Spoilt for Choice by Warren Nelson

Choice and variety are strong selling points - ask any shopper. The attraction of the bigger shop, and the colourful catalogue, is in the amount of choice they offer us. We walk past the shop that only carries one type or brand of item.

Yet in the area of our faith and beliefs we quickly settle for one way of expressing what it is to be a believer. Maybe we feel safe with descriptions like ‘saved’ or ‘born again’ or even the more neutral ‘being a follower’ ‘a believer’ or ‘having a fulfilling relationship’. No wonder people soon walk past us; no wonder they soon stop listening to what we want to say.

This should not be because we have in the Bible a wealth of ways to express the privilege and blessings of being a Christian. The authors of Scripture used an abundance of rich and varied ideas to convey the greatness and wonder of their new life.

They spoke of being: In Christ; raised with Christ, citizens of heaven, or God’s own. They knew they had passed from death to life; they had been washed and renewed. They described themselves as living stones, heirs and children of God and a new creation. They had realized that God had said “Yes” to them in Christ. And so on...

There are dozens of pictures describing our new standing. You could do worse that note them down for yourself as you read the Scriptures, perhaps starting with all the descriptions given in Ephesians chapter 1.

“Misunderstandings often occur merely because two believers are using different… biblical pictures to describe the same reality”

If we make an effort to discover what we have, and are, more fully, then it will enrich our own faith as we explore our privileges and responsibilities. It will also help cooperation with other believers, because avoidable misunderstandings often occur merely because two believers are using different, and equally valid, biblical pictures to describe the same reality and experience.

Also, getting back to the shopping analogy, our witness will be more attractive. We will be using all the rich and varied resources given to us share our message with others. We should realise that people, being diverse in temperament and interests, will respond differently to ideas or explanations. If one way of telling our story doesn’t work, try another. We are provided with plenty to use. Like Paul we should be all things to people in order to win some.

A carpenter watched as his apprentice, making short shaky erratic strokes, tried to saw a piece of wood. Taking the saw the carpenter soon cut through the wood with long smooth confident strokes.

Turning to the apprentice he said “You bought all of the saw, so use all of it”. We have a storehouse, laden with truth in all its shapes, sizes and colours. We should use all of them in the task before us.

Warren Nelson, originally from Drogheda Co Louth, worked in the linen industry until he took up the challenge to communicate the good news, this lead to teaching at Irish Bible School in Co Tipperary. He now enjoys active retirement and DIY near Tullamore.

Join the Conversation: Do you think Christians have become limited or lazy in the way they describe and express their faith? How does Christian jargon hinder our message? Do you believe that the words and images we use can cause misunderstandings between believers? How do we deal with this challenge? Share your views, comments and questions below.

"Suffer the children to come unto me" by John McKeever

In the light of the Ryan Report John McKeever examines the concept of structural sin.

These words of Jesus have forever gained an additional, bitter poignancy in the Irish psyche. The children who did ‘come unto’ some of Christ’s earthly representatives for care and protection did suffer, and appallingly. While the country reels in shock, and grieves over the horrific detail of our hidden history, a critical analysis of the whole concept of structural sin may help us come to terms with the past and prevent further abuses.

It is difficult to imagine a more flagrant and systematic contravention of the central tenets of the Christian value system than the revelations of the Ryan Report. Both Old and New Testaments emphatically command us to protect the powerless – the raggy boys, the maggies, the migrants, the addicts, the prisoners and those people excluded by virtue of a physical or mental disability. This litany of some of the categories of exclusion may be collapsed into one meaningful term – the other. How are we collectively faring in regards to our treatment of these other others?

The theological study of sin is called hamartiology. This word derives from Greek and denotes missing the mark, as in archery. It is personal, individual and subjective.

Structural sin by contrast is corporate, communal and diffuse. It may be characterised more as a sin of omission than as a sin of commission. Our collective actions – through the proxy of our elected or appointed representatives – may be in the realm of commission; but our collective failure to monitor and challenge these representatives is often a sin of omission.

When our failure comes to light we experience a sudden collective guilt which painfully interrogates our individual and communal conscience. It is natural to seek someone else to blame. While the primary culprits are a relatively small and identifiable group of ‘serial abusers’, who may or may not face criminal justice, there remains the sweeping societal culpability for privileging the powerful and silencing the powerless.

The scriptures have much to say about structural/ corporate sin. God addresses and reproves the corporate nation of Israel again and again through the prophets. Injustices and abuse of priestly privilege are common themes. Jesus lambastes the Pharisees collectively with a blistering critique. He weeps over Jerusalem.

What would Jesus say to us as a nation in the light of the Ryan Report?

When the painful machinery of justice has ground to an eventual halt, this rhetorical question will still require a long and searching engagement. This is a ‘Damascus moment’ for the Irish people and like Saint Paul we would do well to not hasten to interpret what has just happened.

My 87 year old mother, a devout Catholic and daily communicant all her life, shocked me with her own considered response to the uncovering of this structural sin. “There is only one solution to this awful situation. That’s a new reformation. I am sorry to say it has come to that.”

Those unselfconscious words are for me a telling measure of the depth of the shock and disbelief we are all going through. I agree with her, but I think reform of the church alone stops short of what is needed.

John McKeever is 49 and from Belfast but living in Dublin. He overcame chronic alcoholism and has developed an award-winning personal devlopment programme, Staying Real, based on his own experiences and his reading in theology and philosophy.

Join The Conversation:
What do you think Jesus would say to the nation in the light of the Ryan Report? If reform of the church stops short of what is needed, what other changes must happen? Are we in danger of pointing the finger and blaming others rather than facing our corporate responsibility in preventing abuse? Post your comments and questions below.

Creating an attractive community of faith by Daniel Caldwell and Paul Cawley

There has been much talk about how church should look in the 21st Century. This has prompted a debate about how the emerging church should be shaped and what values should underlay that process.

Much has been written that polarises these two positions as “attractional” versus “missional/incarnational”.

“Attractional” church at its core is concerned primarily with changing the internal perspectives to “make church attractive” so that others will join. This is best demonstrated by the move within churches to create a comfortable environment which provides the invitation “come and see” and has driven the need for professionalism in all that we do.

“Missional” communities of faith are based around a ‘go live’ mentality, with people engaging in ‘mission’ where life is lived.

An “attractional” concept of church bases the interactions of corporate faith around events in church, while “missional” thinking emphasises the relationship between people. It’s not so much about putting on a good show to attract people, as being a caring community of people living out a relevant humanity-focused lifestyle.

I believe people coming to church should have a great experience. They should meet people, diverse in age, backgrounds, race and beliefs. They should encounter a community of faith that is more interested in the process and journey of relationship than the concept of hosting an event.

I can see why people like events based models. Some individuals love events and conferences, believing they offer an opportunity to engage with God instantaneously.

This can under value the process of faith. Process is about the long haul. We need a greater understanding that faith may be produced in a moment but is worked out in the daily engagement of life.

“Attractional” church ultimately boils down to providing people with a quality event with the view to attracting and keeping them. I believe this model has failed and will fail the church in the future because it reduces our ability to be relevant and ultimately to be human.

People crave authenticity. This current generation craves reality. They want a community of faith that doesn’t put on a show but is real.

When we strip away our lights, our stages and even our sermons, after the event only relationship will engage people in the things of faith. Humanity is drawn to humanity; to each other’s successes, struggles, doubts and fears.

We no longer want church that sticks to the script. We want it to be real; to show the good and the bad. Not so much to put on a show as to create an environment and community that welcomes questions, encourages doubters and ultimately reflects Jesus. The church is us. We’re not perfect, yet we’re all the world has.

The church is full of broken, flawed humanity strewn together by the bonds of faith, hope and love, all on a journey towards Christ and to reveal God to the world. To paraphrase Ed Stetzer and David Putman in ‘Breaking the Missional Code’ (2006):

Instead of creating services, may the church serve; instead of programmes may we start processes. May we move from “attractional” to incarnational. May we move from professionals to passionate participants; from formula to freedom and from ordered to organic.

Bishop Graham Cray said: "The church must always be willing to die to its own cultural comfort in order to live where God intends it to be." If we’re honest, we like our structure, our services and how we do church. However, for some of us it’s not working. We need to realise, that the church is not here for us.

Erwin McManus explains: “We are the church. The church is not here for us. We are the church and we are here for the world.”

We have the exciting mission of living the incarnation. Being the hands, feet and mouthpiece of Jesus; bringing the kingdom to earth, to humanity, to our school, colleges and workplaces. Ending the performance. Praying. Listening. Starting a conversation with our community, engaging them with destiny, justice, faith, hope and love. Living missionally. Living attractive lives of faith. Bringing the Kingdom on earth.

A collaboration between Daniel Caldwell, Principal of Carraig Eden Theological College and Paul Cawley, a member of the Leadership team at Greystones Community Church.

Join The Conversation:
What do you think church should look like in the 21st Century? Has the ‘attractional’ model failed? What will authentic faith communities look like? Post your comments and questions below.

Are we illiterate? by Trevor Morrow

Archbishop Dairmuid Martin, speaking to Bishops in Rome, described the scriptures in Ireland as “unexplored, almost alien territory”. 62% of Irish young people do not know how many gospels there are, 52% do not know the first book of the Bible and 95% don’t know the first of the 10 commandments. These were some of the findings of the Lansdowne Market Research survey conducted for the Iona Institute and the Evangelical Alliance Ireland in 2007.

In America 10% of adults polled in a similar survey believed that Joan of Arc was Noah’s wife and a staggering 82% thought “God helps those who help themselves” was a text from the Bible.

These statistics underline what most of us know intuitively, that Biblical illiteracy is at crisis level. The consequences for our culture are serious. In literature, Milton’s “Paradise Lost” or Dickens’ “A tale of two cities” cannot be understood without an appreciation of the Bible. In the Arts, Michelangelo’s “David” and Handel’s “Messiah” become meaningless.

However it is within the church that Biblical ignorance is frightening. At public worship, we give the page number before mentioning the book or the chapter and verses. Sadly this is necessary for members as well as new believers and seekers.

If the purpose of the scriptures is to bear witness to Jesus Christ, then the moral and spiritual implications of such illiteracy are dire.

Don Carson, the Canadian New Testament scholar notes that ‘earlier generations met the needs of illiterate believers with liturgy steeped in scripture, lectionary cycles, festivals designed to repeat the great narratives that stand at the turning points in redemptive history… Today even our few remaining festivals, our church-sponsored Christmas and Easter pageants, often have more to do with space raiders or being nice at school that they do with Biblical history.”

There is no quick fix solution.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION…
What is the consequence for Ireland if people inside the church do not know the Bible? How does a lack of biblical understanding affect society? Why are people not reading the Bible? What would be contemporary equivalents of traditional liturgy and festivals that were designed to help illiterate members of the congregation?

Add your comments below.

Decentralisation by Glenda Chop

Work the day, a long commute
Take-away instead of fruit
Tesco rush, put on the pot
Lidl needs a drive-through slot.
Visit Auntie, cat to vet
Dentist calling, baby’s wet
Pay the lecky, homework due
Neighbour lonely, tea to do
Mammy needs the garden done
Saturday a wedding’s on
Why I am a rotten Christian,
Never time for Jesus’ mission?

This poem describes life for just about everyone I know. We go through life at a blistering pace between work, home and family responsibilities. We collapse exhausted at the end of a day or week and take solace from our Christian guilt in whatever little pleasures our consciences allow. All the while, we wonder if we’ll ever have the time or motivation to do real ministry.

So here’s some good news…..God has made our lives to revolve around work, home and family! It is more important and is potentially more fruitful than anything else we do.

Our faith is meant to be real in the context of normal life. That is where it comes alive - in serving and loving those God has placed around us.

Instead, the church tends to create an alternative to reality disconnected from normal life. Sincere believers suffer from the angst of trying to live between two worlds: the world of church ministry and the world of living life.

Of course, we are ‘not of this world’. But that simply means that our centre, our focus and hope is on Jesus (not man) and that our values are His.

The real ministry of the church must be DECENTRALISED otherwise it marginalizes and devalues the importance of the majority of the hours and days of our lives. (Centralised ministry activities actually seem to take people away from the places and people God has put in our lives).

If you believe that your ordinary life is the most important place of ministry, you will be able to hear Father tell you how to do it with great effect. Think about this: the early church thrived and grew as they connected with people over meals and in homes and over back fences. At the end of a day of cooking and working and fetching and living they were tired too. But here’s the difference-there was no other plan.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION…
How can our faith be real in the context of normal life? Do you believe the ministry of the church needs to be ‘decentralised’? Do ‘centralised’ church events take people away from those they should be reaching out to?

Add your comments below...