I asked the same question about ministers so it seems only right that I ask the same question about members / people who attend church / adherents / punters (delete or insert as necessary).

What are church members for?

Is their role to turn up on a Sunday morning, sing, close their eyes at the appropriate time and put enough cash in the offering to pay for the minister / roof /organ repair (delete or insert as necessary)?

Is their role to listen to the well prepared and inspirational / rambling incoherent (delete or insert as necessary) sermon?

Or is there something else that the punters in the pews should be up to?

When you ask a congregation to bring a friend to church next week some of them look like you have asked for one of their kidneys.  Some looked as though they’d rather give you the kidney!  I don’t think they are unusual in that.

What does mission mean in your church community?

What does it look like?  Who does it?  Who organises it?

Or would you rather give me a kidney (delete or insert as necessary)?

There are lots of conversations about ‘deployment’ and ‘team ministry’ around the churches in Scotland at the moment.  The discussion is mostly driven by questions of money and the size of congregations and if pretty focused on where ministers are sent and how many there are and how congregations can be scoped and grouped so they can have a minister.

The current discussion assumes that ministry in its current form is a good thing and that every congregation benefits from having one.

I don’t think that’s a good place to begin.

No-one is really grappling seriously with the question ‘What are ministers for?’.

I worry that ‘training for ministry’ is really training to be a theologian.  Those aren’t the same things.

I think theological education is vitally important in training for ministry but it doesn’t address most of the tasks ministers undertake.  Community work, counselling, visiting, organising, encouraging, public speaking, marketing…

Until we answer the question “what are ministers for?’ then the conversation about where we put them is premature.

Following up on my only two choices post, I thought it would be worth posting the video Jonathan mentioned in his comment:

Two choices… inward or outward.

Which are you choosing and how is it working out for your church?

(HT Johnny Laird and Jonathan Blundell for the video)

Photo: Rob GT

The Church of Scotland’s Church and Society Committee are hosting a day looking at ‘Virtualisation & Society in Edinburgh on Thursday 21 January from 10am – 4pm.  The day is FREE.  To book your place email vcano [at] cofscotland [dot] org [dot] uk.

topics:

• How has virtualisation impacted on notions of identity?
• How has virtualisation impacted on our values as human beings?
• How has increased connectivity impacted on the nature of our organisations?
• How has increased connectivity and virtualisation impacted on our ability to develop meaningful communities?
• Is a regulatory framework desirable?
• What are the theological implications of the changes being brought to individuals, to society and to organisations by increased connectivity and virtualisation?

Speakers:

• Prof. John Eldridge. University of Glasgow. Dept. of Sociology, Anthropology and Applied Social Sciences
• Prof. Phillip Schlesinger. Professor in Cultural Policy. Institute of Cross Cultural Studies. University of Glasgow.
• Dr. Heidi Campbell. Texas A&M University. Department of Communication.
• David Pullinger. Head of Digital Policy. COI.
• Prof. Michael Northcott. University of Edinburgh. New College.

Come and say Hi! if you’re going.

Substance

In his comment on part 1 of this little series of posts John grasps on of the key criticisms of both Emerging Church and of Youth Work… lack of substance.

I often hear that both are prone to style over content.  Both suffer from a tendancy towards the flash and attractive.  I’ve seen it and can hold my hand up and say that I’ve also done it.

But I’m not sure that lack of substance is a fair criticism of either Emerging Church or Youth Work done well.

At the heart of both seems to be a desire for relationship.

Youth work has struggled to get past the attractional model where we put on some big fancy event that lots of young people will come to and hope that for some strange reason that will be enough to get them to stay for the rather naff games and poor attempts at bible study where we tell them what the Bible should mean to them.

Emerging Church is informed by a similar process where big church for grown ups had a go at being all interesting and attractive.  It was called ‘Alternative Worship’.  Churches discovered that presentation mattered and that people wanted to be involved but many of the ‘Alternative Worship’ experiments were little more than a reformatted version of the standard church service.  People saw through it and discovered that, like attractional youth work, all that glitters is not gold.

Substance is the goal for both.  Depth of relationship, participation, learning, sharing and growing together seem to be the key factors in youth work… and in emerging church.

The cycle has been the same.  Attractional followed by a move to deeper more substantial communities.

I wonder if that is because those who now inhabit leadership positions in the church and experienced the attractional youth work model are now being joined by a younger generation of leaders who have grown up on incarnational youth work and who experienced youth groups where they were loved and valued and experienced opportunities to know God?

It seems to me that both areas are rediscovering something that has been lost.  Both youth work and emerging church are pursuing models where stillness, spiritual practices, relationship building and learning in a collaborative manner are all valued.

These seem to me to be the practices that grow from the values of community work I outlined in part 2.

It also grows from a sense of disconnection.  I heard Mark Lau Branson talk about how he has abandoned the lectionary because the people in his church don’t understand the context of these weekly fragments of scripture as they jump around the highlights of the Christian story.  That seems to bear out my own experience and those of many worship leaders I meet.

I think that’s partly the fault of the attractional youth work model which focused on highlights, particularly from the Gospel because that was the most important bit and the rest didn’t matter much.

Church has been the same.  Scotland has never been big on Bible Study for adults.  The 15 minute sermon on a Sunday morning has been the main teaching for the majority of adults.  In any other context 15 minutes a week would be laughable.  Can you imagine trying to learn a language, to play an instrument or to build a relationship by spending 15 minutes a week on it?

Youth work is about building community.  Church should be too.  Emerging Church seems to be up for going deeper… but still needs to guard against the ‘cool for the sake of it’ phenomena which happens when any group of creative people get together… apparently.emerging

In part 1 I suggested that the church is full of ‘bored adults’, a product of the phenomena of  having once been ‘teenagers’.

Principles and Values

Youth Work is based on some principles.  Different places have different core principles or core values.  In Scotland the core values outlined by Community Education Validation and Endorsement (CeVe) are:

• Respects the individual and the right to self-determination;
• Respects and values pluralism;
• Values equality and develops anti-discriminatory practice;
• Encourages collective action and collaborative working relationships;
• Promotes learning as a lifelong process;
• Encourages a participating democracy.

Of course these values apply to the full range of community work activity but within that they cover youth work.  I’d like to suggest that if we were to try to write a similar list of core values for the Emerging Church the list would not be very different.

The Emerging Church seems to me to be:

• respecting of the individual, placing strong emphasis on our own story or faith journey
• and the right to draw from different traditions and experiences to form our future
• based in a theology which values all and challenges inequality
• all about working together in all kinds of ways
• engaging people in worship, projects and experiences that are steeped in learning
• centred on people being involved in the life of the community

I wonder if these values that Emerging Churches seem to display are at least partly a product of the people driving new forms of church having been involved in youth work, either as young people or as leaders?

Youth Work and the Emerging Church seem to share a value base.  Is that coincidence?  I don’t think so.

People, these ‘bored adults’, have in many cases had a good experience of church as young people.  They have been encouraged to participate, to learn, to value and respect each other and to be responsible for planning and delivering their own activities.  Imagine their shock when they are faced with ‘church’.  Sit there, be quiet and listen…

Is it any wonder that people are seeking out ‘new’ ways to be church?  But then I suspect that many of these ‘new’ ways aren’t new at all… they were born in youth work.

St Peter’s Brewery by Jonathan D Blundell is different. In a good way.

Before I tell you why let me first say that Jonathan is my friend and co-host on the Something Beautiful Podcast and he gave me an advance copy of the book.

That could have made this review a little awkward.  At least it would have if the book wasn’t great!

I read it all in one sitting, unusual for me, and was drawn in to this story of Jimmy, a man who has withdrawn from life because engaging is just too painful.

Jimmy finds sanctuary in St Peter’s Brewery, the converted church where he now drinks alone.  His only friend is the barman, Pete, who lends an ear when he wants to talk and knows when to leave Jimmy alone when he doesn’t.

Jimmy’s life is one that so many can relate to.  Things haven’t gone well for him.  Relationships have been broken, work has become a place to escape life rather than live it, life is empty and that’s just fine with Jimmy.

One of the joys of working with Jonathan on the Something Beautiful Podcast is his passion for people and for their stories of life and faith.  He loves to let people talk, to share their own passions and to hear their experiences without rushing to comment or, as the church so often does, judge.  There is something very beautiful about a story, a lived experience.

Jonathan brings that beauty to his first novel.

It is a story of community, sanctuary, redemption and forgiveness.  Jimmy’s life is turned upside down by people, the very thing he’s tried to avoid for his whole adult life.  A motley crew of the most unlikely people including a trucker, a bar tender, a postal worker and a hippy, show Jimmy that he is not alone and that God isn’t anything like he thought.

I like this book.  A lot.  Sure I could be critical about a couple of small parts that seem a little wedged in to make a point that Jonanthan is passionate about, but that would be picky and they don’t detract from the plot in any way.

Jonathan has approached the issues that surround people’s experience and perceptions of the church in a creative and sensitive way.  People have been burned by religion.  Every day people walk away from the ‘church’ because they don’t find the kind of sanctuary Jimmy craves and finds in St Peter’s Brewery.  But every day people find hope and meaning and redemption and belonging in ‘church’.

Where’s your sanctuary?  St Peter’s Brewery could be just the place.  Mine’s a pint of St Peter’s Golden Revelation!

St Peter’s Brewery by Jonathan D Blundell is now available in print for $14.99 (24% off with code: 3YK4MGUP) and on Kindle for $12.64. (I don’t get any money from any sales, just in case you’re wondering!)