Nah Then

Man Up For Pete's Sake

2012-01-20T09:27:00.001Z

Newman

Apparently there's a crisis of masculinity. Apparently we need to rediscover how to be men. Apparently there's a particular need to learn what it means to be a Christian man. Mmmm...

As one who finds it hard to raise much interest in this stuff, one who is positively turned off by organised chapathons I must confess to not paying much attention. Occasionally though the odd OTT nutty roaring muscles its way into my attention and from time to time I come across an article or blog post that seems worthy of note. All of which is a very long winded way of saying that I think that this from Mark Sayers is worth a read.

Mark Driscoll

2012-01-18T18:12:00.010Z

I know this is a few days late but I've decided to post something about Mark Driscoll. (Come to think of it in some ways it's a few months late, and in other ways a few years late.) The reason I'm so tardy is that I've been successively composing and trashing a whole series of posts. (Good to see that the old Holy Spirit filter isn't entirely shot full holes.) Anyhow, I've finally come up with something that I believe to be true, that genuinely expresses what I feel and that I'm prepared let out.
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Northern Baptist Theological Consultation

2012-01-18T10:43:00.001Z

We are holding another theological consultation for Baptists in the North of England. The idea is to stimulate conversation and encourage research (formal and informal) within the denomination in our bit of the country.

This year's event will be held from 10.00 until 3.30 on March 29th at The Blackley Centre in Elland just two minutes off the M62. Come and listen. Come and discuss. Come and present your ideas.

Dr. Pat Took will give the keynote address. If you would like to present a short paper (20 minutes) on any area of theological interest please send a title and a 100 word abstract to Dr. Anne Philips at: Northern Baptist Learning Community, Brighton Grove, Rusholme, Manchester, M14 5JP.

The cost of the day is £25.00. Please pay in advance sending a cheque (payable to Northern Baptist Theological Consultation) to Dr Sally Nelson at: 4 Station View, Church Fenton, Tadcaster, North Yorkshire LS24 9QY by 10 March please.

Church Family?

2012-01-16T08:04:00.001Z

Warning! This one's a bit Baptisty.

I find it hard to get too worked up about the wavelet of conversation about the language of church family or Baptist family currently swashing around the Baptist blogosphere. Just worked up enough to have a bit of a blog myself.

Seems to me that family language became popular to emphasise the relational aspect of church. This was part of the whole cuddlyfying process that was a much welcome dimension of the charismatic movement per se and the wider informalising of culture of which the movement was a manifestation. As such it was part of the reaction against an overly formal expression of church life. The use of family language helped to contribute to toning down the institutional feel of church that many of us encountered when getting involved for the first time in the 60's / 70's.

Thing is though no one image can do everything. Each metaphor runs the risk bringing unwelcome and unintended connotations to the table. That's in the very nature of metaphors, they are allusive, evocative not definitive.

Some advocate speaking of the Baptist movement rather than family. I can see why this might be attractive at a time when we wish to emphasise the missional nature of church and further downplay its institutional life. But movement language might run the risk of de-emphasising the relational dimension of church life.

We oughtn't to imagine that by switching metaphors we will somehow get it right. I reckon that if we are to bespeak the (ideally) rich reality of church we need to deploy a range of metaphors. By all means let's stir up the language, keep it fresh, use it to finesse our meaning and to promote our political priorities but let's not thin it out. By all means emphasise movement but let's not stop aspiring to become family at its best.

Do I Hear An Amen?

2012-01-12T15:36:00.002Z

Do I hear an Amen?

Nope? Thought not. Saying Amen was once the only opportunity (hymn singing apart) that free church congregations had to join in with worship. Now, it seems, this little Hebrew liturgical fragment is going the way of house sparrows, milkmen and phone boxes. And we are left to mumble and stumble our way through services like a bunch of sullen teenagers with p.m.t.

This bugs me. I know it shouldn't but it does, bugs me bad. So much so that more than once I've considered printing little cards with AMEN in big bold letters, handing them out to the congregation before the service and asking everyone to read from the card when prompted. Do you think that would help? No?
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Seminar on Evangelism at Luther King House

2012-01-04T17:24:00.001Z

Here's some details of a day long seminar that I'm leading on the subject evangelism as part of the series of "Church Saturdays" here at Luther-King House. If you are in the Manchester area and fancy joining in a conversation about how we understand and undertake evangelism why not join us?

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Evangelistic Fragment Five: Faithful and Distinctive

2012-01-03T12:02:00.000Z

(The fifth of an as yet undetermined number of thoughtlets on evangelism that have dribbled out of my brain, down my arm and through the keyboard. Mainly because I'm preparing to teach an MA module on evangelism.)

The previous fragment spoke of evangelism in three modes: being doing and saying. All three modes depend upon the maintenance of a distinctive identity, distinctive practices and a distinctive message. No distinctiveness, no news.
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Evangelistic Fragment Four: Communicating The Gospel In Three Modes

2012-01-02T15:51:00.000Z

(The fourth of an as yet undetermined number of thoughtlets on evangelism that have dribbled out of my brain, down my arm and through the keyboard. Mainly because I'm preparing to teach an MA module on evangelism.)

When I describe evangelism as that aspect of mission that is concerned with communicating the gospel I have in mind far more than talking.

Communicating good new should happen in three modes – being (how we are), doing (what we get up to) and speaking (what we have to say). We need to be present, we need to be active and we need to be articulate or, if you prefer, we witness as we embody, enact and express the gospel.

All three modes of communication are necessary: being alone is too passive, doing alone is too ambiguous and speaking alone is too facile.

Evangelistic Fragment Three: Evangelism, Communication and the Influence Spectrum

2011-12-29T13:35:00.007Z

(The third of an as yet undetermined number of thoughtlets on evangelism that have dribbled out of my brain, down my arm and through the keyboard. Mainly because I'm preparing to teach an MA module on evangelism.)

I am suggesting that we think of evangelism as that aspect of mission that is concerned with the communication of the gospel. If we are serious about communication we will do all that we can to make sure we take appropriate responsibility for three things: the content of our message, the process of its transmission and the likelihood of its reception. This fragment is concerned with the third of these.

To seek to communicate presupposes to my mind that we are not indifferent to the response of those with whom we are seeking to communicate. It also presupposes respect for the otherness of those with whom we are seeking to communicate; communication is not the same as imposition, when we impose we abandon any attempt at genuine communication.
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Evangelistic Fragment Two: On The Relationship Between Evangelism And Mission

2011-12-27T07:24:00.005Z

(The second of an as yet undetermined number of thoughtlets on evangelism that have dribbled out of my brain, down my arm and through the keyboard. Mainly because I'm preparing to teach an MA module on evangelism.)

Evangelism is that aspect of mission that is concerned with communication of the gospel, getting the message across. Other vital dimensions of mission include making a difference for good in God's world irrespective of whether or not we get our message across.

It is my conviction that mission in its fullest sense is about praying and working for the fulfillment of the purposes of God, seeking the establishment of the reign of God and therefore cooperating with the Spirit of God in every dimension of God's creative and recreative work.
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Contemporary Trends In Evangelism

2011-12-26T11:16:00.003Z

I'm going to be spending a fair chunk of time between now and the start of next semester tarting up my MA module, Contemporary Trends in Evangelism. Thought I'd send a call out to see if anyone would like to suggest anything that ought to be included.

As it stands we take a look at:

the shift in the dominant paradigm of evangelism from the revivalist rally to process evangelism courses
church planting and contextualisation
evangelism as faithful, distinctive ecclesial witness
evangelism and worship
evangelism, community ministry and social action
evangelism and the emerging church movement
evangelism, pluralism and dialogue
evangelism in the digital age

Music and Spirituality

2011-10-20T10:37:00.000+01:00

Been preparing for a session that I'm teaching in a week or two on our MA module "Contemporary Spirituality". Came across this from Don Salliers in Minding The Spirit Elizabeth Dreyer and Mark Burrows (eds.)

Music itself … offers us a pattern of how we actually experience the world and our lives. It presents to us a morphology of human existence. … I propose that spirituality has to do with sounding life before God. Because we live through time music is perhaps our most natural medium for coming to terms with time and attending to the transcendent elements in making sense of our temporality. Our lives, like music, have pitch, tempo, tone, release, dissonance, harmonic convergence, as we move through times of grief, delight, hope, anger and joy. In short music has this deep affinity to our spiritual temperament and desire. Our lives like music can only be understood in remembering the passage through time. The order of sound is comprehended as we remember and reconfigure the previously heard in light of the yet to be heard. So, too, the deeper desires and yearning of the human soul are not understood until a larger pattern emerges.

I liked it so I thought I'd share it. Hope you like it too.

The Faith of Girls

2011-08-26T12:33:00.001+01:00

Over the summer my colleague, Anne Phillips' book, the Faith of Girls has been published. Based on her recently completed PhD it is a unique and very valuable piece of work on a much neglected area. Here's some of the blurb from publishers, Ashgate.

Exploring the spirituality and faith of girls on the verge of adolescence, this book presents fresh insights into children's spirituality and their transition to adulthood. Phillips has listened to girls' voices speaking in depth on the themes of self, God, church, and world, and reflected on their experiences and understandings in the light of current psychological, philosophical and sociological thinking, all placed into dialogue with a feminist approach to contemporary theology and bible. Phillips offers 'wombing' as a metaphor for their transition to young adulthood, and suggests strategies faith communities might adopt to companion girls more effectively through the fragility of puberty. This book will appeal to all those exploring areas of youth ministry, pastoral care, Christian education, nurture and childhood studies, psychology and theology.
Contents: Preface; Introduction; Breaking the silence around girls in transition; Methods for learning from girls; Girls in transitional space; Theological reflection 1: Lucy; Girls in Godspace; Theological reflection 2: Rosie; Girls in nurturing space; Affirming girls through transition; Bibliography; Indexes.
Reviews: ‘This is a landmark text which breaks new ground in the study of the faith of girls. It deserves to be widely read and reflected upon. Grounded in nuanced biblical readings of neglected texts about girls, an impressive range of diverse theoretical perspectives from theology, gender studies, psychology and sociology, and offering original qualitative field work, Anne Phillips skilfully works all this together into a powerful text which will excite feminist scholars and practical theologians alike, while being of immense value to practitioners. Both church and academy should welcome and honour this text.’
Nicola Slee, The Queen's Foundation for Ecumenical Theological Education, Birmingham, UK

Missiology Podcasts From Fuller

2011-08-04T14:01:00.001+01:00

I've just posted a number of links to podcasts from Fuller Theological Seminary on my Links To Other Stuff page. (See the tab in the green bar at the top of this page.) There's all sorts of good stuff to be had including Graham Cray on Fresh Expressions, Darrell Guder on Missional Leadership After Christendom and Allan Roxburgh on contemporary mission. Go take a look.

I will stick up a few more links when I get round to it - I've particularly enjoyed listening to John Goldingay's Old Testament lectures - and I'll keep on adding stuff as I come across it. Keep on checking back from time to time just to make sure you don't miss out.

Gaga Again

2011-07-03T18:37:00.001+01:00

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned Pete Philips' observations on Lady Gaga's Judas video. Now Steve Holmes has chipped in with a few reflections.

Has anyone else made use of this in worship or teaching?

Talks And Sermon Notes On Scribd

2011-06-24T09:54:00.001+01:00

Every now and then I get asked for copies of notes from my talks or sermons so I've set up a Scribd account and will from time to time upload notes. You can download pdf's of the notes either directly from Scribd or using the widget in the sidebar on this blog. I won't be putting up notes of all the sermons and talks, only those in which people show an interest and only those that are substantial enough to be worth the effort - many of my sermon notes are little more than headlines that wouldn't make sense to anyone but me (a bit like the sermons themselves!). Anyhow if you'd like copies please help yourself.

(BTW while I'm at it I've also decided to start uploading my Outside Edge opinion pieces from the Baptist Times so that they'll be easily getattable in one place.)

Monsters and Jesus

2011-06-16T08:20:00.002+01:00

Now there are of course many many lenses through which to interpret Jesus Christ - history, politics, spirituality, post-colonial theory ... . Came across one this morning that was rather, well, shall we say, "novel"?
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Mission in Britain Today - What Would You Teach?

2011-06-15T08:28:00.000+01:00

I've decided that time has come for a significant revision of my introductory degree module on mission in Britain today. I've been teaching this course for the past six years now with only minor tweaks and that word "today" in the title is a rather insistent demand to keep things freshish. I've got a number of ideas in mind but it would be awfully decent of you if you would offer up some suggestions of your own.

Here's what we cover at the moment:
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Pete Philips on Lady Gaga Theology

2011-06-12T10:34:00.001+01:00

A couple of weeks I ago I used Lady Gaga's latest video, "Judas" as one of the texts at the communion service on our weekend course at Luther King House. It worked well. Just came across this piece of cultural/theological reflection from Pete Philips on the same vid. Thought it might be of interest to any who were at that service, and perhaps to others.

Pentecost and Mission

2011-06-10T15:15:00.002+01:00

Had an enjoyable couple of hours preparing to preach two sermons on Acts 2 this weekend. Came across this from Justo Gonzales in his Acts: The Gospel of the Spirit. Liked it. Thought you might like it as well.

In order to have the multitude understand what the disciples of Jesus were saying the Holy Spirit had two options: one was to make all understand the Aramaic the disciples spoke; the other was to make each understand in their own tongue. Significantly the Spirit chooses the latter route. This has important consequences for the way we understand the place of culture and language in the Church. Had the Spirit made all the listeners understand the language of the apostles, we would be justified in a centripetal understanding of mission, one in which all who come in are expected to be like those who invite them. However, because what the Spirit did was exactly the opposite, this leads us to a centrifugal understanding of mission, one in which as the gospel moves toward new languages and new cultures, it is ready to take forms that are understandable within those languages and cultures. In other words, had there been an “Aramaic only” movement in first-century Palestine, Pentecost was a resounding no! to that movement. And it is still a resounding no! to any movement within the Church that seeks to make all Christians think alike, speak alike, and behave alike. The first translator of the gospel is the Holy Spirit, and a church that claims to have the Holy Spirit must be willing to follow that lead, That is why it has correctly been stated that whereas Babel was a monument to human pride, the Church is called to be a monument to the humiliation of any who seek to make their language or culture dominant.

Incarnate Church Planting Talks

2011-05-11T07:52:00.002+01:00

Last month I had the privilege of taking part in the annual incarnate gathering of church planters. I was invited to be the missiologist in residence. My job was to kick off the gathering, join in the conversations and then share some reflections to wrap the whole thing up. Enjoyed it a lot.

Any how on the off chance that someone might be interested there are audio files of my talks and downloads of my handouts to be had over at the incarnate website. Pay the site a visit. Have a mooch around. Keep your ears open for the whisper of the Spirit.

Shadows

2011-05-04T17:16:00.000+01:00

Yes you are right. I've still not been blogging much. So in the absence of any words from me how about a few from D.H. Lawrence? Can't claim to be big fan of Lawrence - too much self indulgent tripe - but this is a cracker. Think I'd like it at my funeral. Not that I'm feeling unwell or anything.

Shadows

And if tonight my soul may find her peace
in sleep, and sink in good oblivion,
and in the morning wake like a new-opened flower
then I have been dipped again in God, and new-created.

And if, as weeks go round, in the dark of the moon
my spirit darkens and goes out, and soft strange gloom
pervades my movements and my thoughts and words
then I shall know that I am walking still
with God, we are close together now the moon’s in shadow.

And if, as autumn deepens and darkens
I feel the pain of falling leaves, and stems that break in storms
and trouble and dissolution and distress
and then the softness of deep shadows folding,
folding around my soul and spirit, around my lips
so sweet, like a swoon, or more like the drowse of a low, sad song
singing darker than the nightingale, on, on to the solstice
and the silence of short days, the silence of the year, the shadow,
then I shall know that my life is moving still
with the dark earth, and drenched
with the deep oblivion of earth’s lapse and renewal.

And if, in the changing phases of man’s life
I fall in sickness and in misery
my wrists seem broken and my heart seems dead
and strength is gone, and my life
is only the leavings of a life:

and still, among it all, snatches of lovely oblivion, and snatches
of renewal
odd, wintry flowers upon the withered stem, yet new, strange flowers
such as my life has not brought forth before, new blossoms of me

then I must know that still
I am in the hands of the unknown God,
he is breaking me down to his own oblivion
to send me forth on a new morning, a new man

Northumbria Community Leadership Schools

2011-04-26T10:15:00.000+01:00

My friends in the Northumbria Community asked me to let people know about some forthcoming events. I reckon you can guarantee, good speakers, good hospitality and a good time.

Northumbria Community Leadership Schools, Nether Springs

Following on from the highly successful Leadership Schools that were launched last year, you are invited to join Roy Searle and others for this year's Schools.

Our mother house, Nether Springs, has recently relocated to its new home at Acton Home Farm, south of Alnwick in the Coquet Valley near to the Northumbrian coast. Our new monastic missional centre has ten en suite, twin or double bedrooms, a library, sitting room, dining room, offices and entrance built around a cloistered courtyard, set on a private estate, just off the A1 near Felton.

Each day will follow the pattern of a monastic rhythm, with times for prayer, reflection, rest, study, teaching input and sharing together. There will also be opportunities to walk and visit some of the famous places that are associated with the Celtic Saints.
To book a place or for further information and details please contact office@northumbriacommunity.org or telephone 01670 787 645

Missional Leadership School
Monday 6th to Saturday, 11th June, 2011
The challenges and opportunities of missional living and leading require new ways of being and exercising leadership. Join George Lings and Roy Searle as they explore some of the key issues facing leaders in a changing church and culture. Based around the rhythm of the monastic day, time will be spent alone and together exploring these issues with other leaders in a supportive environment.
Cost, including full board accommodation, £285. To book a place or for further information and details please contact office@northumbriacommunity.org or telephone 01670 787645.

Prophetic Voices
Monday 5th to Friday, 9th September, 2011
Join Roy Searle and Stuart Murray Williams of the Anabaptist Network looking at what the new monastic, Celtic and Anabaptist Traditions have to say to leaders in the midst of a changing church and culture. Based around the rhythm of the monastic day, time will be spent alone and together exploring these issues with other leaders in a supportive environment. Cost, including full board accommodation, £230.
To book a place or for further information and details please contact office@northumbriacommunity.org or telephone 01670 787645.

Change and Transition Retreat
Monday 7th to Saturday, 12th November, 2011
This retreat, led by Roy Searle and Pete Askew, opens up ideas of how to lead through the challenges and opportunities of change by strengthening relationships, facilitating creativity, fostering innovation, promoting growth and development, whilst still facing issues of conflict and building community.
Cost, including full board accommodation, £285.
To book a place or for further information and details please contact office@northumbriacommunity.org or telephone 01670 787645.

Please see some of the feedback from the last Leadership School held last year:-

It was really excellent. I enjoyed the people and the environment. There was a good balance between teaching, praying and relaxing.

The Leadership School provided a valuable time to pause together as church leaders and focus on our relationships with God, self and others. Thanks to the Northumbria Community for facilitating this for us.

Refreshing, inspiring, liberating!

Review of Morna Hooker and Frances Young's "Holiness and Mission"

2011-04-19T18:22:00.002+01:00

A renowned New Testament scholar and an eminent theologian deliver a series of lectures on Mission and Holiness, looking for lessons for today’s church from the remarkable growth of Christianity in the urban centres of the Roman empire. Intriguing.

Morna Hooker, offers an account of mission in the scriptures from Israel through Jesus to the New Testament church. She detects a common thread originating in the call to God’s people to be Holy as God is holy. This Holiness is social holiness, a particular people living an ethically distinct life in the midst of other peoples, thus pointing to the reality of God and offering an embodied invitation to come, know and worship. Words alone, whether proclamation or personal testimony, aren’t enough. Witness is dependent on corporate godliness, ecclesial bodying forth of Christ the God-revealer.

According to Hooker, living the holy life in a city offers particular challenges. The Bible is ambivalent about urban living. From Babel through Babylon to Rome the city is a place of alienation, corruption and hubristic rejection of God. Both Jesus and his followers meet the challenge of urban godlessness and in so doing offer a challenge to the cities that sought their death. Yet in the vision of Zion restored and Babylon/Rome become the heavenly Jerusalem, scripture offers us assurance that God isn’t done with the metropolis. So, the church today is called to meet the challenge of the city and to offer a challenge to the city by living otherwise, thus pointing to the promise of the city, God’s promise.

In her treatment of early church growth Frances Young also emphasises the significance of holiness, the quiet, distinctive, engaged presence of the first Christian communities. She recognises that early Christian mission took many forms including demonstrations of power through exorcism and healing, remarkable confidence in the face of death and verbal announcement of gospel. But it is the presence of Christian networks both like and unlike Roman institutions, quietly overlapping the structures of society and offering a place to belong, a sense of identity, practical care and a distinctive philosophy that gets most of the credit. The church grew because it was an articulate, attractive anomaly.

Young then ventures beyond Constantine when the booster rocket of state of approval carried church growth into stratospheric dimensions. She offers us a welcome, nuanced rendition of an oft told story – church moving from household to basilica, from lifestyle to religion, from radical alternative to the mainstream, from simplicity to flamboyant dazzle. Mission becomes enculturation and growth through conquest; organic, grass-roots life becomes top-down establishment and as society is Christianised, the church is de-Christianised.

And the implications for today? What is called for is an integration of verbal witness and embodied witness, rooted in social holiness. We could do worse than allow Marshall McLuhan to provide commentary on Leviticus: be holy as I am holy – the medium is the message.

All in all then not a bad little book. Not bad, but not great. I can find nothing with which to take exception in Hooker and Young’s exposition and I approve their central message but I’d hoped for more. A book by these two commended heartily by James Dunne and David Ford is one that I was eager to read but one that taught me very little. All too familiar. I was much more impressed by the Kreiders’ Worship and Mission after Christendom which tells a similar story and offers a similar vision. Still, I’ll probably use Hooker and Young as a set text for my first year course on mission. It’s short, clearly written, reliable and makes some important points; ideal for those beginning to study missiology. If that’s how you see yourself, go ahead but if you want more than an introduction I’d look elsewhere.

This review was originally written for Regent's Reviews and is reproduced here with permission of the editor.  Check out the web site to get a free pdf of a whole bunch of reviews. 

Preaching as Testimony

2011-03-20T17:32:00.004Z

Now I don't plan to make a habit of this but here's another post quoting a chunk of a book on preaching. I guess that's what happens when you resolve to post regularly(ish) on Sunday evenings and then you spend Sunday afternoons preparing for Monday morning's homiletics class.

We are looking at preaching as a form of testimony so we're still in Ricoeur and Brueggemann territory. However, to spare the class from my Brueggemannamania I'm channelling what he does with Ricoeur's testimonial hermeneutics through Anna Carter Florence. This comes from her excellent Preaching as Testimony. [Yes I know I should have turned that into a nice convenient amazon link but If you thinking of getting a copy of the book - and you really should - I'd quite like you to do it via the Stuff I Recommend box on this blog. You'll need to go to page two of the widget.]

… preaching cannot be the proclamation of absolute truth; it never has been. There is no such thing as infallibility or inerrancy; there are no universal truths for us to access or own at will. There are only fleeting glimpses of the truth we see and confess in Jesus Christ, the truth that encounters us, in concrete human experiences, by the grace of God. Preaching is testimony: a proclamation of what we have seen and believed. It is claim and confession rather than absolute and certitude. And because the context for testimony is one of struggle and divergent opinions … a sermon like any other testimony, must make its way in the world as best it can, through an invitation to believe rather than a command to obey.

All of which sounds rather appealing to this preacher. An approach to preaching with more modesty and thereby, more authority.

On Re-reading Brueggemann

2011-03-13T09:38:00.001Z

Just been re-reading the introduction to Finally Comes the Poet in preparation for tomorrow's homiletics class when we'll be looking at preaching, poetry and imagination. I'd forgotten just how good it is.

Walter Brueggemann's writing about preaching does for the preacher what he suggests the preacher should be doing for the congregation. This is truly poetic, visionary, prophetic writing construing the preacher as a wielder of words and spinner of worlds potently prophesying. At times his vision might sound unrealistic, too fantastical for the mundane reality of Sunday by Sunday sermonising. But that's the point. Here is inspiration, here are words to thrill, an evocation of the possibilities of the sermon daring the preacher to believe. Thanks Walt.

If you get to preach but haven't read it, do yourself favour, treat yourself. If you have read it, do yourself a flavour, remind yourself. Here's how he ends his intro, wrapping up, or rather unwrapping still further, what he's had to say about the sermon as a four way coming together of text, people, preacher and eye popping Holy Spirit.

The meeting involves this old text, the spent congregation believing but impoverished, the artist of new possibility, the disclosure. The Prince of Darkness tries frantically to keep the world closed so that we can be administered. The Prince has such powerful allies in this age. Against such enormous odds, however, there is the working of this feeble inscrutable, unshackled moment of the sermon. Sometimes the Prince will win the day and there is no new thing uttered or heard. Sometimes, however, the sermon will have its say and the truth looks large - larger than the text or the voice or the folk had any reason to expect. When that happens, the world is set loose toward healing. The sermon for such a time shames the Prince and we become yet again more nearly human. The Author of the text laughs in delight, the way that Author has laughed only at creation and at Easter but laughs again when the sermon carries the day against the prose of the Dark Prince who wants no new poetry in the region he things he governs. Where the poetry is sounded the Prince knows a little of the territory has been lost to its true Ruler. The newly claimed territory becomes a new home of freedom, justice, peace, and abiding joy. This happens when the poet comes, when the poet speaks, when the preacher comes as poet.

Phronesis

2011-03-10T18:29:00.005Z

Well, it was Phronesis what did it. I've spent most of the past three months demonstrating my ability to multi-task. In a sustained manner I have simultaneously being doing two things: 1) telling myself that it would be good to start blogging again and 2) not starting blogging again. (The adverts in Dec and Jan don't really count.)

My blog abstinence is not evidence that I have got my church calendar all to cock, confusing epiphany with lent. It's nothing other than the old road to hell thing. Three months is quite a delay don't you think? If that, is there are still any you's out there reading this stuff. (Helloooooo!) I'm sure my blog is actually echoing like a big old empty cave…. ave ave ave.

Of course this is not the first time I have had extended blogging down time. When this has happened before something or other has come along and got me at it again, something like a cracking film or a stimulating lecture or a mundane insight that seemed utterly brilliant at the time. This time though, as I said, it was Phronesis what did it. By 'eck they're good!

Went to see them a couple of nights ago at Band on the Wall, Manchester's splendid live music venue. How good are they? Well if you kind of quite like jazz but are absolutely sure you don't get the stuff at the more creative/avant garde end of the spectrum Phronesis are the band to change your mind. Talk about energy! Talk about imagination! Talk about swinging! Talk about tight! Piano that is by turns lush, frantic and icily spare. Drumming that really really really does use the kit as a melodic instrument. And bass playing that actually made me change my mind about bass solos. No, really.

If you want a listen I'd start here or better still go hear them live.

Urban Expression (Manchester) Open Day

2011-02-09T07:24:00.000Z

Interested in urban mission? Curious about church planting? Book in for this then. Go on.

BMS and Urban Expression Announce New Partnership

2010-12-17T10:51:00.000Z

News just released of an exciting new partnership for cross cultural mission in British cities.

Church of Jazz

2010-12-15T16:24:00.000Z

Cannonball Adderly Quintet lead worship on the theme of adversity. The Spirit seems to be moving on the congregation.

Advent Readings and Prayers

2010-12-13T11:47:00.000Z

My turn this week to contribute thoughts and prayer suggestions to Northern Baptist Learning Community's advent cycle. Go read and pray.

Book Launch: Ancient Faith Future Mission: New Monasticism as Fresh Expressions of The Church

2010-12-10T14:49:00.002Z

Those who came along to the prophetic voices day here at Luther King House in October when we looked at new monastic communities might interested in this book launch:

The combination of Fresh Expressions of Church and the explosion of interest in monastic spirituality is resulting in the emergence of new monastic communities inspired by historic patterns of religious life, but reframed for the contemporary world. In this book, leaders of traditional religious communities and emerging 'new monastic' communities tell their stories and reflect on how an ancient expression of being church is inspiring and shaping a very new one.

Thursday 3rd Feb. 18:00 - 21:00
Location: Church House, 90 Deansgate, Manchester.
Free Tickets: Event Bright

Panel for the Manchester Book Launch

(Chair) Ben Edson, DIocesan Fresh Expressions Missioner & Associate Missioner of the National Fresh Expressions Team

Ray Simpson, Aidan and Hilda Community

Philip Roderick, Spirituality Advisor to the Bp of Sheffield and Leader for Contemplative Fire Community

Mark Berry, Safe Space Community Telford

Ian Mobsby, Moot Community

HT Ben Edson.

"Exploring The Story" An Introduction to Reading the Bible

2010-12-06T13:28:00.001Z

Some of my colleagues here at NBLC are teaching a short course which introduces the Bible and explores ways of reading the different types of literature that it contains. Aimed at anyone at all who might be interested, this is just one expression of our mission to serve as "... a widely accessible resource for mission through theological education, equally available to the whole people of God." It's happening in South Manchester on three Saturday mornings in January.

For more info, including details of how to book a place, go here.

(BTW you don't need to be able to read Heberw, or have a pointy thing with a brass hand on the end.)

Of Gods and Men

2010-12-04T21:20:00.003Z

Just got back from seeing the best film of the year, Of Gods and Men. I learned lots of stuff. I learned that it snows in Algeria. I learned that old men have beautiful faces. I learned that monks can be heroic. I learned that multiple endings can be done better than in Return of the King. I learned that intelligence, emotion and good theology can hang out together. I learned that a film can be a brilliant sermon - without being at all preachy. I learned you CAN do simple and profound. I learned that this particular film does what it says on the can - it's deeply human and utterly divine.

Bifurcating Evangelicals!

2010-11-28T20:24:00.001Z

This from Roger Olsen on why it might not be a bad idea for evangelicals to stop kidding themselves that they are still one coherent movement. (HT Jonathan Robinson)

Been thinking of spouting off about this myself. Not sure I'm entirely convinced by Olson's analysis but I do reckon there may well be potentially terminal tensions in the movement. Maybe I'll fling some thoughts together later this week. For now I'd be interested to hear what you make of Olsen's piece.

ConDem Politics and Christian Hypocrisy

2010-11-27T16:57:00.002Z

All together now:

I will speak out for those who have no voices
 I will stand up for the rights of all the oppressed
 I will speak truth and justice
 I'll defend the poor and the needy
 I will lift up the weak in Jesus' name

Or if you prefer:

I, the Lord of wind and flame, 
I will tend the poor and lame.
 I will set a feast for them.
 My hand will save.

I wonder if you ever sing either of these hymns. If so I do hope you won’t allow David Cameron and Nick Clegg to turn you into a hypocrite.

You see it looks like we are in for a period when the attention of the media will be, as ever, on the antics of the rich and famous (not least, following last week’s announcement, the royally rich and famous). Meanwhile hundreds of thousands of the not nearly so rich and the nowhere near famous will, largely unnoticed, be struggling to cope as their jobs are snatched away and their benefits slashed.

“Oh dear” I hear you say, “this is getting a bit political.” Well, yes, but my purpose in raising this is not to debate the minutiae of government fiscal policy. I’m not sure that an economics A level from 1978 is sufficient qualification to pronounce on the relative merits of Keynes and Friedman as gurus for hard times. Instead I’m going to stick to what I know.

I reckon I’m on safe ground when I tell you that thirty five years of reading the Bible has lead me to the conclusion that Jesus is not very fond of hypocrisy. And make no mistake it will be the rankest of rank hypocrisy if in coming years the church in this country continues to sing its hymns of solidarity and preach its sermons on God’s care for poor while keeping stum about the impact of legislation on the lives of the most vulnerable. It would also be somewhat less than satisfactory for us to follow the all too familiar path of sticking to escapist praise songs and ignoring awkward Bible passages.

For the purposes of this column whether you voted Tory, Labour, Lib Dem or Monster Raving Looney is not really my concern. My point is that as Christians we all belong to a political party that has as one of the main planks of its platform a policy that is set firmly against passing by on the other side. Ever since the good Samaritan did his stuff we have declared care-less neglect of the battered and the bruised to be a bad thing. And those who shoot their mouths off about how the world should be run really ought to try and muster up at least an ounce or two of consistency.

We can agree on that can’t we? That the church ought to be speaking out on behalf of those whom the majority of society would rather ignore? That we should be trying to wrestle the spotlight away from princes and prima donnas, nudging it instead towards those upon whom God’s eye rests?

If not, perhaps it’s time to call an end to the party. At the very least we should take our scissors to our Bibles and attack our hymn projection software with the delete button. The Magnificat for instance, and all those songs based upon it, should be left on the cutting room floor this Christmas. True, the bland and anaemic version of Christianity with which we would be left is a rather distasteful thing, but not nearly as nauseating a full blown hypocrisy.

My turn to do a month's worth of opinion pieces for the Baptist Times' "Outside Edge" column has come round again. With the agreement of the editor I'm posting my BT article here. To check out the Baptist Times as a whole click here.

Church Meetings - How to Fight Nicely?

2010-11-24T07:00:00.005Z

There can hardly be a parent alive who hasn’t said to their children, “Now I want you to learn how to play together nicely.” The other day it occurred to me that it would probably serve the next generation better if we helped them to learn how to fight with each other nicely. I was sitting in a church meeting at the time.

Church meetings eh? Don’t you just love ‘em? Get a group of Baptists together and it won’t be long before someone pokes fun at, moans about or openly despairs of church meetings. Fact is though I think church meetings are brilliant, or at least I think they could be.

I didn’t always think this. I became a Baptist because I was convinced about believers’ baptism and because I was prepared to put up with church meetings. I was prepared to put up with them despite the clogging of agendas with trivia; despite the way they were dominated by the same few people (my wife kept a tally once – 80 present, 12 spoke of whom ten were middle-aged men including her husband). I put up with them despite not knowing how to deal with the high emotion that so often bubbled to the surface and despite the fact that I sat through a couple were there were threats of violence.

But now I’m well passed just putting up with them, I’m convinced that if only we learned how to do church meetings they could be a very taste of heaven, an example of the church acting its age, the post-Pentecost age of the democratisation of the Spirit, you know old and young, male and female all getting a good sloshing of the third person of the trinity so that everyone can join in finding out what God wants.

But for this to happen we do need to learn how to fight nicely. Because fight we will – if by fighting we mean expressing deeply held and widely differing opinions. Pretending otherwise is daft. But what does it mean to fight nicely? Well, I can’t claim to have it sussed but I reckon that at last I’ve begun to learn a handful of lessons. Here’s just three.

Learn to listen. If this is about finding out what God wants and not fighting for what I want then I need to remember that God has a habit of speaking through those I least expect. If we really believe that the Spirit has been poured out on all flesh then we need to find ways to listen to those who find it difficult to speak in public. Small groups can help here as can a skilled chair.

Learnt to trust. Trust others to decide on details recognising that they aren’t necessarily going to do it your way. Trust the membership to raise issues and initiate discussions; the leadership don’t have a monopoly on spotting the leading of the Spirit. Trust God. Being God is God’s job not the church’s job; we don’t have to obsess about getting it right because even when we get it wrong God’s good at sorting us out. Relax a bit.

Learn to wait. A good deal of our failure to fight nicely comes from rushing decisions. It usually makes sense to separate listening to each other from making up our minds. Have listening meetings first and deciding meetings later.

You may say that I’m a dreamer, and yes, perhaps I am the only one, but if I’m not and like me you still believe in church meetings, I’d love hear what lessons you think we need to learn.

My turn to do a month's worth of opinion pieces for the Baptist Times' "Outside Edge" column has come round again. With the agreement of the editor I'm posting my BT article here. To check out the Baptist Times as a whole click here.

2010-11-20T14:22:00.000Z

This is what I'm going to be doing on Saturday. I know I've told you already. Thought I'd tell you again though cos if you are planning on joining us you really ought to book in by Wednesday.

Manchester City Centre Spirit Walk

2010-11-15T19:47:00.000Z

Those who've been following my stuff on City Centre retreating might be interested in this from Ben Edson.

Persuasion

2010-11-15T07:51:00.002Z

The opening session of a first year mission course that I teach here in Manchester always stirs up a vigorous debate. I ask the students to fill in a questionnaire entitled, “Is It Mission?” They are given a list of activities ranging from the overtly evangelistic (planting a church) through the clearly political (joining a march to campaign against a war) to the distinctly ecclesial (playing piano in church). I then ask them to decide if the activity counts as mission or not. Without fail a major part of the ensuing discussion focuses on one activity in particular, the one that speaks about persuading a friend to become a Christian.

It seems that many people, or at least many of my students, are not persuaded about the validity of persuasion. Some seem to have a gut-level reaction against the very notion. In their minds the word “persuasion” hangs out with words like “pressurise”, “manipulate”, “brow-beat”. This worries me. Especially when they try to persuade me that I should join them in their rejection of persuasion! It worries me not just because of the inherent contradiction. No, it worries me far more because it is yet another sign of the way in which the church’s confidence in evangelism is evaporating.

When I was a teenager my best friend worked hard to persuade me that my objections to Christianity weren’t as well founded as I thought they were. If he hadn’t I would never have come to faith. I am really glad that he persuaded me. If antipathy towards persuasion takes root then many of today’s Christians will never even attempt to persuade their friends to join them in following Christ.

What makes it difficult for me though is that as well as worrying about the reactions of my students I also sympathise with them. They do have a point you know. Too many of our attempts to persuade have indeed bordered on the hectoring, the underhand, the dishonest. I still wince at the memory of the closing night of one fortnight-long town-wide mission in which I was involved. It had not gone well. At least when measured by the number of “decisions”. The evangelist who was heading up the mission and preaching at the nightly rallies in the town’s theatre was also disappointed. He didn’t say so, but you could tell. You could tell because on the last night of the mission when it came to the appeal he tried a novel tactic: “OK I’d like everyone here to raise their hand in the air. Now, if you don’t want to become a Christian please put your hand down.” I ask you!

As those committed to the way of Christ, committed to truth, committed to the dignity of all people we ought to run a million miles from any attempt to persuade by bullying, by trickery, by dishonesty. An underhand presentation of the gospel is a contradiction in terms. More than that, it’s a monstrosity. But that does not mean that we should give up seeking to persuade.

Yes, persuasion alone is inadequate. Yes, conversion nearly always comes about through far more than logical argument alone. Yes, being good news and acting good-newsily is just as important as debating the issues. But we have to recognise that in this world of many stories, this time of multiple worldviews, seeking gently, confidently and respectfully to persuade our friends to repent and believe the good news is not only legitimate, it’s crucial. If we don’t, we fail in our calling. We fail our Lord. We fail the world for which he died.

Persuaded?

My turn to do a month's worth of opinion pieces for the Baptist Times' "Outside Edge" column has come round again. With the agreement of the editor I'm posting my BT article here. To check out the Baptist Times as a whole click here.

Retreat Cineman Retreat Cinema Retreat Cineman Retreat Cinema

2010-11-05T13:07:00.002Z

OK I admit it, some of these Outside Edge columns have failed to persuade my readers. When I suggested that watching 18 certificate films is good for us it quickly became apparent that some of you see things differently. When I advocated city-centre retreats as a much needed alternative to seeking God in the rural not everyone was convinced.

What’s a man to do? I know! Why not combine the two ideas? This week, dear reader, I would like to suggest that watching films is a great form of retreat. Forget drafty prayer cells, knock those expensive Laura Ashley-fied country house conference centres on the head; head instead for the multiplex.

This the place to step out of your routine. This is the place where time runs differently. This is the place to switch off and tune in. This is the place to immerse yourself in big ideas. This is the place to learn to see things from a whole new perspective.

Here’s the deal: in exchange for seven quid you get three hours away from it all, alone with others in the dark and the chance to contemplate issues of beauty, morality, truth and character. And, if my experience is anything to go by, you may well find yourself bumping into God. All this and popcorn too! Can’t be bad.

If you are tempted to object that clearly it can be bad, that film often plunges us into the dark side, then dear reader, I have to reply that you seem to have a limited knowledge and a shallow experience of retreating. To retreat is often to confront darkness, the darkness of our world and the darkness of our own soul.

If you are tempted to object that what I describe is not retreat but escapism, then dear reader, I have to reply that these are very closely related. Retreating begins by escaping. What’s important is that it doesn’t end there. To retreat is to escape from busyness and routine so as to attend to God, God’s world and our own inner life; to attend to these things that we might gain insight, grow in wisdom, and then re-engage the every day - fresher, deeper.

I recently lead a church away day. We talked a lot (or at least I did), we sang, we prayed. It was good. But for those of us who chose not to spend the afternoon shopping, walking or playing football the most potent part of the day was watching the film, Whale Rider, a moving exploration of identity, spirituality, tradition, renewal and the survival of a distinctive way of life in the face of an indifferent society. We cried. We were uplifted.

Consider this too dear reader, even if you are not persuaded by my impeccable logic and subtle rhetoric it seems that many millions of others are. According to a recent survey in America over twenty percent of the population now turn to media, arts and culture as their primary means of spiritual experience and expression.

Cinema is a foundry of world views, a forging place of moral opinion and spiritual perspective, it is a potent expression of the creativity with which the Creator imbues creatures. It is an arena where the spirituality of inherently spiritual humanity bubbles to the surface and pops right in your face. And no, of course, it’s not all Godly but neither is it Godless. The Spirit wafts across these sometimes dark, chaotic waters and hatches life. But only those who take the time, only those who look and listen, will notice.

(To explore these ideas further read Craig Detweiler’s Into the Dark or Robert Johnston's Reel Spirituality both published by Baker - you can go get them by clicking over there on the right, in the sidebar, the Stuff I Reccomend bit.)

My turn to do a month's worth of opinion pieces for the Baptist Times' "Outside Edge" column has come round again. With the agreement of the editor I'm posting my BT article here. To check out the Baptist Times as a whole click here.

The Minister As Missionary 6

2010-11-03T15:27:00.002Z

Conclusion - ministerial by calling

This reorientation, this reimagining of what it means to be a minister is both important and urgent. However, it is not without dangers. One such danger is that of missionally-motivated ministerial sheep-beating. I detect an emerging and distressing phenomenon, angry missionary-ministers, ministers whose anger is kindled by their congregation’s failure to get with the missionary programme. These are ministers who feel held back by their congregations. It is as if their people are getting in the way of their own missionary-ministry. And it makes them mad. I sympathise. I think I understand. But I am also alarmed.

God did not call us to into ministry that we might become our congregation’s accuser. That position is already taken. Yes, learning to see ourselves as missionary-ministers matters a lot. But as we start to realise that aim it is also vital that we don’t forget that we are also missionary-ministers, servants of our people, people who are themselves called to serve the world that the world in turn might learn to serve God.

Back in May I gave the Baptist Ministers' Fellowship annual lecture at the Baptist Assembly in Plymouth. This month a version of the talk was published in the Baptist Minsters' Journal. With the kind permission of the editorial board I will be reproducing a slightly modified version of the BMJ article here. To keep things down to regular post length I'm going to stick it up in a series of bite size chunks.

The Minister As Missionary 5

2010-10-31T17:06:00.003Z

3. The Missionary-Minister As Host. Mission as Hospitality

In a rapidly changing, rootless society, mission is also about generating communities of hospitality, providing for strangers a nourishing and wholesome place to be while they decide if they would like to belong.

This is not unrelated to my previous point. One of the things that is essential for true hospitality is knowing who we are, being comfortable in our own corporate skin. It really isn’t about being on our best behaviour, nervously minding our P’s and Q’s lest we offend. Too many attempts at hospitality fail because they are uptight. Good hospitality is about unashamedly being who we are while creating space for others to be with us, without them feeling that they have to be anything other than who they are. It's about the standing invitation to all and sundry to enter into our domestic life, to be at home in our home. It's not about offering a formal seat in the parlour, it's about keeping a place by the fire in the kitchen.

This, I fear, is where the seeker-centred approach to church and evangelism led us down a blind alley. It really isn't helpful to gather up all that is peculiar about the Christian way of being and hide it behind the sofa for fear that guests might find it off-putting. Let's face the facts, we are unquestionably odd. But as society becomes more and more pluralistic so is everyone else. It's normal to be odd. Being embarrassed about our oddity just makes everyone nervous.

Becoming hospitable also requires us to embrace the invitational dimension of Christian mission. Yes, we must attend to the rightfully insistent voices reminding us that mission is about going. Yes, The Field of Dreams approach to mission (“If you build it they will come”) is indeed inadequate. Inadequate, but not entirely misguided. The debate between centripetal and centrifugal approaches to mission is ultimately sterile. We need both.

Even as ministers work to grow churches that are eager to go, we must also be home-makers, nurturing communities to which it is worth returning. Missionary-ministers will give themselves to fostering a community ethos that is generous towards those who lodge with us, at ease with visitors, appropriately, curious about newcomers and always ready with a patient explanation should anyone enquire about our peculiar ways.

And no, once again, I am not saying that fostering such an ethos is the sole responsibility of the minister. Of course it isn't. But ministers ought not to be blind to the influence they have for good or ill on the feel of the communities they lead. Let's deploy that influence intentionally. Let's seek to be home-makers and home-sharers. Let's recover, practice and promote the lost art of hospitality.

Back in May I gave the Baptist Ministers' Fellowship annual lecture at the Baptist Assembly in Plymouth. This month a version of the talk was published in the Baptist Minsters' Journal. With the kind permission of the editorial board I will be reproducing a slightly modified version of the BMJ article here. To keep things down to regular post length I'm going to stick it up in a series of bite size chunks.

Horror For Halloween

2010-10-31T08:45:00.002Z

My friend Rob's been reviewing horror films as a run up to halloween. The reviews are very good and this post is just in time so you might want to take your lap top behind the sofa and read 'em.

The Minister As Missionary 4

2010-10-25T12:26:00.000+01:00

2. The Missionary-Minister as Theologian in Residence. Mission as Faithful Witness

In the hands of unreflective activists mission is so easily hijacked by alien values and subordinated to unexamined cultural presuppositions. Stories of how this happened in the massive Victorian colonial, missionary expansion abound. But you don’t have to set foot beyond your own culture to fall prey to such a disease. Our missionary methods at home have, for instance, become chronically instrumentalised. Too often we get too close to ends justifying means. We forget that the form of mission matters just as much as the fruit of mission. Having a mission-shaped church is fine as long as we also have a gospel-shaped mission.

When it comes to our fearful lusting after church growth we have not always been as vigilant as we might. Measurable growth, numerical success, numbers coming through the door have, in line with our culture’s obsession with the countable, become almost unqualified measures of ministerial success. And while I would be the first to criticise a neglectful indifference toward to results, I am also convinced that our feverish concern with the response to our missionary endeavours often leads us astray from the way of Christ.

Billy Sunday, the old time evangelist, once calculated the price of a soul by dividing the total cost of his missions by the number of converts. I myself recall one preacher at the end of a disappointing week of mission making an appeal with an interesting twist: “I’d like everyone here to raise a hand in the air. Ok, now if you don’t want to become a Christian, put your hand down.” This kind of thing is not effective evangelism, it’s false witness.

Of course few take it quite so far. But I do think we need to ask if we have been guilty of purveying “gospel light” because in our desire to see results we have emptied our “gospel message” of all substantial ethical content. Too much evangelism sounds too little like a call to join a radical community committed to sacrificial living for the sake of peace and justice, and too much like just another manifestation of our culture’s obsession with the therapeutic quick fix.

The truest measure of Christian of witness is not effectiveness but faithfulness to the person and the way of Christ. This is of course much harder to measure, but it is also much more important. This means making sure that our churches embody our tradition, that we know our language, are familiar with our stories, and keep alive our distinctive, defining practices.

That is why a missionary-minister has to be a theologian, a local theologian, a theologian in residence. The missionary re-orientation for which I’m calling , the turning out to the world rather than in on our selves, must not become a mere pragmatism, an unthinking rush to adopt whatever method promises to “work”. It is the missionary-minister’s job, to help ensure that mission is rooted in our identity as a gospel people.

Now of course it’s not all down to the minister. Baptist congregations of all congregations should be congregations of all the talents. But there is a particular expertise that we as ministers must bring – an expertise in the scriptures and their significance for shaping congregational life. We have a deposit that we are charged to keep, guard, renew and make available to our people, in the hope that they will never, ever trade in the blessing of authentic Christian identity for a mess of institutional success.

This is especially important in our pluralistic society with its tournament of narratives, its bewildering white noise of competing ideologies and identities. Perhaps the greatest danger for an enthusiastically missionary church in our glorious, fascinating, diverse culture is that we forget who we are. We must not allow that to happen. It is the missionary-minster’s job to make sure that the church doesn’t go native. We do this by learning to see ourselves as theologians - an unapologetic, insistent theological presence and resource rooted in our communities, not ivory tower fancifiers, but theologians in residence.

Back in May I gave the Baptist Ministers' Fellowship annual lecture at the Baptist Assembly in Plymouth. This month a version of the talk was published in the Baptist Minsters' Journal. With the kind permission of the editorial board I will be reproducing a slightly modified version of the BMJ article here. To keep things down to regular post length I'm going to stick it up in a series of bite size chunks.

The Minister As Missionary 3

2010-10-24T07:27:00.002+01:00

In the previous post I suggested that If we are to nurture genuinely missionary disciples, and genuinely missionary congregations we have to have genuinely missionary ministers, ministers who are oriented towards the beyond church, who see their calling as helping God’s church prayerfully to pursue God’s purpose for God’s world.

This will mean reimagining what it means to be a minister. I want to suggest that this will require the development of new images of ministry to sit alongside, or in some cases to supersede, the traditional images such as the pastor-teacher.

I would like to share with you three such images in the hope that they might help to fund such a reimagining. Each image is fashioned in relation to a particular missional challenge facing the church in twenty-first century Britain.

1. The Missionary-Minister as Conversationalist. Mission as Dialogue
Cross-cultural missionaries discovered long ago the vital place of dialogue when working beyond the bounds of Christendom. We too in this country are now ministering beyond Christendom. The Church is an eccentric minority. Our society is religiously plural. Sadly the response of Christians to this situation has often been either hostility or indifference. What is called for instead is ministerial initiatives in friendly engagement with those with whom we share our post-christian country.

One of my regrets about my last pastorate is that I did not give nearly enough attention to discussion with the Muslim community on my doorstep. In the current climate of brittle co-existence between different faith communities in the midst of a functionally atheist culture, it has to be a priority that we ministers work to show that diversity of religion in our society needn’t be a problem, and still less an excuse for violence. If mission isn’t about reaching out in friendly embrace to those who are different, if it isn't about intentional peace-making then I don’t know that it is about.

In our relationships with those of other faiths neither crass conversionism nor timid opposition to conversionism will do. What we need is mature, open, generous, humble, committed dialogue. If our churches are to be oriented toward the beyond church, not turning our backs on our neighbours but turning toward them that we might first listen and then speak of our faith in Christ, we need missionary-ministers who will reach out in friendship and strike up as many conversations as possible. Yes of course this is a calling for the whole church but ministers represent the church in particular way, ministers set the tone and give a lead. It is our responsibility to initiate conversations, sustain conversations and draw church members into such conversations.

Back in May I gave the Baptist Ministers' Fellowship annual lecture at the Baptist Assembly in Plymouth. This month a version of the talk was published in the Baptist Minsters' Journal. With the kind permission of the editorial board I will be reproducing a slightly modified version of the BMJ article here. To keep things down to regular post length I'm going to stick it up in a series of bite size chunks.

God At The Movies?

2010-10-22T13:36:00.000+01:00

More shameless self publicity. This is one of our Luther King House Church Saturdays. I think the flyer's self explanatory. If you're in the Manchester area, why not come and join us? Click on the image below to mail us with your booking.

The Minister As Missionary 2

2010-10-21T10:55:00.004+01:00

Introduction - Missionary by Orientation
Talk of mission is fast becoming the twenty-first century ecclesiastical equivalent of bind weed. It gets everywhere. Nor is it just talk about mission that is expanding, our understanding of what qualifies as mission has grown and grown and grown. So much so that we run the risk of sticking the label “missionary” on everything that moves and, this being church, quite few things that have long since lost the power of movement.

On the one hand, this is clearly a good thing. I wouldn’t want to go back to the idea that unless it involves giving out tracts or making an appeal it doesn’t count as mission. On the other hand though, there is a problem. What exactly does count as mission and what ought not to count? Where do we draw the line? Which activities qualify?

I do an exercise with our students called Is it mission? They conduct a questionnaire with their congregation. The questionnaire lists a range of activities – everything from church planting through political campaigning to discussing religion with a Hindu neighbour. The interviewees have to decide which activities qualify as mission. We soon discover that if you try hard enough you can make a case for virtually anything to count as mission.

The problem of course lies in our attempt to define mission in terms of what we do. Becoming missional is not about doing a different thing, a new thing, an additional thing, it’s about doing all that we do with a different view in mind. Mission is not one thing in particular it is everything seen from a particular perspective. In the end I don’t think it’s helpful to think about which activities count and which don’t. Our focus should be on our orientation. Not “What are we doing?” but, “What is our motivation?” Not, “What is occupying us?” but, “What are we intending?” Is our concern, the furthering of God’s purposes for the world? Then in my book it’s mission.

To get theological for a moment, it’s a matter of learning to see our place in the grand flow of the divine purpose, the Genesis to Revelation movement of God. Creation itself is an act of mission, an act of divine outreach, bringing into being that which is both other than God and beloved by God. Similarly, God’s determined commitment to the world despite its sin and brokenness is the missionary ground of the reality in which we live. And of course the vision of the consummation of all things when the kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah is our missiological lodestar.

The people of God have their being and find their identity as part of this reality. We exist for God and for God’s ultimate purpose, the restoration of all things. To the extent that Christians live contrary to this reality, pursuing self-interest and neglecting the divine project, we live against the grain of reality and in denial of our identity. We also live in contradiction of the very heart of the gospel. Whether you look to the incarnation, ministry or crucifixion of Christ what you see is the most profound orientation to the other, a living and a dying for the sake of the world, a radical refusal of self-absorption.

If you want an illustration of my point consider the second of this year’s televised prime-ministerial debates. Supposedly this focused on foreign policy. The questions however were all about national self-interest. Nothing on international justice, nothing on the global poor, nothing on international development. Little-Englandism at its worst. And the kind of attitude that is sadly too often found, transposed into a religious key, within our churches.

If all the talking, writing, conferencing, posturing and assembling on the theme of mission is to amount to anything, then we need a radical reorientation of the life of our churches. And if our churches are to experience this reorientation then our concept of ministry also needs a shake up. If we are to nurture genuinely missionary disciples, and genuinely missionary congregations we have to have genuinely missionary ministers, ministers who are oriented towards the beyond church, who see their calling as helping God’s church prayerfully to pursue God’s purpose for God’s world.

Back in May I gave the Baptist Ministers' Fellowship annual lecture at the Baptist Assembly in Plymouth. This month a version of the talk was published in the Baptist Minsters' Journal. With the kind permission of the editorial board I will be reproducing a slightly modified version of the BMJ article here. To keep things down to regular post length I'm going to stick it up in a series of bite size chunks.

The Minister As Missionary 1

2010-10-20T16:21:00.001+01:00

Back in May I gave the Baptist Ministers' Fellowship annual lecture at the Baptist Assembly in Plymouth. This month a version of the talk was published in the Baptist Minsters' Journal. With the kind permission of the editorial board I will be reproducing the BMJ article here. To keep things down to regular post length I'm going to stick it up in a series of bite size chunks. I may add further posts to the series so that I can expand on some of the ideas beyond the word limit that was possible in the article. We'll see if I run out of energy.

I'd love to hear what you think of the proposals.

Preamble
The talk and the article explored what it means to think of the minister as a missionary. My concern was to address the majority of (Baptist) ministers who will devote their lives to serving regular congregations rather than those whose calling takes them into more pioneering ministries such as church planting. Much has been written about the need for such cutting edge ministries in Britain today. I agree wholeheartedly. However, if the church as a whole is to evolve into new missional forms and mentalities it is important that we consider what this might mean for those caring for and reaching out from mainstream congregations, those who for the foreseeable future will continue to comprise the majority of ministers.

The approach that I take is to offer a number of models for how we might envisage the role of the missionary minister. I relate these models to some of the challenges of mission in post-Christian Britain. More of that later though. The first post proper (which will follow soon) is an extended introduction where I explore the idea that mission is best understood not as an activity or a set of activities but as a particular orientation.

Africa United

2010-10-04T10:51:00.000+01:00

A friend of mine was producer on this new film. This is me doing my bit to promote it.

The film has been well received on the festival circuit. The Guardian/Observer seemed to like it. All that's needed now is for people to go see it. It's on general release on October 22nd. Here's a trailer.

Urban Expression - Manchester Open Day

2010-09-29T16:08:00.000+01:00

If you are interested in urban church planting in particular and urban mission/ministry in general it would be great to see at the Urban Experssion Open Day - we kick off in the Asda staff canteen, how can you resist?

Winter's Bone - Chillingly Good

2010-09-26T10:23:00.003+01:00

Once again it's taken a film to kick my bum back into blogging. (The advert that was my last post doesn't really count.) Said film? Winter's Bone (Directed by Debra Granik; starring Jenifer Lawrence) A very good film indeed.

A teenage girl searches for her missing father while caring for her mentally ill mother and her young brother and sister. Dad's due in court and the family house and small holding will be forfeit if he fails to show. There's your narrative mainspring which is wound up just tight enough to move the film along. But it's stuff other than the story that do it for me. This stuff:

It is thoroughly human in ambition and scale. This is a film a bout people.
It handles its setting, the bleak back-woods of the Ozark Mountains, in way that breathes mood and atmosphere into the story from start to finish. Place matters here; it's Hardyesque.
It is utterly menacing without being remotely spooky. Menacing but mundane.
It is concerned with both human evil and human good and skilfully renders both facets of our shared condition.
It knows that individual human qualities matter, but so do family, community and wider society. Deprivation and neglect grip people and squeeze them into often ugly moulds but personal virtue can still be potent.
Its heroine, around whom the entire film revolves, is utterly engaging and superbly rendered.
It has an unexpected centre-piece scene that has a Shakespearian air of horror.
Its child actors are good enough not to spoil the show.
It includes what I reckon is the best bit of chain saw action in any film I've seen.
It knows full well that when it comes to terror, less is more.

Tension Mounts As Prophetic Voices Day Conference Draws Near

2010-09-07T10:46:00.000+01:00

Re-posting this cos August happened. Bookings coming in steadily. Get yours now.

Advance notice of a tasty-looking day conference. Northern Baptist Learning Community and Luther King House are jointly sponsoring the Northern leg of the Voices From The Margins national tour. Roy Searle and Stuart Murray Williams will lead us as we look at what today's church can learn from the prophetic voices of three radical church groups: Celtic Missionary Monasticism, Anabaptism and the contemporary movement known as New Monasticism. It promises to be a stimulating event. Click here to book.

A post in which I am rude about the Church of England

2010-07-29T13:17:00.002+01:00

First of all let me say that some of my best friends are Anglicans … and now you know straight away that this week’s offering is going to be slagging off the Church of England. Nonetheless that first sentence is not just a formality. I really mean it. We even have one of them on the staff here at NBLC. Nope, I definitely like Anglicans. As a matter of fact my wife was thinking of becoming an Anglican nun until we met. Seriously.

What’s more not only are some of my best friends Anglicans but there are all manner of things about the established church that I really admire: things like their habit of reading big dollops of scripture in their services; things like their commitment to serve the entire country, every community and every square inch, as best they can; things like the way they do communion and things like their bishops, well some of them anyway.

But then there’s the other stuff. The stuff that gets up my nose and makes me want to tear my hair out. The stuff that means that even if I wanted to become an Anglican (and there have been moments) I simply couldn’t bring my self to do it.

The stuff I have in mind is the priestly stuff, the deferential stuff, the hierarchical stuff. Take the way they do church leadership for example. I mean to say, “My Lord Bishop”; “Lambeth Palace”. Did I miss something the last time I read the gospels? Am I being simplistic? Is it just me?

Then there’s the whole clerical caste system thing. “We get to dress up because we are special.” Yes I know that’s not what they intend to say but it is what the fancy togs and the rest of the paraphernalia of the priesthood actually communicates, intentionally or otherwise. And don’t get me wrong here, it’s not that I object to dressing up, but why can’t everyone join in? Chasubles all round!

But hang on a minute why bang on about this in a newspaper aimed at Baptists? Preaching to the converted? A cheap and easy way of winning back a bit of approval after upsetting people with the last three columns? Not really, more a concern that we as Baptists don’t become blind to similar tendencies in our own midst.

You see, there’s much about Baptist church culture that irks me (as you might have spotted) but our avowed commitment to the priesthood of all believers and our anti-establishment, anti-hierarchical, inclusive, congregational ethos are not among them. But how easily we forget these things. When we venerate pastors because of the position they hold, when we lust after ministries because of the power and status they will afford us, when we fail to do everything we can to mitigate the inherent tendency of fallen humanity to fall in love with status and position, then we betray our own heritage.

We also fail in our ecumenical responsibility to serve the wider body of Christ by holding firm and holding out to others one of the treasures of our tradition. You see this C of E bashing is really a way of being a good ecumenical. No, really. If relationships between different branches of the family are going to count for anything we’ve got to go on sharpening our distinctives and using them to help each other to identify our blind spots.

Now, where’s my Church Times? I wonder if it has an article on how to screw up the gospel … Baptist style.

My turn to do a month's worth of opinion pieces for the Baptist Times' "Outside Edge" column has come round again. With the agreement of the editor I'm posting my BT article here. To check out the Baptist Times as a whole click here.

Why we should ban evangelism

2010-07-22T07:25:00.001+01:00

My turn to do a month's worth of opinion pieces for the Baptist Times' "Outside Edge" column has come round again. With the agreement of the editor I'm posting my BT article here. To check out the Baptist Times as a whole click here.

I’m really pleased that Chris Duffet is going to become president of the Baptist Union. Chris is an evangelist. His love for Jesus and his love for other people are truly infectious. He’s also an innovative thinker and a bold practitioner. Those of you who know him will agree that he doesn’t need any advice from me when it comes to evangelism. Those of you who know me won’t be surprised that I’m going to give him some anyway.

I think Chris should use his presidential year to promote a total ban on evangelism, a moratorium of at least five years. Let’s see if he can’t get us to cancel our Alpha courses, tear up our Back to Church Sunday leaflets, forget all about friendship evangelism (please God let’s forget about friendship evangelism) and call off the search for the next Billy Graham immediately – there isn’t one.

Evangelising is so central to following Christ that we have to ban evangelism. Unless we do we will never learn what it’s all about. You see we have a problem. Evangelism has become something it was never meant to be. It’s become a thing. Worse than that it’s become a particular thing. A special thing. Something that requires a method (preferably one that “works”) and ideally a programme (the very latest if at all possible).

Over the years since big Billy Graham style rallies became unfashionable and unworkable I’ve lost count of the various projects and schemes that have been heralded as the next big thing: JiM, Minus to Plus, Power Evangelism, Challenge 2000, Alpha, Fresh Expressions. Each one was seen as the answer. None of them “worked” – not really. And in the process we’ve lost sight of something truly precious: the idea that all of us are called to bear witness to the good news every day of our lives.

Evangelism has come to be seen (first and foremost) as the domain of the specialist organisation and the uniquely gifted individual. Something they do and which from time to time the enthusiastic among us get to join in, for a while. It’s nothing of the sort.

Each and every follower of Christ is called to bear witness. The things we say, the stuff we do and the way we are, these are the beating heart of goodnewsing, helping people to hear, see and experience gospel for themselves. It’s meant to be a part of who are, our very identity: witnesses of Christ.

We could learn a thing or two here from our cousins, Jehovah’s Witnesses. Not only is the word in their name, it’s how they see themselves, it’s written right through their sense of who they are, it’s why they draw breath.

As Baptists with our rightful insistence on the Priesthood Of All Believers we should be the first to champion that other great reformation doctrine, the Evangelisthood Of All Believers.

OK, so I made that last bit up. And yes, it will never catch on as a title. But I still think I’m right. This is too important to be left to the experts. It’s a job for amateurs – literally those who do it out of love, even if they are not especially skilful.

And no, of course evangelistic programmes and special events are not ultimately incompatible with personal witness but I am serious in my belief that our obsession with method has ripped the heart out of goodnewsing. And my tongue is poised but certainly not fully planted in my cheek when I suggest that a moratorium would be good for us.

So, how about it Mr. President?

Inception

2010-07-19T14:11:00.002+01:00

Inception is a very good film but it's not a great film. Inception could have been a truly awful film.

You can easily imagine the production process setting out to tick as many boxes as possible. Love story? Tick. Car chase? Tick Cool special effects? Tick. Psychological drama? Tick? Dash of James Bond? Tick. Leading man who can be relied upon to provide a solid performance? Tick. Cameo from loveable old English actor for added likeability? Tick. Cameo from much respected senior English actor for a bit of added gravitas? Tick. Sexy female lead? Tick. Youthful central character for the younger audience to identify with? Tick.

The astounding thing is that despite this, the film worked on so many levels (no pun intended) all at once. It could have been a complete mess. I could so easily have been left wondering, "Why on earth didn't you make your mind up what kind of film you want to be." Could have, but wasn't. Thriller, action movie, special effects fest, love story. Yes, yes, yes and yes. All of these in one very effective and coherent package just148 minutes long. Top notch directing.

So why not great? The central theme of the subconscious.

While the film plays around with dreams and the virtually inaccessible depths of the human mind in an intriguing way it doesn't seem to me to present any particularly new big ideas. Some people have made comparisons with the Matrix. The Matrix was better. Whereas both films examine issues of perception and reality the Matrix was far more zeitgeisty. The notion of the subconscious has indeed been a world view shifter. But it's a concept that's been around for yonks and has probably already done most of the shifting it's going to do. Artificial intelligence and the relationship between humanity technology, truth and reality on the other hand; loads more mileage.

Then there's the film's particular vision of the subconscious. Seems to me that most people's mental nether regions are probably considerably darker and weirder than the film allows. It's nowhere near as dark as The Dark Night. Perhaps Terry Gilliam should be given the sequel - and told to forget the 12A rating.

So, while I found the film entertaining, moving and intriguing - not quite the full five stars. Still the best film I've seen this year though.

A really short post on the mission of the church

2010-07-16T12:21:00.000+01:00

Etre is not our raison d'etre.

Piccadilly Gardens and Christ the Windhover

2010-07-16T12:17:00.000+01:00

While I'm going on about urban retreats I thought I'd share this with you. The week before our little experiment I was chatting with my daughter about the idea of seeking the presence of God in the City. She got a bit excited. She reached into her bag and pulled out her sketch book to show me the picture that accompanies this post.

It's a quick sketch she'd done a few weeks earlier while she was in Piccadilly Gardens in the heart of Manchester when everything went "quiet". A police helicopter was hovering right over the gardens. Everything stopped. Everyone looked up. Including her. She noticed that the helicopter was kind of cruciform, so, as she is wont to do, she scribbled down a quick sketch to catch the image.

What my daughter didn't know was that there's a Christian tradition of seeing the Kestrel as an image of Christ. Another cruciform hoverer on high. To accompany the sketch here's Gerard Manley Hopkins' poem The Windhover.

To Christ our Lord

I caught this morning morning’s minion, king-
dom of daylight’s dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding
Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding
High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing
In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,
As a skate’s heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding
Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding
Stirred for a bird,—the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!

Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here
Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion
Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!

No wonder of it: sheer plod makes plough down sillion
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,
Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermillion.

City Centre Retreat

2010-07-15T23:31:00.002+01:00

I posted recently about an encounter with God in the heart of Manchester city centre. The experience prompted me to suggest that it would be good if we put a bit of effort into encouraging organising and resourcing urban retreats. For once instead of just shooting off my mouth I did something about it. Last week as part of our Summer School at Luther King House I taught a session on Urban Spirituality and I organised an afternoon's city centre retreat. Not much I know but hopefully a beginning. Here's an extract from the introductory hand-out.

This afternoon’s field trip is an experiment in urban spirituality. You will spend a couple of hours in Manchester city centre following a particular spiritual exercise. The aim is to see if and how the urban setting might become a doorway to spiritual insight.

At the heart of each of the exercises is the need to attend, in other words to became aware by giving yourself to a particular aspect of life in the city. The art of attending is a core element of classic spirituality. This applies whether we are thinking of one of the Christian spiritual traditions, the traditions of other faiths, or more broadly spirituality by way of aesthetic experience.

To discern we must attend, give ourselves to the object of our attention. The question that you will each be asked to carry with you at all times throughout the experiment is, “What am I experiencing?”

In other words the retreat was essentially an exercise in meditation. We sought to attend to various aspects of city-centre life - the artefacts, the built environment, the people. Judging by the feedback most of the participants appreciated it.

I'm blogging about this as a way of offering the resources that I developed for the retreat to any who might be interested. If you happen to live in the Manchester area they will provide you with all you need for a semi-structured afternoon of urban meditation. If you are not fortunate enough to live round here they might provide a template for doing something similar in your own neck of the woods. Just drop me a line.

Others offering urban retreats include The Church Urban Fund and their Retreat on the Street. Sounds well worth checking out.

Let's Be Generous

2010-07-15T06:28:00.001+01:00

My turn to do a month's worth of opinion pieces for the Baptist Times' "Outside Edge" column has come round again. With the agreement of the editor I'm posting my BT article here. To check out the Baptist Times as a whole click here.

Am I the only person who thinks that evangelicalism could do with a generosity transfusion? Well, actually, no, I’m not. I know I’m not because I’ve read Brian McLaren’s A Generous Orthodoxy and I remember Nigel Wright’s splendid chapter on the subject in his. The Radical Evangelical Also I know I’m not because I recently read a blog post form Krish Kandiah on the same theme.

Krish speaks of his experience of meeting with church leaders while travelling the country on behalf of the Evangelical Alliance. What struck me was Krish’s description of how he often feels when he is introduced to a new group: guilty until proven innocent. I know exactly what he means. We evangelicals can be a suspicious, defensive bunch. And it’s not pretty.

It wasn’t pretty when a fellow church leader with whom I had worked closely for a number of years came to see me because he had heard that I held a different point of view to him on what he regarded as a key evangelical shibboleth. “If that’s what you believe and teach then I can no longer be your friend.” It would seem that loving your enemies is one thing but loving your brother who has suddenly become non-kosher is a different matter.

Now, in part, I think I know where this attitude comes from. One of the strengths of the evangelical movement is its refusal to capitulate too quickly to pressure to conform to the spirit of the age. I like this. What’s more I realise that maintaining a minority world view takes a good deal of effort but the trouble is, if we are not careful, it can also make us pretty mean spirited not unlike the kind of Pharisee we meet in the gospels.

To view truth and holiness as delicate things, brittle, in need of our protection is profoundly unhealthy. Militantly patrolling of the border fence of evangelical orthodoxy is less a sign of concern for the truth and more an evidence of profound insecurity, or, in other words, a lack of faith.

It seems to me that it would do both us and our witness to the gospel a power of good if we asked the Holy Spirit of our prodigal God to bless us with a lavish does of generosity. You know the kind of attitude that gives people the benefit of the doubt that makes us more likely to welcome them in than to rule them out; the sort of good grace that enables us to embrace those with whom disagree.

One of my United Reformed Church colleagues here at Luther King House doesn’t hover over the same patch of theological territory as I do. Just yesterday he introduced me to one of our external examiners. “This is Glen, he’s an evangelical, but we are praying for him.” To which I replied, “But you’re a liberal which means there’s no chance your prayers will be answered.” The external examiner only hesitated briefly before joining in the laughter. It’s one of the things I like about this place. I get to work with people with whom I disagree quite profoundly but we somehow seem to manage to like each other.

Now of course I’m not saying that either my colleague or I have got this thing sussed. But I am saying that on those occasions that I stumble upon generous acceptance on the part of those who see things differently it does feel an awful lot closer to stumbling across Jesus than it does when I bump into the mean spirited orthodoxy of some of my fellow evangelicals.

Prophetic Voices Day Conference With Roy Searle and Stuart Murray Williams

2010-07-09T06:46:00.002+01:00

Advance notice of a tasty-looking day conference. Northern Baptist Learning Community and Luther King House are jointly sponsoring the Northern leg of the Voices From The Margins national tour. Roy Searle and Stuart Murray Williams will lead us as we look at what today's church can learn from the prophetic voices of three radical church groups: Celtic Missionary Monasticism, Anabaptism and the contemporary movement known as New Monasticism. It promises to be a stimulating event. Click here to book.

Shame

2010-07-08T07:36:00.003+01:00

Morris dancers 1
Originally uploaded by frscspd

My turn to do a month's worth of opinion pieces for the Baptist Times' "Outside Edge" column has come round again. With the agreement of the editor I'm posting my BT article here. To check out the Baptist Times as a whole click here.

I got quite a shock last week. A regional minister asked to look at my body. Recently quite a few people have made similar requests: friends in the pub; a woman at a ninetieth birthday party; most of the Mainstream North leadership team during a meeting and my aunty round her house. You see word’s out that I’ve got myself a tattoo.

Now why would I want to share this with you dear reader? Well, it’s not the tattoo that interests me but people’s reactions and the assumptions that these reactions betray. More than one person has put it down to mid-life crisis. They might have a point, but I don’t think so. Others are convinced that it’s just the latest manifestation of my exhibitionist tendencies – first preaching, now this! Once again, wide of the mark – not that I’m entirely free of such tendencies, but the tattoo just happens to be hidden away under my shirt sleeve.

For what it’s worth the motivation (or at least the part of it of which I am aware) was to celebrate my 30th wedding anniversary. It’s a big red heart with my wife’s name in a banner being trailed by a bluebird. Corny can be good don’t you think?

The comment that really grabbed my attention though was when someone told me that her friend also had a tattoo. He likes it because it reminds him of the time before he became a Christian. When he sees it he gives thanks to God for turning his life round. The implication was as plain as the ink on David Beckham: tattoo’s are pre-christian, sub-christian. Interesting.

So interesting I decided to write about it. You see this is not about me and my tattoo. It’s about the tendency of too many Christians to assume that certain innocent forms of cultural expression aren’t appropriate. I still remember the shock on the faces of one suburban congregation back in the 80’s when one of the young people walked in having had a very striking punk makeover. How out of place! How unsuitable! How odd!

How embarrassing. No, not the safety pins and the green Mohican, the attitude of the congregation. That kind of thing is a shame. I choose my words carefully. Not only does it show how blind we are, confusing Christianity with respectability and church culture with middle class propriety, it also means we have a much poorer, blander, duller, church.

At a time when our society is more varied, more fascinating than at any time in its history, most of our congregations still look like gatherings of refugees from a Christian Endeavour holiday home, the very incarnation of M&S-standard smart casual. Not that there’s anything wrong with these things. I’m hardly that colourful myself. It’s just that it’s not enough, there’s more out there, far more but not in our churches.

Where’s the beauty of Indian saris or the vibrancy traditional African dress or bikers in their leathers? For goodness sake I’d even welcome the odd hairy morris dancer with bells on just to brighten the place up. And yes I know there are congregations that are exceptions, but there aren’t enough.

You see Christ died for all manner of people and until we break out of our cultural captivity, examine our assumptions and tear up our hand-me-down Daily Mail stereotypes; until we start to reach, welcome and integrate the wonderful spectrum of human life on our doorsteps we are showing the world a pale shadow of the new humanity that God seems to have in mind for us. And that is a shame, a real shame.

Why Swearing Is Funny

2010-07-07T05:20:00.002+01:00

Incest warning. No, not real incest. Just the "you link my post and I'll link yours" kind.

Rob Reed is my friend. Rob Reed is a very entertaining man. Rob Reed knows stuff about film and media. Rob Reed writes an interesting blog. Rob Reed has just learned how to insert hyperlinks in his posts. Bless.

Rob Reed was prompted by my recent post on 18 rated films to share his thoughts on why swearing is funny. Don't blame me. Some of you will be interested. Some of you won't like it. Some of you who won't like it will still be interested and read it anyway.

Just thought I should let you know.

Blue Like Jazz

2010-07-04T19:48:00.001+01:00

Just spent most of the weekend sitting by a river at the foot of Wales' highest waterfall reading Don Miller's Blue Like Jazz. I'm writing this because I can't make my mind up about the book.

Miller can clearly write. I found myself laughing out loud more than once. I think this opener to his chapter, Magic gives you the flavour,

When I was a child my mother took me to see David Copperfield the Magician. I think she had a crush on him. It was the same year he made the Statue of Liberty disappear on national television. Later he made a plane disappear and later still he got engaged to Claudia Schiffer.

On the other hand he's a bit too fond of certain stylistic cliches. Like the one where you start a chapter with a seemingly insignificant anecdote as a way into your subject then complete the circle at the very end of the chapter by coming back to some aspect of the anecdote as neat closer.

Miller's insights on human nature and Christian spirituality are often spot on. Trouble is most of these arise out of rather too much petty introspection for my liking. Is he self-aware or self-obsessed? Not sure.

The chapter on evangelism, where Miller and his mates turn the idea of confessing your sins on its head, is sheer genius. The one on marriage though struck me as pretentious faux intellectualism. A bit like using the worked faux.

I loved his liberal cultural attitudes. Couldn't help wondering though why his basic theology is quite so unreconstructed-conservative-evangelical. Way too sin-centered to my mind. Also he keeps banging on about the Devil. The whole book bounces back and forth between a refreshing world-affirming perspective and good old-fashioned fundamentalist dualism. Also, too much time spent slagging off the Republican party. Not that the Republicans under Bush didn't need slagging off, but it did get boring. Too many of the people he describes are cute or beautiful. And way too much about smoking pipes.

There are lots of good stories, personal stories, of course. Sometimes though I did find myself wondering if they were true. I had the sneaking suspicion they must have been embellished. Maybe though that says more about my failings than Miller's. We always spot faults in others (real or imagined) that we know we are prone to ourselves.

The book is a collection of essays/reflections on a range of life issues from the perspective of Christian spirituality. It clearly has evangelistic as well as didactic intent. I can imagine it working for some people.

It's always a good sign when I irritate my wife by repeatedly asking her to put down her Reginald Hill while I reader her a paragraph. Did this quite a bit. Also kept wondering what certain friends would make of it. Wondered this so much that I'm going to buy a copy for a couple of people in the hope that they might read at and give me their feedback.

When all's said and done I reckon the most important thing is that the book got through to me. Helped me connect with God. So I really ought not to complain. Maybe it's because I liked it so much that it irritated me so much. Tends to work that way with people as well as books, don't your find?

Anyhow there you have it. That's what I made of Blue Like Jazz. (Oh, yes that's another thing, there's virtually nothing about Jazz, which can't be good.) If you've read it, I'd be really interested to know what you think. Go on, help me out, make a comment.

Why 18 Certificate Films are Good For Christians

2010-07-01T09:42:00.003+01:00

The brief for this column is to provoke discussion. It’s called Outside Edge because it’s meant to be edgy. OK then, here goes. Christians ought to watch more films. Is that edgy enough for you? No? OK then let me say what I’m really thinking. Christians ought to watch more films, including those with swearing, violence and sex.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently. I’m preparing for our MA summer school on contemporary spirituality when I’ll be leading a session on spirituality and film. I’m planning to show a recent film that deals with spiritual issues. But which one? Turns out that most of the leading contenders include the kind of content that offends some Christians. I understand this and I don’t want to cause gratuitous offence. But it bugs me. It bugs me because I don’t think we should be offended – at least not in a “tut, tut turn it off quickly before I’m corrupted” kind of way.

Part of the value of films is that they introduce us to the reality of our world or at least the reality as seen by film-makers and their audience of millions. At its best film is unquestionably important art. You know, the kind of creative production that helps us see deeper into our world. Think The Lives of Others, think Shawshank Redmption, think Magnolia. Even so-called escapist films give us insight into the desires, longings and fantasies playing out in people’s hearts and souls.

Now I know that some readers will already be reaching for Philippians 4:8 “ … whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” I know this verse well; it was used to prod me into the Christian ghetto shortly after my conversion. I know it and I affirm it. Of course, we should be inspired by and aspire to such qualities but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t make ourselves aware of the shadow side that is part of our world, part of ourselves.

If we are to love our world and those with whom we share it, the better we understand and feel its issues, the better our loving. Not necessarily easier, but truer. At one recent showing of Clint Eastwood’s wonderful Gran Torino one person commented that there was no need for film makers to “rub our noses in the seamier side of life”. I disagree. That’s precisely what we need.

This is not about tittering behind our hands like an eleven-year-old who has just heard a naughty word, it’s not about voyeurism, it’s not about greedily gobbling lashings of violence. Nor is it about mindlessly approving everything that passes before our eyes. One of the shallowest ways of dismissing a film is to assume that the film-makers approve that which they depict. The Colour Purple was not a tract in favour of domestic violence.

Our call in Christ is to love this world of his and to love it as it is, not to hide from that which we find unpleasant, not to love some fantasy of the world as we would like it be to. You can’t tell me that Danny’s powerful speech at the end of Brassed Off was very moving but would have been better without the swearing. No it wouldn’t, it would have been sanitised pap, a lie. Of course watching films is no substitute for proper, flesh and blood, dirty-handed encounter with reality but it just might help to introduce us to the world for which Christ died – the real world.

My turn to do a month's worth of opinion pieces for the Baptist Times' "Outside Edge" column has come round again. With the agreement of the editor I'm posting my BT article here. To check out the Baptist Times as a whole click here.

Refreshing Church

2010-06-07T09:53:00.002+01:00

Good time at Connect last night. Connect is sort of an alternative church type thing that meets up every two or three weeks. Not sure if it's sponsored by Levenshulme Baptist Church or Urban Expression Manchester, bit of both I guess - these things tend to be a bit messy round here. The format last night was: gather and chat, watch a short video, natter, pray, meditate. Despite all my best intentions over the past couple of years this was my first time. Thought I'd stick some observations up here just in case anyone's interested.

Good stuff:

friendly atmosphere - got the sense that it really is as inclusive as it claims to be, can't imagine anyone not getting a welcome
amateur in the best sense of that word - low on glitz high on sincerity
permission to say what you think and what you wonder - there really was an absence of any sense of oppressive orthodoxy
seemed to be light on structure - people arrived when they could and left when they had to; the conversation was allowed to run on as long as it needed to and to end when it seemed right
a natural, relaxed and unembarrassed bit of praying for needs that had been shared during the discussion
the setting - a no nonsense Caribbean cafe called The Retreat on the A6 - really liked the view from the big glass sliding doors straight out onto the busy pavement, enjoyed people having a bit of a pike as they walked past, also liked the noise leakage from laughing teenagers to wailing sirens and the background rumble of traffic all of which made it feel like a real-life happening
the food - well if you can call it that, midget gems, hula hoops, smokey bacon crisps and either mango juice or ginger beer, wierd is good, right?
the Nooma vid - seemed to work as a discussion starter.

Could have been a bit better stuff:

would have been good to have had a Bible reading as part of the concluding meditation
a few more blokes perhaps (three of us out of twelve) - although maybe not, I wonder if tipping the hormone balance away from estrogen in favour testosterone might have made it a bit more difficult for some of the women to share as freely as they did.

All in all a very encouraging couple of hours. Proof definite of the need for the church actively to generate the kind of space that's within touching distance of regular congregational life but which is also free enough for people to stay at arm's length if they so choose. I can't imagine the group of people who met last night sharing in the way they did at a regular church gathering

So a big thank you to Ian and Jean for making it happen. I look forward to the next one.

Missional In Suburbia

2010-06-05T11:23:00.001+01:00

New website, Missional In Suburbia.

Does what it says in the URL.

HT Tim Chester.

Spirituality Report

2010-06-05T10:14:00.003+01:00

Ghosts of Rhyolite
Originally uploaded by Chris28mm

"Hey you're a vicar aren't you? Does that mean that you've had spiritual experiences? You know like ghosts and things." (My cousin in conversation at a recent family party.)

Just discovered that Understanding The Spirituality Of People Who Don't Go To Church, David Hay and Kay Hunt's widely quoted report of their research at Nottingham University back in 2000 is available (free) as a downloadable PDF from the Mission Theological Advisory Group's Spiritual Journeys site.

I use this quite a bit in teaching (we'll be looking at it again in our upcoming Summer School on Postmodern Spirituality) and it's good to see it readily available again. If you are not familiar with the report go take a look. It's a carefully researched piece of work that offers a very helpful insight into the spiritual experiences and outlook of, well, as it says, people who don't go to church.

Which Film?

2010-06-02T16:08:00.006+01:00

madrid 1910 watercolour
Originally uploaded by edward olive

Spent most of the day planning and prepping for our upcoming summer school on Postmodern Spirituality.

I'm doing a session on spirituality and film which will look at a broad range of approaches to the spiritual in recent/contemporary film ranging from the explicitly religious (think Stigmata) thru to the more broadly aesthetic which might not be out and out spiritual but which nonetheless is concerned to see beyond the merely material to something other (think the paper bag blowing in the wind in American Beauty or Billy's Kestrel stilling the world in Kes).

As well as doing the analytical stuff I will also be showing a film on one of the evenings. Question is which film? It's not that I can't think of one but rather that I can't decide which. What would you you opt for? Remember what I'm looking at is not so much the out and out Christian God stuff but film as one of the media in which the spiritual questioning and questing of our age finds expression. Any ideas?

Entertainment Theology

2010-05-31T20:04:00.000+01:00

Just finished Barry Taylor's Entertainment Theology: Exploring Spirituality in a Digital Democracy. I liked it.

In some ways a follow up to A Matrix of Meanings, his earlier collaboration with Craig Detweiler, Entertainment Theology digs a little deeper into sociology and cultural theory as Taylor continues to affirm the value of popular culture as an arena for serious engagement with the postsecular spiritual search. I particularly liked the treatment of the resurgence of interest in all things gothic - think Dan Brown, Buffy, Harry Potter, Donnie Darko. This he reads as a manifestation of a desire positively to embrace the insecurity and uncertainty at the heart of postmodernity.

Less satisfying was his reimagining of the role of Christian theology. He believes that our era demands a move beyond Christianity as Religion in order to fund the emergence of Christian Spiritualities. Quite happy to explore this idea. Trouble is Taylor has little of substance to say on this issue. What we get instead are some (not unhelpful) pointers on methodology. (Echoes here of the description of postliberalism as a clearing of the throat as a prelude to actually saying something.) But maybe, hopefully, that's for the next book. In the meantime this encouragement to plunge into the spate of popular yearning for more, trusting in the creative Spirit will do nicely.

Edinburgh 2010

2010-05-31T10:41:00.002+01:00

Edinburgh 2010 starts on Wednesday. Doubt it will be as significant as its predecessor 100 years ago but you never know. If like me you can't go, you can at least get the papers from the study process on the following main themes:

Foundations for mission
Christian mission among other faiths
Mission and post-modernities
Mission and power
Forms of missionary engagement
Theological education and formation
Christian communities in contemporary contexts
Mission and unity - ecclesiology and mission
Mission spirituality and authentic discipleship

To get the goodies go here.

Tony Campolo in Manchester

2010-05-26T09:24:00.002+01:00

In the Manchester area? Free next Thursday? Not been spat at in ages?

Click here to book.

Free e-book on preaching in the emerging church

2010-05-18T13:19:00.000+01:00

The resurgence have made available a free e-book on preaching in the emerging church.

HT Dan Kimball

Here's the blurb:

The emerging church movement has significantly influenced contemporary Christianity. Evidence abounds—the creation of blogs, conferences, seminary classes, doctorate programs, and the birth of an entire class of literature. In recent years much has been written to help the church better understand this latest Christian phenomenon. However, a deficiency still exists when it comes to understanding the role of preaching within the movement. Since preaching is God’s appointed means to convert sinners and preserve the church, then an understanding of this movement’s preaching is of vital importance to the church and the culture it serves.

NB is for info, not a commendation - only just got it.

Please Criticise My Preaching

2010-05-13T08:17:00.001+01:00

This is prompted by an anonymous comment as part of a discussion of my recent post praising Karl Martin's sermon at this year's Baptist Assembly. I was just going to reply with a comment of my own but I think the observations raise some important issues, so a slightly lengthier reflection might well be in order.

The substance of the comment was that we ought not to criticise other preachers' sermons in a public arena such as the internet. In disagreeing with this point of view I want to distinguish between two things: critiquing the content of preaching and making personal attacks on the preacher. I want positively to encourage the former and resolutely to resist the latter. Too often Christians confuse these things and too often we respond to points of view that we don't like by sliding into criticisms of the people who espouse them. There are two unfortunate consequences: people get hurt and our ideas remain undeveloped. It seems to me that if we learn to focus on the content of preaching and if we remember to act with appropriate respect towards the person doing the preaching, then criticism can only do us good. This is why, in one of my own seminars at the assembly, I made a deliberate point of questioning some of the things I had heard from the main stage. I wasn't out to attack the speakers but I did want to encourage careful consideration of some of their proposals. I think our preaching suffers when it cloaks itself in a sacred, defensive force-field. It becomes flip, cliched, patronising and all too often way off the mark. The to and fro of friendly but committed conversation is, on the other hand, a good way to generate insight, refine ideas, develop communication skills and keep it real. Conversation on a blog is one way of having such a discussion.

It is worth bearing in mind though the nature of blog discussions. It seems to me they fall somewhere in between careful public statement and off the cuff response, but they definitely tend much more toward the latter. This has two implications. First, those of us who take part in such conversations should remember that our comments will be overheard by a wider audience than those who join in and so the potential to hurt other people is far greater than we may realise. I have been guilty of this myself. It's always worth a final read through before hitting the submit button. Second, we should also try and cut each other a bit of slack. What we are engaged in (I hope) is trying out ideas so as to refine them. The things we express will be provisional, notions under development, not final conclusions or settled opinions. Also, we will rarely express ourselves with precision. Even when we take care we will, from time to time, use turns of phrase that might offend. It's going to happen so let's be gracious when others get it wrong and let's learn to apologise when we ourselves screw up. Sometimes taking offence too easily can cause as many problems as giving offence.

So please, please feel free to criticise my preaching. We preachers get to shoot our mouths off in public far more than is good for us; it can't hurt to have what we say exposed to friendly scrutiny. So if you try not to be unkind I'll try not to get upset and together we might just learn a teeny bit more than we would if I did all the talking. What do you think?

Chaplains and Churches

2010-05-12T09:44:00.002+01:00

Good day yesterday at the triennial Baptist Union sector ministries (chaplains) day in Sutton Coldfield. I was speaking on Truth and Compromise: Dilemmas in Sector Ministry. More importantly though I got the chance to listen in on the chaplains' discussions and join in a couple of Q&R sessions. I was struck by the thoughtful, sensitive and missional approach that this group of men and women take to what is a challenging and sometimes lonely ministry. An important ministry too and one that is often misunderstood and undervalued.

Chaplains are as much pioneer ministers as any involved in Fresh Expressions or other forms of church planting. They are engaged in caring and bearing witness in places and among people where church presence is usually very thin on the ground. Whether responding to radical Islamist students on university campuses, dealing with some of the most demanding issues of medical ethics or plunging in the name of Christ into the swirling seas of contemporary British spirituality, chaplains operate at the cutting edge of the church's engagement with our society.

My main observation reflecting on the day is just how much both our congregations and our chaplains would gain from finding a better thought-out and more substantial relationship than is often the case. The chaplains would appreciate the opportunity for sensitive accountability and the chance to reflect with supportive and thoughtful Christians from beyond the world of sector ministry. Also our churches would be hugely enriched by being able to share the insights gleaned by these front-line ministers and to join in wrestling with the kind of important missional issues that are the bread and butter of chaplaincy.

So let's hear it for chaplains and let's make sure we hear more from chaplains.

Farage Plane Crash Suspect

2010-05-06T17:04:00.001+01:00

Police have issued an artist's impression of the aero-engineer currently wanted in connection with the Nigel Farage plane crash.

Baptist Assembly, Anne Wilkinson Hayes and the Importance of Strategy

2010-05-05T07:37:00.002+01:00

OK, my last word on the Assembly - can't believe I've got so caught up in this. Just wanted to enter a slight qualification to the justifiable praise of Anne's W-H's sermon. Let's be careful we don't give the impression that mission strategy is unimportant. It's not all important. It's not the most important. But it does matter.

Anne's prioritising of love and life-giving engagement with God and the flow of divine life is of course bang on the money. However, please let's not leap onto the pendulum swing away from a misguided emphasis on strategy towards an unthinking, individualistic pietism.

Fact is the church is called to work towards a goal, to pursue a vision, to live in the light of the end, all of which implies the need for intelligent forward thinking. Surely, to reflect on how best to serve people is strategic. Surely, to seek the welfare of our communities, our country and our world demands some thoughtful planning. If we want people to take note of the witness we bear, if we are serious about making disciples of all peoples then we have to ask how best to achieve these things. To neglect this reality would be, well, unloving.

Now I'm not saying that Anne was proposing that we forswear all strategy but I do worry that her words were open to that misinterpretation. Let's not hey?

Is God Still an Englishman?

2010-05-04T06:57:00.001+01:00

The long train journey to and from Plymouth gave me time to read Cole Moreton's Is God Still an Englishman? How We Lost Our Faith (But Found New Soul)

Moreton, a former Charismatic, former Alternative Worship type and now former Christian weaves together cultural commentary, autobiography and the occasional thread of sociology as he examines transformations in England, Englishness and in particular the religion, faith and spirituality of the English. He does it in a highly readable way too. Moreton visits John Wimber and the Death of Diana, The Nine O'Clock Service and Anti War Marches, Billy Graham and Greenham Common, Morris Cerullo and Jade Goody. I see much of my story in his, the public events that have shaped his life touched mine also. But even if you're not a middle-aged working class boy who converted to Christianity in his teens it's still well worth the nine hours or so it takes to read.

Like me you may not be quite as sanguine as Moreton about all the aspects of the rebranding and thinning of English religiosity but the author's own destination is not the point, what counts is the scenery he points out on route. This is a non academic but well informed and convincing journalistic portrayal of the passing of English christendom and the ebbs and flows of secularisation. Highly recommended.

Baptist Assembly Day 4

2010-05-03T17:38:00.002+01:00

Decided not to stick around for the communion service. Communion in mega-gatherings really doesn't work for me.

The public issues session however offered further encouraging evidence of a shift towards a more interactive style, even if the feedback from the designated listeners didn't really work. There was also one sour note, the man who's contribution from the floor included a quite deliberate reference to the presence of Islam in Britain, as "the Muslim threat". Disappointing that, not to mention misguided and dangerous, but we can't have genuinely open conversation without the risk of such things being said. At the very least it's more honest and open - a shiny surface of unity for the sake of morale and a smoothly run event does no one any good. More positive was the round of applause that greeted David Kerrigan's questioning of Baptist attitudes to gay people. OK, this did come at the end of list of other questions from David so maybe people were clapping the other stuff he said. Don't think so though. Hope not. A cloud the size of man's hand perhaps.

So a big thanks to those behind this shift. More please. What would be good next time would be longer for some serious conversation about issues such as the two we voted through this morning on nuclear non proliferation and human trafficking. I guess the challenge in the future will be to keep on finding effective and creative ways to enable genuine interaction without losing the professional presentational skills of recent years.

By the way, I am pleased to confirm that Nicholas Winterton was indeed wrong. I'm typing this on the train home and what's more I'm doing it, wait for it, in standard class. If the chattering people around me are indeed, as Winterton sniffily suggested, "a different type of person" then I'd rather hang out with their type than his type. Tories eh?!

Baptist Assembly Day 3

2010-05-02T23:25:00.001+01:00

And the prize for the wisest words at Assembly so far goes to ……. Anne Wilkinson Hayes. Another great Bible reading this morning. Completely different style to yesterday. Extrovert dial turned down quite a bit. Real impact though thanks to Anne's typically quiet and incisive insights. It really isn't about programmes and strategies. It really is about the over flow of divine life that happens when people love God with everything they've got and love others with a passion. Thanks for the reminder Anne. (Someone offer her a job quick before she goes back to Oz.)

My seminar went OK. Screwed up the timing though so ended up rushing and only got 15 minutes Q&R. Still, think I got across most of the stuff. Have to decide now whether or not to write it up properly for the Baptist Ministers' Journal.

The recognition of ministries in the main arena was as usual very moving but am I the only one who thought that it looked disturbingly male and worryingly elderly?

Tried to get into the late night Redux session but it was jammed did get to see something just a little bit freakish though. Long long and oh so orderly queue for the bar - a queue for the bar! Don't these people know how to behave?

Baptist Assembly Day 2

2010-05-01T23:51:00.000+01:00

Cracking start to day 2. It was good to use the Northumbria Community's morning prayer as the structure for worship. Ages since I've sung it. Particularly liked the soulful flute and whistle playing from the band's very own Richard Hammond look-alike. Even better though was Karl Martin's sermon. Attentive to scripture, warm hearted, spiritually rich, appropriately humorous and very skilfully done. Nice one Karl. Look and learn folks.

Aside from a bunch of stimulating conversations the other main hi-light for me was hearing one of the students from Luther-King House, Lucy Berry, reading some of her poetry at the Prism do. It made me feel irrationally proud. Lucy writes some excellent stuff for which I can of course take absolutely no credit whatsoever. She's not even a Baptist student for goodness sake. Still proud though.

Prism itself made me feel how "alternative worship" services nearly always make me feel. I utterly approved of the approach they took but somehow couldn't quite get into it as an act of worship. I'm convinced this says more about me than it does about this style of worship. Maybe I'm more tied to sitting rows being led from the front than I'd like to admit.

Lucy reappeared at the after hours Assembly Redux which revealed BT editor Mark Woods to be a rather nifty host and interviewer.

On a personal note I enjoyed doing a seminar on mission, theology and The Bible with Roger Standing of Spurgeon's and Steve Finnamore principal of the Bristol College. I liked the Q&R best. I think one or two others enjoyed it as well. Hope so.

Not entirely confident about my seminar tomorrow with the Baptist Ministers' Fellowship. I think it runs the risk of falling between two stools. In its present form it's half way between a scripted lecture and notes for a more extempore talk. I'll have to decide tomorrow which way to go with it.

Baptist Assembly Day 1

2010-05-01T08:30:00.002+01:00

This is my first Baptist Assembly for a few years – apart from an occasional flying visit. These are my impressions after day one.

Encouraging signs from the mainstage – great spirit of cooperation between BUGB and BMSWM; professional presentational polish and high production values retained; good gender and racial mix; encouraging signs of the reintroduction of a more participative element, (response walls, commissioned listeners, some audience interaction) limited, but encouraging.

Found Amy Orr-Ewing's talk a bit disappointing. For someone who takes a classic evangelical approach to apologetics which values reasoned argument based on the evidence what she had to say was full of non sequiturs. Also a less than careful handling of the biblical text. Eph 1:7 does not say that redemption is ONLY to be found in Christ. That might be true but adding in the word ONLY is not justified on the basis of the text. I've heard she can be really good and I seem to remember her making a good fist of things at Spring Harvest a few years back. Maybe it was an off day. Maybe I'll be way less than my best in my seminars. It happens, but it was disappointing.

Delegates (and this is very impressionistic) – nearly all rather elderly, middle aged, middle England, conventional, dated, Isle of Wight, Daily Mail/Telegraph. Not that all of those things are in themselves bad but they are certainly not representative of the wider population – overall really rather dull in comparison. On the way down I read Cole Moreton’s "Is God Still An Englishman". Moreton paints a now largely familiar picture of the last fifty years and the changes in English society and in particular how we do God. This certainly feels much more like the old England, and not in a good way.

Digital Evangelism

2010-04-22T18:00:00.003+01:00

jesus_with_cat5
Originally uploaded by pixelwhip

On Monday I'm going to be looking at digital evangelism with my MA class. Here are some of the questions we will discuss:

In what ways does the medium of the internet affect the way we witness?

In what ways does the medium of the internet affect the content of our witness?

In what sense are people on the internet real people to whom we need to witness?

In what sense is the internet a new place where Christians should bear witness?

Are there some understandings of evangelism that are particularly appropriate to the internet and if so are there other understandings that are particularly inappropriate?

To what extent is a witness on the internet disembodied witness and can disembodied witness be faithful witness?

Anyone out there want to join in? Have you got any questions of your own? What about answers?

Religion in Britain

2010-04-20T07:44:00.000+01:00

A cracking new online resource for research into religion in Britain has just been launched by the British Religion in Numbers project. All kinds of quality data, maps and charts to be had. Here's how they introduce themselves:

Numbers aren't just for statisticians. People want to visualise and understand data for work, for study, for general interest, or to settle a debate. Many debates over religion rest on questions of how large? how many? how typical?

Religious data sources tend to be difficult to find, or need a good deal of interpretation. For example, is Britain 72% Christian, as the 2001 Census reported, or 50% Christian, as found by the 2008 British Social Attitudes survey?

We want to draw religious data sources together, explain how data can be used, and present some examples intuitively to a wide audience.

BRIN is based at the University of Manchester and supported by the Religion and Society http://www.manchester.ac.uk/ research programme.

HT Ruth Gledhill.

Metaphors Meaning and God Talk

2010-03-04T08:26:00.003Z

Words
Originally uploaded by livDE

I’ve been thinking about how language works. It’s David Southall’s fault. On Tuesday David came to Luther-King House to deliver the annual Whitely Lecture on Paul’s use of personification in Romans. As part of the lecture he gave a very short but very helpful summary of Paul Ricoeur’s thinking on metaphor. This set me off.

Now let me say straight away that no one in their right mind would confuse me with anything even remotely resembling an expert on Ricoeur. However, I have come across his ideas from time to over the past ten years or so, which, in my book is enough to justify a bit of pontificating! So what follows is the result of me playing around with a few ideas over the past couple of days, knocking them into a bit of shape and fly-posting them here just in case anybody might interested. That’s all. And as it’s only metaphorical fly-posting please feel free to tell me where I’ve go it wrong but there’s no need to have me prosecuted.

How metaphors work.

Creating a metaphor is one way of generating meaning. You take pre-existing words that are both like and unlike each other. Each of these words has its own field of meaning, its own connotations and associations. You then bump the two words into each other with all their own meaning trailing along behind them and you look to see what new meaning might emerge out of the collision. It’s the linguistic equivalent of experimental cooking or, if you prefer, playing with the elements of a verbal chemistry set.

The thing we sometimes forget, the thing I think we ought not to forget, is that when this coming together happens new insight is generated as meaning moves in two directions at once. Each word acts on the other. So for example when we speak of Christ as king it’s not just that all the pre-existing meaning of the word “king” spills, as it were, into our understanding of the word “Christ” modifying it accordingly. Rather, after the two words bump into each other, when we deploy the metaphor, meaning slops about all over the place, there is a bi-directional semantic flow. All that the word “Christ” means also spills into our understanding of the word “king”. That too gets modified. So, as someone who has lived in the Christian language world for the past thirty-five years, it is now impossible for me to hear the word “king” without it instantly having Christly overtones. All that I know of Jesus plays its part in colouring my picture of kingship.

So what?

But why does any of this matter? You might well ask, but bear with me. The issue of how why metaphors matter cropped up on Tuesday because the particular bit of Romans that David was looking at was chapter six which uses the metaphor of slavery to explore what it means undergo Christian conversion. We used to be slaves to sin we become slaves to righteousness. One of the audience had a problem with this, not so much with the subtleties of David’s argument about Paul using the term "righteousness" as a personification of Christ but with the very idea of slavery being used as an image at all. I think this is a fair point. Our use of language doesn’t just describe and reflect our world, it builds, creates or, at the very, least colours how we see our world. To take a crude example if you are told repeatedly from childhood that you are stupid, stupid is how you are likely to see yourself even if you are actually very smart. So it’s not unreasonable to ask us to be careful when laying our tongues to words such as “slavery”.

Certainly if all that happens when we use the metaphor of slavery is that everything that the word “slavery” means comes to shape our understanding of the Christian life then there would be good grounds for expunging such usage form our discourse once and for all. However, this is not what happens. What happens is that meaning flows both ways. All that we know of Christ and the Christian life also changes how we see slavery.

Where’s this heading? Well, I don’t want us to end up with an anaemic form of Christian language. And this could happen if we don’t think carefully about our use of metaphor. There are those who would have us abandon entirely language that might have negative, unhelpful connotations for people. So, for instance, there are those who would rather we avoided speaking of God as "Father" because some people have very negative experiences of an abusive father, experiences which, of course, profoundly affect what the word “father” means to them. This is not an insignificant argument and those who dismiss it lightly and lazily as mere political correctness should be shot (metaphorically of course).

However, if we hit the delete button every time we come across an image with negative connotations we will end up with a discourse that is tissue-thin and Lincolnshire-flat. Out goes Christ as victor (too triumphalistic); out goes discipleship as race (too competitive); out goes minister as pastor (too demeaning to the congregational sheep). But we forget that meaning flows both ways. Christ’s victory is like no other – it happens through nonviolent surrender and defeat. All that Christ means modifies my understanding of victory. The race of discipleship is weird; discipleship and racing are both like and unlike each other – all you have to do is finish and you win. Christ is the kind of shepherd who dies for his sheep, who calls us "friend", who walks alongside as our companion, sustainer and conversation partner. Christ is indeed shepherd but he’s not mere shepherd – and therefore neither are we mere sheep. And with that I’ve already moved onto my final point.

Why metaphors are like teenagers and why this is a good thing.

Metaphors don’t come along all by themselves. They hang out with their friends. Lots of them. This too I think is more important than we normally realise. If we use a limited range of images then we can end up with an understanding of the things of God that is hopelessly and unhelpfully skewed.

Far better that we deploy a whole panoply of metaphors (if you’ll forgive the military connotations of the word “panoply”) so that we create a semantic meta-field that is rich, varied and therefore goes some of the way to approaching the impossible task of the linguistic rendering of the ineffable. The metaphors that inhabit this meta-field will work on each other, engaging in ongoing mutual, multi-directional, modification thus guarding against the tendency to construe the divine in unhelpful and misleading ways.

Our concern should not be overly focused on particular metaphors or individual instances of their use but on whether or not the field as a whole gets it right. The recipe and not just the individual ingredient. So if our God talk is saturated by militaristic images we may want to think again – but this does not mean we should never speak of God as "warrior". Similarly our reaction to the negative implications for gender justice of an exclusively male imaging of God should not be to stop calling God "Father" but also to speak of God as "Mother". What we could do with is an iPhone app that periodically sucks up all our God talk and turns into one of those word cloud things. You know like the one in my previous post or the one in my side bar, over there, to the right.

So that’s it really. That’s what I’ve been thinking. There’s nothing more. Not even a proper conclusion.

Jesus Unplugged

2010-03-03T07:36:00.000Z

This'll be good. You might want to attend.

Avatar Unmasked: Dualism is Alive and Well On Planet Driscol

2010-03-02T12:30:00.000Z

The Mars Hill reformission Rev turns film critic, offering his own insights into who really directed Avatar. Here's his review. And here's some other opinions from Jason Cocker and from Jason Clark

Musical Church

2010-02-26T17:01:00.003Z

Candlelit score
Originally uploaded by Alex is late

Just a thought. What about Church as an adventure in collective improvisation in the key of Christ?

Christ as the tonal centre of gravity, the reference point for all other tones, the tone that gives all tones meaning to which they all relate, and the destination of the piece.

Members of church as a band with different skills doing different stuff but taking account of, responding to, supporting what the others doing, informed by the tradition and its conventions but always ready to risk new ventures. And always with reference to the tonal centre.

I think this works well, as long as you don’t like Schoenberg.

(With a nod in the direction of Tom Wright’s five act play notion of the Bible and Kathryn Tanner’s intriguing idea that the church is in effect an argument about the meaning of discipleship.)

Marshall Hits Big Time as Music Critic

2010-02-24T13:51:00.001Z

I'm dead chuffed to discover that my mini reviewette of Billy Cobham's gig at Ronnie Scott's some 18 months ago has been picked up by the drummer's official web site. It's been sitting there for quite a while now serene and proud alongside a proper, grown up review from The Times Online.

This world wide web thingy certainly has a way of occasionally giving you the illusion that you are more important than you actually are. I like it. Though I'm not entirely sure it's good for me.

2010-02-22T15:32:00.001Z

Mainstream North Leaders Day: 25^th March, 2010

A vision of the Kingdom

Exploring themes of equality, diversity and unity from Revelation 7

Bev Thomas is a freelance consultant and lecturer. For the last 20 years she has worked as a trainer and speaker on social justice and 'race' issues. Bev has worked previously as project development officer for Churches' Commission for Racial Justice, board member of Evangelical Alliance and the chair of the Christian Socialist Movement. Bev is a lay minister in the New Testament Church of God.

Timing and Venue

Blackley Centre near Huddersfield.

It will run from 10am to 3pm and cost £15 each, including lunch.

Booking your place

To book your place, please email the Mainstream North administrator, Hazel Gilbert, on hazel.gilbert@hbc.org.uk, or call Hazel at Hoole Baptist Church, on 01244 312037

Serious Concerns over Ministerial Competence

2010-02-17T14:54:00.001Z

Pictures have come into my possession that raise very serious questions about the competence of the current generation of Baptist ministers.

Further comment I think you will agree would be redundant. Please pray for our denomination.

Alexander Maclaren, liberal evangelism and a church's future.

2010-02-08T08:21:00.001Z

Got to preach for the first time yesterday at Alexander Maclaren’s old church. Maclaren was one of the great Victorian/Edwardian preachers, the northern Spurgeon. Wonder what he would have made of it. Not the sermon, the church.

The folk at Union Chapel, Fallowfield, Manchester now meet for worship in what was the church hall, the “sanctuary” having long since been demolished. Just by way of a reminder though a slice of Maclaren’s pulpit stands in the corner of the vestibule, at once a piece of Baptist Heritage and a free church relic.

Just under thirty of us gathered to worship. The service was formal but relaxed and the morning followed the locally established pattern of an act of worship, a break for coffee (this week with added sliver wedding anniversary chocolate cake) and then a follow-up session exploring a particular theme. I had been asked to address the question of evangelism in a liberal church.

It was good to see a church creating space for interactive reflection. It was good to see that they were entirely at home with the process. Good too to see congregation that regards itself as liberal trying to get to grips with how they might evangelise in a way that is true to their own convictions. If my experience is anything to go by this is an emerging trend.

The issue is a pertinent one for the folk at Union. They find themselves between ministers wondering about the future of the church. What will they need to do if they are to have a future; what kind of minister do they need to help them find a viable and effective way ahead?

As I made my way home after what I hope was a useful discussion I couldn’t help but feel wistful, melancholic even. In Maclaren’s day the 1,500 seater chapel would have been full. Churches knew what they were and where they stood. They also knew what they had to do and as long as they did it well they would prosper.

We live in different days. The challenge facing congregations such as Union chapel are by turn daunting and challenging. Whatever future they fashion for themselves, one thing’s for sure it won’t be as a Victorian preaching barn. Here’s hoping though that it will be a future marked by the manifest blessing of God.

The Book of Eli

2010-01-30T22:27:00.001Z

Films make me blog. I’ve just been to see The Book of Eli. Here’s some meaning that me and the Hughes brothers came up with.

The words of The Bible are beautiful, potent and good for humanity. So are the words of The Koran, all other sacred texts and the works of Beethoven. Even cheap music has the power to sustain and enrich. You can’t be a hero without being violent. A surfeit of stuff blinds you to what’s important. Salvation normally comes from a lone individual. When making a “post-apocalyptic” film you have to include a shot of a ruined, iconic, American building. Politicians use religion to control the populous – don’t trust ‘em. It is really important to follow where your convictions lead and to do so with determination and discipline. Women are normally peripheral, feeble and insignificant. Treasuring The Bible is one thing but what really matters is living out its message. Ultimately the message of The Bible can be reduced to the Golden Rule. Old people know some important stuff. Go West. If you are going to have a twist in the tail it will only work if doesn’t make a nonsense of all that went before.

Bristol Mission Conference

2010-01-25T14:38:00.002Z

Interested in mission? Live near Bristol? Prepared to travel to Bristol? This looks like it might be good.

21C Illuminated Bible

2010-01-23T12:15:00.001Z

Mike Lowe, one of our students here in Manchester, is working on a very interesting project producing a communal, 21C, British, illuminated Bible. It's called the buk. This is me commending it to you.

The image on the right is the buk's illumination of 2 Corinthians 4v6 “For God who said “let Light shine out of darkness” made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (NIV)

Here's what Mike has to say about the project:

Welcome to the buk. The buk is a new community driven illuminated Bible where visual reflections on the Biblical text are made up of images taken in Britain. The aim is to produce a Bible anyone in Britain can connect with very quickly and see that God is at work all around them.

It's looking good. But don't take my word for it, check it out for yourself.

Image courtesy of thebuk.co.uk

Shock! Horror! Churchgoers Look Forward to the Sermon

2010-01-21T08:12:00.002Z

Various places are reporting the findings of the CODEC research centre's investigation of attitudes to sermons. Here's the BBC's take, and here Ruth Gledhill's at Timesonline.

It turns out that for many the sermon is the best bit of the service often eagerly anticipated. Can't yet find a link to the actual report (don't think it's available on line) so for now I'll suspend judgement. One question though, "Should I be at all suspicious, or perhaps "careful" would be a better word, that the research was commissioned by The College of Preachers, an organisation committed to and seeking to promote preaching?"

David Southall to give 2010 Whitley Lecture

2010-01-20T17:02:00.003Z

Andy Goodliff put this together; I just nicked it.

David Southall is to give the 2010 Whitley Lecture entitled: "The Poetic Paul: On Creating New Realities for Righteousness in Romans".

Why does the Apostle Paul personify righteousness and sin in Romans 6? Why does the character "Righteousness" act out its role as a slave master in opposition to "Slave Master Sin?" In this seminar David J. Southall explores Pauline personification and makes the case that the Apostle uses the poetic ways of speaking as modes of character invention and then goes on to show that personified "Righteousness", becomes Paul's way of talking about Christ in passages which are rich in metaphor and the story of Christ.

Southall gives an exegesis of Romans 6:15-23 which affirms this view and looks at the implications of his position for aspects of Pauline theology including "the justification debate" and universalism.

Southall gained his PhD from Spurgeon's College with a dissertation on theology of Paul in 2007. It was published as Rediscovering Righteousness in Paul (Mohr Siebeck, 2008). See also his chapter 'The Personification of Righteousness within a Metaphoric and Narratorial Setting' in Bible and Mission (Neufeld Verlag, 2008).

He became Chaplain ar Worcestershire Royal Hospital in 2009.
You can hear the lecture at:

22nd February 2010 at Regent's Park College, Oxford, 2pm
24th February 2010 at South Wales Baptist College, 3.00- 4.45pm
2nd March 2010 at Northern Baptist College, Luther King House, 7.30 - 9.30 p.m
and also at the Baptist Assembly in May.
24th March Spurgeon's College

Haiti, Pat Robertson, God and Satan

2010-01-19T06:53:00.003Z

This from Maggi Dawn

C S Lewis made letters from Satan into an art form. Lily Coyle of Minneapolis follows suit in a letter to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, replying to Pat Robertson’s extraordinarily ill-judged comments this week.

Dear Pat Robertson,
I know that you know that all press is good press, so I appreciate the shout-out. And you make God look like a big mean bully who kicks people when they are down, so I’m all over that action. But when you say that Haiti has made a pact with me, it is totally humiliating. I may be evil incarnate, but I’m no welcher. The way you put it, making a deal with me leaves folks desperate and impoverished. Sure, in the afterlife, but when I strike bargains with people, they first get something here on earth — glamour, beauty, talent, wealth, fame, glory, a golden fiddle. Those Haitians have nothing, and I mean nothing. And that was before the earthquake. Haven’t you seen “Crossroads”? Or “Damn Yankees”? If I had a thing going with Haiti, there’d be lots of banks, skyscrapers, SUVs, exclusive night clubs, Botox — that kind of thing. An 80 percent poverty rate is so not my style. Nothing against it — I’m just saying: Not how I roll. You’re doing great work, Pat, and I don’t want to clip your wings — just, come on, you’re making me look bad. And not the good kind of bad. Keep blaming God. That’s working. But leave me out of it, please. Or we may need to renegotiate your own contract.
Best, Satan

Mainstream Theology Day on Preaching

2010-01-12T16:43:00.000Z

The next Mainstream North Theology Day will be on the theme of preaching. I'm going to be speaking along with Ashley Hardingham. We'll be looking at stuff such as the purpose of preaching, whether or not preaching has had its day and how our approach to preaching is shaped by our personality.

Date Jan 28th
Time 10.00 - 3.00
Venue The Blackley Centre
Cost £15 including lunch
To book hazel.gilbert@hbc.org.uk

Leading Women

2010-01-07T16:19:00.001Z

An issue we at nblc are still working away at. Spread the word.