Why we Remember

My son is 10. My father, the only person in our immediate family who fought in the war and lived through it died the April after my son was born. What my son knows of war comes from media and history lessons.

As we lose the generations who fought in the two world wars, the truth of the horror of war risks being lost. If we lose that truth we risk making the mistake of thinking war is acceptable. We start talking about the statistics of acceptable loss and human suffering stops factoring in our decisions. It is important, so very important, that we don’t lose sight of the human cost.

I have told my son about his grandad’s war about what he saw and what he lost and how he hoped no one would ever go through that again.

We remember to keep the memory alive of how they suffered so we could live and in doing so, hopefully avoid further pain on that scale.

Advertisements

Remembering remembrance

I somehow doubt that there is anyone in Britain whose life was not touched by  the First or Second World War in some way. It may be directly, or through relatives or a myriad other ways.

There are 53 identified Thankful Villages in the UK. 53 parishes where all the men who signed up for the services in World War 1 returned safe out of some 12,000 Anglican parishes.

Everyone knows the origin of the red poppy as a symbol of remembrance and a large part of the population will be wearing a poppy, particularly for Sunday.

War affects many more than just the soldiers fighting in it though. It affects civilians whose lives are destroyed but also it affects the families of soldiers, sailors and airmen.

My Father was in the Navy and was piloting landing craft on D-Day. at 19 he saw his best friend shot in the head and killed while standing next to him and, in his words, he delivered whole Canadians to Juno Beach and brought back bits of ones. I can’t say for sure how this affected my father. He never spoke of his experiences in combat until shortly before he died, but I believe it affected how he lived his life from that point on. From post war stories he told me I believe he tried to cram so much in to travel and life because he knew any day it could all end. He stood against injustice any time he saw it. He loved and worked hard to build and support community. He hated to talk about feelings and was physically reckless on many an occasion. Today he would probably have been diagnosed with PTSD. I can’t speak for my sisters but this affected how I lived my life. He probably came out of it fairly well compared to many. Emotional and mental damage was relatively minimal.  

There was a mention on Radio 4 recently of a poll that showed the majority of British people valued and supported their armed forces but didn’t like the idea of them dying for them. That seems eminently sane to me. I value the fact that there are people committed to laying down their lives in defence of me but I don’t ever want there to be a situation where they need to.

I believe it is important to look after all the victims of war, Civilian and armed forces, which is why I was pleased to find out about the existence of the Armed Forces Covenant, a commitment by the nation to support our armed forces and their families. It’s not perfect and too much it should do falls to charities instead.

As a Christian my life is built around someone who was willing to die for me. On Sunday I will be remembering Him as well as the soldiers, sailors, RAF and WAF and Wrens who fought and died and fought and survived.

 

So what’s it all about?

Outreach is the vehicle through which the church works out it’s missional purpose to share The Good News (Evangelise).

I’m not sure how accurate that is but it seems a good starting point to work out what we are doing.

If outreach is simply reaching out, then mission should be the purpose that drives it. Running a food bank is outreach, mission is bringing God into the mix by evangelising.

So is outreach simply service under another name? I don’t know but looking at what happens as many churches outreach that could well be so.

One of the great things about the churches I work with is they get the difference. They don’t always find it easy but they get that’s what it’s about.

I work in what is called soft evangelism. I wasn’t there for the main era of Billy Graham Crusade inspired evangelism. I came to Christ through soft evangelism, my wife was a Christian and I found myself getting to know her church, getting to like them, wondering what made them the people they were and discovering Christ along that route. At it’s heart Christianity is about relationship and however you come to Christ it is relationship that keeps you there, relationship with God and relationship with fellow believers.

Most things we do as a circuit are based around this idea of building relationship, Elemental Tent, Faith Al Fresco, The Prayer Caravan, Alpha. They’re all things that allow for that slow build, faith by osmosis, but there is space as well for that moment of revelation and clarity. Either way though the people who make up the Meon Valley Circuit are prepared to give their best to those conversations to help people on their journey.

An Elemental Take Away

 

Reflection is a wonderful habit to develop. It requires time and space which aren’t always easy to come by but it is invaluable.

This year was my first time leading the Elemental Tent. I don’t mind admitting that it was slightly terrifying being the person where the buck stops. For the first week afterwards all I could recognise were the things I’d done wrong, the areas where I’d failed. Other people said complimentary things but I paid them no heed.

Two weeks after I took the time to sit down and reflect. There were things I could have done better looking back, but there were things that went incredibly well, better than I ever hoped. I took a balanced view of the event and had to conclude that, despite areas for improvement, it went extremely well.

This wasn’t down to just me though. This was about the team that had been built and trained and encouraged this year and over the preceding years. There are people on the team who can, have and did make excellent decisions about all sorts of elements of Elemental. My role in leading was to support them, trust them and encourage them. Yes I had to be the final arbiter on some occasions.

This was also about the thought and planning that had gone into the five years the circuit has been at Wickham Festival with the tent. The basics of it are obvious, food, craft and conversation but how it is put together is what makes the difference. It’s built on solid foundations of years of study, training that provides a real engagement for volunteers, and an understanding that one size does not fit all. It’s those qualities that mean it has been able to change leadership and still thrive.

When it works it works well and it works because of the foundations it is built on. We have been invited back yet again by the organisers of the Wickham Festival. They recognise that Elemental Tent brings something of value to the festival and want us a part of the set up. We offer something unique and spiritual and that is valued.

(My son, Harry, walking the Labyrinth outside the Elemental Tent)

Prayer

Please forgive the disjointed rambling that follows. I will doubtless look for an opportunity to edit this into some more cohesive form later but needed to get my thoughts down.

I was in a long discussion the other day about what motivates church. I was talking about how a particular church was motivated and driven by fear in the things it did and the decisions it made and the friend I was talking with was saying that we need, as churches, to be led more by prayer. My argument was, I will admit, very negative and pessimistic where as my friend was clearly more optimistic. In hindsight I see we were both making the same argument from different sides.

When things don’t work in a business the obvious thing is to look at your working processes. Do you need more management, less management, streamlined procedures, tighter control, downsizing and on and on. These decisions can be made based on factual data and with an eye to the financial bottom line. They are decisions that can often be made based on fear. Fear of competition, fear of job losses, drop in market share and they are decisions you often see churches making. It might be the introduction of Messy Church or all ages worship or breakfast church or a whole variety of other things. These are all things that can happen for two main reasons. one is a fearful, kneejerk reaction to a drop in congregation numbers or an inability to attract families, the other is a prayerful reaction to the same thing. Both can lead to the same decisions but there is a vital difference.

When we act out of fear we act in our own strength and that rarely is sustainable. The things we do disappear under a lack of interest and commitment, that relationship fails, attendance drops, volunteers disappear.

When what we do grows out of prayer however it’s chance of success is so much greater because God is on our side. It’s reacting to that still, small voice, that nudge that follows prayer that is important.

This has been a difficult thing for me to get a real understanding of. Although I accept I’m saved by Grace I need my faith to work out in a practical way in many respects and I find formal prayer difficult. Every denomination has a format for prayer that is predominant in their church. If you grow up within a church you often take that on unconsciously. Prayer for me has always been something others have done, exhorting God to do what they need of Him. As a Christian who came to God later in life I had viewed prayer as a long conversation with my dad. In conversation we rarely call people by name more than once and most of my prayers started “hey God” and then headed into a rambling mess of questions, pleas, angry rants, apologies and awkward silences. This was nothing like the formal prayers I heard in church and so I rarely prayed publicly with or for someone. I was very much a “Go into a quiet room and shut the door” kind of prayer person which is fine. It is, after all, scriptural.

I spent a long time coming to understand public prayer, praying out loud around others and came to a number of realisations that, while probably obvious and well known to others, were a revelation for me.

First and foremost is that public prayer, prayer groups and prayer meetings aren’t about God as much as they are about building up the children of God, firing them up. Praying privately we know God is listening and God is on our side but we are only human and in some ways we need to know we are not alone in what we are asking of God. When we pray for God to step in, be it because of a terrible disaster, illness affecting a member of the church or an outreach venture the church is considering or anything else, we know two or more of us are standing together and that is massive.

Matthew 18:19-20 ¹⁹“Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. ²⁰For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”

Which brings us not so neatly back to the original point. Many churches are motivated by a fearful reaction to the world around them. Many other churches are motivated by a prayerful reaction to the world around them. Fear can lead you to pray. Fear can lead you to attempt things in your own strength. It seems to me that successful churches are the ones who let prayer lead them out of the darkness and into being like Jesus, the unsuccessful ones are the ones who let fear keep them in the darkness and build rules and procedures to try and hold the dark at bay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thoughts on Elemental Tent

Outreach is hard work. Do not let anyone tell you otherwise. Even as a volunteer just being on your feet and talking to people is physically and emotionally draining. You couple that with the natural fear of talking about faith to strangers and it’s a surprise any church outreach ever happens. Fortunately we’re not doing it for ourselves so enough people rest into God and put aside their fears.

I mention this only to draw attention to how awesome something like Elemental Tent is. Each year for the last 5 years The Meon Valley Methodist Circuit has rolled up to The Wickham Music Festival and set up a spiritual oasis for all manned by 30 to 40 volunteers. 30 to 40 volunteers, giving up their time over a concerted period of time to serve strangers and seek nothing in return. That’s an impressive number of people from a circuit of 5 small to medium churches.

The thing with Elemental Tent is it’s not based on a church programme with hard and fast rules on how it looks and who it’s for and how it should be manned. The Tent is a concept based around a theological understanding of mission, an idea of what things make mission easier and an appreciation and understanding of the environment the mission takes place in. it’s not about surface, about one size fits all. It’s about dressing a deeper understanding in a suitable dressing.

At my home church we had tried Light Parties on Halloween for a number of years. They were, in all honesty, an abysmal failure. This year will be the fourth year we have taken the training behind Elemental Tent and applied it to Halloween with great success. The training, ethos and key elements behind it are transferable almost anywhere once you understand them.

The team who volunteered at the Wickham Festival were phenomenol. Conversations ranged from living off grid to cider making, as openers and launched into talk of Calling, God’s love, why does God allow evil and the place of The Green Man in the history of the church. Conversations were held with new friends and old friends, some had visited our tent from the very first time we were there.

As a circuit we built and continued building relationships with several hundred visitors over the long weekend. These people know us, they know we’re Christians and that we love them. That lightbulb moment when people suddenly decide to give their life to Christ is a wonderful thing but for most people it’s a slow experience, a build up of dozens, hundreds of small and positive encounters. When visitors come looking for you at a festival, when traders ask to be pitched near you at a festival, that’s when you know you’re showing the love of Christ in a way that is really changing people’s lives.

 

 

Diary of The Prayer Caravan

The simplist ideas are often the best and the best ideas are often stolen from somewhere else. One day I got a call from Eric Gamblin of Waltham Chase Methodist Church. He’d been looking at the 24/7 Prayer website and noticed they had a caravan that they used as a pop up prayer space. “We have a church caravan, could we do that?”

The short answer was yes and with a lot of work and juggling we managed to fill eight days out in the community, meeting people and sharing about Jesus and Prayer. We set our expectations realistically. If we could have a conversation with one person that made a difference in their lives, even if we never knew it, then it was worth all the work. As it happened God had so much more in mind than that. The Holy Spirit was all over it.

Our first day, after praying at the Church over the caravan, we were at Waltham Chase Village Hall. We had lots of little conversations with visitors to Ria’s, people at the bus stop and parents coming to the pre-school. Rosie Banks was amazing chatting with people at the bus stop. When we were getting ready to pack up George turned up. George had driven past us a couple of times and stopped to see what we were doing. George was a solidly built man in his 70s. He had developed a terrible bone cancer that had almost collapsed his body in on itself. He was in the process of moving down from Shepherds Bush to live with his daughter and hadn’t really got to know anyone in the neighbourhood. He’d been a Christian much of his life and when he was diagnosed with bone cancer and told it would kill him he laughed and said “God is good”. When they realised he wasn’t going to die they told him he’d never walk again. George laughed and trusted in God. When the doctors saw he was walking they said he’d never drive and would need constant care. George pointed to his car and told us how he drove it back to Shepherds Bush, where his son was living in his old house, several times a week. “You can see how not driving worked out” He said. Meeting George who had been through so much pain and had not ever doubted God and smiled on through it all was an inspiration to us when we had gone out looking to inspire others. Praying with and for George was an honour.

On Day 2 we visited Barnaby’s Coffee Shop in Swanmore at the invitation of the Rev Claire and Jill Phipps. We had Martin Letts with us who gave a great lesson in community.  We spoke with many people, prayed for a few and shared about prayer and the church with a lot of people who needed to hear it. Martin is deeply embedded in his community, he knows everyone and everyone knows him. He shows how much work it is to live in community. On top of that I made some great connections and had an amazing time in the sun. We prayed for a lady and for her father who had needed to move out of his home and into care and was finding it very difficult. We talked with a lot of people who were in church and spoke into the struggles they were encountering.

On day 4, Sunday, we took the caravan to Waltham Chase for the morning service celebrating Chase King’s football team to let the church see it and ask questions.  The general opinion was “it’s great but I couldn’t do that”. We started to appreciate the recognition factor of a bright yellow caravan as more people started saying they had seen it around the local area, being towed or parked up somewhere.

Day 5, Monday, we were back at the Waltham Chase Village Hall for the afternoon. We had a lot of encounters as parents parked up for the school run and the curiosity of the children as they returned to the car park lead to many more conversations. The first part had been quiet but things really picked up at home time.

Tuesday morning, day 6, St Peter’s Toddler Group with people from St Peter’s and Bishops Waltham UFC. We had been invited to set up outside St Peters Church Hall. We were a little tucked away and although we saw a number of dog walkers and parents we had to work harder for conversations. We did get to meet people from St Peter’s who were pursuing similar aims and were able to encourage others in stepping outside the church building and meeting with communities.

Wednesday, day 7, at St John’s School in the afternoon. There is nothing like explaining prayer to 4 year olds or talking with a provocative year six who announces he doesn’t believe in God to make you think more deeply about your own faith. Thanks to Niki Freemantle who got us the invite we were able to spend the afternoon, with great support from Tizz and Jordan, sharing about prayer and bringing God to some deep and heart-breaking questions. It must have gone well because we’ve been invited back again.

Day 8, Thursday, we were at Barnaby’s Café in the morning. Although it was quiet we got to meet the Reverend Claire who invited us to bring the caravan to an event they are having in June. We also got to chat with a young Czech woman who was working as a nanny. She was clearly missing the support of her church back home and it was great to be able to pray for her and tell her about some of the things going on in churches in the area. In the Afternoon we were at Swanmore school with the good folk from St Barnabas as part of a prayer space. Martin Letts joined us which was great because he is well known at the school through Open The Book. Jordan’s bouncy enthusiasm was also a great hit with the school children. The prayer bunting and the questions for God wall opened up some lovely conversations as the children were able to let out their honest concerns that ranged from bullying and loneliness to annoying siblings and playing Fortnite. It was humbling to have so many of them trust us with deeply important matters.

There were some sad, heart breaking and profound questions from the children, a sampling of which are in the pictures below.

It is worth remembering that even with small children there is a lot going on under the surface and they too can carry a lot of pain and emotional upset.

Day 10 we were at The Royal Wedding event at Waltham Chase promoting recognition as we begin to talk about other places to go with the caravan. If you have any ideas for events you are involved in where the caravan could be a welcome presence then now is the time to start investigating and talking.

Lessons were learnt about what works and where works best with the caravan and changes will be made next year. However, every day brought something of value to the Kingdom whether it was praying with someone, building community or building connexion with other churches for future working. Eric is to be commended for recognising God’s prompting and stepping out and I hope that his doing this will prompt others to listen to God and take a risk in turn.

 

Blessings

 

Pete