Whispers of God

From Paul Cameron, EO:

Recently I have been writing a bit on this blog about renewal, and in particular, renewal prayer. Another important aspect of renewal is the missional spiritual practice of ‘Dwelling in the Word’.

I was encouraged this week to discover that in one of our churches 50 of the 70-80 or so attenders are embarking on an ‘E100 Challenge’. This challenge involves reading 100 essential biblical texts—50 Old Testament and 50 New Testament, and it takes readers through the narrative of Scripture. The readings are achievable, 1-2 chapters long and take about 10 minutes each. The E100 Challenge is a Scripture Union initiative (find out more at www.e100challenge.com.au ). The purpose of the E100 Challenge is to reclaim the place of the text in the lives of people who are working out what it means to follow Jesus in the 21^st Century. As SU says, “The Bible is getting pushed to the outer realms of importance and even Christians are valuing it less and less. Statistics tell us that fewer than 25% of Christians read their Bible weekly, and most find it difficult to uncover any relevance and power for their lives”. I love the E100 idea!

I find dwelling in the Word or text is one of the places where I can hear the ‘whispers of God’ most clearly. So the question for us at this time of the year is this: What are you hearing this Christmas? We may hear him in the sounds of Christmas carols, Christmas sermons, and Christmas greetings. Maybe we will hear him in the voice of a newly born family member or another nearby child. Perhaps we will hear him in the silence that may be your Christmas (welcome or unwelcome as it may be).

In the spirit of the season then (and in the spirit of the question “what are you hearing this Christmas?”), I give to you the following reflection from a writer whose daily life places him in the world of NASA in the US. He has heard the whisper of God in his life because of the whisper of God he heard (and we also hear) in the old, old story of Christmas, which he hears as an ‘unplanned journey’. Maybe a gift you can give yourself this year is to hear the whisper of God in a new way in that old story.

Have a great Christmas, and I look forward to talking with you again next year.

~~~

With Us On Unplanned Journeys by Alan WardRead Luke 2:1-7

In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. (Luke 2:1)

Have you ever had to take a journey you didn’t want to take? Maybe you had to go somewhere you didn’t want to go or at a time that was nowhere near convenient?

My wife Laurie and I have been on one of those unplanned journeys of late. On September 30 we had a sewage backup in our basement and were displaced from our home for over two months. The (denominational) District Superintendent decreed that the parsonage at Lodge Forest was no longer fit for us to live in and we needed to seek alternate housing.  We spent almost 10 weeks in a hotel while we searched for a new place to call home. We finally found a house to move into (around the corner from where we were!) but this required packing and moving a few weeks before Christmas. Of all the times a pastoral family might choose to move their home, three weeks before Christmas is about the least preferred option.

The trip Mary & Joseph took from Nazareth to Bethlehem was one of those unplanned journeys.  …  Click here to read more

Stewards of a Story

In 1853 the first Church of Christ in Victoria or Tasmania was formed in Prahran, having first met rather less formally in the house of John Ingram in Queen St, Melbourne. Our churches grew in a frontier context: the rapid development of the colony after the discovery of gold. Most churches met first to break bread in the front room of a family home.

In common with other religious organisations the Churches of Christ have held their annual conferences for the purposes of devising plans for the co-operative work of evangelisation. Looking at the history of these conferences, it would appear that the earlier efforts, though attended with a certain measure of success, failed to accomplish all that might have been legitimately expected from them. It must be admitted that during this time there was a decided absence of unity among the churches. Many churches stood aloof from conferences, and individual (brothers and sisters) were not attracted to these gatherings…. (However) in 1882, the reconstructed conference, under a new constitution, held its first meeting, and from that time up to the present the successive conference meetings grew in favour…and increased in usefulness year by year…the churches working harmoniously together for the consolidation and extension of the Kingdom of God.[1]

This mission continues. The Victorian population has grown dramatically in that time and has become a mission field of around 5.3 million people, plus a further 500 000 in Tasmania, most of whom are not in a relationship with God. More than ever Churches of Christ need each other to maximise their effectiveness in fulfilling our mission and ministry, for we are not complete by ourselves.

This mission unites us. And this mission, can be defined as:

…a reborn, postimperial evangelism … proclaiming the same good news of the Kingdom of God that Jesus proclaimed. It would mean seeking to do so in the manner Jesus proclaimed it—in word and deed, through art and teaching, in sign and wonder, with clarity and intrigue, with warning and hope. It would mean recruiting people to defect from destructive ways and join God in the missio dei (“mission of God”), a decentralized, grassroots, spiritual-social movement dedicated to plotting goodness and saving the world from human evil—both personal and systemic. It would invite people into lifelong spiritual formation as disciples of Jesus, in a community dedicated to teaching the most excellent way of love…[2]

When we talk about renewal prayer, we are really talking about asking God to renew this missional spirit (“churches working harmoniously together for the consolidation and extension of the Kingdom of God”), we are committing to getting out of the way so that he can do that kind of renewing, and we are saying we are open to whatever shape his renewal will take.

As I see it, this is also about stewardship. We are stewards of a story. This story is truly God’s story: from Creation through to the coming of Christ and his life and ministry that clearly announced the Kingdom, centred around his death and resurrection (as narrated in the Gospels) and the subsequent arrival of the Holy Spirit that gave birth to and enabled the growth of the church (as narrated in Acts and Paul’s Letters), as we 21^st century Kingdom-bearers continue the mission and ministry of Jesus in our mission contexts.

We are also stewards of another story, the story of a group of people known as Churches of Christ, a people of God seeking to be faithful to God’s story[3].

The Conference Council of Churches of Christ in Vic/Tas is clear about its stewardship responsibilities as it “oversees the spiritual health and direction of Conference”[4]. Council is appointed by Conference to express this stewardship on behalf of affiliated churches. It seeks to do so prayerfully, in dialogue with affiliated churches, and with the heavy responsibility of accountability to those churches, but also to God who one day will hold those appointed from time to time as Council members, Partner Department board members and Conference leaders (a better word than staff) finally accountable for the stewardship on their watch. This stewardship sometimes calls Council, Departments and Conference leaders to ask uncomfortable questions, make unpopular stands and write challenging statements[5]. All this is done in obedience to God who is still writing our story, and who has given us the resources we need to achieve our part in the coming of the Kingdom, on earth as it is in heaven.

The All Churches Summit and AGM held each year is one place where this stewardship is communicated, celebrated and in appropriate ways, challenged by the stakeholders of Conference (affiliated churches, and the members thereof). Council, along with the four Partner Departments, takes this stewardship responsibility seriously.

The prayer of Conference leaders for this aspect of our stewardship responsibility is to continue to see “churches working harmoniously together for the consolidation and extension of the Kingdom of God”.

Conference leaders are excited by stories like the Sunday December 5, 2010 combined worship gathering held at the Bayswater church building. Currently there are three congregations using the Bayswater building: the Bayswater congregation, a multi-cultural church plant (Glory International), and Connection (the former Croydon church). The three congregations have come to co-locate under the imaginative interim leadership at Bayswater of Andrew Boutros. On that Sunday the three came together for worship. Bayswater led the Lords Supper, Connection led worship, facilitated by their minister Brian Macallan, and Chek Chia (of Glory International) preached. The gathering continued over a lunch provided by each congregation. This is a good story of interdependence, of “churches working harmoniously together for the consolidation and extension of the Kingdom of God”. We’d love to hear more of these stories!

This type of stewardship is the practical outworking of a sacrificial and selfless renewal prayer for a spirit of generosity. A God designed and constructed spirit of generosity will hold lightly to things that sometime we as frail humans want to hold tightly to (‘our’ buildings, ‘our’ service times, ‘our’ sort of music, ‘our’ way of doing things, ‘our’ sort of people etc etc); and hold more tightly to things that really matter (the generous and spacious hospitality-offering and receiving, ‘shalom’-bearing, kingdom-announcing, health-generating and justice-focussed way of living described in Luke 10).

We are stewards of a story that God is still writing. Our best renewal prayer might well simply be, “God, bring it on!”

Paul Cameron—Executive Officer

~

For Reflection:

1. As a person working out what it means to follow Jesus in the 21^st century, how do you express this Kingdom-like generous stewardship? 
2. As group of people (or a ‘church’) who together are working out what it means to be faithful to God’s story in your mission context, how are you together expressing this kind of Kingdom-like generous stewardship?

 

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[1] Churches of Christ in Victoria by F.G Dunn in The Jubilee History of the Churches of Christ in Australasia, (1903, Austral Publishing Co), p155
[2] A New Kind of Christianity by Brian McLaren, HarperOne, 2010. p216
[3] For a thoughtful reflection on the church’s journey in the story of God, see Seeking a Lasting City (Mark Love, Douglas A Foster, Randall J Harris, ACU Press, 2005)
[4] See the Constitution of Churches of Christ in Vic/Tas Clause 14.
[5] For example, this statement from the recent Affinity discussion paper, listed as a benefit for affiliated churches: “Other than acknowledged specialist (incl. rural, alternative or new) churches: a commitment to an intentional future viability conversation with Churches of Christ when a church’s membership falls below 25; and a commitment to relinquish management to Churches of Christ when a church’s membership falls below 10.”

Missional Spirituality

I’ve been interested in the responses to the recent blog post calling for prayer for renewal. Click here to see them for yourself. I’d like now to put this call for prayer into context: it is prayer primarily for our renewal as a missional (or mission-shaped) tribe or church: ‘gathering around the central figure of Christ, living his Way out in our local contexts and inviting others to do the same’. It was not surprising to see a range of views expressed, reflecting personal understandings and experiences as well as some anxieties.

Over recent years I have appreciated writers like Richard Foster who in his book Streams of Living Water suggests that there are six key expressions of ‘church global’ (contemplative—prayer-filled life, holiness—virtuous life, charismatic—Spirit-empowered life, social justice—the compassionate life, evangelical—Word-centered life, and incarnational—sacramental life). Foster wrote that each was evident in the life, ministry and teaching of Jesus; each has (or has had) a particular emphasis of a tribe or a movement or an era of the church; and that it is healthy for each to be manifest in healthy and growing church communities, as well as in individual followers of Jesus.

Phyllis Tickle in her book The Great Emergence distils this list to four (liturgical/contemplative, social justice, evangelical and charismatic) and places them in a quadrilateral. Her helpful addition to the conversation is that when it comes to living this out, it easy for us to operate out of the far pointy corner of each quadrant (the one in which we best locate ourselves), and to look on anyone different to us (slightly in ‘our’ quadrant, or more definitely in other quadrants, and in particular their far point ends) with (to misquote Paul Ricouer) a ‘hermeneutic of suspicion’. The resulting judgement, pride and arrogance has generated discord, division and personal pain; as well as a breakdown in a capacity to be in meaningful mission, which after all is our primary purpose as followers of Jesus.

Tickle’s conclusion is that in these days (what she describes as a ‘great emergence’, something that happens in the church every 500 years or so) there is a greater willingness for people in the four quadrants to engage each other, drawing each other into a gathering and growing centre. It is in this growing centre that the Churches of Christ story of generous orthodoxy, unity in diversity etc is best located. And it would be our desire that this centre would be ever expanding, as people share a deepening affinity with each other under the lordship of Christ, the leadership of the Spirit and the loving guidance of the Father.

This is one thing that we need to be praying for: That we would be clear about our identity (who we are—a generously orthodox, mission-shaped network of churches gathering around the central figure of Christ) and our purpose (what we are here for—to live the Jesus Way out in our local contexts and to invite others to do the same; to discern where God is work in the world, and to carefully name him and to explain how this naming is best based on the uniqueness of Christ, and his crucial centrality to the Christian ‘salvation’ story; and to offer generous hospitality to all.)

Again, can I simply ask, Will you join us in praying for renewal in our churches and in our neighbourhoods, and for the willingness to get out of the way so that God can do that kind of renewal?

By the way, in the olden days when in the Future Directions process one tool that many found helpful was a rather simple missional spirituality health check that we adapted from some Renovare material. It encourages balance around spiritual disciplines that I think reflects well our deeper story, and the story we are being woven into. Feel free to use it. Regularly.

Remember, we are praying for the renewal of Churches of Christ as a missional movement. Will you join us?

~

Renewal Prayer

From Paul Cameron:

I concluded the last blog post with these words: Will you join us in praying for renewal in our churches and in our neighbourhoods, and for the willingness to get out of the way so that God can do that kind of renewal?

One respondent to this piece wrote,

“My understanding of renewal from a New Testament perspective is derived from passages like Titus 3:5 which speaks of a renewal brought about by the deep work of the Holy Spirit in our lives (see also, Col. 3:10 & 2 Cor. 4:16). The result is holiness and spiritual authority. If I were asked to identify the major issue for us as Churches of Christ, it would be spirituality. I believe, generally speaking, that with the loss of passionate spirituality over the last fifty years has come this great loss of spiritual momentum – and this has affected everything about us”.

This is a helpful commentary; and at the same time, a challenging one. Back in the ‘90s the Natural Church Development process that many of our churches entered regularly came to the same conclusion, almost as if it was planned. The lowest stave in the barrel (as NCD described it), was often the ‘Passionate Spirituality’ one. This caused lots of interesting conversations, some revealing, some defensive; some enlightening, some honest.

It is easy to make a caricature of passionate spirituality. Sadly in some places this happened, and maybe still does. The persistent pray-er, the dedicated worshipper, the intense intercessor, the faithful bible-reader all can be re-drawn cartoon style, in words or pictures, as impractical, ‘too-heavenly-minded-to-be-of-earthly-use’ kinds of people. These kinds of put-downs are unhelpful, un-Biblical, and un-Christian. In some cases and in some places, this may well be something that individuals and even entire churches might need to repent from.

I’ve begun to write about a related aspect of this in what I have described as a significant system-wide dilemma affecting everything from personal spiritual growth to leadership development:

Generally speaking in Churches of Christ, over the last 20-30 years, we may have failed to facilitate effective ‘personal spiritual formation’. In other words, we may have not done what we used to call ‘discipleship’ that well. Lives may have not been transformed. Often we have failed to develop in people the skills and capacities to feed themselves. In some places this may have been in reaction to formulaic discipleship processes, in other places it may have been replaced by either knowledge-centred or experience-based learning. Each are valid (and valuable), but not in isolation. Another challenge to deeper spiritual formation is the relatively low level ‘Sunday School’-type teaching that was popular in the 20^th Century.

My theory is that this has had a significant impact on our spiritual formation, as well as the development of all forms of leadership in our movement.

So I repeat, Will you join us in praying for renewal in our churches and in our neighbourhoods, and for the willingness to get out of the way so that God can do that kind of renewal?

Let’s build a prayer network within Churches of Christ in Vic/Tas.

Can I therefore request that all churches and mission agencies send to us a contact name and email address of a prayer convenor or minister or small groups coordinator or somebody else. This person will become the recipient of a regular prayer communication from Fairfield. You can send this Prayer-Link name to Claire at cegan[at]churchesofchrist.org.au.

This call to prayer will include issues like the ones we are discussing around renewal and affinity and mission, as well as other specific opportunities that emerge for the Partner Departments and Conference as a whole. It would be best that these prayer points be distributed to people or groups of people committed to intercessory prayer for renewal in their church and neighbourhood, in all our churches and neighbourhoods, and of Churches of Christ in Vic/Tas as an association of like-spirited and mission-shaped communities.

Please be aware that at 9.30am on the last Wednesday morning of each month leaders based at our Fairfield Centre also gather for prayer. That could be a time others could join us in the spirit of prayer, wherever they may actually be located.

Again, can I simply ask, Will you join us in praying for renewal in our churches and in our neighbourhoods, and for the willingness to get out of the way so that God can do that kind of renewal?

~

Have you seen any of the other comments on recent blog posts? Very interesting and worthwhile your time to check out! See the list to the right for quick access to them…

A Renewal Movement – Part 2

Part 2 from Paul Cameron, Executive Officer:

In Part 1 of this piece I wrote about the idea of seeing Churches of Christ as a renewal movement, and that this must be a renewal from God, rather than man.

What is exciting if not exhilarating, is that God is constantly renewing his church and his people. We are in a constant state of arrival, and of moving on. There are lots of stories of renewal emerging in and around Churches of Christ in Vic/Tas. As I have written elsewhere, it’s not as simple as restoring New Testament Christianity, or living out the Restoration principles of Stone and the Campbells. As Love, Foster and Harris write,

“The question, ‘what story are we living?’ keeps the church’s life vital and missional. Moreover, constant attention to this question keeps the practices and structures of the church vibrant and full of meaning, safeguarding them from a dry formalism. In fact, the ongoing story of God calls the church away from the temptation toward self-preserving maintenance to a life of self-emptying mission.

First, the church is at its best when on the move and most prone to unfaithfulness when it loses its movement. … With regard to the church, changelessness is a sign of death, not faithfulness.

Second, the primary temptation of the church is to become the end in itself. … The church serves the mission of God, not itself as an institution.

Third, the church loses its way when one aspect of its identity dominates all others and becomes the sole reason for existence.

Fourth, the church finds its faithfulness in the tension between continuity and discontinuity. Its continuity is found in its changeless story – the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. … Discontinuity is experienced in the reality that this is an ongoing living story. The story must constantly be re-experienced in different times, different places and different ways. We constantly seek to know, “What does the story require of us in this situation?” This continuing participation in the ongoing story means it is never a static monument but a living reality. So the church cannot and must not look exactly the same from place to place and time to time. It harkens to the same story but lives it out in constantly new, fresh and creative ways.

And finally, the church is an eschatological community, always defined by the future into which God is leading it.”[1]

The Dreaming Day:2 conversations coalesced around the idea of “’gathering around the central figure of Christ, to live his Way out in our local contexts and to invite others to do the same’. This commitment to a Kingdom way of living was supported by the suggestion that we should be less prescriptive about New Testament practices (eg. baptism, weekly Lord’s Supper etc) than we have been, and more open to relationships of integrity and compassion that earn the right to proclaim the salvation story centred on Jesus. There was no suggestion these New Testament practices should be forgotten, rather that they be affirmed as actions that emerge out of relationship, rather than be actions that create relationship…These conversations showed strong support for the Great Commission (make disciples, baptise, teach), and also the Great Commandment (love God and love people).”

I don’t know about you, but I need renewal daily. I also reckon it’s the sort of story we can release into our neighbourhoods, because others are seeking renewal too (even if currently they are expressing it in different ways).

Will you join us in praying for renewal in our churches and in our neighbourhoods, and for the willingness to get out of the way so that God can do that kind of renewal?

 

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[1] Seeking a Lasting City – Mark Love, Douglas A Foster, Randall J Harris (ACU Press 2005), pps 205-10

A Renewal Movement – Part 1

From Paul Cameron, Executive Officer:

Often the global collection of churches of which we are a part is known as the Restoration Movement. It’s an interesting concept. But an important question is, what are we restoring?

One of the underlying feelings expressed at the recent Dreaming Day:2 conversations was that of refreshment and renewal; that God is up to something in Churches of Christ.

Renewal is a good word actually. Maybe Churches of Christ could better be seen as a ‘renewal’ movement rather than a ‘restoration’ movement. It seems that the purpose of ‘restoration‘ for the founders of Churches of Christ in the 19^th century was to facilitate renewal within the church, as it sought to be a group of God’s people living out and proclaiming God’s Kingdom in a changing mission context. Historically this renewal seemed to have as much to do with church governance, as it did with doctrine and practice. A goal of that renewal was the formation of alive and dynamic, simple and uncluttered, reasonable and spirit-led communities led by God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as described in the scriptures (and in particular the New Testament) rather than organizations being confined by the systems and the traditions of the ‘tribes’ from which the movement emerged. The five-fold ministry of Ephesians 4:11-16 became central, as God’s Spirit released all people into ministry and mission, not only those who were paid to do it. This shook up old power and political structures, in the same way that the events of Pentecost did. The Good News of Jesus Christ as Saviour of the world was once again in the hearts and minds and mouths of the ‘common people’, out in the streets and lanes and town squares, and out of ‘Temple’ and ‘synagogue’. It became a faith of and for the road, rather than a faith found in a building visited on holy-days or holidays.

This is a renewal we need God to continue doing among us.

The emphasis then was on the direct renewal of the Christian church by God. This had great relevance on the frontiers of the mid-west of the US in the 19^th Century, and it has resonance with us, as we continue to work out what it means to follow Jesus on the crazy, constantly changing frontier of the 21^st Century. Then as now, old language and old ways that were relevant for another culture and another time have been marginalized and caricatured. Then as now, renewal must come from God; it must be an action of the Spirit rather than a scheme or conspiracy of man.

To repeat, this is a renewal we need God to continue doing among us.

Will you join us in praying for renewal, and for the willingness to get out of the way so that God can do that kind of renewal?

You will be able to read Part 2 of this article on the Dreaming Day:2 blog next week…

~

What does the word ‘renewal’ bring to mind for you?

A Call to Prayer

Churches of Christ in Vic/Tas has had many seasons: Seasons of growth, seasons of exploring, seasons of uncertainty, seasons of maintenance, seasons of mission, seasons of church planting and seasons of healing, to name some of them. We have only made it thus far because of the faithful prayer of, at times, many and, at other times, a few. We thank God for these prayerful partners and supporters.

It is my sense that we are now moving into a season of refreshment and renewal. This season needs to backed by sacrificial, regular, corporate, Holy Spirit-inspired and -empowered prayer.

In this time of refreshment and renewal we are engaging questions of identity and purpose. This is a glance back at our past as well as a glimpse of our future, all at the same time. Without regurgitating history just for the sake of it, knowing where we started helps discover the future. Much of the deeper story of Churches of Christ—including holding firmly to the place of Jesus as Lord and Saviour of the world, a simple and uncluttered Christianity, unity in diversity, minimalist structures, flexibility of worship, and a willingness to engage frontiers with imagination and to welcome everybody who is working out what it means to follow Jesus in the 21^st Century—engages the spirit of these times. The Affinity and Covenant conversation is part of a wider dialogue of re-discovering our roots, and at the same time allowing God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit to be imagining and shaping Churches of Christ for the future through us.

Can I invite all churches and every minister and elder to be praying for Dreaming Day:2. You may be present in the room on Friday or Saturday in person or not, but you can be present through your prayers of faith and hope and imagination.

Please pray for:

• John Bailey (Doncaster) and John Sharpe (Ringwood) as they facilitate.
• All who participate: for safe travel, open hearts, open ears and, where appropriate, open mouths…
• For clarity around the identity and purpose questions; for understanding of the covenant proposal; and for every person in every church to honestly seek God and be open to the ways he wants to use us all to announce the Kingdom.
• Lynette Leach (Williamstown) and Brian Macallan (Connection) as they provide theological reflections.
• Craig Brown (Federal Coordinator and Ringwood) who will stimulate our thinking in a creative way.
• Francine Riches (Footscray Indigenous) who will provide a ‘welcome to country’.
• The ministers who will gather on Friday. Along with other leaders (often called elders) ministers are keys to the spiritual health and cultivation of a congregation, and of a movement.
• All those who will gather on Saturday—ministers, leaders and friends.
• Those who can’t be there because of distance.
• The church at Doncaster who will be the hosts of Dreaming Day:2.
• Claire Egan and the admin team at Fairfield.