Vision

I have three quite contrasting ‘vision statement’ stories to tell from three different congregations. One common theme was the length of time it took to come up with a vision! In the Edenvale Methodist Church I can’t quite remember the exact words, but the mission statement’s focus was ‘reaching the lost and caring for the poor”. In the next 10 years of my stay in Edenvale this is exactly what the church did! It built a 100-seater soup kitchen and employment agency for unskilled labour, it developed a nursery school for some 150 children employing 23 staff members, and it built a fantastic hospice for the poorest of the poor dying from HIV/AIDS. To reach the unchurched it ran an Alpha Course every quarter for 10 years! The church grew phenomenally. And the worship and spirituality deepened alongside with all that was going on. Home groups flourished! In the Leland United Methodist Church, the vision statement was: “Filled with the Holy Spirit, we are a people of prayer, committed to love one another and equipped to share Christ’s love through the world.” Like Edenvale, Leland became who they said they were. It was a place of great love and powerful healing prayer, and it did equip itself to share Christ’s love throughout the world, investing greatly in mission in India, eventually sending four congregation members on a memorable life changing mission trip. In the Grace United Methodist Church, after much discussion, the small elderly congregation decided their vision was to keep the church doors open so they could be buried from their home church one day. Some whispered quietly that we should be sure not to let the church reflect the increasing growth of the black population in the neighbourhood. What was different here was, whilst I remained true and respectful to the ‘vision’ of the old folk, God had other ideas in mind! Through illness and a few other adverse circumstances the doors of the church opened to the black population, whom contrary to the whispered part of the ‘vision’, the folk loved and embraced as their own. The church doors not only remained open, but also widened a bit! The moral of these three stories? Be sure to ask the question, “What is our vision?” Even if we get it wrong a bit. The journey, and the enthusiasm, and the passion, and the direction a ‘vision’ brings is worth every cent it took to find it. Proverbs 29:18 “Where there is no vision, the people perish” (King James Version) “If people can't see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves; But when they attend to what he reveals, they are most blessed” (The Message)

Servant Leadership

I want to write about leadership in general, and not just ministry, which by definition is service. My understanding is that the greatest leader is the servant leader, and true leadership equals service. I am not sure where that got lost, and how other models of leadership took over. Luckily in South Africa we have Nelson Mandela as a great model of servant leadership. He seems to stand alone in the modern world. Jesus is the perfect model of servant leadership! He not only taught it (‘the first shall be last’, ‘the least among you is the greatest’), acted it out in the foot washing, he lived it out in the way he lived, and died. I remember sitting in a lecturer’s lounge at Rhodes University listening to a visiting Professor of Sociology and a Conflict Resolution expert from the USA speak to us, when the resident fox terrier walked into the middle of the lounge and vomited. We all sat in silence as the Professor got up, fetched a cloth from the kitchen, cleaned it up, and carried on with the lecture as if nothing had happened. Today it seems the need for status, financial reward, and power have moved servant leadership to the backseat. So many leaders today model the powerful status model. It is true even in ministry, the very definition of servant leadership, where we ministers are trying to balance sacrificial service with status, financial reward and power. Not that status, financial reward and power are wrong, great servant leaders can attain to these, it is just not what motivates them or the secret of their success. The desire and ability to serve is innate. In his research book, “From Good to Great” Jim Collins and his team discovered the first and foremost reason why companies were able to move from good companies to great companies was in the nature of their leader. The great leader turns out to be “Not the charismatic upfront leader, but the hard working unassuming, inner strength leader. We were surprised, shocked really to discover the types of leadership required for turning a good company into a great one. Compared to high-profile leaders with big personalities who make headlines and become celebrities, the good-to-great leaders seem to have come from Mars. Self-effacing, quiet, reserved, even shy – these leaders are a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will. They are more like Lincoln and Socrates than Patton or Caesar.”

10 reasons why I love Jesus

1. Jesus is timeless. He was there before the world began (the Word), he is present now (his spirit) and he is forever (the exalted ascended Christ). He holds everything in the universe together, including the small detail of our lives. I love a Jesus who I am safe with, from the very beginning to the very end. 2. Jesus is inclusive of everyone. The world is Jesus’ parish, not just our small world, but also the entire world, with all its differing cultures, beliefs and colours. I wouldn’t want a saviour who favours any particular creed, culture or colour. I love a Jesus who really does love everyone. 3. Jesus has creation in mind. “All of creation is on tiptoe…” Jesus loves and redeems ALL of creation. It is too beautiful and soulful to be wasted. I love a Jesus who loves, respects and values everything he has made. 4. Jesus looks out for the least among us. We live in a world that promotes and idealizes the rich, talented and famous. Jesus promoted mr ordinary and ms average, giving preference to the unseen and unheard among us. I love a Jesus who sees the world this way. 5. Jesus forgives. Jesus sees it like it is, he names the wrong in us and around us, and then changes it for the better. Surely transforming forgiveness is what life is all about. I love a Jesus who can confront the brutal facts (he is not a sentimentalist), and still never loses faith in us. 6. Jesus doesn’t fit into any culture. Jesus is counter culture (any culture) and he questions and challenges the way things are done. He keeps you on your toes, constantly examining who you are and what values you hold. I love such an enquiring and searching Jesus. 7. Jesus can get by with a little. Jesus didn’t seem to mind his material lot in life, and he affirmed faith the size of a mustard seed. I love a Jesus who sees a little as a lot. 8. Jesus loves children. Is this not the best thing about Jesus? Children are precious and the greatest gift God has given us. I love a Jesus who puts children and their place in life right at the top of his priority list. 9. Jesus is fierce about justice. I often wonder how just is God? Much more than we think I believe! I love a Jesus who is fierce and undaunted in the pursuit of justice, no matter what the cost. 10. Jesus holds happiness and sadness together. Life is both happy and sad, painful and joyful; and there can be no real faith unless there is room for both. I love a Jesus who sees all the good, positive and happy things in life whilst at the same time bears suffering, sadness and pain in himself. This Jesus I can totally relate to.

The Cosmic Christ

There are a few clear biblical references to ‘another presence’ with God, before the world began. In Genesis 1:26 “God said, "And now we will make human beings…” Proverbs 8 (24 & 30), in reference to Wisdom, says “I was made in the very beginning, at the first, before the world began. I was there when he laid the earth's foundations. I was beside him like an architect, I was his daily source of joy, always happy in his presence.” John wrote, “In the beginning the Word already existed; the Word was with God, and the Word was God. From the very beginning the Word was with God. Through him God made all things; not one thing in all creation was made without him.“ (1:1-3). We call this ‘other presence’ the Cosmic Christ. Jesus is the Saviour, present in time, space and place, sent by God at the right time, to die for all humankind. Christ is not his surname! Christ is the eternal presence with God before time itself began. Jesus Christ is one and the same, just the first part of his name meaning the here and now personal Saviour, and the second part of his name meaning the eternal, universal one chosen by God for all people everywhere. Ephesians and Colossians love the Cosmic Christ - “This plan, which God will complete when the time is right, is to bring all creation together, everything in heaven and on earth, with Christ as head” (Ephesians1:10), and “For through him God created everything in heaven and on earth, the seen and the unseen things, including spiritual powers, lords, rulers, and authorities. God created the whole universe through him and for him. Christ existed before all things, and in union with him all things have their proper place (Colossians 1:16,17). All too often our focus is zeroed on Jesus. We personalize him, and make him and what he did solely ours. It’s us here and the infidels (actually anyone different to us) out there. We forget Jesus is also the Christ, the Cosmic Christ, the one who holds all things everywhere together, every human race, all of creation, throughout all the ages. Our story is part of a much bigger glorious story. The Christ is not just for us; he is for everything and everyone, and so are we.

The Trinity

Most of my life I have tried to understand the Trinity with my mind. Over the years I have read many explanations of the Trinity, and out of these I have formed an understanding of what I believe. In the last while, I would say the last 10 to 15 years, I have slowly begun to unlearn these understandings. ‘Unlearning’, I am coming to understand is a huge part of our spiritual growth! Now, instead of formulating my Trinitarian beliefs with my mind, I am learning to experience them with my heart. And a whole new world is opening up. I am experiencing (feeling) this Godhead bond of intimate love and unity in my life. And it is in a whole kind of way – in the way I think, and in the way I behave. It is like there is an influence that pervades me and shapes me, and is making me who I am. We can get carried away with this, and why not. It is like Paul’s description of love in Ephesians 3, where he writes that we should take in the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love, “Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! (The Message Version). This Trinitarian Godhead is very beautiful! Once entered into with our heart (our whole lives) we can begin to see the world in a completely new light. We are joined in this wonderful unexplainable bond of love with the Godhead – connected to all of God’s creation, the wind and the skies, the seas and the stars, all created beings, and with common humanity, beginning at home and spreading to whoever we meet. It is so all pervading it is almost scary. It is so life giving one almost wants to shy away from it to hold onto our tried and trusted ways of life. It is the Christmas and Easter messages all wrapped up in one, the gospel story powerfully told though different eyes. That we are a part of this Godhead, immersed in God and God’s love, us too one with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, in bonds of love that cannot be broken.

The good ol' days

Every generation tells stories of the good ol’ days, and I am told the older you get the further back those memories go. They say you can tell the age of the storyteller from the period of the stories! The truth is we all need some nostalgia. To reminisce with some longing and melancholy does us no harm. Our heritage has helped shaped and made us who we are (for the good and the bad), and we do well to keep the memories alive. However there are two attributes of the past we cannot avoid. The first is that if there is stuff that needs to be dealt with, then it must be dealt with, we can’t sweep it under the carpet and hope it will go away. Speaking of men’s spirituality, Stephen Biddulph in his book ‘Manhood’, says past unresolved issues between a father and a son are like a bad smell trapped in an attic – you have to open the attic door, let the smell out, and start putting something better in its place. The second, and it comes after the first, not in place of the first, is that in a real and true sense the ‘past’ does not exist anymore, it is simply not there. I remember not understanding why my grandfather never went back to visit his Yorkshire place of birth (he left as a young boy to emigrate with his parents to South Africa in 1895). Now I understand, the place that lived in his memory, no longer existed. I once took my wife, Yviette, on a tour of La Lucia and Umhlanga Rocks. I wanted to show her where I grew up. After discovering the little dirt road we used to take as a short cut through the sugarcane fields to play tennis at Mount Edgecombe was now a four lane freeway, and that the old brick double story house we lived in on the Umhlanga beachfront was now a five story Cabana, I declared the tour over. This was not where I grew up. That place does not exist anymore, except in my memory. The good ol’ days are gone. Life cannot be lived backwards. I wonder if this is not the lesson of Lot’s wife? “But Lot's wife looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt” (Genesis 19:26). Yearning for a past that does not exist, and never will again, paralyses us! Surely this is what Jesus meant when he said, “You cannot pour new wine into used wineskins, because the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins will be ruined. Instead, new wine must be poured into fresh wineskins" (Mark 2:22). Living in South Africa, and I guess it is the same everywhere, I used to hear it often in the Mississippi Delta, is a nostalgia for the good ol’ days. This runs deep. The truth is there are only two things we can do, other than nostalgically reminisce, and that is to deal with the stuff of the past that needs to be dealt with, and then to let it go. The past is no longer there and never will be. Rather than constant paralysis the only way is the way forward, to pour new wine into new wineskins, and to have the courage to embrace and grow that which is now before us.

The Third Mark of a Disciple

What a disciple does is actually true of all life, as these three idioms refer: 1. Actions speak louder than words. 2. Put your money where your mouth is. 3. Walk the talk. Like any good citizen of the world a follower of Jesus will busy himself or herself with life: The best example I can come up with to illustrate this is that of a devoted parent, whose lifetime of love is best expressed in actions rather than promises. You may recognize yourself? Probably also your parents! You give lifts to and from school, you make school sandwiches, you drop the kids off at the school tour bus at 4:00 am in the morning, you get up early on a Saturday to get them to private coaching lessons, which you watch and wait to take them home afterward, you drop the kids off at the birthday party returning at midnight to pick them up. Sound familiar. Discipleship begins at home! Follower of Jesus will in all likelihood also busy themselves in society and with social issues, things that go on that affect us all: You will serve on church projects and take leadership responsibilities, chair school governing bodies, help at soup kitchens, serve on nursery schools boards, charities, town councils, and neighbourhood watches, and so the list goes on. We need disciples here in the church, but the world out there needs disciples more than we the church do. Does that make sense to you? I believe there are two particulars distinctions that matter when it comes to what a disciple does, that significantly mark the disciple from anyone else: o Attention is especially given to the least noticeable tasks and people, and no reward or recognition is needed. The righteous will then answer him, "When, Lord, did we ever see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you a drink? When did we ever see you a stranger and welcome you in our homes, or naked and clothe you? When did we ever see you sick or in prison, and visit you?' The King will reply, "I tell you, whenever you did this for one of the least important of these followers of mine, you did it for me!' o The more sacrifice, and exposure to some kind of human pain and suffering, the more wise, compassionate and effective the disciple will become. It is said God is best encountered when we are out of our comfort zones, a little pushed and uncomfortable. A disciple does something with and in life! We are not in the stand watching the game, we are playing the game; we are not in the pews watching life go by, we are involved and immersed in this thing called life.