When Ruthie said come see her

BCLC resumed near normal operations yesterday. We have had something of an extended Summer break. This month we are looking at Ruth. Interesting biblical character. For those of you unfamiliar with her story I will briefly tell it now.

A family move to Moab. Ruth marries one of the sons. The men die. Naomi (mother-in-law) moves back home. Ruth goes with her. Gleans some wheat from Boaz’s field. Lays at Boaz’s feet one night. Boaz marries Ruth.

It’s a good story about family, loyalty, community and belonging. Ruth is a strong female biblical character but not one you hear an awful lot about. Indeed there are many strong female biblical characters but the one we generally hear most about is (Holy) Mary (mother of God). I wonder why that is. Could it be that Mary, as a virgin mother, represents a version of woman that is so perfect it is completely unattainable by ‘normal’ women. Is she so venerated that she (and subsequently all other women) is unable to be involved in the manly business of running the church.

This representation of women - failures who needn’t worry their pretty little heads about man-stuff - is contrary to a lot of stories about women that can be found in the Bible. These stories were written at a time when women had no standing whatsoever in law or very much else and suggest that women, far from being air-headed failures are in fact very capable, practical and smart.

The very fact that some streams of the church still see women in this way is yet another reason why the church will die.

Ch ch ch ch changes….

I could have used a number of titles for this entry. I was strangely drawn to ‘Everything Changes But You’ but quickly realised that I risked someone mistaking my homage to Take That for a ‘Graham Kendrick style’ love song to Jesus, and we definitely cannot have that.

This month’s theme is ‘Wind of Change’…. We started, as we usually do, in the world. Beauty and the Beast provided us with an introduction, the bit where the beast is transformed into a ‘handsome’ prince. An outward change to reflect the inner turning from self centred arrogant monster into lovable heart of gold cuddly pet. A bit corny but, as with most Disney productions, gets the point across.

I took the children into the hall where we talked about how they might like to change themselves. I asked them to name a super power that would enhance their lives. We then dressed up as our new super hero self but discovered that, whilst we had the look, the super power eluded us. Thus the only way to change ourselves was from within.

This is, interestingly, in contrast to the other, older, group who, at one stage concluded that you could chnage the person you are by changing the way you look. Evidence for this came from the likes of Trinny and Susanah who take dowdy shy unconfident ladies and transform them into bright shiny bold women a with just a visit or two to M&S and a few well chosen word of support. I think that is where the real work is done, those few well chosen word of support. It would be interesting to see how the partners and families of these new women reacted to their mum/wife going from comfy, cosy, docile and reliable to sharp, cool, active and independant. And how long the new her lasted back in the context from which she was first removed…

What it does demonstrate is that it is within us all to be the people we want to be, for some it needs a bit more TLC to bring it out. Here is the space that spiritual people of faith need to be operating in.

I heard a story in the radio this morning about a catholic priest who fell in love with a widow in his flock and had a 22 year relationship with her. The rest of the congregation are in full support of this but the church has decided it is unacceptable and he must go. They have appointed a replacement but his masses have been boycotted by er… the masses. One woman was quoted as saying how hard it is for everyone because they are torn between their love of the priest and their duty to God.

Surely their ‘duty to God’ and ours is the love and support of this priest and people in general who need it?

It’s All Greek to Me

Alpha - what does it bring to mind? First, dominant, greek, spaghetti (alphabeti)? I should think that the reason the Alpha Course is so named is that it is deemed to be the first step to christian faith (I wonder for how many people it is also the Omega course?).

I struggle with it. From where I sit it pupports to give a whole load of answers to the wrong questions - or rather it pupports to giving answers to the right questions, I just think it is answering the wrong ones.

The Alpha course is an introduction to christianity.We should be introducing people to God.

The web site also contends that Alpha is for everyone. Well, everyone who is interested in being a christian. So that rules out an awful lot of people for whom christianity is at best an irrelevance, at worst something to be mistrusted and avoided. Interestingly they have Alpha for different contexts, prison, youth, student, forces and CATHOLICS. I was very interested in why the catholics should have their own alpha context but unfortunately that page can’t be found on their web site. If anyone can illuminate me then please do.

I think the apparent success of Alpha is because churches are desperate. They are dying on their collective arses and will, probably, try anything. As I have stated before in other articles, I firmly believe that there is no formula for turning round the decline in church attendance. There is no ‘one big thing’ that can be taken from church to church that will guarantee full houses in its wake.

This is what is so exciting about the ‘emerging church movement’ for me. Where it truly emerges to fulfill a need in a community of people it will work and it will change that community for the better. Sticking our usual worship practices in a cafe does not make a cafe church. Meeting people where they are on their life journey and making a connection with them, allowing them to encounter God without the need for them to learn how to is the way forward, there are no courses in it, no packaged solutions - just get out there and do it.