Totes Emosh

I must admit I had never heard this phrase before, until Kez who is out here serving the work for a few months said it in the car the other night. It has it's origins in Essex two x-factor contestants used it, although Kez is not from Essex! Anyway I looked it up, it's a phrase when someone or something is very emotional.

Now from time to time I can be a little emotional but I am starting to feel a little stronger with regards going back to the UK. But last night we had our first summer service and we had 4 prostitutes in attendance it was so lovely to see them, I find myself more emotional about these girls and their plight than I do about my temporary discomfort around change.

We also had a guy turn up last night who used to be an usher at his church in Nigeria, he asked if he could be our usher. I think they come early, tidy up and set up we said obviously said "Yes".

It's weird I always thought emerging missional communities would somehow look different perhaps be a little trendier, I am not sure what I expected but I didn't expect that we would be having an usher!

But then isn't that the essence of missional?

I don't really care what we look like or what people want to do as long as we are reaching out.

Anyway last night was a great first night, Kez led worship for the first time, I gave a little talk, we got to pray with some people and the summer has started to take shape.

Now I might get totes emosh when I have to leave all of that!

I want my neighbours ox

I had to drop my car of at the garage for a service this morning there was a beautiful brand new landrover discovery in the driveway as we pulled up. It got me thinking about a much under used word "covet".

Exodus 20: 17 “You shall not covet your neighbour’s house. You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour.”

We don't use it much because we don't often covet our neighbours ox, yet I would say it is one of the major sins of our culture. Primarily because we are taught to covet from a young age. If coveting has a master, or a promoter, then that master is adverstising. We live in a society were we are taught not to be content.

When we read the words of Paul in Phillipians 4: 11 -12  "I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want"


Advertising makes us discontent. Yet even advertising as the only Lord of Coveting would be too simplistic.


Coveting as Eugene Peterson so aptly put it; can also be "fantasising about a life other than the one you are already living"


Our own desires cause us to covet. I once read that the reason Mills and Boon novels were so popular amongst women was because it appealed to the fantasy side of there nature. It would help them imagine a life other than the one they were already living. In the late 90's internet use by men was all about the porn, whilst many young women went online in chat rooms pretending they were someone they were not!! Coveting happens with both sexes.


I have met men who have fantasised about their wife leaving them so they can start a new life with another woman. Or the man who works with a woman all day long and finds she talks to him more than his wife. He starts to covet that other woman, the sin has happened way before he eventually has an affair.


Anyway it's out there, coveting happens. I want the new white discovery tdi, I have bought into my culture, I have become discontent with what I have, forgotten about how much of a blessing my existing car is and I am off on a fantasy journey in my shiny new vehicle!!!!

Does this also happen in church? Do we covet others spirituality, their gifts, their service style, their congregation size????

Christian world scares me

I have just spent a month covering for Bob the Anglican Vicar of Ibiza. It has been challenging and hectic but I have really enjoyed it.

It's a hard job because it's massively pastoral you spend a lot of time meeting with elderly people and just generally looking out for people. As we all know this can be demanding, I would imaging long term you could find this frustrating as you spend most of your time with elderly christians, although I do know that Bob is fantastic at reaching out to others.

In fact thats a challenge for most people, a friend of mine has recently moved to Northern Ireland and I was speaking to him a few weeks ago and I asked him if he had met anyone who wasn't a christian yet!!! His answer was No....

Christian world can absorb us, we are guilty of creating a christian sub culture, that has it's own music, it's own authors, it's own celebrities, it's own holidays and it's own secret language.

Materialism and media in the hands of christians appear to have been succumbed too rather than resisted. We are always in danger of becoming ineffective God TV watching christians.

Honestly, God TV does anyone not just think the name in itself seems wrong?

Why are there no fat ugly worship leaders touring the world right now? Tell me if pretty boys and pretty girls don't sell records and really thats what it is all about.....

Thats why I like Godfrey Birtill, not his music just what he stands for... "No more pretty boy worship leaders"

Honestly went hill songs in London once, the light show alone could have kept a small african village in food for a year.

The church I go to in Diss, had a guy ask them "what do you do if your not Hillsong?" what they do is great but really do you honestly think there are churches out there who are stressing because they are not hill song, they should be thankful.

Christian world scares me.

I enjoyed being a vicar, I love hill songs music, I have been blessed by God TV, I read books by christian authors, I speak the secret language....

I'm conflicted, I'm scared, I want to be positive about the body of Christ I enjoy all the trappings of Chrsitian world, but I am still scared.

I have a niggle in the back of my mind that it all may just be a little bit wrong.

Romans 12. The Message

Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

Resigned to slavery

We have Maria here this weekend who works with prostitutes in Barcelona, we are trying to find a more joined up approach to how we work with prostitutes.

The girls that we work with are for want of a better word "seasonal workers" they are based for the majority of their time on the mainland. Maria works with these girls on the mainland so we are hoping for more insight and maybe a little strategy to develop.

How does slavery happen?

I can tell you this story because we have heard it first hand.

Girl in village or town in Africa gets offered job overseas, she has probably fallen on hard times and the person who offers the work is probably not a close friend but someone she loosely knows. There is a promise of work looking after children or other domestic work and it generally involves being located in mainland europe. The girl may have children of her own and desperately wants to provide for them.

She is then transported illegally to europe, upon arrival she is told that there is not the work she expected, but that she owes a large sum of money for the costs of getting her here. The average figure is somewhere between 45,000 - 65,000 euros. She is told that she cannot go until the debt is paid. A number of issues then come into play and they are all based on fear.

1. She is in the country illegally.

2. Her family is used as leverage, threat of harm if she runs away without payment.

3. Some have sworn a witch doctor oath (juju); if they don't pay the debt they or their family will be cursed and die.

4. She is placed with girls whose debt is nearly paid off; if she flees they will be responsible for her debt.

At a ground level, the girls are usually controlled by a madam, not a pimp.

On the back of all this deception and fear she is forced into prostitution, she has little option but to accept her lot and so she gets on with it. When you walk the streets and look into this girls' eyes, if you stop long enough, if you look closely you will see that there is a deep sadness a desperate longing for a different life, this is not what she expected and not what she wants, she is trapped, enslaved.

She is resigned to slavery.

What happens to these girls is sad, despicable and wrong it needs to change.

The church must not remain silent on this issue. But neither must the church become a place where lots of people talk and pray about this issue without ever actually getting involved in working towards its abolition.

"And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God". Micah 6

Pray for us this weekend as we chat and pray about the best way forward with this whole area.

Choral Communion

We had Choral Communion this morning at church, I really enjoyed this service. Possibly because I am starting to feel more comfortable with all the liturgy and think I have settled well with the preaching.

We finished with the old Hymn crown him with many crowns, I love the last verse.

Crown Him the Lord of years, the Potentate of time,
Creator of the rolling spheres, ineffably sublime.
All hail, Redeemer, hail! For Thou has died for me;
Thy praise and glory shall not fail throughout eternity.

Ineffably sublime, potentate of time!!! what great English.

24-7 communities and marriage

I’m doing a wedding this week, it got me thinking about marriage in general. When 24-7 prayer started out there were loads of young single people now there are loads of young married couples. I’ve been married 18 years this year and also as a pastor of a church I have witnessed all sorts of marital blessings and stresses over the years. So here are a few thoughts on marriage.


1. Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church, laying his life down for her. This is where I have seen some marriages go worng. A husband is not willing to lay down his life for the sake of his wife. He will not cease his business travel or re adjust his career path for the sake of his wife, He will not lay down his traveling ministry for the sake of his wife, He will not alter his social life for the sake of his wife, basically he will not lay down his life for the sake of his wife…. Then when it all starts to fall apart incompatability is cited as one of the major reasons for break up. Or the wife finds someone who is around and is willing to sacrifice a bit of themselves to be with her. Self and selfishness destroy marriages.

2. Man or woman work hard, come in tired, veg out in front of the TV, have a brief chat about the day, read the paper, make a few phonecalls, check facebook, go to bed and doze off tired and disinterested. Wife or husband drops children of at school meets someone on the school run who isn’t tired who listens to them and has time for them, soon thoughts drift to "what if they where the one?" they are more attentive, more interested, more fun then stuff happens. “we talk for hours, without running out of things to say”……the same can happen to the partner at work; he/she works with a member of the opposite sex 8 hours a day 5 days a week they talk loads, they soon run out of trivial things to share and end up sharing deeper stuff before you know it you have a potential situation on your hands. Man comes home to stressed out wife who has been wrestling with two children all day, she’s tired harassed and just needs to off load, quickly he compares her to the interesting woman at work and before you know it an affair is born.

3. Men who have affairs always say “the sex is great” of course it is… but relationships aren’t solely birthed in sex. Rob Parsons says that in early relationships the sex is always great but in about 3 years time you’re going to come home from work and your new partner is going to say “have you put the bins out?” .

4. A growing area where affairs are born is over the phone or on the internet, facebook, skype, texts can all get a bit flirty. Even voice conversations can get out of hand. The power of the internet for fueling fantasy is immense and small sparks of overtly flirtatious friendly behaviour online can soon start a fire.

5. Most affairs happen in the mind before they physically take place, with men more often than not it is lust, with women it is often a fantasy, not purely sexual more imagining another existence! More women used to use chat rooms pretending to be other people than men!

I don’t know why I wanted to put all this out there, but if you are considering an affair right now. Can I just say it is messy and people will be get hurt. I might try and put some tips up tomorrow about how to keep it fresh.

The vision is still Jesus

Just had this article up on the main 24-7prayer site. Hope you like it:

At the beginning of the last decade Pete Greig wrote in an inspired call to prayer this memorable line, “The vision is Jesus, obsessively, dangerously, undeniably Jesus”

Hard to believe that it was written 10 years ago! In those 10 years a lot has happened; we’ve all grown up. Yet in the midst of our growing up and at the turn of a new decade we know this one thing: The vision is still Jesus.

We may have got slicker, better organized, more well known, but we have not lost sight that it is all about Jesus.

We may count prayer rooms, we may take marketing and image seriously, and we even have accountants!!! But it’s not about statistics, prayer rooms or branding - it never has been and it never will be. All this has never overshadowed the fact that what we do is all about Jesus.

It’s for the glory of His name, it’s about the advancement of His kingdom, it’s the belief that this broken dying and hurting world needs a saviour. We hold to the conviction that Jesus is the answer, and that we, his body here on earth, are called to express and bring Jesus into every sphere of life. There is no other way, and that is why we believe in calling the church to prayer.

That in our increase in intimacy and fervency as we pray, 24-7, we will be energized and inspired to proclaim the message of Jesus, the hope of the nations, to the nations. That as we get serious, devote ourselves to prayer and intimacy, that as we call out to him persistently, He will answer in order that our families, our friends, our work colleagues, our towns, our cities, our nations will be touched by Jesus. That His kingdom will come here on earth as it in Heaven.

We are serious. We have been serious for ten years. We don’t know how long this crazy adventure of 24-7prayer will last, but as long as we exist, as long as it goes on, we will seek to call the body of Christ to prayer in order that the kingdom of Jesus will be established here on earth.

We recognize that this movement has inspired new communities, but it has also inspired established communities and we are grateful that we have been able to journey alongside the old and witness the birth of the new in order that the name of Jesus would be made great and his kingdom established. There will be new initiatives, new destinations, and new adventures in the next 10 years; our prayer, hope and challenge is that all we do remains Christ centered.

Listen, Jesus is not my boyfriend! I don’t like the idea of dating Jesus! Equally I don’t like that we can sometimes feel neutered and frowned upon for declaring our love for our Lord. This is not some teenage romance that has been birthed; this is deep, serious love.

As we have prayed, more and more people have chosen to live sacrificially because of their love for Jesus. We are passionately in love with Him. That may make you feel uncomfortable! But as we have prayed, we have realized that this love has demanded change in our lifestyles, change in our attitudes and change in our hearts. This prayer movement has birthed passionate Jesus followers and we pray that this would continue.

As a new decade begins our prayer is that more workers for the harvest would be raised up; more people would be inspired to go anywhere and do anything ‘for the sake of the gospel’. That as the body prays we would see more people filled with passionate love and abandon, giving their lives to Jesus.

It’s all about Jesus and the advancement of His kingdom

We believe in a Jesus revolution - driven by Him, birthed in prayer, producing revolutionary, radical, zealous Jesus followers. That’s why we pray.

2 Chronicles 7: 14 “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

This is our cry and will remain our cry for the next decade. This is why we pray: we pray in order that the reign of King Jesus would be established here on this earth. That the unstoppable, relentless force that is His kingdom would be advanced, proclaimed and established in our generation. That lives would be changed, captives would be set free, the hurting would be healed, the broken would be restored, the lifeless would be revived, that people living in darkness would see a great light and His kingdom would come.

At some point in the next 10 years you may find yourself alone one cold winter morning in a small badly heated prayer room at about 2am; you may be struggling to stave off sleep, you may be tired and looking for inspiration, you may even feel like giving in to that tiredness; you may find it hard to remember why you signed up for this ‘ungodly’ hour and feel like curling up under a prayer shawl or just going home to your warm bed. But remember this:

The vision is still Jesus, “obsessively, dangerously, undeniably Jesus”

Church

“Church isn’t where you meet. Church isn’t a building. Church is what you do. Church is who you are. Church is the human outworking of the person of Jesus Christ. Let’s not go to Church, let’s be the Church.” Bridget Willard

Amen to that sister

It's worth it

We are a few weeks in now.

What am I learning.

1. Sometimes you don't realise how much you appreciate things until you don't have them.

2. Other timers time you realise you had things in your life that you don't really need.

3. Haven! an interesting word. Your home is your haven that place where you go and escape to completely be yourself, once you share your home with others that sense of haven takes a while to be restored.

4. Sharing a house with people is completely different than having people stay in your house.

5. I don't miss television.

6. I am enjoying limited internet access.

7. I miss the telephone, I prefer to hear peoples voices over email.

8. Grace

9. Rabbits are tricky little things to shoot. I have shot at 6 rabbits and missed them all.

10. You have to ensure you don't lose a sense of family, we have created a family space in our large bedroom to watch DVD's and play games or just read.

11. Wood cutting at 4pm on a sunny day will result in mosquito bites. I had 20 bites plus sunburn.

12. I am better with an axe than a chainsaw.

13. Realistically moving here has been as tough as leaving England to move to Ibiza.

14. It's worth it.

15. To stop smoke blowing down your woodburner you need to keep your fire very hot.

16. Lemon trees and pomegranate trees have thorns.

17. Community living as an ideal sounds wonderful, community living in reality takes hard work.

18. It's worth it.

19. Growth is being forced upon me and I am happy with that.

20. Pushing a wheel barrow up a hill is good for the heart, being dragged down the hill by it filled with wood is bad for the back.

21. This place will be great for so many people on so many levels.

22. It's worth it.

Why you could be forgiven for not taking your friends to church

I have just been really inspired by an excellent blog called Stuff Christians Like, it's a hilarious blog and well worth adding to your favourites.

It got me thinking about "why you could be forgiven for not taking your friends to a church service" especially a happy clappy charismatic service.

1. You're asked to raise your hand if this is your first time.

2. Prophetic guy standing next to you gets a sword out and starts to wield it above his head in an act of prophetic worship, your friend could be forgiven if he just ran out at this point to avoid being killed in the massacre.

3. Ladies in lilac, they smile, they look safe but they are overly coordinated and this is a worry.

4. The worship leader says "lets all just sing our own songs to the Lord"

5. Flag dancing, especially large flags, often swung dangerously low totally distracting you and getting you worried for fellow worshippers who are sitting to close.

6. Christian dancing in general, basically this means bouncing, not always in rhythm.

7. Prophetic dance, this normally involves a woman in leggings and a large t-shirt, so that you don't get led into lust, who starts of kneeling and then offers some invisible thing (possibly a small hamster) dramatically up to the sky

8. Prophetic songs, normally delivered by a frustrated Michael Bolton type, who the worship team wouldn't touch with a barge pole and who would definitely make the comedy section of xfactor.

9. Hour long worship sets that only include 3 songs

10. Special guest christian mime artist, normally doing a mime to a Carmen or Don Francisco song.

11. Toronto man, he's not moved on and somehow you sit next to him, he doubles up and shakes for 30 minutes, you have to reassure your friend he is okay and that it's just the Lord.

12. Young mothers who sit in front of you and continually bend over to help their children, always revealing diamante studded thong during reflective quite times, this will not help your friend focus on Jesus.

13. Group of young men sitting at back looking unhappy, you have to reassure your friend that if he needs to go out to the toilet it's okay they won't mug him.

There are probably more.......

We have a farm.

As you know we have been praying for a farm or 'finca' base; a place that would be not only a home to the resident community, but also a place to care for and accommodate people we meet who desperately need some time away from the lifestyle of San Antonio. At other times of the year, it would be a place to offer training and retreat.

As we began to look at properties available, we discovered that a 4 bedroom farm with 35,000 square meters of land would cost at least 800,000 euros, and would probably be in need of some modifications to make it suitable and in all honesty we felt a little freaked out by the sheer cost.

Anyway, undaunted, we let our dreams take flight, and imagined a place of tranquillity, a place that could be ecologically friendly, a place where we could grow food and keep chickens, probably just for eggs but I am not averse to eating the odd bird!

Last week, we looked in the local Ibiza newspaper and saw advertised a 7 bedroom, 200 year old farm house for rent with 500,000 square meters of land (over 100 acres) in the hills above San Antonio. We never imagined that such a place would be available to rent - suddenly it looked possible that our dreams could be realised long before we had even dared to hope....

On further viewing, we discovered that this place is powered by solar energy, has 3 wells that collect rainwater to supply the living and irrigation needs of the farm, contains a bread oven, open fireplace and could have a wood burner fuelled by the plentiful woodland around it.

As we got out of our car for the first viewing, I said to Tracy, Bruce and Helen, 'all we need now is for the agent to say there's a little chapel on the premises...'

As we were about to leave, the agent said 'oh, and there is a little chapel - la capellita - just over on the hill there....'!

It's not a large chapel, just a small one man chapel built by the owner to honour the promise that he made to God, that if he survived the Algerian war, he would return to his home and build a chapel.

Surely such a place had to be meant for us! But at what price?

Well actually, just a little less than we are all paying right now. It's been a bit tense because there was an awful lot of interest from other people in this place, and we weren't sure we would get it!

But as we prayed that God would give us favour, we discovered that the owner had a lot of emotion invested in this place. A couple had offered to pay her more euros than she was asking a month, but she felt that they were not the right people for her old family home. She wanted the place to be lived in by children and to feel an affinity with the tenants.

She asked us to give her 3 days to decide whether she wished to offer the place to us; but the next day, we received a call from the agent offering us the tenancy of the property. We have now signed the contract and get the keys on the 1st January!!!!!

So - miraculously - God has provided a farm on top of a mountain with spectacular views of the island. We can see the sun rise over the Mediterranean Sea from one side of the house, and watch the sunset over San Antonio on the other.

There are pomegranate trees, a lemon tree, vines, olive trees, almond trees, fields for vegetables and animals, chicken coop, stables, milking barn, and acres of forests and walks.

We even have permission and space to create 2 more bedrooms.

There are challenges ahead, we have to raise quite a bit of money to relocate and make it suitable for use in the way that we envisage but hopefully it will come. We are talking about 25,000 euros.........

Anyway as you can imagine we are extremely happy and very grateful to God for what I can only describe as a miracle.

By the way that is a picture of the farm and all the land that you can see is ours to enjoy!

Questions about missional communities and time???

Where do we find the time?

When I led a church in England I used to put people under pressure to give more time. Primarily because this was how I had been mentored, you gave yourself to the church.....

When I got married in 1992, I was the children's worker in the church and was asked to also help develop a youth programme. I remember the leaders sitting down with Tracy and myself and drawing out a schedule for us. Monday night was clear, Tuesday night I did a kids club, Wednesday night we had a home group, every other Thursday night we had a training evening, Friday night a pre teens youth club, Saturday night we did stuff with the older youth, Once a month on a Sunday we had to an evening youth church as well as every Sunday morning the normal Sunday service. Alongside all these clubs we had to go to the various organizing meetings for these clubs! My wife worked as an accountant and I was at college. The interesting thing about this is that we agreed to it and have since looked back with a little regret that we were so busy during the early years of our marriage, years we will never live again! Obviously we also both had family and friends that we had to fit into this schedule and that was extremely difficult.

As time went on and children came along our lives became less busy, but not totally. We were always under time pressure. I once heard a programme on radio 4 (You can tell that I am getting old, I think Radio 4 is a great station) and the guy said "We live in a cash rich and time poor society" obviously in todays financial climate we don't feel so cash rich but I do feel it is true.

Most christians have jobs, families and friends that they have to juggle alongside the demands of church life, we end up with a sense of guilt or uneasiness that we are letting people down in one or more of these areas, because we are just to busy. Most of the church leaders I know don't have loads of time for their already existing friends yet alone time to make new ones.... I have seen one or two good examples of leaders making time for others, whether that be buying a season ticket for a football club or joining a gym, or even giving a day a week to some other form of employment but it's the exception not the rule.

So where does that leave us? How do we build effective life giving and life supporting communities that don't drain people of time.

The first thing is "If we always do what we have always done, we will always have what we always had", something needs to change.

I'm not sure I have the answers, but I do think that programme driven churches will have to change. We have to make church simpler.

Are smaller communities less time intensive?

Do the churches that teach on the need to reach the lost really giving their members time to do so?

Where does church come in our list of priorities, Family, Friends, Employment, Church?

With the above question is church a meeting to be attended or a life to be lived?

Aren't we being church wherever we are, what ever we are doing?

If church is a life to be lived rather than a programme to be attended, what can we put in place to facilitate this?

What could we do without?

I would be really interested in suggestions????


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The Poor

I know many of you will have seen this before but I still think it is great

Missional Communities 5 My conclusion!

So, I'm trying to bring some conclusions to my thoughts on this whole thing although someone once said "A conclusion is what happens when you get tired of thinking"

In my mind I have a picture of missional community, so what I write below is what I am living for and exploring at this present time, once you put something down on paper it can seem like you have a fixed opinion, what I am writing about is my discovery and exploration of community so far!

RELATIONAL

A community has to be relational, it has to relate well to other expressions of church "if you knock the bride you're going to have to deal with the husband"cynical, critical undercurrents are not good for any community, large or small. It has to relate well to the world, culture, sociological, geographical area in which it is birthed; if it is not engaged with the world beyond it's walls it will fail. The community has to relate well to each other, smaller communities are a tougher place to be because you can't be invisible, more tension, more challenges but more depth. The community has to relate well to God; a healthy holistic balanced understanding of our Maker, His Son and the Spirit that guides us. A good relationship with God sounds obvious but needs work. Boiled down at it's core a relational community should be one that is: under-girded with love.

LED

We should not fear leadership, that is excercising it or being definite with it. Leaders in communities should consider themselves as gardeners rather than CEO's. Leadership should be plural and inclusive although I am happy with one person standing uo and taking overall responsibility. Leadership teams should find the heart of God together rather than just trying to implement one persons vison. Paul says WE have the mind of Christ, note the plural! Leadership should be humble enough to accept advice, direction, correction and challenge from servant hearted apostles but also from the community they are leading.

VISION

You've got to have an idea of where you are headed. I'm not a great one for short term, medium term and long term goals. I don't really like the phrase "purpose driven" however in shying away from some of the more business minded models we have to be careful that we don't throw the baby out with the bath water. A picture needs to be painted, a direction needs to be set. The power of vision lies in our ability to imagine an alternative reality, I am living for an alternative reality, we have vision here and believe me it helps.

PRAYERFUL

Arthur Wallis once said something like "revival is born out of prayer, sustained by prayer and brings forth prayer" or better still the bible says "Pray without ceasing" I am convinced this is the key underlying factor to growing communities. Fast more than you do right now (I'm speaking to myself here).

HOSPITABLE

Open, welcoming food orientated communities feel good to me. I believe in the power of the circle. Hospitality is not just about sharing food it is about sharing lives. Give clothes away, buy gifts for people in your world, have parties and barbeques as much as you can. Burn certain chunks of your diary and give yourself more time to be proactive rather than reactive. We have been living in a cash rich and time poor society, make more time. This is not the season to add more to your life rather it is the season of pruning back.

LEARNED

Without a commitment to life long learning we will only ever stay as baby communities. A commitment to discipleship and growth are a necessity. Read together, listen to pod casts together, have accountability groups, do a bible study. Whatever works but remember to stretch and challenge your behaviour as well as your mind. Be disciplined both privately and corporately.

WORSHIPFUL

If it goes well give the glory to God, if it goes badly still give Him glory. We can't make anything happen we just have to be obedient. Worship as a lifestyle is such a pat phrase but if we truly understood that phrase our communities would be richer for it. I worship Him by wiping puke of a drunk! I also like singing........ Break bread often. Live thankful lives in fact "in all things give thanks."

JUST

Whatever it takes: feed the poor, sponsor a child, don't shop at Tescos, lobby an MP, start a facebook group, whatever it takes be just. Watch the planet be good stewards. Be just with your money and allow generosity to permeate your community, give, give and keep giving.

I haven't said missional because if this is all done around the principle of "We do this for those who do not yet know you" it will work, we will be missional to the core.

That will do for now......

Missional Communities 4

I never intended to do all this on missional communities, but I am enjoying it.

Apostles! Well I will give you my own perpsective on what I think about the apostolic role within missional communities.

Firstly I don't think apostles are necessarily fathers, apostles are "sent ones" Paul was a father in a number of situations but the whole idea of titles and position which some how give status and power and an unatural right for someone to manipulate another grouping is wrong.

Matthew 23: 8- 12"But you are not to be called 'Rabbi,' for you have only one Master and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth 'father,' for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. Nor are you to be called 'teacher,' for you have one Teacher, the Christ. The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted."

So when I think about the word apostle I think servant.

Romans 1: 1 "Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus...."

I have my own issues around this, where I have seen apostolic ministries basically going on a territory hunt and it has almost been about "how many churches can I gather to me to feed my ego." I have also seen them put on a pedestal and treated like superstars, not necessarily because they wanted it more because our church culture is often looking for a king!

So you end up with these extremely gifted church consultants who roam the planet, get treated like Gods and live very unaccountable lives, sadly for me that has been some of my experience of apostolic ministry. Thankfully this style of apostolic ministry is dying out.

You then have the recent Todd Bentley mess, where a band of mature christian leaders who have apparently abandoned the gift of discernment and are seeking to get a bit of the lakeland glory, set a guy apart as an apostle to the nations and get it very very wrong. This further undermines the roles of the apostolic today. Believe me despite their explanations and apologies these guys have something to answer for.

Anyway putting all that aside, I have to get over my own issues and recognise that missional communities need apostolic input

In 1 Corinthians Paul talks about laying a foundation as an expert builder, in Ephesians he talks of God's household being built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. When you read the epistles they were foundational. This is where we need apostolic input to ensure the foundations that we are building on are strong.

There has to be a humility on the part of small community leaders, they have to be willing to ask for help. If they don't ask for help or receive apostolic input they leave themselves vulnerable.

What does it look like? For me it could work in two ways

1. The person who travels in regularly from outside, keeps in regular contact, offers support, correction and training. They don't necessarily do it all themselves they can be a sign post and connector as well as a consultant. This is close to the old school method but done out of servanthood and held lightly it can be very effective.

2. I would like to see more like this one: older church leaders who have got their congregations ticking along nicely being financed by their church to go and live with small communities for 6 months and help them put some foundations in place, love and encourage the group without leading it then step back into the role mentioned above. Sent ones.

One of my concerns is that most of these new communities are so far out on the edge that they don't know who to ask for help. We also come up with the question, who appoints the apostle? especially if they are a very disconnected group...

Anyway please don't read this as a set of conclusions, just thoughts I haven't fully landed yet.

Missional Communities 3

Henri Nouwen says this of christian leadership.

"We looked in to the eyes of the young fugitive and found him inward, fatherless and convulsive. We wanted to prevent ourselves from handing him over to the enemy to be killed; we wanted instead to lead him to the centre of our village and to recognize in this coming man the redeemer of a fearful world. To do this we are challenged to be articulate, compassionate and contemplative.
Is this to much of a task? Only if we feel we have to accomplish this individually and separately. But if anything has become clear in our day, it is that leadership is a shared vocation which develops by working closely together in a community......"

I think that this is great, leadership is a shared vocation which develops by working closely together in community.

How would I see leadership in missional communities? in reality not a lot different to how I see leadership properly excercised in larger communities. It would be articulate, compassionate and contemplative and it would be relational. Leadership still has specific roles to fulfill within the guidelines of new testament teaching, leadership within small communities is entirely necessary. However we would be kidding ourselves if we don't end up seeing little kings building little kingdoms in missional communities.

Damaged leaders will bring their baggage from other churches they have been part of and try to mould new communities that reflect the opposite of their previous negative experience. Communities formed in contrast and negativity towards other communities will always be slightly warped. Leadership born out of contrast, negativity and pain can be disastrous.

I do think their is a role for apostles in the birth and formation of new communities, we need servants who bring wisdom, guidance and help to ensure that the foundations upon which we are building our communities are healthy. I am increasingly seeing a need for apostolic wisdom and servanthood in new communites because some have started building on weak and damaged foundations. Humility will be needed to admit we need apostolic help and the shape of that apostolic help will need remodeling.

An apostle would help deal with the foundational and embryonic issues I have been talking about over the last few days.

Who are the new apostles? What do they look like?

Missional Communities 2

I read this from an interveiw with the Spanish painter Joan Miró on his thoughts about surrealism:

"What counts more than the painting itself is what it exudes, what it spreads. Little matter if the painting is destroyed. Art may die, but what is important is that it spreads its seeds on the soil. Surrealism pleased me because the surrealists did not regard painting as an end. A painting should not cause concern about remaining what it is, but rather that it should produce seeds, that it spreading sowings from which other things will grow..."

I wonder if in todays culture we are more concerned with how things look than what they produce?

Take church for instance if the building of the central congregational model of church is an end in itself, we become much more concerned with how that picture looks than what it produces. Our energy, focus and time can be all about the Sunday morning show. Yet the majority of larger churches I am aware of are definitley more concerned with producing seeds and spreading those sowings so that other things will grow.

I actually think there is a greater danger that small missional communities become more concerned with the painting. Creating a beautiful picture of community becomes more important than spreading seed that grows. If you are growing a small community you need to note one word "Growing" If something is growing it won't stay the same. I am concerned that missional communities haven't properly thought through what they would like if they were successful and actually can be critical of what they may one day become.

If history is cyclical we should note that most larger churches started as small missional communities, it's just that term wasn't around when they began. Success meant growth.

I see a worrying little tendency for smaller communities to be little exclusive, sometimes intentionally other times accidentally. They can be hard to get into and aren't particularly open at the edges they appeal to certain social and educational groupings and have a distinct lack of sociological diversity. Larger groupings are definitely more socially inclusive.

“Love community and you will kill it. Love your brother and you will build it.” Deitrich Bonhoeffer. I think we have people out there who have fallen in love with the idea of community and not the idea of reaching the lost.

Or the Shane Clairborne paraphrase “If you love the vision you have for community, you will destroy community. If you love the people around you, you will create community.”

In the creation of community we have to expect growth, we have to not be overly fixated with the picture we want to paint but totally focussed on the seed we want to plant and the growth we want to nurture.

Missional Communities 1

I have palm tree in my front garden, I look at it every morning when I sit on my porch and have a coffee. Below the palm tree there are loads of little seedlings that are starting to grow.

I was just staring at the tree and the small plants growing around it and it made me think about the birth of small missional communities and their relationship to larger churches. I am talking specifically about small communities growing out of larger church communities.

Firstly I couldn't help but think, that no matter how hard they try the little seeds will always bear some of the DNA of the tree from which they were birthed.

I noticed that for the little trees to get established they need the shade of the big tree, it protects them. The little tree also receives the same nutrients and same water that the big tree receives.

This week it started to rain and I noticed that the little trees were not getting any bigger. Leading me to think that there has to come a time when they move away from the big tree or they die.

At no point do the little trees ever attack or disrespect the big tree and if the big tree stays where it is it will continue to grow and be fruitful. The only time the little trees ever threaten the big tree is when they grow to big and you have two trees competing for the same resources. At this time neither tree grows properly.

So the best thing to do is to move the little trees away from the big tree. Now I did this last year I took some of the seedlings and replanted them in a better place, with lots of room and space. However they died!

The reason they died is because I didn't support them, I just left them to grow on their own and they died. The big tree can survive through dry times because it's roots are deep the little plant just dies because it's roots are shallow, the big tree can survive windy times because it's trunk is thick the little tree blows over because it is not tied to a support, the big tree can survive animals climbing on it and peeing on it the small tree just folds and withers from weight and the toxins the big tree will bear fruit every year but the little tree will take many years to bear fruit.

So for me as I watch on and see the birth of new missional communities I see that they need much more support than the big trees. They need the support of the guys who planted and cultivated the big trees.

Two things need to happen, small communities need to recognise they need help from big communities and big communities need to actively support and help new communities. Independence will kill small communities. Recognition by big churches that they need to support small communities will produce multiple growth in a whole range of different places.

With healthy interplay and relationships being sustained between both communities, both will grow and be healthy.

Agendas

I have been thinking about agendas today and came to the conclusion that everyone has them. There is nothing the matter with agendas, what I don't like is hidden agendas.

People have agendas to raise their kids well, to earn money, to become famous, to become comfortable, to travel, to promote their event, to be happy, etc.

There are many organisations that have agendas some are clear some are a more hidden, I even think that some are deliberatley a little blurry.

Religious organisations have agendas, something to promote, a way of life to suggest. Most christian organisations have agendas so do islamic groups and other religions.

It made me think about the agenda we have for the work of 24-7ibiza, what is our agenda?

Well this is what I have been thinking about all day. Primarily it is to be like Jesus and in trying to live our lives in such a way that we reflect his teachings. Thats why I like the term "Follower of Jesus" more than "Christian". The word christian has so much baggage attached to it and maybe by how we live an act here as followers of Jesus we will help to change peoples impressions of christians. That would also be on my agenda, that the people we meet in the west end and other places would view christians in a better light after they had met or been helped by us. I see a lot of what we do as taking people a step closer to understanding the christian faith, seeing that it is about love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Hopefully by what we do, how we help and serve, people will see that this is how a follower of Jesus should be, maybe they would want to explore the possibility of walking down that path after they have encountered us, I'm happy with that agenda.

Of course I don't have all these wonderful qualities in abundant measure but I am trying. A few other things that I feel have to be on the christian agenda stuff that we mustn't shy away from: "Imperfection" "Weakness" "Questions" "Tolerance" and "Honesty"

We are not perfect and if we have an agenda that aims to present ourselves as perfect everyone will see through and no one will want it because it is a standard none of us can achieve.

From an activistic missional perspective (or at least that is the perspective I hope to be coming from) my greatest concern would be that in our present day we stick to what we are comfortable with.

Therefore a great meeting in Florida could attract people who are comfortable within the walls of existing church structures, in fact so comfortable that they can roar like Lions and shake, rattle and roll without any embarresment in a meeting, try doing that in work on a Monday!. It could lead towards an underlying reality which is "we really want revival to happen but we don't want to be doing very much!"

Whenever you read of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts, it propelled the church out into the market place. When they could have got comfortable having a great time in Jerusalem they where further dispersed to other regions. They took the in dwelling of the Holy Spirit and endeavoured to see it outpoured into the very core of society, widows were cared for, orphans were looked after, money was given to the needy and miraculous happenings took place. Most of these miracles took place out on the street.

I watched Todd Bentley last night and in all honesty thats all I watched: Todd Bentley! He was very animated about defending his position, if I was him I wouldn't bother. Just keep doing what you are doing man, it's obviously popular, don't be defensive.

Personally I am extremely uncomfortable with the whole thing, but then I am worried about expressing that uncomfortableness. I have met guys over the years who heavily criticized something and later had to say they were wrong. It's not that I am to proud to say I'm wrong I just don't want to make the mistake in the first place.

However, if this whole thing leads the church on an inward journey of seeking the blessing and not an outward journey of being the blessing, then it is wrong.