iGod

Me and the Prostitute

When I was a young man I met a prostitute. No, not in that sense.

It was in the late Eighties and I had just started working in London’s glittering West End for an ad agency. Everything was new and I was still trying to get to grips with my pocket-sized London A-Z.

Thinking I would take a short cut through some back streets to get to the tube quicker I found myself going down this dimly-lit grubby street. It had been raining and so I had one of those black city-type long rolled up umbrellas. Well, I was trying to make an impression.

Walking fast I caught sight of a heavily made up girl leaning on a door way smoking a cigarette, half-bathed in red light. She was wearing, well not very much to be honest, but what she was wearing was in leopard skin print. But what really struck me were her long black suede boots. They seemed to go half way up her body. I remember thinking what an absolute picture she looked and began considering the kind of person she must be.   

Well, I lost my concentration and managed somehow get my “man about town” umbrella caught in one of my shoelaces. I began to run uncontrollably towards this lady trying to stop myself from tumbling over – but, alas, too late. I ended up slumped awkwardly face down in a puddle by her thigh length black suede boots.

I felt this hand reach down and grab mine and pull me up to my feet. My briefcase and its contents were scattered unceremoniously across the street. Not good.

“Are you alright? Can I do anything? Do you need any help? I looked up with utter embarrassment and saw something unexpected - kindness. Not for the first time that evening I had been caught unaware and wrong-footed.

I have learnt over the years, thanks to this chance encounter with a sex worker, that kindness is what makes us human. There is much in society that tries to demean its virtue and label it as the act of church-goers, do-gooders or weak people.

The Roman philosopher and emperor Marcus Aurelius declared that “kindness was mankind’s greatest delight”, but humanist thinkers such as Voltaire saw it as a weakness and argued that there was nothing in it for the individual. He vehemently disagreed with the Christian virtue of “love your neighbour as yourself.”

Nowadays this Enlightenment thinking has gone deep into our society to make us naturally suspicious of any kindly behaviour. It is often dismissed by clever people as being sentimental or moralistic.

Some say that we are only kind to each other to get something out of it for ourselves.  Maybe, but for the Christian our motivations are different. We live not for ourselves but for the pleasure of God. Again, not a popular concept in a secular individualist society. Yet in that place, personal fulfillment and life purpose has a chance to go deeper than if we just live for our own ends.

Admittedly there is vulnerability in doing acts of kindness, but it is a risk we take. We learn to take on board “the greatest commandment” given by Jesus: “love the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul and with all your strength.” And along with that, “love your neighbour as yourself.”

Now it may seem a foolish thing to believe in today’s culture but, hey, seeing today’s society as it is, I think I’ll take my chances and be a kind fool for Christ and see where it takes me.

ASD

'Red Rev' Giles Fraser?

Just reflecting about the resigination of the Canon Chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral, Rev Dr Giles Fraser. While left-leaning The Guardian fetes the man, I hear, maybe not surprisingly, the Daily Telegraph takes another view.

Whatever side you take, he typifies the need for the Christian to speak up and get involved in politics and injustice, even when it doesn't always make you universally popular with your own peers.

US Christian activist Shane Clairborne says:

"Theologian Karl Barth said, 'We have to read the Bible in one hand, and the newspaper in the other.' For too long we Christians have used our faith as a ticket out of this world rather than fuel to engage it.

"In his parables, Jesus wasn’t offering pie-in-the-sky theology… he was talking about the real stuff of earth. He talks about wages, debt, widows and orphans, unjust business owners and bad politicians. In fact Woody Guthrie breaks it all down in his song “Jesus Christ.” The song ends with Woody singing, “This song was written in New York City. If Jesus were to preach what he preached in Galilee, they would lay him in his grave again.”

"The more I read the Gospels, the more they seem to confront the very patterns of the world we live in. At one point Mary, pregnant with Jesus cries out: “God casts the mighty from their thrones and raises the lowly… God fills the hungry with good things and sends the rich away empty…”. You can’t help but think if she were alive in contemporary America some folks would try to accuse the Virgin Mother of being Marxist or promoting class warfare. But all through Scripture we see this–over 2000 verses about how God cares for the poor and most vulnerable.

"What would Jesus say about Wall Street?"

 What would Jesus say about the Square MIle?

Would he be for locking up St Paul's Catherdral or for an open air church service?

The thing I am taking away is that if we want our message to be heard we have to first hear what culture is saying. This is not so much about wanting to sound populist like a politician, but to help us avoid sounding pompous like an old fogey.

May God grant us wisdom and courage in these times!

ASD

Christians volunteer more than others - Survey

In the spirit of, you could say, the Big Society, The Department for Culture, Media and Sport have pulled together some interesting statistics on volunteering. They show how Christians consistently volunteer more than others.

The data is based on opinion polling, and although the question wasn't asked in 2009, it is clear that every year it has been asked for the past six years Christians shown higher levels of volunteering that others.

BRIN point out that this is in line with other studies, including the British Social Attitudes Survey and the Citizenship Survey.

It has been mooted that perhaps part of the reason why Christian motivation is figure high is because the [traditional] Church has a greying older demographic, which therefore tends to be more community-spirited per se.

Undoubtedly there is more than an element of truth that when you retire you will have more time to volunteer than someone bringing up a young family, working all hours under the sun to provide for them. However, I want to throw some doubt over that conclusion.

In my own tribe, the Vineyard movement, our demographic is much younger, which inevitably has to do with being a young movement. Yet I have to say almost all of our regulars are involved in a voluntary ministry in church life, which, if you think about it is pretty impressive. Well, I am impressed!

This is because we see volunteering as 'serving', as it falls out of our relational worship with God. Our giving of our time is an important and central manifestation of our sacrificial offering to God. It is an act of thanksgiving. It is so much more more than being community-spirited. In short, the two are inseparable in the Kingdom of God. 

Deut 4:6 says that emphatically that we are to love God and love others. Volunteering is a outward response to an invisible grace.

Therefore, as it is impossible to separate serving the community to serving the Lord, maybe we should argue more confidently that our motivation has more going for it than merely being down to an ageing benevolent congregation.

ASD

 

Faith, like coffee, should be real to be enjoyed

Once in a while I get teased about my Facebook profile picture because I am told that I am drinking the longest cup of coffee in history. The shot was taken by my wife while we were in Prague for a long weekend three years ago. And what great coffee it was too. (Mind you, the European Medieval environment probably helped.)

I remember jokingly telling a close friend of mine, now my Area Pastor, that the only way I would ever leave West London and go into the country would be if there was a certain coffee shop there. So when I visited Sudbury, South Suffolk after having had more than a strong prompt by the Lord to go there, I discovered to my shock and delight a Caffe Nero had just opened. Awesome.

My wife and I just sat at a corner table in this newly furnished place profoundly silent. Though she had tears in her eyes. I should hasten to add it was not so much the coffee itself, though not one to detract from the experience, but because we felt, along with some other significant confirmations, somehow rewarded for obeying The One leading us.

Now, hear me clear, I am not so vain to think that cafe was opened just for us. As if. However, faith lived out in real experience makes for a much more enjoyable life. And through it we find some wonderful unexpected joys along the way - if we will just step out and take God at his word.

James, the brother of Jesus, writes in his pastoral letter to the early church that "faith and works" together is the only way to go, otherwise faith it is a complete dead-end and an utter waste of life's time (I paraphrase here). Faith has consequences - whether it brings suffering or pleasure.

Sometimes it will lead, probably more often than not to hardship. But even in hardship there is joy. I experienced that last weekend when with our friends Jason and Michelle Scott at Dungannon Vineyard.

As I looked down from the old military observation post on a town about the the size of Sudbury, I saw the main square, much similar to our own. I was told that over the years it has been the site of several car bomb explosions.

The town's mood is depressed. People have little money with few prospects. The long-hoped-for regeneration programme has all but come to a grinding halt. The social housing programme has been scraped due to lack of cash. On top of all that its history of religion-infused politics and vioence continues to have its impact on families' lives and emotional well-being.

In short, there is no place for a 'huddle and cuddle' pietistic Christian experience here.

And yet, in the midst of it all, I find a vibrant and beautiful expression of church which greets you with a warm smile and hot coffee.

It's work in the community is simply and profoundly moving. It does not take sides with anyone, but the poor and hard-pressed. I came away feeling that more than ever Northern Ireland, and the rest of us, need to confront the religiosity and judgmentalism that often tries to pass itself off as 'faith'.

Following Jesus cannot just be monastic, devotional or a matter of words. As James says so well (again, paraphrasing), it thrives best when lived out in a practical, community-based, real-life experience.

Accept no imitations.

ASD

 

Why me?

My youngest child has got into the slightly annoying habit of saying "Why?" a lot at the moment. Her mother and I are not sure whether half the time it is a real question or just a way of keeping the attention on her. Nevertheless, it has become a part of her conversational style. In the last week I have been asking the question: Why me? But not in a self-piteous or negative way.

As our young church plant turned three this last weekend I saw the faithfulness of God in our journey, but sometimes I struggle with the responsibility of it all. I also know my weaknesses. I can say the wrongs things, do the wrongs, let friends down, give oxygen to the things I struggle with. And yet out of this imperfection I still find myself being used by God. Extraordinary.

For any pastor church is hard work and long hours, and the cost has already been great, but there's nothing quite like it when you see a prayer answered and circumstances change. All the difficulties and disappointments find their perspective in the grand narrative. But we never forget to tell each other we are on a journey.

Most people come to God because they want something out of him, but we are aiming to be a church that learns to come to God because of who he is and to simply to love him. For example, using the analogy of marriage, who marries someone just because of what they can get out of the other partner? It is nonsense isn't it?

As we begin our fourth year, we recognise that many people are nervous of coming to church because they feel they will be judged by Christians. Judged for being a single mum, judged for being a divorcee, judged for having a teenage abortion, judged for working as a lap dancer, judged for being gay. It takes a lot of courage to come through the door. I wonder why then we can make it so difficult for people by saying you must behave and believe our doctrines before you put another foot forward?

In that time honoured tradition we have learnt to say "come as you are" and mean it. Now that can be costly, as so often we like church to be normal, well organised and predictable. We have got it how we want it and don't want anyone messing with something that we have been perfecting over a number of years.

Yet for the Lord to grow his church he needs to grow our hearts in compassion. Change has to happen in us before we can expect to see it in others.

In Matthew's gospel it says that "when Jesus saw the crowd he had compassion on them" (Matthew 9:36). Crowds by description would suggest that they are strangers, unknown people. Yet Jesus was demonstrating the need for kindness towards them.

He says that they are "harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd". In other words, strangers need caring for. We need to get to know them. The church doesn't just look after itself.

It is a privilige to be called to serve others in this way and I am so grateful for those who have come alongside us to work in the "harvest field". I suspect also that I am not the only one asking, Why me?

If you are not a Christian and and reading this you need to know that none of us feel particularly special or sorted.

It is grace - and grace alone.

ASD

Our 5 core values as a Vineyard movement

As we head into a new term, I have been reminded of the privilege it is to be part of this thing we call the Vineyard.

As our founder John Wimber would say with some weight, it is has never been our intention to start another denomination, but merely to seek what the Lord is doing in this generation.

Through the busyness and hustle and bustle of general church life it is good to be reminded of the values of what draws people in to find hope in Jesus, and for many maybe begin for the first time in their lives a personal relationship with a living God.

To that end I am grateful to Ken Wilson for penning our 5 core values in such an articulated and informing way.

Ken Wilson is the Senior Pastor of the Ann Arbor Vineyard, Michigan and is the Regional Overseer for the Great Lakes Region.

Throughout its history, the Vineyard movement has fostered a conversation about the kingdom of God. This conversation is ongoing, and so it is important both to remind those in the movement of what these concepts involve and to introduce those new to the Vineyard to these distinctive emphases.

Kingdom Theology & Practice

The Vineyard is committed to the theology and practice of the kingdom of God--rooted in the vision of the Hebrew prophets and fulfilled in the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. The movement is distinctively rooted in a renewed understanding of the centrality of the kingdom in biblical thought. We view the kingdom of God as the overarching and integrating theme of the Bible.

From the beginning, the Vineyard has been committed to proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God and to bearing witness to the "already and not yet" of the kingdom in our words and deeds--through healing (physical, emotional, and social), doing justice, and delivering those held captive by evil. Since the kingdom of God is the future reign of God breaking into the present through the life and ministry of Jesus, we are a forward-leaning movement that emphasizes the ever-reforming nature of the church and engages the world in love.

Culturally Relevant Mission

The church exists for the sake of those who are exiled from God. We are called to bring the gospel of the kingdom to every nook and cranny of creation, faithfully translating the message of Jesus in language and forms that are relevant to diverse peoples and cultures.

The Vineyard seeks to plant churches that are culturally relevant in a wide variety of settings, both locally and internationally. Each Vineyard church is encouraged to reach those in its community not already reached by existing churches. To this end, we promote a creative, entrepreneurial, and innovative approach to ministry that is faithful to Jesus and expressive of his desire to reach those who are far away from God.

Compassionate Ministry

We lean toward the lost, the poor, the outcast, and the outsider with the compassion of Jesus, knowing we are sinners whose standing before God is utterly dependent on his mercy. This mercy can only be truly received inasmuch as we are willing to give it away.

We believe that ministry in Jesus' name should be expressed in concrete ways through the local church. The poor are to be served as though we serve Jesus himself. This is one of the distinguishing characteristics of a church expressing the love of Christ in a local community.

In fact, in all forms of ministry, compassion is a hallmark of the One who was "moved with compassion" in the face of human need. This being the age of grace (and "the year of the Lord's favor") compassion should constitute the leading edge of our service to God, each other, and our broken world. With humility, we seek to avoid unauthorized judgments of others, realizing that we suffer and struggle along with the rest of humanity.

Reconciling Community

Jesus is reconciling people to God, to each other, and to the entire creation. He breaks down divisions between Jew and Gentile, slave and free, male and female. Therefore, Vineyard churches are committed to being communities of healing, engaged in the work of reconciliation wherever sin and evil hold sway.

We also seek to be diverse communities of hope that realize the power of the cross to reconcile what has been separated by sin. This requires that we move beyond our personal preferences and engage those whom we perceive to be unlike us. We must actively work to break down barriers of race, culture, gender, social class, and ethnicity.

We are convinced that the church (locally, nationally, and globally) is meant to be a diverse community precisely because Jesus is Lord over every nation, tribe, and tongue. We are not satisfied with the status quo when it doesn't reflect this kingdom reality. Instead, we pray eagerly for the coming of God's kingdom here and now and hope to see the reconciliation that is evidence that kingdom in our midst.

Experiencing God

The triune God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) is eager to be known and experienced by all. We believe that God is searching for the lost and longs to draw us into loving, intimate relationship with him. In Vineyard churches, we welcome God's personal presence, we seek to be attentive to his presence, and we value the passionate pursuit of his presence in order to respond in obedience to his initiatives.

We understand God's presence as a palpable reality. As we become increasingly sensitive and responsive to the Spirit's presence, we too can learn to "see what the Father is doing" and support his work with our lives.

We value an approach to God's presence that is respectful both of God and others. We eschew hype and other efforts to manipulate either God's presence or the response of others to his presence. We distinguish between the Holy Spirit and the human response to the Holy Spirit, which shares in all the beauty and brokenness of our humanity.

These, then, are the core values that draw us together as a movement. They are different aspects of the treasure buried in the field that is the Vineyard. The treasure, of course, is the kingdom of God embodied and brought forth by Jesus of Nazareth.

A soft touch or generous? You choose.

I have three instances recently where it has been suggested that either I or my church could be accused of being a soft touch.

I guess it it is understandable, but misplaced. Firstly I have to say how impacted I was twenty odd years ago by John Wimber's famous dictum " I am a fool for Christ, whose fool are you?" That way of thinking really turned my world upside down as a young Christian, and still does today.

The truth is it is not in anyone's nature to want to be anyone's fool, but some of the side-effects of not making yourself vulnerable is that it makes you hard, defensive and and self-interested. These aren't very endearing qualities for a church trying to be outward-focused and relevant to the community.

In our church we run a compassion ministry called Storehouse. Part of that ministry is a food bank where referred people can come and grab a bag of food to help them through a tough time when the system isn't there for them.  We work with a number of local partners, including social services. However, it was suggested recently by one of our referral partners that some people were taking food from us when they didn't really need it. It really bothered them.

Another person thought if we let someone have something for free it might be more of a hindrance than a help because they might just be bad with finances and never learn the value of anything.

I was reminded this week of the story in John 5:1-6 where Jesus ministers at Bethesda. The place itself means House of Kindness. Jesus asks the disabled woman, "Do you want to get well?"  What a question!

No I mean what a question. What a brilliant thing to ask. He could have just simply said, "Be healed".

If you ask any of the guys we help if they want their situation to change, you will generally be met with "yes". But ever so often we meet people who don't. Sometimes for the drug addict, they are actually happy having a habit because it has it's routine for them and comes with a like-minded group of friends. I suspect for the crippled woman, she had her routine as well, going down to the pool every day, along with all the other disabled people. I suspect they had quite a little community going.

So I am happy to be seen as a soft touch, because actually I know how easily I can become mean-spirited, given the right situation.

We accept that it means that some people who come to us for help, really don't want anything more than a bag of food. Meanwhile, others are desperate for change.

We know that to be generous to people and be a place that is kind to the unloved comes with a price. Usually that price is our personal pride and self-interest.

For that reason, I'd rather be a chump for Christ than a judge for Jesus.

ASD

  

Video showing Christian shop worker dissuading would-be armed robber

I was touched by the braveness of this young 22-year-old woman working in a mobile shop who found herself being threatened from a desperate man wanting cash to avoid eviction. Faced with a potential life and death situation she chose to offer the hope of Christ to this man. It really is quite a moving video to watch.

Even though it turned out the  gun was a replica it shouldn't detract from the fact that her compassion far outweighed the fear for her own safety. Her courage and conviction clearly shone through.

The shop manager Nayara Goncalves said:

"It touched me. I could never be able to think I could to talk or preach to someone with a gun.

"I just felt like hugging him and saying please don't do this."

Veda Coleman-Wright, of Broward County sheriff's office, said she had never seen anything like it in her 14 years on the job.

An uplifting story to start the week.

ASD

John's Stott's very last book

I can't fully remember the first time I read John Stott. However, I know that his writing has a lasting impact on my ministry and hopefully those in my beloved church that I have the privilege of leading.

His books have continued to engage me and stretch my mind to think biblically and culturally. He has challenged my on my biblical understanding of Heaven and Hell and help revolutionise my perceptions of what it is to minister to a broken world through compassion and justice.

I was privileged to hear John at a chapel service while I was at college where, unlike other guest speakers, he used a New Testament Greek version to speak from. I was in awe as I sat there colouring in the pretty pictures of my Good News Bible.

What struck me most was his expectation that every student would have the same hunger to go as deep into the theological issues as him.

The post-war Evangelical Church owes so much to John. He has continually brought balance, especially where Evangelicalism has latterly been affected by short-sighted culture-bound thinking, i.e. prosperity teaching.

John has also demonstrated how to make theology accessible to all, a gift not insignificant, often bringing much needed clarity to tricky subjects. A sure sign that he has got to grips with the issues and wrestled with them.

So now I hear from Mark Meynell at All Souls, London that John Stott has written his absolute final book. (At 89 years old, I think we can all let him put down his pen now, don't you?)

According to Mark, his new book, The Radical Disciple is not so much new material as a reflection of things we may have heard or read elsewhere. What is remarkable is, as a man in in ninth decade, he still wants to be seen as a radical disciple!

I borrow from Mark's excellent blog for an outline of themes covered in the book:

1. Non-Conformity: “we are neither to seek to preserve our holiness by escaping from the world nor to sacrifice our holiness by conforming to the world” (p19)
2. Christlikeness: “we are to be like Christ in his incarnation, in his service, in his love, in his endurance, and in his mission” (p38)
3. Maturity: “may God give us such a full, clear vision of Jesus Christ, first that we may grow into maturity ourselves, and secondly that, by faithful proclamation of Christ in his fullness to others, we may present others mature as well.” (p53)
4. Creation-Care: “God intends our care of the creation to reflect our love for the Creator” (p65)
5. Simplicity: “All Christians claim to have received a new life from Jesus Christ. What lifestyle, then, is appropriate for them? If the life is new, the lifestyle should be new also” (p71)
6. Balance: “We are both individual disciples and church members, both worshippers and witnesses, both pilgrims and citizens. Nearly all our failures stem from the ease with which we forget our comprehensive identity as disciples.” (p102)
7. Dependence: “We are all designed to be a burden to others… The life of the family, including the life of the local church family, should be one of ‘mutual burdensomeness.‘” (p113)
8. Death: “If we want to live we must die. And we will be willing to die only when we see the glories of the life to which death leads. This is the radical, paradoxical Christian perspective.” (p135)

Mark also makes a useful comment on the symmetry of John supposedly last book at the time The Living Church with The Radical Disciple:

• In The Living Church, he expounds the key hallmarks of what constitutes Church life, in all its diversity, challenges and joys.
• In The Radical Disciple, he expounds the key hallmarks of a Christian’s life, again in all its diversity, challenges and joys.

One for the bookshelf.

Meanwhile, I am off down to the Vineyard National Leaders Conference in Butlins, Bognor Regis this week. Undoubtedly, I will see the effect this much loved pastor-theologian has had on our young movement in one way, shape or form among us.

I'll bring you back a stick of rock.

ASD

Ever get tired of talking and just want to do the stuff? Me too.

One of the things that turned me off the Church many years ago as a young man was that people were always talking at me. I got advice whether I wanted it or not. It eventually drove me away. The Church can talk a good game for sure.

When I was at theological college I was talked at for another three years. Though this time voluntarily and pretty enjoyable it was too. However, I got to the end of the course and found myself desperate to just do the stuff. I had enough of sitting in a classroom. I wanted to get my hands dirty.

The problem is Church can only be a school. It sounds all good preached on Sundays and discussed in small groups midweek, but leaves you feeling unexercised.  A bit like watching a cookery programme on TV, but never getting to cook the recipe for yourself and taste all its flavours.

In the Vineyard we often paint the picture of the church through what we call 'Vineyard Man'. We say that the Church can be seen metaphorically as an army, a hospital, a family and...a school. We all need training, but the best discipling happens on the job.

John Wimber used to say it is not good enough to say "I will pray for you". You have get up and go and pray with them. Neither is it good enough to say you "care for the poor". Go care for the poor!

James writes: 'If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?' (James 2:16)

At the end of the day, words are simply not enough. We need to be 'doers of the Word'.

Jason Scott over in Dungannon Vineyard in that beautiful part of the Emerald Isle felt three years ago that God ask him the question “If Vineyard Church closed the doors tomorrow would anyone in our community know or more importantly would anyone care?”

It really is true that actions speak louder than words. Not only that but they get remembered. Child psychologists will tell you that children remember considerably more by what is shown than what is said.

One of the things we always set out to be since our inception two years ago was to be a giving church. For me in the last 15 months I have been helped to see that in the context of being an outward-focused church. For this much thanks must be given to Dave Workman and the guys at in Cincinnati Vineyard for their inspiration to live servant-like lives. Not forgetting the man himself Steve Sjogren.

I am warmed by the those around me in our church and other churches we have relationship with who have graciously heard me bang on to the point of passing out about living an outward-focused life and are now giving it a go themselves. They are in for a treat.

For me, I can see no greater privileged than serving others. It gives me such a buzz.

When John Wimber said all those years ago as a  new Christian after studying the Book of Acts in his home group "When do we get to do the stuff?" I still find myself getting stirred by his honest response.

Nothing inspires me more than when someone comes up to me and says they'd like to do this or that. Most times out of ten it is out of a prayerful response to follow what they see the Father is doing. We don't just want to read the Word, but do the works, don't we? That's the fun part.

And that is all we can do or should want to do. I mean, after all, why settle for second best for ourselves?

Will 2010 be a year of doing or a year of talking? I guess it is our choice, isn't it?  Live for ourselves or live for Him. No contest, really.

ASD