Our Priorities
I had a request to put something down on paper of the talk I gave at the annual general meeting. These comments describe our life in terms of three sets of relationships: our relationship with God, our relationship with our church family and our relationship to our community.
Our relationship to God
The fundamental value of our church is worship. It’s what defines us. I’m glad that when I come to church on a Sunday morning, I encounter a group of people who have come to encounter God. The dynamic of this relationship is that I acknowledge God as the centre of things and not myself. In worship, I make an active choice to orientate myself to God’s being, and to let go of my desire to be self-centred.
Our church’s worship will help to establish a pattern of life which is where our true worship will be found, as we orientate our day to day existence as a response to who God is. We learn to discover our true identity in the context of being constantly accompanied by and attentive to God’s presence.
This daily worship will need to be sustained not just by church worship but by a daily pattern of prayer and attention to scripture. This was why I put together the bible reading cards which have helped some of us to shape a daily pattern of attention to God’s word. We ought to be very cautious about using bible reading notes (which many of us like to use – such as the ‘Word for Today’) – their problem is that in the busy-ness of life, we skim over the verse or two from the bible they contain, and read the much more extensive notes. The many Christian practices for reflectively reading the scripture are vastly superior to reading somebody else’s comments about it. I suggested that church members fast from reading bible reading notes for the year, and instead read the bible. If the readings on the blue cards are too long (which are also accessible from the church website), then there are daily readings on the central church of England website, or it would be a good idea to read carefully the books which are read in church on a Sunday (currently Isaiah) or to start with a gospel.
In our pattern of prayer, the goal is to ‘pray constantly’ – developing not moments in our life for God (a couple of hours on a Sunday, and ten minutes every morning) but an entire life attuned to Him. An attitude of thankfulness each day is a great start to this; some have found being attentive to God in daily prayer and then using the discipline of writing down what we sense the Holy Spirit is placing on our hearts a useful practice – its purpose as a discipline is to better attune us to an attentiveness to the prompting of the Holy Spirit throughout our day – such prayer journaling is to be commended; finally, some purposeful ‘practising the presence of God’ throughout the day helps us to make this a constant awareness – in some menial task or other (and the day usually offers plenty of these) we should consciously be aware of God’s presence and bring ourselves to him – just three or four five-minute stretches throughout the day will pay enormous dividends.
Out of this source of worship, shaped by an attention to scripture and some good disciplines of daily prayer, flows the rest of our personal and corporate life. We can see how personal discipleship works, not a programme for self-improvement, but as the overflow of this constant attentiveness to God. If we are to take seriously shaping our lives after the pattern of Christ, we need to realise that the source and the strength for this come from this pattern of ‘life as worship’ which I have been describing. Indeed, it is so intimately connected that our daily actions, conversations and decisions are indeed part of that ‘life as worship’ – it forms an indivisible whole.
Our relationship to one another
We can see that our church life flows out of our relationship with God, but it also serves to strengthen it. We are given each other to build each other up, pray for one another, encourage each other, challenge one another etc… It is in the context of our shared life, that the church becomes God’s ‘model community’ – if we take our worship seriously, then God will be shown through our life together. That’s Jesus’ prayer in John 17 – that the Father might bring about a unity among believers so that the world might know…
While church on a Sunday allows to a small extent this development of relationship with one another, it is not the best context within which to express what it means to be church. It is a great environment for corporate sung worship and for bible teaching, but while there is some opportunity for personal testimony, prayer ministry and mutual encouragement, these are best achieved when we get together in smaller groups midweek. It is important for us to grasp, at St Andrew’s, that the fundamental unit of belonging is the network.
What networks are
Networks are groups of people within the membership of the church. They are not mid week meetings. It’s important for people to be able to belong as part of a network, even if they are never able to attend a network meeting. Within networks, informal gatherings of two or three for prayer, or a meal with a couple of people, or an email or phone call to stay connected are also important parts of our shared life. Everyone who is a member of the church ought to belong to a network – this is how we achieve pastoral accountability, and encourage one another in our discipleship.
Networks are the church, not an activity of it. All the aspects of a church’s life – worship, shaping our lives around God’s word, praying for our world, ministry to one another, sharing our faith with others – should be part of a network’s life. In this respect, we expect networks to be a fuller expression of ‘church’ than Sunday morning. It’s important, therefore, that networks retain an outwards focus – each network should aspire to grow and, ultimately, divide.
Network groups are life groups not study groups*. A good grasp of what the bible means is important – it is ordinarily provided for in sermons on a Sunday morning. A grasp of what the bible means to me is essential. Even the devil knows all the theology (better than we do) – but the task of Christian discipleship is not knowledge, but application. The task of network groups in the part of their meeting where they share how their lives are going (the ‘bible’ or ‘word’ part) is to take the scripture and honestly evaluate our lives in the light of it, and encourage one another in our growth in holiness, and to feedback to one another (hold each other accountable) as the weeks go by.
A good test of the health of a network group and its success at meeting these criteria will be the frequency with which we bring along our non-church friends to these groups. Many people who are interested in spiritual things will find a small group in someone’s home much less intimidating than church on a Sunday. Is your group somewhere where you would bring along an interested friend? It will be if it’s all about people’s lives, and how we live them better in relationship to God and one another.
*There is a place for study (other than listening to my sermons) – I recommend the Diocesan Course in Christian Studies and good personal reading and study. Network groups aren’t for this.
Our relationship to our Community
Our personal relationship with God and our communal encouragement equip us for an effective and meaningful life. Equip would perhaps be the wrong word, as if it is our work and tasks that are the point. Better maybe to say that our relationship with God and our relationships within our church family flow out, shape and determine the way in which we live in this world. Again, as part of a church family, we are able to have a corporate relationship with our communities, and indeed the various communities of which we are a part. There are three spheres in which our church, as a body, relates to the wider world – each are a vital part of our mission:
Personal Communities
Each of us is involved in completely different communities – whether geographical, family, work or hobby orientated. These are our personal primary spheres of engagement with our world. It is where we live that God calls us to live out his life. This isn’t only about giving testimony to God through our service of others and the way in which we give an account of our faith – it concerns the whole way in which we work, caring for God’s world and those who are a part of it. The God-empowered ordinary individual will have a transforming effect within the mundane things of everyday life. Our primary mission as a church, therefore, concerns the sum of all the ordinary places and relationships within which church members find themselves. Our networks will support and encourage us in this mission.
The local parish community
As a church we have a concern for our geographical parish – Marks Tey. Part of our contribution to ‘church’ life will show itself as a contribution to the village. We should look at better and more creative ways of serving our community; Networks might think of ‘adopting’ an area for prayer and acts of service etc… We are meaning to open up the church for a couple of mornings a week for coffee and conversation. The Rector has links with the school and with many members of the community through baptisms, weddings and funerals. Some of our church’s ‘mission’ in our local community will be worked out through networks, some through the Rector, and some through centrally organised activities and events (holiday club, alpha, coffee mornings, dinners etc…).
Wider concerns
We also have a concern for our world as a whole. It is good to be able to partner with CYO locally, Covenant Players in the UK, New Life Church in Nepal and Christ Liveth Mission, Zambia. In the wider world church, we need to have an engagement, not just in prayer, but also in practical knowledge and support. In this way we remember that we are not just a part of the Church of England, but part of Christ’s body worldwide.
Conclusion
None of these remarks contain anything new, but perhaps they will serve as a useful reference point for a balanced church life going forward from here. God is certainly at work among as, as testimony on Sunday mornings bears witness too, and we should continue to pray that God strengthens us in our knowledge of him and equips us to serve the world he has placed us in.
Richard Morgan, May 2008