sustain:if:able kiwi

emerging churches 10 years on: progress update

Today was another step in my research into emerging churches 10 years on. This is involving interviews, surveys and focus groups.

Today I visited Cityside Baptist in Auckland. They had very kindly offered me their “sermon slot.” So I took some time to introduce myself and my research with them 10 years ago, and then gave them some space to fill out a 22 question survey form.

The questions are grouped in three categories

• some are taken from the national census and thus allow comparison of the congregation against their suburb, city and country
• some are taken from the National Church Life Survey and thus allow comparison against their denomination and the church in general
• some are uniquely related to questions about faith and culture today

At the end of the day, 47 people completed survey forms. 

What is amazing is that ten years ago when I conducted a similar survey at Cityside, guess how many people completed survey forms?

You guessed it. 47!

Amazing.

The next step is to start to analyse the data. The plan is to return perhaps in the middle of the year to run some focus groups – to present the survey data and invite them to help me interpret it.  Plus I am aiming to present the research more formally at an Ecclesiology and ethnography academic conference in Durham, UK, in mid-September. And then, if all goes really well, I’ll roll it together with my PhD and look for a publisher.

But for today, I thankful for Cityside and pondering with amazement the number 47.

emerging responses to For the Parish, chapter 3 – mission and church

“For the Parish”, by Andrew Davison and Alison Milbank, is an extended critique of fresh expressions. Always good to listen to the critics, so I am engaging the book, chapter by chapter. The Introduction is here, Chapter one is here, Chapter two is here.

Before we plunge into round (chapter) 3 of For the Parish vs Fresh Expressions it is worth gaining an overview. Chapter 3 is a crucial chapter, which in a nutshell, battles over the relationship between church, worship and mission. Did Christus propter ecclesiam venit (Christ come for the sake of the Church)? Or the world?

Before I explore this chapter, I wanted to gain an overview of current debates on the relationship between church and mission. I turned to the The Routledge Companion to the Christian Church. Nearly 700 pages, of which chapter 36 is on the theme of church and mission (Ecclesiology and World Mission/Missio Dei, by Paul Collins, 623-636.)

Collins offers some history. First a history in which mission has been understood, based on Matthew 28:19-20, as going. By implication, mission becomes a task performed elsewhere. Second, a history in which the context of Christendom, which meant that “conversion and salvation, church and mission became inextricably bound together.” (624).

Collins urges the “understanding of the world church today [be] rooted in the experiences of the colonial and post-colonial periods of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries” (623). He then links six themes – salvation, partnership, missio Dei, relationality, inculturation and pluralism – in dialogue with major church councils like Vatican 2 and World Council of Churches. His conclusion is that to be church is to be sent, to participate in God’s mission in the world. “Ideas of ‘mission’ in terms of conversion and recruitment to church membership need to be re-evaluated in the light of God’s cosmic mission: ‘that God may be all in all.” (633, drawing on 1 Cor 15:28)

This overview of global trends in thinking about church and mission, gives us some way to understand For the Parish. The book makes no reference to trends in world Christianity, nor to the conciliar councils. Instead the authors draw on European theologians like John Robinson, Sergei Bulgakov, Henri Lubac. They acknowledge the place of the Kingdom in the Gospels, but choose to place priority on the Pauline epistles to argue that “the goal of salvation … might even be said to be all church.” (48) They conclude that to suggest mission is a proper ultimate goal is “the ultimate heresy within the contemporary Church of England.” (54)

Heresy. A strong word indeed.

They critique Fresh Expressions for having

the fervour of devotees casting around for increasingly precious things to offer up to mission. The favoured sacrifices are the practices and traditions of the inherited church. To mission, every and any treasure must be sacrificed. (For the Parish, 54)

This chapter opens up a crucial, crucial debate. What is the relationship between church and mission? Does church exist for mission? Or for worship? It seems to me, given the overview provided in The Routledge Companion to the Christian Church that For the Parish is urging is simply continuing a Christendom, European understanding of church and mission.

Whether Fresh Expressions is doing any better is an equally valid question, which will occupy us in Chapter Four. But first, back to the piles of paper on my desk.

listening at your local in Lent: step one in a fresh expression?

Updated: Feedback

“The good thing about this is that it’s a process. We’ve been offered in the past so many programmes, which people tend to resist.”

“The best thing about what you did is the homework. So many seminars just give information. You gave us something to do.”

On Sunday I am offering a Lenten mission challenge to a local Uniting Church. I am preaching and then offering an hour long mission seminar. The Lenten focus I am suggesting is not a study or some readings. Nor is it a chance to give some money. Nor even to engage some internal spiritual practices. Rather the focus is on some practical tasks in order to listen outside the church walls and into their community …

Task: Take a project. Decide on a time frame. Do it either individually or as a group. If as a group, why not meet fortnightly for coffee to encourage, pray for each other.

• Listening project one – some growth questions to ask selected individuals
• Listening project two – observation walks around the community
• Listening project three – visual observation of the community, involving creating photo exhibits
• Listening project four – some Appreciative inquiry questions

I am hoping it is practical and fun and people want to have a go. Why not enjoy a few summer walks around your community.

I am hoping that this becomes a first step in a process, that what they hear clarifies their next steps in mission; that out of listening comes some acts of intentional service, that such acts are designed not as programs but to grow relationships, that those relationships become conduit for gospel stories to be told, that those gospel stories invite an exploration of Jesus, first individually and then in community. (ie a fresh expression).

But those words – fresh expression – are often a step to far.  So first, hey, why not listen in your local ….

emerging responses to For the Parish. A Critique of Fresh Expressions, chapter 2

For the Parish, by Andrew Davison and Alison Milbank, is an extended critique of fresh expressions. Always good to listen to the critics, so I am engaging the book, chapter by chapter. The Introduction is here, Chapter one is here

Chapter two – Theology and mediation

This chapter introduces a second theological concept, that of “mediation.” This is (dictionary) defined by Davison and Milbank as actions that bring about a gift. They chart a number of implications for Christian faith

• “the messenger becomes the message; we receive the gift of being gifts to ourselves” (30)
• the priority of the sacraments as “the chief material means by which we are united to Christ (31)
• “God works through our actions, words and communities because he is the active, speaking, communal God, whose image we bear.” (33)
• God is “revealing himself in [human] language” (36)
• the goal is the divine redemption of human culture

Having dedicated 11 pages to defining mediation, the chapter then finishes with three paragraphs in relation to Fresh expressions, which are accused of lacking this theology. However, no concrete evidence (eg quotes or examples) is provided to back up such accusations.

One way to examine a work is to look at the sources being used. So this chapter affirms culture, as it needs to by advocating a theology of mediation. So does it practice what it preaches ie use cultural sources? If so, what? This chapter does draw on culture, citing poet David Jones (35), Elizabeth Bishop (36), and an opera by Rossini (38). I will be keeping an eye on this as the book develops, but my initial observation is that this book is privileging certain forms of culture – it is quoting poetry but not pop music, opera but not film. In doing so, it might well reveal an exclusive, limiting understanding of what it is to be human and of what cultures can be part of mediation.

As with chapter one, I am again left confused with the fact that the themes being argued here are also being used in the Fresh Expressions discussion. When I teach on “alternative/emerging worship, I use themes of Creation, Incarnation, Redemption, Ascension to argue for the priority of embodiment and thus the use of culture in worship. Pete Ward has written an book titled Participation And Mediation: A Practical Theology for the Liquid Church in attempting to articulate a theology of pop culture emerging from his experiences in youth ministry. What is going on when a theology of mediation is being used in Fresh Expressions, yet this book is accusing it of lacking such a theology?

funding pioneer projects: seven options

One of the questions I often get asked is about funding pioneers and pioneer projects. So I thought it worth while gathering my thoughts around various possibilities. Like much of life, none is ideal, and each has upsides and downsides. So I have added some comments to this effect.

1 – Church support. Sometimes church trusts and bodies give out large sums of money which enable pioneers to work full-time on their project over a number of years. This can be a wonderful blessing. However it can tend to be unreproducible model and can come with a whole set of expectations about what “success” looks like. It is also questionable how wise this model is in the early stages of a project, in which the setting up is often at more of a part-time pace.

2 – Team support. In a manner similar to many mission agencies, this involves inviting people to contribute toward your mission, whether through regular small giving or through one-off donations. It can be oiled by a “3rd party” that sends out the newsletter, collects money and writes receipts. It is helped by regular communication between the “missionary” and those who give. This has the advantage of building a wider partnership in the mission.

3 – Church partnerships. In which other churches partially partner in the new mission project through finances. So in the New Zealand Baptist world, a local church and the wider church partner 50/50, in a sliding scale, for a set time. Specifically $5K each in the year one, $4K each in year 2 and so on. This builds a wider set of church relationships and seeks to reduce dependancy. However it can come with a whole set of expectations about what “success” looks like (Has it grown yet!)

4 – Tentmaking. Like the Apostle Paul, the pioneer can choose not to be paid by the ministry and instead to look for paid work from elsewhere. It can increase the sense of lay ministry partnership, reduce dependency on one leader and encourage a more grounded and sustainable spirituality. But it leaves less time for ministry and can be dependent on the ability of the leader to find soul nourishing work.

5 – From changed lives. If the point of pioneering is to see lives changed and people becoming Kingdom agents, then an expectation is that at some point life change might involve the wallet and thus people might give to the new church. Surely discipleship – whether financial, time, or talent is part of Kingdom discipleship and should be built in from the beginning of the project. Over time, this can provide a source of funding for the church. However, it takes wisdom and sensitivity so that this is introduced properly.

6 – Social entrepreneurship. This involves some form of money raising activity, for example running a cafe, selling spiritual resources (poetry books!), which generates income for the pioneering project. Indeed, a well chosen project can build the community, enhance the mission and aid in promotion. But it is important to be realistic, given that most (80%) of business startups go broke in the first two years. So why should yours be any different. Further, there is a danger that outward energy will be spent on the project, rather than the overall mission of the group.

7 – Funding proposals. Many public bodies give money to causes. For example community arts, or community development. This requires research to find trusts with aims that mesh with the genuine aims of the pioneer. It can be a great challenge to write a proposal in a way that expresses your ministry in the form of “public good.” However it takes time to write funding proposals and it can breed a reliance on external funding.

From my experience a mix and match options is often the reality. Thoughts? Have I missed any options that you have seen work?

Fresh expressions as church at Advent birth

I’ve been working hard over the last few weeks on an article for the Anvil journal, titled Evaluating Birth narratives: A Missiological Conversation with Fresh Expressions. It’s the write up of what I presented in September in Durham in which I interview UK alternative worship leaders and communities about how they began, and then reflect on implications for being church/ecclesiology.

In trying to make sense of what I was writing on Friday, I made the following graphic, based on the Orans Icon.

And here is a section of the paper, which I post because we are now in Advent.

The most likely place to find a birthing ecclesiology should be with regard to Incarnation. Indeed, for Williams, in Ponder These Things: Praying With Icons of the Virgin “[i]magining Mary in words and pictures has always been one of the most powerful ways of imagining the Church, and so of imagining ourselves freshly.” This is based on a theological meditation on Orthodox icons, specifically The Hodegetria, The Eleous and The Orans.

With regard to the Orans Icon, Mary stands facing us, hands extended in prayer. For Williams, “Here is Christ praying in Mary. Mary becomes, as the Church becomes, a ‘sign’ in virtue of the action of Christ within her … There is plenty here for us to think about in relation to the Church’s life.” Given that “the art of making icons is often termed “writing” rather than “painting”, such an Icon offers what could be termed a birthing ecclesiology, in which the body of Christ is linked with the Body of Christ, most specifically in the pre-natal life of Christ. (here)

Williams’ ecclesiology is formed in the invitation to consider Mary; hands open to God, with eyes open to the world. “If Mary is indeed the image of the true Church … [it is a church] … Hands open to God, eyes open to the world; and within, the hidden energy that soaks the Church with divine action, divine love.” Further, “[t]he church is the humanity Christ has made possible; its real history is the history of particular persons realizing by the Spirit’s gift the new potential for human nature once it has been touched by divine agency, divine freedom, in Christ.” This provides a way to evaluate Fresh Expressions.

With a (birthing) Mary as an image, so can (the birthing) of Fresh Expressions be evaluated by considering how it imitates the posture of Mary, hands open to God, eyes open to the world, a gift of new potential.

putting legs on the local: an aussie take on Fresh Expression vision days

Putting legs on the local, held on Saturday, went really well. About 25 folk, gathered around input from multiple voices, networking, food, worship, interaction. One person drove 6 hours from the Eyre Peninsula to be there (it’s Australia!), other’s drove two hours from Murray Bridge or an hour from Strathalybn.

Here in South Australia as a Uniting Church, we’ve had a fair few overseas folk talk to us about fresh expressions and new forms of church.  It’s one thing to hear from overseas, it’s another to have a genuinely local conversation. So Putting Legs on the local was an attempt to gather around an ongoing local conversation. The concept was to some extent based around the UK Fresh expressions vision days but it needed to have a local South Australian flavour.

The day kicked off with an hour introducing concepts and thinking around fresh expressions. This included the Who? What? Where? When? Why? How? of Fresh Expressions and what fresh expressions mean in light of Uniting Church.

We then broke for lunch, which was based around the invitation to all participants to bring local produce to share. This was a stunning success, with all sorts of creative local flavours being brought and shared. Free range eggs, olives from the backyard, citrus tarts from the neighbours tree, donuts from local bakeries. A tasty reminder of the value and diversity of being local.

We then listened to three local fresh expressions tell their story.

• Eco-church, 9 years old, meeting outdoors with a commitment to the body in worship and a desire to bless the city and think ecologically
• a yet to go public group wanting to plant a faith community in a local school, meeting to pray, to experiment, to spend time being human within their local community
• Esther project, using story and alternative worship to engage the arts community.

Again, a wonderful reminder that there is some fine local produce, which is so easily overlooked when the overseas guru comes visiting.  Again a reminder of the uniqueness that is fresh expressions, of the ups and downs, of the importance of experimentation and being open to change.

This was followed by time in groups, exploring what we’d heard. Three types of conversation – the stakeholders, the dreamers, the doers – talked about what they needed to flourish and what they’d like to say to each other in light of fresh expressions. Getting back to share once again we were nourished by the reminder of the diversity that is in the body of Christ and the need for us to value the vital roles of different folk.

We then finished in worship, led by a 4th local fresh expressions. Candelit Reflections had created a beautiful space and offered music, reflection and meditation and it was a fitting reminder, once again, of the richness that is local.

Plenty more to do, but Saturday was a enjoyable beginning.

Who? What? Where? When? Why? How? of Fresh Expressions

My task this weekend including needing to explain (twice, once in seminar, once in sermon) fresh expressions in 25 minutes. I decided to use journalism’s Five Ws as a frame. To give some Biblical grounding, I used Luke 10. So here is a Who? What? Where? When? Why? How? of Fresh expressions, using Luke 10:1-11.

• Who? Ordinary “no-name” disciples. In other words, any and all. Fresh expressions invites a lay revolution
• What? Fresh expressions began. 36 gatherings of people around Kingdom story and Kingdom activity.
• Where? At tables of local villages. In other words, not in church buildings, but in any and all places in our local communities
• When? A long time ago. And through church history. And it continues today.
• Why? Because of missio Dei: “It’s not the church of God that has a mission, but the God of mission who has a church”.
• How? In Luke 10 through six principles and practices of
1: Going (v 1-2)
2: Vulnerability, taking nothing but peace in a willingness to receive hospitality (3-4)
3: Listening, for where God is active in our community in the return of peace (v.5)
4: Dwelling at table, building deeply human relationships in existing communities and networks of relationships (v. 7)
5: Discerning God’s fingerprints, paying attention to where God might be at work in the fullness of shalom (v. 9)
6: Discussing the Kingdom, in response to healing to engaging in conversations about Kingdom of God is near (v. 9, 11)

So there you are, my take on Who? What? Where? When? Why? How? of Fresh expressions.

I also put together some prayer stations, so for those who want to engage Fresh expressions using interactive learning cf just words (more…)

Putting legs on the local: fresh expressions in South Australia

On Saturday, I’m involved in this …

What is a fresh expression? How do they emerge? What is the role of sponsors? How do we help the dreamers? How do we support fresh expressions well? What is happening on the ground in South Australia? We’ll be grappling with these questions and more at this Fresh Expressions tasting day, designed to stimulate discussion and action.

The day will include 3 “fresh expressions of mission” telling their story, their struggles, their learnings. We will talk in groups about best practice – how best to support a fresh expression, how best to dream a fresh expression.

27 November from 11am – 3.30pm at Christ Church, Wayville (26 King William Rd). Hosted by Fresh Expressions Synod of South Australia Taskforce. More info: Al Dutton 8236 4271

As mentioned here

Spirit walk: a great example of a spiritual takeway

This is fascinating example of spirit2g, of offering spiritual takeaways.

From the creative, missional mind of Ben Edson, (who planted Sanctus, a Fresh Expression in Manchester) it’s linked with the Manchester Mind Body Spirit Fair and involves six locations around the city centre broadcasting six meditations. Participants collect a set of headphones and a map from the ‘Spirit of Life’ stand and then go on a 30 minute pilgrimage interacting with the urban environment, opening themselves to glimmers of the Divine.

And more (from here)

The meditations, of both words and music, will provide a unique soundscape for the site this year, reflecting on both the site location and also on a particular stage of the silent journey

I love how it’s urban and outdoors. I love how it lets the person set the pace. I love the tactility of it. All I’d want to add is some way for people to engage and enter conversation. Perhaps this happens as the headsets are returned.

spirituality of blood and bone: another fresh expression

Some mates are web-journalling their guerrilla garden attempts in Christchurch. Currently the virtual looks much more impressive than the real, but knowing the rainfall of Christchurch and the power of spuds and rhubarb, I’m sure it will change.

I do think that gardens make an excellent place to ground (pun intended) a fresh expression. I’ve blogged before about

• the spirituality of composting (here)
• the spirituality of gardening (here and here)
• about a gardening centre as a future church model (here)
• about an outdoor faith indoors (here)
• about how we brought back the harvest festival at church last year in response to the Global Financial crisis and as our families headed back to the garden (here)
• a funny story that emerged because we as a church gave out vege plants at our annual Spring Clean community contact day
• about why I’m a vegetarian (here)
• about how much (little actually) land you need to feed a family of 3 (here)

Here in Adelaide there is even more interest in fresh food and local produce than in Christchurch. What about a fresh expression that met on Saturday while the Central Market was open, and used stations – of thanks, of fair trade justice, of community – that the thousands who attend the market could engage?

mission shaped church australia?

A sign, small and white, stuck on a door. An invitation to enter, to begin a conversation. The future, uncertain, the companions inside, unknown …

And so yesterday I at Uniting College hosted 11 folk, from 4 States and 1 territory, representing 4 denominations. The invitation, as the sign indicated, was to a conversation about mission-shaped church training in Australia.

The conversation was wide ranging and frank. The outcomes were for the next 12 months. To seek permission from UK to a pilot, in two places, from mid-2011 of an Australianised version of the UK Missionshaped course. One in Canberra using a more intense format over a number of weekends. Another in Adelaide weekday evenings during Semester 2.

An initial (cash) intention to partnership from five groups, with three other likely partners and an open invitation for any and all to join at any time later. A (time and skills) commitment from different folk to be part of a national team of trainers by workshopping segments, both individually and in partnership, with the intent of developing an ecumenical team of learners-together-in-teaching.

And the hope that, based on learnings from the two pilots, based on feedback from the UK, that we might look to run more courses into 2012, not only in Adelaide and Canberra, but perhaps in Tasmania, Victoria and New South Wales.

We finished thanking God for those who have pioneered before us, both here in Australia and in the UK, on who’se work we are building.

And with excitement, of being part of a broadly ecumenical partnership wanting to follow the Spirit in providing concrete mission-shaped training.

And of affirmation, that the sign on the door remains, to anyone, to enter, to join the conversation – one that us uncertain, unknown, but it does now have some companions on the journey.

I’ll keep blogging more details as they shape up; for an earlier post/invitation, see here.

the emerging church and the wilderness of God (old post but good post)

Back in 2004, I wrote a post titled – the emerging church and the wilderness of God. I was doing some sermon prep today and it seemed oddly appropriate, both for the sermon, for the emerging church in 2010 and for my current state of being. So I’m reposting it, for posterity’s sake ….

Christianity emerges from a wilderness spirituality;
John the Baptist, camel haired and with locust wings in mouth, emerges from the desert;
Jesus in preparation for ministry, walks into the wilderness;
Israel finds God in the desert, where in the wilderness Moses is called and a nation is shaped.
The rough places and tough spaces become the place of encounter with God.

So what is the place of a wilderness spirituality in the emerging church? A book like The Shape of Things to Come takes growth – in the early church, in China – as the benchmark. A history of vitality becomes the shaping spirituality. When the emerging church emerges from the evangelical church in the US, a history of vitality is the shaping spirituality.

So what of a wilderness spirituality? Where is the encountering of God in the rough and tough? How does the emerging church embrace the wilderness, rather than the myths and shadows of vitality.

Is it time for the emerging church to find new partners in its spirituality? Is it time to stop dreaming of early church glory and embrace God in the rough?

I wonder if this is where the experience of the de-churched becomes redemptive gift. Those who have entered the wilderness and have learnt to find God in the raw might have spiritual gifts to offer.

Wilderness God
Hidden in the deep valley
Obscured by rocky outcrop

This Advent
May we be found in Your wilderness.

(for the comments, which added some rich layers go here)

DIY soul: a social enterprise fresh expression

Today, as I have wandered Adelaide on a Saturday, I decided I would like to open a missional social enterprise.

It is to be called DIY Soul and it’s purpose is to fund the spiritual search. It’s income would be derived from selling DIY/make your own spirituality resources. This would include

• prayer stools
• icon painting
• make your own angels
• make your own candles
• seeds for gardens of healing
• make your own journals
• books that to encourage the pursuit of Christian spirituality

It would also have a coffee machine and a few tables. Some space would be provided so that people could simply DIY in the shop. It’s community would be built around

• this DIY in the shop
• workshops on the above ie using prayer stools, painting icons, angel spirituality, sense making faith, journal writing (some people might call this pastoral care)
• coaching and mentoring (some people might call this pastoral care)
• spiritual direction (some people might call this pastoral care)
• urban retreats (some people might call this pastoral care)
• community gatherings to share food, stories and spirituality resources (some people might call this church)

I suspect that my DIY idea could initially start part-time, say 12-2 pm. So perhaps it could be staffed part-time.

It would require a venue. However there might be a few empty church buildings in Adelaide that are hardly used during the week that might be of use. They might require some alterations though. However, this would be a way for them to fulfill their mission, so they could be delighted to consider this possibility.