The missing day

I once missed Christmas Day. I was aboard a London to NZ flight via Los Angeles and we jumped the date line around midnight. Goodbye presents! However something different happened this year – a day went missing by government fiat. In order to better align with its key trading partners, Samoa jumped the International Date Line and moved from 29 to 31 December in a digital stroke.

There’s nothing new or alarming in all that. Calendars are a human construct, have changed often enough during history and at any given moment different people operate on different calendars. For example, the recently newsworthy Mayan calendar runs alongside the more general western calendar in some societies. Or again, Singapore chooses to position itself out of its natural time zone for reasons of financial markets.

In the ancient near east, calendars were commonly constructed according to the reign and deeds of a king. For example, consider the Biblical formula ‘in the 8^th year etc of the reign of King so and so’.

This is reflected in the present BC / AD division of the western calendar which divides around the incarnation of Christ. Well, not quite … for present scholarly reckoning places his birth in about 6BC. Its interesting to see present discussion about renaming this into BCE / CE and thus writing Christ ‘out’. Some Christians see this as an issue of spreading secularism to contest. Personally, I don’t think its worth the fight.

Hmm .. constructing a calendar around the deeds of a king? Now that’s worth thinking about. Put simply, it locates us in the last days in between the ascension and the return of the Lord. That gives urgency to the task of witness and encouragement to persist in following and serving Jesus. We are indeed to ‘watch and pray’ and labour and serve, for our master may return from his journey any moment.

How terrible to be ill-prepared and thus to miss the day.

Threads of lives

I first met Angie and her father Dan (not the real names) 40 years ago. Angie was about 10 years old. Her mother had recently died, leaving she and her two siblings as orphans.

Dan had belonged to the church my dad pastored about 15 years earlier and now resumed contact after a long absence. Dan started coming to my dad’s new church and also needed someone to care for the young children during his absence on business trips.

My dad referred Dan to my girlfriend who became the child carer during some uni holidays. That brought me into the scene. A year or so later I needed employment. Dan rang the boss of a firm he has worked for and so I had a job for two years while my life reshaped.

Dan soon married a woman from my dad’s church and then we all drifted in different directions for many years. After Dan became a church elder involved in wider church matters I met him more often. As a young adult, Angie sister was a friend of my wife and I and then, after a gap of decades, we became Facebook friends when she lived in the UK.

Angie’s life had ups and downs, involving tragic moments that tested and tormented she and her family. She died last Friday aged 50. I saw a Facebook message from her sister and rang Dan. Then contacted some other friends who were all part of that church and friendship network about 40 years ago. And so we will soon gather to mourn with those who mourn.

In this the threads of pain and care weave through the Kantian categories of space and time. Or rather, they are woven for it is God who brings people and circumstances in and out of our lives.

Something like this makes me wonder. Angie was a peripheral part of my life yet there are the threads of about 20 people in direct relationship and stretching over about 60 years of my family. And then I think of others whose threads are woven into the tapestry of my life and I in turn woven into that of them and others. There are the known and unknown; the long running and the short-lived; the welcome and unwelcome. The threads of my life are beyond counting and disappear into the mists of time backwards and forwards.

As Donne says: no man is an island. Each of these threads is a person made in God’s image and for whom Christ died. They are an opportunity for me to serve and be served with God’s love and truth.

And so I will keep in touch with Angie’s family through this … and resume contact with other people whose threads have resurfaced through this contact.

A tale of two Christmasses

I went to church twice over Christmas. The services were well attended, the feeling warm, the music uplifting and the messages were fresh presentations of the old old story. And then to a day of indulgence. The pleasure of family, watching the excitement of my grandsons opening presents, enjoying lovingingly prepared meals and an afternoon doze.

My brother also went to church. He is a missionary in Jos Nigeria. It was his first Christmas since his wife died on missionary service earlier this year. He probably started his day with no electricity and having to draw water from a well in his house. As he sat in church there was a bomb blast nearby: they heard it and felt a blast wave.  The service continued, rejoicing in the covenant faithfulness of God, praying for those who sought to harm them and seeking God’s peace on the city.

My brother’s Christmas gives a reminder of mortality and eternity. So much of what most us do from day to day is trivial against these horizons. Oh for grace to enjoy the trivial pursuits and enjoy life under the sun, but always for wisdom to see and live under the eternity that God puts in the heart of humanity.

The Trellis and the Vine

Marshall, C; Payne T, The Trellis and The Vine, (Matthias Media, Sydney, 2009). 166  pages plus appendices. Available in various formats through Matthias Media: http://www.matthiasmedia.com.au/the-trellis-and-the-vine. Reviewed by David Burke.

This little book has only been out for two years but is packing a punch. Ministry leaders from around the globe and in various traditions acclaim it and the language of ‘trellis and vine’ has become a standard ministry metaphor.

The subtitle indicates the book’s goals: The ministry mind-shift that changes everything. Talk about ambition! In summary, Col Marshall and Tony Payne call for disciple-making and disciple-growth to be at the centre of the church’s energies and to be at the heart of pastors and church leaders. The book makes a strong case for this from various Scriptures and then turns to the practicalities.

Nothing new?

In one sense there is nothing new in the book. Since Jesus took the 12 aside for deeper lessons and Paul did the same for Timothy, wise leaders have invested themselves in the growth and training of believers with potential. And I’d guess that most Christian leaders would speak about the importance of someone who took them aside at a formative stage and invested in their growth. In this respect, the book is applied exposition of 2 Tim 2:2 and Eph 4:11-12.

What’s new?

What’s new in this book is the passion with which the case for training is argued and the careful outworking of the training agenda and process. The ministry of training is developed through a vision for recruiting gospel-partners and moving them through phases of growth and service, concluding with a vision for full-on ministry apprenticeships. Marshall and Payne write with many years experience in Christian training. This shows as they work through the details and anticipate challenges.

Quotable quotes

Here are some quotes to whet the appetite (but you really need to read the book to get the point):

·       Is there anything more vital to be doing in our world? It is more important than our jobs, our families, our pastimes – yes, even more important than the comfort and security of familiar church life. (p38)

·       … what happens is the same: a Christian brings a truth from God’s word to someone else, praying that God would make that word bear fruit through the inwards working of the Spirit. That’s vine work. Everything else is trellis. (p39)

·       To be a disciple is to be a disciple-maker. (p43)

·       We have to conclude that a Christian with no passion for the lost is in serious need of self-examination and repentance. (p52-3)

·       A pastor or elder is just a vine-worker with a particular responsibility to care for and equip the people for their partnership in the gospel. (p67)

·       We are always an example to those whom we are teaching and training, whether we like it or not. We cannot stop being an example. (p74)

·       The principle is: do a deep work in the lives of a few. (p161)

What’s good about the book?

I like the way in which Marshall and Payne puts discipling where it belongs – at centre stage in church life and ministry. The wide scope of training to include convictions and character along with competence in skills is refreshing. Likewise, its great to see the focus on gospel growth, not church growth – this is a timely encouragement in a day when numerical growth remains a guilt-trap for pastors. And again, the grounded practicality of the book makes it immediately useful. It’s a book that gives a vision and then gives the small starter-steps to see it happen.

Problem areas

However there are a few problems areas. It would be easy to pick up the impression that church is just a training organisation and that people like pastors are only trainers. Likewise, the brief discussion of what is unfortunately called ‘secular work’ will leave many feeling that their daily labour has no significance before God (pp136-138). It would be a pity if some readers saw these issues and dismissed the whole book as a product of alleged ‘Sydney reductionism’. Finally, it would be a great complement to see even a brief discussion of what kind of trellis work and trellis workers are needed to complement the rightful focus on vine work and workers.

Notes to myself

I wrote a few notes to myself as I read the book:

·       Gratitude for the people who invested themselves in my training as a new Christian and helped my growth and entry to service.

·       Thanks for the privilege of investing myself in the training of others along the way and for the pleasure of seeing God’s fruit in their lives.

·       Thinking about the ministries I now have and the people I touch: how can I sharpen my training contribution and vine focus?

·       What can I do to help shift the focus from trellis work to vine work in my church tradition (Presbyterian)? In particular, what can I do to help shift the focus of the eldership from governance to vine-work?

·       Thinking about myself: what growth do I now need and how shall I access it?

(David Burke has been in full time Christian service since 1979, including 21 years of pastoral ministry and 30 years in ministry training roles. He now teaches at Presbyterian Theological Centre Sydney Australia)