One Piece of Furniture

A theological topic for pioneers is what constitutes the 'ecclesial minimum', i.e. what is the minimum you need to be church? The real answer is 'not that much ...', but in practice we add layers and layers that seem to make that minimum end up looking quite bloated!

Recently some friends of ours were talking with us on this topic, and posed the related question: 'What is the one piece of furniture useful in starting a church?'. We concluded together that the one piece of furniture is in fact a table! With a table you can gather people round, relax, eat / drink and discuss. With a table you can break bread together. With a table you face each other which affords a dynamic where you can relate as equals, and each bring their voice or contribution. Many of the scenes of Jesus more privately with friends or guests were in a home presumably at some kind of table.

Of course you could do these things without a physical table - you could gather sitting around a rug on the ground, or even agree to stand together for these things. The point is the simplicity, rather than believing anything more complex is needed. A mere table can be the gathering point and catalyst for relationship building between one another, and between people and God.

When we were searching for a place to enable our incarnational living, our key criteria became 'can we fit in our existing dining table?'. Many other things became unimportant compared to this. When viewing a property the first thing we did was measure up in the living/dining space to check the dimensions could fit our table!

Are you toying with the 'ecclesial minimum'? Do you want to get people together with a view to forming a church? Furniture-wise you can do alot by simply starting out with a table!

A Humble Incarnational Abode

We have managed to secure a property to move into on the estate where we feel called to work. This was important to us because 'Incarnational Mission' is important to us - living amongst those we feel called to reach out to.

The word became flesh and made his dwelling among us (John 1:14)

God sent His Son to live amongst those He first decided to reach - He didn't operate at a distance or work remotely! In practical terms the arrival point was a humble abode for 'there was no guest room available' (Luke 2:7). Our arrival point is smaller and thus 'more humble' than we would have naturally wished for - we have had to make hard and bold decisions about 'down-sizing'! Yet in prayer and wrestling through the search process we came to the conclusion that this is right: for us our call is to be living here on the estate, perhaps with just some essentials.

There were larger (and cheaper) houses elsewhere - one possibility just a few minutes walk on the neighbouring estate. Some people we talked to struggled to understand our search principle, assuming we would live where it is convenient to us rather than hanging with us in our search for an incarnational possibility - we had to smile and reply politely, while pressing on in our endeavour.

Incarnational mission is costly. It requires a clear sense of call and re-ordering life priorities to make it work. The gospel accounts show us Jesus who did just that: living this Way of incarnational mission. We are doing our best to follow.

De-clutter

The gospel 'sending' passages, e.g. sending the 12 in Matthew 10, have a number of direct instructions. Among these are 'do not get any gold, silver or copper, no bag, or extra shirt, sandals or staff. In other words 'go light: de-clutter!'.

Understanding Nones

The Guardian has written a piece on a report from the thinktank Theos about those who say in opinion polls that they are not religious, or not affiliated to any religion. These so-called 'nones' are increasing as a percentage of the population, something borne out by both the polls and expected in upcoming national census data.

What is interesting for us is the next level analysis of people thinking of themselves in this way. Theos has done some valuable work, showing that such people broadly fall into three sub-categories roughly equal in size: the 'hard', the 'easy-going' and the 'spiritual'. The first category are actively against organised religion and may well have clear atheist views. The other two however often have an openness. The 'easy-going' are not really fussed either way, whilst the 'spiritual' most likely believe in some kind of god/gods/spiritual forces etc., and are likely open to explore.

This means that even with polls showing just over 50% of the population not being religious, about 16% of the population will still be 'spiritual' in some way, and another 16% are easy-going on the topic. That is echoed by the Talking Jesus research which showed non-Christians who had conversations with a Christian about faith subjects tended to remember positive aspects of those discussions.

My own experience bears this out. I meet lots of people who are quick to tell me they are not religious ... but the ensuing conversation shows that they do have a basic openness to things spiritual, and we end up having a fruitful time together. I repeatedly find that the openness is best explored by pointing people to Jesus, rather than trying to explain (or make excuse for) the church and its doctrines. It's another reason why I have the personal mantra: "Take people to Jesus, not to church!".

The 'nones' are on the rise, but that is not necessarily all bad. Be ready to point people to Jesus, and look for the genuine spiritual openness which is out there for sure.