why I’m ashamed …

Posted on by
2

I am not ashamed of my faith. I am not ashamed of Jesus. I am not concerned about people knowing what I believe. I am happy to talk about my faith and never been prevented from doing so.

I have been ridiculed for my faith and lost  friends because of it. But that has also happened as a result of my political views and opinions. That is not persecution, that is the freewill of humanity.

I am ashamed, however, of the Not Ashamed campaign that is, once again, peddling its Christianophobic view which is, quite frankly, ludicrous! They have a premise of and talk of persecution and discrimination of Christians in this country, and yet we have Christian schools (which, actually, discriminate against people who are not Christians in both pupil intake and staff). Parliament starts with prayer daily with MPs even having their own chapel for daily services.  Christians are not persecuted in this country …. to say we are is to heap insult on Christians and other faith bodies across the world who really are persecuted for their faith …. Muslims in Bosnia, the Karin in Burma, Christians in Zimbabwe,  Sikhs in Pakistan … the list could go on. But … in the UK, Christians are not persecuted.

The campaign also speaks of ‘not compromising Biblical teaching’ and this is where the campaign, run by Christian Concern, really narrows to an exclusive and discriminatory slant of Christianity. The Biblical teaching they talk of is a right wing evangelical understanding of scripture … which would, and does, exclude a lot of committed, hard working and unashamed Christians. They, like myself, are not ashamed of our faith, and certainly not ashamed of Jesus Christ, but could never sign up to a campaign that rejects, excludes and misleads in the (apparent) name of the gospel.

I don’t read a gospel that excludes or follow a Jesus that discriminates.

Bodenheim writes this morning in Disturbing Complacency that Advent is ‘a time of critical reflection on our life and faith both as individuals and as communities …. During this time we make room for confession, we drop defensiveness and we acknowledge that we are not God‘.

In her comment, Bodenheim, I think, sums up my biggest distress/shame with this campaign. The Not Ashamed campaign think they are 100% right. They believe their reading and interpretation of scripture are the only valid reading and interpretation that can be. They are as dismissive of other wings of the church and their interpretations as they are of other religions. I believe they think they have the monopoly on truth and faith …..

Only one possesses complete truth, only one has the monopoly, only one is right  …. and that one is God.

Advent is a time to remind ourselves and acknowledge that we are not God.

something of the uncreated …

Posted on by
Reply

As you will know we are now into the season of Advent. I think Advent is my favourite season, a time when we think about waiting and preparation and a time that is rich, or  pregnant, with imagery.

There are lots of things out there to help us have a richer Advent journey. Last year I followed Maggis Dawn’s Beginnings and Endings which was excellent. A couple of years ago I followed  Disturbing Complacency and I am using that again this year. There are also some great advent resources here.

The readings so far have encouraged and challenged me to think about the body / spirit split we have created. The split that tells us the ‘flesh’ or body is temporary and unimportant  while the spirit is where it really happens and is to take precedence over the body. The same thinking leads to the thought that the created world is unimportant and ok to strip of its resources with no thought for creation or others dependant upon it.

I think he whole idea is crap really … God created all of me and although I might not like my ageing body, God created it and says he will redeem all of me … not just some whispy bit that happens to float around inside me! Interestingly in the Lords’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray for our physical needs first before then moving on to our spiritual needs.

A quote that grabbed me this morning from J Philip Newell was : ‘within creation there is something of the presence of the uncreated’.

It is easy to look at that quote and think simply about nature, wider creation and the beauty of sunsets, waves or the amazing moon scenes. It is eassy to look at them and say ‘wow’ there is soemthing of the ‘uncreated’, something of ‘God’ in that scene.

But God created all …. humanity as well …. you and me … and even that person we do not like very much of feel very uncomfortable in the presence of …. there is something of the uncreated, of God, in all of us.

This week I ask a little harder that I might recognise that in both myself and others.

‘failure’

Posted on by
3

Woody Allen said ‘If you don’t fail now and again, it’s a sign you are playing it safe’.

I remember a while back when working with YFC that Roy Crowne, the then National Director, said something like, ‘If you are not failing 15% of the time then you are playing it too safe’

I believe if you want to succeed, then you must also be willing to fail … and then try again.

I meet in a mentoring type role with a local youth worker. We met recently and spoke about things not working out properly in a youth session and this person used the term ‘failure’ in a negative way. None of us like to fail, this is true, but to fail does not mean you are a failure and it does not mean you were wrong.

If we are going to push the boundaries in our ministries, jobs, roles (whatever language does it for us) and be creative then I believe we can only really be pushing if we experience failure. We are really not that excellent that all our great ideas will work amazingly. That just does not happen.

But …. and this is a massive but! I am noticing more and more, although I suspect this has always been the case, that people are stifled and constrained in their dreams and realities. They don’t push boundaries because they are afraid of failure and, in particular, how others will view them post-failure.

But … if we are going to create, to meaningfully engage, to make a difference that matters, to be involved in God’s transformative work then, as we push to the edges of our comfort zone and what we understand we will fail. That’s only natural. If we don’t fail we are not pushing hard enough. I

f all we experience is success we are playing too safe.

 

I am doing a new thing ….

Posted on by
5

‘I am doing a new thing … do you not perceive it?’ … some words from Isaiah 43 which we normally read each week in morning prayer when we are in ‘ordinary time‘.

These are words that have caused me to smile in both delight and confusion as I remember a story about a muslim lady I came into contact a little while ago which I now feel is ok to share . I have already shared it with friends verbally – I’m not sure I understand it; but in many ways that is not the point … the point is that God is God and seems to be working in ways that don’t fit the formula of the established (maybe evangelical) church in which I have grown.

The story starts with a phonecall from the welcome desk in the cathedral. A woman wishes to talk with someone and they decide a priest is who she needs. I am available and so I wandered over to the cathedral. To cut a very long story short, below is an outline of this young lady’s story:

The lady told me she  had quite a weird and confusing dream a week or so ago that had been puzzling her. She also told me as she was walking past the cathedral she felt something within her say ‘you will find the answer to your dream in there’. So … she came into the cathedral.

We chatted generally for a little while and then she started to speak about why she had come into the cathedral. She told me she dreamt that a man was sitting at the foot of her bed and that there was something quite odd about the man. The man was ‘all in white and kind of glowed’ she said and that, ‘and this was the weird thing … he had holes in his wrists and his feet!’

She thought I would think her mad and seemed a little relieved when I smiled and said ‘tell me more’. She then went on to outline that this man spoke to her. I asked ‘what did he say?’ She answered ‘he said “I want you to follow me”‘ and the conversation went on for a while.

I decided I should read a part of the gospel to her. When we got to the crucifixion scene her face lit up and she sat up as she asked ‘do you think that was Jesus in my dream…?’ not really expecting an answer. The woman was genuine, she had no knowledge of the gospel. This was really happening!

After we chatted a little more I asked her what she felt she had done in the dream. Her response floored me … “I have agreed to follow him and kind of given my life to him and go wherever he asks me to go.’ After we chatted some more she asked ‘so … are you saying that I need to become a Christian?’ I responded that I thought that had already happened … and her final response of that day was ‘yes … i think I must be … but can you help me understand what it is that I have done?’

Together for a few weeks we went through some baptism/confirmation material. This person is no longer in Rochester or Kent and for reasons of her safety I won’t say where she is; but as I reflect on the whole incident of a few months ago I am left with questions:

I am left wondering why God chose this woman to meet with in such a special way? I am left wondering how come God can break the rules that I have grown up with since I was 17 … i.e. she should have heard the gospel first , understood it and then given her life to Jesus … this is all the wrong way round! I am left wondering what on earth God is up to. I am left wondering how she is getting on now.

But I am not wondering whether it was God …. for it seems God is doing a new thing ….. and I need to learn a lot more about expecting the unexpected!

life ebbed … death flowed

Posted on by
3

One of the very special things about my life and role is that I get to visit and sit with people in very special circumstances when the only word I can use to sum of what has hapened, or the situation I find myself in, is ‘privilege’.

Today I sat with someone I have spoken to lots on my travels since ordination while they died. There was me, the man in the bed and his brother.

The man was 92 and even a few months ago he was still talking about ‘the old people’ in the hospice who he tried to cheer up because ‘they were old and had outlived everyone and so had no visitors.’

At 92, I guess he knew the reality and pain of that statement.

Today was not a sad occasion as such, although he will be missed and those in the room shed a few tears. I wanted to mark today by recording something about how much of a privilege I had to be included in this very intimate moment with these guys as we said goodbye and watched life ebb away as death flowed into the space.

The funny thing …. and this is always the case. I went to support and be there to help. I came away with so much more than I gave … which always seems the case in everything I do.

mission entrepreneurship pt 2

Posted on by
2

Jonny has made an excellent record of last week over here.

Go read … and you should sign up for next years course; certainly one of the best courses I have ever been on!

oh … the view … that was from my bedroom window!

Burma update

Posted on by
Reply

Despite some small reforms and the release of just under 300 political prisoners, most political prisoners, more than 1,000, remain in jail.

Most are kept in appalling conditions, some on death row or solitary confinement, in tiny dirty bare concrete cells with just as bucket as a toilet. They are not given proper food to stay healthy, and when they get sick they don’t get proper medical care. Some have been moved to remote prisons to make it very hard for their families to visit, and even if families to travel for days to see them, they are only allowed 15-20 minutes to talk. Torture is still being used against political prisoners.

Burma’s government is using political prisoners as human bargaining chips, releasing small numbers to gain positive publicity in an attempt to get sanctions lifted without making fundamental democratic reforms.

At the same time as promising reforms, the Burmese Army has stepped up attacks against ethnic civilians, with almost 150,000 forced to flee their homes in the past year. Women are being gang-raped and homes mortar-bombed.

Later this week UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will meet Burma’s new President, Thein Sein, on the fringes of a summit of South East Asian countries.

This is an opportunity for him to demand the immediate release of all political prisoners, and a nationwide ceasefire.

Send an urgent message to Ban Ki-moon now!

Apostolic Living

Posted on by
Reply

I have signed up for this day with Affirming Catholicism on 28th January. It looks a great day and I have had an email saying there are still vacancies.

there are great speakers leading thesessions: Paula Gooder, Mike Oakley, Mark Russell and Janete O’Neill asking the question … ‘what does it mean to live as a disciple of Christ in the 21st Century?’ It’s a question the gathering is centred around and it is a question that I grapple with a day by day basis.

The day is located atSouthwark Cathedral and Borough market on a Saturday is always an amazing experience; so that is where I will be at lunchtime!

You can download a brochure here … so if you are free why not book a place.

meal of passion!

Posted on by
1

The gathering ate together last night at our home. A great experience with a good chance to share where we are at, what we are doing and how things are going.

Between our main course and pudding we thought a bit about our passions and our talents which led into a discussion of how the gathering reflects these and in fact whether, as an expression of church, that it should.

I adapted an exercise that Jonny put me on to last week but for our purposes concentrated on just passions and talents. It was interesting, although not surprising, to see that a lot of our values matched. There was a lot of passions around justice, family, friends and fun. Those values were expressed in various forms across the whole age span of the community from 7 years to 40 something. It was personally exciting to see the children speak of ‘against poverty’ and ‘championing the needs of people’.

Creativity was also a recognised passion and while we think we are a creative community we are painfully aware that we are not a community that is yet involved in doing something to lesson the injustices we see around us.

In our discussion we started to think and explore about how we might address this and also how our location might enable our mission to make a difference where we are. I think we all agree that although the crypt is a special and particularly sacred space, that is is not the correct space for the gathering to use in the way we use it.

We have become a community that spends a lot of time being creative and worship is fun and challenging. But, we never got together to spends lots of time planning great worship; we got together because we wish to explore being church in a way that makes a transformative difference to our community.

So for our next gathering we are looking to meet somewhere new and explore the advent and Christmas theme by asking local organisations ‘how can we help you make a difference?’ or ‘what is needed’ and see if there is any way we can respond.

Last night was a really positive and exciting gathering … not this time because of creative worship, but this time because of a shared passion to make a difference.

Please pray for us as we seek to move forward.

the entrepreneur week

Posted on by
4

I have not blogged really about the Missional Entrepreneurship week away in Devon. There is difficulty with where to start. The quality of the input was excellent, the discussions were meaty and sometimes heated and the conversations were enlightening as we, as missioners or pioneers or whatever people wish to label us, grappled with ideas of how to ensure sustainability for the mission or expression of church that we are involved in.

I particularly welcomed and was inspired by the input of Steve and Shannon who simply see things very differently to myself. This, as far as I am concerned, is always a good thing. I like to be challenged and pushed beyond my comfort zone and it is even better when that is happening in an environment with other creative people.

The week has been challenging and brain exercising. I guess the basic idea was simple and one we all related to: a missional entrepreneur is someone who sees the gap, innovates and get the resources to make something happen. In that sense,  we were all in understanding; how to get the resources, particularly in the current climate, is a subject that needs lots of thought.

I can’t remember who said this, but it may have been Jonny, –  that we struggle with business or entrepreneur ideas and language because we understand mission as operating in a gift economy. God freely gives of himself and we freely share the gift that God has given. Personally I feel uncomfortable just thinking about the possibility of losing that outlook but am starting to see possibilities that allow this to happen with integrity that maintain a philosophy of the gift economy.

I have a vison, some ideas …. anyone want to invest? 😉