Invisible Divides by Natalie Williams and Paul Brown

 

Invisible Divides 
by Natalie Williams and Paul Brown

PART 1 - IS CLASS AN ISSUE?

INTRODUCTION

In the Introduction Natalie explains the premise of this book - that when she first came to church she realised that having come from a working-class family and spending most of her childhood living in relative poverty, she would have to learn all sorts of unknown rules about speech, education, money, meal tables, authority and generally "right" ways to conduct herself.  She felt out of her depth and out of place, she didn't fit in with the majority of people around her  Over the years she has become more middle class in outward appearance.  She started to mimic the behaviour around her and picked up some of the rules quickly.  Becoming a Christian not only affected her spiritual life but her aspirations also changed very quickly.

Natalie still identifies as working class but outwardly it would not appear that way.  She still feels like she doesn't fit in at church even though she is part of a lovely church that feels like family.  Some of her values and attitudes seem so at odds still with those around her.

Does class really matter?  As Natalie and Paul started to write this book they were approached by so many who thanked them for writing about this issue.  For myself, coming from a "working class" background it is something I have never really considered.  But looking back over the years I have seen people coming into churches I attended from a poorer background and they have struggled, many leaving before too long while others seemed to be fighting to be heard.  As I read these opening pages I was confronted with the real struggle and pain that some people suffer as they come into our churches, it is a pressing concern and we are not actually addressing the issue.

In recent years the coronavirus showed some deeply entrenched class divisions in our society.  Class is not just a state of mind.  It also has serious implications for well being.  Do you feel uncomfortable reading this post?  Imagine how I felt as I read this book.  I have struggled to cope with the realities of what is being said and it has made me very reflective of my past and present circumstances.  And yes I do think it matters!

In the global financial crisis of 2008 many churches around our country and beyond stepped up in terms of social action projects that reached out to people facing poverty or injustice.  As a result of these projects many people came to church and found faith in Christ Jesus.  But this is when the real struggle began.  Many, even though they started out well, found it difficult to find a place within the Church and left as a result.

Evangelical Alliance research shows that 81% of people in British evangelical churches have a university degree compared with 27% of the population as a whole.

The writer of this book, Natalie Williams works for a national Christian charity Jubilee+ and her organisation helps people from working-class backgrounds (including those trapped in poverty) to find family, community and belonging in churches so that they stick with them and with their new found faith.

Natalie asks the question - did she stick because she adjusted and imitated the behaviour of those around her?  She reflects on the fact that she spent the first 20 years of her Christian life learning how to become middle class.  Now she is having to disentangle class from the gospel and unlearn some of what she imitated, because though there are many great things about being middle class, there are also some things she should never have picked up.

"Over recent years, my heavenly Father has frequently reminded me that the Christian life is about conforming to the image of his Son, Jesus Christ, not conforming to fit in with those around me.  In fact, the church is supposed to be a gloriously diverse mix of people from all backgrounds, worshipping side by side with such depth of community that the world around us is astonished by it and drawn to God."

What a challenge that last paragraph is - just read it again!

In the first 2 postings I told Natalie's story from the introduction, now I want to focus on Paul Brown's background.

When Paul first came to church he was 25, a bricklayer, and he came because his girlfriend persuaded him.  He felt completely out of his comfort zone, he didn't know what to do, where to sit or when to stand.  He knew nothing of God, Jesus or the church at all.  Apart from a couple of exceptions, that church was achingly middle class.  The people didn't dress like him, they didn't talk like him, they didn't socialise like him.  The jobs they did and how they spent their money was so different from him.

Years later, while exploring issues of diversity and culture in the church, it became glaringly obvious that he biggest differences were not so much about nationality but much more to do with class issues.

Tim Chester said "we are left with a situation in which working-class and deprived areas in the UK are not being reached with the gospel."

In Matthew 5 verses 14 to 16 we read that Jesus expects us to shine for him so that ALL can see.  If we want the people of the UK to encounter Jesus then we need a church that is visible to all, like a city high on the hill.  We need a people who are committed to letting the glorious light of Jesus shine and for everyone to see.  We all too easily cover up the gospel light and the reason is - FEAR.  Fear of people who are different from us and our circle of friends - people whose values, bank balances and life experiences don't match our own.

Paul urges us to make every effort to understand and value the diversity of life experience in the UK and not assume that any way is the best way.  If most of our churches are predominantly middle class, the chances are that we will very easily slip into believing (subconsciously at least) that middle-class values are synonymous with Christian values."

What a challenge!

Paul in the introduction recognises that if we have read up to this point (and we are only on page 12!) we may feel offended.  But that is not his intention.  What Paul intends is for us all to understand that the dominant culture in so many churches in the UK is middle class and that middle-class values have become confused with biblical values.  He wants all to learn to appreciate the richness and diversity of life expressed by each class.  And learn to reject the notions that say "My way is the best or only way."

Jesus prayed for his followers to have unity - not harmony!  John 17 verses 20 to 23  Jesus is saying that it is our unity that shows the world that he is sent by the Father and loves his people and it is this that causes others to believe in him.  We need to completely change our mindset so that we can allow ALL people to enrich us as individuals and as churches.  There are some people for whom life is a struggle from day one.  Countless surveys into child poverty in the UK show that the less you have as you grow up the more likely you are to face difficulties when it comes to health, education, employment opportunities and even life expectancy.  People from all walks of life suffer.  We all have hardships to overcome.  But for some, the odds are stacked against them from the moment they are born.

If our churches are dominated by middle classes, the majority may not have experienced the same life issues as the minorities sitting alongside them on Sundays.  This is actually why we need one another - to enhance and educate each other about how tough life can be for those who are not like us.  We have to engage with people who are different from the majority of our church members.  We need to learn their "language" and culture, find out about their closely held values, discover and understand what hey hold dear and value them for who they are.

As Paul says and this has been my own personal experience - we don't engage with people on our doorsteps from poorer communities unless it is in connection with social action.  We are willing to run debt advice centres and food banks for them.

So my last post left us with the challenge - yes it is OK to run food banks and debt advice centres and these are commendable but we must check our attitude and motivation for doing such activities.  Are we willing to be on mission with people from different backgrounds?  Would I be as confident in my church leader if his background was as a factory worker or a bricklayer not a banker or a school teacher?

Paul explains that his background was in the working class.  After he became a Christian he slowly learnt to socialize with a new class of people.  He had to change his attitude but now counts doctors and accountants as close friends.  Why?  Because they have Jesus in common.

"We need to think seriously about the subject of class and the church.  We need to completely review out attitudes, our structures and styles, our practice and purpose to ensure we are effectively reaching and including people from working class communities."

This book is not really about divisions.  It is ultimately about unity in diversity.  It is about the church being all it is designed to be: a demonstration of the manifold wisdom of God, where people from all tribes nations and backgrounds are part of the same body, the same family the "one new humanity" in Christ (Ephesians 2 verse 15).  Jesus demolishes divisions but cultivates diversity.

In order to embrace affirm and value our differences, we need to understand what keeps us apart from those around us.  We need to explore the ways in which we might inadvertently exclude, alienate and even offend those who share our faith but not our life experience.  We need to see the invisible divides.

By exploring the issue of class in society and in the church - by acknowledging that there's a missing class - we hope to play our small part in seeing local churches all across the country be more representative of their communities.  Just as many churches have a strategy for reaching young people families or university students, our hope is that majority-middle-class churches might begin to develop strategies to reach the working-class communities around them.

This book picks a handful of areas where the authors perceive there to be significant differences between classes.  These include our approach to faith, how e speak to and about each other, what hospitality looks like, how generosity is expressed, what community means, how we feel about authority, what motivates us, the aspirations we hold for our lives and our attitudes to and experiences of life and church.

The purpose of this book isn't just to highlight our differences and increase awareness (as valid as that would be) but it's also to help us understand how other people tick, what their experiences are, and to learn from each other and be able to overcome obstacles that might otherwise keep us apart.  By highlighting differences, our aim is to create an understanding of the invisible divides so that we might be empowered to cross them.  In doing so, we hope that we can discover a depth of unity that we have previously not known  It will require humility on all sides.

How might we change our Sunday meetings to be more inclusive of those who are from a working-class background or join us while trapped in poverty?  What might midweek church life look life?  Would social gatherings look any different?  What about worship, teaching, youth, children's groups, even the notices.

How do we bring people into leadership and influence who look very different from the majority in our churches?  How do we go about this?  If we want truly diverse churches where people from all walks of life can live in real community with each other, then we must do the hard work of elevating those who may not fit a specific mould of leadership.  This is so important and must not be missed.  We will never have truly representative churches if we don't bring different types of people into leadership roles.

The disciples would not have chosen each other as Jesus' closest 12.  Jewish fishermen would not have wanted to walk closely with a tax collector who made his living by taking from them to give to their oppressors, the Romans.  But Jesus brings together people who would not mix by choice  He not only spent a lot of his time with those who were despised, but he also brought together people who would have despised each other.  H calls us to a unity and fellowship that transcend any societal barriers.  He calls us to cross invisible divides.

CHAPTER 1 - THE MISSING CLASS

"A church reflects its leaders".  A church will mirror the character, personality and style of its leader.  If the leader is gregarious and outgoing, typically that will be true of the church.  If the leader is a quiet introvert, that will probably be reflected in the people.

If we want the working classes in our churches, they need to be represented on our leadership teams.  To do that, we need to address deep-seated levels of class bias that honour formal qualifications above all other attributes and reconsider how we develop and train our leaders.

If we want to reach working-class areas in this nation, it matters massively who the church leaders are in those communities  We need to identify leaders from similar backgrounds to those we want to see transformed by the power of the gospel.  To do that, we believe we need to change our attitudes and change our structures.

Leadership matters - we know that.  We know that the personality of the leader shapes the church identity.  So why don't we raise up working-class leaders to reach working-class communities?  Let's be prepared to change our expectations and existing structures.  Let's look for potential leaders who can confidently reach out to working-class communities.

If our mission is to be truly relevant and effective, then we need to imitate the example Jesus has set for us, in terms of how we train leaders and who we train.  We need to intentionally appoint leaders from backgrounds that are not generally represented on our leadership teams and in order to do this, we must adopt different ways of developing them so that they can lead effectively.

Church growth strategy and vision in recent decades has been to establish new churches in university towns by encouraging mobile middle-class Christians to relocate and then focus on reaching people like themselves and the middle-class students.

One of the reasons that the working classes are missing from our churches is because our meetings are not culturally comfortable for them.  

Our outreach activities can actually exclude the working classes.  Our programmes can easily - even if this is mostly unconscious - reinforce a class bias.

We need to know our target audience(s) and what appeals to different groups of people as wel as what puts them off.  We must not despise the different ways people spend their leisure time.

Our resources and courses are often focused on and geared to the middle classes.

Revival typically starts among working-class communities.  Culture -changing gospel advance in th UK has almost always been among the working class.  So if these groups are missing from our churches today, we should be deeply concerned about that and working hard to address it.

Example: the Salvation Army.  Founder William Booth's converts and those who went on to join him in his missionary work were drawn from the poorer end of Victorian society.  They came not just to hear the gospel, but also to access food, clothing and even jobs.  As a result the Salvation Army understood working-class people and their values.  It was able to communicate comfortably with the people ignored by the middle-class churches of the day.  This contributed significantly to the success of the Salvation Army's mission among working-class Victorians.  Some of its leading evangelists emerged from the ranks of the working-class communities they were reaching into.

The Industrial Revolution 100 years before brought about social change in 18th Century Britain.  Cities grew rapidly as the rural population moved in great numbers in pursuit of work.  Alongside the dramatic increase in urban populations, there was an increase in poverty and social deprivation.  The established church at the time was not much more than a cosy club for the affluent middle classes.  Most clergymen had no understanding or care for the needs of the working class, probably because they were drawn from the same circles as their well-heeled parishioners.  Methodist pioneers - George Whitefield, the Wesley brothers and others - were led to focus on the neglected sections of society.  People from these communities were not always welcome in churches.  That is why Whitefield, the Wesley's and others took the gospel out to the people whom others wouldn't allow in.  So they preached outside coal mines and in market squares, on heaths and in fields.  The working class were given the attention they were denied by the established church.  As a result thousands were saved and added to the kingdoms

"Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.  But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong." 1 Corinthians 1 verses 26 and 27

If we want to see the spiritual landscape change again, like it did in the days of William Booth and George Whitefield there is an urgent need to us to apply these words that the apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian church.

How we greet people and how we treat people has a huge impact on whether they stick with a church or disappear after a little while. Social action projects have sprung up in churches of all kinds across the nation since the global financial crash in 2008.  These have provided vital practical support to people facing crisis situations.  Most project leaders and volunteers have a desperate desire to give dignity to everyone they help.  However any one of us can slip into a "saviour complex" that gives us an air of superiority - this is something we all need to watch in our own hearts.  No matter how much we try to run our projects in a way that honours people, there is something inherently undignified about turning up at an unfamiliar location where everyone knows you are in need.  Providing support for people facing hard times is essential, but we need to recognise that there is an automatic power imbalance whenever we do this that some people can find very difficult to overcome.

Acts of generosity and support are necessary and important but there are times when they can cause resentment in the very people they are set up to support.  People can feel patronized and belittled by acts of charity if they perceive an attitude of superiority among those who are supporting them.

Why we need to have open dialogue between those helping and those being helped, and to be willing to hear how our support is received.

Another reason the working class are missing from our churches is the vast difference in our attitudes and values.

The gospel challenges us to change our attitudes to people around us who are different.  Are we willing to do that?  This may require us to let go of long-held values that have their roots in a class structure, not in Scripture.  We can underestimate how difficult and costly it is to change, but we need to make those changes if we want to reach the large swathes of society who are currently missing from our churches.

The dominant class and culture in the UK church is middle class.  If we really want to address the lack of working-class believers, then the middle-class church needs to make radical changes and do things very different.  The onus is on the dominant culture to make space for those who are missing among us.  That's going to hurt, especially if those in the church have enjoyed some successes reaching out to their middle-class peers and dont see the need to change.  Change is usually met with resistance and is often painful.

It is healthy to ask ourselves if we need to do thing differently.  It is good to consider why we do the things we do.  If we want to change the demographic of our churches, we will need to change those ways of behaving, the unspoken and unwritten rules, the invisible divides that cause people to feel like outsiders unless the conform to the dominant culture.

Whether we are talking about people who self-identify as working class, those who are living on the cusp of poverty, those in traditional working-class jobs or those who live hand to mouth, whichever way you look at it, that's a lot of people not being effectively reached by our churches.  That's a lot of people we are missing.  It's a lot of people who are loved by God and whom he wants to see in our churches.

CHAPTER 2 - THE CALL TO DISCIPLESHIP

Discipleship is a vital part of the Christian life.  Jesus told his disciples to make disciples.  It is something that everyone who follows him is called to do.  But when it comes to actually helping others to mature in their faith, it is so easy to disciple them into our way of doing things.  Christians are called to be conformed to the image of Christ, but as often, if we are not mindful of it, we can try to conform ourselves or others to the traditions and habits of our church community.

This means that if the majority in a particular church is middle class, we can easily fall into the trap of discipling people into our middle-class ways, rather than into becoming increasingly like Jesus.  It can be hard to tell the difference between what we are used to and what is Christlike.

So much of our discipleship is focused on external values such as this.  w encourage new converts to give up smoking ,swearing, drinking, gambling and so on, while ignoring more socially acceptable middle-class sins such as coveting, envy malice, gossip, pride, slander, greed, gluttony and the rest.

Jesus said that all of these things - the ones we consider to be "big" sins and those we don't find so offensive or objectionable - come from our hearts.  Yet we so rarely challenge each other about pride or gluttony, or even lying, which the bible says is "detestable" to God.  

We should be concerned with the external things. But our tendency to focus on them more than on internal things can create barriers for people who are new or immature in their faith.

Discipleship is fundamentally about obedience to Jesus.

Jesus said that we show our love for him by obeying his commands, so we should challenge each other.  But when we do, we should consider 2 things.  First of all, is this an issue of becoming like Jesus, or of becoming like the majority in church?  Second, am I focusing on the same areas God is currently focusing on with this person, or are some sins more troublesome to me than others? When we are discipling someone we should be expectant fro God to teach us just as much as he teaches the person we are discipling.  The New Testament talks about "on anothering" an awful lot.  So even when we are the more mature believer, there is plenty we can learn from the person we are helping to grow.

Part of effective discipleship has to include challenging our own preconceived ideas.

We are all informed and ma decisions based on underlying assumptions.  Our assumptions can particularly reveal themselves when we are looking to entrust people in church with responsibility and/or leadership.

We are all called to make disciples but it is so important that we remember we are discipling people to become like Jesus, not like us.  How we do this is simple: it has more to do with sharing our lives than with a weekly or fortnightly appointment to check how someone's bible reading and prayer times are going.  It isn't just about getting involved in other people's lives, but also about letting them get involved in yours.

The settings we use for discipleship are important too.  It takes time to make disciples.  In our quick-fix, instant-fame, microwave society we can so easily see sanctification as something that should happen overnight in those we are discipling, while forgetting that it's an ongoing process of God's work in us.

PART 2 - DIFFERENT WAYS WE THINK AND ACT

CHAPTER 3 - FAITH

Our life experiences are not the same as everyone else's and it can be especially alienating for those who have less than we do materially if we talk about faith in terms of gaining luxuries without adding any caveats or examples from other people's lives.

The faith battles of someone who lives in a constant state of asking God to provide are very different from the faith battles of someone who has all the essentials.  There are many ways in which different groups of people exercise and express faith.

Matthew 6 verses 25 to 32

For those of us who live affluent or even relatively comfortable lives, these words of Jesus are nice, but we don't have to exercise meaningful faith to believe them literally.  However, for those who live on low incomes, these are words to grab hold of, pray earnestly and remind God of his promises.

When your choices are feeding your family or risking eviction, the words of Jesus take on new meaning and require a great deal of practical, demonstrable faith.

People of all classes and all income levels have experiences in life that require faith.  There's a level of urgency to faith - for all of us - when we have no control over our circumstances.  That happens to everyone at one time or another. A business collapsing or a terminal diagnosis, a sudden loss or an unforeseen marriage breakdown - there are any number of awful experiences that affect people from all walks of life, leading us to cry out to God in faith when the odds are stacked against us.  For those who live from hand to mouth, the need to urgently cry out to God in faith comes around much more often than for those who live in relative comfort.

Jesus said "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God." Luke 6 verse 20.  Jesus seems to be saying here that those who have very little in this life will inherit spiritual things of greater worth than the money, possessions and assets some of us can accumulate.

James said "Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him." James 2 verse 5

It seems that God grants a rich, vibrant faith to those who have the least in this life.  The faith of those who have less is often not just richer than the faith of those who are financially rich but it is usually also real, raw and profoundly inspiring.  Yet we can miss it if we are not paying careful attention.  There are those among us who are like the widow Jesus points out to his disciples in Luke 21 verses 1 to 4.

On the flipside, we can so easily fall into the danger of only appreciating gifts that are financially substantial.

We can learn so much through the faith of those who live their lives unable to put their security in wealth or possessions or assets.  But it can require intentional effort on our part.  we need to humble ourselves and soberly assess our own lives.  We can do this by asking ourselves (and those who know us well) some simple questions, such as:

• How am I living by faith currently?
• Which areas of my life require faith at the moment?
• What faith adventure is God inviting me to go on at the moment?
• How can I deliberately stretch my faith?

Will I make radical decisions to do with generosity, sharing with others, giving and so on, that stretch my faith because they require God to come through for me?  Will I imitate the faith of my friends who have less, be inspire by them, honour their faith and obedience and learn from them?

CHAPTER 4 - COMMUNICATION

How we communicate is obviously very important.  We want to be understood; most of us want to be appreciated and liked.  Even talking about class and the differences between classes brings a risk of misunderstanding and the potential to cause offence.  The fact is, working-class people and middle-class people speak very different "languages".

The way we talk - our vocabulary and tone - the clothes we wear, how we relate to those in positions of authority, even what we define as success, are all shaped by our class.  And because of those many indicators, we are constantly communicating our class position to those around us.  Our social class shapes our everyday interactions, from casual exchanges in the pub to how we come across is more formal or institutional settings.

Accents say so much about us.  They say where we are from, and maybe to some that we should go back there!  They hint at our upbringing and the families who formed us.  And our accent will instantly place us in a social hierarchy with our hearers.  But we need to realize that accent is not the only communication barrier between the classes.

We need to understand that different people from different backgrounds and life experience will communicate in very different ways.  And when we grasp the truth of that we will have taken huge strides in our ability to communicate more effectively with a wider spectrum of people - people who have had a very different life experience from our own.  And in a church setting, for example, we will be able to receive teaching from someone without making an instinctive judgement about their ability based on whether they pronounce their G's or not.

In certain settings, society encourages us to project a particular image.  We're often told that first impressions are important.  We all take subtle cues about social and economic status from the clothes people wear, their hairstyle and their body language and we subconsciously make an instant value judgement about that person.

We often do it with accents.  In fact, there are a number of ways in which we subconsciously judge someone's social status based on our first impression of them.  This is especially true in western society where we are conditioned to believe that ability is associated with social status.

This non-verbal communication and placing people in a hierarchy is going on all the time and adds yet another barrier to the challenges faced by working -class people coming into the church and finding acceptance and friendship.

James 2 verses 2 to 4.  Do you give the well-dressed confident visitor to your church all the attention and ignore the unkempt young man who crept in the back of the meeting?

We must understand that walking into a church for the first time is a scary intimidating experience for a lot of people.  Over the entrance of my church building is a sign that says "welcome" in bright, bold letters  And we mean it - people are very welcome whoever they are and whatever their age or background  However, we don't want to write "Welcome" over the door and then, because of our words and actions, inadvertently say, "You're not welcome!"  We have to be very aware of how we communicate with people and we won't do this in the same way for everyone, as it will depend on what class they are from.

We need to be willing to adapt the way we communicate to be more inclusive.  Chatting about neutral subjects is far less intrusive, especially with those from a different background.  Don't be an interrogator; be a friend and make it as easy as possible for all people to feel at home and welcomed.  These non-threatening ways of connecting mean that at some point later, people may feel safer about volunteering more personal information, if appropriate.

If we really want to reach the working-class communities of the UK, then we need to learn to communicate effectively  we need to engage with those people and learn their "language".  We would do well to find out about their closely held values, to discover and learn to appreciate what they hold dear.  And, above all, to value them as people - not as projects.

We need to completely change our mindset so that we can allow ALL people to enrich us as individuals and as churches.  We should intentionally allow the culture of a people group that has typically had to overcome far more of life's difficulties than the average middle-class person to enhance our lives.

CHAPTER 5 - HOSPITALITY

Hospitality is a vital part of the gospel.  Christians are those who have been welcomed into the family of God, not because of any merit or status, ability or impressiveness on our part, but simply because God loves us, is merciful to us and draws us into his family.

Hospitality looks very different across the classes (and across different ethnic groups as well) and as we saw with faith, there are undoubtedly some lessons that those who are middle class could learn from those who are or identify as working class.  When we understand our differences, we can embrace them, learn from them and enjoy them.

The bible says we need to be careful not to "neglect to show hospitality to strangers" (Hebrews 13 verse 2) and biblical hospitality seems to involve not just welcoming people into our homes at predetermined times and dates that are convenient for us (as lovely as that can be), but really inviting people in to do life with us.

The model set before us by Jesus and his disciples reveals that true hospitality isn't just about when we will welcome people in, but also who we welcome.

Jesus ate with a wide range of people, often inviting himself into people's homes.  The religious people around him were often shocked by the people he would share meals with.  The Pharisees asked his disciples "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" (Matthew 9 verse 11.  For Jesus to sit at a table with Matthew the tax collector and his friends would have been shocking.  Matthew was a Jewish tax collector - he collected money from his own people, the Jewish community, for the Romans, who were their oppressive enemy.  It is likely that he would have topped up the amount he collected so that he could earn more, as was customary at the time.  Tax collectors were hated by the Jewish community.  They were thought of as thieves and traitors, stealing from their own people.

Matthew himself was wealthy - we can tell that from the fact that his home was large enough to throw a banquet for many people to recline at the table with Jesus.  It would have been offensive to many for Jesus to invite Matthew to follow him.  Jesus surrounding himself with fishermen might have made some sense - people earning an honest living, working hard, people we might call "the salt of the earth" types - but for Jesus to associate with and even befriend the most despised people of the day would have been outrageous.

Jesus did not hold Matthew at arm's length.  He didn't make him clean up his act before he would spend time in his home.  He welcomed him as he was  Jesus didn't have a home to invite Matthew to (Matthew 8 verse 20) but he demonstrated hospitality - radical inclusivity and acceptance - by eating with Matthew in Matthew's own home.

It would have been just as scandalous to the religious people of Jesus' day for him to eat with Simon the leper (Mark 14 verse 3).

But Jesus did not upset only the religious leaders with his giving and receiving of hospitality.  Some of us find it easy to love Jesus for sitting down to eat with "sinners", those who were sick or poor, prostitutes, tax collectors, those no one cared about.  When we see Jesus expressing mercy and compassion to people such as this, many of us are moved and grateful that he mixed with the lowly and despised.  However, he also ate with those who were doing the despising: Jesus went into the homes of various Pharisees on a number of occasions too (Luke  verse 36, 11 verse 37 and 14 verse 1).

When considering our own hospitality, it is worth thinking about who we will eat with.  Whatever our own background, will we eat with people from very different walks of life from our own?  Will we adapt our hospitality to suit people with different customs and habits?  If we are willing to do this, it might make us uncomfortable while we prioritize someone else's comfort.

It is important not to expect our hospitality to be reciprocated in the same way that we extend it to others.

Jesus even mentioned that we shouldn't expect to be repaid for our hospitality - Luke 14 verses 12 to 14.

Hospitality is not primarily something that happens in our homes or our churches, but in our hearts.  Hospitality is more to do with your attitude than whether you invite someone round and give them dinner.  When we are using our homes, it is not just about how much we invite people in, but also how much we keep people out.  In British middle-class culture, increasingly our homeless are treated as our own.  They are our safe places, our little castles.  But God is inviting us to be increasingly hospitable - even to strangers, whereby we may even be entertaining angels, unaware (Hebrews 13 verse 2).  To do this, we might need to rethink whether our approach is the way to do hospitality or just one way to do it, and therefore we may need to learn from and imitate those around us, looking not for the best practical way to demonstrate hospitality, but the best way to ensure that true hospitality is something we really value.

CHAPTER 6 - MONEY AND GENEROSITY

Mark 12 verses 41 to 44, Matthew 6 verse 19 and 26 and Proverbs 6 verses 6 to 8

The bible seems to have 2 contradictory teachings when it comes to wealth and possessions.  In Matthew 6 we're encouraged not to accumulate wealth.  And in the book of Proverbs we're urged to put aside for the future.  There seems to be a balance between being wise with what we have and not living in fear of not having enough - we're to be good stewards and trust God for his provision of all we need.

When it comes to attitudes to money and generosity, you can often see clear differences between the classes. We need to learn and be challenged by each other and see that, just because we have different attitudes, neither is necessarily right or wrong.

It seems that our social standing can impact our social behaviour: our attitude to money is shaped in some way by our class.

There are lessons in the bible for all of us - in some ways the encouragement to all people is the same: don't be preoccupied with money and possessions.  

Often we are encouraged to be wise stewards of our money.

John Wesley "Earn as much as you can, save as much as you can, give as much as you can."  This sounds like a healthy balance - but we should also be provoked by how Wesley lived: he gave away the vast majority of what he earnt throughout his life.

There will always be times when a more recklessly generous attitude to money is the right thing to have.  There are times when "wise stewardship" is to give some or even all of it away.  We need to be discerning and balance he practicalities of living in the "here and now" while also living in the light of eternity.  We should be constantly asking what God's will is.  And then putting it into practice.

What we mustn't do is look down on those who do things differently from us and be tempted to impose our ways on others.  In fact, sometimes we can hinder someone's obedience to God by our nervousness about their generosity.  If anything, when people around us given extravagantly, we should learn from them and seek to imitate them.

There will always be the potential for tension and misunderstanding between the classes over attitudes to money, but whatever our background, whatever we earn, we must all be full of faith and love for others when it comes to money and generosity.

CHAPTER 7 - COMMUNITY

It's often been said about the church: where else do you get young and old, rich and poor, black and white in the same community.  But the church doesn't have the monopoly on diverse community.  When people become Christians, do we expect them to leave their community and cleave to the church because we think (whether consciously or subconsciously) that this is where real community is found?

The truth is that churches should be vibrant communities of Christians who are meaningfully involved in each other's lives.  In Acts 2 verse 42 the bible says all the believers "devoted themselves to ... the fellowship."  "Devoted" is a strong word.  It is used by the apostle Paul in Romans 12 verse 10 where he writes "Be devoted to one another in love.  Honour one another above yourselves."  There are a hundred "one another" commands in the New Testament, one-third of which are about getting along with each other!  It is very clear in the bible that Christians might struggle to get along, but we are called to work hard at it.  It's not a pipe dream or an optional extra - the church is supposed to be distinctive from the world around.  One of the ways in which the gospel is most powerfully demonstrated is by how diverse people with nothing but Jesus in common love one another.  Jesus said that people will know we are his disciples by our love for each other - John 13 verse 35.

Some people, when they come to faith, already have a very strong sense of community.  We can push them to make the church their primary allegiance, but we need to be careful that they don't burn bridges with their original community.  We are not called to pull people away from their networks, but to empower them to live out their faith in the setting which they're placed: "Each person should remain in the situation they were in when God called them" 1 Corinthians 7 verse 20.

Community means different things to different people.  Many experts have found community difficult to define.  Sociologists, anthropologists, historians and politicians of all hues have attempted to define it.

Community is defined in different ways, often to serve different views.  We could look at it as a group of individuals who band together because of a shared interest.  Communities connected by a shared characteristic or interest often have nothing much to do with place. The thing that people have in common is where they live.  But it's not simply living in a place.  Place can then be overlaid with shared experience; the repeated connections with others from the locality can strengthen community.

Sometimes it's only when we hear other people talk about what community means to them that we can see how different their experiences might be.  

Luke 14 verses 12 to 14.

To truly understand how important community is, and how different people understand it, we need to explore how it was formed for the working classes, and their sense of loss over it.  Many established communities and towns were built around a large local industry.  Over recent decades, there has been massive economic and social change in communities up and down the UK.  In part, that change has come about as a result of the loss of the traditional industries around which towns and communities grew up and developed their own sense of shared identity.

As individual Christians and churches, we need to be sensitive to issues of cultural change in communities and to understand that many people feel the impact of issues that many middle-class people have not encountered.

A strong sense of community in certain neighbourhoods can mean that outsiders are viewed with suspicion.  This is very important to know, particularly if you are moving into an area to start a church for example.  Where a community of people have lived, gone to school, worked and socialized in the same small area, new people moving in are not always automatically welcomed, especially if it coincides with the gentrification of a previously neglected part of town.  When amenities are suddenly improved and shops are opened that cater for the middle-class newcomers, it could well be resented.  We mustn't be prejudiced towards people based simply on where they live.

Sometimes our prejudices are based on fear, but more often than not it is just that we don't understand and value difference.  As Christians, we need to work hard to overcome this sort of division and mistrust in our communities.  Invisible divides within our churches are much more of a problem when we are located in or close to working-class communities but have set up our meetings and activities to cater only to the middle classes.

Is our church a community where people can find love, acceptance, dignity and friendship, whatever their background; whatever their job or level of formal education? 

CHAPTER 8 - US AND THEM: ATTITUDES TO AUTHORITY

In the early 2000's community policing was reinstated - the government wanted to return to the days of a "bobby on the beat" in every neighbourhood.  Smiling, uniformed police officers were employed specifically to connect with their local community.  They would develop partnerships with various agencies and generally build relationships with key individuals and community groups.

If we want to build churches where invisible divides are demolished, it is important to recognise that not everyone has had the same positive experiences of authority figures that we have had.  In fact, while someone exerting authority can feel reassuring to some, it can feel intimidating to others.  What brings safety to one person can cause another to feel genuinely unsafe.

Once an "us and them" narrative takes hold, it is often reflected in attitudes to authority in general.

Who are the "them"?  They are people in positions of authority.  They are the ones who have the power and privilege to make the decisions that affect your life.  That could be the national government or include the police.  But "they" could also be our boss, or someone from the council such as the housing officer or the social worker.  It could be the disinterested benefit advisor who decides about your benefits.  Magistrates are another obvious one.  They are usually drawn from very different lifestyle and class than those they are sentencing, making decisions about their life and future.

Working-class people can often feel powerless when interacting with authority figures, whoever they are, and that feeling of impotence can lead to huge frustrations.  People may feel frustrated, but they're not all passive and they will react.  When you feel patronized or threatened, you can either surrender to the other person's position and power or you can push back and fight.  And when that happens, lots of people don't like it.

When it comes to the issue of authority, it can be a difficult line for Christians to walk.  The bible is clear that we should submit to authority but also that we should be actively pursuing justice.  To do that we need to hold in tension that some authority is good and some authority is bad but no authority is given by anyone other than God.  We need to take seriously the complaints of the powerless and be a voice for the voiceless (Proverbs 31 verses 8 and 9), which sometimes means standing against powerful people and systems that either deliberately or inadvertently oppress people.  At the same time, we need to honour those in authority and seek peace in our communities.  The church actually has a vital role to play here in bridging divisions.

One of the challenges in church life is that we do believe in God-ordained authority, but it must look very different from authority in the world - especially when there are so many abuses of it by powerful people.  We need to intentionally model humble, servant leadership.  Jesus is Lord of all, yet "came not to be served but to serve" Matthew 20 verse 28 and famously even washed his disciples' feet.  He demonstrated it with his actions - his whole life was given to serving others - but he was also clear with those who would become his apostles about the leadership style he desires.

Matthew 20 verses 25 to 27

Those of us in authority need to serve as Jesus served, not lording it over people, not clinging to power, but empowering others.  Those of us under authority need to submit to godly authority and stand up for any who are oppressed by ungodly authority.  We respect and honour authority figure, while fighting for justice.  The two are not mutually exclusive, but it can be a hard balance to get right.  This comes down not just to how we act, but also to who we speak.

One way to begin to explore how different people in your community feel about authority is to ask the following questions:

• who makes the decisions that affect the quality of life in my community?
• How are those decisions taken?
• Who decides what type of housing should be built or demolished.

It's often the case that decision-makers don't live "round here", they're usually not part of the community, with the shared interests and experiences we looked at in the previous chapter.  If the authorities are generally not trusted by the working-class people around us, as churches we need to be very aware of that.  And we also need to take a good look at ourselves and ask "Are we seen to be part of "them", the authority figures who aren't to be trusted or part of "us" - a welcoming community where all are acceptable.

If we want to be effective in reaching into working-class communities, we as Christians, need to work hard to earn the trust of those communities.

Ultimately the church should not be "us" or "them" - we want to break down the barriers between the powerful and the powerless.

CHAPTER 9 - MOTIVATIONS

It is important for anyone wishing to overcome invisible divides between the classes to reflect on the motivations that underpin our behaviours and attitudes.

Do you think of work as a means to an end, or a something that give you purpose?  

Just as the differences in motivations when it comes to food and drink play out in our individual lives and in church life, the same is true of working to pay the bills compared with working for a sense of achievement or purpose.

Many preachers emphasize that work existed prior to the Fall.  God created us to work.  It is not a result of sin.  It is something we were made to do.  It gives us dignity and stability.  Work as a general concept is part of our purpose, but in the western middle-class world, for many this has been stretched to make specific work the purpose of our lives.  It has become central rather than just being a part of how we were made and what were made to do.  This can lead to confusing conversations within church settings, where some might be perceived to have a lack of ambition while others are seen to be overly ambitious.  This might be true, of course, but sometimes it is just a misunderstanding about how we are wired by our upbringing.

While the bible makes it clear that work is important for all, it doesn't speak much about the value we should place on career.  If we understand this, we can start to see how we might be imposing middle-class values on church teaching and activities when we talk about things like purpose, satisfaction and achievement through our jobs.  

We need to challenge ourselves about our ways of thinking.  Why do we think some jobs are better than others?  Is it based on pay?  There is nothing in the bible to suggest a hierarchy of jobs.  Work gives us dignity because it is predominantly about provision and supporting ourselves, not acquisition or achievement.  Of course, there are many people in the bible who had significant roles, wealth and status - for example, King David.  But he started out as a shepherd.  Many of those raised to prominence - to "career highs" so to speak - knew times of humility first.  And for those who didn't ... so often we see things going horribly awry for those who had no experience of humble beginnings.

Jesus was a carpenter.  Peter was a fisherman.  Paul was a tentmaker.  Yet manual labourers are conspicuously absent from our mostly middle-class churches.  Might this be, in part, because of our different attitudes to types of work, and what work is supposed to be about?  We shouldn't be surprised when some people are perfectly content with lives that we can't relate to.  

There is a place for speaking about personal fulfilment. But biblically speaking, this is to be found in the great Commandments and the great Commission; we are to love God, to love our neighbours as ourselves and to make disciples.  Where we work is not as important as the relationships we build.  Loving well is the ultimate goal of the christian faith - becoming more Christlike by loving God and loving others - and therefore this is where we find our ultimate sense of purpose.

Whether or not we can clearly see differences in our motivations, it is at least worth spending some time considering how different groups of people think about different aspects of life, from food to work.  The reason it is a good use of our time is because if we fail to understand the hidden habits and motivations of a group, we will not see the invisible divides that might be excluding, alienating or "othering" those we would like to have fully involved in church life and indeed in our own lives.

CHAPTER 10 - ASPIRATIONS

Aspirations are the hopes and expectations we have for the future.  These change when we become Christians.  A lack of aspirations isn't necessarily about a lack of dreams.  it has more to do with a lack of opportunities, leading to an inability to imagine that life can look significantly different from what you already know.

Isaiah 61 verses 1 to 4 shows the wonderful heart of God for people who have less.  It is not the rich and powerful who renew, rebuild and restore, but those who have struggled and suffered.  They - those who have been poor, broken-hearted, captives, bound, mourning - become the very people who rebuild ancient ruins, raise up devastated places and repair ruined communities.

Often in society and sadly in church life too, we look to the powerful, the well educated and the affluent as those we consider to have the most potential for leadership and impact.

Research by the Child Poverty Action Group shows that family income has a significant impact across all areas of children's lives - affecting them not just materially but also relationally, emotionally mentally, intellectually and physically.

It is absolutely true that in the kingdom of God, statistics like these can be completely turned around - but there is a degree to which people from certain backgrounds might be inhibited from aspiring and flourishing in church life if they are not nurtured in a helpful way (at best) or if they are disqualified on the basis of not fitting in with the traditional mould we think of when we think about potential leaders or even "pillars of the church" (at worst).  There can be a misguided belief among "high achievers" that the thing to aspire to in church is a leadership role.

The fact is, biblically speaking, we all have something to contribute and something to learn from each other, irrespective of background.  But some may discount themselves or not even be considered by those in leadership over them because of their background - unwittingly of course, but the result is the same.

The truth is that everyone we have been placed alongside in our lives is actually God's gift to us, in one way or another.  we are meant to leave a trace on the lives of those we spend time with, and they are meant to influence and have an impact on us too.  "God doesn't make junk." Tim Keller.  Each one of us is made in the image of God, which means that each one of us carries some aspect of God's divine imprint - we carry something of Almighty God within us that reflects him to those around us.  John Piper "God created us in his image so that we would display or reflect or communicate who he is, how great he is and what he is like.

Every single one of us matters.  Our worth isn't dependent on our status or achievements, our education or talent or wealth or friendship group.  It is wholly dependent upon being made in the image of God and reflecting something of who he is to those around us.  "You matter, I matter, It's the hardest thing in theology to believe." G K Chesterton.

But it is not just difficult to believe it for ourselves.  In a culture where success and status are idolized it can be hard for us to believe that others matter too.  Of course, we may not say this or even think it overtly, but it can so often, so easily, be demonstrated by our actiosn and our assumptions about the people around us.

The reason we need to cross invisible divides when it comes to aspirations and valuing people is because God wants his church to represent him fully, meaning we need diversity.  we need each person to bring his or her unique, image-bearing self to be built together into the body of Christ with all of the other unique, image-bearing trophies of grace.

Every contact leaves a trace.  We are meant to have an impact on each other.  It's why there are so many "one another" references in the New Testament letters.  How I act affects you and vice versa.  This is how it is meant to be in the kingdom of God.  We need each other.  we were made for community.  We were created and called to be the bridge of Christ, together, collectively, irrespective of our differences.  Not despite them, but because of them.

God's plan for us - no matter what our backgrounds or experiences - is that we will leave a trace of him on everyone we encounter  That will look different for each of us.  it is supposed to.  Each one of us is unique and God has intentionally placed us alongside specific people in our families, friendship groups, neighbourhoods, communities and churches.  We can and should leave a positive trace on those around us, both within the church and outside.

He has placed each one of us specifically - with our unique mix of personality, temperament, life story, experiences, battles we've been through - in the lives of others, deliberately, so that we can leave a trace of him with them.  This means that every relationship is two-way and no-one can be written off.

In the kingdom of God, it is not about survival of the fittest, but about us all being built together to strengthen one another.  We do this as iron sharpening iron, but also by bearing with one another in love and patience and forgiveness.  In fact, biblically speaking, we should esteem those whom the world would discard or discount.  1 Corinthians 1 verses 27 to 31.

God chooses the foolish and weak intentionally.  That is his plan, and it should affect our attitudes towards people, as we see in 1 Corinthians 12 verses 17 to 27.

If we take these verses to heart, ponder them deeply and let them shape us, they will displace any arrogance, any superiority, any sense of one-way discipleship.  If every disciple of Jesus were to live like this, then we would know we all have something to learn from each other.  The invisible divides of class would disappear as we all - working classes, middle classes and upper classes - sought to lay down our preferences, our ways of doing things and humbly reflect God to each other and learn about his character and deeds from each other.  That is how we all mature into oaks of righteousness, for his glory and for the good of everyone around us.

Everyone you meet is made in the image of God: the family member who most annoys you, the colleague who rubes you up the wrong way, the person in your church small group whom you simply cannot relate to at all.  Everyone who comes alongside you can uniquely reflect something of God to you, if you let them.

"Every person that comes across your path, you need to treat with a sacredness, a reverence, a respect, a concern for their individuality, a kindness, never writing people off ... we must treat everyone with grace, everyone with gentleness ... Do you?" Tim Keller

Do you treat everyone as valuable and having a valuable contribution to bring to church life and to your life?  If I cannot see the image of God in someone, the problem isn't with them.  It's with me!

PART 3 - CHURCH LIFE

CHAPTER 11 - DIVERSE, NOT DIVIDED

God doesn't call us to something we cannot do, so if he has called us to tear down dividing walls of hostility and to be in his family together, then we can do that.  It involves effort and energy.  It is hard work, seeking to understand people who think differently from the way we do and who are coming from an entirely different starting place, but it is not impossible.  We start by seeing each person as someone loved by God and made in his image and then we build upon that by recognizing that Jesus calls people from all walks of life to follow him and be part of his church.  We are being built together, which isn't always comfortable but it is the way God has made it to be.  We honour him when we honour one another.  We glorify him when we cross invisible divides and allow ourselves to learn from those around us, as iron sharpens iron Proverbs 27 verse 17) so that we might all be conformed to the image of Christ (Romans 8 verse 29), one degree of glory at a time (1 Corinthians 3 verse 18).

Each of us needs to walk in humility alongside our brothers and sisters in Christ and the people outside the church we are seeking to support or welcome into our church communities.

Most of us inherently believe that our ways of thinking and doing things are "right", otherwise we would change them.  Submitting ourselves to the preferences of others, examining ourselves soberly and making change for the good of others - these are all important aspects of Christian maturity, for disciples from all backgrounds.

The purpose of highlighting our differences is not to entrench them, but to reveal them so that we can move towards each other  If we don't understand that someone else's experience of money or community or authority or faith might be very difference from ours, it won't take long before we accidentally alienate or even clash with those around us. 

Normal middle-class behaviour is not the same as Christian behaviour.  Neither is typical working-class behaviour the same as Christian behaviour  Jesus transcends all divisions, calling us to something far more radical.  We need to be able to decipher between the norms of the dominant culture and what is actually biblical, Christlike behaviour, so that we don't push people in our churches to conform to the standards of the majority, but rather only to what we see in Jesus.  Taking the time to think these things through, then to change any of our attitudes that we recognise need to change, will create a more accessible culture in our churches.

CHAPTER 12 - MEETINGS

Every element of our church meetings will suit some people and not others.  We need to think through each of the elements of our actual meetings themselves.  How long should the sermon be, bearing in mind that most people only ever find themselves sitting still and listening to someone talk for 40 minutes in a classroom or university lecture theatre.

it is not just about length, but it's also about content  The way we speak about issues in society needs to take into account the different ways people experience those issues.  If we speak on hot topics such as immigration (which affects working-class communities very differently from the way it affects comfortable middle-class communities) or climate change (which might not be such a pressing concern for someone struggling to feed their children), it is obviously vital to do so biblically, but we need to help people from all walks of life know how to apply this in their contexts.  Likewise if you denigrate certain groups of people when you preach then you are obviously going to alienate anyone who identifies with that.

How do you communicate?  Is your sermon like a university lecture, or have you honed the skill of storytelling so that you can have a broader appeal?  Have you thought about how different groups of people learn to take in information?

Another point is how we factor in teaching on some of the invisible divides between us.  If we want to have truly diverse churches where people from all walks of life feel equally welcomed, accepted and valued, then we need to teach on it, because embracing difference does not come naturally to most of us.  If we don't have a place for teaching on how people from different backgrounds experience and approach some of the things already looked at such as communication, community and authority then we are likely to misunderstand each other (at best), find ourselves offended by each other or (at worst) feel that we cannot be in church community with the people around us.  This might not need to be a Sunday sermon series (thought it could be) but could be drip fed into several sermons in the same way we frequently talk about prayer, bible reading etc without necessarily dedicating whole talks to them every month or two.  Equally it might be part of a "joining course" or "membership course", if you have such a thing at your church, or perhaps reflected in the online content you put out through your website, app, YouTube channel or social media.  The key question is not whether or not it is important to speak about differences, but how we will do so in a way that equips and empowers our congregations to cross the invisible divides that they might otherwise have no idea about.

It is important that we should not just be thinking about how church meetings are received by people from a working-class background but by any minority (or even majority in the community around.  We don't need to bend or shape everything around minorities  indeed, compromise, understanding and acceptance are needed on all sides - but it is important to wrestle with some difficult questions so that we can make church as accessible as possible to as many as possible.

1 Corinthians 9 verse 19, 22 and 23

What we need to consider is how we build teams with people from diverse backgrounds who may have varying allegiances that can influence their commitment level to our particular team, group or meeting structure.  It is a difficult question, but one that is worth asking so that we can help people from all walks of life to integrate fully in church life.

Examining how we worship, take our offering, set out the chairs, use screens and welcome visitors and why we do these things the way we do them is good practice anyway, but it is especially important if we want to ensure that we are not just catering for the majority who are already comfortable with the way we do things.  Of course, there will always be some who don't like the way we do things and that doesn't mean we should automatically make changes - but the question here isn't whether people like the way we do things, but whether we put obstacles in their way that mean they cannot engage in church life and feel part of the church community.

The same is true of prayer meetings, youth groups, midweek small groups and so on.  Jesus created a discipleship community comprising different types of people.  Among his close followers were a tax collector, a zealot, fishermen and women.  These people would not have usually been in close proximity for a prolonged period of time but Jesus drew them together and they walked with him and each other for 3 years.  There were disagreements and arguments but they were ultimately united by Christ.  And that is how the church is supposed to look - very different people, with diverse backgrounds united and committed and submitting to each other, outdoing each other in showing honour, accepting one another, laying down their preferences for one another, because of their unity in Christ.

This goes far beyond sitting in the same church building on a Sunday morning.  Sadly it can be easy for us to think that our church community is a diverse body of believers with no divides, when in fact even where people sit in our meetings reveals that there is self-imposed segregation in our congregations.

If we want to get to know people we may initially have very little in common with, except Jesus; not just sitting in the same building singing the same songs and listening to the same sermons, but actually getting to know each other so that we really can love each other deeply - so that we really can honour, prefer, submit and care for each other.  This has to have a meaningful outworking in order for it to be genuine love that shows the world around us that we are Jesus' disciples.

"What binds us, what you and I have most in common is not our upbringing, not where we land on specific social issues.  What holds us together is that I was lost and now I'm found, just like you .. we get to show off the glory of Jesus in how we agree on that, and how we just might disagree on a lot of other stuff, but I still love you and care for you and you still love and care for me." Matt Chandler

How we deliver our notices and what they're about can have the potential to create barriers, or an "us and them" culture.  But this can be (and often is) no more about who we involve in the public roles in our meetings than what we say.

Changing the way we do meetings, especially if we have conducted them in a certain way for a long time, can be one of the hardest things to do when addressing the issues discussed earlier.  It takes effort to examine our traditions and habits, to wrestle with them, to engage minorities among us in honest conversations about them.  It takes even more effort to listen and act on what we discover.  Plus, of course, any changes we make might leave longtime members of the church disgruntled.  We may even lose people.  But the goal is not to hold meetings that everyone likes, but create meetings that put forward as few barriers as possible to the minorities we would like to see among us and part of us.

We read in the book of Acts that within the early church there were divisions and dissensions but we also see diverse communities where Jews and Gentiles, slaves and free, rich and poor, men and women, old and young came together to worship Jesus, compromising their preferences to honour one another and so as to not cause others to stumble in their faith.  Surely tweaking the length of our preaching or making our youth camps more affordable is worth it if we find that a wider group of people can access church life as a result.  These things may take effort initially, and explanation repeatedly to the majority who are familiar with them, but in the long run they will help us to break down invisible divides and to integrate people from a much broader spectrum of backgrounds into our church communities.

The danger, if we don't, is that people will feel alienated and excluded.  True diversity will be costly for everyone, but probably most of all for the majority.  If we are going to look out for the interests of others and build them into community, that may mean our preaching is less academically stimulating than some would like.  It may mean we have to revive the style and content of the songs we sing.  It could mean that people heckle during a sermon or go outside halfway through for a smoke.  It could mean socializing in a very different way from what we are used to.

When it comes to our church community and our church meetings, we are called to be humble and to think of others more than ourselves.  It's difficult but it's the radical discipleship Jesus has called us to.

CHAPTER 13 - LEADERSHIP

If we truly want to change church culture and reach the neglected communities in the UK, one of the things we urgently need to change is how we define what makes a good church leader.  There seems to be a lack of leaders who are willing and able to reach out into working-class communities.  And there is undoubtedly a lack of leaders who identify as working class.

In the bible, we see that ordinary people are used by God in extraordinary ways.  Social status, education, wealth, qualifications - none of these things are prerequisites for becoming a leader.  In fact, God seems to often pick the most unlikely people to lead.  "When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realised that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus." Acts 4 verse 13.

If we want to see diverse churches reflecting people from across our communities and bridging invisible divides, we need a radical shift in our thinking, otherwise we will continue to deny leadership roles to the unschooled and ordinary; people who have been shaped by grace and grit rather than traditional scholarship.  If we dismiss people as leadership candidates simply because of their background or lack of formal education, we will be excluding some mighty men and women of God.  Peter the fisherman probably wouldn't be considered for leadership in most of our churches.  If we don't shift our sights when it comes to church leadership then we will inevitably miss some powerful and godly leaders.

If we cannot see the value of leaders from working-class cultures, we might question God as to why he made his Son a carpenter rather than a college lecturer.

If we want to raise up leaders from working-class backgrounds we need to do things very differently.  Currently, we tend to conflate background and academic ability with qualification for ministry.  When identifying leaders, formal academic qualifications are often a basic requirement  Consequently, the vast majority of church leaders are middle-class university graduates.  That's not necessarily wrong but we need to realise that there are huge blind spots and cultural shortcomings built into that particular life experience.

When Jesus chose his "leadership team" he intentionally selected people who would have looked unqualified to those around them - he chose uneducated fishermen, people who would not be considered for leadership in many churches today.  And it's self-perpetuating most church leaders will instinctively look for people like themselves to put forward for leadership training, because that's the type of leadership they are familiar with.

The biblical qualifications for church leadership are primarily related to character not based on academic achievement.  Let's put godly character at the top of the list  we need to challenge long-held beliefs and be very clear that people who are working class are qualified for church ministry as much as anyone else.

We must not exclude people because of a lack of qualifications.  And even if potential working-class leaders are willing to jump through the hoops of formal qualifications, they can still face prejudice and opposition.

This nation needs an army of church leaders who haven't been to university to join all those who have.  We need those who have struggled with aspects of life that the middle class have not.  We need a diversity of leaders if we are to reach a diverse nation.  The ones best equipped to reach working-class communities are the working class themselves, or those who have done the hard work of humbling themselves or those who have done the hard work of humbling themselves to see things from the perspective of those not like themselves.

Whether we are unschooled fishermen or bricklayers or the children of gentlemen, let us have humility to reach out to those around us, motivated by God's love, a robust, biblical love that challenges us to go to the often despised and to the feared and to shine his light into the working-class communities up and down this nation.

CONCLUSION

The bible paints a glorious picture of what the church will look like when Jesus returns.  At the end of the age, the fullness of what the apostle Paul wrote to the Galatians - that "there is neither jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3 verse 28 - will become the reality.  The "dividing wall of hostility" (Ephesians 2 verse 14) that Jesus has broken down will be completely removed, and there will be total unity between all disciples.

Revelation 7 verses 9 and 10

This is what the church will look like in the end: a beautifully diverse multitude - thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people with vastly differing backgrounds and lives - worshipping together in complete unity in Christ.  there will be no divisions, no barriers, nothing that will exclude or alienate or ostracize  Every single person will belong there, and know they belong there, not because they meet certain criteria, but because God chose them to be part of his family.

When we look at the church across the world today, or perhaps even in our own city or community, it can feel as though we are very far from God's plan.  We are fallible humans who easily lapse into negative ways of thinking about others.

There are all kinds of walls we can put up, both consciously and subconsciously.  Most are designed to protect us - to keep ourselves, our loved ones, our way of life safe from outside harm - rather than to keep others out.  Yet that is what they do.  When this happens in church life, it creates a culture that is usually formed around the dominant group of people within that setting.  It's understandable that this happens, but it still needs to be challenged.  Our individual lives and our church communities are enriched by diversity.  That's true of all kinds of diversity, but we have chosen to focus on the often-neglected subject of class differences.

Class differences run deep.  They affect all areas of our lives  Some of our faith battles are different - the way we interpret what it means to live a life of faith might vary enormously.  Our starting premise for how we view church can be wildly different, because of how we think about community, what it means to us and what other allegiances we bring to the table.  How we think about and handle our money is often not the same - and therefore what it means to us to be generous can differ too.  Whether we fear or welcome authority will depend on our previous experiences of it.  The way we speak - not just our accents, but the language we use, the way we banter and how blunt we are - is influenced by our background.  What motivates us is not the same.  Our aspirations are generally speaking quite different.

Despite the challenges these differences present, we are still called to be part of God's church family together.  God's vision for the church is not to have one church over here that caters to the working classes and another over here for the middle classes, and so on and so on for as many groups of people as exist within each community.  No.  His vision is for us to be alongside each other within local church communities, honouring one another, loving and learning from one another, overcoming the things that would divide us, for his glory and for the good of the world around us.  When people outside our churches look in on us, they should notice how we love each other despite our differences.

It's not that the differences should be erased.  We aren't called to conform to the image of those around us.  Our differences should be visible, yet our love for each other should be so unmistakable that it causes people around us to ask questions.  Ultimately it should point them to Jesus, the one who has bought us all together into the same family.

The process of becoming churches like that will be tough, but it is vital.  The starting point is identifying the invisible divides - those things that previously we had not seen or understood.  We cannot change what we can't see.  Raising awareness in our own minds, and then among our church families, is crucial if we are to start to become all that God intended us to be - places where the groups and subcultures that are found in the communities around us are also found to be thriving in our church communities.  An awareness of the divisions between us - the miscommunications, the misunderstandings and the misconceptions - will empower us to change.  Knowing the issues that have the potential to exclude or offend is the first step towards being able to address them.

But awareness is only the beginning.  We need to harness that knowledge and use it to change our own attitudes, as well as the activities and habits of our churches.

Fur all followers of Jesus, our identity is first and foremost that we are children of God.  Every other aspect of our identity comes second to this.  We may find and formulate our identity in many different ways, but our primary identity is based on our relationship with Jesus, not with any other group, nor any other place, nor any other allegiance in our lives.  This is what unites us.  We are all Jesus-followers first and everything else comes after that.

There are many invisible divides between the different classes, but none is insurmountable within the church.  Opening our eyes to see them, then creating a healthy culture of communication and openness about them will lead us in the right direction.  Jesus has called his church to break down every barrier and to find unity in him.  One day we will see the fulfilment of that  But for now, let's play our part in crossing invisible divides and seeing people from all classes and walks of life come to know him, worship him and serve him together for his glory.