Pilgrim's Progress

Corporate Psychopaths ...

Powerful words from Peter Heslam of London Institute of Contemporary Christianity:

"According to legal definitions, the corporation already is a person – to the extent, at least, that it enjoys all the rights to life, liberty and property as an individual human being ... Unlike humans, however, who must answer to the people around us, the corporation is accountable only to its bottom line ...

All the evidence, the producers [of the film "The Corporation"] contend, points to a clear diagnosis: the contemporary corporation is a 'psychopath', displaying no sense of guilt for the damage it is causing to the planet and its creatures."

Sorry I'll Read That Again

Had to read this sign twice ... (it's in Warwick Castle)

How Will You Spend Yours?

The rights and wrongs of the Iraq invasion can be debated at another time, but once again, the innocent suffer. Child malnutrition in Iraq has almost doubled since the Iraq invasion. See also Howard's blog for an article on child soldiers.

Lord, have mercy ... I'm not a politician by any stretch, but something is badly wrong when so many lives are being wasted like this ...

Bono said in a recent TV interview with Alistair Campbell, "Celebrity is currency ... I want to spend mine well."

For those of us who have roofs and disposable income and leisure and enough calories in the fridge for a small army, how will we spend the currency we've been given? Our time? Education? Money? Homes? Spiritual Heritage? ... Some helpful and practical ideas here.

His Brightness Comes Dappled to Us

Kyoto

Without really understanding it in-depth, the Bush administration's refusal to sign up to Kyoto for economic reasons is of great concern in two ways:

1. Elevating local interest at the expense of the wider good
2. Choosing to put the economy before ecology

It's easy to be hypocritical (how many 1/2 mile car trips have I done?), but with great power comes great responsibility ...

Alt.Worship or "Altertainment?"

Now that student placement is over, I can say that one of the best things has been creating digital artwork for use in worship.

It's great when the creation of the artwork is woven into the worship. I would love to have the facilities to create digital art live during an act of worship and weave them in. Watch this space! I also find that making beautiful things for God is one of my favourite ways to worship. (The theme of our most recent DREAM in Haydock worship)

However, there are some issues to work through with more exploratory\media rich worship:

Emerging Leadership: Broken or Intact?

Continuing this series - another two extremes in tension with each other ...

What kind of leaders will turn out to be most effective in the emerging church? Should a leader be intact or broken? Both? Once again, this is thinking in progress but here goes with trying to tease it out a bit ... please throw in your own thoughts and wisdom ...

1. Intact Leaders have got it all together
   Broken Leaders have been taken apart.
2. Intact Leaders have all the answers
   Broken Leaders have lots of questions.
3. Intact Leaders earn admiration
   Broken Leaders earn respect.
4. Intact Leaders focus their energies on leading
   Broken Leaders focus their energies on following.

My own journey of discipleship and emerging leadership is (for now at least) one of being taken apart and put back together, not one of smooth perfection ... God seems to desire complete surrender as much as radical effectiveness. See also ...

A Prayer ... may God break us gently until we learn to walk in joyful submission, that he might raise us up to be mighty and humble in his service.