databases. Creativity doesn't need to be limited to leadership roles. Let go leaders and see your congregation blossom.

'Anoint-ometer'

Our church are thinking of buying one these. It looks like an essential piece of kit for any worship centred congregation. But first we would like to hear from others as to how they have got on with theirs. I can see there might be unexpected side effects. Thanks to the Worship Oracle for bringing this important development to our attention.

Wired Church CD Rom On Line

Those nice people at Midnight Oil Productions have put the whole CD Rom of
the Wired Church on-line. It's a great training resource for those learning to develop a 
church multi-media team and resources.

 Len Wilson and Jason Moore like to call themselves the MO guys and the book gives illustrated examples of the development of their multi-media ministry at Ginghamsburg Church.

They are very strong on the use of metaphor when using film and digital media to to a story.

They developed these themes further in Digital Storytellers:
The Art of Communicating the Gospel in Worship (Abingdon, 2002) which I blogged here.

3 Good Resource Books

Multi-sensory Prayer has stacks of ready to use ideas collected by Sue Wallace from 10 years with Visions in York. For people who want to do more in prayer than just talk.

The Book of Uncommon Prayer was intended for use with Youth Ministry but has lots of content that is thought provoking and adaptable for lots of settings. CD of ambient music setting with liturgy voice overs for "Eucharist".

Have just finished re-reading Alternative Worship by Jonny Baker and Doug Gay.
Lots of well organised and simple things that will work in many types of church. Other more advanced ideas for the adventurous and resourceful. DVD with good examples of music, liturgy, photos and videos.

Lee Abbey and prayer stations

I recommend a week away at Lee Abbey in North Devon if you want peace and quiet and time to reflect. I know North Devon having visited many years with family living close by. In the summer of 2006 I was sitting in the car park to Lee Bay looking up at the Abbey enjoying the beautiful scenery with my wife and her parents. I had thought to myself that I would like to spend some time at Lee Abbey perhaps on my own. I had thought of it as a Christian retreat centre but wasn’t sure spending a week away in silence was what I needed. When I saw that Jonny Baker was due to lead a series on “Re-imagining Worship”, the combination of the beautiful surroundings and hearing directly from Jonny was irresistible. Having mis-read the title for the week as re-imaging worship I thought this would be more about using multi-media in church. What I soon discovered was that there was a lot more than that being opened up for me. The community have links with other communities like Iona and draw on the contemplative traditions of music and liturgy, much of which was taught aurally. One singing workshop was about the way other parts of the world do not rely on written forms to pass on their music and therefore pieces of music evolve as they are passed on. Jonny led morning sessions and there was free time in the afternoons to enjoy the beautiful scenery with guided walks available for those who wanted to enjoy them. Evenings were varied and included a great evening of story telling from a Birmingham based theatre company. We spent one evening developing themes for a service using the idea of “stations” t be used two evenings later. Using the inspiration of the Rembrandt’s painting of the “Return of the Prodigal”, 5 groups created parts of a worship space for others to explore. Read about a previous use of this idea in Jonny Bakers Worship tricks. Lee Abbey chapel was a quiet place available at the end each day for a short contemplation and simple prayers were led offered with quiet music playing and helpful projected images. They created prayer stations which were available to visit through the last day. Follow this link for more about their creative ideas for prayer stations.

My first Blog Entry - A Search for Real Church Worship

I started this blog to keep track of my search for new expressions of church and re-imagining church worship.

Not that my church is particularly boring or stereo typical of the way some churches are portrayed in the media. You might imagine five ladies in hats sitting at the back of a dusty old building singing hymns you might remember from school assembly to tunes squeezed out of a wheezy old organ.

No, we have about 80 come along most weeks and we sing modern worship songs played by our worship band, of which I am a member. The vicar is youngish and has a great sense of humour. No I like going to church and I love worshipping God.

But I do wish our worship was a bit more relevant to the 21st century.

My search started to find more interesting photographs or looping videos to use with the new church projector and song projection software. We don't sing from books any longer as so much new music is being written we would never be able to keep up with the number of books we
would need.

So I started searching the internet for free photo sites that I could legally copy. This led me to a number of church websites and into new expressions of church which I had first read about in a book, Changing World, Changing Church by Michael Moynagh.

I began to discover churches which were experimenting with new ways of expressing worship.

One of my most exiting finds was a blog by Jonny Baker. Jonny writes about his experiences leading a church community called Grace in Ealing, London.

He also has contacts and credits lots of friends around the world who are also using new expressions of worship.

In my next entry I will write about my week at Lee Abbey when Jonny Baker spoke about Re-Imagining Worship.