I recently wrote a blog considering the wrong
questions. I nearly entitled these
mutterings as ‘the wrong answers’. But
that would not be true! I refuse to be a
pioneer who church bashes all the time.
The reason for this is I love the traditional church. I have spent the last umpteen years training
to lead or leading established churches.
For many it does offer some answers.
I have seen people come to faith, find who they are and love church in
its more traditional guise. So, I cannot
call this the wrong answer because for some it might just be the place they
find a living relationship with Jesus. So,
I entitled this blog, ‘more answers’.
I have always listened at the beginning of my
ministries. At Canford Heath I listened
for six months to the church and to God before doing anything significant. At Westbury, I listened with the church for a
whole year using added time for the different style and culture that was
significantly different to Canford Heath and my own spirituality. In many ways listening is not a new thing to
me as I embark on the missional listening project. What has become quite a powerful reflection
over the last few weeks in Dorset is that both those ministries I was listening
to church and not as much to the community.
In fact, if I am brutally honest, nearly 90% of my time was spent with
Christ’s church. My evenings made up of
elders, deacons, missional, pastoral, cell or fabric meetings. My lunch times made up of Baptist cluster,
churches together or new wine lunches. I
would spend the mornings most often in my office planning for preaching or
other tasks such as writing for magazines, assemblies, funerals or
weddings. Afternoons and the odd free
evening would be visiting members of the church pastorally. Sundays would involve morning and evening
services often with a lunch or tea with church members. I listened, but primarily I listened to the
church, to Christians. I learnt how to
run the church well and how to love and disciple the members.
I have now been living in rural Dorset for a couple of
months. With no established church, my
evenings now look like going down the local pub and spending time with people
or playing cricket for the local team.
My days are spent meeting people and getting to know the community. My word this has been a different learning experience! The most frightening reflection is how
churched I have become. I came into the
ministry for two reasons, to reach those with little or no faith and to
encourage those who don’t get church. Because
of my hedonistic life style and years away from God I was ideally
equipped. But now! I admit to being shocked with the
conversations, life choices and brokenness I hear on a day to day basis. But I am even more shocked at my reaction to
them. I have spent 14 years pretty much
entirely in my safe Christian bubble and I have moved a long way from being
able to communicate the gospel to those I was first called to reach.
Traditional church may be the answer to one or two of the
people I meet. Particularly those who
have deep friendships with those who attend and love church. It may be the answer to the odd prodigal I
meet. But most the people I meet, Church
is a long way away from being the answer they need. I can’t imagine inviting some of my new cricket
friends to the local church to sing songs about how lovely Jesus is, listen to
a 20-30-minute sermon and then have polite conversation over a cup of tea! So, what could the answers be? Not sure!
It’s too early days. But when I
dream, I think of things like going to the cinema and watching a film and then
reflecting – where was God in this? How
might we live differently because we watched the film? What does the bible say about it? One of many possible answers?
I was recently at fat camp!
It’s actually a group of people called large leaders, or leaders of
larger churches. The last one I attended
I very nearly didn’t go as I was finding transitioning from large church to pioneering
difficult enough without hearing that large established church is the way, the
truth and the life! But in prayer I sensed the whisper of the Spirit say go and
be encouraged. Encouraged I was! It was led by the leader of the beacon church
in Stafford. A church that has grown by
about 400 over the last few years. It
has done so by offering more answers.
They have seen growth in their more traditional congregations on the Sunday
morning and Sunday evening but also by offering more answers. They have a congregation meeting in the pub,
in the local army barracks, two houses have been bought in estates and house
churches begun, café church and so much more!
Read more about them here: http://www.beaconinternationalcentre.org/
They are growing because they are offering creatively more answers.
I do not have all the answers (if any) for rural Dorset but
I do know that God will lead us to form communities where the bible is being
used to grow people deeper in God’s love, closer to one another and further in
our joining in with His mission to see His love spread across His world. It maybe that at some time we are called to a
more traditional understanding of Church, great, but we are aware that their
also will need to be creative ways offering more answers to the different
people that live in the communities we are called to serve.
One final reflection.
I was very interested in the survey conducted by the Evangelical
Alliance called Talking Jesus. A survey
looking at evangelistic behaviour of Christians and how it might be received by
those around them.[1] There was a fascinating statistical anomaly. The percentage was far higher for Christians
who said that they told their friends about Jesus than the percentage of
friends who had heard their friends talk about Jesus! As I prayed and discerned the statistical analysis
I wonder if the anomaly is that Christians think they are talking about Jesus
when in fact they are talking about church and that their friends are wanting
to hear about Jesus and not about established church? Church is great and as
discussed is sometimes the answer but Jesus is amazing and is always the
answer. The most exciting statistic to
come from the survey was that 1 in 5 of our non-Christian friends are waiting
for us to tell them about Jesus.
So back to the right questions. What’s going on with our friends and
community? What has the biblical
imagination got to say to them? What
might an indigenous church look like as we journey this together? May we have more and more answers as we seek
to go on a faith journey with those around us.
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