Category Archives: mission

worship and mission

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I don’t like to waste time, so while my laptop booted up today I read the last couple of chapters of Unofficial God. (errr … yes, the laptop DID take that long and so I had to delete some updates later in the day … but that’s another story)

I was struck by this quote from Frank Weston the Bishop of Zanzibar:

… if you are prepared to fight for the right of adoring Jesus in his Blessed Sacrament, then, when you come out from before your tabernacles, you must walk with Christ, mystically present in you, through the streets of this country, and find the same Christ in the peoples of your cities and villages. You cannot claim to worship Jesus in the tabernacle if you do not pity Jesus in the slum. You have your mass, you have your altars, you have begun to get your tabernacles. Now go into the highways and hedges, and look for Jesus in the ragged and the naked, in the oppressed and the sweated, in those who have lost hope, and in those who are struggling to make good.

Worship and mission are inseperable and feed each other says Bishop Brian. How inseperable should they be? Can we invisage worship being mission and mission being worship simultaneously?

I have always believed that our mission is a true indicator of our worshipful life with God. Our worship, whatever that may be, should be a life changing encounter with Creator God. If we come out of worship the same as we enter it, have we worshipped at all?

How far is too far?

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How far can we take on a culture in order to communicate the Gospel meaningfully within that culture?
That is a question that both Bishop Brian asks in Unofficial God and that Alan Hirsch asks today.
It is something that is of great concern to me as I think about future things … how do we draw the line between incarnational mission and syncretism?
Hirsch has a good answer for discussion here.

Mind Body Spirit

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The festival today was another great experience.

I took a few photos which can be accessed via my flickr badge in the sidebar. The picture here shows Debbie getting to grips with the Jesus Deck before we opened.
Today I simply had an overwhelming feeling of privilege as people let us into their lives and asked us to pray for them.

Whether we massaged feet or hands, prayed for healing, used the Jesus deck, or prayed a simple blessing it seemed to me that Jesus was touching the lives of these people that are searching. No one, when offered, declined the option for prayer and I don’t think anyone went away feeling that something had happened.

I can’t explain this, and in some ways I don’t feel the need to – but I am convinced God has called us to this, and I can see that something works; and I think that is good enough for me at the moment. I have again come away buzzing with that excitment that I only get when I know that I have experienced God at work.

I also had a wander around and, as with last years festival, there were a number of interesting stalls around – it really is amazing what people are prepared to try (and pay!!) to understand more of their spirituality.

If you are visiting the festival, be sure to say hito those on Dekhomai.

Sacred London

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I met up with the London cluster of YFC directors today in the coffee shop of the British Library. It’s a pretty outstanding place and behind us there were thousands of books in glass cases representing hundreds of years of work. When we prayed for each other at the bottom of this glass case of history it struck me as a special moment signifying that at the root and base of all this history, research and talent was God – whether God is recognised or not does not alter that.

Later in the day I met up with Damien at the Sacred Cafe just off Carnaby Street – a good place to have a meting to talk about furthering our mission.

Mind Body Spirit

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I came away from London with an odd mix of excitement and fear again today. I felt the same about a year ago. At next weeks Mind Body Spirit festival in London Dekhomai are again running a stall. This year I am going to be on the stall on Wednesday and Friday morning.

I am really quite excited because this was easily one of the exciting mission experiences of last year. Serving the spiritual searchers that are at these events is an awesome privilege. This year we have been invited to lead a meditation in the meditation room, which I find quite incredible.

I’m really looking forward to listening to people, to praying with people and just generally welcoming people to our space (dekhomai means ‘welcoming place’). Last year I was struck by how keen people were for prayer and I remember thinking if people in churches were as hungry as these people were that maybe things would be different!

This year we are trying some new stuff and will have some outstanding postcards to give away with text on the back. Jonny has uploaded these here.

push the button!

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I had a great and amusing time with Lyndsay, the new director of Chislehurst YFC, today. We batted around her dreams and vision for the area and considered what we could do to reach young people.

My job is now to take her ideas and weave them int a mission plan with her so that it makes sense to the people she works with and for.

While in Lyndsay’s office I took this picture. She has this weird but nifty little button which does just what it says – opens the tea and coffee cupboard in the kitchen about 20 metres down the hall. Upstairs the equally creative person has installed electric window openers to the windows in the youth room. It’s quite bizarre really, but this creative guy has time on his hands and wants to make life easier for those working there.

Wouldn’t it be great to have a button to push when you just want something done. I want a button which fires people up for mission. Or a button which shocks people (Simpsons style) into seeing what God sees around them. I want a button that enables the rich to give and the poor to receive. Or a button which allows people to understand the ‘lifestyle is worship’ thing.

C’mon God … push the button!

Pioneer stories

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While away I caught up with 2 great people.

I met Martin Green, a youth and community worker at the Sanctury Church in Bristol. The Sanctuary meets in a converted cinema and Martin is into street dance and has acived some exciting stuff with the community reaching 140 young people through a dnce session. We met to chat about the possibility of a Bristol YFC. We got quite excited about the possibilities and he is going to look to see if others may have a similar vision. If you are in the Bristol area and share a desire to see some good missional work reaching the young people of Bristol get in touch with Martin.

On Thursday it was great to be able to spend 90 minutes and hear Michael Volland’s story of being an ordained Pioneer Minister working out of Gloucester Cathedral. There is some exciting authentic stuff here and Michael shared some great lessons from his experience which was great to hear. I have been following Michael’s blog for a little while and was keen to meet up and hear how things worked behind the scenes. The more I think about a pioneering role, the more I am thinking that being based, and accountable to, the cathedral makes a lot of sense and is probably something that should be carefully looked at.

Martin, Michael – thanks for giving up your time to share your stories.

mission needs

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I’ve returned frommy hectic little tour of the south west centres and friends.
It’s impossible to pick out highlights as all the centres are doing some really exciting stuff and I picked up some fresh ideas to share with other centres which is cool. Along with the excitement of mission, I also heard about the stresses and difficulties that inevitably come with the mission focus that we have. Stresses such as the need for money, the need for people, the need for understanding, the need for support, and so on. I must admit I got frustrated as I listened – not with my YFC friends but with God.

I don’t think we have a right to expect things, but why does God seem to be fairly succesful at calling people into mission but not so succesful at calling people to resource it? By that I mean we have hundreds of staff that have answered the call, left jobs, taken pay cuts, taken years out and so on. (I share that as an illustration and not to brag!)Despite this every church or mission agency that you can think of always needs money.

Each centre I visited has a need for financial and people resources. Last week I was looking at budgets at YFC and we need to trim them to balance the books. Despite this there are many Christians ‘out there’ in these towns that could make a significant difference by regularly giving money (as little as £10 per month!) to these centres. Many more could give more.

Why can’t, or won’t, people resource mission that they see others called to do?
Is it because they like their comfortable lifestyle?
Do they think those involved in the mission should get a real job?
Is it simply not important to them?

A shocking fact is that I know in some of those centres and churches I have been involved in that the biggest givers will be some of the staff themselves. When I directed Gillingham I know this was the case. So those called are paying themselves in effect as from the little they get paid they tithe to their centre or church!

This is not just a YFC thing – it’s the same in church – including Fresh Expressions and Emerging Church. Workers are struggling for finance to enable things to happen.
I can’t think of anything else to say but … ‘it’s not right!’ As a body with different tasks, some are blessed with teaching, preaching, pastoral or healing gifts while others are blessed with financial, prayer and encouraging gifts.

All parts of the body need each other to complete the task.

This is a good time for me to thnk my personal supporters – you know who you are – that read this as without you having sorted this ‘body thing’ out in your head I wouldn’t be doing what I am doing – so thank you.

Reel Questions

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Excited to say that Reel Questions kicked off last night at St. Marks.
It was good in that there was a number of people there – not as many as we would have liked but not as few as I feared! Reel Questions is a 5 week course that Jim and I wrote last year looking at Christianity through contemporary film. I led last nights session on Identity using I Robot, Collateral and Blade Runner.

We start by chatting in our table groups (covered with cheese and wine)about some statements made about the topic. Then we look at a few film clips and discuss each of these in the table groups. Finally someone present around 5/10 minutes of what Christianity and the Bible says about the topic and again discuss that in the table groups. Last night there was a lot of discussion going on which was cool to see.

Next week Jim will be looking at Love with Love Actually, Bridget Jones , Passion of Christ.

Day 6 and The Borg!

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A day on marriage.

The highlights of today was the talent evening and a thought came to my mind – why are all these creative and talented people becoming vicars – they could use their gifts in much more creative initiatives. In many ways this is quite tragic!

I then thought that it could, though, be very exciting and a great opportunity. If these people continue to use their God given talents after they are ordained it could have a fantastic impact on their mission. I really hope this happens, rather than a Borg assimilation into a world of Common Worship and doing things the correct ‘Anglican way’.

My prayer for today :

‘Lord, protect me from being assimilated into the Church of England’