EG Issue 33

also inside:

An LICC Resource A LICC Resource

Edition 33 June 2012

Bev Shepherd on prayer at work Antony Billington on biblical shalom and its implications

May the forced ranking (not) be with you Mark Greene meets a Nehemiah in manufacturing

White Cloud on the Horizon?

Mark Greene visits a church on an extraordinary day There are things, I suppose, that each of us hopes for, but that we don’t really expect to happen in our lifetime. In my case, that Spurs would win a cup, or that I would get to go to my granddaughter’s wedding. I don’t yet have a granddaughter and my oldest son is 20, single, and with no plans he’s telling me about or that have been revealed by tapping his phone or covertly monitoring his email traffic.

And I’m 102. The odds are against it.

And, sadly, against Spurs.

But then on Sunday 22 April 2012 something happened that I have been hoping for and didn’t necessarily expect to see and, as far as I know (let me know if I’m wrong), hasn’t happened in any church in the UK in my lifetime: a church commissioned their whole congregation to their mission on their frontlines in the world. Actually, they didn’t just commission them, they inaugurated an annual service of commissioning.

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Now, of course, lots of churches commission their pastor or an overseas missionary or a youthworker, and I’ve been in a church where, quite spontaneously, the pastor has asked everyone to stand and has commissioned them to their mission field but I have never been in a place where such a service has been officially adopted by a congregation, where the leadership and ‘laity’ have worked together to find out where everyone’s frontlines are, what they feel about them and how they see God working through them there.

It happened in Hook Evangelical Church, a medium-sized independent church just off the A3 in South London.

As the pastor, Paul Pease, said at the service, “It has taken many years to get to this point.” That is, it has taken many years to get to the point where they have all grasped the vital nature of their daily frontlines, as well as the other ways in which the church reaches out in mission. Indeed, one of the really encouraging aspects of the service was the way the formal prayers were divided between praying for people on the frontline and praying for the people who teach, encourage, support and pray for the people on the frontline – the preachers, worship leaders, home group leaders etc. Of course, they are often the same people because we all have a frontline, but Hook recognises the essential role of the gathered body of Christ in resourcing the fruitfulness of the body of Christ when it is scattered

out in the world. Indeed, this springtime service of frontline commissioning is intended to complement their autumn service of dedication of all those involved in the ministries of the church in and through the building.

Any church could do this.

Call me ‘sad’, but I felt like a grandfather at my granddaughter’s wedding – elated, privileged to be there, rejoicing with God’s people in the freedom and purpose they were celebrating. I’ve waited a long time to see such a thing. Of course, it was only one church. But then again it may be the white cloud on the horizon – the beginning of a new season of corporate church support for fruitful whole-life mission. And indeed I have been invited to speak at another ‘first’ commissioning service in the Autumn in a church in Hampshire. Still, whether or not the service at Hook was a precursor of a new season in the UK Church, we did discover that, for Paul, the pastor, it all began ten years ago when curiosity spurred him into reading a book that one of his congregation had been reading once a year for quite a number of years.

The book happened to be Thank God it’s Monday. Sometimes one little thing does lead to another bigger one. So, though you may not be in a position to inaugurate a commissioning service in your church, you might be able to give your church leaders or a Christian friend some material that would get them started on the road. It could be a verse, an article, a link – it doesn’t have to be Thank God it’s Monday, of course, though that would help my granddaughter’s wedding fund.

‘A whole church commissioned for frontline mission?’

Mark Greene is Executive Director of LICC and is not 102.

A Bigger Peace Antony Billington on the biblical concept of ‘shalom’ and its implications ‘I think it was “Blessed are the cheesemakers”’, says someone to a group of people at the back of the crowd struggling to hear Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Monty Python’s irreverent Life of Brian. ‘What’s so special about the cheesemakers?’, intones a woman with a slight sneer, to which her husband replies: ‘Well, obviously it’s not meant to be taken literally; it refers to any manufacturers of dairy products.’ Behind the satire, the Pythons raise the broader question of exactly how we interpret Scripture in general. Are we, for example, to limit our understanding of ‘Blessed are the peacemakers’ to those who work to heal broken relationships – whether that be in the family, the workplace, Serbia or South Africa. Biblically, as we shall see, “peace-makers” have a much bigger, richer job description which goes some way to explaining why they will ‘inherit the earth’ and why it is a call on all our lives.

The Old Testament word for peace, shalom, and its New Testament counterpart, eirene, embrace a whole range of ideas. Absence of conflict and violence are certainly factors, but shalom in the Bible is a wellbeing that is holistic a n d f u n d a m e nt a l ly relational – implying harmonious relationships with God, with each other, with oneself, and the environment. Shalom includes physical health, wholeness, flourishing, pr osper it y, a wel lordered society, and the establishment of social justice – all flowing from the salvation God himself brings. Indeed, Jesus’ beatitude puts us in touch with a rich theme that extends across Scripture and carries significant implications for how we live. As we shall see shalom comes from God, comes

through Christ… and is experienced in relationship with others and is what we look forward to in the new heaven and the new earth.

The God of Shalom First, shalom comes from God, as a gift, and not as something we manufacture for ourselves.

It’s bound up with God’s covenantal relationship w ith his people. I n Leviticus 26:6, when God tells the Israelites that he will be their God and they will be his people, he promises that he will ‘grant shalom in the land’ – where neither the danger of wild animals or warfare will threaten the people.

We see the same covenant link when Ezekiel foretells a shepherd from the line of David, with God making a ‘covenant of shalom’ with his restored people (34:25-31; 37:24-28).

Secondly this longedfor gift of peace comes ‘Shalom comes through Christ. The Old Testament anticipates from God, comes that God’s shalom will be through Christ… mediated through a royal, and is experienced messianic figure. Along with Ezekiel’s promised in relationship shepherd, Micah foresees one from the tribe of Judah with others’ whose greatness will reach to the ends of the earth, who ‘will be our peace’ (5:2-5), and Isaiah speaks of a child to be born who, among other things, will be called ‘prince of peace’ and will establish David’s throne (9:6-7). In the larger tapestry of the biblical story, these and other such promises find their fulfillment in Jesus,

great David’s greater son, the son of God, the Prince of Peace.

Above all, the New Testament is clear that this promised shalom comes about through the cross. ‘Peace’ in Paul’s letters is intimately bound up with the death and resurrection of Christ. Ephesians alone would make this evident, but Colossians, 2 Corinthians and Romans support this idea further. So dominant is the theme of reconciliation in Paul’s letters that some scholars have in fact wondered whether it is the centre-piece of his understanding of the cross. For Paul, Christ’s death and resurrection results in an objective reality of shalom between God and human beings – the peace that comes with reconciliation – allowing us to experience a subjective sense of shalom as God’s peace guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

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Thirdly, contrary to the individualistic credos of our age, true shalom cannot be experienced on our own. Rather it is found in relationship with others.

Believers in Christ – recipients of God’s shalom – are incorporated into the body of Christ with fellow recipients of God’s shalom. This shalom is for all – Jew and Gentile, male and female, slave and free.

Finally we receive shalom now in a broken and still hurting world with the confident hope that true shalom will last forever, that it is God’s end-time goal for the universe. The Old Testament prophets paint a picture of the shalom that is to come – when crookedness will be straightened out, deserts will flower and mountains will stream with wine, when weeping will be no more and people will sleep freely, when swords are beaten into ploughshares, when all nature will be fruitful and all humans knit together.

And above all, when all will look to God, walk with God, delight in God, and worship God with shouts of joy. We still hope and yearn for these things.

Seeing shalom as woven through the biblical narrative – of harmony lost and harmony restored – prevents it from becoming a

mere slogan, wrenched out of its place in salvation history. Shalom is thus bound up with the gospel – not as an optional extra, but at its centre and as the final destination of the story.

Shalom-makers But because shalom is the final destination of the biblical story, it is also the direction in which the story is moving.

As such, it undergirds our evangelistic activity, our ‘But because working life, our physical shalom is the final and emotional wellbeing, relationships with destination of the our others and the environment, biblical story, it is and our personal integrity.

How might the dimensions also the direction of shalom be worked out in in which the story the everyday contexts in which we find ourselves? is moving.’

Once again, we take our cue from Scripture. Apart from its place in the overarching biblical story, shalom also permeates different genres in the biblical library, all of which contribute to its multifaceted perspective.

There are stories in which God uses his people – think of Joseph, Ruth, Daniel, Nehemiah, and Esther – to bring about wellbeing for others, sometimes cooperating with authorities, occasionally challenging them. Laws which order relationships and address lack of fairness in the

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redistribution of land and restitution from slavery, which are concerned with the welfare and protection of the disadvantaged, calling for love of one another and aid of one’s enemy (e.g.

Leviticus 19:33-34; 25; Deuteronomy 15:1-11). There is proverbial wisdom which commends a way of life conducive to human and societal flourishing – in the mundane matters of using honest scales, thinking before speaking, doing a good day’s work, being faithful to one’s spouse, and in bringing up children. There are expressions of faith in Psalms, where peace runs through both praise (29, 147) and lament (85, 120); where a prayer for the shalom of Jerusalem is not as a political end in itself, but ‘for the sake of my family and friends’ and ‘for the sake of the house of the Lord our God’ (Psalm 122:6-9). And there are prophetic calls to exercise the ethical dimension of shalom, where the desire for peace entails standing against oppression and striving for justice (e.g. Isaiah 26:1-6; 32:16-18; 59:1-9).

Most well-known, perhaps, is Jeremiah’s exhortation to ‘seek the shalom and prosperity of the city’ (29:7). This would not be so remarkable except that the city in view is not J e r u s a le m , but Babylon.

How should God’s people live when their postcode puts them in exile? Jeremiah urges them to establish their presence, to plan for the long haul – to get married, have children and grandchildren, build houses, plant gardens, grow produce – and to do so not only for their own sake but also for the sake of that place and the people there. The comprehensive nature of Jeremiah’s list shows that their ‘full-time ministry’ is to seek the shalom of the city in concrete ways – to be peacemakers, or “shalom-makers” as some put it. They still take their ultimate identity from the city of Zion, of course – which remains their true home – but something of that identity is lived out in ‘enemy’ territory.

The New Testament also uses the language of exile in describing Christian existence in the world, suggesting that we too might learn what it means to ‘seek peace’ in specific locations – not just in cities, but in all the arenas where, as James and Peter say, we are ‘scattered’ (James 1:1; 1 Peter 1:1). Neither taking over the institutions of society nor abdicating responsibility altogether, we exercise what sociologist James Davison Hunter has called a ‘faithful presence’ in the different places we find ourselves.

Lest that phrase be misunderstood, the active seeking of shalom means that our

‘faithful presence’ is not to be reduced to a passive compliance with the status quo, especially where faithful presence is combined with faithful practice and faithful proclamation. And faithful prayer too – as Jeremiah’s exhortation reaches down through the centuries, calling God’s people to ‘pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper’ (29:7).

While we recognise that full and final peace will only be brought about by God himself, something of that final harmony reaches into the present. And we are called to be its agents, to embody it in our daily lives through the realms of arts, business, education, family, law, media, and politics. We live as those who know of God’s yearning for things to be put right, his heart for the restoration of human beings, of his creation, and of our role in that – in seeking peace, making peace, proclaiming peace, living peace – as God equips us to be agents of shalom, models of shalom, witnesses to shalom.

Such a commitment, ideally, will flow out of the equipping ministry of gathered church communities into

‘How should God’s people live when their postcode puts them in exile?’

the daily lives of scattered disciples in the world, in every sphere, picking up litter on the way home, recycling spent toner cartridges, ordering Fairtrade products in place of others, affirming young or new colleagues, settling arguments between others, praying for the company you work for, challenging unjust policies and procedures, even crying out for the economy to be transformed.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall inherit the earth. So the “peacemakers” ultimately are those who seek to make the world, “the Earth,” a better place. God’s reward to them is that they will, one day, receive precisely what they have worked for – the Earth, renewed to be sure but theirs as an inheritance from the Lord, the source of all true shalom.

Further Reading Graham A. Cole, God the Peacemaker: How Atonement Brings Shalom (Apollos, 2009).

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

Ann Spangler, The Peace God Promises: Closing the Gap Between What You Experience and What You Long For (Zondervan, 2011).

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May the Forced Ranking (not) be with you Mark Greene sees a project manager change the law of the Medes and the Persians.

New year, new appraisal system: could be helpful, could be wearisome, could be liberating, could be destructive. This one, as far as Peter is concerned, is likely to be as beneficial as playing pass the parcel blindfold with a live grenade – everyone is going to suffer and someone is going to get badly hurt.

In the new system 15% of employees have to be ranked ‘below standard’.

And if you are ranked ‘below standard’ you lose your bonus and most of your inflation-linked payrise.

Peter (all names changed), is a senior project manager in a multi-national manufacturing company, and he has three issues with this system.

It arbitrarily changes the terms of everyone’s performance evaluation. Up to this point you could be the least talented member of a team and still be performing well above standard – a mere Christiano Ronaldo in a team full of Lionel Messis.

This, after all, is a blue chip company making outstanding products for a discerning global market. It’s one thing for a company to seek to improve the quality and performance of its people, it’s another to arbitrarily call their work ‘below standard.’ It is unjust.

Secondly, Peter feels it will corrode relationships and team morale since it is likely to set up unhealthy rivalries within previously harmonious teams: people’s focus will no longer be on doing the best they can for the team but on doing the best they can to ensure that they are not in the bottom 15%, and that someone else is.

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Peter’s third problem with the system is a practical one: no one in Peter’s team is actually performing below standard.

If Peter complies with this process, it requires him to lie and to be involved in unjustly punishing a valued member of his team.

However, HR systems that are rolled out from the mountain tops of multi-national companies are, like the laws of the Medes and Persians in Esther’s time, rarely amenable to change.

Someone is going to be hurt.

Peter prays, Peter ponders, and Peter, who happens to be on LICC’s Executive Toolbox, seeks advice from the other delegates. He returns to work and makes his views known to those above him. He knock, knock, knocks on heaven’s door in prayer but the system is not for turning. And so, he assigns Richard to the ‘below standard’ box. No bonus. A below inflation pay rise.

And we could leave the story there.

Peter has discerned injustice, prayed, sought advice, made a stand on someone else’s behalf, and he’s taken a risk by challenging the law of the Medes and Persians. He’s done what he could.

Praise God for all of that.

And sometimes that’s where things

‘In the new system 15% of employees have to be ranked ‘below standard’.’

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end – in injustice.

And sometimes one injustice can lead to another.

Peter’s senior manager has acquired an over-negative opinion of Richard. Peter fears for the employee’s future, particularly because this senior manager has a particularly forceful and intimidating communication style. So he prays and he consults his wife. She comments, “If your boss communicates forcefully, then, when the time comes, you too will need to communicate forcefully.”

Which, if you knew quietly spoken Peter, is like asking a breeze to behave like a typhoon. Certainly, a whisper can be as effective as a roar but it’s harder to hear a whisper when someone is roaring. But Peter wasn’t just trying to salve his conscience he was trying to win justice. As Jeremiah 5:28 reminds us: it’s one thing to plead the case of the fatherless, it’s quite another to plead it to win.

So Peter prays. And he prays to the point where God says, “I’ve heard you on this one. Enough already. Leave it to me.”

So time passes and then on a particular day, the forceful manager explodes at some work done by Richard. Before he knows it, Peter finds himself exclaiming May

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‘Someone is going to be hurt’

loudly: “You’re out of order. You’ve gone too far this time.” He can hardly believe what he’s done. And he waits for the typhoon.

But his boss draws up a chair, sits down and quietly asks, “Do you think so?” And they talk about it.

Peter reminds me of Nehemiah.

Nehemiah was rea lly exercised about something that was not right in the world – the devastation of Jerusalem.

Nehemiah prayed about it, for a long time.

Nehemiah didn’t have the power to change it himself but he had a boss with power. And a God with more.

Nehemiah prepared himself for an opportunity, and when the time came, Nehemiah, like Peter, acted boldly and unusually. In Nehemiah’s case he allowed the Emperor to see that his face was sad, something that those who

served the Emperor were forbidden to do. And because Artaxerxes respected him and cared about him he noticed and enquired: “Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill? This can be nothing but sadness of heart.” (Nehemiah 2:2) And he and Nehemiah had a conversation. The rest, as they say, is history.

Well, we could leave Peter’s story there with his bold defence of his team member: Peter’s been prayerful, Peter’s been faithful, and Peter’s taken initiative. He’s taken a justice-driven, selfless, prayer-drenched, community-supported bold risk for the sake of another person. Praise God for all of that. But that was not the end of the story.

‘You’re out of order. You’ve gone too far this time.’

At the final Executive Toolbox workshop Peter told us that the company had changed the language and terms of their ranking system: the percentage of people ranked in the bottom box would be 10% not 15%, the language used would be ‘below peers’ not ‘below standard’ and those so rated would receive half their bonus, as opposed to none, and would get half the inflation-linked pay rise.

Maybe it’s possible to change the law of the Medes and Persians.

Maybe God really is interested in the inner workings of business.

More specifically, the change in language reflects a change in philosophy. I can accept that I am not as good as others in my team, I can accept that though I have made a contribution to the business I may not deserve as much as others but I still deserve

November

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something, don’t I? And I do not deserve to be punished with a below-inflation rise if I have done a good job.

The ethos has shifted. Not as much as Peter would have liked because he still felt that their forced ranking system could lead to unjust outcomes. Perhaps in the fullness of time it will shift some more.

Still, progress has been made. God told Peter to leave it to him… and something remarkable has happened: a system has changed for the better.

Peter accepted his calling and called on his God. And God spoke. And Peter heard him.

And God acted. And Peter saw it.

And we could leave the story there and just reflect on the truth that God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow, that he answers prayer, that he can find ways round unjust human laws and unjust human practices, that he not only tells us to be faithful in the little things, but that he too is faithful in the little things.

And we could leave the story there.

But life is sometimes not that simple.

The HR department came back to Peter and asked him to increase the percentage of people in the ‘below peer’ box, and Richard would have been the one to fill it. Enraged and saddened, Peter told his boss, the very boss who had had such a negative view of Richard. And Peter’s boss told Peter that he had already informed HR that no such thing would be happening.

Peter’s boss had become Richard’s champion. As Proverbs 21:1 says: “The King’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases.”

And we could leave it there.

But I don’t suppose that Peter or God will.

Mark Greene is Executive Director of LICC.

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Prompted to Pray?

Bev Shepherd interrupting the everyday for prayers that work What prompts you to pray?

Your answer, like mine, may include the needs of a situation or person, an appeal for God’s wisdom, or a longing to meet with our Father. All of these are reflected in the life of Jesus, so totally valid, yet the reality is that many Christians find prayer difficult. With wearying commutes, increased pressure and longer hours we may feel that we scarcely have time to think, let alone pray. Many of our models of prayer involve extended times of quiet, a solitary location, the ability to concentrate without our mind wandering. Immensely valuable as these times are, they can seem like an ideal, leading to guilt and a sense of failure when unachieved. In Simply Jesus, Tom Wright suggests that Jesus redefined ‘space and time’ around himself, the role of the Temple was upstaged by his own work and ministry; his own person. The idea of a ‘holy place’ or ‘sacred time’ therefore is wherever and

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whenever we invite Jesus to be present, places of retreat and silence certainly but also the crowded train carriage, the corridor between meetings and wherever urgent guidance is needed.

People come up with creative prompts to pray all the time, at red-lights in the traffic, during the nightly toothbrushing ritual, even during the ironing. If you’ve not found a way that works for you, or even if you have, you may want to try PrayerWorks. The model is a simple one: sign up for a forty day journey of prayer and receive a short daily ‘prompt to pray’ via email, Twitter or Facebook. ‘The short messages helped me take a moment, in a busy day, to remember that God is with me in my workplace.’ These prompts follow the theme of the prayer journey and supported by further teaching on the LICC website – encouraging a broader focus for our prayers. On our first prayer pathway even policies, systems, and teamworking are prayed for.

Perhaps we also need to be challenged on our understanding of how prayer works. Too often our concept of prayer equates to sending an email to the CEO requesting their intervention - we are unsure it will be read, let alone actioned, and so we carry on as best we can, hoping for, but without assurance of, any intervention from on high. We all long to know that prayer makes a difference and that ‘my’ prayers are

not wasted. Without such assurance our prayer life becomes both dull and dutiful, or erratic, fluctuating with work pressures, felt need and physical energy.

Encouragement is important, whether this comes through the sense of God intimately knowing the details of my situation: ‘Intriguingly, a number of the prompts arrived on just the day where they connected directly with issues that I knew were coming up’; through the stories of others or direct answers to our own prayers shared on the prayer journey wall.

The greatest encourage­ ment comes from knowing that prayer is God’s idea. Jesus invites us to be yoked with him, walking with him, working with him, watching how he does it, an invitation that results in ‘rest for our souls’ (Matt. 11:28-29).

Prayer, quite simply, is focussing our attention on God – ‘watching’ how He does it. It may involve words or silence, listening or speaking, but primarily it is tuning our physical and spiritual senses to ‘Our father in heaven’. As we do this we grow in awareness of His activity in our workplaces, we listen to His wisdom for our work and His heart for our relationships with colleagues; we gain His perspective on those seemingly insurmountable barriers that beset many projects. We are also given the amazing privilege of asking for what we need, knowing that Our Father loves it when we acknowledge our dependence on His provision. In short, we get to ‘work with Him’ – co-labouring so that His Kingdom, His rule, may be extended in our workplaces. In this loving partnership God can and does act in response to our prayers. The implications of Exodus17: 8-13 are striking – without the outstretched arms of Moses in intercession, Joshua and the Israelite

‘Thank you for bringing my workplace more alive to my prayers.’

army would have been defeated in the battle with the Amalekites. Equally apt for many in the workplace, since prayer is a vital key in being fruitful in our work and bringing about godly transformation in our workplaces.

Join us on our second forty-day prayer journey ‘Pray4Life’, beginning in June, praying for unbelieving friends and colleagues to know God. You can also take the first prayer journey which focussed on ‘Blessing’.

Bev Shepherd is a trainer, writer and executive coach. She specialises in courses on leadership, team building and stress management. Since 2001 she has been an associate speaker for LICC and recently took responsibility for the PrayerWorks initiative.

The First Journey We’re so thankful that the positive response of the first PrayerWorks journey has been beyond all we asked, thought or imagined. Over 1800 people infused their work-life with these short prompts to prayer. These were just a few comments from those who journeyed.

‘I found this incredibly positive!’

‘They gave a different perspective to my day.’

‘It showed me how much I see my work as somehow separate from the life of faith.’

‘I think I may have heard the applause of heaven.’

Please join us as we Pray4Life at

www.licc.org.uk/prayerworks

Hope for Harvest Sarah-Jane Marshall reviews a new resource that takes a fresh look at the traditional festival of harvest HOPE for Harvest is the latest resource from the team behind HOPE 08, challenging churches to use the harvest season as another opportunity for reinvigorated mission.

You might expect the book to provide mission activities for the church congregation to do together, but its real strength is the conscious presentation of mission ideas for both gathered and scattered church.

The book centres around three main themes – thankfulness, work, and generosity.

Harvest is foremost a time of thankfulness in which we express ou r g r at it ude to God for His faithful provision in ou r lives. In the foreword Prince Charles writes of the importance of “[recognising] God’s bounty through giving thanks” thus connecting people with the Earth and each other. In a country where most do not celebrate an Americanstyle Thanksgiving, surely there is all the more need for us to rediscover this collective rhythm of profound thankfulness? Creative prayer ideas like a community treasure hunt with prayer challenges concealed in brightly coloured boxes can help the whole church family join in.

HOPE for Harvest also leads us to think about what it means to be ‘fruitful’ in our daily lives, being part of God’s kingdom mission on earth.

What could it mean to offer God our ‘firstfruits’ in a culture where few of us now work in an agricultural context?

How can churches be inspired to boldly pray for their congregations throughout

different seasons of their work lives?

Simple, practical ideas engage church services and small groups in affirming churchgoers in their daily work, for example laying objects symbolising daily work as an offering on the harvest display, so as to acknowledge their labour as something done ‘for the Lord’.

Harvest, finally, is a time to give generously. Whether by setting up a Food Bank, distributing grocery parcels to families in crisis or hosting a locally-sourced harvest supper for your neighbours, the book is packed full of ideas as to how both individuals and a collective church community could express thankfulness to G o d t h r oug h practical love of others. In the words of the original strapline for HOPE 08, HOPE for Harvest acts as a catalyst for creativity so that the Church can ‘Do More, Do It Together and Do it in Word and Action’.

Exploring the richness of the harvest tradition, should lead to an outpouring of creativity. Rather than the displays of unwanted tinned goods that too easily characterise many harvest celebrations, let us bring our whole lives as an offering to God and reflect on our great Sustainer – who gives us reason to work for his Kingdom with thankfulness and generosity.

Sarah-Jane joins LICC as part of the WorkForum, with a particular focus on the WorkStart project – equipping people in their 20s to develop a richer understanding of how their faith interacts with their daily work.

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Imagine Church Workshops How can churches become communities that envision, equip and support their people to be fruitful on their daily frontlines – wherever those are?

Throughout this year, Neil Hudson will be leading training workshops for church leaders and leadership teams who want to help create whole-life disciple-making churches. He’ll be exploring the biblical vision and the practical principles and process he’s been learning in his work with churches of different sizes and denominations across the nation and offering a clear framework for moving forward.

What are the implications for leaders and leadership teams who want to create

a missional disciple-making community?

How have people grown in confidence to make a difference on their frontlines?

What’s helped? What’s hindered? What keeps it going? What resources can help? And how can you discern the right first steps to take in your own particular context?

Naturally, individual delegates are more than welcome, but, given the nature and vital importance of the topic, it’s often more helpful if leaders can come with others from the same church.

Dates & Locations Tue 25 Sept: LICC, St Peters, Vere Street, London, W1G 0DQ. Tue 2 Oct: 7:30 - 9:30pm, Glenwood Church Centre, Circle Way West, Cardiff, CF23 6UW. Mon 8 Oct: Dawlish Christian Fellowship, Town Street, Dawlish, South Devon, EX7 9AL. Tue 19 Oct: Orangefield Presbyterian Church, 464 Castlereagh Road, Belfast, BT5 6BH. Tue 13 Nov: Kingsland Church, 86 London Road, Lexden, Colchester, CO3 9DW. Cost: £15, including refreshments. Lunch not provided.

To book, please email: mail@licc.org.uk If you’d like to host a training day, contact nigel.hall@licc.org.uk.

Life on the Frontline Neil Hudson, LICC, £8 Your frontline is the place where you spend much of your time, where you meet people who don’t know Jesus, where God has called you to be...it is the place of possibility “It is simply brilliant… accessible and potential. This and understandable, six session, DVDbut not patronising.” resource helps you Rev Ian Bunce, Head of the and your small Mission Department, Baptist group live fruitfully and faithfully for Christ Union of Great Britain. in the daily places of life and work.

SPECIAL OFFER: Buy 2 DVDs for £10 10

Neil Hudson is the Director of the Imagine Project at LICC and has been in ordained church leadership for over twenty five years. He still practises what he preaches two days a week as the pastor of a local church in Salford. So he not only brings his characteristically lively, down-to-earth teaching style to the workshops but a rich and helpful combination of practical experience and theological insight.

The Programme 9.30am Registration & Refreshments 10.00am The Vision for Whole-Life Disciplemaking 11.30am Break 11.45am Developing Whole-Life Disciplemaking Culture 1.00pm Lunch 1.45pm Engaging with Imagine 2.15pm Group Exercise: Where are we?

2.45pm Break 3.00pm Q&A 3.35pm Next Steps & Prayer

Imagine Church – Releasing Whole-Life Disciples Neil Hudson, IVP, £9.99, 184pp How can an ordinary church become a community of people who help one another live out their whole life – at home, work, church, in the neighbourhood – as followers of Jesus in his mission in the world? Read on.

Drawing on five years of work with churches across the UK, Neil sets out the vision, the principles and the kind of process that can help a church community make disciples who live fruitfully on the frontline.

Coming Up at LICC To book your place on any of our events you can scan this QR code with your smartphone.

Why We Love Men in Capes Mark Meynell, Monday 2 July, 6:30-8:30pm

Why are Superheroes such a big deal in contemporary culture?

What do their worldviews represent and what do their stories reveal about our hopes and fears?

Why are all our heroes men? Join Mark Meynell, and his utility belt, on a quest that includes Batman, the Incredibles as well as Nietzsche and C.S. Lewis.

Mark is Senior Associate Minister for All Souls, Langham Place. He has a particular interest in exploring contemporary culture from a Christian perspective and a reputation for being an excellent communicator.

Cost: £7 (£5 concessions) – includes light refreshments. Book online at www.licc.org.uk, email mail@licc.org.uk or call 0207 399 9555.

Of Markets and Men

Executive Toolbox 2013 - Make a difference where you are 18-19 January / 21-22 March / 20-21 June

Have a significant impact on the way you work, the people you work with and organisation you work in. Join a cohort of 36 people, meeting together for three 24 hour training sessions over 6 months designed especially for mid to senior level positions of influence. Core to LICCs mission of equipping men and women as ‘whole-life disciples’ on their frontlines we look forward to meeting you and working with you.

Applications for Executive Toolbox 2013 are now open, you can register online at www.licc.org.uk or call 0207 399 9555.

The End of the Word As We Know It? Or, What Now for the Bible?

Canon Dr Ann Holt OBE

The 400th anniversary of the King James Bible in 2011 saw wellknown atheists affirming its literary and cultural significance.

But is the Bible no more than a cultural icon or a literary classic?

What now for the Bible, now that the celebrations are over? Ann Holt explores some of the barriers to making good sense of the Bible, and offers ways forward for ever-deepening engagement with Scripture – in our personal lives as well as the public square.

To order your copy at £3.75 each, please call LICC on 020 7399 9555, or email mail@licc.org.uk

James Featherby, Monday 24 September, 6.30-8.30pm

We couldn’t have done this without you!

Mervyn King referred to the economic bail-out as ‘the biggest moral hazard in history,’ Of Markets and Men gives a robust reflection on the current state of UK financial markets – honed by 30 years of corporate law in a leading City firm and shaped by passionate belief in God’s purposes for business and finance in contributing towards a better world.

Join James Featherby as he explores what has contributed to our current experience of aggressive capitalism; what can be done to temper the effects of mega-business, debt and speculative trading; and how biblical wisdom helps us as we seek to influence the future as Christians in the marketplace?

A huge thank you to all our supporters.

Cost: £7 (£5 concessions) – includes light refreshments. Book online at www.licc.org.uk, email mail@licc.org.uk or call 0207 399 9555.

Toolbox 2012 – See life differently, live life differently 10 – 14 September

LICC’s 5-day Toolbox course will help you understand the inhibiting impact of the sacred-secular divide on Christian mission and living, and foster a vision for whole-life discipleship. A combination of interactive teaching, small-group discussion and field trips aims to develop your skills in biblical and cultural engagement, and inspire you to apply them in your everyday context.

For a free brochure or to book onto September’s course you can visit www.licc.org.uk, email mail@licc.org.uk or call 0207 399 9555.

Last year LICC invested boldly, launching new initiatives such as the WorkForum and PrayerWorks, producing four new books and DVDs, strengthening our communications and enhancing our website. At a difficult economic time, we spent more than we ever have before and we saw much fruit. We’re so grateful to our supporters – many who have given anonymously through the web – and whose amazing generosity enabled us to ‘break even’.

Thank you!

If you would like to support LICC’s mission in helping churches and individuals to make a difference on their Frontlines you can become a Friend of LICC by downloading and completing the form at www.licc.org.uk/licc-friends. Thank you once more.

Connecting with LICC Social Networking and Weekly Emails

You can connect with LICC more regularly by following @LICCltd on Twitter, LIKING us on Facebook or receiving our weekly emails, Word for the Week and Connecting with Culture.

The London Institute for Contemporary Christianity St. Peter’s · Vere Street · London · W1G 0DQ (t) 020 7399 9555 (f) 020 7399 9556 (e) mail@licc.org.uk (w) www.licc.org.uk @liccltd

LICCLtd

Editors: Jay Butcher & Mark Greene · Design/print: www.x1.ltd.uk All articles ©LICC – use only with prior permission from the publishers. LICC Ltd is a registered charity No. 286102

11

Making a Meaningful Connection Brian Draper on helping others interpret their own divine experiences Why did the tragic death of Claire Squires, who was running the London Marathon this April, strike such a chord with people? That’s what I was asked to consider from a spiritual perspective by the on-line BBC News Magazine, after the public had given over a million pounds to her JustGiving charity page in the days leading up to her funeral.

It’s a great question - and for me it was all the better because I didn’t immediately have an answer. Our Christian voice is more authentic and distinctive – and surely more winsome, too – when we have to enquire for ourselves, as much as for the benefit of others.

What followed was interesting.

The article I wrote sparked a response itself, going ‘top 3’ on the BBC’s site, and being picked up by local and national radio stations for its spiritual angle.

So what are people looking for, which we, as Christians, can offer uniquely, at such times? How can we help others ‘connect’?

Personally, I take my cue from something Nick Spencer wrote in Beyond Belief, an LICC report on his qualitative research among agnostics. “Most people,” he suggests, “have lost the traditional Christian spiritual language and as a result have no vocabulary for the sense and experience of the numinous which they still have.”

Christians, then, have a way of understanding the numinous (and our experience of it) which should help at such times – even if we have to watch our language.

The process, for me, firstly involves trying to connect my own faith meaningfully with what’s going on in life, and then secondly helping others to interpret their own experience of the divine. But crucially, I believe you can do both at the same time. We all have the

capacity to be moved at a soulful level; in the way Claire’s story seemed to move people. And such movement can help us to continue exploring the spiritual journey together. Connected.

Ecclesiastes says, “God has set eternity in the hearts of all people.” All of us, churched or not. We share common ground. Our challenge as Christians is to help others to know what to do with that

Claire Squires

London Marathon 2012 Fundraising target: £500 Actual amount raised: £1,000,000+ Projected number of donors: 45-50 Actual number of donors: 80,000+ sense of eternity, when it surfaces; where it is drawing us all, gently – and that it’s OK to edge into the deeper places of life.

Claire’s story, tragic though it is, helps us to acknowledge our shared desire and capacity to do something, to respond somehow - when a story about someone we haven’t even met touches us more deeply than we can put into words. It was something I could talk about as much at the school gates as on the radio, because people seemed hungry to.

Of course, there are rational reasons why so many responded to Claire (and her youth and beauty were two). But what’s interesting for me, in particular, is the space beyond the rational – where a lot

of people seem to find themselves, when they try to process what is happening inside. Are they simply being irrational in their response? Hardly. The opposite of rational does not equal irrational, in that pejorative sense. The Franciscan priest Richard Rohr suggests we often experience the trans-rational – through events that are bigger than the rational mind can process; things we struggle to articulate, yet which are real enough.

Matters of love, death, suffering, God, and infinity are all “trans-rational” then... and many responded in a transrational way to Claire’s death.

They didn’t know her; but her story reconnected them somehow, soulfully, with what matters most.

In my view, Claire’s JustGiving page became a virtual, sacred space for people to visit and perform a ritual akin to lighting a candle in church. Each small donation was like a flickering flame, a spiritual offering which represented something of much higher value than the pounds that began to accumulate. It was an indescribable response.

And it’s sometimes enough, as Christians, to try simply to describe the indescribable; to help people become aware of their trans-rational response to the numinous, the divine, and to make the most of those flickering reconnections with the One who set eternity in the hearts of us all, and who calls us to walk together.

Brian is a writer, thinker and speaker who wants to become part of the solution, not the problem. He is a regular presenter on Radio 4’s Thought for the Day, and has recently published Less is More, a short, poetic exploration of how to do more with less.