The Community Of Jesus, A Royal Priesthood & The Power Of Forgiveness…

Posted on May 5, 2012 | Leave a comment

“The world needs the Church, not to make it feel better, not even to make it safer or more secure. No, the world actually needs the Church to help it understand who it is and what its identity is before the Lord Jesus Christ.”

The words above are my paraphrase of a comment that Stanley Hauerwas makes in his book Resident Aliens. I confess that I really love the truth that is resonating through his words, and I think I love these words because I have sat amongst so many congregations that have focussed on becoming so ‘seeker-friendly’ and so ‘contemporary’ that their religion has pretty much lost all its teeth. No wonder visitors come, spent a couple of weeks within the community and then choose to go elsewhere. There simply is no discernable power within the community. The more I think on it, the more I realise that missional communities need to be in the community, but we also need to be declaring the gospel truth with conviction and with absolute honesty.

There really is no other way to win the world for Christ. If we want people to believe the message of Jesus we need to be telling them about Jesus and demonstrating what life in God actually looks like. And, the world really will thank you for being that serious with them.

 

Two Passages Of God’s Word To Share With You…

 

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”

1 Peter 2:9-10

143921235Just soak yourself in those words for a few minutes, let them resonate with your heart. Dare to believe that you are part of a royal priesthood. Dare to believe that you have been given this most noble of roles. Don’t rush on, you have said that you have believed these words many times, but now let your heart catch up – you really are a royal priest.

Peter Parker’s uncle once cautioned him that with great power comes great responsibility. If you are a follower of Christ then you have been elected for a purpose.

None of us are royal priests simply by name. We are royal priests in order to stand before God on behalf of the world, but also to minister to the world and help them to truly understand their responsibility to the Lord Jesus Christ. No wonder Jesus had to send His Holy Spirit to dwell in us and empower us.

Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

John 20:21-23

Over the past eighteen months the Holy Spirit revealed to me that I needed to do some heavy duty forgiving. Forgiving others and forgiving myself. The thing was that although I had been a Christian for so many years, I had not realised what being a royal priest and being empowered by the Holy Spirit actually meant in reality.

So having worked through the various scenes in my life I made some very intentional decisions to forgive others and to forgive myself. The most amazing part of this journey, for me, was to discover that whenever I made the decision to forgive a wrong done to me that person (whether they knew it or not) was totally and eternally forgiven of that wrong. I would and could never bring that incident up again and neither will Jesus. As a royal priest, I stand before Jesus and declare that I have forgiven all, and been forgiven all by the blood of Jesus and under the power and influence of the Holy Spirit. This is the gospel of Jesus Christ, it is all about restoration, renewal and redemption. The love of God, through Jesus, flows into my entire being and from there it flows out toward every member of the community. They either choose to receive this healing river or they reject it, but whatever their choice we  remain God’s channel for the gospel.

tshirtjesusreplliedthekingdomofgodisamongyouI will endeavour to always reach out to everyone that the Lord places in my path, to be a source of healing and forgiveness, to declare the truth without fear and to be a waymark for everyman to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

This is why the world needs you and me. Go in peace and spread the Word.

This really is the year of the Lord’s favour.

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Posted in Community, Forgiveness, Friendship, Growth, Healing, Heart, Influence, Kingdom Of God, Missional Community, Peace, Plans, Relationships, Royal Priesthood

Do You Even Know Of One Influential Christian On Your Street?

Posted on February 9, 2012 | 2 Comments

rosefrench_1320685370_Billy_GrahamThe Barna Research Group did a survey in America to find out how much impact Christians were having in society and on their local communities. When asked to name a famous Christian leader the four most popular answers were Billy Graham, the Pope, Barack Obama and Joel Osteen. And each of these were only named by 1 in 50. When asked to identify an individual, that they knew, who they would consider to be an influential Christian 41% were unable to do so.

America continues to be considered by many to be a more religious country than the United Kingdom. Church attendance is higher (in 2008 the Barna Group reported that 56% of American adults attended a conventional church at least once a month). The statistic in the UK is less than 19% according to Tearfund’s church going statistics (April 2007). Admittedly, these figures are a few years old, but still give a reasonably accurate comparison between America and the United Kingdom. The sobering truth is that the majority of people simply do not see the importance of being connected to a local church, here in the UK.

Now if 41% of Americans report that they have no knowledge of any influential Christians within their work, home or social context, what might the percentage be if that same question were asked in the United Kingdom – potentially 80% or 90%. Do you even know of one influential Christian on your street? Or what influence if any do we have on those around us, if we consider ourselves to be Christian?

Throughout his ministry, Jesus grew in favour with God and man, what does this mean if he did not grow in influence. Phillip Yancey asks the question: “What government would execute Captain Kangaroo?” There simply would be no reason to fear Captain Kangaroo. The point is that Jesus stood against those who abuse power and leadership, and he showed God’s loved people a better way – the way of the Kingdom. The early Church grew at a prolific rate simply because the leaders were filled with the Spirit and walked with God, and crucially they were highly influential people. How influential do you want to be? Personally, if I could be part of a movement that reached 3000 people for Christ in a day – I would take that for starters.

Throughout the era of modernity and into post-modernity we have been told over and over again that our faith in Jesus Christ is a matter of private concern – and friends many of us have sadly bought into that lie. This is the reason why 41% of Americans and many more Brits simply have no  ability to identify any truly influential Christians in their lives.

Now is the time to be truly incarnational, to follow the lead of Jesus and the early church. Now is the time to discover new and fresh ways to influence our communities, our homes, and our workplaces through the power of the gospel.

There is an openness to spirituality amongst our peers, you can be sure that they will find it easy to discover Buddhism, Reiki  or any other amount of Eastern Spirituality – but we must ensure that whatever else they come into contact with, they truly experience the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we really need to pray for a genuine anointing of Spirit-empowered influence.

May God bless you on this journey.

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Posted in Community, Friendship, Growth, Healing, Influence, Kingdom Of God, Missional Community, Relationships

Winter Growth: A Time For Re-Imagination…

Posted on January 14, 2012 | Leave a comment

98107841Traditionally, for many of us, January through February and possibly into March is one of the bleakest times in the year. I remember when I used to work for Local Government virtually every colleague would ensure that they kept at least one or two annual leave days specifically for the period between January and March. The reason for this was always because, if you had no leave left for these few months, it literally would feel like an eternity. The mornings are dark, the days are often cold and the nights draw in very early every single day. On the face of it, this time of year is utterly hopeless. And yet…

There is growth, but that growth is under the surface. Much of the new birth cannot be seen. One morning during this past week, I went into the bathroom and almost by chance I happened to look out of the window. At that moment I saw one single green shoot on an otherwise bare tree – and I was so reminded, that whilst it may appear that nothing is happening there really is new life being born.

It is the same with regard to The Urban House. This is a period of the year that most people are virtually in hibernation mode. Generating conversation is much more difficult for us at this moment in time, most of the people on our street are less likely to engage with us. And yet…

This is the time to be much more engaged in prayer, praying for the street to be won for Christ and taking the time to hear the Holy Spirit. Spring and Summer really will bring a change in both temperature and attitude, but winter is the time where the land rests, heals and preparation is made for inevitable new life. There are so many spiritual parallels in creation. Be encouraged even if you cannot yet see the growth.

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Posted in Community, Friendship, Green Shoots, Growth, Healing, Kingdom Of God, Missional Community, Plans, Relationships

‘Once In Royal David’s City’ fading, ‘Auld Lang Syne’ For One Night Only & The Fear Of 2012…

Posted on December 29, 2011 | 1 Comment

 

106152247Each year between Christmas and New Year’s Day I have developed a tradition. The tradition is centred around the inauguration of a new journal, and giving some thought to the theme of the coming year. Last year, as I did this, I came up with the theme ‘Adventure.’ And true to that theme, Jo and I relocated from Cardiff to Cheshire, we started building very new lives, made new friendships, chose some new values and started to bring the vision of missional community into reality through ‘The Urban House’. So, for Jo and I, 2011 certainly has been the year of adventure and I believe that we were more ready for it because of the thought and prayer put in between Christmas and New Year’s Day.

This year the words that keep grabbing my attention are ‘Values’ and ‘Intentionality.’ The question behind these two words is: What are the values that we will live by in 2012, and how do we ensure that these values genuinely get to shape the way we will live? And the answer, at least to the second half of the question, is that we have to live with intentionality. Things will not just happen. Nothing with ever simply change. Nobody ever got out of a rut by accident. The machine is perfectly designed to achieve the results that we are currently getting. If we are to experience better results in 2012 then we need to be decisive and intentional about what we will give our time and energy to over the coming months.

bonfire-embers-ashes-remnants-revived-also-spent-fireworks-aflame-in-garden-on-Bonfire-Night-party-in-November-in-Bristol-England-1-LHDThe carols that we were all singing just a few days ago have now faded and we will not now sing them again for at least another eleven months. Instead we all turning our attention to New Year Celebrations, and the carols are replaced by Auld Lang Syne, and for many the fear of 2012 begins to become more and more of a reality. BBC News tells us over and over again stories of austerity and double-dip recession. The worst is yet to come. As the last of the new year fireworks falls to ground, it appears that our dreams and aspirations are all going the same way. But the Bible is just simply not telling us the same message as BBC News.

Those of you who have journeyed, particularly with me, over the past 12 months will know that I have been utterly captured by the words of Psalm 1:

“Blessed is the man
        who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
Or stand in the way of sinners
       or sit in the seat of mockers.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
       and on his law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree planted by streams of water
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers.”

Now I know that approaching a new year is a very sombre time and most, if not all, of us get very reflective but I do have an observation to make that may just be very helpful to us. I have meditated on these words, on and off, for a year now, Jo and I have read other promises in the scriptures that are genuinely meant for God’s people and we have had words of prophecy spoken over our lives.  But all of them are meaningless, and all of them are worthless. Every verse from the Bible, every promise from God and every word of prophecy given over our lives is utterly pointless! Unless, that is, we take a moment to step back and comprehend what we need to do, or how we need to live, in order for those words to materialise and bear fruit in our lives. This is the point of INTENTIONALITY becoming the theme for Jo and I in 2012.

I believe that the Lord is saying to us that He plans for us to be like a tree planted by streams of water (not any water but streams of living water), which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. The Lord is promising that whatever we do, in His Name, will prosper. These are highly significant words, particularly when everywhere else, in this world, there seems to be so much uncertainty. But none of these words will ever become reality unless we choose not to walk in the counsel of the wicked, or to stand in the way of sinners or to sit in the seat of mockers. It is true that God’s love is unconditional, but His blessing is far from unconditional. If we would have the Lord’s favour and blessing on our lives; then we need to live with intentionality, even and especially when people are being used by the Lord to speak words of prophecy over our lives.

My prayer for each and every one of us is that we would take some time out to remember the promises of God that we believed were for us, at some time or another. That we would remember the words of prophecy that have been spoken over our lives and that we would enquire of God what it will take to make these promises a constant reality in our lives. And then that we would live in such a way that we encounter the favour and blessing of God as we navigate through 2012.

I cannot think of a better platform upon which to engage with our communities and to bring hope to our world. Walking with God takes all the fear out of the future. The only question is: will we listen to the BBC News or the Word of God?

Thank you for being part of this journey and I hope and pray that you will have yourselves a very blessed and prosperous 2012.

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Posted in Community, Friendship, Growth, Kingdom Of God, New Year Resolutions, Peace, Plans, Relationships

Small Is Not Always Weak…

Posted on December 21, 2011 | 3 Comments

The following blog is a continuation from Irish Coffee, A Million-Dollar Hippy & Tell Me Exactly What It Is That You Do For A Living… So it would be worth reading that blog entry first, if you have not already done so, and then reading what comes next.

In the last blog I referred to the TV documentary about Steve Jobs: The Million-Dollar Hippy. It was amazing how the Holy Spirit used this program to engineer a conversation with one of the neighbours on our street. Following on from that I have been thinking about that documentary and particularly a statement that Stephen Fry made when he was interviewed.

105473662Stephen Fry stated that Apple was not and never had been the biggest player in the world of technology. He said quite categorically that there were far more customers who bought PCs than bought the iMac. He said that there were far more people who did not own an iPhone or an iPod/iPad than did own one. However, he then went on to say that even considering this, Apple were by far the most influential player in the industry, and that this had been demonstrated in their revenue and turnover figures. He went on to say that much of this was due to the fact that Steve Jobs never wanted to simply provide technology but that he wanted inspire users and ultimately to change how the world interacted with technology and each other.

So what does this have to do with changing the conversation in a local community? Well, two thousand years of history suggests that there will always be more people that are not followers of Christ, than those who are. Christianity worldwide still remains at a steady 33% of the world’s population. But there remains an incredible 67% that are not ‘Christian’. The Church is not the biggest player in the world, but that does not mean that it cannot be the most influential.

The disciples of Jesus Christ were left to be salt and light in a very needy world, and I think it is fair to say that as impressive as the Apple family of products are, they are nothing compared to the quality of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Each person who reads this blog will be in a very different situation, but I am pretty sure that the populations of our towns and cities will generally dwarf the populations of our individual faith communities. But understand this: we may be small but our message is huge and when we genuinely partner with God we genuinely become the most significant and influential voice.

Steve Jobs said “I like living at the intersection of the humanities and technology.” My question is: what intersection do we like living at? For Jo and I we are choosing to live at the intersection of a lost world and the incarnation of Jesus – this is the place where everything changes.

I believe that the community of God will always appear small in this world; but I also believe that it can have THE most significant and influential voice in the wider global community,  but this only happens when we genuinely partner with God.

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Posted in Community, Green Shoots, Growth, Influence, Kingdom Of God, Missional Community

Irish Coffee, A Million-Dollar Hippy & Tell Me Exactly What It Is That You Do For A Living…

Posted on December 19, 2011 | Leave a comment

On Saturday morning, Jo and I were invited to visit a neighbour’s home for a coffee. We were very excited about this because it is one thing for people to accept an invitation into our home, but there is just something so very significant about being invited into their homes. Much of Christian evangelism over many years has all been focussed on the community coming to us. So we put on events in our church buildings, our homes and we invite comparative strangers to come and hang out with us. Very rarely has much emphasis been placed on Christians hanging out in other peoples homes and spaces. So for Jo and I to receive an invitation to hang out with another couple on our street is, for us, something of a breakthrough.

90100972The couple that we visited have something of an Irish background and if you know anything about the Irish you will also know that they are, by nature, pretty hospitable people. Jo and I were offered the most amazing cup of Irish coffee, silky smooth and full of body and taste. During the previous twenty-four hours it had been snowing and I have to say that this coffee was going a long way to restoring the warmth of my insides.

As we all relaxed together it was amazing how easily the conversation flowed. Jo often says that we need to be spending time with people outside the church, if only to show them that Christians can be and very often are ‘normal’ people. Whatever that term ‘normal’ actually means. But I would also venture to suggest that we really need to spend time with people outside the church, for us to remember just how normal they are too. So we talked pretty much about anything and everything. The guy asked me to come and check out the bathroom that he had fitted and the foundations were being laid for a long and fruitful friendship. It was, once again, being reinforced to me how much easier it is to build relationships when we are willing to make the journey into the other person’s environment.

steve-jobs-appleWe returned to the living room, and and as the conversation continued we all enthused over the recent television documentary about Steve Jobs The Million Dollar Hippy, and had an amazing conversation all about his ability to visualise what the world needs, and then his ability to bring that vision to reality in the form of a product that people could touch and feel. We shared what we admired in him, and indeed the elements that had made us wince too. We spoke about life, about family, about work and then came the inevitable question that, in recent times, I have had to re-learn how to answer. So Jon, explain to me what exactly it is that you do for a living…

The easy answer is that I work with two Christian ministries The Ugly Duckling Company and Christian Vision for Men and the work that I do for these ministries takes me into local churches, where I discover the ways in which we can partner together with these churches and together become much more effective. But I feel that to give this answer is to miss an opportunity. So my answer to this question is:

The Church has been given the opportunity to visualise what the world needs, and in the same way that Steve Jobs had the ability to make that vision reality, so the Church needs to do the same thing. The Church has a responsibility toward its communities, to help change the world and that is where I am engaged. Through research and practice, through missional living and by embracing some amazing resources offered through the ministries of The Ugly Duckling Company and Christian Vision for Men; the Church, and more importantly the Christian faith, can truly become relevant to communities and individuals rather than remaining simply the anonymous neighbours.

In the context of that particular conversation, the answer was great. To quote Steve Jobs, “…it was insanely great.” The Holy Spirit began to breathe on my words and He made them relevant to my listener. The response that I got was; “I get that, I really do get that and it sounds like a really good thing to do.” The conversation gradually moved on but the moment was inspired by God Himself – and who really knows what He is up to and where it will all lead.

Another small moment, but once again a moment that takes my breath away. Since Saturday morning I have felt so inspired about living out my faith in the context of the wider, secular world. Many of us have a faith that is able to withstand the Sunday morning test, with other Christians sat in well-used pews, but I want a faith that is robust enough to withstand the test of Irish coffee, a million-dollar hippy and tell me exactly what you it is that you do for a living.

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Posted in Community, Friendship, Missional Community, Relationships

Car Jump Leads, Flat Batteries & The Heart…

Posted on December 6, 2011 | 2 Comments

It is Saturday afternoon and I am sat in front of the television waiting for the Wales v Australia game to start. This is the long awaited moment when Shane Williams will dance to his final international tune – for after today’s game this particular Welsh wizard will hang up his international boots.

I also have my laptop in front of me. My life has changed in recent months and I am yet to clearly establish the lines between leisure and work. Although I clearly still feel pressures, stress and all that goes with work, I actually enjoy what I do and much of it feels too pleasurable to be work anyway. But that’s another story.

The build-up to the game is in full flow, but I am becoming more and more aware of what is happening on the outside of our front window. An ageing white Ford Escort, the bonnet open, the man’s head buried deep within the mechanics of the engine, the wife intermittently turning the ignition key and revving the engine simultaneously. Three children sat in the backseat, and the temperature is very cold, I mean seriously cold. I think we have all felt that cold wintery air lately.

114513497Having left it long enough to not appear as though I was interfering, I then came out to ask if there was anything I could do to help. The guy (who incidentally lives two doors down from us) replied that he was just not sure what was wrong. Now I have only one solution to cars that will not start and that is connect the car that wont start to a car that will start via jump leads. This comes from a background in IT – so when a PC would not start my default advice was to counsel the client to switch the PC off and then after a few seconds switch it back on.

As we both adopted the attitude of the fully-fledged mechanic, jump leads connecting the Ford Escort to our car, which I had by now parked alongside – we told his wife to try it again. Once, twice and three times and then, the engine began to tick over, gathering strength with each passing second – it was gloriously obvious that we both knew exactly what we were doing. But actually, something much more significant happened within me.

Firstly, God began speaking into my spirit very profoundly. The reality of this situation was that our car had power that this young family’s car needed. The only way for their car to receive this power was to be connected to our car via the jump leads. Without this connection, they simply had no chance of moving, the battery was dead, and they needed someone to provide them with the means of charging life into their dead battery. When we live missionally many of the activities that we are engaged in are fundamentally practical. Helping someone jump start their car, cutting back overgrown ivy, spending time eating and drinking with neighbours. But, as we do this more and more, these people come into touch with a supernatural life-power that is born of the Holy Spirit and given flesh and bones in the life of Jesus Christ. As missional followers of this Jesus, you and I are, essentially, the jump leads that enable other people to start receiving the abundant life charge that their hearts desperately need.

Secondly, the guy that I was helping could not have been that much older than me. During the time that I was helping him he kept massaging his left forearm. After I noticed this two or three times I asked him if there was a problem. His answer literally stopped me in my tracks. He told me that he was now off work, on sick leave. He said that he had recently suffered a stroke. He went on to say that it was now the 6th stroke that he had suffered. A young family suffering, unable to cope, they just keep themselves to themselves. Many on the street think that this couple are just not interested, but when God opened the door that afternoon I discovered some of their pain, and the pain is so great that they just cannot cope – and amazingly it is all to do with the heart (both physically and spiritually).

This was never simply about jump leads and a flat battery – it was always about the heart. It was about me really beginning to understand that we, as disciples, perform the same function as those old jump leads but in a much, much greater way. It was all about me learning the silent suffering of a couple who live just a matter of metres away. It was about their heart, and it was about my heart too.

Shane-Williams-Final-Try-WalesAnd so with that sober reflection, I returned to the Wales v Australia game, to that moment of glory for Shane Williams. Wales lost, they were pretty much outplayed, but the game ended with the final glorious moment in a glitteringly glorious career for our favourite Welsh wizard. A Williams try in the dying moments and a trademark flip. We lost but Shane Williams had his moment…

Shane we will miss you, you have served us well.  Your life will now be different, but then again, so will ours.

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Posted in Community, Friendship, Healing, Heart, Kingdom Of God, Missional Community, Peace, Relationships, Rugby, Sporting Moments