Flippin City
In the Bible a city, is a metropolis, a large group of people usually defined by a geographic boundary and a local government of some kind. Today we could use the phrase as I have throughout this blog to mean a borough, town, of large village for that matter. The important thing is that everyone living there identifies with that city and its make up. Often in large boroughs or cities there may be several shopping centres or smaller communities within the overall district, but they are all governed by one local authority and would have a headquarters for police, education or housing etc. Cities are also the places where commerce and industry often have their headquarters and are major employers.
In the first century, cities would have been very cosmopolitan, full of people passing through for trade and other opportunities. The Pax Romana guaranteed safe passage for citizens around the Empire and every city would have had many religions and nationalities represented. This sounds like the majority of European cities today and it is certainly true of Croydon. In the 2011 census it was revealed that 8.1% of the borough are Muslim, 6% Hindu with Jews, Sikhs and Buddhists all having under 1% each and 27% stating no religion as such. Although 56% considered themselves Christian this is certainly not reflected in church attendance across the city. Because of relaxed European Union and British Commonwealth migration laws we also have an amazing variety of nationalities living in our borough. The city today is a very different place to Croydon 100 years ago, but perhaps much more similar to Ephesus in AD60. A city is a huge mixture of statutory agencies like local and national government, the police and health service, made up of people of many different nationalities and religions, working in charities and the third sector institutions, commerce and industry, living in smaller communities with huge economic diversity and all of the social difficulties which this complex situation throws up. In many cities in the UK, local authorities are running out of money and community seems to be very fragile indeed.
The last point isn’t something new of course. The historian C P Snow said:
Civilisation is hideously fragile... there's not much between us and the Horrors underneath, just about a coat of varnish.
Just like first century Ephesus, our cities today are crying out for an ekklesia.
Flippin’ Church
In the diagram we saw last time, all Christians in that city belong to one church. As we can deduce from our understanding of Ephesus, that church had its own apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers and was governed by one set of elders. Today we might say that it would also have one fund, one church staff, one set of policies, one vision statement, one membership etc. Thus giving the city an Ephesus experience of a large church with one face to the city and one voice in that city.
For instance, in Croydon today that church would comprise about 16,000 people which would be by far the largest single group of any kind in the city. Just imagine what kind of influence that church could have. In a sermon on being salt and light by the great preacher David Pawson I remember him saying that it took 5% salt on a dung heap to render the required disinfecting and, therefore odour removing, influence.
Pawson took this to mean that when a group of Christians comprise 5% of any population we begin to have an affect by just being there. Croydon would have a good 4% salt already.
Now I am not day dreaming of an impossible goal here. I say this for two reasons, firstly its what Jesus prayed for, and secondly its what we are told to spend every effort on. But I am also a realist, I know that reading this isn’t going to suddenly inspire every church in a city to close down and join together as one body. However, if I am correct in what I have written so far,
isn’t it worth beginning the journey and seeing where it will take us?
I feel that ecumenism in the past could be likened to a group of diverse people occasionally taking a nice aimless stroll together, with pleasant memories of time spent looking at our differences. What I am proposing is that we actually have a destination in mind and a fairly decent map of where we are going.
However, unless we begin the trip we will never get there.
At the start of our journey into oneness we might appear to have two options. The first would be to gather together all of those who have more or less the same mind as us and agree that the others are not the church, or at least will never be what we are until they agree with us. This is what some unity groups seem to be doing today. They are largely evangelical churches who are beginning to realise that their basic beliefs give them more in common than they have with more liberal members of their denominations and so they are putting aside minor differences to do more together. However, these groups are unlikely to accept non evangelical churches into their midst. The problem with this approach is that its not what John 17 or Ephesians 4:3 are about.
The second route is actually the only one open to us if we are to take scripture seriously, we begin to make relationships with all of those who love Jesus as their Lord and the Son of God who loves them.
Just stop and dream with me for a moment what this church would look like even at the beginning of the journey. The city would see a church that shares resources, welcomes movement between congregations without jealously or fear of sheep stealing, where individual living stones were treated with respect and whenever we talked of another congregation, whether that be Church of England, Roman Catholic or Pentecostal, it was as if we were talking about an honoured friend.
I don’t think the church in any city would stay the size it is for very long, do you? And lets be frank here, some of the congregations might die and others grow, but the church we all belong to would be the ekklesia of our city. A couple of years ago I spoke at a local fraternal of around 8 different church leaders where one of the larger churches was taking on a large building project. I suggested to the the gathered leaders that it would be a wonderful thing if all of them moved their offices into that one new building. The savings on duplication of office machinery etc, plus the opportunity for the community to find the church in one place when someone needed them would be amazing. I don’t think that all of those churches will take up the offer yet, but it should be possible.
In my dream so far I haven’t actually gone so far as to say that people should close down anything, let alone a denomination, just have godly relationships. Each thing we now call a church would operate in much the same way as it currently does and would share in cross city ministries as it does now, but I fully expect that, as we put our foot on the gas pedal, some churches would move into deeper unity and begin to share more and more in common. Even at the stage we are at Croydon today, we have seen remarkable changes in sharing ministry, resources and friendship. I have preached in Anglican, Methodist, Baptist, Pentecostal and new stream churches in the last couple of years. I have also spoken at other churches discipleship courses, fellowship meetings, outreach events and other gatherings and its only the beginning of the journey.
Whilst we are still separate churches on a journey to unity we have lots to learn. Not least we must learn to be generous. For several years now a really good church in the centre of Croydon, New Life Fellowship, have had the largest church building available in the borough, which can seat about 800 people and they have taken a lead in the generosity stakes in offering their building for city wide prayer meetings and conferences at no cost to the wider church.
I found another beautiful example of giving a couple of years ago when I heard that one very large church in the USA often give their Sunday offering to other local churches. Now their offerings are massive and can sometimes be more than a few months worth of income to a smaller fellowship! I have heard of churches paying the salary of a minister who lost his job in another church, and of churches who send their musicians to play for other congregation's Sunday services, but the real point of me recalling these instances of generosity is that they are sadly very rare. We are a long way off the possibility of a city church with many congregations, where shared finances means that the giving in a wealthy part of the city is automatically used across the whole metropolis. However, I can already see feet hovering over gas pedals.
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