On Monday me and Hannah and the small group we oversee went into a local care home for the elderly to spend some time with the residents. We were all a bit nervous as none of us had any experience of working with the elderly before and we didn’t really know what to expect.
We decided to put on a ‘reminiscence evening’. Each of us brought along an object that represented our jobs, and then we asked the residents to try and guess what we do for a living from that object. For example, we had a sleeping bag to represent working with the homeless, a small hammer to represent being a doctor, a paint brush and a psychology textbook to represent art therapy (the idea of art therapy was greeted with the comment ‘people just need to pull themselves together’!), and many others. They didn’t guess one correctly. After this we then talked about our jobs for a few minutes and then got them talking about what the workplace was like when they were our age. I was particularly interested to see how they responded to my job, and to hear about any experiences of church they’d had. It seemed that their perception and experiences of church were much more positive than the young adults I spend my time hanging out with.
So the evening seemed to go well, but all the way through I found myself doubting whether what we were doing would bless them in any way. It seemed like such a small thing we were offering them. However, after we’d finished, the staff and residents couldn’t thank us enough. One of the nurses was teary eyed as she thanked us for making the commitment to come in every month. As I chatted individually to the residents I could soon see why it meant so much to them and the staff. For many of them their whole life is their small bedroom, the dining room and the lounge. The majority of them are just too frail to do anything else. A number of them made excuses for their own family, who were ‘just too busy’, or have ‘moved away for work’ and so rarely visit (I’ve paused from blogging at this point to ring my mum!). And of course they regularly see their friends physically declining and dying.
It was so humbling, as all we’d done was chat to the residents for an hour, it really felt like we hadn’t done much at all, but for them it meant so much.
The idea of ‘doing mission’ can get so elaborate and complicated, but going into this care home reminded me of the immense value of simply spending time with people, particularly those who are lonely and vulnerable.
Tim
Wednesday, 3 February 2010
Monday, 25 January 2010
Laura Stewart and communal mission
On this month’s Nomad Extra we’re following on from our interview with Steve Timmis, by having a chat with Laura Stewart, a member of one of the Crowded House’s gospel communities.
I really like the emphasis this network places on community. Laura was clear that this community was more akin to a family than a series of meetings. What really struck me though was their emphasis on mission as a community activity.
Mission for me has largely been an individual activity. Apart from occasional church ‘mission events’ I’ve been encouraged to see mission essentially as individual encounters. Obviously there is good biblical precedent for this with individual encounters like that between Philip and the Ethiopian (Acts 8:26-40). But as mission is at the heart of what it means to be a follower of God, and we’re called to follow him as a community, then surely mission should be a communal activity. And of course this is what we see in the way Jesus went about mission. He carried out his mission with his disciples, and expected them to continue this in small mission focussed groups (e.g. Lk. 9:1-6); a pattern the early church would later follow.
I’ve discovered that there are many advantages to communal mission. Firstly, mission can be very intimidating for some people, so sharing this as a group can be a great help. Me and Hannah, for example, are on the introverted side of the spectrum, and so wouldn’t naturally think of organising and hosting an event in the street. But sharing this with Nick, Lora and Michael has not only made this much easier, but actually very enjoyable.
Secondly, mission works best when we are functioning as a body, each contributing our unique gifts. So for example, I’m a good organiser, Nick’s a great ‘front man’, Hannah and Lora are both very creative, and Michael’s great at mingling in a crowd, and all these gifts have worked well together as we’ve gone about trying to bless the street.
Thirdly, I’ve also found that doing mission as a group seems to be more impacting on people, than doing it individually. If an individual does something good it can be dismissed simply as the actions of a ‘nice person’. But, I’ve found that if a whole group regularly does something good, people begin to ask questions. So, for example, the care home my small group is going to start serving, were amazed that a group of 11 young adults were making this commitment. The home has been open for decades and they said that while they often get individuals volunteering, they’d never had a group make this sort of commitment.
Finally, Jesus revealed God to his followers during mission. Jesus never led abstract theological discussions, rather he revealed God to his followers as people were healed, delivered, forgiven and set free into God’s love.
So I was really encouraged to hear about the emphasis of communal mission in Laura’s gospel community. I found it really inspiring to hear how they were using group activities like their knitting club, and their involvement in the local music scene, to make connections with people, to bless them, and draw them into their family.
Tim
I really like the emphasis this network places on community. Laura was clear that this community was more akin to a family than a series of meetings. What really struck me though was their emphasis on mission as a community activity.
Mission for me has largely been an individual activity. Apart from occasional church ‘mission events’ I’ve been encouraged to see mission essentially as individual encounters. Obviously there is good biblical precedent for this with individual encounters like that between Philip and the Ethiopian (Acts 8:26-40). But as mission is at the heart of what it means to be a follower of God, and we’re called to follow him as a community, then surely mission should be a communal activity. And of course this is what we see in the way Jesus went about mission. He carried out his mission with his disciples, and expected them to continue this in small mission focussed groups (e.g. Lk. 9:1-6); a pattern the early church would later follow.
I’ve discovered that there are many advantages to communal mission. Firstly, mission can be very intimidating for some people, so sharing this as a group can be a great help. Me and Hannah, for example, are on the introverted side of the spectrum, and so wouldn’t naturally think of organising and hosting an event in the street. But sharing this with Nick, Lora and Michael has not only made this much easier, but actually very enjoyable.
Secondly, mission works best when we are functioning as a body, each contributing our unique gifts. So for example, I’m a good organiser, Nick’s a great ‘front man’, Hannah and Lora are both very creative, and Michael’s great at mingling in a crowd, and all these gifts have worked well together as we’ve gone about trying to bless the street.
Thirdly, I’ve also found that doing mission as a group seems to be more impacting on people, than doing it individually. If an individual does something good it can be dismissed simply as the actions of a ‘nice person’. But, I’ve found that if a whole group regularly does something good, people begin to ask questions. So, for example, the care home my small group is going to start serving, were amazed that a group of 11 young adults were making this commitment. The home has been open for decades and they said that while they often get individuals volunteering, they’d never had a group make this sort of commitment.
Finally, Jesus revealed God to his followers during mission. Jesus never led abstract theological discussions, rather he revealed God to his followers as people were healed, delivered, forgiven and set free into God’s love.
So I was really encouraged to hear about the emphasis of communal mission in Laura’s gospel community. I found it really inspiring to hear how they were using group activities like their knitting club, and their involvement in the local music scene, to make connections with people, to bless them, and draw them into their family.
Tim
Monday, 18 January 2010
Transitioning to missional communities
After I’d spoken to my boss about the possibility of transitioning our small groups into missional communities, we felt it was right to immediately speak to the small group leaders. We wanted to keep them in the loop right from the very beginning. There was a general sense among the leaders that this was a good idea, but naturally many of them had practical concerns.
Rather than trying to address all these concerns, when we ourselves didn’t really know how it would all hang together, we decided to use a couple of the more established groups as test cases. This would give us the opportunity of ironing out any mistakes before the rest of the groups got involved (which we hope will happen around September time). We also hope these pilot groups will inspire the rest of the church as people see the positive impact the new mission focus is having on them. So rather than just talking up this new idea, we’re going to demonstrate it.
So I started to ponder how we’d go about finding mission opportunities in our town that would be suitable for our groups to get involved in. I’m not all that keen on starting up ‘Christianised’ versions of already existing social action programs. We don’t want to compete with our community, but join our community and bless them in what they’re already doing.
So I started to visit all the local charities and community projects, looking if there were any ways in which we could help out. My only criteria were that we could get involved as a group, that they were sympathetic to our Christian beliefs, and that we’d be working directly with people. So I visited the local hospital, prison, hospice, care homes, soup kitchen, asylum seeker/refugee project, and a number of other local projects. Much to my surprise most of these fitted the bill and I was able to quickly draw up a list of around 10 opportunities that our groups could get involved in.
One of the pilot groups decided to go for working with asylum seekers and refugees because there was an immediate need for volunteers to run a lunchtime drop in. My group decided to help out in the local care home because we all felt that we no longer had any regular contact with this generation, and we felt that not only could we make a positive contribution, but we’d also be greatly blessed ourselves.
Last week we visited the care home to meet the staff and discuss how we might be able to help out. Even though we didn’t actually spend any time with the residents, it seemed to have a really positive effect on the group. Firstly, the whole group turned up, which rarely happens! And secondly there was a real sense of new life. Everyone seemed really energised and positive as we focussed on this new, external, vision.
Obviously its very early days and there’s much more to becoming missional (in the sense of actually allowing mission to be the group’s organising principle), than to start visiting a care home. But just taking this first step on the journey felt really significant. We’re really excited about joining God in his work to bless the community, and seeing how that reshapes our group and hopefully, in time, the whole church.
Tim
Rather than trying to address all these concerns, when we ourselves didn’t really know how it would all hang together, we decided to use a couple of the more established groups as test cases. This would give us the opportunity of ironing out any mistakes before the rest of the groups got involved (which we hope will happen around September time). We also hope these pilot groups will inspire the rest of the church as people see the positive impact the new mission focus is having on them. So rather than just talking up this new idea, we’re going to demonstrate it.
So I started to ponder how we’d go about finding mission opportunities in our town that would be suitable for our groups to get involved in. I’m not all that keen on starting up ‘Christianised’ versions of already existing social action programs. We don’t want to compete with our community, but join our community and bless them in what they’re already doing.
So I started to visit all the local charities and community projects, looking if there were any ways in which we could help out. My only criteria were that we could get involved as a group, that they were sympathetic to our Christian beliefs, and that we’d be working directly with people. So I visited the local hospital, prison, hospice, care homes, soup kitchen, asylum seeker/refugee project, and a number of other local projects. Much to my surprise most of these fitted the bill and I was able to quickly draw up a list of around 10 opportunities that our groups could get involved in.
One of the pilot groups decided to go for working with asylum seekers and refugees because there was an immediate need for volunteers to run a lunchtime drop in. My group decided to help out in the local care home because we all felt that we no longer had any regular contact with this generation, and we felt that not only could we make a positive contribution, but we’d also be greatly blessed ourselves.
Last week we visited the care home to meet the staff and discuss how we might be able to help out. Even though we didn’t actually spend any time with the residents, it seemed to have a really positive effect on the group. Firstly, the whole group turned up, which rarely happens! And secondly there was a real sense of new life. Everyone seemed really energised and positive as we focussed on this new, external, vision.
Obviously its very early days and there’s much more to becoming missional (in the sense of actually allowing mission to be the group’s organising principle), than to start visiting a care home. But just taking this first step on the journey felt really significant. We’re really excited about joining God in his work to bless the community, and seeing how that reshapes our group and hopefully, in time, the whole church.
Tim
Monday, 11 January 2010
Steve Timmis and gospel communities
On this month’s podcast Nick had a chat with Steve Timmis, one of the founding leaders of the Crowded House Network. Steve has helped form a network of local Christian groups which he describes as having been radically shaped around gospel and community. He tells us how his experience of church and his theological understanding led to him to this way of organising church.I was particularly interested to hear Steve say that his network of communities wasn’t a protest or reactionary movement, but rather it was a positive movement based on what they felt the Bible taught, and from a desire to reach people who weren’t being reached by traditional forms of church.
For the first couple of years working in a church I found myself reacting against a lot of stuff that I wasn’t happy with, particularly in relation to a ‘come to us’ style of mission. Consequently a lot of the new initiatives I proposed were, in a sense, a protest. But increasingly I felt God challenge me to return to the gospel, to return to the person of Jesus, and begin to build from there.
It was in doing this that I began to see how Jesus went about discipleship, i.e. how he equipped and released his disciples. Mission and community seemed to lay behind Jesus’ understanding of discipleship. He largely equipped his disciples as a community, and he equipped them in the thick of mission. It was this discovery that inspired me to begin working towards transitioning our small group network from rather traditionally structured Bible study groups, to groups where prayer, worship and Bible study would be born out of the challenges, questions, successes and failures of communal mission.
This lunchtime the first pilot group will be putting on a lunch for local asylum seekers and refugees, and tonight the second pilot group (which me and Hannah lead) will be going along to a local care home to begin to explore how we can bless the elderly residents.
So rather than a reaction to what the church had tried before, we hope these groups will be a positive movement based on what the Bible teaches and our desire to join God in transforming the community he’s placed us in.
Tim
Friday, 8 January 2010
Life outside of Nomad
Over the last year I’ve mainly blogged about what we’ve been doing on the street, but as well as bring involved in Nomad I also work for a small, traditionally structured church here in Nottingham.
I clearly felt God call me to this church after my time as a researcher at Bible Society came to an end. At first, though, my role in the church felt at odds with the way God was guiding my thinking in mission and community (and there were many meetings where I think the other leaders felt the same!). More recently, however, I’ve had opportunities to slowly start implementing some of the things we’ve been thrashing out in Nomad. So, I thought it was about time I started blogging about life outside of Nomad.
When I started my job nearly four years ago, I was employed as an outreach worker to young adults. But as the job developed and a good size group of young adults formed, we realised that there was a church wide need for a more structured approach to discipleship. Consequently, I was asked to oversee the formation of a system of small groups. Remarkably at launch over 70 people joined (out of an average Sunday attendance of around 90-100). These groups have been running for a year now, and despite one or two relatively minor problems, attendance has held steady, and there is a real sense that the church is sharing in a new corporate journey (I write studies for the groups, which they adapt for their local context).
It wasn’t long after these groups were established, however, that I started to feel that we were missing something. All the reports from the groups were generally positive, and people felt they were moving on in their faith. But I couldn’t shake off the feeling that all we had done was to establish discussion groups. We were having some good times of creative worship and prayer, and each group was developing its own sense of communal identity, but at their core was simply a discussion about what we did and didn’t believe. Obviously there’s nothing inherently wrong with that, but I felt there needed to be more.
At the same time I was increasingly struck by the way Jesus went about discipleship. He didn’t organise discussion groups, rather he equipped people for a life of worship and mission, and he did this on the job. Prayer, worship, and teaching largely happened while his group was out on mission. Jesus rarely, if ever, discussed abstract theology, rather he revealed God while on the road, in the everyday, as people were healed, delivered, forgiven, and the kingdom of God was made manifest. Worship, prayer, discipleship and community were naturally born out of these experiences.
So I spoke to my boss about the possibility of transitioning our small groups into missional communities, i.e. groups that had mission as their organising principle. Much to my surprise he’d been thinking along similar lines.
Next Monday two pilot missional communities are being launched, so I’ll let you know how that went and how we got to that stage in my next post.
Tim
I clearly felt God call me to this church after my time as a researcher at Bible Society came to an end. At first, though, my role in the church felt at odds with the way God was guiding my thinking in mission and community (and there were many meetings where I think the other leaders felt the same!). More recently, however, I’ve had opportunities to slowly start implementing some of the things we’ve been thrashing out in Nomad. So, I thought it was about time I started blogging about life outside of Nomad.
When I started my job nearly four years ago, I was employed as an outreach worker to young adults. But as the job developed and a good size group of young adults formed, we realised that there was a church wide need for a more structured approach to discipleship. Consequently, I was asked to oversee the formation of a system of small groups. Remarkably at launch over 70 people joined (out of an average Sunday attendance of around 90-100). These groups have been running for a year now, and despite one or two relatively minor problems, attendance has held steady, and there is a real sense that the church is sharing in a new corporate journey (I write studies for the groups, which they adapt for their local context).
It wasn’t long after these groups were established, however, that I started to feel that we were missing something. All the reports from the groups were generally positive, and people felt they were moving on in their faith. But I couldn’t shake off the feeling that all we had done was to establish discussion groups. We were having some good times of creative worship and prayer, and each group was developing its own sense of communal identity, but at their core was simply a discussion about what we did and didn’t believe. Obviously there’s nothing inherently wrong with that, but I felt there needed to be more.
At the same time I was increasingly struck by the way Jesus went about discipleship. He didn’t organise discussion groups, rather he equipped people for a life of worship and mission, and he did this on the job. Prayer, worship, and teaching largely happened while his group was out on mission. Jesus rarely, if ever, discussed abstract theology, rather he revealed God while on the road, in the everyday, as people were healed, delivered, forgiven, and the kingdom of God was made manifest. Worship, prayer, discipleship and community were naturally born out of these experiences.
So I spoke to my boss about the possibility of transitioning our small groups into missional communities, i.e. groups that had mission as their organising principle. Much to my surprise he’d been thinking along similar lines.
Next Monday two pilot missional communities are being launched, so I’ll let you know how that went and how we got to that stage in my next post.
Tim
Wednesday, 6 January 2010
Building local community
I read a report a few weeks ago by the housing provider Circle Anglia. Their recent survey of 2000 people revealed that a third of young people don’t know the names of their neighbours, and only 26% said they’d like to spend time with their neighbours.
Our experience in our street confirms these findings. When we started putting on parties in the street it quickly became apparent that no one knew anyone else, even the people living next door to them. For example, we had 35 people come to our street barbeque, and no one seemed to have any connection with anyone else in the street.
Having said that, while people haven’t seemed motivated to build a sense of community, there has been a real appreciation for what we’ve been trying to do. Everything we’ve done in the street has been met with genuine gratitude. In fact just last week we had a card pushed through our door thanking us for what we were doing.
When we first began to get to know our neighbours it felt a little awkward as it wasn’t something any of us had intentionally done before. However, it soon became quite natural and very rewarding, and has definitely been one of the highlights of 2009. It really feels like the atmosphere of the street has lifted now that people recognise each other and deeper connections are starting to form.
Christmas proved to be a great opportunity to deepen these relationships. 16 people showed up to our Christmas party, and we were able to share our Christmas celebrations with two people who were on their own.
So I feel like we have a great opportunity to build community with people who seem unable or unwilling to initiate it themselves, but who do have a genuine desire for it. And I believe that as we demonstrate community we’re also revealing something of God’s character, who in his triune nature is community.
Tim
Our experience in our street confirms these findings. When we started putting on parties in the street it quickly became apparent that no one knew anyone else, even the people living next door to them. For example, we had 35 people come to our street barbeque, and no one seemed to have any connection with anyone else in the street.
Having said that, while people haven’t seemed motivated to build a sense of community, there has been a real appreciation for what we’ve been trying to do. Everything we’ve done in the street has been met with genuine gratitude. In fact just last week we had a card pushed through our door thanking us for what we were doing.
When we first began to get to know our neighbours it felt a little awkward as it wasn’t something any of us had intentionally done before. However, it soon became quite natural and very rewarding, and has definitely been one of the highlights of 2009. It really feels like the atmosphere of the street has lifted now that people recognise each other and deeper connections are starting to form.
Christmas proved to be a great opportunity to deepen these relationships. 16 people showed up to our Christmas party, and we were able to share our Christmas celebrations with two people who were on their own.
So I feel like we have a great opportunity to build community with people who seem unable or unwilling to initiate it themselves, but who do have a genuine desire for it. And I believe that as we demonstrate community we’re also revealing something of God’s character, who in his triune nature is community.
Tim
Wednesday, 23 December 2009
Nomad Extra: Christmas Special
Our final podcast offering of 2009 is now online for your amusement (or bewilderment!).
Join us for some after dinner chat, as we reflect on a year (nearly) of podcasting and missional engagement.
Laugh with us as we recall how Hannah told one of our neighbours to “GO AWAY!!” at the end of a house party (she thought he was Michael. Not that that’s any excuse!) . Cry with us as we hear how Lora nearly threw up before interviewing Rob Bell. And stand amazed at the shocking revelations of the lengths Tim went to, to cover up the amateurish quality of his first interviews.
As some of our longer serving listeners may recall, we used to have an unsigned band slot on the show. Well, as it’s Christmas, we thought we’d revive this feature, and give a new up-and-coming artist some exposure and a shot at the big time (and, oh how we regretted it!)
We hope you all have a great Christmas. See you in the New Year.
From all of us at Nomad
Join us for some after dinner chat, as we reflect on a year (nearly) of podcasting and missional engagement.
Laugh with us as we recall how Hannah told one of our neighbours to “GO AWAY!!” at the end of a house party (she thought he was Michael. Not that that’s any excuse!) . Cry with us as we hear how Lora nearly threw up before interviewing Rob Bell. And stand amazed at the shocking revelations of the lengths Tim went to, to cover up the amateurish quality of his first interviews.
As some of our longer serving listeners may recall, we used to have an unsigned band slot on the show. Well, as it’s Christmas, we thought we’d revive this feature, and give a new up-and-coming artist some exposure and a shot at the big time (and, oh how we regretted it!)
We hope you all have a great Christmas. See you in the New Year.
From all of us at Nomad
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