CHP 2006
AJM
Feb 07
About the book
Sometime towards the end of
the last millennium, the tide of the churches’ mission in England seemed to
turn. People
are talking about mission again, but in a different way; excited – and right
across the church, if patchy; like rock pools filling up while the main tide is
still some way out. It seems likely that it is the Spirit who is the initiator
of this present tide; and our task is to go with him, surfing on the waves.
Mission:
‘God’s missionary purposes are cosmic in scope, concerned with the restoration
of all things, the establishment of shalom, the renewal of creation and the
coming of the kingdom as well as the redemption of fallen humanity and the
building of the Church’ (MShCh)
Evangelism:
‘that set of intentional activities which is governed by the goal of initiating
people into the kingdom of God’ (Abrahams), or just ‘to announce good news’ (euangelizomai)
Spirituality:
life lived towards God.
1. From come to go
The
defining word for the Church and its mission has changed from ‘come’ to ‘go’;
and not just geographically, but going to be with people how they are,
connecting with their lifestyles, values, networks, culture.
·
Is there such a thing of a spirituality for mission, an apostolic
spirituality?
·
Where is confidence for the task to be found? We live in a culture
which confuses confidence and extremism.
The
English church has never systematically and intentionally engaged in a
missionary work to its own people – early mission came from Romans and Celts.
The spirituality of the English church is that of a settled community.
How
to think about missionary spirituality – through history, scripture – or
through story. The book is punctuated by stories.
2. Called and sent
Her
own experience of writing ‘go’ across pp of her diary, and going to the city
centre to talk to people. the fire of mission can re-ignite through the act of
going.
An
apostolic spirituality is one formed in/through encounter with God. Many in our
churches have yet to encounter him. Where there is a lack of concern for
mission, perhaps it’s because we haven’t truly received the gospel for
ourselves.
We
are finding that it’s OK to let mission take a human shape rather than an
ecclesiastical one. It can be done
through the things we enjoy.
Newbigin
– we are chosen in order to be sent. We forget this; so perhaps remembering is
the first thing, the way of rediscovering our energy. Apostolic spirituality is
at the core of what it means to be a Christian.
3. Living trustingly
Knowing
yourself to be ‘beloved’. Jesus began his public ministry after God had said to
him ‘you are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased’. His ministry is
kick-started with a word about love. Discovering that we are deeply loved is a
lifetime’s work. It’s not enough – without the salty, steely corrective of discipleship
it’d risk sounding like modern psychobabble. The demands of discipleship rescue
is from passive dependency on God.
The
word ‘confidence’ comes from confidere
– which is to do with trust. Confidence comes from relationship. Christian
confidence therefore comes not from dogmatic certainty but from learning to
trust.
Julian
of Norwich: He did not say, ‘You shall
not be tempest-tossed, you shall not be work-weary, you shall not be
discomforted.’ But he said, ‘You shall not be overcome.’ God wants us to heed
these words so that we shall always be strong in trust, both in sorrow and in
joy.
4. Seeing
We
need a kind of baptism of imagination – to open our eyes to look at the
cultures and people-groups beyond the walls of the church. There is mission potential
all around us.
The
Celtic model of mission is responsive – step into the coracle, let the wind
blow, do mission where you land.
The
Roman model is strategic – Augustine and his 40 monks landed with a plan. Both
models are useful.
We
must feel free to fail. We will fail. We have to learn.
5. Take nothing for the journey
MShCh
is clear that we can have no clear idea, when we set out into a new group,
culture, neighbourhood, what shape the new church might take. And we should
have an empty-handedness about the presentation and proclamation of the gospel
message itself.
Justin
remarked that pagans were turning away from violence and tyranny because they
were drawn to Christians as people whose lives were distinctive and free. What
does that mean for us? consumerism? We need to live by a story which is
different from the prevailing story.
‘Take
nothing’ means you depend on those to whom you go. What do you need to be
church? One church in Sheffield was closing due to structural instability. They
decided they needed 2 plastic boxes; one with communion stuff, one with baptism
stuff.
‘Take
nothing’ means you make connections
‘Take
nothing’ means not taking our own ecclesiastical baggage – cp Vincent Donovan.
It means not taking the gospel as a package, but going in a spirit of
listening. This is what it means to travel empty-handed.
Strengths
of this approach:
6. Two by two
We
have a crisis in confidence in our ability to communicate with a postmodern
culture. But postmodern people are like us; ‘They are made of flesh and blood.
They laugh. They cry. They sweat. They get puffed when they run for the bus.
Their hearts beat faster when they are afraid. They like to be liked. When they
feel peckish, they’ll open the door of the fridge and have a little snack. They
are glad when Friday comes.’
The
invitation to belong before believing is the invitation to come and discover
the truth of the gospel by living in the company of those who believe it –
seeing ourselves as a core community in which what matters is whether a person
is facing the centre, not how far they have got.
7. Prayer, promise and struggle
Story
– youth worker (Mark Tanner) at Coventry challenging young people to come to
breakfast on the way to school (they had to change bus just outside the church)
and pray.
Everything
starts with dependence on God. Apostolic people often experience life as some
kind of wilderness – testing, dereliction, emptiness, loneliness, bereavement,
pain. Suffering is a mystery; but it teaches us to depend on God. Jesus went
there too; it doesn’t demoralise, it equips. We learn to open ourselves to the
Spirit.
We
are taught to ask, seek, knock; but there is no formula for finding the Spirit.
Just patterns – brokenness, knocking; thirsting, drinking.
All
Christians have received the Spirit. But not always fully. We don’t all need to
become charismatics in the sense of embracing the tradition that has become
known as the charismatic movement. But we do in the sense of having a healthy,
robust and living experience of the power and presence of the Spirit of God in
our ordinary everyday lives and in those of our churches.
8. The message and the messengers
The
first messengers dealt with an enormous news story, and found it to be written
increasingly in their own blood. Did they become more and more driven, anxious
about the need to pass on the message? Apparently not.
At the heart of apostolic
spirituality lies one great, central, bewildering, joyful, life-giving
discovery – that Jesus is alive.
Jesus
is Lord – or, in postmodern speak, maybe Jesus is the centre. This conviction
is branded into the heart of the messenger. Going in mission can cause the
dormant reserves of faith which lie unused within us to surge to the surface.
Story
– Sue and Edwin giving weekly dinner parties in their home in Sheffield for
street people. One day the bishop came, suddenly took bread and blackcurrant
juice, said the simple words of communion. Several young men burst into tears.
If
there is a Christian confidence that can work for our age, how can the whole
church be infused with it, so that we can become an apostolic people, not just
have apostolic leaders? Maybe through testimony. Testimony is everywhere in our
culture. As institutions and authority fade, people are turning to one another
to discover how to do life. ‘It works for me’ asks questions of the hearer,
questions prevailing philosophies and powers.
9. Helping to heal the world’s woe
Story
– testimony of the healing of Kerry, 14, after a road accident. Evangelism and
healing go hand in hand; the announcement is enacted. Harvey Cox writes about
the difference between the African witchdoctor, who placates the spirits, and
the Christian, who banishes them. Evil and disease are an intrusion into the
way things are meant to be. Healing is an assertive thing in the face of
destructive powers – if a provisional one.
The
Eden Project. Jesus did much of his healing in the face of criticism. So will
we; but we have the freedom to be able to do that in our trust of God.
10. Learning, laughing and the long haul
Sustainability
is always a factor – will it last? Will we hang on in there – because giving
up carries the opposite message from the
one we intended! (which isn’t to say that some initiatives come to a natural
end, eg Mass in Asda). Finding a rhythm of life helps – the Benedictines did
manual labour. We need rhythms of prayer, but also of celebration – parties and
picnics. Franciscan Rule: ‘without the constant renewal of divine grace the
spirit flags, the will is weakened, the conscience grows dull, the mind loses
its freshness and even the bodily vigour is impaired’.
11. An apostolic adventure
‘What
the Church of England could do with possibly more than anything else at present
is an adventure’. The clergy may need it more than anyone else. We need to
cross boundaries, take risks, travel into unknown places, risk offence and
danger.