Teach us to pray

That was the question the disciples asked Jesus and which people have been asking ever since.  I've met very few Christians who feel they have an adequate prayer life and most of the prayer warriors I've known have learnt how to pray through a lifetime of committed wrestling in prayer and to pray.  But how do we teach people to pray?  How do we help new believers both from within our church culture and from without pray?

That was something we discussed at an elders meeting some time ago.  We decided to try a weekly prayer bulletin that was sent to everyone in church with scriptures to base prayers on, varying from week to week in it's structure and content.  Our aim was to help provide some structure on prayer, to help people model their prayers on God's word, and to unite the church in praying for things we care about.

Aware that it's been helpful for some I thought I'd share a few over the next few days, not because they are perfect or even good but just because I think this an area we as churches need to be helping our members in.  The prayers reflect our local context and circumstances at the time so I've taken out the names of individuals or families but left in the general contents to give you a general idea.

Church Family

For the next few weeks we will be using some of the Psalms and other parts of scripture as a guide for our prayers:

Quietening our hearts

"Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
Worship the Lord with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
Know that the Lord is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
For the Lord is good and his love endures for ever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations."
Psalm 100

Stop and think about who it is we are coming to speak to; he is God; Father, Son and Spirit, he made us, he shepherds us with loving care and a goal in mind. Spend some time simply praising God for who he is, praise his name and all that stands for in terms of his character and actions, the way he has helped, guided, sustained, and saved you.

Keeping Jesus central to life
"‘How long has he been like this?’ [Jesus asked the boy's father] ‘From childhood,’ he answered. ‘It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.’
‘“If you can”?’ said Jesus. ‘Everything is possible for one who believes.’

Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, ‘I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!’
Mark 9v21-27

• Where are we prone to doubt Jesus can act? Are there areas of life where we have stopped bothering to pray because we aren't sure Jesus can or will act there?
• Echo this father's prayer 'I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!'.
• Pray for those in our fellowship who are doubting Jesus love and care or may doubt it because of the situations and circumstances they face. Pray that they would persevere in their faith.
• Pray that as a fellowship we can encourage and spur one another on to faith.

Confession
Take some time to ask forgiveness for those places in life and times when our Christians lives have been all talk and no actions. Now read Romans 12v1-2 and pray that God would be at work to change you:

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will."
Praying for others

• Pray for those being baptised this weekend: ____________.
• Pray for those who have had to delay being baptised for the moment but are planning to be baptised in the future.
• Pray for our young people. Pray that the books they received on Sunday would spur them on to want to know and live for Jesus.
• Pray for them to come to faith for themselves.
• Pray for them to stand at school where some of the things they are taught directly contradict the Bible's teaching.
• Pray for Impact and those leading it: ______________.

Praying for the day
Use Paul's words to either think through the day ahead or review the day ending. Ask God's help and wisdom in each and every situation you will face.

"Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me – put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you."
Philippians 4v8-9
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Amen

I'd love to hear how you encourage and teach your congregations to pray, as we want to do so more and more.

Technology and our battle with sin

I love technology.  Whilst not an early adopter, I'm often not that far behind depending on cost.  Technology is good, it is part of God's good gift of creation to us.  Human ingenuity and creativity is part of what it means for us to be made in the image of the imaginative and creative God.  But like everything this side of the fall our relationship with technology is marred by sin.

That is increasingly seen in the way technology is propelling us further and further apart as a society, as individuals, families and churches.  We crave community and connection with one another but are also terrified of it as a result of the fall and sin and the shame, mistrust and fear it injects into the world and our relationships.  And this is exactly where technology promises to help us but fails to deliver on its promise.  Just think for a minute about the way technology is depriving us of human interaction.

We go shopping and can avoid human interaction via hand held scanners or fast lane self service tills.  We can browse, shop, purchase, provide feedback and even specify deliveries so that we avoid human interaction.  We message or interact on line with no face to face contact or even voice connection.  It even changes the way we watch TV as families.  I used to love Saturday evenings sat as a family watching Doctor Who or the A-Team or the Dukes of Hazard.  The whole family would gather round to watch, united in their enjoyment, and talking about, and often reenacting, what they had seen.  But not now.  Now one or two may be watching Netflix with headphones in, whilst another browses the internet and another plays a game on a console.  I'm sure you can think of a load of other examples too, and those things are changing us and our society and not for the better.

In the last 15 years we've learnt a whole new range of subtle cues about whether someone wants to interact with us or not.  If someone has their headphones in they are sending clear message - don't you dare interrupt me.  If someone is on their phone talking animatedly we know not to butt in, we definitely know that if they have a hands free in-ear device.  If someone is walking and scrolling or texting we know not to speak or say hello.  Even if someone is in church but on their phone before or after the service we are reticent to go and interrupt.  Our phones are increasingly a shield from human interaction.

And all of this is effecting our families and our churches as well as our communities.  If interaction is increasingly mediated via technology then it ought not to surprise us when people opt to listen to a podcast rather than come along to church on Sunday and apply the challenging one another's with real people.  If interaction is crisp and on my terms and tailored to my consumer wants in everyday life then we ought not to be surprised that people relate how they want when they want rather than being there for others when they need even though that isn't really convenient.

So what?  We need to ask some challenging questions of our use of or master by technology because so much of this creeps up on us gradually.  How much are we being effected by the negatives of our technology?  What impact is it having on your family and your church and your community?  Technology is a wonderful tool but an abusive, enslaving, isolating and rapacious master.  It separates marriages, keeps children from their parents and divides churches.  Maybe we need to stop and take stock of where we are in terms of our master servant relationship with technology with the help of others?  It might be worth carrying out an audit of our use of technology.

We also need to think about putting some boundaries in place.  It might be that a period of time without devices is helpful, certainly limits will be necessary for many of us.  Let me share a few I'm going to try to enact as a result of thinking about these things, as well as some we already do as a family.

1. Create space and time for relationship.  We have a rule that we don't have phones at the table (and even an annoying song that the boys sing if one is seen) during meals.  Shared meal times have always been vital to building relationships, just read the gospels, but the presence of a phone - even just face down on a table changes the way we interact.
2. Being present and committed means using the off button.  Yes your phone has a silent button or switch but it also has an off button you can press and totally liberate yourself from unwanted distractions, fully giving yourself to those around you.  I am always amazed at our failure to fully commit to others.  I have sat in meetings of church leaders to sharpen up one another's sermon prep that have been repeatedly interrupted by the chirrups of texts, or phone calls.  Turn it off, encouragement begins with physical presence, it is multiplied by uninterrupted presence that says this is, you are, a priority to me.  In church unless you are a brain surgeon on-call be honest who really needs to get hold of you RIGHT NOW?
3. Digital detox.  How about going for one hour a day, one day week without your phone for the next month or two?
4. Prioritise presence.  I've always walked the dog with headphones in listening to sermons and that isn't bad.  But it does signal something to my community about what I value and how present I am.  So I want to change that.  I often use the self service till in shops but I want to commit to interact with a shop assistant instead.

I'm not sure how I'll go with those.  Maybe I'll blog further on it.  Technology is a good gift of God, but like all of God's good gifts Satan can't wait to subvert and pervert it.  The challenge for us as God's people it to think through how we make it a conduit of grace to a lost world and our embodied brothers and sisters and then put it into practice.

The battle to trust that God is good?

That's not just a question an unbeliever asks is it?  It is a question that as believers we revisit and wrestle with again and again and again.  Do I believe and trust in the goodness of God when suffering hits?  When I lose my job?  When church is a struggle?  When I face ridicule for my faith?  When I can't have children? When I fail my exams?  When I am still single?  When my spouse dies?  Is God good?

Is God good when I am declared to be in remission, is he still good when I am told the cancer has come back?  Is God only good when his will aligns with my will?  When my kingdom meshes with his kingdom?  Does God's goodness look different now than it did for believers in the 16th Century or 19th Century or in Africa or South America today?  Or is God at root just good in an unchanging eternally reliable way?

If you are really honest how would you answer those questions.  Just take a minute or two to read back over them and ask yourself that question in each and every one of those situations.  Take a few minutes to pray through your answers with God, be honest, he knows anyway.

I've come to realise over the last couple of months, yet again, that my grasp of the goodness of good is situationally and circumstantially slippery at best.  God's goodness is not slippery, but my grasp on it is.  It's not that God's goodness is like a bar of wet soap, but that my hands (and heart) are covered in fairy liquid as I try to hold on to God's goodness in the face of changing circumstances.

I've been reading through Jeremiah Burroughs 'The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment', let me be honest it's be a slog, but a profitable one.  Because it has challenged me again to face up to my lack of contentment because of my lack of a firm enough grasp on the goodness of God.  At one point in the book Burroughs encourages his congregation to sit and write two lists, one beside the other with your struggles and blessings in columns alongside each other.  He strips life down to our utter dependence on God for everything and thus encourages us to see everything as blessing, but also confronts us with our predisposition for feeling enviously entitled to what we see others having.

I've been feeling this especially in the area of ministry over the last few weeks.  As we've faced up to 5 of our congregation moving away with work it has felt hard.  Losing more than a tenth of your church family is painful.  Especially hard on the heals of other loses over the last year.  It is hard to be content, until Burroughs has reminded me what God has given me that is eternal and everlasting and of so much more value.

God is good even as people move away.  God is good as our leadership gets smaller.  God is good as personally we say goodbye to good friends and feel the pain of that.  God is good as God's answer to our prayers to send us more workers seems to be to take some of the current ones away.  God is good because it is his church not mine, his mission not mine, his gospel that we proclaim for his glory not mine.  And God cares more about all those things than I do at my very best.  God is good because ehe has proven he is historically and eternally.  Sometimes we need to wrestle with that until we come to the point where we can say it and believe it is both true and real again.

Discipleship = people not programmes

This is the last post of three about discipleship.

God provides the church as the framework around which discipleship grows. It’s like the trellis a plant grows up, it provides helpful structure, but just going to church isn’t discipleship. Nor is going to home group, or doing a course on discipleship, or a weekend thinking about it. They may be helpful, provide some helpful shape and structures, they provide programmes which can potentially facilitate discipleship. But discipleship is about people not programmes.

Discipleship is about teaching and applying the truth of the gospel in the context of a commitment to share real life.

It must never replace church. But sits alongside, or rather inside, church. There’s an African proverb 'It takes a village to raise a child'. In the same way it takes a church to makes disciples. We see it in the early church. In Acts 2v42-47we read of the Apostles are discipling a rapidly growing, increasingly transformed community. But notice the context in which it happens. It’s not an hour a week on Sunday. They are devoted to the teaching, one another, remembering Jesus and prayer. They share everything, and meet daily and are in and out of each others homes. They are enjoying the reality of a community created, formed and fed by the gospel day by day. The early church is a gospel greenhouse full of rapidly growing disciples being discipled by rapidly growing disciples in the midst of real life.

This is the disciples taking Jesus great commission to go and make disciples seriously. This is them putting it into practice. How do we set up church so that we maximise opportunities for discipleship? How can we both be discipled and disciple others?

Be there – How committed are you to your church family? How often do you miss them? Are they just an hour event on Sunday or interwoven into the fabric of your life? Do you make the most of every opportunity? How engaged are you when you’re there? Are you fully there or just physically there? I know some of you are introverts and church seems like something to psyche yourself up for and then have therapy to get over. But think people not programmes. Are you really there?

Let me give you a piece of advice. My observation is that phones are killing community. Not just outside the church but inside it. I watch people hide from conversation by using their phone like Captain America uses his shield be that on Sunday morning before or after the service or in people’s homes over meals. Being on your phone screams ‘Don’t get too close, I don’t want contact’.  So here's a radical suggestion, take a deep breath, don’t take your phone to church, or to coin slogan ‘make the glove compartment the phone compartment’. Or here’s a radical discovery I’m trying to help our church to make. There is somewhere on your device a button that if you hold it for long enough will actually turn your phone off, and back on again later when you need it! And after a few minutes of hyperventilation you will, eventually, discover you can breath fine without it on if you persevere.

Parents, there is a danger of using our children to do the same thing. Don’t.

Take Risks – Apathy is cool. That’s not just true of teenagers is it? How often have you settled for talking about the football or work rather than talking to someone about how they are doing spiritually or sharing a problem with them and asking for prayer or sharing an encouragement? Why do we do that? Because we’re afraid of being thought too keen, too spiritual. Or we’re afraid to be vulnerable, maybe you’ve been hurt before, maybe someone has let you down, or gossiped a confidence. Can I gently ask you to risk it again?

Discipleship is deliberate. It’s intentional, it takes risks, it wants to know and be known, to pray and be prayed for, to encourage and be encouraged, to celebrate and mourn with others. It wants to take someone’s hand and run with them to the Father, to be led again to the cross. Maybe some of you need to begin first by putting that into practice in your marriage.

Discipleship and evangelism - But what about evangelism. How do I share the gospel with someone? Here’s the problem. We think about discipleship and evangelism as two totally separate things. But really they are two sides of the same coin. Discipleship is evangelizing Christians, and evangelism is discipling non-Christians. One explains and applies the gospel of Jesus to a life yet to realise his life changing power, the other explains and applies the gospel of Jesus to a life which is Spirit filled so that power produces change.

Evangelism isn’t hit and run. Think about Jesus calling Levi, it’s not a hit and run, Jesus seeks and then eats with him then invites him to follow him for 3 years seeing what he does. Think about Zacchaeus, the woman at the well, the demoniac. Jesus listens to them, learns about them, and in the context of their needs he shows them who he is and calls them to follow him, before teaching them more.

Paul evangelises by sharing his life with people as well as the gospel – lip and hip. Paul disciples by sharing his life with people as well as the gospel. Will we?

Let me end by giving you a few really practical helps:

1. Discipling happens best when the Bible is open – God knows, he speaks powerfully, and it takes the onus off my ability to discern someone’s needs. Why not read the Bible at the start of a meal as a family, or when friends come over? Or asking each other what you’ve been reading this week when you meet up for coffee? Or get to church 10 minutes earlier to do just that. Keep at it, it won’t feel natural the first few times – like any skill it takes time.

2. Sharing isn’t caring - Praying and acting is caring. Don’t be a talking shop get real. Read James and put the gospel into practise. That’s one of the biggest criticisms people from outside the church have of the church, it’s all talk.

3. Learn and apply the one anothers – it’s a God given how to of discipling and is always practical.

4. The church is not Las Vegas - What’s the phrase? What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. What happens in the church shouldn’t stay in the church. It’s not a secret club it is a family entrusted with the gospel. It is something we should talk about. One of the young men in our church got a shock recently. He arrived at church one morning to see one of his colleagues had unexpectedly driven all the way from Hull to come to Grace because he couldn’t stop talking about his church, and she wanted to see if what he said was true. That shouldn’t be unusual.

A friend of ours came to faith in part because the church provided her and her family with meals for two weeks when they adopted their second child. She couldn’t get over how these people who didn’t know her loved her and she was so intrigued she came to church heard the gospel and trusted Jesus. The churches love should spill out and over into the community.

5. Disciple people in the gospel not middle class values with a gospel veneer - You know those tables you buy, that look like wood, but really there’s just a thin covering of wood like material over MDF. Well sometimes our gospel is like that and we mustn’t disciple people in that. It’s seen in the expectation that working class people will naturally become more middle class when they trust Jesus – just stop and think about that for a minute. Are middle class values really gospel values? No. We need to think really hard about a gospel attitude to money. To family. To education and our children. To literacy. To justice. To possessions. To technology. To conscience. To work. We mustn’t be confused about them because if we are we will disciple others in a tepid fusion of the gospel-lite and class values.  When only the true gospel can bring lasting change.

Are you a hoarding church or a healthy church?

I was privileged to grow up in a small church.  There was no music group, no rapid growth, some teens but not a huge peer group.  But what there was in the church was a gospel generosity that was healthy and outward looking and consistently gave away people to mission and ministry elsewhere.  As I look back on that church, not perfect by a large stretch of the imagination, that healthy generosity is what really stands out for me.  It is no surprise that for a small church it has produced a disproportionate number of pastors who lead churches elsewhere across the country.

It is only as we planted a small church and as we labour in it where the growth is slow that I now realise how amazing that gospel generosity really was.  The temptation as a church and as a church leader is to hoard people, especially good people, especially if you are situated in an area without a regular influx of newcomers.  It is immensely costly to give away your people to other ministries and other churches.  It feels painful and costly and can make something that is already fragile feel even more so.

In the books they tell you that such generosity provides an opportunity for someone else to step up, and yes it does, but let's be honest, off the page, that doesn't always (often) happen.  But I am convinced that gospel generosity is right.  As I read Acts I'm struck again by the generosity of the church in Antioch in who they send out on mission, it's not the developing leaders, it's not the people with potential, it is key leaders.  The challenge as I read that is to have that same gospel generosity in the way I think about church and those God has given us to disciple.

The temptation is to hoard.  To focus on our needs.  But we are called to a bigger focus, a kingdom focus.  It is costly to train people up and send them out.  It is costly for the pastor and for the church.  It is particularly so for a small church but if we get the big vision of need and kingdom and see ourselves as stewards how can we not.  It's a good question to ask ourselves as churches and as leaders - are we a hoarder or are we healthy?

Church on Sunday: optional, advisable or essential?

I've been musing for a few weeks on something that is increasingly bothering me and I can't quite put my finger on why.  I don't want to be thought legalistic - who would - but at the same time I'm aware of some growing trends in churches that long term worry me, so here goes.

Time is the ultimate pressure point of our lives.  There is seemingly so much to do and so little time to do it in.  And that means we cram our schedules fuller and fuller.  Weekends are rarely quiet times of the week, often we cram in everything we just haven't had time for during the week.  And increasingly this is as true of Sunday as Saturday.  Interestingly the Bible's pattern of rest and work is 1 day of rest, 6 of work.  Our pattern is supposedly 2 and 5, though I wonder how much that means we abandon 1 and 6 because we allow bleed across the weekend of 'work'.  Because I think as Christians a 1 and 6 pattern would make us really stand out and do us good.  Anyway that is a subject for another ramble

Over the last few years I've become increasingly worried about the way we are coming to think of church.  Now there are lots of good reasons to be away from church on a Sunday, as families move for work and become more geographically distant weekend visiting becomes a familial obligation, and a good loving practise.  Similarly with friends, sometimes a weekend with good friends can be an oasis of calm and a great time for reflection aside from the chaotic maelstrom of everyday life.  Such times of deliberately stepping out of life normal patterns is good and such relationships are restorative.  If our family and friends are Christians we attend church with them and that too is a blessing, seeing other believers, other fellowships and other ways of rejoicing in Christ and spurring one another on is good for us.

But here's my concern, so many other things now vie with Church for our time and commitment on Sundays.  We've had to make decisions regarding Sunday sports with the boys because they clash with church, not just church on Sunday morning but increasingly football is 2 nights a week, Saturday and Sunday morning and sometimes afternoon.  We've had to make similar decisions about Martial Arts and competing.  But it's not just sport.  Cubs, scouts and other uniformed organisations are increasingly running events over Sundays.  School play rehearsals and the like are often on Sundays.  Music groups, orchestra's, choirs etc also run so many things on Sundays.  Alongside that so many courses and events for adults run on Sundays, from sailing clubs and sewing groups, to singing groups.

Here is my concern, what are our actions conveying to our others about the importance of the gospel, our faith and the necessity or otherwise of church?  What does it reveal about the way we really think of God's people?  I am not legalistically arguing for slavish attendance at church every Sunday.  But I wonder if the trajectory we are on is doing more damage than we realise to our churches and especially to our children as they learn the lesson that church is just another optional activity to be fitted in when there are no higher priorities.  What will that mean for them as adults and as parents themselves?

I wonder if you asked your children how important they think church is on a scale of 1 to 10 what they would say and why?  What about what they would say about how important they conclude you think church is?  Is it a nice option, is it advisable or is it essential?  How do we really think about it and how does that show in our lives?

It's easy for us to drift into patterns of non-attendance before we realise it.  To be away this weekend visiting family, that weekend visiting friends, this week we are at Scout camp, and so on.  In part that's why we're running an afternoon service alongside our mornings.  So that for those who are away or visiting family there is a second opportunity to worship God and gather with his people to be both encouraged by others and an encouragement to others.

The New Testament pulls no punches we NEED church.  Yet I wonder if we really believe that?

Preparing Students for life after University?

I want you to imagine that the year is 2050. The only surviving churches in Yorkshire and the North East are located in university towns and cities. How would you re-evangelise Yorkshire and the North East?  Go on stop and actually think about it?  How would you do it?  Small groups of people sent to strategic locations?  House churches in different areas of a town? More localised small groups with a central gathering?  Mission teams who move live, work and worship in a new town?

That feels like a far-fetched scenario, it may be a little too pessimistic in terms of time frame and there are places and churches bucking that trend.  But without wishing to be apocalyptic that situation is a possibility. A recent survey of evangelical churches found that:

• few churches experience growth of more than 1% a year.
•  4 FIEC churches a year are closing.
• Of those that are still going 46% have seen no conversions in the past year.
• 45% have had no baptism.
• And 53% have fewer than 35 church members.

My hunch is that those figures are slightly better than figures for the Church of England as a whole and Methodism and are broadly replicated among other groups.

Add to that: the vast majority of those who are converted are under 25. And the majority of those are either children of Christian parents or are converted whilst at university.  Many of those young people who are converted in their home churches are part of the 1 million young people who migrate to university every year.

And few of those graduates will return. 25% of all graduates end up in London and many others stay in their university town or city. One church leader at a recent working party I was at when asked what the biggest migration factor affecting their church was said, without bitterness, the biggest impact for us is that “our students all head off to university and few return.”

Those factors mean that many churches are shrinking and ageing in towns that send their students to university. Even when recent graduates get jobs in towns they will often commute from a university town or city where they choose to live.  For example a significant number of recent graduates who work in Doncaster chose to live in Sheffield so they can go to churches with lots of 20’s and 30’s.

Church planting has picked up steam in recent years and it’s been great to see churches planted. But how many have been planted out of cities or university towns? Very few. How many have been planted to reach working class areas? And yet the North is predominantly working class in outlook if not social class.

That scenario we started off with sounds apocalyptic but it might not be a million miles from the truth. Many churches outside cities and student towns in the North are declining. Some have shut, others are only a generation or two away.  We need to be deliberate and strategic in our thinking about the UK so that this scenario does not become a tragic reality.

We need to prepare students for life after graduation and lift their eyes beyond the obvious. Help them think through the mission needs on our doorstep but outside university towns and cities. So we never reach the apocalyptic scenario we started with.

If you combine the population of the North East and Yorkshire there are approximately 8.1 million people. Yet only 3.6 million of them live in university towns or cities. Strategically, missionally we need to think about and grow churches outside these towns and cities now before we end up in that scenario we started off with.

Many churches need an injection of young men and women who have been discipled and who are committed to discipling others. Strategically we need people who will go and forsake the comfortable in order to grow the gospel. But it’s hard. So what lesson have we learnt? How can you prepare students for life after graduation and get them thinking about church in harder places? What are the key factors in flourishing there?

Loneliness has never been good. (Gen 2)What’s the one problem God sees as he looks at the garden? Adam is alone. He needs others, man is created for community. Throughout the Bible we see patterns of community, of more than one. Moses and Joshua, Elijah and Elisha, Deborah and Barak, Zerubbabel and Joshua. In the New Testament Jesus and the 12, Peter and John, Paul and Timothy, Titus, Luke, Barnabas and Mark and so on.

Many students want to stay at their university church and I see why. They have peers, people who know you and friends committed to provoking one another in godliness. Great. But what about transplanting that small group to a church elsewhere?

My wife and I were students in Leicester. We went to Knighton, were well taught and cared for, then served there, led the youth work there, took early steps in preaching and leadership there. But then felt God call us to go back to my parents church where there was no-one within 10 years either side of us. But that’s why we felt called. It was a wrench to leave good friends, peers, but the gospel need was greater at Chorley than at Knighton. But looking back we’d have been far better to encourage 4 or 5 of our friends to come with us, not as the great white hope of the church, Jesus is the Saviour not us, but as support, as a network.

That’s been our experience too as some graduates have returned or come to faith having returned, it is hard. That’s in part why we’re looking for 3 ministry trainees this year. It’s a huge stretch for a small church financially, to fund three. But I think it gives our trainees the best chance of getting the most possible out of the one or two years they are with us.

Welcome to the mess. Open doors and open lives matter. Discipleship isn’t just taught it’s caught; observed, heard and watched. I asked our last ministry trainee to evaluate our old ministry trainee program for us. What were its strengths and weaknesses. What do you think he said was best? I thought it’d be my teaching, or the chance to really deal with and discuss some deep theological issues. He said the best thing was seeing the mess of our family. Watching how we got on, fell out and applied grace to resolve issues. Clearly seeing that we were far from perfect and constantly got things wrong but sought forgiveness, tried to make things right and always fought to apply grace even if it took some time.

That’s helpful because one of the most common struggles for students who leave the student bubble is that they don’t really get to do real life with people any more. There isn’t that same intensity of relationship, the same time spent, the same realism. We need to open our lives, after all that’s what Paul does, that’s his model of discipleship.  So that young graduates still do real life with people, it is just with a broader range of people.

Leaving the greenhouse doesn’t mean the end of growth. It can be hard after the greenhouse of student life as a Christian where they’ve grown rapidly to adjust to the slower pace of church life. So it’s vital that recent graduates are invested in not just seen as a resource to suck dry, or a low-maintenance short cut to a healthier budget.

The pace of change in church is so much slower than in CU, partly because life gets in the way. I realised just over a year ago that I was getting quite discouraged about the slow pace of change. So as leaders every time we meet we give one agenda item over to talking about where we see signs of growth and change in the congregation, and it’s been encouraging. But life in church can’t mimic the intensity of the university greenhouse for growth, but it can continue to build on that. Though we also have to be realistic and help students recognise the uniqueness of the university/CU environment.

I’ve always had a few people I meet with 1-2-1, some are regular and planned some are less so. One way I’ve started trying to drip feed people to stimulate growth a bit more, and a bit more widely, is by giving away books to people in church. Sometimes its related to an issue – for example last year I bought ten copies of 'Enjoy your prayer life' and gave away. Another time a group of us met up to discuss each section of Glynn Harrison's ‘A Better Story’ and apply it to our work and families. I’ve given away copies of ‘Raising teens in a hyper-sexualised world.’ and others...  And that constant learning and growing never stops.  Churches need to intentionally develop those within it.

Applying the gospel to relationships. There is a sharedness to university life, similar ages, outlooks, experience that just isn’t there outside of a university church.  In a small church that causes another issues, you are forced to relate to those very different to you.  How does a 23 year fresh out of uni relate to a 77 year old lady? A 4 year old boy? A stressed out young mum? An exhausted hospital surgeon? Or a single mum diagnosed with cancer? Very often we don’t, we avoid that by staying with those who are like us. But in a small church that’s not an option and that is hard. It forces us to work the gospel more deeply into our lives. To work out what are non-negotiable gospel issues, what are debatable issues and what are just matters of conscience and we can flex over and unite round the gospel rather than fall out about. To work out what loving one another, rejoicing and mourning together looks like.

There are differences within a CU but those are magnified not reduced in a small church.  But applying the gospel to such relationship provides a great opportunity to grow in grace and love.

Resource poor opportunity rich. Smaller churches tend to be resource poor. Smaller budgets, few musicians – if any – one of the unseen factors in university migration. Fewer groups running midweek. All those things make it hard for students who have been very used to lots going on. But Grace, for example, is opportunity rich. A 1200 place sixth form college has just opened, the Primary school where we meet has literally thrown open the doors to us and we can’t meet the need. And evangelistically we have loads of families positive towards church and willing to come along. But the need is people to meet, teach, build friendships, make connections.

Smaller churches also provide greater freedom to try things. There are greater opportunities, to lead, to teach, preach, study.  Greater freedom to launch something and roll it up into storage again for another time if it doesn't work.

What other issues have you found as a recent graduate in adjusting to church outside of university?

Connecting life with mission

Christmas is a great opportunity to share the gospel.  But Christmas is also sometimes the most frustrating time to do mission because there is so much else going on; nativity plays, concerts, social engagements, family commitments and so on.  This is all exacerbated by the disconnected way in which we live life.  We often live at a distance to family, meaning time with them is more difficult to crave out because of travel and also less possible to do spontaneously.  If you live three hours drive away from family you can't just drop in, or come over for dinner.

Many of us also work at a distance from where we live.  Increasingly people work in different towns or cities from where they live commuting for 30-90 minutes is not abnormal.  That is often hailed as a good thing enabling professionals, especially in caring professions, to keep their distance from those they are involved with.

Because travel is so easy many people now commute not just to work and to see family but to church.      A 20 minutes plus drive to church is not unusual.  And tragically for many, especially in the North, they have no other option.

But here's my concern.  If we don't live and work and do church in an area will we really see it as our mission field?  My experience would lead me to believe that people don't really engage in mission unless they live in the area you are trying to reach.  Instead they see it as the mission field of those who do live in that area.  I wonder too if people disengage from mission at work if they commute any distance because realistically any friend they get into conversation with is unlikely to travel to come to church with them.  (Though recently we've had a work colleague drive 40 minutes to church twice because of how positive someone from church has been about his church family).

And honestly the distances people live from the church do make it more difficult to be involved.  If you add an hours commute to church then doing church twice on Sunday is a bigger commitment than someone who walks 5 minutes each way.  If you commute to church, attending prayer meeting or Bible study also becomes more of a commitment midweek.  Yet many people are choosing to commute to church.  And evangelistically that makes mission more difficult, are your neighbours and friends going to do the hour round trip to come to church that you do?  Unlikely, so again by living at a distance are you subconsciously opting out of mission or out of church?

Imagine instead if everyone in your church family lived in the community you were trying to reach.  If everyone lived on the mission field.  It's funny how we expect missionaries to move but we rarely consider it.  Imagine the multiple opportunities for discipleship, for involvement, for evangelism, for shared friendships that display the gospel.

Is Church really the problem?

I spent a large chunk of last week preparing to preach on Jeremiah 2 where God outlines his case for divorcing an adulterous and idolatrous Israel.  It is a tragic tale of lost love, ungratefulness, stupid exchanges, searching for love and meaning every where but with God, disgrace, discipline and denial of sinfulness.  As well as forcing me to look at my own heart as I prepared and preached it got me thinking about all those that, over 15 years of ministry, I've seen begin running the race well before backsliding and abandoning the faith.  It also got me thinking about a growing number of young people, in their twenties and thirties, who profess faith in Christ but also disillusionment with his Church.  'I just can't find a church I like'  'We can't find a church for people like us.'  'I can't go to a church that teaches that, or that, or that, or that.'

Both those thoughts, of those who are backslidden and those who are disillusioned with church, have troubled me over the weekend.  It has led to some soul searching and self examination.  But it has also led me to the conclusion that often for the latter category of people the problem is not so much with church but with God and the Bible.

The Bible is brutally honest about the nature of church.  It is a glorious, messy, sanctifying, frustrating, beautiful, forgiveness needing, grace saturated display of the glory of Christ.  It will one day be holy and pure, without spot or blemish.  But it isn't yet.  It's impossible to read the epistles and conclude that the first century churches were sorted.  That they didn't face conflict, personal rivalries, false teaching, false application and even some hypocrisy. And yet it is through the church that God is working to reveal his kingdom.  Not because of its sorted nature but because God is at work in the glorious messiness of a church.  Church is messy, it is imperfect, but it is where God has staked his glory.

In an age where appearance matters, where via social media we massage and manipulate how people see us and our 'perfect' lives, I wonder if the rugged rough and tumble nature of church is just perceived as too imperfect by some.  Some of us need to recognise how societies norms and values are robbing us of all that God intends for us to experience in the church.  Being a committed member of a church is not easy, but then it wasn't meant to be, it was meant to be sanctifying and God glorifying.  We also need to see that whilst we can choose to only associate with those who are like us outside of church, in church God graciously for our good calls us to commit to and love those who aren't like us for our sanctification and his glory.

I wonder, however, if the bigger problem is that what those people are saying is I don't like the God of the church.  God's word conflicts with our culture and that is nothing new.  It has conflicted with every culture throughout time.  Yet our culture has worked hard, investing billions, to persuade young people how to think and feel about many of the big issues of the day, it has moulded and shaped their emotional response and their consciences through the stories it tells, the heroes and villains it casts.  Those values clash with the Bible at a fundamental level - gender, sex, identity, marriage, divorce, multiculturalism, pluralism and so on.  Those shaped by that education and media saturation seem to be rejecting the church because of its stance on many of these issues.  It just feels wrong to them.

But they are not rejecting the church if the church is teaching God's word faithfully.  I wonder if we haven't been blunt enough about diagnosing that.  If we've left them thinking its a church problem when really it is a problem with the very nature of God.  With believing God is good even when his word is at odds what society says.  With believing that God is just even as it clashes with the justice and laws of our nation.  With believing that God is loving when it contrasts with what our friends are posting on their social media pages.

It has not been the easiest weekend as I've sat and thought through these things.  Seeing people drift away who once ran well is heartbreaking, and this week I plan to spend a chunk of time praying for those folks.  But I also plan to pray for opportunity and boldness for myself and others to challenge those who are hiding a problem with the character of God behind the facade of disillusionment with the church.

Change is...

Sometimes in the evangelical church it can feel intimidating trying something new.  We feel a little bit like Oliver as he embarks on the long walk to the front and asks for more as we present something new or tweak something existing.  I am very grateful to God that Grace Church has bought into the idea of change as a good thing and as the norm, that people are willing to try something different.  As churches gospel flexibility is a must if we are to grow and reach those around us.

So what's the change?  Nothing earth shattering.  But we are going to be adding an extra service to Sunday's from September.  Not because we've grown and now need two Sunday morning services, that's not problem we have to face, though it is one we'd love to face at some point in the future.  We are going to be launching a Sunday afternoon service from 4-5pm.  At a time when many churches are only having one service and as a small church this feels counter intuitive but we want to try it for a number of reasons:

1. It will provide us with another opportunity to meet, hear God's word and one another one another.  We need one another and one of the fruits of our Gospel Group series on the one another's has been a growing conviction I've had that we just need to be spending more time together to help us do this well.  So as part of the service on Sunday afternoon we'll be eating together to facilitate that as well as singing together, reading together, praying together, and listening and applying God's word together.

2. It provides an opportunity for those who teach the children to be taught.  Our Sunday School teachers work incredibly hard to teach the Bible faithfully, interactively, and innovatively to the young people we have coming along on a Sunday morning.  Often at the expense of being taught themselves.  We want to provide an opportunity for them to be taught as a way of honouring their sacrificial service.

3. It opens up a new avenue into church.  Many of the families in our local area are heavily involved in Sunday morning sport and so an invitation to church is often met with 'Sorry, but I've got...'  Hopefully this second service opens up an opportunity for those involved there to come along.  I'm not naive enough to think we'll be inundated, but God willing it removes another barrier for a few.

4. It flies in the face of consumer culture.  In our consumer culture we take what we want when we want it, that is a danger for the way we approach church.  Hopefully by having this second service people will think come along not just because they want to but to support others.  It provides a very practical expression of love for others, I will go to support those who couldn't get there this morning, or who were teaching my children and so on.

5. It provides a way for our children to see their parents engage with the Bible.  The Sunday afternoon will see everyone in together for the whole service.  Our children will get to see their parents engage with the Bible, discuss it with others and pray through its implications.  This will be messier and noisier and a bit more chaotic.  But our prayer is that as the children see it modelled they will better transition into church themselves and that God would be at work by his Spirit through his word that is as applicable and relevant to an 8 year old as to an 88 year old..

Those are just some of the reasons why we're giving Sunday afternoons a go, there are others, but I'll leave it at that.  We'd love your prayers as we begin in September, for the preparation of the book of James, for unity in the church, for outreach in the community.  But above all for God to be at work through his word in his people by his Spirit to bring himself glory.

An ordinary Sunday transformed

Sunday began like any ordinary Sunday, time in the office, final prayer and prep, then down to set up and pray together.  The service was ordinary, the preaching was ordinary, the coffee was ordinary.  But I was reminded again that God is at work in the ordinary and everyday to bring about the extraordinary.

As a church we were already planning for a baptism on the 2nd July.  But by the end of the service we were planning for five.  Five very different people with very different life stories, ranging from teens to experienced, as well as across the socio-economic background all asking to be baptised to publicly declare that they have repented of their sin and trusted in Jesus and found new life in him.  Not that they trusted him on Sunday morning, for some it was months and even years in the past but now finally they wanted to be baptised.  Inevitably there was a sense of thankfulness to God and a bit of a buzz as we packed away the ordinary and everyday components of a church service in a school hall.

But God was not yet done.  I received a phone call in the afternoon to say that one of our congregation was soon to be called home to hear her Saviour's well done.  It was particularly apt because that morning, in God's timing, we'd been hearing his word from Ecclesiastes 7.  I arrived at the hospital just after God had called our friend home and was able to pray with the family and provide what support I could by bodily being there.

It was a day that reminded me of the privilege of the pastor's call.  To teach God's word and see people come to faith and apply God's word as they live life following Jesus right though life until they are finally called home where Jesus will wake and welcome them.  And amazingly all of it looks so ordinary so mundane, so everyday.  And yet God is gloriously and mysteriously at work to bring glory to himself precisely in the ordinary.

Church Planting: Bring your coffin...

Church is about relationships.  The story of the universe is about the relationship we were made for it's ruin, it's redemption and it's final perfect realisation and enjoyment.  It should therefore be no surprise that relationships matter.  But it should also be no surprise that the ruin of the fall marred relationships and continues to mar relationships.  It should also be no surprise that church is about relationships.  Every "one another" in the Bible is predicated on relationships which are significantly developed and committed enough to enable that one anothering to happen.

But our society is increasingly moving away from relationships, certainly on anything more than a superficial level.  Ask yourself honestly how many people are you truly friends with?  How many are committed deeply to your well being?  So deeply that they will put themselves out for you in times of crisis?  Who rejoice with you, mourn with you, sit with you, listen to you?  Whose very presence brings comfort even in silence?  How many of your friendships are like walking through a puddle rather than swimming in the depths of an ocean?  If we're honest these relationships are few and far between.  Increasingly sociologists tell us they are becoming scarcer, the number of those deep committed friendships we experience has reduced some suggest by as much as half.  We settle for superficial friendship whilst longing for something deeper.

There is another facet of this change.  As our society has become more fluid, more temporary, more mobile so our commitment to a place, to people, to community and to church has shifted.  In the 1960's many people would attend 1 or 2 churches in their lifetime.  Now many of us have attended more than that before we leave home because we have moved with our parents work.  That mobility subtly influences the way we think of church and in turn impacts the churches we plant and their effect on the area evangelistically.

When we planted I asked people who were coming with us to commit to a minimum of 5 years.  How do you feel about that?  About right?  Too great a commitment?  I now think that was a totally wrong expectation to set.  Instead I should have said bring your coffin with you.  Come with me for life.   Missionaries in earlier times often took their coffins with them because they didn't expect to return home, it was a sign of their commitment to the people they were going to reach with the gospel.  How about us?

Pastor is that your expectation about your current pastorate?  How long do you plan to be there?  5, 10, 15, 20, years?  Is that a biblical expectation or a worldly one?  Is that careerism or calling?  Church member is that your expectation?  Are you there until something better comes up or until the next promotion comes available?  Or are you called too?

I particularly think that in working class and deprived communities being there for life matters.  Committing to that early on matters because you will want to give up.  You will experience push back, you will experience set backs, you will experience slander, you will experience unexpected barrier after barrier to the gospel.  You will find that the slightest perceived slight or failure will bring the shutters that have taken so long to raise up crashing back down.  You will find preconceived misconceptions about church, that surface and have to be refuted again and again.  But you will also find a harvest field that is ripe for harvest amid the hardships and hard hearts.  So church planters bring your coffin.

Not getting on the property ladder

Grace Church has now been actively looking for a permanent building for a little over 6 months now. Those who know the area we are in will know as a former RAF base all the land was sold to Peel Holdings and there is precious little land in the area owned by anyone else.  We've spent the last 6 months enquiring as to the availability and cost of various pieces of land or property.  We have so far drawn a total blank.  Peel have nothing that is suitable for us.  The vacant, for sale, piece of land next to our house, which has been a car park of sorts for 12 years is for sale at offers over £1.2million (slightly beyond our budget)for an acre and a half.  We enquired about properties for rent or sale on the various business parks only to be told that they would not let or sell to a church because the owners want them to be business parks.

More recently we have been in contact with the council about any land available as part of the building of the new airport road (FARRRS).  But have heard this week that they are only compulsory purchasing the land required to build the road and so there will not be any land available to buy or build on.  The former local post office, that would be less than ideal but is vacant is being developed as further office space.  And the area of land, empty and disused, owned by South Yorkshire Housing Association they want to hold on to and will not sell.

It leaves us with few places to go.  We are very blessed in that we have a great working relationship with the school we hire, and there is no pressure from them for us to leave.  However, due to building work at the school we have had to stop our coffee morning and are just meeting there on a Sunday morning.  We are also limited as to what we can offer to serve and meet the community by not having our own building.  We remain convinced that God is good and sovereign and that though his ways are not our ways he will build his kingdom.  We are sure what he has in store for us is better than we can imagine even if we cannot see what that is yet.  And so I'd ask you to pray with us and for us.

The dangers of disconnection

We're working our way through Esther on Sunday morning's and as I prepared for last Sunday I couldn't help but notice how isolated and disconnected from the people of God she has become.  As all the rest of God's people mourn in sackcloth and ashes Esther is not.  And when Esther hears of Mordecai's actions she doesn't join him in mourning instead she sends him clothes to put on.  On the surface it sounds callous.  But the real problem is that Esther doesn't know what is going on.  She knows nothing about the threat to God's people posed by Haman's decree.  Keeping her nationality hidden means no-one knows that this concerns her and Esther's compromise with the world leads to isolation which in turn leads to disconnection from the people of God.  In fact so disconnected is Esther that she seems to feel she'll be OK, shielded by her position and palace life - hence Mordecai's rebuke.  It takes the encouragements and challenges of Mordecai to make her stand as one of God's people.

As I studied the chapter it occurred to me that this pattern is a recurring one in the bible.  In Genesis 38 Judah isolates himself from his brothers and goes to stay with Hiram and basically lives as he likes, sleeping with what he assumes is a shrine prostitute.  David, isolated from his men because he stays at home in the palace, sees, pursues, and commits adultery with Bathsheba and then murders Uriah.  Peter finds himself isolated by the courtyard fire and ends up denying he knows Jesus.

Isolation and disconnection for the people of God is dangerous.  It is hard to live in the world but not be of the world on our own.  Which is why we are not on our own.  Esther needs Mordecai to challenge and encourage her.  Judah needs Tamar's actions which act as rebuke to make him realise how far he has fallen.  David needs Nathan's prophetic challenge.  Peter needs Jesus' loving restoration into the church.

Why would we be any different?  We need one another and God knowing that gifted us the church.  So invest in the relationships you have there.  Connect don't just attend.  Be discipled and disciple others don't settle for being a consumer because disconnection is dangerous for the people of God.

Our churches first million pound signing?

Another quick update on our search for a more permanent home for Grace Church.  We've continued praying and pushing doors, though so far all are remaining firmly closed.  Peel Holdings say there is nothing suitable for us in their portfolio of land and properties.  And so last week we contacted an estate agent about the acre and a half of land on the corner of Hayfield Lane and First Avenue to ask if they had any details of the site and a potential guide price.

It's an acre and half which is compose of an old car park and some wild grass land and trees all in an L-shape.  It's much bigger in many ways than we need but would allow us to provide the community with a park and outside play area which it is currently lacking, and provide scope for our youth work as there is no local park to do things at.  It is also one of the few sites available for sale.  Maybe I was being naive but I was utterly shocked by the reply I received.  In terms of guide price we were told that they were looking for offers in excess of a £1,000,000.  That seems to be the going rate for land in and around this area, due in part to the development at the airport and the existing and upcoming airport link roads.

How are we reacting to this?  Well, some people have said that kills any thoughts of pursuing that piece of land, others have said maybe we should start fundraising, our God is sovereign after all.  We need to take some time to stop and pray and think though exactly what it is we want to do and what is feasible.  We are a small church, working in a predominantly not wealthy area, though with new estates rising rapidly, and more proposed for the near future, that is beginning to change.  What is feasible?  What is right?  And what our vision is?  Seem to be key things we need to stop, pray and think through.  As ever we'd value your prayers.

Summer shut down?

The summer shutdown, schools do it (6 weeks, 7 if you live in Doncaster this year), colleges do it, universities do it.  Even the Martial arts club my boys go to does it.  They basically shut down, run nothing for a period of time because so many people are away and teachers need rest.  Church doesn't do it but there are weeks when I wonder if it may not be a bad idea, but then I stop and think about it and realise it would be horrific.

Don't mishear me, I'm not knocking holidays, I've enjoyed a lovely two week break.  Part in hectic, let's go, let's see, let's climb into bed exhausted and hot at the end of everyday having crammed as much as possible in, London and part in relaxed, cool, tranquil North Yorkshire.  But I do wonder about the spiritual effect of holidays, especially extended holidays.  It used to be that most people went away for a couple of weeks, but there seems to be a growing trend to be away for as much of the school summer holidays as possible, sometimes in long unbroken stretches.

I'm not sure why that is but I wonder if it has something to do with the fact that as families we cram our lives so full of stuff that everything else gets shunted into holiday time.  If we are busy all the time in term time; children at different clubs every night and at weekends, busy with work, busy with life, busy with church.  Then we try to squeeze in visits to family and friends at holidays.  But actually all we are doing is filling up our holidays and making them as busy as the rest of the time.  When do we stop and rest?  When do we stop and take the time to evaluate, to meditate on God's word and slowly chew over what it has to say about our pace of life, priorities, loves, goals and so on?

One by product of the cramming of term time is the cramming of rest time full of people to see, things to do to make up for our inability to do so in overfull term time.  I wonder what damage it is doing to our families, our churches, our communities and the gospel?  I wonder if the concept of leisure and holidays is gradually choking our churches?  If it is becoming the Christians other object of worship, a rival to God?  I'm certainly aware of the danger in my own heart and mind of overworking now and pinning my hopes on rest then.

When our churches seem to shut down or hibernate for the summer there is something wrong.  It's fine for a Martial arts club to do it, or for a school to do so.  But a church is a family, I'm taking it that we don't absent ourselves from our families for weeks at a time.  My fear is that as this becomes the norm we will find ourselves in years to come reaping the costs.

There's no place like home

We are just back from a couple of weeks holiday who took in the hustle and bustle of London and the calm serenity of North Yorkshire.  As well as the period of rest and opportunity to eat ice cream, visit a beach/Buckingham Palace/Tower of London/Scarborough cricket ground, and spend time with the family it also provides an opportunity to visit other churches and just be part of the congregation.  It is an opportunity I enjoy but it reminds me every time that what makes our own church home is the family we find there.  The interconnected interdependent web of relationships.  The shared experiences, the committed care, the easy yet intentional way we are around and with each other.

So I return from holiday refreshed but also pleased to be back to my church family, where God has put me and where I find those relationships that provoke me and go deep which we so desperately need.

Despising the ordinary

What could church do that would enable you to flourish spiritually?  That's the question we began with at Gospel Group last night as we studied Nehemiah 11-12.  It's a fascinating question isn't it because there are so many possible answers and so many of them are dictated by the trends in our society.  But it is a question worth thinking about not least for how it exposes our habit of despising the ordinary God instituted means of flourishing in our faith.  What could church do that would enable you to flourish in your faith?

In Nehemiah 11 and 12 the walls are rebuilt, the people have committed themselves to the covenant having repented of their sins.  And now they put structures in place in Jerusalem that will help them as God's people flourish in God's city.  Firstly 1 in 10 of the people from the surrounding villages and towns moves into the city.  We need others, something that is plainly obvious when you read the New Testament and pay any attention to the one another's.  They put leaders in place who will administer what needs to be administered, who will give direction and be the bridge between good intentions and actual action.  They put the priests in place to make the offerings and sacrifices which we know point to Jesus the great high priest who once for all offers himself for sin.  They recognise the Levites and put them in place, those who read, teach and apply God's word to the people.  They set people apart to be gatekeepers, to provide security from their enemies but also to facilitate purity by keeping Sabbath traders from other nations out.  And they recognise and put musicians in place who will lead the people in recognising, rejoicing in, and responding to the faithfulness and goodness of God.

In Nehemiah 12v44-47 we are told that the people ensure that these groups are provided for materially on an ongoing basis so they can keep on dedicating themselves to their given roles, so that God's people have the trellises (yes I know that's been used somewhere else) which facilitate spiritual flourishing.  Israel commit themselves to having structures and people in place that will enable them to flourish spiritually.  But it's worth noticing that these are the ordinary everyday things that God's people had done for centuries.  It is not a magic bullet, it doesn't guarantee spiritual flourishing (see chapter 13) but it does provide an opportunity for it to happen.

As you move into the New Testament we see similar structures put into place in the New Testament church.  Those who read, teach, and apply the bible to the people, those who guard them (see Acts 20 - elders watch over the flock), musicians to lead us in worship, leaders who help direct us as to where the rubber hits the road with a passage.  And yet because of the sheer ordinariness of it all we are tempted to despise such things, to take them for granted because of their everyday or every Sunday-ness.  Instead we ought to thank God for them and for providing them so that we have opportunity to spiritually flourish and we ought to dedicate ourselves to making the most of the opportunity they provide rather than looking off and wondering about or longing for the silver bullet that will provide instant flourishing.

Can church exclude?

Does your church exclude people?  Are there people who are not allowed on the premises?  I guess we'd all be quick to say no.  But there are a range of ways of excluding people.  Not inviting them and not making church accessible to them are two simple ways we ought to think carefully about in regards to church.

Who are we not inviting?  Is there a segment of the population based on class, ethnicity, or some other factor who we are simply not reaching or building relationships with.  We will most naturally share the gospel with those we come into contact with everyday, work colleagues, parents at the school gates, those who we play sport with and so on.  But what about everyone else?  Does geography or class exclude them and if so what are we going to do about it?

Not making church accessible is another way we might exclude someone or a group of people.  We all know our buildings have to have disabled access, those with physical disabilities must be able to gain access to the building.   We ought to think about our services in the same way.  Is someone who is low literacy able to access this service or does the sheer volume of reading exclude them?  Is someone who is autistic able to access the service?  What about someone from a different ethnicity or tradition or class?  What assumptions about people's lives do we make in this service?  Is the service so monoculture that others will not be able to access it and will therefore conclude that church is not for them they are not really wanted, they are excluded?

There are things you can do to overcome that.  The quality of welcome and follow up goes a long way towards overcoming these barriers.  But just thinking through your service with an eye and an ear to those who may come along and feel excluded and making small changes may make a big difference.

Book Review: The life you never expected; thriving while parenting special needs children

Andrew and Rachel Wilson's book is well worth reading for anyone who is part of a church family where there are children full stop.  It is worth reading for all of us because we live in a world where there are children with Special Educational Needs and for so many of us we lack an understanding of what life is like both for the child and the parents and this impacts the expectations we have of them and the way we react to them.

The authors are clear about what the book is not from the off.  It is not a how to book, it is not a book that claims to have all the answers, or to provide universal solutions. Rather it takes us on their journey from the initial shock and grief of diagnosis to dealing with constantly shifting expectations, reactions, and progress or regression of their children.  However, one mustn't pigeon hole this book as only for those with SEN children, it has insights to provide for all who suffer or walk through suffering with those who do, and a particularly helpful chapter on healing.

The book is easy to read and is helpfully set out in 5 cycles of weeping, worshipping, waiting, witnessing and breathe.  They provide a helpful reminder woven into the very structure often book that life parenting children with SEN is not linear but cyclical.  There is a sense of movement and progress but it is often jerky, frequently sporadic and interspersed with times of feeling like you are back to square one.  One of the most beautiful aspects of the book was the glimpses we get of the care provided for Andrew and Rachel by their extended family and their church family.  There is an openness and honesty about the battles within their own hearts, the struggles of faith, and their fears for the future, but throughout there is a warm love for, and trust in, God our Father.

The church should be the best place to bring up special needs children and this book is a significant first step for us in thinking through how we make that so.