Archive for the 'Mission' CategoryPage 2 of 3

Shrove Monday

Published
by
Graeme
on February 4, 2008
in Mission
. 0 Comments

One of the problems we’ve been facing here is the fact that most of the people who come through our doors on a weekly basis are either members of the corps, or have been coming for the best part of 20 years. This means that there is a certain flow to every week that sees little deviation.

So Zoe & I decided that we would hold a special evening at the corps. Seeing as this week is the start of Lent, and that our Tuesday programme is already busy, we instead set up a Pancake Day evening tonight. Zoe, along with the husband of one of our adherents, spent two hours in the kitchen cooking many pancakes!

The wonderful news is that 30 people came, of which only half attend on a Sunday! Several others come to various of our weekday programmes, but 7 (plus 2 babies) came who have only been in the building one or less! This included the two couples who we are getting to know fairly well in our street.

Whilst there was nothing overtly evangelistic about the venture this evening it was great to be able to build upon the relationships that have been made over the years. It was great to see people chatting to each other and for myself I enjoyed the chance of spending some time with my neighbours and getting to know them a little bit more!

More than anything it was nice to open the doors to a group of people so that they experience something of the community that is possible within church.

…and another thing!

Published
by
Graeme
on January 23, 2008
in Mission
. 0 Comments

Joe Noland (see Slightly Irregular links to the right) highlighted an interesting article dating back to 2000 which he recommends as important reading for “every discerning Christian leader”.

On my Assessment Conference last year I had to read the first chapter of Eddie Gibbs’ collaboration Ian Coffey, ‘Church Next’. Having read that 1 chapter I’m not surprised that Gibbs used his installation speech as Chair of Church Growth to send a challenging message to the Church about changing the way we think about Church Growth!

Looking for God’s glory

Published
by
Graeme
on January 3, 2008
in Mission
. 1 Comment

I’m down to the last few days of Maggi Dawn’s Beginnings and Endings now, and a couple of days ago I read the following:

The glory of God is revealed in those magic moments when we are touched by something beyond human achievement, when we see the presence of God break into the ordinary and there is a sense that life has been fulfilled. Heaven and earth collide pg146

As I pondered on this after reading it I couldn’t help but think that most of my experiences of God have been connected with worship. Whilst the presence of the Holy Spirit is always there, there have been some occasions when the presence has been almost like a physical presence there with me. These have been wonderful yet I have one concern. Why is it that I have found it so difficult to see the presence of God break into the ordinary?

One of my own personal hopes this year is that I can find God’s presence in ways that I have failed to do so in the past.

Breath of fresh air

Published
by
Graeme
on December 28, 2007
in Mission and My Pilgrimage
. 0 Comments

For the whole of December I’ve been reading a wonderful book by Maggi Dawn called Beginnings and Endings. A series of Advent readings that go from 1st December right though to Epiphany on 6th January, they have lit up the wonders of Advent in a way that hasn’t happened before. On 26 December she wrote the following when writing about the way Jesus was looked after after he was born; the way he was kept as safe as possible by being swaddled and kept in the cleanest available space.

“We expect Jesus to be where it’s clean, but he is born into the mess of human life. We think of Jesus as safe and calm and serence, but he grows up to be the kind of leader who has his sleeves rolled up, ready to face reality and connect the spiritual world to the material one. We try to restrain him and keep him clean, but he breaks out of those expectations. Our idea of ‘holy’ is to protect God from anything unpleasant and unmentionable, yet Jesus’ idea of ‘holy’ is to bring the fresh air of heaven into the dirtiest and messiest corners of our world. He will not remain restrained, swaddled, safe, warm and still for very long.”

I love that thought that idea of bringng “the fresh air of heaven into the dirtiest and messiest corners of our world.” This simple, yet profound statement, strikes to the heart of who we are as Christians. You see everything about our task as human beings is geared around trying to make our lives more comfortable.

Providing increased comforts has been one of the hidden driving forces of virtually every step forward in technology. This drive towards increased comfort has been either of the very practical sort, ie transport, or instead to provide increased wealth, which provides the money for us to buy the ‘home comforts’ so many measure success by.

However, comfort poses something of a problem to us. Jesus famously warns people that sought to follow him that whilst foxes have holes, the Son of Man had nowhere to lay his head. This makes the pathway of discipleship seem far from a comfortable lifestyle choice. Comfort does not easily go hand in hand with a gospel that seeks to reach into the dirty and messy places of the world. It doesn’t even matter whether these places are the physically dirty and messy places or those of our hearts and minds, either is an uncomfortable place to find ourselves in.

Recently, Phil Wall wrote an article on theRubicon that shows how comfort is something to be wary of because of its inherent ‘unrisky’ nature. He also made the powerful claim that,

“Taking faith filled risks within our comfort-oriented lives is a powerful antidote to spiritual impotency. … It is most often within the crucible of risk-induced challenge and hardship that God does his greatest work within us.”

Following Jesus’ lead in this is an inherently risky business. If Jesus was about reaching into the dirty and messy places of our world with the “fresh air of heaven” then surely, as his followers, we should be opening doors into these same areas so that the same fresh air reach those places too!

Engaging in contextual mission

Published
by
Graeme
on December 1, 2007
in Community and Mission
. 0 Comments

In a comment over at theRubicon Geoff Ryan made the following point in reaction to a comment I made:

In one sense, we cannot decontextualize our mission out of the communal framework within which we undertake that mission (ie what tribe we give our allegiance to) however, please let us not refuse to engage with complex and nuanced matters by simply defaulting to a “well-at-the-end-of-the-day-the-only-thing-that-
matters-is-that-we-get-people-saved”.

This has really got me thinking about what mission should really look like for me here in Godalming. Although I already understood the fact, one thing that is coming home to me again and again is that context is important in working out what our ministry should look like. So one of the questions I’m asking myself at the moment is, “What is the context I find myself in here as the appointed leader of The Salvation Army in this town?”

Transforming society

Published
by
Graeme
on November 12, 2007
in Community and Mission
. 2 Comments

I’ve been thinking quite a bit about the way we are to make a difference in society. This has been an ongoing issue for me for a long time now, but was fuelled by a mailing that I received a few days ago. I won’t name the organisation involved, but what came across was an apparent need for us to impose Christian moral teachings on our society, and that this is the only way we can make society a better place for Christians to live.

Something about this simply doesn’t sit comfortably with me! There is something that speaks of religious domination and abuse of power in this sort of imposition of our beliefs on others. It doesn’t seem to be the sort of thing that Jesus would do!

To me what seems to be the Christian way is one of transforming society, not forcing change upon it by shouting the loudest and longest. If we, as Christians, want to see our society and our communities changed we have to go about transforming it by being salt and light in the world. We don’t need to force our views on people, but instead need to persuade them that our way is the best way by proving it through our actions.

It’s the same thing I currently see from the secularists and humanists who seem to feel that Christian’s should not be allowed a voice in society. In my opinion this situation isn’t the case of persecution that many Christians seem to think it is, but is instead a reaction to the centuries of church imposed dogma, and let’s face it for years the Christian voices in the debate didn’t think that other faith groups should have the right to a voice; some still don’t!

We need to learn to speak into issues without an accompanying attitude that suggests that no-one else’s views hold any credence. When we speak words of love into all situation, rather than hate or intolerance, and at the same time practice what we are saying, then surely society will sit up and take notice.

This is the way that I feel Jesus would operate. His often talked about authority came out of his life of integrity, obvious love for others and his adherence to his own teaching. It was this that was attractive!

A few good men and women!

Published
by
Graeme
on October 28, 2007
in Mission
. 0 Comments

Reading today I found this quote:

Nothing is so likely permanently to stop soul-saving as the want of intense zeal on the part of our own people. How far are your soldiers’ meetings utilised for the development of the personal religion and fighting capacity of your people? Never mind the fewness of the numbers; if you can but get the few set on fire, the fire will attract others.
General Edward J Higgins

Being the leader of a corps with only a handful of people attending the meetings is not always easy. For starters the most obvious question is how the congregation has become so small. However, the important thing is not to focus on the negative, which can sometimes be all too easy, but instead it is essential to seek out the positive.

Today, I’ve started to see the glowing embers that are deep down inside some of the folk here. The real key now is to open a root to them for the Spirit to gently blow them back into life. Fewness doesn’t matter is those few are on fire!