Random Reflections from Bangkok

Along with others from Melbourne I spent a week in Bangkok (January 10-17). The group included John Gilmore, Craig Brown, Lynette Leach, Andrew Menzies and Darren Sterling (One Community church).

The purpose of the visit was to participate in a UNOH Reference Group meeting and also the inaugural meeting of the International Society for Urban Mission, a new alliance initiated by Ash Barker. We were also privileged to spend the morning with the latest group of UNOH apprentices (‘Submergies’) who were commencing their time with UNOH in Bangkok. We had several opportunities to observe UNOH workers in their own neighbourhood (the Klong Toey slum), and to encourage them in their inspiring work there.

Here some random reflections and personal challenges from my time in Bangkok.

1.      Mission in your Neighbourhood

Mission and ministry happens best when we live in a neighbourhood. This is as true of local churches as it is of agencies like UNOH. We are all called to incarnational ministry, where we live. Living in one suburb (or country) and seeking to perform ‘drop-in’ mission or ministry in another has limitations. Living in that neighbourhood enables us to feel what that neighbourhood is feeling. It lifts the awareness of needs and opportunities. It connects us more deeply with those we have been called to live out the Kingdom among.

In our context, when we shop, send our kids to school, play sports and are entertained, engage the community in whatever way we can, on the basis of the skills, interests and resources and if possible, work in our neighbourhood, we build an authenticity that becomes fertile soil for healthy relationships and spiritual conversations.

2.      Cross Cultural

All ministry and mission is cross cultural. This is true in Bangkok, Bandung or the Bicol province of the Philippines. It is also true in Bendigo, Berwick and Ballarat. The cultures and sub-cultures within which we live and work, where we are involved in intentional ministry and mission may vary, but they exist. They just seem more obvious in another country.

In our context, we must build a sense of adaptive ministry and mission and adaptive leadership. This will mean unlearning some old ways and means, and learning new methods of living out and announcing the kingdom. This will cost us, personally and systemically. You will hear more of this from our keynote speakers at the AND Festival in May.

3.      Being a Blessing

One of the things that has deeply impressed (or should I say impacted) each of us who have visited our friends in Central and West Java in Indonesia is their primary commitment to first be a blessing to a community where they live, where they are in ministry and mission. I see the same practice evident in the UNOH teams. For UNOH their primary ministry is to serve the poor in their neighbourhood; their focus is serving the urban poor. They bless them with safe places that don’t exploit, relationship, community, job and language skills, comfort, and most importantly hope and compassion. The Indonesian story has some similarities, which you will hear more of at the AND Festival in May.

In our context, we are also called to be a blessing to the neighbourhood. A good question to consider (without judgement) is this: is being a blessing to the neighbourhood a primary practice of the followers of Jesus in our churches? Of our leaders? Of our Budgets?

4.      Discipleship

Consistently I hear the desire for a more robust discipleship, from people of all ages. Neighbourhood, cross cultural mission and ministry that seeks to bless requires a growing spirituality. Of course such a mission and ministry will also develop this kind of discipleship! But we can’t wait for one to do the other. Maybe they are meant to both grow alongside each other. However, it seems that when we commit to intentional ministry and mission of this kind the Spirit of God stirs up a new intimacy and new giftings. Bring it on!

The AND Festival’s emphasis on ‘deep and wide’ (deep in relationship with God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit; wide in Kingdom mission) will help us move along in our understanding of all this. We need to commit to sacrificial prayer to this end, as God does something new among us, a renewal fellowship of Jesus followers and Kingdom bearers seeking To be a movement of the people of God gathering around the central figure of Jesus Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit, living out his Way in our local contexts and inviting others to do the same.

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It is pretty hard to give a Christmas message in 160 or so words. But that’s the discipline that Light FM requires of me each December. Asked this year to reflect on the impact of Christmas, this is what I wrote:

Some days my back hurts. That’s because thirty five years ago someone landed on it in a game.

Everything that happens to us has an impact. For good or bad.

It feels like the bad impacts us more: a hasty word spoken; a sneer; a fractured friendship; a poor choice. But good things have impact too: understanding words; a compassionate look; an act of reconciliation; a hand on the shoulder.

Around 2000 years ago Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Palestine. He was unique: fully God and fully human, in ways I can’t understand.  At Christmas we honor the birth of this humble itinerant teacher. Emperors and prime ministers come and go, but we still celebrate the birth of Jesus. Few would argue his life and his Way have impacted the world more than anyone else.  

The spirit of Christmas impacts us in many ways—in love, sharing, tolerance, education, health, justice, hope, and peace. May the Christmas spirit positively influence your life…

This week we have seen the deaths of two world leaders. What a huge contrast between Vaclav Havel and Kim Jong-il. Each had an impact; one positive and life giving, the other negative and hope-destroying. Leaders come and leaders go, but we still celebrate the birth of Jesus.

My current reading includes Falling Upward by Richard Rohr. One section resonates well with the Christmas story, particularly in the light of a wonderful Christmas sermon I heard at one of our churches last Sunday. In dialogue with the angel’s conversation with Mary, and Mary’s response, the preacher asked we his conversation partners how much room we were making for Jesus in our lives, and, are we saying ‘yes’ to him… Rohr writes, In the first half of our lives we have no container for such awesome content, no wine-skins that are prepared to hold such utterly intoxicating wine. You see authentic God experience always “burns” you, yet does not destroy you, just as the burning bush did to Moses… But most of us are not prepared for such burning… Early stage religion is largely preparing you for the immense gift of this burning, this inner experience of God, as though creating a proper stable into which the Christ can be born. Unfortunately, most people get so preoccupied with their stable, and whether their stable is better than your stable…that they never get to the birth of God in the soul.

My Christmas prayer is that we will become less concerned about the stable, and more open to the manger and to “the birth of God in our soul”. It is then that we will be equipped to impact the world. In fact this is my all-year-round prayer too, for Churches of Christ in Vic/Tas, ‘a movement of the people of God, gathering around the central figure of Jesus, empowered by the Holy Spirit to live out his Way in our local contexts’.

Paul Cameron
Executive Officer

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Soul Mining is the title of a recent autobiography by musician/producer Daniel Lanois. In his own work, and in his collaborations with people like U2, Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris and others, he seeks to dig deep into the spirit of the artist/s; to mine their soul. He sees this as the role of the producer of an artist’s music.

I love the concept of ‘soul mining’. It well describes the role of spiritual leadership and Christian writing; of spiritual formation and good preaching. Preaching becomes ‘soul mining’ when it invites dialogue, conversation and transformation rather than being a simple ‘tell’ or informational transaction.

In and around our city there are a quite a few multi-storey buildings being built. The building of tall buildings is an intriguing process. As one writer says, “it’s an odd experience. It’s not like there’s steady progress from foundation to spire. First the builders dig a big hole in the ground. And then, seemingly, they wait. Not much happens for months. But just as you begin to wonder if this project has been another victim of the economy, suddenly like spring blossoming, the building shoots up and is completed in a glass and steel flourish in no time. The secret lies in setting the foundations, making them deep, solid and strong.[i]”

That sounds like soul mining to me.

The current conversations in Vic/Tas around affinity and the renewal of our movement are also about mining the soul, personally and corporately: What is our identity? What is our purpose? Who are we? What are we doing here? In addressing these questions we are setting (or re-setting) the foundations, making them deep, solid and strong, so that we can do the task we have been designed to do. While it has taken some time (like the construction of a skyscraper!), we look forward to spring blossoming; to a new era of health and growth in our movement.

We are confident therefore that this process of soul mining will “bear fruit, fruit that will last”, as Christ chose and appointed us to do, as we go (see John 15:16 NRSV).

Paul Cameron—Executive Officer

P.S. Some other related soul mining some of us have been doing can be found here in a S.W.O.T. Analysis of Churches of Christ in Vic/Tas. When distributed at the recent All Boards Meeting it was agreed to make it available more broadly. What do you think about these perceived Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats? It would be valuable to receive your feedback to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for future reflection by Council and the Partner Department boards.

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Mission and Evangelism

The feedback from the 2006 National Church Life Survey gave us a clear message. We are getting better at connecting with people in our communities, and our confidence and our practice of evangelism is not as strong as it was. This is a major imbalance. Healthy and growing churches have a good balance between the Great Commandment and the Great Commission.

We want to celebrate the former; for it is indeed a good thing to be connected with our communities and our neighbourhoods. But we must strengthen the latter; for sharing our faith stories and making disciples in these communities and neighbourhoods is a core Christian activity.

I wonder if this is could be connected to the theme I spoke of last month, ‘the spiritual formation dilemma’. If we have a shallow or immature or incomplete formation we just may be a little unclear about the Christian salvation story…and the centrality of Christ to this story.

As I’ve been saying in a few sermons around the place lately, “It’s all about Jesus. Wired into all this, is the issue of Jesus of Nazareth, of Jesus Christ, or technically speaking, of Christology, anchoring us in the New Testament. Faced with the ever-increasing complexity that is our multi-faith and multi-cultural world of rapid, disruptive, unanticipated and discontinuous change, we must not allow our Christology to be diminished. Our careful naming of where God is at work in the world is best based on the uniqueness of Christ, and his crucial centrality to the Christian salvation story. We cannot be satisfied to perform acts of service and compassion and justice (or to name them as God-at-work-in-the-world) without the words that explain from Where and from Whom the capacity to do these acts emerges; equally we cannot be satisfied to celebrate Creation’s beauty without words that name the Creator. You see it is all about Jesus”.

It’s more of those both/ands: mission and evangelism, Great Commandment and Great Commission, community connection and Good News announcement.

I’ve been concluding these sermons like this: “As all people are invited to know Christ, and are called into a relationship with God-the-Father, God-the-Son and God-the-Spirit can I today simply invite you to consider (or re-consider) your relationship with this loving, generous, spacious God; to work on knowing him and knowing Jesus—the One who lived and died and rose again for all people, so that because of the full life and experiences you have now, others will know God and Jesus too, and through that knowledge also begin to experience life in the Spirit now (and have hope for the future!), which is what we are all looking for…”.

How are you working on knowing Christ? How are you living out this balance?

Paul Cameron
Executive Officer–CofCVT
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Churches of Christ in Victoria and Tasmania is a movement of around 130 churches who, committed to the cause of Christ, want to effectively reach Victoria and Tasmania and beyond with the Good News of the Kingdom.

Churches of Christ in Victoria and Tasmania strives to be a network or system that serves congregations that have voluntarily united together in interdependence for mutual support and encouragement to do what most churches would find difficult to do alone. We strive for this in the context of the type of relationship of mutual belonging and unity. We seek to provide a sense of belonging to something bigger.

We exist to cultivate an environment where a diversity of healthy and growing churches can thrive; where imagination and experimentation are encouraged and honoured. In this way we can together participate in God’s dream for the world: congregations and systems that serve them, thriving as the sign, foretaste and witness of God’s kingdom in Jesus in the midst of continually changing environments. It is this Kingdom dream, our common mission, that unites us.

In coming together we celebrate that each church is called to reach their own community (or mission context) in their own unique way, but that there are ways we can assist one another to be more effective in this. There are resources we can share as well as mutual benefits and responsibilities we have as we commit to one another in partnership and mission. At the heart of this relationship is the recognition that we are all united under the Lordship of Jesus Christ and are committed to key biblical beliefs and distinctives that reflect the Restoration movement[1] of which we are a part.

We believe that through faith we are positioned as members of the body of Christ. However there is more that God asks of us as we serve and follow Him. He asks us to be participating members in the work of the Kingdom. This brings both privileges and responsibilities.

The Affirmation of Affiliation (or ‘covenant’) between a church and Churches of Christ outlines what it means to be affiliated with Churches of Christ, and what it means to share a common mission to be the sign, foretaste and witness of God’s Kingdom in Victoria and Tasmania and beyond, and to invite people to become followers of Jesus.

Adapted from Affinity Discussion Paper, November 2010

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