13 August 2006

A Letter to Three of the Churches of Byron Bay, Australia (by Daniel Armfield)


This letter is a contribution to the art of welcoming new people into the church.

1) Worship:

The church not being a humanly erected building or religious institution, is in fact all of humanity. However there are potential Christians who have not become aware of the existence of Christ. As such the chief concern when welcoming a new member, is helping a person become aware of the Christ. The best way to do this is not to argue theology or quote the bible, but to point to the worship. In the worship, the presence of Christ overshadows the congregation as a felt tangible relationship. New persons are best referred to their experiences of Christ in this worship. Additionally persons already in the faith need to be directed to the deeper aspects of the worship, that the risen Christ is the felt presence which there pervades the congregation. It is a feeling. Whilst images of Jesus, the life Jesus lived, his teachings are all important, these are not Jesus as the risen Christ, these are expressions of his divine ministry. These expressions are for the purpose of educating the mind and making conscious the longing in the heart. Worship is the fulfillment of the longing. Worship is principally of surrendering the contents of the mind and feeling God's pervading presence.

2) Welcoming New Christians:

When welcoming new Christians it is important to show love. Showing love is best shown by listening and hearing a person's story, primarily in terms of what a person wants to begin discussing and later what emotional need brought the person to this church community. It is probable the seeker may have been involved in some other religion, therapy, philosophy and so on. Love is affirming the person's story and how it unfolded for them. Rapport or relationship with the new Christian is eroded by arguing with what is wrong with their faith or philosophy at present. Instead love is focusing upon affirming the story of how the new Christian arrived here today. Love is the parent who wisely builds the child's self-esteem not correcting the child with a battering of "No's" though building the child's character with a strategy of "Yes And". This affirms the child is already doing something sincere in their search for happiness and yet there is always more to learn. The "Yes And" approach both builds rapport with the new Christian and builds the new Christian's self-esteem which assists in the continuance and openness to new learning.

3) The Heart:

"Yes And" builds the heart. By honoring the emotional thread that runs through a person's life, the heart is built by aiding in each persons connection with their emotions. The emotions are the feeling of satisfaction or lack of satisfaction related to each experience in the person's past. Emotions lead to the experience of Christ. Anger is blaming the world for not delivering the love that is sought. Loss is seeking love from worldly sources, both material sources and even seeking love from our family and friends, when we know our loved ones have a certain amount of time here with us. Persons with violence, sexual abuse or young experiences of abandonment by human family, have the most traumatic experiences in need of healing, which can ultimately only be brought about by Christ. Such persons usually intuitively or consciously recognize that in their background, persons have fallen short of the love that they were seeking. The purpose of worship is to show that Christ is the bedrock of a love that will not fail them, a love and source of love that is available whenever they surrender to the worship and rely on God's grace to heal old wounds. This doesn't mean negating the emotions. Christ's presence is shone through the emotions to release these unhealed experiences in the soul. The way the emotions and painful experiences are cyclically recreated in people's lives, is thinking and behaving in a way which is not in alignment with the will of God and not feeling the effect on the emotions. Addictions are an attempt to continue on without acknowledging the emotions, by numbing oneself to emotions. Having a strong heart, is having the faith that emotions can and are worked through. The Christian listener shows the new Christian that together with Christ, both people can bare the depth of the emotion. The listening and "Yes And" approach, thus deepens the heart, deepens rapport with the new Christian and gives the person a solid reason to come back, which is the faith that there exists a capacity for healing. Through a relationship with Christ, the Christian community has a depth of courage to bare emotions and has heart. Therefore when welcoming the new Christian, if the need arises, it is important to not be afraid, and listen to the depth of suffering which brings the new Christian into the community.

4) The Expansion of the Christian Community

When listening to new Christians, it is important to not react to the experiences that a person brings from their past. Fear divides people by causing the setting of boundaries. Empathy dissolves boundaries and welcomes people into Christ's heart. This welcoming happens through us, when we hold our heart open. For example, listening to a person's journey about another religion and the helpfulness of it in a person's life, leads to empathy and understanding about the strengths of other religions. This rapport is a more powerful tool to build a relationship with the person and then hear exactly how the unmet need arose that brought the person to the Christian community. The same is true of person's with experience of science in the form of counseling or psychotherapy. When two people sit together and one listens in a spirit of love to help the other, Christ becomes present. The same happens with groupwork be that Twelve Step Programs or any other group where people attempt to love. However, the darker recesses of emotion can only be faced with a strong relationship with Christ's presence. This is because only the power of Christ's presence is strong enough to walk through all sin untouched. Put in psychotherapeutic terms, only Christ's presence is powerful enough to shine deeply into the body and set various repressions of bound up emotional energy free. It is this purification of the body, the emotions, the mind, which Christ's presence ministers to.

In summary this paper describes a way of welcoming new Christians and non-Christians into Christ's presence, with a heart based approach. Using the "Yes And" approach to hear each seekers story and how the person arrived at the current point in their journey. From here the heart longing of what is still absent will surface and religious faith comes into relevance for all. Not by discounting or arguing with a persons life experience, only by inclusion and love to expand upon a persons life experience. For this endeavor the Christian will require a broad and deep empathy, in order to build rapport with non-Christians and Christians alike. Love and the building of our self-esteem is "Yes And".

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