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Wealth and Poverty … which would you choose? March 19, 2007

Posted by rupertward in Church, money, Poor, preaching.
19 comments

Yesterday, I was preaching in church again, and in light of discussions in a previous post and comments, here is a summary, to allow comments, thoughts or experiences from anyone, whether you were there or not. It is part of our money series we have been doing this year. An MP3 should be available here by Wednesday if you fancy having a listen.

In our protestant tradition, poverty is not something that we have really thought about much, except to say it is bad and should be avoided at all costs (and occasionally to say that it is obviously a sign of not following God, having faith, or being blessed in some way!). But in other traditions, a vow of poverty or making poverty a virtue, has been a strong emphasis (eg. in the ascetic movement, Monastic movement, and in the Catholic Church. Mother Theresa is a classic example of someone who took a vow of poverty, to give herself to serving the poor).

There is much in the Bible that would advocate this course of action: “sell your possessions and give to the poor” say Jesus (Lk 12:33. See also: Lk 14:33; Mt 6:19; Mt 19:21). It is easy to “reinterpret” those verses, to make them something that doesn’t apply to us today, but before we do, lets consider some of the warning the Bible gives us about the dangers of lusting after or having riches and wealth:

  • We can fall into temptation, ruin and destruction (1 Tim 6:9)
  • We can wander from faith (1 Tim 6:10)
  • We can become arrogant and not trust God (1 Tim 6:17)
  • It is hard to enter in to the Kingdom (the fullness of live now, rather than heaven) (Mt 19:23)
  • We can become unfruitful (Mt 13:22)

These are serious warnings, and as I was writing the sermon and speaking I was feeling challenged and uncomfortable about my riches and comfortable lifestyle. This was no finger wagging time, but was sobering about what the Bible seems to be saying about poverty.

But there is also stuff in the Bible about wealth and prosperity. It is harder to find in the NT, but there are some seriously rich people in the Bible (Abraham, David, Solomon, Zacchaeus) for example. There is also verses about prosperity as a blessing for those who walk with God and are obedient (eg. Dt 30).

So how do we reconcile these two streams of teaching and understanding? Well, perhaps neither poverty nor riches is right or wrong, but it is more about our attitude to money that is most important. God might call some to poverty, some to riches (which is perhaps the harder journey!), or there may be different seasons in our lives where we experience both. So what would Jesus say is the most important attribute to have concerning money?

I suggested that there was a ladder to climb. At the bottom of the ladder, when we are first grappling with our attitude to money in a society that is continually lusting for more, is contentment. This word is mentioned 7 times in the NT, and 6 of them are about money / possessions (eg. Phil 4:11-12, where Paul says he has learned the secret of being content in any situation, whether has loads, or nothing!).

The second rung of the ladder is generosity. I suggested that generosity is not the same as giving. Giving is good, but it becomes generosity when it costs. For example the Macedonian churches in 2 Corinthians gave generously out of there extreme poverty (2 Cor 8:2).

But the thing that Jesus seems to value more than anything else is being faithful or trustworthy (eg. Mt 25:21 & Lk 16:10-12), which we learn through contentment and generosity. This is when He trust us with Kingdom resources, knowing that we will use them wisely. This is when God can trust us with more money (tricky issue as we can’t give to get, otherwise we haven’t really learned the lesson of contentment!), and trust us with “true riches” … riches of the Kingdom: influence, power, fruitfulness etc.

Mother Theresa followed the path of poverty to come to this place of being truthworthy, and she was then trusted with Kingdom riches of influence and power. God could trust her, knowing that she wouldn’t abuse those riches, but use them for the Kingdom, as she had proved trustworthy with money.

What do you think? What are you experiences of poverty or wealth, and what did you learn? Does it surprise you to learn that Jesus talks more about faithful or trustworthy with money than anything else? Or perhaps you don’t agree?

Guidance in Community – Part 2 March 15, 2007

Posted by rupertward in Church, Community, Guidance, Leadership.
21 comments

The Mind of Christ

Yesterday I posted Part 1 … how I think we often have a Old Testament model for guidance and leadership. Now for Part 2:

In 1 Cor 2:16, Paul says that “we have the mind of Christ“. The context here is understanding God and His ways and Paul sets up a contrast between the Christian (with the Spirit) and the not-a-Christian (without the Spirit). Paul is saying here, that all Christians (who therefore have the Holy Spirit) are able to know the thoughts of Christ.

I love the way that is translated in the Living Bible:

But, strange as it seems, we Christians actually do have within us a portion of the very thoughts and mind of Christ.

And this translation forces us to recognise something: it is plural. We Christians. I don’t have some of the thoughts of Christ, but together we do! So when is comes to guidance in a Christian community, the leaders don’t have the mind of Christ, nor the prophets, nor the intercessors, nor the sceptics, nor the finance team or any other group! But together we do, and we need to listen to everyone to discern the leading of the Spirit.

What then is the leaders role? Here are some thoughts:

1. Leaders creates a safe context for people to express what they are seeing and hearing, in conversation and prayer.

2. Leaders help people to recognise they don’t see it all, but they see part that makes up the whole.

3. Leaders help create healthy dialogue between people that see things differently so we can learn from each other, and see more of the whole.

4. Leaders draw together the different strands that emerge from the conversation, prayer and prophetic.

5. Leaders communicate to the community what is emerging from the talking and prayer.

This is not a model of leadership that we find often in churches, but one that I think is more consistent with the New Testament. It takes guts & courage, a whole different set of skills, and a HUGE faith in God, that He is leading us all together, not just a few individuals or one person (the Pastor!).

It engages people, and begins to create ownership and maturity. It breeds humility and generosity in a community, and we begin to see the church working as a body, with everyone having their contribution. It allows for thinking and understanding to develop and grow. So as we move forward, I believe, we have more of the thoughts of Christ towards us.

What do you think? Have you experienced this kind of guidance working at all?

Guidance in Community – Part 1 March 14, 2007

Posted by rupertward in Church, Community, Guidance, Leadership.
11 comments

Last Sunday, after 2 years of consultation, dialogue, prayer and dreaming, we announced that we were moving forward to the next stage (fundraising) for a building renovation on our church building. Some folk in the church thought we should have done it ages ago – others still remain unconvinced.

We have a building in a great location, in town, good roads and buses, near students, parking OK (at weekends and evenings anyway!), on a main street. We are noticeable and central. But if we owned the plot of land with no building, the current building isn’t what we would build now. It is an old church building, about 160 years old, that was built primarily at a preaching centre (although there was a school built at the back too): big auditorium, gallery, and all rather centred around a large central gathering of the church.

Now we are looking for other rooms, a space that reflect the kind of church we are becoming. A building that helps us engage with the wider community. A building that enables some of the missional projects that we are planning.

This process has got me thinking about how we discern the will of God as a community? There is more to say in some subsequent posts, but here is one thought to start off:

Often in church (it seems to me) that we model guidance from an Old Testament model of God’s leading Israel. There God called specific individuals (eg. Moses) who lead the nation. They were the ones who went to God, got the vision and direction for the nation, told the people what God was saying, and off they all went (all be it, with some grumbling!).

In many churches, it seems this model of guidance predominates. We want the leaders to be connected to God, get the vision and direction and tell the church what to do. Now while there is a little truth in this, there are a couple (at least) significant differences between this Old Testament model of guidance (and leadership) and how it should operate in church.

1. After Exod 19, God doesn’t speak to the nation of Israel any more. He calls specific individuals (leaders and prophets) and speaks to them on behalf of the nation. They become the mouthpiece for God, and the people had no direct access to God themselves. This has obviously changed in the New Testament, where all can hear the voice of God.

2. The nature of leadership in church is significantly different to the leadership of a nation. One of main passages that speak of leadership in the NT is Eph 4, where the role of leaders is not to do the stuff, but to train / equip others to do the stuff. No longer is ministry the domain of a few individuals, but for all (or at least should be). So a leaders role is to help discern the gifts in individuals and help them into functioning in those gifts. I think this concept has been talked about, but very rarely put into practice.

So now, we have a church community where every individual can hear God for themselves, and have a contribution. That I think changed the way we discern the will of God in the church, from the way the nation of Israel found guidance in the OT.

I think this OT model of guidance in community is much easier … easier for leaders who don’t have to engage the community together in discerning the will of God, and easier for the “congregation” as they can leave it up to the leaders. Trouble I don’t think the results are that good (it doesn’t engage and empower people for starters), and I don’t think it is a NT practice.

What do you think?

The Great Global Warming Swindle March 8, 2007

Posted by rupertward in Environment, TV.
11 comments


I like to think that I am the kind of person that believes others, that thinks the best of them. Very noble you might say. Or you could say gullible. I hate it when it happens (and it does!): when I have believed someone hook, line and sinker, and then find that I have been led up the garden path (do you like my mixed metaphors?).

So when it comes to global warming, or “human induced climate change” as I am told it is now called, I am believer! I was convinced last year, watching a program by David Attenborough, hugely respected and well known naturalist and TV presenter. If David is convinced, so am I. I believe. We all believe. Er, excuse me, I don’t!

So, says Eric, in the comments of a previous post, New Earth and Carbon Emissions: he is not a believer. He cites books and points us in the direction of an article about a leading French scientist, who has changed his mind on climate change, or to be more accurate, if humans are causing climate change. And apparently Erik and this Frenchman are not alone.

Tonight, on Channel 4 at 9pm (in the UK) there is program called the Great Global Warming Swindle, questioning the consensus on global warming being induced by the CO2 and human activity. The logic goes (apparently) it is not the increase in CO2 that is producing Global Warming, but Global Warming that increases the levels of CO2. Apparently there are some leading scientists who are promoting this view on the program.

In the US there seems much more debate about the environmental issue than in the UK. James Dobson and others, has joined Jerry Falwell, in denying the human cause of climate change in a recent open letter to the National Association of Evangelicals. Jim Wallis and Brian McLaren join in the riposte against the religious right. In the UK, there really doesn’t seem to be any loud dissenting voices in the Christian World. All are believers, so it seems.

I too am a believer. But who knows what I will believe after the program tonight! What about you? Do you believe? And if you watch the program, what did you make of it?

Different Types of Loneliness March 5, 2007

Posted by rupertward in Church, Loneliness, preaching.
17 comments

Yesterday, I had 20 minutes in our Sunday church gathering to communicate something meaningful and helpful about loneliness! An impossible task, especially as I was so aware there were bound to be folks for whom this wasn’t an interesting topic, but a painful and present reality. In the end I thought I did well, but did feel a bit rushed; I didn’t want to give trite answers, but wondered if I had left us with enough hope at the end?

So, as promised at the end of my sermon, and prompted by some great comments in a previous post, Preaching as Community?, here are some brief notes of what I said. Please feel free to comment, agree or disagree (in the spirit of generosity and love!), and post your reflections … and if you weren’t there, you would most most welcome to join this online learning community!

There are some previous reflections on Loneliness here, that contributed to what I said. I won’t repeat those things here.

Loneliness is more that wanting to be around people, but is a feeling of feeling disconnected or alienated from other people. It is vastly different from solitude, which is chosen and helpful. As Paul Tilich (a theologian) says:

Our language has wisely sensed the two sides of being alone. It has created the word loneliness to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word solitude to express the glory of being alone.

One of the most helpful things is to realise there are different types of loneliness. If you read different books or articles, people will categorise differently, but here are three different types that I see:

1. Situational. This is type of loneliness that is caused by the situation you find yourself in. A spouse dies, a relationship breaks up, you move house or location, friends move away, you change church etc etc. Although a painful reality for many people, this can be alleviated by finding new friends, starting a new relationship, joining a club or finding another group to belong to. This is probably the kind of loneliness that many old people find themselves in, as well as others at other stages of life eg. going to university.

2. Internal. This type of loneliness is not dependent on our situation, and would still be present even if the circumstances of our lives changes. It springs from a longing to know others fully, and be known. To be authentic, and transparent. It is longing to return to kind of relating to others in the story of Genesis 2 in the garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve are naked and unashamed. We can be seen for who we really are, and know that another accepts us and loves us unconditionally. We see that sin or selfishness (in the story in Genesis 3 of “the fall”) alienated us from God and each other. As Jesus begins to heal our woundedness and brokenness, and we move towards God, we can learn to move towards others. We can find profound and real change in this type of loneliness, but we will, in this life, always still be hiding to some extent, and therefore living with a disconnect between our revealed self, and authentic self.

3. Restlessness. I have taken this type of loneliness comes from Ronald Rolheiser’s book, The Restless Heart. We are travellers in this world. Deep inside each human being these is a “memory of having once been touched and caressed by hands far gentler than our own” or “before being born, each soul is kissed by God and the goes through life always, in some dark way, remembering the kiss and measuring everything it experiences in relation to that original sweetness” (Rolheiser p. 55). We long for eternity, which we glimpse now, but the full realisation is to come. Mostly we keep so busy or distracted to connect with this deep core of our personhood, but when we do we connect with a cosmic aloneness, that this life is not we were meant for. We are destined for so much more. This kind of loneliness or aloneness is constantly present, but probably many people are never still enough to truly experience it.

Our hope as Christians, is that Christian Community, despite its imperfections and failures, is a place where we can find hope and friendship No 1; Jesus does come to heal our woudedness to move us forward in No 2, and although No 3 will be always (and maybe we become increasing aware of this) in this life, our HOPE for the future is for a life where we don’t “see in glass darkly” and we find rest, peace and a home with God and other people.

Anyone find this helpful? Or got things to add? Or to disagree?

New Earth and Carbon Emissions March 1, 2007

Posted by rupertward in Church, Environment, Jerry Falwell, New Heaven and New Earth.
51 comments

I wasn’t there. I was having a great time with some of the students from our church, away for a weekend praying, learning, walking and talking (and there might have been a bit of wine tasting and poker playing thrown in for good measure). So I wasn’t there when church got a little controversial.

A mate of mine was speaking, part of a series on money, on how we spend our money in an environmental way, that honours the fact that we are stewards of creation, with a mandate to tend and care for the world that we live in. All fine and dandy, until he asked if there were any questions at the end of his talk, and a debate ensued about (amongst other things) whether it is OK to fly all around the world to preach the gospel … would the souls saved justify the carbon emitted? I may well be trivialising the debate (I WASN’T there!), but it did get me thinking …

Meanwhile, across the pond, Jerry Falwell was preaching in his church (rather larger than ours … and I WASN’T there either) that global warming is a myth, designed to distract the church from our real task:

“Further, there’s no need for the Church of Jesus Christ to be wasting its time gullibly falling for all of this global warming hocus pocus. We need to give our total focus to the business of reaching this world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and stop running down meaningless rabbit trails that get our focus off of our heavenly purpose.“

As I touched on the a previous post, how we understand the end times does influence what we see being important now. I think we have spiritualised the gospel, making the goal “heaven” and the only thing that really matters is: our ticket there. So, as Falwell states, the most important thing we can do now is evangelism. Even if we do see a mandate to care for creation, it is still second best to seeing souls saved. In the end, God will destroy the earth, and create a new heaven and a new earth, or so many have believed.

There is another stream of theological understanding: God is not going to create a new heaven and new earth, but to restore the one we have now. Restore to be perfect, without the ravages and consequences of sin. The Old gives way to the New as God restores the whole cosmos.

There are many reasons to favour this understanding. For example, the Greek word for New in 2 Pet 3:13 and Rev 21:1 is not the word ‘neos‘ [meaning new in time or origin] but ‘kainos‘ [meaning new in nature or in quality], implying that the current world won’t be destroyed and a new one created in its place, but the one we have now will be renewed. NT Wright holds this view, and there is great paper available here to download, written by Michael Goheen, Professor at Trinity Western University, British Columbia, Canada, and author of The Drama of Scripture.

Goheen sees this understanding really does matter. If we believe in in a Brand New Heaven & Earth then our main mssion is getting people that ticket to heaven. However, if we see God restoring our whole cosmos, and our new life will be to live on this restored earth, then our mission “is to be, speak, and do the good news. If redemption is the restoration of the whole of our creational life, then our mission is to embody the good news that every part of creational life, including the public life of our culture, is being restored. It will mean being good news in our care for the environment, international relations, economic justice, business, media, scholarship, family, and law.“

I wasn’t there on Sunday. So why don’t we discuss here: does souls saved justify carbon emissions?

Climate Challenge: Can you do better? February 28, 2007

Posted by rupertward in Environment, Fun.
5 comments


If you have a spare few minutes, try this Climate Challenge by the BBC. You become leader of a United Europe (are they making a political point here?) and have to balance differing demands for money, popularity, food, water, power, and your carbon emissions. As the environment is top of my thinking at the moment, and as it is much clearer how well you doing in this area, rather than the economy, I think I neglected making the figures work. So I saved the world, but plunged a whole continent into recession and poverty. Mmmm! Can you do any better?

HT: Sanctus 1

Loneliness: our constant companion and friend? February 26, 2007

Posted by rupertward in Church, Community, Loneliness, preaching, society.
11 comments

Next Sunday, I am speaking at church on Loneliness, and in light of a previous post, Preaching as Community?, I am hoping for some help! Here are a few thoughts, I hope will generate a bit of discussion or some comments (so go on, stop lurking and add your thoughts!):

Loneliness is one of the greatest human problems, especially so in our modern society with the fragmenting of community & family and the migration of people from the country to the city. It is not to be confused with being alone, but is more a feeling of being cut off or separate from others. The old cliché that you can feel most alone in a crowd definitely has some truth in it.

I think it is something that most people grapple with at some point in our lives, and for some it is something they live with pretty much constantly. There are probably lots of reasons why people feel lonely, but I want to suggest here that there is something inevitable about feeling lonely.

There is a longing deep inside us to be fully known and to know others fully; for other human beings to look at us, as we really are, and to accept us, to love us, to move towards us. We are longing for a deep connection with others, and anything less, leaves us feeling very alone in this world.

But as we learn from the Genesis story of Adam and Eve, our selfishness has led us to live in ways that are self-protecting; we metaphorically put fig leaves over our sin and our shame, which leads to separation from others. While we move towards God and find his love and grace for our brokenness and shame, and therefore move towards others in vulnerability and honesty, we will never be free of our selfishness. At least not this side of death, and a full realisation of the Kingdom.

So loneliness becomes our constant companion, reminding us that we are meant for so much more. It tells us that we are works in progress, being restored and healed. We experience longing for real and authentic relating to others, that we occasionally get glimpses of and which only awakens a hope for more.

What do you think? Is loneliness inevitable? Is it our friend? Or is it something that Jesus does come to set us free from? Is it our enemy? Does it really show up our lack of authentic community? What have you experienced or learnt about loneliness?

To finish, a quote from Mother Teresa:

When Christ said: “I was hungry and you fed me,” he didn’t mean only the hunger for bread and for food; he also meant the hunger to be loved. Jesus himself experienced this loneliness. He came amongst his own and his own received him not, and it hurt him then and it has kept on hurting him. The same hunger, the same loneliness, the same having no one to be accepted by and to be loved and wanted by. Every human being in that case resembles Christ in his loneliness; and that is the hardest part, that’s real hunger.

William Wilberforce February 22, 2007

Posted by rupertward in Church, Politics, society.
6 comments

This morning I happened to listen to a fantastic program on Radio 4 on William Wilberforce (my wife had changed the radio from Radio 5 that I usually listen to!). Melvyn Bragg presents “In Our Time” which you can listen again to here (or if you read this a week after posting, you will be able to find it in the archives here). Bragg looks at the life of Wilberforce, and is very explicit about Wilberforce’s faith, that motivated his life mission to see the slave trade abolished. Really worth listening too if you have a spare 45 minutes.

It was great to hear a program that did not dilute the role that Christian Faith played in the life of Wilberforce. If you look at The Amazing Change website, connected to the Amazing Grace film that is coming out in a few weeks time in the UK, you can hardly find any reference to Wilberforce’s faith. Even the name of the Clapham Sect has been changed to Clapham Circle, and no reference to them all being Christians! [HT toggietales]

It is an amazing story, which is in the media as this year celebrates the 200 year anniversary of the Houses of Parliament passing a law to abolish the slave trade. Wilberforce had found faith due to the influence of Isaac Milner, in his 20’s, and then considered giving up politics (he was MP for Hull) and going into the priesthood [there is an interesting article on his conversion at the Church Society website]. But a conversation with John Newton (author of the hymn Amazing Grace and a former slave trader) persuaded him otherwise, and to devote his life to the abolition of the slave trade. Many years later, in 1807, he had persuaded parliament to pass a law abolishing trading of human beings, but it was not until 1833, a few days before Wilberforce died, that slavery itself was abolished.

Wilberforce is an inspiration to those of us now who believe that Christians should be at the forefront of any move to bring about social change in our society [see previous posts, Visit to Cambridge or Dancing in the Aisles]. And maybe too, a reminder that there are still people who are being bought and sold in slavery today?

Preaching as Community? February 21, 2007

Posted by rupertward in Church, Community, Emerging Church, preaching.
12 comments

There has been a fascinating conversation that has been happening in the comments section on a previous post, Dancing in the Aisles. After a number of comments going back and forth about how the church should critique society for its attitude to sex, Paul Ede left the following comment:

“This really could make a fascinating sermon. Is this a post-modern way to write a sermon? Have an actual talk shaped by discussion on-line. Certainly there is a host of good things that Rupert could use here for a very engaging talk on the subject. Seriously, this is good stuff. Maybe monologue preaching can be “saved” by being created in dialogue like this…an alternative to introducing a dialogue format in a church where this might be less practicable because of the size of the congregation. Also, encodes idea of us all having the voice of the Lord. Preaching becomes a sort of oracle of what the community thinks the Lord is saying, mediated through the appointed leadership – bottom up rather than top-down sermons. Finally, its a lot less work for the preacher.“

Well said Paul. Not sure I agree about it being a lot less work (just look at the debate in the comments!), but I agree with the rest. It was one of my hopes from blogging … to engage in conversation, dialogue, to get other perspectives. And in the process, learn together.

I have a bit of a love / hate relationship with preaching. I love teaching. I love it when others get that “aha” moment, see something new, or find that the truth really does set them free. But so often I am frustrated about the context in which that happens. The real goal of preaching isn’t that we go away knowing more, but go away changed, Christ is a bit more formed inside us, we are shaped a little bit more like God. Knowledge isn’t bad, it is just the start of the learning process which brings about change.

Some people clearly have a gift for preaching or teaching. It is not only that they have good things to say, but they also have an ability to say them in a way that really communicates. So there is definitely a place for that in a church. But so often the work starts and finishes with them. I read, get ideas, study, try to get a sense of what it is God is wanting to do or say, and then take my finished piece to deliver on a Sunday morning. And that, generally, is where it stops. Often there isn’t much ongoing dialogue or feedback. I’ve done my bit, and now its for others to individually respond to God (or perhaps we might have a discussion in a small group in the middle of the week!).

Well I just don’t think that is good enough. Its not good for me and its not good for others. Its what Doug Pagitt calls it “speeching”, and it is pale reflection of Biblical Preaching. Learning is best done together. It isn’t an event, it is process. Its ongoing. And it happens in life. It happens in relationship with people.

So I guess my question is: how can we really help people learn and be changed?