The Power of Imagination (March 2023)

Dear Friends

You may have spotted by now that I am a bit of a soft touch when it comes to bookshops. They are just too tempting! Recently, I got a little book that has been fun to dip into. It is called, “POEMS ON THE UNDERGROUND.”

In January, 1986, three friends persuaded London Underground to put up a few poems in their trains. Ever since, London Underground has put poems in its trains. The idea has become global. You’ll find poems on trains in Dublin, Paris, Stuttgart, Helsinki, Stockholm, Vienna, Madrid, Warsaw, Moscow, Melbourne, Shanghai and Beijing. The poems have been both very ancient and composed by new young writers. They have covered every possible topic in every conceivable style.

In their introduction to the book, the two surviving friends offer this lovely dedication: “To the farsighted managers of London Underground, who have kept poems circling on Tube trains for the past thirty years [the book was published in 2015]; and to the poets past and present whose words have entertained millions on their Underground journeys.”

I love poetry and this little book is a treasure. But it is something more in the idea that captivates me. And I think there are great theological resonances and suggestions for the mission of our churches here.

The first thing I am struck by is the sheer audacity and boldness of coming up with the idea and seeing it through. A leap of imagination is required to go from enjoying poems to talking to London Underground. And the leap works both ways; London Underground managers had to become as captivated by the idea as these three friends were. There is something unexpected and enticing about this. So it can be with our mission. I suspect people expect certain things from the Church.

But a key aspect of Jesus’ ministry was surprise. He constantly surprised people with God’s grace. He spent time with the wrong folk, told stories in which the unexpected people were the stars, taught in ways that undid things in the imaginations of his listeners and ultimately refused to let death end him. I love the routine of the rhythms of congregational life. But let us also always be looking to surprise our communities with what we can do and might offer. I think mission can flow from dreaming up the outrageous and then giving some of it a go.

I suspect there is a big gulf of scepticism and invisibility for us to cross all the time to share the gospel. Like a poem on a train, we can offer a sudden glimpse of something wonderful.

Secondly, I think there is a lesson here in the power of imagination. The imagination of poets opens up worlds and unveils human experiences. The imagination of these three friends and London Underground allowed poetic imagination to travel into the daily commute. There was no forcing of anything onto anyone. Instead, there was the hanging about of a bunch of words on some posters in some trains. But the ways in which those words speak into the lives of so many is probably incalculable. Jesus, in his ministry, often seems to have simply hung around to see what might happen next – think of him waiting at the well in Samaria in the heat of the day and that glorious conversation with the woman there (John 4: 1-42). For both of our churches, inside and out, we have a canvas that can speak to the world. I think we already do say some rather beautiful and powerful things with both sites. We have garden spaces and benches to invite folk simply to stop and stay and get a rest in a busy day. We have posters and signs. We have images and invitations. I place a high priority on these things with you because, 24 hours a day, our buildings advertise God. And that is worth doing with all the creativity and imagination we can muster.

So, here’s an invitation to you. If you have an idea for the mission and outreach of our churches that might seem as outrageous as asking London Underground to pop poems into trains, talk to me! We’ll have fun in the conversation, and we just might invent a whole new thing.

Neil