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

 

Signposting a Bishop and a Prince at Pentecost

 

Last Sunday we celebrated Pentecost; a time when we remember God speaking to us in new ways we can understand.  Well, this year I have sensed God’s word touching my own life through the words of a bishop and prince – so I’m taking this opportunity through the blog to signpost them to you, hoping they may be a blessing in your life too.

The Bishop is Michael Curry, and he is the Archbishop of the Episcopal Church in North America and last Sunday he preached from the Canterbury Pulpit of Washington Cathedral.  You’ll find his sermon on YouTube and I’ve indicated its web address at the end of this piece.

Bishop Curry is a fiery preacher and he’s also a fine theologian.  You’ll probably need to lay down in a darkened room and catch your breath after you’ve listened to his sermon!  I loved it.  I loved the passion and sincerity.  I loved the insight and compassion.  I was particularly struck by the way he married together Christmas and Pentecost as he said:  At Pentecost, The Spirit gives birth to Jesus in the lives of human beings – Christmas happens – Pentecost becomes the extension of the Incarnation.

Perhaps it’s appropriate to listen to a bishop at Pentecost as one of the reasons sometimes given for their mitres is that they represent the tongues of fire that fell on those first disciples.  Quite a nice thought as a bishop, in full robes and mitre, does resemble a candle in some ways!  Well, Bishop Curry certainly reflected the light of Christ on Sunday and I thank God for him.

And what of The Prince?  Well, that would be Prince William, who this week has acted as the Queen’s representative, The Lord High Commissioner, at the General Assembly of The Church of Scotland in Edinburgh.

Yesterday, at its closing session the Prince said: As I sat in Canongate Kirk last Sunday listening to Neil Gardner’s sermon, I felt particularly fortunate that my week as Lord High Commissioner coincided with Pentecost.  A week that celebrates the way in which the Holy Spirit kindled within Jesus’ early followers a desire to learn from others – whose tongues they now understand – and to share far and wide the Christian message of love and service.  I have kept this message at the forefront of my mind this week.

Once again, I felt God speaking to me as I read these wonderful words.

Pentecost – a time to hear afresh the voice of God in many different tongues.  And this year I heard that word through a Bishop and a Prince.

May you know the blessing of God in all you do this day,

Ian

ps. Blog holiday next week!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9czWAznNUT4

Teaching Old Dogs New Tricks!

I think the last fourteen months has taught us that even old dogs can learn new tricks!  We have become adept at the technology that some of us thought was inevitably beyond us; and a certain flexibility, although grudging at first, has become a characteristic of all our lives.  Us ‘old dogs’ have, in short, discovered how to do things differently!

Pentecost was an ancient Jewish celebration for harvest and had, no doubt, a comfortable ring of familiarity about it; but not in the tumultuous year of the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus.  On a day steeped in tradition God the Spirit stirs up the hearts and minds of Jerusalem worshippers who now see a certain spirituality outside the box of orthodoxy.  At Pentecost, the young see visions and the old dream dreams.

This weekend we once again celebrate the wonderful inclusivity of God.  A God who breaks out of boundaries and whose language is speech, silence, revelation, and nature.  Whose context is both sacred and ‘secular’ because this is the God who will always be both inside and outside the boxes we so carefully, yet foolishly, create.

I was struck, whilst watching a Channel Four documentary on the development of the vaccine, to hear why the CEO of Astra Zeneca agreed, in the first instance at least, that their roll out would be on a not-for-profit basis.  Why had he agreed to such a wonderful humanitarian solution which, in business terms sounds crazy?  Well, he said, if I had done anything else, my kids would have killed me!

God’s Holy Spirit of Love whispers to us in all places and through all people.  We hear the voice of God speaking to us even in the words of those from a different generation, tradition or language, and we are thankful.

There is a certain spirituality that belongs to Church.  Other variations are found in the home, down the street, on the internet, at a Retreat House or as part of a job.  God can, and is, present in all.  His universalist nature is the message of Whit Sunday.  God, found outside the box.

Pandemic and Pentecost – both can teach old dogs new tricks.hel’s Family Visiting