We do what at church?

It's always a favourite conversation among church leaders - what do we think about Baptism (infant or otherwise), the Lord's Supper (how often, at what age) and liturgy (why having it is wrong, even though we do everything the same way each week...). This post here - "Conversations with Nathan" - is a fantastic read - a true conversation between a teenager and father who visited one particular church in America. Even if you disagree with the teenager's point of view you will enjoy it.

A sample:

Nathan: Why are they so afraid of liturgy? We could explain that it isn’t hard to mean it when you say it.

Papa: But they won’t want to do it anyway. They want to be different every week.

Nathan: Really? Different every week?

Papa: Yes.

Nathan: What do they do differently? Do they sometimes take the offering at the end of the service instead of in the middle?

Papa: No. That’s always at the same time.

Nathan: Do they sometimes have the preaching at the beginning?

Papa: No, that’s at the same time too.

Nathan: Then what do they do that’s different?

Papa: They sing different songs.

Nathan: So does our church.

Papa: Well, it really comes down to the fact that they don’t have prayers and responses for the congregation to read.

Nathan: Why not?

Papa: They think that reading prayers and responses keeps people from worshiping.

Nathan: Really? What do they think the people should do instead?

Papa: Just sit there and do nothing.

The Cross and other religions

Last Wednesday I attended some lectures about the challenges and opportunities of Christian Mission to the Muslim and Hindu communities in this country. It was a useful reminder that Christians should be engaging with these communities, showing friendship and hospitality, listening to what they believe (not just what we think they believe!) and also listening to their fears. For example, I didn't know that the Hindu community currently feel very marginalised: both government and Church are bending over backwards to engage with Muslims (for obvious reasons) but very little is heard about making such Hindus have their say.

However, as with many things Church of England, there was a rather obvious lack of engagement with the main questions:

Do Muslims and Christians worship the same God? The speaker said yes. He mentioned one 'faithful Muslim' who loves going to Taize services - a display of unity despite 'doctrinal differences'. It seemed to be taken for granted that Muslims at least partly honour Jesus by declaring him a prophet.

Is there revelation outside Christ and the Bible? The speaker said yes, in response to a question which insisted we shouldn't ignore books such as the Bhagavad Gita. He mentioned approvingly church services in which there had been three readings: Old Testament, Gospel and Bhagavad Gita, although acknowledging that this would be difficult for some.

Although these main questions were touched on, as the examples show, there was no theological engagement with them.

One of Luther's best contributions to the Church was his distinction between a "Theology of Glory" and a "Theology of the Cross". Put simply, if we hold to a theology of glory we imagine God is rather like we think him to be. We claim to know intuitively what "strength" and "glory" and "power" are, and imagine God to be the most strong, most glorious and most powerful. (See here for a better, but still short, summary.)

Luther, like the apostle Paul (see e.g. 1 Corinthians 1-2), thought differently. Sin has darkened our minds so that we do not think straight. What God is like is not what we think him to be like, but he is as he has revealed himself, and this most clearly at the cross. God's true strength, glory and power are revealed in the weakness, shame and humility of the cross.

In other words: a god without the cross is not the True and Living God. Muslims claim to honour Jesus while denying that he was crucified, but this is to deny all that Jesus stood for. It is in fact to mock and dishonour the true Jesus who came, he said, to give his life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45). Similarly, while the Bhagavad Gita may contain some nice stuff, it does not reveal Truth because it never takes us to Christ and him crucified.

Self-delusion

Christianity does not sit well with self-belief. No religion or faith or philosophy is quite so negative about humanity's propensity to be self-deluded, deceived, or just plain wrong!

"The heart is deceitful beyond all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?" says Jeremiah 17:9

Occasionally, this is noticed by others. Here's an article from www.lifehack.org saying "The Brain is not your friend". A sample:

A mind is a terrible thing. Whether because of the brain’s internal structure or the way social and cultural pressures cause our minds to develop and function, in the end the result is the same: minds that are not only easily deceived and frequently deceptive in their own right, but when caught out, refuse to accept and address their errors. If you have a mind — or even half a mind — you might be best off losing it entirely. Barring that, though, there are a few things you should know about the enemy in your head. Before it hurts someone.

The article ends up a bit positivistic - thinking we may be able to fix it. The reality is we might be able to tweak ourselves, but only Jesus Christ can really sort us out. A life-time task completed only at the resurrection, I might add!

You know you haven't been posting when...

You know when you haven't been posting entries to your blog when you start typing your blog URL into your web browser and it doesn't auto-complete for you.

I'm determined to post a bit more frequently. Like the fact that I got ordained a few weeks ago...

Church is more exciting than you think!

Many local churches have their share of people who turn up on Sunday, slip away before coffee and are not seen until next week. There may be all sorts of reasons for this, good and bad. Maybe one reason is because people have not caught a vision of what the Church is called to be. Is is simply a feeding-station as we wait for heaven? Or a place to carry out our religious duties?

Ephesians is possibly the book to read to get a fantastic vision of the Church. Time would be well-spent simply pondering the different titles and descriptions we are given, such as 'saints' or 'God's household'.

A verse that continues to amaze me is Ephesians 3:10 -

God's intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms...

It takes a bit of digging around Ephesians to work out what this means, but basically it is saying that as the church demonstrates the unity we have in the Spirit (a unity of different races and backgrounds) God's wise plan (of bringing all things under Christ, see 1:10) is made known to the evil spiritual rulers and authorities (see 6:12). Go here to read a sermon by John Piper on this verse: it will transform the way you understand the purpose of church!

An unusual place to practise my caving

In moments of vanity, I'm sure we have all googled our name at some point. Searching mine found an article and photo of me hanging around inside a church bell tower in Galmpton, South Devon. It's taken from sometime in my first year at University, judging from the bad glasses and bad hair...

Read the original article (and why I'm doing it!) here (you'll need to scroll down a little bit).

N.B. It talks about going up and down the rope in safety. Well, I managed to forget all my knot tying methods as I was setting the gear up, so I did an unsuitable knot lots of times. I'm sure it was safe. Honest.

The beauty of lives changed by Jesus, changing other lives

Here's another link to Kaleo Church. It's the account of how God changed the life of a woman and is now using her to share the love of Jesus with others. Go and read it.

This is why I want to be ordained and serve as a minister/vicar/elder (pick your favourite jargon!). To see changed lives changing the lives of others. This woman (no name is given) was a keen Christian but needed to rediscover what grace meant. Her description of the change in her life is a joy to read:

About a year ago I lived in a really amazing place. I loved it there! Life was good... and then one day I found this random door, this strange door that I had never noticed. I opened it up and was astonished at what I saw. That whole time I had been living in a tiny bathroom and on the other side of that door was a huge house... the rest of God's house. Since then I have been running from room to room, jumping on the beds, sliding down the banister and exploring every nook and cranny, fumbling around as I try to take it all in. I know that I will never get to every room, but I am so blessed by what I have seen. God used Kaleo to open that door for me... a door to show me just how much I didn't know or understand and how much there was to discover in Christ.

N.B. You don't have to be ordained to see lives changed - but I get paid for the privilege of sharing Jesus with others!

Kaleo San Diego: A Church that knows why it exists

I'm a big fan of goodmanson.com and enjoy the occasional visit to the website of the church in which he is a pastor: Kaleo San Diego Church. They have recently updated their website - go take a look!

Central to the page are four tabs: 'Blog', 'Message', 'Motivation' and 'Mission'. You should read the last three because:

• It shows a clearly thought out reason for the church's existence;
• The theology is great!
• I want to use these myself one day.

Many churches blunder along, never sure of what they are doing and (more importantly) why they are doing what they are doing. Go and take a look and get excited about what God is calling you to do.

Keep the children amused during summer

The excellent Lifehacker website is generally most useful when it comes to using computers, internet etc to actually make life easier. But they are not limited to all things geekery. These two links may give some ideas for keeping the kids amused during the long summer weeks.

10 Cheap things to do with young children

Make your own Flubber (or follow the links for play dough, silly putty and more!)

Do you know any other good resources?

Broadband has arrived!

Finally, broadband has arrived, my WiFi card is working and I can now connect online at home. What a relief. Hopefully this will mean an increase in posting levels, once I finish my Genesis 27 sermon and come back from Keswick.