'The EU Referendum: How Should We Decide?' Book Review

How should Christians vote in the EU referendum? Amid the cacophony of voices and infographics, some might find Andrew Goddards Grove Booklet on the subject very helpful. 'The EU Referendum: how should we decide?' maps out a Christian approach to the vote on 23rd June, offering some useful background and insights along the way.

Overview
Goddard begins with a critique of the debate thus far: we should ‘challenge many of the common ways we are encouraged to think about answering the (EU) question'  including the depressing and growing tendency for elections to be fought by appeals to each voter’s self-interest, often narrowly their private, economic self-interest." Christians seek the best for the common good, for the whole of society, not just me. How do we extend that principle to nations (the best for the whole of the EU, or the world not just the UK)?The answers may not be clear, but it may be a better question than whether I can get on the housing ladder. 

After a sketch of the history of the the EU project since the war, and the see-saw of British attitudes and engagement with it, the booklet expores at 3 areas in more detail:
 - Composition of the EU, what is our attitude to community, nations and nationalism
 - Motives of the EU: what are the values that shaped its origin, shape it now, and how do we engage with them
 - Structures of the EU: what is the role of government and representation in an international political entity?

Nations and nationalism
Goddard points out that the Bible relativises the importance of nations: they are a natural part of human social development, and can be a vehicle for blessing or curse. Israels vocation of being a blessing to the nations was lost in isolationism and rebellion, but Christs full work will be complete when people from every nation are drawn to worship together. Even Israels 'special status' is subordinated to God's mission. The Bible reminds us that nations are flawed and often temporary, but also that peace between nations and human community and social sharing are good.  The Bible knows little of benign empires - a nation that keeps expending into other nations is usually tied up with idolatry and exploitation, be it Egypt, Babylon or Rome. The 'ever closer union' of the EU, and the increasing centralisation of power (e.g. the Greek terms for bailout) should make us wary. 

Goddard also reminds us that many of the EU states have walked away from former colonies, leaving many of them in poverty, to seek closer union with one another. The refugee crisis is a reminder that not all free movements of people are equal. If Africa suffers because of EU trade rules, then Europse has a moral responsibility to those beyond its borders, as well as those within. 

Migration raises another set of issues - whilst migration is key to the Biblical story, and hospitality to the migrant and stranger is a cental gospel virtue, there is also a theology of place. When the free movement of people turns citizens into economic units, and communities simply as places where fellow EU workers live, we have lost something of what it means to be in community, in place, in relationship. 

EU motives, aims and ethos
As Israel soon forgot how dreadful Egypt was, perhaps we're too easy to forget the wars which ravaged Europe until quite recently. I'm currently re-reading 'God's Smuggler' by Brother Andrew, and we should rejoice that borders once closed to the gospel are now open. The founding vision of the EU, was grounded in Catholic social teaching, and a desire for peace and co-operation, but over the decades this has drifted. Notions of a common good and subsidiarity have mostly become absorbed in trade and economics. Whilst the social chapter, and relief and development aid within the EU, highlight the social dimension, economics calls the shots. The Euro crisis was all about money, and whilst bailouts might look like an expression of solidarity, the conditions of austerity attached to them certainly don't feel like it. We may have had decades of peace, but the more the periphery feels alienated from the centre, the greater the discontent and chances of fracture. Ask the Scots. 

The EU isn't alone in pursuing money and trade ahead of most other values - the idols of the USA, the Far East and the City are no different. The economic tone of the debate, on both sides (if you saw Question Time on Thursday, see if you can find one argument used by Liz Truss for staying that isn't about money), makes it clear that we are living in a material world, and in or out it will be tough for non-economic values to gain a hearing.

Structures and Democracy
There's a helpful sketch of EU institutions at the start of chapter 4, which looks at how political institutions and authority should work. With low turnout, and a low sense of connection to the EU as a community, how can voters in the UK feel that the EU ever has a sense of legitimacy? Political/delegated authority has to have a live link to the community it serves, but "there is still no real community of the EU, no overarching EU identity" (24) - Europe is a project, not a continent. 

The conclusion sketches out what a Christian argument to remain, or to leave, would look like. How far is the EU vision based on Christian principles? How far does the EU foster co-operation? Should Christians be seeking to mend difficult relationships rather than walking away, or has the EU become a failing superstate? Is freedom of movement an opportunity for hospitality, or a corrosion of community and the sense of identity and place necessary for human flourishing?

As you can probably tell, Goddard doesn't have a definite answer either way. What he does clearly call for is a debate which goes beyond economics, beyond self-interest, and beyond caricature: "‘it is vital that Christians model good practice in how they set out their case and argue with opponents, and that they encourage others to do so.’ (28). For Christians there is a bigger picture, God's redemption of all nations and peoples and that any nation stands only in relative importance to the Kingdom of God. 

A large proportion of the current EU was, 30 years ago, part of either the USSR or the Warsaw Pact. International arrangements change, even some which seem set in stone. There is a boiling frog moment when some arrangements become too toxic to tolerate. At what point does rootless migration, disconnected politics, unaccountable power, Greek poverty, and the primacy of mammon cease to be a price worth paying?

There is plenty more to be said: about justice (the current EU setup does a good job relocating the poor for the benefit of the rich); about mission; about the environment; about pretty much everything.  The EU referendum raises so many issues - is it right for a country as prosperous as the UK to rely on migrant labour to prop up a standard of healthcare denied to the countries from which its employees come? Is more 'democracy' based on an appeal to individual economic self interest every 5 years something worth leaving the EU for? Is it right to make such a big decision just because David Cameron wanted to use the promise of a referendum as a political tactic?  

I found 3 thoughts particularly helpful:
 - Christians are called to be faithful in relationships and to try to make them work, rather than walk away. (But there does come a moment to leave Egypt...)
 - Nations never have the ultimate demand on our loyalty.
 - Christians should vote for the common good, not personal self-interest.

 Two things disappoint me about the debate thus far: the apocalyptic language on both sides, and the silencing of non-economic voices in the campaign. The BBC correspondent even had the gall to ask Jeremy Corbyn why the Labour message on Europe wasn't getting across. Um, because you're not reporting it? An appeal to self-interest will reinforce selfishness, an appeal to values, justice and love will reinforce values, justice and love. The referendum debate is a mirror - would you actually want this nation in your club? 

Alan Smith 'God Shaped Mission'

On Tuesday Alan Smith, Bishop of Shrewsbury, was appointed Bishop of St. Albans. There's even a Youtube video (1170 views as of Weds morning, but shame about the corny background music).

It just so happens that last week I finished reading 'God Shaped Mission: Theological and Practical Perspectives from the Rural Church.'

It's partly written in response to Mission Shaped Church (MSC), and the lack of material in that report on rural mission and fresh expressions. MSC was 'important and timely', but raises plenty of new questions - is it change or rebranding? Are 'fresh expressions of church' sustainable? Would the gifted leaders required by fresh expressions produce just as much growth in a normal church setting anyway?

The book argues that the countryside is changing, and that many of the views we hold about it are myths. The romantic picture of peaceful village life is a long way from the 'usually hard, occasionally brutal' reality. As farms close or diversify, incomers change the nature of village communities, and facilities close, there are plenty of challenges for rural communities.

Smith identifies 7 myths which rural churches have to tackle (chapter 2):

1. There was a golden era when rural churches were full.

2. Each village had its own resident parson

3. Rural churches are facing unprecedented change

4. Most rural congregations are made up of people from the village (as opposed to urban congregations, who are eclectic)

5. Rural churches are so resilient they will always survive

6. The best solution is to close some rural churches, sell the buildings and unite the congregations.

7. The CofE is rich because it owns so many buildings.

The book looks at churchgoing and spirituality in rural areas, which reflects the national picture of decline, but finds the typical rural dweller associating with their church without actually attending it. He also challenges the view of some missioners that 'spirituality' is on the rise, and replacing religion, noting that interest in new age, ghosts, and other pseudo-spiritual things is concentrated only among certain social groups (chapter 3)

Chapter 4 explores theology, arguing that mission arises out of worship: "before we can be a mission-shaped church, we must be a God-shaped people". Mission is the overflow of our encounter with God. This in turn frees us from activism - the gospel is not good news if it's just a summons to work harder for God's kingdom. Smith notes that Jesus says both 'come and see' (this Sundays lectionary reading, from John 1:43-end), and 'go and make disciples', and challenges a sharp distinction between 'attractional' and 'missional' churches. (i.e churches which try to get people to 'come to us', and churches which go out and engage with their communities)

There is a sizeable section looking at how the thinking and practice of fresh expressions can be applied to rural areas, with a host of good examples drawn from his experience in Shropshire. Smith also notes the positive effect that Mission Action Planning has had in helping churches to focus energy and resources. He also surveyed the rural fresh expressions currently held on the national database, and notes that several things which carry the name 'fresh expressions' aren't what it says on the tin.

There are particular challenges in rural areas: subcultures tend to be smaller, (e.g. youth, parenting classes etc.) which means that a viable group for them is going to be Deanery-wide, or involve co-operation between several villages, which presents its own problems. Many rural 'fresh expressions' tend to be tweaks on a standard service of worship, but in a different venue, at a more convenient time, or in a different style (e.g. Sunday 4:6 in Devon)

Chapters 6-8 cover children and youth, worship, and social action/pastoral care, exporing both the issues and some ways in which rural churches have tackled them.

'Passing on the faith in the Family' (chapter 9) is probably worth publishing separately in its own right: Smith notes that from ages 5 to 15 children will spend 15,000 hours at school, 125,000 hours at or around home, and 500 hours in Sunday school. Yet we focus most of our efforts on Christian nurture of children around the church context, rather than the home. Smith argues for much more energy to be put into supporting Christian parents, and resourcing families to raise their children in the Christian faith. Lots of food for thought in this chapter, and worth reading on its own if you've not got time to read the whole book.

His section on Apologetics has suddenly become very relevant, with the agnostibus campaign, calling for the church to recover the ministry of giving reasons for our faith, persuading and reasoning with people for the truth of Christianity, and facing up to the questions asked by the world.

The final section sets out some 'principles for mission in the rural church':

- Listening (to God the community, the rural culture, your past, one another)

- Learning - there is a fascinating section here on 'what's wrong with the church', which I'll cover in a separate post.

- Acting (he goes through the Mission Action Planning process, and how it's worked in Lichfield diocese, and notes that 4 main areas have emerged for attention in local churches - welcoming people: welcome, worship, creative use of the building, and using economies of scale by teaming up with other churches)

- Refocusing for mission: with ideas about how the role of bishops, synods and church leaders need to change in order to engage with mission challenges.

A few quotes and stories from the final section:

- a day on evangelism which began with "a prolonged period of corporate silent prayer. This proved to be extraordinarily disarming. No one was able to set any personal agendas through their choice of language, prayers or hymns. We were all equal before God in the silence. The result was a great deal of real listening to one another."

- There is a big difference between Greeting and Welcoming. Greeting is what happens when you say 'hello'. Welcoming has happened when someone knows they belong and have a role to play. Note how, when you ask for something in a supermarket, they'll escort you personally to the right shelf. When did we last escort someone to a seat/coffee/etc. in church?

- A story of a young couple with a child on their first visit to church, who ended up sitting on their own in the church hall whilst the regulars chatted to one another. Only the vicar and the visiting bishop spoke to them, and they left, unnoticed. "I am sure the congregation would have been horrified if anyone had said they were unfriendly, but they were."

All in all an excellent book, well worth engaging with, though it will be a demanding engagement. Bishop Alan Smith is serious about mission, and about how the church needs to change, and I pray that his energy, vision and practical experience will be a great blessing to his new Diocese.

See also: Mission Shaped and Rural by Sally Gaze

Rural Children, Rural Church Roona Orme

Trescothick 'Coming Back to Me'

Review of Marcus Trescothicks excellent and painfully honest autobiography just posted at the Wardman Wire, so go there for the full monty, but here's a snippet:

Thoughts
Firstly, I remove every cricketing hat I’ve ever worn to Trescothick for being so honest. One of the great fears of people with mental illness is what others will think of them if they let on, and having the tabloid press following your every move can’t make things any easier. The book adds to the increasing number of public figures who’ve gone public about mental illness (though Trescothick is careful to remind us that depression is actually a physical illness - perhaps we should call it a chemical illness, since that’s the root basis of it). John Prescott (bulimia) Stephen Fry (bipolar) David Beckham (OCD) - there is a celebrity patron saint for most forms of chemical illness now, and hopefully this signals a cultural shift in the way we deal with these things.

Secondly: it’s clear that Trescothick was broken on the wheel of international cricket. Money has come to dominate the game, as it has in football, and cricket schedules have changed what’s involved in playing for a national side. Most of the 2005 Ashes-winning side have broken down physically (Simon Jones, Ashley Giles, Andrew Flintoff, Michael Vaughan, Steve Harmison), mentally (Trescothick, possibly Harmison again for his touring blues), or suffered a dip in form which was cured primarily by a break from the whole business (Andrew Strauss). You have to ask of others (Bell, Cook) whether they’d score more runs if they played fewer games, and don’t forget to add Ryan Sidebottom, our top bowler of 2008, to the injury list.....

....English players will continue to crack because they no longer get a proper rest. Even if we win the Ashes this summer against an increasingly shaky Australia, enjoy it whilst it lasts, because half of that winning side will be out of action by summer 2010. We’ve known since God created the Sabbath that rest is vital to a sustainable and fruitful life, but both cricket and culture now run as close to empty as they can just in case He got it wrong.

It would be tempting to pass Trescothicks book off as an honest, brave account of something deeply personal, and nothing more. But Trescothick notes that when he told manager Duncan Fletcher the truth for the first time “Duncan even went so far as to raise other instances of players disappearing from the game for reasons that weren’t apparent at the time but which now appeared to him to make perfect sense” (p290). He probably wouldn’t claim this for himself, but the powers that be need to hear this as a warning voice from the professional cricketing community.

And those of us who consume our cricket via Sky need to ask if we’re just the innocent viewing public, or something more. If the likes of Sky couldn’t make money out of televised cricket, they wouldn’t push so hard for more fixtures, or dangle such large sums of money over the various national cricketing bodies. Just as every Google search leaves a carbon footprint, everyone who pays commercially for their televised sport contributes to the culture our sportsmen and women have to play in. If that culture breaks them, who is to blame?

Soul Hygiene

Extract from Finding Happiness, a new book by Christopher Jamieson, abbot of Worth, ht Ruth Gledhill:

'A parallel can be drawn from the world of medecine. Before the discovery of germs, hygiene was not considered essential so that many deaths were caused by infections that nobody could see. Once the existence of germs had been identified, physical hygiene became rigorous and lives were saved.

Similarly, the cause of much unhappiness lies hidden from view but is truly present. Our demons are unseen thoughts that make us unhappy and spiritual hygiene is as necessary as medical hygience if these diseases of the soul are to be healed. While we know that we must find time to brush our teeth, to visit the doctor and to take exercise, we have no such shared conviction about the need for spiritual exercises.'

Ruth's full review of the book is here. Prodigal Kiwis link to some other reviews and excerpts. The book is due out on 15th January.

This looks very handy

London Institute for Contemporary Christianity have a very useful review of 13 discipleship courses. There is a 1-page overview based on presentation, ease of use, and application to whole life discipleship, as well as a more detailed review of each course. It covers Emmaus, A Life Worth Living (the Alpha sequel) Purpose Driven Life and all sorts of others.

The review dates from 2005, so I don't know if it's just been posted, or whether I'm even later than I usually am.

Really useful to have this all together in one place. Ht to the Diocese of Bath and Wells website, which seems to be emerging from its long slumber and has a few interesting new things on it.

Trademarking language, Ben Elton, and hurt feelings

Todays inbox had a round up of various legal cases involving Christians - we're so blessed to live in a country under the rule of law, even if sometimes the law is wrong. One of them caught my eye, involving the Voluntary Euthanasia Society and it's attempt to trademark the phrase 'dignity in dying'.....

Case Win - Victory in Important Trademark Case
In 2006 the Voluntary Euthanasia Society (VES) changed its name to Dignity in Dying. The group were seeking to monopolise the phrase to advance their ideology, particularly in the educational sphere. Many people felt that a monopoly of the words “dignity in dying” were misleading for an organisation which advocated euthanasia.

In August 2007, the Christian Medical Fellowship, Alert and the United Kingdom’s Disabled People’s Council sought to stop the monopoly by challenging the phrase under the Trademarks Act 1998. We thank God that a victory has been achieved, because the VES withdrew its trademark applications for the words ‘dignity in dying’. This is a great step forward for pro-life groups, because it means that they are free to use the phrase ‘dignity in dying’ in a way that expresses the love and care people deserve at the end of life. The VES has kept its own stylised trademark - ‘dignity in dying - your life your choice’. VES had sought to set the tone of the debate surrounding end of life issues, but pro life groups have claimed back the language. We give thanks to God for this victory.

I'm reminded of Orwells argument in 1984 that control of language is the first step towards control of thought. When people try to trademark language that's used in ethical debate, I find that incredibly worrying. Just imagine if someone got the trademark on 'love'...

(In an unofficial way, there's plenty of that going on in the Anglican church at the moment, with everyone claiming that they are the 'real' Anglicans and the other lot are the separatists - whether it's the Americans who went their own way over sexuality, or the Africans who are going their own way over structures, or the rest of us who wish people would stop going on about sex and focus on something more important.)

Ben Eltons 1984 update 'Blind Faith', closes with Trafford (the Winston Smith of a post-flood, religion-dominated 22nd century) subverting the language used by the totalitarian state, using one of their own tag-lines as a secret code to identify dissidents. For Elton, freedom comes through reclaiming the ability to think, and the rebels are the 'humanists' who take Darwin as their core text. He's been reading Dawkins then. The novel (last months holiday reading) is typical overblown Elton stuff, taking various current social trends and projecting them to the extreme. It's not subtle, but still provides food for thought.

I was most struck by Elton's depiction of a society where emoting and 'sharing' has become the only mode of communication. To think, argue, reason etc. is alien; what counts is exposing yourself - emotionally, physically etc. We've already become a society which 'hears with our eyes and thinks with our feelings' (can't remember who said this), and Blind Faith, in its own way, is a warning of what could happen if this is all we do.

If language is so debased so that it's content is either purely emotional (Elton), or owned by some interest group or other (VES), then it becomes harder to think before someone comes in and accuses you of being intolerant, or sues you for violation of copyright. I wonder if some of the debates currently going on in the church would get a bit further if we had a moratorium on people declaring that they were 'hurt' or 'offended'. Sure, our feelings as just as much part of who we are as our minds, but we seem to use them more and more as a trump card.

Save Yourself A Week

I've been reading 'The Wild Gospel' by Alison Morgan, and stumbled across her website. If, like me, you have more books to read than time to read them, she has a superb section of book summaries.

Books covered include:
Dawkins -The God Delusion
Drane - After McDonaldisation
Hirsch & Frost - Shaping of Things to Come
Finney - Emerging Evangelism
some of the 'Mission Shaped' titles
Jackson - Hope for the Church

and so on - there's a decent selection in the fields of mission, prayer and renewal, each has a summary you can read through in 20-30 minutes, which gives you a fair idea of what the book is about and what it says. Absolutely fantastic.

Could have saved myself a lot of payments to Amazon if I'd discovered this site 18 months ago....

In the same spirit, Guildford Diocese have produced a digest of discipleship resources, similar to one already created by Southwell Diocese, which gives you a brief taste of things like Journeys, Beta, Lost for Words, START, Contagious Christian etc. Ht Start the Week

Emerging Church booklist

Not very long ago, it was almost possible to list the main books on 'emerging church' or fresh expressions from memory. It's now a very crowded pitch, so its useful to have things like this post from Tall Skinny Kiwi on his top 5 (ish) books on the emerging church. It's from a US perspective, and if anyone knows of a UK equivalent, I'd be interested.

I'd attempt one myself but I've not even read half the books on my shelves on new forms of church and mission in the post-Christian society.

Happiness & Sadness

Someone's lent me Richard Layards book 'Happiness', which is fascinating. He's a statistician and economist, and identifies the major factors in happiness across different countries as:
- divorce rate
- unemployment rate
- level of trust
- membership in non-religious organisations
- quality of government
- fraction believing in God. (p71)

and goes on to say: “the previous table reports one of the most robust findings of happiness research: that people who believe in God are happier. At the individual level one cannot be sure whether belief causes happiness or happiness causes belief. But since the relation also exists at the national level, we can be sure that to some extent belief causes happiness” (p72)

There's a lot in the book about all the other factors, and Layard has also authored this paper on the web, which has various bits of the research in. If you skip to page 27, there's a strongly argued report on the levels of mental illness/depression in the UK, and how we should put many more resources into supporting people who suffer with this. Well worth a look.

Some of the book can be seen in lecture form here.

Not Having Enough Fun

More from John Ortbergs 'The Life You've Always Wanted' (the rumour is that planned follow up volumes include one for single men: The Wife You've Always Wanted, and for failed bakers: The Loaf You've Always Wanted. My apologies.)

In a chapter on the spiritual discipline of joy, he cites Dallas Willard:

"Failure to attain a deeply satisfying life always has the effect of making sinful actions seem good...normally our success in overcoming temptation will be easier if we are basically happy. To cut off the joys and pleasures associated with our bodily life and social existance as 'unspiritual' can actaully have the effect of weakening us in our efforts to do what is right."

In other words, joy is the best antidote to sin, because the more fun we are having, the less we'll be attracted to sinning.

He also quotes a beautiful passage from Chesterton, also used in this cracking sermon on how to be childlike by Tony Campolo :

Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do it again"; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough... It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again," to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again," to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike: it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.

Training Versus Trying Harder

Between Su Doku puzzles I'm working my way through John Ortbergs The Life You've Always Wanted, which in some ways is a digested and easier to read version of Dallas Willards The Spirit of the Disciplines.

A really helpful insight on training versus trying harder. Ortberg (and Willard) argue that most Christians see discipleship in terms of trying harder - if we just put in extra effort, we'll be a bit more like Jesus. But this is wrong. Try to run a marathon by trying harder, and you'll fail. The way to run a marathon is to train for it.

This is what Jesus did: he didn't suddenly turn up able to heal, say wise things, resist the devil and have a prayer life second to none. He's someone who takes the spiritual disciplines seriously - prayer, silence, solitude, fasting, etc. These are the forms of spiritual training which God has given us to help us to be more like Jesus. Instead of trying harder, we need to train.

Ortberg makes a really insightful comparison between sin and spiritual disciplines. There are sins of comission (doing bad stuff) and omission (not doing good stuff), and there are disciplines of engagement (e.g. celebration, study, prayer) and of disengagement (e.g. silence, solitude). If we struggle with a sin of comission (e.g. boasting) then we need a discipline of disengagement (e.g. silence) will train us to overcome it. Likewise a discipline of engagement will train us to overcome a sin of omission.

This seems like a really fruitful approach, and has an impact on all sorts of things: e.g. discipling people moves from exhorting them to be better Christians to coaching them in the skills and disciplines of the Christian life, and becoming a training partner.

Mission Shaped Questions

The latest in the very good 'Mission Shaped' series from Church House is based on a national speakers tour in 2007, and adds some theological meat to the quite pragmatic other books in the series.

Here's some blurb from Start the Week

Mission-shaped Questions tackles some of the common queries and myths about fresh expressions of church head-on and argues that embracing a mixed-economy church is not the preserve of a certain type of churchmanship or something that should be seen as a ‘bolt-on’ to ‘normal church’.
Edited by Dr Steven Croft, the Archbishops’ Missioner and Team Leader of Fresh Expressions, Mission-shaped Questions explores some of the key issues facing churches as they seek to develop new ways of ‘being and doing church’ for the twenty-first century, in a society that is becoming increasingly mobile, less socially cohesive, and has a weaker understanding of the Christian faith than older generations.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has welcomed the book’s insights, commenting: “If we are to grow and mature as a mixed economy Church, there are hard questions to be asked and answered. We need first-class thinking to back up and support all that is happening at local level. I hope this collection will get the attention it richly deserves.”

The collection of essays by respected thinkers in the field addresses some of the big theological and practical issues that church leaders have grappled with as they have implemented ideas from the Mission-shaped Church report. It follows a series of day conferences held during 2007 across the country, sponsored by Fresh Expressions, called ‘Hard Questions’. These events featured theologians discussing key subjects, followed by questions to the speakers and a panel discussion with practitioners and church leaders. The book includes contributions on issues such as the definition of church, sacramental ministry in fresh expressions, the evidence for the existence of fresh expressions in the New Testament, and how a mixed-economy Church can connect with contemporary spirituality.

You can order the book from here , and the 15 chapter contents list is here.

For information, the other books in the series are
Mission Shaped Church (the original report, link takes you to the full text)
Mission Shaped Children Margaret Withers
Mission Shaped Parish Paul Bayes
Mission Shaped and Rural Sally Gaze
Mission Shaped Youth Various authors
Mission Shaped Spirituality Susan Hope.
Church Army papers and presentations on Mission Shaped Church

Other related books (this is turning into a 21st Century mission reading list...)
Hope for the Church & The Road to Growth Bob Jackson (this link gives you places to buy the book, and a presentation applying his findings to the local church, in this case Solihull Deanery. If it can work there......)
The Future of the Parish System Steve Croft (ed)
Evangelism in a Spiritual Age various authors.

Or if you're in the Yeovil area and are good at returning books, you're welcome to borrow them from me...

Tagged

Steve Tilley has tagged me with the following challenge:

I don't go in for this sort of thing big time but this one captured my imagination. The task:

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five other people.

The nearest book on my desk is 'The Marriage Preparation Course Leaders and Support Couples Guide', because we're just about to start one at church. Unfortunately it doesn't run to 123 pages. The next nearest is the Daily Prayer volume of the Church of Englands Common Worship, and most of page 123 is taken up with Psalm 8. Next nearest is the Bath and Wells Diocesan Directory, but I doubt the PCC treasurer in Farrington Gurney wants his home phone number published here.

But - I've a small desktop bookshelf, found in a 2nd hand shop in Barnard Castle a couple of years ago, and all 15 books on it are roughly the same distance away. I choose....... 'The Shaping of Things to Come' by Alan Hirsch & Michael Frost. It's chapter 7, and they're discussing the problems that the sheer humannness of Jesus presents to Greek thinkkers, and to many modern Christians...

"One of us recently had a conversation with a minister whose predominant theological paradigm was that of liberation theology. He was impressed by its central emphasis on the liberation of slaves from Egypt in the exodus. When we engaged him in the topic, he could not affirm that the exodus actually took place in history, because that would have involved God in actually killing countless Egyptians and in being part of the conquest and colonization of Canaan."

They go on to observe that if we make every historical event in the Bible into a metaphor, we wind up with a God who isn't involved in history at all, which is the same result as Marcion, the Docetists, and sundry other early heretics who made necessary the early Creeds.

I tag:
Youthblog
The Big Bulky Anglican
Richard Frank
And a couple of recent commenters:
Joe
Endlessly Restless

Books

Having a bit of a reading spurt at the moment, just started 'The Subtle Knife' in a bid to get my head a bit more round Philip Pullman, thanks to Oxfam in Sherborne for that.

Novembers novels were 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time' by Mark Haddon, which picked up several literary prizes in 2002-3, and 'Long Way Down' by the ever-excellent Nick Horby. Both from the local charity shop, 'Break', on Abbey Manor.

3 thoughts from these:
1. Perspective. Both books are told from the characters point of view. In 'Curious Incident' it is a 15 year old boy with Aspergers Syndrome, who sees a dead dog in a neighbours garden and decides he will find out who's done it. In 'Long Way Down' it is 4 very different characters, who all (at the start of the book) are about to commit suicide, but meet each other at the same spot. In both books, I could hear the characters voices - Hornby's insensitive teenage girl is spot on - and it enabled you to see the world through other people's eyes, even if they were eyes you didn't really want to see through. But: does literature like this actually help us to see the world through other people's eyes, or is it just vicarious entertainment, and we emerge from the novel no more able to empathise with our neighbour than when we started?

2. Swearing. Ok I sound like a prude, and maybe I just read the wrong stuff when I was younger, but there really is a lot of swearing in both books. Yes they are trying to show what real life is like, I accept that. But there's a brutalising effect - interestingly picked up by one of Hornby's characters, a Catholic single parent, who begins by being shocked and offended by the bad language of the other 3 characters, but by the end of the book it has become like wallpaper. Do we lose something by this coarsening of language?

3. God. It was interesting to find that both books deal with spiritual issues. Hornby of course is no stranger to this: 'How to be Good' has the memorable and all too true account of it's main characters visit to an uninspiring church, in a bid to somehow connect with God. In Long Way Down, his Catholic character sees God's hand in her not managing to commit suicide, and in small things which start to make her life worth living again. Haddon's book has a chapter where the narrator explains why he doesn't believe in God, before heading back to the main narrative of his (for him) epic journey from Swindon to London. As with so much of the book, you don't know whether you're expected to agree, to understand, or just to think about it.

Several years ago I did some reasearch on Matthew Fox, originally a Catholic priest, but thrown out of his church for various misdemeanors. One of his early bits of writing was a survey of Time magazine in the US, to see how spiritual issues were treated. What he found was that the articles on the church generally dealt with issues of politics and power, but to find spiritual issues you had to go to the arts pages. Music, books, art, theatre, that was where the spiritual questions of life, death, meaning, identity, love, God, etc. were being dealt with. These things are written so deeply into us that we cannot help but come back to them again and again. And if the church isn't wrestling with these issues, then other people will.

Mission Shaped Parish - Bayes & Sledge

'Biscuit Tin', our 3-yearly Deanery mission newsletter is nearly ready to go. Here's an extract:

Bitesized Books: Paul Bayes & Tim Sledge Mission Shaped Parish (Church House 2006)

Over the last year a torrent of ‘Mission-Shaped’ titles has flowed from Church House, on Youth, Children, Spirituality, and Rural church. Each is an attempt to put flesh on the bones of the ‘Mission Shaped Church’ report, and explore what it looks like in particular contexts. If you have anyone who oversees your childrens work, then ‘Mission Shaped Children’ by Margaret Withers is well worth getting hold of. (and if you are in a rural setting ‘Rural Children, Rural Church’ by Rona Orme is very good, also from Church House)

‘Mission Shaped Parish’ focuses on how a traditional Anglican Parish Church can do all the things it normally does, but with a mission heartbeat. Various chapters cover the origins of the parish church, occasional offices, worship, welcome, nurture and church structures. There are also specific chapters on civic churches, cathedrals, and the mission story of one traditional Eucharistic parish church.

From the start the book throws out any sense that it’s offering a new ‘solve everything’ technique: “there are no quick answers. Simply pinching a few examples of good practice for your own church is not recommended.” In fact, the authors argue that new initiatives are the bane of the church: “an anxious church is a church beset by initiatives…wise church people have learned to spot initiatives gathering in the distance, likes storm clouds… the response is automatic; keep your head down and wait until it passes”

Churches can fall into two traps in response to the mission challenge. One is a frantic scrabble for some initiative that will ‘get bums on pews’, the other is to do nothing. The authors argue for a 3rd approach, one which starts with getting our values right – working out what is vital to the life of the church, and then allowing our actions (and initiatives) to flow out of deeply-held convictions and values. Bayes and Sledge focus on 5 values found in mission-shaped churches:
- worship,
- incarnation (being rooted in your community)
- transformation (shaping the community by the gospel),
- making disciples,
- relationship.
These may sound a bit strange to some, but are pretty close to what it means to be one, holy, catholic and apostolic, just in different language. They also relate quite closely to our Diocesan tagline of 'Changing Lives, Changing Churches for Changing Communities'

The detailed chapters on various aspects of church life are very helpful, a good basis for reviewing and renewing everything from worship to baptisms to PCC meetings. I particularly like the definition of Deanery Synod as “A group of Anglicans waiting to go home”, but the book holds out hope that even our most turgid meetings can, with a clear mission rationale, be transformed into something dynamic and useful.

There is plenty of wisdom here, most of the chapters stand alone and can be dipped into, and it all seems grounded in the realities of parish life.

find the book here.