There are ten principles by which I attempt to operate as a leader in the church.
These may not seem like the most important principles to everyone. But, in my life and ministry, these are the commitments which have tended to steer the little ship of ministry in which I sail in a more life-giving direction. Here are the first five. (I will post six to ten tomorrow):
1. Put first things first
In order to put first things first we need to be clear about what the first things are.
In the church, the first thing is always honouring our call to be a place in which all people are encouraged to open more deeply to the Spirit of God in their lives. We seek to affirm the truth, light, beauty, and love that reside in every human being and to live together in light of the wisdom that resides within us as beings created in the image of God.
Jesus said,
Let anyone with ears to hear listen! (Mark 4:9)
We all have “ears to hear” the only question is whether or not we are willing to use them. Church exists to encourage everyone to listen deeply to the Spirit who speaks within. Our mission is to be a place in which hearts open to perceive the Spirit at work in all of life.
Being attentive to the Spirit is the first thing. Everything else flow from this place of deep listening to God, to one another, and to the world in which we are called to live responsively to God’s presence.
2. Make machinery serve mission
Jesus is reported to have challenged the religious officials of his day saying,
You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition. (Mark 7:8)
According to Jesus the first “commandment of God” is
Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love… (Mark 12:29,30a)
Love is the meaning, the purpose, the goal, and the ultimate mission of the church. We come together in order to open more deeply to the reality of love at the centre of our being. We seek to support all people in living in response to the power of love we see embodied in the person of Jesus.
When any machinery gets in the way of the mission of love, the machinery must be abandoned. Never let the machine dominate the mission.
3. Avoid GMSP (Guilt, Manipulation, Shame, Pressure)
According to Paul it is,
For freedom Christ has set us free. (Galatians 5:1)
GMSP never leads to freedom and therefore has no place in the fulfillment of the mission of the church. No action motivated by GMSP can ever further the mission of serving the freedom for which “Christ has set us free.” A gift that is not freely given is not a gift that is motivated by the Spirit of grace that is the Spirit of Christ and so cannot lead to the light and life Christ desires to nurture among us.
4. Cut your coat to fit your cloth
No one can do everything. If we are going to avoid the trap of using GMSP to try to motivate people, we must tailor what we do as a community to fit the available resources. Some things may not happen in some communities. We need to nurture and support the ministries we are able to conduct without resorting to GMSP.
Some things may not get done.
5. Make “Yes” your first answer
There are times when it is necessary to get to “No.” But we try to start with “Yes”.
Church is intended to be a place in which people experience freedom offer the gifts they feel called by God to offer. We are not a community of volunteers. We are a community of obedient servants who give in response to the prompting of God’s Spirit in our lives. When anyone feels genuinely called to offer a gift in obedience to God’s Spirit, we hope to be able to recognize and support the full offering of that gift. So we start with “Yes”.
In A Spacious Place 
14 comments
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June 26, 2016 at 6:06 am
Kim Seary
I wish I could go to your church. I live… elsewhere. I love what you are
saying here, and if fills me with a good kind of longing…
June 26, 2016 at 6:12 am
Kim Seary
PS. I left an angry comment in response to the “Clergy conference take
away: trust” installment. I’m sorry. I’ve been badly hurt. I know though,
that my emancipation lies in forgiveness and love. I will with God’s help.
June 26, 2016 at 11:49 am
Tress Backhouse
KIm ! in a way we are going to Christopher’s church. It is in our hearts and minds instead of just in a building. You already have it right ! It is all about forgiveness and love ! And that goes both ways , even although we only know each other on paper, but we can express it with our hearts!!
June 26, 2016 at 3:46 pm
Christopher Page
Kim, you made an important and valid point in your comment on my June 20 post. While it is important for me to be aware of the pain my inability to fully embody my best aspirations will inevitably cause, it is also essential that I never become complacent about the hurt for which my failures are responsible. I respect your PS.
June 26, 2016 at 2:57 pm
Middleman
Your first commandment for the church; First things first.
I note the four references to God: “Spirit of God”, “the image of God”, “deep listening to God’, and “God’s presence”. At the risk of naivete, I wonder what
God is? It seems to me that there needs to be an understanding of what God “isn’t”. For example, I think it is obvious in modern times that many have rejected the church because of the perception of God as the father figure, an omnicient being. Further in this perception God may be seen as a moral authority with whom it is demanded that we have a personal relationship. I am guessing that contemporary church leaders such as yourself, have modified these “positions” substantially (but I am not sure how?).
In the time of Jesus, language was such that Father was the best symbol for the Infinite. Is it incumbent among church leaders to now open to other symbols of the Infinite? Will this further or dilute the teaching of Christ, the living master?
Jesus said “he who sees me sees the Father” and “The Father and I are one”. What did Jesus see in himself and in the Father? Does the new church need to interpret the teachings of Christ in fresh contemporary language? I think so. Let’s shake the “institution” out of the church and vitalize it for the youth to whom it no longer speaks. Tough job! Bravo to the torchbearers like Christopher.
June 26, 2016 at 3:58 pm
Christopher Page
Middleman, I have reflected a bit on the challenge of “God-language” here: https://inaspaciousplace.wordpress.com/2011/06/25/words-for-god/ You raise some challenging points here which go beyond my June 25 post, but it may help a little.
July 9, 2016 at 8:22 am
Robert
Jesus is reported to have challenged the religious officials of his day saying,
You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition. (Mark 7:8)
According to Jesus the first “commandment of God” is
Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love… (Mark 12:29,30a)
“Jesus is reported to have…”
“According to Jesus…”
Not quite sure? Keeping an open mind?
What “revision” of the Gospels is being quoted from? “The Lord our God is one God” according to the Nicene Creed.
July 11, 2016 at 12:43 pm
Middle Man
Yes indeed, we don’t know exactly what was said, how it was “revised” etc. It’s complicated. What seems to be clear however is that there is a WISDOM that surpasses all understanding of it. With certain wisdom masters like Jesus, the power was so strong that is has lasted for thousands of years and is irrefutable. There is a precious message for all who are sincere. I agree with the Nicene “there is only one…”. The church has an opportunity to keep the message fresh and contemporary… to “un-weight itself ” from tradition and dogma. May it be so!
July 11, 2016 at 10:02 pm
Robert
“Certain wisdom masters like Jesus…” I’ve actually come to the conclusion that He whom we call Jesus was indeed the Son of God. Terribly old fashioned I know, but I just started reasoning it out based on what evidence I could find, many years ago, starting from a position of at best agnosticism.
So far I haven’t heard of any “wisdom masters” like Jesus. If anyone can point one out though, I’ll be interested to hear what he had to say.
Hugely ironic to hear “You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.” quoted here of all places, where the contortions over how to make the Word fit the tastes and lifestyle choices of the present generations are the major exercise.
“Keep the message fresh and contemporary”; are we talking about an advertising slogan or the Word of God? Some people have got it bass ackwards: man fits himself to God, not the other way round.
Or man really isn’t too sure, can’t be bothered to work it out and doesn’t really want to be challenged anyway, and so makes up a latter day golden calf of some sort which better “suits his needs”.
Much changes, much remains the same.
July 12, 2016 at 8:24 am
Middle Man
Wonderful that he came to you through your sincere and earnest inquiry! That was certainly his message, “ask and it shall be given”. The key being earnestness and sincerity, I think. You only need one teacher and you found him. I didn’t trust/understand my own church and message so went elsewhere only to come full circle to an understanding that he is the son (of God) and that his message is that we also are son’s and daughters in the same way. For the church and its subscribers there seems to be a sticking point “The Only Son” and a similar interpretation ” No one comes to the Father except through me”. Men have made Jesus into an outside God… a truth “out there” and personal instead on “in here” and impersonal. I suppose it can be argued till the cows come home…. but it doesn’t really matter when Christ is discovered IN OUR BODIES. Christian mystics are now out of the cloisters and their words and insights are into the world and translated into the lives of the earnest and sincere ones.. wow… unstop-able!
“You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition” seems to describe the majority of the planet but also to religious institutionialism, power structure and proprietary knowledge. The same institution that Jesus railed against. He certainly wasn’t afraid to call out religious leaders and to use language that didn’t fit and to say the truth was available to the underclass of people that “didn’t fit”. Some of the old advertising slogans pointing toward the word of God seem to have failed…. there is too much resistance against them. Maybe we don’t need to advertise at all but it seems like this message wants to come through, HAS TO come through. Indeed, much changes and much remains the same.;-)
July 17, 2016 at 5:38 pm
Robert
I entirely agree with you on the question of “religious institutionalism”. With respect the Word needs no slogans of ours; none of us have written a Sermon the Mount or ever will. The Word speaks for itself to those who will listen. Those who will not must account for their refusal themselves. All we have to do is speak it and I suggest that is why Christ said, “go and preach the gospel to all nations!”. But oh, we had best be mindful that we are not a stumbling block, that we do not cause others to miss their chance at salvation – yes, I said salvation – that is what Christ said, by our words or actions. And if we only preach the Word instead of our ever-so-clever ruminations on it, we are much less likely to mess things up aren’t we??
July 19, 2016 at 11:36 am
Middle Man
You bring up an interesting point. People do need to spread the word of Truth and Freedom. However, if it comes from self-aggrandizement (ego) then it is transparently self-serving. I think the Word speaks for Itself when informing us of a genuine transmission. We “know” the Truth if (as you say) we listen well enough (open, loving, clear, connected to the Divine without alteration of the way things are). Do we trust it? Eventually we must.
July 24, 2016 at 9:55 pm
Robert
People do need to spread the Word of God. I’m not sure what the “word of Truth and Freedom” is. We are all inclined to vanity, it is one of the most persistent and pernicious of our human weaknesses. He to whom all hearts are open knows our capacities and when we speak more from the love of ourselves than of truth. A failing that becomes more common every year, as “self-affirmation” and “validation” replace humility, or any attempt at it. Instead of visualizing and chattering about God as we would like Him to be our time is better spent trying to find out how He is.
Plenty of unctuous vanity to found in the clergy, or many of them, in my experience. All that has changed is the shibboleths, the self-congratulation of the politically-correct replacing the self-congratulation of religious certitudes. The earlier variety at least had the compensation of spiritual truth, in many cases. The more recent variety is just secular humanism in vestments, a sort of re-warmed leftover whose unattractiveness is amply demonstrated by the empty churches.
“Vanity, vanity, all is vanity’. Were truer words ever spoken?
July 25, 2016 at 9:44 am
Middle Man
It is exceedingly challenging to “spread the Word of God” without the fetters of our own opinions. It is the limitation of language itself. Fortunately the brain in our belly can ferret out “small” self affirmations and self validation. We don’t therefore lend our attention too far in these circumstances.
The clergy are no different that the rest of us in this regard, however I would venture that their intention is (mostly) pure. The veil of ignorance when it comes to self importance is a powerful one.
Yes vanity, vanity, vanity…… it’s right up there with shame, shame, shame. Shame is more visible, more ‘felt”. Neither are of much use until they are seen for the imposters that they are.