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.

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.

Healing on the Streets is a very biblical way of doing street outreach that is straight forward and has been very successful. It is something that you can easily get involved in if it’s happening near you.

Healing on the Streets training

The groups that do this ministry offer training in the Healing on the Streets model and after one session often on a Saturday morning you would be welcome to join them in praying for people. If you’re really keen you can talk to them about your church launching a regular Healing on the Streets. Their training course encourage you to pray for people in a similar way to the way Jesus and the early disciples prayed. It has been remarkably successful. By simply following these guidelines they have prayed for loads of people and seen many answers to prayer.

How does Healing on the Streets work?

Practically this involves simply placing out a banner and some chairs on the street for people who wish to be prayed for to sit on. In twos people talk to the person wishing to receive prayer in a very humble and gentle way to ascertain the need. If there is a physical need then they are encouraged to speak to the illness in the name of Jesus to leave and to the person her part of the body to be healed. Though this may sound strange in their training they go through the scriptures that show this and do this in an amazingly gentle and non-hyped way. Any immediate results are then noted and a pack of material explaining a bit more is offered to the person who has been prayed for.

What is Healing on the Streets really like?

When I did this a year or two ago I found it to be a really simple easy pattern to follow. Often people are nervous about starting up conversations about Jesus and street evangelism might sound scary. But Healing on the Streets gives you a very simple formula to follow. It’s about setting up setting a situation that people will very naturally come to enquire and engage in. It’s not about trying to engage people who aren’t interested or are antagonistic. It’s about offering a service in Jesus’ name and seeing what comes of it.

If you set this up in a busy high street it is amazing how many people do come with the minimum of pressure. If this is happing anywhere near you I would suggest that you go along, listen to the training and take part. You might even find you want to set up a Healing on the Streets as a regularly outreach for your church.

Check out their main website here.

UK Customers: to ensure that you get your book for under £10 check out the market place deals. These are still cheaper than the regular amazon price even with post and packing! And don’t forget if you are ordering for Christmas check what postage you will need to choose to ensure your book arrives on time.

These books would make great Christmas presents. I’ve reviewed them all on this blog and would recommend them.

Post-Charismatic?

‘Post-Charismatic?’ by Rob McAlpine is a very positive book considering that it is aimed primarily at those who may be disillusioned with the charismatic movement. In… more

Seven Spirits Burning

This is fairly scholarly expositional teaching on the Holy Spirit from John Crowder – a hyper-charismatic preacher with a Latter Rain heritage. The… more

Seeing Through Heaven’s Eyes

Seeing Through Heaven’s Eyes by Norway’s Leif Hetland is written for Christians needing encouragement. It is for all who believe in grace but need reminding… more

Small is Big

Do you want to know how God’s Spirit has been moving recently in the Western world and how you can get involved? Then you must get Small is Big. There are… more

The Forgotten Ways

The Forgotten Ways gives us a thorough explanation of what Alan Hirsch calls apostolic genius – six key aspects of the New Testament church that we should… more

The Forgotten Ways Handbook

The Forgotten Ways Handbook by Alan Hirsch and Darryn Altclass aims to introduce the ideas of The Forgotten Ways to a wider audience. You can apply these… more

The Shaping of Things to Come

The Shaping of Things to Come is for those who want a detailed introduction to what it means to be an incarnational, missional and apostolic Christian in the 21st… more

It’s a blog thing!

Have a go at this little quiz to determine what religion you should follow. I just did it and got this. I should be a Christian. No surprises there.

You Should Follow Christianity

You believe in the Holy Trinity, and that Jesus walked the earth as the son of God.You also believe that all people sin and that God will forgive you for your sins.Your relationship with God is very important to you.You strengthen your faith through prayer, worship, and Bible study.

Work is Hard. Time for Blogthings!

But look at the questions and think. There is probably more than one answer that is right. Sometimes you may not like any of the answers but you must pick one. I changed just one of my answers to one which I still thought was true and probably just as good as the one I’d picked before and look what I got.

You Should Follow Unitarian Universalism

For you, religion is about asking questions. Questions that might never be answered. In fact, you’re more likely to consider yourself spiritual than religious.You don’t have any set beliefs, besides the belief that you should work to improve the world. You are a true humanist who works for social justice and world peace.

What Religion Should You Be?

Work is Hard. Time for Blogthings!

Having played around with it a bit I find it a lot easier to get Unitarian Universalist than Christian. I’m getting a bit worried now.

I think what it shows is that these ideas are not as simple as someone might first think and that Christians aren’t really as narrow as is often thought. That’s my story anyway and I’m sticking with it!

Have a go and let me know what you think.