The KGB, the Incarnation and Christian Mission - and why we need Victorian preachers to tell the story

Spy stories aren't what they used to be. They used to be some of the hottest action of the cold war. But those days are gone and ten Russian spies exposed in the U.S. is more of an embarrassment than anything else.

The Russians, it appears, however, do take their spying more seriously than western nations. "Sleepers" is what they call people who are planted deep into the society for the purpose of gathering information.

The story of one such sleeper I found quite amazing. He was a talented young Russian. A brilliant linguist and a gifted musician. Somehow he ended up being recruited by the KGB and embarked on a mission to spy on America.

It is quite remarkable what he did. He moved to East Germany to enable him to become more like a German. He then pretended to be a refugee who had come to the West.

His next move was to develop a career as a piano tuner and move to America. Having moved across the Atlantic, he managed to land the job of piano tuner to Nelson Rockefeller, then Governor of New York.

Such a story demands the kind of rhetorical flourish that would have been second nature to one of the great Victorian preachers: "Consider what lengths this man went to in service of his country. Should not the zeal of the Christian exceed that of the communistic (I know that would be anachronistic for a Victorian preacher - but I am sure the -ic suffix would have been stuck on at the end) type of man in service of his Lord and Master? Consider the self abnegation of one so graced with such gifts and of such a sensible temper, who loved the cause of his motherland more than his own life. Should not the servants of Christ esteem the loss of all that is theirs by grace and nature a small thing, perchance one should advance the cause of Christ's kingdom?

Or indeed, "Consider Him who emptied Himself of the splendours of a life greater than that of the Bolshevist for the sake of poor lost sinners."

I am sure that if anyone ever does read this post, they will be tempted to think that I am flippantly sending up a stereotyped Christianity which we love to poke fun.

Well I'm not. There are a couple of serious points here.

Firstly, this is some illustration of both the incarnation and what singleminded discipleship might look like.

Phillippians 2 has been a bit of a hot potato for theologians for a while. What does it mean that Christ emptied Himself? Did he lose His divine attributes when he took on flesh? Or were they merely veiled, hidden for a while? Perhaps our KGB man can help us. He didn't lose his gifts in becoming a German refugee and then a piano tuner. He simply, for the sake of the Soviet Union, chose not to utilise them - at least not to the extent that he could have used them. They were hidden in the guise of a refugee turned piano tuner.

In this same chapter in Phillippians, Paul presents Christ in His becoming a servant as a kind of template for Christian servanthood. If you've ever heard anyone talking about "having a servant heart" your hearing about something rooted in this passage of scripture.

Christian growth and Christian ministry is about becoming. Becoming more like Christ. And to begin to minister like Jesus ministered we have to leave our worlds and enter into the worlds of those whom God has called us to serve. It might not be a geographical movement. And it certainly won't be anything as dramatic as the movement of Christ from heaven to earth. But it will challenge our thinking and affect our will and emotions.

So why not just say all this in plain, 21st century English? Why the faux Victorian speak? Perhaps, because these things deserve better than the blandness of much contemporary speech. Misguided communist or not, you can't help but admire and be challenged by such commitment to a cause. And to simply present it as "If we were as committed as some of those commies were, the world would be a better place" has limited emotional punch. We need something that at least tries to make us feel the grandeur of the gospel and the sheer romance of serving the King.

The KGB illustrating the incarnation and inspiring to Christian mission. Marx and Lenin must be spinning in their graves.

The stories pictures tell

I'm taking a long hard look at this picture of the Cambridge Seven. I'm asking myself what this picture of these young Cambridge educated English gentlemen can teach me about reaching out to all the different cultures that I live amongst. There is a clearer picture here.

C.T. Studd was the most famous. If you don't know which one he is, have a guess. Then take a look here. Surprised?

What story does the picture tell you?

The prevailing power of an almost lost story

The Lost History of Christianity by Philip Jenkins is a must read. I am saying that even though I've only read two chapters! I think this book is going to be promoted in many places as a must read. There's so much in it. I do hope the BBC or Channel 4 or someone turns it into a documentary.

Its title sums up the main thread of the book: a lost story of how the Christian faith spread East and thrived for a thousand years after the fall of Rome. That story in itself is one that is little known and unfamiliarity makes it all the more exciting - you really don't know what's going to happen next!

In reality though, it is much more. A feel for the complex relationship between Islam and Christianity emerges from stories of interaction between Christians and Muslims. The refreshing approaches to mission of the Jacobites and the Nestorians, who despite their theological shortcomings were intent on winning the world for Christ. The towering figure of Bishop Timothy and the vast spiritual empire that he led. And perhaps most surprisingly, the relative backwardness of the Western Church and the darkness of the European continent.

There are pointers as to how faiths survive persecution and setback and why reversal comes about in the first place.

And supremely, the brute fact that even an expression of Christianity as vibrant as that described in the pages of The Lost History of Christianity can be swept away almost without a trace. And therein lies the strength of the book - to engage you emotionally as well as intellectually.

The Celtic Deal

I cuaght up with the second part of the BBC series on the Celts at the weekend. This time St. Columba and his mission to the Scottish territory of the Kingdom of Dalriada (West of Scotland) and eventually into the land of the Picts was part of the subject.

Again, it was fascinating to learn about a period of history with which I am unfamiliar. I also felt I was touching the authentic Celtic spirit. Some of what bears the moniker "Celtic" is at best loosely connected with the missionaries of the dark ages.

An expert from the Ulster Museum commented that the Celtic missionaries were testing themselves to the limit and were making a new settlement footprint [on Iona] that had never been seen before.

What an intriguing way to describe the courageous pioneering efforts of these men. Testing yourself to the limit might just be one prerequisite for any man, woman or movement that wants to break new ground. Leaving a footprint that's never been seen before will most assuredly be the consequence. It seems to me you can't have one without the other. It's the Celtic deal. It's the mission deal.

Whose turf? Whose terms?

A few years ago a book with the title How the Irish Saved Civilization appeared on the market. The BBC have now given their take on the great Hibernian rescue. How the Celts Saved Britain was broadcast on Monday evening on BBC 4. Presented by Dan Snow, it began to tell the story of Patrick and the conversion of Ireland. According to the evidence Snow had gathered, not only did Patrick bring Christianity to the Emerald Isle, but civilization as well.

For church leaders and preachers - in fact for anyone interested in mission - there was a wealth of interesting material. One of the things that stood out for me was that Patrick brought the gospel to Ireland by meeting the Celtic people on their turf in their terms. He gatecrashed their holy rituals and ceremonies and invaded their sacred spaces. Consequentially, he found himself preaching to some of the real power brokers of the day.

"Their turf, their terms" is a good mission value to practice. If for no other reason than that the people we want to reach are unlikely to visit our turf on our terms, at least initially. A good value to practise, but not one that the church always finds easy to practise.

Part 2 is next Monday at 9 p.m. on BBC4

You can see part one on iPlayer

Just get ten (or twelve,perhaps?)

I am so pleased to have discovered Seth Godin and his blog. I find his posts are though provoking and really challenge the kind of conventional wisdom that is rapidly becoming unwisdom.

At one level, Seth's posts are marketing related. At another, you gain an insight into the way society works in the early twenty-first century. I would recommend anyone who wants to reach the world of today to read his blog. I realise that the preceding sentnence might not make sense - after all what other world can we reach other than the one of today? Sometimes, however, our thinking is more appropriate to reaching the world of yesteryear.

The post First,ten, I think, is very helpful in understanding how ideas spread in our world. This could help us in our thinking about mission and discipleship. I seem to remember that Someone Else started out with a similar sized group - twelve in His case.

Progressive Pentecostals

John Glass, Elim's General Superintendent always writes a quality editorial in Direction Magazine. In the April edition he draws attention to the term "Progressive Pentecostals". The term is used by Donald Miller and Tetsunao Yamamori, in their book, Global Pentecostalism: The New Face of Christian Social Engagement, to describe the rise of a pentecostalism that combines social action and evangelism.

John commented that this kind of two pronged outreach approach was becoming more common in Elim. Later in the magazine the Elim Church in Kingstanding is featured and it certainly exemplifies progressive pentecostalism.

You can catch up with John on his blog

Find out more about Direction Magazine here

Getting desperate with God in Starbucks

I was having a discussion recently about the future of the church, and, inevitably cafe church came into the conversation.

As I reflected on the discussion, I thought about some of the people who I've met "in church" with really desperate needs. I asked myself this question, "When life gets really desperate, and you need to get desperate with God, how do you get desperate in cafe church?"

What does "desperation" look like in that context?

Come to us or go to them?

I always enjoy reading Steve Addison's blog . A recent post on missional church caught my eye.

The post covers an article by Dan Kimball. For a while now some very influential voices have been advocating missional church as opposed to attractional church as the way forward. The missional church, if I understand it correctly, is one which has as its focus equipping people and sending them out into the community to do the works of the kingdom. Attractional church on the other hand seeks to attract people to its building / campus. That is probably oversimplifying the concepts, but in essence that is the supposed difference in the two approaches to church. Advocates of the missional way of doing things often argue that their way is the most faithful to the New Testament.

But it would appear that perhaps all is not well in missional world. Listen to these comments from Kimball:

"Conversely, some from our staff recently visited a self-described missional church. It was 35 people. That alone is not a problem. But the church had been missional for ten years, and it hadn't grown, multiplied, or planted any other churches in a city of several million people. That was a problem.

Another outspoken advocate of the house church model sees it as more missional and congruent with the early church. But his church has the same problem. After fifteen years it hasn't multiplied. It's a wonderful community that serves the homeless, but there's no evidence of non-Christians beginning to follow Jesus. In the same city several megachurches are seeing conversions and disciples matured."

You'll find Steve Addison's post here and Dan Kimball's thoughts here

The history of Ireland and the future of the world

My good friend Christy Smith sent me the following quote from an article about St. Patrick in a back edition of Christianity Today:

"Patrick did not require the native Irish to surrender their belief in supernatural beings. They were only to regard these beings in a new light as demons. The fear of the old deities was transformed into hatred of demons. If Christianity had come to Ireland with only theological doctrines, the hope of immortal life, and ethical ideas—without miracles, mysteries, and rites—it could have never wooed the Celtic heart."

Patrick and the Celtic Christians have been cited on more than a few occasions in recent years as exemplifying the kind of approach to mission that is needed in a 21st century postmodern context.

I am sure there is something to this, even if some of the contrasts between Roman Christianity and Celtic Christianity and sometimes presented as being a bit too sharp.

Would love to hear your thoughts on this.

You can read the whole article here.

An atheist advocates the faith

Matthew Parris had a fascinating piece in Saturday's Times (27th December) on why Africa needs God. Parris is a self professed atheist. In the article, however, he argues that the Christian faith is truly liberating and gives individuals the confidence to tackle life head on.

Lennox / Hitchens

The interest here is a little personal as well as professional. John Lennox grew up in my home town. His family are well known there.


The debate between John Lennox (Christian apologist) and Christopher Hitchens (well-known athiest) was held during the Edinburgh Festival in the Usher Hall. The motion was : "The New Europe Should Prefer The New Atheism"


The links below have extensive coverage of the encounter.


I think it is amazing that 1400 people in a supposedly post Christian society would turn out for such a debate. And that opinion should swing in Lennox's direction. Or perhaps I - we - should see it as evidence that God is still after people's hearts and minds, even in secular Europe.


http://thinkingmatters.org.nz/2008/08/should-europe-embrace-the-new-atheism-john-lennox-v-christopher-hitchens/


http://wetlenses.blogspot.com/2008/08/new-europe-new-atheism.html


http://theologica.blogspot.com/2008/08/hitchens-vs-lennox-and-winner-was.html