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Editorial:
"There's Nothing New About Change"
Anna Rankin
Comment:
Embracing the Stranger
Denise Wright
From
the Director: Change and Decay – so what's new?
David W Porter
Alwyn
Thomson
Ethel White
A
Changing Church
Chris Easton
Women,
the Church and Change
Lesley Carroll
Interview
with Noel Fallows: Multi-cultural Church Life
Anna Rankin
Urban
Grit
Ken Groves
Higher
Throne
Keith
Getty & Kristyn Lennox
2003
Conference: Reconciliation – Illusion or Elusive?
What's
Jesus got to do with Forgiveness?
Stuart Noble
Review:
Lost in Translation
Gareth Higgins
Review:
The Church Beyond the Congregation by James Thwaites
Claire Martin
Review:
A Time for Mission by Samuel Escobar
Ben
Walker
Review:
Against the Stream by David W Smith
Cheryl
Reid
Review:
Evangelicalism and National Identity in Ulster, 1921-1998 by Patrick
Mitchel
David Hewitt
Review:
I was a teenage Catholic by Malachi O'Doherty
Fran
Porter
URBAN GRIT
I ONCE had the opportunity to listen to a young homeless man in London talk about his experience of reading the Bible for himself. He was 16 years old and had already known extreme suffering and rejection in his own life. He had never been to church, he had never seen a commentary or concordance and had never heard of the word 'theology'. Yet after listening to him for a couple of hours, I realised that I had learnt much more about the incarnation of Jesus from him than from any famous Christian teachers or preachers from my past. He said something that has always stuck with me.
'I have read this Bible from cover to cover and I can identify completely with this Jesus person because he was born in the dirt just like me. But when I look around at the churches and see the Christians come and go I don.t understand what they have to do with the person I read about in this book. There is no comparison between the two.'
Since that conversation in London, I have had the chance to meet and work alongside many different people in Northern Ireland who have been excluded from the opportunity to live a healthy and fulfilling life through no fault of their own. Again, the vast majority of them saw no relevance between the church and their everyday life. At best, they may see the church as hypocritical because, even if there is a realisation that something is wrong, the words spoken are seldom backed up with meaningful actions. But, for the majority, the church is so far removed from their everyday experiences that it may as well not exist at all.
In Matthew 5:13, Jesus calls us to be 'the salt of the earth' and for many years, like many others, I was taught that this was a reference to the fact that salt was, and still is, used as a preservative and to give flavour to meat. The implication for Christians was then drawn out of this understanding. However, like many other people who have come into contact with Jim Punton, I will always be grateful for a much fuller, albeit more disturbing, understanding of this call.
In Luke 14:34-35, Jesus actually says, 'If the salt has lost its saltiness . . . it is no longer fit for the soil or for the dunghill, but is thrown aside and trodden underfoot by men.' Again, as Jim Punton points out, no longer is the important part here, 'It is no longer fit for the soil or dunghill.'. Two lessons can be drawn from this saying.
In parts of the world salt was sprinkled across the soil to help break up the compacted earth and allow moisture to sink in and allow plants to grow up. The salt acted as a fertilizer enabling new life and Jesus was drawing on this agricultural picture to show that his disciples were to be fertiliser in the world.
However, the second part of this saying was much more shocking. In Jesus' time, at some houses, a mound of salt would be left beside a pit in the garden to cover human waste. The salt acted as a disinfectant and as a sealant against nasty smells. Jesus was asking his people to be up against the crap of the world. As Jim Punton said, 'Tight up against it, protecting others from its rottenness and its decay.' If we sit in little heaps refusing to have anything to do with the crap of the world, we are refusing to be the salt of the earth.
In Northern Ireland, through my work with Frontier Youth Trust, Ireland and the Churches Community Work Alliance, I have had the opportunity to meet many people who are truly making a difference and who understand what it means to be 'salt' and 'light'. They realise that Jesus is still to be found on the margins among the people who have been written off by society. These people also realise that there job is not to bring Jesus to these communities but that Jesus is already there and that their job is to 'sniff out' the work of God and to play their part therein. A church that is not involved with people on the margins can never fully understand what the Good News of the gospel is all about. Without this relationship, growth and understanding can never truly take place and we become mere consumers of the latest fashionable Christian accessories and purveyors of an ivory tower theology. As George MacDonald so eloquently states:
'Men try to understand
where it is impossible they should understand except by obeying. They
would search into the work of the Lord instead of doing their part in
it . . . It is on them that do his will that the day dawns. To them the
daystar arises in their hearts. Obedience is the soul of knowledge.'
George McDonald (The Hope of the Gospel)
In an effort to help local churches build effective relationships with local communities Tearfund has developed a resource called Church, Community and Change. It is a response to this growing understanding that Christians are called to be 'salt' and 'light' wherever they are placed and that it is a biblical imperative to care for the poor and oppressed and to fight against exploitation and injustice. In Northern Ireland, Tearfund works in partnership with Frontier Youth Trust, Ireland and the Churches Community Work Alliance. Seven churches are currently involved in this process.
The process is designed to be flexible and adaptable to the needs of each individual church in planning appropriate responses to the needs of the local community. Advice and consultancy are offered throughout the process, with training workshops geared to the needs of your church and run by experienced local facilitators. Resources to aid planning your new community initiative, suggestions for group activities, worship and training and a step-by-step handbook to guide you through the process are also provided. It is a tried and tested process that can help your church begin to work alongside local people.
If you want your church to be a transforming force within its community, meeting the needs of people living in the area and engaging with them in a practical, caring and holistic way, then Church, Community and Change may be of interest to you. It takes anything from 9 to18 months and can lead to significant and lasting change.
'A church that is not involved with people on the margins can never fully understand what the Good News of the gospel is all about. Without this relationship, growth and understanding can never truly take place and we become mere consumers of the latest fashionable Christian accessories and purveyors of an ivory tower theology.'
To find out more about the Church, Community and Change initiative contact:
Ken Groves
Church, Community & Change
C/o Frontier Youth Trust Ireland
The Duncairn Complex
Duncairn Avenue
Belfast
BT14 6BP
Tel: 028 9074 3354
Email: ken@fytireland.org
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