Dietrich Bonhoeffer - Life Together 1

I feel very lucky - I only have one book that I need to read before starting pre-ordination training in September. It has been decided by the staff and continuing students at Wesley House that we shall all read Bonhoeffer's 'Life Together' over the Summer break as a way of preparing to live in community in September. I have only just started my first read through but was struck by a comment he made. He writes:

'Just as surely as God desires to lead us to a knowledge of genuine Christian fellowship, so surely must we be overwhelmed by a great general disillusionment with others, with Christians in general, and, if we sare fortunate, with ourselves.'

This stopped me dead in my tracks. I read that statement again, and then re-read it a third and fourth time. Surely God doesn't desire that I feel disillusioned with others or myself. I can't believe that the basis for a solid Christian community was disillusionment. As this sentence came within the first few pages of the book I resigned myself to not liking the book. However, I read on, and was glad I did when I came across the next passage:

'God is not a God of emotions but the God of truth. Only the fellowship which faces such disillusionment, with all its unhappy and ugly aspects, begins to be what it should be in God's sight... The sooner this shock of disillusionment comes to...a community the better. A community which cannot bear and survive such a crisis, which insists upon keeping up is illusion when it should be shattered, permanently loses in that moment the promise of Christian community.'

I have not read such a powerful and honest appraisal about community in a long while, if at all. How often do we, as Christian communities, keep up an illusion that all is fine, when in fact, if we truly want to represent God's image of community, we should honestly acknowledge, welcome and deal with our ugly sides, our failings and our weaknesses - both personal and corporate. There are very few communities that actively welcome people warts and all - but the church should be one of them. And just imagine how interesting church meetings could become if we lived like that!

Human Nature shining through

This last week has been a difficult week. My replacement has started and the early signs are great. He seems very confidant and competent. He was the person I wanted to be offered the job and had to argue for this to happen. What is more he is liked by all the young people and volunteers so far. Surely, I should be the happy about all this? But human nature has crept in.

We have just got back from a camp with some of our young people and despite it being a great few days and lots of fun, I came away feeling slightly upset that I am being replaced - replaced at work and replaced in the hearts of the young people. How easy it is for jealousy to creep in. I try to be more like Christ, yet it is hard as human nature is always fighting to come to the fore.

I'm sure that when I leave I will be happy we have such a good replacement. Happy that all the hard work I have put in will not be wasted. Happy that the young people I care so much about are going to continue to recognise their potential.

But for now, for the next few weeks, life is hard as I slowly draw back from one life and move onto another. Prayers will be valued.

Oliver Twist and Graham Kendrick

Friday night I went to Pizza Hut with the youth club I run as part of my work. A night out with pizza and young people is usually a good fun evening. However, this occasion was particularly engaging. As it turned out I was on a table with just one of our young people - a teenager with cerebral palsy. We often have discussions about faith and the world as his family are members of a local Anglican church. Tonight was no different.

We had a brief discussion about the theology of 'Shine Jesus shine.' He comes at the world from a very literal perspective which really made me think about what it meant to have Jesus shining on us - when he obviously doesn't literally shine on us. It was useful because we were singing this hymn today at church. I wonder how often we pick hymns and songs without fully thinking through the meaning of the words - or how we explain the images they talk of.

However, by far the biggest discussion was about Oliver Twist. This lad is appearing in a production of Oliver at his school. The discussion wasn't much about his role in the play, but rather about how upset the story made him - especially when Oliver wasn't allowed any more to eat. He couldn't understand a world where children didn't have enough to eat, where people had to steal to survive, where children were mistreated. He also couldn't understand why Dickens would want to write such an upsetting story.

This challenged me because I haven't tried engaging the young people I work with in issues of social justice enough. However, it also encouraged me because if we can encourage more young people to feel passionate about such issues as child neglect and poverty, then maybe, just maybe, we may have a better future. Charles Dickens wrote stories to challenge his society, I believe that we need modern day stories to do the same.