sustain:if:able kiwi

flamed for Spirit as fire

Graceway, the church I was part of planting, just got flamed by the Sydney Anglicans. It was a worship service I was part of leading (come on Graceway when are you going to update the website that I built. It’s so 90’s :)!), so I’m in the firing line.

Graceway, a church in Auckland, New Zealand, encouraged its members to ‘pray with your hand around a cup of coffee’ as a way of experiencing the Spirit ‘as warmth in your spirituality’ … According to prominent evangelical church leaders, all are symptomatic of a dangerous protest against biblical orthodoxy … “This is not biblical theology,” says Canon Jim Ramsay, Director of Sydney Diocese’s Evangelism Ministries. “It’s a shaking of Christian orthodoxy.”

I presume they were cutting one fragment out of this service of worship, in which we focused on the Spirit as fire.

Can I point out that the service order also describes the reading out of 6 different lots of Scripture (Exodus 3/1 Corinthians 3/Jeremiah 20:8/Matthew 3:11/John 21/Isaiah 6:6-7). This was never mentioned in the article. 6 lots of Scripture. And it’s not Biblical theology! 6 lots of Scripture!

Full article here.

on earth as in heaven

Poem after a morning run

I lift my eyes up
Jet trails cross magic dawn
Jogging shot through with day glow

To worship God of hills and planes
No escape, no illusion
For to jog on this silent planet
Is rhythm
Is now
Is Grounded present

communion with Jesus

Communion sunday morning and I was preaching around Luke 24:36-43. I was struck by the thought that when Jesus ate fish with his disciples, it was like his first resurrection meal. It was an image I wanted us to capture. So we set up 4 long tables, uniform table cloths and 15 chairs, in a line at the front of the church, and invited people to come and eat with Jesus.

With 185 people, we couldn’t really afford a full meal. Instead we had big loaves of bread and caraffe’s of grape juice and wine tasting glasses. After the words of invitation, we sung 3 worship songs. That, and actually being seated and served at the table, gave people time to linger.

Lots of positive feedback and a more communal experience of communion for us at Opawa.

Do Christians know how to be Spiritual?

Things I liked about John Drane’s Do Christians Know How to be Spiritual?

1. John is such a down to earth and commonsense writer. Time and again this struck me.

4. The mapping of different types of contemporary spirituality on page 60 under 3 headings;
Lifestyle – Values, Community, Belonging, Morality
Discipline – Committment, Structure, Authority, Traditional faiths
Enthusiasm – Experimentation, Freedom, Experience, Mystery
and it left me wondering about where most of my spiritual exploration is (lifestyle I think); and where most church spiritual exploration is…

3. The diagram on page 85 exploring the interplay between undefined spiritual experience; gospel values and intentional Christian spirituality

4. Some great quotes

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, wth all you rmind, and with all your strength .. and Love your neighbour as you love yourself …can become an appropriate text not nly for mission among spiritual searchers but also for renewed forms of ministry within a post-modern church.” pages 88-89.

“Jesus never called disciples to be perfect or infallible, but to be true to themselves and to the gospel, and in the process of doing so to invite others to join them in the struggle to be human, spiritual, and Christian that is part of one’s life journey. Evangelism is more about inviting others to join us on the journey, because we share the same questions, than it is about selling people the ‘right’ answers to life’s problems,” Page 143.

“Angry and fragmented people create an angry and fragmented world, while those who are whole spread peace and harmony,” Pages 158.

“We have something to share with others not because we are different, but because we are no different, and we can become credible witnesses not as we condemn others and dismiss what we regard as their inadequate spiritualities, but as we constantly listen to the gospel and appropriate its challenge in our own lives.” Pages 160-1.

training in artistic mission

Wondered how to link creativity with mission? Wondered how to tell the Christian story without words? At Queen’s Birthday weekend at Opawa Baptist Church, Peter and Joyce Majendie are presenting a one day seminar entitled, “From Inspiration to Installation: Public mission through public art.”

Peter and Joyce will share their knowledge gleaned from years of practical experience, including;
1. moving from ideas to creativity to implementation
2. art, creativity and mission
3. using public spaces
4. mobilising volunteers
5. working with media groups
This seminar is part of a Pentecost weekend experience that will include art, creativity and spirituality seminars, cafe and live music.

For full press release

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stan grenz and australasian theology

The latest Princeton Theological Review is dedicated to Stan Grenz. Of most interest to me was the article titled: Straddling the Tasman: The Relevance of Grenz’s Revisioned Evangelical Theology in the Australasian Context, by Brian Harris, Principal of the Baptist Theological College of Western Australia.

The article is an analysis of the impact of Grenz’s integrating motif of “community.” The article charts key moments in New Zealand, and then Australian, evangelical history. It discusses the influence of Stan Grenz to Australasia; under headings including;
– willingness to engage culture
– role of Spirit
– theological understandings of community as a missionary resource.
and a fascinating final reflection on the lack of ecology in Grenz’s work, in contrast to it’s importance, especially in New Zealand. It made me realise again what a loss Stan was and how much I miss him.

On a personal note, I was stunned

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blog links

My post on 7 things I learnt from Bono about worship leading, and a follow-up post in which I outlined what this might look like in a congregation of 180 rather than a concert of 40,000 attracted quite a bit of blog comment at the time. Interesting to note that Sarah Dylan Breuer offers similar reflection here. It is far longer than my post, but reflects in a similar way on U2 as participatory and experiential worship. It is fascinating to see someone shaped by a Baptistic ethos, like myself, and someone shaped by an Episcopalian (Anglican) ethos, like Sarah, express similar views on the art of liturgy.

One of the most visited posts on this blog is a sermon I preached back in 2004 on the Prodigal Son. I just noticed a link from here and a post describing how a church group, called home, used the sermon, along with three different worship stations in response. It is quite wierd reading their post and realising that totally unbeknown to me, my words were being spoken on another continent. I bet they got the accent wrong!:)

dub, spirituality and worship

Update: this post has attracted a stack of spam, so I am closing it temporarily. My apologies and thanks to all those who posted.

Some random thoughts that might be total rot (ie, I’d value some feedback).

Thought 1 – It struck me at the Greg Laurie Crusade (in Christchurch over the weekend) that the music was “white boy” music – more rock based,guitar driven, clear verse/chorus song structure – in style …

Thought 2 – Often the songs sung in church are “white boy” music; I’m thinking Delirious, Hillsong, Soul Survivor …

Thought 3 – Dub music is currently BIG in New Zealand; I’m thinking Fat Freddys Drop, Salmonella Dub, Awake the Dawn … the list goes on …

Thought 4 – Some of my most spiritual moments in the last 5 years have occurred listening to dub. I can construct my spiritual soundscape around Love your ways and Longtime by Salmonella Dub and the sheer power of Ho Pepa’s trombone from Fat Freddys Drop – moments when God has been incredibly real amid my personal brokeness in leaving Graceway, battling institutional and denominational powers, embracing my inadequacies before the wind of God’s spirit.

Thought 5 – Dub music seems to create a number of layers for the individual participant to move within. It is more fluid and less linear than rock. It might just be me, but dub concerts are often more communal and less alcohol infused than rock concerts. Dub often has a spiritual vibe of peace and equality and inclusivity. I can imagine deeply Christian corporate worship around songs like Ez on by Salmonella Dub, Believ’n by son.shine; Hope by Fat Freddy’s Drop…

Now, if these random thoughts have any linkages (ie I’m not talking rot), I suspect there’s a need for a widespread “Dub project” that explores the place of dub in worship in New Zealand. Any takers? Does anyone know of any churches using Dub in worship, or any “Christian” dub bands out there?

Dub is a form of music that uses extensive echo and reverb effects and snatches of the lyrics from the original version, with most of the lead instruments and vocals dropping in and out of the mix. Another hallmark of the dub sound is the massive low bass. The music is often further augmented by live DJs, and electronic sound effects. Link

emerging AD:missions 3

a series of posts called emerging AD:missions; reflecting on the emerging church in light of mission thinking.

ITINERANT EVANGELISTS: Eusebius of Caesarea, Readings in World Mission, page 7-8.

So, how did early Christianity, birthed into a pluralistic and multi-cultural world, become, in the space of several centuries, the dominant world religion? Firstly, becase of a lifestyle of influence (emerging AD:missions 1 post). Secondly, for Eusebius of Caesarea, the use of evangelistic pilgrimage. Following the example of Jesus, the wandering rural peasant, Eusebius describes people in the early church; “entering upon long journeys … As soon as they had only laid the foundations of the faith in some foreign land they appointed others … but they themselves went on to other lands and peoples with the grace and co-operation of God.”

And now we live in the 21st century. Evangelistic pilgrimage has to overcome the practical realities that include a world of mortgages, individual households and visa and entry requirements. Equally, we face a globalised society, an information age and an internet culture. Every day we can participate in a global wander through blogs and cyber-sites. Today it is both easier and harder to wander.

I ponder the mission challenge that might lie in the rhythm of these early wanderers – a speaking and a walking; a scattering and a gathering; a communal hospitality and an individual journey. How to discern and follow this rhythm in our lives and in our communities? Eusebius honours both those who plant and those who pastor. At times the emerging conversation seems far more monochrome and settled than Eusebius’s missiology.

For an introduction to emerging AD:missions, go here.
For all the posts in this series go here.

lost and found

True story: Returning home from work last week, getting off the bus, I realised I was without my discman, complete with favourite CD’s and computer backups. Location unknown.

In despondency, I chased the bus. Great idea in theory, but I soon realised it’s easier to stop a bus in the movies than in real life. In greater despondency I returned to the original bus stop and posted a sign. “Lost discman.”

Two days later the phone rang. A passer by had seen the discman and picked it up. Unsure what to do, they had then seen my “Lost discman” sign. My faith in human nature is renewed. What was lost is now found. I’m sure there’s some sermon material in this somewhere.

blog worth reading

Malcolm Chamberlain (UK) has started a blog. We swapped mission notes and shared a coffee at a local beach back in 2004. Malcolm is a thinker – working toward a Masters on postmodernity and mission, and a doer – planted a faith community called Dream (who supplied an emerging church postcard 2005 here). Malcolm has even said some nice things about my out of bounds church? book here, in a blogpost reflecting on community and mission in contemporary culture.

Update: thanks to the sharp eye of Bruce, who noted that I had forgotten the blog address – http://malcolmchamberlain.blogspot.com/