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Shane Claiborne - Provocative and Humbling
 Tonight was the first of our two days with Shane Claiborne, author of 'The Irresistible Revolution' and founder of 'The Simple Way' community in Kensington, Philadelphia, which is probably as far as you can get in terms of cultural distance from Kensington, London. The guys from the Faithworks church and the Eden team in Failsworth were superb hosts as usual - thanks ;-)
The talk was recorded and you can listen to it here, but just to whet your appetite here's a few snippets that really stood out to me. Firstly Shane made a comment about his early Christian discipleship as a teenager. He said 'I became a believer but had no idea what it meant to be a follower.' A very timely word considering the new, revised mission statement from The Message that we want to be a ministry that raises up young people from every corner of the city who will 'truly follow Jesus'. This progressive motion from decisions to disciples shouldn't be underestimated!
I also loved the throwaway line about church, that he and his mates came to the conclusion that, 'We need to stop complaining about the church we've experienced and start creating the church we've dreamed of'. That permission, even commission, to create, is always a necessary starting point before anything new and of value can begin to happen. Well the permission is granted, the commission has been made, we need to respond by allowing the Spirit to work through us bringing new forms instead of old formulas.
I don't think I'm the only one looking forward to tomorrow with great anticipation.
Click the links below if you'd like to buy either of Shane's books.
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matt wilson, 01/05/2008 |
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