inspiral blog

What is our honest experience of Jesus Christ?

What public spaces will we create to continue the conversation between the biblical story, the story of our lives and that of the surrounding culture?

These were the questions we invested ourselves in this week, and it was a really worthwhile conversation. These are really fantastic questions – so much in them, just laden, dripping even, with assumptions to be teased out, and meaning and content. For us, much more than the answers or results generated, the conversation was incredibly important. We ranged over who Jesus is for us and why to alternative stories and regular ones; from economics to relationships to commitments. Bible stories came up as part of the conversation; meanings were debated and teased out and challenged. Desires and hopes and fears were aired, a sense of vulnerability yet tentative courage expressed.

This is such an experimental procedure for us, even just to try it and see what happens. I want to thank Marcus and the rest of the Seeds crew for trusting their baby to us. Already it’s paying off in a myriad of ways for inspiral as a ‘mob’, and I trust will continue to into the future.

This week was simply devoted to Forge and John Dear events. See other spaces for more detailed responses to these.

Forge was a really good networking opportunity for me, so I met a bunch of people I wouldn’t otherwise run into, let alone hang out with. The nonviolence session went pretty well with Jarrod, and the response was definitely positive. Earlier that morning, Brian McLaren had set our session up perfectly by basically doing half of our session, meaning we could go deeper than we’d intended, which was just awesome.

John Dear…what can I say, just brilliant. If you missed it, don’t fear: I recorded all his main session, so they should be available soon.

Marcus Curnow came this week to tell us all about Seeds, where it comes from, and what’s it’s about, and to introduce us to the “Know the Word” portion of the Seeds covenant. Seems like some really good synergies for us, and some significant differences as well, which will hopefully only enhance the wider Seeds conversation.