[Hold:: this space] has a new look

One of the people who I am linked with via the YouthMultiMedia group on Yahoo is Cheryl Lawrie, an artist / minster / creative thinker / writer / poet etc etc based in Melbourne, Australia.

Her blog and website have been redesigned and put in a new location - if you've saved this to favourites in the past, you'll need to reset your link to this on [Hold::this space]

The site is beautiful, and as a place to share her insights and ideas it works well. Go take a look and see espcially how Church, the arts and public spaces might come together in profound ways.

The wrong questions at the wrong time

Last night the BBC chose to include Nick Griffin, leader of the far-right British National party, in it's weekly politics panel discussion “Question Time”.

I guess it's the watercooler subject today, and I wanted to comment on it too.

I thought Griffin did pretty much what any of us might have expected, he dodged difficult questions, smirked, and gave a far less than impressive performance. If the problem were him alone we'd have little to worry about. A man who can make amazing statements, like the one about the leader of a Ku Klux Klan group that was “an almost totally non-violent”is a joke. Isn't that like “Almost a virgin”, or “almost sterile”?

After the show, on the “This Week” programme Kelvin Mackenzie said "I've never seen a television show in which you felt your stomach turning over. The guy was basically lying his head off to create an image that he was basically a conservative who just had very strong views about immigration."

Given the circumstances Chris Huhne and Jack Straw were particularly impressive, Baroness Warsi was on the money when she said his understanding of Islam was as much a perversion as his claim to be Christian, Bonnie Grier was a somewhat strange choice I thought, and seemed a bit at a loss.

And here for me lies the bigger problem, the way the whole thing was set up, pushed in the media as a story, and ultimately handing Griffin and the BNP what they most wanted, a chance to sit alongside serious politicians in a serious political show. I think the BBC would be right to find some way of having Griffin answer his questioners, but not this. Ultimately the show became about Griffin, rather than the questions of the day, and about the BNP. In a small way this was good, it gave at least one forum to push him to answer, which he simply refused to do, but this wasn't the right place, the right show, or the right time.

The BNP are marginal, and by publicly vilifying them in this way they become the de-facto protest vote. Griffin leaves the show, not giving a good performance, not answering questions, but with a sense that he's been included in the mainstream of political life.

Matthew Paris in today's Times has it right when he states , “that "nobody dared try what, if it could have been done, would have been the most devastating tactic of all [...]: to brush him aside as a small man, enlarged by the anger of his enemies"

Def Jam Poetry - Daniel Beaty "Knock Knock"

Well, I hope you are in a place to sit for a moment at think after watching this. He's a very powerful performance poet, and I was moved by hearing this. Grace and peace.

A Black Country Gathering

With David Coffey, President of the Baptist World Alliance
Sunday 11th October 2009
6.30pm Tabernacle Baptist Church, Wolverhampton

An evening of celebration, encouragement and ministry for churches all across the Black Country.

Tabernacle Baptist Church is on the corner of Dunstall Road and Stavely Road, Wolverhampton, the postcode is WV6 0NJ.

For more information:
Tel:(01902)428962
Email: tabbaptist@btinternet.com

Baptist World Congress 2010

Well, it looks like a wonderful location - the event in 2005 was truly awesome, and a real privilege to be involved with.

Since then our family's grown and the flights will be far too expensive, so although we can't go, I do want to encourage you to be praying, even now, for this gathering next year.

Signs & Wonders in Disneyland

I've been having probs linking to a youtube clip on this blog today - I'm not sure if there's a blogspot glitch, and it maybe that come tomorrow morning there will be the same vid posted three times.

Anyway, here's the clip I mentioned in church this morning. Set aside the cynicism, as well cultivated as it may be, and see some astounding things happen.

I long for the day when the church leaves the building, and when teenagers queue up to have believers bless them.

See the video on youtube here.

Inspired. Danny MacAskill

I think this is about to go viral - at the time of posting this it had 7,125 views.

Just how awesome is this?

And, why am I posting it here? Because I think it has something to say about following the inspiration to go off the beaten track, to attempt the seemingly impossible and to rewrite the rules.

Imagine the kind of church this guy would plant.

Imagine a community that did amazing feats just for the sheer joy of seeing barriers of expectation being broken down, and who aren't put off by the words "but you can't..."