Monthly Archive for August, 2006Page 2 of 3

It’s too difficult

Published
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Graeme
on August 16, 2006
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My daughter, Sian, is almost 2¾ and is learning new words almost every moment of every day. One of her favourite phrases at the moment is “It’s too easy!” when in actual fact she means “It’s too hard!” For some reason she just can’t seem to fix the word in her head and it always comes out wrong.

Sometimes I suspect that we are too quick to say that something God wants us to do is “too hard”. I look at the numbers of people who are going into training to be Salvation Army officers and find it difficult to believe that God isn’t calling more into officership. I think back to a corps I visited over the summer and wonder why in a congregation of around 40-50 people everyone expects the officer to do everything, saying they are too old or too busy to lead. I look at the corps I’ve served in and am amazed at how many people are content simply to come to the corps but not take any responsibility and the same few people do everything!

Is it that God has stopped speaking to people? Is He really content with a few people in each corps/church who end up working themselves into the ground so that in the end nothing gets done? Somehow I don’t think so!

Is it then that we have failed in our teaching? Are we actually growing disciples in our congregations or are we simply providing a nice environment for people to come to for a few hours each week? I suspect this is a big part of the problem.

So many people miss out on the privilege of service that is part of being a disciple. We fail so often to live in the promise of Jesus for abundant life (John 10:10Open Link in New Window) and instead settle for a life of faith that is only a shadow of what God has promised us.

A quote

Published
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Graeme
on August 15, 2006
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But the Church, with all its shortcomings, is still the society of those who have received the Kingdom in Christ and are called by God and empowered by the Spirit to live the Kingdom’s reality and by doing so, to repossess the incredible possibilities for human life of which sin would deprive every person.

pg 22-23 Community in Mission Commissioner Philip Needham

Leisure driven Church?

Published
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Graeme
on August 13, 2006
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For the majority of humanity life is pretty much a constant struggle. A struggle simply to survive in a fallen world in which God’s promise to Adam in Genesis 3:17-19Open Link in New Window is fulfilled. This is not true only of the majority world, but also of many in wealthy nations as well.

Those of us privileged enough, in the world’s eyes, to live both in the West and who don’t have to struggle to survive, life has become far more about the pursuit of leisure and pleasure. Of course this also goes for many of the wealthy and powerful elite of the majority world.

I’m beginning to wonder whether this is part of the problem that is causing decline within the Church. Is it possible that for many of us Church is simply another leisure activity that we pursue for pleasure? Could it be that we have become so comfortable in our Western struggle-free lifestyle that there is no longer an understanding of the life-transforming and liberating nature of the Gospel?

This would certainly go a long way to explain why the Church in the West is in decline, whilst in those places where life is a constant struggle it thrives.

True discipleship is not about leisure. Yes, the Christian path is one of fulfilment and that leads to pleasure, but ultimately it cannot be divorced from the struggle that is the Church’s mission. If we see Church as leisure then how can we ever work towards seeing God’s redemptive plan fulfilled on earth?

Changing the Army

Published
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Graeme
on August 12, 2006
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“Your ministry is not, firstly, to change The Salvation Army but rather to strengthen its message, mission and ministry. I promise you, on the authority of God, a ministry characterised in this way will prove to be beautiful, powerful and irresistible.”

So said Commissioner John Matear during the Commissioning of the Visionaries Session in London a couple of weeks back.

Amen to that!

Oh that the ministry of every corps would be irresistable! Let’s simply get on with the job that God appointed us to do and stop messing about with all the rubbish that we’ve let take over.

On a hill far away…

Published
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Graeme
on August 11, 2006
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…stood an old rugged cross

Actually it was more like several thousand crosses, because yesterday we travelled south of the border to Lithuania to visit the Hill of Crosses.

Hill of CrossesThis hill is basically exactly what it says it is. A hill full of crosses! Its origins are believed to be in the 1830’s but it took on a whole new dimension during the Soviet occupation of Lithuania. Despite being bulldozed on at least 3 occasions the crosses kept being erected. The Soviet authorities tried everything to stop them appearing including closing roads, digging trenches and saying that the area was full of deadly toxins, but still they came back!

Lithuania was and to some extents is still a devoutly catholic country. In view of this it isn’t surprising that the Cross became the symbol of hope which people used against communism. After all the Cross of Jesus is the symbol of hope for the whole world.

One of the things that struck me most about this place of pilgrimage is the amount of prayers that must have been poured forth over the decades. Whilst many of the more modern crosses have been left by tourists, the oldest have been left by people who were facing extreme oppression, often for their faith, who felt they had nowhere else to turn. This place, 12km from the nearest town, became a place where they felt they could speak tRugged crosseso their Lord and leave the only symbol they could, a cross.

Despite the sheer number of crosses that stand on the hill, it was those almost obscured by undergrowth and discoloured with age that spoke to me most! Praise the Lord that He has given us a symbol of hope like no other. Something that people can cling to when everything in life seems to have fallen apart.

A symbol of hope and freedom for all who follow Jesus!

The Cross

A light in the darkness

Published
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Graeme
on August 8, 2006
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On Saturday night Zoe and I settled down to watch a documentary on BBC Prime about the Bell Rock Lighthouse. This is a lighthouse that was built between 1807 and 1811 on a rock 11 miles off the Scottish coast. The biggest problem is that the rock is only above the surface at low tide and for around 4 hours during the day! Over the centuries it must have claimed tens of thousands of lives!

The story of the building is inspiring by itself due to the incredible task of building a 115 foot (35m) tower on a rock that’s submerged for most of the day!

But then I got an image of the famous diagram from William Booth’s In Darkest England. There in the middle of the sea of sin and the symptoms of poverty, amidst shipwrecks and drowning people is the ‘lighthouse’ of The Salvation Army built upon a rock. The analogy is obvious!

However, what really got to me when I looked at the picture again is the fact that whilst the Church (The Salvation Army in this particular image) is the light that warns people of the dangers, all it can do is warn people and give them temporary safety. The only people who are actually being saved are those who reach for the helping hand of the Salvationists (or any other Christian in reality).

The lesson? Without the faithful work of individuals the Church becomes at best a symbol of hope, but at worst nothing more than an empty edifice devoid of life. The Salvation Army itself hasn’t saved a single soul. It is only the Holy Spirit working through individuals that brings people to a point where they can experience the salvation on offer to us all.

Thy will be done

Published
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Graeme
on August 3, 2006
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There are moments in life when things you have been thinking and pondering over suddenly fit into place! I had one of those moments this week.

Since taking on my responsibilities as Project and Development Secretary I’ve been trying to understand the real reasons why social action is so important. I understand both the Biblical imperative and the historical identity that puts such a high emphasis on this issue for The Salvation Army. The problem is always the balancing act between the social and spiritual work and how, to use Gordon Cotterill’s phrase, the false dichotomy of mission that can be the danger of going one way or the other.

Enter two books that I am reading at the moment. Firstly, The Drama of Scripture and secondly, Journeying Out. On Tuesday night whilst reading Journeying Out a particular paragraph jumped off the page at me (added emphasis mine):

In Transforming Mission Bosch also emphasized how the Church’s life and work are intimately bound up with God’s cosmic-historical plan for the salvation of the world. This requires Christians to see and understand themselves as kingdom people, not church people. We must not fall into the temptation of treating the Church, and faith itself, as ‘a waiting room for the hereafter.’ Bosch articulated clearly how ‘the Church can only be a credible sacrament of salvation for the world when it displays to humanity a glimmer of God’s imminent reign - a kingdom of reconciliation, peace and new life.’ With meticulous scholarship, Bosch demonstrated that mission which serves the Gospel has to manifest itself in action, and not just in proclamation of a message of salvation in the world to come. The Church, if it is to honour the Gospel, has to journey out, embrace strangers, work for social peace and justice and partake of God’s gracious gift of salvation.

pg 5 - Journeying Out by Ann Morisy (with quote from pg 378 - Transforming Mission by David Bosch)

This coupled with the ideas from The Drama of Scripture, that are helping me to understand the whole Bible as a story of God’s redemptive process, suddenly slotted into place. We shouldn’t be doing social action because it’s one of the historical traditions of The Salvation Army, but simply because by doing it we are manifesting God’s kingdom values here on earth.

The Gospels are full of Jesus’ teaching about the Kingdom of Heaven and what it is like, but all too often the Church has relegated the teaching to illustrate what God has planned for the future. The fact is though, that through His death and resurrection Jesus was not only giving us a way of being brought blameless before the Father, but was also creating the route through which the kingdom values would be shown in the future.

It is only when we understand God’s redemptive power for the whole of His creation and, from that understanding, start being kingdom people, that we can truly fulfil the primary task of the Church, namely helping people discover the saving power of Jesus Christ.