Richard's Blog

Third Place

Steve Collins' blog, Small Ritualcarried this description a few months' back of what culture watchers describe as a Third Place:

'Third Places' are neither home nor workplace, but somewhere between. Places to meet, socialise, relax, hang out, work away from the office. Places to eat and drink without pressure to consume or move on. The 'third place' is epitomised by the modern coffee shop, with its sofas and newspapers - a revival of its 18th century role - or by the internet cafe.

...

Of course, in many ways this is a new name for the role that cafes have long performed in Mediterranean life. But the 'third place' is not focussed on the act of eating and drinking in the fashion of traditional cafes, restaurants, bars and pubs. The food or drink one consumes is the entry fee, not the point. The 'third place' is a living room, but not in someone's house; a workplace, but not in someone's office.

The reason the post is there (and why it was drawn to my attention) is - does this represent a feel that we ought to be looking to fill with our church buildings in any way? And if so, how? And then, is there a way that a Jesus-shaped Third Place will look or feel or function differently from, say, Starbucks?

Of sermon series and the 'Genesis' of an idea...

People often ask me what's the biggest difference in moving from being a curate to a vicar. Clearly there are issues to do with "buck stops here" and so on that I guess are fairly obvious and that I expected.

As it happens, the thing that has perhaps surprised me most is  the choosing of sermon series - both how difficult it can be and how important it feels it is to get right.

For most of a congregation, the Sunday sermon is 90+% of the teaching input they'll get that week. Some, I really hope, read Christian books or use Bible Reading notes. Some are members of a small group that meets midweek. But the main input for most people is that 20 minutes on a Sunday morning.

Given the incredible variety of people sitting there on a Sunday morning - with the cross-section of faith (or no faith) background and bible knowledge - how to choose series that are appropriate to where the church as a whole is "at" spiritually and strategically and that "scratch the spiritual itch" of as many as possible?

Given a term's programme blank in front of me, there are certain 'givens' that begin to ink in the landmarks - Easter and the run up to it is the obvious one in the next few months (so we'll have a series of four Sundays on "What did Jesus achieve on the Cross?" followed by a short series on his resurrection appearances).

Playing away in my mind will be a whole host of other issues, though:

• Recent conversations about spiritual things with people in All Souls...
• General concerns or issues I perceive as being on God's heart...
• Overall intentions for the direction of the church...
• What we've already covered - getting a balance of Old and New Testament, different types of Bible literature...
• Making sure that some of the 'big issues' get an airing, whilst not drowning out the basics of the faith...

...etc etc.

I have to admit to having gone through several possible outlines - I knew basically what I wanted us to cover in the run up to (and immediate aftermath of) Easter and that I wanted to keep us dipping back into the Psalms (so vital to the spiritual life), but what else?

It was (him again!) Eugene Peterson writing about Genesis 1-2 that (I believe) God used to grab my heart in the end:

...what is sometimes missed ...is how skillfully and well these texts prepare and lead each of us as ordinary working Christians in "the land of the living" (Ps 116:9) right now. These two creation stories, set at the entrance to our Bibles, are primarily texts for living in the time and place that we wake up into each morning.
[p63 "Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places"]

That sounds like "everyday spirituality" to me - what this blog is about and what the Christian life has to be about... so we're going to be pursuing Genesis 1-2 for a few weeks and allowing it to shape our thinking about: creation, time, gender, fruitfulness, work, rest, freedom and death! Should be enough there for us all - do pray I hear God clearly as I prepare and that we all hear God clearly as I speak.

October online!

Never say blogging never got you anywhere..!

Access and read my October letter to the congregation and this month's newsletter online on the church website. You can get to them by clicking below:

October Congregational Letter

All Souls News – October 2005

It's interesting adding up just how much time I end up giving deliberately to the whole area of communication - helping people to know what's happening, to feel 'in' on planning and decision-making etc. All part of the spin-off from living in a culture where people's lives are incredibly busy and our actual homes are relatively far apart - we have to give extra attention to knitting the congregation together by every means possible (the blog being one of them of course).

...listening to God

So, my question from yesterday: how do we 'include God' in that ongoing conversation about both "big vision" and "detailed plans"?

There isn't space here to do it justice - that's a series of sermons, really! - but a couple of very quick marker posts in the discussion:

• One of the most fundamental things we need to shift is the sharp distinction we often draw between the "spiritual" and "non-spiritual", between (for example) "hearing God through a word of prophecy" and someone having a superb "idea" that absolutely hits the spot. God made us whole beings - mind, body and spirit intermeshed and interwoven - if we have "the mind of Christ" (1 Cor 2:15-16) and are trying to give him every part of us, then increasingly our thoughts, ideas, skills, abilities - whether (so-called) "natural" or "supernatural" are useable by him. Woe betide us if we box God in and restrict him to a spiritual realm only...
• On the other hand, the gifts of prophecy - words of knowledge (where someone has a sense God is saying something specific into a situation or to a person), pictures (where God uses the visual imagination to show something), dreams (similarly) - are a vital resource to the church that we miss also at our peril. They are often used by God to either confirm a right decision or to redirect what might be mistaken and they always act as a reminder that we aren't meant to be doing this on our own. I've experienced the positive power of people speaking what they otherwise couldn't have known into my/our life - and the same can happen in church life too.

Fundamentally, of course, neither clever thinking nor spiritual techniques/gifts can 'work' or be effective unless the context in which we're doing our thinking and deciding as a church is one that is rooted in love of Jesus and enjoying our friendship with him through prayer.

That's why our Sunday worship, personal focused time with God and specific prayer meetings (such as the "Heart & Soul" evenings that start in October) are interwoven with all our discussions as leadership teams, clergy and PCC. If knowing Jesus and being known by him is at the centre of who we are together and individually and as families then our decision making and vision-forming is based on good solid rock.

Pressing on

Thank you to those of you who were able to come to Dreamtime - I'm not going to repeat here what I'll write in October's church newsletter in the next few days, but it does usefully raise the complex question of how we go as a church from 'idea' to 'reality' via some sort of listening process - listening to God, to one another, to those with responsibility for leadership in a particular area.

I say 'complex' as much as anything because it's an ever-changing process - actually, "conversation" (the term I used on Thursday evening) sums it up best - that depends largely on the idea/vision/plan in hand.

As an example, let me try and draw you in on the subject of church weekends away. Adrian R. raised the question at PCC the other day, continuing a conversation that stretches back to a previous All Souls weekend some years' ago (I believe) and has appeared occasionally in the minutes of PCC since then.

It's actually a more involved discussion than might at first seem likely, so I suggested to PCC a team of people to do the groundwork, chaired by Adrian, discussing it in some depth before bringing it back to PCC for some decision making.

My way of setting that going has been to write a  brief "thinking through" sheet - aimed to be (as I put it there) "not the last word, but perhaps the first few". I've tried to raise many of the issues involved, so that Adrian's team has somewhere to start, rather than the proverbial "blank sheet" and I've asked PCC members to comment and also to tell Adrian if they're interested in being on the group.

I've also decided to 'blog' about it today - partly as an example of how things can get talked through (especially non-urgent items like this), but also to involve you in the process. You'll find my paper (rather grand word for it!) here (28Kb) in Word format and I'd love you to let Adrian know what you think.

And where does God get a look in? How do we include him in the conversation so that this isn't just like any other organisation?

It's a good question isn't it? Should every decision have a prayer meeting? Should we always be seeking a word prophecy or a picture to confirm/direct us?

...I think that'll be tomorrow's blog! :o)