TheMorningFlight.com

A pastor aiming to communicate a ‘serious message of acceptance’ to his congregation, posed as a tramp in his own church doorway.

Derek Rigby wore a wig, some ‘dirtied-up’ charity shop clothes, and surrounded himself with cans of lager and syringes outside Trinity Methodist Church in Prestatyn, North Wales.

He was largely ignored by his church membership as they arrived on Sunday morning, ‘apart from a few who told me to get away from their cars,’ he told BBC News. When he revealed his identity, ‘some were very embarrassed,’ Mr Rigby said. ‘Nobody was angry with me, but they were shocked they had ignored me in the way they had.’

See the BBC news article for more info and a short video.

Mm I wonder how it would work for me. I think if I tried it at our church I would be surounded by people asking me in and offering me coffee. We used to have people like that attending our church quite often when we met in our city centre building, so I think they would cope well.  I can not imagine though, that I could disguise myself so well that I would not be recognised.

Graffiti “artists” claim their work is art!

Perhaps some graffiti is, and many would put Banksy in this exceptional category. In most case though, I think it is no more than vandalism and criminal damage.

Graffiti has a strange power. Where graffiti is allowed to remain it changes its surrounding, an accumulation of litter follows, then petty crime and more graffiti of course.

I wonder if it was following from that logic produced the wonderful art installation which is running in York presently. Replicas of some of the classics of the art world have been mounted on the sides of building in the most unexpected and unlikely of places. Leaflets are available to download here and it is possible to do a walk around this open-air gallery trail.

This is a selection of the 49 paintings on show. The works include paintings by Monet, Carracci and Van Gogh. They are all full life size recreations and have transformed the streets of York into a gallery.

One of my daughters was looking at the Rembrandt in the warm of the summer evening  when a couple passed. They saw she was looking at something so followed the direction of her gaze. He said, “Oh,” as though in wonder. She too said, “Oh,” as though in surprise and wonder. They both turned as one. He to the picture and she to the shop window with bags in it. After a moment he said, “Ugh, it a replica!” Did he expect it to be real!?

One of the 49 paintings was stolen. I would very much like to know where it ended up. If it is now on display in a home or pub will it lift the soul as art should do or will it, being stolen, have the affect of graffiti and erode its environment? I would like to think it will be a like a light, wherever it is.

What a great turn of phrase!

I was reading that great old British institution, The Radio Times. I had read the review by Alison Graham of the series, Criminal Justice. I like her writing style even if I don’t always like what she likes.

I hadn’t watched the series. Having spend ten years of my life serving as a magistrate and being part of the world that brought me into, I am not now eager to watch that sort of thing on TV.

It was at the end of Alison’s article that she went on to mention a different programme broadcast on C4. It sounded a real ‘must-miss’. Called Personal Services Required, she said of it, “The most self-serving, manipulative, and unpleasant programme I’ve seen in many a month.” And she watches a lot of television! It must have been bad.

I liked the way she finished her article and review of Personal Services Required, “If you watch it, you will lose a little piece of your soul.”

What a great turn of phrase! I think sums up well what rubbish television does to us.

Didn’t Jesus say something like that? See Mark’s gospel chapter 8 verse 36.

I have been a Christian long enough to remember when Christian gatherings or “rallies” were common, and I have been around long enough to see them go out of fashion. These rallies seemed to be great times of affirmation. Valuable for those who felt alone and out of step with many around them in their day to day lives. The more “fringe” they felt, the more they loved being in a crowd of like-minded people.

Now greater distances are the norm in the new pilgrimages (see my earlier post about Toronto, Pensacola and Todd Bentley in Florida) at the start of the 21st century.

Now though, the motivating appetite seems different from those evangelical rallies of the second half of the 20^th century. Now it seems the travellers are looking for locations where they can expect to experience a moment of intimacy with God, but not intimacy as a lifestyle, rather an event of intimacy is sought.

I am not wanting to be unkind in my attempts to unravel what is going on as I have friends who are going on these pilgrimages. This makes it even more fascinating to observe. I see people I know and respect who have these great and sincere longings to meet with God in an authentic way, and will travel to achieve it. An added puzzle for me is that hype and emotionalism does not flick my switches ( I don’t think I even have those switches to be flicked) so I often look at others wondering what it is they are getting. I am usually reluctant to travel for special blessing unless I expected Jesus to be there in person, and walking on water too!

Why is this happening? What is going on? What is wrong with church, or the individual, that people are having to travel so far for a moment with God?

What is the problem with the church in the West now? At one time, proceeding from a relationship of intimacy, workers went out to mission. Missionaries travelled with their coffins, never expecting to live long or return to their homes. Now the journeys travelled and sacrifices made are not to take the message to the lost, instead believers are travelling to events for what they can get, where they can find a moment, an event of intimacy.

Are these pilgrimages selfish, self-absorbed, the symptom of a “me” generation showing their true nature? I think the reply from the pilgrims would be that their special experience will equip them to be more productive as servant of their Lord. Should church leaders address this problem? Is there a problem to be addressed?

I think there is a problem. Scripture and church history down the centuries tells us that intimacy with God is the normal Christian experience. The encounter with Jesus that results in the “new birth” is something that lasts and survives the Wednesday morning test. The one who saves is the one who keeps down the years. If believers are not experiencing this birthright of theirs, then church leaders have failed them, are failing them. And I must ask myself how much I am part of that failure.

Christianity is unique of all the faiths in that instead of mankind trying to reach up to God, Christ’s message is that God has reached down to mankind, freely and without cost to us. That is the meaning of the song “Amazing Grace”.

I encourage my friends to enjoy their pilgrimages, but remind them that the King of kings can be found in their homes or workplaces, in the shops and in the streets.

My present problems are nothing when compared to those of others in Zimbabwe.

I am in the office once again dealing with emails concerning the business of running a church and communicating with other leaders, sorting the agenda for a meeting on Thursday, then an email comes in.

It is from Juliet, asking for prayer for her cousins in Zimbabwe. I didn’t know she had cousins there. It turns out they are Christians simply trying to do the right thing where they live.

“Mike is in and out of consciousness,” she says in her email. “Angie’s arm broken in two places, after the beatings they were urinated on by everyone.”

I looked a the Times article with horror. And this is 30 years after the same forces martyred the Elim missionaries.

Oh Lord, Zimbabwe!

Which is the tail and which is the dog? Since when did the tail wag the dog!?

The Global Anglican Future Conference in Jerusalem has just taken place. GAFCON has brought together 1,200 delegates from 29 countries, from all continents. They represent many millions of Anglican Christians.

It is not for me to get involved in the troubles of the Anglican Communion but I see in this division something of the story of the church in the West. The alternative synod, Jerusalem represents that vast part of the church in those nations where the church is experiencing the most growth. While in the west a small minority has bravely (though wrongly in my opinion) attempted to turn the ship of the historical and revealed faith into something novel and new. See BBC article on Conservative v Liberal.

Being in the minority globally, it is not even the democratisation of the faith they are attempting - and that would be bad enough, it is the aberration masquerading as the authentic, the minority acting as though it were the majority.

Yes but the story of the church in the west is still one of decline. Despite times of renewal, and the denominations and strands that have experienced growth in recent decades, such as my own, Elim Pentecostal, the majority in our society remains lost to the true gospel. The Church of England continues to lose more than it gains and the Methodist quietly close down church buildings regularly.

Many see the decline in the West and call out to God for “revival”, whatever the various interpretations of what that may mean. I call out to God too, and will continue to do so until I hear His command to cease. Each Wednesday morning I meet with other church leaders in York, and have done so now for nine years, where we pray to God for more. Yet even as I do so I know that the decline in the West may be the will of God. Yes, really!

I know some of my colleagues may be horrified by this suggestion, but I do have to ask myself how much death of the church is judgment upon the church in the West over, among other things, its failure to hold out the true gospel to the lost instead of playing at church, its selfism, love of consumerism and chasing after events of intimacy.

I ask the question, but I do not have the answer. I do believe I know what my response should be though. I and all believers in the west must pray for revival, the sort of national return to God seen in some of the cycles of decline and restoration in the books of the Bible - Kings and Chronicles. And I and all believers must work for it too.

In the church I serve in York we are seeing growth and enjoying the baptisms of new believers. Having become an international congregation in recent years we are enjoying the exciting phenomenon of seeing people from other nations meeting with Jesus while they are among us and getting the lives turned the right way up. I wonder though, how many will return to their own countries and make a difference and how many will add to the rescue work of the church in the west. We need them here!

I ask the questions but I do not have the answers. But I know someone who does and I trust Him.

Matt Lucas, star of the controversial comedy show Little Britain, wants to dissolve his homosexual civil partnership after only 18 months. I heard him speak in a radio interview about the happiness he had found with his partner.

I am sure what is a news story to us is a heart-break to him. As his civil partnership was high profile, so the break-up will be.

The rules are very similar to divorce with parties entitled to seek financial support from each other. As Mr Lucas is wealthy, having a reported fortune of £15, the financial deal will hit the headlines. If their civil partnership break-up is treated exactly the same as a marriage break-up Mr Lucas could be forced to make a large pay out to his civil partner, Kevin McGee.

This could be a test case setting a precedent in law. Many more will follow as homosexual partnerships, on average, only last about 18 months.

Alan Kaufman, head of family law at Finers Stephens Innocent, told The Daily Telegraph: “At the moment we simply don’t know whether a judge will look at a civil partnership in exactly the same way as a husband and wife in a heterosexual relationship. It will be fascinating to see how the courts deal with it.”

See the Christian Institute’s briefing paper on Civil Partnerships.

I wish him well and pray he finds the wholeness he seeks.