A journey many are called to ....

What we are pursuing, in the teaching and ethos at Bristo, is not new or original. Look at these characteristics of the anabaptist network's vision:

1. Jesus is our example, teacher, friend, redeemer and Lord. He is the source of our life, the central reference point for our faith and lifestyle, for our understanding of church and our engagement with society. We are committed to following Jesus as well as worshipping him.

2. Jesus is the focal point of God’s revelation. We are committed to a Jesus-centred approach to the Bible, and to the community of faith as the primary context in which we read the Bible and discern and apply its implications for discipleship.

3. Western culture is slowly emerging from the Christendom era when church and state jointly presided over a society in which almost all were assumed to be Christian. Whatever its positive contributions on values and institutions, Christendom seriously distorted the gospel, marginalised Jesus, and has left the churches ill-equipped for mission in a post-Christendom culture. As we reflect on this, we are committed to learning from the experience and perspectives of movements such as Anabaptism that rejected standard Christendom assumptions and pursued alternative ways of thinking and behaving.

4. The frequent association of the church with status, wealth and force is inappropriate for followers of Jesus and damages our witness. We are committed to exploring ways of being good news to the poor, powerless and persecuted, aware that such discipleship may attract opposition, resulting in suffering and sometimes ultimately martyrdom.

5. Churches are called to be committed communities of discipleship and mission, places of friendship, mutual accountability and multi-voiced worship. As we eat together, sharing bread and wine, we sustain hope as we seek God’s kingdom together. We are committed to nurturing and developing such churches, in which young and old are valued, leadership is consultative, roles are related to gifts rather than gender and baptism is for believers.

6. Spirituality and economics are inter-connected. In an individualist and consumerist culture and in a world where economic injustice is rife, we are committed to finding ways of living simply, sharing generously, caring for creation, and working for justice.

7. Peace is at the heart of the gospel. As followers of Jesus in a divided and violent world, we are committed to finding non-violent alternatives and to learning how to make peace between individuals, within and among churches, in society, and between nations.

From http://www.anabaptistnetwork.com/coreconvictions

Fear and focus

The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding (Proverbs 9.10)

When we really look at the Bible's description of God, we see that God reveals Himself to us as a God of action. Love. Compassion, grace, slowness to anger, mercy, faithfulness. Bring peace, healing, deliverance. Caring for widows and orphans. Binding up broken hearted people. Looking with concern on the poor. This is who God is. And it's what He does. Positively.

If we really fear God, we find His focus. We share it. Focus is a key for understanding the Biblical reality of faith. Each of us can have different foci in our lives. We can have a focus that is the satisfaction of our appetites and personal desires. This is ultimately negative, because it is self-serving. It is focus turned in on ourself.

Or we can have a focus on what is positive. Now, the Old Testament Torah (Instruction / Law) was designed to be positive. Yet much of it was written to reinforce positive instructions for living by giving preventative rules and ceremonial regulations. But at its heart, it was instruction designed to be positive. The trouble was that, as time went on and in Jesus’ day, the preventative rules and ceremonial regulations had come to dominate the mindset of the religious leaders. And in that sense, the Law had become self-serving and negative.

For Jesus and the Christian community, the focus is on the positive. Jesus is the fulfilment of the Torah. All He does in positive. The ceremonial is seen to be fulfilled completely, in and through what Jesus Christ has done. And the preventative is no longer patrolled by legalism. The ceremonial is now found in the custom of the community and the preventative rules in the conventions of the community. The church’s heart lies in being a convictional community, seeking to live out the practices of Christ. Together focussing on the positive that marks the mind and the will of God. The question is now, ‘what is beneficial in extending the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ’?

So let me ask you - 'what's your focus'?

Focus forward

I really like simple definitions. They help me keep focused. But they are not easily come by, if they are accurate. After the time in Prague, listening, tutoring and discussing, I have come up with these simple definitions. Let's see what use they are to us as we seek to shine with the light of Jesus Christ in our culture and context:

Christian Faith a journey of purposeful participation in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ

Church people gathering together, with Jesus Christ at the centre,
for encouragement along the journey

Witness the effect, on those outside the church, of us making the journey together as church

Evangelism explaining to those outside the church why we journey together as church

Mission motivating and helping each other invite others to join our journey

Looking into God's future

As I get ready to leave this 'home from home' at IBTS and return home to Edinburgh, I recall a comment made yesterday by the Mennonite historian and missiologist, Walter Sawatsky. He remarked (something like!), 'western evangelicals tend to look backward at what they have experienced - conviction, conversion, experience etc.. Orthodox Christians tend to look forward into God's future'.

It is good to learn from this. To look forward into God's future. Thankful for the good things that have been. And remembering that the best is yet to come.

Walking the walk together

I really appreciated the opening remarks of Emil Trajchev, the dean of the Orthodox Theological Faculty in the University of Sofia, at our conference this week on the place of Mission in an Orthodox Context.

Emil remarked that Christian Mission is to live and be a stranger in a real cultural context. The Christian is to be a witness in society. But witness is not mission. Mission is the motivational effort to bring that which is outside of the church into the church. Witness is the life of the church.

This is something that the baptistic believer agrees with. To see mission as defined by evangelism is to depart from the good news of the Kingdom that Jesus brings. Evangelism has to integral to our life and witness. It is our life that must tell of the Good News and our words simply as a commentary and explanation.

But what a challenge this is! To life in the life of Jesus Christ. This is what we are engaged in. To live out in community a life that reflects and demonstrates the very nature of God Himself.

Living with brokenness

This morning, during the seminary community’s daily devotional time, I was deeply impressed by the emphasis of brother who led. He married the themes of brokenness and shalom.

Setting out on the Christian journey exposes our vulnerability, removing us from the citadel of self-preservation and protection. We expose ourselves to being hurt and broken. And it happens. We all get hurt by the sin of others as well as our own. To cope with this, we need to face the reality of our incompleteness, our brokenness. Only when we face our own brokenness can we receive healing in ourselves and go on to bring hope to others.

And yet why is there not always immediate healing? There is something else in the picture:

For this is what the high and lofty One says-- he who lives forever, whose name is holy: "I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. I will not accuse forever, nor will I always be angry, for then the spirit of man would grow faint before me-- the breath of man that I have created. I was enraged by his sinful greed; I punished him, and hid my face in anger, yet he kept on in his willful ways. I have seen his ways, but I will heal him; I will guide him and restore comfort to him, creating praise on the lips of the mourners in Israel. Peace, peace, to those far and near," says the LORD. "And I will heal them." (Isaiah 57.15-19).

Sometimes I wonder why my brokenness continues. Why I continue, like Jacob at the brook where He wrestled with God’s angel, to struggle with my propensity to sin. My incompleteness. Until I realise that this brokenness is what roots my thirst and desire to draw deeper into Jesus Christ and to walk His way. And because of Him I can know peace – shalom. Then I am content. May you find this place of contentment too.