Missional Priests Each Day

Martin Luther and the reformers recovered the Bible's teaching concerning the priesthood of every believer. Thus, each Christ-apprentice in each and every aspect of life, whatever their vocation wherever lived, can be said to be a minister of the Gospel. Further biblical reflection reveals that while each believer indeed is to be 'a minister’ each one is also to be ‘a missioner’ for every disciple has been called into the Missio Dei (God’s Mission).

God calls out a People, a universal and also a local congregated body. To this (the universal Church and each local church) every Jesus-follower is called. Individually and together believers join in the Mission to announce and to show forth the already-present Rule of God. Believers are to erect signposts that reveal and point to both the presence and the future of God’s Rule (the Kingdom of God). We look for a coming full manifestation of God’s Rule on planet Earth when Heaven and Earth are completely in synch, in God’s Rule and Purposes.

God so loved the world, 'the cosmos,' that he sent his Son. God is on mission and is calling persons to join as God’s People in the task of the Reclamation of this planet. That is what He is about and what He made possible in the Victory of Christ who in His Person and Work accomplished what no other could, whether Israel or the Church. But as we join in unfeigned faith and honesty we join in what God is doing in bringing back to God's self and purpose, this planet, comprised of people, places and things.

Missional priests, bridges of God - of God to our neighbour and of our neighbour to God, respond to God’s call to join in this awesome task and responsibility. God’s Spirit enables us to do what we could only stand by, perplexed and unable. Through God Himself, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the missional priests who comprise His People, the Church, we enter fully and fruitfully into the tasks before us, in all our spheres of responsibility and activity, day by day, daring as we take up our vocations, each one and together, to say: TGIM! Thank God it’s Monday!'

Gospel Living - Integral Mission

We may call it ‘word/deed' or 'integral mission.’  We may stress the call of the Gospel and the inherent need for many many mission shapes in its introduction and expression in our world. We may witness to the need of all persons for a balance of the demands of the inner life of soul and spirit with those of the outer person. But the fact that we have to talk clearly about balancing humanity's social needs and spiritual needs arises out of the church's failure to think and act holistically integrally in all of life.

We have had to recover (or rediscover) the biblical mandate and many balances including paradoxes inherent in the gospel. The split that developed into the fundamentalism of both liberal and conservative make it into either/or rather than a biblical both/and, at least in its most recent historical manifestations began to take shape after the US Civil War towards the end of the 19th century. Prior to that, any separation between the social and the spiritual was not as much evidenced in the West.

A kind of eschatalogical escapism beginning to be popularized at that time held that it was more important to feed the soul than to feed the body for even if the person receiving such ministry died of starvation at least they get to heaven. One popular evangelist put it: 'I do not have time to polish the lamps in a sinking ship. God has give me a lifeboat and I will save all of the souls I can before the End comes. That same evangelist, wonderfully inconsistent, visited wounded soldiers in Civil War camps and hospitals caring for their whole persons as well as sharing the way of love and salvation of Christ.

We have indeed had to rediscover biblical balance, what John Stott called the two wings of the airplane - i.e the necessity of the social and the spiritual being shared in word and deed if the message of the gospel is to survive in each generation. I prefer terms that do not allow for either/or distinctions but that rather explore and enter into the ways in which each area of life take shape and be lived out under biblical guidance and gospel influence. This includes each and all of the 360° of the fully human existence and potential that surrounds us, all of which are vital aspects and spheres of creaturely life.

Raising the Spiritual Temperature

People, Place & Things

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'For God so loved the  cosmos . . .' surely means that the whole creation, damaged as it is, will be restored and brought to new creation fulness. Not only people, important as we are in God's purposes, but also every part and place of creation, are loved, are to be restored and are to be released to the New that God is preparing.

A Faith from Frightening Areas

"The faith of artists and individuals who grew up and live in inner-city environments and deal with the same kind of tempations and demons (i.e. drugs, sex and violence) is very authentic. That type of faith cannot be comprehended by middle-class or upper-middle-class Christians because the type of saving that needs to take place is not one exclusively spiritual. In fact, it cannot even be comprehended by most Christians because it is not draped in false piety. 

The type of faith exhibited by these individuals is very rugged and, according to Dr. Daniel White Hodge, their theology engages, ‘The profane, the secular, and the sacred - an area frightening to those still etched and stooped in the hallways of simplistic and ‘milk’ theological paradigms.’"

   — Ryan Herring, online article in ‘Red Letter Christians'

Opportunities and Divine Nudges

"Evangelism is still shrouded in mystery, fear, and misconceptions. However, in today’s culture the best evangelism is simply having everyday conversations with our friends, relatives, acquaintances, neighbors, and everyone else … and being sensitive to those Divine nudges.
                                                                                                            -- Bill Easum

Moving Forward

'Those of us who have gone “beyond evangelical” have moved on from the early 20th-century fundamentalist vs. modernist debate that our forefathers passionately fought . . . a fight that continues to rope many contemporary Christians into today, some 100 years later. This fight leaves people with a false choice between left or right. The alternative direction of “forward” doesn’t appear on the radar screen. Those who are “beyond evangelical” have moved on from that battle to discovering, exploring, and displaying the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ with our brothers and sisters in Christ.' - Frank Viola

Beyond Mere Propositions

"The scourge of evangelicalism is that it has centered itself on making correct propositional statements rather than on a way of living in, through, and for the Lord Jesus in a shared-life local community."   - Frank Viola

Helps in Perspective and Understanding from N.T. Wright

I loved this book! Wished I had been able to have available its concepts and pointers back when I began my ministry, some 35 years ago. But then, I did (and still) have the Gospels available to me, and the rest of Scripture. What will I now do with, I believe, this fuller revelation and teaching that helps put breadth and depth to my understanding of what God has done, in Israel, in Christ - and continues to to do today through His People?

From the Amazon review(s) of the book - 'How God Became King: The Forgotten Story of the Gospels' . . .

"Western Christians today think "that Jesus came to teach people how to go to heaven. That is, I believe" says Wright, "a major and serious misunderstanding." Wright claims: "We have belittled the cross, imagining it merely as a mechanism for getting us off the hook ... It is much, much more. It is the moment when the story of Israel reaches its climax; the moment when, at last, the watchmen on Jerusalem's walls see their God coming in his kingdom; the moment when the people of God are renewed so as to be, at last, the royal priesthood who will take over the world, not with the love of power but with the power of love; the moment when the kingdom of God overcomes the kingdoms of the world. ... God ... is now inviting us to ... build with him ... This is the vision the evangelists offer us as they bring together the kingdom and the cross." (Ch.10)

"The four gospels leave us with the primary application of the cross not in abstract preaching about 'how to have your sins forgiven' or 'how to go to heaven' but in an agenda in which the forgiven people are put to work, addressing the evils of the world in the light of the victory of Calvary." (Ch.10) "Jesus himself is ... at the heart of the new creation ... on the move, as Jesus' people go out, in the energy of the Spirit, to be the dwelling of God in each place, to anticipate that eventual promise [of the whole earth being filled with the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea] by their common and cross-shaped life and work." (Ch. 10) Such 'life and work' is not the subject of this book, and needs further exploration.

In his previous book After You Believe: Why Christian Character Matters (2010), Wright comments that Christian character should reflect "God's image once more into the world - the image of the generous, loving creator filling his world with beauty, order, freedom, and glory ... seeking, generating and sustaining justice and beauty in a world where both have been at a discount for too long." (p. 231) However, Wright acknowledges that "This is a large topic, in need of much fuller exploration than we can give it here" (p. 231).

In Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church (2008) Wright identifies 'justice' (pp 213 - 222) and 'beauty' (pp 222 - 225) as important areas in which "to work for God's kingdom in the present" (p. 207). Wright asserts that God is redeeming the world of space, time and matter, not discarding it. He states: "... the church ... must... claim [the world of space, time and matter] for the kingdom of God, for the lordship of Jesus, and in the power of the Spirit so that we can then go out and work for that kingdom, announce that lordship, and effect change through that power." (p. 264) "The mission of the church must therefore include, at a structural level, the recognition that our space, time and matter are all subject not to rejection but to redemption." (p. 264) "If it is true, as I have argued," says Wright, "that the whole world is now God's holy land, we must not rest as long as that land is spoiled and defaced. This is not an extra to the church's mission. It is central." (pp. 266) For Wright `mission' includes, for example, addressing "massive economic imbalance" and "Third World debt", politics, art, music, sculpture, poetry, architecture, town planning, transportation, agriculture, "proper use of resources" etc., areas of our 'life and work' through which Jesus is reclaiming and ruling his world (pp 216, 223, 265-266)

Make Backyard Missionaries

The following is from Bill Easum and, with the sentiments expressed by him and Mike Breen, I very much resonate and agree. 


Everyone of who follows my stuff knows I am a great fan of the local church. It is fundamental to the growth of the Kingdom, along with other forms of being the Church. I have no trek with those who say the day of the local church is over.

I can't stand what the vast majority of mainline churches and many sideline churches have become. They set back a wait for people to show up like a spider that spins its web waits for an unsuspecting victim. I call this the Jerusalem effect and the build it and they will come effect. Oddly enough, this approach to evangelism worked when I started ministry over 50 years ago. Today, however very few unchurched people come to worship on their own.

Interestingly enough a friend gave me a url to Mike Breens blog . It was right up my ally. I thought I would share a couple of his quotes with you.

"So let us be clear: missionaries are always better than mission projects. Leaders are more necessary then volunteers. And disciples are surely what we're going for rather than mere converts."

I couldn't agree more. I've always told churches that volunteers, missions committees, and programs are not the way to go. In our new book , Effective Staffing for the Vital Church, I talk about "backyard missionaries." 

Everyone needs to be trained to be a missionary in their everyday life. Also disciples are needed not volunteers.

Here is another goodie.

"There is a paradigm shift that needs to happen. We need to move from being a worshipping body that sometimes does mission to a missional body that gathers to celebrate and worship."

I have started telling leaders that it is not enough to have small groups that make disciples; now small groups need to the missionary arm of the church. Each small group needs a mission in the community.

That leads to Breen's last comment I want to highlight.

"Missional communities are the training wheels that teach us how to ride the bike of oikos."

Now this is brilliant. He's talking about 20-30 people acting as an extended family taking the message to their communities. We need to focus on training Mom and Dad, Aunts and Uncles, etc. to help their extended families be those backyard missionaries we talk about.

What is your church doing to make backyard missionaries?

Relationship Over Program

The church is, at heart, a people movement following Jesus. Often, focus is given to the 'what' of church: buildings, events, programs. We need to be careful to keep the focus on people, relationships and community. Relationships with God, other believers in those Jesus wants to reach should be the heart cry of his church, and the foundation of our focus.

The Future of Faith

 . . . We stand on the threshold of a new chapter in the Christian story.  Despite dire forecasts of its decline, Christianity is growing faster that it ever has before, but mainly outside the West and in movements that accent spiritual experience, discipleship and hope; pay scant attention to creeds; and flourish without hierarchies.  We are now witnessing the beginning of a “post-Constantinian era.” Christians on five continents are sharking off the residues of the second phase (the Age of Belief) and negotating a bumpy transition into a fresh era for which a name has not yet been coined.
  -- Harvey Cox, 'The Future of Faith'

The Divine Name

The Unfolding Mystery of the Divine Name: The God of Sinai in Our Midst - Michael P. Knowles

When Moses asked God to show him his glory, the Lord passed before him and proclaimed his name. And from that name cascaded a promise of grace and love, compassion and faithfulness, forgiveness and slowness to anger. The story is told in Exodus 34:5-7, but the resonant name reverberates through the corridors of Scripture.

Michael Knowles teases out the rich dimensions and implications of this name by listening carefully to Exodus 34 and its biblical echoes. He particularly tunes his ear to the spiritual meditations of later sages. In tracing the unfolding mystery of the divine name throughout the span of Israel's story, he finds it startlingly resolved in the God of Sinai becoming present in our midst.

The manifold name of God has long captivated those who trace their spiritual ancestry to Abraham, whether they are Jewish, Christian or Muslim. This book brings this spiritual quest into dialogue with Scripture and tradition, and invites us to experience this God of the eternal name.

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Available on Amazon

Review

"A fascinating and erudite study. Don't be misled by the title: Knowles's goal is to get at the very heart of the Bible's presentation of God through a careful survey of selected texts. His work will surely be of interest to scholars and lay readers alike." (James Kugel, author, The Bible As It Was )

"Michael Knowles has organized his theological reflection around the self-disclosure of God in Exodus 34, a wise decision indeed. The result of his close textual study is a full, free-ranging theological exposition that probes not only the biblical text but the use to which the text has been variously put in the Christian tradition. The book teems with fresh insight and will reward a careful reading." (Walter Brueggemann, Columbia Theological Seminary )
"How marvelous it would be if Christians started believing that God is as Scripture portrays him, and as Dr. Knowles expounds its portrayal with such a wideness of vision and breadth of insight." (John Goldingay, David Allan Hubbard Professor of Old Testament, Fuller Theological Seminary )

Our Neighbour . . .

It is a rebuke and opportunity for many of us, myself included, that Mother Theresa has said, "I want you to be concerned about your next door neighbour. Do you know your next door neighbour?"

Potters and Pots

We have this treasure, writes St. Paul, in earthen vessels . . .

It may seem to us sometimes that the biblical analogy of God's being the Potter and we being the clay pots that he creates and shapes for His purposes, make Him and His Province to be such that we are mere, passive, almost inanimate objects.

Following the insight and words of the prophet Isaiah (in chapter 64) again we may think that in the 'working with clay analogy' we are passive and God is totally in control/charge.

Apparently one might think that, until one starts working with clay. (I've not done that: I'll take the word of others who have).

An initial steps involved when working with clay is called Wedging – where you work hard 'to beat the life out of the clay.' Actually you are beating and kneading out air bubbles. If you don't, the bubbles will make the new creation crack when it hits the kiln. Or, it may blow up and, potentially everything around it. There are ‘bubbles’ that need to be removed from our lives if we are to be and achieve the purposes of our Creator.

Another step involved is something called Centering – a difficult process because (who would have known?) clay is naturally very resistant. One’s whole body weight has to be pushed into the play until you feel no anomaly as the clay is going around in your hands – until you know it’s ‘centred.’ If it isn’t centred, it will be wobbly or collapse entirely.

God is always wanting us to centre our lives in and around Him. What in our lives need to be centred around the Lord?

In Jeremiah 13, we find that the pot that was created became marred in the potter’s hand so he crushed the clay and formed into another pot. Similarly, God moulds us into different shapes and purposes, painful as that often seems to us. It is His doing even though we often (usually?) resist the process.

Am I accepting of God’s God’s centred will and priorities for my present and future? How am I active in working with, rather than resisting what God is doing in shaping me (or other aspects of my life and ministry)?

Can we discern and welcome the changes He is bringing?

Do they indicate that there is a lack of alignment, a difference or out-of-step aspects to my life in general, or in some particular are

How do we listen, look, trust and acquiesce more without giving up our responsibility and part? Could even our brokenness, resistance and doubt be part of what is repaired strengthened for the good as we the clay sometimes wrestle with the Potter in what He is doing and in how He is doing it?  

 

Hiding in our Hearts God's Word

I suppose there are some obvious ways of hiding God's Word within our hearts, as did the Psalmist. I would think it has to do with:

1.  Time:   to do with time-spent (how much, how long, how deep?); when and where and how(?) might also be factored in here. Would reading from a book be better, say than reading on-line (with attending links and distractions)?

2.  Understanding:  to do with seeking to understand what one is reading (inductive study, comparison, reading whole bits, getting time, order, history right . . .); what does it say? what does it mean? what does it mean for me? - for others? . . .

3.  Meditation:  to do with contemplation, musing, entering the story, personalizing (here Lectio Divina would be helpful)

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Lectio Divina (Latin for divine reading) is a traditional Christian practice of scriptural reading, meditation and prayer intended to promote communion with God and to increase the knowledge of the Bible. It does not treat Scripture as texts to be studied, but as the Living Word of God in which God addresses one personally.

Traditionally Lectio Divina has 4 separate steps: read, meditate, pray and contemplate. First a passage of Scripture is read, then its meaning is reflected upon. This is followed by prayer and contemplation on God's Word (and His words to me, as one might discern and seek to live and apply them).

The Mind and the Deep Heart - Influencers

'Your Word have I hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You,' wrote the Psalmist.

What is the deep heart, and how can we 'hide' things there that will influence what we do - and don't do? Is this related to the 'renewing of the mind' to which St. Paul refers, in Romans 12? Is 'the heart' and 'the mind' different references (one Jewish and the other more Hellenistic) to the locus of thought, feeling and action?

Is this another way of talking about 'the centre' of our being, the depths of our soul, the deep well, the place within from which springs all thought, feeling and action?

To really make yourself go, 'hmmm,' read Nicholas Carr's 'The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains.' (See Amazon's blurb to this book, at the bottom of this article)

Contemporary research reveals that our brains are very 'plastic.' Rather than being programmed and fixed with thoughts, impressions and feelings for life, they are constantly being rewired, with new 'rivulets' of the mind being formed by what we take in, and how we take it in, seemingly making new ways for interaction within and then responses without.

We are constantly being 'programmed' and reprogrammed in new ways. Various areas of the brain light up, expand to increase capacity for the unique interactions that fire there and that are being stored there. As this happens, other areas of the brain, those not being used (as much, or any more) are taken over by the new and expanding synapse-interactions.

What we put in, allow to come in, look at, hear about, think about, changes our brain, changes our mind. (Our eye is part of the brain. We take in through the eye and the image(s) cannot be filtered. The images are noted and stored within. Added to, stored in our brain, it changes us, whether we want it to or not)

If we don't keep up with our apprehending of the 'good' then the 'bad' will take over.

Hiding has the sense of 'the secret' - even of something precious. There is almost a 'sneaking' something out of the external world and bringing it within to be stored, protected and treasured. If we allow our minds to be filled (and filled up) with that which is not of God, not of the good and of the best of creation and of the plan and will of God for true human-ness, then there will sooner or later be no room for the good and the best, nor for the redemptive cure for the curse that ails us and the confusion that besets us.

This is not to hunker down and not think, nor some spiritually-inapt way of bubble-wrapping our lives, either externally or internally. It is to say, however, that we should be as careful as possible as to what is allowed to gain entrance to our deep heart, of what we look at, think about - and the ways we do it, and that despite our best efforts that we can't filter everything harmful out (we need a Redeemer, a Forgiver, a Healer to cleanse and set us free), and that we should seek to treasure and hide the those truths that God has revealed, both in Creation and through Revelation of Holy Scripture.

Above all, we need to invite into our deep person, to hide in our heart the Word that is Christ, the One in and through Whom God 'became flesh and dwelt among us for awhile' and who continues to indwell each follower of Jesus by His Spirit, those who have opened and who continually open their lives to His entrance-knock and entry.

If we hide God's Word in our hearts, God's Word will become fleshed out in our daily lives. If we don't, it won't; someone else's 'word' - will be lived out by us. With all that we take in, and when we don't pause or allow reflection for filter, to consider whether we agree or not with what is being presented to us, then we will be 'molded' into the ways of the world.

(The 'world' in Scripture (which we are not 'to love') is that which is in rebellion to God. It is 'all the areas of creation and human being and becoming' that have been influenced negatively, are broken and only show God's plan now in a distorted way, much as does a cracked or curved-out-of-shape mirror). There is 'total depravity' in the world in that everything, every place and every one has been influenced, shares, suffers, is broken, experiences sin. That is not to say that everything and every place and every one has been 'totalled' by sin and is the worst they can possibly be.)

But much of this is to talk only of individual disciples. The Bible speaks more about the collection of the People of God, the Commonwealth of Israel, the Community that is the Church, to and in and through whom He wills to set His world ('the cosmos' He so loved) free. This is another article. Yet also, however, the Church needs to hear God's Word and to store 'within its heart' too the eternal truths of God, so that the Church, re-membered and through all of its parts, may live out in our times the ways of God and the will of God. In this sense too, how we (as the ,) hear, listen, store, treasure and hide God's Word to us and for us and for our day, is as important as 'what now is that Word(?)' for our day. The 'what' and the 'how' of God's Word's entrance will influence the depth or shallowness of the way we live out the Message so desperately needed in our time.

Whose 'word' am I allowing primarily to shape my thinking, my life, my living? Immersed in what 'word' do I spend most of my time? Is my way of seeing life, my world-view, a product of God's Story - rich, diverse and compelling as it is, or am I being nuanced, courted and romanced by ways of thinking that I take in, which become my ways of thinking an acting, who's ends are 'Death' rather than the Life that Jesus called 'abundant.'

And not only 'am I hiding God's Word within' - but how am I hiding it, and what difference does this make?

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'The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains.'

“Is Google making us stupid?” When Nicholas Carr posed that question, in a celebrated Atlantic Monthly cover story, he tapped into a well of anxiety about how the Internet is changing us. He also crystallized one of the most important debates of our time: As we enjoy the Net’s bounties, are we sacrificing our ability to read and think deeply?

Now, Carr expands his argument into the most compelling exploration of the Internet’s intellectual and cultural consequences yet published. As he describes how human thought has been shaped through the centuries by “tools of the mind”—from the alphabet to maps, to the printing press, the clock, and the computer—Carr interweaves a fascinating account of recent discoveries in neuroscience by such pioneers as Michael Merzenich and Eric Kandel. Our brains, the historical and scientific evidence reveals, change in response to our experiences. The technologies we use to find, store, and share information can literally reroute our neural pathways.

Building on the insights of thinkers from Plato to McLuhan, Carr makes a convincing case that every information technology carries an intellectual ethic—a set of assumptions about the nature of knowledge and intelligence. He explains how the printed book served to focus our attention, promoting deep and creative thought. In stark contrast, the Internet encourages the rapid, distracted sampling of small bits of information from many sources. Its ethic is that of the industrialist, an ethic of speed and efficiency, of optimized production and consumption—and now the Net is remaking us in its own image. We are becoming ever more adept at scanning and skimming, but what we are losing is our capacity for concentration, contemplation, and reflection.

Part intellectual history, part popular science, and part cultural criticism, The Shallows sparkles with memorable vignettes—Friedrich Nietzsche wrestling with a typewriter, Sigmund Freud dissecting the brains of sea creatures, Nathaniel Hawthorne contemplating the thunderous approach of a steam locomotive—even as it plumbs profound questions about the state of our modern psyche. This is a book that will forever alter the way we think about media and our minds.

Three Seeds

The Seed of the Woman 

Genesis 3:14f - Garden of Eden - So the LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, "Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."

We think of the promises to Adam and Eve, in God’s purposes as revealed back even in the Garden. Right there in Genesis three, God speaks to the woman, and to the man, and to the serpent. That the seed of the woman will bruise the serpent’s head. The seed of the serpent will bruise the heel of the woman’s seed. One is a death blow – a capital blow (head = caput), which happened to Satan in the death of Christ and in His resurrection, victorious over the grave and sin and hell – over the old Serpent, the Devil. That’s one seed.

The Seed of Abraham

The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, "I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me."

This involved & included: covenant: promises, covenant blessings (and curses)  - land, health, prosperity, long-life; covenant responsibilities – love, defend, worship, fight for, honour; covenant symbols – Sabbath, Circumcision, Passover

There’s another seed where God. Finlay Edge talked about this when I was a young pastor. Through you and through your seed I will bless all the nations (the ethne – the peoples) of the earth.  God comes to Abraham one day and says, in effect, I have not given up on this old world, I want to fix, to reclaim the world, I want to bless the world, I want to bless all the peoples of the world – and I want to do it through you; will you be my man? In fact I will bless you and make you to be a great people; and through your and through your seed (note singular), I will bless all the nations of the earth.’

It’s not talking about nation-states as we might today, say the way some colonial power divided up countries without awareness or care that they were dividing traditional tribes and provoking new problems that they thought they could solve but doling out pieces of geography on a map as if they were pieces of a game of RISK. It’s talking about different cultures, sub-cultures, people-groups in the world. We’re talking about Somalis as opposed to Oromos.

We’re talking about ski-crowd, as opposed to horse-back-riding crowd, or hockey moms and dads who are elsewhere other than church most winter Sunday mornings. The ways in which humanity slices and dices society – and also some aspects of the way that God has made us.

Abraham believed / obeyed God – and (says Paul in Romans), God credited righteousness (right standing and rightness) to him. Note ‘seed’ is singular and Paul goes on about this in Galatians to say that, really, Jesus is the promised ‘seed’ of Abraham, and – if you and I are ‘in Christ’ than we are blessed with faithful Abraham, with Jesus heir to all the covenant promise and blessings AND to join with Jesus (and God and Abraham, in spirit, in blessing all the ethne (the peoples) of the earth.

Ours is a missional task because, in paying attention to God (His Word, His will) and seeing that he so loved the cosmos (Jn 3:16 – that is a holistic word: of people, places and things – holistic, the whole of the world and all of its life, structures, purposes, outcomes, etc.)

Paul takes great pains in his letter to the Galatians to tell us that God was not talking only about, or primarily about Old Testament Israel, as the seed of Abraham – as sons and daughters, as servants of the living God. Of course, they are the children, the seed of Abraham (physically speaking), but Jesus in the Gospels told the heart-harded Pharisess of his day that God was well able to raise up children of Abraham the very stones around them (afterall he has already made all of us human creatures out of the dust and elements of the earth and the rest of us, in fact the larger part of us, physically consists of water.

Paul points out that the true circumcision, the true Israel, is no longer physical Israel but the Church, the NT Israel of God. It’s no longer physical, national but the spiritual seed. (That’s why Baptists only baptize those who by faith and repentance come to Christ as the spiritual seed of Abraham, rather than baptizing (in an Old Testament, even Judaizing way) those who are mere physical descendants of believing parents). The church is comprised of those who are circumcised in heart and who have been baptized as a sign of that being ‘cut off’ and that ordeal that implies may I be cut off and my progeny; may I be cursed and drowned if I renege on my covenant commitment and promise to you, O Lord Christ.

Paul in Galatians that ‘the Seed’ is singular, not plural – and that it refers to Jesus the anointed one (Messiah, the Christ). And if we are ‘in Christ’ we are the children of promise of faithful Abraham, to us now resound the covenant promises, blessings – and responsibilities. All of the covenant promises and all of the covenant purposes now are ours who with Christ are called bless all the ethne of the earth.

Paul sees the church as inheriting the corporate vocation of God's covenant people, Israel. Paul is concerned with defining and maintaining a corporate identity for his young churches, which are emphatically countercultural communities. His letters should be read primarily as instruments of community formation.

A loving, purpose-full God sends human messengers forth to declare his truth and reveal his plans - and to model His loving, righteous ways. As with Abraham, the father and founder of the by-then idolotrous, wandering-at-heart nation, Israel, God reveals that He wants to bring all of the world's peoples (and all places and things) back in line with God's original creation purposes - that He wants to bless all the peoples of the earth; and that He wants to do it through His People, all of them His servants - individuals, a nation, a Church that unique reveal and bridge His mercy and grace to all.

This calling and sending of individuals, a nation, pre-eminently in a Son and His Church, reveals the mission-heart of God, who through such frail instruments is re-creating all that has been distorted, marred or thwarted, vis a vis original Creation purposes. Isaiah is to speak for God - and so today are we as His Church, Christ’s Body on earth. Like him, we too are to go and (by the total witness of our lives and our lips) to call out to those who will hear, who will see their own need for cleansing and restoration for (and to) the purposes God has uniquely called them.

God comes still to us - as individuals, as His People, the Church today. We worship His holiness and power. We bow before Him. We acknowledge again our unworthiness to be near Him, let alone to serve Him. We are in awe that in fresh and powerful, still compelling ways, He reveals Himself and ourselves anew to us. And we remember that He comes near that (such privilege !) He might again release us to the tasks of showing and telling His purposes - His love, mercy and grace - everywhere, in all of life, to all people.

Abraham was ‘called out’ before he was ‘called to.’ Perhaps one cannot live a mission–shaped life if one does not leave somewhere, some people, some family, some friends, some things that are precious. One cannot go without having a sacrificial heart, willing to do without, do with less; willing to strike out in a new way for God along Life’s Journey – following, heeding, obeying.

One can live in the same house and with the same people and have ‘gone out’ and one can travel miles away and never really have ‘gone out’ in obedience and faith. The geography is not necessarily the point; the obedience, the heart-attitude, the inclination and intent is.

Abraham – God called – I want to bless all the peoples of the earth; and, guess what? – I want to do it through you. Through you I will bless all the peoples of the earth. Will you join me in this great reclamation project? Will you be my man in this? Will you dare to believe that through you and through your ‘seed’ this will be accomplished. You will be the father of faith, the father of peoples, the father of this faithful/obedient way of joining in what I am doing – called, elect for these purposes; unique, set aside, special, holy and active instruments and conduits of my grace, forgiveness, mercy, new starts – so that people through the second Adam (indeed the true ‘Seed’ of Abraham) can be fully restored to true humanity, to original creation-mandate purposes.

 The Seed that is Jesus

I tell you the truth, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.  (John 12)

Jesus – ‘seed’ (singular) - not seeds. See Paul's argument in Galatians 3:16 - The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say "and to seeds," meaning many people, but "and to your seed," meaning one person, who is Christ.

This means that all who are ‘in Christ’ are called not only to the blessings and responsibilities of Abraham and the People of God. We are also called to mission - the Mission of God; Jews and Gentiles by the Spirit of Jesus as a Light to the World.

The Challenge of Small Town Ministry

It can be a great privilege and delight to be called to minister and serve within the context of a church in a small town or village. It's very possible that one may find that there are limited resources, at least comparatively speaking. Facilities may be old and declining  with a scarcity of dollars with which to repair or add to the church-building resource.

When the church and town are close enough to more urban centres for their to be commuters, they may be too tired for meetings through the week, upon their return home each evenings so they will not want to serve in the governance or activities of the church that meet then.

There may be limitations of community resources and services of one kind or another. One may find that the church has a 'bad history' and in rural areas, that sticks. Gossip travels quickly and church family feuds last longer.  The church and the pastor's house is very much a glass-house and the family may suffer from 'over-visibility.' 

It may be that sports or other recreational events and activities have taken over the life of the town, especially with those who have lost or seldom had connections with a local faith community.

The families of both church and community may be very much inter-woven and this can result in embarrassing results from inadvertent comments or actions. (The inter-connections can also work very positively too, as relational interaction and communication help to spread the good things that are happening and as the good news of the Gospel is lived and shared.

Many students leave the community and thus also the church programs, ministry and influence, upon completion of high school. The community may offer few job opportunities. This results often in the overall aging of communities and with major 'holes' and missing demographics of youth and young families.  Some people leave to get out of town - to get away. A few come back hoping to rediscover what they have left, and perhaps even to embrace once more what they have found to be missing in their life, in values, lifestyle and general 'way of life.' 

 The church may have several or a remaining few ruling families who are entrenched and powerful there due, perhaps to history and tradition, to being powerful personalities, or being influential through their wealth and distribution or with-holding of it, as for them ministry situations and opinions might dictate. They may expect things to be done in their way, which is of course 'the right way' in their opinion. They may be 'provincial' in that they have not seen more of the world than the confines of their own land, town and general area. They may be suspicious of any who might usurp their place and influence and whether consciously or not, they may seek to 'freeze out' newcomers and/or try to 'neutralize' any suggestions for change or 'betterment' that the newcomer may bring. To use a metaphor-like example from old England, when the Squire and the Parson got along, ministry did also, apace; when they did not see eye to eye, it was not the Squire who moved, but the Pastor who would have to. 

But it is not just true of those who wield power and influence in the church and community. Many people will be wondering if the new pastor has come to love them or to seek to change them. Will he/she come to judge the old and suggest an embracing of new, albeit at present, foreign (even strange and unwanted) ways of doing ministry in the church and community.

Small town ways and attitudes suggest that folk may be suspicious of newcomers, of those who are 'from away.' It may take several years, decades even, for the 'newcomer' to feel that they have equal footing, that they belong and that their voice and actions are respected rather than tolerated; that they are even welcome.

There may be the appearance and even the wording of needing or wanting change 'if this church is to survive, to grow, to move into even more fruitful ministry in this day. The new pastor may find, however, that in fact very little change is wanted or will be tolerated. It may even seem bizarre to discover that some would rather that this church die than that any new or significant changes be introduced and attempted. It will take time, trust - many years and lots of coffee, riding combines, relational interactions of integrity and mutual appreciation, before the shared ministry can and will happen. Many pastors leave before they see the fruits of such trust and relationship. They may leave just before fruitful times can break forth.

With all of the above, however, it is true to say that rural living and rural church ministry can be some of the most fruitful and effective ministry-locales and enabling of Kingdom work today. It can be a place of learning and discovery, of patience and endurance, of learning the natural and supernatural rhythms of the Eternal, where also Kingdom signs and realities can be set up and lived into.

Change Carefully

We must be careful in our love/or hate of the Church (a lover's quarrel?) and see to it that we love the brothers and sisters, whatever may be their faults - and not take on the task of accusing the brothers, which the Evil One has taken on as his primary task. We may critique and seek to correct - to protest and to reform, but we must do it very gently, very carefully.

When thinking about the old and the new, and of attitudes within the emergent community, with whose frustration and critique with regard to the established church, I often tend to agree, I think of the following needful corrective and warning of Paul Johnson, in his book, 'The Recovery of Freedom.' "The study of history is a powerful antidote to contemporary arrogance. It is humbling to discover how many of our glib assumptions, which seem to us novel and plausible, have been tested before, not once but many times and in innumerable guises; and discovered to be, at great human cost, wholly false."