Monthly Archives: September 2009

Colonialism, nationalism and stewardship

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(Também em Português)
Here is a first (and small) post on stewardship of the land – as opposed to nationalism and other alternatives.

Colonialism is a tragedy. There has been so much damage caused in (for example) Africa through colonialism. Of course the complication is that good was also done – missionary work in particular, education and the like… but the damage caused is there to be seen.

So in colonialism there is an attitude that what is yours we have a right to as we are superior. This is with a complete disregard for borders – how much is in Scripture about borders? [And it is without any genuine payment for land - even Abraham with the promise of God insisted on paying for his entrance to the land through buying the grave plot for Sarah.]

Nationalism is the normal - and in parts healthy response to colonialism. It is based on the opposite response. This is ours and we will defend it against anyone coming to the land. This can become even stronger and enter into patriotism, that becomes dangerously close to replacing the God of the earth with the country becoming deified. [I appreciate that this is a difficult area - how do we honour those who give their lives to protect freedom, even if with hindsight we might view the 'freedom' a little differently.]

However, both colonialism and nationalism impoverish a country. They are both incapable of releasing the wealth in a land.

So let me suggest there is a third strand – that of stewardship.

I hesitate to pontificate on this, but: in a few days time all will be revealed. [By all I mean a few random thoughts I have currently.]

Piacenza – the key

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Hi:

Well, I am completely frazzled, exhausted and almost ready to depart for Piacenza. I am off to Halifax on Tuesday morning to meet (in the evening) with my doctoral committee. We have had a few bumps in the road over the last month so this meeting is critical. More importantly, I need my thesis proposal approved in order to get some additional funding. Then on Oct 1 I fly to London, spend the night there and on the 3rd fly to Milan. I arrive in Piacenza on Monday morning, by train. I dearly hope the housing arrangements I have made, long distance, work out.

A couple of years ago I realized, as affirmed by God, that Piacenza has always acted like a key to central Italy. To get south you had to pass through Piacenza where the Po River intersects the old Roman Road – the via Emilia.  I felt God had told me that Piacenza was a key and a lock to Italy. I thought that was kind of strange. After all, while keys work  with locks, they are usually thought of as doing different things.

Recently, while frantically cruising the Internet for something to add to my thesis proposal I found this quote in a book by Simon Ditchfield. He is referring to the murder of the first Farnese duke in 1547. The politics are complicated but the fellow, Gonzaga, was the governor of Milan in the employee of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles. Here’s the quote:

“Piacenza was too important to be left to the Piacentines. Don Ferrante Gonzaga, Governor of Milan, in a letter to his counterpart at Alessandria, referred to Piacenza as:’the door and key to the route from Italy to Spain and vice-versa’. Moreover, its proximity to Protestant communities in Switzerland and the Grisons which harboured refugees and disseminated anti-Catholic propaganda, made its secure control in orthodox hands imperative, as evidence by the serious outbreak of heresy in the city during the 1550′s.” (from Liturgy, Sanctity and History in Tridentine Italy: Pietro Maria Campi and the Preservation of the Particular,  by Simon Ditchfield, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2002).

So it is the key in the lock of the door in north central Italy.It will be very interesting to see what God looks to do there over the next year.

Cheryl

33 hours

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So from leaving Dutywa to landing tonight at Palma will be a 33 hour stretch. We have so much to reflect on from SA. What an amazing nation, with such history. What does it mean to be a South African (here I am thinking too about nationalism and stewardship)? Is classism at all the same thing as racism? It is so good to see some former oppressed people under apartheid prospering – but will this create new complications for those who have not prospered?

In the small town of Dutywa to prophesy about a University sounded crazy, but then to discover that was part of the vision that prompted David and Iris to begin with schools, maybe illustrates what can be possible. I am so glad this was the place we ended our time there. Religion and tradition has ruled there, and to open the concept that to change political and economic power there has to be the breaking of religious power might indicate why this small place – and the Transkei – can act as a place of remarkable initiatives.

The village nature of the area also lends itself to the virus of faith spreading without the ‘flower-pot’ of buildings, ecclesiastical structure (or ‘glue’ as per Neil Cole).

Every time we have traveled this year we have come back impacted with a lot to work through. We have worked with the Scripture of responding to what is in the land (what comes our way) this year, so that we then analyse what is to spring up from that for the second year. So South Africa and next year – highly probable but we have to wait till December to get a feel as to what is the right response.

OK… had a quick shower, now off to see the people in B@titude. Watch this space for some stories coming out of Leatherhead through Stories from the Street series. Then off to Gatwick. And home.

Dutywa

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Here in this small dusty town of around maybe 20,000 people with David and Iris Mniki whom I first met in the early 80s., and were very supportive of Gayle’s move to Scotland in 2004. People of prayer. We have one more day to go, but am glad we are finishing here. The openness to input, to ‘church beyond the congregation’ etc., is amazing. It is not about attendance, or getting people in the building is what I have heard again and again. Projects, many stemming from individuals are making an entrance for the Gospel into villages.

Maybe there is the possibility of a grassroots movement here?

The Eastern Cape has been a place of significance: Steve Biko, Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, along with others have come from here.

Cultural challenges abound: next door to where we are conferencing there is a major event calling up an ancestor; initiation rites into manhood also occur. What does it mean for the Gospel to penetrate such practices? Some are clearly demonic; what about the others?

I will try in our newsletter to give a greater overall report on this time in Africa. Until then a quote from Neil Cole’s blog about CMA:

We determined that Christ as Head and the resulting consequence of us being a family together on His mission was enough, and to substitute something less would eventually kill the movement. With this decision, we lost all sense of control, tracking, and centralized support structure. We often explain to people that we could not possibly count all the churches in CMA, which is true. But actually, we do prefer it this way as well. With this movement we will be able to see if Jesus really is enough, and that was worth it to us. We are still in the midst of this grand experiment, and so far we are not disappointed in Jesus.

East London

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Now we are up country in a rural town for a final weekend. We are almost ready to go home as it has been a long time. We have just come from East London – a remarkable place that has seen some very specific revivals in history. There is so much to say and report but here is a prophetic word that we gave for the city:

East London is an open place and is place that God designed to be open, a place of receptivity, a place to be open to new things, a place not just focused on the past that would flow along the predictable lines, but a place that would be open to new thinking and new approaches.

(I use certain terminology to describing places and this is a place that can model, where models can be put down, where fresh ways of working in things can be released.) It is a place of great diversity where people are released to their gifting to discover what they should be doing. One person can do the same thing but differently to how another person would do it. There is not a cloning or making people after our own image. People can come and discover a level of freedom. Some will come and push too far with their freedom, but they will discover who is it that God has made me to be. This is a geography where you can discover who you are.

This is a border place. A place of transaction where deals were made, where people would come and make agreements in this place, a place of unity, a place of discussion and a place of dialogue. A place where great creative ideas can be formed. A place where concepts are thrashed out, where two things can be put together. A place where ‘the ingredients’ from elsewhere can be mixed together in a pot and something fresh comes out of the pot all together. This is not a place where you are to take what is here and plant it elsewhere, but you take the ingredients from here and sow them elsewhere. There is a storehouse here, a distribution place. A place where in economic, business, and in the spiritual realm things can be taken and disturbed elsewhere. Taken elsewhere and they might develop there in a new way, but it was formed and shaped here.

There are working practical principles and models God is shaping here. There are new ways of working between the generations, new terminology will spring forth. New writings will come forth that will begin to influence the rest of South Africa. New messages will come forth, new things over the internet also from here. New short messages that will begin to shape up the future.

This is a place that has been called ordinary but the Lord is going to give some specialist tools which will cause the ordinary, the natural to be heard across South Africa. New partnerships between what has been called the sacred and secular. Between church and the business world. Not the place for the big to be manifest but for the multiple diversity to be released. Many will think that somethign is big but it will be the partnership of many smaller things coming together. There is an anointing for the release of small but very effective working business practices.

There is a battle over the sky and over the night. Some meet angels regularly – at night, in dreams. And there is a disturbance in the night too. The battle in the air intensifies. Nightmares that repeat, restless at night. God is pushing back some space over East London and drawing in the angels, and there will be dreams and messages, strategy released also about business, work, essays.

There is a battling for a territory – I see this place as a border place, a meeting place, therefore battles go on here and you win them here and win them for an area. This is a territorial place – having authority for elsewhere. There is coming developments in this city. New expressions of old things – a sign of new things coming into the city. A battle against tradition ideologies. You will break traditions here for the sake of the wider area.

Cape Town

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Sorry for the silence – we have just been loaned a ‘dongle’ so can get a measure of connection to the internet… Not replied to the emails yet – definitely a mañana scenario!

Well we have had and are having a challenging time here in SA. Hard to put pen to paper and give some insights to it. There are simply so many, but I will try some summary statements.

  • South Africa is at a most important time and could swing either way.
  • Cape Town carries a birthing anointing for the nation – and beyond for the continent.
  • ‘She’ is disorientating to those who come to try and get sight, because she is disorientated.
  • This is a time for stewardship that will take the nation beyond nationalism.
  • The day of politics of promise that does not deliver is to give way to partnerships of humility.
  • A sign to come in the midst of the world cup with respect to ‘gates / gatekeepers’ in the nation.
  • As we prayed from the Rhodes memorial (aka demonic temple) – having discerned how it is devouring the young (men) of SA / Africa – 6 young male University students assembled at the foot. Great time of interaction with them. Maybe the greatest highlight… so how do we play a part in discipling those who hold keys to the future of a nation, even if they do not all come to faith?
  • Humble people working in a tough area: gangs, drugs, HIV.

Yes we are humbled, impacted, and grateful that we have been able to sow into the future to see something shift.

I hope to post soon on East London.

Some challenges to think about

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Hi:

Here’s just a couple of things as I am in the mad rush to finish packing, finish a thesis proposal, and all other manner of things before I depart next week. More on Italy to come. However a couple of articles have caught my eye recently.

This just up on the Huffington Post: Michael Moore film on capitalism . As I read the article, I realized that the exposure of how world economics works is a real challenge to the church. Where are we on the subject?  Do we enable this system of greed and oppression (by whatever name you call it) or confront and challenge it in the way we live?

Another article on AlterNet today caught my eye because it is written by Frank Schaeffer, son of the Frank Schaeffer that wrote the ‘Christian Manifesto’ among other things way back in the 60′s and 70′s. The son broke with the father’s increasingly violent right wing, politicized form of Christianity a while ago and wrote about it in a book. Now he is writing about what he sees in the increasingly violent rhetoric of the right wing in the US and how it was birthed by Christians. Yeah, you got that, according to the son Schaeffer, all that hate speech and lean to violence was birthed and fueled by the religious right wing. He now asks how can Christianity be saved from Christians. Something to ponder indeed. Here is the article on Alternet. Essentially Schaeffer is saying we reap what we sow including our eschatology, and intolerance for others in an effort to purify the land around us. He has been very repentant about his life – openly admitting his involvement in this movement.  He has had some very interesting interviews on the Rachel Maddow show. You can google all of that if you are interested.

I think God is asking us some big questions these days about who we are, what’s important, and how do we live on this earth?

Cheryl

Eschatology #23

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In this podcast I look at the nature of humanity, suggesting that a Hebrew view is of an intregrated whole, rather than the collection of diverse parts, then give a main focus is on the issue of the immortality of the soul.

This opens up 2 possibilities: non-existence after death prior to the parousia, and conditional immortality (some form of annihilationism).

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Web silence

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We are in South Africa at this time – home Sept 29th. I ahave been able to access the internet on this one occassion thus far. So emails etc, are sadly not being replied to at this time – SORRY…

will give a fuller report on the time later. In Cape Town and gaing smoe good sight for the land and Africa. Here is a womb, but the place is disorientating and disorientated. Writing later – hope before we get home.

Between Scotland and South Africa

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Just completed a week at YWAM base in West Kilbride. It was so good to be teaching again on spiritual mapping – a good reminder to me as well to keep my eyes open… that we are in a major contest against hostile powers. It was sweet coming into Glasgow Queen Street Station to catch the train and looking at the map on the way in, thinking with those street names, and that kind of square we are about to see something that is locking up the area… and there on top of a church building a set of 5 obelisks.

This is also a reflective time. We have noticed that every time we have travelled away from Mallorca that the Lord has quickened many things to us, and by the end of the year we will sit down and try and weigh up what in 2010 is ‘springing up’ from what we have ‘eaten’ in 2009.

So at this stage a greater awareness that we are to stir a Europe-wide focus. It is easy to have a ‘big vision’, travel everywhere but not dig down anywhere specific. It is also easy to dig down somewhere very specific and lose sight of the big over-arching picture. This I have felt the rebuke of the Lord over in these days in Scotland.

Now we leave for South Africa. I have not been there since the late 90s. I had a major encounter there in 1991. It was at that time I saw 5 things coming, so am revisiting the land with great interest. A major part of Gayle’s family roots are also here, so we believe there is something redemptive to be worked out.

This year thus far has been much more hidden, but has been very full. In December we will certainly have a lot to assess. We might have some pointers now as to the direction for then, but I am sure there are many turns and twists between then and now.

West Kilbride & threefold cord

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Here I am in Scotland. Great to be here. History and future. History – a different part of Scotland but still my roots; future – people marrying the land in intercession.

A challenging area with bloodshed etc., the Kilwinning lodge, the Buddhist prayer / meditation centre on Holy Island.

There are three groups of people that are vital in this season for Scotland:

  • those born here and living here. The time for the unlocking of the indigenous.
  • those with an inheritance here who have family roots – even if it is generations ago. This is a time for those with an inheritance – even if it has been badly stewarded in the past. There will be those called back to Scotland in this next season.
  • those who have no roots / inheritance here but are now being repositioned to steward. (Another post another time maybe – nationalism and stewardship are vitally distinct.)

It is important that those three bind together. Those in the land can welcome those who are coming back, and work alongside those who have been called in to steward. Where this does not happen there will be real difficulty in a successful connection to the land being made. The critical time is now.

I see fresh connections all over the land. Gatekeepers are being positioned and they will begin to inter-connect. It is a time for gatekeepers to connect with each other. In the Spirit I see people in quiet locales who have been positioned there for this time. They have been watching, now they are being released as gatekeepers in the land. It is a time for new voices to be heard – I see a shift coming in to former prayer movements that have carried a major burden in the land. ‘Succession’ is not through a hierarchical structure – there will be ‘foreigners’ (but who have married the land) who will come through to spearhead new releases of faith and prayer.

Much godly turmoil is here and is coming.

Eschatology #22

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In this podcast I begin to look at personal eschatology – issues of life after death, final destinies, what about the unevangelised. This initial podcast looks at three beliefs: purgatory, limbo and universalism.

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