Thank Jesus it's Sunday?

As the first service of the day slowly creeps nearer I find my self thinking about the various responses to Sunday that I have encountered thus far in my life. Here, for brevity's sake are four (bet you know more):

The Enthusiast
They've jumped out of bed and can't wait for church. This is one of the high points of the week for them - a chance to share with their church family and break bread, sing. listen (and hopefully learn, and pray!

You know the sort, they're always excited about church and God and stuff.
One of the  people in a church a few churches back one pointed at one of these and said, in a non-approving tone, 'That's N, he's one of those enthusiastic Christians!'

The Dutiful
A few years back, at one of the early communion services, someone said to me,'I wouldn't have come this morning but I had to to because I was handing out the hymnbooks!'

These are the people for whom church has become a commitment that has to be met and to be honest, I think that we (me and them) both wonder why they come at times. They have something to do and so they come and do it (for which I am truly grateful, for many who have things to do don't) but they have lost the joy of living with God and generally just work with Him.

The Habitual
A discussion with a church member from another fellowship led me into the knowledge that 'They've always come to the church,' and so they continue to come. They were brought by their parents (who were brought by their parents and so on) and it's what they do on a Sunday.

As I discussed Christian things with them I became aware that they might have some miles on the clock in terms of church attendance but that they'd rarely brought their brains and emotions with them (essential if 'church' is to be of any value I fear) and the sermon was the place for drifting off and planning lunch or sorting out the handbag and the like.

The Pressed Men
Doing a service somewhere recently I met a couple who obviously didn't want to be in the church building. Throughout the service the mumbled the responses, barely sang the songs and couldn't wait to flee.

So (of course) I tackled them at the door and asked a few questions and it turned out that:

They 'had' to be there to have their banns read and having taken the medicine that is church were keen to leg it before they were collared by some one (so that worked well, didn't it?). Going to church was the price that had to be paid for the use of the their building on their 'big day'.

Another similar looking couple (at another service) were there because they 'had' to come because they were having their child baptised. Again there was no engagement from them - they were doing what had to be done.

The Consumer (a late addition)
I've been asked to include this by others as so can but oblige. Here we have those who arrive, take in a service and then leave with no mark made either by them or on them. The Sunday slot is something that serves to fill a need and nothing more. The 'consumer' is perhaps the most difficult to deal with because they come (and often have always done so) and yet are the people that can be least counted upon to make an impact or hold a belief).

One of the hallmarks of the consumer society is that they are seeking to be 'blessed' and are very sure about what they don't want from church, being challenged appearing to be the biggest turn off - 'ask what your church (and God) can do for you, not what you can do for it (and Him)' is their mantra.

The question for me as a dogcollar is what I can do to make those who come through the doors of our church (the word 'our' indicating membership not possession) engaged and the experience meaningful and enjoyable?

How do I turn habit into enthusiasm and make the usual Sunday experience into something unusual and extraordinary?

How do I rekindle the passion that has turned to duty and set people on fire for God?

How do I make an honest, welcoming and disciple-making environment for those pressed men?

How do I turn consumers into converts?

You know what? I'm not sure - so I'll go next door and have a try with the early communion.

Catch you later - Christ is risen! Hallelujah!

Bomber Command - Now Give Them Their Medal!

Today the Memorial to those who flew with, and gave their lives sering in, the Royal Air Force's Bomber Command will be unveiled.

This long overdue recognition of the courage and commitment of the 55,573 who gave their lives and the many others who served in such an awful role is something to not only be applauded but should be the start of the process that sees those who served rewarded with a medal to recognise this.

Whilst some will speak of atrocities and war crimes what we celebrate today is the courage and duty of those who served. This memorial has been welcomed by many, including those who inhabit the places that were the targets of the bombing campaigns of the second world war - which is just, right and fitting.

'We will remember them'

Remembrance - Never in vain

Every year around Remembrancetide the same old sad people trot out their, "Why not tell people their sons died for nothing," cobblers. They witter on about how awful bomber command were and take pleasure in the fact that they have never received recognition for the fact they took to the air and put their lives on the line in pursuit of peace (and in obedience to orders).

Well, here we are 11/11/11 and at 11:00 I will be gathered with many others to pay our respects to all who have served in wars and conflicts throughout the world and will be thanking those who have died in the pursuit of peace, the same peace that lets some drone on in the way I have outlined above, and yes, even to burn poppies (but don't be surprised is someone takes offence!). The reality is that when one nation seeks to subsume another into its nation, or remove a people group, or act against others in ways that are wrong and where the art of politics fails, it is to the men and women of our armed forces that we look for a remedy.

War is never glorious - and that is not the message of Armistice Day or Remembrance Sunday - but the fact that scared people go and do heroic things, overcome fear to make a stand and do what is right (in a right way), then these people deserve to be paid their due respect and thanked.

In the words of the Kohima epitaph:

For our tomorrow, they gave their today"

So let us pay homage to them and live well in that truth!

Pax

Teaching our children - People vs Possessions

I have received a missive from someone who describes themselves as an educator who takes offence at what I have written. Have a read (seems I might have touched a nerve):

"The role of education is to equip our young people to be effective and productive members of society. The education process teaches them how to indeed maximise their income and make themselves attractive to the employers, what else should it do? Your bleeding heart, sugar-coated, unreal words suggest that you are yourself little more than someone with little real experience of the world of men or of work. As a career teacher I have taught for over thirty-five years and have seen my students enter well-paid and successful careers because of that which I have instilled in them.

We seek to produce people who can demand the highest salaries and command the highest positions. This is what education is about, not the 'be happy and make a difference fluffiness you preach. Good job you are a priest, you can do little damage there."

Some interesting points arise from this communication. Some are, I fear, far from the the reality of my work life and some of my correspondent's comments rely strongly upon assumptions made from their own life which I suspect is a life lived outside of the real, working, world.

Now before my teaching friends reach for shotguns and hounds, please understand that I am not saying that being a teacher isn't work, for it most certainly is (and very challenging  and rewarding work too), but I am saying that it is not the world of work the majority of those in work experience and that the parameters from within which conclusions are drawn are not the 'real' world.

So, let's address the issues and see what this brings forth:

The role of education - is surely to 'educate. Simples? Education is the art of imparting the skills, knowledge, customs, values and beliefs of the society in which the pupil finds themselves. It opens the eyes, encourages questions and brings forth answers that the student can make their own in such a way as they can develop their passions, practice the things they enjoy and maximise their potential to be creative, scientific, linguistically-enabled or any other art, craft or science that makes them who they are.

I recall in one of the Lawrence books Ursula Brangwen sees cruelty in a botany lesson for it makes the children aware of something that will never be open to them in their drab mill-worker's lives. Their being aware of stamen and the biology of the plant is a door to a world they now know of and yet will never be part of. The education she sees in the closely knit rows of back-to-back worker's cottages is that which trains the children to respond to the alarms for the start and close of work and for meal breaks. It teaches enough to generate the drones of the Industrial age and leaves nothing of the person developed or revealed. This is surely:

Education that teaches maximised income and attracts employers - The blue collar drones who once laboured in out dark satanic mills and grimy, unsafe mines, factories and industrial places. The underclass who were not taught to think but merely be obedient and submissive. The very people who (generally) no longer exist in today's society. To think as my correspondent does is to think with the mindset of the post-war, Daily Mail, dinosaur rather than as an effective or realistic educator. I would rather have Neill's 'Summerhill' than this glimpse of days (thankfully) long gone.

That said, I'm not sure whether this person is a teacher of the elite or the proletariat but I'm assuming that this person is turning out 'haves' rather than the 'have nots'. In seeking to produce 'people who can demand the highest salaries and command the highest positions' I fear that they might be breeding those among us who have found that they can live their miserable lives miserably in comfort and plenty. This, is as I understand it not at all what education is about and without those who are 'happy and make a difference' the world we live would be even sadder than that which such'educators as this correspondent seek to create (for surely this is hell rather than heaven).

"I can but end with a rejoinder to the comment, "Good job you are a priest, you can do little damage there."

What a sadness you are an educator, for you do untold damage!

Good job I'm a priest isn't it? Someone needs to remedy the errors and antisocial outworkings of educators such are portrayed here;)

Then when you get your converts you make them twice as fit for hell as you are yourselves perhaps?

Pax

The Homeless - legally doing too little!

Where I find myself operating there is a policy whereby the homeless are supported by those in authority by them being afforded the 'statutory minimum' provision. What this really means is that the town considers itself to have no homeless and should any of these awful people arrive, they are given the fare to one of the large cities north or south of us, so that they can be hosteled.

When discussing this with a member of the council they continually used the term 'statutory minimum' and when challenged over this, the response was that anything less would be unlawful and anything more would encourage the 'wrong sort' of people to come to our town. Not only that, but offering them housing or other support would merely perpetuate the problem, the homeless need to be made to stop being homeless and settle down (somewhere else?).

It seems that this attitude also prevails within Westminister's bounds regarding the topic of soup kitchens with their, "If you feed them, they will come," approach to the homeless.

A couple of years after my discussion with the councillor, we had a well-known local tramp die of exposure whilst sleeping rough in a bus shelter. There was an outcry and the public were outraged and civic leaders postured and spoke out about 'doing something' and here we are, at the close of the 2010/11 winter with still nothing done and any public, or morally-driven, sense of purpose now gone.

About three years ago I approached the housing department and told them that I would organise a charity and bunch of volunteers to attempt to deal with homelessness where we are. All they had to do was provide a pair of down-at-heel houses and we would provide, and manage the funding, of temporary accommodation.

This was greeted rather negatively with various reasons (we don't have the housing stock) and various attitudes (if we did that, people would come here and we don't have a homeless problem at the moment) and loads of well-meaning inactivity (well, nothing has happened so it is inactivity whether those who read this and feel guilty/angry/whatever like it or not!).

So before people get on their high horses over Westminster, can I suggest that you stop and look at your own community and see what is offer there? I imagine that you will find pretty much the same, and if not 'Well Done' now take a look at the next place along the road from you and ask yourself, "How can I influence, aid or support them?

If we take one of the quotes from Westminster and change the name, I wonder how many of us could say the same for our place of residence or ministry?


My Town believes that food handouts only serve to keep people on the streets longer, damaging their health and life chances.

Well? rather than all the posing and self-righteous blog-writing, what are we going to do about it? Not Westminister (unless you live there) but where you live. An opportunity for a 'Churches Together' project. A need to get together and raise up candidates for our local councils.

We need to stop muttering, writing and being outraged and start being the difference!

Now, before the next winter

Pax