prodding in the direction of God

Yesterday I attended the diocesan gathering, Beyond the Big Society, which was an incredibly valuable day – not least for the input and challenge of Archbishop Rowan in the afternoon.

After hearing about some initiatives around the diocese which seek to transform community we heard from speakers of national, and international organisations (Stop the Traffik, Mothers Union, Housing Justice). I found much of what they presented to be a challenge and a reminder to what we are called to eb as church. All the organisations offer suport ans advice to groups of people who wish to make a difference in their community.

In the afternoon Archbishop Rowan got us thinking and asking ourselves what is different about the approach of the church. He started with a scene setting text from Revelation 3:8, ‘I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut‘.

He suggested we talk about the church being different to other groups involved in social action, and followed that with presenting a need to know what it actually is that is different, or distinctive, about us as we move towards the open door. He suggested that as church, what is distinctive about us, is that we take responsibility for each other. The church has a strong outlook of mutual nourishment where we give to each other because we have freely received.

In thinking about Big Society he suggested that a healthy and functional society enables small communities of mutual service to both be born and grow to sustainability. I was encouraged by the thought that, as church, we should be moving, luring and prodding society in this direction of mutual service … a fairly trinitarian concept … so prodding in the direction of God then!

days 7,8,9 …. rooted in the community

I guess I am getting into the swing of things at St. Stephens and learning names and understanding how they do things. Yesterday I presided at a mid week Eucharist which surprised me with an attendance of 10 people, which is quite a lot more than I see when I preside at the mid week eucharists in the cathedral. I compare only because I find it interesting to observe and learn what draws people to such a service at 10am on a Wednesday morning.

Most of the people there yesterday were retired in some capacity and the service is clearly important to them. Some were moving next to visiting some homes in the parish with the magazine so our closing words of ‘go in peace to love and serve the Lord’ were said with immediate practical application.

Yesterday ended with atending the Lent course. The Chatham churches are getting together every Wednesday evening over Lent and have managed to get a different bishop each night to talk on a topic. Last night Bishop James spoke to the title, ‘Empowering Mission relevant to our society and culture’. I was encouraged by what I heard.

Bishop James spoke widely around the term ‘empowering mission‘. What empowers mission was an early question and ‘the Holy Spirit’ was an early answer. He then turned the term around and asked how does mission empower people because he believed mission, if it is mission, is about transforming lives and not just saving souls as Jesus makes pretty clear in John 10:10. I wanted to shout a loud front row Pentecostal yes to that … but you will be glad to know I kept my Anglican calm dignity in the back row by nodding slowly but surely!

Bishop James ended his talk by referring to Jeremiah chapter 29 and these word which were written to exiles that, I presume, wanted to escape their exile:
build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit. Take wives and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters – that you may be increased there and not diminished. And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the Lord for it; for in it’s peace, you will have peace. (vv5-8)

Sometimes we can feel as exiles where we are; but our role and calling is not to moan but to settle and to be a blessing. As Bishop James said, we need to be rooted in the places we are, listening to the heartbeat of our communities and responding appropriately.

I love that statement and I agree with it wholeheartedly. That is what I am attempting to do in the St Stephen’s parish but it takes a lot longer than 6 weeks to tune in. To be rooted in a place takes time and sometimes it does not happen at all …. but when it does relationships flourish and people of a place become very special. After 20 years of living and working in a variety of ways in the community of Medway I feel like roots are developing and growing well. I can sense and hear the heartbeat and, in my case, pioneering is about the responding appropriately. It takes that long to establish roots in a place which is why I am fighting to stay locally in my next role.

People ask am I moving, can I move and will I move … I could, there are opportunities both in this diocese and others …. but I don’t think I can as I, well we as a family,  passionately feel called to serve the people of Medway, to seek the welfare of the people of Medway, to pray for peace for the people of Medway. When I first came here from Weymouth in 1987 I hated Medway with a passion and could not wait to return to the West Country …. we worked for Holy Trinity Nailsea for 4 years but we came back, believing God called us back here. I can say I have built my house here, I am planting my garden (remember my allotment!) … and I’ve even ‘taken’ (not my word!) a wife and beget sons and a daughter here. As I consider this passage what other response can I make?

I will seek the peace of this city … and in that peace I hope that I will fine mine.

ownership

My Advent reading this morning started with this Eugene Peterson quote:

The simple act of buying a BIble
has subtle side effects we need to counter

It is easy to suppose that since
we bought it,
we own it,
and therefore we can use it

the way we wish.

 

I have been challenged to think more about this today, asking myself do I think of my Bible as, well ‘My Bible!’ If I claim I own it then I am at risk of just using it to support and uphold the stuff that I think is right. ‘

Bodenheim reminds me that:

many things have been justified through the BIble: slavery, a husband’s right to abuse his wife, parents rights to abuse their children, refusal of birth control, refusal of medical treatment for illnesses, the condemnation of homosexuality.

A question I am forced to ask myself is is, ‘do I use the Bible as a weapon or as good news?’ If the way I read and interpret the BIble makes life a misery for others or causes pain or victimises then I believe there is something seriously seriously wrong with that. I see the bible as essentially a love story between God the creator and the whole of creation. If my reading of the Bible is good news for others then something is right! Do I use the bible to oppress and impoverish or to liberate and free people?

If the Bible does not pont us toward God, but instead speaks for God, then the Bible has become our God.

 

 

 

dickens and decks

so … that was Dickens, when we saw an amazing 19000 people pass through the cathedra! That’s quite a few!!!

The team I worked with were excellent, and at times we had people queuing for hand or foot massages and Jesus Deck readings. The experience was such a humbling privilege as we engaged with many people on various levels from talking about the beading, to joking about Christmas, to praying for some form of healing.

One person I will remember for a while was a distressed person shaking with fear who needed help. We simply prayed for God’s peace and this person became calm almost instantly which shocked her and her family. It was a delight to see.

The weekend has again left me with far more questions and frustrations than answers. I guess the main frustration is how we seem to just scratch the surface with most of those 19000 choosing to walk past the stand, many even refusing to make any form of eye contact. I wonder whether a part of that is a fear of not wanting to engage with something of the ‘unknown’.  My question, which I guess is closely connected, is why God seems to connect with some people and not others.

Other questions which came up which I’d like to investigate sometime revolve around the whole idea of what people think they are doing in their actions. One of the team, Nathan, was reflecting on people lighting candles and asking what, in their mind, are they doing or trying to do? It’s an interesting thought as we heard people use language like ‘pray properly’ and ‘make a wish’   and ‘thats for uncle Albert’. The action of lighting a candle is certainly helpful, and thousands were lit this weekend, but it is interesting maybe to consider what is actually happening here for various people.

Anyway … the weekend is over, the Dekhomai stand is packed away, we continue with Advent and welome Christ into our lives again …

 

Dickens Dekhomai

This weekend is the Dickens Festival again in Rochester when thousands of people descend upon Rochetser from all over the country, and even the world, to ‘celebrate’ Dickens and his works.

WE expect around 8000 people to pass through the cathedral today and amongst our normal services and carol services we also attempt to engage with people again this year through our Dekhomai (greek translation: ‘the welcoming place’) as part of our Benedictine tradition of hospitality.

Today we will be be offering Jesus Deck readings, Prayer discussions, prayer for healing, hand and foot massages, the making of prayer beds, blessings as well as simply a place to chat. In other parts of the cathedral there are opportunities to light candles for people you may wish to remember.

So … if you are in the cathedral today … be one of the 8000 and pop in. Please say hello – even if it looks like we are busy it would still be great to say hi. If you can’t make it over the weekend, please hold those working in the cathedral in your prayers and especially those on the Dekhomai stand who seek to be a blessing and a help to those who come to us.

‘failure’

Woody Allen said ‘If you don’t fail now and again, it’s a sign you are playing it safe’.

I remember a while back when working with YFC that Roy Crowne, the then National Director, said something like, ‘If you are not failing 15% of the time then you are playing it too safe’

I believe if you want to succeed, then you must also be willing to fail … and then try again.

I meet in a mentoring type role with a local youth worker. We met recently and spoke about things not working out properly in a youth session and this person used the term ‘failure’ in a negative way. None of us like to fail, this is true, but to fail does not mean you are a failure and it does not mean you were wrong.

If we are going to push the boundaries in our ministries, jobs, roles (whatever language does it for us) and be creative then I believe we can only really be pushing if we experience failure. We are really not that excellent that all our great ideas will work amazingly. That just does not happen.

But …. and this is a massive but! I am noticing more and more, although I suspect this has always been the case, that people are stifled and constrained in their dreams and realities. They don’t push boundaries because they are afraid of failure and, in particular, how others will view them post-failure.

But … if we are going to create, to meaningfully engage, to make a difference that matters, to be involved in God’s transformative work then, as we push to the edges of our comfort zone and what we understand we will fail. That’s only natural. If we don’t fail we are not pushing hard enough. I

f all we experience is success we are playing too safe.

 

I am doing a new thing ….

‘I am doing a new thing … do you not perceive it?’ … some words from Isaiah 43 which we normally read each week in morning prayer when we are in ‘ordinary time‘.

These are words that have caused me to smile in both delight and confusion as I remember a story about a muslim lady I came into contact a little while ago which I now feel is ok to share . I have already shared it with friends verbally – I’m not sure I understand it; but in many ways that is not the point … the point is that God is God and seems to be working in ways that don’t fit the formula of the established (maybe evangelical) church in which I have grown.

The story starts with a phonecall from the welcome desk in the cathedral. A woman wishes to talk with someone and they decide a priest is who she needs. I am available and so I wandered over to the cathedral. To cut a very long story short, below is an outline of this young lady’s story:

The lady told me she  had quite a weird and confusing dream a week or so ago that had been puzzling her. She also told me as she was walking past the cathedral she felt something within her say ‘you will find the answer to your dream in there’. So … she came into the cathedral.

We chatted generally for a little while and then she started to speak about why she had come into the cathedral. She told me she dreamt that a man was sitting at the foot of her bed and that there was something quite odd about the man. The man was ‘all in white and kind of glowed’ she said and that, ‘and this was the weird thing … he had holes in his wrists and his feet!’

She thought I would think her mad and seemed a little relieved when I smiled and said ‘tell me more’. She then went on to outline that this man spoke to her. I asked ‘what did he say?’ She answered ‘he said “I want you to follow me”‘ and the conversation went on for a while.

I decided I should read a part of the gospel to her. When we got to the crucifixion scene her face lit up and she sat up as she asked ‘do you think that was Jesus in my dream…?’ not really expecting an answer. The woman was genuine, she had no knowledge of the gospel. This was really happening!

After we chatted a little more I asked her what she felt she had done in the dream. Her response floored me … “I have agreed to follow him and kind of given my life to him and go wherever he asks me to go.’ After we chatted some more she asked ‘so … are you saying that I need to become a Christian?’ I responded that I thought that had already happened … and her final response of that day was ‘yes … i think I must be … but can you help me understand what it is that I have done?’

Together for a few weeks we went through some baptism/confirmation material. This person is no longer in Rochester or Kent and for reasons of her safety I won’t say where she is; but as I reflect on the whole incident of a few months ago I am left with questions:

I am left wondering why God chose this woman to meet with in such a special way? I am left wondering how come God can break the rules that I have grown up with since I was 17 … i.e. she should have heard the gospel first , understood it and then given her life to Jesus … this is all the wrong way round! I am left wondering what on earth God is up to. I am left wondering how she is getting on now.

But I am not wondering whether it was God …. for it seems God is doing a new thing ….. and I need to learn a lot more about expecting the unexpected!

mission entrepreneurship pt 2

Jonny has made an excellent record of last week over here.

Go read … and you should sign up for next years course; certainly one of the best courses I have ever been on!

oh … the view … that was from my bedroom window!

meal of passion!

The gathering ate together last night at our home. A great experience with a good chance to share where we are at, what we are doing and how things are going.

Between our main course and pudding we thought a bit about our passions and our talents which led into a discussion of how the gathering reflects these and in fact whether, as an expression of church, that it should.

I adapted an exercise that Jonny put me on to last week but for our purposes concentrated on just passions and talents. It was interesting, although not surprising, to see that a lot of our values matched. There was a lot of passions around justice, family, friends and fun. Those values were expressed in various forms across the whole age span of the community from 7 years to 40 something. It was personally exciting to see the children speak of ‘against poverty’ and ‘championing the needs of people’.

Creativity was also a recognised passion and while we think we are a creative community we are painfully aware that we are not a community that is yet involved in doing something to lesson the injustices we see around us.

In our discussion we started to think and explore about how we might address this and also how our location might enable our mission to make a difference where we are. I think we all agree that although the crypt is a special and particularly sacred space, that is is not the correct space for the gathering to use in the way we use it.

We have become a community that spends a lot of time being creative and worship is fun and challenging. But, we never got together to spends lots of time planning great worship; we got together because we wish to explore being church in a way that makes a transformative difference to our community.

So for our next gathering we are looking to meet somewhere new and explore the advent and Christmas theme by asking local organisations ‘how can we help you make a difference?’ or ‘what is needed’ and see if there is any way we can respond.

Last night was a really positive and exciting gathering … not this time because of creative worship, but this time because of a shared passion to make a difference.

Please pray for us as we seek to move forward.

the entrepreneur week

I have not blogged really about the Missional Entrepreneurship week away in Devon. There is difficulty with where to start. The quality of the input was excellent, the discussions were meaty and sometimes heated and the conversations were enlightening as we, as missioners or pioneers or whatever people wish to label us, grappled with ideas of how to ensure sustainability for the mission or expression of church that we are involved in.

I particularly welcomed and was inspired by the input of Steve and Shannon who simply see things very differently to myself. This, as far as I am concerned, is always a good thing. I like to be challenged and pushed beyond my comfort zone and it is even better when that is happening in an environment with other creative people.

The week has been challenging and brain exercising. I guess the basic idea was simple and one we all related to: a missional entrepreneur is someone who sees the gap, innovates and get the resources to make something happen. In that sense,  we were all in understanding; how to get the resources, particularly in the current climate, is a subject that needs lots of thought.

I can’t remember who said this, but it may have been Jonny, –  that we struggle with business or entrepreneur ideas and language because we understand mission as operating in a gift economy. God freely gives of himself and we freely share the gift that God has given. Personally I feel uncomfortable just thinking about the possibility of losing that outlook but am starting to see possibilities that allow this to happen with integrity that maintain a philosophy of the gift economy.

I have a vison, some ideas …. anyone want to invest?