Matthew Hosier

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Theology, Preaching & Giant African snails

Matthew is based in Poole, Dorset, where he shares a house with one tarantula, an indeterminate number of giant African snails, two snakes, two bearded dragons, two ferrets, two dogs, four children, and one wife, and leads Gateway Church. He studied zoology at university before entering church work (and now just has a zoo), and has an MA in Christian Ethics from King’s College, London.

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Surfing - Dorset by Justene

Not far from where I live, on the Dorset coast, there is a little known but world class surfing break. Well maybe that’s a little exaggerated, but there can be no doubt that this is a good wave – twenty footers have been reported when conditions are right. In a different part of the world this break would be much better known, but Dorset doesn’t tend to be thought of as surfing territory – it is not exactly Brazil or Hawaii!

What generates a good wave on this patch of coast is an accident of geology and Atlantic weather patterns. When there is a sustained Atlantic depression off the coast of Florida, and an area of high pressure over the UK, a swell is formed which travels the thousands of miles to Dorset. This swell rising and falling over deep water is suddenly compressed into shallow water as it hits the rock ledges off our coast, and big waves kick up as a result.
 
When this happens our local surfers are out in force, even though it generally only happens in winter when the water is properly cold. For a surfer, the chance to ride a good wave just a few minutes drive from home is too much to miss, even if it means near hypothermia.
 
It is rather an odd feeling, standing on a cliff watching the surfers, to think that this very particular activity is only made possible by a weather system on the other side of the planet. For a few seconds a neoprene clad figure stands on a piece of shaped fibreglass and rides the energy of one of the worlds great oceans.
 
Surfing is very elemental – it is all about the buzz of catching that wind and rock generated energy; of being immersed as closely as can be with the power of the water without being destroyed by it, but in a sense transformed by it. It is tantalizing in its fleetingness – something so big and powerful, something that has travelled half-way around the world, but which only exists for moments before it dies and is lost on the shore.
 
And then there is the perennial hope – the hope of another wave to come. A bigger, better wave. The ultimate wave. A perfect combination of swell and wind and reef, and poise and timing and strength, all coming together in that moment of perfect synchronicity and exhilaration and terrified joy. A wave that will be talked about long after the molecules of hydrogen and oxygen have flowed onto another beach.
 
It is that hope which keeps thousands of neoprene clad figures bobbing around on thousands of beaches the world over. The mighty vastness of the oceans, concentrated down upon a small board on the margins of land and sea.
 
Connecting with God is somewhat like surfing, and it is what all seekers after the spiritual attempt to do. The Buddhist at meditation, the Muslim at prayer, the New Ager at the vegan health store – they’re all just trying to catch the wave. All those people living in hope; hoping that the wave will come, and they will bridge the gulf between the visible and invisible worlds.
 
But here’s the thing about all spiritualities not founded in Jesus Christ: They know there is a wave, but they have no idea how it got there. They don’t understand the spiritual equivalents of Atlantic depressions and Dorset rock shelves.
 
The claim of the gospel is that in Christ we get revelation of the true source of all the energy in the universe. That, as Paul puts it in his letter to the Colossians, “by him all things were created…and in him all things hold together.” Weather systems over the worlds oceans, geological formations, water and fibreglass and neoprene, all – ultimately – originate in him and are held together by him.
 
What this means for followers of Christ is that we should be the most deeply spiritual people on earth, as we have greater revelation about the world than anyone else, both the world visible and invisible. In Christ we can interpret all we see in the physical world in the light of his creating and sustaining work; and as people of the Spirit we also exist in the reality of what is unseen. That liminal world, that moment of wave riding ecstasy of existing in two worlds at once, is the living space of Christ followers.
 
The trouble is, surfers tend to get pulled in different directions – it is easy to either get swamped by water or washed up on the shore. When this happens to a Christian it results in either an ungrounded spirituality that is out of touch with all reality or an earthliness that becomes impervious to the invisible work of the Spirit.
 
Where we need to exist is in the place in between, in that place where we see the spiritual in everything and have our feet on the solid rock that is Jesus Christ. This is the place of true spirituality. In this place we are not surprised if God speaks to us through a tree or a rock or a story in the news. And at the same time we are grounded enough to get on with the normal stuff of life – paying our taxes and raising our kids, and washing dishes, and going for walks and riding waves.
 
I recently heard of a Christian who was unwell and in hospital. Throughout this time he would claim, “I am healed!” despite the fact that he was very obviously sick. This seemed to me to be an example of ungrounded spirituality – a spirituality that ignored the things that God may have been trying to speak to him through the experience of his illness. It also ignored the very grounded reality of the work of doctors, nurses, cleaners, and the many other hospital staff involved in the process of making him well.
 
True spirituality is where the gulf between the visible and invisible is closed. We see this most clearly in the person of Christ Jesus. In him we see one who clothed himself in human flesh and lived the very grounded life of a jobbing builder. He healed sickness and cast out demons and stilled the waves, but also sat on the beach barbequing fish with his friends. He holds all things together, but also knows what it is to be tired and hungry and in pain.
 
As truly spiritual people, people who see God at work in everything, let’s inhabit the space where visible and invisible meet. Let’s be those who know how to surf the wave.

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Everything and Spirituality

Not far from where I live, on the Dorset coast, there is a little known but world class surfing break. Well maybe that’s a little exaggerated, but there can be no doubt that this is a good wave – twenty footers have been reported when conditions are right. In a different part of the world this break would be much better known, but Dorset doesn’t tend to be thought of as surfing territory – it is not exactly Brazil or Hawaii!

Revolution by chris.corwin

For over 200 years Western society has been governed by the division of labour. It is this specialisation that has allowed the incredible industrial and technological advances which have shaped our culture. From the production of cheap motorcars to the development of digital technology, specialisation has kept the wave of progress surging forward.

This materialistic reality has shaped not only the goods we produce and own, and the jobs that we do, but also our very way of thinking. Consider your instinctive reaction to the terms – who is superior; the ‘specialist’ or the ‘generalist’? When we are ill we go to the general practitioner at first, but quickly turn to a specialist if we need more than a simple prescription. We want our children to be taught by specialists in their subjects. If we need help with our tax returns we find a specialist to help us.

Specialisation has also shaped our thinking in the way that much of life tends to be compartmentalised. We live in boxes, and travel to work in boxes. At work we sit in a box, looking at a box, and then once home we turn on the box. Inevitably this results in a frame of mind that views work as belonging to one compartment, and leisure to another, and spirituality to another. Increasingly we live atomised lives, where the different things we do are not organically connected, and in which we are isolated from other people. The sense of emotional disconnect that many people feel is hardly surprising in this efficient, specialised, but ultimately dissatisfying world we have created.

While the picture I have painted might seem to be just life as life is, it is certainly not what is expected within a biblical worldview. From the perspective of the Bible’s authors, God is actively involved in everything in creation, and his people are dynamically united with him, and one another. In 1 Chronicles 29:11-12 we read David’s prayer before the people as he made preparations for building a temple:

Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and you are exalted as head above all. Both riches and honour come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all.

David’s prayer is a recognition of the connectedness of all human experience. Ultimately it is the Lord who owns and controls all things – he really is the king. And in the end it is the decision of the King, rather than our specialisation that determines what happens in our lives. What this meant for David was that whether he was planning a building project, leading his troops in war, or composing a psalm of praise, the whole thing, everything, was about the Lord.

Turning to the New Testament we see that a favourite apostolic description of believers is that they are in Christ. Joined into Christ, we are also joined into one another. This organic, bodily union must give shape to everything we do. It means that though we may specialise in our place of work, we can never become compartmentalised beings. It means that whether we are travelling to work, cooking a meal, washing the car, sitting at our desk, caring for our children, or anything else, we are doing it in Christ, and in connection with the rest of his people.

My prayer is that the Everything Conference would help us think more about these issues and see their implications for us. Whether your thing is art, or business, or politics, the main thing is that we should be biblically shaped – that our worldview should be conditioned more by the reality of our connection to Jesus than our cultural preconceptions. If the church of Jesus Christ would grasp this it would unleash a revolution far more powerful than the industrial one.

Let’s start a revolution of everything!

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A Revolution of Everything

For over 200 years Western society has been governed by the division of labour. It is this specialisation that has allowed the incredible industrial and technological advances which have shaped our culture. From the production of cheap motorcars to the development of digital technology, specialisation has kept the wave of progress surging forward.