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Walking in their Moccasins

By Terry R Tennens.

Introduction

Let me share with you a memorable experience of mine.

As I approached this establishment I could not see through the front door, wasn’t sure who would be on the other side; what welcome or unwelcome I might receive. In fact, I hadn’t a clue what I was going to do.

As I walked in there were a number of TV screens suspended from the ceiling. On either side were stools with information on the walls and pens and paper available. At the far end was a glass screen with a person sitting behind it looking disinterested. I remember other people’s eyes staring at me in this strange atmosphere and feeling conspicuous.  I longed to get out of this ‘foreign experience’. It was well outside my comfort zone. I was not familiar with the rules and rituals. I was an outsider. I have not since entered such an establishment, but I suspect they have changed. No, that was not my first experience of the local church, but my first experience of entering a betting shop one lunchtime in the city of London in the early 1980s.

For many unchurched people going to worship on a Sunday at a local Church is a similar experience as my betting shop story. I offered totake a group from church to the local betting shop to relate an experience where we are outside our comfort zone. They did not approve!

The saying ‘don’t judge a person until you walk in their moccasins’ must be a guiding principle for being an ‘open Christian community’. In other words, what might it feel like to enter this worship space as a newcomer? How can we make this experience as easy and smooth as possible? What language, explanation and geography of the room space will facilitate engaging the regular worshipper and the newcomer? How can we avoid de-skilling guests as they join us in worship? Evidence suggests that men and women who exercise their skills weekly in the workplace have little place to use their work skills in the worship experience.

How healthy is your local Church? It is important to answer that question while avoiding two common reactions:

1.     to over spiritualise;

2.     to get into management speak and lose all connectedness to God.

Entry Points: Help I want to get in!

As the Disability Act has made businesses and churches alike think about buildings being friendly to physically challenged people, so entry points are shifting for churches.

In Colchester I lead a Mission Unit to the Workplace called Work Dynamics. We are a gathering of Christians from various churches in and around Colchester who have working in the town centre in common. Since people spend more time at work than any other activity, there is an obvious entry point to create space midweek for nourishing believers and mission to the workplace.

Work Dynamics floats above the parish boundaries with the co-operation of Churches Together in Central Colchester. The intention is to ‘go’ and be/do church where these networks are, rather than always begging people to ‘come’ to our territory. 

We have led seminars on how to deal with stress, with over thirty-five unchurched people participating. We invited a professor of law to lead a session on workplace justice and are seeking to engage the lawyers of the town in the debate of ethics and workplace justice.

We have held a four-week introduction to Christianity and had six unchurched guests.

QUESTION:

• How are you engaging with the spheres of life, such as the household, the workplace, and the place of leisure pursuit, the academy of learning (pre-school to third age), the neighbourhood, and as a national and global citizen?

Discovering Your Church’s Identity

The days are long past where 50 years ago if a person went to worship in a URC Church in Cumbria or Surrey, the format and style of service would be in common. 

This is the ‘day of diversity’. This is surely good, reflecting the nature of God’s creation. As each individual is unique, so each Christian community in its context has a unique calling from God. Therefore, discovering one’s identity as a church is crucial and this will be defined not only by those within the Christian community, but also shaped by the larger community in which the church is set.

Buildings tell a story, from a bank with its high walls and cash machines to leisure centres with open doors, from business units to church buildings. All tell a story of their history and values with implicit messages. Buildings shape people. Can people see out as well as in? Is it a bright or a dark building inside? Are the spaces available personal or impersonal?

Some churches have developed their premises suitable for use as community centres. Funding has been secured from outside the church where niche services have emerged in the changing demographics of city and town centres. Disused public houses have been purchased by churches to extend their mission and size of place. What will Christians be purchasing in the future for mission? Prisons? Horse racing tracks? Shops in shopping centres? Football stadiums? Business units?

QUESTION:

• If you described your church as a creature, what kind of animal would it be?  An ant that carries six times its body weight or a slug that’s slow to move and is nocturnal?  Or would you be like a giraffe, full of grace, but to stoop to drink brings danger from predators of pride; or is your church community like the bumble bee that flits to pollinate and makes sweet honey or like the wasp which can be a thorough nuisance!

Agents Of Change

Change management has been a field of expertise that developed strongly in the 1980s in commerce, education, health care and the voluntary sector, including churches.

The fluid climate we find ourselves in is a culture that is constantly metamorphosing. Therefore, churches require leaders who not simply manage change organisationally, but are change agents within society.  This will take enormous energy and adaptability on human and spiritual resources, theological education, missional and pastoral practice.

Furthermore, if some churches are emerging from an enlightenment model of ministry and mission, it is evident that theological/ministerial training institutions will be required to equip ‘emerging leaders for an emerging church’. 

DISCUSSION POINTS:

• Distinguish what have been positive changes in the wider culture in your lifetime and those that have been unhelpful..
• Identify stories of change leaders from the Bible and why they were necessary (for example, Hosea).

The BBH (Building Bridges Of Hope) Journey

Transforming church from the ground up using the skilful outsider

BBH is a mission accompaniment scheme developing through the Churches Together in Britain and Ireland network. From 2001 to 2006 a number of churches from local to regional to national headquarters were part of the scheme. Anglican, Baptist, Catholic, Independent Evangelical and Charismatic, Methodist,  New Frontiers, Presbyterian and ecumenical instruments like CYTUN (Churches Together in Wales) and expressions of church such as the Northumbria Community.

Each of the above was visited by a friendly outsider, a Christian, deliberately from a different Christian background. We call them ‘mission accompaniers’.

Mission accompaniers were not simply chosen to be from another Christian tradition out of ecumenical nicety, as important as cross-church partnerships are. It was done in this way because they brought ‘fresh perspective’ to the situation and an ability to see the blind spots of churches accompanied. Also, they had no authority back to the denominational HQ, therefore they brought ‘impartiality’ and most important, encouragement. The primary skills were those of listening, asking questions, reflecting and mirroring, and using client centred skills to assist the church to develop in God’s mission for their context.

The mission accompanier met at an agreed frequency (from monthly to quarterly) with a reference group made up not only of leaders, but a mixture of the congregation. The duration of accompaniment ranged from eighteen months to five years.

The methodologies used by the mission accompanier are the Seven core values of a mission church, which arose from evidence-based learning from an earlier phase of BBH. These are core values for a church to ensure they remain or move into the mission paradigm.

1.     Focusing vision

In the 1990s many churches got into gear with developing their vision or mission statements. This on the whole has been a good move. The downside is that churches have developed their strap line for their vision statement with little reflection on what their strengths and weaknesses are, nor alert to the issues of the community at large. Also, what often happens is that, apart from the strap line remaining on various weekly notice sheets and monthly church magazines, once the vision statement is drafted and agreed it is forgotten as though ‘now we have done that let’s move on’. The challenge remains to corporately own the mission statement so that 90% of the congregation could give an answer if asked what it was and what it means for them as disciples of Christ.

Listening is a ministry the church can excel at. When was the last occasion the leadership team spent time listening to the hopes and fears of the congregation, the needs and aspirations to be equipped disciples for today? Furthermore, when was the last time you listened to the wider community in which the church was set? Why not embark on a listening audit. Even more bold, what about inviting some non-Christians who are sympathetic to have a role in speaking into your Church’s life, giving you their perception of the church’s impact and messages in the larger community. Yes, you will need maturity to hear what the non-Christian says, but it could sharpen your focus.

Finally, once you have clarity of purpose, values and vision, how will you stay focused? There are many distractions and events in life that pull us from God’s guidance. The mission accompanier is a person who can speak impartially into your church’s life and gently remind you of your intentions and get you back on track.

QUESTIONS:

• What is the purpose of your church? (What are we here for?)
• What are the values of your church? (How shall we live together?)
• What’s the vision of your church? (Where is God guiding us over the next 2-5 years?)

2. Building local partnerships

Instead of seeing a sister Church as a competitor, adversary or irrelevance, I have witnessed an Anglican church sending their young people to the Baptist church which had a staff team and healthy programme that need not be matched. And in the same place of mutuality, the Baptist church sent their over 60s to the parish church activities which were well developed.

What other partnerships could emerge in your church location? with government bodies? or business? or other voluntary groups and leisure pursuits? or other faith groups all of which share a common concern?

Churches which engaged in a partnership approach made a significant impact in their community. The Bradford Inner Ring Group is a covenanted group of the city’s churches who have partnered one another in seven key areas including evangelism/evangelisation; use of buildings; children and young people; inter-faith dialogue and friendship; and sharing resources for the common goal of the kingdom of Christ.

QUESTIONS:

• Identify what formal and informal partnerships exist. How healthy are they?
• Have you looked at the 2001 census to assess the demographics of your community to work out the actual needs against the perceived needs?
• How is your Christian distinctiveness maintained in alliances with non-Christian?
• How do those partnerships find expression in corporate worship and mid-week groups?

3. Sharing Faith and Values

Probably the greatest challenge for the Christian church today is the vocation to communicate the message of Jesus in a pluralistic and post-everything culture. The danger is to limit our faith sharing to introductory courses like Alpha or Christianity Explored and to leave this call to the enthusiasts in our churches. Far better to integrate the church’s weekly ministry as contact points for sharing the love of God in word and action: for example, from carers and toddler groups, to a community centre meeting, to workplace and sports pursuits, as access points of your strategy.

Often the place to start is in learning to share our faith journey with one another in the church, so that we become familiar with how to articulate the ways in which God has impacted our lives. Then the challenge is to apply the principles learned to faith sharing. If evangelism is ‘sharing faith’ this indicates that it is a two way communication, as well as offering our knowledge and experience of Jesus Christ today, and finding out what makes the other person tick, their needs, hopes and fears. In doing so, we show respect for the other person. It is clear that today the journey to faith is not only a process; it is a chaotic rather than linear process for the enquirer.

Faith sharing can occur on the basis of shared values. The biblical story is full of places of engagement from safe and thriving community life to welcoming the refugee, care of the environment and a just world for all.  Actions speak louder than words, but sometimes actions require words to explain them.

QUESTIONS:

• When did you last share with another an aspect of what it means to be a Christian?
• What does respectful and meaningful faith sharing look and feel like?
• Draw an outline of your church’s ministries. How integrated is your evangelism strategy? The personal development and training of believers towards that strategy?  The prayer and devotional life of your church to centre people in Christ for the evangelistic task?

4. Spirituality for Daily Life

Disconnectedness is an everyday experience within the church and world. Connecting faith to everyday life is a challenge, when much of the preaching themes centre on the family and home life, thus missing crucial elements where we spend most of our time, at work, or as citizens of a nation and world.

Might there be a place for a Christian spirituality to be developed around the garden, sport and leisure, and shopping centres?  Imagine a short act of worship by the fountain exhibits at B&Q, or after the football match an act of confession for the hideous tackles made with players and supporters present. Or how about Sunday’s worship theme being based around a community event, workplace, or economic issue, as well as home and family?

QUESTIONS:

• How does your preaching plan reflect the diversity of peoples’ weekly lives?
• Beyond Sunday worship and mid-week groups, how else do you connect with church members during the week (e.g. internet; email; text; pod cast; daily prayer resources, gathering points during week such as before work or lunchtime, other)?
• What regular spiritual disciplines nourish and sustain you for Christian leadership?

5. Team Leadership

Collaborative ministry (where lay and ordained work closely in the ministry of the church) is not simply a reflection of the Trinity of God as a model of team ministry, but functionally, it achieves more engagement within the wider community.

How do we match the charisms of the pioneer, the trail blazer, the shepherd, the settler and the developer? This issue of shared leadership is the primary challenge for discovering new ways of being church, evangelistic initiative and authorising leaders for mission and ministry. 

Discovering new ways of being church will inevitably result in new ways of releasing leaders who are authorised for a calling and task.

QUESTIONS:

• How might your church recognise a charism and calling of people in serving God’s kingdom outside the church as well within the programmes of the church?
• How do we empower new leaders within the environment of freedom and accountability?
• What does balanced team leadership look like, compared to over controlling and couldn’t care less approaches?

6. Becoming learning communities

The first Sunday I preached as an ordained minister I wore an ‘L’ plate around my neck. I should still wear one! The New Testament word for disciple is ‘mathetes’, meaning a learner of Christ. The Christian faith is one journey of life-long learning to follow God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

In the quest to win converts to Christ we have moved the boundary of conversion to the point where it is the end goal, whereas in fact it is the beginning of the journey. Some churches have lost the art of learning as communities. The danger to fossilize is ever near in becoming fixed and unwieldy. Therefore, we need to do some unlearning as well as fresh learning as Christian communities and as 21st century disciples.

QUESTIONS:

• In what ways could the meal and story-telling have in developing creative forms of church?
• As the church is removed from the centre to the margins, how do we live as an exiled community and what assistance can the Biblical narrative give us in this exile?
• How do you learn: visually; kinaesthetically; thinking and/or audibly?

7. Contributing to and being stimulated by external networks

In BBH, at the annual Future Church conferences, we have had people who would not normally seek each other out - people with different Christian traditions, different theologies and different nationalities - sitting alongside one another. 

It has been exciting to hear a new Methodist Church plant in Dublin sharing its story of struggle and growth on a tough housing estate, inspiring a Christian Trust in Kent to consider its community centre in the High Street as an expression of Church. Relationships of learning, openness and trust have emerged in unlikely places. Alliances of exchange and mutual support have grown.

This has revealed much about the maturity and flexibility of the Christians involved in BBH. Allowing outsiders in the mutuality of trust and risk to speak into your church’s life from an unnatural affinity group is a healthy characteristic of a mission shaped church. The Acts of the Apostles highlights the apostolic mission enterprise as churches speak into one another’s lives.

QUESTIONS:

• What wider networks are you part of that stimulate, challenge and stretch your faith?
• How do you allow the friendly and skilful outsider to speak into your church’s life?
• How can local churches and the wider Churches develop the art of telling the truth to each other - and hearing truth from each other?

The Revd Terry R Tennens can be contacted via the CTBI website: www.ctbi.org.uk