sustain:if:able kiwi

what is church

After almost 3 years at Opawa Baptist I finally found some time to put up some posters. Here is my favourite, a mix of advertising poster and a quote that for me sums up a Biblical ecclesiology.

“The story of Acts is the story of a community inspired to make a continual series of creative experiments by the Pentecostal Spirit.” Quote by Fison in Fire Upon the Earth, 79.

Any chance of these being used as criteria for evaluation of emerging churches:
1. Where are the Biblical narratives shaping the journey of the church?
2. How much is the future the participatory work of a community?
3. Where are the signs of creative and innovative partnership with the Spirit?

See also my recent post on emerging church is local church.

I disagree with half of what you say

This is one of the best conversation starters I’ve ever come across. I often have strangers email wanting to see me. So I met up with one yesterday and this was one of the opening lines:

I read your blog and I disagree with half of what you say.

I never got told which half! And this person has never availed themselves of my comments. A silent dissenter, never allowing me the opportunity to grow! But it turned into a very stimulating conversation. I came away with 2 questions that I am enjoying pondering:

Here is the first one: We talked about the challenges that Christians face on campus. We wondered how local churches prepare their young people for work, and most especially for university?

So blog readers; what is your church doing to prepare your people for a tertiary study campus?

emerging churches are local churches

“The people I talked to at [Jacobs Well] had never heard of Emergent or of McLaren.” Great quote from an excellent article in Christian Century about Jacobs Well, an emerging church in Kansas City.

It takes a good hard look at a local church; their love of arts and home grown music, their love of place and awareness of context, their breadth of ecumenical relationships and commitment to authenticity.

We need lots and lots of stories like this – stories of local churches doing local mission. That is emerging church. I contrast this with yet another email, sent to me overnight by an American fundamentalist, bagging some abstract category called “emerging church.”

What a waste of his time. “Emerging” will never be found in books or blogs or conferences. It is found as local Christians seek to Incarnate Christ in their local neighbourhoods.

Hat tip to Coops

God in public space

I went down with Pete and Joyce Majendie to see Menetekel, an interactive large scale, public space art installation. The seeding idea is the story of King Belshazzar’s feast in the book of Daniel, and the mysterious wall writing. People are invited to text in messages, which are displayed, using laser technology, on the outside of public buildings.

The artist is Johannes Gees and it is part of SCAPE Biennial here in Christchurch (and well worth texting out).

It raises interesting questions about the use of public space. What could you write and not write? What is advertising? What is graffiti? Why would God speak in such an impersonal and abstract manner?

Pete and I were dreaming away. I wanted to project messages onto myself while I preach, like “rubbish,” while Pete wanted a 5 story building facade at Opawa. Nothing inside the building, just a big facade!

homegrown satisfaction

Every vegetable in last night’s dinner came homegrown from my garden. The vegetable filo pie that included 3 types of silver beet, carrots, broccoli, leek was basically,

delicious.