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.