Count Me In!

If you're reading this article in the UK you should have now completed your census forms and returned them to the authorities. It’s compulsory that we do it – although this year we did have a choice between using pen and ink or entering our details online. For centuries people have been counted by their leaders – and there are examples of censuses taking place in the Bible. Most people will remember the one that caused Joseph and Mary to be in Bethlehem when Jesus was born, but did you know that the book of Numbers actually gets its name from a census that was taken by Moses just after the people of Israel escaped from Egypt?

As we approach Easter later this month we are reminded of the events that led to the death of Jesus on the cross – the cheering crowd at his entry to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, and the jeering crowd shouting “Crucify Him!” at the trial where he was condemned. When the time came for those closest to Jesus to ‘stand up and be counted’ it turned out that Judas betrayed him and Peter denied even knowing him. Thankfully for Peter the cross was not the end – the risen Jesus forgave and reinstated him and he became a key figure in the early church.

In the census, when it came to the “What is your religion?” box, we too had an opportunity to stand up and be counted. The trouble is its easy just to tick a box – and ten years ago more than 70% of us said that we were ‘Christian’. With only 7% of the population regularly attending Sunday worship it leaves me genuinely asking what the church is doing wrong for people who are happy to categorise themselves as believers to choose not to associate with other Christians week by week.

Louis Armstrong once sung about heaven with the words “Oh Lord I want to be in that number when the saints go marching in!” If you ticked the ‘Christian’ box why not join with other believers to celebrate the event at the heart of our faith, and the basis for our hope of life after death – the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I'm sure you’ll be welcome at any local church, and if you're anywhere near Bottisham, why not come to our all-age RE:NEW service on Easter Sunday (with an egg hunt for the children).

Fairtrade Fortnight

I buy fairtrade – and I’m proud of it! I’ve even got a couple of clerical shirts made with 100% fairtrade cotton…

This year’s fairtrade fortnight theme is ‘Show Off Your Labels’ and it celebrates the amazing growth in the range of fairly traded items available after more than twenty years of campaigning. Back then you had to find a specialist retailer, such as Traidcraft, but now you can walk into most supermarkets and find a range of items that carry the fairtrade logo.

If you saw the BBC series called ‘Blood, Sweat and T-shirts’ you will know some of the terrible stories that lie behind so many of the products in our shopping trolleys. Chocolate that isn’t fairly traded may well be made with ingredients that include exploitation and violence. Most cocoa beans come from West Africa where tens thousands of children are traffiked and trapped into forced labour.

Not only is the fairtrade label a sign that its producers have received a fair price for their labour, it also ensures that children in these developing countries are educated rather than exploited. You can now buy some of your favourite bars, like Dairy Milk and Kit-Kat, with the fairtrade label on them. This is real progress, but all of the other bars manufactured by companies like Nestlé, Mars and Cadburys are yet to be traffik free.

We’re a registered fairtrade church which means that all of the tea and coffee we serve after our services carry the label. It also means that we regularly take part in campaigns to try and change this world for the better, including one (click here to visit 'Stop The Traffik') in which we sent postcards to one of these chocolate companies asking them to consider extending their faritrade provision.

Alternatively during this fairtrade fortnight, why not see what the ethical options are as you do your weekly shop? There are other labels, like ‘Rainforest Alliance’, which also indicate a supply chain that is kinder to people and to the planet. Often the prices are very similar to the unethical choices – and even if you do have to pay a few pennies more, isn’t having a clear conscience worth it?

Love is...

Sometimes, when people tell me that they don’t believe in God, I ask them what sort of God it is that they don’t believe in. Once they’ve told me about an unloving deity who is distant and uninterested, I’m able to say that I don’t believe in that sort of God either. The church is made up of fallible humans like me, and over the years I think, by our words and our actions, we’ve often done a bad job of representing the one in whose name we gather. The Bible tells us that “God is love”, and in the life and teaching of Jesus we see this spelled out in great detail.

God’s standards of love are high. The story of the Good Samaritan, for example, is powerful because it calls us to a love that reaches beyond our prejudices and personal interests. When Jesus tells us to “love our enemies” he’s letting us know that love isn’t always fluffy and feel-good, but sometimes painful and sacrificial; and he puts this into practice when he goes to the cross on our behalf: “greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends”. Indeed, love can never just be a feeling and always needs to be expressed in actions – relationships fail when this truth isn’t grasped. Although 1 Corinthians 13 is a passage that is often read out at weddings, it’s a ‘love to-do list’ appropriate not just for couples, but for families and friendships, and society as a whole. In it we not only see a glimpse of the character of God, but also something that we can aspire to and work towards.
 

Love is patient – sticking with it for the long term.

love is kind – making the interests of others a priority.

It does not envy – happy for others, not jealous of them.

it does not boast – not emphasising personal success.

it is not proud – not having a sense of superiority

It is not rude – not putting people down.

it is not self-seeking – not lifting yourself up.

it is not easily angered – slow to anger.

it keeps no record of wrongs – quick to forgive.

Love does not delight in evil – standing against what’s wrong.

but rejoices with the truth – standing up for what is right.

It always protects – looking out for the weak and vulnerable.

always trusts – keeps believing in God and others.

always hopes – remaining optimistic for the future.

always perseveres – gets back up, again and again.

Love never fails – never underestimate what love can achieve.

'Happy' New Year

As we start 2011 I want to wish you a very ‘happy’ new year. But in twelve months time, how will you know if it has been – happy that is? Towards the end of last year David Cameron announced a £2m plan to develop a measure of well-being, saying that Gross Domestic Product “is an incomplete way of measuring a country's progress”. He is not alone – Tony Blair floated the same idea, and long before either of them, the US Senator, Robert Kennedy, stated that the GDP measured everything "except that which makes life worthwhile".

The cynics amongst you might point out that when the economic situation is poor politicians will obviously start searching for any measure of progress that might put them in a good light – but let’s not dismiss the idea just yet. We might, however, want to discuss what we actually mean by happiness. Is it the same thing as work/life balance or well-being? Is it dependent upon the circumstances we find ourselves in, or somehow deeper than that, an inner sense of positivity and joy?

The original Hebrew of the Old Testament has a word that I think sums it up well – Shalom! In our English versions we translate it as ‘peace’, but it’s much more than that. The word ‘wholeness’ might be closer to the mark, a sense of ‘completeness’. This isn’t about having everything we want, either materially or emotionally, but rather entering a spiritual place where our connections with one another, with God, and with the world he has made, are being restored and deepened.

In February we’ll be starting a new style of service at Lode Chapel called ‘Healing Space’ and it’s this sort of ‘happiness’ that we will be inviting people to seek after and find. The word ‘healing’ comes from the same root as ‘wholeness’ and when Christians pray for healing we ask God to bring his Shalom into the midst of the ‘dis-ease’ of our bodies, minds, hearts and souls. It’s true to say that God doesn’t always bring physical healing, but most people generally feel a greater sense of ‘Shalom’ after they have been prayed for – and sometimes miracles do happen.

If you're local to Lode Chapel, and could do with a bit of Shalom in 2011, you would be welcome to come along and receive confidential prayer support. Details will be on our websites (http://www.lodechapel.org.uk/ and http://www.re-new.me.uk/) later this month. There’ll be no sermon, no singing, just plenty of ‘Healing Space’.

Simon and Lisa's News 2010

We’ve still not adjusted to how busy Christmas is in ministry, and are sorry that once again we are late in sending our news to family and friends. 2010 began with Simon getting ill with the swine flu, which he took a couple of weeks to recover from, meaning a delay in starting his new role (for ten hours per week) as Chaplain to the local care home, Queen’s Court. Although Simon had led services at the home since he arrived at Lode Chapel, funding became available to employ a part-time chaplain just as the church were needing to identify a new income stream in order to maintain paid ministry. This role has opened up new aspects of ministry (Simon’s been involved in more than a dozen funerals over the last year) and it’s good for the church to be working with the older generation as well as local children and young families.

It’s been a year of change for Lode Chapel, and on 14th February the Baptist Regional Minister and the Bishop of Huntingdon joined us as we announced that ‘the church has left the building’. We now meet ecumenically under the name of ‘RE:NEW’ every Sunday morning at Bottisham Primary School. We still have occasional evening services at the Chapel and have also held a number of successful Quiet Days there. It seems to be developing as a ‘Sacred Space’ available to the local community and the wider church, for contemplation and quiet prayer.

Simon got a surprise in September when his face appeared on the front of a national magazine. The photograph was taken at ‘The Wave’ (a climate change march in 2009) and the article encourages Christians to campaign about injustice, and to play their part in making this world a better place. It doesn’t mention Simon at all – they just pulled his face at random out of the crowd, possibly because they don’t often see Baptist ministers who look like a cross between Adam Ant and a clown! Simon has, however, recently been invited to co-write a book which will, amongst other things, involve writing a bit about the inspiration behind what’s been happening at RE:NEW. There are encouraging signs of growth in the church, but we’re still quite small and all very busy. I’ve recently had to take on responsibility for the youth work, and that, along with all of the other commitments makes life a bit too full at the moment!

Lisa’s year has been much less eventful. Her M.E. has meant that she is pretty much housebound and she was unable to work during 2010 – this continues to be frustrating for her. She would love to keep researching and speaking about science and theology, but the illness prohibits this at the moment. We’ve been praying for healing, and although that prayer hasn’t been answered (yet!) Lisa praises Jesus that she has been able to find great joy and a real sense of the presence of God in her own prayer life.

Despite her illness making most visits to family and friends impossible, Lisa hadn’t seen her parents and other relations in the West Indies since 2004, and a trip to St. Kitts and Anguilla was long overdue. A generous gift from family made it possible for us both to fly out for three weeks in September and October. As well as the time spent catching up with the relatives, we also enjoyed some visits to the beach (photo right). We were really pleased to finally meet our great nephew, Dimitri, for the very first time and also had the pleasure of getting to know Paul’s fiancée Shamire, and the rest of that family (photo left). Congratulations to them as they get married just after Christmas. We’ve also recently met ten-month old Kian, another great nephew and son of Philippe who is in the British Army and based in Germany.

We’re sorry that this might be the only contact we’ve made with some of you since last year’s letter, but we do wish you a Happy Christmas and pray that you and yours experience God’s blessings in 2011.

Crying out for a spiritual experience?

This morning I stumbled upon two women discussing attendance at a spiritualist church. One of them was extolling its virtues and encouraging the other (who had been a few times herself) to come along this Sunday. I held back from quoting Scripture and from telling them why they shouldn't talk to dead people and asked instead why they went. Were there particular people from their past that they wanted to hear from? The answer was a surprise and a challenge - the main reason for going was for healing and guidance.
The spiritualist church near here is apparently increasingly popular. They've recently purchased a bigger building and at the service on the Sunday evening it sounded like you have to get there early to get a seat and even earlier to get a spot in the car park. I didn't ask, but I suspect that people are invited and/or are willing to give generously for the 'service' that is provided too.
It's often said that we live in a society where people are crying out for a spiritual experience. I know some people have questioned this, but the conversation this morning reminded me that some people are indeed seeking an encounter with something or someone 'beyond' the visible and material world that they inhabit. The challenge to me as a church pastor is the realisation that we still have a way to go in making church a place where these spiritual needs are fully met. I've talked about it before, but I am more committed now to having regular opportunities for people to receive prayer for healing and where we as pray-ers can be open to words of guidance for those who are seeking to hear God's voice. Perhaps people's past experiences of church or preconceptions of church will stop them coming, but the need is obviously there.
Indeed, only just the other day I was asked to come and do something about the 'goings on' in the home of a friend. The previous tenant of the house had died there and since my friend had moved in she'd seen ghostly apparitions, heard strange noises and seen other unexplained things. This woman didn't go to church, and in her own words didn't know what she believed, but was pleased that I was able to come and pray through her home. This is actually the second time I've been asked to do this in the last year...
Whatever else church is it needs to be spiritual and experiential - and some are. I know, however, that my church isn't alone in having lost this important edge to our mission and ministry. Please pray for us as we seek to rediscover it in the coming months and years.

Crisis of Commitment

This posting is a shortened version of an article that was printed in the Baptist Times earlier this year. It will also soon appear as a guest blog entry on http://www.sharetheguide.org/blog/ which is published by Fresh Expressions.

One of the identifying features of a Baptist congregation is its understanding of church membership, but as someone involved in a fresh expression of church, it has become clear that our current interpretation of what it means to be a member is not really ‘fit for purpose’ in our contemporary society.

The meaning of the word ‘member’ has changed over time. Previous generations commonly understood this word as a reference to a part of the body, and were thus more able to grasp the organic nature of the biblical analogy in 1 Corinthians 12. Contemporary usage of the word, however, is now largely restricted to an organisational understanding, for example, in our membership of the local gym. Here the mutuality and accountability implicit within the biblical metaphor is reduced to a financial exchange or even lost entirely.

Also, in a time when people were less mobile, and denominations less ecumenical, being involved in the life of a local church would have been an enduring and essential component of an individual’s identity. Now, however, the believer’s relationship with church is changing. Indeed, there are people who believe and yet aren’t members, and others who participate fully, but are yet to profess faith.

There are some commentators who argue that the problem is due to a wider ‘post-commitment culture’ and that the churches should be counter-cultural and better at communicating the need for individuals to commit themselves to church membership. In my opinion, however, commitment per se isn’t the problem. Whilst loyalty to institutions and organisations may be disappearing, campaigns such as ‘Make Poverty History’ and ‘Stop the Traffik’ show that there is still a strong desire to be involved in movements which seek to have a transformational influence upon society.

A healthy growing church community still needs commitment. This, however, is not to be seen in terms of becoming ‘members’ of an institution, but rather as entering into active ‘partnership’ with God and His people in the work of the Kingdom. This is a challenge to those who are keen to know who is ‘in’ and who is ‘out’ – those who want to see church as a ‘bounded’ or ‘closed’ set. The alternative viewpoint is the ‘centred’ or ‘open’ set, which is less focussed on who has yet to ‘cross the line’ and more interested in encouraging everyone to move closer to Christ who is at the centre of our life together. This type of church becomes a more attractive and inclusive community whose very life together acts as an invitation to others, and a ‘signpost’ to Jesus. In all our churches let’s be concerned less about membership and more about our obedience to the call for us to be missional communities.