Currently Browsing: Anglican
Oct 26, 2011
Posted by benrey on Oct 26, 2011 in Anglican, Church Planting, Featured, Urban | 1 comment
Mike Breen at City Collective
On Monday I wrote about the importance of listening and learning from other church planting movements and how hard it can be to be aware of innovative and effective ministry outside of our networks. I want to continue by introducing you all to Mike Breen. Mike is considered by many to be one of the initiators of the missional movement. In 1994, Mike became senior pastor of St. Thomas Sheffield, an Anglican-Baptist church. Mike is a CofE guy, but has never been afraid to try innovative things that draw those far from God to God. He began experimenting with clusters and those eventually become missional communities back in the 1980′s. His two most famous books are Launching Missional Communities and Building a Discipleship Culture. Oh and Mike will be a main speaker at the Anglican 1000 Summit this year. Again, introductions aside, Mike led our time of teaching at the City Collectivetwo weeks ago in NYC and I wanted to share my reflections from that time.
Building a Discipleship Culture
While Mike may have become known for his work on the missional church, he firmly believes that one cannot have mission without discipleship. He recent posts on “Why the missional movement will fail” emphasize this. One thing you will quickly realize about Mike is that he is not playing around. Mike firmly believes that the church’s task is to disciple its people and then to send them out on mission to draw those far from God to God and to then disciple those new Christians to go out again. At one point during our morning someone asked him what we should say to individuals in our church who don’t have time for discipleship, and he replied that we should encourage them to find another church.
Cultural Idols
Mike began the morning by sharing out of Luke 4 on the Temptation of Jesus. He said that the three temptations can be summarized as Approval (“throw yourself down from here and God will save you” i.e. that is how you will know he approves of you), Ambition (“bow down and all the kingdoms will be yours” and Appetite (“turn this stone to bread”). These three things are actually the root idols of every culture. He said this is manifested in Britain as “Order/Class”, “Duty/Manipulation” and “Stewardship/Scarcity”. I’ll have to trust him on that, I mean he is British. In America, he believes that these idols are manifested as Celebrity (Approval), Competition (Ambition) and Consumerism (Appetite). Now it took him about 30 minutes to move from the Temptation of Jesus, through a brief history of western civilization and finally to America’s idols, but when he finally got there I think he was right on. The problem is that the American church is not immune from these three idols, so we need to build a culture of discipleship that wars against these idols.
Building Disciples vs Building a Church
If you want to build a church, according to Mike, it’s quite easy. Find a talented public speaker to be the senior pastor, a semi-sexy and gifted worship leader to lead music and finally make easy, attainable goals for the people to consume. If your primary goal is building a church, you won’t be able to make disciples. However, if you start by discipling people, you will eventually get the church. But how do you disciple people? Mike’s model of discipleship is built upon three things: Information: You need to know who Jesus is through the study of God’s word; Imitation: You need to have an example, another disciple, who you can model your life after; and Innovation: Disciple making and risk taking are one and the same. You need to take risks and push boundaries (personal, familial and communal) to fight the idols of our culture. The problem is that most of our American disciple making is focused only on transmitting information. Michael Rudzena, a pastor at Trinity Grace tweeted, “The lack of discipleship in America essentially boils down to a lack of lives worth imitating.” And he is dead on.
A Few Critiques
I was really excited to hear Mike at the City Collective and this was one of my most anticipated moments of the weekend. Mike is a great speaker and very relational, but there were times when I felt like he was pointing out the obvious as he transitioned from one point to another. Now this might be because I read his blog, but I was hoping he would get past his “shtick” and into some of the more difficult moments of actually creating a culture of discipleship that seriously takes on America’s idols. Maybe I just needed to get a pint with him and push him on a few of his points. The only other area of criticism was his sweeping summary of western civilization. Now he did make a disclaimer at the beginning by saying he wasn’t an expert, but there were several moments where I looked at my wife and thought, “where is he going with this?” He did however, finally “land the plane”- as they say in homiletic’s class – and make his point.
Mike Breen continues to bless the Church by challenging leaders to build a culture of missional discipleship and I, for one, am thankful for that. If you want to continue to learn more, pick up his latest book and check out his blog.
Oct 24, 2011
Posted by benrey on Oct 24, 2011 in Anglican, Church Planting, Featured, Urban | 1 comment
There is a lot of good work going on in church planting these days and some especially good work happening in urban centers. However, those of us who are in the trenches don’t often have enough time to look and see what exciting and innovative things are going on around us. This is especially true when one is part of a particular denomination or church planting movement. I remember when I was at a meeting of Anglican pastors and one of them mentioned they had recently discovered AWANA. I was shocked, I thought everyone knew about AWANA, but it showed me how narrow our networks can be.
So in the spirit of moving outside our networks, I want to introduce you all to two exciting church planting movements. Today is Trinity Grace Church (TGC). TGC has planted five churches in New York City in five years and each of them are self-sustaining (with two more on the way). Then on Wednesday, I am going to introduce you all to Mike Breen, who is the leader of 3DM and is the father (grandfather?) of the missional movement (Mike Breen will also be speaking at the A1K Summit this year). So while Trinity Grace and Mike Breen are not officially connected, they share a similar ethos. I was able to be with both of them last weekend in NYC at the City Collective gathering. Introductions aside, my hope in this post is to describe the distinctives of Trinity Grace. A quick note: Jon Tyson, the Senior Pastor of Trinity Grace, is Australian and I know the Australian culture (unlike our American culture) abhors gushing reviews. So while this post will be positive, there will be a few things I will offer as a critique as well. And another note: Jon is about to blow up with his recently published book, his speaking at Catalyst and articles in Christianity Today. Don’t forget you heard it here first.
The TGC Structure
The best way to describe Trinity Grace Church is that they are a network of churches in New York City. They are more than a network though, because each of the five churches have their own leadership and authority, but they are connected to one another as a larger urban church. They put it this way, “The model envisions one urban church community consisting of several neighborhood churches that network together for the common good and renewal of the city. The city parish church is diverse in its essential nature, uniting women, men, and families from various cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds across a major metropolitan area.” TGC calls this model the “Parish Church” and I think it’s quite brilliant. Cities are made up of very different neighborhoods and this model allows each neighborhood to have a completely contextualized church. The worship is contextualized, the sermons are contextualized and the outreach and discipleship are contextualized. However, each neighborhood is also part of this larger city, and the fact that TGC gathers together once a quarter for city-wide allows them to work together to tackle systemic issues, to engage in the various industries of NYC (business, art, fashion, finance, etc) and to be a witness to the city at large. You can read their white paper on this model here.
Missional Communities
Another distinctive of TGC are their missional communities. They describe these as “mid-sized groups of 15-40 people that exist to love God, pursue wholeness and transformation, care for one another, and serve our neighbors while promoting justice in our city.” These mid-sized groups are centered on mission. The idea is that most New Yorkers have no reason to show up for church out of the blue on a Sunday, even if they are invited. The Sunday gathering just isn’t a natural place for New Yorkers to first meet Jesus. At the other end of the spectrum, small groups are an equally difficult environment to first introduce New Yorkers to Jesus. They are often too small to feel welcome and either too awkward or too intimate to effectively welcome newcomers. Additionally, Sundays focus on worship and small groups are focused on discipleship, which leaves no venue for mission. Enter the mid-sized Missional Community. These communities each have a geographical missional focus and offer a place where there is enough people-power to mobilize mission (it’s a lot easier to volunteer if your group is 35 people as opposed to 10) and also a bigger group to welcome those asking questions. These groups meet both for missional purposes (bbq’s to welcome to people or volunteer work) as well for mini-worship gatherings during the week. Jon breaks this concept down really well in his 2008 talk at Catalyst.
Theology of Work
The final distinctive I want to hit on is TGC’s focus on a Theology of Work. Their tagline is “Joining God in the Renewal of All Things” and they believe it is vital to have a theology of work. This makes total sense because most people spend anywhere from 2-5 hours a week at church or small group and 40-70 hours a week at their job. If we don’t have a theology that encourages our engagement at work, we are seriously missing out on the Kingdom of God. TGC quickly gets beyond the notion that the only way to engage the workplace as a Christian is to share the Gospel with your co-workers and seeks to find the redemptive edge in each industry or field. They recently preached a sermon series on this topic entitled Joining God in the Renewal of All Things.
A Few Critiques
Overall, TGC is doing amazing things. I mean five churches in five years and they are all sustainable? That is nuts. But each of these five churches was planted in very affluent areas of New York City. That is both a feat and a concern. A feat because the rich are often the most difficult to reach, but a concern because these are the neighborhoods of t.v. shows, movies and music. When one thinks of NYC, they usually think of Manhattan, fashion and affluence. I hope TGC continues to plant churches in other parts of NYC that are contextualized to those neighborhoods, but still connected to the larger TGC network. My second critique, which is connected to this, in that their Theology of Work is also an affluent theology. What I mean by that is that they do a great job of creating a theology for artists, musicians, business people and others whose jobs include the engagement of the mind. But what about the custodian or the butcher? What beautiful things are they creating for the Kingdom? Again, this is obviously connected to the areas where they planted churches and might change as they plant in other neighborhoods.
If you are ever in NYC or looking to plant churches in a city check them out. TGC has been extremely helpful to me and I hope my relationship with them will continue to grow.
Oct 23, 2011
Posted by benrey on Oct 23, 2011 in Anglican | 1 comment
…are carrying this around in Allston/Brighton this morning.
I am working as a supply priest for a Kenyan church that doesn’t have a pastor this morning. Check out this Kenyan prayer that is prayed during Holy Eucharist:
It is right and our delight to give you thanks and praise, great Father, living God, supreme over the world. Creator, Provider, Saviour and Giver. From a wandering nomad you created your family; for a burdened people you raised up a leader; for a confused nation you chose a king, for a rebellious crowd you sent your prophets. In these last days you have sent us your Son, your perfect image, bringing your kingdom, revealing your will, dying, rising, reigning, remaking your people for yourself. Through him you have poured out your Holy Spirit, filling us with light and life.
I mean come on: wandering nomad to family, burdened people to leader, confused nation to king, rebellious crowd to a people for yourself? The Africans definitely know how to pray transformation!
Oct 18, 2011
Posted by benrey on Oct 18, 2011 in Anglican, Anglican Mission in America, Spiritual Formation | 0 comments
I am often asked by people wanting to go deeper into the history of the Church how to pray with the Book of Common Prayer. I searched a bit for a website providing an easy to follow outline but I couldn’t find one, so I have taken on the task. Below you will find simple (hopefully) instructions on how to pray the Morning Office. I will offer a brief explanation of how to pray the morning office, how I pray the morning office (showing the flexibility of the BCP) and a look at the traditional way to pray the morning office.
Introduction
Before I began let me offer a few brief introductory explanations. First the Book of Common Prayer (BCP) is an Anglican prayer book. It offers prayers, both ancient and modern, to help guide communal and individual worship. Each nation has their own local book of payer and the BCP is the American book of prayer. These prayer books are revised every so often and I will be describing prayer from the 1979 BCP, which is the current version and the one most easily accessible. There are two different types of morning prayer (Rite One and Rite Two). The major difference between the two is that one is written in old english and the other in modern english. I will be describing Rite Two, which is in modern english.
Definitions
“Morning Office” – We call the morning prayer liturgy the Morning Office. “Office” simply means work and this implies that prayer is not passive, but an active interaction with God and our community.
“Officiant”and “People” – The morning office was designed to be prayed in community and thus there are instructions for an “Officiant” or leader and the “People”. However when praying alone, one assumes both roles.
“Rubric” - A rubric is an instruction to the reader that is not meant to be read out loud. These are in smaller, italicized type.
“Antiphon” – A response which was chanted in monasteries. Today it usually just spoken.
“Canticle” – A biblical passage that was originally a song. Mary’s Song (Luke 2) is a good example of this.
“Suffrage” – A series of short prayers read in a call and response manner.
“Collect” – A prayer that focuses on the theme of the day or season.
“General or Authorized Intercession” – Spontaneous prayer…the type of prayer most evangelicals are used to.
Brief Explanation
The Morning Office begins on page 75 of the BCP. Our prayer time begins with opening sentence from scripture that is based upon the current season. Since we will be in the season of Epiphany starting tomorrow, turn to page 76 and pray any sentence under the Epiphany heading. Next, we move to the Confession of Sin found on page 79. One may either say the entire paragraph or simply, “Let us confess our sins against God and our neighbor”. After a period of silent confession, recite the confession paragraph. Then turn the page and pronounce the absolution (declaring what Jesus has already done) found on the top of page 80. Don’t forget to substitute “I” or “us” for “you”.
After this introductory section, we now move into a time of worship through the Psalter. A short response from Psalm 51:15 is recited, “Lord open our lips”, “And our mouth shall proclaim your praise.” Then the Gloria (“Glory to the Father…”) is said. After this an antiphon or short prayer, is said based upon the season. Find the one said during Epiphany on the top of page 81. After that is said, turn the page and pray either the Venite or Jubilate (rotating each day). You may then return to the antiphon prayed on 81 and repeat it or move on to the psalm (depending on local custom).
At this point one is instructed to read passages of Scripture. Feel free to devise your own reading schedule, including the Psalms (see below for an example). Upon completing the scripture reading turn to page 96 and proclaim your faith with the Apostles Creed (I will explain pages 85-95 in the traditional explanation).
After this comes the section on Prayer. While the entire morning office is a prayer, this section focuses on intercession. It begins with the Lord’s Prayer and then two sets of short sentence prayers (Suffrage A and Suffrage B – pgs 97-98). Feel free to alternate each day. After this a Collect of the Day (a themed prayer for the day) is prayed. You will notice that there are enough prayers for each day of the week. I usually pray the “Collect for the Renewal of Life” on Mondays, the “Collect for Peace” on Tuesdays, etc. But feel free to mix it up as well.
There are then three different prayers for mission on pages 100-101, which can be rotated. The morning office then closes with either the prayer of “General Thanksgiving” (pg 101) or “A Prayer of St. Chrysostom” (pg 102). After that there are three different general blessings that may be pronounced. And that is that. You made it through the Morning Office. Total time w/o scripture reading = 10 minutes.
My Morning Prayer
Rather then repeat what is above, I will point out the liberties I take with the Morning Office to show a few ways in which it can be adapted. I am a strange mix of high church liturgy, charismatic worship and evangelical study, but I am able to squeeze all that into the morning office without it feeling forced. I usually begin my time in silence in order to quiet my heart and mentally process some of the things I encountered the day before. We have so little time to reflect that I take some time to do that. If I am unable to be quiet, that is ok because I apparently needed to process things. Other times I will listen to a worship song to take my eyes off myself and put them on God. It depends on where I am at internally. After some time I begin as directed above.
If I am praying with others I always split up the Gloria (pg 80). The Leader will pray, “Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit”, with the People responding, “as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever.” I also split up the Seasonal Antiphon (pgs 80-81). For example, in Epiphany the Leader would pray, “The Lord has shown forth his glory” and the People respond, “Come let us adore him”. Then as we pray the Venite or Jubilate, I have us pray it responsively, breaking at the asterisk. After the Venite or Jubilate, I go back to the Seasonal Antiphon and pray that responsively.
When it comes to scripture reading I try and mix reading large chunks of scripture with a few short passages for meditation. I keep a journal of the passages I read and either directly copy a verse or reflect on each passage I read. I do this in order to take my reading beyond intellectual exercise. I begin by reading three Psalms slowly and a Proverb. I then read a chapter out of the OT. I am currently going through the minor prophets. Here I look for general themes of God’s covenant faithfulness. After that I read a chapter from a NT Epistle. Since I cycle through the letters (Romans-Revelation) and its the beginning of my reading schedule, I am in Romans. After that I read a passage from one of the Gospels (currently John). I try and be more meditative with the Gospels. Sometimes I read an entire chapter and other times it’s just a few verses.
I respond to my time in the Word with the Apostles Creed and the Prayers (96-97). Sometimes instead of the Collect of the Day I will read the Collect of the Season (pg 214). I then read a prayer for mission. At this point I usually plug in my headphones and listen to song or two to help me pray. I usually do the charismatic pace and take some time to pray for my family, friends and the parish. When I feel “led” to stop, I end with one of the closing prayers (pg 101-102) and go off on my day.
Oct 18, 2011
Posted by benrey on Oct 18, 2011 in Anglican, Church Planting, Featured | 1 comment
It has been 176 days since I last blogged. 176. That is 48% of a year. And it’s not only my blogging that has been silent, but Facebook and Twitter too. My wife actually asked me if I even checked Facebook anymore (the answer is yes…if you are wondering). So why the silence you may ask? Well a lot has changed since my last post, but the biggest change being that I no longer work or attend the church plant I started. Now the church has quite the unique origin story. When I was 24 and in my second year of seminary, we began to gather people. The group quickly grew and it was evident God was doing something through this growing core group. My denomination advised me that it was good and right to send in an older and more experienced pastor to take over the work and who would mentor me and walk me through the ordination process. To be honest, I had always been torn at the idea of bringing in an outside pastor. I knew I was young, inexperienced (both in life and ministry) and unprepared to plant a church. But I also knew that bringing in another pastor early on in the process didn’t usually turn out well. As I was ordained and grew, the other pastor believed that my vision for the church was different than the current vision at the church I planted and he asked that I leave. This proved to be messier then either one of us expected and while this this was the original reason for my departure, the reasons quickly became hazy and inconsistent as others learned of the coming changes.
Now this is an obvious over-simplification of the reasons and the truth is that it was complicated, confusing and produced a lot of hurt and unnecessary brokenness. Things were done poorly, there were no systems and structures set up to handle something like this and mistakes were made (on both sides). There is still a tremendous amount of healing and reconciliation that needs to be done with the leadership of the church and in the heart and soul of my wife and I. But we are beginning to move on.
It has been 60 days since the last time I worshipped at that church. I found a job in less than a month (which can only be seen as a provision from God in this economy), that seeks to be a bridge between a local Christian college and urban high school students. And, did I mention, that we are moving on?
We refuse to be defined by what has been done to us. We refuse to grow bitter and we refuse to define ourselves over and against something else. We are not anti-church or anti-church plants. We feel more called than ever to plant churches and we refuse to plant a church that “won’t be like that one”. Movements that define themselves over and against something else never multiply. Sure they may grow quickly, but they also quickly grow insular.
So we are moving on. What you will see over the next few weeks are posts that are about something new. And that something new is planting urban churches that exist for the sake of others. For those outside of the church. So keep reading and post your comments.
