What is church?  It’s a question that seems to keep cropping up in Dock World – when there’s no building, Sunday service, hymn book or holy place to provide a straightforward answer.  Have a look at this brilliantly funny video from YouTube:

Aside from making me feel suitably uncomfortable (have I ever done any of those things?  ahem….), it asks a really good question: beyond our traditional/contemporary/”contemporvant” distinctions, what is it that we’re all about?  It’s the question that really lies behind the formation of The Dock Book Group – or (its working title – whaddaya reckon?) ‘The Itch Book Group’.  Over to Minion to explain:

These gatherings will hopefully be a forum for discussion for people that perhaps want to ‘scratch that itch’ when it comes to thinking of new ways of being/doing church.

What a great time on Saturday – discussions aplenty!  A BIG thanks to all who turned up at The Streat to join in the conversation.

Taking influences from the Franciscans, the Celts and the Moravians, Punk Monk talked about ancient faith in the modern / contemporary world.  What really appealed to us was the whole idea of embracing creativity, ‘allowing the mess’, things not in a neat and tidy box and all worked out.
Our God is such a creative God, he loves diversity and creativity – why do we try to put everything so neatly ‘in a box’? We’ve all got different talents and gifts – let’s put these great gifts to use.
‘Remember that CS Lewis saw in Jesus ‘Aslan – the not so safe lion.’

We set ourselves a challenge, based on chapter 8 ‘The Practice of Creativity’.  We agreed there would be absolutely no pressure to do this…but that if we wished to take up the challenge it would be good to be accountable to each other. This challenge could be undertaken at any point over the next month or so, before our next time together.
So over to you….

For those of you that couldn’t make it along on Saturday – why not take up this challenge too?
If you have the book, take a look at the end of chapter 8, and if you think you’d like to take part, pop us an email and we’ll hound you! (in a very nice way of course)

Now for another challenge…!
Our next book for discussion is ‘The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical’ by Shane Claiborne, available by clicking:

http://www.eden.co.uk/shop/the_irresistible_revolution__living_as_an_ordinary_radical_111388.html

or:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/search?index=books&linkCode=qs&keywords=0310266300

or:

support your local Christian bookshop by actually handing over hard cash in a shop – now there’s a radical thought for you!

Shane Claiborne seems to have spent his life scratching this itch we’re talking about – and he comes up with some very interesting answers.  Get a hold of the book, pour yourself a cuppa, read it, disagree with it, be challenged by it, let it provoke you – and then meet up again at The Streat @ The Odyssey @ 12noon on Saturday 12th June for the next Itch Book Group.