Today, Monday June 23 is a “What Is Missional?” Syncroblog event. I didn’t get signed up in time to be on the official roll call list, but that doesn’t stop me from tagging along at the end anyway 🙂
I’ve written a lot here about what the missional church (or mission-shaped church) is, and rather than summarize all those things, or try to push in a new direction, I decided just to tell a story. This story is actually a pair of smaller stories about one of my favorite Celtic saints, Aidan of Lindisfarne. I’ll leave analysis of the story, application and implications up to you, the reader.
The story of Aidan fits well into our topic today, I think. On the northeastern coast of England is Northumbria, tribal warfare reigned in the AD600’s, and kings were killed in battle. Oswald, heir to the Northumbrian throne fled to Iona, on the west coast of Scotland, where he met the monks there and converted to Christianity. When word came to Oswald that it was safe for him to return home, he did, and then sent back to Iona for missionary monks to bring the Gospel to the Northumbrians.
Iona first sent a delegation under the leadership of Corman, who met with miserable failure and retreated to Iona with his tail between his legs. At the team meeting discussing the failed mission, the historian Bede writes that Corman said that the Angles of Northumbria “‘were ungovernable and of an obstinate and barbarous temperament”. A young monk, Aidan, spoke up, saying that Corman should perhaps have begun more simply, giving them spiritual milk instead of meat as Paul might say, and that Corman had been too aggressive in his mission and his expectations.
Whether the Iona monks received this word from Aidan as spiritual wisdom or as the brashness of a young punk monk is unknown, but they immediately commissioned Aidan a bishop to Northumbria, and sent him with twelve other monks to Oswald’s people.
Aidan set up base on the island of Lindisfarne, which was within eyesight of Oswald’s castle. Aidan’s Irish style monastery was simple in architecture and design, and he taught the local laypeople to fast from food and to study the Scriptures. Aidan himself fasted from food twice a week and rarely ate at the royal table, even though his relationship with Oswald was excellent.
AIdan worked tirelessly in the surrounding countryside, building relationships with the local people and individually nurturing their faith. He nearly always walked from place to place.
When he encountered people, he engaged them in conversation, asking them to tell him what they believed. Only when invited to share his own beliefs would he respond.
His simplicity of lifestyle was recognized by his peers and by historians as well. When served a feast, he would give food to the poor. When his monastery was given money for support, he would use it to buy freedom for slaves in the local slaving village and then offer to teach the redeemed slaves how to read. Many of these freed slaves continued to live in Aidan’s monastery or entered the priesthood.
One of the best known stories of Aidan’s focus came when King Oswald’s successor, Oswin, gave Aidan a fine mare from the royal stables as a gift. The mare was intended to ease Aidan’s travels and make him more efficient in his evangelization of Northumbria. Aidan received the horse, and promptly gave it to the first poor family that he met on the road. Oswin heard this story and enraged, confronted Aidan.
The historian Bede tells us of the encounter:
“The King asked the bishop as they were going in to dine, ‘My Lord Bishop, why did you give away the royal horse which was necessary for your own use? Have we not many less valuable horses or other belongings which would have been good enough for beggars, without giving away a horse that I had specifically selected for your personal use?’ The bishop at once answered, ‘What are you saying, Your Majesty? Is this child of a mare more valuable to you than this child of God?’”
King Oswin in humility agreed with Aidan and said that he would never again challenge how Aidan spent his resources in service to the poor.
You can read more about Aidan of Lindisfarne at IrelandsEye, St. Aidan’s Church in Malibu, CA, or Wikipedia.
A few brief thoughts stir in me when I think about St. Aidan of Lindisfarne. One is that Aidan knew intuitively that individuals understood the Gospel at different levels, and faith should be nurtured carefully in order to grow. Another is that Aidan, with access to kings and their networks, carefully remained unentangled by political power. He let the power of the Gospel developed in personal relationships over decades transform the kingdom, not kingly decrees. And Aidan spent his time and his resources wisely, aggressively and subversively. Aidan did not care about efficiency, but modeled incarnational mission and all the inefficiencies that this implies.
In an age of mega churches in which pastors don’t know the large majority of attendees’ names – or may not even step foot into a video venue, the personal discipleship of Aidan’s approach through deep relationship is a powerful model.
How effective was Aidan? The monks of Lindisfarne were directly responsible for the conversion of the Angles and the Saxons to Christianity. It wouldn’t be too much of an exaggeration to say that Aidan converted England with this approach to mission.
Ah well, enough ancient history. Please go read the others participating in today’s missional synchroblog.
Alan Hirsch Alan Knox Andrew Jones Barb Peters Bill Kinnon Brad Brisco Brad Grinnen Brad Sargent Brother Maynard Bryan Riley Chad Brooks Chris Wignall Cobus Van Wyngaard Dave DeVries David Best David Fitch David Wierzbicki DoSi Doug Jones Duncan McFadzean Erika Haub Grace Jamie Arpin-Ricci Jeff McQuilkin John Smulo Jonathan Brink JR Rozko Kathy Escobar Len Hjalmarson Makeesha Fisher Malcolm Lanham Mark Berry Mark Petersen Mark Priddy Michael Crane Michael Stewart Nick Loyd Patrick Oden Peggy Brown Phil Wyman Richard Pool Rick Meigs Rob Robinson Ron Cole Scott Marshall Sonja Andrews Stephen Shields Steve Hayes Tim Thompson Thom Turner
Missional Synchroblog What Is Missional? Missional Community
pat loughery 
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