e~mergent kiwi

half time steve

Thank you for all your prayers and messages of support. I am feeling better. I am planning to work half-days this week, gradually easing back in and seeing how the body responds.

I have found the lectionary readings of great comfort, particularly the phrase in Genesis 31:6 Jacob saying to God; You know that I have worked with all of my strength. God knows my heart, my boundaries, my personal disciplines, even when this involves me walking with a limp (Genesis 32).

I have been suffering from stomach pains, nausea and vomiting since Monday. Blood tests show I have a viral liver infection. The cause is a mystery, as there is no sign of hepatitis, no symptoms of glandular fever, and no track record of drug or alcohol abuse. The doctors advice is to rest and see what happens. So I am will be away from this blog under doctor's orders!

using blogs for on-line seminary learning

leadership-bcnz blog;

I've just set up the blog home page for a course I am teaching this semester; Pastoral Leadership and Management. As part of the assessment, every student will be expected to set up a blog in which they record their weekly readings and reflections. Some students assessment will also include offering comments (critical engagement) with their peers. Here's the methodology blurb:

Using on-line blogs is designed to enhance the student learning experience, by allowing them to interact with each other outside the classroom. It means that critical student reading is no longer a conversation between lecturer and student, but becomes a class conversation. Using blogs has the further benefit of introducing students to new technologies and enhancing their communication options, an essential leadership skill.

It's new for all of us, so it will be interesting to see how it develops and what students make of it come "Lecturer evaluation" time at the end of June.

For the course outline download here

narnia film review

Here's my latest film review: of Narnia. I am especially proud of this one because it is the first film review I have co-authored with my daughter.

Eight-year old Shannon is a Narnia nut, so I asked if she was willing to co-review the movie with me. She took the job ever so seriously; sitting beside me with pen and paper, contributing sentences, telling me I was too complicated, giggling at good word phrases. In return, I shared the film reviewers fee with her. Her first paid writing gig aged 8!

"The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; A film review by S and S Taylor.

Equipped with pencil, pad and probing review questions, eight year old Shannon Taylor took her father, Steve, to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The following film review is a family affair." for more

This review is another of the monthly reviews I do for Touchstone magazine and are reprinted here with their permission. Other reviews include;

Serenity here;
The World's Fastest Indian here;
Sedition, a New Zealand film about the fate of conscientious objectors in World War 2, here;
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, here

I have just completed a film review of Brokebank Mountain; and that will go up in a month (as per my web agreement with my paper-based client).

Further film resources:
Film as a point of gospel engagement (PDF).
Film and spirituality web resources.
Why gospel and film?

passionate practices

We are passionate; God is passionate; The task of being Christian is to connect our passions with the passions of God - these are the words which are forming and re-forming Digestion, our evening service.

We've been on a journey for the last 2 years. First we went interactive with sermons and giving a variety of ways to respond. We would often conclude with something to digest; something to take home and do. A good start, but we were moving too quickly and in a busy week, you'd often lose the practise. So this year we are making these take-homes the focus, rather than the extra.

Week one we tell the stories of some passionate people and introduce a passionate practice; Week two we explore the theology behind the practice, and encourage them to keep practising; Week three we explore a Biblical story that speaks to the practice and encourage them to keep practising; Week four we celebrate by inviting people to share what practising the practice has meant for them. Four weeks to let the practices shape our lives. Four weeks to practice and in doing so, to let our passions connect with God's passion.

We spent the last 2 weeks laying foundations. We explored how we are passionate (green cards) and how God is passionate (yellow cards). We finished by invited people to paint their hands and commit themselves to a year of practising the passions.

Tonight we introduced the first practice - discernment (here's the take home practises handout). The passion was music; the passionate stories were of Bono and Brooke Fraser and the point was to explore how we discern God in our music.

Helpful resources I have been reading and playing with over the last 6 months while shaping this up have included; Practicing Passion: Youth and the Quest for a Passionate Church which gave the initial theological framework and opened my eyes to passion as a way to affirm youth spirituality; God bearing life:The Art of Soul Tending for Youth Ministry, which has excellent reflection on passion and passion in youth ministry; and Soul Tending which is stacked with actual practices.

My only critique is that most of the practices do not focus on pop culture. Hence we have started by introducing discernment as the first practice, and we are inviting people to practice discernment in relation to their favourite music. I mean how theological yet practical is that; sourced in God's passion, really practical tools for living that are earthed in one's music world.

spirituality resources

Here are some resources that I'm currently using and recommending.

Visions in York were a key spark in my creative journey. Back in 1995 I heard about, and then saw, pictures of their worship which featured 16 slide projectors making these most amazing visual wallpapers. And I suddenly realised what it could mean to worship God not only through my voice and my ears, but through my eyes. Here were ways to love God wholistically; body, mind and soul. Loops 2 is a collection of 50 of their digital video loops, supplied on CD-ROM in QuickTime (.mov) format, for Macs and PCs. (Antipodean's can buy it from the future church nz website, rather than pay for shipping from the UK).

With Lent around the corner, I'm preparing to use Si Smith's "40". It's a CD-Rom with a visual reflection on each of Christ's 40 days in the wilderness. It can be used for contemplating an image a day for individual preparation; it could be used as one of a number of worship stations; it could be used as a visual meditation in a more established church setting. (There's an e-interview with the creator here, and again, antipodean's can buy it from the future church nz website.

And two books that have resourced my recent Lent journey's;
Peter Graystone's Detox your spiritual life in 40 days is a great travelling companion. Aimed at 20's-30's, it's a helpful mix of readings and action steps for each day of Lent.

Last year I used Richard Burridge's Faith Odyssey; 40 readings that use science fiction to engage the Lenten themes. I'm not a sci-fi groupie, so I found Faith Odyssey an accessible entry to the world of Trekkies and Wokkies. It helped my preaching, my reflection on pop culture and my Lenten spiritual journey.

spiritual formation in contempory contexts

Last night we held a Life Party in the foyer at Opawa Baptist. 25 people gathering to sip on lattes and sparkling grapejuice, to hear stories around Growth Coaching, and to leave cheese and biscuit crumbs on the carpet.

For the last 18 months I have been part of developing Growth Coaching. Most spiritual formation is book and programmed based; you take a course that is full of words. The content tends to expose a narrow understanding of spirituality. Turn up 2 weeks late and you have to wait for next time.

Growth coaching is one-on-one spiritual partnership. I wanted something that breathed of life to the full. It had to be relational. It had to encourage whole of life development. It had to be creatively adaptive, suitable for all types of learners, not just book-focused people. It had to be accessible, easy to enter, no matter where you where or when you turned up.

The first meeting involves a self-audit; 99 questions which are designed to enable a person to reflect on the whole of their life.

In a second meeting, a Growth Coach, having listened and prayed, tentatively offers a vision of a new future. If this vision resonates, then together a path forward is planned. Accountability steps and a timeline are inserted. This could include naming an "encourager", a cheer leader type, who is invited to text, email or phone support. Each programme is tailored and unique.

Theologically this approach believes in the imago dei, that the image of God is inside humans. It believes in the Spirit to cause growth. It values the relational community, God at work through human partnerships.

At the Life Party last night we heard stories of how Growth coaching has grown people. Stories were shared; of love poems written to spouses and new ways of being spiritual and peacefully centred at work, of the courage to grow and the unpredictable Spirit at work. In a world of cynicism, last night was a rare privilege.

The Life Party will hopefully become an annual event at Opawa, a chance to celebrate growth. Growth Coaching is now one year old. We have trained 8 Coaches over a 8 week period and seen 8 people Growth coached. Last night 4 more people enquired about being trained as a Growth Coach and 5-8 others enquired about being Growth coached.

For a sermon on a biblical narrative of growth coaching (Luke 1:39-45) go here:

For an newspaper article on Growth Coaching, go here.

my dad can walk again

My dad came home from hospital on Wednesday. His legs started moving again. No one is quite sure why. The most likely scenario is that this was a multiple sclerosis "flare up." At other times he's developed double vision or been unable to pick things up, and then within a few days the problem has cleared.

Thanks to all who prayed and sent messages of support. It's nice to be a kid with a dad who can walk, even if the gait is wobbly.

going to bible college will destroy your faith

I lead a devotion at Bible College today. The slogan; "Going to bible college will destroy your faith" was written on the whiteboard as students came in. It's been said to me many times and I reflected on how funny the statement is when you think about it; is faith that brittle; which lecturer will do it; do they organise it, take turns, play tag?

Asking the question; "Does bible college destroy your faith," I turned to Paul’s autobiography in Galatians 1:13-18.

I pointed out the factors at work in the Paul’s storytelling;
text knowledge; "advancing in Judaism"
church knowledge; "traditions of my ancestor"
human experience; the Damascus Road
processing space; "after three years"
community engagement; "acquainted with Cephas."

I suggested that while Paul’s faith was destroyed, it was also re-integrated. He was taking processing time to reconsider text and church in light of human experience. He was processing in community, checking his re-integration with Peter.

And this mix of experience; text; processing; community was lifechanging for Paul and moved him into ministry.

Considering church and human experience allow him to integrate his past and his emotions; Considering text knowledge allows him to integrate his intellect and build depth and continuity; Processing allows him nuance and insight; Engagement with Peter in community processingkeeps him down to earth and people focused.

This was integrating faith; text; church; experience; processing; community

All of us are like Paul; we bring human experiences, we bring church experiences, we have engaged with texts of Bible, history, culture.

And now we become aware of the gift of processing space and the gift of community engagement. So in fact, going to a bible college could, like Paul, be a life-changing experience.

I then told the story of being given a hard time by a friend in January; being told that as an evangelical I believed in a fast God. I was part of a system that gave altar calls for instant salvation, prayed for healing, and expected instant church growth, if not this week, then at least this month. Did I follow a fast God?

And what would it mean for me to follow a slow God; the God who took 80 years to prepare Moses for leadership; who took 40 years to get a people across a dessert; who took 30 years to prepare a Messiah ministry; who gave Paul 3 years for integration? Where is the slow God in my spiritual formation?

And so I invited us as a bible college into the following of a slow God and the life-long process of integration;

To avoid the danger of getting "stuck" on a text or tradition or experience and so avoiding integration;

To be patient and not panic over the processes of a slow God.

I then showed this QT movie; 3 minutes of integration; and invited them to pray for the person on their right and bless them into the integrating hands of a slow God.

(If I had time, I would have used two Jesus images; one of the Salvador Dali image of Christ of St John and another of Christ in the faces of the poor, to introduce Jesus as the integrator of, and integrator in; text, church, human experience, processing and community.)

DJing gospel and culture video interview

In postcard 8 of my out of bounds church? book I explore the relationship between gospel and culture. Rather than present either/or opposites of wholesale withdrawal or wholesale assimilation, I use the image of DJ to explore how, in a fragmented and postmodern world, we engage in multiple responses to culture; of protest and subversion and affirmation. I think it's some of the most creative thinking in the book.

Anyhow, late in 2004 (when the book manuscript was with the printer) I spoke at a ecumenical conference (national youth ministries of the Anglican, Catholic, Methodist and Presbyterian Churches in Aotearoa New Zealand); the big E. The theme was gospel and culture and they asked me to exploration the interaction between global and local. It was a chance to earth the DJ image in terms of ministry and young people and globalisation. It is a more "well-cooked" version of Postcard 8, including a social justice reflection. It's now a chapter in a book; titled "Culture - Yeah Right."

(Buy the book, by contacting Jacky Sewell, 3/89 Michael's Ave, Ellerslie, Auckland. Cost - Book $20, DVD $45 or both for $60. P&P $5 in NZ, $10 Aust and Sth Pacific, $20 rest of the world.)

They also interviewed me, and this is now an online QT video (11 MB). So if you want to see my "summary" or get the 10 minute summary, download here.

This post is repeated in my out of bounds church? book blog.

smells like the kingdom

Jim's story: Jim (name changed) knocked on the church door at 1 pm, asking to use the phone. New flat, phone not working, big bond, paid by cheque and it's waiting for the bank to clear. Jim works the phone, rearranging appointments because cash is tight and the gas tank is in the red.

Then he's asking if social service agencies in general do petrol? Not as a policy, I say. It's too easy to swap petrol vouchers to feed addictions.

As Jim makes to leave, he says he's free in the afternoons and if we want any volunteer help, to let him know. My gut says he's genuine.

So I asked Jim if he wanted to work for his petrol. Work for 2 hours and we'd give him petrol vouchers for half a tank of gas. There's dignity for him and benefit for us. I pair him up with our caretaker and so there's relational mission. It sort of smells like the Kingdom.

Rob's story: 9 hours later, Rob (name unknown), knocks on the church door. It's 10 pm. Espresso church is just winding up in the foyer and the Sunday music group are practising in the auditorium.

Rob announces he loves Baptists and loves the faces of happy people. He asks what is happening. Rob's breath indicates high levels of alcohol consumption. My gut says Rob wants an audience and I'm not sure we are in the entertainment business. I'm about to leave to relieve the babysitter and I don't want Rob walking into the church, drunk, potentially pretending I let him in. In my friendlist voice I tell Rob we are finishing. Rob heads into the night.

One stranger gets work. Another stranger gets the friendlist farewell I can manage. What does the hospitality of Jesus mean? I'm not sure which, or both, smell more like the Kingdom.

emerging church in australia

There is a superb exploration of emerging church in Australia in the latest (Summer 2006) Zadok magazine.

Highlights for me where;

Stephen Said's historical narrative around the emerging church in Australia;

Barb Daws, who discerns the links between emerging church values and new ways of education and learning;

Matthew Stone's plea for a missiological understanding of New Age spiritual search to be entwined with expressions of emerging church;

Dan McCredden's answering the question; "Can an existing denominational church be emerging?"

Anne Wilkinson-Hayes plea that 'new missional churches' seek a more authentic, gospel-centred approach to living our the faith in our society today. (For those interested, there's an interview with Ann here (scroll down to bottom of page 2) as part of research for my out of bounds church? book) which also interleaves with the question of denominations and emerging church.)

Plus there's a nice review of my book, both by Dan McCreeden and Darren Cronshaw, who has written an introductory reading guide to the emerging church phenomenon, covering 50 books, a number of internet links and blogs.

If Zadok is any guide, there is a rich breadth in the emerging church conversation in Australia. The edition would sit as a more popular companion to the International Journal For the Study of the Christian Church;

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my dad

My dad had a fall in the bathroom last night. His legs just stopped working and he collapsed. He's in hospital while they do tests. He was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (degeneration of nerves) about 8 years ago. This might be a flareup and he might regain movement. Or not. Or it might be something else. We don't know. He's 66.

All kids just expect their Dad's legs to move. I'm just a kid and this is just my dad.

formed by scripture

Excerpt from a letter I sent to our church staff as we started a new year together.

I would like to see us deepen our sense of shared spirituality. I would like to make two suggestions in this regard.

This would not require anyone to prepare a devotional, yet would allow us together to be formed by the Scriptures. I really want this sense that together we are standing accountable, not to a person’s devotion, but to the Scriptures.

Update: Excellent further discussion by Nigel Wright here, where he offers the possibility of gathering around not only text, but music or image. Which is probably what we were doing with our Advent Art postcards in December; everyone in the church was given a postcard with an art image, ritual and Scripture. So this offered individual nourishment, and then in the services we invited artisticly inclined people to speak to the art, and a musician to play a piece of music.

the emerging church in 2005: a visual summary

What does the emerging church look like? More specifically, what does the emerging church look like in 2005?

And they say a picture is worth a 1,000 words. So, why not gather a visual date stamp? Why not invite an emerging church to send a picture of their life? Collected together, they could offer a visual narrative of a year of life lived.

Thus Postcards05 germinated. I posted the concept on my blog in mid-December and invited anyone who wanted to send a postcard. I worked up a generic template, hoping for visual continuity. I never got my wished for postcards from France and Serbia. But I did get fifteen postcards from 8 countries; Ireland, England (5), Australia (2), Canada (2), New Zealand (2), Germany, Malaysia and Denmark (and had email conversations with people in Japan and South America).

Today I printed out all 15 postcards and wondered if there were some repeated echoes.

Variety; emerging church groups were emerging among many denominations - Lutheran, Anglican, Baptist, Church of Christ, Pentecostal - to name a few. There were postcards from church plants and replants, from congregations and mergers. God is at work and life is emerging in very diverse contexts.

Beauty; half the postcards captured moments of beauty in worship. The aesthetics were rich and multi-layered. The spaces were diverse and creatively indwelt. The symbols – of paint and pastel, DJ deck and duct tape – arose from the whole of life. The environments pictured suggest a shift from performance to "aggregation", in which the whole of worship is greater because every person participates. There is a sense of worship, not for internal pleasure, but as the outflow of a vibrant, world-facing Christianity.

Culturally engaged; their were pictures from cafes and pubs. When asked for a music track that summed up the year, music from outside the church was a recurring theme. These are groups that, in the words of Tom Beaudoin, are birthed in the amniotic fluid of popular culture. The Word is being enfleshed as God is heard and expressed in "our own language" to paraphrase Acts 2:6.

Integrated spirituality; the use of labyrinths, a missional presence at Mind-Body-Spirit festivals, the finding of a faith at work, all are evidence of the quest for an integrated spirituality that embraces the whole person in all of life. The postcards are shaped by a questing, not for packaged belief, but for a vibrant spirituality that can make sense of, and flourish within, contemporary culture. Christian traditions and Christian Scriptures were inspired the living of an authentically Christian life.

Relational gospel; half of the pictures were of people gathering, relaxing, talking, walking. Food, drink and café table are prominent. A relational gospel was enacting a relational mission. For many groups, the best missionary moment occurred relationally; as the poor were fed, the migrant welcomed, Tsunami victims blessed, a local hospital painted and the lives of prisoners transformed. Proclamation of God’s presence in the world was being embodied in action rather than word. Whether these mission moments are capturing the fullness of mission is worth pondering into a new year.

Conclusion; So that's Postcard05, a visual datestamp of the emerging church in 2005. It's not global, because if you didn't speak English you would have found it hard to participate (and if you did speak American you weren't invited:)). Nor is it representative, because if your emerging church moved in different networks, you might never know of the invitation. Nor did I offer any editorial control and attempt to decide whether a group was emerging or not.

I simply collected a visual date stamp of the emerging church in 2005; a visual montage that shows an immensely varied, yet relational understanding of faith; a collection of postcards that point to a culturally integrated and engaged spirituality that is expressed in moments of aesthetic, participatory beauty and relational mission.

Link for all 15 postcards

Contemporary Waitangi Day worship

Today in New Zealand is Waitangi Day, which acknowledges the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi between Maori and the Queen of England's representatives in 1840.

So Sunday's worship needed some connection between such themes and the gospel. For me I wanted to capture welcome, what it means to be inclusive and hospitable and how one might live justly as a guest in another land.

So as everyone arrived on Sunday they were given a photo of a person of different ethnic origin, currently living in New Zealand. (Images had been sourced in relation to here and printed black and white on 5 cm square paper.) After an opening song, we read together a montage of Scriptures (based on a selection I found in an old Baptist hymn book) which named the reconciling work of Jesus. I had hung a line of string across the front of the church. As a response to the welcoming and reconciling power of this gospel, people were invited to paper clip their photo onto the string. I played Welcome home DVD, from the Available Light album , by Dave Dobbyn, as people streamed forward. Quite simple, yet a really nice mix of participation, gospel and contemporary cultural connection.

Once we had finished, I prayed a brief prayer confessing our human ability to be selfish and hold onto gifts, praying that people coming to New Zealand would experience welcome and that our actions as a church would always demonstrate the hospitality of the gospels.

By chance, it was the first Sunday of the month, in which Opawa has historically celebrated communion and welcomed new members. It was visually powerful to celebrate communion and reconciliation in bread and cup against a backdrop of a "line" of photos. We were also welcoming a Korean family into church membership and that added a further layer of poignancy to themes of gospel welcome and hospitality.

Updated: For those who requested the Scriptures, here's a the DJ-ed list (without references)

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.

Righteousness exalts a nation: but sin condemns many people.

And the work of that righteousness will be peace;
Its effect will be quietness and confidence forever.

In the last days the mountain of the Lord's temple will be established
As the highest of the mountains; it will be exalted above the hills,
And all nations will stream to it.

Many peoples will come and say:
"Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us his ways so that we may walk in his paths."

The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

God will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples.
They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; Nations will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war any more.

Come, house of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord.

For he himself is our peace, who has the two one, and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, that he might create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.

He came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through Him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

God does not show favouritism, but accepts those from every nation who fear God and do what is right. Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Sythian, slave or free: But Christ is all, and is in all.

Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom God's favour rests.

theology of blogging

Some thoughts in process.

This blog is gift. As hobby it emerges from surplus; my time, creativity, thought and skill. A gift always costs. Every minute I blog is one less for family or for sipping a pinot.

Gift need not cost the recipient, but it costs the giver. Indeed if it has not cost, it is not gift but work.

It is the choice of a giver to give a gift. This means that consumerism is not necessarily theft of a surplus.

However, a consumer of a gift might note that while given freely, surplus is neither endless nor unlimited. By definition, for a surplus to remain a surplus requires replenishment. Such replenishment is uniquely contextual, dependant on the individual and their unique personality and makeup.

It might be financial,and so the chance to trade in Adense for the replenishment offering by a pinot or a new CD; it might be a comment that offers a new perspective; it might the encouragement of a story returned when an idea or resource has morphed into life; it might be a link or another blog offering creative resource; it might be a relational connection made, a network accessed; it might be hits on a traffic counter.

Method and mode of surplus replenishment may change over time.

Sustainability will depend on the sustainable replenishment and thus the ability to match gift, surplus and appropriately renumerated replenishment.

is blogging worth it?

Over my January holidays I contemplated shutting down this blog. I had started emergentkiwi to experiment with on-line community. In the early days of this blog (back in 2002-3) it felt like there was a lot of community; lots of comments, through which I learnt heaps.

Over the last year, it felt less and less like a community space. Visitor numbers tracked up, but the sense of interaction on-blog and through e-mail declined. At times I wondered if this was now a consumer space, rather than a community space. Did I need to change the way I posted in some way? It takes time and money to run a blog. I have always resisted the idea of advertising as alien to a "community" sight. But if more and more visitors are just consuming, why not?

Two weeks into my January holiday a parcel arrived, posted from the UK. With a card; thanking me for the blog and noting that I had made a post asking for input regarding spiritual practices that might help a cafe. Near 100 people had visited the post. Four had commented. I had found that depressing.

And a book, titled Church Cafes. Explored and Celebrated. (Order here). A really interesting survey of 100's of cafes around UK.

So I'm back blogging for another season. I'm still concerned about the balance between community and consumerism and still pondering the time and effort of a blog. But I'm feeling a little less "consumed." Thanks J. (you know who you are).

I found 9000 dollars today

This week has been budget preparation week at the church. Among other things we've taken on an extra staff person to work (among other things) among youth in the community and all week I've worked with others trying to balance budgets.

All week this voice has gone; "You're a pastor. You have more important things to do. You're busy. You should be writing a sermon." All week I've kept saying, no.

"No. I refuse to accept the sacred/secular divide. I refuse to believe that there are "spiritual" things that are more important than "earthly" things." Besides, this is about growing and developing people and resourcing for mission. Besides, I'm good at this. I can be sharp."

Today the wrestle bore fruit. I spotted the fact that the spreadsheet was using a hidden formula that based this year's offerings on last year's projected budget, rather last year's real budget. Last year we projected a 10% rise in offerings. We actually got a 14% rise. The difference is $9000, a budget that could balance, a mission that could happen. A nice end to a week of deeply embodied spirituality.

Old Testament emerging mission

In December I was e-interviewed about my out of bounds church? book. I was asked to comment on an absence of interest in the Hebrew Scriptures in the conversations around missional churches and to what extent can the Hebrew Scriptures offer new models to the Church that is emerging.

In the interview I noted that a dominant mission model in the emerging church is the going to forming new communities of faith. This is often based on contrasting attractional forms of church with incarnational forms of church. I mentioned a article by Walter Brueggemann as a great example of careful Bible reading that goes beyond 2 binary opposites of mission as attraction vs mission as incarnation. A number of people have since emailed asking for the full reference: Walter A. Brueggemann, "The Bible and Mission." Missiology 10, 1989, 397-412.

Steve, before you dash off-line, could you summarise the article? Can perhaps could you apply it to emerging church? Well, part of the article includes 4 different ways in which mission is at work in the Old Testament.

I Kings 4 is a subtle critique of the use of God to legitimate actions. This would mean that Americans who blogged against the Iraqi War are performing mission in the style of 1 Kings 4.

Dueteronomy 19 is the working for legislative reform to enact God’s justice. This would legitimate something like protest4 as Biblical mission even if it never "incarnates" a new faith community.

1 Samuel 2 offers the power of imagination to offer a new vision of society. This would legitimate the art of alternative worship as Biblical mission in it’s potential to offer a radical re-dreaming of Christianity enculturated.

Hosea 2 offers the belief that in a fragmented world, God can intervene in love. A Blue Christmas service offering hope of God’s love would thus be an expression of mission in the style of Hosea.

And for those who want more detail on the Biblical texts, here are my Church and Society (University of Auckland) 2003 Course lecture notes..

1 Kings 4:20-28
This text offers success, of wealth and well-being. People are happy, safe and well-fed. Then it asks how are people happy, safe and well-fed? The answer is by tax and arms proliferation. And so the text paints the picture of a society of success built on tax and war.

The key claim made by the text is shalom, 1 Kings 4:24, that everyone is safe under there "vine and fig tree." This is a peasants dream,
Every man will sit under his own vine
and under his own fig tree,
and no one will make them afraid,
for the LORD Almighty has spoken. (Micah 4:4)

Thus this text links faith, church and a way of being in society. The text reads as a shopping list, a government vision statement. This model of peace and harmony depends on government spin, promises shalom, and flows from a central system, in which church and state are in harmony. A Constantinian model of church and society is present.

Yet the discerning reader is left with a nagging suspicion. A hint of irony exists. All that glitters is not gold. After all, who pays for the system? And who is doing the forced labour of 1 Kings 4:6 (Ahishar-in charge of the palace; Adoniram son of Abda-in charge of forced labor.)? And why was their revolution in 1 Kings 11-12? The text asks some nagging questions about what funds a seemingly God-happy society.

Deuteronomy 19:1-10
In this text legislation, more specifically, Mosaic legislation, is used to societal reformation. Law in enacted to establish three cities of refugee. This new legal provision is not to provide exemption for murderers, but protection in case of accidents. How marvellous. Social justice for society through societal reformation.

Note that this is not, like 1 Kings, a "successful society vision statement" that glosses up reality. This text acknowledges that mayhem can happen, and that society can be adapted, shaped, and so to see justice.

This text is a foreshadowing of Romans 12. It is an argument for a restorative, rather than retributive justice. It proposes a public hospitality that is an alternative to vigilante vengeance. It attempts to describe a new way of living in which Christian mission has a public, institutional, reformational role.

1 Samuel 2:1-10
The context for this text is a society in transition. Israel is moving from tribe to state, from judge to king, from charismatic to bureaucratic. In this transition, we hear the song of a barren mother, the cry of the mother of the last of these judges. This is a song from below, a Liberationist speech from the margins.
Hannah means "grace, free gift." And she sings the song of surprise, caught by the unexpected gift of new life.

The song rejoices in a swift transition. This is not the societal reformation of Dueteronomy 19, but the rapid and abrupt inversion of the upside-down Kingdom.

In society, power and food were inequally distributed. The song anticipates the Magnificant in Luke 1, a new social reality, a radical change.
The Lord makes poor and makes rich
He brings low, he also exalts
He raises the poor from the dust
He lifts the needy from the ash heap
To make them sit with princes
And inherit seats of honor.

Such a vision immediately raises a range of questions; How realistic is this dream? How domesticated is the previous Reformation model? Is it enough to work for legal reform? Are there times when a new dream is needed? This is the grit test that must always haunt the song of vision.

But alongside the grit test we must appreciate the role of vision. In this text the literary forms are important. This text is not a memo or a legal document. It is a poetic "song." It dreams. It steps outside current realities, current bounds of language. This is the power of poetry. Thus for Brueggemann, "In handling such literary form … one should also see liturgy and all artistic acts as crucial for mission." (p. 405)

1 Sammuel is perhaps a form of liberation theology. In its dreaming, it also challenges the way society is. This is subversive, a rupture of society, that moves toward an alternative social reality. It is the free and energetic construction of a new way of being.

Hosea 2:14-18
This textual fragment is set in the midst of a poem that draws on the metaphors of divorce and remarriage. There is simultaneously both complete loss of relationship and complete gift of relationships.

So life is fragile. In this text, God takes and God gives. This is evident not only in relationships, but also in economics. A society of wealth and prosperity, of grain, wine and oil, is fragile (v 2-13); new life is a surprising gift (v 16-23).
V 2-13 is a court case, a lawsuit of indictment.
2:14-15 is a hinge.
2:16-12 speak of disarmament and environmental hope.
The hinge is unexpected. God intervenes.

And so this text suggests that God is not bound by human constructions of how she/he should act. In a society of security, this text has looked below the surface. It speaks it's unique vision of social reality, that God is not bound by social constructions.

The church moves, speaks, knows of a different way of viewing society. The church declares a new way of living, in a society of peace, environment health and inter-connectedness with God.

Interactive student learning:
And to aid student learning I gave out Ello and invited groups to use Ello (children’s lego) to depict these mission models. We then discussed how they might be useful in contemporary cultural interaction.

do you renounce cultural evil?

Ever a provactive thinker, Mike Treston gifted me a phrase today; "cultural exorcism." Reflecting on the place of confirmation in a post-Christendom culture, he wrote; "I think this is what is missing, excorcism was always apart of the catechesis rites of the anicent church, a cultural excorcism could be very impotant now also." Link

To which I commented on his blog:
I really like the phrase "cultural exorcism." That is very good. When I baptise people I ask them 3 questions as they enter the pool - do you follow Jesus, do you repent, do you renounce evil?

I have been pondering tying those questions to a more in-depth catachetical programme. That phrase "renouncing cultural evil" suddenly gives great scope for exploration of consumerism, social justice, living simply. Thanks heaps for the phrase Mike.

For more on what I actually do in terms of re-imagining baptism as ancient future:

First draft: postmodern baptismal ritual for Sunday - seeking to be connective, tactile and communal.

Central image: Bill Viola– The Crossing, 1996

Introduction: Some words about water - life-giving- cleansing - connective with God’s Christian tribe

Blessing of water: Everyone throw into baptistery handful of rose petals or bath salts. (music: Just add water by Dave Dobbyn)

The telling: The story of the individual's journey to this point

Signing of the Cross: The sign of the cross is made on their forehead and the words;
Christ embraces you: receive the sign of his cross.
Always remember that
you are beautiful in the sight of God;
the mark of Christ is upon you:
walk free and open your heart to life,
for the Spirit journeys with you into each new day.

Words into baptistery: Question for each step down into baptistery. Candles on each step
Do you follow Christ? I follow Christ.
Do you repent of your sins? I repent of my sins.
Do you renounce evil? I renounce evil.

On confession of your faith
I baptise you in the name of Jesus
in the name of the Father who is Creator, and of the Son who is Redeemer
and of the Spirit who is Sustainer. Amen.

Gift given: Welcome to the community of faith
(music: Racing Away 1 Giant Leap)

Peace: Having welcomed the newly baptised into the church of
Christ, let us share with him/her/them a sign of peace:
The peace of Christ be with you.
And also with you.
The people share the peace with the newly baptised and
with one another.

mission health conversation

Looks like I'll be in Dunedin Thursday 9th March as part of Mission Health Conversation (Baptist Union gig).

4:00 - 5:30 Telling the Opawa story as part of a panel.
5:30 - 6:30 meal
6:30 - 7:45 4 Options; 1 of which is me on "Thinking missionally"
7:45 - 8:00 coffee/tea
8:00 - 9:15 4 Options repeated.

It's a great topic, that will force me to articulate not only the Opawa story but the underlying missiology and theology.

Venue: Valley Baptist.