This is the first in a series of blog posts on âChurch outside the boxâ. Itâs aim is to prompt discussion, to raise questions, and to offer a few ideas. Itâs the product of thinking-in-progress, so when you think of something to add, or want to raise a question or disagreement, please use the Comment box!
The main point: As we do church, we need to be inflexible on the inflexibles, but also flexible on the flexibles.
Imagine sitting down with a Bible in your left hand, and a blank sheet of paper in your right. Then imagine writing down on the right-hand piece of paper everything your left-hand Bible says MUST happen at your church meetings.
What would be on it? I think the list would pretty much look like this:
Thatâs not a very long list! Itâs worth mentioning what it doesnât include:
In your right hand is a bit of paper with a lot of room left. A lot of space to imagine, or re-imagine, how our church gatherings look, feel and run. A lot of areas to be flexible, to think about what will most encourage our fellow Christians, and what will most connect with our communityâs non-believers.
An individual church exists in a culture, a time, a place. Two of those three are always changing. If a church isnât flexible on non-Biblical essentials, it will be existing in (and seeking to reach) a culture that no longer exists, in a time which has passed. Surely itâs no accident that that Bible leaves us so much flexibility.
In our left hand is the Bible. No room left at all hereâitâs packed with everything God wants us to know about His Son. This is what we need to be resolutely inflexible onâit is what our fellow Christians, and our communitiesâ non-believers, need to hear.
A church needs to be inflexible on what the Bible says, for the glory of God⌠and flexible on everything elseâfor the glory of God.
This may seem obvious! But is it how our churches work? Letâs categorise churches into four types:
Type One
Type Two
Type Three
Type Four
Is it worth asking what type of church our own is? And if itâs not Type Four, asking what would need to change to make it that kind of church?
Practical suggestion: Actually get that right-hand sheet of paper. Scribble down what the Bible says we MUST do in church. Then use the space thatâs left to re-imagine church, for your culture and community, which:
Sometimes groups of Christians get things spectacularly wrong.
With the persistence of sin in the lives of believers (1 John 1:8) and the reality of false teachers in the church (2 Peter 2:1-3) this should not be a surprise. But it should be a cause of great sadness. And a massive spur to prayer. So with that in mind itâs good to encourage one another to be interceding for the church in Zimbabwe.
The Anglican Church there is in turmoil. A reasonable desire to be involved in politics has been distorted out of all proportion with bishops using governmental alliances to further their own ends and destroy the ministries of their rivals. Clergy have been evicted. Orphanages left with few staff. Congregations put at physical and spiritual risk.
Of course, amid all this there are good and godly pastors seeking to serve the Lord in Spirit and in truth.
The plight of the Anglican Church in Zimbabwe has been highlighted this week because Archbishop Rowan Williams is soon to visit there as part of his trip round central Africa. So why not use this increased publicity to encourage yourself and others in your congregation to pray?
It would be fantastic if Christians around the globe could join together and ask the Lord to:
Itâs an inescapable fact that men and women are different.
Itâs not that men are from Mars and women are from Venus â weâre all from planet earth and need to accept that fact.
Nor is it that girls are full or sugar and spice and all things nice and boys obsessed with slugs and snails â weâre all sinners and thereâs no escaping that.
But we are created to complement one another (Genesis 2:20-24). To be both diverse as well as similar. And that means to a certain extent we learn differently and serve differently.
This has implications for preaching. It doesnât change the gospel but it does mean that if sermons are to inspire, instruct and equip women then some careful thought needs to be given to how preachers communicate and apply Godâs precious word.
And this is one of the topics that are going to be considered at next weekâs Evangelists' conferences. If you would like to explore this important area, there are still tickets available at both the London and Leyland venues. So why not come and join the conversation âŚ? Or if you canât make it to the event, check back here to read about some of the things we discussed.
|
Steve Jobs founder of Apple Computer, technological visionary and business genius and who died today. Apple products are owned by perhaps 300 million people worldwide. From his commencement speech at Stanford University 2005: "Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.'' "Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice.'' "Stay hungry, stay foolish." |
The Apostle Paul, theological visionary and passionate preacher who died, probably executed, sometime in the 1st Century. The faith he sought to bring to the non-Jewish world is adhered to by almost a third of the world's population - over 2 billion people. From the Letter to the Philippians For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faithâthat I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death. (3 v 10-11) "For me to live is Christ to die is gain" (1 v 21) "But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." (3 v 13-14) |
I have a terrible confession to make:
I find it hard to pray.
Actually, I don't find it hard to pray. As soon as I get going, there's loads of stuff I want to talk to my heavenly father about - things that concern me - people I love - expressions of thanks and praise for all he's done for me. Once I get started, I'm often like a ball rolling downhill. (Ask any of my daughters who regularly complain that my 'grace' prayers before dinner tend to ramble on a bit, and not always be just about the food!)
But there has now entered into my digitally-ordered world a new iPhone app called 'PrayerMate' that has done something really significant to make me more of a prayer warrior than I was:
1. It reminds me to get praying
The app is really very simple. It's basically a prayer diary that allows me to set up lists of people and situations to pray for. But the terrific feature is that, at the time I set every day, it pops up a message whatever I am doing saying: "Time to Pray?"
In and of itself that has been a massive help. My family and working life is ever-so-slightly chaotic, and finding a set time for daily Bible reading remains difficult - often being squeezed between getting up, school lunch making, making tea to take milady in bed, and leaving the house. Easy to forget or to get squeezed. The daily reminder is, quite literally, a God-send (via Apple).
2. It gives me a good structure
On opening, it presents me with a prayer from the Bible, which is often stimulating for the content and character of my prayers. Today was Matthew 9:38 The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest."
What follows on the sliding screens is a selection of people and issues from a number of lists I have set up: for family, my housegroup; my sunday school class and co-leaders; my work colleagues; friends, church etc. The nice thing here is that I can set the frequency of when they get prayed for. I talk to the Lord about each member of my immediate family every day, whereas only one of my work mates, homegroup and sunday school class pop up each day. Other things may be less frequent.
Importing the names as a dream from my address book, and there is room to add notes and issues to each person as time goes on.
This is the first version of this terrific little app - no doubt it will grow in sophistication with revision releases - but I hope the developers don't lose the practical simplicity of how it works at the moment. Technology has a habit of getting in the way of something that should be intimate and personal - and PrayerMate elegantly achieves being a helpful aid that does not intrude, but genuinely equips and encourages. Well done lads.
At the church I go to, some people shriek and shout their way through the songs. Others shout out things or snort loudly during the sermon. Still others need some restraint to stop them lashing out at others.
No, it's not the latest brand of "spiritual phenomena" that has hit South West London. It's just that we decided many years ago as a church that we needed to integrate people who live with profound learning disabilities into our church life. So at the youth group, in the children's groups and in the main meetings we have a sprinkling of folk with Downs Syndrome and cerebral palsy who take part in our regular worship. While there have been challenges, I have to confess that this has been a great choice for us all, and for the families who are caring for them.
But it raises an important theological question. Of course our Christian response to learning disability is to simply show love and compassion for their physical and emotional wellbeing, and for the families that are often under great stress. But how should we think about their spiritual needs? How should we explain the Gospel to them and encourage a response in the way we would any other?
I admit to confusion on the issue, which is why I am looking forward to next weeks' Evangelists' conferences, where one of the seminars is about sharing the Gospel with people with learning disabilities. Tony Phelps Jones from Prospects will be helping us think through some big issues.
If this is an issue of concern to you too, then do join us for what promises to be a stimulating and insightful day.
Book for the conference here.
And if you really can't get there do check this blog in the coming weeks for some great tips from the other excellent seminars being run.
22% of people in the UK live in an income poor household.
In a way, thatâs a shocking statistic for a supposedly wealthy and developed country. But Christians shouldnât be that surprisedâafter all, Jesus Himself reminded us of the reality that there will always be âthe poorâ (John 12 v 8). And the Bible commands us to do something about thatâto provide for those who are struggling (Leviticus 25 v 34-36).
Thatâs a statistic, a reality and a command one church in Speke, Liverpoolâone of the most deprived areas of the UKâis taking seriously. And the world is noticing. Have a read of this BBC article. And do pray for Steve Casey, the pastor, and his congregation as they seek to show and speak of Christ to some of that 22%.
Over the past few blogs weâve been looking at some practical ways to keep Christ at the centre of our paperwork and planning. If itâs a subject that has grabbed your attention, why not commit to digging a little deeper? To help you, here are 3 great resources:
Enjoy!
Churches seem to have rotas for everything: welcoming, reading, praying, cleaning, arranging flowers ⌠even cutting up the bread for communion. And the average church noticeboard can at times look like operational HQ for a global logistics firm.
Of course, thereâs nothing wrong with being organized. And itâs far better to have a rota than just âwing thingsâ on the day and hope that everything will be OK. But how much thought and prayer goes in to formulating our rotas? If you are anything like me â not enough!
We know that itâs important to deploy members of the congregation wisely ⌠placing them on rotas in ways that use and develop their gifts to the glory of God. But in reality we all too often default to simply sticking names in boxes because the jobs need doing and weâve got to find someone to fill the gap. The trouble is, thatâs a system that invariable ends up with some Christians getting over-burdened and others under-developed â while administrators just get stressed and fall into nag-mode. Hardly a God-glorifying scenario!
Formulating rotas needs to be a team effort â a job where leaders and administrators work together not to fill in charts but to help people grow. Itâs a task that needs us to be:
Itâs time-consuming doing it this way. But the results can be exciting. It grows willing volunteers, keen to develop, prayerful and clear about why they are doing the job they are doing, convinced that their service is of value to the Kingdom and confident that they wont be stuck on the rota for ever! So next time youâre writing a rota, give it a go and put Jesus right back at the centre of the planning âŚ
