Acts29 Crumlin Road Presbyterian

Courage

2012-01-16T15:39:00.000Z

In the wake of the comments made by Mark Driscoll I am thinking about "courage" and what it really is. It's not about the amount of Testosterone is it? It's not about strength or gifts and abilities, is it? On Wikipedia "courage is,(also bravery, boldness, fearlessness, mettle, fortitude, or intrepidity) is the ability to confront fear, pain, danger, uncertainty, or intimidation." Some pastors face physical, moral and spiritual challenges which threaten to destro them and their families. Everybody involved i ministry faces challenges but each one can imagine that their challenge is greater, more intense and dangerous than all others. When Mark Driscoll challenges British pastors with the charge of cowardise I imagine he is referring to morality. I imagine he is thinking of the pastor who backs off from declaring man to be caught in the trap of sin. I can imagine that some think, because of their ministry context were there are more than average single parent families, more unemployed than the normal and where there are gangs vying for the upper hand, they have a tougher job than those who are surrounded by wealthly, confident people whose biggest decision is whether or not to go to France of the USA for the holidays. In my 25 years of ministry I have served in both rural and urban contexts and found them both to be demanding. I have always been faced with a few people who think they can bully their way through life. What really concerns me about the testosterone type of ministry is that it seems like they think bullying their way through life is what honours God. I have no doubt that the lack of male role models is really affecting the church today but that is true in our schhools also-in another life I was a school teacher. In one of my posts I was one of only three male teachers. In my second year I was the only male teacher and even had my own staff room. If I had remained a teacher I would have been a Head teacher long before now. I have no doubt that the feminisatiion of our society has begun to go too far but I do not think going in totally the other direction will be any better. When I think of difficult times when I do believe courage was needed, I think of times when a seniour member of the church leadership set himself against me. When that person tried to bully me, and everyone else for that matter, to do what he wanted. It took a certian level of courage to stand up to this man and refuse to descend with him into the way of the world by hitting him as hard as he hit me. I have spoken to colleagues whose advice at the time was to sit my elders down and tell them what I thought about their lack of backbone in refusing to stand up to the bully. The really couragous thing was to do what was right because it was right. The pulpit was an easy way to hit back but that is not a good principle. the courageous thing to do was to apologise to those who warrented an apology but not to those who were part of the problem. When I think of the courage of jesus standing before Pilate I think of the silent one, i think of the moral courage which stood his ground but did not hit back. Niorthern ireland has had leaders who certainlyn portrayed a certain kind of courgae by insulting people and makiking fun of them. They are the people who have little or no room for compromise. When the self-styled Dr Ian Paisley now considered to be a great statesman)was leader of the Democratic Unionist Party he not only oppossed any acomodation but he lambasted any sign of weakness. That meant that one unionist leader after another starting with Terrence O'Neil in 1969 right through to David Trimble were called traitors and compromises and the call was "Never, never, nevber" to any move towards change. His more statesmanlike shift has now made him into a great moral leader who broght the province back from the brink of war to democracy. It was this kind of reactionary courage that brought us to the use of bomb and bullet. I do not think it takes courage for a speaker to stand before a congregation and let them have the truth, the whole truth and nothing biut the truth-any speaker who has had experience learns how to manipuklate a congregatio9n and how to insult and cajol the people. There are many teachers who just love to hold their people above the pit of hell. Whenever I am preaching to a large crowd I am energised so it doesn't reqire any courage to speak my mind. Courage is not needed when the speaker is distanced from his audience-either by 6,000 miles or the pulpit. It is entirely another thing when standing eyeball to eyeball with those who are being addressed. There are some ministers who will taiklor their message to suit the congregation. There is not a thing, necessarily, wrong with this and today we call that contextualisatuion but when they do so out of a desire for a quiet life that is another matter. as a minister or pastor (whatever term you want to use)it is my duty to teach people what they need to learn. It is my responsibility to try to place before them the whole counsel of God-in Northern Ireland there are some who get little further than the equivalent to the "Four Spiritual laws" but there are 66 books in the Bible. Courage is when I do what God tells me, when I refuse to be set off course by what men think. It is as true that there is a cause for concern when all men speak well of you as it is to say that we should not go out of our way to insult men. When speaking to heroes the quality that coes through to obervors is their complete lack of recognition that they have shown courage. It is also true that courage comes in different expressions- - emotional courage which faces the truth - physical courage which takes no concern for self-safety - intellectual courage which accepts the truth wherever it is found - spiritual courage which follows in the steps of Christ and finds strength in the whole armour of God - moral courage which does what is right just because it is right regardless of the consequences There are decisioons I have made because I thought they were wrong but sometimes I changed my mind later on but courage was unaffected. I have refused to do some things becuase they appeared to be wrong or to send out the wrong messages. I have erefused baptism, marriage but not because I wanted to offend them and have tried to remain on good terms- "be at peace with all men", "whenever possible" Posted by Dr. Jack Drennan at 14:19 skip to main | skip to sidebar Acts29 Crumlin Road Presbyterian This is the blog of Crumlin Road Presbyterian Church. We are a group of ordinary Christians seeking to grow in Christ. You will find announcements of events and discussions on contemporary issues.Monday, 16 January 2012Courage?? “So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” -Galatians 5:16 Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by BiblicaPowered by BibleGateway.com0 comments: Post a Comment Links to this postCreate a Link Home Followers My Blog List Internet TV Jack Drennan Blog ArchiveJanuary (2) December (1) November (2) June (1) August (2) May (2) March (1) February (4) January (2) November (3) October (2) August (1) May (1) March (3) January (1) November (1) September (1) August (1) July (4) March (1) November (2) September (5) RevDr. Jack Drennan Belfast, Northern Ireland, United KingdomPresbyterian Minister in the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, the biggest denomination in Northern IrelandView my complete profile cluster world We welcome light from any quarterWe encourage discussion and participation that will aid our understanding of the bible and how scriptural teaching is to be applied in our own culture Books•Listening to the heartbeat of God by Philip Newel Writing HistoryActs 29 is a way to describe the unwritten chapter that is being written by the contemporary church. The question I have to ask is why do we not experience the signs and wonders of those early Christian days? PreviewPreview

2012-01-16T14:16:00.003Z

Cowardly Pastors

2012-01-14T15:07:00.001Z

Well Mark Driscoll has created a stir again. He has been reported to have said

“Let’s just say this: right now, name for me the one young, good Bible teacher that is known across Great Britain. You don’t have one – that’s the problem. There are a bunch of cowards who aren’t telling the truth.”

In another place he takes a swipe at those "pastors" who wear gowns preferring to stir the pot by saying they wear dresses and preach to old women. In response and perhaps after mature reflection he qualifies what he said by claiming aggressive questions which lacked respect and quoted him out of context. There are a few issues raised in my mind-

In response I wonder exactly who Mark Driscoll thinks he is that he should be afforded great respect and make pronouncements about the UK from the safety of 6,000 miles

Then I wonder if he simply misunderstands British culture and fails to contextualise

But I also am willing to question if there is any truth in what he says even if he says it in an unacceptable way.

My first response is think this man is a poser but then think more constructively.

On the back of this I have a few questions to pose

1. Who is Mark Driscoll accountable to?

2. Who ordained him? (we have had a minister who was ordained by his father and founded his own denomination.

3. Is his problem with Orthodox, Catholic and Anglicans who all wear cassocks or with evangelicals, few of whom wear gowns? Do many American Baptists not wear choir gowns??

4. Where do we find grace in all of this?

5. Where is the power of the counter-culture, especially in a macho culture such as America and Northern Ireland. We have had preachers who could not be accused of wimping out on hell and damnation who had robbed congregations of people and been, at least partially responsible for the hatred and sectarianism which led us to the verge of destruction

6. Do people living in difficult conditions where there are drugs and alcohol abuse and child molestation need to be told they are sinners? Most people in this culture know that the church condemns them but have not learnt that God loves them-that doesn't mean we neglect hell just that there is a way out

7. Do we need more celebrity preachers? No. Mark Driscoll makes plain from his blog, which I am told there is no right of reply, that people should not be blogging about Mark Driscoll because it is all about Jesus. Amen to that so why create the controversy? If he does not want to talk about himself then he should stop making stupid statements

Is there any truth? Have I been a coward at times? I have no doubt that I have wimped out and taken the easy road because I am a weak human being who has been devastated by the reality of sin. Do I need Mark Driscoll to tell me I am a failure? No every morning I wake up knowing I have failed my Lord and that I am not the hero I would like to be. I do not need anyone else to beat me up what I do need is to have people alongside me who can help and encourage me.

What do I need? Well working in the inner city of loyalist/nationalist Belfast I need support, I need encouragement. The congregation needs money to do what we would like to do but I fear no help will come from Marrs Hill.

2011-12-04T18:12:00.001Z

It goes without saying that I did not know Gary Speed. In fact I know very little about him apart from the fact that among his different clubs he played for the enemy, Everton (actually unlike the average Liverpool supporter the blues are among my favourite teams after the reds). Despite my ignorance of the man I was shocked that such an apparently strong and balanced individual should take his life. It is just horrendous to imagine his wife finding him in the garage having hung himself and heart breaking that his two sons will grow up without their father. There is no point in asking the question”why?” yet we end up asking it anyway. His personal friends and supporters in the teams he played for and the Welsh national team are all dumbfounded as to why he did this and what he had gone through in private to drive him to the conclusion that everyone would be better off without him. Much has been made of the fact that he was strong and stable, that he had everything to live for in terms of family and success in life and that is what went against him in the end. The way of the world is to say that it is the strong-those who don’t need the support of other people, those who can stand on their own feet-who are the lucky ones. He had made enough money and had been famous and adored by so many football supporters. We have been told that the players loved him and played for him and he didn’t have an enemy and was without a bad bone in his body. The measure of his support was seen in the way his name was called out by the Liverpool supporters –as they sang “You’ll never walk alone” they did it for him. Yet the pressure on the strong individual to keep his problems to himself has to be strong and stifling-how can the strong person admit he has problems and is, in fact, weak?In the famous sermon given by Jesus he releases the strong suggesting that the weak are, in fact, really the strong ones, the poor are really the rich and the meek are to be congratulated. When God sent his son to earth he sent him as a weak human being rather than a mighty monarch. At Christmas we celebrate the arrival of the king of kings as a tiny baby. He comes in weakness not strength, he comes in humble circumstances not with pomp and circumstance. Hopefully when you are sick you go to the doctor so why would you not take the same course of action when your problems are in your head? The strong person is the one who can admit their difficulties and we all have difficulties and problems-maybe this terrible agony experienced by Gary Speed’s family and friends will serve to highlight this scourge which has cost too many lives. Too many people have died “before their time”. Even Christian ministers are guilty of the pretence of being strong and needing no help-don’t walk alone, you have been created by God to live in community so use your community as your support base and talk to those you can trust to help and listen. Christmas is about God coming in weak human flesh-Happy Christmas .

2011-11-09T22:37:00.000Z

When people start to pray they find that things begin to change- in fact what happens is that they begin to change! How could we talk to God, face to face and not be changed? it would seem very natural that having a direct experience of God would prove to be transformational. But who can pray? Do we have to be doctrinally sound before we can p[ray? Does God only hear the prayer of the penitent before conversion? When I tried to get a prayer room established a brother let it be known that he could not take p[art in it because of the possible presence of Roman Catholics. This is not a surprise when it comes from an infant in Christ but when it comes from a mature Christian I begin to wonder. I understand that doctrinal soundness comes with experience but I should not expect all those who pray with me to share the same doctrine with me. is it not possible that God will do the changing within us and without? Lets face it the possibility of anyone knocking down the doors to pray are very slim, at the moment anyway. Pray is only the start. What we need in our city are little colonies of Christians of all denominations gathering to ask God to change them and change the city-praying for the various government departments, hospitals, churches, communities and individuals. While praying for the individual salvation of people we miss the point if that is where we stop-we need to pray for and work for the transformation of the city, for the fulfillment of the words of Isaiah `Tyranny will be far from you; you will have nothing to fear. Terror will be far removed; it will not come near you"With this promise we will have peace in our community. That is something well worth praying for so we should be encouraging those islands of prayer.

2011-11-08T23:57:00.001Z

It really seems to me that the time has come for us to take the battle to the enemy. Then time for sitting back is over, we neeed to fight with the weapons we have-the full Armour of God. At the end of Ephesians Paul tells the Christians to pray and Jesus calls the temple a House of Prayer. In our congregation we are too weak to do anything else but pray, we are too small and insignificant to do anything else. Over the next few years we will spend our time developing the congregation into a place and space for prayer. In recent days some political and community leaders have called for the walls of Belfast to be dismantled while others have said that it is still too soon for this to happen-the people living close to the walls are not ready, they still feel threatened and need the protection offered by the walls.If the church of Jesus Christ really is the gift of God to the community as St Augustine claimed it to be then we need to fight with God chose gifts and that has to include prayer-prayer for the transformation of the community-the question remains to be "how do we turn the church into a House of Prayer?

Church for Beginners

2011-06-28T08:16:00.002+01:00

It's Sunday morning and I arrive for the morning service of worship at the church. It's just gone 10am and the streets around the church are packed with people. Already the cars are parked on the pavement, all round the church and even across the church gateway. I am pretty sure that it is illegal to park a car close to a corner and even surer that parking at the traffic lights is asking for a ticket. The crowds start arriving from the early morning, rain , hail or snow, even on Easter Sunday. From what my mother tells me it must have been like this in the 40s and 50s when people walked to church or to work each day. Is this some kind of spiritual revival? Will we have to consider building a new church to hold all these worshipers? Alas no is the answer, they are not arriving for our church; they are not arriving for any church, as we know it. They have found a new way of worshiping and a new church to attend. This church serves their needs to browse and to shop, to talk with their friends and to do so at their ease. It also allows them to take part as a shopper or as a seller. This is the new Sunday observance. The swings are no longer locked up on the Lord's Day and the traders do not stay at home. In fact this corner of Tennent Street is busy only on this one day.

We respond in a number of ways: we get angry when our members ( some of them are very elderly)are unable to find a place to park their cars. I have phoned the police very often and they have come and they do give out tickets but this people power has continued regardless. The PSNI cannot control the situation even though, it could be said, that there is "an accident waiting to happen" unless the control is increased. To help alleviate this problem we opened a small space for members to park only to find that the gateway is regularly blocked by parked cars. Secondly, we can, and we do, complain about the inconvenience when forced to drive around the area looking for a space. We understand that the Queens Highway is not ours but we have come to expect to be able to park at the church and not have to go half a mile away.

Another possible way of looking at this is to embrace the situatuion as an opportunity for ministry. We have tried to do this by setting up a prayer ministry in the market each Sunday. Over the weeks dozens of people have come to the person sitting at the table to talk and to bring their prayer requests. Some are looking for general prayers for the welfare of their family but others have really complex and difficult situations that they seek help with.

Its no secret that the church in the UK is on the retreat when compared to the situation 50 years ago. Even in Northern Ireland, where 45% of the population are still making the Sunday journey to worship, that is considerably fewer than it used to be. Against this we have this success story and I wonder how any of these people would feel if they decided to cross the street and come to church one week. Would they feel welcome, strange, included or excluded?

They might feel that they had to dress up before coming and that's not the way of the world today. They would probably feel ill at ease when asked to sing ancient hymns using words in a foreign way and they would probably not have any cash to put into the plate as it came round. How would they know when to stand, and when to sit. Do they need to close their eyes when praying? Can they bring food and drinks with them and can they talk at all?

I wonder if they would come back again the next week. If we are going to expect outsiders to come to our church we will need to have some understanding of the cultural difficulties and be ready to make the changes that are necessary to make. Each week as I turn the corner and see the crowds, just feet away from my church I have the fleeting thought that they could be coming to church and we could be faced with the thought that our building is not big enough but then reality returns and I wonder what we need to do to make contact with some of these people and what would we need to change to make them feel welcome among us. The question form us and all churches has to be how to make then outsiders feel like insiders.

To be completely honest I also wonder how they could be encouraged to give us a little of this space we thought was ours. outsiders feel like insidders

2010-08-23T13:13:00.001+01:00

Several years ago I was on a plane going from Belfast to Turino in Northern italy. That meant taking a beautiful flight path over the snow covered Alps. As we approached the mountain range the captain invited anyone us to come to his cabin to see the view that he saw. (This was, quite obviously before 9/11). I don't really know why but I did not take up this offer, I think it was because I had a very good view out of the window where I was sitting but I am sorry that I remained where I was. It would have been great to see what he saw and to fro the front seat but that is all water under the bridge now but I missed an opportunity!

I was reminded of this as I read Eric Swanston and Rick Rusaw ("The Quest")who describe tweo kinds of church: the one best imagined as sitting in the isle seats and the other sitting in thw window seats. In the isle we are totally immersed in the workings of the aircraft, while sitting in the window seat shifts the gaze to the world outside the plane. Church life can take up all ouir thinking and take up all our time. Just keeping the machinery ticking over zaps the energy and restricks the vision. William Temple was right when he described the church as the only organisatiion designed for the benifit of non-members, but all too often it works for the benifit of the members and becomes a closed club.

Which seat do you sit in when you go to church? Some will always go to the back and sit in the seat closest to the door. I know a member of my church who always sits in splendid isolation and another yopu will always go and get another seat even if there is just the right nuyuimber set out open and others-go to church which seat do you sit in? Some always sit in the same seat. Some always sit at the back of the church. I have seen people go into a church which is less then half full and sit in the very last seat in the back row. Others go to church and sit back in a difiant pose, with arms crossed, daring the preacher to amuse or challenge them. Then there are some who take a seat close to the action where they can relate to the speaker.

I am not the first to speak of a religionless Christianity or of being a Christian without being religious but I do believe that the day has come for authentic Christianity to leave religion behind or , at least the bad side of religion. I say the bad side as I am aware that the meaning behind that word 'religion' is to bind people together. In our society 'religion' does the very opposite, it divides. It divides because the religious are prone to the hypocricy that Jesus dispised but also because, in this society, sectarianism has such an endemic stronghold.

It is now vital for us to 'be church' rather than to 'go to church', to look beyond ourselves and to seek ways to strengthen our members that they can 'be church' as they rub shoulders with people wherever they are. Some Christians are content to use the bible in the same way as they would use the car manual or they are happy to seek out the nice promises of scripture like the 'promise box' of an oler age but the bibnle is not a manual, its not even a repository of good things, it is the story of God's covenantal relationship with his people. At the very heart of the bible is the 'missional heart' of God the aFather who sent His son into the world, in the power of His Holy Spirit. It is God's love story so lets stop looking for the verses that prove what we want to prove , lets accept that life is messy and that we do not have all the answers. Lets just sit with God in the seat he has given us and live our lives by faith in Him.

Which Seat Are You Sitting In?

2010-08-23T12:33:00.002+01:00

Everybody is an Expert

2010-05-29T18:50:00.001+01:00

Everybody is an expert today. We are the only region of the United Kingdom where there are three hours set aside every day for the public to air their opinions: what we call “gernin”.

Every day people phone into the BBC to complain about this and that. and some of the presenters wind them up, showing little or no respect for politicians, police or civic leaders. The problem is not in the expression of opinion but in the fact that they all really believe that they know best without taking up the responsibility to do something themselves. Take a walk in the park or on the street and pretty soon you will see the litter lying around and everyone leaves the picking of it up to someone else, paid or unpaid.

Fortunately, for us all, God took responsibility and sent his son into the world so that we could receive forgiveness, and live for ever.

With Regret....

2010-05-13T17:49:00.002+01:00

Maybe it’s because I am getting old and have trouble with change [the “your sitting in my pew” syndrome in church] or maybe it’s just because I like to support the perceived underdog but I really have a lot of sympathy for Gordon Browne. It may also be because he is Scottish and a son of the manse working in among all those English who resented so many Scots in the labour administration or simply because the press began the criticism which gathered such a head of steam which became a torrent so that even if it was all untrue it was perceived as true. My family would probably go for the former but actually I see it somewhat differently. Observing the way that Mr Browne conducted himself in these last days of his government has increased my admiration for him. I can well believe that he had a short fuse and he certainly goofed when he was caught with his microphone on.
We have all heard of the minister who was “caught” talking to people in the minister’s room without realising that his lapel microphone was on. I know this is true because I have done this , at least, once. It happened at a wedding and I was saved by my wife who came to the minister’s room to tell me: fortunately the conversation was completely benign. If I had said something confidential or controversial it would have been something different. That incident with Gillian the pensioner left its indelible mark but, for me, it left the measure of the man. When he realised what he had done he went directly to apologise in person. He could have remained at a distance and sent his apology but, contrary to political wisdom, he did it face to face even thought that gave the press the opportunity to report it in greater depth. As for the critics, I have less admiration: I know they have a job to do in reporting the news but a good few of them were happier to question his motives than report it as being done in good faith and with genuine sorrow. When Tony Blair was coming to the end of his premiership just about everyone said they were tired of the spin and the slick appearance of New Labour but it was not long before the slick performance of the Nick and Dave , or Davy as his wife calls him, Show was hailed as prime ministerial material.
It is difficult for the ordinary person to know what to believe about the difference between reality and perception but we must be a little cynical about the rehabilitation of the relationship between the two men who lead their perspective parties. Politics is politics. What I know is that the Bible has something to say about making mistakes and even doing wrong and how to handle human frailty. Even the flawless political performer remains a sinner before God and we are all entitled [because of the grace of God] to forgiveness but equally we are all called to make apology for our sins to those we have sinned against. The church is not for the perfect people any more than is the political arena: we are all sinners and we stand before God in human solidarity ready to accept God’s forgiveness. Gordon Browne could have sent his regrets by letter or email or even, horror of horrors, by text but he did it personally and I think that should be credited to him.

A true friend

2010-03-01T22:30:00.004Z

January 2000 Trevor and Kyle arrived a our back door with two adorable pups. They had been left abandoned in the ditch at he foot of our garden, left to die or for someone to have pity on them. They never left us: Gillian said she thought they had Rottweiler eyes. The decision was taken to take them in and give them a home. A decision we never regretted. They were no longer two brown puppies now they were Fox and Sox, full of energy and fun, unless you were a small fury friend. We had to keep them away from sheep and they did, on a couple of occasions manage to kill a gosling and a few rabbits.

Over the last ten years they became my faithful friends. When life was difficult and some people made life difficult for me they were there as faithful as ever. Peter taught them to fetch and leave the stick or ball a his feet and to "Speak", I learnt that if Sox spoke Fox soon came to find him even if he failed to come to my call. Stuart became my deputy who looked after then when I was away and he did so with such love and commitment. Both Sox and Fox stole our hearts.

Every morning they greeted me with a wag of their tails and an eager expectation of getting into the back of the car in the hope of going for a walk: Sox demanded that sticks or balls were thrown and he retrieved them time without number and Fox dandered off to do his own thing, caring little for this strange act of retrieval unless it was feathered or woolly:today Fox is leaning to live on his own. Just as the dreaded cancer takes so many people so it threatens the doggy world. Up until Sunday morning Sox was apparently living a normal life; constantly being admired by people who have become his friends but then he failed to get up out of bed. He just lay motionless with his eyes open but unable to move even his head to get some water. At first I thought nothing of it: perhaps he was having a bad day like most of us and after all he was getting old but by Sunday afternoon, when we returned from church, to find him still motionless the alarm bells began to ring. I phoned the emergency Vet who said I should bring him in immediately. The initial thought was that he had eaten some rat poison because his blood was not coagulating. Fox was summoned to play the big brother hero by donating some blood but when nothing had changed on Monday we all began to realise that it was something else. The Vet did some other tests and another scan was taken. Then came the devastating news that he had a massive tumour and would only live for a few days. We could take him home to die but we did not want him to suffer just so that we could have him for another day. We all went to see him and soon realised that life was not great for him and the kindest thing would be to "let him go",

The Vet gave him an injection and we gathered round him to embrace him in his final minutes and very quickly he died. We told him that we loved him, even though he had no idea what we were saying but he died with the sound of our voices in his ears. We also told him that he was a great wee dog and brought him home to bury him in our garden.

I will never forget this faithful wee dog whose sole purpose in life was to please his master and that he did, I wonder how many of us humans could say that our sole purpose was to please our master? Sox was only a dog but to me he was a gift sent to me by God.

A Transformed City!

2010-02-16T00:22:00.002Z

There we were sitting having a conversation about prayer and how the city of Belfast could be transformed and then we were joined by Noel: he had been out with his wife and mother-in-law and while he was having some coffee while they went off shopping he heard us talking and became increasingly inquisitive. he told us that he had resisted making an approach, telling himself it would be impolite but , in the end could not resist introducing himself. He was of the same mind and wanted us to know that. we were in a public coffee shop and he heard us talking so he came and joined in on the conversation. That is what real Christianity is all about and what gossiping the gospel means. For some time I have had the vision of creating a prayer space for anyone to comer and pray; a space in the middle of the community rather than hidden away inside the church. Then once I began to talk about it and took some action I have found that others have the same vision. We have a shop, right in the middle of the Protestant community and right up against the so-called peace line where we can pray.

The vision is for a prayer space which can be a shared space where people from different Christian traditions can pray together and own their own at any time of the day. That by praying in this way the division within our city can be healed and Christian unity can become a real thing. That by coming to this place we can pray for the transformation of this city we call home.

Can I ask the people who read this blog to pray for us as we begin to unpack what this means? Can I ask those who read this blog, even if that be a very small number of people to pray for the unity of the Christian community in Belfast? Can I ask you to pray for the creation of a Christian community in Belfast which will be counter-cultural and a clear demonstration of an alternative community: one which does not depend upon wealth or power or the need to dominate but one which has love as its core value and it's DNA?

Noel is just the beginning, there are people out there who are looking for a way to demonstrate unity and a way to demonstrate that they are not sectarian but desire to live with those with whom they disagree. the whole world looks at our city as an iconic example of division: lets show them how a fragmented city can be totally transformed. Where are the people who will stand with us? Where are the people whose desire it is to see the miraculous change in our city?

United Prayer

2010-02-09T22:24:00.002Z

I think that most people would say that Belfast and Northern OIreland, not to mention the rest of Ireland and Britain, need to be transformed. The only question concerns how this is going to be brought about. In the simple faith I have I believe that we need to ask God to transform our nation. I have been taught that it is a matter of expressing faith to ask God to do the things He wants to do: so what does God want to do? Is it the will of God that our cities wither and die of moral decay? Or is it His will that they are transformed? is it not God's will that no one should perish but that all should come to life? If this is so then why are we not praying in united prayer for our city? Are there people in the city who are interested in a 24/7 prayer room in the heartland of Protest Ulster?

OUTSIDERS

2010-02-05T21:52:00.002Z

Bailey entered a strange place, well, strange for him:this was not a place he had been in for a long time. He felt, and looked, very ill at ease. It was like all the eyes of the people were fastened on him. He was all dressed up, and that was very unusual. Stranger still he was on his best behaviour, normally speaking he wouold still be in bed, recovering after the night before. Maybe he was more comfortable than he looked but I don't think so. He had no idea how he was supposed to behave: when to stand, when to sit, when to talk and when to be quiet and his friends were no better. Then there was the singing: he didn't normally sing unless he had been drinking for some time and as he sat down it ocurred to him that he had no money in his pocket and what would happen when the plate came round, how embarrassing?

Fortunately he began to feel a little better as time went on. By the time the sermon came he was feling much better: thankfully the preacher took a more conversational style and encourged inter-action. When one of the other visitors agreed to take some of the honey and when he laughed at a lame joke the akwardness left and the body language changed and there was even the faint glimmer of a smile,

Every time we have people with us who seldom if ever go to church these are the kind of cultural hurdles we expect them to cross. The way our services are arranged suit the people who know what happens and the way it happens: they are the people who have no need to be persuaded by making things suit them. The very ones that we should be helping by the way we worship are the ones who feel like fish out of water and when they don't return we are surprised because we think we have reached out to them. The church that wants to be apostolic in the way things are done and in the way they worship will ask the regular queston about how to make outsiders feel like insidders. Nothing we do will guarentee success, no external changes will ensure that non-believers will flock to the church: that rests in God's hands but that is no excuse for making life as difficult as possible for them.

As the service progressed he felt increasingly tense: would he be bored by the sermon? Would it embarass him? Surprissingly he began to feel less tense and his face reflected that. In fact he actually began to find it all interesting even though it was an involuntary decsion ............................................

Avatar

2010-02-03T23:34:00.002Z

"Glorious, A winner, Extraordinary, Most Beautiful, Best Ever". Just some of the words used to describe the best selling sensation "Avatar". It's the story of how a paraplegic marine is given a chance to get his legs back by doing some work for the corporate company: all he has to do is to infiltrate the native tribe of Navi who live on the moon Pandora to find out as much as possible about them. The problem for Jake Sully begins to emerge as he gets to know the lovely Neytiri simply because they fall in love. The end game is to get rid of the native tribe who, contrary to all prejudice, are not mere savages who live in tees; they have their own culture, language and religion. The precious metal that is all over the sacred woodland is required for earth and the human beings will do what it takes to get it.
Pandora's Box is opened when Jake begins his work. This is the story of how the strong try to destroy the weak. The earth people have mighty weapons and have devised a way of creating their own computerized people who go in search of the natives. In the end Jake dares to cross over to help the natives and, eventually he leads them in a mighty struggle against all the odds as they try to protect their homeland and drive the aliens away.
This resonates with other situations that we all know about. I cannot help but think of the "war on terror" and the treatment handed out to the Native Americans during the 19th century. I have to consider all those who have been mistreated down through the ages. And then there are the times and places where ethnic cleaning has been common: if we consider the dispossession of the Irish natives from their lands in the 17th century which were given to English and Scottish landlords we have to consider the ethnic cleaning of Protestants on the Border and the Catholic policemen who were shot by the IRA .
In the end Jake decides that the savages are not those who fight with bows and arrows and he decides to stay with them. We need to decide what kind of society we want today. As our politicians make decisions about policing and justice and as we make calls for more police on our streets we need to take responsibility ourselves. We need to understand that the problems we are facing are not just questions for the police. They are not just questions for the government. They are questions that all of us, who share this space called earth, will have to face. Each citizen will have to decide what kind of society we are prepared to fight for. If the war really is over then we need to start working for the peace. We need to start the process of normalization, when we become able to disagree in an agreeable way. It is vitally important that the Christians, who live in this community, start to pray, as one united body for the welfare of our city, that we are transformed by the word of God. Jake was won over by love. I hope that we will be too!

2010-01-11T22:57:00.000Z

"Ask no questions and you'll be told no lies". I have heard that many times over the course of my life. One of the problems in asking questions is that people don't always want to give the answers, others don't want to open the box for fear of what will fall out and others just know that they will nt be able to put the contents back afterwards. When I was a young boy I took my sisters watch and took it to pieces to see how it worked. She was not exactly pleased, even less so when I failed to put it back together again.

The purpose of de-contruction is to understand how things work: when theologians and philophers de-construct the scriptres the intention is to unsderstand both text and culture more completely. At a time when the institutional church is under such pressure and when attempts are being made to see how we can be more authentic and real in the contemporary world it is important to ask the right questions. Jesus tells us that "The truth will set you free" and the acceptance of light from any quarter has to be good but it is understandable that some will be afraid of damaging the tried and tested ways and others will gear that the baby will be lost along with the bath water. Yet we, surely, have nothing to fear from the truth.

I agree with those who want to loose the boxes and the definitions we have made over the years. Some of what we haver come to acept as true and b iblical have more to do with our evangelical or liberal or conservative or charismatic/pentecostal culture than they do with what the bible actually says. For that reason we must keep asking the questions.

In the continuing conversation in the emerging/emergent church movement we must talk with a sense of humility and provisionality: anythong ese smakes of arrogance. The Doctrinal systems which stem from systematic theology are like the curate's egg- good in parts. As a presbyterian I have learnt much from the Reformers like Luther and Calvin but there is much in the teaching of Wesley also. Some of the comments made on bloggs and on YouTube about the thoughts and thinking of the oppostion are really dreadful and lack any grace. I am constantly horrofied at some of the comments I read and hear about the contributions from people like Brian McLaren frpom what some would consider the emergent liberal wing of the emergening conversation. Rob Bell is another pastor who is frequently attacked for apparent error. Personally I find the contribution that these and other thinkers make very stimulating in helping me to think through what I believe.

The bible teaches me to love my brothers in Christ and to listen to all men. As one who lives in Norhtern Ireland, a place which is often considered to be a veery negative culture, I understand how difficult it is to be certain about what one considers to be the truth and to do so in a gracious way. Why do Christians have to so arrogant in our attitudes? Are we insecure? We seem to lack the capacity to be critical of ideas, without being critical of the peole themselves.

If we are going to recapture the missio dei in the contemporary church we will need to question everything that we become sure of what we believe and how we are to live.

The Fellowship of the Brethern

2010-01-02T20:08:00.000Z

Christmas and New Year have come and gone. This gives us all another opportunity to start again. but I doubt that nothing will really change. The lesson of history is that we seldom learn from history. So we continue to have the famines we were told must never happen agaon; children continue to be abused in Africa, in Ireland and in Romania, to name a few; the war on terrorism continues unabatted and young men and women contin ue to die on all sides of the war in Afghanistan.

As I write "The Wire" is on the TV: a gritty, realistic police drama set on the streets of Baltimore. For "gritty and realistic" read the use of the "F" word every other word. Trying to get passed the street language I find myself viewing what I see through what I know about Baltimore and what looks like a similiar situation at the doors of our church building.

Everyone thinks themselves to be unique and in some respects we are all special yet in other ways we are not. Baltimore in the richest country in the world is one of the poorest communities, West and North Belfast, in a very different way, is also in great poverty despite being part of a country that looks after all its citizens from cradle the grave. Unemployment, dependency, poor health, drug and alcohol abuse affects those who are the most vulnerable the most. That's not to say that thwre are no problems in the middle class homes for there are but the real edge is in the places least able to help themsleves. While all this is going on there is a parallel universe in the middle class areas of the country where the grit of The Wire is no mpore than a television drama which goes away when the TV is switched off. While the walls of division and protection go up and the economic life of the community shuts down and the Christians take flight the subburbs grow but while the people leave the problems behind the problems remain.

The New Testament warns us of the fierce spiritual battle that rages as we live our daily lives and tells us of the protection provided. To be effective we need everyone to be protected, we need the support of fresh soldiers but believers from outside the community want to get involved: such is the extent of fellowship more than a shared cup of tea and a few tray bakes. When will we see support from our brothers and sisters? Show All

Return of War

2009-11-29T23:49:00.005Z

This morning I arrived at the church for our prayer meeting prior to the Sunday morning service to find a police cordon round the church building; there had been a report from a member of the public to say that there was a suspicious car parked about 50 yards from the church. For about a hour it looked like church would have to be cancelled and we would have to try to get the word out to the congregation but then someone had the idea of setting up in the local school, which is just across the street. So a small group of people went to the school and started to set up some chairs so that, at least those who did turn up would have somewhere to go. To make matters worse we were having a few guests from L'arch, Belfast to talk to us about their ministry.

People in this part of Belfast are extremely resilient and don't tend to get too excited when these things happen. Even after 10 years of peace an action by the dissident IRA, if that is who did this, is not enough to surprise or frighten them. Since the foundation of the church in 1867 there have been many difficult times: the early years where years of expansion in Belfast with thousands of people coming up from the country to find jobs in the new Linen industry, but then there was the first world war and the rise in Irish Nationalism, this was followed by the years following the great depression and then the second world War. Then in the early 60s and 70s there was the industrial competition from the far east which led to the downfall of the linen industry followed by the heavy engineering and the ship building which once led the world [the fact that the Titanic was built in Belfast simply serves to remind us that it was ok when it left Belfast!!!]. Then we had the Troubles which lasted 30 years [we could call this the Thirty years war]and led to the break up of relationships and destroyed the industrial and social landscape of our beloved land.

You could say that this part of our city has known only heartache and trouble and it is certainly the part of the island that had witnessed more murders and violence than any other part and yet it is still standing: wounded, yes but still standing. It is truly amazing and certainly more than a little disturbing that we remain undisturbed by the threat of a bomb. And at this moment of writing I would even lay a wager, if I did such things, that it will hardly be reported at all.

What should our response be? What should the world be doing? What should the middle class parts of Northern Ireland be doing by way of response? In the past the government of the United Kingdom simply dug in the hells and sent in the troops to "keep the peace". while churches like ours have had windows blown in by bombs and had the congregation terrorised and while we have witnessed the destruction of a community little by way of positive and constructive action has been taken. Money has been spent in millions but what really needs to be done has remained undone because it is too costly. What needs to be done is that we need to send in a need breed of troops. We need seriously minded Christians, followers of Jesus Christ, to settle in the hard places like ours to help us to make our churches soft places. We need followers of Jesus Christ to take up opportunities to build "intentional communities" of peace and harmony but those who can do this have preferred to remain aloof and keep their distance.

We need to declare war on evil and on the one who lies behind that evil-we need to fight against evil with truth and peace. Not with the conventional weapons of deadly warfare but with ploughshares. Are there people "out there" who would take up the challenge to resist evil and to resist the evil one with the "full armour of God".

In the end we did get to worship together. At about 10.30am the police cordon was lifted and we were allowed to enter the building. we did hear from our friends at l'arch who told us stories of how the weak and the marginalised have defeated the strong and how those on the margins of society have been brought into the centre. My congregation is on the edge of life in Belfast; we have many social, economic and educational needs and now we sit on the inter-face between protestant and catholic communities but our dream is to see this place become an attractive place to live where there are no longer two separate communities divided by the walls of war but one community of people who have worked their way through our differences and have learnt how to live with them and how to disagree in an agreeable way. We want the God of heaven, the God of the bible to send in His troops to win the war and to liberate the community. Someone reading this blog could be among those troops.

A New Ireland

2009-11-26T22:35:00.001Z

In this new Ireland we will be a people with a whole new set of values. No longer will we judge people by their name or culture:they will not be defined according to their name or the school they attended. They will be judged only by the quality of their lives, by the contribution they bring to society, we will have a society liberated from the shackles of the past, a place where men and women have decided that they will be motivated and identified by the principles of God's Kingdom and none else.

Unfortunately the whole of Irish society is under the constant threat of secularism. The institutional church is in meltdown and thousands of people who leave our churches, of all the denominations, never return. Many of them go nowhere to worship the next Sunday but some go to one of the new churches.

While the churches are suffering the net effect is for the mass of people to loose their anchor on life and they slip into the "me" culture which makes it demands on life robing the whole of society of its cohesiveness and stability. Marriages are either serial or simply take place and anti-social behaviour has become common place. While all this happens we scamper around looking for scapegoats; the police or lack of appropriate numbers of police, politicians who can't even be trusted to make appropriate expense claims never mind work together with those they disagree with and then there is the church. Few people are asking the right questions about the kind of society we really want nor about the price we are prepared to pay to get it.

How are we going to get out of this quagmire? Tghe Old Testament says that "without a vision the people perish" and we have no vision for the future apart from the limited view of a political dispensation depending on what part of the community we come from. My vision is for a community of people who fear nothing but failing God, a community of people committed to God through Jesus Christ who will learn to live together: who can deal with differences of opinion in a mature way and who see all people throiugh the eyes of that same Christ who had compassion on the weak and the poor and the marginalised. A vision where the poor are blessed and not the rich, where the peacemakers are blessed and not the war mongers, where the meek and th gentle are the people who are honoured. An Ireland like this will be a place wherewe would all want to live. What do you think?

SEND IN THE TROOPS

2009-11-25T23:36:00.000Z

Belfast is my city: I was born here and have lived most of my life here. For most of my 57 years we have experienced community strife. Sometimes that strife has broken out into outright bloodshed and all that time we have been divided into the two major opposing camps of Protestant and Catholic. Since 1999 we have told ourselves that the Good Friday Agreemenet really was good and in time it will deliver peace and harmony even when some have refused to call it good.

Last night at the switching on of the Christmas lights some young people from both sides decided to have some fun throwing stones at each other, reminding us of those days when the city centre was abandoned because the population was afraid. What are we going to do? What can we do? The truth is that we can do nothing, we are powerless. We fool ourselves if we really imagine that we are in sovereign control. Our city is as much fragmented as ever; we have walls to keep us apart and help us to feel safe. Yesterday I saw three police officers walking up our street. One of them had a machione gun strapped to his shoulder and I thought tomyself, "Is that supposed to make me feel safer?" At the moment approximatelyhalf the population wants to see more police on the streets to give the community confidence that the police are on the ball but the other half are not so sure. With the daily fight between the governing partners over the latest dispute everyone wonders how we can eveer see improvement and truly feel safer but there wedre worse days, blacker days when men and women were killed daily, much like in contemporary Afghanistan.

Yesterday I had an interview with the District Police Commander who was expressing his frustrations at the impossible task of being a community police service. He mused on the difficulty of an officer having a meaningful conversation while carrying a gun and wearing a flack jacket and a hat pulled down so that all that can be seen are his eyes. Daily "joe public" expresses frustration and growing cynicism by blaming the politicians and the PSNI rather than asking tehe obvious questions as to how we can build a better society.

In 1969 the British Prime Minister sent in the troops to establish peace in Belfast and Derry/Londonderry. That was the begining of the break up of the political system which came to an abrupt end when Edward Heath, prorogued the Northern Ireland Parliament and set up Direct Rule which lasted some 30 years until the Good Friday Agreemenbt became the basis for an agreed Ireland North and South.

What we need today is a whole new breed of Irishmen. People who are able to think about the whole community; people who have the ability to see beyond their own political and religious desires. The contemporarty world is very different to the society of 1969. Today we are much more secular,much more pluralist; much less inclined to listen to the views of the institutional church. We need a security system based upon a communal desire for real peace. We need a security system that rests on the dismantling of the walls and looks to troops of people on the streets dedicated to peace and harmony. This calls for a new heart in the community. We, who take the name of Christ in our hearts and on our lips, need to demonstrate an alternative way of living in a divided country. We must refuse to wrap the Christ we follow in either the Union flag or the flag of the Republic.Why could we not call for amoratorium on the national question for a while to allow maturity to set in? Has the time not come for us to answer the question: what do we really want for this place we call home? Do we desire peace so much that we will put the question of sovereignty on hold? We will never settle the question of union until we find peace.

What we need is a new movement of troops, a new wave of people power. Send in the troopps and send them in today to win the peace. Let a new security policy take charge, a plicybased upona new kingdom and a new power-let Christ reign in our lives and in our politics. Jesus has alrady dismantled the barriers between Jew and Gentile but we insist on rebuilding them: can we not stop? If we are unwilliong or unable to do this we have no rigt to blame the men and women who sit up in Stormont. After all they are carrying out our wishes.

Working Man's Theology- a short thought/question

2009-10-30T00:54:00.005Z

Why is the church so middle class? Or is it? Why do the mainline denominations appear to be middle class in the way they "do" church? Where is the working class theology or is there one and should there be one? In my denomination, the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, we have one model of church: this is a model which works very well in the rural heartland of Ireland, north and south but, with increasing alarm, is failing in the urban city.

In our city we have to deal wit people who are in constant fear of the other side; over the years we have been terrorised by the terrorists but also by the fear of being taken over. We have learnt to be loyal to our side and to mistrust anyone who is unable to give their full support to our politicians, our police and our soldiers. Our experience informs our opinions even of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. While the middle classes keep their distance and talk of the need to remove the peace walls but fail to understand the gulf between the classes. How come the Jesus who earned His living by the sweat of His brow and by the skill of his hands is presented as middle class, educated and a voter of the Alliance Party?

The people who live in our community have a hard time when it comes to education because going on to third level education spells a break with the community and it has led to the removal from the community anyone with a positive view of learning. Even those who could go to university, would very often prefer to get a job and stay within their walls because it is, ironically, safer there but many people fail to understand this.

Much of the social work done in this community has been patronising and been done "for" people rather than "with" them so that far from building community they further make dependents and expect the "receivers" to show their thanks. Jesus was a working man who got alongside people.

A RIVER STORY

2009-10-14T22:32:00.003+01:00

Belfast in 2009 is still a very troubled place. Despite the changes with the end of the official violence and the decommissioning of the weapons on both sides we are more divided today than we have been for quite some time. The power-sharing executitive is loosing its credibility because the two main parties cannot get past the past. With the rise of the dissidents on the Nationalist side and the opposition on the unionist side both main parties are looking over their shoulders.

There is a little elderly lady in our congregation who is nearly doubled up with arthrites who has a less than complete view of the world: if she could stand upright she would be much taller and have a much better view of the world. In this community we have too many people walking with their faces to the ground. Here is a real prayer to pray for us-"Lord help us to walk upright".

While we are divided into our tribal divisions there are people who realy want to reach accross the divide and work for a more homogenised community but they don't know how to start and they don't see how they can do it safely. Our political leaders do not have the power or authority to lead in this direction but the church really can. We don't have to depend on votes every four or five years and we are expected to lead. I cannot see how we can make any ground unless we begin to see reconciiation taking place. While the governing powers speak of shared space we have few and to make this possible we will need safe places but how can they be created? In my commmunity we have no shared spaces, no neutral places where people from both political cultures can feel safe.

When you stand on the steps of my church building you begin to realise that we are really a church on the edge-to the front of the church lies a strong nationalist community which sees no neeed to reach accross the divide: to the rear of the church there is a strong, some would ghettoeised unionist community which finds itself on the back foot,: to the right and to the left there is a similiar story. So what do we do? How can we show the way? Can we do anything at all?

For some time I have dreamed of making better use of the space our building stands on. The history of this place tells a story of a peopople responding to the popuplation explosion of Belfast and of great industry and community spirit. Since the late sixties it has being in decline. Some of the reasons are economic and some are social and some are about comunity conflict but we should not get stuck in the rut, we need to begin to create new stories, stories that are "river stories". We need to work for a day when people will look back and tell how Belfast said goodbye to the past and hello to the future, not that the future is right just because it is the future. These new stories will only be right when they tell of people who try to work for reconciliation and a better society, when Christians work for the good of the city [Jeremiah 29].

Recently I have begun to think of creating a new community: a communty which reaches accross the divide and acts as a bridge. It is not wrong to say that this is a very dysfunctional communithy and that is why we have so many damaged people and it is also true to say that we are all dysfunctional. There are people who are considered weak and poor because society tells them they are not normal, they are slow learners and need help. Another side of the story is that they are really people who can help us and demonstrate that they really are rich and strong. Could we build a community of weak and less weak that would provide a welcome mat for everyone? I have two dogs and when I take them for a walk hardly a day goes by without somone talking to them and then to me: they are like babies who attract people because they are cute and child-like. Could we create such a community which would be safe an welcoming? Could we gather together such an intentional community? Could we start a new story? Time will tell. Do you think you would be attracted to such an exciting opportunity?

Can we make something new out of the old?

2009-08-13T01:30:00.003+01:00

Jesus came to bring liberation and life to the full but it soon became obvious that the old traditions were difficult to fight against. He found that the vested interests refused to listen to what h ehad to say. At this time of writing I am seated in a beautiful home on the west coast of the United States, looking out on the pacific oscean and everything seems well with the world-why would itg not be? Here we have everything we could possibly want. Here we have all the monmey we could need, here we are presented, on a daily basis, with CHOICE.

Having some time to think I wonder if it is at all possible to re-create the church? It is becoming increasingly obvious that the institutional church is in trouble, numerically. I have a problem with the emergence of the new churches who have little or no accountability either within the church or with other churches. At the same time I can see how thyey have been able to do what needs to be doner to become missional. In my congtregation I have to struggle with the expectations of the traditional "come" mentality. I have to be willing to service the machinery of church and have little time to think through the necessary changes. when I see a change that needs to be made I then hve to convince those involved in the machine to agree with me.

I wish we could develop a think-tank of people to talk our way through the problems of the way we do church?I long for a community, online or in real time, where we can think and pray ouyr way to a better netwwork of like-minded people to develop new models wqith the best of tradition and the best of contemporary. Like-minded people can contact me via thbis blog or by email-I look forward to your response

The Shalom of the city

2009-05-06T22:45:00.002+01:00

For my sins in lived in England from 1971-81. I spent many hours driving up and down the M6, the M1, and the M62. At that time it was customary to see hitch-hikers standing at the start of the motorways with cards in front of their faces and above their heads-much like you see at the airport when people are waiting for passengers they don’t know. The story is told of one man who used to be seen standing at the start of one of the major motorways very regularly with a sign which was different to all the rest which had words like Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham Leeds etc but his simply read-“ANYWHERE BUT HERE!”.

There are times when we think like that-times when we would prefer to be anywhere but where we are. That was the feeling of the people of God in the days of the exile when they found themselves in the wrong city-in Babylon instead of Jerusalem –they did not want to be in the city of the oppressor but God said-“Stay here...make this your home - build houses and raise families and increase don’t decrease in number-work intentionally and joyfully for the welfare of the city-work for the SHALOM of the city for as it prospers so you will prosper.
Walter Bruggemann wrote an essay in “Theology Today” [when John Dunlop was moving house he gave me a whole batch of TT and this was one of them- He said “there is no one single or normative model of church life” He goes on to suggest that there were three distinct models in the OT and by far the most appropriate or us is the EXILIC MODEL. Rabbi Daniel Gordis [Director of the Mandel Foundations Jerusalem Fellows] describes the exile as a meantime- the time between, the great acts of God in the past and in the future-yes it was meantime in the sense of the difficulties but it was also a brief period that would not last for ever-
Bruggemann says that this was a time very like our own-

1. It was a time when Israel had to learn that she was no longer influential in public life
2. It was a time when they were under severe pressure to conform and become like those around them
3. It was a time when they had to work very hard at keeping their identity –
JI Packer concurs in “Knowing God” when he says it was a time when the people of God thought the name of God would never prosper again.

The question, in the face of the sign “ANYWHERE BUT HERE” was - were they in exile or where they sent? We need to develop the ability to see opportunity as well as problem-a group of pessimistic children were placed in a roomful of toys-their conclusion was “It’s no good. As soon as we get used they take them away. Another group of optimistic children locked in a room which was full of horse manure-their reaction was-“there must be a horse here, if there is all that manure!”
The truth is that they were there because of their rebellion and sin-they were sent into exile –that was their circumstances but it was also true that God wanted them there-he wanted them to be the light in the darkness that they were always meant to be but had failed to be-yes they were in exile but they were also sent by God-stay there, build your houses, raise your families-the reality for most of our institutional churches is that we try to do ministry from a distance-a kind of distance learning-and, surprisingly it fails-we say-Oh you could not expect the minister to live in that community-he needs to be at a certain distance-that may be true in the business world , but it is not true for the urban community, it is not true for the incarnational model of ministry that Jesus Christ followed.
If we turn to the NT we find the same situation-in 1Peter we have the same incarnational model- they too were in exile-Peter says –“this world is not your home” yet he goes on to tell them to live exlemporary lives “so that your actions will refute their prejudices’” and this will win them over. David Winter, Warden of Tyndale House says that the Christians of the diaspora also lived insecure lives- it was a time of social insecurity and discrimination against them with “sporadic outbursts of local suspicion, resentment and hostility” when believers were brought before the courts yet they too are called to seek the welfare of the city. They had a three-fold call to:
- Declare the word
- To follow and
- To bless the people
So how are we to live out our calling?

One thing is fundamental-If you do not love this city you cannot minister to it-if you do not love this place then you had better go somewhere else. That is not an uncritical love but it must be genuine-you and I need to understand that while we are living in the exile of the city that is less than perfect God has called us to be here because he has a work for us. If we do not love this city then all our efforts will come across as self-righteous and condemnatory.
The call I hear all the time is that the churches are commuter churches were the members come in their cars, go to church, lock the gates behind them and then go home until next week.
Mark Gornik in “To Live in Peace” says

“a church with an inner-city address and a myriad of programs but minimal community involvement and proportionately little local membership may be more of a mixed blessing to the community than anecdotal accounts and program surveys of congregations suggest”
The first thing that we need to do to be kingdom orientated is to be

1. PRESENT
If you, if we want to be anywhere but here then it is probably better to be anywhere but here. There are many people who have developed models of ministry which are based on intentional presence-that is “loitering with intent”. It means praying for, inviting, encouraging believers to come and live among us.
Like them we have to understand that we may be here because of circumstances-they were in exile but they were also there because God sent them-Jeremiah would say that you are here today for one reason and one reason alone-to take part in the mission of God and that is your privilege and responsibility
John Perkins the civil rights leader who was left for dead and who spoke at one of our special assemblies and was here just two years ago has developed a community project which is based upon the thee “Rs” of
- Repent
- Return and
- reconciliation-
Here he encouraged Christians to return to the city and some to come for the first time-in the 60s the late David Watson did the same in York and that dying church became alive and the late David Shepherd also lived in an intentional community in London.
At the Coleraine Conference of 190 the address given by Harvey Conn he spoke of the survivalist model and the Guerilla church but set out the case for the incarnational approach of the “church as a model home community” what we call the show house.
As we seek of the metanarrative of the bible we see the one plot line all the way through which has the characteristic of incarnation, especially with the coming Of Jesus into the world.

The task of the church today is to tell the story in our own way-to help the community to see the church really is the gift of god to the world. So many of our stories act like “rut” stories-these are the stories that keep us stuck in our traditional ways-so when we speak of shared space and shared housing we think back to the stories of division and conflict, stories that while true do little to take us forward- what we need are new stories that are more like “river” stories-they are stories that show the changing situation in life and tell of how the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, is still our God today-not as the God of the Hebrews but the God of all who will trust Him.
There is really only one way to catch the swine flu and that is from another person-if you have the real thing you have to stay at home-you can’t catch it in isolation. Neither can we influence people in isolation

2. We are called to PRAY for the city

Mark Gornik says that The “urban future belongs to the intercessors”. In the BMI manual for the developing of Presbytery Mission plans it says that the process is to be “bathed in prayer and birthed in conversation” Walter Wink sys that “history belongs to the intercessors”-this is not the last resort of the desperate but the beginning of the process. Wink goes on to say “even a small number of people, firmly committed to the new inevitability on which they have fixed their imaginations can decisively affect the shape the future takes. These shapers of the future are the intercessors, who call out the future, the longed-for new present”
I do believe that the most significant and important thing we have done in the last few years has been the decision to take prayer into the community-to Dunns’ Car park and to the school and to the PSNI. As Abraham interceded for Sodom so we are to intercede for Belfast. Jesus tells the story of the friend at midnight to re-enforce that God wants to answer us more than we want to pray and also the need to persist not to force God’s hand but to show our resolution.
Public Activity

This is all about putting flesh on the bones of our presence- we are to get involved in ways that will be to the welfare of the city. In the NT it was the Christians who did the dirty work that no one else would do-they were doing the work that Mother Teresa has made her own in India.

What has happened in our cities is that the Christians have left the scene so that those who are involved in public life are the atheists and the agnostics and the nominal Christians. We need to serve the community and so we will regain the influence we once had-from the bottom up.-we need to create those river stories that will be the 29th chapter of the acts of the believers.

By so doing we will help people to become familiar again with the plot line that is the Christ-story-his-story. Don Carson reminds us of the need to re-tell the story to a generation that has little knowledge of the bible
“the fact remains that the bible, as a whole document tells a story, and , properly used, that story can serve as a metanarrative that shapes our grasp of the entire Christian faith. In my view it is increasingly important to spell this out to Christians and non-Christians alike....”
Action?
- we need to see the city as a place of redemption-a holy place because God is at work here
- we should be praying for the city and becoming strategic in that praying
- we should be calling for people to live in the city, including ministers
- we should be encouraging our members to get involved even if that means giving them time off from Congregational duties to do so

Christian

2009-03-28T03:36:00.001Z

What is a good church? One of the leaders in a former church that I had an association with said that “busy people are happy people and busy churches were happy churches”. For him a good church is one which has a packed program every week. That means that the premises are used every night of the week and the members never have time to get bored or for idle hands get into trouble. In some ways that sounds right but then I remember that his family had broken up and his life at work was a disaster because he was a perfectionist in everything and had little time for the imperfections of others. Then I remember that the church is cluttered with the casualties of this kind of philosophy. The result of this is to make the church inward looking: pre-occupied with keeping the machinery of the church going to the neglect of those outside the church door. If the church of Christ is to more like Christ then the balance between being inside and outside the church building has to change. For Jesus Christ the task was to help the outsiders become insiders. The way to do that is not by providing ever more programs but by getting alongside people.
A good church is one which encourages and equips the members to be involved in the community where they live. A good church is one which has a desire to serve its community and to play the role of fellow citizens: our role is neither to sit in judgement nor to be patronising in doing things for the community, to make it a better place. Our role is to be like Jesus and to work with and not for or in the place of the community. There are lessons that we can learn and lessons we can teach. There is no distinction between the sacred and the secular: the Hebrews believed that all of life was sacred and as the new Israel we too need to have a more holistic view of life and a less truncated view of the bible and the biblical story. Yes we want to be a better church but we will not be that by staying inside the church building, we need to get out there and get our hands dirty, if need be. The sad fact is that within one year of a person becoming a Christian they, usually, loose all meaningful contact with their former friends and then we wonder why we are losing contact with people who are outside.
The latest sensation on Yourtube is the story of Christian. He was a lion. Yes a lion. In 1969 two friends saw him in Harrods in London so they bought him for the equivalent of £3,000. Christian became their pet: they took him for walks through the streets of London on a lead and he played with them in the house and went in the car for drives. Once he got too big for the home they persuaded a local Moravian minister to allow him to play in an old graveyard. The fact that Moravians don’t have headstones was a great help: they say, quite correctly, that death is the great leveller, so the markers are laid flat on the ground. But pretty soon he became too big even for that and so they had to face the fact that they would have to provide a better living arrangement: the possibilities were either the Zoo or the circus and neither of these was acceptable to them. It was then that they came into contact with George Adamson through the actors, Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna the stars of Born Free. Adamson and his wife Joy were the people who had released Ailsa the lioness back into the wild in Kenya. Eventually Christian was introduced into the wild also. What is so amazing about this story is that after a year of being separated from his old friends he still recognised them when they returned to Kenya: on the film there is no hesitation once he saw who they were and the reunion is very moving.

What can we learn from this? One lesson is that the lion remembered because of the relationship that was built up between him and the two men. We cannot build relationships with people from a distance: Jesus came to be among us. When our churches learn that lesson will people not sit up and take

What next?

2009-03-15T11:42:00.002Z

Can you even begin to imagine the pain of Kate Carroll? She kisses her husband, Steve, goodbye as was her custom on that morning that would change her life:or rather would be the end of it, as she later described it. When he returned it was in a wooden coffin. Here was a woman who loved her husband, and a man who loved his wife: he was her life. Why did these people decide to make their bid for "freedom" and notoriety by taking his life? Can anyone ever say, least of all the one who pressed the trigger. to them he was just another collaborator. He was a "uniform" that was all that mattered nit a husband, not a son, not a father or grandfather. He will never retire, never feel the frustrations of the credit crunch or fight for the right to choose without coercion the political identity of his country.

If this action was designed to make Gerry Adams words, "they haven't gone away, you know" come back to haunt us they succeeded. if they were intended to revitalise the lost pipe dream of the revolutionary republicanism, they failed. In the wake of the death of three defenders of the state the public, the too often silent majority, has risen up to say, "no more" , we want, we demand peace for our children and grandchildren. Like Jesus said about the poor, they will always be with us. We will, for a considerable future, have the disgruntled minority who cannot live with democratic decision. But what next? After the rallies and after the shouting is done, what can we do next to minimise the minority?

It seems to me that for Jesus Christ people were more important than political principles or political dreams. it seems to me that the answer to our situation has to be about getting on with those that we disagree with. The mistake of the dissidents is to imagine that you can force unity, you can coerce people into a United Ireland. I wonder when Ireland has ever been united? I would like to propose a way for Ireland to be truly united; when hearts are united. Put simply for all to understand that means that relations are the bedrock of real prosperity and progress and political affinity. That means that actually the way to unite people is for us to learn to be friends. we need to take hold of the big picture, we need to put our smaller political aspirations on hold with the knowledge that that journey will change us both. It is always difficult for me to disagree with my wife and I certainly would not do that in public. why so? Just because I love her and I want her to agree with me. If I really want the best for us all why can i not call a moratorium on the status of this province for a period so that we can learn to live together without agitation and the complications of nationality? There is no need to change my dreams, just put them on hold for the betterment of all or am I afraid that these dreams will not stand the test of time?

Sorry but we all need time to come together without the fire of my heritage being questioned or threatened. Why can we not just learn about each other's culture and each others sports and accept that in some things we are the same and i others different, is that so bad? I get annoyed when people can only see nationality in monochrome when it is colouful and integrate. I am unashamedly an irishman, in fact i am an Ulsterman, if not a Belfast man. yet I have also a strong feeling of belonging to these islands-I am British by birth and by upbringing. I am a Presbyterian Christian but we do not have all the answers and have made many mistakes and I have come to appreciate my catholic brothers.

Why would you not take the time to learn about your Irish/British, Protestant/Cathoic neighbour. Maybe if we really did concentrate on becoming friends we might be able to move forward in a more satisfactory way. God sent His son to die for the world, not just this part of it. In fact as we have been fighting the Christian population has moved south and east;we are only just begining to realise that the majority of Christians do not have white faces, nor do they speak English, more likely they have brown or Chinese faces and they speak a very different language as their national language-wake up and smell the coffee!

The Long, Lost relative

2009-03-03T17:47:00.000Z

Foreword
This paper is written for the professors of the Bakke Graduate University in Seattle as part of an assignment for the Doctor of Ministry program, but to the “Research and Resources” committee of the Board of Mission in Ireland, of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. The aim is to describe some aspects of the Orthodox model of ministry and mission and to set out some lessons we can learn. This is paper is the conclusion of extensive reading and a visit to Turkey and Romania with a group of other students, professors and Romanian Orthodox Priests. We began in Istanbul, made our way to Cappadocia and Ephesus before traveling through Bulgaria and into Romania to Bucharest and Iasi. We walked in the footsteps of Paul and saw the ancient remnants of the Church of Jesus Christ before observing and experiencing the living church in a former communist country. These are my own personal reflections. This was never intended to be a tourist trip but more of a pilgrimage and an opportunity to experience and rediscover our long lost family in the Orthodox tradition. It turned out to be a very long pilgrimage but these experiences and reflections were made with a group of people who have come to know each other better because of the many hours we spent together on the bus. We came to admire and wonder at the physical endurance of Paul who made the same journey without modern transport.
In seeking to understand this church, which has been isolated from the west since the split with Rome in 1054, we will look at its doctrine and practice. One becomes very aware of the distance between us but also the faith and practices that we share: it’s not always clear that in using familiar words we understand the same familiar things. J.I Packer reflects this line of thought when he describes the perceived distance between |Orthodoxy and traditional Evangelicalism, using the words of the ballad, ‘’It’s a long way to Tipperary, it’s a long way to go’’ . George Bernard Shaw said much the same when he described the usage of English on both sides of the Atlantic as ‘’a common people separated by a common language’’. The average person is not familiar with the Eastern Orthodox Church, we are not taught about it and so the assumption is made that there is little, if any, difference between the Christian and the Roman Catholic Christian. It is my contention that there are similarities as well as differences that we can learn from and even adopt to make valuable contributions to any living church for the glory of God.
I wish to take this opportunity to thank those who journeyed with me on the Orthodox Trail and those who have helped me along the way and in the process of producing this paper and pray that it will help someone somewhere on their journey through life.
Dogma, the practical theology of Orthodox Faith
Before investigating some of the beliefs of Eastern Orthodoxy we need to give some consideration as to what we understand it to mean by ‘’orthodoxy’. The literal meaning of Orthodox is that it is the right teaching or right worship, being derived from two Greek words: orthos (right) and doxa (teaching or worship). As the false teachings and divisions multiplied in early Christian times, threatening to obscure the identity and purity of the Church, the term Orthodox quite logically came to be applied to it. Hence we have then term applied to Judaism with Orthodox Jews As opposed to Reformed or liberal and orthodox Protestants in contrast to liberals. The Orthodox Church considers itself as something of a guardian of truth against all error and schism, both to protect its flock and to glorify Christ whose body the Church is. Another way of considering Orthodoxy is to think of it in the light of those churches which call themselves ‘Orthodox’ meaning those churches who belong to a loose federation of churches who split from the Latin church in 1054AD [some of them are aligned to the council of Chalcedon and others opposed] giving special honour to the see of Constantinople. They were part of the eastern flank of the Roman Empire, where Constantine had his capital. After the historic split with Rome it became detached and developed an independent identity. Today, because of mission and political decisions, there has developed a Diaspora throughout the world but especially in the United States of America.[check this definition]. We will be using the second of these understandings in this discussion.
We are what we are because of what we believe and so in studying Orthodox faith and practice we need to reflect on the theological perspectives that make her what she is. When a people are separated by thousands of years it is quite natural that they should take some time to get to know each other once they have been re-acquainted. Before our trip we spent much time in reading about the life and faith of Orthodoxy but we have also been in discussion and spent time with those involved in ministry. In seeking to get a basic understanding of the dogma of the church one of the books we read was ‘’Introducing The Orthodox Church’’ by Anthony M. Coniasis . This covered such basics as liturgy, prayer, scripture, salvation, the sacraments and the controversial areas of Mary, the saints and the use of icons. Like other churches the Orthodox see themselves as the ‘’one, holy, catholic and apostolic church’’: they consider themselves,’ as the only way, and the truth to be the guardians of that truth for over 2,000 years. For a deeper understanding of dogma we read ‘’The Experience of God’’ by Father Dumetru Staniloae . This gives, not only a deeper understanding of Orthodox faith but also a different way of understanding dogma, which in turn gives us a better understanding of the nature of this church.. For Orthodoxy, dogma is not about those rules and regulations of the faith that are rigid and fixed. In some of the English translations the ‘’Dogma’’ was omitted from the title for fear that it would be understood only in the western way. For Father Dumitri this is not about a bald exterior appeal to the magisterium but…’’to indicate the inner coherence of dogmatic truth and the significance of each dogma for the personal life of the Christian’’ He goes on to say that what is needed is a ‘’concrete theology’’. For him theology presumes a personal relationship and that makes it less theoretic and more dynamic than the normal, western Dogmatic Theology.: it’s not about placing beliefs in various boxes, it’s more about living an integral faith where each part of the faith relates to all the others.
In studying the theology of Orthodoxy we find both continuity and discontinuity with ourselves and with the early church, at least as we understand it. Unlike the western or Latin Church the Orthodox have not been subject to the Reformation nor the Renaissance and they were never influenced by the Age of Reason and governance has not been by dictate of Pope or prelates but by the collective decision of the church: the Patriarch is merely the first among equals, as is the Moderator of the General Assembly, with his brother bishops. Anthony M Coniasis writes that ‘’The holiest moment in the church service is the moment when the Church-God’s people-strengthened by preaching and sacrament-go out the church door into the world to be the Church. We don’t merely go to church; we are the Church’’ . This view is similar to the Roman Catholic practice as the priest declares at the end of the Mass, ‘’The Mass is ended, go and serve the Lord’’. The division and schism of 1054 represents the separation of the brethren and a very long period of isolation, which has been aggravated by the historical events, such as the sacking of Constantinople in the thirteenth century by the knights of the Fourth Crusade. One of our problems is that we think by using the same word s we are meaning the same thing but that is not always the case. J.I Packer makes this point in his foreword to ‘’Three Views on Eastern Orthodoxy and Evangelicalism’’ when he says
A venerable British ballad [or was it Irish?] begins by declaring, ‘’It’s a long way to Tipperary, it’s a long way to go.’’’. Substitute for Tipperary the desired togetherness between, on the one hand, North America’s evangelical church- as the great cluster of evangelical denominations, freestanding Bible churches, and evangelical networks within the subevangelical mainline are currently called-and the western outposts of the Eastern Orthodox communion on the other, and words of the song fit with ominous exactness: indeed, ’’it’s a long way to go.

Continuity
Theology of Mary
There are apparent similarities with the Western Church in the theology of Mary and the saints but also discontinuity when we begin to unpack what the words actually mean: for the Orthodox Mary, the mother of Jesus is Theotokos, the God bearer and any icons of her are always with the child, Jesus. In Orthodoxy Mary is never alone and she is always pointing to the Son of God she is looking inwardly in contemplation. She is not holding the child. The child blesses her for her willingness to be the one who brought him into the world. In the Latin Church Mary is seen alone. In Orthodox understanding Mary gives Jesus the place of priority and honour which is in line with our reformed view. [picture of Mary here?]
Ian Bria takes this further by saying that ‘’an ecclesiology which does not include Mary the mother of Jesus is unbiblical.’’ We may have to take this as a valid criticism in that we do not give Mary the position of honour that she has in scripture as the one ‘’most highly favoured’’. Timothy Ware states that anyone who fails to honour Mary is usually someone who does not really believe in the incarnation. He tells us that the Fathers of the Council of Ephesus insisted that Mary be called Theotokus because honouring her would safeguard a right doctrine of Christ’s person. He says that ‘’anyone who thinks out the implications of that great phrase, ‘The word was made flesh’, cannot but feel a profound awe for her who was chosen as the instrument of so surpassing a mystery’’
The Communion of the Saints
Like the Roman Church Luke there is a theology of death which means that life is not defeated or interrupted by death: the Church is quick and dead, militant and triumphant.. There is little practical evidence to show that we believe in a church militant in our practice: we remain orthodox in our liturgy if not in our praxis. Some believe that we ignore the saints who have departed unless they were born in the nineteenth century and were sent out as missionaries. To some we act as if nothing of any importance happened before the Reformation if not prior to the Revivals of the nineteenth century. More familiar to us is the view that the Church is not the building rather it is the gathering in the name of Jesus and the fellowship of the saints which means that a Christian is never alone. Upon entering an Orthodox sanctuary one becomes immediately aware, we are told, of the great cloud of witnesses spoken of in the book of Hebrews: they are on the walls and on the roof and on the Iconostasis, which is viewed as a window onto heaven. To those of an evangelical and minimalist view it appears to be more of a barrier between the clergy and people. The saints are very important to any Orthodox worshipper because they are part of the triumphant church. . Just as evangelicals look with great reverence to the Old Testament patriarchs and to the missionaries of the eighteenth century so the Orthodox looks to the Patristic Fathers with veneration. In visiting the region of Turkey known as Cappadocia we were reminded of the Cappadocian Fathers and the part they played in making of the church. In our reading we were reminded of the part played by the patristic thinkers in the theological formation of John Calvin .
The Trinity
Then there are similarities with the evangelical world too. We have the world of Orthodoxy to thank for giving us a focus on the Trinitarian nature of God. All too often today we observe those Christians who pay little attention to the Fatherhood of God and give too much on Jesus [they tend to be Reformed Christians], those who give all the attention to the Spirit [charismatic or Pentecostal] and then there are those who deny the trinity altogether and we call them Unitarians, while the Orthodox are very careful to hold on to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, ever three, ever one. In the Trinity we have the model for fellowship and partnership which results in service. It’s in the Trinity that we get the imperative to serve and to engage with each other. It’s in the trinity that we are reminded that ministry is all about relationships: our relationship with God, the triune God and our relationship with other human beings. We are all made in the image of God and that means we are fulfilled when we are like God, this is what the Orthodox call ‘theosis’, or the process of deification, what we prefer to call sanctification. This is what gave the Celtic Christians their relational ministry: this way of doing evangelism makes the person more important than the program and is more person-directed and less aggressive, more Christ-centred because the centre is not what we are doing but on Christ Himself. This is the approach we have taken in our church when we set up our prayer table in the community market. In this approach we allow people to come to us and request prayer rather than being direct and aggressive. As the Father relates to the Son and as the Spirit energizes the Son and makes sure the will of the Father is done so there is inter-dependence on each other, and that is how we are to relate to each other. Out of this approach we empower people rather than make them dependent, they become inter-dependent. In any community every member should have responsibilities and gifts for the benefit of the whole body.

Incarnation
This Trinitarian approach also leads on to the Incarnational approach of the Orthodox. In the incarnation the son of God came to earth as a real man, of flesh and blood. He took on our humanity, cleansed it and transformed it into a holy and glorious humanity. God became like us that we might become like Him. The flesh is important and not to be despised, rather we are to give thanks for it: the Romanian Orthodox, we soon discovered have a great facility for moving easily from the holy to the earthly, they can worship and celebrate without any difficulty. It is because of this incarnation emphasis and their trinitarianism that they thought it important to work and worship and study in the monastic settlements, so on these settlements there were sanctuaries with elaborate icon pictures along with libraries and refectories and fields to work in. In this model there is a holistic or integral approach rather than a pietistic, individualistic and private faith. The church building and the liturgy is designed to be heavenly and God –centred so that the worship becomes a drama: gospel is processed through the door of the iconostasis and the priest is dressed in his finery with the cloud of witnesses looking in the presence of the icon of the Theotokos and the pantokrator on the doom of the roof [God is panokrator or creator]. In ‘’The Liturgy after the Liturgy’’ Ion Bria makes the starting point that the word, ‘liturgy’ has its derived meaning in the words leiteros meaning public, and ergon, meaning work. He goes on to say that ‘
’the liturgy is not just a commemoration of Christ’s ministry to the world, teaching, healing, feeding the people; it is the realization, in each new context, of the history of the world, of ‘what the lord has done’ [psalm 64:8]|The faithful can see with their eyes and hear with their ears and hearts the message of the gospel in the symbolic language of Jesus…Again, this is a matter not just of visualizing the Word of God, but also of partaking the Body of Christ for the forgiveness of sins and for eternal life’’
In the participation of the people in the liturgy there is an appeal to all the senses: to sight as they see the architecture, the icons and the actions of the priest; to smell as the sweet fragrance of the incense rising up in worship; to hearing as the y hear the bells in the liturgy, as they listen to the singing, telling the story and the words of the priest and the reading of the Gospel and preaching of the word; to touch as they venerate the icons and feel the bread; and to speech as they respond in worship and as they bless themselves in the Trinitarian blessing. For Orthodoxy worship is central to life and living and does not remain in the sanctuary. How often do we need to remind ourselves, in the west, that worship is intended as our spiritual sacrifice, not to be restricted to church, not something we leave in the pews but in everything we do. If we believe in the Trinitarian God then we will follow His example of relational service. Worship is more than singing a few songs and praying a few prayers, it’s about the way we live. Music is of vital importance in the worship of Orthodoxy. In this heavenly drama that can last up to 150 minutes without seating the singing of the liturgy becomes vital. Listening to the harmony which tells the drama it is easier to attend to and remember than the spoken word. From blessing themselves to entering church the Orthodox believer remains thoroughly Trinitarian. Getting the worship right will lead to the right way to live. Like the Celtic Christians life and faith is relational rather than programmed, the ‘’Gospel Driven Church’’ becomes the ‘’Community Church’’ driven by the triune God. Many evangelicals are time driven: we have trained our people to come to worship which will fit into the lifestyle they have chosen. This may well be to do with the music of their choice or the liturgy that suits them best or even the length of the service so that once the magic hour arrives they are keeping an eye on the clock.
Worship
For Orthodoxy it’s not about the time spent in the sanctuary. There is an impulse for the faithful to be totally involved in the action of the liturgy. There is a desire to see, to enter into the holy place, to concelebrate and to take Holy Communion. It’s not a matter of time, but of moving towards the throne to praise in the presence of God. Ian Bria says that it is impossible to be uninvolved. Personally I can verify this. In a visit we made to a church in Iasi I felt caught up in the worship, by the beauty of the singing, by the spirit of worship in the place. Several times I wanted to leave but felt the tug to remain. I had no idea what was being said but that did not seem important. I was struck by the desire of the faithful to be there and to take the blessed bread with them. I was struck by the humility expressed by the women who stayed on their knees for long periods of time, blessing themselves, not in a way which seemed calculated to use the least possible amount of energy but reaching from their heads to the ground. At another church I was struck with a mixture of admiration and suspicion as I saw some women crawling on their hands and knees, blessing themselves in the name of the Triune God making their way through the icon of the virgin and child, pleading for health and healing. We in the reformed tradition remain suspicious of such practices, naming this as superstition and earning their salvation: do they not know that Christ forgives as we ask? But then I find myself asking ‘’how do we express our humility?’’ I think we would be too proud to humble ourselves .Metropolitan Anthony covers this in ‘’School for Prayer’’ saying that if we wish to pray we must start with a certainty that we are sinners in need of salvation. We need to realize that we are naturally cut off from God and that we cannot live without him. All we can offer is our longing to be changed that we may meet him. He says that ‘’prayer is really our humble ascent towards God, a moment when we turn God wards, shy of coming near, knowing that if we meet Him too soon, before His grace has had time to help us to be capable of meeting Him, it will be in judgment’’ Such real humility is not always at the top of evangelicalism
Vertical faithfulness
The Great Commission of Matthew 28 is seen as vertical faithfulness rather than horizontal persuasion. For most evangelicals the Great Commission drives them on so that ministry becomes an objective to be reached: targets are set as to how many can be reached with the message this week or this year, we seek to pack as many as possible into the church or the theatre or the tent. For Orthodoxy the target is to pass the faith on to friends and family that they may pass it on to their children and their children’s children. That seems like something Paul said in 2Timothy 2:2. For many generations now the Presbyterian Church has played lip service to this approach: the practice, on the other hand, has been less committed: we have made such demands on members to spent all their waking hours in the church that spending time with family and being in the community has become a rarity with the resulting outcome that we have become detached from the community in which we live and, worst of all, estranged from our families. We have become too individualistic and private and personal, failing to understand that our Trinitarian faith means we were intended to be the corporate body of Christ, and to have fellowship with one another, bearing one another’s burdens. In seeking to be faithful to the Great Commission we have actually become disobedient and have distorted it. Surely this command of Christ is both vertical and horizontal. There are some implications of this vertical faithfulness that local churches need to attend to.
Then there is the thorny question of the unity of the church. It was Jesus’ prayer in John 17 that the believers would be one but as the years go on then fragmentation becomes greater. In the ‘’Liturgy after the liturgy’’ we read that,
One of the issued raised by the liturgy after the liturgy is the question of Christian unity. It was Jesus’ prayer in John 17 that all the believers should be one: today we are more fragmented than ever, not just across the denominations but within them also. For may years now the Orthodox have kept the World Council of Churches together given the absence of the Roman Catholic Church. By their presence they have demonstrated a commitment to church unity. Since the early years of the infant church Christians from the east have been in the vanguard of doctrinal purity and guardianship, hence the ecumenical councils that defined the divinity and humanity of Christ an other important doctrines we now affirm. On the more local scene the division among local churches whom largely share the same core values is a real obstacle to the gospel and the cause of Christ. While we cannot merely sweep aside the differences between us we should be deliberate and intentional in the engagement we have with those with whom we disagree. In 1974 the World Council of Churches meeting in Bucharest pointed to the necessity of churches working together in communion which would reflect in history the Trinitarian existence of God Himself. It goes on to say that,
The church is meant precisely to be that. Mission, therefore, suffers and is seriously distorted or disappears whenever it is not possible to point to a community in history which reflects this Trinitarian existence of communion. This happens whenever the church is so distorted or divided that it is no longer possible to recognize it as such a communion, or whenever mission is exercised without reference to the church, but with reference simply to the individuals or the social realities of history.
This means that getting our ecclesiology wrong may well make mission impossible. We need to have a correct view of the church, not as something separate from daily life but as an integral part of life. Our worship is another way of preaching the gospel to a secular world. This was highlighted at the W.C.C meeting in Canberra in 1991which spoke of the fundamental nature of the Christian life in sacramental terms.
Every worshipping community should be a model for an inclusive community. Worship space needs to be designed so that all people are able to participate fully. A lively ministry of hospitality, welcoming all in the name of the Lord, is most important. The plea of young people for forms of worship and celebration which fit their culture must be taken seriously.
With the attitude of intentional engagement there will be opportunities to agree and to disagree and to witness to the power and love of the Trinitarian God. Hospitality means being open to the thoughts and traditions of others, it means an openness to light from any quarter with the spiritual faculty of discernment. In our working with churches outside our comfort zone we have tended to isolate ourselves and remain aloof with the danger of remaining closed to the work of the Spirit of God.
Discontinuity
Some of the difficult areas of belief and practice include icons, the place of Mary and the saints and the attitude to tradition. At the beginning we quoted the ballad, ‘’It’s a long way to Tipperary’: recalling icons, is one of those areas were the distance seem the greatest. When a westerner looks at an icon he sees something quite weird, he sees something which evokes feelings of idolatry and exaggerated, cartoon-like thoughts. When the case for icons is put forward it appears very reasonable but the problem is that observation leaves us less than satisfied. This is an important topic because in a post modern society art and music have a very important place in worship and if we can learn from that we should.
Iconology
The trouble with icons and iconology is that we can only look at it from a western point of view. For the Orthodox there are three purposes in using them: one is to create reverence in worship, the second is to instruct those who cannot read; and the third is to serve as an existential link between the worshipper and God. The point is made by the Orthodox that while the Hebrews have always rejected any visible representation of God they did not appreciate that the use of letters can do the exact same thing: for example the use of Chi-Rho and HIS stand for Christ and Jesus respectively. St Basil said that ‘’what the word transmits through the ear, that painting silently shows through the image, and by these two means, mutually, accompanying one another…we receive knowledge of one and the same thing.’’ We are to understand that the Orthodox has two gospels: the one is visual and the other is the verbal to appeal to the whole person. The idea of icon has also become more a feature in the lives of people in popular culture: the communist regime of the USSR made it their practice to display photographs of their leaders to keep people focused on the right issues and the other is contemporary use of icons which act as windows to their programs; we understand that in the Presidential election in the USA on November v4th 2008 many African Americans took pictures of their forebears with them into the voting booths with them as a way of including them in this momentous event; then we are also reminded of the iconic nature given to celebrities and the description of Jesus Christ by the Apostle Paul as an icon of God long with his call for all the faithful to be like Him.
When it comes to prayer there are important lessons for us to learn from the Orthodox Christians and some things which call for critical thought. Take a look at the list set out by Anthony Coniasis and you can only agree that here we have a treasure for us to meditate upon. Here are just a few of these gems of understanding, taken at random, to demonstrate the wealth of wisdom as to the nature of prayer:
• Prayer…uplifts and unites human beings with God [St Gregory Palamas]
• Prayer is our personal communication system with our home base
• Prayer is opening the door of our hearts to receive the Holy Spirit
• Prayer is not bargaining with God, trying to convince Him to change. It is, rather, our asking Him to change us so we see His ways and His plans more clearly
• Prayer is raising my eye to God lest I begin to think that I am the highest point in the universe.
At the heart of eastern Christianity there is mysticism, there is a call to go beyond the cognitive thought forms that we in the west have iconized . There is much here that we can agree with and much that must challenge us. Theophan the Recluse calls for the worshipper to come before God with ‘’’the mind in the heart’’ He says that we need to pray with the mind but also with the heart. He says that we must pray with the mind so that it is not merely words, but the heart has to feel what the mind is thinking. Metropolitan Anthony says that ‘’unless the prayer which you intend to offer to God is important and meaningful to you first, you will not be able to present it to the Lord’’ He sets out three types of prayer: spontaneous; short vocal prayers and ready-made prayers. Discounting the possibility of being spontaneous all the time and rejecting set prayers he talks of the need for which is rooted in conviction. He suggests learning the Psalms by heart so that they can be used, drawn up from the well whenever they are needed and of the Jesus prayer. None of the above should present us with any problems and the idea of practicing daily prayer devotion at each end of the day should encourage us all. Coniaris sets out the daily cycle as one way of putting this into practice. Where many evangelicals have difficulty is with prayer to and with the saints.

What lessons can we learn?
Having tried to tease out any family resemblance I want to try to suggest some practical lessons we can learn from our long, lost relatives. To do this we will need to set out some of the features of the family. Firstly there is the Trinitarian doctrine, which sets the context for much of what is Orthodox Theology and practice. From the fellowship of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit comes the monastic communities. Since the fourth century monasticism has been organized into communities, some surviving to the present day. The monastic initiative was the response of the believers to the spiritual struggle. They went to the places that others would not go to. They took the gospel to those places where it had no gone before. When the gospel was taken to Russia monasteries appeared immediately; when the communists left Romania the monasteries began to multiply. Michael Oleska tells us that when Russia, Central Asia and Siberia were settled it was not by adventurers or frontiersmen, as in America, but by monks who went to the remotest corners of Eurasia to continue the struggle against the devil, in the world and within themselves. John Binns reminds us of the problem when discussing Eastern approaches to theology: the words used are often used by east and west but have different meanings. It is also useful to note that both sides have different ways of understanding the nature of this theology. In the east the understanding is not about an academic knowledge but of personal knowledge. Dumitru Staniloae makes the same point when he declares that dogmatics is about ‘concrete theology’…a theology of experience’’ this is not about abstract systems nor philosophical theory but the expression of personal experience and a living encounter with the divine. John Binns quotes the words of Evagrius of Pontus who described a theologian as one who prays and one who prays is a theologian. The reason for this is that theological understanding has developed in the Monasteries rather than the universities, in the rough and tumble of daily life rather than in the ivory palaces of academia. We must wonder how the increasing importance of the universities may influence the life of the church in the days ahead or if the strong link with monasticism will act as a practical bulwark. It would be a mistake to think of the eastern monasticism as remote and distanced from church and people. The fact is that from the very beginning, and we saw this in Turkey, the monasteries were tightly linked to the community. This is seen in the fact that they were centres of learning, places of hospitality and places of work. In times of economic difficulty they provided employment, places for prayer and contemplation. They had their origins in the gospel call to complete commitment and to leave family and friends. I the trinity there is a call to service and interaction. They saw themselves as ‘’white martyrs’, called, not to die, but to give up all for Christ’. John Binns reminds us that the first monks we re just ordinary people who committed themselves to live as the people around them lived. There was nothing very unusual about them. They lived in groups or alone; they ate the same food, wore the same clothes and did the same work as the people around them. Their aim was to live as an alternative communities so as to be critical friends, sometimes challenging, at other times encouraging society. It was in the monastery that people found training and education and sometimes employment. In the early days membership was flexible: monks could leave the monastery and work m in the community and community people were able to join the alternative community for a [period of time. This was an intentional community. we have to ask the question, especially in those places which are often considered God-forsaken, where are the intentional communities in our western societies? These communities were so successful at what they did that they attracted financial support from government and people with great resources. They even played a part in the national defense, making the point that all defense is not military but also spiritual. Emperor Basil II wrote: ‘what foundations are to a house and oars are to a boat, the prayers of the saints are to the Empire. Who can doubt that what the sword, the bow and military strength could not achieve, prayer alone has brought tom pass easily and splendidly’
Stemming from Monasticism we have another feature which is their servant attitude. This also stems from the emphasis on the incarnation. In the triune relationship there is the interaction and mutual service of their fellowship which explains their desire to serve. In Christ God planted Himself in our world, the tabernacle with humanity for a while. Unlike other kings he came to serve rather than be served and it is the responsibility of every Christian to do likewise: not that they speak of responsibility but rather of doing what should come naturally. In the various countries where Orthodoxy is found you will find the liturgy in the national language. You will also find a strong nationalist spirit. Sometimes the question is raise as to how the eastern European nations managed to keep their religion going. The answer to this question raises another characteristic which is that of a survival mentality: in Ireland we call it stubbornness. What that means in the Russian and Romanian context is that they choose to be with their people instead of holding on to religious purity. A pietistic view in Belfast has denuded the community of vibrant Christian witness today.
When Dumitru Staniloae was asked about the cost of surviving communism he said it was two-fold: fear and lies. The persecution was great and they had to pretend to be faithful to the atheist regime. The alternative was top resist, remain pure but be destroyed and be of no use to their people. The Romanian Patriarch during the Ceaucesu years decided to collude rather than resist and this choice was accepted by the population: when he resigned after the revolution the people persuaded him to return because they understood his decision. The same course of action was taken in Russia. The affect in Russia and Romania was to outlast communism: as in China the philosophical premise of Leninist-Marxist ideology was seen to be defeated. The premise was that eventually the success of communism would destroy the foundations of the church and that would lead to a rejection by the people. Unfortunately, for the regime, this did not work out and that was re-enforced when they turned to repression and persecution. When the communists left the church was there to pick up the pieces.
Next, we see that they are clearly intentional in their engagement, both with those they agree with and with those they disagree with. This is illustrated by their involvement in the ecumenical movement where they have held the foreground and in the way they have decided to stay in communities. Where are our intentional communities engaging with the enemy as well as with friends? We have been slow to join the discussion table. We have deserted those communities which need people to fight the spiritual battles which face them every day and that helps to explain why there is a major dislocation of church and community.
Another feature, already mentioned elsewhere, is their grounding in the saints, especially the patristics. They have a clear view of their place in history as the people of God: they are part of a long line of saints who have held true to the faith. While this history can imprison, as it tends to do with us, it can also liberate and inform. The ruins and relics in Turkey and elsewhere can give rise to hope as well as to despair as they consider the sovereign will of God
Application
Having suggested some features of our Orthodox brethren let’s spend some time in setting out how we can benefit from them. Living in a post modern world we need to consider how we can make more use of, and, appeal to the senses. The way we live and worship is very cognitive and while it is necessary for us to have strong minds as well as strong bodies we need to become more holistic in expressing our faith. While we may have difficulties in using icons as a way to focus the worshipper’s mind on Christ we may be able to use art in other ways. In our church we already have a stained glass window of Jesus but we may be able to highlight it more often using creative methods.
In thinking of the great cloud of witnesses we can include the example of the early church fathers along with the missionaries of the nineteenth century.
In thinking of mission we can take the approach of other congregations, along with our Orthodox brothers of making the worship service be the place to help people to become disciples of Christ and leave the liturgy with the understanding that the service has only begun.
Following the implications of the incarnation we need to be intentional in our approach to community. One of the strategies used by John Perkins is to call Christian people to relocate in tough urban communities. We need to attract those people who can, and will, be open to minister and live in the most difficult places, be they in the inter-faces of our cities or in the rural border areas. We can decide to make housing available in areas of acute housing shortage without giving up ministry opportunities. We could set up Intentional Christian Communities in the various areas of Urban Belfast, and why not on the Crumlin Road? In a community which is so segregated into Protestant and Catholic, Nationalist and Unionist we need models which can give example to how the two major traditions in Belfast can live together in harmony. If an experiment in integrated living is to succeed and space is to be shared we will need to create communities which have a certain degree of protection and control. Here is one suggestion or line of thought which is worth considering for our congregation and community:we could use our site to build some housing. A chaplain/warden and other necessary members of staff would be appointed. Places could be allocated with a mix of Christian and non-Christian people, young and old. A cross community aspect would be both essential and inspirational for the greater community. At the same time we could go into partnership with statutory services to build a sports hall/community hall which could also be used by the church.
This would be a renewing resource because it would get regular funding from government and it would dove-tail with the both the Vine and the other churches in the Greater Shankill Community-if it was thought appropriate we could be done with leadership coming from the shankill worship centre. We could be in partnership with the Shankill churches / or with Immanuel-there are models in the US [e.g. Redeemer Presbyterian in New York] and the Vine would play a vital part.
This would enable us to keep the present congregation going and keep a foot on this important arterial route. At the same time the outreach could go on, in parallel with the Vine and other congregations. Being intentional means that we have decided to do this rather than just let it happen. We have decided that we need to attract some Christians who will live in community to help us to model what it means to be a Christian in the urban community. Who else is going to be prepared to live in the places that even Christians have left. Living in community makes it all the more possible. If we were able to build as high as the church then we could have all the more accommodation. There would also be the possibility of extending the services in the future.
Outreach at the vine would be more likely to attract non-Church people. Alpha type courses as well as other topical services. This can only be of encouragement to the other churches and to the Vine-there is no need or desire to do what others are doing.
While the development of a worship centre’s on the Shankill Road is a laudable idea it would be even better if there were people living in community. Along with the work on the Shankill this could be an urban community, where in-service training could be received and students placed to find out the realities of urban life in Belfast.

1. We can also seek to be critical friends to both community and government. This has already begun but what we need to do, by way of intention, is to make it clear to the community which feels deserted by the church is that we are committed to and actually passionately love our communities. In the best practice of development principles we would seek to work with people rather than for them.
We could also make places of spiritual retreat available all the time: turning desert waste places into spiritual oases. We need to consider how to make our worship glimpses of heaven. Our sanctuaries should use the best of art and music and appeal to a many of the senses as is possible, given our theology and they should be as open as possible that people can make use of these sanctuaries.
We need to take biblical reality much more seriously: for them Pentecost is a continuing reality.
We should also consider the implications of vertical faithfulness in our models of ministry. As Presbyterians we speak often of the importance of family and of the responsibility of the family in passing on the faith to the next generation rather than delegating this to the local fellowship. One of the people in the UK to take this seriously has been the of Rev William Still of Gilmartin Parish Church in Aberdeen. Here the congregation is freed to work in the community as active members of the community and to minister to their families. In many of our Presbyterian congregations the expectations on the minister are very high which has tended to make people dependent rather than mature and active. I am not sure if these expectations are driven by ministers or by their congregations or by both. The effect is to increase the pressure and stress on the minister. We have forgotten that the work of ministry starts at home and when it looks outward it requires ministers who are well rounded people; people take time to think and pray and are not afraid to take creative opportunities to meet people where they are. We need to think out of the box. Too often we think, like the institutions we serve, in straight vertical lines. Too often we are overly concerned with our part of the Empire we call church when we need to take the rest of the body of Christ into consideration. We need to ask how to help one another in the spiritual battle.
In seeking to be faithful to creation we should seek to build any new plant using environmentally friendly actions. We should also be concerned with social justice issues so that we will stand up for those who are oppressed in any way.
Conclusion
In this paper I have tried to tease out the family resemblances and to look for lessons to be learnt. A church which has kept the faith for over 2,000 years, through years of persecution by Ottoman and Communist regimes is worthy of investigation, at least. I wonder how we would have fared if we had been the ones who had suffered what they have suffered?

INSIDE OUT

2009-01-31T20:43:00.000Z

Some time ago my wife gave me a funny look. You may not think that as being particularly strange, not when you know me and you know my wardrobe “elegance”. What was funny was that somehow I had managed to put my jumper on “inside out” or was it “outside in”? That’s one way of getting more use out of it. It’s a bit like the case of the student who never washed his socks; he just recycled them in the wash basket! Who is to decide what is the right way anyway? My guess is that there are night clubs in Belfast where you would not get in if you wore your clothes that way, whether the article was a stripy jumper or not
That got me thinking about how important it is, or is it, to look well and to do things which look good. Some people are very concerned about the way they look so they spend hours getting ready to go anywhere: they have to wear the right clothes, having everything colour co-ordinated. Most women need to have their make-up on first thing in the morning and men who would not be seen dead without their latest electronic gadget. For me the most important thing in the morning is breakfast and taking the dogs out for their walk.
I guess the normal thing now would be to remind us all that God looks at the heart and not the outside appearance and that is we concentrated on that it would be a better idea than thinking of how we look. That would be normal and true but I want to take a sidewise glance at this from another angle. We are all too familiar with the decline in numbers attending the institutional churches. I only say the institutional church because that is where my experience is and not on those churches which are emerging in various places. Sometimes I feel very defeated by the downward trend and then I have to remind myself, to quote Jonesy in Dad’s Army, “don’t panic, don’t panic”.
This is where I come back to the truth I learnt from my wardrobe malfunction. Unless we in the church are ready to turn our churches “inside out” or “outside in” we are never going to make a difference in our society. What I mean by this is that we need to keep our focus on God and on Jesus Christ in particular but we need to draw alongside people. We need to put the community back into the heart of the church. Presently our church buildings tell the world that we are different, set apart, a place where ordinary people do not go. Jesus Christ was always part of his community. I want our building to say to the world, “you are welcome” I want the Christians to say to the world, “church is a place of sanctuary, of peace and of acceptance”. We are not a private club; we are a people who are literally on the move. I know that the worry is that if we do not take care of ourselves we will lose our edge. Can we not leave the health of the church to the God who owns the church? Can we not trust God so that as we become more community minded He will look after our spiritual health or is that ok for missionaries in Africa and different for us in Belfast? Why not, for example, share our buildings with the community?
It’s time for all Churches to turn the inside out. Maybe my mistake was worth making after all!

Christmas is coming.....

2008-11-27T21:30:00.003Z

"Christmas is coming and the geese are getting fat, please put a penny in the old man's hat".
Will it happen this year? So many people are coming to the realisation that there are very difficult days ahead and giving to others might be too much. Some people are keen to quote the adage "Charity begins at home". Actually that adage goes on to say, "but doesn't stay there". Over the last number of years we have been encouraged and have been only too happy so to be so, to spend, spend and spend. Now we are realising that the good times have gone or were they the good times? Those of you who are Christian believers will know that we were created to be with people, we were created to have fellowship with other people. The creative God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit is a creative one who made each of us to be involved with one another.

No man is an island. The poet John Donne said, "No man is an island, entire of itself...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee"

The Psalmist said much the same thing when he said "precious, in the sight of the Lord, is the death of one of His saints" [Ps 116]. That brings us to the credit crunch/recession or whatever you want to call it and the unfortunate companies who have fallen foul of the economy:the list is growing all the time, with Woolworth and MFI being the latest companies to call in the Administrator. After our greed we are reaping the fruit. That brings us to the problems of the Presbyterian Mutual Society:why have we, in the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, not held our hands up and simply acknowledged that while we have no connection in law with the Mutual we have a moral obligation to stand with our brothers in distress? It is a sorry day when a church denomination decides to distance itself from brothers in distress for fear of being held responsible.

The irony is all the greater at this time of the year when we will be asking people to be generous in giving to the Presbyterian World Development Fund. The fundamental principal of a Mutual society is that all the members are accountable to each other and hep one another. When some panicked and withdrew their shares to lodge it in a bank, guaranteed by government the whole society suffered. What was intended to help everyone has let everyone down because we lost sight of our mutuality. The old man's hat is empty. We hope that everyone we get as much of their money back as possible is not all give time but if not we can always restort to that old chestnut of a question, "What Would Jesus do?"

In the early church we are told there were no poor people because when anyone had need they sold their property and gave the proceeds to the poor. What do Bible believing Christian Presbyterians, of which I am one, say to that? The challenge this Christmas for those of us who are "lucky" enough to live in the rich world, is can we have a good Christmas without as much money as usual; a question that the majority of the world have long ago come to terms with. Happy Christmas and a great new year!

A Nation at last!

2008-09-16T11:53:00.001+01:00

40,000 people crossed the Jordan on that fateful day. In the wilderness they were a group of loosely organised tribes, when the stepped on the land on the other side they were a nation. The text uses the Hebrew word “goy” instead of “am”. The difference is not always clear but it seems that “am” refers to the blood relationships of a people while “goy” describes the political unity. As they crossed over the ceased to be a wandering band and became a landed people who would have to be dealt with as a political entity-a nation at last. In the next book, the book of Judges we get a very different picture where we read that “every man did what was right, in his own eyes”-this describes a time of disunity and the fractures of a community in need of help-that would describe the Protestant community in North Belfast if not the whole of Northern Ireland.

We are deeply divided-we have so many different denominations and congregations within the same denominations, we have so many political and community divisions. Ever since the Reformation as with the introduction of divorce, it would seem that the line of least resistance automatically leads to break up- if I don’t agree with the way you are doing it I will set up my own church or my own party or group. On the face of it I can understand how that would be the much easier approach but I fail to see how God is glorified by it. I fail to see how relationships can be mended if that is the attitude.

Only a king, like David, was able to bring Israel together as they had been in Joshua’s day. Only David could give them vision and common purpose-here in Joshua’s day you could say that he acted like the king even though he was not the king-that was a position that only God could fill-but as God told Joshua so he told the people. What the protestant, loyalist, unionist communities need today is a sense of vision and common purpose instead of the parochial, tunnel vision that we have. Only a realisation of our spiritual need will turn the clock and make the difference and unite us all-and that would unite more than just the unionist family it would have radical implications and effects on the whole community.

The Hebrews had a keen sense of unity and the big reason was that at this time in their history they were following Yahweh. Their leader was in tune with God and they were in tune also. Time and again the story speaks of ALL ISRAEL-

3:1,”...all the Israelites set out...”

v7 ...”Today i will begin to exalt you in the eyes of ALL ISRAEL...”

v 17 “The priests who carried the ark....stood firm .....while all Israel passed by....;

4:14 “That day the Lord exalted Joshua in the eyes of ALL ISRAEL; they revered him

What we notice here in this story is a keen sense of UNITY. Those who know about revival in tor prerequisites of revival down the years is a spirit of Christian unity-this is not a forced unity but a unity based upon a common cause-here it is crossing the river to take the land.

Something else we notice about this crossing of the river Jordan is that they have a keen sense of history or a common memory.

When a member of the family dies memory becomes very important. When someone gets married past memories become important. The closer the family ties the deeper the memories and the closer the ties. Memory is essential to who we are-the person who losses their memory losses the sense of who they are. Without qa common memory there can be no community. The crossing of the Jordan plays a key part in this new community because it is a shared, meaningful memory but these events are more than mere history-they explain why these people are as they are-

As they remember the exodus and the crossing of the Red Sea-with the sea being cast aside to allow the people to go through so this is repeated in the Jordan River- as the priests take the Ark of the Covenant into the middle of the river so the dry land appeared God honoured their faith in doing exactly what he told them.

The reason was a that they might always fear the Lord your God”

The purpose was for them to see the POWER of the Lord-later in John’s Gospel we are told

“Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ and by believing you may have life in his name”

These are not mere wonders of the world, they are signs of the Lord, signs that remind us that he is still all powerful, still living and still the Lord.

If we took a quick look at the key points in the history of Ireland we might learn something about who we are. Would we be able to see the hand of god in it?

There are a lot of people who live on this island who know little more than “Derry, Aughrim, Enniskillen and the Boyne” when it comes to our shared history. Or, on the other side more than the Boyne, Doll’s Brae and Bloody Sunday.

It is very educational to take a swift look at the key dates

Going back to the days of the kings of Ireland we find that after Brian Baru the island is divided and fighting among itself, even then. When the potential contenders for power fled to England they sought the help of the Normans and with their arrival in the 11^th century everything changes. With the arrival of the earl of Pembrooke the French become the landlords-he became better known as Strongbow.

- In 1170 King John was rewarded for his loyalty to the Pope by being given both England and Ireland as his Fiefdom

- In 1315 Edward the Bruce became king, he was the brother of Robert The Bruce

- Then in the 16^th century there is the battle of the Boyne which changed the face of Europe and Britain found herself allied with the pope in defiance of King Louis of France who supported James.

- In 1798 there was rebellion

- 1803 Rebellion

- 1845 the Great Famine

- 1864 the first rioting in Belfast

- 12^th July 1867 was the first Orange parade baned

- 1872 more rioting in Belfast

- 1850 saw the fall of Charles Stuart Parnell

- 1903 the foundation of the Independent Orange Order

- 1905 Sein Fein founded

- 1913 UVF started

- 1914-18 the First World War when Irish men fought side by side in the trenches

- 1919-21 Anglo Irish War-Independence

- 1921 Truce

- Violence at the 12^th parade with 23 killed and 200 homes destroyed

- 1922 violence in northern Ireland with 232 killed and 1000 injured

- Special powers passed

- Civil war in 26 counties

- 923 End of Civil War

- 1933 Special powers passed

- 1935 rioting in Belfast 23 killed

- 1936 Public Order Act

- 1949 Free State becomes the Republic of Ireland

- 1956-62 IRA campaign in Northern Ireland

- 1965 Sean Lemass, Irish Prime Minister] visits Belfast-welcomed by Terrence O’Neil and opposed by Rev Ian Paisley[founder of the Free Presbyterian Church and the Democratic Unionist Party]

- 1967 NI Civil Rights Association formed

- 1972 Bloody Sunday and Bloody Friday

- 1971-75 Internment Powers

- 1973 Sunningdale Agreement

- 1974 Ulster Workers’ Strike

- 1981 Republican Hunger strike [these Republican prisoners were demanding political status]

- 1985 Anglo Irish Agreement

- 1987 Enniskillen bomb[placed by the IRA on Remembrance Sunday]

- 1993 Frizell’s Fish Shop bombed [a Republican bomber walked into this fish shop and left a bomb]

- 1998 Omagh Bomb [this was the biggest single atrocity in the troubles with 31 people killed, including two unborn babies]

There are many other key events in our history which have contributed to who we are- It is a history which is immersed in violence and manipulation, by attempts at reconciliation which failed , followed by more attempts, they are events which have knocked this community and many others unto the back foot so that most of the time we re-act rather than act. Thousands lie dead and injured and relationships and trust have been shattered, some beyond repair and it will take many years to get us back to some degree of normality BUT this is who we are and God has not left us, he is still here and our task is to follow Him and to build a better history that our children and grand children can look back on with more satisfaction.

As Christians we have another story and another history which is just as valid- this one is also violent and is also about treachery and disappointment but in this story we see God’s hand at work directly and decisively-he has made a new future possible and so we too have our stones as memorials-we have the breaking of bread which reminds us of the pain and suffering of Christ but also tells of His resurrection and return. “do this in remembrance of me” Do this until I return

We too have baptism which tells the story of washing and of sealing and of immersion as the one who died and rose to eternal life.

We have our personal memories of the day we first gave our lives to Christ and of those dates when we surrendered ourselves to service of Christ and His kingdom.

Can you tell the story of how God has worked in your life?

Then we have the exaltation of Joshua-it was promised in chapter 3 and now it has happened in chapter 4.:14

Why is this important? As Joshua is exalted before all the people so the people are exalted. They needed a leader and God gave them this one.

Paul says at the end of Ephesians 6 “pray lastly for me....”

L:eadership can be a lonely place to be-Jesus tells us that the leader who does not exalt himself will be exalted-Joshua was not one to parade his position-he took the position with true humility and so God exalted him-as I have said before a good leader has to learn to be a good follower-so the best army leaders are those who were in the ranks, taking the orders. A good leader is not afraid of getting his hands dirty. A good leader takes orders and that is what Joshua did,

Joshua was revered all his life just as Moses was-in the ordination service we are told to respect the minister “for the sake of his work”

Joshua was a kind of prophetic figure who took the word and passed it on to the people- today the preacher is given the same task-to present the word in a prophetic way which means he needs to show his people how it is relevant today

To do this he needs the prayerful support of the congregation-

· to prepare he needs time to think and pray-a sermon cannot be prepared on the back of an envelope and it takes time to seek how it applies today

· To be bold in presenting Jesus Christ and the power of his resurrection

· He needs to read and to be stimulated by others

· He will need to help his congregation to understand how to study the word for themselves

Joshua's Commission

2008-08-17T22:23:00.000+01:00

God told Joshua- You are the man to lead my people to take possession of the Promised Land. Standing on the brink of greatness God speaks to Joshua. He builds up his confidence by talking to him - one thing we notice about this story as opposed to the stories of other nations is that the central figure here is not Joshua but God, the stories that are told are told so that the people will be built up in their faith in Yahweh and Joshua’s task is to lead them to trust God, he can’t do that for them but he can point in the right direction-that is the task of the church today and the task of every minister of Christ-as we meet today we seek to help one another to trust God in the week ahead.

-words can be very effective when in the hands of the master craftsman- not always for good-Hitler was a man who knew how to incite people to a hatred which resulted in violence and eventually the attempted annihilation of 6 million Jews, Gypsies and homosexuals. In John 1 we have the words of John as he tells the story of redemption, calling Jesus the word or Logos, the way that God communicates to humanity. Joshua took the commission of God and used it to communicate to the people the vision of the future. If a nation or a people are going to be all that they can be they need a vision and their leaders need vision. Joshua was such a man of vision. Like his friend Caleb he was not going to be deterred from crossing the Jordan just because they people already there were bigger than they were, just because they were stronger and better armed. He was undeterred because he really believed that the God of Moses was faithful to His promises and able to keep them.

A leader needs to be a person of vision-that is not to say that he never has any doubts-he does but when he leads the people he leads them inspite of those doubts. He reminds them that even when circumstances look bad he is still going to trust him and follow him and lead the people he leads to follow him.

The man of vision will help his people to see these adverse circumstances through the lens of CHALLENGES to be achieved rather than a problem to defeat him. He never understates the situation, never pretends that all will be well when that is not true but what he does is he makes sure that the people have the faith to continue and overcome the problems and rise to the challenges. The challenge presented by Joshua is to start on a new destiny, Egypt is behind-it was about bondage and slavery-as they prepare to cross the river they prepare for this new life of freedom BUT they have to take up the challenge and move forward knowing that the battle will be great but VICTORY is secure and assured.

There have been times in the history of Britain when the situation looked bleak and God has raised up the right person for the time- most people will say that in 1941 Winston Churchill was one such man-not that he was a man of faith, apart from in himself , but he was able to mobilise the nation in fighting against the tyranny of Hitler-because he saw him as the great threat to democracy he led the nation to put all other concerns and differences of opinion behind them to oppose the COMMON enemy. The nature of his speeches were not to understate the problem but to emphasise the strength of the British people to hold the fort til the Americans changed their minds and joined the struggle and eventually overcame the enemy.

Joshua was such a man of destiny and Israel was about to receive her destiny. Today we are living in a time when the enemy really wants us to give up and go home-to surrender the territory that belongs to our king. Over the years since the end of world war two we have seen an increasing tendency for the nation to become more secular and our city of Belfast and this community is at the sharp end of the struggle.

If we look at ourselves we can understand the problem-

· We have little money in the bank BUT we are not poor

· We have buildings which are too big for our purposes- they were build at a time when the community was much bigger-so when we meet together we sit all over the place and remain distant from each other and appear to be happy with that

· Because of legislation we have property which needs renovation-not just repairs to the buildings but renovations which bring them up to standard in terms of disability access, health and safety and fire regulations not to mention protection against burglary and vandalism.

· And on top of all that we are over serviced by Presbyterian churches not to mention the other denominations in the area-currently we have 8 Presbyterian churches and many other churches and missions.

Like in Joshua’s day there are some who have lost the stomach for the fight and are ready to hoist the white flag-they are too big for us, there are giants in the land.

It is noticeable that Churchill made the problems of wartime Britain a virtue and a strength-he did not under state them or ignore them, he told the nation that the British bulldog spirit would win the day

He promised them “blood, toil, tears and sweat” . He told the House of Commons

“we have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind, we have before us many, many months of struggle and suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I say it is to wage war by land, sea and air. War with all our might and with all the strength God has given us, and to wage war against a monstrous tyranny never surpassed in the dark and lamentable catalogue of human crime. THAT is our policy.”

Before a leader can inspire he needs to be inspired himself and while Churchill was not a man of great faith he was inspired by the horror of possible defeat and God used him as the man for the moment-Joshua, on the other hand had the hand of God on his shoulder and had faith in God, such that he could call the people to join with him in crossing the river. He had personal experience of this God Yahweh:

· He had been with Moses at Mount Sinai when Moses was give the 10 commandments

· He witnessed God’s presence going ahead of the nation in the cloud

· He had watched God lead them out of Egypt and provided for them in the wilderness.

As we read the story we can be encouraged by the action of God leading His people to take the land promised to them we too can claim the promise of eternal life. In the first few verses of chapter one we have the

COMISSION of God to Joshua

God calls him and commission him- in the army officers are commissioned to lead and to ensure that the orders of the General Staff are carried out-they need to be people who can lead and who are equipped to make sure that the strategy and orders become a reality as they fight the enemy. His commission was to lead the people across the river . When a soldier is commissioned he is given the authority to act and he is given the means to ensure that it happens-so a soldier is given his rank but also the men under his control-so when he gives orders it is as if the CO were giving them as far as the foot soldier is concerned.

When Jesus commissions the disciples he says “all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples....”

So when I tell another person about the gospel I am doing what God has commanded-Jesus cam with this authority and he has given it to us. WE have no need to overstate the case, no need to make the big sell by exaggerating or even lying, all we need to do is to tell the truth-“the truth will set you free” Sometimes Christians feel the need to overstate the case by telling interested people that if they become a believer they will never have another problem and life will be great-we are never promised any such thing-when we do this we are behaving like people who don’t really have faith or believe our message-that has been the problem for modern China-as she has felt the need to open up to the world and as Marxist Leninist principles have declined in the lives of people they have felt the need to put the best foot forward and always show modern China to be the best-in the process we have the situation of the Olympics were one little girl was told she had d a good singing voice but was not pretty enough so another would mine before the thousands and the cameras while the other girl sang the words-there is no need for us to do such things. Our responsibility is to preach the word in season and out of season an we do that with words and with our actions

In telling them, repeatedly to be strong and courageous Joshua is telling a disheartened and battered people that they can be encouraged and strong because God is with them and will never leave them. The people of Joshua’s day were discouraged because the sin of their fathers had caused God to keep them in the wilderness until a new generation came along and the readers of the written history, possibly during the return from exile were also discouraged by their exile which was also because of sin-sin is sometimes very attractive in the short term but there is always a heavy cost long term. WE too are discouraged because of falling numbers and low income so we need to hear again that God has already given us the victory-we are not victims we are victors

In commissioning them he also gives Joshua his COMMANDS

Deut 7:7-12

He wants them to know that it is best for them to obey God-Moses gave them the Decalogue and Joshua tells them to follow it-never to forget the words and to keep it at the forefront of their minds and actions.

We too are called to do the same-but as we obey God we have another Joshua before us- we have the second Adam, Jesus Christ who makes the commands more than a mere list of

do not-he makes the commands chiselled in stone into a covenant of flesh-

Are you ready to cross the Jordan? Ready to fight the good fight? Are you ready to give your tears and your sweat and your blood-we do no one any favours by making the challenge small-its a big challenge to go and take the enemy on-our struggle is greater than in 1941- its not a mere physical fight but its against the spiritual forces of evil. Joshua used the fighting men to lead the way and forge a way in the land. Today it does not matter how old you are or how young you are, it does not matter how strong you are- we begin by recognising the enemy and all his power and there are still giants in the land but are you ready to take on these forces? God promises to be with us and to give us the victory-the alternative? Give in, go away, surrender the battler and loose the land, this land to the devil-what do you want to do?

TOMORROW

2008-07-25T08:29:00.004+01:00

Our house has always been buzzing with people. For over 30 years we have had people coming in and out. With four children there have always been friends and colleagues and visitors. Over the last 5 years we have had a lot of people-with the three boys living at or near enough to be here most days, added to that their friends and girlfriends and added to that the influx of Americans that has amounted to a lot of people. This year my second son has gone to Africa for 15 months working with Children of the Nations. Our first son got engaged to a lovely American girl and returned there within a few days. Our daughter had already left for Dublin where she is married and working happily. Despite the trauma that this caused our house is still fairly packed as we have our youngest son's friend lodging with us and our nephew and sometimes his girlfriend and sometimes other girlfriends so we are not exactly alone.

We do enjoy sharing our house like this and we do have fun sometimes when we sit around the table and chat-those who are left wondered what life would be like without Mark to "debate " with me! I do miss him a lot and I do miss Peter and Ruth but that is how life goes-our job has always been to raise our children, as best we could , in the fear of the Lord helping them to be mature, confident adults and then release them to the wild [makes them sound like birds].

This weekend the boys are off to Dublin to see the new Batman movie and Gillian, my wife is off for the long weekend with one of her sisters and so, for some of this time its just the dogs, Sox and Fox and me in this big house. I have work to do-a sermon to preach and a service to lead on Sunday morning and there are other pieces of work that I could be doing and yet, when everything changes it can be hard to settle and to get motivated [at least I find that but then I am not as disciplined as I should be]

Some people find silence a great source of comfort-I do not, I have always been surrounded my noise, so I turn the radio on or the TV or some music, even though I need silence to think and to pray but today the house seems very silent! The Psalmist says "Be still and know that I am God"
The thought of being alone is scary, the thought of being left behind is frightening. Yet God says "You are not alone". The Orthodox Christians of the east say that the Christian is never alone, God is always with them and we are always surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses-that can be another scary thought-that people are watching everything you do, EVERYTHING!!!!!
Not only does God see what I am doing, even when i know I should not be doing it but other people who may have had certain ideas about me and the level of my Christianity, can also see me.

There are times when i find it difficult just to live in the moment. That means I am always thinking about the next stage, the next person I have to visit or will never get round to visiting, I am thinking of what is off in the horizon. When I was a boy I was always transporting my thoughts to the future- when i was 6 or 7 I remember lying on my bed looking up at the sky and thinking "In the 2000 I will be 50 years old" and for a moment I felt what, i thought, it was like to be 50! That is like really thinking your life away, a waste of the precious time we have. I need to learn to live in the moment otherwise I will always live life in a state of panic. I need to embrace the now and let tomorrow look after itself, or rather God will look after all my tomorrows.

2008-07-17T08:35:00.001+01:00

A new way?

2008-07-04T11:23:00.002+01:00

Here is a thought-in a society which is changing is it not time that we, who want to pass on, indeed who have been mandated to pass on the eternal, unchanging gospel, thought about our paterns of doing church and whether or not they should be changed?

Here is one example that has occurred to me , more than once in the last few years: our society patterns have changed to a point that they are unrecognisible from what they were when I was young. Whebn I was going out with my wife, when we were in our late teens, her parents expected her to be home by 11pm. If we were not home by that time or if we spent too much time in the care outside the house she would bring the milk bottles out! Today our young people are not going out until 11pm and they are returning in the wee small hours. When thuis happens on a Saturday night/morning they spend the next morning catching up on sleep while we gather for worship. Sunday jhas become a day for shopping or for relaxing at home or for washing the car and doing those things that did not get done during the working week or they are working: the chances of them coming to church, no matter how dynamic the services are are pretty remote.

One of the key times of the year are the summer months, when the children are not attending school and their parents are desperate for something to relieve the boredom after the first few days of the holidays and what do we do? We shut up for the smmer until September when the children are back at their desks. Why do we not turn everything on its head? Would it not make sense for us to make the summer more of a priority in terms of outreach and evangelism? Not just for a week or two but for the whole summer. Yes everyone needs a rest but why not have that rest in the heart of the winter when nature tells us to rest and the nights are cold and dark? That's what the animals do and thats what happens to the flowers and the trees why would we not do that also. Would this not be more strategic as well as more benificial for the workers who always feel exhausted by Christmas. Would it not make sense to prioritise the holidays like this?

A Father's Thoughts

2008-07-01T17:09:00.001+01:00

It’s just a week now since we said goodbye to Mark, our second son and third child. This week we will be saying goodbye to his elder brother, Peter. Sometimes it seems like life will never be the same again, that our family will never be together again. Sometimes I think that it would have been better for my sons and my daughter to have gone to work at 16 and found work at home. Sometimes I feel like God has taken them away from me but then I know that this is not so, I know that they were only ever given to us on loan. They never "belonged" to us and in doing what God wants them to do they will experience life in all its fullness. Sometimes I have this fear of ending up alone, like some of the elderly people I have visited over the years whose sons and daughters are in various parts of the world so that they have no family near them to look after them in their declining years.

A very long time ago I was out with my mum. It was in the days when the buses had no doors and the driver was at the opposite end of the bus. She placed me on the platform, while she got ready to get on herself only to be horrified at he sight of the b us moving before she had a foot on the platform. All I had for companionship was my panic. Thankfully this lasted only a moment as the conductor realized there was a problem and rang the bell to tell the driver to stop. I do not want to be in that position ever again!

In my more lucid moments I know that God will never leave us and He has blessed us with four great children, who are no longer children. Then I remember that God gave us His only Son, to die that we might live. In the last few weeks I have been given just a glimpse of what losing a son must be like, what giving a child for the benefit of others feels like. I have had the sorrow of burying the children of parents who never imagined, for a second, that they would outlive their children. We read the story in the Old Testament, of the sacrifice of Isaac wondering how he could do such a thing. The God we worship is a giving God who tells us that he will "love you with an everlasting love". I have been telling the congregation that this is God's default position and we should take great encouragement from that. We are told in the book of Hebrews that Abraham believed that God was going to raise his son from the dead as. God loves me and He loves you, the reader of this piece, with an everlasting love. Does that not warm your soul? You are loved! Now, I dare you, ignore Him, tell Him He can stick His love. On the other hand you could thank Him and ask Him to be your God for ever.

A Movement?

2008-03-11T16:58:00.003Z

When will the institutional church wake up and smell the coffee? If it doesn't happen soon it will be too late. The benefits of being part of a major denomination should be great and being part of a denomination which has accountability built into its structures should be, not only good, but completely Biblical. The reality in those denominations which have become institutionalised is that they are so concerned with the welfare of their existence that those outside the gates have been forgotten. The problem with that is that those outside the gate will not come inside unless we reach them with the truth, with sincerity and with integrity.

When will the institutional denominations give considered attention to Urban Mission in this country? How can a congregation in a financially deprived community reach ouyt to its community without the resources to do so? While the richer congregations get richer the poorer get poorer. Why, in a denomination built upon the principal of the richer helper the poorer, do the richer stand by and watch the end of urban congregations because of a lack of resources? When I say resources I mean money and people. When the harvest is plentiful and the urban church is surrounded by people does the church refuse to be mission-minded?

A Place To Call Home

2007-11-13T17:02:00.001Z

Can anybody tell me why “apartments” have become so fashionable? Everywhere you look they are springing up. Its not that they are less expensive than the town house, its not that the Housing Executive has decided to take them as a model for low cost housing that those on low incomes can afford. What is fairly obvious is that a developer can build many more on a piece of land than he could the traditional terrace or town house.

The vast majority of us want to see developers helping to rebuild the community and we all rejoice to see the trappings of the building trade providing housing, shops and other businesses which are creating wealth and employment for many people. In the Old Testament we have the story of Nehemiah who wept and prayed to God when he heard the bad news that his homeland was in such great distress. He was a go-getter. He was not content to attend talking shops or just to complain about the poor politicians or church and community people: he wanted action and so he pleaded with the king to give him a leave of absence and some resources to enable the rebuilding of the city. We need all the resources we can get our hands on to rebuild the Greater Shankill community. In the last four or five years the Crumlin Road, to take one example, has been transformed with good quality housing and we hope to have, very soon even some shops that will bring the people back to spend their money here. No one has any complaint about this. What I wonder about ,and I know this is the concern of so many others ,is about who is making all the money? I wonder, is it possible that all these apartments are fashionable because they are making money for those who are taking it out of the local economy? Could that be the case?

It’s not that we don’t want any middle class people coming to live here and bring with them their experience and support: all we want to ensure is that there is an economy which welcomes all those who want to love and contribute to the area. All we really want is that the young people who want to stay or even return to the area are given the financial opportunity to do so. We want to see an end to the drain out of the community.

What is your dream for this community? What I pray for is the return of those people who call themselves “Christians”; what I pray for is the decision of the Jesus followers who really have a heart for Him and for the people He has created to settle down and live and work in this community. I pray for an end to the raiding parties that come each Sunday and then go back to the suburbs. What I pray for is the development of a vibrant community of all ages, where people have the choice to buy or to rent their homes at affordable prices. Which developer is going to rise to that challenge? Where are the Christian developers who can and will invest in this community just because they want to do what is right?

What are you praying for?

Well Done!

2007-11-01T14:53:00.000Z

Well, well, the Guards, as in the Garda Schiaconna [spelling??], have been questioning the people in the border areas of south Armagh to see what light can be shed on the murder of Paul Quinn. In many other countries that would not be all that unusual [given that the correct channels have been attended to]. In many other countries the important issue would be the capture of the culprits so that we could live in a safer place but not here: we are so messed up with thinking more about proving ourselves and more about the "other side" that we loose sight of what is the main issue and the big picture.

We need to develop a more creative way of dealing with difference. This morning I was amused by the "Thought for the day" on the radio. It was by Professor Nevon who originated from the Shankill Community in West Belfast. He told the story of two frogs [he had a rhyme to go with it but I cannot re-tell that now] who found themselves swimming in some cream. One frog had enough and decided there was nothing for it but to curl up and die; the other was not giving in by a long shot, he had a "never say die" temperament so he just kept swimming. Eventually one died but the other churned up the cream so that it became butter and he was able to walk out of the trouble. How do we respond to trouble? Who was it, exactly, who taught us the inevitability of success? When did Jesus ever tell us that we could expect the good life all the time? The answer, of course, is that he taught no such thing-the very opposite in fact. he taught us that just as the enemies persecuted him so they would persecute us.

The apostle Paul tells us in Romans 5 that troubles and suffering bring about character and character leads to hope. No one needs hope when all is well;its only when we are in trouble that we need hope. The only alternative is to curl up and die and do the enemies work for him. I'm not ready to die yet, are you?

It is natural to want to see the churches full, especially when you are the preacher: it makes you, or tricks you into thinking you are some preacher! it is natural to want the easy life but if that is what yopu want yopu will be dissappointed. We need a new definition of success and we need the power to be faithful to our master who ended His life in agony and ignaminy. Lets not grow weary in doing good. Ever onward, ever upward

A THEOLOGY FOR DECLINE

2007-09-22T16:52:00.000+01:00

Introduction

This is a very personal contribution. It is based upon my work and ministry in Belfast as one who was born and bred in the city and as one who has returned after many years away: sixteen years in the Republic of Ireland and eight years in England. It has also been influenced by reading about Celtic Christianity and the Celtic Trail. I come to this as one who loves this city and the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. I say this because I make no pretensions of it being a theological work but I do want to touch on some very practical theological issues which I hope are also biblical

Like many other urban congregations Crumlin Road Presbyterian, on the west side of North Belfast is facing mega challenges. Numerically we are facing decline in attendance but we are committed to the community which shares the area with us. Traditionally the thinking of churches has been to fill the building with worshippers every Sunday. The Presbyterian Church in Ireland is set up to view success in terms of the attendance and the number of families on the active roll which is decided by those who have been accepted by the eldership as Communicant Members. There is no doubt that this has been the case in the more rural and middle class areas but not in the more working class situations. The denomination, which has 500 congregations, has been facing a steady decline, especially in the last thirty years: the numbers of families claiming membership has fallen from 133,000 in 1975 to 109,000 in 2005. That represents a fall from 380,000 to 260,000 people [or 4,000 a year]. The trend is the same when we count baptisms and communicant members.[1] When an attempt is made to exegete the Tudor Ward, where the congregation sits, we find a situation of similar decline. This city ward, when measured for social, financial, medical and educational deprivation, heads the list of the most deprived in Northern Ireland. Report after report[2] sets out the low educational attainment and expectation, the serious physical and mental health problems and the social issues such as teenage pregnancy, anti-social behaviour and religious bigotry. The social meltdown of society mixed with tribal turmoil has had devastating results in this, the coal face of the civil unrest over nearly forty years: division and conflict has cost the taxpayer an extra £1.5bn every year, according to a report commissioned by the government.

This report[3] estimated the cost of policing and security as well as the provision of separate housing and schools for Catholics and Protestants: segregated housing has increased costs by £24m; greater collaboration between schools could lead to savings of between £16m and nearly £80m. Reconciliation in Belfast includes making peace within the Protestant community as well as between the two communities. Belfast has always been a divided city[4] but added to this there has been an industrial decline which has robbed the city of its self-belief and confidence. Due to the progress of the hot war the Protestant, Unionist and Loyalist community, known as a PUL or orange area for convenience and accuracy, has been affected in the opposite direction to the Republican, Nationalist and Catholic community. Confidence in the green area is on the up while in the PUL areas it is in decline. Before the conflict the PUL community was confident and in a strong position economically, politically and socially. With the end of the hot war and the advent of the cold war the “Greens” have become more confident and economically mature. At one time the major jobs in industry, ship building, heavy engineering and airplane manufacture where in the hands of Protestants and their children. Today all those industries have gone. Protestants see themselves as victims who have been murdered by the IRA military campaign and politically out witted by a group who deny the legitimacy of the Northern Ireland state but who also want to have a part in the government of that state. With the end of the war the people of this community are in low morale and only see victimhood and conspiracy.[5]

At the same time there is a whole new community of people emerging within the old community which was demolished by both social conflict, directly and indirectly, and by government policy of regeneration. This is a community which has largely been alienated from church and the institution of church but who have so many needs that they will look to whoever has some answers. The problem for the Crumlin Road congregation is that the new people are extremely unlikely to become part of the church family. Over the years much hard work has been done to try to build bridges into the community to try to get them interested in church but to little effect. My contention in all of this is that what we really need is to turn the traditional approach to ministry on its head. Jesus was one who went to the people instead of persuading them to come to him. We need to develop a work of ministry among those who are unchurched, which will be supported by the present congregation and, in turn, will have the necessary support structures to cope with the pastoral needs of the congregation. The Biblical approach to evangelism is to use methods to “persuade men” which are culturally softer than the more aggressive, “in your face” hard line approach. A short while ago a member of the community told me that some of the local evangelists tended to “bully people into accepting the Christian way” and that highlights, for me, an important lesson: we need to serve the community and build relationships out of a sense of love rather than merely using this as a strategy. I should not be making friends with people so that I can share the gospel with them; I should be making friends because that is the right things to do. We must change our attitude in the area of evangelism and mission. In the past Christians have been accused of creating “rice Christians” in “mission lands” and today we can so very easily open ourselves to the same charge at home. Much of this is highlighted by Ray Simpson in “Church of the Isles” [6] The church wants to be a missional church, even though they are not familiar with that term and to punch above their weight. To do so there are some important issues, theological and otherwise, that need to be tackled. While the community is alienated from the institutional church, Jesus is as popular as ever.

Pilgrimage

A wise man told me a long time ago that truth comes to people in different ways. For some it hits like the wall to a marathon runner but for others it dawns like the morning sun. For these people the penny finally drops. We live in a sub-culture which expects and teaches the former. The idea of a pilgrimage is a foreign and suspect idea held by the more theologically liberal thinkers. In our culture we seem to emphasize the Damascus Road experience and make it normative when, in fact for the majority the Emmaus Road is more appropriate[7]. David Bosch calls Christian people “ex-centric”: an ek-klesia, or “called out” people, called out of the world and immediately sent back in. This is the theme of the book of Hebrews and is especially relevant to us who like the New Testament church and the Celtic Church is living at a time of weakness. We too are on the edge of society unlike our forefathers who lived in the midst and strength of Christendom. David Adam’s work, “Walking the Edges” makes this same point.[8] The days of Patrick, Cuthbert and Ninian are like today in that we are also living among the challenges of paganism and secularism from a position of weakness not strength. For a number of years I have been contemplating these things. The idea of the walk of faith seems to make sense to me: I was brought up in a culture which values highly the Damascus Road and yet most people have had the Emmaus Road experience. One of the great heroes of Northern Ireland’s evangelical world is C.S Lewis. His experience of faith is very different to that of the normal Christian in this land. He came to faith via a long journey from Christian background to atheism to theism and eventually to Christianity. The classical testimony is of the person who came from a debauched life to faith in a particular place at a particular time when everything changed in a moment. This was not true for Lewis and it is not true for the majority of people either. This last summer we had a team of young people from the town of Coleraine who belonged to a large and wealthy Presbyterian church. They came to help us with our Vacation Bible School and to see for themselves what life is like in Belfast. Very few of them spoke of a “conversion experience” in the sense of having a time and place where their lives changed in a twinkle of the eye. They came from Christian homes and could not remember a time when they had not believed. This illustrates well the truth of the statement: belonging before believing. I can relate to this myself. I made my first confession to Christ when I was a very young child. I did it out of fear and several years later I repeated the “sinner’s prayer”. The primary motivator for me was peer pressure and the strong sense of belonging.

Another person told me the other day that the church “spends too much time telling me I am a sinner”. The majority of people here are well aware of what the middles classes think of them. Without knowing it he was touching on the controversy between Augustine and Pelagius. When people “hear” the gospel they hear the preacher telling them they are thoroughly bad. They do not appreciate the nuances of “depravity”. There is good reason for telling the story of Jesus Christ from a more creationist than redemptive slant. I think it better to tell people how to restore the image of God than increasing their sense of guilt and robbing them of any hope. All too often in our society when a person experiences “salvation by grace through faith” they then retreat back to a religion of good works: so they do the very thing they did not want to do![9] The pilgrim walk also lessons the chances of people imagining that if they do not decide immediately they will miss the boat, the “kairos” moment will have gone. In my own life I can identify a journey of faith but I used to feel under pressure to make my conversion experience more like the norm. If we need to be reminded of the importance of pilgrimage we need look no further than Abraham and outside the bible there is the classic Christian tale told by John Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress. Michael Mitton says, “Now is surely the time to become open again to the Spirit of God who desires to come to the most intimate places of our lives, praying, healing and transforming us, that we may be released to a new sense of pilgrimage and divine restlessness”[10] For the Celts a place where the presence of God was palpable was called a “thin Place”: in communities like ours we need these places which have become so because of the prayer that goes on in them. We need places like this.

People Matter to God and so does culture

Bill Bright used to say that evangelism was to be Christ-centred but people –oriented. In the Church of the Isles Ray Simpson[11] speaks of the place of culture. Quoting Martin Wallace he says “true evangelism always happens from within the culture. To adopt a new faith does not imply adopting a new culture” Yet all too often church expects people to do this in matters of dress and lifestyle. Simpson tells us that the Celtic way was “culture-friendly”,[12] David Bosch[13] says that “The Christian faith never exists except as ‘translated’ into culture”. Here’s the challenge to take the gospel and translate it into working class culture. This was highlighted on our urban walk in Belfast when a couple of local guys stopped to shout at us. They refused to believe that I was a local because of my “posh” accent! The secret of the Chinese renewal since the foreigners were expelled is that it is thoroughly Chinese. A former colleague of mine[14], who spent many tears as a missionary in China, once said that while Chairman Mao expelled the foreign missionaries in 1950 attempting to lock them out what he ended up doing was locking the indigenous church in. All too often new believers have been expected to convert to the church culture as well as to Christ. In communities such as ours that has meant taking on the trappings and lifestyle of the middle class. The end result of this usually means the socially upward mobility of some and the impoverishment of the local church. In the Celtic Church the culture of the day was viewed as a friend to be influenced rather than an enemy to be expelled. The effect of this was that they Christianized those aspects of the culture which were perceived as pagan: out of the pagan mid-winter festival came Christmas. The presence of Christians in a community does make a difference and we need Christians staying in the community and we need other Christian taking the active decision to move into the area just to be available. We need to be offering and providing places of sanctuary where people in trouble can find help and support. Irish people are noted for their practice of hospitality and the church needs to do the same, not as an evangelistic strategy but just because it is the right thing to do. We need to actively create and support community.

Empowerment [Jesus built people up]

This brings me to another issue, that of empowerment. Incarnational theology has to mean that we live in the community. Dietrich Bonhoeffer held that “the church is only the church when it exists for others…the church must share in the secular problems of ordinary human life, not dominating, but helping and serving”[15]. Social solidarity is a crucial part of working class culture: very frequently people in our community are left feeling they are less worthy than other communities. One reason for this is the exodus of the community of those who were in a position to leave; those who could leave did leave. Some left the area altogether but some kept attending church on Sundays and this has created more alienation: the commuter church where the people and pastor travel in each week to do their bit “for” the community without profaning themselves by association with the common people. The Celtic monastic community was their way of being with the people. They set up learning, praying and hospitality communities. Our church policy of placing ministers in big houses and allowing the richer congregations to pay big salaries clearly removes them from the “secular problems” Bonhoeffer was talking about. My experience and that of others has been that spending time with people outside the church and identifying with them as much as possible is greatly rewarded and rewarding. Ray Simpson says that we should allow people to teach us before we seek to teach them. I spend some time in the local pub talking with people and with then parents in the local school as well as taking an active part in the community life just because I believe this is what Jesus would do and because I believe it is the right thing to do. I want to hear what they have to say and to listen to their views of the community. Without much effort I find that people open up when they are relaxed and in their own safe territorial space. People also come and talk to us when we are in the market place across from he church on Sunday mornings. I do not think the success model has done anything to help to empower people. When I think of Jesus I do not think of one who was the great professional who succeeded at everything he touched. I think of one who was crucified and who poured his life into others. I think of one who made himself vulnerable. Presbyterian ministers are not taught to be vulnerable, we are taught to be professional, detached and omni-competent. Vulnerability is an important key for ministry and can sometimes even be an important protection. To many people a real minister is one who is not only professional but big and strong and able to handle himself. Jesus turned this on its head when he spoke of the blessedness of the poor and the weak and Paul agreed in his definition of wisdom. In the urban context women have a vital part to play in any team, precisely because of their vulnerability!

Reconciliation

Against all this alienation reconciliation is a big issue. The “r” word has very negative connotations for the Protestant community both within and without the church. A pamphlet called “Reconciliation: A false goal?”,[16] illustrates the community view, which is not all that far from the evangelical view of the matter. This is a real struggle for me personally. I see it as a non-negotiable part of the message of salvation, as Christ died for the ungodly, so I am commanded to be reconciled to my enemy. I see the dividing wall of partition destroyed so that I can come into a personal relationship with Christ and that behooves me to extend that reconciliation to my neighbours who are just across the street living behind the “peace wall” of west Belfast. But, at the same time, this has been compromised and invested with negative images: to the average protestant in Belfast it means certain things: being part of the ecumenical movement, which most think is theologically liberal; it means surrender to the nationalist agenda; it means making a choice between my friends and my enemies. Part of my struggle is found in the dilemma of doing what is right and offending my support base and reaching across the community and in doing so loosing the attention of my own community. My dilemma includes the fact that reconciliation is also needed within the protestant community which is extremely fragmented. Over the years of the communal conflict various para-military groups sprang up to defend their community. This led to a host of organizations which fed into an already tribal community. Ireland has always been tribal rather than national. This is seen in the way that Irish sport has used the county structure rather than town or nation. Belfast had a host of Mills who were identified by the particular district they were in: so many streets had their own Mill and that encouraged very local view of identity. With the on-set of the IRA campaign of violence communities gathered behind their local identity even when they had a greater national identity. Justice is an important part of being reconciled and in Belfast there are people who feel that they have not been given justice: they are on both sides of the divide and while the Roman Catholic establishment has been good at working for and speaking about justice the protestant have not. When we speak of sin we omit to talk of the injustice done to victims and when we do we are very selective as to who these victims are.

Team approach to Ministry

For twenty years I have ministered in a “lone Ranger” way. I have experienced the need for pastoral support. In the reading I have done for the Celtic trail it is obvious that team work was important to them. It was important to the New Testament Church. It is encouraging to see how in a pagan culture the Christians of the day saw the need to work together and were ready to pay the price to do so. There have been many casualties in church life because of social exclusion and today that is made worse by the cult of individualism. We need structures to support those in ministry. The Celtic monastic way was a good way for ministers to be in the world and yet take time out to revive the batteries and inspire them by spending extended time with God. We have merely paid lip service to both team ministry and pastoral support. In our denomination only the rich can afford this model of ministry: we speak of team ministry but we make the possibility as difficult as possible. It is said that Patrick prayed up to 100 times a day because he valued being in the presence of God. In all of this we are reminded by the Celtic gender blindness of the position of women in our traditional church structures. In Celtic times men and women were both given leadership positions: Bridget is a good example. I believe that an urban ministry cannot be effectively carried out without some women involved with the team because their vulnerability is more of a strength than a weakness.

The Holy Spirit

For the reformed family this is an area of controversy. The Apostle Paul is clear in his teaching that every believer is to be “Filled with the Spirit”[17]. In Acts 19 the story of the “believers” who had not even heard of the Holy Spirit is set alongside signs and wonders. While the story of the extraordinary miracles is difficult to explain it does, for me, highlight the ministry of the Holy Spirit as the “Wild Goose” as well as the dove. It is a clear demonstration that no one can box in the Spirit of God: no one can make God predictable.

Out of the Box Theology [creativity]

This is discussed by Simpson in relation to some comments made by Bishop Richard Harries of Oxford[18] where he says that God cannot be boxed-in. All too often our systematic theologies build up a framework and then expect God to stay within that structure. This is, of course, ridiculous it just cannot be done. If this were so then God would not be God at all. If you start with the wrong premise then you will finish with wrong conclusions. In our theological thinking we have to allow God to be God and recognize that we cannot keep him in our box. This is what happens, for example, when some critique the Charismatic or Pentecostal movement: if the assumption is made that the miracles finished in Acts, because Calvin and other Reformers said so, then it is obvious that miracles do not happen today and so the charismatic movement is not of God.

The Prophets

Jeremiah was living and preaching at a time of spiritual decline. He kept preaching even though he saw no positive results. He believed that those who preached only good news were wrong and he said so. Despite his apparent failure he believed there would be better days and it was out of those bad days that he gave us chapter 29. Nehemiah and Ezra came to their work at a time of reconstruction. Nehemiah began his ministry in tears and confession and a long period of prayer. If he were living today he might well have involved himself in the 24/7 prayer room. In Nehemiah we have a prophet just for the West and north side Belfast were re-construction is going on, on a daily basis. In Jonah there is another prophet who would have felt right at home in Belfast. He was a bigoted Israeli who wanted to have nothing to do with the other side. God called him to preach to the other side and to call them to repentance. After attempting to run to the other side of the world he comes back and preaches only to find his preaching is more successful than he wanted. Part of the church in Belfast is in that position. For many years I had the same idea. When called me to work in the republic of Ireland I tried to resist it and did what I could to go somewhere, anywhere else but I had to give in.

The man Jesus

I have kept this to the end because he is the main man. Unfortunately the man Jesus Christ has been made in the image of man. We have made him into the gentle Jesus meek and mild of the infant room. He was a real man, a man of strength yet gentleness. He was a man who behaved like a man. In the wake of this man made in the image of man we have the loss of masculinity in our contemporary world. We need to rehabilitate the real Jesus: we need a Jesus who is God and we need to understand that we were made in the image of God and will not be complete and real men, or women, until that image is restored. For many years now I have preached against the Christian tendency to look for clones and cardboard cut outs of the latest Christian icons. For years I have tried to preach the need for real men but now I realize that there is a name for this theological approach. Now I know that this is creationism as against redemption. I have not thrown redemption into the dust bin but appreciate, in a community which struggles so much with guilt and loss of confidence that this is a more appropriate model. In this model the work of Christ, which is, of course redemptive, is also intended to restore the image of God in us. On the Celtic trail and in the reading I came to the conclusion that my theological thinking has been developing in this way and for that I am very grateful.

Reservations

Yes I do have some reservations: the main one is that I would do exactly what I have been warning against, namely to take a system or theological framework and make everything fit it. I have reservations about the place of creation. Not that we should love it or care for it but that a form of pantheism would take root and lead us into error. I have reservations about the theology of place and the modern monastic institutions: while they are not intended to take people out of their ministry context I think that can happen. I think those who live and work there permanently can very easily become separate and find they too are living in an ivory tower. I wonder how a place like Iona or Lindisfarne can help someone like me in an urban environment which is so very different and that was not answered when Ray Simpson seemed to avoid the question I asked him about that.

.Lessons for me:

Peter Neilson discovered, during his time in parish ministry that he needed to be a minister to the unchurched. If these alienated people will not come to church we will have to go to them. In the past that meant visiting people in their homes and the belief was that if the minister did that they would respond by attending church each Sunday. This is no longer the case. In Crumlin Road the previous minister visited people faithfully and very regularly in their homes to little or no effect in terms of church attendance. We need to find ways of visiting people and giving them a sense of worth by engaging with them in situations where they feel safe. By doing this we will also demonstrate that they are not without merit and they do have personal worth. I want to do this by setting aside time to be with people in as many ways as I can.

Last week a petrol bomb was thrown into a house by some Republican Crowds. No one seems to know why that happened but our clergy group made a statement to say that we would do whatever we could to help in negotiations if that would be of any help. By doing this we were trying to stand with the people in a time of trouble. Working for peace means getting along side the people and speaking up when they are wronged. Harvey Conn tells a story which illustrates a view of sin which includes being sinned against.[19]. He talks about the failure of a congregation to address the legitimate grievances of some factory workers in an industrial dispute. He illustrates the problem by looking at the issue of prostitution: most churches have spoken out against prostitution but have failed to speak out against the social and economic conditions that have led the girls to take such drastic steps to feed themselves and their families. I love the story that Tony Compolo tells of giving a party for a prostitute in a local bar.

I think we need to consider the development of a prayer room which can be open to allow people to spent time there: to recharge their batteries; to give more time to be in the presence of the Lord; to make available a safe place for people at those awkward times when churches are not open; for people at a time of need; and to provide opportunities for people to talk. Practicing the presence of Christ [Brother Lawrence][20] and maybe even encouraging modern monastic equivalents[21] to come and stay among us has to be a good dream

Conclusions

A theology of decline, where the recognition of weakness, presents us with opportunities, need not lead us to surrender. While the institutional church is in decline, it is not all that surprising given the decline in the population of the area from 70,000 to 15,000. At the exact same time many more people are looking for spiritual answers. This is supported by the work of David Hay and Kate Hunt[22] who says that people are 60% more likely to speak of a spiritual experience than 15 years ago. People are 50% more likely to speak of answered prayer and want a ‘church for beginners’ because they are more confused by church. They go on to say that today church tends to close people out of the faith instead of helping them in. While all this is true this is still not the time to run home with our tails between our legs. John Wimber[23] is quoted by Ray Simpson as saying “Never trust a leader who walks without a limp”. The theology of Paul was about vulnerability rather than resistance, weakness rather than strength, poverty rather than riches and foolishness rather than wisdom. Prophets like Jeremiah knew all about the need to preach faithfully in season and out of season and of seeing little or no apparent success. We need to realize that the idea that we will always make progress is , quite simply a myth to be exploded. Under the title “A Theology of Decline” I came across a very interesting blog and I quote a substantial part of it here[24]:

The great risk with pessimism is obviously despair and resignation in face of the inevitable. This is the problem one has to try to solve. This is an area where I believe a religious faith can be immensely helpful.

One can gather this from the fact that throughout the history of the Church periods of decline and crisis have often coincided with very creative periods in the development of theology. For example, Augustine wrote The City of God in response to the decline of the Roman Empire. A century earlier the decline of the Roman administration in Egypt sparked the massive ascetic movement that I consider to be one of the most vibrant periods in the history of the church.

A more recent example is the blow to our own culture that was the First World War. The period after the war, that effectively broke off the optimism of the 19^th century, produced the best theology of the 20^th century: Tillich, Bultmann, Brunner, and this other guy, yeah, Barth. ;) All this so called “crisis theology” was a reaction to the feeling that the Church could not go on as it had before.

Decline implies weakness, but it is also strength in God’s economy because we then should need God more and then we are strong. In the spirit of creativity we need to go to where the people are and not continue to flog the dead horse of “come to church”. We need to teach people to “be church”[25], being willing to be ex-centric instead of normal. We need to help people to leave the church by being in the church but also with the community and for the community, getting our hands dirty. Oscar Romero, who spoke of taking a step back and taking in the long view puts ministry in the best context in one of his prayers in saying:

The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision. We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work.
Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us. No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection.
No pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the church's mission.
No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

This is what we are about.
We plant the seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted,
knowing that they hold future promise.

We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation
in realizing that. This enables us to do something,
and to do it very well. It may be incomplete,
but it is a beginning, a step along the way,
an opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results, but that is the difference
between the master builder and the worker.

We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own.
Amen.

[1] Annual reports of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland

2007

[2] Dunlop Report and The Missing Generation are but two

[3] Deloitte Report reported by BBC news 23^rd August 2007

[4] This was brought to our attention by David Stephens at our get together in

Belfast during the Celtic Trail

[5] see report on the congregation which draws from research by PCI and CCC 2000 and 2006 respectively

[6] Ray Simpson, Church of the Isles, Kevin Mayhew [20030 p 25ff

[7] John Finney, Finding Faith Today 1992 p24 says that 31% claim a datable

experience but most people [69%] come to a living faith through a gradual

process.

[8] Walking The Edges” SPCK

[9] Romans 7

[10] Michael Mitton, Restoring the woven Cord [Darton, Longman & Todd, 1955

[11] Simpson, op.cid p 78

[12] Simpson, op.cit. p78

[13] David Bosch, Transforming Mission Orbis [2005] p

[14] Jack Weir, formerly Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church

in Ireland 1980

[15] Bosch, op.cit. p375

[16] Reconciliation: a false goal? Compiled by Michael Hall 2000 [Island

Pamphlets]

[17] Ephesians 5:18

[18] Simpson, op.cit. p29

[19] Harvey Conn, Evangelism: doing Justice and preaching Grace Zondervan

[1982] p47

[20] Brother Lawrence, Practicing the Presence of God Hodder & Staughton [1981]

[21] Perhaps groups like InnerCHANGE

[22] Understanding the Spirituality of People who Don’t go to Church, university of

Nottingham 2000

[23] Simpson., op.cit. p114

[24] Blog by Patrick Hagman August 2007

[25] You’re an Angel, Peter Neilson and David Currie, Covenanters [2005] p175

A Theology for Decline

2007-09-19T22:01:00.000+01:00

A Theoloy for Decline

Today there are churches all over the urban areas of the United Kingdom, Ireland and the rest of Europe that are experiencing decline. How are we supposed to work and minister in that situation? Do we cut our losses and go to the middle class places? Do we regard this decline as a challenge too great for us to respond to: have we waited too long to respond? Should we have taken affirmative action ten years ago? Or do we view it as a positive because God is telling us something? Is it possible that the model so beloved for so long is no longer working? Is it possible that the"in your face", aggressive model no longer works?

What does Jeremiah mean when God tells his people that working for the welfare of the city will result in the benefit of his people also? In he eyes of the whole world God promises a better future but this fro the mouth of a man who is a patent failure-for over twenty years he has preached with no result. This is very difficult for a Christian community which has bought into the success model: we have all been brought up to believe that the gospel will also bring about positive results. We forget that God has imbibed us with the freedom to make up our own minds. Love means the possibility that those we love will not do or say what we want them to. When God made Adam he did so with the possibility that he would reject God's way and that is exactly what happened. We also neglect to consider the struggle with the powers and principalities of evil in the heavenly realms. How are we to respond to them? Will our efforts in prayer be enough? Is prayer guaranteed to make a difference?

Will the prayer of millions of believers make the difference as they pray 24/7? Answers welcome. Many of our churches are in numerical decline but we are not going to runaway with our tails between our legs but do you think we have the bottle to change with the times? The message of the gospel has not changed but the world has changed and we are still working with an outdated model which assumes that people will come to church because that is what everyone really wants. In our area that is certainly not true and we have not helped in the way we have refused to incarnate the word in the local community. We need to know that while the Institution of the church is in decline the followers of Jesus Christ are on the increase.

Tiocfaid ar la

2007-09-19T20:12:00.001+01:00

We live in a very aggressive place. Look around the city, listen to the people as they talk to each other and you will see what I mean. In the Protestant areas the murals tend to be military while on the Catholic side they are political and cultural.

In recent days we had the murder of Harry Holland, a very amiable man in his sixties, who was the victim of some teenagers with the help of a screwdriver. The public response was akin to mob rule or the lynch mob, aided by the radio talk show. With the call for zero tolerance came the pledges of support from politicians who were only too happy to win some cheap votes. At the same time we had the intervention of a senior policeman who called for the erection of peace walls in Iraq as the way to deal with sectarian difficulties there. While we had this call for zero tolerance the police also told a local Rector that he could be charged for taking the photographs of some young people who were climbing onto the roof of his church. What a crazy world we live in.

Surely the real question is more about the kind of society that we want and how we intend to work towards it. If we want a safe community we will need to encourage people to be at peace with each other but how are we to do that? How can we make peace a reality for all our people? When thinking of reconciliation we need to begin with the acknowledgment that neither side of the community is going away. If this is so then we need a strategy that delivers peace for all.

When we hear "Tiocfaidh ar la" what comes to mind? Is it a phrase designed to get someone annoyed? Is it possible that actually it is a phrase to bring hope and peace to our minds? Does it not remind us that with the return of Christ there will be the establishment of that peace that passes all understanding? With the funeral of Harry Holland today we had the call for more police on our streets but all that will do is to everyone "feel" better: but will the increase of law enforcers really make peace? The police cannot protect everyone at the same time. We cannot force people to behave. What we can do is to make Jesus Christ's influence to stretch into our community: many think of him as just another historical character when, in fact, he is the only contemporary figure who can make a difference and will if we will let him.

2007-09-05T15:06:00.001+01:00

Happy New Year

2007-09-04T17:35:00.000+01:00

Its a strange thing to be wishing you all a happy new year in September but it is the start of another year, at least the church year. After a packed summer we find ourselves getting ready for another session of activities.

This also the first of our new blog where we will be posting announcements and news of people and events and we will be sharing some thoughts, some radical and some not so radical. If you want to make a suggestion or contribute some thoughts do feel free to comment.