Kindness- as a measure of spiritual maturity

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Another great collection on Radio 4’s start the week programme. Listen again to it here.

There was this fascinating discussion about KINDNESS, relating to this new book, co written by a psycho analyst Adam Philips  and Historian Barbara Taylor.

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They appear to take the view that our society has retreated from kindness as a way of interacting and engaging with the people around us. We assume that we are no longer inter-dependent and needful of others, and so kindness becomes identified with a kind of weakness and vulnerability.

They go as far as to suggest that we tend naturally towards kindness, but learn to suppress this as we grow into our culture. All Kindness, suggests Philips, is a RISK- but a risk that is transformative in the taking.

There is a review of this book in Guardian by Mary Warnock where she says this

Kindness to others arises out of sympathy. As the authors note, there is much evidence that other animals besides human beings (or “men” as they properly designate them) can enter into the sufferings and fears of others of their kind. But it is human animals alone who, because of their imaginative powers, can enter into the feelings of other people far removed from them, whom they cannot see or touch, but whose plight as fellow-humans they can share

In the Gospel of St Luke, a lawyer is told by Jesus that to live well he must love his neighbour as himself and, when he further asks who is to count as his neighbour, Jesus answers with the story of the good Samaritan, for many the very essence of Christianity. Kindness here arose spontaneously, not in obedience to any rule, in fact in defiance of convention. But as Christianity became increasingly ecclesiastical and hierarchical, with the consequent corruption of the priesthood, the good Samaritan was forgotten.

The new Protestantism declared man to be fundamentally sinful, such good actions as he could do dependent on the grace of God; and so the possibility of natural kindness disappeared.

So we come back to Jesus, and his call to live for a radically different agenda, according to the rules of a New Kingdom. And one of the watch-words of this new kingdom- is kindness.

It is one of those fruit listed by Paul as evidence of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. (See here for some more ponderings on this.)

When we come into contact with kindness at a point of real need, we rarely forget it. It lives on in our souls. As Paul said in 1 Corinthians- all sorts of other loud and visible manifestations of faith will clang like gongs and then fall silent- but love will last for ever.

Which makes me think again about the myth of the super-Christian. I am interested in the stature aquired and the adoration we give to some of our leaders- perhaps for their charisma, their vision or their oratory power. When one of these paragons of Christianity falls from Grace, how dreadful it seems… how shocking.

Might this be because we measure spirituality according to a strange criteria? We equate knowledge with understanding, declaration with practice and power with ordination from on high.

Might we best return to a simple measure- of kindness shown, and a skew towards grace in all things. These are the leaders I look for. Jesus has ruined the others for me!

WANTED- people ready for some small adventures…

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So- a new year turns.

If you are like me, you will have been indulging in a little self examination- thinking about how life has been, and what possibilities the new year might bring.

Perhaps you have had thoughts of stepping out the old routines, and opening up some new things- finding new places, new connections and deeper spirituality.

Perhaps you are ready for some adventure. Small ones perhaps- not all of us are Bear Grylls!

Anyone fancy some fish by the way?

Assuming that this is not your fancy- how about joining us for trips into the wilderness to find something slightly more palatable?

If so, we at Aoradh would love to hear from you.

We are planning some trips out into the wild places hereabout- to find places where we can appreciate the beauty of the mountains and hills about us, and also to use some of these spaces for group and individual meditation. These will mostly be based within Argyll, Scotland- or in the Cowal Area, where we are based.

Nick and I have been working on some wilderness meditations- some of which are on the aoradh website- here. We would very much appreciate some folk who are willing to be our guinea pigs (or should I say, Red Squirrels) as we give them a wider road test.

As part of this, a few of us are planning a trip to a small uninhabited island on the bank holiday that begins Friday the 1st of May. We have not finally decided the venue for this yet- there are a couple of possibles, and it rather depends on transport. Past trips away have included trips to Coll, Little Cumbrae and the Garvellachs.

The format of these trips has been that people are prepared to be self supporting- with their own camping and back packing gear. We will then make our own small community for a weekend, in a beautiful, wild and uninhabited space.

For the weekend trip, there may be some transport costs- but that is all, we are not interested in profit- but rather in friendship with each other and a deeper relationship with God.

So we are clear about the legalities of this- we offer a partnership- not a package tour. You come at your own risk!

For those who need to be more organised- we have set some dates for later in the year when we hope to organise one day events- which will include a mediation around a ‘found’ space in the wilderness- caves, rivers, mountains etc.

16th May (Family weekend??)

20th June

18th July

19th September

24th October

contact me for more info!

Pull up a log- sit by the fire. The Kettle is on…

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Conflict resolution in Israel/Palestine…

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I posted earlier some thoughts about the situation in Gaza, and the response of Christians to Israeli aggression (See here.)

I made a parallel post within the blog network missional tribe– and mentioned a friend of ours who has just returned from Bethlehem where she was working for the Church of Scotland. Jen is not well at the moment- so here’s a prayer for her quick recovery.

Wouldn’t you know it, I had a comment from Chris Hoskins, who had met Jen on a recent trip to Bethlehem!

Chris mentioned a story of hope from Bethlehem, which I thought worth a mention. The news is still full of such pain and violence, that the hope of peace is something that seems to me to be worth nurturing wherever it is seen.

The other think that I struggle with is with my own powerlessness. The internet gives me some kind of voice, but is a passive medium for the most part. Perhaps there may be a way to lend support to something real and tangible…

I went looking for the centre that Chris described- check it out for yourself…

There is some more info here and here.

May they be blessed.

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A shift in church (or just a shift in me?)

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Thanks to Brad Sargent, aka futuristguy, for this intriguing insight into a shift in emphasis within the Western Church. He blogs from the USA, but it rang true for me…

It seems to me that the focus or integration points have shifted from ecclesiology (with its inherent concern about methods and models for relevant church planting), to doxology (worship as the key thing to unlock the Kingdom), to theology proper (tinkering with a series of theological issues, like open theism or reforming the reformation), to Christology (with an emphasis on incarnational ministry), to missiology (with an emphasis on being missional and “culturally relevant”).

See here for more on this… but be prepared for some stuff that will hurt your head!

What do you think?

As far as I understand, I think Brad is suggesting a development in the way that radical church movements have sought to engage with the world around us, in this kind of progression;

  1. A technical focus on models and shapes of church- the way we meet and greet, the way we structure ourselves etc (perhaps resulting in a renewed interest, for example, in the House Church movement)
  2. Then a move towards worship (particularly the large praise and worship gathering) as a way to bring us together in an experiential encounter with God, and thereby equip us through a ‘soaking’ in the Spirit of God, which filters out into our lives and communities. I suppose this strand is still alive and well, stereotypically in churches such as Vineyard?
  3. A re-examination of the theological underpinnings that arose from Modernism and enlightenment thinking- particularly around the whole ’emerging church’ conversation.
  4. A return to the centrality of the person of Jesus- interpreting scripture, life and mission according to what we know and see of Christ. A renewed understanding of what Jesus meant by ‘The Kingdom of God’ and a rich understanding of ‘Incarnation’- as a way of literally embodying Jesus in our streets. This seems to me to be the active ingredient that releases the ’emergents’ above into the real world…
  5. And finally we come to that word again- missional. Brad sees this most recent turn as a focus on church engaging with the real world around the mission of God- however we might come to understand this mission. He also refers to a wide concern to understand the context and culture that we are part of, and to be relevant within it.

Now simplistic models of change such as this can never be complete, but as I look at this list- it interests me, as in many ways it mirrors my own journey over the last few years…

7 years ago, I was part of a (mostly) thriving church in the North of England, where I led thecimg0709 worship team. We had this thing for Scotland, and eventually headed up here in 2002.

In Scotland we attended a small Baptist church, which had rigid structures and traditions that I always found ill fitting. I became more and more interested in looking at the way we did ‘church’, and frustrated at the servicing of a set of dysfunctional systems at the expense of any real engagement with the town we were part of.

However, I was still involved in leading worship- and spent a bit of time in America and in Europe leading worship at conferences. My motivation in worship was very much to sing with all that I could bring to bear so that we might encounter the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. I longed for those moments when the air seemed to crackle with the electric presence of God- but with hindsight, I am convinced that often, we sought to manufacture them, and to overstate our experience to validate our practice… Our group Aoradh started around this time- as a very different animal than it is today.

The small church in Scotland I attended had some real problems, and eventually, sort of ate itself alive. We decided that we had to leave about 3 years ago, and in and around this time, I found myself desperately re-examining the building blocks of my faith and doctrine. I read incessantly, just about everything I could that would enable me to relate again to what this Christianity was all about. I discovered Bell, and McLaren and all sorts of other Emerging Church stuff, and it totally blew me away- before ultimately allowing me once again to adventure with God.

And the central part of this adventure- was Jesus. I fell in love with what he was and is all over again. I read the gospels with eyes wide open, and wept over the sermon on the mount. I am still there really- seeking to find ways to live in community and connected to others, so that I might better be able to celebrate and display the person of Jesus, and serve the people and place I am planted within.

All this time there was talk about post modernity and the need to engage with context in a way that is relevant and appropriate. I worried at times that this mixed in with a stream of folk who just wanted to make the church trendy and hip- which I think has always been beyond me! But I came to believe clearly that we could not longer keep trying to engage in a way that suited the 1950s (That quote from someone who said this comes to mind- If the 1950’s ever come back, we are ready!)

So where am I with this? I know myself to have been on a journey. My hope and prayer is that this journey has many places to visit yet.

May we meet along the way.



Branching out…

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This Fragile Tent

Just another Missional Tribe weblog

I have been posting a selection of stuff from this blog onto the Missional tribe weblog (here)- which is throwing up some interesting connections.

I will continue using this blog as my main one, but will paste over stuff as it appears relevant.

Some of the group discussions are well worth checking out too…

Missional tribe- check it out.

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I am determined to keep chewing on this word to see if I can find some flavour…

(Check out this previous post in which I express some skepticism.)

One of the blogs I read is Brother Maynard’s Subversive Influence. I was intrigued by a new project that he is part of called Missional tribe.

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In case you think this is another jump onto the trendy Christian bandwagon, here is what Bro Maynard has to say here…

Do a Google search on the word “missional” and you’ll get 1,200,000 hits. Search “missional” at Amazon and 1,238 missional products appear before your very eyes. It’s the Western Church word of the moment. The key to all that ails the church. The promise of a bright future – beginning with a bold tomorrow. That is, if we only knew what it meant.

Clay Shirky’s Here Comes Everybody and Seth Godin’s Tribes helped to inform our discussions. Missional Tribe’s first iteration was as a Wiki. Then the mini “blogstorm” around Out of Ur’s Dan Kimball Missional results post convinced us that what the conversation needed was a place to discuss, share stories, watch videos, ask questions, and grow together. Where all of this can easily be tagged and indexed for rapid access in the future. The Missional Tribe social network was born (www.missionaltribe.org).

Less than two months after the decision to launch a social network, the beta of the Missional Tribe site launches today — Epiphany, on the church calendar. We would like you to join us in being a part of this non-hierarchical network.

From simply reading and commenting on posts and in the Forums, to creating your own Missional Tribe blog or posting a video — Missional Tribe is a place to track and expand the missional conversation – as we follow the Lord back into the neighborhoods where he has strategically placed each one of us.

So, I think I will join in for the ride, and see where it takes me…

Why should the Devil have all the good apples?

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Apparently, in the old orchards of Somerset and Devon, we are entering Wassailing season- traditionaly 12th night (5th January.)

A lovely word is wassailing- thought to be from the old Norse influenced English- meaning ‘good health’. It rolls on the tongue like scrumpy.

Which is kind of appropriate, as the most common use of the word concerns an old tradition of ceremonies of song and dance and drinking to bless the apple trees, warding off evil spirits and willing the tree to produce a crop for the coming year.

Wassailing also is a word used to describe carol singing in the streets, around new year, and also seems to have been a time when feudal masters were celebrated by their subjects, in response to their seasonal munificence.

The origins of these ceremonies have all been lost in time, but they seem to have more than a whiff of the Pagan about them. The old festivals of the passing of the winter equinox, and the hope of a coming spring. The early Church, as with other festivals, embraced it, and made it Christian. The songs of the wassailers became ones seeking the blessing of God.

So the most well known Wassailing song is this one;

Here we come a wassailing
among the leaves so green,
Here we come a wandering
So fair to be seen.

Chorus:
Love and joy come to you
and to your good Christmas too
And God bless you and send you a happy New Year
And God send you a happy New Year.

We are not daily beggars
that beg from door to door,
We are your neighbor’s children
whom you have seen before.

Chorus

We have got a little purse
of stretching leather skin;
We want a little money
to line it well within.

Chorus

God bless the master of this house,
likewise the mistress, too,
And all the little children
that round the table go.

Chorus

So- why on earth am I going on about this, I hear you ask?

Well, I have been part of groups of charismatic Christians who have tended to understand spirituality as a warfare, first and foremost. So all things come to be measured according to what significance they might have within this unseen war.

This insight is an important one. In Pauls letter to the Ephesians, we read this famous passage-

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.

An understanding flowing from these passages has led to a rejection of anything that has a hint of alternative spirituality- whether this comes from other religions, or perhaps even more so when Pagan traditions are invoked.

People seemed to express real fear that exposure to such things could in some way corrupt or damage us- we could be affected by a ‘Spirit-of….’, which could only be dealt with by those who practice deliverance ministry-releasing us from the bondage of evil influence on our lives.

This view of the world and the many things within it can lead to an intense exclusivity and isolation. Whatever the truth of the spiritual powers understood or suspected (and I should confess to a skepticism in some cases at least!) then I think it important to remember that like the festivals noted above, the early church seemed to have a very different way of working with the traditions and cultural symbols that they encountered.

Paul and the temple to the unknown God, recorded in Acts.

Peter and the Gentiles- the sheet from Heaven etc.

The establishment of early Christian shrines on pre-Christian religious sites that appears to have been common practice.

The example of the early Celtic Church and the use of pre-Christian images and symbols and practices to celebrate the new faith.

Is this corruption or syncretism? I do not think so. Accommodation with a spirituality that is damaging is indeed something that we should guard against- but boxing ourselves into fearful religious enclaves- this seems to me to be even more damaging.

We live in a post-Christian world here in the west, and increasingly, the world around us draws it’s spirituality from outside the Christian tradition. Like those early Celtic missionaries, we have no choice but to engage with this reality. The question that should concern us is how we bring Jesus with us as we move into an alien landscape. How do we live as Agents of the Kingdom in this foreign land?

So on this 12th night, let us put on the armour of the Living God and walk tall- secure in the knowledge that before Him, nothing will stand.

Why should the Devil have all the good apples?