QUOTES TO PONDER
Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said : “The Church is only the Church when it exists for others…not dominating, but helping and serving.” It is one of Bonhoeffer’s many challenging sayings. It beckons us into the area of considering how the church relates to people who are not the church – how the ‘us’ engages with the ‘them.’ Not accidentally the logo I have used this week to advertise the service is one with complementary arrows reminding us of the movement at the heart of church and faith. We have to ‘come’ to church as we come, arrive and gather. And we sing songs that reflect this – Come now is the time to worship, As we are gathered, and more.
And then at the end of the service we are sent out there is a Going- we say Go in peace to love and serve the lord and we sing songs that encourage us in our mission and sharing out there : Tell out my soul, Shine Jesus shine and more. The Logo is the Lee Abbey Logo which beautifully sums up the coming and going : come be built up and go be sent out – can’t do one without the other..
I am minded this week of two other quotes from two quite different people, both quoted slightly less often than Bonhoeffer, that point us to something of what the Church is about.
The first is from the one and only Groucho Marx who said “I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member”
The second is from the great Archbishop William Temple who noted : “The Church exists primarily for the sake of those who are still outside it.”
Both give us glimpses of aspects of being the church – the first from Groucho reminds us that any church is always a community of the broken, of grace, of forgiveness and compassion. That we love the imperfect fallen and broken is part of the mission and heart our founder Jesus gives us..
The second from William Temple reminds us how radical an idea the church is- while almost every other club society or organisation is one of self interest and mutual introspection, the church is called to exist for those beyond its walls. Of course the main purpose of the church is worship but we are called to mission precisely because of worship – because God longs for all people to have the best in life, a living relationship of love and worship with Him and the life to the full that goes with that.
We know there is a world beyond our walls and a parish, community and city ‘out there’ – how should we relate to these people and places – how indeed does God think of them and work in them?
Do we have to take God to them? Well thats a slightly odd question, because of course God is already active there. Of course we need to always be ready, when asked. to give a reason for the hope we have’ and we need to have clear systems of invitation to invite and welcome people in – but as for taking God to ‘out there’, well the news is he is already there. Our task in mission is to find out what God is already doing, and join in. This I hope presents a model of mission and evangelism that yes involves us, but much more leans on the power, activity and iniitiatve of God working out there. There is a word for God’s ‘out there’ and if you don’t already know it, Richard will be delighted, among other things to share it with you tomorrow morning and help us explain how we can engage out there – with the help of some special and mystery speakers…
I will be ‘out there’ this weekend at Commando Training Centre Royal Marines in Lympstone seeing what God is doing there in the lives of some of our young Royal Marine Cadets and their instructors so would value prayers that God would help me make links with His activity.
Prayers too for all of you, who unlike me, spend most of your time outside the church – may God give you the vision to see what he is up to and encourage you as you serve him.
In other news this week we had a good and somewhat unusual Parish Leadership Team PLT (PCC) this week where we suspended all usual business and spent the whole two hours beginning to explore our Church vision. I say beginning, because the most important thing in my mind in such a Vision process is to listen to everyone at church and not just those in ordained or legal leadership roles. The church is the body of Christ and as we are reminded all parts of the body are essential to its functioning. As we go forward off the back of our Sermon Series we will be spending some time listening to God and to the whole Church. One date for the diary in that regard is Saturday 19th September where we will be having a church away day 10-3pm. More details to follow but do please put in your diary. We need you! We have had lots of creative ides so far and lots of positive possibilities about the future and i will share more of what has come up so far soon. The vIsion that we arrive at should be one that excites, challenges and maybe even encourages your faith and prayers, and that will only happen if you are all involved and are all listened to..
Have a great all age service together and see you next week
Peace and Blessings
Andy
Brislington Community News 