Eternal Echoes

beyond the them and us syndrome....

Dear Church,

yes I am writing to you again, writing because I hear your desire for renewal and growth, I am also writing because I need you to know that I do not have a quick fix solution to bring people flooding through our doors. Let me burst a current few myth bubbles; "they" are no going to come if we install a data projector and install a screen, "they" won't come because we have decided to replace the organ with a worship band. "They" might come to a special event if you invite "them", but it is unlikely that "they" will come again on Sunday morning....

Oh and while we are talking about Sunday morning I'd just like to say that I think we've blown its importance out of all proportion especially when we measure our successes by Sunday morning attendance, or use it as a barometer of our health.

I wonder if you'd come with me through the doors to meet "them", your friends, your neighbours, your children even, these are the  folk who don't come. It is easy to criticise "them" in our meetings and gatherings, but when you get out there amongst "them" the picture is quite different. You'll find you know "them", that you understand "them" and even dare I say that you like "them".

So maybe the question is not so much about how we get "them" to come, but more about how we share with these friends and neighbours and families of ours the miracle and mystery of a living relationship, our living relationship with God. I think you will find that most of your neighbours won't want to argue the finer points of doctrine with you, but they'll probably accept a helping hand and even a prayer in a time of need. Or maybe it will be the other way around, maybe the gracious and humble way that you accept their help will speak to them....

Be confident in your relationship with God, it is not about knowing all of the right answers, we'll never know all of the right answers, but it is about the mystery that we are loved and accepted by the creator of the universe who knows us through and through with all of our faults and flaws. It is about the peace that passes understanding in the most difficult of circumstances, the light that shines in dark places, and the hope that will not let us go even in the face of adversity. 

Here is a wonder that we too often forget, Jesus ministry and mission did not stop at the cross for he overcame death and was raised to life, fullness of glorious resurrection life, and this is the life that he invites us into. And while we so often remember that the cross is where all of our wrongs are forgiven, I wonder how often we focus upon our unworthiness and forget that the cross is where all of our guilt (often self imposed) and shame is also cleaned away. I wonder how often we wear masks, brittle and hard masks of self sufficiency because we feel that as Christians we should have it all together. I wonder if sometimes we have worn them for so long that they have become a part of us. I wonder if we are aware that our friends and neighbours and children, "they" see something false in us because we are not being true to ourselves or before God.

So here is the challenge, lets not focus on attracting folk with technology and trying to be up to date for we'll fail there anyway. Instead lets focus on living out a life of love, let's focus on being Jesus disciples living with our own brokenness in a broken world and seeking to make a journey towards wholeness and daring to invite others towards us. Let's dare to become again a living and vibrant community of faith able to live with our questions and the questions of others. Let's become a people who celebrate life in all of its richness and diversity, let's value one another for who we are, learning to love God, others and even ourselves as we journey together. Let's not worry about Sundays but rather seek to live this celebratory life everyday, let's learn to be our true authentic Christian selves with our friends, family and neighbours, lets stop referring to "them" as "them" and work towards becoming us for we are all on a journey.

Maybe we need to stop fretting and worrying and start being, maybe when we seek for  renewal and growth in ourselves we'll begin to see our lives touch the lives of others. Maybe as we seek to  be generous with our lives. we'll prompt people to open up with God, our generous Father in heaven.

Can this be wrong???

Over the last few weeks I've noticed a rise in the number of face-book comments and blog posts surrounding the question of the role of women in the church. These are coming from all sorts of angles and traditions, and while my usual reaction these days is to simply let this rumble on around me like so much white noise, every now and then it makes me really angry, and today is one of those days. I am not angry for myself particularly but angry for friends, good friends and good ministers who keep on getting hurt by stupid, yes stupid comments from people who try to put them down and question their calling. I have received a couple of e-mails just today from Godly women who are being treated appallingly because they are women, one e-mail said that the attacks, and don't get me wrong I am not using the word attack without thought, the attacks, are often followed with the loving phrase, "nothing personal of course." 

Nothing personal???? You mean it is OK to question someones calling, their inner being and then say "nothing personal???" It is not OK, it is very far from OK, and that is what has prompted me to write. I am not going to set out a Biblical argument as to why women can and should be ministers, and how complimentarianism is wrong, quite simply because I know that I will be inundated with those who will throw proof texting counter-arguments at me, and we could get into a theological slanging match which is not something anyone would find edifying!

Instead I'd like to share a little of my journey with you; I was brought up in an unchurched home, and when I came to faith in my twenties it did not occur to me that women and men were anything but equal in the eyes of God or of the church. I was soon to find out that I was wrong, even though I knew an early call to preach and to be an evangelist this made others uncomfortable and I have been counselled to stop being pushy and to consider what other women in the church did. This seemed strange to me because many of these women were competent professionals, but when I did a double take I discovered that within the church their teaching was often confined to Sunday School ( and there is a whole other debate there) , and their activities to "creative things" like baking and flower arranging. Don't misunderstand me I like cakes and enjoy flowers, but I am not gifted in either of these creative outlets in any striking way. BUT I am pretty good with words and I can preach, but the criticisms rumbled on, I was even accused of "stealing" my husbands ministry!

In the 1990's Tim ( mu husband ) joined an evangelistic organisation who conducted week and fortnight long missions, I too joined in with this, and while I was accepted as a team member and even a second in command leader, I was never allowed to lead, even though I have a letter from the founder of the mission quoting General Booth who said; " some of my best men are women" followed by the statement " such are you".

When life took me into Lay Ministry in the Methodist Church it soon became clear that God was calling me to take another step and to offer for Ordained Ministry, through the years of interviews and training that followed that call was confirmed again and again. BUT I still meet opposition, and the naysayers of my early steps into ministry have not all melted away, and sometimes they can be very loud indeed. Usually my stance, as I have said, is to ignore these voices, in effect turning the other cheek and allowing the fruit of ministry to speak for itself, but when I hear of my friends and colleagues being hurt and abused it makes me see red, and I simply ask those who are involved in critisising to take a deep breath, step back and look.Choose to lay aside all of your well formed arguements, your traditions and prejudices and look, look at the good being done by women ministers and priests, look at the creative and innovative ways that they work, see the fruit and the blessings that they bring, and ask yourself, seriously ask yourself, can this be wrong?

church alive......?

Come with me to Church, walk up the path and through the door, I hope that you will be welcomed warmly, but if you have time just take a look around our foyer, you’ll see a Christians Against Poverty Banner letting folk know that our centre is now open, also a collecting box for the Selby and District Food Bank, and a notice board with details of activities and events. What you won’t know is that this has not always been the case, and that some people don’t like it looking as it does, only last Sunday I heard of complaints, people asking what the entrance says about us; I hope it says that we care about the poor, the hungry and the homeless.

 

Now imagine for a moment that you are one of the guests of the family who are bringing their baby to be baptised, you’re a bit confused because you thought that baptisms were private services but this morning the whole church is here; all of these people make you feel a bit nervous. I hope that we’ll help you to relax, and that you’ll enjoy the service; you might be surprised by the fact that we use a screen and video projector and the atmosphere is much less formal than you’d expected….

 

Now imagine you are a fly on the wall overhearing a later discussion, one of the retired Local Preachers has tackled me he thought the service was a shambles, the prayers weren’t right and the sermon not hard hitting enough, “those people need to understand God’s message!” Another member approaches me, “you did well considering those people didn’t know how to behave” is the comment made. I was speechless, and the next comment made me even angrier, “at least they dressed up properly”….

 

Them and us syndrome is a horrible curse, it prevents us from seeing others in a positive light, it puffs us up and fills us with a false sense of pride, it is  distasteful and out of place in the church! As I was processing my reactions to all of these comments and conversations I came across post after post concerned with why younger folk don’t come to, or struggle with church. The first one that challenged me was entitled “Why you can’t solve your churches young adult problem” , the first thing to take on board was a simple statement of fact;

 

“Churches are not perfect- nor should we ever think they will be- but as long as church people do mean things to people who are a little different, don’t be surprised when no young people want to come to your church.”

 

It should be obvious- and of course it is not only young people who will stay away, only today a friend said this;

 

“ I long for something interesting to ponder, something to challenge and inspire, something to give me hope and faith in the future here, something worth putting energy into fighting for - you know, a better world, a healthier environment, greater justice, fairer distribution of resources, world peace. I don't see the Church delivering any of that really, or offering people any great incentive to get on board enthusiastically with it. I don't even feel it's a particularly loving place, so why would I wish to be in it?”

 

Ouch, but she makes a good point, as does the writer of the first article, who continues by asking us some very pertinent questions;

 

“Do we really want young people in our churches? Or do we really mean we want to preserve our values in a younger generation of prototypical images of ourselves? And are we willing to make the gospel compelling enough by trying to actually live it?”

 

If you want young people in your church, go to where they are. Learn what they do. Strike up a relationship and trust the Holy Spirit enough to let you know when it’s time to invite them to church. In the meantime make sure your church is a place that worries about doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God (Micah 6:8). …”

 

Make sure your church worries about doing justice, loving kindness and walking humbly with God NOT about how people are dressed and whether they “behave” according to our standards. Surely we should be helping people to connect with God by offering an open door a welcome and a place to be, an environment where questions and confusions are heard and answered gently... Which brings me to the second article “Releasing the generations”, written by Bishop Graham Cray. He begins with this:

 

“The relationship between older and younger generations in the Church is complex. Older people can hang on to leadership too long, while younger people (if they stay) get frustrated. Well-intentioned, but often token, appointments of young people are made to church bodies whose meetings can frustrate - or bore the life out of - those same young people. Yet there are also older people looking for someone younger to take on roles they have filled for years – and they can’t find anyone to take their place. The problem is essentially one of power: who has a say and who does not. The issue is also vocational: is each generation respected and released to obey God’s call and trusted to trust God’s promises?”

 

The issue is essentially one of power he says, I wonder if it is also one of fear, fear of what might happen, what might change if we were to let go. In their book “The Human Face of Church” Sarah Savage and Eolene Boyd-McMillan refer to sociologist Max Weber’s observations which point to a cyclical process amongst religious movements;

 

“Weber argued that any great vision require a human process to carry it through time, sometimes in the form of “a man, a mission, a movement, or a monument”. Even with the Body of Christ, the life giving charism has to be embodied in a routine – in some form of human organisation. Yet, life giving visions do not fit easily into neat boxes. So the very process that gives the vision continuing life also begins to kill it. When the maintenance of the institution (which protects the charism) becomes the institutions primary purpose, the death of the charism is on the horizon. Only spiritual revival or reform will re-ignite the gift.” (Savage and Boyd-McMillan 2007. p4)

 

A church that is willing to let go and pass on the power, that is willing to be re-invented for every age is a church that will grow, it’s risky certainly, but the risk of not daring to do so is surely more costly for it will result in our ultimate demise, a picture we see all too often! Cray continues;

 

It is not the calling of young people to preserve or continue the church as it is but to engage in God’s mission in a way which will inevitably shape the Church of tomorrow. If we are to engage with the UK as a mission field with its sheer scale and diverse complexity, we need the missionary gifts of young people today - not just tomorrow.

 

So we need to consider our ways, how we share leadership and power, and dare to risk  leaving behind what we have to travel to a new future, but of course there is more, for what is Church without God. Let me take you back to our baptism service, during the intercessions which took the form of a power-point display set to music I offered people a chance to respond to God by offering a blessing for those that wanted one, a couple of church members responded, but then something powerful began to happen as a number of the baptism party began to come forward, some of them were in tears, the Spirit was moving, and I too began to weep. I believe that THERE IS A HUNGER FOR GOD planted within us, and that hunger was stirred as folk came forward, they hadn’t expected it, they hadn’t looked for it, but equally they could not resist it. That leads me to a third article by Shane Raynor entitled “When Christianity gets boring” and while I don’t agree with the thrust of his article that young people stay away because church is boring I do find truth in this:

 

“Christians have spent a lot of time figuring out how to get people to church, but we haven’t always done a lot to establish them in the faith once they’re there. That's partly because we’ve largely reduced faith to activities and programs or to creeds and doctrinal statements. And many of us are chasing a Christianity that’s a figment of our imaginations. We’re looking for the faith of the church fathers, the faith of Luther, of Calvin, of Wesley... sadly some of us would actually settle for a Christianity that’s a snapshot from somewhere in time rather than explore the infinite God of the now!”

 

…sadly some of us would actually settle for a Christianity that’s a snapshot from somewhere in time rather than explore the infinite God of the now! I want to cry out- surely this is not true, but sadly deep in my heart I know that it often is! We look for methods and fixes, for programmes and solutions, and fail to seek God, the author and perfector of our faith, God who can do immeasurably more in us than we can begin to ask or imagine. Raynor exclaims;

 

“…since the power and presence and person of God are anything but boring, that tells me we have a disconnect between experiencing God and experiencing church. “

 

Another Facebook friend posted a comment from a young man who says this;

 

" I did a YouTube video the other week on the reason why church has made me contemplate leaving. I'm 31 and have only been a Christian for two years. The two main reasons for me, and it seems to be echoed by others around me are lack of discipleship (we are just left to get on with it, questions remain unaswered) and too much noise. Church tries to be 'trendy' loud music, bands, messy church. All great concepts but what myself and others want is hard, straight up answers to questions and silence. Church is not boring, its just failing to connect with what young people really need....God"

People NEED GOD, not just young people but people of all ages, sizes, colours and backgrounds, we were made for God, by God and NEED a real relationship with God who loves us more than we can possibly imagine. People need God, and the church is called to know, and nurture that need, to call forth life by growing changing, and adapting, sharing the life that it has received allowing it to flow out into the desert places of this world causing the desert to bloom. Life should no be kept in a neat box, safely shielded from the realities of the world, if we do that with life it will die, and we will be lost….

 

Jesus says:

 

Let me tell you why you are here. You're here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavours of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You've lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.

 ^14-16"Here's another way to put it: You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colours in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I'm putting you on a light stand. Now that I've put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven. (Matthew 5)

Maybe we need to remember;

 

“God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us. “ (Ephesians 3) 

 Pictures all by Tim 

God comes calling (Sermon blogging Genesis 3: 8-15 & Mark 3: 20-35)

Have you ever been utterly surprised by something you thought you knew well? A familiar view caught suddenly in new light revealing fresh vistas?  A phrase in a well known story that suddenly leaps out and hits setting off sparks in your imagination? A song you’ve heard a thousand times, and yet somehow you’ve never heard the underlying melody until today?

 

Have you ever thought to yourself, wow, this is the first time I’ve ever, seen/hear/thought that, and yet I am looking at/ hearing/reading something so familiar….

 

I want to challenge you to try to do that today, to open your ears and lend your imaginations afresh to the Genesis story, to come with me to the garden, to watch the scene unfolding…

 

Eve and Adam are hiding, they are feeling vulnerable and scared, they have eaten from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and they have been forever changed, their joyful innocence has gone, they are aware of their own nakedness, their frailty is evident to them….

 

And God calls; where are you? Of course God knows where they are, but the question reveals a deep longing in God for his creation for something has now gone wrong, something has been lost….

 

Now I’m not talking about sin here, for you must note that the passage itself says nothing about sin or the fall, both of those are layers we have added to this account through the years, and it is now difficult to hear the story without hearing them…

 

But Eve and Adam are lost, they have lost their confidence, they have lost their open and childlike relationship with God, they are like street children thrust into adult lives too early, confused and hurting they have attempted to clothe themselves with fig leaves…

 

Dressed in this inadequate clothing they respond to God, and the blame game begins….

 

She gave it to me…

 

The serpent tricked me….

 

So what’s going on here? I wonder as I read the passages in Genesis if Gods plan might at some point have been to share the knowledge of good and evil with them, when the time was right, when they had grown in their relationship with him, when they were ready for such a burden….

 

For God’s plan is surely that we walk with him, in relationship with him, to grow in the knowledge and love of him. No loving parent would want to keep their children as babies, we want them to grow and to learn, to develop and to mature, and good parents allow their children to stretch the boundaries and explore new things one step at a time….

 

But the fruit has been eaten, their eyes have been open and Eve and Adam are lost, lost to themselves and to God in confusion, pain and shame….

 

And I wonder how often that is our experience, I wonder how much of our spiritual and religious life is so much an exercise in sewing fig leaves together in a vain attempt to clothe ourselves and to be presentable. How often do we hide from God and from ourselves trying to be something we are not?  The truth is we are unable to cover our vulnerability and brokenness…

 

But God comes calling…..

 

Let’s leap in our imaginations now to the house where Jesus is, crowds of people have flocked to hear him, they can’t get enough of him, his teaching is new and open and radical, the God revealing ways that he opens the Scriptures and teaches have stirred in them a deep longing, an echo of Eden, a desire for healing, wholeness, and restoration, and they press in for more….

 

God is calling…. they are responding…

 

But not everyone is pleased, Jesus is drawing attention to himself and his family are confused, he is not holding to the social norms of the day, he is behaving strangely, he receives everyone, even tax collectors and prostitutes, lepers and adulterers, and they are embarrassed….

 

Jesus is teaching, and touching and healing, and the Pharisees, totally perplexed buy the God revealing acts they are seeing mistake the glorious work of the Holy Spirit as the work of Satan, and they declare he has a demon….

 

But Jesus makes clear, in the form of a parable, the scope of what he is doing in his freeing of the demon-possessed.  Jesus is coming to plunder Satan's household and bring about his end, not by division from within but by stealth and force from without.   Jesus' stealthy binding of the powers of evil ultimately undermines Satan so completely that even when he appears to have succeeded in destroying Jesus in the crucifixion, the very destruction of the Son issues not in defeat but in the mysterious victory of God.

 

Jesus will not be stopped, not by his family and not by the Pharisees, and he calls to the crowd to do the will of God, to become members of the new kingdom family….

 

God has come calling….

 

And hearing something fresh and new in his call the crowd respond, throwing aside their religious fig leaves they come as if naked and vulnerable before God who in Christ has shown himself in a new way, full of forgiveness and mercy, full of grace and truth, truth that sets them free from the rules that have bound them….

 

God is calling, calling to us today, for we are as vulnerable and broken as Eve and Adam, as frail and needy as the thronging crowd, and just as God did not leave Adam and Eve in their inadequate clothing but provided animal skins for them so he comes to us in Christ and offers us himself….

 

An animal was sacrificed to cover Adam and Eve; Jesus gave of himself to cover us, and he comes calling, calling us to clothe ourselves with the garments he supplies us with; compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Calling us to be quick to forgive an offense, to forgive as quickly and completely as he has forgiven us. And most of all he calls us to receive his garment of love, a garment so rich that it covers our brokenness when we receive it in humility and vulnerability….

 

The proud and the arrogant, the self righteous and the self sufficient ones cannot wear these clothes, they are given to those who know their frailty and weakness, the vulnerability and nakedness, for the clothes he gives us are the clothes of grace.

 

If we put on grace God comes calling through us, calling to the broken and the vulnerable, working in us so that we see our neighbour in need and offer to share the grace we have received with them, calling us beyond ourselves to touch the world in prayer, to bring out the God colours and God flavours in it, to shine a light into the dark places, to speak love and to reach out, to draw a crowd….

 

God is calling, calling us today to cast of our religious fig leaves and to become bearers of love and grace, to paint his picture, tell his story and sing his song…

 

And we need not be afraid for God knows us as we are and will cover us with all that we need, he will waken us to the Spirit within, and the miracle is that somehow our weakness becomes his strength, for he has chosen to place his treasure into the cracked clay pots of our lives and to make us beautiful….

 

God is calling….

 

How will you respond?

 

Dear Church ( a plea for moving towards healing)

Dear Church,

I have been pondering the nature of our calling, by that I mean what we are called to be; in some ways that is easy, we are called to be Christ's body here on earth, his hands feet eyes and ears, all of the parts working together to fulfil his life amongst us, sharing good news, offering hope and healing , treating one another with grace, and receiving one another with love... and so much more..

The trouble is that we struggle to live up to our calling, we fall and fail, and as broken and flawed individuals we hurt one another, and we hurt those who do not belong to us (yet). Sometimes in our efforts to get it right we get it VERY wrong. We often lack grace because we are trying so hard to speak, act and think in the right way, sometimes we tie ourselves in knots over points of order, or doctrine, or practice, sometimes these things even blind us to the way of love we should be living and we become a noisy gong or a clanging symbol jarring the ears of those who hear our message.

We don't have to live like that though, and I am sure that God is more concerned with our hearts than our doctrines, practices, and rituals, and the truth is that we can't live up to our calling on our own that is why Jesus promised us the gift of his Spirit, the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth and to remind us of his teaching, and to equip and help us to live God's way....

We know all of this of course, both as individuals and together we know this, but I wonder if in our struggle and striving to be right we sadly choose another path; wanting to appear right and good, and strong we hide behind masks of competency, and trip ourselves up and barricade ourselves in with protective barriers that should really be pulled down. Sometimes we hide ourselves so far away from the truth about ourselves that we forget who we are, then when we hurt others (and therefore ourselves) we claim that we are not responsible. That can be our biggest problem, too many have left us disenchanted because we have been unable to apologise or admit fault.

Let's face it, we are not what we should be, but THE GOOD NEWS IS we can grow towards it, so lets make ourselves a promise, to accept that we are broken and flawed, to admit that we've made mistakes and that we need mending and healing. Let's decide to rely upon God in a fresh way, to trust him, and to allow him and not our distorted ideas of him to shape our thinking. If we are going to strive, let's strive in prayer together, let's work to be a community of grace, a community where forgiveness and humility overcomes our desire to be right. In this we will meet afresh with Christ who will accompany us as he promised on the road to salvation, and clothed in him we will draw others by the attractiveness of our nature...

...and yes we'll get it wrong, but the one who calls us is faithful, and he will work in us and through us until with shouts of joy he can present us at last whole and healed, filled and free before the throne of God the Father who loves us...

So let's press on, discarding all that hinders us, dropping our masks and demolishing our protective barriers, let's open ourselves to the work of the Spirit, allowing her to shape and mould us, to chastise and restore us. Remember The Spirit of God whets our appetite by giving us a taste of what's ahead. S/He puts a little of heaven in our hearts so that we'll never settle for less. (2 Cor)

Let's press on to be the people He has called us to be....

 ¹³"Let me tell you why you are here. You're here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavours of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You've lost your usefulness and will end up being thrown out with the rubbish.

 ^14-16"Here's another way to put it: You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colours in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I'm putting you on a light stand. Now that I've put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven. (Jesus; Matthew 5: 13-16)

Image; Roots by Tim

your kingdom come....

We pray it so often;

"Your kingdom come....."

But I wonder if we know what we are praying, sometimes I have visions of the transforming power of God sweeping across the earth, visions of the second coming and of a world put right once and for all. A force so powerful that I cannot and will not be able to resist it, a move of God that would simply overwhelm me.

"Your kingdom come...."

Easy enough to pray, but if we really mean it we must be open to it as individuals, open to expect that mustard seed faith to grow in us and to spread through us, open to the possibility that our prayer for peace or patience might to be answered in and through us as we engage with day to day stuff, for God is at work in our lives.

"Your Kingdom come..."

Easy enough to pray, but if we really mean it we must be open to it together, open to expect the church to  grow, to go through seasons, to be a place of constant change, and that is very hard for many, for we have a strange tendency to expect the church to be static. We misinterpret it, believing that we somehow encapsulate church in an hour on a Sunday morning, and while that is an important hour it should only be a place from which we are sent to be church, making a difference in the world through the week.

"Your kingdom come..."

 Easy enough to pray, but if we really mean it we must be open to it appearing around us, open to expecting to find God at work in unexpected places and in unexpected people, calling us to join him in surprising ventures, to dare to become more than we are, and at times to leave the old behind in order that we can embrace the new.

"Your kingdom come..."

Easy enough to pray, but if we really mean it we must be willing to acknowledge that what is being built in through and around us is precisely that, God's kingdom and not ours, his means of restoration, not our relic, his place and ways of healing, not our systems and structures, his unfolding life in our midst challenging, changing and surprising us, leading us into being more than we could possibly ask or imagine....

^{Luke 13 18} Then Jesus asked, "What is God's kingdom like? What can I compare it to? ¹⁹ It is like a mustard seed. Someone took the seed and planted it in a garden. It grew and became a tree. The birds sheltered in its branches."

 

Picture: Blessed One by Tim

thinking outside the box (or trying to)

I don't even know how to begin this post, it comes from so many things that a stirring within me that and I have no real idea where it will go....

OK I'll start with this; this last weekend I gathered with a group of friends who are involved in ministry to the New Spirituality/ Pagan/ spiritually seeking arena; no surprises there I guess. I left that gathering (it is hard to call it a conference for it was so unique), with a sense of reconnection and joy but also a sense of frustration with myself, I'd wanted to say something, but I hadn't really had time to work it through within myself in order to present it coherently.

I  had wanted to ask questions about the way we might use the sacraments in a way that connected with the culture, told the story of Christ from creation to re-creation, and offered a physical, tangiable yet spiritual response. My thinking had been primarily centered upon the bread and wine of communion, but offering baptism might also be a possibiltiy...

Now I am not suggesting an unthought out rush into the local market place or shopping centre, but I am suggesting that there are occassions and contexts where we are able to share the story of God in the world, from creation to re-creation, the incarnation, ministry, crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, and we need to give people the opportunity to respond...

Imagine setting out to tell the story of God at a town festival, a music festival or something of that kind, tell the story in an imaginative and creative way, and people gather to listen. How then do we invite them to respond? They could come forward and recieve a tract, and prayer, and maybe those things are good, or we could break bread together...

Jesus did just that with the 5,000 who had gathered to hear his teaching, they were hungry, physically and spiritually, and recognising their hunger as a whole hunger Jesus fed them; the action of taking, breaking, giving thanks, distributing the bread and fish are replayed and  brought to fullness in the last supper, where the bread and the wine took on holy significance...

Would we be offering holy things to people who don't understand, just think for a moment, at the last supper Jesus shared bread with one who betrayed him, one who denied him, and several who ran for cover and hid as the terrible events of his trial and crucifixion unfolded. They didn't understand, and lets face it , we don't understand the depth of love that gave and gives itself so freely even now, and yet we receive, and as we do we are converted as we enter into the transforming and renewing and recreating purposes of God.

How about the one who comes to us with an extraordinary experience of God, and on hearing their story we cannot deny that is was of God, do we demand that they attend classes to prepare themselves, when do we welcome and accept?

Now I am not saying that we should neglect discipleship, but I am asking whether the sacraments could be offered in an outside of the box , a tangiable, physical way for people to meet with and respond to what the Spirit is stirring in their lives.

I find myself rooted in a tradition that offers and open table, and yet I find that many people feel that they are unworthy and excluded, they voice a spiritual need and a spiritual hunger that is not met, and as much as we might think that the table is open many people's perception is that is is closed; and frankly the "body language" of church is unhelpful.

So what I am asking is how do we make something open really open? How do we do away with the boundaries and barriers in our minds, I wonder if we have replaced the temple curtain with communion rails  and service books... If we've re-worded the open invitation to all who want to respond in a language that is exclusive and incomprehensible to many....

On the day of Pentecost many responded to Peter's message:

Cut to the quick, those who were there listening asked Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers! Brothers! So now what do we do?"

 ^38-39Peter said, "Change your life. Turn to God and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, so your sins are forgiven. Receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is targeted to you and your children, but also to all who are far away—whomever, in fact, our Master God invites." (Acts 2)

Whoever God invites we are to welcome, and as God's ambassadors he makes the invitation through us... (2 Corinthians 5), but we are not inviting people to jump through hoops, to conform and to become like us, we are inviting them to respond to the one who is living bread, and living water, who calls us to worship him in Spirit and in truth, to the one who has compassion on all that he has made, the one who loves completely, sacrificially and powerfully! Too often I hear people voicing a belief in a God who excludes and punishes with harsh discipline those who do not live up to his exacting standards, and I struggle to reconcile this God with the one I have come to know, the one who says to us:

^28-30"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."

and:

 ¹³"Let me tell you why you are here. You're here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You've lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.

 ^14-16"Here's another way to put it: You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I'm putting you on a light stand. Now that I've put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.

None of this was said to people who "got it", invariably they didn't and they needed freeing from the rules they and others had made for themselves. When Jesus encountered the Samaritan woman at the well, she questioned him about the right place to worship, here is John's account of that part of the encounter:

" “Sir,” the woman said, “you must be a prophet. ²⁰ So tell me, why is it that you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place of worship, while we Samaritans claim it is here at Mount Gerizim, where our ancestors worshiped?”

²¹ Jesus replied, “Believe me, dear woman, the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. ²² You Samaritans know very little about the one you worship, while we Jews know all about him, for salvation comes through the Jews. ²³ But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. ²⁴ For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”" (John 4)

Jesus broke down barriers and through boundaries, and opened a new way of worship, a new way of knowing God centered upon himself, and in doing so, set the good news free. I find this concept strangely offered again through a mathematical principle reclaimed as a missional model;  centered and bounded sets (many thanks to Steve Hollinghurst for introducing me to it). Frost and Hirsch pretty well sum it up here:

"In the bounded set, it is clear who is in and who is out (fences, not wells), based on a well-defined ideological-cultural boundary --usually moral and cultural codes as well as creedal definitions.. but it doesn't have much of a core definition beyond these boundaries. It is hard at the edges, soft at the center."

The centered set, on the other hand, "is like the Outback ranche with the wellspring at its center. It has very strong ideology at the center but no boundaries. It is hard at the center, soft at the edges. We suggest that in the centered set lies a real clue to the structuring of missional communities in the emerging culture.

"The traditional church makes it quite difficult for people to negotiate its maze of cultural, theological, and social barriers in order to get "in.".. and by the time newcomers have scaled the fences built around the church, they are so socialized as churchgoers that they are not likely to be able to maintain their connection with the social groupings they came from...

"We propose a better and more biblical way.. is to ... sink wells. If you sustain your connection with the water sources, you will find a whole host of people relating to Jesus from different walks of life. We allow people to come to Jesus from any direction and from any distance. The Person of Jesus stands.. at the center." (The Shaping of Things to Come)

So what am I saying about the sacraments? I believe that they open a door of powerful encounter with God, and that they can be used missionally, indeed that they are in some way;  for if it is the Holy Spirit who brings them to life, who are we to deny that gift to people wanting to respond to God, no matter where they are on their journey? Maybe we need to learn to become wellkeepers rather than spiritual bouncers....

 

 

 

Friday Five; mission impossible

 

 

Over at revgals revkjarla  says: I am in mission trip mode right now, as I get ready to take a group of youth to DC to do service work around hunger and homelessness issues.   So, in that spirit, our FF is Mission Style!  So here are your questions:

1) Have you ever been on a mission trip, as a participant or adult chaperone? What was it like? 

First let me say that mission trips are not as common here in the UK as they are in the US, so much so that the first time I came across mission trips was when we lived in Texas. It may be something to do with the relatively small size of the country. That said they do happen and most of my children have been involved in them in some way or another, probably most notably Jo who went out to Zambia for a month after graduation from University, where her boyfriend (now husband) was leading a team. They worked with orphanages, and in some difficult areas, caring, building, and making friends. It certainly impacted her! As for me, no not in the sense that you are talking about because as a teen I was not a Christian.

As an adult however I have been on several evangelistic missions, working with local church folk to spread the gospel in their area, going to schools, homes, pubs and clubs, I grew a lot through this experience!

2) What is the worst thing that happened to you/your group on a mission trip (or retreat, or camp, or Habitat for Humanity experience, or something like that--hey, this is YOUR Friday Five, so you get to play it how you would like.)

Turning up to find that the towns folk expected us a week later, and as we were dependant upon them for food etc we had nowhere to stay and nothing to eat. We had gone to Northern Ireland, so getting home easily was not an option. One of the significant elements of these trips was that we went with only enough money in our pockets to buy somebody else a drink, no credit cards/ bank cards, no mobile (cell) phones. It was an interesting experience, our wise team leader called us to pray, and not to panic. Soon gifts of food and offers of places to sleep came rolling in, and we and the church we were working with were blessed! 

 Another aspect of that trip was being asked to share my testimony in a large meeting, I was terrified, but through it I experienced a call to preach, the rest they say is history!

3) If money were no object, where would you want to go to help and serve?  What would you do?

That is a hard question, there are so many areas that would benefit, and so many areas we might benefit from engaging with, but I think I would like to take a group of young folk to an area in Africa where poverty and hunger need addressing, where they could be involved in building a school, digging a well or something like that. I would also like them to be in contact with and worship with a local church. I think we learn a lot about ourselves when we are taken from our comfort zones. 

I have been really challenged by an excellent series of programmes on BBC 2 recently where ministers from what were mission fields, have come to Britain and worked with the churches here, they really showed us how insular and comfortable, and dare I say dead, we are!

4) What would be your advice to someone who will be sleeping in a gym with 20 other people for a week? 

Don't, well maybe don't if you are 50 like me, if you are in your teens/ 20's have a blast. If on the other hand you have to, good sleeping bag and inflatable bed roll, and a pillow- good luck!

5) Any parting thoughts, stories, or questions you have around the whole theme of Mission Trips?

Mission is more than a week a year, it is and should be a major part of our discipleship, that said I think that mission trips are invaluable for building fellowship and growing faith. Service is an essential of discipleship, and an opportunity to serve beyond our usual boundaries may change us for life! But it must be part of a whole and not an excuse to not be involved in mission for the rest of the year!

“Do all the good you can, in all the ways you can, to all the souls you can, in every place you can, at all the times you can, with all the zeal you can, as long as ever you can” John Wesley

Thinking about my spiritual journey ( a condensed version...)

This afternoon I spent some time with my District Chair Stephen Burgess, we were discussing my Testimony Service for Synod on the 7th May. As I prepare for this I find that I am looking back and considering the road that my faith has taken, and how I began to discern a call to ordained ministry.

Regular readers of this blog will not be surprised to be pointed to Christopher's story as a very real turning point for me, it was a turning point of trust and faith, the discovery of a God who loved me in-spite of myself, but my conscious journey of faith began before that, growing from my delight in a Primary School Hymn Book, to my desire not only to own a Bible  but to read it from cover to cover...

That said I had no idea what Christianity was all about, although I knew some of the "Jesus " stories to allow them to challenge or change was not even a thought on the far horizon.

My church experience began in Nottinghamshire at the age of 12, where I attended a local Pathfinders group, a move to Essex and a break from church for a few years until I became involved in helping at a local Cub Scout Pack and began to attend Parade Services, this led to a weekly attendance at a local village church, and a real desire to belong was kindled within me.

As a young (unmarried to start with) mother, I continued to attend church, and my first three children were all baptised. Tim was happy for this, and we began to attend special services as a family. All of my church experience so far was Anglican, although that had not crossed my mind at the time.

A move to a small costal village in Essex co-incided with Christopher's diagnosis, and the church family in the village, Anglican, Catholic and Congregational, stepped in to help out. This practical out-pouring of support had a very real effect upon me. As a family we began to attend the local Congregational Church, joined Bible Study Groups, and learnt to pray! 

A call to evangelism soon followed, and it was then that I encountered one of the great obstacles to being a woman and being called to ministry. It was OK in many folks eyes for me to be involved on a local level providing that I did not want to preach, or perish the thought get involved in mission activities that meant leaving our children in Tim's care for a week. I was told at one point that I was stealing my husbands ministry...

Even the mission group who welcomed me to join their teams, and even to take a leadership role had a this far no further policy, although many people in the organisation recognised my leadership gifts I could not be a team leader, it was against policy; and they could back it up with reasonable sounding theology- theology I now profoundly disagree with!

Next came a move to Texas, and an encounter with the Bible Belt... we attended a Baptist Church, way too big and too polished, and the womens ministry groups made my toes curl- sexism reigned! My task in life I was told was to support my husband and to look good... ( yes really), we left that church. Then came a free church, another large congregation where although participation was encouraged I met a similar problem, so many things were off limits to women. The poem below was written about my utter frustration at the confining attitudes I met within this particular congregation, and yes I really did hurl my Bible across the car-park!

Still in Texas and we joined an Episcopal Church, here the Pastor was an inspiration, he was a man of prayer and vision and in the short time we were members there I learnt so much about integrity and ministry.

Back to England and a move to Colchester, and back to an Anglican Church, again it was big, and although we became involved it was never a spiritual home. Soon we moved back to the village on the coast and re-joined the Congregational Church, we had changed a lot, but in many ways we were home, and it was from here that Tim and I were encouraged to take up a course of study in Evangelism and Mission, at the same time Tim had been made redundant twice within 3 years and with no work opening up for him in electronics we needed to look to something new. The course of study led me in an entirely different direction and into some very strange encounters...

A move to Methodist Circuit in , Norfolk, and the beginnings of a love hate love affair with Methodism. We were employed as Community Out-reach Workers,  it was wonderful, and it drove me crazy. The big choice came at Spring Harvest one year, we had taken a number of teenagers with us and had been working for the church for 3 years at this point. The choice was stark, candidate for ordained ministry or leave.... commit or walk away. This was not an ultimatum issued by the church, but a personal struggle.

I offered for Foundation Training and to my astonishment I was accepted, two years with ERMC training part time followed. I was challenged and stretched and grew. Back to the interview pannels, and Circuit, District and Connexion all said yes unanimously, two more years with ERMC and the chance to study for an M.A. which I thoroughly enjoyed...

Interestingly training with an eccumenical course really helped me to discover why Methodism was the place I now called home, both theologically with its' Arminian roots and its emphasis on prevenient grace, practically with its strong call to social justice and community and global involement and responsibility, and dare I say administratively with its emphasis on every member ministry and discipleship, Methodism made sense to me- and yes it still drives me crazy!

Through Methodism's emphasis on grace I was able to really grasp that the God who called me did not call me to be perfect before I could serve him, rather s/he called me to begin a work in and through me, to be open to transformation within as the Holy Spirit guided and equipped me, to be open to that guidance with the "pruning" and training that it might bring.

I was Stationed in the Snaith,  and Selby Circuit in September 2009, and all being well I will be Ordained on the 3rd July this year in Liverpool...

On a personal note my journey has been challenging, I grew up under the sound of the call to worship from a local Mosque in Malaysia rather than Englis Church Bells, though they did come later when my parents returend home to England with us and we lived for a while opposite the Parish Church in Deeping St James ( I have never been inside it!)...

I lived on a pig farm in Essex struggling to come to terms with my parents divorce, muddling love and sex in search for belonging I found that even here God was with me, as I married the father of my first child, he is the father of all the others also, and we have been married for almost 30 years now. In many ways we grew up with our children, having responsibility for them made us responsible and taught us to pray. Tim is currently training at Durham St John and is a Student Deacon in the Methodist Diaconal Order...

The poem below marked a turning point for me, a day when I threw my frustrations at a narrow confining theology across a church car park, and never looked back...

 

 

This Bible is worn and battered;

Like my faith is torn in places,

And like may faith it has been well used.

 

Every page has been read in this Bible,

Each word scanned and poured over

It was my companion through hard times.

 

But that did not stop me hurling the damn thing

Clean across the car park

In an outpouring of frustration!

 

My faith went with it that day

And everything changed;

For I no longer held to brittle man made rules

 

Rules that told me how to pray

How to give,

And how to behave.

 

Rules that gave rules to God

Telling him how to respond to his childrens cries

 

These words have taught me well that there is another way

A true way for those who have ears to hear

And eyes to see…

 

For God will not be bound by our rules

Nor will he always smooth the path before us

 

But he will walk it with us

And does,

Whether we choose to take his hand

Or refuse it and stride on alone!

 

My journey of faith will continue to be a pilgrimage, I have no doubt about that! And I still have that Bible...

 

Still haven't found what I'm looking for....

I've spent most of the day preparing a Bible Study that I will be using first this evening and then later on in another context. It is based on the Acts 17 account of the apostle Paul and his encounter with the gods and shrines in Athens.

I have been teaching on this subject, especially in conjunction with my work through the Journey into Wholeness Project for almost ten years now, and have friends who taught me who have been teaching on it for even longer- and yet to many it is still new news !

The message is still relevant because the western world is still waking up to its own spiritual poverty, and in this the church has much to answer for...

I am amazed when I find people struggling to relate their Sunday School faith to their everyday lives, only yesterday I was leading a different study through which we are taking a tour through the whole Bible;  discussing Noah and speciffically the Noahic covenant last night freed so many to see the story that reveals truth rather than to try to accept the facts of the situation...

How impoversihed we are because so often we have thrown out the richness of story and poetry because we think that there is no truth in anything other than fact!

How unsurprising it is that so many have thrown their hands up in horror and walked away, unable to accept the beauty of truth revealed....

I speak again and again to people who believe in God, and even in Jesus himself, but cannot cope with church and all of its trappings and maddness...

There is a deep hunger and thirst for God in our society, and it is being masked too often by superficiality, and met by junk food and muddy puddles....

We need to hear the cry afresh, they don't not come because they're not interested, they don't come because we're too often not offering the real thing....