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Bowling alone on Plymouth Hoe!
Early May found me by the statue of Francis Drake on Plymouth Hoe, a lone Anglican facing an armada of 1500 Baptists. I was leading a Stewardship workshop on churches and debt at the Baptist Union Assembly and on Saturday night was privileged to share a remarkable celebration of mission.
Not only can Baptists do liturgy, they do it really well! Retired or returned mission partners were honoured then given candles. Next, those soon to go overseas were introduced and also received candles lit, as I remember, from an Easter candle.
It was a moving and powerful illustration of mission inherited by a new generation of mission partners who received and carried the light of Christ. The reflective music was beautifully led and I have rarely been so moved in worship. ‘One for the Gift Horse’ I thought, ‘a money angle would be great’. Given my situation I toyed with of ‘all denominations welcome’ - £5s, £10s, £20s! – and then they announced the collection.
About 50 people had given by the time the bucket reached me. It was light and silent. Not a single coin, no token gifts, no fumbling for loose change (2 Cor 9:5) , just simple, heartfelt, ungrudging generosity to support Baptist missions and those who serve this calling.
When we talk money to keep the show on the road we constrain generosity, place a glass ceiling on real generosity. When we talk of mission and ministry, of changed lives and new hope we release the joyful, transforming generosity that changes us and glorifies God.
- Is it time to audit the money communications in your church? What do they actually say to the congregation?
- does our church budget (if there is one) prioritise mission and ministry and reflect agreed aims and objectives for the coming year?
- How can we creatively and effectively communicate our aims and purposes, our mission and ministry to the congregation?
- How can we communicate ministry and mission outcomes and changed lives as faithful stewards rather than the cost centres of an institution?
Links
Photo montage of the Baptist Assembly
The Spanish Armada (wiki)
Candle in the Dark: the life of William Carey, founder of the Baptist Missionary Society (Film)
A short biography of William Carey
Fascinating facts
In an episode of the Simpsons, Homer accidentally sets fire to an English warship and so disrupts the Spanish Armada.
The English fleet was bigger than the Spanish Armada but Spanish firepower was much greater.
Plymouth Hoe used to have images of the legendary Celtic figures Gog and Magog carved into the turf, probably a reference to the legend that from here they were cast into the sea.
In the 1920s and 1930s American conman Oscar Hertzell swindled many Americans named Drake by telling them that that the estate of Sir Francis Drake was being held by the British government and they should send him money to help them get what they were owed! He died in prison in 1943.
William Carey, the founder of Baptist Missionary Society, is hailed as the Father of the Modern Missions. Other famous Baptists include CH Spurgeon, Martin Luther King, Abraham Lincoln, John D Rockefeller, Bill Clinton, John Bunyan (Pilgrim’s Progress) and..... Jesse James!
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