Pilgrim Soldier

Last Sunday was my last in command of Godalming Corps and we had an amazing evening meeting! As often happens on these sorts of occasions we had a few extra people in the meeting which boosted numbers a little. The meeting itself was good and led by our good friend and sponsoring officer, Adrian Allman. I didn’t even get up to preach until the meeting was an hour old, and it usually only lasts one hour!

People said nice things about our ministry and we received a few presents, all of which was great but it shouldn’t be about us and what we’ve done, but what God has done through us!

So I get up to preach and I’ve known what I should say for weeks now, so I start and soon realise that something is happening. The Spirit is there and is touching people through the words I’m delivering on the Spirit’s behalf. The words are about having a big God! They are about allowing His glory to be seen through our everyday lives! And then the Spirit challenges them and me, and out of my small congregation of 25 people 13 make their way forward to surrender themselves to our awesome God, and the meeting becomes not about Zoe, the girls and me leaving, but about the God who we serve.

The scenes on Sunday night will stay with me a long time and I am glad to have served the Lord in Godalming and will miss this small group of Christians. I know though, that He has greater things in store in the future!

Our God is great!

Following on from the last post, in Donald Miller’s ‘Searching for God knows what’ there is a section where Miller talks about how big we see God. Basically, he takes us to the burning bush encounter where Moses asks God who he should say sent him to release the enslaved Israelites. Of course God responds simply, “I AM who I AM”

Here’s what Miller says:

God did not answer, “I EXIST,” of offer one of His names, all of which are metaphors invented for humans, but rather, “I AM.” Climbing inside letters, God explains, I encompass, I am beyond existence, I am nothing you will understand, I have no beginning and no end, I am not like you, and yet I AM.
pg 147 – Miller, D., (2004) Searching for God knows what, Nelson Books

We try so hard to define God by adding to His name. Of course we have to try to make sense of Him as we learn about Him, but we should not limit Him to our own understanding or thoughts.

I suppose it comes down to what sort of God we want to have a faith in. Do we want to have a faith in a God that we can understand and doesn’t make a mess of our lives? Or do we want to have a faith that constantly challenges the boundaries of our perceptions; that is constantly stretched so that we grow deeper in our faith because the God we worship is always surprising us by revealing something new about Himself?

The other evening Zoe & I were sat up talking and at one point we were talking about God and how small some people’s image of God is. As we talked I got the memory of a song that I remember being sung by a guy who I really respected about 20 years ago. I have no idea whether it was a song written by him, or by someone else, but it was called ‘God in a Box’. I can’t even remember how the song goes, but the title has stuck with me ever since.

There really is a sense in which we have tried to stick God in a box in our faith. The size of the box varies from person to person and the contents vary on the basis of our theological and political worldview, but on the whole many of us have God stuck into a box like so much screwed up newspaper. I guess that this is some sort of defence mechanism in many ways simply because God is too big for us to understand.

If, by dint of some relevation we have managed to get God out of the box, many of us still manage to restrict our view of Him. We tend to look out of a set of windows that surround us and can see aspects of God. So some will look out at Him through the window of Wesleyan Holiness, others through the window of Pentecostalism, still others through the windows of Roman Catholism. To these we can add windows of conservatism, liberalism, progressiveism etc. But our view is still limited! It’s still an attempt for us to constrain a God that trancends constraining.

It reminds me of the Dougie Dug Dug song, “Have we made our God too small?”

The other day Zoe blogged on a quote from Bill Hybels that talks about being a Prayer Warrior! Hybels said this:

A ‘prayer warrior’ is a person who is convinced that God is omnipotent – that God has the power to do anything, to change anyone and to intervene in any circumstance.

We believe in the omnipotence of God, but subconciously I think we’re terrified by it. It is simply too big for us to comprehend and consequently our minds retreat into a safety net of boxing God in, or looking at Him through from the safety of a window.

What would our faith look like if, instead of trying to understand God from our point of view, we were simply to allow God to speak to us? Instead of us trying to fit God into a nice little box that suited our own ideas or looking at Him through the windows of our own liking, what would happen if we entered a dialogue with Him, with a totally open mind, that allowed Him to shape our views?

I’ve mentioned before that in my Google Reader I get a daily quote/thought from a sight called inward/outward. The quote that is provided is not always great and sometimes I disagree fundamentally with them. However, this morning’s is a Thomas Merton quote, and whilst I’m not in agreement with it, it did make me think. The part I want to share with you is this:

A tree gives glory to God by being a tree. For in being what God means it to be it is obeying God. It ‘consents’ so to speak, to God’s creative love. … This particular tree will give glory to God by spreading out its roots in the earth and raising its branches into the air and the light in a way that no other tree before or after it ever did or will do.

Merton goes on to say that every being gives glory to God by being the thing that He created them to be. In my opinion this is definitely a thought that shows Merton’s Zen influences, but I do think he has a point.

The problem though comes with us humans. Do we reflect God’s glory simply by being human? I would say that we don’t because in actual fact the majority of humanity are not ‘consenting’ to God’s creative love. We are not actually being who God created us to be and we’re certainly not obeying God.

As I said in my last post I’m currently enjoying reading Graham Tomlin’s The Provocative Church. There are numerous passages highlighted already, with quite a few scribbles in the margins, but here is one that I feel is pertinent to this post:

[loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength] means a reorientation of our lives towards learning to love God and learning to love other people, rather than the sef-indulgent and self-oriented lives we’re used to.

This is the message that I’m trying to get across in our morning meetings at the corps at the moment. We are working through the various Fruit of the Spirit and I’m trying to explain how these are the real signs of spiritual maturity, rather than what we do in church. For me the real test of an individuals holiness is the manifestation of these fruit. In my mind it doesn’t matter how much an individual expresses their love for God; it doesn’t matter how much they do in church. What matters is whether their lives are increasingly loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle and self-controlled.

This is how we, as humans, give the glory back to God. As we grow in the fruit of the Spirit, as we allow the Spirit to work within us and convict us of sin and shape us into holy people, then we become more like the people God intended us to be. So Merton has a really good point, but we have to allow the Holy Spirit to shape us in order to really reflect God’s glory.

Over the last 3 days (Monday to Wednesday) the centre leaders and divisional leaders in my division have been on retreat. It’s been a wonderful 3 days in which it has been possible to take a short time away from the corps and recharge the spiritual batteries.

One thing that always happens to me though, whenever I go away, is that I have a bad night the first night. I don’t know what it is but I can never sleep properly the first night in a different bed! Anyway, as I lay awake I remembered something that a fellow Army blogger wrote about being on retreat. I can’t even remember who it was now, but they didn’t like the word retreat because it symbolised going backwards (i.e. retreating from the enemy!) As I lay there thinking I started to consider what retreating meant and I suppose on one level that blogger has a point. To retreat does mean to back away from the battle, and I suppose with our emphasis on military metaphor this is the first meaning that come to mind!

To retreat actually has an alternative meaning, in fact it has several but I want to concentrate on just one right now. To go on a spiritual retreat doesn’t actually mean that we are stepping away from the battle. In fact, in some circumstances it actually can allow us to focus on the spiritual battle that often gets overlooked in the day to day work that all Christians should be involved in. This opportunity to concentrate our energies on the spiritual side of things is invaluable for anyone who is aware of the spiritual battle that is going on.

For me these 3 days spoke to me in ways that I am going to be working out in my ministry. They spoke to me of things I hadn’t considered before and they allowed me to continue to build relationships with others in the division. These days gave me an opportunity to share my thoughts and have them tested by people I respect. Above all I came back feeling refreshed but knowing that despite being on retreat, I had actually advanced in my faith by taking some quality time to worship and study God’s word.

For the majority of Jesus’ life, he lived in a small village called Nazareth. Other than an annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the Passover festival, the likelihood is that he would have not ventured many miles from his home. He lived, worked, worshipped and socialised in Nazareth. It was only when he started his itinerant ministry that he started to travel about a lot, and even then the geographical area he kept to was relatively small.

Today, many of us commute. We get in our cars or onto buses or trains and travel quite a distance to work, school, college, and of course to shop. It’s a reality in this modern world of ours. But at least we worship locally! Or do we? How many of us actually attend the Salvation Army corps nearest to us?

Let me be the first to admit my guilt here: For at least 13 years, I did not attend the corps that was nearest to where I lived, and for about two-and-a-half of those years I bypassed several corps to get to the one I did attend at that time. As for the number of churches I passed, I wouldn’t even like to guess! The reasons I did this – and why others still do – are varied and seemed entirely justifiable, but now I realise they aren’t.

“The Word became flesh and moved into the neighbourhood.”
(John 1:14, The Message)

You see, I’m increasingly convinced that one of the major issues facing the Church today (and therefore by default one of the reasons so many of our corps are declining) is a lack of credible local witness.

Next time you go to your corps, have a look around your congregation and ask yourself how many of those people live within easy walking distance of the hall. How many have to catch a bus or drive to the corps?

We’re often great at offering services to the communities around our halls, but how effective are we at the day-to-day witness of simply being salt and light in those same communities? What sort of message does it send out when the majority of people attending our corps on a Sunday are not seen at any other point in the week? In fact, come to think of it, how many of us know the names of the kids who hang around outside causing trouble?

Too many of us spend too much time travelling too long a distance to our corps, and it’s normally for reasons that are about ourselves rather than others. Should we all then move house to be more local? It’s probably not realistic to expect that, although for some it might be what’s needed. Should we attempt to stop bypassing other corps when we go to worship our Lord? Quite possibly!

But of more importance than this is that we become visible in some way in our communities. If we want to reach out to the communities that surround our corps buildings, then at the very least we should be finding ways to involve ourselves personally in their lives. If it’s too difficult because of distance, then maybe we should be seeking ways to become more visible in the community in which we live.

I believe that when we get involved locally, both as individuals and as fellowships which are led by the Spirit, then we will start to see God at work in the things we do. When we start to worship where we live, or live where we worship, then we cannot fail to see God at work. When we serve the communities in which we live as a fellowship of God’s people, then God’s light will be evident to those around us. You see, how will people see the light of God in their communities if the Christ-appointed “lights of the world” aren’t there to turn the lights on 24/7? Some might say that it is enough for us to pray for that, but surely only the permanent presence of Christians living as salt and light will really flick the switch and keep it on.

After all, Jesus came to earth and moved into his neighbourhood of Nazareth. Shouldn’t we move into ours too?

First published at theRubicon 10 April 2008

We’ve now been back from Latvia for 6 months and over on her blog Zoe wrote an entry that summed up the things she missed about Latvia and those things she enjoys about being back in the UK. It does seem amazing that we’ve been back this long already as sometimes it only seems like yesterday since I spent almost all my time in Bruninieku iela 10a, which was where we lived, worked and worshipped for almost 6 years.

So where am I today? Well it’s been an interesting few months and I’ve discovered a great deal about myself and about the God who I serve. I’m more certain of my calling now than when we left Latvia and the Lord is continuing to reveal more about what He wants me to do for him. I’m also far more aware of my own failings and the things I need to rely on God for. His Spirit is guiding me and strengthening me and I honestly can’t wait for the opportunities that I’m going to have over the coming months.

That’s me! I’m not one for lists so I won’t even begin to make a list of things I miss about Latvia. I would say though that I miss the friendships that we formed over the years there. It can be a lonely life as a Corps Officer, especially in a traditional corps like the one I am in and there is an expectation that the officer stays at arms length relationship wise. I can’t quite get that one, but it has made me realise how good the friendships were! As for what I am enjoying about being back in the UK, well its as simple as being able to communicate freely with people, both about their lives and about spiritual things. I look forward to many more conversations of these sort over the coming years.