sustain:if:able kiwi

winter spirituality week 2

“It’s not every church you get to play twister while singing the final hymn” was one piece of feedback on our 10:30am service.

We’re into our second Sunday of s-l-o-w-i-n-g down, winter spirituality. We Kiwis tend to hurtle from February to December and then collapse in January. So we’ve suggested to our congregations and small groups that they take 2 slower weeks in early July. So at 10:30 am the focus was on winter spirituality and along with a winter call to worship, dedication, baptist and a winter spirituality sermon, part of the worship was a time to “sabbath.” People “sabbath” in a variety of ways, so a range of options were scattered around the church:
– lego
– “kicking tires” of the building project
– card making
– browsing church library
– checking out spiritual practice resources
– helping put together our flu packs (seen over $750 donated for these in last 2 weeks)
– reflecting on winter visuals
– catching up with people
– twister!!
ending with Great is thy faithfulness. It was great looking around, seeing the spread of generations, the mix of people, the laughter and care and creativity, hearing the conversations around what sustains and nourishes our inner life.

If we’d had more energy and the new foyer cafe that is part of the building project had been completed, it would have also included hot chocolates all around. But what we did was enough, slowing the pace, reminding us of a whole-person spirituality and our diversity as a group of people.

20 minutes encouraging “winter” sabbath

So you have been given 20 minutes in a standard morning service. The Bible text is about encouraging sabbath and the “worship” aim is to give people some time and space to “worship by sabbathing”, ie to provide a range of options/stations which a diverse, inter-generational group of people could enjoy. All ideas need to be easy, to ensure that those running the service are not stressed at the expense of those who are enjoying.

(For example, hot chocolates would be great, but a lot of work for 140 people when you don’t have a kitchen in the building).

What would you put into the time/space?

winter spirituality

It’s the middle of winter here. Short nights. Cold, cloudy, grey days. Buildings are cold. We’re trying to recognise this as a church, by building in a change of pace, encouraging our congregations to go slower for a two week period.

So tonight, our Soak service swapped individual stations and lectio divina for soup and community. Four large dinner tables were set up, adorned with candles, fragrant oils and winter sweet. One had a jigsaw, another had cushions.

Three different home soups were on offer, complete with sour cream, parsley, bacon bits (TVP). Discussion questions lay around:
– where was/is warmth in your house?
– what nourishes your soul?
– how do you (your family) unwind in the winter?

It provided a very different sort of spiritual nourishment, a pleasing change of pace, a relationally warm time, a uniquely winter spirituality.

Further posts:
Personal winter spirituality here.

swappping theology books for kids games

So I met with my spiritual director today. We meet monthly and I am so grateful for the way this helps me focus on what God is doing in my life. Generally the two of us muddle around for a while and them boom: he asks a great question that opens up some excellent insights.

During the month I have been reflecting on the spirituality of winter. While running, I have been struck by the beauty of bare branches, which has caused me to be grateful for the gift of clarity, those moments of being truly seen and truly known. A dimension of my leadership role is to clarify, to help my community see itself truly. Equally, I crave that for myself, the ability to see myself truly and to grow out of that honesty.

Then the boom question: since leaves help feed a tree, and since winter is about losing what feeds you, I wonder what you should be losing that feeds you?

Which really got me thinking – about what does feed me, and what it might mean to lose that for a season. We talked about how this could include perhaps a change of diet, or some form of fasting.

The upshot: for winter, I’m going to read less theology books and spend more time playing games with my kids.

I discussed this with them tonight over dinner. At first they were concerned, because they thought that I got my sermons from my theology books. But when I pointed out that I can also get sermons from interacting with my kids (and often do), they decided they REALLY liked my spiritual director. Rummy-O Tin and Sequence Game, for the winter, here we come!

seeing yourself through the eyes of another

I’ve been doing some reflecting this week on perceptions. On how I am seen by others and how important those perceptions can be. So on a whim, I thought I’d grab a “blog” perception of myself. What do I write and what type of signal does it send? So here (courtesy of here), visually, are the most common words I use on this blog …

The most prominent words (i.e. what I have been writing most about in recent days) are “Jesus” and “forgiveness” and “workplace”!

Nice! (click on the image if you want to go bigger)

stars and Christianity

We’ve had a few days break as a family, which included an evening star-gazing at Mt John, Tekapo. It was chosen as one of the best places in the Southern Hemisphere to launch astronomy research, became a University research centre and is now open to the public.

It was a fantastic experience, a warm nite, soft cafe light, expert guidance and insight into a vast space. Sometimes the vastness of space freaks me, but this evoked a deep sense of peace.

And it got me thinking about the essential role of star gazing in Christian history. Just a few examples, and there are surely more …
: Abraham who found his future written in the stars
: Magi who followed the stars. As I have written here: For a Jew, following stars was idol worship. And so by including magi, Matthew is telling us that all sorts of people can seek Jesus, and they are not always from folks we’d prefer. That Jesus is not just Savior of his Israel! But he’s the saviour of all people.
: passages in the book of Revelation, in which Jesus is the morning star, and if I remember my theological education, Revelation does engage with the signs of the Zodiac.

I wonder what Christianity misses if we neglect the stars and what it might mean to recapture them? Worship wrapped in warm blankets outdoors with hot chocolate?

best and worst easter songs

So what are they?

Best, for me, is Roachford’s “Dawning of life” and the worst is Stones been rolled away – with that long, draggy “rolled.”

Another friend commented that his worst is “O sacred head”; so gory that it should only be played as heavy metal alt.worship.

Best and worst Easter songs – what are they for you?

u2 academic fan bio note

So as an invited presenter – Sampling and reframing: the evolving live concert performances of “Bullet the blue sky” – at the May 13-15 U2 Academic conference, I need to provide a 75 word bio. At the risk of seeming a groupie, I decided it was time to nurture my “inner fan” 🙂

Hence: Steve Taylor was a Boy in Papua New Guinea, matured under Under the Blood Red Skies of New Zealand, fell in love beside a Joshua Tree and became a cheering Passenger at the births of his two daughters. He is a writer, lecturer and creator of spirituality resources. His PhD (University of Otago) analysed new forms of church in contemporary culture. He is Senior Lecturer, Laidlaw College, Senior Pastor, Opawa Baptist Church and blogs at www.emergentkiwi.org.nz.

Today I need to go to do some work on the paper. I need to FORCE myself to go and watch Popmart and read about installation art and reframing in new media. Some days really are better than others.

why i’m emergentkiwi (still)

In 1994 my wife and I began church planting. We moved into a suburb, called Ellerslie. She joined the netball team and I began washing our clothes at the local laudromat, building relationships, practising Incarnation. Demographics told us it had a predominance of young adults, which resonnated with our age as church planters and our listening to our friends. We had friends who had faith, and who were finding faith, but outside the church. These friends valued relationships and participation and they wanted a faith that made sense of all of their lives and all of their persons. We began to talk about shared values of community, and creativity and about overcoming the sacred/secular divide and a community of Jesus followers began to form.

We felt very lonely. We suffered a lot of antagonism and disdain from some (not all) older Christians. (We were probably also aggressive and insecure in our response and that made it worse!)

Then we find some travelling companions. And this is really important. We found some travelling companions, they did not found us. Initially we found the alt.worship movement in UK. Then we found the Young Leaders Network, and tallskinnykiwi. And then we found Emergent in US. These were friends who were asking similar questions, about faith and mission in our time.

And so my blog is called emergentkiwi. In honour of finding some friends and about a shared conversation.

But the antagonism continued. And now the US antagonism was polluting New Zealand waters. (And perhaps the US emergents were also a bit aggressive and insecure and made it worse, but that’s up to them to own that). And the shared global conversation became dominated by a US brand. Happens all the time, with all forms of pop culture.

At the time I was doing my PHD study, on new forms of church and mission and discipleship. It became my book The Out of Bounds Church? Learning to Create a Community of faith in a culture of change. (Yep – sold as part of the US brand :)) And I was reflecting more theologically and intentionally on what was going on.

And I was being invited to speak about the emerging church. And I kept getting all tangled up. What was it? Could I define it? And when I did, did that make my listeners in? or out? And what did I think of McLaren?

And all the time I am thinking – this is not where I began. I did not begin with definitions. I began in a local community with a desire to connect people with Jesus. And so I stopped defining and tried naming those impulses. I would start with Acts 2. At Pentecost, people from many nations began to hear in their own language. That is the missionary work of God’s Spirit. So when my friends stopped hearing God in their own language, then our church planting was simply a reflection (good and bad) of the missionary work of the Spirit.

And I would show the fabulous emerging church cartoon by David Walker. And we could all laugh at the emerging church – and then to realise that this was simply some people “hearing God in their own language.” Which then gave space for every participant to think not about definitions of in and out, but about their group, their context, their culture and begin to wonder what it would mean for people to hear “in their own language.” And so I did not have to defend the emerging church and participants did not have to compare themselves to the emerging church, but only to think about their own context.

And then I would turn to Luke 10:1-12

It starts with prayer and sending. And so we need established churches to send people. And so the attractional vs incarnational dualities were sidestepped.

A text that invites disciples to go and speak peace. That’s the first response of missionaries to culture, to go and speak peace. So we don’t need to be afraid of the big bad wolf called postmodernity. So let’s go, to our networks and neighbours, outside the walls of a church and start by speaking peace.

Luke 10 then calls disciples to dwell at the tables of culture. So we should be happy to listen, well and deeply, to the narratives and dreams and hopes and aspirations of tables. So we need to do cultural exegesis – well and thoroughly, not poorly and lightly – as part of the missionary encounter.

Luke 10 then suggests that in the grace of God, healing might happen and Kingdom conversation might begin and faith community might begin to form. It will be bottom up, and particular and localised (although it will be able to share stories of healing and shared Kingdom values between localised communities). And so emerging church is one such attempt. And emergentKiwi will be local and US Emergent will be particular and alt.worship will be unique and Forge will speak in Australian. And we should be able to share stories of healing and Kingdom talk. And participants listening don’t need to become like me, or like McLaren or like Alan Hirsch or Cheryl Lawrie. Rather they need to look for God’s works of healing in their our context. It also means that WillowCreek is also a form of particular healing. And so it’s not about small church or large church, PAL or NTSC, singing or video loops, PC or Mac, but about the grace of God forming local bodies of Christ.

And Luke 10 invites us both to speak peace and to shake dust of our feet. And so there are times when emerging will be critical of postmodernity. We are not marrying the spirit of the age. We are deeply concerned about the sin of consumerism and we love the story of Jesus and we are angry at practices that damage God’s earth. But we will do that from a position of Incarnation, following Jesus who loved the world and did not come to condemn, but to save.

And now, when groups gather with me around Acts 2 and Luke 10, the conversation is suddenly no longer about definitions and about in and out. Instead it is around mission and change and the Kingdom of God. And for the last few years I have loved being part of this and worked with all sorts of denominations and in a good number of countries.

And now some of my friends are walking away from the label emerging. And the www, which helped carry the conversation, is now carrying the demise. And lots of people love it and will work very hard to spread the news. And frankly, this will make some conversations even more antagonistic. When I go to speak, someone will put up their hand and so “Oh, but I hear emerging is dying.”

And I will look at them and part of me will want to cry. How could my efforts to be part of God’s work, born for such a time as this, now be called dead.

And part of me will want to hit over the head all the people who have stirred and misrepresented and fought over labels and words and used the web to spread disinformation and increase their blog ratings.

And part of me will smile. What will they call the next thing, I wonder?

And I will respond to the question by suggesting we turn to Acts 2 and Luke 10. I will suggest we stop worrying about what we call these “new forms of church.” Instead we think about what it means for us to be obedient to the mission of God, because we are born “for such a time as this.”

Which, actually, is a much scarier conversation, because labels keep us academic and intellectual. But mission invites us to follow Jesus into God’s world, like lambs among wolves, taking nothing but our faith in the active, missionary Spirit.

larger than life a blog eulogy for Tom Allen

One of the blogs I read regularly is Tom Allen aka big bulky anglican. The link came via Nigel Wright, who was with us at Opawa as part of his Anglican ordinand training in 2006. It is one of the mysteries of contemporary church life that a UK Anglican can be partially formed by a NZ Baptist church, but it was certainly rich for us at Opawa. I think (I might have this wrong) that it was Tom who suggested to Nigel he make contact, for Tom was Nigel’s Vicar at that time.

Following Nigel’s visit, I grew to really value Tom’s via the blog – doing ministry in an established church context, creative, intelligently critical of systems for clergy care and survival, anglo-catholic in his approach to mission – it all made for a very rich blend that nourished me lots. In those moments when I felt alone and stupid and like I was wasting my time in ministry (which is quite often :)), Tom’s blog reminded me that I was not alone, that there were other creative, thoughtful people in established church contexts.

People often ask me if I belong to minister’s groupings. For a while I have struggled to answer, but increasingly in the last few months I have said yes, and it’s on-line – that I have a group of ministers that via their blogs, nourish me, inspire me, sustain me.

Can that be done on-line they ask?

I don’t know, I reply but it works for me.

So I clicked on Tom’s blog last nite to find news of his sudden death. And I grieved. It feels strange to grieve someone you have never met. It feels strange to have no more news about someone’s death than a simple message online.

I will light a candle tonight, for a man I never met, for his family and for those whom he influenced. I will ponder the seeming futility of life. I will give thanks for blogs, and the way they have connected me to people who have enriched my life.

sabbatical

The Taylor family leave this Friday (August 22) for a period of study leave in Adelaide. We will be guests of Parkin Wesley College and the Uniting Church of South Australia. I will return on 1 November, while the Taylor girls will return October 14.

Study leave is a block of time to equip for more effective ministry. As I work 3 days per week for Opawa (and 2 days per week for Bible College of New Zealand), my study leave goals for Opawa are to:
– invest in good family time
– do some creative writing projects
– walk and reflect and process and pray. Opawa is a very different church now – more staff, more people, more congregations, more community and mission ministry – compared to the church I came to in 2004. I am seeking clarity for our next season.
– edit some of my sermons into internet resources for a US publishing company

My study leave goals for BCNZ are to:
– teach a course on Missional Church leadership plus do some leadership coaching for the Uniting denomination
– turn that course into a book for a US publishing company
– continue to work on a number of writing projects

The kids will not being going to school, and instead working on a range of learning projects. Lynne will be working on some parts of our Angel Wings business.

In order to pay for the families flight, and for the fun activities, I am also doing a 1 day leadership seminar with the Churches of Christ denomination plus teaching a 5 day block course at Tabor College, on using the Bible today.

Not sure what I will do about the blog. Probably it will also enter a “sabbatical phase” in which I will simply post personal travel adventures, plus perhaps some best of the … old posts!

seeing, believing

for espresso: the church in which I get to “throw my keys in the bowl” (and who kindly listened as I played this Radiohead House of cards video as my worship ending on Tuesday nite).

Video shot, not with cameras, but with 3D plotting technologies that gather information about shape and distance. Just think, a whole way of looking that is different from the one you’re using to read this post and watch this radiohead video.

Which made me think about what we do and don’t see – and who we do and don’t see with – and where to go when we get too close and personal to see something properly.

finding your singing voice

Theory one: most modern church worship music has been written by very gifted people who sing WAY better than me. If it’s too complex, too good, people find it difficult to enter in.

Theory two: this type of music is best done by a band. With amplification, and with technology, this now offers a different type of worship experience. It’s more like sonic participation. They sing, those gathered listen. They are so loud, those gathered can’t hear themselves sing.

Result: people can lose their congregational singing voice.

So I found this article interesting.

“THIS IS AN article about singing. It’s about you singing. I am writing this because I want to encourage you to sing. A few years ago my friend and I realised that we both loved singing but didn’t do enough of it. So we started a weekly acapella group with just four members. After a year we invited others to join. We didn’t insist on musical experience – in fact some of our members had never sung before. Now the group has ballooned to around fifteen people.”

I’m fascinated by the hints they offer:

1. Some drinks, some snacks, some sheets of lyrics, a strict starting time and a warm up.
2. Song choice. “The songs that seem to work really well for us are those based around the basic chords of blues and rock and country music” .. C, F and G; G, C and D.
3. Song choice: Again! Songs that don’t have big empty spaces between vocal line, songs with rhythm, songs with tone!
4. I quote again, “We have a simple rule in the group: we never perform for anyone else, and we never record ourselves.”

Implications for worship? Start worship with snacks. Chose some single songs. Throw away the musical instruments. Find someone with a good voice. Enjoy!

And we just might rediscover community worship!!

Full article here.

making it look easy!

I am on study leave, huddled in a library corner, avoiding the distractions of my normal work offices, trying to find some connections between head and fingers. Only to read the following:

“nothing can be more time- consuming or effortful than the work required to make a piece of writing seem simple, lucid, and effortless. “ Introduction to the Atonement movie script, by Christopher Hampton.

Probably applies to good sermons, good coffees, good presentations, good children, good church meetings, good meals, good friendships … the list goes on ….