Fellowship of believers

The fellowship of believers in Acts and today

You should never start with an apology, but I’m sorry!  I was preparing for a sermon on becoming a missional community and the words that got stuck in my mind were ‘enjoying the favour of all people’.[1]  So I went to that wonderful passage in Acts 2 that describes the early believer’s community to see why they were held in such favour… and I saw that passage for the first time through different eyes.  The reason I begin with an apology is that I did not preach that sermon as I felt it wasn’t uplifting or encouraging enough!  But here are some thoughts… First let’s look at Acts 2 and then let’s rewrite it for an average Christian community today…

Acts 2:42-47

⁴² They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. ⁴³ Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. ⁴⁴ All the believers were together and had everything in common. ⁴⁵ They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. ⁴⁶ Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, ⁴⁷ praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Acts 2:42-47 (Today)

They devoted themselves to the worship leader and their favourite pastors preaching.  They prayed together and remembered the Lords supper once a month.  Some were filled with awe as they heard about wonders and signs performed in Africa and India, others received the news with cynicism.  All the believers were divided and had very little in common other than the need to be in church on a Sunday morning and maybe a midweek group.  They sold their property to get better property.  When unable to sell their property, they gave it to a charity shop to distribute amongst the poor.  They met together weekly in a church building.  They broke bread at the church picnic and odd social and once in a blue moon in their own homes.   The people did not look at them favourably but as those who do not think woman are equal and are anti-gay and responsible for many of the world’s problems (especially war).  And the church grew with dissatisfied worshippers from other churches and very (very) rarely the lord added to their number those who were being saved. 

I did apologise at the beginning!!! 

I have preached many times on this passage whilst in church pastorate.  Always with the desire to become more like those early Christians.  I came with fresh eyes this time as I no longer lead a church.  I can begin with a blank page.  But how do we and our communities (those in churches and those pioneering) become more like the early Christians? I do not have the answers but here are a few thoughts and questions…

1).  How do we move away from an institutional form of church?  I have been to three churches recently who all consider themselves welcoming.  We had a welcome at the door, invited to church quiz, picnic, welcome lunch… lovely!  But all we have been invited too is more church activity.  How do we get to the point where we are inviting people to our houses and into our lives? 

2).  How do really become family?  It is often said that we are the church family, but does it look like family?  I would do anything for my kids.  If I have not seen them for a day or two I miss them.  If they have a big thing going on I support it.  I would love to be in a community where others felt that way about my family and I would love to view others that way.

3).  How do we begin to expect the miraculous?  Yes, I have heard the stories and been at the big events.  But how do we get to the point where the miracles we are talking about are the ones we have been involved in recently?

4).  How do we become radical with our (God’s) money?  How do we counter the culture of more and better to become those who want less and give to those in need? How do we move away from the tithe to seeing everything as God’s?

5).  How do we concentrate less on acts of mission and more on becoming the people God called us to be?  Because God calls us to be faithful.  The only thing that had nothing to do with the early believers is the very last line of Acts 2, ‘God added to their number daily those who were being saved’.  We strategize and strategize how to get bums on seats when that is down to God, our role is to be faithful and to live out our part in a radical community. 

6).  How do we get the people around us to see us with favour?  What doctrines/viewpoints do we need to lower in our list of importance?  What is our overriding message?  How do we show the gospel in our lives?  Are we good news for the poor?

My desire is to be a part of a community like that recorded in Acts 2.  Except wiser!  We have learnt from past mistakes.  I want to be a part of a community where I deeply love and live out my faith with those who have differing opinions and viewpoints.   I want to be a part of a community where everyone is bringing a word/a teaching/an exhortation.   I want to be a part of a community that sees God miraculously at work and bringing his kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.  I want to be a part of a community that is fighting for equality and leading the way in sharing its gifts with those in need.  I want to be a part of a community that meets so often, loves so deeply that it feels like family.  I want to be a part of a community where we hear and see what God is doing around us and with mutual encouragement join in.  I want to be a part of a community that stops strategizing about mission and stops getting tired out with programme after programme but releases me to be all that God has called me to be in the world.  I want to be a part of a community that is one… one in worship… one in prayer… one in Jesus.  And my prayer is that God will add to our number daily those who are being saved!

If you are reading this and are a part of an institutional church, I’m sorry!  But do have a go at rewriting Acts 2 for your specific community.  How can it become even more radical?  But be honest! I did not write this to do harm but because I think that people living like Acts 2 would see transformation in the lives of those around us.

With that in mind, please can I be so bold to ask that you pray for Ez, me and the kids as we strive to see this community come to fruition in Charlton Down and the villages of Dorset.  We need it!  Because the major problem of creating a wonderful community is that we will be in it!!!

God bless you and your community. 

---

[1] Acts 2:47a

Reimagining Church

Reimagining Church

If you ever want a challenging read regarding the status quo of the church then Frank Viola is your man!  I was deeply challenged by his book Pagan Christianity and have really enjoyed Reimagining Church: Pursuing the dream of Christianity.  I do not agree with all Frank writes but I do agree that we need a paradigm shift regarding the church from institutionalism to a more organic way of being.  He helpfully describes the institutional paradigm and the organic paradigm in the table below, as you read it I wonder which you would prefer to be a part of?

Institutional Paradigm	Organic Paradigm
Sustained by clergy system	Knows nothing about a clergy system
Seeks to energise the laity	Doesn’t recognise a different class called laity
Limits many functions to the ordained	Makes all members functioning priests
Renders the bulk of its congregant’s passive in their ‘pews’	Allows and encourages all Christians to engage in whatever ministry god has called them to
Associates church with a building, a denomination, or a religious service	Affirms that people do not go to church; affirms that they (together) are the church
Is rooted in unifying those who share a special set of customs or doctrines	Is rooted in unreserved fellowship with all Christians based on Christ alone
Places its priority on programme and rituals that keep its congregants at arm’s length, insulating them from one another	Places its priorities on face to face, shared life relationships, mutual submission, openness, freedom, mutual service, and spirituality reality-the very elements that were built into the NT church
Depends on forced tithing and huge budgets	Depends on the spirit of god to bring about generous, grace based giving among members
Spends most of its resources on building expenditures and pastor-staff salaries	Spends most of its resources on ‘the poor among you’ and travelling workers who preach the gospel and plant new churches
Operates on the basis that the pastor/priest is the functional head (while Christ is the nominal head)	Operates on the basis that Christ is the functional head through the invisible guidance of the holy spirit through the believing community
Extols and protects the clergy, programme-centred system that serves as the driving machine of the organised church	Rejects the clergy system because it quenches the sovereign exercise of the Holy Spirit yet lovingly embraces every Christian within the system
Recognises and affirms hierarchical leadership	Rejects hierarchical leadership; recognises and affirms the organic leadership of the whole body
Builds programmes to fuel the church; treats people as cogs in the machine	Builds people together in Christ to provide the momentum of the church
Encourages believers to participate institutionally and hierarchically	Initiates believers to participate relationally and spiritually
Separates church (ecclesiology) from personal salvation (soteriology): views the former as a mere appendage to the latter	Forges no link between personal salvation and the church; sees the two as inextricably intertwined.  (Scripture has it that when people were saved, they simultaneously became part of the church and immediately met together[1]

I am sure there are grey areas above and I like you may have some arguments about some of the statements.  But!  I do recognise the desperate need for a paradigm shift.  I know which community I would prefer to be a part of having been shattered by institutional church with its too high expectations of leadership and programme orientated ministry.  I have been so effected by this that as I go about looking to be a part of an organic movement I go about thinking about it in an institutional way!  I have become despondent by institutional churches arms length love and unradical community.  Its time for a change.  A change to the Acts 2 model. 

However, the thing I notice most as we go about making this paradigm shift is the cost.  The cost to me of privilege, finances and status (some already made but much more to come).  And the cost to other believers (especially spectator ones) as they share much of the load that sits on the shoulders of the one or two.  But I am willing to take the cost.  The thought of a vibrant Christian community impacting its community is too much of an adventure to begin by counting the cost...

So… for now… I’m excited about organic Christianity, what about you?

                       

---

[1] Viola, F. (2008). Reimagining church. Pages 274-275.

We are Family

We are family

I hope that you are as guilty as me?  I have an online persona.  What do I mean by this?  Well I tend to only post online things that are positive and put me in a good light.  Take the family for instance, I tend to only post pictures of them looking cute, having adventures or doing something funny.  For those of you who do not see us regularly I could give the impression that all’s well in paradise.  I do not tend to post photos of arguments, moaning, tears and upset.  Forgive me for not being honest.  My kids are amazing.  I love them so much but please may I never give the impression that our family life is one happy moment after another.  There are at times… tensions!

A couple of years ago we went on holiday to Norfolk.  A pretty long drive from Bristol where we were living at the time.  This is a tiny segment of a four-hour journey:

Gracie:  I want the CD on

Mummy: It’s not I want, it’s I would like please

Gracie: I would like the CD on please

(Daddy changes CD)

Anna: I liked that one – put that one back on… 

Gracie: (Whilst driving past Gloucester) Are we there yet?  

Anna: I don’t want to be in the car 

Anna: (The first of 1000 rounds) I want breadstick… I want raisins… I want banana, I want chocolate, I want ice cream 

Gracie: Ooh… I want an ice cream – can we have track 5 now? 

Bethany: Starts to cry 

Daddy – can you put Bethany’s MEME (Dummy) in  

Gracie: I can’t find it  

Daddy: Have you looked 

Gracie: Yes – oh wait it's there on her lap 

Anna: I want my MEME, I want breadstick… I want raisins… I want banana, I want chocolate, I want ice cream 

Gracie: How long to go 

Daddy: 3 hours  (tears gathering in eyes)!

Anna: I want to hold your hand Mummy 

Ez: It’s not I want, it’s I would like please

(Ez gives hand)

Anna: (Bursts into tears and shouting) I want other hand – I want other hand… 

Ez: I can’t reach with other hand make do with that one 

Gracie: I wanted to hold your hand mummy 

Anna: I want breadstick… I want raisins… I want banana, I want chocolate, I want ice cream 

(It all goes wonderfully quiet as we all like track 8 except for…) 

Anna: Don’t want Daddy to sing! 

(A bit of quiet as we pass Cheltenham)  

Anna: I want to take my clothes off  

Mummy: you can’t take your clothes off 

Daddy: (trying to make light of the situation) you want to get naked Anna – yes let’s all get naked!

Gracie: I don’t want to get naked 

Anna:  Get naked Gracie –  

Gracie: No

(For next 10 mins argument about whether Gracie should be naked or not broken by...)

Gracie: Are we nearly there yet?

5 mins of a 4-hour journey!

God bought to my attention recently that when I was in my previous role as a pastor of an established Baptist church my family life and ministry had become quite separate.  This was the first role I had where Ez wasn’t also in post and now she was enjoying being ‘full time’ mum.  Most of my ‘work’ took place visiting or at the wonderful suite of buildings the church owned.  Hospitality happened when the kids were in bed.  It was not often enough my ministry and family life came together.  God had bought this to my attention whilst I get used to my new pioneering role in Dorset called missional listening.  We are very much called to do this as a family.  But when we get invited out to meet people or to share dreams I am anxious because will I be able to be a ‘professional’ minister whilst also being Dad?  Will they fall out and if brutally honest embarrass me?  Will they judge me that I cannot control my kids?  These thoughts came to a head when we were entertaining a good friend from Bristol.  We were all in the car and enjoying an episode like the one experienced going to Norfolk.  I shouted!  Yes, in front of an old church member I shouted, was cross, was annoyed and ran of patience.  I spent weeks feeling awful that this friend had seen me break the Christian perfection bubble I am guilty of sometimes trying to preserve.  Something had to give.

Whilst at New Wine this summer God reminded me not to be embarrassed, not to stop showing my vulnerabilities and that it’s okay to have chaotic children.  Even more so, to minister from there to others who I am sure are feeling and going through similar experiences (unless you are all telling the truth on Facebook) as we are.  That is authentic ministry.  Ministering out of who we are.  The good, the bad and the ugly.

So please my friends, minister out of your weaknesses, bring all you have to the table, because it is in our weakness that God makes us strong.  Let’s create a family, a community and a culture that we can be honest in, vulnerable in and by God’s grace then see healing, love, support and hope as we journey together.

I may not start posting all the difficult moments we encounter on Facebook.  Just last week, I wanted to take a photo of one of my children having a tantrum on a train so that I could write a blog on materialism!  Ez told me I had to comfort her instead!  But you are so very welcome to join us as we minister in the villages of rural Dorset.  You are welcome to join us for a meal, or to just hang out… and do church.  We are not perfect, but we are loved by God and saved by the amazing grace of Jesus Christ.  We would love you to join us as we explore what that means for us and the communities around.  May God bless you and please do not fret about weaknesses but bring them to a community where you will be loved and nurtured and on the wonderful journey to Christ likeness.  We would love to welcome you. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkCv-_L-Aac

More Answers

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. 

---

[1] http://www.talkingjesus.org/

Empty hands

It’s a battle for me to give God control of my life. Amazing really when you think of what a mess I made of it before committing to follow him and incredible when you think of the bad decisions or too quick decisions I still make now when I do not involve him. 

I had the privilege of marrying lovely people recently.  I was struck during the service by some of the consistent themes that flowed through the service.  I welcomed people to ‘worship the God from whom all love derives’.  When I was introducing the wedding, I said ‘all who trust their lives to one another are relying on the power of love and faithfulness of God, so we shall ask God to send his blessing on …. and …. that their new life together may be filled with joy, may bring them ever closer to one another, and may make them ever more open to God, whose love gives meaning to theirs’.  I then prayed and included these words ‘and since we know without you nothing is strong, nothing is holy, we pray that as they now make their vows, you will sustain them and surround them’.  I prayed before the giving and receiving of rings ‘by your grace, help them to be faithful to each other in unbroken love’.  I finished the vow part of the service with a traditional blessing ‘May the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you:  The Lord lift his countenance before you, and give you peace.  Amen.’  I went on to preach a sermon on being God chasers!  Chasing after Gods presence so that they can be so filled with His love it will overflow to the families, friends and communities they live and serve.  There was a consistent theme and that was if their marriage was going to be good and unbroken they needed to come humbly to God and not just rely on any human promise or effort. 

At the beginning of the missional listening project I am having a constant battle of control.  You see I have more ideas before breakfast than most people have in a week.  I think I know how to be successful!  I have had two fruitful ministries in the churches I have served, congregations have grown, people have come to faith and both churches have been left loving God and people more than when I started.  I know what to do now surely!  I know what sort of church I want to create, I know how to draw a crowd, I know what to do here in rural Dorset because of the things that have worked elsewhere.   I come with gifts and talents, a bucket load of sermons, leadership techniques, ways to create vision and solutions to problems.    Let’s get on with it!  But, just like a marriage, nothing will be fruitful here because of human endeavour, only if God blesses.  In fact, all the historic success I may have known has come from God despite my best efforts to get in the way!  I truly believe that God is in control, and he will lead us to the people to serve, will show us how to open the bible with them and then create an indigenous church from this, but why do I have so much difficulty humbling myself to living this out?  One of the questions I keep getting asked by Christians is ‘what would success look like to you in 5 years’ and ‘what would failure look like?’ Deep down I am thinking ‘when we have a church in the village of 50 members including 50% converts and loads of children running around, and seeing other villages buying into acoustic84 so we can begin to have congregations in there. And I would love to see Alpha’s running, cell groups that are both intentional and fun, people meeting in 3 and 4’s to do the hard one anothering together’!  That’s what’s deep down, that’s what I have done before, that’s what’s been successful, that’s what I wanted to say.  But instead I simply answer, ‘if I am loving God more and others more in 5 years it would have been a success’!  It would have been an even better statement if I believed it to my very being. 

Too often I come to God with full hands.  I come to listen, to pray, to serve with all the solutions and all the answers.  I wonder how different life would be if we came to Him with empty hands? 

Recently I went to the southern counties Baptist annual meeting where we called the Reverend Colin Norris to the position of Senior regional minister.  When giving a brief response to the calling he said humbly ‘I come with empty hands’.  Now I know Colin a little (he was my predecessor at my previous church) and he has tonnes of gifts, but unlike me, I think Colin believes to his very being, that he comes with empty hands.  He signposted us to the wonderful scene at the end of the gospel of John where the boat was in the right place, the fishermen were in the right place, and Jesus said, ‘have you caught anything’?  The disciples said simply ‘no, or ‘we have empty (nets) hands’!  They needed to state this so that Jesus could then direct them to try the other side to which they did and the result was a wonderful catch.  We as a family know we are in the right place but we come with empty hands waiting for Jesus to direct us and trusting that if we can find the courage to follow Him, our ministry will be fruitful here in rural Dorset.  Now we just need to believe this to our very being.  When people ask us, what can we pray for you I simply say this; ‘please pray that I will follow Jesus’ lead rather than go ahead and then ask for blessing, please pray that I will decrease so He can increase, please pray that Jesus will be Lord of our lives, please pray that we come to this project knowing we are called but with empty hands’.  Do please pray for us!  We need it!  With your prayers and our aspiration perhaps we can truly make Jesus lord of our lives.