One step at a time

You probably already know that the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time.  The challenge of rural mission and evangelism is great and can sometimes seem daunting, but taking it one step at a time is the way to go.

We often find that some rural churches do not have a clear strategy for mission because there is so much they would like to do but have so little resources.  They end up doing nothing or very little.  Last year, I wrote Mission Can Be Fun which has an exciting and bold vision for discovering all the resources within a congregation, and then using them to match the needs and opportunities in their local area.

The only thing wrong with this vision is that getting to this ideal from where most churches are, is quite a step.  We are now encouraging village churches to take just one small step, rather than accomplishing it all. A small step with a small group is better than no progress at all.  We have people who could help your church take that one small step.

Another aspect where we are thinking about small steps involves our mailing lists. For some time, I have been concerned about the need for a significant change in our administration.  Recently, we have become aware of a problem that has developed because of changes in the organisation through which Praise & Prayer News has been sent out.  Consequently, we are moving from using Mailchimp to MailerLite.  That should be a simple step and you will not need to do anything.

When we first started using Mailchimp it seemed to offer a lot more than we needed, and this was overwhelming.  But it has been a good learning exercise.  In moving to a new agency, we are exploring the potential it offers but we are determined to take one step at a time.

Another small step we are taking is to combine two separate mailing lists into one.  This will put an end to those annoying duplications of information that some have been receiving.  But there are two important things about which we want to assure you.

The first of these is that your contact information will remain secure.  We do not give that away or sell it to anyone.  The second is, that you retain control over your information.  At any time you can ask to see what we hold about you and could ask us to delete it.  You are in control.  Where using an agency such as Mailchimp or MailLite we ensure your information is secure.

So, two small steps will make changes that we will notice in our offices, but that you will hardly notice.  But they are steps that make progress.

We like to think that everyone on our mailing lists is a praying friend.  But some are more engaged than others.  Some also have several other Christian organisations, their church, and their friends and family to pray for.  So we have already started to think about some more steps we can take that will ‘tailor’ the frequency of news for thanksgiving and prayer to fit with your prayer habits.  So, watch out for some more simple steps we can take together soon.

The theme of ‘journeys’ recurs throughout the Old and the New Testaments.  But each journey had to start with the first step.  That is usually a decision to move away from where people are, towards where they want to be or should be.  Abraham was asked to leave Ur to discover Canaan.  The children of Israel had to leave Egypt to get to the Promised Land.  The first disciples had to leave fishing boats and nets or to leave tax collectors’ booths.  The call to ‘leave’ is a call to take a first step of faith.  But what awaits discovery will never be gained without that first step.

The call to become a follower of Jesus today still starts with a call to take a first step.  In every case it is the step away from a lifestyle that displeases God.  We call it repentance.  But stepping away can be difficult sometimes.  Abraham compromised and took his nephew, Lot, with him.  Lot’s wife found leaving Sodom and Gomorrah difficult and became a pillar of salt. The children of Israel soon bemoaned everything they had left behind and almost turned back.  Timothy turned back home on that first great missionary journey with Paul and Barnabas.  Demas, once praised by Paul, later turned back because he loved this present world.

So the first steps are just that.  They are meant to be the first among others.  That is why the writer of the letter to the Hebrews urges us to keep our eyes of Jesus the beginner and completer of our faith.  This is why Paul writes about forgetting the past and pressing onward towards the prize.

Applications:   

Having taken that first step in following Jesus, are you pressing on or looking back?

Is God calling you to something new, are you ready to let go in order to move forward?

Is your church stuck where you are because of an unwillingness to let go?

Will you pray for village churches to call on Rural Mission Solutions to help them take simple steps into mission?

Thank you.

Barry

Is your church swimming or treading water?

Both swimming and treading water are important skills, and at times each is likely to become essential, but if the intention is to get from one place to another, trading water is not likely to be much help.  It occurred to me that for many churches in our villages, all the energy, time and money that is invested is enabling us to ‘tread water’ at best or to sink more slowly.

 

I undertook adult swimming lessons because, as a child, I had developed a fear of water.  It did not matter to me how many people were diving in or swimming and playing in the sea or our local swimming pool; I was terrified.  Having advanced from ducking under, floating, and picking up objects from the bottom, I found myself in a small group of intermediate learners.  Those more confident were quickly enjoying newfound confidence, while the worst group had the attention of the trainers.  We were left to our own devices.

 

Then, as the series of lessons was coming to an end, we were suddenly put under pressure.  One goal proved easier than the other.  So long as the instructor’s pole followed beside me, I managed the length of the pool using backstroke.  Completing the width of the pool using breaststroke was more difficult as, however good my intentions were, my body assumed an upright position halfway across the pool, and progress was halted.  Nevertheless, I was proclaimed to be ‘a swimmer’ by the course trainers.  My own opinion was that I had achieved to become a slow drowner!

 

This experience has helped me to become empathetic towards those for whom mission or evangelism seem very alien.  Often, the very language of mission can be disturbing, and we become determined not to jump in and discover the joys.  After all, we can leave it to others, and we can watch from the side lines.  Is this, I wonder, why so many churches are not making progress as far as growth and conversions are concerned?  We might actually ‘be in the pool’ but nervously gripping the side rail.  Or we might be trading water, expending lots of energy similar to swimming but not making any forward progress.

 

Rural Mission Solutions offers the choice of three alternative solutions, two of which will be happening in the next few weeks and the third is on offer free of charge to any church that is serious about a gentle discovery that mission can be fun.

 

The Rural Churches’ Forum is a periodic and free online event open to rural church leaders, both lay and ordained.  It is a conversation.  A very successful conversation was held earlier this year when we explored the changes that have taken place both in rural communities and village churches.  A second conversation is planned for November 9th.  This was originally planned for October, but we felt that releasing promotional material at the same time as mourning for the death of our late Queen seemed insensitive.

 

The theme on this occasion will be how churches can develop mutually helpful links between their church and the community in which it is set.  In the past such links were strong but now seem much weaker, leading to decline in interest in the church and its message.  But this is not always the case.  So, we will be exploring what we can learn about developing and maintaining healthy and helpful relationships that help sharing the gospel and growing the church.

 

It starts at 10.00 and you can register to attend by CLICKING HERE.  You do not need to subscribe to Zoom.

 

A Rural Consultation is a relatively small gathering of rural church leaders living and working close to one another.  Typically, two dozen clergy or lay leaders are invited to spend six hours together for fellowship, mutual encouragement and prayer, with some helpful input on simple and appropriate ways of sharing the ‘Good News in the Countryside’.  Just such an event is planned on 22nd October for churches in the Sharnbrook Deanery of the Diocese of St Albans.

 

Our David Wells has been working within this diocese, encouraging various initiatives and supporting the clergy.  The close geographical area of a deanery makes this kind of consultation ideal.  It can be, as in this case, for a single denomination, or it could be open to various traditions.  Costs are minimal and we will work with any church that is willing to take the initiative.  More details can be obtained by emailing an enquiry to info@ruralmissions.org.uk.

 

While we value your prayers and interest in these two schemes, there is the third resource I have yet to describe.  It is here that the parallel between learning to swim and becoming effective in mission are most pronounced.  We are currently offering to provide the content - absolutely free - for any rural church, or group of churches - for an Away Day exploring how Mission Can Be Fun.  It takes approximately six hours and includes a light lunch.  Together we will explore what gifts and resources God has already given to the church(es) and look for creative ways in which these could be used to respond to the needs and opportunities in their location(s).

 

It is an interactive programme and has always proved enjoyable - often to the surprise of the participants.  The intended outcome of the Away Day is that members of the local congregation(s) grow in confidence in their faith, and the church(es) are able to design their own appropriate plans for mission that fit their size and feel comfortable.  It aims to do ‘what it says on the label’.

 

This Autumn through to Spring 2023 is an ideal time for looking afresh at how we are joining in God’s mission and the expression of his love for the people surrounding our churches.  We value your prayers as we offer such helpful programmes to individual churches and groups of churches.  Many of us are looking at our programmes post pandemic.  Now is a great time to get it right.  Can we help you and your church?  Start a conversation soon.  Treading water is for those who merely want to stay afloat   Swimming is for those who plan to make progress.  Let’s get swimming together.

Reflection on Loss

 Reflections on Loss

We all knew that she could never live forever, and yet the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II seems to have proved a shock to millions of people across the nations that make up the United Kingdom.  A tidal wave of grief seems to have swept through countries around the world.  Tears have been shed by many of the hundreds of thousands who have shown their respect for the Queen by queuing for hours in the cold to show process past her coffin in Westminster Hall.  Many more have wept in front of their television sets. It is as if the personal sense of bereavement has somehow touched people who had no previous contact with their sovereign during their lifetime.

It seems as if much else has been put on hold for the moment, including our readiness to acknowledge the new King Charles III.  He has, of course, led the country in formal yet personal expressions of mourning.  The cries of “God save the King” have seemed strangely muted even when they have been expressed.  It is as if we feel it is not time yet; we have not quite let our late queen go.  Perhaps we will see a change after the funeral this Monday.

It is that ‘letting go’ that is sometimes hard to do.  In my own life, it has been a little over two years since I lost my beloved wife of 45 years.  My observation is that it often takes two years from a moment of such a bereavement before life begins to return to some sense of normality and life can go on.  Many grieve for longer.

All of this has given me pause for thought about how loss is experienced within church life, and how, when handled poorly, that sense of loss can hold back much needed change.  It is as if, sometimes, allowing change to take place dishonours the memory of those who were once part of the way things were, but whom we have since lost.

In our weekly online Bible studies, we have been exploring the Acts of the Apostles recently.  Of course, for them mourning the death of their Master became pointless as they celebrated his resurrection.  Even the loss of his presence after the resurrection became compensated for - or perhaps even more - on that day when the promise of his continuing presence was fulfilled at Pentecost.  They were not left as orphans (John 14:18).  Life went on as it had always been meant to.  And how it went on in signs and wonders and the conversions of thousands.

Letting go of what has passed is not easy.  Will the photographs of Her Majesty gradually be replaced by those of His Majesty.  Should they?  And in our own lives, eventually, the clothes and so much besides that remind us of the losses we have experienced will be replaced by new items, and perhaps even a new person.  And yet in churches and chapels across the country, memorials to those who have gone before - sometimes hundreds of years before - surround us as we gather to worship an unchanging and eternal God.

It is not that I fail to appreciate history; quite the contrary.  It is more that I regret our general inability to let go of what has been so that the new thing God longs to bring to our churches might come.  We are stuck in the past.  I repeat the point I made earlier, that perhaps we fear that letting go and welcoming change dishonours the memory of those who helped to make the past what it was.

You must reflect on the issue of change in your own life and church. Could we be experiencing a tidal wave of new blessing because we cannot let go?  So much of our church culture reflects the past.  Why do some churches hold onto hymn books written long ago?  Why do people fight to retain pews that were once necessary but are no longer fit for purpose?  Why do we hold onto (wait for it!) buildings that drain our resources that belong to our past?  Is this a British characteristic?  How important is our ‘hymn sandwich’ on Sundays?  If our forms of worship satisfy us but clearly do not appeal to most of those God loves around us, why can’t we let them go?

As we weep for the loss of our much-loved Queen which, doubtless, will remind us of other personal losses experienced, let us do so with an eye on a new era that is dawning.  Let us welcome change, not because we hate the past but rather that we love the past that was once new and different to those to whom the past belonged.  We can let it go - even if it is painful for a while.  Are we stuck?  Worse still, is God stuck because we find moving on so difficult?

It is right to pause at such times as this.  In Rural Mission Solutions, we were ready to run a promotional programme for a national consultation but felt that this should be paused as a mark of respect, and the date for the event postponed. The main purpose of the consultation will be to explore how churches can better engage with those around them.  It will wait, but not long.

When I was studying business management, I was introduced to a quotation, “Change is here to stay.”  In other words, simply to change only to become stuck again, is wrong.  Life goes on, and I hope that our desire for it moves us on.  Right now, my home is unnecessarily cluttered because I tend to hoard rather than throw things away.  But I need to downsize and move my home.  But I cannot do that until I have got rid of old documents and equipment which are now of little or no value.  A very good friend stayed in my home a few weeks ago and helped me with this task.  Like many, I can teach people about efficiency but fail to practise what I preach!

That said, if your church is struggling to let go of the past and grasp the future, I think I could be helpful.  Let me know.

Barry Osborne - 17th September 2022

If you have found this article helpful, please write or email to let us know. info@ruralmissions.org.uk

Back to Basics (Again)!

 Back to Basics (Again!)

 

‘The kingdom of God has come near.
Repent and believe the good news!’ (Mark 1:15)

 
According to Mark and Matthew, these are the words with which Jesus began and continued in his public ministry.  No doubt this is a short summary, so let’s take a look at the three parts to the message of Jesus.
 
It starts with a declaration about the Kingdom of God or, as Matthew puts it, the kingdom of heaven.  More particularly, the kingdom has “Come near.”  We need to note that Jesus did not say “coming soon.”  It had already come near.  We often refer to this as already having come yet still to come. 
 
This would have been good news for his Jewish audiences as, at that time, they were living under the dominion of Rome, paying large amounts of taxes to Rome and with Roman soldiers maintaining order on their streets.  Where was their national pride as God’s favoured people!  They are living in the hope of something better God had planned for them. This anticipation is reflected again in Acts 1:6 when, after the resurrection of Jesus, his disciples ask, ‘Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?’
 
Luke also records a conversation about the kingdom between Jesus and some pharisees. The words of Jesus as recorded in Luke 17:20,21 (originally in Aramaic but recorded here in Greek) have been the subject of serious misunderstanding.  Some English translations have Jesus saying that the kingdom is within you, but others say among you.  My own free translation would be to say, “It's already under your noses.”  Here, again, the Pharisees were looking for a political kingdom. Jesus’ answer was that the kingdom was already present, but not as they expected or were able to discern.  The apostle Paul refers to this as the “mystery of the gospel” (Ephesians 6:19).
 
When God sent his Son into the world, the liberation to which the Jews were looking was not going to be a violent overthrow of the might of Rome by the violence of God.  Rather, the deliverance would be a revolution of sacrificial love.  A kingdom of servants serving the world as they followed the Servant Saviour.
 
So, the first part of the message of Jesus was a wake up!  Like the first cracking of an egg as a chick breaks out of its shell, the Kingdom had begun.  It had begun in the self-denial of Jesus, who would one day wash his disciples’ feet, and for us all, surrender his life to the cross.
 
The second part was a call to repent.  The Greek word used in the verse we are considering, means to change the attitude of mind.  To the Jewish understanding at the time this meant turning and returning to God.  When John the Baptiser began his ministry, it was a call to Jews to repentance.  We know that John preached against hypocrisy and expected to see the fruit of repentance - a more godly and righteous life.
 
Those who recite the Creed do so jumping from the moment that Jesus was "born of the virgin Mary” to the moment when he “suffered under Pontius Pilate.” But throughout the years of public ministry, between these two events, Jesus continually called people to turn and return to God.  Like John who baptised to symbolise repentance and washing, the disciples of Jesus also baptised people (John 4:1,2)
 
So, the first two parts of this threefold message that Jesus preached were to porcelain the breaking in of the new world order under God’s reign, and the need to turn and return to God.  The third part is to believe the gospel (good news). Believing is more than mental assent.  You could stand at the edge of a frozen lake and say you believe the ice could support your weight, or you could really believe by walking on it.  In the case of believing in Jesus for salvation, there are crowds of people ‘safely dancing on the ice.’
 
But we need to pause and ask what the good news is.  Since this was describing a situation three years before the crucifixion of Jesus, there must be more to the good news. The context takes us back to the introduction of the kingdom of heaven. That in turn takes us to the sermon that Jesus preached at his home synagogue in Nazareth.  See Luke 4: 16-21.  If we turn to Luke 7:22 we read a description of Jesus’ ministry (fulfilling the Isaiah prophecy).  We even find reference within the Magnificat (Luke 1:40-55).
 
The good news is that God is against oppression and tyranny.  He is against the arrogant and proud.  He humbles those who set themselves above others and raises up the humble.  He acts with compassion on the poor and the sick.  He delivers the oppressed. To this Jesus adds his teaching about love - even for enemies, hope for the hopeless, help for the helpless, repentance and forgiveness What he teaches and practises creates the pattern for his disciples whom he then sends out into towns and villages as his ambassadors to do the same.
 
The death and resurrection of Jesus brought to the first disciples another perspective of salvation, which we tend to emphasise which then eclipses the good news that Jesus taught and preached.  Yet the sacrifice of Christ on the cross is the ultimate lived out act of love and self-denial.  As Paul wrote to the Christians in Philippi, he laid aside his majesty and became a servant, humbling himself even to death on a cross
 
Believing the good news means embracing a call to work for the benefit of others: the poor, the oppressed, the sick and the marginalised.  it means accepting the call to self-denial.  Giving away all that this world calls wealth and status to be part of a kingdom that turns the values of this world upside down, is what it means “to step out into the ice,” to really believe the good news.
 
So, going back to basics means living the Jesus way.  It means allowing the extraordinary loving generosity that Jesus showed in his life and death, to become the blueprint for our lives.   And as we do so the Kingdom of God becomes “at hand” again.
 
Mark's and Matthew’s summary of the message of Jesus could so easily be understood too simply.  It was radical and revolutionary.  It is about a new world order with an entrance door with a sign above it is saying, “change the way you think and behave here.”  Selfishness must become self-denial. Discipleship means servanthood.  Progress is an alien concept, as there is no one who has superior standing to others.  But if it had any place, it would be achieved through humility.
 
‘The kingdom of God has come near.
Repent and believe the good news!’

Barry Osborne 28th July 2022

The Myth of One Church

 

The theme of this week’s reflection is perhaps, more theological than about mission.  However, it is a subject that I feel does need airing, so I hope that you will read on carefully.

 After I had spiritual awakening in 1963, I soon came under the influence of a certain kind of evangelicalism that I can only describe as narrow minded.  I do not mean that they were not sincere and dedicated Christians. Indeed, in many ways they were exemplary.  However, certain general beliefs and attitudes were presented for others to adopt without much thought.  One area in which this was true was ecumenism.  In the mission organisation I had become involved as a teenager we declared ourselves willing to work with anyone “who loved the Lord Jesus”.  However, we did not define what that meant, and it became a different way of expressing that they were evangelical.  Ecumenism, on the other hand, was seen as erroneous and unbiblical.  We tended to keep away.

Understanding and attitudes have tended to change with time, as indeed, what is often now meant by “Evangelical” and “Ecumenical”.  The former could mean very right-wing conservative and literalist, or it could mean Pentecostal and Charismatic, or a range of beliefs and practices in between.  In 1963, many in the church I attended and the mission organisation I had joined would have understood ecumenism as a steady march back to the Roman Catholic Church.  Today, it is more generally understood as a common pilgrimage and a road shared by different travellers who might enjoy and learn from conversing together.

Behind both misunderstood topics is the theology of “Church”.  Twice in Matthew’s Gospel the Greek word ekklesia appears in his text (Matthew 16:18 and 18:17).  At the time that Matthew wrote his gospel, the term was commonly used to describe the called-out assembly of citizens of a city-state, all of whom had rights to determine the affairs of their local community within a direct democratic system, as compared to an elected representative democracy such as we have in the UK.  It is generally understood that synagogues were similarly democratic.

Matthew has presented the words of Jesus as if they had been spoken in Greek.  We have no knowledge of what they were in Aramaic.  What might Jesus have meant when he used the terms Matthew has translated and we have in English as “my church” and “the church”? We need to remember that at that time it meant a called-out assembly of citizens.  Matthew includes fifty-five references to the kingdom of heaven (elsewhere called the kingdom of God).  So, in using ekklesia it would seem Jesus is referring to those who are citizens of that kingdom, called out from among the general population.

Also, at the time of Jesus on earth, people whose behaviour was inappropriate, and where the person refused to repent and respond to reasonable attempts to bring about a change of behaviour.behaviour would be brought before the synagogue congregation if a  In this sense in Matthew 18:15 Jesus is either using the term metaphorically or else referring to synagogue discipline.  Given his audience at the time, it would be logical that he meant the congregation of their local synagogue and not a Christian ecclesial system of governance.

Our contemporary understanding of “one church” does not have a clear and unambiguous basis in the New Testament.  As early Christians were scattered from Jerusalem, and later through the missionary work of those sent out from Antioch, both the record of Acts and the letters in the New Testament do not support the concept of a single organic entity.  As more and more gentiles were converted to become followers of Jesus, guidance was sought by the church at Antioch from the church at Jerusalem on the matter of keeping the law of Moses in order to be righteous before God.

The church at Jerusalem responds by stating first that those who had been leading the Christians at Antioch astray had not been sent to them from the church at Jerusalem, as it seems they had claimed. They then go on to provide some basic essentials for “doing well”.  This was clearly not a set of rules.  Later, Paul also writes on the subject.  So, the apostles and the whole church at Jerusalem are giving guidance on a controversial subject but are not exercising any authority over the church at Antioch.

 Antioch did not need permission from Jerusalem to send out Paul and Barnabas or Silas and Mark.  Their missionary endeavours led to the planting of churches rather than extending the church at Antioch.  The letters of Paul that we have in the New Testament were sent to and for Christians in specific locations.  They were not written to an imagined universal church.   So, their contents should be read as guidance tn those specific churches, from which we might also gain some understanding.  But we should not rewrite history or redetermine Paul’s intentions.

 Now, I will leave it to you to continue reflecting on first century Christianity, while I explain one reason the concept of “one church” causes me concern.  It leads to thinking that somehow the church has failed to live out the great commission.  It is not the fault of us as individuals or local churches.  Somehow there is a collective responsibility that lets us off the hook.  But the New Testament makes clear that it is each individual church and each individual Christian within them on whom the spotlight should fall.

 Responsibility and autonomy should be given to each individual and to each local church to do something to change the world.  We should stop thinking that someone should do something about it.  Imagine what the world would begin to look like if every Christian assumed responsibility for living the Jesus way and proclaiming the good news of salvation and the kingdom of God to the relatives, neighbours, and friends.  Imagine what our local communities would begin to look like if every church accepted responsibility for enabling and resourcing its members for the mission of God.  We need to think local when it comes to responsibility.

Not such a holy week

 Not such a holy week

For many, if not most Christians, this is an important time of year, as we come to the end of Lent and into Easter.  This year, more than ever, I have been feeling that what happens for most people in the UK is far removed from the reality we are remembering.  The events in Ukraine, which contrast so markedly with our lives has brought it home.  But, for me, even the term ‘Holy Week’ seems, suddenly, to convey the wrong message.  How would we feel if we changed it to ‘Horror Week’?
 
I am writing this the day before Palm Sunday.  In many churches tomorrow, people will sing the 2,000-year-old hymn, ‘All glory, laud, and honour’ with its line about children singing “sweet Hosannas”.  It conjures up a rather charming scene in our minds that obscures the political and revolutionary nature of the occasion.  And with the hymn we will arrange procession waving imitation palm branches.  In my last church people from the local churches processed through the village, stopping at each place of worship to reflect on that first occasion when Jesus entered Jerusalem.  As we paused, we reflected on the story and prayed before moving with our donkey and reeds.
 
We made it fun, but the event we are recording wasn’t a fun event at all, and nor were the days that followed.  It was highly disturbing and horrific.  But all too easily, we edit out or reinterpret the turning over of the money changers tables.  Yet this event is possibly the most significant related to Palm Sunday.  Jesus complained - violently - that what God intended had been hijacked into a commercial opportunity.  Is that not the big issue for us in the western world as we prepare to overindulge in chocolate eggs?  We adapt a pagan ritual and pretty it up with our own story about resurrection symbolism as an excuse for fleshly indulgence.
 
They were not sweet hymns; they were political rallying cries that the children echoed.  This year, events in Ukraine echo the event in Jerusalem as an oppressed people take their stand against a world superpower.  Whether Russian or Roman; there is not much difference.  Both are brutal and bloody.  But we don’t want to hear the screams of agony where young girls are raped, and people bombed out of their homes and shot in the streets.  Let us, instead, sing some sweet songs about sweet children, singing sweet praise.
 
And we will move on towards Easter and the chocolate eggs, not lingering too much either to mark the bloody Passover, or the crown of thorns, lacerated back and the spittle running down his cheek.  Even our Good Friday processions are in danger of becoming a strange and inexplicable tradition that mystifies onlookers.  What is a silent witness?
 
Those of us who engage in rural mission, sometimes speak of the chocolate box mythical village.  It looks pretty but it’s not the real world.  I fear that the churches of the western world risk presenting a chocolate box Holy Week to eclipse the sound of hammer on nails, and the screams of tortured men, and even the agonised cry from the man on the central cross, “Why have you forsaken me?”
 
It is unlikely that I will write another reflection before Easter Sunday, and I do plan to celebrate that, and I wish you a Happy Easter.  But let’s not rush through an unholy week to get there. Real sorrow, real pain, real rejection, real betrayal, real denial, real abandonment, real blood, real passion, real Jesus.

Barry Osborne 9th April 2022

Is Sunday Enough?

 Is Sunday Enough?

In the UK we are not short of church buildings.  They are everywhere!  Take Market Harborough for example.  In a town of 28,000 there are eight church buildings, with two being shared, and another three or four churches meeting in hired premises.  In the surrounding villages, historic buildings point their spires upwards while a smattering of chapels nestle between the housing.  Of all these, most only have church services on Sundays, while many rural Parish Churches in England now only have a service once a month. 

Imagine what it would be like if the same level of activity was found on our buses and trains. You have a journey that is important to you.  Perhaps you need to visit a sick relative, or attend a job interview, or even do your shopping.  But when you arrive at the bus stop or station you find a sign that says buses (or trains) only run for one hour on Sundays.  Of course, that would be ridiculous, but is the point I am trying to make any less ridiculous?

I don’t want to argue for more activities through the week, though in some situations, that might be a good idea.  Rather I want us to think about church as the people.  There is nothing new in that.  For me, the tragedy is that many who would describe themselves as Christians are only active for one hour on one day a week.

So, getting back to my bus analogy, what is the point of a bus service?  Clearly, it is to help people make a journey from one place to another at times that are likely to be convenient to them.  And what is the point of church?  Is it not to help people to make a journey from one situation to another?  That might be from life without Christ to glorious daily living with Jesus.  Or it might be from a life dominated by sinful or bad habits, to holiness.  Or it might be from being pretty ignorant about the Bible to discovering what an exciting collection of books it contains.  You might think of other spiritual journeys people need to take, but is the one hour on one day a week the service we should be offering?

Of course, when the buses aren’t running, people could use a taxi, a private car or even a bicycle. But we would want normal service to be resumed.  If people have the inclination, there are library books and religious meetings on TV and the internet.  They could get themselves there!  But then why has God given all his people gifts to be used in service?

My Bible tells me that God gives various gifts to his people for the fulfilling of his purposes.  Do we think that God’s purposes are only relevant for one hour on one day a week?  Of course not.  So, who has what gifts in your church?  Who are those with pastoral caring ministries (I don’t mean the official ones)?  Who are those who are natural evangelists, prepared to share faith with others?  Who are those with sufficient spiritual maturity who can teach others and nurture new believers?

Do they (or perhaps we) have a vision for being available to serve the Lord with their gifts at any time on any day?  What would the leaders in your church need to do to encourage these ministries?  Imagine a church where people leave after the Sunday service, ready to engage in the work God wants us to do.  Now imagine the meeting the following Sunday, where stories are shared about their exciting experiences through the week, and where new people are introduced and matters for prayer are shared.  
Is it not tragic, that instead of that, we will turn up for the same old one hour Sunday service of collective worship, sing hymns and songs, say prayers and listen to a sermon?

Is Sunday enough?  In the immediately previous issue of Praise & Prayer News I raised the question, “Is God Interested in Your Church?”. In it, I suggested that, often, the preservation and care of inherited buildings was not on God’s list of things that are important.  Yet it is something that absorbs huge amounts of time, money and energy.  I wondered if I might have been too outspoken and might have offended some who love their buildings.  I nearly sent out a follow up apologising to any I might have offended.  The point I was trying to make was that what God is concerned about, as illustrated in the life of Jesus Christ, is people.

If you believe that God cares about those people next door, if he longs that they would come to experience his love and forgiveness, if he longs that people in your church would know him better, then is one hour on one day a week sufficient?  If WE are the church rather than the building, can we be open 24/7?  Perhaps we should stop thinking about the Minister, and release and encourage the ministers.
  
Barry Osborne 18th March 2022