sustain:if:able kiwi

membership: arcane ritual?

I sat with a group of people new to Opawa last night, talking about membership. For me, part of a commitment to being a welcoming and hospitable place is taking time is explaining things – from as simple as introducing myself when I welcome people to worship, through to the ins and outs of membership or baptism or growing in discipleship or how to read the Bible.

As a (baptist) church we have concept called membership. I like membership for a number of reasons.

First, one of my mentors had a saying: “loose at the edges, committed at the core.” Membership is one way of offering a committed core. It is humbling and exciting to read a members pledge and realise I’m part of a group of people who’ve said yes to mission, growth, prayer, Kingdom commitment. There’s a strength and cohesion to who we are, and a promise of what we can be.

Second, it provides a language by which community can grow together. When a member acts badly, we can point to the pledge and talk about the action in light of the pledge and an already shared understanding of behaviour.

Thirdly, at times, church decisions involve important and significant decisions (including employment and buildings). Membership provides a clear mechanism for saying who can, and can’t make those decisions.

Fourthly, gathering members for a well-run meeting is an excellent way of creating processes, building vision and cohesiveness.

What I don’t like about membership is that it is so often framed as only two options: in or out. So to use the notion of “loose at the edges, committed at the core,” I’d like to find language or metaphors by which people could place themselves on a continuum rather than in or out. I’ve yet to find that, but if anyone’s done any thinking or experimenting in this area, I’d love to hear.

I’ve thought about the concept of “stakeholders”, which is a much better name, but again, I have struggled to see how stakeholders can be on a continuum from loose to committed.

In the meantime, it was great way to spend an evening, sitting with people willing to even think about a countercultural way of being; in mission and growth and community and resource sharing.

really looking forward to this pentecost/al experience

Flaxing Eloquent

An installational exploration of Pentecost
curated by Pete & Joyce Majendie to provide a hands-on, multi-sensory experience. The use of handmade flax paper and flax plants creates a New Zealand setting in which to explore Pentecost today.

A trinitarian smorgasbord
A close encounter of the spiritual kind
Intentional chaos
Facilitated worship

Sat 6th June, 8pm, Opawa Baptist Church, Cnr Wilsons Rd & Hastings St E

today I split the church

And it seemed to work well! In our Sunday morning congregation I am preaching through the gospel of Mark. The text today was Mark 1:14-20. Jesus comes proclaiming the Kingdom and forming a community around that proclaimation. It seemed a good time to talk about the (me-God) gospel of individual salvation in contrast to the gospel of Kingdom community. (Beautifully summarised by Scot McKnight here and here.)

Now for some people, I wondered if this might be new. But for others at Opawa, it might not be at all. Equally, some at Opawa enjoy the Bible backfilling, while others like to get practical and to discuss.

Which is how I split the church. After a 12 minute introduction, I offered people a choice. Those who wanted more Bible were welcome to stay and I would provide a further 10 minutes of background.

Those who wanted to discuss and apply, were welcome to move into the foyer. I had made up a worksheet, and they could gather in groups, discuss and note their observations, and were welcome to return for the final song and benediction.

We have a growing culture of participation and workshopping in groups. And our foyer has sofas. So while this is the first time I’ve done something like this in terms of offering choice within a sermon, it seemed to work well, to cater for a range of learning styles all within one overall framework.

(For those interested, here is the worksheet I made up, simply taking two of my powerpoint slides, adding three questions, blowing them up as A3 and providing pens.)

missionary order of voluntary local community ministry bridge builders

On Wednesday evening, I shared with the church about the development of bridge builders in our midst at Opawa. It is one of those “I have no idea where this is going, but I do wonder if God is up to something” moments in the life of Opawa Church.

Picture person A. who comes to see me, with a real heart for the community, who is in a business in which all staff, because of the economic climate, have been asked to consider working a 4 day week.

Picture person H. who for years has dreamed of working in the local community and has a job with some flexibility.

Picture person J. who has worked part-time for many years, and in recent years has found herself growing in ministry and in confidence.

What if God is stirring up in people a passion for loving people outside the church, and if, in our current economic climate, and in an era of increasing job flexibility, they are being offered more leisure time. What would it mean to be the church in such times? What would discipleship, take up your cross and follow me, discipleship look like?

Hence bridge builders. At Opawa we have “boxes” in which we put pastors (part-time) and ministry leaders and volunters. And perhaps we need a new “box.”

– Bridge builders would give one day per week into Waltham community.
– All bridge builders would be expected to seek out some 1-1 input (supervisor or mentor or spiritual director) to grow them.
– All bridge builders would be expected to gather with other bridge builders for shared missional practices of prayer, Scripture reading.
– Each bridge builder would undertake a unique individual ministry, based on their gifts and passions. They might deliver firewood, offer discipling for kids after-school, visit the struggling, gather parents around parenting issues. The scope is unlimited, as long as it is accountable, focused and outward.
– In response, the church, who wants never to use people, but always to grow people, provide an office to work from, a coffee machine to gather around, a person to run the shared missional practices, training opportunities to improve skills and caring capacities.
– The church will also provide a “ministry enhancement allowance”, our way of taking growth seriously and which the bridge builder can invest in books or supervision or art galleries, or whatever feeds and sustains their soul.

Currently we have three people who have said yes. It is enormously humbling as a pastor to have person A. and H. and J. sit in my office and process this somewhat costly, radical step. It is enormously exciting to be offered the gift of three days of “community” ministry to add to our capacity as a church.

Bridge builder might just be a way to honour this sacrifice and resource these people and respond to such an economic time as this.

But I suspect it’s much more than than. I suspect we might have found a way of calling Western, middle-class people to radical discipleship, of offering the possibility that at some time over their working life they can take a bit of a financial squeeze in order to love their community, knowing they will be resourced and working in a community with others.

Anyone else getting just a bit excited?

who is Opawa? mapping our mission

I’m constantly trying to map, or name, what God is doing among us as a church. I’m not a big “vision” person with large 10 year plans. Instead I try to listen to people and Scripture, to offer short term experiments, see what energy is released, and on that basis, go another experiment. Over time, patterns and priorities emerge. Now into our 6th year at Opawa, here is where we are up to – in pictures. You see, normally, I tell stories. But not everyone gets stories, so over the last few weeks, I’ve been thinking pictures. How, in a diagram, could I map Opawa? Here is my current attempt …

For those of you going huh, here is the slow motion …

a) Opawa is about mission (reflecting Christ’s love) and we are hearing this challenge and sensing a need to respond in three broad areas.
– our living – simply being Christlike neighbours and work colleagues. At Opawa this is resourced through God at work group, spiritual practices, teaching, training.
– our creating – our larger scale citywide project, including Christmas Journey, Easter Journey, Pentecost.
– our loving – our local (Waltham) community, with a whole range of ways that we invest locally

Worship (enabling people to walk and grow)
– since one size no longer fits all, we have a multi-congregational approach. Currently we have 5 or 6 congregations, with another potentially forming. Each are a unique expression, helping people grow in relationship with God, with each other and outwardly.
– some congregations relate better than others to one particular form of our outward, mission, expression

Shared life (enabling people to walk and grow)
– we are not separate churches, but multiple congregations, that share life together. This includes leadership, seasons of prayer, facilities, discipling and growth opportunities (like Bible days or mid-week training, or lectionary readings).

And putting it all together takes up back to the first picture …

If I was clever and graphicy, I’d have a cross at the centre and I’d have another inner wheel, which includes our volunteers, Board, ministry leaders and bridge builders. And to repeat what I said at the start – this is always evolving and is bottom up. In coming to Opawa, I did not set out with some big strategy, but with some passions and intuitions, a belief that God could be at work and a willingness to trial and error.

waltham gathering gathers

Over the last months, as a church, we’ve had some real joy in terms of our relationships with our local community. There’s an ever increasing sense of partnership with other local groups. There are church people choosing to work less in order to voluntarily serve amongst the needy. There are more local community folk part of our church life, saying yes to Jesus and journeying with us.

A lot of this is down to the goodness of God’s Spirit at work in the intentionality of our mission, in which we have deliberately put resource and focus into building these partnerships.

Throughout the early months of this year a lot of behind the scenes talk and prayer has been happening. Given this sense of God at work, what are the next steps?

As a result, the Waltham gathering kicked off on Thursday. About 14 people gathered, not at the church, but at the local community cottage. It was a mix of church folk and community folk, and they gathered around soup, scripture, discussion and prayer for healing. It’s a trial for 10 weeks, to see if this might provide a point around which discipling and caring can happen, in a way different from our current church services.

We’re not sure whether it’s a small group or a congregation, so we’re simply calling it a “gathering”, and we’ll see what happens and if it can take root as a genuinely Waltham community thing. My job was to bring the soup, and just to be present.

There are other things taking shape, including the possibility of a sort of voluntary local missionary order, a clear pathway by which people might decide to work a day less in order to serve more, and to do that in accountable partnership with others and Scripture. But that’s still taking shape.

urban Easter sunday prayer

One the ways we sought to express our missional life over Easter was with regard to our corporate prayer life. Over the week prior to Easter, we placed a large 2 metre high wooden cross at various points around our community – McDonalds, police station, urban developments, state housing village. Pictures were taken. These were then shown in both our Easter Friday and Easter Sunday services. (Friday was greyscale here (click to move through each slide), Sunday was colour – here – click to move through each slide). Some historical research was done and a prayer was composed, for 2 readers (A and B), weaving a conversation between the history of our community and what the reality of the death and resurrection of Jesus might mean.

It was a fascinating exercise, a way of inviting us to take Easter outdoors (where it was orginally played out), and to consider the relevance of the cross for our local communities in 2009 – amid urban grime and fastfood outlets and urban development and social housing.

I posted the Friday prayer here, but for those interested, here is the Sunday prayer:
(more…)

excited by bible: updated “training the imagination”

I’m really looking forward to today. It’s Bible day and in few hours, I get to gather with my church community and with other Christians around the Bible. We’re been lead by Paul Trebilco, who is one of New Zealand’s leading Bible scholars and is flying up from Dunedin for the day to be with us. It’s a fantastic opportunity, to sit for 2 hours digging into 1 Peter and what it means for our mission life today, to increase our Bible knowledge and engagement.

Hopefully the technology will work and it will be up as an MP3 down the track as well!

Updated: Bible days are a great thing. Paul Trebilco commented at one point that in 1 Peter, Peter was “training the imagination” so that this new church would live out of the Jesus story.

Over time, Bible day by Bible day, we are building the capacity of the church to engage Scripture and move well between the two horizons of text then and life now. Bring on the next one, 1 Corinthians on Saturday, May 30.

what are we building? musuem or ?

At Opawa, we buried one of our saints today. 93 years old, faithful in prayer and love for Scriptures. It was a lovely service, with much honesty. During the (5) eulogies, one of her sons commented that she had a 19th century faith.

Which got me thinking. Generally as a society we put things from the 19th century in a musuem. It’s a mark of respect and that’s how we remember.

So what do we do when it comes to faith? If it is 19th century, do we seek to preserve a church that holds that faith.

Surely the answer is no. Churches are simply not meant to be living museums, a snapshot of the past. Jesus is the risen Christ, the Incarnate one. As the same yesterday, today and forever, that risen Christ must speak to every generation, calling for disciples to carry their cross for such a time as theirs. Faith is renewable, a living thing that shapes hearts and minds across diverse cultures and different times.

But neither should the alternative be amnesia. Our saints are gift to us, and deserve respect and to have their faith nourished not only in their twenties, but also in the old age. It is reckless to plunge into the future with no regard for our history, 20th, 19th, and back even further.

Which then raises the question of how we respect and remember 19th century faith, without needing to create museums?

I’m a bit tired after having conducted the funeral, so I’ll ask you, my blog readers, to help me. What are the metaphors that might allow us to not only respect and not only remember, but also renew? If church is not a museum, what might it be?

next Bible days

Bible days. Wanting to deepen Bible knowledge? Take two hours to blow the dust off the book of 1 Peter and consider its impact for Christians today. Saturday, April 25, 3:30-5:30 pm, exploring 1 Peter with Dr Paul Trebilco. Opawa Baptist Church, cnr Hastings St East and Wilsons Road. Cost $5 (for non-Opawa-ites).

What is Bible days (here and here and MP3 (2meg) rough cut intro here?

Just in case you do not know of him…… (more…)

urban Easter prayer

This Easter, we are gathering with our neighbouring Baptist church. They are struggling and this Easter could literally be a story of death for them. Equally, we are talking with them about partnership and some new forms of church, so this Easter could equally be a story of life.

There’s not much point talking if we first can’t worship together. So Easter Friday is at their place and Easter Sunday at ours, with both pastoral teams planning both services together and sharing bits at each place.

As part of that, we wanted some way to pray in our shared life and our shared mission. So we grabbed a wooden cross and took photos of it at various geographic landmarks between the two buildings – construction site, new Police station, fastfood outlet, well-known development currently growing weeds, local pub facing council housing and a sports stadium. Six slides became a visual backdrop – good-friday-urban-prayermed (click to move through each slide)

Some hard work followed, research into the lives, history and narratives that shape each place and then the seeking to weave these narratives into the events of Easter Thursday and Friday, in the form of a urban Easter prayer. This is the result – our Easter prayer as we consider the cross in our Christ’s church city streets.

A: Jesus, On Easter Thursday,
you prayed for us, you sweated drops of blood for your church
prepared yourself to be dragged from prison to passion, from trial to tribulation

B: Jesus, On Easter Friday
you carried your cross,
you walked through your city streets,
you were willing to love your neighbours, criminals to your left, crucifiers to your right

A: Jesus, This Easter, show us what it means to pray,
to weep for your church and Christ’s church
to carry our cross, to walk our city streets,
to love our neighbours, our communities from Colombo Street to Brougham Village

B: Jesus, (click) these are our neighbours,
shopkeepers building right beside us at Beckenham Baptist
A: And so we remember our neighbours
we pray God’s peace on those who shop and those who build
we pray wisdom on those who plan our cities
and smooth process for those who seek consent
Help us live your cross in our communities this Easter

B: Jesus, (click) these are our neighbours
the new police station being built
A: And so we remember our neighbours
we pray integrity for our police
we pray restoration for those criminals behind bars
B: We pray redemption for their victims,
grace for those who suffer. And justice in our courts,
Help us walk your cross with our neighbours this Easter

A: Jesus, (click) these are our neighbours. McDonalds and so many fast food outlets stretched down Colombo St
B: And so we pray for those who flip burgers and fry fries
for those seeking work in a credit crunch
for those who fear the loss of their daily bread
A: Lord, forgive us our fast food, instant takeway attitudes
Jesus, may our neighbours find You as their daily bread this Easter

B: Jesus, (click), these are our neighbours, developers at Sydenham Central
David Henderson who risked. And the Council who resurrected
Help us show your cross to our neighbours, rich and poor, this Easter

A: Jesus, (click) these are our neighbours
those who live in council housing in Brougham Village
B: We pray protection for the vulnerable
safety for the easy led, deliverance for those addicted
freedom for those enslaved by debt and habit
Help us carry your cross to our neighbours, rich and poor, this Easter

A: Jesus, (click) these are our neighbours
the Canterbury crowds, who walk to AMI Stadium,
cheering for winners, jeering for losers
B: Jesus help us look at the crowds as you looked at the crowds,
To feel your compassion for the harrassed and helpless
To weep for your city this Easter,

finding God with flax as Easter spirituality

For the last 10 years, the Easter Journey, has been a feature of ministry at Opawa. However, for the last year or so, there has been a growing feeling that it is time for something new to emerge. Opawa is changing and so are Pete and Joyce. While the Journey has been a tremendous blessing, we have to be sensitive to the moving, changing winds of the Spirit. Too often, good things for a season become institutions the church feels compelled to keep propping up. Letting things go is an essential Christian discipline.

To help us let go, and to start the process of dreaming again, we are starting with an Easter Saturday day of paper making. April 11, 9:45 am for coffee. Bring lunch to share. Together we will turn flax into paper, both for individual journals and for use in the church at Pentecost.

Why paper making? Well this is what I said on radio recently. (more…)

pondering community ministry

After listening to someone on Tuesday share about their sense of call to work more intentionally with our local Waltham community and their desire to be well integrated with Opawa and our growing community vision, I penned the following.

As a church, we occupy a unique space in terms of community development. While we can not necessarily provide professional social work, we are able to offer networks, relationships, generations and Christian spirituality.

This suggests that community ministry to families could include a focus on values including
– intentional partnerships with existing agencies
– opportunities for volunteers to offer community service,
– the offering of whole of life discipleship, drawing on resources found lifegiving in the Christian tradition
– the encouraging of intergenerational community relationships

This could be structured in a bureau type format, with a focus not on programmes, but on people. Specifically, the linking of volunteers with selected families, initially short term in crisis and longer term in whole of life coaching and relationships.

Potential ministries that might provide bridges over which volunteers and families meet could include foodbank, budgetting, Kingdom banking, support and discussion groups (addictions, divorce, parenting, grandparenting), youth programmes, holiday programmes, meals for community building and healthy eating, early childhood education, intergenerational events that build whanua and practises of healthy living including parenting, eating, conflict resolution and spirituality.

Such a ministry could be staffed by an order of voluntary community-focused chaplains. (Currently I can name 5 people at Opawa who are starting to function like this.) To be a community chaplain will involve a (annual, renewable) yearly commitment to
– serve with specific local ministry opportunities
– grow through 1-1 spiritual direction
– integrate by group gatherings with the other “community chaplains” for Scripture and encouragement and prayer
– learn with regular input regarding skills needed to care well. These are open to any and all.

The hub will be administered by a (paid part-time) manager, who will
– co-ordinate safe and appropriate linkages between
– maintain the values, especially the priority of relationships over programmes
– communicate and network with Opawa church and existing community groups
– ensure the bridges are put in place between families and chaplains
– develop the order of community chaplains
– seek funding

making a meal of it: all-ages gathered around Jesus meals

Sunday was our second in a four part (first Sunday of month) series on communion. The first part was about Passover, meaning this second part (leading into Holy week) was to have a particular focus on the meals time habits of Jesus. It was also down to be an inter-generational (Take a Kid to faith) service, with the kids in. So to help that learning, I make “table mats” around which I invited people to gather in groups of 6.

In the shape of a cross, each table mat had 5 panels. Four panels were linked to 4 Biblical meals – Passover memories, Jesus eating at Simon the Leper, feeding of multitudes and the last supper – with a space in the middle (for communion at the end of the service). Meals are usually about the menu, the music, the guests, the footwear and the memories. So each of the four “meal” panels had these symbols.

In terms of the content, I provided a 4 minute explanation of each meal, highlighting menu, guests, footwear and suggested music. I then paused between each panel, and gave the groups time to discuss together what the “memories” of that meal would be. Groups feedback to the entire church (and what they shared then shaped my communion prayer). It was a nice way to step through some Biblical content, in an interactive and participatory way, that involved all ages in learning.

In terms of communion, people were invited to stay in their groups. The youngest in the group was invited to come forward and take back the bread and the cup. (As per the Jewish passover tradition, in which the youngest asks the questions as to the significance.) The elements of bread and cup were taken back to the group and placed in the center of the “table mat” cross, surrounded by the four meal memories – Passover, Jesus meals with outsiders, feeding the multitudes, which must surely have shaped the disciples understanding of “remember me.”

With the kids in, I decided to take a risk and ask everyone to be as quiet as they could be. Not easy for kids, but for those who appreciate some quiet around communion, a really respectful thing to do, across the generations. It was great to look around the church and feel the stillness and see all-ages gathered around the meals of Jesus.