Seeking to bring one person to faith - A Church growth model to be ...

Applauded?

                                          Sneered at? 

                                                                                Stunned by? 

                                                                                                                    Made your own?



Which response would you choose if I came to you and your church and told you that was what required in your church over the coming year was this; 'Just bring one person to faith'?

In conversation with a Methodist minister this week I was surprised by their claim that the 'man at the top' (their description) had called on each of the churches to bring one new person to faith over the next twelve months. Surprised because of the tone and the nuanced speech which accompanied the information.

As niggardly as this number might seem (just one person a year? Pah!) Revd Steve Wild, President of the Methodist Conference, made this call to this Church (as a member of, not the owner) with the desire for the church to 'take God seriously and put mission back onto the agenda and take God seriously'.

I was surprised at the almost sneeringly 'just one person a year' observation because when I pressed them it seemed that 'just one' would have been a major leap forward for the churches in their circuit as all they had to offer was many venues and declining members. So was the bump in the road that was troubling my companion caused by the paucity that 'one person' presented or by the mountain that they perceived it to be?

I am often troubled by the big mission campaigns with their big name speakers* because try as they might (and here we find a very variable feast) the transition between 'seeing that hand' and leading the person on the end of it though a meaningful 'sinner's prayer' and beyond is an immense journey requiring some sound administration and committed pastoral skills.


When Billy Graham came to London in 1989, apart from getting what I thought was a bogus call from his office because the church plant I was leading was the 1,000th church to sign up*, what amazed surprised me most was the way that people were processed after they had put their hand up, come to the front and prayed.

Their names and address were taken and, unless they had a church connection beforehand, they were pointed to their nearest church (from the list of those who had signed up and sent people to be part of the whole thing) and then prayed for and talked to and listened to (doesn't always happen) and off the went. The receiving church was then contacted and the details of the person was passed over for them to hook up and sickle.

Contrast this with my experiences where the people raised their hands, said THE prayer and were sent off - never to be seen again! This makes up the majority of my church mission experience and I saw hundreds apparently make a commitment never to return or become part of a church elsewhere. Talking to someone where I experienced this it appears that this continues as the practice to this day: The claim the scalp but never do the parenting and one day (make it soon Lord) the Boss will want a word in their ears over that I am sure.

Bring one person to faith and spend a year disciplining them and you have a convert. Steve Wild has pegged it just right I reckon. He does say that the Holy Spirit might just bring in more than one - always good to err on the cautious but give prior warning of revival just in case it frightens the faithful!

When I mentioned this to another minister (not Anglican) they muttered something about just seeing one person come to faith in their church would be akin to revival and started moaning about ageing congregations, poor attendance, lower giving and a host of other ills which were making church hard work. I was about to say that if we who were in leadership (in any form) made Church a bit more hard work then perhaps we'd be seeing less of the problems but, seeing they were already having a bad time, decided against it and instead lent them a book on renewing vision and an invitation to the Mission Shaped Introduction course which is being held here beginning Wednesday 23rd September (7:30pm) - All are, of course, welcome!

So let's pray for Steve Wild and his vision and for the churches he is working for, and trying to help 'get serious about God', and let's pray that they do.

And perhaps we could pray that for our own churches and the churches in our towns and even further? Couldn't do any harm, could it???

* Talking of the mega evangelists we have; am I the only one to notice how many use the same jokes, anecdotes and stuff that I was hearing thirty years ago. Where's the new material and the spontaneity, the fresh and contemporary 

Daily Quiet Time or Prayer or . . .

Office or study or . . .

It doesn't matter what you call it the issue is that if you do it you do it right and this is where it gets hard (as if doing it wasn't hard enough)!

When I was a student there were a bunch of really dedicated Christians in the Christian Union(CU). They got together and did their daily study, getting together each morning and having their 'Quiet Time'. They would read their Bible study notes and the passage set for the day.

Another group were the Navigators - a disciplined bunch who would work through various themed programmes - using the Topical Memory system these guys would learn a new passage each day and would test each other on the verses that had passed. These were the storm troopers of the CU, they learned their stuff and could be found stopping students in the corridor and asking them (in various ways) what they thought of Jesus and Christianity.

Then came another group who were a bit hit and miss with their Quiet Times. They tended to start the month well and slowly slide into variable observance. This was the group I was usually part off and it was not because I didn't see the benefit of reading the Bible or didn't want to spend time reading, thinking and praying but because I had a life. I can hear some say that the life I had was probably indisciplined and you may well be right, but things got in the way and the best plans and highest intentions were binned because I'd be out all night praying with people or discussing the Bible and arguing with the atheists (always been there) or doing other stuff.

What I noticed was that then, and now, that some who did their daily wotsit religiously, by which I mean, legalistically and without much enthusiasm or joy. They ticked the box and 'did their duty' and as much as I applaud their commitment (would that there were more who were committed) I was, and am, sad that some do it as drear and dread duty rather than as a place of sanity and a source of joy.

I made a promise when I was ordained that I would do my daily office - that is my morning and evening prayer - and this promise, and the keeping of if, is a commitment and a challenge. A commitment because, like feeding the cats, it is something I have to do because I need to feed the spiritual man (and I promised God and a pointyhat - not one and the same thing I'd do it) and a challenge because it requires a discipline - that's why I do it the minute I wake, getting up earlier to ensure it happens before the demands and distractions of the day conspire to distract me - and it needs to be something I want to do.

So here's a little plea to those who stumble across these words:

If you are a Christian you need to feed the spiritual person every day - lest they become emancipated and eventually starve.

If you are a Christian you need to find some joy in being so, if it is a joyless, lifeless and draining experience then slowly, but most assuredly, you're living in a time stamped existence - one that leads to being an ex-Christian!

If you don't take time out to consider the world around you and the needs nearer to you and to regard them with spiritual eyes and listen regarding them with anointed ears then how can you make sense and pray intelligently and form a world view and a rational understanding that fits your faith view and satisfies those of no faith?

So my plea is this:
Read your Bible
Understand what's happening in the world, work, home, church, elsewhere
Use your brain
Use your tongue to talk to God (and people)
Get excited
Be passionate (or as passionate as you can be)

Do this and you'll find yourself craving time where you can dialogue, reason and rejoice in being a person of faith - and you'll find people want to be doing it with you.

Happy Friday

The Daily Office

Greetings one and all,

I'd like to recommend the practice of getting into the habit of doing a 'daily office' as part of your Christian discipline and discipleship?

When I first suggested this to someone the started doing this (but nowhere near as well!):

Another person's response was to do this:

Another person said: 'Oh, isn't that what Matthew six talks about when it speaks of those who babble on repetitively in the hope that their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again.' They're in a trendy [sort of] evangelical nonconformist something or other independent congregational church - so it's understandable that they knew little of anything important ;-)

The reality is that the morning office, taken at it's simplest is an opportunity to read the Bible (Old and New Testament and the Psalms) and to reflect on what you've read and (listening done) pray.

It's an amazing opportunity to set you up for the forthcoming day (morning prayer) and an opportunity (if you have a go a Night Prayer) to reflect on what is past and pray intelligently for it before laying it down and taking up a good night's sleep.

It's a brilliant way of getting the read the whole Bible and develop a wider understanding of what is in it - and it's amazing how many Christians don't have a clue once they've left the comfort of their  'favourite verses' .

It's a discipline (I know that's not a popular word) - one that pays dividends. Like a marathon runner begins with a short distance and progresses as they become stronger, the same is true in a spiritual sense too!

So give it a try - there are great apps that let you do the daily Office, you can find an abridged morning prayer (lite) on this blog - it's perhaps a little more testing than some of the one verse and reflection books I was looking at recently but then again you don't want lightweight or twee?

Do you?

Give it a go for a month and tell me what it has (or hasn't) done for you

Click here for the Church of England Daily Prayer site (with links for ipad/phone and Android)

Blue Sky Thought - Deny

This says it all really - why do so many people appear to have so much difficulty with it?

Baptism and motor Vehicle Maintenance

I had a great comment some time back where someone pointed out that the names of the blog entries pointed towards 'something a bit worrying with my sense of humour!' All I can say is that whilst it's not 'humour' (and this suggests that there might be more wrong with them than me) there is indeed much to be worried about regarding mine. Still, here we go with a five minute splurge:

I have noticed that there are two models regarding baptism that read more like automotive journals than Bible stuff  in that for many (almost twenty-five) years I have kept a mantra which spoke of 'Putting the Rubber on the Road' as the formulaic reminder of the Christian life. The focus is on the acronym RBBR (Rubber):
Repent
Believe
Be Baptised
Receive the Holy Spirit

Now that's all pretty straightforward and works well if applied to those to whom it applies. The problem is that I have met a fair few to whom it obviously didn't apply when they hit the water.

The bigger problem is that even when it did, those who were baptised never actually became disciples and so what efficacy was there in the fact they were baptised and considered themselves to be 'Christian' in name but were obviously unregenerate - As a Pentecostal I became aware of many who had raised their hand, said the sinner's prayer and were never seen again; they'd been and gone and assumed they were now 'Christian'.

Last week I met someone who had been baptised in a local church and, seeing the ring of confidence around my neck, quickly informed me of how they were 'Christian'. I asked where they went and upon being told mentioned the name of the pastor there. They shifted from foot to foot and said, "I haven't been there for a while,' and the conversation ended as the rushed away! A bit later I found the 'while' was a couple of years and that they'd been baptised there and then drifted away.

Discipleship, commitment and retention (move the order to fit your preferred emphasis) are surely part of the whole picture and the reality is that those who think baptism is some silver bullet need to check that it's not merely the means of gaining and proclaiming (or parading) scalps.

I struggle with the way infant baptism works for we can find ourselves with people looking for anything but a proclamation of faith and an intention to bring the babe to disciple status - and having provided it we leave the child to grow up with the mistaken belief that they are 'Christian'. The reality is that we have made them members of the Church and then failed to complete the journey. Sadly though, I find this in both forms of baptism regardless of the wet witness brigade or the baptise my baby bunch.

The other automotive parallel comes in the components of baptism:

Oil
Water
Lights

Three of the things that you need to check every morning as you 'first parade' your vehicle (yes' I know there are tyres too!) and these lead us away from some of the previous thinking into the sacramental side of baptism.

But that's for another day - countdown timer has just buzzed and it's time to get down and sacramental with the Eucharist.

have a great day: Be blessed and be a blessing

Discipleship - the answer to the Church's prayers?

An interesting discussion relating to how the salvation of the Church is to be found in 'discipleship' has challenged me because whilst I don't disagree with what the words might mean - I do struggle with the attitude that looks at people doing because they have to rather than them doing because they have the desire - and that this desire comes about through an emerging spiritual identity and  consistent, prayerful and holistic spirituality.

A recent conversation with a number of clergy colleagues brought into the clear a consensus view that the numbers of those who came and were happy merely to attend church on a fairly regular basis but were put off by being asked to become involved. As one person put it, 'No matter what we do, we can't get them to do anything - they are content to just come and be served!'

And so I walk a tightrope that sees me working to help people find their identity with, and in, God through Christ and to come to that place of initial stillness that leads them into a place of increasingly secure, and enabling, Christian spirituality which cements the forgiveness and acceptance of the cross and, in combination with teaching, and unfolding of the words within, leads them to a place whereby their baptismal (and other) calling can be made real: and from here the life, and Church, enabling that is being a true disciple can be manifest.

Discipleship is a lifestyle choice and act, not something that can be imposed or demanded and it is our role to sow the seeds and nurture them in those we are called to pastor - this is our mission and our joy, for surely it is the Missio Dei - to engender in self, and others, the heartbeat of Christ and the becoming like Him in heart, mind and (of course) action.

Pax

Questions, Questions, Questions

Lying on the bed and it's dark.
The Labrador is snoring,
The wife is gently breathing,
Thoughts are queuing for attention;
Questions jump from foot to foot (do questions have feet?):
'Pick me - Pick me,' they cry.

Is it enough that people are happy?
Is the absence of war the same as peace?
Is it enough to merely 'keep the customer satisfied'?
Is the absence of commitment the same as discipleship?
Is coming to church the same as being Church?

Is doing stuff the same as believing?

You can't buy your way into heaven through works.
But that same faith,
Which comes by faith,
Is impotent unless it begets works.
That mean doing something,
Anything!
Yet all God wants is for us, is:
To sit on our behindsides
And love Him.
Yet, if we do it well
We get off of them!

Yet all God wants for us, is:
To enjoy the relationship.
To spend time with Him (we call it relationship)
To chat (we call it prayer),
To read (we call it study)
To sing His praise (we call it worship)
To listen to His voice (we call it guidance)
To strive to be like Him
To change the way we think
To change the way we live
To be disciples
(There's that word again: disciple)

Can anything that begins with 'dis' be good?
Dis - aster
Dis - ease
Dis - tress
Dis - ciple
(what is an 'iple' anyway?)

But there's a light at the end of the tunnel

A glimmer if hope

And a re-assuring thought:

We don't have to go to Church
We're C of E!

We don't have to change

We just need to change the Vicar!

So what is my job? Correction

Those of you who follow the blog will remember that I recently wrote:

'Those who are happy to come to the show and sing the happy songs and have their ears tickled - the day is coming when the battle will be engaged and you will find yourself 'not fit for purpose' - time to 'man up' Church!'

This brought about the following response:

'How much more emotional manipulation are you going to employ on your site to get people to be doing what you, Vic, think people should be doing?

This isn't your job, Vic - your job is to seek after God and put yourself at his disposal.  Be loved by him and then love others as you are loved.

Your job is not to guilt-trip, embarrass or intimidate people into conforming to your ideology... this is the fast-track to burn-out. 

Come back to me on this one, and tell me why I'm wrong.'

Well, I did indeed come back to them and this is instalment number three (in a series of goodness knows how many) because another of the jobs I do is to tell people when they are doing wrong, or doing it wrongly. Now of course I don't employ emotional manipulation or guilt-trips, embarrassment or intimidation (after all, I'm not a liberal you know :-) ) but I do employ telling the truth in love as per today's reading of Galatians 6 which I have paraphrased elsewhere as:

'Guys, if you see someone doing something wrong, those of you who know me should restore them gently; but take care in the way that you do it so that you don't end up being wrong too!'

Now this 'wrongness' that we need to take care not to fall into is often demonstrated by the hardline fundamentalist and the 'Jesus wants everyone to be happy' liberals alike who point the finger and denounce, attack, vilify and engage in the finely tuned art of the ad hominem.

But you see my role means that when I see people who are sitting in front of the TV when they should be getting fit for the role for which they've volunteered I have to tell them that they are slacking. When I see people who claim to be Christians and yet their attitudes, lifestyles or behaviour deny this, then it's my role to come alongside and help them understand, accept and amend their ways accordingly. This is not the wicked application of rules and regulations but helping people to reach their fullest potential as people and as disciples - and we do want that, don't we?

My critic is wrong because to do anything other that strive to get one's own life sorted and working as well as possible and take this as the datum for those who are part of the Church is to be a hypocrite - and I struggle to ensure that I'm not that. My critic is also wrong because not only do I avoid all the things they accuse me of (and in accusing me perhaps come close to owning them for themselves) but I work hard to train, equip and release (I know some don't like this terminology but isn't that Biblical language) and to work alongside (and for if the opportunity arises) others in the Church.

The problem is that some would see just being in the Church as enough and the more those in the Church are like the world the better it is. After all, if we don't confront people with their errors then they are happy to have us around and therefore Church is popular.

And of course it is because it doesn't ask for set standards of behaviour but accepts everything (including the spirit of divination according to Schori's last sermon on the wicked Paul!) on the premise that whatever makes you happy pleases God.

Psalm 119 tells us that the person who keeps God's laws and seeks the Lord with all their heart - they are truly happy, not the foolish who will perish because of their folly and their desire to make their god in their own image.

No, I'm sorry but when I see people who claim to be Christian avoiding the discipline that comes from denying ourselves and taking up our cross and embarking on a life of discipline, prayer and praise that is the hallmark of true discipleship, then I have to offer correction by coming alongside.

We have one chance at this life (Heb 9.27) and my role is to do it the very best I can and to help others. I use the same measure on them as I do for myself and this is right - for it's part of my job as a family member.

We watch out for and correct each other in love - don't we?

So what is my Job? - Modelling

Part the second of my surrejoinder to the comments below focuses on the issue of 'modelling'.

I wrote:

'Those who are happy to come to the show and sing the happy songs and have their ears tickled - the day is coming when the battle will be engaged and you will find yourself 'not fit for purpose' - time to 'man up Church!

To which I received this response:

'How much more emotional manipulation are you going to employ on your site to get people to be doing what you, Vic, think people should be doing?

This isn't your job, Vic - your job is to seek after God and put yourself at his disposal.  Be loved by him and then love others as you are loved.

Your job is not to guilt-trip, embarrass or intimidate people into conforming to your ideology... this is the fast-track to burn-out.

Come back to me on this one, and tell me why I'm wrong.'

So I am doing exactly that.

The words, 'Your job is to seek after God and put yourself at his disposal. Be loved by him and then love others as you are loved,' are spot on and if each of us assume that were we to do this, all would be sweetness and light

.As a Christian, what you have described is the bedrock of my baptismal calling. What you have described is also correctly described as 'my job' in that, as a minister of the Gospel, this is indeed a part of my job too! This Leviticus 19 passage:

‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbour as yourself. I am the Lord.'

Is someing in which we find the way of peaceful co-existence with others, for if we treat others as we treat ourselves then all will be well, won't it? Well it should be but this is often a one-sided transaction (but that still doesn't stop us, does it?) and the very act of trying to live in such a way is, at times, regarded as aggressive, arrogant or condemnatory; and if the way we treat ourselves and the 'love' we endow upon ourselves is 'different' to that which others consider to be love ( for instance 'permissive' or 'disciplined') then it become the path of conflict rather than peace.

For me, the tension becomes more marked, and demanding, when we unite those words with Deuteronomy 6 (something we often do in our Eucharist):

'Hear, O Israel:The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.'

For what we have now is an 'In, Out and Up' situation: Ourselves - Others - God

So I would answer to the call my critic makes regarding Leviticus 19 is that it is but the starting point not the pinnacle and with Deuteronomic utterances added, is something transformational and amazing. And my role is to model this and to live as a disciple in such a way that others can see me (warts and all) and hopefully in that point towards Him whom I (we) serve.

You see the reality is that my personal call, and responsibility, is to live out the realities about in such a way that others see this 'difference' and it challenges them to ask, 'How can I have that?' As I model the life (and attitudes) of a 'God lover' I model the life and attitudes of Him whom I follow, Jesus, and as I love - I encourage others to love in the same way for the same reason.

I am called to love the LORD (YHWH) with all my being - mental, emotional, spiritual and physical - and it is this that leads me to do more than just be happy. More than just be content to consume, for as my critic implies, the loving of others is an active, being out there part of the Christian life.

Unlike some of the advert's that tug at the heartstrings, we do not employ emotional manipulation (unless if course you think the cross and crucifixion is such) and we do not beat people into submission (verbally or physically) but rather we 'model' Christ. As I encounter those of no particular (and sometimes none) faith, I often hear them utter the words, 'I wish I could have your faith,' or the equally sad, 'I wish I could do what you do!' The reality is that they can have both and even if they don't embrace my faith, can still make the latter theirs (for non-theists do good stuff too!).

So I consider that I have not only a right, but a responsibility, to tell others that their life choices are not the best open to them. I also consider that this right demands that I practice what I preach, for there is no room for hypocrites in the Church, and model what is the right way in exactly the same way Jesus modelled it in NewTestament times.

If my thinking is right then, unless we consider Jesus to have used guilt-trips or intimidation that embarrased people (and I'm sure He never did that!), then I'm speaking the truth in love - another essential piece of modelling in a time when we so often neither live or speak truth, choosing merely to issue spin and deviance!

My call as Christian, and pastor, is therefore to model - and to do this in the manner, and in the footsteps, of Jesus - and I happen to think that this is what my words are doing.

Let those who have ears, let them listen - and for those who won't, or don't?

To quote Don McLean (Vincent):

'They would not listen, they're not listening still'

ps. It's no accident that I have kept this in the Old Testament - for it underpins the New and needs to be used as it deserves and demands. We are based on, and reside in, the whole word. Once we edit or re-invent we head for a world of potential self-justification rather than willing obedience :-)

So what is my job? - Discipleship

A few days back I wrote:

'Those who are happy to come to the show and sing the happy songs and have their ears tickled - the day is coming when the battle will be engaged and you will find yourself 'not fit for purpose' - time to 'man up Church!

To which I received the following response:

'How much more emotional manipulation are you going to employ on your site to get people to be doing what you, Vic, think people should be doing?

This isn't your job, Vic - your job is to seek after God and put yourself at his disposal.  Be loved by him and then love others as you are loved.

Your job is not to guilt-trip, embarrass or intimidate people into conforming to your ideology... this is the fast-track to burn-out.

Come back to me on this one, and tell me why I'm wrong.'

The good thing is that I will indeed tell you - and will do it here so others might engage with the discussion here (or on the forum). It's going to be quick and dirty but hopefully will hang together enough to make some sense:

Now I don't have an 'ideology' as I understand the word (which I take to be socio-political and not theological) but I do have a 'theology' and that theology comes from the Bible (the book formerly known as 'authoritative') and it informs and enlightens me as to many things regarding many areas that conspire to build our (Christian) faith life, namely:

Discipleship

This is a word that is all too easily banded about and features large in the writings of so many people and small in the manifestation of same. I think that the real problem is that some people in church confuse discipleship with doing and employ some oddly twisted work ethic where salvation comes through work; this is something the Bible offers a corrective on in Ephesians 2.8-9:

'For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast.'

Salvation comes through faith in God, which means in (and by) the salvific and atoning act of Christ upon the cross - and is worked out in us by the enabling of God's Holy Spirit. You cannot work your way into heaven!

In fact all God wants us to do is sit on our backsides and love Him. That's the message in a nutshell - purely and simply put. Of course as we sit God expects us to find out about Him and to talk with Him and to grow together with Him - it's just like being in any relationship: Without dialogue and communication and a developing relationship a marriage would be a sham and any friendship run on the same lines would be little more than a nodding acquaintance.

So here we are, in love with another person (who in this example just happens to be God) and this love soon turns into something whereby we know what pleases Him and so we do that; because we want to please and bless those we love don't we (we do, don't we?)? Here's an example from real life:

Many years ago when I drove and my wife didn't, if I came home and realised she was out shopping (in the days before mobiles) and it was raining, I would get in the car and drive the route to the shops to see if I could find her and give her a lift. I didn't do this because I was commanded to but because it was an outworking of my love for her. Form out of our love comes action!

This is what discipleship is, for:

First, I want to be a disciple because it brings me and the focus of my love closer - after all, I WANT to be more like Jesus.

Secondly, doing what is right helps me to be the person God WANTS me to be - so I am be obedient too!

Lastly - becoming a disciple shows other people, by the difference I have from the world, that there really is something in the God stuff - it is incarnational and, just as God incarnate came to save to to do we, in modelling and being part of that incarnacy through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit we can proclaim that 'the Kingdom of God' is near.

Now, having all done 'disciple' to death we all know that it is someone who follows a teacher and is much like being an apprentice - we aim to learn from the master and to become as much like Him and Jesus tells us how we can do this in Matthew chapter 16:

'Then Jesus told His disciples, 
"If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." '

Jesus is telling those who are His disciples to deny themselves (that is to not do the desires and wants) and to take up their cross (which is a burden of servanthood and potential suffering) and to follow (an active thing) Him. He is not saying come and be entertained and live lives that look like the world and live in their attitudes and see church as merely something to be enjoyed - He is telling them to get real and live life in the reality of the Christian faith seeking to be imitators of Him.

Now, whilst the writer of the comments above is right in that my call is to 'put myself at His disposal' it is also my calling to encourage others to do the same - and as I often hear myself saying - we need to be careful that we do not judge others (for as we judge, so too are we judged).

The call to discipleship is of of engagement for within the structure that is discipleship we find the call to 'love one another' and even more active is the call for us to 'love our neighbour as ourselves'.

There is also the call to 'go into ALL the world and baptising and teach others to obey God's commandments' - something that cannot be done by sitting in our comfort zones, living in the choices we wish to make and ignoring the call to be actively engaged. Of course, some seem to think that what God commanded is a moveable feast and this causes even more fun I guess - but it's good to have our challenges isn't it?

You see that whilst I seek to embrace the elements given above (and remember, this is a concise explanation) I have also to take on board the fact that I function as a believer and as one who has been called to 'shepherd the flock' too. I am also responsible for those under my care in that I encourage (for I never order) and attempt to lead by example.

But the bottom line is that, like a rowing crew I once used to see on the water, there are many who think that they are 'fit for purpose' but the reality is that once they to engage in the race, they will be devastated to find that they are soon 'rowed over' (that is to be left so far behind that it is like they were never there in the first place). My task is to ensure that we build a Church that conforms to the description in Ephesians chapter four:

'And He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.'

What we have here is nothing more than a 'speaking the truth in love'  for just as 'inclusive' Church is not 'permissive' or 'liberal' Church, neither is the Church of Christ a place where we seek to put off discipleship (which means emulating Christ) and reside as children who need to be entertained lest they become bored. No, we are called to celebrate, emulate and admonish each other to work towards being Christlike in all the fullness that this implies - strong in word, faithful to the teaching of Christ and exercising good words - not because works bring faith but because faith without works is an empty and futile faith (if you don't believe me - take a look at James chapter two* and understand that:

'For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.'
So here we have part the first in my surrejoinder - there's more to come and I pray that within the haphazard and rushed nature of this response, there is something of reason and merit to be found.

Pax


*James 2. 14 - 26
What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?
If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled”, without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?
So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe - and shudder!
Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?
Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?
You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, 
“Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness” - and he was called a friend of God.
You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.'

Hope - Pray - Read - Do

Challenged myself with the image above.

Been thinking about those who sit in church and 'hope' things will happen;

And about those who 'pray' things will happen;

Or sit and 'read' about what happened in the Bible;

And those who 'make' things happen.

and wonder which combination of these made up my character.

And then prayed that it would be 'all' of them.

How do you do with it?

Fathering B*sta*ds

One of the saddest things I have encountered over my many years in the Christian faith is the ability of churches and various groups to put on events which see 'people coming to faith' causing much rejoicing and a sense of achievement. The problem was that it didn't take long to realise that whilst hands were raised and 'sinner's prayers' prayed, those whose conversion we celebrated left never to return or perhaps slowly trickled away.

Those who raised their hands and prayed and left were generally the people who'd travelled in for the show - and there we so many of these. They came to see the big names and sung the songs and were (I have no doubt) touched  by the evening's happenings. I am sure that they, caught up in the event, really meant what they'd prayed and really intended the experience to be the beginning of a journey - but then they got home!

One of the potential strengths of the Billy Graham guys with regard to mission events was the fact that they engaged in a rigorous administrative process whereby people who'd come forward were effectively 'clerked' (the old term for what happens when a patient came in) so that they could be referred to one of the subscribing churches near to them to ensure that the faith journey was supported and nurtured.

Of course many of the churches near to the new convert were not members and so it was often the case that the 'named' church might not be near enough or of the same mindset, nationality or worship style as that which they'd fit in with and so they were soon lost. Other churches just failed to engage in the follow up because of poor admin', error and general 'naffness' and this, again, meant they were lost.

Many of those who came forward at one of the churches I was part of were prayed with after the service and encouraged to return and yet those who did soon found themselves drifting off because they were not nurtured - something some at the time I was with the church might deny but the numbers proved the sadness to be true.

The real issue is that some of those I have encountered who were struggling and far from Church have often told me how they were Christians because they'd put their hand up somewhere and were therefore 'Christians'. The problem with this is that whilst someone has told them that, they have not taken on board the responsibility of parenting them and so, churches with allow people to raise their hand and then leave never to be seen again are no better than those around me who father children and leave.

In Hebrews 12. 7-8 the Bible tells us :
'God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.'

One of the things I struggle to do is to help those who make a commitment to Christ (wherever I am) turn it into a mature and disciplined discipleship. Not always easy and when you consider some in the Church who have been Christians for years and yet remain largely unconvicted or discipled it easy easy to see the challenge before us (but at least they still come I hear people say).

I am drawn back to a sermon preached by Billy Joe Daugherty at an Elim Convention in the late eighties/early nineties in which he proudly proclaimed that he was 'not a B!!!'. It shook the old dears with their handbags and hats and cause men to tut and shake their heads and yet he was right.

If we are to take upon ourselves the task of fathering spiritual children then we need to also take upon ourselves the task of discipling and disciplining them too. Imagine the headlines in the Daily Fascist about those 'single-parents and the way their children turn up because they are not properly parented'. Have you ever read them and found yourself agreeing with the sentiments contained?

Now ask yourself the question: 'Have I ever done that with God's spiritual children - led them to a place of commitment and then left them, never to see them again?'

If you (like me) can answer 'Yes' to that can I ask this question:

How are we going to make sure that doesn't happen again?

How to make your church grow - part one

Having this very morning opened an email asking me what I thought was needed to help their church grow I have found myself thinking seriously about how I can respond and, as I do so, I find it to be a thing of many parts. But the most important of these (for me anyway) is:

BE A DISCIPLE - NOT A MEMBER

Being a disciple means that I want to learn how to look like, act like, think like, live like, love like Jesus.

When I was an apprentice I followed people around, made tea, handed tools to whoever I was working with, washed the cups, made tea, got shouted at (a lot) and learnt my craft. As I passed through each of the training areas I followed the fitter, technician, P Way man and learnt what they did and copied them. Where they went - I went!

I found myself talking like them and becoming a composite of them all in terms of expression and thinking (technically anyway - never managed to quite master the attitudes many had over race, gender, politics and the like).

I became a product of the whole and learnt that for us to succeed (which meant do the job well and not be caught when we weren't) I had to be a part if the whole: There was just 'us' and that's who we worked for -Each Other! When a problem appeared we got stuck in and supported one another - we were a team.

Nothing has changed now I'm in the Church. I find myself sounding, acting and (I hope) thinking like the man I'm apprenticed to (in case you haven't guessed, this is Jesus) and I assume that this is the same for others too.

This is where I get disappointed because my assumptions are all too often wrong and rather than follow and look and learn and do and be, I find people who (like some of those I once worked with) are under the impression that 'being there' is enough. These are the people who clock in and out of church and work environments with the belief that attending is enough and, just like in the world of work, they are saddened as they see others pass them by.

We can change the world if we are disciples.

And as we change to look, sound and feel like the person from whom we learn we will change others too.

Where I am we have recently offered the SHAPE Course and are in the process of other training and exploration opportunities and whilst I know some will be content to merely turn up (and that's fine if that's who, where and what they are and that's the stage they're at - God is patient and kind) I know others will be keen to become disciples and, in turn disciple others, to look, act, speak, think, do and live like the Master craftsman we follow building nit in wood but in stone - living stones that are and is the Church.

So: Point the First - BE (and make) disciples

Excuse me can we have your old TV?

It was with these words that the chap driving the scrap metal van greeted me. Not an unreasonable question you might think and in the right setting, of course it isn't; after all, we all have a living to make, don't we??

Then again, when the question comes in the middle of the sermon  I have to say that perhaps it is!

But this was my experience on Sunday morning as we progressed through the early service, something that caused the sermon to stop for a couple of minutes as we sorted things out. We were soon continuing on our merry ways; them with a TV and a fan and us with the service.

I often feel that I'd like more engagement during the service, the children do it so well but the adults (in some places especially) struggle with this but I really think the sermon spot should be a time and place of interchange as we make our mutual journey of worship and praise.

I love it when someone asks for a clarification or comes back with something that adds, challenges and sometimes entertains. The times when people ask how things are pronounced or struggle with timeframes and the places.

I remember many years back hearing an nearing retirement minister tell the congregation that the sermon was a place where, 'They listened to what he had to say and kept quiet!' But that's not how Jesus taught was it? That's not the way Rabbis teach their disciples (then or now) - and the interaction between them bordered on riot at times.

Perhaps I've had a wake up call regarding my sermons - perhaps I should have more broken TVs in the porch (they were there to raise money for an upcoming India trip for our eldest child)? Perhaps I need to buy another pack of notebooks and pens (and get people to bring their Bibles too!) and encourage note-taking again?

Perhaps I need to ask more questions rather than merely try to enlighten and inform people?

Whadyathink?

Christianity - Free Lamborghini or McLaren anyone?

Here's a really quick splurge from my grey matter onto the electronic paper of this blog and I apologise for typos, rushed edits and and confusuioon but here goes:

Last night saw the second evening of an Alpha course that we are running jointly with our local Methodists and as we chatted about the Cross and addressed the question, 'Why did Jesus die?' I became very aware of the fact that, generally speaking, many churches (and members) I engage with appear  to fail to make the cost of commitment real and obvious.

For me the answer to the question 'Why' is summed up in the words of John 3:16:

'For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God didn't send His Son into the world to condemn the world but that through Him (Jesus) it (the world = us) might be saved!'

The 'Why' for God and the 'What' for us are both clearly visible.

God - Die

Us - Believe and accept that salvific act (made ONCE, for ALL, upon a CROSS)

Simples innit?

So here we are, God is offering us, free and gratis something that is precious and unique, namely:

i. Restoration of relationship with God,

ii. The breaking of the power of sin (which is of course death - and by coming back on Easter Sunday He handed it back to satan with the words, 'Whoops, broken it!', and

iii. The becoming of a new creation - through the indwelling and enabling of the Holy Spirit, one that is about to live within the freedom of 'free choice' making the right choices (and wrong choices, when they are taken, less often).

And all we have to do is accept it and keep it on the road. But it is just too easy to have God bear all the cost and us live with all the benefits. There is a cost for us too and many of my friends over the years have paid out (often sacrificially in terms of money, marriages and relationships) to keep cars on the road, aircraft in the air and radios on the airwaves. Others have devoted free time to trains (real and model) or stamp collecting or many of the other hobbies people have, and this is where it gets hard for me when it comes to Christianity.

I know people who put everything on the line for a hobby and know many people who claim to be Christian and yet are willing to do nothing but accept and demand and give the very minimum in time, money and energy.

If I were to offer you one of the top marques of car (Ferrari, Lamborghini, McLaren, etc.) free of charge, how many would take my hand off in the rush to accept it? But to keep a car like that on the road take some real commitment (and it's not just money I'm talking of here).

A friend with one such car told me how it cost him 'a few thousand' every year to keep his beloved super car on the road and yet, he claimed, it was worth it because look at what he had!

God, through the Cross of Christ offers each of us something that cost Him everything and lasts not just for our lifetime but for eternity and yet many of us will commit less to keeping it on the road than we do for our hobbies and pastimes - after all they cry, 'it's a free gift - how can it cost us anything?'

And oddly, these are also more, often than not the same people who complain about the lack of things being done in the church. They are the same people who wished to be served and to be cared for and to be provided for and to be made happy and listened to and obeyed (yep - that too) and yet they don't put anything in to keep the vehicle that is the church or the component that is their life working effectively and efficiently.

Now here's some questions:

Are you the problem or the solution?

Are you willing to pay (and I don't mean with mere money) to keep your faith on the road?

Is your faith an interest (your hobby) or a life-changing, life-long commitment?

Are you willing to pay what it takes or merely willing to take?

The time is coming when we need to realise that if you merely wish to be an associate member (and you're welcome as such) then you will also have to realise that whilst we can guarantee a life membership being open for you in Church, we cannot guarantee and eternal life membership.

Your choice

Work - Life - Church: balancing the numbers

Following on from the  'Church without Straw' entry a couple of days back I thought it might be useful to consider some of the ways of looking at life that exist. The first of these is 10/110.

At a conference last week, LICC's*  Neil Hudson suggested that maximum number of hours a person spends each week splits into 10 doing Church and 110 living (the remainder spent sleeping) life. This 10/110 state begets more than a few questions but here's two of them to get us thinking (and I'll deal with the first today):

Neil's question: "How does the 10 equip us for the 110?" collided with the question on the lips of others which went, "How do we get our members to do ten hours?"

Some merely said (out loud): "How comes so little? Just ten hours a week!" whilst others thought (for these are words that point the fingers at both members and leaders): "I'd be happy if our members did five (or even four) a week - I can't get them past a couple of hours!"

Neil was extremely challenging in that he spoke of discipleship (not just attending and paying the share) as something that took up the whole of our existence. The reality being that discipleship is 'holistic' (and I know how some out there hate that word) for it relates to the whole person: Body, mind, spirit, leisure and work!

The problem is that church leaders do seem to think that the work of evangelism is primarily that of bringing people in to pay the Parish Share and to supply new workers for the day-to-day activities, evangelistic, social programmes and all the other projects in the church. Neil put this into a more concise form (hope my notes are correct):

“The mission of many churches is to recruit the people of God to use some of their leisure time to join the missionary initiatives of church paid workers”

A pretty fair representation of the situation and something that indicates something deeper regarding our take on discipleship in that we ask people to use their 'leisure' time to do church and this, perhaps, is one of the main reasons that 'church' is regarded as one of many leisure activities rather than a lifestyle.


POINT ONE
We ask those who come to make church ONE of their hobbies and not the WHOLE of their existence!

I have friends who have a multitude of hobbies and interests and there's no thought that these might transfer into, enable/modify/or have an impact upon, their working or family life. They also happen to have on their list of 'interests' - Christianity! It's something that they do not something that they are!

ACTION
If I believe God is everywhere and if I believe that Jesus, the Christ, died for me to restore the relationship with this 'everywhere' God - why do I seek to engage with Him only in certain places and at certain times? If He's always with me then how comes I'm not always with Him?

Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. (PS 139)


POINT TWO
When people come to church we tell them stuff that sits within the box marked 'Christian time' stuff and rarely tell them how to make that 'all the time' stuff.

We don't need to major on esoteric faith life but an inductive and grounded in 'life outside the box' (the box here being the church building) Christian living. 

ACTION
The way to make disciples is to be a disciple and just like flying (and every other hobby I have been engaged in) it is in the gathering together that one learns the craft, honing skills and extending knowledge. What we do in the clubhouse is learn to do that which we do outside of it better.

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. (Matt 28 // Mk 16)


POINT THREE
The world runs along at 168 hours a week, every week for as long as we are in it and yet we (The Church) focusses only on that bit which is important - the service and the extremely small (and increasingly diminishing and marginalised) world of 'Church' and the ways we can keep the rules and be 'good'.

When people come into contact with the Church it should do so in the world not in the ghetto. Christians must live in this world, but they are not of this world. 


ACTION
As the Father sent Christ into this world to minister, so he sends believers to be ministers in the world (Jn 17; Titus 3) 

This is a pretty messy blog in that I've written in off the top of my head (as always) as the dialogue formed. I hope that this will shape and influence your thinking on the was we live as Christians.

As we draw to a close (tea drunk, office done and All Saint's communion forty minutes away) I have come to a rather painful realisation:

The thought that when I flew I was a pilot. I didn't do flying, but being a pilot was what I was. It translated into everything I did and formed my identity and influenced my conversations. When people introduced me they said, "This is Vic, he's a pilot."

How sad that I don't ever recall being introduced as, "This is Vic, he's a Christian!"

Every hour - Every day

LICC - London Institute for Contemporary Christianity

Vicars using bad words in church!

It is a very sad fact to admit but I am meeting more and more church leaders who live in fear of their membership. The walk on egg shells and regard their life as one that, like Damocles, has a sword hanging above it.

They preach that which they know will avoid the four 'C's of church life (Conflict, Controversy, Criticism and Catastrophe which come together to form another 'C' - Crisis!

There are those who know that the very mention of yet another 'C' word - Commitment will cause a shuffling of feet and eyes that avoid making contact with the speaker. "They come to the services they choose to attend and think I should be grateful," moaned one frustrated (and looking for another job) cleric. The problem was that those who moaned the most about lack of opportunity to lead and 'be in charge' (BIC) of things for the BIC gene is one of the most prevalent genetic problems that Church finds itself plagued by. There are so many who suffer from it and yet, when given the opportunity fail to turn up when they should or complete the task they have taken on.

A different cleric explained how there was a spoken desire to see the numbers attending church grow among the church council but when asked who was willing to get involved in new ventures all gave their excuses for not being involved. When they started one of the projects on the list the attendance was phenomenal - almost all the church turned out. But sadly, as this was an evangelistic venture it was hoped that some from outside the church family might also be there. But there were none.

A month later and the leader, along with many others who had been at the first evening, failed to appear and when telephoned after the thing had ended explained that they'd had a hard week and hadn't had time to do anything and so decided not to come! The silly Vicar told the would be leader that that was unacceptable at many levels and used that terrible 'commitment' word! The result  and the of this was that at the next PCC, resignations from both council and the church were given and the project ceased and the church became divided (and diminished).

For many of us, it seems that talking about that idyllic state of 'Church Growth' is what keeps the punters happy. Well it does as long as it doesn't call upon people to actually be 'Committed' and get out and do. This is reflected in the number of churches that I happen across where the evening service has ceded to 'Simply Come Dowton to the Antiques Fair' television programmes. "They don't come to the evening services because they are in conflict with television, or as in the case of one church I happened across, the local pub's 'Prize Quiz Night!'.

So, to cut a long blog short here's the beginning of a list of words to avoid and the way to use them should you really have to (add your own to the comments - they're always useful):

Commitment - something that we wish to see in others

Evangelism - something that we bring an 'evangelist' in to do

Giving - Something that we wish other people would do

Attending - Something that applies to others because you're here!

Pax

Volunteers - Recruit, Train, Retain

Some scratchings around trying to think about volunteers has led me to these thoughts - feel free to amend, challenge and assist me with them as I know there's something in what I'm thinking but there are many trees in the wood which obscure the view.

One of the big problems with volunteers is getting them in the first place and once you have got them you need to help them become able to to the stuff and then do it on their own. Once you've reached this place it is all too easy for us to start thinking that we are in a 'job done' position but in fact that isn't the reality, for retention is the toughest (and in my experience perhaps less effort) area to be considered.

Formal training is generally seen by many as the middle element in the process:

We go to great lengths devising courses on a Parish, Deanery and even Diocesan level to meet the assumed needs of the role people are to be engaged in. We do Bishop's Certificate courses and follow this with lay ministerial courses and so on (and this isn't wrong) and I have ask myself - is this the right (by which I mean 'only') approach for the volunteering issue?

Now I know that having something consistent across the Diocese (as an example) is a good place to be as it means that we have a benchmark for the role and a consistent, unified, approach to it too. But the problem is that we find ourselves with shelves full of extremely good stuff which blesses and locks us in to rigid processes and procedures (where what we want is happy, consistent and retained people out there doing the stuff).

What I am finding is that what really happens is that having recruited someone we come alongside them and engage in an informal training which is more akin to discipleship or apprenticeship (after all both seek to make the focus of the relationship like the master). We show the volunteer how to do the thing and then work alongside themas they learn to make it happen for themselves and then, much like teaching a child to ride a bicycle, we take our hands off and watch them cycle away. This doesn't then mean that the 'master' leaves but that they remain (with plasters and hugs for the inevitable spills) and encourage until confidence is gained.

Once the volunteer is doing the job it doesn't take long before they start to think of ways of doing the role differently (i.e. 'better) and soon thoughts as to how they can be better and have less spills comes from them.

We now 'respond' to the questions and seek ways of helping them be better at the role and it here that we can either resolve all 'in house' or turn to a process of formal training. What it then means is that whilst the basics can be included in this response it can become, because the people are doing the stuff, essentially a master class. This means that the material on the shelves now needs to have two different course for the same roles - one for those who wish to do a formal course to equip them and another for those who are doing and want to do it better (which those who have taken the traditional three step approach can find themselves using at a later stage too!).

So in addition 'recruit - train - respond' we now have:

Stages 1, 2 and 3 are all 'in house' whilst the fourth stage of formal training may be enacted at deanery and Diocesan levels - bringing about an 'expert group' who then continue to meet once or twice a year to consider developments (where relevant) and best practice from amongst their number. Better still - they can be enlisted to perhaps write the material and so those who know are producing the materials for their own and bringing into the equation a degree of self-regulation and management.

Regardless of the steps and processes the key stages are getting the volunteers in and, more importantly in my book, keeping them. We will have to look at these some time soon - communion and ironing vestments for NMA Royal Signals Service beckons.

Pax

This is discipleship

Saw this today and, well, look for yourself.

Pax

Becoming holier by instalments

In response to my religious/non-religious humour stuff, Jake sent me something that made me smile and reminded me of some of the people I've known and their faith journeys in particular. But first the funny bit:

"I once knew a man in New York City, when I was a pastor there, and he was a former gang member. He came up to me one day and said, 'Yesterday walking down the street I was confronted by a man who pulled a knife on me. So I pulled out my gun and shot him in the knee caps.' Bursting into tears of joy, the man continued, 'But Praise the Lord! A year ago I would've shot him in the head!'"

Some of the people I have been privileged to lead into relationship with Christ have been, mmmm, let's say 'less whiter than White" with regards to their lifestyles and attitudes. One of them, having made a commitment, really struggled with the honesty thing. This person used to steal stuff and one day I met them on the street and asked how things were going. "Great, I'm only nicking cheap stuff now!" came the reply.

It took the person about five years to totally stop nicking stuff and eventually they became a full-time Christian worker.

The joke got me thinking about that person and the issue of faith, commitment and our attitudes and lifestyle as Christians. God doesn't ask us to do less, or lesser, sinful stuff but to stop doing it altogether. This is what those without the sin in question call the cost of commitment and those who engage in it, like the star of my story call '!?**! hard work'.

Got me thinking:

How hard am I (and you) working to stop doing the wrong stuff and how happy am I with less of it when there should be none?

Pax