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Don't complain - pray! 10th March
Last week channel 4 ran a programme about Tower Hamlets - where I live and work. It was called “Britain's Islamic republic” and centred around how a controversial muslim group seems to be exerting an undue influence over political and civic life in the borough. On the whole I think the programme was thought-provoking and raised some valid concerns that the local council and mainstream political parties have shied away from addressing.
What should our response to things like this be? It's very easy to take a carnal worldview that sees people and organisations as a threat or a problem. Talking to a few people over the past few days I can see how this happens. However I'm convinced that our first response needs to be to pray - and not necessarily against the rise of such organisiations. I think we need to be stirred to pray FOR Muslims. We need to be stirred by the fact that these are people that God loves and he sent Jesus to die for. Any response we have needs to be born out of a loving and compassionate heart for Muslims and that this come from spending time praying for them.
The other thing that struck me is that the bringing of religion into civic life provides us with opportunities as Christians. For all the problems and difficulties, God is very much on the agenda in Tower Hamlets. This is an opportunity for us as Christians not to try and exert civil or political control (history teaches us that when the church tries this, things go badly wrong) but to use the fact that God is not taboo in the borough to proclaim and demonstrate the good news of the kingdom of God. It's very easy for Christians to become like Statler and Waldorf, the two grumpy old guys from the Muppet Show, who used to sit in the balcony complaining about everything. We complain about secularisation and then we complain about religion (when it's other religions) invading public space. We need to realise that if God is on the agenda here in Tower Hamlets, Christians can and should make sure that we are not shy about making the most of any opportunities this provides us with to be salt and light to those around us.
The encouragement of transformed lives! 3rd March 2010
One of the things I love about my walk to work in the morning is that even though it's short (exactly 15 minutes) I nearly always bump into people I know. This is partly because our church does lots in the community and our building is a real hive of activity. There are always familiar faces out and about!
A couple of days ago on the way to work I bumped into one of the young lads who has been involved with our church over the last few years. I hadn’t seen him for a while and so was keen to see how he was. I only chatted with him for about 5 or 10 minutes as we were headed in the same direction, but I came away really encouraged.
He initially came to church through the youthwork. He got to know some people from our church who work at City Gateway, a Christian community organisation that’s one of our church's main partners and is doing some amazing work with NEET (Not in Education Employment or Training) young people. They helped him to get on some training courses and eventually took him on as an apprentice. Over the past few years he’s done really well there and now has a permanent job with them. During this same period of time he also came along to the Life Course ( similar to Alpha but targeted towards unchurched youth) and through this became a Christian.
For him being a Christian has not been easy and he has had some significant struggles, but chatting to him I came away with a real sense that God was definitely at work in his life - he was enthusiastic about the changes he's seen in his life and crucially there was a sense of thankfulness about him. As I reflected on this it made me realise once again that by doing what we are doing, being faithful and working alongside other organisations, God is bringing lasting change in people's lives and those changes are not just spiritual, they have a significant practical impact too.
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Peacemaking begins at home -17th February 2010
Last week in church, I taught on Matthew 5v9 - the beatitude that reads, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the sons of God.” It’s a challenging verse! What does it mean to be a peacemaker living in Tower Hamlets in 2010? Partly I think it means being used by God to bring a divided community together. There is certainly lots of scope for that - particularly as church is one of the very few places locally where people from divided communities mix.
On another level, it speaks to our need to be an evangelistic community, recognising that peace is more than simply the absence of conflict. For people to ultimately know peace, I believe they need to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus - he alone can truly bring peace to their lives.
However, the more I read the Sermon on the Mount, the more I am convinced that Jesus is speaking far closer to home. At the heart of being a peacemaker is the willingness to face the need for peace in our own relationships. Let's not work for peace, whilst leaving a trail of wreckage in our own personal lives. I had a friend who was very much into being a peacemaker, who campaigned vociferously for peace in local and global situations - even managing to get arrested a few times in the process! But it was sad to see the unresolved conflicts in his life. In one sense he demanded peace from others, but couldn’t find it for himself.
It got me thinking about a guy in our church who got in to a destructive lifestyle. This led to him stealing things from people at church, and from the church itself. As he sought help, he realised he needed to put that right. He's made a list, is confessing to anyone he has stolen from and is asking how he can make restitution. To me, dealing with those situations makes him a peacemaker. It's hard and has been really difficult for him and his victims - who feel hurt and let down. But it's peacemaking. This kind of thing may not change the world, but I think it does more to bring peace than going on a demo somewhere. It's certainly more costly.
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Encouraging yourself in the Lord - 10th February 2010
During the past week I’ve spent time talking to people who are doing some amazing things and giving themselves deeply to God by serving the poor. No, I haven’t been at a conference hearing about the latest “new “ way to “do” church. I’ve simply had the privilege of being able to spend time with people from our church, catching up with what God is doing in them and through them. It's been totally inspiring!
I’ve been struck by how many are going through a difficult time, yet are refusing to give up. As I’ve listened to them I’ve been reminded that serving God is costly. Living where we do can be hard, and being committed to seeing it changed comes at a price. But these people are prepared to pay that price. What has inspired me most is seeing people who have every reason to be discouraged find ways to be encouraged in God.
In church on Sunday we saw one lady who has had very painful back problems praying joyful prayers of thanksgiving. God is using her to bring other women to faith and she is determined not allow her health to interfere with that. Those prayers, directed toward God, were a great encouragement for me and for others who know what she had been going through. The telling thing is that those prayers were prayed from a place of pain. Things have not changed (yet!!) for her. It's tough, but sometimes we need to simply stand, even when our circumstances show no signs of changing.
It reminded me of the passage from 1 Samuel 30 v6 which says simply, “David encouraged himself in the Lord.” It's great when others encourage us, but I think to be effective in the midst of personal difficulty, we need to learn to encourage ourselves in God and remind ourselves of the example of Jesus.
If you are going through a season of struggle, I want to encourage you to stand firm. Fix your eyes on Jesus and don't give up. As I write this, I’m moved to tears thinking about another lady whose husband had left church and seemed to have given up on his faith. She went through incredible struggles but remained faithful in serving both God and others. Thankfully, over the past year God has turned that man's life around, but it took a long time and God continues to work in his life. If you're in a tough place right now, find ways to encourage yourself in God and stand firm.
Hebrews 12 v 1-3 says
Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart.
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The power of redeemed relationships and Christian community - 3rd February 2010
This week I’ve been thinking about what it means for us to be a community of people who live differently; who are loving and welcoming to others. I think that this is particularly important given that one of the things that constantly strikes me is the level of isolation that exists in London. In one sense living in Tower Hamlets you are absolutely surrounded by people, but despite the fact that it is among the most densely populated areas of the country, many are extremely lonely. It's kind of perverse to be unable to escape from other people and yet to feel completely unconnected to them.
One of the biggest attractions of a church like ours is the sense of community that we have. I love that church on a Sunday has a real buzz about it. People are excited to be there and an hour or so after service has finished, there are still lots of people around, in fact we end up having to throw people out so that the caretaker (we meet in a school building) can get home to his family. I’m also grateful for the fact that we tend to be very welcoming. One of the consistent bits of feedback we get is that people stay because they were made to feel welcome and at home. In fact, those aged 18-35 visiting the church for the first or second time are extremely likely to be invited out to lunch after church. People are on the whole very welcoming and inclusive of new people.
The problem is that for many people going to a church service is completely out of the realms of what they would consider doing. It's just not on the horizon. So how do we enable people to see and experience a welcoming Christian community first hand? In one sense they can do that through our projects and community work, which all have a strong inclusive and relational tone to them. However, once again there are many who don’t want, or need, to come along to one of these projects.
I really believe that even people who are sceptical about Christianity and may disregard and even despise its claims, are often very struck by the love displayed in a church like ours. It runs so counter to most people’s experience of life, that I think it can result in them taking a closer look at the Gospel, simply because of what they see between us. To quote an unbelieving friend of mine, “I’m not convinced by your ideas but I envy the relationships that you Christians have."
In some ways this is how it ought to be, since Jesus said in John 13 v35, 'It is by your love for one another, that everyone will recognise you as my disciples'. This week as I sat in my office with a couple from our church chewing over with them how they could witness to friends who would find our Sunday service irrelevant, I was once again struck by this. Whilst bringing someone to church on a Sunday might not always be the right thing, introducing those same people to our Christian friends and letting them get a first hand glimpse of the way that we share life together is often I believe, utterly compelling. Somehow, getting them to see redeemed relationships and Christian community, speaks very loudly of the risen Jesus. I don’t think that we make enough of this. We are so used to it that we fail to see how our sense of community and love for one another is so different to most people's experience. Let's look for ways in which we can let others experience this first hand. It may just challenge some of their assumptions about Jesus.
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The promised land of suburbia? January 24th 2010
I think one of the things I find hardest about leading an inner city church is saying goodbye to people. Areas like ours tend to be quite transitory. New people arrive frequently which can be a tremendous blessing, but they also leave as well. And in an area like this, many people are just passing through. Often the reasons for this are positive - people get a new job, meaning they have to move elsewhere, or else they are able to scrape together enough money to buy a place of their own, meaning that because of the high property prices they have to move out of the area.
One of the hurdles that many of the churches in Tower Hamlets face is that when families have children approaching secondary school age there is a strong pressure to move out to more suburban areas with better schools. The difficulty is that these are exactly the kind of families that we as church want to hang on to, as they are key to building something that is sustainable in the long term. More specifically areas like ours need strong Christian families.
I understand the need for people to prioritise their children’s well being, and the desire to move to a “nicer” area but find it sad that this contributes to a situation whereby so many inner city areas are deserted by Christians. At times it can be striking that so many Christians feel “led” to the suburbs. I often wonder where the leading of God is. Does God really lead so many people out of areas where there are masses of unreached people and whole realm of complicated social problems? Is He leading some king of modern day exodus to the promised land of suburbia? Have His maths really gone so awry that He is sending the majority of Christians away from populated areas to less populated areas?
I think that the answer is that for all sorts of reasons; some valid, some understandable and through a good measure of just plain disobedience, some Christians do choose the easier option. It’s sad but it’s true. In his Sermon on the Mount teaching, the thing that strikes me continually is that Jesus demands actions and reactions that run completely counter to what comes naturally and this demonstrates the difference that the presence of God should make. Sadly, many Christians are choosing comfort and security etc over obedience and in many ways we are often guilty of chasing exactly the same things that this world chases.
In 1 Samuel 6 v7-9 the Philistines have captured the Ark but are keen to send it back. They devise a plan and decide to load it on to a couple of cows and see if these cows act like any other dumb beasts and just wander off, or if the Ark will cause them to act supernaturally and take it back to where it belongs. In other words they were looking to see if the God of Israel really was powerful. Was he able to change the behaviour of a dumb animal? I have to say that I see quite a funny parallel. If even a plain old cow can have its behaviour changed by God, what about us? I don’t mean to be rude (well maybe just a little bit!!) or compare people to cows, but I wonder what people see of the power of God when they look at how we make our choices? Does the presence of God in our lives make us behave any differently?
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Stir your heart to mourn - January 20th 2010
In the past three weeks or so two young people have been murdered in our local area. I think sometimes it’s possible to read something like that and just carry on to the next bit of news. It's easy to just have a short-lived emotional response and then carry on as normal. The fact is that we are surrounded with so much bad news that we soon become immune to it.
The media have reported widely that one of the young people murdered seems to have been attacked in response to comments left on a facebook page. Recently a number of local young people have been the victims of quite extreme violence because of the fact that they were in a different area to the one that they live in, and therefore were in the “wrong postcode.” One young person who regularly comes along to some of the events that we hold for unchurched youth was indeed recently attacked simply for being in the wrong area. I think that as Christians it’s important to let things like this stir our hearts. These things should affect us.
On Sundays at the moment we are looking at the Sermon on the Mount. Last week I talked about the fact that when Jesus spoke the words “blessed are those who mourn,” it’s important that we realise that this is primarily about mourning over sin. I believe that we need to be people who mourn over our own sin but also the sin of the culture around us. Hearing about the kinds of things that I’ve written about above does cause me to mourn. I think that we have to be broken over those things which break God’s heart.
I’ve been reading through Jeremiah recently and am struck by the fact that here was a prophet broken over the sin he saw around him. Like the society that Jeremiah prophesied to, we have likewise strayed into such depravity that we have “forgotten how to blush.” (Jeremiah 6:15) I think that as well as being stirred to action we need to be stirred to mourning. We need to be stirred to tears and to cry out to the Lord for our nation. As we do so, God will show us the things that we as the Church need to repent of. The fact is that if we want to affect change to a society in need, we have to allow the Lord to change our hearts too.
At THCC we do a lot of youth work, particularly among unchurched youth. These are the kind of young people whose lives are being devastated. However I believe in the midst of all that we do, we have a desperate need to learn how to weep and mourn. This is the place where change begins.
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Is your church's faith 'out there'? - January 6th 2010
Christmas was a busy time for us as Church. It provided us with a great opportunity to bring together some of the disparate threads of what we do, enabling us to gauge how we are doing not only at serving our community through community projects , but also how much people are able to recognise that it is the Church that is serving them not just any voluntary sector agency.
I think that’s important. In the area where we work there are so many community development agencies, charities, grass roots projects, etc that I think it's easy for them to blur into one in the minds of lots of people who use those services. That can often be the case for Christian projects as well, meaning that we can become “just another service provider.” To put it in stronger terms, theologically we could end up as salt that has lost its saltiness.
For me keeping a distinctly Christian identity in what we do is vital. Specifically that has to be about more that just the fact that we are a church or say we are a Christian project. It needs to mean that what we do is different and in a very real sense, leads people toward a faith in Jesus as Lord and Saviour.
In line with this it was exciting on one of the Saturdays before Christmas to be doing outreach in the market as we do every week. Come rain or shine, Lucy and her team are there with a stall, giving out books, tracts, DVD, sweets, being ready to chat to people and offer a listening ear. I really love what they do and the faithfulness they show in it and it’s great as a church to have a presence in the heart of the market.
Anyway, as we were handing out hot grape juice and mince pies, and inviting people to our events (community Christmas meal, Kidz Klub Christmas event and our Carol service) I was really blessed by the fact that so many people I talked to were aware of the church or said their children go to Kids Klub or the Canaan Project, or that they go to the community projects in the church building. The thing that struck me was that many of them really got it. They were aware of the different things that the church does in its various expressions, and more specifically, they like what we do and how we do it. Crucially, they got the Christian side to it. I think the point is that because we are clear about the Christian heart of what we do, so are they, and more specifically they are not worried about some hidden agenda. It's out there in public.
More and more I think that we need to be really intentional about being up front about our faith. Let's not relegate it to a paragraph in our values statement or merely rely on the the fact that people see that we are different because say we are a church or Christian ministry.
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Rest is important but God also meets us in the busyness - 17th December 2009
As you may be aware, I’ve been away for the past 5 or so weeks. Anni and
I have had time to reflect and relax and consider the things that are
really important to us. It always takes me a while to get used to doing
less. Generally speaking I don’t usually get much time for relaxing,
I’m the kind of person who bounces around quite a bit and find myself
constantly around people. Anni’s work is similar to mine in that as a
chaplain in Europe's largest women’s prison, she spends a lot of time
with people. These people are often troubled and in great need. It
means that she often spends whole days having one intense conversation
after another. The effect of this is, as you can imagine, draining.
One of the things that I find fascinating about the New Testament is the
way that we often see Jesus trying to retreat to a quiet
place but soon being caught up by a crowd of people. I find it
interesting that rather than just sending people away, Jesus responds
with compassion and ministers to them. For
many of us that is a familiar pattern. It's important to rest, and it’s
good to try and make time to get away from people, but there is also a
need to be ready to allow our times of rest to be disturbed by those in
need. Often the best opportunities to serve others have a habit of
presenting themselves at the most inconvenient times.
We used to have a flat in the middle of the red light area
around Commercial Street. At the time, Anni did regular outreach
to prostitutes who stood directly outside our door. Many of them knew
that they were welcome to ring on our bell and come up for a coffee and
a chat if they needed it. We generally found that this happened
at exactly the wrong time, just as we were thinking of sleeping or when
we had a 101 things going on.
We learned in those times that we needed to inconvenience ourselves and be ready to help someone in need.
This last week has been a bit like that, we came back feeling
refreshed and very soon had loads of things to deal with. One morning I
was really busy and got a text from one of the homeless guys that we
have known for years, saying that his accommodation had fallen through
and he was back on the streets again. I really didn’t feel like I had
the time or energy to follow him up, but realised that I needed to.
The funny thing is that after I spent time chatting to him I felt
really recharged and refreshed. It was fun.
I think the point is that as we give ourselves to God through serving others, He is the one that meets our needs. While
it is certainly possible to overdo things, sometimes I believe that God
refreshes us in the middle of busyness rather than delivering us from
it.