I have been encouraged by my good friends and Gospel partners, Rob and Beth. They have recently moved to Perth (Australia) to be involved in a church plant. They decided before they went that they were going to communicate what was going on with them to us folks back in England through the medium of a blog. They however observed that they did not want their blog to be like the many other Christian blogs out there which seem to portray their ‘blogger’ as a bit of an untouchable gospel hero who never seems to do anything wrong and always seems to be having deep theological holy thoughts – Yeah right!

I have to admit I have fallen into this trap with my blog in the past. Its become so uninteresting and detatched from life with boring long posts that are so infrequent that no one even reads it! So I’ve decided to turn over a new leaf. I am going to blog more regularly and not wait until I have something super holy to say. I am going to blog about normal stuff and not try to make it sound long and eloquent. It’s going to be unfilitered from now on. It’s time for some blogging of the nitty gritty of my life; the hard stuff; the day-to-day; the mundane; the daily fight. Essentially, real gospel blogging.

Shai Linne - Storiez

I love the idea of talking about the story of the Gospel; how it is truly is the greatest story ever told…and unlike so many stories told it’s all true! In fact it is the overarching story of the history of life the universe and everything. It is pretty awesome to speak to people about how God’s great story of winning a people for His glory intersects with their life stories.

Soma Communities have a close relationship with The Crowded House. They highlight six ways they live as church, or as they put it ‘rhythms’. These rhythms are: story-formed, listen, celebrate, bless, eat and recreate. You can read about them all here. But the one that particualy strikes me is ’story-formed’. They define it as the following:

We understand, experience and intersect with God’s Story and other’s.
God has been unfolding his Story since before time began. We believe we are participants in the Story and need to understand it and see how our lives intersect with it. Therefore, we regularly reacquaint ourselves with the Story by interacting with God’s Word. We look for ways and times to tell the Story often. We also take time to listen to others stories and help them find their lives within God’s Story.

I love the fact that we are story-tellers as God’s people; that we are here to tell the story. It is a story that never grows old and we should celebrate contiually as God’s people. And what an awesome story that God chose us before the foundation of the world that he might redeem us in Christ that we might be to his praise and glory!

My favourite rap artist Shai Linne has recently released a new album called storiez. It tells many different stories from the Israelites at the first passover to Spurgeons biography and it shows how they connect to that greater story. I strongly recomend it. Here are the lyrics from one track on the album called ‘Greatest Story Ever Told’. They get me every time…

Verse 1

Alright check it: let’s go back in time, brethren

Divine lessons always keep your mind guessing

The glory of the Triune God’s what I’m stressing

The origin of humankind was fine- blessings

Were plenteous- God is amazingly generous

Crazy benefits in a state of innocence

God told the man what he could taste was limited

Not long after came our nemesis in Genesis

He scammed well, man fell, damned to hell

The whole human race- he represented it

Fooled by the serpent, man through his work

Woman through birth- even the earth ruled by the curses

But instead of a wake immediately

God said her Seed would be the One to crush the head of the snake

Yo, wait what’s this? Whoa, a gracious gift!

In Jehovah’s faithfulness He clothed their nakedness

This was so they would know their Savior’s kiss

And bliss- but first, many growing pains exist

Suffering in the worst form, ugly deeds

Eve’s firstborn seed made his brother bleed

Indeed things got progressively worse

Every section of the earth’s been affected by the curse

And though God’s judgments against sin were gory

Praise the Lord! It’s not the end of the story

Chorus:

It’s the greatest story ever told

A God pursues foes whose hearts turned cold

The greatest story ever told

Restoring all that the enemy stole

The greatest story ever told

The glory of Christ is the goal, behold

The greatest story ever told

It’s the greatest…

Verse 2

Next scene: man’s sin was extreme

God gets steamed, man gets creamed

The Lord is so Holy that He drowned them in the water

Fire in the valley of slaughter- Sodom and Gomorrah

But at the same time, He’s so gracious and patient

That from one man He created a whole nation

Eventually enslaved by the mentally depraved

They cried out to the only One with the strength that He could save

He brought them out with signs and wonders- satisfied their hunger

Then He appeared on Mount Sinai in thunder

Where He laid down the law for God-ruled government

Commonly referred to as the Mosaic covenant

Sin’s imputed- so for man to know he’s unrighteous

God instituted animal sacrifices

This was to show our constant need for atonement

And when it came to sin, the Lord would never condone it

And when His people disobeyed and went astray

He raised up prophets and kings to lead them in the way

But they would get foul with their idolatry- wet and wild

Prophecy- send them into exile

To take their punishment like a grown man

Then with His own hand He placed them back in their homeland

And while in their forefather’s land they dwelt

They awaited the arrival of Emmanuel

Chorus:

It’s the greatest story ever told

A God pursues foes whose hearts turned cold

The greatest story ever told

Restoring all that the enemy stole

The greatest story ever told

The glory of Christ is the goal, behold

The greatest story ever told

It’s the greatest…

Verse 3

After 400 silent years filled with sighs and tears

In Bethlehem the Messiah appears

God in the flesh- Second Person of the Trinity

At thirty begins His earthly ministry

Baffling cats with accurate, exact facts

And back to back miraculous acts

A stumbling block to the self righteous

But the humbled- His flock, said “There’s no one else like this”

He came from heaven to awake the numb

Demonstrated His power over nature, son

A foretaste of the Kingdom and the age to come

But the reason He came was to pay the sum

For the depths of our wickedness, our wretched sinfulness

Bless His magnificence- He’s perfect and innocent

Yet He was wrecked and His death- He predicted it

Next He was stretched, paid a debt that was infinite

He said that He finished it- resurrected so the elect

would be the recipients of its benefits

Through faith and penitence we get to be intimate

His grace is heaven sent, it never diminishes

Now the Holy Spirit indwelling is the evidence

for heaven’s future residents who truly represent

Jesus, the Author, Producer, Director and

Star of a story that will never, ever end!

Chorus:

The greatest story ever told

A God pursues foes whose hearts turned cold

The greatest story ever told

Restoring all that the enemy stole

The greatest story ever told

The glory of Christ is the goal, behold

The greatest story ever told

It’s the greatest…

I have recently been listening a lot to Shai Linne, an American christian rapper. Steve Timmis was introduced to his music by Shai’s very own pastor when he was over in the states recently. Since Steve drew him to our attention in our church meeting a few weeks ago I have bought his two albums and have been listening to him daily. His work is immensly encouraging. Here’s why…

Shai Linne is one of a group of young christian rappers in states attempting to win hip-hop back for Christ. They use awesome hooks, beats and MCing (rapping) to bring glory to God through lyrics which are heavily laiden with bible truths and the centrality of Christ. All this has helped coin a new phrase – ‘Lyrical Theology’.

Shai Linne states: “Lyrical Theology is just that: it’s lyrical – rhyme schemes, rhyme patterns and it’s theology – the study of God within the context of hip-hop. What we do is, we take passages from the bible and put them directly into rhyme form. So this could be a particular explanation of a doctrine from scripture or it can be a line-by-line exposition of a passage. For example, I have a song called ‘jusified’, which is an explanation of Romans 3:10-24, verse-by-verse”.

Hip-hop is so often accused within our culture as being the root of many of young peoples distorted morality and within conservative christian circles as being too ‘unchristian’. Shai Linne and his fellow artists at Lamp Mode Recordings have noted this and want to demonstrate that hip-hop can be ’sanctified’ if set apart for the glory of Christ, since all things can now rightfully be done by Christians to God’s glory in Christ. Rather than singing of loose women, getting wasted, doing drugs or ‘getting rich or dying trying’ (in the words of secular rap artist 50 Cent) these young guys rap about the gospel and the work of Christ in the believers life, proclaiming to the listener that “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:15).

Shai Linne explains that he “sees nothing but filth coming through the popular secular version of [the hip-hop] vehicle of expression”. It’s great that he and others like him are giving people something edifying and true to pump in their ears…hip-hop which is redeemed for Christ. It may not be your musical cup of tea but I’m certainly diggin’ it.

For more info about lyrical theology and whether hip-hop is a legitimate expression of christian music check out Shai Linne’s own blog: Lyrical Theology. Both of Shai Linne’s albums The Solous Christus Project (2005, Lamp Mode) and The Atonement (2008, Lamp Mode) are available on iTunes.

Last Saturday we had Robert Banks (Christian author, theologian and scholar of first century church) come to visit The Crowded House. He took a session on household church in the first century and what that might mean for us today. Firstly I want to headline the fact he was using the pastoral epistles in much of his material, which allayed the fears I had when I read Paul’s Idea of Community. I obviously was barking up competely the wrong tree from my reading of the book- I am very pleased to be proved wrong!

Anyway…It was a really useful day. Whilst it is extremly important that we don’t somehow make the first century culture to be more sacred or holy than our own (they are both fallen cultures), it helped us as The Crowded House to think a bit about some of the ways the first century culture was santicfied by the early church for missional purposes. Some areas which got us me thinking were:

• How they viewed home not merely as private domestic space but to be open and hospitable at all times
• The role of food played in church meetings in demonstrating church family identity
• The central place of children in the church community (Their presence and contribution being valued as much as any other believers)

This was all helpful stuff. The thing that was most thought-provoking though was taking a look at the role of Priscilla and Aquila. It threw up some interesting ideas about the nature of gospel partnership, particularly how their relationship with Paul started intially as a business exercise! But this gospel partnership was costly to Priscilla and Aquila – they travelled miles across the Med to several churches staying a few months/years at a time, they were hospitable, discipled people (namely Apollos), had many a church plant meet in their home and were prepared to sacrifice everything for the sake of the churches they were connected with and the advancement of the Gospel.

Even their marriage was set apart for mission and the building up of God’s people, to the extent to which they cannot be thought of seperatly in the New Testament. I agree with Robert Banks that God did a mighty work through them and they will be great people to quiz once we reach heaven! But seriously, we need godly men and women like Aquila and Priscilla to sacrfice their very lives in a Christ-like way for the sake of the Gospel, the building of Christ’s Church.

Here are some of the passages we took a look at. Please post your thoughts as to what they reveal about the nature of gospel partnership…

1After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. 2There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them, 3and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them. 4Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.

5When Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. 6But when the Jews opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am clear of my responsibility. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”

7Then Paul left the synagogue and went next door to the house of Titius Justus, a worshiper of God. 8Crispus, the synagogue ruler, and his entire household believed in the Lord; and many of the Corinthians who heard him believed and were baptized.

9One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. 10For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.” 11So Paul stayed for a year and a half, teaching them the word of God.

12While Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him into court. 13“This man,” they charged, “is persuading the people to worship God in ways contrary to the law.”

14Just as Paul was about to speak, Gallio said to the Jews, “If you Jews were making a complaint about some misdemeanor or serious crime, it would be reasonable for me to listen to you. 15But since it involves questions about words and names and your own law—settle the matter yourselves. I will not be a judge of such things.” 16So he had them ejected from the court. 17Then they all turned on Sosthenes the synagogue ruler and beat him in front of the court. But Gallio showed no concern whatever.

18Paul stayed on in Corinth for some time. Then he left the brothers and sailed for Syria, accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila. Before he sailed, he had his hair cut off at Cenchrea because of a vow he had taken. 19They arrived at Ephesus, where Paul left Priscilla and Aquila. He himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. 20When they asked him to spend more time with them, he declined. 21But as he left, he promised, “I will come back if it is God’s will.” Then he set sail from Ephesus. 22When he landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church and then went down to Antioch.

23After spending some time in Antioch, Paul set out from there and traveled from place to place throughout the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples.

24Meanwhile a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. 25He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John. 26He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately.

27When Apollos wanted to go to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples there to welcome him. On arriving, he was a great help to those who by grace had believed. 28For he vigorously refuted the Jews in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.

Acts 18:1-27

1I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church in Cenchrea. 2I ask you to receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints and to give her any help she may need from you, for she has been a great help to many people, including me. 3Greet Prisca* and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus. 4They risked their lives for me. Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them.

Romans 16:1-4

19The churches in the province of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Prisca* greet you warmly in the Lord, and so does the church that meets at their house. 20All the brothers here send you greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss.

1 Corinthians 16:19-20

19Greet Prisca* and Aquila and the household of Onesiphorus. 20Erastus stayed in Corinth, and I left Trophimus sick in Miletus. 21Do your best to get here before winter. Eubulus greets you, and so do Pudens, Linus, Claudia and all the brothers.

2 Timothy 4:19-21

*affectionate name for Priscilla (much like using Susie for someone called Susan)

(Robert Banks work Going to the Church in the First Century is an informed ficitional work which also explores some the ideas I have mentioned and is most worthwhile checking out)

This Sunday I preached for the first time in our main church meeting. I’ve led bible studies and taught in household church before but I have never before stood up in front of the whole church and preached. I was very surprised how little nerves affected me as I delievered the sermon – God certainly answered my prayer that I would fear him alone (not man) and trust that only He, by his Spirit, could apply His word to people’s hearts.

We were concluding our series from the book of Acts called ‘How to take over the world’ and my talk was from Acts 27-28, Paul’s journey and arrival in Rome. I spoke about about how God takes over the world with Gospel people – Gospel people who trust Him in all their life, gospel people who love others like Jesus and Gospel people who speak boldly in His name.

I’m always blown away by how the Church is God’s vehicle for Mission to the world, so It was a massive priviledge to give the talk! I am so very thankful to God for the ways He used it to rebuke, challenge, encourage and change His people. It’s great to be an instrument in King Jesus’ hands and to His ends.

Check it out here…

http://www.thecrowdedhouse.org/files/audio/acts27.mp3

(One more thing…A quick shout out to my fellow Gospel Trainee, Tim, who edited the talk and posted it on the TCH website aswell as updating our TCH itunes podcast, as indeed he does every week – it’s an important job bro and I am thankful to King Jesus for how you serve us through it!)

Just finished another book review for Steve. It was great to get in some Puritan reading. I’ve been having withdrawal symptoms since Rob, Andy and myself stopped meeting to read John Owen’s Overcoming Sin & Temptation. But Richard Sibbe’s The Bruised Reed has now displaced that as my favourite Puritan work. Wow! This was encouraging stuff. Here’s my thoughts….

Review of Richard Sibbes, The Bruised Reed and Smoking Flax, in Alexander B. Gossart (ed.) Works of Richard Sibbes (Banner of Truth, 1973), pp. 42-101.

The Bruised Reed and the Smoking flax is an exposition of Isaiah 42:1-4, where it states that God’s coming servant will not break a bruised reed or extinguish a dimly burning wick (or smoking flax). Richard Sibbes shows this to be an illustration of how God deals with us in his act of grace through Christ in the believer’s life. Bruising is described as the process by which we are humbled by God regarding our sin. It is only by seeing the misery of our sin that we will cry out for the mercy of the judge; it is necessary for us to be bruised in order for us to come to know our deep need for Christ. Sibbes stresses that this process does not merely bring us to faith in the first place. Rather, we need constant bruising in the Christian life to remind ourselves ‘we are reeds, not mighty oaks’; we are sinful people and are totally dependant on Christ for our status before God. This is helpful for breaking our foolish pride and keeps us from looking down upon struggling Christians.

The Smoking flax is seen as the small beginnings of grace. We are reminded to not be worried about the apparently small beginnings of grace in the believer’s life, because it takes a lifetime to grow in Christ and it is not until we reach heaven that grace to be made perfect. ‘Christ values us by what we shall be and what we are elected into’ not by our current state. The small mustard seed will grow into the tall tree which provides shade for the birds (Mark 4:30-32). Christ will not break the reed and he will not quench the smoking flax because it is he own and it is a pointer to his powerful grace. From the bleeding woman to Emmaus road Sibbes shows how Christ takes the tiniest spark of grace and treats it as precious; Christ dearly cherishes even the smallest beginnings of grace and will grow it to its full completion.

Sibbes in true puritan style highlights the tensions and difficulties of the Christian life but he states ‘the degree to which we believe Christ will conquer is the degree to which we will endeavour by his grace to conquer’. Often we are weak and face opposition but thankfully victory lies not with us but with Christ. It is this wonderful truth about Christ that will sustain us, sanctify us and keep us longing for his government over our lives. Sibbes paints a beautiful picture of Christ, which brings the believer to their knees in adoration for such a saviour. He highlights his borrowed names from the meekest of creatures (from Lamb to Hen), his name, Jesus, which means saviour and describes how the dove descended on him at baptism to show his gentle mediation. Furthermore, he points to how Christ calls to himself ‘all who are weary and burdened’ (Matthew 11:28), how his insides yearned when he saw the people were like sheep without a shepherd (Matthew 9:26), how he came to die as priest for his enemies and how he is the physician who can cure all diseases especially binding up the broken heart. Moreover, how he died to save us when we were the enemies of God! This is our saviour, our king and what a wonderful saviour and king he is! How much more boldly we would approach the throne room of grace if we reflected on such a Christ as Sibbes presents.

The Bruised Reed and Smoking Flax is not merely a huge reminder to the individual to recognise their worth only in Christ but also is hugely helpful in considering how we minister to others with the truth. Sibbes sets forth many helpful ‘rules’, which are rather more guidelines, which can aid us in this pastoral task, particularly with struggling Christians. We are to remind such believers that that Grace has little beginnings and that Christ does not save us because of who we are but because of what he is going to make us into. We need to implore one another more with the beauty of Christ. How often do we truly seek to enlarge one another’s vision of Christ? Sibbes book is a challenge to us all to present Christ and his work with more clarity to one another; to build one another up in him rather than in ourselves and to comfort one another with Christ’s abounding mercy in all our weakness.

Charles Spurgeon once wrote of Richard Sibbes: ‘he never wastes a student’s time. He scatters diamonds and pearls with both hands’. Sprugeon is quite accurate in his assessment of this esteemed puritan’s work and it is easy to see why; The Bruised Reed is still widely read by Christians today. It is a book filled with encouragement and greatly builds the Christian reader up in Christ. For as Sibbes so clearly states: ‘there is more mercy in Christ than sin in us’ and by the end of Sibbes work you are left seeking further bruising for your sin so that you might know more and more the great mercy of our dear saviour.

Here’s my review of the latest book Steve’s given me to read: Robert J. Banks, Paul’s Idea of Community: The Early House Churches in Their Cultural Setting (Paternoster, 1980).

**Please note this is a review of the first edition of the book, not the revised edition (as pictured). For a review of the revised edition see 9Marks.org **

This book sets out to give an account of the Apostle Paul’s view of church which is comprehensive yet readable, and to some extent it achieves this aim. Robert Banks is clearly a fine scholar and has a great knowledge of the first century Mediterranean world into which Paul wrote. He is therefore very proficient at demonstrating how Paul’s understanding of what the Christian community should look like was entirely unique within the time he wrote; there is no comparison to Paul’s understanding of church in Jewish or Greco-Roman culture in Banks’ eyes.

Banks shows that a key theme in the Pauline epistles is the freedom of the gospel and this has three aspects: Independence (from the law, sin and death), dependence (on Christ and the Holy Spirit) and interdependence (with others). It is this final element which is most revealing to Banks. The freedom won in Christ according to Paul enables us to serve others; we are freed from sin and enabled in Christ to live for others, not merely ourselves.
Banks has some very compelling and entirely biblical arguments regarding Paul’s views on the Christian community. Church (ekklēsia) is not a blanket term for Christians living in region but rather it is shown by Paul to be a committed local community of believers which regularly ‘gathers’ in the intimate setting of the home. Furthermore the community is shown to be built specifically to fit together with complementary gifts given by God as demonstrated by the metaphor of a body (sōma). Paul’s letters are also filled with images of church as an extended family; a Family united in Christ with all social boundaries removed (Galatians 3:28-29) and enabled to love one another. This is expressed in a number of physical ways through baptism, sharing the common meal, the laying on of hands, greeting with kisses and the sharing of possessions – which are all very intentional demonstrations of the nature of the community. Banks therefore correctly asserts Paul’s vision of community as a divine entity which is perfectly shaped by God, not a man-made institution. It is specific local groups of Christians who express this and while Paul does talk of a heavenly reality of church (Ephesians 5:25-27) it is this local expression which is most clearly in focus particularly in the early Pauline epistles.

This vision of Paul’s idea of community is exciting and radically different. If only churches really did look like loving families, recognising their intricate gifting from God (diversity) and working in love together (unity). This is a truly edifying vision of what Paul felt the Christian community ought to be. However, despite this I diverge from Banks on a number of key issues. Primarily, I disagree with Banks in his rejection of Pauline authorship of the Pastoral letters (1 & 2 Timothy, Titus), which are not used at all by Banks in the main body of his work. Banks seems to have a real issue with the tension of submission to each other as a body and eldership, as well as the tension between all members being made equal in Christ and yet there being different roles for women. This obviously comes to the fore in his rejection of the Pastoral letters and he shoves them off to an appendix accordingly.

The problem is that Banks is all to ready to use Acts to fill gaps in the early Pauline epistles but fails to give adequate recognition to how it clearly affirms Paul’s acceptance of an appointed elders (Acts 14:23) Additionally, Banks rejects the Pastorals because of their ‘restrictions on the role of women’ as seen in 1 Timothy 2:9-15, however, I fail to see how this is anymore problematic in this regard than 1 Corinthians 11, which Banks is happy to use in his argument. Moreover, Banks rejects the pastoral letters on the basis that their image of community shows a diversion from the other epistles well developed metaphors, despite the fact 1 Timothy 5:1-2 clearly portrays church as an extended family. Even if the imagery had changed it fails to recognise the complex nature of prose and how context (both passing of time and to whom the letter is written) will affect the way Paul writes.

On the whole Paul’s Idea of Community is a refreshing take on Christian community and clearly demonstrates its uniqueness in the first century world. It paints a clear picture of the divinely instituted interdependency which should characterise the church, which is all too often overlooked in our entirely individualistic culture. However, Banks will always be unable to do justice of the topic by rejecting the pastorals in such a flippant manner. If they are indeed Paul’s work then he has left out a large body of important material and even if they are not, as Banks appears to believe, there needs to be a deeper investigation than the one offered.

Last week we had a theme day at Porterbrook Training and Al Barth (left) came all the way from New York to give us his thoughts regarding church planting. Al is currently working for Redeemer Church Planting Centre a global church planting movement linked to Redeemer Presbyterian Church, New York. Not everything Al said I completely agreed with but here are some of the things which I got out of a great day of discussion.

Al shared Redeemer’s experience of planting a church in the Upper East Side area of New York and the issues which impacted how the church there shaped it’s minstry to be relevent to New Yorkers. The church planting team needed to identify the idols of New Yorker’s hearts in order to apply the Gospel into their situation. This has to be true of how we apply the Gospel in any context around the world. We need to firstly see what people place their hopes, dreams and fears in, so that we can demonstrate how these ultimately won’t deliever the happiness or sense of worth people crave. I was suddenly stuck about how little we as evangelical christians in the UK engage with the prevailing culture of our society. For example, how will we ever reach the more marginalised people of Britain if we aren’t even prepared to read the newspapers they read (i.e. The Sun)? Go to the places they spend their time (e.g. the local working mens club then on to the Kebabish)? Or live where they do (e.g the local council estate)? Ultimately, how can we expect to bring the Gospel to bear on such people if we don’t know what they are really like or what drives them?

We also discussed the role of mercy ministry in the life of the missional church, which is all too often overlooked as not being as important as the proclaimation of the Gospel word; surely people’s greatest need is the Gospel? Well it is true that greatest thing we have to offer people in desperate situations is the Gospel but we are also called to live authentic, Christ-like lives and love people. Al expressed his concern that all too often we aren’t helping people because it is a loving thing to do rather it is simply a means to preach the Gospel to them, aren’t we just manipulating people if this is the case? Surely, we should be ready to love without that oppurtunity? Ultimately, if we do act out of selfless, sacrificial, Christ-like love the chance to proclaim the Gospel will present itself naturally as it is reflected in how we actually live, this is one of Peter’s points in his epistles (1 Peter 2:12). I think Al is right, we need to be ready to love people even if they are opposed to or not open to the Gospel.

Georgaphy was an important point of discussion through out the day. I agreed with Al that starting from a geogrphical area, as apose to a certain specific demographic or group was the best approach. This means we don’t make the Gospel or church exclusive, rather we want it to be inclusive of all people. We should be thinking what kind of people live and work in the area we are trying to reach and how would that shape church life in order to reach such people? It’s fine to start out with a mission to a particular group but the church must aim to reflect the diversity of the area in which it is, and the problem is all too ofen we are attracted to work amongst those like ourselves. The church of the Bible is an eccletic, phenomenal community which can only be explained by our unity in Christ (not for example by our nationality or taste in music). Essentially, the local church should be striving to attract people from all walks of life in the geographical area they are commited too. I think this shows the benefit of a parish system. Your mission field is there, so all is left is the question of who lives/works there and how are you going to reach them.

Another helpful thing Al shared was the need to be ‘city positive’. We are quick to see the evils of the city and run to the suburbs in search of the middle class dream and the ‘ideal’ ministry amongst those like ourselves. In fact people wrongly assert that the city is a place of evil in the bible, erronously citing the city Enoch built (Genesis 4) and Sodom as examples. However, we forget that eternity with God is a city (Revelation 21) and this is his ultimate plan for all creation. Cities aren’t the problem, it’s human hearts. Running away from the city and it’s problems is essentially believing that there is no hope. Surely this is a fundamental misunderstanding of the Gospel?

We have the very thing our cities neeed…the good news…the Gospel. I guess it is a test of how much we believe the Gospel to be true whether we consider a comfortable life more important than the chance to reach those who need the truth. There is definetly a temptation there for Val and I as graduates from middle class backgrounds. Moving into the roughest part of a city is seen as madness by many of our family and friends. However, this is the very thing we want to do. Because really it isn’t about our comfort, it is about King Jesus and the extention of his Kingdom. We can be led into a trap in thinking ‘this is it’ or ‘you only live once’, rather than this life is just the tip of the iceberg. I feel so sad for people who find their worth in this life because it almost always so disapointing. We as Christians should be living with eternity in sight, knowing this life is temporal; here today, gone tomorrow. Therefore, there is really no sacrifice we shouldn’t be willing to make for the sake of the Gospel. This was what I was strongly convicted of by the end of the day of hearing tales of the Gospel going out in New York.

Here’s my review of Christopher J. H. Wright, Mission of God (IVP, 2006)…

Mission is not just something mentioned in the Bible: it is what the Bible is about. This is the heart of Wright’s work and is revolutionary when we actually stop and think, because it could all too easily pass us by. Mission is not merely the command of Matthew 28, neither is it solely an act, taking the gospel to the ends of the earth; rather it is the very heartbeat of the Bible story. Mission is the outworking of the nature of God because the God of the Bible is a missional God. This is Wright’s strong conviction from reading the scriptures and he calls for a new ‘missional hermeneutic’, a way of reading of the bible that recognises that it is the very product of God’s mission to restore all things to himself for his own glory. In Luke 24 Jesus shows the disciples that all of scripture testifies to himself, and we as evangelicals are quick to point out the Christological nature of all scripture, noting that even the Old Testament is saturated in Christ ‘shadows’. However we fail to read on and see that the revelation of God in Christ is the pinnacle moment in God’s mission to be revealed to ‘the nations’ (v47). Luke 24 is to Wright the hermeneutical compass for how Jesus’ disciples should read the whole scripture, that is both messianically and missiologically. The book helpfully takes the reader on a journey through the whole grand narrative of the bible, particularly the Old Testament, to emphasise that point and show that ‘the whole Bible renders to us the story of God’s mission through God’s people in their engagement with God’s world for the sake of the whole of God’s creation’.

Wright identifies that there is one God at work in the universe and in human history, and that God has a mission which is accomplished by the power of his word and for the glory of his name. That Living God made himself known through Israel: the very promise to Abraham in Genesis 12 was to bless all the nations on earth. This ultimately was only fulfilled in Christ, who is the full revelation of YHWH the creator, ruler, judge and redeemer God of the whole universe. The Church is the continuation of this mission as we proclaim to the world the truth about God as revealed in Christ. We are saved for this very purpose and it is helpful to be reminded of this as all too often we become the centre of the Bible story, thinking that God came to sort out my problems and meet my needs. We need to increasingly recognise that which Wright so valuably asserts in his book: we are and our salvation is not the centre of the Bible’s narrative; it is God’s mission. This new hermeneutic is a useful tool to guide us from reducing the Bible into a set of good guidelines to live our lives by or merely the means of our own personal salvation. We are being swept into God’s story and his purposes for the universe.

Mission of God is a demanding read, phenomenal in its Bible-wide scope and yet filled with in-depth discussion and literally hundreds of pages of wonderful truth. Often it feels like trudging through treacle of truth but every minute spent reading it helps us grasp a greater vision of the Gospel, where we are swept up into God’s story rather than him fulfilling our needs. Its greatest feat is in showing that mission is so much more than what we do and in fact mission is the very thing the Bible is about. Mission is God’s story and if we grasp that, reading the Bible will never become an end in itself.

TCH held a conference over the last few days which was born out out of Steve and Tim’s book Total Church. Folks came from all over the world (USA, Australia, France and the Netherlands) as well as the UK. It was a really helpful time thinking about what it means to be missional church.

The great thing was that it wasn’t created for the sake of just another Christian conference (because there are already enough of them out there!), and it wasn’t created to sell the idea of missional church and church planting either (that is what the book is for). Rather it was a chance to hear what God had been doing amongst those churches who already share the vision. It was really exciting to hear of gospel intiatives reaching strippers in San Diego, Turkish-Armeniain immigrants in Marseille, the artist community in downtown Dallas, Greek families in suburban Sydney and nominal Roman Catholics in southern Holland.

It was just amazing to see how churches were sharing the gospel in their specific context. It was even greater to see that this wasn’t just a few individuals undertaking their own ‘lone-ranger’ style of evangelism but rather church communities undertaking initiatives to reflect and proclaim the good news of King Jesus in the world. Some great relationships were formed and strengthened across the four days; hopefully we can keep one another accountable to being missional and not lapsing back into survival mode or introspective thinking as church.

There was some really great sessions, of which due to my Trainee duties I only sat in on a few. Tim took us through some meals in Luke’s gospel and Steve raised some important points about intentionality vs intimacy, leadership and things which made him go ‘hmmm’ (from emerging church to video venues). There were a host of breakout groups each day as well and I got to hear about them in the daily feedback session, which was really helpful since I didn’t attend any of the groups. I have to admit though that often the discussion surrounding missional church and church planting seems filled with jargonistic terms and I will try to avoid any here if possible as I relay the 6 main things I learned/relearned during the conference:

#1 Mission is the life of the Church because we belong to a missional God, we are the continuation of Christ’s Mission (see the book of Acts!)

#2 We need to be in step with the issues people face in our current context and culture in order to show the Gospel is relevant (Paul’s example – 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 )

#3 We shouldn’t do church differently for the sake of it. Many so called ‘emerging churches’ define themselves simply by what they are not, i.e. not traditional church, just because they are disgruntled by it. Church should be prepared to change for the sake of the Gospel going out not for change in itself.

#4 Marginalised people are not projects. Many people say they love ‘the poor’ in a generic sense but aren’t prepared to get involved in their messy difficult lives. This is because we forget the state which Christ found us and the gravity of our own sin. We think that we are acceptable to God and people need to ‘clean up’ to come to Christ. The reality is: if we really believed the Gospel even that terrible single family across the road with the tear-away kids wouldn’t seem beyond the reach of Christ.

#5 Jesus was counted amongst the sinners, he even ate with them. The church is all too often not ready to associate itself with the tax collectors and sinners of our day and age, for example prostitutes, drug users and – dare I say – paedophiles. We are too busy trying to safe guard our safe cosy middle-class world of evangelicalism rather than being ready to be accused of being in league with the drunks and gluttons as Jesus was (Luke 7:34).

#6 We have believed the lie of our culture that our homes, possessions and time belong to us. There should be no such thing as ‘me time’ in gospel ministry. All that we have is from God. We should be prepared to open our homes and diaries for the sake of the Gospel.

Overall it was great few days, although I now feel exhausted! But I am very thankful to our Father in Heaven for all we learned and all the super conversations we had over lunch and tea. It’s so helpful for us to reassess what the gospel actually is when we see it being lived out and proclaimed by Christians in totally different cultures. It helps us sift away that which is mere tradition and establish what the message of Gospel really is. It always surprises me how much that we do isn’t Gospel imperative! Praise God for that correction and long may it continue. It’s so refreshing to see that it isn’t about a certain model of church (household or not!) but rather it really is all about our Lord Jesus Christ and his Gospel going out to the ends of the earth.