Boiler Rooms
A Personal Perspective
Malc Peirce – October 2004
Member of the Management Team of Reading Boiler Room 2001 -
2004
The following document in no way represents a consensus view held by
the Core Team of Reading Boiler Room
It is what it says, a personal perspective
Background Reading Boiler Room
Prayer Rooms Boiler Rooms as
Prayer Rooms
A Youth movement? Prayer or “Intercession”
Church plant – some challenges Unity
Can a Boiler Room be a
Church? What size and nature does a City
need to be?
Sustainability of 24-7 365? Evangelism?
Finance Missional Communities?
Community Living
in Community – a personal perspective
Urban Friars -
of rings and things Of Kings and Things
Urban Monasteries / Friaries Fathers
Boiler Rooms - An alternative view
As I set out to commit my
thoughts to paper I realize that only a few people will even know who I am, let
alone why I should feel that I have anything to offer worth reading. However having lived with a
Boiler Room for three years now I hope you will indulge me in sharing a few
insights. I write just after the 2004 Roundtable in Barcelona and having not
attended feel perhaps that I missed a significant weekend, since people have
passed me copies of papers, sent me emails, telephoned and “skyped” me. For the reader’s sake I have
endeavoured to be brief and you will have to read between the lines a great
deal to make sense of some of my fairly skeletal paragraphs. If anyone wants me
to expand any points, or challenge my thinking, then just email me on malc@readingprayer.com
I have seen new ideas come and go, ministries rise,
and once influential leaders disappear into oblivion,
often in disillusionment, burnout, even bitterness
In the following pages I hope in a very modest way to address a number
of major challenges currently facing the 24-7 prayer movement. In particular
Boiler Rooms and the questions of church-planting and monastic vow and order.
Throughout
I will generally use the word congregation rather than church
when referring to a locally based gathering of God’s people under a name and
with a pastor, pastoral team or leadership of some sort. I will attempt to
articulate why I do not believe that Boiler Rooms can or should be “churches”
or “congregations” and look at some of the challenges related to the monastic
vision.
I hope that you will find this at least thought-provoking. I am fully expecting that people will beg to differ with my stance and also am fully aware that five years from now I will read this and have questions myself! I feel some responsibility toward all those who have caught the vision for Boiler Rooms, since if we had not pressed in and pushed through (to use the jargon!) others might never have even begun to dream of creating Boiler Rooms. If history recalls that this was a brief and passing phase, or worse still does not recall it at all, then I hope we can be forgiven for raising false hopes and expectations, of making it sound feasible when it wasn’t.
As a founding member of the core team of Reading Boiler Room I have been
involved with 24-7 here from the beginning. As a Christian of some 40+ years I
have seen new ideas come and go, ministries rise, and once influential leaders
disappear into oblivion, often in disillusionment, burnout, even bitterness.
Some I have seen lose their faith altogether in the process.
My wife Penny and I come from a mixed denominational background. I was
born into a Salvationist family, had a “brush” with Methodism and an
Independent Free Church. Penny spent her early teens in the Anglican Church. We
were married in Elim, spent some years in the Apostolic Church (Pentecostal). In
our mid twenties Penny and I left our local Baptist Church to start a “House
Church” in a shared community house, where we could express a new freedom in
worship, prayer, depth of fellowship and exercise the gifts of the Spirit
unhindered by tradition and learn how to live in a community over a period of
four years. We have tracked the “decline” or at least “development” of the
House Church movement and its transformation into effectively ‘just another
denomination’. I would venture to suggest that much of the current debate
within 24-7 has large amounts of the same “feel” and “issues” that the emergent
House-Church movement faced. Were they truly churches? (Most used the term
fellowship in an attempt to avoid the question).
Many of our contemporaries have however continued to pioneer and fight
the temptation to compromise and settle down. For my own part, there has been a
continual challenge to concepts of church. Over the past decade I have been led
to mix with intercessors and prayer leaders, and had the privilege to travel
with prophetic men and women and more recently some younger prayer
leaders/visionaries. In the process, God has placed on my heart not just a
passion for the rising generation but a desire to see Europe evangelized. More
specifically still, to see Germany and Sweden released in prayer and mission.
My wife (Penny of Chapter 19
fame! – Red Moon Rising*) and I parented the work among the young ‘Skaters’,
‘Moshers’ and ‘Goths’ in Reading town centre. Thus for us the coming together
of prayer and youth in 24-7 has been a natural process. God gave us the vision
and home for Reading Boiler Room at just the right time. It was an organic
thing, the response of a small group of people, having found something of God
in 24-7 prayer, wanting more of him.
Penny has worked in Social
Services, the Health Service, the Youth Service and in the Commercial Sector.
My background is a mix of office administration and education, having taught in
Primary Schools for seventeen years. We have three adult children although the
youngest lives at home since she is mentally handicapped. We now foster through
a national agency, having spent three years with “CARE Remand” fostering young
men on remand arrested for criminal activity or alleged crime.
“Clearing up sarah’s vomit a few minutes later
Penny reflected that this was not quite what any of them
had anticipated when they first imagined a 24-7 house of prayer”
Red Moon Rising – Pete Greig
2004 (1)
For readers of ‘Red Moon Rising’, we can vouch that, although there is
much myth that has grown up around what happened Saturday by Saturday, what is
described in Chapter 19 pretty much did happen, though not all in one
afternoon. In the words of the late Eric Morcambe “All
the right notes, not necessarily in the right order.” I was amused as I read it
by the thought that Pete Greig’s ability to momentarily climb into my wife’s
brain was a little disturbing! But, seriously, Pete has written a wonderful
account in a way which none of us could possibly have done, interweaving
disparate events into a superb prose which captures the heart of those days. In
one sense the following pages add a little more insight into what lies behind
that chapter.
I can safely say that the Reading Boiler Room evolved through a process
of “wishing”, “dreaming”, “doing”, “being”, “praying”, “debating” and
“weeping”! It has not been an easy journey. We have been conscious that we were
part of a defining process. Living it, not talking or writing about it. People
were able to come and see what God had done. Now I hear new terms such as
“missional communities” and wonder what on earth they are! Is this thinking
coming out of Boiler Room or being overlaid on it?
Over the two years and a bit
that Reading Boiler Room 1 existed there was an ongoing discussion of a number
of topics
·
Was it church?
First some scriptures, then a little
introductory overview.
1 Cor 12:12 For just as the
body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many,
are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in the one Spirit we were all
baptized into one body-Jews or Greeks, slaves or free-and we were all made to
drink of one Spirit. (NRSV)
14 Indeed, the body does not
consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot would say, “Because I am not
a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of
the body. 16 And if the ear would say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not
belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If
the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were
hearing, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But as it is, God arranged the
members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single
member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many members, yet one
body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the
head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 On the contrary, the members of
the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and those members of the
body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less
respectable members are treated with greater respect; 24 whereas our more
respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving
the greater honor to the inferior member, 25 that there may be no dissension
within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If
one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all
rejoice together with it.
27 Now you are the body of
Christ and individually members of it.
Eph 1:22 And he has put all
things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the
church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
It’s the Shekinah Glory
“Draw close to God and He will draw close to you.”
We do
well to remember that 24-7 was and is first and foremost about prayer. It’s
success I would suggest is down to two main things. Firstly it was God inspired
and we owe a debt to Pete Greig and others for listening and responding to God
and for praying and inspiring others to pray. Secondly Father, Holy Spirit and
Jesus responded heart to heart with the hundreds, now thousands, who set aside
serious time, often when they could have been sleeping or out clubbing or
whatever, to draw near to Him.
It
will have come as no surprise that when Reading opened an ongoing 24-7 prayer
room, God seemed to be pleased. One pastor said to me “It’s the presence of
God. I can’t keep my people away.” An elderly intercessor smiled and said,
“It’s wonderful, it’s the Shekinah Glory. He’s here.” Many times people
commented on the way the air felt “thicker” or “heavier” in one prayer room or
another. There was even one particular spot in our “Nations Prayer Room” which
would often instantly cause me to do that bend over and nod thing which some
are accustomed to, even when if I wasn’t actually in there to pray.
Boiler Rooms undeniably take 24-7 prayer
to a deeper level because of sustained prayer
We
like to think of 24-7 as a youth prayer movement. However Reading would never
have survived if it wasn’t for the fact that it quickly attracted pray-ers of
all ages. Those who one might call “serious intercessors” were drawn to it and
made what we were more sustainable. It made us more valued by the church.
Indeed over time the numbers of young people reduced as initial enthusiasm
waned. I will state now, although the theme will re-occur, that for me it is a
vital part of the changes that will happen in the Church as we move into these
“last days”, that ”the hearts of the fathers will be turned to the
children” …… in other words, the church will come to value all its
members, no matter what age, sex or cultural/racial background. This horrid,
ungodly, worldly obsession with the notion that only young people can pioneer,
be radical and bring about change, will die. Long live the Calebs!
Prayer
or “Intercession”
I will
only flag up here that I am not unaware that many would say that there
are levels of prayer – “ongoing”, “strategic”, “intercessory”, “prophetic”.
Here is not the time or place to get into that in any depth, but it needed
mentioning. We have all experienced a 24-7 prayer room beginning to hear from
God prophetically. Sometimes He has given an individual or a group of people
some direction for themselves, their City or their congregation. Boiler Rooms undeniably take 24-7 prayer
to a deeper level because of sustained prayer. It does mean that we need to
begin to be more responsible for what people think God may be saying. In
Reading we began to get more interested in “spiritual mapping”, etc. If we
pray, will God speak? When He speaks, does he expect us to listen and act? If
He speaks about the City, the Church or the Nation, where do we go with that.
I do
believe that Boiler Rooms can have a role in corporately “standing in the gap”
for their town, city, nation, etc. The challenge is how we integrate our
“standing” with others called do the same in different ways. Where, as in
Reading, a Network of Pastors have established Prayer and intercessory meetings
and networks or where perhaps there is an appointed prayer co-ordinator, there
are challenges in linking together the various elements. In Reading we have
developed links with prayer leaders and ministries, with for example “Sowing
Seeds” and “Connect UK/Europe” and with visits to the Northumberland Community,
among others. We have actively supported and encouraged those elsewhere in
establishing Boiler Rooms for their cities and nations.
It is
my conviction that a city prayer room has the potential to be the most
significant element in praying transformation into being. It has the major
advantage over any church-based prayer movement of looking Satan in the eye and
declaring unity of the body. Note though that I say a “City Prayer Room”. By
that I am intending to imply that I do not believe that having a sign outside
which reads “Boiler Room” has any intrinsic value, other than indicating to a
visitor what s/he might expect to find inside. A “Boiler Room” has no more
value than any other cross-church, multi-denominational prayer room which God
might inspire a town to create. Indeed I would now have to begin to argue that
there is an intrinsic danger in attempting to franchise
prayer.
“One Church – Many Congregations”
Personally I have come to the conclusion that Boiler Rooms have to be
accepted as “church” (Ekklesia) since, where two or three Christians gather
(Ekklesia?) He has promised to be “in the midst”. However that does not make us
“A Church”. In my current thinking there can be no such thing as a
“local church” although there can be “church in a locality”. A group of people
who gather (Ekklesia) together in a structured way and with a purpose, to me is
a congregation which is in turn part of the church in the town or city.
I am amused, if not incensed, when I hear pastors/leaders speak of “my church”
and “my people”, as if they owned them.
I understand scripture to indicate that The Church, as the Bride
of Christ, is One Body, universal, including both living and dead saints
(believers). That is to say that there is only the “One Holy and Apostolic
Church” which encompasses all believers alive on this planet. That said, the
book of Revelation tells us that each City has a Church, as in “To the Angel of
the Church in ……. write”. John says Church not “churches”.
We might speculate that God sees ‘Church’ in a Continent and maybe
‘Church’ in a National sense. However increasingly we are seeing that the old
concept of a Church as a group of people with shared(ish) beliefs that meet in
a specific building, in an area of town, possibly even commuting for miles, is
not a New Testament view of Church, albeit that it qualifies as a congregation
or gathering.
If anyone has
followed the progression of teaching from the likes of Ed Silvoso you will be
aware of the changing mindset toward “One Church – Many Congregations” (www.readingchurches.org.uk). The train of
thought leads to City Eldership across gathered congregations and spheres of
influence such as council, businesses, the health service etc. In fact in other
cultures and languages the confusion about the word “church” does not exist at
all, as say in Portuguese there is a different word for church in the sense of the
building to the one used for the people (congregation) and another for the
Church in the sense of the wider people of God.
I would propose that straight away
we abandon any concept of a Boiler Room being “a Church”
Andrew Jones refers to people today “experiencing
church in a modular rather than singular fashion”. (2) That is
exactly what regulars at the Boiler Room have been demonstrating - perhaps
‘church’ on Sunday, maybe a bit of ‘God Channel’, a couple of visits to the
Boiler Room, discussions with people from other churches, a CD, a tape, an
exchange on MSN or by email, time spent on the wailing wall, chatroom, etc.
It is no longer adequate to think of one place or group of people as
fulfilling all of a person’s spiritual needs in the way perhaps “chapel” once
did. I have for a long time now been speaking of every person having their own
individual, personalised church, they may share some elements in common with
others around them but their church is individual to them. The Boiler Room
feels a little like a ‘supermarket church’ – open all hours, self-service, pick
and mix – but definitely only a part of a person’s church experience. It is
just that availability which is attractive to unchurched people. Boiler Rooms
are definitely a seeker-friendly environment!
We are seen to represent the whole church,
not to be doing our own thing
Church plant – some challenges
We had long discussions as to whether we could start a church
“alongside” the Boiler Room. Permissions were sought of 24-7 National and of
the local pastors in Reading. Both seemed happy with the proposal that Penny
and I pastor such a “church”. However as we talked through the implications we
concluded that we’d probably have to find other premises to “do church” in, so
as to not have the effect I’ve outlined above. But in planting a church some
people would have come to us from “local churches” and the damage would be
done. Pastors would discourage their flocks from coming to the Boiler Room,
prayer and financial support would decline.
Pastors would discourage their flocks from coming to the Boiler Room,
prayer and financial support would decline.
In respect of prayer and other
"Christian" gatherings within the building, the Boiler Room has to be
considered to be part of the Church in Reading, if only because we are
acknowledged as existing by local churches and church leaders. The use of the
building by various groups, such as youth leaders and Kidzchurch validates us
as part of the wider church. However do we qualify as a “church” in the
sense of a local congregation?
A Boiler Room is totally about unity. Not unity of doctrine and belief, since you can’t get that along one pew! But unity in the spirit, as in Jesus’ “That they may be one, even as we are one” and Paul’s “bearing with one another, make every effort to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph 4:3). A Boiler Room has to be open to all, it is in the city, for the city, by the city in the sense of being in the church, for the church, by the church.
If we begin to use Boiler Rooms as a form of church plant in their own right we risk destroying their very purpose in being. To me the primary function of a Boiler Room is to take 24-7 prayer to the next level by providing a “House of Prayer” for the City, Nation, Continent and the World.
In the words of a local pastor, having read a draft of this, “I would add ‘not unity as in denominational mergers’ because I believe most church leaders sigh with relief when they can do something genuinely spiritually unifying without having to consider the church-political ramifications; hence the strength of Boiler Room 1”
I would like to offer a living example of
why I believe a Boiler Room would not work if it was a “church” in its own right.
A Boiler Room as a congregation
is a contradiction
My Swedish friends may have a fuller
and more accurate account to offer, but this is what I have been led to
understand.
Some years ago the Stockholm City Council met with major church leaders
to offer them a partnership in the central Stockholm theatre and arts centre.
It was proposed that the ‘churches’ provide a spiritual input. What was a
possibility was a café and a prayer room, an arts workshop, in fact a variety
of possibilities to be explored. In the course of preliminary discussions the
question was asked, “If people become Christians in this new place, which
church would they go to?” The pastors could not come to agreement on that and
so could not pursue the matter. Inevitably the whole plan fell through.
Some of the more enthusiastic younger church leaders were so appalled at
this that they decided to go it alone with a vision for 24 hour church to
include a prayer room, drop-in etc. This has come about. People left existing
congregations to pursue this new vision. The building is known as “The Dream
Centre” and the ‘church’ is called “Charisma”. So we now have something which
looks pretty much like a Boiler Room, but it is a “church” (congregation).
No-one from other congregations goes there to pray. The other churches despise
it for having its roots in discontent and independence. They in turn don’t
think too highly of the other leaders for their disunity and failure to grasp
such a wonderful opportunity. They have grown into a large, active, predominantly young, and flourishing
“church”.
Despite the positive aspects and the zeal of its founders, I see
Charisma both as an opportunity missed and a warning to us.
What size and nature does a City need to be to
sustain a Boiler Room?
In all that I have read and listened
to about Boiler Rooms I have never noticed this question being addressed by
anyone.
What few people will know is just how difficult it has been to keep
Reading Boiler Room afloat. The things which are generally written and spoken
are for obvious reasons all very positive and the underlying realities are left
unspoken.
The people who sustained the prayer
came of course from congregations
in and around the town
Reading was once allegedly said by George Otis Jr. to be the City in the
U.K. most likely to see transformation. Whether he ever said that is in
dispute, but the reason given, why he thought that, was the size of the
Christian population in the town. We apparently have an above average per
capita born-again population. How much above I do not know, neither how that
was calculated. But it could account for the support we have had.
I would suggest that for a Boiler Room to survive there needs to be a
certain, as it were, “critical mass” of people with a heart to pray. I was
tempted to say “or a lunatic few on a suicide mission!” but that would not
square with what I am arguing.
Sustainability of 24-7 365?
We’ve run under the banner of
24-7-365, however it is a sobering fact that after the first couple of months
24-7 prayer stopped at Reading Boiler Room and we had to look at models
described as “Patterns of Prayer” or “Rhythms of Prayer” which were
sustainable. Night-time prayer occurred once a week, thanks to the University
students, plus very occasional other sessions or part sessions.
My estimate would be that we had
active prayer happening for probably 10, maybe a little more, hours per day on
average. At times that would be several people in different rooms of the
building. Lunchtime was always popular. We did not keep any statistics on that
so the point may be debated. The people who sustained the prayer came of course
from congregations in and around the town, boosted by pilgrims, staff and
‘Geese’ (year-outers, for those not with the jargon).
the Boiler Room became what I would describe
as
a “Harvesting Machine”
Penny and I had worked among the
young people in the Forbury Gardens for a number of years before God gave us
the Forbury Vaults in 2001. The proximity of the building, the presence of the
Holy Spirit, and our acceptance of these young people despite their dress,
lifestyle and colourful language, led to the results which we saw. Many
Christians of course struggled with seeing and hearing them in a House of
Prayer on the lines of “You have turned it into a den of ……….. !”
Our experience has been that the
Boiler Room became what I would describe as a “Harvesting Machine”. God
was able to attract, affect and change people’s lives through the building and
the community in and around it. For once “Church” became accessible
theoretically 24-7 rather than church doors being closed most of the time. Some
of those people became Christians.
Discipling them was an issue. Most
joined local churches. The effect of that was to raise our esteem in the eyes
of local pastors! We were seen to not be grasping hold of these new Christians
but passing them on to local congregations who could nurture and grow them.
Pastors loved that! We were seen and are still seen as a ‘good thing’ because
of that. Support from congregations has increased over time, and is still
increasing, perhaps because of that. We are seen to represent the whole church,
not to be doing our own thing. It is here primarily that I believe Floyd McLung
to be so mistaken in his arguments.
Reading Boiler Room has always
struggled. Every so many months we would have a crisis meeting in which the
team discussed having to close since we could not cover utilities bills.
Salaries have always been a bone of contention since over the first year we
tried to pay staff salaries that reflected, as best we could, commercial rates.
We took the unusual decision to pay according to need rather than by job
description. People outside usually expressed surprise at how much it cost per
month to sustain the Boiler Room and even now few people know the actual cost.
Despite there being no rent to pay it was still touch and go. Our bottom line
was that most support came from individuals and only a little from local
churches.
Quoting Floyd again,
“To gather is to be community, to be
connected in heart and mind. To gather is to build deep friendships,
invest in one another's lives, and grow together in grace and obedience to
Christ's commands.” (3)
That can be true, but you don’t have to
“gather” as a “church congregation” to be a community! We are in great danger
of confusing our terminology. So far Reading Boiler Room has not been a place
of “gathering” in the sense of “congregation”. We have generally continued the
24-7 model of prayer. At times when “gatherings” occurred they were by groups
coming in from a congregation or a “meeting” run by the ‘Church in Reading’ in
one way shape or form. We have however been “community” in a variety of ways.
As I have read and listened to what is being
said about “The Order of the Mustard Seed” I have at one and the same time felt
an excitement and a concern. 24-7 has developed very quickly in its short few
years, from Prayer rooms, to Mission teams, to Boiler Rooms and soon it seems
to an order of Friars. Is it the right step? Is it a step to far or at least
too soon?
a monastic community seeks
to affect the world around it
whilst not seeking to grow by addition
Two
related things seem to be being proposed. The one is the ‘Missional Community’
which would have residents and to one degree or another train and send people
out. The other appears to be an order to which anyone can sign up irrespective
of denomination or primary church allegiance. It would be something which
operated at a different level to” local church”.
Of the
latter I have insufficient information thus far to comment at length, but have
two major concerns from what I have heard. First for those people who finding
it hard to commit to a local congregation excuse themselves from any
accountability by saying that they owe allegiance to the order. The second reservation
has to be that such an apparently secret order could so easily corrupt over
time into something completely unintended now. What I can comment on with more
understanding and experience is the “Missional Community” aspect.
We
use the word community to cover many different aspects of society. Examples are
the “local community”, the “school community”, the “business community”, a
“monastic community”. One can also speak of “living in community”, which in
itself can have a variety of meanings describing people living together in
different degrees of mutual dependency and sharing of accommodation, wealth
and possessions. If we look at the
scriptures we have something of a problem since the word does not occur that
often, if indeed at all. In the old and new testaments the writers tend to use
the term “brethren”. Sexist I know, but there we are! Where it does it refers
to the people of a whole locality it refers to (brothers
- brethren) as in Deut 15:7
If there is among you anyone in need, a member of your community (brothers)
in any of your towns within the land that the LORD your God is giving you, do
not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward your needy neighbour. (NRSV) or John 21:23 So the rumor spread in the community that this disciple would not die. (NRSV)
which seems to refer to the whole community ‘of God’,
sistern(!) and all, as does :-
Acts:6:2 And the twelve called together the whole community of the
disciples ..........
Acts: 6:5 What they said pleased the whole community, and
they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, together with
Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of
Antioch. 6 They had these men stand before the apostles, who prayed and laid
their hands on them. (NRSV)
This has value for our understanding in that the
disciples were clearly not being dictatorial in their leadership, but shared
what they believed God was saying and opened it to democratic approval. There
is clear suggestion that meals were at least sometimes shared, but no strong
evidence that people were living together other than as extended families as
was the tradition.
Ephesians:6:23 Peace be to the whole community, and love with
faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Grace be with all who
have an undying love for our Lord Jesus Christ. (NRSV)
Again a reference to the whole community of believers
(all the brethren), reflecting the biblical view of each place having only the
one church, with no place for denominational gatherings calling themselves
churches.
We can cheat a bit by using The Message which
does employ the word community as in Phil 2:1 If you've gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his
love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community
(koinonia - fellowship) of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you
care-then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be
deep-spirited friends. Don't push your way to the front; don't sweet-talk your
way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don't be
obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend
a helping hand. (The Message)
Similarly
Peterson says through James 3:18 that "You
can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and
enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each
other, treating each other with dignity and honor. " (The Message)
That is a very
simple exhortation to live in community in a general sense of “fellowship” not
shared household. It still doesn't
justify separating out a particular group into what we today might mean when
referring to "living in community" or "being a community”. A
good pastor friend of mine commented something to the effect that “monasteries
cannot be found in the New Testament, but then neither can light bulbs and I
don’t think God has a problem with light bulbs.”
Living in
Community – a personal perspective
I will digress
for a few paragraphs to describe our personal experience of living in a
“community” house, as I believe there are insights to be gained. In 1976 Penny
and I bought a house on a joint mortgage shared with another Christian couple,
Paul and Janet, from the Baptist “Church” of which we were members. I should
say immediately that 25 years or so on we are still the best of friends, indeed
they are part of our “personal support group” (accountability group). It
was the culmination of many hours of thinking and praying. The house was a
large three-storey Victorian terraced house. It was a huge step, but we felt it
was right. From virtually day one we had lodgers, usually three, for some time
another couple lived with us. We were all in our early twenties, freshly
Baptized in the Holy Spirit, beginning to operate in the Gifts of the Spirit
and wanting to live our lives for God.
We were to
learn a lot about living with others, relationships, personal space, caring for
single people, protecting marriages, parenting other people’s children and a
myriad of other things. At the outset we made some serious and in hindsight,
valuable and sensible decisions. Firstly we set a “contract” for four years,
with the default that we would sell up and separate. Making a relatively
short-term commitment gave us the security to go for it unreservedly, knowing
that there was an end in sight if we needed it. We moved in with just one
child, ours. By the time we parted four years later there were five children
and a sixth on the way. We had indeed outgrown community!
when I hear people
talking or writing enthusiastically about “missional community” I find myself
asking,
“Have you any idea
what you are proposing?”.
Each couple
had their own bedroom. We had a child’s bedroom. Two other rooms provided
accommodation for three lodgers, one room being set up as a bed-sit. We all
shared a lounge, playroom, bathroom and kitchen. We divided the kitchen into
two mirrored copies so that each couple (in reality guys, the girls!) had their
own cooking space. We cooked communally, the girls taking it in turns to cook
first course and second course. This provided the first real benefit of
communal life, a healthy competitiveness ever striving for greater culinary
excellence! Housework was rota’d. Other domestic arrangements were worked out
as we went along.
Both couples
agree that we would never actively encourage people to live in a “community”
situation as it does put huge stresses on relationships. Many readers will have
shared student accommodation and be, probably painfully, aware of what I am
talking about. Forget married couple’s quarrels over where to squeeze the
toothpaste tube, this is something else! Things like dress code, keeping bedroom
doors closed, locking the bathroom door, someone else eating the last piece of
cake I was saving for later, someone else’s baby throwing up over our settee!
Seriously
though, as in marriage, there has to be a lot of give and take, coping with
each other’s little foibles. It is only too easy for relationships to go sour
or get complicated when living for a long period together.
So when I hear
people talking or writing enthusiastically about “missional community” I find
myself asking, “Have you any idea what you are proposing?”.
“Real
Monks!”
I was recently
recommended a book called “Community and Growth” by Jean Vanier (4). Jean founded
a community called l’Arche which is dedicated to the care of those with ‘Mental
Handicap’. I was much taken with the community because we have a special needs
daughter ourselves. The community have given themselves to the fulltime care of
those who cannot care for themselves. It is a book I would highly recommend to
anyone interested in what a “Monastic style Community” is really like.
I refer to
this book as an accessible discussion of what we might be asking of people if
we went down the route of making Boiler Rooms into genuine 3rd
Millennium Monasteries. I also refer to it because it speaks of the seriousness
of making covenant for life and covenant beyond that of marriage and of
commitment to Christ, of covenants with others, to a community or movement.
As a taster, or for those who won’t buy the book
(4), here are some quotes which jumped out at me. I will purposely not comment
on them, rather they can speak for themselves.
“To be
covenanted to others is to be earthed with them…….. If we begin to live in
covenant as we enter community, it is sealed at a particular moment, maybe a
very solemn one.”
“Monastic
stability means accepting this particular community, this place and these
people, this and no other, as the way to God. ( sub quote of Esther de Waal –
“Seeking God )”
“There is
always a temptation, because of the need for security, to plan a community
beforehand, in all its details. Ideas then precede life and want to govern it.
But that is not usually the way the spirit works.”
“Many want
community and a feeling of being together, but refuse the demands of community
life. They want both freedom and community; freedom to do just what they want
when they want, and community, which implies certain structures and values.
It’s like wanting the cake and eating it too!”
“From time to
time I meet people who want to create a community. After twenty five years’
experience …..
I wouldn’t
advise anyone to do so of their own accord”
“Every
community seems to need regular visits from someone who listens and asks the
right questions about their life in community, and to whom all its members feel
they can talk”
“We are far
from the ideal of the Gospel and this causes a latent anguish and guilt which
sap our creative energies and can lead to sadness and despair”
“At a time
when so many new communities are being born, which are sometimes clamorous in
their songs, youth and excitement, we should not forget the old communities,
which have worked the earth and lived peacefully, in prayer, silence, worship
and forgiveness, and whose traditions go back centuries.” (4)
The core values of 24-7 are negotiable
Values
“The difference between
a vision dreamed and a vision fulfilled is a well worked through set of core
values that are lived and taught and made central to the vision of the
community.” (3)
I pretty much go along
completely with all that Floyd McLung says about values. He sums up very well
the need for both vision and values. However he states that, “The core values of 24-7 are our non-negotiables”
(3). That’s an interesting statement both because if it were true then we would
have sadly set out in the beginning to produce no more than a fossil, or rather
God would now be guilty of having led us ‘by accident’ to create one! In fact
of course it isn’t true since the values have changed (remember “raw and
subversive”?) since the beginning and will continue to evolve. So although it
is a direct contradiction I have to suggest that the core values of 24-7 are
negotiable.
In the case of the Boiler
Rooms, Reading set out with five values and now has six. We took from the
Benedictine heritage which included “Serving the Poor”. That quickly proved
inadequate and evolved into two streams of Poverty and Justice
issues. The monks in Reading would not have recognised “Justice” at all as part
of their calling. Indeed they were content to exclude non-vowed from their
monastery and it appears, even segregate the standing poor from seated rich in
the church outside. Increasingly we are looking to the Franciscans as an open
order model.
I am so thankful that we are
value-based; that we have not tried to be a church, but rather have endeavoured
to live out Christ from a foundation of prayer.
Urban
Friars - of rings and things
When I heard
of “The Order of the Mustard Seed” (5) I was reminded that when Penny and I
were married we exchanged rings on the inside of which we had engraved “God First”. It
expressed our desire that within the covenant we were making there was a higher
overarching covenant with God. In 2002 we celebrated our 30th
Wedding anniversary and such is the effect of middle age we both had outgrown
our rings. We chose new matching rings, Celtic in design of course(!) and in a
ceremony conducted in the Boiler Room we renewed our vows.
As I said at the outset, as a couple
we have seen new ideas come and go, ministries rise and fall, and once
influential leaders disappear into oblivion, often in disillusionment, burnout,
even bitterness. Some I have seen lose their faith altogether in the process.
The early days of the House Church movement was a time when the word Covenant
was much in vogue. People committed themselves to each other and submitted
their lives to leaders in ways which we would now shy away from. This became
known as “heavy shepherding”. Many people were deeply hurt as they entrusted
decisions to others. It might just be that the “Cymbrogi” concept could go much
the same way. Whilst being excited that there might be a wave of greater
commitment to the call of God we would voice caution about making covenants for
life other than marriage and to God, traditionally symbolized by Baptism.
Phil 2:2 make
my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full
accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in
humility regard others as better than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not to
your own interests, but to the interests of others. (NRSV)
Reading Abbey to me is a mixed heritage for the
Boiler Room. I love the values that we have extracted. However we should
remember that monasteries were not 100 per cent wonderful God-given
institutions. We tend to have romantic notions of what they stood for and how
they lived. At best it was a harsh life for the average monk, a life of late
and broken nights, early mornings and no cable TV. We love to think of all the
prayer that went up to God, of the alms given to the poor, of the meditation
and contemplative lifestyle.
The reality though was that in many ways
Reading Abbey was downright parasitic. It cost millions, in today’s equivalent,
to build and maintain. The very stone was extravagantly quarried and imported
from France. Excavations have recently shown that the floor was relaid at least
three times over time in ornate mosaic-styled tile. The Abbot lived in
conditions fit for a King and was indeed able to entertain Royalty. He was
incredibly powerful. The majority of the land in and around Reading was his, or
Battle Abbey’s. The Abbey sucked the land dry. The townsfolk lived in varying
degrees of poverty. Its very foundation was tainted in that the King invested a
huge amount in it so as to pay penance for his sins and gain salvation.
The long established Cluniac Benedictine’s
were none too pleased in due course when the Franciscans arrived! The Abbey, as
a closed order wanted little to do with the people of the town except to eat
their produce and take their taxes. Franciscans (GreyFriars) were genuinely
“missional”, an open order, probably pretty evangelical! The arrival of the
Franciscans threatened to undermine the perception and role of God, the Church
and the Abbey. So the Abbot gave the Friars a small plot of marshy land down by
the river. The resulting Friary sank into the ground.
When the Abbey was ‘dissolved’ few townsfolk
would have shed a tear. Those actively fighting for religious freedom would
have cheered. We forget our history at our peril. The Reformation was a
“Protest” against much that was terribly wrong under Papal rule. Reading Abbey
became the King’s “Holiday Inn” for a while. Later Cromwell’s men showed it no
quarter and cannonballs tore it apart, this symbol of papacy. In the years
following this edifice became no more than the town’s stone quarry. Bits of it
can be found in buildings all over Reading. Maybe it was the only way God could
“take the Abbey into the City”!
The Civil War, was a religious war. It was a
war for the freedom of people to worship God the way they wanted too, without
human Mediators, without penances, without indulgencies. I am by nature a
pacifist, but I suspect my forebears declared for Parliament! We come full
circle to the House Church movement again! A rejection of religiosity, of pomp,
of ceremony, of ‘irrelevant’ religious acts. Many people during the Cromwellian
era left the parish churches, since if “the earth was the Lord’s and the
fullness thereof” it was tantamount to sin to try to worship him in buildings
full of statues and idolatrous images. If “the temple curtain had been torn in two”,
it was wrong to have an altar and a priest between you and your God. This was
the result of the scriptures coming into print so that any man could read their
teachings. The “Church” had lost its grip on the people.
However both the Abbey and the Friary serve
to show us that a monastic community seeks to affect the world around it whilst
not seeking to grow by addition in the way that a “Church” would expect to do.
In short, a monastery does not function as a “Church”. But no-one would deny
they are a “Community”! Membership of the Community was restricted and the vows
acted as a filter of a novice’s determination to follow Christ in a very
specific way.
My own take on “Urban Monasteries” is that
they would be, first off, “open” communities. Some “monks/friars” might have
day jobs. They might take “year outs” or “decade outs” of specific commitment.
They would probably remain mixed sex. They might contain married couples. In
other words, they would be very different from our traditional view of monks
and nuns. I think it is important that we clarify what it is we are proposing
that “3rd millennium” monks or friars, monasteries or friaries might
be. To set us thinking what they might or might not be ……..
Traditional monasteries were mainly
foundations from “mother” abbeys, e.g. Reading from Cluny. They had strict
accountability, e.g. Reading under Chichester. There was a definite hierarchy
and very strict rules, not least celibacy. They cost huge sums of money raised
from ordinary people, many poor!
It seriously worries me that we tend to talk
as if we are running when we haven’t yet stood up. It sounds as if we have
already established “Urban Monasteries”, which we are looking to multiply. In
fact we have a few experimental loosely structured and fairly fragile entities
which are working out what they are and how they are going to function. We
mustn’t mistake hype for hope.
Reading Boiler Room’s experience is that
there is a health in going for local accountability to the Church in the City
in which the Boiler Room is based. We are currently looking to set up as a
Charity in our own right, which would mean we were accountable to a local board
of Trustees. As the movement grows there could come a temptation for the
“Order” to be centrally supervised with a resultant hierarchy.
I strongly believe that all Boiler Rooms will
share similar core values and facets, but that locality will dictate different
emphases. Boiler Rooms will have different strengths or giftings which reflect
the place in which they are founded and the personalities of those involved.
You have many teachers,
but few fathers
Fathers
The 24-7 movement has grown so fast that we
are seeing young leaders beginning to burn out. It appears that St. Paul’s
words were only too true – “You have many teachers, but few fathers”. Who are
the fathers of the 24-7 movement? Who will help this “young child” to grow?
I love what Floyd McLung has to say ……. “Leadership in God's kingdom is influence through serving. “
“Investing in a person’s life by imparting
values and then helping them cultivate and nurture these values is at the heart
of raising up a spiritual family, of being a missional community. If 24-7 is to
be a movement with a lasting impact, it will take 4-5 generations of spiritual
sons and daughters to turn it into a movement. One generation of leaders a
movement is not.”
We need to learn from the
mistakes of the past, if we possibly can, and older heads often carry
experience and sometimes wisdom. In ten to twenty years time the young men of
today will be the grey hairs, with the wisdom of time and the scars of
experience. For now however this still ‘toddler’ movement could do with dads
being around. As a “Caleb” (okay I’m not that old!) I am determined to run with
the rising generation, or at least keep up for as long as I can. It grieves me,
as it must all of us, to see relatively young adults becoming tired and
overstretched.
With regard to both prayer and
finance I would suggest that a Boiler Room needs the support of the Church in
the City, to enable and encourage the members of congregations to come to pray
and pay. A Boiler Room therefore needs to have an image of being a place of
prayer in the city, for the city, by the city. If we are perceived to be adding
value to the Kingdom of God in the city, we can expect, almost demand, support
from the church in the city. That support will be both in pray-ers coming and
in finance being forthcoming.
I would suggest that for a Boiler
Room to exist in a town or city, that place needs to have a certain minimum
Christian population, a church leadership, or at least a church population,
which has caught a vision that their city, and nation, can only be transformed
through a foundation of prayer.
With regard to Evangelism, if our
hearts are right before God, it does appear from our experience that, provided
a Boiler Room has certain facilities, the right position, ethos, staffing,
etc. ……. and God ….. then, “If we
build it, they will come”! A truly
spiritual place has an appeal. God is attractive. The Holy Spirit is real.
The above has huge implications for the proposition of developing Boiler
Rooms as self-standing monastic entities.
We are at a stage when wisdom and experience is at a premium within the
movement.
Thank you for reading,
“Malcolm in the Midst!”
Malc Peirce
malcolminthemiddle@ntlworld.com
1) “Red Moon Rising” Pete
Greig ISBN 1-84291-095-7
2) 24-7 & Church
Planting – a briefing paper Ian
Nicholson, Roger Ellis, Andrew Jones
3) “Principles and Practices
of Church Planting” Floyd McClung
4) “Community and Growth” Jean Vanier ISBN
0-232-51814-9
5) “An invitation – Genesis”
Pete Greig