The Sinner's Prayer - It's not enough!

Talking with someone about their experiences I began to realise that the same old thing that troubled me many years ago regarding people being converted still runs rampant through any parts of the Church here and in the mission field.

My issue is with the (mis)use of the 'Sinner's Prayer'; that little prayer which talks of repentance and turning away from sin, sorrow for keeping God out of our lives and a commitment toward right living from that point onwards.

'I see that hand ... let's pray!'

I have been in many services over the years where I have seen someone up the front ask those who have been convicted by what they have heard to stand up and commit themselves to Jesus. I have watched as friends and family praise God for the loved one (or at least the person they brought to the service) as they stood and repeated the prayer that was said, line by line, by the person at the front. I too have been grateful for the lives that have been committed to God and felt a sense of joy . . .

As time went on I found that joy turn, slowly at first, before it became, contractionlike, increasing in intensity and pain until I really struggled at the sight before me. Struggling because I knew that the reality was that for many who were saying the words of the prayer would progress no further in their journey of faith; what was before me was the pinnacle and conclusion of their Christian walk. We were celebrating scalps and not the beginning of a faith journey of exploration, growth and deepening discipleship. In fact, to put it rather graphically, we were effectively spawning (in the right sense of the word) 'bastard children' - for they, generally, would be left alone, untended, uncared for and undisciplined the very next day after their 'new birth'; left alone to continue as they had under the impression that they were Christians. No one would be assigned them as mentor and guide - they would just be left to their own devices and unless brought to church (any church) the following Sunday (or to a midweek service) then they'd be effectively lost and the window for effective discipleship was soon gone too!

Speaking with one from the missions fields in distant places I learnt that some might have prayed the sinner's prayer a dozen time in their lives but never been discipled. A situation that I've personally witnessed in the UK on a number of occasions.

So here's a simple plea:
If you're not willing to invest the time into help people become disciples of Christ then don't deny them the joy of a real relationship with Him because you want to win a scalp - encourage them and pass them on to a church (or person) who takes conversion and those who come to Christ seriously!

Leading someone in the sinner's prayer means that you are committing to:

Disciple them (or making sure that they are introduced to someone who will)

Be available for them (and that means being contactable and willing to spend time with them)

Pray for (and with) them (and this means teaching them to pray and to discern God's voice)

The sinner's prayer is the first step into a new way of thinking and living. You wouldn't leave a newborn to fend for itself so why on earth would you leave a spiritual newborn to do exactly that?

I have to admit that during my journey I have been part of churches who 'saw that hand' and led people n the sinner's prayer and yet never discipled those who stood and said it. I am grateful for the journey and sad for those who have passed by and fallen in their walk because of my unwillingness to make more noise about the situation or have remained silent through fear of attack from the leadership (says something about those who were leading I guess)!

There is a great temptation for us all to want to score a scalp but we must put that temptation aside and look to making disciples - anything else denies the love of God and acts detrimentally towards the life of the Kingdom.

Pax

Churchastrain

I struggle with many of the Christians who tell me how we do too much and boast that this their primary message from the pulpit and on the streets is : The Church needs to stop doing and 'Just Be'!" Now accepting that this is a mantra I have used myself I have to ask why does it cause such me such angst?

A conversation regarding this led me to realise that for many of us in Church the most apt analogy is that where the gathering of Christians is portrayed as a train, and here's my reasoning:

The locomotive is full of people with energy, vision, enthusiasm and commitment. It doesn't matter how long they've been Christian or how long they've been in the church or eve how old they are, these are the drivers, doers, movers and shakers. They have a head of steam and are keen to keep themselves and the church on the rails.

Behind them is the ministry team - those people who are keen to enable, equip and release those moving the train forward; fuelling, watering, maintaining and repairing wheresoever the need might arise.

Then come the carriages, each bearing the good names like 'just be' and 'family commitments' and (full of)  'good intentions' and once they are coupled to the tender, the train is ready to leave the station - with nothing to slow it's steady (also known as 'snail's pace') progress towards growing the kingdom.

Well nothing except perhaps the endeavours of the stalwart members (also know as 'stalewart' in some circles) who populate the brake van at the rear of the train whose job, as I'm sure many will already know, is to apply the brakes should the whole caboose start to run too quickly. This is done effectively in so many instances by the application of the mantras of 'tried that before, it didn't work' and 'we're not THAT sort of church' and the like.

When I was in my sending church I had a family and was a member of a church and there was little conflict between the two. We went to church and lived our lives as a family and the two aspects of our life rarely collided. If we went away for the weekend we did it in such a way that we had Friday and Saturday and managed it so that, as much as possible we were back for the Sunday service. After all, Sundays are usually taken up with getting up and having something to eat and then heading home so what did we miss by leaving early on a Sunday or late on a Saturday?

We balanced and managed our lives so that the two important things worked together and we were blessed by it (and I hope family and church were too) and so were not confined to the 'family' coach but were free to get on the footplate.

The 'Good Intentions' carriage is another struggle; for we all fall foul of this minefield. We all want to be useful and to be an active members (we do, don't we?) - but the problem is that we don't put the stuff in our diaries or perhaps we really mean to be somewhere but then the lure of friends and getting together or visiting a pub or doing any one of a million other things that crop up just get in the way. The problem is that this is the active outworking of the passage where the Bible tells us that where our treasure is, that's where our heart is to be found. If we are really engaged and committed then we will move heaven and earth, put off the distractions and get onboard with Church. It's like having friends who never come round (or perhaps never invite you to their homes) - eventually you realise that they are friends at all - same applies to Church: You get to realise that they are acquaintances and destined to never be close (or even, to be honest) friends (at all)!

The Stalewarts at the back are a real challenge because these are really the people who, knowing the
track, should be up the front in the loco' but instead struggle to keep their church as it was when they were young (a great example being a church member who recently told me that they wished the children who visited wouldn't because , "It spoiled the service!" Ironically it is a church with almost no children in it - wonder why?). Armed with buckets of water to extinguish the flames in the firebox they criticise and carp and complain and hearken back to the old days when, "You couldn't get a seat!"

Should they find people who want to take the church in a new direction they apply the brakes and rush round making sure the points are set in the 'right' direction and then, assured that they are on a familiar track, allow the train to proceed. Even then, should things start to speed up past the point of their liking then on go the brakes again until those driving things get the message and slow down, give up or (better still) leave!

Then along come the 'Just Be' folk - the people who, as I have in the past, tell everyone that it's not about doing but just resting in the Lord. The problem with this is that my reason for telling people this is to get them to develop a relationship with God because things will come out of that whilst it seems others are content to have those around them 'being' and equally content with them not doing.

When I was first married, having a wife who didn't drive, when I came home and knew she was shopping I would take the route I knew she'd be on so that I might see her and give her a lift home. At other times, if she was somewhere and it started raining, I'd go and pick her up to save her from getting drenched. The outworking of my love was that I did things for the focus of that love. This is what 'Just Be' is all about - it fosters stuff as the outworking of the relationship.

James 2 sums it up wonderfully for us:

What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone?
Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, “Goodbye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”- but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing.
What good does that do? So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless."

Faith produces doing and if you're not doing and yet claim to have a faith then something is wrong. Of course - just to make sure you don't get it wrong - if you go off doing stuff all the time and think this shows you be a Christian, then you've got it wrong (again) because regardless of how much you do, how much you give to the church or how many stained glass windows, pews or silver you give - you can't work or buy your way into heaven: It's all about relationship with God through Jesus, the Christ.

So some simple questions:

Are you on the train that is Church?

If you answered 'Yes': Where are you on it?
If you answered 'No' would you like to find out how you can be?


All aboard

Confirmation: Beginning not end!

A very old Church joke goes like this:

An archdeacon is called to a church to examine a serious problem with the building. When they arrive they find that the bell tower is full of bats which (because of protection laws) cannot be removed from the space. Not missing a pace the Archdeacon says the solution is readily at hand, all that is needed is for them to get the bishop over.

'What on earth can the bishop do to get rid of the bats?' asks the Vicar.

'He'll come over and confirm them and once that's done, you'll never see most of them again!'

Now, as funny as it is, the reality behind this clerical humour has been seen and felt by many clergy over the years; the reason being that we don't understand what confirmation is about and this misunderstanding is costing the Church dearly+!

Controversial words I know, but this is what I honestly feel and here's why:

I recently encountered some congregations, each with few children, each with very different attitudes. In all of them there were children who had expressed a desire to take communion and the differences in attitude of the church (here 'church' means the people in charge and these were not necessarily the clergy or wardens) resulted in:

i. 'You're only 'n' - come back when you're 'n+x'
  (let's make n=10 and x=4; arbitrary values randomly chosen for the purpose of this exercise)

There were three distinct thoughts behind this (and I know because I asked).

The first was that confirmation is a rite of passage - marking the transition from child to adult (like bar/bat mitzvah in the Jewish faith).

The second was that confirmation made the recipient of that rite a 'member' and 'n', 'Was just too young, for at that age they are tomorrow's church!'

The final bit of thinking was that confirmation is akin to a graduation ceremony and marks something very special because it's about having reached the end of a journey.

ii. 'Let's get together and talk about it'

So they met with the child and discussed what they knew and understood about God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit), The cross, resurrection, new life in Jesus, Pentecost, Church, church and being a disciple (without any of the technical words). What they were doing was exactly what the good old catechism classes of days gone by never did (well mine didn't - it was a bored cleric reading a dogeared SPCK Catechism booklet to a bunch of equally bored and disinterested fifteen years old)! The child was engaged with and a dialogue, and an understanding of their position and thinking gained, and the imparting of great understanding made.

iii. 'Of course, let's do it!'

Now this was a risky approach because the 'Yes' had been issued before a full understanding of the place the child was in was made theirs. The thinking behind this was that the child was known and the view of the family (active and engaged church members) was sought before the encounter where they were properly asked (simple really - the desire was voiced and the response was, 'Great, let's talk later/after the service/sometime soon*' (and the parent were then asked their views before returning to them).

My response to the above scenarios is this:

The first is, in my view (and it might be wrong) pure and unadulterated folly on many levels!
If a child of 'n' comes and is told to come back and 'n+x' then my experience is that by the time 'x' has passed you have lost them and even if they come for confirmation the danger is that it's become a rite of passage and what could have been the beginning of a journey is actually the 'sending off party' for someone who is effectively leaving!

The reality is that confirmation is the beginning of the faith journey, the taking upon ourselves the backpack of faith and the roadmap that leads us to the cross. I would rather see a child of 'n' confirmed and taken forward than put off and put off! This is a dicey path because it requires commitment, energy, engagement and some real conflict with some in the church who will trot out their 'tomorrow's Church' mantra and in so doing destroy today's Church!

This story ends with the child deciding that they didn't want to come back later and the reality is that their attendance is looking less likely as the parents have been told they don't enjoy coming with the result that, because they don't want to force them to come, probably means that the Sunday football or rugby team are likely to have a new member shortly!

The second is about engagement and taking the child seriously. This payed dividends in that the child answered some stuff well and was corrected, guided and after some few sessions together was confirmed. Youth Alpha and Emmaus courses were of use here and what has been seen is a young person on the lower slopes of discipleship fast approaching the steeper section and passing some of the older pew-warmers (which will be interesting to watch)!

The third engagement was quite exquisite in that it didn't put the child off but made space to canvass the parent so that they could respond in a positive and informed way in partnership with the parents. The child was engaged with in a way that involved the parents from the beginning and not only sought their views and permission but brought them into a place where their own faith might be challenged and enhanced bringing a real win-win-win result. The child was confirmed and the ongoing, shared, discipleship is being made real in this family because of it.

Confirmation is not an ending but the beginning of a discipleship journey (which is why we call upon the empowering of God's Holy Spirit as succour for the journey - Spiritual Kendal Mint Cake)

Confirmation is about us acknowledging membership of the Church and taking responsibility for the person being confirmed

Confirmation is not about becoming a member (we don't have members, we have parishioners and communicants)

Communion does not make us an adult - goodness me, have you seen how childish and inane many of those who have been confirmed are?

Confirmation is not about knowledge or age or anything but the desire to go forward and be fully part of the Church - it is Church and communicant taking mutual responsibility for the journey to the cross and is about accountability on the part of Church and believer. How can we expect the baptised to fulfil their baptismal calling if those of us who are called to be their pastors do not take our role seriously?

'Suffer the little children to come to me,' says the Boss.

Are we listening ?

+ And this is the whole Church because many of those who find themselves in other denominations and groupings beging life as Anglicans and is we don't give birth to them the others won't be winning them later ;-)

* delete as applicable

Church: A Vacancy has arisen . . .

Have you ever wished you could advertise for new church members?

Well perhaps you can:

Which Gospel are we reading from?

The Gospel of Christ or the gospel according to Excel?

Last week I met with someone from another diocese who I have known for some time and whose opinion and comments I trust. Their first words were, "What's happening here with the money thing?" I began to tell them about how we have been meeting to address a reduction in stipendiary clergy posts and the many meetings we, as clergy, have had. The hallmark of these meetings was the fact that we had looked at the challenge of meeting the needs of a growing population with less minister missionally rather than financially.

The reality is that we have to lose two posts incrementally by 2017 (the first of the posts will be lost in 2014).

We are looking at a church whose management principle is seeking to work on the almost Dario Fo like principle of 'can't pay - can't have'. This appears to mean that those churches which are to be found in Urban Priority Areas and seek to preach to those in urban settings and function as 'estate churches' are up the list when it comes to 'can't pay'!

My friend and colleague told me horror stories whereby those who were comfortable and could afford their clergy were safe but those (dare I say it, where the need is) find themselves in every way becoming the poor relations.

One of the key factors promoted by our bishop is generosity and yet it appears that although this might be the desire, the reality might be somewhat different.

So where are we going? Some of the indications are that churches will be led towards clergy as sessional workers. Others will find themselves in the position whereby they exist with non-stipendiary clergy, locally ordained ministers (something I have problems with) or House for Duty (whose days I fear may also be numbered) clergy. More still will fall back on the kindness of retired clergy (who are muzzled when the grain of occasional offices appears ;-( ).

The reality is that we are looking at doing things differently and this is not a bad idea. BUT (has to be one) when we start planning our future by Excel and the balance sheet rather than the Gospel I fear for us.

My colleague told me how the plans where they were looked at contracting and not growth and this has to be wrong. If we look to downsize we look to close our doors and leave the many unsaved to the mercy of God (perhaps universalists are right in that those who failed to tell might be covered by God's grace at our failings).

Lower clergy numbers can mean a stronger and enabled and released laity and from this a flourishing Church. It provides those who have criticised clergy for inactivity with the opportunity to be, themselves, active. Sadly I feel it might also lead to yet another drop in able clergy as we lower bars and turn towards a clericalism that weakens rather than strengthens - watch this space (for we are not finished with this issue)