If you’ve made it to this point, then ‘Thank you for watching and thinking it over’, and thank you also for anything you can do, however small, to reduce your impact on our climate in the days and years ahead. Many small impacts can add up to something really significant.
The UK Government commissioned a video nine months ago to launch their response to what is now seen as a full blown climate emergency. It’s a good video; it includes presentations by people who are experts in their fields; it’s informative; and it’s very hard-hitting. It’s not widely available except through a series of local meetings throughout the UK where it’s being used very effectively to get people thinking and responding in useful ways at the local community level.
Click the video below to watch the Earth turn on its axis. Your home is here, can you spot it as it rolls by? This planet is home to every single one of us.
The UK Government video is available, however, on YouTube, published there by GB News.
Whether you live in the UK or not, I suggest you watch this video in full. (Note that the useful content ends at 2 hrs 41 mins into the video. There are plenty of natural breaks between speakers so you can watch it in sections if you find that more convenient.)
If you live in the UK, I also suggest you attend one of the many local meetings currently available, discuss what you have seen with others at the meeting, and try to get other local friends and family to join you. If you can’t find a meeting, you can always organise one yourself. as you watch, jot down anything that strikes you as particularly important or significant.
Finally, go through anything you wrote down and consider how it will affect you, your friends, your family, and your community. Is there anyone else you should share this with? Could you watch the video again with friends, family or neighbours and talk it over together? Also (and just as importantly) think about ways of reducing your individual impact on the climate.
If you’ve made it to this point, then ‘Thank you for watching and thinking it over’, and thank you also for anything you may do, however small, to reduce your impact on our climate in the days and years ahead. Many small impacts can add up to something really significant. That, after all, is how we got into this mess in the first place. It may also play a significant part in getting us out of the dangers we now face.
I have one last thing to say, and this is primarily for anyone involved in church in any shape or form; but please don’t let that stop you reading it. Jesus was prophetic and that’s a gift with two characteristics. On the one hand it forges links between people here on the planet we call Earth and the Father we think of as living in heaven. But also the prophetic gift involves bringing people together here on Earth, forging links between opposing sides, rebuilding trust and a willingness to work together, mending broken fences. Prophetic people are always demanding justice and aiming to reforge broken links. A sort of conciliation service. If we ever needed a conciliation service we need one now.
So if you are involved in any form of church, now is the time to recognise your prophetic gift (whether strong or weak) and use it to call as loudly as possible for everyone to work together to save this planet at last from the danger we have put it in. There is no time to lose. We need to bridge the gulf between those who would profit in the short term with no concern about next year or the decades and centuries ahead, and those who would do without in the here and now to secure a long term future for children, grandchildren and great-great- grandchildren.
Prophetic voices would give vision to the former, and hope to the latter. Indeed, there are many prophetic voices in the government film you just watched. It would be a serious mistake to think that church has a monopoly on gifts like this.
If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!
All that is required to restore native woodland in Scotland is to remove or significantly reduce the presence of Red Deer and sheep … Where deer-fencing is erected to protect an area the tree seedlings survive and soon grow too high for sheep (or even deer) to reach. Birch, rowan, willow, Scots pine and juniper rapidly recolonise in fenced areas.
Jesus said many astonishing things, though if we hear them often enough the astonishing nature of them can come to seem quite ordinary. There’s an old English saying, that ‘familiarity breeds contempt’. Few of us would claim ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life’ (John 14:6) has become so ordinary to us that we’d call it contemptible, but it’s certainly lost the incisive edge it must have had the day it was first heard. Let’s see if we can recapture some of that edgy significance.
Barton Mill burned down in an unfortunate fire in 1926 and was never rebuilt. Watermills (and windmills) were going out of business at that time as most industries were running on steam power generated by burning coal, or by electrical energy, also usually from coal-fired power stations. Water power and wind power, now seen as green and therefore desirable, were seen in 1926 as ineffective and unable to compete with the more efficient alternatives. This was long before the downsides of fossil fuels were understood.
A place for wildlife
100 years after the fire, in 2026, the mill pond still exists, fed by a sluice gate taking water from the River Churn. The part of the pond in the photo is usually in water all year round, though other parts dry up in many summers, partly because of some silting up near the sluice and partly because the bed of the pond has silted up too, so now the water is shallow enough for yellow flag Iris and other plants to flourish.
There are many birds to be seen in this area too. Mallard ducks breed every spring, there are minnows and probably stickleback in the water and from time to time a kingfisher hunts along the water channels and the pond. Often all you see of the kingfisher is a darting flash of vivid blue. There used to be (and may still be) a pike. A single but very shy little egret hunted around here for the last few years, but this year I’ve seen two of them, probably a breeding pair. And their larger cousin, the grey heron also puts in an appearance now and then.
All life needs is an opportunity
Take any piece of ground, anywhere on Earth, and just leave it alone, life will move in, even if you choose a patch in the Sahara or Antarctica. If you clear a piece of ground somewhere with a reasonable climate and leave it alone, in just a human lifetime you’ll have thriving woodland with a full selection of insects, birds and mammals, and probably reptiles and amphibians too. The experiment has been made many times, sometimes deliberately, sometimes accidentally. If you choose the Sahara or Antarctica you might have to wait a bit longer, but the life forms that are adapted to those extreme conditions will move in eventually. Let’s look at some examples.
Broadbalk wilderness (UK)
A wheat field was deliberately left to revert to a natural state at Rothamsted Research Station in 1882. The land was left unmanaged where before it would have been ploughed and harrowed after harvesting the wheat in late summer and drilled with seed again in the autumn. This field had produced winter wheat every year since 1843, but now the scientists wanted to see what would happen if it was left uncultivated; for the first four years volunteer wheat grew, sparser and weaker year on year and after four years completely choked by weeds.
In 1900 the site was divided into three. One part was left deliberately untouched and gradually reverted to natural woodland; another third was mown annually and maintained as grassland; while the third section had all woody plants removed annually so the land became a natural, open mix of herbaceous plants.
The results have been very interesting and the experiment continues today. Levels of captured carbon are still rising in the soils of the site, nitrogen levels have risen as well. The samples and data are available for study and reanalysis.
Chornobyl (Ukraine)
The Chornobyl nuclear power station accident in 1986 rendered the city and a large area around it unusable. People were evacuated and the most contaminated areas became a restricted zone. Since the accident, time and rainfall have reduced the surface radioactivity considerably and it’s now possible to visit the area. In fact, wildlife has moved into the area from the very beginning and the changing conditions and environment have been studied in depth.
Almost 120 000 people were evacuated following the accident, so activities like farming, hunting, logging, and development ceased over an area of 4,200 km². Forests, wetlands and grasslands have reclaimed abandoned farms and villages; and vegetation grows freely through derelict buildings and former settlements. The pine woodland killed outright by the initial high-dose fallout remains one of the most nuclear-contaminated places on Earth, but even there substantial regrowth has happened. The loss of managed agriculture actually increased habitat diversity, reconnecting landscapes previously fragmented by farmland.
Large mammals rebounded strongly. Long-term census data show abundances of deer, elk, roe deer and wild boar comparable to those in uncontaminated regional nature reserves. Wolves are notably abundant, roughly seven times as common as in comparable reserves. Reintroductions have taken hold including endangered Przewalski’s horses, released in the late 1990s and now ranging freely and breeding. European bison have also been established, while beavers have recolonised rivers, canals and the cooling ponds, in places reversing Soviet-era drainage systems. Lynx, foxes and hundreds of bird species are present too.
However, there’s a mixed message – the abundant populations are due to the absence of humans, yet there remains clear evidence of radiation-induced harm to individuals. Some species are adapting and changing, showing signs of radiation resistance, for example.
Returning woodland (Scotland)
It seems that all that is required to restore native woodland in Scotland is to remove or significantly reduce the presence of Red Deer and sheep. Grazing species eat the young seedlings of trees and strip leaves from saplings. Where deer-fencing is erected to protect an area the tree seedlings survive and soon grow too high for sheep (or even deer) to reach. Birch, rowan, willow, Scots pine and juniper rapidly recolonise in fenced areas.
Other cases are numerous
Similar cases of large scale change include:
The reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone Park in 1995 suppressed the elk population, allowing willow and aspen to return to riverbanks bringing back beavers and many other species including fish, moose and songbirds.
Oostvaardersplassen in the Netherlands where introducing large grazing animals brought back white-tailed eagles and other species.
Marine protected zones where closing areas to commercial fishing have seen biomass rebound. Examples include cod recovery on the Grand Banks off the east coast of Canada.
Reintroducing pine martens in parts of England shows promise in allowing native red squirrel populations to recover as the introduced grey squirrel population is suppressed.
Identifying common factors
A rule to cover all these examples will be useful. If the limiting, interfering factor(s) can be identified and removed life will usually return naturally – in any situation. Identifying the limiting factor(s) is the key to success. Reintroduction of missing species can also be a helpful part of the process but is often not necessary.
Growth and regeneration in church life
We can (and I suggest we should) think about abundance and limiting factors in church growth as well, what are the main interfering and limiting factors preventing abundant life returning like the ecosystems discussed above?
In the book of Acts, we see church life in its natural state, like a healthy ecosystem. Everything was in balance, there were no dedicated church buildings as we see in our villages, towns and cities today, and there was no hierarchy of management. People followed Jesus’ teachings because they understood the practical, social, and personal benefits. They met together as close friends, almost like family, eating together, working together, helping one another and doing so effortlessly and comfortably. I’m sure there were some difficulties and disagreements, and rough spots here and there, but they were all overcome informally.
Am I claiming there’s no life in church today? No, I’m not saying that. What I am saying (and I want you to hear this clearly) is that there’s a curtailed, limited kind of life in church as usually experienced in the 21st century. Church life is short of something essential; if we are to have fullness the parts that are missing need to be identified and restored. Just as an ecology lacking an important species cannot function as it should, so church culture lacking an important kind of leader cannot function as it should. And just as introducing the grey squirrels from North America unhinged UK woodland ecology, so introducing the wrong kind of leader unhinges church culture.
It’s an important factor we have largely failed to recognise. We need the full range of species Jesus put in place, and we need to remove the ones we introduced. Once you start to see the parallels between church culture and thriving ecosystem ecology, it all becomes very clear and is impossible to unsee. I’ve written a whole series elsewhere about church leadership.
Popes, priests, bishops, paid professionals, structures and hierarchies are not necessary (see Other church leaders 1 and Other church leaders 2). Nor did Jesus teach (or even suggest) that such functions and positions were required or helpful. Over the decades and centuries (two whole millenia now) church has grown more complex, more structured, less flexible and more traditional. It has also branched into many independent subsets. We’ll examine all that in a later article, referring back to earlier posts here on JHM as well.
But for now I’d suggest human management and leadership might be some of the limiting factors in the church environment, and that these have adversely affected the natural life and ecology of church as we know it today. We should consider removing these factors to see what will happen. And if necessary we might try reintroducing the leadership modelled by Jesus, going back to first principles.
Church life, too, will find a way. All it needs is the opportunity!
If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!
All that is required to restore native woodland in Scotland is to remove or significantly reduce the presence of Red Deer and sheep … Where deer-fencing is erected to protect an area the tree seedlings survive and soon grow too high for sheep (or even deer) to reach. Birch, rowan, willow, Scots pine and juniper rapidly recolonise in fenced areas.
What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye. I’m posting an image whenever I can.
Reflections on Barton Mill Pond
This is one of my favourite places in Cirencester; on a calm, sunny day wind doesn’t ruffle the surface of the old mill pond and the reflections are correspondingly bright and still. A bridge crosses the water here and crouching down it’s difficult to take a bad photo, or easy to take a good one. (Depends on your mode of thinking.)
The mill burned down in an unfortunate fire in 1926 and was never rebuilt. Watermills (and windmills) were going out of business at that time as most industries were running on steam power generated by burning coal, or by electrical energy, also usually from coal-fired power stations. Water power and wind power, now seen as green and therefore desirable, were seen in 1926 as ineffective and unable to compete with the more efficient alternatives. This was long before the downsides of fossil fuels were understood.
A place for wildlife
100 years after the fire, in 2026, the mill pond still exists, fed by a sluice gate taking water from the River Churn. The part of the pond in the photo is usually in water all year round, though other parts dry up in many summers, partly because of some silting up near the sluice and partly because the bed of the pond has silted up too, so now the water is shallow enough for yellow flag Iris and other plants to flourish.
There are many birds to be seen in this area too. Mallard ducks breed every spring, there are minnows and probably stickleback in the water and from time to time a kingfisher hunts along the water channels and the pond. Often all you see of the kingfisher is a darting flash of vivid blue. There used to be (and may still be) a pike. A single but very shy little egret hunted around here for the last few years, but this year I’ve seen two of them, probably a breeding pair. And their larger cousin, the grey heron also puts in an appearance now and then.
All life needs is an opportunity
Take any piece of ground, anywhere on Earth, and just leave it alone, life will move in, even if you choose a patch in the Sahara or Antarctica. If you clear a piece of ground somewhere with a reasonable climate and leave it alone, in just a human lifetime you’ll have thriving woodland with a full selection of insects, birds and mammals, and probably reptiles and amphibians too. The experiment has been made many times, sometimes deliberately, sometimes accidentally. If you choose the Sahara or Antarctica you might have to wait a bit longer, but the life forms that are adapted to those extreme conditions will move in eventually. Let’s look at some examples.
Broadbalk wilderness (UK)
A wheat field was deliberately left to revert to a natural state at Rothamsted Research Station in 1882. The land was left unmanaged where before it would have been ploughed and harrowed after harvesting the wheat in late summer and drilled with seed again in the autumn. This field had produced winter wheat every year since 1843, but now the scientists wanted to see what would happen if it was left uncultivated; for the first four years volunteer wheat grew, sparser and weaker year on year and after four years completely choked by weeds.
In 1900 the site was divided into three. One part was left deliberately untouched and gradually reverted to natural woodland; another third was mown annually and maintained as grassland; while the third section had all woody plants removed annually so the land became a natural, open mix of herbaceous plants.
The results have been very interesting and the experiment continues today. Levels of captured carbon are still rising in the soils of the site, nitrogen levels have risen as well. The samples and data are available for study and reanalysis.
Chornobyl (Ukraine)
The Chornobyl nuclear power station accident in 1986 rendered the city and a large area around it unusable. People were evacuated and the most contaminated areas became a restricted zone. Since the accident, time and rainfall have reduced the surface radioactivity considerably and it’s now possible to visit the area. In fact, wildlife has moved into the area from the very beginning and the changing conditions and environment have been studied in depth.
Almost 120 000 people were evacuated following the accident, so activities like farming, hunting, logging, and development ceased over an area of 4,200 km². Forests, wetlands and grasslands have reclaimed abandoned farms and villages; and vegetation grows freely through derelict buildings and former settlements. The pine woodland killed outright by the initial high-dose fallout remains one of the most nuclear-contaminated places on Earth, but even there substantial regrowth has happened. The loss of managed agriculture actually increased habitat diversity, reconnecting landscapes previously fragmented by farmland.
Large mammals rebounded strongly. Long-term census data show abundances of deer, elk, roe deer and wild boar comparable to those in uncontaminated regional nature reserves. Wolves are notably abundant, roughly seven times as common as in comparable reserves. Reintroductions have taken hold including endangered Przewalski’s horses, released in the late 1990s and now ranging freely and breeding. European bison have also been established, while beavers have recolonised rivers, canals and the cooling ponds, in places reversing Soviet-era drainage systems. Lynx, foxes and hundreds of bird species are present too.
However, there’s a mixed message – the abundant populations are due to the absence of humans, yet there remains clear evidence of radiation-induced harm to individuals. Some species are adapting and changing, showing signs of radiation resistance, for example.
Returning woodland (Scotland)
It seems that all that is required to restore native woodland in Scotland is to remove or significantly reduce the presence of Red Deer and sheep. Grazing species eat the young seedlings of trees and strip leaves from saplings. Where deer-fencing is erected to protect an area the tree seedlings survive and soon grow too high for sheep (or even deer) to reach. Birch, rowan, willow, Scots pine and juniper rapidly recolonise in fenced areas.
Other cases are numerous
Similar cases of large scale change include:
The reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone Park in 1995 suppressed the elk population, allowing willow and aspen to return to riverbanks bringing back beavers and many other species including fish, moose and songbirds.
Oostvaardersplassen in the Netherlands where introducing large grazing animals brought back white-tailed eagles and other species.
Marine protected zones where closing areas to commercial fishing have seen biomass rebound. Examples include cod recovery on the Grand Banks off the east coast of Canada.
Reintroducing pine martens in parts of England shows promise in allowing native red squirrel populations to recover as the introduced grey squirrel population is suppressed.
Identifying common factors
A rule to cover all these examples will be useful. If the limiting, interfering factor(s) can be identified and removed life will usually return naturally – in any situation. Identifying the limiting factor(s) is the key to success. Reintroduction of missing species can also be a helpful part of the process but is often not necessary.
If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!
We talked with Matt and learned a bit about him, but left him there in the bus station. At home I discussed the situation with Donna and we decided to drive over to the bus station in the morning and bring him home. Matt was not as easy as Emily or Ash, but much less of a problem than either of the Davids.
Twice while we were living in Yatton, Judy and I had invited people to come and live with us, coincidentally they were both called David.
One David (Davey) was trapped in a bad relationship with another man in Bristol. He was also a drug addict, but he was mild mannered. I don’t recall how we met him, I think he might have phoned our number as we had a second entry in the phone book as the contact number for Horsecastle Chapel. Davey was hoping a church in a village outside the city of Bristol might help him break free of his difficulties and move on from his past. He was at least looking in the right direction (church) and I took him several times to meetings at a house nearby where some of our old friends were meeting regularly. It didn’t end well for Davey, although he was with us for a number of weeks, perhaps even a month or two, and although he was interested in hearing about Jesus and trying to follow him, in the end his past life had a stronger call on him and one day he just disappeared, we thought to return to the bad situation in Bristol that he’d wanted to break free from. There was nobody in our little circle of friends in Yatton who had the experience or knowledge to really help him.
The second David (Dave) was from Newcastle, he was an unkind, mocking kind of person, very demanding and uncompromising. After a short stay with us, he made it very clear that in his opinion we were rather deficient by comparison with the church in Newcastle that he had left. In the end he began an affair with one of our friends. She and Dave left the area, her husband ended up having to work full time as well as looking after the children and the family home. This was a disastrous failure for which Judy and I felt at least partly to blame. I phoned the pastor of the Newcastle Church (which turned out to be Pentecostal); he was sympathetic but told me that Dave was a very difficult challenge and had left under a bit of a cloud. After these two experiences I was not inclined to invite people to come and stay again for some years, though aware that as followers of Jesus we are supposed to be willing to help people who are lost, hungry or without shelter. But Papa had other plans and found ways of easing me into inviting people to stay.
St Neots
After Judy’s death, marrying Donna, and beginning a new job in a different part of the country, when a New Zealand friend (another David) decided to return to New Zealand earlier than planned, Donna and I were happy to give a room to his daughter Emily. She needed to live in the UK just a few more weeks to finish her A levels and qualify for UK citizenship and this in turn would allow her to work later anywhere in the EU. Emily got her citizenship so has that dual nationality – British and New Zealand. But her hopes to return for work in Europe were later shattered by Brexit. Emily was an absolute delight as a house guest; she is now married, has a medical degree, and is living and working in New Zealand.
The next house guest was Ash and later his three children from time to time for short visits. Ash’s marriage had fallen apart and he was in a difficult and stressful situation. He met one of our Small Group members through an on-line dating site and when we heard he was looking for somewhere to stay and had to leave his flat near the Welsh border at short notice, Donna and I offered to help. I met Ash and his Dad who had also driven up to provide more car space and between us, we got everything into the three cars. Ash proved to be resourceful, he quickly found temporary work that he could do from home to cover his costs and soon enough found a full time job. He moved into our Small Group friend’s flat and they later married, but things went very pear-shaped in the end. Ash had a very tough time but he never lost his willingness to work hard and do whatever was necessary to win through in every situation. Ash was another success story and a pleasure to share our home with. Emily and then Ash were two people used by Papa to draw me back into a willingness to invite others. Donna also enjoyed their presence in our home so she was also ready and willing to consider more.
The next house guest was Matt. On 5th January 2014, my friend Sean and I had taken hot soup and bread rolls into Huntingdon and found Matt in the bus station there, it was a popular haunt for the homeless as it was well heated and out of the rain. We talked with Matt and learned a bit about him, but left him there in the bus station (along with a flask of soup and the remaining bread rolls). At home I discussed the situation with Donna and we decided to drive over to the bus station in the morning and bring him home. Matt was not as easy as Emily or Ash, but much less of a problem than either of the Davids. At this time I was learning about the APEST gifts to the church and was involved in some of the Newforms meetings organised by Peter Farmer in Nottingham. I had begun writing JDMC as an APEST primer text and I took Matt and another friend, Kevin, to one of the Newforms meetings. After some difficulties Matt eventually left us, but continued to be involved in the coffee shop meetings I’d started. He brought us a mix of difficulties with some hopeful and helpful aspects from time to time.
On 21st August 2015, Peter and Dadka came to stay with us, using our spare bedroom. Donna and I already knew Dadka from the Open Door Small Group we were part of, sometimes meeting at our house. Peter and Dadka were Slovakians and Dadka’s mother also lived in St Neots. They were still with us when we sold our house in order to move across the country to Cirencester in the Cotswolds. In the end we pretty much had to throw them out in order to redecorate their bedroom, they were very reluctant to leave but push really had come to shove. They’d known for a long time that we needed to empty the house, but were not good at dealing with deadlines. Dadka had been a heroin addict but very much to her credit decided to give up the habit and was determined enough to succeed. We helped by providing all the necessary aids, and we also managed to get them an offer to stay at a nearby Emmaeus Community facility in Carlton, not far from St Neots. However, they turned the offer down at the last moment. In the end they returned to Slovakia and we’ve lost touch with them.
We learned a lot through making these attempts of welcoming strangers with a variety of needs into our home. Donna and I are wiser now (it comes through experience) and I understand that welcoming people with difficulties will always work better for a community of, say, ten or more people than it will for a single household. The early church held everything in common and supported one another socially, financially, and in dealing with difficulties. That depth of support was something we lacked and I do believe the community aspect is something we need to recover if we’re to be truly successful in following Jesus. We need to demonstrate and model community in a world that is largely forgetting what that looks like.
Making a start with APEST
This was an important time in my church journey during which I began to understand much more about the patterns of life and ministry within church. The practical aspects were being lived by Peter and Marsha Farmer and their friends in Nottingham and around the UK, much of the background theory was being understood and taught by Alan Hirsch and others in the USA and elsewhere. I’d already learned a great deal from people like Alan, Michael Frost, Tony and Felicity Dale, an online email community called the Koinonia Life Discussion Forum, Paul Young (author of ‘The Shack’), Peter and Marsha Farmer (Newforms) and many other people trying their best to live church community life more fully including the Community of Celebration and the Fisherfolk. Taking all of this together along with what I was experiencing in St Neots and previously in Yatton was illuminating, very encouraging, and frankly character-building.
After reading a number of books about the topic and trying some things out in practical ways, I felt the need for an accessible, lightweight and introductory study guide to help people work through the basic ideas together in small communities. I called it Jesus, Disciple, Mission, Church or JDMC. It’s a free download from Journeys of heart and mind. It’s still being downloaded regularly, perhaps 10 or 12 times a week on average. Visit the article JDMC in the See also: section below if you’d like to read it or use it in a study group. The title is the pattern followed in the early church, though today we often change the sequence. We tend to begin with a church that is already established, send out missions, usually in other parts of the world, and feel we should ‘disciple’ the church members (even though disciple is not a verb, but a noun) and all too often we forget to include Jesus. The correct sequence is to share the great news about who Jesus is and what he does among the many people in our society who do not yet know him, show them how to join us in following him (becoming disciples), help them to fulfil the same mission (going out into the world telling people about Jesus and helping them make more disciples), and then get the new believers meeting and living as communities of Jesus followers. It begins with Jesus, and it ends with church. The free use of spiritual gifts (and the APEST gifts in particular) is essential for this process to succeed.
A mix of patterns
The Open Door Small Group we were in towards the end of our time in St Neots was a real example of this kind of community. We didn’t live together, but we cooperated a lot and not just one day a week, we were all good friends and accepted our differences as mostly positive things, recognising that our different strengths and weaknesses complemented one another so where one had a lack another might fill it. This experience too, added to the mix of discovered and lived patterns that I now believe to be truly essential for a deep and true walk through life in company with Jesus and a group of his followers. It’s something the church has a desperate need for, but rarely understands. It’s really something we have forgotten over the eighty or so generations since Jesus called his first disciples on the shore of Galilee. We need to get it back, and because we live in a time of civilizational churn and change we need to get it back urgently.
How did we lose it? By processes of dilution, encrustation, lack of imagination, a lost sense of purpose, and a grasping after power over simple love, and of position over simple gifting, and trusting ourselves more than we trust Jesus and his Spirit. We haven’t thrown it all away, at least not just yet. But we’ve rejected a lot of precious truth and replaced it with our best attempt to find ways that are less demanding and make it possible for us to swap challenging situations for more comfortable ones, to replace struggle with laziness. And, perhaps most damaging of all, we have accepted easy lives where we don’t even have to think daily about our motives or our willingness to follow Jesus in both attitudes and actions.
We have learned to judge as a form of self-defence because we don’t like being judged, and we’ve learned to run from effort because like lazy schoolchildren we prefer to avoid the work required.
Cirencester
And so the time came to move from St Neots to Cirencester. We packed our stuff, Donna drove over first with our cat, Erin. I saw the final items loaded on the removals van and then drove to the new house in our small, second car. Donna and Erin were already there, and we used the enclosed porch as a catlock: open the front door and enter the porch, check the cat hasn’t snuck in as well; after depositing her back into the house or confirming her absence from the porch, open the door to either the back garden or the street and leave the house. Pretty soon we discovered Cirencester Baptist Church and decided it was the best choice in town. We looked at the Small Group options as well but found our first option was not meeting during the summer and would be unavailable until September. In the meantime I began meeting with another CBC Small Group and became quite friendly with some of the people there, but it was frustrating for me to be so immersed in Bible study and prayer but with little or no opportunity to use spiritual gifts or talk about APEST and other matters. It felt like playing a piano with most of the black keys missing so being able to play in at most two or three keys. Very limiting.
In the autumn we joined the original group we’d had in mind, but Donna dropped out over time and for several years I was involved with both groups as one met on Tuesdays while the other met on Thursdays. More new friends and a bit more freedom in the meetings this time, I felt; so I stuck with the second group and still meet with them most Tuesdays. But I still want to use my gifts more fully and I’m not entirely sure how to move forward. But I know that Jesus knows and will lead me in whatever direction he chooses for me. I must wait to see what that will be.
So, what does Jesus think?
This is where the chickens come home to roost. If we asked Jesus about church today in Britain (or indeed, almost anywhere) what would he say about it? Would he commend us? In most cases, I don’t think so. He might ask us where we think he fits in to all that we are doing. He might re-commend us to pay attention to what he has commanded us. He might re-command us to go out and do everything he commanded the disciples, to teach people everywhere to fulfil everything he commanded us (and them) to do.
Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’ (Matthew 28:16-20)
Where are we failing? Everywhere! We do none of the things he wants us to do. At best we watch while priests, vicars, pastors and elders do these things while the rest of us are spectators. The standard church seating arrangement announces and ensures that; but Jesus is our authority and we are all called by him to go, make, baptise and teach.
When did we lose our way?
Almost at the very beginning. Think about Paul’s letters to the Corinthians, the people there were already a derailment of what Jesus taught and commanded. Paul wrote to try to get them back on track. We, too, are a bit of a train-crash. We need to hear what Paul says, and especially we need to hear what Jesus says. Sometimes it seems almost too late for us. But it’s not too late, despair is not the way forward for us, obedience is. The only part of the train that still stands on the tracks is Jesus himself, all the carriages and trucks lie scattered and broken where they fell. We need to repair and rebuild according to the original design and plan, then get everything properly back onto the track behind Jesus and every part connected to him and to one another. And then, when Jesus moves we will all move in the right direction because the track is firm and ensures that the entire Matthew 28:16-20 train follows him, moving in the right direction.
Signals and points
Railways also need signals and points (switches if you’re North American). Sometimes the train should pause to avoid a collision, and sometimes we need a change of direction. The Holy Spirit, (the Spirit of Christ) provides both control and direction. Once the train’s back on the track and moving we must pay attention to the Holy Spirit for both safety and direction. He will tell us, ‘Wait a moment, I’ll tell you when to start moving again’ or he’ll say, ‘The track divides here, we’re heading left (or right)’. We ignore his guidance at our peril. Having been restored following a train-crash, believe me – you do not want to provoke another one.
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From my longer perspective today at seventy-seven years old I can see that what seemed a minor difference between me and the Open Door elders is in truth a yawning gulf. It’s not just that I took a misstep, but that the entire edifice of following Jesus (Church almost everywhere and throughout history) took an enormous misstep.
Donna and I were married in 1998 and Tony was my best man; Donna’s best friend, Jane, was her chief bridesmaid. Donna had taken a new job with Unilever Research at their research site a little north of Bedford. She bought a cottage in the village of Tilbrook and when we were married I moved into the cottage with her and Unilever offered me a job on their intranet web team, initially to create a website that could be duplicated for each of their research sites – two in the UK, one in the USA and one in the Netherlands.
Donna was keen to find a church in the nearby town of St Neots, or if necessary in Bedford.
We soon found the cottage was far too small, and moved to a four-bedroom property in Eaton Ford, part of St Neots. The internet had barely hit its stride in the late ’90s, so it wasn’t nearly as easy to find a church (or anything else) as it would be today.
One weekend before we were married, I was visiting Donna , and on the Sunday I said, ‘Come on , let’s drive into St Neots and see what we can find’. She said, ‘No, you’ll never find anything that way’. But we jumped into the car and I prayed very briefly to be shown where to go – and off we went. We drove through the middle of the town and out towards Eynesbury but saw nothing of interest, then I turned right and down a couple of streets and coming to a secondary school we spotted an A-board welcoming people to ‘Open Door Church’. We followed the sign, parked the car, and made our way into ‘Ernulf School’ and there we were – Open Door Church! It turned out to be a lively, welcoming place, just what Donna was looking for. Over the next week or so she got to know some of the people and was invited to join a cell group run by Rob and Jean and a couple from France who were planning to return home in a few weeks time. And that was that! By the time I was working at Unilever and had moved into the cottage full time, Donna was well-established at Open Door, the French couple had moved back to France, and Rob and Jean were running the cell group on their own. They quickly became good friends, we even had a holiday in Scotland with them one year.
A wrong step
How easily we do this! Wanting to support Donna, I was happy to go along to the Sunday meetings at Open Door and, far more to my taste, join in with the weekly cell meetings every Wednesday or Thursday. But there was a fly in the church ointment. It was expected that people taking part regularly would ‘join’ the church and sign the membership book. This also involved promising to give your allegiance to Open Door. That was something I found hard – a step too far, a very big ask. My allegiance was to Jesus and him alone. But I did want to support Donna in her new membership of Open Door and it seemed to be something couples were expected to do together. So I put my doubts to one side and signed up – that was a major wrong step!
Trying to right the wrong
What’s the best thing to do if you take a wrong turning? Usually the best thing is to retrace your steps to the point of the mistake and take a different path. As the weeks went by it became clearer and clearer to me that I was in a bad place. I had agreed to be guided by the leaders of Open Door Church but knew that my only guidance should come through Jesus and his Spirit working in me and in my brothers and sisters.
So I wrote to the elders, explaining my mistake and asking to be released from membership and the promise of allegiance I had made. Nothing like this had happened before and they really had no idea what to do. They invited me to visit the lead elder’s (Tony’s) house, and when I went along he had also invited another elder, Brian. They asked me to explain what I meant. I told them, as gently as I could, that in my view all followers of Jesus should follow him alone. I added that this did not mean I wanted to leave Open Door. The reaction surprised me, almost as if I had decided to follow Islam, Hinduism or Buddhism. They were cold, even a bit frosty, and it was very clear that they felt I was rejecting their authority in some rather dangerous way. It was as if they felt that following Jesus implied following the elders. I was left feeling, ‘Hang on, this is my life in which I can follow anyone I wish, and I’ve chosen Jesus. Do you think he will lead me to cause problems for you?’
They wanted to talk again the following week, and this time told me that they’d heard my point of view and now wanted me to hear the conditions under which I might continue to come to Open Door meetings. The main point was that they wanted to be assured that if I said or did anything in a meeting that they objected to, and they asked me to stop, that I would do so. And so, on those terms, I was allowed to continue to meet with them on Sunday mornings and for weekday cell group meetings.
Meeting again with other friends
Although I continued to meet at Open Door for some time, I felt unable to contribute freely on Sunday mornings. Sometimes I would share something prophetic, or a vision, but I didn’t want to upset Tony or the elders so I was always quite careful. And now and again I’d sing in the Spirit and others would join in, or I’d speak in a tongue and someone would interpret and that always felt safe enough because the interpretation was not through me! Or I’d dance, usually near the back of the room.
Rob and Jean, however, were personal friends and also seemed to have no issues over anything I said or did either on Sundays or at cell group sessions, but rather welcomed the input. Over the years the group leaders were changed repeatedly but I was still allowed the same freedom almost all of the time we lived in St Neots.
Meeting at home
All of this left me feeling that life in St Neots was poorer in some ways than life in Yatton. I missed my friends, but above all I missed the spiritual depth and intensity of meeting completely freely, guided by the Holy Spirit alone and allowing him to speak to each one through the way he was using all the others. I missed the kind of community I’d experienced in Yatton. I knew it didn’t depend on particular people being involved, but instead, what it required was that all those present intended to rely only on Jesus. ‘I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me’ (Philippians 4:13) and ‘Without Christ I can do nothing’ (John 15:5).
Where was I to find these people? I can’t be sure of the details at this point – who was involved first or how we got started. But my sister Rachael was involved very early on, as were various St Neots friends, my friends Jody and Peter from Unilever, and eventually many more from a wide area in Cambridgeshire, Northhamptonshire and Bedfordshire.
For eleven years I kept a list of meetings and now I can refer to that list to pick out the first time we met at each new location, and that will give a feeling for how the meetings spread and grew. There were rarely more than 10 people at a meeting, but I knew how these small gatherings worked (from long experience in Yatton). There were no rules, but we encouraged everyone to feel free to contribute in any way providing they felt it was from the Spirit and aligned with the way Jesus would contribute. So there was usually a sense of openness and freedom. Almost always there would be tongues with interpretation, Bible readings or at least a few quotes, prayer for guidance and for any needs expressed by those present, prophecy, and plenty of peaceful silence for thought and processing of what others had contributed. The meetings were never boring, and more often than not we could identify a theme that had come together little by little as we met. Most times we’d begin with coffee and a chat.
Dec 2002 – Eaton Ford
May 2006 – Rugby
Nov 2006 – Eaton Socon
Mar 2007 – Great Doddington
Feb 2008 – Little Paxton
May 2010 – Brampton
Jun 2010 – Hinchingbrooke
Jul 2010 – Letchworth
Jul 2010 – Eynesbury
Aug 2010 – Cornerstone, St Neots
Sep 2010 – Watton-at-Stone
Oct 2010 – Corby
Feb 2011 – Offord d’Arcy
Apr 2011 – Moggerhanger
Apr 2011 – Costa, St Neots
Nov 2011 – Earls Barton
May 2012 – Oundle
As you can see, things got under way slowly but spread in an accelerating manner. And in addition to these meetings all around the area, some of us were involved in other things, we had larger celebration meetings when we’d invite other friends along and there’d be music, singing, dancing and the praise and worship would be free and enthusisastic. For me these little meetings were encouraging and exciting – just as in Yatton there was a feeling that Father was pouring his nature and character out amongst us. Jesus was with us.
Donna meanwhile continued with Open Door and the cell group meetings (later renamed Small Group). I drifted away from Open Door’s Sunday meetings as I found it difficult to contribute and disagreed with a fair proportion of the teaching on offer. There was far more freedom in the Small Group environment.
The Eatons
Some time in the past, St Neots Evangelical Church had planted an offshoot called ‘The Eatons’ in Eaton Ford and Eaton Socon (once Bedfordshire villages but by this time absorbed as districts of the growing town of St Neots). Over time, the number of people meeting each week had fallen significantly and only a handful remained. I don’t recall how I heard about this situation, but I felt the Holy Spirit nudging me to go along one Sunday morning to meet them, and specifically to encourage them.
So I began to meet with them every Sunday morning and they were encouraged. I explained why I was there, and that encouraged them too. A turning point for me was that some of the members would go into another room to pray with whoever had been chosen to speak that morning. Sometimes there would be a visiting speaker, other times it would be one or two of the group. One day, only one person, Jim, went out to pray so I followed him out and joined in the prayer. He was touched by this I think, and we struck up a friendship which has lasted right up to the present day.
The Eatons reminded me very much of Zetland Road Church and Horsecastle Chapel (see part 2 of this series), they were just the same kind of traditional, independent, evangelical gathering. The Eatons had made a bargain with Jesus, they had ‘laid out a fleece’. They had stated that if two or three new families joined them by the end of the current year they would continue, but if not they would close down the meetings and wrap up the finances and the organisation. They counted my appearance as a step in the right direction, but I explained gently that I was not a permanent feature but had been told to come and encourage them. I was even invited to speak to them one Sunday morning which I did, though I’m not a great public speaker – far from it! I don’t recall what I spoke about but it was politely and kindly received. In due course The Eatons did close down but I had made some new friends. Not just Jim and his wife Pam, but some others too including Sean. Jim and Sean became involved in some of the home meetings mentioned earlier.
A longer perspective
From my longer perspective today at seventy-seven years old I can see that what seemed a minor difference between me and the Open Door elders is in truth a yawning gulf. It’s not just that I took a misstep, but that the entire edifice of following Jesus (Church almost everywhere and throughout history) took an enormous misstep at some point in its past development. Do we follow Jesus and Jesus alone? Or do we follow people who have structured what began as a simple community into a series of organisations that often disagree with one another on the details of what to think, what to believe, and how to behave?
The change may have been kickstarted by the Roman Empire making Christianity the official religion of the Empire in the 300s CE. Or it may go back even before that. But whatever the origins, it’s a misinterpretation and misrepresentation of what Jesus and the early church intended and practised. That all are equal under one head (Jesus), that all are filled with and empowered by his Spirit, and structures of stone or of management are not required or permitted. Church is community, a structure of children, women and men organised and motivated by the Same Holy Spirit and following only one master – Jesus!
If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!
Journeys of Heart and Mind 