Is pioneering about taking another’s territory
‘At the heart of everything is connection.’
Artwork by Sophie Killingley of Perish+Fade
Advent and Christmas are seasons in the life of the church which present rich wells of inspiration and encouragement for pioneers.
by Rev Tina Hodgett
Advent is a season close to my heart as it proclaims loudly that God is Doing A New Thing (Isaiah 41:19). It doesn’t matter when you read this passage of the Bible, God is always Doing A New Thing somewhere. God is doing something new with some people, creating their part of the world afresh.
At Christmas we celebrate the Source of all things coming to be with us in full humanity. God comes to us in Jesus because he wants to connect with us, individually, collectively. As former-Archbishop Rowan Williams said, in a personal translation of the first verse of the Gospel of John in a talk I heard last week in the cathedral at Wells, ‘At the heart of everything is connection.’ God the Trinity is connectedness, and at Christmas this connectedness flows out to us. God desires to be materially present in the world he created good, and relationally connected with everything in it.
This demonstrates humility from God on a scale we can’t imagine. How can the One who brought every proton and planet in the universe into being want relationship with us? And how can he allow himself to take up so little space?
Greg recently gave a talk on the topic of ‘missional humility’, describing how the posture of humility expresses itself in the willingness to listen to another; to learn from another; to allow another person to take up space we want to hold onto for ourselves; to be curious about the life, viewpoints, values, gifts and hopes of others. He tells a story of a missional initiative when teenagers who weren’t members of church were invited to make pieces of art about the Easter story. The regular church congregation were enriched by the unconventional and enlightening perspectives of the youngsters. Watch the conversation here.
In the Pioneering Parishes team we believe we’re invited to embody the humility of Christ at Christmas as we go towards others who are not like us in search of genuine connection. We’re not called to move into and take another’s territory or act in a way that is in any way controlling. We have learned from the example of Christ to give up our own ground to make space for relationship and to discover more of him, our neighbours and ourselves as we do.
Find out about how you can put connection at the centre of your parish on the next Pioneering Parishes course.
