Escaping the "Black Hole"

I have not spent much time this week with the Gentiles. I took a funeral last Thursday and managed to spend an hour with the family afterwards at the wake. I was on the "Eden Bus" on Friday evening with some of the local young people (I think they call themselves Scallies). Detached youth work is not my primary gifting!! However the evening began well with a little Kingdom moment as one of the lads asked if I could heal him as he had been sick and had stomach pains. I said Jesus sometimes heals people when we pray, so I called over one of the other workers and we prayed with him. A few minutes later he said that he was feeling a lot better.

Yesterday I was with a family preparing a funeral. It is amazing that people who have never been church members still want a "religious" person to do the funeral of their loved ones. As I was talking with the daughter of the woman who died I sensed a spiritual hunger .. here was a busy person who until now has not felt a need for anything spiritual .. and would probably think traditional church too out of touch to be relevant. I find myself wanting to explore the idea of having a Soul Cafe event for people like this to come and chill out and awaken the spiritual seed within.

I know this would be "come to us" ... but hey, we can have a "Mixed Economy" of Fresh Expressions can't we? And it would be nice to have a chance to use some of those wonderful arty-farty powerpoint presentations and multi-sensory activities that get used on the alt-worship scene. I know also that if something like this does happen it will need to be done with people and not for people if it is to be relevant and sustainable.

Much of the rest of my time at the moment is taken up trying to get out of the Black Hole. If I am to have the time and energy needed to pioneer fresh expressions of church and gather a team of church planters I need to release some of my present duties to other people. For example, on Monday I spent most of the day writing the PCC Annual Report which was approved at the PCC meeting on Monday evening in preparation for the Annual Church Meeting. Next year the PCC needs to choose some of their own to write the report rather than expecting the vicar to do it. It will not say what I want to say, but it will be more authentic and owned.

I am encouraged by some offers of support that I am getting from within the church community and I am spending time with the people who will be taking on greater responsibility. We are restructuring our service pattern which will result in more variety and smaller numbers at each service. It is my hope that these will be a little bit less formal because of the smaller numbers and will be mostly planned and led by lay people. Again it will be hard for me to let go even though I know I must, because for the past 14 years I have worked so hard to make the Sunday Service a powerful and professionally led event.

Simple Church

I was asked "what does non-come-to-us christianity look like?" The answer is it looks like "we-go-to-them" and then it looks like "they-go-to-them" making disciples as we/they go (Matthew 28:19). The aim is always multiplication, not addition. The people who respond to the gospel are encouraged to be church in their own home/family setting rather than come to church.

Learning from Roland Allen the primary task is evangelism, next discipleship so that the disciple has a strong grounding in scripture, and there needs to be a very strong confidence/faith in the ability of the Holy Spirit to lead people into truth. The Church planter does not try to control the life of the new church, but remains in a supportive relationship.

I found a blog from a missionary in South America where these principles are being used. Have a look at this link for an example of what simple home churches look like.

This link elaborates the principles which they use.

"Come to Us" Mission

I was treated to an amazing lunch yesterday by a wonderful gregarious chap who is Vicar of Stockport. The guest of honour was Canon Ian Watson who is head of ICS (The Intercontinental Church Society) one of the Anglican Mission agencies.

My overall impression is that ICS is doing some very good missionary work in planting churches of the "come to us" model. The hierarchy believe in the principle that these churches should become self-supporting even if it takes a while for the members to catch this idea.

I suspect that for all the good work that is happening the ICS chaplains are still thinking "inside the box". The box just happens to be in a different country.

"Come to us" Christianity

I am in transition. At a recent meeting with Chris Neal of CMS he spoke about the institutional church as a "black hole that sucks everything in". I feel like I am waking up to the fact I have been infected by a "come to us" version of Christianity.

Despite all my emphasis on Evangelism (25 Alpha courses in the past 10years) and commitment to growth through cell church all we are seeing is addition. And I have been so influenced by the institution so that I was measuring success by how big the congregation became, and how many people were in cell groups and how often the cell groups multiplied (which isn't often ... they tend to mutuate instead).

Two and a half years ago I was privileged to meet up with Nick Haigh http://journeyinginmission.blogspot.com/ who has been curate with me at St.Mark's since July 2004. His advent has been accompanied by a growing emphasis on mission to the people "out there".

Two years ago I felt that Isaiah 54:2 was the verse for our church "Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes." This is still true for the institutional bit. It is too dependent on clergy. Too passive. It needs to be strengthened by those who love church in this form taking greater ownership. As they say in the community development sphere "never do for others what they could and should be doing for themselves."

We are starting to stretch our tent curtains wider. We have a growing BCP congregation (fancy that!) and we recently started an "interactive" worship service in our Parish Hall. For some this is easier to belong to that trad church. I believe that we are going to see many more tent flaps before long.

This is good. it is Mission. It produces growth.... but it is still come to us. It is still just addition. But in my belly I believe that the Kingdom of God is meant to multiply.

I noticed this week that Isaiah exhibits the same unconscious tension. As a man who could walk up to the King, Isaiah was part of the institution. In many of his prophecies we hear a promise that the nations will come to Jerusalem (ie come to us) eg 55:5 or that he will gather his people 43:6-7 or that we need more room in the tent 54:1-2. And then he comes out with a prophecy of going out and transforming the wilderness eg 43:19 55:12-13 54:3

I am exploring how we can go out into that wilderness where multiplication can happen.

Roland Allen

Spent some time yesterday finding out about this chap. He was a missionary to China 100 years ago and wrote about Paul's missionary method. We need to be apostolic in our missionary work and really believe in the Holy Spirit.

Seeds of the Kingdom

I enjoyed the first part of yesterday evening exploring the missiological ideas in Mission-Shaped Church with some curates from Chester Diocese. I hope that some seeds were sown that bear fruit.

I did not enjoy hearing that MCFC had been knocked out of the FA cup whilst my attention was elsewhere!

A couple of Kingdom moments today. Whilst walking the dogs I met a lady distressed by being on the receiving end of a verbal tirade from another dog owner. After she had told me all about it I offered to pray with her. She was moved to tears. I trust that another seed has been sown.

Before lunch I went to see a chap who turned up on my doorstep yesterday very distressed. His life is in a mess an he wanted some help. I could have gone by myself, but I want to practice what I was preaching on Sunday. Jesus sent his disciples out in pairs (Luke 10:1) so I phoned John and asked him to come with me. Together we listened for a while and then explained the good news. Before we left we prayed with him. There may be a party going on in heaven. Time will tell. I am hopeful that this seed may have germinated.

I too venture into the world of Blogging....

Yesterday I was preaching on Luke 10 about doing evangelism the way Jesus taught his disciples ... by finding the Person of Peace and spending time eating and drinking with their family and friends. An hour later I was at a Christening in our traditional old Victorian building. When the parents of the baby invited me to come to the party I had to practice what I was preaching so I spent a couple of hours with some "samaritans". I call them "samaritans" rather than "gentiles" as these are the folk who come to church to get married and bring their children to be Christened.

What I love about these opportunities is the way the Holy Spirit goes before you. I found myself sitting next to one of the Godparents and I had the opportunity to heal some wounds caused by an insensitive member of the Church 5 years earlier. PTL

The "gentiles" have babies who are not Christened and if they get married it is either at the Registry office or on a beach somewhere! I was with some of the "gentiles" last Tuesday watching Man City knock Aston Villa out of the cup. The language can be choice ... but there are people of peace here too.