Distinct Reflections

Iquitos Loreto floods

I don’t plan to keep a running commentary on the flooding in Iquitos and Loreto yet despite the scale of the difficulties virtually no English Language news networks are reporting it. But the realisation that publicity can make a positive differences outweighs any doubts I have over blogging other people’s misery.


The picture above may look inviting, but I have been there in the dry and it is difficult to comprehend how high the water level has risen in order to flood this.

The good news is that water levels, which are the highest since 1970’s appear to have stopped rising. Yet although the levels will slowly recede the current levels mean that large areas of populated land are flooded and likely to remain so for some weeks or months. Unsurprisingly this means that incidents of disease will continue to increase. Local media reports (eg) give a mixed picture; today carrying claims that the situation is under control and epidemics will be prevented whilst at the same time reporting that rats are becoming a problem in parts of the city where electricity supplies have been cut!

What is also becoming clear is the effect this is having not just in the cities of Iquitos and Nauta but on the numerous smaller river communities.

Yet in spite of this people try to get on with normal life, selling goods in the markets and doing what they can.

I’ve previously posted links to Shelterbox and Esperanza who are working to provide shelter, food and other needed supplies; both websites have giving details.  BMS world mission have also made a grant to help support the work being done through some of the local Baptist Churches. (Report and giving details here). Let's stand with them in partnership, practical help and prayer.

Iquitos flooding

It’s now four weeks since I was in Iquitos, during which time the flooding has got worse.

The Red Cross now estimate that in the region 200, 000 people have been affected, 43,000 homes flooded; a number that is still rising as the water levels increase meaning that perhaps 1 in 3 people are flooded in the area.

There are some attempts at help. The local authorities have created some evacuation centres, the Red Cross is helping about 800 families. But these solutions aren’t great. In a Report the Red Cross (Report) says of the centres in Iquitos,

“These families are currently sheltered in 64 collective centres, of which 10 are located in the Belen district, 19 in Iquitos, 14 in Punchana and 21 in San Juan. Unfortunately, assessments indicate that the collective centres do not fulfil minimal standards of privacy, security and hygiene due to overcrowding. Some families are living in 8m2 areas, separated by plastic sheets of 1.70 metres high. As the situation is expected to deteriorate in the following weeks if the rivers continue to rise, activities need to be performed in order to improve living conditions of affected families sheltered in collective centres.”

Other organisations, such as ShelterBox (web link) are assessing what they can do.

Hopefully the water levels will stabilise in the next week or so but it will be several months before the flooding is over. During which time disease remains a significant hazard. This is on top of the hazards of electrocution (there are reports of people dying) and animals (I was told of one family who found an alligator in their house).

Of course this is just one of a number of situations around the globe which do not receive media attention.

As to what we can do, once I've found out I'll post it here. My link has been with the Baptist Churches of Iquitos (who don't really have the capacity to do much) and with BMS:world mission and their supported people.

Update:

Sunday 22nd: Do pray for the church in Punchana in particular and for the pastor there. As the land is declared uninhabitable and people are moved they need wisdom to know what to do, and the resources to do it.

Rowan Williams retires

Yesterday saw C of E Archbishop Rowan Williams announce his retirement. I believe the church in the UK owes him our thanks. We may not all agree with him but he has made a good fist of an impossible job; and is a model of how to lead a denomination through difficult issues.

The Church Mouse has a good blog on Rowan here

I'm off to Iquitos, Peru later for a couple of weeks so don't expect too much blogging.

Futures proposal for #BUGB

Over the last few weeks I've been thinking about how we might move the conversation forward; particularly since BUGB Council meets again next week.

So I have produced two things. The first is a video giving an overview of the steps we need to take. The second is a longer paper giving more detail (here). No doubt some will say I shouldn't be so specific; but unless we make concrete suggestions we are never going to drill down into the details. (Though if you are reading and viewing this as a current employee of the Union or Associations do hear the caveat that these are simply my suggestions and it will be several months before decisions can be made).

Both are work in progress. There are conversations to be had and details to be ironed out. But I hope this gives reasons for optimism and some helpful pointers to the way ahead.

 

Young people and church

Last week saw some interesting blogs (including Krish Kandiah's blog here) and twitter conversations about the statistics that suggest the church is haemorrhaging young people; despite significant investment into youth work.  Having read some of the conversation it seemed to me that it didn’t resonate with my own experience. So I spent half an hour looking back at some of our church records here and have drawn the following observations:

1. The biggest reason for young people not continuing in youthwork has been their parents moving away from the church. It maybe, of course, that since many of these moves are down to relocation the families concerned have found new church communities to be part of. However, it is noteworthy that new surroundings is often a moment when church attendance declines.

 2.  About 10% of those who were part of our childrens’ work stop attending youth work before they leave for University.

3. Of those who drift away during their teens the biggest predictor is the regularity with which they attended the childrens’ work. Those who were regular as children are much less likely to drift away.

 4. The bigger fall out points seem to be moving to University or the move from University into the world of work (or non-work at present).

 5. Those who make it all the way through tend to be those who have found ways of serving in the wider church before they leave for college. This is particularly important for those young people who do not have Christian parents.

 If you are a Christian parent and want your child to grow in faith there are a couple of easy steps you can take.

1. Don’t get divorced or move churches.

2. Create a routine while your children are young which includes regular church commitment.

3. Encourage your teenagers to be involved in some aspect of church life; helping with Children’s work, singing & playing in the band, video, PA; it doesn’t seem to matter too much what it is, the involvement is what counts.

We also did a brief survey last Sunday asking young people what they liked about Church, why some of their friends left and how we could help equip them for real life. Overwhelmingly they said they liked church community, youth group and being with friends. Their friends are not Christians because they think church is boring and old fashioned and because of peer pressure. And we could help them by tacking difficult issues and relating what the Bible says to them. The third one interests me because I thought that is what we were doing so I hope to drill down into that a bit in coming weeks.

It maybe that some further digging would also reveal similarities between the situation here and the quoted statistics; it may also be because we have consistently tried to include some of the things which are now being suggested as ways of improving the situation.  

Bunch of grapes or bag of marbles

I don't follow the workings of the Church of England closely but twitter alerted me to this address by the Bishop of Sherborne supporting the Anglican Communion Covenant. here

I share it because the contrast between a bunch of grapes or a bag of marbles is new to me; and I like it. It resonates with our own baptist conversations in England. How do we relate together, what place does covenant have in this and what shape should those relationships have?

Drill down a bit and there are a whole load more questions to be asked about the nature of church, the place of local congregations and how they form part of the church catholic. But I think the bunch of grapes analogy has a lot going for it.

Driscoll saga #cowardlymybutt – Hero, victim or?

Yesterday was the 2^nd Anniversary of the Earthquake in Haiti, it was also the day when Christian Today website published a quotation in which American preacher Mark Driscoll appeared to suggest that British preachers were a “bunch of cowards who aren’t telling the truth” (source).

Unsurprisingly many people in the UK were furious (eg: Krish Kandiah here ), though Driscoll has form in making outrageous comments. Then as Twitter got excited Driscoll posted a blog seeking to pour water on the fire by providing context. It was, he suggested, the result of ‘disrespectful, adversarial, and subjective’ interviewing (here) and that the best thing is ‘not to waste time blogging, twittering and talking about me”.  Fair enough except:

1. The radio version of the interview (listen here from 34 mins in) suggests he is not being taken out of context. Neither is he being sensationalist in a Jeremy Clarkson way for publicity. He really does appear to believe that those who don’t share his interpretation of the faith, his values and preference for loud mouthed populist mega-preachers are wrong.

2. Whilst claiming in the radio interview that he doesn’t believe in a one size fits all and, in his blog, that the important thing is preaching the gospel, he repeatedly asserts that we don’t have any good young preachers.

3. His response to the initial criticism is not to say ‘I was making a point, it was hyperbole but I’m happy to note the good work being done’ but rather to suggest that although he is an expert in communication, well used to reports, he has been made a victim. No doubt at some point there will be a ‘I’m sorry if people were offended by my comments’ apology but the manner of Driscoll’s response could be likened to that of the bully. A bully who claims he was the victim first and who covers his own inadequacies by resorting to psychological violence whilst rationalising it by seeking to present it in a socially acceptable manner.  

4. Driscoll is a well known preacher. Large numbers of people listen to what he says. He therefore has a duty to seek to be truthful and to model Christian discipleship. I’m not expecting him to be perfect, we are all growing in faith and being transformed, but a bit of humility would be good. Instead of cultivating an image through the bravado of certitude and self assurance by claiming that anyone who doesn’t agree with his understanding of essential Christian doctrine is a liberal Christian and that he is a better preacher than everyone else (or in his language ‘I may go too far but every other preacher I know doesn’t go far enough’) he should seek to build positive relationships with other Christian leaders.

5. Some of the points Driscoll is addressing, such as the under representation of men, particularly young men, is important. But when the antics of the messenger mean that the preacher becomes the story rather than the message it is an abuse of preaching.

No doubt more details will emerge which may mean that my initial impressions of Driscoll are unfair to him but, in the meantime, are there any lessons to be learnt from all this?

1. Beware of any Christian leader who makes him or herself seem good by doing others down.

2. Beware of any Christian leader who is not willing to engage with people who hold alternative opinions or who have criticisms.

3. Beware of getting dragged into playing the same game, with aggression rather than assertiveness, denial rather than recognising personal inadequacies, blaming others rather than taking responsibility for our words and our actions.

By all means let us preach the faith with vigour, let us champion the cause of Christ, let us take risk for the sake of the kingdom. But let us do so in imitation of Christ, the one who came full of grace and truth, the one who gives peace and encourages love for others. Let us be bold preachers but not empire builders, confident communicators but not attention seekers and faithful followers of the one who came to bring life.

Update 17 Jan: the full recording is available  here. The 'cowards' bit is about 28 mins, the 'women' bit is from 50 mins.

 

What's influence?

Whilst the dictionary suggests it is about the power of producing effect, particularly in people and the ability to bring something about; it seems to me that influence is a bit more subtle than this. Even if it is, ultimately, about power it is about unacknowledged power rather than authority per se. As I’ve pondered this over the last couple of days four key things stand out in describing people who are influential.

Agents of change: By one means or another influential people change how others think, or behave, either as individuals or by changing the culture of an organisation / institution. Normally this seeks to bring out the best in others, releasing them and encouraging them.

Communicating ideas: often which reach large numbers of people. Having ideas which inspire others or create confidence are the primary attributes, but having clarity of thought allied with a vision of the future that sparks other people’s creativity and imagination is the key to linking ideas with change.

Character to emulate: being someone others seek to be like (or even follow). This includes wisdom and understanding but also knowledge tied to emotional intelligence. Integrity, spirituality and Christ likeness are particularly important here.

Relational connectivity: the ability to engage people so they feel they have some connection with you is a vital part of communication but also the way you impact people. You are more influential when people like you, or feel you value them or have heard/understood them. Sometimes the people close to us influence us most; so it is not all about technique or transformational leadership!

Media storm virtue and risk

Not much blogging recently due to various factors. But to prove I'm still alive and watching the news....

The TV and internet are full of stuff about News International and the allegations of criminal wrongdoing. There is clearly a desire to ‘get Murdoch’ which recent events have now unleashed. But before we loose perspective we might want to note that it isn’t just News International whose practices need reviewing. Consider the allegations of plagiarism facing the Independent’s Johann Hari  and the related wikipedia character assignations by ‘David Rose’. Or the Information Commissioners 2006 report into incidents of illegal activity which place the Mirror and Mail Newspaper groups at the top of the list of illicit dealings by a factor of 10 over News International. Or the accusations that Piers Morgan knowing ran stories which had been obtained by phone hacking when he was editor of the Mirror. Or the accusation that Tom Baldwin (now Ed Miliband’s communications guy) used a private detective to raid the accounts of the conservative party when he was a News International journalist. So many accusations that you may wonder why anyone places confidence in the news media at all!

The problem stems from two related issues. First, the ethical standards of the individuals and companies themselves that appear to be compromised by the second issue, which is the desire to push the envelope in order to secure the best story, break new ground and to win friends or market share. But it is this combination of virtue and risk which is worth considering, not least because there needs to be a way of maximising both rather than understanding the future as either / or.  Because the natural response, as seen in parliament today is to seek to retreat into a world which may be ethically clearer but, by force of regulation, commercially safer.

If there is one lesson the church might offer politicians it is that pursing a policy of ethical purity and risk aversion leads to long term decline; indeed the press contains reports this week which warn of the Church of England’s demise in the next 20 years.

Both in church life and in public life we need to combine virtue with a willingness to encourage risk.

Big Society and local Church

Last night we hosted a local Churches Together event where we invited our local MP (the Conservative David Rutley) to talk about the ‘Big Society’ and discuss the part that churches play in it.

I thought the evening went well. It was a good opportunity for dialogue as well as questions, and I’m sure there are benefits in us developing a relationship between churches and local politicians. David Rutley’s pitch was to draw attention to the things which local churches had been involved in and encourage us to keep doing them.

Overall I’m still left with two questions. First, if the government really believed in its ‘big society’ agenda it would push ahead with abolishing local education authorities and make every school a free school, it would radically change the NHS so that it is a mix of mutual, commercial and government provision, it would cut corporation tax to encourage enterprise and reduce personal taxation; all in a drive to slim down the size and intervention of government. Second, if the government really wanted to promote the ‘big society’ it would increase gift aid so that the government match funded private donations, and focus more attention on consistent support for areas where community needs to be fostered and encouraged (primarily but not exclusively inner cities), working with organisations which can help make a difference.