Lonely hero or band of sisters - Decisions and Faith

Sometimes I wonder if I should have begun pioneered alone, rather than attempting to pioneer with the women as a group. I could have unveilled a new Church environment quickly and this may have been very successful. However, something made me choose otherwise. I saw Jesus in the eyes of these women and saw them as part of the future. I had respect for their commitment and believed God was calling them to something new.

The path I have taken means that I have had an eye to modelling change and mentoring a couple of the women in mission and leadership. It takes longer to travel as a group, but I continue to believe the group,  are significant to the mission of God in this neighbourhood. I have a complete sense of personal inadequacy to the task, but that is the point. It is God who is (more than) adequate to the task.  Together we are discovering that power of God released in us by our faith, which grows as we work together. His power is always sufficient for the task!

Steadfast

This morning I was deep in despair and hopelessness. All around me I sensed barriers and traps preventing any progress and almost denying hope. It seemed that most ways forward were blocked, and fear was preventing me moving in any directions that remained.

This state of affairs has been going on for some time - probably months, and after todays event I am wondering if it has been unnecessarily sustained by a sense of isolation - perhaps common in pioneers - and destructive in the way it undermines. This morning the isolation lost, leading to action which has given fresh hope.

Concerned about how I would complete the study and assignment attached to this piece of pioneering I had the (rare) sense to speak with my tutor. 'How do I pioneer (to a timetable) in the midst of the barriers?', I asked. In the midst of his good counsel was the advice to keep walking with the older women I am working in partnership with. The word 'with' stuck out for me, and I went out this afternoon to find the women in their meeting at the local estate church.

What a blessing!

They were just settling down for a 'member's afternoon' and the 'elder stateswoman' opened in a prayer which amongst others included the isolated and lonely people of our community. The fervent desire to see these people know God's love appears to be shared by most of the group. I realise that what I have been seeing as MY agenda I am trying to get them to buy into is actually THEIR agenda that I can join. (Not surprising as it is God's mission!)

We continued with several items - songs, prayers, readings that focused on their own individual relationships with God... and I found myself feeling we were retreating into a safe space, until I suggested as my item 'Go tell it on the mountain'. There was a release of energy experienced as we sung this suggestive of an unrealised desire in many of those gathered to tell of their experience of Jesus.

Mention of a video testimony by my learning disabled daughter led to much laughter and some quiet reflection as members considered whether they could record such a film, (she has asked when others will do so). One woman gave testimony then and there, and another engaged with the possibility of making a video. Again I sensed the unrealised possibilities for engagement in God's mission.

Following on from the earlier prayer (central to which was the concept that knowing God was with them would be adequate company and contact for the lonely) I allowed a question about how local people who are lonely might come to know the love of God hanging in the air. It didn't seem appropriate to seek answers, instead the way may have been opened up for some one-to-one conversations. Talk moved on to the possibility of making marmalade after a comment about seville oranges being in season..... this may be an activity for next week.

Finally, tea was made (porcelain cups and saucers with metallic trim) and I was asked a question about a planned youth residential I am involved in leading. It was a pleasure to tell them of the 8 local young people who are going, and it transpired one of the women wanted to ask the others to support the event with a donation. Hearts of gold!

'Enabling Christians to act like Christians'

In her introduction to Beyond the Good Samaritan Ann Morisy talks about community ministry in terms of enabling Christians to act like Christians and of feeding people’s imaginations so that the significance of the gospel can be sensed. I think this happens when we encourage people to use action to change their thinking. 

Enabling Christians to act like Christians is what I have seen happening with the women in our 3 meetings so far. I believe we are also communally discovering how to act as Church. The excitement of coming together and successfully sharing an aspect of our lives resonates with the ‘glad and sincere hearts’ of Acts 2:46-7. 

When the women shared their experience with the whole Christian community I sensed a reversal -  Thursday’s community WAS Church and Sunday was a fragment of Church.

The beauty of what I have seen is that it is just happening. If I had asked these women to engage in a study of missional ecclesiology they would have withdrawn. Discipling is also happening through the process, although neither knitting or jam making has involved conscious reference to it. The group has shone with God’s abundant life as we have worked together. 

However this ‘just happening’ is problematic for me in seeing a way forward. Is this just a joyous interlude, or could this be a sustainable way forward for these women and part of God’s ongoing mission here?

I’m left with questions:

• How can I (or indeed, should I) make the discipling a conscious part of what is happening?
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• How can I give intentionality to learning to be Church - linking the joy and excitement etc. with Church and faith?
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• How might we continue to meet in this way given the restarting of Women’s Fellowship? Is this part of WF or something different? Is this a remodelling of WF?
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• Apt liturgy..... and jam making?........knitting? What about participation? Is there a simple approachable way forward here? Some symbolism.... candle...bread...scone?

I see so much potential in these women for their own growth as individuals and as a group. I see a church constrained but that could break out if they caught a vision for what God can do through them.

The Sunday after the Thursday before!

The women brought the jam we made to Sunday worship today. It was a rather spontaneous happening born largely, I think, out of their joy, and sense of achievement. It was as if Sunday's worship had become subsidiary to the women acting as Christians during the time of meeting to make the jam. The excitement of being active Christians overtook the routine aspect of Sunday worship, and generated spontaneous worship of God in praise of his creativity and creation as seen in the gift of creativity.

It was a 'we can DO this' moment with a felt sense of being the Body of Christ and the fruits of God's creation. The energy was palpable.

We experienced a joining together of ourselves, a moment of wholeness and healing, as we talked of the jam and the process of making it. The women laughed as they told the story to their wider Christian community.

We then completed our spontaneous task - bringing the jam physically to the centre of the worship, being intentional about our plan to share the gift we had been given. We prayed in thanks for our experience, and in dedication of ourselves and of the jam as it is given to ourselves and others.

An article from the church website

Tea and Jam for Seven!

20lb of Blackberry and Apple jam is sitting in North Lynn Methodist Church's kitchen awaiting labels. Seven women between 18 and 90 had fun together picking blackberries from the church garden and making the jam. There was lots of chatter, a couple of brews and some VERY purple hands. Amazingly only two of the women had made jam before, although others are now keen to make more!

The apples were windfalls from local trees and the jars were saved from being smashed at the bottle bank while the sugar, although not local, was fairtraded. All of this made for a creative afternoon with both an environmental impact and concern for justice.

Once the jars have been labelled the women are planning to give most of them to neighbours along with a personal invite to share in our harvest celebrations, and with this in mind gift tags with our harvest image and brief information are being made. 

North Lynn Methodist Church website can be found here.

Planting experimental seeds

Living seems to me to be about adventurous experimenting, I hold to the idea that I grow at the edges of my experience and knowledge not in the comfort of my core ways of being. Sometimes, because at my core I'm an 'edgy' or 'liminal' type, that means my experiments can be way off track, but their are exceptions! Stating the blindingly obvious....  the need is to discern between the two.

This blog is beginning out of an intention to record and reflect on some of the experiments. Particularly experiments intended to support the emergence of relevant Church within the neighbourhood in which I live and work. Hope suggests the blog will (probably retrospectively) be part of the process of illumination and discernment.

The horizon contains whole realms of possibilities, and change has a tendency to be rapid and discontinuous, but there are two strands I am muddling around with at present. One combines talking about the gospel, eating fish and chips, and sitting on a patch of grass; the other combines a group of older women and their creative gifts. Both include the presence of Christ, and me..... I'm very grateful for the former, and the latter is who I have to offer! 

I think the best way to sum up what I'm about is to say: 'the goal is the kingdom of God, the process is shared, and everything else is open to creative opportunism!'