I really enjoyed the Lead Zone so I returned for another session on the day we were looking at the church being the body of Christ – relating together and serving.

Working together for peace

Today Juliet Kilpin read Jeremiah 29:4-7

This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6 Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. 7 Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.

‘Do good to the place you are in’, she said, ‘Bring all your experience of God to that place to make it better.’ This is a key passage as to how Christians are relate to the changes that are taking plae in society. The Hebrew word for peace is Shalom meaning wholeness – it is claiming heaven on earth – the New Testement calls it the Kingdom.

The church is on an adventure to live out today what could be in the future! This is an adventure because we are following a trouble maker – he was hated and killed beacause he made others feel uncomfortable. This adventure binds us together in communitas or camaraderie

Comparing the church to movements such as the occupy movement and the Arab Spring, Juliet Kilpin observed that these movements were very flat and asked if the church needs such a hierarchy.

The importance of relationships

Viv Thomas saw success as coming from God enabling us to take risks. Failure is fantastic – our success comes from God – don’t take yourself too seriously.

He also saw being fully alive as being alive in God and coming from our relationships with others rather than in self-actualizing. We are defined by our relationships not our achievements.

Authority comes out of loving relationships – not control – leadership is often about relinquishing control and asking questions.

Jesus made a point of relating to all sorts especially those on the margins.

Mission to the marginalised

Juliet Kilpin finally outlined the work of Urban Expressions who have teams that move into inner city areas to reach the poor and marginalised and some have even planted churches. In 2008 there was a tipping point and there are now more people in the world that live in cities than don’t. Christians tend to love in suburbs but more people live in urban areas in our cities. She exhorted us, even if our calling is not to the cities, to care for the poor and marginalised.

On Day 3 I went to the Lead Zone with Viv Thomas of Formation and Juliet Kilpin of Urban Expression and is also involved in Crucible Course a training course.

Viv Thomas identified six waves of our present cultural context that are moving through the church that can be found in his article here.
 

1.Increase in cleverness, decrease in wisdom. He said that we were in the least discerning place of the last thousand years.

2.‘quick fix’ mentality – a processed food culture – overeating but undernourished – the sin of impatience masquerading as faith.

3.Increase in distraction – he discussed the rise of the dumbest generation!

4.Increased focus on relationships- by 2060 40% of homes will be individuals on their own – people are lonely and desiring relationship.

5.Thankfully we are less judgmental as we are more able to pick up parts of the story from other places and put things together ourselves.

6.Increased emphasis on feelings and experience and less on doctrine as people don’t know the Bible so well.

 
Remember the word Ecclesia referred to an assembly before it was used by the Christian church Juliet Kilpin took the Occupy movement as a contemporary example of Ecclesia. In elaborating this parallel she referred to a quote that has been attributed to Margaret Meede “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” There is more about her expereinces with the Occupy movement here on her blog.

One comment that Viv Thomas made was that though we can gain a lot out of preparing material for others there is a place for meditating on scriptures just for ourselves as Ignatian meditation outlines in Spiritual excercies by Ignatious Loyola.

I also liked his reference to openness and vulnerability about our failings being an important part of the confessional life.

Over the next few days I want to blog some of my notes the four morning teaching sessions at Spring Harvest where I went between the Think zone and the Lead zone.

On Day 2 (Day 1 was travelling and settling in) I went to the Think zone led by Graham Cray of Fresh Expressions – a network involved in forming churches primarily for those who are not yet part of any church and Ruth Valerio of the environmental agency A Rocha.

Shining as lights

The theme of the week was the Church. Graham Cray commented that of the hundred plus metaphors in the Bible for church we will look at just four – shining like lights, the community of the Holy Spirit, the body and the bride. He then pointing out that the Greek word Ekklesia was in common usage before it was used by Christians to refer to the church. An Ekklessia was democratic assembly of citizens that begin with prayers and sacrifice. The Hebrew word Qahal translated in Septuagint as Ekklessia referred to the Hebrew people as a “called people”.

A Missional community

In this first session Graham Cray looked at the image of the church as shining like lights by examining the doctrine of the church as a missional community.  The term ‘missional’ was coined by a group of theologians in response to Leslie Newbigin twenty years ago. It refers to part of the essential to nature of church which is authentic engagement with our culture. The Church of Scotland report used the term ‘church without walls’. Graham Cray quoted Tim Dearborne “the church of God does not have a mission – the God of mission has a church”

One manifestation of the Kingdom

Ruth Valerio then looked at theKingdomofGodseeing Jesus acts as proleptic collapsing the future into the present.  She pointed out that we often get kingdom theology just from Isaiah and Daniel, but Psalms in its creational theology shows us the kingdom related to the cosmos not just to humans. Similarly in the Lord’s Prayer we pray for the kingdom to come on earth which has a wider meaning than just in the lives of humans.  She quoted Lesley Newbigin who described the church as “manifesting and enjoying already in the midst of the messianic tribulations a genuine foretaste of the peace and joy of God’s reign”.

The image of a prism

A key image that was explored during the week was that of a prism. It was explained how as God’s grace shines through the prism of the church it is refracted into many gifts and vocations. A useful comment about vocation was that it is what God has focused your life on. This may be directed through your job or be tangential to your job. The church needs to involve cultivation – enabling people to find their gifts and vocation.

This year we as a family went to Spring Harvest but I spent very little time in the Big Top.

Spring Harvest is something we’ve only been to once before. In the past we’ve been to many Bible weeks and feel we’ve had our fill of these and our circle of churches no longer runs them anyway.  More recently we’ve been a few times to Greenbelt Festival and enjoyed the great choice of acts and activities on offer there.

For a lot of people Spring Harvest means big meetings of thousands in a big top with guitar driven songs, big name preachers and appeals to go forward at the end for prayer. So you may be surprised to hear that I went to the Big Top once in the whole six days and that was for the Big Start – a family friendly half hour at the beginning of the day. But Spring Harvest offers plenty of choice of activities and I found lots more to keep me occupied.

As the programmes weren’t available beforehand and there was only the Big Top meeting on the first evening, we spent time reading the programmes and planning our week, after settling in and getting our daughter off to her first session.

In the zones

In the morning there was a choice of going to the Big Top for a Bible reading or a number of different learning zones. This was repeated in the second half of the morning though the Bible reading was moved to a smaller venue then and one of the zones was in the Big Top. I think they expected people to go to one of the Bible readings and one of the zones which my wife did. I understand the Bible readings were actually expository preaching illustrated with plenty of photos of classical art. I’m sure they were excellent but I thought I’d prefer the zones. I wasn’t disappointed.

Create zone

During the four full days I got to a couple of the Create Zones with Sam Hargreaves of Engage Worship – where we responded to the day’s theme both by discussing and sketching ideas and making something creative such as a collage, painting or poem.

Think zone

I went to a couple of the Think Zones with Graham Cray of Fresh Expressions and Ruth Valerio of A Rocha where we got some teaching on the themes. It was good to hear theologians quoted unapologetically and doctrines discussed without any dumbing down. I also got to one afternoon seminar on Fresh Expressions with Graham Cray.

Lead zone

I went to a couple of the Lead Zones with Juliet Kilpin of Urban Expression and Viv Thomas of Formation who had some refreshing teaching that was both very practical and culturally aware. I was glad that I was confident enough to go these as I have been invited to leaders weekends with my church and am very involved even though I’m never sure of my role title!

Other zones

It was also good to hear Mark Greene of London Institute for Contemporary Christianity in the Watch Zone on one day. His talk was engaging emotionally as he exhorted us to live out our faith in all that we do and he did use a couple of film clips to illustrate it. However, I had thought there would have been more as this was the mode of the zone. My wife had a similar comment on the talk zone ‘I thought it’d be more of us talking and less of him!’ However these are minor quibbles as overall the zones were great!

Alternative worship and prayer

PRAYERhouse

Another great place to spend some time was the PrayerHouse run by Bless. It was great to pray there at the first session instead of going to my first zone and at other times during the week. There was plenty of space for silent meditation and plenty of prayer stations to engage with each day. Though there wasn’t as much of this as there is at Greenbelt it was great to have this here. I also went one afternoon to the little worship time that they had there called Be Still that had some liturgy and a more led time of quite prayer.

GODSpace

In the evening there was a choice of ‘celebrations’. Most people went to the Big Top but I preferred the more laid back worship in GODSpace run by Bless. What was most encouraging is that it was fairly like the worship in our own church although perhaps a little more restrained. The main difference was that there were some little creative activities and it began and ended with contemporary liturgy on the screen. It was encouraging to see how in a few simple steps we could do something like this. Each night there was a guest interviewed and some group discussion with feedback.

Encounter Café

I also popped in the Encounter Café one evening which was a café church style service with guests too and also quizzes, film clips and a short talk.

Making the most of Butlins

Being at Butlins meant there was also chance to take part in some of the sports of activities there. On three of the mornings I went for an early morning jog with the sports team despite having been out late on a couple of the nights watching comedians Andy Kind and Tony Vino.

I had a go at fencing and swimming. My little daughter Callie did the fencing too and some archery with my wife.

I took Callie on the dodgems, adventure golf and to a gig by Ishmael and we all went to the Saltmine Theatre production.

On the last day when Callie was in her meeting we finished packing and went to play some table tennis instead of the final Big Top meeting before our long drive home.

Spring Harvest was brilliant and I didn’t feel I missed out by not going to the big meetings at all.

Here is another outline of baptism with the Spirit for those who are interested in this idea. As I’ve said before baptism with the Spirit is something I would encourage all Christians to experience. And if it is already your experience I would encourage you to continue to live in and look into the Bible to understand more.

This outline is by John Crowder whose teaching is surprisingly sound and biblical considering some of the excesses of his meetings and claims that he makes – that I’ve already discussed elsewhere.

Believers already have the Holy Spirit

In this video he discusses the notion that some have that we receive the Holy Spirit as a second blessing at some point after believing in Jesus. Crowder argues from Collosians 2:9-10 that godhead dwells in Christ so if Christ is in us – so is the Spirit and the Father for that matter. So the Trinity cannot be separated this way.

Instead he describes the experience of baptism with the Spirit – which he most certainly believes in – as having our senses tangibly immersed, overcome or filled with the Spirit.

Baptism with the Spirit is just the first of many infillings

He then quickly goes on to say that this is not just a one time experience but we are encouraged to be continually filled – finding our excitement and ecstasy in Christ.

I don’t think his point is to deny that there is an experience separate from believing in Jesus where this happens but simply to say that it is should be just the first of many such experiences of being filled with the Spirit. Though there are deep ecstatic experiences where people are completely overcome with the Spirit there is also the immense joy of continual living in God’s presence as we drink in the Spirit every moment of every day.

But he makes the point that when we are first filled with the Spirit – this experience of baptism with the Spirit simply means that we have begun to drink from a well that is already in us.

Do even unbelievers have the Spirit?

Interestingly and perhaps more controversially Crowder goes further to say that even unbelievers have God within them but in a hidden way. He argues this from Paul’s sermon on Mars Hill where Paul quotes the pagan writer who says ‘in him we live and move and have our being… we are his offspring’.

Crowder sees salvation is the result of recognising our true identity – that in reality we are not separated from God that we have separated ourselves from God by becoming his enemies. In Acts 8 – believers did not know about the Holy Spirit – it wasn’t that they didn’t have the Holy Spirit – they just didn’t know it.

He also sees Romans 8:9 not as saying that some people don’t belong to God instead Paul is simply saying that disobedient believers who say they have the Spirit should be reflecting the life of Christ.

I’m not so sure that I follow all of this last point but I think that his point is to emphasise that our experience of baptism of the Spirit is not when the Holy Spirit comes into us as the Holy Spirit is not just there because we have believed but was even within us before as he is omni-present.

Related Posts

Baptised in the Spirit
How to get Stoned on Jesus: Meet John Crowder and Friends
Seven Spirits Burning by John Crowder

As a charismatic it is my experience and belief that the authentic gifts of the Holy Spirit are still operating in the church today. They are there for all believers to seek and to use out of love for each other enabling us all to draw closer to Jesus together.

Some time ago I gave some brief definitions of the gifts of the Spirit as found in 1 Corinthians 12:8-10 and looking at these I thought they needed a little more elaboration.

1. A word of wisdom

This is when God gives someone insight into how God is working out his purposes so that they can speak into a situation enabling someone to make appropriate sensible decisions. Like many of the gifts this may come in very natural ways in conversations and provide practical help in situations leading to level-headed and successful responses.

2. A word of knowledge

I tend to see the definition of this as ‘God given insight into God’s heart and mind’ that is given by teachers such as Rodman Williams and Mark Stibbe as being the most biblical. But the idea of this being specific knowledge of a situation that God reveals has been popularised by preachers such as John Wimber and is often what people mean when they use this term.

3. Faith

The gift of faith is when God encourages you to hold onto him in a difficult situation even if you can see no way out. People’s faith may be stimulated by stories of answers to prayer – particularly of healing and miracles – or even of others being saved – but we need to ensure that these are cautiously stated and are factual and true or people will become cynical. Ultimately it is God that gives the faith it isn’t something you can whip up.

4. Gifts of healing

Healings occur when God enables you to supernaturally bring about wholeness and relieve someone’s suffering in response to prayer. Healings may also come in response to you commanding sickness to leave or you commanding a healing to come as we see Jesus and the early apostles doing. But I think we need to take care that we do this in a gentle yet authoritative way.

5. Miraculous powers

These are when God enables you to meet the needs of others in amazing and unusual ways. The way this term is often used gives much overlap with healing – but another important aspect of this God given provision. We need to take care to distinguish needs from wants and not be led astray by materialism. I am thrilled when I hear of God providing money and resources when it clearly demonstrates God’s care for the poor.

6. Prophecy

When God speaks to you so that you can show others what he is saying. This doesn’t need to have the trapping of ‘Thus says the Lord…’. You might just want to say that you sense the Holy Spirit is emphasizing something that you go on to explain. It might be about God’s nature or purposes or specifics of a situation. Though some may refer to revelation about specifics of a situation such as insights into someone’s health problems as a word of knowledge – the Bible appears to refer to this as prophecy.

7. Distinguishing between spirits

The gift of discernment may give you insight into what is actually happening in a given spiritual situation. For instance, when someone is apparently responding to God in an unusual way is this really the Holy Spirit moving being embraced with humility or is it an emotional response as the result of human hype or showmanship or are their even evil forces at work here?

8. Speaking in different kinds of tongues

Speaking in tongues is when God enables you to speak to him in languages you have never learnt. As with all the gifts you are still in control but if you receive this gift unlike other gifts you can operate it at will especially to use in their own devotions. Though sometimes the first gift someone receives we cannot say that without this ability someone is not Spirit filled.

9. Interpretation of tongues

The Bible indicates that speaking in tongues when we come together should involve each person speaking in turn and that someone should then explain to others what someone who just spoke in tongues actually said. I would only speak in tongues in this way if I felt specifically prompted by God and I believe the result would be a prayer from the Spirit that sums up some or all of the people’s hearts. When I hear such tongues or speak them myself I often sense that I understand them and so give the interpretation.

Further Reading

Here is a good summary of Mark Stibbe’s out of print book Know Your Spiritual Gifts summarised by Alison Morgan

Related post: What Does Charismatic Mean?

Lent resources are popping up all over the place on Christian sites at the moment. This season is now under way. Our church doesn’t do Lent so things like this still feel very new to me. For a few years now, on and off, I’ve been following the church calendar in my Bible reading programme. I found a book Ancient Future Time by Robert Webber, which aims to introduce the church year to a new generation of evangelicals. Reading it gave me the idea of incorporating into my Bible reading, the lectionary – the plan of Sunday Bible readings that is traditionally used in churches.

I can fully understand those who might cock a snoot at the traditional calendar, especially when some churches follow it too rigidly and it is associated with routines that some find boring. Yet now I find the lectionary is something that I love to dip into and explore. I like Jonny Baker‘s phrase: that he thinks of traditions like these as a ‘sort of dressing up box’. I am finding the church year gives a rhythm to my devotions that I can use and enjoy as much or as little as I want to.

Lent is about a lot more than just ‘giving something up’. But it is not to be approached legalistically. I don’t believe that we have to pray, read the Bible, give or fast at Lent more than any other time. But I think there is something powerful when the focus of our Bible reading becomes more communal. I am finding that Lent is giving me an opportunity to join in with the devotions of many other Christians across the world as I dip into these resources during this season.

What do you think?

Further Reading

When I originally posted this three years. Scott Lencke suggested this link:
New Covenant Lent by Internet Monk

A book review

A Theology of the Dark Side by Nigel Goring Wright is written to those who want an assessment of the doctrine of the devil and demons as taught in the Bible as it contains some good principles on in ‘deliverance ministry’ or ‘spiritual warfare’. However you may struggle with this book if you are not used to scholarly study as it quotes a number of theologians and evaluates their perspectives. Some may find some of this a little overwhelming and confusing especially since Wright often explains a viewpoint initially uncritically and later goes back to evaluate it. It certainly isn’t for the casual reader.

A Theology of the Dark Side examines the idea of there being supernatural beings existing in spiritual form from a contemporary view point. It evaluates theologians that have attempted to demythologise the spiritual realm. In doing so A Theology of the Dark Side carefully analysises Walter Wink’s view of the ‘principalities and powers’ as the properties of governmental systems. Wright sees this as a useful way of understanding how demons work but concludes that this cannot be the whole story as the Bible portrays them as having an existence beyond this.

This book warns people away from a paranoid view that sees the devil and demons behind everything that goes wrong. As such it is a much needed antidote to some charismatic practices such as shouting in prayer meetings ‘we bind you’ to supposed named demonic forces. Though Wright criticises such practices he certainly encourages spiritual warfare through prayer as well as through campaigning against injustice – encouraging Christians to be involved in politics. He also believes firmly that there are occasions when it may be necessary to speak to demons resident in individuals to cast them out and gives guidance as to how this should be done.

6/10

Further Reading

Down with the Devil quotes & comments by David Matthew on A Theology of the Dark Side

Over the past few weeks I have blogged a series of brief case studies on five very different sorts of projects that all could be considered missional in their own ways. Here’s my recap. Please follow the links to read each one.

Sweet Notions

This is a social enterprise that collects used accessories and trains women rescued from trafficking, addiction and homelessness in the skills needed to turn these into highly stylish products.

Karis Neighbour Scheme

This is a charity that served the local community in Ladywood an area of the inner city in Birmingham that includes high unemployment and a number of refugees & asylum seekers. Volunteers take part in a number of projects such as gardening, DIY, befriending and teaching ESOL classes.

Christian outreach at Mind Body Spirit festivals

An interesting and challenging way for Christians to do outreach is to get together and hire a stall at a Mind Body Spirit festival where they can distribute literature, have some activities and also pray with people and chat about Jesus to the new-age types.

Healing on the Streets

This is a ministry with a simple pattern of inviting people for prayer especially for physical healing on the streets. They will train you how to do it and their approach is very biblical.

Reach Out Network – ministry to the homeless

A friend of mine, who is part of the same church as I am, heads up this work serving homeless people in Birmingham. A team of people regularly venture into the city centre distributing food and drink to those on the streets and run a drop in one day a week.

I trust that these projects give you some idea of the sort of things either you could launch, be involved in or give towards. I’d love to hear from you about the sort of projects you know about or are involved in.

Concluding our short series on missional project Reach Out Network is another ministry that you might like to support. RON exist primarily to serve the needs of the homeless sleeping rough in and around the city centre in Birmingham and to bring God’s love into the lives of needy people. Reach Out Network touch many people’s lives each week. Reach Out Network is headed up by a friend of mine Paul Atkin. Paul is financed by individual sponsors through stewardship services. Those who sponsor Paul or who help with Reach Out Network are not limited to one church.

Tackling homelessness

Homelessness is a big problem in Birmingham and Reach Out Network is tackling it.

I have found it quite an eye opener to join them on the streets giving out soup and sandwiches, chatting and praying with some of the rough sleepers. It’s just wonderful how they create a safe place in which people are very happy to open up. Rather than expecting people to come to them Paul – as some outreaches like this do – and his team walk around the city centre and know many of the places that rough sleepers gather.

As the team ventures out into the city centre a couple of nights a week people are fed and conversations about Jesus sparked off very naturally.

Running a Drop In Centre

Paul also runs a weekly Drop in Centre that currently operates from our little church building the Ledbury Centre. As well playing games like snooker and dominoes and chatting over coffee and sandwiches there is usually a short talk with a Christian focus in the middle of the day.

I think it is amazing how a number of people from different churches are involved in this – all pulling together. Paul is part of our church but he is from a Pentecostal background.

There is quite a mix of people that also come to the drop in that they run at the Ledbury Centre. Some are members from churches in and around Birmingham coming to help, some are currently or have been homeless others just come for somewhere to go. There is a great family feel to the place and everyone can play their part.

Promoting the work through Awareness Days

Reach Out Network also hosts Prayer and Awareness Days with presentations from other organisations, giving opportunity to pray for them and the needs in the city. Reach Out Network have good links with many other groups in the city and know exactly the right place to refer people to where they will get the appropriate help. The next Awareness Day includes some will be on March 10th and includes some exciting developments.

Paul is a missionary here in the city centre of Birmingham and is well worth supporting.

Further Reading

Follow this link for further posts on Reach Out Network on my previous blog.
Ministry to the Homeless on our church website.