The Cross Stitch Church - the needle

as i sit at the keyboard and write this my wonderful wife is sewing my coat pocket back on, using needle, thread but no gauze. The sewing is more out of necessity than creative design and very much appreciated i have to add. It is a mark of my complete incompetence that i am unable to repair my own coat! Sadly, i expect that this bit will get more comments than anything else i write below!

I have thought about the gauze, the pattern and thread, all in a very pretentious way and so now i continue the theme by thinking about the needle. In my metaphor of a cross stitched church, the needle stands for church leaders, those wonderful, dedicated, inspired, anointed breed of which i am one (please note the irony).

In my own denomination we have been somewhat wary of leadership i think. In an effort to avoid personality-focused ministries and authoritarian and domineering leadership styles we find ourselves lacking in leadership. This is both at the national level and the local. This is not to denigrate the work of my own District Chair who currently occupied the throne of 'President of the Conference. He has (and I'm sure will) do as good a job as any in his Presidential year. The problem is that it is a merely representative and even 'PR' role rather than any that exercises leadership and direction.

In the local church the same is true. The local minister has no more say than anyone else about church mission and policy because legally he or she has one vote along with others at church meetings. This often (not always) leads to a lack of leadership 'on the ground' within the local church. Something we miss to our cost as a denomination.

And then there are the ministers themselves. So many of my colleagues, it seems, are reticent to see themselves as leaders. Yes presbyters, are to be pastors and teachers, but they must be leaders also. It is part of the authentic role of presbyteros, elder - to watch over those in their care in love, but also to lead them as a shepherd leads their flock.

In the metaphor of the church as a piece of cross-stitch - where the gauze is the world, the pattern and thread the church, the needles that display the pattern are leaders. Leaders are necessary, leaders are important, and we need to rediscover the position and place of leaders within the church. It is through authentic leadership, modelled on Jesus' leadership that the pattern of the church gets threaded. Without leadership the thread is not completed, it is haphazard, random, at sometimes beautiful, but mostly chaotic. The pattern of the church is woven by the artist, using leaders to shape the edges and colours etc. Lets not forget that in the sewing analogy it is actually the needle that pulls the thread. The needle leads the thread through the holes, through the material, back over itself etc to complete the destined path for the thread. Why is it we are so afraid to let leaders lead? Why are we so afraid in Methodism to be led?

I believe in the church and i believe in church leaders who are humbly submitted to God but confident in their God-given mandate to be apostolic and lead with due diligence. I believe in needles that pull the thread, but always surrendered to the hand of the great artist.

The Cross Stitch Church - a pattern

Seasons greetings one and all. I had some hassle from a few people recently about the lack of update to my blog - hassle that has been justified i have to agree. Christmas is a crazy time for clergy - a strange breed of which i am a part- and i've just not made the time to write. Not though due to lack of desire! There is much in my little brain that i have wanted to express not least on the theme of the church as a piece of cross-stitch.

I mused last time that in my little metaphor the world in which we live is like the plain gauze waiting for the artist to weave His great and creative pattern upon and within it. Perhaps then the next stage is to think about what that pattern is and consists of. My suggestion is that the Church of Jesus Christ is the thread weaved by the hand of the artist upon the gauze. We are the thread. We are the church, people who are connected and committed to Jesus whom God is weaving into a beautiful and distinctive pattern that others might stand in amazement and wonder at. We are God's workmanship, God's design, the church Jesus died to bring about, the people He loves, a community being prepared like a bride for His return. And i believe it is the church that God longs to renew and restore to be an obvious sign of God's life and love in the world. I believe in the church. I don't think i believe in our western expression of it much (although i am still exploring it) but i do believe in a church that has values mirrored in the book of Acts. I believe in a church that is a gathering of people connected and committed to Jesus. I believe in a church with prayer and worship as its lifeblood. I believe in a church that loves the poor and includes the outcast. I believe in a church that believes in itself and believes that it can change the world from the inside out as Jesus did. That sort of church i believe in, not one defined by structures, committees, buildings, power, mindless ascent to tradition. But conversely maybe i can believe in an institutional model of church that reflects the values i mentioned above? Who knows. I don't as yet.

Whatever the pattern may eventually look like, whatever the artists design is going to be, the pattern in thread on the gauze is the church of Jesus Christ, the people of God. All of us who are a part of that community can find ourselves part of the pattern that God is weaving in the world, a pattern that people stop and stare at with amazement, a pattern that is attractive, a pattern that reflects the brightness of God, a pattern and design, God-conceived, God-made, and God-sewed. in my metaphor of the church as a cross stitch, the world is the blank piece of gauze waiting expectantly for a grand design, the thread that makes the pattern, and indeed the pattern itself is the church, the people of Jesus.

Cross stitch church - gauze

Before i launch into another tirade about the future and purpose of the Church a few people have pointed out my lack of delivery over the whole giraffe issue. I had promised to post a picture of my painted pottery giraffe, of which i am very proud. Sadly i managed to leave it at my parents house, but fear not, it has been returned to me! Any comments welcome, but keep them clean and constructive....

But i also want to return to the over-arching meta narrative of this blog, the purpose and practice of the church. I am still thinking around the metaphor of the Church as a piece of cross stitch but feel that the metaphor's symbolism may require some symbolism.

From what i can ascertain after conversations with cross stitch enthusiasts, there are four main elements to the cross stitch. Firstly, some gauze is needed. Nothing can be done, nothing can be created if there isn't a place to create it. An artist cannot paint unless there is a surface of some kind - wall, paper, easel, car... and so a cross stitch-er needs material to stitch their design upon.

For me, in the context of the cross stitched church, the gauze, the surface on which the grand design of the church is stitched is the world in which we live. By the term 'world' i could mean the globe, the wider universe, or the local community in which we live. But whether we like it or not, the Church expresses itself among the community in which we live. Even if we meet in secret, and there is just a few of us, still it makes some small mark on the world at large whether we know it or not. It is to the world that the church is sent, it is within the world that the church exists, it is by the material of the world - people and their ingenuity and creativity (combined with the Spirit of God) that the church is formed. Wherever we sew the pattern of God's church it is in and around the world that we inhabit with us seeking to display to our community the potential friendship and excitement of being in relationship to God and playing a part in the grand design of His church.

Being away

Holiday's are so lush and i'm on one at the moment, spending a little time with my lovely wife in West Wales. I don't have my laptop with me - deliberately - so internet access is only available through this quirky (and slightly random) internet cafe in Narberth, Pembrokshire. It's run by Grace Church, Narberth - a church i know nothing about - and we've just had brocolli soup for lunch with cheese and bread.

Previous to this i've had my creative juices flowing nice and good because we've been painting pottery! It was so uch fun. When i get my wonderful giraffe back from the kiln i promise to post a picture here - it may well be the first picture of the blog! Surely you can hardly contain yourselves!

Anyway this is enough for today because i'm on holiday and can't be bothered to think deeply about anything at all so will return to the corner with my latte and talk to Laura - that's more appealing i'm afraid.

The Cross Stitch Church - a preface

I shared some of my musings with the good folk of Brierfield the other day and it provoked quite a reaction - nearly all of them lept to the defense of the institutional church Feeling that it has a vital place within the Body of Christ alongside freeer and more organic expressions of church. I'm still not convinced but am willing it to be so as it would revalidate for myself a fresh sense of call to the mother ship of Methodism. Anyway, Laura keeps nagging me to get down to business on the blog rather than just muse about randomness so here is the first bit of semi-serious stuff.

I was in Gloucester today and had a great time at lunch with my good friend Joe Knight. He's written a little book - i've often teased him about it - and it began as a way to get on to paper or screen some of his reflections and thoughts as he pootles along through life with Jesus. I'm feeling inspired and motivated and hope for something of the same. Here goes.....

About six weeks ago i took an assembly in which i showed a gift given to me by a lovely lady in Gloucester as a wedding present. It was an assembly at our church primary school, a slot i fill virtually every week at 10:10am on Wednesday's. The assembly's theme was God's creation and the children and i were thinking about how great it is that we are the pinacle of God's creation.

I showed the children the aforementioned gift. It is a cross stitch of an old fashioned footballer dressed in similar (not totally correct) colours to my beloved Bath City FC. It was a mixture of a wedding present and a leaving present, given to me by Mrs Audrey Fugler - a member of St John's Northgate Methodist Church, Gloucester (a catchy little church name if ever there was one), where i had been the minister for a couple of years.

The cross-stich was impeccable - not a single stitch out of place and looked great as i showed it o the children in assembly. From the front the picture is clear, the intent is obvious and it is a work of art - something in which someone has invested a great deal of time and energy, fashioning it to its completed form. If you turn the image around however, it is a mixture of untied threads - the image is mostly clear - but its a mess; its just all the loose ends. I had been wondering for a while whether this simple peice of needlework may be a bit of a picture of the church. From one side it is a pristine, precise picture - clear in its intentions, looking beautiful, with much evidence of a creator's time, care and attention. From the back, the image can be seen but its unclear, tatty and messy. Maybe the front of the picture represents God's view of the church. He sees it as it is meant to be. He loves the church, He died for the church, He's coming back for the church. From God's perspective maybe its clear where it's headed, there is a clear and defined image and it looks good. Maybe the back of the picture details what we see. A reasonable amount of clarity in what the creator intended but there is lots of mess in the way. Perhaps what ministers, or rather what every lover of Jesus is trying to do whether part of an institutional church or in an unlabelled gathering of like-minded folk, or alone even, is to turn that picture around gradually. We are longing for our society to see through us the creators intended image reflected perfectly and clearly for all to see. What we see is the mess, but our efforts are invested in turning around the picture so that the creators intended image is obvious to us and to all who live this side of heaven.

What is church anyway?

Had another varied couple of days. On tuesday i met up with some people for coffee who i've known about for a few years but never met! Eventually i got to meet them - Joe & Hayley - a married couple in their twenties who originate from the Pendle area and after some years away sense God calling them back to this area with a fairly blank canvass and a lovely openess to obey whatever God lays on their heart. I felt as we were chatting in the fabulously unrivalled Coffee Culture in Barrowford - surely the world's best coffee shop? - some sort of kindredness with them. The three of us have a background in Methodism, have discovered God's grace for ourselves. They, like Laura and i have been married for around two years and we are both based in Pendle ultimately to serve God's purposes. We shared stories, drank good coffee and prayed together about what God might be doing in Pendle/East Lancashire. I left feeling i had been church with them.

So often i guess our mindset is about going to 'a church' rather than church being something we are and do every minute of the day by nature of us being followers of Jesus. Maybe when we ask someone we've just met about which church they go to the question should really be 'Who are you being church with?'

Contrast my experience in Coffee Culture with the Finance & Property Committee of one of my churches last night. A small gathering of faithful, dedicated, God-loving people who for many years have served the Lord in this particular location. As meetings go it was fairly positive - that wasn't the point - its just that we get consumed with the necessary business of running an institutioin that happens to have a building in our possession. Surely this wasn't what Jesus meant when He said 'I will build my church?' Which of these experiences were closer to the heart of church that we see in the New Testament? Are both mutually exclusive? I know institutions can be a vehicle for cohesion and organising what God is doing - there are many times when i have thanked God for the institution of the Methodist Church but all the time and effort that people put in now and have put in - is it all worth it? Would God have us do this? What are we building?

Anyway, after my rant am off to take a mid week service at Brierfield Church. The format consists of people enjoying fellowship and chat over coffee and wonderful tea cakes and then ironically it all stops for the minister to take 'a service' because that's what proper church is like!!!!

Musings

Yesterday was an interesting day. I went to my monthly meeting of Under 5's - people in North Lancashire who have been in formal public ministry in the Methodist or URC Churches for under five years. It's always a good place to be, nice coffee, good biscuits and pleasant people. It seems strange to find all these people of different ages and backgrounds passionate about God and connecting Him with people and people with Him as well as being committed to working out their ministry within the confines of the church. Why does God keep calling people into institutions? Aren't they on the way out to be replaced by different ways of doing and being church? If God has finished with Methodism why are more and more creative and innovative people being called into it? I guess these questions are at the heart of where i'm at with myself at the minute.



One of the reasons for starting this blog was to get down on paper or screen the many things that have been buzzing around my head for the last few months. The key question which i am exploring (and living to some degree) is does God want to turn around, renew, restore, revive, revitalise (any of those type of words) churches that are in a traditional mode. Is it God's will? Or is He happy for them to continue in present form reaching a limited number of people for the minute, slowly decreasing until they die completely, to be replaced with different ways of being and doing church? This question cuts to the heart of my work identity as a Methodist Minister of three traditional churches - centred around buildings, hymns, worship largely focussed through one person at the front - my identity as a Christian - what does God want me to be and do? How can i build community as a disciple of Jesus?- and my identity as a human being - the need to relate and be in community with others. It seems that all the conversations i have with people about theology and the practical application of Christian faith centres around this crucial question. Maybe blogging over the next few weeks and months will help me work out some answers!

Hello world

Hi all,



i've been thinking for ages about writing a blog - simply to unload the many thoughts that circulate around my head for anyone to see! A good friend has encouraged me to do this and i feel that i'll maybe get some more clarity about my thinking for myself as well as enabling others to comment and contribute.



Having said that, be aware that much randomness may well appear on here as well! There are many tales to tell of being a human being, a husband, a follower of Jesus and a Methodist Minister and i hope that they may occasionally bring encouragement and amusement!



Anyway, this is my opening... we'll see how things develop as time goes by!