In his book “Bowling Alone,” Harvard sociologist Robert Putnam notes that while more people in the United States are going ten-pin bowling than ever before, fewer than ever are joining teams. This phenomenon, which he calls “bowling alone,” is a reflection of a broader trend in which individualism has become increasingly valued over individuality.
Putnam’s work highlights the important distinction between individualism and individuality. Individuality is the recognition that every person is a unique and valuable member of a team, whereas individualism prioritizes self-interest over the needs of the group. Putnam argues that the rise of individualism has led to a decline in social capital, or the collective value of social networks.
The decline in social capital has far-reaching consequences for individuals and communities alike.
Research has consistently shown that social connections are crucial for mental health and well-being. Social isolation, on the other hand, is linked to a range of negative outcomes, including depression, anxiety, and even increased mortality.
This trend is not unique to the United States. In her book “Alone Together,” MIT professor Sherry Turkle describes how social media and electronic communication have replaced face-to-face interactions, leading to a sense of being “alone together.” This sense of isolation can have serious consequences for mental health and well-being.
The Judeao Christian tradition places a high value on individuality, but it also recognises the importance of community and social connection. In the book of Numbers, God commands Moses to take a census of the Israelites, not simply to count their numbers but to show them that each individual matters. The Torah uses the phrase “lift the head” to describe this act of counting, emphasizing that every person is unique and valued.
This emphasis on individuality within community offers a valuable perspective on the challenges of modern society. As we navigate the complexities of technology and social change, it is important to remember that individuality and community are not mutually exclusive. By valuing each person as a unique and valuable member of a team, we can build stronger, more resilient communities that support the well-being of all.
So what can we do to combat the rise of individualism?
One approach is to prioritise face-to-face interactions and community building. This might involve joining a community organisation, volunteering, or simply making an effort to connect with others in our daily lives.
Another approach is to reframe our understanding of individuality. Instead of seeing it as a license to prioritise our own needs over those of the group, we can view it as an opportunity to contribute our unique skills and perspectives to something larger than ourselves.
Ultimately, the rise of individualism is a complex and multifaceted issue, and there is no easy solution. But by valuing both individuality and community, we can work towards a more balanced and fulfilling way of life.
The church, I believe, uniquely expresses both the value of the individual and working together for the common good of all.
Leadership and Discipleship: Understanding the Distinct Paths to Growth and Success
Introduction: Leadership and discipleship are two essential concepts that play significant roles in personal growth and success. Both involve guidance and learning, yet they have distinct differences that set them apart. In this blog post, we will explore the disparities between leadership and discipleship, the attributes that define each concept, and how they can be applied in various contexts.
Leadership – Guiding Others Towards a Common Goal: Leadership revolves around the ability to guide, inspire, and motivate a group of individuals to work together towards a shared objective. A leader possesses charisma, vision, and expertise that allows them to influence others effectively. They set the direction for their team or organization, make difficult decisions, and willingly shoulder responsibility for the outcomes of those decisions. Leadership is about steering the course and making impactful choices that lead to success.
Discipleship – Learning and Following a Mentor: Discipleship, on the other hand, is the process of following and learning from a mentor or teacher. A disciple seeks to gain knowledge and wisdom from the experiences of someone else. The ultimate goal of discipleship is to emulate the mentor’s qualities, skills, and mindset, aiming to become more like them. The emphasis in discipleship lies in the pursuit of personal growth through the wisdom and teachings of the mentor, and the desire to carry on their legacy.
Different Focus and Outcomes: One of the primary differences between leadership and discipleship is their focus and intended outcomes. Leadership centers around the leader’s ability to guide and direct a team towards a common goal, fostering cooperation and unity among members. In contrast, discipleship revolves around learning from the mentor’s expertise and character, aiming to internalize their teachings and carry forward their principles.
Roles and Responsibilities: Leaders take on the responsibility of making crucial decisions, managing conflicts, and providing direction. Their role is to inspire and empower their team members, ensuring everyone contributes their best efforts to achieve the collective goal. On the other hand, disciples focus on learning, actively seeking opportunities to grow, and implementing the wisdom of their mentors into their lives.
Application in Different Contexts: Both leadership and discipleship find application in various contexts, ranging from professional settings to personal relationships and even spiritual journeys. In the workplace, effective leadership drives productivity and fosters a positive work culture, while discipleship promotes knowledge sharing and skill development. In personal relationships, adopting a mentor-disciple dynamic can lead to mutual growth and support.
Biblical Perspectives: The concepts of leadership and discipleship hold significant importance in various religious contexts. As evident in Matthew 28:19, Jesus encourages His followers to “go and make disciples,” emphasizing the importance of learning and teaching in spiritual growth. Similarly, in Romans 12:5-8, Paul highlights the diversity of gifts and talents within a community, with some individuals possessing the gift of leadership, while others are gifted in teaching, serving, or encouraging.
Conclusion: In conclusion, leadership and discipleship are two interconnected yet distinct paths to personal growth and success. Leadership focuses on guiding and influencing others towards a shared goal, while discipleship centers around learning from a mentor to develop similar skills and wisdom. Both concepts are vital in various contexts, and understanding their differences allows us to harness their power effectively. By embracing leadership and discipleship, we can pave the way for continuous improvement, positive impact, and transformation in both our personal and professional lives.
Over the last month, I’ve enjoyed bringing three messages into the life of our church, Ikon church. I thought I’d like to share the links with you here as many of you connect with them online.
“We walk by faith and not by sight.” 2 Corinthians 5:7 “God is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine.” Ephesians 3:20.“For we are his workmanship…” Ephesians 2:10
At the beginning of this pandemic in March 2020 we decided that Our workers needed Smalltalk as well as needing remote meetings for productivity and planning.
So we organised zoom meeting every Tuesday at 11 am for 30 minutes where we met for “a cup of tea“ The rules were simple, we don’t talk work, we just talk about what people have been doing, how they are getting along etc. We did this for many months and found help build trust and keep relationships flowing.
We also instigated something called shout outs at the beginning of our staff and team meetings. This is 5 to 10 minutes where people on the call shout out other people on the call for something they’ve done well in the last week and the whole call then celebrates that person.
Scott Sauls Pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashville recently said that 7 out of 10 pastors in America are looking for other work. He mentioned this statistic was brought to him by a staff member and by recollection thought it could be from Barna or Lifeway.
I’ve searched for the specific research for a couple of weeks but have not found that particular statistic. However, what has been very revealing is the poor state of Pastors’ mental health at this time. So I wanted to post some reasons gleaned from a number of sources as to why that might be.
I also want to say, I am incredibly thankful for my own church and that personally I am not searching for alternative work 🙂
The Pandemic has been hard for Pastors too: Obvious I know, but every concern people face in this time is faced by Pastors. They too have lost friends, family, faced illness etc. Pastors miss their routines, miss seeing people and many are uncertain as to what the future will look like.
They carry the burden of the church: The Apostle Paul said, “I face daily the pressure of concern for all the churches.” 2 Corinthians 11:28 Pastors not only carry the burden of immediate family concerns but the concerns of their congregations too.
Pastors feel less resilient when facing opposition: Opposition and criticism is normal for any leader but in this moment when the Church is meant to be a source of strength, faithfulness and care the usual levels of resilience are significantly weaker. Statistics also show that opposition and criticism for pastors has sharply risen during this time.
Pastors feel ghosted by the majority of their congregations: Sauls said this, “Our people feel like they’re still with us because they see us and hear us from their living rooms, and yet, we just have this complete void of relationship,” Only a portion of the congregation comment, chat etc during online services and whilst numbers of views may signify the congregation is present the pastor has no way of knowing.
Pastors have had to learn a variety of new skills: If like in the UK you are experiencing lockdown then the church building is more akin to a TV studio than a sanctuary for worship. The skills required for broadcasting services are very different to those required for leading services in-person.
Pastors are worried about budgets: The concern of the long term effects of the pandemic on people is a concern for pastors who worry about what the people in their congregations may face. Alongside this is the worry many have as to whether their churches will meet budget.
Many Pastors have had no time off: The pandemic has not produced, for most, a decreased workload but an increased one (see 5 above) and the inability to take time off is taking its toll.
Pastors are discouraged because the pandemic has revealed the congregationis often discipled more by the culture than by Jesus: This has often proved the case throughout history but has been hidden somewhat, in recent times, by the prosperity and peace within western society. The last year has been a great revealer.
As a kid I loved watching Rally Drivers to me they were the best. My infatuation lead me to understand, their skill, though immense, was exponentially enhanced by having a great co-pilot
Co Pilots are co-drivers They navigate, they set the pace, they anticipate what’s ahead. The turns, the sharpness of the bends, the camber and the obstacles to look out for.
Co-drivers are also often called upon to carry out maintenance on the car during the special stages of a Rally.
Jesus said he would send the best co-pilot for us He called him “The Spirit of Truth,” “Comforter, Counsellor, Advocate.” ”The Holy Spirit”
And Jesus said
He will be with you forever
Sounds like he’d be great to have “alongside to help.”
Be filled with the Holy Spirit Invite Him into your circumstance today, whatever you are facing. And…
“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria,and to the ends of the earth.” – Jesus, the book of Acts, chapter 1 verse 8
This is an edited transcript of a podcast put out by Bridgetown Church in Portland Oregan, the link to the original podcast site is below.
February is Black History Month in the United States. This is an opportunity to spend time learning about the legacy of black folks in our history as a nation and ruminating on the unique aspects of God’s kingdom that came and comes to us through our black brothers and sisters.
I’ve been thinking a lot about a man named William J Seymour. As you know, Bridgetown we’ve been on a journey through many years of leaning into a life of abiding in the Holy Spirit, and especially with Pentecostal church history in mind William J Seymour played a very large part in that.
Seymour was born in Louisiana, in 1870, during a time when the KKK violence made his formal education impossible. Within the first decade of his life history tells us that more than 2500 citizens of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana were lynched or burned at the stake by the pseudo Christian Klansmen.
So Seymour was mostly self educated, until he was able to finally attend to Bible school, but only kind of, he was still refused to actually attend class, but was made to sit just outside of the classroom with the door slightly ajar. Can you imagine what Seymour must have been thinking and feeling with such open animosity and disgust that surrounded him and for something outside of his control, something actually in fact that was God given and God designed. the colour of his skin.
What compelled him to keep going? Why keep trying?
Well, like for many of our black brothers and sisters, it certainly wasn’t the system, which wasn’t even attempting to hide its bias. The only thing I can imagine, was that Seymour knew the voice of his shepherd. He was called by someone higher, and he refused, along with the prophets and even our own Lord to bow before the powers and principalities, and instead chose to listen to the voice of his true King who shared in his sufferings, transforming them into the glory of God’s own kingdom, how much we have to learn from William Seymour’s example. (Pic is kkk March)
After classes. Seymour would go preaching in a predominantly black part of Houston with one of his professors who was white, but his professor would not allow him to preach in the front alongside him but made him sit in the back. This Professor even went as far as segregating the altar, not allowing black and white members of the same kingdom to kneel together.
Fast forwarding through more years of faithfulness and perseverance and racism. Seymour left Houston and began pastoring a small church in California. And on April 9 1906, something extraordinary happened. The Holy Spirit broke out in that congregation with people experiencing God’s presence in all the ways the Scripture tells us, speaking in tongues and translating them, miraculous healing, overwhelming joy and so much more.
Over the next three days there were moments of loud worship and dancing and also times of reverence silence and stillness. These were not professional theologians the congregation was made up of cooks and railroad porters, wash women and janitors. These are some of God’s favourite kinds of people to encounter.
Near the end of the three days the crowd began to dwindle, until only Seymour and one friend remained on their knees begging God for revival. Eventually even Seymour’s friends gave up saying it’s just not time. But Seymour, ever the man of perseverance and conviction in God’s goodness, stayed, saying,
I am not giving up.
And the Lord heard his prayer. Within days huge crowds of people from virtually every skin colour, nationality, and social class began filling the building, until they had to move to a new two storey warehouse at 312 Azusa Street.
The bottom floor was for preaching singing and dancing and at the top of the stairs, there was a sign that said, no talking above a whisper, designating the second floor for silent prayer.
There was no choir. No offering taken, no advertising, and yet the room was packed and about 800 people filled the building, day and night and about four to 500 more were in the streets surrounding the building trying to look in and see what was happening.
In 1906, the same year the revival started, Seymour launched a newspaper about it. People were asking questions what was happening. That newspaper grew to about 50,000 readers.
This revival wasn’t just about gathering in the Azusa Street building. Within a few short weeks this prayer meeting started sending out missionaries to Scandinavia, India, China, Africa, Korea and many other places, each of which would experience revivals of their own.
These meetings in that building on Azusa Street continued day and night for three years and that’s just the kind of thing the Holy Spirit does isn’t it. In the words of Richard Foster
The miracle Seymour had been seeking had happened.
By the power of the Spirit, a revolutionary new type of Christian community was born. One in which as a journalist who reported on this revival at the time said quote
The colour line was washed away in the blood.
As this revival went on though, filled with all kinds of signs and wonders Seymour realised he needed to clear something up. He wrote this quote
Tongues, speaking in tongues are not the real evidence of the baptism of the Spirit in everyday life. If you are angry, or speak evil or backbiting, I care not how many tongues you have, you have not the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Pentecost, or being filled with the Holy Spirit, makes us love Jesus more and love our brothers more. It brings us all into one common family .
For Seymour, as for the Apostle Paul and as for us. The primary evidence of the Holy Spirit was and his divine love.
And so, in modelling this, and in continuing in his rigid conviction of fellowship across the colour line Seymour reached out to his old Bible school professor. Yes, the one who wouldn’t allow him to sit in the classroom and invited him to be a part of the revival. He wanted to share leadership, with a white preacher so he could Shepherd with him, what God was doing in this prayer meeting.
Now to me this was the greatest symbol of Seymour’s character and integrity. But it was also unfortunately in this vulnerable, humble attempt at reconciliation, that the Azusa Street Revival met its end. Richard foster writes,
Right at the moment of Seymour’s greatest influence white supremacy reared its ugly head denouncing and rejecting this grace filled work of God.
While this professor did indeed show up at the meeting house in LA. Once inside his atrophied sickly vision of God’s kingdom could not hold what he saw. And in a self Righteous Fury he marched past the co-mingled worshippers, past this vision of God’s kingdom and revelation in chapters 21, and 22, and stepped up to the podium and shouted, “God is sick, to his stomach.”
He proceeded to demand allegiance to the demons of segregation and racism explaining that God would not stand for what he called quote such animalism. Now when the people of the revival would not heed his words the professor rallied up a couple hundred of the worshipers and set up a rival revival in a nearby building. And I can only wonder, at what point this man thought that anything he was doing looked, anything like the way that Jesus lived and ministered.
But wielding the social power, that was his as a white man over and against that which Seymour did not have as a black man, this professor proceeded to gut Seymour’s revival by condemning it in the strongest possible terms. And slowly, most of the white leaders in Seymour’s movement gave up worship of the true God and went after the golden calf of power.
Even while his multicultural expression of worship became more and more severed along the colour line, Seymour never stopped preaching the unity of God’s kingdom and about how division, especially by the colour line, was antithetical to what God had in mind. One scholar has even said that Seymour resolutely refused to segregate or Jim Crow the movement, and for this reason and this reason alone Seymour was rejected and forgotten by the movement he created and in late September of, 1922 at 52, years old, william j seymour died in almost total obscurity.
Now, while we mourn the reality of how this whole thing ended, we must remember that it was not a defeat, but a resounding victory. As we shift our metric of success we recall that Seymour was never after acclaim or power. He was after seeing God’s kingdom bring people to life in ways they never thought possible, regardless of colours, social status or prestige.
So, while he was forgotten by the world, and we grieve that we can only imagine the reception he had as he stood before God’s throne and heard the words. “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
In the words of Richard Foster.
Seymour stood at the forefront of one of the most revolutionary social movements in history, a movement, intent upon erasing the colour line. This was a movement that did not just seek prophecy, but sought to prophetically embody the in breaking kingdom of God.
Brothers and sisters, may we continue in the legacy of William Seymour who sought to break colour, gender and nationalistic barriers and fought for our paradoxical oneness and uniqueness in Christ.
May we believe the Holy Spirit for another revival of this kind, in which we lift up the one who would draw all people to himself, and would we make much of Jesus. Trusting in his power, listening to his people looking for his kingdom and living in his presence.
Have you noticed how dogmatic everyone is these days Dogmatic about everything Opinionated beyond measure ”I’m right, you’re wrong.” Settled. We live in the world of division
Then there’s the world of feelings ’If you feel guilt, it’s wrong.” But what if guilt is the appropriate response and the path to freedom ”If you’re feeling pressure, reject it, its wrong.” Diamonds are made under pressure
Then we love a bit of name calling We salivate at our tribal banners
But “There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (The apostle paul, the letter to the galatians chapter 3)
I know, I know You’re right and you know you are Sorry
There is one bit of dogma I truly love though One dogmatic thing I am fully convinced of and fully committed to
I recently listened to a podcast during which the presenters answered some listener questions – one of the questions that came in was this. “Are we experiencing the end of the world? “
The listener who asked the question was thinking about Covid, lockdowns, all the problems related to health, loneliness, addiction, isolation, the economy etc. – are these signs that the end of the world is happening?
The people on the podcast responded like this they said “No, this is not the end of the world, but it could be the end of the world as we know it.”
It got me thinking, it got me thinking about our obsession with the end of the world and our desire to know what’s going to happen in the future. It got me wondering why so many Christians are obsessed with this topic. I mean, when I became a follower of Jesus over 40 years ago we talked about this a lot – in fact we had a whole weeks of bible studies on the end of the world. Specialist teachers would be invited into our church to come and take a series of talks of four or five days – my own pastor who is a great bible teacher would do major talk – some major series on this subject, (Maybe you experienced that too )
In one respect it’s not surprising because Jesus said a fair few things about the end of the world.
What if I said that the ministry of Jesus was such a contrast to what people thought about the way everything worked that people heard it like this – “It’s the end of the world as we know it.”
I can also remember Christians with placards saying. “The end is nigh.”and often their accompanying message was one of judgement and criticism, their goal was to instill fear, maybe to shock people into believing in Jesus… now Jesus certainly didn’t come with that spirit
But if you were Herod, a Jewish King in league with the Romans you were afraid of a new King being born, and if you were Pilot a Roman governor you were afraid of messiahs and you would ultimately arrest and then crucify these rebels. And if you were Caiaphas, the Jewish high priest, or indeed a Pharisee or Sadducee, members of Jewish religious sects… Jesus was not on your Christmas card list and in fact you would strangely join together and in the end encourage Pilot to crucify him.
Why?
Because everything Jesus did was a message
A message to Pilot – your world is coming to an end
A message to Herod – your world is coming to an end
A message to Caiaphas and the religious leaders – your world is about to end
In a recent message I looked at how Jesus announces that the Kingdom of God is here, how it is among you, it is at hand… the kingdom of God is within you he says… and the power in that message is the realisation that everything else is temporary, that everything else that you trust in will fail, that everything else… Empire, Authority, Religion – they’ve all had their day… There’s a new King and his name is Jesus.
And Jesus mission, his purpose, was to get his followers to see this and to switch their allegiance, to switch their faith… from Empire, from Governments, from Religion, from money and wealth and to place their whole trust in a relationship with him… after all there’s no point trusting in something that will fail, something that is temporary.
I was intrigued by this article about how China has chosen to invest in future technology during this COVID season, whereas many western economies have held back on investment at the same time.
