I have been meaning to get this started for 18 months, but never got round to it.
I love the idea of testimonies, but not the usual contrived and formulaic ones that you often hear in church. Real stories of what peoples walk with God has been like in the last year - the good, the bad and the ugly; what you have learned, what mistakes you have made, etc.
I think it would build the idea of real world spirituality, of the God who is part of the everyday, who loves us through our brokeness and our beauty...
Just need someone to take it on.
7 comments:
Yes, all for honesty and spiritual realism in church. Someone was telling me the other day about a journal project where people wrote about their spiritual lives for a month in a journal, and then passed it on. You might have heard of it, loads of them were started and they went all over the world. When they were full people sent them back to the originators and they were displayed. I'm not sure who did it. I'll try and find out.
We could do something similar - get a few good notebooks, and get some people writing a week in their spiritual life, and then passing it on. You could just bring it to church on sunday evening and leave it on a table, and someone else could take it away for the next week. Each writer could be as anonymous as they wanted to be.
Nice - the book was Reimagining Spiritual Formation and it is a fascinating read.
Getting people to keep spiritual journals might be a great way to get this going.
thats the one. Had a feeling you might know it. Quick trip to Muji and we can do our own version...
St Stephen's church in Canonbury have taken a change from doing Alpha this year and ran a series of dinners [i'm sure they called them suppers but i'm still just a bit too northern for that] where people were invited to bring their testimony. Now admittedly this would have been pretty run of the mill if they'd just thrown in the usual suspects who enjoy sprouting about how they became christians but their selection of people sharing at this series was fantastic. The one i managed to get to had a Muslim leader from East London sharing about his experiences of God's goodness in the last year. Another guy shared about how he'd stopped being a chrcitian for years and how God clearly looked after him. It could have been messy and confusing but conversations with people afterwards had clearly sparked just the first thoughts of God being this amazing presence in people's lives. It led to honest chats and was such a great open forum with pints afterwards that not only did it hold on to it's non-christians but members of the church were finding a place to think through good things.
Personally i like the idea of this sharing a journal thing. The Devil tells us such lies about us 'not being good enough christians' and yet we all now that God gave us as much love as he ever will the day we came back to him. When things start to seem like a struggle and you're not necessarily up for being vocal about how your spiritual life is working out for you at the minute, what an amazing encouragement it would be to spend time with yourself and God, being allowed to look into how other people work through all of this. It might just warm the cockles of your heart.
Anyway. . . children to 'teach'.
Hi, have just found this page of hidden treasures and am most intrigued. Mark, you wrote: "I have been meaning to get this started for 18 months, but never got round to it.
I love the idea of testimonies, but not the usual contrived and formulaic ones that you often hear in church. Real stories of what peoples walk with God has been like in the last year - the good, the bad and the ugly; what you have learned, what mistakes you have made, etc.
Just need someone to take it on."
I don't mean to be rude but you know me, I like to get to the point, surely you are in the perfect position to make this happen? You chat to lots of us, you know what's going on, you have biggest input into what happens in the services. Why don't you just say to someone when you're talking to them 'would you mind sharing that in the service on sunday?'
Just a thought. I don't like this blogging malarkey, I like to see someones face just so I know they're still my friend... :)
Ta Naomi. Point taken.
Don't be scared of blogging, it doesn't take away from real conversations, it adds to them.
Also you are right that this blog is a bit hidden away. I have put a new link to it on the main blog page.
I reckon there'll be lots of stories to tell from over the summer. I'd love to tell church about the kids stuff we did on our estate - it was (and is) sooooooooooooooo EXCITING!
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