Men Only

Why is it always so difficult to reach out to men? I am not just talking about reaching men with the gospel of Jesus Christ but reaching out to men in the general sense. My own particular efforts have failed to make any progress in the past few years, beginning with the Men’s Group at Seymour House where there was a constant reluctance on the part of the male residents to engage with the groups we ran, even when it was about football, gambling or the war!

I am experiencing the same reluctance on the Ivy Estate with our Men Only drop-in, we are yet to see one person attend this group, I know it is early days but I have seen the pattern so often before. If we then take a look at church; most of those coming to Christ seem to be women; most of those heavily involved in the activities of the church are women as well.

Perhaps it is because many of the men in church are trying to hold-down difficult and demanding jobs that are at times all consuming? Unfortunately this is something that doesn’t just affect men this days, women are also falling foul of a society that values the worker more than the parent. The government investing more and more in free pre-school places so that women can return to work soon after the birth of their children.

But returning to men again, this presents us will a real challenge as it is essential that we engage. If they are difficult to reach then they are the ones we need to reach! So we are not going to give up, we are going to persevere through prayer and innovation so that eventually we will reach men, not just on the Charter Estate, but in society as a whole.

“make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

2 Peter 1:5-8

Missio Dei

You may have noticed that the title for this months Shout is Missio Dei, which as our editor Adrian explained with the use of Wikipedia, is a Latin Christian theological term meaning ’Mission of God’ or ’Sending of God.’ (Wikipedia being reasonable accurate for once!)

In his book The Mission of God (a brilliant yet not easy read I assure you) Christopher Wright elucidates in mind-boggling detail what the Mission of God is all about. The fact that the Bible, the whole Bible, not only provides a basis for mission, but that the entire Bible is generate by, and is all about God’s mission.

In order to understand the Bible, we need an interpretative perspective that is in tune with this theme. We need to see the ‘big picture’ of God’s mission and how all part of Scripture fit into its grand narrative.

God’s mission is to redeem his whole creation from all that sin and evil have inflicted upon it, and the mission of God’s people must reflect the breadth and of God’s righteous and saving love for all he has made.

My question to you is this: what is part do you play in God’s mission?

Apolitical? Not really!

It would be wrong to say that I am 'apolitical', that I don’t have a political view neither do I engage in politics, I do, and I have shared this perhaps too vocally and publically over the past month as I react to what I see and hear from our politicians. I will not add comment to that debate but I have been asked by many what do I see as an alternative to our current system. I do have ideas, but I am not going to share them with you either; they will be faulty because I am human. So my political view and how I choose to engage is this, and it stems in a large part from what I understand from the Bible; Our government is in place and its authority is given by God (Romans 13:1-7, Titus 3:1), so I will be subject to this authority in obedience to God until such time as it contradicts the authority of God’s Word. Because of this I will pray for our leaders, each and every one of them that they may hear and respond to the voice of God, and that they will lead this country well and in doing so they will ‘do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly’ preferably with our God. I choose this over voting - although perhaps if there were a ‘none of the above’ on the ballot papers I might actually vote – and it is a very simple way to engage in politics: obedience and prayer. You can criticize this as idealistic or naive if you like, that is your prerogative, but it is my choice. I share that here so that you might understand that whilst I do not vote, I do engage. My challenge to you brother or sister in Christ is that however you choose to engage, whoever you choose to vote for, whoever comes to power, that you pray regularly for our leaders that they too may follow the path that you have chosen and by doing so be obedient to the ultimate authority, God.    

Little Children

"Let little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these." Sounds really loving and sweet those words of Jesus but he wasn't being patronising or sweet with these words, no, Jesus was speaking of the fact that children can have a direct relationship with Him and not through an intermediary. As parents, Sunday school workers, aunties, uncles or Christians in general it is important that we remind ourselves that our job is to point the way to Jesus, to highlight Him and to magnify Him in the lives of children, anything other than that and we are in danger of hindering them. After all they are heirs to Gods Kingdom too. In our morning service yesterday we saw the result of giving our children the space to express their relationship with God, we witnessed God speaking to them and their prophetic response. 

A wise educationalist once wrote that "Children are like arrows we fire into the future, the most we can hope for is that our aim is true." As a church family we have a responsibility for all the children that God has blessed us with, not just those that we can claim a biological connection with. A responsibility to magnify Jesus, to encourage their relationship with Him and helping them when they lose their way, yet always remembering  that sometimes they may do the same for us.

Dirty Feet

I have never been a big fan of foot washing; I wash my own feet of course but it's when people follow the example of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples when I get a little uncomfortable. I never knew why I felt like this until I heard our two sermons this Sunday on John 13:1-17, the sermons were on service and both mentioned the signifance of the guest of honour, the master, Jesus doing what the least honourable person, probably a servant, would have done. So when we foot wash following Jesus's example are we in danger of putting ourselves in the place of the guest of honour, the master? Are we elevating our own position in order that we may demonstrate our own humility? Is this an act of service or self-righteous service? Whilst I guess most people have the right motive in mind when we do this it does make me think and conclude with the answer; if we want to demonstrate humility in service let's not do something symbolic, let's do something that actually serves others.

Not all will die!

If you are some sort of Bible scholar, or theologian you will read Matthew 16:28 and think 'yes, of course.' But if you are just an average Joe like me you will read those same words of Jesus and think 'what an earth is he going on about?' However we all know that when we spend time with God and his Word he occasionally reveals something to us. This happened to me this morning whilst I was meditating on Romans 6 again (good spiritual discipline that!) and thinking about death 'we will all die in these bodies' I thought, but then the words of Matthew 16:28 came to me when Jesus said some will not experience death before he returns. Then these words finally made sense to me; we will not all die, some will be here to greet Him on His glorious return, but we shall all live! I still have several questions about Matthew 16:28, but I think I am lot happier now that I believe God had revealed some if the wisdom behind Jesus' words.

Getting it wrong?

I have been reading the text of Roman's 6:1-14 for some days now in preparation for the Easter Sunday service. I don't normally prepare this far in advance, but I find Roman's a difficult book to study so wanted to make sure I was really getting to grips with the text. It is tough reading, it makes me feel uncomfortable when reading it because of the fact that like most people I find it difficult not to sin, it is part of my daily struggle with life and "the flesh" and Paul's opening statement “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?” although not meant in that way feels like an accusation with the text launching into what seemingly is a condemnation: I should be dead to sin, when I die I no longer have any senses: touch, smell, taste and sight will all be alien to my dead body. That being the case, on first reading it seems that it is the same when we die to sin; we will not be able to sense sin and therefore not able to sin. Oh boy, what a downer, I can sense sin, I struggle with sin, I cannot help but sin; I judge others, I don’t respect my parents, I covet what my neighbour has, etc. etc. etc. Am I sure I am saved? Am I sure that I have been reborn to righteousness? Reading some of the biblical commentators I might be left feeling like this. A majority of Christians might be left feeling like this and the rest are so self-righteous that they will be like it without realising it!

However, I have recently progressed from just reading the text to studying it with the help of John Stott’s commentary on Romans and he makes three points that has allowed me to breathe again: (1) Jesus on the cross ‘died to sin once for all’ he was aware of sin, didn’t fall into sin, but wasn’t and isn’t after his death unaware of our sin. (2) Paul writes to believers that we are no to let sin ‘reign’ in our bodies and that we must not obey sins ‘evil desires’ so even in our sanctified nature we are still able to sense sin and even to sin. (3) Not being aware of sin, not being able to sin is incompatible with the Christian experience; we are all tempted and sometimes we fall into sin. If we deny this we are denying the truth of the evidence of our own lives.

So what does it mean to die to sin, well for that I will leave you with the explanation of Robert Haldane that John Stott suggests is the best way to look at it. It doesn’t entirely explain it for me but does give a different insight into ‘death to sin’, Stott explains that “Paul is referring not to a death to the power of sin, but to a death to its guilt, that is to our justification.” For me the danger is that if we are dead to its guilt, then are we not inviting ourselves to continue to sin?

Answers on a postcard, I think I need to study this a bit more…..