Gathered or Scattered

So often when we talk of mission we talk of the faithful gathering together to engage in some programme or initiative. Now this may have a place in the life of a church, but most folk spend the vast majority of their time scattered in places of work, homes and communities. If we have 168 hours in a week and we spend 48 sleeping and say 10 gathered as church, then we have 110 hours elsewhere. This elsewhere is our frontline in terms of mission; It is the place where we are called to live out our faith and to make Jesus known; It is the place where God invites us to be involved in his mission.

So the challenge comes to the church to equip people to live out their faith actively on their frontlines where they are scattered. This will be worked out in different ways in different contexts. It will involve equipping the church to think through relevant issues to the contexts in which they live. It will involve praying for people in their frontlines and not just when they are sick. It will involve supporting people on their frontlines and not simply expecting them to fill their time with church-based activity. It will involve emphasising the scattered and not focusing on the gathered.  It will involve leaders visiting people on their frontlines to understand, support and encourage.

This week I have spent a couple of days with mission leaders from across the UK engaging with Neil Hudson of the London Institute of Contemporary Christianity talking through these challenges. Neil’s book, ‘Imagine Church’ (link to book) and course ‘Frontline’ (link to course) are helpful in stretching our thinking further.

Where the rubber hits the road

Distributing aid in the Bekaa Valley

The words of Jesus challenging his followers to love their enemies, and to pray for forgiveness as we forgive those who sin against, are much easier to hear in some contexts than others. The rubber really hits the road when we are confronted with people who we genuinely consider to be our enemies, or those who we really view to have sinned against us.  Acting on Jesus’ words in these circumstances is far more challenging and demands much soul searching.

Travelling in Lebanon recently, I was faced with this in a stark way.  For many Lebanese, Syrians are their clear enemy highlighted particularly by their involvement in the civil war that raged at the end of the last century and remains strongly in the minds of many alive today.  However, with war now raging in Syria, many Syrians are fleeing to Lebanon for safety and find themselves seeking shelter and aid from their historical enemy.  In this context I had the privilege of meeting with Christians who are taking Jesus’ words to heart and acting on them as they actively show compassion and care to their new neighbours.  Local churches have become focal points of the relief effort as Lebanon faces around a million Syrian refugees entering their land.  Such a practical response to the transforming power of the Gospel can’t but help to point people beyond the actions to the God who motivates and enables this.  The Christ-like response also gives hope to a world that is so often marked by deep division and hatred.

Building Bridges



Crossing a bridge
in Peru last year

Building bridges, reasoning and debate seem to be integral to sharing of faith in the New Testament.  Jesus debated with the religious teachers in the temple courts as a child (Luke 2:46-47) and with people throughout his life on earth.  Paul ‘reasoned’ in the synagogues (Acts 17:1-4) and debated in the public arena (Acts 17:16f).  The early church was encouraged to ‘always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have’ (1 Peter 3:15).

Over the course of 24 hours this weekend I found myself in some different contexts where I needed to build bridges and reason about issues surrounding faith.  Firstly, with folk who have made lifestyle choices that they feel have put them at odds with the church as an institution.  While rejecting church, they hold onto certain values that are very Christian in nature and remain attracted to the person of Jesus Christ.  Secondly, I met with someone of another faith who feels the church to be a place of welcome and inclusion.  Much of this positive response comes from the opportunity to enter into genuine relationships and to have dialogue with Christians.

In these different contexts of debate I found my own faith to be challenged and stimulated.  I trust that this was also the case for those that I spent time with.  So what are the lessons to reflect upon:–

·         To what extent is church a hindrance or a help for folk exploring the Christian faith?  There is much baggage to deal with here, but equally an opportunity for authentic community to be an attractive witness to the Gospel.

·         How are we equipping one another to reason and debate in a world of competing ideologies and belief systems?  Basic skills around listening and understanding of those that we meet, and relevant apologetics for our differing contexts.

·         In what ways can we effectively point people to Jesus, who remains attractive to many?  Faith sharing frequently majors on the cross, but benefits from more emphasis upon the incarnation.

It was Blaise Pascal who said, “There is a God-shaped vacuum in every person and it can never be filled by any created thing.  It can only be filled by God, made known in Jesus Christ”.  This resonates with the words of Ecclesiastes, “He (God) has set eternity in the human heart” (Eccl 3:11).  I have been encouraged to encounter this searching over the last weekend and challenged as to how best to build bridges.

Lessons from the road

I am in the midst of seven Sundays on the trot around the UK speaking on behalf of BMS.  I must confess that at times this can be daunting and draining, but whenever the day is done I am so grateful for the warmth of the welcome and the encouragement given by those who faithfully support the mission that we are engaged in across the world.  Most who listen to the stories of BMS mission will never have the opportunity to see first-hand as I often do, but in acts of confident faith pray and support.  In some ways I am going to give, but I find myself receiving from the faithful encouragement of those gathered.

The writer of the letter to the Hebrews describes faith with these words, ‘Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.’ (Hebrews 12:1).  I suppose that we can all relate to doubting Thomas who needed to see the wounds in the hands and feet of the risen Jesus.  We struggle to have faith in what we do not see.  Jesus calls us to live by faith, not in ourselves, but in him as the resurrected one.

As well as being encouraged by the faith of God’s people, I am also struck by the importance of listening.  There is the old saying that we are given one mouth and two ears and should use them in that proportion.  Whilst I am invited to preach and share stories of BMS work across the world, I really appreciate the opportunity to listen to what God is doing in and through his people.  It is easy to be unduly influenced by stories of church decline and struggles in the UK, but I am encouraged to see signs of life and God at work.

After Woodley, Kirkintilloch, Bookham, Dumfries and the churches of north Oxfordshire, I now have Leigh-on-Sea and Horsham to go.  I am looking forward to seeing more faith and hearing more of what the Lord is doing, but then it will be good to have a break!

A Reasonable Faith

While on holiday in Austria recently I met with a member of the Faraday Institute of Science and Religion at Cambridge University.  With both of my children studying in the area of science it was encouraging to meet with a leading scientist who found his Christian faith not just compatible with his study of science, but also enriching of it.   

Both science and theology involve a pursuit of truth, but many assert that their pursuits are divergent and detached, one concerned with facts and the other concerned with opinion.  In reality it seems that both science and faith connect with both opinion and fact, and indeed enrich one another.  So, for example, the fine-tuning of the universe that enables life to exist enhances my view of God as a wonderful creator.  The Christian faith is based on factual truth when our eyes turn to the incarnation of Jesus – a real man set in time and place, the creator taking on the form of the created.

Having a holiday in the Austrian Tyrol afforded me the opportunity to lift my eyes to the mountains once more (not much that I could call a mountain in Didcot other than the inbox for my emails!) and to see through eyes of faith the handiwork of the creator God, and marvel again that he came down to earth to make his love known to the world.

The Liberty Tree

James Philippo sailed to Jamaica in 1823 as a missionary with BMS.  He arrived in a context of brutal slavery on the island with great suffering and death as part of everyday life.  He was sent to preach the gospel, but could not do so without also challenging the practice of slavery.  I had the privilege of visiting the church that he planted in Spanish Town that remains standing and thriving to this day.  Many African slaves paid the ultimate price of their lives as they fought against slavery.  For their stand against slavery Philippo and other BMS missionaries like William Knibb faced persecution, imprisonment and beatings.  Their message of liberation was of necessity woven into their fight for liberation of the oppressed.
 

Every text has a context.  If someone says, “I love you”, the differing contexts of a romantic meal with one’s wife, or gazing at a slick and shiney new car, then the knowing the context is vital.  In the same way speaking of faith needs to be understood in terms of the context.  Jesus himself spoke and lived out his mission in context.  So for example his words “Go and sin no more” cannot be properly understood apart from his compassionate encounter with a woman for whom the religious people were practically baying for her blood.  Jesus too stood up for the weak and the oppressed.  He both proclaimed and demonstrated freedom.



Freedom Tree outside
Philippo Baptist Church,
Spanish Town, Jamaica

This week I am coordinating a series of seminars for Baptist leaders from across the world that gives opportunity to hear how we try and hold together text with context in mission both historically and today.  How we hold together the proclamation and demonstration of the Gospel is frequently described by the term ‘integral mission’.  Mission is to be integral not in that two separate things are pushed together, but rather that they are inseparable and form two aspects of a whole and complete expression of God’s love.

It is my privilege to send time with people across the world hearing how they are trying to work out the challenge of holding together text with context, or words with actions, in a way that honours God – people who try to follow humbly in the footsteps of Phillipo, Knibb and others before them.  Every early Baptist church in Jamaica has a 'Liberty Tree' planted outside and buried beneath lie the shackles of slavery.  The tree is a reminder of both emancipation from slavery and freedom in Christ.

Is it sacrifice?

“Is it sacrifice?” - This is the title of a book authored and given to me many years ago by Bill Lees, who passed away just before Easter.  Bill and his wife Shirley left the relative safety and security of the UK to share the love of God with people on the remote island of Borneo.  They had returned to the UK when I met them while studying in Reading, where they continued to invest in young people like myself.  I am reminded of the chorus of a song that we used to sing that had the words, “I want to give my life for something that will last forever”.  This is certainly true of Bill and  Shirley.

 

Over recent weeks I have been travelling in southern Africa and spending time with many folk serving with BMS overseas and with our partners.  These are ordinary people who, like Bill and Shirley, have chosen to sacrifice much of what the UK society says we should chase after, in order to bring light and life to others in often harsh situations.  There are folk working in the harsh physical conditions of baking hot Chad to bring healthcare to those who would otherwise be excluded.  There are others in tropical Guinea seeking to equip a minority church to make Christ known.  There are others in central and southern Africa bringing their development skills to bear among people struggling to survive, with initiatives ranging from agriculture to baking cakes to justice for the marginalised (Annet Ttendo in the picture).

 

 

These folk, and others like them across the world, are investing their lives, not in personal gain, but in making Christ known.  Is it sacrifice? – Yes it is, but it is also giving lives for something that will last forever.

Adaption or transformation?

Shoib sat with me outside his house under the images of various gods.  “I am fearful of these gods” he said to me, and so I was able to share a little of my God who does not induce fear but rather a response of love.  After some time of conversation tears filled his eyes we, prayed together and he too experienced something of the love of God.  Then we shared a cup of sweet tea and a some roasted corn as we looked out at his personal shrine and I wondered to what extent Jesus might simply be just an addition to the shrine, as opposed to a complete replacement of it.  How much would Shoib’s life be changed following his encounter with Jesus?  So today I pray for those who will follow up on this encounter and seek to disciple my new brother and help him to walk the tightrope of living in his culture, while allowing his newfound faith to challenge and transform his way of life within it.

The challenge faced is put well by Leslie Newbiggin when he wrote, “How far should the Gospel be at home in a culture and how far should it resist domestication?”  The debate that has carried on since the time of the birth of the church is the battle between syncretism (the combination of different faiths) and contextualization (the adaptation of the Gospel to a particular context).

The incarnation itself is a remarkable story of contextualisation – Jesus taking on the cultural form and identity of a 1^st Century Jew to make the news of the kingdom of God relevant to his audience.  Missionaries have and continued to wrestle with this tension today.  Can someone follow Christ in a mosque?  Can they continue to retain their cultural identity?  To what extent does there need to be a radical disconnect form the religious and cultural practices of the past?

The challenge of overseas mission is equally relevant to the context of the UK today.  The gods of the West may be less immediately visible than the doorstep shrine in Asia, but they are equally captivating and hard to pull away from.  Individualism, materialism, consumerism and the enticement of celebrity culture all too often have a hold on the followers of Jesus in the UK today.  We can too quickly be critical of others without casting a searching eye over our own battle with syncretism.  Our faith can live  unquestioningly alongside our materialism and other trappings of Western culture.  We need to continue to wrestle with what it means to faithfully follow an incarnational model of Christian living in our own culture.

Murmurs in the sky

A murmuration of starlings is a wonderful sight!  This happens at dusk as starlings congregate in ever increasing numbers to dance rhythmically across the darkening sky.  It is quite amazing how they seem to do this without colliding and falling to the ground.  Staring at the sight, as I finished my digging in the vegetable plot at the end of the garden, was an inspiring end to the day.  Having been talking earlier about the nature of church it was inevitable that the two should in some way be combined. 

Firstly there is the beauty of the birds flying in unity that points to the beauty of the unity of the community of believers that Jesus prayed for and is recorded in John 17 – “I pray that all of them may be one…”  It is a beautiful sight when the people of God live in unity.

Secondly there is the sound of the birds flying together that would pass imperceptibly if it were a solitary starling.  This points to the wonderful synergy of the family of God coming together.  The impact of the whole is greater than the sum of the parts when the various gifts, talents and characters are combined.

Thirdly there is the common sense of direction as the birds move together and not in opposing directions, pointing to the common purpose of the people of God to know God and to make him known.  Serving the Lord with a shared vision and purpose is great.

Finally there is the responsiveness to change as the birds move together in one direction and then shift to another.  Changes in direction are something that the church frequently struggles with, but in doing so finds new life.

God reveals himself in creation, and I was glad to catch a glimpse of this in the vegetable patch today!

Fishing and Following

This month I spent a day with fishermen in West Bengal.  I travelled out of the city of Kolkata along dusty and pot-hole ridden roads for about 2 hours, before boarding the boat given by BMS to one of our partners involved in church planting.  The boat enables teams of Christians to travel to the myriad of islands and visit villages that have never heard of Jesus.  It was great to leave the bustle of the city and to chug in a more genteel manner along the river where life has changed little over many years.

 

On this particular trip I spent time with two particular village men who were both fishermen by trade.  While they fished in the river and man-made fish ponds, I was aware that their context was very similar to that of Jesus when he met with fishermen by the Sea of Galilee.  No electricity or modern communications were available in either context but in this less rushed world there was time to sit down, to enjoy hospitality and to talk about things that really matter in life.

 

Many of the stories of the New Testament can seem far removed from the setting in which I live in the UK and yet here the stories came to life in fresh ways.  While we did not meet a lost sheep, we met a lost goat and carried it back to safety.  We saw fishermen mending their nets and talked about the catch of the day.  We stood in the fields where farmers prepared their ground and tended their crops.  And in this wonderful setting we took time to share God’s love with folk who were keen to listen and respond.

 

Recently a friend said, “If you are not fishing, then you are not following” – a reminder of Jesus words to the first disciples when he first called them to follow him, “I will make you fisher of men”.  What a great time to be with fishermen of both types, and a challenge to me to do likewise.