sheep or goat? – april 14

Reading Matthew 25, Highlighted Passage: 25:31-46

Another uncomfortable parable. I have heard it preached on as if the message is that we should care for other Christians but feel that is too narrow a perspective. In keeping with my challenge of reading scripture against myself (with thanks to Pauline Hoggarth), I find myself wondering if I fall in to the righteous category or not!

This is also an interesting story in the light of Rob Bell’s latest book – Love Wins – more on that after I have heard him speak next week in Liverpool. In the meantimne when will I be feeding the hungry, caring for the sick or visiting those in prison in the next month – now that is a challenge!

God’s heart for the poor

On thursday we visited 3 mission projects in Narobi. The one I went to see was in the Korogocha slum. This is one of the poorest in the city with almost everyone unemployed.

We went to a Medical Centre who have a maternity clinic in the slums. Its like a beacon in the midst of the darknesss. We were met by the doctor who talked about how they charge very little and make a loss in order to help the mothers who come to them.

We were then taken by the mothers to their home where we talked with them about what it is like to live in the slums. The mother that Cristi from Romania and I went with was called Lilian. She had a breach delivery and the baby needed to be resuccitated. They live in a room about 8 foor by 10 foot with a stove, a bed, a sofa and very little possessions. The walls were made of mud and metal pipes. The roof was metal and there was an illegal electricity supply.

Kevin who lives with her volunteers for the Red Cross at times but one of the main ways of getting money is collecting plastic and glass from the nearby rubbish tip and selling it. I asked Lilian if she did that and she said ‘yes she leaves the baby with neighbours’.

I discovered that these people pay rent to live in the slums. This is structural exploitation. The system takes money from them and people get rich on their poverty. This is all sanctioned by the government. Olga  commented ‘people should not have to live like this’ and that is a great summary of what many of us feel

My overriding feeling was initially one of surprise. People were resilient and they were surviving. The clinic offers hope in some areas and is effective in demonstrating word and deed mission. But over time this surprise turned to anger. This is a system that makes it difficult to escape from the slums. Lilian came to the slums as a 9 year old when her father died and her mum could not cope. She is now 19 living there with a 4 month old baby.

In contrast we have seen many signs for churches and there is a massive divide between the rich and poor churches. Alongside that there is the NGO’s in the area. I realise that its impossible to do everything but it’s hard to imagine living here and turning a blind eye to the injustice.

Yet I ask myself, ‘Do I do the same back home?’. What does it mean for me back in England to do something about the injustice I see around me?

Not how I imagined!

On Saturday we were part of a reception here at Brackenhurst for SU Kenya. There were presentatiions from movements around the world – India, Tajikistan and Fiji as well as from within Africa. It was an interesting afternoon although I am still shaking my head regarding the stats from India: 1.3 billion, 4% Christian (over 50 million), 350 million gods, over 400 languages. How do you actually even begin to do mission in that world.

 But the other thing that has changed is my perception of SU International.  I imagined that SU England, Scotland Australia – they would be large. The others they would be small. Of course some are: SU Romania is very small. SU Queensland is massive (just under 600 staff) due to its chaplaincy programme. SU Nigeria employs 345 staff.  The impact of our work has been put in perspective too. SU Ghana has been running for 120 years. They have 40 staff but volunteers run 1566 school groups

 So the challenge for me is making sure that we use our resources wisely. Of course for most movements it’s the empowerment of volunteers that is central and as we look ahead this is a key piece of strategy for us to invest in.

Gospel and culture

Joe Kapolyo is minister of a church in London. He is also a member of SU council and grew up in Zambia. His sessions with us included a look at the way in which the gospel and culture are connected and what we should do about.

Although this is not a new area of thinking for me, the African perspective was really helpful. It made me stop and think about my own culture and how it impacts the way I see the Bible and faith. I know that my working class upbringing influences how I see the world. It makes me value extended family and friends more than my current middle class culture. I also need to be willing to critique that working class upbringing. My left wing political views have their origins there too and I also need to put those under the microscope of the Bible.

I need to allow my core values to be shaped by God so that I can more and more be shaped by him and made into his likeness

Being a Global Christian

Please accept my apologies that I haven’t posted for a few days. I had some computer problems and access to the internet was proving difficult – all sorted now. Expect multiple postings as I try to catch up.  

I have an increasing feeling of being both privileged and challenged over these few days. Our community consists of enormous SU movements as well as small ones. News off the challenges being faced by Togo after the elections and the violence in Nigeria are impossible to ignore when you are spending time with people from those countries. I have been involved in co-ordinating the worship and I have really enjoyed singing in multiple languages including English (easy that one), Russian, Hindi, Congolese, and French (challenging for a failed linguist). But it’s the same God we serve and although we may express that differently it gives real meaning to the sense of what it means to be a family from every tribe tongue and nation.  

The challenge is in working out how I keep that international perspective in mind when I return home. It needs to be a motivating force for what we do locally.

Unseen Footprints

Among the books I’ve re-read this year has been ‘Unseen Footprints: Encountering the Divine Along the Journey of Life‘ by Sheridan Voysey kindly sent to me by SU Australia. It’s a fantastic read and is very much an evangelistic book for contemporary western society. Instead of starting with proving God, it looks for evidence of him in our world – his footprints.

In many ways it offers a similar approach to Tom Wright’s ‘Simply Christian’. But whereas Tom’s book is like CS Lewis’ ‘Mere Christianity’, Sheridan’s book is at a more popular and engaging level. There is a fantastic chapter in it all about our vision of the future and how it shapes life in the present.

‘God dreams that we become all he designed us to be, with all our individual flair and talent realised, But he wants even more for us. He dreams of us embodying the luminous character of Jesus Christ, “our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.” God dreams of that flame of faith within us growing until we become people of light.’ (p135)

and then he goes on to say that we are called to transform this world by doing 4 things

Imitating the genorosity of God
Expressing the life of God
Cultivating the heart of God
Celebrating the love of God

This so much echoes the challenge and call to missional community that I feel.

The Four Generations

Recently read an interesting Grove booklet by John Finney. ‘The Four Generations: Finding the Right Model for Mission’

In this the proposal is made that we need to explore different approaches for each generation

Generation 1: adults and children go to church so have a good background knowledge of faith
Generation 2: adults don’t go but send their children so all still have some knowledge of faith
Generation 3: neither go to church nor send their children so adults some knowledge of faith but children have none
Generation 4: nobody goes to church or has a background knowlegde of faith

He then suggests that our approach to evangelism depends on which generation we are reaching

Generation 1: evangelism centred on preaching in church
Generation 2: evangelism by mass evangelism and/or nurture group
Generation 3: evangelism by nurture group
Generation 4: evangelism by long period of instruction and fellowship

There is also a critique of the place of groups

My own reflection on this is that its a useful analysis but I would like to go one step further and think about evangelism beginning with community engagement. Perhaps the weakness of the booklet is that it doesn’t offer a model of evangelism founded on an an incarnational approach. There may be some clues to the way ahead by looking at the renewed emphasis on spiritual formation but if people are not in contact with the church how will they meet Christians in the first place?

That will require us to think about how we engage with communities that no longer want to engage with church or faith.

Thinking aloud

For some time I have been wondering about writing a blog. There have been a number of questions buzzing around in my head about the value of blogs for sharing ideas, connecting with others etc, etc and I find myself amazed that people find the time.

But as I approach the end of my 20th year on the Scripture Union staff I wonder if there might be some value in dialoguing with others about the issues of life and faith and the way that they interact and intersect.

So here I am – thinking aloud about what comes my way.

But there are some parameters too

1. Mission

I am passionately concerned about how we connect the good news of the Christian gospel with those who would never even consider entering a church. In recent years I have been challenged about whether or not my comfortable midle class existence has led me to accomodate and even compromise the gospel so it fits me. Last summer I began under the prompting of God to explore what that really means in practice by getting involved in mission activity on a local estate. This involved leaving my evangelical anglican church which I had attended for over 25 years and getting to know Christians who have a concern for the same estate. The challenge finally came to a head through listening to Rob Bell speak on Acts 19 at Youthwork the conference in 2006.

2. Young people

For most of the last 30 years I have been involved in relating to teenagers – as a secondary school teacher, schools worker, volunteer youth leader. Investing in the next generation is key to the future and I love seeing young people grow and become the people God made them to be. That is why I continue to be involved in youth work even now.

3. The Bible

I believe that God’s story of redemption contained in the Bible is the adventure of life that we have all been called to be part of. We need to join in with what God is doing in the world and help people to engage with the Bible. The decline in Biblical Literacy is not just that people don’t know Bible stories, it is that the story of the Bible is no longer the or even one of the framing stories for their lives.

It is with those three areas in mind that I have begun a D Min in theology this week
Exploring the practical implications of the decline in Biblical Literacy for the practice of Christian Youth Work

Watch this space for developments in all three areas