sustain:if:able kiwi

family surprise

You can’t chose your family. At times they sadden you. And every now and again they surprise you and do something TOTALLY unexpected.

I look upon my Baptist denomination as my family. At times they have saddened my and I’ve wondered if I still fit. At our annual Baptist denominational gathering over the weekend, they TOTALLY surprised me. The focus was mission. We explored Acts 15 and Acts 17. The edges were affirmed an new mission was considered. I got so excited, that I moved the following 4 motions on the Baptist Assembly floor. 500 people burst into applause. Our Baptist denomination agreed to the following;

That our (Baptist) assemblies
continue to welcome stories from the edge

That this assembly
ask Consultancy to gather necessary people around the [mission challenges],
with findings sent to all Baptist churches and placed on www.baptist.org.nz

I am marking today; students had to write a journal as part of the assessment of my emerging church course. I’ve just made the following comment on a student’s work. It captures for me what the emerging church conversation could be about.

Marking comment: This is a profound shift; from style (music) to theology, relationships and content. It makes all your [training] worthwhile, because ministry is no longer a Parachute/Koorong catalogue of the latest trendy music, but a Biblical, relational, ministry lifestyle.

how do you sustain a workplace spirituality

On Sunday, I preached on the Bible as a resource for our workplace. I looked at Esther as beauty queen, Nehemiah as urban developer and Lydia as a business women. All were found in hard ethical places and yet sustained a missional spirituality. I suggested the church should be encouraging our young people to be ministers of the gospel in government and politics and business. Halfway through my sermon I thought; “Steve, it would have been really useful and practical if you had some practical tips on how to sustain a workplace spirituality.” But by then it was too late.

So I am on a mission this week to collect resources that would help sustain a workplace spirituality. Here’s my start. What else do you know of?

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contemporary atonement images

Arab parents donate son’s kidney to Israeli

The family of a 12-year-old Palestinian boy, killed by Israeli soldiers, this weekend donated his kidney to an Israeli boy who desperately needed a transplant. “It doesn’t matter,” they said, “whether the recipient was a Jew or an Arab.” Ahmed Khatib was shot in the head and pelvis on Thursday during a firefight in the West Bank city of Jenin.

Link

This has hints of atonement; a body given that others might live, a body broken to remove barriers between the alienated, the Jew and Gentile.

It is a similar approach to atonement as taken by the movie Jesus of Montreal, in which the body of the actor Daniel becomes eyes for the blind and a new heart for the diseased.

Did anyone get a video tape of this on the news? I’m thinking about using it for communion on Sunday nite.

so, how pragmatic are we all?

The event: A 10 minute sermon on workplace evangelism, followed by a 15 minute interview with a panel of 5 workers. What challenges them; What encourages them; in being a light for Christ in their workplace.

Feedback from Person A: I loved that. Really, really helpful.

Feedback from Person B: I didn’t like that. Those panel’s don’t really work for me.

Now, person A is new to the church, is working in a professional job, has children and has recently brought friends along.

Person B is a long-timer, retired, who’se children have left home.

The pragmatist says; Take heed of Person A. They are much better for the future of the church.

Which leaves me wondering; What do the values of the Kingdom say? Who does the Kingdom listen to?

a big sunday

10:30 am — preach at Opawa on “The Bible as a workplace book”
12:45 pm — input on preaching to Primal Youth leadership team
1:45 pm — drive for an hour to Hororata.
3:00 pm — preach at Te Waiora Annual Thanksgiving Service

then drive back for

7:00 pm — be part of Opawa Digestion evening service

and I am so looking forward to a day off tomorrow!

retreating

As a church leadership we’re away on a day of retreat today, taking some time to reflect back and look forward. We’ve invited some “boat rockers” or “out of the box” thinkers to join us; people in the church who we sense will provoke and challenge us and help us avoid group think.

We are also going to be trying an idea from Stephen Said, using de Bono’s 6 hats to aid our reflection and critical thinking. The programme for our day is here; the left column is the days tasks, the right column is reflection material including our aim, values, multi-congregational model.

communitas is only useful if you want to keep the emerging church adolescent

I made this blog comment on signposts. It’s noted here, sort of like a gravestone! Fire away:)

The notion of communitas as applied to church is a nonsense. It was first used by Turner to describe initiation rites in tribal cultures. Communitas is that in-between stage, between childhood and maturity. It is an artificially induced transitional stage. But you don’t live there. You can’t. That’s its whole point. It’s a transition stage.

I think applying communitas to the emerging church will only serve to keep us in our juvenile adolesence. Isn’t it time the emerging church got beyond it’s adolesence and got on with the task of mature Christian discipleship and living.

Update:

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stories of emergence

Updated:

Stories of emergence. The recent history of Opawa Baptist is one of the decline, transition and growth. Steve Taylor will reflect on the missional thinking that has underpinned the development of growth coaching, café church, 24/7 prayer roms and “Take a Kid to Faith services.”

I’m doing 2 workshops at Baptist Assembly next Saturday (12th November) in Hamilton. I’ve been asked to share something of the Opawa story, around the title stories of emergence. I am going to try to frame it up around the out of bounds church? book. Because I’ve been reflecting on the Opawa journey and I actually think those postcards from the book:
:midwiving
:creativity
:journey/spiritual tourism
:community
have actually been at play at Opawa. From church plant to 96 year old church, from cafe style to established auditorium, it’s been the same underlying missiology. So I’m going to try to link
:midwiving with the planting of the espresso congregation and Take a Kid to Faith services
:creativity with 24/7 prayer room
:journey/spiritual tourism with evangelism-as-process and growth coaching
:community with leadership.

More links and ideas to follow. Might actually be a good 10th postcard for a reprint of the out of bounds church? book. (Or at least a page on the out of bounds church? book blogsite🙂

healing and wholeness in a postcolonial theology

I’m preaching on Sunday, November 6th, 3.00 p.m, St John’s Church, Hororata;

Annual Te Waiora Thanksgiving Service
Title: A healing community
Text: Genesis 28:10-17
Spiritual takeaway: sprigs of rosemary

I’m wrestling with text and topic at the moment. I’m thinking about how some of our contemporary movies are a cry for wholeness and healing -Whale Rider and the pain of a search for identity, In My Father’s Den and the pain of household memories. And reflecting on Jacob, who in Genesis is fleeing the pain of household memories and is searching for identity. And how in the Biblical narrative, God becomes present, through sleep, as an ancestral God. And then there is John 1:51 and Jesus as the new Jacob.

Somehow in here are the seeds of a post-colonial theology — journey, past wounds, ancestoral identity, land issues. But the task for today is accessibility and a 15 minute “spiritual reflection.”

transition packs

(Been meaning to blog this for a while).

A guiding verse for us as a church this year has been John 10:10; Jesus coming to give us life to the full. This has raised for us as church ministry staff the questions;

• How do we resource people to live Christian life to the full?
• What would it mean for us as church staff to offer pastoral support to people in life’s many transitions?

A conversational comment made by Olive Drane has kept stirring away. She noted her son getting a new job and the job placement agency sending in a morning tea on the first day of the new job. And the question, “What could it mean for churches to be engaged in honouring these transitions?”

Outcome …
This year we have started “transition packs.” For example;

• new seeds to people moving house
• new nappies to families with new-borns
• cycling gloves for the loss of a drivers licence

Purpose …

• To provide a God-presence for all of life.
• To show our pastoral support for people.
• Allows us to connect with people both inside and outside the church.

Process …
With the staff and with our ministry leader we brainstormed together transitions and potential gifts.

• What are the life transitions people go through?
• What could go into a “transition pack” which we give, along with a card, to people going through a life transition?

Ideally gifts would be creatively low-cost. Ideally gifts would be unique to allow freshness and avoid the legalism of expectations. This brainstorming process made us more alert to “whole-of-life” transitions and turned up creative suggestions.

Possible transitions and gifts could include…

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