O'Donovan on resurrection

In proclaiming the resurrection of Christ, the apostles proclaimed also the resurrection of mankind in Christ; and in proclaiming the resurrection of mankind, the proclaimed the renewal of all creation with him. The resurrection of Christ in isolation from mankind would not be a gospel message. The resurrection of mankind apart from apart from creation would be a gospel of a sort, but of a purely Gnostic and world-denying sort which is far from the gospel that the apostles actually preached.[…] So the resurrection of Christ directs our attention back to the creation which it vindicates.

- Oliver O'Donovan. Quoted by Rob Forsyth, AnCon 1998 "Resurrection - the dawning of hope...".

lay ministry part 2

It's been a while since my last past on this subject. Since then I have had some time to think about what I wrote, talk to the 3 people who still read this blog, and try and come up with a way forward.

To recap, I think the very fact that churches can afford to pay several people to do either full or part time ministry is a great gift from God. In fact, given the way that we constitute the church today, many churches wouldn't be able to survive without them. 

However, employing a large staff team does present the church with some challenges - namely, it shoots down ministry by "lay" people (many of whom are committed to church longer than two years). When I was co-ordinating Public Meetings for the EU, I was excited by the second purpose of public meetings, which is to involve as many Christians in the uni as possible in the PM ministry by doing simple tasks such as welcoming or postering. My staff worker, Mike Kwan, would tell me that this would help Christians take ownership, not just of PMs, but of the EU too. My point here is that churches don't nurture and grow lay people and their gifts, it will adversely affect the ownership the feel towards their church, and hence the church's ministry at large.

So my first point here is don't smother lay ministry - work (in partnership) with them, but don't smother them. Their is one church I have in mind where the members have stopped welcoming new people, because early on in the church life it appeared that only the staff members were allowed to. They would push into conversations church members would have with new people, and act as though "only they had the gift of welcoming." Don't smother the laity. Another church is full of young, innovative ministry strategists who see the needs of the church, and would like to start new ministries where there is nothing. However, as all ministry decisions are made by the staff team only, very few of these ideas come to fruition. This has only lead to angst and dissatisfaction with the church. Don't smother the lay ministry.

My second point, which may now require another post, is that the key to lay ministry lies in developing lay pillars. This is a term Andrew Katay used at Grads Con 2005. Katay described lay pillars as the secret  behind every ministry, i.e. churches can't live without them (I write this line from memory. I'm at AnCon right now working for CMS, so don't have paper on me). I think that Katay has a point here. Churches need lay pillars. And in Sydney and other places around the globe, we need to nurture, grow and develop these people. So my question is, what would a lay pillar look like in a congregation where the average age is under 30. What would a lay pillar look like at 7pm St John's? Or in 7.15pm at Barney's? Or in retro-church Leichhardt? Or wherever? 

Let me know what you think.

PS As I  mentioned, I'm writing this from AnCon today. It's being an interesting experience in student ministry and in looking at how the EU has changed since I was a student (this time last year).

PS 2. 15 points for explaining the relevance of the picture to this post

A spot of Volf

'In situations of conflict Christians often find themselves accomplices in war, rather than agents of peace. We find it difficult o distance ourselves from our selves and our own culture and so we echo its reigning opinions and mimic its practices. As we keep the vision of God's future alive, we need to reach out across the firing lines and join hands with our brothers and sisters on the other side. We need to let them pull us out of the enclosure of our own culture and its own peculiar set of prejudices so that we can read afresh the "one Word of God." In this way we might become once again the salt of the world ridden by strife.'

Volf, Exclusion and Embrace, p 54.

I like Volf's concept of ecumenical catholicity. Reading it in book club with some MTC students, some of whom thought Volf was arguing for holding hands with Hindu's and Jedi's, it was great for me to clarify his thesis: that the church needs to keep listening to other parts of the body (the church in other cultures) to make sure it doesn't turn the proclamation of 'Jesus Christ is Lord' into the Australian dream, or American democracy, or the German nationalism that Volf used as an example (that Barmen Declaration is ace).

Coming from a church culture that doesn't always receive top marks for listening to Christians who are 'different', particularly in light of the mess that our international network is in (which you can about here), we need to make sure that we keep listening to and engaging with our brothers and sisters around the globe. A declaration of independence from each other - to whom we belong in and through Jesus has done to us and for us (Bonhoeffer) - would be disastrous.

"Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind." 1 Peter 3.8