e~mergent kiwi

godly play on live video feed

I had a go at godly play at Opawa this morning. For those unaware, godly play is a way of honouring the Biblical text by using imagination, senses and wonder (I've blogged about it here, and Prodigal describes me doing it here). You tell the Bible story using symbols (sand, stones, ark, etc), allow time to "wonder" (I wonder where we are in this story), and then conclude (I did the story of crossing the Jordan into the promised land).

I love it because it privileges the Bible story. Rather than dissect the Scriptures with cold intellect, we enter into the Scriptures and let the Bible shape us.

Anyhow, I got a live video feed going. So as I did it with the kids, the whole church could watch. It is something I have dreamed off for years, live video feeds in church, and it is great to be in a context and with techies who can make some dreams happen.

our house is like a tardis

A friend visited our new house yesterday. They reckoned it was like the tardis from Doctor Who. From the road it looks small. Walk inside and it goes on and on.

Dear God
please may our house, our life,
call people on a journey, on and on,
into the mystery and hugeness which is the living God.

What is a TARDIS? The TARDIS is the Doctor's method of travel through both time and space - all Gallifreyan Time Lords use TARDISes for getting from A to B - and from then to now.

And TARDIS means? TARDIS, of course, stands for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space. Or Time and Relative Dimension in Space, if you're a purist.

You can download a tardis screensaver from here. For more Dr Who trivia, try here.

the postmodern contest

One of the questions my PhD examiners asked me was to reflect on the contested nature of postmodernity. They liked my answer so much they suggested it be inserted into the thesis. So here is a first draft.

There is a huge amount of literature that describes a movement from modern to postmodern. At base this reflects some rejection of the past; often in relation to triumphal and over-arching words, symbols and systems.

I would group critiques of postmodernity into five camps.

the hypen and the hyper - a labeling critique. Different people have named the cultural shift in different ways. Some have called it hyper or ultra modern (Thomas Oden), some have called it liquid modernity (Bauman). Some have hyphenated or spaced or capitalised it; Post modern … postmodern … post-modern. All of this reflects questions about the relationship between modern and the postmodern, and whether one emphasises continuity or discontinuity.

the ism and the ity - a lens critique. Words like postmodernism and postmodernity describe different lens through which people look at the cultural shift. Do you look at culture through changes in technology and global capital (ism) or to do you reflect on the ideas of deconstruction etc (ity)?

the paradigm critique. Some people base their view of cultural shift on Kuhn’s notion of paradigm’s, and argue for a convenient pre-modern, modern and post-modern view of 2000 years of history. Questions have been raised over the simplicity of such a view.

the colonising critique. Ziaddhin Sardar’s book, Postmodernism and the Other, is a superb dissection of the postmodernity’s dismissal of the way modernity elevates reason at the expense of other ways of knowing and being, especially as seen in ethnic cultures. Sardar then argues however, that postmodernity is in fact an oppressive metanarrative itself, that is sucking cultural diversity once again into a Western way of seeing the world. Postmodernity becomes an unjust exploitation of non-Western cultures.

the good old days critique. This represents a yearning for what was. It argues against cultural shift by calling for a return to previous ways of being.

I concluded by noting that none of the above in anyway suggest that culture has not changed. I have never read anyone who thinks culture is the same now as it was 50 years ago. What is contested is how to accurately name the changes, and the impact of these changes about people.

Examiners recommendations

that Steve Taylor's Phd on A New Way of Being Church be accepted and the degree be awarded once amendments have been made;
a glossary of terms
a brief and more fuller discussion of the contested nature of postmodernity, as per the candidates impressive answer in the oral defense
a more punchy conclusion.

Congratulations Doctor Taylor.

A toast: to God who gave a brain, the supervisors who lassoed 10 phd ideas into merely 3, and to family, who walk the journey with me.

"You'll be great Steve" - my wife as she drops me off at the airport.
"But how do you know that Daddy will be great Mum?" - my 4 year old from the back seat.

emotional exegesis

I did some "emotional exegesis" with the Pastoral Leadership and Management class I started lecturing today. It went like this;
Form a group. Think about the gospel story of the 4 friends who tear off a roof, in order to bring their friend to Jesus. Jesus responds "Rise up, your sins are forgiven." Role play this in your group, taking turns to be Jesus and to be the crippled man.

Now repeat the exercise.

And a most profound hush descends. The class became holy ground. New questions are asked. New insights emerge. A fresh challenge to give grace is heard. Our emotions have deepened our love and engagement with Scripture.

God revealed in community

a tangent touched off from here

Modernity sold us a pup. It sold us a belief you needed truth as all-encompassing and systematic. Modernity took truth and wrapped it in culture and then sold it to us as a cultural syncretistic product: truth as pure, abstract, timeless.

Yet, the God of the Bible was a God of community … moulding community in the desert, moulding community in the church … urging community through the broken body of Christ…..telling story after story, narrative after narrative of the actions of the communal God … refusing to sieve narrative into doctrinal purity, God took the risk of letting stories serve as the interpretive vessel for the body of God.

For where 2 or 3 are gathered in my name, there is Christ … he broke bread and gave it to them … then their eyes were opened and they recognized him ….

The God of all, revealed in community…

When moderns encounter postmoderns they sniff for a watering down of truth. What they fail to smell is the decaying odor, the rotting carcase, of their modern, all-encompassing, systematic cultural approach to truth. (Note what I said, the cultural approach is rotting, not the truth.)

Ritual to mark new beginnings

This is a family ritual to mark a new beginning and to pray for fresh life.

Take a packet of seeds, preferably fast growing flowers, especially if you have young children. Remind the kids of the new beginnings they are experiencing.

Together clear the earth, ideally in a place that you will pass often as a family. Give seeds to everyone in the family. Plant them together as an act of prayer, that new life will emerge and that fresh colour will spring forth.

a moving Sunday

It was my first Sunday at Opawa.

At the door everyone got given 2 pieces of Ello opolis; a type of lego. The Bible text was 1 Corinthians 12; each body unique. As a response at the end of the service, I invited everyone to join their Ello to the person beside them. These were handed from person and person down the rows, and then brought to the front, where about 5 people built "the new Opawa; each body part unique" - while we sung "Be Thou My Vision."

It was a very moving to see this uniquely new creation emerge.

(I wanted to grab a digital photo for you, but the kids arrived first!)

PS A number of people commented on how having something tactile to play with during the service enhanced their attention span. This is at the heart of creativity; if we treat people as whole people, they are more likely to learn and grow as whole followers of Jesus.

Daddy, what good does a doctor do? Most doctors you know help make people better. I will only be a thinking doctor - good for nothing else!

Email to Andrew Jones

Andrew you are probably being drowned under a mountain of words. I pray wisdom and generous grace for you as you attempt to hear God and ponder the way forward. For what’s its worth;

1. One of the key insights of postmodern thought is that language is power. The words we use to name are very easily words to control. The emerging church has lived, has been birthed on the edge of the modern church. We know what it’s like to be named as
“alternative” when our motivation was hearing the heartbeat of God
“emerging” when our motivation is following God
“small” when our motivation is communal
“pagan” when our motivation is Biblical.
“liberal” when our motivation is missionary.
We know what its like to feel language used in ways that define us unhelpfully. It is time we took our experiences and used then to listen to those who currently feel marginalized in the emerging church. If they say the name is unhelpful, then it is up to us to change, out of respect for their voice, their gifts, their insights.

2. One of the key insights of postmodern thought is that context is essential. The experience of females in the church in China is a very different context from that of females in the emerging church in the West.

3. One of the key insights of the postmodern thought is the power of a story. A seeking woman walked into a worship experience. She left, never to return, saying “I’m not interested in being part of an experience in which one man tells people what to think.” The missionary listens attentively, not for the sake of political correctedness, but so that by all means we may win some.

Taylors commissioning

My welcoming and commissioning today. Friends are flying down from Graceway to hand us over to Opawa. That is a great honour and it will be neat to catch up.

Other guests are meant to include local MP's like Tim Barnett (best known in New Zealand for this) and also Ruth Dyson.

I've shaped the service which will include writing heart prayers and a big communal welcome.

I'm nervous.

this quote goes out to my auckland church and society class

Engage with communities and the new generation of consumers or risk losing market share. Full BBC article here.

do you speak German?

Found this link to my A-Z of emerging church;
Darf ich hier mal eine kleine Frage stellen? Wer weiß eine gute Übersetzung für den Begriff 'emerging church' und alles, was dahinter steckt?
Wer sich darunter noch nichts vorstellen kann, dem sei der verlinkte Artikel empfohlen, bei dem versucht wird mit Hilfe eines ABCs den Begriff näher zu definieren.

Can anyone translate it for me?

flaming the chaff

I was flamed by Mr Wheat yesterday - using the definition here of - A public post or email message that expresses a strong opinion or criticism. Flames can be fun when they allow people to vent their feelings, then return to the topic at hand. Others are simply insulting and can lead to flame wars

I was flamed in regard to the emerging church. At the risk of starting a flame war, I will pick up on specific things said in relation to my site, my theology and my writings.

1. Exegesis of 1 Peter
God made language and culture (Genesis 1, 11 and Revelation 7:9). Culture is like the air we breathe. Without it we die, but we have to watch for pollution. My exegesis of 1 Peter is based on the fact that every text has a culture, has a context and if we understand that, we are better hearers, and likely to be more accurate doers, of the word of God.

Hence my exegesis of 1 Peter was an attempt to better understand the Biblical text. I argued that when read in context, Peter suggests a way for Christians to challenge culture, or as Mr Wheat says “cultural transformation”. So my exegesis of 1 Peter finds me and Mr Wheat agreeing in the need for cultural transformation.

Mr Wheat notes that Paul (I presume this was a typo, because 1 Peter was written by Peter) was promoting timeless truths. To argue this could imply a legitimation of slavery (1 Peter 2:18). Rather than having to try to explain slavery as a timeless truth, I chose to explore the cultural world of the text to suggest a way of Christianity to live distinctly.

2. The emerging church A-Z as driven by culture.
My post was a mix of observation and theology. The post was tongue in cheek and often urged the emerging church not to stay where it is. It was at times a challenge to the culture of the emerging church, especially around gender and inclusion of non-Western culures. A lot of emerging church people blog and so I noted that as a sociological observation. I believe the emerging church do DJ and I will come to that in a minute.

3. I doubt many Catholics would consider me “the same as Catholics”, so I will leave that.

3. The U2 quote.
I used the quote in an article. It was not my quote but I will stand by it. I used it in the article for 2 reasons, firstly it describes a sense of dislocation from church, which needs to be heard.

Secondly it affirms that ancient theological understanding that God is in the world, and can provide “spiritual experience to U2”. Biblically God is revealed in the cultural world. God spoke through a donkey to Balaam in Numbers 22, God acts through a foreign oppressor in Nehemiah 2 and Esther 5. The exile is the story of God using “pagan” things to teach the people of God some lessons. God is present in our culture and the U2 quote named that Biblical reality.

Now I realise this is scarey terrain. Does following God in the world mean I will sell out or lose the Bible? I find it helpful to remind myself of the Pauline understanding of the Spirit as the Spirit of Jesus. It is a term unique to Paul. The Spirit is in the world, yet the Spirit I am looking for is the Spirit of Jesus, distinctive in the Christian gospels. This allows me to follow Jesus and remain faithful to the Biblical insight of God in the world.

To seek God in the culture is not paganism. Peter is warned in Acts 10 not to dismiss the pagan, the culturally different, as unclean. This does not mean that I take stuff from “the culture and reinterpret it.” Rather, I DJ. DJ’s sample – bits and pieces from here and there. Some bits they will sample to affirm, others they sample to subvert (the mixes of Howard Dean are a fine recent example.) DJing is a metaphor I use (explained much more in the book I am writing), to get beyond the dualism of “culture is bad so withdraw from the world” or culture is good “so celebrate the world”. The DJ image gives me a way to explain that God is both present and absent, that human culture is both flawed and an echo of God.

4. Pandering to pagan rituals.
In Matthew 6:26 Jesus commands us to look at creation and in John 3:8 he uses creation to explain the work of the Spirit. The gift of the koru at the baptism was a following of the instructions of Jesus. The koru represents the unfurling fern, a symbol of new life and growth. Rather than paganism, we were following in the way of Jesus, looking at creation as a way to celebrate the new life of baptism.

My terms “thin spaces” was an attempt to describe an experience. I used it in a Christian Celtic sense and I am unaware of other “demonic” connotations. I could equally have used the fact that often in the Bible people encounter God in the Bible (Mt Sinai, Sermon on the Mount, Transfiguration) and in this sense mountains are “thin spaces” or places of encounter with God. It was not a pandering but a metaphor for saying God was there.

5. Like Mr Wheat I am not interested in marketing or new church models. Nor am I overly charmed about the term Generation X.

I believe in the Bible, that God loves the world, that the Spirit of Jesus is in the world and that my following of Jesus is Incarnational, the Word made flesh. Just as Jesus became Jewish to redeem humanity, so I need to be postmodern to redeem humanity. This is only sucking up to culture if Jesus was sucking up to culture. To help me not suck up to the culture, I have the resources of Scripture, the example of Jesus, the power of the Spirit and the community of God to keep me faithful.

Paul rebuked Peter to his face, a relationship born out of journey together. I value the people, who take the time to journey with me, and over time, like Paul, speak truth to me. I hope that this response can build understanding and respect among those who journey with me.

superb

this is great. it has just become my home page.

saturday evening party

Taylor's welcomed and commissioned;
Opawa Baptist Church
Saturday, 21st February 7:30 pm
All welcome

whats the internet point 2

NB. The post is not designed to induce guilt in any readers.

As an academic, I make my mark by writing and publishing. It's called publish or perish. As a blogger, I live in an instant world, where yesterday's post is old news. It's called publish or persish. Academic publishing takes months and years. Blogging is instant.

(I am also a pastor, parent, partner, coffee drinker, but I will stick with the academic and blogger at the moment.)

Sometimes these values clash. For instance, late last year I delivered a paper on a postmodern monastery. It would shape up nicely into a journal article, but that might not be released until the end of 2004. Yet I mention on my blog that I had given the paper - on postmodern monasteries - and there are LOTS of requests for the paper. So do I go academic or go blogging? Academic writer vs blogger are in tension.

So I decide to make the paper I delivered a PDF, surround it by creative commons copyright and blog it. I decided to ask that if people downloaded it, they would offer some comments, sort of like tossing me a bone, sort of like fair trade. I wondered it this would resolve the tension between writer and blogger, because I can blog it, but if people give me feedback, that might improve the academic paper.

So I put the paper on postmodern monasteries on my blog, and asked for feedback.

My web stats tell me that over 120 people downloaded that PDF, while only 9 people commented.

Which sort of leaves me back at the drawing board. How to manage the book writing and the blogger instant demand? Which leaves me very unsure over what to do with my PhD on the emerging church once it is passed. There is a book there, but people want it instant.

I am yet to be convinced I can do both.

whats the internet point

I have wandered into another evangelical canon, over here. I am "pandering to pagans", and "driven by culture", and "same as the Catholics." [Quite a mix really!]

So a complete stranger has got something off their chest by flaming me. It is so bizarre reading someone else's interpretation of your website and realising how little you have in common. If there was some common ground we could probably start a dialogue and I could do some learning and growing. Instead, flaming the chaff results in a scorched earthed policy. Oh well, I hope they are feeling better.

holding eggs

It was my 1st day at my new church (Opawa) today. I asked the 4 other paid staff to gather.

I gave them all an egg - fragile, yet hopeful. I talked about the church as the bride of Christ ... beautiful ... hopeful ... yet fragile and nervous.

I said that I felt a bit nervous and fragile in this new role. I said I thought people at Opawa were probably a bit nervous and fragile about having a new young minister on board. I said I wondered if the staff were a bit nervous and fragile, wondering how they would fit with this new young minister.

And so we prayed for each other, that in our fragility new life would emerge.

ask me tomorrow but not today

It has just taken us 22 hours to do the 1 hour flight from Auckland to Christchurch - one cancelled flight - one overbooked flight - two attempts at standby flights - and finally home.

thin spaces

It was the baptism of Kelli today. She is a young woman, an unchurched atheist, until about 6 months ago. She has a strong environmental heart and it has been a joy to see her grow and unfurl over the last months. She was presented with a bone carving of a koru - a Maori symbol of new life and growth.

She was baptised at the beach. The new minister of Graceway, Mark Barnard, talked about the Celtic notion of thin spaces, where the gap between heaven and earth is no more. The sun shone and the waves lapped. Some fish even jumped. Various Graceway kids could not resist the lure of the water. It was indeed a thin space.

nz music

the feelers
in the sun
by the sea
with good friends

this is
as good
as it gets

2-day

My partner flies up to join me for the weekend and we share in a friends baptism at graceway on Sunday. We've had 4 days apart, every week for the last 3 weeks. I am looking forward to a weekend with her, without the kids, and on Valentine's Day.

O~day

Thursday 26th. The flights are booked. My PhD thesis on the emerging church goes under the microscope. I submitted it November 26 last year. It has now been read by 3 examiners, 2 in New Zealand and 1 overseas. They have given their opinion (which I don't yet know), have written their reports and have prepared their questions. Thursday 26th I meet them face to face and find out who they are (identity is meant to be kept a secret). Then after the handshakes, they fire questions at me about my thesis and my 100,000 words, normally for about 2 hours.

After that, they tell me the result.
- Pass
- Pass with a few minor changes
- Rework and resubmit
- It would make a good Masters thesis rather than a PhD.
- Fail

I am looking forward to O-day. I am generally quick on my feet and I learn best by talking (one of the reasons I have a blog), so I am looking forward to significant growth on O-day as keen and trained academic minds probe my work.

A to Z of emerging church

In Genesis 2 - "adam" is invited to name creation. The desire to name the emerging church could thus be part of our God-given ability to use language to describe and understand. While “adam” named creation, yet no companion was found. “Adam” remained incomplete. A certain humility is therefore intrinsic to naming. To name is not an act of limitation, but an act of partiality, part of a search for completeness.

We seem reluctant to name the emerging church. Perhaps our naming yet lacks an alphabet. We need some A, B, C’s before we can spell the word. So in a spirit of Genesis 2, and in partiality;

A = artistic, and so the emerging values the creative, the visual, the non-rational as essential to communication and being.
B = blogging, and so the emerging tell stories and learns from the stories of others. We listen, we ask, we grow through the wires of the internet

C = culturally sensitive, atune to the rationalising tendencies of modernity, we speak of a new landscape, a new missionary terrain in which God wants to be enfleshed as the Body of Christ
C= community loving, and so we thirst for deep, honest, emotional, vulnerable relationships with God and each other.
D=DJing, and so we are re:mixing God in a postmodern world, learning to sing the Lord’s song in a strange land
E=experiential, and so we create worship that engages the senses
F=fashionable and so we speak of our music and review our books, talk of our latest video mixers and web browsers and exchange notes on software and RSS feeds
G=global, (in a Western sort of way) and so we link from the US to the UK, we click from Canada to Kiwi, with a nod to Australian friends and partners
H=hyperlinked, and so we are inspired by a worship trick from here and an insight from there
I=intuitive, and so we don’t know where we’re going and we don’t like we we’ve been, but we’re sure it’s not logical and it definitely has no 5 year plan. But it is a journey and it will embrace mystery and contingency
J=journey. That word again. We are emerging, partial, tentative and that’s OK. God is here.
K= (I don’t know, this is written in a spirit of partiality)
M=middle-class. Sorry but we are. It’s a sociological reality. Can’t change it. Don’t beat yourself up over it. But don’t stay there will you. It is a journey. It’s time to partner with the poor.
M= mostly male. Sorry but we mostly are. It’s a sociological reality. So let’s not stay here. It is a journey. It’s time for genuine partnership.
N=new map. No-one before us has had to incarnate God in a video culture, or speak of faith in a world of post-……
O=open ended. We don’t even want to define ourselves. We’re not even sure we are a movement. Let’s keep things … open.
P=participatory. Gone is the pulpit and in is the discussion. Comments are essential to websites, to teaching and to preaching.
Q=questioning. Got lots of those. Faith is mixed with ambiguity and juxtaposed with inconsistency.
R= random – images, words, thoughts.
S=seeking. We still haven’t found what we’re looking for, although some of us seem to know what we’re reacting against.
T=textual. The Bible. A mission manifesto for our future.
T= tactile. Whole bodied, multi-sensory.
U=under-resourced. Mr Jones can’t even buy his kids birthday presents and he’s our guru. Enough said.
V=visual. Images. Please.
W = white and western. Sorry but we are. It’s a sociological reality. But let’s not stay here. It is a journey. It’s time for genuine partnership.
X, Y, Z = 3 blanks.

This is, after all, partial. A first attempt at an alphabet.

I need a life

I have visited 15 countries, only 6% of the world!

create your own visited country map

PS This post probably needs a context.
1. I need a life because I had just finished a long day and it was a real
fun website to play with, clicking boxes and seeing the graphic result. I
need to play more in life.

2. I need a life because I am lecturing a group that is quite culturally
diverse and I have so appreciated new perspectives; migrants, indigenous
people, island cultures. It made me realise again the ease with which I slip
into my well worn cultural grooves of thinking. Other cultures are gift. Travel helps one get a life.
one way to appreciate this gift is travel.

Liquid church

Take liquid church by Pete Ward. Road test it by asking 30 students from a wide variety of backgrounds, spiritualities and ethnic backgrounds to write a critical review. Hone this reflection by asking them to debate the moot; Liquid Church will drown the Church. In the process the book has to preform a number of road tests.

(Note that these comments are my reflections on the class interaction and feedback and are in no way a comment on any individual student’s work.)

Naming Test: Many students felt the book named

their cultural reality, the liquid, networked, consuming world that they were part of. Students felt it often named their experiences of church as declining and solid. Now while not all students felt their experiences of solid church were a bad thing, they found the book named their world.

Multi-cultural Test: Students from a variety of cultures applauded the book. Maori resonated with the relational potential of liquid church. Island cultures resonated with solid church as their experience of spirituality.

Gospel Test: This caused considerable debate. Some students felt Liquid Church allowed a deeper and richer understanding of the gospel. They had not found Christ in solid church and felt liquid church liberated them to a relational following of Jesus. Other students were uneasy, concerned at the ethical and economic implications of shopping as an approach to spirituality.

Mission Test: Like it or hate it, the book pushed mission firmly into the agenda. It is easy for a class on church and society to spend a lot of time in church discussion. Taking Liquid Church and mixing it with a visit to Borders and videos like Whale Rider, Bend it like Beckham, Romeo and Juliet, ensured that society in general remained at the centre of class debate.

Sacramental Test: The book failed on this count. “Can I have 6 takeaway communions please,” was one parody of Liquid Church. Liquid Church has little reflection on the place of baptism, communion, etc in the book. However, the metaphor “in Christ” seems to me to offer tremendous potential for an exploration of “Liquid Sacraments,” and the dynamism of fluid encounter with Christ amid wine, water and wafer.

Having road tested Liquid Church among 30 people in New Zealand, I would recommend this book for any course which seeks to explore mission in Western society. However the book needs to be explored in a critical context, to allow for sharp interaction, rather than as a recommended and safe text.

Flying again ...

Auckland bound again ... it is a major logistical feat to navigate 12 hours of prepared teaching up and down the country. Last time I forgot my toothbrush, this time I forgot some shirts. I will stinketh by the 3rd day ... (no Lazarus jokes please)

I am dumb

Emerging church. I had always used the term to refer to the widespread cultural shift from modern to postmodern and God's missionary desire to birth new life in new cultures. The church emerging, like a seed, from postmodern soil.

I've been reading the blogs and the discussion kept revolving around church. I couldn't get it. Just read phil and dan/dan and phil and the penny clicked. I have been dumb. Apparently the term is to do with old and new ways of being the church. Duh. I do feel stupid.

OK, so to capture this missionary impulse I quickly need to find a new term and a new name for my blog. Cos I want to follow God in the culture, fan the coals of mission, see unchurched postmoderns find faith and community, not get stuck in dodging the flack and fire between different parts of the church world.

postmodern monastery

A while ago I wrote a paper on a postmodern monastery and a number of you asked for a copy. It's sketchy and dreamy and I want to do more work on it. But you can now download the paper on a postmodern monastery here.

Usual creative commons copyright - you can't make money from it and if you use it you need to acknowledge the source. Usual rules of courtesy apply - if you download it, email to say thanks and give me some feedback on it, so that I grow as part of the process.

How does that sound?

consume the body

jez commented "the biggest pity is that Borders is such a bad model if you're concerned about justice, muliplicity and diversity or the local and the specific. I won't bleat on about Borders' purchasing policies nor about the impact of Borders on small business and local community but whatever Borders might be it is hardly the kind of organic, local, just community i'm looking for to nourish my spirit"

We all consume. We can't live without consumption. Some then become aware of the impact of their consuming on the third world, on the local, on the diverse. But we are all still enmeshed in a web of consumption. We need a third way, a theology of consumer resistance.

We need the 10 commandments of a healthy consumption
consume no logo
consume fair trade
consume adbusters
consume organic
consume no meat
consume shade coffee
consume 5 loaves, 2 fish and have 12 bags of waste
consume the body of Christ ...

Futures group

I start my new job as pastor at Opawa Baptist in 10 days time. I am looking forward to a 3 day/week job that is 10 minutes walk away, rather than an 80 minute flight. Amid the busyness of commuting to Auckland, I start to think about my new role.

I bring to a long established church my 9 years of planting an emerging church, my teaching gifts, my creativity and my PhD study on the theology of the emerging church. I have a commitment to both nurture what is, and to encourage what might yet be. How to listen and respect what is, while sharing of my hopes, dreams and experiences?

One idea I have had is to start a futures group, a gathering with no official status and no set agenda, yet the space to talk and dream. Meeting say fortnightly. An open invitation to anyone at Opawa to join a conversation; to reflect on postmodernity, to experience new ways of worship together, to talk about what this might mean for Opawa and for those outside church in Christchurch.

What do you think? Any suggestions for an appropriate name? Any other ideas of ways I might respectfully blend my insights, passions and dreams with God’s story already woven in, and through, a group of faithful servants?

Whalerider

We watched the movie Whalerider in Church and Society class this week. The class consists of about 30 people, including Maori, Pacific Island and Indian.

Question: What are the issues facing contemporary Maori society?

Issues identified included;

a) a male dominated leadership model :: however it was noted that not all Maori tribes and marae (meeting houses) have the same attitudes as are depicted on Whale Rider. Many tribes have had female chiefs and female heroines. It is possible that the male dominated leadership model depicted in Whale Rider is a result of European migration (thanks Church, thanks colonial Britain)

b) the priority of land and place in developing identity :: this is not just a Maori issue, it is a theme that runs through much migrant literature. How indeed, to sing the Lord’s song in a strange land (whether that be a new country or a new postmodern cultural context)?

c) the loss of tradition :: Whale Rider offers two approaches to the future, back to the past as the grandfather sets up a school to teach the old ways. Or walking forward aware of the past, as a new woman leader, leading in a collegial style, sits amid the waka (the canoe). And so the old with the new is taken into the future.

d) the importance of “remaking the ropes” :: of finding ways to connect the disconnected with their past. We reflected on the potential role of the church in this, helping groups relink with their histories and memories.

e) leadership issues :: where does new Maori leadership emerge from? Is it from parliament and through elected legislature? Is it tribal, past down through chiefly lineage? Is it charismatic, with the rise of gifted orators and visionaries?

f) how to choose leadership :: (a related issue, but worth noting separately). Who can choose who the leaders should be, who are the deciding “members”? (I was exploring a similar issue in relation to church on my blog last week).

g) the delight of female subversion :: a way of being in a male dominated world that deconstructed male power and subverted male leadership

h) and more theologically, the Christology of Whale Rider :: images of death/resurrection and a empowering from below, a downunder Christology.

a lighter note: my forgotten toothbrush

5th plane trip in 7 days and I'm getting sloopy. I forgot my toothbrush.

this company will help: Don't Forget Your Toothbrush Ltd., dfyt, is a registered company that offers you, its customer a subscription-based service, delivering your toothbrush directly to your door.

And this is a genuine story I can read my class about a turtle who also forgot his toothbrush: The story of “How Turtle Flew South” appears in many cultures. This version is a combination of Native American tale and a Chinese Buddhist version.

be cool with your space

Back up in Auckland again, for the second week of teaching in the Church and Society, University of Auckland intensive. It's been my 5th flight in a week and I am starting to tire.

It is listening to the music of Salmonella Dub that keeps me going. The first track of their album, One Drop East, has had the most profound impact on me. It celebrates travelling on
we all you knew you had to go
to spread your wings and let the wind take your flow
and relationships;
its good to see you again my friend (call out to Stephen and Rachel who I get to see today)
its been a long, long time

and has such a great chorus;
dont you fall from grace
be cool with your space
check your pace
it ain't a race

This is hard to explain and deely personal and I might not make any sense, but I'll have a go. Often I feel placed in a dualism regarding time - you can either be busy or not be busy. If you have some deadlines, somehow you are bad because you are not taking time to relax, to attend to family and spirituality. It happened yesterday. I was introduced as a busy person and the guest spent the next 5 minutes checking the state of my marriage. A very intimate introduction which I found way too intense. And the dualisms were at work; oh you're busy, your marriage must be stressed.

Well the Dub song says to me that you can be not busy while busy. It is about one's internal clock, how you manage the pace in the midst of letting the wind take your flow, how you treasure relationships in the midst of boarding calls. It's not either or, but God in the midst of. Does that make any sense?

define emerging church

Andrew Jones is trying to define emerging church. Here is my second attempt (I did this last year in an email to jonny baker, but deleted it (and so did jonny I imagine)):

Define emerging church (theologically) - a journey toward a corporate expression of Jesus Christ birthed in the amniotic fluid of postmodern culture. Note that the sheer diversity of postmodern culture means that while characteristics of community, participation, imagination, cultural awareness and appreciation are shared, their expression is diverse.

PS Riley Kern likes this definition also. Thanks Riley.

NZ impacts UK anglicans

café church 'is an approach that originates in New Zealand. It's particularly aimed at young adults who might want to explore their spirituality in a welcoming environment. It's much more about dialogue.' from UK Guardian

smiling

From here :: Critical reading of the draft of a friend's book: inspiring - and no small privelege to be asked. (I'll blog on it when it's published.)

stone in my shoe

One of the big arguments of my PhD, and of the book I am working on for emergentYS, is that people "make do"; that in the face of cultural change, people are creative, transformative, adapting the bits from the world around them to create their own unique mixes. It is based on the work of French Jesuit Michel de Certeau.

The only flaw in the argument is this article on the disappearance of languages from around the world, via they blinked

How many languages have disappeared in the last century? About 60 or 70 per cent of linguistic diversity in the north-western region of Brazil has gone in the last 100 years. On the Atlantic coast of Brazil it's worse - about 99 per cent - and around the world the figure is 60 to 70 per cent. It has been very rapid.

Being brought up in Papua New Guinea, a country of over 600 languages, the loss of even one language saddens me.

ez on by

Yesterday Graceway, the emerging/ent church I planted and then pastored until late last year, welcomed it's new minister, Mark Barnard.

Mark is 26 years old and is married to Bridget. He has a background in social work and community development, a love for the poor and was the lead singer of a band. Bridget works in promotion for a Christia n Aid agency and is really good value. They have both been part of Graceway for the last 3 years.

I flew up to Auckland for the day to share in the celebration and occasion. It was a day of a huge range of emotions for me. I gave the best of 9 years of my life to Graceway. I developed an internship scheme to train leaders and Mark was one of the 6 emerging leaders I directly worked with. I am very proud of him.

The transition from founding pastor to new pastor is a fragile time for a church and a number of church plants in New Zealand have not made the transition. So there is huge relief for me to see a very competent leadership team at Graceway welcome Mark and Bridget on board.

I sat at the back, marvelling at the goodness of God. Half way through last year God ezed me out of Graceway. It was a hugely traumatic decision. 8 months later God is ezing a new leader into Graceway and I have become a cheering bystander.

A toast:
to the Graceway leadership team, who ezed in a new pastor
to Mark and Bridget, may they ez Graceway into a new season
to God, whom I love.