This week we are thinking about "The Church Building", and the suggested Bible Readings are:
Luke 4: 16
“When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom”
Luke 9: 57 – 58
As they were going along the road, someone said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." 58 And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head."
All readings are from the NRSV and copyright © 1989 National Council of Churches, USA
At Foxton Methodist Church, when I arrived as the minister, we had a church building that was cold, damp, and which needed a great deal doing to it - it was also not very flexible. We also had 12 tired members, for whom this building had become a major drain on their energy and time.
In the centre of the village was a new, modern, village hall. After much heartache, prayer and meetings, we made the decision to let go of our building, and to move the church, from our building to the village hall, where we began worshipping in the bar. For the joint acts of worship with our Anglican friends we used one of the bigger rooms, in which case there were two available to us, one holding about 80, the other well over 120.
Our last service in the old building was Palm Sunday 2007, meaning that our first act of worship in the new place was Easter Sunday morning. On the morning of Easter Sunday 2007, we all stood at the end of the worship in a circle. One of the members stated what we were all so aware of, “God was with us”. Rarely have I felt the presence of God in such a real way as with those dear friends on that morning, as we stood together having just shared the Lord’s Supper together. Where was the church? The church was gathered in the bar at the village hall! From here on, they were a people set free to explore new ways of worship and to express their faith. In the next year, they leafleted the whole village twice; once to tell them what we were doing in our “Month of Evangelism” and once to ask the people what they wanted from their Methodist Church so that we could serve the community better. At the harvest festival, which began on the allotment by the way, they had approaching 100 people attending the worship. They had been set free from their building, and this allowed them to be the church. What we saw was growth in the members, growth in attendance, and growth in the membership. Not everyone can do this, but I believe that this shows how much our buildings can hold us back, and what having the right building can do to set the people of God free.
The discussion material for this week, starts by highlighting that we use the same word for the community of the faithful, the building that they meet in. I feel that in fact you have to add to the list the fact that actually we use this word for Universal gathering of the saints, the collection of all the Christians, the local gathering of a denomination, the gathering of denominations in a place, and so on – it's confusing isn’t it?
The word “Church” is simply our derivation of the German word Kirche, which you can trace back to the Greek word kuriakon – meaning a thing that belongs to the Lord. What is interesting is that we then use this word to translate a different Greek word, the word ekklasia, which was the word that the early church used of themselves. It was a word that the church knew from everyday usage, but not as a religious word, but instead it related to an assembly of people from self governing city - a council if you like.
Now depending upon your point of view, this is either fascinating or boring – you decide, BUT. . . the reason that they used it, was because in the Greek version of the Old Testament this was the word that was used to describe an assembly or congregation of Israelites, especially those who were “within the covenant”. Suddenly we are back on Methodist home ground – Covenants are things that we understand, for we are people who re-enter into the eternal covenant that God offers his people every January. Likewise, we understand, that Jesus' blood was shed to bring in the New Covenant, hence why this forms part of our understanding of what happens at the communion rail.
So, we are a group of people who are within the covenant – I like that, I like that a lot. It means that we remove barriers of denomination, geography, and churchmanship. It takes me back to my belief in the One Holy Catholic Church, and my Methodist Catholic Spirituality. It means that I understand that we are a group of people who have entered into a covenant relationship with God and who are simply asking what our role is – no caveats, no limitations. It means that in terms of what we are called to do, we are ruling nothing in, and in terms of who we need to be in partnership with we are ruling no Christian partner out. It also means that it is ONLY when we have done this, that we can then ask the simply question, “now what buildings do we need?”, recognising that some of those building may already exist, and that some of them may not be owned by us, but only rented.
In our groups on Tuesday and Wednesday there were five questions to stimulate the discussion, based on the bible readings quoted at the start – these have been re-produced by permission of the publisher:
1. Is the common use of the same word to describe both the community of faith and the building it meets in helpful or confusing? If confusing, which description should we change, and to what?
2. Is the building the physical structure that gives identity to the community of faith, or merely the frame around the picture? Do we serve the building or does the building serve us?
3. Is our building in the right place? Is it the right building? Or is it the right building in the right place but unsuitable for present day needs?
4. Where does the shoe pinch? In what ways does our building need overhauling and re-equipping if we are to be liberated in our worship and effective in our work together for God?
5. What should we do about it? Let the ideas flow!
Taken from “Re-pitching the tent – Third Edition, by Richard Giles ©2004 Canterbury Press, an imprint of Hymns Ancient & Modern Ltd. Used by permission.
Thursday 28 January 2010
Wednesday 20 January 2010
The Environment of Change
In the second part of our “Crash Course on the Design of Liturgical Space”, we start to think about the environment of change, and the session begins by inviting those attending to read two Bible readings. These are:
James 4: 13 – 14
James 4: 13 – 14
Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money." 14 Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
Hebrews 13:12 – 14
12 Therefore Jesus also suffered outside the city gate in order to sanctify the people by his own blood. 13 Let us then go to him outside the camp and bear the abuse he endured. 14 For here we have no lasting city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.
All readings are from the NRSV and copyright © 1989 National Council of Churches, USA
One of the saddest things that you may ever observe, is to get a bunch of old, frazzled, computer scientists together in a room, and just to let them talk. Speaking as one of this breed, it will not be long before we start to reminisce about “the good old days”. “Do you remember paper tape?”, someone will ask, and following the slow nods from the bearded heads around the room (yes, we all have beards) this will lead into a discussion about punched cards, paging operating systems, front panels, and so much more that is lost in the myst of history. The discussion will end in a similar manner to Monty Python’s Four Yorkshiremen sketch, where they say “and you tell that to the kids of today, and they won’t believe you”. Yes, we truly are a sad and dieing breed.
And rightly so, the world has moved on, technology is now in a very different place from when I started working with computers all those years ago. In 1979 a computer with a screen was considered the very latest thing, and we had one for the whole computer science A level class; today Powerpoint is an accepted way of life, and last night, at 11:06pm, I still had 16 friends who were online and available for a chat in Facebook, or videoconference if I so choose. The world has changed.
We can no more stop this constant motion of change, than we can stop the world from spinning, but then again, why should we? Arn’t we are the ones who follow in the footsteps of the creator, The book of Genesis says;
“1:26 Then God said, "Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth."
1:27 So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”
and since science tells us that God created all things through an evolving revelation (as does the book of Genesis come to that), shouldn't we understand that part of the role that God has entrusted to us is to continue his work of creating. This is not to say that everything that we create will be good, clearly this is not the case, but we contain within us the image of the creator, and therefore creating is part of what we are capable of. This means that being agents of change is part of what makes us human; we are capable of changing the world in which we live rather than be entirely subject to it, like the rest of the animal kingdom. Likewise, as Christians we should be the ones who seek to cause change to happen in accordance to the will of the creator.
At the risk of repeating myself, isn’t this what “Which Way?” is all about? Us, being the agents of change, but making sure that what we are doing is in accordance with the will of the creator?
Let me end this session with another scenario, one that would be even sadder if you like. To have a group of Christians sat around, talking about “the good old days”, but where they then point to how nothing has changed from that day to this – how sad that would that be. Especially because I suspect that the conversation would end with the same punchline as my story at the start “and you tell that to the kids of today, and they won’t believe you”.
In our groups on Wednesday and Thursday there were five questions to stimulate the discussion, based on the bible readings quoted at the start – these have been re-produced by permission of the publisher:
1. What are the main technological developments that have transformed our way of life since childhood?
2. To what extenet has social change affectedthe concept of our nation as a Christian country? To what extent is the average person aware of the Christian Church in every day life?
3. In what ways is the Church today a different sort of organisation from when we were baptised?
4. In what ways has the experience of worship and church membership changed over our lifetime?
5. In our society should the Church be primarily a bastion of stability or an agent of change?
Taken from “Re-pitching the tent – Third Edition, by Richard Giles ©2004 Canterbury Press, an imprint of Hymns Ancient & Modern Ltd. Used by permission.
Hebrews 13:12 – 14
12 Therefore Jesus also suffered outside the city gate in order to sanctify the people by his own blood. 13 Let us then go to him outside the camp and bear the abuse he endured. 14 For here we have no lasting city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.
All readings are from the NRSV and copyright © 1989 National Council of Churches, USA
One of the saddest things that you may ever observe, is to get a bunch of old, frazzled, computer scientists together in a room, and just to let them talk. Speaking as one of this breed, it will not be long before we start to reminisce about “the good old days”. “Do you remember paper tape?”, someone will ask, and following the slow nods from the bearded heads around the room (yes, we all have beards) this will lead into a discussion about punched cards, paging operating systems, front panels, and so much more that is lost in the myst of history. The discussion will end in a similar manner to Monty Python’s Four Yorkshiremen sketch, where they say “and you tell that to the kids of today, and they won’t believe you”. Yes, we truly are a sad and dieing breed.
And rightly so, the world has moved on, technology is now in a very different place from when I started working with computers all those years ago. In 1979 a computer with a screen was considered the very latest thing, and we had one for the whole computer science A level class; today Powerpoint is an accepted way of life, and last night, at 11:06pm, I still had 16 friends who were online and available for a chat in Facebook, or videoconference if I so choose. The world has changed.
We can no more stop this constant motion of change, than we can stop the world from spinning, but then again, why should we? Arn’t we are the ones who follow in the footsteps of the creator, The book of Genesis says;
“1:26 Then God said, "Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth."
1:27 So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”
and since science tells us that God created all things through an evolving revelation (as does the book of Genesis come to that), shouldn't we understand that part of the role that God has entrusted to us is to continue his work of creating. This is not to say that everything that we create will be good, clearly this is not the case, but we contain within us the image of the creator, and therefore creating is part of what we are capable of. This means that being agents of change is part of what makes us human; we are capable of changing the world in which we live rather than be entirely subject to it, like the rest of the animal kingdom. Likewise, as Christians we should be the ones who seek to cause change to happen in accordance to the will of the creator.
At the risk of repeating myself, isn’t this what “Which Way?” is all about? Us, being the agents of change, but making sure that what we are doing is in accordance with the will of the creator?
Let me end this session with another scenario, one that would be even sadder if you like. To have a group of Christians sat around, talking about “the good old days”, but where they then point to how nothing has changed from that day to this – how sad that would that be. Especially because I suspect that the conversation would end with the same punchline as my story at the start “and you tell that to the kids of today, and they won’t believe you”.
In our groups on Wednesday and Thursday there were five questions to stimulate the discussion, based on the bible readings quoted at the start – these have been re-produced by permission of the publisher:
1. What are the main technological developments that have transformed our way of life since childhood?
2. To what extenet has social change affectedthe concept of our nation as a Christian country? To what extent is the average person aware of the Christian Church in every day life?
3. In what ways is the Church today a different sort of organisation from when we were baptised?
4. In what ways has the experience of worship and church membership changed over our lifetime?
5. In our society should the Church be primarily a bastion of stability or an agent of change?
Taken from “Re-pitching the tent – Third Edition, by Richard Giles ©2004 Canterbury Press, an imprint of Hymns Ancient & Modern Ltd. Used by permission.
Wednesday 13 January 2010
Tent or Temple
In our groups, and on this blog, we are setting out on what Richard Giles calls “A Six Week Crash Course on the Design of Liturgical Space”. As we begin this journey, he challenges us to ask the question “Tent or Temple”.
The session begins by inviting those attending to read three Bible readings. These are:
Numbers 9 : 15 – end
15On the day the tabernacle was set up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, the tent of the covenant; and from evening until morning it was over the tabernacle, having the appearance of fire. 16It was always so: the cloud covered it by day and the appearance of fire by night. 17Whenever the cloud lifted from over the tent, then the Israelites would set out; and in the place where the cloud settled down, there the Israelites would camp. 18At the command of the LORD the Israelites would set out, and at the command of the LORD they would camp. As long as the cloud rested over the tabernacle, they would remain in camp. 19Even when the cloud continued over the tabernacle for many days, the Israelites would keep the charge of the LORD, and would not set out. 20Sometimes the cloud would remain for a few days over the tabernacle, and according to the command of the LORD they would remain in camp; then according to the command of the LORD they would set out. 21Sometimes the cloud would remain from evening until morning; and when the cloud lifted in the morning, they would set out, or if it continued for a day and a night, when the cloud lifted they would set out. 22Whether it was two days, or a month, or a longer time, that the cloud continued over the tabernacle, resting upon it, the Israelites would remain in camp and would not set out; but when it lifted they would set out. 23At the command of the LORD they would camp, and at the command of the LORD they would set out. They kept the charge of the LORD, at the command of the LORD by Moses.
1 Samuel 7 :1 – 13
1 When David was settled in his house,
and the LORD had given him rest from all his enemies around him,
2 the king said to the prophet Nathan,
'See now, I am living in a house of cedar,
but the ark of God stays in a tent.'
3 Nathan said to the king,
'Go, do all that you have in mind;
for the LORD is with you.'
4 But that same night the word of the LORD came to Nathan:
5 Go and tell my servant David:
Thus says the LORD:
Are you the one to build me a house to live in?
6 I have not lived in a house
since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day,
but I have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle.
7 Wherever I have moved about among all the people of Israel,
did I ever speak a word with any of the tribal leaders of Israel,
whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying,
'Why have you not built me a house of cedar?'
8 Now therefore thus you shall say to my servant David:
Thus says the LORD of hosts:
I took you from the pasture,
from following the sheep
to be prince over my people Israel;
9 and I have been with you wherever you went,
and have cut off all your enemies from before you;
and I will make for you a great name,
like the name of the great ones of the earth.
10 And I will appoint a place for my people Israel
and will plant them,
so that they may live in their own place,
and be disturbed no more;
and evildoers shall afflict them no more, as formerly,
11 from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel;
and I will give you rest from all your enemies.
Moreover the LORD declares to you, David,
that the LORD will make you a house.
12 When your days are fulfilled
and you lie down with your ancestors,
I will raise up your offspring after you,
who shall come forth from your body,
and I will establish his kingdom.
13 He shall build a house for my name,
and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever.
14 I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me.
2 Chronicles 6 :18 – 21
In our groups on Tuesday and Wednesday there were five questions to stimulate the discussion, based on the bible readings quoted at the start – these have been re-produced by permission of the publisher:
1. Discuss the tension between the tent and temple, nomadic and static traditions, evident within these readings and within to Old Testament as a whole.
2. What was the attitude of Jesus to the Temple in his day? Compare Mark 11:15 – 17 with Mark 13:1 – 2.
3. At what point in the life of our own community of faith is there evidence of tension between the tent and temple aspects of our worship and life together?
4. Which aspect do we think is closest to the insights and teaching of Jesus of Nazareth?
5. How can we give clearer expression to this priority in our worship?
Taken from Re-pitching the tent – Third Edition, by Richard Giles ©2004 Canterbury Press, an imprint of Hymns Ancient & Modern Ltd. Used by permission.
Please may I add another question, which goes back to the keynote from the 3rd of January.
6. How does the understanding of “shrines and vines” challenge us move away from our historic dependence on bricks and mortar, and to adopt a more radical view of our buildings?
Further reading:
For those with access to Re-pitching the tent, may I suggest that you read chapter 27 – Nurture and Neighbour as part of your thinking on this topic, likewise I would refer you again to Tom Stuckey’s book Beyond the Box.
The session begins by inviting those attending to read three Bible readings. These are:
Numbers 9 : 15 – end
15On the day the tabernacle was set up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, the tent of the covenant; and from evening until morning it was over the tabernacle, having the appearance of fire. 16It was always so: the cloud covered it by day and the appearance of fire by night. 17Whenever the cloud lifted from over the tent, then the Israelites would set out; and in the place where the cloud settled down, there the Israelites would camp. 18At the command of the LORD the Israelites would set out, and at the command of the LORD they would camp. As long as the cloud rested over the tabernacle, they would remain in camp. 19Even when the cloud continued over the tabernacle for many days, the Israelites would keep the charge of the LORD, and would not set out. 20Sometimes the cloud would remain for a few days over the tabernacle, and according to the command of the LORD they would remain in camp; then according to the command of the LORD they would set out. 21Sometimes the cloud would remain from evening until morning; and when the cloud lifted in the morning, they would set out, or if it continued for a day and a night, when the cloud lifted they would set out. 22Whether it was two days, or a month, or a longer time, that the cloud continued over the tabernacle, resting upon it, the Israelites would remain in camp and would not set out; but when it lifted they would set out. 23At the command of the LORD they would camp, and at the command of the LORD they would set out. They kept the charge of the LORD, at the command of the LORD by Moses.
1 Samuel 7 :1 – 13
1 When David was settled in his house,
and the LORD had given him rest from all his enemies around him,
2 the king said to the prophet Nathan,
'See now, I am living in a house of cedar,
but the ark of God stays in a tent.'
3 Nathan said to the king,
'Go, do all that you have in mind;
for the LORD is with you.'
4 But that same night the word of the LORD came to Nathan:
5 Go and tell my servant David:
Thus says the LORD:
Are you the one to build me a house to live in?
6 I have not lived in a house
since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day,
but I have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle.
7 Wherever I have moved about among all the people of Israel,
did I ever speak a word with any of the tribal leaders of Israel,
whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying,
'Why have you not built me a house of cedar?'
8 Now therefore thus you shall say to my servant David:
Thus says the LORD of hosts:
I took you from the pasture,
from following the sheep
to be prince over my people Israel;
9 and I have been with you wherever you went,
and have cut off all your enemies from before you;
and I will make for you a great name,
like the name of the great ones of the earth.
10 And I will appoint a place for my people Israel
and will plant them,
so that they may live in their own place,
and be disturbed no more;
and evildoers shall afflict them no more, as formerly,
11 from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel;
and I will give you rest from all your enemies.
Moreover the LORD declares to you, David,
that the LORD will make you a house.
12 When your days are fulfilled
and you lie down with your ancestors,
I will raise up your offspring after you,
who shall come forth from your body,
and I will establish his kingdom.
13 He shall build a house for my name,
and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever.
14 I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me.
2 Chronicles 6 :18 – 21
2CH 6:18 "But will God indeed reside with mortals on earth? Even heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this house that I have built! 19 Regard your servant's prayer and his plea, O LORD my God, heeding the cry and the prayer that your servant prays to you. 20 May your eyes be open day and night toward this house, the place where you promised to set your name, and may you heed the prayer that your servant prays toward this place. 21 And hear the plea of your servant and of your people Israel, when they pray toward this place; may you hear from heaven your dwelling place; hear and forgive.
All readings are from the NRSV and copyright © 1989 National Council of Churches, USA
All readings are from the NRSV and copyright © 1989 National Council of Churches, USA
The readings clearly show us that there is a tension between our being a people who are extremely flexible, fully able to move at the whim of God, but where the physical structures that they have available are very flimsy, and in terms of their ability to be used by the wider community, inflexible, and the desire for permanence and constructing a building that is something which is worthy of God and available to be used by the whole community, but which means that the people are less able to move at short notice.
The tension that we can see, is the same tension that we still have, and we could choose to go either way, if we so desired. We could build something which is truly an impressive worship area, Harwood’s own version of the Crystal Cathedral (http://www.crystalcathedral.org/about/architecture.php) – and you could argue that anything that is not up to this standard, is somehow is falling short of what we have the capability to achieve. That said, you could, (and I would) take a very different point of view and point to the challenges that face so many of the people that live around us, and ask what are we saying to them if they see us building something of this size and scale. Likewise, on a day when we have seen destruction on a scale which is, to the majority of us, unimaginable, there are issues of where our money is needed most that we must wrestle with and address.
Please don’t think that these tensions are anything new. Even in Jesus’ time there was a commonly held belief that one of the things that would happen, when the Messiah came, was that people would all live in tabernacles (“tents”) – that they would return to being that mobile, flexible and available people once more. Indeed, there are a number of theologians who understand this as being the cause behind Peter’s statement at the transfiguration, when he offers to build tabernacles for Jesus, Moses and Elijah.
We have to recognise though, that we are a different set of people from those early Christians. We are not nomadic for a start, and whilst we might want to argue that we should be, speaking as an itinerant minister, trust me that the way that this impacts upon your family life, your kids education and schooling, and the career of your spouse, points to how we live in a country where for most of us a nomadic itinerant way of life simply is not possible. Now if you were in Nepal, then things would be different, but we are not.
So, if you want my point of view, and this is a blog after all, I think that we do need to have a building, but that the building that we have needs to be simple enough, and flexible enough, to do whatever God calls us to do, not just for today, but in the future as well. Effectively, the building becomes a tool that allows us to go where God leads, rather than a monument that anchors us in a place where we used to be. It needs to include spaces which are sacred, and where we can become more aware of the presence of God, and places which are less sacred, where we can discover God in other ways. In addition, we have to change our mindset that suggests that “the church” is the only place where we practice our Christian faith, and that our success criteria, is to get people to come to us. In reality as a church we should be involved across the community, in other people’s tents and temples, as well as our own – and our success criteria (if we should have one at all) should be to see people’s relationship with God growing, in whatever form that takes.
Henri Nouwen saw churches as places where people should be provided with “safe spaces” where they can discover “their faith and their God”, rather than “your faith and your God”. I would agree with this, but only if you see that those safe spaces take on lots of different forms, and can be in lots of different physical locations.
There is so much that you could add to this, not least of which is a discussion on stewardship, and how we understand the parable of the talents, but this is meant to be a discussion starter, and promptings to get everyone thinking, and so I will leave this here. The blog is here to be used – please use it for positive discussion and discernment as we ask the question “OK God – Which Way?”.
The tension that we can see, is the same tension that we still have, and we could choose to go either way, if we so desired. We could build something which is truly an impressive worship area, Harwood’s own version of the Crystal Cathedral (http://www.crystalcathedral.org/about/architecture.php) – and you could argue that anything that is not up to this standard, is somehow is falling short of what we have the capability to achieve. That said, you could, (and I would) take a very different point of view and point to the challenges that face so many of the people that live around us, and ask what are we saying to them if they see us building something of this size and scale. Likewise, on a day when we have seen destruction on a scale which is, to the majority of us, unimaginable, there are issues of where our money is needed most that we must wrestle with and address.
Please don’t think that these tensions are anything new. Even in Jesus’ time there was a commonly held belief that one of the things that would happen, when the Messiah came, was that people would all live in tabernacles (“tents”) – that they would return to being that mobile, flexible and available people once more. Indeed, there are a number of theologians who understand this as being the cause behind Peter’s statement at the transfiguration, when he offers to build tabernacles for Jesus, Moses and Elijah.
We have to recognise though, that we are a different set of people from those early Christians. We are not nomadic for a start, and whilst we might want to argue that we should be, speaking as an itinerant minister, trust me that the way that this impacts upon your family life, your kids education and schooling, and the career of your spouse, points to how we live in a country where for most of us a nomadic itinerant way of life simply is not possible. Now if you were in Nepal, then things would be different, but we are not.
So, if you want my point of view, and this is a blog after all, I think that we do need to have a building, but that the building that we have needs to be simple enough, and flexible enough, to do whatever God calls us to do, not just for today, but in the future as well. Effectively, the building becomes a tool that allows us to go where God leads, rather than a monument that anchors us in a place where we used to be. It needs to include spaces which are sacred, and where we can become more aware of the presence of God, and places which are less sacred, where we can discover God in other ways. In addition, we have to change our mindset that suggests that “the church” is the only place where we practice our Christian faith, and that our success criteria, is to get people to come to us. In reality as a church we should be involved across the community, in other people’s tents and temples, as well as our own – and our success criteria (if we should have one at all) should be to see people’s relationship with God growing, in whatever form that takes.
Henri Nouwen saw churches as places where people should be provided with “safe spaces” where they can discover “their faith and their God”, rather than “your faith and your God”. I would agree with this, but only if you see that those safe spaces take on lots of different forms, and can be in lots of different physical locations.
There is so much that you could add to this, not least of which is a discussion on stewardship, and how we understand the parable of the talents, but this is meant to be a discussion starter, and promptings to get everyone thinking, and so I will leave this here. The blog is here to be used – please use it for positive discussion and discernment as we ask the question “OK God – Which Way?”.
In our groups on Tuesday and Wednesday there were five questions to stimulate the discussion, based on the bible readings quoted at the start – these have been re-produced by permission of the publisher:
1. Discuss the tension between the tent and temple, nomadic and static traditions, evident within these readings and within to Old Testament as a whole.
2. What was the attitude of Jesus to the Temple in his day? Compare Mark 11:15 – 17 with Mark 13:1 – 2.
3. At what point in the life of our own community of faith is there evidence of tension between the tent and temple aspects of our worship and life together?
4. Which aspect do we think is closest to the insights and teaching of Jesus of Nazareth?
5. How can we give clearer expression to this priority in our worship?
Taken from Re-pitching the tent – Third Edition, by Richard Giles ©2004 Canterbury Press, an imprint of Hymns Ancient & Modern Ltd. Used by permission.
Please may I add another question, which goes back to the keynote from the 3rd of January.
6. How does the understanding of “shrines and vines” challenge us move away from our historic dependence on bricks and mortar, and to adopt a more radical view of our buildings?
Further reading:
For those with access to Re-pitching the tent, may I suggest that you read chapter 27 – Nurture and Neighbour as part of your thinking on this topic, likewise I would refer you again to Tom Stuckey’s book Beyond the Box.
Sunday 3 January 2010
Which Way?
In an attempt to allow as much input as possible from across the church family, especially from those members who are not able to get to the House / Study groups, this blog has been set up to allow discussion, and to be a place for us to talk about the things that matter in each of the categories that we are discussing that week.
Give it a try and see how you get on, as together we ask the question - OK God - Which Way?
Each week I will place a Blog entry that will contain the biblical material for that week, as a way of priming the discussion. The study groups will then be exploring this, and hopefully giving us their feedback, and the rest of us will then have the ability to feed into this. This will hopefully be a way of keeping all of our discussions open and shared by as wide an audience as possible.
If you have friends who are not online, but who still want to be a part of this, you may want to mention to them that we will be having "Blog Boards" at both of our sites, onto which people can place written comments. We will be trying to have some two-way feedback between the two areas.
Please use these resources wisely and in love, as we ask the question "Which Way?".
God Bless,
Ian
Give it a try and see how you get on, as together we ask the question - OK God - Which Way?
Each week I will place a Blog entry that will contain the biblical material for that week, as a way of priming the discussion. The study groups will then be exploring this, and hopefully giving us their feedback, and the rest of us will then have the ability to feed into this. This will hopefully be a way of keeping all of our discussions open and shared by as wide an audience as possible.
If you have friends who are not online, but who still want to be a part of this, you may want to mention to them that we will be having "Blog Boards" at both of our sites, onto which people can place written comments. We will be trying to have some two-way feedback between the two areas.
Please use these resources wisely and in love, as we ask the question "Which Way?".
God Bless,
Ian
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