Naming the Name

I had the privilege of hearing the President of Methodist Conference, Stephen Poxon, speaking to individuals from our District the other day. You can find some of the points that he made in this post.

One of the points that captured my imagination was the idea of 'Naming the Name'. Stephen didn't elaborate a lot on what he meant by that - although it was clear that he meant 'not being afraid to speak the name of Jesus' - so the following reflections are my own views and not his. (In other words, if you don't like what this post is saying, blame me and not him!)

As I understood Stephen, he was saying two things: 1) That Christians (and Methodists) have become shy about speaking the name of Jesus in their everyday conversations and that we have to regain the confidence to be able to do this; 2) That this doesn't mean that we engage in what he called 'bible-bashing' or constantly trying to cajole unwilling listeners to become Christian converts.

How can we confidently speak the 'name of Jesus' in an authentic way without either being shy or overbearing? I think that probably we first need to start learning how to talk to other Christians about these things. I know that the more I learned to talk to other Christians about my faith and God's working in my life, the easier it became to talk to non-Christians. And there really is only one solution for it: practice. I'm not sure it can just be done in Sunday services, either. I expect it requires more small-group involvement that encourages everyone to share what God is doing in their lives.

The other aspect, though, is that I think we also really have to get rid of the idea that The Church makes converts rather than the Holy Spirit makes converts. If I'm brutally honest with myself, I know that I'm guilty of sometimes hoping this or that person who I've been speaking to will come to church.  And I think that whenever we have this 'side' when we Name the Name, we won't be sharing good news as much as we will be trying to 'market' Christianity.

Maybe the big question is:  do we really think we have good news?

A Morning with The President

On Friday, I had the opportunity to hear this year's President of Methodist Conference, Stephen Poxon as he spoke to a group of us from the Wolverhampton and Shrewsbury District.

Stephen brought to us ten points for discussion. These are observations from his travels around Methodism since July and were meant to provoke discussion, which they did. I list them here with the caution that I did not have the impression that these are meant to be 'hard and fast recommendations' but rather conversation starters.

1) Listening to different voices. Listening to voices outside the Church, listening to voices from different geographical areas. Listening to God.

2) Rediscovering the grace of a God who gives unconditionally. Let there be no 'side' to our giving - e.g. no expectation of conversion.

3) Time to renew our confidence in God's workings.

4) Celebrating that we are the world church in Britain. E.g. there are more 'ethnic minority' congregations in the London District than 'white British' congregations. This will have implications for theology and practice.

5) Time for the Church to engage with wider society.

6) Learn what it means to be a Christian in a multifaith culture. Neither apologetic for our Christianity nor aggressively proselytising of people of other faiths. 'Name the Name'

7) Learn a different way to be Ecumenical. 'Ecumenism' no longer means 'joining together in one Church'.

8) What are we doing about discipleship in our churches? Do we ask enough of our members by way of discipleship?

9) Leadership of churches, not management of churches. Sometimes 'leadership' requires a willingness to step into the chaos and take risks.

10) Call to a life of holiness - especially from the 'missing generations'. Stephen noted that pursuing a life of holiness is a 'Methodist distinctive'.