From settlement to mission - Sue Hope
What happens to the spirituality of a church as it moves from settlement to misson? The spirituality of the Church of England is largely the spirituality of a settled community. Is mission-shaped spirituality a journey of renewal?
Imagine for a moment that you are standing on a hill
overlooking an army camp. Your eyes trace the outline of buildings and
barracks: you notice smoke drifting up from the cookhouse chimneys. You
can see a group of soldiers on drill, marching in formation –
and another group cleaning equipment. A flag flutters in the breeze, a
group of men off duty laze by the river. It’s a scene which
combines purposeful industry and settlement.
Suddenly, a jeep arrives in a cloud of dust. A man springs out of it
and is led briskly into the commanding officers quarters. Then silence.
The scene continues as before. After a while, the man re-emerges, with
a group of others. People begin to disperse, orders are barked, the
camp is aroused. You realise suddenly that the order has been given to
break camp. Buildings are being dismantled. Things are being packed up.
Some equipment which was useful in settlement mode is to be left
behind. They are on the move.
Pastoral model of mission
It might be said that the Church of England has been in settlement mode
for about 1500 years. It has operated a model of mission which has been
essentially pastoral. At its best we have said
‘Come’ to all those within the ambit of the local
parish church – ‘Come – and we will marry
you, baptise your children, bury your dead – and if you want
to know more – why not come to the confirmation group we are
just starting? Or to a service? We are here for you.’
No longer ‘come’ but
‘go!’
But now the word which God seems to be speaking to us is
‘Go’. For the fact is that they are not coming to
us anymore. Even those who used to be ‘on the
fringe’ are there less so now. The reasons for this are
complex and multi-faceted and have been well explored elsewhere. And so
we find ourselves in the mainstream churches facing – what is
for many of us - uncharted water. Uncharted because for the English
Church the idea of missionary endeavour to our own nation is largely a
thing of the long-distant past. Indeed, it can be argued that, because
the evangelisation of these islands was undertaken by the Irish and the
Roman church, in one sense the English Church as a whole has never
systematically and intentionally engaged in a missionary work to its
own people.
What happens to the spirituality of a Church as it moves from
settlement to misson? For the spirituality of the Church of England is
largely the spirituality of a settled community. Its life lived towards
God - its liturgies, its way of organizing itself, its buildings, its
synods, its common life, its financial arrangements, its sense of
identity - is a life which has been developed slowly in settlement. Who
knows what a major missionary move might do the spirituality of the
Church of England – or indeed of any mainline denominational
church? Might it not be that as we move out from ourselves we find
something happening, not just ‘out there’ but to
us, to the church itself? How might our faith, our priorities, our
prayer, our way of living towards God begin to change?
Never the same again?
We could put the question another way: What happened to those first
early missionaries – the twelve, the seventy(two) whose
missionary journeys are outlined in the synoptic gospels and who were
sent out by Jesus, in a highly directive, focussed and particular way?
What kind of people did they become? Did such a clear call and clear
directions[1] give them a
particular confidence? What did it do to them
to travel light and to travel intentionally[2],
taking nothing for the
journey[3]? What did they
learn of God and themselves by going not
solo, but two by two[4], in
community? What did they have to unlearn in
order to be able to lock their mini-communities onto those of the
people of peace who they were to search and find out there[5]? How did
it feel to know that feeling like sheep among wolves[6], being
intensely vulnerable, was the only authentic way to do mission, that it
was vital to put themselves ‘under’ rather than
‘over’ those to whom they were sent? And did the
rhythm of rest and reflection with Jesus on their return[7] become a
natural part of their way of life, inbuilt into their pattern of doing
mission?
The adventure of the Spirit
That mission changes people seems very likely. Peter was shaken to the
foundations by his encounter with Cornelius.[8]
Whereas a ghetto
mentality shrinks the human person, the ‘stretch’
of adventure brings enlargement – an enlargement of the human
person, an enlargement of vision, an enlargement in confidence.
Travelling into the unknown place, crossing uncharted waters, having
our way of life towards God upset and reset may feel like risky
business at times for the churches which have been in settlement.
Neither are there are secure outcomes: the journey has to be made
without knowing the destination. We are not without support –
we have a compass, bread for the journey and each other. And we have
lessons already being learned. But we are nevertheless heading to an
unknown place and, in company with many who have gone before us, we can
rely only on the Holy Spirit to show us the way. Such dependence on the
Spirit would accord well with the first generation of 17th century
Quakers at Balby in Doncaster, who to encourage those who would follow
them wrote:
We do not want you to copy or imitate us,
We want to be like a ship that has crossed the ocean,
leaving a wake of foam, which soon fades away.
We want you to follow the Spirit, which we have sought to follow, but
which must be sought anew in every generation.[9]
Might it not be that the journey of mission turns out to be the journey
of renewal for the historic churches, a renewal led by the Holy Spirit
who is the agent of all our mission?
______________________________________
[1] Luke 9:1,2
[2] Matthew 10:5,6 ‘Don’t go… go rather
to…
[3] Luke 9:3
[4] Mark 6:7
[5] Matthew 10:11
[6] Matthew 10:16
[7] Luke 9:10
[8] Acts 10:9-end
[9] cited by E. Arnold, Why we Live in Community, Plough, 1995, Preface
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The
Revd Sue Hope is an Associate of ReSource, and was previously
a trustee of Anglican Renewal Ministries. Most of her ministry has been
spent in the heavily urbanised and industrialised east end of
Sheffield. She now lives in Doncaster and works as the Missioner to the
Sheffield Diocese. She is the author of Mission-Shaped Spirituality,
published by CHP in 2006. |
