Phil Togwell and prayer spaces in schools

It’s Phil Togwell’s turn on Nomad Extra this month.

About four years ago Phil and others at 24/7 Prayer sensed God drawing their attention to some stories about prayer rooms being set up in schools. They investigated further and decided that this was indeed a God thing. They responded by launching ‘Prayer Spaces in Schools’, an initiative that is spreading across the country.

It’s a fascinating and inspiring story. So download the podcast to find out more! 

Happy birthday Nomad!

It’s hard to believe that Nomad was born three years ago.

I daren’t listen back to that first episode; I suspect it sounds painfully amateurish! I can though remember the fear as I picked up the phone for my first ever interview. Tom Wright was great at putting me at my ease, but still the heart was pounding. And recording our first reflection was agony. When Nick pressed record we all just fell silent, we didn’t have a clue what to say. We tried again, and this time we just rambled on about how disillusioned we were with church. I seem to recall the third recording was better, but still pretty wooden!

As I look back over the three years of Nomadic wanderings, the main thing that stands out is how our personal faith journey has been shaped by the podcast. We’ve never just interviewed people for the sake of a good interview. We’ve chosen people who we hoped would be able to speak into the issues we’re currently wrestling with. Our hope is that you might be wrestling with similar issues and so find the interviews as helpful as we do.

We hope Nomad podcast as been as much a blessing to you as it has been to us.

Thanks for sticking with us we really do appreciate it. It’s great to know we’re not on this journey alone.

Tim

Ps. Thanks to three of our local listeners, Rachel, Heidi and Paul, for joining us last night for a little birthday celebration! 

Pete Ward and Liquid Church

We had an interesting chat with Pete Ward on the podcast this month. Among many other things, he’s the author of Liquid Church.

I really liked his emphasis on new more fluid forms of church and mission, while not dismissing older and more solid forms. In fact he spoke very positively about institutional church and how the resources they have are important for the bringing to birth of the new.

Having said that, he took the idea of liquid church and mission further than I felt comfortable with.

I liked his idea of a flow of communicative resources that people can pick up on and how we need to trust in God and that we don’t always have to be the mediators of God to people. I did feel, however, that Pete was taking these ideas a bit too far.

Pete suggested, for example, that even relational contact might not be necessary. But surely relational contact is the heartbeat of Christian mission? Can people find a whole-life transforming relationship with God from individual, isolated spiritual experiences? It’s possible I guess, but surely on-going relational contact (discipleship) has always and necessarily formed the foundation for Jesus-centred transformation.

Some interesting ideas though, and plenty to dialogue with.