We all learn in different ways. I sometimes think I learn by reading my environment and trying to think the opposite. So I grew up in wealthy, relatively Christianised suburbia and decided I wanted to go to poor areas with few Christians.
But after 30 years hanging out with like-minded people who believe in ministry to the poor, I developed another series of opposites.
Social justice, at least as it is widely understood, is not in the Bible.
We don't have to earn the right to tell people the gospel by being nice to them.
The church doesn't have to run social projects to be relevant or effective in outreach. There is no evidence that the New Testament church ran any social projects.
Being liked and being listened to are not the same thing.
'The poor' are not to be understood primarily as victims: the gospel to the poor is exactly that - the Good News of Jesus Christ. It doesn't promise the end of poverty.
The Kingdom of God does not come when incomes, health outcomes and education levels rise, good though those things might be.
The 'nots' though, are just that - negatives. They won't change the world. What will is Jesus. Jesus' story of the Good Samaritan is a story of spontaneous, radical generosity. A heart full of mercy. That heart of mercy is more powerful than justice, it makes every conversation about the gospel real and genuine, it is more human than any project, it is indifferent to whether we are liked, it calls the poor to 'do likewise' and it while it might make people better off, the Kingdom of God has already come when we live by it.
Monday, 31 December 2018
Thursday, 27 December 2018
Cat paths on the lawn
Cats don't make tracks. Sheep make tracks. But cats have made a path from the mentally vulnerable housing on one side of us to the church-turned-into-a-mosque on the other side. All it takes is the inmates of the supported housing to dig under our fence, and the cats have done the rest. It makes no sense but it's real.
Our sheep track is the eleven stage church planting loop. Our cat path is everything we've actually done so far. So just how far can you bypass key principles:
Find the leader first.
Build the team.
Lay the team and logistical groundwork.
Support, train, review, grow.
Repeat.
We did it in Longsight. We might have to do it in Cheetham Hill. Are we not waiting on God, are we not praying hard enough over that leadership, or do we just have to walk along the cat paths that God's people make?
Our sheep track is the eleven stage church planting loop. Our cat path is everything we've actually done so far. So just how far can you bypass key principles:
Find the leader first.
Build the team.
Lay the team and logistical groundwork.
Support, train, review, grow.
Repeat.
We did it in Longsight. We might have to do it in Cheetham Hill. Are we not waiting on God, are we not praying hard enough over that leadership, or do we just have to walk along the cat paths that God's people make?
The rant goes on
Welcome back to the Bitter Scroll after 8 years of silence! I have now deleted the earlier rants, not wanting to cause stumbling / give evidence to those who suspect me of being narrow minded and opiniated. Far be it from me.
So, the new incarnation of the Bitter Scroll is a church planting 'notes to self' page. It has a moderate safe search filter - meaning I might rant about my enemies, but won't name them.
So, let me kick off with the first church planting technicality. Mid week groups and critical sizes.
Soul Food was/is the midweek meeting of TCC Rusholme. I have spent quite a while thinking of the ways it succeeded and failed. Its format was that of a constantly running alpha course, with a basic Bible study as its teaching content.
Its key success was based on its format - simple, accessible and Biblical. Hundreds of people came through - in many ways it lifted the church into a crucial phase of growth but it did so very unevenly.
With the Kurds, the meeting was their main doorway into the church. This became a significant group in TCC and it started in Soul Food.
The Arabs.....mixed. The reality is that while Arabs came, the change process was slower and their loyalty to the church was weaker.
Other groups didn't see new disciples made. Put crudely.
What made the difference? Commitment to discipling people outside Soul Food. Soul Food was not capable of being the engine of change on its own. It needed to be combined with other strategies and groups that drilled down into deeper issues. That took committed leadership - for the Kurdish group, and partly through the Arabic church for the Arabs.
It was easy to be intoxicated by numbers, to ignore a lack of depth in prayer, and to put off considerations of deep life change to another time. The Alpha course is temporary. Holy Trinity Brompton's pastorates meet every other week to leave time for deeper meetings. We need formats that mix breadth with depth.
Note to self: encourage leaders to offer that deeper level to key people in the church. If you don't, you'll burn out for short term gain. Possibly run the main meeting every other week, not every week.
So, the new incarnation of the Bitter Scroll is a church planting 'notes to self' page. It has a moderate safe search filter - meaning I might rant about my enemies, but won't name them.
So, let me kick off with the first church planting technicality. Mid week groups and critical sizes.
Soul Food was/is the midweek meeting of TCC Rusholme. I have spent quite a while thinking of the ways it succeeded and failed. Its format was that of a constantly running alpha course, with a basic Bible study as its teaching content.
Its key success was based on its format - simple, accessible and Biblical. Hundreds of people came through - in many ways it lifted the church into a crucial phase of growth but it did so very unevenly.
With the Kurds, the meeting was their main doorway into the church. This became a significant group in TCC and it started in Soul Food.
The Arabs.....mixed. The reality is that while Arabs came, the change process was slower and their loyalty to the church was weaker.
Other groups didn't see new disciples made. Put crudely.
What made the difference? Commitment to discipling people outside Soul Food. Soul Food was not capable of being the engine of change on its own. It needed to be combined with other strategies and groups that drilled down into deeper issues. That took committed leadership - for the Kurdish group, and partly through the Arabic church for the Arabs.
It was easy to be intoxicated by numbers, to ignore a lack of depth in prayer, and to put off considerations of deep life change to another time. The Alpha course is temporary. Holy Trinity Brompton's pastorates meet every other week to leave time for deeper meetings. We need formats that mix breadth with depth.
Note to self: encourage leaders to offer that deeper level to key people in the church. If you don't, you'll burn out for short term gain. Possibly run the main meeting every other week, not every week.
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