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The big things are the small things |
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I heard a great story today at the AECW Conference in Heath. Kerry Orchard was talking about his experience doing door to door work in the streets around Whitchurch Road. He said that there was one street where he always noticed a particular warmth and openness to the team as they spoke with people. It was quite striking and as a result he always loved it when it was time to do that street!
It turns out that there was an explanation for this. There had been a Christian living in that street for many years. Tha lady has now died, but she had made it her business to pray for each house in that street for the whole time she lived there. I found that very encouraging. Once again it reminded me that, in Christian ministry, the big things are usually the small things. |
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January seems like a good time to think about the 'big picture'. So here are a few thoughts on what The Bay Church is all about.
Our vision has always been to see God build a church here that will reflect and serve the diverse area we are in for generations to come.
We emphasise 'church' because the local church is God's way of bringing in his kingdom, and also because, in our individualistic age, the whole idea of belonging to a church is under pressure.
We say it is 'God' who must 'build' because establishing a church is a miracle that only God himself can do. We plant, and we water, but it is God alone who gives the increase.
We say it must 'reflect' the diversity around us because Jesus does not belong to any one class or economic category or ethnic group, but to us all. Jesus speaks every language and relates to every culture.
We say the church must 'serve' the community around us because Christ himself came to serve. The greatest thing we can do in the service of others is to share the gospel. But we know we are without credibility if that is all we are willing to share. The incarnation of the Son of God is our model in this.
We say it is 'for generations to come' because we know this is not the work of a moment. Our job is to lay a solid foundation and prepare another generation to take on the task. This is not to exclude the possibility that God can do great things suddenly. It is simply to recognise that we have a responsibility to think and plan long term. |
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The Bay Church has never hammered out and formally adopted 'core values'. But recently I have given some thought to what my personal 'core values' are - at least as far as ministry is concerned. So, for what they are worth, here they are. In my opinion this is the sort of Christianity we need as we carry our mission into the twenty-first century:
i The God-centred theology recovered in Europe at the time of the Reformation. This is helpfully summarised by the famous 'solas' of the Reformation – our authority is Scripture alone, our saviour is Christ alone, we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, all for God's glory alone. I would want also to add to that the Covenant Theology of the Reformed Confessions of Faith. Here is the foundation on which we stand.
ii The 'Revival Christianity' which, in the eighteenth century, ignited the modern missionary movement, and, in the twentieth century, was recovered through the ministry of men like Martyn Lloyd Jones. This vision of the Christian Faith stresses the centrality of redemption in history; the importance of the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit; the need for, and reality of, times of revival when God suddenly comes down and everything changes; the strategic significance of prayer in the progress of the gospel among the nations; and the conviction that, even though it takes the return of Christ himself, God's kingdom will come and 'the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea'.
iii The balanced spirituality of the Calvinistic Methodists. Few things are more likely to turn off the average Christian than a name like 'Calvinistic Methodism'! But it really isn't as appalling as it sounds. Calvinistic Methodism was the name given to the Christianity that flourished in Wales during the Eighteenth Century. They refused to settle for anything less than preaching that was accompanied by the power of the Holy Spirit. They believed in serious Christian discipleship and authentic pastoral care among God's people. They believed too in holding both the Word of God and the Spirit of God in a wonderful fusion of head and heart that the church in our generation desperately needs. We can drop the name, but I want to argue that we need to embrace the reality.
iv A post-Christendom missionary mindset that recognises that here in the UK our context has fundamentally changed in the last fifty years. We shouldn't overstate this, but there is no escaping the fact that many of the people around us no longer understand our Christian vocabulary, think in our Christian categories, or share our Christian view of the world. This is partly due to changes in Western Culture over the last fifty years, but it is also the result of changing demograhics. We live in the midst of an amazing diversity of cultures. Within a three miles radius of our Sunday services you could hear maybe twenty languages and meet almost every faith, ideology and 'ism' known to man! Now to people like us who believe in someone who is the Saviour of the whole world that is very exciting. But we cannot simply continue to do things the way we have always done them. The gospel has not changed of course, but the people we are speaking to have and we need to take account of that. Our whole approach needs to be deeper - more thoughtful, more penetrating, more costly, and more patient. We are pioneer missionaries and we need to come to terms with that fact. |
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feeling what the angels felt |
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One of the more subtle consequences of our fallen-ness is the way we get bored with what is unspeakably glorious. You've heard of 'compassion fatigue'. Well this is 'glory fatigue'
John Piper points this out in one of his books. He imagines someone going to the Alps for their holidays. On the first day they get up at five and stand in hushed awe as the glimmering sunrise illuminates the mountains with a sheen of warm iridescence. It is one of the most moving experiences of their lives. But by day three the curtains are shut and they are watching television!
It seems to me that at Christmas you can often see the same phenomenon. The story is more spectacular than any sunrise. Almighty God embracing the frailty of a human nature. And all for our sakes. It is life-changing, world-building stuff. Yet, spectacular as it is, it is also familiar. We know it and we know it well. As a result, while the herald angels may be singing their hearts out, maybe it’s been a while since we, the church, gave so much 'glory to the new born king'.
My thesis is simple: if that is the case, then something is wrong somewhere. Surely it is our business to feel the glory of it all – and not just at Christmas time, but all the time.
Now, of course, you can't just turn this on. Obviously not. But that doesn't mean we are free to turn back to the Argos catalogue and get on with our shopping. I started by pointing out that this 'glory fatigue' is part of our fallen-ness. That should shock us. That means it is morally wrong. It also means it is something God needs to save us from. What we have here then is something to repent of, something that only the blood of Jesus can atone for, something that needs to be the focus of earnest prayer until we are delivered from its ice-cold grip.
So, as Chrismas approaches, here is a plea to work hard to seek the grace to feel what those angels felt.
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