Saturday, 13 April 2013
Sad got gets a life
If you've looked here regularly, you'll realise that 'sad git' has not been a prolific blogger recently.
I've been working on a new project - 'Living in three dimensions' my blogging will now appear on that site - www.l3d.org.uk please visit there!
Saturday, 30 June 2012
And are we yet alive?
I'm sitting in the Methodist Church's annual Conference. I always come to these events with mixed feelings. Too many people who come seem to think that passing the right resolutions or tweking our structures will somehow make us a vibrant growing church again - it won't!
It's great to meet up with all sorts of people who've played a vital part in my spiritual journey and catch up with where they're at now as well as reminiscing about where we were. It's always fascinating to remember what we thought God was calling us to way back when we were young, and to catch up on how things have turned out - some things to thank God for because we've achieved some of the things we'd hoped to do, and some things to think about because we're not there yet.
We've just had an inspiring address from Mark Wakelin, our new President, ending with a passionate appeal for us to receive the power of the Holy Spirit. The worship was wonderfully passionate, though not in a style I relate easily to - the highlight was when we were invited to sing a contemporary song - you are the everlasting Cod - which sums up pretty well how we do 'modern' worship.
The worship may be old fashioned, but it's inspiring to sing hymns that have been sung at the Methodist Conference since the beginning of the Methodist movement and to see the new President receiving John Wesley's field bible - a reminder of the great tradition we inherit. There's a real sense of standing on the shoulder's of giants as we think of great men and women of God who've served Christ in the Methodist movement.
But there's also a danger in this sort of event - it can give us the impression that if we work a bit harder at what we've always done, things will come right and the Methodist Church will be renewed. There's a book I intend to read one day entitled: 'What got you here, won't take you there!' To put it another way, the way we follow the lead of the giants of the past is not by repeating their programmes or replicating their worship, but to seek the same source of inspiration and passion that inspired them and live it out in ways that make mission relevant in today's cultures.
What will that look like?
Wednesday, 20 July 2011
Baby boomer conference
The Baptist Union are organising a baby boomer conference:
'Being Church for the Boomer Generation'
It's at High Leigh Conference Centre, Hoddesdon
Dates 23-25th November.
The first tranche of places are now all booked so they've had to get some more rooms.
www.baptist.org.uk/component/content/article/451.html
Looks like a great event (I'm only a bit biased because I'm one of the speakers!) - book early to avoid disappointment.
'Being Church for the Boomer Generation'
It's at High Leigh Conference Centre, Hoddesdon
Dates 23-25th November.
The first tranche of places are now all booked so they've had to get some more rooms.
www.baptist.org.uk/component/content/article/451.html
Looks like a great event (I'm only a bit biased because I'm one of the speakers!) - book early to avoid disappointment.
The parable of my dad's shed
I've been challenged in my presentation/preaching recently. So much of preaching seems to consist of explaining what Jesus parables meant - which Jesus rarely did. When Jesus did explain them, it was to the disciples who pushed him hard for an explanation - the crowds went away with lots of possible meanings to wrestle with.
To be consistent with Jesus method, it might be good for 21st century preachers to invent their own parables rather than explain Jesus'.
Hence the parable of my dad's shed.
My dad has never had central heating (he once knew someone who had central heating and they were ill . . . .). However, he's a true yorkshire man so when my sister discovered he could get a grant and have it for next to nothing he decided it might be ok. When the man came to do the survey, the only place he could suggest putting the oil tank was in the place currently occupied by an old shed.
We agreed to spend a weekend demolishing it, the problem was that it was full of things. THings that I and most other people would call rubbish, but that dad placed great importance on:
- the woodwormy remains of our childhood sledge
- old fishing gear that reminded him (and me) of happy afternoons when we were kids (none of us have been fishing for 10 years+)
- old tools belonging to his dad - hedging tools, sickles, scythes all belonging to a bygone age - rusty and woodwormy
- at least five handsaws - all two dull to be used
and much, much more!
None of it was serviceable anymore. Most of it was obsolete. Every item had a memory and a story.
Eventually we persuaded dad to bin most of it - it was then a five minute job to knock down the rotten shed leaving a pristine site for the new oil tank (which still hasn't arrived!!).
THe problem with throwing away the 'junk' was that it seemed disloyal to the memory of loved ones and the activities from the past that made us who we are today.
Three questions:
What old sheds are there in your life?
How do we follow God's injunction to travel light?
How do we dispose of the junk without forgetting the stories - they're important?
To be consistent with Jesus method, it might be good for 21st century preachers to invent their own parables rather than explain Jesus'.
Hence the parable of my dad's shed.
My dad has never had central heating (he once knew someone who had central heating and they were ill . . . .). However, he's a true yorkshire man so when my sister discovered he could get a grant and have it for next to nothing he decided it might be ok. When the man came to do the survey, the only place he could suggest putting the oil tank was in the place currently occupied by an old shed.
We agreed to spend a weekend demolishing it, the problem was that it was full of things. THings that I and most other people would call rubbish, but that dad placed great importance on:
- the woodwormy remains of our childhood sledge
- old fishing gear that reminded him (and me) of happy afternoons when we were kids (none of us have been fishing for 10 years+)
- old tools belonging to his dad - hedging tools, sickles, scythes all belonging to a bygone age - rusty and woodwormy
- at least five handsaws - all two dull to be used
and much, much more!
None of it was serviceable anymore. Most of it was obsolete. Every item had a memory and a story.
Eventually we persuaded dad to bin most of it - it was then a five minute job to knock down the rotten shed leaving a pristine site for the new oil tank (which still hasn't arrived!!).
THe problem with throwing away the 'junk' was that it seemed disloyal to the memory of loved ones and the activities from the past that made us who we are today.
Three questions:
What old sheds are there in your life?
How do we follow God's injunction to travel light?
How do we dispose of the junk without forgetting the stories - they're important?
Friday, 6 May 2011
What did Jesus do?
A while ago it was topical to ask the question 'What would Jesus do?'. I've just been challenged by Steve Addison (author of 'Movements that Change the World' - brilliant book check out his blog www.movements.net) to ask a different question: 'what did Jesus do?'.
The danger of asking 'what would Jesus do?' is that we create the Jesus we want to believe in (Frost & Hirsch unpack this brilliantly in ReJesus) instead of engaging with Jesus in a way that transforms us. This almost inevitably leads to a comfortable version of Jesus who confirms rather than confronts our prejudices.
When we ask 'what did Jesus do?', we open ourselves to a much greater potential for transformation. On the one hand, Jesus loves us and affirms us. On the other hand, Jesus has a far bigger picture of our potential than we do. He loves us as we are, but loves us too much to leave us there! All of us have an imperfect (and culturally conditioned) understanding of Jesus. Consistent examination of the life and example of Jesus will enlarge our vision of who he is.
It is in studying 'what Jesus did?' that Jesus is able to transform us. Usually that transformation is disturbing and scary - generally the people who are used most by Jesus are the ones who are most broken early in the process. To experience this, we need to find seasons when we are set free from 'doing' to come close to Jesus and receive from him. A prolonged study of the gospels with plenty of opportunity to listen to Jesus (combined with prayer and fasting) puts us in the place where we can become more like Jesus. Many of us would rather be busy doing things for God than taking time to listen to him, but it's worth the effort. We're between Easter and Pentecost at the moment - a period when the first disciples were told by Jesus to wait in the city until they received the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8). Luke doesn't tell us how hard the disciples found this period of praying and waiting, but the fruit on the day of Pentecost made it all worthwhile.
I feel really challenged at the moment to 'wait for the Holy Spirit' - not in a passive sense, but actively looking and longing for more of Jesus. Watch this space and I'll tell you what happens nexr.
The danger of asking 'what would Jesus do?' is that we create the Jesus we want to believe in (Frost & Hirsch unpack this brilliantly in ReJesus) instead of engaging with Jesus in a way that transforms us. This almost inevitably leads to a comfortable version of Jesus who confirms rather than confronts our prejudices.
When we ask 'what did Jesus do?', we open ourselves to a much greater potential for transformation. On the one hand, Jesus loves us and affirms us. On the other hand, Jesus has a far bigger picture of our potential than we do. He loves us as we are, but loves us too much to leave us there! All of us have an imperfect (and culturally conditioned) understanding of Jesus. Consistent examination of the life and example of Jesus will enlarge our vision of who he is.
It is in studying 'what Jesus did?' that Jesus is able to transform us. Usually that transformation is disturbing and scary - generally the people who are used most by Jesus are the ones who are most broken early in the process. To experience this, we need to find seasons when we are set free from 'doing' to come close to Jesus and receive from him. A prolonged study of the gospels with plenty of opportunity to listen to Jesus (combined with prayer and fasting) puts us in the place where we can become more like Jesus. Many of us would rather be busy doing things for God than taking time to listen to him, but it's worth the effort. We're between Easter and Pentecost at the moment - a period when the first disciples were told by Jesus to wait in the city until they received the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8). Luke doesn't tell us how hard the disciples found this period of praying and waiting, but the fruit on the day of Pentecost made it all worthwhile.
I feel really challenged at the moment to 'wait for the Holy Spirit' - not in a passive sense, but actively looking and longing for more of Jesus. Watch this space and I'll tell you what happens nexr.
Sunday, 1 May 2011
Frustration to action
I really enjoy Holy Week and Easter Day, but I also find it deeply frustrating. Enjoy because it's a graphic demonstration of God's most amazing action in history. We can spend a life- time trying to understand the full meaning of the events of that week and still be surprised. This Easter in particular, we had the joy of one infant baptism, four adult baptisms (in a swimming pool in the church car park) and eleven new members welcomed into the fellowship - a brilliant morning.
I'm frustrated because the way we tell the story and celebrate the resurrection connects so badly with the world outside the church. We know the 'Greatest Story Ever Told', but manage to tell it in a way that makes it boring and irrelevant to most people. Holy week services are attended by the faithful few
What can we do about it? There are at least three obvious responses:
Try harder!
Become disaffected with the whole thing.
Try something different.
Try harder
There's no doubt that we can always improve the way we do worship on high days and festivals, but if no one even knows we're holding the services, how will changing them attract others. I've spent most of my Christian life working on the principle that we only need to change a little to become more effective in mission. I'm less and less convinced that this is true. The pool of people who might be attracted to traditional church is small and getting smaller all the time. However, it's a way of working that we get sucked into all the time. Sometimes we have a spiritual experience elsewhere (I've just been to ECG which has been a real spiritual high) which motivates us to be better followers of Jesus, but we don't re-examine what following means, so we go back to doing the same things with renewed energy. Sometimes we try harder because we can't think what else to do. I think it was Einstein who said that insanity is doing the same thing twenty times and expecting a different result on the twentieth try than we got on the first nineteen!
Become disaffected
I can think of two sorts of disaffection. There are those who feel the church thing isn't working and begin to drift away. Sometimes they give up on God and faith too - sometimes they just give up on church. Often those who are still in church blame them - they're back-sliders, without asking if the nature of church is part of the problem.
Others stay in church but become less involved and more cynical about the whole thing. They drain energy from the body of Christ because they're no longer giving anything. They still think of themselves as key members, but they're drying up on the inside.
Often Christians swing between these two cycles in a downward pattern. Guilt or a new experience pushes them to try harder, but then after a while disaffection and cynicism set in again.
Try something different
The difficulty here is knowing what to try. Do we jump onto the latest 'thing' hoping it will
Succeed where other attempts failed? How do we choose what 'thing'? I know I've jumped onto a lot of band-wagons over the last thirty years and many of them have not taken me or my churches as far forward as I hoped. I've got three principles for trying something different:
Being not doing
In Romans 12:2, Paul talks of being transformed by the renewing of our minds. Not changing what we do, but allowing God the Holy Spirit to transform who we are. Focus on character not action
Remember your calling
What has god called you to do and to be? If you've never been sure of this, make this the focus of your prayers and seek help to discover it. If you do know what this is, examine how much of your life is shaped around it. If you're doing lots of worthy things that you're not called to, then think about how you can put them down (even if that leaves a gap in the church's ministry) and fill the time with things that are more in line with your calling.
Be accountable
Find someone who will hold you accountable for walking closer to Jesus (my blog post about 'boomer faith' offers a framework for this - I'm reworking it at the moment - watch this space) and meet regularly with them - it will encourage you and help you to focus.
I'm frustrated because the way we tell the story and celebrate the resurrection connects so badly with the world outside the church. We know the 'Greatest Story Ever Told', but manage to tell it in a way that makes it boring and irrelevant to most people. Holy week services are attended by the faithful few
What can we do about it? There are at least three obvious responses:
Try harder!
Become disaffected with the whole thing.
Try something different.
Try harder
There's no doubt that we can always improve the way we do worship on high days and festivals, but if no one even knows we're holding the services, how will changing them attract others. I've spent most of my Christian life working on the principle that we only need to change a little to become more effective in mission. I'm less and less convinced that this is true. The pool of people who might be attracted to traditional church is small and getting smaller all the time. However, it's a way of working that we get sucked into all the time. Sometimes we have a spiritual experience elsewhere (I've just been to ECG which has been a real spiritual high) which motivates us to be better followers of Jesus, but we don't re-examine what following means, so we go back to doing the same things with renewed energy. Sometimes we try harder because we can't think what else to do. I think it was Einstein who said that insanity is doing the same thing twenty times and expecting a different result on the twentieth try than we got on the first nineteen!
Become disaffected
I can think of two sorts of disaffection. There are those who feel the church thing isn't working and begin to drift away. Sometimes they give up on God and faith too - sometimes they just give up on church. Often those who are still in church blame them - they're back-sliders, without asking if the nature of church is part of the problem.
Others stay in church but become less involved and more cynical about the whole thing. They drain energy from the body of Christ because they're no longer giving anything. They still think of themselves as key members, but they're drying up on the inside.
Often Christians swing between these two cycles in a downward pattern. Guilt or a new experience pushes them to try harder, but then after a while disaffection and cynicism set in again.
Try something different
The difficulty here is knowing what to try. Do we jump onto the latest 'thing' hoping it will
Succeed where other attempts failed? How do we choose what 'thing'? I know I've jumped onto a lot of band-wagons over the last thirty years and many of them have not taken me or my churches as far forward as I hoped. I've got three principles for trying something different:
Being not doing
In Romans 12:2, Paul talks of being transformed by the renewing of our minds. Not changing what we do, but allowing God the Holy Spirit to transform who we are. Focus on character not action
Remember your calling
What has god called you to do and to be? If you've never been sure of this, make this the focus of your prayers and seek help to discover it. If you do know what this is, examine how much of your life is shaped around it. If you're doing lots of worthy things that you're not called to, then think about how you can put them down (even if that leaves a gap in the church's ministry) and fill the time with things that are more in line with your calling.
Be accountable
Find someone who will hold you accountable for walking closer to Jesus (my blog post about 'boomer faith' offers a framework for this - I'm reworking it at the moment - watch this space) and meet regularly with them - it will encourage you and help you to focus.
Monday, 18 April 2011
Making space for God
Lots of people talk about giving things up for lent. That's not a totally bad thing - it's too easy to get in the habit of depending on things rather than God. By deliberately denying ourselves material things - chocolate, booze, tv etc, we remind ourselves that spiritual things are more important. We only do it for a season so we don't forget that 'things' are a gift from God to be enjoyed. However, self denial that makes us miserable and leads us to compensate by depending on other 'things' doesn't do a lot for our relationship with God.
Self denial that works means stripping away 'things' to make more space for God. Leaving aside things creates more time to pray, to read scripture or some other devotional book (this year I've given up computer games - that's a lot of free time!!!).
It's almost the end of lent as I write - so how's it gone? If I'm honest, not as well as I'd hoped. I've created the extra time, but not used it incredibly well. Looking back I realise that I'm not in an accountability relationship at the moment, so noones's been asking me how I'm doing. So I've managed to spend some extra time praying, but nowhere near enough.
The moral of the story is that I need accountability or I don't do well at personal devotions.
After Easter, the plan is to start rhythm of life groups - hopefully that will help me to be more focused.
Watch this space!
Self denial that works means stripping away 'things' to make more space for God. Leaving aside things creates more time to pray, to read scripture or some other devotional book (this year I've given up computer games - that's a lot of free time!!!).
It's almost the end of lent as I write - so how's it gone? If I'm honest, not as well as I'd hoped. I've created the extra time, but not used it incredibly well. Looking back I realise that I'm not in an accountability relationship at the moment, so noones's been asking me how I'm doing. So I've managed to spend some extra time praying, but nowhere near enough.
The moral of the story is that I need accountability or I don't do well at personal devotions.
After Easter, the plan is to start rhythm of life groups - hopefully that will help me to be more focused.
Watch this space!
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