Author Archives: Richard Passmore

Retelling the Good Samaritan and FX

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Have you ever noticed who is asking the question in the story of the Good Samaritan? It made me think about the insititional church again, as in my new role with Fresh Expressions I have been using this oldie but goodie suggesting that perhaps we have put an imaginary lid on church.

Perhaps a bit of a rewrite of the opening of the Godd Samaritan may help you spot who is asking Jesus who is my neighbour…
A teacher, someone who helps make and interpret the rules, a culture setter, a guardian of truth asks Jesus “who is my neighbour?” Jesus replies “imagine YOU are walking down a road and are attacked, mugged, robbed and left for dead at the side….

If we flip the focus from the Samaritain maybe renaming the story could be retitled “The laws that bit back”. We see the teacher who had unpacked the rules, hurt at the side of the road. those walking past him at his greatest point of need were simply following the advice he had given and the culture that had formed around this. What was meant to be life affirming had become corrupt and eats itself.
What do you think maybe a call for Fresh Expressions to not only act differently but ask some critical questions about what is said, the way we structure belief, and the cultures being formed?

The deep magic at the edge

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There is a deep magic happening on the edges of mission and church as we know it. It’s rooted, it’s moving from host to guest, power is being unveiled, relationship uncovered, dichotomies collapsed, and the walls are being called to dust. If you’re not sure what I’m talking about a good place start is here with Al Barrett or Cathy and John Wheatley

Local voices are being heard, new voices discovered and a new kind of leadership is emerging. It’s very local, and very connected. There’s maturer voices and younger dissenters, and I have admit I’m a little jealous. I’m loving my role of the last two years, but moving from the edge to the edge of the circle, has been a challenge. It’s made me ask questions of identity, revisit and wrestle again with who I am called to be. I am encouraged by encounters with people in simular roles, and by those coming through and holding the space at the edge of circle, but I miss the varied space of the margin.

One of the joys of my current role is the encouragement and space I have been given to be myself. It’s been great to bring in the thoughts and ways of being I have inhabited for the last 20 or so years and see people surprised by what seem natural.

As I reflected on what I want to say in this new iteration of Sunday Papers, I hope to keep spotting the deep magic underway on the edge and wrestle with what that means for me and the context I work in. Inevitably I expect I will drift but I hope I will live up a little to the challenge Nouwen offers.

“…I am deeply convinced that the Christian leader of the future is called to be completely irrelevant and to stand in this world with nothing to offer but his or her own vulnerable self.” Nouwen

The Supplement

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I am currently revamping the blog, archiving most the old stuff and thinking about the new focus. I hope to make it a bit more focussed on being on the edge of the inside but as ever it’s all about what’s bubbling from the ground up. I think there is bit more to unpack in the walls to dust, and I also want explore how we Earth the learning from the margins into my current practice so there’s two new categories around this.

Hope to start posting in the new year or maybe sooner if I get sorted.

Losing the gospel people are trying to save

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I have been struck recently by the number of calls for more “telling” of gospel. There has been a much higher level of criticism that we have lost the art of telling, often it has been generalist aimed at organisations perceived to be more concerned with a social gospel. Sometimes it has been personal, but usually both a bit misguided and I often think spoken from a lack of confidence in the gospel itself, in the past it was about replacing the hard work of loving your neighbour with a trite message that was spoken from a distance. Sometimes that distance was the pulpit and sometimes that distance was maintained even in the one to one conversation when proximity is not the issue.
It is very easy to replace the gospel with a pale imitation that disconnects words and actions. Recently I think it has been more nuanced and the gospel has been replaced by actions or franchised models of action that play on Christians insecurities that we need to “tell” people more explicitly why we are doing this or that project, and these models suggest they are joining back up the circle of the spoken and the social gospel. BUT they miss the point and Too often these models are a masquerade of proximity, a false notion that confuses being physically nearer people through meeting a need, when in reality there is no real relationship. It is a confidence trick built on sand, where people think they’re joining up the social and spoken gospel, but because it’s rooted in fear or anxiety, it can be just as trite as a message spoken from a pulpit in decades gone past. Yet perhaps even more worrying is that like any good confidence trick, neither the actor nor the recipient know they have been scammed until it’s too late or perhaps they ever know.

It’s a love thing

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It’s been a tough couple of days reading the Bishops report on Marriage and Same Sex relations after the Shared Conversations. I find myself in a strange place with many questions. Much has been written about the report already with an excellent reponse from Miranda Threlfall Holmes Here. However I want to take a different look.
Over the last 25 years or so I have actively been seeking a more inclusive welcoming open space, one that goes beyond gender, sexuality, age and race. This wasn’t something that came from reading theology, it was something something that came from encountering theology on the streets (primarily with young people). It changed my views and opinions, it forced me back to reading the bible, looking at the Christian tradition and what God was doing in the culture. This love of people drove me from orthodoxy to orthopraxis, something I see implicit and explicitly in Jesus’ ministry. It has shaped my understanding, the way I read the bible, encounter my neighbour, talk to my children and follow my vocation.
Perhaps I exist in an echo chamber but when I see my friends and coworkers around the globe loving people, I see inclusion a growing part of that process. Most of The leaders of the fresh expressions churches (and all the leaders of emerging churches) I know are open and inclusive, their creative orthopraxis is often in contradiction to the orthodoxy of the COE. They find ways to support and at times celebrate with People in same sex committed relationships, see people come to faith, and impact their communities as they grow together. AND let’s not forget this one of the fast growing Jesus movements in the west and according to recent research “Nothing else, as a whole, in the Church of England has this level of missional impact and contributes to the re-imagination of Church”
So it was with dismay that my reading of the Bishops report seemed to place orthodoxy over practice, and I heard the cries of many LGBTI friends who felt unloved, unwelcomed and betrayed. The further potential for the report to put rules before love (and I would argue it already has) with talk of teaching documents, the rehetoric that is already being spouted, and news coverage, makes love all the more important but just that little bit harder, as our neighbours once again see the church as disconnected and distant, and a place where love is neither celebrated or practiced.

The graceful heretic and Mary

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I have been moved to blog after six months off by the grace filled actions of a friend. I needed record my incoherent thoughts
there are times when the grace shown by the supposed heretic shines through revealing the truth beyond. As the institution continues to oppress and try to sweep the prophetic voices from the edge further to the margins the grace filled heretic does more than speak truth to violence of being silenced. They enter into a holy space beyond the notions of right and wrong, a space that only they can create by their grace filled response, and yet the risk to oppressed and oppressor remains. When the space created is seen as a battle ground, both parties may loose, but one thing is sure the insitituon will always loose if tries weald its power. When a venier of silence is held the truth beyond becomes a flicker. The complexity of the way forward is compounded when previous words from the institution called forth hope and now their actions undermine those words, when insitituional memory trumps the truth shown by the grace filled response, a chance is lost. This Christmas as we remember Mary, whose response to the news of the Christ child was a public, subversive, political poem, let us continue to honour the radical artists and poets in our midst, that the living truth might be birthed amongst us.

Leaning in the direction of shalom

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It is mistake we often make as we act, move and lean into shalom is a failure to connect this leaning into the future with the sense of trajectory that pervades the Judaeo Christian story. Truth is neither relative or absolute, it is directional. The story of shalom is the story towards completdness. It began before us and continues beyond us. It started in a garden and moves into a city. We have heard it said an eye for an eye but love your neighbour. We have heard it said love your neighbour but love you enemy. There was a separation between the sacred and secular, the world, the outer courtyard and the holy of holies. But we heard it said those walls would be called to dust and we have seen the temple curtain ripped in two. We have been embraced by Christ and embodied with the Spirit, and so we live in the now and not yet, we walk, live and lean into the future, part of the directional truth towards shalom.

The embrace of Easter Saturday

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Of all the seasons and times in the christian calendar I am most taken with the wait of advent and Easter Saturday. Up at 5am this morning to watch and pray, I tried to get my head around why the wait is so key for me.

The incarnation and trinity is formative in the way I engage with the world around me, the rootedness, the relationship, the reality calls me forward to the renewal of creation, the restoration of relationships, and the recovery of my own humanity. I think this why the wait is so pertinent for me, it recognises our part in the story, it embraces the in-between time, the reality of a world that is now and not yet, and even in that not yet time, God is there. The wait reminds me of the willingness of God to be in the process with us, to descend to the depths of sheol, on Easter Saturday, and openness to take on human form at advent. A God who is never distant, but always transcendent. A God who holds our hand and is just out of reach, the one who waits for the renewal of the creation and groans with us as we walk towards it together.

5 Turns the church needs to take

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In creative thinking Edward de Bono talks about the idea that our thinking is pretty one way and we need provocations that act like stop signs to help us move from the one way street to change direction. In this post I want to identity 5 Turns that the church needs to make and suggest some provocations that may help people make that turn. These are sometimes deliberately designed to be theologically ambiguous, because the action (the turn) takes places in reaction to the sign (provocation) so it doesn’t really matter how spot on some of the provocations suggested are.

From a Gathered church to Gatherings
There is something good about being together, but the way we talk about the gathered church and hold onto it as a concept takes peoples thinking down the line, that church happens at a particular time or place. We don’t mean to do this and preach that church is about people but the medium is stronger than the messages we preach. A provocation that may help is to start calling the different groups you have church, Toddler Church, Breakfast Church, Youth Church, Walking Church, Lunch club Church, even if you are not sure that is exactly what they are. If church starts where Jesus is with others, and it is about people not buildings see where this language takes you…

From Walls to Wells
This comes from a well known story. When a sheep farmer from the UK visited vast farms in Australia and asked the local Aussie “how long does it take you to build all the fences?” and he replied “we don’t build fences we just dig wells”. People in churches are on the whole great, most I meet are loving, kind, generous, and just good people to be around. But we have so many walls that stop people encountering this well of human goodness, we build them with theological positions, membership structures, hoops we like people to jump through and we are perceived to be closed in. Extend whatever practices you have that build community in your church and help people in the church when they are in need beyond your walls. If you do cake after the services well, bake cakes for the local brothel. If you do meals for a week when someone has a baby, contact the local midwife and offer the service locally. If you welcome a new minister with cakes, a guide to life in the village, and local tips on the best pubs and when to put the bins out, do the same for anyone who moves into your street.

From Contextualisation to Inculturation
Churches are slowly waking up to the fact that culture has shifted, that we need to be in missionary mode, and so people are doing a lot of work to try and ensure the services (no just sunday services) are relevant to the context. Those at front are more often than not aware that language needs to change, people don’t understand the jargon and we need to find ways to share the gospel with people that relevant and real to the local language and context, (contextualisation). However there is a bigger cultural backdrop that requires a missional response that is more than contextualisation. Culture is a semiotic fluid thick, with meaning and culture eats contextualisation strategies for breakfast. We need to recognise the participative nature of God, who is active in the community before we get there, and already working in the culture. We need to move beyond contextualising the gospel message to what theologians call inculturation, a process that is far more participative, reciprocal and equal. Where we allow those we are serving to speak into our context, shape our beliefs about what is church and even what is the gospel. Most people in churches are pretty well networked with friends, family, and have contacts with people who simply don’t do the God stuff, rather than asking how you can reach them, find out how can they reach you with the gifts God has already planted in their lives. Why not develop an open PCC policy, where there are three or four members who do not attend church. Develop a council of reference made up people from outside of church, who can advise you and look at the ideas the church has, how it communicates, and what it says about what it believes. Host a community meal where ideas are presented and church members are asked not to speak, but to invite friends and be there to encourage those friends to speak honestly into your context. Make it the church members responsibility to follow up the suggestions made, and make sure the church changes as a result of the process.

From Answers to Questions
This one is really quite simple, we need to communicate more like Jesus. We need to tell stories and ask questions. When church held a more central position in society and christendom was still in place, we got used to providing answers. We even developed systems to help this answer driven approach, like apologetics, which at one level for that time when culture was open to the idea of fixed truths, was okay. (I’d probably argue it was more to with power and control than Jesus but lets not split hairs).
A sermon does not become interactive simply because you throw out some rhetorical questions that the christians know the answers to anyway. We need to embrace a far humbler approach to mission, and see ourselves as co-searchers for truth. To find the right questions to ask, and develop participative process that provide spaces for people to genuinely explore. Redesign a church service into a genuinely participative space (a byproduct of this maybe also genuine all age services), where regardless of age, all are seen as experts at the experiment of being human. Then instead of spending hours coming up with 3 points that answer a question few people are asking, the leader wrestles with God to find the right three questions to ask, and creates a space where those are explored by all the experts in the room. You could even tie the questions to the previous turn and ask your council of reference what are the questions we should be asking.

From Exclusion to Inclusion
When we follow the missionary god we cannot help but recognise the inclusive, loving, arms outstretched Jesus who died. So once again I quote Michael Curry “Our commitment to be an inclusive church is not based on a social theory or capitulation to the ways of the culture, but on our belief that the outstretched arms of Jesus on the cross are a sign of the very love of God reaching out to us all.” This is also not just a gay marriage issue, but about developing an inclusive way of being where all are welcomed, valued and served. Lets move beyond the arguments to find a way of being human and welcoming to all. So the the final provocation that may help us walk in a different direction is why not develop your own welcome notice like the one that was doing the rounds on Facebook a few years ago. welcome

Preach what you practice

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In the Creeds in the making, Richardson outlines how the early creeds were a missionary apologetic to what god was doing in the early church. For the last two or so decades my friends and I and many I encounter at conferences, gatherings and festivals, have followed the missio-dei as we minister to and with the LGBTQ community. It has often been misunderstood, been under the radar, or simply not shouted about because as Primate Michael Curry so brilliantly put ““Our commitment to be an inclusive church is not based on a social theory or capitulation to the ways of the culture, but on our belief that the outstretched arms of Jesus on the cross are a sign of the very love of God reaching out to us all.”
But perhaps it is time for those agencies to start to preach the inclusion they practice. Indeed many local churches practice a level inclusion way beyond the statements espoused by their governing bodies, and so perhaps it is time for us all to preach what they practice because we need to find an apologetic for what god is doing in so many lives and communities, and to create a pathway for those still suffering oppressions and violence in other places.