Author Archives: Mark

Judy Low is heading out to Egypt for three months with World Horizons. She is going to be working at two special needs centres outside Cairo and utilising her physiotherapy skills. Please book tickets now for her fundraiser in the 18th August. Flyer here It will be great fun, and we want to support JLowContinue reading “jLow in Egypt”

This sunday is the first of our ON TOUR events. We are visiting Moot at St Matthews Westminster [Map] Moot are hosting a labyrinth service which is an ancient form of worship reframed into the contemporary as way of prayer and intimacy with God. Through it people have experienced God whether they are spiritually searchingContinue reading “COTC on Tour”

I’ve been to a few churches around town and they just annoy the **** out of me because they’re so fake, and the people look so lost, and the people on the stage just look so plastic and so charming and so seductive, and I just think ‘I don’t believe in these people’. These peopleContinue reading “The Monastery Revisited”

Below is the video from St Mary’s last night based around a song by aqualung called “easier to lie…”

I’m not planning on making a habit of this, but recorded the talk for last week on DVD. If you missed it you can watch it below. Part 1Part 2

Last Sunday our morning congregation had lunch together and we talked about where our service was going. We had a really good conversation, and you can read the notes from it here:What is next for the morning Service Responses and further thoughts are welcome below. My plan is to draw these ideas together into aContinue reading “What is next for the Morning Service”

We started our new series last Sunday at Church called ‘To the ends of the earth’. The first in the series is The Call and if you missed it, or want a recap you can download it here Comments below as usual

We have set up a part of this website for creative ideas for church, a place to throw ideas around, or ask for advice. I hope it will be a resource for our service leaders or any of you involved in communicating, and a way of continuing our pursuit of authentic creative worship.It is moderatedContinue reading “Creative Consultants”

Bit tired this morning because I sat up way too late last night answering questions on Yahoo’s new Answers forum. It is quite an interesting concept – people get to ask any question they like, whether it is about their homework, or about the existence of God, and then others answer them and you canContinue reading “Answers”

We are going video crazy on this blog – sorry about that. However here is a genius advertisement by a US denomination called ‘ejector pew’ and asking for peoples stories of rejection by church. “God doesn’t reject people. Neither do we”

We have been doing better at being creative this term at COTC, the service leaders have been taking initiatives, and that has had inspired lots of others. Jeremy made a short film about prayer, a beautiful simple piece of work drawing on the image of a message in a bottle.He writes…‘I think the message inContinue reading “a short film about prayer”

I really enjoy making these videos to tie into talks at church, but they take ages to do. I had been meaning to do this one based around my favorite Doves track called ‘Pounding’, and finally got the chance. We used it as part of the talk ‘Son of Man’ thinking about the apocalyptic subtextContinue reading “Son of Man”

One of the questions we have been asking ourselves as part of the vision team is this. ‘If you were to start church from scratch how would it look.’ I know this may seem theoretical, and of course we need to be practical, but I want us to have at least tried to think howContinue reading “Blue sky”

We are desperately sad at the news of Anthony and Peachy’s tragedy. Thank you to all of you who have promised to pray throughout the day. Even if you can only pray for them for a few minutes at your given time we want the Davids to know they are surrounded by our prayers. PleaseContinue reading “Coralie Grace Davids”

As you may be aware we are in the process of reworking the vision and direction of our Evening Service at the moment, and we would value your prayers. As part of that we would be interested in your responses to a couple of questions… If our goal is making and maturing disciples, are weContinue reading “Vision”

Had lots of conversations about this Theological worldview quiz recently, so I thought I would post it on this blog too. It isn’t too serious, and neither is it flawless, but it is interesting and a good discussion starter. Take it here, and post your results in the comments below.

If you are not aware of Kurt Vonnegut you should be. His article in the Guardian last saturday was fantastic writing. Speaking of the hypocrisy in American politics he writes:For some reason, the most vocal Christians among us never mention the Beatitudes. But, often with tears in their eyes, they demand that the Ten CommandmentsContinue reading “If you are not aware of Kurt Vonnegut you should …”

One of the coolest free apps around was until recently only available for windows, but Google earth is now being developed for Mac (hooray!). It is not officially releaced but the Beta version got leaked, and you can pick it up here. They seem to be improving the resolution and you can now see COTCContinue reading “COTC from Space”

I really enjoyed this piece written by Jo, which ellie performed in response to the question What do I fear? I’ve reached the conclusion that what I fear most is constantly chasing down the many things in life which seem to be in perpetual motion – my career for one. What if I never getContinue reading “Chaos Theology: Fear”