Christmas - it's not happening

After getting excited, the inevitable dip occurs ... I met up with some of my new friends to discuss a potential Christmas geocache. The other 2 parties had come with some ideas. We eventually decided on a secular seasonal song as the theme and one group volunteered to set the caches in their local area. My job will be to try them out before the final geomob event.

So on that front all is well, except I got a bit disheartened that there was no real Christmas theme (apart from possible mince pies). Somehow I'd imagined kings and donkeys, etc., making an appearance - I'm just so conventional!!!

Hubby reminded me I have to get to know them first (simple evangelistic technique - doh!).

But my own inner thoughts of doing something locally have not worked out either - I suffered a bit of a depressed fortnight and lacked any motivation for doing anything at all. I think I'm missing my holidays I haven't taken. So unfortunately guilt has set in for not achieving anything when the potential was there for the taking - still, only 3 weeks to Christmas, no really local geocacher friends to come, and I'm taking refuge in the thought that no-one would have come anyway - a true pessimist!

Instead, I'll have to think about Easter, and enjoy the secular Christmas mob and look for Christmas/Jesus opportunities when we eventually do the mob (a gathering of geocachers).

At long last ...!!!

Good news!! I’ve finally managed to locate some fellow geocachers and have some fun with them. I found a web forum for a group that were having a Hallowe’en night cache, so I managed to sign up and get involved. When we arrived we found a lovely group of people, some with their families, who had come from far and wide to participate in this event.

What a great night it was, and we all had fun! We found broomsticks, pumpkin lanterns, spiders’ webs, bats and cats with glowing eyes, ghosts and finally the treasure trove – and along the way the kids (big and small) ate plenty of food including spider cakes (although these were surpassed by brownies later on).

OK, so some people might consider it the ultimate sin to be involved in a Hallowe’en activity, but this is where the people who enjoy what I enjoy are (and I was at a party of light the night before). But the adults gave the kids with us loads of opportunities to find the caches and get the sweets first. It was a joy to watch adults give way to the children – there was a real community feel; just like a church should have. I could really see the whole idea working as an emerging church, at least on some levels.

They’re talking of a Christmas one, and I would love to do something like that in my local area – it’s given me some great ideas, so I’ll have to get working on that, as it all took quite a bit of effort. But it would be a great activity to bring new people together in my area – with some advertising it could work!

I’m so grateful to God for introducing me to these new friends; even though several of them were located 50 miles away, some of them were fairly local. I’m so excited about the possibilities of this idea now.

Thanks Lord! And it was all in your time…

Commemorating life events

So ... I was at a funeral the other day (this is not a joke) and it was an interesting experience. Two thoughts occurred to me:

1. The funeral was for a stillborn baby, so very sad – but it was beautifully done by the parents, who chose several contemporary songs for everyone to listen to, interspersed with some lovely readings/poems. They also had a large photograph of the hands of the parents and brother intertwined with the tiny baby’s hand, as a focal point for the service standing behind the tiny coffin.

The ceremony seemed to be a great example of the non-religious (or non-churchy), but deeply spiritual age in which we live. I was actually experiencing first hand something of what we’ve been learning about over the last year on my course, and it highlighted the importance of contemporary music (with no singing, Steve), prose and art in achieving spirituality.

But .. was it spiritual? The minister included a Bible reading, but the main ‘spirituality’ came from the music. Interestingly, Heaven was mentioned in one of the songs. But was this a form of ‘church’ (as defined by Rowan Williams in the Mission-shaped Church foreword)? Was the possibility of resurrection life through Christ celebrated?

2. The other thought was ... how on earth could I expect to achieve in a ‘geocaching church’ the commemoration of one of life’s certain events in quite such a tasteful but fully Christian way? Will people always expect to gather together in a church building, or would they just gather anywhere to celebrate or commemorate life’s major events with (or perhaps as) the body of Christ, the church?

Comments on a postcard, please ….

(And, yes, leaving co-ordinates for a final resting place did briefly cross my mind!!!)

The search continues …

I’ve been on holiday recently and had opportunity to introduce 3 more sets of friends to geocaching. Unfortunately, as usual, these are all friends who don’t live near me, so the possibilities for a geocaching emerging church are again extremely limited – more like a virtual circle of keen geocachers!

On all occasions when we were out, the walking between caches provided an opportunity for us to talk about church where we are; we’ve passed information about how mutual friends from my old church are doing, and also talked about how the church I serve is doing. The walking is a good space for that.

We’ve also taken the opportunity to admire God’s creation, seeing wildlife and nature up close, and often involving dead animals. If I’d been with people new to faith, I would have taken those opportunities to talk about how life always includes death and a fight for survival (some might say a bit too much Darwinianism here (?), but it is a bicentennial year!) – my doctrine teacher in College always used to talk about nature being ‘red in tooth and claw’ (a quote from Alfred Lord Tennyson's In Memoriam A. H. H., 1850 apparently). I’d have also talked about the fact that God never said becoming a follower or disciple was an easy road.

Although I’m disappointed about the lack of friends or new contacts I’m making locally, I’ve again take comfort in the fact that the people I’ve introduced to geocaching have all said ‘This might be a good activity for the whole church to do’ or ‘I’d like to do this with some of my non-Christian friends – it could be a useful communal activity that would allow us time together to chat about all sorts of things’.

Clearly geocaching is a good activity, which interests some people, but it does require a good friendship base, which I don’t have. Still, there’s still another year to go …. or is there?!

Techno-caching

I’ve ventured into the realm of Facebook, but have not managed to tame the social networking scenario for my purposes, mainly due to indecision. I only have one idea of how to ‘tame the beast’, which is to open a group specifically for geocachers in my area. But how do I get people to join it? Is it just good fortune (I suppose I should say providence) when people join?

Or should I just come out of the closet and call the group ‘Geocaching church’, like Messy Church? I read the first Messy Church book recently and was interested to note that the author had given alternatives to Messy Church, such as ‘Green church’ or ‘Eco-church’. Or should I go for ‘Natural theology church’ – a catchy name that trips off the tongue, right into the land of nod… zzzzz

To be or not to be …. ‘up front and centre’ or ‘closet and amorphous’ …. now that is the question!

PS. Can’t wait for Splinterheads to come out. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vSWSXaAyP4

Geocaching gets grown up!

Got my weekly geocaching news bulletin only to find out that I'm now indulging in a grown up sport - so grown up it features in the Financial Times no less!

Check out: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/f16b1dce-a18f-11de-a88d-00144feabdc0.html

Introducing new people

Well, so far my attempts to introduce new people to geocaching have gone quite well. Had some friends up from Eastbourne mid-August with their kids and we went to a local beach. When we were completely scorched we took shelter from the shade and did a few geocaches in the afternoon – their first. My friend had been unable to see why I enjoyed it, but once youngest son found the first cache, the whole family got involved. Even dad has been known to leave the comforts of the office at lunchtime, and even his PSP, and go geocaching. The day after they went home they did 14 in one day! I’m so jealous – I’d have to travel miles to do 14 where I live. That’s the problem with living in lovely rural isolation.
However, my attempts to introduce non-Christians to Jesus through geocaching have proved somewhat less successful! But despite this, my friend from down south has now got several of the young people in her church interested in the whole idea – after all, it’s free, cheap, outdoor fun for the whole family, even grandparents and friends, so what more do you need?

So now I’m wondering … having explained to my friend why I think geocaching is going to be the new green alternative to Messy Church, is it my job to give others a new evangelism tool, rather than be a successful geocaching church planter in my own right?

I still think there’s some comfort in God saying to Abraham in Genesis 15:5 ‘Look up to the heavens and count the stars – if indeed you can count them. …. So shall your offspring be.’

It’s not quite as much fun, but for the moment I’ll take comfort in being the innovative, early adopter of a new church planting strategy.

Geocaching video bar

Hi out there! I am feeling particularly pleased with myself, as I have just managed to add a slideshow of geocaching pictures and also a video bar of geocaching videos, that I’m watching as I’m writing. What a techie whizz I am!

Hope you enjoy them – they at least give you an idea of what I’ve got linked up to. Love the first one ‘From the web to the woods’ about going out and seeing things in your area that you’d never see otherwise. It’s so true – it’s a great opportunity to get out and see God’s creation in detail.

Just about to take some new starters out with me now. Gotta go!

Getting started

Well, I’ve been having a lot of fun geocaching, although I was beginning to wonder whether all geocaches are located at odorous emergency toilet facilities, especially in France – but thankfully I did some lovely ones yesterday.

Anyway, I’ve been trying to get some geocaching friends, which is much harder than anticipated. Although it’s possible to ‘befriend’ someone via the website, there aren’t that many geocachers in my particular location; they’re all in the regional cosmopolitan metropolis 25 miles way, so virtual church is becoming much more of a possibility!!!

I’ve also braved the social networking arena, but again the drawbacks of this are that almost all my friends are already Christians and from my denomination. So I’ve decided to limit my friends to those who aren’t members of the same uniform wearing brigade, which makes me look like ‘Billy no-mates’ in the process. The intention is to set up a group for my unsuspecting emerging church, but I have not dedicated the time to suss out how to do this yet.

I’ve also spent some time this week designing a poster advertising that I will do guided geocaching/treasure hunting around my area on two afternoons starting immediately. This would be fine if the summer weather improved and anyone decided to come! I thought it would be a good ‘touristy’ thing to offer for the summer months, although it has the drawbacks of attracting tourist rather than regulars/locals. Hopefully it will develop.

All in all I’ve been trying to do things, but have missed out on the one important thing that might actually achieve something, which of course is praying about it. I’d better put this at the top of my list of ‘things to do’.

At the Louvre getting the point!

Been on holiday in France and managed a couple of geocaches whilst I was away. They are a really nice addition to a day out or an evening activity instead of watching the telly or playing games. Also, I’ve been looking up some of the references Jesus made in the Bible to hidden treasure: unsurprisingly they all seem to relate to the Kingdom of God.

One of the caches I did whilst away was at the Louvre museum. There’s one hidden near the giant glass pyramid that featured in the Da Vinci Code film (by the way – Angels & Demons is good too, so go and see it). Paris was crammed with people, even though it’s not quite full blown tourist season, and the Louvre courtyard was crammed with people. There must have been about 1,000 people there, and there was me trying to extract, supposedly in an unnoticeable way, a hidden geocache in front of 1,000 muggles (muggles are those not into geocaching – also something to do with Harry Potter; the newest film I have yet to see).

So there I was, as a shortie, clambering up the walls of the Louvre museum to reach up to this cache. What a kid! Hopefully not one of the 1,000 people saw me (or else they thought ‘what is this nut doing climbing the walls!’). I believe that if you do something openly in broad daylight with lots of bottle hardly anyone will notice.

And whilst researching Jesus’ comments about hidden treasure, it struck me that, once again, geocaching is like the Kingdom of God:

Thousands of people have heard about the Christian faith but don’t see it in
action, or dislike what they have seen. The real Kingdom of God is taking
place right under their noses, but they are missing it, because it’s sometimes
so obvious. They might even be doing it or participating in it themselves,
but not even realise it.

Jesus was right when he said ‘I praise you Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.’ Luke 10:21

I can’t help it – I love being child-like, it’s so releasing. And it opens your eyes to the kingdom of God. So come on – find your inner self, be a child and meet with God!

Risk-taking, ‘village leaving’, active experiences

One of the things that’s been troubling me about this project is telling my church members about it (for various reasons). However, they each have friends, and it would be instant access to people through them. On the other hand, if they don’t get the whole idea of emerging church, I don’t want them just to see it as a way of bringing new people into our existing fellowship, as that’s not my purpose. But I’m not sure if they’ll understand the idea of a self-sustaining community that isn’t ‘church as they know it’.

Anyway, Steve Chalke wrote an article in Christianity magazine in January 2009 that featured (in brief) a story about a young man setting out to find the source of the river that flowed through his town. He sets off and goes missing for a year until the annual river worship time comes round, when the young man re-appears and discloses that he’s actually found the source of the river. Maps are drawn of how to get there, books are written about it and other paraphernalia produced, yet no-one goes and does the same. After a while everything reverts back to normal – no-one ventures out on their own adventure to discover the source for themselves because it is still considered too dangerous a journey to make.

The point of the story was that Jesus gathered followers (apprentices to his style of living) to journey with him, to live alongside him and learn through practice. As a rabbi He taught on the move. So life for every rabbi’s apprentice became a literal journey of learning (i.e. not book learning or knowledge gaining). With a rabbi, the whole of life became a risk-taking, ‘village leaving’, active, experience. Somehow, this is what I need to show to people through this new emerging church – a journey through life, making mistakes, getting it right, reflecting on experiences and trying alternatives, all in the manner of our true rabbi, Jesus. If you know the Rob Bell Nooma DVD 'Dust', it's time to get dusty!

I’d pondered how to use this article in a sermon for my congregation, and then one day, when I was re-reading it, it dawned on me – I could tell them that this is what I’m going to be trying to do with my emerging church project. So last Sunday I cast my doubts to the wind, and told my congregation Steve’s story and something about my project. Luckily, I didn’t hold my breath expecting a barrage of eager questions, as absolutely none were forthcoming! Nor did I get anyone asking if they could join in. …. Which leads me to wonder:

(i) Is a travelling dialogue better than just preaching at people?
(ii) Will I ever manage to get anyone to come with me?
(iii) Were they all asleep anyway?
(iv) Why was I so worried?

Back to the drawing board…..

Is this furkling going to work?

Been trying out the actual geocache business myself. I now have 7 finds to my name, which means that soon I'll be on my first milestone of 10 finds (and Stephen was right when he said I would turn into some sort of nerd/anorak)! I've also had a few that I couldn't find. And then there was the one I did after giving a talk for work, so I was in a skirt! I thought I'd try and fit in a quick one on the way home and found myself furkling in the undergrowth amongst knee high nettles. There I was mincing about trying to avoid getting stung and thinking 'Will this furkling about really work?' Needless to say, I was unsuccessful at finding the cache, so will have to try again.

So far I've taken a friend from back home with me and she seemed quite keen on the idea. She likes a little walk now and then, and thought this treasure hunting idea would be a nice additional twist. Then I took another lot of friends who were visiting us, a family of four with a pushchair, gave the 5 year old the GPS device and told her she was in charge. Oh, the power!! 'You can't walk in front of me because I'm the leader' became quote of the day - sounds a bit like the sort of thing we say to God: 'Follow me, I'm in charge of my life and if you could just fit in with my plans, O Creator of the Universe, and not interfere, that would be really helpful.' They enjoyed themselves and were found checking out the website later on. I explained my plans to both of these sets of friends, and they think it could catch on (nettle rash more than anything else, I think).

Then my charity shop manager asked me what I was doing this weekend, and wrote down the geocaching website address to check it out for herself. It's in the bag!

So the upshot of all this is: it seems converting people to geocaching is easy. Converting them to Jesus will be another matter! Well at least I'm getting some sermon illustrations in the process and enjoying the Norfolk scenery and wildlife - on my last cache today I walked past a quail and her family of 6 new-born babies (quailettes?), they were embedded in the hedgerow and the babies were no bigger than the top of my thumb - wished I'd had my camera. Been watching too much Springwatch obviously.

Why hidden treasure?

Welcome to my first ever thoughts in cyberland!

Why hidden treasure? I'm doing an emerging church course at Cliff College (and having a lot of fun too). One of the assignments is actually starting an emerging church. So having struggled to get to grips with the fact that a thinker, reflector could possibly become an activist and do something, I then had to rack my brains about what this possible emerging church could be!

Finally hit on this idea, given that our tutor said church should be fun (and I'm all for that - I need some fun in my life) - I'm going to start a geocaching church. Cool, hey?

Never heard of 'geocaching'? Geocaching is what I would call high tech treasure hunting. Alternatively, it's walking with a purpose. Get a hand held GPS, log on to the geocaching web page (geocaching.com), find out where there's a cache hidden near you, bung the co-ordinates in your hand held and then you're off. The great thing about this is that you go outdoors in the gorgeous weather we've been having, get the wind in your hair, the sun on your face (or the rain down your neck) and experience life as it really is!

The 'hidden treasure' concept is that Jesus often talked about the kingdom of God being like hidden treasure, so in the process of having fun, chatting with anyone I can persuade to come with me, and hopefully throwing in some food along the line, I'm hoping that we might be able to discover some important things about God's hidden treasure of the gospel of Jesus.

Want to join me? Hop on.