Plea for person shaped living

Can you see where we are going yet?

Looking back on this most recent series of posts I think I can see amidst the waffle and overlapping that have come from my stream-of-reflection brain something of a thread. (I certainly feel I know more about my reactions to aspects of my ministry that bring a sense of joy or frustration, a glow of pride in seeing others growing in confidence and an understanding of the vague guilt at not being all things to all people all the time!)

The thread, having observed and sometimes experienced over two decades of new initiatives, plans and expressions that would deliver church "growth" is that so often such initiatives do not fully engage with the essential nature of human beings as we are. We are back to those circles of intimacy again.

 In some aspects they might, for example, remember the Alpha Course; it worked on a human level, being led by a core of 3 or 4 people a  group of up to 12 would learn together through developing relationships and an openness to discuss the issues to hand in an intimate space. Hmm, heard that pattern of relationship before...

"Messy Church", as well as its informality. tends to bring together a dozen to a score of helpers under the inspiration of two or three leaders. The  attendees, usually numbered some four to eight times the team strength become known within the limits of the time together, which allows space for chat and eating and drinking together; again all aspects of a healthy community. All aspects that fit our knowledge of how we relate to each other.

My plea and suggestion is that through accident or design elements of these initiatives have been sustainable and replicated because their format fits the way humans are "built" to relate to each other. It follows that any strategy that does not take into account the specifics of our sociability and our psychological capacity to build forms of intimate community will fail.

In multi church settings this must cause us to re-evaluate the way individual settings and the leadership, both local and overarching understand themselves and their shared vocation. If we are trying to patch old wine-skins with new the result will be a haemorrhage of the "good wine" of fellowship due to stress in confusion of leadership roles and lack of intimate community connection.

To achieve such re-evaluation that can lead to a cycle of healthy fellowship growth a people of God in a particular place will need to have the curiosity, inspiration and willingness to look at themselves anew. To  rediscover themselves an embryonic religious community. Not embryonic in terms of existence, but in how they see themselves. This is not new some of the local faith communities in the UK have faced incredible change and have been going well over 1000 years without realising it! Over those centuries their common life has been found in diverse situations from interdependent communal feudalism, desolation of plague, war, the rule of patronage and absolute monarchy, through industrial revolution, to the freedoms of an age of universal suffrage, individualism and limitless communication in a global village.

We should not be surprised then if the patterns of 1000 or even 100 years ago no longer fit. While we as human beings are still essentially the same creatures that came to my home landscape in search of game and berries 20 000 years ago our social context has changed rapidly. Taking the best of our tradition from ages of transition in the past, be it post Roman Imperialism, the rise of the nation state, the fragmentation of Christian Europe in the 16thC or the ages of revolution, the practice of Christian community has been a source of stability and inspiration in times of transition.

We are in such times now in Western Europe. To reform our understanding of ourselves through a human centred approach to community and oversight, establishing space for growth, setting limits and patterns of replication based upon our human capacity is to my mind the key to survival, integrity and a seedbed for growth. "The truth", Jesus said, "shall set you free". By facing the truth about our own God given capacity, both in his generosity and in our limitations - we are not after all gods ourselves - gives rise to approaches that are honest in their demands and grounded in natural human relatedness.

Such a pattern of community, of communion, brings the gift of God, of the self and the "other" into a dynamic relationship. It is the outworking of Jesus summary of the Law of Moses, "to love the Lord your God with all your heart.. and your neighbour as yourself". Such dynamic relational commitment is expressed, at its root, in baptism and confirmation declarations. There is a voluntary discipline in committing to such a pattern of life, but one that breeds the rich rewards of joy and peace.

These most desirable of human experiences, joy in life and inner peace are in short supply in today's individualised Western world. They are the stuff on which a healthy sustainable society is built. With few other sources of such societal glue on the horizon faith communities focussed on worship and service have an open door to fill the vacuum. This vision of person shaped mission, local, outward looking and sustainable, drawing on deep faith traditions and based on natural human intimacy to me offers hope.

But how do you begin to explore these ideas, how can you create the space in people's  heads and connect with the hunger in their souls that will incline the heart towards a new mode of being for local  faith communities?

Good question! I will share a few thoughts with you in a few days, but Haybox theologian is on the move again tomorrow. Farewell to Dorset and the hospitality of the Society of St Francis at Hilfield Friary, you have provided a fertile seedbed for the imagination. With new thoughts rattling in the brain, off home again for a bit, before more Sabbatical adventures call!

Time to head out through the gate: 

The Lord will bless our going out and our coming in now and for evermore (Psalm 121)