What does a 'real' one look like?

Having only recently become a ‘real’ minister I have one definite concern about my future ministry. One of the common responses that I get from people that I meet and subsequently discover that I am a church minister, is, ‘Gee, you don’t look like a minister!’ I hope that I never do look like the minister that they have in mind.

Now, firstly, I want to know what a minister looks like. Is it that fumbling fool personified by Rowan Atkinson or perhaps the witty and irreverent Rev Geraldine in the Vicar of Dibley? If I had to choose between the two, Geraldine wins easily.

I have a hunch that we have a growing number of people in our congregation who might get a similar response to the one that I receive from time to time. My bet is that when they mention in company that they enjoy being a part of our church, people will look at them somewhat shocked and say ‘You mean, that you’re a Christian and you enjoy church?’

Perhaps a key thing about evangelism for us today is changing people’s assumptions. People have set ideas about church stuff and our role is to change that thinking. We are either seen to be stuffy, judgemental (or perhaps simply mental?), happy clappy or after people’s money. Whatever the assumption, an overriding thought is that we are basically an irrelevant part of today’s society.

One of the cornerstones of our faith group is that we are generally a bunch of people who enjoy a party! When I think of the church and food I think of terrific tomato and / or egg sandwiches. Go to any older well established church and my bet is that at any function you will get these sandwiches on white bread of course. We don’t do tomato sandwiches!! That’s why people were thrilled with afternoon tea at our Ordination Service – no sangers!

Jesus did food quite a bit. We find him at a wedding or a dinner with various people. He did lunch with Zacchaeus once and made a banquet out of a few loaves and fish. When it came time for his death he had dinner with his mates and then left that meal as a memorial for us all.

In Genesis we find that in the middle of the garden was planted the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now, it appears that these trees ‘were pleasing to the eye and good for food.’ If we go from the first book of the Bible to the last, we find that in Revelation 2:7 the tree of life is still there providing nourishment for the believer. Food seems to be an important part of God’s plan.

The key to our sharing of food together is all about who else do we share it with? Wherever and whenever possible we must be sure that most of what we do overlaps with the lives of others. If we just party in isolation we may be guilty of perpetuating the myth that the church has nothing to say or do with ‘normal’ people.

You see when people say that they don’t like a minister or a Christian, maybe they have never really seen one before and this is our opportunity to plant a better and more realistic image?

Cheers - John

Ordination

Well, I am just about back in shape after a very hectic ORDINATION weekend. I don’t really know what I expected from the day but I do know that it will live in my memory for a very long time. The singing was great, the numbers attending amazing and the spirit fantastic!!

I do realise that I will be getting on the old band wagon again in focusing on the importance of community but here I go anyway! My ordination was a very important event, made more so by the presence of so many people, both from the past and the present. There were colleagues in ministry that made a special effort to get along – some travelling a great distance – that I have known for varying amounts of time; but wanted to be there. There were friends going back more than twenty five years who have shared the journey with Ronnie and me through thick and thin, and of course, there was a great gathering of our own people who combined to make the day a highlight, not just for me but hopefully for our congregation here in the North West.

It has been interesting to read and hear some of the many greetings on cards, emails, text or via phone that I have received in recent days, offering an apology for not being able to get along and a word of encouragement along the way. An overwhelming thought has been a call not to let ordination and the opportunity to put ‘Rev’ in front of my name change who I am. That has had me thinking over the past 48 hours – just who am I? What do I believe and what is important to me? Why should ordination change me?

Who am I? I watched the movie Amazing Grace on Monday. It reminded me of my identity. To steal from John Newton, I am one who ‘was blind but now I see.’ If there was one verse of Scripture to sum up my ministry it would be from Luke 19:10: ‘For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.’

Ordination for me is not an opportunity to wear different clothes or speak in a different way or consider myself any better than anyone else. It has been an exciting time where I have felt God’s presence in the process and known the churches affirmation of my ministry. I cannot change because for a long time now I have not been my own!

‘You are not your own; you were bought at a price.’ 1 Corinthians 6:20

I don’t know how it is for others but I actually believe that!? I believe that our faith is less about doing the right thing and much more about life and death! Please don’t jump down my throat here; but so many within the church are keen to show ‘sinful’ people how wrong they are and therefore the way forward is to be shown what is right, which presumably means living as they do? Man, I’ m not sure that I want that responsibility.

I think that Jesus was on about life and death and therefore consider these issues to be the key message of Christian faith. Jesus sat down and partied with Tax Collectors, Publicans and sinners while the religious stood at the doorway pointing fingers and shaking their heads. They were worried about the message getting contaminated while Jesus WAS the message and waded right on in there.

People come and go, blow hot and cold because we have become convinced that it is all about us. It isn’t! Instead of looking inward Jesus calls us to look outward. Instead of holding everything close, Jesus calls us to give it away! Instead of measured gradual progress, Jesus says be as foolishly extravagant as you can be! Instead of loving just a chosen few, Jesus tells us to love everybody!

We are a long way from getting it right but every now and then at NWUC I get a sniff of something close. Sunday was one of those moments. Thanks again for a little glimpse of glory.

So, is there any danger of my changing? I think that is unlikely, but let me know if you see any worrying signs.

Cheers - John

All the lost souls

Some of you will know that I am something of a James Blunt fan and as I was driving away from the final day of Synod yesterday evening, one of his songs was going round in my head. This was probably due to my not having enjoyed the past four days that much and the lyric that I was focused on was ‘Give me reason but don’t give me choice. ‘Cause I’ll just make the same mistake again.’

With the song well stuck in my head, I listened more closely to the rest of the song and was struck by the depth of struggle that the words bring out. The first verse of Blunt’s song called ‘Same Mistake’ goes like this:

‘Saw the world turning in my sheets and once again I cannot sleep. Walk out the door and up the street; look at the stars beneath my feet. Remember rights that I did wrong, so here I go. Hello, hello. There is no place I cannot go. My mind is muddy but my head is heavy. Does it show? I lose the track that loses that me, so here I go.

And so I sent some men to fight, and one came back at dead of night. Said he’d seen my enemy. Said he looked just like me. So I set out to cut myself and here I go.’

I know, it is a bit cryptic; but I guess that is the prerogative of a song writer. What strikes me in so many of the lyrics of today are the obvious struggle that a young generation is going through and the questions that they are asking? James Blunts first two album titles – Back to bedlam and All the lost souls - are very revealing of the man. On the front cover of All the lost souls is a large picture of James Blunt with what appears to be many hundreds of small pictures of him in the background. On the inside cover is a skull and on the back cover is a butterfly. Life, death and the hope of transformation?

All of the questions are out there being asked. The challenge for me is how to engage in the conversation?

On Sunday week I am being ordained as a Minister of the Word in the Uniting Church after many years of being a Lay leader. I have asked the acting Principal of United Theological College, Rev Dr Dean Drayton to be the speaker at the service. Dean has been one of my biggest inspirers, motivators and mentors since our paths first crossed over twenty years ago. He asked me this week; ‘What is stirring you right now?’ That’s a really good question.

My reply was that we as the church talk about Jesus like ministry, going out and bringing care, hope and healing to the community; but what might this look like if we deliberately joined with God in ministry in our own local places without the goal of taking people out of society to simply go to church on Sunday? How do we bring about long term transformation that continues to bear fruit from generation to generation?

I know it’s way too ambitious! It couldn’t happen?! Maybe not; but I am going to go down fighting for all of the lost souls and all of those whose mind is muddy and whose head is heavy. I don’t have a choice because God has given me the reason.

Cheers - John