Why bi-vocational is not part-time

I got pulled up a while ago for suggesting that the long-term future heath of the church may lie in a bi-vocational approach to ministry. It was suggested to me that "bi-vocational" was simply another way of saying "part-time". It is not, and here's why.

In the first instance, part-time describes what you do in terms of how many hours you spend doing it. That is a wholly inadequate way to describe a vocation. We don't call people who work twice the average hours in a week than most people double-timers, we just call them full-time ministers!

Secondly, who would dare suggest that Paul was a part-time worker for the kingdom when he used his tent-making skills to earn an income. It's nonsense.

But I guess it's the division of our lives into the so-called secular and sacred that most troubles me when we use terms like part-time and full-time. It's an old argument I know, but I think such language reinforces this divide and feeds the unhealthy self-understanding it creates. We are all called to be full-time followers of Jesus Christ, deploying our gifts and skills the best ay we can for the sake of the kingdom and in the mission of God. Postman, dentist, lawyer, retail worker or church worker, we're all the same. None of us is more special than any other.

So why is bi-vocational better? Well I guess it's not if we only use as a posh way of saying the church can't afford to pay me a full-time income. My first churches had very little money available for ministry, so my wife worked to support us and I gave my time freely and fully to serve them. They paid me what they could and we worked it out from there. But that's not all I'm thinking about.

I believe that maybe bi-vocational ministry will demystify ministry and ultimately empower the local church to be the community of faith it ought to be. Instead of having one or two professionals doing the majority of the ministry, the whole church will be mobilised and engaged. Why should bi-vocational help this more than full-time? Maybe because we will need to be far more specific about the bi-vocational leader's role.

These are just some emerging thoughts. They are incomplete, but I think the distinction is important.

Psalm 73

Whom have I in heaven but you?
And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever.

Psalm 73:25-26

There is much to reflect upon from these two verse but I don't have time to do that right now, I just wanted to post them as a reminder for me and hopefully a blessing to you!

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Wednesday Morning 8:45am!

For those with memories long enough to recall Simon and Garfunkel, you'll understand the licence in the title! Perhaps S & G were not your favourites, so you'll have to think Beatles instead (didn't She's leaving home begin "Wednesday morning, it's 5am..."? Anyway, it's Wednesday morning and I'm in Costa drinking a hot milk with caramel syrup. With the opening of Cafe Nero, I now have three Coffee shops from which to choose plus all the other places I haven't even ventured into along the main road. We even have an ice-cream parlour opening soon!

I'd love to be able to recount stories of significant spiritual conversations I've had in these places, but I don't have any such stories. Perhaps a really extrovert evangelist would find a way, but I'm certainly not either of those. So I just come and sit and work and read and pray. Occasionally I meet someone loosely connected to church and have something between a shallow and slightly deeper conversation, but they are rare.

The thing is, if I were not sitting here, I would never have the chance. So being here and not getting an opportunity is better than not being here and closing the door to a chance meeting completely.

Anyway, my goal today is to write at least one if not two outlines for some bible studies I'm preparing for after Easter, so I'd better get going on that!


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Dropbox

Ages ago I waxed lyrically about Dropbox, an online backup facility and file synchronising utility. It is great. Works a treat and provides useful off-site storage.

If you want a free account with 2Gb storage to use, then follow this link. It's a shameless attempt to get more free storage for myself because every time someone uses the link to sign up I get another 250Mb of storage!

Spring Harvest 2011

Arrived home from Spring Harvest yesterday. It's been a couple of years since we've been, and it was good to get away again. We thought the worship was positive and done well. Overall we enjoyed ourselves even though we came home tired!

Might blog some more thoughts later!

The New Universalism Debate

I guess we all know to whom we are referring when the topic turns to universalism these days. I've not read the book, and I've got rather too many on my reading list at the moment to add it to the pile.

I just wanted to post a link to a useful post that I think sheds helpful light on one of the keys issues that can go ignored. Put simply, if we perceive that the fundamental problem with universalism is that everyone is saved and that means that there's no point being a disciple of Jesus, then we've made Jesus little more than a get into heaven free card. There is more at stake than this.

This post by Ed Cyzewski addresses that very question.

Isn't this Mary's son?

Here's a question for you, it's not original to me, but something that I read or heard earlier today. How could the Son of God live among the people for thirty years and they didn't notice he was different? I think it has more to say about the humility and grace of God that he could do this than it does about the lack of perception on behalf of humanity.

Maybe people see what they want to see and the last thing they wanted to see, or expected to see, was God with calloused hands sweating over over the construction of some simple piece of furniture. After all, why should the one who spoke creation into existence reduce himself to working with hand tools?

But don't be fooled into thinking that God came in disguise rather like the Greek gods were supposed to do. The biblical story is that God didn't look human, he was human. He was neither pretending nor hiding, he was simply being God incarnate.

So, if he wandered down your street, you could be forgiven for thinking he was just another ordinary human being passing by. Nothing remarkable about him, nothing to draw your attention.

On the other hand, if you looked more closely and listened more carefully, you might just discover that you've been in the presence of God himself.

Spare Parts

I've had cause to get a couple of spare parts for the washing machine and the tumble dryer recently and espares proved to be a fast an efficient website for getting what I needed.

I'm not a great one for DIY repairs, mainly because I know next to nothing about how these machines actually work, but fitting a new door catch and drum paddle are well within my capabilities. finding the parts on the website was easy enough and they arrived nice and promptly.

I'd recommend them, and what's more they just sent me an email with a promotional code promising a £5 voucher if anyone uses the code to order parts! So here's the code, just follow this link and I'll get my voucher. Whether you get anything I don't know, and my voucher might just be a discount on more parts, but it's worth looking if you need something!

Advert over.

Heart, treasure, focus and fixation

The issue is not about the church model or even the building but rather whether or not the life of Christ is getting out of the box [the church] and into the culture.

Most Christians perceive the church service as "the main event" and thus the central locus for Christian life and activity. And they look to the pastor and staff members as being primarily responsible for organising and conducting outreach and evangelism. As a result, the mission of the church is professionalised, and outsourced to the "clergy" thus leaving the majority of Christians out of the missional equation... In short, our actions say that what we do inside the building is more important than what we do outside the building.

Right here, right now p217-217

Jesus said that our hearts will follow what we treasure most. If church treasures the gathering above everything else, where does that leave the missing who don't fit our culture of church?

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Quietly passing three million

Yesterday, during an evening walk with Anne, I passed the three million step mark since I started to record my daily steps in August last year.

Interestingly, I've also spotted an error in the spreadsheet I use to record the data. Somehow, although the formulae look okay, there's a discrepancy of about 15 miles that accumulated over the months. Very strange, but at least it will give me something else to do when I get really bored one afternoon!!

Connecting with the missing

As anyone who reads what I write or listens to what I say, one of the things that bothers me most is the issue of connecting with the people Jesus misses. Sometimes we call them lost, although I know from personal conversations that this is not a word they would use to describe themselves. In fact, for some, lost was what they felt when they did go to church! That aside, and the vocabulary issues relegated from a priority position they probably don't deserve, the question remains: How do we connect with, spend time with and generally reach the missing? Couple this with the concept of being a missional community that focuses on people rather than programmes, and although the question doesn't go away, it asks us to make some shifts in our thinking.

In the traditional pattern of being the church, we'd most likely look to a programme by which we could get these missing folk into church. We'd assume that if only we got them through the doors, the rest would be fairly straightforward. Preach a clear gospel, invite a response and there you have it. Instant Christians. But we all know that this isn't how it is.

Now I'm not saying that these things are not important. But I think we'd all have to agree that the major missing ingredient in all of this is that we just don't get people into church. So no matter how good our celebrations might be, how clear and compelling our gospel presentation might be, they are just not there to hear it.

So how do we rediscover connecting with ordinary people in ordinary ways that, by the grace of God, might lead to gospel conversations and opportunities to help people find faith? I think one solution lies in the antithesis of the Christian ghetto. In other words, we have to spend quality and quantity time outside of the church community, and here's one suggestion about how to do that.

Find something you really like doing and do it with unchurched people.

Are you interested in learning a new skill? Find an adult education course, go, make friends, learn the new skill and maybe an opportunity will arise. Instead of starting a church-based walking group, join the local ramblers or start a community walking group. No evangelistic agenda, the kind of thing that requires an epilogue at the end of each walk, just a group who go walking together.

I remember Jim Wallis saying something along the lines of: Find out what you do best, and then do it in a way that makes a difference. Perhaps we need a similar motto for rebuilding our friendship base in our communities.

Do what you love doing, but do it in a way that builds relationships.

So, with that in mind, I guess I ought to start up a social tennis group in the local park, given my recent foray into the sport!

March walking stats

The end of another month, and the scores on the doors are:

Steps: 405, 121

Miles: 197.55

23,543 was the most steps on a single day. This was when we were at the tennis camp at the beginning of the month. although I've had a couple more 20k step days this month since then.

So far, since the 1st August, I've taken 2,963,782 steps which is approximately 1,467 miles. In theory, by the end of Monday I'll have done at least another 40k, which means I'll have taken my  three millionth step!

I only had 2 days when I didn't do 10k this month, although I've not been going out purposefully to walk consistently this month. Most of my steps have come from walking more often than driving and playing tennis (and a little badminton of late).

So maybe in April I will return to trying to do at least 30-45 minutes of aerobic walking a day, but with all the tennis and some swimming, I'm not doing badly for exercise.

I'll probably keep the statistics going until the end of July, just to see what the year looks like. After that, who knows, even I might get bored!!

The Church Unleashed

We're currently doing a series from Acts. I like Acts. I like it because it describes the early church as it develops through the ups and downs of discovering and following God's big plan.

On Sunday we reached Acts 13 and I talked about the church unleashed. The titles for this series are all borrowed from a study guide I picked up, but I can't remember who wrote it. If I find it any time soon, I'll give proper credit to the author, but meanwhile I'll just say thank you to whoever it was that came up with the titles I've purloined for use in this series!

So, the church unleashed then. I have pretty strong views about the church, don't we all. I have my share of frustrations and issues with the way we've become institutionalised over the centuries and I long for a simpler, more relationally based expression of church than I currently see in almost every church setting I've served or been a part of in any way.

When I look at Acts 13 I am always challenged by the sheer simplicity of worship, prayer an fasting, followed by hearing, discerning and acting. we are so quick to look for long-term strategies and sustainable outcomes, both of which are important, but sometimes done at the expense of simply getting on with being the church born of and built by the God of mission.

In Acts 13 cultural barriers were crossed, malevolent forces encountered and persecution experienced. There were setbacks and triumphs, successes and failures. But the church grew and the kingdom advanced. All of which was at the very facilitated by a group of unnamed pioneers who pushed out beyond the primarily Jewish confines of the early community. Faith was spelled r-i-s-k, and they just got on with trying to be good news the people around them.

People who can think like this and act like this are probably quite rare. Most of us are shaped to fit our culture and work within it. We're not naturally disposed to think differently. But we need those who can. Without such people we might still have a slave trade, women might not be voting and children might still be working in factories and mines. Someone saw a different world and showed it to others who saw it too.

A number of years ago a book was published called something like On giant's shoulders. It was either Melvyn Bragg who wrote or Melvyn Bragg who hosted a programme on Radio 4 discussing it. I don't remember. I do remember the argument of the book. It suggested that it would be wrong to assume that if key figures like Einstein or Newton hadn't made the discoveries or developed the theories that they had, others would have done so. These men and women of history were giants upon whose shouldres we all get to ride. Without them, development would have been quite different.

So those pioneers in Acts didn't do what anyone could do, they did what they could do, and maybe they alone were destined to do.

If we're going to become the church unleashed in the 21st century, then perhaps we need to recognise a few giants too. And if not giants at least we need to think differently.

And as we think, we shall also need to pray, worship, even fast, as we seek to discern and then follow God's lead.

Continuing reflections on church

As I continue constantly to reflect upon the nature and purpose of the church, upon the need I see (and desire I have) for simpler expressions of church life and the questions I have about the structures we impose upon the movement we have made into an institution, I can't help wondering what questions we should be asking and what questions we ought to avoid. All too often we ask church centred questions rather than gospel centred questions. We ask what the church should be in order to reach our wider community more effectively. But ought we not to be asking what the gospel looks like in our modern cultural setting?

I'm not suggesting changing the core message, but surely we have to agree that only church people think in terms of the role of the church. Most people outside the church see it as little more than an irrelevance. At best it's where you might consider getting married, if the setting will give you nice photographs.

Our structures also bear little relevance to the world beyond the bricks and mortar. I have a Masters degree in theology. If I wanted to teach in a theological college I've been told I would need a doctorate or at the very least a published book! But neither of these qualifies me for anything in the wider world. Outside of the church these degrees and diplomas mean nothing. It means very little to very few people.

What does matter is that I'm there when a member of the family passes away. What might matter is that I'm there to cheer them on when everyone else has given up on them. What could matter is someone being available when they need friendship. And you don't have to be a minister or pastor to do that!

Perhaps the gospel looks like the community we say it is but often fail to live out in any real sense. Like everyone else we've become too busy in our individual world to be connected to anything beyond ourselves.

All this rambling brings us again to the need to live the gospel and not just preach the gospel. For we preach the gospel in isolation to the already converted for the most part. And all. The while, those who desperately need to both hear and experience good news are beyond our reach because we don't have the time in our busy and complicated expressions of church to spend any quality time with them.


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Tennis Break

With a little apprehension on both our parts, Anne and I set off for a few days in the wilds of Norfolk on a tennis break. We've never done this before, so we both wondered what it might be like. Anne, as a beginner, was having some specially arranged private lessons and I was joining the group course that was at the heart of the programme.

As a novice I suppose I was more concerned that everyone else would be so much better than I was and that I'd just end up embarrassing myself. I needn't have worried. Lots of encouragement and fun was the order of the day.

We came home with a few sore muscles and a new group of friends who we hope to meet again if we're ever on another break together.

Many thanks to Nick Ring Leisure who organise these things and who went out of their way to meet our needs by adding the private one-to-one lessons into the schedule for Anne.

Simple Church

I've often looked at the life of the average cutch and wondered to myself how it managed to get this complicated. The church, in its mainline, established form, take a lot of organising. There are meetings to plan, events to arrange, rotas as to fill. Hardly surprising that one well-known church leader once said they resigned because they no longer wanted to "run the church".

I have often commented that the church is more like a garden than a business. It needs nurturing not running. But we so easily fall into maintaining our structures and meeting our internal needs, that in the end it can look more like a maintenance programme or a business plan than a mission.

So it is that I find myself wondering how to simplify church. When I first read Neil Cole's book about Organic Church I was captivated by the idea of simple church structures that allowed a more organic approach to church to flourish. It's not without its challenges for an established church, but that doesn't mean it's not worth the effort of exploration.

Two websites have come my way recently that together explore simple church and tell stories about it. If you are interested in exploring these ideas, then you might like to visit Simple Church and its related site Simple Stories.




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Blasphemy laws

I was interested to hear a bit of a debate on the radio this morning about our need or otherwise of a blasphemy law in the UK. It's been some time since we had one, I think the last one was repealed sometime in the early 70's.

I've often thought that such a law is actually an expression of weakness when it comes to religious faith. I don't think we need this kind of protection from those with whom we disagree. If we, as Christians, want the freedom to express ourselves freely, then we have to live with the freedom of expression of those who don't like what we believe. Whether they do so militantly or thoughtfully doesn't really make a difference.

February walking stats

For the shortest month and one day when I was so ill I didn't leave the hotel room, I didn't do too badly.  Overall I managed 321022 steps which is approximately 160.5 miles. My best day was 24697, equivalent to almost 15 miles of flat walking.

So, after 7 months I've managed 1270 miles and over 2.5 million steps. And I've also discovered a possible simple repair to the worn heel lining of my shoes. After only two and half months I've worn away the lining on the heel of my tennis shoes. Something I also do to my trainers albeit over a slight longer time period. Usually the shoes are still pretty good and I keep wearing them, but every so often the worn lining begins to rub a blister on my heel. The reason for the wear is a small bump on my heel that feels like extra bone.

Anyway, I've tried all sorts of running repairs using tape, but this usually just rolls up and creates more of a problem. What I needed was something soft to put over the worn patch. I found some foam sheet we'd bought in Hobbycraft. It's a bit like felt, but latex. I cut a square out and fixed it in my shoe using double-sided tape.

You need to be careful putting the shoes on, and make sure you don't roll the edge over, but it seems to be working a treat. My tennis shoes no longer rub my heel and their life has been extended. I'll try it in my trainers when they wear out sometime in April.

National Days Of Prayer & Fasting

I came across this too late for the 30th January, but have put the other dates in my diary. You might want to read more here unless you already know about it all!


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Parenting

I had a bit of a grumpy old man moment yesterday. It's an age thing! I'd decided to go for a swim and thought I'd chosen a time when any parents with kids were probably heading to MacDonalds. Sadly I was wrong. Slipping into the swimming lane, it soon became crowded as 2 then 3 more people entered the water.

After a short while I gave up swimming around other bodies and retired to the heat and safety of the sauna. Having inspected my foot that had been clawed by the long-nailed woman who seemed to think swimming diagonally across the lane was the best way to get the water to herself, I settled down to roast and watched through the window as parents stood in the pool encouraging their water-winged future Olympians to jump into the water. And that's when the grumpy old man took over and I found myself moaning about the state of parenting.

What struck me was that here were parents who probably complained when their children failed to do what they asked them to do, actively encouraging them to break the rules printed on the rather large notice as you enter the pool area. It quite clearly says: No diving or jumping into the water. It's a safety thing, not a kill-joy rule. The water simply isn't deep enough.

Maybe I'm just being picky, but if we teach our children that you can pick and choose which rules to obey based upon whether they suit you or not, then we can't really complain when they do that with our rules.

Grumpy rant over.