Reed Fleming

Over the years as an Evangelist I have had to give a lot of thought to the stereotypes for that office. People’s minds leap to Elmer Gantry type hucksters or the wealth and prosperity gang or to those who have had very public moral failures. At best the stereotype is a kind of itinerant preacher ala Billy Graham. In place of these stereotypes (not all of them bad but certainly limiting) I want to discuss the archetypal Evangelist, Philip. In fact he is the only one in scripture, given that distinctive title (Acts 21:8).

We are introduced to Philip in Acts 6. He is chosen first as a servant, a deacon to wait on tables. His initial qualification seems to be that he has a ‘servant’s heart’. His focus is on the marginalized and those overlooked so easily. Compassion is the chief virtue of the Evangelist! Philip models a care for ‘the least, the last and the lost’. This remains the archetypal model.

Next we see Philip on the margins again. The Apostles choose to stay at home base after Stephen’s stoning, but Philip makes his way to the Samaritans. Remember this is before Peter and Cornelius set the course for the Church to include other than Jews. Philip is drawn to the sick and afflicted and the power of God among these folks causes a stir which leads to ‘revival’’!

Then in obedience to God’s leading Philip ventures once more into the marginal world. He goes into the desert area. He leaves behind a revival he might claim to have birthed but it does not hold his heart! He is on to the next adventure on the edge. Here he encounters the famous Ethiopian eunuch. The man from Ethiopia does not stop his chariot right away but Philip takes the initiative and does the hard work of coming alongside him (both literally and figuratively). He engages him right where he was and leads him to faith. Then he is off again!

The last glimpse we get of Philip comes in reference to he and his family. He offers a ministry of hospitality (ever the servant) and his four daughters exercised prophetic ministries. This shows us that though he lived in a culture which did not always value women Philip held them (as any father should) in very high regard. It also shows us that he was a faithful disciple. He did not just win converts he followed Jesus command and he made disciples.

It is high time we had a renewal of evangelism after this archetype. I am glad to be in an order of men and women who are determined to model themselves after Philip and to model the ministry of the Evangelist to the Church of Christ. I love Billy graham and I love those who faithfully proclaim the word of God but the ministry of the Evangelist is deeper and richer than that. It is a call to compassionate service on the margins making disciples. I invite you to join us in Threshold Ministries in advocating for the renewal of this archetypal ministry.

I am often amazed at how difficult people find change. I have come to realize that I am the odd duck who thrives on change. Over the last 30 years I have seen a lot of change; some of it in the mirror but more in the world around us. When I first started in ministry Al Gore had not yet invented the internet! Communicating the Good News was much easier because everyone shared the same ‘world view’ . The reality now is much different and we have had to adapt as we recognize that communicating the Gospel is always a cross-cultural event. This transition from proclamation alone to a proclamation rooted in incarnation has been the most exciting journey of my life. It has required of me a fresh understanding of my calling and a renewed appreciation of the life and ministry of Jesus. It has made me a student, once again, of the Red Letters. It has made me a passionate student of others so that I can establish authentic ways of communicating timeless truth in ways that can be heard and gladly received. This change has been a blast for me! I often do not know exactly what I am doing and it is always messy but for me at least this is part of the abundant life that is a part of God’s economy.

One thing has become emblematic of this, the change of name from Church Army to Threshold Ministries. Many are finding this personally difficult and I understand that but this change is not primarily for us it is for those who have yet to hear of Jesus’ amazing love! This after all is our ‘raison d’être’ .  It will likely be a challenge for me to substitute ‘Threshold’ for ‘Church Army’ but if doing so wins a hearing for the Good News, it will be well worth it.

Fossils have scientific value because they never change. We are much more likely to have Kingdom value as we remain open to Holy Spirit possibilities, which will no doubt lead us into change and further blessing. To all this I say “Father, bring it on!”

Last night we had our final farewell to Carolyn. We had our own memorial service. Folks from a number of different churches and communities join us. There were a lot of memories shared but perhaps the most poignant was from Chris. After our Christmas banquet Carolyn asked he and his brother Bill to join Winnie and her for coffee. Chris heart had been stirred early as Carolyn had shared at a chapel service before our usual south end lunch time. Over coffee with Carolyn and Winnie, Chris asked Jesus to be his Saviour. Chris expressed that he would be eternally grateful! At the end of the service Bruce prayed for all the other lives into which Carolyn had sown seed. Perhaps you would like to join us in praying for a continuing harvest as the best memorial to a life spent extravagantly for Jesus.

This is a nostalgic time for me! April 26^th marks the commissioning of a group of 6 of my students. I look back and marvel at how God has worked in their lives. Not one of them is the same person who walked in our doors at the onset of their time with us. It has been a great privilege to walk these last years with these folks. It will be exciting to see to see how God will use them in the years ahead. I am humbled to be a part of their formation. I never expected to be in this position!

30 years ago I too was commissioned, and I had no aspiration to being principal of a college. In fact I hoped I was through with education. A little over 10 years ago I was ‘dragged’ to Taylor College to teach Evangelism Studies. Through a bewildering set of circumstances I somehow found myself heading up the college as the Director of Formation. My head is still spinning at the idea and I remain mystified as to why God would orchestrate such an outcome. When I realised that leadership had been thrust upon me I sought the Lord for guidance. I read the words of Jesus “You know that the Rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them…. Not so with you. Instead whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant.”  This, as we would expect, was the best advice I could have gotten. As I entered this new calling I knew I was not a great academic or a great administrator but perhaps I could aspire to being a servant. This verse has strangely comforted me and helped calm insecurities and at the same time challenged me and made me realize my inadequacy apart from Jesus.

For years I had exercised a ministry of addition but now I have the joy of being involved in a ministry of multiplication. I see students who will touch lives I could never dream of touching; who will accomplish Kingdom exploits which are beyond me. This is an unexpected joy!

His ways are not our ways.  In one of my favourite passages St. Paul breaks into song “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgements and His paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counsellor? Who has ever given to God that God should repay him? For from him and through Him and to Him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen”

I find myself in a reflective and nostalgic place. I am truly grateful.

I have always felt pretty comfortable hearing talks about the love of money being the root of all evil. I don’t want to give the idea that my family lives in poverty but we are certainly not wealthy and in my chosen field that is unlikely to change! So I have felt fairly sanctimonious when this topic comes up. But God got my attention through a Canadian Tire flyer which found its way to me. I skipped over the high ticket items but the little relatively inexpensive gadgets caught my eye. It dawned on me that I needed these things! Of course I do not really need more gadgets. I probably should find good homes for the ones I have. In that brief moment I saw my heart in a whole new way. No longer could I smugly look on while others dealt with issues of avarice or acquisitiveness. I had a lower budget version of the same issues.

In the Parable of the Loving Father, the young son in his opening dialogue illustrates this same vice. He says “Give me my inheritance” later in the story his older brother demonstrates this same attitude as he says to his father “You never gave me…” It was only as the younger one changed from a father “give me” attitude to a father “make me” one, that things changed.

My poor attitude and that of the two sons in Jesus’ parable is rampant in the west and it is not at all missing in the western church. Jesus spoke a lot about the use of our money and we say “Yes, Lord” but do not heed his admonitions to treasure Him and His Kingdom first. In many places, in fact the church teaches that we ought to be financially blessed and if we are not there is something deficient about our faith. This ‘health and prosperity gospel’ is very attractive in the west but it is a perversion of good news to the poor Jesus came to proclaim.

I am convinced that for the gospel to gain credibility again in the west that the Church must stand against this pernicious mindset. But we can only creditably do that if we take the plank from our own eye. I do not pretend to know what this means for you but for me it means I must ask myself some new questions “What would Jesus buy?” and “Where would Jesus shop?”. I need to as additionally “Who is helped by this purchase?”  “Who is harmed?”

I want to be generous and hold things lightly and I want to be a good steward of what God has entrusted to me, whether that is little or much. Like the younger son I want to repent and say “Father make me as one of your servants”

This is a matter of personal integrity and it ought to be an issue of integrity for the Church in the world. Clothed in that kind of integrity we may speak good news to the poor with greater and greater authority.

Our female students just finished a great project “Beautifully Made”. This was an attempt to ameliorate the attack that girls are under in our day and age, especially around issues of self image and body image. They hosted 10 girls for a sleep over with the theme being that we are beautifully made. The girls had a tremendous time of fun and left feeling inspired to not conform to this world but to be transformed by the renewing of their minds. The project took weeks to plan and was over all too soon but it was a transcendent experience.

A couple of weeks ago I was wrote, “When we speak of incarnational ministry we talk about following the example of Jesus as he came in flesh to a particular culture and time. In that context he gave us the essentials for living out the Gospel in every culture.” Some readers asked me to write about what these essential or irreducible elements might be. The following is my attempt to describe these.

I believe there are 4 essential and irreducible elements which ought to be present in every church no matter its cultural setting.

1. “Jesus is Lord”

In Deuteronomy 6 we read “The Lord our God is one . Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and all your strength.” This is calling marks Israel as distinct from all other nations. They are to have one God who is Lord over every aspect of life. In the New Testament this concept is explicated in the simple phrase. “Jesus is Lord” For the Church Jesus is Lord over every aspect and His Lordship is to be the consuming passion of all we do and are.

1. Respect for scriptures

I do not intend to hold biblical inerrancy as the standard, though I personally have a very high view of scripture, but differences in this ought to be permissible if we can recognize that it is through Scripture that we encounter the truth about God. The Bible then becomes an authority on the life and practise of the church as it seeks to incarnate the Gospel in a particular setting. At the same time we ought to recognize that we worship the Trinity revealed in Scripture and do not make the scriptures themselves co-equal with the God Head. We avoid bibliolatry.

1. Communion

A respectful reading of scripture illustrates that the gathering around the table to remember the saving activity of God in Christ is expected of the Church. I would suggest that how and how often might be questions of context rather than of division.

1. Baptism

Like communion baptism seems to be commanded and therefore ought to be practised by an obedient church in a way that is appropriate for that community.

Now I am sure that readers will have suggestions of other elements I have not mentioned. I have thought of hundreds myself but I think that most of them can be reduced (remember ‘irreducible’ was the goal) to an element named above.

I hope that we can get a conversation going around this. I know that some ‘emerging’ churches would not fit with my, dare I say orthodox, views. We cannot attempt to be culturally relevant at the expense of a faithful witness or we fail to be the Church.

Let the conversation begin

I was pondering the other day how it came to be that churches earned tax exempt status with the government and how donations to churches became tax deductible. I surmise that during the ‘Christendom’ era that churches were seen as making a positive contribution to the communities around them and society as a whole. In so far as these assumptions are true the current system favouring churches makes good public policy. I wonder though whether there might not be a change coming in recognition of a church that does not particularly bless its community or the society outside its walls. The ‘maintenance’ model of church where the great preponderance of resources, both human and financial, is invested in self perpetuation may no longer deserve these favourable regulations.

The assumption in these regulations is that the church is a missionary enterprise with a missional focus. I believe it is a matter of integrity that the church live up to the expectations of society in general regarding this issue of mission. So to paraphrase John F. Kennedy “Ask not ‘How your community can bless you?’ but rather ask ‘How can we bless our community?’”

When we were first planting Up Town, we began with a lot of community meals. At these we sat and listened to people. We walked the neighbourhood and chatted with people on their door stoops. Out of this we identified a couple of needs we felt we could address. We started offering healing prayer for a community that suffered from a variety of illnesses and a inefficient health care system. As we opened the doors of our “Healing Clinic” we did so with a lot of nervousness. Would people come? Would God answer our prayers? We took a risk and we met a number of people who honestly shared their pain. We came to love people and they came to like us. We did not witness extraordinary miracles but we did see God move in our community. Ron came to us our first clinic night asking for prayer. He needed a kidney transplant quite badly. We prayed. The next week Ron wasn’t there. I became concerned and asked around. I found he was in Halifax recovering from transplant surgery. Ron is one of our core members at Up Town today.

As we walked the neighbourhood, prayerfully, I noticed that buildings did not exhibit dyer vents. As I asked people about this I found that the rooming houses did not have laundry facilities. In further conversations I asked how people handled their laundry. Many folks would simply not do laundry. They would dispose of clothing that became too soiled and go to a clothing bank for more. Over time with mostly volunteer labour we renovated an unused spot in the basement and put two washers and dryer in place. We charge $1 for a green garbage bag load of laundry. During the 2 hours it takes to do laundry we have engaged in meaningful relationships with our friends. Through these times we identify more and more ways that we can bless our community. Other neighbourhoods are now looking to our laundry as a model for their outreach.

Out of the soil of these missional activities has grown a beautiful church. At Up Town we describe ourselves like this “Up Town is an honest accepting community of broken people who are: experiencing the Father’s love, finding wholeness in Jesus and performing acts of kindness in the power of the Holy Spirit”. Through our ongoing emphasis on acts of kindness we keep our missional focus. I can’t help but feel that as we bless others God is blessing us.

 There are all sorts of people talking these days about planting churches. The difficulty is that many people who are planning to plant churches have in mind what kind of church they want to plant. In general this is a good thing. Any farmer ought to have in mind what kind of crop he hopes to harvest but at the same time a good farmer examines the soil to see what kind of crop it can grow and sustain. This was the downfall of church planting missionaries in past centuries. The crop desired was a model of church which was in the planters mind without respect to the culture of the currently unchurched. The new wave of church planters can make this same mistake. They think that the model they have experienced or conceived is ‘the’ model for church and that the crop of new churches ought to conform to that image.

I believe that we must know, what are the irreducible elements in being a Christian church, and to hold on to these relentlessly. I would suggest that this might be quite a short list but it ought to then be absolutely non-negotiable. All else then ought to be open to cultural expression.

I think that Christian culture (if this is not an oxymoron) unthinkingly assumes that we share the same culture with the vast majority of folks in North America. This is patently not the case! In fact there are currently 6 generations alive on our soil and least 5 different culture expressions which distinguish them. Planting a ‘Boomer’ church will be different from planting a ‘Gen X’ church. Planting in suburbia is different than urban which is different from rural. High Density population in high rises or trailer parks are distinct from single family dwellings. Wealthy, middle class and the poor each have distinctive and we haven’t even begun to describe racial and ethnic differences.

When we speak of incarnational ministry we talk about following the example of Jesus as he came in flesh to a particular culture and time. In that context he gave us the essentials for living out the Gospel in every culture.

I am a firm believer in church planting. I have been involved in leading a church plant for the past 6 years. It has not turned out at all like I had conceived it (thank God) but we have found a way of being the Body of Christ in Uptown Saint John, and in doing so we have discovered the most authentic church in my experience. I hope to take all I have learned about contextualizing the Good News, and plant another church, some day but even as I dream that I know it won’t look like Up Town but it will share the essential DNA which must be present in all faithful churches. Not only is that okay but I believe it is preferable!

The prophet Joel speaks of “the valley of decision” and I think it is here that we ought to meet and engage people in our efforts toward mission and evangelism. People who are in valley of decision are considering a new way. They are pondering different options. They are seeking for answers or light or truth. It is at this juncture in life when our friends are open to new possibilities that lie in the Gospel. There may be times when collectively we are in the valley of decision. I remember there being a new questioning after the Twin Towers crumbled and our safe North American world was shaken. But the valley of decision is more often travelled by solitary sojourners. He is struggling as he faces unemployment. She is seeking answers as she watches a friend waste away of illness. A young person seeks to ‘individuate’ but doesn’t know yet who he or she really is. The executive has been climbing the corporate ladder but now wonders if it is leaning against the right wall. All these are in valley of decision though it may seem like being stuck in indecision. These scenarios and millions like them are being played out all around us and we cannot afford to be oblivious! It is in the situations that people are ready to hear the Good News as it is shown as relevant to them. Thousands upon thousands of people are in this valley at any given moment. Writers, who are wiser than I, call this experience “liminality”. It is describe as that space between letting go of the old and latching on to the new. It is the place of change. It is the valley of decision. Liminal is from a Greek root which would translate into English as threshold. People find themselves each day in this liminal space. This place of deciding to let go but not yet firmly decided to latch onto something new. It is here on the threshold that we can best meet and influence people toward decisive Gospel oriented outcomes. If we are waiting for these searchers who are in this liminal space, to come to church for answers, we will be a long time waiting. As I have written earlier the institutional attractional church has already been discounted by 21st Century seekers. But when we engage in incarnational and missional activity, when we meet people as we engage culture in relevant ways, we can meaningfully impact folks in these liminal spaces. That we don’t have opportunities is our shame. I believe that the fields continue, as ever, white unto harvest. But the harvest is in fields not in the church. We find that we engage people most effectively in what are described as ‘third places’. These are places that are not our homes or our work but are places where we feel a sense of belonging and comfort. There are many such places where we can comfortably meet people and if there are not we can create them. This is what incarnational mission is all about. Creating third space is not the goal though. Building trust loving relationships is the goal and third place is a convenient venue. As we build these relationships our friends will share with us their “valley of decision” that is their liminal space where all decisions are made. Through the integrity of our lives and the power of the Gospel people may well consider God as they decide, if not this time then perhaps next time for we can be sure that we will all visit the ‘valley of decision’ again in the not too distant future. In conclusion, let me ask you to be prayerfully sensitive to the liminal spaces your friends are experiencing. Lovingly share the reason for the hope you have. Let’s continue to build trusting loving relationships, finding or creating third places to be homes for our incarnational mission.