June 2009 Archives

Spent today in rather remarkable company - most of the London Bishops, Archdeacons and Diocesan figures, together with a veritable who's-who of London anglican church leaders of all sorts of stripes, but one thing in common - a commitment to church-planting as a key part of a London-wide strategy for evangelism and growth.

People talk often of the death of the CofE, but someone hasn't told this bunch - the leaders of HTB, St Helen's Bishopsgate and All Souls, Langham Place, together with many others (including myself, Charles and Dave MacDougal, representing the St Stephen's plants) have been speaking with passion and belief about reaching London...

The conviction at the heart of the meeting is that the Diocese wants to be a "can do" and permission-giving organisation, rather than one that puts barriers in the way - that's not always been the way it's been seen (nor, perhaps, acted), but I do believe that's the intent and it's exciting to hear.

Most of the readers of this blog will know that All Souls is a "twice-planted" church. One hundred years ago by All Saints Isleworth into a newly-populated part of their previously rural parish and then nine years' ago, a fresh start following years' of decline as St Stephen's Twickenham sent a team to get things going again.

It's that second experience of being replanted that, of course, gives me the passion for the effect this can have. The alternative for this particular community would have been a huge church building that was turned into flats (we've even met a builder who had an offer in on All Souls!) and no church community within walking distance. That would have been, as our previous Bishop of Kensington recognised, a complete disaster for Christian witness in St Margarets and Isleworth.

Instead, we've now got a thriving church increasingly populated by people who live locally, many of whom weren't going anywhere to church previously and others who've moved into the area and are delighted to be able to choose to go to a local church.

What's been glorious today is hearing church leaders talking about nothing but outreach, passionate about people meeting Jesus for themselves and willing to do anything they can to make it possble.

Hurdles there are a-plenty, of course - the problem of opposition from other church, the money needed to get buildings usable (something we've known only-too-well here), balancing big-picture strategy with local vision, the need for people resources and key leaders and many more.... but the over-riding feeling of the day has been a positive one of possibility, passion and promise.

Nice to go to a day that invigorates and challenges. Probably more reflections as I mull over the day in the coming week...

What next for All Souls? Well, first, we're effectively planting within our own building on a Sunday afternoon. Perhaps one day we'll be looking to plant elsewhere... what we've been given by the risk-taking of the church-planters of St Stephen's, we want to pass on.

What is mission? Who do we go to, what do we say, what are we hoping will happen as a result?

Live questions for every church in every time, but none more so than for us now in All Souls as we think about what the next chapter in our life together entails.

The Archbishop is often criticised for being 'woolly' or lacking a cutting edge, but his June 9th address to a mission society is challenging, clear, biblical and very thought-provoking indeed.

You can read it in full on the Archbishop's own site (and download the mp3 there too) and plenty of blogs have picked it up with very helpful comments of their own (Daniel Hartley and Jason Goroncy - not blogs I've come across before - both strike me as particularly useful).

But here are a few 'purple passages' that stand on their own two feet and are worth chewing on:

Following in God's footsteps
...the very general principle that mission is never a matter of taking God where he hasn't been before ... In every act of mission, God is there ahead of us.

The Good News
...Mission is not about introducing a ...rather shy God to people that he's never met before. It's much more a question of saying to people that God is more interested in you than you are in God. And the good news is that if you show signs of interest of response, trust and love, then that interest turns into profound intimacy and relationship. God is nearer than you think.

The effect
Mission is release from sickness, from death, literally, from isolation (leprosy), from the demonic and the destructive forces that suck human beings down into darkness both inside and outside. Mission is crucially about tangible change, visible release...

Our motivation
Gratitude is why we do it, because we can't help it. Why are we seeking to share the good news of Jesus Christ? It is because we have received without payment an inestimable gift, which will not stay still in our hands

The Archbishop sums up in these pithy words...

Where do we start? Where God has started.
What do we say? God is nearer that you think.
What do we do? We seek to bring Christ-shaped change.

Genius is, of course, a hugely overused word, but I used it the other day of a man that seems to have such an effortless ability to do broadcast media, especially Radio, that it seemed appropriate - Chris Moyles.

He's also someone I've listened to on many occasions (though never regularly, nor for long) and who's had me laughing out loud and being drawn into his "virtual company" of friends... something radio can do in a way TV can only dream about (a subject for another day perhaps).

Problem is that in the midst of that talent Chris Moyles has been hugely and unnecessarily offensive to plenty of people - especially those who are "easy targets".

I'm sorry, therefore, that I was way too quick to talk in terms of being a "fan" of his - though I confess I've enjoyed the many times I've heard him - and, especially in the light of his recent censure by OFCOM, I'd be apalled if anyone took that comment to mean approval of all he stands for and has said.

That being said... the original point still stands, in fact, it's strengthened. Chris Motles is just the sort of person we write off as being (a) unlikely to be interested in church and (b) beyond reach of the Good News of Jesus. Wrong on both accounts.

I've always been a bit of a fan of Chris Moyles, the load-mouthed, opinionated (and, imho, genius) Radio 1 Breakfast presenter - though I don't get to listen to him much these days... and he's created a bit of a stir this past week on the Christian facebook / YouTube / twitter channels with his remarks - and subsequent animated discussion - live on Radio 1 about a Songs of Praise Pentecost service from Kingsgate Community Church in Peterborough.

It's a wonderful 6 minutes of Radio - he's been bowled over completely by watching a service that has "life", "enthusiasm" and "a bass guitar"... but isn't it surprising how surprised most of us are that he's responded like that?

There's a whole chunk of people we've assumed will never respond to church positively - the 'cool', the cynical, men, teenagers, rich people... you name it, we've written them off.

It doesn't have to be that way though - we've seen that many, many times. People can find what they don't expect in church, something that cuts through their childhood experiences (Moyles was brought up Catholic), prejudices and cynicism.

Who would you ask to church, but have assumed they'd just laugh?