Emerging Scotland meet up

I went along to the Starbucks coffee shop in Glasgow last night to meet some folk for the first time.This came about through the Emerging Scotland site and a desire to put some faces to the people who post there.
Firstly let me say Starbucks would be the last place I would ever go to meet with anybody in town just not my scene.SO I went along feeling a but stupid and nervous not knowing anybody.But I'm glad I went it was great to meet people who are on a journey that is open and honest .

After some general chat I found myself in full flow and relaxed .So a big thanks to those who listened to my chatter and to those who chatted back.

Rangers


Picture says it all.

A new thing!!

Trying to understand God is a bit like trying to catch the wind.

Over the last few years as a group we have been through many changes but our group remained about the same size.We gave up on the whole idea of church growth in fact we killed that golden calf .
But all of a sudden people have started to join with us.These people are not being asked to come along and spend time with us.They are asking if they can come and join with us on our journey.Some of them have been hurt in the past by religion some have been hurt by life and some are just hungry for God.
So as we thought about why now and what God was up to we came to the only conclusion we could which is that somehow or other people must be seeing some thing of Jesus in who we have become.So our job is not to try and figure it out but to respond to God and those around us and give them the courage they need to move closer to God .I feel blessed to be part of peoples journey and hopefully we can respond the way Jesus responded to those who came to him.Show them the kingdom and then walk with them whatever comes along.

Bankers and MP's

So now its the turn of those honourable members of parliament.

Voted for by us paid for by us the tax payers.Watching them and reading about them this week has made me think about whether or not God might be involved in this whole thing behind the scenes.
Is it him who is now revealing to us the results of our culture of greed.Has he decided that enough is enough and opened the door so we can all see what our country has become.I don't stand in judgement of any MP or banker who have reached out and grabbed all they can .But I do want to see our country move away from this culture that rewards simple greed.

Our country has rejected the idea that being productive is a good thing and run headlong down a path that put all its energy into finding more and more elaborate ways to steal money instead of working for it.
The banking crisis and this (expenses crisis ) for MP's are rooted in the same basic problem.Everything was hidden in complicated ways that we the punter were never going to find out on our own.The banks were able to come up with ever more complicated ways to sell money.No one tried to stop them .MP's were able to come up with a system of expenses that nobody really knew what they could or could not claim for .And through time they just claimed for anything.They governed themselves and now God has brought it out into the open for all to see.This is our chance to make sure we have not only a good open and accountable system but to root our the worst abuses of our trust.