Exiles by Michael Frost

Over the past 4 or 5 months we have both been reading Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture by Michael Frost – another good book that we’d recommend. In a nutshell the book explores ways of being church, or communitas, in a post-Christendom western-culture dominated by consumerism, isolation and indifference, where the church too often harks back to the ‘good old days’.

Frost talks of ‘exiles’ that have left ‘the church’ out of frustration and boredom and are heading out into what he calls the third places of their communities instead (the 1st place being our home, the 2nd our work, and the 3rd, increasingly in the West, often being bars/cafes or I think they could be social/interest groups, yet for Christians the 3rd place is usually restricted to ‘church’):

“Exiles have figured out that churches don’t value people who won’t turn up for every meeting, attend every event, and locate all their significant friendships within the congregation. They have decided to slip away from the ever-spiralling vortex of so-called Christian fellowship. It sucks you in demanding everything of you, leaving you completely socially disconnected from your neighbours, your community. And it won’t be appeased by a half-hearted allegiance. It demands your all, always… Exiles, having read the dangerous stories of Jesus, have decided that the best way to do the Lord’s work is to follow him out into the third places in their community.”

The strongest theme of the book for us explored what it would mean for these exiles to live missionally in a host empire. Frost advocates the ideas of communitas – an intense community spirit, the feeling of great social equality, solidarity, and togetherness – and liminality as ways forward. Alan Hirsch (who co-wrote The Shaping of Things to Come with Micahel Frost, and whose book The Forgotten Ways apparently explores these ideas further) says:

“…the related ideas of liminality and communitas describe the dynamics of the Christian community inspired to overcome their instincts to “huddle and cuddle” and to instead form themselves around a common mission that calls them on a dangerous journey to unknown places – a mission that calls the church to shake off it’s collective securities and to plunge into the world of action, where its members will experience disorientation and marginalization but also where they encounter God and each other in a new way”

The first two sections of Exiles (Dangerous Memories and Dangerous Promises) are the strongest, but later, in the final part (Dangerous Songs), Frost also helpfully tackles the issues of ‘Exiles at the Altar’, speaking out against what can probably be best summed up by the ‘My Jesus, My Boyfriend’ phenomenon of modern worship, and questions the modern church service in a broader context.

Exiles is a book well worth exploring – especially for those wanting to journey into church at the edge and explore emerging ideas of being missional in a post-Christendom culture.

The hidden CMS

Last year we mentioned that we had written about why we chose to work through CMS for a new Lonely Planet book on volunteering. We explained that one of the main attractions to CMS for us was that ‘it is an organisation not afraid of change, open to experimenting with the new and drawing on the past’.

Recently while reading a summary of ways CMS is investing in new forms of mission and experimentation, it reminded me of a related thing we respect CMS for – the way they often work without anyone knowing about it and/or without heavy branding. Their approach refreshingly lacks a style of language that says ‘you must do mission our way’ or ‘support this particular programme we control’. Obviously this must cause tensions with the marketing guys, but to me it makes it much more authentic and effective than what a lot of organisations pump out.

However, one drawback of this style is that it is hard sometimes to know exactly what CMS is actually doing – so when I was reading recently Jonny Baker’s summary, in response to a separate discussion, where he talks about many of the things CMS are experimenting and investing in, and which indicate their style and approach, I wanted to highlight it – you can read it here.

By the way… it seems that the Lonely Planet book has now been published – I’ve no idea if we are now in print or not, but if next time you’re in a bookshop and you see a new Lonely Planet title called Volunteer: A Traveller’s Guide to Making a Difference Around the World have a look and let us know!

Audiomission podcast

This month we have made it onto the CMS Audiomission podcast.

Issue 16 – April 2007 is called ‘Dare to be salt and light’ and is based on an interview we did at CMS whilst in the UK in January. Despite many of the programme details we talk about having changed – and the fact that we were exhausted when we did the interview and didn’t think they’d be able to use it at all – they have mixed it well and, though we sound tired, the end result seems alright!

If you have good connection you can listen to it using the player below – just click on the play button below – or you can download the MP3 file here.

Believing without belonging

A new report from Tearfund on churchgoing in the UK has some interesting findings – especially finding more evidence for the need to grow new communities and fresh expressions of church. I have not read it all but the BBC website says the report finds that whilst people find “the church thing a little bit difficult, they are willing to recognise God.” These people are dubbed the “believing without belonging”.

It seems in a post-modern age the “me” generation often find church boring and irrelevant – and it has to be said that they do because often it is! In the foreword of the report Revd. Dr. Steven Croft says: “The research underlines very deeply the need to grow new communities: fresh expressions of church alongside traditional congregations. These fresh expressions of church are beginning in different places as Christians do as Jesus did: going to where people are, listening to their culture, offering loving service, forming new communities, making disciples and beginning church in a different way.”

Many of the issues raised are explored in more detail in a book we are currently reading, called Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture, which we will blog about soon in more detail. In the past we’ve blogged about The Secret Message of Jesus and Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire, both of which cover similar ground.

If you want to find out more about the Tearfund research try: Tearfund press release / BBC Magazine article on the report / Download the full report

The Secret Message of Jesus

We mentioned The Secret Message of Jesus by Brian McLaren whilst in the UK but until now haven’t had the chance to actually explain much about it. Brian McLaren is a church leader who has written a number of books and is a significant voice in the EmergingChurch movement, particularly in the USA. In The Secret Message of Jesus he looks at Jesus’ message afresh – asking whether the church has misunderstood, or distorted, his message.

“what if Christians were (un)willing to consider the possibility that they have more to learn (and unlearn) about the message of Jesus?” – Brian McLaren

The book examines the historical Jesus, trying to understand his message in the culture of the time. It covers similar ground seen in N T Wright’s academic works, and also explores similar issues found in Colossians Remixed, which we’ve mentioned before. The Secret Message of Jesus probably doesn’t say much more than others have said, but it says it in a very accessible and easy to read way. McLaren takes in the political, subversive and secretive nature and language of Jesus, and explores what it means to be a member of the Kingdom of God (both at the time and here and now) that Jesus talks about. It is well worth a read.

One of the things that really stood out for me was exploring the language of Jesus and why he spoke in parables – Why did Jesus speak in parables, why was he subtle, indirect and secretive?…..

“Because his message wasn’t merely aimed at conveying information. It sought to precipitate something more important: the spiritual transformation of the hearers. The form of a parable helps to help to shape a heart that is willing to enter an ongoing interactive; persistent relationship of trust in the teacher. It beckons the hearer to explore new territory. It helps form a heart that is humble enough to admit it doesn’t already understand and is thirsty enough to ask questions. In other words, a parable renders its hearers not as experts, not as know-it-alls, not as scholars… but as children.” – Brian McLaren

Stand up… sit back?

We are currently in the UK, preparing to return to Zambia next week. Whilst in the UK we have been doing lots of talks about our work with Jubilee Centre and CMS. As we’ve been doing our talks it has been great to meet lots of new people and catch-up with old friends – and we’d love to carry on the conversations started on our visits through our blog. In our talks we’ve used a number of resources and mentioned a number of responses we can all make to fighting poverty. I have promised a few people that I’d put links to those resources and responses on our blog – so here are those links:

Supporting Jubilee Centre: If you would like to support the work of Jubilee Centre in Zambia financially or through prayer the following two leaflets explain how to do this – Jubilee Centre Leaflet and Jubilee Centre UK Giving Form.

Supporting Matt & Polly: We produce a regular newsletter and prayer letter which you can sign up to by contacting us – you can also subscribe to receive updates from this blog website by email. If you would like to support us financially in our work with CMS for Jubilee Centre click here.

Micah Challenge campaign and video: We have been using a video in our talks by Micah Challenge in the UK – you can get a copy of this video here or find out more about the Micah Challenge campaign in the UK at www.micahchallenge.org.uk

CMS: For further information on the work of CMS visit: www.cms-uk.org

We have also mentioned two books in our talks – both of which are really useful resources for exploring the kingdom of God and our role as part of it. We have blogged about Colossians Re:mixed by Brian J Walsh & Sylvia C Keesmaat before and will try to blog about The Secret Message of Jesus by Brian McLaren in the coming weeks.

Unafraid of change

We recently wrote a case study for a new book from Lonely Planet – the International Volunteering Handbook, which is due to be published around July 2007 – and CMS have just covered it on the news section of their website – Unafraid of change article. So if you can’t wait for the publication of the book you can now read it there! Or if you want a soundbite…

“CMS has over one hundred years of experience in building links with churches around the world — but we were probably attracted more by the fact that it is an organisation not afraid of change, open to experimenting with the new and drawing on the past.

We are supporting a national organisation in Zambia to fight poverty… [and] that is really important for us — we are not entering a country and just doing our own thing; we are working for a Zambian organisation, run and governed by Zambians, in which we can offer support and help but which exists without us or a foreign organisation telling it what to do.”

Subverting the empire in a post-modern world

I have just read Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire, which is a fantastic book looking at the first century New Testament letter to the Colossian church/community for anyone who today identifies with a post-modern world. How do you read a biblical text that to post-modern ears can seem to talk of rigid absolutes that punch you in the face? This book attempts to help us hear the radical challenges that this letter would have originally sounded. Refreshingly creative it uses targums (extended modern para-phrases of the text) to bring the text to life and reveal that just as the first century community was under an empire (Roman), so too is our world (global consumerism). Rather than “flying the flag of empire”, the church is to be a, “community in refusal of the empire that bears the image of another Lord in its daily life.” It is to be a community that subverts the empire and provides an imagination alternative. This isn’t an anarchistic rant against consumerism or globalisation – it is much more, it is a call for the church to be a community made up of, “citizens of the kingdom rather than subjects of the empire.” Perhaps we’ll share a few more quotes and thoughts in the future, but for now if it strikes a cord with you get hold of a copy (it isn’t the easiest read, but is well worth the effort) and perhaps join us as we ask how our lives are ‘subverting the empire’.

“Paul’s ethic in the third chapter of Colossians is rooted in the narrative of Christ – died, buried, risen, ascended and coming again. This is not a narrative that imposes a series of absolutes to oppress us; it is a story of liberation from an empire that would take captive our imagination while it rapes and plunders the earth… This is a story of restored relationships, a love story that calls forth an alternative community characterised by compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forgiveness, love, peace, gratitude and wisdom. This is a story of creational restoration, a renewal to full humanness, in the image of the Creator. This is a community in which the word of Christ dwells richly. This is a community that is shaped as a countercultural force through the subversive worship of a subversive Lord.”

‘Colossians Re:mixed – subverting the empire’ by Brian J Walsh & Sylvia C Keesmaat

LICC Imagine Project

If you haven’t come across the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity’s (LICC) Imagine Project then have a look at their website. The project is seeking to revitalise Christian disciple-making for the 21st century, and has a new DVD resource for individuals and churches who want to address the challenge of living as disciples – rather than just converts – in today’s rapidly changing culture. The project aims to help the church move on from an individualistic me centred faith and connect faith to all of life and understand why it has so often found it difficult to equip and resource followers of Jesus for life in today’s world.

Daily Prayers

I have already blogged about our mission statement in ‘Getting to this point’. Since trying to put our statement into action through our lives, we have produced Daily Prayers that embody our statement. For some time now we have been exploring Celtic Christian traditions – using Morning, Midday and Evening prayer from, amongst other sources, The Rhythm of Life by David Adams. So we decided to produce some daily prayers based on our mission statement, which we can use a few times a day to create a rhythm of prayer and help us to put our statement into action. You can have a look at what we came up with by downloading our Daily Prayers PDF.

Some of you may find it too ritualistic, ordered or descriptive – or even frankly find us quite mad for praying in the first place – but we have found it extremely helpful in finding peace and calm in a busy individualistic world often full of stress. In making these times for prayer we hope to create a daily rhythm to live life.

“We have replaced the holy fast of Lent with our spring diet obsessions prior to bathing suit weather. We shy away precipitously from community and the pain associated with carrying one another’s burdens but exchange it for individualism and the agony of isolation and loneliness. Our days are no longer interrupted by times of nourishing spiritual reflections but by coffee breaks, aerobic workouts, and our favourite sitcom shows. We think we have escaped from the dead rituals of the past, but are caught up instead in the compulsions of fashion fads, shopping sprees, and the allure of a new vitamin pill that promises healthy longer life.”

From the book Sacred Rhythms: Finding a Peaceful Pace in a Hectic World by Christine Sine