Things to Look Out For

So I better look to get this book then!

For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
dmcd

September Update

Do you think I enjoy these gaps? Really? I mean back in the day when I wasn’t so fussed about getting stuff done on the blog it wasn’t such an issue. Now, in the light of a good run in July and August I was all set for September to continue the trend. Yet with a number of pressing assignments and engagements I’ve not even had the opportunity to make as many notes as I’ve been used to making anyway.

With that in mind there have been a few thoughts brewing to blog about. There were some that I could have considered blogging about like – what is the difference between Christians and non-Christians in an age where the behaviour of both doesn’t differ that much? What would a church look like if people knew what it was to be submissive to each other? How has America affected the way we live?

I finished reading the Diana Ross biography on Friday and it made for fascinating reading. Today in fact I was all caught up her most memorable song of my lifetime; the Barry Gibb inspired Chain Reaction. I’m Coming Out has also been in my head for the majority of the day today. I know it’s been adopted by the non-heterosexual community to express their freedom of sexuality. I hear it in a completely different way where it is actually the emergence of the finished product from the cocoon state. From a theocentric perspective it is good to be in the position where after so many years of living within yourself you’re able to discover what you’re meant to be and flourish in expressing it.

Currently the books I’m working through are an analytical view on Hugh Hefner that I’ve had from the library for at least three months now and I haven’t got round to making my way through it, the Oona King diaries and of most interest to me is Stuart Murray’s Post-Christendom. What Murray proposes really has some serious implications for our perspective on life as Christians today. I am looking forward to making a more detailed review of the book on completing it.

Still, just a short one for today to let you know I miss you and I’m glad I’ve posted today.

For His Name's Sake

Shalom

dmcd

What's DMCD Reading At The Moment?

I don’t usually blog on the Sabbath unless it’s on the topic of the Sabbath. I usually keep this time for family. Here I am though with my family enjoying life and embracing the rest as well as hopefully getting something good to eat eventually when Authrine has completed the sorting of Abigail’s hair. It is taking a while. I am hungry, but the Lord is feeding by the word.

This is not a long blog entry, just to update you on what I’m reading presently. Over 2009 there have been outstanding books in each quarter. In the first quarter saw the dominance of the brilliant The Call by Os Guinness. Not sure if I did a proper book review, but whatever you do, wherever you go – get this book. Brilliant I tell you. Then in the second quarter of the year I read Gordon MacDonald’s Ordering Your Private World which greatly assisted in the … errr … ordering … of my … ahhh … private … ermm … world. Truly though, this book really highlighted some issues that were so long neglected that it was the much needed wake up call and supportive tome to the Call.

So as you can imagine I was looking forward to the third quarter of the year to see which book would be the spiritual breakthrough. Funnily enough I had got the book towards the end of the second quarter in the year from the Beacon House of Prayer based in the northern part of the city. BHOP is a tremendous resource for the work I do at the YMCA and they have a fairly decent resource library. I’ve been meaning to give Richard Foster a chance ever since I started his book on the Freedom of Simplicity. I’ve wanted to read his book on Celebration of Discipline for years now, but never got round to it. So it was quite the surprise to get his book Streams of Living Water.

At first I didn’t pay it too much attention as I was completing the reading of some other books. Eventually I picked it up and gave it a bash and found it to be gripping reading. It is not one of those books that you cannot put down. It is one of those books that you cannot finish reading a section of because a thought will arrest you and leave you contemplating it for quite some time.

It really is quite something to be reading about such a generous approach to the different traditions that has influenced Christianity in its 2000 plus year history. I recognise just how much I’ve had a narrow opinion on faith and never really embraced the deeper historical aspects of what makes it such a rich and vibrant faith. It’s not about ecumenicalism as far as I’m concerned, but it is about appreciating yet again that when Jesus returns He will rightly ask if we were prayerful, holy, evangelistic, peace-makers through social justice, Spirit-filled and incarnational. Our tendency to be selective amongst these has meant we’ve missed out on so much faith in Christ has to offer. I hope to give a more detailed book review on completion on the book.

Other books on the go include the Kenny Dalglish autobiography of over 10 years ago. I’m still reading a number of football biographies (Paul McGrath, Sir Alf Ramsey and a Brian Clough tribute to name but three) as well as one on Eric Bristow who played darts don’t you know. There are a number of recommended books that I have yet to tackle and as I do so, I endeavour to keep you posted.

For His Name's Sake

Shalom

dmcd

Updates and Churches vs. Denomination

Now I could just go back to the series on fasting and give another part of the amazing journey of learning about God all the more. I am excited to do so and have lots to write. In as much as I want to do that, and this is not the launch of another side-track series of posts on something else, I did want to create a gap in going from one series to another to establish another personal update.

First and by no means foremost I’ve already fallen off the wagon. Yeah, that’s right after spending a few months back in the library swing of things taking the books back on time having read them and everything recently I slipped back into the pattern of gaining loads of books, reading some of them but just not being diligent in remembering when they are due. As a result a number of books are overdue and I owe some money to Stoke-on-Trent libraries. I’m not proud of that, especially seeing as though I could have renewed the books by phone as well as online. I will learn from that and get better. Hopefully.

My mother is currently with us. It is still weird having a parent living in my home. It’s just odd having her ask me if she can use stuff and do stuff. I’m like … errr … this isn’t right … shouldn’t I be the one asking you? Still, it’s good to have her around. She is a great help with the children as Authrine and I need to get to work during the week. So I’m grateful to God for her life.

July has been a better month blogging-wise here than it has been of late. I’m particularly pleased to note that all the entries posted this month have been pure writing entries without the aid of YouTube clips and I hope to continue this for the rest of the month. From there into August, should God spare my life I won’t be too fussed. It’s just good to church out this material and be able to post it for your perusal as well as for posterity. The LJN’s have also picked up business a bit more over this month which is positive and I’d like to keep that going in August likewise.

Since 2000 if not since before I’ve been asking questions about church and how it should operate according to scripture. I have not come to a firm hard place where that exploration is concerned but there are some things I’m beginning to see. Firstly I’m not sure what benefit there is to denomination. Not ruling it out completely, but it’s something doing local church stuff it just appears as though there are more administrative man-made problems to do with the concept than the alternatives. Not to say I’d leave the denomination I’m in but it does remind that my faith in Christ and His church is not necessarily the same as wholeheartedly following the whole denomination game.

Secondly I’m very interested in growing as church – especially as a group of individuals committing to live life together and support each other’s spiritual development as they get to share their faith with others. Some things that should not be taken for granted are and it’s as though relationship with God and the brethren is not approached seriously. Then, however, there are glimpses of grace that reassures me that it’s worth persisting in and keep the faith in the Christ who gives His life for His bride.

These thoughts are set to play a significant part in some future developments, but just watch this space for more details as and when they arrive. I’m keen to focus on God and what He wants of me in this particular season and I believe He will guide me in every aspect of life in a manner that fulfils His call for me. I’m nervous about it and excited. Keep praying.

For His Name's Sake

Shalom

dmcd

Mentor Birthday and Other Things

It’s good to reminisce now and again. I was just sitting here putting together the strands to various blogs and interspersed in all the writing and sorting I looked back on some of the earlier blog entries on this blog. It’s quite something reading about how I introduced my family and some social justice issues. Man, back in the day I could write. That’s not to say I’ve dropped the ball, it is to say I have hope to continue writing when I read stuff like that.

I was thinking about combining two strands of thought and making one blog, but on further consideration I thought it better to just leave it to two separate blogs so I can get on with the series on fasting on a different trend to keeping you up to date with a couple of things worth mentioning.

First it’s worth mentioning that as you read in yesterday’s blog I really began to take fasting a bit more seriously when I loved in London. During that time I had my first real spiritual mentor. Previously I was more or less left to my own devices in terms of being grounded in a relationship with God. It was Ritson Shields who took me under his wing and supported practically as well as in other ways to help me grow in my relationship with God. He helped me to get excited about some of the things of God and there’s no doubt that he helped me have a greater appreciation for exploring the things of God and taking my teaching passion seriously and wider than the denominational setting.

I say all this because today is his birthday. (OK it was today when I wrote even if it’s yesterday when I blog it!) Not quite sure how old he is, but I’m sure that’s completely irrelevant. This blog allows me to publicly declare my appreciation and love of him. There are times I wish we were physically closer as for all the benefit of modern communications, nothing beats intimate personal contact.

So on this his birthday I trust he had a good one and if you don’t have other followers of Christ that you can count on to help in your journey, please find them because they are worth their weight in gold. We were never meant to do this journey solo and ideally our local church is meant to be that expression of intimacy and grace that allows us to grow together closer to Christ and each other. I know realistically the ideal remains a challenge, but it is still possible to have close relationships in the Lord that echo Paul and Barnabas, Peter and John and other famous double-acts and group settings.

I thank God for you Ritson and trust that others will come to know the benefits of being mentored into growing in love with Christ as you have mentored me, sir.

I also thought I’d use this entry to again promote some of the other blogs to which I contribute. All year long my reading has increased a great deal and I’ve enjoyed that fact with one or two books standing out above the rest. I may have made private notes about them here and there, but I am looking to begin reviewing the books a lot more as there are so many values and other things of interest to gain from them. So where pertinent I’m putting up book reviews together, some on this blog and some on the sister blog Among Friends. Recently I finished reading the biography of Billy Joel by Bill Smith called I Go To Extremes and it gives me great pleasure to commend to you the review I’ve written on it. Look out for more reviews from time to time.

In terms of settling at home, I’m a lot closer than I was two months ago, but it’s still a longer process than I thought. Things at work are picking up slightly and I feel a bit better for that. One outlet of that will be greater activity on the web from me on the North Staffs YMCA site, so be sure to check it out as and when stuff changes. As well as all that I’m going through some challenging times personally in terms of getting focussed only on what God wants me to do. I’m sure I’ll blog on that sooner or later. Speaking of blogging later, there’ll be more on the current series of fasting very shortly. As ever thanks for your time in reading.

For His Name's Sake

Shalom

dmcd

Blog Notes and Reader Reflections

Here are some things I’ve noted from what I’ve seen around the web today.

In the season of leadership it’s refreshing to see this particular approach in the classic I don’t want to tell you something that I am going to tell you so I am going to tell you.

This is a good message for those who take bible reading lightly. I am obviously in complete agreement to the findings.

Tim Chester finds the time to lead a church, lead a family, blog regularly and write another book. So you see what I’m aiming for, eh? Well at least in terms of writing a book … and blogging regularly.

So we’re looking to be a church in the city, but what about the church of the city. Of course I’m talking more than a single denomination or expression dominating things. I’m talking about engaging with the conversation that Alan talks about here with the trans-congregational church. Along with the multi-cultural community of grace this is a pursuit worth going on in as much as it can be explored.

The Simple Pastor has an interesting web-site because he’s managed to get it to do quite a lot of things for a blogger account. He also asks the intriguing question of the blogs followed with something like Google Reader. So it’s worth making a record of what I read:

6 News feeds – five are from BBC News
29 Missional Feeds – some overlap between them (i.e. Driscoll, Mars Hill and Resurgence)
13 Media Feeds
54 Gospel Feeds
42 Football Feeds – including some overlap like Sky Sports and BBC Football
24 Church Feeds

Giving a total of 168 feeds. Reminds me of the episodes of how many hours of television we watch in a week. I obviously skim over most of the blog entries, but tend to make a note and link to outstanding entries.

Being still relatively new to it I’m not on top of the blog sorting yet. When I was younger so much younger than today and didn’t need anybody’s help in anyway it turned out that I could do with quite a bit of help actually. Our English class did an exercise where we all calculated how many hours of television was viewed in a week. Various answers came from the friends around me – 12, 7, 6, 5, one person obviously didn’t have a television and then there was the spectacular 20 hours. Mug that I was and a sad one at that (in hindsight) I had noting better to do with my time and so having calculated it on a number of occasions it came up the same answer. I watched 36 hours of television a week. Unsurprisingly I’m not so much of a big fan of television these days and have got it under control to a large degree. Obviously this is because of the advent of the Internet, laptop and Google Reader which now takes up a considerable part of my time. I’m currently subscribed to 168 feeds ranging from topics like media, gospel, football, church, news and mission.

For all that, what prevents me from being glued to the laptop catching up on the latest from Mark Driscoll, Marvel Comics, John Piper, Liverpool Football Club, Dave Bish, Dr. Who, Adrian Warnock, BBC News, Prodigal Jon and The Simple Pastor, et. al. is that I have a wife who needs a husband, children who need a father, a church that needs a brother, an employer who needs an employee and a Saviour that calls me to follow Him. So there are good checks and balances in place to let me know when I get over the top and is always willing to bring me back to some of the other valuable investments in my life. Living life to the full for me includes catching up on why Liverpool won’t win the league and how amazing the love and grace of the Father is to me online. It also includes sharing this life to the full with others in the flesh and sharing some of the findings online with human touch relationships. It’s by no means a perfect balance as yet, but I sometimes reflect on how pointless it would be to have godly men positively influencing me to follow Christ only to idolise a gift given to benefit the process of following Christ. So I try to keep a good measure on things – but that’s the whole reason why I endeavour to seek God’s wisdom to give me a good balance in life.

For His Name's Sake
Shalom
dmcd

Wot Is Up With dmcd - 05-01-09

I'm trying a thing, bear with me, I've never been the most patient or diligent user of modern technology, so I see something that works and then post it and it doesn't come out quite as I was hoping, but I keep my errors LIVE on the blog so I can see the progress I take with this thing.

In any case as the subject heading suggests, this is just a quickie of sorts. I'm not Mr 22 Words as some people are (not that I'm jealous in anyway ... well not a lot anyway ... well not on a Monday night ... usually). Anyhow, I'm making an effort with this blogging thing - I am and as with all things I'm taking it one day at a time!

So for today's update I'm happy to inform you that since about 23rd December I've been blessed with two books that are currently my passions and excitement. It's not always the case that books have the power to grip me and actually shift and reinforce some thinking in me, but these two are definitely having that affect on me. How I know this is that I'm aware of my own struggles and failings all the more and at the same time even more aware of God's grace in my life and a desire to love Him more. Those two books are Os Guinness' The Call and Tim Chester's You Can Change. Now sure people may have read these books before, but I haven't! These are two great books which I'm hoping to review soon!

Other than that the heat is on in preparation of the launch ceremony and dedication service for COG Training & Conference Centre. There's also a meeting for a local association that I chair on the same day as the launch ceremony. So things are a bit hectic at the moment and there be demands this way and that. For all that I want to keep up the blogging thing even to keep you informed on progress with things. So there!

For His Name's Sake
Shalom
dmcd

Books and Darts

Read a really interesting article by Tim Challies on reading. Reminded me of some things I can take into consideration when looking at the books issue. I want to take this advice on board and find a time to get more books!

Oh and as well as that you may remember my little celebration of reaching the awesome 180 blog entries with a tribute to Bullseye and Tony Green. Well I was in our local pub recently and usually I just go in, have a few J20’s, a packet of nuts and good chat with some friends. Recently I noticed that they not only have a dartboard but TWO dartboards AND one of which has an electronic scoreboard next to it! My mate knows the owner – top lass she is as well – and she plays darts and may teach me to play, although seeing her play I’m not sure if Stevie Wonder maybe a better teacher. More importantly on Wednesday nights they have competitions and they’re apparently the best pub in their league. What a great way to build relationships, get in the culture of the community and learn one of the games that has taught me more about theology than a lot of Bible studies I’ve had in my time. Bear that in mind when you pray for da man cd to be successful in these exploits!

For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
da man cd

Family Introduction and Social Injustice

In continuing my endeavour to give an appropriate context in which to assess me allow me to give you the basic statistics on my family. As you may have gathered elsewhere, I am a happily married man – she’s happy, I’m married. (Cue drum roll and cymbal crash and audience laughter.) But seriously, I am blessed to be married to the most beautiful woman in the world and as such it would be remiss of me to even consider posting a photo up on this here blog. You see, one of the things me and the wife share is a love of Columbo. One of the classic things about Columbo is that you never see his wife, and so in tribute to the great detective, you ain’t gonna see mine either … unless you’ve already seen her … in which case that’s your blessing, but I shall not divulge the nature of her physical beauty for such a wide audience to behold. Were it just the physical beauty that would be in itself of interest, but nay, my beloved should have a character and personality that far outshines her physical beauty. Ahhh she is such a wonderful woman that sometimes I shake my head and smile in gratitude at the goodness of the LORD.

Anyway, that be the wife, whose name is … the wife. We are also blessed to have a beautiful daughter who goes by the name Deborah. She will be a year old on 29th December, so please mark that in your calendars and remember we only need cash for her at this time as a birthday gift. Cheques should be made payable to Christopher Dryden and preferably have more than two digits to the left of the decimal point! Deborah is a delight and is my first child so I’ve had a really … interesting time getting to grips with the challenge of fatherhood. I’m in two minds as to whether to conduct a full analysis into the varying smells and sights of a baby’s faeces here on this blog, but as I’m aware of the delicate stomach that may be attached to the eyes of the reader I shall leave it for request only. Needless to mention, however, isn’t it fascinating? It is to me. Thankfully there’s so much more to Deborah than the solid output from her daily digestion and I’m sure you’ll find that out as time progresses.

The final part of the close family cast is Kevaughn who is the 12-year-old son of the wife. I am not his biological father, but while he remains with us I accept virtual parenting responsibility for him. He calls me Dad, I call him son, we get on alright. He’s a bright, enthusiastic, bubbly kind of boy – really intelligent and creative and a future chief executive of his own airline, so I’m playing my cards right now, so when I need a Business Class seat on a trip to New York, I know where to go! Who says being a parent doesn’t have its perks?

So that be the main cast, there are the rest of my family as well to introduce, but I’ll do that in another entry.

Now onto the main course of today’s entry. I love reading. More than almost anything else I can thing of, I enjoy reading. So I endeavour to have reading material with me wherever I go, even when I’m depositing waste in the biological method (go to the toilet for the less literate of us). Today whilst I made me usual 50-minute walk from the local town centre to the place of my abode I read something that struck me as good blog material. It’s from a book called Bono on Bono: Conversations with Michka Assayas. At this point I hope the lawyers will allow me this direct quote without fear of litigation, indeed this could be seen as part of their marketing strategy to reach a huge audience … or not. Anyway the quote is as follows:

“What’s always bothered me about the fundamentalists is that they seem preoccupied with the most obvious sins. If those sins, sexual immorality and drug addiction, come out of unhappiness, then I’m sure God wants to set people free of that unhappiness. But I couldn’t figure out why the same people were never questioning the deeper, slyer problems of the human spirit like self-righteousness, judgementalism, institutional greed, corporate greed.”

This quote is part of the talk that Bono has on his first encounter with the televangelists of the U.S. It struck a chord with me on the real tragedy of Christianity today. By the way for those not in the know, Bono can be described broadly speaking as a Christian. I’ll leave it at that, as I don’t know that much more about the guy, but that I’m fairly convinced of. What really came across as so true in this quote was just how obsessed we as Christians can be over certain sins rather than others. Rather than spreading and preaching the liberty with which Christ can set us free, the view is easier seen of judgement being passed down on the ‘losers’ of this world. No compassion, rather condemnation. I know of which I talk as I am a member of church, I do consider myself to be a follower of Christ and I am more than aware of some of the areas in which the body to which I belong sometimes contradicts the heart of the Christ of whom we are meant to be followers.

It’s such a challenge. On the one hand there’s the legalist nature of Christians which is sometimes masked as observance of God’s commands. On the other hand there’s the licentious compromise of the values of God that is disguised as grace. The walk is so narrow … and yet that’s exactly Christ’s point. The way is meant to be narrow, it’s meant to be challenging. Following Christ is not there for us to be popular, but neither is it there for us to be irrelevant in the world we live in. As long as we don’t share the love and righteousness of God through Jesus Christ we fail to deliver the true gospel message.

What, however, particularly irks me concerning the contradiction is what Bono alludes to in terms of Christians being quick to condemn sexual sin and slow (if movement is made at all) to speak out against a world that legalises greed and covetousness through that great word CAPTIALISM. I mean look at that word – capitalism – capitalise, to take advantage of, to grow greater and better than others, the amassing of capital. It’s no coincidence that the poor in society are left behind because they’re not high up on the agenda when it comes to capitalism. Now before anyone accuses me of being a socialist or communist, or anarchist, or whatever I can state clearly now that this is not the case. I am in the process of writing something on political ideologies and a Christian alternative that I hope to complete at some point before I die, God willing. The point remains, however, that a just society must put as a priority looking out for the welfare of those who are the ‘least advantaged’ in society. Just as Christ came to save the lost and bring liberation to those captive, so a just society looks to bring liberty to those who are captive to economic situations. I’m not talking about encouraging people to scrounge off the state, but I am talking about encouraging people to know that they’re not on their own that they are part of a community and society that passionately cares about them fulfilling their own call for their own sense of worth and the improvement of the community.

That’s why I get so excited when I consider how our gifts can be used in society to radically bring change to the lives of people through the power and love of God. I get excited because it’s not just something that makes me feel good inside, but it’s something that gives me a passion to reach out to others. It’s something that makes me want to stand up for what’s right in God’s sight. It’s something that makes me more compassionate for those who are yet to realise who they really are.

I don’t apologise for going on like this. Hey, this is my blog, I am entitled to go on a bit within reason. Yet I understand only too well that this is where the problem is for so many believers. When we speak out for right in God’s sight, the first place that it must start with is ourselves or we bring disrepute on the very word we proclaim, and yet as believers we don’t have a choice. We have to live out all that we hear God say and see Christ do. For me it is such a struggle, especially as God reveals to me who I am, but it’s a worthwhile lifelong struggle to be able, through the grace and power of God, to stand up and make my life count for something bigger than me. That others can benefit from. That others can grow from. That others can be challenged and blessed by.

That’s me for the day. I was going to write about the Sabbath, but I’ll leave that for another entry, so you can look out for that. In the meantime, have a great weekend, if I don’t write to you before the end of that. Ah ha, that’s something I almost forgot. Beware the Jephthah Factor. I know that not everyone lives up to their word, but I’m endeavouring to be one of those people who do. The real gift is to know when to open your mouth to establish your word, when to keep your mouth shut, and what to say when you open your mouth, or else you may find yourself regretting having ever opened your mouth in the first place. If you don’t know what I mean, check Judges 11.

Right, that about does it for today. Until whenever, Shalom.

l8r

da man cd