Facing up to the reality of relativism

Britain woke up the morning after the riots crying out for a return to morality. In reality of course what Britain was doing was waking up from a decade or two of relativism. I can't deny I'm encouraged by this- I've become increasingly critical of valueless selfish Britain. I have some nagging doubts mind you. How soon will we forget our good intentions, particularly when morality challenges? And will the Christians step up?
I have confidence the British church will step up to provide the social support, care and even lead. We are genuinely good at that stuff, particularly in youth work. Will we though step up with the message behind the morality. We're not so good at that. We've been so worn down by the past decade of relativism that we're out of practice, lacking confidence and perhaps even belief in sharing the gospel.
If though we try to provide values in a vacuum they lack not only context but also purpose and power. They are nice ideas but will only patch up our problems not solve them. Only Christ can do that. As we take up the challenge and opportunity of bringing healing and reconciliation to our society, we have an even bigger challenge and opportunity of bringing salvation and revival.

London's burning and who's to blame

My town is under attack. These may sound sensational words, but it is. I watched a shop down the road being looted and burned on live TV the other night. It was surreal. London has become the scene for kids and their parents to descend into lawlessness, and as tends to happen with England at least, London leads and then the rest of the country follows what they see on live TV.

The problem with 24 hour news is that it needs to be filled and anyone and everyone with an opinion, however valid, seems to get airtime. This means there have been numerous theories as to why young people decided to riot, loot and burn the city. The genesis but no longer the cause was a police shooting. These are rare in the UK, and rightly provoke a response. In the eary days this was a right response: a peaceful protest. But then it all went wrong! Why?

Some experts put it down to social degradation, and there is a hopeless among many young people. But it then turned out the people being arrested included professionals like graphic designers, unviersity students and evidently affluent people. Some blamed it on the parents, and shockingly there were parents out there with their kids climbing through the windows kids had broken to steal TVs or whatever they could get their hands on. Others said it was just criminality, pure and simple, kids enjoying the thrill and power of theft, destruction, lawlessness.

And the answer is almost certainly:Yes! The kids are committing crime: pure and sinful! The parents have been too selfish and self absorbed to care. And society isn't any better. We're busy reaping the whirlwind after decades of sowing the wind and living indulgent, debt ridden lives, and our austerity measures mean this generation is going to lose out. Hard luck and shut up! It's a mess

Underlying it all is our godless futility and lostness. One of the few shared values we have today in Britain is: What's right for you is right for you and what's right for me is right for me. It sounds great, liberating, non judgmental and wonderfully tolerant. But of course that all falls down when someone decides its right for them to burn a shop down and steal a TV. Our cult of individualism: No one tells me what to do.. I owe it to myself to..... I've got to look after number one... It's my life, I'll do what I like with it.... permeates all society from top to bottom. These riots are just the latest symptoms of a failing society at every level: family, community and nation. They are highly visible, but not isolated incidents. Other symptoms include government expenses corruption, press phone hacking, middle class alcoholism, spurious insurance claims, lying to get credit and mortgages to name but a few.

New Labour anounced a few years ago that this government doesn't do God! Well we need to. We all do. Young and old, rich and poor, the lot! We need to discover God's heart for integrity, justice responsibility and love. The good thing about symptoms is that they show up an ailment. It's time as a nation we went to the Doctor and asked Him to sort us out.

So whats the real problem with Europe?

Whats the problem with Europe. American Christians tend to think its Islam. Western European Christians may think its secularism. Other Europeans see it from their perspective as they continue a centuries old struggle against a fierce form of Catholicism or Orthodoxy. So what is it?

Our struggle to adapt to pluralism. Europe is changing, and we all need to adapt. We just don't know how. Some see secularism as an answer, and this can become a harsh: stuff all religions approach. Others try to hold on to the dominance of a particular Christian denomination, and this approach has often been as brutal to other Christian expressions and religions as secularism has been. Still others are trying gamely to give everyone the same rights, responsibilities and respect, but most of us whatever we say, don't really want equality. Some of us see it as a step back from what we're used to. And in any case all of us want to be treated differently, specially, because....
We are sinful. At heart Christians are as self seeking, unreliable and devious as Muslims and secularists. We can't build utopia in Europe. We can't even get our own churches right. And that's the third problem...
The church. If historically we hadn't been so hypocritical and so harsh, perhaps we'd have more sympathy now. If now we could love one another, perhaps we'd have a better chance of loving Europe. I recognise the church has done and continues to do so much good, but sadly this has often been the exception rather than the rule. We tend to get angered or alarmed, more than moved with compassion. We're more focused on our rights, our lifestyles, than the lost-ness of those we're called to reach.

So what's the answer for Europe. My gut feeling is that we're more likely to win the argument for Christ by the way we love the refugee from North Africa or Middle East, than by great court room victories for our religious liberties. But for that, we need to be less of a church on a hill lording it above everyone else, and more the church right in the heart of the mess or to mix my metaphors, the church on the edge, taking risks, because love is risky, messy, and ultimately the only thing which will prevail. Europe today is no more secular or antagonistic to evangelicalism than it was in Paul's day. But the church's confidence in the gospel, love for people and sacrifice in the face of persecution won the day. And it can again.

I believe in Hillsong, Soul Survivor and Teen Street Everlasting

I believe in Hillsong, Soul Survivor and Teen Street Everlasting.
I believe in theological study, daily devotions and scripture memory
I believe in youth work, childrens work and all other works except those supposed to lead to salvation.
I believe in Christian books, worship downloads and assorted merchandise.
I believe in the holy catholic church, the Anglicans, Lutherans, Pentecostals and the little group that meet around the corner.
I believe in Toronto, the place, the experience and the church stream.
I also believe the conservatives are right.
I believe in it all, all of it, the whole lot.

So why then aren't we, Europeans, seeing more fruit both in our lives and through our lives. We've never been so well equipped, well educated, conferenced up, out and about. So why aren't we a mighty army confidently and passionately sweeping this continent for Christ, like Paul and the first missionaries did just under two thousand years ago. Don't give me the old line about how hard it is today. Apart from Belarus, there are no mad men dictators setting us on fire to light up their garden parties like Nero did to the early church. Perhaps that's the problem!

Or maybe Paul himself gives us the answer in his short note to Philemon. He tells us of his prayer: that you may be active in sharing your faith so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ. v6. So there it is: share your faith and you will get it. You will get it in such an amazing way that you'll want to share it all the more, and then of course you'll understand it all the better and so on and on. It worked for Paul around the Balkans and it worked for Wesley in the UK hundred years later. It can work for us too, and make sense of all the great activities, resources and movements we have available across our continent. The only problem is that most of us Europeans don't share our faith, and much of the time aren't particularly encouraged to. As long as that is the case, all the wonderful things we do, go to, belong to and believe in will remain at best untested ideas and at worst hype..Its enough to make me write a book, produce a podcast, hold a conference and print the T shirt. Trouble is then I won't have time to actually do it, and prove it!

The benefits of jet lag

Jet lag isn't so bad. It can be a bit embarrassing dropping off when your mother in law is talking to you. But then there are those times in the middle of night when all else around you is asleep and you have never been more awake or alert. Your senses appear all the more heightened by the dead of night quiet around you. Never have you been more aware of your own existence because bluntly the only thing you can hear is your breathing.
When my senses are jet lagged, at night they're turbo charged. At times like this, if my body was as physically toned and tuned as my senses, I'd be able to run a marathon on pure adrenalin. If my mind was able to function like this, then I'd not only get what Dawkins is on about but also be able to expose it as utter nonsense. If my emotions were this alert, I'd get opera, ballet, even the Tate Modern without having to fake it. Sadly they're not!
However I've found, while jet lagged, something else does kick in. I seem to come alive spiritually. The Bible brings me to tears and prayer is intense. I don't know why. All I know is that I wish it could be like this in the cold light of day as well as dead of night. I know my life would look so radically different if it did. So much of my life is spent worn out by a crazy noisy world. And prayer... well it is a guilt-ridden apology of no more than 150 characters.
I once drove my brother's Mercedes and enjoyed it. However I would have enjoyed it all the more if I had found out before I drove rather than after, that it has turbo charge. Jet lag perhaps gives me a little insight into what death could be like: fading away while life goes on around me, and it isn't so bad! Jet lag definitely gives me an insight into what life could be like, if I'm alert and open to the Spirit and not easily distract me. And it is amazing!

If Bulgarians ruled the world....

What would it look like? Honestly, probably a bit messy! Even the nicest, gentlest most godly Bulgarian turns into a monster behind the wheel of a car. But putting that to one side, I think it could be a better place... at least if the young Christian Bulgarians ruled it. Here's why...

1. They like one another. I love going to Bulgaria because the youth leaders all get on so well together regardless of denominations, church splits, or anything else which causes the rest of us to get so hung up we don't hang out. We just don't like each other the way these guys do.
2. They work together. They've worked out that they can achieve more by pooling their limited resources. Again it isn't rocket science. If we were more interested in seeing the Kingdom come, rather than furthering our own ends or those of our denominations, ministries or whatever, then we'd do the same.
3. They pray together. The 365 prayer movement was initiated by Bulgarian young people last year and has nearly achieved its goal of getting one church to take one day a year to pray and fast for the nation.
4. They work hard! Youth ministry isn't an easy option for them. It normally comes on top of a job or two, family commitments and perhaps study. It is a labour of love, not a profession as it has often become in the UK or US.
5. They don't rule people out because they are young or female, unlike most of us who therefore miss out on perhaps 70% of our talent pool! The Bulgarian Evangelical Alliance have not only appointed the only young General Secretary in Europe, they also have the only female one.
6. They care! Yes, on top of all the things they do in point 4, they want to serve the wider church. They're planning a conference for Balkan youth workers, and honestly if the other Balkan countries can learn the Bulgarians have learned, then this could be the happening part of Europe.

Bulgaria may be poor, and the church small, but just maybe God can use the weak to confound the strong. And anyway those of us who think we are strong need to watch out! Two thousand years ago the apostle John was prompted to write letters to a number of churches in the Balkans region, and today the message of Revelation 1-3 remains the same. What would the European church or even just our youth ministry look like if we copied the Bulgarians? So why don't we?

A brave new world for global youth ministry

Over the next four months I will visit four continents and have a shower in a fifth! Crazily, no longer does such a schedule sound so crazy. The world is very accesible, very quickly and relatively cheaply. I should say to those who think my schedule if not crazy, is at least irresponsible: I only travel when really necessary. Otherwise I'm on Skype, where wonderfully Britain is still the centre of the world, and I can be enjoying a chat over my fish and chip lunch while my Asian and American friends yawn out of one kind of sleep deprivation or another.

And the new world order is more than just more accessible, it offers exciting new opportunities to the brave new world missionaries. And I use that phrase quite deliberately. I recently spoke about a wonderful time in Africa the other month when I sat with African youth workers dreaming and strategising together. The other week I sat with Europeans working out how they could work together to offer a youth work discipleship strategy for a nation. Never before has mission looked quite like this. Gone are the days of mission being one nation expanding their way of working into another. Now we can sit shoulder to shoulder around a blank sheet of paper and work out together what is best and how together we can do it.

There are those who hold to the old paradigm and surprisingly not all are old mindset old school old world old people! Some are new world who believe this is their day to do unto others what they had done to them, and to reverse the missionary flow from Africa to Europe and Asia to America. I can't see it. Or more to the point I haven't seen it yet, at least not in Europe. And it would be a shame if we did the same old same old but just the other way around. I'm guessing we'd repeat our failings culturally and in many other ways and so limit our fruitfulness. But what if from the outset we allow God to speak to us as His global body or family. I'm guessing our pooled God given creative and wisdom coupled with our complimentary gifting and dispositions could enable us to come up with something very different and see the world really radically changed for ever!