30193 licc eg 36

Example Given

No. 36 Nov 2013

STEWARDS of the t GOSPEL

Connecting Stewardship, Discipleship, Generosity and Grace Sarah-Jane hears the cry of the 18-30s Mark Greene on bringing grace whilst working within the system

Editorial

Editorial Welcome to another edition of EG, I trust that you enjoyed and were blessed by the postcards that you received in September. It’s been wonderful to see them cropping up on Twitter, to hear the stories o f p e o p l e receiving them at timely moments, and to see churches buying them in bulk to use in Sunday services. If you would like to order more they are available from www.licc.org.uk/shop.

• Sarah-Jane Marshall explores how churches might engage their 18-30s who are longing to serve God in their workplaces

In this edition:

Jay Butcher Communications Manager

• Mark Greene looks at the familiar story of a small man who had a big change of heart

• Antony Billington connects stewardship with discipleship and generosity and grace • I think about honouring one another even in times of financial insecurity • And Neil Hudson tells of a church community making the unusual, usual.

As ever, do please feel free to photocopy, share and distribute these articles to those who might be interested, encouraged, challenged or equipped by them. And please, for our encouragement, do let us know.

Explore the EG archives by visiting www.licc.org.uk/eg Editor Jay Butcher Designer Brett Jordan, X1

Registered Charity No. 286102

2

Print & Distribution www.x1.ltd.uk

Letters/ Editorial Office EG Magazine, LICC, St Peter’s, Vere Street, London, W1G 0DQ jay.butcher@licc.org.uk

Enemy

Bible & Culture

Working for the Mark Greene finds fresh lessons in a familiar story

It’s interesting how quickly people tend to ma ke assumptions about other people based on their jobs: nurses are caring, estate agents are strangers to the truth, ad executives are manipulative and IT workers are geeks… ’Twas ever thus.

In the first century AD, most Jews in Israel would have assumed that Zacchaeus, as a tax collector, was a treasonous collaborator with a pagan enemy and a corrupt exploiter of his own people. Certainly that’s what most preachers have assumed since. However, the story of Zacchaeus’ encounter with Jesus is not, in my admittedly minority view, the story of a deeply corrupt individual, but the story of an honest man running an outsourcing business in the context of a flawed and difficult economic and political system.

Indeed, the text of Luke 19 provides no grounds for any charge of business malpractice against Zacchaeus. Quite the contrary. After Zacchaeus experiences the outrageous, countercultural love and acceptance of Jesus, who is not only prepared to eat with him but actually takes the initiative to invite himself into his home, he publicly decla res:

3

Bible & Culture 4

“and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, difficult to work in but that difficulty does not I will pay back four times the amount.” mean that they should be abandoned. I recently As a chief tax collector in Jericho, Zacchaeus met a man who works in property. He had moved must have collected taxes from hundreds of people. from a highly ethical company to one with a less If he were involved in systemic, ‘Enron-ic’ type than pristine reputation because he was prayerfully corruption, then he’d hardly be likely to make such convinced that God wanted him there. He knew a financially ruinous promise, nor able to honour that one day he might have to resign on a matter it if he had. of principle. The first challenge came on his first Furthermore, the presupposition that you cannot day. There has been conflict since but, so far, the be a ‘good’ tax collector has already been exploded ethical and legal battles have been won. He’s there

by Luke. In Chapter 3, John the for a reason.

Baptist is asked by repentant John does not tell Of course, John the Baptist’s soldiers and tax collectors – both reply to tax collectors does not them to resign. in the service of Rome – how any and every job, but he He tells them to affirm they should live. “Teacher,” they does identify one key criterion for be honest. (the tax collectors) asked, “what choosing one: can you do it without should we do?” ripping people off?

“Don’t collect any more than you are required The point is not that the way Zacchaeus made to,” he told them. his money needed to change, the point is that his John does not tell them to resign. He tells salvation leads him to change what he does with them to be honest. John looks beyond the cultural his money. His whole orientation towards his wealth prejudice about a job to the work itself. It is an has been transformed: important principle in job selection. How many “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of young Christians have been discouraged from my possessions to the poor…” entering the entertainment industry, politics, Indeed, whilst in the previous chapter, business or marketing precisely because of Jesus tells the rich young ruler to sell such prejudice. And then we everything, he requires no such thing wonder why the Gospel seems from Zacchaeus, nor indeed does the to have so little influence in Torah. Zacchaeus’ exclamation those sectors. is reminiscent of the rhetoric Many sectors, and many of kings to their subjects – companies for that matter, are Artaxerxes promises to grant Esther “Even up to half the kingdom” (Esther 7:2).

Bible & Culture

Herod makes the same offer to Herodias’ daughter Pilate. In the parable, when the King returns he (Mark 6:23). It’s a figure of speech. But Zacchaeus, not only punishes the person who has not complied with the air of the new kingdom in his lungs, means with his economic programme but executes the it. He has understood Christ’s heart for the poor rebels: “But those enemies of mine who did not and his purposes for wealth. Furthermore, there’s want me to be king over them – bring them here no doubt about Zacchaeus’ and kill them in front of me.’” sincerity. Jesus affirms it in the The message is clear. Find But Zacchaeus, most startling terms. way to work with Rome, as with the air of the aZacchaeus “Today salvation has come has. Look to Jesus new kingdom in his for salvation, as Zacchaeus has. to this house because this man, lungs, means it. too, is a son of Abraham.”

Jesus, Luke tells us, is ‘near Zacchaeus, the person Jerusalem’. It is through the excluded from mainstream society, is included in cross that salvation will come. And so it is for Jesus’ community: the outcasts find themselves our nation. dining with the King of the Universe. In sum, in There are things we are called to work hard to Zacchaeus’ case, the encounter with the grace of change but the regeneration of our workplaces, our Christ leads to spontaneous, lavish, uncalculating institutions and our nation will not come merely generosity. by the acquisition of corporate power or political Jesus, however, moves beyond Zacchaeus’ position, it will come through the cross. salvation to the broader issue that his job raises. Pray for the conversion of Britain. And, like How should the people of God relate to the Zacchaeus, seek ways not only occupying power? to work well and honestly but The Jews were looking for Rome’s overthrow. also to demonstrate to those we They were looking for a political salvation. meet the lavishness of Christ’s So he tells them the parable of the Ten Minas profligate grace.

(Luke 19:11-27). It is a warning of the danger Mark Greene Executive Director of political rebellion and non-compliance.

The king in this parable is the representative of Rome. And just as in this parable a delegation is sent to challenge the king’s appointment, so indeed, the Jews had sent a delegation to Rome complaining about

5

WorkForum

Generation

‘YES!’ Sarah-Jane Marshall hears the heart-cry of the 18-30s longing to serve but often with the wrong marching orders.

It’s 08:50 on the Bath & West Showground in Somerset. A line of intrepid festival-goers brave the shower block, whilst others remain tucked up in their tents – sleeping off the dancing from the night before. I’m not feeling particularly optimistic about the turnout for my 09:15 seminar.

Fifteen minutes later in the Momentum seminar venue, we’ve run out of handouts and more young adults continue to stream in. I shoot my friend a surprised look.

It’s 09:15 and the room is packed. Five hundred people sit cross-legged on the floor with Bibles and notebooks at the ready. A further surprised look as we observe the demographic in the room. The seminar, titled ‘Finding Your Calling’, is aimed at twenty-one year olds, but as we look around we notice more and more people in their later twenties.

For me, this moment at Momentum, and the conversations that followed, encapsulates much

6

of what I’ve been learning over the past eighteen months as I’ve worked alongside 18-30s.

“God, use me.”

Perhaps more so than those before us, this generation, my generation, longs for the work of our hands to be about more than just earning a living. Worship anthems of our youth told us we could each be “a history-maker in this land”, and we knew that this would involve our whole lives, not just the things we did at church.

We deeply desire that our life’s work will count for the kingdom of God – to make a difference in the world. I saw that same hunger in the eyes of the five hundred young adults that left behind the comfort of their sleeping bags early that August morning.

“In the everyday?”

The call to being history-makers however, is doubleedged. With such large, future-focussed goals, it can be hard to find the drive and stamina to give our all when faced with the menial, monotonous and mundane tasks of every day. Which history book would write about them?

At the end of the seminar, a junior accountant called John remarked, “I was getting myself so wound up about somehow missing God’s bigger plan for my life that I had not stopped to ask how I could serve him here and now.”

Being eager to do something ‘great’ for God can too easily lead to dissatisfaction in work that is perceived to be less impressive and radical.

So, in a sub-culture that loves Christian celebrity and is preoccupied with ‘leadership’, there is a desperate need for more ‘ordinary’ role models.

We are a generation that need to hear stories of fruitfulness from mature Christians who have worked faithfully for the Lord day-by-day in a wide range of jobs.

But how do we hear these stories? Could you proactively share testimonies of God at work in your workplace? Could you get alongside someone in this age group and commit to pray for them and through

WorkForum

the job decisions they will inevitably face. Could I would really love to see churches hosting you particularly look out for unmarried 18-30s and evenings for 18-30s to discuss the challenges ensure they are really integrated into the church and opportunities they face in the workplace, community… or simply pass this perhaps even committing staff time article onto your church leader?

We knew this each month to make workplace It’s fantastic that more and more would involve visits. Churches could intentionally churches are taking the initiative network this age group with older our whole to host seminars and career fairs Christians working in similar sectors lives, not just and commission young adults into to help final year students think the things we new jobs – whether they’re working for through their next step, but the need stretches much further… well into did at church. the church, Asda or Deloitte. the late 20s.

The appetite is certainly out there.

Whilst at LICC we’ve been able to collaborate If the church (both church leaders and mature on some great resources for students, we continue believers) seizes this opportunity to develop materials and networking events for to disciple its young adults as they those in their mid-late twenties. However I remain navigate this new life stage, we may convinced that the local church is the best place to well turn out to be a generation of model what faithful, fruitful Christian living might ‘history makers’ after all. look like in everyday working life to this generation. Sarah-Jane Marshall WorkStart Project Leader

Resources Resonate with this article? Know someone struggling with the transition into full time work or work with 18-30s yourself? Here are some resources that we’d really recommend to you available at www.licc.org.uk/shop

Graduate Alphabet: An A-Z for Life after University, Fusion & LICC

Transition, UCCF

Thank God it’s Monday, Mark Greene

Working without Wilting, Jago Wynne

Scan to listen to Sarah-Jane’s seminar ‘Finding Your Calling’ 7

Bible & Culture

Gospel Stewards of the

Stewardship, like discipleship, embraces the whole Steward (n.) from Old English stiward, of life. More than just what we do with our money stigweard ‘house guardian,’ from stig or our careful use of natural resources, stewardship ‘hall, pen’ + weard ‘guard’. encompasses every aspect of our existence, for all Lavish Generosity that we are and all that we have belong to God. The motif of stewardship has something deeply Ask a group of Christians for the best-known verse profound to say about who God is and, therefore, in the Bible about giving, and you’re likely to get several responses. A few might it speaks too, of who we are quote Acts 20:35, ‘It is more called to be, so we might Stewardship embraces understand ourselves and every dimension of life, blessed to give than to receive’, words attributed to Jesus. our own calling more fully. as we offer ourselves Others may think of Jesus’ Our living generously to God and experience teaching on giving secretly and giving generously – the liberation that rather than ostentatiously whether of time, talents, (Matthew 6:2-4), or the treasure, or truth – is a comes with keeping in account of the poor widow’s way of acknowledging step with the Spirit. offering (Mark 12:41-44). and living out God’s own Still others will recall Paul in 2 Corinthians 8-9 as generosity towards us. he asks for a collection for the poor.

As it happens, the best-known verse in the Bible about giving is also probably the best-known verse in the Bible – John 3:16 – ‘For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son...’ And this is where we begin as stewards – with the God who freely gives us all things, not least his Son for our salvation. God is a giver – the supreme giver – of the supreme gift, which flows out of supreme love.

His nature as one-in-three, three-in-one reinforces that, unspoilt love existing and expressed between Father, Son, and Spirit.

So it is that everything belongs to the Father, the creator and redeemer, whose abundant generosity flows out of his love, and who entrusts us to serve him and others with all he gives us as an act of worship and an expression of faith. Generous

8

Bible & Culture

stewardship thus gets to the heart of our identity as disciples of the Son – seeking to live as those who follow the self-giving pattern of the one who became poor so that we, through his poverty, might become rich (2 Corinthians 8:9).

Then, empowered and enabled by the Spirit, stewardship embraces every dimension of life, as we offer ourselves to God and experience the liberation that comes with keeping in step with the Spirit, bearing his fruit in our everyday lives (Galatians 5:13-26).

Our generosity in how we steward flows from the abounding generosity we have first been shown by God himself. How great the love the Father has lavished on us. How amazing the grace of Christ in becoming flesh and dying and rising again for us. How precious the work of the Spirit in our lives, renewing us in the image of God.

stewardship is distorted and frustrated through sin.

But God wouldn’t leave things like this.

Out of the overflow of love, he gave his Son to redeem the world, to reconcile rebellious men and women to himself, to restore relationships between alienated human beings, and ultimately to renew creation itself – and he recommissions his people as redeemed stewards to work in the world in his name.

Faithful Stewards Out of the overflow As such, we are called to be Our identity as stewards is faithful. This theme emerges in woven throughout Scripture. It’s of love, he gave his several of Jesus’ parables, where there, notably, at the start of the Son to redeem the a master entrusts money to his story. Men and women, created world, to reconcile servants to trade with while he in the image of God (Genesis rebellious men and is on a trip (e.g. Matthew 25:141:26-30), are together called to women to himself.

30), where the issue at stake is be guardians in God’s house of the loyalty of his servants while creation. There, in Eden, they he is away. They are to represent are placed with a purpose, to till and keep the garden (Genesis 2:15), delegated him during his absence in the full confidence that to govern as God would; he who had created it to he will return.

As in Genesis, the steward is entrusted with flourish, and valued it as good.

But the guardians rebelled and were banished resources that belong to another, and faithful from the garden into the wider world. There they stewards invest the resources as he intends them continued to work, but did so mostly to satisfy their to be used – in his service and for the flourishing own desires, not as stewards in the service of God. of others. ‘Each of you’, writes Peter, ‘should use Which is where human beings now find whatever gift you have received to serve others, as themselves – caught in the tension between being faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms’ created as stewards but where the exercise of that (1 Peter 4:10).

9

Bible & Culture 10

Graceful Mission sharing with them and with everyone else’ (9:13).

What might this look like in our relationships This provides a means of self-diagnosis. within the church and in our calling to take part Do we find that generosity makes sense – of who in God’s mission to the world?

Jesus is, of what the gospel is? Our desire to be We get a flavour in 2 Corinthians 8-9, where generous stewards is one of the ways we know we’ve the presenting issue is the experienced the grace of giving of money to those God for ourselves.

Our desire to be generous in need. However the G enerosity with stewards is one of the principles are more widely time, for instance, ways we know we’ve applicable. speaks volumes about experienced the grace of Here, the model of where our trust lies. generosity is Jesus (8:9) and It’s also profoundly God for ourselves. the motive for generosity is countercultural in a the gospel: ‘Because of the service by which you society pervaded by a sense of time poverty – have proved yourselves, people will praise God for the feeling of being constantly stressed, rushed, the obedience that accompanies your confession overworked and behind, with no time for oneself of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in let alone others. And yet, we’re all too aware of the significance of investing time into people and relationships in order for them to flourish – helping a child with their homework, preparing healthier meals, visiting someone in need, making that phone call we’ve kept putting off – being generous stewards of time.

Power and authority, likewise, are gifts to be stewarded, to nurture the best environment in which others can thrive – in the home or at work.

If I steward the authority entrusted to me as a manager or a leader or a parent well, I paint God in a positive light – the source of all authority.

Crucially, though, stewardship is not just about treasure, time

Antony Billington Head of Theology

Further Reading Craig L. Blomberg, Christians in an Age of Wealth: A Biblical Theology of Stewardship (Zondervan, 2013).

Bible & Culture

and talents, but about the way we view our life on earth in Christ, as his missionary people in this time before the end. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4:1, ‘This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.’ For Paul, this is bound up with the revelation of God’s plan of salvation centred on Jesus.

We are stewards of that mystery, that story of salvation, and it is our task as his createdand-fallen-but-redeemed stewards to express his redemption in the different areas of our lives, to gesture towards what will one day be the case when we dwell in a new heavens and a new earth.

Being stewards locates us in the grand scheme that God is bringing about – not as masters of the universe, but nor as mere puppets either.

God has entrusted us with the gospel of the kingdom, and it is through us – as stewards of his grace – that God chooses to continue his act of reconciling the world to himself.

Kelly M. Kapic with Justin Borger, God So Loved, He Gave: Entering the Movement of Divine Generosity (Zondervan, 2010).

NIV Stewardship Study Bible (Zondervan, 2009).

R. Scott Rodin, Stewards in the Kingdom: A Theology of Life in All Its Fullness (IVP, 2000).

Seasons of Giving (Stewardship, 2013), available from www.stewardship.org.uk.

Amy L. Sherman, Kingdom Calling: Vocational Stewardship for the Common Good (IVP, 2011).

Stewardship The material in this article had its origins in a series of seminars on stewardship at the Keswick Convention 2013, facilitated in partnership with Stewardship. See their website (www.stewardship. org.uk) for further information and helpful resources and ideas on exercising generosity in different areas of life.

Scan to listen to Antony’s talks at Keswick Convention 11

Books

Top Reads for Christmas Antony Billington hunts out six great reads for you to give, or pop on the wishlist, this Christmas.

Popcultured: Thinking Christianly about Style, Media and Entertainment Steve Turner, (IVP, 2013).

A great reminder that the pervasiveness of pop culture provides a common language to connect with others. Broad in his coverage, Turner looks at cinema, journalism, celebrities, fashion, thrill-seeking, comedy, photography, advertising, technology, and photography, each chapter ending with questions for reflection, recommendations for reading and suggestions for action. And all with the encouragement to engage discerningly, critique faithfully, and create wisely.

Creation, Power and Truth: The Gospel in a World of Cultural Confusion Tom Wright, (SPCK, 2013).

With winsomeness and eloquence, whilst modelling the best of theological engagement, Wright tackles three prominent cultural drivers – Gnosticism (Yes really!), imperialism, and postmodernism. He draws on a trinitarian framework to do so: where the God of creation deals with people in the earthiness of everyday life, and will one day renew the heavens and earth; where Jesus is Lord, whose life and 12

death have redefined power, which frees us to speak truth to power; where the Spirit of truth equips the church not just to enjoy ‘spiritual’ experiences, but to know, speak, and live out the truth.

ESV Gospel Transformation Bible (Crossway, 2013).

This study Bible, unlike any other, offers a heartwarming, Emmaus Road type experience. The notes show how the unified message of the Bible comes to its culmination in Christ, and help readers see how the transforming message of the gospel applies in their everyday lives.

Reflecting wise biblical-theological scholarship, the publishers’ byline – ‘Christ in all of Scripture.

Grace for all of life.’ – nicely sums it up.

Center Church: Doing Balanced, Gospel-Centered Ministry in Your City Timothy J. Keller, (Zondervan 2012).

Pastors take heed and delve into Tim Keller’s theological vision of a ‘center church’. This is the largest of Keller’s books published over the last few years, but helpfully provides a comprehensive and eminently readable presentation of his insights of gospel (proclaiming the gospel and its implications for the whole of life); city (exercising wisdom in contextualising the message, neither overadapting nor underadapting to culture); and movement (the church engaging in mission as both institution and organism, rooted in tradition and reaching out through its members).

Imitating God in Christ: Recapturing a Biblical Pattern Jason B. Hood, (IVP, 2013).

The World is Not Ours to Save: Finding the Freedom to Do Good Tyler Wigg-Stevenson, (IVP, 2013)

‘We don’t have to be the hero of the story, just the steward of our calling’, writes Tyler WiggStevenson in this timely call for a ‘calibration check’ on what it means to have ‘a faithful commitment to doing good’.

As the founder of the Two Futures Project, a movement of Christians for nuclear disarmament, WiggStevenson cannot be easily accused of not caring about the world. So, as he makes some straight challenges to the mindsets that believe complex issues like poverty and ecology are ours alone to solve, he writes not as a bystander on the Jericho Road, but as someone who gets his hands dirty.

The first part of the book diagnoses the limits of activism where we paint ourselves as saviours (where we play the part of David, himself, defeating Goliath rather than one of the nameless bystanders). In addition, he references the danger of misdiagnosing the roots of the problems of our world – the underestimation of the impact of sin in the world and the overestimation of our ability to fix things, and the risk of depicting God as someone who is domesticated to serve our causes, as opposed

Books

Jesus didn’t come to die and leave us as we are.

As Augustine said, ‘Christ, the master of the mint, came along to stamp the coins afresh.’ Taking his cue from Paul’s desire to see a cross-shaped pattern replicated in the lives of believers, Hood

provides an illuminating treatment of imitation as a crucial dimension of the Christian faith – one which informs our identity, shapes our disciple-making and mission, and prepares us for our destiny.

to the majestic, sovereign creator of the heavens and earth.

Part two – ‘a deeper calling’ – provides an alternative. Wigg-Stevenson offers a rich extended meditation on Micah 4:1-5 with its vision of peace with God, seen in worship, discipleship and evangelism, peace among the nations, involving justice, industry and nonaggression, and peace in community, marked by dignity, prosperity and security. God’s kingdom is a world order which God will bring about rather than one which we build. It is precisely here that our confidence lies: since it is God’s to bring about, the welfare of history ultimately does not rest on our shoulders. We live in the light of the kingdom of the now and not yet, orientated towards the promised new world, where it is not our task to win the victory but to show through our lives that the victory has been won.

This is no exhortation to passivity, nor retreat from culture. Rather it is a call to faithful and sustainable activism as seen through the lens of calling – following Jesus, whatever we do, wherever we are. So we start small – bringing peace among our friends, family – for as Paul tells us in Colossians 1 we know that Christ has reconciled all things to himself, things on earth and in heaven, by bringing shalom through his blood, shed on the cross.

“We show through our lives that the victory has been won on our behalf.”

13

The Bestowing of

Frontline 14

Honour national governments; What do you think of when you hear Paul tells us to or the leaving lunch the word honour? Perhaps it conjures honour one another of a supremely healthimages of knights and damsels, above ourselves – conscious team member, cloaks over puddles – a bygone time w he r e t he spr e a d far removed from tubes and buses, can you still do that completely avoided any clients and boardrooms? in financial scarcity? carb, cake or cookie But it’s a serious question and worth thinking about given Paul’s mandate to us based goodness and instead a bounty of super(Romans 12:10). Honouring someone, a friend, a foods and fresh seasonal fruit and vegetables member of the family or perhaps a work colleague, garnished the table. It was so her. either publicly or privately, for going above and So, if like me, you too enjoy honouring those beyond the call of duty or simply because of who around you, here’s a question. What happens they are and how they do things really well, is a when you can’t honour someone in the way that truly beautiful way of looking outside of yourself you want to?

Perhaps the more ‘creative’ among us revel in and giving renown to another.

I’ve worked in a number of organisations where a moment like this. Suddenly, an opportunity has there was a genuine sense of wanting to honour arisen to produce something unique. A handcrafted great work and great people. There was always card perhaps, complete with a handwritten poem something special in each of these occasions. or message of thanks on the inside.

Whether it was a bottle of sparkling South African For others perhaps it’s something more practical. wine, Fairtrade of course and £7.99 from the The child who finds a recipe and makes up a Co-Op, shared between colleagues celebrating a batch of chocolate truffles, simply because he wants to give his grandmother a hard won piece of legislation that could help poorer ‘special birthday communities around the world tackle present’. They’re corruption in their

Frontline

not up to Heston’s standards, and they won’t win GBBO’s Showstopper Bake, but the love and dedication that goes into the moulding of each truffle and the sprinkling of cocoa powder makes them taste all the more exquisite.

So what happens when you’re the owners of a small company with a tradition of making a 13th month bonus – to thank staff for the year’s hard work – and you realise that financially you simply can’t do it this year?

Last Christmas, husband and that a family might not normally choose, or be wife team, Paul and Rowena Henry, able to buy, that gives a sense of extravagance, of found themselves in exactly these circumstances. celebration, and of love. It shows that the recipients Convinced that she should still honour their belong to a wider community, one that honours one staff in some way, Rowena started to explore another – sometimes sacrificially – for all that they how she might do that. After a lot of prayerful are and do as part of that… well, family. searching she settled on winter hampers – packed For Nathan and Lisa the full of choice cuts of a variety absence of an additional month’s of meats. …the recipients wages was more than significant.

Let me tell you about one are part of a wider Yet Paul and Rowena, in their staff member’s reaction. We’ll community… family desire to bless their staff, had call him Nathan. stumbled on a way of meeting Finances were tight for a very real need in the lives of one of their staff Nathan and his wife Lisa. She was on maternity team. They, like the Israelites before them who leave, they had another child under 2 running made tunics, sashes and caps for Aaron and his around the house; and of course the 13th month sons (Exodus 28), provided a gift, even in financial bonus wasn’t coming. scarcity, in order to give honour and dignity for the As he was presented with his winter hamper, role the recipients were to play.

Nathan stood open-mouthed simply uttering the So as Christmas approaches once more, how words, “Wow, thank you so much.” might you honour the people around you – staff, “You have no idea what you’ve done,” he said friends, family – even if you can’t honour them in later. “We have family coming to stay from the the way you would prefer? Or they deserve?

States this year. They’re bringing another family Take a moment now to pray and ask God to lay with them and we had no idea how we were going someone on your heart that you to feed them all. You have just provided our could honour this Christmas.

Christmas lunch. Thank you, thank you.”

And who knows how he might There’s long been a tradition of community work through you! and social philanthropy related to hampers and they’re always family related. There’s something Jay Butcher Communications Manager about the provision of foods and other products

15

Making the unusual

Imagine

usual Perhaps these don’t sound St John’s, Blackheath had just Neil Hudson like huge acts of mission. For come to the end of a 24/7 week explains how one me, however, they indicate that of prayer. Giving people the Church Leader church members are making more challenge and opportunity for moved his people and more connections between focussed prayer is always a good beyond good their church life and their daily thing to do and it’s not unusual for intentions. frontlines. Actions that many might a church like St John’s to have such consider to be unusual really are a week of prayer.

And people prayed. And that too, is not unusual. becoming more usual in this church.

There were some at St John’s however, who I first met Peter, the Vicar at St John’s, around approached this week in ways that really are not two years ago when he invited me to speak. He recently reminded me of my initial reaction to that so common.

There was the woman, working in the public invitation. He said, “You were really interested in sector, who took the opportunity to create a prayer building a relationship with us, not in just coming to box on her desk; inviting her colleagues to add their speak one Sunday. You wanted to help us to change requests, explaining what her church were about the culture of the church so that our people might to do and why they were doing it. That is unusual. embrace their frontlines as places where God can Another member of the church asked for the use them; acting and reacting with love and grace old fridges, chairs and sofas that were going to be and, when appropriate, explaining the reasons why discarded from the refurbishing of his company’s they see life differently.” offices to be donated to the church so that they When we met, Peter was not new to LICC. could be offered to the families connected to the The church was already passionate about wholefoodbank and the other ministries that the church life discipleship. But nothing much had changed.

People recognised the truth of it all. Leaders are involved with. That too is unusual.

16

ON THE

ROAD

Training Days for Leaders

Imagine

assented to its significance. But the church’s practice continued as it had always done. And to be honest, that’s also not unusual.

So what changed this time?

In short, they moved beyond good intentions.

Peter may be a softly spoken leader, but he is able to clearly communicate a strategy for change. After a year of listening, encouragement and teaching, people had grasped where their frontlines were and had an idea of how they might serve God there. Over another year, the church concentrated on exploring God’s mission plan in the Bible – because if they were going to be encouraged to engage in mission, they needed to know what God has done and what he can still do.

And next? Well, “Now that ‘the frontline’ is on more people’s agenda we need to equip them for the conversations that open up there.”

So how did Peter and his team at St John’s get to where they are now?

Firstly they formed In short a core team; people they moved who carry the vision and are willing to beyond good push for this change to intentions happen. They listen to the congregation and respond to the situations the congregation face.

They made use of “weekends away” and “at home” when the church body was gathered together to help them capture the vision. The church is encouraged to meet in ‘Connect’ groups that reflect their frontline contexts: grandparents, work sectors, the home and schoolgate etc. These groups meet regularly, encourage people to take responsibility for their own growth and feed frontline issues into Sunday sermons.

Preachers were encouraged to think about frontline applications by preparing three ‘takeaway’ questions for each sermon. There was also a sermon series on Whole Life, Whole Bible which helped church members understand the Bible better, and This Time Tomorrow interviews are regularly part of the gathered worship

Day 1: Exploring the Vision Join members of the LICC team as we share what we’ve learnt about creating whole-life disciplemaking church. We’ll explore the biblical vision and a range of fresh, simple ways of doing church which integrates a concern for neighbourhood and overseas mission with opportunities for being fruitful on our daily frontlines: 5 February in Liverpool 6 May in Cheltenham

Day 2: From Caring to Equipping This follow-on day will focus on moving church life on from being dominated by a ‘pastoral care contract’ to one that cares and explicitly equips disciples for their frontlines. By the end of this day you will have a clear understanding of what an ‘equipping’ church might look like in your context, share your story and gain wisdom from other leaders, and you’ll identify the next steps for your church.

28 November in Winchester 3 December in London To book your place or invite us to your town please visit:

www.licc.org.uk/iotr where further venues will also be added

Tel: 020 7399 9555 17

Imagine

services. Every opportunity to help people have encouraged. He has come to see that his ministry conversations about where they see God at work has an effect on people that he will never meet, in, around and through them is grabbed with in places he will never go, through the people he both hands. ministers to week by week.

And after all that, what has St John’s is an ordinary busy Peter learnt? church that takes seriously the It enables all Well, the process has challenge to equip whole-life the different helped him to get to know disciples for their frontlines. That aspects of the congregation in a new is still quite unusual. church to hang St John’s is an ordinary, busy way. He now regularly has together significant conversations with church that takes seriously the people, conversations that had challenge to equip previously not gone deeper than social niceties. whole life disciples. Sadly, that He understands and sees that the vision of still is quite unusual! whole-life discipleship isn’t just another thing We’re trusting that over time to do; rather it enables all the different aspects that will change. of church to hang together. And Peter has been Neil Hudson Imagine Project Director

Things Have

Changed Kim works for Sainsbury’s and worships with St John’s. This is her story…

Both the language of “frontline” and the changes we have gone through as a church at St John’s have helped me grow spiritually no end. It has just made sense, and helps me to relate my week to my weekends.

Now I have a career plan that places God’s purposes and plan at the centre.

It’s easy to fall into the belief that, as a Christian in the private sector, your career is not as holy or virtuous as others. However God has told me very clearly that this is where he wants me to be and I know the difference he wants me to make, starting simply by living, acting and working differently to those around me.

During the last year I was accepted onto a 18

Director’s Development Programme and also was promoted into an area of the business dealing with Corporate Responsibility. I genuinely think that God wants me in these areas to live out the implications of the Lordship of Jesus.

He’s been with me every step. Watching the plan unfolding has not only been exciting (and having those tingly ‘God moments’ certainly helps you with the more boring office politics of the day), but I feel more secure and more motivated to achieve than ever.

I’m not doing it for me; I’m doing it for him. And that is incredibly freeing.

Aside from the personal support that I have received, as a result of the church engaging with me on this journey, we’ve also learned a common language. It doesn’t matter whether someone is in business, a teacher, a full time mum – mention the word frontline and everyone understands where you’re coming from.

It has created a real sense of community and honesty. It’s been great.

Events LICC

Held at St Peter’s, Vere St, London, and streamed live over the web. www.licc.org.uk/shop Tel: 020 7399 9555 To the End of the Earth: A Day in Acts Steve Walton 20 January, 10:00am to 4:00pm Cost: £15 (£10 concessions)

Acts is an exciting book. The story, strongly driven by God himself, picks out key events, key people and key themes in the establishment and growth of the church over its first thirty to forty years. Does the book of Acts describe things which simply don’t happen anymore? Does it prescribe how the church is meant to be at all times and in

all places? Or is there a middle ground? What is the role of this book for today’s Christian communities?

Making Trouble Greg Valerio 24 February, 6:30pm to 8:30pm Cost: £7 (£5 concessions)

“Valerio, you’re a natural born trouble-maker. Just make sure you make trouble for the right reasons.” Expelled from school with these words ringing in his ears, it took Greg Valerio a little while to find the right cause, then he took on the international jewellery industry.

Greg was convicted about doing business well, mediating truth and justice, fighting to apply fair trade standards for producers around the world.

Hear how he exposed child labour, pollution, criminality and exploitation within the industry.

Learn about the impact that CRED Jewellery has had since 1996 and where its future lies.

And discover what it means to be a social entrepreneur – especially speaking out within a vast sector.

Missed an Event?

If you weren’t able to make it to an event you can catch up with our events online. Simply visit www.licc.org.uk/ eventcatchup for a full video archive.

Confronting Culture: Speeches in Acts – Conrad Gempf

Currently in the archive:

On God’s Side – Jim Wallis

Bible Days: A Day in 1 Peter – Antony Billington A Day in Lamentations – Robin Parry A Day in Song of Songs – Antony Billington

CS Lewis: A Prophet for Contemporary Christianity – Alistair McGrath Road to Renewal – Chan Abraham Science & Wonder – Ruth Bancewicz The John Stott London Lecture on Creation Care – Chris Wright & David Nussbaum

Events:

Worship in a Consumer Society: What’s Shaping You? – Jason Clark

A Model Worker vs Work ReModelled – Anna-Marie Detert

What is a Person? Neuroscience, Human Identity and the Christian Faith – John Wyatt 19

EXECUTIVE

TOOLBOX

2014

23/24 January · 28/29 March · 19/20 June

Make a difference where you work Join a cohort of just 36 people for a 6 month programme based around three 24-hour workshops. Designed for Christians in mid to senior levels of influence, Executive Toolbox combines teaching with case studies, worship, prayer and accountability triplets. You will develop biblical foundations, skills and spiritual practices to significantly impact the way you work, your relationships at work, and the organisation you work in.

Deadline for applications 13 December 2013

Seeing Afresh - January • A Liberating Theology of Work • Diagnosing & Shaping Your Workplace Culture • Discerning God’s Priorities for You

Making a Relational Impact - March • Creating Healthier Working Relationships • Creating Evangelistic Relationships • Creating Organisational Shalom & Success

Bringing Change - June • Exercising Power & Authority • Praying Strategically • Making Vision a Reality • Work as Worship

“Two

years on, I can see so many things that I’m doing differently – from interviewing to product development to strategic planning.”

Ian, Managing Director

To find out more or to apply, visit www.licc.org.uk/work-forum or contact the course leader charles.hippsley@licc.org.uk