Day: 12 August 2015

How do we find the modern-day parable? (Andy Wain)

Andy WainAndy Wain asks how we find the modern-day parable.

The Sawi tribe of Western New Guinea, Indonesia, revered treachery, thus making Judas Iscariot their hero. Canadian missionary Don Richardson and his wife Carol found this a great obstacle in helping the Sawi relate to Jesus and the Gospel.

The breakthrough came from within the Sawi culture itself. A Sawi father when making peace with an enemy father entrusts one of his children to them – a 'peace child'. The Richardsons used this idea of 'peace child' to explain how Jesus is God's gift of reconciliation to the Sawi with great success as 70% of them now profess faith in Jesus.

This account is from Richardson's book, Peace Child. In this and other works Richardson shares his conviction that all cultures have something in them that can be drawn on when communicating the gospel: a redemptive analogy.

This raises an interesting question: 'What analogies are present in the culture of those we are engaging that might help their understanding of Jesus and grow in their Christian faith?' Examples of this might include a football fan's lifelong dedication to their team through thick and thin being used to illustrate Christ's commitment to us. Those keen on cooking will appreciate the need to balance flavours, an analogy for a balanced lifestyle of spiritual growth, work and family, and so on.

However, looking for these openings in our different contexts can be challenging and so it can be helpful to create analogies…

What analogies are present in the culture of those we are engaging that might help their understanding of Jesus and grow in their Christian faith?

In Liverpool, we are exploring how sailing can be used to engage young people – both churched and non-churched – with the intention of instilling general life skills and spiritual discipleship. As each one comes off the water they have stories they want to tell of what happened and these stories then become the analogy for discipleship.

Take capsizing as an example; this is not considered a failure, rather an inevitable part of sailing – an opportunity to learn from the mistake, get back in the boat and set sail again. This can lead to discussions about how the young people respond when things go wrong in their lives, what they do well, how they might make better choices and what role Jesus can play in that.

Another example is explaining how knots can help us understand prayer; just as there are different types of knots for different circumstances, so there are different ways of praying for different situations. This creates experiences in the lives of the young people which can be used as analogies for discipleship.

Let's be creative; follow in the footsteps of Jesus and his use of parables to help people grow in understanding and faith.

Mainstreaming pioneer ministry (Richard Sudworth)

Richard SudworthRichard Sudworth discusses mainstreaming pioneer ministry.

A recent series of blog posts by Kester Brewin (Has What Emerged Retreated?) wonders whether the radical church engagements with contemporary British culture in the 1980s and 1990s are now being institutionalised. For Kester, pioneer ordination may be a contradiction in terms for those Christians leading a creative revival.

Kester's point is well made but is in danger of making institution per se the bugbear. With all its faults, frustrations, bureaucracies and sheer awkwardness of diversity, church simply has to offer a deep connectivity between the old and the new, the creative and the inherited. Pioneers cannot afford to 'go it alone' without defeating the essence of what church is. Inherited patterns of church cannot afford to ignore the vast gulf between the worshipping community and society without failing the vocation of the church.

My contention, though, is that a far more radical reappraisal of pioneer ministry is required. Jonny Baker has reflected on the approach to training that CMS are offering through their own pioneer stream. Jonny observes that many institutions are providing a pioneer package that is essentially 'priest-plus': the existing ordination route with an added 'mission' extra. The CMS pattern, by contrast, is learning 'on-the-job'. My own experience, too, has been, as with many other pioneers, a 'mixed mode' package of ministry and reflection. Yet, even here, the question repeatedly arises of: 'What extra do we need to give you that supports your pioneer track?'

The truly innovative step would be to offer training that is wholly related to the context of mission. A retired colleague in the world of Christian-Muslim relations attempted to re-order the syllabus for an Anglican theological college some 20 years ago. His ambition was to ensure that whenever students were taught doctrine, church history, liturgy, homiletics, hermeneutics et al, ordinands were asked: 'Now what does this mean for the church as it engages Islam?'

Pioneer ordination is neither institutional enough, nor radical enough

Naturally, this failed ambition was a consequence of his desire to raise the profile of Christian-Muslim relations. We could equally replace Christian-Muslim relations with 'youth' or 'young professionals' or 'sink-estate families'. The proposal reveals a profounder principle of the relational and missional nature of the Christian faith, though. Surely, all ordinands need to learn in a cycle of action-reflection, without compromising the benefits for some of concentrated academic study. Surely, all ordinands need to root their appreciation of church history, for example, in the contemporary relevance of what is to be retrieved from the past. How can the standard offerings of ordination training not be related to missional contexts?

Pioneer ordination is a wonderfully permission-giving step forward for the Church of England. Paradoxically, I would like to assert that it is neither institutional enough, nor radical enough. The motifs of diversity in unity that should characterise the church mean for me that CMS's exciting proposal is as second-best as the current pioneer track offered by dioceses.

The best, surely, is a situation where there is a root-and-branch reappraisal of all ordination training practices. I cannot think of any contemporary church context that does not demand a 'missionary theology', and I would suggest that it is a missionary theology that serves the story of which we are a part. That missionary theology will also be attentive to those parts of the body that will struggle with change and even be dying.

The laudable but incomplete enterprise of pioneer ordination seems to suggest that there is a 'core' learning required for church ministry with 'added extras' for those entrepreneurial specialists. The answer is not to argue for pioneers to be unsullied by the contamination of the institution but to reframe the entirety of the institution around the demands of contemporary mission.

Offer a fresh expression approach to online ministry (Pam Smith)

Pam SmithPam Smith offers a fresh expression approach to online ministry.

When I was on a training course recently, several people asked me about creating an online presence for their churches. There are many static websites out there, but churches are now looking at ways of using the internet more interactively as part of their outreach strategy.

Interactive church websites offer a fantastic opportunity to extend fellowship and discipleship opportunities into digital space. It seems odd, though, to focus our online outreach on bringing people to the virtual equivalent of a church building. Anyone who is considering an online evangelism strategy should consider following the fresh expressions methodology of taking church to where people are.

How Christians behave online is even less talked about than what we do at work, but in fact Christians are as active as their non-Christian peers in social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, special interest forums, gaming sites and blogs. The potential for missional activity is huge as we are already in contact with non-Christians online.

The internet has been likened to a fast flowing river. It changes so rapidly that it's hard to grasp what's going on by looking at it from a distance, but jumping in can look risky. Rather than treating 'the internet' as a place and the people who work 'on the internet' as experts to be copied, we need to identify the principles involved in online ministry and encourage people to apply them to their own particular online environment. In fact, we need to apply a fresh expressions methodology.

We need to apply a fresh expressions methodology to online ministry

It is arguable that online ministries offer a perfect environment to see what happens when a fresh expression develops into a contextual maturity away from the pressure to become more recognisably 'church' that many maturing fresh expressions may feel.

Online ministry offers a huge potential for outreach and mission. There is vibrant growth and potential but there is little understanding of the field outside those who are already involved. We need to pay attention to the significance of online relationships in people's lives and how we might connect with them as part of the bigger missional picture, rather than writing online ministry off as 'not proper church'.

Do people ask the ‘big questions’ any more? (Andy Campbell)

Andy CampbellAndy Campbell wonders whether people ask the 'big questions' any more.

St Luke's in the High Street, Walthamstow, runs a community stall at the weekly Farmers' Market where we offer drinks, cakes and conversation to passers-by.

We keep simple records of the conversations we have along the way – conversations which range from the weather to advanced ecclesiology. Specifically, we wanted to record those conversations that touch upon the so-called 'Big Six' (as identified in the book Evangelism in a Spiritual Age: communicating faith in a changing culture).

The Big Six are loosely held under the following headings: Destiny, Purpose, the Universe, God, the Spiritual Realm and Suffering.

I have no doubt that for many people these are important questions that require answers, but our experience appears to paint a different picture. Relatively few people ask us to provide answers to one of the 'big questions'; instead, we have regular conversations with people about general issues of spirituality, relationships, prayer and politics. The people we meet, it seems, are less concerned with intellectual answers to the great issues of life – 'why' they should believe in and follow a God of any kind – and are more interested in 'how' a life lived following the Christian (or any) God may be led in a meaningful way.

Over two-thirds of those we meet with would be classed as de-churched or non-/un-churched. We meet some who describe themselves as atheists, but the majority are those who are not particularly pro- or anti-God. They are usually open to the idea of a higher being and frequently very supportive of us and our work. According to the research behind the Big Six, they are the very people who should be asking us those questions – and yet, so far, this has not been the case…

I find myself wondering which of the following possibilities is more likely:

The people we meet are less concerned with intellectual answers to the great issues of life

  1. the Big Six are wrong – these are no longer the questions people outside the church are principally interested in;

  2. we are having the wrong conversations – perhaps we are still gaining peoples' trust, or they want to explore more general issues and come onto specifics in time;

  3. we are speaking to the wrong people – those who we speak to are somehow not representative of the wider population.

My gut instinct says that most of the deeper conversations we have are about the issues that genuinely concern or interest people. I can recall talking to people for whom intellectual evidence for God, while not a waste of time, is certainly secondary to discussions about the impact of choosing to adopt a religious worldview. I am yet to meet someone who is offended by the beliefs that I own and express, even when they themselves cannot subscribe to the same.

What is your experience of talking to people in a missionary context? Are you compelled to brush up on sound theological answers to the Big Six?

Are there other questions that you find yourself revisiting time and again?

Should we abandon or revise the assumptions that we continue to make about 'where people are' with God?

View from a Liverpool lifeboat (Keith Hitchman)

Keith HitchmanKeith Hitchman surveys the view from a Liverpool lifeboat.

Liverpool is a city with a long Christian history and a healthy distrust of institutionalism – religious and otherwise. This makes it, in every sense, a challenging place to pioneer new forms of church.

But as newly-appointed Pioneer Minister for the River in the City initiative, based in Liverpool city centre, I consider it a great privilege to be called by God to serve here at this time in the city's history.

Liverpool was a shipbuilding city for over 200 years. J Bruce Ismay, whose White Star Line company built the ill-fated Titanic cruise liner in Belfast Lough, came originally from Liverpool, as did many of the Titanic's crew, making the sinking of the great ship one of many tragedies suffered by the people and city over the years. Interestingly, Liverpool was also well known as a place where lifeboats were built, most notably the 'Liverpool Class Lifeboat', now a museum piece.

It is no accident that here in the Diocese of Liverpool we have adopted the imagery of 'Lake and River' to help us understand and communicate the relationship between inherited and emergent forms of church.

Lakes tend to form in settled places, where they become an oasis to the life around them. In the same way, our parish churches offer an oasis and source of life to the community around. Rivers are often still connected to lakes but are free to flow wherever the ground gives way into many more and different places. Very often new forms of church flow beyond the neighbourhood and into various networks, from workplaces to schools and hobby-based groups.

According to the 'Lake and River' approach to being church, someone could be part of their local parish church as well as network-based expression. In this way then, rivers flow in and out of lakes, enabling a mutual interflow of resources between the two.

The church of today needs to abandon the 'cruise liner' and take to the sea of our society in 'lifeboats'

At River in the City our aim is to plant and build a cell-based missional community, focused primarily on the workplace setting, in and around Liverpool city centre. The model for this initiative has been the Riverforce initiative in Merseyside Police.

Our intention is to facilitate a small community network of followers, seekers and enquirers in being and expressing 'church' within the four employment sectors of city centre Liverpool: retail, commerce, leisure and service. This would also include the increasing number of people choosing to live in the city centre. To this end we are seeking to work prayerfully and in active partnership with Christians and churches of all flavours and streams across the city.

A few years back I heard a sermon by Mark Stibbe in which he said that the church of today needed to abandon the 'cruise liner' and take to the sea of our society in 'lifeboats'. As a result I was jolted out of my comfort zone to where I am today, to Liverpool and to 'lifeboat church' of River in the City, reaching out with the love of God to those who are struggling to stay afloat in the turbulent waters of 21st century life.

Biblical community is choice not affinity (John Scheepers)

John ScheepersJohn Scheepers states that biblical community is more about choice than affinity.

Two months after the 'official launch' of VOX City Church in Cape Town, and just a few weeks into the start of the Woodstock Missional Community, which I run, I have come to realise a basic mindset shift which most people fail to make concerning biblical community:

Biblical community is more about choice than affinity.

What do I mean?

Most of our relationships are based around affinity. We share common interests, similar personality, background, economic level or personality. Not so with true biblical community.

Biblical community is more like family – we are unable to choose our brothers and sisters. As a result our Christian community may look rather different in terms of affinity, background or personality than that which we would naturally choose.

Where most community breaks down in churches is that we maintain a 'small group' superficiality with those who differ, whilst functionally pursuing relational depth with those like us.

Hence my point: biblical community is more choice than affinity.

We have to choose to 'hang out with', 'share life together with' and 'engage in mission with'. Our mindset must be: yes there are many people out there with whom I enjoy relationship or connect with, but I choose to commit myself to this local group of believers. Sometimes even at the expense of my natural affinity group. There must be an intentionality about our choice of community that overrides our personal preference.

There must be an intentionality about our choice of community that overrides our personal preference

This 'choice over affinity' community is counter-cultural and challenging to the average unbeliever. Why should you choose to hang out with and share life with people with whom you do not share a natural affinity? Why would you choose to share life with a group of people with whom it is more difficult or even awkward to get on with?

The answer must be the gospel. It is in the gospel that we see Jesus spending time with, loving, serving and ultimately dying for those who are 'other' than himself. Not only are we given the example of Jesus to follow, but in believing the gospel we are set free to lay down our rights, preferences and affinities in order to serve others.

Through the gospel, God is busy creating a new community where love of God and neighbour win out over personal comfort and preferences – a community where diversity is not merely conceptually embraced but actually experienced in the daily life of the gospel community. It is a community where black and white, rich and poor, male and female, educated and uneducated are called to walk together in the common life of the gospel. This will not happen simply through natural affinity; the gospel frees us to make the kinds of choices which both run counter to our culture and which ultimately begin to change our natural affections.

Anything less than this simply fails to be biblical community.

Start by having no answers (Laura McAdam)

Laura McAdamLaura McAdam starts by having no answers.

The vision of Nightchurch is to seek to become an inclusive community with Christ at the centre, learn how to be generous with hospitality, creative in spirituality and passionate about justice.

We have a team who meet at Exeter Cathedral on Friday nights for an open space, free café, various spiritual expressions – from a conversation group to meditation, prayers for healing and the occasional time of communal worship. People also meet fortnightly in a pub for a discussion group – the only rule being that there are 'no Sunday School answers'. So Nightchurch is really a family of expressions. The one in the pub with a small group of people is one thing, but to fulfil our vision in a cathedral on a weekly basis? Madness. 

Here are our challenges:

  • Create something which balances building community with being outward looking;

  • Having a team made up of evangelicals, pagans, unchurched, dechurched, traditionalists, different sexual orientations, charismatics, humanitarians, cynics, disillusioned, counsellors, business people, homeless, students, liberals, secular-zenbuddhist-protestant-catholic-orthodox-nature-mystics, and those who don't like to be pigeon-holed;

  • Dealing with several different agendas within the team, from why they are there to what they think Nightchurch should look like and do.

The danger of a new expression of church is that it becomes a bridge from the outside world to 'proper church' rather than a spiritual home in itself.  It's very interesting to spend time in a cathedral working out what the essential elements of 'church' are, and watching how different cultures, experiences and needs shape the interpretations and agendas of all those involved. And then comes the challenge of taking these elements and weaving them naturally into the weekly experience whilst avoiding 'cool' alternative worship gimmicks.

When do people stop being consumers and become partners in our journey?

We want to be outward looking, embracing and inclusive. So do we dilute elements of what we do to cater for all levels of understanding and belief? When do people stop being consumers and become partners in our journey?

Lessons learned along the way include:

  • Spirituality can be interpreted in many different ways;

  • If you leave things to be too 'organic', you're allowing those with the loudest voices shape the whole thing;

  • Get clear why everyone's involved from the start;

  • Be prepared for things that should work to not work in the slightest;

  • Give up on trying to make one size fit all – that's not what 'inclusive' means in this context;

  • Don't become 'church but on a different day with the lights off';

  • Stock up on biscuits.

The most exciting thing about Nightchurch – and fresh expressions – is the number of questions it poses, and how unsettled it makes you feel. It gives you permission to ask all the questions you never thought you'd get away with, and to embrace the old with the new. It's a very uncomfortable way of doing church; it's frontline stuff. It actively engages with the issues the world is tackling, real people and real problems that get up in your face and ruin your carefully made plans. And not once have we talked about what style of music we play.

Working with the homeless and impoverished to find God (Cathy Stone)

Cathy StoneCathy Stone discusses working with the homeless and impoverished to find God.

As human beings and even as Christians, many of us have a tendency to fall 'in love' with our material stuff. One only has to pick up the Anglican edition of the Canadian Church Calendar for 2010 to view beautiful seasonal photographs of church buildings across Canada. The front of the calendar itself quotes Genesis 28.17: 'The house of God… the gate of heaven.'

Don't get me wrong. I can appreciate beautiful architecture and churches as much as the next person. But is the 'house of God' a building? Can God be kept in a box? We who encourage fresh expressions of church don't think so.

We know that Jesus attended synagogue, but we also read that the majority of his work was done outside the synagogue. He walked amongst the people: Jew and Gentile, men and women. He often kept company with those who the Pharisees considered 'sinful' people, prostitutes and tax collectors.

It was Jesus who said: 'Why worry about a speck in your friend's eye when you have a log in your own?… Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend's eye.'

For myself, nothing in my life has been more humbling and gratifying than working with homeless and impoverished women at the Cameron House shelter in Peterborough, Ontario. We meet weekly to talk about God, life recovery skills, individual problems and hope. We study the Life Recovery Bible and work on a 12 step programme for victims of abuse and addictions. We pray. We pray because prayer brings us closer to God and can teach us perseverance.

Remember the hymn: 'They will know we are Christians by our love' – it doesn't say they will know we are Christians by our buildings

Many of the adult women in the group have suffered at the hands of dysfunctional, even abusive, parents and life partners who often gave them 'stones' and 'snakes'. As a group we are encouraged to rethink our negative concept of God, to one as a father who gives good gifts to his children. For these women who have been hurt so badly by life circumstance it is a revelation to discover there is a God who truly loves them. They did not find this God in a church building. They find him in the people who through God can offer them unconditional love.

They discover him in Scripture and prayer and discussion in a 'safe' place with people who love them unconditionally. Remember the hymn: 'They will know we are Christians by our love.' It doesn't say they will know we are Christians by our buildings. Finally, God did not say: 'Go and build a church and worship me!' God said: 'Go and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit…'

In our woman's group we have baptised three women, had one apartment blessing, and every Sunday we offer transport to anyone who would like to attend a service. Will this type of fresh expression see the church into the future? I don't know. All I know is that it is reflective of the work of Christ and he is our teacher, mentor and friend.

Becoming missional (Gavin Tyte)

Gavin TyteGavin Tyte explores becoming missional.

For those of us immersed in fresh expressions of church and trained in missional thinking, it can be easy to forget the paradigm shift required by the average member of a standard parish church.

When you say 'mission' it is often understood to mean 'a mission', as in an event at which the church hands out tracts, knocks on doors and gets in a guest speaker. For those a little further down the missional road, if you mention a fresh expression of church, it can be viewed simply as 'alternative worship' – be it messy church, sacred space or snazzy youth praise.

However, I believe that if the Church of England is going to survive and if God has a plan to reach everyone in our communities, then the local parish church is going to have to become missional. It will need to stop its focus on connecting the unchurched to worship services (however relevant they are) and start providing opportunities for the unchurched to join in with the church in the ongoing mission of God.

Every parochial context is different; there is no blueprint, but there are three things we are implementing in our parish church:

Preach the mission

The preaching and communication of the church needs to hold a steady course and be consistent in every area – whether Sunday services, website, weekly newsletter, meetings or conversation.

Make the move from groups to teams

If the Church of England is going to survive and if God has a plan to reach everyone in our communities, then the local parish church is going to have to become missional

Look at the existing groups in the church, such as Mothers' Union, and re-brand them as teams – each with a missional purpose. Start providing training for the team leaders in how to invite people to join in with the mission of God in the world. I want each of these teams to be able to invite people to 'join in' with what God is doing and come to know Jesus. Some of these teams may well grow into fresh expressions of church.

Grow leaders of congregations instead of leaders of services

In many parishes, there is a great emphasis on church services. However, if we are to reach our communities then we are going to need to equip, empower and release people to lead new communities of faith. Rather than planting churches that are clones of the parent, we need to seed new congregations.

At the moment I can identify four separate congregations meeting under the banner of Uplyme Church – each holding gatherings at different times. It is my hope that we grow and develop a leader for each of these congregations; not just to deliver services, but to nurture, teach and develop each congregation as a missional community.

What are the distinctive marks of leadership in fresh expressions? (Sara Savage)

Sara SavageSara Savage asks what the distinctive marks of leadership in fresh expression are.

Visualise a painting by Pablo Picasso showing a subject viewed simultaneously from multiple perspectives.

Leaders in fresh expressions need to be 'Picassos' – able to perceive multiple perspectives on the issue at hand, and draw them together into a picture that makes sense. This doesn't mean leaders will be abandoning their own standpoint, aiming for some muddy middle ground. Leaders need to have their roots down into their own perspective, and their own spiritual tradition. They need to be secure in their own Christian roots. Yet, at the same time, they need to perceive the validity of the viewpoint of the other, who, in all probability, is a newcomer to all things Christian, or is perhaps a returner coming with baggage from previous, perhaps unhealed, church experience.

A good leader will be curious to find out how other people perceive what is going on in the fresh expression. If the leader connects with the way other people perceive and make sense of the world, communication becomes authentic, and two-way.

The psychologist Peter Suedfeld calls this capacity for perceiving multiple perspectives, and integrating them into an overarching framework, Integrative Complexity (IC for short). When people raise their level of IC, new beginnings become possible. Research shows that peaceful solutions to conflicts ensue. New understandings arise.

It's easier to have all the right answers, but it's better to pose the right questions, and then provide the scaffolding and the resources for the journey

In the early church, theologians wrestling with the human and divine natures of Christ needed high IC to be able to make sense of their experience of the risen Jesus while maintaining their commitment to Jewish monotheism. Leaders in fresh expressions also have to be able to weave together diverse, even opposing viewpoints, but without succumbing to a lazy compromise that loses the riches of the Christian revelation. 

Our globalised situation is one of conflicting perspectives, and people are suspicious of anyone claiming a monopoly on the truth. Leaders have the very challenging task of weaving together the Christian narrative into the real life narratives of people. To do this in a way that is not prefabricated, but involves a genuine conversation, is the art of listening. Hard to do. It's easier to have all the right answers. But it's better to pose the right questions, and then provide the scaffolding and the resources for the journey.