Bit of a mix of various reflections this week:
Worship styles: I bought a bit of an odd CD this week, but one which I have been salivating over for a while - "Fisherman's Friends" - from the Cornish Fishermen based in the coastal town where they filmed "Doc Martin." And it's truly great: mostly sea shanties but with that wondeful male part singing and with vibrancy and guts. And at the moment I'm playing it everywhere. It reminds me that Worship in a church should be a broad spectrum of styles. To be completely frank, I for one would grow rapidly borred and yes, stale, if every week I went to church it was exactly the same thing played in exactly the same style. God is not tied down to styles of music, but refreshes us in numerous ways. I don't think that I am unique in having such a large spectrum of music taste in my upbringing, having sung in opera, choral society and choir when young, as well as listened to The Jam, Undertones, Cliff, Elton and oh so many I could continue. Lets keep that freshness in our worship of God!
Holidays & resting: whatever else we may do, holidays need to a part of life. A holiday should be defined as doing something different to what we normally do - on an emotional, physical and spiritual level. Not to do so would drive a person insane and burn them out. Whatever else, be refreshed this summer! Do something different!
What kind of church: I reflect that these days belonging to something is not in trend. Membership of anything is not in vogue and this is seen across all kinds of institutions and societies and the church is not exempt. However, at the heart of the kind of church I Pastor and belong to is the word "covenant" which is that sense of mutual committment to one another and to God. That's what sets apart the church from thr secular. Fundamentally this is about family. Am I apart of this or that family? That is one of those radical steps that is against the trends of today.
Half way: the summer is essentially half way, the sixth or seventh month, a natural pause point for many to look back and look forward to the remainder of the year. I reflect that for me, this year has in all honesty been a really hard year so far. There have been, it seems, challenge after challenge to face up to and deal with. I'm not going into here what those challenges have been, but they have been exhausting - emotionally and spiritually. I reflected last weekend how it feels personally to me: like the experiences of Job. Security after security taken away. Elsewhere this morning I have posted "when will the storms cease?" Will they? I so hope so.
The final Potter: and as a quick ps, I went to see the final Harry Potter film last weekend. and yes, it's all that it claims to be - but a quick gripe: 1) the emphasis is perhaps dominated onto the final battle at the expenses of all other aspects of the final book. 2) the "19 years later" scene is rubbish and a waste of time. The only one who pulls off being middle age and a convincing parent is Harry himself. 3) even the Gringott's scenes are hurried and generally the film seems to be in a rush to get to that battle scene.
A brilliant film? Well, not as convinced by that as some film critics are stating. So, what's next, I ask myself?
Sam Griffiths Pastor of Wellington Baptist Church, Somerset.
Wednesday, 20 July 2011
Tuesday, 12 July 2011
Cult or real Christianity
We are living in days where it is becoming less and less easy to distinguish in the UK between healthy faith and cult type faith - and at this point, I'm not yet talking Christianity. Post modernism or relativism, has essentially taken - at least in the eyes of the non-religious, the uniqueness out of Christianity. To them, it is just another possible religious choice and well, "each to his own!" Christians don't agree on this of course, and would strongly argue for the uniqueness of Christianity, but for the unchurched, there is this mish-mash of faith. And we as Christians would say "Beware of the cults!" Cults are bad news because they hide the truth, and they are not of the truth. In the 60's and 70's there were an outbreak of cults across the globe and some were notorious in there stealing away of young people, or in other cases of mass suicide calls by their overall leaders.
But talking about Christian churches from this point onwards, in other words "within the Christian family of churches" we are now seeing in my view the beginnings of unhealthy churches where there is a high tendency towards cult like behaviour. If I remember my "other religions studies" of 20 years ago at Spurgeon's, there are a number of clear marks of a cult: 1)Strong control type behaviour from the overal leader: in other words, what he or she says, goes. And if you don't like it, you have a choice - comply or leave. In the worst case situations, the words of the leader are deemed literally to be the word of God. 2)Dress and behaviour code: there is a sense that there is only one way to behave and indeed dress. This is it, and if you don't conform you again have a choice - comply or leave. 3)A disconnection with all outsiders: there is a clear command set by the leadership to not connect in unity with any other groupings, because this group has the only clear truth, and to do so would infect the group itself. So any sense of Christian unity beyond the walls of that Christian grouping is straightaway shut down or discouraged or advised against. Again, in worst cases, its comply or leave again. 4) Worship style is narrow, and all the same all the time. This is the way that we worship and no other way is right. 5) A lack of overall accountability or indeed desire to be accountable to larger networks, tribes or denominations. Especially within leadership. Again, to do so simply allows the warped truth to be challenged.
I could go on - and there are other aspects worth considering. Some years ago (30+) within the Baptist Union a grouping was ejected from the Union for showing these kinds of marks. They were the Jesus Army at Bugbrooke in Northants. In the end, they returned as a changed, accountable and healthy grouping. And this goes to show that any grouping that, seemingly at first seemed healthy and mainstream can, very easily trip up over a few hurdles and become extreme.
Sadly then these cultic like behaviours are all to often seen in Christian settings. They shouldn't be, but they are occasionally displayed. And yes, I think I am seeing them in Christian settings and it is scary. I've seen them in traditional church settings where too much power is given to a single individual or where a leader is de=frocked or expelled and he goes off then to start off how own kind of religion on his own, with no one to answer to. And some of the so called new church streams can fall very easily into some of these cult like behaviours. Heavy shepherding and heavy leadership are ovbious signs. Frankly some of these situations are covers for spiritual abuse, and then thats a matter for the law. If we're honest, every individual or grouping can be prone to this. As my old theology lecturer used to say, we all have a tendency to over emphasise the argument. And where the original idea was good, it rapidly goes off the rails.
So scary days. Lets make healthy churches places where indidividuals can express themselves freely in the Christian faith and lets come across as transparent places with freedom to be the people God wants us to be. After all "it was for freedom that Christ has set us free!"
But talking about Christian churches from this point onwards, in other words "within the Christian family of churches" we are now seeing in my view the beginnings of unhealthy churches where there is a high tendency towards cult like behaviour. If I remember my "other religions studies" of 20 years ago at Spurgeon's, there are a number of clear marks of a cult: 1)Strong control type behaviour from the overal leader: in other words, what he or she says, goes. And if you don't like it, you have a choice - comply or leave. In the worst case situations, the words of the leader are deemed literally to be the word of God. 2)Dress and behaviour code: there is a sense that there is only one way to behave and indeed dress. This is it, and if you don't conform you again have a choice - comply or leave. 3)A disconnection with all outsiders: there is a clear command set by the leadership to not connect in unity with any other groupings, because this group has the only clear truth, and to do so would infect the group itself. So any sense of Christian unity beyond the walls of that Christian grouping is straightaway shut down or discouraged or advised against. Again, in worst cases, its comply or leave again. 4) Worship style is narrow, and all the same all the time. This is the way that we worship and no other way is right. 5) A lack of overall accountability or indeed desire to be accountable to larger networks, tribes or denominations. Especially within leadership. Again, to do so simply allows the warped truth to be challenged.
I could go on - and there are other aspects worth considering. Some years ago (30+) within the Baptist Union a grouping was ejected from the Union for showing these kinds of marks. They were the Jesus Army at Bugbrooke in Northants. In the end, they returned as a changed, accountable and healthy grouping. And this goes to show that any grouping that, seemingly at first seemed healthy and mainstream can, very easily trip up over a few hurdles and become extreme.
Sadly then these cultic like behaviours are all to often seen in Christian settings. They shouldn't be, but they are occasionally displayed. And yes, I think I am seeing them in Christian settings and it is scary. I've seen them in traditional church settings where too much power is given to a single individual or where a leader is de=frocked or expelled and he goes off then to start off how own kind of religion on his own, with no one to answer to. And some of the so called new church streams can fall very easily into some of these cult like behaviours. Heavy shepherding and heavy leadership are ovbious signs. Frankly some of these situations are covers for spiritual abuse, and then thats a matter for the law. If we're honest, every individual or grouping can be prone to this. As my old theology lecturer used to say, we all have a tendency to over emphasise the argument. And where the original idea was good, it rapidly goes off the rails.
So scary days. Lets make healthy churches places where indidividuals can express themselves freely in the Christian faith and lets come across as transparent places with freedom to be the people God wants us to be. After all "it was for freedom that Christ has set us free!"
Wednesday, 6 July 2011
Touch a piece of paper once only
This last week has seen me occasionally entering moments of tidying. I tidy the paperwork at home - the so called "in tray" (of death), and then I come to the office and today my desk(kind of) and then I spend time filing my emails (oh yes). I wonder sometimes what people might really think of me if they were to discover my system of filing emails. Essentially, i throw little out - ie, delete them. It's only spam and rubbish that gets junked. But no, I have a folder within a folder - in fact loads of them, all stuck in Outlook, and they go back over 6 years, easily. I have folders on everything from admin and suppliers, to mission events, leadership, and yes, a folder on everone in the church and the correspondence I have from them or about them. In defence of this seemingly manic approach to organising chaos, I would justify myself by saying that time and time again I am able to retrieve within seconds the appropriate piece of information upon a situation, person or whatever really. Well, ok, I am very sad doing stuff like this, but its survival to be honest. If I don't do it, then chaos will take place.
It's been a fair old speedy transition over these last 10 years from where things were still mostly paper, to now the norm being electronic coms. But in the day of paper, the rule was "touch a piece of paper only once!" In otherwords, make a snap decision to keep it or file it, and with the leaning towards junking it essentially! So in the split second of temptation on whether to "oh, yes keep it because ....." you have to be disciplined enough to throw it! The theory being that if really is important enough, it'll come back to you again.
Well I find it a challenge, hand on heart, in keeping up with it all. Then again, I see how some people organise their lives and to be frank, I'm streaks ahead on points. The interesting thing is this word "discipline." It is a discipline to sit down and deal with it all. We must! We have to! Now I know that in some cases it's all about how we are wired - our personality types. Some are "hang loose and it'll all work out" kind of people, and others are control freaks. But there is this discipline of simply sitting down and doing it. The connection between the word "discipline" and the title "disciple" is fairly clear to see. The disciple must be disciplined. A mark of spirituality and discipleship is discipline. Well that's a tough call and a real challenge for most of us, but the one thing we can't do is bury our heads in the sand and hope that it will all work out, because it never does.
It's been a fair old speedy transition over these last 10 years from where things were still mostly paper, to now the norm being electronic coms. But in the day of paper, the rule was "touch a piece of paper only once!" In otherwords, make a snap decision to keep it or file it, and with the leaning towards junking it essentially! So in the split second of temptation on whether to "oh, yes keep it because ....." you have to be disciplined enough to throw it! The theory being that if really is important enough, it'll come back to you again.
Well I find it a challenge, hand on heart, in keeping up with it all. Then again, I see how some people organise their lives and to be frank, I'm streaks ahead on points. The interesting thing is this word "discipline." It is a discipline to sit down and deal with it all. We must! We have to! Now I know that in some cases it's all about how we are wired - our personality types. Some are "hang loose and it'll all work out" kind of people, and others are control freaks. But there is this discipline of simply sitting down and doing it. The connection between the word "discipline" and the title "disciple" is fairly clear to see. The disciple must be disciplined. A mark of spirituality and discipleship is discipline. Well that's a tough call and a real challenge for most of us, but the one thing we can't do is bury our heads in the sand and hope that it will all work out, because it never does.
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