The Secret Message of Jesus

I have started reading a new book.  Brian McClaren writes honest books that are more about answers than about questions.  So far I have only read two chapters of this latest book but I have to say I have not been so challenged about the reality of Jesus ‘EVER’.  McClaren is reminding me of all the reasons I signed up to follow Jesus 20 years ago.  Before I got ‘churched’ where I learned about a private and personal Jesus.  As an evangelist that is who I have told people about, one you died for mine and your sin.  McClaren is reminding me that I wanted to believe in a Jesus who said stuff about all parts of my life, not just personal discipline and behaviour, not just doing good things and serving others.  He writes “I’ve become convinced that although Jesus’ message was personal, it was not private.  I’ve been convinced that it has everything to do with public matters in general and politics in particular – including economics and aid, personal empowerment and choice, foreign policy and war.”  That is the Jesus I signed up to follow so I read the book with renewed excitement and enthusiasm to follow and Jesus that makes a difference to the world.

Church and Christianity

 

I blogged the other day that it is almost always the case that you canot be authentically Christian unless you are part of a Christian community. Why? The reason, I think, is that the gospel demands engagement in relationship. It has an individual element to it, but it is essentially a social religion. (read the rest here…)

from: maggie dawn

What is church..again?!

from Paul Mayers

I had a great time being on the panel which was thrown this question yesterday. Not least as it gave me a chance to listen to a diverse number of thoughts, both from my fellow panellists and from the people who were taking part in the seminar. So many differing views expressed for me to learn from, reminding me again that this is not an academic issue of reaching a correct definition but a living reality which we get to wrestle with together.

For me I find myself often pulling towards the sort of church that I would like – so ‘what is church?’ becomes ‘what would be ideal church?’ – it becomes about my preferences and experiences.

What is Church?

Click here for a picture.

Resource: The Mission Shaped Church

In 2004 a working group in the Church of England chaired by Bishop Graham Cray published a report called The Mission Shaped Church which outlined the issues relating to mission and church in the 21st Century:

• The report describes in detail the changes in society. It describes twelve different kinds of fresh expressions of church. It challenges the whole church to turn outwards in mission because of God’s call to be mission-shaped.
• The report encourages the churches to shift resources towards encouraging fresh expressions of church alongside the parish system. It makes a number of recommendations to enable this to happen.
• The report was unanimously welcomed and commended by the General Synod in February, 2004 (the General Synod is the Church of England’s parliament). 14,000 copies of the report have been sold. It is now being widely studied across the churches and overseas.

This report can be bought or ordered at any Christian bookshop and is a foundational read as we look to mission. However, the fresh expressions website has a pdf copy you can download for free. Click here for The Mission Shaped Church.

Welcome!

Welcome to the ‘Fresh Rhythms’ blogsite which has come out of the Detling Summer Conference 07. I hope you all got home safely and have started the process of drying out from Wednesday night’s rains! I bet a hot shower and home comforts never felt so good!

I really enjoyed getting to know many of you and hearing your stories of how you are attempting to communicate the gospel to a changing world. I’m sure you would agree Kerry’s presentations were stimulating, thought provoking and inspiring. Hopefully, though this blogsite, we can carry on relationship building, conversing, sharing stories and encouraging one another as we travel through uncharted waters. Do e-mail me your stories, thoughts and reflections and return regularly for further posts.

Already I have put up an individual post for each of the sessions. Kerry’s powerpoint presentations can be downloaded from the relevant sessions. Do take time and comment on these posts so we can continue the conversation. To comment click on the ‘comments‘ link at the top of the post. Also in the side bars I have put a range of internet and blogsites related to fresh expressions and the emerging church. I hope you find this useful.

Finally, feel free to comment here on your continuing reflections, thoughts and questions about what we discussed at fresh rhythms. It was really encouraging for me (and I hope also for you!) to see so many of us engaged in such interesting discussions.

Yours, Simon

Session Four: Journeying forward, Journeying together

Session overview:

Culture is changing, church needs to adapt and change. In this final session we will pull together all the previous seminars and ask: ‘where do we go from here?’. This will be a time to reflect on our own church and situations recognising that this journey is one we share together.

Comment:

In this session Kerry did a brief presentation on Abraham and his ‘lack of direction (!)’.  We then discussed ‘What is the message of Jesus?’ focusing strongly on relationship with God and one another.

Seminar 3: Daring to re-think theology of Church, mission and gospel

Session Overview:

With specially invited guests we will be openly discussing key questions for the Church as we seek to express and live out the gospel to a changing culture. What is the message of Jesus? What is the gospel? What is church? What does it mean to mission and share the message of Jesus with those in a post-Christian society? What does it mean to be a new kind of Christian? This session will involve open and active discussion so be prepared to get your hands dirty!

Comment

This was a really interesting engaging session.  Our special guests included…

Kerry Thorpe – Fresh Expressions Missioner for Canterbury Diocese; founder Harvest New Anglican cell church

Paul Mayers – Runs “One for the Road” Blog and contributes to “Deep Church” and “Jason Clark“.  Has links with Emergent UK.

Oliver Harrision – Vicar St John’s Grove Green, an ecumenical church in Maidstone.

Diana Greenfield – Night Club Chaplain (Church Army)

Paul Franklin – Runs a Youth Congregation “Y”

In this session we openly discussed and reflected on these questions; What is Church? (incl. What does it mean to belong to church and do church? etc), What is mission?

Session 2: What is Fresh Expressions?

Session 2 overview:

 A fresh expression of church is intended as a community or congregation which is already (or has the potential to grow into) a church in its own right….”

Since New Testament times Christians have been called to see the gospel embedded in different cultures in appropriate ways. What does it mean to be church in our changing culture? How do we mission and spread the gospel in a post-Christian culture? What does Christianity look like in a postmodern culture? Across the country people have been setting up ‘fresh expressions’ of churches exploring these questions. This session will explore stories and case studies of people involved in this mission.

You can download Kerry’s powerpoint for this session here

An Immigration Problem

As I listened to Kerry this morning I was reminded of a comment made by Brian McClaren in his book A New Kind of Christian. I can, if I am not careful, forget that I am immersed today’s culture to a much greater extent than many of the other Christians around me. Brian McClaren explains that many Christians face an immigration problem. They are challenged by the need to enable others to discover the Kingdom of God and yet they struggle with how to different the world looks to the people around them. It is like asking a short-sighted person to look through through a pair of long-sighted prescription glasses, things are just not clear.

McClaren suggests that what many Christians need is a sponsor – someone who will help them make the transition or immigrate to a postmodern worldview. But why should they bother?

The responsibility of all Christians is to enable those around them to encounter the Kingdom of God. It is true that many people in todays world are spiritually aware but don’t have a context for their spirituality. They may even have tried Church but it didn’t ’scratch where they were itching’.

The challenge for Christians in the postmodern world is not just to go out and tell people about Jesus and bring them back to Church. The challenge is to immigrate into the culture and work with others to find ways of expressing the Kingdom of God that make sense.

I would like to consider myself a sponsor – someone who is ready and willing to help Christians who heart is to see God’s Kingdom come.