Breathe, Mighty Breath of God

Mr HIWWC and I are preparing for a number of seminars and teaching times at CLAN Gathering this coming week.

I've been thinking and praying and reading and writing for some time about these seminars as they are difficult ones to hit the mark on (anything to do with children, parents, church and God encounters a myriad of views/opinions/theological beliefs and personal preferences - is any wonder some people stay clear?!)

I feel that in some ways I have so little to offer or give - each year CLAN has great speakers and experts in their areas and I seemed to "fall into" being asked to do these slots, mainly,(I think) after I was invited to give some feedback on children/family/church issues. The CLAN leadership listened amazingly and demonstrate such an open heart as they have asked us to lead what is a first for CLAN as far as I know - worship and prayer times for families altogether. Whilst this is not new to me personally; its something I have tried to create opportunities for in the two churches I have been in - I still feel very nervous - because ...well, because of a number of reasons!

My chain of thoughts just now:
> I am hidden with Christ - I am safe with him
> I can't do these talks and ministry times - what do I have to give? I'm so imperfect and sinful.
> I have nothing in myself, BUT FOR GOD, I have no strength of my own BUT FOR HIM.
(sinking to the floor quite a lot today to prevent those words becoming orphan words*)
>Come Holy Spirit, please take all my thoughts about the delegates who are there, what they need help with most, take all my scribblings, my anxieties about not hitting the mark, my pride about not performing well, take ALL THESE thoughts.
> Breathe mighty breath of God on all the notes in front of me, may we do what we do to an audience of one, to you.
> Breathe, breath of God. Bring life and hope through all I say and do as the words you speak always do.I love you, not because I need you, but because you loved me first and found me.

Come mighty breath of God
Move upon this place
Oh, mighty breath of God
Won't you come in power and grace?
(Chris McClarney)

*orphan thoughts often take the form of "woe is me" type statements i.e. they give vent to beliefs that are at odds to our standing as God's children

Holy Spirit in the World Today (Part 2a)

I arrived for early morning prayer to find stacks and stacks of people there - the Scottish squad lost the ability to watch the action straight on from middle aisle seats so we found ourselves in some side seats (not so good)..nevertheless HTB is good on space to move around/flex the joints so we figured we'd survive. Survivor mentality and all that.

Jane Williams opened with a homily on Matthew 12:22-32 and took on the brave topic (briefly) of grieving the Holy Spirit by what she called "deliberate, clear-eyed cold hearted acts" against the Spirit of God. She made it clear that this is not something you do by accident, and that if you mind about even the thought of having done it, then you haven't done it.

She described it as a cruel attempt to trash anything that God is doing or working out in people. "A deliberate rejection of the good". Jane was at pains to say that this was rare, and that it manifested itself as rejecting the flourishing of other people.

She drew our attention to John 16; that the Holy Spirit gives "judging power" to allow us to see (judge) the truth. And so we often say the Holy Spirit helps us to judge people (where they're at) but this can often cross over into criticism. No...really...in the church? Surely not!! Tear the sermon apart? We never do that! Yet...if someone else is "flourishing" through that sermon/ministry - shouldn't we just shut up?

She encouraged us to seek discernment; the judging gift of the Holy Spirit - which is to help us see the Father and transform this broken world. A practical tip was to look for Jesus in everything we see - a good test is: where are people working for human flourishing? This is not exclusive to Christians. I loved this point and it has really made me think over the past few days.

One of my favourite TV programmes is Secret Millionaire. There are some remarkable charities working in multiply-deprived areas doing amazing work to lift people's self-esteem and life chances. I always watch avidly for even a tiny hint that the charity is a Christian one and it doesn't look that many are - and so I will now re-look at this as a sign that Jesus is in the world - there are individuals in that little rented unit working for human flourishing - this is what Jane Williams called "a sign of Jesus" - and she encouraged us to rejoice and give thanks for that.

"Praise is a better way to change the world than condemnation" - such challenging words. I found this homily brave and bold in tackling a sensitive pastoral issue (what does it mean to grieve the Holy Spirit?)

and then Jane got all the women on the platform to say the grace so that she could claim "loads of women spoke from the front at the Holy Spirit in the World Today conference!"

I need to blog about the awesome Prof Ford. Later in the week!

Connect

Please do connect and comment. I loved the collegiate approach taken to discussions during the Holy Spirit in the World today conference.

I often spend time overseeing what goes on in other places other than the main auditorium on Sunday mornings and miss out on end of service chat in my day job so it's been great to have some theology chat here and down in London. I've learnt lots through it!

There have been thousands of visitors to the blog over the last four years but a bit of a hiatus in comments so any encouraging/kind/constructive comments are very welcome and feel free to read back or click on the "children and theology/worship/communion etc" links on the left.

thanks!

Holy Spirit in the World Today - Part 1(b)

After lunch we headed off into our seminars. There was a pretty wide choice and I headed off to Spirit and Mission seminar. I chose this because my church has totally restructured and reoriented in the last 8 months to missional expressions (MEs) clustered around missional foci that the members themselves came up with, inspired by the Spirit and not dictated by the church leadership. That's another post in its own right but its not for now.

Again, let me acknowledge gratefully some of the words below from Jonathan Evens who had clearly had more than three hours sleep... in the afternoon I struggled a little in the heat of the Hot, sorry, I mean, Hut, as I had barely slept on the overnight train . I remember clearly seeing Mike Pilavachi snuggling deep into some beanbags on the other side of the room!

(Bishop?) Graham Cray from Fresh Expressions drew on John V. Taylor's The Go-Between God to identify criteria for discerning the work of the Spirit in leading God's mission and the part that the Church plays within it.

I found the following quote from Clark Pinnock very thought provoking:
"our theology would improve if we thought more of the church being given to the Spirit rather than the Spirit being given to the church".

and I absolutely LOVED this quote from Prof David Ford:
"The Holy Spirit is quintessentially a gift of God and one that is not simply possessed when given, rather the mark of having received is to continually ask..."
This reminds me of the way children respond to God and ask for more of him anytime this is offered or encouraged.

The presence of the Holy Spirit stirs up desire and longing for the coming kingdom (Colin Gunton) - that's exactly how I feel. I feel as if I could burst with longing and desire for more. At the same time as processing all of this information I have been praying for a very sick friend (whilst reading God on Mute - try that for a total snotfest) and I feel a desire for the kingdom to come wake me in the middle of the night, bring hot tears to my eyes, permeate my thoughts regularly throughout the day.

Back to what Graham Cray said: Discernment involves learning of what God is doing and learning to do it with him. This means understanding the shape of the Spirit's ministry. The Spirit is essentially relational and arranges the meaningless pieces of reality until they suddenly fall into shape. (note: I feel this is what I see throughout the Alpha course. The Holy Spirit works in such power every single time so that, by NOT answering people's questions the minute they ask them, pieces which form in the guests' minds fall into shape).

The Spirit anticipates in the present, things which are still to come. The Church is, therefore, to live in each culture as an anticipation of the future. Christ-likeness is the ultimate test of the Spirit's presence and where the Spirit is making Jesus more real neither caution nor convention or reputation ought to make us resist his possession of us.

Cray's specific criteria for discernment were: charism, character, content, characteristics, community, cultivation, and experience. He mentioned that if you get your image of God wrong then you get the rest wrong. And if you have any questions about this session (which I do as I was tired), Graham Cray is about to publish all of this in a Grove booklet. I asked him about the tensions between "programmed" and "spontaneous, Spirit led" missional initiatives and Graham answered really helpfully that the Spirit often gives births to "patterns" which culminate in success and fruitfulness.

Paul Weston from Ridley Hall helpfully summarised Lesslie Newbigin's understanding of the work of the Holy Spirit in mission. Now I did not study Newbigin at all in my past so I listened but didn't follow everything that was said - and if I had a criticism of this session it was that it sped by - the two speakers felt like they were "rushing" a bit. For those who are interested in what was said, here are Jonathan's notes: Newbigin blazed a trinitarian trail in thinking about mission as he responded to the changing thinking seen at the major mission conferences of the twentieth century. For Newbigin pneumatology is mission, as the gifts of the Spirit are always for mission. It is the Spirit which takes the initiative bringing the Church after, in contrast to the Church-centric focus of the 1938 mission conference in India. The Spirit brings new forms of Church into being and by doing so works towards unity which is the deepest expression of the Gospel.

Miroslav Volf posed the key question in a globalised world of whether and how religious exclusivists can live comfortably with each other i.e. is monotheism by its very nature exclusivist? He answered this question by arguing that Christian monotheism contains democratising and universalist aspects which justify political pluralism, including the Spirit of justice and of many languages/cultures, so that a consistent religious exclusivist ought to be a political pluralist.

As a Scottish Baptist, I found his view that the state to have its hands off religion convincing. It seemed to me that 90%+ of the conference attenders were Anglican (and mainly clergy) and so I understand that, having had the Archbishop present earlier in the day, the assertion that pluralism was good and indeed desirable may not have been a popular one. Volf pointed out that the state does not favour one religion over another in religious pluralism and seemed to me to be advancing the Baptist distinctives of separation of church and state and freedom of religion for all. I fought as hard against dawn raids happening in the homes of Muslim asylum seekers as Christians, for example. I do believe that if we have private Christian schools then private Muslim schools should also be allowed (I worked beside one some years ago, it was shut down for breaching standards!) We don't have the English situation of RC schools AND C of E schools so there is no direct comparison for us up here.

I liked Volf's assertion that religious pluralism means that people come in freedom to the one true God. He stayed away from going too much into the universalist question, probably due to the audience he was speaking to, but I have found Volf to be quite clear in the past that people can reject the gift offered to them (forgiveness and the forgiver).

In the last daytime session, Prof Tom Greggs reflected on the day so far:-
1. that pneumatology is an engagement with theology from the middle
2. it is the doctrine with which we engage most fully with the church but pneumatology is not to be reduced to ecclesiology. We need the Spirit to have the church but we don't need to have the church to have the Spirit (I love that line!)
3. the contemporaneity and futurity of the Spirit - there are connections between the world in which we live and the Spirit. I love this idea too - the ability to be part of the realisation of God's future promise. Being able to yearn for what we were made for.
4. the holiness of the Spirit - to never reduce him in any way
5. the intensity and extensity of the Spirit - we cannot have a dividing line between the church and the world.

I was delighted to come back for the evening session which was Rev Sandy Millar (I'm sure he's got another title now, probably tending towards the bish end of the spectrum) explaining why academic theologians needed not only to know of the Holy Spirit but to experience his power. I just love this kind of evening, for those who know me know I like nothing better than time to ....be my quiet self before God....ahem.
I sensed his presence very powerfully and it was just great to have some time that wasn't sitting down at all but allowed for kneeling and crying/shouting/singing/offering up heart, mind and body. Just a great end to Day one.

Holy Spirit in the World Today - Part 1(a)

I sat down tonight to attempt to put something in writing about the conference in Holy Trinity Brompton on the Holy Spirit in the World today,. This might just be one of the most significant conferences I have ever attended, alongside TACF's International Leaders School which I have blogged on before.

Lots of things have happened to me over the last seven years for a purpose. I still can't believe how I ended up with a theology degree in what started off as the most random of circumstances. I still pinch myself that we actually took the plunge and moved in quite scary circumstances to a challenging situation and not one we would every have voluntarily put ourselves in (we felt strangely reassured by an external psychological assessment for ministry accreditation reporting that we were indeed in a testing cross-cultural situation and needed supported in this!) I'm constantly amazed with how much more I love God as I have thrown myself on him in ways I could only imagine before, in that "safe place".

Anyway, I digress.
Let me begin with some reflections on the first half of Thursday. (too much for one post!)

It was so good to know no less than five people there - the Scottish contingent! - we all studied at the same institution, so for the general part of our degrees we had studied quite a bit of Moltmann in Christology and I had read a little of Volf on exclusion. I wasn't familiar at all with Prof David Ford, but I am now, for he indeed rocked. More about the other participants later.

At this point I need to acknowledge the fantastically detailed write up from another delegate - Jonathan Evens (blogging here) and say a public thanks for permission to plagarise his words!

The day got off to the best possible start with a wonderful homily from Rowan Williams (on Romans 8:14-17, 22) in which he spoke of the Holy Spirit as desire or longing to become the new humanity for which we have been created by God. I had never heard him speak before and I was really impressed with the careful use of words - nothing superfluous, nothing overstated, but powerfully presented. Quoting St Symeon - "Come, you who have become yourself desire in me, and have wanted me to desire the unreachable you!" - and Mother Maria Skobtsova - "either Christianity is fire or there is no such thing" - he argued that the Holy Spirit is the desire in us to be where Christ is - God's child - and to become Christ-like - self-emptying. True freedom, he said, is freedom for a full humanity. Full humanity is Christ-shaped. Freedom is kenotic - for self emptying - humanity overwhelmed by the energy of gift.

And then Rowan said something interesting (I remember talking about this on Jan 3rd in a sermon) - waiting for the Holy Spirit is not a passive activity, it requires movement, active desiring and longing.

Ken Costa (author of God At Work) was up next. He talked of his theological background at Cambridge and his longstanding desire to see a conference like this happen. He shared more of his personal journey of pneumatology influencing him in the world of work. Jonathan Evans records that his friends saw Costa's talk as a necessary one for those who tend to view the Spirit as primarily working through the Church. I am reminded a little of Darrell Cosden's (a previous lecturer of mine) two books on theology and work.

Moltmann, like Williams, was simply wonderful. I can't believe that I got to hear him as I wouldn't imagine, at the age of 84, that he travels to the UK regularly! A brief initial interview by Costa revealed the humanity which informs his theology (although Kilmarnock got a bit of a bashing: Moltmann was imprisoned there during WWII) and then he spoke on 'The Church in the power of the Spirit'.

His perspective is a European theological voice not commonly heard in Church debates within the UK which is informed by the destruction of state Christianity that occured in Europe following the First World War but which is only slowly occuring in the UK. As a result, he is comfortable seeing the Spirit's initiative in and the need for the Church to ally itself with human rights organisations and Greenpeace, alliances over which much of the UK Church still agonises or resists. He emphasised the extent to which his theology had been a response to world events - The Theology of Hope was a response to Germany after the War and The Crucified Christ a response to the assassination of Martin Luther King - and an attempt to resource the Church for ministering in the light of those events.

'Think globally, act locally' is a lesson that the Church can inhabit and so he began with stories of the Church in Germany and his own church of St Jacob's Tübingen. His denomination has moved from being a church for the people (religious caretaking) where people attended their parish church and did not even think of travelling to attend other churches nearby, to become an inviting, participatory community church of the people where the gifts of all are trusted. The opposite of poverty and property, he argued, is community because in community we discover our true wealth the spirit of solidarity through which all our needs can be met. Such spirit-filled communities are seen in the fulfilling of Joel's prophecy at Pentecost and the descriptions of the Jerusalem Church in Acts. Such spirit-filled communities are bridgeheads to new life on earth where righteousness will dwell.

Interestingly he commented on how his church continued to grow when the longstanding charismatic pastor retired, as many other people preached and led services. He specifically mentioned that new things happened in the church as they were "led from below". This was his local concrete example of a church in the power of the spirit.

He posited three paradigms of Church - the hierarchical, the hierarchical community and the charismatic community - which equated to the Father above us, Christ with us, and the Spirit within us. The Church is come of age, he suggested, so we are no longer just God's servants or his children but, his friends. Peace with God, however, makes us restless in the world and a revolutionary Christiaity will both call the world evil and seek to change it, ultimately by reconciling the cosmos. The Spirit of God is no respector of social distinctions which divide us and awakens democratic energies for a new humanity.

On a personal note, had I not read a word of his writings, I would have been able to pick up on Moltmann's political leanings, for they came out quite strongly. He may be 84, but that didn't stop him putting what I think was gentle pressure on Ken Costa in the Q & A session when feepaying (Christian?) schools were mentioned. I think "red Scotland" felt more than a little support for his view that state schools should have as much access to quality education! That it isnt fair for people with money to have access to better education. Amen! (I write as a former secondary school teacher).

I want to reflect a little more on Moltmann and Volf in terms of religious pluralism and the activity I was engaged in during the first half of the week - what makes my denomination distinctive?

Tomorrow (or soon) the second half of Day one of the conference.....

Quick Update

Meant to write a longer post but out of time. Who stole the first half of May??

Things have been pretty phenomenal at work but my notebook and mind are stuffed and overflowing with things that need to be done and stuff I need to check out before I can progress them. There is so much I want to do and I'm itching to be able to, to have the necessary pairs of hands to do so, the physical space to do so, the resources to do so and yet......

On Friday night I went to a phenomenal Mark Stibbe meeting and this quote from him has been sitting with me:

Don't rest from work but work from rest..........

Meanwhile.... I am away to the Trossachs for two days for a denominational residential meeting/discussions.

Then I am straight off to London to a conference here on Holy Spirit and Mission with the Archbishop of Canterbury, David Ford, Miroslav Volf and Jurgen Moltmann. If you're going, drop me a message in the comments box!

I am very excited about one of this week's opportunities and filled a little with trepidation about the other............which is which do you think?

The Missing Link

I haven't posted for a wee while. Been busy, as they say.

This past week, I took part in an International Leaders School of Ministry (ILSOM) with John and Carol Arnott and Alyn and AJ Jones. I've been wanting to go on this school for a number of years. Over the past couple of years they have been held in Lytham St Annes, Chorleywood and Sunderland - but these were all quite far away for me to go to (given childcare constraints)

It's been great for quite anumber of us who work together/alongside one another on staff or eldership to go and be in this atmosphere, dealing with "our stuff" together. Aside from the corporate dimension, for me personally it's been great to re-connect with values that have been incredibly significant for me over the last fifteen years or so - ok, ok, I did get to a conference in TACF not that long ago!) I was pretty broken on Tuesday too, realising how much I operate out of the desire for justice and not grace. Not pretty. To say nothing of a fair number of UGBs....further action required this week.

I had been part-way in organising a second Families conference, following on from this one, when God moved us and now so many things are now coming to my mind for the future as the testimonies from that conference live with me in a bulky folder full of individual written recollections.

Lots of thoughts and dreams have started to re-occur and now I need some time to process and to get writing!

Children and Prayer and I'm off to a Conference!!

I ran a training morning today on "praying with and for children".

I did a little recap on Westerhoff's stages of faith development, in order that we might think a little bit about the type of language we use when we pray with and for children. I think a number of us realised that we can easily "get stuck" when teaching children how to pray by:-

(a) thinking that we actually know all the answers about how to pray (!)
(b) "dumbing down" prayer with children
(c) holding children back to one stage of praying "thank you" prayers, for example; when actually some children may be ready to learn about intercession
(d) holding children back by teaching about prayer when we have limited expectancy ourselves.

Ivy Beckwith, in her book Postmodern Children's Ministry, speaks about the difference between Baby Boomers/Busters and Millenials - basically - what has been our practice in the past doesn't cut it for the future - something is afoot within the younger generations; no longer is passive acceptance of the status quo acceptable - nor desirable!

Beckwith states that children born since the year 2000 are seeking an experiential relationship with God. We looked this morning at "phileo" love - demonstrated natural affection, which God shows to his children; and we looked at the place of prayer in young lives which seek to (need to?) know the demonstrated affection of God. I challenged folks to think about how our own practice and experience of prayer can be challenged to the core when we hear children pray (which could be why we reign it in at times??)

She says (on page 31) "they want to experience something before they learn about it. They want to experience God, not just learn about God. They want mystery and mysticism. They don't just want to be entertained".

[glad about that last line. I hate puppets]

Here are some steps on how to move children on in prayer. Steps 1 to 5 are suggestions by John and Chris Leach, in "And For Your Children".

Step 6 is my own suggestion.

Step 1 – leader does everything – chooses a prayer subject, prays about it and says “amen” at the end. Subjects need to be simple and relevant, linked to the teaching. The leader models short jargon-free prayers. Eventually the children join in with “amen”.

Step 2 – the children repeat prayers phrase by phrase with the leader.

Step 3 – the children are asked to suggest items for prayer, then back to step 2.

Step 4 – children suggest items for prayer and the leader suggests how they might pray. This could be a set formula like “dear Lord, please look after ________ this week. Amen.”

Step 5 – Children think of an issue and pray out loud.

Step 6 – (my suggestion/practice) – children lay hands on one another and pray simple prayers for them, are able to deliver words and pictures, and ask God to intervene in situations. Their boldness grows the more they practise this.



I'm off to Englandshire on Monday to a three day conference with these folks. Specially for children's pastors/leaders. Can't wait! Will report back.

Another week begins....

I can't believe its October already. We've got a house we need to sell this autumn! Prayers VERY much appreciated in this regard.

I'm continuing to adjust and I think this blog is going to become a little inward-lookng and narcissitic (? is that a word?) if I say much more about life in a new city. I'm constantly right on the edge of not feeling like I belong, missing friends so painfully, but at the same time burning with excitement about the new things beginning here.

I was at the Global Leadership Summit on Friday and Saturday and got a lot from it once again this year. The two talks I found most stirring (and that I can't get out of my head) were by Gary Haugen on Courageous Leadership and Craig Groeschel of lifechurch.tv, on Finding IT

Gary Haugen heads up the International Justice Mission. Absolutely breath-taking stuff - investigating injustices (wrongful imprisonment, for example); swooping in to literally free slaves from backbreaking employment, and release children from prostitution and trafficking rings. But they sort out aftercare and long term placements as well. Do check out the website here and consider supporting it prayerfully or financially.

Craig Groeschel (aka Tom Cruise look-a-likey) is the Senior Pastor of Lifechurch.tv, a multicampus church of 25 000 people. I was overawed by the way these guys do church; it's just culturally way outside my little experience, (satellite link up! worship set of exactly 18 minutes! DVD recording of senior pastor preaching shown simultaneously at each site! Staff team of hundreds!) Craig Groeschel's life script was truly inspiring and his honesty and hunger for God infectious. And the fact remains that 14 years ago the church had 30 members.

In this session, Craig Groeschel described "it"-the intangible something that some churches have and some don`t. When "it" is present, lives are transformed. When "it" is absent, ministries feel dead. Although "it" cannot be manufactured, Craig outlined four qualities that tend to be present in churches that have "it." He explained that many churches do great things but are lacking something, which he defined as "it".

My take on this session was that Craig's talk was encouraging the listener to engage in a radical persuit of God; in the words of Tommy Tenney: be a "God chaser"; that we would never be satisfied with the middle road, the easy life, the "just enough".

In fact, I want to post here Craig's Franciscan Prayer with which he ended the session:

May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and war, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain in to joy.

And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done.

Worship Central

I've had a great day at Worship Central but I am so so tired now.

I will blog more about this at a later point.

Suffice to say - Mike Lloyd - you rock! Loving that trinitarian stuff.
Pete Greig - loved what he said. In my mind I have been adapting the teaching to suit the 8s to 11s - 'twas a great topic for children. At its heart it is so simple that it is easy for children to grasp. Now, that's not surprising, given Jesus words about children!

People I chatted to today - heaven! Friends old and new everywhere.

Love the emphasis on meeting with God with a strong reminder that this should result in mercy and justice flowing from our worship of God to the world "out there" - this is a particular passion of Tim Hughes. Also am very impressed with the desire to bring good theology into the whole area of worshipping - leading, doing, being!

Families on Fire

Families on Fire Conference, Queens Park Baptist Church, 19 and 20 October

For 18 months now I have been planning this conference, It's an exciting conference for families to attend together on Friday and Saturday 19 and 20 October. Age 5 and upwards are present in every session for all age teaching with Darrin and Daphne Clark, Children’s Pastors at Toronto Airport Church. The conference aims to ignite a passion for God in the whole family and foundational topics such as forgiveness and reconciliation within families will be presented. A separate workshop stream operates for the final session of the day, for parents, grandparents, teenagers and children.

All generations are welcome!

Further information is available at www.qpbc.org – click on the Families on Fire button! Booking forms can be downloaded online or we can send some out to you.

Call 0141 423 3962 or email office@qpbc.org