sustain:if:able kiwi

stoning the prophets

A chance to listen
to the minor prophets, as they are read aloud

A chance to learn
from the minor prophets, through reflective space.

…dramatic reading aloud from the minor prophets
…candle light among river stones
(You are welcome to dress as a prophet)

Twelve Sundays, 5.30-6:45 pm
From 23 September – 16 December (with a break on November 4)
Opawa Baptist Church Friendship Centre (A frame building opposite the church)

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preaching on fathers day

I am not sure about my sermon from today. It is Fathers Day here in New Zealand and we are in the midst of a 3 week series on Bible families, looking at the family system around King David. (We did a similar type of series last year, looking at the family system around Abraham).

So I preached on David and son, particularly in relation to Absalom. Here is the sermon (download file)and here are the post-sermon questions I am continuing to ponder:

1. Is this too tough to preach on Fathers Day? Don’t men get enough of a hard time about parenting?

4. What do visitors think of this type of sermon? Is this being hospitable to them?

an economic playing with the Biblical text

This was last Sunday. At the door, everyone got given a card (about 5 cm by 7 cm). There were 7 different cards in total. 4 were Biblical characters – Micah, Joseph of Arimathea, Zaccheus, the sower. 3 were saints – William Wilberforce, Mother Teresa and our church treasurer.

So, here for example is Zacchues (click to enlarge):

I started the sermon by reading aloud a creative piece I had written, a contemporisation by re-writing the Parable of the talents in Matthew 25.

I then invited people into groups, and one by one, to show their card and to reflect on what that person might say to our contemporary economic issues.

An open mic session allowed group learning to be shared with the whole and their was lots of good feedback, as people moved between Biblical text and contemporary economic context.

The parable of the missing talents

I have been preaching on the topic of Jesus and money. One of the business people in the church asked me what I thought was an excellent question: what would Jesus have said if one of the people in the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-28) had lost money. It got me thinking about how domesticated the Parable has become, and prompted me to have a go at contemporarising the parable in light of contemporary ethical issues.

Any suggestions to the “What would Jesus say? gratefully accepted, as Sunday’s coming!

“Again, it will be like a businesswoman going on a journey, who called her servants and entrusted her property to them. To one she gave 3.5 million dollars, to another 1.5 million, and to another 700,000, each according to their ability. Then she went on her journey. The one who had received the 3.5 million went at once and put his money to work and gained 3.5 million more. So also, the one with the 1.5 million gained 1.5 million more. But the man who had received the one talent went off, and placed it in Kiwisaver.

“After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The man who had received the 3.5 million brought the other 3.5 million. ‘Master,’ she said, ‘you entrusted me with 3.5 million. See, I have gained 3.5 million more. I set up a sweat shop in Thailand and used bonded labour to supply cheap chairs for growing churches.

What would Jesus say to that?

“The one with the 1.5 million also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with 1.5 million. I invested them in the share markets and foreign exchange currency. But I lost my money when the Kiwi dollar crashed.’

What would Jesus say to that?

“Then the man who had received the 700,000 came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard woman, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was careful and cautious and planned for my retirement and I invested in Kiwisaver. When I retire, I am sure that you will get what belongs to you.’

What would Jesus say to that?

videoblogging and sermons 2

“Tonight made me want to read the Bible more.” That was a comment made to me after church on Sunday. What do all those who claim that emerging church is soft on the Bible do with that type of feedback, I wonder?

Some months ago I blogged about the possibility of using videoblogging in relation to sermons. Well here’s the first go, by the brave and innovative Iain McMahon, which went live at Digestion church service yesterday.

The theme for the service was “journey and promise.” It was part of 7 week series titled God’s big story. We have broken the Bible up around themes of

CREATION: Genesis

JOURNEY, PROMISE: Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth

POWER + JUSTICE: 1+2 Samuel, 1+2 Kings, 1+2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, 12 micro:prophets (including Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi).

SONGS + SAYINGS: Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiasties, Song of Songs, Lamentations

INTERTESTAMENTAL TIMES: what did happen in those centuries between the Old and New Testament

GOOD NEWS OF JESUS: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts

LETTERS OF LOVE: Romans, 1+2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1+2 Thessalonians, 1+2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James, 1+2 Peter, 1+2+3 John, Jude, Revelation

I was down to do Journey and promise, and had wondered aloud to Iain if he wanted to have a go at “videologging” around that theme. So the sermon/content bit started with me spilling wine on a white tablecloth. It’s what the Jews do at Passover, to remind themselves that they were once enslaved. So that’s where the Biblical theme of journey starts. I then gave a brief thumbnail sketch of Israel’s journey from Egypt to nationhood, from Exodus to Ruth.

Iain then showed his “videolog”, which turned out to be a contemporary probing of the theme of journey and promise. As the music played on at the end of the “videolog” I laid bread, broken, on the winesoaked tablecloth and inviting those who needed bread for their journey today to eat.

Initial thoughts on videoblogging and sermons:
1. It went surprisingly well.
2. It allows a multi-sensory experience of music and image.
3. It allows a world outside church – in this case the environment of Christchurch and the stories of people – to become part of church.
4. It increases participation – both in the skills of videoblogging and in the voices of those who speak.
5. The use of editing allows spoken participation to be sharpened up.
6. It takes time, and demands a new set of skills – for example in this case lighting and sound quality. This will lead to an ever-increasing tension around time and professionalism.
7. In this case the videolog flowed really well. But it might not always and what then?
8. Iain did it for blog. That is vital. It suggests and accessiblity and suggests that our congregation includes the web. This suggests a whole lot of interactivity: a webspace where others can post their journeys, a space to share what spiritual practises sustain journey, a place to log complaints about communities who don’t welcome the stranger and practise hospitality …

Iain will have another go with Songs and sayings on August 26. It will be interesting to see if this is just an experiment, or if it actually allows some very different ways of engaging with Biblical text to emerge for us at Opawa. In the meantime, we have individuals off to read the Bible more, which is good and healthy fruit to see developing among young adults today.

listening to the Spirit during weekly church

Today was a Sun-day when the last thing I wanted to be was a pastoral leader.

Some background. I had preached last week, a reflection on Ezekiel 37, and all week have been getting email and comment back about what I had preached. People challenged, people inspired.

All week, the intuitive part of me was saying “pause Steve. listen Steve.” You see, I’m like a magpie. I like bright and shiny things. It easy for me to approach the Bible like that, always looking for a new bit of information. It is easy to approach church like that – last week’s sermon was good, what will we be fed this week. I suspect those narratives are strongly at work in many of us.

The ordered part of me had a sermon topic – starting a 3 week series on Jesus and money – to work away on. Besides, how can you pause a week after you’ve preached something. There would be people absent last week, but present this week. There would be visitors, new to the church. It’s not very welcoming when they start to hear all about a previous something they’ve missed.

So by last night I had a sermon, needing the usual Sunday morning polish, but ready to go.

This morning I read today’s lectionary reading. In the cycle I use, it is Ezekiel 47 and it beautifully mirrors and reflects last weeks Bible text, Ezekiel 37. And I sense that God is wanting me to ditch the ordered sermon and go with the intuitive wondering. Which would be fine if this was 24 or even 48 hours ago, but church is 2 hours away.

God, find someone else to be a pastoral leader. Find someone else to balance preparation with intuitive trusting the Spirit. Find someone else to discern what needs to happen. Grump over. Back to work.

My partner created a handout, summarising last week and giving 2 questions for reflection.

I stood and explained what would happen:
1. A short introduction, asking us to consider how we as the people of God engage the Bible. Are we magpies? Does God only speak through preaching, or can God also speak through Scripture reading and through the body of Christ?
2. Summarise last week and read Biblical text
3. Give 4 mins for individual reflection, using handout.
4. Open microphone time for people to share
5. A 10 minute spoken reflection on Ezekiel 47 and how it mirrors Ezekiel 37, thus offering some fresh content for those fresh to the process and who like sermonic input.

Anyhow, these are my summary notes of what was shared during (4) at the open mic:
– Ezekiel 37 reminds us that we need to be willing to let God do something different.
– Ezekiel 37 reminds us that it is not up to us as humans to rattle dead bones. Rather it is God doing something. Our role is simply to speak “lavish kindness”
– Ezekiel 37 reminds us we need to pray every day “fill me afresh Spirit today.” This was being integrated into a spiritual practise that had been suggested earlier in the year.
– Ezekiel 37 reminds us God has given each of us talents, so none of us need to be a dry bone.
– Ezekiel 37 reminds us it is easy to look at dry bones and lose hope. Yet following God is about faith in things not yet seen.
– Ezekiel 37 reminds us even though things have been hard in my life (and thanks to my home group for supporting me), I need to keep working on it.
– Ezekiel 37 reminds us that we should never give up. Dry bones are like all those unanswered prayers.

A very stressful Sunday. How does a group of people who meet weekly pause and listen, in a way that is not inhospitable to visitors?

moulded into romans 8

Tonite was a team preach, me and a younger leader. We have met 5 times; to explore a Biblical text; to discuss it’s application; to work on how together we could preach the text.

Everyone was given a piece of clay as they arrived. Romans 8 is about God’s love. What if this love is not an abstract theory, but meant to be expressed concretely? What if love is not something to talk about, but something to express in action?

Tentatively he handed his piece of clay to me. I moulded it with mine and passed it onto another person. One by one, people moulded their unique piece of clay into the whole.

Might this be church? Our colourful unique talents, made greater as a whole. God’s love as concrete, expressed in and through one another.

None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us. Romans 8:38-9

the gift of a question, the question of a gift

One of my students in my Living the text in a Postmodern (Fuller) context class gave me a gift this week. Here it is:

“Where does this story connect with brokenness in the tellers life?”

(Context for those interested: We had been discussing storytelling and the student was making some links between the narrative of my preaching journey, a group storytelling exercise I had done with them in the morning, moving into an afternoon storytelling workshop in which I was trying to help students work on developing awareness of their own stories. We then used the question to evaluate a class case study – a narrative sermon.)

It is a question that I will pin on my wall and use to guide my ongoing talking. I think it relates back to a post from a few months ago on stories of failure.

why God might like lovely Anglican vicars

First day with Anglicans went well. I think I found out at least one reason why over lunch.

I use Luke 10:1-12 as a key Biblical text when I talk about missional and emerging church. It provides a very helpful window by which to analyse cultural change. It seems to both encourage and challenge diverse church groupings.

So as part of today, we spent an hour in Luke 10:1-12, firstly dwelling in the word, secondly me doing some teaching around it, thirdly them working in groups on the implications for leadership today. And tomorrow I will do some storytelling about how this text is working practically in my context as we plant communities.

Anyhow, at lunch I became aware that Luke 10:1-12 is the Lectionary text for Sunday coming. All these busy Anglican vicars, at a conference all week, wondering how on earth they are going to get time to work on Sunday’s sermon, suddenly found themselves frantically scribbling notes as they get some free exegesis and some free stories and some free application to mission and ministry today. See, God must like lovely Anglicans.

videoblogging and sermons

Last week I noted the blog of Iain McMahon, newcomer, to Canterbury, and to Opawa Baptist. Since then, Iain has unleashed a flurry of video blogs – showcasing his work, his flat, his local video shop, his eating habits, Sunday morning at Opawa, espresso Tuesday evening cafe church at Opawa and Conversational English as a community ministry at Opawa.

I have been fascinated to watch Iain’s collection grow. They are short (2 – 4 mins). They are real to life. Iain comes across well – relaxed, curious, a bit quirky and humous. I like them.

Which got me thinking about the place of video blogging and sermons. You see, Iain has been keen to preach and we’ve talked about this. But preaching is a word that can define a genre: in time, in place, in backdrop.

What would happen if we asked Iain to preach as videoblog? Could we give him a Bible text, and invite him to video blog it – short, woven into his life, with a real to life background? Would this not allow the Biblical text to become alive in Iain and outside the building and in a different time and mode? Would this not offer different ways of communicating, thus freeing different voices to make Biblical contribution?

Fuller, july 07, living the text in a contemporary context

Just a heads up for those interested, that I’m down to teach a week long intensive at Fuller Theological Seminary July 9-13. The course, titled Living the Text in a Postmodern context, emerges out of my personal wrestling with how to use the Bible, week by week, with real groups of people, given that people are made with 5 senses, and that our world has gone much more visual and interactive.

In more formal words: This course will explore the communication of the Biblical text in a contemporary world, with particular missiological reference to the use of the Bible in the postmodern, emerging church. It will apply theological insights around text, community and culture, to the task of maintaining and communicating the integrity of the Biblical text with reference to postmodernity. As a result of the course, students will be better equipped to read and communicate the Biblical text in a postmodern context.

I taught the course at Fuller a year ago and had a great time with a great class. So my expectations are high and I am looking forward to being back at Fuller. The course is being code-shared between the School of Intercultural Studies and the D.Min program, so it can be done either as part of the Masters, or for the D.Min. (I have also been asked me to develop it for their Masters in Global leadership, which goes on-line to 50 countries, but that discussion is still on-going).

Anyhow, more details of the course outline are here. And last year Ryan Bolger was asking me about the course and what I’ll cover, so I did a 90 second podcast, if you want to listen here (450K). Or check out here for some of their learning from their class blogs if you want.

stories of failure

She pulled me aside in Adelaide and thanked me for my input. Then she looked me in the eye and said “You should tell a story of when you failed.” When people like that open their mouths – older, female, straight to the point – I listen. I listen very, very carefully, for this is real feedback. When people get that honest, I feel like time has stopped and I am standing on holy ground.

So I did. The next time I spoke I told a story of failure. It was to a crowd of 300 and it was impossible in a group that size to tell if the story was helpful.

Then this, from Cheryl’s blog:
stu from solace and i keep talking about setting up a website that tells the story of the things we do that don’t work… of the hiccups along the way, the failures, mysterious stuff ups. they far outnumber the things that go smoothly.

So tell me, oh beloved listeners. Do publicly told stories of failure help? How and why and in what circumstances?

what should a preacher preach?

On Sunday I preached a sermon. Nothing unusual about that. What was perhaps unusual was that it engaged with a public issue by asking a question: would Jesus smack children?

The sermon had the following sort of outline:
1. invitation to engage with a Biblical text: Luke 18:15-18.
2. question – would Jesus smack, followed by explanation for the question – that New Zealand is engaged in intense current debate about anti-smacking Bill
3. implication one – should Christians protest against this Bill (I gave 3 reasons why you might).
4. implication two – should Christians smack, and an exploration of some Bible verses often used to support smacking
6. some exploration of the question, would Jesus smack
7. some pastoral comments about the complexity of life and of parenting
8. pastoral prayer for parents (prayed by my partner, Lynne)
9. chance for talkback with me after the service if people wanted (about 10 people did and it was a good, robust discussion).

There is that old saying, religion and politics don’t mix. So why Steve, why on earth did I mix them on Sunday? These were factors I considered.

1. The whole discussion is so much in the New Zealand public mind. Christians are being asked for their opinion. Christians need to have an opinion. To not preach is making a statement – that the Bible has nothing to say about our current society. Equally, preaching on it might provide an example of how to think Christianly, and thus how to respond in conversation.
2. The topic of how to parent did fit in with the Biblical text and a baby dedication.
3. We have a privatised religious culture (a fruit of modernity). The longterm result of Descartes declaring that “I think therefore I am”, is a Christian faith that is offered expressed as individual and internal and intellectual. Yet the Jesus of the Bible seemed to me to make claims that were global and societal and practical. Surely the gospel needs to impact on all of life, including how we parent.

These were the reasons why I might preach. I also considered the reasons why I might not preach.

The dangers as I saw them there were
1. Pulpits can be misused as places to make dogmatic statements. I ran the risk of doing a bad job, of misusing a privileged, public platform and thus marginalising people.
2. Of exposing myself. It is far easier to keep quiet and stay safe.
3. That I would start a process whereby the energy of church might be distracted from our current community mission focus.

Three for, three against.

4 days later, still feeling drained after the stresses of preparation and prayer and anxiety, I am still pondering the wisdom of my decision. Was I plain dumb to mix religion and politics on Sunday?

speaking and writing: a theological murmer about the Bible

Yesterday I did a post pondering the differences between speaking and writing. I wrote:

Something deep within me says that oral communication is different from written communication. I know that what I write to speak is different from what I write to be read; different pace, different rhythm, different style. And when I quote someone in a verbal presentation, I won’t cite publisher, but I will in a written document. What is more, I wonder if people read differently than they hear.

The opinion, from my wise and learned commenters, is an overwhelming yes, that speaking is different from writing.

OK, here’s the theological murmer that has been running through my head over the last few days as I have been thinking this aloud;

If speaking is different from writing, what does this mean for the Bible? How can we navigate “Jesus speaking”; to “Luke or John writing”; to the preacher “preaching” today? What is being lost and gained in this transmission folks?