‘Courage’ - Dave Steell

At our November gathering, Dave Steell of One Church Brighton delivered a keynote address on the ethos of our network. He took up the issue of Courage and how it’s presence or absence is the defining factor in fruitful Kingdom cooperation. Here is a transcript:

“I've been in Brighton for 13 years, I think I'm more in love with Brighton than I have ever been, I don't want to go anywhere else, I love my job and I don't think they want to get rid of me…

…But, I have to say, even sitting here tonight; over the 13 years I've probably lost counts at the attempts at Christian unity and activity together. And there's been energy and there's been encouraging, and then for various reasons - some good reasons, some terrible reasons - we're here again at another iteration.

I don't want that to be negative at all, I want to honour Tim - I was just saying to Martin earlier, it might be that Tim, you're the guy that's going to actually help us do this thing. There hasn't been a lack of desire, there hasn't been a lack of passion, but what is it about our inability to unify, our inability and to really be for each other that just seems such hard work? We're the body of Christ you know, we should be able to encourage each other...

This sounds a really negative thing to say - maybe I'm going to regret saying this - but I can honestly tell you; in the 13 years I've been here the biggest discouragements I have had have been from other Christians. Not from my neighbours, not from people in my own church, and there's something about this word of encouragement that I want to talk to you about. It means 'to put courage into'. And if I'm short of anything, if we're short of anything, it's probably not 'vision' or 'passion'. I think every person in this room could talk about their vision for this city. My vision is high: I want to get rid of poverty in this city. I want utter educational equality so that it's not post-code lottery of where you live and the type of education you get. I would like it that whatever your ability or disability, you're taught in an appropriate way that educates you and inspires you. I would like it so no one is sleeping on the streets in this city, that everyone has a home and a job that inspires them and uses their God given gifts. I'm just talking about the coming Kingdom that is going to come one day, that's what the Bible tells us. It is going to come one day, but it's not here yet and we have to live in anticipation of that.

So we're not lacking vision, we're not lacking passion, I don't even think (despite how some of you feel), that you're even lacking resource. I think what I lack sometimes and what we can lack in this space is courage. You can talk about it, you can perhaps even see it, but the courage to actually go for that, the courage to go again on a new unity movement is what we need. And courage is an incredible kind of resource because we can put it into people and we can withdraw it very easily. I'm sure you've been in the situation where somebody, just almost in a look, can drain all the courage out of you. But equally somebody can put courage into you, and my joy of several of you in this room is that you have put courage into me. I've come to prayer meetings where I don't really want go to the prayer meeting, and it's a wet November morning and you think 'Why am I doing this?!' and then an hour later you walk out with more courage in your life to get on and do the thing that you think God's called you to do. For me that is an incredible priviledge.

Let me share with you from a familiar Scripture; Psalm 133

"It is truly wonderful when the people of God live together in peace. It is as beautiful as olive oil poured on Aaron's head and running down his beard and the collar of his robe. It is like the dew from Mount Hermon, falling on Zion's mountains, where the Lord has promised to bless his people with life forevermore."

I come back to that Psalm time and time again cause I just love it's opening statement: God just loves it when people dwell together in unity. And then there are those two kind of quite obscure examples that are given - it's 'like oil running down Aaron's head' - what on Earth has that got to do with unity?! And the more I've thought about it the more sense it has made to me. I haven't always been bearded (it would be weird to have been born this way,) but for the last 10 years I've had a beard and occassionally when I'm going out on the town, I put some oil on my beard. Oil softens bristly beards! The image of oil obviously has dual meanings - because in this setting, talking about Aaron, it is to do with the anointing of a Priest - we'll come back to that. But practically, if you pour warm oil (it has to be warm or it doesn't flow), this warm oil brings warmth and it softens prickly things. And if we're going to have any chance of doing any work together, we need to be warm towards one another and soften some of the edges that we have. Some past hurts, where that person once said something about your church, or where maybe you were discouraged by that person, the ability to be soft towards them. And that feels like a very important thing.

But coming back to that 'Aaronic Blessing', the first calling of the priesthood: What it is saying is for unity to happen, you need to see the 'priest' in the other person; the anointing upon them of God to do the thing that they've been called to do. And every person in this room has the ability to look at every other person in this room and see the 'priesthood' in that person. Some of you have got dog-collars that give it away! But others of us, we need to be reminded that we're called to this thing, and for other people to anoint us in their attitude towards us. Just as Tim said, even when there's some different theologies and you're a little bit uncertain, the courage to say 'I can see the anointing on you'.

The second thing it talks about is this 'dew' on a mountain. The thing about dew is that it comes unbidden and free and it is fresh every morning. That's the point of it. I think the Psalmist is trying to say that we need to keep on giving each other fresh starts, when things don't work let's give it another go. Let's keep on being patient with one another, and then I think we could make a massive difference - even just this group of people in the room here - for us to be united in purpose, we really can begin to bring about some change in this city.

Someone randomly sent me this prayer this morning and they didn't know I was coming here but I think this is pertinent for us, it simply says this:

"Life is short and we do not have much time to gladden the hearts of those who travel the way with us. So, be swift to love and make haste to be kind….and the blessing of God who made us, who loves us and who travels with us be with you now and forever. Amen."