continuing the conversation

Over at Simon's blog he's written a good summary of the church conference last Saturday. No doubt he'll be adding to it at a later date.

In the meantime it's fallen to me to type up the discussions and reports that were generated by the small groups and the plenary sessions. A quick glance (through the clear plastic wallet - I haven't been brave enough to open it yet) reveals a lot of discussion that has been faithfully recorded. That's fantastic and will generate material for future discussions and ways forward. While I'm processing that, it'd be great to hear your thoughts here...

If you'd like to post rather than just comment then please email me and I'll get an invite sent out to you - just bear with me if it takes a few days!

Picking and choosing

In preparation for this weekend's conference which is entitled 'missionary journeys...' we have been reading through 1 Corinthians 3 - it's the chapter entitled 'On divisions of the Corinthian Church' in the NRSV which is a tad disconcerting.

Notwithstanding I have found it useful, challenging, thought-provoking as well as forcing me to look at what I'm doing to build God's temple, dare I say even correcting and reproving me? Sounds like another well known Bible passage? 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says that 'All Scripture is inspired by God' and is useful for all the above. Some commentators manage to translate this phrase 'Every inspired Scripture' which insinuates that not all Scripture is inspired or at least some is more inspiring than the rest and hence not all Scripture is useful.

It is tempting when faced with a challenging passage like 1 Corinthians 3 to pick out the comfortable bits and ignore bits like 'If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy that person.' But I believe we do this at our peril - the final bit of 2 Tim reminds us what it's all about - that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for God's work.

Now that's God's word so I'll leave it there.