This morning started with heavy frost and the sort of beautiful blue skies that Winter often provides as I climbed out of bed and made my way to a new place of worship for an 'early' Book of Common Prayer (BCP) Communion. The morning may have been cold but the welcome, and the building, were warm - and that's always a blessing!
Today's service was a straightforward BCP service in which we reflected upon The Presentation and Jesus coming into contact with Simeon and Anna. The people alongside me were keen to make sure I had what I needed to get through the service and as I was about to leave the altar rail a hand grabbed me to let me know that we stayed where we were until everyone was communicated.
When the service was done I had a quick look around the building (and having been pointed to 'something of interest' I paid an interesting tomb a bit of a visit before mooching for a few minutes before heading for the door, only to find myself engaged with by one of the people who'd been at the service and offered tea and toast!
What made this nice was that I got to chat to people, and the local dogcollar too, and learnt much about the building and the changes, glimpses of the ministry and the 'messy church' like children's work to be engaged with the following week (please pray for those running it and those who might come to St Hilda's). The pews in the place had gone and they'd installed effective heating and the warmth of the place bore testimony to that - But the sacred space that this building is and the rubbing shoulders with saints past was made special by rubbing shoulders with those present.
I can honestly say that this has to be one of the best church visits I have made for ages.
The building was welcoming and obviously cared for,
The liturgy was straightforward and thoughtfully presented without deviating or distracting us from the particular form that is BCP.
The Church made real in the living stones alongside me was engaged and welcoming - the offer of tea and toast was earnest and hard to pass up as the person asking me, having ascertained that I was merely passing though, didn't walk away as they realised I was a scalp but persevered as if they valued the fact that I was family.
So I stayed for tea and toast and engaged in making koinonia a reality - and am sure that the next time I'm in that place I'll be visiting again. And until I do thee will be prayers offered up for the work of the Church in that building that doors would be opened and lives changed by its ministry, history and the work of the people there. A real bleeding and great start to my day.
And the day continued to be just as good - a new addition to the family engaged with, and the in-laws looking good, and the new family unit being everything one could pray for - Lord, bless them and surround them with your love and your presence. Sadly though time was such that before it got going the road to Tamworth beckoned and we had to depart.
Lord for our families, for new life (and for old life too) I can but thank you. Keep us united and help us to see the strength and value that each one of us bring to, and the importance that thee is in, family.
Thank you for the places of worship, and the welcome, warmth, and family that is to be found within their walls - bless the family of St Hilda's and strengthen their arms that the battle might be won in that place.
Thank you for my own places of worship - help us to look to You and stay authentic, tolerant, selfless and open-handed. Help us to not see the fault in others but to see the feet of clay that impede us in our journey through this life, and thus enlightened, bless those who might otherwise be cursed by our own folly.
I pray for the day ahead and the opportunities a new week will bring - help us to do nothing in our own strength and to pray, consider, and obediently go forward - in Your name and for Your namesake.
Bless our families, biological, ecclesial, and gathered by means odd and otherwise and make us a blessing in them also.
For the bread today, the forgiveness and the presence of you love I give you thanks and looking expectantly to another day, bless you for all You are to me, and in me.
Jesus, I thank You for the cross and the ability to proclaim that You are risen indeed!
Showing posts with label missional. Show all posts
Showing posts with label missional. Show all posts
Monday, 30 January 2017
Sunday, 27 November 2016
Dear diary: A stunning week closes . . .
Time for a bit of reflection:
Communion celebrated (I preside and we all, as the people of God, celebrate the Eucharist - just saying) in a variety of settings (church, home and care home). A privilege and joy and, not unsurprisingly, one of the areas that has lifted my head, made me buzz, filled me with hope (realised in Jesus, the Christ) and put an added spring in my step.
Funerals conducted in church and Crematorium this week (realised that with 56 on the clock so far this year that it's been a light year and wonder whether that's good or bad?). This week's have seen some me working amazing people who were unsung heroes with so many things to commend them. Interestingly the average age of the four this week was greater than my overall average of 87 - also different from the norm was the fact that the men outlived their wives - usually the other way around!
Started the week with a stunningly joyful, fun-filled and celebratory funeral and the theme continued until the final trip to the crem' on Friday - good to have smiles and laughter as well as tears and solemnity making their appearance.
Engagement with people was, as ever, a mixed bag, and the ability of people to screw things up is always amazing - but the ability to bring clarity and Christ into situations makes the role of pastor and priest a joy - it is no coincidence that I buzz most when engaged with people, don't think I'm ever going to be in love with proecedure and paperwork so I'll leave it to those who enjoy it and thank God for them whilst I head in the opposite direction.
Cherry on the cake this week was someone coming to Christ and beginning their journey into the world of faith. Can there be anything better than seeing someone 'born again' and reconciled to God theory the atoning actions of the Christ? Realised how frustrated I am that I do so little real evangelism and so much of the treadmill. If I were someone who did new year's resolutions (only ever done one - resolved not to do any and kept that one) I'd say 2017 will be a year of winning souls - instead I'll say it more and look to making that happen.
So impressed with Hope - so frustrated with clergy! Why is it that clergy wait for someone to hand them a weapon when they are facing the enemy and merely need to stoop down and pick one up from the ground? When the enemy is before us we take up whatever weapon is to hand and engage them robustly and with overwhelming fire. But prayer is at a premium rather than commonplace and all around me I find people managing decline and reading from a spreadsheet when they should be populating heaven and reading the Bible!
So blessed to be part of the worshipping communities in Leyfields, Coton Green and Hopwas - Christmas Market, Ladies Craft, Friday Freiends, drop-In, Kid's Club and so much more have been a blessing this week. The school's work is just monster and the opportunities for engagement endless. Amazed I can find time to stop praIsing you Lord.
Sadness of the week has been the person who will never fail because they will never attempt anything - seems that's the way to be well-regarded by so many - seems to me that this is the reason Church is struggling :-(
Lesson of the week has been the realisation that I as much as I love reading and praying and growing in my knowledge of the word this is something that I have come to regard as something I do when work is done rather than something that's part of the work I do - so another note for 2017 - study, prayer and developing my theological and ministerial skill sets are going to be part of the working week.
Joy of the week are many but topped by Phillip's baptism and the gift that he is to the people of God. To work with people who eagerly desire to know Christ and to celebrate His death and resurrection in the Eucharist is sublime - what a week: Bath and Bread in the spotlight.
So much to thank God for - my paucity, His immensity.
Hallelujah
Communion celebrated (I preside and we all, as the people of God, celebrate the Eucharist - just saying) in a variety of settings (church, home and care home). A privilege and joy and, not unsurprisingly, one of the areas that has lifted my head, made me buzz, filled me with hope (realised in Jesus, the Christ) and put an added spring in my step.
Funerals conducted in church and Crematorium this week (realised that with 56 on the clock so far this year that it's been a light year and wonder whether that's good or bad?). This week's have seen some me working amazing people who were unsung heroes with so many things to commend them. Interestingly the average age of the four this week was greater than my overall average of 87 - also different from the norm was the fact that the men outlived their wives - usually the other way around!
Started the week with a stunningly joyful, fun-filled and celebratory funeral and the theme continued until the final trip to the crem' on Friday - good to have smiles and laughter as well as tears and solemnity making their appearance.
Engagement with people was, as ever, a mixed bag, and the ability of people to screw things up is always amazing - but the ability to bring clarity and Christ into situations makes the role of pastor and priest a joy - it is no coincidence that I buzz most when engaged with people, don't think I'm ever going to be in love with proecedure and paperwork so I'll leave it to those who enjoy it and thank God for them whilst I head in the opposite direction.
Cherry on the cake this week was someone coming to Christ and beginning their journey into the world of faith. Can there be anything better than seeing someone 'born again' and reconciled to God theory the atoning actions of the Christ? Realised how frustrated I am that I do so little real evangelism and so much of the treadmill. If I were someone who did new year's resolutions (only ever done one - resolved not to do any and kept that one) I'd say 2017 will be a year of winning souls - instead I'll say it more and look to making that happen.
So impressed with Hope - so frustrated with clergy! Why is it that clergy wait for someone to hand them a weapon when they are facing the enemy and merely need to stoop down and pick one up from the ground? When the enemy is before us we take up whatever weapon is to hand and engage them robustly and with overwhelming fire. But prayer is at a premium rather than commonplace and all around me I find people managing decline and reading from a spreadsheet when they should be populating heaven and reading the Bible!
So blessed to be part of the worshipping communities in Leyfields, Coton Green and Hopwas - Christmas Market, Ladies Craft, Friday Freiends, drop-In, Kid's Club and so much more have been a blessing this week. The school's work is just monster and the opportunities for engagement endless. Amazed I can find time to stop praIsing you Lord.
Sadness of the week has been the person who will never fail because they will never attempt anything - seems that's the way to be well-regarded by so many - seems to me that this is the reason Church is struggling :-(
Lesson of the week has been the realisation that I as much as I love reading and praying and growing in my knowledge of the word this is something that I have come to regard as something I do when work is done rather than something that's part of the work I do - so another note for 2017 - study, prayer and developing my theological and ministerial skill sets are going to be part of the working week.
Joy of the week are many but topped by Phillip's baptism and the gift that he is to the people of God. To work with people who eagerly desire to know Christ and to celebrate His death and resurrection in the Eucharist is sublime - what a week: Bath and Bread in the spotlight.
So much to thank God for - my paucity, His immensity.
Hallelujah
Thursday, 11 February 2016
40 Acts 2016 - Day 2
One thing we can all agree on, though, is that our communities feel like nicer places when they're litter-free. It's better for the environment, and easier on the eye.
Roll your sleeves up and make your world cleaner today.
'The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.'
(Genesis 2:15 NIV)
It had been years since I’d seen one of these. Like a near-extinct bird, the lesser-spotted Christian bumper sticker caught my eye last summer. It was old and peeling around the edges, but the ‘This is not my home, I’m just passing through’ sticker was still intact. Some of us have been thinking about creation and the planet so long we have forgotten that there are those who still believe that planet earth is only a stopgap before the main performance on the stage of heaven.
Genesis 2:15 makes clear that from the start we were made to ’work, dress and care for creation’. So the plan was never that the bumper sticker would be true.
Earth isn’t a stop-off; it is our home and – as shown in Revelation 21– heaven is going to invade earth. There isn’t going to be some mass evacuation, but heaven is coming to us.
Which means we need to roll up our sleeves because we have work to do. We need to be involved in working, dressing and caring for creation. It’s not something to consume and then destroy, but to care for and restore. Our role is to be stewards of the great gift of earth, stone, water and air. We are to work to bring about a restored creation, a beautiful creation, a creation that reminds us of Eden.
Where is your Garden of Eden? What are your Eden streets called? Eden scrub ground and Eden car parks? We each have a Garden of Eden to love, treasure, clean, restore, dress, preserve and bring justice for. So let’s not wait for someone else to do our job; let’s get involved and live up to the first challenge in the Bible.
Today's blog was written by Cris Rogers from All Hallows Bow. Find out more about them and support their chosen charity here.
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Sunday, 22 November 2015
Making Church 'Relevant and attractive'
Sitting in the study this morning, the room temperature a balmy 12.4 degrees celsius, daily office said and prayers done I find myself reflecting upon the past week and some of the conversations Ithat occurred during it.
There were the conversations relating to making Church 'more relevant and engaged'; conversations shared over bread and wine in the homes of those unable to make it to the church building; conversations with people troubled by the apparent chasm that exists between clergy and those things which are biblical and were taught to them as right thinking (orthodox) throughout their Christian lives thus far, but are now being rewritten by those who are called to lead them.
I have wept with people at loss, betrayal and exclusion; exclusion from family, friends and employment.
I have smiled, laughed and celebrated the pinnacles of life made all the sweeter by comparison with the absurd, challenging and often arduous bits of our existence.
I have met colleagues who have challenged me and taught me, and others who have taught me that avoidance where they are concerned might be the least damaging to my enthusiasm and spirit!
I've dressed up and made the journey as one of the Magi from the Orient (no, I wasn't in Leyton!) to a stable in Bethlehem in the company of a couple of other similarly dressed folk in preparation for the 'Living Nativity' which will be performed (three times) during the lighting of Tamworth's Christmas lights (gets earlier each year) - the Christmas tree festival is now in full swing in the Parish church and Ho, Ho, Holy cow; the poppies weren't gone before the decorations were up!
One of the main reasons this blog exists is to enable me to have a scratch pad which originally was shared with a few friends as a means of internal dialogue with self being made visible so others could pray, suggest and offer correction where necessary.
I have been 'taught' how to 'do church' by people who, to be quite blunt, don't even know hop to get the building set up for a service! The arrogance that we all display when younger (and some continue with it into their dotage it seems) which speaks in clichéd terms of the obvious and resorts to the same trite statements that once resonated, and emanated, from us once as well. The reality is that those newly ordained might bring fresh eyes to a situation but they don't always accompany those eyes with informed brains and experienced hands and so, having gleaned, the rest is gently put to one side.
BUT (and there's always a 'but' somewhere, isn't there?)
Top of the list of all the things that have challenged, wounded and made me sad this week (and there have been more than a few of them) has to be the amalgam that is 'relevant and attractive' - the reason being that I don't find what they peddle to be either. Let me give you three little points* which will illustrate the places I need counselling and care:
WARNING. I can make no apologies for the word 'sin' appearing, for this is the correct term in this context. The the same for the use of the words 'He' when referring to God (I know He's male and female, but grammar and tradition apply here).
i. Church is about being sinful people who have been reconciled to their Creator by the death of one man who took our place on a cross.
ii. We are called to turn away from our sin (repent) and to believe in Jesus, the Christ, and living accordingly as His followers (apprentices or disciples) we uphold His teachings and live lives of service emulating Him for He is the servant of all.
iii. Christian life is about setting ourselves, and others, free from those things that bind us. It is about choosing the right course of action - after all, even on a one-way street, we can always park the car and walk in the opposite direction! We are not compelled to act in any way we don't want to, there is always a choice before us - a 'Yes' or 'No' moment which leads us in a different direction.This is as true a choosing to follow Christ as it is in choosing to act as we do in our daily lives.
Here's a little note on life: It is always about choice!
But apparently where someone makes a choice that is contrary to that which Christians are called to do, then in order to not make those around us who have chosen not to accept or follow Jesus feel uncomfortable or slighted or acted against we, being 'called to peace', are expected to compromise our position and beliefs so as not to upset those who have chosen something contrary to our own position. If we don't do this then were are making the Church irrelevant and unattractive.
Here's the rub: If we do compromise such that we endorse wrong choices then we deny Jesus and in watering down the Word (here meaning both written and living: Jesus and the Bible) we are not attractive or relevant but are apostate and fallen!
We can engage in gender issues with open hands and hearts - taking the middle path where neither Misogyny or Misandry are indulged in or entertained (personal note: I see more Misandry than I see Misogny these days, the latter being something people are afraid of being labelled!).
We can deal with sexual issues without condemning but also without compromise or the applauding of wrong** attitudes or actions. The 'God just wants you to be happy' brigade are, it seems, more often indulging in their cowardice rather than their courage. Nothing separates any of us from God's love and the Eucharist was never meant to be used as a weapon but those who condone, encourage or 'turn a blind eye' to those engaged in sexual sin are weakening the word and are themselves making the Church relevant and dualistic - this is the cancer that is killing the Church!
Politics are great, they allow us to make our point, have arguments and stand on our soapboxes. But don't confuse the soapbox with the pulpit! If you want to get political then head for Hyde Park's 'Speakers Corner' or find a street corner and make your point - but remember that whilst the Church should be involved in politics (because that's what democracy is about - and we are good citizens of this place even though we are but 'aliens and sojourners' here) the pulpit is not the place for your own views. Interestingly, even though many assume that the CofE is 'the Conservative party at prayer' I have to say that I hear increasing left-wing views coming from the space above many dogcollars these day - sadly too many seem to think that Jesus was the first socialist/Communist, but this is not the case; Jesus was the first Christian. I think that might just be a hint!
The problem is that, for many, attractive means toothless, valueless and impotent and this doesn't build the kingdom and doesn't fill your church building either. So why don't we start being 'counter-cultural' and stand up for what we believe (which is easy because you'll find it in the Bible) and state it without fear of opposition or criticism or being unpopular. If we seek to make Church popular by making it more and more like the world around us then we remove any reason for people to come in and engage with us because where' and what is the difference between us and the world?
The answer, in case you are unsure is: JESUS!
* There could be many more but I think these three tick the basic boxes.
** 'Wrong' here refers to those things that are contrary to that which the Bible teaches and the Church has traditionally upheld as being right behaviour and thinking.
There were the conversations relating to making Church 'more relevant and engaged'; conversations shared over bread and wine in the homes of those unable to make it to the church building; conversations with people troubled by the apparent chasm that exists between clergy and those things which are biblical and were taught to them as right thinking (orthodox) throughout their Christian lives thus far, but are now being rewritten by those who are called to lead them.
I have wept with people at loss, betrayal and exclusion; exclusion from family, friends and employment.
I have smiled, laughed and celebrated the pinnacles of life made all the sweeter by comparison with the absurd, challenging and often arduous bits of our existence.
I have met colleagues who have challenged me and taught me, and others who have taught me that avoidance where they are concerned might be the least damaging to my enthusiasm and spirit!
I've dressed up and made the journey as one of the Magi from the Orient (no, I wasn't in Leyton!) to a stable in Bethlehem in the company of a couple of other similarly dressed folk in preparation for the 'Living Nativity' which will be performed (three times) during the lighting of Tamworth's Christmas lights (gets earlier each year) - the Christmas tree festival is now in full swing in the Parish church and Ho, Ho, Holy cow; the poppies weren't gone before the decorations were up!
One of the main reasons this blog exists is to enable me to have a scratch pad which originally was shared with a few friends as a means of internal dialogue with self being made visible so others could pray, suggest and offer correction where necessary.
I have been 'taught' how to 'do church' by people who, to be quite blunt, don't even know hop to get the building set up for a service! The arrogance that we all display when younger (and some continue with it into their dotage it seems) which speaks in clichéd terms of the obvious and resorts to the same trite statements that once resonated, and emanated, from us once as well. The reality is that those newly ordained might bring fresh eyes to a situation but they don't always accompany those eyes with informed brains and experienced hands and so, having gleaned, the rest is gently put to one side.
BUT (and there's always a 'but' somewhere, isn't there?)
Top of the list of all the things that have challenged, wounded and made me sad this week (and there have been more than a few of them) has to be the amalgam that is 'relevant and attractive' - the reason being that I don't find what they peddle to be either. Let me give you three little points* which will illustrate the places I need counselling and care:
WARNING. I can make no apologies for the word 'sin' appearing, for this is the correct term in this context. The the same for the use of the words 'He' when referring to God (I know He's male and female, but grammar and tradition apply here).
i. Church is about being sinful people who have been reconciled to their Creator by the death of one man who took our place on a cross.
ii. We are called to turn away from our sin (repent) and to believe in Jesus, the Christ, and living accordingly as His followers (apprentices or disciples) we uphold His teachings and live lives of service emulating Him for He is the servant of all.
iii. Christian life is about setting ourselves, and others, free from those things that bind us. It is about choosing the right course of action - after all, even on a one-way street, we can always park the car and walk in the opposite direction! We are not compelled to act in any way we don't want to, there is always a choice before us - a 'Yes' or 'No' moment which leads us in a different direction.This is as true a choosing to follow Christ as it is in choosing to act as we do in our daily lives.
Here's a little note on life: It is always about choice!
But apparently where someone makes a choice that is contrary to that which Christians are called to do, then in order to not make those around us who have chosen not to accept or follow Jesus feel uncomfortable or slighted or acted against we, being 'called to peace', are expected to compromise our position and beliefs so as not to upset those who have chosen something contrary to our own position. If we don't do this then were are making the Church irrelevant and unattractive.
Here's the rub: If we do compromise such that we endorse wrong choices then we deny Jesus and in watering down the Word (here meaning both written and living: Jesus and the Bible) we are not attractive or relevant but are apostate and fallen!
We can engage in gender issues with open hands and hearts - taking the middle path where neither Misogyny or Misandry are indulged in or entertained (personal note: I see more Misandry than I see Misogny these days, the latter being something people are afraid of being labelled!).
We can deal with sexual issues without condemning but also without compromise or the applauding of wrong** attitudes or actions. The 'God just wants you to be happy' brigade are, it seems, more often indulging in their cowardice rather than their courage. Nothing separates any of us from God's love and the Eucharist was never meant to be used as a weapon but those who condone, encourage or 'turn a blind eye' to those engaged in sexual sin are weakening the word and are themselves making the Church relevant and dualistic - this is the cancer that is killing the Church!
Politics are great, they allow us to make our point, have arguments and stand on our soapboxes. But don't confuse the soapbox with the pulpit! If you want to get political then head for Hyde Park's 'Speakers Corner' or find a street corner and make your point - but remember that whilst the Church should be involved in politics (because that's what democracy is about - and we are good citizens of this place even though we are but 'aliens and sojourners' here) the pulpit is not the place for your own views. Interestingly, even though many assume that the CofE is 'the Conservative party at prayer' I have to say that I hear increasing left-wing views coming from the space above many dogcollars these day - sadly too many seem to think that Jesus was the first socialist/Communist, but this is not the case; Jesus was the first Christian. I think that might just be a hint!
The problem is that, for many, attractive means toothless, valueless and impotent and this doesn't build the kingdom and doesn't fill your church building either. So why don't we start being 'counter-cultural' and stand up for what we believe (which is easy because you'll find it in the Bible) and state it without fear of opposition or criticism or being unpopular. If we seek to make Church popular by making it more and more like the world around us then we remove any reason for people to come in and engage with us because where' and what is the difference between us and the world?
The answer, in case you are unsure is: JESUS!
* There could be many more but I think these three tick the basic boxes.
** 'Wrong' here refers to those things that are contrary to that which the Bible teaches and the Church has traditionally upheld as being right behaviour and thinking.
Thursday, 5 November 2015
So What's being a Christian all about then?
The at perennial question that chase me up and down the streets like Monty Python's perennial hedgehog, but instead of shouting out, 'Dindsale,' my assailant cries out: 'Christian? What's that then?' and you know that's is a very good question indeed. Let's hope my reply is up to the mark! Here are your three starters - more tomorrow:
First and foremost, being a Christian demands some form on belief, after all I know a few groups of people who think that mentioning the name (or sticking it about their doors) makes them Christian, but it doesn't. After all I know people who go on about alcohol all the time but they aren't alcoholics, in math they are the very opposite ob being alcoholic. The same is true for those who go on about Jesus with to without the job descriptor 'Christ' - or like to use either, or both of those words singly or in combination most assuredly doesn't make you a Christian! Saying the name is great but it's knowing the bloke that matters.
So here's the first top tip of being Christian: You need to know the bloke!
The next step is that you need to know what Jesus (the bloke) and the job title He has (the Christ) are all about. Some people get a bit confused here and think He was a man who got zapped by God and became a super-being. I have to say if that's your stance then you've got Jesus a but mixed up with the Hulk or Spiderman, sorry. You see, Jesus is God but to get that which was necessary for us to be friends with God again all squared away, knowing that the price that needed to be paid was someone willing to exchange their life for our own, He came down as a man (Christmas? Remember Christmas - the baby? Well that was Jesus; don't let that thought go!). The person what's going to do the swapping places and saving us bit - He's called the 'Chosen one' (no not Mourhino, he's just a very naughty boy!) -That's what being 'The Christ' means.
Next tip - remember Christ is Jesus' job title and the next time you want to use Him as a swear word, have a think about how you'd feel if someone you loved had their name used like that!
Now, if someone gave up their life to save mine, I am certain I would say something twee like, 'OOOh, I'm going to try and live a better life because He died to let me live my life!' It's what they do in films; it's what they do when we think of those who gave their lives in conflict (and it is remembrancetide innit?), so if it really happened, wouldn't you try to live it out for real?
Of course you would... top tip three: Live like you've just got your life back!
First and foremost, being a Christian demands some form on belief, after all I know a few groups of people who think that mentioning the name (or sticking it about their doors) makes them Christian, but it doesn't. After all I know people who go on about alcohol all the time but they aren't alcoholics, in math they are the very opposite ob being alcoholic. The same is true for those who go on about Jesus with to without the job descriptor 'Christ' - or like to use either, or both of those words singly or in combination most assuredly doesn't make you a Christian! Saying the name is great but it's knowing the bloke that matters.
So here's the first top tip of being Christian: You need to know the bloke!
The next step is that you need to know what Jesus (the bloke) and the job title He has (the Christ) are all about. Some people get a bit confused here and think He was a man who got zapped by God and became a super-being. I have to say if that's your stance then you've got Jesus a but mixed up with the Hulk or Spiderman, sorry. You see, Jesus is God but to get that which was necessary for us to be friends with God again all squared away, knowing that the price that needed to be paid was someone willing to exchange their life for our own, He came down as a man (Christmas? Remember Christmas - the baby? Well that was Jesus; don't let that thought go!). The person what's going to do the swapping places and saving us bit - He's called the 'Chosen one' (no not Mourhino, he's just a very naughty boy!) -That's what being 'The Christ' means.
Next tip - remember Christ is Jesus' job title and the next time you want to use Him as a swear word, have a think about how you'd feel if someone you loved had their name used like that!
Now, if someone gave up their life to save mine, I am certain I would say something twee like, 'OOOh, I'm going to try and live a better life because He died to let me live my life!' It's what they do in films; it's what they do when we think of those who gave their lives in conflict (and it is remembrancetide innit?), so if it really happened, wouldn't you try to live it out for real?
Of course you would... top tip three: Live like you've just got your life back!
Thursday, 15 October 2015
The 'Evening Service': a thing of the past? (setting the scene)
A friend (and colleague) asked me whether the evening service slot was a declining and dying church service.
Another friend (who is also a colleague) told me that the evening service was a dinosaur and in his church had been laid to rest.
Yet another friend (and again, a colleague) - bet you're surprised I have three friends aren't you? - told me how they wished they had the courage to draw stumps and, 'Put the dreadful evening service to death!' The numbers coming were low and it was 'doing church because they'd 'always done it at that time!'
It seems that many of those around me are struggling with the numbers of people coming to an evening service on a Sunday. One colleague (an acquaintance) said recently that, 'If they didn't have to go to evening service they wouldn't!' What chance does any service (or perhaps church congregation have) if this is the attitude shown by the cleric I wonder?
The question many of us engage with is this: 'Are we are letting Church run in a rut that has it's origins in the monastic order of life and its reality in something done by rote and not relationship'... and if so, how do we change it?
When the followers of 'the Way' got going we kept certain times set aside during the day to worship God. These became a formalised part of the monastic life's worship, giving us: Matins, Lauds, prime, tierce, sext, none, vespers and compline (we have a local order which keeps it). This became condensed into the Matins (the daily office - the early stuff), the Lauds (our main Sunday service) - Vespers (our evensong) and Compline (the ready for bed service) - a service which sometimes appears in the evening service slot.
So what's so special about Sunday? It was a day when most people were not working and so we broke bread together and made it a special day: Our mini Easter Sunday in which the resurrection was celebrated, the word was preached and the bread and wine offered. Just like every other day (many start each day with the daily (morning) office and end it with evening prayer or Compline - adding Communion too when they can) with the added benefit that it was a day set aside from the daily toil.
When I was a student we tended to go to an evening service on a Sunday. When I worked shifts I tended to go to the evening service because I worked on a Sunday. The Sunday evening service was for some the forerunner of Fresh Expressions (a service put on by Christians for those who otherwise wouldn't be church). During the war years, it enabled those working on a Sunday on the war effort to come into fellowship and 'be church'.
I have always enjoyed the evening service slot because it has provided a time for me to charge my batteries and get ready for the week ahead. My experience of Sunday evening services varied from place to place:
+ In one place it was a light service with 'fellowship' afterwards (we had quizzes, talks and the like).
+ In the Baptist church in our town (Marlow) it was fellowship time. Sometimes all the church and
sometimes the 'Young People's Fellowship' where we played guitars, had meaningful discussions,
and chilled out. A place of safety and somewhere for the kids to go!
(a lesson to be learned here already then?)
+ In St Helen's, Bishopsgate (as a student) it was note taking and then off to 'Mr Natural's Burger Bar
(Ludgate Circus), where we would stay until chucking out time discussing the text and comparing
notes from the service.
+ In the Pentecostal church I was part of, Sunday evenings upstairs were almost as popular as the,
even later, service in the basement! Sunday evening service was a lighter, more relaxed and
focussed part of the day where thematic stuff took place and healing services and other stuff
happened.
+ In Holy Trinity Hounslow, it would be a celebration. The morning service was formal and a bit up
the candle, but in the evenings it was sound teaching, good music and the fire falling!
+ In Christ Church, Ware, we would find ourselves in a light conversation and gentle music providing
the setting for some real dialogue, the gaining of knowledge and becoming challenged.
+ Coming to serve my 'Title Post' I found myself in a very different place to anything I had ever
experienced before. Here we had a pattern of Sung Eucharists and Evensong (with the occasional
'Prayer and Praise'). Those who came were the people who had always come - and there were few
new people added to their number - which perhaps accounts for the decline in numbers at the
'evening slot'. They are all slowly being taken off the shelves that no one has restocked!
+ Moving to where I am now, having never had an evening service, I decided to offer one!
During the Sunday slot we have done a variety of things which have included:
Taizé services, Healing, 60 minute theology, Compline, Café Church, Prayer services (prayer
stations, Labyrinths and the like), contemporary services, Celtic praise, courses and more besides -
all to varying degrees of success inn terms of numbers, but always successful in terms of growth
and praise (and surely that is the defining factor).
I will leave you to select upon what I have written - there is much more to consider here, but this hopefully lays some foundation and gives direction for us to move from. Hopefully I have started you thinking about your own experiences, because this is where you need to start from.
Consider the merits and pitfalls of your own experience and use this to start drawing out some good and bad practice, remember who came, remember why you went (or perhaps didn't come - for this is equally important). After all, how can you move anywhere without knowing where you are and where you need to be travelling to?
Pax
Another friend (who is also a colleague) told me that the evening service was a dinosaur and in his church had been laid to rest.
Yet another friend (and again, a colleague) - bet you're surprised I have three friends aren't you? - told me how they wished they had the courage to draw stumps and, 'Put the dreadful evening service to death!' The numbers coming were low and it was 'doing church because they'd 'always done it at that time!'
It seems that many of those around me are struggling with the numbers of people coming to an evening service on a Sunday. One colleague (an acquaintance) said recently that, 'If they didn't have to go to evening service they wouldn't!' What chance does any service (or perhaps church congregation have) if this is the attitude shown by the cleric I wonder?
The question many of us engage with is this: 'Are we are letting Church run in a rut that has it's origins in the monastic order of life and its reality in something done by rote and not relationship'... and if so, how do we change it?
When the followers of 'the Way' got going we kept certain times set aside during the day to worship God. These became a formalised part of the monastic life's worship, giving us: Matins, Lauds, prime, tierce, sext, none, vespers and compline (we have a local order which keeps it). This became condensed into the Matins (the daily office - the early stuff), the Lauds (our main Sunday service) - Vespers (our evensong) and Compline (the ready for bed service) - a service which sometimes appears in the evening service slot.
So what's so special about Sunday? It was a day when most people were not working and so we broke bread together and made it a special day: Our mini Easter Sunday in which the resurrection was celebrated, the word was preached and the bread and wine offered. Just like every other day (many start each day with the daily (morning) office and end it with evening prayer or Compline - adding Communion too when they can) with the added benefit that it was a day set aside from the daily toil.
When I was a student we tended to go to an evening service on a Sunday. When I worked shifts I tended to go to the evening service because I worked on a Sunday. The Sunday evening service was for some the forerunner of Fresh Expressions (a service put on by Christians for those who otherwise wouldn't be church). During the war years, it enabled those working on a Sunday on the war effort to come into fellowship and 'be church'.
I have always enjoyed the evening service slot because it has provided a time for me to charge my batteries and get ready for the week ahead. My experience of Sunday evening services varied from place to place:
+ In one place it was a light service with 'fellowship' afterwards (we had quizzes, talks and the like).
+ In the Baptist church in our town (Marlow) it was fellowship time. Sometimes all the church and
sometimes the 'Young People's Fellowship' where we played guitars, had meaningful discussions,
and chilled out. A place of safety and somewhere for the kids to go!
(a lesson to be learned here already then?)
+ In St Helen's, Bishopsgate (as a student) it was note taking and then off to 'Mr Natural's Burger Bar
(Ludgate Circus), where we would stay until chucking out time discussing the text and comparing
notes from the service.
+ In the Pentecostal church I was part of, Sunday evenings upstairs were almost as popular as the,
even later, service in the basement! Sunday evening service was a lighter, more relaxed and
focussed part of the day where thematic stuff took place and healing services and other stuff
happened.
+ In Holy Trinity Hounslow, it would be a celebration. The morning service was formal and a bit up
the candle, but in the evenings it was sound teaching, good music and the fire falling!
+ In Christ Church, Ware, we would find ourselves in a light conversation and gentle music providing
the setting for some real dialogue, the gaining of knowledge and becoming challenged.
+ Coming to serve my 'Title Post' I found myself in a very different place to anything I had ever
experienced before. Here we had a pattern of Sung Eucharists and Evensong (with the occasional
'Prayer and Praise'). Those who came were the people who had always come - and there were few
new people added to their number - which perhaps accounts for the decline in numbers at the
'evening slot'. They are all slowly being taken off the shelves that no one has restocked!
+ Moving to where I am now, having never had an evening service, I decided to offer one!
During the Sunday slot we have done a variety of things which have included:
Taizé services, Healing, 60 minute theology, Compline, Café Church, Prayer services (prayer
stations, Labyrinths and the like), contemporary services, Celtic praise, courses and more besides -
all to varying degrees of success inn terms of numbers, but always successful in terms of growth
and praise (and surely that is the defining factor).
I will leave you to select upon what I have written - there is much more to consider here, but this hopefully lays some foundation and gives direction for us to move from. Hopefully I have started you thinking about your own experiences, because this is where you need to start from.
Consider the merits and pitfalls of your own experience and use this to start drawing out some good and bad practice, remember who came, remember why you went (or perhaps didn't come - for this is equally important). After all, how can you move anywhere without knowing where you are and where you need to be travelling to?
Pax
 |
| It's good to see so many here for a Sunday evening! |
Wednesday, 14 October 2015
'All we want is a service on a Sunday!'
One of the saddest things I encounter are the words above given voice by one or more members of a church's congregation. The suspicion made flesh causes the heart to miss a beat and the energy to become dissipated and drained away through the hole the words have punched.
The reality is that, for some, all they require from their church is a Sunday morning service and that, having ticked the boxes, is the sum total of it all. And why not? After all there's loads on the TV and who would want to be in a church building when you can watch the many tempting offerings before us?
When I first became a Christian I couldn't keep out of the church building; I longed for the company of other Christians as discussions of the challenging bits the Bible and our praying together. As I grew up I found myself married and slowly and surely along came our children. We'd go to church as a family in the morning and then, leaving Wendy to look after the kids, would go back in the evening to get more of the same. Sometimes we'd switch and Wendy would go to the evening service and I'd stay at home - but the reality was that the Sunday evening slot was something special. The same was true of the various groups we belonged to during the day for Wendy and in the evening for me.
Now I'm not saying this to display my Pharisee-like observance of doing church but making the point that from the earliest days church was an opportunity to meet with other believers and sing God's praise, to hear His word and to continue my love affair with Him and those who shared my passion. My parents used to complain that I was never home for when I wasn't in church I was playing sport or woking shifts as an engineer.
'Times have changed,' people tell me when this topic arises, 'We have family and other things which crowd in and demand our attention,' and yet it was ever so and yet evening services were still being well supported!
The Christian faith is about so much more than 'just going to church'; it is about being so taken up with the love of God that you cannot wait to be with other believers and get excited about God in their company (you do get excited about God don't you?) and sing songs which put your feelings into words and excite you still further and hear words from the Big Black Book which excite you and challenge you and . . . Sorry, you seemed to have nodded off then!
There are many who tell me (by words or attendance patterns) that church is something that happens when there are no other distractions or demands: Church is, it seems, something we have to do rather than something we want to do!
So here is a challenge for you (and me - even though I know people tell me it's different for me because, 'I have to be in church,').
Step back for a moment and ask yourself what your church attendance looks like: Regular and frequent or hit and miss? Sitting in a pew or sat in front of the TV?
Now ask yourself when you last opened your Bible and read it; or took the sheets with the readings home and read that? Can you even find your Bible (last time I asked someone that it was under the coffee table stopping it rocking - honest!)?
When did you last spend time talking to God? What was your last prayer over (sorry, praying the person in front would get out of the way doesn't count!)?
Church attendance is a habit many of us has lost and as we allow our faith life to slow we begin a process which sees it eventually come to a halt. Just like some places and their evening services perhaps?
The reality is that, for some, all they require from their church is a Sunday morning service and that, having ticked the boxes, is the sum total of it all. And why not? After all there's loads on the TV and who would want to be in a church building when you can watch the many tempting offerings before us?
When I first became a Christian I couldn't keep out of the church building; I longed for the company of other Christians as discussions of the challenging bits the Bible and our praying together. As I grew up I found myself married and slowly and surely along came our children. We'd go to church as a family in the morning and then, leaving Wendy to look after the kids, would go back in the evening to get more of the same. Sometimes we'd switch and Wendy would go to the evening service and I'd stay at home - but the reality was that the Sunday evening slot was something special. The same was true of the various groups we belonged to during the day for Wendy and in the evening for me.
Now I'm not saying this to display my Pharisee-like observance of doing church but making the point that from the earliest days church was an opportunity to meet with other believers and sing God's praise, to hear His word and to continue my love affair with Him and those who shared my passion. My parents used to complain that I was never home for when I wasn't in church I was playing sport or woking shifts as an engineer.
'Times have changed,' people tell me when this topic arises, 'We have family and other things which crowd in and demand our attention,' and yet it was ever so and yet evening services were still being well supported!
The Christian faith is about so much more than 'just going to church'; it is about being so taken up with the love of God that you cannot wait to be with other believers and get excited about God in their company (you do get excited about God don't you?) and sing songs which put your feelings into words and excite you still further and hear words from the Big Black Book which excite you and challenge you and . . . Sorry, you seemed to have nodded off then!
There are many who tell me (by words or attendance patterns) that church is something that happens when there are no other distractions or demands: Church is, it seems, something we have to do rather than something we want to do!
So here is a challenge for you (and me - even though I know people tell me it's different for me because, 'I have to be in church,').
Step back for a moment and ask yourself what your church attendance looks like: Regular and frequent or hit and miss? Sitting in a pew or sat in front of the TV?
Now ask yourself when you last opened your Bible and read it; or took the sheets with the readings home and read that? Can you even find your Bible (last time I asked someone that it was under the coffee table stopping it rocking - honest!)?
When did you last spend time talking to God? What was your last prayer over (sorry, praying the person in front would get out of the way doesn't count!)?
Church attendance is a habit many of us has lost and as we allow our faith life to slow we begin a process which sees it eventually come to a halt. Just like some places and their evening services perhaps?
Monday, 21 September 2015
Wherein lies our trust, our courage, our hope?
Last night whilst taking my third communion service of the day I found myself drawn to words from 1 Corinthians 16:
'Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. Do everything in love.'
Be alert. Keep watch. Be steadfast. Be brave. Be strong.
Let love be the key, the guide, the reality, the reason and the means by which we exist.
And of course that love is the love that sees Jesus come to this world of ours to bring about the means by which we are reconciled with, and to, God. It is in the Good News of Jesus, the Christ, that we find the path through the dense forests and cloying mire that life demands we pass through.
The problem is that we, the Church, are no longer alert.
The watchmen on the walls are asleep or distracted by issues which, regardless of how important we are being called to think they are, are nothing but a distraction.
The people who bear the name 'beloved'; those who corporately are what is otherwise known as 'The Church' are hopping from foot to foot and turning this way and that as they try to be correct in terms of language, mindset and discipline. They vacillate and vary their beliefs to avoid being unpopular and yet, in doing so, present not a welcoming church but a weak Church!
The Church has set aside being brave for being popular and this means that we have become cowardly in the delivery, and the living out, of our faith. Our strength is failing and we are about to be overrun.
'But,' I am sure some will say, 'We are doing it in love. We are being strong because we stand against those in 'The Church' who oppose x and y and z. We are steadfast and courageous as we change our position and welcome those who otherwise might not be welcome; those who would find the traditional views of The Church unpopular and unwelcoming. We're just being creative.'
The problem is that what is being created is fluffy fiction not solid faith!
Last night, as I left the church building, one of those who had been present came to me and said:
'The Church is full of cowards. If we believed that Jesus holds the keys to life then surely we would have the courage to tell those we love about Him. Surely we would act to see them brought into relationship with God through the atoning work of the cross.'
He thought he was being controversial - I thought he was being exactly what I wanted as a response to the sermon last night.
And that's part of the problem with Church today. We focus on the wrong things and believe those who tell us that they are more important than the Gospel itself and when people stand for the real issues, they are told they are out of touch or confused or just a little bit bonkers!
When we find the average age increasing, the average attendance decreasing and the ability to pay the parish share a challenge, what do we do:
i. We start becoming fixated on 'bringing children and young people into church',
ii. We stop looking outside the building and gather in a fear-filled huddle inside it, looking out only for ourselves,
iii. We become more concerned with numbers (age, attendance, money) and, letting this become our focus, take our eyes off of Jesus,
iv. We see bringing people in as the solution to our ills and yet are unwilling to create for them a place of welcome, security and nurture: We take things of the menu to ensure that there's nothing difficult for people to swallow,
v. We promote diocesan, deanery and parish plans and call people to concentrate on whatever the fad those who are supposed to be leading have been convinced to take up as the salvation of the Church, and
vi. We rush off to see what thew 'successful' churches are doing in the hope that emulation and 'adopting best practice' will reverse the trends.
There are many more points I would like to add but by now, if you're anything like me, you're probably so depressed / angry / frustrated / (add your emotion here) that I would just be compounding the misery.
Love is the key; and that love begins, resides and ends in Jesus.
I'm going to be an even bigger pain over the next few days and week because I'm going to challenge colleagues and congregations and the man in the mirror before me and the person with the pointy hat and those who occupy the elevated positions within 'The Church'. I am fed up with being someone who is among a people who are discontent at 'managing decline' and yet resigned to that role. I am so grateful for that one person last night who has inspired me so (and got me out of bed and praying and reading my Bible and scribbling these thoughts at four in the morning) - this is the passion and the spur I desired to see in the church: one out of a population of 100,000 in our town: I think that's probably all we need to get the stone rolling away from the tomb!
Be warned (and be watchful)
Be afraid (very afraid)
Be blessed (and be a blessing)
'Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. Do everything in love.'
Be alert. Keep watch. Be steadfast. Be brave. Be strong.
Let love be the key, the guide, the reality, the reason and the means by which we exist.
And of course that love is the love that sees Jesus come to this world of ours to bring about the means by which we are reconciled with, and to, God. It is in the Good News of Jesus, the Christ, that we find the path through the dense forests and cloying mire that life demands we pass through.
The problem is that we, the Church, are no longer alert.
The watchmen on the walls are asleep or distracted by issues which, regardless of how important we are being called to think they are, are nothing but a distraction.
The people who bear the name 'beloved'; those who corporately are what is otherwise known as 'The Church' are hopping from foot to foot and turning this way and that as they try to be correct in terms of language, mindset and discipline. They vacillate and vary their beliefs to avoid being unpopular and yet, in doing so, present not a welcoming church but a weak Church!
The Church has set aside being brave for being popular and this means that we have become cowardly in the delivery, and the living out, of our faith. Our strength is failing and we are about to be overrun.
'But,' I am sure some will say, 'We are doing it in love. We are being strong because we stand against those in 'The Church' who oppose x and y and z. We are steadfast and courageous as we change our position and welcome those who otherwise might not be welcome; those who would find the traditional views of The Church unpopular and unwelcoming. We're just being creative.'
The problem is that what is being created is fluffy fiction not solid faith!
Last night, as I left the church building, one of those who had been present came to me and said:
'The Church is full of cowards. If we believed that Jesus holds the keys to life then surely we would have the courage to tell those we love about Him. Surely we would act to see them brought into relationship with God through the atoning work of the cross.'
He thought he was being controversial - I thought he was being exactly what I wanted as a response to the sermon last night.
And that's part of the problem with Church today. We focus on the wrong things and believe those who tell us that they are more important than the Gospel itself and when people stand for the real issues, they are told they are out of touch or confused or just a little bit bonkers!
When we find the average age increasing, the average attendance decreasing and the ability to pay the parish share a challenge, what do we do:
i. We start becoming fixated on 'bringing children and young people into church',
ii. We stop looking outside the building and gather in a fear-filled huddle inside it, looking out only for ourselves,
iii. We become more concerned with numbers (age, attendance, money) and, letting this become our focus, take our eyes off of Jesus,
iv. We see bringing people in as the solution to our ills and yet are unwilling to create for them a place of welcome, security and nurture: We take things of the menu to ensure that there's nothing difficult for people to swallow,
v. We promote diocesan, deanery and parish plans and call people to concentrate on whatever the fad those who are supposed to be leading have been convinced to take up as the salvation of the Church, and
vi. We rush off to see what thew 'successful' churches are doing in the hope that emulation and 'adopting best practice' will reverse the trends.
There are many more points I would like to add but by now, if you're anything like me, you're probably so depressed / angry / frustrated / (add your emotion here) that I would just be compounding the misery.
Love is the key; and that love begins, resides and ends in Jesus.
I'm going to be an even bigger pain over the next few days and week because I'm going to challenge colleagues and congregations and the man in the mirror before me and the person with the pointy hat and those who occupy the elevated positions within 'The Church'. I am fed up with being someone who is among a people who are discontent at 'managing decline' and yet resigned to that role. I am so grateful for that one person last night who has inspired me so (and got me out of bed and praying and reading my Bible and scribbling these thoughts at four in the morning) - this is the passion and the spur I desired to see in the church: one out of a population of 100,000 in our town: I think that's probably all we need to get the stone rolling away from the tomb!
Be warned (and be watchful)
Be afraid (very afraid)
Be blessed (and be a blessing)
Sunday, 20 September 2015
Can't make it to church? 20 September 2015
Here we are again at another Sunday - not many left before Remembrancetide is with us - The readings we have are a mixed bunch and offer us some real challenges as we deal with a lament from the prophet Jeremiah: people are plotting to kill him so I guess that's a fair reason to be lamenting isn't it? Sadly though God's response to it isn't dealt with today in the reading. Let's see about that as we progress shall we?
Jeremiah uses the image of a 'gentle lamb led to the slaughter' - the same image we find of Jesus in Isaiah 53: 'He (Jesus) was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth.' - for himself. People are plotting not just to kill him but to obliterate his name forever - the parallels here with the Shoah (the holocaust) where this was the intention and the reality with the Jewish people (for there are places where none are remembered and it is as if they were never to have existed because of the actions of the Nazi regime).
One of the differences we have between us and Jeremiah is that we having the hope of resurrection know that even death will not remove erase us having been, but this was not the case for Jeremiah and so he faces the fear of being as if he never was: An awful prospect indeed! And so Jeremiah calls upon, no pleads with God, to take action and herein lies something of great value and worth for us:
When faced with those who seek to act against us in the most aggressive of ways we can imagine the key is to come before God and ask Him to stand for us and act against the wicked: Not start dishing the kicks or the vitriol or malice or whatever.
So we stand firm, commit our cause to God and work at living in love and peace with those around us, even those who plot against us. The 1 Corinthians passage (which we are doing where I am) gives us but one take away meal today as we reach the end of our brief dip into it and the letter ends:
What ever you do: Do it with love. Stand firm because we know Who, and where, hope is!
One of the things that touches me greatly is to be found in Psalm 139 which says that even before we we formed - before our body was assembles and created - God knew us. He saw us and knew us and so when we worry about God remembering us, or those now departed this life whom we love, we need to remember that in fact the does't need to remember us for He has never forgotten us in the first place. So next time you pray perhaps you should add a, 'Thank you for never forgetting me,' rather than a, 'Please remember me.'
The Gospel contain, for me, an image that I find compelling as Jesus takes a child and instructs the disciples. There are two things here for us:
ii. Welcoming children, a simple act of looking to the very least in the community (for women, children and slaves were 'non persona', they were possessions rather than people with rights. We don't do well at welcoming children into church (and yet all eagerly desire them because we're sold out on the 'growing young' mantra) and we do perhaps as badly with the 'non persona' of our communities.
The message is plain: Don't plot and struggle to be THE person in your church but strive to be the person who facilitates and cares and acts rightly. Too many tell me of the factions and power struggles in their church and all I can ever say is; STOP IT!
The message is clear: Welcome those who will disrupt our services and make things happen differently because of their age or understanding. Church only works when the least in the community are cared for and yet, too often, we like the idea of children (and others) in or church but despise the reality. But that's not your church I'm sure!
The alternative collect for today is spot on and ticks the boxes nicely for us as we come to pray:
Lord of creation, whose glory is around and within us: open our eyes to your wonders, that we may serve you with reverence and know your peace at our lives’ end,through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Jeremiah 11.18-20
Because the Lord revealed their plot to me, I knew it, for at that time he showed me what they were doing. I had been like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter; I did not realise that they had plotted against me, saying, “Let us destroy the tree and its fruit; let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name be remembered no more.” But you, Lord Almighty, who judge righteously and test the heart and mind, let me see your vengeance on them, for to you I have committed my cause..
1 Corinthians 16.13-20
Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. Do everything in love. You know that the household of Stephanas were the first converts in Achaia, and they have devoted themselves to the service of the Lord’s people. I urge you, brothers and sisters, to submit to such people and to everyone who joins in the work and labours at it. I was glad when Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus arrived, because they have supplied what was lacking from you. For they refreshed my spirit and yours also. Such men deserve recognition.
The churches in the province of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Priscilla greet you warmly in the Lord, and so does the church that meets at their house. All the brothers and sisters here send you greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss.
I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand. If anyone does not love the Lord, let that person be cursed! Come, Lord! The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. My love to all of you in Christ Jesus. Amen
Mark 9.30-37
They left that place and passed through Galilee. Jesus did not want anyone to know where they were, because he was teaching his disciples. He said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise. But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.
They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest. Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.” He took a little child whom he placed among them. “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.
They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest. Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.” He took a little child whom he placed among them. “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.
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Post Communion Prayer
Almighty God, you have taught us through your Son that love is the fulfilling of the law: grant that we may love you with our whole heart and our neighbours as ourselves; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Almighty God, you have taught us through your Son that love is the fulfilling of the law: grant that we may love you with our whole heart and our neighbours as ourselves; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Saturday, 19 September 2015
Retreating into a communications vacuum - a valuable lesson learned!
For the past fifteen days I have pretty much lived in a world where internet was non-existent and mobile phone signals were variable to light (as they say on the BBC Radio four shipping forecast) and rather than experience a sense of loss or limitation the very opposite was true. Technology hadn't totally departed for my Bible and books were printed and electronic but not having a telephone ringing all the time and not being surrounded by emails and messages demanding instant responses or seeking solutions for yesterday's problem was, to be quite honest, sublime!
Speaking to a rather lovely retired cleric I found myself transported back into a time just after the war where there was indeed a Priest in every parish and the daily toil consisted of little paperwork and much visiting. 'In my day ministry was about people not technology,' he said, 'We didn't have mobile telephones or emails or computers - but we had a bicycle for the parish and a car for the town and when there was a need the people came a knocking or telephoned us or sent one of the family to fetch us. We were often there as people came into the world and there again when they left and were part of their life for everything in between. we rushed around much less than you youngsters today (haven't been called a 'youngster' for years - made me smile that did) and yet did much more parish work.'
This interested me and so I steered my companion round to what 'parish work' was and guided him to evangelism and missional thinking then and now. What he said was nothing new and yet it was revealing in the extreme because he told me how evangelism was necessary because when he was in parish ministry he had no need of an introduction because he was firmly part of the community's life. Evangelism is telling people about God, we both agreed on that, BUT to tell people about God you first need to have their ear and their confidence and the problem today, as he saw it, was that the Church has allowed itself to become too detached from the communities it serves.
'When I was a Priest,' he said, 'I was part of the community. There was Church, law, medicine and money and the four of us were there to keep the community alive, flourishing and safe. When things went wrong I was one of the first on the scene offering support, advice and Jesus. When things took a turn for the worse I was there offering tea, sympathy and Jesus. Today when things go wrong they ring the Samaritans or visit Advice groups because we don't have the primary care and family anymore and the Vicar of a place was indeed family.'
As the conversation contain used I was aware that my companion was actually grateful to have lived in a world where people not processes; where sharing across the parish rather than becoming fixated with the parish share and bringing Christ into the market place because they had the permission and the welcome of the people in that place to do so.
A while back I made the decision to do less emailing and more telephoning because I had become very aware of the fact that I was engaging with the community via a keyboard and a bit of fibre optic. I started responding to emails by telephoning the sender and discussing the issue before us. There is no doubt as to the tone behind a comment when you're hearing it and when there is a doubt over something then engagement, discussion, resolution and agreement are almost instantaneous. Nuances are made solid and combat can be robust and dealt with there and then.
The problem is that many seem confused when you ring as a response to an email - after all they expect a ping and a reply rather than a ring and a voice. Some people want the security of being sat at their desk and reading a response, but when you think about it the key element of the Christian faith is incessancy: Jesus took on flesh to bring about salvation for all humanity - perhaps there's a clue to be had in that. God could have just wiped the slate clean, pressed reset and sent out a global email (or rainbow as we used to call it) and it would have been 'job done'! But He didn't!
Many years ago, when in Industrial Engineering and management roles, I was taught about some groundbreaking new thinking from a chap called Tom Peters: Management by Walking Around (MBWA). I was also taught about a chap by the name of Elton Mayo and the increased effectiveness achieved at the Hawthorne plant when management got interested in the workforce, started watching how they worked and changed the work environment and listened to the workforce (The 'Hawthorne Effect' and also known as the 'Observer' model).
What we learnt was that people like to have the chance to chat and be known and to have their needs catered for: People like being engaged with in one-to-one encounters.
What I heard in the silence was the voice of those around me rather than those far away who contacted me through the ether with electronic words (visual and auditory). This is what I needed to tell one of my colleagues when he asked why people engage with me in my role as chaplain.
They engage because I am there in front of them and noticing things, asking questions, offering an ear and sharing the Haribo!
They engage with me because they know I am someone they can trust and because they trust me, and know who I work for, they will engage with me on the next layer of the onion skin (faith) and will ask some of the bestest questions ever!
They engage with me because I don't wear a watch! Other than services (which, like the Swiss railway, must run on time) I tell my meetings that generally I will be there with an ± 15 minutes window attached. The reason for this is that too many clergy rush from place to place governed by the clock rather than the encounter. This means that should I encounter someone with a need on my way to meet with you I will stop and be engaged rather than wave them off with the excuse that I have a meeting.
My encounter with God in the communications silence allowed Him to speak loud and clearly with me. My encounter with a man who was ordained in the days after WWII and in a time when having a telephone was high technology was God-given and timely.
So here's a challenge for October: How many people and situations can you deal with by face-to-face or telephonic communications rather than email? How many people can you engage with in your community because you are on the streets, in the café or the pub (I don't really drink alcohol but you'll find me in one of the local pubs when I get the chance because that's our market place; where is your Areopagus*?
* No George, that's not a medical term! Now put down the scissors and stop running with them ;-)
Speaking to a rather lovely retired cleric I found myself transported back into a time just after the war where there was indeed a Priest in every parish and the daily toil consisted of little paperwork and much visiting. 'In my day ministry was about people not technology,' he said, 'We didn't have mobile telephones or emails or computers - but we had a bicycle for the parish and a car for the town and when there was a need the people came a knocking or telephoned us or sent one of the family to fetch us. We were often there as people came into the world and there again when they left and were part of their life for everything in between. we rushed around much less than you youngsters today (haven't been called a 'youngster' for years - made me smile that did) and yet did much more parish work.'
This interested me and so I steered my companion round to what 'parish work' was and guided him to evangelism and missional thinking then and now. What he said was nothing new and yet it was revealing in the extreme because he told me how evangelism was necessary because when he was in parish ministry he had no need of an introduction because he was firmly part of the community's life. Evangelism is telling people about God, we both agreed on that, BUT to tell people about God you first need to have their ear and their confidence and the problem today, as he saw it, was that the Church has allowed itself to become too detached from the communities it serves.
'When I was a Priest,' he said, 'I was part of the community. There was Church, law, medicine and money and the four of us were there to keep the community alive, flourishing and safe. When things went wrong I was one of the first on the scene offering support, advice and Jesus. When things took a turn for the worse I was there offering tea, sympathy and Jesus. Today when things go wrong they ring the Samaritans or visit Advice groups because we don't have the primary care and family anymore and the Vicar of a place was indeed family.'
As the conversation contain used I was aware that my companion was actually grateful to have lived in a world where people not processes; where sharing across the parish rather than becoming fixated with the parish share and bringing Christ into the market place because they had the permission and the welcome of the people in that place to do so.
A while back I made the decision to do less emailing and more telephoning because I had become very aware of the fact that I was engaging with the community via a keyboard and a bit of fibre optic. I started responding to emails by telephoning the sender and discussing the issue before us. There is no doubt as to the tone behind a comment when you're hearing it and when there is a doubt over something then engagement, discussion, resolution and agreement are almost instantaneous. Nuances are made solid and combat can be robust and dealt with there and then.
The problem is that many seem confused when you ring as a response to an email - after all they expect a ping and a reply rather than a ring and a voice. Some people want the security of being sat at their desk and reading a response, but when you think about it the key element of the Christian faith is incessancy: Jesus took on flesh to bring about salvation for all humanity - perhaps there's a clue to be had in that. God could have just wiped the slate clean, pressed reset and sent out a global email (or rainbow as we used to call it) and it would have been 'job done'! But He didn't!
Many years ago, when in Industrial Engineering and management roles, I was taught about some groundbreaking new thinking from a chap called Tom Peters: Management by Walking Around (MBWA). I was also taught about a chap by the name of Elton Mayo and the increased effectiveness achieved at the Hawthorne plant when management got interested in the workforce, started watching how they worked and changed the work environment and listened to the workforce (The 'Hawthorne Effect' and also known as the 'Observer' model).
What we learnt was that people like to have the chance to chat and be known and to have their needs catered for: People like being engaged with in one-to-one encounters.
What I heard in the silence was the voice of those around me rather than those far away who contacted me through the ether with electronic words (visual and auditory). This is what I needed to tell one of my colleagues when he asked why people engage with me in my role as chaplain.
They engage because I am there in front of them and noticing things, asking questions, offering an ear and sharing the Haribo!
They engage with me because they know I am someone they can trust and because they trust me, and know who I work for, they will engage with me on the next layer of the onion skin (faith) and will ask some of the bestest questions ever!
They engage with me because I don't wear a watch! Other than services (which, like the Swiss railway, must run on time) I tell my meetings that generally I will be there with an ± 15 minutes window attached. The reason for this is that too many clergy rush from place to place governed by the clock rather than the encounter. This means that should I encounter someone with a need on my way to meet with you I will stop and be engaged rather than wave them off with the excuse that I have a meeting.
My encounter with God in the communications silence allowed Him to speak loud and clearly with me. My encounter with a man who was ordained in the days after WWII and in a time when having a telephone was high technology was God-given and timely.
So here's a challenge for October: How many people and situations can you deal with by face-to-face or telephonic communications rather than email? How many people can you engage with in your community because you are on the streets, in the café or the pub (I don't really drink alcohol but you'll find me in one of the local pubs when I get the chance because that's our market place; where is your Areopagus*?
* No George, that's not a medical term! Now put down the scissors and stop running with them ;-)
Sunday, 26 July 2015
Church Growth strategies: 'Make your services attractive : 1. Baptism!'
Starting, as always, with a word from Stanley Hauerwas:
Last week I was given some wisdom from a clergy colleague who is (in their own words) 'transforming Church' as to how we need to, Make Church popular by throwing off the old stuff and attract people by making our services light!'
Intrigued I asked what they meant and was pointed to the 'new' liturgy for baptism and the 'getting rid of all those words' as being part of the process. They continued, 'We don't do all that old stuff where we talk about sin and the devil and that sort of thing, the people who come don't like it and it turns visitors off!'
Nodding (in unbelief rather than assent) I passed them the shovel and allowed them to keep on digging - and they did as they told me how Church needed to become accessible and stop using religious words and concepts and give the people what they want to hear in the way they want to hear it.'
I was taken back to one of my lecturers who challenged me regarding my approach to the baptism service some years back as I explained how I did mine. I explained that I engaged them and went through the safety stuff and make a joke about which way to leave and then asked them to not fight with crying children because, 'Church should be a place where children are.'
Shaking his head, my lecturer said, 'Oh, so you're one of those who like to make Church a circus are you? What about the solemnity and import of the service before you?'
Now, when this happened I was quite annoyed because in fact I don't think Church should be a circus and while I do think we need to make it accessible, the words of today's NT reading (which have always been a spur and guide for me) where Paul speaks of:
'being all thing to all people - without compromising our faith or falling into sin'
Amazingly, a few years later I saw that self same lecturer conduct a baptism and (sad to say) it was dry, turgid church; church designed to remind us of the days when Brilliantine and suits were the order of the day. The liturgy was impeccable - the congregation unnecessary and the content uninspiring!
The additional offering (not changes) to the baptism service came about because of a disconnectedness between the baptismal family and the liturgy. Whilst I don't doubt that, I do have some struggles with the assumption that this was because the words were too difficult for the customer (which surely saying something rather negative about them and their education, reading age (the national average being nine) and culture) and the like.
Working in a setting which is more Sun (reading age of eight years) than The Times or Guardian (fourteen to sixteen years) I have found the words of our services (including the baptism service) to communicate well with those before me. I think to proclaim the dumbing down of the liturgy to make it accessible is to take an elitist and quite mocking approach rather than presenting something popularise and accessible.
So Where does the problem lie?
Not going to be popular this I reckon, but the problem isn't in with the punters but the providers!
Taking the baptism service's 'prayer over the water':
We thank you, almighty God, for the gift of water to sustain, refresh and cleanse all life.
Over water the Holy Spirit moved in the beginning of creation.
Through water you led the children of Israel from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land.
In water your Son Jesus received the baptism of John and was anointed by the Holy Spirit as the Messiah, the Christ, to lead us from the death of sin to newness of life.
We thank you, Father, for the water of baptism.
In it we are buried with Christ in his death.
By it we share in his resurrection.
Through it we are reborn by the Holy Spirit.
Therefore, in joyful obedience to your Son, we baptise into his fellowship those who come to him in faith.
Now sanctify [an epiclesis is indicated here*] this water that, by the power of your Holy Spirit, they may be cleansed from sin and born again. Renewed in your image, may they walk by the light of faith and continue for ever in the risen life of Jesus Christ our Lord; to whom with you and the Holy Spirit be all honour and glory, now and for ever. Amen.
This one block of text provides us with the opportunity to include creation, Exodus, Redemption, Baptism and the ministry of Jesus leading to the cross and so much more. If this isn't being taken up then the problem is surely with the person ministering rather than the words of the people before them!
Moving on to the devil - from Futurama through to the old and gold films like the Omen, Rosemary's baby and the like (who do you think the 2012 film 'the devil' was about?) - you'll find dark thinks and satan featuring large in popular TV, film and literature.
How odd that we worry about looking out of touch by talking about an entity who appears in so much of the modern cultures media offerings. In fact, plonking your audience into the 'low education' bracket probably means they have encountered more about the devil than many of the faithful members of your church!
People understand the tensions between Virtue and Vice, Good and Evil, Right and Wrong - so why are we so frightened to use the word 'sin; I wonder?
No I'm sorry but whilst I am all for making Church accessible I can't see how, as we seek to be all things to all people, watering down of the Gospel or weakening the message is going to do anything but fail to deliver the word. If people don't understand then we need to tell (and teach) them: And if we cannot then let us stop blaming the written words and realise the weakness lies with the person delivering it.
So baptism: How do you do yours?
* Epiclesis: the invoking or imparting of the Holy Spirit (AKA the 'Priestly bit) - A Blessing, usually associated or accompanied by the making of the sign of the cross.
Top Horror films of 2014
Church growth strategies are the death rattle of a church that has lost its way.
Last week I was given some wisdom from a clergy colleague who is (in their own words) 'transforming Church' as to how we need to, Make Church popular by throwing off the old stuff and attract people by making our services light!'
Intrigued I asked what they meant and was pointed to the 'new' liturgy for baptism and the 'getting rid of all those words' as being part of the process. They continued, 'We don't do all that old stuff where we talk about sin and the devil and that sort of thing, the people who come don't like it and it turns visitors off!'
Nodding (in unbelief rather than assent) I passed them the shovel and allowed them to keep on digging - and they did as they told me how Church needed to become accessible and stop using religious words and concepts and give the people what they want to hear in the way they want to hear it.'
I was taken back to one of my lecturers who challenged me regarding my approach to the baptism service some years back as I explained how I did mine. I explained that I engaged them and went through the safety stuff and make a joke about which way to leave and then asked them to not fight with crying children because, 'Church should be a place where children are.'
Shaking his head, my lecturer said, 'Oh, so you're one of those who like to make Church a circus are you? What about the solemnity and import of the service before you?'
Now, when this happened I was quite annoyed because in fact I don't think Church should be a circus and while I do think we need to make it accessible, the words of today's NT reading (which have always been a spur and guide for me) where Paul speaks of:
'being all thing to all people - without compromising our faith or falling into sin'
Amazingly, a few years later I saw that self same lecturer conduct a baptism and (sad to say) it was dry, turgid church; church designed to remind us of the days when Brilliantine and suits were the order of the day. The liturgy was impeccable - the congregation unnecessary and the content uninspiring!
The additional offering (not changes) to the baptism service came about because of a disconnectedness between the baptismal family and the liturgy. Whilst I don't doubt that, I do have some struggles with the assumption that this was because the words were too difficult for the customer (which surely saying something rather negative about them and their education, reading age (the national average being nine) and culture) and the like.
Working in a setting which is more Sun (reading age of eight years) than The Times or Guardian (fourteen to sixteen years) I have found the words of our services (including the baptism service) to communicate well with those before me. I think to proclaim the dumbing down of the liturgy to make it accessible is to take an elitist and quite mocking approach rather than presenting something popularise and accessible.
So Where does the problem lie?
Not going to be popular this I reckon, but the problem isn't in with the punters but the providers!
Taking the baptism service's 'prayer over the water':
We thank you, almighty God, for the gift of water to sustain, refresh and cleanse all life.
Over water the Holy Spirit moved in the beginning of creation.
Through water you led the children of Israel from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land.
In water your Son Jesus received the baptism of John and was anointed by the Holy Spirit as the Messiah, the Christ, to lead us from the death of sin to newness of life.
We thank you, Father, for the water of baptism.
In it we are buried with Christ in his death.
By it we share in his resurrection.
Through it we are reborn by the Holy Spirit.
Therefore, in joyful obedience to your Son, we baptise into his fellowship those who come to him in faith.
Now sanctify [an epiclesis is indicated here*] this water that, by the power of your Holy Spirit, they may be cleansed from sin and born again. Renewed in your image, may they walk by the light of faith and continue for ever in the risen life of Jesus Christ our Lord; to whom with you and the Holy Spirit be all honour and glory, now and for ever. Amen.
This one block of text provides us with the opportunity to include creation, Exodus, Redemption, Baptism and the ministry of Jesus leading to the cross and so much more. If this isn't being taken up then the problem is surely with the person ministering rather than the words of the people before them!
Moving on to the devil - from Futurama through to the old and gold films like the Omen, Rosemary's baby and the like (who do you think the 2012 film 'the devil' was about?) - you'll find dark thinks and satan featuring large in popular TV, film and literature.
How odd that we worry about looking out of touch by talking about an entity who appears in so much of the modern cultures media offerings. In fact, plonking your audience into the 'low education' bracket probably means they have encountered more about the devil than many of the faithful members of your church!
People understand the tensions between Virtue and Vice, Good and Evil, Right and Wrong - so why are we so frightened to use the word 'sin; I wonder?
No I'm sorry but whilst I am all for making Church accessible I can't see how, as we seek to be all things to all people, watering down of the Gospel or weakening the message is going to do anything but fail to deliver the word. If people don't understand then we need to tell (and teach) them: And if we cannot then let us stop blaming the written words and realise the weakness lies with the person delivering it.
So baptism: How do you do yours?
* Epiclesis: the invoking or imparting of the Holy Spirit (AKA the 'Priestly bit) - A Blessing, usually associated or accompanied by the making of the sign of the cross.
Top Horror films of 2014
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