My boys, Luke and Samuel, had their first game of soccer (or football if your a purist), for 2007. Unfortunately I missed Luke's games but managed to sit in on Sam's.
I got my new Canon EOS 400D digital SLR a couple of weeks back (after about three years of saving and waiting) and so thought I would test it out on the sports field with some action snaps.
Here are a couple of the better results - my 9 and 3-quarter year old Sam in action in the goals for the Eaton Wanderers.
In 9 days time I will be on my way to Africa, first for a week in Uganda at the Amahoro Africa (emerging/missional) gathering and then another 2 weeks leading a team from Australia in Rwanda.
While away, and particularly during the week of Amahoro, I will regularly update Moved Mountains. I am also hoping to interview some of the key players at the gathering, inluding Claude Nikhondeha, Brian McLaren and other indigenous (African) leaders.
I think Amahoro is going to be incredibly important in building missional networks in Central Africa and establishing missional (as opposed to colonial) partnerships between western and African followers of Jesus.
I am really excited about being able to go to this conference and to learn more - and better - ways of interacting with our African brothers and sisters - but also, hopefully, about interacting with the church and broader community here at home as well.
I'll leave you with an interesting quote from a paper by South African theologian H.J. Hendriks from Stellenbosch University (the paper is entitled Evangelism in Africa and is Amahoro pre-reading). The paper looks at the way colonialism, mission and evangelism have taken place in Africa over the past several hundred years and makes an astounding conclusion - since the end of colonialism, the downscaling of western (as opposed to local/native) evangelistic efforts, the spread and effect of the Gospel has actually increased well beyond the borders of the colonial period.
Here's the quote - the illustration given may be around 100 years old, but the effect still speaks for itself!
Hopefully we can all begin to think differently about how we approach evangelism - locally and abroad, particularly as it pertains to the role of the "native evangelist" in winning his own culture for Christ.
Bediako (1995:91f) compared the work of an Anglican missionary with that of an African, the legendary William Wade Harris (1865-1929) of Liberia. He calls Harris the first independent African Christian prophet. This Anglican missionary worked for nine years and led 12 people to Christ. Harris preached the gospel for two years and 120,000 adult West Africans believed and were baptised into Christianity.
I think I understand how this looks - I have been a part of this kind of thing for a while now myself. But how can one be issued with a mandate to lead or commissioned to lead while taking what is very much a low profile role? Is the commission neccessary (I would say yes and point to 1 Tim. 3 for the answer as to why)? How is such leadership recognised?It's the picture of a shepherd. A shepherd "leads" the flock from behind. S/He has to because they also have to keep their eye on all the sheep. They cannot go out in front and say, "Follow me," because sheep are stupid and they'll wander off in all directions. So the shepherd must stay at the back ensuring that the flock stays together and all heads in the same direction. He encourages, exhorts, and keeps the flock on the path together ... all from behind. It's a very difficult form of leadership and there's definitely **no** glory involved. It's not the way the Army does it, or the corporate world either. But in God's upside-down, bass-ackwards economy, I'm beginning to get glimmers of how He leads and it seems to be from the back and bottom ...
This is a subject I have been chewing over for quite a few years now - if you've been a reader of this blog for a bit you probably know what I mean (look here and here and here). Leadership is a big issue (and worth big bucks too) in the church today, and the missional/emerging church isn't excluded from this by any stretch.
Much of what I have read about leadership on the net, seems to head in one of several different directions (these are intended as examples only and yes, they are probably gross generalisations):
1) The "house church" approach - Characterised by the following sentiments "we're all leaders" or "there is no such thing as a leader".
Now to me this is just down right ridiculous, at best naive and at worst dilusional. Egalitarianism (is that a word?) is an ideal that is very, very, very difficult to achieve. There will always be leaders - the question really is, will they be recognised or not, and will they be the right kind of leader or not?. Obviously the danger of having an inapropriate leader is greater in a situation that refuses to recognise any leaders.
2) The "traditional church" approach - While this approach can take on many guises and polemic extremes, it is best summed up as the "CEO" approach to ministry. The church is a corporation and the pastor is responsible for ensuring all KPIs are met, the shareholders are happy, and the programs run smoothly.
This is the way most churches have operated for centuries.
3) The "missional church" approach - I actually don't know what this is. Everything I have read (and that list isn't exhaustive) seems to stop just short of describing the way leadership - especially pastoral leadership - looks in a missional fellowship. Their are flavours of the "house church" approach present in some responses, and flavours of the "traditional church" approach in others (see my comments on the APEPT model, which I think is a good starting point but doesn't take things quite far enough).
What are you thoughts on this? How does Pastoral leadership work in a missional setting?
While your thinking about that one, have a read of John Smulo's recent post, The Charmed Life of Pastors. He's right - however you look at it, on the whole, these guys do the thing they do out of a love for Christ, and it isn't an easy job.
I got a bit of a nice surprise this week - Rodney Olsen (the instigator of the Porn Post below) included Moved Mountains in his selection of "5 blogs that make him think" award.
The award is a meme generatorated by Ilker Yoldas at the Thinking Blog. The best thing about this meme is it doesn't require me to add to a (arguably self indulgent) list of any kind (I grew tired of the lists a while ago - apologies to all those people who "tagged" me without a reply!).
Anway - Thanks Rod for the award!
And here's my list, in no particular order (I'm sure most of, if not all, these guys have already received the award from someone else!) -
1) The Blind Beggar - Rick Meigs
2) John Smulo
3) Backyard Missionary - Andrew Hamilton (no longer updated)
4) No Guarantees - Scott Vawser
5) Conversations at the Edge - Helen Mildenhall
Thanks to all of you for making me think - especially relating to some of those things on which we have disagreed - nothing like a good barny to really get you thinking!
Of course there are in reality, about a gadzillion other blogs that I could list here that also make me think, but these are the ones that I regularly frequent.
Bless ya!
A :)
"I spent part of my morning looking at pornography with the President of the Baptist Union of Australia."
So says fellow blogger and West Aussie radio announcer Rodney Olsen on his blog, The Journey.
It's a perennial topic, specially considering the impact the Internet has had on the porn industry. To say the least, people who would never have walked into a newsagent and picked up Hustler or Play Boy can download the latest hardcore videos and images from their own homes while remaining completely anonymous. What has always been a dirty little habit isn't getting any cleaner, even though society is definitely more accepting of it.
I won't run over all the stats again about how many pastors viewed porn in the last week - I'm a guy and I know the temptation when it comes to the naked female form, and if you're a guy I'm sure you will know exactly what I mean. So rather than wallowing in the figures let's take a proactive approach and check out some websites which might be worth looking at.
The first is XXXChurch. These guys have some FREE (yes that's right - I have seen plenty of "Christian" filtering services out there that will happily take their cut of the porn millions, but this is the first free one I have come across) software that I think is great. Check it out, and while you're there check out their home page - interesting in a weird kinda way.
Here, the guys from Youth Specialities talk about new (and old) approaches to accountability - while not directly porn related accountability is (IMO) central to the whole "church & porn" issue. The church in the recent past hasn't handled accountability well at all. The "stop it or you will go blind" ("...or be ostracised", "...or we won't talk to you", "...or you can't take communion") model is still alive and well (and really makes me want to talk to "you" about my struggles!).
If you know of any other helpful sites stick them in the comments section.
See you later :)
11 years ago Alyssa and I spent an amazing Easter in the Tanami Desert in North Western, Central Australia.
We were invited to an Aboriginal community called Willowra, to celebrate Easter with the locals, the Walpiri tribe.
Willowra station is the centre of the Walpiri homeland and is a couple of hundred kilometers from Alice Springs, the nearest major settlement in Central Australia and home to Alyssa and I at the time.
While we were at Willowra we had the privilege of meeting Eddie, one of the Willowra elders. I still remember him clearly, a weathered old man in red stained, well worn jeans and a faded Elvis tee shirt. Eddie's english was broken and difficult to understand, and our host, a local Baptist pastor familiar with the local language, was able to translate some of his story for us.
Apparently Eddie was the first among his tribe, as a 12 year old boy, to see white people. He remembers hiding as a horse drawn drey pulled into the good grazing lands surrounding Willowra and he and his young friends warily made first contact with these strange, white people.
Eddie and his family and tribe went on to become Christians. So Easter at Willowra was a special affair, celebrated in traditional Aboriginal fashion.
Eddie said he was thankful to missionaries who came and brought them the gospel. He said it was really just a reintroduction to the Creator God. His people, he said, had once known God well, but somewhere along the way the knowledge was lost - they forgot his name, and who he really was, even though they still acknowledged him at certain times of the year and in certain ceremonies. Yet the white missionaries restored the lost knowledge and through them they also came to know Jesus Christ as their Saviour.
At about 5 o'clock on Good Friday afternoon the men and the women split into two separate groups and began to apply their corroboree dress. They smeared their bodies in red ochre, the women applying white crosses to their arms and breasts and the men, gird only in red loin clothes, applied a fluffy substance, white and brown, to their bodies. And as the sun set they began to dance and sing.
To an outsider like me their language and dance was mesmerising. Even though I couldn't understand the words they were singing it was easy to get the meaning of their performance. It was a deeply moving retelling of the 2000 year old story of the betrayal and crucifixion of Christ in traditional Aboriginal form - a purlapa or corroboree.
My point in telling you this story of our Easter at Willowra is this: as foreign as the Aboriginal Easter celebrations were to Alyssa and I (even though we have lived in this country all our lives), the original, Jerusalem crucifixion is just as foreign. Yet for us as Western followers of Jesus or for our brothers and sisters at Willowra, the message, the power of the event is not lost. The crucifixion transcends culture and time and has power and meaning and a message, no matter who we are or where we are in this amazing world.
Whether we are Australian aboriginals in the Tanami desert, or Indians in Mumbai, or Africans in Rwanda the cross reminds us off the greatest gift humanity has ever received.
Even though there have been many crosses throughout history - thousands have died nailed to Roman crucifixes, soldiers have fought and killed behind crosses emblazoned on shields and under banners baring the symbol - the real significance of the cross of Calvary isn't the cross itself, rather it relates directly, solely to the one who was nailed upon it.
If Jesus was just another criminal, crucified like thousands of others before and after him, then the cross would have no significance at all. It would only be remembered as a symbol of Roman brutality, a historical showpiece or curiosity, much like the hangman’s gallows in an old prison. Enough to send a shiver down your spine but nothing more.
Yet the cross of Christ is not just an ordinary symbol of death – simply because Christ was no ordinary person, no ordinary Jew, no ordinary prisoner.
His death was significant – not just in a Jewish world, or a Greco-Roman world, not just 2000 years ago. But significant in such a way that the echoes of the crucifixion continue to reverberate through all history and into every culture, race, tribe and nation. Christ’s death speaks to us all, no matter what our background or ethnicity. In this way it is unique among all the world religions.
And, while it is and always will be a symbol of death (just look at the numerous crosses marking the places of fatal car accidents), it is also a symbol of love and life.
Philip Yancey writes of this love and the decision faced by the world in accepting, or rejecting it;
Thieves crucified on either side of Jesus showed two possible responses. One mocked Jesus' powerlessness: A Messiah who can't even save himself? The other recognised a different kind of power. Taking the risk of faith, he asked Jesus to "remember me when you come into your kingdom." No one else, except in mockery, had addressed Jesus as a king. The dying thief saw more clearly than anyone else the nature of Jesus' kingdom.Yancey presents us with the challenge, the love, the true power of the crucifixion.
In a sense, the paired thieves present the choice that all history has had to decide about the cross. Do we look at Jesus' powerlessness as an example of God's impotence or as proof of God's love? The Romans, bred on power deities like Jupiter, could recognise little godlikeness in a crumpled corpse hanging on a tree. Devout Jews, bred on stories of a power Jehovah, saw little to be admired in this god who died in weakness and in shame.
... Even so, over time it was the cross on the hill that changed the moral landscape of the world ...
The balance of power shifted more than slightly that day on Calvary because of who it was that absorbed the evil. If Jesus of Nazareth had been one more innocent victim, like King, Mandela, Havel, and Solzhenitsyn, he would have made his mark in history and faded from the scene. No religion would have sprung up around him. What changed history was the disciples' dawning awareness (it took the Resurrection to convince them) that God himself had chosen the way of weakness. The cross redefines God as One who is willing to relinquish power for the sake of love. Jesus became, in Dorothy Solle's phrase, "God's unilateral disarmament".
Power, no matter how well-intentioned, tends to cause suffering. Love, being venerable, absorbs it. In a point of convergence on a hill called Calvary, God renounced the one for the sake of the other. The Jesus I never knew, 1995, pp.203-205.
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.This is the Word of the Lord.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil.
For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been carried out in God.
At times I feel torn between two worlds. I have touched a little on this in past posts (you can go digging if you want), but in reality this - the "thing" I will go on to write a little more about in a minute - really grabs me and throws me around at times. It leaves me feeling sick in my stomach, it makes me feel useless and helpless and makes me angry.
I hear the guys who say "all you fellas do is bitch about the church, you're all talk but never any action", and I agree - it's so easy to just bag while doing nothing, but hear me out - this isn't what I'm about. At the end of the day though, I am gutless. Instead of sitting here in the safety of my own home and punching words into a blog interface, I should be out there confronting the source of my feelings - but to be perfectly honest, I have tried and I don't know what more to do, other than to get ugly and aggressive.
A 15 year old client in the drug program I run was telling me a horrific story the other day. He told how he was left to cut the body of a friend down from the rafters of a backyard shed. The kid had hung himself while his mates partied just metres away.
As I heard this story and then heard how this brave young man was (or really wasn't) dealing with it, it was all I could do to stop myself from breaking down. And this young blokes story isn't an isolated case. I deal with similar stories, similar lives, on an almost daily basis.
But that isn't what gets me angry. What gets me angry is the crap I hear from the local super-pastors. Its the crap that makes it look and sound as though their models of attractional, "build it and they will come" Christian mediocrity (flashy yes, but like the proverbial "tits on a bull" pretty useless when it comes to the real kingdom work) are actually doing something to change their community.
To make it better.
To make all the non-Christians leave there grotty, stinking little lives behind and come and join the enlightened on a Sunday morning.
To raise their hands and rock out to Hillsong beats, and put on masks of perfections.
But it isn't really happening! You - the ones who propagate this rubbish - open your eyes, wake up and smell the coffee - you are doing very little other than entertaining Christians and building your empires.
The non-believers aren't coming.
They are too busy recovering from the party the night before.
Or coming down from a three day drug binge.
Or from having to cut down a dead, 17 year old mate from the rafters of the shed.
Or, on the other hand, they are just too comfortable in their own lives to give a shit about the local mega-church's Sunday morning service.
They are not, as one super-pastor said in my presence a couple of months back, going to see all that you have to offer and have no other choice but to take notice and come join you on Sunday, because, in reality, THEY REALLY JUST DON"T CARE ABOUT YOU!
In a town of around 50,000 there is so much the self-proclaimed Jesus followers could really be doing. They could seriously change the landscape of this town in a major way, if only they would pull their heads out of their own backsides, stop promoting themselves and their Sunday service first, and start putting Jesus Christ in the number one position in their lives.
Do you get that?
Your "church" doesn't matter.
Your music, the sound system you use, the lighting rig and stage set-up are meaningless, if you are not "being", "living", imitating Christ in your community. And, YOU'RE NOT!
I know without a doubt that many of the young people I work with would jump at the chance to have a place to belong, and many of them are already interested in Jesus. Then there's their families, and their friends.
But how do we do it? I am committed (and I believe called) to another community - the one in which I live, which has its own challenges and frustrations and so am not sure where to go with these "waifs and strays" in Bunbury, and I certainly can't do it on my own. But most of those I speak too or encourage to think about the opportunities, are unable to divorce it from the context of their own "church". It seems everything has to be "owned" in order to work! What a crock!
Seriously, if you are in the Bunbury region and read this and seriously do have a heart for those that Jesus loves who are not living the way the church says they should live, and you are not just about adding numbers to "your church", contact me! There is a whole, virtually untouched, mission field here in your own backyard.
If your not in Bunbury, please pray. Pray for these kids. Pray for their families. Pray for the church in this town.
Hopefully, this is a prayer that will be answered soon.
Well, I feel like the anger (hopefully righteous anger) is now starting to subside. I'm going to go and pray. Looking forward to hearing from you. Catch you 'round. Not sure when, but sometime soon I hope.
Dear Lord, today I thought of the words of Vincent van Gogh: 'It is true there is an ebb and flow, but the sea remains the sea.' You are the sea. Although I experience many ups and downs in my emotions and often feel great shifts and changes in my inner life, you remain the same. Your sameness is not the sameness of a rock, but the sameness of a faithful lover. Out of your love I came to life; by your love I am sustained; and to your love I am always called back. There are days of sadness and days of joy; there are feelings of guilt and feelings of gratitude; there are moments of failure and moments of success;Joy Mukagasangwa, the main teacher in the CUF primary school is in a critical condition in King Faysal hospital in Kigali. While doctors are unsure of her exact condition she appears to be suffering from pneumonia-like symptoms and is regularly having several litres of fluid drained from her lungs. Dr's have also found what appears to be a tumour between her heart and esophagus which, on top of the fluid in her lungs, making it difficult for her to breath or eat.
Facilities in Kigali are limited and Dr's would like to transfer her to Kampala but do not have the means to care for her on the journey.
Please join with us and our brothers and sisters in the CUF as we pray for a miracle. Joy is the mainstay of the school, is a mother with young children and a wife to Theo. In each of her roles she is treasured and important.
Let God's will be done.
Imagine going to a party where everyone wore a paper bag on their head and all wore exactly the same clothing. You strike up a conversation with one person, are momentarily distracted and turn back to resume the conversation, only to realise after a second or two that you are not talking to the same person!
In the last few days this seems to be happening to me, right here on this blog! A number of comments have appeared on posts under the name of "Anonymous". While I get why Blogger have included this option in the commenting mechanics, it actually (from this blog writers POV) makes it difficult to easily participate in ongoing conversations. Simply put, I don't know if I am talking to the same person, or different people. The only thing I have to go on is the style in which the comment is written, but even this can be deceptive.
So ... please, if you are an anonymous poster to this blog, consider making up a nickname (you can still be anonymous) and using this when you post a comment. That way it will be clear, to me at least, who I am talking to, making it easier to continue ongoing conversations and discussions.
Keep the comments coming!
Fellow West Aussie and radio announcer Rodney Olsen, dropped me a line a day or two ago to tell me about an interesting post on his blog, The Journey. He's dipped his toes into the important topic of men and church, and in particular why so many men (real, manly men that is!) avoid church like the plague.
You can read the post and storm of comments here.
You can also check out a review I posted last year of the book, "Why men hate going to church" here.
One aspect of the emerging movement I have found particularly amusing (and a little disturbing at the same time), is the new-found freedom relating to alcohol expressed by many of its proponents. Quite a few 20-30something followers of Jesus are suddenly discovering for themselves that drinking alcohol actually isn't a sin. So in little acts of rebellion these guys and girls are flaunting their right to imbibe in increasing numbers. Nowadays it's not unheard of for Christians to hang out at pubs and clubs or for alcohol to take on an integral role in the act of worship itself.
I am even aware of an Anglican (Episcopalian) church in Sydney that has the "honour" of being Australia's first (and only as far as I am aware) church with a licence to operate a bar and sell liquor!
As I said I find this amusing - not the least because I am Australian. Everyone knows Aussie's are among the biggest drinkers in the world. At one time in my life I took pride in the fact that I could drink a bottle of whisky or a case of beer in an evening and still drive home (it took three arrests for drink driving to help me change my mind!). Drinking is something many of my fellow countrymen and women take pretty much for granted. I've even heard it said it is "un-Australian" not to drink!
But therein lies a problem. Particularly for Christian drinkers. Granted - consuming alcohol is not, in itself a sin. I think it should be pretty obvious to anyone who reads the Bible for themselves that Jesus and his contemporaries considered the consumption of wine a fairly normal part of daily life, however I want to ask the question; "how far have we come, particularly in Australia, from the culture of drinking that existed in Jesus time?".
Can we simply look at the way they did things then and use it to justify how we do things now, especially as it relates to drug use?
I'll throw a bit more out there in part 2 later on, but would like to leave you with some statistics on Australian drinking habits:
Kingdom thinking asks "to whom do I go and how do I reflect Christ when I arrive?".
Empire thinking asks "What must I do to get them to see us and how do I then make them come?".
Attractional thinking is empire thinking - it encourages us to think only in terms of certain regular rites or rituals such as a Sunday service, Bible study groups or sinners prayers. Empire thinking encourages professionalism in public worship, and a way of life that sees numbers as a hallmark of success. It is about showing the world Christ in the hope many will take notice and come to church.
Missional thinking is kingdom thinking - it encourages us to reassess our rites and our rituals, to desconstruct or do away with the uneccessary and to constantly and critically reassess our own lives in light of Christ and the mission he has left for us. Kingdom thinking encourages us to go into the world and to be human, living Christ in the hope some will take notice and want to follow Him wherever it is he wants to take them - and in the process, become the church.
You may have already seen this, even so I think it's worth repeating. From Blind Beggar - Thanks Rick!
The next time someone asks you "what's missional mean?" You'll now know what to tell them!We all know that Jesus told us to go into all the world and be his ambassadors, but the church today has distorted the “go and be” command with a “come and see” appeal. We have grown attached to buildings, programs, staff and a wide variety of goods and services designed to attract and entertain people.
Missional is a bit of Christian jargon used to describe what happens when you and I replace the “come to us” invitations with a “go to them” life. A life where “the way of Jesus” informs and radically transforms our existence to one wholly focused on sacrificially living for him and others.
In the early days of colonial Australia the crime of livestock stealing - known colloquially as "rustling" was treated pretty seriously. Up until the early 1900s the standard punishment inflicted on a convicted rustler was hanging by the neck until dead.
Unfortunately the topic of sheep rustling still has some relevance in modern Australian life - and not just for those living and working the land. Most of it is taking place in the church where it's commonly referred to as "sheep stealing".
Recently our long term community focused ministry has been the unwitting victim of this heinous crime (yes - my tongue is, if barely, inserted in my cheek). Actually the perps have been at it for a couple of years but without much success - due mainly, I believe, to the emphasis we put on the relational process side of things rather than the evangelistic project approach.
Most of the people we have been developing friendships with have had no introduction to the seedier side of church politics, and so are blissfully (if only it could stay that way for all of us) unaware of how things "really" operate in the world of evangelical/pentecostal Christianity. They are unaware that some fellowship consider themselves to be better than others. These are the people who are prime for the picking.
So when it happens - when the jolly swagman creeps up on the unsuspecting jumbuck the jumbuck is all too willing to jump head first into the open mouth of the tuckerbag. And, a sheep is stolen (if you have no idea what I'm talking about Google "Waltzing Matilda").
Now I know the "good Christian" response to this. It's "God is in control and will sort it all out in the end". That "he is and has been at work and will continue to be at work in the situation and in the lives of all involved".
Please don't get me wrong - I know with all my heart this is true. But even with this knowledge my immediate human response is a little different.
When it happens I find myself experiencing all kinds of (mostly) negative emotions. Some of them are legitimate - legitimate concern for the ongoing discipleship of someone who has been in my care or the care of others close to me for several years and is still a baby in the faith. Concern based on experience, where the end results of other sheep rustling efforts by the same perps has ended in messy, stuffed up situations.
Some of the emotions aren't so legitimate - indignation that someone else would have the gall to knowingly step in and entice someone away from an active faith community with no comment or contact or warning. Anger over all the time and energy and work that has gone into growing a disciple only to have them snatched away at the very same time the work is starting to produce tangible fruit, and the hurt that comes with a realisation that now it feels as if we're competing against for a friendship that has for the longest time, been genuine and committed.
Unfortunately there seems to be an almost utilitarian justification for the act of sheep rustling itself. Even when it happens in an opportunistic fashion. The justification is based on the real right an individuals has to freely choose who they will and won't involve themselves with. This right undoubtedly exists, but there is also an ethic involved. The question is, is it ethical to knowingly encroach on the life of someone already involved in an existing faith community with the intent of transferring them into another community when that person may be naive to or unaware of the underlying political agendas in play?
Fortunately for modern-day church based sheep rustlers, the hangman's noose is outlawed - but there has to be something of a solution. The biggest issue as I see it comes down to the level of responsibility and more directly, who is going to take it - particularly when it involves new believers.
Who is responsible? When new believers are lured away from us I find that I still feel responsible for them, and this sense of responsibility never really goes away. It is the same sense of responsibility I feel for all who are a part of my life. I think I can understand, to some degree, how Paul felt when others encroached on his spiritual "children" and tried to lure them away. There is a definite duty of care involved that starts before and extends beyond any initial conversion experience.
While I don't have any direct solution I think there is at least one thing that can be done to alleviate some of the angst created by this issue. It exists in fellowship leaders taking responsibility for the actions of their members and ensuring, as much as is humanly possible, this kind of thing isn't happening on a continual basis.
I believe leaders have an ethical responsibility in every circumstance to at least endeavour to understand what has led to a person a leaving one fellowship and joining theirs. If, as has been the case with most of the recent attempts at rustling in my community (where we are the only fellowship which meets), the attempts are opportunistic then it is up to the leadership to ensure this kind of thing doesn't happen or is stymied when it becomes apparent.
I wanna know the godly way of dealing with this. If anyone has any advice I am sure we will all benefit from it as I know this isn't an isolated issue and I am not going to be the only one experiencing it.
The following is an article by a new aquaintance of mine, Pastor Edward Simiyu of Kenya. Edward is involved in the Amahoro Africa gathering in Uganda in May and in his article speaks of a concept in mission that I think is difficult for western Christians to understand.
I have taken this same approach with the partnership I am involved with (the link is at the top of the sidebar, to the right) but I have found that those wanting to come on the short term trips I lead to Rwanda struggle with this idea. Most people want to go and do, rather than go and be. I find it difficult to communicate the significance of this - that we don't want to build or erect or fix when to do so would take a wage from a capable local, but we do want to go, to encourage, fellowship and to experience God at work in a different culture in a different part of the world.
I hope you enjoy Edward's article as much as I did.
The Ministry of Presence- Say nothing, do nothing; Just show up!
Recently I heard an American pastor friend lament that his African pastor friend had not replied to his e- mails for a long time. He said “why can’t he check the browser to make sure his inbox is working well?” You can bet that this happens only in American! The rest of the world’s ¾ hardly know what a browser is! They don’t read or write they just know one way of communication: Talking and as simple as it may sound, it is loaded. The cellular telecommunication industry is now the most profitable and fastest growing business in Africa because it is giving Africa a treat to what she does best-Talk! However, talking among the oral cultured people now carries more than mere words.
We are an oral culture in Africa. This calls for face to face contact. We talk much, not write. People cannot still read or write. Less than 2 % of people aged 60 and above can read or write. Our generation received teachings and moral lessons at the fireplace with parents and then grandparents telling us stories that carried moral teachings. In fact we would look forward with excitement when visits to grandparents would be announced! I sense the same craving in my nine year old daughter when she pleads that I tell her stories while on her bed waiting to sleep. The values of our cultures and society were passed on that way. In the final analysis, our formative years were not so much shaped by what we read or acquired in the well staked libraries full journals, books and magazines but by what we heard from our elders. That is why we say in Africa that when an elder dies, a whole library is buried with him! We passed on and still do pass on things from one generation to another by Word of mouth. Understandably the physical presence of one in order to communicate face to face quickly took a new dimension. It was not long before we all understood that ones attendance to a funeral for example, without even saying a word signalled an expression or show of sympathy and solidarity with the bereaved. This spread to all spheres of the African social and spiritual life. Now, presence has acquired such a great value so much that when one doesn’t show up in gatherings like weddings, funerals, and Sunday services people get very worried or even offended!
The church around the world would benefit immensely if she realised that while it is good and very important to send the much needed gifts and donations to support their brothers and sisters in Africa; that is only one side of the story, their physical presence through visits will minister even more powerfully! The visits don’t have to be the high sounding mass crusade type events, just show up and “hang out” on low key visits! You may say well that is pretty expensive to do, but guess what? That’s what I call the ministry of Presence!
Our first Alternate[Or] meeting was held on Friday evening. We had two people from a different town come along and join Alyssa, the kids and me and we had enough food to sink a cruise ship.
My initial disappointment over numbers (did you hear that - numbers!) subsided after we got talking about our faith and understanding of "church". These were, for the most part, like-minded people and it was refreshing to sit and talk face to face about these things with people who understood our POV.
I think there are others who will come to future gatherings, we are generally having 3 a month, and I am sure that this will grow into something worthwhile in time.
What is really interesting is both of our visitors where ladies in their late 50s to mid 60s. This surprised me as everything I have read about the move toward the missional seems to be confining it to the younger generations. I read a post on Hamo's Backyard Missionary blog where he said that he was unable to entice any older people along to their missional fellowship.
I really hope that we can get some of the local followers of Jesus involved in this too as I believe it is important for the future of the kingdom as it exists in this town that this happens. I think we will be missing something if all those who attend are from other communities. We also have a number of church fringe dwellers from Binningup that I hope will stick their heads in from time to time.
