Uncomfortable Mission – The Troubling Word
When Christians say that Jesus is Lord, it can sound spiritual, holy even. When people heard it being said in the 1st century, they knew just how subversive that was…
When Christians say that Jesus is Lord, it can sound spiritual, holy even. When people heard it being said in the 1st century, they knew just how subversive that was…
It’s easy to be swept along by the well meaning claims of others. It’s easy to be frightened by alarming ‘facts’. It’s easy to ‘like’ or ‘share’ without thinking too much…
Paul and Silas continue on the mission to Philippi, but very soon life becomes increasingly difficult.
What can we learn from their story, about continuing in missional activity, when life gets difficult?
Friday night is music night. At least it is in our house. Fuelled by BBC4 and Sky Arts it’s part nostalgia, part education in stuff we missed the first time around. This week we watched Soundtracks: Songs that Defined History, an episode about the Civil Rights era in the US. Watching the footage of unarmed, ordinary black Americans singing hymns and gospel songs as protest songs while facing water cannons, police ready to beat people and white folks with guns was awe-inspiring.
But why did they sing?
A mixed race man, a group unsure why their plans had been disrupted, a meeting with a woman outside a city.
Luke paints a series of small portraits of people making sense of life as God opens up something that none of them could have anticipated.
God does lead us, but sometimes we need to train ourselves to make sense of what He is opening up for us…
We live in our different cultural contexts as teachers, volunteers in the community, hands-on grandparents, NHS workers, office workers, warehouse operators but we are there as Jesus-followers. We know these situations. We speak their language, share the culture, know what matters there. But we are also Christians…
With each step forward that the mission took, it feels as though there were forces pushing back. Sometimes the opposition was obvious, things were threatened because of internal relationships. Paul and Barnabas had a massive, full on shouting row about a young man, John Mark who had left them. Barnabas wanted to give him a second chance, Paul thought that would be unwise.
How do we make sense of the moments where we know we have really messed up and need to be given another chance? How do we know when to give people a chance?
You might have let people down, but there’s a second chance for you…
Acts 15 is the story of the early church’s challenge.
Their challenge is not ours, but it does shed light on how we might be able to learn from them so that we can face our challenges well…
It’s easy to think that healthy churches will never have disagreements. But that’s wrong. Every time God puts us in a new situation, opens up new doors of mission, or challenges us with new ideas, it’s easy for us to become defensive and controlling.
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