Speak only if you can improve on silence...

God isn’t looking for people of

great faith, but for individuals

ready to follow him.

Hudson Taylor

mission involves the discovery

that our faith and theology

have been conditioned by

culture to a far greater extent

than we had ever realised.

cultural conditioning is not

something that happens only

to other people, we too carry

cultural baggage which needs

to be declared ‘excess’ and left

behind when we seek to share

christ with others.

David Smith

it is not in our choice to spread

the gospel or not. it is our

death if we do not.

Peter Taylor Forsyth

not, how much of my money

will i give to God, but how

much of God’s money will i

keep for myself.

John Wesley

it is the duty of every christian

to be christ to his neighbour.

Martin Luther

evangelisation is a process of

bringing the gospel to people

where they are, not where you

would like them to be… When

the gospel reaches a people

where they are, their response

to the gospel is the church in a

new place.

Vincent Donovan

The world can do almost

anything as well as or better

than the church. you need not

be a christian to build houses,

feed the hungry, or heal the

sick. There is only one thing

the world can not do. it can

not offer grace.

Gordon MacDonald

“The history of missions is the

history of answered prayer.”

Samuel Zwemer

“it is not my ability, but my

response to God’s ability, that

counts.”

Corrie Ten Boom

co

nTe

nTs

yes advent edition. published by cms. General secretary: canon Tim Dakin editor: John martin Designer: seth crewe printers: cpo

printed on a sustainable paper that is elementary chlorine free and can be traced to bona fide sources.

cms is a community of mission service: living a mission lifestyle; equipping people in mission; sharing resources for mission work.

views expressed in yes are not necessarily those of cms.

cms works in 70 countries, supporting in various ways over 800 people in mission and over 100 projects.

church mission society, Watlington road, oxford, oX4 6BZ registered charity number 220297

04 from our correspondents

07 mission and postmodern europe

08 mission frontiers: drug ministry by alison Giblett

10 The return of the Zombies by Tim Dakin

11 in search of the spirit of truth by Tom Wright

13 visualising hope by sarah Dunlop

16 Hungary’s House of Horrors by rene padilla

18 Greenbelt, look out by andrew Jones

20 crowther centre news

22 networks change the world by Jonny Baker

23 notebook by John martin

John Martineditorjohn.martin@cms-uk.org

3 yes advent 2008

Faith in postmodern europe“europe,” writes philip Jenkins, “has long been

a malarial swamp for any traditional or orthodox

faith. compared with the rest of the world, religious

adherence in europe is painfully weak.” Travellers

quickly see signs of the decay of institutional religion

everywhere: abandoned churches or buildings with

so few worshippers that they are little more than

museums. it’s not a new thing. some years ago, while attending a seminar about how the rome-

based catholic curia works, i learnt that in the previous year the roman catholic Diocese of rome

had produced just one trainee priest and he’d died of old age while doing his course.

at another level europe is experiencing a mounting climate of fear. There is fear of a possible

return to cold War attitudes. There is fear of islamisation and europe’s possible transformation into

“eurabia” – to use a term coined by the Harvard academic niall ferguson. Then there is the fear

of meaninglessness. clifford longley, the donnish former Times religion correspondent has put

it well: “Western civilisation suffers from a strong sense of moral and spiritual exhaustion. Having

constructed a society of unprecedented sophistication, convenience and prosperity, nobody can

remember what it was supposed to be for.” yes, europe – once the heartland of world christianity

– has become a mission field again.

This, however, is only one side of the picture. Despite the corroding effects of postmodernity,

faith in europe is not by any means nearing extinction. christianity is not giving ground to islam.

people no longer go to church out of compulsion or for social advantage so in consequence the

churches are being freed to be the church, small vigorous cells of mission creativity and spiritual

enterprise. faith is flowering among people who lived for generations with the aridity of socialist

materialism. young people are expressing faith through music and the arts. refugee settlements

are challenging the churches and the churches are responding with imagination and flair. The drug

endemic is prompting churches to reach out in unprecedented ways and connecting them with

their neighbourhoods with surprising outcomes.

We offer analysis and snapshots of initiatives in which cms is engaged with its many europe-

based partnerships. To use words of Jesus, “i tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields. They

are ripe for harvest.” (John 4:35)

4 yes advent 2008

Felipe yanez tells about his work among migrants at el centro cultural

Building bridges in Malagayou’ve probably heard the chinese proverb, “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Did you know that some feel a more accurate translation reads: “The journey of a thousand miles begins beneath one’s feet”? or, “even the longest journey must begin where you stand.”

fifteen years ago, felipe yanez “stood” at attention, in military uniform. While serving in the chilean army he began following Jesus. shortly thereafter, at a world mission conference in santiago, felipe began to feel a deep concern for muslim people. in 1997, as part of a short-term mission team, he visited st John’s, sparkhill, situated in a mostly-muslim area of Birmingham. The following year, he moved to the uK and began serving at the church as a youth worker.

sarah norris was living in sparkhill, working as an occupational therapist. Having spent her early years in pakistan, where her parents were missionaries, she understood what it was like to live in a majority-muslim community. felipe and sarah married in october 2000.

for six years, felipe continued working with youth in the community, pioneering several initiatives while sarah worked as an oT and led worship and a home group at st John’s. “living in an area which is predominantly muslim can be draining, yet rewarding,” felipe recalled. “learning to sing the lord’s song in a strange land is part of the cost of being a disciple of christ.”

While in Birmingham, the yanezes got to know several asylum seekers and refugees. “We were touched by the difficulties they face: having to leave their homes, friends, families and belongings to seek safety and freedom.”

as felipe and sarah pondered their future, they began to feel more and more that they wanted to be involved in ministry to refugees, immigrants and asylum seekers…in malaga, spain.

every week, immigrants – often muslims from north africa – arrive on the spanish coast, seeking refuge and a better life. What they often find instead is appalling treatment. immigration, as in other parts of europe, raises many issues with the local spanish community. There are problems of racism, leading to discrimination and ghettoisation.

The yanezes felt their time in Birmingham, coupled with felipe’s spanish language skills, had prepared them for another step in their journey. last summer, jointly supported by cms and south american mission society, they moved to malaga to work with el centro cultural (The cultural centre), which helps immigrants adapt to life in spain. as part of their work, they build bridges with local churches, encouraging them to show love to “the stranger.”

“The people we work with are more than immigrants or asylum seekers; they’re mothers, sisters, brothers, husbands and fathers – ordinary people whom God longs to touch with his love, peace and hope,” says sarah.

obin is a muslim from West africa. He travelled with 130 men by boat, spending three perilous weeks at sea. His journey to a “better” life cost him 2,000 euros, but after a few months in spain, his asylum claim was refused. if he finds a job, he may be able to stay, but not knowing much spanish, his chances are limited.

Through el centro cultural, people like obin learn the language as well as computer skills, handicrafts and cookery. practical support is given through providing food, clothes and furniture. When needed, centre volunteers accompany people to appointments.

When opportunity arises, felipe and sarah share the love and hope of christ. Those interested are invited to attend church services and events. some from other faiths, or no faith, have been regular attendees and ongoing discipleship is provided as people encounter christ.

“We are aware that we cannot change the world”, says felipe, “but we are sure that God can bring restoration to many broken lives through us. We take comfort in the fact that Jesus doesn’t ask us to be perfect before he can use us…he wants to use us even now, warts and all.”

..from our correspondents...

Merab Bolkvadze gives a graphic account of life during russia’s invasion

eyewitness: GeorgiaJust three days after russian tanks rolled into Georgia, one cms partner was heading into the conflict zone: merab Bolkvadze of Zarebi, an orthodox humanitarian charity. He reports here in his own words the frustration and fear of the Georgian people and his own personal view of the situation.

in the early morning of 11 august merab arrived in the bombed out city of Gori. Though outside the contested region of south ossetia, many of the buildings were burned and ruined.

most of the population had fled but merab met the local bishop, andrew Gvazava, himself a refugee from Georgia’s other breakaway region, abkhazia, since 1993.

merab takes up the story:

“Bishop andrew told us how much the situation was hard as the city had been bombarded since 9 august, several times a day. There were too many wounded and many dead among the civilians.

“The bishop directed us to help the hospital personnel who were working in the most difficult conditions and provided first aid to the wounded.

“When we arrived to Gori hospital, we saw the dreadful picture…We began to help the hospital personnel in carrying the dead or wounded that had been brought every minute by vehicles. The priests were reading prayers and putting crosses with Holy oil on wounded people and medical personnel.

“Though the city was under bombs, we still were planning to stay in and provide necessary help, but by nine o’clock in the evening we were informed that the russian regular army and hired boyeviks (fighters or mercenaries) were entering the city with heavy artillery and we’d better leave.

“in a rush we managed to evacuate the wounded, but as the situation was escalating too rapidly we failed to look after the corpses, leaving them in the morgue.”

merab and his companions returned to Tbilisi, the capital, with heavy hearts.

“it seemed that russian tanks were about to attack Tbilisi that night. The suburbs had been under shells everyday since the invasion. all this mess was known to me from the war in abkhazia and i could not make out whether it will ever stop. The only thing i knew was that i didn’t want to go back to the soviet period. The danger of it was real.

“as i knew nothing about my family: my wife and seven kids, who were in West Georgia in the village 20km away from poti city, which was also under russian shells and with artillery in there, i was too nervous. We could not even phone each other.

“With the blessing of the patriarch of Georgia there were held long prayers for peace in every active church.

“next day in the church of my district i saw more than 500 internally displaced people (iDps) gathered and requesting aid, as they failed to take anything from homes, except the clothes they were dressed in.

“first of all they had to be sheltered somewhere. Zarebi was not ready for this occasion. We had no financial means. But we managed to do mobilisation of volunteers. We got the permission from the local government to place the refugees in the school building. currently Georgian students are on holidays.

“We asked the parish to provide the refugees with any kind of help. mattresses, blankets and food were needed. The food problem we managed, but providing with living conditions was too difficult. There were many women and kids among refugees and they needed beds. most of them sleep on chairs, tables, or on the floor.

“a few days later international humanitarian aid was delivered. it made our job easier, though the aid is not enough. The iDps still are living in the heavy conditions, although the hardest period is over.

“We meet the refugees every day, help them, encourage them, and pray together with them. There were many among the refugees not been baptised. on sunday we organized a baptising event and many turned christians.

“currently there are more than 100,800 iDps from Tkhinvali, and surrounding villages and cities.

“Today Georgia in no longer shelled, but its infrastructure, in east or West, is badly destroyed by russian regular army. in the tourism destinations they threw fire bombs and burnt the most valuable forests. The central road that connects West Georgia to east Georgia is blocked by the russian army.

“We are very much hoping for the aid from the international organisations and hope the peace will come.”

5 yes advent 2008

To find out more and keep in touch with all our mission partners, log on to www.cms-uk.org/missionletters for the latest reports

6 yes advent 2008

a continent of change and complexity, says Darrell Jackson

It’s all change in europeeurope is a continent in motion. There are poles in poole, romanians in rome, Brits in Barcelona, and somalis in sunderland. in london, paris, stockholm, and Kiev the frequent headlines that stigmatise immigrants are depressingly similar. making an informed christian response to migration in europe requires a multi-level approach.

mission societies such as cms can offer cross-cultural expertise in responding to migrants and, through its partnership with the nova research centre, based at redcliffe college in Gloucester, it has been taking a keen interest in nova’s first major research report, mapping migration in europe: mapping churches’ responses. The report was simultaneously launched in april at events in palermo, sicily, and melbourne, australia, thus underlining the global significance of migration.

effective and considered responses to migrants require careful collection and analysis of statistical and other information. mapping migration in europe offers 140 pages of unique analysis and insight plus detailed country-level information for each country in europe.

The report takes up some of the concerns that lay behind the original involvement of cms in the Welcome project, which was set up to welcome migrant christian workers to europe. as cms and other mission agencies think about where, when, and how to work with migrants, its partnership with nova puts it in a privileged position from where it can benefit from the research. nova’s partnership with cms will continue as cms encourages further research in this vital area.

europe is a continent in transition. The historic christian churches and denominations are being forced to renegotiate the public places that they have traditionally held in europe. Dwindling church attendances threaten their long-term viability. charismatic, evangelical, migrant and ethnic minority churches are contributing to a creative mix of new and emerging churches.

alongside these are emerging a number of new mission movements in europe. This has been a common interest for both cms and nova and a european consultation in December 2008 will see them working together. cms, through its innovative work with the orthodox churches of europe, has been a key resource for nova as it issues invitations to a number of orthodox mission movements. This exciting event will bring together 25 practitioners with extensive involvement in their emerging mission movements and will lead to a key publication mapping this new phenomenon.

europe is a continent of complexity. Developing a european studies programme at redcliffe has seen cms and other mission agencies consulting with nova and redcliffe staff to streamline the teaching content and its delivery. Teaching is a natural outlet for the research centre staff and allows continuous exploration of europe’s complexity.

cms is one of several mission societies that are sending mission partners who are preparing for mission in service in europe to redcliffe where they are expected to attend the european studies short course. mission partners felipe and sarah yanez, currently working malaga, were the first to benefit from this partnership activity of cms and nova.

at the heart of the partnership between nova and cms is a shared commitment to evangelistic mission in europe. research and action need each other and cms and nova have begun to demonstrate the vital relationship of these two activities. Through its partnership with the nova research centre, i sense that cms is becoming more effective at meeting the challenges of the dynamic and shifting cultural and social patterns that can be found in europe.

The Rev Darrell Jackson, Director, Nova Research Centre and Lecturer in European Studies, Redcliffe College, Gloucester. djackson@novaresearch.eu djackson@redcliffe.org

To find out more and keep in touch with all our mission partners, log on to www.cms-uk.org/missionletters for the latest reports

7 yes advent 2008

If we are to share Jesus and see lives changed

in our neighbourhoods and networks and within

europe we need to come to terms with a mighty

shift in mindset that’s changed everything. it’s the

shift from modernity to postmodernity. it’s the

biggest change that christians have had to face in

300-plus years.

To begin, what do we mean ‘modern’?

The english thinker arnold Toynbee (who coined

the term ‘postmodern’) proposed in 1939 that the

‘modern’ era ended around 1850–75. ‘modern’

grew out of the enlightenment, dating from the 17th

century. it put a premium on rationality and became

known as the age of reason. it proposed that

science could produce laws (truths). With it came the

idea of ‘progress’. The age of reason subjected faith

to serious scrutiny and criticism, eg immanuel Kant’s

refutation of traditional arguments for the existence

of God. in many ways, however, modernity served

christianity well. it was foundational for the christian

contribution to medicine. The idea of ‘progress’

meshed with a post-millennial vision for a better

world that helped energise the modern missionary

movement.

So, what’s ‘postmodern’?

essentially its foundation, as lois shawver put it,

is “a loss of faith in the dreams of modernism.”

Jean-francois lyotard summed it up in the

soundbite “incredulity towards metanarratives.”

To put it another way, postmodernity is fuelled by

innate scepticism. it’s profoundly suspicious about

any big-picture explanation about anything. Dale

spender the feminist thinker put it this way: “Truth

is what we invent, not what we discover.” more

popularly it’s expressed in the title of a manic street

preachers album: This is my Truth Tell me yours. so

postmodernity emphasises personal choice over

against shared values or creeds.

Is europe a postmodern continent?

yes and no. postmodernity has had a big impact in

Western europe and parts of scandinavia. in contrast

the eastern orthodox churches never embraced the

enlightenment so the picture is somewhat different

in russia and eastern europe with premodernity and

modernity (applied marxism) both strong elements. But

the globalisation of business and youth culture is powerful.

So what are some of the implications for Christian mission?

1. apologetics has a hugely important role. christians need to be confident in their faith and able to make the case for believing, including being bold enough to “relativise the relativisers.” art, music and symbolism come to the fore.

2. style is important. it begins with becoming confident with forms of communication that are open to questions and allow for disagreement. The blogosphere with its rules of engagement and discourse is both a place for witness and for self-education.

3. community is important: while attendance at conventional church may reduce even further, expect the cell group, large-scale festivals and experiments with community living to grow in importance. There are huge opportunities for churches who can understand how to be community and offer it to people who are disconnected by migration and other forces of postmodernity.

4. The Bible’s Big story as an alternate world view. it’s vital that christians rediscover the Bible, the grand narrative of God’s plan and purpose for the world he made.

5. The ultimate significance of Jesus of nazareth. Towering above everything else is Jesus. He is attractive to the postmodern mindset. our task is not merely to talk about him but to show him.

FaCTBoX 1Main features of modernity• Economic Production: industrial and capitalist society served by a system of social classes• Urbanisation: growth of cities• The Bureaucratic State: emergence of powerful central government and administration• Knowledge: derived from scientific and rational thought, not faith, magic or superstition• Belief in Progress: based on confidence in science and technology.

Main features of postmodernity• Growth of the service sector: decline in manufacturing, growth in flexible and home working, rise in unemployment• Spread of Globalisation: business and culture spread across national boundaries• Fragmentation: diversity, a pick and mix attitude• Loss of faith in science: “people no longer believe in the myth of truth” (Lyotard)• Scepticism about metanarratives: no big story• Abandonment of Enlightenment optimismMain source Hewett-Norfolk

FaCTBoX 2Religion in europe: some facts and figureschurch attendance13% at least once a week10% once a month12% at christmas etc8% once a year56% never

Belief in the Uk71% God 30% devil64% soul 25% hell44% life after death 68% sin53% heaven 32% resurrectionInformation from the European Values Survey 2002

Mission and postmodern europe

8 yes advent 2008

Christian rehab centres in Russia and Ukraine

are achieving spectacular results. What’s more

a high proportion of former addicts find faith

along the way. alison Giblett is a consultant to

some of these ministries

in the story of Jonah, a reluctant prophet was left

with a sense of having no choice but do the lord’s

bidding. alison Giblett’s story has some of the same

hallmarks. “God unexpectedly but clearly brought me

into drug rehab ministry in the summer of 2000 by

sending me to russia then closing all opportunities

for service for three months, until i was desperate

and told him i was willing to do anything.

“i then received an invitation to work as a Bible

teacher in a newly opened rehab centre called izhod

(exodus). This enabled me to see the amazing work

of transformation that God provided addicts who

turned to him in repentance. Drug rehab has been

the focus of my life, work and research ever since.”

We asked alison about her involvement in what’s

emerged as one of the most effective fields of

mission work in europe.

Firstly, how big a problem is addiction in the

former Soviet Union?

it was identified by former president putin as russia’s

number one problem. it is affecting one in three

families in the former soviet union. some 40 per

cent of working age men have serious alcohol

problems. This has led to a male life expectancy

of 58 which is three years lower than any other

in europe; women’s is 63. outside africa it’s the

fourth lowest in the world. in russia and ukraine

becoming addicted to drugs is the biggest danger for

young people, linked to the rapid cultural changes

where norms are being re-evaluated. There are an

estimated 1.5 million addicts in russia, that’s one in

100, or one per cent of the population. The primary

drug is heroin due to its high availability. some is

grown locally and much brought in from central

asia. russia and ukraine are also on the northern

trafficking route to europe.

So what is the strategy for the work you do?

i currently work with isaac (international substance

abuse and addiction coalition). They are a key partner

with cms for drug rehab ministry around the world.

isaac’s strategy is to connect, encourage and equip

christians working in drug rehabilitation. The leaders

of the drug rehab centres often work in very isolated

situations under lots of pressure. There are large

spiritual, psychological and financial demands on the

workers so they really appreciate the opportunity to

share and learn with others who are fighting similar

battles. it is a ministry that has been misunderstood

by many churches and there can be a lot of pressure

from local government ministers. up to now there

have been limited opportunities for the leaders to

get formal training. isaac investigates the needs

of ministries for a particular region and brings in

trainers with the needed skills and holds local training

conferences. i am particularly involved in the regional

networks in ukraine, moldova, and parts of russia.

Can you tell us what a typical day

might look like?

The majority of my time is spent working from

home, networking and facilitating communication

between local russian and ukrainian organisations

and western groups and preparing for the wide-scale

events such as training conferences. it means lots of

alison Giblett

Mission frontiers: drug ministry

9 yes advent 2008

inclined to do so. Helping to set a person addicted to

drugs free of bondage brings a blessing to everyone

around them and can be seen as a demonstration of

God’s power and mercy. it’s often mothers of addicts

who first seek help. Through the church or rehab

support groups for co-dependents, they receive

healing for their own pain, wise counsel and strength

to pray for their son or daughter. it’s still a struggle

but through the sometimes long and painful process

before and during rehab, God touches the heart of

the addict. rehab centres provide structured support

to help them learn to hear and follow God. The work

of God’s spirit affects all areas of their life, leads to

visible transformation and often leads to other family

members discovering faith in God.

Do you offer a distinctive

Christian approach to drug rehab?

yes. christian rehab centres see addiction of any

form as primarily a spiritual problem, which results

from a person’s separation from God. They therefore

focus on the heart of addicts, not their behaviour.

even so, only God can change the human heart

though his forgiveness on the cross. addicts are

attracted to the love and acceptance they receive

through the outreach workers and in the christian

rehab centres. most have very little understanding

or belief in God but they are offered prayer for

their healing and invited to give God a try – to

repent and follow him. life in rehab is a process

of intensive discipleship with 24 hour support and

training to live a new healthy way of life. no drugs

are used so many residents are surprised at how

light their withdrawal is. The results are remarkable.

The president of the russian coalition of citizens’

initiatives has said that christian rehabilitation

centres in russia and ukraine achieve on average

a recovery rate between 50 and 75 per cent. That

compares with professional secular and government

programmes which, on best record, yield a 10 per

cent recovery rate.

emails and skype internet phone calls. in 2007 there

were seven events, so that meant lots of travelling. i

visit rehab centres to build relationships, investigate

needs and bring leaders of ministries together.

each trip is different but typical components

include meeting with leaders, prayer, Bible teaching,

community chores and hanging out with residents.

sometimes i am a sounding board. i’m often a

confidant, often a friend and encourager but despite

my best efforts i think i’m always a novelty factor.

previously while based in a rehab centres i taught

a foundational christianity course and international

communication. once a year i teach a module on

drug addiction ministry on the social work track of

the moldovan college of Theology and education.

So is there some measure as to

how effective this work is?

The effective work of christian drug rehab ministries

in the region of the former soviet union means there

are now thousands of christian ex-addicts, many of

whom are now providing prevention education and

running rehab centres. although there are hundreds

of christian drug and alcohol residential rehabilitation

centres in russian and ukraine, together they only

have capacity to accommodate one in 100 or one

per cent of their country’s drug addicts. There is

less help for alcoholics. so the role of these people

in the community can be vital. regional networks

in ukraine, moldova, the urals, siberia, and around

samara in russia are now providing mutual support

networks. ministries are starting to work together in

central asia and north-western russia. The training

facilitated by isaac has significantly increased the

ability of rehab centres to support people with

Hiv and aiDs. mildmay, the first uK aiDs hospice,

recently provided a series of detailed training weeks

(facilitated by isaac) to prepare rehab centres to

care for aiDs sufferers. a resource manual called life

continues was developed and printed by isaac and

has been very well received. it is being printed in four

different countries in the region. The varied training

and identification with the international network of

isaac has provided the rehab leaders with a defence

from local authorities who attempt to hinder their

access or even shut them down with accusations of

being unprofessional or illegal.

Is drug ministry an effective route

to evangelism?

Drug and alcohol rehab ministry in russia and

ukraine is the strongest determining factor of church

growth. as a result many other churches have started

a drug rehab ministry who were previously not

“Christian rehabilitation

centres in Russian and Ukraine

achieve on average a recovery rate

between 50 and 75 per cent.

professional secular and government

programmes yield 10 per cent”

The return of the ZombiesBy CMS general secretary Tim Dakin

phases of modernity, heralding the radical change

we are witnessing. in the first stage of modernity, the

emergence of the nation-state reshaped some of

the social collectives that held society together and

transmitted values. With it came the expectation of

full employment even if meant exploitation and the

ruination of the environment.

in the second phase, postmodernity, a phase we

are currently experiencing, there are four forces

at work, reminiscent i think of the four Horses of

the apocalypse: individualisation, globalisation,

underemployment and the ecology crisis. They are

turning what were previously familiar realities into

zombies. ‘church’ and ‘parish’ are candidates for the

zombie list. so too may be ‘community’, ‘mission’ and

‘service’.

The challenge for me is whether we should simply go

with the flow, accept that these valuable categories

have no continuing use, or whether we should work

hard to bring them back to life. as Beck says, in the

second modernity:

“We are heading for not only minor changes in, for

example, personal relationships, but for a different

form of capitalism, a new global order, a different type

of everyday life. We have to begin again by asking very

basic questions about how we live, how we respond

to these changes…” (my emphasis)

i believe christians need to urgently explore the

implications of this deeper individualisation. as cms,

our community of mission service needs to offer a

way of life that addresses this. We will need to use

stories and models from the past to help us. like

the phase in the history of the church where people,

faced with perplexing social change, went out into the

desert. There they discovered ‘individuation’ – they

recovered what it meant to be persons in relation to

others, not just individuals.

Basing their life on prayer these desert fathers and

mothers triggered a mission that profoundly changed

their world and its effects penetrated even as far as

Britain. our search in cms to become a community

of mission service is a small contribution to this

great experiment of history. We can all be part of it,

contribute to it, and believe that through it all things

will be united in christ for the glory of God.

I’m not a huge fan of horror films. Too much of

real life sometimes seems like a “night of the living

dead.” The spectre of individualism is killing off a lot of

what was best in our lives, pushing what were once

regarded as good things to becoming what the German

sociologist ulrich Beck has called “zombie categories.”

it has an impact on offices, tasks, roles or kinds of

persons, leaving them in a state in which they “are dead

and still alive.” Beck’s ideas have provoked me to think

about how this applies to mission in our times.

What are some of our zombie categories? What

bits of life have gone the way of the Dodo but still

remain and refuse to lie down? We have, for example,

stopped using the word ‘missionary’. There’s been a

consensus that ‘missionary’ no longer works for us, so

we’ve buried it. our name ‘cms’ has been affected by

zombie-esque tendencies. We initialise ‘cms’ so we

don’t have to be explicit about either ‘church’, ‘mission’,

‘society’ or ‘service’.

Beck, among other thinkers, has identified two

“We are heading for not only minor changes in personal relationships, but for a different form of capitalism, a new global order, a different type of everyday life”

10 yes advent 2008

11 yes advent 2008

We live in a world – the western world,

but increasingly the global community –

where truth is at a discount. Relativism is

everywhere; there is only ‘your truth’ and ‘my

truth’. Facts don’t matter, spin is all

that counts.

likewise, and deeply worrying for the church,

because we easily get sucked into this, argument and

reason are set aside, and instead of debate we have

the shrill swapping of hurt emotions. ‘i am a victim;

you are prejudiced; end of conversation’. or, in one

of those worrying irregular verbs, ‘i am speaking from

the heart, you are prejudiced, he or she is a bigot.’

This entire way of thinking – a world where the

only apparent moral argument is the volume of the

victim’s scream – is an affront to the biblical world, to

the anglican world, to the world of scripture, tradition

and reason.

reason is not the same as emotion or indeed

experience. Genuine screams of genuine victims

matter enormously, of course, and are all taken up

into the cry of dereliction from the cross. But they

are to be addressed, not with more screams, still less

competing ones, but with healing, biblical wisdom.

The reaction against scripture within postmodern

christianity is no worse than the reaction against

reason itself. and ‘experience’, which for John Wesley

when he elevated it alongside scripture, tradition

and reason meant ‘the experience of God the spirit

at work transforming my life’, has come to mean

‘whatever i feel’ – which is no more a safe guide

to anything than a glance at the english sky in the

morning is a safe guide to the weather later in the day.

postmodernity doesn’t stop with the deconstruction

of truth. it deconstructs the self as well. at this

point the Gnostic would do well to hide, because in

postmodernity there is no such thing as the inner

spark, the true inward reality. That’s why, for instance,

in today’s debates among the gay community, the

essentialist position (‘this is who i am’) is increasingly

discounted by the constructivists (‘this is what i

choose to be today’) – though you wouldn’t know

that from the way the church still talks about the

matter. But the greatest deconstruction of all is of

course that of the overarching narrative, the great

stories. Big stories, like truth-claims, declares the

postmodernist, are claims to power. live within the

modernist story and the modernists will end up

running the show. That’s how the world has worked

for long enough.

In search of the spirit of truthBishop Tom Wright asks if the Bible can help us with the challenges of postmodernity

12 yes advent 2008

and of course that presents quite a challenge to

the christian; because the Bible is precisely a great

narrative, the huge, sprawling story of creation and

new creation, of covenant and new covenant, with

Jesus in the middle of it. That is why many christians

today shrink their mission to the mere attempt to

give some people, here and there, a spiritual life and

a hope out beyond, rather than taking the mission

where it needs to go, into every corner of God’s

world and its systems and structures. But please

note: the deconstruction of power-stories is itself

a claim to power. pontius pilate asked Jesus ‘what

is truth’, because for him the only truth was what

came out of the scabbard of a sword. indeed, the

conversation between Jesus and pilate in John 18

and 19 stands near the heart of a biblical theology of

mission. in other words, though the postmodernist

sneers at empire and its grandiose dreams, in the

final analysis it colludes with it. it can scoff, but it

cannot subvert. all those years of Jacques Derrida,

and we still got George Bush. and Tony Blair.

so what does the Bible itself have to say on the

matter? How can the great story i’ve been speaking

of respond to the postmodern challenge – because

make no mistake, if it doesn’t, our mission will shrink

into a sad little parody of its true self. The answer is

that the story of scripture is not a story of power, but

a story of love – genuine love, overflowing love for

the world God made. note carefully what happens at

this point.

i said postmodernity had one moral value only, the

scream of the victim. That isn’t quite true. it has

one other: the duty to, as is often said ‘embrace

the other’. This has come from various sources and

it’s sometimes joined up, though i have to say with

minimal justification, with some elements of the

work of Jesus. This is at the heart of the appeal that

we ‘live with difference’, and so on. i have spoken

about that elsewhere; it all depends on a decision

as to which differences you can and should live

with and which you shouldn’t and can’t. There is an

enormous amount of begging the question currently

on this matter. But when we consider the biblical

narrative we discover that here again postmodernity

has produced a parody of the reality. in scripture,

God makes a world that is other than himself,

and that is full of complementarities: heaven and

earth, night and day, sea and land, vegetation

and animals, and ultimately humans, with the

complementarity of male and female growing more

evident within that world until it is finally affirmed,

producing a picture of a world of radical differences

with the differences made for one another.

Within the biblical narrative, of course, this reaches

its great conclusion when heaven and earth finally

come together, with the new Jerusalem as the bride

of christ. This is the biblical story of love: the love of

God for his world, the love within that world for that

which is radically different from me, from us, the love

which really does ‘embrace the other’, not in a casual

and floppy sense of ‘anyone who’s a bit different

from me’, but in the deep ontological sense of a love

which goes out into a different country altogether

to affirm the goodness of God’s creation there and

to discover, in that affirmation, the greatest delight

which mirrors the delight of God the creator, the

delight of christ the lover.

What we desperately need, if we are to pursue a

biblical, christian and indeed anglican mission in the

postmodern world, is the spirit of Truth. There is no

space to develop this further, but it is vital to say this

one thing. We have got so used to the postmodern

sneer that any truth-claim is instantly suspect. and at

that point many christians have lurched back to the

apparent safety of a modernist claim: conservative

modernists claim that they can simply look up truth

in the Bible, without realising what sort of book it

is, while radical modernists claim they find truth in

today’s science, without realising what sort of a thing

that is either. But we cannot go back; we have to go

on; and the spirit of Truth, often invoked in favour of

any and every innovation in the church, is actually

at work when we live within the great story, the love

story, God’s love-story, and become in turn agents,

missional agents, of that story in the world. Truth is

not something we possess and put in our pockets,

because truth is grounded in the goodness of creation,

the promise of redemption for that creation, and the

vocation of human beings to speak God’s word both

of naming the original creation and of working for new

creation – the word, in other words, of mission. The

spirit of Truth is given so that, living within the great

biblical story, we can engage in those tasks.

The Rev Dr NT Wright is bishop of Durham and a

prolific author in New Testament topics. Extracted

from a presentation at the 2008 Lambeth

Conference. The complete address will appear

shortly as a Crowther Centre Monograph.

“The answer is that the story of scripture is not a story of power, but a story of love – genuine love, overflowing love”

Central and eastern europe has seen massive

change in the last two decades. Working with

a team of researchers and partnering with an

organisation in slovakia, the work involved time

listening to more than 70 students talk about their

search for meaning, hopes for the future and what

is significant to them in life. students from slovakia,

poland, Bucharest, romania, ukraine and russia took

part. alongside the conversation sarah and her team

used photography and publish some of the fruits of

this work here.

“Working with images means that the young people

can respond to our questions about spirituality on an

emotional as well as cognitive level,” sarah explains.

“When you ask someone a personal

question such as, ‘What are your greatest hopes for

the future?’ then it’s really helpful to use pictures to

draw out responses.”

after the fall of the soviet union, people talked about

a ‘spiritual vacuum’ and how many in post-soviet

countries were eager to find some sort of religious

meaning. yet, 20 years on, this project revealed that

young people have very little interest in practising

christianity. moreover, although they may have an

interest in exotic spiritualities such as Buddhism,

Hinduism, astrology and other beliefs, very few practise

these as a religion. instead, this study found that young

people are simply creating their own worldview by

taking on various beliefs that are appealing.

Visualising hopeSarah Dunlop was commissioned by CMS to run a unique listening project involving 70 students from the former eastern bloc.

Here’s what she found out

far right: research assistants analysing visual data in Bratislava, photo taken by marsh moyle

right: Kinga Dabrowska (poland) and anna maiorova (russia), research assistants, photo taken by andrew Dunlop

above: sarah Dunlop (on the right) hard at work in russia with translator, alona Dengacheva

Top: visualising Hope available from:visualisinghope.wordpress.com

13 yes advent 2008

The young people spoke about their dreams for

the future: how they hope to travel abroad, have a

family of their own, be in a romantic relationship,

have a network of supportive friends and live in a

better world (without wars, poverty, disasters and

injustice). for the most part, their thoughts about the

future were focused on life lived here and now. They

believed that as long as they try hard, they could

achieve their life goal of being happy.

additionally, the young people who took part in

the project were invited to spend a week taking

photographs of what is significant to them in life.

as they spoke about these photos, their values

emerged. They said that opportunities for self-

expression and creativity were very

important to them. a slovakian

student took a

photograph of her shoes and said, “i had a moment

of creativity – i was painting my exercise shoes, i

made them quite crazy…i enjoy it a lot, to create

something, to give energy out of myself…”

The concept of freedom was highly significant for

these young people. a russian girl from nizhny

novgorod took a photo of a person in a hang glider.

she explained what this meant to her: “for me it

primarily signifies freedom. i mean i have always

dreamed of taking off the ground this way – to feel

that i am flying high in the sky, above the earth. i

mean, this is great, these extreme, new feelings…it

is also the embodiment of freedom from something

in society.”

above: Team photo

many of the young people feel the pressures of work,

studies and family and spoke about how much they

value opportunities to have fun. a female student in

nizhny novgorod summed it up with a photo of an

ad featuring a large yellow smiley face: “This is fun,

laughing, entertainment. naturally, it is important for

me. one can’t live without fun at any age, especially

at my age.”

When asked about their attitudes toward church the

young people gave a mixed response. some were

positive, talking about the church as a place to meet

with God or as a symbol of their country’s religious

heritage. others were ambivalent, not seeing it

having relevance to their life. a large number said

negative things about the church. many believed that

churches are for uneducated, unthinking people. a

romanian student said, “i don’t have anything to do

with churches… Because orthodox religion cannot

offer me the key to understanding things, i consider

this religion to be simply a way of gathering common

people, stupid people.”

many felt that church was a place where they would

14 yes advent 2008

be told that they were wearing the wrong clothes

or not following the rituals in the proper manner.

essentially, they said, when they were in church they

lost their ability to express themselves. The students

valued self-expression, freedom and fun and saw

the church as an institution that would force them

to conform to its rules for living, restricting their

freedom and certainly not a place for ‘fun’. This clash

of values indicates that young people tend not to

make time for church because they perceive that it

would mean sacrificing their values in some way.

yet these young people were open to talking about

their spiritual needs. a russian student said: “This

is my life. What will become of me? What do i

live for? i have such a feeling of emptiness, like

i am in a vacuum, like i don’t mean anything.” a

slovakian young person said, “i get scared that we

are passengers, powerless, lacking significance in

whatever we do. at the moment, i don’t have an

answer to my fears.”

sarah Dunlop sums up, “The words of the young

people clearly show that they need to discover a

meaningful relationship with God. any ministry

that will reach them effectively will give them

the freedom to creatively explore christianity for

themselves, engage them in dialogue and most of all,

it will be fun!”

A full account of the responses of the young

people and comments from church leaders

across the region has been published as a book

called Visualising Hope: Exploring the Spirituality

of Young People in Central and Eastern Europe.

Sarah’s blogsite:

http://visualisinghope.wordpress.com/

a selection of the photographs taken by

17 year old students from nizhny novgorod, russia

and Bratislava, slovakia

15 yes advent 2008

During the General Conference of the

International association for Mission Studies

held in Balanton, Hungary, 16–23 august 2008,

a group of participants, including my wife and

me, paid a visit to the House of Terror Museum

of Budapest. The purpose was to reflect on what

happened in that country during the nazi dictatorship

of 1944–1945 and the following four decades of

soviet occupation.

The museum is located in the huge building that

both the nazi and the soviet regimes used as

headquarters for their terrorist police force and as a

prison. it enables the visitors not only to get historical

information but to listen to first-hand witnesses telling

their personal experiences during the long and tragic

years under the repressive governments.

among the sad experiences recalled are: the

deportation, under the nazi regime, of thousands

of Hungarian Jews to auschwitz, where most of

them perished; deportation, once the soviets took

over, of thousands of Jews to the soviet union,

and of thousands of Hungarians of German origin

to Germany; the ‘internments’ that took place after

the soviet occupation, by which the new Hungarian

authorities could place under police surveillance

and eventually arrest any citizens suspected of

opposing the regime; the concentration camps

where thousands of prisoners were forced into hard

labour; the ruthless communist campaign against the

Hungarian peasants who resisted the collectivisation

of the land.

one of the rooms of the museum is called

‘anteroom of the Hungarian political police’. it recalls

the political security Department (pro), which was

set up by the soviet union in January of 1945 for

the purpose of tracking down war criminals and

bringing them to trial. later on it changed its name

several times but not its methods, including torture,

and it gained fame as a dreadful force because of

the violence it displayed to repress the enemies of

the communist establishment. it was entirely at the

service of the communist party. for many years

the director of the political police was Gabor peter,

whose hideous participation in state terrorism is

recalled in another room.

no sensitive person can visit the House of Terror

museum of Budapest and not feel overwhelmed

by the degree of terror that, under the spell of a

totalitarian ideology, a group of powerful people

can impose on a whole nation. The recollection

of the atrocities committed under the nazi and

the communist dictatorships does not only have

historical value. it is also a forceful way to warn

Hungarians and people from elsewhere against

the dangers of totalitarianism. more than that, it is

a good way to use memory to bring about healing

and hope, especially when one takes into account

that the culprits were in the end brought to court

and condemned, and that the nightmare that the

museum depicts now lies in the past.

a cry from argentina

coming from argentina, however, my wife and i

could not help thinking that our country of adoption,

where we have lived for over forty years, also needs

a house of terror museum. from 1976 to 1983

we also lived a nightmare under a dictatorship fully

committed to an ideology – neither nazism nor

communism, but neo-liberal capitalism; neither

Hungary’s House of Horrorsa sobering visit to a Budapest museum prompted questions for Rene padilla about the impact of ideology on our world and its people

16 yes advent 2008

backed by Germany nor by the soviet union, but

(sad to say) by the united states of america!

Quite understandably, we in the West readily

condemn the state terrorism experienced by people

in Hungary and many other countries during the nazi

and the communist eras. at the same time, however,

our eyes seem to be blindfolded to prevent us from

seeing what happened in argentina and in several

other latin american countries under the military

dictatorships of the cold-war years.

in the case of argentina, it is estimated that 30,000

people regarded as ‘subversives’ disappeared.

surveillance, violation of human rights, torture –

including rape, stealing of babies born of imprisoned

mothers, and concentration camps became the

order of the day. some time ago, francisco scilingo,

an argentine navy captain, shocked people when he

confessed that, obeying orders from his superiors, he

had participated in the killing of ‘subversive’ prisoners

by drugging them and throwing them, alive and

naked, into the sea from a plane in flight.

By now, the horrors of nazism and communism

are history, and so is the ‘Dirty War’ against the

‘communist subversion’ in the latin american

countries. now that the ‘War on Terror’ is being waged

all over the world, we urgently need a new house of

terror museum to remind us that the ideology behind

this new war also has an ominous track. as Hannah

arendt says, under terror, the majority of people give

up, but a few do not, and humanly speaking nothing

more is required and nothing more can be reasonably

expected in order for this planet to continue to be

inhabited by human beings.

Carlos Rene Padilla is the current CMS

missiologist in residence. Born in Quito, Ecuador,

at 15 he had a conversion experience, later

studied at Wheaton and did a PhD in Manchester

under FF Bruce. For many years he was on the

staff of IFES, latterly in a publishing role and he is

a prolific author. He has been very influential in

the Lausanne Movement. A family, sharing Jesus changing lives for over 200 years.

Help enable the work of the CMS family to continue beyond our lifetimes. For more information, Sarah Thomas, our legacy administrator, is available

on 01865 787518 or sarah.thomas@cms-uk.org

As my parents planted before I was born,

so do I plant for those who come after me.

“now that the ‘War on Terror’ is being waged all over the world, we urgently need a new house of terror museum to remind us that the ideology behind this new war also has an ominous track”

after a fantastic time at Greenbelt Festival a

few weeks ago, i am recommitted to the idea that

festivals represent one of the best opportunities the

church has to actually assemble in a way that is slow

enough to enjoy each other. it is easy on the wallet

and easy on the earth.

i have to confess that i am a festival junkie and

my family are just as bad. until a few months ago,

my kids had three armbands on their wrists from

the three previous freakstock festivals in Germany.

freakstock, home to the Jesus freaks since 1995, has

seen its numbers rise to 8,000 young people and

has helped to launch other festivals with a similar

theme. freakfest in czech republic, for example,

which also has a blend of hardcore alternative music

as well as Bible teaching and worship. slot festival

in poland, also, has been helped along by the Jesus

freaks and other movements to become a favourite

on the christian festival scene.

our family were there last year, at slot, camping in

our teepee and surrounded by hundreds of tents.

slot festival meets around a large monastery that

is mostly abandoned and comes to life each year

with the young people that make up the slot art

festival. after arriving at slot, erecting the tent next to

the monastery wall, and getting into the vibe of the

festival, it soon became obvious why it was so well

liked. Here are my reasons why it stands out as a

truly unique experience.

It is youthful. out of the 5,000+ people who were

there, i would say most were in their late teens or

perhaps early 20s. i was one of the old guys. i felt like

rip van Winkle! Honestly. and even though it can be

depressing to be in your early 40s when everyone

around is half your age, it’s also really exciting to see

the future of church in poland and see so much hope.

It is cheap. five solid days of festival for 35 euros.

and you can camp for free. compare that with your

average christian festival where 35 euros will hardly

get you to the registration table. festivals can only

do this if they don’t hire the big name speakers and

bands who only come for a fee, the expense of

which is thus passed onto the participants and in

a poorer country would mean that a lot of people

would not be able to attend. Better to have the highly

committed speakers, bands, leaders come who can

often pay or help pay their own way.

It is environmentally friendly. people generally

come from the area and the few countries around

poland. most people stay in tents and the monastery

is not air conditioned. very little energy is used up

18 yes advent 2008

and the footprint is tiny. festivals in general leave a

far smaller footprint than conferences that rely on

hotels and airports.

It is holistic. some 130 workshops including

all kinds of physical skills and exercises in bodily

coordination. it has a carnivalesque flavour with

people learning to juggle and paint and fling

poi around. it creates an atmosphere of humility and

learning.

It is ecumenical. slot is managed primarily by

protestants but it hires out an old catholic monastery

to host the event. it manages to draw both protestant

and catholic young people. in a predominantly

catholic country, there seems to be a lack of

controversy and disunity at slot.

It gives itself away. like other festivals that have

encouraged it, slot is supporting other countries to

start festivals. one of the outstanding examples is

upfest in ukraine that started a few years ago. i met

the leaders of upfest at our round table in slot and

was so excited to hear their story that we are already

making plans to be there for the next festival.

anyway, it’s possible that festivals are not your thing.

some people hate going without showers and suffer

from portaloophobia and that is understandable.

for those in the uK who want a festival experience,

Greenbelt is a good balance. But for those who

want to adventure out beyond the country to see

something young, fresh, and bursting with potential

for the Kingdom of God, i challenge you to cross the

channel and take a look for yourself. you might like

it. you might get addicted. you might even pencil in

festivals as part of your spiritual calendar.

and if you can’t make it, please pray for us as we

host training opportunities for young leaders during

the festivals in our tent as a part of the leadership

round tables. our round table at freakstock drew

over 70 leaders from 25 countries and helped us

connect with young leaders from Bulgaria, Hungary,

ukraine and russia.

in 2009, we plan on bringing training for missional

cells and enterprises to about four european festivals.

Andrew Jones is a member of the CMS Europe

staff team. You can read him regularly on his

blog, read and see more about Slot including

photos and video:

www.tallskinnykiwi.typepad.com

Greenbelt, look outThe euro festival scene is vibrant and bursting with potential for the kingdom of God. andrew Jones tells about his visit to Slot in poland this summer

Tanzania (25+) 20 April–3 May 2009

kenya (18-30) 6 July–1 August 2009

Romania (18-30) 5–22 July 2009

Tajikistan & kyrgyzstan (18-30) 24 July–17 August 2009

Russia (25+) 4–18 October 2009

egypt (25+) 11–25 October 2009

neW! Urban encounter 2009

for more information visit www.cms-uk.org/encounter

contact sarah on 01865 787494 or email teams@cms-uk.org

closing date for applications: monday 2 march 2009

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20 yes advent 2008

“shout joyfully to the lord, all the earth.” psalm 100.1

a first edition of Samuel Crowther’s

translation of the psalms into yoruba

is just one of several fascinating items

recently uncovered in the cms archives.

one of the richest collections of mission

and international history in Britain, the

cms archives contain more than two

million items. every once in a while, as in

the case of this early translation, even the

crowther centre staff are surprised at some

of the treasures they’ve found. Besides

the psalms, librarian margaret acton and

archivist Ken osborne have also catalogued

crowther’s yoruba translation of matthew

and some early reports from his niger

mission, complete with maps.

The main cms archives collection is housed

at the university of Birmingham, but many

resources are available at the crowther

centre for mission education at cms in

oxford – and online. in Birmingham, papers

from cms’s founding in 1799 up until 1949

are open for scholarly study.

The collection is a rich source of information

not only for ecclesiastical history and

missiology but for the secular history

and anthropology of the many countries,

particularly in asia and africa, in which the

society has operated.

included are records of the society’s home

administration (minute books, ledgers,

correspondence and publications) and of

the work of individual missions, among them

letters and diaries kept by missionaries. over

the years the society has absorbed other

missionary societies, and some of their

archives too now form part of the collection

in the university library: for example, the

church of england Zenana missionary

society (founded 1880), the female

education society (founded 1834), the

loochoo naval mission (founded 1843), and

mid-africa ministry (founded 1921).

in oxford you’ll find a full set of the archive

catalogues for the Birmingham collection,

microfilms for two-thirds of the archive

collection and cms records and publications

dating from as far back as 1813. from time

to time we’ll be featuring “Treasures from

the archives” in yes and at the crowther

centre pages online.

you’re welcome to visit the crowther centre

any time; the archives are available for

consultation during normal library opening

hours (9am – 5pm). However if you wish

to speak to the archivist it is best to arrange

an appointment by ringing 01865 787400.

Raiding the archives

21 yes advent 2008

neXT ISSUe oF yes DUe MaRCH ‘09

30 october, 8pm

ann pilling – Fake Gardens, Real Toads

ann pilling is a well-known children’s novelist. she

was awarded the Guardian prize and has received

two carnegie nominations. in recent years she has

focused on poetry. Her poems have won prizes and

commendations in several competitions.

5 november, 8pm

Bishop John pritchard – Telling it Slant: the need for eccentric mission

Before becoming Bishop of oxford in 2007, Bishop

John was Warden of cranmer Hall, archdeacon of

canterbury and Bishop of Jarrow. He has written a

number of books, including books on prayer and on

the work of a priest.

13 november, 8pm

Catherine Fox – Wrestling with angels: inspiration and writing

catherine fox is the author of three novels, a

series of humorous books arising out of her weekly

column for the church of england newspaper.

20 november, 8pm

Roger Wagner – Walking on Water

roger studied under peter Greenham at the royal

academy school of art and his paintings have been

exhibited widely. He is also an accomplished poet.

27 november, 8pm

Julia Golding – Creative Struggle: Christian author or author who is a Christian?

Julia was a diplomat and oxfam policy adviser

before becoming a widely published children’s

author. Her first novel, The Diamond of Drury lane

(2006), won the Waterstone’s children’s Book prize

and the nestle children’s Book prize Gold medal.

4 December, 8pm

Rob Hutton – Can you love Jesus and Journalism?

rob currently covers British politics for Bloomberg news.

He helped set up christians in Journalism in 2002.

11 December, 1pm

Toddy Hoare – The Word in 3D

The rev Toddy Hoare trained as a sculptor, served

in the army and later became a parish priest. He

has always combined sculpture with his ministry

and now preaches in bronze as well as conducting

retreats using sculpture.

Free parking. Before the evening lectures, you’ll

have an opportunity to meet with other guests

and friends and enjoy a meal, which will be served

from 7pm at the cms cafe. cost of the meal: £7 to

be paid on the day. rsvp for the meal seven days

before the lecture of your choice to:

berdine.vandentoren@cms-uk.org

More events 18 november: annual crowther lecture, 8pm

Given by current missiologist in residence

rene padilla, this excellent lecture will focus on

globalisation, particularly from the Global south

perspective.

early 2009, date to be confirmed, The role of

christianity in Britain Today, lecture by paul Woolley

paul Woolley is director of Theos, a public

theology think tank. in addition to working as a

parliamentary researcher and directing a political

unit, he has had extensive public affairs experience

in the charity sector. paul’s current research interests

include social cohesion in a pluralist society and

the role of government. paul is engaged in post-

graduate study at the university of st andrews.

Feb–May 2009 Missiologist in residence announced: The Rev Dr parush R parushev

originally from sofia, Buglaria, parush obtained his

first phD in applied mathematics. in 1992 he was

made a fellow of petri primi academy of science

and art, st petersburg, russia. His second phD

is in theology with specialist areas in christian

ethics and moral philosophy. parush has been

involved in the re-establishing of Baptist higher

theological education in Bulgaria, suspended after

1939. in 1991 the Baptist union appointed him

bi-vocationally as a director of the Bulgarian Baptist

Theological institute (BBTi). He is a popular author,

lecturer and conference speaker and we’re thrilled

to welcome him to the crowther centre.

Forthcoming monographs:

Dan Groody

on mission and migration

Ida Glaser

on crusade sermons,

francis of assisi and martin

luther: What does it mean

to ‘take up the cross’ in the

context of islam?

Johan Velema

on a Biblical Basis for

project evaluation

Todd Johnson

on changing Demographics

of World christianity

22 yes advent 2008

When one person has an idea to join in with

God’s mission it’s a good thing. But when they

connect with others sharing a similar vision of what’s

possible the world can really change for better. This

is the power of networks.

a friend of mine, si, had a concern about sex

trafficking – in fact more like a raging anger following

visits to bars where girls were visibly being picked up.

He got to know a few sex workers in his local area,

built friendships and helped them as individuals. But

it didn’t take long to realise that the problems were

pretty broad ranging.

chatting with a few friends he got connected with

a few other people who were involved in care

for sex workers or political campaigning. a

few emails, Google searches and coffees

later, he begin to build up a picture of

the scene and the various economic,

immigration, political and cultural factors

at play. crucially he also connected with

some others who caught the vision for doing

something and a small team was formed with

aimie and shannon picking up the baton.

The team quickly found themselves part of an

informal network of brilliant people working on their

own projects but also collaborating together. an idea

began to form – no one seemed to be working at the

customer demand end of things, with men who pay

for sex. via a few networked connections, a design

agency got involved and a beer mat and poster

campaign was born called The Truth isn’t sexy.

one side of the beer mat has a seductive image

and phone number but flip the card over and the

message is about sex trafficking with the story of the

sex worker. shocking but brilliant! The goal was simple

– to get these into pubs around Britain. another

network was needed – in fact ideally other networks.

Through informal relational connections, a website,

emails, friends blogging and yes more coffees and

conversation, money was raised, the printing done

and groups found through the different networks to

go on pub crawls in their cities to persuade pubs to

join in the campaign.

i am involved in an alternative worship community,

Grace, in ealing. We are in both formal and informal

networks with other alternative worship groups and

emerging churches so we were contacted and did a

pub crawl through ealing.

The campaign launched in spring 2007. Two

hundred thousand beermats have been distributed

in city centre pubs and nus bars. fashion shows

and film nights have been organised; national radio

shows and newspapers have broadcast the TTis

message; policemen have used the campaign in

their “on the ground” work; Black rebel motorcycle

club rocked the Bloomsbury ballroom for a benefit

gig; mps across the parties have praised The Truth

isn’t sexy in the House of commons; the minister

in charge of this area is now publicly stating the

importance of addressing demand – the main

political objective. The team are currently evaluating

the campaign’s success and will be self-publishing an

activists’ handbook for others wanting to embark on

something similar.

several things are interesting about this campaign.

aside from printing, the campaign cost virtually

nothing. it wasn’t spearheaded by an organisation.

volunteers made it happen as networks of people

shared the idea, cooperated and joined in collective

action. This network of people is not a club you can

join – it was much more organic and invisible.

it wasn’t something that was led – at least not in any

traditional sense – though the people involved had

a high level of skill at getting people connected and

participating. The technological tools that are available

in the world of digital media, all free if you have a

computer – email, websites, blogs, social networking

sites and so on, were absolutely crucial to the process.

This process is so simple that you can miss it. it’s

particularly easy to miss if you are looking for success

with an organisational or old paradigm pair of glasses

– measurable outcomes in organisational strategy

achieved by professionals supported by systems of

hierarchy and control. at its heart cms is a network

of people wanting to join in with God’s mission –

probably more like a network of networks.

The chances are if you are reading this you are part

of it. only a small percentage of the network are paid

staff. The organisation is simply part of our network

and community. in europe we hope that cms will

be a network environment that enables like-minded

people to connect and self-organise to change the

world as they share, cooperate and get involved in

collective action. Where you would like to participate

in the mission of God? maybe we can introduce you

to a few other like-minded people?

For further info see www.thetruthisntsexy.com

Shannon (Hopkins) is part of the Mission

Leadership and Community team. She facilitates

NET, the Network of Entrepreneurial Talent which

CMS helped catalyse – see

www.networkofentrepreneurialtalent.com

Jonny blogs at jonnybaker.blogs.com

networks change the worldby Jonny Baker

23 yes advent 2008

In an exciting move new Zealand cms is to

have an african face at the helm. The rev steve

maina is to be its next General secretary from 1

february 2009, subject to immigration formalities

being completed. steve, 37, moves from his role

as General secretary of church army africa (caa)

based in nairobi, Kenya. caa has trained and

deployed over 500 evangelists and missionaries

in eastern and central african countries. He is a

gifted speaker and for some years now has been

part of the faith2share network comprising various

members of the cms family of missions and

close allies. steve is married to mary, a counselling

psychologist, and they have two children, rinna 8,

and Tanielle 5.

Reports of the wholesale murder of christians

in the indian state of orissa make sickening reading.

it’s not just a case of spontaneous violence getting

out of hand. christian observers said the attackers

set their trap well. first, they built makeshift

barricades of trees and small boulders along the

roads leading into this village, apparently to stop the

police from intervening. Then, eyewitnesses say, the

attackers went on a rampage. chanting “Kill these

pigs” and “all Hindus are brothers,” the mob began

breaking into homes that displayed posters of

Jesus, stealing valuables and eventually burning the

buildings. When they found residents who had not

fled to the nearby jungle, they beat them with sticks

or maimed them with axes and left them to die.

a light-touch article in the oxford Mail about

Tanzania-based andy and susie Hart creating

employment for deaf and blind young people

making paper from elephant dung caused smiles at

cms. comments in the paper’s website reminded

me, however, that there’s no shortage of raw,

downright hostility to honest practical faith here on

our doorsteps at oxford. “i hate do-gooders”, one

opined. “another one of these ‘christians’ helping

the little coloured people in africa and getting a

nice warm patronising feeling from it.” ouch.

Strategy change at Willow Creek community

church in Barrington, illinois, offers an important

pointer to what it takes to embed evangelism in the

life of the local church. since 1975 this megachurch

has run ‘seeker sensitive’ services. its model has

been adopted widely all over the world. But Willow

creek has announced that it will now gear its

weekend services toward mature believers seeking

to grow in their faith. The change follows a four-year

research project. Willow creek had worked on the

premise that it should attract people searching for

answers, bring them into a relationship with christ,

and then capitalise on their contagious fervor to

evangelise others. analysis of the research revealed

that evangelistic impact was greater from those

who self-reported as “close to christ” or “christ-

centered” than from new church attendees. ergo,

effective evangelism grows out of discipleship.

by John martin

“another one of these ‘christians’ helping the little coloured people

in africa and getting a nice warm patronising feeling

from it.” ouch.

at 10am on 10 September 2008 a man in a white coat switched on the large Hadron collider (lHc) sending proton particles on collision courses thus simulating the ‘Big Bang’. The big question of course is this: who flicked the original switch?

Photo: from CMI synod