Books

I'm loving having time to read again. I've finished The Emerging Church, a book I'd recommend highly, I don't think I can fault it apart from repeating some things a bit. Now I've properly started I Capture the Castle which is lovely with a capital L. Ben has declared it a girls' book, though maybe that is what makes it lovely!

Favourite bits so far:

'Noble deeds and hot baths are the best cures for depression.'

'I believe it is customary to get one's washing over first in baths and bask afterwards; personally I bask first. I have discovered that the first few minutes are the best and not to be wasted - my brain always seethes with ideas and life suddenly looks much better than it did. Father says hot water can be as stimulating as an alcoholic drink and though I never come by one - unless the medicine-bottle of port that the vicar gives me for my Midsummer rites counts - I can well believe it. So I bask first, wash second and then read as long as the hot water holds out. The last stage of a bath, when the water is cooling and there is nothing to look forward to, can be pretty disillusioning. I expect alcohol works much the same way.'

Any book which mentions Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice can't be bad. Although maybe twice 100 pages in is rather excessive! Never mind, I'm engrossed and can't wait to get home from work tomorrow.

Walk to Trousers (otherwise known as Trowse)

Ben took the SLR and did clever shots while I messed around with the digital. Apart from when we swapped. My camera has to go away for repair again *sigh*.

Christmas at Ben's parents

The Emerging Church by Dan Kimball

I've been crawling through this book for months and decided to start it again properly last night. It's all making much more sense now, especially when Ben's in the room and I can explain and question bits with him, makes it easier to take in.

The outline of it so far is how we're changing from a modern worldview to a postmodern worldview, and what impact that has on how we do church and how we evenagelise - how do we go about explaining the gospel to someone who believes that whatever makes you happy is good? It has a handy table summarising the ancient, medieval, modern and postmodern worldviews, with input from Brian McLaren's material in A New Kind of Christian.

The book hascomments from different authors and prominant Christians throughout. One that was particularly interesting was from Brian McLaren:

'We would be wise to really figure out what we and others mean when we use the term relativism. I find that few people really believe that all religions and viewpoints are equally valid, even though many people assert this, using these very words, and do so with vehemence. Sratch the paint and see what they really mean underneath is this: "I am desperately afraid of what happens when people become militant and arrogant about there beliefs and values, because htere is only a very fineline between militant and arrogant... and violent." Living in a world of terrorism, ethnic cleansing, and racial-ethnic-religious hatred, they feel that strong beliefs and values are dangerous. Rather than arguing about the absurdity of their statement (because saying that all religions areequally valid is, no doubt, absurd, we would be wiser to affirm their desire for peace and to encourage them to hold this belief or value in peace... strongly! We may gently be able to show them how Jesus takes this very course in the religious world of his day, and how the cross is a message to the world saying, "It is better to suffer violence for your beliefs than to inflict violence. This is the way of God's kingdom." '

All in all, it's an interesting read.

Update

Shocking lack of posts lately, sorry about that. I've been working and doing lots of overtime (extra money :) and not doing much else. Winter evenings are lovely for being cosy at home and playing games. Sequence is a current favourite, and chess too but only when I'm winning.

I've had Wednesday to Friday off this week which has been great, I've done loads of housework, visited Mum and had time to experiment in the kitchen. Toad in the hole went a bit wrong but apple crumble is hopefully going to be delicious later! I spent most of yesterday afternoon in Marzanos reading 2 Samuel, a post about that later perhaps.

Ben and I went to see Memoirs of Geisha this week. It had some breathtaking scenery in it, and it was a very beautiful yet sad story. It's next on my reading list once Ben's finished it. At the moment I've started I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith; judging by the first chapter it should be good. I've also discovered Neville Shute's books - A Town Like Alice is so antiquated and lovely, and the forum library pleasantly surprised me yesterday by boasting a chunk of books by him.

As for DVDs, latley we've watched The Island (yay Ewan McGregor!) and The Mask - I can't say I was impressed, Jim Carey only has so much comedic talent.

Other highlights of the past month or so were going to Helen's 21st party and baptism (great!), Ben having his debit card cloned and £400 stolen (not good) and going to Surrey Chapel pretty regularly (undecided). More posts soon!