Shane Hipps to leave Mars Hill

It was with interest that I read today on twitter that the wonderful teaching pastor at Mars Hill Bible Church, Shane Hipps, is to leave the role he has held for 2years.

I have followed the journey of Shane and his young family being a regular listener to of the podcasts from Mars Hill. I was impressed at the way he was able to transition so well from his previous role as Pastor of a Mennonite church by the way Mars Hill included Shane’ previous church on this journey.

The news that Rob Bell the founder of the community was then to leave the church for pastures new only a few months ago was I am sure a great shock for the congregation. They are a church that has had a significant effect on the wider body: teaching from Rob was key to this and it certainly had a big impact on my faith journey.

I felt that Shane handled Rob’s departure brilliantly and modelled transition from being a church led by a well-known charismatic leader, with the eyes of the Christian world upon them. He seemed to find a way to fill the role that Rob left in a way I feel sure the church could not have fully expected.

Having continued to listen to the teaching from Mars Hill I have been equally impressed with Shane. His clear Bible teaching and thoughtful approach to the church has also inspired me. Here is Shane’s well-crafted blog about his immanent departure from Mars Hill.
http://shanehipps.com/2012/05/dear-mars-hill/

Shane explains in his blog how the church is lead:
‘The Elders are a body of twelve volunteers who have been elected by the congregation to be the ordained decision makers on the most important issues in the church.  They are tasked with representing the community and acting on their behalf.  In a church this size and such diverse make up you can imagine how challenging this is. The Elders do this out of the goodness of their heart and a strong sense of call. And I think they deserve our appreciation for serving as they have in this unique transition in the life of this church’.

This paragraph caught my attention because, along with my lovely husband Al, we have planted churches over the past 20 years and it is the idea of creating leadership structures that fills me with the most dread. In fact when I read this today I expressed the opinion that I would be happier to stop leading and just become a member, less hassle and much less stress.

We are now leading a growing church family with our daughter and son-in-law and our next step in the journey will be to look at a wider leadership base. We have already witnessed the discomfort of those who feel it is wrong having a family only lead church but I will remind them that Aire Valley Community Church exists because we dared to step out 4 years ago and plant it.

Shane goes on to explain ‘Not long after Rob left, the Elders determined it was in the best interest of the church to restructure the role of the Teaching Pastor to be a full time teacher, which means approximately 40 Sundays a year’ and ‘In addition, that teacher would report to the Executive Director who would be responsible for the overall leadership of the church.’

For what it’s worth here are my thoughts on the eldership of Mars Hill church; I write this and I know that some may not hear my heart on this but here it is.

When Al and I felt the call to plant churches here and also in Norfolk we clearly felt the call of God on our lives. We stepped out with the belief that God would help us build community in the way He envisioned us both.
And there it is; we had a vision and we were the vision carriers. It was birthed in our hearts in a similar way we gave birth to our natural children. We gave birth to these communities, we saw the people in our hearts and we were pregnant with them and delivered them in joy and sometimes in great pain too!

Shane explains that his original contract ‘was to teach 25 Sundays a year, continue serving the broader church through speaking and writing, report directly to the Elders, and play a major role in casting vision’.

He is a vision caster; a church leader who has been given as a gift to the church to lead it, not to answer to an Executive Director whoever they are or what skills they bring to the table. You see for me if they are able to make these decisions then they should have Shane’s role. How can they know what the church needs in this context? They I presume are not vision casters.

He goes onto explain that the Elders acknowledged that the new role was significantly different than the one he originally accepted, but expressed a hope that he would ‘consider applying for it.’ Shane offered to teach for 30 wks but they refused and he is now graciously helping them until they find the teacher/pastor that they all see will take Mars Hill on.

There is a saying that ‘power corrupts’ and I am sad to say that I have seen this so often with those chosen to work alongside senior leadership. (I understand that Senior Leaders can fall to this temptation too but this is not my point here)
Al and I appointed a team around us when we pastored in Norfolk; they consisted of a couple who we had seen come to faith, a very dear lady who we had walked through a very stressful journey. Another dear lady who we thought of as a friend and Al had privilege to see married in our church to the man we had seen come to faith on an Alpha course. Plus another couple that came to the church and worked with us in leading worship.

We set their role as deacons to help us serve the growing church we were leading. When we hit some issues my heart broke in pieces when I witnessed these folks attempt to make decisions that really were not within their remit to make or in keeping with the ethos of the church we planted.

This group of lovely friends and fellow Christians thought they new best about what the church needed and were very clear in the letter they wrote to us.

Shane describes the group of 12 Elders at Mars Hill in a similar way, ‘The Elders do this out of the goodness of their heart and a strong sense of call.’
They were I am sure under the impression that they were acting on behalf of the church in the best way they knew how.

I know there will be reasons why the Mars Hill Elders have acted that I am not privy too; but what I do know from their history is that Rob had a global ministry, which put this church on the map. Their founding ethos is not just to be a local church.

Shane is another gifted teacher and writer who is capable of keeping the profile of Mars Hill alive as a teaching church not only for this local congregation but also for the wider body. I am sad to think that soon this may not be the case.I will wait and watch prayerfully that Mars Hill will not disappear for it is very true, ‘Where there is no vision the people perish’ Proverbs 29v18

Love Yourself

I am thinking a lot at the moment about being a parent even though my girls are all beautiful grown women who make my heart burst with pride. In 2 weeks I will be a grandparent my eldest daughter is expecting her first baby and both myself and Alan are giddy at the thought of meeting this baby who we know will change our lives in the way having the girls did.

Loving yourself is never easy in fact most of us are aware how we fail at being all we aspire to be. We are ‘our own worst critic’ no one could be more frustrated with us than we often are with ourselves.

There is a beautiful Psalm in the Bible that tells us we are ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’. I think of my grandchild growing in Jen’s womb, silently becoming this most beautiful creation, already so very, very loved and I ask myself ‘how can I best serve this little person’?

Think about this for a moment your child is going to watch your every move and listen to all you say, there are lots you can get away with when they are little but very quickly they mimic you and learn how you react to the world around you. Are you full of self-doubt, fear that you are not good enough? This loving of our self is vitally important, Of course you are not perfect no one is but in your child’s eyes you are, you need to live up to that by taking care of yourself, resting well, learning that the housework will keep; they on the other hand will grow up so very quickly and then you can clean house all day if you want too!

I look at the young mums today and I wish I could impress on them their value and worth. They matter so much to the precious gift that is their child. The best gift then is to love who you are, I cannot stress this enough after all the opposite would be to dislike who you are and even more than that to be hateful towards yourself and not be careful and how could you then care for your child/children? How I long to help those I meet to see the beauty in themselves. I see in the course of my work as a nurse so many taking antidepressants to help them feel better about who they are and I am the first to say if you need it take it but sometimes I know why people medicate and its due to their inability to love themselves.

Matthew 22:37

Jesus said, "'Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.' This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: 'Love others as well as you love yourself.' These two commands are pegs; everything in God's Law and the Prophets hangs from them."

'Love others as well as you love yourself.'

Why do we find this so hard, this action of loving ourselves? Please lovely ladies, those who are mummies, mummies to be, beautiful single ladies of every age, love yourself. The next generation are watching you!!!

Psalm 139 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well.My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand when I awake, I am still with you.

My mum

I have been thinking about my lovely mum today. She died 16 years ago aged 74 years and I loved her and miss her lots there have been times I really wanted her to still be here to cuddle me and tell me all will be ok over these past few years. She sent me to Sunday school as a little girl with my aunties and uncle who were 'born again' Assemblies of God church attendees. From the age of 5-12 I would accompany them most Sundays to church. My mum and dad only came to invited events but I was to be trained to be a Christian from a young age. I am not complaining I found faith as a 7 year old and my journey continues to this day. The reason I thought about mum today was because I had been listening to an American preacher who was admonishing his audience at a conference that most people who were led to faith came in on shallow faith with no real challenge therefore they were never saved. This thought came on the back of the recent controversy surrounding Rob Bells book 'Love wins'. I began to think about my wonderful ordinary mum. Born in 1921 in a Lancashire mill town, she lost her own mum as a teenager and fortunately her dad married a lovely lady who my mum loved, so no damage done there. She served in the army during world war 2 and was very proud of her time doing this. She married my dad in November 1945. Amazing to think that dad and her met during the war and they spent very little time together as dad was in Burma for most of this time. She had her first child my sister Lorraine in 1947. Lorraine was a twin dad was not at the birth he phoned the hospital to be told that they were waiting for twin 2, he didn't know he was having twins and said he almost fainted. Twin 2 Glenace was born 10 hrs after her sister and only lived for 2 days. So mum celebrated the birth of her first born and grieved the death of her second. Michael my brother came along in 1950 followed by me in 1960. Mum aged 39 always told me I was planned. After her death dad told me the truth 'biggest surprise of his life'!!! I was spoiled rotten by my large loving family. Unfortunately I was rotten and spoiled and I screamed lots if I did not get my own way. Conversations with old friends and neighbours usually reminded me of my awful habit of screaming I would politely smile and promise them 'I have changed' ! My mum was diagnosed with a heart problem when I was 15. I remember snatches of this time as my focus was so much on me I think I tried to ignore the fact that she had the bed downstairs because she could no longer get up the stairs in our home. She had always been so full of life, caring of her neighbours. We had the poor family in our street the Davenports. I only noticed their poverty as I grew a little older after all there was 10 of them in living in a 3 bedroom house. Carol my lovely friend with the long black hair that I was so jealous of as mum kept my blonde hair shortish most of the time. The reason was the nits that so many of my friends had and mum who had done the job of delousing soldiers in the war continued to do this for neighbours and their children and even me as they still hopped on board (Is anyone else old enough to remember Zuleo the nit remover and the terrible smell it had?) She was a dinner lady at my school and I was proud to be her daughter because she was everyones favourite and they all wanted to hold her hand. She was part of her community well respected kind and caring, my mum. When she became ill at the age of 55 (4 yrs older than I am now) I was a teenager concerned about my wants and needs. She had been increasingly struggling to walk up inclines and one day she turned back from work almost in a state of collapse my mum who had always been so fit and well was now unable to carry on. This marked the beginning of a 20 yr period of ill health with medication to help her failing heart. She continued to be a wonderful mum and a beautiful Nana to her 10 grandchildren including my own 4 girls. She enjoyed them all loved and snuggled them. She used to drawer a duck with one quick squiggle of a pen, today as I thought of my mum I realised I couldn't do this I hadn't paid enough attention to learn it to teach to my future grandchildren, and it made me sad and I wished she was here right now to show me this again. I say all this because my mum never really went to church. She would do the daily readings 'Every day with Jesus' Selwyn Hughes and she resisted coming to church because of my dad who would not go. Their experience came from her brothers and sisters whose example of faith would have put anyone off going to church. Not because they were horrible I loved them, but it was full of hat wearing ladies, no TV on Sunday and many more small petty rules, that my mum and dad who were kind and caring did not want to be a part of. I remember that as a teen when I would tell them of their need to repent and be saved. My brother informed me that in his eyes how could I be going to heaven when I was so horrible but they were not. I was passionate to see all my family saved and as I was taught each week in church they were all going to hell unless they repented and believed. Today as I remember my mum and I think about my faith and I listen to the teaching that says my mum and millions like her I burning in hell for eternity I can say that I don't believe this anymore. The God that I know love and serve is not a cruel vindictive God but his capacity is to embrace his people those he created is in no way small and restricted in the way I grew up believing. To be continued...

Through the valley of the shadow of death

This week I met with a mum of a young guy who comes a long to our church. His mum has just been diagnosed with cancer for the 4^th time. She had her first diagnosis as a young mum of 2 sons in her early 20’s. She was told not to worry and the lump she had found was sure to be benign, it wasn’t and she had to undergo many months of treatment to see this cancer beaten. She fought and won this battle 2 more times and when I first met her 2 years ago she wore some of the scars of these battles on her face with a sadness and frailty that facing death leaves on your soul.

We have been excited with this family for the last few months as her son is getting married this year and so we have shared the joy of this together. Chatting about venues, outfits (the most important thing for all ladies involved) colours and all other wedding related things. She even bravely underwent a breast reconstruction ready to get into the perfect outfit and looking forward to all that is to come in the next few years. She had come to the end of treatment from the last cancer and asked how they would know if she would be ok? To put her mind at rest they did a full body scan. Called to see her oncologist he told her there was a small spot on her hip but he felt this was no problem and to go ahead with the surgery. She was read a letter by her GP stating ‘this does not look suspicious but to put her mind at rest we will do a further scan after her surgery’.

Surgery completed, new breast in place, healing commenced, scan undertaken, called to see the oncologist. The familiar story unfolded and on her birthday she sat with her son (husband away skiing for a break) to hear the news that they were 95% certain this was cancer of the hipbone.

I sat with her in the borrowed attic bedroom of her son’s home on a mattress on the floor looking at the treatment plan the toxic poison that will kill the bad but also the good. Reading the horrendous side effects and hearing that she will lose her hair again, hair that she was going to grow for this wedding and a friend had been discussing styles, but now we were looking at wigs in a magazine.

I tell her that she is a brave lady who can do this because she has done it before, but she tells me she doesn’t want to do it again. She hates medication and her fear of the smell of the chemotherapy that she says invades her nostril as soon as she enters that unit and terror overwhelms her. I hunted for words that eluded me after all I had been here before with my lovely sister diagnosed with ovarian and bowel cancer in 2002, she lost the battle in the same year.

I searched my memory banks for the right words of encouragement, words that would bring her some peace, in myself there was none. We share a common faith in a God who loves and knows us, He was the only word of comfort I could bring to the table. We chatted about the fact that our faith is not the protection against bad things but our God promises to walk with us through the valley of the shadow of death.

Psalm 23

The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley,

I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

I hold to this for my very dear friend and sister in Christ and also for each of us wherever this finds you today, He is with you in your valley and when it seems to be at the darkest point I believe God will come in and the He will bring you peace.

Take a moment to listen to this beautiful song by Natalie Grant - Held.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOufqWodFNo

Shaping a church community

My lovely husband Alan and I chat a lot and I so appreciate this as vital in our marriage.

We implemented this a few years ago after a difficult time (that is a story for another time).

We walk and talk about anything and everything, I feel the ratio is possibly 70/30 for me having the most to say but he is good and listens very patiently.

This is an important time for us to discuss all that we are up to with our church plant here in Bingley, West Yorkshire we have just celebrated the third birthday of our little church.

The responsibility to shape a church is huge and we both take it very seriously. We have planted a church before and at that time Alan was undertaking an MA in pastoral theology at Cambridge University. His dissertation was titled ‘Towards an incarnational church'. He was able to write this from our experience and all the ups and downs that pastoring a church unveiled as we ministered to the congregation there.

To say that our faith has evolved is an understatement we both feel that so many things have shaped our journey to today so many people and their stories have impacted the way we see church and how it should be lead.

We both never feel enough and the weight of getting it right can sit heavily on our shoulders, but and it’s a big BUT we know that we are called to this role. I watch Alan preach or pray with someone and I see a man who through his own personal fire knows how faithful God is. That God uses each of us when we say ‘here I am send me’, He does.

So here we are again growing church, building community, walking and talking. Reading and absorbing information and inspirational teaching from ministers much further on than we are and yes enjoying it. The responsibility is great but truly the reward is much greater.

Small Enough - Nichole Nordeman

‘Oh great God be small enough to hear me now’.

I have just heard some incredibly sad news, the kind of news that makes your heart break. This kind of news makes you ask the question "where are you God"?

‘Oh Great God be small enough to hear me now’.
The kind of tragedy that when they happen it feels like there has been a seismic shift in the earth beneath your feet, what you once built your life on cannot be relied on anymore.

‘Oh Great God be small enough to hear me now’.
I have experienced personally this kind of news three times in my life; the death of my mum and elder sister and the day my lovely life imploded and all I once based my happiness on seemed to have disappeared.

‘Oh Great God be small enough to hear me now’.

This kind of pain comes in like waves of anguish that gnaw at the pit of your stomach. You think of the situation and you feel the wave wash over you afresh and for me I found that I cried in a way that felt primeval a wail that was wrenched from deep within myself.

‘Oh Great God be small enough to hear me now’.

I listened to this sad news and I thought of the loss and anguish I knew that this family were now experiencing. I was only acquainted with them but I could imagine this woman wailing from the pit of her stomach. It may not for her have been audible but her pain could not be eased with a few kind words or a cup of tea.

‘Oh Great God be small enough to hear me now’.

This pain cannot be rushed through or plastered over it has to be lived through, and oh how long do the days feel and lets not even mention the nights, the nights are unbearable and so very long.

‘Oh Great God be small enough to hear me now’.

I do not want to bring any flippant answers here but I found that when I read the Bible God found a way to break through and speak to this aching pain.

He is small enough because I want to say that my Great God is exactly that in these times.

Lamentations 3 v 20 – 26
I well remember them,
and my soul is downcast within me.
Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:
Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him."
The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him;
it is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the LORD.