Rupert’s Blog

Yesterday, I listened to PMQ’s (Prime Minister’s Questions ), the last time that Tony Blair will take to the dispatch box, in fact probably the last time he will speak in the House of Commons. And I had a tear in my eye!

Now, before you accuse me of being a Blairite, I have to confess that I have never voted for him (despite voting for pretty much all the main parties in the different elections), although I was one of the many people who did think it was time for a change in 1997 and wanted Blair as PM.

Most of the half an hour in Parliament on Wednesday was pretty tame, until Ian Paisley stood up and mentioned Blair’s intervention in Northern Ireland, bringing two mortal enemies together to share power and bring peace. I could imagine Paisley in his pulpit rather than supposedly asking the Prime Minister a question! The Speaker seemed to sense the poignancy of the moment, and allowed Paisley some latitude in taking longer than would normally be allowed. As Paisley poured forth his praise it seemed to be moving inexorably towards a massive “BUT…”. In never came. Paisley sat down, fulsome in his praise for Blair’s contribution. It was truly moving.

When we look at Blair, I don’t think he will rank alongside Churchill or Thatcher as PM’s that truly did preside over a huge change in the cultural landscape. Iraq will also be a blot on the landscape (although for what it is worth I do believe Blair that he thought he was doing the right thing at the time, but it has been a monumental cock up in hindsight!). The economy has been pretty strong, but a the tax burden has increased for all (but mostly through stealth taxes); Education and the NHS has huge money poured in, but hasn’t brought about the desired results.

In my opinion, the “King of Spin” has been sunk by spin. So effectively did the PR machine work, that is whipped up such an expectation of success and change that it was doomed to failure from the beginning. The verse from Proverbs comes to mind: “A hope deferred makes the heart sick“. The hype and spin created such hope in the nation that now people feel let down, when in reality things have improved and lots of good has been achieved.

For all the disappointment about the dashed hopes of the last 10 years of labour power, and the sense of outrage at the war in Iraq, what Blair achieved in Northern Ireland is truly historic. It will bring Blair the desired legacy, but more importantly it will bring the people of NI the peace they have longed for.

Tags: Tony Blair, Blair, Prime Minister, Ian Paisley, Paisley, Northern Ireland, Peace

Postscript: There are a couple of very interesting and insightful articles written by Jim Wallis on Blair and Brown - I particularly recommend the Brown one. Malcom Duncan also has written a post calling on Brown to continue the good work from the last decade, and find a place for faith groups to “engage with the poor and exluded in our communities“.

I have been tagged by a couple of people (Duncan and Heidi ) on the meme that is flying around the blogosphere on “8 things about me”. I have been pretty slow in responding, partly other things going on, partly I managed to spill a whole cup of coffee on a brand new laptop (I had it for less than 2 days) which required some pretty quick remedial action, and partly I feel a little ambivalent about these tags that fly around the net.

On reflection, I appreciate being tagged, but I don’t like tagging others … so I am going to participate, but not tag others. I you wish to participate then add a comment and I will amend the post with you name…

So here goes, 8 things that you might not know about me:

1. If I had been a girl I would have been called Victoria … as it was my cousin, who was born 2 weeks later than me, was a girl (and I wasn’t!) and was called Victoria.
2. I was nearly called Maxamillion … but my parents chose Rupert instead. Lucky excape - what do you think?
3. My middle names are my two grandfathers Christian names, but are VERY unusual… the initials are V. and G. … any guesses?
4. When I was younger I wanted to play cricket for England … I got as far as playing for Suffolk Under 17s…
5. I met Jesus, or probably better to say Jesus met me while I was living in Pakistan…
6. I originally started studying maths at university, but eventually changed to do theology … apparently a reasonalby common transition!
7. I dreamed to being a barrister when I was young. Never in my wildest imagination did I think I would become a church leader!
8. My wife and I went to South Africa for honeymoon. It felt as though we were going home, despite never having been there before … we are wondering if God will ever take us back there?

So anyone else wish to go next?

Sorry for the lack of blogging the last few weeks and reading / commenting on others blogs: my bloglines have 500 unread posts, so I think I will have to do something radical!

So here is number 7 of mission and development, reproducing a paper from Steve de Gruchy that looks at integrating evangelism and social justice. So often in the evangelical stream of the Christian Church social justice or development has been seen as a secondary task of the church at best, or sometimes not something the church should be involved with that distracts us from our ‘mission’. As de Gruchy argues here, both are integral to our mission…

Participation in the missio Dei is spiritual work

The influence of Greek philosophy and Enlightenment rationality has divided the world into the so-called spiritual and physical realms. For a number of reasons that need not detain us now, the Church has absorbed this dualism, and promoted the idea that the proper work of the Church is ’spiritual work’, meaning prayer, worship, preaching, and evangelism; whereas work in the fields of ecology, economics, and politics is ‘physical work’ and therefore not its responsibility. This is perhaps the most debilitating mindset that faces the Church when it seeks to be engaged in development. Yet it is clear that this perception restricts the missio Dei to a sphere determined by human philosophy, limits our understanding of God’s work, and therefore undermines the full work of the Church.

On the contrary we assert that, because God is at work within history through the Holy Spirit, all God’s work is by definition spiritual work. Rather than being defined by human philosophical categories, the missio Dei is God’s definition of what constitutes ’spiritual work’. As we have seen, the missio Dei is about shalom, about life in all its fullness - and therefore when the Church participates in the missio Dei - when it seeks life in the world, in areas that humans define as economics, ecology, culture, and politics, it is engaged in spiritual work. When it turns away from the fullness of life, when it absconds from participating in the missio Dei, then the life and witness of the Church is being shaped not by God, but by the ‘flesh’ - and it is no longer involved in ’spiritual work’. Ironically then, matters such as prayer and worship if they are not in tune with the missio Dei, can be called un-spiritual.

My Comment: I really agree with de Gruchy that we have had a very dualistic view of spiritual and unspiritual activity - and I think he brings a great message here: whenever we participate in God’s mission we are engaged in spiritual work, whether that be prayer or caring for our environment, telling people about Jesus or working for justice in our communities.

He proactively then moves towards to corollary of this: if we do things that aren’t in line with God’s mission, even if they are activities that church is often associated with, are in fact unspiritual. My initial reaction was to go “no; you can’t say that“! But then the story of the goats and the sheep that Jesus tells in Matthews gospel comes to mind: “Depart from me … for I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink…”

This story illustrates how close the poor are to the heart of Jesus. I still think de Gruchy goes too far, but it is a healthy kick up the pants not to get stuck in our holy huddles and prayer meetings.

What do you think?

Previous posts: Mission and Development - Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.

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

As promised, here are some reflected thoughts on the Incarnate Conference I went to a couple of weeks ago. There was so much that was helpful, challenging & thought provoking, but these are some of the things I have been left with…

1. I loved the passion of people like Steve Chalke, Tony Campolo and Malcolm Duncan. They weren’t hyped. They weren’t super-spiritual. They weren’t offering cheap hope, wild prophesies, exaggerated stories or buying into the Christian personality scene. But they were intentional, focused on what they were doing, and passionate about seeing God’s good news touch all people. One of my favorite stories was one that Malcolm Duncan told of buying an extra cup of coffee every day to give to one of his fellow commuters on an early train to London. Gradually, people began to speak and talk to one another, and he had an opportunity to pray with someone because of that simple step. Love it!

2. There was a clear message that came across: missional church must have concern for the poor (in the very broadest and Biblical sense of that word). That doesn’t mean that all our efforts need to be focused on the poor, but we do need to have a focus there. I am all for our work with students or with business people or with families … but generally we are a pretty well off lot. So I would love to see something emerge that really serves the poor.

3. The church needs to have confidence in our role and place in our communities. The Christian faith community does a tremendous amount in Edinburgh and in other places. Rather than bemoaning what we don’t do, lets start celebrating what we do do, and strive to do more. We mustn’t hide our faith in Jesus. But we don’t serve our communities in order to convert people. Those two statements don’t contradict each other! And finally we are cheap service providers. All in all, I came away with a sense the church needs to be more confident in our identity and place amongst others in the charity and voluntary sector working for the betterment of people’s lives.

4. I also came away challenged that we can’t do this without a greater connection and dependence on God. When we are with broken people, giving, loving and serving, we do need that relationship with God more than ever. We need it because actually only changed hearts brings real change to people and community (and we know Jesus touches the parts that … oh how did that beer advert go?). We need it because we will burn out if we don’t.

So there are my reflections and the things that have had a lasting impact on me. I also had a great lunch with Malcolm Duncan, from Faithworks, who we are talking with to see how they can help us in our transitioning into missional church. He is Northern Irish, married to a Scottish lass, lived in Falkirk for a while, and studied theology at New College (which is where I studied)! We are hoping to get him to Edinburgh sometime to see how what kind of partnership can emerge.

If you want to catch up on all the posts, the links are:

• Session 1 - Steve Chalke
• Session 2 - NT Wright
• Session 3 - Tony Campolo
• Session 4 - Mike Royal
• Session 5 - Tony Campolo
• Session 6 - Malcolm Duncan
• Session 7 - Tony Campolo

Tags: Faithworks, Incarnate, Incarnate Conference 2007, Kingdom of God, Malcolm Duncan, Mike Royal, Missio Dei, Missional Church, NT Wright, Steve Chalke, Tony Campolo

I am reproducing a paper by Steve de Gruchy from the Micah Network. We are exploring how we can integrate mission and social action (or as de Gruchy calls it, ‘development’) which has been separated from each other through the historic separation of the evangelicals and liberals.

I have given a bit of explanation to this series in post 1 and also in post 5. We have looked at Jesus inaugurating the Kingdom (part 3), which could be described as bringing shalom (part 2). Although we see this in part, it also hidden, slowly working its influence in our society (part 4). The Church’s task is participates in God’s mission of bringing Shalom to the world. Now we look at how the church does that:

The Church’s participation in the missio Dei is of necessity inclusive and ecumenical.

Because God calls the Church into existence for the task of shalom, the Church can therefore never be an end in itself. It is not the kingdom of God, but it bears witness to the kingdom. In many ways this is not something the Church does, but it is what the Church is. For it is the sign community of the coming kingdom and this means that in its life and witness, it presents to the world what the kingdom will look like. It is thus the place in which shalom and the life that conquers death is found. Because the Church exists in history, and is thus subject to the experience of sin, this is, sadly, not always the case; yet it remains as a crucial calling of the Church to bear witness to God’s love and justice in its own life and witness.

Now because shalom is the way of God in the world, the way in which the embrace of the Trinity is extended to the world, so the community of believers understands that they have been embraced by God in an act of grace. Because God embraces the world, because shalom is the experience of right relationships with all creation, and because the Church is a sign of the coming kingdom, so the community of faith is a welcoming and inclusive community. No-one is excluded, because no-one can join due to their own efforts, status or origins. Because of God’s particular concern for the poor - those who suffer in the absence of shalom - the Church is especially a community in which the poor belong and participate. A Church that is built upon national, ethnic, class, racial or other exclusive characteristics, loses the right to be called the Church. The ecumenical nature of the Church is thus of the very essence of the Church that is
faithful to the missio Dei.

My Comment: Well, de Gruchy is going against the flow here. We live in the age of youth churches, student churches, churches in night-clubs, skate-parks, businesses, old-people’s homes, white churches, black churches, churches for South Africans, middle class people or professionals. But that isn’t church according to de Gruchy. I agree, I think church should be something that expresses the Kingdom to the world, expressing the unity that exists in the midst of our diversity and differences.

In a world that is becoming increasingly tribal, the church should be the one organisation that bucks that trend. Perhaps the biggest cultural difference existed in the early days of the church: the Jews and the Gentiles just didn’t mix! But in the church, they were to come together, the dividing wall (Eph 2) was to be destroyed and God was creating His Body, to carry on the mission of Jesus, on earth.

So, what about contextualisation? Should we be creating different types of churches to reach out to different groups of people? Or will churches naturally swerve towards a particular culture, and become mono-culture? Or should we constantly work towards creating intergenerational, multi ethnic, multi racial, multi class community that demonstrates the Kingdom to a watching world?

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

I have posted at Jason Clark’s site this morning, on “New Earth or Renewed Earth“. I have blogged on this before, most recently here, but also an older post about “New Earth and Carbon Emissions“.

Go and check it out!

A review of the incarnate conference to follow next week.

Thanks to everyone who wished me a happy facebook birthday (or through other mediums … emails, texts, or even a few cards!). I had a great day, with many renditions of “happy birthday” from the boys. Toby (our 3 and half year old) was so pleased with himsef: he gave me a jigger … he knows how we love a gin n’ tonic!

I am a day late on posting the next installment of the paper on integrating mission and development, but yesterday I was enjoying a bit of time off after the Incarnate conference. So here is part 5.

Many years ago there was a divide in the church between evangelism and social action (in this paper this is called development). Over the last few years, evangelicals have tried to add a social action element to their evangelism, but often it has not really been clear how that fits into the mission of the church or it has been a thinly veiled excuse to see people ’saved’. Neither are good enough, in my opinion. So here we looking at how we see both proclamation of the gospel and social action as integral to the mission of the church.

We have looked at the consistent way that God acts in the world according to his nature (part 1), this action could be described at Shalom (part 2) which is incarnate in Jesus (part 3) but still remains somewhat hidden (part 4). Now we look at the church’s role in participating in this mission:

The task of the Church in the world is to participate in the missio Dei

While the reign of God is hidden in history, God has not left Godself without a witness. In the power of the Holy Spirit, God has called into being a fellowship of those who have been touched by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, who believe that he is the life of the world, who want both to experience and to manifest shalom in their lives, and who long to be agents of God’s shalom. This community of faith - the Church - thus has no other purpose than to bear witness to the ongoing work of God in the world, and in this way the task of the Church in the world is faithful participation in the missio Dei.

As we have seen, the missio Dei concerns the work of shalom - peace with justice; what Jesus calls ‘abundant life’. It is an all-encompassing vision that includes enjoying good relationships with God, with creation, with all humans and with oneself. It is a vision of life in all its fullness, and it is a calling for the Church to be involved in caring for life. In faithful witness to the God of life, the Church is thus called upon to be involved in the works of life - healing, restoring, nurturing, caring - and - in the name of the God of life, whose desire is shalom - to challenge the forces of death: injustice, violence, rape, pollution, poverty, slavery, racism. Thus while the Church has very often not lived up to its high calling in Jesus Christ, where it has, its life has been characterised by integral mission with the works of caritas, diakonia, prophetic challenge and kononia.

My Comment: I love it! I am beginning to see a vast mission that God has for His people. It encompasses telling people about Jesus, inviting them to the party, telling of what God has done in our lives. It also encompasses bringing justice, caring for the environment, bringing peace, hope, nurture … and all the things that de Gruchy says in this part of his paper. All of this is spiritual. All is God’s mission in this world.

Tags: Development, Environment, Evangelism, Kingdom, Kingdom of God, Poverty, Social Development

Once again, I love Tony Campolo. There are no fluffy bunny messages with him. I am glad that I have a reasonable experience of God’s kindness and grace, otherwise I think I could get a bit driven or motivated by guilt being around him too long. But he is challenging the church out of its comfort zone, to love and serve the poor. Proactively and challengingly, he says that our nice worship songs are a noise to God, is we have no concern for the poor. Come on church … GO!

He was talking on Sabbath and Jubilee: how Jesus came to announce a year of Jubilee; how we are to be a Jubilee people. Notes are once again in the “read more” section.

Perhaps the highlight for me of the talk was the distinction he made between power and authority. He thinks the church has made a huge mistake (is he talking of the US or it true of the UK too?) in thinking that we influence through political power … just by getting “born again” Christian in places of political power we will alleviate poverty, injustice and war! How ironic is that?

But Jesus didn’t come in political power, but he did have authority. Authority comes when we love and serve the poor. The world will not listen if we flex our political muscles, but they will listen we faithfully serve the poor. [NB. he isn’t saying that Christians shouldn’t go into politics…]

It was good stuff. I will try to write a reflection on the whole conference in a few days when I have had a chance to reflect a bit more … but this is the last set of notes. If you have got this far … well done! Just one final comment in closing: I think I have come away with a clear direction as we think about “missional church” … there must be something in there that is serving and enabling the poor. Yes, let’s work with students, or in the business world, or with Mum’s and Toddlers … but lets also find ways of loving and serving the poor in Edinburgh.

And a question that Malcolm Duncan asked me: Who are the most disenfranchised, marginalised and excluded group in Edinburgh?

Tags: Incarnate, Incarnate Conference 2007, Poverty, Tony Campolo, Jubilee, Year of Jubilee

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Malcolm Duncan doesn’t skirt around issues. I guess he gets a lot of flak. But sometimes you just have to take the flak to move things forward, and I respect the way that he does that. I am rather like that too, so it is good to find someone else doing it too, and taking some of the heat!

Malcolm said a lot of good things, and one or two things that are more controversial. He talked about finding the most marginalised people in our communites and defending & standing up for them … Muslim, asylum seekers, gay … love them, listen to them, serve them, stand up for them. He is clear that you don’t have to agree with them, but I guess some will get pretty steamed up about his suggestion.

My take on it is that we are very dualistic in our thinking. Just because there is some part of people’s lives that we don’t agree with, we write them off as being wrong, deluded, sinners etc. They have nothing to teach us or have no value, so we think. Just think about books: would you read a book differently if you knew it was written by someone from a different religion? or they were living with their partner and not married? or was actively gay? Should we not be reading all books the same? Listening, learning, evaluating? Taking the good, and leaving behind the rest?

But I don’t think we need to be so defensive. We must remain distinctive … yes there is a difference between Christians and Muslims - our faith in Jesus is central and core to our identity as Christians. Just because I listen, learn from, and love Muslims doesn’t diminish my faith in Christ and His centrality. I wonder if we get threatened by this stuff because we pretty insecure about our identity as Christians?

OK … I am putting myself in the line of fire again …

Anyway, there was lot of other good stuff that he talked about. Notes once again in the “read more” section. I particularly enjoyed the way he started with some liturgy and “lectio divina” (imaginative reading of the Bible) to remind us and open us to God speaking when listening to someone teaching, and then led us in some more “chanting” or sung response as a confession to God of how we haven’t thought, listened, seen, or spoken with the heart of God.

Tags: Faithworks, Gospel, Incarnate, Incarnate Conference 2007, Malcolm Duncan

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I still love Tony Campolo. But he is pretty challenging, so I am writing this feeling a little uncomfortable, wondering what my limits are in following Jesus.

Tony had a student who got infected by his passion for the poor. So this student gave away all he owned, and went to live among the poor. His Dad was pretty mad, and came to see Tony, berating him for the influence he had on his son. The Dad said: “I am happy to be a Christian, up to a point”. And there is the rub, we all follow Jesus up to a point.

At his school, there was a kid called Roger, who was homosexual. All the kids picked on him and made his life miserable. One day the kids pushed Roger into the corner of the showers, and urinated on him. Roger went home that night and hung himself. Campolo said: “I realised I wasn’t a Christian that day. If I had been, I would have stood up for Roger, been a friend of his, and taken all the criticism for that.”

Our calling is to stand up for those who are marginalised, oppressed, the outcasts, the poor. Will we do that? What is my point? Or yours?

Notes in the “read the rest” section… but they may not make much sense. I just enjoyed (mmm, perhaps not the right word?) listening tonight, rather than taking good notes or thinking too deeply about what Tony was saying.

Tags: Incarnate, Incarnate Conference 2007, Missional Church, Poverty, Tony Campolo

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