They could never have imagined...

They could never have imagined...
During the past week, the 75th anniversary of VE Day has been much in the news and I found myself wondering about how much the world has changed over those years in ways that survivors of WW2 would never have imagined.

The ability to travel around the world by jet aircraft would have been unimaginable, not to mention space exploration and satellite technology.  Computers were more of a concept than a reality and were mechanical rather than electronic.  So being able to carry a sophisticated computer in our pockets or handbags would have been thought to be fiction, even if it could have been imagined. Automated washing machines, domestic freezers, and microwave ovens would not emerge for many years.

TV  broadcasting was embryonic when war broke out, so the idea of multi-channel colour TV would have been well beyond comprehension.  Long after the end of the war most people still had to go out to a booth to make a phone call.  Then there's artificial intelligence..... The list goes on and on.

The big dream after the war was for world peace, but millions have died in conflicts since then. That too would have been unimaginable.

Alongside these reflections, I have been pondering the significant cultural changes since I wrote my first book on rural evangelism in 1990.  At that time there was still a marked contrast between suburban and rural life, though the population movement from towns and cities into the countryside had begun to drive change.  Today, the boundaries between suburban living and rural lifestyle have been almost entirely eroded in some parts of the country, and to some degree in almost all the remainder.

Today, as we continue the struggle with a pandemic, we find ourselves wondering what kind of a world will we emerge into after lockdown.  I live in a country town that has been growing over the past ten years.  Through the past months I have benefitted from the kindness of neighbours who have helped with shopping and passed culinary delights over the garden fence.  Meanwhile I have heard the daily chatter across gardens as people suddenly find they have time, and that it's good to talk.

Churches have risen to the challenge brought when we were not able to meet in buildings.  Now, with many more people attending online services than used to come to church, we are wondering what the pattern after lockdown should look like.  We need to ask some hard questions and do some imaginative thinking if we are to grasp the opportunities that societal change has brought.  

Intriguingly, it makes rather prophetic, the piece I wrote several weeks ago about churches being fit for the future.  Could we have imagined, even then, what church would look like today?  So how are you and your church grasping those opportunities to share your faith? Have you told your neighbours about the online services in which you are sharing, and why you are watching and listening to them.  Or is that meant to be a secret?

What the first Christians could never have imagined is how easy it is today to communicate with millions of people all over the world through the use of Facebook, WhatsApp, Zoom, Emails, etc.  The early Christians had the enthusiasm but not the technology.  We have the technology but not the.......  

That, they could never have imagined!

Barry
Rev Barry Osborne
CEO,Rural Mission Solutions
9the May 2020

Amazing Words! Faith brings light into darkness

Amazing Words!
It must have been the darkest time of their lives.  For several days their brother's health had worsened.  There was no hospital to which he could go.  In desperation they had sent a message to their friend to get here as soon as he could.  He, they knew, had extraordinary powers and could heal the sick.  He would be sure to come when he got the message.  What they were not to know when the message was sent that it would be too late.  Their friend could never have got there in time.

Now it felt as if their hearts had been torn out.  Friends uttered kind words and offered sympathy, but nothing could chase away the darkness that had descended on their lives as they laid their brothers remains to rest in the garden tomb.  But now word had reached them that he had come. He was here, and people were saying that if only he had been here, their brother would have been alive.  It was Martha who went out to meet him, unable to rest at home with her weeping sister, and needing to see his face, to hear him speak, even to just know that he was with them in this dreadful darkness.

She found herself echoing what others were saying, and what she knew wee;  "If you had been here my brother would not have died..."  There was no recrimination in those words.  She knew that if it had been possible, he would have been there.  Then came those absolutely amazing words from her lips.  "But I know that even now, God will give you whatever you ask."

"WHATEVER"!  Did she actually believe that?  Whatever?  Could she have imagined what would take place in a few moments?  Her amazing friend spoke of life after this life but, more than that, that he was the source of eternal life.  Quietly she affirmed her faith in him, still not knowing what would follow.

In the darkest moments of our lives, it is easy to dwell on the "If only..." moments.  Her sister, in her grief, seemed to be stuck in that limited imagination.  "If only you had been here my brother would not have died".  But Martha was looking up and looking forward, refusing to allow disappointment to cloud her vision of what still could be.  "But even now" are truly amazing words.  It has always seemed a paradox that the sister who chose to sit at the feet of Jesus listening to his words, is not the woman of faith at this time.  But it is not about what we hear or read that make the difference.  It is about what we believe.

So it was that, after tears had been shed,a call rang out for the dead to rise again, and Lazarus came out from the grave in which he had lain for four days.

For many people in the world today, the darkest moments have come as their loved ones have been lost.  I too, have experienced loss as my beloved Doreen has passed into the presence of the Savior she loved and served.  45 years of marriage brought to an end by the ravages of Alzheimer's Disease.  A few years before it had become apparent that the person with whom I had fallen in love had faded as the disease took its relentless toll.  But I had determined that if the woman I had fallen in love with was no longer available, then I would deliberately learn to love the woman I still lived with.  And so I did, in the good moments and the bad.  And towards the end, the woman I fell in love with some 46 years before returned to me, as if risen from the dead.  Moments of deep affection and words of deep love repeatedly passed one from the other.

And now I have my "Even now..." moment.  For me, the passion to help other people find salvation in Christ, to know him as Saviour and friend, has been rekindled as I think of the thousands passing into eternity without the hope that burns in my heart, leaving behind grieving loved ones without that "Even now" comfort.  As millions of Christians rise to the challenge of being good neighbours to friends in need, I pray that somehow, God will help us to share something of our faith that can look through the darkest days to a better and more glorious future.  People need to hear the good news.  They need Jesus!  There is an amazing opportunity for us to be God's instrument to bring hope to replace despair.  We need wisdom and courage to find and use the appropriate words, but we must never let the opportunity slip.

And in your dark moments, may you so trust in Jesus that you can say with confidence,"Even now..."

Please join us online at 8.00 (BST) this Easter Sunday Morning when Gordon Banks and I will be leading some Easter thoughts and worship.  You need to register in advance.  TO DO THIS PLEASE CLICK THIS LINK NOW.

God bless you.  Stay safe.

Barry
Rev Barry Osborne
CEO,Rural Mission Solutions

Coping with Corona

"I will build my church...." When Jesus said these words he added, "and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it"   Here in the UK (and probably on other countries) church services are suspended from this Sunday because of the COVID-19 virus.  Its is a wise step to help combat the disease and hinder its spread.  But it's Mothering Sunday!  "and COVID-19 will not prevail against it." JOIN US ONLINE ON SUNDAY FOR A MOTHERING SUNDAY SERVICE So, we in Rural Mission Solutions have come up with a solution.  We are holding a short Mothering Sunday Service using the Internet.  The service is open to all and will include prayers, scripture reading and a short talk (mini-sermon).  Gordon Banks and I will lead the service between us.  If I can find a good recording of an appropriate hymn we may include that. As with all our webinars you will need to reserve your place by clicking here.  This will get you another link to use on Sunday.  Use this around 9.50 to get you into the event in time.  Why not spread the news to others in your church?  The easiest way is to forward this as it includes the link.  However if you need it in full it is https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/7820473670757907979 As churches close we have to find new ways of being church 2x7.  One way is to set up a pastoral scheme.  I devised  plan to ensure that everyone had three links.  I will see if I can include it here.  If that fails, email me for a copy. We need to remember that the church is God's instrument for blessing those outside the church.  We all should look out for anyone who needs help in these days.  Let's be Good News. If this first online service is successful technologically, we will repeat it.  I am also offering a Bible Study Group.  This will be interactive. Remember,we are not limited in our faith or in being church difficulties can turn into opportunities.

Matters for Praise & Prayer Pray for those whose lives have been overshadowed by COVID-19 especially those who have lost loved ones. Pray for those in government and others trying to make the best decisions and care and provide for all who are affected by this crisis. Pray for those who, like me, find their pattern of ministry and Christian service. Pray for the leaders of churches as they try to develop alternative strategies. Pray for me and others in Rural Mission Solutions as we develop appropriate strategies to help rural churches.  Pray for creativeness. Pray that there will be a good attendance for the Mothering Sunday Service online on Sunday. Pray fro people to come forward who are willing to take part in online ministry, including ministry to children.  We have the facility to offer such ministry which can be delivered from home.  We can also provide online training. Pray for our need for an Internet Ministry Support Worker will soon be filled. Pray for Christian charities (including RMS) as the crisis is likely to affect crucial income.

The Busy Man

A long time ago I may have made a big mistake.  I have always been interested in people’s life stories.  I have a shelf on my book case that’s devoted to biographies of men and women whose lives have had an impact on others for good.  Often I find myself challenged by reading these, and long ago one significant Christian leader became someone I wanted to emulate.

Charles Haddon Surgeon will be a name known to most Baptists, and possibly others of my generation.  There are several things about Spurgeon that might have stood out to me, but in fact there are just two.  Probably what inspired me first was what Spurgeon was able to achieve in his life. A faithful pastor of a large congregation, he somehow found time to establish a training college, engage in wider aspects of the Baptist Union, set up orphanages, be a driving force for missionary endeavour, and write copiously.  How could one man achieve so much (most of which still continues today, 150 years later)? I wanted to live a full life of service for God if I could.

Another aspect of his life was the realisation of the importance of supporting ministry in prayer.  I believe that when he was preaching at the famous Tabernacle in London, he would always have a group of men who would meet in a room below the pulpit and uphold his ministry in prayer.  To a lesser extent that this has also been a model for me, which is why I write these bulletins and encourage people to become faithful prayer partners.

A TOO busy man?

But now, some 56 years since I first heard God’s call into ministry and mission, I wonder if I have been too busy.  Personally, I think I am not busy enough, but perhaps I try to do too many things (trying to follow Spurgeon’s achievements), and should have put more time into fewer things.  I have tried to keep my prayer life in balance. Martin Luther is recorded as having said “I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.”  Most of my hours of prayer a sprinkled through each day as I work and pray, with occasional times of stopping to listen to the other side of the conversation.

Since mid-November I have struggled to work as I became afflicted with arthritis in my hips and spine and acute sciatica, such that it has limited my mobility significantly.  So I have had enforced reduction of activity and had to focus on fewer things. This has also come at a time when my wife’s health issues are a priority. Usually, whenever I have had a bout of illness, my ‘Job’s Comforters’ are quick to suggest that I am too busy and my illnesses have been God telling me to do less or even to take a break!  This time, I have had two marked encounters with God as a result of the relative stillness.

The first is a fresh encounter with God’s grace.  We are probably all familiar with God’s response to Paul’s pleading to be delivered from his ‘thorn in the flesh’.  But “My grace is sufficient for you” does not mean that there was just enough to get Paul through.  God’s “sufficient grace” is actually abundant. While on the one hand I have been more than able to keep praising the Lord despite the acute pain, I have also noticed God’s grace in other ways.  Sometimes help has come just when I needed it.  

I have also had more than the usual answers to prayer with the provision of convenient parking spaces.  Over the years, when it has been relevant I have asked for and found a useful place to park my car. Bit over the past six weeks, time and again, I have found the perfect parking space to limit how far I have to walk.  After a few weeks of this, I was driving to do some shopping and made my usual request for a space in the free time-limited parking area. But I began to wonder whether I was being a little selfish or taking advantage of God’s ability to provide these ideal parking spaces.  So as I drove I added a postscript to my prayer, asking whether I was taking advantage of God’s grace. As I turned into the packed car park I had to laugh. As I moved towards the free area, three cares pulled out at the same time, all of which were perfect for me!   Coincidence?

It would be nice to be healed and delivered from the pain, but I have been encountering and understanding God’s more-than-sufficient grace in new ways.

Another important aspect of this enforced relative stillness has been a series of dreams.  Night after night I have awoken from a dream related to the mission to which I have felt called.  I have found myself working with small rural churches and having to cope with a variety of challenges.  But these have not been ‘stress dreams’ as I have felt detached from the realities in the dreams. Some time before I awoke today I found myself in the company of a successful business man who also lectured on time management.

This was an opportunity not to be missed so I shared with him my problem of never having enough time to do what I feel I should do each day.  As part of the conversation in which I engaged, I explained that no matter how carefully I planned my work time, important phone calls and emails come to interrupt and frustrate my plans, leaving some tasks undone.  There is insufficient space here to share all the good advice he gave me during this dream. The embarrassing thing is that it was all common sense and exactly what I teach to others!  

Wasit my subconscious mind addressing my work anxiety, or was this, and the whole stream of dreams, God’s way of helping me to do what I should do better rather than try to take on other tasks that get thrown at me.  Amusingly, at one stage in the dream I was sitting at a table listening to this man when his wife passed by with a plate of biscuits. Unnoticed by her, a few biscuits fell from the plate onto the floor. I instinctively broke away from what I was doing, rose and picked them up.  I could have left it for others to do. It seemed God was saying, “Why do you feel you have to respond to every need you see?  Stay focused”

The wise advice on time management I received in the dream, I have started to put into practise.  Please would you pray for me. I have reached an age where I still have unfulfilled visions and dreams, and I do not want to waste the time I have left or the accumulated wisdom that could help others.  Pray for wise management.

But, so that this is not wasted time writing this, I ask you, what do you feel God wants you to do, how have you planned to achieve this, and how are you organising your time to avoid waste and inefficiency?  We only get the one chance, so we need to get it right.

Thank you for reading through, and thank you for your prayers.  Do let me know if you have found my ramblings helpful. No other prayer requests this week.  Fewer engagements at this time of year, no school ministry during holidays, but prison ministry continues mid-week, and this is a time to plan and get organised for the coming year.

God bless you super-abundantly,

Barry

30th December 2019

A Lost Passion

WHERE DID THE PASSION GO?
As we approach Christmas my great concern is regarding the lost opportunity in so many churches.  Yes, many churches will have special services and some may engage in caroling, but with what aim?

When Jesus was born, heaven could not keep the news to itself but shared it with the only people likely to be at work and awake: the shepherds.  The news was that a Saviour had been born.  The shepherds hurried to check it out and afterwards, they could not contain themselves but shared the news with anyone they could find.  About the same time a group of scientists set out on a long journey to discover what the strange astronomical phenomenon meant.  The story is full of excitement and passion not because of a newborn baby, but because of the salvation message.

Sunday after Sunday Christians in the UK will hear and repeat words from the gospel but mostly dispassionately.  It is almost as if the repetition has anathematised them from feeling God's heartbeat.  Pastors and other preachers will preach sermons without including advice or invitation to respond to God's word.  Many seem to have forgotten that we are called to be fishers of people.  I remember the occasion when I asked the vicar of a church who had invited us to conduct a mission, if he would give an invitation for people to signify that they wanted Jesus in their lives by coming forward as we sang the closing hymn.  Rather reluctantly he gave that invitation and then went and knelt at the communion rail.  When he rose at the end of the hymn he saw well over two dozen men and women standing at the chancel steps.

If we were sufficiently passionate about the truth and about our wonderful Saviour, surely we would exhort people to respond.  Is it fear of embarrassment, fear of failure, or just a lack of passion that prevents us?

If we don't know how else to encourage a response we could at least put the address of a good website such as Christianity.org.uk on our carol sheets, notice sheets, take-home invitation.  Let's put the passion back into Christmas this year.

Incidentally, there are lots of good ideas at www.Rural MissionSolutions.org.uk for making the most from the opportunities at Christmas and through the winter months.  Follow the link on the Home Page.

Do you use the Prayermate app?
Many of us are now familiar with using apps on our phones, tablets or computers. They are a quick and simple way to access all kinds of applications. Several times over the past 18 months I have wondered whether it would be possible to have an app that would bring you new and prayer requests at the touch or click on a button.

A few days ago, Gordon Banks, our Chair of  Trustees introduced me to PrayerMate. A simple app designed to help Christians in their daily prayer life.  With PrayerMate you can adapt it to enable you to get the latest requests for prayer, items for thanksgiving and more.  You can set it up easily to link to various mission societies or individual Christian workers provided they have registered with PrayerMate including Rural Mission Solutions.

It works with both the Apple platform (IOS) and Android.  I encourage you to go to your application store and download the app which is completely FREE.  Once you have the app on your device search for Rural Mission Solutions.  Most will find this an easy process, but I plan to create a short video with step by step instructions soon.  You will find that there are various ways in which you can adapt PrayerMate to suit you.  If all this sounds new to you you could take a look at this video.  Once you have set up the app, or if you are already using it, please send me a short email to let me know.

Barry - 230th August 2019.

Loving God means...

How do We Love God?

Recently I have been pondering the New Testament references to Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 5.  The NIV translates the Hebrew, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”    The more I ponder the more Iam aware that loving God is about more than an emotional response.

There are three references to this in the Gospels.  Matthew and Mark both have Jesus quoting it in answer to a question about what is the greatest commandment.  In Luke, we find it being quoted by a pharisee in answer to a question from Jesus.

Matthew adds the word “mind”, but omits “strength”.  Mark adds “mind” and retains “strength”, as does Luke.  Since this is described as the greatest of commandments and on which all the other commandments hang, it is well worth taking some time to think through exactly what the text is saying.  So, I have been asking, “What does it mean to love God?”, and “How does this relate to heart, soul, mind and strength?”

The answer to the first question is probably best answered by the words of Jesus to his disciples: “If you love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15).  Here, and in all three places where the text from Deuteronomy is quoted, the word,”love” is translated from the Greek word “agapao) which many might describe as the highest form of selfless love.  We cannot claim to love God if we fail to act in ways that pleases him.

We are left with the question, how do we love with “all our heart”, with “all our soul”, with “all our mind” and with “all our strength”?  While our New Testaments in English are translated from Greek, It is probable that Jesus spoke in Aramaic.  Aramaic was a language closely related to Hebrew. It is probable that Jesus would have known Hebrew and also Greek, but the common language in Israel at the time of Jesus was Aramaic.But it’s not just the original language of the text that is important, we also need to understand how those with whom Jesus spoke would understand these four concepts.

In Hebrew thought, and probably therefore in Aramaic, “soul” is not a part of you.  It is the essential you; what it means to be a living being.  It has a root that links it to breath. God breathed into Adam and he became a living being. So, “loving God with every breath in my body” might be helpful.  It about putting your whole being into it.

In the Hebrew scriptures there are many verses where heart and soul are mentioned in the same sentence.  In English we sometimes talk about putting our heart and soul into doing something Strangely in Hebrew thought, heart was more than about emotions; it was also the centre for mind and thought.  It was seen as the place where thoughts originate. So in Moses time, to love God with all your heart has to do with mental application and attitude of mind.

Did you notice that Deuteronomy 6:5 does not include the word “mind”.  This is only added in the references in the gospels. Philosophical reasoning had developed much later with the emergence of the great Greek philosophers, some 400 plus years before Christ.  So by adding the word “mind” to the text in the gospels it emphasises the aspect of attitude of mind and thought.

Within our British culture we think of falling in love as an overwhelming emotional experience.  However, when that experience leads to a commitment by a couple to live together where each is exposed to many unattractive aspects of the other party, it is a conscious decision to love that keeps couples together.  I have heard frustrated parents say to an annoying child, “I don’t like you, but I do love you”.

A man whose wife’s personality had substantially changed through dementia, spoke of a daily determination to love the person who had replaced the person he had fallen in love with.  By so doing they were able to continue to share precious times together.

Reflecting on Deuteronomy 6:5, and its use in the gospels has made me see loving God in a different light.  The focus has moved from an emotional response to conscious wholehearted determination and commitment, while feelings are not excluded.  The Song of Songs, which most Christians take as a metaphor for our relationship with Jesus is about passion. The post-resurrection conversation between Jesus and Peter has an emotional undertone (See John 21).  

Deut 6:5 is not a suggestion; it is a command.  Obedience to it is a matter of choice not chance.  The first time I realised that the awfulness of Christ’s death on the cross, and all that was involved, I encountered God’s love.  I felt it. My response there and then was expressed in singing the final verse of Isaac Watts hymn, When I survey the wondrous cross: 

“Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life my all.”.  It is a response that needs to be refreshed and renewed every moment of every day - all my soul, all my heart (thoughts), and all my strength.

I started these reflections on loving God last Saturday, but other matters hindered my completing it.  So it is now Tuesday evening. This morning at school assembly I was asked “How did Jesus die?”  I did my best to describe the crucifixion honestly yet sensitively to very young children.  As I was leaving the school a lovely little girl in Key stage 2 asked me, “Did Jesus give his life as a sacrifice for me?”  What a precious moment!  I told her, “Yes, that’s how much he loves you”

Barry - 10th September 219.

FELLOWSHIP OR NETWORKING

What do you understand by the word "fellowship"?  Is it different from friendship? How does it differ from networking?  How do we express fellowship in our churches and between churches?

Following the amazing experiences  on the Day of Pentecost, thousands of new believers in, and followers of Jesus as the Messiah and Saviour "devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer."  Luke's brief summary leaves us asking questions in the 21st Century.  With over 3,000 new believers how did they undertake the teaching programme?  Does "breaking of bread" refer to shared meals or what we call Communion or Eucharist?

From Paul's letter to the church at Corinth, it would have been more of a meal than a bit of bread and wine.  Prayer is more easily understood.  We know that there were gatherings for prayer both in the temple and in homes.  How often they met and what they prayed is uncertain.  But what did Luke mean by "devoting themselves to... fellowship"?

The Greek word Koinonia that is translated as "fellowship" in English Bibles, is best understood from the context in which it is found.  It becomes clear that this is more than meeting up.  The apostle Paul uses it to describe generous and sacrificial giving, and also as a willingness to suffer for Christ's sake rather than denying him.  So, where we use it to describe meeting up or having refreshments after a service, we are dumbing down the real meaning.  All too often we ask "How are you?" but the response we get may be hardly listened to.

If we do hear someone sharing with us that life is difficult at this time, are we ready to show real fellowship by exploring how we might help a person in need, or at the very least, take a few moments to pray with them?  The sad consequences of a lack of real fellowship is that too often we give or get a dishonest answer to the enquiry, and pretend that there is nothing wrong.

The first believers, showed fellowship by selling surplus property and sharing with one another, calling nothing they possessed as exclusively their own.  The first believers showed fellowship by ensuring that widows were properly cared for with adequate meals.  The first believers collected money on Sundays, not to support a building or even to support a minister, but to give away their money to Christians in other places who were suffering in a famine.  The believers in  Philippi gave up their own comfort to provide resources to help Paul in his mission work.

All of these examples come from places in the New Testament where the work Koinonia is used, which we translate as "fellowship".  Koinonia implies a generous level of commitment to one another within our churches and between churches.

So "fellowship" is more about what goes on seven days a week, and about how we truly express a love for one another that puts others before ourselves.

What then is going on when we come to church on Sundays?  It is doubtful that it is fellowship in the biblical sense, or even the beginning of fellowship.  It might be better described as "networking".  We meet up, we chat, we catch up with the news, but to what does it lead?  Sadly, sometimes it isn't even friendly.  I have heard some people describe going to the local pub as more friendly than their experience of church.  But what might people think if we could only get fellowship right, genuinely love and prefer one others before ourselves?

Here are some suggestions about putting fellowship back into the character of Christianity and church.

• When you ask how someone is, please be sure that you are willing to listen to the answer and then, if there is a need, to do something about it.
• Ensure that people can give an honest answer if things are not so good, because they know they are talking to someone who cares.
• Don't allow someone to sit or stand around on their own when they come to church and while others are grouped in conversation.
• Re-think your financial giving.  Could you go without to help someone in need or to advance the gospel mission?
• Re-think how you use your free time when you are not attending church meetings.  Is there a lonely or isolated person who might appreciate your company, for a few hours, or the offer of a lift to do some shopping?  Is there someone who might appreciate your cooking or baking?
• Try to be more empathetic.

Let's move from networking to fellowship if all we have been doing is networking.  If, on the other hand you are already demonstrating what "devoted to fellowship" means, then that is great.  Please pray that the rest of us will make a better job of it.

May the Lord abundantly bless you.
Barry - 2nd September 2019.