The Future is SMALL

Having lots of time on my hands these days due to the emergency surgery I had over the Christmas holidays I have time to do some more reading and a little bit of writing. My family have been encouraging me to take my doctrinal dissertation as a point of departure and to flesh it out with some of my ministry memories over the last 20 plus years in various forms of ministry and in different congregations up and down this island of Ireland.. I guess the fact that few or maybe even no one might actually read what I write is not the issue but putting it down on paper could well prove therapeutic .

In preparing for my dissertation I "happened upon" a book which appealed to me greatly. It is called "the strategically SMALL church"  by Brandon J.O' Brien- at this point I chuckle to myself because the spell check has underlined in red O'Brien-the reason is that in the computer world the default spelling is always the American version of English so when an "Irish" spelling appears there is no hope of recognition but then I have the joy of informing the program of the correctness of the spelling. I had a long battle with Bakke Graduate University as i wrote for the D.Min over the spelling issue because I saw no reason for writing in, what for me is a phony way, but,in the end I decided, once they allowed me to be an exception, to tow the line and make life easier for the weaker brethren! No matter how many times the spell check is altered to make it UK friendly (never mind Irish) it always diverts back to the mother tongue!

Recently I also came across Brandon's blog (outofUR)and this piece is partly a response to it. Since confession is so good for the soul I should make some here before I declare my hand. Leslie Newbigin makes the point that the gospel cannot be declared culture free. My background and experience is such that the American obsession with "bigger is best" has escaped me. I also need to confess that, despite my apparent negative attitude to all things American I do have an American born grandson (my son is married to a lovely American girl) and I have worked with many American brothers and sisters in Christ by virtue of working on Campus Crusade staff for several years and doing my D.Min at Bakke Graduate University in Seattle so I think i have earned the right to speak as a critical friend recognising that I could be wrong that there is much in American culture which is better than the cynicism of the Irish. I need also to say that my ministry experience has been bathed in small and intimate ministries and do struggle with the notion that God ALWAYS blesses his servants with bigger and greater numbers of people.In short I do have my baggage yet I do make these comments in good faith in the hope that someone, somewhere will respond in kind.

I find myself in agreement with Mr O'Brien (I am very glad that his parents or by his own decision to spell his name in the Irish way) when he says that the issue is not really about numbers as there are good and bad or not so good congregations in both categories. The real issue, for me, is about accountability as well as authenticity and relationships across the generations. One of the strengths of my congregation in the heart of urban Belfast is that we have an inter-generational community. Sitting as we do on an inter-face between the nationalist and unionist communities our greatest opportunity for ministry is to be a people of reconciliation and while, at the present, reconciling across the peace walls is limited we can be reconciled across the generations. The fact that we meet together with our very young babies and the very elderly senior citizens has real potential for peace and harmony.

I also worry about the thinking unearthed by the political pollster John Zogby who predicts that the small church will be the most popular in the years ahead. yes people do want community. I know that the American experience is way ahead of us in this and, by comparison, community still exists here-the irony, of course is that we are also, at the very same time, fragmented and divided along community lines and within community. Living in a post Christian society the idea of a "bungalow on the Main street, not a mega structure ." is very appealing. about ten years ago I  went with a group from Belfast to a Mega church  which is well known to most Christians. I went in the hope of learning something about the mission of the church and how we might apply some lessons to our situation. It left me quite cold-yes I really enjoyed the worship, or the singing anyway and I enjoyed the company of the cool people but this world were car parking assistance is needed every Sunday and a one way system applied, where everything is done to professional standards is just a world away, its like the alternative world of avatars. The experience was also ruined because the two other key people who went from our congregation left us shortly afterwards. Now I have to say that they did not leave because of the experience but for other reasons entirely but in my mind they are linked in an unfortunate juxtaposition.

I have to agree with the challenge to the assumption that bigger is best and that god blesses his servants with more people when they are faithful. as I think of the ministry of the Old testament prophet Jeremiah I am amazed at his faithfulness in spite of apparent failure and then there is the ministry of Jesus himself as his followers left him in droves. Years and years ago i heard Howard Hendricks say that Christians are called to be faithful even ion the trenches.

What concerns me the most about the Mega Church structure is the danger of giving the impression that Christians are in the imperialist army designed to take over the world when the Bible speaks of vulnerability and poverty and weakness. Newbigin tells us, in "The Gospel in a Pluralist Society" that we should be on the side of the crushed people of the world, he tells us that all too often the church is perceived to be on the side of the rich and powerful. I have a question in my mind about the symbolism behind the massive, hotel-like structures of the (for us anyway) new non-denominational churches because I feel they are breeding a "hermeneutic of suspicion". I have a question about a church which is made up exclusively of the young and the powerful.because they say, as those made up of the grey brigade, this church is for you IF you are like us.

I think, much more positively that the while a church may be small, and the understanding of what"small" means is debatable, its missional impact can be massive. as we began to think through our mission one of our desires was that without wishing to be a big church we did want to be a church which was big, big in ideas, big in impact, big in our desire to serve a big God who was not too big to be bothered with a small people like us. I rejoice that we no longer have all those organisations which make ministry inside the building more stressful and demanding and make mission outside all but impossible.I rejoice if setting the congregation free means they can work more effectively for the peace, the welfare of the city "because as kit prospers so we prosper"

When I was a young Christian my desire was to live a significant life for God and when I began ministry I wanted to be really successful and when I was called to congregational work my dream was to be in a church with many people. I really enjoy preaching and find it easier when the church is filled to capacity and the greater that capacity the better. i find preaching to a small number very demanding. In the humour of God he sent me,initially as a student, to a number of very small congregations. There was one Sunday in Cavan Presbyterian Church when the entire congregation was my family and some friends who had come to visit us for the weekend. In my present congregation I have watched as the congregation has halved in number and that has been painful. I have never thought of myself as being called to bury a congregation. Yet, at the same time, we have been able to begin some initiative approaches to ministry in a community of division and fragmentation and I have been able to give time to working in the community outside the church to get alongside people.

Yes there are times when I am jealous of the resources of the big churches and times when I am impatient with them for an unwillingness to share what they have with those who do not have. Sometimes I wish I was called to that ministry but then I do not think I could cope at all with the responsibilities of being more of a Chief Executive Officer and less of a minister/teacher/pastor.

One plea I do make to those who have gravitated to the big causes is that they do not forget us little people as you pray and as you consider your budget for the year. do not restrict your thinking to imaging that god could not possibly bless a church by making it small, or smaller. Remember Joshua who fought against impossible numbers, remember Jeremiah who preached the need to repent and remember Jesus who was oppressed and rejected.

TRYPRAYING

If you are anything like me there will be times or have been times when you have felt like walking away from ministry. At this moment in time the thought has gone through my mind that the best thing I could do is to walk away and let someone else, more successful, take up the post. In a declining congregation there is nothing more debilitating and more challenging than to get one of those letter of resignation from a key member. I would have hoped that after ten years of working with a person the least expected would be to have a face to face conversation about the unspecified issues which have remained. Sometimes I think people loose all their sense of corporate responsibility and all sense that the minister, pastor or church leader, or whatever title they give, will actually take this personally. I understand perfectly that there are many pressures on people today and we live in a high pressure situation where the vast majority of the population have taken the decision to walk away from the Church and in a situation where passion replaces reason and reaction pro-action. I understand that we are a church in trouble-by church I mean the whole institutional church and I mean that all the churches are living in and involved in a thoroughly dysfunctional community.

For 40 years the community was torn apart by violence and sectarianism and by poverty (not the poverty of a developing nation but a poverty which touches every part of the being) and we all have our baggage but issues do not get sorted by a short conversation where the people with the issues (usually we all have issues and we need to recognise that it is not always the other person who needs sorted). Talking or even shouting at people will not do it and logical reasoning won't do it either. the only way forward is to accept people with unconditional love and allow God to do the sorting.

 I was involved in a very heated conversation where the small group of participants, when there should have been many more, were happy to point fingers or even to imagine that blame was being attributed.  and look for someone to blame. I was sitting listening and looking for an opportunity to make, what I considered, a positive contribution.This body has lost its vision and so when things go wrong they turn in on each other. This is how issues are dealt with because it is still a community under attack and on the back foot ( a cricketing term meaning to be on the defense. In this community there is a deep seated paranoia. How could you not expect the church to reflect this?

If a person, who has been deeply involved for most of their lives feels they want to walk away it is probably time to. Living in the community and ministering in the community I need to understand that sometimes things get the wrong way round and instead of the gospel challenging the community its the community that challenges the gospel. All of this drives me to the conclusion that I can do it no longer, I do not have the strength, the skill or the ability but God does. the only way forward is to bring it all to God. this is God's mission. Outside our church we have two banners saying "TRYPRAYING". 

Here is the old lesson learnt the hard way again, TRYPRAYING. Will you join with us as we pray? Every Wednesday night 7-30-9.30pm the Gathering Place ( The coffee area at the front of the church) will be open as a space for prayer. We welcome all people-we have no barriers of religion or class or profession just a desire to reflect and bring all our concerns to Jesus Christ. 

Time to walk away? Only God can tell me that, only God can tell you and only God can transform this and other communities. The Apostle Paul sets out the context of corporate and systemic sin in Ephesians 6 and pleads with his people in that great city to pray without ceasing confident that at the end of the battle they will be standing tall in victory.

Militant Atheists

I cannot say that I am an avid reader of the Daily Telegraph. In fact I would sit at a very different end of the political spectrum but I came across an article on the internet which I found interesting by Charles Moore who wrote in that newspaper, “Militant atheists: too clever for their own good”, He makes the observation that being clever appears to be high on the agenda of their creed. The main protagonists he cites are Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens (now deceased) and Professor A.C. Grayling who looks every part the philosopher complete with long sweeping hair and the pin-stripe suit used until recently to say ”Tory”. Despite their high I.Q. , and who would decry the value of intelligence, they seem to be acquiring one of the very attributes, they despise of Christians, namely intolerance and arrogance. Matthew Parris, who also writes for the same paper and is highly, articulate and effective at making his point has joined the fray. He wants faith and reason to part forever and for people to “chose your side”. I would not call myself irrational but neither would I say that reason is all that matters? If I said this I would be closing the door to the possibility of miracles. I cannot place God in a test tube and hold him up as exhibit “A”; God cannot be restricted. This is a crass way of investigating all the evidence. Surely the writer of the Telegraph article is right that they are really missing the point. The early church believers were not all that well educated but the impact they made was mighty-they were the ones who were ready to serve the community and lived lives of high moral value. Yes there are, today, Christians who say daft things and sometimes we worry too much about gaining power and prestige; we worry that the church is no longer holding the same sway as in previous generations. We are too quick to look for the glory of having the rich and famous and the powerful in our ranks but then so too are the non-believers. Nor is hypocrisy is not restricted to Christians; I dare to suggest that some who call themselves “atheist” do so because of their family upbringing and not because they have given the matter more than logical and reasoned thought, if even that. Life would be dull indeed if we were all like Mr Spock. The resurrection is not only the most historically provable claim of Christianity but it is the very bedrock of the faith which suggests that death on a cross, at the hands of men, is not only not the end but that the road travelled by God was not about the power of the world nor the power of the intellectual elite but a new hope for all men and women who occupy both the lecture theatre and the workshop, the rich and the power, and include all ethnic groups. I , for one, will not be rejected just because I am not one of the clever people.

Courage

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 2012 Courage?? “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 Biblica Powered by BibleGateway.com 0 comments: Post a Comment Links to this post Create a Link Home Followers My Blog List Internet TV Jack Drennan Blog Archive January (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) Rev Dr. Jack Drennan Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom Presbyterian Minister in the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, the biggest denomination in Northern Ireland View my complete profile cluster world We welcome light from any quarter We 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 History Acts 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

Cowardly Pastors

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. 

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 .