So a few weeks ago about 450 of us crammed into church.co.uk to listen to Shane Claiborne tell the story about re-imagining how life could be lived if we took Jesus at his word. I don’t think anyone went away from that gathering not having been inspired, troubled, challenged or simply encouraged to carry on.
I want to share two things, of the many, that challenged me. The first was Shane saying dream big, but live small. How relevant is that in our generation where everyone wants the fast track to making it big without the effort of fostering the virtues that should go with it - ‘Everyone wants to change the world but no one wants to do the dishes.’
The second thing was the reminder, as he quoted from someone else, that ‘It’s fashionable now days to talk about poverty. But it isn’t fashionable to talk to the poor… We need to make poverty personal before we can make it history.’
All is not lost if you couldn’t join us that night. I’d highly recommend, even if you were there, listening to the talk that Shane did at Tearfund HQ on the same day, as it follows similar lines and gives us chance to refresh. Listen to it at www.tearfund.org/shaneclaibornetalk
Shane’s gathering wasn’t meant to be just another meeting that I enjoy but ultimately forget about, yet almost three weeks on and I haven’t taken time to sit down and think about what I felt convicted to change. My guess is, you’re in the same boat - felt inspired, but life moves so quickly that returning to normal was the easier option.
So where do we go from here? Most of us resonate with the desire to go somewhere new, a little more edgy, a little bit more in line with what we want to believe but haven’t quite found the courage to live out just yet.
Over the next few months we’ll be exploring through Journey Beyond some belief-practices that seem to be fundamental in moving forward. Things like practicing generosity, practicing community and living simply - things that seem building blocks as we seek community orientated around Jesus that offers another way to live. The plan is to explore and then commit to fostering these belief-practices with a group of people local to where we live.
Over these weeks we’d love for you to journey with us, take some risks, try a few things, and share your ideas and stories. Hopefully, together we can start the journey of re-imagining a discipleship that is more faithful to what Jesus calls us to. Next week we’ll start with the belief-practice of courage and community.
ACTION POINTS:
1. listen to the Shane recording to refresh your memory, at www.tearfund.org/shaneclaibornetalk
2. List some of the main challenges / issues / thoughts you’ve had from listening to the talk and meet up with some friends to chat them through.
3. Be evangelistic about journeying forward - recommend the Shane talk to friends and encourage them to listen to it and then journey with us as we explore belief-practices.
4. Share a story with us to encourage others, and email it to hello@journeybeyond.org so we can post it on the Journey Beyond site.
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