Archive for May, 2011
First People—Picking up the Baton
From Paul Cameron, EO:
Today is ‘Sorry Day’ 2011. It seems an appropriate time to comment on a number of steps the All Churches Summit-AGM and Conference Council have taken in seeking to express our newly adopted Justice Value in the area of Indigenous Ministry.
At the recent All Churches Summit-AGM we adopted a new Statement of Purpose. It included a Common Mission—To be a movement of the people of God gathering around the central figure of Jesus Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit, living out his Way in our local contexts and inviting others to do the same.
One of the consequential Values also adopted is Justice—We value the dignity, equality and inherent worth of all persons regardless of gender, race, economic standing or belief system. Therefore, in announcing the Kingdom and expectant of its arrival, we will work for social justice, equal opportunity for all persons, and the responsible care and management of the environment.
The All Churches Summit and the May 25 meeting of Council approved a number of steps that seek to express this Value in the area of Indigenous Ministry, as we work towards the fulfilment of our Common Mission. Council has been considering these actions for some time, and counts it a privilege to be providing servant leadership in this way.
PLEASE READ ON FOR THE GOOD NEWS!
But FIRST, let’s put it all in context. Back in February some of us participated in an event at Thornbury church—Partners: Celebrating Indigenous Ministry. A diverse group of people from city and country gathered to take part in this important partnership conversation.
Stories of past and present were shared by Dennis and Maureen Atkinson (AEF), John and Ruth Saulo (Dareton), and Tony and Francine Riches (Footscray). Song items were presented in the heart language of some of the indigenous people there, and everyone was invited to join in and learn a new tongue.
Those present were encouraged (and challenged) by the wise words of Dennis after he shared two inspiring stories of indigenous leadership: “We could tell so many sad stories…through all the sadness and discrimination these pastors still had a love for God that overcame all that; they still evangelised indigenous and non-indigenous people…their ministry has survived because of God in their lives—despite the other stuff…Australia will one day be held accountable by God, but meanwhile let’s preach the gospel, together, for and to our people…”
Federal Co-ordinator (Craig Brown) and I were also invited to speak. Together we acknowledged the great heritage of indigenous ministry in Churches of Christ, of how the baton has been dropped, significantly dropped at particular times over recent years, but that together we are moving into a new time and a new day, that it is time to be picking up the baton once again. Indications were given of proposed future actions that would assist in the realisation of this new era.
As stated above it has been Council’s privilege to have been working at raising the profile of Indigenous ministry in Vic/Tas. Among other things, Council has involved a key national indigenous leader (Billy Williams) in an AGM, opening up his participation in a range of other activities in Melbourne and beyond; supported, with M&M, two new ministry initiatives at Dareton and Footscray; co-hosted (with Thornbury church) the dialogue and story-telling event mentioned above; taken the initiative to table the idea of a Preamble to the Constitution acknowledging a range of issues related to the First People of this land; resolved to invite all churches to implement a practical, down-to-earth Indigenous Ministry Engagement Kit that will assist them in their participation in Indigenous Ministry in their context or elsewhere; and sought to find new funding streams for Indigenous Ministry in Vic/Tas.
At its May 25 meeting Council resolved to invite the Mission and Ministry Board to form an Indigenous Ministries Task Group and to appoint its inaugural members. M&M and the Group will design a Purpose Statement and any necessary lines of accountability and reporting. The roles of the group could include (among other things) facilitating regional and local conversations around the proposed Preamble to the Constitution, history gathering and recording, the creation of a Indigenous resource centre and library, the facilitation and management of Indigenous Ministry Engagements and Church Partnerships via the Kit approved at the AGM, holding periodic Pastor Sir Doug Nicholls and storytelling events, and other areas of ministry and community service, action and justice that M&M consider fits the Group’s purposes.
The Task Group will also, in partnership with M&M, manage the distribution of the income of funds newly set aside in the Church Development Fund for Indigenous ministry. These funds have been released by Council (as flagged in February, and in the Indigenous Ministry Review Report) through the establishment of an Indigenous Ministries Trust within the Church Development Fund. The Trust has been opened with an initial capital sum of $500 000 (around 16% of the proceeds of the sale of the former Ashburton church’s property) and income generated will be available to support Indigenous Ministry. We will be open to receive further donations from churches and individuals, as well as bequests, as contributions to the Trust’s capital.
The M&M Board when considering the membership and the leadership of the new ‘Indigenous Ministries Task Group’, will give a high priority to the participation of Indigenous people, and/or those involved directly in Indigenous Ministry.
We are picking up the baton. We invite all churches, their ministers, leaders and members to do the same.
It is a practical and life- and world-changing way of living out our Values, of fulfilling our Common Mission, of announcing the Kingdom.
~
What Sort of Movement?
Churches of Christ are known to be an invitational movement, an inclusive, and (from a position of servanthood rather than of power) an influential movement. This has formed some of the background thinking to the work of reimagining a new Statement of Purposes, including the new Common Mission.
The Common Mission is To be a movement of the people of God gathering around the central figure of Jesus Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit, living out his Way in our local contexts and inviting others to do the same.
Let’s look at our Common Mission, piece by piece:
“To be a movement of the people of God”
What sort of movement? A movement of the people of God. Building and experiencing community, conversation and trusting relationships are important to us. But so is being constantly renewed by God, fluid and organic about non-essentials, yet firm and centred on the essentials.
It looks a bit like this: Message >> Method >> Mission Context
Our Message never changes. Since the beginning one of the ways this Good News of the Kingdom has been summed up in John 3:16. We hold firm to the Message. It never changes.
Our Mission Context is constantly changing, often in rapid and discontinuous (or unexpected) ways. We no longer live in earlier centuries. We now live in the 21st Century. It is different to earlier times. We all live in different contexts too.
Our Methods must be completely flexible so that the unchanging Message can be heard, understood and received in the changing and different Mission Contexts we find ourselves.
Prayerfully,we will be a movement characterised by Steve Addison in his book Movements that Change the World, so we will have: White hot faith, a commitment to a cause, contagious relationships, a capacity for rapid mobilization and to implement adaptive methods.
“gathering around the central figure of Jesus Christ”
For the movement known as Churches of Christ, it’s all about Jesus. He is central to everything we are on about, for “nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus”. We gather around nothing and no one else.
It will always look like this for us: Christology >> Missiology >> Ecclesiology
We must always get our understanding of Jesus, our Christology if you like, right before we look at anything else. More than that, we must get our relationship with Jesus right. We must discover and express this in the biblical ways of faith and repentance and confession and baptism and receipt of the Holy Spirit. Through faith we must place ourselves in him, and allow him to be Lord of all we are and hope to be, and all we have and hope to have.
When we get our Christology right, our Missiology will emerge spontaneously, and any necessary Ecclesiology (the shape of ‘church’ and gathering together as the called out people of God) will also emerge in ways that are right for each context.
“empowered by the Holy Spirit”
As a movement of the people of God, gathering around the central figure of Jesus Christ, the words of the prophet Zechariah ring true: “He said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts”.
We become the movement God wants us to be not by human strength or wisdom or imagination, or through manmade systems or structures, but through the empowering of God’s Spirit; we are drawn to the central, saving figure of Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit; we are united together (interdependent like the human body) by the Holy Spirit; we are gifted and impassioned to live out the Jesus Way (and to invite others to do the same…) by the Spirit; and we will be daily renewed by the same Spirit.
“living out his Way in our local contexts”
It is important to see that the movement of the people of God we are committed to being does not follow our way, but the Way of Jesus. And his Way is the Way of the cross, of selfless, sacrificial service. The Way commanded that we be people who are loving God, and loving people; people who are living as Christ lived, as outlined for us in the New Testament, including rather starkly in texts like Philippians 2:1-11.
As noted above, all local mission contexts are different. We are called to live out the Way of Jesus where God has located us; to discern where God is already at work in our neighbourhoods; and to announce his presence, the presence of the Kingdom, and how this is best understood and lived when in relationship with Jesus Christ.
Our Message is the same (which is the basis for the unity and interdependence of our movement), but the Methods used to live the Message out will be different in almost every local context (which provides the rich beauty of our movement’s diversity).
“and inviting others to do the same.”
The deep story as Churches of Christ is that of a movement of the people of God with an invitational culture. This deep story incorporates endless stories of inviting people: into a relationship with God the Father, Son and Spirit, through Jesus; to be baptised by immersion as believers; to ‘break bread’ and to participate in the Lord’s Supper, which is always an ‘open table’; into a relationship with all other like-minded and like-spirited Jesus-followers around the corner and around the world; to receive the gifts and the fruit and the passion of the HS, releasing all people—women and men, young and older—into life- and world-changing ministry and mission.
I’m excited to part of this movement. What about you?
~ Paul Cameron, Executive Officer ~
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Renewal Tension: Not Just ‘Us’. Not Just ‘Now’.
From Paul Cameron—Executive Officer:
This photo shows an old, hollowed out tree trunk, out of which is emerging a new green sapling. When I see that tree image, I see new beginnings. I see fresh starts. I see renewal. I see Christians and communities of Christians changing and being transformed. I see new emerging from old. I see the older nurturing and releasing the younger and newer. I see life emerging from death. I see energy emerging from tiredness, lethargy and apathy. I see love emerging from hatred. I see unity emerging from division. I see future emerging from past. I see wholeness and wellbeing emerging from brokenness and ill health. I see the past, the present and the future. I see reformation and restoration and renewal, all happening at the same time. I also see the conflict that can emerge from deep life- and world-changing renewal.
In the consideration of issues, the making of decisions, and the cultivation of a culture, it is easy to think that there is only the ‘now’ and the ‘us’, as we gather in a particular location, at a particular time, as a particular group of people.
Yet it is never just ‘now’. Or just ‘us’. We’re always ‘surrounded’ by a great crowd of witnesses[1]. People who have gone before, sometimes too early, sometimes on time. Founders. Spiritual ancestors. Mentors. Friends. Parents. Siblings. Lifelong partners. And of course, we will one day become part of that great crowd for the generations that follow…
Churches are an interesting mix of past, present and future. In the middle of that, churches are always in need of renewal, or change. That’s “because the human beings who make up the church are always in need of reform. In the 16th Century someone coined the Latin phrase, ecclesia reformata et semper reformanda—the church, reformed and always reforming”[2]. We could say, in the current conversation, the church, renewed and always experiencing renewal. Healthy churches seeking to be a sign, witness and foretaste of all that God has for the world through Jesus Christ, maintain a balance between past, present and future, because of a common history, a common present and a common future and hope. Sometimes of course these can be in conflict.
It is through the breaking of bread (or if you like, the Lord’s Supper) that I often sense this bigger picture, this crowd of witnesses. As Harper and Metzger so clearly enunciate it, “The church is not only a multi-cultural community, but also a historical community, one that finds its identity in the same God revealed in Jesus Christ… a community in living union with believers of all time, coming to the same table to meet the same Jesus encountered by the disciples…2000 years ago”[3].
The breaking of bread also reminds me of conflicts that led to the Easter narrative: conflicts between people, theologies, ideologies, histories and practices; conflicts between light and darkness, hope and hopelessness and finally, between life and death, crucifixion and resurrection.
Conflict is normal, where there is growth. Conflict is expected when Kingdom business is being transacted. Conflict occurs when there is change and transition, and as followers of Jesus we are all about change and transition.
It is never just ‘now’. Or just ‘us’… To pretend that it is denies the realities of the old and new and not-yet-birthed stories that we hold in tension, as followers of Jesus in these crazy days of the 21st century; people whose work includes announcing the Kingdom and living in expectation of its arrival, at some unexpected time.
What do you think?
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