Well it has been the longest silence from this blog since it began in 2005. It's over two months since my last post, and during this time the question's been buzzing around my head as to whether I close the blog or carry on. Interestingly, two blogs I read periodically have recently decided to call it a day, and another hinted at thinking about it.

Here's some of my musings on blogging - the pros and cons - in no particular order. I don't think my blog always measures up by the way, hence the musings. If anyone still reads this blog after such a long period of radio silence, tell me what you think.

When is Blogging Good?

1. When it is used to be an example - a way of sharing your life with others

In the bible Paul is big on being an example to others. This is something to pursue both in terms of modelling the Christian life to others, and in having others you look up to. Often we are coy about that in British culture, but is a biblical theme. Of course the primary application of this is within a gospel community - a church - where there is life-on-life involvement, but in a secondary sense, a blog can function in this way. Talk about the things that interest you, that inspire you, that God is doing in you, even the things that are struggles for you. To the extent that a blogger is being open and honest, it can be a great example to others. And of course the sharing of life can include prayer requests, news or just your sense of humour!

2. When it is a discipline to serious thought and reflection

I think it is Tim Challies who talks about the discipline of blogging, and his determination to post something every day. When asked whether that was obsessive (and it possibly is!) his wife replied that before Tim started blogging he was not particularly disciplined at all, and how blogging something each day had helped to transform him in so many ways. I am putting this up from memory, so I hope I have remembered that correctly! Either way, it is true that blogging can be a helpful way of disciplining yourself to reflection just as a personal journal can. But others get to benefit from it too. Think about the big issues. Comment on issues of the day. Reflect on life.

3. When it glorifies God rather than you

This does not mean that you cannot mention yourself, but the angle should always be Godward. Talk about him, encourage others to follow him, share things you are learning about him, and make him great. Even in blogging about things that seem incidental or more mundane, God can be honoured as the one behind family life, hobbies, a good day out, funny observations about life and more. As the giver of all good things, he is honoured by a life lived well and with passion. But whatever else you do, use your blogging resources to make much of God's name.

4. When you promote and encourage what is good and link to it

There is great scope on a blog to spur others in thinking about good things. This is something that Dave Bish's blog is especially good at. The Blue Fish is often an inspiring read, not just in terms of the quality of Dave's own posts, but in terms of the helpful material he links to. He really does encourage what's good and frequently sets you off on a trail of uplifting reading.

When you are aware of websites and resources that encourage you, pointing others towards them is a worthy use of a blog.

5. When you make connections and new friendships emerge

There are people that I have only come to know through blogging. In some cases I have yet to meet them in person, but in other cases we have now met up and even worked together in small ways. Blogging can be a means to some great networking!

6. When you have something worthy to say but are not about to publish a book

One of the things blogging has allowed people to do is by-pass the restrictions of the traditional published media. There are many people who have worthwhile things to say, and blogs are a great free outlet for that. It does of course mean there is lots of trash out there too, and substantiating what is true is not always straightforward, but the derestriction of publishing enables many to write and speak out for good.

When is Blogging Bad and Ugly?

1. When it's all about me and becomes self-promoting

Self self self.... bad blogging promotes the idea that I am the most important person in the world and that everyone is interested in what I am doing, as of course do the other social networking crazes, which I confess to being a part of! This Venn diagram shows something of that in a very witty way. But we must be careful not to judge motives. For example, many people do use things like facebook effectively as a way of having an ongoing conversation and banter with a lot of scattered friends, and in that, it can be completely genuine. Nevertheless it is always in our hearts to want to look good and have people honour and praise us and blogging (or other e-media) can feed this. 'Look at me and all the things I do, all the things I know, all the people I know... praise me praise me...'. We don't write that in so many words, but you can sometimes hear it between the lines. Possibly even worse is when it becomes all about image and what is promoted is a fake version of you. Be real but be humble. It's not all about you.

2. When I am always comparing myself with others (as better or worse!)

Because there is so much on the blogosphere, we can easily go down the line of comparing ourselves with others, and either end up being quite disparaging of those we consider to be less well informed, less able as writers, less theologically aware/balanced/educated etc etc, or on the other hand, feeling inadequate because there are others who know so much more than we do. It can even go down the route of envy, as we think others have more interesting lives, know more famous people, are in what we think of as the 'in' crowd, and have more readers. At this point a statcounter can be lethal!

3. When it becomes a forum for arguments, and thus a bad witness

Some of the things I have read on Christian blogs make me cringe! Not so much because of the quality or content of writing, but rather the attitude that is displayed. You wonder whether it has ever occurred to the writers that all kinds of people will be reading their posts. Blogs can be a great place for debate, of course, but sometimes you find yourself thinking bloggers can't stand other! If we rip into one another online, lets remember, its not essentially any different to having a slanging match with your Christian brother or sister in the middle of the street, right before a watching world. It is the WORLD-WIDE-WEB after all!

4. When principles of confidentiality and privacy are breached

Although it is very similar, a blog cannot be the same as your personal journal. Again, we have to remember that it is online for anyone to read. You don't broadcast the fine details of conversations someone thought they were having just with you. You don't blog things that have been told to you in confidence. It's not the place to vent your spleen about people at work. It is a public website.

5. When the online world becomes a substitute for the real world

The internet can be addictive and the sheer amount of good blogs, resources, messages, and journals online could take forever to keep up with. This is something especially to be remembered if you are married and have a family - are you staring at the computer, reading this, and 20 other blogs, when maybe you should be sat down having a coffee with your wife and talking to her about her day, her life, her hopes, her fears, her spiritual growth? Or should you shut the laptop and go play with your children, or put them to bed, read them a story, or give them some of your attention. To paraphrase a well-known quote, 'noone on his deathbed will say, "I wish I had spent more time online"'. We should be investing in real lives around us as a priority, rather than losing ourselves for hours in an online world. Go and spend some time with your family. Go and spend some time out in your community. Go and chat to some of the regulars in your local pub. Ask your neighbour round for a coffee. Go and volunteer for some community project, or start one. Don't get addicted to blogs and blogging.

6. When it feeds the culture of Christian Celebrity

People have always been fans of certain authors or preachers, but blogging, and the internet in general, seems to have accentuated the cult of the celebrity Christian preacher-rockstar. It is good to have heroes and people to look up to as good examples, (encouraged by chapters like Hebrews 11 and Paul's call to follow his example, mentioned earlier) but we have an increasing phenomenon of people who are fans of certain preachers and writers. They are on tour all the time, and we are their groupies. This is a difficult one to get right, because yes, I love to hear certain people speak, and I find them inspiring to listen to, and they're often good models in many respects, but that healthy respect easily slides into hero worship. We put them on a pedestal, and almost think they are right on all they pronounce on. We can even get into online fights on behalf of our hero against someone else's hero. This celeb cult can even lead to a desire to become one of the celebs, trying to associate with them to get some reflected glory, and trying to get lots of followers for ourselves. David Jackman quotes JI Packer as saying that the danger in Christian ministry is that your people will want to put you on a pedestal, and that you will want to let them. Bad blogging plays right into this trap, either in putting people on pedestals, or trying to climb up on one ourselves. But would be something for a post all on its own methinks!

So blogging is both a great thing, and a dangerous thing. I expect there are other things I could have listed too on both sides, and possibly some of my comments are a little wide of the mark, but I'm off to play with my kids a bit rather than re-read my post and re-editing it, checking it through blah blah. What do you think?

Arsene Wenger is one of the Premier League's best managers. He has done great things at Arsenal over the years, and is now the second longest serving manager in the league (after some grumpy Scottish bloke). Interesting then, to hear him speak on the eve of his 60th birthday, of what football means to him:

"I have never had a day when I think I could live without football"

That's some statement. He is basically saying that football is his god; football is the thing he cannot live without. As he says again:

"I know it will happen one day when I have to live without football but you shouldn't live everyday knowing you are going to die - you should live knowing that you want to live"

Much as I enjoy football, Wenger has done the classic thing that we as human beings do all the time - as Tim Keller describes it - taking a good thing and making it an ultimate thing. The tragic thing here in particular, is that Wenger even knows it will not work as an ultimate thing; he knows one day he will have to live without football. And he all but says, that once football is gone from his life, life will not be worth living. That is so sad. That is why even rich successful celebrity football managers need the gospel.

In trying to help a friend find some help with his addictions, it is frustrating to look at all the many options there are and discover how complicated it is to work through it all to find him the help he needs and wants. There are referrals back and forth, some going round in circles, some set backs, and lots of bureaucracy. He's in hospital tonight though which is good. Lord, you can bring this together when we can't!

Video of Tim Keller speaking on the subject of the Gospel and the Poor, overlapping with the article he wrote in Themelios, (also see Tim Chester's book on the subject)

Tim Keller: The Gospel and the Poor: A Case for Compassion from Here's Life Inner City on Vimeo.

HT: Andy Upton

Michael Frost's book Exiles: living missionally in a post-christian culture includes this account of Arthur Guinness's establishment of his famous brewery. He is presented as an example of the use of God-given creativity at work for the good of others - what Frost calls being an 'apprentice-child' of the Father.

History is replete with stories of people who have designed and built successful businesses and become the source of great philanthropy. In so doing they are following the work of the Father. In 1759, a determined man named Arthur Guinness, thirty-four years of age, rode through the gate of an old, dilapidated, ill-equipped brewery situated at St. James' Gate in Dublin. He had just signed the lease on the property for nine thousand years (no, that's not a typo!) at £45 per annum. Mark Rainsford's Ale Brewery (as it was known then) was no different from any other, and it had been for sale for ten years, with no one having shown any interest in it. At that time, beer was almost unknown in rural Ireland, where whiskey, gin, and poteen were the alcoholic beverages most readily available. Cheap to buy, high in alcohol content, and readily available, these drinks were responsible for widespread alcoholism and indolence.

Arthur Guinness was a builder. He was an entrepreneur who could dream up business plans and marketing strategies, who could make a worthless brewery into a booming industry. He was also a devout Christian with a deep social conscience. He was concerned about the plight of young Irish drunks who wandered aimlessly around the whiskey and gin houses found on nearly every street corner. Once, while walking the streets of Dublin, he cried out to God to do something about the general drunkenness of Irish society , and he felt overwhelmingly burdened to be part of the answer to his own prayer. Like a true apprentice-child, he decided there and then to brew a drink that the Irish would enjoy and that would also be good for them.

Guinness decided to brew a beer relatively new to Ireland at that time. The beverage contained roasted barley that gave it a characteristically dark colour. This brew, well known in England, was called 'porter' because if its popularity with the porters and stevedores of Covent Garden and Billingsgate in London. But Guinness's recipe produced more than your average dark beer. With it's rich creamy head, it's the beer we'll drink in heaven. Full-bodied, smooth, creamy, slightly bitter, it's a wonderfully delicious beverage. In fact, it's more like a meal, since it is so full of minerals and natural trace elements. It has incredible qualities to it. Guinness was so heavy and full of iron that most drinkers couldn't drink more than a couple of pints. This, coupled with the fact that that it has a considerably lower alcohol level than whiskey or gin, meant that fewer people were getting drunk.

So young Arthur Guinness made a beverage for the Irish that was good for them. Soon, his porter was overtaking the sales of Irish ales and English porters, and then it became even more popular than Irish whiskey. Today it is the national drink of Ireland. I don't doubt that many preachers today would have difficulty seeing the building of a successful brewing business as the work of God. But by following his impulse as an entrepreneur with a social conscience, Guinness showed himself to be a faithful apprentice-child, a creator and builder.

Exiles, page 190-191

15 years ago today, Robbie Fowler scored the fastest hat-trick in Premier League History in 4 minutes and 33 seconds. Against Arsenal.

A while back a number of blogs, including mine, posted a Don't Waste Your Life 'sermon jam' of John Piper talking about living in such a way that it becomes clear that God is your treasure, not things, people, family, money etc.

In this video clip, Piper explains a bit more about the idea of a 'Wartime lifestyle'.

While reading the Jesus Storybook Bible last night with our Billy, we had an interesting discussion about the coming of God's kingdom. He said he wants all the bad things in our world to stop, and for God to get rid of the 'snake'. He is very aware of the impact of fallenness in people's lives, especially as he comes into contact with some of the people we now know. Seeing one friend whose life has been shredded by substance abuses of various kinds, Billy said - I just want God to come and make everything right soon.

We talked about how this is the essence of the prayer Jesus told us to pray: 'Your Kingdom Come'.

When Lord Shaftesbury the Christian and social reformer of the 1800s saw the terrible problems of people in his generation and the awful effects of sin and brokenness, it was often his heart's cry that God's kingdom would come.

He wrote "There is no real remedy for all this mass of misery, but in the return of Jesus Christ. Why do we not plead for it every time we hear the clock strike?"

His official seal had the word 'Maranatha' on it - Aramaic for 'Come Lord Jesus', from the end of Revelation.

This is what Billy had been reading the day before as he finished going through the Storybook Bible (again):

It was hard to squeeze all John saw into words. And fit it onto a page. And cram it into a book. All the words on all the pages of all the books in all the world would never be enough.

"I am the Beginning," Jesus said, "and the Ending!"

One day, John knew, in some mysterious way that would be hard to explain, that everything as going to be more wonderful for once having been so sad.

And he knew then that the ending of The Story was going to be so great, it would make all the sadness and tears and everything seem just a shadow that is chased away by the morning sun.

"I'm on my way," said Jesus, "I'll be there soon!"

John came to the end of his book. But he didn't write "The End." Because, of course, that's how stories finish. (And this one's not over yet.)

So instead, he wrote: "Come quickly, Jesus!"

Which, perhaps, is really just another way of saying...

TO BE CONTINUED...

Very provocative song from Regina Spektor. No-one does laugh at God in a hospital or in a war. We know we need God when we reach the end of ourselves.

Watch the song... lyrics below.

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one’s laughing at God
When they’re starving or freezing or so very poor

No one laughs at God
When the doctor calls after some routine tests
No one’s laughing at God
When it’s gotten real late
And their kid’s not back from the party yet

No one laughs at God
When their airplane start to uncontrollably shake
No one’s laughing at God
When they see the one they love, hand in hand with someone else
And they hope that they’re mistaken

No one laughs at God
When the cops knock on their door
And they say we got some bad news, sir
No one’s laughing at God
When there’s a famine or fire or flood

But God can be funny
At a cocktail party when listening to a good God-themed joke, or
Or when the crazies say He hates us
And they get so red in the head you think they’re ‘bout to choke
God can be funny,
When told he’ll give you money if you just pray the right way
And when presented like a genie who does magic like Houdini
Or grants wishes like Jiminy Cricket and Santa Claus
God can be so hilarious
Ha ha
Ha ha

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one’s laughing at God
When they’ve lost all they’ve got
And they don’t know what for

No one laughs at God on the day they realize
That the last sight they’ll ever see is a pair of hateful eyes
No one’s laughing at God when they’re saying their goodbyes
But God can be funny
At a cocktail party when listening to a good God-themed joke, or
Or when the crazies say He hates us
And they get so red in the head you think they’re ‘bout to choke
God can be funny,
When told he’ll give you money if you just pray the right way
And when presented like a genie who does magic like Houdini
Or grants wishes like Jiminy Cricket and Santa Claus
God can be so hilarious

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one laughing at God in hospital
No one’s laughing at God in a war
No one’s laughing at God when they’re starving or freezing or so very
poor

No one’s laughing at God
No one’s laughing at God
No one’s laughing at God
We’re all laughing with God

The summer's drawing to a close, the new academic year is almost on us, and it's time for a facelift - the blog not me you understand.

Over the summer I had the chance to read through a few books. Kris Lundgaard's The Enemy Within was excellent; there was much to make me think in Michael Frost's Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture; Richard Foster's Celebration of Discipline was a mixed bag but a spur to discipline myself and encourage others to pursue God with a passion; the slow reading through of John Calvin's great Institutes of the Christian Religion continues, and finally John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress is proving a tonic, both my old clasp-bound 1866 copy, and a children's version I found at my parents house, originally belonging to my uncle, published in 1955. I am reading a chapter after breakfast to the children every day over the next couple of weeks.

Some of these things are feeding into new posts over the next few weeks.

Here's to a new season.

Back from a refreshing few weeks, both in India where it was great to see all that was going on and dream some dreams about how churches might plug into God's work there, AND to have a couple of weeks with family, hanging out at my parents, lazing on the beach, reading, playing etc. I am now feeling thoroughly refreshed.

Talking of which, tomorrow in Urban Life, we will be thinking about Spiritual Nourishment and what are sometimes called the Spiritual Disciplines. We want to be a people who are hungry and thirsty for righteousness and who pursue God through the various means of grace he has given us. That requires some discipline. And I am very conscious there is a fine line between discipline and legalism. How do we walk that line?

In response to some of the imbalances of a legalistic Christianity, many of us have thrown the baby out with the bath water, and do not focus on the things God has given us that will fuel our knowledge and love of him. We just drift along doing what we feel like, or happen to have time for, without realising that the flesh, left to itself, will work hard to keep us from these disciplines.

Should be interesting to see where we go as I teach, and we then reflect and discuss together.

Today I am travelling out to North India. I will be posting updates on my other blog Going Global and on the Radstock blog

A friend and I were talking a bit about accountability today. It is an important feature of discipling one another, and caring for one another. Sometimes it is perceived as threatening, but in truth it is something helpful because we know the affect of the sin disease on our souls, and our ability to deceive ourselves.

Sometimes it is helpful to have a set of questions that a group formally uses to help keep each other sharp. Ed Stetzer had a post recently, outlining a number of different questions that Christians past and present have used.

John Wesley's Small Group Questions:

1. Am I consciously or unconsciously creating the impression that I am better than I am? In other words, am I a hypocrite?

2. Am I honest in all my acts and words, or do I exaggerate?

3. Do I confidentially pass onto another what was told me in confidence?

4. Am I a slave to dress, friends, work , or habits?

5. Am I self-conscious, self-pitying, or self-justifying?

6. Did the Bible live in me today?

7. Do I give it time to speak to me everyday?

8. Am I enjoying prayer?

9. When did I last speak to someone about my faith?

10. Do I pray about the money I spend?

11. Do I get to bed on time and get up on time?

12. Do I disobey God in anything?

13. Do I insist upon doing something about which my conscience is uneasy?

14. Am I defeated in any part of my life?

15. Am I jealous, impure, critical, irritable, touchy or distrustful?

16. How do I spend my spare time?

17. Am I proud?

18. Do I thank God that I am not as other people, especially as the Pharisee who despised the publican?

19. Is there anyone whom I fear, dislike, disown, criticize, hold resentment toward or disregard? If so, what am I going to do about it?

20. Do I grumble and complain constantly?

21. Is Christ real to me?

Wesley's Band Meeting Questions:

1. What known sins have you committed since our last meeting?

2. What temptations have you met with?

3. How were you delivered?

4. What have you thought, said, or done, of which you doubt whether it be sin or not?

5. Have you nothing you desire to keep secret?

Reference: John Wesley's Class Meetings: a Model for Making Disciples, by D. Michael Henderson, Evangel Publishing House, 1997, pp. 118-9

Chuck Swindoll's Pastoral Accountability Questions:

In his book, The Body, Chuck Colson lists the questions used by Chuck Swindoll.

1. Have you been with a woman anywhere this past week that might be seen as compromising?

2. Have any of your financial dealings lacked integrity?

3. Have you exposed yourself to any sexually explicit material?

4. Have you spent adequate time in Bible study and prayer?

5. Have you given priority time to your family?

6. Have you fulfilled the mandates of your calling?

7. Have you just lied to me?

Neil Cole:

1. What is the condition of your soul?

2. What sin do you need to confess?

3. What have you held back from God that you need to surrender?

4. Is there anything that has dampened your zeal for Christ?

5. Who have you talked with about Christ this week?

HT: Journey

The questions I use are from these cards from Church Multiplication Associates. I keep one in my Bible.

The ten questions are as follows:

1. Have you been a testimony this week to the greatness of Jesus Christ with both your words and actions?

2. Have you been exposed to sexually alluring material or allowed your mind to entertain inappropriate thoughts about someone who is not your spouse this week?

3. Have you lacked any integrity in your financial dealings this week, or coveted something that does not belong to you?

4. Have you been honoring, understanding and generous in your important relationships this past week?

5. Have you damaged another person by your words, either behind their back or face-to-face?

6. Have you given in to an addictive behavior this week? Explain.

7. Have you continued to remain angry toward another?

8. Have you secretly wished for another's misfortune so that you might excel?

9. Did you finish your reading this week and hear from the Lord? What are you going to do about it?

10. Have you been completely honest with me?

See the rest of the post here.

I've been reading the middle chapters of Isaiah recently, and one of
the things that is obvious is the way that God sees worship of
anything other than himself, as utterly ridiculous. And it is.

Isaiah 41:

21 "Present your case," says the LORD.
"Set forth your arguments," says Jacob's King.

22 "Bring in your idols to tell us
what is going to happen.
Tell us what the former things were,
so that we may consider them
and know their final outcome.
Or declare to us the things to come,

23 tell us what the future holds,
so we may know that you are gods.
Do something, whether good or bad,
so that we will be dismayed and filled with fear.

24 But you are less than nothing
and your works are utterly worthless;
he who chooses you is detestable.

And in Isaiah 44:

9 All who make idols are nothing,
and the things they treasure are worthless.
Those who would speak up for them are blind;
they are ignorant, to their own shame.

10 Who shapes a god and casts an idol,
which can profit him nothing?

11 He and his kind will be put to shame;
craftsmen are nothing but men.
Let them all come together and take their stand;
they will be brought down to terror and infamy.

12 The blacksmith takes a tool
and works with it in the coals;
he shapes an idol with hammers,
he forges it with the might of his arm.
He gets hungry and loses his strength;
he drinks no water and grows faint.

13 The carpenter measures with a line
and makes an outline with a marker;
he roughs it out with chisels
and marks it with compasses.
He shapes it in the form of man,
of man in all his glory,
that it may dwell in a shrine.

14 He cut down cedars,
or perhaps took a cypress or oak.
He let it grow among the trees of the forest,
or planted a pine, and the rain made it grow.

15 It is man's fuel for burning;
some of it he takes and warms himself,
he kindles a fire and bakes bread.
But he also fashions a god and worships it;
he makes an idol and bows down to it.

16 Half of the wood he burns in the fire;
over it he prepares his meal,
he roasts his meat and eats his fill.
He also warms himself and says,
"Ah! I am warm; I see the fire."

17 From the rest he makes a god, his idol;
he bows down to it and worships.
He prays to it and says,
"Save me; you are my god."

18 They know nothing, they understand nothing;
their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see,
and their minds closed so they cannot understand.

19 No one stops to think,
no one has the knowledge or understanding to say,
"Half of it I used for fuel;
I even baked bread over its coals,
I roasted meat and I ate.
Shall I make a detestable thing from what is left?
Shall I bow down to a block of wood?"

20 He feeds on ashes, a deluded heart misleads him;
he cannot save himself, or say,
"Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?"

The Uncreated Lord is the only one worthy of our worship, so we ask
for grace to pursue him and his kingdom with all our might. And for
the self-awareness to know when something is becoming more important
to us than it should be; when something is becoming our god. Idolatry
is about more than little statues. Its about what we honour and
pursue and desire and look for satisfaction and meaning in. That
might be classically money, career, sport or family becoming the focus
of our lives and thing that makes or breaks us. But it could be, as
both Tim Keller and Mark Driscoll have been talking about at recent
conferences (The Gospel Coalition and Advance 09 respectively), our
very ministries themselves. They are supposedly being done for God,
but can easily become an end in themselves.

That's some serious kind of twisted worship isn't it, to take the very
thing that is supposed to be for God, and somehow make it into our
god. But thats the nature of our hearts as idol making factories, and
thats why Isaiah's warnings are just as relevant to us all today as at
any other time.

The answer? As for the people of Isaiah's day - to get such a sense
of the greatness of God, and all he has done, that worshipping
anything else because becomes blatantly ridiculous.

Happy 500th birthday, to Jean Cauvin, better known as John Calvin. If Jesus hasn't returned yet, what will the world be like 500 years after my birth? In April, 2472? I wonder.

John Calvin, and reformed faith, is often portrayed as being a disincentive to world mission. I posted on my going global blog recently, some news that demonstrates what a mission minded man Calvin was.

Frank James wrote at The Resurgence, on the evangelist Calvin. Here is an excerpt:

One of the most pervasive criticisms of Calvin is that he had no interest in missions. The well-known Protestant missiologist, Gustav Warneck, portrayed the Reformers, including Calvin, as missiologically challenged merely because they believed in predestination. “We miss in the Reformers, not only missionary action, but even the idea of missions… because fundamental theological views hindered them from giving their activity and even their thoughts a missionary direction.”

But history tells another story.

The city of Geneva, long associated with Calvin, was also an important refugee center in the Reformer’s day. Throughout sixteenth century Europe, persecuted Protestants fled their homelands, many of whom found their way to Geneva. In the 1550s, the population of Geneva literally doubled.

One of those refugees who came to Geneva was the Englishman John Bale, who wrote: “Geneva seems to me to be the wonderful miracle of the whole world. For so many from all countries come here, as it were, to a sanctuary. Is it not wonderful that Spaniards, Italians, Scots, Englishmen, Frenchmen, Germans, disagreeing in manners, speech, and apparel, should live so lovingly and friendly, and dwell together like a … Christian congregation?”

Since Geneva was French-speaking, the vast majority of refugees came from France. As they sat under Calvin’s teaching in the Cathedral of St. Pierre, the French refugees’ hearts stirred for their homeland. Many of them felt compelled to return to France with the Protestant gospel.

Calvin, however, did not want to send uneducated missionaries back to the dangers of Catholic France. He believed that a good missionary had to be a good theologian first. And so he inspired and educated them. He trained them theologically, tested their preaching ability, and carefully scrutinized their moral character. Calvin and the Genevan Consistory sent properly trained missionaries back to France to share the Gospel.

Calvin did not just educate them and send men back to France. These missionaries did not just become photographic memories on Calvin’s refrigerator door. On the contrary; Calvin remained intimately involved in all that they were doing.

The Genevan archives hold hundreds of letters containing Calvin’s pastoral and practical advice on establishing underground churches. He did not just send missionaries; he invested himself in long-term relationships with them.

Concrete information exists from the year 1555 onwards. The data indicate that by 1555, there were five underground Protestant churches in France. By 1559, the number of these Protestant churches jumped to more than one hundred. And scholars estimate that by 1562 there were more than 2,150 churches established in France with approximately three-million Protestant souls in attendance.

This can only be described as an explosion of missionary activity; detonated in large part by the Genevan Consistory and other Swiss Protestant cities. Far from being disinterested in missions, history shows that Calvin was enraptured by it.

Read some more here

John Wesley:

Give me one hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin, and desire nothing but God, and I care not a straw whether they be clergyman or laymen; such alone will shake the gates of hell and set up the kingdom of heaven on earth. God does nothing but in answer to prayer.

This is worth thinking about. What do we really fear? What do we really desire?

So often we fear people; we fear being laughed at; we fear rejection from our social circles; we fear being marginalised; we fear loss of status; we fear the loss of material possessions.

So often we desire praise from those around; we desire acceptance amongst the 'in' groups; we desire to have all the comforts and convenience of the western lifestyle; we desire riches; we desire to be at the centre.

Lord make us those who really do see sin for what it is and fear it and it's horrific consequences. Make us those who desire you above all else and so are shaped by your values and passions. And then live it.

At Urban Life we are having an emphasis on prayer for two weeks, trying to really grapple with some of the issues and opportunities we face, and pray them through, calling on God to act. So easy to fall into activism rather than dependence on God. We need him more than anything else.

We are circulating emails each day highlighting some of the specifics, and making use of some of the Valley of Vision prayers too.

Here's one for today:

Longings after God

My dear Lord, I can but tell Thee that Thou knowest

I long for nothing but Thyself,

nothing but holiness,

nothing but union with Thy will.

Thou hast given me these desires,

and thou alone canst give me the thing desired.

My soul longs for communion with Thee,

for mortification of indwelling corruption,

especially spiritual pride.

How precious it is to have a tender sense

and clear apprehension of the mystery of godliness, of true holiness!

What a blessedness to be like Thee

as much as it is possible for a creature to be like its creator!

Lord, give me more of Thy likeness;

enlarge my soul to contain fullness of holiness;

engage me to live more for Thee.

Help me to be less pleased with my spiritual experiences,

and when I feel at ease after sweet communings,

teach me it is far too little I know and do.

Blessed Lord, let me climb up near to Thee,

and love, and long, and plead, and wrestle with Thee,

and pant for deliverance from the body of sin,

for my heart is wandering and lifeless,

and my soul mourns to think it should ever lose sight of its beloved.

Wrap my life in divine love, and keep me ever desiring Thee,

always humble and resigned to Thy will,

more fixed on Thyself, that I may be more fitted for doing and-suffering.

Here's the last week's posts at my other blog where I try to encourage prayer and raise awareness of all that God is doing around the world, and of the many needs. Visit going global

Sunday

Facing a task unfinished

Classic missionary hymn calling us to be bold in going out and reaching the unreached.

Monday

Country Focus: Iran

In the week the nation goes to the polls, the focus is on Iran. Introduction to the country.

Tuesday

Preach of the week: Lindsay Brown

The former IFES General Secretary, now International Director of the Lausanne Movement, preaches at the UCCF leadership training event.

Battling with an unseen world

Observations from an Albanian church planter, as local church proves an ongoing struggle.

Thursday

Quote of the week: John Stott

The simple biblical premise from which he campaigns for global vision in the church.

Friday

Iran: taking up your cross on election day

As Iran goes to the polls, news on imprisoned Christians

Iran: open hearts and a growing church

News on church growth in the country.

Iran: two young women in solitary confinement

More news on the hardship and faith of two Christian women.

Saturday

Pray for Iran.com

Information on a call to 40 days prayer and fasting for Iran, organised by Elam Ministries

Don't Waste Your Life sermon jam. Really well done and really helpful. I'm going to be making some use of this. We need all the encouragement we can get to make Christ supreme in our lives, and not merely pay lip service to that idea. Something we need to challenge one another about again and again and again, as we will always default to making these other things the objects of our desire, and so make them into idols.
HT: Nations be glad

Andy Robertson is a good guy. I have been street preaching on teams with him many years ago. Today I learnt (via David Couchman's blog) that he has been having some hassle from the Police about what he is doing.

The Christian Institute have taken up his cause and produced a short video telling people what is happening here.  Have a watch.

David says:

Christian street preacher Andy Robertson apparently said nothing about homosexuality. (And even if he had done so, it would specifically not have been an offence per se under present law, unless he was inciting violence or abuse.) Yet the police still harrassed him.

As David says, it is not a homophobia issue, as even Peter Tatchell recognises. It is a freedom of speech issue.

Last night at Urban Life, my co-leader, Dave Green, read this great couple of paragraphs from John Piper's book 'Future Grace':

If you live inside this massive promise, your life is more solid and stable than Mount Everest. Nothing can blow you over when you are inside the walls of Romans 8:28. Outside of Romans 8:28 all is confusion and anxiety and fear and uncertainty. Outside this promise of all-encompassing future grace there are straw houses of drugs and alcohol and numbing TV and dozens of futile diversions. There are slat walls and tin roofs of fragile investment strategies and fleeting insurance coverage and trivial retirement plans. There are cardboard fortifications of deadbolt locks and alarm systems and antiballistic missiles. Outside are a thousand substitutes for Romans 8:28.

Once you walk through the door of love into the massive unshakable structure of Romans 8:28 everything changes. There come into your life stability and depth and freedom. You simply can't be blown over any more. The confidence that a sovereign God governs for your good all the pain and all the pleasure that you will ever experience is an incomparable refuge and security and hope and power in your life. When God's people really live by the future grace of Romans 8:28 - from measles to the mortuary - they are the freest and strongest and most generous people in the world. Their light shines and people give glory to their Father in heaven (Matthew 5:16).

Romans 8:28...

'And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.'

 

Tim Chester beat me to it. I noticed these really helpful Twitter posts from Steve Timmis a week or so ago and thought, 'I should blog those'!  Tim posted them today.  

'Ordinary life with gospel intentionality' is a phrase used in The Crowded House and in the book Total Church, to explain the way in which our simple model of church, with minimal programming, actually works in terms of outreach. How do we meet people? What do we do? What does 'just living ordinary lives in the community' look like?

In many ways it is sad that as Christians we have often forgotten how to live ordinary lives. We have sometimes got so stuck in a Christian subculture that we find ordinary life hard. And in particular we find it hard to see how ordinary life can be a gospel thing. 

Here's how Steve spells it out on his twitter site. Can you think of any more?

Living ordinary life with gospel intentionality means...

...buying from local shops

...frequenting a local coffee shop or pub

...playing for a local sports team

...always tipping generously in local restaurants

...being the kind of neighbour everyone wants to have as a neighbour

...volunteering at a local charity shop with a couple of others from church

...doing ordinary things in the community

...opening your home to, and sharing your food with others

...walking the same route to work at the same time, or catching the same train each day

...we do EVERYTHING for the sake of the gospel!

Over at my new blog, here's what's been going on over the last week:

Friday

European Nights in Jub, Albania

Albania: more on church planting in Jub

Saturday

John Calvin and Missions

Sunday

Across the lands - song from Getty & Townend with a great global emphasis

Global Day of Prayer - 31st May

Expecting and attempting great things - William Carey

Monday

This month's photo banner: Lucknow, India

Country Focus: North Korea

Tuesday

Preach of the Week: John Piper

Wednesday

Bible Focus: It all depends on God

North Korea: how many Christians?

Thursday

Quote of the week: Henry Martyn

North Korea: leadership

Saturday

North Korea Country Focus: round-up

The Advance 09 talks from the conference are gradually going online. 

What Is the Church?
Mark Driscoll

The Resurgence of the Church
Tyler Jones

Communicating the Gospel Through Preaching
Bryan Chappell

Preaching the Gospel to the De-churched
Matt Chandler

Q & A with Chandler, Driscoll, and Chappell

Keys to Understanding the Church and Kingdom
Ed Stetzer

Planting is for Wimps: Revitalizing a Church around the Gospel
J. D. Greear

The Ultimate Shepherd
Eric Mason

Ministry Idolatry
Mark Driscoll

Let the Nations Be Glad, Part 1
John Piper

HT: http://advance.vintage21.com/

This prayer from the Valley of Vision was a real encouragement to me this morning, as it gave words to some of my feelings.

Blessed God,

Ten thousand snares are mine without and within,

 defend thou me;

When sloth and indolence seize me,

 give me views of heaven;

When sinners entice me,

 give me disrelish of their ways;

When sensual pleasures tempt me,

 purify and refine me;

When I desire worldly possessions,

 help me to be rich toward thee;

When the vanities of the world ensnare me,

 let me not plunge into new guilt and ruin.

May I remember the dignity of my spiritual release,

 never be to busy to attend to my soul,

 never be so engrossed with time 

  that I neglect the things of eternity;

 thus may I not only live, but grow toward thee.

Form my mind to right notions of religion,

 that I may not judge of grace by wrong conceptions,

 nor measure my spiritual advances by the efforts 

  of my natural being.

May I seek after an increase of divine love to thee,

 after unreserved resignation to thy will,

 after extensive benevolence to my fellow creatures,

 after patience and fortitude of soul,

 after a heavenly disposition

 after a concern that I may please thee in public

  and private.

Draw on my soul the lineaments of Christ,

 in every trace and feature of which thou wilt

  take delight, for I am

   thy workmanship, created in Christ Jesus,

   thy letter written with the Holy Spirit's pen,

   thy tilled soil ready for the sowing, then harvest.

Some time ago (in fact, quite some time ago) Stephen Murray in South Africa sent me a questionnaire about World Mission, as part of some research he was doing into the subject. With his permission I'm going to post the answers I gave him, over at the Radstock and going global blogs during the next week or so. 

These were the questions:

1. How would you define mission/missions/missional? Do you see distinction between these terms or are they one and they same thing?

2. Much has been made in missions circles about the shift of the Christian centre from the west to the majority world. How do you think this will or should affect Western mission work in the Majority World?

3. You work with an organization that puts a lot of emphasis on the local church. How central do you see the local church to mission and especially foreign mission?

4. Do you think there is place for organizations which don’t place the local church at the center of mission?

5. With regard to missions agencies, how much oversight of these agencies should belong to local churches?

6. What would you suggest to the many small local churches interested in mission, who are firstly, financially unable to structure an effective foreign missions programme on their own, but secondly, don’t wish to align themselves with para-church organizations for fear of losing the centrality of the local church in mission?

In encouraging churches to be focused on mission rather than maintenance, it is increasingly being recognised by many that mission is the Bible’s chief emphasis – to the glory of God.  People are therefore proposing that rather than a Theology of Mission, what we need is a Missionary or Missional Theology.  In other words, rather than seeing mission as one section of our wider theology, we should see all of our theology as mission-driven.  Author Chris Wright emphasises this in his book ‘The Mission of God: unlocking the Bible’s grand narrative’.  He writes of the importance of a ‘missional hermeneutic’ meaning that when we’re interpreting bible at any point, it should be done through the lens of God’s Mission to the world.  He refers to a course he once taught saying:

“…the more I taught that course, the more I used to introduce it by telling the students that I would like to rename it: from ‘The Biblical Basis of Mission’ to ‘The Missional Basis of the Bible.’  I wanted them to see not just that the bible contains a number of texts which happen to provide a rationale for missionary endeavour but that the whole Bible itself a ‘missional phenomenon’.  The writings that now comprise our Bible are themselves the product of and witness to the ultimate mission of God.  The Bible renders to us the story of God’s mission through God’s people in their engagement with God’s world for the sake of the whole of God’s creation.  The Bible is the drama of this God of purpose engaged in the mission of achieving that purpose universally, embracing past, present and future, Israel and the nations, ‘life, the universe and everything,’ and with its centre, focus, climax, and completion in Jesus Christ.  Mission is not just one of a list of things that the Bible happens to talk about, only a bit more urgently than some.  Mission is, in that much-abused phrase, ‘what it’s all about.’” ⁵

As Wright says, grasping this releases us from simply thinking of mission in terms of a few isolated texts, such as the Great Commission of Matthew 28:18-20, or the command of Jesus to take the message to the ends of the earth in Acts 1:8.  These commands are key, but are only part of a bigger message that flows right through the whole bible.

The New Testament is actually understood more clearly when its missionary context is remembered, hence the observation has been made that the Bible typically makes much more sense to people when they’re on a mission team because that’s the context in which it was first written.⁶  And it begs the question why are all our churches not thought of as mission teams!  Whether its the book of Acts describing the spread of the gospel from city to city and country to country as churches were planted, or the epistles supporting those churches as they faced the ever-present challenge of remaining both faithful to the gospel word, and taking that word out into their localities, it’s all about mission.  Consider a passage like 1 Corinthians 9, where Paul is defending his authenticity as an apostle in light of the different approaches he has taken in different places.  Some had criticized him for being inconsistent on issues such as circumcision and the eating of meat offered to idols, but his defence is that he is mission-focussed:

 19 Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. 20 To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. 21 To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.  

Paul recognised that variation in culture meant variation in approach if he was truly serve those he wished to reach, and therefore adopted Jewish practices or Greek practices when needed, whilst all the time staying true to the objective gospel, from which he will not budge:

23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings. 

It is this need for great flexibility of approach that is most obviously missing from many churches in the West. 

Notes:

5 - Chris Wright, The Mission of God - unlocking the bible's grand narrative, p22

6 - Nigel Lee, in conversation 

Moving on from the early church through church history, we find that there have frequently been those who have protested at the Christendom assumptions outlined previously.  At the time of the Reformation, we find that there were those who questioned the linking of church and state, a group commonly lumped together as the ‘Anabaptists’. 

The Protestant Reformation was an important period when vital elements of biblical doctrine were rediscovered, and as part of this the reformers rediscovered the nature of the church. Among the things they emphasised was the church as a community of believers, in contrast with the medieval institution.  In his book Theology of the Reformers, Timothy George writes this of Martin Luther’s view:

But what exactly is the church?  Luther once responded impatiently to this question: “Why, a seven-year-old child knows what the church is, namely holy believers and sheep who hear the voice of their Shepherd.”  We have in this answer a major thrust of Luther’s ecclesiology: the essentially spiritual, non-institutional character of the church. Luther disliked the German word Kirche (which like church in English, or curia in Latin, derives from the Greek kuriakon, the Lord’s house) because it had come to mean the building or the institution.  He preferred Germaine, “community” or Versammlung,“assembly.”  For him the true church was the people of God, the fellowship of believers, or, as the Apostles’ Creed has it, the communion of saints.  From this perspective Luther developed a richly nuanced doctrine of the church. ⁴

But despite their recovery of the doctrine of church, not many of the reformers got beyond a Christendom model.  They worked through the arm of the local magistrates as others had done – hence their being known as the ‘Magisterial’ Reformers.  Where the Reformation took place in this way, it did not bring Christendom to an end so much as create a number of mini-Christendoms.  Others however, saw a need to take the Reformation further, and this is often known as the Radical Reformation of the Anabaptists. 

The ‘Anabaptist’ label does include a broad range of people, some of whom were unorthodox and extremist, but others of whom were biblical believers who simply thought the reformation had not gone far enough.  The name ‘anabaptist’ means ‘re-baptizer’ and was used pejoratively by those angered at the teaching and practice of believers’ baptism and ‘re-baptizing’ of those who had been christened as babies.  The Anabaptists didn’t believe that christening was true baptism, rather that it was part of the Christendom idea that everyone born into the culture was Christian.

Underlying this and many other areas of Anabaptist teaching was a strong understanding of what it meant to be a church.  The practice of believers’ baptism went hand in hand with the desire to re-define church as a community of those who had confessed personal faith.  They taught that local churches should be communities of believers, not connected to the state but independent from it.  They believed that when the church became formally linked to the state  it compromised its position and voice, as it would inevitably be hesitant to criticize the ones who had given it its role. 

A further emphasis that came from their anti-Christendom stance was that the role of the church in mission was crucial.  In Christendom thinking, mission was not necessary because the culture was already Christianised and everyone in the parish was regarded as belonging to the church, therefore the church’s emphasis became maintenance-oriented rather than mission-oriented. Something of this thinking still exists in the way that the Western church often speaks of ‘mission’ when referring to going overseas, rather than when reaching it’s own locality.  In reality, as the Anabaptists realised, mission is something that begins on our own doorstep and then goes on to the ends of the earth.  

Note 4: Theology of the Reformers, p87.

TO BE A VOICE FROM THE CENTRE OR THE MARGINS?

One of the key assumptions in Christendom thinking is the idea that the church should be at the centre of society; it is part of the establishment.  Though not all churches are part of the state church in England, the mindset is often still there – a desire to be a respected part of the local establishment.  The reality however, is that in the post-Christendom West, the church is increasingly going to be marginalised rather than at the centre, and we are going to have to learn what it means to be church on the margins.

In his book ‘The Forgotten Ways’, author Alan Hirsch takes two case studies – the early church in the first two centuries and the present-day church in Communist China.  In both cases these churches experienced phenomenal growth despite the fact that they had none of the things that are so often thought to be important for church growth.  There were no seminaries, no Christian publishing houses, no church buildings, no professional paid clergy, no published courses, no advertising, no big events or rallies, and yet God worked through them in amazing ways.  These churches were on the margins of their societies, and yet far from being a problem to them, this was to their advantage.  Rather than becoming large cumbersome institutions, it meant that they remained small, flexible, grass-roots people movements, where the energies of both people and their leaders were spent on living out their faith together on a mission to their world, rather than on running organisations, or on state-sponsored duties. 

After 'umming and aahing' for a while I have decided to start a new blog with a particular focus on all things global.  It's called going global.  Go and have a look.

Although I do blog here about global mission, I thought it would be a good thing to have a blog specifically promoting an interest in and a passion for God's work around the world. I will post things that Radstock is involved with in particular, since that is what I know best, but I will link to other items of news and information from other churches, groups and websites aswell. There will also be quotes from articles and books on the subject of mission, with ideas, observations and critiques on how we go about reaching our world and fulfilling the Great Commission.   

I intend to keep this current blog going, although whether that is realistic, time will tell!  And yes, for the new blog, I have in fact defected to wordpress.com! There are pros and cons for both blogger and wordpress it seems, but for now, I'll have one on each.  Come over and visit, and send me some traffic. 

I'm sometimes struck by how relatively little there is in the blogosphere about world mission. There is lots on the web in general, but most of the discussion that goes on in the Christian blogosphere, doesn't tend to touch on global mission that much.  Going global will be my small contribution to changing that, along with the Radstock blog, which I also contribute to, on this same subject.

(In addition to all this, I am supposed to be part of the group blog The Coffee Bible Club, but I am really bad at taking part in it... but go and have a read anyway)

Last night it was great to host a young couple in our home who wanted to come and talk about their dreams to serve God in another culture.  Newlyweds, in the early months of new jobs, getting involved with their local church community, but actively asking the question – God, would you have us go and serve you in some other part of the world?

We talked about some of the possibilities, and I asked about their interests, professional skills, thoughts about children, language learning, and we enjoyed a good curry to boot!  What encouraged me in particular was the openness this couple had to going wherever.  Even when expressing a preference regarding how they would imagine children fitting in, or an occupation playing out, there was an open handedness that always said – ‘but we are not saying we would never do it another way’.  

When someone gets to this point it is both liberating, and a little bewildering.  It is liberating because they are not tying themselves to anything that would be more important than God, and have effectively placed great confidence in him to lead them on.  But it is also a little bewildering when you hit that point, because it gradually dawns on you there are just so many options!  it should not paralyse a Christian though.  We do not advocate the attitude that will not make decisions unless there is confirmation in triplicate from the Almighty himself.  It is one step at a time, making prayerful, advised decisions, always open-handed, and asking that as you push on doors that God would either allow them to swing wide or close them tight.  

I think this couple will go on to be greatly used by God somewhere.  We are just knocking round ideas with them and their church leaders of when and where and how.

Continuing Church and Mission sabbatical thoughts...

DIVERSE KINDS OF PEOPLE 

Apart from the many difficulties with power and corruption that came with the advent of Christendom, the church's attitude to mission fundamentally changed - a change which still affects many churches today.  Missiologist Alan Hirsch has demonstrated something of this by developing a scale that seeks to describe the degree to which people are removed from the Christian faith by significant cultural obstacles.  This scale runs from m0 to m4.  An m0 person is a believer with a Christian worldview.  An m1 person might be described as a person who not a Christian but is from the same kind of background, speaking the same language, with the similar values, pastimes and lifestyle – in short, those a given group of Christians are likely to be friends with.  They are reasonably positively disposed towards the Church, albeit from a distance.  An m2 person will be a significant cultural degree further removed, and so on, until m4 where the differences become very marked.  An m4 person will probably be from a different ethnic origin to you, not share the same first language, follow another religion entirely, live in a different area and have very different expectations of lifestyle.  There may also be historical barriers, such as the perceptions of Christianity after the Crusades.  Altogether, these add up to make it very difficult to communicate the gospel to an m4 grouping.

Hirsch then takes this scale and plots it in a graph against time, showing how prior to the Christendom shift, Western culture was composed of people from many different backgrounds and belief systems, scattered across the m1 to m4 scale.  Once Christendom had taken hold, the range was far more limited as people were assumed to know the Christian stories, share certain assumptions about the world, and think in biblical categories – which to a large extent, they did.  But as Christendom has been progressively undermined, Western culture is once again composed of a far more diverse range of people.³:

The problem then, is that churches frequently operate as though Christendom values were still present, when the reality is that with every passing generation those values are fading. This is especially notable among those under 45, where there is little understanding of, or sympathy for, Christian faith, rendering most of those in the UK as at least m2 or m3 on Hirsch's scale.  That being the case, a radical rethink is needed if we are not to ignore the major percentage of our Western populations.  This paradigm shift is now affecting even the middle and upper classes who were for so long 'Christianised', making communication even there more difficult.  The distance has been growing for much longer among the immigrant populations, the urban poor and other working-class groups who, perhaps unsurprisingly, tend not to be found in our churches.  Hirsch observes that even the relational evangelistic courses such as Alpha and Christianity Explored tend to have an impact chiefly among the m1 grouping and make negligible impact on m2+. 

Note 3: Alan Hirsch 'The Forgotten Ways' p62

This is a great post by Jonathan Dodson from the Resurgence blog, which summarises the genius and simplicity of a missional approach to church life.  I talked about this with some of our Urban Life gang tonight:

Eat with Non-Christians

We all eat three meals a day. Why not make a habit of sharing one of those meals with a non-Christian or with a family of non-Christians? Go to lunch with a co-worker, not by yourself. Invite the neighbors over for family dinner. If it’s too much work to cook a big dinner, just order pizza and put the focus on conversation. When you go out for a meal, invite a non-Christian friend. Or take your family to family-style restaurants where you can sit at the table with strangers and strike up conversations. Have cookouts and invite Christians and non-Christians. Flee the Christian subculture.

Walk, Don’t Drive

If you live in a walkable area, make a practice of getting out and walking around your neighborhood, apartment complex, or campus. Instead of driving to the mailbox or convenience store, walk to get mail or groceries. Be deliberate in your walk. Say hello to people you don’t know. Strike up conversations. Attract attention by walking the dog, carrying along a 6-pack to share, bringing the kids. Make friends. Get out of your house! Last night I spent an hour outside gardening with my family. We had good conversations with about four of our neighbors. Take interest in your neighbors. Ask questions. Engage. Pray as you go. Save some gas, the planet, and some people.

Be a Regular

Instead of hopping all over the city for gas, groceries, haircuts, eating out, and coffee, go to the same places at the same times. Get to know the staff. Smile. Ask questions. Be a regular. I have friends at coffee shops all over the city. My friends at Starbucks donate a ton of leftover pastries to our church 2-3 times a week. We use them for church gatherings and occasionally give them to the homeless. Build relationships. Be a regular.

Hobby with Non-Christians

Pick a hobby that you can share. Get out and do something you enjoy with others. Try city league sports or local rowing and cycling teams. Share your hobby by teaching lessons, such as sewing, piano, knitting, or tennis lessons. Be prayerful. Be intentional. Be winsome. Have fun. Be yourself.

Talk to Your Co-workers.

How hard is that? Take your breaks with intentionality. Go out with your team or task force after work. Show interest in your co-workers. Pick four and pray for them. Form moms’ groups in your neighborhood and don’t make them exclusively non-Christian. Schedule play dates with the neighbors’ kids. Work on mission.

Volunteer with Non-Profits.

Find a non-profit in your part of the city and take a Saturday a month to serve your city. Bring your neighbors, your friends, or your small group. Spend time with your church serving your city. Once a month. You can do it!

Participate in City Events

Instead of playing XBox, watching TV, or surfing the net, participate in city events. Go to fundraisers, festivals, cleanups, summer shows, and concerts. Participate missionally. Strike up conversation. Study the culture. Reflect on what you see and hear. Pray for the city. Love the city. Participate with the city.

Serve Your Neighbors.

Help a neighbor by weeding, mowing, building a cabinet, or fixing a car. Stop by the neighborhood association or apartment office and ask if there is anything you can do to help improve things. Ask your local Police and Fire Stations if there is anything you can do to help them. Get creative. Just serve!

This time two years ago I was on sabbatical, doing a lot of thinking and reading on church in the 21st Century, which has, not surprisingly, led to my present role in church planting.  I typed up some of my thoughts, and over the next few weeks will post up some of the unpolished stuff I wrote:

'The times they are a-changing' sang Bob Dylan, and that is surely true today in the West more than ever.  It has been observed by many that at the beginning of the 21^st Century, Western culture is undergoing a 'paradigm shift'.  This term is used to speak of 'a significant dislocation in the worldview of an individual or community' ¹ where previously held values and assumptions are challenged and questioned as people review what they believe, think and feel about inherited perspectives.  To some degree these processes are going on all the time, but at certain times in history they happen on a scale such that there is a real sense of dislocation with what has been previously understood and accepted within a culture.  This is such a time. 

GOODBYE CHRISTENDOM

Christendom is the term used to describe the era that arrived with the conversion (whether genuine or not) of the Roman Emperor Constantine.  His conversion meant that from 312 AD the Church occupied a new place in Roman civilisation which it has largely enjoyed in Western cultures, ever since.  With the conversion of Constantine and the arrival of state-sponsored Christianity – 'Christendom' – a marginalised and often persecuted group of people suddenly became officially recognised and backed by the full might of the Empire.  In his book 'Post-Christendom: Church and Mission in a Strange New World', Stuart Murray lists some of the features that marked the 'Christendom Shift':

• The adoption of Christianity as the official religion of a city, state, or empire
• The movement of the church from the margins of society to it's centre
• The creation and progressive development of a Christian culture or civilisation
• The assumption that all citizens (except for Jews) were Christian by birth
• The development of the corpus Christianum [Christian body], where there was no freedom of religion and where political power was regarded as divinely authenticated
• Infant baptism as the symbol of obligatory incorporation into this Christian society
• Sunday as an official day of rest and obligatory church attendance, with penalties for non-compliance
• The definition of "orthodoxy" as the common belief shared by all, which was determined by powerful church leaders supported by the state
• The imposition of a supposedly Christian morality on the entire society (although normally Old Testament moral standards were applied)
• A hierarchical ecclesiastical system, based on a diocesan and parish arrangement, which was analogous to the state hierarchy and was buttressed by state support
• The construction of massive and ornate church buildings and the formation of huge congregations
• A generic distinction between clergy and laity, and the relegation of the laity to a largely passive role
• The increased wealth of the church and the imposition of obligatory tithes to fund this system
• The defense of Christianity by legal sanctions to restrain heresy, immorality, and schism
• The division of the globe into "Christendom" or "heathendom" and the waging of war in the name of Christ and the church
• The use of political and military force to impose the Christian faith
• The use of the Old Testament, rather than the New, to support and justify many of these changes ²

Historians have traditionally regarded this time as the great triumph of Christianity, but it questionable whether this was really the case.  With the advent of Christendom, the church fundamentally changed from being a grass-roots people movement, to being a state institution.  Though it seemed like a triumph, it led to many difficulties, some of which are only becoming obvious now that Christendom is so clearly crumbling. 

Notes:

1. Stuart Murray, Church after Christendom p6

2. Stuart Murray, Post-Christendom: Church and Mission in a strange new world 

Post Script - can't work out why the spacing has gone funny on this post, it sometimes seems to happen when you have pasted something in, but I can't seem to overrule it.  Anyone know how? Maybe its just blogger.