sustain:if:able kiwi

Ask me about fresh expressions Synod expo

Yesterday the South Australian Synod began. During lunch, the Fresh Expressions team threw an expo. This involved some outdoor gazebos and seating, along with barbequed sausages for lunch.

Each person was given a show bag of various resources and their were stalls that folk could browse, including books and training options through Uniting College like the mission shaped ministry course, the Bachelor of Ministry (pioneer) degree and the Master of Ministry (missional).

A team of us wore “Ask me about fresh expressions” and wandered during the lunch, engaging folk with their questions about fresh expressions. While folk ate there were a number of 5 minute soapboxes, a short, sharp exploration that we hoped would start conversations and keep the educative process going.

• What is (not) a fresh expression?
• How can an inherited expressions help a fresh expression?
• Are experiments risk?

It was a gorgeous day, with a good queue for sausages. As we ended a fourth soapbox happened, with a man standing to say how this for him was the most encouraging part of Synod and how exciting it was to be part of this type of energy and action. We duly offered him another sausage.

a starter for 10: fresh expressions and Uniting ministry

On Monday I gave a 90 minute opening address to the National Ministers Fresh Expressions conference. I called it A starter for 10. With about 110 Uniting Church ministers attending, I wanted to provide some ways to think about fresh expressions, but also to explore some ways to understand fresh expressions from within Uniting Church history and theology.

For those interested in fresh expressions, Aussie and Uniting style, here are some of my headings, along with the resources I drew on. (more…)

english speaking migrants: is privilege and pain a fresh expression

I am an English-speaking migrant. Let’s tease out those words.

Migrant means I am new, shallow-rooted. I miss home and family and feel dislocated. As I encounter other English-speaking migrants from US, England, I realise I’m not alone in these feelings. Such encounters are really helpful, humanising experiences that are an important part of settling.

Yet as migrant I also feel hopeful and optimistic. I come with a purpose. I arrive in a new place and realise I have much to learn, about history and culture. Indeed, I have some responsibility to learn and am keen to learn.

English-speaking means I have some advantages, some privilege, in terms of communication and language-learning. It also means potential, because time and again I realise how little I know and how much I have to learn about history and culture to glean.

So when you put the words English-speaking and migrants together, you realise some things. You realise that there is a need to care for English-speaking migrants. There is also an opportunity to educate English-speaking migrants, to welcome to country, to explore with them sacred sites, to help them love the lands and layers of this country. There is also the need for challenge, to ask those with privilege to consider how they will partner with those less privileged, how they will live in order to not repeat colonising patterns, how they could use this transplanting experience as a time for growth and change. Change is often when people consider and re-consider their identity, wellbeing and spiritual path.

So what about a fresh expression for english-speaking migrants? This would have a pastoral dimension, as it attends to the pain of being transplanted, offers appropriate grief models. This would have a discipling dimension, as it invites people to reflect on themes of journey and pilgrimage can be times for growth. This would have a mission dimension, as it tells the story of indigenous people’s, as it explores how to live in a country with scarcity of water, how to welcome those who are newer than you, how to partner with those who have less privilge, less English (ie English-learning), than you?

Research questions: How many English-speaking migrants are arriving in Adelaide? (updated: 10 323 English-speaking migrants since 2006) What are their patterns of settling? What are their needs? How to connect with these people? What about migrants from other States to Adelaide, who talk of finding it hard to connect with local Adelaidians?

Theological questions: Is it potentially exclusivist (racist even) to gather a certain type of people? How could this body express partnership with the broader church? Would already residents in Australia want to be part of this type of community?

UK adventures 6 – cliff college, emerging and fresh?

I’m at the lovely Cliff College. The views are fabulous and there are some lovely trees to hug. I’m here for two things.

First, to input into their Master of Mission programme, in particular their Emerging Church stream. Which has produced a fairly healthy twitter stream of folk debating how to define emerging church cf fresh expressions. Obviously quite a contested field in this part of the world!

I have gone with a world/God/church formulation; which provides a way to frame the Gibbs and Bolger definition –

communities that practice the way of Jesus within postmodern cultures (Emerging Churches, 33).

I am then taking a mission perspective on that, using the six paradigms of mission in David Bosch’s Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission (American Society of Missiology Series). I will animate that with six mission stories, ways that the world/God/church formulation has been made concrete in history. Which I hope will generate some real mission thinking around “emerging.”

The second reason I am here is to help kick of their new PhD in Missiology. This sounds an exciting development, a professional research degree in mission and to their first cohort, I’ll be offering them some of my recent research. More on that tomorrow. For now, I must pop outside once again and enjoy sun, views, trees. With a cup of tea!

the two strands to fresh expressions

So there are two strands to Fresh Expressions. There is the official narrative, begun by Mission-shaped Church: Church Planting and Fresh Expressions in a Changing Context report, sustained by msm courses, fronted by key figures, framed by the Share website.

Then there are the local expressions, the narratives of ordinary folk doing faith and life. The Ecclesiology and Ethnography has featured three research papers on these local expressions. In fact, there’s been more genuine research on fresh expressions at this conference than there was at the Evaluating Fresh Expressions research conference I attended in Durham last year. The papers at the Ecclesiology and Ethnography have emerged from participant observation of life over time, have charted and explored faith on the ground.

Which of course raises the question of how these two strands relate? A number of roles are possible.

• Funder – in which the official gives resource to the local
• Gatekeeper – in which the official sees, or is seen to, legitimise the local
• Storyteller – in which the local needs the official in order to provide space of experimentation, in which the stories of the local to be shared with another local, in order to release imagination, especially when “church” is so powerfully shaped by history. (It means buildings, rows, Sunday, official leader).

What is intriguing is that these two strands are entwined. The official could only emerge because of the local. Mission-shaped Church: Church Planting and Fresh Expressions in a Changing Context is based on collating local stories. It only emerged because of those stories.

making links through Fresh expressions

Here is some notes from the talk I have gave last night, titled Making Links Through Fresh Expressions. And a concluding prayer, using this advertisement, which sort of really went off!!

Introduction (2 mins)
Moses and burning bush. It has a lot to say in terms of our topic – making links through F ex.

First, mission begins with listens – Exodus 3:7 “I have heard them crying because of their slave drivers …. “ Mission begins with this compassion for hurting people.

Second, Moses is asked to give what he’s got – “what is in your hand.” (Exodus 4:2) All he’s got is his stick. And a diseased hand. And a tongue that feels to thick. And that’s what God starts with. Pretty simple way to think about mission. It’s as is as simple as giving what’s in our hands. We’ve all got something.

For all of us, it’s our God story – our lives have been changed. As it says in Basis of Union – Para 3 – say it to the person beside you … you are “the beginning of a new creation, of a new humanity. God in Christ has given to all people in the Church the Holy Spirit as a pledge and foretaste of that coming reconciliation and renewal

And our community charism. That each of us are in a church that has a particular set of gifts and possibilities.

So Making links – starts with us paying attention to the cries. And being willing to simply give what we’ve got.

I want to approach tonight under 4 headings

• linking through listening
• linking in (because despite tonight being about fresh expressions, many of you are in established churches and not yet ready to think about fresh expressions)
• linking out (focused on fresh expressions)
• linking in posture

I plan to talk for about 35 mins and then give you some time to chose 1 of those 4 headings and “do something”, ie to resource yourself practically. (more…)

changing world, changing mission

The first session of the mission shaped ministry course included a focus on our changing society. I explored five sections, using photographs from around Adelaide.

1. Changing Sundays
2. Changing relationships
3. Changing cultures
4. Changing faith knowledge
5. Changing spirituality

Participant feedback indicated this was one of the most helpful parts of the evening. I wanted this to be grounded in their everyday lives and in ways that might begin conversations outside the church. So I suggested some “homework”:

How has Australian society changed? First, ask someone inside the church. Second, ask someone outside the church. Text us your answer.

It has been great to have the texts roll in over the week. The responses will be woven into our worship tonight (more on that after it happens), but here is a summary:

(Hat tip wordle)

This was based on isolating one key word from each text –

ego; economy; change; no face-face; diverse; financial; diverse; greedy; 4 me; technology; diverse; self-sufficient; busy; parenting lack; technology; affluence; time poor; less family oriented; globally connected; busier; global warming; IT; technology; morals; 4 me; diverse weekends; family structure; communication; aging; diverse; technology

Leapers or baby steppers? Is this fresh expressions? Or simply different expressions

The Adelaide mission-shaped ministry course course kicked off last week. With 44 folk registered – add to the fact that it’s pioneering in the sense of being spread across Uniting, Lutheran and Anglican denominations and being a first ever in Australia, let alone in a brand new building, there was a good deal of nervous energy in the room.

As usual, as speaker, I end up probably learning more than those who attended. For me, this was around fresh expressions. Are we talking “fresh” expressions or “different” expressions? And does it matter?

The question emerged most clearly during a part of the evening involving some Fresh expression storytelling. I could have showed the UK DVD, but I asked if instead there might be any local fresh expressions either being dreamed of, or being explored.

Which led to stories of playgroup church, outdoor labyrinths, someone finding themselves being called Pastor of a social poker club, Friday happy hours that were offering community to local neighbours and the beginnings of ministry to Middle Eastern students.

And then the question (in my words) – Are these fresh expressions? Or just different expressions?

What would you say? Here is what I said (more…)

msm adelaide update 1

The start of the first ever mission-shaped ministry course in Adelaide is only a week away (starting Wednesday 27 July) and the working team met for a final planning meeting yesterday.

There are some real encouragements.

• Enrolments currently stand at 45 29.
• We will have a group from Kangaroo Island part of through the use of (touch wood) Skype technology
• We have a teaching team that includes at least 15 people, ensuring a genuine team feel
• We  have four hardworking hosts, from four denominations, that will also ensure a genuinely ecumenical feel.

It is amazing that only 8 months ago, November 2010, was the first meeting of a group from around Australia to simply canvas the possibility of working together. And now, it’s about to start. (If you want more of this history, go here)

I left reflecting on what it means to be a pioneer. I was thanked for being willing to be the first speaker on the first night. But for me, it’s a privilege. I’m energised by that sense of uncertainty and unknown.

I (as a pioneer) am needed.

Yet I know that once a thing starts, I find it much more difficult to pay attention and keep focused. While others are energised by having a pattern and a template, which they can refine and improve.

They too are needed.

As it says in the Basis of Union, “The Uniting Church … acknowledges with thanksgiving that the one Spirit has endowed the members of Christ’s Church with a diversity of gifts, and that there is no gift without its corresponding service.”

pioneer night for a pioneer course in a pioneer country: launch of mission shaped ministry Adelaide

Last night was a good night. The wind was wild and the rain heavy. But the room felt warm and alive.

A pilot of the mission shaped ministry (msm) course kicks off in Adelaide July 27. A partnership between Anglican, Lutheran and Uniting churches, it will run over 14 weeks and one weekend.

Last night Dave Male, Director of the Centre for Pioneer Ministry, at Ridley College, Cambridge was in town. It seemed an opportunity to good to miss, a chance both to hear from him and to offer some information about mission shaped ministry.

About 40 folk showed up, which was pretty exciting for a wet and wild winter’s night. A representative from each of the 3 partner churches offered prayer and input. This included a ringing endorsement from Archbishop Jeffrey Driver, who hoped that when Anglican history is written, the most important thing about the year 2011 will be the successful launch of the mission shaped ministry course. Dave Male shared about the impact of msm in the UK and it’s importance in cultivating a missional climate. I shared some of the story of how the course came to be in Australia and spoke about the shape of the programme. (For those interested, my notes are below the fold).

Some time for questions. And then we prayed together. Across denominations. A  living ecumenism, gathered around the task of mission.

Please join us. Please do pause at this point

… and pray with us … and for God’s ongoing purposes in Adelaide and Australia.

(more…)

fresh expressions: three dangers

I was helping a group of leaders from Mission Resourcing (part of the South Australia Synod) this morning think through fresh expressions. They have a simple mandate, to not have one person being a Fresh expression champion, but to let fresh expressions shape each and everyone of their ministries – justice, youth, children, IT, rural, urban, multi-cultures.

In an ideal world, fresh expressions are encouraged to emerge from a process that begins with listening. This then allows acts of serving. These form community, for the service occurs in partnership and relationships are built. In the midst of the relationship, the Jesus story that shapes us is told, and explored together (evangelism and disciplemaking). As a result – of listening and relationships and storytelling, a worship life emerges, one shaped by the context and the relationships.

Which led to me sharing some stories, three dangers of fresh expressions.

Simple photocopying. We go visit a fresh expression. It’s established as a worshipping life. We see something we like at the end of their process. And without thinking about the why (it developed), or where (the shaping of the context), or who (the folk that have shaped the story), we simply point and go, ‘Oh, that’s a Fresh expression.” And we make a photocopy for our place.

Rejecting simple photocopying. We go visit a fresh expression. It’s established as a worshipping life. We see something we don’t like. And we simply point and go, ‘Oh, that’s a Fresh expression. I don’t like that” And we decide Fresh expressions is not for us. We opt out of the hard work of thinking about the why (how it might develop uniquely with us), or where (how our context might uniquely shape), or who (the unique gifts of the folk who might be gathering around our table).

Skipping straight to the end. This is sort of like wanting dessert without the entree or mains. We ignore the listening and relationships and storytelling. This is perhaps because of Christendom – that our mindsets are so shaped by thinking that church is about worship – that when we hear the word “fresh expression” we just redesign what happens on Sunday morning. Whatever, the result is that we skip straight to dessert. We redesign our worship. We put out some publicity. And then after a few months of effort, we begin to wonder why new folk don’t come. We invest in some more publicity.