That’s the thought I had as I left St Columba’s yesterday. The thought to stay dusty. To stay so close to my rabbi that I am constantly covered in the dust he kicks up from the road.

I think I have posted on that saying before. ‘May you be covered in the dust of your Rabbi’ is a blessing. It meant may you be so so close to what he does, that you really do end up being like him.

Yesterday I left the CTIE youth workers group quite excited.

I must admit when I turned up I was a little down-hearted. I had given up a day to come, but there was a small select gathering. I needn’t have worried – the small select gathering were an excellent bunch of people.

We had the pleasure of being led by David Coffey throughout the day and chatting over how we can be relevant and real church today to those that are outside the church, and particularly young people.

The fact that there were a few of us meant we were able to chat things in quite a bit of detail, really think and listen, and churn things over. Quite often in big groups, people come with agendas and the conversations flit from one thing to another. One thing I liked about yesterday wag people came with one agenda which seemed to be to hear and learn from each other.

David Coffey got us thinking about Fresh Expressions and looking particularly at Acts 11. David did not say anything that would be particularly new to youth workers and emerging church missioners that have been around for a while, but to hear those thoughts coming from a representative of ‘the establishment’ is incredibly encouraging.

Over the last 18 or so months we have seen Archbishops Rowan and John speak about new ways of being church, and yesterday I was excited to hear David talking about similar. There seems to be an acknowledgement that it is ok to have a ‘both and’ mentality when it comes to authentic expressions of church. New ideas being welcomed, no indeed encouraged means, I think, that we are in quite unique times.

David helpfully shared some thoughts. He mentioned that often fresh expressions are a headache for the establishment as they do not know how to treat them. This is whey we looked at Acts 11 – which looks at how the early church dealt with major issues such as did the Romans need to be circumcised.

We need to remember here that this was a serious issue. Circumcision was the mark of the covenant. This was commanded by God. To not have the mark meant you were not accepted into the covenant according to the Scriptural tradition. So – pretty major, and yet these new Christians who were not circumcised were experiencing God. God was working in and through the,. They were Spirit filled!

David helpfully drew out 5 steps from Acts 11 to consider when looking at fresh expressions:
1. Ask critical questions: verses 1-3: find out the whole story, what has been happening. What is the issue.
2. Tell/listen the story: verse 5
3. Theological reflection: verses 16,17
4. Careful listening verse 18
5. Thoughtful conclusions verse 18

This seemed to be the pattern employed here. The Christians asked Peter what had been going on. Peter told them the whole story. He remembered and brought up what Jesus had said. The people listened carefully to his stories and then made common sense conclusions – that’s my take on it anyway. The common sense being ‘God is clearly blessing them and using them, who are we to say this must change or you must do it like that. Great God, fantastic – as for you lot keep doing what you are doing!’

WE then looked at what is needed today – and I really think David was spot on here:

We need to know how to recognise God’s hand in times of change and upheaval. Mission has always been about crossing boundaries, right from the early missionary trips to different countries and cultures from Jerusalem. We need to look to see what God is doing and realise it is him.

We need gifts of spiritual discernment. In Acts Barnabas is sent to see what is happening. He sees through all the new practices and saw ‘proof of God’s favour’.One obvious way to discern is by looking at the fruit in the lives of the people involved. Are they loving, caring, do they display the fruits of the spirit – if they do then it could suggest the expression is of God.

I think this is so key today. It is very easy to be creative for the sake of creativity, or to do something new because it suits personalities. What we do need, however, is for these things to be immersed in prayer and for their to be real discernment. In what I have seen I think there is loads of evidence of such discernment, but we should not become complacent. It’s easy to be tricked!

David also suggested two last things – we need to develop culturally relevant Bible study, and we need to be open to the guidance of the Holy Spirit (which I think means sticking close to your Rabbi and enjoying the dust)

I thought the day was thoughtful and it was totally not what I was expecting. I was not expecting to be looking at fresh expressions of church. I was not expecting to make new friends. I was not expecting to meet potential bloggers!(As a side development I think I convinced a few people over lunch that they could start a blog – I hope they do as I will be interested in reading what they have to say).

I’d be interested in those thoughts above. I think they have answered a few things in my head – and is helpful as on Sunday I am meeting up with Paul, the Rochester Diocese DDO, to chat about Pioneer Minister stuff. Sometimes God surprises you!

It was a great day – thanks to all of you who were there for making it so!