As befits one who has
self-identified as a ‘Suitcase Sojourner’ I have been travelling a bit of late.
Indeed, since I last posted
on my blog (way too long ago I fear!) I have not only been shuttling between
home (Lennoxtown) and parish (Perthshire) but have frequently also been in our
second home (Edinburgh) have visited various other parts of mainland Scotland
(and sneaked just out of Scotland to Berwick upon Tweed on two occasions)
journeyed to the South East of England, have been in Shetland several times and
have also managed to be in Athens!
Most of these journeys have
involved a fair bit of talking and reflection (and a little reading too).
Athens was remarkable. It was
the first time that we had been there (although we had visited Greece
previously). This is not the place to
enthuse about the people, the food or even the Acropolis! But, in relation to
this post, I want to say how struck I was by the ancient Agora and the
Areopagus. Confused? Then look them up!
What led me to reflective
silence when visiting these was that the Apostle Paul had walked the ‘streets’
of the Agora (see Acts 17 vs 17 – ‘market place’ = ‘Agora’) and had preached at
the Areopagus (see Acts 17 vs 19ff). All of which in itself would be cause enough
to pause and ponder.... walking in the footsteps of Paul!
But it also occurred to me
that here was a man of conviction and faith seeking to communicate the Good
News of Jesus in a largely hostile environment.
Once again I was reminded
that ‘Christendom’ and the experience of generations, up to and including my
own, of a dominant Christian culture was utterly foreign to the New Testament
Christians.
It seems to me that this is a
reality with which we need to reacquaint ourselves. I have been struck by this
in my ongoing and happy engagement as Interim Minister in Perthshire, and also
in my journeys as part of a team of Interim Minsters to the beautiful Shetland
Isles.
Things have changed and are
changing. We cannot simply lament the changes. We need to find new ways of
being church for the future.
Some years ago I gave further
thought to this in an article which was written in response to a Ministries
Council Report and was published in the journal ‘Theology in Scotland’. If you
are interested you can read it here https://ojs.st-andrews.ac.uk/index.php/TIS/article/view/70/611
In brief, my conclusion is
that we need to quickly die to the Christendom model of church and realise that
we are becoming a fragile, vulnerable, marginalised church... just as was the
church in New Testament times.
I think that only once we
grasp that will we be able to become the kind of church that God may be calling
us to be.
