Reception rather than Broadcast Mode

 

I recently read the idea that we in The Church might do well to shift our focus from time to time from Broadcast to Reception mode.  Perhaps that needs a bit of unpacking!

It is, of course, true that we continue to believe the message from Jesus about the love of God is always worth sharing.  The question is often: how?

If we stick to Broadcast mode our prime activity would be one of proclamation.  Yet in a day and age when there is an abundance of religious and spiritual ideas around, we might also recognise that we need to earn the right to speak into that arena.  We do that by travelling alongside folk in Reception mode. Being someone’s friend and listening to them is just as much ‘ministry’ and ‘service’ as me standing up in a pulpit and proclaiming week by week.  We need both modes of communication in the Church.

I hope we did a bit of that in welcoming the COVD Testing Centre to our building over recent months.  We discovered our community had a need, we listened to their request and offered to help as much as we could.

The Baptist Church at Little Kingshill, just down the road, has been involved in a similar project.  Their minister, Martin, explains in a recent edition of Central News, the regular Central Baptist Association newsletter:

Your church hall is empty, my coffee shops are closed due to Covid, and our village needs a hub; want to partner up and have a go at bringing a pop-up village shop with excellent coffee to Little Kingshill?  So went a phone call from coffee shop owner Silvio – a Kingshill resident with a chain of coffee shops in London.

Giving up our church hall to this new venture has opened the eyes of many.  It has opened the eyes of some in the village to the existence of our small church.  It has opened the eyes of others in the village to our genuine desire to serve Little Kingshill by providing what it needs most.  And it has opened the eyes of our fellowship to just how differently church might need to operate.

Well, some of our members have visited the Kingshill Kitchen and have sung its praises to me, even saying they provide dog ice cream!

Just one example, and I good one I think, of a church that has embraced both Broadcast and Reception modes.  Getting alongside the community and working together is surely one manifestation of the Kingdom of God.

Bits and Bobs Blog

Something of a 'bits and bobs' blog this week!

We were thrilled with the Junior Church cake and plant stall which took place last Sunday morning after morning service, in aid of the Wildlife Trust.  The idea came directly from Junior Church as a result of the Climate Sunday service in February.  Altogether, with extra money from the sale of tomoato plants the other week, around £390 was raised.  Well done!

We have decided, due to the delay in the lifting of restrictions, that all three of the Re-Set Discussion afternoons will now take place, not in person, but on Zoom and codes will be sent out soon.

We are delighted that our link missionaries, Liz and Sergio, have now been able to reschdule their visit to us.  It will happen on the same night as the July Church Meeting on 20th July 2021, and the programme will run as follows:

6.30pm: Reception for Liz and Sergio as we sit at tables of six
7.00pm: Bryan Long will lead a Question and Answer session with them after they have given us a short presentation of their work.
7.45pm: We say farewell to Liz and Sergo

8.00pm: We regroup for the Church Meeting

This Sunday sees the final Audio Service (For the time being at least!  Who knows what the future may bring).  Every week for 66 Sundays Sara has gone through service recordings and selected hymns and anthems suitable for this week's readings. Michael has then used his technical wizardry to assemble the various recordings sent in to him and make it into one service.  We are very grateful to the Auttons and will be saying a formal 'thank you' to them in church on Sunday.

And, finally, I have a Ministers' Book Group on Zoom this lunchtime and we have been reading Martyn Percy's book The Humble Church, I was struck by many things he writes not least this line:

If Christ was small enough to be comprehended, God would not be big enough to be worshipped... Food for thought!

In all you do this day, may you know God's blessing and peace.

Ian

 

The Z'ders

 

I recently read about the Z generation – those born after 1997 – that they are generally kind and accepting, eager and passionate to support new initiatives, yet also prone to flit between one cause and another and are not necessarily ‘joiners’ for the long term!

Each generation has its own strengths and weaknesses.  I just about belong to the Baby Boomers, my sons, on the other hand, are Millennials, sometimes referred to as the Y generation.

Of course, all these constructs are both helpful and artificial at the same time with exceptions found in each generation.

In our churches we often wish, and pray for, newer members to join us from the younger generations.  Yet, I wonder if we are aware of just how differently such folk may think to us and how they might expect things to be different. 

A few years ago, I led worship in a church I knew well, and one that had changed its generational focus in recent years.  It wasn’t long after the service ended that I chanced to hear some older folk at the back grumbling about the younger ones that day who had brought their coffee into the service, with the lads on the front row keeping their baseball caps on throughout the worship.

Intergenerational worship has its joys and challenges.

Jesus never grew into ‘old bones’ and, for that matter, never spoke over much about how either the structure or character of The Church might develop.  However, we do see from the Jewish tradition a very real emphasis on multi-aged liturgy, especially with the youngest at Passover starting the evening with the ceremonial asking of questions that unlocks the retelling of the Exodus story.

At AFC we are currently pondering how to make families and young people feel more welcome in our life together, with one possibility being a regular All Age Service – so watch this space!

As restrictions eased recently it was a joy at The Manse for us to welcome Rachel’s parents and uncle to lunch one Saturday.  Perhaps the most poignant part of the afternoon quietly happened in one corner of the room as I watched one of our sons go through a photo album of 2020 with his Gran.  There was a charming and warming dynamic between them, one of real interest and mutual sharing. 

Family get togethers, as they draw together all ages, are inevitably ‘compromise’ occasions.  For the older ones, it is probably too noisy, and for the younger ones it is too ‘slow’.  Yet, love binds these different generations together, often around a meal table sharing a meal.  Precious times.

I think that’s not a bad picture of church.  We are not all the same, yet love can keep us together.  Singing a song accompanied by drums may not be ‘our thing’, yet love helps us see it is someone else’s ‘thing’.  We use an old prayer full of ‘thee and thou’, it’s not the way we speak, yet love prompts us to value that prayer is precious to older folk who grew up in church with the AV version of scripture.

Perhaps it’s not popular these days to talk about church as a ‘family’, preferring instead to describe it, more inclusively, as a community.  Yet, I think it is not a bad description because in any family ‘give and take, ‘compromise’ and mutual acceptance of difference is somehow made possible because of love.  And perhaps in the end, that is the only thing that will make intergenerational church possible too. 

Message from Street Kids Direct

 

An invitation from Walsworth Road Baptist Church, Hitchin