Journal: Dying matters Awareness week

What an amazingly immense day spent outside engaging with people as they shopped as part of 'Dying Matters' awareness week. I have had so many conversations with people and taken the opportunity to just 'be' with the people of Tamworth and it was marvellous.

From 10:00 to 16:00 I walked, talked, listened and prayed. I handed out leaflets for a bereavement support group based in St. Martin's (Stonydelph) and conversed with people from St Gile's Hospice   Funeral Directors, and many other people besides.

Back on the Streets on Friday - hoping it stays dry and that I experience more of the same.

There is a real temptation for me to just give up on all the admin and stuff and just soak myself in being out there on the streets - so many needs - and so much joy to be celebrated and made real.

As a society it seems that we don't do death as well as we did. We don't think about it in a healthy way, in fact we rarely think about it unless our mortality (or that of someone we live or know) is threatened. One of the most important roles a cleric has is that of helping people to die well - not a morbid thing, but something of joy and completeness I reckon.

We don't always grieve well either and the spectrum ranges from 'always look on the bright side of life' through to turning the home into a shrine and engaging in a toxic grief that ends normal life for others too. Death is a painful thing, but it is supposed to be and because grief is so often malformed rather than bring healing and a way forward it causes people to revisit the pain with no obvious exit for the roundabout!

So on with the week and the encounters and conversations and the pain of loss and the optimism that a new day brings.

Have I mentioned how much I love this ministry stuff.

Lord, for everything that's been today and all that's before me tomorrow: I thank You.

Which are you: Church or church?

One of the challenges for those of us who consider ourselves to be 'Church' is getting people to realise that the pointy buildings are merely receptacles for Church.

What we need is to have signs like this outside the buildings we occupy which proudly proclaim:

If we are going to make a difference to the world around us we need to be engaged and engaging and be out there where the people are rather than sitting amongst the tombstones and the memorials to the dead (or are we merely waiting for our names to be added I wonder?).

Where is Church to be found?

Here's answer in graphic form:

As is often the case cartoonist Dave Walker hits it on the spot. 

Evangelism is about lifestyle and attitude - not missions and programmes.

Simple innit?

The poor have names

I love it when one of those throwaway quotes that occur in a conversations suddenly develop talons which pierce you with the immensity of their apparent simplicity and seek to drown you in the depths of what would be, from many, a shallowness.

This was my experience this morning as I chatted to Justin's new advisor on evangelism and witness (a through nice bloke called Chris) and as he chatted about his role and reasons for being, family and stuff, I, once more, got the feeling that I'm looking forward to becoming a Justinian :-)

But that aside, let's get back to that thought: 'The poor have names.'

I struggle that the Church often appears to see 'the poor' in much that same way as it sees mission - namely as something we need to address in other places and different cultures. When they are considered, they are often considered as a class of folk rather than as individuals and whilst there are times when this is necessary, for we can't call for justice for John, Bob, Mary, Betty and All the poor by name - because we would surely miss some and there's not enough time left to right wrongs by the time we a done. BUT when we are on the streets in the communities we are called to serve, there is no excuse for us not to know their names. When we pass through the streets of our town and see the Big Issue seller or the chap who sits in the same place begging, we have no excuse not to know their names and to engage with them in an effort to serve and support them as Christ would have us do.

One of the (many) things I am known for 'going on about' (I prefer 'having a passion for') is that when we see someone begging we give them something perhaps more costly than money in our society - time! We stop and engage with the person and find out who they are and why they are there and what they really need. We give them the dignity of personhood and being worthy of our precious time - for money is the cheap and easy option.

Money says, 'I will pay you to away! I'm not really interested in who you are and why you're here - just stop bothering me!' Money turns the poor before us into potential kidnappers as we pay the ransom to have us set free from their company; but what, we mus ask ourselves, would Jesus do?

The poor have names and needs and hopes and hurts and pain and a need of the overwhelming love of God, and this is found in the hearts of those who call themselves Christian. Unless the Church can bring itself to learn the names of 'the poor' we condemn them to the marginalisation of poverty and share with them a poverty of Spirit that condemns us both (and denies the image of Jesus, the Christ, in us).

Pax

Tamworth Street Angels - Update

Like a speeding snail, the initial organisational tasks of Tamworth Street Angels are progressing forward at what feels rather slow (and yet I am told we are really moving as some pace) as the web presence www.tamworthstreetangels.co.uk and the Twitter accounts @TamworthSA have both become live.

In addition to this conversations with potential trustees and stakeholders are progressing and it is hoped that new names will be appearing alongside Staffordshire Police, the Samaritans and Tamworth Covenanting Churches.

There are three obvious groups of people who make up such an organisation as ours:

1. Trustees and Champions

2. Support workers, and

3. Those one the street.

At the moment we need people to populate all three areas so if you fancy fulfilling our needs for Secretary, Treasurer and other of the immensely vital jobs that put feet on the streets - apply now.

For those who are interested in being 'out there' - there will be training on offer shortly, so get signing up NOW (please).

It is my hope that we will see the first encounter with the streets happen before we reach the end of September - but to do this we need volunteers (and some more funding I imagine).

And for those who want to be involved in something vital for this project now - please pray for the needs we have and that the right people come along and get involved.

Thanks

Tamworth Street Angels

At eleven O'clock yesterday (2nd July 2013) the town of Tamworth gave birth to a new community project in the shape of Tamworth Street Angels.

For those of you who are asking the question, 'What?' Here's the answer:

The idea of the Street Angels is that they are a group of volunteers who give up their time between 9:30pm in the evening and 2am in the morning to ensure that those who come into our town to enjoy themselves do exactly that in a safe and secure environment. The Street Angels are there to offer support to those who have enjoyed themselves a little too much and offer water, tea and coffee, a listening ear to make sure that the laughter doesn't turn to tears.

When those high heels become a little too high for comfort, the Street Angels are there to offer flip flops and a less fashionable, but safer, choice of footwear and when emotions run high, they are there to defuse the situation and to bring dialogue (or perhaps stop it when it gets to rich) and help restore the conditions that make it all fun again.

In short - Street Angels are there to make sure that all those out on the town are as safe as we'd like to think our own children are!

They're not a group of vigilantes, 'Guardian Angels',  or people looking to get involved as police officers (after all we have a fine bunch of 'Specials' who do that for us) - They're just a bunch of people who want our town to be a safe and enjoyable place to be and what the people partying in it to be as safe as possible too.

Interested?

email: tamworthstreetangels-enquiries@yahoo.co.uk

We need people who willing to get involved and the bottom line is that they have to love people and be able to keep their cool when others aren't. We are not out there on the streets to judge or preach or be authoritarian - we are out there because we care enough to want to make a difference.

For those who are worried about, or think that, this as 'just about ministering to, working with or caring for drunks', you can rest easy for it isn't! This is about much more than alcohol - it's about engagement and being there for others.

For those who think that this might be, 'One of those Christian ghetto things;' again you can rest easy for although this initiative is Christian (that's what CNI is about) it's open to all and it's there for all. It's not about proselytising but about serving - and you don't need to be a person of faith to do good stuff now, do you?

So what are you waiting for?