sustain:if:able kiwi

preaching a complex scent simply

The latest U2 album, No line on the horizon, has a song ( “Cedars of Lebanon”) that intrigues me. It’s one of my favourite songs on the album and it’s been making some odd echoes in my head over the last few days.

The song seems to be written from the point of view of a journalist in Lebanon. In the first verse we find him waking up after a late night, meeting a deadline.
Yesterday I spent asleep
Woke up in my clothes in a dirty heap
Spent the night trying to make a deadline
Squeezing complicated lives into a simple headline

I’ve been wondering if the last line actually captures some of the task of communication in general, including preaching.

It’s a fact that the Bible is complicated. Multiple genre’s, from poetry to story, from apocalypse to epistle, from gospel to poetry, from proverb to parable. The literature emerges from lives spread over hundreds of years, across diverse languages (Greek, Aramaic, Hebrew) and unique cultures (nomadic, Ancient near eastern, Israelite, Greco-Roman). It’s complicated.

So to are the lives of people. Every Sunday a range of lifestories eye me up. Some are high, others low. Some are forgiven, others burdened. Some are open, others closed. All are trying to make sense of a rapidly changing world and the complications of life in a credit crunch.

Into all this complication comes the cry for simplicity, to be clear and sharp, to say one thing well. Preaching becomes “Squeezing complicated lives into a simple headline”! I’m not saying this is good or bad, it simply is. Nor am I saying anything about how one goes about the preaching task – whether one exposits, or discusses, or imagines or creates. Simply that the task seems to be summarised by the juxtaposition between complicated/simple.

Come the third verse, another line jumps out at me.
This shitty world sometimes produces a rose
The scent of it lingers and then it just goes

That’s my prayer every Sunday. That in the mercy of God, my “complicated/simple headlines” might in fact be a rose, in the midst of people’s turmoil. Even better, that the rose scent would linger, beyond Sunday and into Monday and the week ahead. It might be an idea, a connection, a concept, and wouldn’t it be great if it lingered beyond the door, and wafted into the week ahead.

In writing this, I am not trying to claim anything special for my preaching, nor for the task of preaching itself. The scent might come from a pastoral prayer, or a moment of creativity, or a song well chosen, or an instrument played creatively, or a rich conversation over coffee afterward.

But the goal seems captured by that sense of “complex scent simply.” Some random connections as I’ve travelled through the week.

car stuff

The CV joint in our car popped out while I was driving yesterday. The car had been to the garage the day before, to fix the CV joint. But was starting to make a knocking noise again. So I phoned and was told to keep driving carefully, which I did, and they would look at it tomorrow.

And then bang and the entire CV joint on the left hand front tire is spraying grease and there’s a big open hole. Thankfully I was pulling off the road into a cafe at the time.

So the car is back in the garage, and today is the third day in a row we’re trying to juggle life around car and garage.

indigenous stories

The Native American Film and Video Festival in New York is enjoying it’s 30th anniversary this year.

Anyone ever been? Because it sounds grand – “Throughout this week the festival presents Native storytelling at its best–wrenching at times, engrossing, risky, ironic, hilarious and experimental.” This year it has received more than 350 entries, from indigenous media artists from Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay, Venezuela, and the United States. I was struck by the themes:

“Themes sounded in these films–honor to elders and hope for youth, courageous community action, the survival of Native languages, and many others–speak of the Native realities of the 21st century.” From here.

Which got me considering themes you find in many emerging or missional conferences …
Honor to elders – generally no, because the traditional church is meant to be dead;
Hope for youth – sometimes yes with space needed for younger leaders, sometimes no with rants about the impact of postmodernity on youth culture;
Courageous community action – sometimes yes because community action is a big theme, but often with the irony that such stories are told by individuals;
Survival of native languages – not really.
And as for Native American emerging church conferences giving voice to stories from so many places around the world … I’ll leave you to answer that 🙂

Updated: Well hooray for commonsense. Announcement today that the proposed legislation has just been scrapped.

Updated: The Government has stalled a proposed law to enforce copyright on the internet after a “web roots” protest that blacked out sites yesterday. Prime Minister John Key conceded that Section 92a of the Copyright Act could be “problematic” more here.

back. i hope

I’m back. The last 3 weeks I’ve been on holiday, and this week I drag my feet back through the doors marked “work.” It has been a great holiday: a week in Marlborough sounds, kayaking, eating well, visiting wineries and the fabulous Kaikoura Coast on the way there and back.

Followed by 4 days in the New Zealand high country; driving the historic Molesworth Station and taking the girls tramping, their first ever mountain hut experience.

Back to Christchurch to enjoy great live Kiwi music at Sounday, then to our family bach. It was a great holiday – active and heaps of memories together.

Last year was a very unsettled year – sabbatical which was fun and productive – wrote near 70,000 words, spoke in a range of places, completed 1 book chapter, 2 successful conference application – but took a lot of time to get into and out of. Then there was the redundancy/reapplication process at Laidlaw, coupled with three staff moving on from Opawa. All in all, a year I am glad to close the door on.

I come back with dreams of a more sustainable lifestyle etc. Then I look at my calendar and I realise that I’m fooling myself. As long as I continue to be tri-vocational – juggling pastoring and lecturing and speaking, as long as I continue to refuse to accept that church is for maintaining the status quo Sunday by Sunday, as long as I continue to dream and think, then my life will be busy.

And I think I’m OK with that.

KISS church trumps the theologians every day

On Tuesday, the neighbouring pastor and I were comparing notes. “What does missional mean for young people. We’re in decline. We’re losing our youth to local megachurch. Any ideas?”

I laughed. Maybe I’m cynical, but I am wondering (today) if sociology actually trumps theology. No matter how missional, KISS – keep it sociological silly – is powerful. People want to be with their friends. That’s more important than the preaching or the worship or the images or the practices. No matter what happens up front, it’s the pew-pew interactions, or lack thereof, that tend to win. Often we wrap the “story of growth” around a theology, when surely it’s as simple as friends attract friends and these are powerfully pragmatic reasons that shape people’s choices.

Or am I a bit too jaded in this current season?

John and Olive Drane blogging

One of the world’s leading emerging missiologists – and family friends – John and Olive Drane are now blogging here. “These two churchmice have been chewing the fatty cheese together for some time now … The mice who intrigue them most are usually those who can feel at home in the traditional institutions, but have enough sense of adventure to gnaw their way out of the box knowing that there are some surprising discoveries to be made out there.”

John supervised my PhD study and both of them were contributors to my out of bounds church? book. (When I wrote the book, I wanted voices from a range of countries and a range of places – gender, inside and outside church leadership, known and unknown – and I was honoured to have the input of Andrew Jones, Gerard Kelly, Maggi Dawn, Mark Pierson, Kelli Robson, Cathy Kirkpatrick, Sally Morgenthaler, Robert Webber, John/Olive Drane. Each got sent two chapters and were asked to make 4 comments per chapter, which were included in the side bars, alongside rituals, books, movies, quotes, websites. It was all great fun and greatly enhanced my stumbling words :))

Anyhow, looking forward to the Drane’s making an excellently grounded contribution to the blogosphere.

ethics of gardening

“You should only be allowed to vote in New Zealand when you’ve planted a kauri.” Listener

I spent the weekend in the garden. Gardening is one of the ways I re-create. The existing beds now have corn, lettuce and spinach in them. The hanging baskets have been replanted, this year mixing flowers, tumbling tomatoes and parsley to provide both colour and food. That was Saturday. On Monday, inspired by a visit to one of the “parishioners”, last Easter, (that’s another blogpost in itself), we began turning lawn into more vegetable garden.

The Warehouse were selling kitset raised bed gardens. $99 for all the materials to cover a 1 metre square. All you need to do is sink a few screws.

I then went and priced the actual wood at the local hardware story (Mitre 10). $88 for wood to cover a 2 metre square area.

So I came home pondering the ethics. Cheaper at Mitre 10, but it relies on me having the skills and capacities to cut the wood and bang in a few nails. But not everyone has those skills. So where does that leave the Warehouse.

As a Christian, it seems to me that gardening is something that should be encouraged. Good for body and soul and a more sustainable way to live. At Opawa we give out vegetable plants as part of our Spring Clean community mission day, and have done a 3 week series on Grow through Gardening, looking at gardens in the Bible and the spirituality of gardening. So I want to applaud any initiatives to encourage people into gardening. And a ready to go kit-set garden is a great place if you don’t know how to build your own.

But $99 for less, compared to $88 for more? If you don’t have the skills, is the Warehouse making money out of you? Or is is still performing a public good that should be applauded?

grow with peace along with Parihaka

Grow, Sunday, 7pm (Nov 9, 16, 23) explores the theme of peace.

First Sunday up will include the Parihaka story. This is a powerful and moving story, centred on the events of November 5, 1881, at Parihaka, a small North Island settlement, in which Maori practised peaceful and non-violent resistance in the face of white settler invasion. It is a much better thing for Christians in Aotearoa New Zealand to be reflecting on than Guy Fawkes Day, so if you’re a Christian blog reader in Christchurch, please join us.

We will also brainstorm peacemakers in the Bible, sing to Dave Dobbyn’s Welcome home and be offering some tips for personal peacemaking in our homes and workplaces.

of doubt

doubt
is the hollow voice
stalking the ego

creeping
fearfully

past book review
striding over peer esteem

the opiate that drugs creativity
binds the mediocre

or the angst that earths the soil

God of Thomas,
show me the bloody hands
that sharpen vision
and clarify my centre

sabbatical update 2

Monday morning update (on tuesday)

the weekend that was: We went to the local sporting religion – a “footy” final. Quite a cross-cultural experience – much more of a family feel than rugby matches in New Zealand. Then had a lovely Sunday – breakfast in bed for fathers day, a walk and a beach play. I found it hard not to get resentful of all the other fathers days that the church has claimed from me and my kids.

where i am at the moment: Parkin-Wesley, staring at a computer screen.

on my to-do list this week: another day in the classroom, day 2 of my missional church leadership course. meeting with the head honcho of the Uniting church to talk about the two Bible studies I am doing for their state-wide gathering beginning of November. then on Friday doing a 2 hour post-graduate seminar at Tabor College.

procrastinating about: a ruthless re-write of a section of the missional church leader book. i have wondered if there is a biblical section needed, pulling together some of my Opawa sermons over the last years. That has ballooned to about 12,000 words over the last week, but it needs a ruthless edit to change speaking words to writing words.

book i’m in the midst of: James. It has arrested me, and it taunts me.

music that seemed to catch my attention this past week: Paul Kelly, from little things big things grow.

next trip: we are planning to head down south this week, hoping to connect with old-school friends in a little fishing village called Robe.

how i’m feeling about this week: inadequate. on friday i sent off a chapter and revised table of contents to the publisher, with the change of direction (more biblical content as noted above). but there is so many books out there, and so many sermons spoken in churches every week, and what can I, a little Kiwi, offer to the global world of mass-produced words.

Monday morning update

A few regular questions to help me review the week back and reflect on the week forward. hat tip: MarkO

the weekend that was: The Taylor family hit the Aussie outback, walking in the Flinders Ranges and I am totally impressed. Lots of driving, lots of walking which the kids coped with really well. Their highlight was seeing kangaroos and emus in the wild. Mine was the tiny flowers that make up the outback. Amazing.

where i am at the moment: Parkin-Wesley, where the seminary has so kindly provided an office, library facilities, internet and printer. I wrote about 6,500 words last week on the missional church book, plus kicked off the first day (of five) of the missional church leadership course.

on my to-do list this week: I have the first of my missional church coaching groups. We have divided the groups in two. One will be a simple coffee and mission, church, leadership, change discussion. The other will be a more focused workshopping process, in which I will introduce a congregational discernment process.

procrastinating about: Missional Church Leadership marking. I have a few bits and pieces to tidy up.

book i’m in the midst of: Scott Turow’s Burden of Proof. A good escapist read.

music that seemed to catch my attention this past week: Black Seeds new album, Solid Ground. Not as good as Into the Dojo, but it is growing on me.

next trip: a quiet weekend is looming. It will be Fathers Day and the kids are looking forward to being able to make me Fathers Day breakfast on the day, rather than having to delay it cos of Sunday church stuff.

how i’m feeling about this week: Tired. It was a rich weekend, but 10 hours driving takes its toll.

emerging church postcards 07

For the last two years I have sought to summarise the global emerging church by compiled a set of postcards reflecting on the year that was. I simply want to provide on-line a visual snapshot and digital diary of the emerging church. I did this for 2005 and for 2006, and I want to do the same again for 2007.

So I welcome contributions from any emerging church, anywhere in the world, whether you have done it before or not. Just send me at steve at emergentkiwi dot org dot nz;
a) 1 photo of your emerging community this (07) year;
plus a few sentences in response to these 4 questions;
b) green – what has grown? what has potential into a new year?
c) yellow – what has encouraged you? given you joy?;
d) black – what has been a risk? what has been hard?
e) red – what words describe how you feel? what have you liked? what have you not liked?

(we worked our way through these colours with our staff team over breakfast this morning and it proved an honest and helpful way to reflect on our 2007 year)

During January I will be post your image and responses as a series of postcards07 on my blog. (Feel free to use the emerging church postcards 07 image above and to spread the word.)

For a complete (historical) set of emerging postcards go here.
For why do an emerging church postcards series go here

mission and leadership in Dunedin

I will be in Dunedin Thursday, November 22, doing a day long seminar on themes of mission and leadership. Topics will include

Learning from an Ancient Text

Leader as Change Agent (hoping to provide this as a takehome DVD option)

and ending with dinner, a social evening, for those interested in eating and drinking with me!