Flourishing Community

There are few people who do not nod in agreement when talking about a desire for a healthy & vibrant community. Non-believers, people of other faiths, even most cynics - when presented with a vision of a healthy flourishing community - will agree that at the very least 'it sounds like a good idea'.

Our Christian perspective informs us that such notions overlap with a Kingdom vision. We have rich resources, such as passages in Isaiah and Zechariah that inspire us towards that vision. The over-arching story from Abraham onwards is of a people who are devoted to God and blessed by Him themselves being a blessing to the their surrounding community (and ultimately the global community). We know that Jesus came to fulfil just that, and in being Christ-followers we take part in the very same project.

We can seed, contribute towards and help enable flourishing community for all because of our faith in Jesus.

But as Christ-followers seeking first His Kingdom we should also recognise some fundamental difficulties. The sad reality is that there is a sea of need out there, that can easily dwarf whatever good we might bring as an individual or as a small dedicated group. From a population growth perspective, we might also wonder if we and fellow believers can keep up even if we believe that just a few of us can act as sufficient yeast to permeate the batch of dough.

But I fear that another fundamental difficulty also needs to be understood: that the principalities & powers are not done yet. Our Kingdom activity in the name of Jesus pushes back these malevolent powers for sure, but given time & opportunity they will happily go on the counter-offensive - especially if the witness to Jesus as Lord subsides, the salt & light diminishes. This is saying (in spiritual terms) that over time the Kingdom wins of a particular flourishing community can be lost. After all, do we not see that over and over in the books of Judges, Kings and Chronicles?

Kingdom gains that enable flourishing community flow primarily out of lives lived for Jesus. Lives lived this way flow from lives won for Jesus, and they are of course the result of witness to Jesus and Good New declared. The yeast is supposed to work into the whole batch of dough, and the tiny mustard seed is supposed to grow into a tree that provides for all - in other words that there is ultimately 'Gospel Saturation' (a term used by disciple movement pioneers).

Kingdom initiative to enable flourishing community is excellent. But it needs to perpetuate, regenerate, and by God's grace spread. That means it is unmistakably connected to the basic call made by Jesus: "Come, follow me!".

Banning Prayer - An Age Old Tactic

This week national news ran the story of a secondary school that had banned 'prayer rituals' as part of its behaviour policy. The policy was challenged in the High Court by a Muslim pupil, with the case arising from the pupil and her peers wanting to pray as a group at lunch time, as per the practice suggested (prescribed?) for them by their religious community. Apparently circa 30 pupils wanted to actively join, but the school appears to have very strict behaviour codes, including (it seems) limiting groups to just four people even outside on the school communal areas.

One might wonder about this '4 max' policy (which sounds more like an anti-protest law you would expect in places like Russia ...), or about the merits of the High Court's decision to dismiss the challenge (i.e. effectively agreeing with the school). What I would like to focus on, however, is the notion that you can somehow ban prayer.

It reminds me of Daniel, and the jealous troublemakers who persuaded the king to create an edict banning any prayer (other than to the king). Daniel was not deterred, and didn't even bother to take his praying underground. As we know, lions became involved and they got to enjoy a tasty breakfast ...!

Banning prayer is an age old tactic, but is a ridiculous and futile notion. To be fair to the school, they are banning 'prayer rituals' rather than any prayer per se. They have suggested that the gang-of-thirty in their ritual would be intimidating, but I wonder if they have missed an opportunity to discuss and set a culture of understanding, multilateral tolerance and respect? Maybe their own staunchly secular ethos is now being used as an intimidation in itself?

For the pupils ... why not keep praying like Daniel, albeit subversively: 8 gangs of 4 would do it, or spread themselves out (a bit like the 2m social distancing thing we learnt in covid) so that technically they are not a gathering! Surely the school cannot proscribe individuals standing in apparent silence, or even individuals kneeling in silence, out on the school grounds?

Those who don't understand the spiritual will try many tactics to hold their position, but none of these are new and ultimately none of them of work.

Resurrection Focus

The aftermath of Easter was that everything was now changed. The whole perspective and deal of religious thought is changed in the light of the resurrection. Jesus was not just a special leader, a person with special power or godly abilities ... He is the one who fuses the heavenly with the physical created order, fully God & fully man in perpetuity. That means we don't just look to Jesus for good example or inspiration, but we acknowledge Him as supreme over all. Whereas before we might have thought of looking to spiritual figures of the past to help us strive to understand the divine and be better people, with Jesus raised from the dead we now see the path of faith is in and through a person - this person Jesus.

The Jewish leaders at the time had thought that they could faithfully stick to 'the faith system' as they understood it by doing away with Jesus. The Roman governor, wanting to keep order and peace to avoid any sense of threat to Caesar, acquiesced to the injustice. For them having Jesus dead was to be the end of the matter ... but from the Easter Sunday He was no longer dead!

Thus the evangelistic sermons recorded in Acts lead to the punchline: 'He was killed ... but God raised Him!'. Jesus is Lord - not Caesar, not any other system or institution ... and we know this because of the resurrection. Regardless of the length or starting point of the message, Peter and the other early preachers showed that they had this laser-like resurrection focus!

In our own opportunities for witness, whatever long way off starting point you might need to work from ... keep this same ultimate resurrection focus in mind.

Implications of a Big Yes

The moment someone decides to make a 'Big Yes' to Jesus, a whole string of fresh questions are triggered both for now and into the future. These basically come down to: 'How should I live my life in the light of this Big Yes decision?'. This is the fundamental question of discipleship, and its scope includes way more than good habits to pick up (such as pray daily, read scripture, attend church gatherings).

For each new believer it means working out: 'What about the other gods in my life?'. For someone who has come from a different faith background, that god or those gods will be readily apparent. However we shouldn't kid ourselves thinking that those from a secular or nominal Christian background do not have the same dilemma - the reality is that we have all trusted in other gods such as wealth, commerce, career aspirations etc. So the same basic question is always pertinent.

Our task in discipling someone is to help them navigate these thought processes as they journey into discipleship. We could of course give a simple and direct list: "Stop this, abandon that, leave such & such behind ...". That would technically be correct, but not necessarily good discipleship mentoring:

1. because the person needs to discover for themselves that these are false gods compared to Jesus - it needs to be their decision that they now own
2. because we want to train the person to take their own responsibility through the rest of their lives to seek God, discern, and act willingly on that discernment

The temptation is to load onto someone, or rush them into what you see 'as obvious' ... but they need to work it out for themselves. In other words the Discovery Process continues past the 'Big Yes' decision into ongoing discipleship.

I once read a story back in the 1700's of someone coming to faith in a Quaker environment. The new convert asked their mentor 'Should I still wear my sword out in public?' (apparently people wore or carried swords in everyday life!). The Christian mentor gave a wise reply: "Wear it for as long as it feels comfortable ...". I think they were saying: "Ask God, and when you realise what He is telling you, then it is definitely time to act!"

In our mission activity, let us not get people to tick boxes that we choose to put in front of them! No - let us point people to Jesus, and enable them to be true Jesus-followers in their own right, where they take action on what Jesus lays on their heart. Sure it will need some direction, prodding and pointing on the way, and the process may be frustrating or slow ... but ultimately way more fruitful.