Too scared to start small?

Let's be honest, we're out of our depth. Talk about missional movement is a long, long way from our week to week experience. It's tempting, therefore, to back off and leave it to the pioneers, the mavericks, the risk takers, of whom we count ourselves out.

What are we frightened of? Ironically, one factor is we're not prepared (fear may be too strong a word, but I'll leave it hanging there) to start as small as Jesus was. One by one until he had twelve, a few loaves and fishes, outcasts, prostitutes, tax collectors, etc.

I'm hearing it in responses to the 'What Jesus Started' day with Steve Addison and I'm hearing it in responses to starting DNA groups. What people want is a quick fix, a method everyone will buy into day one, a structure for the whole church.

My advice? Start small. The smallest and best place is yourself. 

We've a good number for tuesday, but can take more - as we're providing lunch it will be a great blessing to pre-book, using the link below.

'Feeding' the pubs profits?

I wonder how many would feel happy about the percentage of my expenses going into the profits of pubs recently? I know, for example, my mother-in-law, would be most uncomfortable, of she thought her Home Mission giving was being squandered. However, before you press the comment button, I've not placed a single alcoholic drink on my expenses form recently. I have stayed at. Travel lodge, drunk coffee in Costas, eaten in a Harvester Restaurant and the list could go on, if I cared to do the research, which would highlight, who else, like these chains are owned by brewers.

My purpose here, however, is not to have a go at the brewers, but to try and learn from them. Businesses such as Whitbreads and Mitchell's and Butlers have transformed their future prospects in recent years. They do it differently, but the purpose is the same. The reliance on selling alcohol has diminished, but the range of people benefitted from their third places has radically increased.

Local pubs, like local churches, have been closing. Where I live, in South Bristol, I can think of four pubs, which have closed, within less than a miles' radius, in the last ten years, but no churches.

Interestingly, we were saying, twenty years ago, churches needed to learn from pubs, about how to create third places. Truth is, pubs have learnt from what wasn't working, but churches perpetuate recycling that well known sign of madness: keep doing what doesn't work in the hope we'll get a different outcome next time.

a glimpse of mortality

Waiting for my hospital appointment for an ultrasound scan, on my foot, was the first conscious dwelling on the possibility of it being anything other than an innocent lump. The two GP’s who had seen it already were ‘fairly confident’ is was innocent, but ‘just wanted to make sure’.

How fairly is fairly, I began to wonder? I remembered being fairly confident I’d get an A in my English Literature A level, but came out with a C! I recalled many a football season and even more matches, when I’d been fairly confident of victory, like England v Poland in 1973 and the Liverpool v Wimbledon FA Cup Final in 1988 (especially painful going on a bus load of Wimbledon fans!).

I looked around the waiting room and just hoped I looked a tad healthier than everyone else! Then I began to recall friends who’d been diagnosed following the routine visit, I’d assumed this would be.

‘Here I am, wholly available Lord’ I prayed, thinking (as if the Lord might not notice) I’d prefer my wholly available to include my left foot!

‘How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news’ … yes, Lord, but how much more useful to have two feet! By now, the smile on my face, which brought a strange look from the elderly woman opposite had descended into a thoughtful frown as I began to contemplate a false leg.

What if the Lord had other things in mind than a long life, here on earth? Humour has always been a useful defence mechanism, but facing reality has been a watchword, so this was getting tense.

Thankfully the NHS came up trumps. No long wait. In, at an earlier time, than my allotted appointment. A really speedy diagnosis. An innocent fibroma ‘caused by running a lot’. At this point I resisted asking the Doctor to put that in writing, so simply said, ‘in that case, can I say I’m delighted to meet you’. Thinking – oh how trite this sounds and I bet you get this all the time. A big relief and I’d only been thinking, seriously, about it for half an hour.

Of course, my diagnosis meant it easy to post this. Of course, I’ve preached on how we avoid the death reality clause, built into the fabric of our human being. What I realised is I’ve become too aneathitised against death, which is really unhealthy for anyone, never mind a Christian. So thank you Lord for re-opening my eyes.

What Jesus started with Steve Addison

Faith restored ... in case of need!

Another fairly manic week, which has been great, but doesn't help me catch-up with 'stuff', which, for me, is not unrelated to that word 'maintenance'. I used to join in with polarising 'mission' and 'maintenance', until I realised, just like my car, computer, tools, maintenance, is not altogether a bad thing. 
NB - an additional stress and hassle, this week, comes from, the fact, my laptop has a corrupted, hard disk partition, or something like that. It sounds painful, but worse, the programme, extracting my data, has been running, since Monday and I'm still laptop-less, which is, frankly, totally disorientating.
I'm convinced one of the conversations, which demands, more intentional,  on-going dialogue, is that between the oft polarised pioneers and more established church based ministries. Two very good reasons, although there are more: 
- the pioneers are yet to find all the answers.
- the established ministries have not forgotten everything, concerning mission.

Not that I needed it (honestly), but my faith in what we often describe as bog-standard Baptist Ministry, was restored this week ( well, would have been, of I'd needed it).
Whilst up in London, I stayed with my good friend, Phil Robinson, Pastor at Lewin Road, Streatham. I watched the football (Phil with Sky Sports is proof God has not finished with us yet) whilst Phil went to a prayer meeting. Later, he shared how they'd been praying for forty baptisms this year ( that's the average size of a UK Baptist Church, to put it in perspective). They'd seen 19 and had 13, in the pipeline, so I've just added my prayers for them to see their forty. 

Talk to Phil and you'll realise gathered worship still plays a vital part in our life, larger churches still depend on the reality of being made up of many smaller ones ( groups) and prayer, together, and evangelism are still as relevant, as ever. So, bless you Lewin Road. BC. 

Baptists Together

Congratulations - to the editorial group, of Baptists Together. The first edition arrived, yesterday, but I'd not had a chance to look at it, properly, until today. My instinctive, initial response, is great, well done. Already, the best publication we've come up with, certainly, in my memory and the potential, for it to become a helpful vehicle for our growing vision, together, is rich indeed. 
A big thank you and well done, from me.

Kingdom Culture

Surfacing, again, after time away, reading, odd things, August.

One thing, with all our talk about culture and context, which has struck me, over and over, again, during the summer, is how little we speak about our constant context, which needs to be a biblical/theological/kingdom one.
How good it's been, therefore, to see Woodlands (Bristol), preaching a series:  Kingdom Culture. I've dipped in, mainly because my children are all connected with Woodies and, also, we're exploring how we plant together, in an area of Bristol, but some of their titles:

A Culture of Spiritual Warfare.
A Culture of Servanthood.
A Culture of Spiritual Ambition.
A Culture of Non-Religious Christianity.

All available, to listen, via: https://www.woodlandschurch.net