very interesting 'article' on BlahOnline

i checked the blahOnline website yesterday for an new feature articles/book excerpts and found a great one. its the feature right on the main page entitled 'contextualised truth into youth culture' and is an excerpt from a book titled 'The Shaping of Things to Come'. i strongly recommend everyone reads this little excerpt, it is incredibly interesting and slightly challenging (which is just the way i like it). i think the writers, Alan Hirsch and Michael Frost really have a neccesarily radical stance on contexualising the Gospel, while remaining very grounded in their philosophy and retention of basic precepts such as viewing the Bible as the inspired Word of God (holding onto its authority) and the uncomprising of the Gospel. i am not doing a very good job in summing up their ideas, so please go to the site now and read the article, which is quite long, for yourselves. i found it incredibly inspiring and have clarified some things within myself about how to really live out a faith and mission to my local culture that is both relevant and Christ-honouring. please post any reactions/thoughts that you have after reading it, i would love to enter into a great discussion with all of you about this idea.

in a related matter, BlahOnline is actually the virtual form of Blah... a group that meets once a month (i believe) and discusses current topics relevant to our current state of the world/our response to it. this wednesday, they are having their Christmas meeting which will be about 'gospel and justice' and will feature Brian Mclaren as the guest speaker!!!!!! obviously, i will be attending this as Brian's book 'A New Kind of Christian' has been absolutely instrumental in my longing/desire to enter into new forms of 'doing church' (thanks to Ben W for buying that book and letting me read it). anyway, i'm sure i will blog about it sometime later this week as i'm sure it will be incredibly thought-provoking and challenging. please pray that God will speak through Brian, that we may get a glimpse into God's heart on the subject of the gospel and justice.

holy friggin crap.....

wow, this has got to be a record.....two posts in one week. now, don't get used to this, 'cause i assure you this is an anomoly. anyway, as i posted earlier, i went to the Zero 7 concert last night and let me tell you......they are, by far, one of the most talented/awesome bands there are now-a-days. the first two songs they played are the first two songs off their new CD 'When It falls' and what a great idea that was. i didn't realize they had 3 different female vocalists......i thought they just had two. from what i have read, the third one just joined for this album and is a solo artist originally from Denmark (she sings 'Home' and 'The Space Between' on the new one). anyway, i was so definitely impressed by the show that if i hear of any other time they are playing anywhere near here, you better believe i'm going.....sooooo friggin good. i took my camera along (i finally remembered to bring it) so check out my online photo gallery early next week and i will have some decent pictures posted from the show. hope all my American readers had a great Thanksgiving and got drunk off of the melatonin from the turkey; its such a nice feeling.

happy thanksgiving......gobble, gobble

hello everyone, its wednesday afternoon and i'm taking a break from work (shh......don't tell Sam). so, tomorrow is one of my favorite holidays and i don't get to spend it with my family or friends, but i do get to go to a friggin great concert (i'm trying to convince myself that the concert makes up for it). i am going to a Zero 7 concert, which are one of my favorite groups at the moment. anyway, i am a little bummed about not being able to be home for Thanksgiving, eating all my fav foods: turkey, stuffing, potatoes, a lovely relish tray, Anderson Ericson chocolate milk, and of course the great conversation with family and friends. at least one of my friends here, who is from Virginia, is going to have a nice Thanksgiving feast saturday night with tons of people....so, i guess that'll be cool. the only thing is that i hope i am able to find a pumpkin pie at a grocery store around here, i don't think its too popular around here.

i attended Video School this past weekend up north in Bushey sponsered by a media group called CTVC. i must say, it was not exactly what i thought it was going to be like and it was really tough and stretching, but incredibly worth it in the end. i was put in the intermediate group (which sort of scared me at first, but it turns out it was the right thing to do) and then broken up into two groups of 3. each group was given a brief about a certain situation we were to make a documentary or news report on. it didn't seem to bad at first, until we really got into it and i realized how much stuff goes into shooting a news report/documentary. we had to come up with the concept, then plan exactly what we were going to shoot and where we were going to shoot it in order to bring across our concept. anyway, long story slightly shorter, it was a really great experience and i really feel like its increased my confidence behind the camera; which is nice. well, i must get back to work, have some turkey and watch some football for me tomorrow my fellow Americans. i am incredibly looking forward to seeing some of you in about a month.....i can't wait!

almost forgot.....

crap, i realized i forgot to say something on my last post. my trip to Wales was excellent, though it was too short. speaking of forgetting, like a lame-brain i forgot to take my camera along with me on the trip (it was locked in a guy's trunk from the soccer match i went to the night before.....which was really freakin' cool by the way). however, one of the girls that came along did bring hers and she was so kind as to send me the pictures she took. so i have added them to my online photo gallery (a link to it is on the left), enjoy.

what a grey/beautiful day

here i am at the Glow Lounge on a cold, grey London afternoon and its simply beautiful. they have free WiFi here, so i've been here for the past 4 hours checking e-mail and working on a video for one of the prayer stations i am putting together for tomorrow night. i suppose the workers here are quite sick of seeing me, wondering why the heck i've been here for 4 hours on a saturday afternoon. anyway, things are going well, they had fireworks all over the city last night (as well as last saturday) for a British tradition/holiday called Guy Forks (i'm sure thats not how you spell his last name, oh well) in which all the local communities have bonfire/fireworks nights; very much like the 4th of July, except in this case they are commemorating the attempted burning/blowing up of the house of Commons. yes, this is quite a strange reason to "celebrate", but its quite fun none the less.

last wednesday, i went to a huge London-area College fair for Communication Design/Arts with Sam Jones. holy crap.....it was awesome. Sam had e-mailed a guy ahead of time from the Chelsea College of Art and Design (actually the head of the Design Communication course of study) and he wrote and said to come to the fair and talk to him in person (Sam was nice enough to tell them i would be coming along as well). his name is Geoffrey Thomas-Shaw and he was really cool to talk to. he took time out to talk to the two of us specifically and answer any questions we had. let me just say, it was incredibly encouraging to talk to him. he said that nearly half of the students he accepts have no experience in design, don't even have a portfolio, but he likes to give them an equal chance because he feels that if he meets up and talks with someone, he can get a good idea of the person's passion/personality and will deside on that. anywya, it was totally psyched after we talked to him, he made me believe that i could really try at becoming a design student. so, if you guys could pray about that, to ask God to show me if he has that for my life......that would be so blankin' cool. i suppose anything is possible with God, i mean.....i am in London, after all.