Daily Archive for November 10th, 2006

Commitment to community

Published
by
Graeme
on November 10, 2006
in old uksalvationist posts
. 0 Comments

Archbishop Rowan Williams writes the following in his Introduction to the Faithful Cities report that was published earlier this year.

[The Church’s] fundamental beliefs are about …commitment –God’s commitment to a people, Christ’s commitment to a weak and failing body of human followers, the commitment embodied (literally) in the incarnation and resurrection. The question the Church always has to ask of any society, and any project within society, is about how it reflects the kind of enduring commitment to individuals and groups that builds them up and changes them and makes them what they can be.’
pg v - Faithful Cities (2006) Methodist Publishing House and Church House Publishing

He goes on to say:

In other words, the deeper issues around regeneration and development that are raised … are to do with how our corporate life shows something of what God is like and thus something of what humanity, made in God’s image, might be.’
ibid

I’ve only just started to read this book, but the more I look at the world at the moment the more I realise that what is really missing is a sense of community. Intolerance and injustice are complicated issues and I don’t want to trivialise them, but I’ve got a suspicion that the root of a lot of these issues in the world is because of the breakdown in our communities, and the fact that we are simply not prepared to get to know people any more. We make snap judgements about both individuals and groups based on media portrayed stereotypes and we’re all guilty of it. If we were more prepared to take time to get to know people many of these prejudices would disappear and maybe the world would be a better place.

In a comment on another post Martin says:

Perhaps the hope for our community is the church after all.

Let’s face it, everything else seems to be failing! If we want to see real change we’ve got to get outside our buildings and out into the communities in which we live. This is the place Jesus called us to follow Him into! Only then will we see the regeneration and transformation of society that only the Creator God we follow can achieve.

The joy of chatting

Published
by
Graeme
on November 10, 2006
in old uksalvationist posts
. 0 Comments

Well I’ve been in England for a little under 48 hours and I can’t believe how easy it was to switch into English mode. Normally, there is a certain element of re-entry stress with some of the simplest things causing unproportionally high levels of discomfort.

Something that I have really enjoyed has been the possibility to simply chat with complete strangers. This has happened three times already! The first was one of those random conversations you have with complete strangers on trains. I had to get from London to Lincoln and struck up a conversation with a guy on the train. For the first time in ages I got a real chance to witness to someone without having to worry about language. It was so easy to move from the question of what I am doing in Latvia onto matters of faith and although I’ll never know what happens with the guy I was chatting with, I know I was faithful in what I said!

The second chat was over lunch with my sister, her fiance and her work colleagues. It was just like the days when I went to the pub with my own friends from work and it was wonderful to be in a situation that meant I could talk a bit about my adopted country of Latvia and Patverums.

Finally, the conversation that had the most effect on me personally was in the Christian Bookshop here in Lincoln. I went in looking for a particular book and then simply got chatting with the owner of the shop for about 30 minutes or so. We shared our thoughts about some of the books we are reading and he recommended a couple of books (one of which is now on order) and I recommended the book I am still reading, The Irresistible Revolution. It was wonderful to meet a fellow Christian who I don’t actually work with, who is also seeking a deeper and better way of following Jesus.

England has changed a lot over the last 5 years in ways that I can’t begin to fully understand, but the experience of these last two days have given me a new found confidence about returning next year.