One day

It is my contention that we Christians can be far to clever for our own good.There seems to be endless amounts of chat and debate as to what we should or should not be doing and along side that how we should be doing it.
Looking again at Jesus reading from in the synagogue challenged me on the simplicity of his agenda the agenda of the Kingdom.He could have read any piece of scripture about himself but choose this one “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, .It is clear the he wanted the people to know right away who it was that was at the heart of his plans.
How far away have we in the west moved from this position.Here in the UK the working class make up less than 5% of church .If you look at the so called underclass they don’t even make a mark.
So my questions to missional tribe is “what is our mission?”and have we become to smart for our own good leaving behind those Jesus called us to?

Dorothy had one amazing journey in order to learn that theres “no place like home”.Over these last few weeks I have had the same “no place like home “moments.Our little community has been through the wars over the last few years and at times I thought we would go under.But somehow the great OZ has kept us together and enabled us to see clearly that there really is no place like home.

Being in fellowship with and amazing group of people cannot be beaten.Knowing that there hearts are for you and that there deeds will back that up brings a joy that cannot be spoken.So Iwant to say a big thanks to my wife Lesley to John the plumber to Anne and Carol to my mother and to all those who have re-appeared over the last few monthsTo Gordy for opening his heart and sharing again the story of seeing us like David killing the giant with the simple things like a few stones to big John for being willing to confess and move on.

The only problem with all of this is that I want home to get bigger and bigger so there is room for more.A place for all those misfits like scarecrows and cowardly lions and rusting men wow.

As most of you know the urban church in the UK is failing.Suburban church’s look like they are growing or at least surviving while our inner cities turn into church-less wastelands.The figures for what we would have called traditional working class people attending church have fallen of the scale.

I can only speak for my own city(Glasgow)when I say that the “church”needs to look again at its mission priorities.Its all very well looking over seas and sending teams and money but who is willing to take on the deprived difficult inner cities.These places are so full of problems its hard to know  where to start and it can sometime be overwhelming but I believe that God has a heart for these communities that we need to get a hold of.

I would like to try to explain what I see as some of the issues regarding our lack of mission into the inner cities.

For a start we need to find some new models the old ones dont work any longer.I have a friend who has been trying to plant a traditional shaped church for a few years now.Despite talking with him about the need for new shapes of church he found it difficult to get over the old model.He has now come to a place where he knows that the old shapes dont work for his community.He is able to pray for and minister to many people he is able to meet them in there homes and bless them but they find it difficult to gather every Sunday.So he is now beginning to see that the church in his community will take a different shape.

The suburban church needs to be challenged to look at the mission on there doorstep and find ways to get involved in resourcing the new expressions of church that are needed for a new age.I Recently heard someone from a  well of para church group share how they would spend £250k over the next few years working in Brazil despite the fact there sister organisation in Brazil was 10 times better of than they were.This was told to a group of people who are all in struggling urban churchs.

And last but not least people in inner cities need to be able to see there peers leading churchs .This means finding new models of leadership that dont involve educated imports leading everything in a city.In Glasgow Iam part of a very rare breed .I come from Glasgow I became a christian out of the drug scene and I now help to lead a church in the inner city.Our leadership team are all locals and all have other jobs and none of us went to bible school.It has taken us a while to be confident in Gods calling and it has been a long difficult journey for all of us.But we are now able to speak life to others in our position and encourage them to be confident that God can use them alongside the professionals.

As I watched the new president take power I was struck by the way that the power is handed over from one man to another.There is great care taken to make sure that everything is done according to the law.So much so that the new pres thought he should take the oath again because of a few slip ups the first time around.

All of this is in stark contrast to Jesus who gave up all his power to humbled himself and serve .The kingdom of God is a very different place to the kingdoms of this world and in truth no matter the man and his intentions politics is about the taking of power.Now it is true that the power can be used for good and I hope the new pres is able to do that .But in the end it is Jesus we must look to and the coming of his kingdom to the people of the world that will make the world the place it was supposed to be.

We are still stuck in with the concept of top down.Where power is taken and then used to make things better .Jesus showed us the bottom up way.Where power is given up and those who have nothing become the most important people in the kingdom.I dont think any nation will ever look like that and maybe they never should, but the kingdom of God does and thats how we change nations .

So God bless the new pres but all hail the chief Jesus.

I have not been able to spend any time making my blog look good but I wanted to share this mission story with you.

Our small church in the east end of Glasgow (Bridgeton) had the great privilege of praying for (commissioning) a team of folk who are of to Possilpark (Glasgow) to plant a new church.Both areas are under church-ed and are areas of urban deprivation.The team came together through Urban Expression http://www.urbanexpression.org.uk/ and is made up of four couples all of whom have moved into the area.The team are led by Paul & Esther Ede who have been living in the area for about a year now.

The reason for sharing this is that as far as I know this is unique in Glasgow and is very exciting .For us to be able to pray for them on Sunday was not only a great privilege but also shows the power of relationships.They  should have been prayed for in a large well known church but I believe somehow God planned it this way to say something to all of us about the way in which relationships shape our journey.We are in the same field (old school) and so we need to be able to help and support each other to reach those God is calling us to.

You can read a bit more here under church tag.http://mardibum.blogspot.com/

A big hello from Glasgow Scotland.I hope to have time to post some of my thoughts here and a view of my world here from time to time.