benedson

Sacramental Missiology

I often talk about God being present and active in the world; I cannot believe that there are no-go areas for God. I believe that God is in the darkest places. However, I have always had a tension about this approach, which is quite simply: ‘If God is everywhere then conversely God is nowhere’.

There is a real statement of hope in the idea that God is in all things, but at the same time there is also a deep naivety to it. There was a time when I was in Namibia, 100 or so miles south of the Angolan borer and we had to go to a water hole to collect water. People travelled from miles around to be there, I encountered real poverty and malnutrition there and this had the potential to crush any sense of hope that I had…And yet deep within me is the theological conviction that God was there; that God can be and is revealed in the hardest places. To distinguish that flicker of light would distinguish the light of the world.

So I’m caught in a place of dialogue, a place where these two, perhaps opposing ideas, need to work out how they can co-exist. As I reflect on this I’ve been reading about the sacramental potentiality of the universe, and this is enhancing the dialogue and helping me as I explore missiology. If we have a missiology that is focused on the belief that everything has the potential to be sacramental it significantly opens up this conversation. By becoming sacramental the objective reality becomes a window into the sacred – a piece of music has the sacramental potentiality within it, but it needs to be recognised and named. Even in the darkest places there is the sacramental potential and often this sacramental potential is bursting to be released.

I’d suggest that sacramental potential is always there but it can be latent. The sacramental potential of the ordinary is always there, and the role of mission is to name and open the sacramental potentially in the ordinary everyday. The role of the missionary is not to take God to a new place, the role of the missionary is to open people’s eyes to see the sacramental nature of the ordinary, and through gazing at the ordinary the extraordinary person of Christ.

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Hookers for Jesus

Porn-again ex-sex workers save souls...

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Virginity the last taboo | flirty fishing

On Sunday I got a copy of The Observer. There was an article in called 'Is Virginity the last taboo?' Fascinating piece about Christianity, virginity and 'beautiful people'. The article contained a number of images of attractive Christian women who had chosen not to sleep with their partner, or potential partner until marriage. I read the article, recognised a few names and then a church was mentioned - St. Mary's, in London.

St Mary's is a very media-savvy church and I started to think about how the article came about, did a reporter see all these beautiful people and want to write a piece about them? Did a freelancer submit the article? Did the church think that this would be a good way to promote itself? I wonder...

One of my favourite Louis Theroux episodes involved a time when he went Flirty Fishing with a Christian cult in the US. Flirty fishing involves taking your most beautiful women onto the streets and using them as 'bait' for the gospel. Is the article a a media-savvy version of flirty fishing? I wonder...anyway watch the clip below, it's rather amusing!

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blah...brum

Tomorrow evening I'm in Birmingham for Blah...brum. It's at Breath on the 5th Floor of 3 Temple Row and starts at 6:30. For more detail see here. I'll be exploring new age spirituality and will be sharing some of my experiences of both MBS fairs and Findhorn.

Hope to see some of you there.

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The birth of Scorpio

On Friday night I celebrated the birth of a new moon Scorpio at Findhorn. I stood in the dark of the garden of cluny college of the findhorn foundation surrounded by a group of 11 people, 3 men and 8 women gathered from across the globe.

We walked down to the gardens in silent, moving to a pre-prepared area where we were to light a candle and stand around in a circle. The priestess, an eastern European woman, invited us to hold some silence for a few moments whilst she lit the candle.

In a small bowl she placed a mixture of sweet grass and sage, she then set them on fire before blowing them out leaving some smouldering ashes. Taken a feather she fanned the ashes created a consistent plume of smoke. This bowl of smoke was carried around the circle as we were invited to smudge ourselves - to fan the smoke onto ourselves - and invite blessings down. The bowl was carried around and I covered myself in the smoke from the smouldering ashes.

We were there invited to burn any negative patterns that we had in our lives. We’d previously written these down on a piece of paper, and as the candle was passed around we burnt our papers in a pile on the floor. The priestess cried out ‘Ho’ and we responded with a ‘Ho’. ‘Ho’ meaning ‘I have spoken’ and the response meaning ‘We have heard’.

A bag of seeds were passed around the circle and we were invited to take a seed symbolising our hopes for the new moon. We were invited to hold the seeds next to our heart, so that our energy field could envelope the seed and our positive energy transfer onto the seed. We then individually placed our seeds into a large ceramic bowl in the centre, and as we placed our seed in the soil we called our ‘Ho’ which was responded to with a “Ho’ from the rest of the group.

The bowl was passed around the group and held aloft as we held one another’s hopes and dreams in our hands. The bowl was placed into the centre of the group and we held hands with one another and sang a chant four times through.

We moved to the fountain where water was placed upon the seeds by the priestess whilst a blessing was spoken, finally we moved around the garden in silence before resting at the compost where the seeds were returned to the earth. Placed in a place that would bring new life into the garden, our hopes and dream infecting the whole garden.

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Dekhomai - MBS

Today was the first day of the mind body spirit fair at Gmex in Manchester. It was fairly quiet, but no doubt it'll get busier over the weekend. I often do Jesus deck readings on the stand, they're a great tool and really open up some conversations. They're basically the gospel stories told in card form, I get a person to select a card and then through that tell them the story the card refers to. It's like blindly opening the bible and picking a text - I have major problems with this way of reading the text but, quite bizarrely, i cannot deny that God works through it at MBS.

For example, today i did a reading for a woman, she picked a card that made reference to Luke 24, it had a picture of two angels on it and the text said 'Why do you look for the living among the dead?'. I spoke around the card, explained it's meaning and then suggested that she was looking for the death when she should be looking for life. She then explained that her father had died eight years ago and for the last few years she'd be having poltegiest experiences that she thought was her father...wierd as fish.

!

Technorati Tags: Ben Edson, Mind Body Spirit, mission, Jesus Deck

What Would Jesus smoke?

Since the 1st July the social landscape has changed in England. I now walk past bars and pubs in the pouring rain and standing, huddled in groups are the smokers. No longer allowed in pubs, bars, clubs, coffee shops etc. and I feel a bit sorry for them! They are outcast onto the streets, not allowed to be with the majority but marginalized due to their addiction. I support the ban, but can't help but thinking that Christ would be with the people outside rather than those inside...probably smoking a pack of Sovereign.

I used to smoke and one of the things that i used to enjoy was the 5 minute chats you used to have with people when smoking. They could be quite profound and over a period of time you could build quite strong smoking friendships with people. I often think that it's good evangelistic method, smoke with the rebels outside and get alongside them through that, rather than just standing there like a lemon.

Perhaps i'll take up smoking for jesus.

Technorati Tags: mission, smoking ban, puppy, smoking ban

A mixed ecology

Yesterday at the Hard Questions day Angela asked that we moved away from the business language of a mixed 'economy'. She saw it as aggressive language. She therefore suggest the more organic phrase 'a mixed ecology'. Which i rather like...

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blah...manchester: Trinitarian Mysticism

April 26th | Trinitarian Mysticism
with Ian Mobsby 6:30pm – 8:30pm

How does the Trinity inform what it means to be church in a 21st Century culture of mysticism? How is the Emerging Church engaging with those who are spiritually searching in a post-secular postmodern culture?

Ian Mobsby explores these issues by drawing on recent research from the perspective of emerging church practitioners. Ian is author to the recently published book ‘Emerging & Fresh Expressions of Church’.

Blah...manchester is a partnership between CMS and Sanctus1.

6:30-8:30pm
Admission free
Venue: Nexus

Drinks served from 6:30
Input begins at 7:00

For a map of the location see: http://www.nexusonline.org.uk

We have a limited number of places. It would help us to know in advance if you're coming, so please book a place and turn up!

E-mail Ben Edson on: blah@sanctus1.co.uk

Technorati Tags: Blah..., Trinity, theology

Mission Theological Advisory Group

I've just heard that I've been appointed to the Mission Theological Advisory Group...and that Sanctus1 got a mention in General Synod yesterday!

'The Mission Theological Advisory Group is a partnership between the Church of England's Mission and Public Affairs Division and the Churches' Commission on Mission of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland.

MTAG offers advice to the churches on matters affecting the mission of the whole Church. Its particular interest is in the relationship between the gospel we are called to proclaim and the western culture where we proclaim it. MTAG publications and resources are relevant to anyone interested in Christian mission and gospel and culture issues.'

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