A Lonely Breakfast.

Yesterday started the day with a lonely breakfast.

For a while I have been really keen to gather a Bristol based “learning community” for all of us engaged in Fresh Expressions, Church Planting and all things Pioneering.

I’ll be honest as a Pioneer Minister most people don’t get it most of the time, and it is draining.

I sometimes feel so isolated.

Today no one came.

Just me (and the dog!)

There are a few people I have met on the journey that seem on the same page, but we are all so busy, and meeting up, praying, chatting, sharing seems like a luxury -I’ve missed these kind of meetings too because the diary didn’t allow it.

I wondered for a second whether I was trying to call a meeting for me, for my desire for a community that gets it, or to serve other people. As I sipped my coffee trying to not look like a bloke that has been stood up on a date, I thought perhaps it is both, perhaps I am wondering ‘does anyone else out here feel like this? If so, let’s meet, share and pray.

I thought too about learning communities as a whole, I have been part of a reasonably successful one looking at missional opportunities on new housing developments, where we share and pray, but also go a bit deeper in wrestling these issues together, sharing our experience and having insights from other people that (hopefully) understand what and why we are doing what we are doing.

Truly at their best this type of fellowship is “iron sharpening iron as one person sharpens another”.

I smirked as I thought of chapter meetings (here in Bristol they have mainly been reasonably good) but I have been in some where they are “bitch and brag sessions and not altogether helpful. Yet, I also thought how often do we discuss the stuff that really matters, like what are we doing to see real people coming to know Jesus? Are we really making Disciples that look like Jesus and doing what he did for the same reason he did it? -If not, why not? what is stopping us?

I don’t get why people aren’t passionate about Fresh Expressions of Church? It is actively seeking to partner with God is seeing where he is leading and joining in and seeing lives changed and the Kingdom of God coming in more fully. Yet we seem to put all our efforts in keeping the ship afloat (much of it probably should have been jettisoned a couple of decades ago).

I still believe that God is in Fresh Expressions, and he is calling his Church to get ready and be prepared for what he is doing, and about to do.

So, despite being on my own, I will still argue that God is “doing a new thing”, that Fresh Expressions are vital to the mission and ministry of the Church, and statistically probably the most fruitful ways of engaging with the unchurched and the dechurched.

As I ate my breakfast I prayed for this city, I prayed for the many people I have come to know here in Kingswood, I prayed for our Churches, those that are open to change and those resistant too it. I prayed for burned out and misunderstood Vicars and ministers -pioneers who maybe don’t even know that they are pioneers. I prayed that God would show us all his plan for the future of his Church and that we would be bold enough to grasp it and be obedient. So, as I ate my brekky, praying, thinking, drinking coffee I realised it wasn’t a lonely breakfast but one shared with the King of Kings.effective in reaching those that don’t yet know Christ.

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.

Unique people working our a unique call in a unique context.

We started our short Mission Shaped Intro Course yesterday, and we ended up speaking about our own uniqueness.

We all are made differently, I have often looked at other Church leaders and other evangelists and thought “I wish I was more like them!”, often too we have looked at different areas and opportunities and thought “I wish God had placed me somewhere different”.

Yet the “one who calls us is faithful, and he will do it”.

We are called to live by faith and not by sight.

The question in the Christian life has never been “what is everyone else doing?” but rather “what is God calling me to do?”

Taking a step of faith is very different from jumping on the bandwagon.

As human beings we are great ‘cherry pickers’, we see an idea that works somewhere else, or a methodology we like the sound of, and try and ‘shoe-horn’ it into our context. As though what works else-where can simply be transposed somewhere else and have the same results. Yet, I believe, God isn’t into formulas like this =otherwise I think Paul’s letters would read very differently- the question is not “how has this worked elsewhere” but rather “what is God calling us to do here” and are we being faithful to that call.

What is the Spirit saying to us as a collection of Church Congregations seeking the advancement of the Kingdom of God here locally must be the biggest and most important question we can ask.

“If the Lord does not build the house then the Labourers labour in vain”, we see that Jesus (who “only did what he saw his Father doing?”) doing ministry differently from how he was in Samaria to how he was in Jerusalem to what he did in Nazareth. Jesus didn’t think ‘one size fits all’ -so why do we? -Interestingly, contrast the missional technique between Peter and Paul when they spoke evangelistically (Peter in Acts 2, Paul in Acts 15).

Just imagine if Paul -a former Pharisee- tried to mimic Peter -a former fisherman- it wouldn’t work because God was calling them as them to minister into the context to which God had called them.

I think as human beings we are often scared and fearful, we dislike uncertainty and want the promise of “sure-fire” results, God’s ways might sound more risky and more of a step of faith than down-loading the latest resource from a mega0church, but yet it is only through obedience to God that we will see the full fruitfulness of that which we long too see.

The problem is we often think that “so and so” would probably do a much better job if they were here than I have.  The problem (says James Lawrence) “is that we compare our blooper reel with someone else’s highlight reel”, our comparisons are often negative towards ourselves, often when we feel weak and ill-equipped often that means we aren’t relying on our own giftedness rather relying on Gods empowering faithfulness.

Comparisons, can be debilitating.

It takes faith to come to realise that actually God has called me to be me, and my unique blend of skills, passions and principals is called, God doesn’t need another clone of anyone, he needs us to be us, and we flourish best when we are being truly and authentically us.

I remember seeing someone engaging in interactive debate, and this really worked for their more ‘in your face’ personality. I have seen others listen carefully and prayerfully and this has really worked for their personality. If we were all a debaters or all listeners we would be a less effective body of Christ, yet perhaps the reason he is sending you in to the situation you find yourself in, in that you are the right person, God’s person, for that particular situation, everyone is different, and everyone responds differently, even if we don’t see it at first!.

Also, as the wonderful “Meet Anne” video shows, we have networks and relationships which are unique to us, no-one else has quite the same set of relationships that we do, being us -and fully us- fully and authentically where God has placed us can enable us to be used by God in a way that’s unique to us.

Also, God uses all sorts of creative ways to advance his Kingdom, my friend Rich Rycroft used his love of football to advance the Kingdom in Hillfield, my friend Charles Sugdan from Frenchay uses his awesome gifts at classical music to enable people to encounter Christ, yet neither of which I would be able to do, but it takes faith to believe that my gifts and skills, passions and pleasures can be used by Christ too (just check out the vlog bellow)…

So, let’s celebrate God’s call on our lives to be free to be us.

So, let’s celebrate God’s call to discover his call to us where he has placed us.

So, let’s celebrate that we don’t have to do what everyone else does, instead even our most random quirks of character can become Kingdom advancing facets.

I discovered the word ‘bespoke’ -you are a ‘bespoke’ ambassador of Christ, made unique for the glory of Christ.

You have a totally unique context, to a unique mix of people and network of relationships, and you have been ‘head hunted’ by the God of all creation to reveal him to his people.

The Spirit of God has a bespoke plan for our areas and context, its not just another course, or another project, but a unique plan that will work for us, taylor-made evangelism made to measure for individuals in a unique context.

“Does the future have a Church?” A conversation withTaxi Driver.

I was in a taxi today and the driver (a Muslim) asked me on my thoughts on the future of the Christian Church in England. A good question, he was a nice guy I liked him, but he clearly thought we as the Church are loosing the battle of the hearts and minds of ordinary people, especially young people.

I said that I wasn’t too pessimistic about the future, and dis still believe that Christianity, and in particular Christ himself, were as captivating as they have ever been, and although the world is pretty crazy but I still reckon people are searching for real and authentic answers for those big questions of life.

His next comment was interesting… If you want to get young people are you going to water down your message –again not being rude- and I said “no I wasn’t”. And what I should have said (but didn’t) is I don’t think people want us to sell out, people long for authenticity and integrity and look for leaders who are prepared to stand for something rather than constantly courting popularity like some fading reality TV star.

Yet the message of the cross has never been popular:
“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor.18) & “… “but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles” (1Cor.23).

At the heart of our faith has God himself suffering and dying in agony upon a cross, and as the Easter Hymn puts it “and we believe it was for us he hung and suffered there”.

It is not a popular message, the call to repentance is an uncomfortable, even the band blue reminded us that “sorry is the hardest word”.

Again, as I reflected further on my conversation with the cabby, I should have said something about the character of God, God who is at his heart is Missional, a God reaching out to his beloved creation.

Jesus saw his mission as being like “the good shepherd (Luke 15)” who would seek and save the lost.

The Holy Spirit whose job in the world is to bring us to Jesus Christ is also the Spirit of all truth, convicting the world of sin and pointing them to the solution.

Jesus’ own description of God was “of the a Running Father” (Luke 15) seeking out the lost, leaving behind his dignity and taking on his sinful sons shame..

I was reminded that “it’s not the Church that has the mission of God, but rather the missionary God who has a Church”, the future is not entirely down to us but actually rests in the hands of a God who does not give up on his creation easily, a God who doesn’t leave himself without a witness, a God who doesn’t desert his bride, even when she’s frail and fragile.

So, although there are plenty of challenges when we think of the Churches future, even so I believe that God will be faithful to his Church, his bride which he is coming back for.

I will close with a prayer from St. Paul.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:20&21).

Pints Of View…

We have been continuing our work with Pints of View, being available for people to talk to us, I go to the local pub the Kings Arms and Wetherspoon’s wearing my collar each Wednesday to make myself accessible to the local people who might want to chat.

The more Catholic end of the spectrum of the Church teaches us a lot about the power of presence, of the importance of ‘just being there’ and ‘being available’.

Keeping the rumour of God alive. Putting a human (and smiling approachable) face on the faceless institution of the Church.

Over the years’ I have been here much of my thinking and efforts has been about learning to be good guests on other peoples’ turf, being prepared to meet people where they are at, where they go and where they hang out, rather than our somewhat naïve and arrogant idea of expecting them to ‘come to us’.

One of the project I have worked hard with is the setting up of the Kingswood Street and School Pastors, where Christian volunteers wander around our local communities where we try and make it as easy as possible for those who want to chat to have a conversation with a Christian. Friendly, accessible, warm approachable, sadly not words we always associate with Church.

Yet, we want to offer more than just a conversation on a street corner, but the opportunity for a longer conversation if people wanted, being in the same place at the same time regularly, so that people if they want to can join us. We soon discovered that for most people -even if we’d had a good chat with them- never came to a Church service on Sunday (despite many saying that they would), maybe it was just too bigger jump for them? Perhaps having a chat in a pub was more of a manageable step for people.

 This is something we have been doing regularly in some form for the past 4 or 5 years, in different pubs, and trying different things. Sometimes I have been joined by another Christian friend -or two-, and sometimes just on my own, sometimes no conversations with anyone at all, other times have birthed some wonderful kingdom opportunities, and some new friendships -this week was invited by a couple of guys who aren’t Churchy to join their team for the pub quiz, which was a lot of fun even if we didn’t win!

Recently we changed or format again, my friend Mike who runs the pub called the Kings Arms (what a fab name for a Church!) has let us use a side room to meet up in, so we have started our evenings with a bit of prayer and one week my friend Wes brought a guitar and we worshipped a bit (if you are interested in hearing more about it, do check it out here….).

Interestingly God has been speaking to Wes about the power of worship, somehow worship seems to alter the spiritual DNA of the place. In the summer at an outreach event, Wes and his team had some worship on the streets, with preaching and flyers, the manager of the shopping centre stopped the flyers and the preaching, but allowed the worship to continue, yet it was through the worship which led someone to pray a prayer of commitment. Worship is powerful, worship changes things, worship changing us.

So, we decided to do a service in the little room, with the hope that people could drift from the bar and join us, in many way this was doing a service almost as a prophetic action to say we believe that Church will be birthed here. I’d asked my friend Regan to do a bit of a talk.

I’d sent out emails, put it on facebook, but still was worried that no one would come.

Regan was the first to arrive, which made me feel more worried, if no one showed up it would feel more awkward, especially if Regan had spent ages preparing this would be uncomfortable.

Yet gradually a few people came, in fact there was about 6 of us. My friend David led some worship songs on the guitar with the words printed out on a bit of paper. I looked around, we were quite a broad mix really, mix of ages, from different Churches, everything from AOG to Roman Catholic.  

It felt somewhat self-conscious knowing people could hear us praying and our worship, it felt a bit like a step of faith stick our neck out for Christ.

Although we just singing a few songs accompanied by a couple of guitars, but there was a real sense of God’s presence, everyone there was hungry for more of Gods Kingdom to break into our community.

Was this Church? -Yes! Rowan Williams defined Church as “an intentional community centred around Christ Jesus”.

It made me wonder:

Do we make Church too complicated?

 Do we make Church too static and inflexible?

Are we far too bound up by our buildings?

Our we too wedded to our history of the hallowed Sunday morning hour ideology which has no scriptural base?

My heart longs to be a simply Church, flexible, deployable but still being authentic church community moving into the heart of our community.

As we worshipped a sense of God’s presence was tangible, perhaps in this season God is longing to be encountered rather than just explained?

Then my friend Regan shared a few words, mainly his testimony, was reminded afresh of the power of our story, interestingly this is the most common question I get asked? “What made you go religious?”/ ”Why did you become a Vicar?” -people want to know our story.

When we encounter people and they see that in many ways we are both Christians and people like them, that brings an unsaid challenge that ‘people like me can be Christians’.

Perhaps part of the failure our Churches is they simply don’t look like the communities in which they are situated?

Within his testimony, Regan spoke about his journey of faith, he spoke of how one of his relatives in Zimbabwe used to pray for him regularly, and I wonder how many of the people in the pub that have anyone who is praying for them? I was reminded too, by Regan’s story of the centrality of Christ himself in the role of mission, who would have thought that a struggling, middle class church of largely elderly people would mainly reach and disciple a young 20 something Zimbabwean? Yet, by the power of God’s Holy Spirit, the impossible -or at least the highly unlikely- happens.

This reminded me of that wonderful verse “They overcame by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony”. The power of our story placed here by John the author of Revelation side by side with the blood of Christ.

 

Regan then shared about a wonderful older saint at his work, who came up to him once and offered him a Bible, which he declined (somewhat rudely!). Yet, I hope that this side of eternity, this lady will come across Regan doing what he does best telling people straight about Jesus. Maybe this lady felt like a failure at mission because she was given ‘short shrift’ by Regan, but he bravery and almost certainly her prayers echoed in eternity and have had an effect she could have only dreamt of.

My friend Kaja shared how she was so angry at her sister for having the disrespect and audacity to talk to her about her new-found faith, and yet several hours later Kaja herself said she was on her knees inviting Christ into her life.

Sometimes we don’t know the fruit that God brings to birth, often what feels like failure could be slower birthing fruit. Maybe when we step out in faith, we need to remember that “one plants, another waters’, but God makes it grow”, remembering too that “God’s word does not return to him void”.

Then as we wandered talking to people in the Kings Arms and Weatherspoon’s, Kaja and Wes met a couple of people ended up bumping into a Christian and sorting out some exciting stuff to do with the local foodbank in Fishponds -made me wonder when we intentional give God time and space he will uses our offering for his glory and sometimes divine and Kingdom advancing appointments.

It was good to chat to one another too, it made me think about how formal Church is and we rarely spend time with one another, ironic as one of the Churches I lead has its tag line “where strangers become friends and friends meet with Jesus” but perhaps we stay a little too much like strangers? I used to say “I don’t want to be a Church that is friendly, rather I want to be a Church where people can make friends in”.

I ended up chatting to my new friend John, a Catholic, and was so encouraging to hear what the Holy Spirit is doing in the Catholic Church, it makes me realise that although we come from different places, and do different things, that the Spirit of God is not confined by our differences and is bringing glory to Jesus through all those that seek him.

I had a brief chat with a guy I’d met at the foodbank, who came up to me and shook me by the hand and said that “although I’m not religious, I want to thank you for what you do”, which was a massive blessing, as I have recently felt really discouraged of late and this meant more than he could know (in fact I see it as a mini miracle as -sadly- this very, very rarely happens!).

On our way out of the pub, at the end of the evening, we ended up having a conversation with two guys about the Street Pastors project, Church, life, compassion although we never gave them a ‘full gospel message’ it again felt like this was again a Kingdom advance life blessing conversation.

So, why not join us, on a Wednesday, 7:45 for some worship and prayer, followed by a drink and being open to meet whoever we meet, giving the evening to God for his glory and see what happens, making new friends, going deeper with one another, perhaps conversation too which may change peoples’ eternal destinies?

God offering each of us the opportunity to partner with him, not hidden away in some Church, talking churchy stuff with already churchy people, often naval gazing. Let’s step out and meet him where he always has been in his world longing to meet his people who don’t yet know him.

Paradigm Shift.

Its a phrase that I read everywhere, and I used to think it was just one of those pretentious words that get glued onto new things by people wanting to sound intelligent, that was until I looked up what it meant!

Here is a definition: “A fundamental change in approach or underlying assumption”, in Phil Potters excellent ‘Pioneering a new future’ he talks of this ‘Paradigm Shift’ being like a swimmer being given a snorkel and goggles, -the swimmer sees the sea, the shore, the boat and the sky- but the snorkeler sees all that is under the ocean, their location is the same but the view is entirely different.

Vision is fundamental to what we do, “where there is no Vision the people perish”, yet the question actually is whose vision are we following, ours or Christ’s?

Do see where he is leading for the next step, often a step of faith and always a step out of out comfort zone and security.

In the Gospels Jesus heals a blind man who recovers his sight in two stages, the first his vision is unclear, before being restored completely.

It is easy to imagine this guy being pleased at having partial vision restored, yet Jesus plan was to completely open his eyes.

I believe that this miraculous story can also be a parable to the modern day Church, sadly we can become spiritually blind when we take our eyes off Christ, yet Christ wants to restore our vision but we often settle for seeing less than Christ wants us to see.

We need our vision transformed by Jesus, not just partially healed.

Wondering too if sometimes our expectations, experiences, history, disappointments and our egos  blurs our vision.

To see things with Christ’s eyes, see things as Christ sees them, ought to be the ambition of us all who follow Jesus, he saw not things as they were but as they could be.

Seeing God’s plan, his new way rather than simply second hand revelation and conventional wisdom, doing what we have always done. David saw God’s vision for defeating Goliath with a sling shot rather than the bulky over-sized armour of King Saul.

Yet to many of us are trying to fight a Goliath shaped battle in debilitating Armour from a past generation, rather than asking if this is something he is still calling us to do?

Often our vision is smaller and more timid that I believe God wants to give us rather the vision his vision is huge and audacious, as if it a small vision achievable with our own resources where is the need for faith? Faith John Wimber reminded us is “spelled R-I-S-K”.

Yet revelation and vision from Christ is scary, it shakes the status quo, it pushes boundaries, defies expectations and stretches and strengths our faith and often means us laying down and surrendering our preferences and understandings. “If we always do what we have always done, we will get what we always have”…

I believe God is saying “I have seen your vision, now do you want to see my vision?”

God says “Behold I am doing a new thing” and yet too often we are munching on yesterdays stale manna.

I am a fan of the recent Church of England’s Report “Mission Shaped Church” but realise we have tried to turn this around to Church Shaped Mission, lowering the challenge and moving the goal posts closer to a more comfortable and achievable game.

We forget that God’s plan is bigger than simply his Church and our programmes and ideas within that, rather God’s plan is for the whole world. Rowan Williams famously said “It is not the Church who has the mission of God, but rather the Missionary God who has the Church”.

God can’t be placed in a box, the curtain ripped from top to bottom proves that the Spirit of God is uncontainable.

So, let us pray as we begin 2017, to expect the unexpected, to think big and look at the world with God’s eyes, through the eyes of Christ, praying for new and restored vision for us both as individuals and corporately as Church. Looking with bold eyes, not for a small God stuffed into a box of our expectations and understanding, but rather with to see “what God is doing in world and joining” remembering that our God exceeds our wildest imagination and can “do more than we ask or think”.

Let us see things with the fresh eyes of faith.

 

James Bond and Redundancy…

God’s been speaking to me a lot recently about redundancy, something I have never experienced but sadly a reality for many people who I live and serve amongst.

We often live as though its all about us, as if we are irreplaceable, and we will live/serve for ever… Yet even my Biblegateway verse for today challenges that…

“For, “All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever.” And this is the word that was preached to you.” 1 Peter 1:24.

I re-watched the Bond film Skyfall over Christmas,  and made me realize they wouldn’t have been able to do a film like this if it wasn’t for those who have gone before, and rumours are circulating about a Bond actor taking over from Daniel Craig…

Jonathan Ross called Daniel Craig, the custodian of the role of Bond, a phase I liked, he doesn’t “own” Bond, but a dual responsibility both to safeguard the role and a responsibility to carry the franchise to the next generation, and yet someone else will take the series on after him maybe even to places as yet undiscovered, and unrealised.

The series was financially lucrative under Pierce Brosnan, and could have carried on in the same vein, many were sorry he left the role and for some he will always be ‘their’ bond, and yet if he hadn’t have left the series wouldn’t have had its reboot and wouldn’t have had its two biggest and most successful movies.

Okay, we may never be offered the role of playing Bond, James Bond…

Yet we are God’s people here as his Church for this generation, and like Bond there is a call to safeguard that which has been entrusted to us the good and unchanging news of Christ, yet we have to do more than just safeguard the role, we need to bring the good news of the Kingdom to a new generation. We might have to ditch things we like but become barriers to a new culture, or do things in ways we may find uncomfortable or alien to us… We may have to let go of the okay and the good, risking it all, for the best and the greater…

We need to see ourselves not as indispensable parts of the picture but simply custodians, links in a bigger chain of the picture of God’s call in this place… yet the question is will we leave the place better than when we found it?

I believe the call to pass on the baton is a continual call, we should always be looking for people to encourage, to hold things loosely knowing that they belong not to us but to Christ and not to cling on in an unhelpful way, in fact this clinging often leaves cracks and bruises where hands that should no longer have been holding it have hung on longer than they should.

I believe God is calling me, and us all, to look for redundancy, to lift other leaders up to take our place, to constantly be trying to do ourselves out of a job, so that we can pick up the next thing that God has for us, and then to do the same again.

I often wonder whether God has had amazing things for all of us, which we never get near picking up as we have never put down the first thing he gave us?

A journey where all things become new, cycles of fresh and new, where people are constantly being led on to new and deeper, the body of Christ is being strengthened and built up, as people (in Christ) end up doing (through him) more than they could ever believe possible.

Redundancy sounds scary, and it is, but in passing on batons our hands are free for the next thing God gives us

Don’t grow huge trees plant small bushes…

Two men running away from a bear, one guy said to the other “we will never out run it” the other replied “I’m not trying to out run it, I’m trying to out run you!”

It made me think of sometime how we compete with each other when we are called to compliment each other.

Interestingly some research from George Lings of the Church Army research unit showed that building bigger churches as in increasing and growing larger congregations actually does very little in bringing people who are not yet Christians to faith, all that happens is growth through transfer, actually often hampering local mission in communities, as people drive out of their communities to join with the largest trendiest, loudest show of Christendom in town.

Yet growth through transfer has actually warped our thinking on Missional congregations, interestingly research shows “it is better to plant lots of small shrubs that try and grow a big tree”. Small indigenous fellowships serving their communities can reach more not yet believers and see them come to faith than the large but impersonal mega church.

Yet interestingly I know of very few vicars that actually want to grow multiple small fruitful missional communities but I know hundreds that want to build something large and grand. I think just as with the story of the Bears we compete with each other in an unhelpful and unhealthy way, often our desires for growth come from our own desire to be successful but although it is good to succeed we are primarily called to be faithful, and sometimes our ego means we might want to build something very different from what God is actually calling us to build.

The idea that big or great is better than small and weak is actually quite a worldly perspective as it is in weakness that Christ is strong. This false thinking spreads across everything, when listening of reading economics the idea that if we create more rich people some how that will help the poor called ‘trickle down economics’ but as the Pope reminded us, rather than help trickling down to the poorest and most marginalised but instead the glass appears to get bigger.
We often talk about how many bums on seats rather than the depth or quality of discipleship, the christ-likeness in the followers. Attracting a crowd might feel good but unless people’s lives are radically changed, then what is the point.

It made me think about growth, and I realised that I ultimately want to primarily grow through evangelism, I want more than anything else in the world to see ordinary people becoming Christians and thriving in their faith, I don’t want a church of 1000 people if it is just entertaining Christians by being the best local hug in Christendom.

One thing I notice about Jesus, is his ministry was based around small but fruitful groups, although he spoke to the crowds he never “pastored a mega church” and his fruitfulness I believe came from his fruitful investment in a few people that ended up kick starting a movement whose momentum has not stopped 2000 years later.
So let’s not compete with each other.

Let’s plant small shrubs in faith.

Host, Servant and Pilgrim…

I had an interesting meeting with a lovely guy called Ben, he’s exploring New Monasticism and fresh expressions of Church, and was telling me about this expression of Church in Wales who talk about these three modes of being Church.

Host, welcoming, hospitality, putting yourself out for the sake of someone else, think of other cultures of hospitality whereby they give to their guests sacrificially and beyond what they can afford (if you have ever done any oversees mission you’ll know what I mean!)

Servant, how can I help? How can be bless and serve you as a community, thinking of Church as a servant of the world, not wagging their finger and bossing it  around, but looking for opportunities to serve and bless, to bend down and wash its feet.

Pilgrim, that idea about being on a journey, following Christ, seeking where he is at work and walking together the journey of faith.

I love this idea of the modes of Church, as I am becoming more and more discontent with Church being an event we attend rather than learning to BE Church.

Church is not an event, or a series of events, but a radically community moving together to see God’s Kingdom breaking in.

Yet Church is not something disconnected from us, but is us ourselves?

What does it mean for me to learn to be Church?

How does this work in my normal day to day life?

Do I act as a Host? When am I acting as a host?

And when I host am I a Christ like host?

When do I act like a servant?

And when I serve am I like Christ?

And am I a pilgrim?

Am I seeking God?

Am I actually moving in my faith at all?

Am I moving on with him, or am I still in the place I was, or have become used to it and become too settled?

Who am I travelling with?

Where am I looking for God?

How diligently am I seeking him, and am I looking for him in the right places, am I seeking his voice?

Colossians 4

Colossians 4:2 Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. 3 And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. 4 Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. 5 Be wise in the way you act towards outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. 6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

Sounds like wise words from Paul about how to approach 2017….

Being devoted to prayer.

Watchful (although I think ‘expectant’ is a better word as it is less passive).

And being thankful, expectant of God to be at work and praising him for seeing him at work.

Praying also for me, pray for each other… -interestingly if you’re a leader sometimes you can feel as though everyone’s gunning for you and very few are praying for you, Paul probably is feeling pretty low as he’s banged up in prison-, but I think the important thing here is to pray for each other, we’re a community, a family, we are meant to be carrying each others burdens, supporting one another in prayer, but too often the individualism of our culture creeps in and it becomes ‘all about us’.

Pray that God opens the door for his message, so we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, Pray for those divine appointments, real and genuine opportunities to honestly talk with people about our faith in natural and helpful ways.

For which I am an ambassador in chains -let us this new year be people that remember the persecuted Church, especially as I think the political/social landscape is changing and I think pluralistic secularisms voice is getting louder and so being a Christian is going to get tougher.

Pray I may proclaim it as clearly as I should, pray that God gives us the words to say, -that all sharing of our faith will not only be with the right heart but also spirit lead.

Be wise in the way you act towards outsiders… One of my favourite verses my friend Mark Rich quotes is “Zeal without wisdom is folly” often how we act pushes people away from Christ rathe r than drawing people towards him? So many things Churches do and individual Christians do, that is simply really unhelpful.

 Making the most of every opportunity… God gives his people, both us as individuals, and collectively as his Church so many opportunities, so many  I think we simply don’t see, so many we choose not to see as it sounds like a tough call “opportunities are missed because they come in work overalls”, some we think are too big for us, and some we sadly (sometimes) think are beneath us “I’m not doing that?” or “I’m not going there”. Jesus says “Open your eyes the fields are white to the harvest” 

Let your conversation be always be full of grace… Some of the emails I get from Christians, some of the conversations I hear in Churches,  leave me wondering “where is the grace?” and if we can’t even manage to be gracious and loving to each other as a community, why would anyone want to travel with us in following Jesus? People want to see a different community, one that loves, one that builds up, Kingdom living is attractive, let people see, hear and experience it, when we remove grace from our lives together it is like a alkali burn -its what’s not there -the absence of acid- that burns us-, sin of omission if you like.

Interestingly, our conversation needs to be always full of Grace, yet sometimes hard to find trace elements of it. Interestingly we are called to have conversations full of grace, yet also seasoned with salt. how often it is the other way around, full of salty Christian rhetoric, but no grace?

Seasoned with salt… The image of our conversations making people thirsty for Christ is an exciting image, as a parent of a young child, I realise that often we are watched and listened too even when we don’t realise it. 

Also, lets not be afraid, to mention the name of Jesus, to be open and honest about our faith, and give people opportunities to talk… Seasoned with salt, unashamed of the gospel, giving people openings and opportunities for further discussion.

If your conversation is like this, then people will be drawn to you and want to explore Christ with you, so you may know how to answer everyone.