Presumptions

The news item this week about paternity leave and the possibily of fathers taking on the care of their child while the mother goes back to work led to a discussion in our house about the presumption that still exists in our society that mothers are the people who care for children. Indeed there is a deeper presumption that mothers are better-equipped than fathers to care for their children.

That led me to think about other presumptions, especially those that operate in Churches: There is a presumption that if the minister is a good preacher he or she will be good at other things too: that he or she will be a good people-person, able to listen and counsel people in need; that he or she will be a good manager of the structures of the Church and be good at change-management. When a nominating committee sets out to choose a new candidate to become minister of a church, they have a list of qualities and skills for which they are looking, but that 'ideal minister' doesn't exist; so they have to pick and choose on some kind of priority scale; let's face it, all they really see of their new minister before their candidate beceoms their minister is how that person conducts a service and preaches; they don't see his or her people skills; they don't see his or her ability to chair a Kirk Session meeting; so the presumption is there - if he can do one, he will be able to do the others!

In fact, in my little example alone there are at least 3 different skill-sets, that are quite distinct. The abililty to preach is a totally different skill-set from that of being a counsellor, or a manager of change. Why do we presume that these skills will all abide in the one person? Then when our expectations of that one person are not met, that one person has to carry the blame for the failure of things that he or she is not very good at anyway!

Here are some other presumptions: We presume that older people hate new songs and that young people love every one of the new songs that are out there. We presume that the people who have been doing jobs in the Church for years are good at them! We presume that people who are the silent majority in a church have no views on any matter or have no skills and gifts to offer. We presume that people who don't express their faith in the language that we use don't have a faith at all. We presume that people who express no desire to come to Bible Study or the prayer time don't read the Bible and don't pray.

These are huge, sweeping generalisations, but....

I'm sure you can think of other presumptions that we make in the life of Churches. Let's challenge these presumptions. Let's build an effective Church for the future.

Life is a peach

The Church is facing a pandemic, a virus. According to Mark Greene is it called SSD. He says "Globally, 98% of Christians are neither envisioned nor equipped for mission in 95% of their waking lives. BUT just imagine if they were..." What is SSD? "The Sacred-secular divide". The Church, he says, is guilty of dividing life into the 'sacred, religious bit' and the rest. We're good at recognising the sacred bit, but not so good at helping people deal with the rest of life. How does the Bible relate to the world of work? How can we help young people develop a Christian view of the maths or the physics they study at school or the books they read for English? How can we help the parents who are bringing up their children and trying to work at the same time?

SSD has limited mission in 4 ways:

• geographically - usually to within a few miles of the church building and/or far, far away


• personnel - mission is seen as the province of church-paid people


• time - SSD tends to confine most people's mission activity to their leisure time, evenings and weekends


• Scope of the gospel - and the message we share with others, that is no longer about all our life and all our being.

"we have a small percentage of the Church taking a partial gospel to far, far fewer people than are actually known by the Christians in our congregations." "Churches have to realise that the core of their calling is to be disciple-making communities whatever else they do." (Bishop Graham Cray) So why is life a peach and not an orange? Because an orange is made up of segments that you can pull apart and we have been taught to think that God is more interested in the religious segments - prayer, church, worship - and is not interested in work, sport, school, hobbies. The peach is a whole fruit, all together. God is interested in all of our being, all of our life, all of our community. Overcoming SSD can: expand our vision, inspire our mission. release our churches, broaden our minds, enlarge our hearts. nourish our souls, thrill our spirits, free our imagination for faithful following and fruitful living in all of life. I'll lend you the whole essay if you like; it is called The Great Divide by Mark Greene.

It could never happen here?

My blog today is 2 very simple weblinks:

the first is to a news story that was in the press this week and the second is to a group that campaigns to do something about it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-12712569

http://www.stopthetraffik.org/

In 2005 the Church of Scotland Guild produced some very good material on this subject and of course, CHO is working along the Cambodia/Thailand border to try to interrupt the trade; talk about putting your life on the line!

BBC2 and the Bible

Last night (15th March 2011) BBC2 broadcast a programme called Bible's Buried Secrets: Did King David's Empire Exist? This is how the website describes the programme: "Dr Francesca Stavrakopoulou goes on the trail of King David and his fabled empire. Did he really rule over a vast Israelite kingdom? Did he even exist? She examines evidence for and against the Biblical account." I have to say it made me angry, so I thought I'd take a few minutes this morning to counter some of what she said, just in case you watched it too!

The programme was based on a premise described as 'Empire'; "The Bible says that David had a great Empire" she kept saying. In fact, the word empire is never used in the Bible during the reign of King David. He ruled over Israel and Judah and subdued a few neighbours, but "empire" is not a Biblical notion. Worse, she then imported her notions of empire, so that there was an assumption that because David had an empire, he must have had all kinds of trapping of power, such as a huge standing army, fortresses and the buildings in his capital city that went with power. She even went as far as to say that if we are to accept the notion that God called David to be King, we needed to see evidence of power, wealth and glory (or words to that effect).

She met several archaeologists during the course of filming the programme. As you can imagine, there were conflicting views based on findings that are 3000 years old. Some were arguing that the evidence begged questions of the Biblical account of David, whilst others were arguing on the basis of other evidence that the Biblical account is accurate. I've never seen a more prejudiced summing up: the sceptics were allowed to comment on those supporting the Bible, but there was no right of reply; her conclusions supported one view because that was the view with which she started.

The Bible story was constantly quoted, but I have to say not often in a way that I recognised.

It is quite right and in order for questions to be asked of the Bible in the light of archaeological evidence. But listen to all of the evidence and give the Bible due place as part of that evidence. Anyone can make the Bible say what we want it to say; the far bigger challenge for us is to listen to what the Bible really says and see what life is like then.

We can't make David (or any other Bible character) fit the mould of our 21st century world-view (of "Empire" or any other notion!); it just doesn't work that way. The call of God on David's life was not about power and splendour; it was about faith and obedience; David wanted to built grand buildings, but God wouldn't let him!

Bad show, BBC. A more one-sided piece of television I've not seen since September when BBC Scotland broadcast a programme telling us that the Church of Scotland is dead.

The doorkeeper - part 2

Following on from Friday's blog here are some thoughts as to what might be doors into the blessing of God for people in our community:

• Messy Church might be a door for some
• The Green Strollers might be a door for some
• a course, such as Stepping Stones or Christianity Explored might be a door for some
• The Open Door cafe might be a door for some
• The Sunday morning service, with Kids' Church, creche and youth group might be a door for some
• The Summer mission might be a door for some
• The Girlguiding service might be a door for some
• A bereavement and a funeral might be a door for some
• A Christmas or Easter card might be a door for some
• The Guild of Friendship might be a door for some
• The gift of flowers from the Church might be a door for some.

Actually, given a good heart in us, most of what we do can be a door for some to come into the blessing of God, into faith and into Church. Don't just sit back and expect it to happen; as the doorkeepers, we have to reach out our hands to help people through these doors.

But we can do exactly the opposite. On Sunday morning, a lady (a visitor, the grandmother of a Brownie) was in Church early; she sat at the end of a pew. Then someone else came in and wanted to sit in the same pew, so she went past the first to sit further in. Then 2 more people came and wanted to sit beside their friend, the second lady to hit the pew. The first lady let them past and stood waiting to resume her seat. Sadly, they didn't move far enough into the seat, so our first lady was left standing in the ailse for some time, till finally she moved to sit in the seat in front. People have stormed out of Churches for this kind of thing; fortunately she was fine about it. This was not done deliberately to push someone out; it was simply careless and thoughtless, but it could be the kind of experience which turns a door into a brick wall for someone.

Is there someone for whom you are a doorkeeper? Is there someone that you can help through the door into the joy of Christ?

A doorkeeper?

"I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God..." - these are some words from Psalm 84, as the writer pictures himself standing at the door of the temple, welcoming people to worship. Some of us still do that; we welcome people to worship as part of a welcome team.

Some Cambodian communities have people called "doorkeepers". This is no longer physical, but their job is to look after the best interests of the community. If you want to run a project in their village, you need the permission of the doorkeepers; they will let you in, but also keep you out.

There is a great deal of door-imagery in the Bible. Jesus calls Himself the gate; He stands at the door and knocks; John saw a door open in heaven. (John 10; Revelation 3,4) Here's a Celtic prayer:
God the Lord has opened a door
Christ of hope, Door of joy!
Son of Mary, hasten Thou to help me:
in me, Lord Christ, let there be joy.

How do people find the door into God's blessing and the joy of Christ? There are lots of people who would love to find the door into faith, but are not sure where the door is. Some would even like to begin to be part of a Church, but they don't know how to begin.

We should be keepers of the door and that should mean creating opportunities, creating ways for people to find their way. Maybe we even need to be the doors, so that by and through us, others find their way to faith, to Christ, to Church. How does the Church create these opportunties?

Do people feel for the door, but all they find is a wall? The door ought to be there, and they feel for it and grope along the wall, but they find no doorway, no opening, just a solid wall stopping them from getting in.

2 things: are we blocking the door? Is there something in us or in our Church or in the way we do things that creates a brick wall rather than a door?
Secondly, "the most important thing anyone can do is to take hold of one of these blind, groping hands, and put it on the latch... and open it, and walk in, and find Him... So I stand by the door. (Samuel Shoemaker)

Telling our story!

Have a look at this link to the Tearfund website; you might see someone you recognise!

http://connected.tearfund.org/en/how_project_link_works/

I was asked to be involved in this DVD project (there is a longer version, with some other people as well!) to tell other Church leaders about our connection with Cambodia. I went to Manchester for a Saturday last year to take part in the filming; it was a long day and there were a few retakes; apparently some bits of the interview appear in another Tearfund DVD, but none have appeared on You've been Framed! yet.

It is good to tell our story, not so that we can boast about ourselves, but to share with others some of the ways in which God has been moving us and prompting us. We have to tell our story in such a way that it is clear that we give glory and honour to God. By telling the story of our involvement with Tearfund and Cambodia, I understand that some other churches have begun to show an interest in this kind of Connected Church project.

This DVD tells part of a story about a particular thing we do and others have responded. As Christians we can tell the story of Jesus, or the personal story of our own faith, whenever the opportunity arises, and tell people a little about the love and faithfulness of God. Perhaps they'll respond positively to that too.