Is living enough?

Had a great time last night out in Newport. The first night of Stuffed went really well – thought it might be doomed when we suddenly found out another church was planning a student event on the same night, but luckily we started an hr and a half before them so we managed to share the student audience rather than split it. It also meant I got to sneak into the Pulse event at King's Church afterwards – which seemed to go pretty well. They're renovating a big building just down the road from their church building so it looks like a bit of a building site right now, but they've got the basement kitted out with pool and foosball and table tennis and sofas and stuff – coupled with some atmospheric lighting it looks pretty cool. They also showed us some "adverts" for their upcoming student events – which look very professional just like the rest of the church's publicity.

Went to the campus with Del on Tuesday to do out weekly chaplaincy slot thing – which we need to decide what exactly we're going to do with. As it was we spent a lot of time hanging around in the refectory – and got to chat to G and Louisa who were lunching. But all around doing the chaplaincy thang we were conversing about incarnational living.

We were asking the question "is just living with Jesus inside us enough? Or as the chaplaincy do we need to more than just hang around and be there?"

Obviously with the Lab and missional church in general, the idea of being a living witness and just serving is a big theme, and I think it's fantastic, but is there a danger that "Jesus living within me" sometimes becomes an excuse for us not to seize the opportunities that God gives us to tell others about Jesus?

Using the analogy of us being lights that reflect God's image – is it enough that we just exist shining away or do we have to make an active choice to let the light shine from within us?

It's good to be in the crowd – God calls us to embrace the society around us, to be part of humanity co-existing, but does he call us just to be one in a million others – or is he looking for us a make some noise and let people know that we're there?

I feel like I've asked a lot of questions without really trying too hard to answer them – but maybe that's a good thing, is asking the right questions more important than giving the right answers? (Feel free to explore the subtle humour in that last sentence)

Got half an hour to try and get started on another fieldwork journal or at least plan it out before I head off for Ignite…