This week has been about old friends! Firstly, is the fact that one of the people I’m in training with is someone I’ve known for the best part of 18 years, but lost touch with 13 years ago!
Secondly, the weekend saw something of a reunion for Riga 1 Corps, with a motley crew of 9 adults and 4 children being together at the welcome meeting for the Prayer Warriors. There was something of nostalgic feeling and it made me realise just how much I miss those days. We’re looking forward to our hoped for trip over there sometime during the summer 2009.
Finally, tonight we had a visitor who wasn’t part of the family. Dom is a friend who goes right back to my days at the Anglican Communion Office and we haven’t seen him since a trip back from Latvia about 5 or 6 years ago. It was really good to sit down and share with him what’s been happening since then. It really didn’t feel as if there had been such a long gap between encounters and we just switched back into the old relationship.
On a completely different thing, it seems incredible that we’re already at the end of Wednesday. We’ve had 3 days of classes now and I’ve come to realise that there is something scary about college life. Time simply seems to vanish! It makes me realise that these 20 months that we will spend together are actually something incredibly valuable and I need to guard it carefully. In next to no time we’ll be out of this place and into our ministry.
For the last year I’ve spent my Friday nights out doing the pubs with the War Cry, something I personally don’t really enjoy, so last Friday it was nice to get a chance to go and do something different. So it was that I found myself at a church in Peckham which I remembered from my days living in the area, listening to Tom Sine.
Sine describes himself as a futurist, which apparently means that he looks into what trends will do in the future, which sounds like quite a cool job! Anyway he was in Peckham to plug his new book, which I had found on the shelves of the Christian Bookshop in Godalming about 4 months ago!
The book is basically about the new trends in church, emerging, missional, mosaic (what is that I thought until I realised that this actually meant multi-cultural) and new monastic. Its about what these 4 new(ish) streams of renewal can actually offer to the wider church. One of the things that I discovered is that I’ve been involved in these sorts of churches for the last 13 years or so without ever really realising I was!
There was some good conversation, often sparked by the sizeable college contingent, and Sine himself raised some good points. Two quotes that stood out and which were on his Powerpoint:
“Rediscovering the kingdom - not only is it theology for Sunday, but a new reason to get out of bed on Monday.”
That these new streams offer an “opportunity to rediscover the good life of God is found not in seeking life but in losing life in the service of God and others.”
The only problem with the whole evening is that I felt Tom Sine could have spoken more and given a few more answers. Then again despite the fact that he is a really nice guy and it was great to get to speak to him directly, this was about promoting his book so he couldn’t give too much away! So I better get the book off the shelf I suppose!
There are days when I get so frustrated and even angry about things to do with church!
Zoe, the girls and I spent part of the day out shopping and had a really good time. It basically reminded us that for all the bad things that are reported about London the overwhelming majority of people are nice and friendly and shop staff are keen to help!
As part of our trip popped into a café connected to a fairly well known church in southeast London. We were quite impressed by the set up and how the church seemed to want to attract people into their services in a non-threatening way! Then Zoe went to the counter to let them know that Abigail had spilt some water! Unfortunately the response was not very understanding to the antics of a 16 month old child.
At the end of our coffee, Zoe took Sian to the bathroom and the person at the counter went over to clean up the table. Then, staring right at me whilst talking to a colleague sarcastically retold her comment loud enough for the whole café to hear! When she was alone I went over and quietly said how I felt her manner had not really reflected on the church very well and she response showed that she simply didn’t care and neither did the Assistant Manager who came over! She was far more worried by Health and Safety standards than the rude behaviour of her employee/volunteer.
We left, quite badly affected by the whole saga, thinking that once again the Church had been badly let down by the attitudes of people who are supposed to be reflecting the light of the world into the lives of others! All I can think of is what would be a non-Christian mother’s feeling about the way she had been treated because her two children dropped a few crumbs and spilt some water?
The saddest thing of all is that it ruined what was really a very nice day, simply because one or two people made no allowances for what is quite normal for a 4 1/2 year old and a 16 month old.
One of the biggest problems I think we continue to face within the Church is the traditionalism that is so destructive to the Gospel message. I recently read a blog post that touched on the subject from a viewpoint of liturgy and worship, but it made me think about how traditionalism actually acts to hamper mission.
Maggi Dawn, who wrote the piece says this at one point:
At the same time, though, there are aspects of our tradition that are not as traditional as you might suppose. As Anglicans, we are famous for our “Choral Tradition” – something so well established we usually never question it as the backbone of our worship. Yet this form of worship is significantly different now than it was a couple of centuries ago. Much of the music we now consider standard is actually very young. And the use of the organ in Church is a surprisingly modern innovation. At one time parish churches had a musicians’ gallery where strings and wind instruments were played, and singers would lead. When the first pipe organs were installed in Churches there was outrage! Letters were written, and petitions made against this modern innovation that was (so it seemed at the time) incapable of conveying the beauty of worship,. Yet gradually it was recognised that the grandeur of the pipe organ offered a new and apt way of sounding the praises of God.
Of course the argument over styles of worship is one of the favourite battles of the traditionalist elements within the church. We have them in The Salvation Army, and the Anglicans have them. In fact I remember a situation from my time working for the Anglican Communion when a colleague was lambasting ‘happy-clappy’ worship yet when their style of worship was described as ‘bells and smells’ they were horrified by such a disgraceful attack on the way God had spoken to them on numerous occasions!
Traditionalism tends to want to keep the status quo. It seems that its scared of anything new; anything that could alter that status quo! The saddest thing is that they put so much energy into defending their position and end polarising the views into either ‘you’re with us or you’re against us’ type attitudes. This always hampers what is really important and that’s growing as disciples and reaching out to make new ones!
From what I can tell there is still lots of discussion about the place of contemporary music within the church. I know this because of a conversation I overheard a relatively short while ago. So here’s something I read yesterday on the subject of modern worship!
There are several reasons for opposing it. One, it’s too new. Two, it’s often worldly, even blasphemous. The new Christian music is not as pleasent as the more established style. There are so many new songs, you can’t learn them all. It puts too much emphasis on instrumental music rather than Godly lyrics. This new music creates disturbances making people act indecently and disorderly. The preceding generation got along without it. It’s a money making scam and some of these new upstarts are lewd and loose.
Who were these words written about? Well it appears that they were actually written about Isaac Watts, the 18th Century writer of classic hymns such as “When I survey the wondrous cross” and “Joy to the world”. Strange how things seem not to have changed much for well over 250 years!
Ok I’ve officially had enough. Over the last few weeks I’ve seen a tendency for people to call for a return to Christian values in society as an answer in all sorts of discussions. When all else fails in a discussion on the falling moral standards in Western society, people resort to calling for a return to the Christian principles on which Western society is supposedly founded. Breakdown in family values; let’s return to Christian values. Immigration; force people to adhere to the Christian values our society was built upon. The problem is that I’m not sure Western society was ever really founded on Christian values!
Ok, a sweeping statement I know, but lets have a think about it for a moment!
Yes our legal system is built on Judeo-Christian ideals with the 10 Commandments being quite high up in that basis. The ‘Church’ has certainly been a major social player over the centuries, and still is in some areas. But can we really say that Western society was ever really Christian? If so when?
You see I look back and see the values of social elitism being a dominant factor is western society for centuries. Colonialism and the subjugation of whole people groups is hardly a Christian principle! Using the Church to keep the peasants under control is not really Christian.
In reality classic western Christian culture is as much, if not more, influenced by Greek influence as it is by the teachings of Jesus.
Over the weekend at the Assessment Conference we had to do a book review about a book that touches upon issues such as church decline and how we need to respond. This is a subject close to my heart and would you believe I also had exactly the same question at last year’s conference! Rather than handing in the other paper I did actually write a new one, although it wasn’t as good as the one from last year unfortunately. I drifted too far from the text apparently!
After writing the new review I found the old one on my computer and I wish I had been able to submit this one again as it contained a couple of really good quotes. In looking at what the church was doing to respond to halt it’s decline in the west I suggested that:
It seems that the church is still trying to treat society as a naughty child who simply needs to be coaxed to behave and toe the line. However, the very authority that they are seeking to invoke, is the same authority that is no longer accepted by society.
There are some church-goers who lament the decline in Christian morals and values and in response they try to force the values of the church onto society as a whole. This in many ways is what was wrong about having a church that was so bound up with the political forces for centuries. By legislating our way to Christian morality it is hardly surprising that as Christianity has waned in popularity we have seen an abandonment of the laws that went along with it. If we try, from a position of irrelevancy to many, to impose our mindset on others then the old authority simply doesn’t wash. If we want to impose our views on others, and I’m not sure that this is what we should be doing, the authority we need is one of integrity; one of being seen to adhere to the values we are trying to impose.
Likewise, if we seek to influence society by showing them good Christian morals and values the authority we must invoke come from that self same position. If we are not living lives of integrity to our beliefs, then today’s western world will simply not be interested.
A fellow blogger asked the question a few months ago as to why we are seeing decline in the church, and what can be done about it. In response I wrote that nothing less than:
a radical rediscovery of our access to the transformational power of the Holy Spirit [will] bring us back…
In my mind this can be the only response to declining numbers. If the Spirit is at work in our lives then doors into the lives of others will open and we will eventually see a growth in the church again. What that church will look like remains to be seen.
Latest Comments
Sarah
Graeme, jake clanfield, Phil, Zoe
jake clanfield, Graeme, Sarah, Graeme, sarah
John Ager, Graeme, Henrik
Brian Rowe
Brian Rowe