e~mergent kiwi

HOW WIERD IS THAT

if you type in "out of bounds church" on amazon.com - you get my book, and a chance to pre-order! that is so totally wierd ... and totally like, vulnerable and scarey.

for more info on the book...

first draft emerging church 101

First draft :: weekend block course :: Bible College of New Zealand :: 3rd term of 2005.
This course is designed to introduce people to ministry in a postmodern context. It will use selected examples of contemporary Christian exploration; specifically the emerging church as a loose, umbrella term for a range of new forms of church and ways of being Christian; including worship innovation, cyber church and new forms of community. Such real life experimentation will be critically examined in light of the Christian tradition. This weaving together of life with a thinking faith will enhance a student's ability to follow Jesus today.

Course text :: Taylor's The out-of-bounds church? learning to create communities of faith in a culture of change.

I am in Wellington for the day, meeting with a few people about a possible New Zealand wide emerging church conference mid-May 2005. It looks a great day for flying.

enscribing ecclesiological identity in the unique crevasses of our sociological context

church is never ahistorical. to etch "be the church" as one's ecclesiological slogan is to potentially deny the incarnation, a Jewish Christ walking among a Jewish people, cracking Jewish jokes and building a Jewish community.

For to "be the church" is to be embodied among particular people in the unique crevasses where God has placed us. Those unique crevasses might be called by sociological names: Jewish, early, African, Roman, Celtic, Gen X, postmodern, even emergent. Such names, such attention to the unique crevasses of one's existence, need not be read as a defining label, but as an expression of Incarnation, a respecting of the unique contours of enscribed identity.

spring clean action

last days then left behind

Last day to pick up a limited edition A5 size copy of my PhD, A New Way of Being Church .. if not, then be left behind ... A New Way of Being Church is a world first, an indepth academic exploration of how the emerging church responds to cultural change, asking the question; how effective is the emerging church as a postmodern expression of faith?

Note: $NZ25 to cover printing costs plus P&P. (P&P approximately from NZ to USA or UK = $NZ20; From NZ to Australia = $NZ10, within NZ = $3.50)

Note: This offer lasts until the 24 September and the thesis will be sent at the end of September or on receipt of payment, whichever is the latest.

Note: Usual copyright applies.

Note: This offer assumes that the purchaser recognises that a PhD is a PhD, written for a select intellectual audience. A PhD is a demanding read and it bears little resemblance to my forthcoming book (due out February 05 with emergent YS).

Note: Credit card options for payment are now available.

Drop me your details if interested.

movement in mission

Tomorrow represents my first mission initiative at Opawa. Tomorrow for Opawa is spring clean day.

I have invited the church to gather at either 9 am or 1 pm ... and to work together in groups, either spring cleaning around the church, or spring cleaning into the community ... picking up rubbish, mending broken fences.

About a week ago we letterboxed, letting people know we were coming.

On Sunday is spring clean Sunday, exploring the spirituality of de-cluttering our lives, wiping our interior surfaces, being wholebodied.

It is this mix of community, servanthood and spirituality, that I hope will become a hallmark of Opawa in mission.

I'm nervous ... will people come ... are we organised enough ... are we disorganised enough ...

meeting mels Jesus at the movies

Research just out shows that Mel Gibson's The Passion had no lasting impact on faith. Given the inadequacy of its theology, all I can say is thank God.

Only 16% of viewers said it had affected their religious beliefs, while 9% prayed more and 8% attended church more. Interesting that half of movie goers in the US were Christians (53%). That means that a good number of Christians could watch Jesus being beaten and flogged, yet remain unmoved in faith and practice.

As for its evanglistic potential, the research found the apparent absence of a direct evangelistic impact by the movie. Despite marketing campaigns labeling the movie the "greatest evangelistic tool" of our era, less than one-tenth of one percent of those who saw the film stated that they made a profession of faith or accepted Jesus Christ as their savior in reaction to the film’s content. Let me repeat that - one-tenth of one percent!

Does this mean movies missionary potential is limited? Well, the research found that while 41% of adults had seen a movie in the last 2 years that caused them to think more seriously about faith, they were more likely to be active religiously before hand.

This would suggest that movies are not a postmodern magic bullet.

colin mcahon

Did anyone video the TV programme on Colin McCahon, New Zealand's most famous painter, on Saturday? I missed it and am keen to watch it.

(For a online interactive presentation on McCahon, go here. For an online Colin McCahon: I am study guide go here.)

walking through a minefield

U2 have released the title for their new album; How to dismantle an atomic bomb.

On the other hand, Christian weaver of metaphor, Len Sweet, is speaking of time bomb scriptures: God has some time-bomb scriptures that go off at certain times. Romans and Pauline literature, for example, exploded during the Reformation and its effect was felt for hundreds of years. From here

Don't we have enough violence in our world today, without co-opting the said words of wisdom and words of Jesus? If the words of the prophet expect us to dismantle swords, does that mean we should dismantle and defuse Scriptural incendiary devices? Does not the raw terror of our times require us to seek different images?

I'm in the U2 corner on this one.

Transitioning church in contemporary culture

7 months ago, as an emerging church pastor, I moved to a 94 year old declining conservative church in a poorer part of town. Many people thought I was mad. I was returning to what many in the emerging church are deconstructing and railing against. I was deciding to live in what many had dismissed as lifeless and immovable.

Over 7 months there have been some great encouragements;
a more open, questioning, relaxed, creative, relational approach to faith.
innovation and change
people finding faith
new people

Over 7 months I have been:

1 - Practicing my beliefs. I came to Opawa with a number of beliefs;
- Postmodernity was affecting all of society, not just 20 year olds.
- All people are made in the image of God, and thus all people are open to creativity, community, culture.
- The resurrection of Christ means new life can occur in dark, hard places.
- The key mission questions for the church in the next few years will involve transitioning what is. (Unlike Robert Webber, while church startups do allow innovation and freedom, if we can find ways to transitioning, I believe we will be modelling a more much Kingdom enfused, pastoral and connective set of practices).

These beliefs have shaped my actions around Opawa. I have found that if I treat people with respect, if I explain things clearly, if I am well-organised, if I provide safety and multiple ways to be involved (including just watching), then in return there is tremendous freedom and space.

2 - Offering experiential learning. Instead of running lots of seminars on postmodernity, instead of preaching on cultural change, instead of setting up futures groups, I have provided postmodern ministry experiences. Doing it enables people to experience it before they judge it.

I have offered multiple choice in worship, I have provided tactile worship experiences, I have encouraging community storytelling, I have introduced moments of chaos, I have used culture at sacred moments.

From these, in time, will emerge questions, many questions, the sort of questions I might cover in courses or seminars;
Can we know God in non-rational ways?
Can we trust God in community as well as the Bible?
Do we need to control what people say?

But I have chosen to approach these through offering experiences, rather than offering persuasive head speak.

Not sure whether such approaches will come back to bite me, given that 7 months is not long. But so far all the signs are positive.

emerging life

Sunday nite
3 baptisms
pool spot lit
rainbow coloured back cloth, sign of spring life in our midst
rose petals in water, placed by the community, a gift, a sacrament of communal love

I talked about extreme discipleship;
do you follow Christ?
do you repent of your sins?
do you renounce evil?
the call to risk, to growth, to stretch,
in contrast to Christianity lite, sweet, fluffy, and with no substance

emerging leadership

leadership = i just want someone i can respect

moving the out of bounds church?

out-of-bounds church? learning to create communities of faith in a culture of change, is the editor-ordained title for my book. due out feb 05.

Zondervan sent me a fancy "author care" pack recently, in pastels, complete with flowers. And a "book form" to fill out. And a question: who do you know who could write reviews for magazines and newspaper?

If you have this sort of access - to publications, to magazines, to Christian news, that do book reviews - and want a review copy, drop me a line and I'll flick your name to Zondervan

christian and lesbian interaction: reviews of allie eagle and me

The film "deftly side-steps the conventions of dry art-historical biography, fusing personal history, inter-generational dialogue and politics with a delibaretely light touch." from here

and from here; "In the film, Allie Eagle talks about the way audiences and critics have often locked her work into a feminist time warp. This concern is the driving force behind her new show, in which she embraces the Christian faith of her childhood."

This is what makes the film interesting; the collision of worlds, where the word Christian sits alongside the rating ** and ++ (Two stars indicate lesbian content, two pluses feminist content.)

allie eagle and me

"Allie eagle and me" a film by Briar March, is being shown at Opawa Baptist, 4 pm, Sunday 19th September. This 55 minute (Christchurch film festival movie this year) follows feminist separatist turned Christian artist Allie Eagle. The film is the true story of how Christianity changes lives and politics. Good coffee, free pop corn and possibly a discussion with Allie Eagle to conclude.

rough nite

I was awake most of the nite with a wicked gut pain. Pain killers and vomiting just wouldn't fix it. Lynne is away, but at 6 a.m. I gave up, bundled my totally befuddled kids into the car and headed for A&E.

They are taking bloodtests and urine samples and scratching their head. I am a bit better but exhausted and a bit concerned.

Update: my blood and urine are fine. the cause of the nite remains a mystery!

xtreme ways

xtreme sports are a new cultural phenomenon; adventure racing, bungy jumping, white water rafting - a chance to take risks, to stretch and grow in the process.

I have seen, experienced and designed xtreme worship experiences - blocks of ice and hot coals as prayer, chardonnay bottles as acts of grace descending from the ceiling, naked flames. Alternative worship has mixed image and culture and brought us xtreme worship.

I have seen, experienced and sought for xtreme community - church as shared meal, community as the essence of Christian expression. Friends like Living Room and Al Creech have used relationships as the prolegomena to mission.

I want to see xtreme discipleship. In a world where the passion of Islam includes a willingness to take up one's cross to death do us part, it is time for xtreme worship and extreme community to be entwined with xtreme discipleship. It is time for radical peacemaking and keen environmental concern and social justice to enter the regular praxis of the emerging church.

xtreme worship + xtreme community + xtreme discipleship = xtreme ways of the Kingdom of God

blah blah blah

i am spending more and more of my life talking to groups of people. i often wonder if there is any point ... you speak to groups who say nice things, but does anything change ... is it worth the energy ... how to bring about change ... is it worth the cost to family and to personal time spent smelling the roses.

today is my 5th day of speaking in a row. i am speaking on a theological response to the foreshore and seabed issue. it is a hugely explosive issue in new zealand today, with big implications for identity and culture and reconciliation. i am nervous.

i get out of the car and a person walks over. "i have a bone to pick with you" he announces, "from the talk you did on future church last year"

"oh dear" i think.

"that talk changed our life" he says, and shares some of his story. oh well, going blah, blah, blah has been useful for at least one person.

update: while I do appreciate all the nice comments, I wish to emphasis that this post was done with a note of glad surprise, not a depressed funk seeking pats on the back.

pondering terror

if there was no media, would there be events like Beslan?

does terrorism not rely on the spreading of a message of terror. if there was no media, no CNN, then is terror not decreased as an instrument of effectiveness?

to do something, go here.

the day I left my wife

Today I fly to Auckland. It's our 14th wedding anniversary. I know where I'd rather be tonite (and no offense to any Aucklander's who read this blog.)

I brought Lynne a salad dressing - honey mustard and macademia flavour, (along with flowers and lunch). It seemed an appropriate way to honour someone who brings
spice
warmth
humanity
into my life.

choosing creativity

I co-authored, with emergent lynne, a piece on creativity and church; titled Choosing Creativity. It's online here and captures some of my dreams for church as a place that enhances people made in the image of God.

I will give my copy of the entire magazine to the person who can work out which bits are written by emergent me and which bits are written by emergent lynne.

out of cultural balance

Alan Creech engages with Don Carson, and argues:
if ultimately, you have first and foremost become some emerging church pomo whatever as a reaction to change in the culture - I, for one, believe you have your first and foremosts out of balance.

Well then, I for one am happy to put up my hand and say I'm out of balance. Out of balance and glad of it actually.

I was reading Philemon 22 yesterday; At the same time, get a room ready for me.

And it energised me as a missionary metaphor. We live in Western culture, which like the Prodigal Son, has left home. The church has been abandoned. And the Father waits. That's our missionary reality.

As part of my missionary response, I'd like to keep a room ready for if the Prodigal returns. Our culture will never say what Paul says in Philemon. It will never ask for a room to be ready.

But I'm still willing to get the room ready, to create a welcoming and hospitable space for those wandering, squandering, enjoying the high life.

Maori culture has a proverb: ahi kaa - keep the home fires burning, so the loved ones will return. Such a hospitable (even if it might be out-of-balance) missiology has a number of implications.

First, it keeps me respectful of other rooms not like mine. This includes the mission rooms of modernity. I struggle with lots of Carson and lots of Willow Creek, but I keep trying to be respectful of such modern attempts at missiology.

Second, it keeps me surveying my room. It's a place I prepare not for myself, but for the wanderer. So it's not driven by my music wants or my favourite images. It's a place that I hope the Prodigal will enjoy. Sure, it won't be perfect. But part of my gift means I'll do what I can.

So Alan, I'm sorry if it seems out of balance to you, but it's a hospitable missiology that for me seems deeply energised by a Biblical impulse.

prayers please

I am speaking 6 times over the next 6 days; Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday on the future of the church in Christchurch, then flying to Auckland to speak (with greenflame) Thursday, Friday, Saturday on theology and real life.

It is part of Kingdom Builders, a national conference. All this is on top of a significant pastoral crisis and a some book editing pressures.

I'm feeling a bit pressured and would be glad if you could hold me before God.

am I an unspiritual pastor?

I fear I am unspiritual. You see, I have some pastor friends. Before they speak, they get up early and pray.

I don't. I try to get a good night's sleep. Another pastor friend I know even goes so far as to ask people they speak to, to prepare prior, by fasting. I don't. I am not nearly this spiritual. In fact, here's my unspiritual thinking.

When I started work, aged 18, I used to work hard 9-5. I believed that by working for an employer, I was working for God. By working hard, I honoured my employer and thus honoured God.

If I got up early to pray or fast, I found I was not a good worker at the end of the day.

So I found a physically sustainable way to spend time with God; centring myself before God at the start of the day and reading Scripture. And then I sought to practise the presence of God through my day, looking for God in nature and friendship.

Now that I am in the pastoral ministry, I have brought these same work disciplines to my job; centring, reading Scripture, practicing the presence of God, looking for God in all I do.

Now that I am in ministry, I ask this simple question;
why should I pray more in this work for God, than when I worked for God before?

And I look at my pastor friends and ask another simple question;
Why should we fast before preaching,
when we don't fast, before say, visiting a sick person, or typing up some church minutes, or playing "rough and tumble" with my children, or even, dare I say it, before making love to my spouses?

Do you get the drift? Why have we deemed that some activities are spiritual and demand more attention than others?

Or, have I lost the plot and am, indeed, an "unspiritual" pastor?

listening

I was so busy thinking about listening today,
that I forgot to listen.

the day my wife left me

I finished the final edit of my PhD here, this time a year ago. (Thanks Tim for the place and the pic!)

My wife drove me there, muttered something about love and not returning until I finished, and left me. No car. No phone. No internet. Just the view and a final draft to edit.

I started my PhD with the basic question; how missionally effective is the emerging church. I wanted to explore this both in relation to the church and the culture.

These new forms of church; how do they relate to church over the last 2000 years; these new imaged based ways of worship; how do they shape our faith; postmodernity; and how are we using the culture?

I've had 21 requests to buy it ... the offer remains open to 24th September ...

Note: $NZ25 to cover printing costs plus P&P. (P&P approximately from NZ to USA or UK = $NZ20; From NZ to Australia = $NZ10, within NZ = $3.50)

Note: This offer lasts until the 24 September and the thesis will be sent at the end of September or on receipt of payment, whichever is the latest.

Note: Usual copyright applies.

Note: This offer assumes that the purchaser recognises that a PhD is a PhD, written for a select intellectual audience. A PhD is a demanding read and it bears little resemblance to my forthcoming book (due out February 05 with emergent YS).

Note: Credit card options for payment are now available.

Drop me your details if interested.

Feel free to use the accompanying graphic to advertise this on your blog.
img alt="thesis with title.jpg" src="http://www.emergentkiwi.org.nz/archives/images/thesis with title.jpg" width="259" height="72" border="0" /

storytelling the kingdom

This is a story I wrote yesterday. It's a missional reading of Matthew 13:44; The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a person found it, they hid it again, and then in their joy went and sold all they had and brought that field.
It's called the Brown paper bag.

This is a story about the kingdom of heaven.
What is it like?
How can you get it?
What's it worth?

This is also a story about a man.
A man went out walking.
Each morning.

He walked past a beach front property,
lake sparkling, sand beckoning.

He walked, on, tired, longing for a holiday.

He walked past a large house,
with a large back yard,
with children's voices,
running, playing, calling, laughing.

He walked on, lonely, longing for a family,
for people to laugh and cry with,

He walked over a field.
Rocky, barren and hard.
Having to clamber from hard boulder to hard boulder.
Falling, cutting his hand, grazing his shin.

Until something caught his eye.
Hidden between two rocks,
A brown paper bag.

Puzzled, the man bent down.

And opened the bag.

Peeked inside.

And his face changed.
His heart raced.

He knew.
He'd seen treasure.

The man ducked down and glanced around.

Good. No-one had seen him.
No bathers on the beach front property
No playing kids in the large backyard.

Again, the man looked inside the bag again.
Slowly he opened the bag.
Inside was creativity.
Inside was stories of God in all of life.

The stories whispered and called,

The man glanced around again.
Good. no-one had heard.
No bathers on the beach front property
No playing kids in the large backyard.

Carefully he closed the bag.
Reverently he folded the creases.

The stories of the Kingdom were treasure.

The man walked to the city gate.
Whistling. Singing. Trying to wipe the silly grin off his face.

He found the local land agent.

Yes, three properties were for sale.

Would you like a beach front property.
Lake views.
Sand on the front.
A jetty for your boat.
A holiday spot to die for.

The man felt tired. He'd love to relax. To rest. To be still.

He put his hand in his pocket and touched the brown paper bag.
His treasure.

Then withdrew his hand and shook his head.

Surprised, the local agent offered a second time.

Yes, we have properties for sale.
Would you like a large family home with a large backyard.
Places to play.
Family and friends to play with.
A home to build family memories.

The man felt lonely.
He'd love a home.
He'd love a family.

He put his hand in his pocket and touched the brown paper bag.
His treasure.

Then withdrew his hand and
slowly shook his head.

The agent sighed and tossed him the last property.
A field. Barren and rocky.

The man's heart leapt.
He nodded.

The treasure was his.

With joy he reached into his pocket.
With joy he drew out his treasure.

With laughter he shook open the treasure.
And there in the marketplace
the stories fell out of the brown paper bag.

stories of the Kingdom.
Stories of God in all,

treasure, not to be kept,
but to be shared with all.

May God help you find your stories, your treasure,
and empty them in the marketplaces of our world.

when a blog becomes indulgent

Adam Clayton from U2 once described their album Passengers as indulgent. I took from the comment a sense that perhaps success had made them less hard on themselves and their music. They needed to learn again to be ruthless on themselves and their craft.

I have been blogging less over the last week, because I have been editing my book. A book with emergentYS/Zondervan goes through three edits; not just for grammer, but also for content and flow.

I have decided that a good editor is a gift. Hard at times, but a gift. Having to defend my work, having to read my work expressed in a slightly different way, being asked for a story here or more evidence there is a wonderful, wonderful experience.

So does blogging become the equivalent of U2's Passengers? Indulgent and asking me to be harder on myself and my words.