e~mergent kiwi

carpet wars: book of the month

Did you know that in Iraq farmers build towers for birds to nest in so they can collect the fertiliser? The Carpet Wars by Christopher Kremmer is a great read. I picked it up at Borders a few weeks ago and found it hard to put down. The book uses the history of carpet making in the Middle East to provide a rich tapestry by which to understand contemporary Islam. Chris writes beautifully, mixing his travels over ten years through Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, India, with the personal stories of those he meets. Thus it becomes not only a celebration of creativity, but a really helpful introduction to the complexities and nuances of Islam today - including people, history and culture.

turn the page on poverty: book buying for justice

This is a great idea:

Every time you buy a book from Goodbooks - any book - we contribute all profits to Oxfam to help fight its global battle against poverty and social injustice. There is no extra cost to you. We do not mark up our books to cover this contribution; our prices remain among the lowest you will find; delivery worldwide is completely free, and with over two million titles in stock our range is one of the largest you will find. Help us open a new chapter in the fight against inequality.

Check out the great little animation here; with Kiwi and literary icons mixing it among an African village. Hey, you can even buy my book, The Out of Bounds Church? Learning to Create a Community of Faith in a Culture of Change.

Unexpected treats

I have been unexpectedly and richly blessed by the following two books in recent months.

Seeing things helps me understand things. In the midst of words and concepts, I often find a simple diagram brings clarity and fresh insight. After the Spirit, by Eugene Rogers is a theology book that in the midst of some sophisticated reflection on the Spirit as revealed in the ministry of Jesus, managed to draw on some art. This is the type of book that has sat by my bed for the last 9 months, and I have found myself turning to as Christmas, Pentecost and Trinity Sunday approached. And the art pieces - on Jesus birth, baptism and ascension - clarified and then enlivened 3 sermons and 2 lectures.

Behind a boring cover, this book has been fantastic. It's brought Ezekiel to life for me in recent days. What I thought was a dusty old prophet has become a deeply inspiring and encouraging friend. There's a huge vision of God and the gospel for the whole of life hidden in Ezekiel that is accessed by this commentary. I have been toying with doing a series on the 12 minor prophets and reading this book has made up my mind.

easter resources

I am working on Easter stuff at the moment. (Working on something that I think is my most innovative in a long time. Hoping to be able to blog it in a week. That's not meant to be a tease, just an excited Steve Taylor-Tigger-like-bounce.) Anyhow, I am finding Passion in Art by Richard Harries incredibly helpful. 32 Easter related art images, from ancient to contemporary, each with 2 or 3 pages of written reflection. It offers me both visual and theological gifts. Very helpful for my creative juices.

alt.worship and australian fiction

Just finished The Submerged Cathedral by Charlotte Wood. It's fiction, a beautifully written tale of love set in Australia. It was a read for pleasure but it got me thinking again about contextualisation.

Part of the book is set in a monastery and portrays the naive sterility and rigid patterns that are monastic life. The monastery fails, a European transplant that finds no root in Australian soil.

The monastery is brought by a woman seeking love and redemption. She builds a garden, creatively using Australian plants to transform the hollowed hull of the monastery. It's ceaseless and heart-breakingly hard work. But in the process of contextualisation, of clearing Australian clay, she finds love, meaning and redemption.

It was for me a reminder that contextualisation is at the heart of missiology. Our talk of missional church is not the transplanting of alien forms but the slow crafting of unique life among the existing contours. And for the Antipodes, it must be earthy, creative and indigenous.

This for me is what attracted me to alt.worship. It is contextualisation. It is faith, creatively expressed in the linga franca of video loops. It is the finding of a submerged cathedral in pop culture. I know it has it's critics among the emerging missional church. It's a criticism I struggle to understand, because surely taking missiology seriously demands the slow crafting and indigenous life i.e. contextualisation.

book of the month: the heartbreaker

Confession. I love Susan Howatch. Her latest novel, The Heartbreaker, continues my affair of the heart. Sure it’s long. Sure it’s not a thriller. But I’d buy it because
1 - It’s fiction. And in the world of my imagination is where God most often sandbags me.
2 - It offers a superb contemporary contextualisation of Luke 15
3 - It offers some very interesting insights on sexuality, particularly the complexities around homosexuality. This book will satisfy neither liberal or fundamentalist, but it might make both more sensitive and less dogmatic.
4 - It offers a pastoral model of the “long haul”, in which God works deeply through sustained listening, committed Christian behaviours and the desire for sustained integrated lives.

If your world includes people or ministry, then reading Howatch will be time well spent.

Liquid Church

In liquid church, Pete Ward takes a deep swim in postmodern waters. While many are just trying to dog paddle, Ward explores ways for the church to incarnationally flourish in our contemporary culture....

At times the theologian in me wonders if Ward's theology is so liquid he ignores Divine person, and thus the importance of gathering. At times the practitioner in me wonders who will fund Pete's dreams. But the insights around spiritual desire and the creative and missional possibilities around shopping for meaning are worth the price alone. It is a provocative book in which the missionary heartbeat is undeniable. The book is well written. It is concise. It handles well. If you're serious about being church in the postmodern world, it is worth taking the plunge.