To whom are we sent?

To whom are we sent? In Acts 1 Jesus tells his disciples that they will be witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

In his own ministry Jesus concentrated on Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem preaching mainly to the "lost sheep of Israel" - his own people. He did not actively seek to preach to Gentiles. However, during this time he became aware that his Kingdom would bless the Samaritans (who were contaminated by syncretizing canaanite worship into Judaism) and the Gentiles (see Matt 15:21-28).

As I reflect on Jesus' ministry it seems that our context is drastically different. There are no crowds of basically religious people eagerly hoping for a Messiah. There are some who might be called "back to church" and we should try to win these back. The majority of the population in Britain, however, are more like the Samaritans: they are comfortable in their consumerism (Baal worship) and do not feel the need to worship the Living God.

I have been preaching recently on Luke's gospel. Nearly every week we see Jesus challenging the Pharisees. These super-religious people were the stalwarts of organised religion in their time, but they "rejected God's purpose for themselves, because they had not been baptised by John" (Luke 7:30). The ordinary Jewish people responded to John's preaching and were baptised. The Pharisees, who thought they were good enough already would not submit to John's baptism because of their arrogance and pride. They missed out on the joy of being in the Kingdom of God with Jesus.

In winning back those who are the lost sheep, we need to embrace Jesus' understanding of the Kingdom of God. Grace and mercy, healing and forgiveness are more important than rules and status. I am concerned that many inside the churches at present are like the Pharisees - full of themselves and what they want, rather than getting excited about joining with Jesus in his mission to bring home the lost sheep. We need to be with Jesus praying for more workers to become active in the harvest (Luke 10:2).

Jesus' mission to the Samaritans was unsuccessful in Luke 9:51-56, but in John 4 when he exercised his prophetic gifting with the woman at the well there was a positive response. In Acts we see the Samaritans accepting the gospel when it was accompanied with miraculous signs and healing miracles (Acts 8:6-8).

We need to be out and about amongst the Samaritans of Britain with the power and gifts of the Holy Spirit. We cannot expect them to come to us. Maybe as we get a few more lost sheep back in the fold some of them will become the missionaries amongst the Samaritans of our land?

Who are these Samaritans? I think they are the ordinary people of Britain who are in employment, who own their own home, drive everywhere, drink more wine than they used to, sort of believe in God, used to be in the brownies or the cubs, but have never been active church members as adults. These are people I meet when I baptise their children, or officiate at their weddings. These are the people who want Dad to have a christian funeral and who might describe themselves as "spiritual but not religious."

The Gentiles are an even tougher nut to crack. The initial cross-cultural missionaries were Jews. Paul and Barnabas were living in a gentile city, worshipping with Jewish christians and those who had converted to Judaism. As Gentiles came to faith the church grew in its understand that the good news of Jesus was the gospel for the whole world.

When Paul and his friends went out on their missionary journeys to gentile cities it is interesting to note that they always started with the Synagogue. They looked for religious people who would respond to the message of Jesus and form the basis of a missional community in the city they were trying to reach.

What or who are the equivalent people today in Britain who will be at the heart of mission to the Gentiles?

I don't know the answer to this question. And at the moment I find myself drawn more to mission amongst the "Samaritans". This is where I am seeing fruitfulness. These "samaritans" are the "people of peace" that I am finding at the MCFC supporters club. These are the the bulk of the people living in my parish. As we do our Alpha courses and establish our "new wineskins" (Cafe Church, cell groups, praise services etc) these are the people who we are able to integrate into church life. Most of them don't want traditional Anglicanism just as the Samaritans in Jesus' time did not want to worship at the Temple. But they know when they are worshipping "in Spirit and in Truth."

Maybe I should change the title of my blog to be "to-the-Samaritans" ??

Teamwork

Andrew has taken up rowing. His team, Teddy Hall C, is the third novice crew (not expected to be participating in the next Olympic games). Nevertheless, they put in a superb performance yesterday at the Christchurch regatta, winning their first race by a huge margin against Balliol B team and then holding off Trinity's A Team in the second round until the finish line. Watch it here in larger size or in the box below. I think Andrew is the first oarsman (bow) in the nearest boat.

Cowboy Evangelism

I have done plenty of cowboy evangelism in my time. Lots of “yee-haa” but not much harvesting. We learned how to present the gospel with a little booklet. We went out on the streets of Westminster with tracts written by Arthur Blessit who led a training day in London in 1981. We tried to fill coaches with people from Hackney to go and hear Eric Delve preach in Walthamstow. We trained with Douglas McBain’s Mustard Seed to preach in the open air. We did sketchboard presentations at the local community fun day. Much energy expended. Few disciples.

When I led the “News Team” in Hackney we went out every week knocking on doors chatting to people about Jesus, inviting them to church etc. We would nearly always find someone welcoming who wanted to talk. I found myself offering lots of pastoral care and comfort to these lost sheep who never came near the church. We discovered after a while that about 1 in 7 households were receptive to visitors from the local church, but we did not spend enough time with these people. We kept trying to get them to come to us and got discouraged when they did not.

It is a shame that we did not hear the message of Luke 10:7 at this time. Stay in the house of the person of peace. ie spend enough time with this household that they catch the message of the Kingdom of God. Our vicar at the time had the best approach: he would go back week after week to his contacts with a beginners course in Christianity (similar to Good News Down Your Street). I remember thinking that we might learn from his example and do the same, but it never seemed to happen. I personally grew weary of seeing little fruit from the door to door ministry, and at about the same time I joined the FGBMFI which held evangelistic dinners. We saw lots of people get saved and healed at these events so I moved my energies into these instead.

Looking back I would say that the opportunities were there. Maybe we should have persevered in spending more time with those who were open. Maybe we needed to be less busy doing other church things in order to have the time and energy to go out and spend time with these people. After all Jesus did say "do not greet anyone along the road". A curious phrase that I interpret to mean we should be single minded and dedicated to the task.

What Happens in a Huddle?

I have been asked "What happens in a huddle?" Here is my reply:

I am not yet an expert on Huddles, but my former colleague Nick Haigh (who is now Vicar of the Net in Huddersfield has attended one in Sheffield since summer 2005. We model our meetings on his description of what happens, together with what I gleaned from the training day in June this year and the guiding of the Holy Spirit before and during the meetings.

My understanding and present practice is as follows :
· Ideal size group 5-8 people ie On an average of 10 minutes per person + 10 minutes for leadership input = 60-90 minute meeting
· Absolute confidentiality is agreed. If someone wants permission to share anything (eg a positive testimony) beyond the group permission should be expressly sought.
· The meeting will begin with a short prayer
· If someone arrives at the huddle obviously in need of support or full of what the Lord is doing in their particular ministry area we often gather round and pray for them at this point.
· A few moments are spent on feedback and accountability, following up the issues, plans and resolutions made at the previous meeting
· The leader sets the direction of the meeting (having sought guidance from the Holy Spirit) eg Today we are going to use the Square. A bible reading might be used here.
· The leader may give a brief resume of the Lifeshape that is to be used
· A few moments in silent prayer for the Holy Spirit to show us where we are on this issue
· Each person shares in turn for a couple of minutes about how they are doing, and where they think God is wanting to develop them, and what they find difficult etc It is important to note that the “victim” only shares what s/he feels comfortable sharing. Everyone else listens and refrains from jumping in with "that happened to me" type comments.
· The other members of the group have an opportunity to ask questions to clarify exactly what the issues are, and to help the person on the spot to see past their blind spots. No advice is given at this point, it is better for the person to identify with the Lord what responses might be appropriate. We use questions like “What do you think the Father might want to prune away so you have more time for prayer and bible reading?”
· One or two brief prayers are said for the person asking for God’s help in following through resolutions or responses identified.
· The next person shares as per the previous three points. Until everyone including the Huddle leader has shared and been quizzed.
· We end with a short prayer, asking for the Lord’s protection upon us.

I attended a Huddle training day in Sheffield this June. Part of the session was a "goldfish bowl" huddle in front of everyone present where a huddle meeting was modelled. They used the Huddle Character card which has a number of questions under the headings UP IN OUT. Everyone was encouraged to sit in silence for a couple of minutes prayerfully reading through the questions whilst asking the Holy Spirit to point out which of the questions was most pertinent at present. Each person shared for about a minute and were then asked questions by the huddle leader and by other members of the huddle.

In the huddles at St. Mark’s so far we have used some of the Lifeshapes. In our first meeting we used the Semi-Circle. I reminded people of the teaching about seasons of abiding and fruitfulness, daily, weekly, and monthly rhythms. We also reminded ourselves that pruning is necessary for greater fruitfulness, and that we need the Father to guide us to the best out of a massive choice of “good” things that we could be doing. We then asked the question “What does abiding look like for you? How do you recharge? What restores your soul?” After waiting on the Lord for a couple of minutes we each shared and were quizzed. In our second meeting we used the Triangle to identify whether we were weak in any of the three areas. We shared what we felt the Lord wanted us to do about this. Some of the issues raised were worth exploring more deeply, so we used the Circle together the following week.

My hope over the next few months is to ensure that every leader is able to be reflective about their own spirituality, and can use the Lifeshapes to help them in this. Also that they will grow in their ability to hold one another accountable. I am also looking for opportunities to develop leadership skills through the huddles. I sometimes draw attention to how something shared might alter the way we lead in our cell groups. I expect this area to be more important once we all feel more comfortable using the Lifeshapes intuitively in daily life.

Huddle for Mission

Since I started blogging in March I have been reflecting on the nature of Church. To reach the "gentiles" with the good news of Jesus and his Kingdom we are going to have to embrace radical church structures which are flexible and easy to reproduce. One church that had made great strides in this area is St. Thomas in Sheffield.

St. Toms has a Parish Church presence in Crookes - a suburb of Sheffield and a City-wide presence through St.Thomas, Philadelphia which has a base/resource centre in an old industrial unit near the city centre.

The history of St. Toms has been an inspiration to me over the years - I read Robert Warren's book "In the Crucible" around the time of my selection conference. I embraced his teaching about Missionary congregations. I have followed with interest the growth of clusters and cells under Mike Breen's leadership.

Out of this has now come TOM - The Order of Mission. The pattern of life is based on the Lifeshapes (originally known as Lifeskills). New disciples are taught these shapes as a way they can live in obedience to the teachings of Christ. They are simple, practical and memorable which means they can easily be transferred to a new disciple. Simple is important for movement and sustainable growth.

Leaders are mentored and trained in the use of the Lifeshapes through Huddles. The principle used is one of High Acountability - Low Control. It is very Apostolic in nature and it realeases people to lead missionary communities.

The following is a descrition of Huddles from a card that is used by Huddle members in The Order of Mission.

‘Huddle’ is the structure by which every member of The Order of Mission engages with on-going support and training. Reflecting our understanding that each one of us is both a follower and a leader, members are both called into a huddle, where they are led, and—over time—call others into a huddle that they lead. Christ-like character is the most fundamental issue for leaders. We also need to learn effective leadership skills. The questions on this card are a tool to help us identify where God is wanting to address our character.

There is a companion card with questions to help us identify where God is wanting to address our skills. In each case, we read through the questions, asking the Holy Spirit to highlight the issue He wants to address. It might be an area where we need to allow Him to change us, or an area where we need to recognise the extent to which He already has—in other words, we expect both the challenge to repent and the encouragement of seeing the kingdom break in.

The huddle leader is called to help the members of their huddle in this process. Lifeskills—the Pattern of Life of the Order—provides the tools to do so, and a summary of the shapes is found on this card. The relationship between the leader and their huddle should be one of ‘low control, high accountability’, whereby the leader is only directive where appropriate, with the aim of releasing the follower as a leader themselves; and the follower gives their leader permission to hold them accountable in both character and skills.

A bit more about huddles can be read on the St. Thomas website.

The weakness of “Lone Ranger” evangelism

I am increasingly convinced that Jesus knew what he was doing when he sent his disciples out “two by two” into the towns and villages of Israel (Luke 10). A team of two is far more effective than a solitary Christian.

One of my hopes in joining the local branch of the Manchester City Supporters Club was that I would have some opportunities to share my faith with the people I meet week by week. Up to now it has not been as easy as I had hoped, and I want to note a few observations.

I have been welcomed and accepted by the people at the club and I am there as a presence. My faith is the occasional subject of some light hearted banter, but I have not found many natural opportunities to talk about Jesus and the important aspects of faith in him. I am sure though that it would be easier for such conversations to arise if there was another Christian with me. Two Christians can model community in a way that one alone cannot.

I am sure that a lot of prayer happened while the disciples of Jesus walked to the village they visited. It is easier to be faithful in prayer as part of a team. Another believer mixing with the same group of people would be an encouragement to me and vice versa. We could pray together for kingdom opportunities and help one another to stay close to the Lord in this very godless environment. We could pray for discernment of where the Holy Spirit has gone before us and give one another courage in following up such opportunities. We could pray for the people we meet that their spiritual hunger would grow.

Please pray with me that the Lord will send another worker into the harvest field of the Bredbury Blues.

Historic Moment

I missed it. The biggest blog in history and I was too busy meeting a real person to blog on Tuesday. Shucks.

The Parable of the Oak Tree

I have been praying under an oak tree recently. As it is Autumn acorns have been falling off all around me. The floor is covered in acorns. There are thousands of them scattered all around.

The oak tree is not a fine specimen; it is a bit manky really. Despite several rotting branches that are about to fall off it is clearly fruitful. It will only take one of the acorns to sprout and grow into a new tree and this oak tree will have reproduced itself.

I had a look around today to see if there were any saplings nearby which may have come from this tree. There were five, but one is too close to the mother tree and isn't getting enough light. It is a scrawny thing. It doesn't have enough leaves and bugs are already eating away at it. Some of its brothers and sisters though are doing better. I'm sure at least one of these will make it to maturity.

And who knows what may come of this year's acorn crop.

Those who have ears to hear, let them hear.

Beggar, Digger or Giver?

I was not planning to blog today as I have to prepare a meeting with the Thursday Cell Group to explain why I do not agree with fundraising to buy things for the Church. However in preparation I felt God reminding me of the best sermon I ever heard about money - just a few weeks after coming to St.Mark's. It was on Luke 16 which is a bizarre story of a dishonest steward who was commended by his master for being shrewd. In verse 3 “The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg." So he gave to his master's debtors by settling their accounts at a discount and made friends for himself. The main points that I remember are:

We can beg

This embraces the poverty mentality of many churches. We are the charity. We are poor. We have no resources. Please help us. We will even be happy with your shabby second hand carpet because it has fewer holes in it than our even shabbier carpet. On a personal level we can't give any more to the church because we don't really have enough for ourselves.

We can Dig

Many church members are diggers. We work hard to earn every penny we can. We work all hours. Some even have to work on Sundays because God din't really know what life was like for the people of Bredbury when he told us that six days is enough time to do everything that we have to do.

In the Church context many like to give a bit of time to earn money for the church by selling things, holding coffee mornings or second hand goods sales, having raffles and sponsored walks. It is hard not to get sucked into these things if you want to feel that you belong to the community.

You can Give

The Christian way is to be a giver. Giving releases us from bondage to Mammon (Luke 16:13). Giving moves us into the Kingdom of God. Giving blesses other people and fulfils the Abramic promise "through your descendants all nations on earth will be blessed". Giving makes us dependent on our heavenly Father who can only provide for us properly when we stop digging and begging. We have to learn to trust him instead of ourselves.

I find it sad that so many people at St.Mark's still do not get this. They are in danger of being left behind by those who are pressing on into the goodness of the Kingdom of God.

The Exclusive Church

The Church of England used to be a broad church embracing a wide spectrum of opinion. Now sadly it seems to be keen to limit its intake of clergy to those who promise not to rock the boat.

Michael Howard's son has completed three years training at Durham, earned himself a 2:1 in theology and is refused ordination. See this article from the Mail. I don't know the man personally, but surely there must be room for a few prophetic voices within the Church? I can think of several churches where he would be welcome.

Three Kingdoms Come

I am sure we are all familiar with the expression that God wants spiritual fruit rather than religious nuts.

Well, over the past few weeks I have been blessed with some words of encouragement sent to me on slightly bizarre cards (see photos).

I can't reproduce the reams of photocopied notes that accompanied the cards, but I have filed them for future reference: they will provide a stimulating interlude at our next dinner party.

A relatively intelligible sample of the type of literature given to me is the inside of the "MOO" card. So stay happy and smile when you think of the rich and varied aspects of religious life that vicars are exposed to.

Emptying Nest

Yesterday Jane and I took Andrew down to Oxford where he begins four years of Physics at St. Edmund Hall. Our first baby has flown the nest!

Today David passed his driving test and is now driving to school! Our other baby is nearly ready to fly also.

What does a successful cell church look like?

I recently posted an article on my other blog about success. Have a read

What does a successful cell church look like?

Window of Opportunity

My main prayer time each day is when I go out into the local countryside on my bike with Amos and Shadow my sheepdogs. We go whatever the weather, but I prefer it when it is not raining. So, blogging today will have to wait until it is raining later!

Are you a Settler or a Pioneer?

Take a look at this highly entertaining piece on Guy Muse's blog about settlers and pioneers.

Where are you in the wild west?

Muttering

What is Muttering?

A dictionary definition:

mut·ter (mtr)
v. mut·tered, mut·ter·ing, mut·ters
v.intr.
1. To speak indistinctly in low tones.
2. To complain or grumble morosely.
v.tr.
To utter or say in low indistinct tones.
n.
A low grumble or indistinct utterance.

On the day I was licensed as priest in charge at St. Mark's Bishop Geoff leant out the pulpit, wagged his finger at the congregation and said "No muttering". Apparently the congregation had a reputation for grumbling and complaining. I suspect that some have reverted back into this old habit, but as it is "a low grumble of indistinct utterance" I never quite hear it first hand. I just get second-hand reports and see the effects of this when people "vote with their feet".

Why Do People Mutter?

We mutter for a variety of reasons: because we don't get what we want; or we don't get what we expect; or we don't like what we get; or we just don't like the discomfort caused by change. A few years ago I heard the former Bishop of Durham say, "I was shocked by the selfishness of people in the churches!" He found it very difficult to bring about the change that he could so clearly see was necessary for the future health of the church in his Diocese.

The Danger of Unbelief

The people of Israel used to mutter and grumble about Moses and Aaron. In Numbers 14 they even wanted to go back to Egypt rather than enter the Promised Land. It got so bad at one point that it turned to anger and "the whole assembly talked about stoning them" (v10). God was not pleased with their contempt for His promises and their lack of faith. They then had to endure 40 years wandering in the wilderness. I hope the Church in Bredbury will not make the same mistake. I hope we will heed the warning of Hebrews 3:7-19

7 So, as the Holy Spirit says:
“Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, 9 where your fathers tested and tried me and for forty years saw what I did. 10 That is why I was angry with that generation, and I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’ 11 So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ” 12 See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. 14 We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. 15 As has just been said: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.” 16 Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? 17 And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the desert? 18 And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? 19 So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.

Indifference about the Lost Sheep

In Luke 15 the Pharisees were muttering about Jesus. "This man," they said, "welcomes sinners and eats with them!" So Jesus told a few stories. One was a story about a shepherd who cared so much about a single lost sheep that he left the other 99 (who were not lost) to look after themselves while he went searching.

Jesus doesn't elaborate about the bleating that went on while the shepherd was away. Here in Bredbury I suspect that I may have upset a few folk when I reminded them at the last Annual Meeting that we are Parish of 10,000 people with a church membership of 150. As I have the cure of souls for the whole Parish if I were to apportion my time fairly, based on a 50 hour working week, I would be spending 45 minutes a week with them. I did try to reassure everyone that they would be getting more time than this, but I was trying to make the point that we church folk can be very wrapped up in ourselves, our services and what we want, when Jesus is calling us to journey out to meet the people who don't want to come to church.

Earlier this year we also started a fortnightly "Interactive" cafe-style church service on Sunday mornings at the same time as the normal Anglican hymn-sandwich style service. This means that on one Sunday a month I am not in the "Victorian" building. I suspect that a big part of the grumbling and muttering that occurred over the summer was because the people who put the money on the plate don't think they are getting their money's worth at their preferred service. The fact that the "Interactive" service is proving to be a haven for lost sheep doesn't seem to have sunk in yet.

Missing Out on the Party

Jesus went on in Luke 15 to tell the story of a Father with two sons. One son left home and was wasting his life away. The other stayed at home and "slaved" for his Father. When the lost son came home the Father threw a huge party to celebrate, but the older son would not join in. He was too angry.

There are a couple of sad things about this story. Firstly, the older son never shared his Father's compassion for his lost brother. He was just critical and condemning. Secondly, the older son felt like a slave. He was serving his Father out of duty rather than love. Both sons were lost, but only one of them realised it.

Many church people are missing out on the party because they have not yet made the journey from servanthood to sonship. There are some who have not experienced the transforming love of the Father for themselves and so they do not share his generous heart for the lost.

O Lord have mercy on your church!

New Wine is becoming the Old Wine

As I lay on the floor of an agricultural exhibition hall near Newark this summer soaking up the love of my heavenly Father there was a stray thought in my head. Why is it that only thirty out of the 2500 people in this hall are making use of this multi-sensory worship area? I love this. Why can’t church be like this all the time? Let’s get the pews out and have cushions and comfy sofas!

The “traditional” New Wine evening celebration was different that evening. Now you have to bear in mind that 90% of New Winos are Anglican (and you all know how Anglicans hate change). Normally we have 40 minutes of singing whilst standing too close to someone who hasn’t had a shower for three days (which is really bad news in a charismatic setting where armpits are exposed). Instead on this particular evening we had a couple of songs and then some prayers and a couple more songs and some more prayers. It was led by Alex and Hannah Absalom from St.Thomas Philadelphia in Sheffield along the lines of what they might do in their Sunday evening Kairos service.

I loved it. The congregational prayers were led using the Lord’s prayer as a framework (as in the Hexagon Lifeshape). Powerpoint pictures on the projector screens were used to visually stimulate our prayers. In the multi-sensory areas there were cushions and a number of prayer/meditation stations. There was a picture of the prodigal son being welcomed home by his Father to help us to meditate on the Father’s love. There was bread to eat to remember that God provides our daily bread. There were bowls of water so we could symbolically wash away our sin as we were forgiven and as we forgave others. There were little scrolls of St.Patrick’s Breastplate to use as we thought about being delivered from evil.

Over the next couple of days I heard mixed responses to the evening. Some people felt cheated. It wasn’t what they had come for! It struck me that Jesus was very wise when he said “You can’t put new wine into an old wineskin” … and even wiser when he said, “and no-one after drinking the old wine wants the new, for he says, “The old wine is better.”” (Luke 5:37-39).

New wine needs a new wineskin where it can mature. As wine matures it becomes old wine, and for those who like it it does indeed taste better than the new. Whilst Jesus was probably having a go at the Pharisees with his aphorism I believe it can be read in a positive way. ie Don’t criticize the good new thing that God is doing. Allow it to co-exist with your way of doing church. In time it too will mature and become old wine and something else new will come along. Let’s not break the old wineskins, and let’s not lose the new wine with all its enthusiasm and lack of finesse. In God’s mixed economy there is a place for both.

The end is nigh?

I stumbled across the Rapture Index today. Isn't it amazing what variety there is within the body of Christ? Apparently we are in a "fasten your seat belts" phase of "prophetic activity". A quotation from the site to whet your appetite:

You could say the Rapture index is a Dow Jones Industrial Average of end time activity, but I think it would be better if you viewed it as prophetic speedometer. The higher the number, the faster we're moving towards the occurrence of pre-tribulation rapture.

Reality check

The Spiritual temperature of St. Mark’s is cooler than I would like it to be. On a couple of occasions recently it has become clear to me just what a low ebb we are at spiritually, and how much work I need to put in if I am to call the whole church into renewal. And yet some folk are really on fire for the Lord at the moment. It is just that there are about seven times as many who are very cool about spiritual things. It is a bit like a bath of cold water with a scalding hot patch at one end.

I don’t want to become critical or judgmental, but the level of enthusiasm for prayer seems to be at the lower end of the temperature gauge. I struggled a bit to not be discouraged when there were only three other people present at the start of our day of prayer on Saturday 2nd September. At about 10.20am a handful of others showed up which was good. At one stage there were over 15 people present and in total it was attended by about 25-30 members, including at least two from the 9am BCP congregation.

To be fair to those who did not attend, the weather was dreadful and will probably have discouraged a number of the older ladies from venturing out. Also it did happen very soon after the holiday period, so some folk may not have realised it was happening.

While praying about the lower than hoped for attendance I felt that it would be good to give the rest of the church another opportunity. So on Saturday 7th October we will be having another day of prayer.

Yesterday our Alpha Prayer was attended by ten church members plus myself. We enjoyed a powerful time of praise and prayer. The Spirit was with us. But surely out of a membership of about 150 people you would have expected more people to attend? Allowing for the fact that this was a midweek meeting and taking into account that some of our folk are active in other ministries I would not expect everyone to come. But just ten? What does this say about the spiritual temperature of the church? Is there no desire to see the lost saved?

I don’t fully understand quite why it is important for lots of people to gather for prayer. I am sure we can’t force God’s hand by sheer weight of numbers. But it is an assumption in evangelical circles that spiritual things happen when lots of people pray often.

This is probably because praying brings us closer to God. We become more passionate, more inspired, more enthusiastic and this passion and enthusiasm is contagious. It spurs others on. It releases energy. Also as we pray we discern the heart of God and we bring our wills in line with his. We see where we have been half-hearted or lazy or selfish. We present ourselves to be the living sacrifices that will be used by God to bring his Kingdom rule into our sphere of influence.

I am praying for a renewal of spiritual passion. Send the fire, Lord!!

Starfish

A Parable of the Kingdom

I heard a story once about a man who was walking along a beach where thousands of starfish had been washed ashore by a storm. The man saw a little boy who was picking up the starfishes one by one and throwing them back into the sea.

"What is the point of doing that?" the man asked, "What difference will it make anyway?"

Holding up one of the starfish the little boy replied, "I can't save them all, but I can make a difference to this one." With that he threw the starfish back into the sea.

Making a difference

I am not able to save the world, but I can make a difference to a few. This week I am praising God for the opportunities I have had this week to share the Good News - with families bringing children for Baptism, with a lady who came to church for the first time a couple of weeks ago, with a cyclist on the towpath whose wife has cancer.

Good News for the Lost Sheep

I already have two people signed up for the next Alpha course and we are hoping for a good crowd at Back to Church Sunday on 24th September. Although this is overtly attractional church (see earlier discussions) it could result in a few more workers in the harvest field, so it is worth doing.

Making Disciples

I now have the dates of the huddles sorted out for the Autumn with 18 people in three groups ready to begin honing their own walk with the Lord and their disciple-making skills. One group starts on Wednesday 13th. The others will meet on Monday 18th and Tuesday 19th.

Purgatory

On Monday I went to say some opening prayers at "THE SHOP" but I arrived a minute late and was swept away by a human tsunami as the bargain hunters flowed in through the Parish Hall front doors. I was overwhelmed by an irresistable desire to do some paperwork, so I retreated back to my study and threw my life away.

Actually, I threw my sermons away ... along with six other black bin bags of paper that had been cluttering up my study for the past few years. I have not yet stated on the filing cabinet. I'll save that for another day.

Throwing away my sermons was a bereavement. Every one was jam-packed with precious treasures (Matthew 13:52) because I only ever preach what I believe the Lord has given me to preach. His word is life-giving and life-changing. BUT the bubble has been popped and the only reason for keeping them was PRIDE! Somehow, I don't think my published sermons would be read as avidly as Wesley's.

Before the purge, my study looked like this

I was a victim of my own administration

Now I am in a post-chaotic phase, but I don't expect it to last very long.

Loss of Power

I came across this quotation by Charles Ringma on the URBANarmy blog today:

"There is little point for Christians to pine for a return to the good old days when Christianity was more dominant in Western culture. Furthermore, there is little point in blaming the Enlightenment or science or technology or urbanization. The way forward is both to recognize that the church in the past has also failed and that the present difficulty may well be a blessing in disguise. There is a new opportunity for the church, stripped of a previous power and influence, to exercise the power of authentically living the gospel. A humbled church, like the humiliated Christ, may be able to be a greater witness in our world than the church as the guardian of Christendom."

The true power of the gospel is revealed in our weakness. When we are weak the Glory goes to God. When we are powerful we don't need God. When we have everything we need and when we are in control life is easy ... but it is also easy to drift away from the Father. When we are crying out to him and clinging to him and depending on him we are spiritually connected.

As members of the Church of England we inherit a history of social domination of the masses by the elite. Many of the wealthier elite, and many of the clergy in the past were from the landed gentry or from that sector of society. These people wielded their financial and social power in the name of God for generations. Over the past 200 years the working classes have gradually shaken off these shackles. Sadly they have thrown the baby out with the bathwater when it comes to Christianity.

I would like us to pray about this issue which afflicts our nation and our neighbourhood in particular. Maybe we need a healing of the land with some form of public repentance by the church?

Church Planners or Church Planters?

Three months ago I was challenged by reading a post on Guy Muse's blog about people who talk about church planting but fail to get on with doing it. see link : The M Blog: Church Planners or Church Planters?

As a visionary who likes to start new things I have been energised by the vision of seeing or rather being involved in the beginning of a church planting movement (CPM) here in England. The challenge to me comes from the fact that despite catching the vision most of my time and energy is still being taken up on other things .. and there is as yet no real plan in place to plant a church or recruit and train church planters.

I was looking at my archives from May to see whether I blogged about this when I first read Guy's challenge. To be honest, I think I have mainly been praying about it and processing what the Holy Spirit is saying to me.

Popping the Bubble

It has taken over three months for the Lord to work this one through in me, but I now realise that in March I just replaced one dream with another. The dream of becoming the leader of a significant large Charismatic (New Wine style) Church was the picture I had in my head when the Lord called me to be ordained. I finally let go of this around January this year when I realised that my gifting was more suited to an apostolic ministry.

Unfortunately, I have a "super-ego" that confuses my limited (but nevertheless still significant) calling with God's mega plans to save the world. My growing awareness of this megalomania has been the reason for my nagging doubts. I am pleased to say that this spiritual pride has now been nailed on the cross where it belongs. The bubble has been popped.

Doing the work that God calls me to do

So, here I am, back at work after an interesting summer. A by-product of my coming down to earth has been a growing confidence that my heavenly Father is with me in my daily work. This has led me to appreciate the good of what I have been able to do here as vicar of Bredbury (rather than always feeling disappointed that it is not like one of the bigger New Wine churches). I blogged about the early stages of this realignment in May. (click here to read)

Knowing who I am (the real me, not the super-ego) means I have also felt able to take a stand against one of the spiritual strongholds afflicting the church here in Bredbury. I feel that I am a rock that is firmly rooted on The Rock (psalm 18). The opposition is like the waves of the sea that break upon the rocks. Sadly this stand has upset a few of the more traditional church members and I have been spending quite a bit of time and spiritual energy on smoothing some ruffled feathers.

One of the verses that the Lord drew to my attention this summer was "Be sure you know the condition of your flocks" (Proverbs 27:23). In obedience to this I have been working to improve the quallity of pastoral care in the church and I am starting to mend some of the damage caused by my brokenness and frustration with the church over the past few years.

So what about the Gentiles?

I remain hopeful. I believe that God really does want the Good News to go out to the Gentiles of this land. I am carving out a bit of time here and there to meet with people who rarely darken the doors of the church. I am still hopeful that as St. Mark's settles down with their considerably more realistic vicar there will be opportunities to release some people into a Church Planting ministry. I believe I will play a part in my little corner of the world. I am a yeast cell amongst many that the Lord is energising at this time.

Part of my hope for the Gentiles is that as a church we will begin praying into the problem that was shown to us in April 2005. The problem is that many local working class people have experienced the church as snobby rich people disapproving of "the likes of them." This was more of an issue in earlier generations, but I suspect that this has resulted in a sub-conscious resistance to church being endemic in the local population. I suspect that this has become a spiritual power that needs to be prayed against. Watch this space for more on this subject.

Abiding and Fruitfulness

One of the lifeshapes is the semi-circle. This represents the arc of a pendulum swinging back and forth. Our lives are in a good rhythm if we work from rest, and if we have times of abiding in Christ (John 15). Abiding leads to fruitfulness.

I am in a time of abiding at the moment. I have had New Wine and holiday and a week of healing. I intend to keep abiding for the next few weeks as I plan the diary for the coming year and prepare for the busy time ahead when we will be starting up our huddles, Alpha, youth outreach, and the teaching programme for the Autumn.

This is one of the reasons why I am not in favour of holding an annual sale of second-hand goods in the last week of August. For the past 20 years this has been an institution at St.Mark's. For weeks during the summer all manner of unwanted stuff fills up our parish hall. This week people are going out all day and every evening to collect items in preparation for the big sale that starts on Bank holiday Monday. As you can imagine, those who take part are very tired by the end of it all. I will pop in and say hello, but I am not joining in.

Today has largely been a day of prayer and reflection during which I have received inspiration for the Autumn sermon series. We are going to look at the Good News as told by Luke, starting with the message of John the Baptist in Luke 3. God wants us to repent from our unfruitful lives. It is no good relying on our religious heritage ("we are children of Abraham").

True repentence is reflected in good deeds that make the world a better place (eg sharing your surplus goods with those in need). John the Baptist warns us that those trees that are not bearing fruit will be cut down (Luke 3:9). The good news is this - that those who want to be part of God's Kingdom can participate. All we need is repentence ie we need to agree with God's way of doing things rather than assuming that our old ways are correct.

The problem with preaching this is that not everyone likes to repent. Poor old John ended up in prison because Herod felt criticized.

Evil deeds in Cheadle

Jane is very upset today because she read in the Daily Telegraph this morning that three children from her school were found murdered. One of them was due to be in her class in September. The father of the children is missing and his car has been found abandoned at Heathrow airport. The murder has been on the news all day.

All Quiet on the Blogging Front

I am just back from a week's camping in Wales. Next I am going to Living Waters for a week of healing and teaching about healing.

Servanthood

Where have I been? Why is it so quiet on the blogging front?

New Wine North

From 21st-29th July I was at New Wine North in Newark working as a Steward. It was a humbling experience to be part of the team which was there to serve the other 5000 people who came to be spiritually recharged and refreshed.

As often happens in the New Wine week we experienced a heatwave. It was amazing that I managed to get through the week without getting heatstroke. It was really hard work, but very enjoyable.

As well as the fellowship of the team, I also enjoyed fellowship around the campfire with members of St.Mark's (including Tony and Lorna who are at theological college).

One of the highlights of the week was the free afternoon when I spent two hours answering questions about the Old Testament with three students from Leeds. I felt like a Rabbi sitting in the Temple colonades interacting with the people who had come up to the festival. I then spent a further hour or so with Craig looking at what the bible had to say about Abraham and Ishmael. I love teaching when people want to learn.

No time to blog!

I have so much I want to blog about, but I don't seem to have the time!

Huddles

A few weeks ago I said I would blog about out discipleship plans. I may fill this out sometime, but essentially we have decided to convert our cell leaders meetings into huddles along the lines of the leadership development model used by St.Thoms in Sheffield. This will help us to apply and develop the use of the Lifeshapes which we began last year with the circle and taught about after Christmas.

Vision for St.Mark's

As you know, I have been struggling to know whether I can in all good conscience continue as a vicar of an attractional church. For the moment I hear God telling me to stay and treat this as my "day job" while working at pioneering mission in my spare time. In addition I hear God calling me to give St.Mark's some clear leadership. The vision of the tree and the sapling is still valid. Also the Lord has given me Isaiah 54:2 as a verse for the church. I may post a church magazine article to explain this. In essence the call is to allow fresh expressions of church to grow up on the fringe of the St.Mark's family under the "tent flaps". I blogged a bit about this in March. see link

Leadership

As Moses was called to lead the Hebrew slaves in a journey with the LORD, so I sense God calling me to lead the church here to have faith in God's ability to provide. This means I will be trying to wean the church away from fund-raising. I have heard the Lord say so much about this in recent days that I need to buy new pages for my prayer journal!

The Gentiles

What about the Gentiles? Well praise the Lord! On Tuesday night I went to see Woodley Sports give Stockport County a worrying 89 minutes. As the match ended I spotted a family who I believe will be the first "people of peace" that I will spend more time with in the Mill Lane area of Woodley. We had a lovely chat for about 15 minutes and then I helped push mum's wheelchair up the hill home. I met this wonderful family a few years ago when I did Dad's funeral. There are 7 children and more grandchildren than can be remembered. Mum is a real matriarch and her home is the hub of a huge community. I now need to pray about who will come with me when I visit after New Wine.

Emerging Church

I am going to an Emerging Church day on Monday in Manchester. What is emerging church you ask? It is something that happens (a bit like the fungus that springs up in the woods - but generally more pleasant) because there are people out there being moved by the Holy Spirit to become church rather than to attend church.

For an interesting blog about "ermergent theology for emerging churches" have a read of this article by Dr Ray Anderson.

There is however a certain pretentiousness about parts of the emerging church network (a bit like the fungus that springs up in the woods) especially those parts that blog a lot. However it is good that there is some self awareness about this as the following joke displays: so, How many Emerging Church bloggers does it take to change a lightbulb?

Hobnobbing with the Gentiles

On Saturday I went to see Woodley Sports play Stalybridge Celtic in a pre-season friendly. I have been vicar of Woodley and Bredbury for 10 years this month and this was the first time I had been to see the local team play.

The club steward treated me to a complimentary coffee in the Executive box. I promised to attend more often. I'll be back next Tuesday when Woodley take on Stockport County.

Listless

The wind has been taken out of our sails. We are all hot and weary. We need a time of refreshing.

I think I will give up the fantasy football and spend more time blogging!

Wracked nerves

Yet another nerve-wracking performance by England. It's just like watching City except we keep winning.

I hope you folk in Ecuador are not too distressed.

To the pub

When Nick came to work with me in Bredbury two years ago we decided to lead the Church into a more missional phase of its life. Our plan was to become a "Mission-Shaped Church" or to do some mission knowing that it would shape the church.

In addition to the Church initiatives, we made a pact, to get out and meet people and to lead by example. We agreed that each of us would pursue a hobby which would allow us to make friends with normal people who don't come to church.

For several months this was just good intentions. Then last summer I actually took myself down to the local branch of the Manchester City FC Supporters Club. Since August last year I have been going to games at the City of Manchester stadium and drinking beer with the lads in the Conservative CLub where we have been meeting before the match.

Recently we changed venues so we now meet in The Crown which has lots of big TV screens. So tonight I'll be there in my England shirt cheering on our boys in Cologne.

No doubt my pal, Holy Spirit will be there too. We will be alert for any Kingdom opportunities as we enjoy being the church in the midst of the people.

Wild at Heart

In the Autumn of last year I read a book called "Wild at Heart" by John Eldredge. It was a bit over the top at first, but I found my spirit witnessing that God has indeed made men for adventure. As a man with Apostolic gifting it is stifling to spend all one's time and energy maintaining an institution.

I found myself remembering a conversation I had with God a year or so earlier as I struggled through a period of depression. I was trying to understand why I was not happy with my work. I concluded that I was bored and needed a fresh challenge. I need adventure.

Over the past 18 months I have been most energized when thinking about developing "Fresh Expressions" of church. I like to pioneer. I want to work on the frontier, starting up new things.

To be fair, this pioneering spirit is not a new development for me. In my work in banking I was a "swaps" pioneer doing interest rate swaps in the capital markets for 5 years in the days when they were a new financial instrument. I had to invent the accounting system and persuade the accountants that it was correct!!

When I went to work on the Racecourse Estate in Sale as curate in charge of the church plant I tried to start a Base Community. I heard about these radical expressions of Church by reading a book called "the Church in the Home" by David Prior (who had been my Vicar in Oxford). Leonardo Boff's book "Ecclesiogenesis" then blew me away - who would have believed that a Roman Catholic Liberation Theologian could be so biblical and so radical? With the help of Peter Price (now Bishop of Bath and Wells) I found out how to be church in this new way (New Way of Being Church).

The main problem with Base Communities was that they did not have a built in strategy for multiplication and they seemed to need a huge investment of time and energy from a "pastoral agent". If you want to know more leave me a comment and I can send you a copy of my Masters Dissertation on the subject.

So when I came to Bredbury we tried Cell Church. Again, radical and pioneering we started this in 1998 when it was the latest thing. However, from the outset we knew that this was not just another band-wagon. Cell church encapsulates all the values that we believe are important for church.

John Eldredge asserts that women sometimes try to tame men, even emasculate them!! Cell Groups are meant to be dynamic missional communities that reach out, grow and multiply as they advance the Kingdom of God. It is too easy for these groups to become cosy fellowship groups where we avoid the scary stuff like evangelism, prophecy, etc. No wonder I have been frustrated at times.

So where next?

The main weakness in all my efforts over the years has been in the area of making disciples. This is where we are now focussing our attention and energies. I will post a blog soon to explain what we are doing to learn how to make disciples.

Paradigm Shift

A few months ago I began reading Frost and Hirsch’s book “The Shaping of Things to Come”. At a gut level I felt that their conclusions are correct, that we need a radical new way of being church: revolution rather than evolution. Yet part of me was reluctant to give up on the traditional church. At the time I was hoping to get a job as Parish Mission Development officer for Chester Diocese. I was hoping that by encouraging fresh expressions of church around the Diocese new life would spring up and the church would have a future.

By the time I arrived at the interviews with Chester Diocese I no longer felt comfortable with the prospect of committing my energies to shoring up the creaking institution. My appetite for radical innovative mission had been stimulated by being interviewed by CMS for a new position fostering the development of missional cells (Andrew Jones and Richard White are going to job-share the position).

So here I am, part way through a paradigm shift. I am employed to do a job which in itself is good. People are being evangelised, blessed and saved. Mission is happening on the fringe of our church, and we are also doing some “out-there” mission amidst the unchurched youth of our neighbourhood. The church which I lead is transitioning and becoming a more effective agent of the Kingdom. It could even double in size within a few years if we work hard and put our energies into helping people to become disciples.

But … (big BUT) …. I am now convinced that because the church is an institution it is self limiting. The people of Bredbury and Woodley are pathologically adverse to institution. The few who try to do church are only able to sustain something of modest size (c 70 people) and there is considerable chaos as there are only a few professionals around. I do not believe that mega-church would fit our culture (potential for a future blog here I suspect).

And so I really do believe that we will only see massive spontaneous expansion of the Kingdom if we can foster the growth of home based churches. This is causing me a few problems. Not many other people are with me on this journey. It is going to take time to explain my thinking. I do not want to sound critical. Relative to many churches we are doing really well. My friends in the New Wine Network are growing their churches by dramatically modernising their way of doing church … but they are largely still within the old paradigm.

This morning I was reading Alexander Campbell’s Simplechurch blog. He has a diagram there about the “apostolic migration”. I am not sure where I am on this diagram. Am I at point minus 1 … moving in my spirit but not in my body/money? Or am I in the wilderness of religious detoxification? I think the past 3 months I have been in that wilderness. And I have now let go of my dream of being a “successful” leader of a big New Wine church. I am not sure if I am yet in point +1 … I am still hoping to foster new churches from my comfortable position as vicar of Bredbury….

…. interesting that God said to me on Tuesday “the Wilderness is not about going for a picnic in the countryside”. Hmm.

Infrequent Blogging

It has been rather quiet on the Blog recently. Andrew Jones has reassured me today that it is OK to post less often. This link explains why.

A New Job

Today I had an epiphany - I am no longer a Vicar. Now I am a life coach!

Googlism

Everyone seems to be posting "googlisms" about themselves. Well I looked up mine and this was my favourite :

ross is an acronym for "rossijskaya otechestvennaya sistema samoza shchity" or in english language ....

End the suspense by following the link to ROSS here

My Food

A few weeks ago while my son David was attending a Science Open Day at Leeds University I spend a few hours on Ilkley Moor (with my hat!). The day was good apart from the fact that I succumbed to the familiar smell of Fish and Chips and indulged in some of this traditional northern fodder. While in my younger days this would have been a highlight of the day, it made me feel rather queasy and sharply reminded me that I am growing old. I need to be more selective about what I eat.

When Jesus' disciples came back with a takeaway from Sychar in Samaria he wasn't very interested. At one level Jesus sounds irritatingly pious when he says "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work" (John 4:34). However, since this is Jesus speaking and we are being called to be like him I want to say the same thing. I just don't have any appetite for anything that does not seem totally focussed on God's Kingdom.

More than that, I only want to do the things in God's Kingdom that he has specifically asked me to do. There are so many good things happening, but they are someonelse's calling, not mine.

Last week I was at the New Wine Leaders Conference. New Wine is doing a fantastic work. I am totally comfortable with the vision statement:
Our vision is to see the nation changed through Christians and churches being filled with the Spirit, alive with the joy of knowing and worshipping Jesus Christ, living out his Word, and doing the works of the Kingdom of God.

And yet I sense that I am called to do more than just lead a New Wine church. I have no appetite for "promotion" to a bigger New Wine church. That would (for me) feel like a worldly move, a desire for greater significance within a the New Wine Network driven by my old psychological and emotional wounds (which are nearly healed now).

I have a vision (or is it a dream?) that God wants the Good News of Jesus to reach the masses (the "Gentiles" mentioned in the title of this blog). New Wine churches are better at reaching middle class people than your average Church of England church, and this is good. Some churches like St. Mark's even reach some working class people, and this is good.

But good as these things are, I sense that their vision is not big enough. We need to infect the people outside the boxes with the Kingdom virus. They need to catch a proper, life transforming dose of the Holy Spirit, and they need to be helped to know how to live the life and pass on the Good News.

The Good News needs to be expressed without much reference to church as we know it, which has often been bad news to earlier generations of the Gentiles. The good news needs to be experienced in the form of better relationships where people know how to forgive and be reconciled, where parents know how to love their children and live unselfishly. The good news needs to be experienced as forgiveness and mercy and release from the guilt of a sinful past. The grace of God needs to be experienced as a present reality when faced with the temptation to meet present neds in sinful damaging ways. Healing of old wounds and the breaking of strongholds is essential so that tempations will lose their previous power.

Jesus seemed to believe that the masses want this Good News. "Open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life..." (John 4:35-36).

So what are we waiting for? Let's get out there amongst the people with our spiritual eyes open to see where the wind is blowing, our spiritual ears tuned to his voice, and our feet fitted with the readiness to take us into the house of the person of peace.

People are hungry for spiritual reality. Let's take it to them. Let's teach them how to sustain it and pass it on. There is no need for these folk to come to church. They can just become the church. This new wine needs to live in new wineskins. Even New Wine churches will be too churchy and too institutional for real Gentiles.

Physician Heal Thyself

I am poorly, and it is so hard to pray for yourself when you are ill.

I started with an excruiating sore throat on Saturday, struggled through an awesome baptism service on Sunday and more teaching about the healing ministry on Sunday night. I had prayer from my wife Jane on Saturday, from many people before and after both services on Sunday. I hope they are not too discouraged.

Ironically the theme was our belief that the bible suggests that Jesus always wants to heal those who come to him for healing. He never refused anyone except the Syro-Phoenician "dog" - but the Father put him straight on that occasion and he healed the woman's child when she showed that she had faith (who would have thought that even Jesus was influenced by the prejudice of his day against the Gentiles!).

I do not know why I am not yet healed. I take some small comfort from the fact that John Wimber taught about healing for months before anyone was actually healed. Meanwhile, nothing is wasted. The devil's attack on my health is assisting with my character development in the areas of patience, humility and faith.

I believe that I could have learned these virtues through other means so I do not believe that I am afflicted by God. This is the work of the kingdom of darkness, not some dubious underhand work of God.

Pray for my sons!!

We were bemused this weekend by our teenage sons wanting to watch the Eurovision Song Contest!

It would appear that Lordi are now headlining the Rock Festival that my eldest son is going to in Germany this Summer.

Living in the Kingdom of God

Last week at the New Wine Leaders’ Conference Guy Chevreau reminded us that the Kingdom is about living by faith. It seems to be a Kingdom principle that we have to step out before he provides. Guy mentioned that the streets of the heavenly city are paved with gold, so God can give us a corner of a paving slab anytime we are in need.

I am not going to bellyache about the church finances any more. It is all in the hands of the Father. My role is to lead the people on an adventure of faith. I feel peaceful that all our needs are going to be provided as we do the work of the Kingdom.

Our main Kingdom activity as a church at present is the Youth outreach. I am praying that we can find the people of peace amongst the youngsters and their families and put some time in with them.

On the Streets with the Holy Spirit

Last Friday while I was at the cinema with my family the Eden bus team had an interesting evening. The generator on the bus broke down - which means that the games and the video etc wouldn't work. Several of the team went down to the precinct to meet the young people while the driver went to borrow the other Eden bus.

As they were waiting for the bus to arrive a gang of young people came along and asked the workers, "Is the man who heals here tonight?" Word is out. The lad who was healed a few weeks ago (see 30th March post) has been telling his story!

Just as well a few of the team had been at the training last Sunday evening and knew what to do.

Let your Kingdom come, Lord!

Heal the Sick

In Luke 10:9 Jesus tells his followers to "Heal the sick". It doesn't tell them how to do this, so we have to assume that they have already been taught by being with Jesus. In Luke 9:1-2 Jesus gave power and authority to the 12 to heal the sick and sent them out. They had recently (Luke 7)seen Jesus heal a dead boy, a dead girl, a sick woman and a man witha legion of demons. Presumably they were taking note of how Jesus healed.

We don't have the benefit of watching Jesus heal, so we are groping around in the dark a bit. However, twenty years ago John Wimber burst upon the english church with a method of praying for the sick which produced some good results. It was all supported by scripture and a theology of the Kingdom which most theologians agree with in theory even if they don't live it out in practice. This method of prayer for healing is still taught in New Wine churches including ours.

On Sunday evening we began a time of re-training for our Healing Prayer Team as it is about 4 years since we last trained people and there are too many people in the congregation who think that the use of spiritual gifts is "not for us". We are using John Coles' book "Developing a Healing Ministry: A Training Manual for Churches" as the basis of the teaching.

We started the evening with praise and finished with a time of corporate confession for the way we allow the secular scientific worldview to replace the worldview of Jesus. As we repented and asked for more power the Holy Spirit moved powerfully amongst us. We were encouraged by a testimony of healing from a woman who had been prayed for the previous week. Others were convicted by the Spirit of their need to read the scriptures more.

As this was a training evening I involved a couple of inexperienced Christians in praying for one of our ladies while I supervised. They all were filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit in a way that reminded me of Acts 2.

We are all looking forward to next week's training.

Doubts and Struggles

Much as I am enjoying being a blogger, prayer has to come first, so for much of the last couple of weeks my thoughts have jumbled along unblogged.

I have also been hindered by a gnawing feeling of self-doubt. I don’t feel like a very good evangelist. I had spent very little time with the Gentiles. Am I deluding myself that I can facilitate the planting of churches whilst remaining in post as vicar of St. Mark’s? As usual I find my time disappears on church matters – the latest one being the need to find a house suitable for our new curate and his family to live in. Despite these doubts flying around my head I remain hopeful in my spirit that it will happen, and I wait for the word from the Lord for the next step.

Boozing with the Blues

My recent contact with some of the Gentiles has been interesting. Since August last year I have been a member of the Bredbury Blues – the local branch of the Manchester City Supporters Club. After the initial surprise they quickly welcomed me in as I went to the occasional match or sat in the club bar watching away games on the big screen. The amount of beer consumed by these people on match days is awesome.

The Bank holiday weekend saw the last Saturday home game of the season which I attended with my wife Jane thanks to the generosity of some members of our Churchwarden’s family who lent us their season tickets. The match was awful but we were able to spend some time in the pub with a few of the key members of the club before hand, and we were intending to socialize at the BBQ afterwards. Sadly by this stage of the afternoon I had a headache and was exhausted so we went home.

I felt like a real failure. My main opportunity to evangelise for weeks and I didn’t have the stamina. I almost slipped back into old habits of beating myself up, but instead I have to just conclude that my primary gifting is not evangelism. I am a pioneer and I do a lot of evangelism, but I am not an evangelist.

The Problem of Lone Ranger Evangelism

Further thinking on this subject came at the final game of season on Thursday evening. I travelled with the lads down to the game on the bus but I had to sit by myself during the match. This gave me the opportunity to reflect on the effectiveness of my evangelistic contact with the Bredbury Blues. I am a presence and a witness. I have had the occasional “pastoral chat”, but I have not yet really had a chance to share my faith.

I remembered that Jesus sent his disciples out in pairs. As a team it is easier to make an impact. It is easier to stay distinctive. It is easier to remember to pray. I need to find a fellow Christian who supports City and is willing to join me in befriending these Gentiles and praying with me that some of them will come to know Jesus.

The Gentiles are praying

Wayne Rooney's injury has sparked a wave of prayer amongst the Gentiles.

The Daily Mirror in particular says "cross your fingers and pray" and "we're all praying for Roo".

Keep the day job

Last week I had lunch with Phil Pawley in St.Helen’s. Phil is mission and church growth advisor for Liverpool Diocese and a member of St.Mark’s Haydock which is a leading Anglican Cell Church. I wanted to see Phil as he had been quite vocal at the Mission 21 conference about disciple-making.

Phil is discipling a couple of professional Rugby League players as part of his role as Chaplain to the “Saints”. He is meeting with these men for an hour or two a week to chat and pray and look at the scriptures. This is nitty-gritty stuff. The agenda is based on what is happening in their lives. Phil uses the Lifeshapes sometimes, but he is finding George Patterson’s “Seven Commands of Christ” increasingly helpful.

We are also using the Lifeshapes in our “coaching” or disciple-making opportunities. I find the first four (circle, semi-circle, triangle, square) to be the most useful at present. The pentagon (the five fold ministry) was helpful to me realising that I am more of a pioneer than an evangelist. Phil reckons that it is very easy to structure a coaching session with the Triangle: Up – how’s your relationship with God? In – how are you doing with your relationships? Out – are you bringing good news to others.

I looked up George Patterson on the web. He spent 20 years in Honduras planting churches that reproduced. The story is told in a paper called “The spontaneous multiplication of churches” which can be downloaded if you click on the link. I also got a copy of “The Shepherd’s Storybook” which looked like it might prove to be helpful.

The Seven Commands of Christ are :
1) Repent, believe, and receive the Holy Spirit (conversion, regeneration), Mark 1:15; John 3:16; 20:22
2) Be baptized and live the new life it initiates, initiating ongoing transformation, Matthew 28:18-20; Romans 6:1-14
3) Love God, neighbour, fellow disciples, the needy in a practical way and enemies (forgive), Matthew 22:36-40; John 13:34-35, Luke 10:25-37; Matthew 5:43-48
4) Break bread (Communion, related to all that we do to worship), Matthew 26:26-28; John 4:24
5) Pray (private and family devotions, intercession and spiritual warfare), John 16:24
6) Give (stewardship of our time, treasure and talents), Luke 6:38
7) Make disciples (witness for Christ, shepherd, apply the Word, train leaders, send missionaries), Matthew 28:18-20

Perhaps the most helpful comment that Phil made was during a discussion about the tension I am feeling between my role as Vicar of St. Mark’s and what I want to do in the way of church planting. He said that the church planters I want to train will nearly all have a day job, so the church planting that they do will have to be fitted in with the pressures of life. If we want to see a spontaneous movement of reproducing churches it has to be simple and it has to work for normal people who are earning a crust.

The upshot of this is a feeling that God is saying “keep the day job (being a vicar) and train church planters as your sideline”. This way I will be forced to keep it simple.

What attracts people to Church?

On Tuesday I had 10 minutes of fame being interviewed on BBC Radio Manchester (if anyone actually listens to it!!).

Someone had seen the poster outside our Church which said, "Easter without Jesus is dead". Now I thought it was a clever poster which might make people think about the importance of the resurrection and the fact that without Jesus the Easter holiday is just 4 days out of the office for people who work in banks.

Somehow the message that people were getting is that the church thinks Easter is Dead!

So I was interviewed on how we try to attract people to come to church. This was a curious experience as I am very indifferent now about the attractional approach. However, I think that there is still some value to attracting people who have lapsed or who have had some christian input in earlier life. I know that this is addition, but there are still some 20-30% of the population who could be brought in if the present members were more active in inviting them.

So for me the real issue is not the snappy posters, but helping the people who form the present worshipping community to become more attractive examples of what it means to be a Christian.

Loving the Lost

I am greatly inspired by Guy Muse who is a Missionary in Ecuador who is planting churches in homes. I believe that this is the way forward for Britain as well. The other day he mentioned that in America it takes on average 86 church members a year to bring one person to Baptism (full church membership). In the home churches in Ecuador the average is one baptism for every 3 church members every year.

Our church (St.Mark’s) is about 100 members. At the 86:1 rate after 15 years we would have 119 members assuming noone died or left. At the 3:1 rate of new members after 15 years we would have nearly 7,500 members in 15 years.
Guy gives some clues as to why the Ecuadorian believers are so fruitful. We have much to learn :

1) Praying daily for lost. Talk to any of the believers in a Guayaquil housechurch and they will show you their list of people they pray for daily ofunsaved family, friends, neighbors.

2) Active regular sharing of the Gospel. It is a very natural part of their Christian walk to share the Gospel with people they encounter in their daily lives. Christ has made such a difference in their lives, and they cannot help but share this with those they come in contact with.

3) Planning regular evangelistic events. The house churches plan regular evangelistic events inviting those they are praying for to attend (concerts, outdoor street meetings, special programs, family conferences, DVD/Videos, invited guest speakers, neighborhood evangelistic door-to-door blitzes, etc.)

4) Visiting the sick and personally ministering to lost friends, neighbors and family in times of crisis. They are very good about visiting sick people outside of their church family, praying for their healing and ministering to lost family and friends during difficult times.

5) Not distracted by a lot of outside issues. We too have our sticky issues, but they are more along the lines of things like can unmarried couples who get saved be baptized? How to counsel people with difficult problems? How to discern if someone is demon possessed or just emotionally unstable? How to handle questions that Roman Catholics always ask? Why doesn't God always heal someone when they are prayed for? If I were to share with them (and I don't) the issues that are causing all the uproar in the IMB and SBC these days, they would shake their heads in disbelief!

6) Intentionally focus on evangelism as a life priority. Talk to any of them andthey will tell you that their ministry is to win/disciple at least eight peoplethis year. They expect God to give them these souls and are consciously prayingand working to achieve this goal.

7) They maintain friendships/relationships with lost friends, neighbors, co-workers, etc. They play ball on the street with them, visit them in their homes, minister to them in times of need. How are we ever supposed to win people to the Lord if we have little/no relationship with the lost? How is a Christian supposed to win lost people if they do not even know any? Folks here know plenty of lost people whom they are burdened for their salvation.

There is no baking powder in the Kingdom of God

Prototype

I often hear God most clearly in my waking thoughts. Maybe this is what people in the bible meant when they report that God spoke to them through a dream.

This morning, as clear as a bell I knew that we need to run a “prototype” cell with a few people who really have the vision and values of the Kingdom of God. This little group of radicals will work out how to do nothing except what the Father tells us to do (John 5). We will seek first the Kingdom of God and not worry about the church buildings or be distracted by the church’s internal squabbles.

When we feel confident that we know what it feels like to be dead to self and alive to Christ we will invite a few others to join us and become two or three cells. In the new cells disciple making will take place. The new members will also need to discover what it feels like to be totally 100% dedicated to following Jesus. If we don’t get this we will never see multiplication. There are no passengers in the Kingdom of God.

The Kingdom of God is like the yeast working its way through the dough. It starts small. At first it is slow. At the second and third stages it will be slow. But if the DNA is right it will multiply. There is no instant way to leaven the lump. There is no baking powder in the Kingdom of God.

Values are caught, not taught.

About 3 years ago I tried retraining all my cell leaders. We closed down the cell groups. We held meetings all together in the church building for about 6 weeks to go over the values together. We called this “Shining Brighter” and it was attended by about 35 people. I was a bit disappointed at the time that some of the potential cell leaders did not attend. In the Autumn while the cells were not running I led two cell groups, each with 10 members. We worked our way through the Cell Leader Training booklet produced by Cell UK.

By Christmas when we finished the training I was not convinced that we had the values, so I kept the two groups going and between Christmas and Easter we went through the “Breakthrough Course” which is based on Neil Anderson’s Breaking Through to Freedom in Christ. The idea of this was that it could be used for disciple making as it teaches things like: how to believe the truth; how to forgive; how to resist temptation; how to deal with anger etc.

Easter arrived and we re-launched the cell groups. But I knew even then that we were not ready. I knew that we did not really have the values fully embedded. So here we are two years later. The cells have mutated. We have not multiplied.

So why did the retraining not work?

This is not well thought through, but here goes:
1) The groups were a bit too large and so interaction was limited
2) Some people were present because they felt obliged to be there because the vicar said so
3) We were more focussed on the content of the training than developing genuine community
4) Because the group was expected to last for just 10 weeks some folk only saw it as a meeting and did not do the work necessary to become a community
5) I was also running an Alpha course on another evening of the week and preaching etc etc
6) As cell leader of two large cells I did not do a good job of pastoring the members in between meetings.
7) I did not have an assistant since everyone in the two cells were going to be either a leader or an assistant.
8) I did not spot the failure of the groups to form genuine community until too late
9) I became depressed when I realised the re-training was not working and that we were going to re-launch cells without the values fully embedded
10) Bill Beckham said “never try to change a structure until you have changed the value” but I was too impatient. He was right.

And that, dear friends, is why we are still in The Big Red Circle. But soon, I am not sure quite when, I will be looking for recruits from within The Big Red Circle to join the prototype cell. Maybe this time we will get it.

The Event Horizon

I recently heard Chris Neal of CMS describe the institutional Church as a black hole which pulls us into its gravitational field. How, I wonder, can I move into a new way of working when I crossed the “event horizon” some 16 years ago?

As vicar of St. Mark’s I do not want to abdicate responsibility for the well-being of the existing church community who have faithfully maintained a local Christian presence for many years. But I fundamentally believe that if this church is to be a more authentic witness it needs to radically change. Part of this change (I believe) is that it needs indigenous leadership who will rise up and tackle the challenges that face the community.

The tension that I am feeling is that there is such a legacy of clericalism that the church members expect me to lead everything, while I feel that if the church is to grow up they need to tackle some of these issues themselves. The problem is … I have helped to perpetuate the dependency culture.

In particular, I am aware that our Victorian building needs a dedicated team of people who will do what is needed to maintain it and keep it safe. During my first few years here I led a project to repair the clock, and to point the East end of the church. Next I worked with a team of people to have floodlighting installed, but in the end I had to take the lead to make it happen before the deadline. Other projects where I had to take a leading role were the reordering of the church “Welcome Zone” and the resurfacing of the car park.

At the moment I am conscious of various things that need leadership, but I am not hearing God tell me to do it. I believe that I just need to draw these to the attention of the worshipping community and ask who is going to step forward? What are these things?

The Friends
The church has insufficient income to pay all the bills, so last year we set up an organisation called the Friends of St.Mark’s Church. The idea is to find 100+ people who will give £10 monthly towards the upkeep and insurance. We have about 5 members so far. This needs promoting. Someone needs to do a mailing to all the people in our database of pastoral contacts (baptisms, weddings, funerals) who might be responsive. Members of the church need to persuade their families and friends to join.

The Database
The database is only partially completed and no-one yet knows how to print out labels.

The Clock
It is some years since the chimes stopped working. The dials need repainting.

The Stonework
Last year two large slabs of stone fell off the church tower. How do we know if the rest is safe and secure? Who is going to do something about it? Who is going to fill in the English Heritage Grant application forms?

The Treasurer
For most of the last 5 years I have been acting as Treasurer or helping the Treasurer to use the spreadsheet that I designed to keep track of the Church accounts. Just before Christmas our Treasurer went abroad and so once again I am acting Treasurer. I am setting up a new double entry book-keeping system and training a volunteer book-keeper. All we need now is someone who understands accounting to become the Treasurer.

Meanwhile ... what about the mission to the Gentiles?

Well there some folk at St. Mark's who are catching the vision and are eager to be part of the outreach. I hope to gather some of them together soon to explore what training we need. I am conscious that we must have a clear idea of how to disciple people without asking them to come to church. What do we say? How do we say it? How do we encourage them to read the bible in a non-book culture? We also need to be sure that we are free to spend enough time with the people of peace. I know that this will be costly. It will require a change of lifestyle for us. Will we have the stamina and persistance to keep going back to spend time eating and drinking with them? I hope so.

Expensive Church Expectations

At the Annual Parish Church Meeting on Sunday I was explaining how the Parish Share is going up this year by £6,000 to £42,000. This news was met with the usual grumbling and suspicion of the Diocese, and fear that “they” will squander it on unwise investments. I tried to explain the difference between the Church Commissioners of the 1980s and the Diocese of today, but I suspect that further efforts will be required.

A bit later on I was casting the vision for going out to make disciples and explaining that I wanted to spend more time with the 9,000 people in my parish who don’t come to church, rather than spending all my energy being chaplain to the 150 who do attend. I made the point that one implication of this would be that we have fewer communion services. This resulted in some grumbling. After all, who pays for the vicar?

An analogy came to mind. Some of the first class passengers on the Titanic feel that “their” officer should attend more of the formal dinners (Holy Communions) instead of hob-nobbing with the third class passengers on the lower decks. What they don’t seem to realise is that the third class passengers are not on the lower decks … they are freezing to death in the water.

We need more people to get into the lifeboats on rescue missions. We need to have a generous attitude towards those who are not on board. We need to lose our self-centred pre-occupation with getting what we want out of church.

Oh Lord! Please transform our hearts so that we love those who are perishing more than we love ourselves.