⁹“This, then, is how you should pray:
” ‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
¹⁰your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
¹¹Give us today our daily bread.
¹²Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
¹³And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.

One thing that I’m still pondering is the fact that the words of this prayer imply community. Nowhere are we taught to pray for, ‘my daily bread’, or to, ‘deliver me from the evil one’. Instead it’s our or us; we should be praying this for others as well as for ourselves.

What do you think?

I suggest that many local congregations have not been of great assistance to world mission. Such advances have not taken place because of, or at the instigation of, the local congregation. The support for world mission has come from individual Christians from within the churches, rather than from the churches themselves.

That’s a direct quote from Changing Global Mission Culture in the UK Church which is published by Global Connections in a collection of papers called Churches and Agencies in Partnership. I can’t seem to find a free copy online  so I’m going to do some grovelling and see if I can get a copy to send out with my next newsletter because it really is worth reading.

Since joining Wycliffe Bible Translators I’ve discovered that I now spend a lot more time thinking about mission than I ever did when I was part of a church – but that shouldn’t have been the case! If mission is supposed to be a core activity of a Christian community and a key element in every Christian’s life, regardless of the context they are living in, why did I have to join a mission agency before I had the opportunity to think seriously about many of the issues involved.

Why is a mission agency asking more questions about connecting in the local context than the local church that’s already there?

This paper, Changing Global Mission Culture in the UK Church, should probably be essential reading for all church leaders. Even if they disagree with the conclusions they would, at least, have to think through some of the issues that it throws up.

Quick Summary

The paper lists the present situation in many churches as

World mission is a marginalised interest for most and a fervent commitment for a few. Many church members are glad that their church has a world mission programme, but don’t want to have much to do with it themselves. ‘Missionary’ events are poorly supported.

The world mission mandate is connected to the Great Commission. The unspoken logic is that ‘We do it as a church because Jesus told us to.’

World mission involvement is limited to what comes from ‘missionary’ people or societies and is disconnected from what comes via the TV screen, from world news or news documentaries.

World sport, world music, fair trade concerns, environmental calamities, political issues, international business travel and tourist travel are not promoted in church as issues that interest God or impact on our faith.

Younger church members take little interest in the church’s world mission culture.

On a weekly basis, world mission is represented by a world map with a few pins stuck in it and a small pile of ‘missionary’ magazines, untouched and rather out of date.

Even when young people have been on short-term programmes and their involvement has energised and interested other young people, it often has done little to change the culture of the church as a whole in relation to world mission.

From a mission agency point-of-view, the opinion is,

Agencies know that most of the resources of people, prayer and finance that they need come from committed individuals in churches rather than from the church as a whole.

That’s a statement that’s easy to agree with, because, even if we don’t like it we need to acknowledge that it’s true.

The paper, rather than just criticising the current stage of affairs, does gives a few suggestions as to how our thinking and practices should be adjusted

1. Relate to the world biblically (not just Great Commissionally)

To  break the unhelpful church culture, we need to take a step back and stop talking about world mission… Instead, we need to help people relate biblically to the world.

2. Break down the home/field barrier

The church needs to recapture its global characteristics. Mission starts at the end of the pew and extends to the ends of the earth.

3. Restructure the local church

Close down anything that marginalises world mission and gives it a specialist only label.

4. Maximise globalisation

In many churches, the only things that relate personal faith to the world have a ‘missionary’ label. That’s the culture that we must change.

Thoughts

I feel awkward with the notion that people in full time Christian work are somehow more special than anyone else. I also feel pretty uncomfortable with the notion that people working overseas require more special attention than those who go to school, or the office or look after the home. I fully appreciate that there are significant challenges for people working in an alien culture, but their work and the importance of their relationships shouldn’t be any more valuable than those who are doing their best to obey God where they are right now.

I believe that the church in the UK has to do some significant thinking when it comes to their values associated with mission, but then so do many mission agencies – the one I work with included. Maybe this paper would be a good starting point.

Mr Blenkinsop is quoted as saying, ‘The changes pave the way for schools to teach creationism’.

Why is creationism trotted out every time there’s any hint of religion playing a part in education. If every child, from tomorrow, was taught that the world came about as a result of creation and not a cosmic event, what would the result be? The origins of the world play a very small part in a child’s education. Any religious education would have very little impact on maths classes or PE. Religious education should, I’d hope, still involve an understanding of different world religions, French and German would still be the same languages, English would still require the reading of classic books and an understanding of grammar.

What should worry us more is that children are being taught that the world came into existence by some kind of cosmic event with no thought given to other theories. Even world class research scientists wouldn’t discount the possibility that there is something more behind the dawning of our universe than just a collision of particles.

See more videos in this series from God: New Evidence

One of the questions we thought about last night was, ‘What do you like about Cornerstone?’. I said something about liking the fact that it was a bit messy and disorganised – it meant that people could be themselves, as questions, interrupt, that the children feel welcome and able to be themselves. Actually, I don’t like that, there’s a whole part of my personality that leans towards wanting a building and pews and a sermon slot and for the children to sit quietly… but I’m not sure that fits with my belief of what a church should be. The formal stuff sounds much more like a meeting than a family gathering.

So what should a church be like for you? Taking sermons and Bible readings and prayers and songs for granted… what would you want your church to look and feel like?

If you don’t go to church, this can be answered by you too. If you were going to walk into a church building for a church service, what would you want (not what do you expect, but rather what would you want)? What would you want a church service to feel and look like?

Godly Living – Titus 2:11-15

So, it’s with a little shame and humility, that after the weekend’s failure to stop the oil leak in the Gulf that I started to think that I should be praying about this – I say shame and humility, because I’d like to think that praying about issues would be higher up my list of responses, not just reserved for moments of desperation or when I feel that all other options have been exhausted. Regardless of whether it’s for a mountain to move and bury the leak, or for one of the plans to block the pipes to be successful, it’s the kind of thing that really I should remember to pray about because environmental catastrophe in one place eventually has an impact on us all.

Of course, I’d like to think that there are thousands of Christians all there before me, pleading with God to sort out the oil problems and remove our dependence on black gold, but as yet I haven’t found the Facebook group to suggest this is happening. Nor have I found anyone praying for the even bigger leak in the Niger Delta, but then there’s way less attention paid to problems in Africa than other countries with 24 hour rolling news.

By contrast, little information has emerged about the damage inflicted on the Niger delta. Yet the destruction there provides us with a far more accurate picture of the price we have to pay for drilling oil today.

On 1 May this year a ruptured ExxonMobil pipeline in the state of Akwa Ibom spilled more than a million gallons into the delta over seven days before the leak was stopped. Local people demonstrated against the company but say they were attacked by security guards. Community leaders are now demanding $1bn in compensation for the illness and loss of livelihood they suffered. Few expect they will succeed. In the meantime, thick balls of tar are being washed up along the coast.

You can read the rest of the Guardian article online, ‘Nigeria’s agony dwarfs the Gulf oil spill. The US and Europe ignore it‘.

This isn’t a political blog post, although, you don’t have to think too hard to come up with some items for prayer that centre around national or international politics. Some days you have to wonder why we ‘humanity’ seem to insist on believing that we have all the answers ourselves. Instead, this is about one of the busiest weeks in the life of Wycliffe Bible Translators in the UK.

This is the first week of the From Eden to Eternity Tour. It all kicks off tomorrow in Exeter and then runs for another 26 days around England and Wales. Please continue to pray for the cast and crew who will be travelling thousands of miles by road and sleeping in a new bed almost every night of the tour.

Tomorrow is also the start of the International Christian Resources Exhibition. I’m running the Wycliffe stand for the week, with support from different colleagues for each day. It’s also the week where the Biblefresh book will be launched.

Finally, tomorrow colleagues from the European Training Programme are involved in the final stages of approval for a new Masters degree. Months of hard work and planning rest on the outcomes of tomorrow’s meetings.

As you can probably guess, this is a very important, stressful and challenging time for a number of people. Please remember them all in your prayers.

Why?

Well, Jesus says that his house should be a place for prayer, not a den of robbers [read the full text here]. In other words, don’t use the temple for trade – there are markets for that – use it for prayer.

I don’t believe that the focus of our church communities should be trade. Aside from anything else, it should never be that someone cannot afford to go to church. But, also, as Christians we’re not supposed to be trapped by the things of this world – your value as a person isn’t ever to be determined by the stuff you own.

So, what’s a church implying with the following promotion

Easter eggs and more than $1M in prizes at S. Texas megachurch

Bay Area Fellowship, the largest church in Corpus Christi, is giving away flat-screen televisions, skateboards, Fender guitars, furniture and 15 cars — yes, cars — at its Easter services next week.

Read article here

It’s not just what we say that communicates our values, it’s what we do too. To me this just encourages consumerism rather than placing value in people.

I think I’d rather have read any of the following,

South Texas megachurch gives $1M to victims of Haiti earthquake

…or….

$1M given to local charities by South Texas megachurch

…and my personal favourite…

South Texas megachurch gives $1M in support of Bible translation in Central America

Suggest another headline in the comments – where would you want to see $1M used? Or vote on the Church Marketing Sucks website – the current poll is on the right hand side of the screen.

My job for the day had been to take photographs, but it’s quite difficult to concentrate on this as the character of Jesus is being crucified before me.

A few weeks previously I had been to interview Bec Rogers, one of the Saltmine actors and the director of the production. She had commented that for her she learnt a lot through seeing the Bible, rather than reading words on a page. Bec has Dyslexia, which means that taking written information in is difficult for her. Seeing the Bible story enabled her to make a much stronger connection with what was going on.

From Eden to Eternity is on tour in May and June, the dates are below.

From Eden To Eternity – 2010 Tour Venues

• 11th May – Exeter – Belmont Chapel
• 12th May – Bristol – Kensington Baptist
• 13th May – Swansea – City Temple
• 14th May – Cardiff – Highfields Church
• 15th May – Hereford – Hereford Baptist Church
• 18th May – Northampton – Kingdom Life Church
• 19th May – Cambridge – St Barnabas Church
• 20th May – Ipswich – St John the Baptist
• 21st May – Norwich – Norwich Central Baptist Church
• 22nd May – Banbury – St Paul’s Church
• 25th May – Durham – St Nicholas Church
• 27th May – Sunderland – Sunderland Minster

• 8th June – Shrewsbury – Trinity Churches, Holy Trinity Meole Brace
• 9th June – Thame – St Mary’s Church
• 10th June – Fleet – Church on the Heath
• 11th June – Brentwood – Peniel Church
• 12th June – Leeds – City Evangelical Church
• 15th June – Coventry – Elim Pentecostal Church
• 16th June – Woking – Christ Church
• 17th June – Ruislip – Ruislip Baptist Church
• 18th June – Brighton/Hove – Holland Road Baptist Church
• 19th June – Crawley – Crawley Baptist Church
• 21st June – Chelmsford – Central Baptist Church
• 22nd June – Chertsey – St Peters Church
• 23rd June – Portsmouth – Oasis Church, The Venue
• 24th June – Salisbury – St Pauls Church
• 25th June – Swindon – Freshbrook Evangelical Church

The King James Version gives us…

In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

The New International Version

in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

Out of the 20 English versions available through Bible Gateway only five give an alternative to the phrase twinkling of an eye. We were just wondering if this is the best translation of the original Greek text, or whether it’s something that just works for the English and that a different turn of phrase was in the original.