Mark Russell, Chief Executive, Church Army

Inclusive Church 23rd Nov 2007

I have a number of pet hates. Since taking this job I do a lot more driving than I used to, so most of my pet hates involve driving. I hate when people drive into my lane on a motorway and don't indicate. I hate traffic jams, and I hate it when people drive in the fast lane slowly when there is a perfectly empty inside lane they could be in.

But one of my pet hates is I hate sticky labels. But people would most likely describe me as an evangelical. I think it says a lot of Giles Goddard that he will entrust the final session of this important conference to an evangelical lad from Belfast. He either has fantastic faith in me, and God ..or both…or he really does believe in inclusion ! When I got my current job the press were trying to pigeon hole me. One religious affairs journalist asked me what was I. I said I am a Christian, a disciple of Christ, someone determined to make a difference for God in our world. But apparently she wanted to know what camp I was in. I had just been trying to persuade a 16 year old to run for the PCC in my parish and in the glossary of the Church House publication for young people, I found that

Evangelicals are people committed to a personal saving faith in Christ

Liberals are open to new ideas in the church

Charismatics are commited to the work of the Spirit

Traditionalists believe in holding on to the important truths handed down

And Catholics believe in the unity of the Church.

So I am an Evangelical Liberal, Charismatic Traditionalist Catholic!

It has been good for me to be here with you this week, I have thoroughly enjoyed the welcome, and its been great to meet so many of you.

Martin Luther King looked around him. He saw black people were enslaved by bigotry, and intolerance, and the injustice and wrongs of the society he lived in, led him to dream of a new tomorrow. He stood up at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC and spoke before 200,000 people.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed. All men are created equal. This is our hope. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.

With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to climb up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every tenement and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the song, "Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last."

He proceeded to share his dream, his vision, of the kind of country America could be. His dream, his vision, gave people hope. It gave people direction. It gave people inspiration and purpose for living. America changed that day. And the world changed that day.

You see, life can either be a random journey without real direction, or it can be an adventure, reaching for a goal, and with a purpose. It is vision that makes the difference. If you were to stop ten people on the street and ask them to tell you their goals in life, what you would probably get in return would be blank stares from most of them. Few people know where they are going. Few people know even where they want to go. Few people understand where they should be going and why. Few people have real vision.

The late Supreme Court Justice Oliver Holmes was on a train when the conductor came through collecting tickets. Holmes couldn't find his ticket and became rather distraught. The conductor tried to console him by saying, "Mr. Holmes, don't worry. When you find your ticket, just mail it in. We trust you." Mr. Holmes responded in frustration, "My dear man, that's not my problem. I need my ticket to tell me where I'm going."

We all need to know where it is that we're going.

Most people who accomplish significant achievements are visionaries. Alexander the Great had a vision to conquer the world. Thomas Edison had a vision for the light bulb. Walt Disney had a vision for a massive entertainment park. Martin Luther King had a vision for a land where all people could be free. Clement Atlee, had a vision for a nation where all people could have a health service free at the point of need, and every kid could go to school. And a man called Wilson Carlile, who 125 years ago this very year saw the church turning in on itself. A church that was middle class and was ignoring the poor, and he founded Church Army, the organization I have the privilege to lead today.

All these visions have been realized. Visionaries succeed because they see a vision which drives them forward. Without such a vision, they would never reach the heights of accomplishment. So can I be bold and outline my dream for the future. Its in 2 parts

1.I have a dream for unity in our church

Walking through the New York city one night, I saw a man about to jump of a skyscaper. I said Hold on!!!! De you believe in God. He said, yes

I said, Christian or Jew, He said Christian

I said Me too. Protestant or Catholic, He said, Protestant

I said Me too. What denomination He said Baptist

I said Me too Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist , he said Northern

I said me too, Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist

He said Northern Conservative Baptist I said me too

Northern Conservative Reformed Baptist or Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist

He said, Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist I said me too

Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist Great Lakes Region OR

Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist East Region

He said, Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist Great Lakes Region I said me too

Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist Great Lakes Region - Council of 1879 OR

Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist Great Lakes Region, - Council of 1912 He said

Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist Great Lakes Region, Council of 1912.

I said, Die heretic…and pushed him !

On the night before Jesus went to the cross, John 17 records that he began to pray. It's a big prayer in three bits. In the first bit, Jesus prays for himself, in the second, he prays for his immediate group of disciples, and then in the third bit, he prays for all his followers yet to come. I wonder as Jesus prayed this prayer, could he see the church of the future, growing and expanding, spreading across the world, as it sought to be His body on earth. Lives being changed, people moved by the power of the holy spirit, his followers being salt and light, changing communities through love.

I wonder did Jesus scan the room. Did he look into the face of Peter, in that circle of 11, and behind Peter, could he see the thousands who came to faith at Pentecost, the thousands more behind them.

Did he look into the face of John, Could he see the church of Ephesus and all the churches of Asia Minor And when he saw the gap where Judas had been, I wonder did he see St. Paul, and all the churches of Europe that grew through his ministry.

And crossing generations and oceans, continents and people, times and places, right down to this very time and place, I wonder could he have seen us. 200 people, gathered here at Swanwick. All part of that pilgrim people committed to living lives that count. He said, v20 "I will pray for every one of them who will believe through the word of that original eleven” "Every one of them” Jesus prayed for you and me.

And he prayed for just one thing. Think of what he could have prayed for. For courage, or boldness, or vision, or hope, or strength, or even for numbers. Looking at Peter, he could have prayed for the gift of wisdom, and knowing when to keep your mouth shut! But what did he pray for? Jesus saw through all history, and he saw the one thing the church would struggle with the most, and he prayed for unity. He prayed that we would be one. Look at the Church today and what do we see? Divided churches locally, churches that refuse to work together. Churches that just want to get on with it themselves without a thought to others. And of course we see this lived out in the Anglican Communion. I despair when I look around me at the Anglican Communion. I am devastated that the issue of sexuality seems to be such a lightening conductor.

I have never believed as a Christian I have the right to justify the exclusion of anyone from church, because I am worried someone might find a reason to justify excluding me!

What I learned from years of trying to build peace in Northern Ireland, is you need to generate friendships across divides. You need to build bridges. You need to own fear and walk together. You need to have a hope that tomorrow can be better than yesterday. That's what we did, bringing protestant and catholic kids together to talk.

I worry because godly conversation is being drowned out by loud noises on all sides. I would want to say , don't despair! If you think a problem is so intractable, so terrible, so entrenched it cant get fixed - look at Northern Ireland. I mean really, could any of us have predicted 10 years ago that Ian Paisley and Martin MacGuinness would form a government togetherl!! If that doesn't give you hope that miracles can happen nothing will. Very odd thing happened. Belfast Airprt - you not worried going back to London with all the bombs!

I am here, because I have tried to build bridges from my constituency into other parts of the Anglican church. I am here because I want to make a statement that I want to be a fellow pilgrim, a traveler with you. It's a risky business, people throw rocks at you, they would rather curse at the dark than switch on a light. People like to poke faults, they like to cause rows, but we need to keep taking risks to make peace in our church. It's the right thing to do. In a world of division and conflict, surely the one place where we ought to overcome difference with love should be the church. Surely we could offer a prophetic message to our world of how to live in diversity.

So I want to encourage you, to actively seek to build new friendships with people you disagree with. When was the last time you met and prayed with someone from a different part of our church. I can go to Spring Harvest and New Wine as a speaker, and hear my friends tut at catholic worship, and the way you guys genuflect and all the liturgy. And I correct them, and say we should rejoice that God is so big he can accept worship from us all. And in the bars, corridors here, I hear the same things being said about the way I worship. I realise many of you have been hurt by folk from my tradition, and that's wrong. Terrible things have been said, shrill tones used, and people have been bruised. Im sorry for that I really really am.

And I realise some of you would rather have root canal without anesthetic than sing Soul Survivor songs with a full band. But as inclusive church, when was the last time you affirmed the happy clappy evangelical who wants to raise their hands in worship. Would they feel included in your church? These are all important gestures, they are hands of friendship, they build bridges.

And so we sow understanding, and love into our church which seems poisioned with intolerance and misunderstanding. Lets begin to break the walls that divide us.

Unity is not saying that we will always agree with each other, unity is a deeper spiritual concept. Unity allows me to love my brothers and sisters even when I don't always agree with them. Love allows me to hold difference and diversity. Unity is not uniformity. Unity is generated by the Spirit of God, it cant be manufactured or organised, or strategised. It comes when Gods people seek to live in tune with His Spirit, and to love others as themselves.

No mission statement will cause the world to believe, no mission programme, no strategy, no amount of books or trendy church literature and conferences. What impacts and transforms this world, what causes people to see the love of Jesus in action, is simply this. It's the people of God, living authentic life changing radical lives, and united under Jesus. That will change this world.

Mahatma Ghandi once said "be the change you want to see in the world” Lets show the Church how to be. Lets show the church how to overcome difference of opinion in love. I commit to you, I will continue to be a friend, continue to listen, continue to love, continue to walk with you.

2.We have a Gospel of hope for all

Sometimes we can get so inward looking in the Church. We can talk about all kinds of things that we think are important, and the rest of the world looks at us and think we are off our heads. Our sense of perspective seems to be upside down. Trust me I know, I am a member of the General Synod, and the Archbishops Council. We rant and rave, and look more and more out of touch to the rest of the world.

Sometimes its good for us to see how others see us. Ask people why they have no desire to go to church and they tell you its dull, boring, grey, predictably bland, its cold, full of old people, it meets at the wrong time. And they are usually right. I know Christians who cant be bothered to go to church. They are fed up with it all, and depressed by it all, and that's just the clergy!!

Nick Hornby "How to be good” - woman GP her husband finds a faith through a guru, and she gets spiritually curious, and goes along to Sunday morning church - she goes to church…this is what she says

I had never been to an ordinary church service before . I had been to weddings, funerals, christenings, Christmas, Carol sevices and even to harvest festivals. But I had never been to a bog standard, nobody there Sunday service. It all feels a long way from God. It feels sad, exhausted, defeated. This may have been God's house once, the small bunch of people are told, but he's clearly moved , shut up shop. And then you look around and wonder if the sadness isn't part of the point. Those who drag themselves here once a week are clearly not social church goers because there is nothing social happening here. This isn't a place to see and be seen. No these people are the hard core. The beaten and the lonely and if there is a place for them in the kingdom of heaven they deserve it. I just hope that its warmer there than here, and there is more hope and youth, and there is no need for bring and buy sales, and the choir of angels isn't singing somewhere else that day. Church of England heaven is in all probability a quarter full of unhappy old ladies selling misshaped rock cakes every day of the week for all eternity

We need to remember The Church of God doesn't choose to do mission , the God of Mission chooses to do church. Lets rediscover our passion, our love and our belief that we have a gospel of good news that changes lives.

Something happened me in June that changed my life…..Meeting Matt in Charing Cross in London

He said to me… "tell the church to stop arguing and bring people hope”.

When I read the gospels I am just blown away by Jesus. I am inspired by what he said and what he did. He changed lives. Wherever he went he changed lives. He touched the blind and made them see

He fed the hungry

He gave the thirsty something to drink

He healed the paralytic

He turned water into wine

He restored the sinner

He comforted the weak

He raised the dead

He made friends with the most unloved and unlovable

He brought hope and if we are the Body of Christ, then as St Teresa put it, we are Christ's feet to walk to the hurting, we are his hands to touch, we are his heart to love, we are his eyes to see, we are his mouth to speak out.

Havent we got a gospel of hope? Hope for those whose lives hurt, hope for those who are broken, hope for the prisoner and the captive, hope for the depressed and weary, hope for the lonely. Matt was right, we need to bring people hope.

And its our mission to share that hope with this broken world. I want to ask what does the word "inclusive” mean. What does it mean to the streets round your church? Shouldn't the church be inclusive of them too? Lets have a big vision of the word inclusive. How are we trying to reach those outside our churches with this gospel of hope? How can we make our churches relevant to people? How can we practice hospitality and welcome? When we go home today, how can we recommit ourselves to bringing this hope to those around us?

Yes it's a huge task, but if you think you are too small to make a difference, and too small to make your presence felt, you have never shared a bed with a mosquito !

OK then Mark God can't use me because I am not good enough. Really? Have you read the Bible? As I look through the pages of the bible I see God never picks perfect people to serve him,thank the Lord!!

Moses stuttered.

David's armour didn't fit.

Hosea's wife was a prostitute.

Jacob was a liar.

David had an affair with a woman and murdered her husband.

Solomon was too rich.

Abraham was too old.

David was too young.

Timothy had ulcers and bad health

Peter was afraid of death.

Lazarus…well he was dead.

John was self-righteous.

Jesus was too poor.

Naomi was a widow.

John Mark - rejected by Paul

Paul was a murderer.

So was Moses.

Jonah ran from God.

Miriam was a gossip & bigot

Gideon and Thomas both doubted.

Jeremiah was depressed and suicidal.

Elijah was burned out.

Martha was a worrywart.

Samson had long hair.

Noah got drunk.

And did I mention that Moses had a short fuse and mad temper?

So did Peter, Paul… and, well, & lots of folks including me"

Jesus turned this world upside down with twelve disciples. A bunch of disciples who made mistakes, who let Jesus down, who argued, bickered and doubted. Yet a bunch of disciples who followed Jesus, and gave him their all. There are more than 12 of us here today, and the bible says of Jesus Christ he is the same yesterday today and forever, and the Jesus Christ who changed their lives, the Jesus Christ who used them to make a difference, can use us to make a difference.

Lets go from here, with a renewed vision to pursue a costly unity, and a vision to bring a gospel of hope to all. Lets go from here passionate to share our faith with those around us. We leave today encouraged, nourished refreshed. We leave inspired and alive. We go from here with a job to do. To renew our church and change our nation. Thanks for listening. Amen.

 

Mark Russell

Nov 2007

 

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