Category Archives: Book Review

Blogs, Book Review

Charles Ringma writes on well-being in the Church

Formation in Well-Being: A Challenge for Today’s Church

by Charles Ringma tssf

Introduction

Most of us at this conference today, know something of the reality of the pressures we experience at work. And these pressures are no different when ministering in the church, or working in church-related institutions. And they are no different when one is working in a business run by Christians, or in secular employment.

There is always more than needs to be done. There is the pressure of time- constraints, outcomes, and success. And often there are unrealistic expectations.

This is particularly true in church-related ministry. So many needs. So much more that needs to happen. And so many expectations that we place on ourselves, or that others place on us. As a consequence, Christian workers often feel burdened and not well-cared for. Burnout is a real problem. So is discouragement. And doing Christian ministry with an underlying vein of resentment can hardly be fruitful!

So, I am sure that many of you have come to this Ministerial Conference on well-being with hopes and expectations. In particular, you may feel that this topic is all the more relevant since the Covid crisis. Doing work well and being well-cared-for is a pressing challenge. And so, you have come believing that this is a most timely and relevant topic for those in Christian ministry.

But you may also have come with some concerns. You hope to gain some good ideas or strategies from this conference, but you are worried whether they can be implemented in your church.

You may also some deeper concerns. Is the concept of “well-being,” and its close cousin “wellness,” too trendy, psychological, aspirational, and vague. Does it promise too much? Will it only lead to frustration?

And if that is not enough some of you may be wondering what about the more traditional language of spiritual growth, Christian maturity, discipleship, Christ-likeness, and wholeness, among other terms that we are much more familiar with?

So welcome. And it’s ok if you are hopeful and expectant. And if you are concerned and a little troubled, that is ok too.

My happy task is not to push a particular line. I am not paid by a major pharmaceutical company to push well-being pills, although happiness pills are on the market. And ATS has not placed limitations on what I can say regarding this topic. They have only asked me to deal with church structures and practices that promote well-being. A big topic, no doubt. Enough to make me anxious which impacts my sense of well-being! Biro lang!

So come along for the ride. Let’s see what we can learn. I wish to make some basic moves. 1. I want to note the current interest in well-being in society. 2. I want to suggest that a Christian understanding of well-being has a different source and dynamic. 3. I want to make some suggestions as to what churches and church-related institutions can do to facilitate well-being. But I do so from the perspective of calling for significant change in the way we do church.

A Personal Vignette

But first a personal note. I am not giving this talk as an arm-chair theologian calmly sitting in a library. I do so as a practitioner having worked for decades in urban and cross-cultural mission and as one involved in pastoral ministry.

And I do so, having experienced a major health breakdown after several years of ministry to those in the drug scene.

I know something about failure in self-care, work-life balance, and in sabbath and other spiritual practices. I know something about the evangelical mantra of much-doing. And have struggled all my life in seeking to live and serve in more sustainable ways. My recent book In the Midst of Much-Doing: Cultivating a Missional Spirituality explores that journey.

Let me just say that failure can be a great blessing. It can immobilise us. It can also move us forward.

Well-Being in the Contemporary Cultural Landscape

A few weeks ago, the commanding general of the Australian army, gave a tearful public apology that the army had failed its soldiers and families in providing adequate support for its personnel in relation to high suicide rates. He said: “we have failed in the well-being of our soldiers.”

A little earlier we had a Royal Commission looking into problems in the Aged Care sector. The report highlighted a failure in providing adequate resources for the well-being of the elderly in aged care.

And more generally, in the current workplace, one of the challenges is that companies need to give greater attention to the overall well-being of their employees and to the conditions in the workplace in general.

Schools now have policies that are meant to guide and facilitate the well-being of teachers, support staff, and students. Mental health services provide well-being programs and strategies that facilitate a positive outlook, satisfaction with life, and life-giving ways of being and relating. And everywhere there are programs – physical, psychological, meditational, spiritual – that seek to promote well-being.

This theme has become so all pervasive that the World Health Organisation (WHO) has made well-being a key element in its public policy framework. The organisation recognises that well-being as a positive state is a key resource for daily living, and contributes not only to sustainability, but also to human thriving and productivity.

A Little Definitional Clarity

At the most basic level, well-being has to do with living a good quality of life in all its dimensions. Well-being has to do with being healthy, happy, positive, and growing in one’s full potential in the personal and social dimensions of life.

Well-being is, therefore, a relational concept. And Aristotle in the dim and distant past had already formulated the idea that my personal well-being is directly linked to your well-being. Thus, he thought of it in communal terms.

But since we are complex creatures, well-being is a complex. Therefore, it does not have a single source. It is the combination of a person’s physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and social-health factors.

It’s Not That Simple

The above is all well and good, but it’s not that simple.

First of all, one’s sense of well-being differs in terms of one’s life cycle and aging. Contemporary Western young people see well-being as involving happiness, kindness, fun, and safety. The not-so-young see it in terms of inner harmony, mental health, and work-life balance. Others have other perspectives.

Second, the sense of well-being differs in different cultures. In contemporary Chinese culture, well-being has to do with contentment but also with optimism. And you will need to identify how well-being is understood in Philippine culture, but also in its different cultural groupings and social classes.

Third, and most fundamentally within a Christian world-view, how is well-being understood in a world of beauty and abundance and a world of brokenness, injustice, and the misuse of power? How is well-being understood when we are, and continue to be, sinner/saints, according to Martin Luther? How is well-being understood when we are called to be in Christ and to live in the way of Christ sustained by a cruciform spirituality – a spirituality that calls us to suffer on behalf of others? How is well-being understood when we are called to bear the cross? And how is it understood when we live the yet and not-yet nature of the kingdom of God in our world?

And finally, and most problematically, what does well-being look like when you live with a disability, live in poverty, have been displaced due to natural disasters or war, have lost your health, marriage, or your job, or you are marginalised, or discriminated against.

In the light of all of this, is well-being simply something we wish for and can work for, but remains a dream on the far horizon?

Well-Being in a Christian Frame

If you think that I am simply negative and dismissive of the current emphasis in society on well-being, you are mistaken.

Attention to the concern for well-being has important dimensions. The one, is that health and well-being cannot be attained simply by medication. The other, is that institutions can discriminate against certain people, can misuse its power, can be oppressive. And further, in all the configurations of social life, we need to promote and facilitate the dynamics of respect, care, equality, and the possibilities for growth and well-being.

So, the concept of well-being is helpful. Therefore, I wish to show that well-being is consistent with the Christian pastoral vision. But at the same time, I seek to show that this pastoral vision surpasses contemporary notions of well-being. And finally, I wish to make practical suggestions what this Christian-enhanced-notion of well-being may look like in our churches and church-related institutions, and other dimensions of life.

The heartbeat of the Christian vision is that the God of the biblical narratives is a God who is compassionate, restorative, and empowering. God heals and seeks to make us well and whole. God’s redemptive purpose in Christ, through the Spirit, is to bless humanity so that we can live in the joy and fulness of God’s purposes. Key terms that reflect goodness is the OT concept of shalom, and the NT concept of soteria.

As a consequence, of this restorative work of God, we are all called to love and care for others both within the faith-community and in society. And this includes the dynamics of respect, care, equality, and the possibilities for growth and well-being.

But well-being within a Christian frame is different. And it is different in a number of key ways. First, its source is Christological. It is living in Christ, in the way of Christ, and for Christ. Second, its inspirational centre is pneumatological. It is living and acting empowered and guided by the Spirit. Third, it is sacrificial. It is loving and serving the other – even the enemy – for that person’s blessing. Fourth, it is prophetic. It is willing to hear God’s corrective voice, to be converted and transformed, and to carry that vision into the world to call it to God’s light. And finally, it is eschatological. It is willing to live in the now what God’s final vision of restoration will look like.

In contemporary society well-being is a human project of care, justice, and empowerment. In the Christian faith well-being is rooted in the nature of God’s redemptive work in Christ and is expressed in an imitatio Christi that seeks to live God’s shalom and soteria in relation to all, including the neighbour in need and the enemy in anger. In Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Ethics, well-being in contemporary society is living the penultimate (that which precedes the ultimate). But Christians are called to live the ultimate in the light of God’s final purposes.

What this means practically is that well-being within the life of faith is not merely a human project, is not a group’s self-enhancement, and it is not primarily a strategy. Rather, well-being is love of God and love of neighbour for the Christification of all of life to the glory of God.

Christological Well-Being and Structures and Strategies in Pastoral Care

It is at this point that I seek to be most specific. The global church is facing many external challenges. But there are also many internal challenges, which I primarily seek to address.

In dealing with current issues, we must not forget the broad sweep of church history, including what the church has not done well. In the past the church has brought people to faith with the power of sword. It has burned at the stake people who did not agree with its doctrines. It has sought to rule societies. And in recent centuries it has been coopted by colonialism, the pragmatism and scientism of our age, and has in many ways been culturally captive.

Much more recently, the Lausanne Movement has identified that global Christianity is weak in the formation of its adherents, in discipleship, and in ethical and sacrificial living. And we may add, that it has not been strong in its prophetic witness in the world.

This means that the issue of well-being – a big theme in contemporary services and institutions – poses a challenge to the church in terms of church’s conversion and growth. And we take up this challenge in the light of the Christological well-being we have already sketched out.

Make Your Own Move

I am about to make a number of suggestions. But you can tune-out if you like and have a mini siesta. What really needs to happen is that you need to make some practical moves when you leave here. You need to think about how well am I caring for staff? How well am I caring for myself? How well am I serving the congregation? How much are we all working together? How well do we share what we have? How well do we build each other up? How well do we celebrate? How well are serving the wider community? And other similar questions need to asked and explored, and answers implemented.

This is up to you. Be wise. Don’t be afraid. But if nothing changes – nothing changes!

Issues I Would Also Like You to Think About

• Churches need to be challenged to move from an easy believism to proclaiming and teaching a full-orbed gospel.

• Members need to be formed in the faith: biblically, spiritually, and missionally.

• The prosperity gospel needs to be replaced with a gospel of redemption, joy, discipleship, witness, and service.

• Church as institution needs to be reconfigured as church as community in Christ, as the body of Christ, and as a common life-together.

• Church leadership as mono-leadership needs to be reconfigured as reflecting the Trinitarian nature of God.

• Members of the church – the laity – must not be kept in infancy. Their voices need to be heard. Their gifts acknowledged. Their service in family, work, and the general marketplace celebrated.

• Reflecting the Trinitarian life of God, both the Christian family, the parish church, and all forms of Christian community and church related institutions need to function in inter-related and complimentary ways.

• The pastoral life of the church needs to be rediscovered. The church is so much more than a Sunday event. It is a life-together, and many forms of small group nurture, care, fellowship, and service need to be created and maintained.

• The dynamics of life-together is more than respect, care, and mutuality. It involves prayer, forgiveness, reconciliation, servanthood, and being willing to suffer for the sake of the other.

• Christological well-being involves love of God and love of neighbour. Service, relinquishment, generosity, sacrifice, are all part of a Christological formation in a full-orbed well-being.

• In order for such a well-being to flourish in the grace of God and the power of the Spirit, we need to face our own selfishness, the dynamics of exclusion and racism, our cultural captivity, and our misuse of power. As a consequence, our hearts need to be attuned to the weak and vulnerable in our midst.
•

So much more could and should be said. Clearly the life of the church must be transparent in relation to the laws of the land. And there are good reasons for us to learn from others – including those in secular fields of human well-being and flourishing. But the gospel challenge is that the new life of Christ takes us into a fuller way of being. It takes us beyond what we think is possible. The Gospel makes this specific. Matthew records the words of Jesus: “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (5: 20 ESV, my emphasis). The Greek term, perisseuo, and its derivates means: more than enough, abundant, remarkable, extraordinary.

Yes, we are called to promote well-being in terms of respect, care, and equality. But we are also called to bring forgiveness, reconciliation, love of the other including stranger and enemy, and a suffering servanthood for the sake of the other. Simply put, we are called to give our life, just as Jesus did.

Questions for Discussion

• What are the difficulties and blockages in engaging in discussion, evaluating, and improving things in your church or church-related institution?
• How much is your church task-oriented at the cost of also being nurture- oriented?
• What needs to happen if a Christ-shaped vision of well-being is to flourish in your church?

Charles Ringma, tssf.
Research Prof., Asian Theological Seminary, Metro Manila / Emeritus Prof., Regent College, Vancouver / Honorary Research Fellow, Trinity College Queensland, Brisbane / Distinguished Senior Fellow, Catechesis Institute, Waco, USA.

Book Review

Charles Ringma’s new book reviewed

In the Midst of Much-Doing: Cultivating a Missional Spirituality
by Charles Ringma tssf
Published by Langham Global [Due mid 2023]
Reviewed by Archbishop Mark Coleridge

Some time ago Charles Ringma gave me a book he had co-edited, Of Martyrs, Monks and Mystics: A Yearly Meditational Reader of Ancient Spiritual Wisdom. I was impressed by the range of sources it brought together and intrigued that Ringma, from a Dutch Reformed background, was so drawn to and familiar with voices from very different traditions; and I now use the book each day in my prayer. The same breadth and depth of engagement is even more evident in this longer and more systematic work, In the Midst of Much-Doing: Cultivating a Missional Spirituality.

Charles Ringma says that this is no work of academic theology, and in a sense that’s true. Yet it draws upon a wide range of theological voices of many backgrounds, and that gives the book an intellectual solidity. However, it is more invitational than instructional, more exploratory that expository. Above all, it is a work born of personal struggle through a now long life, which gives the book something of the feel of spiritual autobiography, weaving together many threads of a life that has been not only long but remarkably varied.

Charles Ringma’s voice is distinctive, and yet what he offers here is polyphonic. Many voices old and new, contemporary and traditional, are drawn together in an unusual harmony. It is a work described as trialectical: head, heart and hand dance together, as do theology, spirituality and mission, orthodoxy, orthopathy and orthopraxy. It is a work that moves inward, upward and outward; and all of this looks to the Trinity which is the womb of spirituality and mission and the point where they perfectly converge.

Not surprisingly, the inspiration of this book is radically biblical; but it also stresses the need to listen to and learn from the voices of the poor, often heard on the peripheries. Listening to the voice of God in Scripture and the voice of God in the poor becomes the ground of the contemplative vision which the book builds. Words like contemplation, mysticism and spirituality can be slippery. But Charles Ringma makes it clear that they all look to the experience of the real God which the world craves. People, especially the young, are looking not for words or concepts about God but for the experience of God; and unless Christians have this experience in depth they will leave the world dying of hunger. The Church can go out to the world only if the Church goes down into God.

Listening to God, experiencing God, leads to a new way of seeing the world – a new vision which genuinely pays attention as only the contemplative can. This is the truly prophetic vision of which this book speaks. The prophet in Scripture is one who has heard the word of God or seen a vision of God and who speaks of what is heard or seen to a world which may not welcome the word spoken. To hear this word, to see this vision, and to speak of what we have heard will demand not only discipline, even an asceticism, but also a willingness to enter into the mystery of the Lord’s Cross at the heart of which is love.

Charles Ringma, then, takes Christian mission far beyond managerialism, rooting it in the mission of the God who is love. The Church doesn’t work for God but with God. Mission for the Church is not just one task among many but a way of life. The Church doesn’t just have a mission but is a mission. The Church doesn’t exist for its own sake but for the sake of the world which “God so loved…that he sent his only begotten Son” (John 3:16).

These are life-giving insights at a time when a Church under pressure may be tempted to close ranks in a form of self-defence but when the Church in fact has to imagine and enact new forms of mission. At such a time, the Church’s great mistake would be a kind of introversion which may look like self-defence but would be self-destruction. In this book, Charles Ringma not only warns against that but, humbly and wisely, points the true way ahead.
************************
Archbishop Mark Coleridge was ordained as priest in 1974. He holds a doctorate in Sacred Scripture from the Pontifical Biblical Institute, and was Master of the Catholic Theological College in Melbourne. He has served on the Vatican Secretariate of State, the Pontifical Council of Culture, and the Pontifical Council of Social Communications. Since 2012, he has served as the Metropolitan Archbishop of Brisbane, Australia.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Book Review

The Fragile Heart – Tertiary Charles Ringma’s latest book

Book review – A Fragile Hope: Cultivating a Hermitage of the Heart – Charles Ringma tssf
Publisher: Cascade Books
ISBN 9781725287013
Reviewed by Terry Gatfield tssf

Charles Ringma comes as no stranger to the bookshelves of many Christians in Australia and to many in the international community. Whereas most theologians have developed one major field of enquiry Ringma has scanned, explored and developed an extensive range of theological pursuits and avenues of interest. Often these aspects have been expressed through a large range of penned semi-devotional works, amongst them Bonhoeffer, Mother Teresa, Ellul, Nouwen, Martin Luther King and Merton, as well as scholarly works which include a Commentary on Judges and Hearing the Ancient Wisdom.

To that are added a number of pastorally-related books, such as the Art of Healing Prayer and a number of books on poetry, while he is also the editor of many a collection of Christian-focused articles emanating out of Asia and Australia. His latest book, A Fragile Hope: Cultivating a Hermitage of the Heart, brings the total to twenty-seven publications. His extensive repertoire makes his latest book so interesting.

It is rare for theologians to write in the first person for good and not so good reasons. Generally, that has been a process adopted by Charles. He has the ability to skilfully abstract himself from the subject of his engagement. Self-disclosure is only rarely seen at the margins, if at all, in his previous works. Yet, his latest book is substantively different.


A Fragile Hope takes us on his personal journey of reflection and review following a 6-month sabbatical in a Hermitage. It is a very unusual book that highlights the big theological and social questions of the day though in a very tight and concise format. In particular, these are issues that relate to his life journey and, more specifically, to his struggles and engagement with the dilemmas of the contemporary socio-political-economic and religious western world of a Christian who desires to walk in the footsteps of Christ while maintaining faithfulness to the scriptures. It deals also with the big deep questions of how he must live and the tensions and paradoxes that are disturbing to him. This book is different in that it is about Charles Ringma and his journey though it also echoes the journey of others who have walked that path. He seems to draw from many of the saints of old. It is he who bears his mind, his heart and his soul. But don’t be fooled, this is not a narcissistic exercise in navel gazing; it is a time of listening at the altar of the authors’ confessionals. Charles is a wordsmith who skilfully and subtly takes us on his journey as we are perhaps faced with the same tensions and dichotomies of daily living in the Kingdom of God, especially in a western context. It is insightful, inspirational, challenging and, sometimes, disturbing.

The take-home message that I have personally drawn from this is of an increased hope – a greater and deeper hope to see and live in the Kingdom of God in my daily life, to be in the world but not of it nor conformed to it. To live in the transformational zone. I think a slow daily and deeply reflective reading of the book will assist that process for me, and I think for many of the readers.

I commend this book as not one to simply fill a space on the bookshelf but one to assist reflection and review of the pilgrimage journey for the thinking Christian. It is a very practical and insightful book which is relatively free of theological jargon and it would be an ideal read for individuals seeking a deeper more meaningful Christian faith experience. It is an accessible companion of about one hundred pages and it is broken into twenty-eight chapters, each loaded with nourishment and wisdom. It is incredible value at $25.

November 2021


Book Review

SIMPLY CHRISTIAN: Greg Sheridan’s new book

Greg Sheridan, Christians: The urgent case for Jesus in our world,
Allen and Unwin, 2021.
From $26. Paperback.
Reviewed by Ted Witham tssf

Greg Sheridan introduces his new book on the people of Christianity with his cheerful description of our faith:

‘On the inside, Christianity is full of feast days and family, full of fellowship, full of friendship. And everyone is welcome, surely never more so than at Christmas. It’s full of care for the sick and elderly, and for infants. It’s full of sport and play, hard work and rest. It’s full of good music and laughter, happy rituals and lots and lots of food (it’s very big on food). It is the principle of human solidarity. It’s the search for decency. It’s a conversation with each other and with God. As John Denver might have put it, in Christianity you routinely speak to God and rejoice at the casual reply.’ (Page 11)

Christians is Greg Sheridan’s second book in defence of Christianity. Sheridan writes of a large Christianity, catholic in the widest way. One of his principal arguments, first advanced in his 2018 God is Good for You, is that it is more reasonable to believe in God than not. The first book was mainly a rejoinder to the new atheists. In it, he took on writers like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens and showed how much bigger Christianity is than the caricature Dawkins and Hitchens attack.

In this second book, Sheridan tells stories: the stories of Jesus, Mary and the remarkable Paul. Stories of the faith of Scott Morrison, Alpha’s Nicky Gumbel and the Melbourne Anglican founder of Converge, Jenny George. He tells the story of China’s Christians, and the difference they may make to the future of China. In London, he compares the neighbouring churches of Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB) and the Brompton Oratory, where traditional and informal liturgies, high classical church music and Matt Redman’s Gospel songs are all quite different and all nourish believers.

Christians compresses Christianity to its simple heart. For a reader like me, Sheridan sometimes makes Christianity seem too simple. But his purpose is to provide an attractive portrayal of Christianity for those who do not share the faith. In that, Christians reminds me of C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity, and Christians is a more entertaining read than Lewis.

Greg Sheridan’ s writing is compelling and accessible. He works as foreign editor for the Australian newspaper. In Christians, he is open about his political stance (he describes himself as centre-right). In a throwaway line, he suggests that Christians are likely to be centre-right or centre-left in their politics. Extremes are likely to lack love.

Christians is endorsed by well-known journalists and by church leaders as diverse as Russell Evans from Planetshakers International, Peter Comensoli, Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne and Pastor Samuel Rodriguez, President of the US National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference.

It is a book that can be shared both with non-Christians and Christians alike. Those unfamiliar with our faith will find an attractive picture of how Christian faith is lived, and Christians will be encouraged that such a positive book will speak to such a challenging time.

[This review first published in Anglican Messenger, Perth, September 2021)

Book Review

Blessed are Christians through the Pandemic

Irene Alexander and Christopher Brown (editors),
To Whom Shall We Go? Faith responses in a time of crisis,
Cascade 2021
Paperback ISBN 9781725289550
Hardback ISBN 9781725289567
eBook ISBN 9781725289574
Available from the publishers, Koorong, or from the authors at holyscribblers.blogspot.com
Hardback $40, eBook and Paperback $25

Reviewed by Ted Witham

Part of us wants to pretend the Coronavirus pandemic has not happened, and that the Church can go back to its old ways after the worst of this is over. I have no doubt, however, that there will be enduring changes, not least in the way Church organisations use technology.

The collective of Christian writers behind To Whom Shall We Go, who call themselves the “Holy Scribblers”, are also convinced of permanent change. Their interest, as shown in this series of eleven essays, is in changes to our spiritual lives more than technology.

The book is loosely structured around the Beatitudes and this structure gives the book an optimistic feel: we Christians will be stronger and our faith will be deeper – we will be more blessed – because of living through this moment. Their grounds for optimism are historical. We have before lived through past pandemics and challenges and emerged changed and stronger.

The authors are an eclectic mix of academics and thinkers who are looking for thoughtful Christian readers, clergy and lay. Two Franciscan Tertiaries, Terry Gatfield and Charles Ringma, are among the contributors. As is always the case with essays from diverse authors, individual readers will find some essays stronger than others. For example, Chris Mercer’s explorations of Desert Father Evagrius’ “eight deadly thoughts” (gluttony and lack of thankfulness for food, sexual lust, sadness, boredom and apathy, vainglory and pride) resonate for me.

I have some quibbles with the structure of the book. Each section gave rise to prayers and questions for reflection. The reflection questions were at the very end of the book. In the eBook format, especially without hyperlinks, this rendered the questions almost useless.

The prayers were crafted along quite traditional lines, so some could be used or adapted, for example, for intercessions at the Eucharist. I found them a bit too stolid, with none of the creativity of the stunningly beautiful prayers of another Australian, Craig Mitchell, in his recent Deeper Water (Mediacom).

To Whom Shall We Go is a timely book and will stimulate lively thinking about where God is now leading God’s Church.