Living in exile/The end of Christendom

I was reading an article the other day in which a guy was saying we need to adopt an "ecclesiology of exile".  So what was he on about? Well.....

Once upon a time Britian was a Christian nation and the majority of the population were regular church goers.  We lived in 'Christendom' and Christian values underpinned society in the UK.  But a lot has changed in the last century and now we are living in a society where Christians are very much in the minority.  The last figure I heard was that only 10% of the UK population attend church. Despite this we as Christians still try to impose our Christian values on our largely non-Christian society and lobby to pass laws based on Christian values which the majority of society no longer hold to.

The author of the article says, "We are not called to Christianize the state, there is no point prescribing Christian values for people who are not Christians. But we are in the industry of being a really, really annoying force of resistance in the world around us."

Once upon a time Christianity drove mainstream culture, now Christianity is very much different than mainstream culture. We need to accept our new status as being like exiles here and live like Daniel and his friends when they were in exile in Babylon - annoyingly different in a very intreaguing and inspiring way.  

We need to take a leaf out of the book of the Epistle to Diognetus:

For the Christians are distinguished from other men neither by country, nor language, nor the customs which they observe. For they neither inhabit cities of their own, nor employ a peculiar form of speech, nor lead a life which is marked out by any singularity. The course of conduct which they follow has not been devised by any speculation or deliberation of inquisitive men; nor do they, like some, proclaim themselves the advocates of any merely human doctrines. But, inhabiting Greek as well as barbarian cities, according as the lot of each of them has determined, and following the customs of the natives in respect to clothing, food, and the rest of their ordinary conduct, they display to us their wonderful and confessedly striking method of life. They dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. As citizens, they share in all things with others, and yet endure all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers. They marry, as do all [others]; they beget children; but they do not destroy their offspring. They have a common table, but not a common bed. They are in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh. They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives. They love all men, and are persecuted by all. They are unknown and condemned; they are put to death, and restored to life. They are poor, yet make many rich; they are in lack of all things, and yet abound in all; they are dishonoured, and yet in their very dishonour are glorified. They are evil spoken of, and yet are justified; they are reviled, and bless; they are insulted, and repay the insult with honour; they do good, yet are punished as evil-doers. When punished, they rejoice as if quickened into life; they are assailed by the Jews as foreigners, and are persecuted by the Greeks; yet those who hate them are unable to assign any reason for their hatred.

Children of the revolution?

In church, a lot of people seem to have the view that doing God's work is the job of the guys up the front, the 'pros', the pastors, teachers, apostles and prophets. But check out this verse...

"Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work..."

It says that their job is to equip God's people (aka the church) to do his work - not to do it all themselves! Doing the work of God is the job of us everyday ordinary people in the pews and the 'pros' up the front are just there to help us.

So, when you go to church, what's your reason for being there? Do you go to be trained, equipped and inspired ready to go out and do the work of God and build his Kingdom the rest of the week? If not, maybe you should just have a lie-in on a Sunday morning instead - seriously, just don't bother coming. Ok, maybe I'm being a little harsh (or perhaps not?!).

God didn't design church to be just some comfortable social club. If that's all you want then go join the gym or take up golf. And God's not interested in us performing a bunch of empty religious rituals once a week. The way I read the Bible, it seems to me that God designed his church to be a bunch of rebels and revolutionaries who are willing to take risks to build his kingdom. I was reading some stuff last night about the early church and the radical way they lived. For example, if they couldn't feed the hungry people in their community, the church would fast until they had enough food for everyone to sit down and have a meal!!! And many of them were persecuted and even killed for pledging allegiance to Christ and to God's Kingdom instead of any earthly kingdoms. How did something that started out as a radical, dangerous community become so safe?!!

Divine frustration?

Been going through an interesting phase recently where I'm constantly feeling challenged about my attitudes and motives. I have so many thoughts going round my head I hardly know where to begin to make sense of it all.

I've been thinking about church, about what it is and about what it should be, wondering how much of what we do is following Jesus and how much is following man made tradition and ritual. I've been thinking about what it means to follow Jesus and whether I'm really doing such a good job of it.

As I read about Jesus I see a man who accepted everyone just as they were and didn't judge them, a man who took every opportunity to help the broken, the sick, the poor. I don't see many of these qualities in myself and it makes me feel intensely uncomfortable. I've spent a few months trying to ignore these feelings and drown out that still small voice that's trying to speak to my soul.

At first I tried to find a way to fix these things I see in me and to change these wrong attitudes and actions. But I can't fix it. The answers don't lie with me and deep down I know it. Deep down I know the only way to change and to get to where I so, so deeply hunger to be is to turn to God and surrender to Him and allow Him to change me. But I'm not good at surrender. I like to be in control. And so I've been running from God, trying to avoid having too much time alone to think about stuff cos I know that as soon as I do I'm gonna start thinking about these things again and feeling that ugly uncomfortable feeling that I've been trying to suppress. But I can't spend my whole life running and I can't make this feeling go away.

So, I decided it was time to do something about it over lent. I decided it was time to stop running from God and instead turn around and face Him and admit I'm a mess and allow him to take me apart and put me back together again. It's uncomfortable and every couple of days God gets a little too close and I pull back again, scared to go on. But God is infinately patient and oh so gentle with us all. And when I'm ready to come close again He's there waiting.

I'm still in the early stages of what feels like a bit of a wilderness phase and I know I have so much futher to go. I've barely begun to let God get close but I've finally reached that place where I've come to the end of myself and know that I desperately need Him. I've been feeling in limbo for a while - feeling like it's time to grow up and move on from youth work. But I have no idea what my next step should be. I have a feeling that I need to allow God to transform who I am before He's gonna show me what I need to be doing. Please pray for me!

stuff and things...

Wow, can't believe how hot it is! Been gagging to go skate for days and now I have time it's so humid my head is throbbing. boo hiss! Loving the sunshine though.

So, tonight we've got 31 Brazilians showing up - not sure when, who ever knows with these guys! Gonna be a crazy and exhausting couple of days. Gotta be at work for 8am tomorrow - ouch. But I'm really looking forward to spending time with them and hearing all that's going on in Brazil. I tell you, God's really doing some amazing stuff out there. And the Brazilian church have such a focus on reaching out to others - it's awesome.

The church I visited in Uberlandia has 28 congregations and they have a strategy for planting 250 more congregations in the next 10 years. It's great to see the church growing and thriving and embracing all different cultures and styles of church. I'd love to see similar stuff in the UK too. One of our Brazilian friends preached on Sunday and God really used him to speak to people. I was very challenged about prayer. Amaury was saying that everyone of us who's a Christian has had someone praying for us before hand. Prayer is so powerful!! It's like the key to the storehouse of heaven. I'm really looking forward to seeing what else God wants to teach me while the team are around.

Hope you're all doing well and not too depressed by the football results!!

emerging church

Seems like a lot of people have been having a bit of a rethink about how they live out their relationship with God and what church looks like. Someone sent me a link to some great articles on emerging church that I've found really interesting and thought I'd share with you guys...http://www.emergingchurch.info/guide/index.htm

I'm naturally someone who likes order and structure. I like things to be black and white. But I'm starting to see that God doesn't work that way. We often categorise people as Christian or non-Christian, non-churched, un-churched, religious, non-religious, irreligious, athiest or whatever else. I used to use those labels too but recently my thinking has been really challenged. I've started to see that there's people in my life who don't neatly fit into any of these boxes! I like the article about the church who descibe themselves as "becoming church, becoming Christian". How do we define what a Christian is? At what point would you say Jesus disciples became Christians? Was it when they first decided to follow Jesus? But they knew so little about who he was or what they were signing up for? Or was it when they first realised he was the Messiah? They may have come to a deeper understanding of who he was but they still messed up, doubted and misunderstood. Peter denied even knowing Jesus only a few weeks later - hardly a dedicated follower? Was it when Jesus rose from the dead? Even then some doubted him! Not so easy to pin point is it??! And yet so often the church puts an emphasis on seeing people 'converted' from a non-Christian in to a Christian.

The Bible prefers to use the term 'follower' instead of Christian. I would suggest the disciples became followers of Jesus from the time they first met him. From then on they were on a journey. There were many key points on that journey that brought them to a higher level of understanding and a deeper, richer experience of God. Our lives are much the same. I think it's unhelpful to view being a Christian as a destination to be reached or a level of holiness to be attained. I'm sure at some point we've all felt like we're not good enough and don't match up to what a Christian should be!!! To view Christianity as a journey instead of a destination brings so much more freedom! No more feeling guilt or frustration that I've not reached a certain destination. Instead I'm learning to kick back, enjoy the ride and take in the scenery. I'm learning to savour what God is doing in my life right now instead of always wanting to rush on to the next thing. It's an adventure of faith that we are all on together. Let's stop comparing where we are at and just enjoy each others company on the ride.