Tuesday, April 28, 2020

Bubble courses: a KCML innovation

An educational experiment I’ve been working on for the last few weeks, seeking ways to facilitate learning and community in the context of a global pandemic.

During Level 3 in Aotearoa, Bubble courses provide input for leaders, elders, ministers and whole people of God. They are timely, conversational, engaging, thought-provoking.

  • Geoff New The Practice of Preaching in a Pandemic – Thursday 30th April and Thursday May 7th
  • Nikki Watkin Leading in change: conversations and creativity – Monday 4th May and Monday 11th May
  • Steve Taylor – Building community and increasing participation online – Tuesday 5th May and Tuesday 12th May

7:30-8:30 pm (NZT) evenings.  To register and get a zoom link, contact registrar@knoxcentre.ac.nz.

Bubble Courses2

Posted by steve at 01:54 PM

Monday, August 26, 2019

Welcoming Dave Dobbyn to Listening in Mission

Dave Dobbyn, Waiting for a voice, from his 2016 Harmony House album, made it into my Listening in Mission class.

Dave Dobbyn – Waiting for a voice from Sebastian Beyrer on Vimeo.

I was teaching a Listening in Mission (intern) cohort. There are 4 sessions over 2 months:

  • Mission as gift, calling and promise
  • Being present and listening in neighbourhood/context
  • Cultivating congregational spaces for conversation and shared practices of missional attentiveness
  • Discerning and understanding local narratives

The four online Listening in Mission sessions support an action-learning project in which folk gather a group and work with them in listening in their local communities. So the online experience provides support, encouragement and resources. We offer this online support in mission to ordinands training for ministry. We also offer it separately as life-learning for the wider church.

The sessions is online, because we want to work with participants in their context, not in the artificiality of a lecture space. The online sessions go for about 90 minutes. So it needs some sort of break, to briefly stretch legs. So at the 45 minute mark, I announced I was going to play “Waiting for a voice” by Dave Dobbyn twice. Folk were invited to listen once, and take a short stretch the second time. It was a nice way to break up a class. It engaged senses other than talking. The cycle of a song makes it easy for participants to know when to return.

And of course, the lyrics are fascinating. The theme of the class was Mission as gift, call and promise. Prior to class, folk had been invited to visit a local body of water and read John 21:1-19. This is consistent with the ethos of the learning, wanting to work with participants in their context, to read Scripture in their communities. In John 21:1-19, when Jesus appears by the Lake of Galilee. Jesus is Gift and offers gifts in breakfast cooked. Jesus is Call and calls Peter at the same lake where Peter was first called to follow. Jesus is Promise and promises a feed of fish if they will just put their nets on the other side.

Returning as class, with “Waiting for a voice” ringing in our ears, links were made from the song to the theme of the class.

  • Mission is Gift – “I saw a stranger on the opposite shore; cooking up a meal for me”
  • Mission is Call – ‘waiting for a still clear voice’
  • Mission is Promise – ‘and sure as I’m living, i dined with the one; his words were brighter than a billion suns; he sent me running i never get tired, back into the valley where the world had died’

I have no idea whether Dobbyn would make these connections. But the lyrics make so much sense of John 21. It was an excellent way to pause a class and a great seque back into class. Thanks Dave, for your input.

Posted by steve at 12:23 PM

Friday, January 25, 2019

the burning bush and cultural transmission

Today I spoke at the Otago Museum, giving a conference paper (abstract here) at the Held in Trust: Curiosity of Things symposium. My “thing” was the burning bush (an image central to Presbyterian church identity) as it has been crafted and crossed cultures from Hemispheres to Aotearoa New Zealand.

IMG_7018 My talk drew on some different pieces of my thinking/talking/researching over the last few years

  • block course intern teaching on the Bible in Presbyterian identity (in June 2017)
  • introducing New Zealand Presbyterians to Scottish Presbyterians (in June 2018)
  • keynote at Connect18 on burning bush as basis for a Presbyterian theology of mission (in July 2018)
  • guest speaker at Knox Church AGM (in October 2018)

It was rewarding to take previous work already presented in a range of contexts and find ways to weave it together and offer it in an academic context. It was great to take the rich resources of the Presbyterian Research Centre into a museum setting and to have their support (shout out) during my presentation.

In developing the paper and thinking about the transmission of identity as belief across cultures, a key conversation partner was Webb Keane, Christian Moderns (The Anthropology of Christianity). Here is my final section:

Anthropologist Webb Keane studied transmission of Christianity in Indonesia – over 100 years from Dutch colonisation to post-independence. As part of his research, he did an object study of a Sumbanese house as a paradigm of cultural ordering. He argued that when text is detached from objects, new aspects of the object come to the fore. The result can be “different representational economies” and different modes of objectifying” (Christian Moderns, 269).

Which seems to be is what is happening with the burning bush. The Presbyterians brought words: many words in the Books of order and Westminister Confessions. They also brought a symbol. An object – a thing – which could be re-presented; as craft and taken across cultures in the complexity of communication. As text and object are detached, new aspects come to the fore and multiple “representational economies” come to play.

This highlights the essential role of local agency in global exchange. In the glowing vine of Te Aka Puaho and the stained glass windows of St Johns Papatoetoe, a Scottish symbol has been re-framed. It is being interpreted through different Biblical narratives – Christological for Te Aka Puaho, creation-centred Moana voyages at St Johns Papatoetoe. Burning bushes can be frangipani: Sinai wilderness can be oceans in which “I am is revealed.”

Local agency opens the doors for objects to be become subverting symbols. Imaginations can be re-narrated and fresh currents in theological production become possible.”

Thanks to the conference organisers for having me, to the Presbyterian Archives and staff for being so helpful and to Otago Museum and University of Otago Centre for Colonial Research for being such generous hosts.

Posted by steve at 12:15 PM

Thursday, January 17, 2019

a learning community devotion as the year begins

One of the Gospel readings for this week is Mark 1:14-20 and includes the story of Jesus calling Simon, Andrew, James and John to a learning community, sharing a journey of growing together.

Since this is a text about the beginning of something, it invites us (as KCML Faculty) as we begin the year, to consider our experiences of being called, those moments in life when we sensed that God was looking at us, communicating with us, inviting us.

As we hear the text read aloud, I invite you to reflect on those moments.

  • where (geographically) where you “found”? (In the text, it is by the Sea of Galillee (1:16). Where was it for you?)
  • what was your “work”? (In the text, it was fishing (1:16) and net mending (1:19). What where you doing when you were called?)
  • what were your “fathers and hired hands” thinking? (In the text, they left their father Zebedee and the hired men (1:20). It might be an imaginative exercise, but who was watching you? What were they thinking as you set out to follow your call?)

(Let’s share these together as a team).

These three questions are carefully chosen. They are designed to locate us. First in place, in specific geographic locations. Second in our stories, the specific skills and abilities that we were honing. Third, they are social questions. They locate us in families and in cultures. They invite us to consider our genealogy, the role of ancestors (“they left father Zebedee” 1:20).

I offer this reading and these three questions for a number of reasons.

First, as the year begins, motivation can be hard. If you are like me, you might rather be on holiday, enjoying a beach, a second cup of tea at a slower pace in order to choose whether to look forward to the pleasure of a day with a book in the shade or walk the bush or book that catchup with friends. This text re-calls me, reminds me of the grace and challenge of call.

Second, to remind ourselves of who we are as a team. When we were first called geographically none of us probably imagined that we would be here at Knox Centre for Ministry and Leadership, serving in this way. We bring this past, our specific geographic locations, our past skills and abilities and competencies, our families and cultures. They make us who we are and we work alongside each other as humans, with these shaping experiences. We work with each other, each of us having experienced grace and challenge.

Third, we as KCML are about to welcome a new cohort of interns. Each of them will have a specific past, have been formed by specific geographies, bring prior skills and abilities and competencies, be located in families and cultures. Each of them has experienced, like us, grace of call. Each of them, like us, has said yes to the cost of discipleship. This is our privilege, as Faculty, to be working with these courageous and graced individuals.

As we begin the year, as we consider our blockcourse and the work before us, let’s pray.

Posted by steve at 08:59 AM

Friday, October 12, 2018

3 years in: a KCML post-it progress update

I began as Principal of Knox Centre for Ministry and Leadership 3 years ago today. This very day – newly back in New Zealand, new to Dunedin, new to the Presbyterian Church of Aoteroa New Zealand, I nervously approached the large, foreboding doors of the Hewitson Wing.

My first day/lectionary text is recorded here, my first staff devotional here and my end of first week “three words” reflections here.

An anniversary is a good a time as any for reflection, so I took a bit of time to write some poetry this morning, while this afternoon I pondered the KCML Strategic plan. The Strategic plan was approved by Council of Assembly in June 2016 and was effectively my first 9 months of work, across the 5 geographic Presbyteries and 3 Synod’s, engaging, listening, testing various parts.

The KCML strategic plan involves 4 key directions.

  • contextually agile ministers (Nationally ordained) – ensuring training prepares people for a diverse New Zealand, across cultures and generations.
  • innovation through New Mission Seedlings – building capacity across the church by forming long-term local site partnerships between Presbytery, KCML and various funding groups in order to nurture fresh expressions of faith as locations for training of ministers, leaders and learning for the wider church
  • national learning – finding ways to provide leadership resourcing for all ministry agents in the Presbyterian Church
  • lifelong learning – resourcing existing ordained ministers as the world changes rapidly

Since then, the decisions of General Assembly 2016 have added a further direction

  • the resourcing of Local Ordained Ministers

Three years in; and just over 2 years on from gaining the green light from Council of Assembly, there has been progress across all areas. Each post-it is an explanatory blog post in its own right, but there is a pleasing spread of colour and activity. There is also increasing overlap, as Lighthouse innovation incubator weaves into the New Mission Seedlings and the livinglibrary website becomes a locator for both national learning and lifelong learning.  There is much that beckons into 2019.

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Alongside the visibility of post-it notes of progress, there has been lots of other activity as the KCML team have sought to be faithful to the call of the church. In some ways, this has been the most complex thing to navigate. The strategic plan has come on top of existing activity. Without additional people resources – in fact with diminished people resources – we’ve struggled to balance priorities from the past alongside the pressures of the present and the possibilities of the future.

Posted by steve at 02:07 PM

Friday, October 05, 2018

KCML speech at General Assembly 2018

As a member of National staff, I am offered 5 minutes to visit General Assembly and speak about KCML.  Here is what I said to GA 2018 on Thursday. (Here is what I said on GA 2016).

Tena koe, e te moderata. Tena koe, e te waewae tapu, honoured ecumenical guests. Ko koutou nga uri o Te Tahu Ngahere, tena koe.

Greetings to everyone one of you, as people of the burning bush. As people of the burning bush, we follow a God revealed in Exodus 3 as a God who listens, who hears. To listen has been a priority for us as KCML in the last 2 years. Through the Thornton Blair Research project we’ve listened to over 285 Presbyterian leaders, as individuals and in Presbytery focus groups.

We’ve heard that you want resourcing in Faith, Community, Witness, Leadership and Innovation. We’ve heard you want this delivered not only in classrooms in Dunedin, but delivered in ways that are flexible, accessible and varied. In response, we’ve built a website. Perhaps for the first time ever in church, you’re welcome to pull out your cell phones. Check out living library.

(The website will be open for the duration of GA. Then closed again for a few weeks while we attend to your feedback – what works; what could be improved).

The website is shaped around what you said you needed resourcing in – Faith, Community, Witness, Leadership and Innovation. For each theme there are resources – videos, courses, books, short interviews. We offer this website as a resource for all leaders, all people across the PCANZ.  Thank Synod of Otago Southland and Thornton Blair Trust for making this website possible.

We’re people of the burning bush – Ko koutou nga uri o Te Tahu Ngahere –

Once God listens; God then sends.  KCML continues to send ministers; by training LOMs and NOM’s

  •  Can the NOM interns here among us – stand; and any LOM’s probationers, I also invite them to stand.
  • Every intern existing in a training partnership. If there are any mentoring ministers of those NOM or LOM – I invite you to stand
  • If there are any supervisors these NOM or LOM – please stand
  • If there are any churches who host these NOM or LOM – please stand.

So as the PCANZ – we together as people of the burning bush – continue to send ministers into ministry

(Thanks be seated.)

In the last two years, KCML has reviewed curriculum – every lecture, every assignment – against NOM core competencies. In the last two years, we’ve offered a LOM refresher course and we’ve worked with NAW on increasing cultural competency. As KCML, we’re deeply aware that we’re sending leaders into a very different mission context.

If I had 5 more minutes I’d tell you about

  • New Mission Seedlings – KCML partnerships with Alpine and Southern; placing NOM interns in placements where there is no church – into mission field – be formed for new mission context
  • Listening in mission – online support for ministers around NZ
  • Lighthouse – offers invite only coaching for lay people in mission experiments
  • Snapshots in mission 18 – in your bags – taking best of current Presbyterian mission thinking and gifting it to every church in PCANZ

I stand on behalf of a core KCML team of gifted servants; of Mark Johnstone, Geoff New, Susan Peters, Kevin Ward, Malcolm Gordon.

Thanks for funding – historic investment, Assembly assessment, from local intern churches, Synod Otago Southland and PDS.

Thank the boards who govern and advise us as KCML – Advisory Board; Leadership SC; Resources SC; Council of Assembly – who help us as KCML as we seek to fulfil our Book of Order mandate 9.6.3 – to be a national resource and structure – for listening and sending in mission.

Thankyou.

Posted by steve at 04:19 PM

Friday, June 08, 2018

Listening in mission resource (for Friday, Monday, Tuesday)

Unknown-20 For those attending the Listening in Mission workshop and for the sake of the environment, here is a copy of the KCML Resource (Assignment Reading neighbourhood).

Posted by steve at 08:01 PM

Tuesday, June 05, 2018

Call for papers: CHRISTIANITY AND THE ARTS IN ASIA

A project I’ve been involved with as part of Knox Centre for Ministry and Leadership for last 2 years – now stepping it up

CALL FOR PAPERS: CHRISTIANITY AND THE ARTS IN ASIA

A Symposium
September 28-29, 2018
University of Otago, Dunedin

Art is an essential dialogue partner for Christian faith. From earliest times, art has given expression to Christian faith. It is a means of contextual theological expression and enriches understandings of doctrine and practice. Art has also served to offer critique of Christian faith.  
  
The Christianity and Cultures in Asia Network calls for papers that reflect on art and Christian faith in Asian cultures. Themes could include:
 
• How has art in Asia expressed, interpreted and challenged Christian faith?
• How might Christian doctrines be uniquely expressed through Asian art and Asian art forms?
• Can art from Asia shed light on the complex and continually contested relationship between art and faith, including interpretation, authority, hermeneutics and performance? 
• How might art in Asia give new insight into biblical texts?

Art is interpreted broadly, including architecture, music, literature, painting, visual media, sculpture, dance, and calligraphy.  Presentations that include art are particularly welcomed. This symposium follows the successful symposium on the movie Silence held in March 2017. All abstracts will be blind peer reviewed. 
 
The Christianity and Cultures in Asia Network is a partnership between the Theology Programme at the University of Otago, the Knox Centre for Ministry and Leadership, and the Presbyterian Research Centre at Knox College, Dunedin. The Symposium will encourage use of two substantial collections of print resources held by the Presbyterian Research Centre, the Rita Mayne England collection on Christianity in Asia, and the Chrysalis Seed collection on Christianity and the Arts.
 
Please submit paper proposals not exceeding 500 words by July 2nd 2018.
Presentations will be 30mins in duration followed by discussion.

Proposals should be submitted to: murray.rae@otago.ac.nz

Posted by steve at 07:21 PM

Monday, April 30, 2018

Lest we forget: Anzac beginnings through the words of Kingmaker Wiremu Tamihana

I preached at the Knox Chapel Anzac service this weekend. The Bible readings were Ephesians 2 and Psalm 23. I looked at Anzac beginnings through Australian eyes and the words of Maori chief, Wiremu Tamihana (whom I researched through much of last year). This opened up a reflection on Ephesians 2 and New Zealand mission history. I finished with the tekoteko of Te Maungarongo, Jesus the ancestor.

“The most remarkable Anzac sermon I’ve ever heard” commented an Emeritus Professor of Law. “Outstanding” commented a University Chancellor. So here it is … (more…)

Posted by steve at 09:56 PM

Monday, February 05, 2018

Lent-inar

(part of a work project I’m playing with)

snapshots

During Lent 2018, KCML is offering (free) web-inars. Weekly, two of the contributors to Snapshots in Mission will be interviewed via online video conferencing.

  • What sparked their writing?
  • What piece of music speaks to their article? What are the implications, for church, ministry and mission?

There will be time for Q and A, using video conferencing technology. Thursday’s (February 22; March 1, 8, 15, 2018, 4:30-5:15 pm). Attend one. Attend them all. Learn how to link to the Lent-inar by emailing rosemary@knoxcentre.ac.nz

Posted by steve at 09:11 AM

Thursday, December 21, 2017

learning with Doug Gay: Church in Mission summer intensive

dougrecording Doug Gay is in New Zealand for a summer intensive – Church in Mission: Theology in Changing Cultures. A Kiwi summer has many attractions, so why am I spending a week of it with Doug?

First, Doug has a gift for liturgy. I use one of Doug’s recent calls to worship with our KCML interns . Tasked with a call to worship for the induction of an artist as a pioneer minister.

Doug brilliantly framed theologies of reformation with a missional trajectories. Beautifully word-smithed, theologically rich, I use it with interns to consider how historic theologies are reforming, shaping future vision.

Seccond, experience in innovation. Doug was part of pioneering one of the first alternative worship communities, the Late Late Service in Glasgow. This was in the 1990’s. There were very few maps, certainly no emerging church and fresh expression books. Here is their Christmas service, televised live on Channel 5.

Doug then moved to London, and as a United Reformed Church minister, was part of birthing Host, exploring alternative worship in Hackney, north London.

Third, Doug is a fine public theologian. He completed his PhD in public theology at the University of Edinburgh and has written on national identity and Christian faith. In 2017, he gave the Chalmers lectures. They were described by Jason Goroncy as “informed, intelligent, lucid, timely, and hope-filled challenge not only to Scottish Presbyterianism (the prime focus of his reflections) but also to the wider church.” They have become a book, Reforming the Kirk, with St Andres Press.

Fourth, he’s a respected preacher, tag preaching in 2016 at Greenbelt with Nadia Bolz-Weber, and presenting at the sold-out Festival of Preaching in Oxford, UK in 2017.

Fifth, he is himself a gifted musician. He’s recently returned to the studio to record, a sign of a wellspring of creativity.

Creativity, worship, public theology, preaching and music. Worth a week inside, no matter how good the summer!

The intensive runs 22-26 January, 2018. Titled Church in Mission: Theology in Changing Cultures, co-taught by myself and Doug, it is a joint offering by the Department of Theology and Religion, University of Otago, and the Knox Centre for Ministry and Leadership.

The course can be undertaken in two way:
• for credit through the Department of Theology and Religion at University Otago course costs. For further details on this option contact Paul Trebilco, Department of Theology and Religion paul.trebilco@otago.ac.nz or 03 4798 798.

• for audit student by contacting the Knox Centre for Ministry and Leadership. This will cost $500, with further Ministers Study Grant subsidies available for PCANZ ministers. For further details on this option : The Registrar, Knox Centre for Ministry and Leadership; registrar@knoxcentre.ac.nz; 03 473 0783.

The course can be undertaken in two locations:
• In Dunedin, at the Knox Centre for Ministry and Leadership, with Doug and Steve face-to-face and a face-to-face tutor to provide interaction and contextual reflection

• In Auckland, with Doug and Steve streamed in via video and a face-to-face tutor to provide interaction and contextual reflection

Posted by steve at 10:18 PM

Friday, December 01, 2017

We’re hiring – Educational Delivery Project Officer

Educational Delivery Project Officer
0.6 (fixed term 12 months with possibility of extension)

6classrooms2017

Knox Centre for Ministry and Leadership has a strategic plan which prioritises lay and ordained training to be enacted through a mix of face to face and online learning across the country. This is a new position created to support our existing educational delivery and work with us to develop our strategic plan.

The successful applicant will be skilled in organisation and networking, with experience in event management and educational administration. They will have an eye for detail, a passion for adult education and the ability to support and co-ordinate the deliver of high-quality education to leaders across the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand. This includes supporting the KCML Faculty in the use of online, video conferencing and digital resources and enhancing our ability to met our commitments to being a bi-cultural and intercultural church.

Enquiries and applications including a CV and letter of application addressing the Position Description to: Steve Taylor, principal@knoxcentre.ac.nz.

Applications close 9 am, Monday 4 December, 2017. Interviews are set for Monday, December 11, 2017.

Posted by steve at 04:45 PM

Tuesday, November 14, 2017

Christ-based innovation

A few weeks ago, I provided spiritual wisdom in an Educating for innovation weekend run by KCML. Seven teams from around New Zealand were brought together. They were offered a fabulous location and invited to work on taking ideas to opportunity for their local community context.

We worked with Dr Christine Woods from University of Auckland Business School, who was invited to walk us through the processes she used with small businesses and in Maori innovation. In planning the weekend, she was careful. “In working with Maori, I quickly realised I can’t just add on a bit of Maori to my existing work. I needed to begin with Maori values. So in this weekend, we can’t just add on a bit of Jesus. We need to begin with Christian values.”

I grinned. I had just written a book on faith-based innovation. In Built for change: A practical theology of innovation and collaboration I read Paul in light of Christ, using six images from 1 Corinthians 3 and 4. This includes an entire chapter on Jesus the innovator.

So here is how I introduced the weekend, a beginning located in Christ-based innovation:

We gather as whanua (family) of Ihu Karaiti (Jesus Christ). One of the more interesting innovators in the Christian tradition is Apostle Paul. Most (all) of Paul’s innovation begins when he, like us, goes to the edge.

So in Acts 16, Paul goes to the edge. He hears a man from Macedonia say “come on over.” Paul is a learner. Paul takes a risk. Paul forms a mission team with two others, Timothy and Silas.

And they go to a community in Macedonia called Philipi. In that community, he find some partners. He finds a business woman called Lydia. Together they form prayerful community in the borderlands outside the city

Then he moves to a community called Athens. He takes time in that community to learn the culture, to read their poets and study how cultures gather.

And in each place, in each community, Paul and his mission team, are gaining perspective, seeing more clearly, the Gospel in community.

And in each place, it is only once they get there, only once they begin, only once they listen, that they see light for a next direction.

And for one community, after Paul has left, he sends a letter. And in that letter, we get a glimpse of what it means for Paul to be an innovator.

And so this weekend, as innovators, we will open one of Paul’s letters. It is the letter of 1 Corinthians. It is written to a church that Paul has begun. And in that letter he describes his innovation. The first image is that of servant ….

Posted by steve at 03:00 PM

Tuesday, August 08, 2017

The Church in Contemporary NZ: Perspectives and Challenges – Whanganui bound

I’m speaking in Whanganui tomorrow evening (August 9, 7:30 – 9 pm) on the theme of The Church in Contemporary NZ: Perspectives and Challenges. The presenting reason is to met an incoming KCML intern, as part of the processes of induction to the KCML internship process. But it fitted really well with the local churches, who have banded together to present 4 evenings on the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. It’s a really creative and well-put together mix – of film and speaking and interaction – and I’m thrilled to be part of it.

Screen Shot 2017-08-08 at 4.48.45 PM

On the 9th of August, under the heading – The Church in Contemporary NZ: Perspectives and Challenges – I will begin with what was a radical new technology, the printing press. I will use that to reflect on a forgotten hallmark of the Reformed project (according to Michael Jinkins, The Church Transforming: What’s Next for the Reformed Project?), that of innovation – “the capacity to draw from the experience of ancient Christian communities and to adapt these lessons to new situations (Michael Jinkins, The Church Transforming: What’s Next for the Reformed Project?, 105). I will then tell stories of some of the New Mission Seedling innovation I am seeing in New Zealand, including in a new build, post-earthquake suburb in Christchurch and the dream of a new monastic presence among the working class suburb in Dunedin.

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All 4 evenings of evenings will take place at St James Church, Cnr Boydfield/Helmore Streets, Whanganui East. For more info, contact Mo Morgan 021905552 or Angela Gordon 5614314

Posted by steve at 05:07 PM