rural mission - celtic methods

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rural mission - celtic methods
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A typical small settlement

• Now
• Nine households
• 20 people
• Land ownership shared
• Manor house divided, plus small plush dwellings
• Commuters, professionals and self-employed
• Variety of world views and aspirations

• 100 Years Ago
• Five households
• 14 people
• One landowner
• Manor house, plus small simple dwellings
• Worked locally, skilled crafts and labourers
• Shared Christian world view

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Welcome to missiondom

• Christendom has gone
• No longer a wholly Christianised society
• Ongoing cultural shift
• No simple return to pagandom
• Living in a twilight zone
• A mix of pagan, agnostic, theistic and Christian
  world views
• Waiting for a clear post-Christian world to appear

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The Church in missiondom

• We retain the trappings of Christendom
• 216 Anglican church buildings in Shropshire
• Parishes cover every inch of the county
• ? We are present for people everywhere
• ? Its all ours power and ownership
• The church continues to own the people
• But the people have disowned the church

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Two mission principles

• Pilgrim Principle
• Gods distinctive people
• Travelling through the world
• In the world but not of it
• Indigenising Principle
• Engaging with the world, understanding its
  culture
• You cant go and tell until youve been and
  listened.
• Listen to the patient, she is telling you the
  diagnosis.
• No longer enough just to know what we believe

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Two examples of listening mission

• Jesus on the Emmaus Road
• Listened to the disciples
• Asked them questions
• Before he explained the scriptures
• Paul in Athens
• Quoted from their poets
• Used their belief in an unknown god
• He was culturally relevant

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Time to change church?

• The church has changed throughout history
• It is Jesus who is the same yesterday, today and
  for ever
• As the Father sent me, so I send you.
• We are called to be incarnational
• As Jesus was
• The traditional parish system
• Is it time to morph it?

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The countryside is
Getting older Becoming unaffordable Losing
access to services Changing employment Ruled by
consumers Less about farming
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Addressing the hidden pain

• Traditional residents
• Lost a way of life
• Living in relative poverty
• Want the countryside to develop
• Incomers
• Commuters, not community
• Desperately seeking Eden
• Want the countryside to stay the same
• Tension between them
• Place of work
• We want our way of life back.
• Place of play
• We dont want mud on the roads

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Role of the rural church?

• Incarnational
• Unifying
• Open-doored
• Celebratory
• Light on structures
• Buildings taken seriously
• Culture of nurture and growth
• Spiritually growing people
• promoting spiritual life and a relationship with
  God

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What village people want

• LSE study on human happiness
• stable relationships
• stable communities
• safe communities
• Christian faith has important things to say about
  these things
• Recovering a profound sense of community is one
  of the major tasks of mission anywhere.
• Michael Langrish, 2004

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What village people want

• Five most valued facilities?
• Pub
• Village hall
• Local shop
• Primary school
• Church!
• ? The Church is on the list!
• ? The Church is low on the list
• Where should Christians
• spend most of their time?

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Mission Communities

• Can we learn from the Celts?
• Some distinctive marks
• monastic communities
• conversational evangelism
• wholehearted dedication

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Monastic Communities
Formation of strong community
Ministry of presence and availability - relational
A great variety of types of ministry
Constant ministry of hospitality
High level of commitment
Involvement in the local community
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A re-monking of the Church ?
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The only hermeneutic of the gospel is a
congregation of men and women who believe it and
live by it.
Lesslie Newbigin (Gospel in a Pluralist Society)
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Churches are meant to be places where people can
begin to understand and feel and
experience what a community might look like
that really lived in Jesus kingdom.
Graham Tomlin (Provocative Church)
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Conversational evangelists

• Aidan
• working in a context similar to today pagan and
  lapsed
• Started small
• walked the lanes of Northumbria
• listened and spoke to people about faith
• Confidence in Gods prevenient spirit
• a positive attitude towards people
• followed up contacts

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Wholehearted dedication

• prayerful
• simple lifestyle
• Compassion for the poor
• Servant attitude

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rural church of the future?

• rediscovering our apostolic roots
• Small, but powerful full of
  creativity
• Passionately committed engaged with
  the culture
• Based around relationships unburdened by
  buildings
• Minimally structured a place of
  refuge
• Lightly led
  unafraid of emotions
• Connected with life missionary
  by default
• Holistic in outlook
• (Nick Page)