Culture of the church

Yesterday I had one of strangest experiences of my life. Some of the older married guys on CCC staff here at Miami are taking seminary classes in their spare time at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and yesterday Mark Brown had one of their professors come in to talk with staff and students about the current position of the church and where it is headed. This is the point at which I welcome you into the twilight zone...

I don't know if you've ever experienced this but it was truly surreal, I sat there and listened to Dr. Phillip Sell discuss the direction that culture, the church and people's mindsets are heading in America...in the process of him doing this he described everything I have experienced and lived through in the UK in the last fifteen years in THE FUTURE TENSE. One word. FREAKY!

To have someone talk about my past as someone else's future is up there with the oddest things that have ever happened to me in my entire life and it wasn't a good thing either considering what is happening.

Any Brit reading this won't bat an eyelid at the thought of vast swathes of society showing no interest in the gospel, saying the gospel is old hat and no long valid, having no interest in "coming to see" what Christianity is about, disliking Christianity and viewing it as arrogant and selfish, a crutch for the weak. No Brit will have any problem with me saying that this is quite simply the view of the vast MAJORITY of people in the UK either. Now fly 3,500 miles west to the United States and those facts are earth shattering, everyone has some contact and connection with Christianity don't they? Couple that with the suggestion that maybe churches investing millions of dollars into building projects to get bigger and better church centres are throwing money into a black hole and I'm starting to look around the room at a bunch of students looking decidedly shocked...most Brit's on the other hand would, like me, point to the fact that they can probably think of, if not more at least as many churches who meet in schools, cinemas, football grounds and community centres as own their own acre of dirt.

So many Christians in America (so says Dr. Sell) believe that if they can just get the right person into the White House, or the right politicians into the Senate, or a church centre that can house a home school they can avert disaster and make sure America stays on an even Christian keel. Sadly that just isn't where the culture is going...we saw that in the UK, we tried that in the UK and take a look where it's got us!

It wasn't until yesterday afternoon that I really registered that this idea that the UK and Western Europe are 15 years ahead of the USA in terms of the movement of spiritual ideas is true. The USA is in a tailspin towards the post Christendom of Western Europe, Dr. Sell argues that the American church needs to shift it's thinking to that of a missional mindset going out to the non-believers of society and not asking them to step onto our turf. You know what? From my own life experience and situation I can do nothing but agree with him 100%, we must all get up, get equipped, step out of our comfort zone and go to them.

Chicago

Well I had a really great weekend in Chicago! We took a road trip up on Wednesday night as Miami headed out for Fall Break which was an entertaining ride through Indiana up to Lake Michigan with CJ and Matt Reis.

I got the chance to meet CJ's girlfriend Lisa and hang out with them up there...Matt disappeared soon after we got there to visit some different friends but I got to spend time with CJ while Lisa was at work.

My first task on arrival was to go and buy a jacket! I'd asked CJ before we left whether it would be cold enough yet in Chicago to need a big coat (I only had my ski jacket) and he said no, he wasn't taking one. When stopping for petrol in Northern Indiana we realised this was a terrible and incorrect oversight. So come Thursday morning I was at the outlet retail park investing $40 in a new jacket (actually this was a good thing seeing as I hadn't brought a light weight jacket to the States so I needed one) this was a great investment...the jacket had an RRP of $100! Oh and it's really nice too.

Thursday afternoon and evening was really fun as I got to go and hang out with my friend Shannon, she is on the Chicago Metro Crusade staff team and used to be with us in Liverpool. I went to the weekly meeting on the main campus she is working at, University of Illinois at Chicago, whic was great, a small group but people who are serious about seeing the Lord change their campus. We then got to go out for dinner downtown which was lovely.

Friday evening I got to head north to see Matt who was with a friend Mark who I know from preivous visits here. We had a great night and went to the cinema to see the new mega cast movie "The Departed", it was pretty cool!

I also got to spend some time downtown and check out what the city of Chicago is like. I LOVED it...it was incredible. I spent a crazy amount of time walking (which was great because sometimes that's hard to do in America!) and got to see the amazing view from the top of the John Hancock Tower as well as the opportunity to check out the huge Sears Tower.

We had a really good road trip back as well...oddly 5 hours of travelling didn't seem that big a deal, perhaps it's because I'm in the US culture, I can't say I'll be driving from Birmingham to Edinburgh for a weekend very often when I get home!

So I'm back feeling refreshed and happy and looking forward to this week...Chicago comes highly recommended for anyone thinking of making a visit, I'll certainly be going back!

Fall Retreat

This past weekend was the Miami and Wright State Campus Crusade Fall Retreat!

We took over 350 students out to Indiana for the weekend to study the Bible and spend time getting to know one another. Amazingly this wasn't my first Fall Retreat as I was here 2 years ago on a partnership visit but it was great to be there with more clue of what was going on and knowing a few more people! It also happened to be a really beautiful location!

The speaker was Roger Hershey who directs the Crusade ministry at Pennsylvania State University but used to be the director at Miami and he gave four main talks, based around the character of David and his relationship with the Lord from 1 Samuel. It was great to hear from 'Hersh', he's got a great ability to open the word of God when he speaks and is so challenging when it comes to speaking about how we view eternity. A year and a half ago Roger's son Brett was killed in Afghanistan where he was serving with the US army so it's deeply challenging to hear Hersh speak about whether we truly believe what we say about living for eternity not this life in light of the way he has wrestled with it since that sad day in March 2005.

I had a great time getting to know some more students and hang out with friends and I also got the chance to share more about the need of the Gospel in Western Europe, about the way our continent is clouded by darkness and the need for labourers to come to join with us in reaching out as pockets of light have begun to shine in the darkness. Over the course of this year I hope to have chance to see a number of people commit to join us for a year or longer.

It was a great weekend even though I didn't sleep much and I think it can be and will be a real spring board for a number of students who were challenged in their faith. It will also be a springboard for me as it helped me remember that I'm here to honour God in his way not mine, it was pretty unnerving to realise for the first time that I don't have a right to intimacy with God, I really want it but I don't have a right to it, we have to surrender ALL of our rights to the Lord.

This week is our Fall Break (amazingly it seems American Universities have a half term!) so it's all a little bit more relaxed and I'm only working Tuesday and Wednesday. On Wednesday night I'm off to Chicago with CJ to hang out there for the weekend (so remember that's going to be SIX hours behind Thursday until Sunday!) and to see Shannon now that she's been placed there on staff! Should be a fun time, I've not been to Chicago before and I'm told it's amazing! I'll leave you with a nice pic of our staff team...easily the biggest team I've ever been on!
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