Steve was doing the first session of the conference, speaking from Acts 10. I have not heard Steve talk live, but he tall and charismatic … not in the spiritual gifts sense (although he may be that too) … but in the very engaging sense. He is a very good speaker (I was impressed just knowing that it isn’t as easy as it looks, but he is VERY good at it), speaking for well over an hour without notes, and it didn’t feel like a long time.

Quite amazingly he was saying pretty much what I have been saying over the last few months. I think he must have been reading this blog! (or perhaps I have been reading his book?).

I will put my notes from the session in the “Read More” section, but there were a few things that really struck me:

• It is good to angry at things; it is just that we often get angry at the wrong things. We should be getting angry at injustice, not at the things that go in church.
• God is at work with people, in our communities, with the poor. We need to catch up with God.
• We need to tell people a different story, that they have amazing worth and value, they are not a mistake and they do have a purpose. People are not changed by moral imperatives.
• When we go beyond our institutions and structures people still in those institutions will criticise you. “They will be carpeted by the guardians of moral purity and orthodoxy” says Steve Chalke.

It wasn’t particularly anything new, but was confirming of what I have been thinking and sensing God is speaking to me about. It is also inspiring as Steve is not just speaking about this, but doing the stuff too. They are running schools, building skate parks, working with government etc to bring about real change in society. That change can’t be solely about social justice programs, it also requires a change of heart which can be brought about by an encounter with Jesus. But the whole gospel is about bringing good news to every part of people’s lives. It is a church that cares for the poor (in the widest sense of that word), that improves peoples lives, that loves, the co-operates with God, that is out serving, loving, expressing Jesus to our communities…

Yes God! This is the kind of church I want to be part of, and I am excited what we are becoming…

Tags: Faithworks, Incarnate, Incarnate Conference 2007, Steve Chalke

Acts 10 – key story – changes Christian faith from being Jewish sect to something that will change the world.

vs 9ff – Peter is a key Christian leader – staying with Simon. Peter goes up to the roof to pray ..
BUT when he got there to pray … he got hungry and wanted to eat!
While the food was being prepared, he fell into a trance … he is the only person at the prayer meeting (he called it) and he falls asleep! Not what we often imagine when we think of Christian leaders.

This is the turning point of the church, and God uses someone who is fixated with his belly and half asleep … and even uses him in the midst of his weakness … he sees a vision of food coming down from heaven.

We of have mixed motives … so we think we shouldn’t do something. Steve Chalke (SC) had some advice once from Tony Campolo: it will take a long time to sort out your mixed motives, so you had better go out and get on with what you are supposed to be doing, and when you have retired we can sort out your mixed motives. The Kingdom of God is bigger than your mixed motives.

“Successful Christian living: three days between two crisis”. Don’t have to have it all together before we go and do… We must remember God is on our side – that is the gospel.

Peter said: “surely not” when God suggested that he could eat what had previously been unclean. Peter was really saying: “You may have lowered your standards God, but not me.” The point is that we are always trying to catch up with God.

Anger is a good thing, but we must get angry at the right things. People who gets angry at the small things just don’t see the right things to get angry about. We must get angry at the things that are worth getting angry about. We so used to get angry with drums or guitars. But we should be angry at injustice … the kids who fear their dads coming home for fear they will be beaten up or sexually abused … the mum’s who worry about their kids being destroyed by drugs …

vs. 34 – now I really understand that God accepts everyone – God doesn’t have any favourites.

Peter discovers that when he arrives at Godless Caesarea, he discovers that God is already there … and he only being asked to join in.
Everyone is made in the image of God … and no amount of sin or twistedness can stamp that out. God is at work in people

The problem is this in the church in the UK: we live in a culture that is deeply spiritual.
SC tells a great story of being on train with a reporter from a newspaper taking her to a school that Oasis is building. The reporter said angrily to SC: the problem with you Christians is that you are going to teach creationism. How is creationism going to influence your curriculum? Steve replies: Yes Gen 1 is going to hugely influence everything we do: our PE, our chemistry, our physics, our maths, every subject we do. But not because we teach 6 day creationism, but we will teach them what is true of them – who am I? Do I fit in? Am I am mistake? Is there any purpose to my life?

Jews had system of proselytisation – people had to leave their culture, there people, their way of doing thing, where they live etc – to take on the Jewish culture … out of your culture into ours…

Peter has to learn that it isn’t about coming out of Cornelius culture and coming into the Jewish culture … but he left him there.

Qu: how do we connect with God is already doing out there? How can we join in?

Poverty, from a government perspective, is always defined in economic terms. But that is not true from a Biblical perspective. Poverty is much broader – spiritual, social, emotionally, physically … Jesus comes to bring shalom (wellbeing) … good news to every level and every part of their lives.

It is good news spiritually too. People often say that if you getting into serving the poor you lose sight of the spiritual good news. But SC has found the opposite: people come to Christ as you serve the poor. Social change without spiritual change is useless. There is not external change unless there is internal change. There is no social regeneration without spiritual renewal. People are not changes by moral exhortation by a new imagination, a different story. You are made in the image of God, your life is precious, you are special.

Acts 11:2 – some believers criticised him … literally infuriated with him. The truth is that when people get with God and go beyond the institutions and structures that exist … then when they go back to those structures, they get into all kinds of trouble. “They will be carpeted by the guardians of moral purity and orthodoxy.”

What does church for those who are churched look like? For skaters? For students? For golfers?

But tomorrow (Thursday) I am off to Newcastle / Sunderland (where my wife comes from and in-laws still live there) to a conference called “Incarnate – equipping the church to serve the poor“. It is being organised by a virtual name sake, Robert Ward (well how many Rupert Ward’s do you know?) who is Anglican Vicar in Newcastle. I met him nearly 20 years ago when he came to Edinburgh CU to speak at an event I was organising; I fed him a meal in my flat (sausages in cider sauce if you are interested), so it will be interesting to see if he remembers the experience (or me for that matter!).

Anyway back to the conference, the speakers are NT Wright, Steve Chalke and Malcolm Duncan from Faithworks, and Tony Campolo. What a fantastic lineup! Tony Campolo has been a hero of mine since my early years of being a Christian (and there aren’t many people who I read their books 20 years ago, and would still want to read or listen to now!). NT Wright is increasingly becoming someone who I respect and grapple with what he is saying. And faithworks are a fantastic organisation doing some great stuff on reinventing church in the UK. And yes I am probably a Malcolm Duncan groupie!

Speaking of Malcolm, I am having lunch with him on Friday … I would love to see what help Faithworks can do help us as a local church and what a about a conference in Scotland? I am also hoping to do some live blogging each night about some of the things I am learning…

So answers below please:

1. How many Rupert Ward’s do you know?
2. How many authors / speakers from when you were first a Christian are you still reading or listening to?

Tags: Faithworks, Malcolm Duncan, Mission, Missional Church, NT Wright, Steve Chalke, Tony Campolo, Incarnate, Incarnate Conference 2007, Robert Ward