Category Archives: community

building a new community?

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This is a copy of an email I sent out on various networks a few months ago as a response to some encouragement from those praying with me.
It seems the right time now to post this in a more public setting:

I have been challenged over the last few months by two ordained people who have been mentoring me.
These two people have been listening and praying with me for a little while.
Their challenge and question – to start to research a new pioneering community now, and why am I waiting?

While doing this worried me – they have suggested I send out an email such as this and see what happens … so here goes!

I believe there are a few people, and the number will be small, who live, or soon will live, in Medway and share a common vision.
These people long, maybe are even too scared to dream, of church being a place which really connects with people outside, but also with them.
They dream of a church where differences are celebrated and add to the communities flavour.
They are not worried so much about what people believe, but more concerned about how people believe: how they live out faith, how they are Christ-like.
They don’t care so much about worship style, but interested in something that’s authentic and enables them to connect with God where they are emotionally and spiritually.
They really do believe Christianity is a journey, and that we can all exist at different points on the road, or even off it, with no fear of condemnation.
A community where it does not matter how they look, sound or by what they believe.
They want to see a community that loves and has people at its heart rather than a program that must be delivered.
They believe a community should be one that meets throughout the week to enjoy relationship with each other and with God, and is not restricted to any one day or meeting.
They are willing to pay the cost and experience the pain that comes with developing relationships.
They want to see this as a place where people belong because they are connected and on the journey, not a place where they can only belong if they turn up at a particular time, day and place.
They want to see a community that really believes in mission, that not only welcomes in strangers, but expects and allows the community to change due to what that new person brings with them.
They believe church is about participation and engagement of the majority, rather than being consumerist and led by a few specialists.
They are tired of being told the same stuff and want to discover together how to live Christian spirituality in their world!
They long for their experience of church to inform their experience of the world and vice versa.

This journey will be tough.
Not many will want to share it.
But a few will.
I am not looking for something better than we have.
I am looking for something equally valuable.
Something to add to the mixed economy of church.
But I’m putting this out there as I would really love to meet people that share this vision.
In particular…I am praying for 2 or 4 other people who share the vision as a start so that we can pray.

So … if you have something to add to this, please get in touch.

maybe you could pass this to various people who may have an interest?

Advent 14: colony or community

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The second week of my Advent thoughts draw to a close with reflection on the possible current presence of colonialism in our Christianity.

In mission studies we may look back to the past where the methods and expectations of well meaning missionaries was corrupted by colonialism which outplayed in the expectation that the new Christians of whatever country would all act like western Christians did, disregarding indigenous culture or experience.

As my day draws to a close, I’m not sure that as western Christians we have moved on too much from our Victorian ancestors. From where I look it does still seem that in church, on a Sunday in particular, we expect all people to behave the same way and have the same worldview that we have as well as the same ‘brand’ of faith.

If church is community, then a diversity of opinions should co-exist in an atmosphere of mutual trust, respect and love. As the community considers each other, each person hears and reflects and changes. The result is that the community grows in its spirituality and gains a wider, fuller and deeper relationship with each other and with God.

The alternative is a bland, mono-flavoured colony.

I wonder if we are afraid of difference and diversity because it may cause us to challenge ourselves on how we think. If we think or question too much, we may find out that our current view is wrong and then need to change our opinion. Changing our opinion may need us to change our lifestyle, our practice, our church.

Much safer to colonise!

why facebook?

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One of the conversations I have had during the week was with Gordon around the take off of Facebook. Why do people feel happy to contact me through facebook yet not through email or telephone call? What is it about facebook that has that draw that allows people to start communicating with each other again. is it something about being able to see a pictre and seeing something of what they are getting up to at the moment? Certainly facebook is more personal than email and gives an indication of how certain people are relating to each other. As for me, I have started ‘chatting’ with people right back from school and uni days which is great.

There is also another ‘thing’ about facebook that we chatted about and kind of concerns me. The collecting of friends. I have started to reject peoples requests as I feel that they just want to ‘prostitute’ me and add me to their numbers! he fact that people add you and then make no comment, nor respond to a ‘hello, how are you?’ causes me to think this.

Seriously, I have had friend requests from people I met once in a lift at some conference 5 years ago (maybe a slight exageration) to people that I have known in the past and pretend they don’t see me waiting at Gillingham station to catch the train – one such incident happened a few weeks ago with a friend request from a person that literally turned their back after gaining eye contact and receiving my ‘good morning’. Theyw ere sat opposite me the whole 45 minute journey and I ending up wishing I had my laptop there and then so I could turn the screen and let them see me ignore their pending friend request! Maybe that would have been a little unkind!

Do people wants friends on facebook, or do people want to give th impression that they have lots of friend to other people. I guess another possibility is that people want to give themselves the impression that they have lots of friends. Is Facebook a way of fooling ourselves that we are ‘linked’ with others? Is it a way to community without the need to interact seriously through the pain and joy that real community brings?

It’s an interesting issue and I wonder what others think?

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Saints Alive

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I’ve just got back from preaching at Rochester Cathedral at tonight’s Saints Alive Celebration. I was really nervous about this, and don’t think I have been this nervous about talking for a long time. What I said seemed to go down OK – although one illustration may have raised a few eyebrows – lets just say I don’t think anyone else has used the word willy in the cathedral before! I did use it to illustrate misunderstandings rather than to shock – honest! I spoke around the subject of Hope and how can help others experience hope in our community.

The most exciting part of the evening was seeing our friend Lucy talk about Love Gillingham to 300 people in the cathedral. She was simply fantastic and when she finished there was spontaneous applause for her words. At the end a youth group leader asked her to go and speak to their youth group about Love Gillingham. This is really excellent – and seeing Lucy grow in confidence over the last few years has been a sheer joy as well as exciting to see.

After the service I went of with two great friends – the 2 Becky’s – for a drink at Wetherspoons. We came up with a plan to transform Medway … so watch this space!

seite community

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I’ve returned from a good weekend with friends. The content of what we learned was OK, but the pace was a bit slow and I think we could have achieved more .. but I’m not complaining as it was great to spend time with friends. It’s an interesting time as we all share what will be happening after ordination and start to focus on the fact that we are in a series of ‘last of’s’ in this little community that we have unintentionally formed e.g. the last time we will be at this particular place as a group etc.

Highlights of the weekend …
seeing friends
laughing with friends
cheering England on to victory
leading the pub in song during the above match

lowlights …
hearing the (not so)mighty Gills loose 5-0!
sitting in lectures
being away from the family

On reflection on the weekend I think I have given myself a job. My ongoing thinking around community caused me to consider on the way home how we have developed this community as a year group.

I don’t think we intentionally planned to do this, but the strength of the community is clear for all to see. Rather than setting out to develop a community, we set out to listen to each other, to respect each other, to be honest with each other, to look out for each other, to try to learn from each other; I think in the exercising of these values we have developed a meaningful and strong community. It’s a community that I know I am going to miss at the end of this course.

As I anticipate building community in the future I think it is these values I need to exercise rather than think in an intentional building way. Rather than having set ideas, a set plan with a pre-determined way ahead I wonder if the only set criteria need to be those values of respect, love and honesty?

God in the Simple …(again!)

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Today I led my last assessed service at St Mark’s. I’ve had to do 2 assessed preaches and 2 assessed service leadings each year for training. The worst thing about these is finding 4 people to complete the A4 form. I have always felt the need to be very apologetic as I ask people to complete a form for me as people are coming to church to worship and did not expect to come to fill in a form and assess me. I have managed, in the main, to use different people each time which people have appreciated.

Today I led the morning service and tried some different things such as use this Captives loop from Work of the People as I read an adapted poem which led us into a time of confession. This followed an excellent talk from Graham around the subject of ‘Looking after Number 1’

But I have been amazed at the feedback for one very simple thing that we did in the service. A young woman called Claire is going on mission to New Zealand for a few months. Rather than pray for her upfront as we would normally do, I had planned to walk with her to the centre of the congregation and ask people to stand and pray for Claire from where they were.

It seems that this simple activity was profound for so many people. People afterwards spoke of a sense of Spirit, a real sense of family and community blessing Claire, one person on the assessment form refereed to it as ‘awesome’ which I was obviously both pleased with and humbled by!

This resonates with my thoughts throughout the year around my tendency to make good use of technology whenever I can, whereas I am often surprised by how powerfully people connect with God in the simple parts of the service. I had expected people to be inspired by the video and poem, and some were; but the point at which God really broke through in a tangible way for many people this morning was when we
turned to the centre of our worship space,
looked at each other,
concentrated on one of our family,
and entrusted her to God.

God in the simple!
Maybe I just try to make things too complicated sometimes!

a new community ?

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This could be a dangerous post.
I could upset people – but this is not my aim.
I have been challenged over the last few months by two people.
These two people have been listening and praying with me for a little while.
Their challenge and question – to start to research a new pioneering community now, and why am I waiting?

So … this is one way through which I am looking for people who share this vision. I will also email on various local networks and would ask you to forward this to any that you think may be interested.

I believe there are a few people, and the number will be small, who live, or soon will live, in Medway and share a common vision.
These people long, maybe are even too scared to dream, of church being a place which really connects with people outside, but also with them.
They dream of a church where differences are celebrated and add to the communities flavour.
They are not worried so much about what people believe, but more concerned about how people believe: how they live out faith, how they are Christ-like.
They don’t care so much about worship style, but interested in something that’s authentic and enables them to connect with God where they are emotionally and spiritually.
They really do believe Christianity is a journey, and that we can all exist at different points on the road, or even off it, with no fear of condemnation.
A community that does not judge a person by how they look, sound or by what they believe.
They want to see a community that loves and has people at its heart rather than a program that must be delivered.
They believe a community should be one that meets throughout the week to enjoy relationship with each other and with God, and is not restricted to any one day or meeting.
They are willing to pay the cost that comes with developing relationships.
They want to see this as a place where people belong because they are connected and on the journey, not a place where they can only belong if they turn up at a particular time, day and place.
They want to see a community that really believes in mission, that not only welcomes in strangers, but expects and allows the community to change due to what that new person brings with them.
They believe church is about participation and engagement of the majority, rather than being consumerist and led by a few specialists.
They are tired of being told the same stuff and want to discover together how to live Christian spirituality in their world!
They long for their experience of church to inform their experience of the world and vice versa.

This journey will be tough.
Not many in church will want to share it.
But a few will.
I am not looking for something better than we have.
I am looking for something equally valuable.
Something to add to the mixed economy of church.
But I’m putting this out there as I would really love to meet people that share this vision.
In particular…I am praying for 2 or 4 other people who share the vision as a start so that we can pray.

So … if you have something to add to this, please get in touch.

Pilsdon Community

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While at West Malling Abbey yesterday, I wandered over to the Pilsdon community to meet with Peter Barnett in the afternoon. They inhabit the part of the Abbey that was built for the monks. The barn has been converted to a chapel and I took a photo as I found it to be a very special and stunning place.

I had an hour chatting with Peter about community and in particular how you build and maintain community. I was interested here as this is a mixed community where people join for as long or as little as they like. There is no requirement to leave in a set time, and there is no lifetime commitment as with the Benedictines and Franciscans who I have also spoken to about community.

For Pilsdon eating together (which is a rule, everyone having a responsibility, respect and sensitive ledership seem to be the keys to bulding and maintaining healthy community. The eating thing has been something that has been on my mind for quite a while. It’s amazing how many times Jesus eats with people.

There is something special and uniting, maybe even sacramental, about eating together. Interestingly other religions seems to have focused in on this as does Alpha – although they seem to have missed out on ending the meal with the meal of meals as Bishop Lindsay pointed out the other day.

generous community

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Last week while at SEITE residential I was able to get out and spend time with people talking about community and fresh expressions. Community was something that majorly struck me while at Moot and I wanted a chance to consider this more.

I had a chat with Brother Reg from the Franciscans in Canterbury and then spent some time with Kerry Thorpe from Harvest.

Reg spoke about the essence of community being sensitivity and understanding. The Franciscan novice scheme is viewed as a time for interested people to explore what God is calling them to do. They join the community for this time – but many leave, but the community is simply happy that these men have found more of God’s plan for their life. This strikes me as something we need to get to grips with as church – being excited by peoples calling when it takes them away from church.

Meeting with Kerry brought out similar ideas. He observed that over 10 years people have re-connected with faith and/or church, but have ended up worshipping elsewhere – Harvest has blessed this as they are pleased to see people back in relationship with God and have an understanding that our calling is about being God’s people in the real world and not just what we do on a Sunday.

It strikes me that church can be precious about membership, belonging and doing stuff ‘for the mission of the church’ and I wonder whether we need to thin more on ‘doing stuff for the kingdom’ which coud well mean we spend less time on church stuff. This takes a generous spirit and an attitude that says we will invest in you heavily, we will give you lots of oportunities, we will listen and cy with you … and at the end of all that we will still love, respect and pray with and for you when you leave us and go elsewhere.

I think I learnt a lot on the day – and have a lot more stuff to think about.