40 Acts - Widen your circle

"A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." John 13:34-35 (NIV)

I have this thing called a Jesus project.

I can’t quite remember how or why I coined the term but it must have been at a point I realised that not everyone will be ‘your kind of person’. But, it doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be shown love and treated with respect.

A Jesus project is someone who may get on your nerves, someone who may offend you or someone whom you really wouldn’t choose to spend time with because you’re just complete opposites.

I call them Jesus projects because I believe that God has placed certain people in our lives to challenge us and to make us better people. I don’t know about you but I know that at some point in my life I’ve done something that God wouldn’t approve of; I’ve offended God and I’ve been quite an annoying person to be associated with. And yet, with that being said, he still loves me unconditionally and wants to see me do well.

Wouldn’t it be great if we had the same attitude towards people whom we just don’t get on with, whom we struggle to connect with or who just plain irritate us? It could be that person with the slightly weird sense of humour or that person in your life who always seems to somehow push your buttons.

Why don’t you invite them for lunch, to the cinema or to church and practise being a little more like Jesus in their company?

Step out of your comfort zone and choose to see the best in people because Jesus chooses to see the best in us. In my personal experience I’ve found that the more I focus on the positive characteristics of a person, the less the negative characteristics become.

Guvna B

Click HERE for today's web challenge page

Blues Sky Thought: Office Rules

Many years ago I was given this wonderful piece of advice about the way that people worked in the organisation. It didn't take long to realise that my mentor had given me a wonderful analysis of the innermost workings of that organisation.

Enjoy:

How glad I am to have left that world

When Christian become Quixote

Often it occurs that Bunyan's 'Christian' is found morphing into Cervantes 'Quixote' as the cause of doing what is right is put aside to enable windmills to be tilted at and the Kingdom of God, and its unity, toppled as a result of the ensuing madness.

When this occurs it is the duty of the minister to boldly go forth and challenge the donkey before them. Sadly though, Balaam's Ass they aren't, and the words they utter are man's, not God's. Thereby hangs this cautionary tale:

We read in Galatians, chapter six, that it is the duty of every Christian to 'restore those who are caught up in a sin' in a way that the Bible speaks of as 'gently'. The 'gentle' element is the key here for it is far too easy for the observer to pass through from Christian action into negative, and even destructive, acts.

The caution that we should 'watch ourselves lest we be tempted' is a sound as anything there is to be found in the Bible. There is but a short journey from us seeking to challenge sin to us engaging in, and becoming sin ourselves.

Gossip, albeit masked as concern, is the work of the devil and it's seeds, once sown, bring forth a harvest of division and destruction.

Righteous indignation, is (as I often say) rarely ever righteous and results in two sinners where perhaps there was originally one.

Seeking to enlist others into our camp in ways that have more of the playground than of the family of God can only end in tears. Rabble-rousing has never been the means to any end that can be considered to be Christian; Neither has threatening to take our brothers to law (1 Corinthians is clear on this)!

If there is conflict then we can be sure that what we are to do is take the issue to the person and if that does not bring about a resolution then to readdress the issue with two or three witnesses and then, all else having failed, we are to take it to the Church. There is a requirement for openness and honesty on all sides and there is one who sees and knows all and will judge accordingly when the time is right (so we can cut out all the imprecatory stuff then, can't we?).

Therefore I want the men everywhere to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or disputing.

Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation,now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. As you come to him, the living Stone - rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him - you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For in Scripture it says: 'See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.'

Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe. 'The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,' and, 'A stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.'

They stumble because they disobey the message - which is also what they were destined for.

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

So in a couple of words:

STOP IT!

Why, and how, do we evangelise?

Thanks to yesterday's post about 'converting them' I have had a few emails from people wanting to discuss evangelism (pity they don't do it on the blog, but hey ho - it's the engagement and dialogue that helps me grow, know or let go). Some have asked what I think evangelism is and who, how and why we do it - and here's my response and definitions (not complete or comprehensive, merely what comes off the top of the deck as I deal the cards):

Evangelism - the spreading of the 'Good News' that is the Gospel (for that is what it means - Good News) about humanity and the Creator being reconciled (meaning 'brought together' or 'made one') by the at-one-ing (atoning) act of Jesus (who's job title is 'The Christ' meaning 'the anointed one of God')). It is all about explaining who He is and who we are, and can be by means of what I (and many others - not my word by the way) a kerygma (a word coming from the root that means herald or messenger like a town crier).

The kerygma is cool because it is something we deliver as historic (man, God and sin) current (in that it is our story) and physically present (because of how we think, act and engage with people and situations).

So I would talk about sin coming into the world, Jesus coming in to the world to remove the separation from me and God (which means the cross), my acceptance and growth and development and experiences and the reasons I think it is so amazing that I want to share it (just as I share good eating places and the like).

And that's the 'What' of evangelism and much of the 'Why' - which has alongside my wanting to share something good that I have found the fact that I am also told to do it by Jesus. This being told bit goes like this: 'Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, teaching them to do what God tells us to do.'

Simple really - we have to get off our bottoms and get out there, not sit behind closed doors with out little closed minds looking to keep our hands clean, and share the Good News of Jesus looking to bring people to a place where what they see is so good they want it too.

We don't frighten them into heaven ('If you don't become a Christian you'll burn in hell') and we don't bribe them ('Become a Christian and you can have job/home/education/hospital' - delete as applicable) like we have seen across the globe as part of the benefit of missions work!

We bring them to a place where they want to join the club and when they do, we engage with them in the membership service - Baptism.

To be baptised they have to:

i. Want to be baptised, and

ii. Understand what they're joining and what benefits AND demands it places upon them.

BUT

Should have been baptised before (and if they have then to do it again is quite wrong as I understand the Bible - hint being: There is but one baptism and this is done in the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit) then a warm handshake and prayer suffices! The wet bit has been done (and if it was Anglican then there's oil and candles involved too).

And when this has been done we nurture and teach them to read, pray and understand (challenging, questioning and bringing forth dialogue) to become fully engaged, brain switched on and intelligent Christians.

Of course to do this we need to be out there where the need is and this is one of the reasons why finding Christians out there being engaged and working with people where the needs are is so important. If we do Church expecting people to come to the place we have prepared for them (our place) then we can close our doors now because people cannot 'Come Back' to a place they have never been. We need to go out into their places (because EVERYWHERE is God's) and bless what God is going outside of our church buildings.

We need to bee seen to be normal people who are fun to be around and as people realise that this is indeed the case they also realise that there's something we have that they'd like (or having met some Christians, they merely realise their assumptions about us were totally right and we are indeed a bunch of Blinking loonies!).

So there we are Jane, John, Tom and Dave - some answers for you. I look forward to your assessment (and long for you to post it on the blog instead :-) )

Pax

Have I told you lately that I love ...

My Job?

The last few days have crushed together to make a week that has been like many others in terms of being full of variety and amazingly wonderful people and providing me with fun, challenges, fun, heartbreak, excitement and fun!

I've seen marriages that have lasted around the same time I've been on earth ended through the death of one of them and been privileged to help make sense of it all. I've seen people trapped and perhaps made to disappear because of mental health issues, been involved in people whose circumstances scare me to death and been blessed by the fact that, generally speaking, people are nice.

The odd thing is that more people want to be loved, taken an interest in and engaged  than don't and the role I have allows me to do that and call it work - now I have to ask you, Can you get anything cooler than that?'

This week I have done Harvest services in schools and been challenged to explain what Hallowe'en is in an assembly (an ad hoc Hallowe'en session - wasn't planned) and realised that there's only sixty-something days to Christmas and, as I write, only seven days to half-term. Yes, even the children wish their lives away looking towards special dates and living through the rest to get to them.

I seen vocations become uncovered, abilities accepted and people blessed - and still it comes under the label of work!

The variety and excitement open to us as minister's only comes about if you - the church members, the bereaved, the lost, the hurting, the needy, the suffering, the general public, the passer-by and the blinking nuisances come and engage with us. So if you're not, then you're making true the misconception that I, as a dogcollar, 'only work for an hour on a Sunday'.

So here's an invitation from all the clergy (for I'm sure I speak for them on this):

Come and make yourself known to us - turn up at church, stop us in the street, call us on the telephone, come and see us (and discover how little we hide in the vicarage) and be a blessing (and blessed too).

Go Ahead Make my Day

(and make me pray!)

Cavedwellers forum - a response

The forum that is to be found at http://www.cavedwellers.co.uk/forum/index.php was supposed to be a place that provided people with the ability to discuss things without the awful name-calling and finger-pointing that I have encountered in so many other forums (not all Christian either). nb. It is 'forums' and not 'fora' according to the clever Oxbridge language type on R4 a few years back) of a supposedly Christian nature.

It has a few members but hasn't really taken off for a number of reasons, perhaps the biggest being that unless there is a secure-looking email address (and I check the addresses with various of the anti-spam utilities) the person applying just doesn't get in.

So in answer to the comment posted today (or perhaps yesterday, not sure which but it was one of them) the answer to your question is "Yes' we'd love more people to come and play but unless you can be validated (SaucyFrenchUnderwear is not an account name that likely to make the cut) and don't have an email address ending in .ru or some gibberish name, chances are you'll get in! Of course I might well have messed up the approval thing as some days there are a great many weird and wonderful names and addresses applying and if this is the case, I wholeheartedly apologies.

And if you want to, what will you find?

It's a place where liturgy, theology, sport, general stuff, prayer (about and for each other) and many other things can be found. It's a place where we can disagree but we do so politely and reasonably such that we learn, teach or merely work from a place of common understanding. It's not liberal (although we have some who would consider themselves liberal) it's not fundamental in the worst understanding of the term. It is a place where people across a wide spread of church can discuss and engage and from that dialogue be both blessed and a blessing.

Who on earth could ask for more?

So there you are anon - an answer for your question. I have posted it today as a blog entry so that it might come back onto your radar (assuming you might look at this blog as you wrote on it) and perhaps to answer others who might have tried, or thought of trying, and wondered what happened.

I hope this helps,

V