A wonderful hospital without any patients…

I don’t know if you have ever seen this classic episode of “Yes Minister” where the Minister discovers this amazing, well ordered fantastic hospital only to discover that it doesn’t actually have any patients or treat any sick people.

It is a classic case of people having forgotten their reason for being, they are not doing what they are supposed too so they try and justify their existence by celebrating what they actually do do (a well run hospital without any patients).

Yet many of our Churches are like this, Mission Centres through which tragically no one other than their regular members have heard the good news of Jesus. Discipleship programmes where the people are exactly the same after the course as they were before it.

Perhaps we as Christians are like this, we profess to be Christ’s people but don’t do anything Christ-like or Kingdom advancing.

I have a book called “what on earth is the Church here for”, yet I wonder whether our answers to that question might sound a bit like the civil servants justifying the existence of a hospital without any patients? If we are not reproducing the DNA of Jesus in our lives and in our communities then we are just “a rotary club with a pointy roof” or a person that is a “clanging gong or a noisy cymbal” (to quote St. Paul).

So, let’s take a moment to ask ourselves as individuals and collectively as Church “why are we here?” -Are we really like a hospital with no patients? If so, let’s roll up our sleeves and return to the Kingdom work.

we don’t need more Churches, rather we need Churches doing what they are supposed too!

Recently I had a sad experience, we had started a small congregation meeting next door to the main Church in the Community centre, mainly to allow the children’s work to flourish but unfortunately it didn’t work as we had hoped. I remember doing the last service there, which was a damp squib, as I tided up and walked out the door, something of lump appeared in my throat, although only a very short era, it was still and end of an era.

I did in my spirit wonder if maybe we (as in the Christian Community) will be back here reaching out to the people of Kingswood.

Then as I thought more about this I began to ask myself the question “does Kingswood need more Churches” actually Kingswood is choc-a-bloc with Churches yet few that are reaching out beyond their four walls, few seeking to reach out with the good news of Christ Jesus, few trying to raise up discipleships that are ‘nation transformers’ and praying in the Kingdom of God.

We also have new Churches planted into Kingswood, and yet sadly, they come into Kingswood, people drive in and drive out, some don’t even get around to investing in a “welcome sign” by their front door. Yet all that happens stays within the walls, and they never even send the other Churches in the area a email saying “hey”.

Yet we know that God is wanted his deeply divided Church to be unified in him, and in seeing his Kingdom advance and grow, impacting local communities and transforming lives, as we think of the Pentecost season, we know the need of the Spirit of God taking his Church back, breathing fresh and new life into it and blowing open its door to reach the community for Christ.

We don’t need more congregations and Churches, but actually for the Churches to do -or at least try to do- that which we are called to do.

The challenge is that the Church, is not some faceless institution, but rather you and me, we need to be people filled with his spirit, living his way, and seeing as individuals to shape and transform the corporate body of believers to keep us following Christ in courageous obedience.

Spot the difference…

Occasionally they spent some time listening to the apostles’ teaching and, when they could, they met together for fellowship, for the breaking of bread and for prayer.

Awe came upon some of them. But there were no signs and wonders. All who believed were separated into groups and kept themselves apart in all they did; they would hoard their possessions and goods and show indifference to those in need.

Day by day, they went about their lives as individuals, only meeting weekly or fortnightly in the temple. They broke bread at home alone and ate their food with cold and empty hearts, giving token thanks to God. They were held in contempt by all the people. And day by day their numbers dwindled and it seemed that few were being saved.

or perhaps…

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Sadly we know which one is in the Bible, and we know which one we habitually see lived out in our Church communities.

Yet the question is how do we get from there to here? And what are you going to do about it.

This type of Church is not going to happen by a Church leader spelling out a vision, but by everyone learning how to BE Church in the way they live, serve and share together in radical corporate discipleship.

A Few Good (wo)/men.

I remember hearing a minister once say, I’d rather have 10 people passionately souled out and on fire for Christ than thousands of apathetic Christians.

Numbers do matter, we want to see lives transformed for Christ, and so the more people doing that the better, the more people hearing the gospel the better too.

Yet in another sense numbers don’t matter. I keep on seeing how Jesus took time out to talk to one individual, a cowardly scholar, a woman with a dubious reputation, it wasn’t all stage managed crowds. In fact Jesus was always leaving crowds where-as our leaders are always trying to milk them.

Yet I have noticed the weekend in particular with a couple of very small events, our 20’s & 30’s event only had 6 people, and our LATE SERVICE in Hanham was also numerically small, yet both had an intense sense of the Holy Spirits presence, and we shared openly real and authentic stuff as we prayed into stuff in a vulnerable way, but a way that felt beautiful and God honouring. A glimpse of what I believe Church can, should and could be.

we might like the anonymity of being part of a crowd, but I think it is in real community that we really grow.

we might like the fact that in a larger group your turn at serving on the (whatever) rota comes around less, but actually in serving we grow.

If I ever did a PHD I would like to do something on the corrilation between larger/smaller churches and discipleship, my belief is the larger the Church the more the risk of consumerism and complacency, after all someone else will probably do it, safety in numbers, yet discipleship is never meant to be safe.

As the five of us worshipped in Hanham on Sunday night, I shot a side-ways glance, and thought “is this my Gideon’s Army for taking Hanham?” just as the group of us pledged to seek God’s transformation is again a small group, but then I was reminded that although Gideon’s Army was tiny it still defeated the Midionites, in Corinthians Paul reminds us that “in weakness God is strong” after-all God reminds us that it is “not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit says the Lord of hosts” -maybe in a great team of mighty people we may see wonderful advances but the glory would go to the team leader, as a tiny bunch of ordinary stretched and broken Christians seeing God do wonders, the glory goes to God.

So, although the numbers may feel discouraging, I believe that with God we are always the majority, I’d rather have a small group of people committed to the Kingdom cause, than a great bunch that come and want to be entertained.

Yes it is nice to talk to a crowd, it is nice when they laugh at my jokes, but the Church is not measured by its bums on seats but rather on its fruitfulness,it’s Christ-likeness and its serving capacity. Yet it is interesting how often clergy ask each other “how big is your Church” which gages as a measure of your success, but if no one is becoming more Christ-like then you have just created a wonderful middle class hang out.

So, even if we are a small army, let us be measured by our hearts and our desire to be obedient to Christ, rather than our numbers.

Someone once said “its not the size of the guy in the fight, but the size of the fight in the guy” -even if we are small, we can still have a big vision. Let’s be people ahead of the curve where God is about to move, rather than hanging around where God has been working enjoying the aftermath.

Let’s not let the small number of fellow troops in the trenches deter us for we remember that the battle belongs to the Lord.

Have we made it all too complicated?

I have been in rota meeting where we have spent hours, literally hours, sorting out who speaks when and what about.

I remember getting ordained and the ‘dress rehearsal” took ALL morning -do you really need a hours of choreography to get someone to pray/commission you?

I have seen people spend days getting orders of services written, printed, folded etc for one hour service…

I have been in Churches where the sound check can take hours getting every mic just right.

Although I think we shouldn’t necessarily be ‘slap-dash’ about worship and our time shared together, sometimes we make it all too complicated?

Maybe -especially in this election tide- we need to get “back to basics” and re-discover what it really means to be gathered together as the family of God in the fellowship of believers.

Does Church have to be such a big event taking up so much heavy duty time and effort?

Does the work we put into a service show reflected in the transformative effect in real peoples lives day by day?

I have been thinking about the Israelites following God using their portable tabernacle housing the ark of the covenant, they followed God where his presence was, and yet know we have stopped moving and turned the tabernacle into stone Temples.

Church was never meant to be an event, nor worship like a show, the Church was never meant to be run like a business and the local leaders were never meant to act like company CEO’s.

Sometimes I think Churches choke with beaucracy, like David in Saul’s armour unable to fight because the baggage of a past culture.

There are some people who seem to get more excited about Canon Law than about Scripture! (Sadly true!).

I was thinking about Church when it is all boiled down to its core components it is just a group of people who love Jesus trying to following and helping one another to do this better.

Church was never meant to be an event.

Following Jesus wasn’t meant to be about a stack of committee meetings that meet regularly but achieve little, and filling in rota’s, endless maintaining buildings and back and forth email chains that seem everlasting…

I long to see Church being organic and about the over-flow of what God is doing and saying to us.

I long to see Church being family not a business.

I long to see our lives less complicated and being about loving Jesus, when you are in love nothing is too much trouble and you automatically adjust your priorities around your heart.

I wonder how many committee meetings the Holy Spirit feels excluded from? How many of our meetings cause the Holy Spirits heart to stir or the demons heart to sink?

Or amid the stuff of Christendom have we lost what it means to have a real authentic and vibrant relationship with Jesus.

A challenge is we stripped away all the stuff we currently do and just ‘hung out with God’ how much everything would change? I reckon if we soak in God’s presence we would be fuelled to his our lives his way.

If we soak in God’s presence, there is something wonderful in our lives and it becomes contagious -I want what you’ve got! Iron sharpening iron.

I wonder what is we learned to simplify everything and just sought God and his heart, long to be in his presence and be transformed by that encounter. Soaking in his presence and blessing and encouraging one another, our brothers and sisters in Christ, our Christian family.

I don’t know how we can make it all a bit simpler, but I long to drop the shackles of yesterdays armour and see people liberated from the millstone of Christendom to drink the sweet new wine of the Kingdom of God and the intimacy of God.

Fertile Church?

Okay a very late message for Mothering Sunday as it is almost a week late!

Yet I was think about the whole image of motherhood, birth, nurture, dependants and independence. Yet, in the west we see birth as a one off event happening infrequently, yet in other cultures or in the world of nature, birthing is a regular occurrence with large tribes being established.

I was thinking that when Church is refereed to as Mother or Bride, there is something of the fertility image here, the idea of birth and the giving of new life is perhaps why female imagery is used her.

Church is meant to reproduce, in a ‘be fruitful and multiply kind of a way’ Church is not meant to just birth enough to survive as an institution, but rather the thrive, new life and new birth.

Can a Church which produces no fruit, no new birth, really be called a Church?

I was also thinking, if people want to have kids, they often need to be intentional about it, stopping habits that reduce the chance of pregnancy, being in tune with the rhythms and timing of the woman’s body, and also doing the infamous “IT”.

I remember seeing a comedy and one of the characters asked the potential mother, whether she was eating healthily, stopped smoking and drinking, (she was and she had) and then asked if she was having sex regularly, she replied “I can’t do everything”!

-I wondered about how many things in our Churches reduce the likelihood of new-life and new birth?

I wonder whether we are in or out of tune with what is going on in the fertile ground of our community?

I wonder too whether we actually do the infamous “IT” (actually talking about Jesus).

I wonder if wanting to see people become Christians without mentioning Jesus is a bit like wanting a baby without having sex!

Often Churches feel like their ‘birthing days are behind them’ but scripture is full of mothers giving birth in their older age, Sara, Hannah and Elizabeth for example. Even old and seeming with pruning can yeld a new crop.

Sometimes too, we as Church have unexpected births, somehow our often massively inadequate schemes and plans, somehow sees people come to faith, often leaving us some what surprised.  Remember the potency of what we have in Christ Jesus.

So, the call to Mother Church is to be a fertile group of people, to see new life and new birth happen…

Interestingly too, as we think of the images of birth and pregnancy, we often see the gestation period, conception, where the seed takes root,  and the long slow journey before birth. Makes me ask, to we protect and nurture  those who are in the journey of re–birth?

Also, thinking too of birth and pregnancy, both are messy and at times uncomfortable, but is part of the normal process of bringing in new life, yet too often we do not fully understand that mission and discipleship is messy and costly.

So, let’s embrace the idea of Mother Church, with a commitment to seeing the birth of many healthy new babies, as the Kingdom of God is birthed across our community, across this nation and the world.

Hopelessly Devoted…

⁴² They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. ⁴³ Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. ⁴⁴ All the believers were together and had everything in common. ⁴⁵ They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. ⁴⁶ Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, ⁴⁷ praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

This morning we read through this passage again at our Blokes Breakfast… I asked people to see what word or phrase God ‘highlighted’ and interestingly the word ‘Devoted’ was the winner.

Conversation moved to talk about the number of Churches that say they want to be an Acts 2 Church, which normally means a desire to see signs and wonders, and God growing his Church (Acts 43 & 47).

Yet to be an Acts 2 Church isn’t simply about desiring the signs, wonders or even growth, these are symptoms of something much more important, they stem from our devotion to Christ and to the things of his heart.

We explored the word devotion, a word not used much today, it means both unwavering commitment and the ultimate of dedication but coming from a place of sacrificial love.

Seeking an Acts 2 Church is not like pursuing some Holy Grail, where we have to ‘tick the boxes’ of things listed in this passage (good things though they are) but primarily about (as my friend Paddy says) “Our hearts, touching his heart”. Unless these things stems from our love relationship with the Father, then they simply become good works, without love they are simple “a ringing cymbal or a clanging gong).

Are we people like David who was a man after Gods own heart?

Perhaps we need to grasp Augustine’s idea of “Love God and do whatever you please”? this isn’t a licence for any behaviour we fancy, but rather when we truly love our God, our will becomes entwined with his, and we love and long for his Kingdom.

Unless we seek God for himself, seek his face not just the works of his hands, we never fully know what it means to be the Church as God intended us to be.

Is perhaps the struggle the Western Church stems ultimately not from its lack of resources, but actually its lack of devotion.

Perhaps like the Church of Ephesus we have forsaken our first love?

Perhaps like the Church of Laodicea we are not as devoted to our Saviour as we should be an have “become neither hot nor cold”?

So, when we let God have our heart, we will long for his word -the apostles teaching, the words from the mouth of our Saviour, when we love God we love his people too, when we love God we remember his good news and his sacrifice made for us all, when we love God we come to him in prayer.

This isn’t a new commandment, earlier in Scripture we read “if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land”.

Jesus instructed his disciples to “Seek first the Kingdom of God” -which means to first seek the King and his Kingdom, treasure him before all else.

Too often we seek the treasure (as in the gifts) but we neglect that pearl of great price (Christ himself).

If we truly want to be an Acts 2 Church, it starts within us, in our hearts, with our devotion…

It starts with “Loving the Lord your God with all of your heart, mind and strength” and from that overflow enables us to “Love our Neighbour as ourselves”,

Growing Younger

Growing younger seems to be the aim of everyone.

As Church this is actually our aim, it’s an aim which goes back to the very roots of our faith in Judaism, which talks on “one generation will tell another of the glories of the Lord”, and themes such as ‘passing on the baton’ resonate with what we see in Scripture.

The Book of Acts (in fact most of the Epistles too) speak of Jesus handing us his baton, passing his authority to each of us, who in turn passes it on to the next generation.

A business adage says “Success isn’t success without a successor”… Barnabas’ ministry was successful because S/Paul picked up the baton and ran with it, Paul did the same for Luke and Timothy… Over the centuries various people have done this right up until now, to the time when the baton has been handed on to us.

So, the question is are we handing this on to our children, and grandchildren.

I heard one person saying about Church “well, it’ll see me out!”, which is not the attitude of the Spirit of God, reaching out to every generation in turn so that they can know the wonders of God.

In our culture we have lost what it means to be mentored, and in turn to mentor.

Often, we worry about our jobs and roles which maybe we hold onto a little to tightly? It is easy to blame another generation for not wanting to do things our way. Yet I am often brought back to Saul trying to place on the young David his Armour and yet David and a new way for a new time.

The Ordinal talks about “Proclaiming Afresh for every generation” but in fact what we so often do is simple “proclaim again” for every generation.

Maybe we need to look at what is the dust of a by-gone age, and what are timeless spirit inspired truths that transcend generations.

So, today, what can we do to help “grow Christ’s Church younger?”

 

 

Outstanding Service to Tesco Express.

I was hearing today of a Church who wanted to get a youth worker, but in the end they gave up on this idea because of the work needed to be done on repairing their local (ancient) Church building.

To me this seems like madness, unless we can reach the next generation with the good news of Christ, patching up our Churches is simply saving a job for Tesco Express -or whoever comes to take over the site once the last elderly congregant left and has turned out the lights.

The primary purpose I believe of Church is to share our faith not just with those around us, but to equip, empower and enable the next generation to follow us.

We are only here today because of the faithfulness of those who have gone before us.

Did you know that over 75% of people make a commitment to follow Christ before the age of 25, and yet nothing like 75% of our budgets are spent on our work with children, teenagers and young adults.

The great commission mentions nothing about maintaining buildings and although we are called to be good stewards of our resources, sometimes it feels like the tail wags the dog!

The Church in the book of Acts is not the building but the people, the people of God in the Old Testament were largely tabernacle people who moved around freely able to make their home where-ever God directed, it wasn’t until the reign of King Solomon that a immoveable stone building was constructed.

Yet I believe that sometimes our building have become our identity, and this has become something of an idol.

Sometimes our building speak of where our hearts are at, they talk about ‘preserving our past’ rather than of ‘seeking God for our future’.

Our work on a building, can feel ‘good and churchy’ whilst not actually building what matters, the Kingdom of God.

We may preserve a building, but if there is not a healthy, spirit-filled community reaching the next generation with the Good News of Jesus, are simply saving the share-holders of Tesco from putting their hands in their pockets, we’ve been building with what is temporary rather than with what is eternal.

Seeing Outside the Bubble…

I love the West Wing!

I was watching an episode the other day, I’m not sure what series it came from, but is when the team are campaigning for Bartlett to be re-elected.

The episode started with the President preaching at a rally, with lots of cheering people and “Bartlett for America” placards waved around, the President returned to the next place of the Campaign Trail, but somehow Josh (Deputy Chief of Staff), Toby (Communications Director) and Donna (Josh’s PA) are left behind by the motorcade.

They have to get themselves to the airport return to Washington, thumbing lifts, and blagging rides.

Josh and Toby (described by the President has having ‘great minds no common sense’) are so busy about returning to the long to do list they have when they return to Washington, they miss this opportunity to learn from the situation they are in.

Interestingly, whereas Donna (who is actually often the unsung hero of the series), gets to chat to these real people who help them a little about their lives and their issues and their political opinions, which is worrying most of the people who are helping them are voting for Bartlett’s opponent Governor Richie (Republican), and realises that although the campaign is going well, she is seeing life outside the Washington Bubble.

What of us?

Do sometimes we only ever preach great gospel messages to people who are already converted and love the message?

Are we preaching to the Choir?

It is easy to feel encouraged within the Churchy bubble, some big Churches feel quite happening and successful, but actually are only a small percentage of the actual population.

Are we so caught up with our jobs and to do lists, that we don’t take the learning opportunity to hear and engage with people (who are very willing to share and talk) about their lives and hear things that can be massively transformative and insightful.

It made me think too, how often does it take a crisis or a big event to tear me away from the hollowed to do list, rather, than learning from the opportunities that surround us all.

So, a challenge, let’s get out from our Churchy bubble and learn from those we meet, which will often be the most fruitful thing we can do in our mission, evangelism and discipleship.