The Sick Tent

I am a trophy husband!  I know I may not look like one, but all I bring to the family is an ability to talk to anyone about matters of faith.  All the other gifts in the world are offered to the family via my wonderful wife.  So, when I am away from her, I struggle, and others around me find out very quickly that I am extremely high maintenance.  This summer I was at a Christian festival called New Wine with the two oldest kids.  Now I struggle a bit with New Wine.  I am a little tired of constant celebratory performance church.  But my kids love it!  So, I take them.  I really struggle with camping with a deep held conviction that time away from home should be spent in nicer surroundings than that I am used too!  

Wednesday night was a good evening.  I went to bed satisfied.  The eldest daughter had shared how she had encountered God in a wonderful way that evening.  The second oldest was just loving her time at New Wine, incredible considering she is usually quite anxious in new situations.  All was well. 

But then… I woke at 3:30AM to the sound of the eldest being sick.  I looked up to see a neat tidy pile of sick and my daughter having done the deed, turning over and going back to sleep.  Surely it can wait until morning to be cleaned up?  I mean, let them sleep? Parent fail number 1, I did just that, I covered it up until morning.  As I lay back down consumed by the smell, I started to realise I had made a mistake.  This became fully realised when she woke again, and this time projectile vomited all over the tent including all over her younger sister who woke up crying ‘that’s not fair if I have to go home and miss new wine because Gracie’s sick’.  I am now in panic mode. I mean talking about Jesus is not going to help now and that is my one and only gift!  I take them into the lounge compartment not knowing why or what it might achieve.  Then… the most wonderful sound.  The zip too the tent opened and in walked Ali and Owen with disinfectant, hot water, bin bags, cloths, spare sleeping bags and a plan. That plan - get Ben away and blitz the tent! 

Now Ali and Owen are ministers at the Stowe in Swindon.  I camp with this church at New Wine.  They really are the most wonderful community.  The word family is used so often in church circles and it is usually more aspirational than an accurate description.  The Stowe is family.  And they are beautifully led by two people who though very different share certain God like values.  They are beautiful people.   They are Jesus to their community and to all they meet.  Amazing!

I am sent with the kids to get showered and clean.  By the time I come back the tent is completely clean and disinfected.  Owen and Ali, I love you! 

Why am I telling you this?  Well, its advent.  And this story, the example of Ali and Owen, remind me of this verse in the message; ‘God became flesh and blood and joined the neighbourhood’.  Or as Paul puts it in his 2^nd letter to the church at Corinth, ‘God gave up the riches of heaven for poverty of earth’.  Or as I now put it… ‘God became flesh and blood and joined me in the sick tent’!  God gave up the riches to become present in our lives.  And we are now challenged to follow him and be present with all around us. 

I heard the incredible story of the toilet pastor recently.  A guy who wants people to know about what God has done by becoming flesh and blood and joining us in the neighbourhood.  He goes around cleaning people’s toilets.  Recently in his home town a new sex shop had opened.  Christians in the city had come together united to show their disapproval.  The numbers were huge, the placards were many and the anger evident.   The toilet guy went into the shop and offered to clean the toilet of the sex shop.  Go for it!  When he came out the owner of the shop asked why he would do such a thing.  The toilet man said, ‘to show how God became flesh and blood to join us in the neighbourhood because of his love for you’.  The man burst into tears, ‘I did not know there were any of you Christians left who could love me’.  He then apparently offered him anything he wanted from the store as a thank you!  The kind offer was refused!!! 

This advent we remember that God became flesh and blood and joined us in our sick tents.  Where might we ask him to be present in our lives, right here and right now?  Who are we praying for?  Which situations do we wish to be transformed?  And may the challenge this advent be, where might we be called to be present?  Which sick tents around us are we called to be present in so as to join God in his kingdom transformation of all things?

My prayer is this… That whatever you are thinking of might know the transformation that happened in the tent thanks to Owen and Ali.  And that you may know the difference God’s presence makes in all of life.  It is my prayer you may also find life in all its fullness as you imitate Christ and are present in the sick tents around us.  God bless you this advent.

The Tunnel

I am at Cliff College in the beautiful peak district being challenged by the concept of Christian coaching.  Loads of reflection to be had but for now let me tell you about a walk I went on between teaching sessions.  I decided to have a look at the Monsal trail.  The trail runs along the former midland railway line for 8.5 miles between Blackwell Mill, in Chee Dale and Coombs Road, at Bakewell. Most of the route had been opened in 1981 but it was not until 2011 and a few million quid had been spent that four railway tunnels each about 400 metres long were also open for trail walkers, cyclists and horses and their riders.  It was with this knowledge I headed down to Headstone Tunnel. 

After beginning the walk through – the tunnel is so big that there are parts where there is literally no light at either end of the tunnel.  It feels eerie to say the least - it feels like the tunnels closing in on you - you feel trapped – the atmosphere is different – breathing is a little tougher – its dark – imprisoned – utterly alone.  It’s a difficult place.  Who is it we know who feels like this?  Who feels like there is no hope – no escape – no life in all its fulness?  We stop and pray for them… 

After a while some chitter chatter broke into the silence and I realised that I was being joined on my trip through the tunnel.  I did not walk with them – I did not converse with them (except to say a very British ‘good afternoon’).  But just having them present took away so much of what I was feeling.  There was still no light at the end of the tunnel – it was still dark and damp – but there were others there.  It felt better.  I was no longer alone.  And as we pray for those who come to mind in the tunnel we ask, how can we be present with them there?  Missionaries we supported in my previous church serving in Nepal told the story of a taxi ride shortly after the earthquake that rocked the nation.  The taxi driver asked them, ‘when are you going home’?  ‘We are home’, came the reply, ‘this is where we live, this is home, in happy times but also in the more difficult’.  The taxi driver was surprised, his experience had been that so many missionaries and western workers were returning home whilst it was unsafe.  But it was being present with this wonderful country going through its most difficult time that they had so many conversations about God.  More than they ever did before.   By being present. Nepal wasn’t alone. 

As a travelled further down the tunnel the magnificent image, light at the end of the tunnel!  Hope!

Now that’s what comes when we invite God to come near.  Hope.  So, if you find yourself in the tunnel, or present with someone there, why not ask God to come near?  Because God brings strength for today and hope for tomorrow. 

So, we find ourselves in the tunnel – ourselves or present with others and we are asking God to come near.

I was excited leaving the tunnel for the view over the peak District.  I was a little disappointed! 

It was nice to be out the tunnel, but I still could not see clearly.  How many of us go through life like this?  Not in dark places but not fully appreciating life?  Looking but not seeing?  Hearing but not listening?  With acquaintances but not family? Alive but not living or living but not in all its fulness?  Sometimes it is easier to ask for help when we are in dark places, the issues are often rather obvious.  But who is walking with us and who are we walking with to remove the obstructions and to help each other become all that we can be?  Who is walking us from life to life in all its fulness? Who is helping us grow deeper into God.  Who is walking with us as we learn to love Him, and neighbour as self?  Perhaps pause and pray about this now.

Because it’s worth it you know!  Just look at what was waiting to come into view…

Whoever you are and where ever you are on the journey may you know loving people alongside you present on your journey helping you become all that you can be.  May you know God coming near and bringing strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow.  May you not only live but be fully alive.  All this of course is only possible in Jesus name… Amen.

What is the Gospel?

I have been noticing on some of the facebook groups I belong, that many have been falling out over evangelism.  One post reminded everybody of clause three of the Baptist unions declaration of principle, ‘that it is the duty of every disciple to bear personal witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and to take part in the evangelisation of the world’.[1]  Arguments followed… what does it mean to be Baptist?  How do we bear witness?  But I think the most vital question is, what is the gospel of Jesus Christ?

As I have said previously, I feel like my faith is being stripped down and rebuilt as I missionally listen.  One way this is happening is in my understanding of the gospel.  Though I never tried to actively preach it, I believe deep down I have been shaped by a reduced gospel.  Many evangelical churches place their strongest emphasis on conversion, what matters is that individuals are saved from their sin.  Over time the gospel has been reduced to four or five claims, seen most evidently in the literature used for Billy Graham crusades.  Those claims: Step one: God loves you; Step two: You are a sinner; Step three: God paid the price; step four: If you confess and believe God will forgive you and step five: You can live as Gods child.[2]  Here we have the Gospel of Salvation.  A reduced gospel.  Guder understands this type of reductionism to be the ‘precise point of challenge to Western churches if they are to become faithfully missional in our changing world’.[3]  

There is much to criticise with the reduced gospel of salvation.  Murray believes it relies on eloquent professional persuaders for evangelism.[4]  McLaren has a growing unease with its limitation and fears that for too many Christians, personal salvation has become another personal consumer product and Christianity has become its marketing program making salvation ‘all about me’.[5]  For McKnight, the salvation culture only asks one question, ‘who’s in and whose out’ and fails at discipleship.[6]  One example of this is the self-reflection of megachurch Willow Creek community church in Chicago.  They conducted a study to measure the progress of their mission to raise up ‘fully devoted followers of Christ’.  Their question was simple, do the thousands of people that they attract lives’ look different to others?  The answer was that though they were excellent at making believers they had a long way to go when it comes to forming disciples.  Dallas Willard believes reducing the gospel to just that of salvation:

 presumes a Christ with no serious work other than redeeming humankind… [and] they foster “vampire Christians,” who only want a little blood for their sins but nothing more to do with Jesus until heaven.

 Claiborne concludes, if our gospel is only about salvation then it is incomplete.[7] Marshall states that it has been staggering that we have reduced the New Testament to nothing more than a message of personal salvation.[8] He writes:

 We need a gospel with ethical content restored. We need a gospel with political vision restored. We need a gospel that is good news for the world and not an offer of escape from the world.[9]

 Most worrying for me, is this gospel does not speak into the big issues in our world today.  McLaren helpfully groups those big issues into four dysfunctions:  The prosperity crisis, environmental breakdown caused by the unfair unsustainable global economy; the equity crisis, the growing gap between rich and poor; the security crisis, the danger of cataclysmic war; and the spiritual crisis, the failure of world religions to frame a story capable of healing the three-previous crisis.[10] 

We can conclude that by reducing the gospel this way we find a God only interested in the individual, a missional strategy reliant on persuasive professionals and programmes, a membership that are not discipled and as a result no different to those around them in everyday life and we live in a world we want to escape, to reach our eternal destination.  Most tragically the reduced gospel of salvation leaves us with little in the way of answer to McLaren’s four dysfunctions of contemporary culture.  Marshall is right, we need a new gospel. 

Rob Bell in 2009 did a five-part film series devoted to reclaiming the sermon.  The first was entitled ‘beginning at the beginning’.[11]  His premise is where the story begins and ends shapes the story that you tell.  There is much to learn here regarding biblical mission.  The story begins in a garden with the creator who creates a creation and calls humans to be responsible and participate as co-creators.[12] We are on this earth for a purpose that flows from the creative purpose of God.[13] In the garden all is blessed with all the blessings summed up by the one word shalom, meaning:

complete reconciliation, a state of the fullest flourishing in every dimension–physical, emotional, social, and spiritual–because all relationships are right, perfect, and filled with joy.[14] 

The story ends in the city.[15] Here humans will participate in the reordering of creation.[16] Once again all will be blessed with all the blessings, shalom.  Bell suggests, if you were to remove sin from the bible you would have the four chapters that describe these places, and here you have a journey from a garden to a city.  What’s a city?  Bell suggests a series of well-ordered gardens.[17] Here we see a movement of enlarging shalom with which humans are called to participate in. It is in the third chapter of Genesis that sin comes into the world and we have disrupted shalom.  Bell reminds us that this passage is not the beginning or the end of the story.[18]  Sin is important but temporary and God invites us to repent and return to be co-creators.  The story considering Genesis three is now about God renewing all things,[19]restoring all things[20] and reconciling all things.[21]  If the story we are telling begins in Genesis three it becomes about removing sin but if we begin in chapter one the story becomes the restoration of shalom.[22]  This still includes the removal of sin but in its proper place within the bigger story of restoration. If we begin in chapter three the starting point for mission is that ‘you are a sinner’ but if we begin with chapter one our starting point is God’s creation and how good it is, our role within it and a call to repentance because of our part in the disruption of shalom.  If we start with Genesis three we look for how we are going to escape our present context, Bell calls this ‘disembodied evacuation’, but if we begin in Genesis one we see ‘participatory physicality’ as joining in with the restoration of shalom.[23] 

 From the bleak narratives of Genesis three to eleven we see God begin restoring shalom with His great promise to Abraham[24] It is here we know that God is completely, covenantally, eternally committed to the mission of blessing the nations.[25]  Israel came into existence as a people entrusted to join in with this mission of God for the sake of all the other nations.[26] 

Bell then discusses the signs of the kingdom in John, concluding the eighth, the resurrection of Jesus, begins a new creation right here amid this one. Mary’s intuitive guess when she sees Jesus at the tomb is he must be the gardener.[27]  Wright believes that on one level she was wrong but on another deeply right.  This is the new creation and here he is: ‘the new Adam, the gardener, charged with bringing the chaos of God’s creation into new order, into flower, into fruitfulness’.[28] The story now is about anticipating the coming day when heaven and earth are one again.  Our task is now of praying for and being called to live on earth as it is heaven now and participating in it forever.  Now we can remove modernity’s divide of the secular and sacred realm and we can see all things, such as, business, arts and justice as ministry and in need of redemption. Bell concludes, the Gospel is Gods desire to restore shalom. The gospel is because of the resurrection of Jesus, a whole new world is coming right here and now, and everyone everywhere can be a part of it.  We are called to bring ‘hope not rooted in escape but in engagement, not in evacuation but reclamation, not by leaving but staying and overcoming’ and we should never be surprised ‘when grace, beauty, meaning, order, compassion, truth and love show up… in unexpected good people and places’ because it has and always will be Gods world.[29]

 I appreciate this approach from Bell and others.  Though he doesn’t mention it – it is based on the missio Dei – the major biblical truth that the God revealed in scriptures is a missional God, personal, purposeful and goal orientated.[30]  Barth originally showed the concept of missio in the early church is to be found in the trinity, Hartenstein built on this when he coined the phrase Missio Dei, he wrote:

Mission is not a matter human activity or organisation, ‘its sources is the triune God himself’. The mission of the Son for the reconciliation of all things through the power of the Spirit is the foundation and goal of the mission.[31]

 The same view is found in Mission shaped church:

 The mission of God as creator through Christ, in the Spirit, is to bring into being, sustain and perfect the whole creation… The mission of God as redeemer, through Christ, in the Spirit, is to restore and reconcile the fallen creation… the mission of the church is the gift of participating through the Holy Spirit in the Son’s mission from the father to the world.[32]

The gospel of the kingdom insists on participation with what God as creator is doing.  It insists on seeing all things as needing redemption.  A gospel of a loving, compassionate God is possibly still welcomed, a gospel that speaks of new beginnings and envisions a radical vision for a different world might be listened too, a gospel that is candid about injustice, cruelty, of disrupted shalom may be respected but a gospel that unswervingly focuses on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ will encounter resistance.[33]  Here is my only critique of Bell is that he knows of this resistance and he underplays the importance of the cross for personal salvation.  He does see the need for repentance from our role in disrupting shalom but fails to link that forgiveness to the ultimate act, ‘Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures’.[34]  With this critique added to Bell’s argument I think we can agree with Newbigin that the gospel is

the announcement that in the series of events that have their centre in the life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ something has happened that alters the total human situation and must therefore call into question every human culture.[35]

This Gospel of the kingdom offers much in our engagement with contemporary culture.  Evangelism would move from recruitment of those outside of the church to an invitation of companionship.  The church would show that their hope is in a God who reigns in love and will bring about good for the whole earth.  The testimony of the church would be the hearing of this announcement and knowing it already breaking into the world.  They would confirm that they now know the open welcome and can invite others to join them as those to whom God's welcome has also been extended. The church would offer those invited assistance into the reign of God, the kingdom, and travel with them as co-pilgrims.[36]  I conclude with Marshall, this approach of humility is long overdue.[37]  Most importantly, it frames our story in a way that it speaks to McLarens four dysfunctions.  It is a story that needs to be heard and can be spoken with confidence in our post-Christendom culture. 

I am loving my emerging understanding of the Gospel!  Let us share the wondrous story!

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[1] Fiddes, P., Haymes, B., Kidd, R. and Quicke, M. (1996). Something to declare. Baptist Union of Great Britain. Retrieved January 9, 2018 11:09 from Baptist union of Great Britain: http://baptist.org.uk/Publisher/File.aspx?ID=111290. p. 28. 

[2] McKnight, S. (2011). The King Jesus Gospel. Revised ed. Grand Rapids: Zondervan. p. 90.

[3] Guder, D.L. (2000). The continuing conversion of the church. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans. p. 98.

[4] Murray, S. (2004). Post-Christendom. Milton Keynes: Paternoster. p. 226.

[5] McLaren, B. (2004). A generous orthodoxy. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.p. 107.

[6] McKnight. (2016). P.30.

[7] Claiborne, S. and Campolo, T. (2012). Red Letter Christianity. London: Hodder and Stoughton. pp. 10-11.

[8] Marshall, G. (2013). ‘A missional ecclesiology for the 21^st century’. Journal of European Baptist Studies.  Holland: International Baptist Theological Seminary. p.16. 

[9] Ibid. p.16.

[10] McLaren. (2007). p. 5.

[11] Bell, R. (2009). Beginning at the beginning. Robbell.com. Retrieved January 10, 2018 9:41 from YouTube: http://youtube.com/watch?v=2cwMOcMDjhc.

[12] Genesis 1 and 2. (NRSV).

[13] Wright, C. (2003). ‘Truth with a mission:  Reading scripture missiologically’, in Gardner, P., Wright, C. and Green, C. (eds). (2003). Fanning the flame. Grand Rapids: Zondervan. p. 227.

[14] Keller, T. (2010). Generous Justice. London: Hodder and Stoughton. p. 174.

[15] Revelation 21 and 22. (NRSV).

[16] Isaiah 65. (NRSV).

[17] Bell. (2009).

[18] Ibid.

[19] Matthew 19. (NRSV).

[20] Acts 3. (NRSV).

[21] Colossians 1. (NRSV).

[22] Bell. (2009).

[23] Ibid.

[24] Genesis 12:1-3. (NRSV).

[25] Wright. (2003). p. 226.

[26] Ibid. p. 227. 

[27] John 20:15. (NRSV).

[28] Wright, T. (2002). John for everyone. London: SPCK. p. 146.

[29] Bell. (2009).

[30] Wright. (2003). p. 225.

[31] Robinson, M. and Stängle, G. ‘Missional – The new paradigm in our heterogeneous contexts’, in Badenberg, R. and Knödler, F. (eds). (2015). Missional – Embracing a paradigm shift for missions. Hamburg: The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek. p. 28.

[32] Marshall, G. (2013). ‘A missional ecclesiology for the 21^st century’. Journal of European Baptist Studies.  Holland: International Baptist Theological Seminary. p. 11.

[33] Guder, D.L. (2000). The continuing conversion of the church. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans. p. 40.

[34] 1 Corinthians 15:3. (NRSV). 

[35] Newbigin, L. (1986). Foolishness to the Greeks. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. pp. 3-4. 

[36] Guder, D.L. (1998). Missional Church. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans. p. 97.

[37] Marshall. (2013). p. 17. 

Butterfly or Snake

When I began bible college 13 years ago, I was told that it would be a difficult experience, because they would strip down my faith to the bare minimum and then rebuild it on solid foundations.  This did not happen!  Mainly because I had only been a ‘recommitted’ Christian a year and did not have much faith to strip back!  I was a blank canvas.  However, my time as a missional listener has stripped me back and corrected some wrong ways and purposes and I hope over time rebuilding me in a much more Christ like manner.  It has been a difficult experience, broken at times, terrifying at others but the result has been one of moving closer to God and being more able to join in with His mission.  My previous blogs on the wrong questions, more answers and family are good examples of this stripping back and over the next few weeks I will share with you some others. 

But it’s a good thing.  A difficult thing but a good thing.  A painful thing but a good thing.  A scary thing but a good thing.

In November I went to the Launch conference in Manchester.  It wasn’t completely my cup of tea but as always with God there were bits that were helpful.  Danielle Strickland, wherever and whenever she speaks, is someone who is always a means of grace to me.  She mentioned in her talk about being a butterfly or a snake.  It is in conversation with Nicodemus that Jesus says that to see the kingdom of heaven you must be born again.[1]  But how are we born again?  Like a butterfly that has a one-off transformation from something small too something incredible?

Imagine asking Peter when he was born again? What might his answer be?  When he was fishing, and Jesus asked him to follow him?[2]  When he realises Jesus has the words of eternal life?[3] Perhaps at the transfiguration?[4] Or when reconciled with Jesus on the beach?[5] Coming forward to preach at Pentecost?[6]  Or doing the unthinkable and staying with and explaining the gospel to a Roman centurion called Cornelius?[7]  The answer would probably be every time.  Strickland concludes that perhaps the Christian should be more like a snake, constantly letting go of skin that doesn’t fit anymore and move closer to God.[8]

This tells you where I am in the missional listening project.  I’m a snake!  Constantly shedding skin… painful… scary… hard… but the result is moving closer to God.  Hallelujah! 

When were you born again?  Is it a date in time when you were ‘converted’?  The Christian calling is to be continually born again.  So, when was the last time you were born again?  May you be born again today. 

Hiebert writes that in the nineteenth century the focus of the missional movement was behavioural change, in the twentieth century its focus was the changing of beliefs and in the twenty-first century it needs to be focused on the transforming of worldview.[9]  When we focus on conversion we think of an old set of beliefs and behaviours replaced with new ones. As we live in contemporary culture our worldview is constantly affected and shaped and we must see worldview not only as conversion but ‘as a process of deep discipling’.[10]  Then we can respond to Paul's plea ‘to not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God’.[11] 

My friends, be continually born again, shed skin, and have your worldview constantly changed by our wonderful God.  Learn to know him different, neighbour different, yourself different, the world different… be born again and may you move closer to Him! 

Hiebert, P.G. (2008). Transforming Worldviews. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic.

Strickland, D. (2017). ‘Snake vs. butterfly – being born again’. Thrive.  Retrieved January 10, 12:13 from thrive: https://thriveconference.org/now/snake-vs-butterfly-being-born-again-by-danielle-strickland.

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[1] John 3:3. (NRSV).

[2] Mark 1:17. (NRSV).

[3] John 6:68. (NRSV).

[4] Matthew 17:1-13. (NRSV).

[5] John 21:14-23. (NRSV).

[6] Acts 2:14-41. (NRSV).

[7] Acts 10. (NRSV).

[8] Strickland. (2017).

[9] Hiebert. (2008). pp. 11-12.

[10] Ibid. p. 319.

[11] Romans 12:2. (NRSV).