Last night we had a meeting that was really deciding if Third will continue. The conclusion was that a retraction to a small group was the favourite short-term measure, involving some of those present. Funnily enough I am excited at the prospect! Excitement and enthusiasm have been lacking in my make-up for a while, which is odd because I am basically a passionate sort of bloke. God is into resurrection, and I sense something of that in what we're doing. I don't want to lose the networks that are beginning to prove useful and challenging. I don't want to lose the missiological (I'm told that's the word!) potential of alternative forms of church. I want to see what comes out of something born in the heart of God (told you I was feeling enthisiastic!). I want somewhere I can be what God has made me. I want to provide a place where people can receive respect and be challenged at the same time.
We'll see.

Here's a fledgling thought or two:
There's a lot of fuss about women in church circles. Us blokes are happy to let them run our lives in all other respects but there still seems to be this authority thing in churches. (Sorry guys if you hadn't realised that we are controlled by women, maybe it's wisdom borne of age that's coming through here!)
Isn't it odd (even obscure) that Eve came from Adam's rib?
Where have all the pagan references to Mother Earth come from?
If God is the Father then who is the Mother? If there is no Mother then the term Father has no meaning.
Isn't it interesting that creation is still creating? Growth, life, new ideas, etc. are still going on.
What if the pagans had it nearly right and the christians got scared? What if the mother in the story is creation itself?
What if Adam and Eve form a sort of allegory of God emitting (better word needed) a creation (Eve) which then continues the creating process having been sort of fertilised?
What if the term Father implies a relationship rather than an authority - a continuous caring and overseeing and loving and protecting?
What if we could solve all these problems relating to what we allow women to do (such arrogance!) by understanding that it's all about relationship rather than authority?

Does anyone actually read this stuff? Add a comment if you don't mind, then I'll know whether I'm doing this for my own amusement or whether the stuff is of any interest to anyone.
Latest instalment of "Purpose Driven church" says that most people who attend a Sunday morning service are feeling Stiff, Tired, and Reserved. If you are in the habit of attending Sunday morning services I have to ask you to stop it - Stiff, Tired and Reserved are getting pretty fed up with it.

Well, it seems it does! If you want to try it out, use something like BottomFeeder and click on the link called Site Feed on the blog, or copy this URL
http://peterking.blogspot.com/atom.xml
to add the feed.

I'm trying to get site feeds working. This post is just to see if it will!

A friend lent me a book entitled "The Purpose Driven Church". I have been reading it through my wife as an interpreter - i.e. she's been reading it in bed and telling me when an interesting bit crops up. This probably says something about our marriage, but let's not go there for now!
Much of it makes me squirm, but the thing that strikes me most is the assumption that the purpose of a church is to grow. I can accept that my faith in God is a good thing and would love others to have a good thing, especially the most important good thing, however the thought of a church planning all its activities in the light of growth causes me to recoil.
I suspect that the theory is wrong, but I also suspect that the practice is wrong. The theory because once a church gets beyond a certain size (50? 100?) it becomes impersonal and much effort needs to be expended to maintain the structure and artificial means are employed to make people feel personally cared for. These structures all tend to have the hidden (or not) agenda of growth and the purpose subtly changes to supporting the structures. The practice (at least in this country) is suspect because I just don't see the growth coming from people without a church background. I suspect that even though there is the growth agenda it is actually aimed at people who are culturally pre-conditioned to church structures.
So what? you say, and I might agree with you. The thing is I have a heart felt desire to be part of something where the purpose is to be, and to celebrate being - to be what God has made me to be and to see what happens. To wonder at the diversity of what he has made others to be, to love and to be loved, to do the things that seem right, however apparently radical and to accept the result. To wonder and be surprised.
Ah well!

See Barky's blog for his decision to leave THIRD, which has been our expression of church. It is yet to be decided whether THIRD will continue to exist. If it does not, it leaves me in an interesting position - I find it impossible to force myself into the traditional church mould. Comments about buckling down, etc. are not welcome here, as integrity is at stake. I happen to believe this is the way God has led my life over the past few years with much realignment and heartache. So where do we go from here? I suspect the answer will not be straightforward and will involve more realignment and probably more heartache.

I seem to have been too busy to bother with the blog just lately, but here are a few thoughts for what they're worth:
Busyness is the major limiting factor in our lives these days. Just try arranging a meeting involving more than 2 people. Why is this? Is it to do with greed? Is it that there is a cultural expectation on us to be doing something all the time? Are we just not comfortable in our own company? What is the product of this busyness? Is our quality of life so much better as a result of it? I don't know.
I met some people this last weekend who encouraged me. The first was someone who has started and is successfully running a project to help people with disabilities in Cambodia. The second was some friends who have moved to an estate in the North of England and who are just trusting God to make it all work out for the community work and church they intend to start. I'm encouraged because these things are working out. I'm encouraged because these people have hope.