Si Johnston, who has Tony Blair hanging around his church today (don’t call security !!!! – the PM is giving a Faithworks lecture today from the building), has announced his departure from the Oasis Trust and Church.co.uk. Big bummer for Si and somewhat of a shock. Si started the emerging church HeadSpace 2 years ago, and has been the main innovator behind Protest4.com, a project that will help stop human trafficking. I know this sounds like an obituary – but the fact is God has lots of things up his sleeve for Si. U may want to encourage him on his blog today.
I like the way Si describes his church:
“headspace is an urban Christian community which exists because God is love. We desire to be a tangible expression of this reality in the specific location God has given us. In doing so we understand ourselves as being one people with a shared vision and vocation. We are orthodox in our theology but risky and fledgling.
In being constantly surprised by God’s grace and by the distance between God’s coming kingdom on the one hand and the brokenness of life on the other, we can do little else but put our faith to work. We reject the separation between contemplation and social activism. Intimacy with God and involvement in society defines us and permits us, in the words of one of our forebears, to ‘rebuild the ancient ruins and raise up the age-old foundations’.” Link
I don’t want to put words in his mouth, but when I saw Si last week he was very philisophical – if not excited about it all.
J
Wow–what a blog. My spirit identifies with yours and with Si’s!! This is my first time here–I’m an emerging church planter in a suburb of Nashville, TN. When God called us to start this new church, I quickly learned the vision He had imparted in our hearts was unlike anything else in the area (but then again, I guess ALL visions should be unique and different). What a mysterious God we converse with. He gives and takes away, He raises up and brings down to the grave–He loves unconditionally, even emerging generations who “know not the Lord, or what He has done.”
I don’t know about yall, but what an adventure it is to serve emerging gernerations. I’ll be back to this blog…you guys rock.
thanks jeff
hi joe – you are right – si sounded disappointed last week on the phone and there is more to the story – but i would rather have Si tell it his way and in his own time, than having me put words in his mouth – just like you.
thanks for your accuracy check on my post!