Category Archives: Mission

More best worship songs ever

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I have just seen an advert during Coronation Street for the triple CD Album “More best worship songs ever”. I JUST DON’T GET IT. And I don’t get it from so many angles. I don’t get many worship songs, in fact I turned to my son in a church service today and asked him if he knew what the chorus was on about. “Nope” he replied with a shrug. He may only be 9 but my response as a 34 yr old was “me neither“. I don’t get them at the best of time, let alone advertising a CD of them. I recognise that many people value and find a help from chorus’ but I don’t get the context, rarely understand the point of singing those words in the context they are being used in. I don’t get how they are “worship” songs or a time of worship. I don’t get coming into the presence of God. I don’t get the lack of resonance with current music culture. I don’t get the all too often acoustic guitar thing, that feels like I should don a cowboy hat. I guess my sister who is a country and western freak might line dance to some, but she wouldn’t get them either. I don’t get the consumerism of many songs. I don’t get the lack of community, I don’t get the individualism or the triumphalism. I JUST DON’T GET IT.

Stop asking young people to believe in God

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I have added another parable in the Youth work tacks.

My mind is still all over the place around the issue of belief. (see the snowed in by God post) As I grapple with the concept and context, the more I think calling young people to “believe in God” is unhelpful. As said before the believe notion means that God may or may not exist. Thinking about the context of when belief is used biblically often the root can be traced back to couple of Greek words (verbs) around agree, make friends or yield. This further connects with the Jewish tradition of making space for God which could well have been the context of the time.

Some may say I am arguing about semantics but if we are asking young people to believe in a modern context are we doing them and us a disservice and setting ourselves up for problems in the long term. If belief implies only the possible existence of God then aren’t we leaving too much space or opening the way for the individualistic gospel and the non wholehearted believer. By changing the language would we change the nature of what we are calling young people towards.

It reminds me of a time we had two young people interested in God. When we explained the elements of the gospel they understood each part, but when we put it altogether and called it becoming a Christian we lost them. They got the concrete parts, God made the world, man screwed up, Jesus was Gods son, and He died in our place. But together that abstract concept of becoming a Christian lost them. In the ended we pointed them to a maze and said once they got to the centre tell God they wanted to follow him a 100%. Through their journey with us they had already realized God was real, but asking them to believe and become a Christian made no sense to them.

Any thoughts about ways to replace notions of believing in God or comments gratefully received as my brain hurts, but I think it is an important issue for us.
The%20Prodigal%20surfer.doc

Is church the rich young ruler?

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I have been doing quite a bit of follow up work on Off the Beaten Track, and as ever when I start doing talks and workshops my thinking develops. I am thankful for community as it helps me think and grow. However I have had a thought that just won’t go away and the more I chat about it the more angles I see.

When I was reading the parable of the rich young ruler the other day I was struck by how Jesus’ word in verse 29 and 30 resonated with John 10v10 “life in all it’s fullness.”
This was my start point for the question Is church the rich young ruler? I could argue the similarities throughout the passage. One issue for me is that like the rich young ruler the church has sought to keep the commands all it’s life, but still we know something is missing, and if we are not demonstrating life in all it’s fullness by keeping these, what is it that is hindering us? What do we need to take off?
Will we get through the eye of the needle as we are?
Do we need to the challenge to go away disappointed for a while so we can recognise where we have gone wrong?
Does our wealth and new initiatives that come and go hide our disappointment to well?
The Rich Ruler
18A certain ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
19“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good–except God alone. 20You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.’”
21“All these I have kept since I was a boy,” he said.
22When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
23When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth. 24Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! 25Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
26Those who heard this asked, “Who then can be saved?”
27Jesus replied, “What is impossible with men is possible with God.”
28Peter said to him, “We have left all we had to follow you!”
29“I tell you the truth,” Jesus said to them, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God 30will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life.”

In the church but not of the church or vice versa

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Went to look at some houses today and saw a great one just need to sell ours. The state of flux around moving has been triggering all sorts of thoughts about church. Dropped in on some friends in Chard and Mark came out with the statement as joke that we need to be “in the church but not of the church”. Reflecting I was unsure whether it was the right way around. The alignment of church and state, the issues around what church has become, and the need for a new theology of church, has all caused me concern over the past few weeks. I want to be around the people and explore and grow towards community but am not sure of the current associations. All this reminded me of the Anabaptists, and I came across the article by Anne Wilkinson-Hayes
“>The key task of the church in this era is to reinvent herself for mission With the history of the Anabaptist’s I was encouraged to see the continued movement that the title of the article suggests. Following on this theme I am really into a notion that I am currently calling Process ecclesiology that sees the missionary endevour (when well thought out and open ended)as church. I am yet to fully develop the concept but began to explore it in Off the Beaten Track. But I think Howard Snyder is spot on who states “The church needs liberating from it has become in order to be that which God intends.â€? Whilst the concept is hard to address in brief the key points would be
1. Holistic mission is about changing society, ourselves and individuals.
2. Mission should happen in-front of church not out-from church, and the danger is the latter holds back real change and reinforces control.
3. An acceptance of the Regnocentric position means that Tacking is about helping society and individuals become fully human which is also being and growing church.
4. Church is a broad concept that is about process and outcome, and tacking is church.
5. All of this is framed by the ethics of Christ with Orthopraxis being a key concept.

So where too next with Process ecclesiology?

Chicken or egg, values or purpose

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Been thinking recently about purpose and values. Do or should projects start with values and then develop their purpose? I would suggest that Christian projects often start with a purpose in mind,usually around mission or conversion. In good circumstances the people then add their values to the way that purpose is achieved, at worse people don’t engage in developing or thinking about a value base. In youth and community work the value base is usually clear (set by history, training, and policy) with workers being aware of why they do what they are doing. Often the project would start by defining the needs of the people they are working with (which in itself is a reflection of the value led approach)and then develop projects purpose.
How does faith engage in this debate? If service is key then surely this value stands before we develop a project/purpose, in order to serve people fully we need to understand and respond to needs. Yet we have to balance this with the purpose we have in the great commission. What comes first chicken or egg?

Rethinking church

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I have posted the article that YOUTHWORK magazine ran on Off the Beaten track. I was looking at the simple church site which got me thinking again about missional church and definitions. So I thought I could post up the article if anyone was interested as it also gives a fair description of where I am coming from. Youthwork are inviting comments so feel free.
Tacking.doc

Missiology and Old Colonialism

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I have put a new link to a missionary guy Keith Smith who is blogging as part of his site. Under the acacias is his site and he recently posted around the 10/40 window and emerging church. It got me thinking about how now we are more missionary minded in the west and the amount we “borrow” from the missionaries. I have been massively influenced by Donovan’s Christianity Rediscovered but it was only after Keith’s post that I got thinking about the amount I have “borrowed”. I wondered if I have been guilty of the same colonizing attitude of the past that I so often criticise. It got me thinking about how and in what ways this can be countered.

The Tappers

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Great night out on Wednesday. The blokes I go to the pub with decided for a Christmas meal. In the end five of gathered for a sharpener in the local, then we taxied to the Cat in the Head (is this the weirdest name for a pub) Great food and five bottles of wine later we returned to the local for a swifty before closing. After good food and conversation we decided to try a new exploit and that in the new year we would inaugurate a pipe smoking club. (not that kind of pipe for all you youth workers on the edge out there) There was lots of conversations about which pipe would suit which person, (suggestions please). In the end we decided that we all main thing that drew us to the concept of pipes besides it general kitschness was we all liked the thought of tapping the pipe. It was ascertained I should be the chairman and in the new year we will have the first meeting of “the tappers�. That’s if anyone else remembers the conversation. There is also a couple of group who didn’t like the idea of smoking and my idea that they could have a liquorice pipe didn’t go down to well, so I need creative input on a way of including those who don’t smoke, any ideas along the tapping line.

Labelling and praxis

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Ben raises some good points (see comments on last post) and the praxis issue got me thinking. Thanks Ben I love your input keep it coming. So two points.

1. Ben raised a great point about people doing the restorative kingdom thing and that maybe that can only be described/labelled as church. But in someways Bens description of this, reinforces the need to move beyond labels that are used for shorthand. He laid out a case and his description of church is quite long, needs unpacking and processing through an irratative praxis that roots out what is really meant. This will lead to diversity, and growth.
2. I agree with Ben about the need for praxis, but just as the process (in bens terms the need for a powerless revolution) can change or corrupt the label, the DNA of the reflective cycle will mean the label can equally change or corrupt the process.

So are we back to the need for the long hand, labelless approach that starts with a clean sheet process, rather than a labelled process? Is this back to the post on constructive deconsruction? Hope all that made sense I have just got back from a retreat.