Calvert argues that the way forward for the church is to engage with the broken parts of our societies and in doing so show that Christianity is not simply about sterile dogma and truth issues but it is about living these dogmas out in a practical way so that we reconstruct the Kingdom not simply through grand words but through postive actions that change the hearts and lives of communities. Well that’s how I’ve interpreted his contribution.

The dogma of secularity can be and often is overtaken by the pragmatic approach of secularists and Christians alike, who seek to subvert those who want to promote stereotypes when it comes to faith based organisations. The picture of the bread and the wine on the street is a subversive and converting idea. Offering communion on the street was enacting out in a powerful way the truth that Christ is reconciling the world to himself.

I believe the church has always been in a unique position to be the changemaker in our local communities. Surely, that is what the church was established by Jesus to do. Calvert points out that secularism is the result of the “Death of God Theology” As many of you know this kind of thinking can find its roots back to the philosophy of Emmanuel Kant. He sees us humans as disengaged,estranged from one another without relationship, he sees us humans as unwilling to except any law but our own, certainly no external laws from an external and eternal God.

Kant has had an enormous influence in the way that the modern world sees itself. There is little doubt that his philosophy has influenced the thinking behind social science and our religious studies, especially here in Europe. It means that human beings think they can find the answer from within themselves. This kind of thinking is prone to believe that the individual will always seek to establish himself or herself over against community. It is very Darwinian, the strongest always survives. Yet the paradox is that people are drawn to community yet feel and think community will always rob them of their freedom and perhaps their survival.

Now the Gospel of Christ proclaims a belief that you can only be totally free when you are in community and engaging in communion. The one and the many need not be mutually exclusive. The teaching of Jesus highlighted in John’s gospel is all about unity. The one and the many in Christ. Paul further explores this idea in Corinthians 12 when he speaks of the freedom of the different parts of the body within the unity of the one body.

It is this teaching that is at the heart of a new emerging church that I can see developing and making interesting subversive inroads into our secular society of the 21st century. Robert Calvert alludes to the fact that Orthdox Christians are now working in partnership with Christians from more Independent style churches. For me the miracle is that many more of the Independent Charasmatic churches are engaging with the more traditional or mainline churches. I was speaking to an Indian pastor who was staying with me last month from a small Independent church in Chemmai, he confirmed to me that many of the mainline churches in India are being influenced by the Indpendents and vice versa. This coming together to engage in acts of charity are all to my mind signs of the Kingdom. Often from this flows an exchange of worship styles and also the breaking down of barriers and walls that Paul speaks of in Ephesians.

It is not only a partnership with other churches that can change communities, it is also partnerships with local governments and other charitable agencies. The church can be truly ’salt and light’ when we work alongside others of good heart who want to bring about justice in the world. I can only talk for the UK but I am encouraged by the number of statuatary agencies and Charitable Foundations that are open and willing to help fund work of a social nature that is carried out by fgaith communities.

Firgive me referencing my own congregation but it acts as an example of engaging with the secualar world. We run four social outreach programmes out of our congregation here in Bo’ness as well as our international development work. A greater proportion of our funding comes from what we might call secular agencies. The BBC Children In Need fund our “Bounce Higher Programme, this is a programme that seeks to connect with children and families and offer them support and encouragement at various points in their lives where they might be feeling a bit vulnerable. Our programme supporting elderly people who suffer from dementia is partial funded by the Social Work Department, and our Christian Counselling programme is run out of the local Medical Centre. Our youth programme has developed and grown and has a not insignificant role to play in the local High School. Finally our not for profit media company is engaging with all kinds of projects and commissions both Christian and secular, including developing n online emerging church programme.

All this makes me aware of the great opportunities that are available to churches and Christian communities who want to begin to engage with the issues of our day. We may not start with handing out tracts and singing gospel songs but the reality is that sooner or later the topics of forgiveness and injustice guilt and truthfulness raise their heads and in the context of authentic relationship the gospel can be explored and received. Yes the Christian church needs to critically engage with the secular world and be shining examples of integrity and resourceful creativity. I am convinced that we need to reflect more upon what it means to be free in Christ and live for each other in community. To love God and serve the world and to also serve God and love the world. It has been my experience that very often it is Gospel and Communion that breaks open Dogma and Diversity. Communion holds diversity in unity and I think that’s not a bad piece of dogma.

Check out Robert Calvert’s Article

So get listening to my show its on air every day at 9.00am except Saturdays and Sundays. So if your reading this get listening to italker on air. I’ve a great show lined up for today.

The great thing is that it did go well. It looks like we had around 198 people looking in on the internet and it would appear around 130 were using ipads or iphones. This evening the viewing number also increase to around 34 normally on a Sunday evening we don’t get many more than 18. This means that we more than doubled our physical congregation because of those who were looking in on the internet. I think we also owe a big thank you to tye BBC for taking up our story and publishing it o the web. Check out http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_east_and_fife/10302210.stm

At different times today we have received text messages and emails from those who were watching expressing their apprciation. One person even mentioned that they engaged with the act of communion this morning using a ‘Big Mac’ burger bun. I notice also that Iain down in Largs has left a message on my last post to say that he had engaged with the act of Communion over cyber-space.

I know we need to be careful that we don’t in any way trivialise the act of Communion. Yet there seems to me something very theologically interesting going on when people can feel caught up in an act of devotion using the intimacy of the internet. I believe there is so much for us to explore and develop in this whole area of technology. For me the problem is that people often see this kind of innovation as a bit off the wall or a little bit whacky. When in fact it has all the potential of allowing us to develop community.

However the truth is we have never seen our live streaming of worship as a gimmick it is a genuine attempt to connect with people who are disconnected from the normal church attendance. Its just as much for the honest seeker as for the believers who find they can’t attend church any longer for a variety of reasons. In the words of one couple “St Andrew’s Bo’ness has given us our Sunday back again,” they go on to explain, if you are housebound one day is as much the same as the next. However having a regular appointment to watch the Sunday services, gives them the structure for their week.

This was one of the themes picked up by Archbishop John Sentamu as he issued a reminder at the closing worship service of “Edinburgh 2010” in the Church of Scotland Assembly Hall. Alluding to the gospel account of Peter’s denial of Christ, Sentamu added: “Jesus today is on trial in the court of the world by our lips and lives. Jesus and his gospel are being judged.” Sentamu continued, “Human activity only begets human activity. The prophetic Word and the Spirit make us live.” His voice echoed with an evangelising passion that recalled preachers of the past who spoke in the same space. It was also reminicent of his recent visit to the CWW National Gathering in Edinburgh in 2008 when I had the privelege of introducing him to the 8,000 audience gathered at Ingliston. Archbishop Sentamu has been such an inspiration to many of us in Scotland and he was the ideal peron to bring the conference to a close.

PRAISE GATHERING 2010
All the good things were not just happening in Edinburgh, through in Glasgow, the Praise Gathering, under the leadership of Ian Watson was packing in thousands to the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall over a three night stint. I had the privelege of attending on the Saturday evening. It turned out to be a fantastic evening. What I like about the Praise Gathering is it lterally does what it says on the tin. Its about praise to Almighty God, and its not about celebrities. in many ways it seeks to pick up the theme of Hope and Humility.

The Director and Conductor Ian Watson has been a wonderful friend to all of us involved with Church Without Walls events. Over the last few years in Aviemore. His inspirational leadership in worship was quite outstanding. Ian has put together an extensive programme of praise music, for the Praise Gathering, in doing so he seems to be able to find the balance between a participatory element to allow his audience to engage with praise themeselves allowing them to become producers of praise, while at the same time offering everyone the opportunity to become a consumer listening to an amazing 400 voice choir sing a variety of pieces ranging from traditional gospel to more contemporary songs.

For me the highlight of the evening was an arrangement of the well known hymn “How Great Thou Art.” How they did it I don’t know but they moved from a lyrical ballad to a rockous gospel sound in less than a minute, greatly assisted by Gamu.

Now I said there were no celebrities but there was one outstanding star! Once again for me the evening highlight was the young Glasgow singer Gamucharai Nhengu (aka Gamu). She is a seriously talented young woman. The truth is the she brought the whole Concert Hall to life. She has amazing stage presence and for someone so slight one wonders from where does the voice come? To hear Gamu sing again it would be worth any Glaswegian brave the elements and venture east and attend the next Praise Gathering which takes place in the Usher halls Edinburgh on Saturday 19 June.

Written as a contribution to the Lausanne Conversation on Preaching Part 3

Does preaching still have a role to play in the emerging church? In fact does preaching still have a role to play in all of our churches.? While our communication revolution invites us to continue to reflect upon the way we participate and respond to God’s Word . I want to suggest that preaching has a unique place in the communication of the gospel . Words and the power of rhetoric still seem to be able to touch a post modern world. Many believe that Obama won the American Presidential Election because of his great skills as an orator. While preaching must not be seen as mere oratory, it demonstrates that people are still engaged by the power of the human voice to communicate an inspirational message. It could be further argued that Jesus instituted the idea of preaching in Matthew 28 when he commissioned the disciples to “Go into all the world and preach the gospel”.

Preaching undoubtedly, has a special role to play in the worshipping community and it involves much more than an individual performing from a script. It requires the interaction of congregation and preacher as they engage with the scripture. This interaction is only effective when the Holy Spirit constitutes the words of the preacher. Thus it can be said that Jesus the Son instituted the preacher, and it is the Holy Spirit who consitutes the preacher.

Let’s begin to analyse the role that each participant plays in the process of preaching, beginning with the preacher, then the congregation and ending with the scriptures. The order is not important because I believe the process of preaching is a circular one. Regardless where you start the Spirit will lead you to the other. In this post i’m going to concentrate on the role of the preacher.

It is always the role of the Holy Spirit to constitute that which has been instituted in Scripture. In the words of Jesus “The Spirit will take what is mine and make it known to you.” (John 16. 5-15) Christ institutes that which is truth and is non negotiable. It is the Spirit that constitutes and contextualises the truth thus bringing together that which has been instituted or given, in order that we might discover a process of revelation. This revelation points always to God’s redemptive acts in history enabling us to see that God is seeking to renew his world and he uses people like you and me to make it happen.

The preacher has to come to this process in complete humility, submitting to the Word. The interaction is not that of equals but that of pupil and teacher. The Word and words themselves shape everything around us even the visual revolution of technology. It is important that we do not deface or debase the Word in the light of the power of the visual language.

Listening To Self in the Spirit.

In the Reformed tradition the preacher, has to learn to listen in two distinct ways. Firstly to listen to self in order to understand the human condition and simultaneously to listen for the Word that comes from beyond yet is revealed to us in the words of scripture. It is the listening that is the gift of the Spirit .

Indeed this kind of listening is relevant to everyone of us. We need to recognise that the voice of self, is too often the voice of many. In Mark Chapter 5. 9 Jesus is confronted with the man who was ‘beside himself‘ Our Lord asks him, “What is your name?” “My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.” Out of the demon possessed man came a profound truth about all of us. We are all people who have been influenced by many voices throughout history. It is almost as though there is ‘a legion ‘within all of us, reflecting the confusion sin has brought into all of our lives. We are constrained as preachers to listen for the one voice of Scripture above the noise of culture. Of course we also carry the voices of our own personal encounters in our heads from the past and even the present seeking to influence and confuse us.

It is as we listen to these voices we become more aware of our need, our longing to hear the one true voice that of the Good Shepherd so clearly explained in John 10. Such a voice comes to us often in the place of silence. It is the voice of God through scripture, that addresses our confusion and shame reducing the other voices to silence asking like it first did to Adam, “ Where are you?

Silence and the Self

Carlo Maria Martini writing about ‘ Communicating Christ to the World ‘ says,

‘Every authentic communication is born in silence… Every true communication requires silent recollected space. To communicate well does not require many words. A few sincere words born of contemplative detachment are worth more than many words heaped up without reflecting.’

It is essential for the preacher to be in touch with the inner self or else she/he will never truly be able to speak or hear the Word of God. Murray McCheyne, the famous Scottish divine, is accredited with the phrase “ What a man is on his knees that he is and no more.” Prayer brings us to the place where we begin to see ourselves as God sees us. Listening to the many voices contrains us to listen for the one true voice. The one we know, the one we have always known.

Our listening and our hearing is all part of our reformed spirituality. Summarising this section, what I am saying is listening is not just a discipline it is a gift of the Spirit. When we listen to the self we will be confronted with many voices that seek to rule our hearts. Deep within each of us there is the experience of the tower of Babel. We are all people locked within ourselves, people who are confused by the noise and anger of non-communication. Paul echoes this idea in Romans 8 when he talks of the Spirit interceding for us because we do not know how to express how we feel.

Martini is also right when he points the confused and silent individual to Jesus the one who opens the ears and the mouth of the deaf mute causing him to decode the confusion and silence of the soul. It seems to me that this type of listening to self is also the work of the Holy Spirit, allowing the preacher to discover his/her poverty, the poverty of a noisy bell and clanging cymbal inviting us to become personal benefactors of the grace of God in order that we might be like a watchman blowing a clear note on the trumpet.

Only When He Speaks your Name

The preacher has to be addressed by the Word of the gospel personally. This experience of the Word of God has been the distinguishing feature of biblical leadership. Throughout the New Testament there are references to Christians as the called ones, or those who are called. When the preacher has heard the gospel and realises that he /she has been addressed not by human words but by God himself, then there is an overwhelming conviction that turns oratory into revelation. It is because the preacher is first and foremost a benefactor that she/he can share the gospel with those who are needy.

It is this type of encounter that permits the preacher to also reveal part of his self and vulnerability before God as he shares his lack of confidence. It is also this encounter that establishes the authority of the preacher. She is no longer speaking of self but sharing an encounter with the living Word. It is this word that first transforms the person of the preacher.

For me the first wonderful example of this is Mary in the Resurrection Garden. She doesn’t recognise the risen Christ until he calls her by her name then everything is revealed. Mary becomes the first disciple to communicate the good news. All of this makes it imperative that the preacher recognises their role as the one who bears the message but cannot change or reinterpret the message to his or his hearers liking. This is the great danger that Paul warned Timothy about. It is the peer pressure that many in our church today find themselves seeking to work through.

As we talk of ‘Emerging Church’ we need to be careful that we do not begin to emerge the Gospel into the culture and political beliefs of our governments and opinion informers.

As minister of St Andrew’s Bo’ness I was delighted to see that once again we have been able to share our vision of working in partnership with our sister congregations and civic officials to help build a better community for the people of our town. It is important that the church has been able to serve the community by making the above hustings happen.

One of the agents for the candidates remarked as he left the church, ” This is not how I expected the evening to go, tonight has been an eye opener for me.” I think he was referring to the local expertise that was around in the church building. He may also have been referring to the fact that the church was able to stream the event out live, that the Vine Trust has its roots deep in the Christian Comminity in Bo’ness and that we in St Andrew’s in partnerships with others are delivering a multi-facited social programme touching all ages across the community.

We all know that we are living in a fast moving world. If we knew just how fast perhaps it would scare us all to death. I guess the greatest impact of speed on all of our lives over the past twenty years has been the meteoric rise of the internet. . The truth is there is nothing much faster than a mouse. Click and your there. Its like a huge big brain that we can all access in order to communicate and with which to communicated. Who would have believed even ten years ago that over 70% of our homes in Britain would be connected to the internet?

The Click On Resource

We use it for shopping, for recreational purposes, for business, for education, for social networking. What has made the internet so successful is the ability for users to become producers as well as consumers. All this has come about because the internet has ceased to be simply a place where you go to find information. It is also a place where you can go to give information. In other words the internet has become more and more interactive. I wonder if we have something to learn from this model in the church. Too often our churches are all information based, not much action and no facility for interaction. Take it we feed you but no feedback please!

This shift in internet usage has been given the name Web 2.0. When the web first became popular it was the place where you downloaded what the producers wanted you to have. You visited a corporate website and it was full of information. There was no place to ask questions to engage with the idea. The idea or the information was given and that was what web pages were about. In today’s world-wide web the idea is more sophisticated. I not only want to read what you have to say – I also want you to know what I think of what you’re saying. I also might like you to see what I have produced or created.

Check me out !

In today’s web world it is not just businesses and organizations that have websites, anyone can have a website. This is the age when my view is as important as the feature writer of a major newspaper. The rise of personal blogs has been phenomenal over the past two years. The internet is the 20th century equivalent of the printing press. The world of ideas can never be the same again.

It is in this area that I think we in the church should be directing more of our thinking and creativity. Last year Sanctus Media a small media production company working out of St Andrew’s Bo’ness here n Scotland began to explore the possibility of creating a new kind of church on the net.

Sanctuary First ( www.sanctuaryfirst.org.uk} is a creative web space that is being developed into a place where people can begin to engage with daily worship and connect with others who want to explore in an adventurous way alternative ways to be communities of worship. The site is not completely developed yet but it is up and running and already creating an interest on the world wide web. When completed it will be a users and producers space.

The dynamic that makes SF different is its ability to allow the local church to become the catalyst to create a touching place where users can meet face to face and engage with the material in a way that allows them to open themselves up to God. Stage two is to take the site to the place where the users not only engages with the material but become producers creating material for worship and reflection or comments on the existing material. Some of this is happening already but it is being developed to a greater extent.

All this is a far cry from church as some people know it. However when the idea that the user can become the producer catches on it will begin to revolutionise church as we know it. It’s a kind of biblical idea anyway. Jesus called his disciples not simply to be users of the but he called them to be producers of the fruit in John 15.

Imagine a church where worshippers are invited to write their own songs of praise, write their own prayers, make a film to illustrate a scriptural text, submit a picture that speaks of the God’s grace. Contribute to a sermon through a dance. Imagine a church that is focused on turning worshippers into producers in kind and in action. Now that’s a church more people in the next generation will want to join. That is a church where people are inter- connected. It is in these kind of churches that more and more of the internet generation will feel at home and make their contributions.

We talked a lot last night
Thinking out loud
Maybe too loud
Questioning
What would be allowed
Searching
Trying to reach out
To touch
To grasp
ideas beyond us.

All of us were looking for a voice
From within
Our voice
Your voice
Trying to connect
To see
To hear
To understand

Shaping words,
meanings,
phrases.
Throwing out seeds
looking for soil to grow a harvest.

Here’s a wee poem I wrote for the service . Its entitled ” Dead men Walking dead men Walking I hope you find it interesting along side this picture that I took earlier today inside the Buchanan Galleries.

Here is a world a community of people who sometimes remind me of dead people walking. Most look fed up most feel they’ve had enough. They just want to get out of the place. Shopping just drains the soul out of a person. Is that not right? Let me know what you think?

If ever the church needs to be waken up from its slumber and its sleep it must surely be today. Sardis was a church that was living off a past reputation. So much of church life today is living off past generations. When it comes to the Church in Scotland so much of what we have and use at the present was never given or purchased by this generation. I’ve come to the conclusion that we do need new wine skins for the new wine. It also means that someone has to go and get the new wine skins and also pour the new wine into the skins. So many in this generation know very little about what Christians really believe and many Christians are no longer sure about what they believe. And if the truth were told there are ministers of the Gospel who are no longer sure about what it is they believe. Remember Jesus spoke out and said if the watchman sounds an uncertain note the people in the city will be confused. I think there is a great responsibility on all of us who have been entrusted with the gospel to make sure we share it in such a manner that the world around hears it and understands.

I think that is where the new skins come in. We need spaces and places and people who are flexible enough to allow the gospel to seep into every aspect of their lives so that they become the new skins that allows the wonderful new life of the Spirit to flow out from them into the world. It means we need new skins in politics we need new skins in the music industry, we need new skins in the media, and we need new skins in almost every aspect of daily living.

An hour later I was down at the Woolworth Store . It was good to have the prayers and the support of the rest of the ministers in the town as we opened the doors to the public.

We believe this is an important opportunity for the church to make a visable presence in the town this Christmas and allow people the opportunity to reflect on the Christmas story in a contemporary setting. It is also a great witness when Christians from all the various denominations work together.

So if your around in Bo’ness over the next few days make sure you drop into the store for a chat and a cup of tea. The labytinth is well worth the visit.

One thing that has been drawn to our attention is how quiet our town is during the afternoons. People seem to get up and do their shopping in the morning. When it comes to the afternoon and the evenings it is pretty quiet. I wonder if this is a pattern in other town? It makes one think seriously about what is happening to all the town centres around Scotland. Where is community locating itself if not in the shops and cafes and pubs of a town? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this one.