benedson

The nonist Old Testament activity book

This is fantastic! i think that i may use it is Sanctus2nds...and it's available as a download!

Technorati Tags: Nonist, Old Testament

Babies

A sixth fact that you probably didn't know about me is that I'm going to be a dad for the second time! Ruth is pregnant and the baby is due towards the end of June! All is going well so far and we had our first scan a few weeks ago and everything is going to plan!

Technorati Tags: Babies, Pregnant

How to avoid sexual temptation...

Thanks to Mark Driscoll for these handy hints on men and women working together!!!

Here are a few choice snippets chosen by Laura and myself:

"Pastors must not travel alone; the anonymity and fatigue of the road is too great a temptation for many men."

"Churches should consider returning to heterosexual male assistants who are like Timothy and Titus to serve alongside pastors. Too often the pastor’s assistant is a woman who, if not sexually involved, becomes too emotionally involved with the pastor as a sort of emotional and practical second wife. I have been blessed with a trustworthy heterosexual male assistant who can travel with me, meet with me, etc., without the fear of any temptations or even false allegations since we have beautiful wives and eight children between us.”

The sexism within these statements is so hideous i don't know whether to laugh or cry...

Technorati Tags: Sexism

Holiday photos

We've just got back from a week in Appledore in North Devon staying at my parents cottage. There are some photos in the side bar for you to browse at, they're mainly of jude on Northam Beach - beautiful beach that is so under-rated. If you want to stay in a cottage in North Devon let me know, the rates are very reasonable...

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Technorati Tags: puppy

The Veil, The Policeman and Baumen

Baumen's Liquid Modernity is a stunning book that has resonances with everyday life and culture all the time. One of his themes, emancipation, identifies that society has put the right of the individual over the right of citizen - or as he puts it the search for a 'just society' has given way to 'human rights'. In the search for freedom we have made freedom impotent by making it such a debased currency that it means little or nothing at all.

I can help but make connections between this thought and the current controversy about the veil and the policeman. Is society giving people so much freedom that freedom means nothing? Are we to focused on giving individuals their human rights without focusing on the wider issues in society as a whole?

I'm worried that the ideology of a tolerant society has become a straight jacket that prevents human freedom rather than giving it...I'm still formulating this, and i've had most of a bottle of wine, so bear with me if this is not too coherent!!

Technorati Tags: Current affairs, Baumen, jack straw

What's in a name?

When I was 16 my entire immediate family changed our surname...We went from being called 'Pratt' to 'Edson' - I can't believe I'm telling you this! I also decided to use my middle name rather than my first name so I went from John Pratt to Ben Edson; life has improved from then! The reason that we changed our name was quite simply about first impressions, it gave a bad first impressions and for a teenager this was not what was wanted. So when we moved to Devon the whole family changed to Edson.

On the blah tour I was chatting with Jonny and Karen about how we introduce ourselves to people outside the Church without alienating the person that we're talking to? i(e calling yourself a missionary can alienate a lot of people). Jonny said that at MBS London he called himself a 'spiritual creative', Karen refers to herself as an 'abbess'. My job title is city centre missioner, my title in the church is 'Captain' - both are hideous - but it would have been worse if we'd not changed our surname...Captain Pratt!

I think that often the titles that the anglican church uses have overtones of power associated with them - Venerable, Reverend, Right Reverend etc. This is problematic as i think that ministry within the church should primarily be about serving the community that you are part of and none of these titles suggest a serving ministry.

So what should I call myself? A spiritual creative is ambiguous and this is one of the beauties of it! I usually say something like I'm a minister in Anglican church - but it's a bit non-descript and tends to close down a conversation rather than open one up...any thoughts?

Technorati Tags: mission, spirituality

House Move

Our house move happens on Monday and the broadband goes today...I maybe quiet for a few weeks.

Technorati Tags: Manchester

Suicide, Vaux and Liminality

I borrowed some CD's off Jonny yesterday of four talks by David Tacey. Tacey is a psychologist and theologian who lectures and writes on contemporary spirituality. I've listened to the first two and my mind is buzzing with thoughts and ideas - I woke up at 5 am this morning with my mind still making connections.

The area I am drawn to particularly is his thinking about the high rates of suicide in young people. To understand this tragic phenomena further he spoke with some aboriginal tribal elders about why they thought there were high levels of suicide. Their response was that they perceived a lack of 'rites of passage' within contemporary society and therefore people were unable to transition from childhood to adulthood. In tribal communities it is often the case that there is a significant right of passage that people go through when passing from childhood to adulthood. During this time they become an adult, childhoods dies and adult life is born. It's a time of liminality where communitas is created for a temporary time period. The aboriginal response to the problem of suicide in contemporary society is that people don't know how to transition to adulthood because there are no longer any rights of passage. Rites of passage create space for the child to die and the adult to be born. If the child is not allowed to die there is a danger that it can kill the latent adult.

I am wondering whether emerging churches need to find rites of passage that allow them to grow into adulthood. It maybe that there is a high rate of suicide in emerging churches (such as Vaux) because there are no rights of passage into adulthood. Childhood is exciting, creative, new and dynamic stage but it is a stage which needs to transition into adulthood for its own survival. This is not a criticism but just an observation that rites of passage enable sustainability and that perhaps corporate rites of passage are missing within the emerging church.

Steve Collins was speaking this morning on the blah...tour about Grace. He was saying that in the past Grace didn't know whether they'd still be functioning in a few weeks time, it was a very fragile community. Now they feel as though there is a level of sustainability - they've got their name on the church notice board! and the future is something that they now engage with in a hopeful way, perhaps a move to adulthood has taken place?

I had an interesting on-line conversation with steve taylor about whether the emerging church should be community rather than communitas. Communitas is essentially a period of transition and of liminality, i wonder whether emerging churches are not even in a time of liminality as liminality suggests transition to adulthood...

Technorati Tags: emerging church, theology

Bored?

Eyan aka DJ Fat Roland emailed me this yesterday:

Here are ten sites to keep you amused, in no particular order.

Family Guy is brilliant and even better when Chris gets accidentally stuck in an A-Ha video.
http://www.devilducky.com/media/33634/ [links straight to video]

Random 24 plot generator… I have never seen 24, but I love this idea.
http://www.chthonic.f9.co.uk/24/index.html

Warning for Ben – if you get too into Apple Macs, you end up like these folks.
http://www.bmezine.com/news/pubring/20040720.html

Remember 8 Mile? This is what happens when geeky American kids challenge each other to a rap battle. “I don’t know what to say…”
http://media.putfile.com/Worst-Rap-Battle [links straight to video, contains swearing, not safe for work]

Sprouts. A bad cover version. More sprouts. All in a game!
http://www.eyegas.com/xmas05/

Oh, Anglo-Catholics, what comedians...
http://www.fuc.org.uk/index.html

Richard Pryor is dead, long live Richard Pryor. Check this racist word association interview.
http://www.devilducky.com/media/37546/ [links straight to video, not safe for work]

A very good magazine, a mixture of cheesy Christian culture and genuine cutting-edge post-modern God stuff.
http://www.relevantmagazine.com/index.php

I want a YouTube I/O Brush for my birthday. Here’s the promotional video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch.php?v=vwl98dU0kY8 [links straight to video]

The best record label on Earth right now. And one of the best websites.
http://www.theleaflabel.com/

So Why?

So why have i started a blog? There are a few reasons but I think that part of it is to try and separate myself from Sanctus1. I think that sanctus1 is fantastic but professionally and personally it is important for me to be able to separate my work life from my home life. I will still post on the Sanctus1 blog but will also post on this blog, but this one will have a different feel to it.

I also do other things apart from sanctus1 and hence would like a place where I can post about them...so the journey begins.