Ash Wednesday afternoon...

I am sitting in my study having cleared up a mess and now the desk is tidy so I can start doing things that need doing!
This morning, I shared in an Ash Wednesday with 11 Methodist folk. It was a good time of communion and quiet reflection. We committed ourselves to turn to Christ and to support one another on a Lenten walk together, as we work out what it means to be Christ-like in today's world. Tonight I shall receive rather than lead in an Anglican service in our village, which will include ashing - a sign in the end we are God's people, and we are meant to respond to him in all that we do. Our lives should be a faithful response to his care, even in the mess of our lives.
This weekend, I have a church AGM. Perhaps the first Sunday of Lent is a good time for such a meeting! I hope my folk will clear up what mess there is (and there is some!) then commit themselves to start again, trying to be more like Christ, engaging, suffering, celebrating, enjoying, dying and rising, as a community. I hope the meeting will end with an act of commitment, perhaps not with ash, but with renewed enthusiasm to be centred on God and his will for us, where we are called to be.
I am not in the practice of giving things up for Lent, although I need to keep away from chocolate and biscuits. I think it more helpful to have time to think about what it is all about. I hope to have space each day to breathe in, to be aware of my surroundings, the people who love me, and what is important in my life and in my ministry, and where God is leading me each day. In the end, I think Lent is a time for real self examination and resetting of priorities, both for individuals and for churches.
I dipped into Rowan Williams' book "Silence and Honey Cakes" the other day. It is a book full of the wisdom of the desert thinkers. I was challenged by this quote, attributed to one John the Dwarf:
"You don't build a house by starting with the roof and working down. You start with the foundation. They said, "What does that mean?" He said, "The foundation is where we start. Every commandment of Christ depends on this."
What I believe will be tested by what I do, right here. There's a Lenten challenge!
So, on with what needs doing, then.          

A discipleship movement equipped for mission?

The other evening I arrived on the premises at my church a little early for a meeting. In our hall was a Zumba class, a group of ladies moving very fast to tracks such as “Moves Like Jagger” by Maroon 5 and “Born This Way” by Lady Gaga. The walls were vibrating as the music was so loud and there were smiles as the minister knew the words to these songs and was attempting to dance along the corridors! Movement and enjoying movement is what a Zumba class is all about. Movement does you good.

When I was at infant’s school, I remember “musical movement” in the hall, where we were invited to use our bodies to be creative, to pretend, to make shapes, to move freely, until the teacher told us to freeze and stay still, to not move anymore. We didn’t like being told to stop moving. It was contrary to what we wanted to do. Movement is exciting, inviting, to not move leaves us extremely weak. My Mother is building up her strength, not simply from major surgery, but from lying still in bed for over three months. Not moving leaves us vulnerable. But, so many churches today don’t seem to want to move anywhere. They want to stand still, or repeat a familiar programme that is safe, with no risks. I understand this. Many people in churches are overloaded, tired and frightened as numbers drop, as congregations age, and as resources get scarce but there is the same amount of work to do. Many churches have become not movements anymore, but monuments. The pressure of life has left them with no energy to move on and they are unable to move anyway because they do not have the confidence.

Over the next few years, the Methodist Church is being invited as a denomination to revisit what it is for. Methodism was raised up, our history books tell us, to “spread Scriptural holiness throughout the land.” Wesley formed the Methodist societies as revival movements within a structured Church. He was frustrated that the Church of his day was not on the move enough, not reaching people where they lived and worked, not relevant in worship and concern to a local context, not exciting and radical enough. I don’t think he ever wanted to form another Church; he wanted to shake his own up. However, another denomination is what we are but with a distinct purpose and life. We need though to discover what that life is.

The General Secretary of the Methodist Church, Rev Dr Martyn Atkins, presented a report entitled “A Discipleship Movement Shaped for Mission” at  the Methodist Conference last year and local churches are now to begin to study it. Many Circuits are beginning to review their life in the light of it.

We are beginning that in our Circuit this month at staff level, and I know the folk in Hastings, Bexhill and Rye Circuit are beginning a process of honest review which I shall pick up in September. One of my churches to be has an enormous building once full, now perhaps too big, and another one, doing some wonderful outreach to families, has voted to come out of their building by 2015 as they are wasting money patching it up.

The report, which was adopted by Conference asked what sort of Church we want to become in the next few years, and what is our mission? Also, what sort of disciples will we be? There is an urgent need to encourage one another, Dr Atkins says, to have conversations about our discipleship. This will have a different conclusion in every church.

Methodism today is extremely diverse. Some churches have elderly congregations, who need care. This is true of our churches locally here, we need a good pastoral system, and we need to provide activities that are appropriate for a senior age group. We are trying hard at this. Younger congregations may have much more energy to grasp opportunities to serve their community, but we need to find something that together we can work on to show we are a movement moving out to people rather than waiting for people to move towards us. We do not ever retire as Christians!

We also need to remember that some followers of Jesus may not be in churches at all. How will this alter our priorities in years to come? Will there be more need for chaplaincy work in our shops, offices, factories, how will we minister to those suddenly unemployed? How do we maintain relationship with elderly folk who can easily be forgotten once housebound or with families too busy to come to church on a Sunday? Will we need to go to them more or provide some sort of multiplex church model where people come when they can, at times we might think are silly? But will we have the energy to do more, and if not, will we be brave enough to stop some things to enable this necessary moving out? There are lots of questions!

I believe there will always be a need for a church to meet in, and this article is not to criticise what we are doing here. All of us work hard to keep our buildings going. I am just wondering what sort of church I will work in say towards my retirement in 20+ years time? Many people are now saying if it doesn't move, Methodism will not be here as a denomination. I do not believe that, but I think we need to be honest about what the needs are, how we can respond, what is tiring us out, and what needs to stop.

If Methodism is to “spread Scriptural holiness throughout the land” then every little thing we do needs to centre on the Bible, on relationship with God, and out to our community so we respond appropriately, and we need to help one another go out and move, if we are to be equipped so we may need some training!

Long term, are we brave enough to move and enjoy moving, or would we rather the teacher (Jesus) allow us to stand still, for ever? Remember he says, “Follow me.” One new initiative is a thing called “Tell, Show, Be” – we will be judged on how we share our faith, how we live it both in church buildings and out of them, and how we are as a disciple, our attitude to life. I challenge you if you have the internet to look at this site and let me know what you think – www.tellshowbe.com; and also perhaps this film on You Tube called This is Discipleship – www.youtube.com/watch?v=rk8ERxqCqQ

I have just put these thoughts into our church magazine. I wonder if I will get any response? How will our churches be in a few years? Does movement in the Spirit of God scare you, or excite people? I take courage that Jesus promises I will not be alone, when I try, even if I fail. And most of what I do, I think, will not be done in a church building, which people may not like. I remember that old quip - "he calls us to stand on his promises, but all we do is stand on the premises." Movement or monument?