Hospitality matters!

I've been travelling a fair bit lately, and as a result have experienced a lot of hospitality. In the vast majority of cases it has been fantastic - in fact many times, one of the highlights of my trip is the time I get to hang around with people, in their homes, over meals etc.

I think as Christians we hold, and need to continue to hold hospitality in very high regard. Being hospitable is a characteristic required of overseers in both 1 Timothy 3:2 and Titus 1:8. It is something we are all commanded to do in Heb 13:2 (because you never know who you might be looking after!) and we are to do it without grumbling (1Pet 4:9).

Implicit in these exhortations is the fact that hospitality will be costly - and of course, that is reality. You'll need to pick up your guest from the airport or the station. They'll probably need driving around somewhere which will interrupt what you normally do. You might need to rearrange bedrooms for the duration and of course there'll be extra washing, cleaning and feeding to do.

But its interesting, it seems to me apart from the comment in Heb 13:2, the benefits of hospitality aren't much spoken about in the Bible. But there are many benefits.

You and your family will get to make a new friend. Most guests are usually really interesting people who really appreciate time with other people rather than sitting by themselves in a hotel room. My kids still have very fond memories of visitors we've had over the year. One particular visitor (who will remain nameless - but think England, well known, evangelism course) has entered our family folklore with regard to his enthusiastic brownie consumption.

It is a great way to expand your horizons. You learn many things about the world we live in and its different cultures by hosting a guest from a far off land.

If you're in a situation where there are kids in your house, its a great way to model kindness and generosity to them. When they see Mum and Dad being open and welcoming to guests - it is sure to rub off later in life.

So - be hospitable!

(Today's photo is me high up in the Andes outside Santiago in Chile - where I enjoyed wonderful hospitality!)

Advantages of a church calendar

I'm not exactly what you would call an apologist for the prayer book, the lectionary or any of that stuff. But - this Easter I have been reminded of what a great heritage some sort of order of church worship gives us.

This Easter weekend I was in the south of Chile, teaching a MOCLAM subject in intensive mode. We had 12 hours of class a day for 3 days - and the students will be doing their exam later this week. It was a pretty full on few days!

Each morning and evening session began with a devotional, and given that the days included Good Friday and Easter Day, I kindof assumed that we would be thinking about the death and resurrection of Jesus.

But we didn't. In fact, during the whole weekend, not one word was mentioned about Easter.

I wondered whether that might be a Chilean thing, so I asked around a bit. No - for most people, Easter is a big thing and many of the churches were having special events, public celebrations etc. But not this group. It made me wonder why? Why was it that we could spend a weekend together as a group of Christians, and not mark the most important date in our calendar?

My theory is something like this - and I haven't asked whether there is any truth to my theory, because I didn't want to come across as accusing or superior.

Everyone on the group was from a freechurch, or independent church background - contexts where they prided themselves on their flexibility and informality of churchmanship. In many cases they are reacting against the cold, repetition of prayers and utterances which they have seen bore countless generation - they want to be new and fresh and engaging. And so they have done away with the old forms.

Now I'm all for new and engaging (as long as the Bible is still there) and have no particular love of old things because they are old, but it raises an interesting question. If you are going to get rid of something, it is worthwhile thinking about what you are going to replace it with. In some cases I think with these folks, lots of thought has gone into the 'getting rid of' part of the process, but not so much into the 'replacement' part.

It is possible that one of byproducts of this 'out with the old' feeling, is that some of the observance and remembrance aspects which are so clear in the prayer book and fixed liturgies have been lost - including in this case, a careful observance of Easter.

Thats a shame I think - because I wonder if we lost a great opportunity to reflect together and encourage each other on what is a joyful and important time in our Christian life.

Another cultural insight

I was chatting with a friend yesterday and he mentioned a difficulty his small group was having with a passage in Acts.

The passage was Acts 13:1-3 - where the church in Antioch send out Barnabas and Saul. I read the passage, thought 'it looks like a pretty standard 'missionary commissioning' sort of thing' and wondered what the problem was.

The problem the group was having was this. 'What happened to the church in Antioch?' As the story continues in Acts 13 the missionary journey of Paul and Barnabas is followed, but we don't hear much about the 'sending church'.

I was kind of - oh well, doesn't matter, I guess it carried on as normal, just with a few less members who might have been missed for a couple of weeks but life went on.

But no - and here was the cultural insight. This was a great concern for my friend's group, because here in many cases the identity of the church is very, very closely bound with the identity of the pastor. Saul (son to be Paul) and Barnabas were clearly very important pastors in the church in Antioch (they had been there for a year Acts 11:26), so for them to leave, in the mind of the group here, was an almost unimaginable thing.

Not only that, but they didn't just leave, the church sent them out!

Because of the strong link between the church and the pastor here, that was a very difficult concept for the group to get their head around.

And so I asked - what happens when a pastor leaves a church? I mean, surely it happens.

Well, yes, it does, but often it is the source of great disruption and division in the church. It depends a bit on the circumstances, but sometimes a significant number of the congregation will leave and go with the pastor to his new position, or sometimes they will just leave. Sometimes it precipitates a huge power struggle, because the church / identity / pastor link is so strong the vacuum needs to be filled. Sometimes the position can never be filled, because the new guy can never be as good as the old guy.

But I asked - what about sending missionaries. If it is so difficult for a pastor to leave, what hope is there for the congregation to send him off as a missionary.

'Not much' was my friend's reply.

I'm very thankful for the 'sending' culture of our churches in Sydney. To be sending the pastor away to serve away from 'homebase' short-term or long-term is seen as a great thing to do, not a threat to the health and identity of the church. That is a wonderful reflection of God's concern for the whole world, not just the bit of the world inside our own parish boundary.

(By the way, the picture is of the church Friday night men's group I am part of)

A quick update on courses

Just wanted to let you know of some good things that are happening at the moment.

Last week, and this week, there is an 'intensive' class running for staffworkers of COMPA - the Mexican IFES group. 10 staffworkers have gathered from all corners of Mexico here in Monterrey, at the house of our friends John and Jan to have a 'mini-sabbatical' of study and fellowship while the uni students are on holidays.

The aim is that each student will complete (including doing the exams) 3 MOCLAM courses in 2 weeks. Last week I taught New Testament 1 to one group, while another group did Old Testament 2. This week, I'm John and I are teaching Old Testament 1, while one of the more experienced students is teaching Creation to New Creation to a couple of newbies, and two others are helping each other through Reformation Church History. In their free time they are reading Doctrine 1 by themselves.

Its been a great time so far, and promises to continue this week. Amongst the study there is plenty of time for discussing other issues, eating and mucking around.

So - good things happening here.

CMS Gift catalog

Just in case you're madly rushing around doing Christmas shopping and can't work out what to get. CMS has some great ideas - including a way to directly help the work we are doing here in Latin America.

http://www.cms.org.au/product/gift-catalogue

The northern hemisphere calendar

It's that time of year when everything's finishing up. School's finished for another year, work Christmas parties, kids are beginning the transition from primary to high school - or is it??

One of the things which is really striking us at the moment is what a difference being in the northern hemisphere makes to the way you view December and Christmas. While our southern hemisphere friends are rushing about madly doing having their school parties and farewells and Christmas functions and looking forward to a long summer holiday - we're not. I'll be working on Christmas eve and will start again after a few days break - back to normal.

We have the Christmas stuff - although here it all happens on the night of Christmas Eve, but we don't have the associated feeling of 'the year is ending' - because its not!. We get 2 weeks school holiday (after an 18 week term!), and then the year continues as normal. It really puts quite a different spin on Christmas.

(Of course long term northern hemisphere readers are thinking - of course, what are you talking about!)

But as the days get shorter and colder and we hear of the Christmas holiday stories floating our way over the Pacific - man, would it be nice to be on the beach at Valla this Christmas!

Catch a wave or two for us.

(By the way, the photo is of Grahame and Patty Scarratt and I at Bulli Anglican Church in November, at the 'festejo' to celebrate 30 years of Scarratt ministry in Latin America, and me being handed the 'poncho' to be the Director of MOCLAM)

When worlds collide

There are two big events coming up in Mexico in the next few weeks that make us ask of few questions about what our involvement should be.

On the 31st of October there's Halloween, and then on the 2nd of November its 'Day of the Dead'.

You can easily find good summaries of the history of Halloween, but it basically seems an adaption of a pagan festival from times past. In most cases I think the dominant theme now is consumerism with a 'ghosty' twist.

Thanks to our proximity to the USA, Halloween is becoming very popular here. At the moment there are quite a few decorations up around the place and yesterday at the supermarket I stood behind someone buying a plastic battle axe. (I assume it was plastic!) On the night of the 31st there will be groups of kids wandering the streets asking (or in most cases demanding) lolllies.

The whole thing seems to tap into the growing interest in spiritual 'other wordly' sorts of things which is being reflected in TV, movies and literature.

Day of the Dead is a bit different. Its more tradition than commercialism, more about family than lollies, more religious than fantasy. Its a great example of how the catholicism of the conquistadors has been mixed up with some of the beliefs and practices of the early inhabitants of Mexico. On the day, many people will visit the grave of loved ones, for all sorts of reasons. Some to reflect and mourn, others to celebrate, others to spend time touching up the grave and repainting the headstone.

In the classrooms at school and altar (thats what it is called) is constructed and the kids are invited to place pictures and favourite things of dead relatives on it, and the classroom is decorated in traditional stuff.

This of course presents quite a challenge for the Christian kids and families in the school. Halloween is a bit easier - the simple 'we don't do that' seems to suffice, but when its in the classroom its a bit more difficult.

Also, the altar and the stuff that goes with it is a bit more 'problematic' - if I can put it like that. We can largely ignore Halloween saying its American commercialism - but there is clearly a lot of feeling and belief going around on the day of the dead.

What to do?

Do we encourage the kids to just sit and observe and learn from the culture, or should we be more active that that? Should we say something to the school about what we believe and make a 'stand'? We know we are not of this world and therefore there are going to be things that challenge what we hold true about life, death and resurrection, so how do we respond in this sort of circumstance?

One of the greatest things I've seen recently is a friend who set up a table in her garage with the Two Ways to Live gospel tract displayed on big pictures. When kids came trick or treating, she invited them to take a leaflet, and a lolly, and read through the pictures. Great idea.

I wonder how you might apply this sort of thing in a more public setting, like a school.

We'll go and visit a cemetery on Day of the Dead - its an important part of the culture here and it gives us a great insight into the way people think - but the question of what to say / do / think at school is still churning in my head.