Dear friends,

With our Theology Day in Oxford fast approaching, I’ve been thinking about why Theology is so important for city movements, and you can read more of my thoughts on that further along in this newsletter. The theme of our event on 26th November in Oxford is “I See a New City” and that really captures the essence of it; As we dream about seeing our cities, boroughs and towns transformed, we are trying to lift our eyes to a vision of something new. We are trying to catch the heart of God for our places, trying to see our cities through His eyes. The Bible really helps us do that.

One of the sessions in our Theology Day which I am most looking forward to is being led by a Ceramicist, Rachel Ho. She has done some amazing projects collaborating with other artists and using her ceramics to bless cities. She has used a style of pottery which really brings beauty out of brokenness. In her session we’ll all get a chance to be hands on and creatively explore God’s desire to bring beauty and wholeness to the brokenness we see in our communities.

In our newsletter this month we also have a couple of fantastic articles written by our Gather Movement team members which talk about some very practical ways we can come together and make a difference in society.

I can’t wait to see you all there in Oxford this month. 

Don’t forget to book your spot!
gathermovement.org/theology

Blessings
Roger Sutton

Upcoming Events

Exploring city transformation through the theological lens. Making space to pause, so that our theology underpins the mission we undertake together in our places.

We are hosting our second theology day on November 26th in Oxford, as we continue to engage in the practice of unity based city or town transformation. The vision behind these days is 3 fold:                                                                                                                      

• It’s a new perspective. Unity based city transformation is a new discipline for many churches and leaders as they reset their missional goal as the spiritual, social and cultural transformation of the places they are called to. At the moment, the goal seems to be more about the survival or growth of the local and national church and tends to be an independent, silo response.  Unity-based city transformation is a Paradigm shift for many. Although it’s an ancient missional practice found in the Bible from Jonah to Nehemiah, to Jesus overlooking Jerusalem, and the final eschatological vision in Revelation. It may be steeped in the Bible and church history however it is a relatively forgotten perspective in today’s church. Theology days seek to reinstate the memory of the Church and the principles behind this bold vision.  
• Theology follows practice. We need our theological platform to catch up with our practice. If, as is stated by theologians, that theology is ‘the daughter of mission’ then we are approaching this the right way around. The early church was all about doing the mission and then reflecting on what God was doing. Peter goes to the house of a Gentle called Cornelius and sees the salvation and power of God at work. He then has to go back to the elders in Jerusalem to explain that their theology has to change. The gospel is for all people and not just Jewish Christians. There are so many incredible, ambitious projects being developed across the country and around the globe, as unity-based city transformation is creating many new opportunities for mission.  However, we can’t allow our practice to outpace our understanding of what we are doing and why we are doing it. The theology needs to follow the practice, quickly.                                                            
• Dealing with big questions. With this huge expansive vision there are also some big issues we need to sort out. Such as, what is the end goal of unity-based city transformation? Is it to return to Christendom as some right wing American evangelicals are working towards? We also need to work out what are the key values we need to live by and practice to make sure we are living a gospel-centred transformation and not just a religious imitation of secular vision. Then we need to understand the opportunities and challenges we will face in working with the public and private sector. Are we being co-opted into their vision? Where does their vision differ from ours? Are we tying ourselves down, taking public money? These are just some of the big questions theology helps us deal with as we serve our cities and towns.

I hope these 3 thoughts have given you more than 3 reasons to come along for our 2nd Theology Day. To give you a bit more of an idea of what we’ll be covering on the 26th November, take a look at our amazing contributors and their session topics below and a few encouraging comments from those who attended last year…

 

Join us for our Gather Movement Learning Community.

12 Nov, I SEE A CITY OF EQUALITY with Rev Ian Rutherford - Register here
10 Dec, I SEE A UNITED CHURCH with Church Unity Leaders Panel - Register hereIn October we had a brilliant Learning Community with Chris Shannahan. If you missed it, you can catch up here. 

You can also catch-up on any Learning Communities that you missed by visiting our Learning Community Playlist of YouTube.