Hope Transfigured

Prayer discrimination

2011-03-21T21:02:00.007Z

I opened my email this morning to discover an 'urgent prayer request'. A significant leader in world missions was passing on to me a request he had received from Japan to pray for the serior manager leading the team restoring electrical supply to the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. "As it turns out", so the message ran, "the project head is a Christian. His name is xxxx xxxx, believed to be a member of the First Baptist Church of Fukushima." I was then encouraged to "get this message out to all your networks so that they can pray for this man".

If our Faith2Share website had been running I would probably have written this up as a short news story and posted it by 9.30am this morning, but as it happens the website is off line today for an upgrade. Instead I shared the prayer request with office staff, planning to upload the story tomorrow. Wow, that was a narrow escape! By 2.00pm. other "urgent messages" were arriving. "Please don't mention his name." "Please take down any web items." "Mentioning him could put him at risk." What a blessing a delay can be sometimes!

Having reflected on this during the rest of the day, however, the real issue for me is not the carelessness of someone in Japan not checking whether a story should be public, but rather ... why it suddenly became more important to pray for this guy when it was discovered that he "is a Christian". What if he had been a Buddhist, or an outright atheist, or simply didn't take religion very seriously? Does that excuse us from praying for him? Is praying urgently for Christians whenever they find themselves in a tough spot not rather discriminatory?

I'm beginning to think that it might be more urgent to pray for the guy with his thumb in the Japanese nuclear dyke if he has no faith at all - surely the Christian in that situation already has a head start. Or am I confused?

Bibles released from prison

2011-03-15T22:35:00.003Z

I just got the news I had been waiting for - 35,000 Bibles have been released from prison (well customs custody actually) in Malaysia. Praise God.

It was in the home of Iban friends in Subu (in Sarawak, East Malysia), over a kitchen table loaded with empty bear cans and chicken bones, that I heard the story last month. As a result of a long runing dispute within Malaysia as to whether Christians can be allowed to call God "Allah", the port authorities in East Malaysia first impounded 5,000 Bibles and then another 30,000 which Christians were trying to bring to their, quite substantial, communities in Sabah and Sarawak. The post authorities threatened to destroy the 'illegal' books. Last week I heard from another friend in West Malaysia, Bishop Ng Moon Hing, that a group of church leaders were mounting a high profile, and internationally publicised, protest. Fortunately Pakatan Rakyat (opposition) politicians picked up the case and today the government ordered port officials in Kuching and Klang to release the Bibles.

So why do Christians in Malaysia want to call God "Allah" in the first place. Very simply because "Allah" is the natural translation of the English "God" and Hebrew "El" in their language, Bahasa Malaysian. They are not alone - many Christians across the Middle East, who speak Arabic and related languages also call God "Allah". Perhaps a more sensible question would be, "Why do British Christians want to call Allah "God", and in so doing adopt an old word from northern Europe with pagan origins!

Language is fascinating and can lead to heated debates. I also heard tonight of another debate raging in certain mission circles about whether we should, or should not, avoid talking of Jesus as the "son" of God when sharing our faith with Muslims - because they find this so offensive. For most Muslims "son" implies a biological (yes, sexual) relationship and so in saying Jesus was the "son" of God we are affirming that God had sexual intercourse with Mary - that's the only possible interpretation. Some missiologists however are now pointing out that even the Qu'ran uses "ibn" (son) in ways that are not biological or literal. Sura 2:177 talks of a traveller as being a "son of the road" for example. So, the arguement goes, we should not give up on the use of "Son of God" but rather help our Muslim friends to see the deeper meanings of "sonship".

Isn't language complicated! But tonight my thoughts are with Iban friends in Sarawak who can once again buy a Bible in their own language - and worship "Allah".

Cosmic Soup

2011-03-12T09:53:00.006Z

Whilst tsunami waves were consuming whole communities on the east coast of Japan I was proof reading a short document for a Romanian colleague. Nicu, who is professor of theology at the University of Oradea, had sent me the extract of his work on Basil the Great and his understanding of the relationship between science and religion. Nicu sugguests that Basil's "pneumatological vision of creation" and his understanding of the "transfiguration of humanity in Christ" provide us not with an alternative to our scientific understanding of reality but rather the firmest of foundations for such an understanding. Science and religion do not stand in opposition but rather cannot stand at all without each other!

But how does that enable me to make sense of the tsunami, the 'careless' destruction of life I am witnessing on my TV screen?

Allow me one more digression. Earlier this week I watched Professor Brian Cox as he took us through billions of years of the history (and future) of our solar system to explain the second law of thermodynamics - in other words everything always goes from order to disorder (as anyone who watched by desk during the day will already know!). Time is a one way process. Our universe is steadily moving from simplicity, through complexity, to a final state which will be so complex, so mixed up, so disordered that it will actually be very simple - one universal 'soup'. Sadly the content of the tsunami wave as it crossed previously ordered agricultural land in Sendai began to resemble that 'universal soup'.

So where does God fit into all of this? - Romanian theology, tsunami waves and Brian Cox. As a saviour? As the one to whom we cry out in lamentation? Perhaps 'fit in' is the wrong question. As Basil the Great (an accomplished scientist as well as theologian) understood well, the purposes of God do not 'fit in' to science or 'rescue us from' the outworkings of science. In fact it is the purposes of God that give science its meaning. Tsunamis are one small part of the second law of thermodynamics (order to disorder) and that law is just one tiny part of the 'transfiguration of all things in Christ' which is the love and purpose of God.

But don't ask me to understand all that! I'm not God.

Oil Fast?

2010-10-02T22:28:00.004+01:00

I'm in a quandry. I was all checked in, bags packed, passport in hand, and ready to board my flight to Nairobi and then I decided to check the Christian news sites. The first item I hit on was from an organisation I had not heard of before. Apparently Operation Noah are a Christian environmental agency in the UK and they had the bright idea to call for an "oil fast". When? Tomorrow just as I board the 1020 to Nairobi and listen to those engines roar and look out my window at those graceful wings that will carry me hundred of miles in just a few hours - wings full to the brim with oil. Do I cancel my trip? Do I encourage others to fast while I go ahead with my trip? Why am I special?

I will fly and in fact I don't feel so bad about it. I quite like flying!

But there is a deeper question here. If we are to take environmental questions seriously how much will we allow them to impact our own life style? Do we just go back to hanging about in trees and caves and eating whatever fruit we can find, or is it OK to enjoy a good DVD on a Saturday night and take a drive in the country on Sunday afternoon. We need to be reasonable about all this but we also need to be serious and honest.

In fact this is the first long-haul flight I have made for a while as I have managed to divert some of my business onto Skype - oil free as far as I know. If you are interested I'm off to Nairobi for four days, on to Ethiopia for a few more and then ending up in Cape Town for the Lausanne III Congress. More reports will follow ......

Poor politics

2010-09-26T22:30:00.005+01:00

In the UK you could have been forgiven for not knowing that major decisions were being taken in New York last week effecting the lives of millions of the world's more vulnerable people. The media here were in a frenzy of excitement as the brothers Miliband fought it out to lead a baddly battered Labour party. In the end David nearly cried, Ed told him how much he loved him, and the rest of us are still trying to remember which is which. Meanwhile in New York the great and the good of governments from around the world where trying to out do each other in proving now much they believed in, but could afford to do little about, the MDGs.

The magic year of course is 2015. It is by then that we will have put right all ills, and the poor (who of course won't exist any longer by then) will live happlily ever after. The problem is that when the MDGs (Millennium Development Goals) were first drawn up 2015 was a long way off - now its only five years away, and what's more we have a global recession to keep us all occupied. In those heady days (remember the fireworks?) of 2000 the British governmemt wrote (I have the publication in front of me now), "It's not pie in the sky to talk of achieving basic social services like education and healthcare for everyone in the world in the next fifteen years". But what about in the next five year?

To be fair several governments did put new resources on the table last week and my own (UK) government has committed major resources to join Bill Gates in combating Malaria in Africa. But the real problem is that if the poor are to get less poor the rich (that's us) need to get less rich - and who's going to elect politicians who offer to make them poorer?

But there is a hopeful side to all this. In her 2009 provocative Dead Aid, Dambisa Moyo suggests that Aid doesn't work anyway and that if we are going to meet targets like the MDGs then we need to take a very different route - a route that has to do with enterprise, vision, community, and equitable trade. Perhaps that's where China and India may now lead the way to a better world. ... Perhaps? The thought I'm wrestling with tonight however is whether a 'community of enterprise' is more in keeping with the Christian gospel than 'a community of aid'? (I'm thinking of all those parables Jesus told about workers and wages.)

Men allowed?

2010-09-21T22:41:00.005+01:00

I shudder to think of all the accusations I lay myself open to when I say this, but ... are men allowed in church? Or to put it another (dangerous) way, has the Christian Church in the UK become a religious insitution run by women for women? Before you all rush to the "respond" or even the "report" button let me explain that I have been a member of "Priests for the Ordination of Women", have voted for women bishops and strongly support the equal ministry of women at every level in the church. I am also not so blind to have failed to notice that senior leadership of the church in the UK is still dispropotionately exercised by men. But still I have a question.

I was singing the final hymn in church last Sunday when it hit me. I was in a church I rarely attend but I was concious that it was not atypical of many I have been in recently. What struck me was this ... The person who welcomed me, the two lesson readers, the intercessor, the organist, the priest, the person who took my collection, the church warden, the people who made me coffee, all these wonderful people had one thing in common - they were all women. I was not alone in my gender - there were three of us males in church that morning - and we were made very welcome, but it was definely a women's place. When I got home I pulled the weekly bulletin out of my pocket (not my handbag!) and read the long list of activities in which I could participate that week - not a single 'man' thing to do!

I suppose this is troubling me more this week because next Sunday is "Back to church Sunday" and I feel guilty that I'm not rushing round inviting all my male friends to join me in church. Help me someone. Has religion always been a 'women's thing' or did we men just loose the plot along the way? Its great that we provide so many activities, and opportunities to serve for women in our churches, and I will rejoice when the first women becomes Archbishop of Canterbury - but let's not forget that men can be Christians as well! Can we. please?

Rebirthing a nation

2010-09-15T23:29:00.007+01:00

What a joy it was today to receive a surprise visit from Bishop Andre who leads the 'missionary diocese' of Angola. I first met Bishop Andre a few years ago and we have kept in touch on a number of matters but today he just rolled into the office unannounced - wonderful. Such a humble man, not totally at ease in English (his third language) but listening with a wise ear and measuring his words in reply.

For years the very word 'Angola' cunjured up a deep sense of despair - a civil war raging out of control and a popilation reduced to abject poverty. It was one of those nations you were tempted to write off as without hope. Listening to Andre today, however, I heard a very different story. Angola, a land of sunshine and fertile lands, a place of diamonds, oil, and rich mineral deposits, a country blessed with energetic and hopeful people determined to bless other nations and end any sense of dependence. A bishop, proud of his nation, told me that they have the capacity to feed a third of Africa and to provide the world with all the diamonds we could hope for. But more significantly he spoke of spiritual hope.

The Anglican church in Angola is very small - but growing fast. Desperately short of resorces and with only twenty clergy on salaries, the church is in expansion mode. Most of the leaders, clergy and lay, have full time employment as teachers, farmers, and civil servants, but that does not stop them leading vibrant communities and planting new churches. There are whole provinces of the country with no Anglican churches today - but tomorrow will be a different story I was told! The great challenge is training the leaders, but as Bishop Andre made his farewells I felt a strong sense of optimism - it is a challenge he is up to! Perhaps our small part in Faith2Share will be to provide links with Portuguese speaking (Angola's trade language) mission movements in Brazil and India and so see what they can do together. Angola is very definitely reborn.

How to stop Christian ministry for a day (or longer)

2010-09-09T23:24:00.004+01:00

I'm not in the habit of cross-posting on my blog but I'm so tired tonight after so much email traffic during the day caused by one small church in Florida that I decided Jim Wallis could say it much better than I can! Literally hundreds of senior Christian leaders have been engaged around the world on this issue today - just think what other good work this has prevented. Jim's comments on the "Qur'an burning" plans of Dove (that's an ironic name!) World Outreeach Centre in Florida say it all. He writes today, "There has been near-universal condemnation of the Quran burning planned for this Saturday by Terry Jones and his Florida church. Opposition has come from Muslims, Christians, Jews; Republicans and Democrats; civilians, politicians (including the president), and generals.

"What Jones doesn't seem to understand is that the message he is really sending is a sacrilegious slap in the face of Jesus Christ. If Jones and his followers go through with their plans to burn the Quran, they might as well burn some Bibles too, because they are already destroying the teachings of Jesus. Jesus called his followers to be peacemakers, and to love not only their neighbors, but also their enemies; instead Jones and his church have decided to become agents of conflict and division. Jones needs someone to tell him that Americans should not judge all Muslims by the actions of a small group of terrorists -- and I hope somebody tells Muslims around the world not to judge Christians, or all of America, by the actions of a radical fringe like the members of Dove World Outreach Center.

"But just as the proclaimed faith of the terrorists bears no resemblance to the faith of most Muslims, the actions of Jones and his followers bear no resemblance to the faith of most Christians. Jones knows that his actions are legally protected, but if he follows through he should know that he makes a mockery of the teachings of Jesus and even puts our country and U.S. troops in danger."

My network, Faith2Share, has set up a prayer chain for Friday this week. If you want to join it email me on f2s@faith2share.net

Burn, burn, burn

2010-09-07T23:20:00.004+01:00

On a golf course in southern Britain a few days ago, early morning golfers discovered a body burnt and tossed away in the bushes. So bad was the burning that it took forensics to determine the gender of this discarded humanity, but now a few days later we get to know this man and his story. Overtaken by life he takes to drugs, lives on the streets, finds a home and friends in a hostel. "A quiet man" say his friends - but someone needed to set fire to that life ... was it out of fear or anger? Why?

Several hundred years earlier three more men were set alight. Not secretly at night but in front of crowds, jearing or silent. A cross of stones still marks that spot in the centre of my city where three bishops (Ridley, Latimer and Cranmer) burnt like candles. They, and many hundreds of others, were burnt by Christians, in the name of Christ, for the sake of truth. Was truth strengthened? Did Christ's kingdom grow out of those ashes?

Now a different fire is proposed. Pastor Terry Jones of Dove World Outreach Centre in Florida has announced that his church will mark September 11 this year as "International Burn a Quran Day". How many lives will that cost? Not in Florida of course, but all around the world such an act is designed to enrage Muslim communities who will have ended their most sacred season of Ramadan just two days earlier. Why are we so fearful of each other? Why do we think that burning things - people and books - is going to solve anything?

I had an email tonight from a senior world Christian leader saying he and others are seeking to meet Pastor Jones and persuade him that there is a more Christ-like way to respond to our Mislim neighbours. Join me in praying that their efforts to meet and talk with be effective. We must stop burning everything!

Disconnecting to connect

2010-09-03T22:10:00.003+01:00

In response to my yesterday thoughts on 'Short Change?', Martin came back to me saying, "I'm not sure if the harder questions are the financial ones?" Thanks Martin, that gives me the excuse to write more on this topic. (Plug .... In fact I have already written quite a lot more which will come out at the end of the year as a chapter in the Edinburgh 2010 report.) But back to our discussion now ....

Short-term mission is costly but I agree with you Martin that there are harder questions. I hinted at one of these right at the end of my last piece. I have just been rereading Tom Sine's The New Conspirators (2008 sequel to Mustand Seed Conspiracy) where he invites "followers of Jesus to do the hard work of decoding the cultural influences in our lives" (Pg.90) and I strongly believe that one of those cultural influences is short-termism and its consequent devaluing of sustained relating. It is becoming counter-cultural to have a two-hour conversation with one person - the 'cool' thing to do is to Tweet the world. This buying into cultural short-termism is one of the hard questions but there are others. Perhaps I have space here for just one more ....

Disconnecting in order to connect. Jesus would never have cried "My God, why have you forsaken me" if he had stayed at home, but he disconnected in order to connect - with us. That's tough and it takes time. When I look at the design of most of what goes for short-term mission today I see very little disconnecting. The umbilical cord of text messages and "my life in Africa" blogs back to the home church, the bonded group of fellow short-termers (sometimes 100 strong!), and the return ticket tucked into the passport ensure connections are maintained. So what space (time, emotional, spiritual, etc.) is left for connecting in the host culture? To parady scripture, "My home church, my family, why have you forsaken me?" might be an important step on the road to a deeper participation in the relationship building cross of Christ.

Short change?

2010-09-02T22:31:00.004+01:00

Only twenty years ago the mission agency I worked for sent out 'Short-term' missionaries to do 2 - 4 years service. Some extended to six years but they were still 'short-termers'. That was then. In contrast, back in June I had a conversation with an American church leader who was very excited about the dozens of members in her church who offer for 'short-term' mission. I'm not stupid so I asked her what she meant by 'short-term'. "Oh, its normally a two week trip but some do three weeks or even a month." she continued enthusiastically. We were standing in the lunch queue at Edinburgh University and I wished she had been in the session that afternoon when my friend Darrell Whiteman had voiced his concerns.

Darrell shared with us the following statistics for short-term missionaries in the US

1965 under 10,000

1989 120,000

1994 200,000

2005 1,600,000

That's some growth and my first reaction was to rejoice that so many people are offering for mission service. But then Darrell started asking his questions! If most of these 1.6 million Christians are abroad for just 2-4 weeks can they really be effective in mission? What do they understand about their host culture? How do they build deep relationships? Is this more about enriching the experience to US Christians (no bad thing!) rather than mission in Bolivia or wherever? Should we not be honest and call this "cross-cultural exposure" not "mission"?

Just as I was coming to terms with these questions, wrestling with the concept of 'ecclesiastical tourism', Darrell went on to ask even harder questions ...... If 1.6 million short-termers contribute 192 million hours of free labour to local projects across the world is that not a good thing? But what effect does that have on the local economy? How does this help to build partnership rather than dependancy? If 1.6 million Americans had stayed at home instead and sent the US$4.8 billion that they would otherwise have spent (on air fares, accommodation, food, etc.) to the local church what might that have purchased in the local economy?

There are no easy answers but it does make me wonder whether Christians have bought into the 'short-termism' of our contemporary culture and whether anyone will ever again want to do anything long-term.

Who says what's 'orthodox'

2010-09-01T23:12:00.004+01:00

It was June and I was in Edinburgh. The evening was warm and I was climbing Arthur's seat. Mark and Mark walked together - my companion, a bishop from Canada ... not a son of France or England or some other colonial power but a true son of the lands that we Europeans decided should be called Canada. Of course they were not nameless before, nor were they without peoples and soul.

I had had a frantic day running sessions for the (history-making?) Edinburgh 2010 coference, but as my steps fell in line with Mark's steady rhythm my mind began to settle and I began to listen to his story - not from the beginning (my mind was too busy to attend at first) but a story which made sense from the middle. A story of indigenous Christian communities across the arctic north of Canada. The Edinburgh air was calm and the sun still bright but I was transported into a world of dark cabins, of hymn singing late into the night, of Bible stories retold in local tongues, of healing and wisdom ... and pain. The pain I remember most from Mark's story came when settlers, good righteous Christians, brought their bright lights of truth into these native cabins to chase out 'misguided' faith and plant 'orthodox' religion. That pain is still felt today - I felt it in Mark as we walked - I wanted to share it, but could not.

Of course 'ortho-doxy' (right worship) is important and we all need to rid ourselves of our own superstitions and 'idol-doxy'. But who says what is orthodox? Dare I?

Not dead but sleeping

2010-09-01T22:22:00.010+01:00

So many of my friends have been challenging me to start writing this blog again that in mid-August I finally set myself a target date and now that magic date has arrived. This blog somehow fell asleep in February this year but 1 September seems a good enough day for a resurrection.

My blog may have been asleep I was certainly not. A lot, I mean a lot, has happened to me since February - some good, some bad, some ... well "life happens" as they say. I'm going to use the next few blogs to do a little catching up with myself and if you want to read along with me - welcome!

When I was planning today's resurrection back in August I was reflecting again on what a blog actually achieves. Well, I suppose they all do different things. Some advertise, some vent the spleen, some impart valuable information, some amuse, some (can I be frank?) bore. If I'm honest most of the time I will be writing for myself (to get those muddled brain cells laid out somewhere where I can see them and begin to sort them) - but if you want to listen in, that's fine.

My Malaysian friend just gave me a Russian gift - let me share this 'amazing gift' with you.

Courage to Change - Dom Helder

2010-02-16T21:02:00.004Z

Come April and I'm off to the sunshine of Brazil, to Recife in the north east to be precise. Yes I am fed up with this cold damp winter in the UK but there are more acceptable reasons for going to Recife - like work! Preparing for a week in Recife with mission leaders from around the world I decided I ought to get back in touch with one of my school boy heros. Despite my 'evangelical credentials' (did I hear you say, 'what credentials?') I received all my secondary education at a Roman Catholic school run by some fantastic religious brothers who taught me how to drink, enjoy worship, and get hooked on theoretical physics! But I digress. My schooling coincided with the Second Vatical Council and the hero of that great meeting in Rome for me was the Brazilian bishop Dom Helder Camara - champion of liberation theology, or more correctly, champion of the poor. He was bishop of Recife.

Not having read any of his thinking for almost 40 years I picked up Francis McDonagh's little book Dom Helder Camara - Essential Writtings, published by Orbis just last year. It has been great to read him again and I hope it is preparing me for something of the reality of 2010 Brazil, but the book also gave me a great shock. McDonagh begins her selection of writings with a short biography of the man and after a few pages I found myself reading about a young man who enthuisatically joined and then led the fascist Integralist movement in Brazil. That just dodn't fit for me - McDonagh must have got it wrong. How could the great champion of the poor, famous for his work with Catholic Action and his support for liberation theologians - a bishop who was often accused (unjustly) of being a communist - have recruited fascists? But it seems he did.

It was only some years after his ordination that his ministry amongst the poor of Recife and his faith in the poor man Jesus led him to reject fascism and embrace a whole new understanding of God's priority for the poor. Don Helder was a man big enough to admit his mistakes, to redirect his life, to change, to move on. We need more big men like him.

He wrote in 1970, "A people united and organised, a people united and relying of the grace of God, will rise up from poverty without hatred or violence, but with decision and courage."

Courage to change - Jack

2010-02-16T20:24:00.009Z

I very much doubt whether you have ever heard of Jack Sparks - he died in Alaska a few days ago, aged 81. For years I had known, and been fascinated by, Jack's story and then seven years ago I found myself in Alaska (as you do!) and so headed straight off to Eagle River (great name - great place) to meet him, just a year after he had moved there from California. It was an interesting meeting.

So what's the story? Jack was a national leader with the very evangelical student movement called Campus Crusade for Christ in San Bernadino, California during the sunshine, 'flowers in your hair' and LSD years of the 1960s. In his desire to share his faith in Jesus he published a range of rather way out newspapers and then created the Christian World Liberation Front (what a 1960s name!) to minister amongst hippies and students. I was running a few years behind Jack, joining Campus Crusade in 1969 when my hair was very long and my flares very wide (but I missed out on the LSD - honest!) There would have been nothing unusal about Jack's story (Campus Crusade evangelists are not that rare) except that a decade later he, and a group of Campus Crusade leaders, decided to join the Orthodox Church! The crunch came for Jack when he saw so many of the young people he had introduced to Jesus just packing up their faith with their flares when they left university, cut their hair, threw away their CND badges and got a 'proper job'. Jesus, for so many was part of the hippie, student, package but an unafforable luxury when real life came along. Jack saw that Jesus freeks needed to find a home - in a church! He set out looking for the New Testament church and discovered Orthodoxy.

Jack never gave up sharing his faith, getting young people excited about Jesus, but now he could bring them home - to his home - to the community of Orthodox Christians. It's a long road from Campus Crusade director to Orthodox priest (Jack was ordained in 1987), and it takes courage to travel that road, but Jack was a man of courage and convictions. I'm glad I met Jack, just that once, and I'm glad I discovered Orthodox Christians as well as Campus Crusade - I needed them both.

Pricing Haiti's Orphans

2010-02-02T22:56:00.004Z

My good friend Harriet Mirembe in Uganda (or the USA - you never know where people are these days in this virtual world!) commented on my last post and linked it to children in Haiti who have become vulnerable to those seeking cheap orphans. I find it incredible that a Christian organisation could even consider taking a 'day trip' to Haiti to fill a bus with good looking orphans which they can then give away to nice infertile parents in the USA - but, if the reports are correct, that's just what they did do.

What is even more alarming though are the stories beginning to emerge of those who have gone to Haiti to acquire children as part of a commercial enterprise which will nett them good profits as these children are sold on to love hungry parents in the rich world, parents who know nothing of the culture, language or background of the kids they adopt - or should I say 'buy'.

As well as getting angry about this trade in suffering kids I also have to ask myself a question. If I condemn the actions of charities that 'rescue' children and traders who 'market' children, what will I do instead? Am I prepared to be part of a better solution - a solution which will provide Haiti's children (not just the orphans) with a viable future in the community, culture and nation of their birth.

That solution is going to be much tougher than a day trip to Haiti.

Pricing Archbishops

2010-01-31T21:47:00.004Z

We got the good news this morning that Archbishop Peter Imasuem of Benin Diocese in Nigeria had been released. If you hadn't heard, he was abducted at gunpoint outside his home after morning service in his cathedral last week. As far as I have heard he was released unharmed but what we don't know, and may never know, is whether the US$100,000 ransom demanded by his captors was actually paid or not.

Paying ransom money is controversal everywhere. The mission I used to work for always refused to pay ransom money (not because they lacked the cash - although that was also true!) but because paying out once only invites bandits to collect a few more hostages and increase their business turnover. But, try explaining that to the family! If my brother was taken hostage of course I would want to pay the ransom, as soon as possible, but is that just selfish? What about the next family to be effected, and the next?

Hostage taking has become a real industry in the seas off Somalia and there is a risk it will become so in the oil fiends of Nigeria. So was an archbishop worth just £63,000? Sounds rather cheap to me. So how much would a shop assistant or a motor mechanic be worth? Surely the answer is that we cannot put a monetary value on any life and we must do all we can to stamp out hostage taking - and every other form of trading in human lives.

2010-01-30T16:05:00.007Z

Sometimes you wonder why your name happens to end up on an invitation list, and sometimes you wish it hadn't. This week I found myself invited to a London reception put on by the Institute for Religion and Society in Asia - posh venue, posh food, left feeling hungry! But is was a good evening, I met up with a whole range of friends and colleagues, and I was glad I was invited.

The IRSA was set up by Dr. Charles Hancock and began with a clear focus on the role of religion is Chinese Society post-Maxism. (They are widening this to include most of Asia now, which I think is a mistake - but that's another story.) The presentations were mixed but I came away clutching Charles' final words which are worth further rumination. He said:

Faith is changing the face of China

Faith will be slow to change the heart of China

China is quick to try to change the face of faith

China is vulnerable to the reality of spirituality.

Walking out onto the rain drenched streets of London with their crowd barriers and heavy police presence (President Hamid Karzai was in town and Tony Blair was due at the Iraq enquir the next day) I wondered ...... How vulnerable is Britain to the reality of spirituality?

Statistical puzzles

2010-01-21T23:03:00.003Z

Some people live on a diet of statistics, others just choke on them - I quite enjoy them as an occasional 'meal out' when I want to think a few different thoughts. Thanks to a friend who eats only trends, varriables and mediums, I recently came across quite an interesting set of numbers. (Thanks Peter - after all someone has to digest those numbers!)

Apparently there are only two religious groups in the world projected to grow in the next 40 years - Evangelical Christians and Muslims. The figures are:

1970 to 2050 Evangelicals From 7% to 15% of world population

1970 to 2050 Muslims From 15% to 25% of world population

As a total Christians are currently the largest religious group in the world, at 33%, and if all Christians groups were to grow at the same rate as Evangelicals then this would remain the case - but the fact is that non-Evangelical Christian communities are just not growing (with a few notable exceptions such as certain Orthodox groups). You see this more starkly when you view Evangelicals as a proportin of the Christian community. The figures are:

1970 to 2050 Evangelicals From 14% to 46% of Christians in Developing World

1970 to 2050 Evangelicals From 25% to 47% of Christians in Developed World

1970 to 2050 Evangelicals From 21% to 46% of World Christians

So? Well perhaps Evangelicals need to help their non-Evangelical sisters and brothers to grow. Not to become Evangelicals, but to be confident in their own faith and to GROW.

Anglican Evangelism?

2010-01-20T22:55:00.005Z

Put three bishops in a room - one Nigerian, one Canadan and one from Peru - add the Director of Alpha International, the Mission Director of the Anglican Church in Kenya, and season with a sprinkling of Liverpudlians, South Africans, and a canny guy from Zambia, and what do you get?

Answer - the crazy idea that Anglicans could do something positive about evangelism and growing the church, especially in places where there are almost no Christians at all.

Well that's what happened last week. I spent the week with the, wait for it, 'Core Group of the Anglican Communion Evangelism and Church Growth Initiative'. Guess what, we are looking for a better name! Sadly the British goverment ensured that our colleagues from DR Congo and Pakistan could not join us (visa restrictions!) but the nine of us who did make it through the snow to Woking had a great week together.

Of course the idea that Anglicans could be good at, and even enjoy, sharing the good news about Jesus, is not really so crazy - it just feels that way sometimes when all we seem to care about is church bells, lesbian bishops, and who stole the ladies fellowship teapot. After all much of Africa was evangelised by Anglicans, not to mention Malaysia, China, India, and more. In fact we used to be very good at it. Now the leadership of the church (the bishops when then met at the Lambeth Conference) have said, "let's have another go". I feel very privileged to be at the heart of this. It might be a challenging task to excite Anglican about Jesus, but it will be great fun. Watch this space.

Can I call you Allah?

2010-01-08T21:46:00.005Z

"Thank you Mr. Oxbrow", says the young call centre worker in Bangalore when I give him my account details, "can I call you Mark?". When I have spent too much of my precious evening talking to call centres I must admit I am sometimes tempted to reply, "No, please call me Your Majesty". Names are important. The fact that one person calls me "Mr. Oxbrow" another "Padre" but most people "Mark" says something about the relationship I have with those people.

Yesterday an angry mob in Kuala Lumpur felt so strongly about names that they set fire to a church, tried to burn three more and damaged cars belonging to Christians. They were Muslims reacting to a court ruling that Christians were free to call God "Allah". (A friend, Bishop Ng Moon Hing of Kuala Lumpur, has written a response which you'll find on the Faith2Share website.) Whilst Christians in Malaysia have been campaigning to be allowed to use the word "Allah" for God in their local language Bibles, Muslims have maintained that they alone have a right to use this word. Of course there are many Christians as well who would be concerned about calling God "Allah" because of the confusion, they claim, it causes.

Underlying all this is the much deeper question - is the God whom Christians worship one and the same as the God to who Muslims pray in their mosques? That's a 'big question' which I don't intend to answer here ... other than to suggest that if God is really God then there can only be one God and we are not in a position to choose which God we want to worship. So ??

Perhaps, like the call centre worker, we need to ask God what he would like us to call Him. God, Yahweh, Jehovah, Allah, Jesus - in the end they are only names, surely not worth fighting over. Pray peace on Malaysia.

New Year Prayer

2010-01-04T20:20:00.004Z

Sitting at my desk this morning, my coat collar turned up against the cold - the heating had failed again and it was minus six outside - I opened my first (work) email of the year. It was a leadership briefing from the Micah Network and the words which caught my eye were, "May God bless us with discomfort"!

Thank you Dino Touthang (chair of the Micah Network) for reminding us at the start of this new year of St. Francis' powerful blessing.

May God bless us with discomfort ... at easy answers, half-truths, and suferficial relationships, so that we may live deeply within our hearts.

May God bless us with anger ... at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that we may work for justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless us with tears ... to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation and war, so that we may reach out our hands to comfort them, and to turn their pain to joy.

And may God bless us with enough foolishness ... to beleve that we can make a difference in this world, so that we can do what others claim cannot be done. Amen.

Dare I pray that?

Long life Queen

2010-01-01T22:56:00.005Z

I haven't watched much TV over the holidays but on Christmas Day I watched the Queen and tonight, New Years Day, I watched Queen (the rock legend). Both have aged somewhat since I first became an avid follower of one and a sceptic about the other. The Queen concert (excellent by the way) was from 1975, the year before I began my ordained ministry. 1975 was also the year that the Vietnam War ended (at least that's what the US claimed) and yet 35 years later much of the Queen's speach was given over to an expression of gratitude to soldiers and their families who continue to loose their lives in Afghanistan - another unwinable war?

In October of that year, 1975, Queen released their all time great Bohemian Rhapsody which included the lyrics,

Mama, just killed a man

Put a gun against his head

Pulled my trigger, now he's dead

Mama, life had just begun

But now I've gone and thrown it all away

Sobering thoughts for the start of a new decade. So many lives just thrown away, in Vietnam in 1975, today in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, DR Congo (and the list goes on). Lives thrown away not just through war, but in senseless living and moral confusion as well.

Now for the interesting fact! Do you recall that line later in Bohemian Rhapsody?

Bismillah! We will not let you go. Will not let you go. (sung as the hapless teenage killer is being dragged into jail (so you think you can love me and leave me to die.) What on earth does Bismillah mean? Well, Bismillah is the opening word of the Qur'an meaning literally, "In the name of Allah" So ...... "In the name of God, we will not let you go"!

Queen may have believed in that unforgiving, punishing, God in 1975 (or perhaps it just made a good lyric!) but I have spent the last 35 years living with a very different message, "In the nane of God, get up and walk", "In the name of God, be free". Even to the distressed 17 year old I once met on a prison visit who had stabbed his friend to death in an arguement over ten pounds, "In the name of God, stand up, believe, begin again, find life."

Thank you Queen, now I feel a whole lot better about the new decade which began this morning. "Bismillah! Live .... for God's sake."

Angels of rebellion

2009-12-23T09:59:00.006Z

Salim is a colleague who leads a reconciliation ministry in Palestine/Israel. Having just visited the Shepherd's Field in Bethlehem from which he was able to look across to the mountain-tower of Herodian, he wrote to a number of us, "The proximity of the two historic locations struck me, especially given the extent to which they were interwoven in the narrative of Christ's birth. They represent two polar opposites, the political, arrogant power of Herod's palace, and the simple,rustic fields were the shepherds slept."

Salim then goes on to sugest a radical reading of Luke's gospel that I wanted to share. He writes, "Seeing these two spots also brought into sharp focus the politically subversive nature of the angel's announcement on that starry night. The angel spoke to the shepherds, saving "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be for all people." (Luke 2:10) Most people interpret this to mean that the shepherds were afraid of the angels. But I can imagine them casting a nervous glance over the angel's shoulder towards Herod's palace, knowing that he would not be happy about a 'Savior' being born in the 'city of David'. Essentially what the angel was suggesting could be perceived as an act of rebellion against the cruel reign of Herod."

So those angels were planting the seeds of rebellion were they? Sadly many Herods continue to exert their cruel influence in our world from palaces, board rooms, penthouse appartments and military bunkers. What will the song of the angels "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favour rests" (Luke 2:14) say to us this year about justice, and rebellion against evil?

Thank you Salim for starting this train of thought.

Making Room

2009-12-20T21:46:00.006Z

Carol service tonight, and the church was heaving. I'm not sure what happened to the fire regulations but we had stacking chairs everywhere and a fairly challenging mix of candles, carol sheets and excited kids! But how can you turn people away from a Carol Service when its minus three outside? I was the inn keeper - or rather I read a highly adapted version of Luke's gospel in the voice of the inn keeper. That too was about 'no room at the inn' and then 'making room'.

Walking home later, under a wonderfully clear star filled sky which was allowing even those minus degrees to escape, I reflected further on 'making room'. Not so much the rather prosaic 'making room for Jesus in your heart' - mine's full of valves and sinues - but rather God making room for me. It strikes me that there was no reason at all why Father, Son and Holy Spirit could not have gone on enjoying each others fellowship throughout eternity, without all these risks of creation. The risk of creating a world that we so easily mess up, and women and men who forget their place and try to be God. But that's just the beauty of it all - with no compulsion at all, God made room for us. That's what creation is all about - God made room for us. It's like eternity was full (complete) with Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and yet God created a space for us, for me. Wow!

If mission is 'in the pattern of God's dealings with us' then mission is also about making space. Even when life is full the love of God calls us to make space for the child who is hungry, the alcoholic who smells, and the angry young man with too much money and too little sense. Years ago Michel Quoist wrote a prayer called Before you Lord in which he talks very powerfully about this 'making room' for others in our lives - as God has made room for us. Use the link and pray the prayer - I dare you.

Virtually friends

2009-12-19T22:49:00.005Z

I'm not good at keeping up with Facebook but having put up the Christmas tree, survived the supermarket and sorted out my home group for January I decided to skim through my home page. What an amazing bunch of friends I have!

Justin is 'as happy as a 4 year old' walking and rolling in the snow (good picture!), Stephen thinks cheese graters are pretty sharp on the fingers (which leaves me wondering what he does with grated cheese as 11.00pm.), Bindy just posted three great pictures of snow on the river Lot just outside their front door (in France), Geoff had his flight from Chicago to NYC cancelled and is waiting to be rescheduled, and Jill 'loves her job' - but I have forgotten what she does!

The strange thing is I've emailed several friends in different parts of the world today, read my Facebook and prayed for two very speciual people who I haven't seen in ages - but I haven't seen my neighbours all day and I'm not even sure I know whether Alice (in the house opposite mine) is at home right now or back in hospital. I have great friends here in Oxford, and good neighbours too, but my friends out there in cyberspace are important too. How do you define friendship? What is Jill's job?

13,589,257

2009-12-17T21:15:00.003Z

That's how many people had signed the Avaaz petition to world leaders gathered in Copenhagen when I last checked their website earlier this evening. I'm not sure whether that gets them a world record for the largest petition ever but I do know its a lot of people - more than voted for the X-Factor winner! But that's just as it should be, after all the future of our planet is slightly more important that Joe McElderry's singing career.

The petition says, "We call on each of you to make the necessary concessions to meet your historic responsibilities in this crisis. Rich countries must offer fair funding, and all countries must set ambitious targets on emissions. Do not leave Copenhagen without a fair, ambitious and binding deal that keeps the world safe from catastrophic global warming of 2 degrees."

When I logged on to sign I was struck by the single word 'concessions'. In fact it almost stopped me signing. My struggle with the c-word is that it implies that I have a right to burn as much fossil fuel as I like and fill the sky with CO2 but, 'as a concession' to some suffering people in Bangladesh or somewhere I will make a generous gesture and reduce my emissions a little. But this is not about generosity, its about responsibility, and for Christians its about stewardship. However, I'm not naive enough not to realise that the world of politics, especially international politics, is all about concessions and compromises. So for the sake of a result I was prepared to ask our leaders for concessions ... but in my heart I really hope we might see a little more responsibility and even stewarship of God's wonderful creation.

The Bishop and the Taliban

2009-12-15T23:32:00.003Z

What a gift for the Daily Telegraph - a bishop, indeed the Church of England bishop for the Armed Forces - who is caught praising the Taliban for their faith and sense of layalty to each other. In fact the paper made so much of the story on Monday that Bishop Stephen Venner was forced to appear on the BCC apologising, recanting and musing whether his indiscretion might cost him his job. Of course what bishops should say is that Taliban are bad guys and British soldiers are good guys, full stop.

Bishop Stephen's real sin was, of course, to completely underestimate the British press who are convinced that none of its readers have any capacity to deal with shades of grey, subtlety or nuance. For that he is guilty. His sin appears even worse when two days later we read of more bombings in Pakistan and another 22 innocent people dead in Dera Ghazi Khan.

But if the Telegraph will only let the man speak then he might have a point to make which could challenge our simplistic thinking and help us to engage with the real forces behind terrorism. He speaks of course about the power of faith (not just religious faith?) to motivate and empower people as well as the significance of 'community', 'commradeship' or (to use a churchy word) 'fellowship'. Without in any way approving the object of Taliban faith or its outworkings in violent action we can, nevertheless allow our reflection on their faith and brotherhood to challenge the depth of our own faith in God and the community we find (or don't find) within the Christian church.

Now that Bishop Stephen has apologised for his naivity perhaps the Telegraph might like to apologise for its treatment of its readers as simpletons - unable to even begin thinking about this highly complex human conflict of convictions.

The Professor and the Bishop

2009-12-15T23:07:00.004Z

For almost fifteen years now I have been meeting with a small group of 'fellow pilgrims' with whom I once sent a month living in Windsor Castle. That was a very special month - a wonderful warm English summer, royalty as neighbours, the historic St George's chapel and its choir to aid worship and six great colleagues to work and reflect with. We met again a few weeks ago and as a reward for organising our meeting place (alas not Windsor Castle this time!) I received a book by one of our number.

Taproots for Transformation by Prof. Richard Whitfield is not the sort of book I would naturally read but as it was written and gifted by a friend a have been exploring its pages, or perhaps I should say 'joining in its conversation'. The book takes the form of a 200 page conversation between Richard (a professor of education passionate about child development and adult nurture) and Bruce Gilberd (the retired bishop of Auckland, New Zealand). As Christmas approaches I quote one short passage - from Richard:

"The baby born at Bethlehem, whose parents ensure that he avoids Herod's jealous infanticide, who, from a carpenter's apprenticeship, becomes the radical teacher and healer, and who dies unjustly, with his integrity intact, with two thieves on a Calvary cross changes how we might view each other. ... Everyone counts, and profoundly. ... Now we must avoid [all human] dereliction in the future by letting deep spiritual taproots source humanitity's transformation, in which 'religion' as such is clearly a very mixed blessing." If you want to read more you can find the book here.

Positively Gideon

2009-11-20T23:21:00.004Z

I have spend quite a lot of the past day with Canon Gideon Byamugisha (right) from Uganda. If you haven't heard of him don't worry - but you should have! Gideon was the first religious leader in Africa to publically say that he is HIV positive. He is now the Goodwill Ambassador on HIV and AIDS for Christian Aid and engaged in a hundred different programmes to change our attituded towards people living with HIV and AIDS. Last night he was awarded the prestigous Niwano Peace Prize.

Is being positive a negative thing? Not if you get anywhere near Gideon - he's one of the most positive people I have come across for a long time, positive about life, the gospel, and AIDS. Could I catch something from Gideon sharing time with him today? Yes, he is highly infectious - don't get too close or you really will catch a nasty case of joy in the gospel and anger at the way so many people living with HIV/AIDS are treated in our world. We had great conversations about the difference between sin, failure, criminality and sickness. We touched on the new (homophobic?) bill being pushed through the Ugandan parliament at the moment. I listened as he spoke about living life to its maximum potential (John 10:10). Great stuff.

And ... don't forget World Aids Day is just ten days away.

Think positive!

A grown up ministry

2009-11-20T23:06:00.004Z

It feels like I grew up this week. A little baby that I sort of adopted ten years ago has just become a responsible adult. It has been great fun for me, over those years, to nurture the Faith2Share vision and to see an ever-widening network of mission agencies coming together and enjoying each other - most of the time! Now we have become a charity and that means we have to act responsibly - maybe a little boring, but growing up can be fun.

We submitted our carefully prepared application to the UK Charity Commission in late October and were told not to expect to hear anything for a couple of months - then less than two weeks later Faith2Share Charity No. 1132727 was born. I couldn't believe it when I opened the letter. The good news is that we can now raise money and get some tax back from the government - and that means we can really do the business of mission. To be a charity you need trustees and over the summer we found four great people to do that - four people representing six countries. How? A Kenyan running a mission agency in New Zealand, a Canadian businessman, a Sinaporean teaching mission in Britain and an American mission leader in California - welcome Steve, Loun, Robb and Kevin.

If you want to know more about this brand new charity (but a ten-year old vision and ministry) find us at http://www.faith2share.net/

Too grounded to communicate?

2009-11-03T22:02:00.004Z

I arrived late at our 'lunchtime theology' yesterday and had to eat my baked potato right under the nose of our speaker. Good job I know him well and he's such a decent bloke! Stephen Bevans, Catholic missiologist from the US with a great approach to thinking theologically about mission, was introducing his latest book An Introduction to Theology in Global Perspective. Get yourself a copy!

The thought which hooked me in his presentation and our discussion afterwards was about contextualised theology. We all agree that theology (at least Christian theology) has to be contextualised to make any sense. But then comes the problem. If my theology is so contextualised (expressed in my mother tongue, using my own cultural idioms, resonating with the life of my community, expressing my own inner deeply personal experience of divinity and life) then how on earth can anyone else be expected to make any sense of it! Now I undserstand why I struggle with Friedrich Schleiermacher - he was German! But more seriously this does open up a very interesting discussion about the inter-cultural dialogue of inculturated theologies.

On Pg. 187 Bevans writes, "To do theology from a global perspective, ironically, is to look to the local. ... We need ... the blossoming of theologies in every part of the world, in every historical situation , among every social group." The real challenge is then the "cross-pollination" of these theologies - in such a way as retains the integrety of each?

On the move - 190 million

2009-11-01T22:47:00.011Z

Doing some research for a short presentation I am giving later this week I discovered an interesting, and challenging, fact. I bet you didn't know either. Apparently more than 3% of the world's population lives in a country different from the one in which they were born - that's 190 million people! Given that most people, even those living in situations made difficult through poverty or insecurity, prefer to stay put, it is quite staggering that three out of every hundred human beings is a migrant

Statistics are interesting but what I find really fascinating are the personal stories behind the statistics, and here we have a veritable gold mine of 190,000,000 stories! Some are real success stories, the African lad who loved football and now plays for Arsenal, the Russian entrepreneur living in a rather nice pad in Chelsea, and the nurse from Malawi who works in Sweden and sends home half her salary to support the family. Other stories need to be rated triple X, the Bangadeshi girl wobbling in high healed shoes and too much make-up on the streets of Mombay waiting for her next male customer, the illegal farm labourer hiding in a barn in Lincolnshire, and the political activist who had to seek asylum far from home

The statistic I have still not found, however, is how many of those 190 million women, men and children are Christians. How many million 'unintentional' missionaries do we have in the world? And, whatever number there are - and there are millions - who is supporting them, training them, praying for them? Will they ever feature in the historoes of mission? Some of those personal stories are great - the Ethiopian girl who reads Bible stories to her employer's children in Saudi Arabia, the Chinese student who became a Christian in Canada and now leads a church in China, and the Ghanian nurse who prays (as long as the law allows!) with her patients in Bristol

Living in a strange place is never easy - but those who do enrich our communities, deserve our friendship and must be protected when the world turns nasty.

Saving the earth

2009-10-17T21:19:00.003+01:00

With a nephew who works in 'alternative energy' I have got used to following the various debates about on-shore and off-shore wind farms here in the UK. Personally I find those tall white windmills scattered across a grren hill side rather graceful and attractive but I also hear the arguments about noise, damage to the environment and danger to flocks of birds. But surely we need to do something to harness FREE energy.

Driving across Kerela, South India, recently I was amazed to see not one, five or twenty windmills but hundreds off them stretching out on both sides of the road for around 5 killometers. I'm not sure whether this is one of the largest wind farms built so far but it is definitely serious business. In a natural wind tunnel between mountains these white blades turn day and night generating electricity for the growing economy of India. In a strange way I thought these windmills mirrored the peoples of India - growing numbers, hard working, graceful and gaining strength from cooperative working. They also say something to Christians about the power which can be harnessed as we each open ourselves to the gentle breeze of God's spirit.

Children we love and abuse

2009-09-22T11:18:00.002+01:00

I landed in Bangalore India this weekend in the midst of a festival weekend. As well as the local Hindu festival, Muslims were celebrating the end of Ramadan and Christians were using the long holiday weekend as an opportunity to celebrate 'Children's Day' in many of their churches. Within hours of landing I found myself in an impressive, growing, independent church preaching on the place of the child in mission.

India is full of people, and even more so full of children - literally hundreds of millions of them. The children who sat in front of me in church had adoring parents who, in good Indian fashion, are prepared to sacrifice much to see their children well educated and prepared for life, but as I spoke I was just as conscious of the children we had passed on the road side begging for food and those I had not seen whose bodies are abused for the gratification of adult lust. Children are vulnerable but they are also strong and have much to teach us about discipleship - open, trusting, humble and deep. I look forward to being inspired by the lives of other Indian children this coming week as I spend more time in this challenging but hopful country.

Spirits and Gods

2009-09-14T22:54:00.005+01:00

It seems quite appropriate that a week before I fly out to South India I have just finished reading Michael Bergunder's excellent study of Pentecostalism in South India. At the end of the book he lists all 200+ people whom he interviewed as part of his study - after that much talking he must know something!

I was particularly interested in the ways that Pentecostalism has become contextualised within a Hindu context. Whereas in Africa Pentecostal churches sometimes appear as if they just landed last week from Pheonix Arizona, Indian Pentecostalism is very Indian - dare I say Hindu? Bergunder claims that, "the Pentecostals have taken over the demonology of popular Hinduism, with some slight differences", and "it is above all in their view of the causes of misfortune that south Indian Pentecostals come close to popular Hinduism". My years of pastoral ministry in Britain also suggest to me that it is when British Christians face misfortune that they too come fairly close to the gods of their pagan European religions.

Are we all really 'in the hands of the gods' or can we like suffering Job find a greater freedom in God?

Georgian Archbishops and Burundi

2009-09-13T23:46:00.003+01:00

Do Baptists have bishops? Yes, most certainly, and in Georgia - an Archbishop! Archbishop Malkhaz Songulashvili (right) has been a good friend of mine for ten years or more now and leads a very interesting church in the former soviet republic. He was my dinner guest last Friday and presented me with a beautiful poster from the Baptist icon paining school in Tiblisi - surely that must be a first!

As we enjoyed coffee together after the meal, and having exchanged tales of mutual friends in Georgia, and news of last year's war with Russia, Malkhaz told me of his visit to Burundi. Yes, Burundi in central Arica. As a jaundiced Westerner I am used to people from Georgia, and Russia for that matter, frequenting the networks of donors in Germany, Britain and the US, but why Burundi? Malkhaz explained that despite the poverty of his own people, and the recent suffering brought by conflict with big brother Russia, they wanted to reach out to sisters and brothers in greater need in Africa. Now a formal link has been inaugurated between Baptist churches in Georgia and churches in Burundi and a regular flow of prayer, people and assistance has begun.

One more hopeful sign of joined up mission in God's amazing world.

Foggy landings

2009-09-12T23:13:00.005+01:00

After a blog-free month its time to reflect on a few August encounters. I landed in Moscow twice last month - once late and once with cheering and applause. We flew from Samara (on the Volga river) in brilliant sunshine but arriving in Moscow the fog was definitely designed to test the landing skills of any Aeroflot pilot. Across the city transmission masts and blocks of flats stuck their heads above the fog but the airport was somewhat less visible. In faith the pilot headed down into the fog (where we could see absolutely nothing) and then lost his nerve and we shot back up into the sunshine. A short circuit, sight of the same transmission masts and a wave to the early morning risers in their sunny appartments, and then down we plunged again. Seconds later a roar of the engines and we were back in the sunshine again, fluffy clouds below! It took five more circuits (and a bottle of vodka?) before the pilot gained his nerve for a third attempt. I said my prayers - I don't think I was the only one! - and seconds later we made a perfect landing. Cause for cheering, applause and a standing ovation, except that seat belts make that difficult.

I had been visiting Russian friends who train church leaders in Samara, a rather God-forsaken city on the Volga river, and home to the Lada car factory. The city might do a little better if its officials were not so desperate to line their own pockets with roubles, but Russians are philosophical about what might be. It was sunny all week in Samara, but rather like Moscow at the end of the week, below the sunshine I could feel damp, cold mist - a spiritual malaise, an empty materialistic hunger. Churches don't grow fast these days - it costs to follow Jesus, and citizens are careful to avoid additional costs when life is tough.

I left Samara remembering the bright skies and the misty faces - and a couple who have given much to follow Jesus into Samar(i)a.

Defining youth

2009-08-12T23:30:00.004+01:00

Interesting conversation tonight with Jec in the Philippines. We only met a couple of days ago through some work I'm doing for Edinburgh 2010. Jec is a 25 year old leader of Christian youth networks out there and we were talking (virtually you understand) about how the young people he knows can engage with a rather academic conversation about mission - to which I think they could add a lot.

However part of the conversation was about who are "youth". In Europe most people over 18 (16?) would be unhappy to be excluded from "adult" and spoken about as "the youth" whereas in India you can still be in the youth fellowship at 40! In fact in India, if I understand correctly, it has a lot to do with marital status - unmarried = youth; married = adult. Jec's interesting idea was that it all has to do with dependency. "As long as I am finacially dependent on my family I will be a youth" he said. As someone in his late 50s who is about to become more dependent on friends and family than I have been in the past that was encouraging news - I am about to become a youth once more! Roll on childhood!

Confused Spirits

2009-08-10T22:38:00.004+01:00

My mobile rang just as I was leaving work. "Could you come and help me with an exorcism?" "When?" "Well as soon as possible, say 7pm.?" I don't get many of those calls (not being a specialist in exorcisms you'll understand) but when a brother priest asks you do go it's kind of hard to say 'no'.

Just before you get too excited, there were no stakes, large crucifixes, or hauting screams, just a troubled household - a world traveller come home to die, the live-in nurse and a dutiful son - seeking peace. My colleague and I broughts Biblical words of comfort, we said our prayers, we spinkled water, exchanges a few smiles and left. Walking home I began to wonder - what was there?, what have we done? and might my Nigerian colleague have done things quite differently? I believe in spirits - especially the one I call Father - and I know that they can be troublesome when we shut God out of the situation. But what really interested me was the cross-cultural dynamics of the pneumatology we talked through and prayed in that simple home tonight. The householder had spent much of his life in China, the nurse who first observed the 'phenomenon' was from the Philippines and the second disturbed nurse who prayed with us tonight was from Zimbabwe. Add to that a son from leafy Richmond and priests from Canada and Suffolk and you have some fairly interesting possibilities in terms of understanding the realities and challenges of the 'spirit world'.

But it worked - God understood, he cared, he spoke and his Spirit is truth.

Being known

2009-08-09T22:03:00.003+01:00

I had one of those telephone calls today. You know, a pleasant sounding young man with a strong Indian accent introducing himself as Chris. "Mr. Oxbrow, I understand you are having some problems with your computer, unwanted messages and the like .... well let's see if I can help you with that. May I call you Mark?" Despite my lame protest, "No my computer is fine and I didn't call anyone for help", he presses on, "Now for security can you confirm you address is (and he quotes my full address) and tell me your date of birth." Wait a minute, who am I talking to? How does he know so much about me? It was of course a scam - put "Support on Click" into your browser if you want to know more. They didn't hook me, not this time!

How is it that sometimes it is very comforting when someone knows all about you (the doctor who remembers you from last year's visit, or the waiter who knows exactly where you like to sit) but sometimes its very scary. It worries me that Tesco know exactly what type of cheese I like and when I'm likely to buy more; and when the person I go to meet for the first time has 'researched' me on Google first I feel a little naked. I suppose it has to do with trust - who do I trust to know everything about me and still love me, still be good to me? That's why being known by God is such a pleasure, setting me free to be myself - as I really am.

They say "knowledge is power" and so it is for the potential scam merchant, but for God "knowledge is love".

Single - Crime or Sickness?

2009-08-04T21:40:00.004+01:00

It happened again today. I was standing in the sunshine and someone who I have known through work for some time said, "How are the family?". "I'm single" I remind her, "Oh, I'm so very sorry" comes the automatic reply! I want to reply, "I'm not sorry at all, in fact I rather enjoy it" but I chicken out and change the subject.

It's much more fun of course in Asia where a 'confession' of singleness instantly invites well meaning offers of help to find a "beautiful lady", who often turns out to be a relative not-yet-married-off. I have of course been tempted to accept the offers of help and instantly arrange a beauty (in the spiritual sense of course!) parade with suitable negotiations around 'husband price' - but then chickened out because of the consequences for the poor young (or not-so-young) women involved. Seriously though, the automatic "I'm so sorry" response does seem to suggest a cultural unease with singleness. Is it that us 'singles' still remain a competitive threat? Or does it suggest a deeper inner fear of 'aloneness' with which many struggle. For myself, I thought I was just doing my small part of help prevent population explosion!

Is, perhaps, the real issue for me (otherwise why did I write this?) as well as you that we struggle with those who are different from us - and yet apparently fulfilled, happy in the life God has given them?

Child, Credo, Camp

2009-08-02T20:41:00.004+01:00

It's August, its cold and raining, the kids are on holiday - so let's go camping - or better still let's send the kids off to camp while we have a quiet time back home. Each summer, especially in the US, but also across Europe and elsewhere thousands of children are given a great holiday, lots of adventure, fun and teaching about faith, often by Christian volunteers who give up weeks of their anual leave to look after other people's offspring.

This last week has been the week for banning camps. In Britain several Christian groups have raises the alarm about the country's first Atheist summer camp for children between 8 and 17 whilst in Uzbekistan the government have suceeded in closing a camp run by the Baptist Association of Uzbekistan, leaving the leaders of the Association facing massive fines. So if Athiest can teach their 'faith' to children as young as eight in Britain why cannot Baptists do the same in Uzbekistan? Or to ask the question more provactively, if Christians in Britain (a minority religious group) can object to an Atheist camp why cannot Muslims in Uzbekistan (a majority religious group) object to a Christian camp in their country? The real question of course is much deeper. To my mind the issue is to what degree children - at eight or eighteen - should be exposed to the competing truth claims and religious convictions of adults. We rightly protect children from pornography - should be also protect them from atheism - and theism? Perhaps to focus on 'protection' is to begin in the wrong place. Would these difficult questions be more easily addressed if we focused rather on 'nourishment' and 'healthy development' rather than 'protection'? As Christians work with children we need to constantly ask ourselves, is my 'faith sharing' enabling this child to be nourished and grow in healthy ways, to explore and discover their own place in God's world, in His love?

Hope in a dark place

2009-07-27T13:32:00.003+01:00

It was raining, the streets were grey, and the hotel buffet was closed so he had to head across the road to the bistro pub to find something to eat. Belfast is not the most welcoming place in the rain but the steak pie was good. A colleague and I had been hanging around the bus station to meet a man we didn't know from Dublin, but the waiting was worth while. Thankfully the first bearded stranger I approached turned out to be our contact - I didn't want to get arrested for harassing strangers!

Mr. X had agreed to meet us to tell us about opportunities in North Korea. For decades now the northern part of this Asian peninsular, sandwiched between the economic miracle of South Korea and the emergent power of China, has been a very dark place. Closed to the outside world, stricken by hunger and disease, and with a population in fear of their rulers, North Korea stands as a challenge to freedom, democracy and justice. Last week, in rainy Belfast, however we heard of borders that are permeable (with care), Chinese, Russian and Korean ‘visitors’ who bring hope, and a vision for change. Small beginnings, a kindergarten for deprived children, a bakery for hungry workers, and a few farm implements to ease the life of rural peasants – all done in the name of Jesus, who longs to be a brother to each North Korean. Quietly, underground, Jesus promised the mustard seed will grow. Quietly rays of hope are creeping across the borders of one of the darkest places on earth.

Cow thief baptised

2009-07-21T21:53:00.004+01:00

I remember singing in Sunday School about the man who bought a wife and married a cow (or was it the other way round?) and so had no time for God's kingdom - see Luke 14:19,20 - but this week I heard about a man who spent 12 years in prison for stealing a cow and then last month was baptised - in a prison bucket. The story comes from a Nepali colleague who conducted the baptism, of eleven prisoners in total, in Tansen prison two weeks ago.

The ironic thing is that if the man had been baptised twelve years ago (instead of stealing the cow!) he would not have been facing a prison sentence. No worse, he and my friend who baptised him would have been facing the death penalty! Praise God, a lot has changed in twelve years in Nepal. From a closed Hindu kingdom in which baptism was illegal it has become an open 'secular' state where prison governers welcome Christian ministry and the church growth rate is one of the fastest in the world. Wow, what a change. Through the Faith2Share network we are now seeing Nepalis popping up all over the place in world mission. And they are great people to work with!

When Youthwork means youth work

2009-07-19T22:12:00.004+01:00

Great news from Church Army Africa - a Faith2Share movement - this week. More Kenyan youth now find themselves with employment and hope following the establishment of dozens of new micro-enterprises around the country.

Church youth work is always a challenge - who will do it? - what shall we do? - what do young people want anyway? - what relevance does faith have for the socially engaged teenager or the depressed 20 something? Young people in Kenya represent 75% of the population and many of them face a host of social and economic challenges including unemployment, crime, corruption, tribalism and HIV/AIDS, not to mention their youthful struggle with identity. Working with CMS Africa, Church Army Africa recently started a Youth for Work programme which recognises that when you are young in Kenya gospel = work, a opportunity to contribute to society, to be valued, to have dignity and to know yourself as a daughter or son of the creative God. Sounds like a great mission venture to me. Well done Church Army Africa.

Blood on the doorposts

2009-06-26T22:30:00.007+01:00

This week has been a painful week for many with whom I work. Words like 'betrayal', 'blood' and 'death' have been muttered. At times it felt like Golgotha but of course it was only a faint hazzy shaddow of that history changing moment suspended in God's eternal time.

Traditional mission agencies (like those we seek to serve through Faith2Share) rely on regular giving and when recession hits, incomes shrink, jobs are 'retrenched' or 'restructured' and people suffer. In a close community that suffering is corporate and so it should be. We sit and listen, mop up spilt emotions, and try to understand ... and feel guilty that it was not us. When blood mixed with tears on Golgotha worlds were about to change (as indeed when blood was spashed on doorposts in pre-Exodus Egypt), and I sit here tonight wondering whether our world might also change. Of course it will, but in what ways?, how dramatically?, and what will survive or be lost? I have felt for some time that the hegenomy of professional mission agencies (which of course was only ever an imagined hegenomy! - don't we love to fool ourselves) cannot go on. Mission is changing, God is doing new things, and we must be ready. Whether you call them 'involuntary missionaries', 'non-professional missionaries', 'buisionaries', or just 'God's people living for him', mission is for all children, women and men and we may well find that 'the business of mission' will soon 'employ' very few of us. But none of the excitement of the new ( and it is exciting) takes away the reality of the pain right now - it only offers hope.

Life beyond Wimbledon

2009-06-25T13:55:00.003+01:00

Do I recall there was once a war in Sri Lanka? Now that Wimbledon has started in Britain my TV, and sadly my consiousness, seem to have been taken over by tennis and the rest of life is fast disappearing into the mists of time. That was until the report arrived on my desk this morning from Bishop Kumara in Sri Lanka.

Christians are a small minority in this south Asian state, often trampled upon by their Buddhist and Hindu neighbours but when, in May, thousands fled their homes in the north of the island, poor Christian communities were determined to help - to do what Jesus would have done, to weep with the bereaved, bind up wounds, feed hungry children, and sit silently with the traumatised. Although help did eventually come from outside, Bishop Kumar, reports that at least 50% of the food and clothing distributed came from parishes and congregations within the diocese. Families gave up plates and shoes so that others could eat and walk. The suffering will go on for years in this beautiful country, just as there are still many (in the same communities) recovering from the Tsunami. Local Christians will continue to serve them long after the aid agencies leave - they will do so because that's what Jesus does.

I think Jesus would also enjoy Wimbledon, but we must not let the one eclipse the other.

Virtually Gathered - Part 2

2009-06-22T22:30:00.005+01:00

My last post seems to have generated a little discussion. One friend wrote, "what do we mean by "gather"? Is simply sharing a physical place really "gathering"? Some of the relationships I have with people I know but have never met physically are deeper, stronger, more honest and open etc. than many with whom I have shared a church building on a weekly basis. ... Couldn't "gathering" be far less about place and far more about spirit, emotion, sharing and participation? Is even the language a sign that we are still too strongly defined by Greek/Modernist thinking about the cosmos? The "space" which is important surely is the space between people - that which enables relational waves to flow not the containing space we gather in?"

"Space between people" is what allows for the possibility of relationship. I have always thought that the space between Father, Son and Spirit is important because it gives birth to relationship and it is relationship which makes the Trinity work and at the same time creates a re-creative space for us mere mortals to enter into.

I like the idea of 'gathering' being about relationship rather than place but what about 'incarnation'. If having a body, physicality, was so important for Jesus (living in Palestine and risen from the dead) then where do we place this physicality in 'virtual church'?

Virtually Gathered - or not?

2009-06-21T23:30:00.003+01:00

When is church not church? - When its un-gathered? That was the question I had buzzing in my mind this morning as I was driven home from Wokingham after speaking at the morning service at All Saints. (Don't worry, I haven't got myself a chauffeur, yet - a colleague was preaching in a nearby church so we were saving the planet by sharing a car!) All Saints was very gathered (ecclesial) - good Anglican worship, well led, with a responsive and obviously committed congregation. It was a conversation over coffee afterwards that raised the question.

Having preached on mission (what else?) I found myself in coversation with a church member who is part of i-Church, the Oxford diocese attempt at internet faith community. Never having attended (is that the right word?) a virtual church myself, I was interested to hear about the missional challenges of 'being out there' in virtual space for God. Obviously the internet is a great place to connect, and it is increasingly being used for evangelism, but the struggle seems to be to understand how physical (present to each other) the 'gathering' of God's people needs to be in order for it to function as the Body of Christ. Virtual gathering? Virtual Body? Is i-Mission a route to i-Church or must it lead to something more gathered, more tangible, more touchable? I left the discussion in no doubt about the importance of Christians inhabiting virtual space, and claiming that space as God's, but the question remains - church, ecclesia, gathered, virtually gathered?

Looking out of windows

2009-06-20T22:10:00.004+01:00

Windows are great for focusing attention on what lies directly in view but they also block out a lot more. I once heard about an airforce base where half a wall was painted - the half the queen might see if she were to look out of the window during a visit she was making, the other half remained unpainted and unseen for years. For those of us engaged in Christian mission the "10-40 window" has, for some time now, focused our attention on that part of the world where most people have yet to gain any real exposure to the gospel of God's love in Jesus. Running from Morocco to China and Japan, and Turkey down to Sri Lanka, this window frames a particular approach to mission which is geographical, 'people group' focused, and strategic. Useful as this is, the danger however is that the longer we view the world out of this particular window the more likely we are to forget what we cannot see - the unpainted wall.

Recently I have been introduced to another window - totally non-geographic - the "4-14 nwindow" which frames our mission focus on the 40% of the world's population who are often unseen and unheard because they are children and young people. In a year which is focusing on the rights of the child , Christians do well to view our world through this child-view window. This window does not face the future ("children are our future") but rather gives us a unique view of the real world in which we live today, a world in which children take decisions, share faith, and shape our environment.

Windows can also look into each other. For an intersting "4-14" look into the "10-40" window see Windowkids.

Chosen vulnerability

2009-06-15T22:25:00.002+01:00

Today I have been facilitating a small group of international missiologist. We are working on a contribution for the Edinburgh 2010 Study process and have participants from South Africa, Zambia, Kenya, Indonesia, India, Korea, Norway, Belarus and the UK. A great group to work with! Our Indian colleague, Monica Melanchthon (right), was unable to join us so I ended up reading her paper to the group and was so struck by one short passage that I want to repeat it here. She writes:

When someone who has no need to be vulnerable becomes vulnerable in order to identify with those that are, and together with them struggles to be resilient against all death dealing forces, structures and systems, and thus together with them moves towards a society transformed—of justice, and communion , then he or she participates in the vulnerable mission of God. The kind of mission that is required here is not of contemplative theologizing but liberative action in solidarity with the oppressed. It is a solidarity that is built on a relationship of complete vulnerability and identification with the oppressed community; sustained by a process of mutual giving and receiving, and nurtured by seeing in the other the ethical demand of responsibility.

Thanks Monica

Crusading Koreans?

2009-06-10T22:05:00.006+01:00

I spent this evening reflecting with mission colleagues on the significance of the Korean mission movement. A Pentecostal Korean missiologist, Julie Ma, had raised a few challenging questions in her opening lecture at the Asian Mission Consultation at Redcliffe College and that got us going. With Korea now sending more cross-cultural missionaries than any other country outside the US (so Julie claimed) their missiology and methodology must be significant. I was struck by how many times Julie spoke of the Korean mindset as 'crusading' - ouch!! - but she's right in many respects. Another colleague later talked of Korean missionaries as being 'modern' (rational, linear, success oriented, goal setting) and therefore finding it difficult to address pre- and post-modern mission contexts.

My question was what distinctive contributions Koreans bring to global mission. The 'birth ground' of their faith is in many ways unique - suffering, struggle, Shamanism overlaid by Buddhism, and rapid church growth. That must give them something unique. The answers we began to get were in terms of an acute awareness of spiritual realities, a deeply prayerful ministry, dogged determination, and generosity. But Korean missions need to relate to the rest of us and we need them - if only we can overcome substantial language and cultural barriers. The future looks good.

Looking to Brazil on Trinity Sunday

2009-06-09T22:01:00.006+01:00

With two members of the British National Party being declared members of the European Parliament on Trinity Sunday my paniced mind ran to Leonado Boff (right). Who else would I go to, you might ask! Boff is (was?) a professor of theology in Petropolis, Brazil, whose commentaries on society and politics are steeped in good biblical theology. In 1986 he wrote Trinity and Society and there he has a wonderful section on how the inner life of the Trinity provides us with a powerful critique of both capitalism and socialism. Pages. 148f for those who want to read it but here are two short quotations:

The greatness of trinitarian communion, however, consists precisely in its being a communion of three different beings; in it, mutual acceptance of differences is the vehicle for the plural unity of the three divine Persons.

Being a person in the image and likeness of [God] means acting as a permanently active web of relationships: relating backwards and upwards to one's origin in the unfathonable mystery of the Father, relating outwards to one's fellow human beings by revealing oneself to them and welcoming the revelation of them in the mystery of the Son, relating inwards to the depth's of one's own personality in the mystery of the Spirit.

The challenge for me is including those who voted BNP amongst those others to whom I must reach out in order to complete the community of differences to which Boff calls us and in which we, as Christians, rejoice!

Hope for the hopeless

2009-06-01T23:56:00.003+01:00

As I decided to call my blog 'hope transfigured' I ought to include a few stories of hope from time to time. Well, that's easy today because I've heard plenty. Let me share one. Early this morning I was speaking to a colleague, Helen, in Hong Kong who was very excited about a trip she had just completed. Helen is part of the leadership team of a mission group, which is part of Faith2Share, and they have been in Cambodia for the past week or so. In fact they were right up in the remote north of the country.

Genocide, on the scale it was practiced in Cambodia, does not make for hopeful people, even a generation later. However, Helen told me, in a few places attitudes are beginning to change, step by step. Christians are a tiny minority in this beautiful but disfigured nation, but they stand out as 'people of hope'. Now new opportunities are opening up for mission amongst familiies, healing wounds, caring for the rejected, loving the unlovely. These beginnings are only very small but Helen sounded very excited about what God is doing there and I shall be calling Hong Kong again soon to keep up with the next stage of this story. I just pray that I can 'live hope' in my own community as well as they do in Cambodia.

Old words, new meaning

2009-05-29T14:28:00.005+01:00

I am grateful to Thomas Whelan (writing in the BIAMS journal) for correcting a misunderstanding I have had for at least 30 years! Like a lot of other people, I suspect, I have always thought that the catch phrase from the Student Volunteer Movement of 1886, "the ezangelisation of the world in this generation" meant that the world would be converted to Christian faith within the current generation - an aspiration which has been behind many mission movements, not least the pre-millennium movements like AD2000. (Of course it didn't happen, so what do you make of that?) Apparently it never meant that in the first place - it meant "the proclamation of the gospel by each generation throughout the entire world". I like that. Why? Because its far more Biblical for a start. It reflects the call on each Christian to 'live like Christ', 'to bear witness', 'to proclaim good news' .... to be faithful in these things and leave the converting to God (if that's what He wants!)

Thank you Thomas, its always great to have fresh light on a well known phrase - especially when it fits in so well with what I already thought must be right. There always was too much in scripture about leaven, mustard seeds, remnants and suffering for me to really grasp the 'everyone on board in the next sixty years' vision. Now I can get on with the witness and proclaiming and leave the converting to God - that's challenge enough for me!

Bunker or Bakehouse

2009-05-27T21:36:00.006+01:00

We first met in Pattaya in Thailand last year. I hasten to say we were not there for the reason most older European men seem to go to Thailand, but rather to attend the Assembly of the World Evangelical Alliance - I to network with mission colleagues, Anton to link up with those working on advocacy issues. Anton is a Dutch merchant banker turned missionary with family ties back into Indonesia. Today Anton was in my office and we shared a whole lot from publishing challenges to the state of European Christianity - and good German coffee too.

The core to our conversation was the attitude and worldview of younger (than us!) Christians in Europe. With so much talk of the 'Islamicisation of Europe', the rise of secularism, and the decline of faith communities, Anton's big questions was this. Are the current generation of Christians in Europe busy pulling down the hatches so they can survive in their holy bunker or are they getting out there into the bakehouse of civil society, politics, education, media with a 'yeast' that has the transforming power of the gospel? I'm not sure I agreed with him all the way but I share some of his concern about a 'loss of nerve' in contemporary European church. At least I think we agreed that it is not Islam that threatens Europe, the real threat is the withdrawal of Europe's Christians into their holy bunker, pockets still stuffed full of the yeast which was designed to be spread around the European bakehouse - hot and unconfortable as that might be.

But what to do? Anton has a few ideas so wait and see!

Hidden Kingdoms

2009-05-21T21:57:00.002+01:00

I feel so privileged tonight. There are only a few thousand Christians is Bhutan, and one of them is sitting in my house! Where is Bhutan? – east of Nepal, south of Tibet and north of the remotest part of India. A beautiful Himilayan country, an ancient kingdom and one of the most ‘closed’ countries in the world. Rohit (not his real name) became a Christian whilst serving in the army some years ago and, after some years heading a mission organization in Bhutan, now looks after a Christian network stretching across the Himalayas – my sort of person!

Christians are still heavily discriminated against, and sometimes persecuted, in Bhutan – hence the need for security about Rohit’s real name – but the kingdom of God is growing in that place. As small groups come to faith in Jesus Christ they choose their own pastor and begin a small ‘hidden church’. The network which Rohit has built up brings together over a hundred churches across the Himalayan region, in and beyond Bhutan, to train these new church leaders, to encourage the youth, and to strengthen the Christian presence in the country. In Bhutan, the 'hidden kingdom' of the Himalayas, Christians are seeding another Kingdom, hidden now in their homes and small meeting rooms, but one day destined to be revealed as the glorious Kingdom where God reigns in peace and justice. Will I be able to sleep tonight – knowing I have such a precious jewel hidden under my roof?

Understanding numbers

2009-05-20T22:35:00.004+01:00

It takes about 1.5 seconds to say "Two point one million". To say "Ashok and Jemin, Caleb, Mohammed and Saraj, Hussein and Ghazala, Usama, Yalda, Malik and Imran, and ... and ... and ..." - all 2,100,000 of them, I just calculated would take about 16 and a half days, much longer than it took those 2.1million people to flee their homes in Pakistan this last week. No I'm not bored out of mind this evening looking for some crazy mental game to keep me occupied - no, I was trying to make sense of that number which trips too easily off the tongue - 2.1 million!

I was talking this morning to two colleagues in Islamabad who had just returned from northern Pakistan (thank God for Skype!) and they reminded me that this is the largest movement of displaced people in the region since the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. Reports I received yesterday say that many left in such hurry and confusion that they did not bring any food or change of clothes and some even lost their children in the crazed and panicing crowds. The UN has been totally surprised by the speed and size of this 'stampede to safety'. Asked why he left with only half his family one Swat valley resident is reported as saying, "We know the brutality of the Taliban, now they are under attack everyone is their enemy, every child, woman and man."

Please don't pray for 2.1 million people - trying praying for Ashok and Jemin, Caleb proudly carrying his small bundle and little Mohammed in Jemin's arms, and ... and ... and ....

Kimchi Mission

2009-05-18T21:52:00.004+01:00

"A couple of years ago a leader of a British mission agency asked me, 'What can we do to help Korean mission movements?' and I told him, 'Nothing!' He looked rather shocked but it was a truthful answer - he came 50 years to late." KeungChul Jeong was in my office today and that was his frank comment on the attitude of western mission movements towards Koreans. KeungChul, who leads the work of Interserve in Korea, was, of course, right in most respects but I still wished we had a little longer to talk - he had to rush for a train or something. He was correct in that a lot of us from the West underestimate Korean missionary maturity. He also saw that we have a difficulty in receiving, we prefer to give. He was also rightly reflecting the self-understanding of Korea as a nation which now sends more cross-cultural missionaries than any other except India and the USA. But then he might just (if I may be allowed to suggest it) be making the same mistake as the British. Collaboration, partnership, sharing (call it what you like) is important for the strong as well as the weak - Koreans need Africans, Indians and Peruvians as partners in mission, just as much as do we Brits.

Well, I'm in Seoul in October so perhaps we can talk some more then. We discovered we have a mutual friend there - Henry, a Korean mission leader from whom I learnt much in Southern Russia ten years ago. Perhaps we can enjoy Kimchi together and discover some new recipies for partnership.

Mission's full circle

2009-05-15T09:31:00.004+01:00

It was more an adoption than a birth but the little family I look after, the Faith2Share network, gained a new member this week. A mature 26-year old joining the family brings some challenges but a lot of new energy and insight. Our new family member is full of ideas and energy and its going to be great to have them around, if we can survive the late nights and angst.

Global Teams has its roots in the Anglican Church and is based in California with over 50 mission workers in 19 different countries scattered around the world. At first they look just like any other agency sending missionaries to needy places (just like all 26 year olds look alike when you're 55, or 12) but as you get to know them you spot a radical difference - they are into reproduction in a big way (like any other 26-year old?!). Working in some of the more challenging mission contexts, Global Teams are in the buisness of seeing missionaries give birth to missionaries (followers of Jesus who instantly become 'fishers of men' - and women of course). Nothing new in that you may say - exactly what Jesus did in Galilee - but that's the point! So often mission work gives birth to church members who are not missionary followers of Jesus, church members who so easily become church-dependant rather than kingdom-building. I'm looking forward to us all learning quite a lot from the new 26-year old in our family. Get the black coffee brewing!

Is Baptism necessary?

2009-05-10T21:03:00.004+01:00

A couple of night ago I had to choose between a night at home with the TV (and a Kenyan house guest), listening to Kenneth Cragg (he of innumerable books on Islam and a real hero of mine), and a lecture by a professor of religions and Sanskrit from Nagaland, north India. I chose the third option but took my computer along so I could catch up on emails during the lecture! (Before you judge me - don't tell me you have never done that?). Well, the emails didn't get answered and instead I came away with two pages of grey-cell stretching notes. Thank you Dr. Atola Longkumar (pictured).

Speaking against the background of recent religious violence in India, Atola raised the whole question of whether conversion is a useful term, or even a useful concept, and if it is then what it involves. The force of her arguement was that Christian faith is about discipleship, a direction of living orientated towards God as seen in Jesus Christ, not church membership or even joining a specifically 'Christian' community. In India the real point of tention is over baptism as it is such a public event which appears to mark a leaving as well as a joining of communities. Atola suggested that baptism might not be essential for Christians. For some of the audience, brought up on Jesus' Great Commission to, "Go into all the world ... and baptise them in the name of ...", this was a step too far. But when baptism costs lives (as it does in India) is this an opportunity to rejoice in martydom or just an unnecessary antagonism of Hindu (Indian?) sensibilities? [Interesting programme, by the way, on Radio 4 today on how certain Hindu groups try to define Indian identity as, by definition, Hindu.] Part of me wants to say that breaking ties, changing direction, being faithful (to God) is always costly (a cost sometimes paid in blood), but before I voice that from the comfort of my Oxford home I want to know much more deeply what it really means to be an Indian follower of Jesus - not a church member, perhaps not a Christian (in the cultural sense) - but a Christ-one, a faithful follower of Jesus. More work for the grey-cells!

Ice cold waters and red hot killers

2009-05-08T13:48:00.003+01:00

Watching the news last night my mind ran back a few years to wonderful days spent in the Swat Valley, Pakistan. I was there on business but you can hardly spend a week in Pakistan's "little Switzerland" without seeing something of the ice cold, torrential, rivers and wonderful mountains, and breathing the life-giving thin clear air. We also spent time wandering round ancient Buddhist temples, now neglected in a land ruled by Muslims. A paridise on earth! It is hard to believe that today 200,000 refugees have fled the valley whilst the Pakistan army engages in "full scale" conflict with Taliban forces infiltrating from Afghanistan.

Whether Pakistan will be able to "wipe out"' the Taliban through military action is an open question. Personally I very much doubt it. The Taliban may be a military force, but they are much more significantly a spiritual force, and if anyone is to engage with them creatively it will not only be militarily. Extremists they are, people with deep (and perhaps misguided) convictions, but they will not go away just because their fighters lie dead below the snow capped mountains of Swat. Military action may be necessary but much more urgent is the engagement of minds, philosophies, world-views, and spiritual sensibilities. Buddhists no longer pray beside the rushing rivers of Swat, Christians struggle to maintain a presence in the ragged towns, the Taliban have their mosques, but what of the future? What does or does not happen in Swat this month will have implications for us all as we struggle to live in a world of deeply held religious (and anti-religious) convictions.

Kenyan insight into Genesis

2009-05-06T23:09:00.004+01:00

Gerald Mwangi, a colleague from Mission Together Africa, based in Nairobi, staying at my house this week, joined us for tonight's home group meeting. We had lined up a study of Genesis 1 and frankly I was not anticipating any revolutionary new thoughts. ('Oh man of little faith'?) We were a smaller group today (you know, that 'buying a wife and marrying a cow' stuff) but we had a great discussion. The highlight for me however was Gerald's thoughts on 'Why did God rest on the seventh day?'

Kenyan synthetic thinking drew a fascinating parallel between God's resting on the seventh day of creation, after He had seen that everything He had created was 'very good', and Jesus 'resting' on the cross after he uttered those powerful words, 'it is finished, complete'. Both creation and salvation are, for God, complete and also 'very good' - even if they do still take some working out by us mere mortals. But there's more! Just before God rests in Genesis he commissions human beings to care for creation, to manage it, to bring it to completion. In a very similar way, just before salvation is completed on the cross, Jesus commissions his disciples (us!) for mission - to share in God's salvific as well as His creative work. Good thinking, Gerald - thanks!

Pain v Truth?

2009-05-05T23:22:00.004+01:00

No, this is not a comment on tonight's match. (Although I did see pain in the faces of Arsenal fans the truth is Manchester United deserved the win!) Thousands of miles away from the championship battle another, more bloody, battle rages - in Sri Lanka. There pain is more than real.

My challenge this morning was that a Tamil friend in London contacted me and asked me to publicise the "truth of what is happening in Jaffna ... attrocities which I didn't even hear of in the holocaust". Of course I want to help, I have editorial access to a website, I can publish - but what do I publish? No one can deny the dreadful suffering of tens of thousands of civilians holed up in a tiny strip of land with vitually no food and no medical assistance - but, "worse than the holocaust"? I went to the website she asked me to look at - Tamil Net - and read the latest headline: ‘State terror’ waging ‘racist war’. If I publish that what will happen to the good relationships we have with Singhalese Sri Lankans? How much is truth which is painful, and how much is pain expressed as truth? I felt the pain but I chickened out of publishing the pain (or do I mean the truth?). My item (see Faith2Share) was the usual Christian, 'pray for the victims' stuff. But still I'm left wondering what to do with the pain. And what is more true than pain?

Hopeful Strategies

2009-05-05T21:56:00.005+01:00

The mission world has its travelling sales people as well as Kleeneze and sometimes (but not always!) they have some interesting gadgets in their show case. One such walked into my office today. In fact he is based less than a mile from the Faith2Share office but somehow we had not met before. A teacher, turned Oxfam's man in Indonesia and now in Oxford producing resources to help communities deal with HIV/AIDS, Glen Williams, is quite an etrepreneur. You can check out his Stategies for Hope Trust at http://www.stratshope.org/. They have a lot of workbooks, resources for church leaders and community facilitators, etc. in several different languages and quite a lot of it is free to those who will be using them in Africa, Asia or Latin America. A travelling salesman with freebees!

Dodging Charlie

2009-04-28T23:32:00.006+01:00

It seems I have been almost meeting Charlie for fifteen years and more but never seen him until he sat in my living room this evening. You know what it's like ... "Oh, you know X?", "Yes I worked with him in Russia in '92," "That was about the time we started supporting BLTC", "BLTC in Krasnodar? - I was on its Board!", "and I don't suppose you ever knew Y", "Of course I did, he's right here in Oxford now you know." etc. etc. I turns out we might have met last year in Hungary except Charlie was sick and didn't make it to the conference. Anyway, after 15 years of 'near misses' we had a great evening tonight discovering that we have actually beeen in the same ministry, supporting the same people, learning the same lessons, and trying to be obedient to the same Father all these years. Charlie is American and Baptist (I can just about forgive him that!) but shares the same passion for Europe becoming a place where people of so many different backgrounds can discover that becoming a disciple of Jesus is one 'heaven' of an adventure.

When Charlie eventually went to bed I found myself sitting and wondsering how many other unseen Charlies there were out there - employed by the same Lord, in the same ministry, in many of the same places as me, but totally unknown. I wonder. ... I wonder which one will I bump into next?

Pilgrim principle

2009-04-27T22:58:00.003+01:00

I constantly go back to Andrew Walls - thank's Andrew - and get new inspiration for real mission. In a world full of culture-attuned mission methodology ('Purpose driven', 'Seeker friendly', and 'People Group' focused) it's good to be reminded that faith can also be counter-cultural. Walls writes,

Not only does God in Christ take people as they are: He takes them in order to transform them into what He wants them to be. Along with the indigenising principle which makes his faith a place to feel at home, the Christian inherits the pilgrim principle, which whispers to him that he has no abiding city and warns him that to be faithful to Christ will put him out of step with his society; for that society never existed, in East or West, ancient time or modern, which could absorb the word of Christ painlessly into its system. (Andrew Walls Missionary Movement in Christian History Pg. 8)

Differently together

2009-04-26T20:28:00.006+01:00

Today I heard from two friends (one an ex-girl friend I haven't heard from for 30 years!), sat in the sun and read a book, and then scanned some scary emails from Pakistan. Strangely they all linked together - is it a plot? A mission director friend wrote from Malaysia to say he had just finished his sabbatical and had been working on a 'theology of ethnicity'. Marion wrote "We Judge!!... but whom do we stand next too ??.. God knows!!.. oh yes he does!!!!... I shared a hymn sheet with a street cleaner, he was black from head to toe!! he held out his sheet to share with me... and began to sing.. i was humbled!!... ashamed!! A voice of an angel!!!! he sang every word with passion!!! and then he carried on cleaning the streets". My book (the sun was great) provided a resounding renunciation of McGavran's 'homogeneous people group' approach to mission and rekindled in me the excitement of the multi-ethnic, multi-everything church. And Pakistan? Well do I have to say anything? ... ethnicity rules! What I really want to know is how we can actually enhance ethnicity, as a contribution to the enrichment of humanity rather than as a rejection of 'the other'. Paul you really do need to write up your sabbatical study. If Christians could really crack this 'difference is what holds us together' stuff then we really would be on to something - perhaps even in the Swat Valley (Pakistan).

Oh, the book I was reading was Eckhard Schnabel's Paul the Missionary - and its not all as good at this afternoon's few pages!

Saving the world with a click

2009-04-23T09:40:00.004+01:00

I don't know about you but I have my doubts about those constant requests to go on line and sign a petition. Three clicks of my mouse and the world gets saved! How powerful am I? Friends send me links so I can save a nature reserve from motorway invasion, a country from civil war and a child from starvation - just enter my name and click, and then you can return to the comfort of life in Oxford. I take the requests from organisations like Avaaz somewhat more seriously but even they tend to flood my in box. Well three weeks ago a friend sent me one of those links - Tony, a ten year old from Congo about to be deported from the UK, held in prison in the Congo when he was only six, a popular pupil at his school in Didsbury - an obvious threat to UK security? Today I heard that only 2,100 of us clicked on that petition but it worked - Jacqui Smith (or more likely here staff at the Home Office) have given Tony and his mum (pictured) indefinite rights to remain in the UK.

Is my belief in democracy restored? Will I be able to ignore any of these requests in the future? And what about the ethics of sitting comfortably at my computer, drinking good coffee, and clicking my mouse to save Congolese children, whales, or even Wales?

Civilised flying

2009-04-20T22:37:00.005+01:00

Like many who spend too much of their time travelling, the novelty of airports and aircraft wore off years ago. In fact I find it hard to think of a more inconvenient place to be than an airport lounge or an economy seat at 30,000ft. This said I was delighted to find this sign when travelling in China a couple of years ago. If only the reality had matched up to the promise. I was reminded of this photo today whilst talking with the person who runs the 'China desk' at Churches Together in Britain and Ireland. (Here it is Lawrence!) Perhaps after Easter it is a good reminder that the Christian faith has often been seen as bringing a 'civilising' influence into societies, although I would prefer 'humanising' (in the full Christological sense). As an 'expert' on airport endurance perhaps I ought to devote my next years of ministry to evangelising airports and making them 'God friendly spaces' - 'civilized airports'?

Leadership and power - Nigeria and Britain

2009-04-18T18:41:00.004+01:00

I connected with two great guys yesterday who I used to work with in the '80s. Ken is now Bishop on the Niger (Nigeria) where he has a couple of years left to serve before retirement. He is also chair of the Church of Nigeria Missionary Society (part of Faith2Share) so we had business to do. The more interesting part of the conversation however was about leadership in a Nigerian culture. Ken has a great vision for the real potential of lay leadership in the church in Nigeria, but (outside his own diocese where he is 'king') constantly comes up against rampant clericalism. He as a Nigerian and I as a Brit. were trying to analyse how much of that style of leadership - bishop/knight/chief - is cultural (and perhaps even appropriate) and how much is simply human power games. No answers but a good discussion.

Then in the evening Bob rang. He was Dean (big boss) of a cathedral in the UK and at Christmas decided to step down from all that and find a humbler way to serve. Risky - he doesn't have a job yet - but a great witness to those who see promotion and titles as the ultimate objective!

A good Coptic read

2009-04-15T16:45:00.004+01:00

It's amazing what you can discover on the internet whilst looking for something else. A search for a particular order for Christian women in Russia once brought me a very unexpected offer from some other Russian women ... let's not go there! Well today I stumbled over the fact that the Coptic Orthodox community in Australia have been very busy putting hundreds of Coptic books on the web in English. Pope Shenouda seems to be going for a world record in books written, but there are a lot of other interestings things there, including children's books. If you are interested in one of the oldest surviving Christian traditions take a look at http://www.coepa.org/index.php

Make disciples and ... No 'and'!

2009-04-14T23:10:00.004+01:00

From time to time I get asked to peer-review an article or a book that a colleague has written, pre-publication, so they can feel a little more confident sending it in to the editor. Normally its a task a hate because either the article is very boring, or its so cleaver I don't understand it, or its really bad and I don't know what I can say without causing my friend major psychological distress. It's like saying, "your baby is so ugly"! But today life was different. Well I suppose it is Easter week so we should expect that. An Indonesian colleague sent me a small book he has written. It's full of good stuff. I'll plug it here when he gets it off the press. Here are two quotes - I hope that's OK, BB?

"The dynamic community of Ecclesia [church] of Jesus Christ powerfully operates in advancing the Kingdom of God every single day. ... Unfortunately this non-stop transformation has, in many parts of the world, been reconfigured into a single event on Sunday."

" Jesus did not command the Ecclesia to 'engage in making disciples and also to care for the poor'; or to 'make disciples and to care for the creation'; or to 'make disciples and to engage in the public square.' This is because making disciples includes all of those."

Christ in Bang-Wizzen

2009-04-12T09:29:00.003+01:00

I rode on the back of a motorbike through the dark street of a small town in India many years ago. It was Dewali and firecrackers jumped out at us from every angle. Excited children raced through the alleys and grown men wore grins as they sent jumping jacks sparking after their neighbours. Hindus were having fun with their gods. Last night I was in the church where I grew up as a teenager. In all solemnity we recalled creation, flood, exodus, and prophetic promise and then all heaven broke loose – not just Alleluias and bells, not just cymbals and tambourines, but fireworks! Not just sparklers (we had those) but proper big wizzy, banging fireworks.

Christ is risen, he is risen indeed.

If Christ be risen (he is!), then fireworks are only the start! There’s a lot more fun to come, and not just childish fun but real grown up fun, world changing fun, live giving fun, fun beyond measure and out of control. Christ is risen, let the party begin.

Digging

2009-04-11T23:43:00.002+01:00

I always feel I should dig on Holy Saturday, dig good dark earth, not just with the spade but with my hands. I need to feel the soil, smell its goodness, see its darkness. On this liminal day, the between time, when flesh has been taken down from cross and lies resting in the cool of the earth, when there is no hint of a future, I need to return to the earth. This life-giving earth in which we plant the bodies of those we love somehow draws me. In L’Aquila today they planted 228 new bodies in their garden – children and strong men, women and grandmothers. What hope on this day?

I dig to be close to that dark cruel earth, and that darkness, to discover something warm, some hint of life to come.

Dig for victory?

Dig is desperation (like those who search for earthquake victims?

Dig simply because it takes my mind of darker things (like Peter fishing)?

Dig ……. daring to find what I dare not hope for.

It rained

2009-04-10T23:11:00.002+01:00

As a walked to church it rained - it really rained! And I hated the rain. The church was welcoming enough, my church, my people, my space, space to be quiet on Good Friday. And then he came and sat next to me. I did not notice it as first, at first he was just an unfamiliar disciple. But the stench was undeniable, unremitting, making every moment of my quiet reflection uncomfortable, regretted. Could I not have prayed at home? Then it struck me, and it hurt. Jesus, to whom he was also a stranger, died for him, this man sitting quietly next to me. While I wanted to run away from an excess of stale alcohol, Jesus died. For a friend, one might die, for a young women with potential and her life in front of her, yes perhaps, but ........

Jesus did!

We left church together and the rain was ligher then.

Confused over China

2009-04-08T22:14:00.003+01:00

Tomorrow, 9 April, as many of us around the world recall the arrest of Jesus of Nazareth and his subsequent trial before Herod, the people and Pilot, Shi Weihan (right) will face the People’s Court of Haidan District, Beijing, China. Shi is just the last of a whole chain of Christian leaders in China to find themselves in court - his crime, the printing of Christian books without government permissions. I will be praying for Shi's release (he has been in prison since March last year) while I share a 'last supper' with my friends in Cowley, but I will also be wrestling with confusion. Visiting China two years ago I began to understand how important this nation is for us all. Not only is every fifth person in the world Chinese, and their economy one of the strongest, but it is a melting pot of creative religious debate in which Christians are increasingly playing their part. As one Christian stands trial, another is advising Party officials, and a third is having a serious impact on the intellectual community in the universities. Persecution and prophetic leadership are all there, confused, and yet vibrant. The disciples were somewhat confused on that evening in Gethsemene but they were also the 'future' - the ones to be watched. China? I know which nation I'm watching, and its not the US!

Pope Viewing

2009-04-07T22:34:00.004+01:00

As a bookoholic with little prospect of finding a cure I am often sent tempting offers from a number of internet booksellers. Today's range of tempting offers included "What to wear to see the pope". Looking at the book's cover I wondered whether they had checked my gender before mailing me! Apparently, its a novel about a neurotic Belgian Catholic whose neuroses over the details of life threaten to destroy the really important - like her husband and family. I have no intention of reading the book so the rest must remain mystery, but it did give me a good reminder mid-way through Holy Week that there are greater things to think about than catching up with the washing and making sure I have some fuel in the car. Christians are good at neurosis (don't talk to me about keeping the hymn books straight!) but are we just as good at the world transforming? Like a God who died? And? (Oh, if you need the book, its going on Amazon for £1)

Palm Sunday

2009-04-05T22:08:00.005+01:00

The procession was long and excited, snaking its way up the hill until, reaching the 1,900ft. summit of Hartside Pass we saw the sparkling hills of Lakeland – Ullswater reflecting the afternoon sun. The procession was colourful, noisy and fired up with adrenalin. Bent forward in the saddle, the driver of the bike that had hugged the back of my car on the last bent, let out the throttle and with a flash of blue in my peripheral vision he was gone. The other procession was very different – eleven of us huddled in coats walked all 120 meters from the Market Cross to St. Augustine’s. A shot of adrenalin here might have helped the hymn we sang on our way, between caught breaths – even the slight incline is a struggle for us older folk. Reaching the relative calm of the M6 this afternoon I found myself reflecting on my two processions of Palm Sunday. I was tempted to see Christ in the saddle of a BMW, wind in hair (no crash helmets in AD30!) and to dismiss the ‘remnant’ of Alston parish and our half hearted waving of palms. But that’s too easy. All those years ago Jesus entered the city on festival day with excited crowds, adrenalin and noise, but his closest attention was Thomas and Judas, Bartholomew and James – a small band struggling to understand. Hey, I’m glad I joined both processions today.

Story, Discourse and Narrative

2009-04-02T23:19:00.005+01:00

Yesterday I went to listen to Enos Das Pradhan, General Secretary of the Church of North India talking about the recent violent attacks on Christians in India. It was all rather depressing and conducive of that 'but what the heck can we do about it?' feeling. Conflict is something I would rather run away from, but as reconciliation is so central of the Christian hope, I know I can't just do that. The day was saved for me by a young Indian academic, Mr. Brainerd Prince, who spoke afterwards. He was suggesting that the way into dealing with communal violence is to begin with its ideological roots and to understand the dynamic of story-discourse-narrative. In every situation, especially where there is conflict the story that is told (what happened) is always embellished with the discourse I add to explain why it happened like that and the two together become the accepted (or disputed) narrative. The clue is to realise that our discourse is always informed by ideology. The way into conflict resolution is to try to separate out story (facts) from discourse (interpretation) and then to negotiate discourse independently from story. Sounds great - now all I need is to get into a conflict so I can try it out! Thanks, Brainerd.

Hong Kong joins the party

2009-03-31T21:23:00.002+01:00

I woke up to good news this morning. The network of international mission agencies that I look after, Faith2Share, had just gained a new member. For some time I have felt the lack of Christians from East Asia in our network. We already have two agencies, with about 1500 mission workers between them, in India (those Indians know how to do mission!) but East Asians have a distinct contribution to make. Now a great agency based in Hong Kong and working in around 25 countries in Asia has joined us - Asian Outreach International. Their director (well, 'President' actually), Francis Tsui, is already becoming a friend and so great times are ahead - perhaps even a visit to Hong Kong?

Missionary Diocese?

2009-03-30T21:55:00.005+01:00

Tonight I took the risk of cooking Indian food for an Indian! - it seemed to work. My dinner guest was Revd Moses Jayakumar the General Secretary of the Church of South India (CSI). Quite a breath of fresh air after the last holder of that post (let the reader understand!). After we had survived the Anglo-Indian curry I was quizing Moses (what a great name!) about how members of CSI churches join mission agencies in India. Two of them are members of our Faith2Share network - hence my interest. What took me completely by surprise was his reply that whilst many do join agencies like Friends Missionary Prayer Band and Indian Evangelical Mission many Indian dioceses send out their own missionaries. I knew that, but what I didn't know was that several send over 400 or more each! Apparently South Kerala and Tirunelveli dioceses have missionaries in almost every state of India and beyond. Wake up Wakefield (the Church of England's so-called 'Missionary Diocese') - that's what you call 'mission shaped diocese'!

Nepal comes alive in Penge

2009-03-29T18:08:00.007+01:00

Thank you to the family at St. John the Evangelist, Penge, for a great morning - and lunch! The children (in their crazy hats, above) reminded us of the growth of the church in Nepal, out of suffering, as well a their current sending of mission workers to so many other countries. Kids, I hope you like your picture!

Soros on Storms

2009-03-28T21:26:00.005Z

It was encouraging today to hear George Soros, he of a few pence, reminding us that those who will suffer most from the current economic storm are not those who started the storm, but rather the poorest occupants of our planet who don't even know what a sub-prime mortgage or a government bond might be. It reminded me of the butterfly which is supposed to flap its wings in Malaysia and cause a hurrican in Mexico. As world leaders go into their G20 meetings this week Soros' reminder of who bears the brunt of a global economic storm is well timed. Bob, a friend of mine prompted a similar thought in my mind as we looked at Mark 4:35-41 together this afternoon. I must have read that story of Jesus ending the storm (a real one, not an economic one) a hundred times before but I never noticed before that "there were also other boats with him". Bob's thought was, "What did the people in the other boats think when the storm suddenly finished?" Sometimes God (in Jesus in this case) works unknown in our world. The question I am wrestling with now is, "what will it take for God to finish our economic storm so as to bring relief to the frighted people in the 'other boats' - the poor and powerless of our world?"

Male-female power imballance fuels HIV/AIDS

2009-03-27T09:56:00.001Z

The latest rumour from Tear Fund UK, sadly, is that there are more redundancies on the way as they, like lots of us, seek to 'restructure' and survive in a challenging global market. But looking on the bright side, I just discovered a great resource they released this month. Their case study of HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe and Burkina Faso Gender, HIV and the Church, has some provocative things to say about the power equation between African (only African?) men and women and the role of traditional belief structures, even in churches, in fostering the spread of HIV. Not a long read and there's plenty of pictures, so worth downloading.

iServe Africa

2009-03-26T22:02:00.000Z

We had a great telephone conference call for most of the Faith2Share leaders this morning. It meant that Steve (New Zealand) had to stay up until after midnight and Robb, Geoff and Stewart (US/Canada) were up at 6.00am. but for us in the UK it wasn't too tough! We prayed together and did some good vision sharing. Of course many of us, as mission leaders, face the pressures of the economic downturn (did I mean crash?) but the real energy was reserved for the discussion of emerging mission movements around the world. Duncan, he of Mission Together Africa in Nairobi, reminded us that their new programme iServe Africa is now underway and has a prayer event on 5 April. iServe Africa is a leadership development and discipleship programme for fresh African graduates who are keen to serve as apprentices in churches, mission agencies and other Christian oraganisations. Well done Duncan and travel well to Germsny with the team next month. (They're going to Mission Net.)

Vulnerability in Mission

2009-03-26T11:12:00.000Z

With a very interesting group of people from around the world, I'm currently working on some research that might see the light of day next year - at the Edinburgh 2010 Mission Conference. The idea is to look at how people get motivated for and caught up in Christian mission - how they go about it. One of the issues we were talking (well, virtual talking) through yesterday was vulnerability in mission. Jesus was quite vulnerable at times (how else did he get crucified?) and Paul has quite a lot to say about vulnerability, and yet Christians often go about mission in quite powerful ways - linked in with colonialisation, globalising materialism, or 'power evangelism'. I had a quite challenging/difficult meeting last week with a Brit. who is absolutely committed to vulnerable mission - living simply, using local resources, speaking the local language, having no more power than any local person - in western Kenya. Jim really works hard at this 'being vulnerable' but its not easy. His skin colour alone manks him out as one who has access to those with financial resources and power even if he does not have them himself. I also found out about him on the internet and met him in Wantage, UK. No one else from his village in Kenya has a web presence or flies to the UK! So what does 'vulnerability' mean in terms of mission? I'm still wrestling with that one.

A sixth mark of mission?

2009-03-25T22:00:00.000Z

Over the past few years many of us have got used to Five Marks of Mission but now someone wants to add another! Well, to be precise a whole bunch of people think its a good idea. It started in Canada last year but now there's a real grownd swell. The idea is to recognise that peace making, conflict resolution and reconciliation are all essential 'marks' of God's mission amongst us. The context of our world, and don't forget the church itself!, makes it obvious enough that we need peace, ways of dealing with conflict, and ministries of reconciliation - witness Iraq, Sudan, Sri Lanka and your local church - but is this 'mission'? Personally I am amazed none of us thought of this before. If God does anything, he makes peace. Saint Paul used to talk of Christians as 'ambassadors of reconciliation' and Billy Graham wrote about finding faith as "Peace with God". There will be those who say, "How can we have six marks of mission when everyone knows there are five?", but personally I'm glad we can add to the list and in so doing enrich our understanding of mission. I'm glad the Canadians have reminded us of this missing mark.

Journeying Backwards

2009-03-24T22:17:00.001Z

I was asked today where my blog name comes from. Well you can blame Tom Wright - the one who is bishop of Durham. I could say that its all about soteriology being Christocentrically rooted in eschatology but that really doesn't help! Perhaps we could say instead that Christianity makes much more sense if you read history backwards - that us Christians are people of hope and that we are orientated towards the future because that's where we will discover who God really is and who we, in consequence, are. Help, that doesn't sound much clearer either. Why don't you just read Bishop Tom - he really understands it, and so did I after I read him. It's all in Surprised by Hope, Tom Wright SPCK 2007

So ...... inspired by Tom, I'm now walking backwards (guided by the historic events of Jesus and his church) towards all the things I dare hope for because of Jesus. And as I go that hope is daily transfigured (changed and strengthened) into something more certain. You must see - that's quite exciting! Hence the blog name.

EAT Lunch

2009-03-24T21:50:00.000Z

I wasn't expecting such a good lunch today at EAT in Baker Street. Well, the food was actually not that good - overpriced and somewhat bland - but the conversation was great. A colleague asked me to meet a student from London School of Theology who wanted to talk with someone about partnerships in mission and as I was in London destined for another meeting - which is another story! - I agreed to meet Lanri. I must admit I was expecting just another student looking for a quick way to get someone else to write their asignment, I've had plenty of those meetings, but I was wrong. It turned out that Lanri is a mature student, hails from Lagos, Nigeria, and is really passionate about partnerships in mission. I can't believe it, but he tells me he is one of only two students at LST majoring in mission - what has become of LST? We had a great hour or so sharing passions and now Faith2Share is destined to become the case study in Lanri's disertation. That's good, but better still, I was encouraged to find another African brother who really believes we can build kingdom partnerships. Perhaps it was worth the £3.95 sandwich after all!