Outside In

Some time ago my wife gave me a funny look. You may not think that as being particularly strange, not when you know me and you know my wardrobe “elegance”. What was funny was that somehow I had managed to put my jumper on “inside out” or was it “outside in”? That’s one way of getting more use out of it. It’s a bit like the case of the student who never washed his socks; he just recycled them in the wash basket! Who is to decide what is the right way anyway? My guess is that there are night clubs in Belfast where you would not get in if you wore your clothes that way, whether the article was a stripy jumper or not
That got me thinking about how important it is, or is it, to look well and to do things which look good. Some people are very concerned about the way they look so they spend hours getting ready to go anywhere: they have to wear the right clothes, having everything colour co-ordinated. Most women need to have their make-up on first thing in the morning and men who would not be seen dead without their latest electronic gadget. For me the most important thing in the morning is breakfast and taking the dogs out for their walk.
I guess the normal thing now would be to remind us all that God looks at the heart and not the outside appearance and that is we concentrated on that it would be a better idea than thinking of how we look. That would be normal and true but I want to take a sidewise glance at this from another angle. We are all too familiar with the decline in numbers attending the institutional churches. I only say the institutional church because that is where my experience is and not on those churches which are emerging in various places. Sometimes I feel very defeated by the downward trend and then I have to remind myself, to quote Jonesy in Dad’s Army, “don’t panic, don’t panic”.
This is where I come back to the truth I learnt from my wardrobe malfunction. Unless we in the church are ready to turn our churches “inside out” or “outside in” we are never going to make a difference in our society. What I mean by this is that we need to keep our focus on God and on Jesus Christ in particular but we need to draw alongside people. We need to put the community back into the heart of the church. Presently our church buildings tell the world that we are different, set apart, a place where ordinary people do not go. Jesus Christ was always part of his community. I want our building to say to the world, “you are welcome” I want the Christians to say to the world, “church is a place of sanctuary, of peace and of acceptance”. We are not a private club; we are a people who are literally on the move. I know that the worry is that if we do not take care of ourselves we will lose our edge. Can we not leave the health of the church to the God who owns the church? Can we not trust God so that as we become more community minded He will look after our spiritual health or is that ok for missionaries in Africa and different for us in Belfast? Why not, for example, share our buildings with the community?
It’s time for all Churches to turn the inside out. Maybe my mistake was worth making after all!

Godliness and Cleanliness!

Every Sunday the car park at the former Dunn's Store on the Crumlin Road is full of people. There are so many cars it can be hard for people to get parked. It would be nice to think that this was because all these people were wanting top come to our church, which is situated just across the road but that is a mere pipe dream, they are at the weekly car boot sale. In that car park you find a veritable united nations of people, all enjoying the social occasion of buying and selling their wares.
if the Superstores of Britain and Ireland are the new cathedrals then this is one of its parish churches.

Rather than let this go unnoticed and without a Christian response we have decided to offer to pray for the needs of the people. We set up a table and make our ministry of intercessory prayer available to anyone, just for the asking. I usually go over after church to allow the person who is on duty, during church, to go home.

This morning I was watching as the people did their business and some merely ambled round looking and interacting with each other. I was amused by the reactions of a woman across on the opposite side as she watched a couple of Chinese have, what looked like, a bit of a row. It was impossible to tell as they were speaking in one of the 300 Chinese dialects, I guess! She smiled at me, as if to say, I wonder what they are arguing about. Every week the mess that is created after the market is appalling, as it remains like that until someone comes along to clean it up. I saw person after person throwing litter down and even tripping over cans and bottles and other bits and pieces without bothering to lift them. Later in the day I was talking to some young boys who were throwing their empty bottles onto the road and throwing bits of food at their mates in the park. That got me thinking about that old saying, "Cleanliness is next to Godliness" and wondered if that is true. On reflection I think it is not far from the mark. I say that because it is a reflection of an untidy thought pattern, it suggests that when I am finished with my rubbish all that is important is that I throw it away, out of my space and how it affects other people is no concern of mine.

Being tidy and thoughtful of other people will not mean, necessarily, that I am a godly person but it will mean that I have come to consider other people and that is a Godly consideration. It's not just a middle class thing but it is something worth teaching our children to be a value worth holding. None of us are individuals who need no one, no man is an island. We need each other and we have been created to be most satisfied and completed when we are living and working together, we are social beings and that means we will want to consider one another.

A Father's Thoughts

It’s just a week now since we said goodbye to Mark, our second son and third child. This week we will be saying goodbye to his elder brother, Peter. Sometimes it seems like life will never be the same again, that our family will never be together again. Sometimes I think that it would have been better for my sons and my daughter to have gone to work at 16 and found work at home. Sometimes I feel like God has taken them away from me but then I know that this is not so, I know that they were only ever given to us on loan. They never "belonged" to us and in doing what God wants them to do they will experience life in all its fullness. Sometimes I have this fear of ending up alone, like some of the elderly people I have visited over the years whose sons and daughters are in various parts of the world so that they have no family near them to look after them in their declining years.

A very long time ago I was out with my mum. It was in the days when the buses had no doors and the driver was at the opposite end of the bus. She placed me on the platform, while she got ready to get on herself only to be horrified at he sight of the b us moving before she had a foot on the platform. All I had for companionship was my panic. Thankfully this lasted only a moment as the conductor realized there was a problem and rang the bell to tell the driver to stop. I do not want to be in that position ever again!

In my more lucid moments I know that God will never leave us and He has blessed us with four great children, who are no longer children. Then I remember that God gave us His only Son, to die that we might live. In the last few weeks I have been given just a glimpse of what losing a son must be like, what giving a child for the benefit of others feels like. I have had the sorrow of burying the children of parents who never imagined, for a second, that they would outlive their children. We read the story in the Old Testament, of the sacrifice of Isaac wondering how he could do such a thing. The God we worship is a giving God who tells us that he will "love you with an everlasting love". I have been telling the congregation that this is God's default position and we should take great encouragement from that. We are told in the book of Hebrews that Abraham believed that God was going to raise his son from the dead as. God loves me and He loves you, the reader of this piece, with an everlasting love. Does that not warm your soul? You are loved! Now, I dare you, ignore Him, tell Him He can stick His love. On the other hand you could thank Him and ask Him to be your God for ever.

People who fear nothing

Like many other evangelicals I was brought up to believe in some indisputable truths: that what was really important was my individual faith; that reason and logic were more important in the hierarchy of truths; that I said what I believed and believed what I said. I was not brought up to question any of these received truths.

At the same time I believed that reason and logic were responsible for the sorry state of much theological opinion in the post World War two situation in which I grew up. The documentary hypothesis was one example of a liberal agenda to which I was strongly opposed. I can remember having many heated debates with one or two of our "liberally minded" teachers at college.

Today I wonder if I was not being just as guilty of taking up a position which was also heavily influenced by the Enlightenment and reason and logic. At a time when we speak of the "post Christian" world I wonder if we, conservative evangelicals, have not failed to recognize the heavy influence of the age of Reason on our thinking and the development of our theology: we think we are being faithful to the scriptures without realizing that we are influenced by our culture also and that we have been trained to think in a certain direction. During the sumer I had a conversation with someone who insisted that we were sovereign human beings but I could not help but wonder if that was not more the comment of a middle class person and one who had too high a view of human beings: is it not true that only God is sovereign? Is it not true that we are all constrained by our circumstances and culture? Also the idea of us being individuals divorced from the rest of society is not true: no man is an island. at the moment our society is suffering from anti-social behavior and we tend to lay a lot of the blame for this on the parents of the children and young people who are getting the blame. Yet in the Old Days, and this is where I sound like a grumpy old man, we accepted the axiom that it take s a community to raise a child. Today you dare not interfere in the behavior of a child for fear of what the parents will say. A friend of mine who is a Catholic Priest tells the story of how he has gone to the parents of young people he has seen on the roof of the church only to have the parents deny that it happened just because of the denial of the children.

In the evangelical constituency we have tended to allow the faith and our relationship with God to become individualized and privatized. In more than one book in recent times I have read the view that Jesus did not come to save individuals: he came to change th world. I have heard of people leaving one of the main denominations to go to one of the, so-called non-denominational churches: the reason are always the same: they want a greater sense of fellowship; they want to have a more experiential style of worship and the more institutional denominations are not able to shift their tradition to give the support required. Today young people want a church with a social conscience and a sense of both the transcendence and immanence of God.

In another age we shunned the monastic movement with its emphasis upon prayer, study and meditation and a strong community atmosphere-I believe that we have thrown the baby out with the bath water and we need to take another look at the way we do church.

I think that the churches that will really cut the ice are those who have a real sense of community and who have a prophetic and apostolic ministry: those people who are willing to incarnate the gospel wherever they are, articulating the gospel in an appropriate way that really does communicate in the 21st century. We need communities;we need teams, we need resources and we need the commitment of the people of god who are willing to follow Jesus Christ wherever He leads. Even though we live at a time when Christendom has gone this is not the time to go away, not the time to lick our wounds but it is the time to minister and to reach out and to give ourselves for the glory of God. Jesus did not call us to be part of an institution but a movement of people who have given themselves to Christ.

Jesus had 12 men he called Apostles and then he had an inner core of Peter, James and John but we look to the mega church as our model. What could be achieved, even on a hum,an scale with 12 men and women who fear nothing but letting God down? In the sporting world they say that winning, and loosing, becomes a habit and so too does following God. Let's pray for small groups of committed followers of Jesus who are willing to settle in our cities and towns and to live alongside those who are in need, just as we are. When we do that we can stand back and watch how he will use us!!

A Theology For Decline?

Introduction

This is a very personal contribution. It is based upon my work and ministry in Belfast as one who was born and bred in the city and as one who has returned after many years away: sixteen years in the Republic of Ireland and eight years in England. It has also been influenced by reading about Celtic Christianity and the Celtic Trail. I come to this as one who loves this city and the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. I say this because I make no pretensions of it being a theological work but I do want to touch on some very practical theological issues which I hope are also biblical

Like many other urban congregations Crumlin Road Presbyterian, on the west side of North Belfast is facing mega challenges. Numerically we are facing decline in attendance but we are committed to the community which shares the area with us. Traditionally the thinking of churches has been to fill the building with worshippers every Sunday. The Presbyterian Church in Ireland is set up to view success in terms of the attendance and the number of families on the active roll which is decided by those who have been accepted by the eldership as Communicant Members. There is no doubt that this has been the case in the more rural and middle class areas but not in the more working class situations. The denomination, which has 500 congregations, has been facing a steady decline, especially in the last thirty years: the numbers of families claiming membership has fallen from 133,000 in 1975 to 109,000 in 2005. That represents a fall from 380,000 to 260,000 people [or 4,000 a year]. The trend is the same when we count baptisms and communicant members.[1] When an attempt is made to exegete the Tudor Ward, where the congregation sits, we find a situation of similar decline. This city ward, when measured for social, financial, medical and educational deprivation, heads the list of the most deprived in Northern Ireland. Report after report[2] sets out the low educational attainment and expectation, the serious physical and mental health problems and the social issues such as teenage pregnancy, anti-social behaviour and religious bigotry. The social meltdown of society mixed with tribal turmoil has had devastating results in this, the coal face of the civil unrest over nearly forty years: division and conflict has cost the taxpayer an extra £1.5bn every year, according to a report commissioned by the government.

This report[3] estimated the cost of policing and security as well as the provision of separate housing and schools for Catholics and Protestants: segregated housing has increased costs by £24m; greater collaboration between schools could lead to savings of between £16m and nearly £80m. Reconciliation in Belfast includes making peace within the Protestant community as well as between the two communities. Belfast has always been a divided city[4] but added to this there has been an industrial decline which has robbed the city of its self-belief and confidence. Due to the progress of the hot war the Protestant, Unionist and Loyalist community, known as a PUL or orange area for convenience and accuracy, has been affected in the opposite direction to the Republican, Nationalist and Catholic community. Confidence in the green area is on the up while in the PUL areas it is in decline. Before the conflict the PUL community was confident and in a strong position economically, politically and socially. With the end of the hot war and the advent of the cold war the “Greens” have become more confident and economically mature. At one time the major jobs in industry, ship building, heavy engineering and airplane manufacture where in the hands of Protestants and their children. Today all those industries have gone. Protestants see themselves as victims who have been murdered by the IRA military campaign and politically out witted by a group who deny the legitimacy of the Northern Ireland state but who also want to have a part in the government of that state. With the end of the war the people of this community are in low morale and only see victimhood and conspiracy.[5]

At the same time there is a whole new community of people emerging within the old community which was demolished by both social conflict, directly and indirectly, and by government policy of regeneration. This is a community which has largely been alienated from church and the institution of church but who have so many needs that they will look to whoever has some answers. The problem for the Crumlin Road congregation is that the new people are extremely unlikely to become part of the church family. Over the years much hard work has been done to try to build bridges into the community to try to get them interested in church but to little effect. My contention in all of this is that what we really need is to turn the traditional approach to ministry on its head. Jesus was one who went to the people instead of persuading them to come to him. We need to develop a work of ministry among those who are unchurched, which will be supported by the present congregation and, in turn, will have the necessary support structures to cope with the pastoral needs of the congregation. The Biblical approach to evangelism is to use methods to “persuade men” which are culturally softer than the more aggressive, “in your face” hard line approach. A short while ago a member of the community told me that some of the local evangelists tended to “bully people into accepting the Christian way” and that highlights, for me, an important lesson: we need to serve the community and build relationships out of a sense of love rather than merely using this as a strategy. I should not be making friends with people so that I can share the gospel with them; I should be making friends because that is the right things to do. We must change our attitude in the area of evangelism and mission. In the past Christians have been accused of creating “rice Christians” in “mission lands” and today we can so very easily open ourselves to the same charge at home. Much of this is highlighted by Ray Simpson in “Church of the Isles” [6] The church wants to be a missional church, even though they are not familiar with that term and to punch above their weight. To do so there are some important issues, theological and otherwise, that need to be tackled. While the community is alienated from the institutional church, Jesus is as popular as ever.

Pilgrimage

A wise man told me a long time ago that truth comes to people in different ways. For some it hits like the wall to a marathon runner but for others it dawns like the morning sun. For these people the penny finally drops. We live in a sub-culture which expects and teaches the former. The idea of a pilgrimage is a foreign and suspect idea held by the more theologically liberal thinkers. In our culture we seem to emphasize the Damascus Road experience and make it normative when, in fact for the majority the Emmaus Road is more appropriate[7]. David Bosch calls Christian people “ex-centric”: an ek-klesia, or “called out” people, called out of the world and immediately sent back in. This is the theme of the book of Hebrews and is especially relevant to us who like the New Testament church and the Celtic Church is living at a time of weakness. We too are on the edge of society unlike our forefathers who lived in the midst and strength of Christendom. David Adam’s work, “Walking the Edges” makes this same point.[8] The days of Patrick, Cuthbert and Ninian are like today in that we are also living among the challenges of paganism and secularism from a position of weakness not strength. For a number of years I have been contemplating these things. The idea of the walk of faith seems to make sense to me: I was brought up in a culture which values highly the Damascus Road and yet most people have had the Emmaus Road experience. One of the great heroes of Northern Ireland’s evangelical world is C.S Lewis. His experience of faith is very different to that of the normal Christian in this land. He came to faith via a long journey from Christian background to atheism to theism and eventually to Christianity. The classical testimony is of the person who came from a debauched life to faith in a particular place at a particular time when everything changed in a moment. This was not true for Lewis and it is not true for the majority of people either. This last summer we had a team of young people from the town of Coleraine who belonged to a large and wealthy Presbyterian church. They came to help us with our Vacation Bible School and to see for themselves what life is like in Belfast. Very few of them spoke of a “conversion experience” in the sense of having a time and place where their lives changed in a twinkle of the eye. They came from Christian homes and could not remember a time when they had not believed. This illustrates well the truth of the statement: belonging before believing. I can relate to this myself. I made my first confession to Christ when I was a very young child. I did it out of fear and several years later I repeated the “sinner’s prayer”. The primary motivator for me was peer pressure and the strong sense of belonging.

Another person told me the other day that the church “spends too much time telling me I am a sinner”. The majority of people here are well aware of what the middles classes think of them. Without knowing it he was touching on the controversy between Augustine and Pelagius. When people “hear” the gospel they hear the preacher telling them they are thoroughly bad. They do not appreciate the nuances of “depravity”. There is good reason for telling the story of Jesus Christ from a more creationist than redemptive slant. I think it better to tell people how to restore the image of God than increasing their sense of guilt and robbing them of any hope. All too often in our society when a person experiences “salvation by grace through faith” they then retreat back to a religion of good works: so they do the very thing they did not want to do![9] The pilgrim walk also lessons the chances of people imagining that if they do not decide immediately they will miss the boat, the “kairos” moment will have gone. In my own life I can identify a journey of faith but I used to feel under pressure to make my conversion experience more like the norm. If we need to be reminded of the importance of pilgrimage we need look no further than Abraham and outside the bible there is the classic Christian tale told by John Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress. Michael Mitton says, “Now is surely the time to become open again to the Spirit of God who desires to come to the most intimate places of our lives, praying, healing and transforming us, that we may be released to a new sense of pilgrimage and divine restlessness”[10] For the Celts a place where the presence of God was palpable was called a “thin Place”: in communities like ours we need these places which have become so because of the prayer that goes on in them. We need places like this.

People Matter to God and so does culture

Bill Bright used to say that evangelism was to be Christ-centred but people –oriented. In the Church of the Isles Ray Simpson[11] speaks of the place of culture. Quoting Martin Wallace he says “true evangelism always happens from within the culture. To adopt a new faith does not imply adopting a new culture” Yet all too often church expects people to do this in matters of dress and lifestyle. Simpson tells us that the Celtic way was “culture-friendly”,[12] David Bosch[13] says that “The Christian faith never exists except as ‘translated’ into culture”. Here’s the challenge to take the gospel and translate it into working class culture. This was highlighted on our urban walk in Belfast when a couple of local guys stopped to shout at us. They refused to believe that I was a local because of my “posh” accent! The secret of the Chinese renewal since the foreigners were expelled is that it is thoroughly Chinese. A former colleague of mine[14], who spent many tears as a missionary in China, once said that while Chairman Mao expelled the foreign missionaries in 1950 attempting to lock them out what he ended up doing was locking the indigenous church in. All too often new believers have been expected to convert to the church culture as well as to Christ. In communities such as ours that has meant taking on the trappings and lifestyle of the middle class. The end result of this usually means the socially upward mobility of some and the impoverishment of the local church. In the Celtic Church the culture of the day was viewed as a friend to be influenced rather than an enemy to be expelled. The effect of this was that they Christianized those aspects of the culture which were perceived as pagan: out of the pagan mid-winter festival came Christmas. The presence of Christians in a community does make a difference and we need Christians staying in the community and we need other Christian taking the active decision to move into the area just to be available. We need to be offering and providing places of sanctuary where people in trouble can find help and support. Irish people are noted for their practice of hospitality and the church needs to do the same, not as an evangelistic strategy but just because it is the right thing to do. We need to actively create and support community.

Empowerment [Jesus built people up]

This brings me to another issue, that of empowerment. Incarnational theology has to mean that we live in the community. Dietrich Bonhoeffer held that “the church is only the church when it exists for others…the church must share in the secular problems of ordinary human life, not dominating, but helping and serving”[15]. Social solidarity is a crucial part of working class culture: very frequently people in our community are left feeling they are less worthy than other communities. One reason for this is the exodus of the community of those who were in a position to leave; those who could leave did leave. Some left the area altogether but some kept attending church on Sundays and this has created more alienation: the commuter church where the people and pastor travel in each week to do their bit “for” the community without profaning themselves by association with the common people. The Celtic monastic community was their way of being with the people. They set up learning, praying and hospitality communities. Our church policy of placing ministers in big houses and allowing the richer congregations to pay big salaries clearly removes them from the “secular problems” Bonhoeffer was talking about. My experience and that of others has been that spending time with people outside the church and identifying with them as much as possible is greatly rewarded and rewarding. Ray Simpson says that we should allow people to teach us before we seek to teach them. I spend some time in the local pub talking with people and with then parents in the local school as well as taking an active part in the community life just because I believe this is what Jesus would do and because I believe it is the right thing to do. I want to hear what they have to say and to listen to their views of the community. Without much effort I find that people open up when they are relaxed and in their own safe territorial space. People also come and talk to us when we are in the market place across from he church on Sunday mornings. I do not think the success model has done anything to help to empower people. When I think of Jesus I do not think of one who was the great professional who succeeded at everything he touched. I think of one who was crucified and who poured his life into others. I think of one who made himself vulnerable. Presbyterian ministers are not taught to be vulnerable, we are taught to be professional, detached and omni-competent. Vulnerability is an important key for ministry and can sometimes even be an important protection. To many people a real minister is one who is not only professional but big and strong and able to handle himself. Jesus turned this on its head when he spoke of the blessedness of the poor and the weak and Paul agreed in his definition of wisdom. In the urban context women have a vital part to play in any team, precisely because of their vulnerability!

Reconciliation

Against all this alienation reconciliation is a big issue. The “r” word has very negative connotations for the Protestant community both within and without the church. A pamphlet called “Reconciliation: A false goal?”,[16] illustrates the community view, which is not all that far from the evangelical view of the matter. This is a real struggle for me personally. I see it as a non-negotiable part of the message of salvation, as Christ died for the ungodly, so I am commanded to be reconciled to my enemy. I see the dividing wall of partition destroyed so that I can come into a personal relationship with Christ and that behooves me to extend that reconciliation to my neighbours who are just across the street living behind the “peace wall” of west Belfast. But, at the same time, this has been compromised and invested with negative images: to the average protestant in Belfast it means certain things: being part of the ecumenical movement, which most think is theologically liberal; it means surrender to the nationalist agenda; it means making a choice between my friends and my enemies. Part of my struggle is found in the dilemma of doing what is right and offending my support base and reaching across the community and in doing so loosing the attention of my own community. My dilemma includes the fact that reconciliation is also needed within the protestant community which is extremely fragmented. Over the years of the communal conflict various para-military groups sprang up to defend their community. This led to a host of organizations which fed into an already tribal community. Ireland has always been tribal rather than national. This is seen in the way that Irish sport has used the county structure rather than town or nation. Belfast had a host of Mills who were identified by the particular district they were in: so many streets had their own Mill and that encouraged very local view of identity. With the on-set of the IRA campaign of violence communities gathered behind their local identity even when they had a greater national identity. Justice is an important part of being reconciled and in Belfast there are people who feel that they have not been given justice: they are on both sides of the divide and while the Roman Catholic establishment has been good at working for and speaking about justice the protestant have not. When we speak of sin we omit to talk of the injustice done to victims and when we do we are very selective as to who these victims are.

Team approach to Ministry

For twenty years I have ministered in a “lone Ranger” way. I have experienced the need for pastoral support. In the reading I have done for the Celtic trail it is obvious that team work was important to them. It was important to the New Testament Church. It is encouraging to see how in a pagan culture the Christians of the day saw the need to work together and were ready to pay the price to do so. There have been many casualties in church life because of social exclusion and today that is made worse by the cult of individualism. We need structures to support those in ministry. The Celtic monastic way was a good way for ministers to be in the world and yet take time out to revive the batteries and inspire them by spending extended time with God. We have merely paid lip service to both team ministry and pastoral support. In our denomination only the rich can afford this model of ministry: we speak of team ministry but we make the possibility as difficult as possible. It is said that Patrick prayed up to 100 times a day because he valued being in the presence of God. In all of this we are reminded by the Celtic gender blindness of the position of women in our traditional church structures. In Celtic times men and women were both given leadership positions: Bridget is a good example. I believe that an urban ministry cannot be effectively carried out without some women involved with the team because their vulnerability is more of a strength than a weakness.

The Holy Spirit

For the reformed family this is an area of controversy. The Apostle Paul is clear in his teaching that every believer is to be “Filled with the Spirit”[17]. In Acts 19 the story of the “believers” who had not even heard of the Holy Spirit is set alongside signs and wonders. While the story of the extraordinary miracles is difficult to explain it does, for me, highlight the ministry of the Holy Spirit as the “Wild Goose” as well as the dove. It is a clear demonstration that no one can box in the Spirit of God: no one can make God predictable.

Out of the Box Theology [creativity]

This is discussed by Simpson in relation to some comments made by Bishop Richard Harries of Oxford[18] where he says that God cannot be boxed-in. All too often our systematic theologies build up a framework and then expect God to stay within that structure. This is, of course, ridiculous it just cannot be done. If this were so then God would not be God at all. If you start with the wrong premise then you will finish with wrong conclusions. In our theological thinking we have to allow God to be God and recognize that we cannot keep him in our box. This is what happens, for example, when some critique the Charismatic or Pentecostal movement: if the assumption is made that the miracles finished in Acts, because Calvin and other Reformers said so, then it is obvious that miracles do not happen today and so the charismatic movement is not of God.

The Prophets

Jeremiah was living and preaching at a time of spiritual decline. He kept preaching even though he saw no positive results. He believed that those who preached only good news were wrong and he said so. Despite his apparent failure he believed there would be better days and it was out of those bad days that he gave us chapter 29. Nehemiah and Ezra came to their work at a time of reconstruction. Nehemiah began his ministry in tears and confession and a long period of prayer. If he were living today he might well have involved himself in the 24/7 prayer room. In Nehemiah we have a prophet just for the West and north side Belfast were re-construction is going on, on a daily basis. In Jonah there is another prophet who would have felt right at home in Belfast. He was a bigoted Israeli who wanted to have nothing to do with the other side. God called him to preach to the other side and to call them to repentance. After attempting to run to the other side of the world he comes back and preaches only to find his preaching is more successful than he wanted. Part of the church in Belfast is in that position. For many years I had the same idea. When called me to work in the republic of Ireland I tried to resist it and did what I could to go somewhere, anywhere else but I had to give in.

The man Jesus

I have kept this to the end because he is the main man. Unfortunately the man Jesus Christ has been made in the image of man. We have made him into the gentle Jesus meek and mild of the infant room. He was a real man, a man of strength yet gentleness. He was a man who behaved like a man. In the wake of this man made in the image of man we have the loss of masculinity in our contemporary world. We need to rehabilitate the real Jesus: we need a Jesus who is God and we need to understand that we were made in the image of God and will not be complete and real men, or women, until that image is restored. For many years now I have preached against the Christian tendency to look for clones and cardboard cut outs of the latest Christian icons. For years I have tried to preach the need for real men but now I realize that there is a name for this theological approach. Now I know that this is creationism as against redemption. I have not thrown redemption into the dust bin but appreciate, in a community which struggles so much with guilt and loss of confidence that this is a more appropriate model. In this model the work of Christ, which is, of course redemptive, is also intended to restore the image of God in us. On the Celtic trail and in the reading I came to the conclusion that my theological thinking has been developing in this way and for that I am very grateful.

Reservations

Yes I do have some reservations: the main one is that I would do exactly what I have been warning against, namely to take a system or theological framework and make everything fit it. I have reservations about the place of creation. Not that we should love it or care for it but that a form of pantheism would take root and lead us into error. I have reservations about the theology of place and the modern monastic institutions: while they are not intended to take people out of their ministry context I think that can happen. I think those who live and work there permanently can very easily become separate and find they too are living in an ivory tower. I wonder how a place like Iona or Lindisfarne can help someone like me in an urban environment which is so very different and that was not answered when Ray Simpson seemed to avoid the question I asked him about that.

.Lessons for me:

Peter Neilson discovered, during his time in parish ministry that he needed to be a minister to the unchurched. If these alienated people will not come to church we will have to go to them. In the past that meant visiting people in their homes and the belief was that if the minister did that they would respond by attending church each Sunday. This is no longer the case. In Crumlin Road the previous minister visited people faithfully and very regularly in their homes to little or no effect in terms of church attendance. We need to find ways of visiting people and giving them a sense of worth by engaging with them in situations where they feel safe. By doing this we will also demonstrate that they are not without merit and they do have personal worth. I want to do this by setting aside time to be with people in as many ways as I can.

Last week a petrol bomb was thrown into a house by some Republican Crowds. No one seems to know why that happened but our clergy group made a statement to say that we would do whatever we could to help in negotiations if that would be of any help. By doing this we were trying to stand with the people in a time of trouble. Working for peace means getting along side the people and speaking up when they are wronged. Harvey Conn tells a story which illustrates a view of sin which includes being sinned against.[19]. He talks about the failure of a congregation to address the legitimate grievances of some factory workers in an industrial dispute. He illustrates the problem by looking at the issue of prostitution: most churches have spoken out against prostitution but have failed to speak out against the social and economic conditions that have led the girls to take such drastic steps to feed themselves and their families. I love the story that Tony Compolo tells of giving a party for a prostitute in a local bar.

I think we need to consider the development of a prayer room which can be open to allow people to spent time there: to recharge their batteries; to give more time to be in the presence of the Lord; to make available a safe place for people at those awkward times when churches are not open; for people at a time of need; and to provide opportunities for people to talk. Practicing the presence of Christ [Brother Lawrence][20] and maybe even encouraging modern monastic equivalents[21] to come and stay among us has to be a good dream

Conclusions

A theology of decline, where the recognition of weakness, presents us with opportunities, need not lead us to surrender. While the institutional church is in decline, it is not all that surprising given the decline in the population of the area from 70,000 to 15,000. At the exact same time many more people are looking for spiritual answers. This is supported by the work of David Hay and Kate Hunt[22] who says that people are 60% more likely to speak of a spiritual experience than 15 years ago. People are 50% more likely to speak of answered prayer and want a ‘church for beginners’ because they are more confused by church. They go on to say that today church tends to close people out of the faith instead of helping them in. While all this is true this is still not the time to run home with our tails between our legs. John Wimber[23] is quoted by Ray Simpson as saying “Never trust a leader who walks without a limp”. The theology of Paul was about vulnerability rather than resistance, weakness rather than strength, poverty rather than riches and foolishness rather than wisdom. Prophets like Jeremiah knew all about the need to preach faithfully in season and out of season and of seeing little or no apparent success. We need to realize that the idea that we will always make progress is , quite simply a myth to be exploded. Under the title “A Theology of Decline” I came across a very interesting blog and I quote a substantial part of it here[24]:

The great risk with pessimism is obviously despair and resignation in face of the inevitable. This is the problem one has to try to solve. This is an area where I believe a religious faith can be immensely helpful.

One can gather this from the fact that throughout the history of the Church periods of decline and crisis have often coincided with very creative periods in the development of theology. For example, Augustine wrote The City of God in response to the decline of the Roman Empire. A century earlier the decline of the Roman administration in Egypt sparked the massive ascetic movement that I consider to be one of the most vibrant periods in the history of the church.

A more recent example is the blow to our own culture that was the First World War. The period after the war, that effectively broke off the optimism of the 19^th century, produced the best theology of the 20^th century: Tillich, Bultmann, Brunner, and this other guy, yeah, Barth. ;) All this so called “crisis theology” was a reaction to the feeling that the Church could not go on as it had before.

Decline implies weakness, but it is also strength in God’s economy because we then should need God more and then we are strong. In the spirit of creativity we need to go to where the people are and not continue to flog the dead horse of “come to church”. We need to teach people to “be church”[25], being willing to be ex-centric instead of normal. We need to help people to leave the church by being in the church but also with the community and for the community, getting our hands dirty. Oscar Romero, who spoke of taking a step back and taking in the long view puts ministry in the best context in one of his prayers in saying:

The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision. We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work.
Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us. No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection.
No pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the church's mission.
No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

This is what we are about.
We plant the seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted,
knowing that they hold future promise.

We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation
in realizing that. This enables us to do something,
and to do it very well. It may be incomplete,
but it is a beginning, a step along the way,
an opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results, but that is the difference
between the master builder and the worker.

We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own.
Amen.

---

[1] Annual reports of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland

2007

[2] Dunlop Report and The Missing Generation are but two

[3] Deloitte Report reported by BBC news 23^rd August 2007

[4] This was brought to our attention by David Stephens at our get together in

Belfast during the Celtic Trail

[5] see report on the congregation which draws from research by PCI and CCC 2000 and 2006 respectively

[6] Ray Simpson, Church of the Isles, Kevin Mayhew [20030 p 25ff

[7] John Finney, Finding Faith Today 1992 p24 says that 31% claim a datable

experience but most people [69%] come to a living faith through a gradual

process.

[8] Walking The Edges” SPCK

[9] Romans 7

[10] Michael Mitton, Restoring the woven Cord [Darton, Longman & Todd, 1955

[11] Simpson, op.cid p 78

[12] Simpson, op.cit. p78

[13] David Bosch, Transforming Mission Orbis [2005] p

[14] Jack Weir, formerly Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church

in Ireland 1980

[15] Bosch, op.cit. p375

[16] Reconciliation: a false goal? Compiled by Michael Hall 2000 [Island

Pamphlets]

[17] Ephesians 5:18

[18] Simpson, op.cit. p29

[19] Harvey Conn, Evangelism: doing Justice and preaching Grace Zondervan

[1982] p47

[20] Brother Lawrence, Practicing the Presence of God Hodder & Staughton [1981]

[21] Perhaps groups like InnerCHANGE

[22] Understanding the Spirituality of People who Don’t go to Church, university of

Nottingham 2000

[23] Simpson., op.cit. p114

[24] Blog by Patrick Hagman August 2007

[25] You’re an Angel, Peter Neilson and David Currie, Covenanters [2005] p175

A Theoloy for Decline

Today there are churches all over the urban areas of the United Kingdom, Ireland and the rest of Europe that are experiencing decline. How are we supposed to work and minister in that situation? Do we cut our losses and go to the middle class places? Do we regard this decline as a challenge too great for us to respond to: have we waited too long to respond? Should we have taken affirmative action ten years ago? Or do we view it as a positive because God is telling us something? Is it possible that the model so beloved for so long is no longer working? Is it possible that the"in your face", aggressive model no longer works?

What does Jeremiah mean when God tells his people that working for the welfare of the city will result in the benefit of his people also? In he eyes of the whole world God promises a better future but this fro the mouth of a man who is a patent failure-for over twenty years he has preached with no result. This is very difficult for a Christian community which has bought into the success model: we have all been brought up to believe that the gospel will also bring about positive results. We forget that God has imbibed us with the freedom to make up our own minds. Love means the possibility that those we love will not do or say what we want them to. When God made Adam he did so with the possibility that he would reject God's way and that is exactly what happened. We also neglect to consider the struggle with the powers and principalities of evil in the heavenly realms. How are we to respond to them? Will our efforts in prayer be enough? Is prayer guaranteed to make a difference?

Will the prayer of millions of believers make the difference as they pray 24/7? Answers welcome. Many of our churches are in numerical decline but we are not going to runaway with our tails between our legs but do you think we have the bottle to change with the times? The message of the gospel has not changed but the world has changed and we are still working with an outdated model which assumes that people will come to church because that is what everyone really wants. In our area that is certainly not true and we have not helped in the way we have refused to incarnate the word in the local community. We need to know that while the Institution of the church is in decline the followers of Jesus Christ are on the increase.

The Fellowship of the Unashamed

The Fellowship of the Unashamed