Discovering what it is to be human again!

Recently I stumbled upon this ‘guidance’ on how to be ‘easily’ missional – at first as I read down the list I found myself nodding and smiling inside that at last their were people talking about a pattern of practices that would help people ‘reach-out’ to friends and neighbours; it went like this...

Missional is not an event we tack onto our already busy lives. It is our life. Mission should be the way we live, not something we add onto life: “As you go, make disciples….”; “Walk wisely towards outsiders”; “Let your speech always be seasoned with salt”; “be prepared to give a defense for your hope”. We can be missional in everyday ways without even overloading our schedules. Here are a few suggestions:

1. 
   Eat with Non-Christians. We all eat three meals a day. Why not make a habit of sharing one of those meals with a non-Christian or with a family of non-Christians? Go to lunch with a co-worker, not by yourself. Invite the neighbors over for family dinner. If it’s too much work to cook a big dinner, just order pizza and put the focus on conversation. When you go out for a meal, invite a non-Christian friend. Or take your family to family-style restaraunts where you can sit at the table with strangers and strike up conversations. Have cookouts and invite Christians and non-Christians. Flee the Christian subculture.
2. 
   Walk, Don’t Drive. If you live in a walkable area, make a practice of getting out and walking your neighborhood, apartment complex, campus. Instead of driving to check the mail, go to the convenience store, or visit a neighbor, get out and walk. Say hi to people you don’t know. Walk the dog. Take a 6-pack. Bring the kids. Make friends. Get out of the house when your neighbors are out (weekends, after work, holidays, afternoons). Take interest in your neighbor’s hobbies. Ask questions. Engage. Pray as you go. Save some gas and the planet.
3. 
   Be a Regular. Instead of hopping all over the city for gas, groceries, haircuts, eating out, and coffee, go to the same places. Get to know the staff. Go around the same times. Smile. Ask questions. Be a regular. I have friends at coffee shops all over the city. I pray for them. They give me free drinks and food. I give them the free gospel of grace. I know a professor that used to wait by his trash can each week for the garbage collector and gave him a drink. Be a Regular.
4. 
   Hobby with Non-Christians. Pick a hobby that you can share with your city, community, town or village. Get out and rub shoulders doing something you enjoy with others. City League basketball, football, soccer. Local rowing and cycling teams. Teach sewing lessons, piano lessons, violin, guitar, knitting lessons. Be prayerful. Be intentional. Be winsome. Be gracious. Have fun. Be yourself.
5. 
   Talk to Your Co-workers. How hard is that? Take your breaks with intentionality. Get a drink with your team after work. Show interest in your co-workers. Pick four and pray for them. Form mom’s groups in your neighborhood, just don’t make them exclusively non-Christian. Schedule play dates with the neighbors’ kids. Be sociable.
6. 
   Volunteer for a Local Non-Profit. Find a non-profit in your part of the city and take Saturday a month to serve your city. Bring your neighbors, your friends, or your small group with you. The options are endless here. Just do it.
7. 
   Participate in City-wide Events. Instead of playing X-Box, watching TV, or talking to your mom on the phone every weekend, go to the city garage sale, fundraisers, the festivals, the clean-ups, the summer shows, SXSW, ACL, Pecan Street Festival, etc. Go and meet people. Study the culture. Reflect on what you see and hear. Pray for the city. Love the city. Participate with the city.
8. 
   Look for opportunities to Serve your Neighbors. Help a neighbor by weeding, mowing, building a cabinet, fixing a car. Stop by the neighborhood association or apartment office and ask if there is anything you can do to help improve things. Stop by your local Police and Fire Stations and ask if there is anything you can do to help them. Get creative.

As I read down the list again, a thought began to dawn on me – how has it come to this, that we need to be guided and instructed on the practice of being ‘a normal human being!’

The warning from evangelicals is how easily it is to get subsumed in to the dominant worldview and attendant culture and value set – but no-one warned anyone about being so separatist, so elitist, so judgemental and so weird, that we would end up requiring an 8 point list of ways to simply interact with the people we live and work with!

In revisiting the purpose God has for his church and exploring the fourfold nature of the message of reconciliation (with God, with ourselves, with others and with creation), I am beginning to wonder exactly what can be considered sacred, if not living in right relationship with other human beings around us? – surely if we are not doing some or all of the things in the list above (or at least other similar things), then it’s not that we are not acting missionally, but that in relation to God’s original purpose for his creation, we are simply not normal!

God help us to be normal people for you!

Emergent church - the conference

Go have a look at the Emergent Village weblog for some really interesting commentary on where this 'new reformation' has got to - but to whet your appetites these are a few bits emerging!!

Brian McLaren: 'What you focus on determines what you miss * Our traditional understanding of Jesus may not have been wrong, but partial'

Richard Rohr: 'We must turn from a belief system to an inner experience. Know them, don’t believe them * Recognize that I am living inside a mind bigger than my own. Someone is loving through me, and all I am is the conduit. * Francis didn’t run off and join the Franciscans – He just did it.'

Shane Claiborne: 'Stop explaining/complaining about the church we have experienced and work at becoming the church we dream of. We need to be relevant to the big questions of the day while retaining our cultural peculiarity. Fascinate the world with grace!'

If Churches Were Parks

Sometimes its best not to write but simply let someone else say what's on your mind - and I simply couldn't say it better than this!


If we tore down our church buildings and replaced them with parks would the buildings be missed? If churches were parks, there would be trees and grass and places for pleasant walks, neighbourhood families enjoying the changing seasons, and our “old ones” sitting on benches telling children stories of their lives and faith.

In the fall, as the leaves changed from green to yellow, orange and red, we could invite our friends and neighbours to corn roasts and BBQs; invite them to laugh with us, talk with us, and enjoy the beauty of God’s creation--in the park. We could leave the children something wonderful in a world gone mad.

In the winter we could roll in the snow with the neighbourhood children, throw snowballs, create snow sculptures, and grow to know each other again as we walked under trees heavy with hoar frost. At Christmas, we could string coloured lights, decorate a Christmas tree, savour the story of the nativity and sing carols under quiet stars.

If churches were parks we would have to forsake our games of power and our dreams of empire for pleasant walks, snow forts, corn roasts, Christmas trees, carol sings, Easter pageants, and heart to heart talks with those who need to know why we still believe in God.

If our churches were parks, all people could gather there; they could come whenever they wished, for there would be no locked doors or security windows on our parks--no stained glass windows to hide behind. Members of the church eating lunch in the park could strike up a conversation with a business person, university student, or shopper resting before heading home . . . admire the multi-colours of a group of teenagers and ask them if they are afraid of the world we have created for them; or angry because of the future we may have taken away from them.

Of course, we would find pain in our parks; lonely people, unhappy children, sullen youth. We might confront those trying to buy drugs in our parks. We might fear those who would hurt us and steal from us. If our churches were parks we would have to confront the world outside our buildings. We would have to be those who make peace and speak of redemption and hope rather than those who hide behind fortress walls and wish the world away.

When God started the world, He put His man and woman in a park. He chose to walk and talk with His creation in a park. When we were cast out of the park, we began to build towers, empires, cities and temples. We had to acquire and possess--not only the present, but the past and the future. We found ways to control our world and other persons. It’s hard to do this in a park.


Linda Cannell is Dean of Academic Life at North Park Theological
Seminary, Chicago, IL. She also directs CanDoSpirit Network

www.candospirit.org

For the times they are a changin'

You've heard the ironic saying, 'There's nothing permanent but change' well suprisingly the times they are a chaning - it's no use hankering after that comfy old chair - we need to take courage, climb out of our boxes and reaquaint ourselves with the sheer brilliance of Gods love.

Sometimes, its not until we remove ourselves from the familiar patterns of our lives that we can see how restricted we have been - how hemmed in!

I think Jared's painting calls us not so much to 'out of the box' thinking but out of the box 'climbing' and then seeing

Edward de Bono demonstrated 'out of the box thinking' through the 9 Dots. The task is put this way - join the dots with four straight lines withiout taking your pencil / pen off the page.

The vast majority of people see something in the diagram that is simply not there - a perceived boundary or box that encloses the task within the immediate square discribed by eight of the nine dots

The solution however requires a person to literally 'think outside the box' - by extending three of the four lines as below, you can complete the task quite simply!

Are we so 'churched' that we genuinly find it hard to 'see' or even 'survive' outside of the four walls?

Why is it when we think about evagelism, it's so often about persuading people that the 'box' is such a fab place to be - do we really want to perpetuate a process the result of which is another generation of Christians who look at the church and wonder 'how did it come to this?'

Why do we insist that we need to spend so much time in the great sub-culture we've created, rather than connecting fully with our communities made of people who God loves and to whom he wants his church to minister.

Do we look at ourselves sometimes and whilst we know the truthes in our head are not often experiencing the freedom?

In the workplace you often hear people saying 'once you've been trained - use it or lose it - I wonder if the longer we leave 'it' from when we first believed, the less confidence we have that God's spirit will actually use us in any significant way.

But what is 'it' I hear you ask and by suggesting we might not be doing 'it' or even feel confident enough to do 'it' even if we got around to 'it' I feel slightly afronted!

Well I think 'it' is why the times they are a changin' and I hope you will help me to decide what 'it' really ought to be and how we start doing more of 'it' together, out there where we spend the vast majority of our time with the even more vast majority of people

Gareth

Ps. I know this much 'It's' certainly not rocket science!!

A hermeneutic of love!!

If the following resonates with you then you can not do nothing about it!

Elaine Heath says "Now I see people already being called by the Holy Spirit, already being loved and known by Jesus before I ever meet them. Now I understand that prayer and friendship are the foundation for my relationship with others, in the name of Jesus. With a hermeneutic of love I give myself in prayer and friendship to the people around me not so that I can get something from them, not even a commitment to join my church, but so that I can minister to Jesus in them, Jesus who thirsts.

A hermeneutic of love means that God looks at human sin “with pity and not with blame,” because God sees the complexity of sin and wounds. A hermeneutic of love includes a doctrine of atonement that is non-punitive, meaning Jesus chooses solidarity with us sinners so that he can set us free from sin. When Jesus sets us free, we are free indeed. With the hermeneutic of love I see others’ sin the way Jesus does, not as insurmountable obstacles or permanent stains, but as the consequences of life in a broken world. I see the full power of resurrection for them, before it ever happens. This means I believe in the potential for their healing as well as their forgiveness. No one is beyond the possibility of being made new in Christ. A hermeneutic of love is fully aware of the devastation of sin and evil, yet refuses to give them the last word.

We glibly remark that you can never find the perfect church and then some add 'in mock humility' and if I could I'd join it and spoil it - ha, ha!

I wonder, if we think that there is so much folly in the idea of 'perfect churches' why is it we pour so much time and resource in to trying to create them?


We need to allow the Holy Spirit to stir our imaginations and give us the the courage to engage more and more with a community in to which God is already speaking. I wonder, have we become so timid about the fact that we have the most explosive tool for mass transformation of society, and believe we are largely impotent in the face of the pervading culture of individual pursuit?


The delivery mechanism for this transformation is first the realisation and whole hearted acceptance of what God achieved for us (and all people) on the cross, second the evidence of this in our lives (loving one another as God has loved us that people will know by our 'loving actions' that the Spirit of God is in us and transforming us), and thirdly that we pay attention to the Holy Spirit attempts to recalibrate our agendas for our lives and become the hands, feet and heart of God wherever we find ourselves.

Elaine is absolutely correct when she talks about the need for a hermeneutic of love because only then will we recall that it was 'while we had our faces turned away from God that He first loved us!

It is only then that we will stop seeing through a lens of 'them and us' and start recognising that we were all made in the image of God and regardless of church attendance (what ever that is!) there are many seeking a reconciliation with Him.

Peter Rollins - Belong / Behave / Believe

Peter Rollins unpacks an emergent approach; click on the link and scroll up to 909 and for the sake of the dialogue, up further to 903 Questioning 'emergent' churches

http://www.calvin.edu/innercompass/episode_descriptions/#909

Happy watching

What do the people say that we are?

Recently I have been taking part in a ‘weblog’ conversation hosted by the US site ‘Emergent Village’ – Phyllis Tickle (author of ‘The Great Emergence) threw out the challenge to redefine ‘Church / church’ and unsurprisingly it has become a keenly followed thread with over 50 posts to date.

Phyllis began this way…

Apparently and for some not-very-clear reason, it is incumbent upon the faithful in every new epoch or changing era of Christian history to re-define what we mean when we use the words “church” and/or “Church.” for. There is no question about the fact that this time of emergence Christianity, whether sacred or secular and with no holds barred, is up for scrutiny and that most of everything, once scrutinized, is up for re-defining, including “church” and/or “Church.”

So this New Year, I seek—hope for—am eager to overhear—a sustained and prayerful conversation about exactly what we who are Christian in this time of emergence, hold as a working definition of emergence church/Church. And lest I be accused of doing no more here than passing along some kind of theological hot potato for the fun of it, I will begin the sacred game. I will begin the first round by saying that, as of right now, I believe both church and Church are “a body of people delighting in God the Father, God the Son, and God, the Holy Spirit.”

Here are some of the contributions – including a couple of my own thoughts:

• I’m an engineer, forgive me! But I suggest the “church is a tool useful to advance God’s will being done on earth as in heaven.”
• Thank you for this conversation. For me, the Church is an opening rose, the very fragrance of Christ, especially among the poorest of the poor; May we be the Church!
• Church: The bumbling incarnation of God’s “Yes.”
• In order to define what we are (and consequently how we go about being that thing) we need a firm grasp on the desired outcome, lest our ‘defining’ becomes an unintended prison from which we spend the next few years extricating ourselves – what kind of a definition would lead to us taking forward the ministry of reconciliation that Paul spoke about, and how will it give us the freedom to be truly part of our host communities through incarnational mission.
• I love the idea of delighting in God, but agree with one who observed that so often as Christians we do not delight in God. I see church as serving as the hands and feet of Christ here on earth with and to those around us. Church becomes a collective of like minded people desiring to follow and emulate Christ’s teachings.
• I find my deepest desire is to be a part of a community that desires to live out what Christ taught and modelled. Where questions can be asked honestly and discussed, and yet be challenged in practical ways to really examine what it means to follow Jesus Christ and honour our Creator with our lives. Exactly how that community is structured has become far less important than whether or not it is engaged in and striving toward honouring Christ in how the community lives every day – individually and collectively.
• So the C/church is/are Dream-Realisers, bringing God’s dream (heaven on earth, our real selves and our real home) to reality in small and large ways wherever we find ourselves, and on behalf of all of creation. We can recognize the signs of this Great Dream, when we see wholeness created, forgiveness given, hope restored, joy shared, fear broken, resources shared, people taken care of, and the like.
• Several people have sighted the importance of community in the definition and over time I have been a part of two or three really good Christian communities, but the common factor has been the exclusivity that ‘Christian’ communities seem to straightjacket themselves with. Is this because we essentially ignore the image of the maker in those ‘outside’ our community (for surely that is why they remain out there?) and is it because our dishonesty about our actual daily experience of being a part of the church leaves us vulnerable to crippling self doubt when faced with the ‘wider’ community. When the Spirit came at Pentecost it drove the embryonic church out in to THE community of those loved by God – I for one wish we had never gone back!! Let’s live the dream out there among our NEIGHBOURS loving them as we do ourselves.

Perhaps through ‘comments’ of your own we could continue this conversation this side of the pond!!

Many a slip twixt word and action

Since being involved in coordinating Hope for Belper, I have been much exercised by the more often than not polarising discussion between those who feel the need to emphasise the preaching of the gospel and those who think the emphasis lies more with living the gospel. Exercised, because I believe it is a comforting and almost ritual spat of little or no consequence, between parties in agreement who simply want to let the other know they are orthodox in their faith.

A long time ago I would have been found batting defensively for the word and then not so long ago I would have believed myself to have stood firmly in the activist’s camp, quoting St Francis of Assisi, ‘Preach the Gospel, using words if you have to!’ or saying ‘action speaks louder than words’.

It doesn’t really make things more clear if you go looking to see what the Bible has to say about the interaction between word and action. For example Genesis is full of ‘God said…and it was’ and then fast forward to the Gospels and we see the word become flesh (and why else but for some 'in the raw' action, up close and personal). Then, not much further along, we see word play and action intertwined with the healing of the man in Matthew 9; ‘Which is easier: to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up and walk'?’

For those of you still locked in this discussion (and I say discussion advisedly, rather than dialogue), I offer you my latest quote on this subject – Actions don’t speak louder than words, but they sure do amplify them!

Neuroeconomics and ‘the’ special relationship

‘Something tells me that within ten years, by 2010, the entire digital universe is going to seem like pretty mundane stuff compared to the new technology that right now is but a mere glow radiating from a tiny number of American and Cuban (yes, Cuban) hospitals and laboratories. It is called brain imaging and anyone who cares to get up early and catch a truly blinding twenty-first-century dawn will want to keep an eye on it...If I were a college student today, I don't think I could resist going into neuroscience. Here we have the two most fascinating riddles of the twenty-first century: the riddle of the human mind and the riddle of what happens to the human mind when it comes to know itself absolutely.’ —Tom Wolfe, Hooking Up (2000)

There is an area of research that makes use of brain imaging in an attempt to understand the mutual-reliance of economics and its neighbours psychology, sociology, anthropology – Neuroeconomics.

Within this field there is a ‘hunch’ that despite different types of decisions are made using multiple areas in the brain a common neural currency exists within the workings of the human mind that is at the heart of all decisions we make. Where the same data is available the individuals neuro-fingerprint enables a set of perceptions to develop which are shaped by beliefs and values. Further the research is showing that context within which decisions are arrived is key; for example a state of uncertainty or fear.

Herd behaviour appears to be fuelled by the fact that our brains are highly social and look for external input to aid the decision making process in relation to such extenuating contexts.

I wondered about this in relation to my faith and my relationships with those around me. The spirit as my common currency with others on the journey, but my individual ‘neuro-fingerprint’ (the collection of teaching, experience, values etc) giving me a unique take on the challenges for the christians in the Twenty First Century. I wondered about the ‘herd instinct’ of certain groups of Christians and their perception of a ‘special relationship’ with God, and how that ‘God’s on my side’ attitude can lead to an isolationist approach that doesn’t recognise input from ‘people of peace’ out there in the ‘real’ world.

I wonder whether the current context of uncertainty and fear will 'find out' the local church, or will we be being stoned with the migrant worker rather than standing by holding coats?

Will neuroeconomic theory be blown apart by the staggering capacity of faith to bring about the most unlikely transactions?

I do hope so!

Misappropriation or Misunderstanding?

I wonder why the idea of incarnational mission is seen as so ‘peripheral’ and even ’threatening’ by much of the ‘main-stream’ church?

I heard a news item this morning criticizing large relief charities for spending so much of their money on staff, administration and lobbying, rather than on frontline services such as food, water, clinics and so on. This opinion seemed to be based on the idea that as Mr Bloggs in the street drops a pound in the bucket, he assumes that his pound equates to a kilo of rice or the like.

As I considered this I wondered about the ‘local church’s’ charitable status. Is it reasonable to use the vast majority of its income on buildings and maintenance (which in turn are too often an inwardly facing resource) or even stadiums and mass evangelism, seen as a legitimate expense for the purposes of ‘outreach’?

In defence of the large charities, they odten find theselves with ‘an argument to win’ working hard to persuade national governments etc to put their hands increasingly deeply in to their pockets. They are also operating in a slick business savvy world and need a professional staff & administrative structure to stay alive.

The Church, on the other hand, has not been called to win an argument but simply, and in my view primarily by its actions rather than words, to live out Christ’s message of good news. In terms of relating to (or in some Christian’s minds, competing with) the highly polished world, with its consumerist expectations, we could learn a few lessons from the growing Amish communities in the US.

Salt and light are exactly that, and for as long as many within the church treat them as gentle seasoning and subtle up-lighting, we will continue to see the church marginalised with little or nothing to offer our post-modern, post-Christendom world.

Alternative.....me?

I have been told that I hold some unorthodox and alternative views about faith, and that I should get blogging.

It’s that ‘alternative’ word that bothers me; doesn’t it often mean untried, quirky and for many just simply barking! Nonetheless and despite my tendency to ramble and my self-proclaimed intellectualism that is unfortunately based on a failure to make the most out of my excellent educational opportunities (adequately demonstrated by the fact that until today I have always written ‘none the less’ as three separate words), not to mention my tendency to string too many thoughts together in one sentence to the extent that even I lose the thread!, I am setting off on the ‘Bloggers’ trail with so many of you other fine folk out there!

One of my favourite sayings is:

‘The man who has stopped changing his mind has probably stopped thinking!’

One encounter (quite some years ago now) helped me to see that developing a communal theology (and on to a vibrant and shared orthopraxy) is best achieved through dialogue rather than polarising pronouncements, from dug in positions.

It was when visiting the London Mennonite’s I first experienced the practice of hands being raised when someone’s voice was not being heard, and the even more alien (to me anyway) habit of engaging the preacher in mid-flow with questions or contributions. This very collective approach made me question the preacher / congregation model I was used to. Being a born contributor I liked it, but I also made a quick mental note never to accept a speaking engagement at the Mennonite Centre.

So it is, that I have to put this rider on the continuance of this blog; I expect to be able to change my mind as often as is pragmatically required in response to the hopefully insightful comments from you my fellow bloggers – nay, companions on the journey!

Obamarama

Later today 'a simple man' with all his strengths and weaknesses, hopes and fears, will become arguably the most influential leader on the planet.

Millions of eyes will be on him and millions of ears will be listening to him; he will for those few moments whether he likes it or not, acknowledge and in some unexplainable way carry the expectations of 'his' people. Atlas-like, he will stand looking invicible, with the world on his shoulders.

Someone said, 'to become the President of the United States of America is like drinking from a firehose' - so how will Barak Obama avoid being washed away?

Perhaps, if enough other simple men and women around him, and out there in the states, counties, cities and towns ask not 'who is in charge?', but 'how shall we live?', then Mr Obama will end up presiding over the most exciting period of US history.