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

Flickr: Photos from PatL

Flickr: Photos from PatL

William Temple said that the church is the only institution that exists for those outside the church. In that respect the church is not an institution but a movement of God's people. While ministers and other church leaders spend most of their time propping up the institution and taking care of its own people there is a whole constituency outside the church walls which is looking for leadership and concern. Are we going to go to the places where they are hanging out? Are we ready to rub shoulders with the great unwashed of society that we might win some for and to Christ? Are we willing to pay the price?

Even the word "Christian" has got a bad press just as the "church" has. Increasingly we will need to call ourselves "followers of Jesus Christ". The Celtic Christians in the time of Patrick and Columba and Ninian were on the edge of their society-they had no desire to play power politics or to be part of some form of Christendom-all they wanted to do was to be with people and to win them for Christ. The idea of doping mission or evangelism was foreign to them because they did not separate witnessing for Christ from the rest of their lives, they had no dualistic way of life, just one , holistic way.

Counter-Cultural

Jesus Christ was the most readical person who has ever walked on this earth. He came to change the world by changing people and societies from the inside out. He did that from the top down by getting people to respond, thus changing society from the bottom up. When He returned to heaven he left behind two very important agencies of His grace- The Holy Spirit, whom he called the paraclyte or the one who was called to be along side us, and He also left behind the church. Church is really not a great name for what is really His body on earth. His body on earth was intended to be a movement of people but, unfortunately it has become an institution. One of the reasons why so many people today have rejected the church is that it is little more than an institution- whose chief interest and ambition seems to be servicing the institution rather than developing the movement. The movement that Jesus wanted was one more concerned for the people outside the gate than those within the walls. The movemnent He wamted and still wants is one which is interested in feeding the hungry, helping to empower those who are impoverished or imprisoned. A movement of His people who see themselves serving their community by getting alongside people.

Because our churches have buildings to maintain and their own organisations to bolster up we end up giving inordinate amounts of time and money to maintaining the fabric of the church rather than reaching out to those who are in need. Look around and you will see churches which are far too big-some are too big because the community is much smaller than once was the case but others are too big because they view themselves as mega churches- they think that "big is best". Jesus, on the other hand never told us to build bigger churches, he never, for one minute suggested that we make ourselves stronger, quite the opposite in fact-He suggested that we invert the values of this society, he was a counter-culturalist.

Here are some questions for the counter-cultural church-

* Is the gospel bigger and more powerful than sectarian or racist attitudes?
* When is a church too big?
* Are we more concerned with our purity than we are in the welfare of the community?
* Do we love this community enough to actually live here?
* With the changes in our society where more money is coming into the city centre and people are wanting to return to live there, will many of us evangelicals feel the need to move back into the city from the suburbs?
* How are we going to demonstrate our love for the poor and the marginalised? Will we welcome even those we call anti-social?

Crying out for leaders

In many places today I hear the deep seated cry for leadership. There is the cry for political leadership at a time of deep concern for the future. Then there is the cry for leadership from the churches, both from those inside the walls and from those outside the gates. The cry is for moral guidance and an engagement with the community that, they say, has become adrift in recent years.

In a short while we will be celebrating the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade in the United Kingdom. This was due to the unstinting leadership of William Wilberforce, who gave twenty years of his life to the cause. Along with William Pitt he worked for the transformation of British society, not just in this area but in a whole range of areas including prison reform, better conditions for children and animal welfare. At a time when the majority of the nation thought it was a horrible but necessary trade he laboured on. Even when his team managed to get enough signatures for the petition parliament dragged its feet until the war with Napoleon made it an unpatriotic thing to even consider he held to his principles. When the cause won the day eventually it was because of political manoeuvring.

Wilberforce was a man committed to the transformation of society. Today we would call him a transformational leader who embraced his place within the community and worked for its transformation from the inside out. What we need today are leaders who will not stand on the outside looking in and directing operations from a safe distance but will share in the life of the people they serve. They will lead in such a way that we can share a common vision. This is the leader who is truly radical and worth following to the very end. Jesus of Nazareth was such a leader whose philosophy was service and that inspired the disciples to follow him. Here are a few thoughts from the pen of Dietrich Bonhoeffer which I find very inspiring:

The leader shares the pain and is at the heart of grief. He describes community as what we have, not what we dream about. It is not the visionary conception but it is the present reality. “If I do not give thanks daily for the Christian fellowship in which we have been placed, even where there is no great experience, no discoverable riches, but much weakness, small faith, and difficulty; if on the contrary, we only keep complaining to God that everything is so paltry and petty, so far from what we expected, then we hinder God from letting our fellowship grow according to the measure and riches which are there for us all in Jesus Christ.”

The transformational leader is a person who has a vision to share, and a life to match, which will inspire others to follow. Bobby Kennedy once said: “you see things as they really are and ask, why? I dream dreams of how things could be and ask, why not?

What is our vision for a better Belfast?

Will take a gamble?

This is the response of Crumlin Road Presbyterian congregation in Belfast to the proposed legislation on Betting and Gambling.

In stating these views we wish to make it clear that we are willing to do whatever we can to support those who have become addicted to gambling. Our desire is to be a positive people ready and willing to play our part in the making of a better community. We are making no moral judgements. We are against the proposal to lift the ban on Sunday gambling, bearing in mind that we have a Betting Shop next to the church, for the following reasons:

We consider all gambling to be a tax on those who can least afford it. We are disappointed that this has come from a government which has moved irredeemably from its roots as the working man’s party. The only people to profit from this proposal, as far as we can see are those with vested interests.

We consider the government would have been better putting more resources into helping those who are trying to recover from an addiction to gambling. Giving more opportunities to gamble will not help those many families who have been destroyed by the addiction.

One of our biggest concerns is that we have no confidence that workers who have an objection to working on a Sunday will be protected by legal legislation.

We object to a policy which has underpinned the false hopes of many that they can make their fortune without any effort.

We see this as another morally slippery slope. The attitude appears to be that if we cannot stop people from gambling then we might as well make some money from it. That is morally reprehensible to us.

We have no desire to be brought into line with the rest of the UK if that means encouraging people to do something we have a moral objection to.

We accept the fact that people should be allowed to do what society accepts but we are also part of that society and wish to make our feelings known. Since we accept the reality of gambling on the other six days of the week we think it would be a fair compromise to leave the seventh day free.

VICTIMS

Moses was used by God to save the children of Israel from the slavery of Egypt. If you know the story you will remember that he was hidden in the bullrushes so that he would not be sacrificed. His mother found herself in one of life's hard places. She couldn't just give him up to be killed so she had to find a way. In the end she hid him in just the right place for the princess to find him. I often wonder if she had done her homework and knew that this was a place where the princess went and that she would just love to have ababy all of her own. Did Moses's mother plan it all so that she would get paid for looking after her own son ? What would we call that today? Doing the double? Many years later he found out that he was really a Hebrew and not an Egyptian. When he saw that Egyptian beating one of his people he saw red and, making sure that no one was watching he struck out and killed the bully. What he failed to realise was that he was seen but not by the Egyptians, it was a Hebrew. The next time he interceeded to separate two Hebrews from fighting he got an unexpected reaction which caused him to flee the country.

He discovered that compassion and good intentions are not always good enough. You would have thought that all the Hebrews would ahve been united against the common enemybut here they are fighting each other. Years of being at the bottom of social and economic structure diminished their capacity for hope. The text tells us that God heard the groans of his people from Egypt and delivered them to the promised land "but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and bondage".

As a community we are possibly on the verge of a new era in community relations but after so many years of the bondage of the "troubles" can we hear the good news? The last 30 years of conflict and disruption and community mistrust we are ALL damaged. We are all victims. Little did the Egyptians realise it but God was setting them free as well as the Hebrews. Both Hebrews and Egyptians were brutalised. In every conflict the oppressor and the oppressed are damaged its just that oppressed know they are damaged the oppresor does not. But what about the situation where there is no clear oppressor or oppressed? Does that make it all the worse?

When people are damaged they need help to put their lives together again. So who needs help in Northern Ireland? How are we going to get that help? Perhaps the place to start is by recognising that we are all victims and we may even be able to help each other instea of fighting each other just like the Hebrews!

Letter from America

Take sa walk down the streets of a city like Seattle in Washington state and then, as if by time travel [Dr Who's Tardis for the British or by Scotty's mythical beam], take another trip down any Belfast street and you will begin to understand the transition that our world is in right now. If you were able to take that same mode of transport and walk down the same city streets 50 years ago I think you will have your observations reinforced. At one time the majority of people in the world were white, today they are mostly yellow and brown, followed very closely behind by black. Today Indiaand China are in the acendency. At one time the world was an agricultural place but today 50% of the people live in the cities. Every year 30 million Chinese are moving from the countryside into the cities which is the equivalent of the entire population of Canada. Today there are more children in Mexico city than there are people in either New York or London. When I was at school London was the biggest city in the world, not so any longer.

Just a matter of weeks ago I visited a member of my congregation [when I say a member I mean someone who is on the edge and only through his aged father] anyway he complained to me for over an hour about all the foreigners who are taking over our country. By our country he meant Northern Ireland. He said that they were getting our houses and being supported by the state. He complainmed about the wave of Muslims who were not integrating into the community. At that time the news was full of arguments about whether or not Muslim women should be allowed to wear the veil. Now the issue of enculturation is a valid discussion but his complaint was based on the fact that this country is a Christian country. The problem was that he neither went to church nor believed in God. He just could not believe in a God who brought suffering into the world and, anyway "no one can prove it".

He was like many people in our society today, a "cultural and political Protestant". While he was calling for the integration of the Muslims he is part of a community who will not live in integration with their Catholic neighbours.

For the Christian this transition from a single identity community to a pluralist society brings opportunities as well as problems. Today we are living in a society which is becoming secular as well as pluralist and the Christian church is going to have to learn how to take advantage of it. To people like the late Leslie Newbigin the world is returning to a situation like th one the early church was faced with. For many years Unionists in Northern Ireland have said that the Catholics will one day outnumber us [they expressed it in much more colourful ways!] and for years we have been told that the Chinese will one day outnumber us. If we take a look at the New testament church we find a small group of Jesus followers trying to practice their faith in church and outside church as part of a polytheistic society dominated by the pagan Roam Empire and they did not loose their faith. When they had to work on Sundays they did so- they worked around the problem by working and worshiping much as modern Christians do in countries like Bangladesh were the religious day is Friday.

What I am suggesting is that we embrace the pluralism we are faced with, not in an attitude of defeat and nostalgia for the good old days but with optimism because, after all our praying for the fulfillment of the Great Commission. The cost in sending a missionary to a country like China or India is great in financial and other ways but today God is actually, by his grace, bringing many Chinese, Indians and others to our shores- the cost of their travel is not on the shoulders of the church but on themselves and the host government so can we praise God and learn how to welcome them and love them? Why would we love these people? Because God loves them as he does those of us who have white skin so we are to lve them also even if we were not commanded to. "Red and Yellow, black and white all are precious in his sight" or do we not believe the Bible?

For the last two weeks I have been studying in America with other Doctoral students from all over the world looking at what the bible has to say about our current world and how to reach them for Jesus Christ. We come from different denominations from Orthodox to Baptist and Presbyterian. We have people working among street children and the women of the night as well as pastors from a great variety of churches. Some of us have white skin, some have brown skin and some have very black skin. On Monday the world will remember the life and work of Dr Martin Luther King jr who reminded us that we are all God's children. That is not some airy fairy universalism but a recognition that God made us all in his image. If that is so how can we be racist? How can we reject the foreigner jus because he is not one of us. The nation state is breaking up and we are returning to the city state and to the alignment of nations and peoples into loose confederations. Today I am more than British, I am more than Irish, I am a European and , at the same time I am primarily a man from Belfast.

Is it not time to embrace the changes and take advantage of them because my task is not to make more people like me, God forbid, but to help them to become the people God intended them to become.