Articles and Testimonies
Calling Out the Best in Us in Christ
Bob Bell
A while ago I was giving a talk about covenant commitment to people interested in joining Antioch, the Sword of the Spirit community here in London. We were nearing the end of the course and I was supposed to review for the participants what the ceremony would be like when they made their underway commitments. As I spoke to them, the scene came easily to mind of that prayer meeting in Ann Arbor 40 years ago when the first ones of us, in what now has become the communities movement, got up and said, one by one, "I want to give my life fully to God and live as a member of the Word of God." I was 21 at the time and a bit nervous, but not at all about whether I was doing the right thing. What the Lord had been speaking to us about covenant relationship and what we had been experiencing living as brothers and sisters made me sure that this was just the thing I wanted to be doing with my life. I was nervous because I sensed that this was a solemn occasion: that the Lord was doing something of massive proportions in the world and that he had invited us, imperfect as we were, to cooperate with him in it. Since then I've had the privilege of living in other communities, even helping to build some, and each time I've had the same experience: that this business of living together in committed relationships is normal Christianity, that it's the way he meant all of his people to live, and that when people enter into it, even through all the challenges and relationship difficulties and sometimes tears and sorrow, it's not a bizarre way of life but eminently reasonable. It fits the human person and calls out the best in us, in Christ. In the early 1990s I had to be away from the States and saw from a distance some of the hard times of division. By the time circumstances allowed me again to choose where I should plant myself, I looked at the various options and realized that what I had initially signed up for on the day of my public commitment had stood the test of time, to be in a long-term, covenant relationship with men and women who wanted the Lord to use them, not as individuals but as members of a whole people. I wanted to be doing what I had set out to do as a young man, and the natural consequence was to fully invest myself again in the life of the Sword of the Spirit. For over 16 years now, I've been part of Antioch, a member community of the Sword of the Spirit in London, and I experience the same rich life that was such a delight to me (and opportunity for personal growth) in the early days in Ann Arbor, a common way of life, a common understanding of how to live for Christ with my brothers and sisters, a common mission to be something for him in the world today. I don't experience this as particularly easy and I don't think most of the brothers and sisters in London do either. It's a stretch almost every day, a walk of faith in the Living God. But I'm pleased to be travelling this road and thankful to the Lord for his faithfulness to his word. He who invited us to this life together is faithful, and he is bringing about what he promised. Even now we see it growing and maturing from those first commitments we made in our youth. One thinks of mustard seeds. May all the glory go to him.
Lest You Strike Your Foot Against a Stone...
Michael Thompson
I don't remember the date of Ascension Thursday when I was 17, but I do know that we had the day off school, and that I went to visit my friend Peter, so that we could play golf. To get to the course, he had pulled out his sister's old bike, and while I walked, he rode the bike carrying our golf clubs. We weren't very good at golf, but the game was fun, and before we set off back, with me on the bike this time, I asked to have a go, without the clubs, as I'd never ridden this "girl's" bike. I rolled forward and was getting the hang of it, when I tried to put on the brakes. Nothing happened, and ahead was a "T-junction" where you had to turn left or right or fall down a cliff! I was going too fast to turn, and I didn't want to hit the tree straight in front of me, "in case I hurt myself", so I went straight off the edge of the cliff. The next thing I remember, I was lying on my back, without the bike, and I just automatically said a couple of prayers, "Our Father", "Glory be", as we Catholics did back then. I also remember humming the tune of the Hollies hit song, "I'm alive" (it's probably somewhere on YouTube now). Peter came running to the edge, convinced that I'd been killed by the drop. He was relieved to hear my voice calling out "Get an ambulance!" The lady from the golf club came to offer me some brandy, but what might have been fun (and illegal!) half an hour earlier had no attraction for me. The ambulance came, and the police, who pronounced that I had fallen 70 feet, (22 metres) straight down. According to the ambulance crew, I'd probably broken both my legs and was lucky it had been so little. They stretchered me into a rather scruffy little ambulance, not at all the tall gleaming one I'd expected, and we drove to the hospital. The doctors and nurses rushed to check me out, and to my embarrassment proceeded to cut off my trousers, so they could have a good look at my legs. I had x-rays and an injection for shock, but nothing was broken. It was almost disappointing, and Peter's parents were very relieved when they drove us back to his home to watch Top of the Pops. I began to feel a bit queasy, and when they took me home, I slept badly and didn't bother going in to school on Friday. I've thought about that day several times since, and realised that I could very well have died instantly, or else broken my back and lived in hospital from then on. I don't know why I was spared. There is no clear reason why I escaped with only cuts and bruises, after such a fall, except that He commands His angels and "on their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone." In a certain sense all my life, since the age of 17 has been a special gift, so it's my job to make use of it the way He wants me to. But He has to help me.
Why I am a Member of Antioch
Arthur Delargy
You have probably already gathered that Antioch is a charismatic, covenant, ecumenical Christian community, based in West London, and part of a community of communities throughout the world, known as the Sword of the Spirit. I've been a member of Antioch for over 20 years now, having first come into contact with community through one of its outreaches based at the University of London, where I was studying. I can think of many reasons why I decided to join Antioch, not least the blessing of being able to find 'a place to stand' with men and women who were, and are, constant in faith, hope and love, having a vision to be a bulwark and a place of refuge, and a desire to make Jesus known in this generation. But, I always come back to one thing, something that makes Antioch, though numerically a small community, a significant, unique and prophetic expression of God's love for His people, and that's our ecumenical call - a call to live out Christian unity with integrity. I was born in 1968, in Ballymena, N. Ireland - the year the modern-day 'troubles', as they are euphemistically called, began. I was brought up in a strong Catholic family, in a small farming community. All the other villages around us were all Catholic, and also quite strongly republican. To say that I had a parochial upbringing would be true in its fullest sense. Anti-protestant feeling was very strong in our local community. The sense of distrust, suspicion and hostility was not helped by the segregation of the Protestant and Catholic communities in Northern Ireland. In my case, I was 17 years old when I met my first Protestant. In many ways this was a watershed, the guy was perfectly normal (we went on to be close friends when we went to college in London) so my 'worldview', such as it was at the age of 17, was challenged for the first time. A year later, when I left home to study in London, the Lord started to 'stretch my tent pegs' even further. I became involved in University Christian Outreach (UCO), a student Christian group at the University of London, (now called Koinonia) mainly through the persistence and faithfulness of a few men. Even back in 1986 the university environment was a hostile place for Christians. This group was unique among the student Christian societies in providing a place for Protestants and Catholics to serve and worship together, a place where I quickly felt spiritually 'at home'. Later on I discovered that UCO was an outreach of the West London Community, a group of Christians of all denominations, including many families and single people, as well as a lay brotherhood, seeking to live out the call to Christian unity in their day to day lives. The theologians call this 'grassroots evangelism' - it's a precious thing, which comes out of recognising that, as fellow members of the Body of Christ we have a relationship with and an obligation to each other. I regret that it's taken me half my life to realise this. In 1988, I made a public commitment to join the West London Community (now called Antioch). That night was significant for me and for the Community too - at the time the senior leader of the Community was a Protestant from Northern Ireland, and I was the first Northern Irish Catholic to join. On the same evening a Singhalese from Sri Lanka joined, crossing another divide, and taking his place worshipping side by side with several Sri Lankan Tamils, who at that time formed a significant contingent of the West London Community. Paul wrote, regarding reconciliation of Jew and Gentile in Ephesians 2:14-16 "For He himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in His flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in Himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which He put to death their hostility." In Antioch we attempt to live out our life together because of what we've got in common - we receive from the same place - the Lord Jesus. At the same time we try to understand our differences, showing charity and humility in our dealings with one another, and supporting each other in being faithful members of our own churches and traditions. This is not cheap and not always easy, but as Psalm 133 says, when we dwell in unity, God commands a blessing, and this is my experience of 20 years living in this charismatic, covenant, ecumenical Christian community called Antioch.