Cross Cultural Mission

We met Paul Thaxter on Saturday at the Fresh Expressions vision day. I attended his workshop on how to interpret cultural contexts. Paul spent quite a few years in Pakistan as a missionary where he learned to engage culture and offer the Gospel to people in a challenging context.

Paul works for the Church Mission Society, one of these parachurch organizations that we've been finding out about in Britain that are doing amazing and creative things. The Church Mission Society had its origins in the Clapham Sect, the network of evangelical social reformers in the 19th century that were formed to work for the abolition of slavery. Paul's title is "Transcultural Mission Director" and the "foreign cultures" he deals with are often not in other countries but in the vast realms of British society that are completely untouched by the Christian message.

We had already planned to go to Oxford for a couple of days and realized to our delight that the CMS (Church Mission Society) offices are in Oxford. We agreed to meet Paul for lunch.

He's a really engaging guy, with a deep instinct for connecting with people who speak different "languages" and live and work in different places. He had said at the workshop on Saturday that Jesus was the greatest cross-cultural missionary of all time because he bridged the gap between the "culture of heaven" and the "culture of earth."

He told the following story that describes what he's about. Shortly after returning from Pakistan, he was on a train where he met three younger women. They struck up a conversation. "What do you do?" they asked. He wasn't sure how to answer because he knew that "missionary," "minister" or any other church-related descriptor would probably produce a polite response, but close the doors to genuine dialogue. So, he replied, "I help people navigate their spiritual journeys."

"That is so interesting," one of them said, and they embarked on an intense discussion of some really deep issues. When they got off the train, one of the young women said to another, "You know, we've been friends since we were 7 years old, and I've never heard you tell that story."

People are desperately hungry to explore spiritual questions and issues but the language we want to use to frame the discussion effectively closes so many doors. This was an illustration of how to use language to open doors.

What are the most important things about being missional, we asked. "It's who you will eat with," Paul replied. So much of what we've been hearing focuses on the crucial importance of table fellowship. Eating with people has implications that are evangelical (who we regard as important), ecclesiological (how we define our communities) and eschatological (prefiguring the Kingdom of God.)

It's also about who we are willing to pray with -- not just pray for but pray with. The church's prayers are often patronizing because while we're quite willing to pray for the poor and the marginalized, we're often not so willing to pray with them, to invite them into the task of prayer.

It's all pretty simple, he said. Jesus is the "handshake of God." As Christian leaders, we just need to do our job -- to begin with prayer, to steward the Gospel, to do what we've been called to do. Conversations like the one we had with Paul Thaxter have reinforced for me just how much we do in the church actually interferes with the Gospel. We just need to do what we've been called to to do.

Fresh Expressions

Fresh Expressions is the name given to a joint undertaking by the Church of England and the Methodist Church to encourage new forms of church, especially with groups not currently involved in church. It's really a coming together of about 25 years of emerging experiments in the midst of the passing of the traditional church in Britain.

The Fresh Expressions website was one of our main sources of information as we planned this trip. It both inspired us and gave us ideas of where to go and what to see.

Yesterday we went to Basingstoke, about 45 minutes west of London, for a Fresh Expressions Vision Day, put on by the Diocese of Winchester. The day was led by Zoe Hart and Steve Pittis who are both employed by the Diocese in the area of mission.

One of the things that struck us first is how vibrant evangelical Christianity still is in the Church of England. The opening worship was heart-felt and focused on the Holy Spirit. But it's evangelicalism in the warm and expansive British sense, not in the least sectarian or closed.

Too much to put into one blog posting, but here are a few highlights.

Fresh Expressions is NOT a strategy to manage the church in decline, they said, but an attempt to "catch up" to what the HOly Spirit is already doing in the church. This was illustrated by some local stories, such as "The Living Room," a church for students in Southhampton, or Legacy XS, a church for skate-boarders, or "The Tube Station," an outreach to surfers in Cornwall.

Fresh Expressions initiatives have a strong missional focus. In other words, they aren't meant to simply service the needs and wants of current members, but to reach people "off the church's radar." At the same time, Fresh Expressions values the continuing traditional forms of church in a kind of "mixed economy" approach, to quote Rowan Williams.

We were impressed by the theological grounding. Fresh Expressions reimagines church in differing cultural forms because God takes culture seriously. A key text is Eugene Peterson's translation of John 1:14: "The Word became flesh and moved into the neighbourhood."

Church has three basic orientations in our culture. First, attractional -- "Come and join us." This still works for some, but fewer all the time.

Second is "Engaged" -- "Go and then come." Go out and build relationships with people who can then be drawn into the church.

Third is "Emerging" -- "Go and stay." This is the cutting edge of Fresh Expression, developing church in places and among people who are currently beyond the bounds of any discernable church.

Steve described 7 Core Values that undergird Fresh Expressions:
* They are mission shaped communities.
* They involve creative experimentation and overcoming fear of failure and risk.
* They are culturally relevant and culturally engaged.
* They bring about transformation in people.
* They make disciples.
* They require sacrifice.
* They promote unity in the midst of diversity.

It's estimated that about a third of Anglican Churches in Britian have begun some kind of fresh expression, and there are around 160 Fresh Expression initiatives in the Methodist Church.

One of the real blessings of this trip is the number of amazing people we have met, people who are passionate for the Gospel, many of them in denominational positions of leadership. I had a fantastic conversation with Paul Thaxter who is the Transcultural Mission Director for the Church Mission Society. He knows an amazing amount about how to engage with different cutlures. We're going to have lunch with him on Monday in Oxford.