Endorsements for Ordinary Miracles

I hope these give you a flavour of the book!

Endorsements:

Rev Dr Jill Duff (Director, St Mellitus College NW)  
‘This book is fresh, gritty, laugh-out-loud and full of hope. Chris Lane offers a feast of theologically-rich reflections from his 18 years church planting on the Langworthy Estate in Salford. It’s about “ordinary miracles – if you blink you might miss them. Keep your eyes open and you will see them everywhere”. May this book inspire you to watch & pray for the miracles Jesus loves to do today - in ordinary places, often around a table, with the unlikeliest guests. If you’re hungry – come to the banquet. May there be Fire in urban estates across the North West and beyond!’


Rachel Gardner (Romance Academy/Youthscape): 
'We’re often drawn to the people who tell us to ‘dream bigger’. Here is a book that will provoke you to ‘dream smaller’- and I guarantee it will set your heart on fire. I know Chris well. He has the authority of a prophet, theologian, activist and that great guy in the noisy house down the road. With his family, they are practicing the art of staying put and seeing God build his kingdom through the mess, meals and mundane moments of life. Don’t read it if you want to escape into the fantasy that God will only use you if you’re in the perfect job, perfect house or perfect church. Jesus has moved into the neighbourhood and is staying put. Question is, will we?’

Dr. Neil Hudson (LICC, Salford Elim):
’This is an honest, passionate account of an ordinary man in an ordinary church attempting extraordinary things in Jesus' name. I can be so certain of this because I've known Chris for nearly 30 years - man and boy and church leader. To all who want to join in the adventure of mission, this book will inspire you, make you laugh, and give you hope that God does really wonderful things in unexpected places.’

Mike Pilavachi (Soul Survivor) 
‘Ordinary Miracles is an honest, humorous, compelling and thought-provoking read. Chris is a humble and authentic narrator, sharing the highs and lows of the journey that he, his family and friends have been on these past years as they have established a vibrant Church family in Salford, Greater Manchester. The result is a faith inspiring read!’

Rev Canon Chris Russell (Vicar, St Laurence Reading/Advisor to the Archbishop of Canterbury on evangelism & witness) 
'I read this book because I esteem Chris Lane; as a friend, teacher, theologian and church leader. So will you when you finish this. This book is honest and inspiring, authentic and challenging. I love Chris' compelling case for the centrality of the table, costly living, commitment and the challenge to all too normative ideologies in church culture. But it's real strength is in the responses it will draw out from us. Not to be impressed with Chris or Langworthy - but to be more committed to Christ and the local church he has called each of us to. Put that other book down and buy this one instead.’

Andy Croft (Pastor, Soul Survivor Watford)
‘It’s been said that by reading we live many lives. This is the chance to ‘live’ Chris' adventure of obedience. It’s an opportunity to discover what being out of your comfort zone feels and smells like. It’s full of joy, heartache and faithfulness. It’s human and normal, a story we can all relate to. Yet at the same time it’s full of transformation that only God could be behind. An inspiring read - I recommend it!’

Jesus, charity and commensality: Extract 2 from Ordinary Miracles

One theme that has run through everything we have done in the short history of our church is this: food. From that first Sunday in Easter 2004 to last week when we ate Jamaican curry, eating together has been central. Lots of our service in the community involves food too: breakfast group in term time, Make Lunch for kids on free school meals during the holidays, weekly food parcels for destitute asylum seekers. 

We have found that sitting around a table together, rather than sitting in rows looking at the back of someone else’s head, deepens our friendships and provides an easy welcome for newcomers.

Meeting as church around a meal table is not a new idea. It’s not a ‘fresh expression of church’, or ‘emergent’ or whatever the latest cool word is. Throughout biblical history, God’s people have met around a table. Jewish festivals are so centred around food that one Rabbi said you could summarise all the Jewish festivals in three brief sentences: ‘They tried to kill us. We survived. Let’s eat!’

Indeed, what happened at the table in Jesus’ day was crucial in defining your position in society. If you ate with people of good reputation, your reputation was enhanced. If you were invited to sit near to an esteemed host, you would bring great honour to your family. Your place in the pecking order was shown by who you ate with, and where you sat at at the table. The table was also a dividing line between who was ‘in’ and ‘out’, who was clean and unclean, between ‘us’ and ‘them’. 

Let me put it as clearly as I can. What Jesus did and said around the table was central to all he came to do. Almost every biblical scholar who writes about Jesus’ table habits concludes that they are central to his ministry. If we are to fully understand how the people of Jesus’ day reacted to him, and the message he brought to them, we need to understand about how he used the meal table. 

One writer said that in Luke’s gospel, ‘Jesus is either going to a meal, at a meal, or coming from a meal’ (Karris 2006). This is a bit of a deliberate exaggeration, but makes the point. Jesus eats with all kinds of people, but especially those who are excluded in some way. Tax collectors like Levi and Zaccheus - hated and considered traitors by their own people. Prostitutes, who Jesus said were coming into the kingdom ahead of the religious leaders! (Matt 21:31).

Jesus does all this as what we might call an ‘acted parable’. As well as all the parables he told and the teaching he gave, his very choice of table companions was a powerful message in itself.

Church at its best is a ragtag collection of misfits, feasting together around a table next to a roaring fire, people you would never expect to find all together in one room, except for a miracle!

Jesus’ example of living his life with those on the edges of society is a huge challenge to us not only as churches, but as individuals too. One writer makes a distinction between acts of charity, and what he calls ‘commensality’. Strictly speaking, commensality is to bond together with someone over food and drink, but this scholar uses it to refer to a lifestyle rather than just a one-off meal. 

It would have been common in Jesus’ day to put on meals for poor people as acts of charity, just as many churches do at Christmas today for homeless people. This is not what Jesus is doing here. He is including all these marginalised people not just at the occasional meal, but in his life, at his own table. 

One example could be useful here. I give £20 a month to sponsor a child called Yolanda in Zimbabwe. This is a good and important thing to do. But it isn't difficult. I hardly notice the money leaving my account each month, and it eases my conscience to know I am helping someone worse off than me. But Yolanda makes almost no impact on my life. This is the kind of charity which is useful, but not what Jesus did. The writer I referred to earlier says that this kind of charity is ‘our last desperate defence against the terror of commensality’. 

When all our connections with those different to us are based on the modern idea of charity, we are able to hold people at arms length, whilst easing our consciences that we are making a difference in the world. Jesus goes much further than this, and challenges us to do the same. 

Your church may run a food bank, but who sits around your dinner table? I give money to a homeless charity, but who do I invite to my parties? You might click to sign a Facebook petition about refugees’ treatment in this country, but do you have a spare bedroom you could offer to someone seeking asylum who is temporarily homeless this week? 

Have I ever taken Jesus’ words seriously when he said: ‘When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives…invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed’ (Luke 14:12-13). As always, this is not just something Jesus said, but something he lived out. May he be a challenge to our lifestyles today.

Ordinary Miracles excerpt 1: better, stronger, faster? YOLO!

YOLO

A few years ago I went into a local high school to talk to some of the pupils about the Easter story. It wasn't easy. I had a cracking talk prepared, even though I do say so myself, but they weren't interested. I changed tack and started asking them questions. Who believes that Jesus rose from the dead? One girl put her hand up and said ‘Yeah, I do’. I was encouraged by this and made the mistake of asking her to say more: ‘Yeah, like, it’s like why would they make that up if it wasn't true?’ I nodded encouragingly at the young apologist. ‘It’s like mermaids innit? They must be real, fairies too, why would people make them up?’ Either she was really cleverly taking me down here, or she was embarrassingly serious. I suspected the latter so offered the question to the rest of the group.

Anyone else? A girl in the corner, chewing gum, feet on the table, puts her hand up. ‘I don't think Jesus rose from the dead’. Good. Let’s have a debate then. I ask her how she has come to this conclusion. She replies with a crushing acronym: ‘YOLO’. For those of you over a certain age, YOLO stands for You Only Live Once, and for a short while, before it fell out of fashion, it was a rallying cry encouraging young people to live for the moment, to make a bucket list, to have as many experiences as they can, because, well…YOLO.

Even though YOLO is no longer cool, the concept is still a driving force for a generation wanting to find some significance in their lives. Be yourself, be outstanding - you're unique and special - be the best. Go viral. Be on the X Factor. Second is nothing. Get better, stronger, faster, reach higher. YOLO!

Nowhere is this more evident than on social media. The buzz of putting up a great picture and watching the likes flood in. Your clever/funny/wise tweet or meme getting retweeted hundreds of times, or your YouTube video going viral. There are celebrities on Twitter who have ‘hilarious’ banter about who has the most followers. The more followers you have, the more powerful and respected you are.

This kind of school playground talk (mine is bigger than yours!) is even prevalent among Christians. There are some church leaders I know whose conversation starter with other church leaders is always: ‘How many have you got now?’ How many have you got? That’s the kind of question you ask about a stamp collection, or a kid collecting football stickers, and no way to talk about people! 

In my early twenties I was in a worship band that led worship at lots of the big Christian festivals in the UK. In some places there was a real celebrity culture and hierarchy, depending on the size of stage you had performed on, or the size of the church you were in. There was a trend of trying to climb up a ladder of success. We were interviewed once for a Christian TV channel after leading worship at a well known festival, and the interviewer said to us ‘this must be a big step up the ladder for you guys, playing at this festival for this amount of people’. I was surprised - we were there to lead some people in worshipping God, not to climb up some ladder - probably a ladder that only has about 3 rungs with not much of a view at the top! Surely Jesus would be burning the ladder if he was here now? 

I have experienced this in the church too. A man on a gap year in another church came to do a placement in our church. When he first arrived I made him a cup of tea. He was deeply embarrassed that a ‘Pastor’ was making him a brew, when he felt it should be the other way round! On another occasion, I had spoken in front of a big crowd at a Christian youth festival, and our church were also running one of the cafes for the event. That afternoon, I was vacuuming the floor of the cafe getting ready to open, when a teenager walking past saw me and came in. She stared for a moment then came over to me and said: ‘Excuse me, but are you the guy who was speaking on the main stage this morning?’ I said yes and she said ‘So you were up there this morning, and now you’re in here, doing the vacuuming! That’s so amazing’. 

For a while I was overtaken by the moment. I was the Humble Preacher. The Vacuuming Pastor, equally at home on big stages and cleaning up cafes. I deliberately vacuumed near the door for a while longer, in case someone else might notice my humility. I imagined writing my first book Humility and How I Achieved It: a guide to servanthood in the kingdom of God. Sponsored by Dyson and PG Tips. 

How have we got to a stage where someone thinks it out of place for a church leader to make someone a cup of tea, or is full of surprised admiration for the fact that a speaker is doing a bit of tidying up? Are we followers of Jesus or not? Didn't he say something about the greatest among us being the servant of all? It should shock us if our leaders are not doing the washing up, or giving someone a lift at their inconvenience, or bringing a meal round for someone in need. Everybody wants to change the world, but nobody wants to do the washing up. 

In his book Gracias, Henri Nouwen gives this stunning challenge:

'My own desire to be useful, to do something significant, or to be part of some impressive project is so strong that soon my time is taken up with meetings, conferences, study groups, and workshops that prevent me from walking the streets. It is difficult not to have plans, not to organise people around an urgent cause, and not to feel that you  are working directly for social progress. But I wonder more and more if the first thing shouldn't be to know people by name, to eat and drink with  them, to listen to their stories and tell your own, and to let them know with words, handshakes and hugs that you do not simply like them, you truly love them'.