Urban paradox

Reconnecting church and the city

But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.
Jeremiah 29:7

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grew up in the country, the kind of place that some uncharitably call “the middle of nowhere.” Work was long and hot, and the church, that building at the center of a sprawling agricultural community, was an educator, social hub, and helper. The connection between the church and the land was easy enough to figure out. It was commonplace on a Sunday morning to give thanks for land, to pray for it, and to live with the dignity of a very earthy Christianity.

North America it seems that urban abstractions have destabilized this kind of intimate spirituality of land and community. How many residents of a new American suburb are liable to offer an earthy and robust thanks for their square patch of lawn, identically sculpted to fit the pattern of an endless row of McMansions? Or who might stare out of their high rise in Los Angeles to see a maze of granite, concrete, and the world’s most expansive road works and feel compelled to enter this kind of spiritual space?

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Lublink on leadership

… a responsibility for the entire church

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hristian leadership is always something of a hot-button topic.  It has become almost expected, for example, that every successful leader publish a book on leadership - as though he or she had single-handedly stumbled across the secret formula for success.  From church planters to mega-church leadership gurus to Christian social justice advocates, everyone has to list the five simple keys to success.  Buy the book, take the course and you’ll see your ministry as a leader blossom.  Right?  Unfortunately, life is never that easy.  Nor is any one leadership methodology so universal that it can function precisely the same way in every situation, regardless of context.

Biblically speaking, as well as experientially, it should be said that leadership is not about some secret codex of principles to be keenly followed in order for success to be achieved.  Nor is it about select individuals in the church using a series of secret scripted words, as though leading others were about casting a spell, getting all the secret steps just right.

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Two tussle with ministry

Capt. Juan Burry & Capt. Rick Zelinsky
discuss the split between
social ministry and spiritual ministry
in the Army

Juan Burry…

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t our Community & Family Services centre, we spend our days providing our people with food, clothing, help with paying their rent, life skills and employment skills so they can find work, and professional counseling to overcome some of the barriers that are preventing them from having healthy relationships. All the while, we do this in the Spirit of Christ. So I am amazed when I am visited by a headquarters officer or during program reviews and asked: “But what about your spiritual activities?”

Huh? Is there not spiritual value in these activities? Apparently, when Jesus told us to give the cup of cold water, he assumed that it would be accompanied by the “ABC’s of Salvation” tract. That must be why he forgot to mention it — he knew Christians would just do it automatically.

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Can CEOs be ethical?

Jim Read asks | Where does character come from?

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y first job when I graduated from college thirty years ago was as a banker.  I was pretty good at it, and in the course of two years I was promoted from management trainee to branch accountant to regional head office instructor, and was on track for a management position in a downtown Toronto [Canada] branch when I quit to go to UCLA and study philosophy.  As I follow the financial news these days, I wonder what kind of a man I would have become if I’d stayed in banking instead. › Continue reading

What I am in the church?

Vadim Hurin looks at how we do church

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hen was the last time you were in church?  Perhaps it was just recently, or maybe a lot of time has passed.  For some, attending church meetings is a valued tradition; yet for others, it is mere formality. Different people have various reasons for coming to church.  In principle, it is not so difficult to answer the question: “Why am I coming to the church?”

But another question is not that simple; it makes us look beyond standard answers and accepted clichés.  And this question is, “What am I for in the church?”  Me personally, and not anybody else?  Not my neighbor on the right, not a friend from small group or choir, but me.  Me as a father, me as a son or a friend.  Worker or unemployed, nervous or aloof.  We are all used as church members, brothers and sisters, deacons and priests, singers in the choir and Sunday school teachers.  All these services and roles are good.  But we are more than our social names and designations.  We are different, and each one has individual gifts, skills, character, strengths and weaknesses, sins.  That is all we are.

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Incarnate Forum | Geoff Ryan #2

Part 2 of 2

The first part of this essay appeared on Tuesday.

Political Implications
“Politics is who gets what, when and how.”

“Politics is important in determining whether a people will be at war or in peace. It is fundamental in the distribution of economic goods, including the definition of property rights. Politics is basic to the definition of crime and the determination of how it will be punished. It affects the degree to which people will be free to speak, to write, to worship. It defines who will be accepted as members of the community, and who will be placed at the margins. It seriously influences the rearing of children by determining the circumstances of family life and establishing much of the subject matter of their education. It enters into the self-awareness of a people, their self-identity, and it projects in large measure their sense of historic destiny and accomplishment.”

“When Christians seek to exclude politics from their thinking they are bound to distort their theologies, for politics is an inescapable aspect of human existence, with direct relevance to the divine/human encounter.”

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ven the word, let alone the reality, of politics is toxic to many Christians, nevertheless it is unavoidable. The word idiot comes from idiotus, a term coined by the Greeks for a person who refused to involve themselves in public affairs. The Church, therefore, contains many idiots - those who believe that political involvement, indeed that participation in politics in any shape or form, is to compromise faith and that it is invariably detrimental to the church and its mission.

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Incarnate Forum | Geoff Ryan #1

Part 1 of 2

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he Incarnate Mission Forum was held at the Salvation Army Officer Training College in London, England this past January. The event was organized by the UK-based NEO network of urban expressions (ALOVE UK) and was a partner event to the Urban Forum 2007, held in Atlanta, Georgia. Delegates, attending from Canada, the US and the UK, were mostly practitioners from urban ministry settings. A number of papers were presented at the event, both by Salvation Army speakers and others. theRubicon will post selected presentations over the next few weeks.

Implications of a(n Intentional)
Theology of Christian Re-Incarnation
What are the economic and political factors and implications of incarnational mission?

by Major Geoff Ryan
Incarnation Mission Forum:
William Booth College, London January 29-31, 2008

Definitions:

• Christians: Western, Protestant, Evangelical.
• The Poor: Not an exclusively economic term; the last, lost and least; those marginalized; the oppressed; those excluded.
• Urban: Not an exclusively geographic term as in “inner city”; a community characterized by a mixture of socio-economic factors; poverty, crime, lack of opportunities etc.

All Scripture references are from the New International Version unless otherwise indicated

Defining Incarnational Mission

“The task of the Gospel is to bring humanity back into community.”

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We need heroes

Rob Perry on rescuing the Army’s
military metaphor from a
quaint historical footnote

Every member of every corps should understand the spiritual battle that rages in the world and the incredible real-life pain and suffering that lies in its wake

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ecently I came across a recruiting advertisement for Salvation Army officers in an American Salvation Army publication. It depicted five jackets hanging on a rack, each jacket a part of a different uniform. Moving from background to foreground was a paramedic’s jacket, a navy tunic, a camouflage army jacket, a firefighter’s coat, and in front of them all, a Salvation Army officer’s tunic. The caption at the top of the page read: “We need heroes! Join the mission.”

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Reading Amos

Are we all collectively guilty asks Nick Gurevich?

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ecently I’ve been reading the book of Amos, one of the less known biblical prophets, in which God forewarns the people of Israel of impending and inescapable punishment.

“The Lord says, ‘The people of Israel have sinned again and again, and for this I will certainly punish them.  They sell into slavery honest men who cannot repay their debts, poor men who cannot repay even the price of a pair of sandals.  They trample down the weak and helpless and push the poor out of the way…At every place of worship men sleep on clothing that they have taken from the poor as security for debts.  In the temple of their God they drink wine which they have taken from those who owe them money.’”  (Am 2.6-8)

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Islam and Christianity

by Adrian Gosling

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y class of 11- and 12-year-olds were set an interesting question during their recent summer term Religious Studies examination: “What can we learn from the way that Muslims practice their faith?”  Their answers were fascinating and informative.  Some pupils suggested how non-Muslims could gain an understanding of what devotion and commitment mean.  Some said Muslims could show us the importance of prayer in daily life.  Others wrote that Muslims help us see how we can make people feel part of a community.

As Christians, we can learn much from many other faiths.  But with certain faiths, the link goes even deeper.  With fellow Christians, Jews and Muslims, we share the inheritance of the Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition.  Belief in one God aligns us together in certain key respects, giving us a different interpretation of the meaning of deity to those who follow Hindu, Buddhist, and Taoist philosophies and practices.

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