The Feast: Kairos Launch & the Bishop's challenge

On Friday 15th October we gathered at the Yorkshire Hotel - 116 Kairos people and guests with Bishop John Packer to give thanks and celebrate not only our existence but our emergence into the new thing God has called us to. It was a great privilege to see the range of people, all so different yet a real buzz of unity, of shared hearts and minds for the sake of the kingdom.
We started the meal by breaking bread together and then between courses we had stories of life-transforming moments as people have encountered Jesus and followed him. We committed ourselves to the heart of our faith in the words of the baptismal promises and affirmed our commitment to Jesus.
After the main course the Bishop said a few words to us - words of really helpful challenge which I have reproduced below for you to reflect on.
A great evening - as always the people made it special.

KAIROS CHALLENGE – OCTOBER 2010

I Corinthians 12 vv 4-13 (The Message Version) 

 ^4-11God's various gifts are handed out everywhere; but they all originate in God's Spirit. God's various ministries are carried out everywhere; but they all originate in God's Spirit. God's various expressions of power are in action everywhere; but God himself is behind it all. Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits. All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit, and to all kinds of people! The variety is wonderful:

   wise counsel
   clear understanding
   simple trust
   healing the sick
   miraculous acts
   proclamation
   distinguishing between spirits
   tongues
   interpretation of tongues.
   All these gifts have a common origin, but are handed out one by one by the one Spirit of God. He decides who gets what, and when.
 ^12-13You can easily enough see how this kind of thing works by looking no further than your own body. Your body has many parts—limbs, organs, cells—but no matter how many parts you can name, you're still one body. It's exactly the same with Christ. By means of his one Spirit, we all said good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything. (This is what we proclaimed in word and action when we were baptized.) Each of us is now a part of his resurrection body, refreshed and sustained at one fountain—his Spirit—where we all come to drink. The old labels we once used to identify ourselves—labels like Jew or Greek, slave or free—are no longer useful. We need something larger, more comprehensive.

 The Bishop challenged us.......

1. To celebrate the gifts of individuals given by God; and for members to celebrate the gifts of others.  Owning the variety of ministries, and taking risks as the Sower spreads his seed so generously.
   
2. To develop the ‘option for the vulnerable’ and ensure that there is a particular concern for those in need on the part of the life of Kairos.
   
3. To ensure that the communities are indeed mission-shaped:  that they are so designed as to speak to those who have not yet heard God’s call to them.  So the communities will grow, change and flourish.
   
4. To develop a unit across the network and beyond, so that there is mutual support within Kairos and with the rest of Christ’s body in Harrogate.

Celebrating the Feast

For the second year running we are celebrating the Feast - wanting to embed in the rhythm of the Kairos network ways of celebrating together. We have been reflecting on 'the power of festival' - and my thoughts have been especially in regard to the way in which in our culture festival is being degraded by consumerism. Learning how to celebrate as God's people is such a fantastic message and witness.... but we do need to learn as so much of what passes as celebration amongst in today's Christian culture is, to be brutally honest.... wimpy and half-hearted. Maybe this is because some of the time Christians are really not sure they want love those they are supposed to be celebrating with or maybe it is because we are much too focussed on church and not focussed enough on Jesus - who, by the way, knew how to celebrate and make a festival come alive.
We have articulated our understanding of festival in 5 words beginning with P; 

Through Festival we seek to

• Understand God’s wonderful provision

•Celebrate His goodness with praise

•Invite His manifest presence

•Demonstrate his power

•and express His heart through prophetic declaration

We have a lot of learning to do in this but we have gone some way already. Last year we had a shared thanksgiving meal, an open day where our base is and a Central Gathering on the Sunday. This year we are holding a feast in a hotel in central Harrogate and using it as an opportunity to launch the Bishops Mission Order - naming our new status as a church with the Bishop and others present with us. Saturday will bring lots of activity as Kairos people get out on the streets in various different ways - questionnaires and giving out sweets, Messy Church, helping someone with their garden, doing things in neighbourhood's people feel they are called to - as always it seems food will be a feature of many activities. Sunday will see the 9am service not meeting as normal but under the name of '9am OUT' two teams of people connected with the 9am service will go into two different elderly people's homes to share faith. At 10.30am on Sunday 17th we will hold a Central Gathering to celebrate together - encounter the presence of God, his power and proclaim his favour.

The first Bishops Mission Order

Well - the first BMO was created last November - a network church in Exeter. See the link....
http://www.freshexpressions.org.uk/stories/exeternetwork/

I guess we are going to see quite a lot of variety in the different BMOs.... ENC have been going for 5 years and have started from scratch.... we are not starting from scratch but rather transitioning from one model to another (something that many people are saying is the hardest thing to do!) Currently we are about 17 months into our transition having first de-cluttered ourselves from having services every Sunday thus enabling us to focus on being church as communities of followers and weaning ourselves off the 'Sunday-only' mentality. 
I'm intrigued to see similar language between us and ENC - as they begin to use a church building in the middle of Exeter Jon Soper says this: "Where we go next will be our third place, but we are going to call it a base or a tent – not a home." We need to continue to develop the base/tent mentality in relation to the place we do central gatherings in and where we have our offices.

kairos

The ancient greek word kairos means the right or opportune moment - kairos is special time or an appointed time in the purpose of God. We need to be ready to respond to kairos moments - seeking to learn what the Lord is teaching us, what he is doing and revealing.

Last night I met with members of Harrogate Deanery (the CofE way of organising groups of local churches and their parishes). This was a kairos. I presented the 'What was, what is and what is to come' of St Mary's Harrogate for consultation. The meeting was very good natured and open. Inevitably there are a range of understandings and comprehension of something that is so different from the normal way of doing church. I was really encouraged to hear those that would often be imagined to be a million miles away from the kind of thing we are doing saying a resounding and enthusiastic 'yes' and offering support. I was struck by the oddness of watching others discussing the parts of St Mary's parish that their parish might take over - there is so much security in the CofE in regards to having a distinctive parish - 'my patch' - and having recognised authority over it and here we were in the act of laying it down, giving away security in exchange for an uncertain future, a new way. A kairos moment. I have found myself looking at the sending out of the 12 in Mark 6 again -

"These were his instructions: 'Take nothing for the journey except a staff - no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. Wear sandals but not an extra tunic'"

They were sent with so little security - just each other, his teaching & authority, a staff, tunic and sandals. How they must have felt... so vulnerable.

There is so much we could take for the journey we are on - but the work of the Lord in the life of this church seems to be so much more about us taking nothing for the journey.

Are we ready to meet the challenge of this? Or are we going to continually insist on taking stuff with us that will hold us back, slow us down? Part of the stripping away of securities that is happening for us is the continued adjustment to laying down larger gatherings in favour of smaller groupings/communities. We can lean on Sunday services or the way we have always done things and find that we go nowhere fast. No. We are needing to learn what it is to be people who take nothing for the journey except that which we find the Lord telling us to take.

I shared my feelings and reflections regarding all this with a friend in the Order of Mission. She sent me the encouragement of Galatians 3:26-4:7 just what I/we need in these times to be reminded of:

"You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.
What I am saying is that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. He is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. So also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world. But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father." So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir."

At times like this I/we need to return to an understanding of who we are in Him. I am a Son and Heir - clothed with Christ. I have the full rights of a son of our Father in heaven. Be encouraged!