Radical Welcome

Recently I was given a “Zero Intolerance” leaflet. It’s a publication from the United Reformed Church – one that seeks to encourage congregations of all denominations to stamp out prejudice. It’s a precursor to a poster campaign that may be hitting a church or a street near you in the not too distant future.

Its central thesis is that Jesus welcomed everyone but the church doesn’t and that failure to love is a blot on our copybook, a reason why many have left local congregations and a reason why others don’t join. Its call is to encourage churches to become “radically welcoming” to the marginalised of society and to accept people of all backgrounds without issuing any call to change.

If nothing else, the campaign poses some interesting questions ...

Do we need to repent of prejudice?

Quite possibly! I, for one, have been sinful since conception (Ps 51:5) and there is no part of my being that hasn’t been tainted by sin. Unlike God, I don’t always look at people’s hearts, I do sometimes look at outward appearances at least at first glance (1Sam 16:7) and that is something I do need to repent of. Maybe your church too...

Does more need to be done to make our churches more welcoming?

Absolutely! There is much to commend the welcome of my church and I guess yours as well but we’re not perfect. James 2 makes it quite clear that churches down the ages have been guilty of the sin of partiality. We need to be passionate and intentional about doing all we can to change that.

Is it our responsibility to accept people without calling them to change?

Not in a million years! The church isn’t a place where people stay the same. We follow a saviour who loved those that others tossed aside but who also issued the call to lifestyle change (Jn 8:11). We are bearers of the Holy Spirit whose role it is to help us put off the “old self” and put on the new (Col 3). And that message must ring true to people of all backgrounds (including our own).

If you see a “Zero Intolerance” poster later in 2011, why not think and pray about how you can start some conversations like this, using it as a spur to show love... and speak truth.

Five ways to tell if your church is evangelistic as well as evangelical

1. Your average church member tries to tell their friends and colleagues the gospel—no one thinks it’s a job only for pastors.
2. When someone starts coming and is converted, they invite their friends along without anyone telling them to—because church cultures are caught more than they’re taught.
3. Every member knows they can bring any unchurched friend to any service, and they’ll be made to feel welcome, hear the gospel of grace in a way they can see is relevant, and not be patronized or ignored.
4. At least once a year, you tweak or overhaul your services to make them more friendly to newcomers—your community’s culture is changing constantly, so so must your outreach.
5. Your children tell their friends the gospel in the playground and the park—and their parents encourage them to do it.

Watch the watch

Tim Thornborough writes about keeping an eye on the clock over on his blog about leading a home group.

The study is flowing, the conversation is sharp, funny and moving by turn.

Someone raises an interesting question that everyone wants to comment on. Someone shares a deeply moving need that everyone wants to pray for.

You look at your watch, and it's 10.45.

"Whoa!" you cry, "time these little piggies were all tucked up in bed for the night." Some members shoot out of their seats and head straight for the door. Others linger in the hallway talking by the open door. You stifle a yawn, close the door and switch on the TV to wind down before you go to bed. The light doesn't go off until 12.45.

Sound familiar?

Time can just rush by at a homegroup when things are going well, when enthusiasm and interest seem to be sky high. But did you notice the warning signs in the little scenario above? "Some members shoot out of their seats and head straight for the door."

Before you read on, just pause for a moment and consider what the typical timings for your group meeting might be.... continue reading

A Soldier's Story

This is an excellent testimony from our friends at Hill City Church, Wales.

"People used to think of me as Jim the Marine - it gave me that sense of recognition. And yet... there was something still missing."

James Richards talks about his experience serving with the Royal Marines, and his search for belonging in the battle of life.

Reading with the author

Just laying out some Explore notes on 2 Timothy by David Sprouse, and thought this comment was a corker:

"It is a wonderful, as well as a sobering, fact that unlike any other book in the world, every time the Bible is read the author is present. And it is what He thinks that counts."

A life and death issue

The debate on euthanasia is not going to go away. We’ve blogged on how we approach the issue ourselves, as Christians: and Dr Jason Roach guest-blogged a medic’s perspective.

But what about the question asked by a friend over a coffee at work, or on the way home from football, or at the school gate?

Here, for what it’s worth, is what we think we might say:

• Is this an issue you’re facing personally at the moment?
• Pain is awful. It’s a reminder that the world is not a perfect place: Christians would say it is not the perfect world God made. Things have gone wrong. And because pain is awful, it’s unsurprising that people feel it makes life unliveable, and we all seek to avoid it—sometimes even by dying.
• But dying to avoid pain makes one huge assumption: that dying is the end of pain, that death releases us from suffering. That’s such an important part of this debate, and so little talked about, that it’s worth focusing on it now. Is dying the end of pain?

Euthanasia: A Christian Doctor’s Perspective

The media furore over euthanasia during the last few days has made one thing abundantly clear. Sir Terry Pratchett’s documentary on assisted dying only showed us one side of the debate.

Both disability groups and Christian ones declared that other views needed to be heard. I have to agree. My medical background and Christian convictions both push me to think about the other side of the story.

A key question for me is: “How does a change in law affect the most weak and vulnerable?”

My medical oaths tell me to do no harm. My Christian values tell me to “help the weak” (1 Thessalonians 5 v 14).

And my experience tells me that hard cases, like the ones that make it onto TV documentaries, make bad law.

Two examples illustrate the point. First, what starts as a right to die sometimes seems to turn into a duty to die. For example in Oregon, where euthanasia is legal, the percentage of people taking their lives who felt a burden on their families rose 50% in three years between 1998 and 2000. Disability campaigners are rightly concerned that the most weak may begin to feel they are obligated to end their life.

Secondly, such legislation would be intended to authorise people dying because some thought it was right; but it might lead to people being killed when we would all agree it was wrong.

I remember only too well reading the case of Philip Sutorius, a GP who helped an 86 year old woman to die. He said that she was suffering “unbearably”. His reasons? She had said that she was obsessed with getting older, and thought her existence was hopeless.

I wonder if, just like traffic lights rightly limit our freedom to protect other drivers, so keeping the law as it is limits our freedoms for the benefit of all.

I wonder, too, if this whole debate distracts from the great work of the hospice movement. Dame Cicely Saunders, a Christian woman, set up St Christopher’s Hospice to give weak and vulnerable patients the care, pain relief and comfort that deserve. She recognised that for the Christian our dignity isn’t conditional on our productivity, but intrinsic to our humanity.

Perhaps our “Big Society” would do well to champion those hard-working servants in hospice care. They have certainly taught me over the years to work hard to show sick people the respect that society so often seems to decide in advance that they cannot have.

Jason is a vicar and a doctor with a particular interest in medical ethics and has worked for the British Medical Journal.

Being noticed

And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

Pic from http://web.me.com/saamvisual/epiloguetv/