These are the days

It's been a while since I've blogged here and that's because one important law of blogging is not to say something if there is nothing to be said! But two random thoughts this morning.
First - the financial cuts this country is experiencing are now really hitting home hard to the ordinary people of the land now. You name it - and its gone up in price! Fuel, food, utilities - its all gone up, sometimes by above 10%. These are challenging days, and as a Church Pastor I've never seen this kind of thing before. I reckon my parent's generation must have seen this during and after the war, but my generation? No! This is a whole new world. From the position I have as a Pastor there are challenging days ahead and there are difficult days now. Seemingly and this is sad, the church for a few is low down on the priority list in terms of finances and across the land giving to the work of God is dropping. This in turn is making church finances hard to handle, and the days ahead are going to be really hard. I cannot express here my true feelings about this.
Secondly - and in brief, yesterday I met a man who really listened to me as a Baptist Pastor. It's a shame to say this, but it is - from my experience, true to say that that rarely happens for me in Baptist Ministry. I cannot remember when I was last listened to, deeply, in the way that I was yesterday. And then compassion and real feeling shared for me and to me.

Manic street preachers - the horrible sound of the Gospel

I could hear him as I left the church office door, as I meandered down to pick up my pasty and head to the allottment. To be honest, I knew in seconds who it would be, and it was! It's never been a very nice sound (I'd seen and hard him before, but never spoken). People used to say to me as I trained for Christian Ministry that "people need to come under the glorious sound of the Gospel" and I used to smile and think "what the heck does that mean, maybe its secret code", but this was not glorious, and it didn't seem like the Gospel. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against evangelists coming to town, and I'm not against street evangelism, and I guess - in the right context, planning and build up, I'm not even against street preaching, but I for one don't know anyone who has personally come to faith through a street preacher, there and then, in location, so to speak.
Now, you need to know that I have a standard practice with street preachers in the town where I Pastor a church - I always go up to them, challenge them as to who they are and where they are from, and what they are doing. Then I follow up always with the phrase, "but we didn't know you were coming!" And today, in town, thats what I did. The man was shouting so loud: it's the kind of style I don't want to be associated with, and he was wearing dark "bible black" glasses, and as is usual, there's a wife in tow, sweetly smiling doing the paperwork. So I said "hello" to the shouting preacher, and he was so loud, he ignored me. So then I tried the dear wife - using the usual routine. "Oh, you'll have to ask him - "Peter"! So I stop him mid flow (thank goodness - peace at last) and I follow it through - "we didn't know you were coming". Then follows a typical set of responses I could have written in a book: who are you, I've had run-ins with other church leaders in this town, I've been angrily told to leave various near by towns - blah, blah, blah! But I take the gentle approach - "if you had told us you were coming, we could have been ready so that we could stand ready to disciple any who come to faith in our local churches." So, he thinks I'm on his side ..So I push forward with my sincere theology of evangelism - conversion is never only about evangelism, it's about discipleship. Never do evangelism without ready follow up mechanisms in place! I even tell him how many churches there are in the town - he doesn't know!! (to me, the fact he doesn't know is an insult and show's he can't be bothered and doesn't see Christian faith beyond the end of his own nose and his narrow experience). He doesn't even know what tribes (flavours of church - denominations) there are in the different styles of church! He listens, I suggest I raise his name at the next churches together meeting (I know what they'll say), and I tell him that in this town we work together in lots of ways - Anglican, Baptist, Methodist, Roman Catholic, House Churches. And then he rants about some churches being "not biblical" - he mentions "the toronto blessing" and how he's against it (I have his full measure now and know a good few churches where he'd fit in well - the dying ones!) and he would never work with some. So, we swap contacts and we end politely and peacefully. Interestingly, as I collect my pasty, he and his wife hitch up their bags and "leg it" down the street away from everything - fascinating! What was all that about?
Why share this? Well, some reflections: he said "we just go from town to town preaching the gospel." He suggests this is biblical. Actually it's not. Paul would for example, always ask the leaders of a town for permission, or he would find out who the wealthy folk were and speak to them, before ever starting mission. Actually, these guys who are not based in churches, doing local evangelism where they live are generally "dangerous" people and put more people off Jesus and the church, and I wish they would stay away. Then also, for me, and I am convinced that it's biblical - evangelism and mission are always relational! People need to know who you are and trust you. They need to talk with you about the weather and be asked about life and stuff, before ever you start talking the Gospel. And then, the Gospel generally smells and tastes good - it generally attracts because God is good and the Gospel is true and can be talked about - but not shouted by an angry man in dark glasses condemning this and that - if, you can actually hear what he is saying! And lastly, and I have learnt this over the years, that people generally know how broken, hurt and failed they are in their daily struggles - I rarely find people are attracted to "fire and brimstone shouting" that tells them how worthless they are. I guess, at best, it's a performance to watch and say "I've done that!" (kind of like going to the theatre or a rock concert), but people won't engage with such a performance because it's kindof theatrical.
But they might respond to a conversation about a warm, loving, merciful, healing God who created them and loves them and who showed the full extent of that love in being broken for them on a cross, and rising from the dead. He makes people fully human every day, and it's nothing to shout about!
Manic street preachers - please leave my town! Leave the effective evangelism and mission to us!

Are we a denomination or aren't we?

So, are we a denomination or aren't we? And, does it matter anyway? I ask this question, because I've seen this now in several recent Didcot publications where they have used literally the word "denomination" and I've heard it said at BU Council. And the truth is, no! We are not. We are - and its in our title dear friends, "A Union of Independent Churches." Denominations are seen in other groupings - see for example Anglican, United Reformed and Methodists, although the latter might describe themselves as a Connexion. Why blog on this? Well if we are not one, please don't call us one. And we are not one, and its not even about being a technicality. For me, a denomination - when all is said and done, is primarily reflected in central funding, most of all in the stipend. Most Minister's being paid centrally. But the BU is not this. There are of course secondary issues - those of theology and practice, and even ministry [aka leadership] [aka hierarchy][nb "Senior Ministers" - lets not go there, these are not Baptist Principles either!]. But if that's where we are headed and its inevitable that we are heading there, then that's a different matter, and lets have the debate and discussions. But until that day, we are not a denomination! So don't call us one.
Why get "hot under the dog collar" about this? Well, because I think some would want us to be one, and see our national offices as being symbolic of an HQ or maybe even a command base. And certainly, in recent years many aspects of centralisation have become apparent - BU Council used to be in charge, but now it is the Trustees within the Council that are. More and more standards of good practice are being demanded of Ministers and Churches in how they to act, administer and behave, and all these are set in place by our national offices, and are of course a good thing. So is this a kind of inevitable "creep" towards denominationalism? Is it all just a matter of time, and before long we'll be there, either by the back or the front door?!
I hope not! For a start, our strength as a missional people lies in our independance and our inter-dependance. The Spirit of God is always at work in different ways amongst our churches bringing life and growth, which is why at our heart, in the statement of principle, "Each church is free under the guidance of the Spirit to discern God's will for them." The importance of the individual church, its members and its mission must never be underestimated - we have these or we have no Union! Centralisation is, as history often shows, the short road to bureaucracy, decay, stagnation and decline. And we see these things, I would argue in denominational structures. I think - and I pose these as questions, the time may be right to ask if this is where we are headed as a Union. Do we want less centralisation, and more focus on the local church and its association? Can Didcot resource the churches as a smaller outfit and at less expense? Do some need reminding that they key heart to the Union is not HQ, but the local church and its local mission and ministry?
But above all else, until the day comes that we become a denomination, please don't call us one!

Consumer Christianity

I feel today that I could write about many things - thats the dilemma perhaps about writing, and potentially blogging. But floating in the mind this morning is that subject of Consumer Christianity. Apparently, as I read in Dr Pat Took's sermon yesterday (President of the Baptist Union this year), there is an O2 advert doing the rounds that says "the world revolves around you!" Which, Pat says is the worst possible concept - how borring, and what an awful prospect! To have the world revolve around you or me. No! And I reflect that when all is said and done, Jesus has called us not to a bed of roses and a comfortable ride, but to a life of sacrifice, servanthood and committment. Now I suggest that those last 3 words - if they summarise discipleship, are for the most Christians - offensive and challenging words. Why? Because the gospel of consumerism - of comfort, easy rides and nothing too challenging, of - as the Burger King Adverts say - "having it my way" have been bought into by many. He is not a God that I can control or shape to suit, but he is a God who requires nothing less than my all - my life, my breath. For me, thats a tough call. Will I make it? Don't know! But he requires every part of my life - my thoughts, my energy, my finances and I could go on. Don't sign up to anything less!

The equality of Ministry

I was pondering a few weeks ago an old, wearied ministry subject, that sadly rears its head every few years - the subject of women in ministry. It's been prominent in my mind because of a paper and subsequent discussion at Baptist Union Council - of which I am a member, where council affirmed the full inclusivity of all women for all ministry without exception, and lamented the times when churches of the union had sought to exclude. Now, the position of total inclusivity is one that I full support. Don't get me wrong - I've got the books on my shelf from all stand points, I've listened to many a talk, at one time taken a view that leadership was male, and followed a good few figures as their disciple on this subject. But, when all is said and done, I've come out of the end of the machine and I keep it simple! God gives his Spiritual Gifts equally to both genders and in no way seperates the gift of leadership away from the female gender. For me, at all levels of leadership, women are welcome in ministry. In fact, I have observed an awful lot of male only leadership teams and seen where they have completely mucked up an issue, sometimes a pastoral one, simply because the male only blind fold has kept them from seeing some of the vital other aspects of it, to make a good and right decision.
Now I accept that some try to be true to scripture and are fundamentalist and make their decision simply on the Word - which is only a tiny aspect of this subject and leaves out the huge exegesis and exposition to properly interpret God's will. So I understand this, but I simply don't agree with it. But it's the rest of the bunch - and I actually think this covers 90% of the gathered, who seem to say "no" because of their own prejudice or fear. For some, it even seems to be about ehri child hood, and something going wrong that has created a male only perspective. In the worst cases, this can come near to being bigotry and darned right sinful behaviour.
Above all else, these are yesterday's issues and the church would be in real, serious difficulty without the wonderful, quality and superb input, at all levels, of all women of God, in ministry!

The things that shape us

I was reflecting the other day about a draft set of Ministry Guidelines, as produced by the Baptist Union Department of Ministry, for how Ministers are to behave and act. My first reaction was to think that the same kind of thing should be drawn up for Churches in terms of how they behave towards their Minister. Many a church has scarred their Minister through an action or indeed lack of action, either by the few or the many. And, yes, I still think that. Then I started reflecting upon our recent church AGM, and in running through the annual affirmations of Treasurer & Secretary, I felt an inward and unnoticeable to all, vacuum of despair, because - to be blatant, I too felt I wanted to be affirmed, and the truth is that in the life of most churches, this never or rarely happens, unless its at your leaving party! And I guess that some of that is because being a church leader is sometimes, perhaps often, about being in a place where you cannot please everybody, and often cannot please anybody. In short, and I may be bringing up luggage here, but I'll say it anyway, its about not being appreciated and sometimes despised. And if Ministers are ever appreciated, they are never told so, but only ever complained to. The result? A sense of despair and discouragement that often results in good ministers leaving the ministry! Then, I did aanother final set of reflections - ok, so maybe its not healthy to do this kind of thing, but ..I started thinking about my first church and how I think its true to say, that your first church and the experiences you have, are what shape you and your future ministry. Was my first church a good experience? Yes, on the whole! The vast majority were lovely, wonderful, supportive people - and still are. But, as a new Minister just out of college, I never received a visit from my then Regional Minister - I only saw him once and that was at the induction. But I had some attacks that deeply hurt me and to some extent have never been forgotten. One when we were married - too much holiday you know, another - a vote of confidence over a non baptised prospective Deacon. Not nice! Painful! Sure, they shaped me, but did they do so for good? I don't know. These days, people still complain and winge, but its water off a ducks back now. Is that a good thing? I wonder?!

pleasing everyone

So I'm just back from 3 days of Baptist Union Council. This is a kind of synod for the Baptist Family of churches in the UK. It's been hard work - lots of listening and reflecting, voting and the making of occasional points to input in the debate. There can be up to 200 + reps from across the country & staff from HQ, but on average there are about 150 that make it each time. We meet twice a year - spring and autumn, and as well as all the hard work, there are a lot of laughs and lots of old friendships re-engaged. We come away somewhat dazed by the inevitable language, detail, mindset and style of council and attempt to re-connect with normality, but also in awe of all the hard work that gets done, the new ideas, the potential for growth, the hope and aspirations for the future, and grateful that as a Baptist Christian family, for all our weaknesses, God still uses our network or tribe of churches. We've had in places some challenging issues to think on, but God has been at work amongst us.
One little muse - should it get smaller, stay the same size, discard certain people who never turn up? Well, I reflect that if we in our church were to do that in regard to church meetings, then we'd be in real trouble! If we started in WBC to remove all the folk who never came to church meetings, and essentially reduce the potential number who could show up, we'd never hear the last of it! No, we'd never do that. But, as the saying goes "if it aint broke, don't fix it!" In my book, the more representatives the better, because then people and churches feel they belong. Remove these, and beware! It's not the quantity, but the methodology of debate and discussion that needs refreshing! I hope that careful reflection will lead to careful action!