Being Rooted: Address at ACC National Conference 2024
BY CHRISTINE PINDER
“16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” Eph 3:17-19
The following is a transcript of Christine’s address:
I wonder if you have a vision for the church. I do. There is of course the vision that we all share. The vision for Jesus to be known – Jesus, this man who above all was different, endlessly fascinating in his interactions with people, who went beyond anything that anybody had dared to think before and since. This man, who as Christians we believe is none other than God. Yes, I share that vision. But I have another vision too. And it is simply this. My vision is for the church to be a place where the voices of suffering people are heard. That’s it. It doesn’t seem like rocket science to me. Jesus said, “love your neighbour” and that sounds rather like “listen to those who are suffering” doesn’t it? I don’t even mind what the suffering is, whether it’s big or small – as though we can measure somebody else’s suffering. I simply want those voices to be heard, recognised, acknowledged, validated, embraced, included. That’s the vision. And more than that, I believe that’s God’s heart too.
And that’s where we come in. All of us. As counsellors and pastoral carers who are Christians, it’s at the heart of what we’re about. It’s at the heart of what ACC is about. ACC is here to support us in our counselling and pastoral care, but I think there is more to it than that. I think ACC is also one of the most prophetic organisations in our country. I genuinely believe that. Have you noticed that Christians who are counsellors think a little bit differently to some other Christians around us? Sometimes that’s not an easy thing – but it may well be a prophetic thing. I honestly believe that. And I wonder if there are days when that all seems a bit too much. We have clients in desperate need, some of us have churches who don’t get what we are about, we have our own stuff going on too. On those days we can forget just how profoundly important this calling on our lives really is. We forget that we are making a difference, and we forget that God is at work in us and through us. And I do believe that it is a calling. If you’re here today, and you’re involved in this work even in a small way, then that I believe is a calling from God.
So, I want to ask a question. As the church in the UK, how are we doing on this vision of hearing the voices of those who are suffering? And I’m just not sure. I think we mean well. Our aim is to invite and welcome every person to join us and to share in knowing the love of Jesus. But in practice? There are some great examples, of course there are. But alongside that? I’m not sure. And believe me, I love the church. I’m committed to it, but I hear a lot of stories of people who have been hurt.
Pete Greig said this,
“Two long conversations in two days with two different men, one identical story: Grew up in traditional churches. Highly involved. Now completely repelled by Christianity. Why? Because of the terrible, appalling attitudes held and atrocities done by its leaders.”
Heartbreaking.
“I said all the obvious things. Apologised. Tried to point them away from religion towards Jesus. Apologised again. Mostly listened. But to be honest I don’t blame them. They were probably safer outside the church. I blame us.”
Now, I don’t want to stay here, going over stories of things that churches have got wrong. I find it more helpful instead to be curious. I love curiosity. I want to ask questions about it. Like,
How come people who seem to mean well and set out with good intentions mess up so much? (people like you and me). And is there anything we can do about it?
And that’s where I think this wonderful passage comes in. So, I want to spend some time understanding what it might be saying to us, particularly to us as counsellors and pastoral carers.
If you read through these few verses, you’ll find a list of verbs that point us to deepening our relationship with Jesus.
As Paul prays we hear
Dwelling,
Being Rooted,
Being Established
Grasping
Knowing
Being filled.
What a prayer! If in doubt – pray this!
So lets unpack it a bit. We’ll start with dwelling. This time not us dwelling in Jesus, but rather him dwelling in us. Making his home with us, moving in and making himself comfortable in our hearts. If you doubt your worth, remember the God of the universe has chosen you for his house mate! And he makes himself at home, as he expects you to do with him. Not just your best behaviour times, but the crashed out in your pyjama times, falling out with people times, despair, frustration, doubting, wilderness times. He is still dwelling and making his home with you.
Then from dwelling, we will become rooted in him. Putting down roots, digging down, going deeper, becoming more grounded. And then being established, becoming more settled and secure, more unshakable, more substantial. From there we will be able to grasp – getting our heads and hearts around this love of Jesus that is so much above and beyond anything we’ve known before. Knowing – not just intellectually knowing, but knowing in our hearts, the abundance and the intimacy of this love. And finally, as all this happens we will be filled. Filled with all the fulness of God. Wow! Now, who doesn’t want to go down that sequence?
Surely, here we will find our vision, the vision for the voices of the suffering to be heard, being fulfilled. A church of people filled with all the fulness of God will respond to suffering in the ways of compassion, wisdom, authenticity and humility that we all long for.
Now did you notice, right at the beginning of this prayer, for this to happen we need to be strengthened in our inner being? And we’re counsellors – here, Paul is talking our language! Inner being is where our work is done. Do we not see our clients becoming stronger in their inner being as we work with them? As they discover more of a sense of identity, more of a sense of self, as they learn to become more grounded, as they notice more parts of themselves and work out how to reconcile those parts together. Is that not the work of becoming stronger in their inner being? Do you see where I’m going with this? Do you see how, as we develop our understanding and our skills as counsellors, as we develop our abilities to help people become stronger in their inner being, we are also enabling this process of events to happen.
Could it be that our work, whether our clients are Christians or not, involves something deeper than we realise. Perhaps unwittingly we are preparing the ground, the ground of the inner being, to becomes a place where there is room for Jesus to dwell, so that this sequence of being rooted and established, grasping, knowing and being filled becomes possible.
Finally, lets just reflect for a minute on this word “rooted”. Imagine a beautiful tree. Maybe it has blossom or even fruit. Maybe there are birds nesting or squirrels scurrying up and down. Perhaps we want to be like that tree. But of course for the tree to grow and find the nourishment it needs to produce fruit, it must have a network of roots too. And the thing about roots is that they go down. Down into the darkness, away from the warmth, the sunlight, the nurture that we all look for. Could it be that if we want to be rooted, we need to be willing to go down into that place – down the rabbit hole if you like. The place that we all work to avoid. I wonder what that means for you. Are you able to take a minute or two to reflect on what that might mean? Or could it be that you are already down there? Maybe you’re wondering whether you will ever get out again? If that’s you, remember that God has not forgotten you. He is simply growing your roots. Have a look round the darkness, welcome the parts of yourself that you find down there – the shame filled, powerless, hurting, empty parts of yourself, introduce them to Jesus if you can. Can you see his love reaching out to them as he longs to bring them the healing they need? Becoming rooted is his work in us. It is his purpose to enable us to become established, so that we will be able to grasp and know his love and be filled with all the fulness of God.
So, to sum up. Can I encourage you to remember your calling. Your calling as counsellors and pastoral carers, to go out and make a difference in the world and in the church, and to remember that that calling may also have a prophetic edge to it. And as you do that, remember our sequence of:
dwelling, being booted and established, grasping, knowing and finally being filled with all the fulness of God.
And as we do that, may we see the church becoming a place where the voices of those who are suffering are heard.
Christine Pinder, ACC Board Member