Category Archives: CofE

Feet up, rest up.

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I am an activist. I would much rather be doing something rather than nothing. If I can be creating or organising then I feel at home. Even in my rest times I would rather be active. Walking, making something in the garage or my ideal, running. Part of the reason I love this sort of resting is that it gives me thinking and praying space.

When I was at collage we would have Wednesday morning lectures on spirituality. They were always followed by silence, hours of it. I would ache and scream. The quieter it was, the more I wanted to get up and shout something. But then one day the lecturer talked about finding rest and stillness in movement. Something clicked. He spoke about how some people needed to move in order to find that inner stillness that allows thoughts and concerns to surface. I was listening, he was describing me. Suddenly sneaking off for a run in the times that I was suppose to be silent and praying had been affirmed and I could finally make sense and find peace.

Almost 20 years on, the creativity and the running have become my go to place for resting. If every I get stuck or have had a stressful day, a few miles on the road and the days trouble are settled.

And yet….

There is another sort of rest that I have also learnt over time to embrace.

Just sitting and doing nothing.

Stopping, setting down.

Sleeping.

In the sun – the best rest.

That is what is needed today. Feet up, rest up.

(and planning a 13 mile run before the of the day…. but for now… sleep.)

Are you a blessing or just getting

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The bombardment of things I must get so that I can be happy is overwhelming. The internet was suppose to connect us with community, but increasingly it just divides us in to tribes at war. All the while it feeds us a diet of self sufficiency and selfishness as the route to happiness.

What has the christian community, that is suppose to be a blessing to the world, got to offer in this context?

Being part of a christian community is so good and that is part of the problem. We connect with others from different parts of society. We gather in large groups with the purpose of being an encouragement to each other rather than having to compete. We eat in each others homes. In an increasingly fragmented world, the christian community is so good and truly connected.

So how could we relearn how we are suppose to be a blessing to those around us? How can we reconnect with our mission to make disciples? How can we put the tools to do this in the hands of followers of Jesus who may not feel like evangelists? In the last couple of days I think I have been introduced to such a tool.

For the last two days I have been on what is best described as a conversation, rather than a conference. Hosted by Ivy Church in Manchester and run by New Thing, the Catalyst Community is equipping us to be a churches that multiply rather than die. So much good content and conversation. But perhaps the best and most useful seems to flip the switch from a church community that is just following the culture and “getting” to remembering how to be a “blessing”. It is simple and follows the letters in B.L.E.S.S.

Begin with prayer – as you go who are you praying for?

Listen – as you go, listen to people, their story is important.

Eat – invite people to eat with with you. It is really intimate and builds relationships.

Serve – find ways to serve and help people

Share/Story – your story has power, share it with people and as you do so you will be sharing the good news of Jesus.

So simple and transferable. We will be using this at All Saints I’m sure. How about you?

Same actions, same results?

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For years the bills would come into our home. I would open them with the same surprise and fear that people wanted money for the services that I had used. Then I would place the bills on a pile in the hope that the money would come in sometime soon and that I may at a future date remember to pay the bills.

Then the reminders would come, I would have to scrabble around, find the money and make the embarrassing call. Every month doing the same thing. Every month hoping that something would change. But unsurprisingly nothing did change.

Then someone introduced me to the idea that I could pay all the bills in one go in advance. I simply calculate how much the bills totalled the average month, place that amount of money in a different account at the start of the month, then set up direct debits for every bill. Since then, the bills have been paid on time and I have worried less.

The same action produced the same result. A changed action produced a different result.

Since WW1 the Church of England has declined by about 1% every year. There are some exceptions to this, but with the current trajectory the Church of England could have all but disappeared in the next few decades. Even the best projections for the recruitment of clergy are in fact a plan for decline1.

The Church of England has a tag line of “a christian presence in every community”. Yet despite decades of writing, reflection and calls to actions, we do the same things in the same places. We put on services, run by priests in church buildings. We seem unable to accept that we are no longer able to provide this even though the cost is huge and the operational requirements overwhelming. We do the same things we have always done, potentially endangering the collapse of the whole organisation. Yet we expect the results to be different.

If we want a different outcome, we have to change the actions.

We have to go back to the core things that we have been called to. Making disciples who make disciples. It’s not about services, or buildings or priests. Until we get back to making disciples, we can’t expect the church to grow. Jesus has given us a job, to make disciples, then he will do what he has promised – to grow the church.

Lets change the action then hopefully we will see a different future emerge.

  1. There were about 7230 anglican full time paid parish clergy in 2018 . This was a ratio of 1 clergy to 7742 population. Based on the most optimistic deployment levels for 2031/5 there would be 7610 clergy at ratio of 1 clergy to 8641 population. Therefore even thought a recruitment increase of +50% is being talked about, even the most optimistic number are a real terms reduction. ↩