Dreaming Dreams Sharing Visions

When you go away you see things from a new perspective.  You come back charged up with something fresh.   That was very much the experience I had when I went to Berlin to join Stefan in the biennial conference of the Fellowship of European Evangelical Theologians.

So that all the thoughts and ideas don’t disappear into thin air, I have always kept a journal when I have attended such an event.  This time was no exception.  On the flight over I began my journal and set out what my hopes and expectations were for the weekend that lay ahead and for the conference I would share.  I continued in part on the blog so others could share some of my thoughts.

The conference did not disappoint.

On the flight back I made note of the things I would bring back with me.

I came back noting four things that relate to my vision for Highbury.

1. a passion for teaching – this book, the Bible, is the most wonderful of books – I am as passionate now as ever I have been – but it can be the most dangerous of books – I believe passionately we need tin church to find ways to help us read this book so that in all its words we can hear God’s Word for us.
2. a passion for the mission of the church
3. And those two come together – with a passion that what we do in church should be rooted in the bible and that we who belong to the church should be people who read the Bible people who pray
4. And there was one more thing I  will come to later.

I took some of that renewed passion into the training weekend I shared last weekend in Nottingham – it was great to be exploring ways of reading the bible with church leaders from another seven of our churches.  I take some of that passion into the Highbury @ home weekend we have in a fortnight’s time.

We’ve been looking at what makes Highbury special ever since the first Church Meeting of the Year shaped what we would focus on through the year.  We have celebrated highbury as a welcoming church, committed to pastoral care, where all we do is underpinned by worship and prayer.  Ours is a church with an active concern for the community, where mission is at the heart of church life.  A child-friendly church that is inclusive and diverse, a church where all are welcome.

As well as having a fun time getting to know each other better and just enjoying each other’s company we are going to take forward our thinking on the church.  How should we shape things for the future as a church?  Where should our emphasis be?

That begs the question … where can we find guidance?

We are going to look into the pages of the bible to see what we can draw out from the Bible.

So I want to lay down an invitation and a challenge.

If you haven’t signed up for our weekend, why not take the plunge and join us.

If you cannot come, then think of the whole of our church and its future in your prayers.

And then … come with a spirit of expectation.  So I invite you to share with me in doing some Bible reading in preparation for our weekend together.

I want us in our mind’s eye to imagine what it would have been like to have been part of one of those very first churches that we meet in the New Testament.

What would it be like to be part of the church in Rome?  What would it have been like to have belonged to that church in Corinth?  On Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, I have chosen a reading from the beginning o f Paul’s letters where Paul shares in prayer for that church.  And a reading from the last part of the letter where he seeks to encourage to put their faith into practice.

We then move on to Ephesus.

There are all sorts of ways of reading the Bible.  I love trying to think yourself into the skin of the people who belonged to the first church.  Ephesus was the very first place I visited from the Bible story, and I still well remember the impact it had on me sitting on the upper tier of the enormous theatre built on the side of the hill looking down on to the stage and beyond to the streets of the one-time bustling sea port.  I was there in the story in Acts when Paul had moved on from meeting in the synagogue week in week out for three months, and now had gathered a church in Christ’s name that met in the hall of Tyrannus.  Acts builds up such a vivid picture of the discussion, the dialogue, the teaching that goes on.  It’s vibrant.

Paul is passionate – this God we believe in through Jesus Christ is the God of the whole of creation.  It’s a challenge to the Roman way of life and to the religious fabric of a town build around one of the seven wonders of the world in the Temple of Diana.

When their trade was affected they were up in arms and led a virtual rebellion against Paul – you could imagine the shouts of the silversmiths echoing from the theatre over the streets of the city.

What was it like to be living at that time in that way in that place?  You can raise questions about whether Ephesians was written by Paul or by a close follower … but its message speaks so powerfully into that place that church.  Paul is passionate about the dividing wall of hostility coming down, of the oneness three is between Jew and Greek in Christ.  The letter is rich with prayers for the church.

Read the passages – think yourself there.

Paul’s travels took him further north up the coast of what we now think of as Turkey until in a dream, Luke tells us in Acts, Paul was beckoned over to Macedonia.  Philippi was a massively important city.  Regional capital.  Location of a key battle that had helped shape the whole Roman Empire.  No wonder one of the first things Octavian did on becoming Emperor Augustus was to honour the city with the very highest status of all Roman cities – making it a Colonia.  That meant that Roman citizens living in its walls had all the rights, privileges and responsibilities of people living in Rome itself.  

That’s why those women in Philippi had to meet out of the city walls, down by the river.  That’s why when Paul was put in prison by the slave owners of the girl he healed he appealed to the authorities as a Roman citizen.

Imagine what it would have been like to be that slave girl, the gaoler and his family – all belonging to that church in Philippi.  Paul’s letter is full of joy as he thinks of their vibrant faith.  And wise words of counsel as he equips them to live with the anxieties that inevitably came their way.

Take the words of Paul’s prayer and turn them into prayer – prayer of thanksgiving, prayer seeking God’s blessing.   Think how the words of challenge Paul writes and his recipe for coping with stressful times speaks into your situation.  Think what makes this church so special.

From what the letters themselves say four letters are written by Paul while he is in prison: they have similar themes.

It’s fascinating how as Paul is making haste back towards Jerusalem with the collection he has been making he wants to visit Ephesus again, but he cannot so there is an account of a meeting he has with the senior members of the Ephesus church.  That seems to have been a really key base in his missionary work.  A number of churches were founded in that locality by Paul’s fellow workers.  One of them Colossae by Epaphras  is one of those churches Paul writes to.

He has much to give thanks for – prayers that we can adapt and use ourselves.  As in Philippians he focuses on Christ Jesus at the heart of the life of the church.  And then he has these wonderful words of challenge as he urges people in Colossae to put on a whole new set of clothes held together by love, ensuring that all things are done in the name of Jesus Christ.

There’s something even more special here – it’s not just a theory about barriers coming down, it’s personal.  Very personal.  Accompanying the letter to the Colossians is a second, very personal letter to Philemon who hosts the church at his house.  Paul urges Philemon to welcome back into his home and into the church a runaway slave called Onesimus – and he is to welcome him back no longer as a slave but as a brother in Christ.

This is a remarkable glimpse of just how radical and different the church communities of these first years were.

Prone to problems, but treasured and nurtured by Paul.

So here’s the challenge … and the invitation – to take home this set of readings.  Over the next couple of weeks follow these readings, pray these scriptures and imagine yourself in these churches.

Then let’s draw together in our weekend with the expectation that God will grant us his Spirit that we may dream dreams together and come to share a vision for the future of our church to God’s glory.