missional map-making?

Well, the planes are now flying again. I was interested the the figure - over 95,000 flights cancelled across Europe, which is a telling reminder of how things have changed in such a short space of time. What's also fascinated me has been the varied responses to being stuck abroad - huge sums of money to get back home. I realise people's situations vary enormously, so wont get carried away, but some good stories none the less. When I hear of families spending thousands of euros (more than it would cost to stay a few more days) to get back, I must admit my response is 'why bother - you're on holiday, everyone will understand you can't be back for work?' Is it me who has the problem? Does this have anything to do with missional map-making?

I'm being struck again from various quarters this week - the task is enormous and yet the resources seem to be so few. I'm talking about a Regional Association of Baptist Churches, but the same thought could be in the mind of many Churches and Christian organisations. The temptation, of course, is to keep trying to do more and more and images of the many hamsters buried in our garden come to mind as they peddled their way, round and round, to death. The balance between reflection and action is one, which constantly eludes me - like a bar of soap, as soon as I think 'yep, got it, it's gone'.

Finished reading 'Missional Map-making' by Alan Roxburgh - a great book. oops should you say that when you've just finished reading it? Seriously, I think next week I'll still think it's the best thing he's written. Not necessarily much new if you've read his other writings, but then what's new? For me, it represents a development in the clarity of his thinking and some clearer suggestions in terms of ways forward. Of course, the fact I agree with him (or him with me?) makes me biased. Plenty here for the faint hearted to disagree with, but ministry today is no place for the faint hearted.

I watched the map programme on BBC 4 on Sunday evening in the light of my reading - great metaphor by the way - that I found disappointing and Maggie 'why are we watching this?' clearly felt the same way!

The other interesting thing about this book for me is when I read it. Frankly, I didn't have time, but I did have Jury service for two weeks and a train journey - I;m sure Alan Roxburgh would approve of my learning whilst on the journey!

God is alive and well in London.

Spent yesterday in London and had a really interesting day. I'd facilitated a day for a group of South Africans over on a mission study tour, but felt I learnt far more myself. This was mainly due to the input from various London based Ministers arranged by my London based colleague, David Shosanya. I was struck by a number of things:

- much of the growth in London among us as Baptists, is unplanned and spontaneous - already up and running churches join.

- there are some serious concerns around muslim recruitment of young black men - this is not a game.

- there are some really creative expressions of the gospel going on.

I think our South African colleagues were encouraged (I certainly was) and it was certainly good to link with some who became friends last year.

I think Tom & Rachel were about the last people to manage to fly into Bristol on Thursday before the effects of the Icelandic ash closed down the UK to flights. Ben & Emily came back with Oak Hall from Switzerland on the coach - no moaning from anyone this year I bet.

Somerset West - living our Missional Calling

Sunday 8^th November entry.

20mm of rain yesterday – it must have been far more today – this is summer they tell me!

Well, I attended my longest ever service today at four and a half hours! Normally they say it’s three, which is OK, but when we got to four hours I was ready for a drink, even if I could cope without any lunch - after a good breakfast! The main reason was it was appreciation Sunday – so many speeches about the pastor. What I loved was the singing. We were in a 8m x 6m room with a tin roof. The rain was almost deafening at times, but you could only hear it when we weren’t singing! The translated the sermon and main points from Khosi, which made life easier. They had an outside speaker booked otherwise I’d have been on – quite glad really I was just asked to bring a greeting and short message (which it was honest). OK I said four and half hours, but I didn’t include the pre-service warm-up songs. The next person who moans about a long service back home …..!

In the photo above you'll their church building (rear) and Lucas' home (foreground) - did I hear anyone complain about their manse?

Basically, after church I had to collect my stuff and move down to Somerset West ready for the morning. Sounds nice doesn’t it – but don’t honestly know yet as it’s so dark. On way out of Cape Town not sure what had gone on, but the guy on the floor had a lot of blood on him and looked pretty dead - the puddle of rainwater looked horribly bloody to me. The police were there – who knows? Everyone white tells me of the crime problems – difficult to work out what’s actual and what’s perceived, but some of the stories are not good. WE've heard the headlines in the UK, but it'll be interesting to try and suss what it's really like. Managed to contact Maggie on Skype once arrived though – yippee internet access here.

Monday 9^th November entry

Started conference today – Living our missional calling. We speak the same language – well, apart from Afrikaans & Khosa. Mostly bi-lingual though so no real problem and de la Harpe ('from the Harp' – cool name) has translated anything I might have missed.

This is a review more than a conference and consists of those who’ve been engaged with South African PMC. Over 200 congregations have now participated in five years, which is a bolder start than our UK pilot just begun with 8. Frederick Marias, however, tells me we’re wise – could have fooled me!

There’s a lovely tone been set, which has translated from words into reality and is refreshing to be a part of. The invitation was given to be a gift to one another in three ways – to listen deeply to one another, to affirm one another and to be open to surprises. This has resulted in providing a safe place in which people feel free to share and has a wholesome feel to it.

We’re using Luke 24: 13-36 as our text as we dwell in the word. For those not familiar with this I warmly recommend it – those who’ve connected with us via PMC and/or Imagine in WEBA, however, will be surprised to see a new text!

Some of the story here has a familiar ring to it and I’m not sure whether to be encouraged by the familiarity, or not. We’ve struggled to get churches willing to risk the PMC journey with us and some of the same reasoning why folk backed off has been true here also. They seemed to be more successful in recruitment though, so is there something even more suspicious in the british psyche?

One of the big issues most pastors have with PMC seems to be because it doesn’t provide the answers ready packaged – they want to see more for their commitment etc. On the other hand, people complain about pre-packaged answers. On the one hand we say we’ll do it ourselves, but on the other hand we don’t produce much ‘it’, or we continue to work harder at what clearly hasn’t been working for a ling time.

It was quite poignant to recognise the Berlin wall fell 20 years ago today and set off a series of events around the worlds – not least here in South Africa, which led to the release of Nelson Mandela and a new era of Government. This was likened to those times when the kingdom of God breaks in and takes us on a journey – we can either resist/ignore it, or be converted by it. Much of these days will be taken up with seeking to discern where and how the kingdom is breaking through and whether we are being changed by it. There’s a healthy note being struck between our own lives as individuals and the outworking of discovering what God is up to in a congregational context.

An underlying issue seems to be hidden in many comments – the unity, or lack of, between the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) & the Uniting Reformed Church – perhaps inevitably there is a colour distinction between these two groups. Clearly some would dearly love to see a unification whereas others seem to back off. The Baptist scene is little different – we have a Baptist Union of South Africa (predominantly white) and a Convention (predominantly black). It would be easy to criticise, but this is a complex place – not been here long, but I’ve worked that one out.

Had a good chat with two cynical electricity workers who reckon the security business is all about job creation – not sure how that would go down with some people I’ve met!

doors or windows?

This is the cross which has been erected in the Colosseum and because of its context, therefore, is a powerful image. When isn’t the cross a powerful image though – in whatever context? One of the things I want to play with a little more with is an idea Johannes Reimer threw out when talking about how, as congregations, we plan to act on some of our ideas to reach people in Jesus’ name.

He said: ‘use the door to enter, never the window.’

Spelling this out a bit more, he explained how we so easily invite people to look in our window, which he stated was often our way of saying ‘we have the best living room’ – come and see how good it is, how much you’d like to live within it, ours is better than yours, etc.

On the other hand, we can use the door – Johannes said every culture has legitimate doors through which you can enter. It’s important we don’t try to cheat people into Christianity, we must use the good, ask them the questions, open doors open discussions and then open hearts.

Of course, this can easily sound like a nice little play on words, but when you’re listening to someone who was imprisoned for ten years in a concentrate camp under the Soviet Communists, and has been engaged with planting 18 church plants alongside teaching missiology (‘I don’t think you can teach mission theoretically, cos then you teach baloney’) you actually do get the idea he knows practically what he’s talking about. This guy also speaks eight languages so using a word like baloney is not bad either. He shared a fair bit about the church he planted 9 years ago in rural Germany where he’s now based. It’s in  a village and has gone from 5 to 200 members with another 200 attenders on and off in 9 years. Now, I know a little about the German scene having been with the German Baptist mission Network last year so I know that hasn’t happened very often to say the least.

mission is God at surprise

Today began with a glorious view of a skein of geese flying across where I went running – absolutely freezing so I’m glad I brought my wind jacket with me! It was lovely to watch that moment where the lead goose drops back for another to take the lead - and let someone else lead into the wind.

A few memorable quotes from those around the table these few days:

‘we should expect to be surprised if we trust and believe in the Holy Spirit and we use this as an empirical test for a local congregation’

‘mission is God at surprise’ – although quoting David Bosch I think.

‘you can’t baptise those who have yet been born’

‘most complex theory is inherently practical – it has to do with practices’

‘it is modernity which has delegated the work of the Holy Spirit to the irrational.’

‘it is the custom of our church not to go to church’ – apparently made as a comment following the German census.

We had a few choices available in terms of where we attended morning worship today. I opted for a Mexican, Spanish speaking congregation, which was a wonderful experience. In terms of format it was not unlike our typical diet, which I found interesting in itself: worship songs, a few bits & bobs including a opportunity for anyone to come out and greet those with birthdays or wedding anniversaries, followed by a sermon (we had to leave before the end). The church was planted by the Baptist Mexican pastor eleven years ago and there was about 150 present, but they’ve planted four other churches from this one over that time. He’s now going to be working further afield, with the NBA, to plant at a rate of one per year across Minnesota. These guys do rhythm and we were led in worship by a guy at the piano who had a great gift.

Lunch was good too – a return to Famous Dave’s where I went two years ago for meat, meat and oh yes, meat. The Think Tank began today with Wilbert Shenk tracing the past 50 years of missional development. I agreed withhis perspective we’re at a pivotal moment, but hope to get him to suggest a little more in terms of where next?

We're in this together was a phrase, which came up more than once and I couldn't help but think again about the geese with whom I began the day.

the forgotten ways

Well, it was a great day for me. Our Leaders Day today was held at Clevedon with Alan Hirsch (a great guy in my book) and I pray it'll prove to be formative for a number of others. I knew it was a key time for holidays and quite a number of our folk had said they couldn't come along for that reason. We more than made up for that with a variety of guests who'd bothered to travel to be with us - great to have them all along. Alan was really challenging so it'll be interesting to hear how everyone else has responded. Hopefully, most people wont have an issue with thinking it must be different in Australia as talking with Sandy and Alan afterwards it would seem that we're in a similar place in very many ways. It's also obvious that UK Baptists and Australian Churches of Christ have many similarities too. In many ways Alan went through some of the main thrusts of 'The Forgotten Ways' - why am surprised so few of our guys have read this? One of the things he said, almost in passing, was 'the language obscures the reality'. I can't help thinking how true this is from my perspective. We use the language of discipleship and assume that equates to doing it, but how many Churches have any real plan for discipleship beyond Alpha? We preach missionally in some respects, but how many Churches effectively plan out the opportunities for their core? 

My hunch is those hearing Alan's stuff for the first time have some choices to make - one will be: do I put it in the bin marked 'been there, done that' on the basis of thinking understanding equates with doing. Big mistake - if my observations of Baptist Churches is anything to go on. I'm glad he spent some time highlighting the problem too - we need to be shaken out of complacency because our reality is most 'growing' Churches are doing so on the basis of transfers in from existing Christians. Martin Robinson has let me in, via the back door, to the Together in Mission Summer School later this week which Alan came over to speak at so I'll hear some of it again no doubt. That's deliberate because I think he has a number of things we really need to hear and, with me, some stuff takes a while to sink in for it to get deeper than merely touching my mind. My hunch is we need to find some more pathways to help people implement some of the lessons and I'm now wondering 'how'?  

Afterwards we had a good chat over a meal, which is always a good way get deeper still.

the devil may be wearing Primark, but let's have more RAJE

Don’t know if you saw ‘Primark on the Rack’ on BBC last night – I’ve not caught up with it yet, but intend to via BBC iPlayer. We often respond feeling somewhat helpless - what can we do other than stop buying from Primark, writing to our MP’s etc.? Well, one alternative label could be RAJE who are one of three National Winners of Make Your Mark in Fashion. The following text is taken from the Make Your Mark in Fashion website.

R.A.J.E. want to create a range dictated by consumer needs rather than seasonal trends; with this in mind they designed four signature t-shirts named after each team member and designed to flatter different woman’s body shape; each t-shirt will be produced in four seasonal colourways, featuring unique prints. The team chose THTC as their mentor because they spotted an opportunity to build on the THTC urban street wear market by developing a range that would appeal more strongly to young women, whilst maintaining all of the social and environmental values championed by THTC. The panel loved R.A.J.E. for their dedication to making fashion more sustainable and their determination to design for real women.

Here’s an example of four young women setting out to make a difference. I wonder if they’ll get much support from the Church, although most of them are Christians? As one of the winners of the Make Your Mark in Fashion project their next stop is the catwalk at London Fashion Week in September. They’re swimming against the stream, but are setting out to be eco-friendly, organic, suitable for all sizes (sound like Kingdom values to me). For me it’s a great example of how young people can really make an impact – oh, the ‘E’ of RAJE just happens to be Emily, my daughter. Yes, I am a proud father, but I hope you get the point and maybe next Sunday when you’re thinking of interviewing someone about their work place for mission, you might think a little wider than those who work in schools and hospitals? I'm really hoping for a ticket at Fashion Week and have started warning folk I may have to cancel certain dates - my team think it's absolutely hilarious 'oh, I'm really sorry, I can't now make your really special deacons meeting, I have to be at fashion week!' Meanwhile, I'm looking forward to the Euro semis - look out for the CBC Curry Club flag being carried by Bob Morris at the Spain v Russia semi. One of the books I've never written, because I doubt anyone would read it concerns the overlap between Christian leadership and managing a football team - how does Guus Hiddink do it? - could be an interesting chapter.