Wednesday, 11 February 2015

Going Native

When I was working in industry as a consultant one of things we were warned against was "going native." I would be tasked to go into an organisation to analyse the way they worked, particularly their manufacturing processes, with a view to challenging them to change to become more efficient. Short term assignments would not present a problem, but longer term assignments - those taking months or even years - could result in one becoming to empathetic with the people, becoming "one of the lads" which would make it more difficult to implement change, or more commonly, not notice where change was needed.

This week at the WEBA Ministers conference we had a speaker - Malcolm Duncan - who suggested that this can happen when we are reaching out to the community. We start with an intent to meet the needs of people and share the gospel, but end up being one of the people and forget why we were originally doing this. I must say that I believe he is correct; I have seen many amazing projects and initiatives over the past few years that began as a way to share the gospel, but ended up being a social enterprise with the message of Jesus hidden or even absent.

As a church with a clear community vision we have to ensure that we keep the gospel of Jesus in our hearts and minds, and that our continuing desire reflects the words of the Northumbria Canticle that Jesus is "in the hearts of those to whom we speak, and on the lips of those who speak unto us." That whilst we go into a community to meet their physical, social and emotional needs, we are clear that our strong hope and ultimate objective is that they will come to know the Jesus that we know. We will not keep him hidden, but through our words as well as our actions we will be proclaiming the truth of Christ.


Sunday, 1 February 2015

Jesus a Punk Rocker?

When you hear the word punk rocker you probably think of a weird, colourful hairstyle, safety pins, terrible language and even more terrible music. But that superficial expression of oneself is only part of the story. Behind all the shock of the punk movement which began in the late 1970's was a movement that was inclusive, non-judgmental and supportive and for many young people like myself who were suffering oppression or worse at home and living through the power cuts, 3 day weeks poverty and deprivation of the time it was a sanctuary where we could be ourselves, express ourselves and stick two fingers up at a nation that seemed to be in self-destruct mode. 

When Jesus appeared on the scene in first-century Jerusalem Judaism had been in self-destruct mode for generations. The leaders of the nation, in many cases no more than puppets of their Roman overlords, used their position as the keepers, interpreters and enforcers of the religious law to "load people with burdens hard to bear” (Luke 11:46) whilst living an easy life for themselves in luxury and false piety. Sound familiar? Then along came Jesus: counter-cultural and anarchic! He challenged the accepted order, lived among the despised and forgotten of society, preached a way of life that was inclusive, and stood up for those who couldn't stand up for themselves. Its no wonder that he was accused of being subversive by the Jewish authorities who preferred to have “notorious prisoner called Barabbas” (Matthew 27:16) amongst them who was “among the rebels in prison, who had committed murder in the insurrection” (Mark 15:7). They saw Jesus as not only a threat to the peace that they had with the Romans, something he had in common with Barabbas, but also a direct threat to them and their authority.


So Jesus was not only inclusive non-judgmental and supportive, he was also anarchic, subversive and non-conformist. Jesus a punk rocker? It's an interesting thought.