Rupert’s Blog

This is an epic. I will stop soon. But not yet. Part 8 of missional church (although confusingly Part 7 was provocatively called: “The Apostles didn’t do evangelism“). Here are Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. For those who are thinking: when is he going to blog on something else? … I promise … soon … sometime!

So here, in part 8, is a resume of what I was preaching last Sunday at church … you should be able to get the MP3 here in a couple of days should you wish to listen.

I am asking the question: if we are to participate in God’s mission, what exactly IS God’s mission? It seems important to understand, so that we don’t get active doing something when God is doing something completely different. We are participating in God’s story … Act 5 according to NT Wright (I blogged about that here). Acts 1 - 4 are found in the Biblical narrative (creation, fall, Israel, Jesus & early church), and I like to think that we also have Act 6 … the end of the story, the end of history, the return of Christ, the beginnings of a new era.

So, I thought, why don’t we look at how the story ends? I know it really spoils the story when you do that, but it does help in understanding what the story is all about. So bravely I stepped up to the plate to look at Rev 21: 1-5. Brave or foolish … you decide …

My main point is that often in the evangelical church, we have narrowed the gospel to make in about a ticket to heaven. We have made it spiritual (all about getting to heaven); vertical (heaven is somewhere ‘up there’ but not here and now on earth); future (not now) and individual (my response to what God has done for me). But that doesn’t seem to fit in with God’s plan at the end of the story … or at least not the whole story …

Tags: Community Church Edinburgh, Emerging Church, Evangelism, Gospel, Kingdom, Kingdom of God, Michael Goheen, Missio Dei, Mission, Missional Church, New Heaven and New Earth, NT Wright, Preaching, Revelation

 So my 4 points were …
Read the rest of this entry »

Each Sunday, I am posting one (of 10) theological thesis, from a paper written by Steve de Gruchy, about how mission and social justice or development can be integrated. Often in the church it has been an “either / or”, but it seems to me that God moving among his church so we understand that His mission encompasses both, as we grapple with the Scriptures concerning God’s mission.

We have looked the nature of God activity being consistent with who He is (Part 1) and (in Part 2) how God is at work in the world to bring Shalom (”peace with justice”). Part 3 looks at role of Jesus in bringing “shalom”.

Jesus incarnates God’s work of shalom

The Scriptures tell us that this life of shalom was more often than not absent from the experience of the people of the earth - due to a falling away from God, creation and our neighbours through sin. The life created by God, too easily became sickness, suffering, oppression and death. The missio Dei involved restoring this shalom through the exodus of the slaves in Egypt, the granting of the Law at Sinai, the prophetic call for justice, and the restoration after Exile. But the workers in the vineyard did not heed these messengers. And so - as the parable has it (Luke 20.9- 16) - the owner sent his son. To understand Jesus within the sweep of what God is doing in history, and to recognise the links between the Old and New Testaments, we can simply state that as the incarnation of God, Jesus incarnates God’s work of shalom. This is what it means to call him “the way, the truth and the life”. The kingdom of God which he proclaimed and incarnated, is the kingdom in which this shalom is known and experienced.

With this in mind it is not difficult to see how the birth, ministry, proclamation, life, death and resurrection of Jesus is a profound proclamation of shalom. Christ is the peace of God, the bread of life, he who promises abundant life. The inner embrace of the Trinity finds expression in the physical embrace of Jesus. He goes to the lost and the outcasts, the marginalized and the excluded, and invites sinners, prostitutes, tax collectors, children, lepers and political rebels to his table. He brings healing to the sick, food to the hungry, sight to the blind, hope to the despairing, good news to the poor, life to the dead. In a system in which religious control legitimated this exclusion, Jesus undermines the whole judicial system, causes a religious and political scandal and hastens his own demise by proclaiming the forgiveness of sins in the name of the
God of life. Jesus makes clear what other parts of scripture testify, that God has a particular concern for those who suffer in the absence of shalom, those whom we call the poor.

My Comment: I am grappling to understand “shalom” … a Hebrew word that means so much more than peace … perhaps “wellbeing” or “wholeness” might sum it up better. It seems elusive, but significant. It is about my life now, and my hope for the future. What I am beginning to see is the scope of the gospel is far wider than I have previously understood. That is what I love about these couple of paragraphs: the good news of the Kingdom is all about alleviating “sickness, suffering, oppression and death“.

Tags: Development, Gospel, Kingdom, Kingdom of God, Missio Dei, Mission, Missional Church, Social Development

Bob beat me to it … I was planning on posting about emails in my inbox, and Bob got there first. Darn it!

Oh well, I still want to brag a bit: Thursday morning, I had 165 emails in my inbox. The number had been gradually creeping up over the last year or so: around 40 last summer, to about 60 towards the end of last year, upto about 100 for most of this year, but upto 165 this week. I was getting lost; emails not answered or forgotten about in the mass of nagging mails that remained in my inbox. I felt a bit better when I discovered a friend had over 3000 emails in his inbox! But it still didn’t help my huge inbox.

So action was required. I was meant to be doing an essay or two (which was probably an incentive to ANYTHING else!), and so I was ruthless. Some deleted, some moved to other folders, some added to a talk list (which has grown considerably!).

I have been trying to use a system for emails (but failing miserably):

• If I can action an email in 2 minutes, do so immediately
• If waiting for a response, put into “WaitingFor” folder
• If actioned and dealt with, file in “Reference” folder
• If can’t action in 2 minutes, add to task list, and put in “SomeDay” folder

Trouble is “SomeDay” never happened, “WaitingFor” got so many emails in I couldn’t keep track of, and curiosity killed the cat and I opened emails without having time to action any of them.

And so 165 (all crucial of course) ended up in my inbox on Thursday morning, and goodness knows how many in “SomeDay” and “WaitingFor”.

But now I have 3! Two require a bit of thought before responding, and one has about 20 attachments that I need to open and file, and I just ran out of inclination. Can I keep it down? We’ll see, but at least I am not fighting a losing battle any more.

So how many emails do you have in your inbox?

“Hell on Earth”. That was the how my hairdresser described life for many people and her take on faith, as we were discussing spiritual matters a while ago. And hearing something of her story, I can understand why she viewed it that way.

That conversation came back to me earlier this week, as I was listening to a radio phone-in program. The discussion had been sparked by a statement by Margaret Hodge, a government minister, who said that in the current shortage of houses, British families should be given priority over economic migrants. What interested me wasn’t the rights or wrongs of Ms. Hodge’s statement (which has been met by a fair amount of scorn), but over a statement made by one of the “experts” on the program.

The conversation was tracking along the need for more housing and the rapidly increasing number of households. In that context, the “expert” said that the percentage of single occupancy homes had increased from 17% to 30% in the last few years (I didn’t catch the time frame, so struck was I by the huge increase!).

Having dug around, looking for some statistics (I couldn’t find any statistics for Scotland, but here’s some for England) I have found some fascinating projections for the number of households over the next 20 years:

• Extra number of houses needed = 5 million (from 21 to 26 million)
• Current percentage of one person households = 30%
• Projected percentage of one person household in 2026 = 40%
• In 2026, the number of single person household will be larger than all other types of households (eg. married couples, single parents, co-habiting couples, other multi-person households).
• Single person households increase by far the biggest amount (both numerical and percentage) over the next 20 years, with only the number of households with married couples decreasing.

Part of this increase is longer life expectancy, meaning that an increasing number of people are living beyond their partners. So a third of these one person households will be over the age of 65 years. But, it seems to me, that part of this increase is the breakdown of relationships & families, and the inability of people to live together. The largest increase in one person households are between 55-64 years old … just when the children leave home, and families can break up.

I am sure it is more nuanced than I have portrayed here, but it did get me thinking about CS Lewis’ book, “The Great Divorce“. He described hell as people living in a grey city, able to build houses as they wanted, and totally unable to live together. They argued, and simply moved away from those they lived around. An endless city of one person living in a house on their own, consumed by their selfishness and self-centredness.

Maybe my hairdresser was right: selfishness rampant, and “hell on earth” … or at least seed’s of hell …

Tags: Housing, Hell, CS Lewis, The Great Divorce

Today, at church, we had Fred Drummond, General Secretary of EA in Scotland speaking on “Missional Church”. He was a church of Scotland minister in Perth that completely transformed his church from a city centre church that attracted Christians because it was cooler than the other church next door, to a missional church in a poor housing scheme in Perth.

One of the key things he said right at the end, almost as a throw away comment, what the church as we know it is dying, but a church that we can’t even dream about will take its place. A church that cares for and offers hope to those who are suffering or in pain … who are living in the valley.

You should be able to download the MP3 here in a few days (probably Wednesday) if you missed it.

If you were there (or can be bothered to listen to the MP3) I would be really interested in hearing your views on what he said.

What did you think? Were you inspired? Challenged? Did you agree or disagree with him?

Tags: Community Church Edinburgh, Mission, Missional Church, Fred Drummond, Evangelical Alliance

“What does the Lord require of you? To act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8

So here’s part 2 of a paper that I am reproducing every Sunday over 10 weeks. For the introduction to the paper, and for part 1, see this post. Suffice to say, that we looking at integrating mission and development (or social justice) by grappling with 10 theological thesis. Don’t be put off that word (we all do theology even if we don’t think we do!) - it is really looking at how we understand who God is (we looked at that last time) and what in the world He is doing!

God’s work in the world - missio Dei - is the work of Shalom.

We believe that God is at work in the world. God did not create the world and then abandon it, but rather chooses it as the arena for God’s work. We understand that the love of God that is known within the Trinity reaches out to embrace the cosmos in creation, and particularly to draw all the living creatures of our earth into a covenant of love and justice with God and themselves. Now this work of love and embrace we understand to be God’s mission - the missio Dei - and while it is witnessed to in many part of Scripture, such as the covenant with Noah and the Law of Moses, it finds its most profound expression in the vision of shalom that is found throughout the Bible.

Shalom is often translated as ‘peace’, but this is a very thin translation. For shalom is not just the absence of hostility, but ‘peace with justice’. It means dwelling at peace in all our relationships at four levels: with God, with creation, with other people, and with ourselves. And this being at peace is not just at an external uninvolved level, for it really involves an enjoyment of one’s relationship. It means to delight in serving God, to delight in our physical surroundings, to delight in community, and to delight in what it means for oneself to be a child of God. It is clear that at the heart of shalom is the life that God has brought into being, and the desire to ensure that it is respected, nurtured and enjoyed. God’s work in the world, the missio Dei, is therefore about creating and sustaining, and restoring it when it is absent. It is an integrated and holistic mission.

My Comment: Well, I could say that I have posted about this before. I could say that I have actually said it again here. But I won’t. I will content myself, in saying “I wholeheartedly agree”. I do think we need to widen our understanding of the scope of the good news to the whole cosmos. I think God’s plan is about the restoration of the whole of creation: animals, birds, fish, weather, environment, the earth, cities, nations, and of course individual people. But we have traditionally focused on the individual and their need for ’salvation’ and lost sight of this wider, broader, bigger focus that is found here. And I think Shalom is a good word … you could restoration maybe … I fact I have used that for a long time, but now I think Shalom more completely sums up this restoration and redemption of all creation.

I find the levels of shalom presented here really helpful. It broadens my understanding of what God is doing and what He is wanting. All are needed, not just a focus on shalom in our relationship with God. The two that are not usually taught in our churches are dwelling in shalom with creation and myself. Am I at peace with my surroundings? with the environment? with all that I have? with my job? money? weather? And am I am peace with myself? Do I like myself? Or am I disappointed with myself? Or ashamed? Or hidden?

What do you think?

Tags: Development, Emerging Church, Gospel, Micah Network, Missio Dei, Mission, Missional Church, Social Development

This is another part of my “What is missional church” series … I’ve done so many now, but I think this is number 7! See parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

There has been so good comments and discussion on a post about a church day we had on our “vision” or direction that we are travelling in. There have been some great comments asking: as we serve or bless people should we talk about Jesus? So here are some thoughts, to provoke some discussion, on our role …

Nowhere does the NT describe the apostles of Jesus, or the Christians in the books of Acts doing evangelism. Not a reference. Zip. Nothing. Don’t believe me? Do a word search for “evangelism” in the NIV … or the New Living, KJV, New KJV, Living Bible, NASB … I got bored after that … But tell me if I am wrong …

OK I am being a bit provocative, but let me explain a bit …

What the apostles did do according the NIV is “preach the gospel” … this is a Greek word “evangelizo” which is where we get our word evangelise. But this word is actually means: “to bring a message of good news”.

Lets imagine someone is throwing a party: a fabulous 5 course sit down meal, fine wine, great music, and excellent conversation. And you are invited. One problem, you don’t know about the party yet … so someone invites you to the party, they tell you where it is being held, when, and how to get there. They are “evangelizo” … bringing you some good news of party.

Jesus tells a parable about a wedding banquet a King was holding for his son. Those who had been invited wouldn’t come, so the King sent his servants to the street corners to “invite to the banquet anyone who would come” (Mt 22:1-10). That’s “evangelizo“.

And that just seems to different from “preaching the gospel” …

The other thing the apostles did was to “witness”. For me that also doesn’t always have positive connotations, but really what they were doing was telling people what they “have seen and heard” (Act 22:15). They were to talk about Jesus, what they had seen him do or heard him say. There were to bear witness of what happened, what they saw, their experience of Jesus. Now what does that mean for us?

I think that means that we talk about Jesus has done for us. We tell stories of what Jesus means to us, stories of the change He has brought in us, of how important Jesus is to us, of what has said and done in us. We are witnesses to God’s activity in our lives and we tell others what we see and hear.

So here’s what I think we do: we invite people to best the party ever, and we tell stories about what Jesus has done in us. And this is part of being missional church.

What do you think?

Tags: Emerging Church, Evangelism, Kingdom of God, Missio Dei, Mission, Missional Church, Preaching

I have been sent a fascinating “paper” by Neil, who thought I might be interested in it following on from the posts on Missional Church, (which I intend to finish this week!). He was right! The paper is from the Micah Network, which draws its name and inspiration from Micah 6:8

“What does the Lord require of you? To act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with your God.”

The paper gives 10 theological theses on why the church should be involved in the work of social development as part of our mission, defining social development as the “social, cultural, religious, ecological, economic and political activities that consciously seek to enhance the self-identified livelihoods of the poor.”

It is actually a pretty easy read & not too theological (for those of you who get frightened by such words). But it does clearly and excitingly portray the mission of God, and our co-operation with Him in this world we live in. Over the next 10 weeks, each Sunday, I intend to post one of the theological points made in the paper. If you are really impatient, you can download it here!

So Part 1 here …

God’s being and God’s acts are congruent

As a Christian undertaking, development finds its primary theological grounding in our understanding of God. And in doing so, we recognise that God’s being and God’s acts are congruent. In other words, there is a direct relationship between who God is in God-self, and how God relates to the world. This is no philosophical argument, but a statement of faith grounded in the scriptures, most simply in the recognition that because God is love, God acts in loving ways. For Christians, God is the Trinity - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is a profound conviction that is a statement both about God’s being and about God’s acts. In God’s being, God is a community of love, respect and equity. God is not a solitary person, but a relationship of dialogue and mutuality, in which we understand the Father, Son and Spirit all to have their specific work, but who are nevertheless one.

Now, if this is how we understand God’s very being, then we have a clear picture of how God will act in the world. Our faith is simply this: that God cannot act contrary to who God is. If God is community, dialogue, mutuality, equity - then this is how God is at work in the world.

My comment: I think this is a fundamental understanding. It seems to me that the so much disagreement in the church can be traced back to how we see God, and therefore how we see him acting in the world. God can only act consistently with who He is. I think the ultimate description of God is LOVE (other words are descriptors of what it means for God to be LOVE) and this is how I am now expecting and looking for God to be active in the world.

How do you see God? How do you see God at work in your life and in the world? Is there consistency or inconsistency between these two questions?

Tags: Missio Dei, Missional Church, Micah Network, Development, Mission, Social Development

It’s been a busy week. Good but busy. Been meeting people; a meeting of other church leaders in Edinburgh with CU leaders; preparing a brochure on our church building project for an offering we taking towards the costs in a couple of weeks time; further planning of a counselling service we are moving towards setting up; catching up on emails; responding to comments on the vision and community day we had last Saturday (keep them coming … I would love to hear your thoughts coming out of the day we had together).

So blogging has taken a bit of backseat this week. But here are a few random things at the end of the week:

1. I have joined facebook, partly at Paul’s initiation, but also at a student team meeting we were talking about facebook the other day. It is a social networking venture, but a great way of connecting with people. I feel a bit old, but good to see my mate Lynn Swart there too, so not the oldest! (sorry Lynn!). If you want me as your friend then you can invite me to be your friend by adding my email address (rupert dot ward AT blueyonder dot co dot uk) here … and hey presto we are connected (assuming of course that I agree to your invitation.

2. Paul also tagged me a few weeks ago for being a “thinking blogger” … very kind of him, but I think that was only because the usual suspects had already been tagged! But the rules, I should have mentioned some bloggers who get me thinking, but I would probably nominate the usual people too! Suffice to say that Paul himself, Alastair, Duncan, Paul Ede, Tony, Emergent Voyageurs, Jesus Creed would have pretty high up on my list. But now I am thinking that maybe I have just chosen my friends and one or two others, so what about: Be the Revolution, Swinging from the vine, Naked Pastor, SmuloSpace, Next Reformation, BobBlog … Now I remember why I didn’t respond to Paul at the time. Just too many to choose (and I wouldn’t want to leave anyone out) so just check my links …

3. And for a bit of light weekend relief, thanks to toggietales, I have discovered that a little favourite cartoon of mine is available free online: “God, the devil and Bob “. It is splendidly irreverent, but funny and perceptive at the same time. Check it out (if you aren’t easily offended!).

Tags: Thinking Bloggers, Lynn Swart, Facebook, Paul Mayers, God the devil and bob

As someone relatively new to blogging, it was an honour to be asked to be a guest blogger on Jason Clark’s blog. Jason leads a Vineyard Church in SW London and co-ordinates emergent in the UK. His blog generates some lively discussion on some fascinating and interesting, sometimes quite theological, topics.

So what did I blog on? Well something very simple actually. I have been intrigued recently, but the images we use for change, and how that affects the way we see that change. If we see some theological reflection as “watering down” we inevitably will see that reflection as negative; but “off the map” will produce a more positive response (a journey of exploration and discovery).

Check out the whole article here, and let me know what you think.

Tags: Jason Clark, Change, Emerging Church