This post was originally written prior to the #CoronaVirus Crisis. Hence consideration should be given to how we might consider this in the future, rather than in the here and now.
John Wesley once got into hot water because he questioned whether the very people who were teaching the next generation of leaders were living the life they were expecting others to follow. Rather than moderating his language he told it ‘as it were’. The people were incensed.
He was encouraging people to really follow God’s call upon their lives, not just come to Church on a Sunday but really live the life, everyday.
Wesley himself insists in this sermon that Christianity is not to be understood as a set of opinions or a system of doctrines, but as something which concerns hearts and lives
Professor Morna Hooker-Stacey, https://www.wesley.cam.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/09-hooker.pdf, p. 264.
When we talk of being missional we may consider leaving the safe confines of our church, “going out into enemy territory, reaching out and bringing back the outcasts into the safety of the church“. Where do we get such language?
Perhaps the safe confines terminology comes from the sanctuaries cathedrals and churches used to be, or the solemn silence we might have expected in churches. The significance of our churches seems to have diminished over the decades (centuries) – the reasons for that are for another time! Our churches are now yet another building within the fabric of our cities and towns – but surely they were (are) a living presence for the church represents the people?
What would it take for us to be a living presence in today’s society? Perhaps it would be part of our society in terms of the furniture not the building but the people. When it comes to the activities of society today whether it is watching football, going to the pub or shopping where is that living presence of the church? Would we want people to come to Church or are we seeking to ‘be’ church wherever the people are?
In terms of the pub, we may wish to go monthly and have ‘beers and hymns’ but what message are we conveying here? Is it to remember those Hymns, let’s go back to those old days….those days you left the church…or to build relationships which may mean going more than once a month…
What of the betting shop, as one further example, where tight-knit communities exist but rarely would church making its way into the building. As a Chaplain to one shop, I have found those relationships so illuminating, the care of the staff, the conversations from the locals, the stories that are told…the relationships that can be built.
What if, we were part of the pub society, rubbing shoulders day in day out with people so they could hear, see, know of our faith – not in a leaflet, or on a website but actually being with us? What might change, how would we consider ‘missional communities’ then?
And this is just one example of being with people.
Wow, that would please Wesley, for then we would be living the life!