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Easy like Sunday morning

Rob Borley — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 14:31:46 +0000

As I sat on my sofa, first thing on Sunday morning, I thought to myself; "The last thing I want to do right now is get up, out of my seat, and walk to Church." This is not a new feeling for me. it comes and goes from time to time. It's something that I have attempted to articulate before. "Why men hate going to Church" (http://www.threedays.co.uk/2006/09/21/why-men-hate-going-to-church/) and (http://www.threedays.co.uk/2006/06/27/church-the-cross-we-must-bare/) "Church, the cross we must bare." But I have never been satisfied with my conclusions or been able to reconcile them with my earnest belief that Church is an important and necessary part of our our Christian lives. However, this last Sunday morning, something dawned on me.

Sunday is my day of rest. I'm a busy boy with a very full Monday - Saturday. Sunday is the day where I do not do any work at all if I can help it. Watch sport, play golf, spend time with friends and family. This is what I like my Sundays to be about. It's a rest day.

My ideal Sunday morning is sitting in front of Sky Sports (Sunday Supplement, Goals on Sunday, Super Sunday) with a mug of coffee and some breakfast. Then, after a light lunch, play 18 holes. Sunday is the only chance I get to indulge in such pleasures and Church just gets in the way. I wondered if this is in fact the reason why the numbers of men is Church is in decline. Basically, I'm fairly typical. I like my day off. I like to relax. I like to watch the game. Church doesn't tick any of those boxes.

What I (or we, the Church) do about it I'm not sure. However, if this is the simple problem; guys like to watch sport more than they like to go to Church, then we have been over complicating the issue. Maybe the problem isn't some deep, institutional, feminization of Christianity. Maybe it's just that Churches don't generally show Sky Sports!

Posted via email from bobscape’s posterous

Beer and Bible is catching on

Rob Borley — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 10:31:49 +0000

Beer and Bible has been running now for six months or so now and while attendance has been sporadic I think we can declare the concept a success. We are really looking forward to seeing what God will do with it in the new year.

It seems that we are not the only ones in Portsmouth who have had this idea.

I came across this article today and am really exciting to hear that a similar gathering is taking place in the heart of the city.

http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/newshome/Church-gets-room-at-the.5967641.jp

I would say that this inspiration is a sign that God is moving in the area of Church accessibility. Watch this space.

Posted via email from bobscape’s posterous

Beer & Bible: Luke 16

Rob Borley — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 19:04:23 +0000

This week we march on through Luke 16. Things seem to be getting a little strange.

Questions

The main questions that came up were;

Shrewd business man? How can God encourage his behaviour?
What is the story all about at the end? Heaven, void, errrr….?

Discussion

Most of the evening focused on the parable of the shrewd business man. This seems, at first glance, so far removed from much of the rest of what we have read elsewhere that it just doesn’t make sense. God seems to encourage dishonesty and use of other “worldliness” if the end results are going to be positive.

We discussed what this could mean and how it fits with our understanding of how we live in world but not of it. Etc.

This lead to how we use money, and how we interact with people generally. What does it mean to be shrewd for the kingdom.

A great discussion. I think we all left feeling challenged.

Drinks consumed were: Tangle Food, 6X, Carlsberg

Next week

Reading: Luke 17

Venue: The Northcote Hotel (lounge bar)

Time: 20:00

Tags: Beer+and+Bible, Luke

Discipleship: The six week course

Rob Borley — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 16:04:30 +0000

At Church a few weeks ago Matt was attempting to introduce his plans to refresh the idea of cells in our church. For many, cells haven’t really become all that they wanted them to be and as such several new initiatives have started, by way of experiment, to see if we can scratch the midweek meting itch.

I’ve talked about a couple of them already on this site; Beer & Bible and The Exodus Study both came about because of a perceived need to find more than what we were finding in a cell group.

There are many reasons why cells, sadly, haven’t achieved all we hoped (which I think is a discussion for another time) however the upside is that we now have the room to try some new things.

Essentially what was being described was a discipleship group. Discipleship is one of those Christian words that seems to mean different things to different people. As such the suggestion didn’t offer much interest for me. After all, I’m sure many of us can remember re branding efforts of midweek groups before which amount to little more than a change of name. Bible studies become home groups. Home groups become cell groups. Cell groups become care groups (etc etc).

There was one, almost throwaway line, towards the end of the preach that did offer some hope that this was more than just a re branding.

Jesus spent three years with his disciples showing and teaching them what living the life is all about, and yet we expect to learn all there is to know is a six week course.

It’s a slight paraphrase but you get the idea.

While we have no firm details yet of how this will work in practice it does give me enough to be hopeful that as a group of people we are going to attempt to engage in true discipleship. Discipleship that takes time and commitment. Discipleship that is about being Christ’s apprentice, about learning to be like Him.

Beer & Bible: Luke 13

Rob Borley — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 09:21:44 +0000

It’s been a little while since I reported on Beer and Bible. We are up to Luke 14 and it’s intense stuff. We have had a number of new faces join us recently and it’s not been the easiest of sessions to join in. But it has been fun and the new contributions are very welcome. It’s exciting to start to see this grow.

Questions

The main questions that came up were;

Repent or perish? A bit harsh?
Is the parable of the fruit tree unfinished?
Why is the door narrow?

Discussion

We took on a long discussion about the nature of the Kingdom of God. What is it? This led into spending some time with the parable of the fruit tree. Questions were raised about how it could have ended and who the characters in the story were supposed to represent.

The second main topic for discussion was about the narrow door. Does God deliberately make the door narrow? How can people try, and fail, to find their way through it as seems to be suggested in the passage?

Finally we discussed the idea that our motivations might be more important to God than our actions.

It was a really challenging discussion and I felt quite tired by the end of it. Food thought. Good stuff.

Drinks consumed were: Guinness, Red Wine, Coke

Next week

Reading: Luke 14 (the rest)

Venue: The Northcote Hotel (lounge bar)

Time: 20:00

Tags: Beer+and+Bible, Luke

Exodus - The Chosen Ones: Week 6

Rob Borley — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 15:48:34 +0000

Week six of our study of the book of Exodus took place on Thursday 30th July. Sorry for the delay in the upload.

This week I led the group in a review of the course and focused on a question that would keep coming up. How do we reconcile the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament.

This session is entitled “God of Love vs God of Wrath”

Exodus: The Choosen Ones - Week 6

st simons’ Podcast

Habitat of Humanity: Kenya 2009 - We made it…

Rob Borley — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:23:15 +0000

This is just a quick post to say that we made it back in one piece. We survived the crazy food, the insane roads and their drivers, the no running water, the pit latrines and sleep deprivation. We survived the hard labour in the sun and even the Masai and the Lions.

The team were awesome. We completed more than our scheduled build and met some truly fantastic people. Both Kenya, and her people, are beautiful. It all added up to a truly inspiring and humbling experience.

Over the next few days I will be publishing a more detailed log as I try and make sense of it all. I fear my head is still in Kenya.

Lot’s to ponder…

Exodus - The Chosen Ones: Week 5

Rob Borley — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 07:49:04 +0000

Week 5 of our exodus study is below.

This weeks session was entitled “The Glory of the Lord”. We pay special attention to The Tabernacle and The Golden Calf as we make our way through Exodus 25-40.

Amy is in charge this week and the study is taken place at St Simon’s

More detailed notes to follow….

Habitat of Humanity: Kenya 2009

Rob Borley — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 08:19:28 +0000

The time is nearly here we I will be off with a team of 14 people to the Bomet region of Kenya. We are going for 10 days or so to work with the in-country affiliates in building housing for local people that is fit for human habitation.

The group is made up of some of our former youth group members from St Simon’s Church in Southsea as well as a good few randoms to mix things up a little.

We are flying out early, early, early on the 8th Aug for the trip which I’m sure is something that non of us are quite prepared for. I expect we will be challenged and changed by the experience. To be honest, this is indeed one of the main reasons we are going. While we would like to do some good in the world we are under no illusions about going over there and being hero’s. This trip is as much about helping to find some context for us, as young Christians (well maybe I’m not that young but the other chaps are), for our faith where the only other expression is an increasingly out of touch Church set-up.

How does our Christianity play out in the real world?

It will be interesting to see what impact it has. And if we are able to do a little good in the process then all the better.

Habitat for Humanity was founded in 1976, with the sole aim of ridding the world of poverty housing. Using donated money, materials and labour we work in partnership with people in need of shelter to build safe, decent homes in over 90 countries around the world. Today we have built, repaired or renovated over 300,000 homes, helping over one and a half million people in more than 3,000 communities.

We have done a great deal of fund raising for the trip. We hope to leave the charity with a healthy donation if nothing else. The leg waxing extravaganza was a particularly entertaining experience. That is, entertaining for everybody watching.

Donations are still possible, even at this late state by going to my just giving page.

Please do pray for us on our adventure. Coming back in one piece would be nice.

On our return I’ll be sure to post a little update on how it all went.

New Site for St Simon’s Church

Rob Borley — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 12:21:37 +0000

I’ve launched a new site for the Church to which I belong.

St Simon’s in Southsea has had many iterations over the last couple of years but now we are finally all migrated to wordpress and it’s a wonderful thing.

On the site you can now find sermons, newsletters, rotas, calendars, everything you could possible need.

And looks ok too.

http://www.stsimons-southsea.org.uk