Exploring Living in the Gaze of God and Missional Conversations

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve read two recently published books from the SCM stable. Living in the Gaze of God by Helen D. Cameron and Missional Conversations edited by Cathy Ross and Colin Smith.

At first glance these two books are very different and unconnected. Yet, I want to argue that there is a connection between both and they each have a place to play in vocational exploration as well as the development of good practice.

In Living in the Gaze of God Helen D. Cameron begins by talking about growth and how it is nurtured. She suggests the book relates to both ordained and lay ministry. However, there is a clear bias in most of the book towards talking about ordained ministry and using this to underline her view that this is a covenant relationship not an employment status. I have to be clear that I don’t think the two are mutually exclusive and disagree with her (and the Methodist Church) position on this matter.

The core argument of the book, summed up in the final chapter, relates to ministers needing appropriate supervision and why this is important. I agree with her 100% on this key issue and believe strongly that it should be mandatory for all in positions of leadership within the church, lay and ordained, paid and unpaid. The lessons of the past must be learned and whilst we should not put straight jackets on ministers we should ensure that they have wise sounding boards and advice.

For me the book was useful in understanding something of my husband’s call and experience. There is something fundamentally different between the sacramental vocation of my husband and my missional one, yet we both have callings which will be played out in the contexts where the church sends him. Reading this book helped me to understand for the first time that being a minister’s partner is in itself a vocation, not a term to distance myself from. Before anybody starts to worry I am about to embark on a stereotypical role I am clearly not suited to, let me explain. The marriage relationship is a covenantal one, as is his with the church (assuming all goes well and he is ordained into full Connexion in the summer). Whilst I am not in direct covenantal relationship with the church my covenantal relationship with my husband means when God calls him to a new context he also calls me. Whilst I may be called, as a lay person, to a time specific role/ or roles in that local context it is still God, through covenantal relationship who has placed me there. I have the flexibility of being able to explore a range of missional lay ministry opportunities because I am not being stationed directly by church into a direct context. As I look at the church struggle to appropriately station married couples who are both in ordained ministry I realise this freedom is a gift not the problem I have thought it in the past.

Yet, whether lay or ordained and employed or not we are both called to be attentive to the Gaze of God (as talked about in chapter 3 ) and ourselves and to the self and the other (which is the theme of chapter 4). These chapters are useful for those seeking to engage in vocational exploration and explore relationships, boundaries and risk taking. They also bring in the importance of knowing your context(s).

These chapters are ones which resonated most strongly and which I think bridge with Missional Conversations. This second book has the sub title: A Dialogue between Theory and Praxis in World Mission. It pairs up chapters in conversation and then gives questions for further discussion. Thus it could be used by students in seminar situations or small groups looking to discuss these issues.

The format generally works well, apart from a couple of chapters where the academic theory sits awkwardly with the praxis. I don’t know if it works better where the authors are familiar with working together or if it is to do with what the prime academic fields of the writers are.

At the end of the book there is a deviation when you get Jonny Baker and Ric Stott having an actual conversation with each other before Ian Adams concludes. Within this they do talk, in a different language, about some of the things Cameron does. Here the idea is put forward of a supervisor who is also a buffer between the pioneer and the hierarchy of the institution. Again I think the Baker and Stott chapter is a really good read for people exploring vocation. Not for the first time I was struck by Baker talking about Grayson Perry’s Hobbit and Punk characters and the way that we need to embrace both in ministry. I also loved Ric talking about wandering about with the purpose of just exploring and then knowing you’ve found the right thing, place or opportunity when you see it. Again I think, whilst challenging, and sometimes leading down the wrong paths, this is the freedom that most ordained ministers (Ric being an exception) lack as they are placed in more traditional appointments with a diary full of meetings and expectations cast upon them. Again I realise my lay calling into a series of missional and/ or pioneering ministries (which may take different forms) tends to give a freedom that others don’t get in this.

Another particularly strong pair of essays were Kyama Mugambi’s Audacity, Intentionality and Hope in the Churches of the Global South and Harvey Kwiyani’s Mission in the Global South. This pair looking at Southern Mission Movements were striking because they appeared to be coming from a black theological perspective and traced the history of the change of missionary activity over the last century. These chapters would be well paired reading with The Desecularisation of the City, which I have reviewed on here previously.

Whilst I would recommend both books to practitioners and those exploring vocation, I would say missional conversations is the less niche of the two books. I’d recommend this to small groups who had the time to read something meaty in preparation and who wanted to explore either modern apologetics (ethics) or mission because it touches on both.

The Desecularisation of the City Reviewed

The Desecularisation of the City: London’s Churches, 1980 to the present edited by David Goodhew and Anthony-Paul Cooper and published by Routledge is an interesting book from a variety of angles. There is the question of what has happened in London over the last 40 years? Then there’s question of if desecularisation has occurred in the capital is the shape of things to come in the rest of the country?

The more interesting thing about the book for me, though, was section three of the book and the picture it gives of the ethnic mix of London and the impact that different waves of migration have had. Whilst this includes the expected discussion of West African migration and the new churches it has bought with it but the book also looks at Brazilian and Russian migration and the impact of that. I had not realised for example there had been three waves of Russian migration or that the Brazilian churches are particularly at risk of schism.

As a Methodist, who is relatively new to living and working within the London District, Alan Piggot’s chapter on ‘Growth and Decline of London Methodism, 1980 to the present’ was particularly useful. It gave a useful insight into how the London District came into being and how the current structure had developed. The discussion of the way strategy had misread the signs of the time and predicted growth in the suburbs and decline in the centre showed that a lot of what happened was down to reading the signs reasonably well but guessing wrongly where it would all lead. This is something that may provide a salutary warning to us all as we seek to develop strategy in a time of unknowing.

On a personal level Piggot’s chapter also gave me a clearer insight into the context in which I am now working and the pattern of growth which had occurred over the last 30 years in particular. I had not realised at one point we had been responsible for one eighth of all growth in the London District.

The discussion of the New Frontiers churches also gave me an interesting insight into more recent developments which I had not been clear about, particularly the fragmentation of the denomination into the six spheres.

Thus, this book is good reading for anybody who wants to catch up on where we are now as well as how we might have gotten here. It is very good for filling in gaps of knowledge on some specific areas and contexts.

One area of concern for me as I read was something black theologians such Anthony Reddie have bought light to. That is the way that the Black experience of migration, communities and church growth is often being interpreted through the eyes of white academics and/ or preachers who layer the story with their own interpretations and meanings. I am not sure the percentage of chapters in the book which were written by white theologians compared to other ethnicities but I was aware that a fair number of the authors were white talking about communities where ethnicity has changed strongly over recent years. An example of this is Colin Marchant talking about Newham. His section on Beginnings I am sure would have been different in flavour if written by a black theologian.

In terms of the question of whether London is an exceptional case or not the chapter by Grace Davie is well worth a read. She outlines well the ways in which the development of faith in London has a different narrative to other parts of the country and that the answer of whether the rest of the country will follow is complex and it depends upon where you are looking.

So, overall is this book worth the read. Most definitely in paperback or ebook if you are a practical theologian, somebody who is in ministry (lay or ordained in London and wants to understand your context) or a sociologist of religion. Beyond these groups I’d say you might find out a few things, but I’d probably just get it out of the library if you can persuade your local one to stock it.  

If you're interested in this area you might be interested in the accompanying half day conference happening at Kings College London, in January