Soul MOT

I defy you not to find at least several decent New Years resolutions from this list.

3 Dimensions of Discipleship: Great Grub from Dallas Willard

Fantastic piece from Dallas Willard. Here's a snippet

Living as Jesus’ disciple, I am learning from him how to lead my life in the Kingdom of the Heavens everywhere I am, in every activity I engage in. There are three dimensions of this learning.

First, I am learning to do the things which Jesus explicitly said to do. It is quite literally nonsense to call Jesus “Lord,” and not do what he said. “Lord” means nothing in such a case. (Luke 6:46-49) But because I do accept him as Lord, his instructions on behavior are my treasures for living life. Of course I cannot do what he said by just trying. I must train! I must, through appropriate courses of action, become inwardly transformed by grace to become the kind of person—in my inmost thoughts, feelings, attitudes and directions of will—who will routinely do the kinds of things he said to do. I will then not be governed by anger, contempt or lust. And I will be able to bless those who curse me, love my enemies, and so forth, because I am one in whom the character and power of Christ has come to dwell through the processes of discipleship to Christ.

Second, I am learning to conduct the usual activities of life—in home, school, community, business and government—in the character and power of Christ. Jesus himself, of course, spent most of his life on earth as an “independent contractor” or businessman. Jesus could have led the ordinary life of the ordinary citizen in all of its legitimate respects. He can show us how to live now, as a mother or father, banker or computer programmer, teacher or artist, in the Kingdom of the Heavens. His character and power and personal guidance will lead us into life as it should be in all of these areas of human existence.

Third, I am learning to exercise the power of the kingdom—of Christ in his Word and Spirit—to minister good and defeat evil in all of the connections of earthly existence. “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, and He went about doing good, and healing all who were oppressed by the devil; for God was with Him.” (Acts 10:38) Apprenticeship to Jesus means that, in tiny steps, we learn to exercise this power seen in Jesus. Growth in character is primary, for power requires substance of character if it is to be used for Christ’s purposes. Christ had no character problems, but we do. Prayer, in its aspect of training for Kingdom life, is primarily a matter of learning to exercise power in a way that is both profitable and safe.

I've printed out the whole article, as, like Christmas turkey, it needs several days of preparation, cooking, chewing over and digesting. Ht David Cooke, a link well worth visiting in its own right.

Merry Christmas to All

I shouldn't like this, but I do. Leigh Nash has such a gorgeous voice.

A very happy and peaceful Christmas to everyone, thanks for reading & commenting, may God bless you and keep you, and guide your steps in 2012.

(Housekeeping note: there's a few scheduled posts going up in the next week or so, but I'll be offline until the new year, so all comments are going on moderation. )

Carol Services: Fresh Expressions of English Heritage?

It struck me the other day that there's a few parallels between the Christmas Carol Service experience, and that offered by English Heritage and the National Trust. In some of the historic premises round the UK, as you walk into a room you'll find someone dressed in period costume, speaking period language, in a room set out as it would have been in Georgian/Victorian/Tudor/etc. times. The idea is for a more 'immersive' experience of the history of the place. And no matter how good or authentic the experience, it would be an odd NT or EH member who would go back every month, never mind every week, for the same experience.

So it's probably unrealistic of church folk to expect that the people who come for their 'immersive' Christmas experience -  period building, period costume, period carols, ancient readings - to come back any more than annually. The Christmas experience itself is so 'one off' that churches couldn't duplicate it the rest of the year, even if we wanted to.

Maybe more appropriate would be a guide book to explain all the period fittings and what they mean. In our case, a glossary for the language used in the carols would probably be pretty handy: begotten, seraph, abhors, 'God of God, light of light', strain, Messiah, Christ, etc.

On simliar lines, David Cooke asks 'who do we do our carol services for?'

Anyway, the final straight beckons: 2 Nativity services (we do it in 2 shifts because the church can't hold the 200-300 people who come along), 11pm communion, and then The Day itself. God with us. Have a wonderful Christmas, and may you be immersed in the grace and goodness of Jesus.

Vicar Burnout

A new survey of 3000 Anglican clergy reveals that nearly 1 in 5 of us feel 'burned out' at least once a month or more. The survey also states that this is 'not high when compared to other occupational groups" (p6). Well that explains a lot. If 18% of bankers, politicians, journalists, clergy, social workers, teachers, parents etc. are experiencing that much stress, it's no wonder we're surrounded by the fruits of ropey decisions.

Sam Norton has recently posted on the stats of church decline in the CofE. I hope the fact that we're experiencing similar levels of stress to everyone else doesn't lead the powers that be to go 'oh, that's alright then'. There are some serious structural problems with the CofE, and the jury is still out on whether the parish system is an effective neighbourhood mission strategy or a doddering sacred cow which needs to be put out of its misery before it topples over and crushes us.

Update: for some thoughts on where and when churches are effective in mission, try this (HT Thinking Anglicans)
"•If you want Christianity to shrink, give it wealth and privilege and back it up with the power of the state.

•If you want Christianity to show surprising resilience, suppress its structures and persecute its people.
•If you want Christianity to thrive, drop it into a free market environment and force it to hustle."

There, that was cheery! Merry Christmas everyone!!

Sex Education and Carol Services

"Daddy, what's a womb?"
"Mummy, what's a virgin?"

Anglicans who worry about children starting sex education classes too early at school need to work out whether we should sing 'O Come All Ye Faithful' with children present. Mind you, at least it gets parents talking to their kids about sex in a Christian context.

The Christmas Linebacker: This Aint No Sleigh Ride Baby!

Sure, I bring this one out every Christmas. But it's fab.

Clegg on Marriage Part 2: We'll Take Your Toddlers

Following on from yesterdays post about Nick Cleggs views on marriage, there's also a deep contradiction at the heart of Cleggs speech on how to spend government money. Take this:

...I have made clear that intergenerational social mobility is the principal objective of the Coalition’s social policy. And why I have been so determined to increase our investment in the vital early years, including, recently, by extending the new two-year old offer to an additional 130,000 toddlers in working families

and a reminder of what Clegg said about state finance and marriage:
We can all agree that strong relationships between parents are important, but not agree that the state should use the tax system to encourage a particular family form.

Now I may be being thick here, but I can't actually see the difference between using state money to encourage marriage and using state money to encourage a particular model of childcare. Both are using state money to incentivise/encourage/nudge (pick your own) a particular family form.

In the first case, the family form is of two working parents, and the state picking up more of the childcare. This has various benefits for the government: a more flexible labour market, a chance to get it's OFSTED-regulated hands on the children of 'problem families' at an earlier stage, and some good headlines about spending money on kids. It also has benefits for families where both parents want to work (or need to work to pay for mortgage, student fees, fuel bills, you name it) it's less costly to do so with small children. It also extends the pressure on new mums to go back to paid work, and basically says that the government would prefer them doing this than the work of parenting.

So this isn't actually about whether the government should subsidise or incentivise a particular family form. It's politics: being sniffy about marriage puts clear yellow water between Clegg and the Tories, spending money on kids is like motherhood and apple pie. Unless your a mother of course, because you're being told that what you do doesn't matter as much as if you were on the checkout at Tesco. Clegg is simply continuing the social engineering begun under New Labour: let the state raise your children, now you go find your place in the economic machine.

If Clegg really wanted to be radical, he would make the offer of free childcare conditional. Not means-tested, but linked to some form of parenting support and training, such as Positive Parenting (used extensively by our local Sure Start centre). That would incentivise a social good (good parenting), whilst promoting the governments aim of early intervention in troubled families.