e~mergent kiwi

pastor as chaos agent

I am working on a chaos theory of leadership:
the theory is that the role of a pastoral leader is to cause chaos.

this is based on a fear of domesticated religion
on a personal distaste of images of gentle Jesus meek and mild
on a concern that given time, most systems find an inertia of their own
and on my PhD musings that so often discontinuity is the space for growth.

so if the people of God are meant to be pilgrim,
and meant to be growing,
then should not the role of a pastoral leader be to promote chaos?

experiential learning

It struck me afresh yesterday how empowering experiential learning is.

I had talked briefly in the evening church service to introduce a theme of "reflect the light." I then explained three "stations", three ways for people to engage with the theme. Each station involved people doing something. I put on a track of music and invite people to participate. People wandered around for a while; writing on mirrors, eating fresh bread, sticking stars on a drawn map of our city.

I then gathered people back together and opened it up for discussion, asking what people where struck by, or had learned.

A woman has been coming for the last 4 weeks. She has absolutely no church background. And as she chipped in a comment, I thought, "Wow, in most church settings you need to feel like you know a whole lot of Christian stuff before you can speak."

Yet by creating an experience, everyone is on the same playing field, everyone can engage in doing something, and so contribute to the conversation.

It puts a whole new spin on seeker services - rather than passive listening posts, why not get people learning experientially? They are likely to learn more and be immediate contributors and shapers of the community of faith.

life-giving metaphors

I ran a thinking about baptism evening this week. We did a "dry, dummy, run", then sat around and talked about what baptism means.

I find images of weddings, funerals and baths helpful.

A wedding is an outward statement of inner intent. You've been in love for a while, and you gather publicly, with your friends, to outwardly mark a growing inner journey. A funeral, as we participate in the death of Christ, as we go down into the waters, and trust in the "baptiser" to raise us to new life. A bath, a sign of washing and renewal.

Anyway, 9 people turned up. 5 of them are new to the church since we arrived less than 5 months ago. Which is very, very cool.

I love baptism because it is such a life-giving metaphor. There can be a deconstructive, cynical smell around some emerging church discussion. There can be a lot of Easter Friday, Stations of the Cross, woe is the church rants. Rants and cynicism have their place. But so does the celebration of life.

is this fair?

Does this mean that blogsphere promotes only a faux-friendliness that hides a real individualism? asks Tim, wondering why so few people responded to my kiwi~mission~diet:
Steve's recent appeal for volunteers to adopt a cheaper diet for a week, and donate the difference to mission, did not fall on deaf ears. COMMENTS and Maggi's extensive musings demonstrate that we read his post. Yet as I write, I'm away from Internet access on a three day writing retreat, no one has volunteered to join Steve. (Still haven't publicly as far as I can see!)

Like others I was stirred by Steve's appeal, so why did we not act?

PS I am not looking for strokes, nor am I in the least grumpy at folks. I am just dropping Tim's comment into the consumption around the dinner table discussion.

book crossing

Book crossing is a new form of book club. If you find a book in a phone box or park bench, it could well have been left there on purpose. Open it and your instructions await you.

I like the sheer randomness of this.

I'd like to add this to my thinking on spiritual growth trails. I'd like to add in a random growth trail - where you sign up and get random CD's, poems, books placed across your path - and together we would search, with a smile, for the God-patterns in this sheer randomness.

the third way of consumption

"When we see the relationship between the Eucharist and the food economy we remind ourselves of the connection between our own consumption of food and global ecological and justice issues ... But when the local worshipping communities reconnect the Eucharist with ecological justice and the food economy ... they give visible shape to the good news that the trouncing of the powers that threaten life on earth is not only a past event but one that is constantly breaking into our present reality."
quote from most excellent Third Way magazine

consuming the body

Jesus took bread. Food. Stuff from the earth.

Take, eat, this is my body.

And in so doing, Jesus linking our eating with our spirituality.

What we eat shapes our faith.

Ben Witherington has a fascinating perspective on 1 Corinthians 11. He argues that Corinth is a divided body. The rich eat first. The poor eat little. So when Paul suggests that those who eat the bread and the drink the wine in an unworthy manner sin against the body, Paul is linking eating and a spirituality of justice, that if we eat in way that keeps the poor hungry, then we are sinning.

This is not about our inner relationship with God, this is about what and how we consume.

The kiwi~mission~diet is not just about money for mission. It is a way for us to ask ourselves; how can we eat justly? how can we consume without harming the worldwide body of Christ?

foreign exchange dealing

There has been some good discussion around the kiwi~mission~diet. I live in New Zealand, so my figures for food costs are obviously New Zealand dollars. Tammy commented, asking how this might translate in her currency.

Can any of my blog readers
a) take the kiwi~mission~budget shopping list, and price it in their currency
b) ring a budgetting agency and find out what the average person spends on food.

I would appreciate such information.

kiwi~mission~diet#c

and here are the recipes for $4 per person per day.

Pancakes

125g Flour 1/8 tsp 300mls Milk (approx) Salt
1 Egg 1 tsp Baking Powder

Sift dry ingredients together. Add eggs & milk to make a thin batter. Pour into a jug. Heat pan with a knob of butter or spray oil to cover pan. Cover bottom of pan with a thin layer of mixture. Flip when browned on one side.

Pizza Burgers

Cut 5 Hamburger Buns in half & lightly grill. Add topping of spaghetti, chopped onion, chopped bacon & cheese. Place under grill until cooked.

Fish Cakes & Fries

¾ of 415g can Salmon
Breadcrumbs (made from end crusts from bread)
2.7kg Potatoes Milk

Peel, dice & cook 1.7kg potatoes for fish cakes. Mash potatoes, adding the juice of the salmon and a little milk to bind. Mix in salmon when potatoes have cooled. Roll into patties and cover with flour. Dip into a little milk then coat in breadcrumbs.Fry in hot oil or bake in moderate oven until brown.

Peel & cut 1 kg potatoes into fries Dry with paper towel. Sprinkle with flour. Cook in hot oil .

Coleslaw

Slice or shred ¼ cabbage thinly (Put half aside until Wednesday). Additions:- ½ small onion chopped finely & ½ grated carrot. Add diced celery too, if desired.

Dressing (enough for today & Wednesday)

¼ cup Canola Oil ¼ cup Malt Vinegar
1 Dspn Sugar ½ tsp Salt
Mustard to taste

Shake all together well. Chill. Pour over coleslaw prior to serving.

Muesli

160g Grated Cheese 80g Wheatgerm 80g Bran
80g Sultanas ¼ cup Sunflower seeds 1 Dspn Sesame Seeds
2 Tbspns Oil ½ Cup Brown Sugar 1 tsp Mixed Spice
1 tsp Cinnamon ½ tsp Salt

Mix all together. Bake 300ºC for 30 mins

Creamed rice

4 Tbspns White rice 2-3cups Milk
1 Tbspn Sugar 1 tsp Vanilla Essence

Bring milk to boil in a saucepan. Add rice and simmer (lid on) over low heat until rice is cooked. (You may need to add a little more milk). Add sugar and vanilla when rice is cooked. Serve with canned fruit.

French Toast

1 Egg 2 cups Milk
8 slices Bread ½ cup sugar mixed with 1 tsp cinnamon.

Coat pan with a little butter or spray oil.Beat egg and milk together. Coat bread with mixture and fry in pan, turning so that each side is brown. Sprinkle with cinnamon/sugar mixture.

Chicken Corn & Mushroom Casserole served with rice

Cover chicken with water in a pot. Put 2 diced carrots with chicken and boil gently for 1½hrs. Strain stock off when chicken is cooked. Allow to cool before dicing chicken up into pieces (For this week you could save a bit of the chicken breast to have on the chicken roll on Wednesday). Mix 2 Maggi Mushroom Soups with 500ml water and cook. Pour over chicken and carrots. Add 500g frozen corn. Heat all together and serve on rice (3½ cups cooked rice. Freezes well.)

Mince Roll

225g Prime Mince ½ Tbspn Flour Salt & Pepper .
1 Small onion chopped 1 Teacup Water
Mix all ingredients together

Dough: Mix together 125g flour, ½ tspn Baking Powder, Salt & Pepper, 50g grated butter,
3 Tbspns cold water. Roll out dough

Place dough in pie dish. Put meat mixture on top and wrap the dough over the meat mixture so that it looks like a parcel. Cook in oven 180º C about 30-40 mins.

Hamburgers

500g Prime Mince 1 Small onion chopped finely
1 Egg
1 Tbpsn Maggi Beef Stock ¼ cup Breadcrumbs
½ tsp Marjoram
1 tsp Mixed Herbs

Mix all together. Form into patties. Coat in flour. Grill or fry in lightly coated pan.

Apple Crumble

4 Small Apples ½ cup Flour
½ cup Rolled oats
60g Butter 1 tsp Cinnamon
2 Tbspns White Sugar

Stew apples. Sweeten with white sugar. Put in bottom of 1 Litre dish. Melt butter and combine with dry ingredients. Spread evenly over apples Cook in microwave for 5-8 mins.

Mushroom & Bacon Pasta

175g Pasta (uncooked) 4 Rashers Bacon (chopped)
1 Small onion (chopped)
1 Pkt Maggi Mushroom Soup (made with ½ liquid)
130g Grated Cheese

Boil pasta for 7 mins. Drain. Add soup, onion, bacon. Place in dish, Sprinkle with cheese. Brown under grill.

Steamed Golden Pudding

1½ cups Flour 1 Tbspn Butter
¼ tsp Salt 1 Dspn Sugar
1 tsp (lge) Baking Powder Milk to bind to soft dough

Rub butter into dry ingredients. Bind to soft dough with milk. Put into a greased basin.

Boiling Syrup: Bring to boil ¾ cup of boiling water, 1 Tbspn golden syrup, 1 Tbspn butter, ½ cup sugar.

Pour the Boiling Syrup over the dough (a stainless or heatproof bowl will do as a ‘pudding basin’ – covered with foil and sealed with string wrapped around it to act as a lid). Put boiling water in a large pot with a lid and place the greased basin inside this pot. Boil gently for 30 mins.

Savoury Toast

Mix together 1 pkt Maggi Onion Soup, 2 eggs, 2 slices bacon chopped and 130g grated cheese. Spread on top of bread and bake in oven 350º until golden brown

Quick Quiche

3 Rashers of bacon 75g Soft Butter or Margarine
Salt and Pepper
½ cup Flour 4 Eggs
160g Grated Cheese
2 cups Milk 1 Small Onion chopped

Cook & chop bacon. Put bacon & onion in a greased pie dish Mix butter, flour, eggs, milk salt & pepper in a shaker and pour over ingredients in pie dish. Sprinkle Cheese on top. Baked in oven for 40 mins at 180ºC.

Savoury Polonies

Cut polonies in half and fill with generous amount of tomato sauce, mashed potato and grated cheese. Cook in 350ºC oven for 30 mins.

Lemon Pudding

Mix together ½cup sugar and 1 Tbspn soft butter. Add 3 Tbspns flour, pinch salt, juice of 2 lemons, rind of 1 lemon, 1 cup milk, yolks of 2 eggs and lastly 2 stiffly beaten egg whites. Bake in a greased dish (place dish in hot water) for about 45 mins at 180ºC

Snacks

Barley Soup

4-5L of beef stock. Add grated onion, grated carrot celery and 500g barley. Boil until barley is soft. Salt & Pepper to taste.

Important Notes to “make it all work”:

 It is suggested that the groceries for this week are purchased from one of the supermarket stores that have a reputation for being economical.
 Some items are cheaper purchased from bulk bins in the supermarket
 There may be left over food that could be eaten as snacks on other days.
 As long as you are keeping enough food for the menu plan for the rest of the week anything else may be used to create additional snacks.
 Snacks can be barley soup, carrot and celery sticks, tomato on crackers, scones or pikelets made from the ingredients you have purchased for the week.
 The freezer is a good help to keeping leftover food economically.
 Breadcrumbs are made by putting the bread scraps/crusts in the microwave for a couple of minutes and then crushing them in a food processor (or in a plastic bag, by hand)
 Savings on the grocery bill can be made by avoiding any or too many highly processed and pre-prepared foods, and buying ‘on special’ or seasonal fruit, vegetables, meat.
 Additional savings are made by home cooking and baking – but beware, it takes extra time!
 Hopefully the recipes above will not be too time consuming for the week.

kiwi~mission~diet#b

The kiwi~mission~diet is simply an spirituality exercise that invites each of us to reflect on our lifestyles and timestyles. It is a creative starting point and if it doesn't work for you, fire me your alternative suggestion.

Below is the shopping list. Tomorrow I will post the recipes.

SHOPPING LIST (prices in New Zealand dollars to feed a family of 2 adults and 2 children = $118 ie 4 X $28)
Apples or Pears $1.99

Bacon (slices) $7.99
Bananas $1.43
Beef Pork or Corned Beef (kg) $10.60
Beef Stock (tbspns)
Beetroot slices (415gm can) $1.19
Bread (Sandwich - slices) $ 4.00
Bread Long rolls $1.37
Bread - Hamburger Buns $2.74
Breadcrumbs (cup) See recipte notes $ -
Butter /Margarine(gms) $1.79
Cabbage $1.30
Carrot $2.00
Celery Sticks $1.69
Cheese (gms) $5.45
Chickens ea $6.75
Corn (gms) $2.99
Cucumber (Slices) $1.20
Eggs (ea) $2.99
Fruit - Canned (gms) $1.99
Flour (gms) $1.57
Lettuce (LARGE) $1.39
Maggi Mushroom Soup (Pkt) $3.65
Milk 4½ x 1L $9.00
Mince (gms) $7.87
Mushrooms $0.60
Oil Canola (500ml bottle) $1.85
Onions (ea) $1.25
Maggi Onion Soup (Pkt) $0.66
Parsley
Pasta gms $0.99
Peas Frozen (gms) $1.50
Polonies (ea) $5.45
Potatoes (kgs) $3.99
Rice - white (cup) $1.19
Salmon Tinned (gms) $2.25
Spaghetti (gms) $1.99
Sugar - white (gms) $1.79
Sugar - brown (cup) $1.04
Tomato Sauce (can) $1.99
Tomatoes $2.50
Lemons
Muesli Ingreds - Coconut (cups) $1.00
Rolled Oats (cups) $1.00
Bran (gms) $0.31
Wheatgerm (gms) $0.43
Sultanas (gms) $0.69
Sunflower seeds (gms) $0.30
Sesame Seeds (gms) $0.30
Vitawheat crackers (pkt) $2.45
S&P
Curry
Dressings
Basil & Thyme
Beef Stock (tbspns)
Vinegar
Cinnamon
Mustard
Custard Powder (Tbspns)

WEEKLY SPEND $ 118.46

kiwi mission diet

tallskinnykiwi is on a fatkins diet.

downunder, this Sunday, as part of a 3 week mission focus, I am suggesting a kiwi~mission~diet. I rang the local budgetting agency and they reckon it costs $60 per person per week to eat.

The menu below costs $28 per person per week. Follow the menu for one week. Do the maths. The difference between $60-$28 is $32. Give that $32 to a third world mission cause.

Go on - join me for 1 week and lets see how much money we can raise on this blog for the poor. If you want to join me, drop me a line.

I will post the shopping list and menus tomorrow. (Resources are from tranzsend.) Go on - 1 week. 250 people read this blog each day. Multiply by $32, would equal $8000.

Menu for $4 per person per day (for 2 adults & 2 children)

Sunday Breakfast ::Pancakes (with ½ banana & cinnamon or lemon juice & sugar)
Sunday Lunch :: Pizza Burgers
Sunday Dinner :: Salmon (Fish Cakes), Chips, Coleslaw

Monday Breakfast :: Cereal & ½ cup milk and 1 or 2 slices toast
Monday Lunch :: Sandwiches (7) Fillings can be selected from any salad or coleslaw ingredients
Monday Dinner :: Pot roast, Oven baked potatoes, Stirfry Vegetables, Creamed Rice & Peaches

Tuesday Breakfast :: French Toast
Tuesday Lunch :: Sandwiches (7) (Leftover tinned salmon with lemon juice, or pot roast)
Tuesday Dinner :: Chicken, Corn & Mushroom with Rice

Wednesday Breakfast :: Cereal & ½ cup milk, 1 or 2 slices toast
Wednesday Lunch :: Chicken Salad Rolls (5)
Wednesday Dinner :: Mince Roll, Potatoes - Oven baked or mashed, Coleslaw

Thursday Breakfast :: Pancakes (with grated apple & cinnamon or lemon juice & sugar)
Thursday Lunch :: Sandwiches (7)
Thursday Dinner :: Hamburgers with lettuce, onion, tomato, carrot & beetroot (5), Apple Crumble

Friday Breakfast :: Cereal & ½ cup milk, 1 or 2 slices toast
Friday Lunch :: Sandwiches (7)
Friday Dinner :: Mushroom & Bacon Pasta, Lettuce Salad, Golden Syrup Pudding

Saturday Breakfast :: Savoury Toast
Saturday Lunch :: Quiche, Lettuce Salad
Saturday Dinner :: Savoury Polonies (6), Frozen Corn & Peas, Lemon Pudding

contemporary preaching

I am teaching this course in Semester 2, 2004;

Introduction: “Preaching in a postmodern world is a little like playing pin the tail on the donkey. A scarf has been draped over our eyes and we have been turned around and around. In the postmodern world, not only are we preaching blindfolded, but our target is moving. Just when the church was beginning to get used to the rules of the modern era, suddenly we find these rules have changed on us and even disappeared.” according to here.

Yet, The Lord of the Rings showed us that we can take ancient text and re-tell it for an image-eyed generation.

This course will explore some of the issues around preaching in a rapidly changing world of “txt” and “pxt” communication. It will take for granted skills in expository preaching, and deliberately seek to critically explore other ways to “txt” the Biblical text.

Course outline

The course has two main parts:

7 weeks teaching block (21, 28 July, 4, 11, 18, 25 August, 1 September)

Week 1 – text-ing in a pxt culture: the challenges for preaching today
We live in a visually orientated, sound-bited world suspicious of institution. This week will de-fragment modern notions of authority and suggest ways to re-align Christian notions of text, Spirit and tradition in community.

Week 2 – DJing with authority: Incarnation in text, texts, preacher and community
An approach to gospel and culture will be explored using the metaphor of the DJ. This will be applied to the task of preaching as the DJing of texts in Christian community.

Week 3 – txting the text: inductive, dialogical, case study, multiple approaches
We will explore a number of approaches to txting the text. These will include inductive, dialogical and case study approaches. Strengths and weaknesses will be outlined. Examples will be provided.

Week 4 – txting the text: Storytelling old and new
An exploration of the art of storytelling. This enables txting of both Biblical story and of finding God present in our lives.

Week 5- txting the text: emotional exegesis, Meditation/lectio divina, sensory engagement
We are made whole-bodied people. Our emotions and senses are a gift from God. A number of practical ways to use these gifts to both open up the text and present the text will be outlined.

Week 6 – txting the text: Curating the arts, the visual, the environment
Can creative arts preach? How to use the visual and tactile in preaching? How to modify and enhance our environment? This session will include input from creative guests.

Week 7 - creativity workshop
A workshop which will explore ways to enhance our creativity around the Biblical text.

(b) 3 week workshop (27 October, 3, 10 November)
Students will present assessment. This will continue the process of creative stimulation and critical reflection on txt-ing the text.

Note : Creative Commons license does not apply to this post. It is not allowed to be reproduced in any form without permission.

blokes and books

I have further developed my thoughts on doing postmodernity into a longer piece on blokes and books, for a local radio station.

Oh, I rate 30/100 in the good booking quiz. Given the tone of some of the questions, I am taking this as a compliment.

You see, the local newspaper on Saturday informed me that blokes don’t read books.

Apparently getting men to read fiction is the holy grail of publishing. No publisher, no matter how much their advertising budget, has been able to wean men off newspapers and books about rugby and war?

Men read less than women.
Men read way less books than women.

This month, a book company in Britain has launched the Good Booking campaign. The hunt is on for good booking men.

And so this book company is offering a 1000 pound spot prizes to any man caught reading one of their fiction books in public.

The hunt is on for good booking blokes.

Go to their website and there’s a quiz you can take to see if you are good booking.
It’s a bit risqué and it’s very blokey.

But for the sake of Radio research I took the quiz.

I scored 30 out of 100.

And according to the penguin good booking campaign,
I am not a good booking bloke.
I need to polish my good booking image.
I need to read more books.

Which considering I have just finished a Phd and read over 500 books, probably suggests a faulty quiz.

Blokes and books.

A few months ago, the church I pastor celebrated Easter by making an Easter Art installation. The entire 400 seat church auditorium was turned into an easter garden, complete with interactive art installations.

The pews were pulled out and seven tones of sand was brought into the church.

I watched wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of sand be trucked in.
I watched the concrete pavers be laid,
and then trees and the shrubs and the grass arrived.
Then the bridges were build.
Finally a flowing waterfall.

Amid all this hive of activity, all this hammering and banging,
it suddenly struck me that for some of our men, this was worship.

Sweat and sand,
hammering nails,
building things
- was their way of loving God.

Doing practical stuff with their hands was their worship.

And I suddenly realised how goodbooking is our Christianity.
read the Bible
read 40 days of purpose.
sit down and listen to a preacher
sing songs about Jesus being my darling of heaven.
Blokes don’t read books, yet so much of our Christianity is book and word bound.

So what do we do with blokes, books and Christianity?

Should we make them good booking?
spot prizes of a 1000 dollars if you are caught reading your Bible in public

cute little internet quizs on our church websites that rate one’s bible knowledge:
30 out of 100, so get your good booking act together

or does Christianity need to do a rethink.

I mean, does Christianity need to be goodbooking?
How important are books to following Jesus?

Did Jesus need books?

Sure he used the scrolls
but he lived in an oral culture of storytelling
and he taught by action: watch me act, then you act,

So if Jesus wasn’t goodbooking, then why is Christianity?

Surely blokes don’t need to read be good booking to follow Jesus.

Blokes and books:
Can we use more images in church?
Can we use more stories in church?
What is the place of action and activity?

growth trails

Art trails. The notice caught my eye. I thought about the way that art trails thread one-off, stopping places into a journey.

So why not spirituality trails?;
meet at the start of a period with your spiritual coach
select a range of stopping places - courses, seminars, books
meet at the end of a period to celebrate learning.

You could have leadership trails, worship trails, mission trails, parenting trails .... and so many events can be threaded together in a range of personal choices.

Now that would be an exciting approach to spiritual development.

via interflora

nice bouquet from stateside
the one that seems to be farthest ahead and most on the edge (imho) is down under. my favorite is kiwi steve his ideas, thoughts and ability to distill and illustrate a concept is a gift i fear not many have. his blogroll will link you to many other like minded.

doing postmodernity

Getting men to read fiction is the holy grail of publishing. Can men be weaned off newspapers and books about the exploits of elite military forces? This was the headline in a local newspaper on Saturday. Men read less than women. Men read way less fiction than women. For years, publishers have tried to get more men reading.

Penguin’s Good Booking campaign, launched in Britian this month, offered a 1000 pound to any man caught reading a Penguin title.

Time and again, I have been asked to explain postmodernity. I reach for a book I have read, only to be greeted with “Oh, I don’t read.” Many websites on postmodern mission include a list of books.

So how to engage missionally with a non-reading male?
- get them to browse a mall
- watch The Matrix
- learn DJing
- move 7 tonne of sand into and out of a church
- offer them a 1000 pounds
Any other ideas?

PS - I have expanded my thoughts into a piece called blokes and books here.

love is blindness: u2 all sweet pain

reading this reminded me of being at the feelers concert last week. they did a fantastic rendition of U2's Love is Blindness, a perfect mix of loud, angry guitar and plaintiff sweet vocals, which captures the pain of loving, the risk of giving, the sweetness of hoping.

Love is clockworks
And cold steel
Fingers too numb to feel
Squeeze the handle
Blow out the candle
Love is blindness

coming or going and mission

attractional vs missional: do people come to us or do we go to people: this is a false dualism.

sociologically – people are always coming and going. centre is edge and edge is centre and the journey is more interesting that the destination.

biblically - the bible shows times of attractional mission – I’m going up to Jerusalem or John 17, by love they know we are disciples or Acts 2; are you drunk?; and moments of missional mission; the end of Acts, the wandering of the prophet Jesus.

theologically – the triune God is both the embrace of the divine dance of love and the incarnational gift of love for the world.

the underlying principle is right - that Christendom is over. But the either/or dualism is unhelpful. mission must be missional in order to find Christ in new places. and mission can be attractional in a post-Christendom world. For example, building an alternative community of love - or standing up for the ethic of marriage while accepting that our world is pluralistic and tolerant of a range of sexual expressions.

insane burning and extreme worship

jonny baker labels this act of worship insane.

by a total co-incidence, I have been humming Ben Harpers, Burn one down, all week. Suddenly takes on a whole new meaning.

of course, us downunder kiwis are happy to take such insane risks, because we also have insane amounts of water.

lateral thinking on emergent growth

From Department of Natural Resources:

EMERGENT WETLANDS (MARSHES): Emergent wetlands are considered the transition zone between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. These wetlands are usually found in association with streams or other watercourses, but can also be fed by groundwater.

Do we fully appreciate the very now of this transition zone, or are we scrambling for dry ground? What are our streams, our life-giving assocations? Is our groundwater healthy, or has it started to rot?

PS - Insights from Craig - "Not to mention the incredible biodiversity to be found in this environment which is so vital to the overall ecosystems. Often in these environments vegetatively stained water that is fresh can be perceived as not so fresh, how do we determine the nature of the water without testing or subjecting to the chlorination of our religious ritual."

best class ever

permit me a moment of self-congratulation. its the last day of my semester class here at BCNZ. 14 weeks on pastoral leadership and management, and i'm doing my best to teach in a postmodern way: interactive, honouring different learnings styles, valueing story and experience, strong emphasis on community.

so after class a student rocks up to say; the classes have been fantastic, the best classes he has ever had at bcnz.

time to say "cheers" after 14 weeks of hard work.

knowing

in response to the question What did your pastor preach on last Sunday, the Sunday before that, and three weeks ago:

The question assumes that it is important to recall and remember. It assumes the priority on cognitive recall of information. An interesting assumption ... is the gospel about cognitive recall?

I don't think so. Let me apply the question to other things in life; I can't remember conversations with my wife, nor can I remember all the books I read or even films I watched. But they are still important in terms of building community and relaxation. I guess my point is - the question is a good way to beat up on preaching, but I think the question operates on a modernist assumption that knowing information is important. It fails to take into account a whole lot of other ways of being; space to process, rest, inspiration, confirmation, storytelling in the community, creation of shared values.

enfolded love - trinity worship

Everyone got a bead as they walked in - a range of choices, they choose the bead that suited them. I talked about Genesis 18 and Rublevs trinity. Strangers are welcome, there is space at God's table.

Then we made friendship bracelets - three strands for Creator/Redeemer/Sustainer - woven together. And the invitation to insert their chosen bead, because they are welcome at God's table.

Then I VJed around Rublev's icon, and the person beside us tied the friendship bracelet onto our arm - to St. Patrick's breastplate - I bind unto myself today the strong name of the Trinity.

God touches earth

today is trinity sunday:
divine dance,
circling love,
mysterious infinity enfolds creation.

A ritual for trinity sunday. Go to the beach. Find a stick. Worship by drawing Trinity patterns in the sand.

pentecost evening

yesterday i blogged about pentecost morning and the risks.

pentecost evening got even more risky: lots of real fire and me laying aside my planned sermon to trust the spirit.

For more ...

Pentecost Sunday remembers Acts 2, the Spirit of God, like tongues of fire, that rested on the heads of the early church. The early church is 2000 years ago.

What does this mean today?

Well, plan A would be tongues of fire on everyone’s head.
But, I was sure that OSH would not allow that

So I went for plan B.

Instead I have some friends who enjoy fire.

They soaked a piece of pumice rock in meths overnite.
The piece of rock was 2 feet long.
They then placed the piece of rock at the front of the church.

A fire extinguisher was placed nearby.

I read the Acts 2 Scriptures, the Spirit of God like tongues of fire, resting on the heads of the early church.

We cut the lights and the church became dark. Then my friends lit this piece of pumice rock, and a very spectacular deep blue flame leaps into air.

The meths, which soaks up inside the pumice rock, burns.

And so for the entire service this rock is on fire.

At the same time, I shone a red spotlight on a rotating mirror ball.

So not only is the rock on fire, but red light reflects off the mirror ball.
And so as the mirror ball rotates, little red lights move all over the church, all over people.

So this is quite spectacular.

I sit down and a young woman leans over. She has grown up in a very large charismatic church. What is Pentecost she asks?

And I suddenly realise that my sermon is way of track.
It’s not scratching the questions people are asking.

So, being Pentecost, I now need to trust the Spirit.

I throw away my sermon.

And because I no longer need sermon notes, I ask for the lights to remain dark.

And we sit in darkness, lit only by a flaming pumice rock, and the rotating mirror ball, little red lights move all over people in the church.

What is Pentecost?

Well in the Old Testament, only special people had the Spirit. Only special people could, as it were, lit the pumice rock.

People like Bezalel and Oholiab, who receive the gift of the Spirit to craft the Tabernacle.

People like Saul, in 1 Samuel, who after being anointed king, receives the Spirit and prophesies.

But only unique and special people.

And at the end of the OT, a prophet named Joel has a dream. That one day every person, old and young, men and woman, can have the Spirit.

And at Pentecost, the dream of Joel becomes real. The spirit falls on everyone in the church.

No longer do just special people get to lit the pumice rock. Now the red light of the mirrorball falls on everyone. Everyone has the Spirit.

What is Pentecost? How spirit-filled are our churches?

I suspect that in our church culture in NZ today we need another Pentecost.

We have our celebrities and our hot worship leaders. We have our special speakers who, like pumice, are guaranteed to draw a crowd. We still have mostly men preaching. We are offered CEO, visionary leadership models as the way to grow healthy churches.

And all the time the mirrorball of the Spirit of God is rotating.
Falling on everyone, young and old, men and woman.

Calling to create church communities in which everyone is empowered.

What is Pentecost?
It is the challenge to move from spectacular, special, one-off, stars,
to the mirrorball of God, rotating, falling on everyone, young and old, men and woman.

Pentecost morning

I took some big risks on Sunday. It is Pentecost after all. But I still didn’t sleep well on Saturday night.

Risk one: Pentecost is about chaos. After a confession and a song, I gave space for the kids to blow bubbles and throw balloons around while I played a track about the Spirit for all people. How would people respond?

Risk two: the sermon for the first time gave space for interaction. I gave a number of real life situations and asked for feedback around two questions: where is the spirit of life, where the Spirit of Jesus. How would people respond?

Risk three: we finished with a Latin chant, Veni Sancte Spiritus. Baptists in New Zealand have had a very bad track record of unease around things Catholic. Yes, if Pentecost was about speaking in different languages, that would have included Latin. But how would people respond?

We had 150 people at worship. It’s the most the church has had in over 2 years. Now when you are a church in decline, who has lost 150 people in 5 years and 400 people in 10 years, to see new faces and new faces return is a wonderful, wonderful thing.

And when bubbles lay all over the church floor, and an 85 year old started batting around her balloon, and a semi-retired man looked at me with a sparkle in his eye and yelled “what have you done,” I sort of felt like Pentecost: joyful, chaos.

all in a days inbox

My inbox today included
: titling of my book
: working with the 8 people from around the globe who will comment on the book
: negotiation over a chapter for another book
: organizing to team teach theology at a conference in September: Applying Jesus to the environment, the foreshore and the information superhighway
: would I speak on radio tomorrow
: organising guest speaker for next week’s leadership class

deconstruction is a space

this post links deconstruction, and then applauds the opening of space. interesting that the comments then focus on whinging.

3 Christianese responses to deconstruction
smooth putty :: this response hurries to paper over the cracks. sometimes the putty is named God, or unity, or mission. But the effect is the same, a cheap makeover.

stuck in a moment :: this response opens up a space, but stays investigating the frayed edges of the movement. sometimes the stuckness is named liberalism, or post-evangelicalism. But the effect is the same, a picking away at old scabs.

the minute of space creation :: this response appreciates just how deeply ingrained and calcified is modernity. The effect is to appreciate the diversity of the now, while resisting the urge to smooth putty or stay in a moment. This is a resolve to follow the God of the cracks into the space of a postmodern future. This is the realisation that the wormhole is deep, the way unclear, but a recognition of an uncertain confidence in the God of tomorrow; God I believe, help me to believe.

on fire

i am still collecting my thoughts after pentecost sunday at opawa. i will blog them when they sedimentate.

home: a sort of homecoming

O Lord, you have always been our home: Psalm 90:1

curled in armchair. fire warm. red wine uncorked. coffe to plunge. St Germain on rotate.