In the middle of all the stuff I am supposed to be doing this week, I have just spent a scary amount of time trying to work out how to twitter! Not a new form of worship song (though....) but the current social networking website of choice. I was prompted to investigate it when a friend of a generation above mine (originally a friend of my father!) contacted me to say he would like to "follow" me on Twitter. It is a means of keeping up to date which uses a web-page. Those who "twitter" put up a sentence describing "what you are doing now". And those who are interested "follow" - they are kept up to date by being able to read what is posted.
I think I've got it working - though whether I will ever have anything interesting to put on it remains to be seen. and now I am trying to work out if this has been a great waste of time, if this is just one more example of the current conviction that the whole world centres on me, and so everybody needs to know everything about me - or at least, everything I choose to tell them - or whether I can find any way of thknking about this Christianly.
I start from the position that relaitonships are good, indeed, are fundamental. We are not called to be individual believers, but to be the community of the people of God. And practices that support relationships, indeed, enable relationships, are to be valued.
But is this about relationships? It is interesting to know what my friends are doing, but is it relationship? Or might it become an excuse not to phone, meet, have face to face conversations.
I suppose it might. But I have also found that the other site I am part of, Facebook, has actually sustained relationship with those who have moved away, renewed relationship with those from whom I had become estranged, and enabled a development of relationship with some whom I knew only slightly. There is a Bloomsbury Facebook page - keeping people whop are at a distance in touch with what is going on. We are thinking we might develop Twitter in the same way.
Of course it can be self-centred and isolationist. Of course it can be a nonsense, or even worse (I've already had to block several "followers" whose invitations were definitely not the sort I want to take up!) But face to face relationships are not automatically and by virtue of being face to face good, life giving and healthy. Relationships,at the heart of our calling, are also at the heart of our struggle to be disciples. We don't relate well automatically - not face to face or on the screen. We need to learn the patterns and practices that will make it work. We need to take the risks, trust and explore, learn to forgive and be forgiven.
Maybe the skills I am needing to learn to use Facebook and to tweet (which I think is the verb - though I could be wrong; please tell me if I am) will serve to remind me that I am always needing to pay attention to the connections I have with people, and whether they are working, or whether I am - as this blog has just told me - performing an illegal action.
I believe that this is what church is about. It is not the church's role to change the world. It is the church's role to form people who will change the world, live out the Kingdom. When we are together - physically, over the phone or email, on networking sites or through a blog, we are experimenting and discovering what it is to be the people God has made us. And then we live that out in ways that change the world we live in.
And now, I am off to have a cup of hot chocolate and catch up with a friend, face to face.
Tuesday 23 June 2009
Thursday 18 June 2009
happy birthday!
Last weekend we celebrated our anniversary - 160 years. Church anniversary is a significant moment for reflecting on who we are and what we are about, and this year, we invited Bob Mills, the City Centre Chaplain from Bristol to speak with us about what it means to be a church in the middle of a context where people come to work. In the same week, various openings have appeared to engage with institutions around us, with invitations to offer a chaplaincy ministry. Chaplaincy has been described as “loitering with intent”; being around, waiting to see what happens, responding rather than directing, meeting rather than organising. It’s one of those forms of ministry that sounds wonderful in theory and fits with much of the sense we have of our identity as a church; openness, responsiveness, hospitality and service.
But it is worth reflecting that although it can look very laid back, it is intensely demanding – demanding both in its variety of encounter, and the uncertainty of what will happen in any encounter – but also in its out-of-controlness. Chaplaincy is about going out from our building – and all that that symbolises – and meeting people on their home, or at least work or leisure ground. We do something very special in keeping our building open, and inviting people in. It offers a service, a space and a wonderful welcome. And it is the place where we stay in control. To go into other people’s territory is to let go of that control. If we are going to take this seriously – and I hope we will – it will ask a lot of us. It asks the church to let the members of the ministry team be out and about, rather than present in the building as much as we are at the moment. It asks people who are involved to give up time and go and meet people. It asks us as a church to take seriously what it means to enter space where we are not the ones who take the decisions, or the ones who can decide how and when things happen.
It is about incarnation. In coming to us in Jesus, God gives up control. God offers God’s own self into the space of the world, and the experience of being controlled as much as being controlled. There were those who, in the time of Jesus resented that; the sense that God was no longer under the control of the religious professionals, or, perhaps better, those who were committed to the institution of religion, and who welcomed in, rather than going out – who assumed that God did the same.
The incarnation is God’s refusal of that model. God’s presence to the world is not inviting us into the sacred safe space, but coming into the world to create in all of it the sacred space where meeting the centre of Life can happen. And it is without boundaries, such that God in Jesus gives God’s own self over completely enough to be executed.
I hope we will have the confidence to explore what it will mean to go out as well as to invite people in. I hope we will be able to take the risks – and so deal with the failures – that will happen, without blaming and without giving up. I hope that we can live with the changes that will happen if this is the path we take.
More than hoping it, this is what I pray for.
But it is worth reflecting that although it can look very laid back, it is intensely demanding – demanding both in its variety of encounter, and the uncertainty of what will happen in any encounter – but also in its out-of-controlness. Chaplaincy is about going out from our building – and all that that symbolises – and meeting people on their home, or at least work or leisure ground. We do something very special in keeping our building open, and inviting people in. It offers a service, a space and a wonderful welcome. And it is the place where we stay in control. To go into other people’s territory is to let go of that control. If we are going to take this seriously – and I hope we will – it will ask a lot of us. It asks the church to let the members of the ministry team be out and about, rather than present in the building as much as we are at the moment. It asks people who are involved to give up time and go and meet people. It asks us as a church to take seriously what it means to enter space where we are not the ones who take the decisions, or the ones who can decide how and when things happen.
It is about incarnation. In coming to us in Jesus, God gives up control. God offers God’s own self into the space of the world, and the experience of being controlled as much as being controlled. There were those who, in the time of Jesus resented that; the sense that God was no longer under the control of the religious professionals, or, perhaps better, those who were committed to the institution of religion, and who welcomed in, rather than going out – who assumed that God did the same.
The incarnation is God’s refusal of that model. God’s presence to the world is not inviting us into the sacred safe space, but coming into the world to create in all of it the sacred space where meeting the centre of Life can happen. And it is without boundaries, such that God in Jesus gives God’s own self over completely enough to be executed.
I hope we will have the confidence to explore what it will mean to go out as well as to invite people in. I hope we will be able to take the risks – and so deal with the failures – that will happen, without blaming and without giving up. I hope that we can live with the changes that will happen if this is the path we take.
More than hoping it, this is what I pray for.
Tuesday 2 June 2009
a home from home
I seem to have done a lot of travelling recently - meaning I have missed two Sundays at church (well, almost; I made it in time for the special evening service last week, when we featured the organ).
This week's trip has been to the International Baptist Theological Seminary in Prague, an institution which was celebrating 60 years of life. The seminary was started, in Ruschlikon in Switzerland after the 1939-45 war by Baptists from the USA as part of the commitment to reconstruction, and as a place where Baptists from across Europe could meet, study and build friendships. The seminary was passed over to European ownership and control in the mid-90s, and in the late 90s moved to Prague.
Although the style of teaching has changed over the years (the seminary does not do undergraduate work - less needed now as more and more countries, especially in the Eastern part of Europe now have their own seminaries; instead IBTS concentrates on Masters level and Doctoral level work, and also runs an introductory certificate in theology with English) the basic aim remains the same. People from communities who would not otherwise meet are brought together in a place of worship, study and eating together. Friendships that endure are made in such circumstances, and minds opened to other ways of thinking, experiencing and reflecting - to say nothing of other ways of praying, singing and preparing food! If you would like to know more about the seminary, check the website at http://www.ibts.eu
This is a place that matters, I believe. Sitting at morning prayers and hearing a Palestinian church leader lead prayers together with two young Israeli women matters. Hearing a young man from Croatia pray with and for a young man from Serbia at the time when the civil war was raging matters. Watching people who have felt alienated from their churches discover that there is the possibility of a wider theology than they had realised, that there is a place for them with their questions and searching matters. And it is this kind of context that IBTS offers.
At the moment, the seminary faces uncertainty about its future - the credit crunch has hit us very hard. For more details, see this week's Baptist Times http://www.baptisttimes.co.uk/home.htm
But there will be ways to carry on, we trust - our prayer is that we find the right way, and continue to offer and explore the particular gift that the community brings to the felowship of European Baptists.
I realised I feel at home in the international, and open and questioning identity of IBTS because it is also the identity I believe we explore here at Bloomsbury. Bringing together people who might otherwise never meet - from different countries, and also from different parts of the community of London, as we open our doors and welcome in whoever chooses to come. And questioning - yes, we do that. We certainly don't find easy answers to the issues that face us, but we do attempt to address them - climate change, trade justice, homelessness, and living as gospel people in the context of all of these.
We are approaching our own anniversary soon. I expect we will celebrte it with the same delight and thankfulness as I experienced this past weekend in Prague. Come and join us.
This week's trip has been to the International Baptist Theological Seminary in Prague, an institution which was celebrating 60 years of life. The seminary was started, in Ruschlikon in Switzerland after the 1939-45 war by Baptists from the USA as part of the commitment to reconstruction, and as a place where Baptists from across Europe could meet, study and build friendships. The seminary was passed over to European ownership and control in the mid-90s, and in the late 90s moved to Prague.
Although the style of teaching has changed over the years (the seminary does not do undergraduate work - less needed now as more and more countries, especially in the Eastern part of Europe now have their own seminaries; instead IBTS concentrates on Masters level and Doctoral level work, and also runs an introductory certificate in theology with English) the basic aim remains the same. People from communities who would not otherwise meet are brought together in a place of worship, study and eating together. Friendships that endure are made in such circumstances, and minds opened to other ways of thinking, experiencing and reflecting - to say nothing of other ways of praying, singing and preparing food! If you would like to know more about the seminary, check the website at http://www.ibts.eu
This is a place that matters, I believe. Sitting at morning prayers and hearing a Palestinian church leader lead prayers together with two young Israeli women matters. Hearing a young man from Croatia pray with and for a young man from Serbia at the time when the civil war was raging matters. Watching people who have felt alienated from their churches discover that there is the possibility of a wider theology than they had realised, that there is a place for them with their questions and searching matters. And it is this kind of context that IBTS offers.
At the moment, the seminary faces uncertainty about its future - the credit crunch has hit us very hard. For more details, see this week's Baptist Times http://www.baptisttimes.co.uk/home.htm
But there will be ways to carry on, we trust - our prayer is that we find the right way, and continue to offer and explore the particular gift that the community brings to the felowship of European Baptists.
I realised I feel at home in the international, and open and questioning identity of IBTS because it is also the identity I believe we explore here at Bloomsbury. Bringing together people who might otherwise never meet - from different countries, and also from different parts of the community of London, as we open our doors and welcome in whoever chooses to come. And questioning - yes, we do that. We certainly don't find easy answers to the issues that face us, but we do attempt to address them - climate change, trade justice, homelessness, and living as gospel people in the context of all of these.
We are approaching our own anniversary soon. I expect we will celebrte it with the same delight and thankfulness as I experienced this past weekend in Prague. Come and join us.
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