I had a great time this evening. I’ve been at a conference about Emerging Church Issues and it has been most interesting. One of the keynote speakers was Bishop Graham Cray, It was good to hear him speak again. The first time I met Graham was when he came to speak as a worker for the Pathfinders Movement it was away back in the early 70s maybe even late 60s. Look I’m getting really ancient. Anyway I met up with him again when he invited me to join a missson team he was leading in Harrogate to young trainee soldiers. I remember it was a really good week. I think ~i was a theological student at the time. I always remember he had an incredible knowledge of pop culture and music. He used it to good effect when communicating with the young troops. Graham has continued his interest in undertanding our changing culture. This conference is all about finding ways to empower people who feel called to do church a different way.

The question is how diffferent can church be? Somehow the reality is that we all need to have our own personal encounter with God. Community is very important but even more important is the way we live out the teaching of Jesius inmour everyday lives. Church for me is not a noun it is a verb a doing word. I also get a feeling sometimes that the real emergent church is what God is doing right now in our lives. Anyway its alsways good to be able to enter into discussions about topic that we all need to address and with which we all need become familiar.

One thing I have learned these past few days is that God cannot and will not be put into a strait jacket.

Stuart