sustain:if:able kiwi

brian is preaching

Opawa Baptist has wifi. So these are notes, what I heard Brian say, [with a few editorial comments by me], as Brian preached. It will be interesting to see the difference between seminar mode and working with the text mode.

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workshops

All afternoon people have been cruising around various workshops. I believe in contextual theology and so I worked hard so that Brian’s input could be surrounded by “coal face” New Zealander’s working on the issues, not as experts but as storytellers.

Do the workshop topics indicate who my friends are?

Or could they perhaps give some idea of the unique “charism” of the emerging church in New Zealand; in worship and art as mission, transitioning existing churches through multi-congregations, workplace spirituality, ministry among church leavers?

Or could the workshops also show the new edges of a movement? 10 years ago the emerging church in New Zealand was under heavy criticism and the practioners tended to be bunkered down and concentrating on survival. Are we seeing a move toward greater dialogue among denominations and a focus on mission, justice and the margins?

Workshop topics included;

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brian mclaren session 3: spiritual formation in practice

Opawa Baptist has wifi. So these are notes, what I heard Brian say, [with a few editorial comments by me], as Brian spoke for a day on the topic of spiritual formation.

He is offering 16 practical ways for embrace spiritual formation. I have added in some practical examples which I think are happenning at Opawa.

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brian mclaren session 2: forming disciples : panel

Panel 2: Lyn Campbell, Alan Jamieson, Kathy Mayes. They are not experts. They are helping us contextualise and process what Brian is saying and what it means for us.

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brian mclaren session 2: forming disciples

Opawa Baptist has wifi. So these are notes, what I heard Brian say, [with a few editorial comments by me], as Brian spoke for a day on the topic of spiritual formation. These are notes on the art of forming disciples.

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brian mclaren session 1: spiritual formation: panel

Panel: Murray Robertson, Dave Atkinson from Primal, Jenny McIntosh. They are not experts. They are helping us contextualise and process what Brian is saying and what it means for us.

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brian mclaren session 1: spiritual formation

Opawa Baptist has wifi. So these are notes, what I heard Brian say, [with a few editorial comments by me], as Brian spoke for a day on the topic of spiritual formation. Here is the introductory session.

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brian mclaren session 1

Opawa Baptist has wifi. So these are notes, what I heard Brian say, [with a few editorial comments by me], as Brian spoke for a day on the topic of spiritual formation. First he is talking briefly about the emerging church.

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podcast: emerging church scene in New Zealand06

I’m hoping to interview some of the voices from the emerging church scene here in New Zealand as part of the Brian McLaren weekend. So, let’s see if this works: Download file If it does, it is my first ever podcast. Let me know what you think.

letters from a dying church

The big challenge, in the next few years, will be to develop the stories of those emerging churches that work within existing churches. In the US, we have very few examples of these… Link.

Two and a half years ago it was my intuitive sense that the future would need models not only of emerging church plants, but of transitional churches in which emerging congregations could be birthed as part of existing churches. It was one of the (many) reasons I moved from planting an emerging church called Graceway, to move to an established church, Opawa Baptist, to do this very thing. The above quote suggests I might not perhaps be as mad as many at the time thought.

I did not come with an agenda and have been amazed with some of the things that have emerged; new congregations, new forms of mission and spiritual formation. (for more explanation go here.) As part of the transition, I started a new blog category; “re-imaging at Opawa.” I was stunned to check my archives last month and discover that it now has 114 entries. That’s over 23,000 words.

Three denominations have contacted me recently asking me to share the story. So I’m considering writing some resources, perhaps titled Letters from a dying [Western] church.

1. If you have a question about transitioning a church into postmodernity and seeing emerging churches from within existing churches, drop them in the comments and they might become gist in a “letter.”

2. If you would like to read a draft of each “letter” before it goes public, and so help me shape – theologically, missiologically, practically – each letter, drop me a line and I will be in touch.

3. If you are a publisher who is happy to participate in an shared public domain project, ie you will let me publish the letters on-line and I will let you publish them as a book, email me steve at emergentkiwi dot org dot nz

4. I’m working on a half-time liver, so I am not making any promises about how often these letters will appear. But I suspect there’s enough material lying around for me to start.

mclaren weekend: updated

Things are falling into place nicely for Brian McLaren, this weekend (for more details, go here and it’s still not too late to register ).

– Registrations are update: finished with near 100, which means a good conversation. Update: with a real diversity of church backgrounds which will also greatly “salt” the conversation
– The coffee maker is booked.
– We are having a number of panelists who respond to Brian on the Saturday, as part of the discerning and contextualising process. The panelists have gelled into a really nice mix that includes young, women, lay, alongside the usual respected leader names.

Here is an outline of some of the workshops for the Sunday afternoon;

How much Spirit has the emerging church got? (Steve Graham): A look at the questions Pentecostal/Charismatic churches and the emerging church might have for each other over what it means to be people of the Spirit eg the place of congregational singing in worship, ecstatic gifts in services, divine creativity, seekers’ ‘initiation’ into the dynamics of the Spirit

The Art of Curating Worship (Mark Pierson): seeing worship as an art form to be curated rather than a list of boxes to be filled.

A café church spirituality (Lynne Taylor): two stories of emergence, of different groups engaging with our world in different ways… with common themes.

Update: Spirited Exchanges (Jenny McIntosh and Elizabeth Taylor): Spirited Exchanges is something for people who are struggling to find a “place” at church – who have been wounded or hurt by church or it’s leaders, who are asking questions but not necessarily finding answers. We want to create a regular place where people can come and air their doubts, share their story, and find acceptance, not judgement. This is a double workshop that includes exploration and then the running of an actual Spirited Exchanges. Ideally people would attend both.

Update: Emerging Workplace Spirituality (Alistair McKenzie): Emerging church can easily just focus on doing things differently when we gather together. If we continue to think that church is something we come to, then we will fail to realise our potential for being the church God sends out into the world to work in partnership there. What sort of spirituality will support the ministry of all God’s people the other six days?

Other workshops include public artistic mission and a book club discussion of McLaren’s “a generous orthodoxy” and Taylor’s “out of bounds church?” (authors not necessarily present).