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.

Food and belonging

A couple of times over the last week or so different people have made comments to me about how eating together helps to grow community. Even just thinking about it, it seems bizarre that the simple act of sitting down and eating can do so much to bring people together. In The Search to Belong, Joe Myers talks alot about creating healthy environments in which people can begin to belong - and maybe this is where we can learn from the model of eating together.

(I don't normally like numbers and points and things but it's probably the best way to make this nearly readable)

1. Resources are shared or created by or for the community
In order to eat, someone has to bring and share, or the community has to collectively make food to eat. There's a sense of investment in the group, and of ownership - this is our group, we belong together.

2. You can choose when to commit to sharing yourself with others
The outside focus on eating means that you can feel comfortable either to chat or to sit in silence - people can participate at the level where they are at. You can choose to just sit and listen if that's what you are comfortable with.

3. The environment is reasonably non-threatening
There is no initiation you need to go through, no needing to know when to stand up and when to sit down, no strange rituals to remember.

4. The community is most efficient when we serve each other
In order to be most efficient we need to serve each, sharing out food, clearing up. We learn quickly that interdependance enables us to be stronger together.

I'm sure there's more you can draw out of this. I wonder whether Jesus was thinking about the role of eating together when he commanded his disciples to share a meal in rememberance of him, or if it was on the minds of the apostles when they began to be church by sharing food in the temple courts?

Is it secret? Is it safe?

Just posted a quickie on my Newport Chaplaincy blog - hopefully get round to posting more regularly on there with some different thought-provoking questions and stuff.

Nooma: Open | 019

You can watch the online premiere of the newest Nooma by Rob Bell on Facebook here for around the next 24 hours before it disappears into DVD form.

I think it's really good. Rob Bell just has an amazing poetry when it comes to speaking - it's like the whole video just brings you in with the rhythym of God.

Here's the link to it again: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=588666405663&oid=21600640369

Weekends away, new phones and Flickr

Umm... just got myself a Flickr account to put all my photos in from my camera, as well as my beautiful new camera phone, which is incredible.

Seems like ages since I last blogged - been caught up in college work and Lab work and all sorts, and then just seemed to have so many ideas swirling around my head that I couldn't get them all down - but this week is hopefully going to be a slightly slower paced one, so hopefully I'll get the chance to work out some ideas and put down some thoughts this week on different things.

Also really want to get to grips with my chaplaincy blog, which I've neglected really badly - really want to give that another go, maybe with some more comtemplative stuff or meditation or something.

Had an amazing weekend up in the Peak District with some other guys involved in missional community and emerging church in the UK - was exactly the chance to relax and slow down that I've really needed over the last couple of week. The surroundings were incredible, as the photo bears witness - there was just an incredible sense of encountering God in the beauty of nature. And the company and conversation was amazing as well - so much I want to explore and to blog about.

Oh, and thanks for getting your fingers out and rating some of my posts - it's great to get some feedback... think my next mission with the blog is to try and provoke some conversation and build up some comments...

Cloverfield

. ..is incredible. Saw it Saturday night. Possibly the best film ever. It blew my mind.

Please rate me...

Just added a "rate this post" widget to the blog - the intention being to try and get some feedback from you guys and work out what it is that makes a good blog post and what makes a really bad one so I can try and write stuff that works for my (very) few readers in the future.

So please, please could you take two seconds when you get to the bottom of a post and rate it for me? Thanks, that would be awesome...

It's really simple...

• If you think that what I wrote was rubbish then give it only one star.
• If it would have been okay if you hadn't fallen asleep halfway through, then give it just the two stars.
• If it made you think for a couple of seconds, but then something more interesting caught your attention then give it three.
• If it sticks in your head for the next ten minutes as you think through what I've written, then go for it and give it a four.
• And if your head explodes in either a literal or metaphorical sense, and you can still operate technology afterwards, then go straight to five stars. ;-)

Thank you. Now feel free to go on to today's real post.

PS. Yes you can rate this post if you really want to make a statement about the irony of it all...

Does an omnipotent God mean that everything happens for a reason? (or possibly Machines vs. Trees)

(BTW. This post was written to the soundtrack of Nickleback's new album, All the Right Reasons - which is awesome by the way. It's a little early Licensing present to myself before Sunday)

It's been a week for Noomas somehow this week - saw two at college yesterday as well as seeing Kickball at the CU on Tuesday. It was part of the discussion that followed Kickball that got me thinking...

Does everything happen for a reason? And if it doesn't, then how can we reconcile this with an omnipotent God who "in all things... works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose"?

Is life a huge train of choices which God has made for us one after another for our own God? Even the things that are seemingly random and don't have anything to do with anything? And where does my own free will come into this? I can't help but feel kind of cheated out of it if that's the case.

It's a question which seems to instantly provoke huge debate - and to me it seems to be stuck in the contrast between two very different images, images which are locked in with the way we see the world (although feel free to disagree ;-)

On one hand, if our understanding of God causes us to have to believe in a God who is personally responsible - and takes responsibility - for every single detail in the way our world works, then our view of the world is a view of a complex machine, system, or even a formula. Every tiny variation, every small adjustment, must be towards a specific purpose or to achieve a specific goal - there has to be a reason (Of course, it works the other way - if our worldview is that of a complex machine, then...).

If the world is a machine, then God must be the master workman - every change must happen for a very specific reason, and this reason must be for the God of God's people.

But what if the world was more like a tree or a plant or a flower or something more organic. The tree has been intricately designed for a purpose, the tree is easily as detailed as the machine - if not more. However, if you were to try and predict the exact development of the tree, or write an equation to accurately define it's growth - then you would struggle. You would end up having to settle up with some vague sets of rules with which to define the tree, but you could never quite fully predict it - the tree is too organic in its nature, too unpredictable.

And what if God were like the sun in relation to that tree? The sun would move and shift, and affect the rate and direction of growth depending on how intense the sunlight was and what direction it shone from. The tree would still be organic and unpredictable, but the sun would still play a vital part in the tree's growth. If it moves then the tree will begin to grow in a completely different direction.

And who's to know what the subtle, seemingly miniscule effects that the changes in sunlight would have on the many different complex parts of the tree?

So what if God is less like the master workman (or woman), and more like the sun? The tree is constantly seeking to grow further and further towards the sun - the world drawn helplessly towards God, and towards reconcilation. Not everything needs to happen for a reason, however comforting it may be to think that it would -  but we can rest on and hope in the knowledge that all things are being worked out for God's purpose. The tree can't help but grow towards the eternal source of its sustainance and energy.

Flawed analogy aside, how does that sit with you?

Lent

Was thinking today about maybe giving up meat for Lent... seems like something that I tend to rely on / take for granted quite a lot. Hmm...

Used to be quite skeptical of the whole "giving up stuff for Lent" thing - was of the opinion that it was about where your heart was, and that giving stuff up didn't matter as long as you "took up" God... but then the realisation came on me that actually it's a spiritual discipline, and so the symbolic, physical process of giving something up as part of "turning towards God" for Lent is actually quite cool.

Plus, I think that going veggie is actually a historic, sustainable way of fasting?