One for the road...

Viva Lost Vegas: a tale of spiritual searching and US evengelicals

Johnny Vegas, is a English comedian and self confessed celebrator of sin. At one time though he thought of becoming a catholic priest and on a TV documentary for Channel 4: Johnny Vegas's guide to evangelical christianity he went on a spiritual quest to see if US evangelism could help him rediscover his faith.

Now my expectation of this show was 'car crash' telly - you know line up a few right wing nutter christians to be made mince meat for easy laughs but this was a much more personal and serious show. Maybe that's cos i'm so used to reading blogs of my american friends in the emerging church who are usuaully coming from a post-evangelical and post-megachurch perspective so my lens of US evangelicalism has been coloured to expect some kind of super smiley, super spiritual super-church junkies.

What was impressive was the everyday ordinary side of US evangelicals - yes there was the guy who believed in a literal 6 day creation but he was friendly not fanatical - so much so that Johnny observed that teaching literal creation in schools would lead to a few confused kids rather than throwbacks from the 50's (18 or 19? you call)...

There was the mega church evangelical pastor who told Johnny that church was not a place for the good but a place for the sinners and struggling and that he and most of his church were struggling together - it was a beauiful moment in the film for Johnny who had clearly not been expecting such grace and acceptance towards his own self confessed sinful lifestyle. The generousity of the pastor continued as finding out about Johnny's catholic roots he recommended him a couple of catholic authors including Henri Nouwen to encourage him to see his own tradition/roots as spirtually alive.

Finally there was the ordinary family - who drank beer with Johnny and talked with him openly about their faith, in a way that was honestly refreshing. The best scene when he was interviewing an engaged couple about why they weren't having sex and the guy was busy telling him how hard it was not too but he was respecting the humanity of his fiance - Johnny turned to her and said it's easier for women as they can knit or something with their two hands - which made everyone laugh...

Johnny was clearly touched in the filming but his conclusion was that these evangelicals had not made him envious enough of their life to change straight away but they had awakened his spirtual hunger and set him off on a longer journey...

For me, with my own evangelical heritage, it was a moment of being thankful for the so many ordinary people trying to be faithful to what they know who shaped and formed my own christian faith and a reappreciation of evangelics in general...

Is there more to life than this..?

HT to Kamsin

Which story? The battle for hearts and minds...

Today let us pause and remember the stories of the deaths and lives of those who died on 9/11...

It's also a day to remind ourselves how the world has changed: we have seen terrorism spread, fear increase, military action in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, communities divided and transport chaos.

In the UK the Government has admitted it's reponse after the 7 July bombings in 2o05 was a knee jerk reaction which served to divide relationships and increase hostility in the muslim communities, so much so that in survey last year the Times reported that in a survey:

"..almost a quarter of Britain’s 2m Muslims still do not believe that the 7/7 attacks were carried out by the four named suicide bombers, even though two of them left video-taped testimonies.

More than half of those polled also felt the security services had made up evidence to convict terror suspects. A survey in July 2006 found that 13% of Muslims in Britain viewed the 7/7 bombers as heroic and 16% said that while the attacks were wrong, their cause was right."

The Times goes on in that article to reveal that the government has dropped the language of a "war on terror" to talk about the "battle for hearts and minds" - in other words giving muslims an alternative story that will counter radicalism and terrorism. It has been likened to the cold war propaganda battle where our western free market systems of economic and polical belief were promoted as the best way of life and programmes like Dynasty pirated off western european satalite feeds played a signficant part in promoting discontent in the eastern bloc.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has already observed that it must be about more than just promoting the 'British way of life" or military force to surpress opposition but also about economic aid to countries like Afghanistan - a Marshall plan for Islamic states, if you like to help these countries find stability, prosperity and to share in the western dream/story of individual rights, health and wealth. It is a powerful recognition that we in the West who have been given so much are also expected to use what we have to help others and it makes sense to give good economic and social aid as part of this battle.

I wonder however about our own christian response - some would say that christians have been engaged in such a battle of hearts and minds, that seeing the world our way is the way to communities of peace, hope, plenty? We have tried violence as a means of winning people and found that it just provokes violence, so in the age of western enlightenment we have resorted to reason and arguement - verbal violence if you like. And now are we in danger of smothering it in apathy, why bother, what is the point? Have we abandoned global and local for individual and private system of belief - it's between me and God and for no one else to judge??

Have we created a system of optional belief which accomodates our other systems of belief rather than a community of faith, hope and love that is about radical reconciliaiton, transformation and peaceful revolution of hearts and minds, people and places, lives and the life support system that is this planet?

Have we as christians having won the battle of our heads now got to win a battle of our hearts - that this stuff that we know makes a difference to the way that we live? Here we are tangled up in 2 big stories, we acknowledge God's story whilst getting on with living in the real world - so much so that we can often feel for an issue of injustice or be moved by a disaster, but not do anything about it. Unless of course the injustice or disaster befalls us where it becomes one of intense unfairness, leading us to quesstion and in many cases abandon our belief system in God.

It seems to me that we as christians need to act and think globally but also we need to think and act locally as well - the think global and act local and to think local and act global. The UK government are clear that there battle of hearts and minds must be won internationally but also in local communities, one person at a time - this of course sounds funnily enough like what churches have been doing for centuries. However is involvement in our communities enough? Is serving enough? What is the difference between the christian and any one else wanting to do something good for their locality - whether it's a commujnity worker promoting social cohesion, a concerned group of parents trying to do something about gang culture or some people who want to protect the local environment and heritage?

Is it that as Christians we also share an invitiation to join a story we are part of that we know changes and continues to challenge and change our own hearts and minds? The Holy Spirit speaking through our thoughts, our words, our actions to reveal what Brian McLaren calls as Jesus invitation to a better way:

"it's better give then receive, he said, better to forgive and understand then to condem and judge, better to give and trust than to hoard and control, better to suffer violence than to inflict violence, better to serve than be served, better to seek and rescue what is lost or threatened than to pride oneself as being safe, and secure, and superior, better to save than to condemn...better to love than anything else."

What practical, global and local things are you and I doing to tell this story?

tales of humanity and inhumanity...

I wrote this post for Jason Clark's site today, exploring themes of man's inhumanity to man and how it took God, in the incarnate Jesus and the ongoing mission of the Spirit, to show us and call/lead/transform us back to what full humanity looks/feels/tastes like... 

I was particularly interested in whether mission is about that process of reconnecting our humanity - applauding those thoughts/words/deeds that are in the spirit of the humanity of Jesus and confronting/challenging/confessing those that reflect our own selfish inhumanity.

To turn on the news is to hear often of man's inhumanity to man, on the macro scale we see wars, corruption, violence, exploitation, systems of oppression and power that work for the few and crush the many.

But closer to home I am so often struck by how in my own life i determine against my own humanity, often taking cheaper, easier, self fulfilling ways forward - how often i refuse to compromise my rights to live my life the way i want even though that so often cheapens me and those around me who become objects of gratification, means to an end, security measures, props to my fragile ego etc...

Where ever kindness, goodness, generousity, grace, compassion, love,  mercy, justice, commitment, selflessness, hope and/or peace flourish in our lives, our commuties and our world, I want to bless that and be part of that because i think that is not only intrinsically an echo of God but also an invitaito, a door way if you like, to allow the Spirit to lead us towards Jesus and connect us deeper with the source of true humanity and life...

God's domination-free order - exploring our own ongoing liberation

"In his Beatitudes, in his extraordinary concern for the outcasts and the marginalised, in his wholly unconventional treatment of women, in his love of children, in his rejection of the belief that high ranking men are the favourites of God, in his subversive proclamation of a new order in which domination will give way to compassion and communion, Jesus brought to fruitition the prophetic longing for the 'kingdom of God' - an expression we might paraphrase as "God's domination-free order."

Whilst we might dream of a domination free order we seem to be living in a domination full world.  A world full of systems and structures, powers and people who oppress us, who push us down, who seek to control. 

Sometimes we are aware of these when our own space and self is under threat...

sometimes we're the pushers, when we want something, when it's our will/want that we are out to get or just someone to take the fall/blame  for us. 

Sometimes we are unaware,  just part of the system, to quote the definition of the Matrix, the system/culture is "the world pulled over [y]our eyes to blind us from the truth..." so for instance economic systems where what we consume comes at the expense of someone else's sufferings/exploitation [third world workers, the environment], or where it is the taken as the norm, like slavery 200 yrs ago, blacks not having less rights in the southern states of America.

"Some of them want to use you, some of them want to be used by you..."

So sang the Eurythmics and I am sure we all have our own experiences with living in/with domination. 

For me personally I grew up with one dominating parent and one passive one, that effected me in many ways not least in taking a decision not that i would not be passive.  To fight domination I refused to be dominated by anyone, ever! 

That decision was to impact me in many ways,  I could never lose an argument, which meant I never listened.  I was always right so I was never very teachable.  I also needed to be in control and there is nothing more likely to end up in abuse as a husband like me who took being obeyed very literally indeed and didn't bother too much about the servanthood of a sacrificing love that also goes along with that part of the bible.

It also impacted on my sexuality and the desire to dominate and be in control led me via the wonderful world of the net to discover BDSM and decide that a sexuality based on the giving of submission and the exercise of domination was how i was created to be.  I've talked about my experiences more here and here and how i came not only recognise not only that my desire to dominate was born out of my fears but also how God helped me changed and is helping me change so that my character has become more about giving and less about getting, more about me growing in self awareness and surrendering/giving up/laying down my rights - including my right to be right.

Dream with God and me of a domination free world

I want to do a couple of posts looking at the idea put forward by Walter Wink [who I quoted to begin with] of a domination free order - what would that look like, feel like - particularly with some of the issues that seem to be just the way things are as christians in the way that slavery was a couple of hundred yrs ago [and indeed this is still a live issue even today].  Before  I do, i'd like to hear your thoughts:

• what you feel when you read the quote and think of a domination free order being a way of expressing the kingdom of God?
• your own experiences of systems/structures/circumstances of domination whether conscious of them or not at the time?
• you own experiences of liberation/grace/freedom from these?
• your own thoughts as to where there are such domination systems today in our thought/world view/culture/experience
• anything else that you've thought/felt/inspired to share...

Exploring the marks of deep church..

Is deep church I wonder, the way of cultivating an understanding that I expressed in my post on the kingdom of God being bigger than church? In other words if we accept that our individual churches are part of the kingdom but not the sum of the kingdom then maybe there is a healthier and less parochial way of participating together as christians in the kingdom of God?

What is deep church?

The term was first coined by C S Lewis who on Feb 8th 1952 wrote a letter to The Church Times standing-up for the supernatural basis of the Gospel which he felt strongly was being undermined by modernism:

‘To a layman,’ he said, ‘it seems obvious that what unites the Evangelical and the Anglo Catholic against the “Liberal” or “Modernist” is something very clear and momentous, namely, the fact that both are thoroughgoing supernaturalists, who believe in the Creation, the Fall, the Incarnation, the Resurrection, the Second Coming, and the … Last Things.  This unites them not only with one another but also with the Christian religion as understood ubique et ab omnibus. 

The point of view from which this agreement seems less important than their divisions … is to me unintelligible.  Perhaps the trouble is that as supernaturalists, whether “Low” or “High” Church, thus taken together they lack a name. May I suggest “Deep Church”, or if that fails in humility, Baxter’s “mere Christians”’.  (C.S. Lewis, Church Times 1952)

In other words christians have more in common than actually divides them - whether you want to call this mere christianity, a generous orthodoxy or deep church or something else it would seem that deep church represents a way that is above either judging the kingdom of God on one church or making our church/denomination the litmus paper of the kingdom.  Christians might differ in practice and emphasis but the vast majority hold to a common orthodoxy/practice/experience of the core tenants of what the christian faith is in/about.

As Professor Andrew Walker said:

"Deep Church, while it is open to ecumenical insight and ‘cross-over’ doctrines, is not about syncretism or absorbing the next fad in the endless search for liturgical novelty.  It is about the marriage between the ‘new thing’ God is always doing in our lives, and the ‘old things’ – the historic givens of the Faith - that he has already done which includes the means of Grace that he has provided for our spiritual nourishment. Deep Church, then, is not just about something old for something new (or the other way round). It is about anamnesia and re-imagining. It is about catholicity and a holy separation. It is about a re-collected history and writing a new chapter in the annals of faith.

The establishment of Deep Church is not merely overdue, it is a missiological imperative for we are entering a time of great testing in the western world: the Enlightenment era, which in so many ways has served humankind so well, has drawn to a close and with it the optimism of a glorious future has faded away.  We are now past the twilight of modernity but not yet in the dawn of a new age: in this transitional stage we are caught in an age of uncertainty poised between the forces of apocalypse and congenital boredom. "

Deep does not mean the same...

I am not advocating a homogeneous church,  as i expressed in my last post i think different forms and styles of church are a positive thing - it would be arrogant of me to assume that everyone needs to attend a church like mine and i need to realise that it will take lots of different churches with lots of different styles to reach and connect with lots of different people.

In one sense it is a question of space - the places that churches inhabit could be vast public gatherings or small house churches.  For some people it would be a nightmare going to church in someones front room but for other people it would feel natural.  For some people it would be a mare being in church in a big crowd but for some people it would feel natural.  I think i need to get beyond space/style and look at something more than that which is values...

Values or marks of deep church...

What do you think the marks or values of a deep church should be?  You might think i've pulled one step ahead of myself and should first ask the Q what is a church?  I've deliberately not gone there because i think the two are linked - i think deep church can be in any space, public, private, intimate and in any denomination, structure, leadership etc.  It can be with a crowd of hundreds or just within a handful.

Professor Walker  suggests that:

"one of the distinguishing marks of Deep Church is that as adopted brothers and sisters of the incarnate Son of God what holds true for Him is intended to be normative for us: if you want to be my disciples, says Jesus to the apostolic band, ‘take up your cross’.  This is a clear directive for us, especially in the present uncertainty, that there can be no resurrection without crucifixion, no legitimate charism of power, certainly no exousia, without exposing our vulnerability to the cruelties and exigencies of a fallen world and the evil of principalities and powers. And there can be no long-term renewal or spiritual awakening of the Church without sharing the deep wounds of the crucified Christ so that through them we too share in the pain of the world.  A  theologia glorie without a theologia crucis, Tom Smail has reminded us often enough, is a cock-eyed gospel and while it will always have  popular appeal, it has no place in the soteriology of Deep Church."

To start the ball rolling here are some of the things i think should be values/marks:

• generous orthodoxy - we are on the same side, in the same kingdom, following the same king - what can we learn from each other?
• generous orthopraxy i.e. co-operating/partnering practically with other churches [mission then is more than I win you lose but how can we work together so the area we inhabit experiences the kingdom of God].  Any other practical examples of how to do this?
• christians who embody the works, words and wounds of Christ and who as a body are prepared to be broken for the world
• local and global - the kingdom of God does not just stop at the edge of my town, postal district etc but is global
• believers who do/act good deeds in the kingdom not just have right beliefs
• ?
• ?
• ?
• ?

Ok, please suggest some more..?

why are you bovvered to be a christian... [part 2]

I just wanted to say thank you for the brilliant thougths being shared by people on my recent post: why are you bothered to be a christian exploring faith/mission/evangelism in a culture which is increasingly 'not bothered.'

I rasied the same issue here on Jason Clark's blog and included the following clip from English commedian Catherine Tate to illustrate:

Ari has also highlighted a really great looking sermon which explores finding God in the other and she follows it up with some awesome reflections on Christianity and love. Similarly this site advocating a new progressive alliance between people of faith [either in God or no God] seems to be a great opportunity to learn from each other rather than take a position of i'm right/you're wrong...

One of the most interesting/profound things i took from watching the TV programme ‘God is green’ that i blogged about, was how many religions have something at the heart of their sacred texts about caring for the planet - it was fascinating seeing this christian presenter interviewing hindus and muslims as well as evengelical american christians and exploring not just what the bible says but what their own faith teachings said…

I found that quite humbling in that often we look to overthrow a different faith, prove it wrong etc but this was an insight in how to view/engage/explore what all religions could do if they took these texts seriously…

Start with what I have, start with who I know, start from where I am...and give away more than I need to those who need it...

I have been reflecting on the last few days on the question I asked on my last post - about wheree to start in taking the NOW of the Kingdom of God seriously... and have been inspired having watched this clip reminding me of God's heart for the poor, the oppressed, the lost and the least, something you also may wish to do:

HT to Jamie

More than ever I think that the following words of Jesus sound the simpliest and yet seem the hardest to put into practice but maybe that has just been an excuse.  This year I said I would like to live more graciously and generously than last yr so I will try and take these words as being for NOW and not just for some other better time and ask Jesus and fellow followers like me to  help us all to live this sort of revolutionary life giving/revealing light...

"To you who are ready for the truth, I say this: Love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer for that person. If someone slaps you in the face, stand there and take it. If someone grabs your shirt, giftwrap your best coat and make a present of it. If someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously.

Here is a simple rule of thumb for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you; then grab the initiative and do it for them! If you only love the lovable, do you expect a pat on the back? Run-of-the-mill sinners do that. If you only help those who help you, do you expect a medal? Garden-variety sinners do that. If you only give for what you hope to get out of it, do you think that's charity? The stingiest of pawnbrokers does that.

I tell you, love your enemies. Help and give without expecting a return. You'll never—I promise—regret it. Live out this God-created identity the way our Father lives toward us, generously and graciously, even when we're at our worst. Our Father is kind; you be kind."

The Light...The Action...and God the Father or starting to take the nowness of the kingdom of God seriously...

You are now entering the Kingdom of God...population too many to count. Please praise safely!

One of the great things that I love about the wider community of faith that I am in (the Vineyard) is the emphasis on the Kingdom of God - this in-breaking into the world of the will/wish of God and being a people that have a relationship with the King to be his representatives/workers/servants in embodying his kingdom - at it's best it is that we are here not to be rulers and lord it over the world but to be those who get their hands dirty and souls achy in caring, tending, longing, blessing, praying, healing, embracing, restoring, renewing all in the name of Jesus in/through/with the Holy Spirit...

It is not just a personal mission, or a personally empowered one, but one we undertake as part of a community - the missio Dei (the mission of God) is one that is inherently communal, God existing within his own community of three and inviting us to join with him and to extend that invitational embrace... or to put it another way being a people of God who are connected to each other and God who embody the good news narrative...

The now but not yet of the kingdom of God

One of the key teachings of kingdom theology that I have come across is that the kingdom of God is about the now - Jesus saying the kingdom was of the atmosphere, here, material, touchably at hand - but also of the not yet - in other words it is not fulfilled, is it not complete, not everyone who is is sick gets healed when we pray, we still do stupid sinful wrong things etc.  It is to me a dynamic tension and  one that I often am uncomfortable with - in fact I confess one that I often put off as doing things as well 'not yet...'

Yes it's great to talk about helping the least, the lost....but not yet.

Yes fantastic to talk about changing the status quo, about empowering those who are powerless, about giving up rights to wealth, health and a high quality of life just cos I am born within an economic/social power structure...but not yet...

fantastic to talk about equality, about dreaming about peace, harmony, social/political/economic justice which is not skewed only in my favour... but not yet.

of course it is an high calling to tend and care for creation, to look after this planet and its scarce resources but I need to consume a bit more, get a few more things a bit cheaper, make my life a little more comfortable first... so not yet.

yes I love the idea about having a faith that is about talking about taking action, about the right way to engage and the wrongs ways to get involved (how I am not like those who are getting it so wrong and how i am so glad that I am like those whose who know the right ways of phrasing these matters), about the right phrases and structures and influences... but taking action well not yet.

I love these missional phrases of my faith, the thought of all being contextual and relevant but if that means I might have to live counter-culturally, if I have to go against the flow not to be deliberately perverse but because i have chosen a revolutionary way to live which embodies laying down my rights, throwing up my doors, dismantling my 6 ft fences, applying judgement to myself, confessing, being honest, giving up private bubble for a wider community and serving those who it will cost me to serve - well not yet.

One day God I will, one day it will all come to pass as you say -  but right now I'm too busy being rich, powerful, white, western, male, consumer...so not yet!

Why now is not a good time but then there is no good time...

I mean I want too but why should I start, why should I bother going first in loving someone? in being generous? in laying aside my rights when they aren't going to change and lay down theirs, especially when their right of being right involves them telling me how right they are and how wrong I am?  This whole servant gigg sounds glam to begin with but it quickly fades, especially when people start treating me like a servant, taking advantage of me, exploiting me  - being a door mat for God is so not happening ever, the meek can keep the earth thank you very much...

But I am feeling challenged by the now of the kingdom of God... of actually being, or starting, or trying to be... of wondering if Jesus words about faith and the impossible were to help me when I look at the mountain of all the reasons I should wait, of all the reasons of saying heh not yet and doing nothing... what if faith can move that mountain?  what if the impossible of the kingdom happening now can start? what if it is like small  seeds germinating and growing into huge trees, or little yeast spreading through the bread making it rise and grow?

Was Jesus really serious when he said...

"You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.

"You're blessed when you feel you've lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.

"You're blessed when you're content with just who you are—no more, no less. That's the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can't be bought.

"You're blessed when you've worked up a good appetite for God. He's food and drink in the best meal you'll ever eat.

"You're blessed when you care. At the moment of being 'care-full,' you find yourselves cared for.

"You're blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.

"You're blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That's when you discover who you really are, and your place in God's family.

"You're blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God's kingdom.

"Not only that—count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—give a cheer, even!—for though they don't like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble. "

If he was, and I have a growing feeling that he is and that this is just one example of the NOW of the kingdom of God then these are be-attitudes, something to try and do now, not just see as happening at the end of the not yet...

Now to start...but where?

My Q is the how?  Anyone else doing this and can let me know?  Anyone want to start doing this and want to explore doing/being/acting like  the kingdom of God is now?

An emerging epiphany..?

Traditionally the church celebrates the feast of Epiphany on 6 January - you might know that as 12th night (or time to take the decorations down!).  The feast celebrates  "the 'shining forth' or revelation of God to mankind in human form, in the person of Jesus..." and includes the birth of Jesus and the visit of the wise men/magi (and indeed all of Jesus childhood in the Eastern tradition)...  it is a time to reflect and remember on how Godhead  has/is/will  shone/shine forth and how we as his church can be light this coming year as well as a good old feast (isn't it cool that these church calendar things weren't just remembered with a church service but a full on party!!)...

Epiphany of course has another meaning which is the feeling of a "sudden realisation or comprehension of the essence or meaning of something", not necessarily seeing the full picture but "new information or experience, often insignificant by itself, that illuminates a deeper or numinous foundational frame of reference".

In bringing these 2 epiphanies together I have been reflecting on my own hope for me as part of the emerging church, the dream of how this little part of the church can shine forth and be light to the world as it is it is indwelt with the light and love of God.  What follows is 6 pairs (or 12) reflections/hints/feelings/hunches of the marks of light that we can be about - and then please do let me know your thoughts...

Generosity and grace

I have the opportunity to model generosity, whether it is in expressing a generous orthodoxy or in being communities where people can belong before they believe.  We have another year of being able to practice this discipline both on-line and in real life and it is one where I am always so grateful for people who model it to me.

I am feeling called to be generous particularly to two groups:

firstly the critics of the emerging church and indeed of the church as a whole (to whom we all look the same),  I think there is much to learn from this critique and opportunities to open up dialogue rather than close down doors. 

secondly,  I feel called to be generous with is those other emerging/new church groups who I may not feel comfortable with, e.g. Godmen.  In fact I see parallels in that I am now stepping into the shoes of my critics, maybe therefore I should reserve making pronouncements until I have talked with these people, attended their meetings, had an opportunity to see how they are growing/impacting the lives of the people who attend - in short everything that I would like to see critics of the emerging church do.

I am inspired by the generosity of God and the calling of his people not to hoard his blessings and gifts but to actively use them to help make this wold a better place.

Not least as we as christians have a powerful message of God's grace, his forgiveness/love rather than the experience of karma/pay back/revenge/getting what we deserve.  In a world which insists in getting even before getting on, in laws that determine that there is equal reaction to every action we can be communities that model something radically, powerfully, world changingly good...

Communities  of both the immediacy and the mediation of God

As I seek to follow Jesus I am not doing so alone.  I am part of a local faith community which in turn is part of  something bigger again the collective faith communities around the world and even more bigger in the commune of the saints, living and dead who have gone before.  I therefore need to open and humble before God in doing new things in old ways or the old things in in new ways. 

It is easy to write off the past history of the church and say that what is happening now is how it should be, or is getting back to how it was originally but to do so something that says more about me and what I like than a historical valid comment on Christ's church.  Whilst the church is continually reformed and being reformed it means that there is always the temptation to polarise, to pick the now or sometime in the church past as the ideal.  I think I need to move above that line and ask what is the will of God, how am I showing/expressing the ancient themes of mercy, love, grace, justice, humility, right living - am I prepared to join Christ as both king and as suffering servant, sharing in both his reflected glory but also is pain, hurt and dying to self in reaching out in love to our hurting world?

Missional and mere christianity

I know the emerging church talks a lot about being missional but I wonder if I still see it in terms of my living my life to my preference on the one hand so hanging out with people like me or trying to make my faith community the one of choice [cos we're so right?]. 

I guess the challenge I feel about being missional is to value faith communities and see it as not wanting to be a competitor - mission should not be my church wins at the expense of your church, but how as the body of Christ in an area can we work together. Recognition that between our different traditions we have more in common that divides us and that we have something to rally around, being hope, love, light, action in a world.

In that sense I think it is something communal and not just about something that is about who I like to hang out with.  Yes being missional is cultural/contextual but it is something formed/breathed by the creator/spirit/Word - our faith is not just about souls but about the resurrection of the physical body and therefore being missional also involves as concern/care about the material world and material beings that inhabit it...

The c0-missional church is about reaching outwards to help the world we live in but it is also one that  holds to the ancient creeds and traditions of the faith - where possible we should seek to build on the common ground that we share, to be focused on the mission of God and be moved by the compassion of Christ as suffering servants we reach out with/through/in him to heal this planet. 

To that end I think I need to embrace deep church (or mere christianity as Lewis called it in the end) - to be positive about the church in all its forms and traditions, whether ancient, medieval, modern or post-modern.  More than that I need to welcome its diversity and celebrate its different forms of which I am only one part and not a very significant one either and yet we share a common tradition and heritage where we have much more in common than we have differences.

Intentionally incarnational and icons

One of the challenges in being missional is the where/when/whom - I am wired in a certain way that makes me able to connect with some more than others - so where can I be intentional about being incarnational and embodying Jesus? There are some very obvious places that I forget sometimes like in my marriage, with my kids and in work and there are others that I have had the privilege of connecting on various blogs and resulting conversations... I am excited where a whole new year will take me.

I think it is also great to be able to provide the communities that we interact in not only a visible apologetic within our own lives but within the images/icons of God that we can connect them too, show them, let them experience. An icon after all is a visible image that helps people connect/worship God so I am also challenged about what I do as an individual and as a community to create icons that connect with people and let them encounter Jesus where it is through works of love/service to art/creativity. I am not talking about worshipping the icon but allowing the icon to act as a sign and a place of encounter, common ground that can become holy ground. It is good to remember that the holy spirit is active in both us and in the world and we are creatively made in God's own image - it is he who breathes life into creation and inhabits/indwells and we share the joy in providing space for him to walk through the room...

Questioning and questing

I am on a quest to seek the kingdom of God first, to live out the wish/will of God of seeing this done on earth like it is in heaven.  It is an adventure and a slog, to quote dickens: "it is the best of times and it was the worst of times."  I will experience suffering, hardship,pain, frustration and failure as much as we encounter joy, companionship, support, love and care.  We get to see each other at our best and our worst and try to love each other in both states. 

This year I am challenged in my quest to love God with my mind - to read my bible more but also to study, to explore faith thinking  - a thinking faith that asks questions and seeks to find the answers to them as part of a community of God's people.  It maybe that I do not find comfortable answers for all my questions but to me I would rather have a live searching wrestling faith that is chasing after God - whether it is in the thinking/inspiration of those who have gone before, those who are in the now or wrestling with questions/thoughts that are still to come - than one which accepts the script of my faith as final and fully revealed.

I think to that end I need to continue to be honest, to expose myself, to make myself transparent and open to encouragement, spurring on and critique - to explore with the wider community of faith both past and present, to listen and converse.   I am inspired by enough of my past of being wrong about so much that I am no doubt going to be wrong about a lot - but that is one of the most exciting things, the fact that I know so little but am part of a faith community that is so rich in both thought and deed.  So that more that just intellectual ascent I am able to apply my faith to my life, to learn and practice together as a community knowing that we need God to help make this a reality, that there is a living connection which is life empowering and transforming.

So I am looking forward to getting things wrong and learning how to apologise, how to listen more and to have a faith that allows me to do so...

Justice and judgement (of self)

One of the reasons I am on this quest and asking questions is because I want to be engaged in social/economic/environmental/political justice - whilst I am all to aware of my own focus on my morality it is often that of focusing on "private" faith and "private" sins.  Indeed when I do sin it is often something about focusing it on me and my failures when sometimes it is appropriate to talk about the failure/sin of the environment I am in.  That may sound like trying to get me off the hook but I think there is something in that of escaping from the focus of MY and asking wider questions about the systems that I am consciously or unconsciously apart of and the effects it has on people?  Clearly there are obvious ones in terms of economic and environmental issues for instance where I can make ethical choices about my consumption which seek to make the world better but will cost me more to do so.

It is in my need to become God aware which means I should apply any judgement I make to myself first - search me oh God and show me where I am blocking out the light from someone else and help me change the systems I am in - maybe by becoming aware of them - to those of the kingdom of God.

I think it is therefore for me important to be in a confessional community that does not only confess to each other but then is involved in healing action - both internally and externally, that focuses not only on the private sins but also on those that are public and institutional within our western culture...

Your own epiphany?

Those are some of my hopes/dreams/mini epiphanies...so how about you?