James Henley

Equality (or "why doesn't everyone get to do stuff in church?")

If we really believe that everyone is equal, then what huge effect would that have on the way we are and do "church"?

Talked a little about equality at the Lab last weekend, and this was the main question that hit me from the point of view of someone who has the privilege of leading and shaping our church community.

It would be silly to try and convince ourselves that every has the same level of skill and ability in every area - sure some people are better at speaking and some at playing instruments and some at making orange squash, but what if we really decided that everyone's contribution was of equal importance? How different would church look to the way it is now?

Rather than a worship gathering which is lead by and organised by a small number of people and presented to the masses, what if we could find a way where the whole church could contribute to our time spent worshipping together? Surely, that's what Paul is really getting at when he says "everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation."

If he was speaking to the church today, wouldn't he be telling us to produce worship times where the goal is for as many to contribute as possible in as many ways?

The old idea that if everyone was at the front then there would be in the congregation doesn't seem to wash - it misses the point. And you could argue that some people are called to the behind-the-scenes stuff - and technical stuff and cleaning and squash-making is important - but when Paul says hymns, instruction and revelation isn't he talking about the up-front stuff?

What does that kind of worship gathering look like?

Are we too far gone in the modern church to achieve it? Or does it just not apply anymore?

(written to The Album Leaf, which may explain the slightly depressing tone ;-)

Also syndicated on Anglimergent - a network of Anglicans across the world engaging the emerging church and mission. To join in the discussion there click here.

 

Stations on Equality

Last night as the Lab we looked at equality - what does it mean to live as a community where we are equal, and what does it mean to take that to the world, the community, outside as well?

Maybe post some kind of reflection on that whole idea from some of the thoughts on Sunday later in the week, but here are the three stations we used to reflect on and respond to the thoughts which Louisa shared on Equality. The stations are taken/adapted from bits and pieces on the Dream website, where there is a whole treasure trove of brilliant resources for emerging churches.

Faces
Needed: A collection of pictures of people of different races, backgrounds, sex, etc... as diverse as possible.

Look at some of the faces in the photographs.

Pick an image. Think about your emotional response to it and feel free to use this in prayer.

Does that face have equality? Is there something that has stopped them getting the equality they deserve.

Pray about it.

Place the image in the light as you commit them to God’s love and care.

Blessed
Needed: Prayer wall/floor and drawing materials

• If you have food in the fridge, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of this world.
• If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish somewhere, you are among the top 8% of the worlds wealthy.
• If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week.
• If you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death you are more blessed than million's of people in the world. we are hugely blessed…

… do we keep this in our perspective?

Use the prayer wall to thank God for some of the huge blessings he has given you.

Power
Needed: A large candle, and a box of tealights. Floorspace.

The large candle symbolises God. The source of all true power.

What experience have you had of the power of God? What images does it bring to mind?

Take some time to reflect on ‘power’. Call to mind images of the people and things that are seen as powerful.

Where does power touch you? People who you exercise power over or who have more power than you. Habits, desires and ambitions that are powerful in your life. Take some time to bring each to mind.

Take a tealight and light it from the large candle. Invite God to teach you his ways of dealing with power. Ways that seem upside down to a power-drunk world.

The relational missional event

Thinking a lot at the moment about our Lab event, Explosion, and what direction we should take it this year. Think that the format of the event should change, and hopefully the name too as we launch something fresh. Working with an established family church, Bethel, will a large student group so there's also an element of finding something that works for both of us. Trying to stay positive and flexible, and not be too stubborn with what I want (which is difficult as it seems to be a family trait on both sides of my family ;-).

Anyway, so it got me thinking about how an "evangelistic" or missional event fits in and works with my extremely relational approach to church. How can we create an event which invites people to join in community, to interact, to belong - rather than one which just "sells" the gospel?

This means we need to go right back and look at our whole approach and philosophy towards mission and evangelism...

• If we want to give out tickets into heaven - then we plan an event which is punchy and flashy. We plan a sales pitch.

• If we want people to come to a place of believing what we believe - then we plan out a concise way of presenting our beliefs. We present our proofs, our reasoning for those beliefs.

• If we want people to change their opinions of the church and Christianity, if we want them to think Christianity is cool - then we come up with an event with dumbs down the elements of church which are perceived as "uncool" and plays up the good stuff. We market our Christianity to a consumer generation - but we run the risk of producing consumer Christians.

On the other hand...

• If our longing is to build relationships, if the loving the person is more important than what they believe - then our events will be based around conversation and interaction. They will be opportunities for relationships to grow.

• If we long to enable people to belong, then we create events which are inclusive, rather than elite ("are you a Christian yet?") and where the conversation is in two directions. Why should we force people to listen to what we believe, if we have no interest in what they actually think and believe themselves?

• If our aim is to enable people in their own spiritual growth, rather than to educate them in our way of thinking - then the events we run will be build around helpful interaction and discussion. They will be about asking the right questions to provoke people to think - rather than presenting what we think are the right answers without allowing an opportunity for discussion.

Phew, that felt a little like a mind-dump - me trying to clear up my own thoughts a little, but hopefully it's useful.

Church: Networks and Hubs

Was browsing my del.icio.us, and was reminded of this slide show on Urban Church by Steve Collins.

I guess this is really the way I see the Lab working - more than a service or a slightly edgy way of worshipping, but as a network of relationships. And I long for those relationships to just stretch out across the town centre - into different friendship groups - students, young adults - and into even the most unexpected places like the Newport covered market.

And so I guess we would then at the moment have these three "hubs" which are focus points and bases of operations - St Pauls, the Pen & Wig, and the university campus.

So next year with our community house project hopefully there will be another Hub - not so much a "place of worship" in the conventional sense, but more a place for relationships to grow, for connections to be made, and for the network to expand and multiply.

I love this idea of Hub-based church - I just have this dream of a church building which isn't a huge theatre or empty hall - but like a Cafe with sofas and comfy chairs and stuff, and is open all day just for people to hang out... awesome... gives me a fuzzy feeling inside... :-)

Prayer Stations on Authentic Community

Here's the stuff I used last Sunday at the Lab for the Introduction to our Authentic Community series. Used four different prayer/worship/reflection stations based on the directions I see a community should/could be looking in: inwards, outwards, upwards and downwards.

Overview of some of my little speaky bit and what each direction means to me is here on the Lab website.

Outwards
Needed: Candles/tealights and lighter/matches.

“In every community there is work to be done. In every nation, there are wounds to heal. In every heart there is the power to do it."

Take a moment to read this passage, and then—if you want to commit to shining your own light, then light a candle of your own as a symbol of your commitment.

You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

Inwards
Needed: Some mask outlines on paper, and a paper shredder (this is really cool!) or bin to get rid of them in.

“There can be no vulnerability without risk; there can be no community without vulnerability; there can be no peace, and ultimately no life, without community.”

Think for a moment about any barriers you might put up to stop yourself being vulnerable - or to make yourself look good to others. Draw or write them onto the mask outline—and then when you are finished, dispose of it.

Lord, help me to let others see me as You see me, and help them to love me despite my weaknesses.

Upwards
Needed: Laptop/PC with the words to Psalm 66 in a word processing program.

Rewrite a couple of the verses from Psalm 66 on the computer. Think about how you could make them personal to you and to us.

Downwards
Needed: MegaBlocks or Lego or something...

What role do you think you fulfil in the group? What skills and gifts do you have that you could bring?

Take a moment to think about the gifts that you have and whether you are sharing them with others—and whether you would like to.

Place a building block in the wall as a symbol of your commitment to be part of the rest of the group.

There we go...

The Art of Language

This came up on my RSS reader - made me think of a discussion we had in our Lab team meeting last night about language.

Last night, we were talking specifically about financial giving, but this idea of language is something that I've been talking about for a while to the couple of people who'd listen. I encountered the concept first in one of Dan Kimball's books about the Emerging Church.

Kimball talked about how our language of church will go on to define our attitudes towards church, and so as church leaders the way we speak about church will go a long way to determine how our congregation views it. So, if we consistantly talk about church as a thing that happens, if we talk about services which people come to enjoy and consume - then this attitude will spill over into the attitudes of our church members. On the other hand, if we talk about church as a community, as something we are all a part of and contribute to, as a network of relationships rather than in terms of service provision, then that positive attitude to church should spill over into our congregations (or I should really say church communities).

Perhaps this explains a little about the place Willow Creek now find themselves in - church as a programme of activities rather than a community.

In terms of the Lab, I think that our change in language has been at least part of the reason for our increased sense of belonging and community. I won't get all philosophical and psychological, but language is really the "verbal filter" or "verbal lens" through which we experience the world - surely the language we surround ourselves with must affect our worldview and our perceptions.

So our challenge with the Lab is now to let our "community language" settle and to consolidate it, and now to really think about bringing giving into our vocabulary - especially in the language of our worship. We need to bring giving out from the locked filing cabinet where we keep all the utility bills and other things we don't especially like and reconnect it with our worship vocabulary.

So if you hear us talking about giving a lot at the Lab this term then you know the reasoning behind it ;-) We need to bring it back from just a way of paying the bills to its rightful place in the context of our worship as a community and as a church. Hope that made sense.

Chillin' with Bishop Dominic

Got confirmed in Magor yesterday - in preparation for the Bishop to come to the Lab for my licensing at the beginning of February. We tracked the Bishop down to a beautiful little church in Magor to get it done - it had a really long closed in chancel leading up to a little sanctuary at the end which made going up for communion seem like a pilgrimage into the holy of holies - very cool.

Was straight back to work with the Lab then last night - talked a little about our theme for this term, which is Authentic Community, and had some reflection/worship/prayer stations set up which we worked our way around to inspire and set up the rest of the series. Was very cool even though we were only a small group with a lot of the guys still on their way back to Newport for the new term. Will put up my notes and stuff from the stations in another post.

Got the first Lab team meeting tonight to set ourselves up for the new term. The team's coming together really well - got a good feeling about this term.

Got plenty of stuff to be getting on with before college on Wednesday.

Looking backwards and forwards at The Lab

Thought it'd be good to look back and forwards at the Lab a little before I head back to Newport this weekend.

First off, I've got to say - I love the Lab. I love my job, I love all the guys who are part of our little community and all the guys who I get to meet. This last 3-4 months has been incredible - I'm so looking forward to the future. :-)

At least from my perspective working for the Lab, I think that the biggest step forward I've seen in the last term is a move from the Lab being just a Sunday night youth service to being a community of people. As a community, though, I think "the Lab" doesn't necessarily distinguish itself from the CU - it's a very loose group, everyone doesn't have "the Lab" tattooed on their foreheads.

But that's a great thing.

With the Newport CU, and the number of students who are part of Bethel - a church we work a lot with - and some guys from Christchurch and other places, there's this strange, organic thing that's happened. And I think it's beautiful. Just a big community of Jesus followers - everyone with different identities, different loyalties, different "labels" - but all together in community.

And although it has it's challenges, it seems to be a really cool thing that's going on.

Our mid-week thang, Stuffed, has probably had a lot to do with building a greater sense of community - although in its original purpose, mission, it has failed quite badly, we managed to sidestep into something very different. So I think the plan is to keep going with it - maybe with a different name, maybe with no name but much more informally - into this year.

So, umm, God knows where the Lab will lead in 2008, but here are some of my hopes for the next few months...

• Start some "social action"/missional/serving stuff in partnership with the council.
• To minister to each other more and more - through friendships, and through building up people to lead and plan different parts of our gatherings.
• Speaking of our gatherings - to build them into something more multi-sensory and creative - but also organic. To vary the rhythm of our worship a little more.
• Stretch out to include more non-student young adults.
• (IMO) To work on a more organic, relational approach to the "Explosion" events we did with Bethel last year for this year.
• To explore more and more what self-sacrifice and service look like inside and outside our little community, and let it seep into the way we live day-to-day.

Still can't believe I get to do this whole thing with the Lab - it's incredible. :-)

Nearly home...

Driving back to Aberystwyth tonight or tomorrow morning (but probably tonight). So looking forward to being home and seeing my family. Ever since our first Christmas service last weekend I've suddenly been pining to get back home.

Spent the last couple of weeks tying up loose ends and getting everything done so I can go home, and everything seems to be just about done now. Met with Bishop Dominic for the first time this morning, which seemed to go well. He's a good bloke - sometimes I don't think I give Bishops enough credit for the job they do - just think of them as old and crusty, but Dominic is anything but.

The CU put this together for the Uni Carol Service - Jack makes a very cool, if a little cheesy, Rob Bell - but the thought he puts across is very cool. He's a little star - need to get him at the Lab speaking more in the new year. Anyway, enjoy...

Authenticity

At the Lab, our Spring series up 'til Easter is going to be Authentic Community – idea being to explore what an open, real, genuine community of Jesus followers looks like. I've been thinking about authenticity though, and what makes something authentic. It seems to be a really trendy, attractive word in a culture where so much rubbish advertising and junk is thrown at us everyday – the average Newport student seems to pass so many flyers and posters and spam everyday (and unfortunately all our radio show posters seem to be adding to it :-( ).

When we're talking about objects it seems easy to make the distinction between real and fake – something either is or isn't – but when we talk about belief and community and church, what is it that sets them apart from anything else?

Maybe authentic community is about depth? So much in this world is shallow and materialistic and based on self – maybe authenticity is about something greater than ourselves? About being free from the confines of what affects me, what is in my interests?

In which case, authenticity is a real challenge.

It's easy to talk about it, but in practice what would a church, a community, look like that focused purely on others, purely on the outside? Our friendship circles, the people we get on with, the way we live our lives, is permeated by this sense of "where am I most comfortable?" and "who do I get on with the most?". Ouch.

Also, maybe authenticity is about longevity? About outlasting the competition? But then just because something has been around a long time does that make it true? Surely then, the way we've done church for centuries – the Orthodox faith – would be the most authentic? Unless maybe relationships matter more than practices and doctrine?

Spent a lot of time this week planning ahead for the next year and thinking about new events, schemes, projects – so it's good to stop and think for a moment: will they be authentic? Or just a craze that passes with the change of seasons.

I think the future of the Lab, like the state of the UK church, sits on a knife-edge. But do I feel comfortable here on the edge – at least each passing day we know who it is who's responsible for keeping us going one more day.

Or maybe I'm just being habitually overdramatic.