1 Month to Understand your Local Church

MEGACHURCHES

2009-05-05T15:59:00.000-07:00

MAMAS, DON'T LET YOUR BABIES GROW UP TO BE PASTORS!

2009-02-06T21:19:00.000-08:00

THE EMERGING CHURCH (Richard Rohr)

2009-02-05T18:03:00.000-08:00

An excellent summary of the Emerging Church by Richard Rohr:

A SIMPLE LORD'S PRAYER CHANT

2008-11-09T15:49:00.000-08:00

LEADERSHIP RETREATS

2008-10-10T15:34:00.000-07:00

Dear friends,

Here's a little thing I wrote some time ago on this topic, for a church considering the regular practice of Staff Retreats:

1. Why go away on regular group retreats? In principle, because Jesus did (Luke 5:15-16), and encouraged his disciples to do the same (Mark 6:30-31). The first text suggests Jesus had sometimes something more important to do than the urgent tasks of teaching and healing (and leading). The second text has often been paraphrased 'Come apart and rest awhile; if you don't rest awhile you'll soon come apart.'

2. The primary purposes of a retreat for Christian leaders are to listen to God in silence and stillness, discernment of God's will (http://tinyurl.com/3ojp4q )and to listen attentively to one another. Secondary purposes can include having fun (nothing wrong with that), and leadership skill/concept development.

3. The classic protocol surrounding our behaviour on such group retreats is that we do not invade the space and time with our special concerns about another person on the leadership team: those legitimate concerns are addressed in another time and place.

4. A by-product of a Staff Retreat, to use the hackneyed phrase, is 'team building'. In other words, our emphasis is not on the team-as-a-wheel - with all the spokes relating to the team leader - but rather the team-as-a-network, relating to one another.

5. We go away with an attitude of humility to 'let go'. Letting go, or the discipline of relinquishment, is absolutely essential if we are to be centred on God, and available to one another, rather than being focussed on our own concerns. In our Western individualistic world we are encouraged to be preoccupied with ourselves: my needs, my problems, my space, my desires, my problem with so-and-so. A retreat is outward-focussed, away from ourselves, in an attitude of self-forgetfulness rather than self-absorption.

6. Back to listening to God and to others: the spiritual masters talk about the Spiritual Discipline of 'not having the last word.' It's an essential discipline if we are to 'grow in grace'. It's about relinquishing control (resisting the devil), and submitting to God (James 4:7-8). It is all about being still and knowing that *God* is God.

7. How often? Probably, as a general rule, twice a year; alternating with private retreats - which can be solitary, or 'directed' by a spiritual companion.

Rowland Croucher

March 2005.

WORSHIP: FORWARD TO BASICS

2008-09-14T20:30:00.000-07:00

I like that. It could become the mission statement of a the worship committee acting as curators of the worship space working on new approaches to doing worship. Someone in a book I read recently described his top 5 qualities of worship in a postmodern culture as authenticity, community, abandonment of dogma, focus on the arts, and diversity. To which I would add a sixth, participation. These are the six basics of worship that I am suggesting we need to move forward to.

Authenticity is the most important. It is also the most difficult to achieve. When a community gathers to worship there is a tremendous weight of history and expectation that comes into play. One person’s authenticity is seen by another person as a lack of self-control, or being overly emotional, or sloppy. At its heart, the call for authenticity is a call for honesty and integrity in what we are asked to do in worship and in the words that are said about God and about those who are at worship. Worship that is slick or superficial isn’t worship and doesn’t enable worship. Where is the lasting benefit and life changing power of worship that ignores or overrides the reality of how we’re encountering life? We debase ourselves when going to church is a segmented compartment of our being, unconnected to any other part of our living, and when we are unable to express our doubts and fears among those who profess to being sinners saved by grace.

Community flows out of authenticity. Being loving and accepting is easier when we realise we’re all in the same boat. As long as some people check their real life at the door as they come into church, community will remain elusive. Holding common beliefs isn’t enough. Being in the same place doing the same things doesn’t help much either. We have to know each other at some level as well. Authentic worship builds community.

Abandoning dogma isn’t a plea to give up on the basics of the faith. Rather it’s a reminder that good worship is more interested in connecting the grace and love of God with the real and tangible issues of life than with theoretical ones. If our corporate worship doesn’t address the realities of our lives it lacks authenticity and will not build community.

Focussing on the arts in worship is a plea for passion and creativity. A call to recognise a broader range of gifts in worship. And recognition that people learn in a variety of ways and through all five senses rather than just numbness in the backside. It doesn’t necessarily mean using a painting in place of a sermon (but it might).

Acceptance and encouragement of diversity in all its forms - ethnicity, age, background, intelligence, time on the journey, maturity, perspective, ability, etc- among the worshipping congregation can only strengthen the authenticity of the community at worship.

Participation almost seems to not need to be mentioned after what has been said above. Perhaps that’s why it wasn’t originally separated out; it flows from the other basics. But I want to emphasise it lest anyone think that authentic worship that builds community and reflects the reality of the people worshipping can be planned and led by one man. It can’t. Not even by one woman. Not even by one theologically educated and ordained person. Liturgy is the work of the people. Active involvement in shaping our worship week by week is a basic right of every follower of Christ. Our diversity will only be recognised by a diversity of leaders. We need to be willing to risk awkwardness and poor theology and embarrassment. After all, building a community of authentic worshippers is our aim. Isn’t it? Would this style of worship be so completely against the grain of what else is out there that it just might have something to say to those who are leaving the Church in droves, and even to those who are on spiritual journeys but have decided that the Church wouldn’t have anything worthwhile to offer?

I personally am anti excellence. I’m anti excellence in church life and I’m particularly anti excellence in worship. In fact I’m really not so much anti excellence as pro participation. I reckon participation is what church life should be about. Participation rather than performance. And a pursuit of excellence always, always, ends up being about performance. If excellence is a primary goal, then the weak, the timid, the depressed, the disabled, the unskilled, the sick, the introverted, overweight, the less attractive, the poor and the untalented aren’t going to get a look in. They’ll be relegated to being spectators for someone else’s worship performance. From this perspective excellence doesn’t look so good. How can a process and a value that excludes large sections of a worshipping community from active participation be anything but unchrist-like?

I am reminded of the passage in John when the woman taken in adultery is brought before Christ in an attempt to trap Him in order to have a basis for accusing Him. And Jesus bent down and wrote in the dirt. I have always thought of that as an eerie moment in the gospel narrative. It is the only record of Jesus ever writing anything. The first scurry of wind blew it away or perhaps he scuffed it out with his own sandal. Who knows?

The irony for me is that we who follow him have erected whole mountains of books over his simple teaching. We have at times created an exclusive faith beset by rules and decrees and incapable of expressing and extending the unconditional love of God.

So the watchword for the Worship Committee is Forward to Basics, keep it simple and inclusive and open to all.

(Presented to the church Jan and I attend - East Doncaster Baptist Church, in Melbourne - by Frank Fricke, chairman of our worship committee.)

- with gratitude and acknowledgement to Mark Pierson

'YOU RAISE ME UP' - THE GIFT OF ENCOURAGEMENT

2008-06-03T00:38:00.000-07:00

Or if you'd prefer John Groban:

PHARISEES VS. SAINTS

2008-05-24T19:34:00.000-07:00

There are three kinds of sinners – those who know they’re sinners and aren’t ready (yet) to change; those who don’t know they’re sinners, but believe all others not-like-them need to change; and those who know they’re sinners and want to change...

The way Jesus (who inhabited a fourth category – sinless) related to these three groups is instructive.

He befriended the first group (‘acceptance precedes repentance’) – much to the annoyance of the second group.

He challenged the second group (those who believed that ‘repentance precedes acceptance’); if they were intransigent, he sometimes advocated leaving them in their mess (eg. the pearls/swine metaphor).

He encouraged the third group towards spiritual growth and integrity – and modelled this in his own life.

****

What you see depends on where you stand. 'Christian' sinners come in two varieties, and for the sake of convenience I'll use two generic terms which might be misunderstood.

'Pharisees' are good people (in the worst sense of the word). They do not know they are in need of grace (despite their protestations to the contrary). They know what's/who's right, and despise heretics and the sort of riff-raff (especially sexual sinners) Jesus mixed with. Pharisees are still crucifying Jesus, but don't know it.

'Saints' are sinners who are ready to admit to being such, and who know their need of grace (they are not - yet - perfect). Although 'saint' is not used in the singular in the Bible - Pharisees are quick to point that out, though they employ plenty of other concepts, like 'Sunday School', which are also not in the Bible - the term has been employed by evangelicals - like the great Methodist Dr. W.E.Sangster - to denote people on the road to holiness. (So forget medieval stained- glass ideas about these people).

Pharisees think they've 'arrived' - they know it all. They believe almost precisely what their 'respected' Bible teachers taught them. They have nothing whatever to learn from those not-like-them. They're 'Word/Bible'-centred.

Saints know they haven't and don't. They are maturing, growing, in faith hope love and knowledge. They discover God's truth and God's will in all sorts of unlikely places. They're 'Word/Christ'-centred.

An easy way to pick a modern Pharisee: they emphasize 'truth' over love. Their creeds and systematic theologies have it all nailed down.

An easy way to pick someone who wants to be a saint: they emphasize love over (anyone's incomplete definition of) 'truth'.

Pharisees never - or hardly ever - preach about social justice. Jesus condemned them for this - see Matthew 23:23, Luke 11:42: those statements affirm that Justice and Love are the two key emphases of Jesus.

When saints read Jesus' diatribes against the Pharisees their first questions are: 'What is social justice?' 'How can I be faithful to these emphases of Jesus, which the Pharisees have neglected?'

You'll hardly ever hear a Pharisee apologize for being wrong. They can't be wrong - they're too insecure to admit they're ever wrong. Their gut-instinct is to justify themselves (Luke 18:9) and pour scorn over anyone who might teach them something different/new.

The saint's prayer is constantly 'Lord be merciful to me, a sinner!' (Luke 18:9ff). And regarding 'truth' they believe that 'God has yet more light and truth to break forth from His Holy Word'.

So: Pharisees have a pathological need to be 'right'.

Saints want desperately to be 'holy' - to be more like Jesus.

Now these are provocative generalizations, to get us thinking/praying (humbly).

But let's remember, the Pharisees aren't all bad, and the saints aren't all good. It's what they're doing about their badness/goodness that's important.

****

Here are some stanzas from Faber's great hymn 'There's a Wideness in God's Mercy' which Pharisees don't like. Figure out why...

There’s a wideness in God’s mercy,

Like the wideness of the sea;

There’s a kindness in His justice,

Which is more than liberty.

There is no place where earth’s sorrows

Are more felt than up in heaven;

There is no place where earth’s failings

Have such kindly judgment given.

There is welcome for the sinner,

And more graces for the good;

There is mercy with the Savior;

There is healing in His blood.

There is grace enough for thousands

Of new worlds as great as this;

There is room for fresh creations

In that upper home of bliss.

For the love of God is broader

Than the measure of our mind;

And the heart of the Eternal

Is most wonderfully kind.

It is God: His love looks mighty,

But is mightier than it seems;

’Tis our Father: and His fondness

Goes far out beyond our dreams.

But we make His love too narrow

By false limits of our own;

And we magnify His strictness

With a zeal He will not own.

****

More on the various types of sinners: Antinomians – those ‘against the law’ – are sinners who do not want to change; Pharisees do not know they’re sinners – and also do not want to change; Saints know they’re sinners and do want to change. I see vestiges of all three attitudes in myself...

Remember saints are not proud of what they’ve ‘achieved’ – they are/have nothing not already given. Pharisees tend towards hubris: their cleverness (they think) is mainly of their own making...

Saints sincerely believe ‘God hasn’t finished with me yet’. Pharisees are stuck where they were: they find it difficult to say (of an idea, for example): ‘Hey, that’s interesting... I must do more thinking about that. Maybe God is in this new thought.’
Christian Pharisees mainly preach from Paul (an ex-Pharisee) – and resonate with his judgmental passages. Saints tend to centre on the parables of Jesus, and especially the Sermon on the Mount: so the epistle of James, our Lord’s brother, who exposed Judaistic legalism, is their favourite. They love this: ‘The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable , gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. And the harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace’ (James 3:17,18).

Saints earth their missional imperative in Jesus’ mandate in Luke 4:18-19 (mission is compassion and justice, and more than words). Pharisees prefer Matthew 28:18-20 (authority, go, teach, baptize): they are polemical, adversarial (I’m here to change your thinking/behaving).

Pharisees are conformists: and desperately need others to be/believe like them. (Mannheim’s sociology of knowledge suggests that the source of our convictions lies more in social pressures than in independent thinking about the pros and cons of an idea. Peter Berger - Invitation to Sociology - writes about our being a prisoner or a puppet in the society which controls our behaviour, attitudes and faith).

(I haven’t been able to read the responses to these little homilies, but if anyone reacts totally negatively, they are declaring themselves: like the Pharisees in Jesus’ day, they will avoid the central issues and attack the person – as an idiot, ignorant, ‘of the devil’ etc. ). The saint’s reflex question is ‘Lord is it I?’ believing that God has yet more light and truth to break forth from his Word. Pharisees prefer point-scoring.

Only one thing is important: to be a saint.

More – much more – to come...

Rowland Croucher

CLERGY/MINISTERS/PASTORS/PRIESTS

2008-04-14T22:59:00.000-07:00

Back in the 1970s a book called Clergy, Ministers & Priests by sociologists Stewart Ranson, Alan Bryman, and Bob Hinings was published in the U.K.

They questioned a sample of Anglican clergy, Methodist ministers and Catholic priests in three C of E dioceses, three Methodist districts, and three R C dioceses. These church leaders spoke about their role-confusion, but generally placed pastoral work well ahead of all other activities, followed by celebrating the sacraments and preaching. Counseling and leadership had a fairly low rating, while there was a marked distaste for administration. Methodist ministers tended to place more emphasis on preaching; the Roman Catholic priests gave primary emphasis to their office as celebrant...

Now what does all that tell you? Is there a correlation between these findings and the drastic statistical decline of the Methodist and Anglican communions in particular?

Let me give you one clue: the pastor's key role is leadership: giving away ministry to the church; training others for ministry. Such an emphasis would, frankly, not be offered by mainline clergy. Another: where priests emphasize the centrality of the sacraments/Eucharist/communion, there is a concomitant de-emphasis on preaching. What does that tell you?

More to come... See here for 1,000 more articles on these themes...

Rowland Croucher

http://jmm.aaa.net.au

RENEWING THE CHURCH

2007-12-05T16:22:00.000-08:00

Going to the Root: Commentary on Christian Smith’s Nine Proposals for Radical Church Renewal

by Wayne Jacobsen for BODYLIFE

1. Build Intentional Community

“Radical church renewal begins with a new vision of Christian relationships
in the body of Christ. It affirms that the church should look, and feel, not
like a club or interest group, but a loving, extended family. What is
necessary for people to live like this? People must truly know each other,
share with each other who they really are.”

In short, discipleship and personal care in the body of Christ were never
meant to come through a paid staff or cumbersome programs. Jesus gave his
ministry to people who would live out their lives in close, personal
friendships.

Let me give you a word of warning about this chapter, however. It seeks to
build that community through accountability and commitment, two words that
are not linked to body life at all in the New Testament and are often
misused to exercise control over people. While I love his goal here, his
methodology will only set us up for disappointed expectations. Love and
freedom is how Jesus called us to embrace body life for it was in
relationship not institution that Jesus vested his life.

That said, the author gives two key pieces of advice: “Christian community
is an alien, alternative reality that must be purposefully pursued and
cultivated” and “It is a living dynamic experience that is nurtured, not a
prepackaged program that is instituted.”

2. Do Church Without Clergy

Don’t panic! I know a lot of hot-buttons just went off. The author doesn’t
advocate throwing pastors overboard, simply makes the case that we do not
need them in the way they’ve come to dominate church life today. “Going to
the root helps us see that our clergy system is not demanded by the New
Testament. It is often counterproductive. And it can obstruct healthy,
biblical church life. Is it possible that one of the best things that could
happen to the church would be for the clergy to resign and take secular
jobs? The problem with the clergy is not the people, but the profession
itself. The New Testament is clear that ministry in the church is the work
of the entire body of believers, not of a single minister or pastoral team.”

>From both sides the fact of clergy in the body of Christ today produces two
classes of people leaders and followers. This is unhealthy from two angles.
On the one hand we expect pastors to be the body of Christ for every one,
and who can stand up to that weight? On the other, it promotes passivity on
the part of believers, waiting for the leaders to sort things out without
going to the Head and following his desires.

The profession always seems to lead clergy to be more program managers than
mentors, making decisions for people believing themselves to have a superior
perspective, rather than linking people close enough to Jesus, that he can
live out his will through them.

3. Decentralize Leadership and Decisions

“Never in the New Testament is one believer, even a church leader, said to
have spiritual authority over another…. (We don’t find) a model of
leadership that is hierarchical, authoritarian or focused on filling
offices. What we find is a very organic, bottom-up model of leadership….
(Spiritual authority) is given to leaders by believers around them because
of the exemplary, trustworthy character of their lives.

The author goes on to say that whatever leadership emerges exists only to
mentor others to hear and follow the Lord. They should function in plurality
without one leader dominating the others. But for decision-making, he
encourages those believers affected by the decision to engage in a process
of consensus-building. “When dominating leaders make decisions and call the
flock to follow, the seeds of apathy and immaturity are sown.” Of course
this works more realistically in groups less than 50 than it does in large
impersonal groups. For that to happen we will have to learn how to handle
growth by multiplying groups not expanding them until they can longer
function relationally.

4. Open Up Worship Services

“Structurally, the worship services of many churches are preplanned,
clergy-centered and performance-oriented (that often) undermine our best
intentions. In the most extended New Testament teaching on church gatherings
( I Cor. 11-14), Paul repeatedly states that the overarching goal of meeting
together is mutual edification building and strengthening the believing
community.”

How can that happen if we don’t move away from our pre-planned meetings, and
invite the honest, open participation of all God’s people who gather? This
doesn’t lead to an efficient service, but it does allow the body to be the
body.

Here the author encourages us away from up-front led worship, which puts the
focus on a few and breeds passivity in the rest. Instead people can have the
freedom to lead out in prayer, give thanks, read Scripture, encourage, and
even ask questions from the teaching so that the body can be built up by its
honest interaction in the presence of the Lord.

5. Get Over The Edifice Complex

“Perhaps the most obvious monument to the church’s immobility and
inflexibility are its church buildings. Buildings are massive, stationary
structures, imposing physical symbols of fixity and rigidity.” Here the
author most clearly suggests the home church model, “The early Christians
could have followed the familiar model of the Jewish temple or synagogue and
created specifically Christian buildings to meet and worship in. They did
not. Apparently they believed their homes were the best context for
gathering…. Homes are a place of family, which is what the early believers
were to each other.”

Of course the edifice complex can be just as apparent in avoiding buildings,
and it could be said that persecution may have contributed to the early
church staying in homes. But we still have to ask what do we gain (or lose)
by confining God’s work to a building that more often than not confines the
life of the body, at great expense to build and maintain.

6. Cultivate a Spirituality of Daily Life

How do we relate to a living God in our everyday existence? Too often we
only see that in terms of meeting legalistic, guilt-inducing expectations in
the do’s and don’ts of our behavior. This method never produces God’s
transformation. Radical renewal invites us to cultivate a relationship with
God, that fills every corner of our lives with his presence where we realize
it’s not what we do for God that matters, but what we let him do in us.

7. Practice Lifestyle Evangelism

“The Bible makes it clear that the central and irreplaceable medium for
communicating the gospel is the quality of believers’ lives together. The
lives of people who genuinely love each other, for all their warts and false
starts, will be a truer explanation of the good news than the most precisely
pitched evangelistic message.” Amen.

8. Work for Social Justice

“Doing biblical justice, therefore, means taking positive actions that
create and preserve flourishing human community in fidelity to God’s
covenant—which is to realize a just social order.” This chapter was not easy
to understand, but it demonstrates that God’s heart is for justice,
especially in alleviating the suffering of the oppressed and needy. How we
accomplish that might differ greatly, but we can acknowledge that our
service in places like that is close to God’s heart and the true nature of
religion.

9. Do Grass-Roots Ecumenism

“Radical church renewal rejects the unnecessary divisions that separate and
isolate Christians from each other. It calls believers to work for the unity
of the Spirit. But to be meaningful and effective, this work must become the
bottom-up, grass roots work of the people of God.” Don’t confine your
relationships only to believers who make up whatever group you worship with.
God’s work in our world is so much larger, and we can see that when we make
an effort to seek relationships beyond our own group.

I doubt I’ve done these proposals justice by trying to summarize in so short
a space, but aren’t these fascinating? They have each challenged me to take
a fresh look at what it means for me to be a part of the church.

(Taken from Going to the Root in the June 1996 issue of BodyLife, a publication of LifeStream Ministries. Read the whole article here.)

Used with permission.

WHAT DOES A HEALTHY CHURCH LOOK LIKE? (10: GENEROSITY)

2007-11-26T14:43:00.001-08:00

HEALTHY CHURCHES ARE GENEROUS!

Money is important: try to think of a day recently where money played no part at all. Were you deserted on an island, or camping in the bush? Or didn't get out of bed? Every society has some form of currency - even bartering economies.

An excellent thing to do with money is to give some of it away. Jesus sat down opposite the Temple treasury. The rich gave large sums. A poor widow put in two small copper coins: 'all she had'. It's a truism that most churches/missions would not survive without the faithful regular gifts of poorer members.

People in generous churches give away their time, their gifts and skills, their prayers, practical assistance and a listening-ear to others. (When they ask 'How are you?¹ they really want to know). And their money...

'Who dies rich, dies disgraced'(Andrew Carnegie). Let us never forget, we were born with nothing; we shall die with nothing. We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give. But humans, because of their insecurity, tend to be covetous, acquisitive. The desire to possess is very strong: the more we have the more we want. Deficits, inflation, cutting down forests, the greenhouse effect - all are caused by greed. The Bible is clear that we should provide for our family's necessities (1 Timothy 5:8), but each person/family/community ought to figure out the threshold between needs and wants. It's good to have what money can buy, but more important to have what money cannot buy.

And let's never forget the overseas - and nearby - poor. In terms of foreign aid individual Australians are fairly generous. But our government ranks 19 out of 22 rich nations for the aid we give as a proportion of gross national income (GNI). Economist Jeffrey Sachs says that if the world's richest nations took overseas aid to 0.5 per cent of GNI by 2010, it would halve the 1 billion people living on less than $US1 a day. (Try living on $1 a day for a month or two!).

WHAT DOES A HEALTHY CHURCH LOOK LIKE (9: COMPASSION)

2007-10-19T02:24:00.000-07:00

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote 'The church is the church only when it exists for others.' For him the 'others' were especially 'the outcast, the suspects, the maltreated, the powerless, the oppressed, the reviled - in short, those who suffer'. In his Letters and Papers from Prison he writes: 'Our church, which has been fighting only for its self-preservation, as though that were an end in itself, is incapable of taking the word of reconciliation and redemption to... the world.' He continues that our being Christian today will consist of two things: Praying and working for justice. 'All Christian thinking, speaking, and organizing must be born anew out of this prayer and action.'

*** I learned recently that in my home-state, Victoria, Australia, 7000 young people aged 12 - 24 'sleep rough' every night. A staffworker with the Melbourne City Mission told us that just about all of them come from dysfunctional and/or abusive families. Update: in today's press (October 21, 2007) I read this: 'Each night, one in every 200 Australians is said to be homeless.' Tragic!

WHAT DOES A HEALTHY CHURCH LOOK LIKE? (8. FAMILY)

2007-10-14T19:23:00.000-07:00

‘Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in’ (Robert Frost).

In a funny/sad episode of The Simpsons Maude Flanders – a devout Christian lady who practised the qualities of ‘faith, chastity, and charity’ attended a Bible Camp to learn how to be more judgmental! That episode was cited in online correspondence with an atheist this week!

Healthy churches are like healthy families. In your family, you had no choice about your siblings: ditto in God’s family. If I had to pick the members of the church I attend, I probably would not have chosen all of them, and I’m sure some of them wouldn't have chosen me! However, the more I get to know them, and hear what God is doing in their lives, the more I’ve come to appreciate them.

Healthy families are united-in-their-diversity. They manage conflict well. Children and teenagers and adults and seniors are all accepted/respected – their differences are celebrated! Healthy families practice open communication, forgiveness, serving one another. They play and laugh and work together.

One of our choruses says ‘We are family, we are one.' But our songs sometimes don’t match reality. Unhealthy families – church and other - are ‘dysfunctional’: they are rigid (with some unbending rules); they don’t have healthy boundaries, or cope with differing ideas, repressing disagreement with the powerful people; they are abusive: some want to exercise inappropriate power over others; they play ‘conspiracies of silence’ games… and so on. (See here for more).

So let’s practise this: ‘As God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you... Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful’ (Colossians 3:11-15).

Rev. Dr. Rowland Croucher
John Mark Ministries

WHAT DOES A HEALTHY CHURCH LOOK LIKE? (7: ACCEPTANCE)

2007-10-14T06:24:00.000-07:00

Maude Flanders, a character in The Simpsons, was very devout. She had many positive qualities: faith, chastity, charity. Maude once attended a Bible camp to learn how to be more judgmental!

****

Here are some wise words from a Baptist pastor-friend, Nathan Nettleton: The Church is not called to tolerance, but to hospitality. Mere tolerance is far too gutless.

Jesus did not model or advocate tolerance of the strangers and outcasts. He welcomed them, accepted them, stood in solidarity with them. In a few cases we also have stories of him openly challenging them to change, but it would be pretty hard to find a story where that wasn't premised on the initial welcoming acceptance. More often it seems that he didn't have to voice the challenge at all, but that people began to change in response to experiencing in him, the overwhelming hospitality of God...

****

John Claypool used to say: 'With Jesus, acceptance preceded repentance, with the Pharisees - ancient and modern - it's the other way around.'

WHAT DOES A HEALTHY CHURCH LOOK LIKE? (6: HONESTY)

2007-10-07T18:16:00.000-07:00

In his book Blue Like Jazz Don Miller tells the delightful story of how he and his friends dressed like monks and set up a confessional booth on their notoriously heathen college campus. But instead of hearing other people's confessions, they were confessing their sins as Christians and the sins of Christendom to anyone who was willing to listen and forgive.

I think the world would be willing to listen to a church on its knees, a church that doesn't pretend to be perfect or to have all the answers. I think a mystical, sacramental healing can begin within us and extend into the wounds of our world...

Shane Claiborne, Irresistible Revolution, p. 251.

WHAT DOES A HEALTHY CHURCH LOOK LIKE? (5: GRATEFULNESS)

2007-10-07T18:00:00.000-07:00

Another feature of healthy churches is that their members take seriously the apostle's admonition: '[Give] thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.' (Ephesians 5:20).

A 13-year-old at a formal dinner spills her main course all over her lap: meat, gravy, vegetables - the lot. Later, she recalls this as one of life's darkest moments, overshadowing a hundred good things that happened to her that week... I have an arthritic finger, a legacy of an old football injury: it occupies my attention more than the thousand parts of my body functioning perfectly.

The surrealists have captured this strangeness in their art: a manure heap in the corner of a field will dominate the canvas, obliterating or obscuring the flowers, whereas in the real landscape the manure heap is quite small.

That's why we are invited to give thanks in all things, at all times. In everything! If it wasn't Paul writing those injunctions I could hardly believe them: he knew what hardship and trouble and plans going wrong were all about. And he knew the imperfections of the churches he founded and visited!

In every time of worship we ought to be invited to 'count our blessings'. Thanksgiving is an attitude of life that recognizes that everything is a gift: and all good gifts come from God. It's also an attitude that has to be taught. Complaining comes naturally; children have to learn to be grateful.

Here's a thought I read somewhere: There's a special thing for which you can be thankful - only you and God have all the facts about yourself!

Suggestion: Phone or write/email someone expressing your gratitude for something they are, or have done. Go on... do it!

Prayer: O Lord you have given us so such. Please give us one thing more - a grateful heart. Amen.

Rowland Croucher

More on Gratefulness/Gratitude...

CHURCH RETREAT: ONE MODEL

2007-08-24T16:37:00.000-07:00

11 AM INTRODUCTIONS

PERSONAL REFLECTION ON JOHN 4: 1-42:

1. What’s unique about Jesus in this story? Can you imagine Jesus having
a need about which he asks your help?

2. Imagine you’re talking with Jesus – just the two of you – what would
you say to him? What would you expect him to say to you about you?

3. If he offered you ‘the water of life’ how would you understand that?
What are your greatest ‘needs’ at the moment (you can jot items under
headings like self-esteem, fear, guilt, grief, anxiety, anger, finance,
relationships etc. - for your eyes only)

4. If you could ask Jesus’ help in some aspect of your life, what would
your request/s look like?

5. And going back to your ‘village’/home/school/work/friends: what’s the
good news you’d be telling them? How do people/communities become
transformed?

12.30 PM LUNCH

1.20 PM: OUR STORIES OF FAITH/HOPE/LOVE – where we briefly share with
the group anything we feel is helpful/honest/relevant from our morning’s
reflection on the story in John 4. As others pray for you, what would
you like them to pray about?

3 PM: BREAK

3.20 PM: THE CHURCH: ‘LOVED BY CHRIST EVEN THOUGH WE’RE NOT YET FULLY
REDEEMED’. A brief case-study of the Church in Antioch (Acts 11: 19-30;
13:1-3). Discussion: What features of this ancient church might
encourage our life together? What does your church ‘mean’ for you? What
does a healthy church look like?

4.45 PM - BACK INTO THE WORLD

FACILITATOR: (Rev. Dr.) Rowland Croucher , John Mark Ministries

WHAT DOES A HEALTHY CHURCH LOOK LIKE? (4: DIVERSITY)

2007-08-03T17:47:00.000-07:00

A blind man, feeling the leg of an elephant said, "It's like a strong tree." The second, holding the trunk, reckoned that "It's like a thick vine." The third blind man, running his hands across the large body of the elephant, exclaimed, "No, it is like a wide mountain."

The NT Christians were like that. Paul was strong on faith; James on works. Luke-Acts has a lot about prophets; John hardly mentions them. The church, says Paul, is like a single body, but has many parts.

Our Lord bluntly targeted the narrow nationalism of his own people, particularly in stories like the Good Samaritan. Here the 'foreigner' is a hero. 'Ethnocentrism' is the glorification of my group, leading to a kind of spiritual apartheid: I'll do my thing and you do yours - over there. Territoriality ('my place - keep out!') replaces hospitality ('my place - you're welcome!').

In our global village we cannot avoid relating to 'different others'. Indeed, marriage is all about two different people forming a unity in spite of their differences. Those differences can of course be irritating - for example when a 'lark' marries an 'owl' (but the Creator made both to adorn his creation).

No one branch of the church has a monopoly on the truth. Differences between denominations or congregations - or even within them - reflect the rich diversity and variety of the social, cultural and temperamental backgrounds from which those people come. But they also reflect the character of God whose grace is 'multi-coloured'. If you belong to Christ and I belong to Christ, we belong to each other and we need each other. Nothing should divide us. So we should accept one another, as we are each accepted by God (Romans 15:7).

Snoopy was typing a manuscript, up on his kennel. Charlie Brown: 'What are you doing, Snoopy?' Snoopy: 'Writing a book about theology.' Charlie Brown: 'Good grief. What's its title?' Snoopy (thoughtfully): 'Have You Ever Considered You Might Be Wrong?' God's truth is very much bigger than our little systems.

Rowland Croucher

WHAT DOES A HEALTHY CHURCH LOOK LIKE? (3: MISSION)

2007-08-03T16:27:00.000-07:00

MISSION: JUSTICE, MERCY, FAITH.

Pedro, Isabella and their five malnourished children lived in a favela (slum) near Fortaleza, Brazil. Pedro, a day-labourer, worked about every third day. To stop their kids crying from hunger Isabella would feed them little balls of moistened newspaper, sprinkled with sugar. These had almost no nutritional value, but Pedro might get some sleep. The police, bribed by a wealthy landowner, had driven them off their little black-bean farm.

'What do you need?' Isabella replied, 'I would like a blanket for each child.' Pedro: 'I need a job every day to feed my family.' What else? Pedro: 'I want my farm back.' Anything else? 'Yes, where is God when are we treated like "the scum of the earth"'?

Every relationship in the universe - between God and creation, between humans, and between humans and creation - is driven by three dynamics: justice, mercy and faith (see e.g. Micah 6:8, Matthew 23:23).

Justice is about 'fairness', the right use of power. Social justice is the strong helping the weak, not exploiting them. Mercy addresses our immediate needs. 'What do you want me to do for you?' asked Jesus. They might include survival needs - food, clothing, shelter, well-being; or emotional needs - respite from depression, a sense of belonging, greater self-worth etc. Faith is the ultimate dimension of any relationship. Can I trust God to care for me? Can I trust you to accept me (Romans 15:7)? Do you have my interests at heart, or do I exist mainly for yours?

A preoccupation with justice can lead to violence and terrorism; a preoccupation with mercy can issue in paternalism ('do-goodism'); a preoccupation with evangelism - inviting people to exercise faith in God - can lead to our treating them merely as 'souls to be saved'.

Pedro and Isabella want their farm back - justice; they need food, clothing, adequate shelter, a job - 'mercy'; and they need to know they're loved by God, and others - 'faith'. These are the three essential dimensions of a biblical understanding and practice of 'mission'.

Every healthy church practises all three, all the time, though it may be called to major on one of these dimensions of mission.

For more on the church and mission visit these articles.

Rowland Croucher

WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE CHURCH?

2007-07-10T01:32:00.001-07:00

Europeans did their own thinking about where God was, and asked, Did the church matter through two World Wars or, perhaps more fatefully, in the relatively good times marked by consumerism, materialism, hedonism ?

Robert Merton (a radical sociologist) used to say that the evil in institutions is greater than the sum of the evil of the individuals within them. Reinhold Niebuhr (theologian and pastor) put it slightly differently: society as a whole is always collectively worse than the individuals who make it up.

One of the problems in the way Christians relate to the world is the tension between the 'world's' standards and those of the Church/Bible. The Scriptures use the concept of 'world' in two senses: (1) the whole created reality and the world of humanity created by God (Psalm 90:2, John 3:16, Acts 17:24), and (2) the 'systems of the world' which are in rebellion against God (James 4:4, 1 John 5:19).

WHAT DOES A HEALTHY CHURCH LOOK LIKE? (2: HEALTH)

2007-07-08T23:09:00.000-07:00

James Boswell, the famous biographer of Samuel Johnson wrote that on one occasion Johnson ‘went to church’ and afterwards said he was ‘not unduly depressed’.

The 2006 census tells us that since 2001 most Australian churches fell behind population growth (5.8%). Baptists grew 2.4% (but Buddhists grew 17%, Muslims 21% and Hindus 55%). A similar trend is being witnessed in other Western countries.

Professor Gary Bouma, a sociologist of religion, in his 2006 book Australian Soul, says that
Australians are not less religious than they were in the 1900’s: but many have
stopped ‘going to church’.

Why?

We have our theories. Here are mine - in 30 short articles.

First: except for churches growing through migration (like the Oriental Orthodox, up 13%), only ‘stricter’ groups (Mormons, JWs) and those which ‘choreograph’ their services are growing (eg. Hillsong: Pentecostals are up 13%). But wait: what do sects and Pentecostals have in common? Both groups generally expect a higher level of ‘commitment’ than older churches. There’s one clue.

Another: Pentecostal services are more attuned to youthful music/TV than the greying churches. Australians watch 20 hours of TV each week. When they ‘come to church’ there’s quite a contrast (in about 5 or 6 respects: what are they? See my take on this here).

As we learned in the previous article, The NT doesn’t talk much about ‘attending church’. Jesus did it regularly (Luke 4:16); the early Christians wanted to be together to share their lives (Acts 2:1) but after a while their zeal cooled, and the writer in Hebrews 10:25 exhorted people not to neglect meeting regularly.

People who have a lot in common (friends, family) will want to be together. They have rituals (greetings, celebrations of special events etc.) and also spontaneous stuff – jokes, laughter, recreation, sharing stories, problems etc. So there’s another clue: how can ‘church’ become truly ‘family’?

Watch this blog for more...

Rowland Croucher

'CHURCH?' WHY BOTHER? (1: 'ATTENDING' CHURCH)

2007-06-26T23:37:00.000-07:00

Hi!

I'm assuming you're a Christian. You're impressed - very impressed - with Jesus, but 'church' does not 'turn you on' very much.

I'm currently reading a book by a sociology professor which says that religion/spirituality are on the increase (in Australia and other places), but people linking to formal religious organizations are on the decrease.

In future articles we'll try to figure out why and why... In the meantime see here for a sad/humorous 'take' on this by Rowan Atkinson:

It's interesting that the New Testament gives us very few clues about 'what/why' of church attending. There's only one piece of encouragement to attend church regularly (Hebrews 10:25: 'Don't neglect to meet together, as some are doing'). Just one text refers to Jesus' habit of attending synagogue 'as was his custom' (Luke 4:16). The early Christians after the experience of Pentecost were 'all with one accord in one place' (Acts 2:1).

When you think about it, people who have a lot in common (especially friends or family) want to meet each other - and the closer the bonds of friendship or love, the more frequent those meetings will be. There'll be some rituals which happen every time (like asking how you are, what's happening in your life, how's your health etc.). And some things will be spontaneous - jokes, fun, laughter, sharing stories, problems etc.

God's people through the centuries met together regularly because they wanted to share the stories of their lives, and help one another - and fulfil their mission in the world of helping 'outsiders' too. All this is assumed, so it's not surprising that the Bible contains little information or exhortations to do all this.

Notice we said there are rituals, and spontaneous happenings when friends/family meet. Same with church. Christian rituals include baptism, communion, reciting the Lord's Prayer and maybe a creed etc. But there will also be room for up-to-date stories. Not all ritual; not all stories... but a balance between the two.

Watch this space...

Rowland Croucher

1 Month to Understand your Local Church

2007-04-13T06:09:00.000-07:00

Dear friends,

Watch this space: this blog is part of a series attempting to answer the most important 300 questions I've been asked in 18,000-plus hours of counseling/talking to people - and learnings from 70 years of a fulfilling life. Here we'll look at 30 marks of a healthy church.

Other Blogs in this series:

1 Month to Meet the Baptists

1 Month of Books you should Read

1 Month to Learn About the Internet

1 Month of Answers to Tough Questions

1 Month of Devotions

1 Month to Change Your Life

1 Month to Meet Some Interesting People

1 Month to Become a Christian

1 Month To Meet Jesus

Basic idea: you read one of the 30 posts each day and complete one 'mini-course' in a month. (I might even organize a certificate for those who complete the 300 units!)

Some of the material will be adapted from the 20,000 articles on the John Mark Ministries website. It's a big site, (although many of the 100,000+ unique visitors a month tell me it's easy to navigate).

I look forward to journeying with you!

Shalom/salaam!

Rowland Croucher