Just back from a fantastic Dock Book Group in the luxurious new surroundings of the Premier Inn.  (I know it doesn’t sound very luxurious – but really!  It’s quite swanky!)

This month our book of choice was ReJesus by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsh – not (by universal consensus) their best book, but still a fascinating and thought-provoking read.  In fact in some ways our discussion was even livelier with a book that we didn’t enjoy so much – for the last few months, we’ve been primarily sitting around the table saying “Yep, I agreed with every word the book said…”

ReJesus, on the other hand, really gave us some mighty questions to chew over.  The central idea of the book is that we need to rediscover the ‘real’ Jesus beneath the layers of history, imagery, interpretation and theology that have obscured his identity and his challenge.  As individuals and as churches, we need to keep coming back to the stories of Jesus – he is the centre, the starting-point and the reason for all we do.

Absolutely agreed, but the thing is, we all have our own stories and perspectives on what that means.  Church history is littered with the wreckage of people who found that their stories and perspectives appeared to them to be fundamentally incompatible.

But what really struck me as we talked was the idea that ‘Conflict Is Good’.  Not destructive, aggressive conflict, but the kind of constructive engagement that happens when stories collide and new understanding dawns.  Church history is also filled with reformation, renewal and challenge, and that ‘good conflict’ is the backbone of lively faith.  But it requires a willingness to talk to people who take us out of our comfort zone.  And (as I wrote a few weeks ago) an underlying respect which agrees to disagree.

Which brings me back (doesn’t everything?) to the Shared Medley.  As the churches figure out what to do with this new community which is shooting up in the TQ, we can either stay in safe waters and stick with the people who believe and behave exactly as we do, or we can grow up and figure out how to work together.  There will be ‘good conflict’.  We will learn things we never would’ve learned in our safety zones.  There will also be difficult conflict, and awkward questions, and insoluble problems (although remember this), and loads of opportunities to show patience and grace (or at least to grit our teeth).

Or, as someone said at Book Group (I liked it so much I scribbled it down), the Shared Medley is “a place to have difficult conversations”.  But without those difficult conversations, what babies we would be!