After this, Jesus and his disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where he spent some time with them, and baptized. Now John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water, and people were constantly coming to be baptized. (This was before John was put in prison.) An argument developed between some of John’s disciples and a certain Jew over the matter of ceremonial washing. They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan—the one you testified about—well, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him.”

To this John replied, “A man can receive only what is given him from heaven. You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Christ but am sent ahead of him.’ The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must become greater; I must become less.

So firstly John the Baptist suffered from what most church leaders perhaps suffer from at some point. The “look at that church over there” syndrome. John’s followers were basically saying that Jesus’ church was doing much better than their church and that John should think of a strategy to win back some of his followers.

John’s response is staggering. “He must become greater; I must become less”. He is basically saying that he was put on this earth to become less. I don’t know about you but when I think about the things I do I dream about them becoming big. I dream about them becoming more influential, more productive, more connected, more respected. I don’t for one minute hope and pray that God would make the things I do ‘less’ - even if it is for the gain of someone else. But as John so astutely puts it “A man can receive only what is given him from heaven”. Well said.

This really challenges me therefore - because while my desire to see the things I do have some success and prosperity, am I doing that so that people won’t think I’m a worthless idiot? Am I doing it simply to feel good in myself? Or am I really doing it because that is what God is saying?

I’ve thought for a long time that, with particular reference to my worship leading / song-writing that God was in fact calling me to be small in it - i.e. not to have ambition for platinum selling albums or Christian fame and respect. But to be the best worship leader I could be for the sake of the tens / hundreds of people in the area I live and the people in our church. And to not only do that but to do that with everything I have, being satisfied with the fact that I am doing God’s will - not selling loads of albums. I believe I am a good worship leader - whatever that means - and God needs those in the small churches and areas just He does in the big ones.

God help me to treat your opinion higher than my opinion, or others opinion of me. That way, surely I’ll just get on doing what you want me to do.

Entitled “Gods Exit Strategy: The Plagues”  we looked at  Exodus 5 - 11. I’ve included below links to the recording (sorry if the quality is not amazing; it was recorded live straight to my laptop and has not been edited except to remove some of the discussion chatter). If there is demand I can add the slides and my more detailed notes.

I hope it’s useful. I may add a companion post when I have more time.

I will post the remaining 4 weeks worth in the same way when they are completed.

I hope it’s useful.

After a couple of weeks off Beer and Bible was back in the lounge of The Northcote Hotel. We picked up where we left off in Luke Chapter 6 but didn’t get very far.

Questions

The main questions that came up were;

1. Who are our enemies? Do we actually have any?
2. What does it mean; turn the other cheek? And all that.
3. What is judging? 

Discussion

The focus of the discuss was on the very challenging verses 27-36. We talked about the context of Roman occupation into which these words were originally spoken. We agreed that the idea of having enemies is almost alien to us. The concept is normally watered down to people who are rude to you while queueing at the post office etc. 

What followed was quite a long discussion about whether or not Jesus was asking his followers to be subversion and cunning (be nice to bad people because it will make them feel bad) or if Jesus was asking us to just be nice.

Finally we talked about judging. We agreed that we make judgements all the time and that this passage isn’t suggesting that it is bad to judge right from wrong. We considered the idea of our motives being important and how we always need to keep the context of the fact that we are all the same really. We are all human beings; created in the image of God. We are not any better than anybody else.

Some rather honest discussion followed about situations we find it difficult not to be judgmental. It was a very useful exchange *smile*

It was suggested that these are some of the most difficult and challenging verses in the Bible. I guess it’s no surprise that we didn’t get much further.

Drinks consumed were: Guinness, 6x, and Carlsberg.

Good evening all round!

Next week

Reading: Luke 6: 43 - end (and maybe into seven if we are lucky)

Venue: The Northcote Hotel (lounge bar)

Time: 20:00 

I’ve just finished section one; Money, and it has given me some food for thought. The main thrust of the discussion is to challenge the most popular view of money in the contemporary Church. That is that money is neither good nor evil, and that all that matters is what one does with it.

A different view of money.

This has been my view on the subject so I have found it interesting, and somewhat uncomfortable to have it challenged. Foster suggests that Money has a spirit all of it’s own. That it does, but it’s very nature, seek to control us and seeks our service and worship. Foster goes on to how we, as Christians, need to discover how we can enslave money for the use of the Kingdom of God.

Which master do we serve?

How do we know then if we are serving the idol Mammon? Examine the financial decisions you make. Do you buy what you want or what you need? I did have a perfectly good Sony MP3 player but now have an incredible sexy iPod Touch so this is definitely one for me to consider. When buying a house is the first question; what can I afford? What area can I afford to live in? How many bedrooms / bathrooms can my budget stretch too? Or is the first question; where does God want me to live? How many bedrooms / bathrooms do I need? You can of course apply this to the new car or holiday destination etc etc.

Are such decisions dictated first by the size of our savings and credit limit or are they dictated by God? I’m not suggesting that new cars are bad, that we shouldn’t buy a bigger house or go on holiday. Not at all. But the challenge to me has been to look at my decision making process when I am using my money. If the amount of money I have is dictating to me how my money is being spent then Foster suggests that Mammon has a hold that he shouldn’t have.

Being a good steward

Having money in itself isn’t a bad thing (be clear too that it’s not necessarily a sign of God’s blessings either, though it can be). We are called to be good stewards and as both Lewis and Willard have impressed upon me previously (Mr Foster joins the list now too) if we simply give it all away then this cannot fulfil that calling. We cannot steward, after all, what we do not have. Giving, however, is how we enslave Mammon.

All the power that money has over us is derived from the fact that we strive to get it. By fair means or foul money is “earned”. If, therefore, we are able to give it away we can then break this hold and power over us. Foster discusses some interesting ways of giving; And not just to “Christian” causes. We are called to invest in the Kingdom; to invest in what lasts. Some suggestions included, of course, regular, planned, giving to your church. Also, to be able to give reactively is encourage. One suggestion that I hadn’t herd before was to have a long term plan or budget for giving. i.e. I want to give x pounds to such and such a charity over the next 10 years and I am going to make it possible by investing in y way. etc etc. Giving to individuals, maybe to help fund education, medical bills, or some other need is also an option. It’s also worth remembering that a key aspect of giving is not to have to dictate how it is spent.

Slavery for the Kingdom

Jesus makes it clear that we cannot serve two masters. We cannot server both God and Mammon. It is simply not possible. He commends shrude investment and even uses some very confusing phrases like; “make friends with unrighteous Mammon”, but there is not time to go into that one now.

Money is a dangerous customer that, when enslaved for the Kingdom, can be used to do a great deal of good. But always, Foster encourages, we must be on our guard. For even if we have conquered it; Mammon will attempt to counter attack. It is a dynamic spirit that will always seek to regain a foot hold.

Hopefully this has given you a taste. This first section has left me with some interesting challengers to consider. Be shrude, be eager to give, live simply thinking about what I need not just what I want, and be sure that my decision are made as a response to God and not as a result of how much money I think I have available. Money is there to be conquered and to serve me in my pursuit of the Kingdom of God, not the other way around.

This is the first part in my promised “A Church for tomorrow?” series. I am going to look at the idea that the Churches relevance has somehow impacted the the membership and commitment of everyday Christians to a local congregation. 

This is a common reason given by Christians  for not being an active member of a local congregation. Before we even attempt to look at it’s validity I think we need to first ask a couple of questions and try and put down some definitions.

1. What do we mean by Church?
2. What do we mean by irrelevant?

Church

The Biblical idea of Church is the collection of people that act as Christs physical body on earth. I think we would be hard pressed to find any Christian that would suggest that is an irrelevant idea. The world today, maybe more now than ever, requires a physical outworking of the grace and love of Jesus Christ. This, therefore, cannot be what people mean when using this reason for non-committal to a local Church.

So what is the alternative?

I think this must be the weekly gathering of people that, generally speaking, happens on a Sunday morning.

Irrelevant

So a dictionary definition is; “Unrelated to the matter being considered”.

Where church is concerned; “the matter being considered” can only be one of three things (or more probably a combination of them).

1. God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit)
2. The world “out there”
3. Me

Using our Biblical idea of church, I don’t see how being Christ’s physical body on Earth is unrelated to any of the above.

How about the weekly gathering being unrelated?

I would suggest that a weekly gathering of believers is indeed related to God. I would find it difficult to argue against this.

Whether or not it’s related to the “world out there” is possibly contentious. Different models of Church will have a slightly different emphasis. Some will strive to be welcoming to “outsiders” while others will strive to equip their members to be ready for their interactions during the rest of the week. In reality I’d imagine most are somewhere between these two extremes.  So, with that said, I would suggest that Church, is indeed related  to “the world out there”.

So what about me? Is the Church related to me? I think that here lay the crux of the issue. Is the Church doing what I want, in the way I would want it to happen, when I would want it to happen?

I fear that, while all individual Churches will have varying degrees of success in it’s relation to the first two points it will never be exactly what I would want it to be.

Challenge

Is the Church irrelavant? I would suggest no. I would even suggest that it is possible more relevant now than it has ever been. However, as a western Christian it is becoming increasingly challenging to commit to a local body of Christians.

Apart from finding it difficult to commit to anything at all we are increasingly mobile.  Almost approaching nomadic in movements from place to place and therefore not having any great ties to a particular location. 

We are persistently encouraged to shop around in every other area of life. If the product we are consuming is not quite to our taste, or we simple fancy a change, we shop elsewhere.

We are increasingly busy. Work, friends, family, hobbies, etc. All put massive pressure on our time. Being part of a Christian community takes investment and our time is precious.

Please don’t misunderstand me. Church needs to stay in touch with the modern world. A valid charge can be leveled at many a Church door, of all denominations and styles, that it lives its life as though it was still the 20th century (or worse). But this issue is only increased when Christians dissociate themselves.

Being a member of a local Church can be a challenge. It is certainly effort (even hard work) and requires time and commitment. But let us all be clear that these are the issues. Irrelevance, I would suggest, is not.

There were slightly less of us on Wednesday but that didn’t dent our enthusiasm. If anything it made for a better evening and a more in depth discussion. The original plan was to tackle all of Luke 6 but we were so enthralled by the discussion that it got to 10pm and we were only half way through.

The great thing about our time together is that we don’t really have an agenda. We don’t need to blitz a whole chapter every week. The passage is a catalyst for discussion as we seek to get to know other better and get to know God a little better too.

Once again we dipped in and out of other Gospels as we sort to find some context for what we were reading about the calling of the disciples. We also spent some time in Exodus in an attempt to work out what all the fuss is about the Sabbath.

Questions

The main questions that came up were;

1. Why is the calling of the disciples seemingly in a different chronological place from the accounts in other Gospels.
2. What is a Sabbath? Should we keep it? How does that work today?

Discussion

Some discussion surrounding the make up of the Bible and how the books were constructed. Who was Luke written for and how that affects is contents. Context is key.

A long discussion followed about the Sabbath. Why is such a big deal made of it? Even in the ten commandments it seems to get more real estate than any of the other nine.  We talked about the disappearance of a collective, national sabbath and whether or not the church should be doing anything to try and reverse this trend.

A large focus of discuss was on what it means for us to keep a Sabbath. Should we? Why? How? etc.

We didn’t get as far as chapter 17 so this will wait until next time.

Drinks consumed were: Guinness, 6x, and Landlord.

Next week

Reading: Luke 6: 17 - end

Venue: The Northcote Hotel (lounge bar if its not full again)

Time: 20:00 

In general, the number of regular church goers in British churches is in terminal decline. This is especially true in the 16 – 30 age bracket. There are certain individual churches and certain types on church that buck this trend but as a broad sweeping statement, which I am not going to try and backup with statistics of any kind (*smile*), the church will run out of members in the next 50 years unless something changes.

Put in simple terms, as the older generation dies off. They are not being replaced by young blood. That’s not to say that there are not lots of young Christians out there. But they are, in the main, shunning the Church.

This is not just a problem reserved for the young. Increasingly people over 30 are also finding it more difficult to commit to a church. For whatever reason folk are choosing to either just dip in and out of a church community, or to disassociate themselves all together.

There was a time when the main question was why do people who are not Christians not seem to show any interest in what we do as Church. Now I fear the question is why do Christian’s not seem all that bothered either.

So why has this happened? And should we care?

Why?

Ok, so I don’t really have an answer here. But I have a couple of common suggestions.

1. Church is irrelevant.
   Whatever that means.
2. We are victims of other peoples success.
   Because of the battles of a by-gone age Church is easy, comfortable, and eventually, boring. There is no challenge, it’s just dull.
   
3. Busy, busy, busy. We are just too busy.
   Sunday is my only day off. I want to sleep in, watch the football and spend time with my family. When else am I going to do it? And as for midweek, not a chance. I’ve got three kids and I work sixty hours a week. You get the idea.
   
4. We just don’t get the point of Church.
   Stand up, sing a song, sit down, sermon, stand up, sing a song, force out the pleasantries, run. A week until we have to endure again. *sigh*

I’ll try and tackle each one of these in upcoming posts (and probably a few more besides when they come up).

Should we care?

Why does it matter? Those who like church go, those who don’t, don’t. If Church dies out then surely it’s just some form of Christian evolution. The way it should be

Unfortunately I don’t think we can get away with that. The New Testament is very big on us meeting together as a family of believers. We need it, and more than that, our local communities; the towns and cities where we live out our lives need it.

Maybe the “should we care” post should come before all the “why people don’t” posts, but that’s the way I’m doing it; unless I change my mind. So stay tuned. 

Questions

The main questions that came up were;

1. What on earth are the last three verses all about. Wine skin’s and patches?  etc
2. Why are we supposed to fast? What’s it all about anyway?
3. Why are the accounts of calling of the first disciples different in the different Gospels

Discussion

The discussion took some twists and turns and led us into what it meant to be a disciple of a Rabbi and how the Jewish system of education worked (it was a better conversation that it sounds *smile*),

We also spent a fair amount of time trying to decide what indeed was harder for Jesus to say; “Your sins are forgiven” or “Get up and walk”. The gathered seemed split on that one so if you fancy adding to the debate then do chip in.

Talking about fasting; do we do it, why, etc etc was very interesting. It was useful, i believe, for all to get each others take on something which remains a bit of a mystery. It was useful to hear of experiences of fasting from real people, rather than just the ‘super people’ in the Bible.

Drinks consumed were: Guinness, 6x, and water.

Next week

Reading: Luke 6

Venue: The Northcote Hotel (lounge bar if its not full again)

Time: 20:00 

1. Beer and Bible
2. The Exodus Study
3. Habitat for Humanity: Durban 2009

Beer and Bible

Every Wednesday night a growing group of us gather in a local pub to have a pint or two and discuss a portion of scripture. The idea is that we read the passage before hand and come armed with questions, thoughts, things we don’t understand, as well as the things have inspired us and together we move through the scripture.

There is no real agenda and the whole evening is allowed to drift organically and it’s led to some really good discussion. The idea is for this evening to be a real entry level option. It’s for people who do not feel like the standard home / cell group is for them. And people right on the fringe of Church life can find a place to come and get to know people.

It’s a bit experimental; some weeks we have spent more time talking about the football than about the passage. We are certainly getting to know each other a little better and we are discussing subjects and delving into things that otherwise would go untouched.

Currently we are working through Luke and I intend on having some for of documentation of events available on this site.

The Exodus Study

We will come up with a better name for this. *smile*

For some time now there has been an obvious undercurrent of desire at St Simon’s to have the opportunity to do some more in-depth Bible study. A recent course was run to test the water as it were. “God’s Book” was run in March – April as a six overview of the whole bible. Around fifty people attended (just over one third of the Church) which for a mid week group is quite staggering.

With the obvious hunger establish and a call for more from the attendees of “God’s Book” we are going to be running a regular six week Bible study course. I will be writing and leading a course (with one or two others) that will take us through the Book of Exodus from late May into June.

The plan is for course notes and other materials to be posted here.

Habitat for Humanity: Durban 2009

For some time now we have been wondering how to engage the older teenagers / young adults of our church with their young faith. With traditional middle class church increasingly alien and irrelevant to younger people they tend to disappear off the edge of the map when the youth programme stops meeting their needs.

Habitat for Humanity is a charity who build suitable accommodation for those in parts of the world where slum or street dwelling is the norm. They aim to lift people out of poverty and into an existence fit for a human being. Their is work that is ongoing and uses local people and resources to develop the projects.

When the opportunity arises they facilitate groups from around the world to go and join in the work. This raises much needed funds and equipment as well as the profile for such projects which does make a real impact on the long term goals of the charity.

However,  I am under no illusions here about saving the world. The primary reason for us going to help try and provide a context of faith for these young people struggling find their place in Christianity. If we happen to do some good along the way then that is a great bonus. So in late August I am taking a team of twelve to Durban, South Africa to build a house.

Lot’s of planning and a fair amount of fundraising to do. I plan to document it all on this site.

Busy, busy, busy

So there is plenty to keep me busy in the next few months and plenty to write about here.

Should be fun.