What makes me a Christian?

I got to asking this recently because a couple of friends have said that they don’t consider that they are Christians any more. So, what is a Christian basically? And what makes me one?

For me being a Christian is first and foremost about God in Christ. That God created me, God loves, redeems and invites me to share a relationship with and follow Jesus Christ.

This is where being a Christian begins. It is God’s gift, it is something God offers in Christ. If I recognise and accept this gift then I am a Christian. Then beliefs, actions and relationships quickly follow – but they are not the starting point, but a necessary consequence.

Thinking of being a Christian in this way – means that Christianity is a God thing, Christ based. It then says that beliefs, practice, culture and relationships come naturally from that beginning.

I know that people can lose faith, but I wonder whether we come to that place often because we have fallen out of relationships with other Christians, are struggling with what we believe or know that some of our behaviour doesn’t fit. I wonder whether it might be more appropriate to say, at those times, that I am a struggling, inconsistent or even I am not a good Christian. Even as someone said to Jesus – Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. I suggest this because when we reach an impasse in our lives – God in Christ still keeps giving to us.

At times, it is right to admit that we struggle or fall short on matters of belief, action and relationships but we are followers of Christ seeking to hang in there. Indeed making such an admission is a mark of being a Christian.

Actually, to dip out and say we are no longer Christian may prevent us from maturing and growing, and even missing some of the grace God has for us.

Graham Brownlee, September 2017

First Sunday Communion – a refreshed programme for 2017/18

Earlier this month we relaunched our first Sunday evening of each month Communion Service. Each month, and beginning at 6pm, this service is going to have one focus and three characteristics.

The focus is on a service for those who want to think a little more deeply and broadly about their faith. It is designed to appeal to who have responsibility or leadership in some way whether in church or in wider work. You may be a house group leader, leading a group with children or young people or responsible for developing and managing others in your work context.

The three characteristics are:
• An hour service
• A simple and traditional style
• Sharing in communion

We will provide questions to follow up on the thinking individually or in groups. This could be a good resource for house groups.

For now we will be following themes taken from 2 Corinthians. The Christians in Corinth belonged to powerful and vibrant church. But you would be making a naïve assumption to think that such a church had smooth relations and easy working.

The Corinthians had a heady mix of blessings and trouble, which prompted their founder, Paul, to offer some thoughtful insights on leadership and Christian belief and practice.

If you take responsibility or exercise leadership in whatever capacity, as pastor, parent, trusted friend or manager you will find this a helpful book in the Bible.

Graham Brownlee will be leading this programme and drawing contributions from others during the year.

Metamorphosis and all that

My holidays have been saved by my tablet – not the anti-diarrhoea kind but the electronic device. Instead for taking a pack of 6 or 7 books away, I smuggle them in my tablet. This year as well as some holiday crime fiction, I downloaded Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. Oh yes, I know how to have fun in the sun!

I first encountered this book when I was around 10 years old. My primary school teacher read classic books to the class. This is how I first discovered Tolkien’s The Hobbit and also Metamorphosis. Looking back that strikes me as a brilliant and brave thing for my teacher to do.

If you read on beware of plot spoilers.

Gregor Samsa lives with his parents and sister, for whom he is the sole wage earner. He is working hard with the sole motivation of covering his family’s debts and costs. He wakes one morning to the dawning realisation that he has turned into some kind of beetle. The story unfolds with the horror and disbelief felt by his family. Gregor remains locked in his room, fed scraps by his sister. Gradually the family members remove furniture from his room and adjust to life by taking in lodgers and living off their savings. It seems they have been living off Gregor for years. He overhears their conversation expressing frustration at Gregor still being there and referring to him as ‘it’. The final scene is when an emaciated beetle escapes the flat and dies to be swept up by the housekeeper. So the family is free to get on with their lives.

As I reacquainted myself with this book, I made a connection with how we can relate to older dependent generations in our families. Do they easily become non-people whom we suffer as increasing burdens? This is not an easy one to answer honestly.

When my parents died following long, slow declines which sapped their dignity and how I knew them – it caused me to ask myself this. I tried to keep things real, personal and loving. But I saw that the roles we play and the transactions we make are a big part of how children relate to their parents at any age. By transactions, I mean matters of money and control.

Now it has been noted that Kafka may well have been asking similar questions from the other side: how do families and parents relate to children as they reach adulthood? So we could ask whether we see young people beyond the contribution they make or the drain that they are.

Of course, there is much care across generations in our families, much commitment and support. I am not denying or criticising that, it is to be honoured.

But I am asking whether, in the midst of our family roles, people of another generation become objects for us, the “other” we talk about but don’t really understand. They are the “other” we live with, provide for, plan about, worry about and receive from. But I wonder whether all we do for children, young people and older people belies the struggle we have to relate to them as sentient and free people.

I know one reaction to this is to put an age group on a pedestal. I believe that is not the answer for it merely makes those outside that group into providers and objects. I think this touches on issues of identity, faith, development and trust

I write this as a person, a parent and a child of parents.

So I realise that the most shocking thing in Metamorphosis is not the big creepy dung beetle in the bedroom but that the beetle ends up a thing swept away and maybe was a thing all along.

Graham Brownlee, August 2017

 

Impressive people on our holiday adventure

                       The picture postcard village that Graham and Margaret stayed in

 

This year Mags and I booked to stay in a rural hotel in Spain. In the mountains 130km from the airport. That’s about all we knew on booking. Something of an unknown adventure.

We have done loads of walking, scrambled up the sides of a ravine, swum in a mountain reservoir and shared in the summer festival. But far and away the most memorable and impressive thing in the holiday has been the couple who run the hotel.

Just under a year ago they swapped two high powered technical careers to move to the remote, under populated countryside. They took up an opportunity to run the local hotel in a village where they wanted people to run the establishment but also have children to populate the tiny school.

They fitted the bill! Now their 8 children provide 2 thirds of the school roll!

During the week, they suggested that instead of eating dinner in the hotel we could go along to the buffet, dance and bingo in the village. We went willingly and had a great time. 400 people of all ages having a great time. We enjoyed the beef stew, the fresh melon, the local unlabelled wine and the conversations. We ended up dancing to Tom Jones’ ‘It’s not unusual’ sung in English with a Spanish accent. We dipped out of the bingo – we do have our limits!

                                        Graham’s mountain top view towards the Med

 

In talking to our hosts later, we realised that they are on a mission, a mission to save and grow their adopted village. The hotel is one of the biggest businesses in the locality. Their welcome warm, their passion infectious and their aims ambitious.

We asked how running a hotel all year worked for their children and when they got a break. They replied this life is good for the children they don’t need a holiday.

Towards the end of a holiday Mags and I asked ourselves; “Would we come back here?” This time we said we might, just to see how our new friends are getting on.

Graham Brownlee, August 2017

 

The art of apology, the truth behind a condemnation

You know the words – “I am sorry if I have offended you in any way!”  You maybe said them yourself or had them said to you. I have certainly done both. 

But on careful observation this is not an apology at all. The speaker is not saying sorry for what she/he have said or done, but regretted it’s affect. She/he is sorry about how the affected person feels or the response engendered.

This is subtle and very clever. So the problem is not the first action but the reaction by those on the receiving end. The speaker is actually putting the focus on the other person and diverting it from themselves. The offended one now has the onus put back on them for feeling wronged! This is a deft assertion of power over another and highly controlling. In fact it is no apology at all.

Try playing those tapes in your memory of when you have said and heard these words and see how it fits.

Here’s another statement – “I condemn all forms of violence on both sides.” This paraphrases Donald Trump’s vacillating words following confrontations in Charlottesville. But such vague words are commonly on the lips of leaders – consider Theresa May last summer on the USA’s position on climate change or Jeremy Corbyn on Venezuela. What the leader is actually saying is that I don’t feel strongly about the rights and wrongs of this issue, or I may even sympathise with the extreme/ unpalatable positions being taken, or I already have alliances in this area that are gagging me. So in a subtle move the politician ignores the underlying issue and focuses on the headline-making effects. So the political leader makes ambiguous statements rather that taking a much needed principled stand. In these cases no real and deep condemnation is being made. More so, the onus for responsibility and action is then put upon others, especially those on the front line. In saying such things the leader is exercising power and saying I regard control and vested interest over principled leadership. (Indeed violent confrontation may play into the hands of a leader seeking exercise control and appeal to those on the extremes.)

Often in the ensuing days, the weakness of the condemnation is spotted. Advisors come out to clarify and strengthen the initial statement, to ameliorate the damage or ‘misunderstanding. But the hearers are not fooled. In those initial statements we actually learnt where Trump, May and Corbyn truly stand, in what they didn’t say as much as what they did. For a mix of the reasons given above Donald Trump will continally fall short of issuing the clear statement against right wing extremism that is so necessary.

Extremism is to be condemned (likewise abuse of our environment and oppressive regimes). Violence should be too, but the violence is not the primary issue – this is fundamentally about values and justice. The root matter is that we are failing to express our core values credibly/consistently and at the same time give freedom and scope for these to be critiqued openly and peacefully applied. Condemnation is needed at times but it should be unambiguously focused.

Do this well and we uphold inclusion and justice whilst letting all have a voice. Fail to do this and we undermine equality and freedom, in forgetting what it is about and thinking that it can be won by violence.

When it comes to condemning, I guess we can all play a similar game. Moaning about the symptoms and brushing away underlying causes when it suits us.

Genuine apology and responsible condemnation are key elements for a person of integrity and a fair society.

It is time to reflect how apologies and condemnations work in our society and at a personal level how we apologise and what we find time to condemn.

Graham Brownlee, August 2017

 

Time to be bored

Earlier this month Lauren Child was named as the new children’s laureate. Her comments on children being allowed to be bored seem insightful to me.

As a parent, I can remember the pressure children place on us by complaining to be bored. Stung by this complaint parents and carers set off on a relentless endeavor to find activities to fill our children’s attention. This is tough but often fruitless.

In education and spiritual development this is also pertinent. If someone says they are bored it is not, of itself, a problem. What we do need to consider is how we are encouraging children to be creative and use their idle times, rather than falling into the trap of simply filling their senses as a distraction.

In terms of Christian spirituality this is what Sabbath is all about. A space in the rhythm of our lives when we have time, a day, when we can be bored, refreshed and creative in God’s presence.

I want to make a distinction between being bored and things being boring. If things are boring then we are not offering or finding the stimulation to dream, experiment and be inspired. As Lauren Child puts it – it is good to be bored in a wonderful world and so discover so much of ourselves and life.

Lauren Child considers being bored as a way to be open to what is around us in a more open and imaginative way. So being bored opens us up to things beyond our initial consciousness, to new and wider things – it is to be receptive to the other.

This is something profoundly Christian. To be still and enlivened so that we can perceive God and all that God has created. To see things beyond our prejudices, existing preoccupations. This is to be encouraged in all generations.

It is time to pause. To be bored. To be open to people and things outside ourselves and our busy agendas.

Graham Brownlee, June 2017

Making sense and taking responsibility

The recent terror attacks in Manchester and London have once again presented us with the challenge of how we respond to those who claim to act in the name of Islam.

It seems to me that two polarised approaches just don’t stand up:

The first is to say that this illustrates that such violence is the way of Islam; that flies in the face of the core commitment of Muslims to prayer, charity and hospitality. The other approach is to say that this has nothing to do with Islam. Yet these perpetrators are claiming an Islamic motivation, which is certainly a twisted perversion of Islam but it needs to be addressed and not denied.

At different times in history and in different current circumstances, Christians have had to recognise what is done in the name of the Christian faith and take a stand to confront and name these crimes.

On Monday, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, made this point and made the connection with the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica.

To give another example, I remember the unrest and violence on the streets of Birmingham when I was starting out in ministry in the late 1980s. Some involved and committing these acts were young people from the urban church communities. I remember vividly, church leaders weeping and sharing in acts of community soul searching and repentance. Not because they had taught that people should act this way, nor because they were directly responsible, but because these young people had been nurtured and taught in a Christian worldview which clearly hadn’t sustained them.

These examples show two shortcomings: Firstly people twist faith and secondly people nurtured in faith disguard the hope faith offers for patterns of violence or behaviours in which only the fit survive.

So I believe that faith does not teach these violent acts but faith is implicated and shares a responsibility because it needs to foster and create the world it teaches.

I believe that we are obligated to reach out to all faith leaders and say we understand and we stand with you. And at the same time to say we ask you condemn acts and see that faith is connected with these events and the solutions.

The responsibility of faith is to say that our arms have not been strong enough to save from, or our influence not clear enough to encounter extremism. The responsibility is to say that faith plays a crucial part in finding solutions.

We can ask this of fellow Muslim leaders because on other occasions we have had to tread this path ourselves, as Christians. In that sense, we show solidarity.

This is a difficult path to follow, it is one about making sense and taking responsibility. It involves digging deeper to find how and why our faith is twisted (by powerful institutions and evil rebels), in what ways we fall short and how we can find a better way.

I am reminded of the prayer of Nehemiah (Nehemiah 1: 1 – 11), who observed a desperate situation, wept, confessed the sins of the people in wider society and concluded by asking for God’s help in shaping a new future.

I sense that if we, as people of faith, don’t work in these ways, and pray such prayers, then we will abdicate the public space and leave it to politicians and policy makers who are ill equipped to resolve things themselves.

I was struck by London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s powerful response that as a patriotic British Muslim these acts were not done in his name. In a diverse democracy, there are many acts committed by either individuals or governments that we want to say are not done in our name. We can show the world that when we deeply object to things that are done – we can and should protest, campaign, pray, even create disturbance but we do not follow violence and destruction. We have the opportunity to show positive, honest and responsible ways to say: Not in my name.

My argument is not to merge all faiths into one, nor to move faith to the margins. Rather, as a Christian, to say that we need to learn to coexist in this world for our sake and that of our children. We must not allow ourselves to become different tribes simply nervous and suspicious of each other

Simply apportioning blame or proclaiming our innocence won’t do, we are involved and part of the solution.

I write this as a Christian man in his 50s, who is a husband, father and pastor. So this is not just an theoretical argument, it is personal.

Over the years, I have seen pastors and church people wrestling with how to live as Christians our society. It is tempting to live in a separate bubble of faith away from all this – but it just isn’t credible.

With our children, I have come to realise that the headlines of “the other groups are awful” or “we all love and are in this together” end up sounding like slogans that we give each other. Real life is more complex and with them I must get off my high horse and be prepared to work things out.

I hold to my belief in Christ with the same assurance and passion, but not as something to hide behind, rather something to put my hope in.

Graham Brownlee, June 2017

Three Girls – the need for respect and responsibility

The recent Three Girls drama on BBC1 gave a powerful and troubling focus on the Rochdale child sex abuse scandal. The series is well worth a watch; check the BBC I player http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/group/b08rgd5n

The portrayal shows the lack of respect shown to the teenage girls who were groomed, the courage of a health worker and the struggles faced by parents in showing support.

As a Trustee of Parents against Child Sexual Exploitation ( www.paceuk.info )  I have some knowledge and a perspective on all this. I recognise that ‘Three Girls’ tells an unfinished story powerfully and in compelling terms.

I think that we can draw out some lessons:

We need to respect those with a lived experience and not simply box what we see to fit our predetermined positions. This means looking carefully at what young girls (and sometimes boys) are going through, what they are saying and why. This means hearing what parents and carers know, recognise their knowledge. It means encouraging professionals to pause and follow through on what they observe. I suggest that girls (boys) and parents are not simply victims caught up in events but powerful and courageous advocates. Front line workers are in position to cause matters to be taken seriously. Parents and children need respect and workers need training and support.

On the other hand, we need to practice responsibility. We do everyone a disservice if we just view these as personal stories that just happened. People and institutions are responsible in different ways. Most obviously abusers need to be held responsible. But statutory bodies need to take responsibility to ensure that whoever faces similar challenges, wherever they live, shall be respected and taken seriously. We also need communities and institutions to take responsibility not to foster a climate where difficult issues are shunned and positive messages not spoken.

Thankfully child sexual exploitation is now widely recognised. What we need to ensure is that children receive safety and respect, that parents are not excluded by agencies from processes to tackle CSE issues. If this is not the case children will remain vulnerable and parents will be force outside the system and away from the bodies set up to deal with such matters. For agencies working in the field (social services, police, schools and the legal bodies) there should be a required level of training and awareness support by strong protocols for action.

I continue to listen and speak with people with various experiences on matters of child sexual abuse. We have moved from denying the issue, to achieving prosecutions and now to producing dramas. But we are kidding ourselves if we think we have resolved how we tackle child sexual exploitation or that we have settled and consistent practice. I am grateful for courageous young people and parents and appreciative of good practice but provision is patchy across the country.

An award for Sara Rowbotham and appreciation of the ‘Three Girls’ drama is well deserved but neither will change a great deal if we don’t offer more respect and take more responsibility.

Graham Brownlee, May 2017

Pray for Manchester, Pray for us

The suicide bombing at the Manchester Arena on Monday night has shaken so many people. Today I have felt and been aware of a stunned quietness around. Experiencing this in Leeds may be because this happen close by in Manchester, or maybe because it happened at an Arena concert which many of us would go to.

Then come the messages…

From someone who knows someone effected

From people expressing strong opinions

From people offering to help

From people pulling together.

Now is a time to pray for the strength of spirit in Manchester and across the country. Also, to pray for comfort for those who have lost so much. We give thanks for the care, hospitality and courage of Police and emergency services as well as community members.

Terrorism seeks to spread fear, to undermine society from the inside out, it seeks to divide us to control us. Horrific events take our breath away and cause us to loose our focus.

So, what can we do?

We can recognise that there are people of hate, but they are not us. We can be strong together. It seems to me that it is vital to keep talking and listening to one another at times like this. To say what we know and what we feel. This is a counter to fake news, isolation and rumour.

We can also talk about our experiences. This incident will disproportionately affect children and young people. By definition younger people have gone through less so have less experience and context to relate to. I heard the Andy Burnham (the mayor of Manchester) and Richard Leese (the leader of Manchester City Council) talk of the things the people of Manchester have been through in the past. It is so helpful to talk of things we have been through before and gain perspective and strength from that.

Cities in England have been through bombings and atrocities before. People have been through personal tragedy.

I find help from the paraphrase of a Proverbs, which is obviously old writing that has been tested over time:

“When you are disappointed and your hopes are deashed, the heart is crushed, but when hope for the future comes true it fills you with joy.” Proverbs 13: 12

We are light years from joy but we are experiencing hopes dashed and hearts crushed. Hope remains and grow, even though sorely tested.

Let us pray, talk to one another, share feelings and experiences. Let us consider the traumatic stories unfolding before us and the great resilience which will shine through. Life cannot go on as if nothing has happened, but life does go on more carefully, intentionally and more hopefully.

Graham Brownlee, May 2017

Trouble with our history… Graham’s blog

Just over a year ago a campaign to remove a statue of Cecil Rhodes from Oriel College in Oxford (above) was in the headlines, as it tackled the apparent honoured prominence given to an architect of apartheid. In the past week European athletics has proposed striking off records set before 2005, because drugs tests at that time weren’t up to today’s standards.

Apartheid and drug cheating cannot be condoned but it seems to be a bit of a gesture to assume that such actions will change a great deal. Indeed, it is easy to be wise after the event.

It seems that the greater value and yet the harder task is to reshape our current attitudes and future priorities.

It strikes me that Jesus was repeatedly pressed to apportion retrospective blame when faced with the injustices of his day. He refused to fall into this trap. Instead he focused upon attitudes, what can be done now, hopes and the future. “This happened so that God’s work might be revealed…” “Blessed are the poor, for yours in the Kingdom of God. Blessed are you that hunger now, for you shall be satisfied”

In speaking in this way Jesus turned us to what is happening in the present, and what can be hoped for. He also directly confronted those who were oppressing in the present rather than those who had got away with it in the past. This turns us away from gestures and towards ongoing behaviour and what we seek to build for ourselves and future generations.

Now Christians can fall into a similar trap when reviewing our difficult past, as individuals and church, and when facing disconcerting passages in the Bible. Once again, their uncomfortableness should not be cheaply expunged but rather help us to be real about the past and better able to engage in the present.

Graham Brownlee, May 2017

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