Harvest

Here's my latest for the local paper:

I seem to have an unfailing ability to kill whatever plants are unfortunate enough to exist in my house – even the ones that are meant to be indestructible, like spider plants and cacti. It’s not intentional, but does seem to be inevitable. Recent casualties have included a peace lily and some fresh coriander. There is a once glorious pot plant in the corner of the room. Just one of the six main branches has any leaves, and those are now withering and looking a distinctly unhealthy yellow. So I’m probably not the best person to be talking to you about Harvest.

But strange as it may seem, the withered plant is a pertinent image for us. God, we’re told, has made us to be fruitful – to live lives to his praise and glory. Yet left to our own devices we’re the spiritual equivalent of the scrawny stick poking out of the plant pot in the corner of this room.

Enter Jesus, with a typically momentous claim: ‘If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing’ (John 15:5). The way to bear the fruit which God longs to see in us is to come to Christ. Not just to acknowledge him in a respectful but arms-length manner, but to entrust ourselves to him such that we live in him and he in us. Do that, Jesus says, and we will bear much fruit – the abundant harvest for which we were made.

Guest blog

I'm guest blogging today over at Adrian Warnock's on a theme of ongoing concern to me: the decline of Trinitarian thinking in the evangelical world. If we get this wrong, it's hard to think of what we can honestly say we're getting right.

Public prayer

Some thoughts for those involved in public prayer ministry.

1. Remember you are praying

All Christian prayer takes its cue from the gospel, from who God is rather than what we do. When Jesus teaches his followers how to pray he gives them thoelogy not technique. Christian prayer is, strictly speaking, evangelical: its impetus, shape and and direction come from the gospel. It is therefore trinitarian: we pray to the Father through the Son by the Spirit (Eph 2:18).

The NT gives a number of examples of Christians praying directly to the Son. This is a legitimate expression of Christian prayer, and there are times when we want to pray directly to Jesus. But the norm in Scripture is to pray to the Father.

Presumably it is not 'wrong' to pray to the Spirit, but given there are no examples of this in the Bible, and that the ministry of the Spirit himself is to point us to Christ, it would seem good for normative prayer to be to the Father.

We need to be attentive to this trinitarian framework, and not jumble up the members of the Trinity; for example, thianking the Father for his death on the cross.

2. Remember you are praying publically

We need to think about our motives for praying publically. Jesus rebuked those who prayed to be seen (Matthew 6:5). We are not to pray to try and impress others. We may win their admiration; we won't win God's.

We also need to think about our example. Jesus prayed in such a way as to teach hi sdisciples; it is no less authentic as prayer for that reason.

Public prayer will need to be:

Corporate. We are praying on behalf of others, and so our language should be corporate, not individual; 'we' rather than 'I'.

Prepared. It is good to have thought through how we are going to pray before we stad up to do so. For most this will involve writing something down. The number of people able to pray thoughtfully and coherently off the top of their heads is significantly lower than the number of people who try. Taking care to craft prayers thoughtfully makes them no less 'from the heart'.

Intelligible: Our prayers need to be those to which others can give a hearty 'Amen'. They need to be audible and free of technical theological jargon.

The home group leader's job description

From what we've seen about the priorities for home groups, leaders need to be committed to the following:

1. To watch

Their own life and doctrine. Leaders need to be faithful Christians modelling the Christian life with integrity. It might be useful to ask leaders to sign a statement of faith as a condition of being appointed.

2. To belong

Leaders need to belong to the church family. This will involve belonging, in a regular committed way, to at least one of the Sunday congregations. It will also involve prioritising the monthly church prayer meeting.

3. To pray

Leaders need to be praying for their group members regularly.

4. To teach

Leaders are responsible for ensuring the Scriptures are taught with care. All the groups studying the same material is desirable (for it is an expression of our being part of one church family and enables cross-fertilisation between the groups) but is not essential, though leaders should consult with the homegroups coordinator about coming up with an alternative program.

5. To equip

The leaders are to equip their group members for works of service, including identifying potential new leaders.

Five Marks of a healthy home group

(Part two of our series looking at pastoral care and home groups.)

Given the importance and nature of pastoral care, healthy home groups will be:

1. Led

It is not enough for groups to have ‘facilitators’ or convenors; they need to have leaders. Our mutual care is the fruit of godly, able leadership. A leaderless group will not be receiving adequate pastoral care.

2. Accountable

Home group leaders are providing pastoral ministry on behalf of the church leadership, who themselves are providing it on behalf of Christ himself. Leaders should not be self-appointed. Any leaders should be appointed with the agreement of the home groups coordinator on behalf of the overall church leadership.

3. Scriptural

The core business of the group must be Bible study of some kind. The normal healthy diet would be to study passages of scripture together, but it can also be good to vary the diet once in a while, such as by doing topical studies or looking at a good Christian book.

4. Relational

Home groups should not be less than Bible-studying, but they must be more. The value in studying the scriptures in this sort of context is that we are doing it together, and so a group should not feel like a tutorial. We need to work hard at getting to know one another. It is important for groups to have regular social activities.

5. Prayerful

Given God is the pastor, it is imperative that, as well as being attentive to his voice, we also call on him as his people. Prayer is the most easily squeezed part of a home group meeting, but it is vital. We need to remember we meet in God’s presence, and just as we don’t want the ‘horizontal’ dimension to our groups to be unrelational, nor do we want the ‘vertical’ to be so.

Foundational truths about pastoral care

Having taken most of the summer off from blogging, it's time to re-emerge. I'm currently thinking through the relationship between pastoral care and small groups at church, and begin with the following observations about pastoral ministry in general.

1. God is the pastor

Scripture repeatedly speaks of God as being the ‘Shepherd’ of his people, most famously of course in Psalm 23. Under his care, his people lack nothing.

At times, he contrasts his own pastoral leadership with that of his people’s disobedient leaders. In Ezekiel 34:10-16 the ‘false shepherds’ who have been [mis]leading Israel are roundly condemned. God promises to remove them and to come himself to lead and shepherd his people.

This promise reaches its fulfilment in the claim of Jesus to be ‘The Good Shepherd’ (John 10:14-16). It is in Jesus that God has come to be the ultimate shepherd to his people.

2. Pastoral care is bringing people under the word of Jesus

Jesus knows his sheep, and his sheep recognise and follow his voice (John 10:27). Pastoral care is received ultimately through him as his sheep hear his voice. As we hear Jesus’ word we can be led by him. Pastoral care is not the attempt to meet human needs with human answers. It is the service by which Christian men and women come to know the scriptural will of God in their lives. All of our Bible ministry to Christians is, strictly speaking, pastoral care.

Our ministry to those in particular need will include practical and emotional support, but if it is to be pastoral it must also involve (gently and appropriately) the application of Scripture to those needs.

3. Inasmuch as leaders engage in pastoral ministry, we do so as under-shepherds

Jesus himself is the true shepherd. Pastoral ministry is that which points to his pastoral care. Peter describes his own role and the role of church leaders as that of being a shepherd under Christ, the ‘Chief Shepherd’ (1 Peter 5:1-4). It is his work and ministry; it is his flock. We are but junior colleagues. This designation applies to all involved in pastoral care, including homegroup leaders. All Christian leadership is the work of under-shepherding.

4. The whole church is to engage, to some extent, in pastoral care.

As we grow together under the word of Christ, the whole church family has a ministry to one another of mutual encouragement and up-building in Christ. The purpose of our meeting together is to ‘encourage one another as [we] see the Day approaching’ (Heb 10:25). We all have a stake in one another’s spiritual well-being. We are instructed to ‘bear one another’s burdens’ (Galatians 6:2). As well as providing pastoral care through their leadership, church leaders are to facilitate and act as a catalyst for the mutual pastoral care of all God’s people. The ‘pastoral care team’, is, if you like, the whole church family.

It has been a joy over the past couple of weeks to reacquaint myself with the writings of C S Lewis; The Great Divorce, Miracles, and - at the moment - Surprised by Joy.

The following paragraph, from Miracles, describes the Christian hope of physical resurrection and sums up every good thing about Lewis' writing.

These small and perishable bodies we now have were given to us as ponies are given to schoolboys. We must learn to manage: not that we may some day be free of horses altogether but that some day we may ride bare-back, confident and rejoicing, those greater mounts, those winged, shining and world-shaking horses which perhaps even now expect us with impatience, pawing and snorting in the King's stables. Not that gallop would be of any value unless it were a gallop with the King; but how else - since He has retained His own charger - should we accompany Him?