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MSM

The heart of mission

msm-logoWe have another MSM session last night, this time all about “The Mission of God”.

We explored what mission means and why we do it. Mission is, of course, a much bigger thing than just evangelism – a simple definition might be: taking God’s love into the whole world. However, it is important not to miss the point that evangelism is a part of mission. Christianity is a force for good in the world and the presence of Christians should help to reform society into what God wants it to be.

The heart of mission itself is God. It is our role to follow God’s lead and respond to what he wants us to do, understanding that mission itself is central to discipleship, that is we are Christians and therefore we do mission (not an optional extra).

Of course, mission is fueled by God’s Spirit but God’s fuel only works when we have a close relationship with God. This led us to think about the part that Holy Communion plays in the life of the church where our connection with God sits in a fundemental place to our mission.

We considered how we are a people who are sent by Jesus out into the world to take God’s message to others. That message was sumerised by John in his gospel in the passage of John chapter 3 verse 16.

God so loved the world that he sent his one and only son, so that all those who believe in him will not perish but have eternal life.

God so loved the world that he sent his son.

God so loved the world that he would do anything to bring us back to him.

Categories
MSM

Alternative church?

Is there such a thing as an alternative church or is it just church? This is an important question to answer because somehow if something is alternative it creates the impression that it is somehow less than the best.

We live in a world (at least in the UK) where alternative is now applied to many things: alternative viewpoint; alternative life style; etc. We crave alternatives, it seems.

Sometimes these alternatives are seen as being a positive move – as soon as the rest of society can catch up – other times as somehow a little odd and to be avoided. However, for many younger people what is classified as alternative is just normal for their world. The idea that somehow living a different kind of life from everyone else (a very Christian idea by the way) is seen today as just a personal choice and nothing strange at all. So calling a different style of church an alternative church can be confusing in a modern context. I guess this is why we are encouraged to use the phrase ‘mixed’ economy (although I have to confess to a personal dislike of this phrase).

churchOf course, we also then need to try and workout if there is a standard ‘right’ way or not. For instace, if there is a standard ‘right way’ to do something then maybe there is a standard right way of doing church. This would mean that alternatives should simply be a way of feeding the proper right way – we will give people this for now with the intention of making them proper church goers when they get our faith.

I personally think that there is such a thing as absolute truth; either God exsits or God doesn’t exist – you can’t have it both ways. I don’t believe, however, that there is an absolute way of being church – at least not in the way it is expressed. Some fundementals are vital to be called a Christian church – there has to be boundaries defined by belief otherwise the local pub is simply a Christian church is another form (this may appeal to many, of course, there is something very attractive about calling any group a Christian church – it makes life a lot easier, just find a group and call it a Christian church and the job is done).

However, I don’t think that the basics of being a church extend to the way we do things. Jesus worshipped in a synagogue and the temple but he never gave us any idea of what he liked about that worship (save perhaps the sermon). Jesus never gave us an order for our worship; he said nothing about buildings or styles of architecture or church councils; etc. I wish he had said just do what the minister says and forget about meetings but he didn’t even say that.

So, who is to say an alternative church is in some way inferior to any way of doing church? Or even that it is alternative.

In my view we need to get away from thinking about alternative ways of church and start talking just about church. What is your point of view?

 

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Church MSM

MSM Course

Started the MSM course yesterday in Taunton. It is a long course but then anything that is designed to change ways of thinking must be done over a long period of time. One of things I particulalry like about it is that it isn’t about church. There is always a tendency to think about how we preserve our church and then we miss the question of what does God want to do with his church? There are amny questions to ponder over on this course.

Questions about the meaning and purpose of church. Questions about what we should do together as a church. Questions about what will the church do in the future? But all of these must be subject to the one overriding question of what does God want.

What does God want from his church?

Categories
Church

We need more passion

jesus-revolutionary-1999-easter-poster-ukOne of the problems the Methodist church has is lack of passion. I think that maybe because we try so hard to get along with each other that we avoid any display of passion in case it upsets someone else. A passionate preacher usually irritates at least one person in a congregation; a passionate person who speaks up in a meeting can cause others to squirm. Without passion, though, we are stuck where we are.

The Bible is full of passion. The old testament prophets seem to ‘lose it’ on a regular basis but we don’t like it when there is passion  – being British we find it too emotional or too upsetting.

Yet, I get upset that 94% of the population doesn’t want to engage with the church. If the church is the body of Christ why would anyone not want to be involved? Maybe the 94% are actually the church and its the 6% of us who go on a Sunday that are deluded?

Of course the greatest passion found in the Bible is that of Jesus, we even call the week leading up to Easter Passion week. Yet, instead of displaying any passion in our churches we are likely to gather in quiet, discreet groups and whisper theological words to each other and tutt at the way those with passion os often twist the gospel. I wonder if the religious leaders who condemned Jesus did the same thing leading up to passover.

Where is the passion in our church? Should it only be for the weird and the wrong headed to express their passion?

Categories
Thoughts

Christian discrimination

Just added a blog entry on my Jesus Course site about Christian descrimination
http://jesuscourse.info/blog/

Categories
Thoughts

Happy Christmas

I want to take the chance to offer my Christmas greetings to everyone. I know that for many Christmas is tough and it brings back all kinds of memories (both good and bad). I suffered a bereavement myself this year with my mum passing on to glory and I understand that such a thing can really dent people’s Christmas celebrations.

I think, though, that whoever you are and whatever you have been through there is still a bit of Christmas that is just for you. It’s the bit where God says – I love you this much.

If you wonder how much God really does love you then remember that Christmas is really about the birth of God’s son and that God says I love you enough to even give my Son to you. Don’t get distracted by the theology or the glitter of the season but instead see the best gift that anyone ever got for Christmas and remember that this best gift God gave to you.

Have a wonderful Christmas and see you in the new year.

Categories
Thoughts

What is truth?

How can we know what is true? Should we be bothered.

To hear some people speak you would think that what is true is subjective – that is it all depends on your viewpoint. Sometimes this is true, of course. If you ask me if it is a good thing that LiverpoolFC won last weekend I will say yes but you might well say know – especially if you were a fan of the opposition. But some things are not subjective; for instance it really is not up to us whether 2+2=4. Such is the truth (or otherwise) of the existence of people and also of God. There is also a truth about Jesus that is not open to opinion: either Jesus is the son of God, as he claimed to be, or he is not; either he was God incarnate or he was not. These are important truths that need to be decided upon.

So how do we make a choice as to what is true or what is false?

There are all kinds of evidence we can look to for help but we will never find the physical evidence that some people claim we need to make the choice. But you will struggle to find the equivalent demanded physical evidence available for much that is important in our history. All that is available is historical evidence (testimony comes in here) and revelation (what we might believe God has told us about Jesus).

The value of testimony depends on the person who first relates it (as well as any who pass it on). We must decide if we are willing to trust the gospel authors. For my part, after considering the evidence for this I am convinced that they are worth trusting.

The value of revelation is more complicated. It is similar to testimony but you have to first accept that God does want to reveal himself. To believe this is complex but I think there is plenty of evidence to believe this is true – including Jesus himself who believed in revelation. We can consider the evidence but ultimately it will be a matter of faith: you must decide if you want to believe it or not. In the old testament there is plenty of revelation, recorded in the books of the prophets. Prophets who so often talk about Christ.

So ultimately we have to decide what we are going to think about Jesus. There has to be one thing that is true – not everything can be. What does the testimony and revelation say to you about Jesus?

Categories
Thoughts

Advent messages

I had intended writing some advent messages on the lead up to Christmas but then its a strange thing but there are so many services to take that I’m starting to get a little swamped with having to find things to say that I didn’t say last year and then again avoiding saying anything in a post that others might here me say in a service (don’t want to bore anyone more than I have to).

So, instead here is an advent Poem I love from John Betjemen. Oh and by the way, if you are desperate for an advent message from me you can always go to jesuscourse.info and view the blog – but don’t be surprised if you read something you then later hear from me in a Christmas sermon.

The bells of waiting Advent ring,
The Tortoise stove is lit again
And lamp-oil light across the night
Has caught the streaks of winter rain.
In many a stained-glass window sheen
From Crimson Lake to Hooker’s Green.

The holly in the windy hedge
And round the Manor House the yew
Will soon be stripped to deck the ledge,
The altar, font and arch and pew,
So that villagers can say
‘The Church looks nice’ on Christmas Day.

Provincial public houses blaze
And Corporation tramcars clang,
On lighted tenements I gaze
Where paper decorations hang,
And bunting in the red Town Hall
Says ‘Merry Christmas to you all’

And London shops on Christmas Eve
Are strung with silver bells and flowers
As hurrying clerks the City leave
To pigeon-haunted classic towers,
And marbled clouds go scudding by
The many-steepled London sky.

And girls in slacks remember Dad,
And oafish louts remember Mum,
And sleepless children’s hearts are glad,
And Christmas morning bells say ‘Come!’
Even to shining ones who dwell
Safe in the Dorchester Hotel.

And is it true? and is it true?
The most tremendous tale of all,
Seen in a stained-glass window’s hue,
A Baby in an ox’s stall?
The Maker of the stars and sea
Become a Child on earth for me?

And is it true? For if it is,
No loving fingers tying strings
Around those tissued fripperies,
The sweet and silly Christmas things,
Bath salts and inexpensive scent
And hideous tie so kindly meant.

No love that in a family dwells,
No carolling in frosty air,
Nor all the steeple-shaking bells
Can with this single Truth compare –
That God was Man in Palestine
And lives to-day in Bread and Wine.

Categories
Church Thoughts

He never said a bad word about anyone

I’ve sometimes heard people say, about someone who has recently died, that ‘ he never said a bad word about anyone.’ I’ve always thought that this was a very good trait to have and someone who was like this is no doubt very saintly. But something I read the other day made me rethink this. This book pointed out that whilst it sounds like this is a quality that we might believe makes someone very close to the way Jesus was; it isn’t.

Jesus had an awful lot to say about some people and he didn’t mince his words either. Maybe we might say that this is because Jesus alone had the right to say such things but I think that misses the point.

Jesus had a lot of good things to say when people were doing good things (even when it was a bad person doing a good thing) – in fact he pointed to the good when often others chose to ignore it in favour of making people, even good people, feel bad about themselves. Sadly the trait of making even good people feel bad about themselves is something that the church has fallen in to from time to time.

But when Jesus saw an injustice, or when he met religious bullies, or people who should know better; he had an awful lot to say to them that was pretty bad.

So maybe we should not aspire to be the person who never said a bad word about anyone but instead aspire to be someone who speaks out against injustice, stands up to bullies (especially the religious kind), and who praises the good he finds in people even when it was hard to find. In fact, just like Jesus.

Categories
Thoughts

My mum died

A couple of weeks ago my mum died (July 8th). It has been a strange time for me. First there was the shock of hearing the news. Of course we all knew one day she would die – in fact doctors told us that she would die years ago.  I still felt shocked when it happened.

Everyone has been excellent to me since it happened. People have given me good wishes and reassured me of their prayers. I’m very grateful for them all.

I’ve tried hard to keep going – what am I supposed to do anyway? Should I cry for a few days? Will it make any difference if I did? There has been a lot to do but being busy has somehow helped a little – partly because the busyness has involved spending time with my dad and brothers – something I seldom seem to have time to do.

Now I’m starting to feel that I want some time just to think. I’m trying to find a couple of days of space when I can think and just be alone. My relationship with my mum was not always perfect. She could be demanding and even manipulating but she was still the woman I clung to as a child, the one who gave me life and helped me make sense of the world (at least to begin the process). I need time to say I’m sorry to her for all my failings; time to be angry with her and so forgive her for all her failings; time to say goodbye to one of the most important people in my life.

I don’t think this will all happen in one or two days but I’d like to have the chance to at least begin the process. If the weather allows I shall be off to Dartmoor to do this – somehow all that open space and nothing to do but walk and look and think helps me. I remember many happy Dartmoor picnics; perhaps it is a fitting place to say my goodbyes.