'Third Places : Last Chance Saloon?

The concept of the ‘third place’ and the potential it has with regard to the establishment of new (fresh) expressions of Church is one of the challenges the Mission Shaped Ministry course presents. The problem is that so often we find ourselves discussing it and getting excited as we look at ways of engaging in ‘churcification’ rather than inculturation and Church becoming something real for those who aren’t Church.

The term ‘Third Place’ comes from work by American sociologist Ray Oldenburg as described in his book 'The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community'.

Oldenburg recognised that the people before him were increasingly living lives lived between two places, namely their homes and their workplaces. Working in the City of London’s finance sector this truth was obvious and evident: Work began with the train - happened in the workplace - ended with the train home. Home was the ‘other’ place where we ate, relaxed and slept!

Some of my fellow workers had a place which wasn’t work or home; a place where they socialised, relaxed, engaged with, and were engaged with. This was the place (A ‘Third Place’) where they seemed to come alive.

One friend went to a bookshop where along with books there was tea, coffee and food on offer. They went every week and listened to writers being interviewed and new books released. Soon they were in a reading group and their fellow readers became a new family for them. They even ended up marrying someone they’d met there!

Another person popped into a local pub and found they had a jazz club. Soon it became a regular weekly thing and as time progressed they had a circle of friends and there were meals, concerts, trips abroad and they’d learnt to play an instrument and joined a band.

We probably all know someone who has found their own ‘third place’. For some time it was rowing and flying clubs that shared this label until church that became my third place. It was a place where I socialised and became part of a family and belonged. It was a place where I found myself going to twice on a Sunday and two or three times during the week!

One of the most important things about a third place is that it is a place where people feel at ease and can socialise in a safe and enabling way. The problem is that we can end up making church a one day offering, but let’s be honest and admit that for many of the churchgoers we know it’s all about one day with one service time slot!

We probably all know somebody whose third place is a pub or bar and more often than not they will be found there more than once a week. They consider themselves to be part of the place and they have a special relationship with the regulars. This is true of the Tamworth micropub, the King’s Ditch, where regulars come to enjoy the beers and ciders on offer and to engage in conversation with those around them (and there’s no music to separate those who come from those around them - what’s on offer is naked community).

Just like pubs and other third places with opening hours, the same is true with church with its early, later and evening opening hours (and was also true for the early Church too). The third place is a place of belonging, conversation and welcome. It’s a place which opens up so much to those who are isolated and trapped in their daily living.

The message of salvation through Jesus, The Christ, and His sacrifice on the cross is about being incarnate; that is ‘being flesh’. This what a third place also offers those who come: Engagement with real people. Jesus is the realest person I know, so doesn’t it make sense that the third places welcome Him And encourage relationships to be forged with Him there too?

I’d like to challenge you to think about your third places.

Do you take Jesus there with you or do you leave him at the door (isn't that denying Him)?

When you are in your third place are you prepared to “Give an answer for the hope that you have in Jesus?”

If you don’t have a third place, where could you find one? What would you look for?

Have a think about my questions. We will be coming back to them some time soon.

Journal: where did that day go?

Today was a total rush! Everything was pretty much planned to the minute today, it had to be as there was but a fag paper between the gaps - one of those days where you end up feeling really great and go to bed with a buzz. The day comprised of some home visits for pastoral, Communion and a bit of assistance offered and then it was service planning, some study, some pastoral stuff, music practice and then Bishops Certificate.

Think I'll find I'm struggling with the time thing when I come to log the last couple of weeks, but I have made some differences and am cutting back, so hopefully there will be a little drop in hours.

Next week is a quiet week in prospect - hopefully get ready for some time away and do some study and prayer. No funerals - which feels odd - but time to catch up on sound stuff and do some studio time to make me smile even more.

Being a dog collar is a great role - you determine your day and you get a rush a minute for much of it - you just need to realise it's your life and not your job I guess.

Loads of positive feedback from the Ditch evening - looking to extend it into something a little more in other areas now. All takes Prayer, planning and then the people. But God is good and so it onwards and upwards :-)

Lord for the needs I've encountered today - touch those lives, bring Your healing and breathe in you wholeness and peace.

For the people who are needy and difficult - give me grace and patience.

For the people who are demanding and distracting - help me to show your love.

For those who challenge my moments - help me to look to you and the image of your reality in them and be generous.

And for me - you know my needs, my challenges and my pain: You have me life and I trust You!

Blue Sky Thought - Family, Friends and Love

This is one of those extremely inflammatory conversation starters - separates men from boys, politically left from right, the haves from the have-nots and so on.

We all have our 'most important' things in life - but have you got your priorities right I wonder?

Thought for the Day: Seven Dangers

I love this and thought that it might just make a good point for reflection today - especially as it will also enable those who moan about me being 'too Christian' (like Duh!) to have someone who was not a Christian as the source for a change.

Sunday and its choices beckon

And, as usual, there's loads to be done and yet, regardless, it never gets to be anything but exciting.

I wonder how many of us will be getting stuck in to all the work today with just a little of the feelings of Lazarus' sister, Martha, who asked Jesus to tell Mary, the other sister, to get stuck in a bit.

Now Jesus answers Martha by telling her that there are choices to be made and whilst she has chosen to do the stuff, Mary has chosen to sit in Jesus' presence and learn. 'She has chosen what is better and it won't be taken away,' He says and this is a thought for some of those who choose to be just that little too busy working for Jesus rather that living (and working) with Him.

In my daily dealings with people I get to meet many who are so taken up with the business (and busyness) of Church that they don't get to hear sermons, or worship God through Jesus, the Christ. I meet so many who choose to be the person who makes everything happen and they, like Martha, are at times found moaning about the others doing nothing.

We make our choices and whilst we sometimes carry our loads without complaining, the reality is that we should be carrying just enough - that which is our calling, rather than trying to do it all on our own or in our own strength.

Those who seek to sit at Jesus' feet should do so remembering that what we learn there is empty unless it's put into practice and part of that is seen by us sharing the loads of others.

So today, sit in Jesus' presence as much as you can - learn from Him, emulate Him - for tomorrow, when the Resurrection has been celebrated, we are called to take up our cross, denying ourselves, and share the load with others.

Church is a team sport - isn't it?

Point Something posts and Work Quantification

A quick splurge which might just damage your brains:

This week has been one of those where, as I sit down and drink my tea before the day outside of the Vicar's palace begins, I realise has gone before I've managed to get through Monday's work! One of those weeks where the days have vanished and I can't recall what on earth I've done. And this fits in with a conversation I have had regarding looking at a parish (or district) with regard to workload and posts; and another relating to 'how much of a vicar' a post demands.

At the heart of the discussions were two strands of thinking. The first being:

'The church doesn't merit a full minister, it should be a point five post whereas another, bigger church, warrants a whole post.'

The second was this:

'If they can't pay for a full post then they need to realise that they can only have a 'point something' post!'

Now I'm going to be contentious in that I am of the opinion that some places will never be able to pay for a whole minister and yet the area in which the congregation is placed demands such; a situation where generosity, casting bread on the water and missional thinking converge and demand a right response.

I'm going to be inflammatory and say that some places, whilst they look like full post places (and can pay for same) don't always appear to have full-time ministers; big or flourishing does not necessarily mean an engaged and active minister (or even clergy).

Now I'm not saying that some of our clergy aren't pulling their weight but what I am saying is that when it comes to House For Duty (HfD) and 0.5 posts there reality is that they never are!

When we discussed this during the week I found that whilst I can't find enough hours in the week to get everything in that I need to do. Between schools, home communions and visits, meetings, services, funerals, drop-ins, sermons and all the other stuff, life is an exciting event.

One of the clerics I was chatting to came up with the solution, 'You're doing too much!'

Now we've thus far, managed to grow from within a Pastoral Worker, Pioneer Minister and Reader plus other active members of the congregation. We find some 85% of the congregation engaged in something and we really live out an all-member ministry (and it's growing) and we are engaged in the community around us. Not a success story in terms of numbers but we are adding (slowly) to the numbers and the relationships in the community are developing and my feeling is that we're doing too little - for we live in a place with needs and problems galore.

So I asked what I should stop. The answer was that we could have a healthy church and a knackered cleric or a cleric who took time away and came before God and took care of their own spiritual and recreational life and was healthy and had a church that was 'middle of the road'; and of course 'via media' is what we Anglicans do so well.

Now I haven't got an answer to this.

Perhaps I am a workaholic but I am also keen to see people take up tasks and roles in the church so that I can do, not less, but more in different places. Whatever I do I would love to pass over but the journey from pew to pulpit is long and happens in the timing of God and the individual - I will never push people but then again I will never say 'No' to those who wish to try something. The problem is to see it from through their eyes and they from mine!

Previous ministers in one of our HfD congregations have given as much as many full-post clergy and this has led to wrong expectations from the congregations when they have gone. They ask for HfD and expect seven days a week!. Not only that but we need to realise that even a relatively small congregation takes time to care for pastorally and more time to engage with the community and develop the relationship that might bring them into membership as believers; yet cutting according to the cloth we have is also real need.

The Church used to view it's missionary effectiveness in the shape of church plants and the many 'daughter churches' out there are a testimony to the commitment of others to bring the Gospel, and the presence of God's active people, into places where He was not perhaps to be found. These need to be managed and supported and end now, thought Fresh Expressions, continued with and this will take generosity from congregations who have (prayer, vision, people and money) and from diocesan staff whose job is not just to balance the books but to support a missional and engaged church.

I'll leave you with a thought from a colleague: 'I don't want to be Jesus for my parishioners  I'll leave that to Him - my job is to be right with God and after that comes the Church and the work it calls me to do. We must each look after ourselves first - even if it leave others struggling.'

Not sure I agree - and yet others in the conversation did - perhaps I'm just getting it wrong (I know there is a balance and yet I feel it tips towards those I pastor but  . . . . :-(  )

Discuss

Mission or Maintenance (1) - schools

Last week I was challenged by some thinking relating to the wonderful area of what we used to call 'Job Design and Quantification' that would, in my humble opinion, have made the Golgafrinchams* appear highly capable and adept individuals. One of the many interesting elements in this consideration of the clergy roles related to schools in the parish, district or area in which our heroic cleric was located. It went just a little like this:

If you have a church school in your patch then you add some points to the total job workload equation

BUT

If you don't happen to have a church school in your patch but have non-church schools

AND

You just happen to be involved there doing assemblies, RE coordination and perhaps even act as a member of the governing body then you award yourself:

NIL POINTS (all a bit Eurovision this isn't it?).

Yes indeedy folks, that's right - NIL POINTS!

Now one of my colleagues who was chair of governors at one school and was engaged in doing assemblies in four or five schools did all of this as part of their 'out of hours interest'. Turns out this isn't part of their job at all - it was their hobby!

Another of colleagues (who rarely went into the local church school for assemblies and was more often than not missing from governor's meeting) who had church schools in their patch had more points (and points could mean posts when reorganisation comes a knocking) with less real engagement in the school or the community that that role should have brought.

All seems a bit wrong when we start legislating for what is part of the job in such a way as we make pastoral and missional engagement something that is other than the clergy role doesn't it? But that's what we are apparently faced with (and that is a real ..... [insert you own word - I'm lost for one]!).

So here's a hint for all those who read this and find they have non church schools in your area - doing them is not, apparently, part of the pastoral or parochial ministry associated with the church, it's merely your hobby.

And, if you don't fancy schools ministry then all you need to do is avoid those with church schools in and you're sorted - all the others are merely a potential hobby and (of course) that's 'just not your calling' is it?

Simple? (Well some people obviously are!!!)

Pax

*If you don't know about the Golgafrinchams, can I suggest you read the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?

Making Church without straw - 1

Regarding the blog entry on the Church becoming increasingly marginalised that I wrote yesterday, I have received this:

"There can be but one response to your questions.

It's not as easy as you make it out to be!!!

I have work, family and other interests that all take place along with church life. I don't have the priveleged position of being paid to do church work all day so that I can engage with other things outside of church like you.

You place so much guilt upon people like me because of the choices I make and this is extremely unfair. I think you need to be more realistic and loving towards others."

God and I were discussing the issue of what being Church means and during our conversation I found myself reflecting on the plight of God's people and their brick-making efforts whilst they were living in Egypt. The task just got harder and harder as the constituent materials were withheld - all because they'd asked Pharaoh for a bit of time off to worship the LORD. Seems that whenever we set out to serve the LORD we find ourselves up against it.

Of course the bricks and straw story (Exodus 5) ends up with Moses complaining to God about having got them into trouble and chapter six takes us to a place where God tells Moses that by the time he's finished, the Egyptians will be ordering them to leave - captivity over man!

A minister recently described being in ministry as being like making bricks without straw.  The bemoaned the fact that they were expected to keep up production (just like the Israelites) without the people and opportunities to make it happen. "If only we had more people involved," they cried, "We could really be effective for Christ!" Picking up the baton, another started talking about how they had decided to drop a project they'd started last year because the help had dropped of to such an extent that it was only the wardens and the minister's own family who were doing and coming!

The response to yesterday's blog and the comments from ministers leads us back into one of the most contentious issues that consistently faces Church life (and ministry), namely the:

Church -  Life - Work Balance 

and this is something we need to consider as we seek 'more straw' for the living bricks that make Church a reality. There are many thoughts on this, for instance having asked five people what priorities they have, I was given:

1. God - Self - Family - Work - Church - Everything Else
2. Family - Work - God - Church - Everything Else
3. God - Work - Family - Everything Else
4. God - Church - Family - Work - Everything Else, and
5. God - Family - Work - Church - Everything Else

Over the next few days we will be looking at the work/life balance and I'd welcome any suggestions for the order you have decided on (and why).

Pax

Ideals are great when you're young

Speaking to someone about what you in life and how you regard study I was drawn back to a conversation with a passionate young ecologist whose dream was to go to university and then get out and change the world. As time progressed and the 'A' Levels  came onto the horizon the passion remained.

Off to university and they studied stuff in the first year that would enable them to live their dream and to become the difference.  Then came a second year and there's talk of the 'milk train' coming to town and opportunities to be taken up by KPMG, Andersen's and other big and important management and financial organisations. By the beginning of the third year every conversation came to harbour in a bay marked £kkk and the potential for earning should they get a first or a 2:1.

Foolishly I asked what had happened to the earlier passion for ecology and green things and received my comeuppance! "The only reason to go to university is to maximise earning potential and expand the opportunities within the marketplace. The better the grades the more chance there is of being given an internship," (where you work your 'nads off only to find that the successful person is a relative of the CEO or some other incestuously related worthy - my addition).

Should we really be teaching our kids that education is all about 'earning potential' and maximizing things? I don't give a monkey's what our children do as long as they are happy doing it and derive some pleasure from making a difference in the world around them as they do it. But I do detest schoolteachers who spout tosh about education and earnings and academics who remain within their shiny white towers gazing up their behindsides whilst promoting education as a means for making money (which of course they do, but that's for another day children).

When I was helping long-term unemployed back into world (Note for 'back to' anywhere or anything people - you need to have been there to be going back - a thought for thoughtful evangelism?) I was telling people how the Institute for manpower Studies would point to five distinct careers between first and last job. We would be given reports that showed how we were going to go where sent, when we were sent, in order to bring home a wage - so the idea hit me; Why not do something you might enjoy?

It worked (Rick are you still a sport's reporter?) because people realised that when you have nothing before you then anything is worth having and if it is what you want, how much better can that be?

If we did education for money and maximising potential then who would rescue people from fires, preach to the lost, heal the sick, stand with the broken and change our ecological thinking?

If you have a dream or an ambition or a hope or a wish and you're unemployed, then what the hell have you got to lose? Go learn that subject, write that book, visit that place or be the person you want to be - after all, if you have little what is there to lose and how much more is there to gain?

If you have a dream, then pursue it - I'm sick and tired of deathbed revelations that the dyee always wanted to be something or other but their Mother wouldn't let them. We have but one life here (and then hebrews tells us we die and then we get judged) so why don't we stop living for the man and live with the Man (God) and find ourselves in Him and us in our realised dreams and ambitions.

God didn't make us to make money - He made us to touch each other, care for ALL of HIS creation and to be happy (within His laws, sorry - not a caveat to behave as you'd like outside of His will).

NIKE - JUST DO IT!

Pax