Has anyone else noticed that professionalism seems to be a dirty word in the church? In the run-up to my church's Soul in the City mission this summer (yes, we are doing it again, and yes, I am aware of the irony in this, in view of the previous post), my colleague Anj Keel has produced booking forms for potential mission delegates. The idea is that we send these forms to our contacts around the country, and are then inundated by enthusiastic young Christians for 9 days in July.
Now these booking leaflets are good. Very good. Glossy, colourful, and, of course, proudly bearing the Soul in the City logo. Unfortunately, it was brought to my notice last week that these leaflets are so good that people are getting the impression that the Sydenham/Forest Hill project is the official Soul in the City mission! Now, I can understand the leaders of other SitC projects being frustrated by people getting this impression, but it's telling that their first instinct is not to produce publicity of their own which is even better, but to criticise our publicity for being too professional!
Perhaps this highlights a tacit belief within the church that it's in some way wrong to aim for excellence. How many appalling sketches have we sat through in church services? How many times have we been presented with unimaginative, monochrome church magazines? But how often do we get anything approaching quality at a church event? What are the chances of even getting a decent cup of coffee after the service? If we really believed that our God was the King of Kings, wouldn't we be motivated to make everything we do in his name excellent, rather than settling for mediocrity?

It's here! My thoughts on urban mission, and particularly Soul in the City, are now available at...

http://www.blahonline.net/features.php

I expected the piece to be quite severely edited, since it was about twice the length I was asked for, but it's been posted in all it's rambling glory. Expecting the death threats for questioning Soul in the City's effectiveness any time now...

You've probably never heard of Book Aid. (That's Book Aid, not to be confused with Live Aid). Until this morning, neither had I. It's a very small charity, run out of a disused church in Grove Park, southeast London. But since 1987, they've been dutifully supplying second-hand books for Christians in the third world. Sounds like a worthy, if unglamorous and almost humdrum activity, until you begin to grasp the sheer number of books they've shipped. In 18 years of steadily collecting, packing and dispatching books, they've sent 200 containers of material on their way. This apparently works out at a whopping 20 million volumes. Just try, for a minute, to imagine 20 million books. It's quite staggering.
I only discovered Book Aid this morning, when a friend asked me to help them move some of their stock to their new premises, a warehouse in Sydenham. Yes, it was hard work, and yes, I do have scratches all the way up both arms from carrying steel bookshelves, but I think it was worth it. I love discovering people who are quietly and cheerfully doing extraordinary things for God. When Bob, one of Book Aid's workers, told me he'd spent 17 years collecting, packing and dispatching books, my immediate thought was to wonder how he coped with the crushing boredom. But it gradually occurred to me that here was a group of people, sending quite incredible quantitites of books to people who needed them, and they had, until today, completely slipped under my radar. I wonder how many other people are quietly and patiently, with little or no recognition, doing amazing things in God's name? I suppose this is what serving God is all about. Just doing what you know God wants you to do, not making a fuss, and keeping going until it's finished, or He tells you to stop. We'll probably never know half of what people do in God's name, just because they work as servants, and get on with it, never expecting credit.