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http://davemale.typepad.com/churchunplugged/ @CofEPioneering www.cofpioneer.org. Introductions 1. Who you are including why your first name 2. Your present role as RAF Chaplain 3. One fact about yourself nobody here knows. What are you hoping to get out
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http://davemale.typepad.com/churchunplugged/ @CofEPioneering www.cofpioneer.org
Introductions 1. Who you are including why your first name 2. Your present role as RAF Chaplain 3. One fact about yourself nobody here knows
What are you hoping to get out of this course?
Seeing in a New Way Know how to see the infinite
Seeing what is to come! The power of imagination
“ we understood mission one way and organised life to accomplish it. We have awakened to find out the mission moved on us. To keep focusing on mission, we have to turn the furniture around and face a different direction. We may even have to move into another room.” Loren Mead. The Once and Future Church
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.” Marcel Proust “ To look at something as though we have never seen it before requires great courage.” Henri Matisse “ Our whole business in this life , is to restore to health the eyes of the heart, whereby God may be seen.” Augustine
Seeing in Johns gospel And the Word became flesh and lived among us and we have seen his glory. John 1: 14 No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son…….. who has made him known. John 1: 18 See, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. John 1: 29 John 4: 35 John 6: 36,40 John 12: 45 John 14: 9,19
Acts 10 Peter & Cornelius Seeing afresh • What do we see/learn about God? • What do we see/learn about Peter? • What do we see/learn about mission?
Missional Map making • Ancient paths • Compass points • Journey maps
A missional re-engagement with society
“ this majority (66%) presents a major challenge to churches. Most of them are unreceptive and closed to attending church; churchgoing is simply not on their agenda.” Churchgoing in the UK. A research report from Tearfund. April 2007
‘The reality is that mainstream culture no longer brings people to the church door. We can no longer assume that we can automatically reproduce ourselves, because the pool of people who regard church as relevant or important is decreasing with every generation’ Mission shaped church report p11
57% of adults in England identify as Christians. 9% of these are practising. 60% adults believe Jesus was a real person who actually lived. 43% of adults believe in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. 67% of adults know a practising Christian 19% wanted to know more about Jesus. Talking Jesus Research 2015
Three stories in our society • Theistic/ hierarchical. • Sacrifice/altruism. Surrender. • 2. Cosmic holistic. • Child of the universe, part of the • whole. Modest • 3. Competitive individualism • Dream big . Be a winner ,no limits
Six basic principles for creating a mission shaped Church/chaplaincy
1 There is no return address
‘ The defining aspect of this change of epoch is that things are no longer in their place…… we cannot simply wait for what we are experiencing to pass under the illusion that things will return to being how they were before.’ Pope Francis.
In working with young people . . . do not try to call them back to where they were, and do not try to call them to where you are, as beautiful as that place might seem to you. You must have the courage to go with them to a place that neither you nor they have ever been before. Christianity Rediscovered: An Epistle from the Masai (1978)
Judea Samaria Ends of the Earth Half the picture Jerusalem
The ends of the earth Samaria The eccentric effects… Judea The centre and the Acts story shift Samaria is not a return ticket story moves from a focus on Peter to Paul the Church goes west church is done differently among Gentiles
2 Public worship services probably are not the best starting point
Possible processes for creating new contextual communities, centred around Jesus, for those outside the church
Prayer Love Relate Create Prayer
3 Who is church for?
Why are you here? The church is Gods gift to the world.
‘ the church is missionary by it’s very nature……. the church does not have a mission but the mission has a church.’ Prophetic Dialogue. Bevans and Scroeder "The church is not the sender but the one sent. Its mission (its "being sent") is not secondary to its being; the church exists in being sent and in building up itself for the sake of its mission.“ David Bosch, Transforming Mission.
4 Disciples of Jesus rather than discipleship or simply attendance
What kind of people are we called to be in following Jesus? What kind of community is capable of raising people like that? Dallas Willard
How we see God • How we see ourselves and others • How we see our community • How we see creation and society
5 Church is multi level
“The problem is we have too many churches. The solution is we need a whole lot more.”
‘if the church is what happens when people encounter the risen Jesus and commit themselves to sustaining and deepening that encounter in their encounter with each other, there is plenty of theological room for diversity of rhythm and style, so long as we have ways of identifying the same living Christ at the heart of every expression of Christian life in common.’ Rowan Williams
Church as four sets of relationships. up of out in Moynagh, Church for Every Context p 106.
‘not leaving the tradition but driving to it’s heart’ Gerald Arbuckle, Refounding the Church
Pablo Picasso ‘ If you want to preserve tradition don’t wear your grandfathers hat, have grandchildren.’
6 This might change US
Dying to live “ I tell you the truth, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” John 12; 23-6
YOU CAN’T PREDICT THE OUTCOME Control to chaos Answers to questions Certainty to risk
There is no return address • Public worship services are probably not the best starting point. • 3. Who is the church for? 4. Disciples of Jesus rather than discipleship or simply attendance 5. Church is multi level 6. This might change US What are you seeing?
Seeing in a New Way What are you seeing ?
