Last weekend we hosted our friend Jason Miller in Belfast for 4 days and we had a great time getting to know him more. He graciously spent time over Saturday and Sunday teaching and leading us (read more below) in addition to experiencing all that Belfast has to offer.
A bit of background
From South Bend to Belfast
South Bend City Church, South Bend, Indiana
Jason is a pastor, an artist, and a gifted teacher from South Bend, Indiana. He leads South Bend City Church, a community that seeks to practice the way of Jesus as they wrestle with the tensions of ancient faith in a modern world. You can follow his work here.
Jason and I met a few years ago and we have both had the pleasure of spending time in each others cities and with each others communities. I visited and spent timein South Bend in 2017 and Jason was here in Belfast last May 2018. Through our friendship we have both recognised a resonance, a common language and a vision of faith that our churches share. It was a pleasure to host him again this past weekend and benefit from his teaching and leadership. His passion for his city of South Bend has inspired us and stoked our passion for Belfast again and how we might love and serve this place with a profound and particular love and kindness.
There is a real resonance between Jason’s church South Bend City Church and us at Redeemer Central. We love the friendships God has brought our way in these past few years and our relationship with Jason and South Bend in one of those. It’s inspiring to see others leading churches that love Jesus, seek to stay tethered to an ancient faith but engage with the questions and challenges of a modern world.
Below I have shared a summary of some of what Jason brought over the weekend and I would encourage everyone to check out these teachings. They are not to be missed.
Saturday
Learning Day: “Fields, Not Factories”
On Saturday Jason spent a day teaching at our Learning Day exploring what it might mean for followers of Jesus to recover an ecological imagination over an industrialised imagination when it comes to the work of spirituality and formation. This spirituality of the field is all over scripture, particularly the rabbinical teachings and parables of Jesus which frequently draw upon agricultural and farming metaphors to paint a vision of what living with faith in the Kingdom of God looks like. When taken seriously this way of thinking pushes against todays dominant cultural values of speed, efficiency and control.
Jason and his community South Bend City Church express this in the mantra ‘fields, not factories’. We opened the Learning Day up to the whole Redeemer community and it was great to spend the day provoked by these ideas and consider the ways we can practice community and formation differently. If you missed the Learning Day and would love to hear the main teaching on this big idea check out Jason’s talk on his home church podcast here:
Sunday
Sermon: Embrace the Mystery
“Sometimes God calls a person to unbelief in order that faith may take new forms.”
On Sunday Jason explored this simple yet profound paradox — the closer we move to the centre of faith the more elusive and mysterious it seems. Using the Gospel stories following Jesus resurrection — particularly the story of ‘Doubting’ Thomas — Jason unpacked the liberating reality that God cannot be put in a box or category yet has been revealed in a very particular way in time and place... in the person of Christ. The invitation is to embrace the mystery.
This talk is a liberating and inspiring call to encounter with God and reframes faith in Christ as a deep mystery that can embraced, not in spite of doubt and uncertainty, but because of it. For those asking questions around doubt, uncertainty and faith I would recommend the book My Bright Abyss by Christian Wiman which Jason mentions in his talk.
Jonny Clarke and Jason Miller, An Cuan, Rostrevor
Monday
Rostrevor & Podcasting
On Monday Jason and I took a road trip to visit a friend of Redeemer, Jonny Clarke at An Cuan in Rostrevor. Jonny interviewed Jason for his podcast Guardians of the Flame so look out in the coming weeks for that interview where Jason, Jonny and I talk about Jason’s work, South Bend as a city, faith, leading churches in diverse cities, and the gospel of peace and reconciliation work. The podcast feed can be found here.