Other Voices

The Bible, particularly the Gospels, is full of 'other voices.' Voices not of The Father nor the Son, but of ordinary people interacting with the divine story. There is space in the narrative of salvation to hear how other voices interact with His-story. In fact it appears that the story of the unfolding drama of redemption is only complete when it is over laid with our own story. The voice from heaven can be more clearly heard when it is seen involved with and in contrast to, our own voice

Christian faith rooted in the family and home

Some more thoughts from my dissertation entitled 'An investigation into home based mission in South Wales using historic and contemporary examples; could these examples show a way forward for the welsh churches in the twenty-first century?'

Martin Holland

Christian faith rooted in the family and home

‘ How could a small Judean sect… expand its ranks steadily for more than two centuries in the face of often sporadic and local, sometimes consistently legislated, opposition?’¹ There are many possible answers to this question but interestingly, Joseph H. Hellerman in his book, The Ancient Church as Family, gives a number of characteristics of voluntary associations including churches in the ancient Roman world that led to successful growth. These characteristics, including ‘common meals, social inclusiveness, exclusive allegiance and familial emphasis’² are seen as part of the reason for the associations’ success and particularly the churches emphasised them for their own benefit and growth.

A look through the New Testament sees a powerful expression of Christian churches as family. Words such as brother,³ sister, ⁴ family,⁵ home⁶ and brotherhood ⁷ abound in the New Testament. This emphasis can be seen as one that underpins much of the life of the New Testament church and one that can also be seen in periods of Welsh church history. Commenting on Howell Harris, the famous 18 ^th century revivalist, the historian Geraint Tudur says, ‘like many other lay preachers in the Evangelical Revival, he began by conducting meetings in his own home in which he was joined by his mother, his friends and neighbours.’⁸ How mission would be different if the majority of missional activity started this way.

Therefore there is a challenge to be faced as much of current Welsh ecclesiology is focused on religious meetings in religious buildings conducted by religious leaders. This emphasis has led to the Christian message being separated from normal, everyday life and rooted in a meeting dominated church structure. Others believe that this should not be the case. ‘ We believe that church should happen wherever life happens. You shouldn’t have to leave life to go to church.’⁹ The family, in its various forms, is surely an ideal environment as a base for church and missional activity. Seeking to re-route church life back into the home and family would require significant changes in leadership, ministry and training, as well as the need to think through how communion, worship, discipleship, teaching and other aspects of church life would take place.

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¹ Hellerman, Joseph H., The Ancient Church as Family, Fortress Press, Minneapolis, 2001, p.1
² Hellerman, Joseph H., 2001, p.6
³ Acts 9:17, Romans 14:15, 1 Corinthians 16:12
⁴ Romans 16:1, James 2:15, 2 John 13
⁵ Act 7:14, Galatians 6:10, Ephesians 3:15
⁶ Acts 18:26, Philemon 2, 
⁷ 1 Peter 2:17
⁸ Tudur, Geraint, Howell Harris From Conversion to Separation 1735-1750, University of Wales Press, Cardiff, 2000, p.64
⁹ Cole, Neil. Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens. Jossey Bass, San Francisco, 2005, p.24 

Mission restored to the heart of the church

A couple of years ago I completed my MA in missional leadership, the following comes from my dissertation entitled 'An investigation into home based mission in South Wales using historic and contemporary examples; could these examples show a way forward for the welsh churches in the twenty-first century?'

Martin Holland

Mission restored to the heart of the church

David Bosch and others have for some years been emphasising the Missio Dei,¹ the mission of God. This view locates the primary instigator and sustainer of mission in the life and nature of God himself and encourages Christians to participate in the mission in which God is already engaged.

‘Mission is thereby seen as a movement from God to the world; the church is viewed as an instrument for that mission. There is church because there is mission, not vice versa.’²

One of the key lessons to be learned therefore is that mission should become rooted at the heart of all with which Christians are involved. It should not be some adjunct that certain gifted and qualified people pursue, it is the reason that the Christian community exists at all. What is needed is a ‘fresh commitment by many to restore mission to the heart of the church - not simply as an added extra but as an integral part of the church’s ethos.'³

Alan Hirsch goes one step further than Bosch and possibly offers a different emphasis that possibly could help church leaders. Hirsch talks about Missional DNA (mDNA) and argues that in the same way that DNA carries information necessary for healthy plants to reproduce, so mDNA is present to enable God’s people to reproduce the life of God in other individuals.

'Institutional church attempts to organise through external hierarchical forms whereas organic missional movements organise through healthy mDNA coding embedded into each individual cell then released rather than controlled.' ⁴

Alan Roxburgh and Fred Romanuk argue that lasting missional transformation ‘ cannot be done by large-scale plans imposed on people.’⁵ Alan Hirsch agrees when he says that ‘all great missionary movements begin at the fringes of the Church’⁶ Leaders might do well to look at this emphasis and seek to find ways to embed this missional desire in the lives of the congregations rather than seek to simply organise a structure and hope that mission becomes the result.

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¹ González, Justo L., Essential Theological Terms, Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, 2005, p.111
² Bosch, D.J. Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission, Orbis, Maryknoll NY, 1991, p.390

³ Campbell, Alexander, Mission 21 - A Report on Church Planting in the UK since 2000, Mission 21, 2006, p. 4

⁴ Hirsch, Alan, The Forgotten Ways, Brazos Press, Grand Rapids, 2006, p.77
⁵ Roxburgh, Alan & Romanuk, The Missional Leader, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 2006, p.101
⁶ Hirsch, Alan, The Forgotten Ways, Brazos Press, Grand Rapids, 2006, p.30 

If You Always Do...

Henry Ford didn't invent the car, neither did he invest mass production. 'All' he did was to produce a car cheaply enough that middle class Americans could afford to buy, the Model T.  He is reported to have said, 'if you always do what you've always done you will always get what you've always got"

To be blunt about it, Henry Ford not only was wrong, he was catastrophically wrong. Although we should not be too hard on him because we perhaps do not understand the context in which he spoke or what he was trying to say through the comment. Ford, like all great industrialists knew that to maintain and grow their market share, they had to constantly develop a better understanding of their consumer and also improve the manufacturing process to better meet the consumers' needs. 

Perhaps the motivation behind Ford's famous quote was to make it clear that to have a different output there must be a different input. Continuing to do the same thing will not result in better outcomes. Henry Ford's comments were perhaps a rallying call to continually seek to make changes to improve performance

How is all this relevant for Christians in a rural Welsh, twenty-first century context? There seems to be evidence that many Christians here are committed to continuing with their current practise of church life and expecting the results to somehow significantly improve. It is as if we are saying, 'One hundred years ago we set a meeting time, choose some hymns, organised a preacher and half the village would attend. Now we do exactly the same and hardly anybody turns up!' Perhaps we think, like Henry Ford's words imply, that if we carry on doing what we've done in the past, eventually we will get the same results - people will start to come again. 

However the reality is that this has not been the case for many years and probably never will be again. 

The gospel is still 'the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes (Romans 1:16) but our methods are not working and perhaps we must at last face the reality that they never will. There is an important truth to face; we are to seek God not just for the message but also the method, not just what to say, but how to say it. 

For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it (John 12:49)

But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. (Matthew 10:19)

In his book, The Medium is the Massage, Jerome Agel argues that how a message is presented significantly influences, not only how the message is received, but the very nature of the message itself.  Could it be that by continuing with methods that are not working, we are inadvertently changing the actual message itself? Could we be changing the gospel from a powerful, relevant, life giving reality to an out of date, irrelevant, un-connected message that interests very few?

To return to Henry Ford, he was obviously not talking about the impact of a post-modern and post-Christendom culture. However in our current context, perhaps we should change his saying to this: 'if you always do what you've always done, you will never again get what you've always got.'

There surely must be a better way!

Martin Holland 

Incarnation

According to Wikipedia, which surely is the font of almost all knowledge, incarnation literally means 'embodied in flesh or taking on flesh.' This sounds a bit boring and does not carry the weight of the incredible truth that is revealed in the Bible

When The Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John1:14) it meant that:

The God who created the universe became a person

He was squeezed through the birth canal of a teenage virgin

He suckled on the breasts of the Virgin Mary, his mum

God not only took on flesh and became flesh but 'felt' flesh for the first time

God tasted and drank and chewed and swallowed and defecated and urinated

He had an internal heart beat that he could feel when he touched his own wrist or neck 

God could look up at the sky through lens fixed in his eyeballs

God could sence hot and cold and needed to change his environment to deal with both situations, for example put on extra clothes when he was cold

He existed, for the first time, in one place at one time

God could have felt his own feet kicking stones on a dusty road whilst the sun beat down on his head making him thirsty

God became a bloke; a living, breathing, sweating, talking, thinking, laughing, crying, labouring, walking, sleeping, average looking bloke. 

Jesus was and is utterly, totally and completely human, he knows what it is to deal with real issues, with real people, in a real world as a real man because he is one!

This and far more is what the incarnation is all about. Oh, and by the way, he is also the eternal, omnipotent, perfect, glorious, creator, God and Lord of all things. One worthy of my worship

Pastor Pete and the Un-Named Sheep

It may be me, it normally is, but have you noticed how often ministers are referred to as Pastor this, that or the other? I've seen it increasingly on Facebook, in articles in magazines, on various websites and elsewhere, church leaders referring to themselves or by others as Pastor. Why do they want to be called Pastor Pete? (just using this name for ease, not referring to anyone specifically!) Is it not enough to be called simply 'Pete' or is it important to use a title?

Now you could argue that it doesn't really matter what you call the pastor, calling him (or her) Pastor Pete is just a polite, respectful and friendly way of referring to them. It could be seen as a way of honouring the church leader and demonstrating your commitment to them. Unfortunately I have to disagree, it seems to me that there are a number of reasons why saying 'Pastor Pete' is a bad idea

1. Pastor is a gift given to the church and not a position, see Ephesians chapter four. The various ministries in the New Testament are always seen as a function not as a title. 

2. No one in the New Testament is called Pastor so and so. Paul referred to himself as either an apostle or servant of Christ Jesus, he is never given a title or takes one for himself

[Ro 1:1] Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God

[1Co 1:1] Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes

[2Co 1:1] Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother

[Ga 1:1] Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ

[Ep 1:1] Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God

[Phl 1:1] Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus

3. There seems to be specific warnings by Jesus against calling leaders by their titles. Matthew 23 says [8] “But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,' for you have only one Master and you are all brothers. [9] And do not call anyone on earth ‘Father,' for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. [10] Nor are you to be called ‘teacher,' for you have one Teacher, the Christ. Whilst 'pastor' is not mentioned, is it not reasonably to apply this instruction to pastor as well as teacher or rabbi? The NIV Study Bible says these verses are a warning 'against seeking titles of honor to foster pride.' The implication being that it is not the seeking of titles per se that is wrong but seeking titles to foster pride. I just wonder whether it would be better to stay far away from titles in the church family altogether!

4. Other sheep in God's flock are not normally named, we never call anyone Organist Oliver, Coffee Maker Colin or Sunday School Teacher Sue. Evangelist Edith or Teacher Ted makes as much sence as Pastor Pete but know one does that, I wonder why?

The title of this blog is 'Pastor Pete and the un-named sheep.'I am not seeking to be critical of those who do use titles, I suppose I am simply seeking to understand why people do this and put forward a different view. 

May your kingdom come, may your will be done

May your kingdom come

May your glory be seen

May your heart be felt

May you power be evident

May your name be known

May your desires be shared

May your passion be consuming 

May your word be obeyed

May your feet be kissed

May your family be one

May your life be lived

May your righteousness be imputed

May your presence be incarnated

May your holiness be all consuming 

May your truth be understood

May your love be transforming

May your beauty be overwhelming

May your actions be pleasing

May your justice be compelling

May your kindness be demonstrated

May your goodness be proclaimed

May your peace be all pervading 

May your song be heard

May your will be done

I Want to be Part of a Church....

I want to be part of a church....

That is alive with the heart of God beating for the saint and the sinner
That is willing to take risks without condemning those who need to be safe
That is more concerned with the presence of God than what is normally done
Where people are willing to love others and willing to be loved
That takes the words of Jesus seriously and is unwilling to simply ignore them
That has corporate times of worship that makes us feel alive and also leads us to brokenness
That is as welcoming to teenagers and single parents as it is to the retired
That loves to sing songs by Charles Wesley as much as ones by Matt Redmond 
That is dangerous and challenging as well as a place of rest and peace
That expects me to pursue Christ for myself but also helps me to link with others doing the same
That supports people in their place of work as much as in their place of worship
That will make any changes necessary to unsure that the timeless gospel is not changed
Where Jesus is honoured in both word and obedience
Where the greatest sinners are treated as if they were the greatest saints
That believes that having fun should be a serious pursuit
That discards nothing that continues to have value and keeps nothing that no longer has value 
Where Biblical orthodoxy and radical orthopraxy exist side by side
Where the most mature preacher and the newest believer both find their place to minister
Where remarkable miracles and holy ordinariness are both seen
Where excellence is valued as well as space given for the novice to experiment 
Where we have the desire to honour our past as well as a willingness to leave it behind
Where holy communion is truly a communion with the holy
Where Jesus is the destination, the vehicle and the journey 

The Kingdom of God

We have looked recently at the Lord's Prayer from the Gospels. We know it so well but there is at least one part of it that can be confusing and unclear. 'Your kingdom come' is one of those phrases which is so well known but what does it mean? It must be important or Jesus would not have told us to pray it, however that doesn't mean that the meaning doesn't need a bit of a dig to discover.

In Matthew chapter 3 verse 1, we read the following:
In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near."

Sometimes to understand a verse it is good to dissect it, look at the Greek or Hebrew, investigate where else in the Bible it is used. Other times it is good to step back and try to paint a picture; this is what has been attempted below, to try to explain what the coming of the Kingdom would mean.

Kingdom
Change your way of life, for there is something about to arrive that will make your current lifestyle unsustainable, invalid & irrelevant. An invasion from another world is about to change this planet for ever. Most things will still look the same but very soon everything will be utterly different.

Principals, ways of life, customs, religions, governments that have allowed a semblance of normality to prevail; will be demolished in a glance from a thirty year old Jew.Human history will be split by His birth, people would be either for Him or against Him, His kingdom would flatten all powers and principalities like a giant tsunami hitting a coastal community - nothing left would be recognisable, nothing else would stand

That which has been in God's heart for all eternity has just been thrown into the ring of human existance. The angelic audience take their seats, the great reversal is about to take centre stage

The seismic shift in the history of the world that the coming kingdom would bring, would spell the end for the Roman Empire, all the isms that mankind has manufactured, the Catholic Church, in fact all denominations, poverty, the European Union, AIDS, Microsoft, the USA, - only one kingdom would grow and fill the whole earth

This distruction of the ab-normal to be replaced by the normal, actually this will look to us as completely the opposite. Mankind has only seen a glimps of this coming kingdom, a shadow in the early morning midst

It would be in Christ himself that we would see the perfect example of the kingdom personified, lived out under the pressure of breathing, perspiring and moving. He would not be an individal who would work hard at perfecting the nuances of the kingdom, rather His life would be the result of His spirit, cells and emotions living in complete harmony with His Father. He would live the kingdom and still the world would not receive it.

The early church would became dynamite as the kingdom careered into first century Israel and the surrounding nations, and yet the kingdom would only be welcomed by the few

We have had glimpses over the next twenty centuries of the impact of the kingdom; limited and in the main, localised revivals have opened a door showing, in part, a demonstration of the new kingdom at work. However short lived, they have allowed men and women to see acted out on a world stage, the wonders of the great reversal.

The kingdom will only culminate when its king returns to earth as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. All knees will bow, rulers will abdicate, every ethnic group in every one of the planets languages will confess that there is only one rightful ruler for the only kingdom left standing.

What will the lamb do now? His reward is waiting. He will hand over the Kingdom to His Father and take the hand of His bride and they will both live happily ever after.

Deep-Spirited Friends?

In chapel on Sunday, Alison read Philippians 2:1-11 from The Message translation of the Bible. Hearing these well known verses in a new way was a real challenge to what we think about being in the body of Christ together. Do we just turn up at the same time, in the same place, to sing the same songs and hear the same preacher, or are we 'deep-spirited friends' sharing our lives together for the sake of Christ and his Kingdom?

Makes you think!


If you've gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care — then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don't push your way to the front; don't sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don't be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.

Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human ! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that: a crucifixion.

Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth—even those long ago dead and buried—will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father.

Welcome to Trinity Cheriton Blog

Welcome to Trinity Cheriton's new Blog

 

We hope to add interesting information about the life of the congregation that meets in Trinity Chapel as well as thoughts about the wider Christian community. We will also add random bits that you may find interesting and who knows, you may want to comment!