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

Agnostibus Comments Roundup 2: Bishops, Lords, Humanist and Apathists

Update: a government minister has been slammed for insensitivity for seeing "a few green shoots but it's a little bit too early to say exactly how they'd grow." At least she didn't take out 800 bus ads to tell people to stop worrying.

Following on from the first set, (which also features in this Wikio collection of links) a whole host of new agnostibus links for folk with nothing better to do:

The Bishop of Bath and Wells criticised the campaign in a sermon in Bath Abbey at the weekend: "In terms of the present economic downturn, the loss of jobs, particularly to the most vulnerable of people; together with the world situation in which major conflicts daily take the lives of friend and foe alike; the threat of billions starving, and the seemingly unstoppable Aids pandemic, such advice (to stop worrying and enjoy life) seems to lack both judgment and a sense of reality." (anyone would think he'd been reading this blog. Full sermon text here. )

Lord Toby Harris saw three agnostibuses in 10 minutes. Who would have believed it? "I remain convinced that the Atheist Buses, encouraging people to think for themselves, are a rationalist beacon that we should cherish rather than rubbish."

New Humanist asks why the BBC take Christian Voice seriously. Probably for the same reason they give airtime to the National Secular Society, they're good for arguments.

Mark Vernon draws some lessons from the Victorians

Apathy Sketchpad I like it because the reaction to it has been comical and served to make religious people look foolish (which is pretty easy) and that always makes me smile.

Nathalie Rosthchild, very interesting piece on Spiked the secularists believe they must take it upon themselves to shine a guiding light and steer the easily-duped masses away from the darkness of unreason. The atheist campaigners, rather than trying to engage with the public, are simply preaching at us

Six Things and The English Blog, from a different angle, look at how to use the adverts in teaching English, and other bits of the curriculum.


Finally, got to love this quote from Richard Dawkins.
I would call it consciousness raising. Just think for yourself, that’s all. Don’t listen to what a priest tells you, don’t listen to what a mullah tells you, don’t listen to what a rabbi tells you—think for yourself.

....that would mean I shouldn't listen to what comediennes, and advertisers tell me either.....? (sorry for repeating this from yesterday, but you've got to admit it's a cracker)

Ignore Adverts and Think for Yourself: Dawkins

got to love this quote from Richard Dawkins.

I would call it consciousness raising. Just think for yourself, that’s all. Don’t listen to what a priest tells you, don’t listen to what a mullah tells you, don’t listen to what a rabbi tells you—think for yourself.

Anyone spot the logical flaw in this argument, given that it was in support of an advertising campaign?

another agnostibus comments roundup coming tomorrow morning.

And whilst we're here, a bit more research on how religion does you good. But make sure you think about it. Whoops - did I just tell you what to do? You don't want to listen to me.....

Myers-Bloggs

Various bloggers, the Ugley Vicar is the most recent example I've stumbled across, have used Typealizer to guess the Myers-Briggs personality of their blog. Here's mine:

ISTP - The Mechanics

The independent and problem-solving type. They are especially attuned to the demands of the moment are masters of responding to challenges that arise spontaneously. They generally prefer to think things out for themselves and often avoid inter-personal conflicts. The Mechanics enjoy working together with other independent and highly skilled people and often like seek fun and action both in their work and personal life. They enjoy adventure and risk such as in driving race cars or working as policemen and firefighters.

Comment: in many ways the description fits, but anyone who knows me personally would laugh until it endangered their health to find me described as a 'mechanic'. The last time I did Myers-Briggs it had me down as ENTJ, so that either means I've got a split personality, or something else.

The site even shows which bits of your brain are active whilst writing, showing that the quadrant to do with feelings was virtually dormant. So there you are, I'm an unfeeling machine....

The Royal Conundrum

Who would you rather have fighting alongside you against the Taleban?

Someone who called you a 'Paki',

or someone who trained with you, knew you personally, got hold of one of your home videos and sold it to a tabloid?

or a tabloid editor who's never been on the frontline in his life (or a blogger like me, for that matter) but does a good line in character assasination (today's firing squad targets: Kerry Katona and Heather McCartney)?

None of them are commendable, but who is the biggest sinner?

Nurture Courses

Start the Week have a fascinating bit of research on the use of nurture and enquirers courses around the CofE.

43% of parishes/churches responsed 'yes' to the question "In 2006 did your parish/church provide an enquirers course or group for those seeking to know more about the Christian faith?" Among these nearly 6,000 parishes, Alpha was the favourite (over 1/3 using it), closely followed by home-grown materials, 'other published material' (it would have been interesting to see how well used were Christianity Explored and Journeys), just under 20% used Emmaus, and 6% used START.

I would guess the high number of home-grown things may be that they are confirmation courses, which would just about qualify as a 'yes' to the question.

The figures are broken down by Diocese, so in my own (Bath and Wells) 174 parishes/churches (out of a total of 570 churches in 490 parishes), so about 1 in 3. That still means that 2/3 of our churches have no provision for people exploring the Christian faith: is this because there are no new people joining them, for lack of resources, or some other reason?

It's hard to know how to interpret the figures without knowing the total number of churches in each Diocese. If only 42 churches are using these courses in Bradford, is that a decent proportion? One of Bob Jacksons findings was that regular use of a Christian basics/nurture course seemed to correlate with a growing church, though I wonder which came first - any church worth it's salt which gets new members would probably set a course up in response.

Another thought on the Diocesan figures: there is a bit of a Robin Gamble effect with the START course, in that 3 dioceses (Liverpool, Manchester and Lichfield) make up over 1/3 of the users, with it nearly outstripping Alpha in Manchester Diocese. Personally I think it's a great course, 6 weeks, very interactive and down to earth, and works well if you use Alpha or Emmaus to follow it up. Funnily enough, I've had 2 local enquiries about it in the last fortnight.

If you find the brand names all a bit confusing, then help is at hand. Tucked away on Southwell Diocese website is a real gem: On Course: Resources to Encourage Mission is a 20-page summary of courses in Christian nurture, faith sharing, and discipleship, with a brief description of each one, what's involved in running them, and who they'd be suitable for. It's free to download, and the kind of thing that makes me think there should be a central bank of CofE resources like this, shared by all Dioceses, to prevent them all reinventing the wheel and duplicating one another's work.

Review Questions 2

a set of questions for the start of a New Year (thanks to James Lawrence for inspiration)

• What am I grateful for from last year?
• What are the 3 or 4 key things that I've learnt from the year that I don't want to forget?
• What will help my love for Jesus grow stronger this year?
• What am I fearful or anxious about How ill I face these things this year?
• Which spiritual discipline am I gong to major on as a means of God's grace being more at work in my life?
• Which fruit of the Spirit is God longing to produce in my life? What steps will I take to work with the Spirit?
• Whaich leadership principle/aspect of leadership am I going to grow in?
• Who do I long to see come to faith in Christ? What am I going to do to make that more likely?
• What are the next steps in the growth of those I most care for (god-children, family members, friends) that I could facilitate/encourage?
• When am I going to have my regular quiet/prayer days through thisyear? (put them in the diary!)
• Where do I sense God's call on my life developing/changing, and how will this be reflected in my priorities for the year?

They're designed for folk in Christian leadership, but could apply to most disciples. I remembered last week that I'd not got round to arranging any quiet days for 2009, so first up I need to book a day in to tackle this stuf.......

follow the review questions bookmark for others in this series.

Agnostibus Comments Roundup

Pretty much everyone has had their say on this, and whether Christians should be welcoming the ads or trying to get them banned, so here are a few links:

Update: more passengers on the bus:
Dave Bish is doing a talk on the campaign, and would like some ideas.

Nick Baines finds the whole thing rather cheering. Good follow up post on language, tactics, and what kind of stuff we should get offended by in the first place.

Tim Norwood sees it as a gift to preachers everywhere.

Jonathan Bartley at Ekklesia wonders if Christians should be advertising in the first place, or whether the medium distorts the message.

...and the original list....

Kouya Chronicle, "I thought that the posters on the buses were great: they got the question of faith and religion out into the public arena, which is extremely difficult to achieve in the UK"

Doug Chaplin "Stephen Green really is a pillock"

Ruth Gledhill "there will be an inquiry. What fun!"

Bishop Alan notes the similarity between the ads and a certain brand of doughnut.

The Richard Dawkins fansite is, shall we say, unimpressed with Christian Voice. To be honest, so are a lot of Christians, but more politely.

Greensboring makes a fair point: "Are these people so fragile in their faith that they can't bear the thought of even seeing the existence of other points of view?"

Vegas Cohort (ht Friendly Atheist) posts with 'how I wish more Christians would respond' "Well, what made these people feel it was necessary to put these ads on buses in the first place? Maybe its them who are striking back, at us, not starting a fight or anything. Maybe we started it... We should feel sad that we make Atheists feel like they need to defend themselves, sad that they are getting aggressive and pushy, because we caused it. We caused it because we made them our enemy ". Cracking post, Gromit.

Marketing Fundi looks at how the atheist bus campaign got off the ground, and became such a success.

Very funny photo at Sacred Sandwich.

and the Beaker Folk of Husborne Crawley have, surprisingly, done the maths:
according to the Sherine Principle, there's a 60% chance of God existing in England, a 100% chance in Saudi Arabia, and a 5% chance in Islington....

....so in order for not believing in God to be (on a risk/reward basis) worthwhile:

dH * L * (1-p(G)) must be greater than H(h) * E * p(G)
where dH is the difference in happiness if you don't believe in God

L = the average human lifespan
p(G) = the probability of God existing
H(h) = the happiness of heaven compared to those in a state of hell/oblivion (again, taking into account the Church of England)
E = the length of Eternity.

which pretty much sews it up.