Whole family services

The usual method in churches in their family service is to split the children and youth away from the adults, except maybe for an intordutory “altogether time”. The thinking is that then each age group can receive age-appropriate content. Sounds fine.

The problem is that so many children do not keep going to church as a teenager, or if they do, they find the jump into adult services difficult. Tim Chester and Steve Timmis claim that as they have not had the ‘family of God’ modelled to them in the services, they are more likely to decide that they don’t need the version of the family of God that they have come to know when they grow up. This family should be inter-accountable, learning from one another, supporting each other etc regardless of age or background. On the one hand the church says it values family, on the other it splits families up at the door. This is about far more than just services, but how could we  this be done?

One church kept the children and adults together for the main teaching session and then had a specific group for children when the congregation broke into application groups. The children were led by an adult but were encouraged to take the teaching seriously and apply it to the specifics of their own hearts and issues.

It’s an interesting approach, but it ensures that the whole congregations hears the same thing, but that each group works to find appropriate applications for themselves.

The person who does the ‘altogether teaching’ would have to work hard at making the talk understandable, but that has the added bonus that the teaching would be understandable! However, of the all-age services I’ve been to, only a few have had much to say to the adults. A danger of this sort of setup would be that the altogehter time is reduced to so it says nothing of substance to the adults. I’d be interested to see it though.

Spirituality

Chapter 9 of Tim Chester and Steve Timmis’ book, Total Church, talks about Biblical spirituality. They claim, rightly, that spirituality is word-based, and focussed on the person of Jesus.

“Union with Christ is not the goal of spirituality, it is the foundation on spirituality. It is not attained through disciplines or stages; it is given through childlike faith”

This, I agree with. As Christian’s we are not trying to be spritual in order to get to God, this path has been opened up to us through Jesus. Spirituality can therefore be seen as an engagement with the world rather than a detatchment from it. Timmis and Chester give an excellent example of a young Christian trying to do this, by remaining integrated with non-Christian friends and groups.

This is true, but at the same time, Chester an Timmis seem to see spending time in solitude and silence as and irrelevant part of spirituality. I certainly agree that it is not the entirety of spirituality, and it is also not a means by which to get to God, but surely by clearing our schedules and setting aside time, it enables us to focus our minds on God. I am also not suggesting that this quiet should be divorced from scripture, or that we go in search of an inner spiritual identity. Likewise, God will give us an extra revelation of himself to sit over and above scripture. But we do not have to choose between solitude and scripture.

But, the time to meditate on God’s words in the Bible, to clear our minds or preoccupations so that we can get to the heart of some issues and in short, engage with God. We clear our schedules so we can hear his voice speaking through scripture and through others. This is part of a biblical picture of spirituality. Didn’t God speak to Elijah through the stillness? Didn’t Jesus retreat away from the crowds on his own?

In this chapter, Chester and Timmis say a lot of good things, but I think they have missed a trick by dismissing stillness and solitude so easily.

Church Leadership

“The only demarkation amongst the people of God is that of function, not position. If my role is that of a leader in the local church, then I am a gospel minister using my gift to serve God’s people. But whatever my role, I am still a gospel minister using my gift to serve God’s people. A leader is not a ‘special’ case : he is a servant of the gospel among gospel servants; a brother among his brothers and sisters.” Steve Timmis and Tim Chester

Total Church (vi) – Mission

Chapter 6 of Tim Chester and Steve Timmis’ book, Total church talks about the church’s need to engage in world mission. Mission, they say, is an activity of God – it is right at the very centre of his actions, from his decision to choose a people for himself who would be a light to all nations, to the Great Commission given by Jesus at the end of Matthew’s gospel.

“The term mission, [Karl Barth] pointed out, was originally used of the sending of the Son by the Father and the sending of the Spirit by the Father and the Son. To this was added the sending of the Church by the Trinity. The Triune God is a missionary God. The church, then has a mission because God has a mission. The role of the church is to participate in the mission of God. The value of this perspective is the way it roots mission in the doctrine of God rather than relegating is to allied theology”

Mission should be part of a church’s DNA. In Romans 15:19, Paul says that “from Jerusalem all the way round to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ”. In what sense is that true? Paul preached extensively, and set up new churches, but by no means had the whole area been won for Christ! What Timmis and Chester suggest is that Paul has fully proclaimed Jesus to them. This is at the centre of mission. The rest of the work of growth, encouragement, preaching and planting was the responsibility of the local churches he left behind. Jesus was at the centre of their formation and consequently mission is part of their DNA. By no means should it be left to large mission organisations, as this simply distances the local church from the action of mission – which is part of their fundamental being. He cites the example of China – in 1945 all the mision agencies were expelled from the country, essentially leaving the task of mission to the local house-churches with no outside influence. Christianity boomed through their efforts, and because it is God’s mission.

Locally, the church engages in mission by being the community of grace and embodying the gospel of grace in the local society. On a more global scale, Chester and Timmis give examples of many local churches partnering with others around the world, or sending mission partners to various places to plant churches. All done in straight-forward ways by very ordinary people.

Planting Communities of Grace

Notes from the Dwell UK session by Steve Timmis, 12th July 2008.

Session 4: Planting Communities of Grace

Tuckman identifes 4 stages of development that groups go through as the form

1. Forming – people are being polite as the new thing starts. They are trying to get to know each other and being deliberately well behaved.
2. Storming – things start to get rocky. People get real and sometimes fall out as they feel they can be themselves. For some, their securtity is threatened. Others ask for structures to be put in place to hold the thing together
3. Norming – The group starts to develop its ow culture and begin to see a coherent vision. It feels more real, as friendships have survived the storming phase. Some become resistant to change in this phase so things don’t get difficult again.
4. Performing – A real sense of mutual dependence. There is shared ownership of the vision. Flexibility, loyalty and affection. The group does what it was formed for.

Question: Is it possible to avoid errors at the storming and norming phase? Timmis suggest we build in grace from the beginning.
1. The need of stand-out godliness (1 Tim 3:1-13)

People who model practical holiness in mudance bits of life – v2-4 contain a very ordinary list of virtues

• appoint people like that as they model grace.
• need for hospitality (that is, a love of strangers, of people not necessarily like us)
• godliness – have nothing to do with bribing, impressing or cajoling God. Godliness is an ordinary life lived with gospel intentions.

2. The Means of Godliness (1 Tim 3:16)

Beyond all question, the mystery of godliness is great:  He appeared in a body,  was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory. (1 Tim 3:16)

The secret is no longer a mystery (Paul writing against proto-gnosticism)

In the Old Testament, no one really knew how to live a godly life. People couldn’t really get there. The law exposed sin and condemned the sinner. The way was paved for Jesus.

Godliness is a heart issue before it is a behaviour issue. Godly people demonstrate Jesus in their life – they are a lover of God and others (most important commandments). The Mystery of Godliness is not about me, it is all about Jesus.

3. Where the need and means come together (1 Tim 3:15)

if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth. (1 Tim 3:15)

The Church is the pillar and foundation of the truth – God’s household. This truth is to be proclaimed over and over.

• the pillar holds the roof. In the temple of Artemis in Ephesus, the marble roof called out to people from afar.
• the church doesn’t need an ediface like that – the truth is the gospel of grace. This calls out to people.

If we plant communities of grace, we will produce churches and people who emanate grace and draw people to glorify God. It is a family likeness. God should be evident in the godliness of the church.

Tuckman added a 5th stage 10 years later.
Adjourning stage - the group has done what it set out to do. It’s goals are met.
- Each congregation is to adjourn as it plants new congregations with the DNA of grace in the updated context. This starts the cycle again.

Total church (v) – church planting

Continuing the series going through the book, Total Church, by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis.

Chapter 5 of Total church talks about church planting. Chester and Timmis claim that at the centre of the apostolic vision of mission was church planting – this is what Paul and his companions were doing all throughout the New Testament. The church is the agent of mission and as such, church planting is the primary form of mission.

Of course, by church, Chester and Timmis are not talking about the church as an institution of as the universal church. They are talking about the church as a loving and close knit family – as the early church congregations were. The early churches met in households, running a church was compared to running a family. Once this family of the church had outgrown the size of the household that they could meet in, they split into two smaller congregations. (Timmis and Chester giver references for this from Acts).

Local church congregations therefore are to look out and care for each other, to have the gospel at the centre, and are deeply integrated in their local community. Mission and evangelism, then, are part of the DNA of the church as they care for each other and for the community.

Why doesn’t this happen in most churches today? Total church claims there are a number of factors. One is that the church slips into ‘maintenance mode’. As a church gets bigger it starts providing programs and courses and so on, all of these create jobs that need to be filled in the church. The focus of the church then becomes keeping these programs going, rather than reaching out in new ways to the local community.

I guess the main focus of the chapter is simple: that the mission of God involves engaging with the surrounding community and planting communities (church groups) where God’s grace can be lived out and witnessed in the community. Quite simple really.

Church Planter as a Minister of Grace

Notes from the Dwell UK session by Steve Timmis, 12th July 2008.

Session 2: The Church planter as a minister of Grace

In 1 Timothy, Paul was an experienced church planted and knew about Grace. Timothy was his young protege trying to get a new church back on the ‘gospel’ track

1. Grace is Primary Identity as Church Planters

In 1 Tim 1:15, Paul says that Christ came to save sinners, and that he is the worst of all.  This is in the present tense. How cam Paul still have an identity as a sinner after all these years?

v13 – Paul says he was bad, but he was shown mercy. But he seems to see his sin more now (writing 1 Tim) than he did then
- As we look back we reflect and are reminded of it, despite the joy of forgiveness – often it is with a shudder – how could we have done the stuff we did?

v14-15 – Paul sees God’s grace as more than abundant. We are great sinners with a great saviour
-> Grace is to be our primary identity. Despite our sin, our names are written in heave by grace.

Therefore the primary identity of anyone who wants to plant churches is that of grace – a saved sinner. This combats pride in how many churches we may have planted.

2. Ministry as Church Planters

Paul’s emphasis is on grace in order to draw them away from legalism – there was an over-reliance on Old Testament law. Paul combats this false teaching in the church by refreshing Timothy’s heart and mind with the gospel – he teaches Timothy about grace. He wants Timothy to command and instruct them away from the false doctrines, done out of love (1 Tim 1:3,5). Timothy has to stand up in front of the church and be clear – he must keep a sincere faith and a good conscience.

3. What is the relationship between primary identity and ministry.

If our identity is that of a recipient of grace, the identity will define the ministry. Conversely, if we find we are expecting legalism through requirements made on others, it might be because we are legalists at heart.

Our identity as recipient of grace

• will enable us to practice grace with others and the leadership
• will enable us to love the unlovely and unloveable (because at heart we know we are)
• will enable us to realise that our grasp of the gospel is not down to our ability
• will help undermine power plays

We will be able to handle failure and criticism, because it is not our pride and identity at stake, but God’s gospel. We are all children of God through grace and saved sinners through grace.

Total Church (iv) – social involvement

The 4th chapter of Total church concentrates on social involvement. How much should a church be socially involved. Often in the past, doing good works has been seen as an either/or with evangelism.

Tim Chester and Steve Timmis point out that Jesus not only went to the poor and marginalised, he considered them equally worthy to have community with him as anyone else. By sitting and eating with, say, Zacchaeus the tax collected Jesus invited him into him community. The poor don’t just need their lived improved, they need the gospel. Cleaning up someone’s house, for example, is a great example of how communities can love the poor, but this act needs to point to something. Without the gospel of grace it would equally point to a gospel of works or social betterment. This is not the gospel that Jesus taught. All need to hear his words and respond to him in repentance and receive grace. The poor are poor for all sorts of reasons, and very few of them have to do with lack of resources. By introduction to and welcome into an authentic Christian community, they will have the support they need.

However, Christian community has not always been welcoming to the poor. Timmis and Chester are also critical of how churches in the UK (particularly evangelical churches) have traditionally neglected problem areas. The successful ones are full of middle class, upwardly mobile, wealthy people – people just like each other. For some reason, the working classes have not been welcomed or have not felt able to go there. The Christian community was lacking. This, they claim, is not only doing the poor a dis-service, but the rich too, as it communicates a message that Jesus wasn’t teaching – one where status and wealth do matter (even if this is unspoken). The gospel of grace is a gospel for all, rich and poor, and I can’t help thinking we are lacking something of authentic Christian community if we neglect either group.

Total Church (iii) – whole community evangelism

Continuing on their discussion of church being a place where gospel ad community meet, Tim Chester and Steve Timmis move on to talk about evangelism in their book Total Church.

Too often evangelism is seen as something difficult, for individuals to engage in, and as something else that a Christian needs to slot into their life. They argue that if the church took the call to be a radical loving community seriously, this needn’t be the case. People become Christians and start asking questions, they claim, when they see the intersection between faith and the community of faith.

They see a three-strand approach to evangelism: Building relationships, sharing the gospel, and introducing to the community. And, they claim, it doesn’t matter which one comes first. This makes evangelism a role of the whole community, not just of the individual who first meets the seeker.

Some people are simply not good at speaking to strangers and forming new friendships. One of the practical benefits of the three strand model of evangelism is that it gives a role to all of God’s people. By making evangelism a community project, it also takes seriously the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit in distributing a variety of gifts among his people. Everyone has a part to play: the new Christian, the introvert, the extravert, the eloquent, the stuttering, the intelligent, the awkward. I may be the one who has begun to build a relationship with my neighbour, but by introducing him to community, it is someone else who shares the gospel with him. That is not only legitimate; it is positively thrilling!

If this is the model, evangelism does not become an extra thing that an individual needs to do, but it is a gospel intention in the way a community lives out its life. As it goes about what it usually does, inviting people into the community should become second nature.

Total Church (ii) – authentic community

I started taking God seriously whilst at university. There were plenty of questions about faith that were going around in my head at the time, such as how do we relate to God, etc. But the thing that made a difference in my faith was finding a community (in the form of a student group) in which I could ask these questions. Since then, I have been drawn to churches where there has been this sense of community in some way, be it in the whole congregation or in small groups.

Tim Chester and Steve Timmis address this issue of community in the second chapter of Total Church. They claim that community was at the heart of God’s covenantal dealings with us and his mission in the world – from the law that governed the community given by Moses at Mount Sinai, the nation that was to be a kingdom of priests to the surrounding world, to the small community that Jesus drew around himself to redirect  the mission of God.. This community was centred around Jerusalem to draw people in, now it is centred around Jesus a goes out. But community is still key. As the early apostles went out they planted communities in each city, not just a place where individuals could come and perform acts of worship. The church (that is, the community of believers) is still at the heart of God’s dealing with the world

Chester and Timmis also claim that too often church has been seen as just that place to come to deal with an individual’s worship needs. It is seen as one more thing to juggle in a busy life, alongside work, family, social activities and the like., So, when something else, say, a new born baby comes along to make life even more busier, church is often the thing that gets dropped.

What is the alternative? Well, in a truly supportive loving Christian community, the Jesus-centred community is the focus, not the individual. So when one person suddenly has more responsibility or less time, the rest of the community gather round to support. Similarly, when more time is gained, it can be offered to the community. So when, say, church members Bob and Mary have twins:

When babies are born [or anything else] it is an issue for the whole church. The congregation takes on some of the responsibility because their identity and life is that of persons-in-community. So, perhaps a couple of people go round early each morning to bath the babies so Bob and Mary can have time together over breakfast. Or someone offers to take Bob to work for  a few months so that on the way he can sleep… Bob and Mary may not be as involved in the church meetings, but they are more involves than ever in the life of the community.

That sounds like an attractive vision to me.