March 05, 2006
brian is preaching
Opawa Baptist has wifi. So these are notes, what I heard Brian say, [with a few editorial comments by me], as Brian preached. It will be interesting to see the difference between seminar mode and working with the text mode.
What is the project that God is working on? What project will we commit our lives to? How big is that?
Matthew 15:21-28.
The invitation to imagine that you are a woman. You have a daughter. You are not Jewish. You have heard of some trouble maker called Jesus. Jewish people did not like to mix with people not like them. Some Christians are like this today.
You hear word that Jesus is coming to your region.
Your daughter is sick. She writhes and calls. You are worried about your daughter.
Try to imagine you are part of this story. Feel you are inside her.
Brian reads and pauses. He asks how you are feeling? People respond with words and phrases.
Brian continues reading, verse by verse, pausing; asking "what are you thinking now?" People respond with words and phrases. Brian repeats them, unpacks some of the responses, provides more details from the original context at times.
At verse 26 he asks mothers to say how they would feel.
Now he is asking us to switch positions. Imagine that you are his disciples, lying in bed that night. What would you be feeling.
Brian continues into the next narrative (29-31). Jesus is now healing thousands of Gentiles. (32-38). People respond with words and phrases.
I don't know what you think about this and I'm not going to tell you what to think. But I wonder, did Jesus have to learn how to ride a skateboard? Did he have to learn how to walk? In Hebrews we read that Jesus learned obedience. In Luke we read that Jesus grew in stature. So when did Jesus stop learning? Is it possible that Jesus could learn something at age 32?
Some of you would say, no, it doesn't fit with my theology.
There are only 2 times Jesus changes his mind. (John 2). Both involve women.
What does the wider context say? John the Baptist has just been killed by Herod.
The Kingdom of King Herod kills people like John the Baptist. It criticises you constantly.
The Kingdom of God heals and feeds people. It listens to you.
When I read these stories, I think there is no greater project that the Kingdom and we are still learning today. It's as if Jesus is saying, no more killing in the Kingdom. I'm starting something new.
If I was a disciple, lying in bed that night, I'd think there's no better thing to be involved in.
Brian is praying
what do you think of this project and what would we like to commit ourselves to;
have we stopped learning or can we keep lets keep learning and following as disciples in the Kingdom.
workshops
All afternoon people have been cruising around various workshops. I believe in contextual theology and so I worked hard so that Brian's input could be surrounded by "coal face" New Zealander's working on the issues, not as experts but as storytellers.
Do the workshop topics indicate who my friends are?
Or could they perhaps give some idea of the unique "charism" of the emerging church in New Zealand; in worship and art as mission, transitioning existing churches through multi-congregations, workplace spirituality, ministry among church leavers?
Or could the workshops also show the new edges of a movement? 10 years ago the emerging church in New Zealand was under heavy criticism and the practioners tended to be bunkered down and concentrating on survival. Are we seeing a move toward greater dialogue among denominations and a focus on mission, justice and the margins?
Workshop topics included;
How much Spirit has the emerging church got? (Steve Graham): A look at the questions Pentecostal/Charismatic churches and the emerging church might have for each other over what it means to be people of the Spirit eg the place of congregational singing in worship, ecstatic gifts in services, divine creativity, seekers' 'initiation' into the dynamics of the Spirit
The Art of Curating Worship (Mark Pierson): seeing worship as an art form to be curated rather than a list of boxes to be filled.
A café church spirituality (Lynne Taylor): two stories of emergence, of different groups engaging with our world in different ways... with common themes.
Spirited Exchanges (Jenny McIntosh and Elizabeth Taylor): Spirited Exchanges is something for people who are struggling to find a "place" at church - who have been wounded or hurt by church or it's leaders, who are asking questions but not necessarily finding answers. We want to create a regular place where people can come and air their doubts, share their story, and find acceptance, not judgement. This is a double workshop that includes exploration and then the running of an actual Spirited Exchanges. Ideally people would attend both.
Emerging Workplace Spirituality (Alistair McKenzie): Emerging church can easily just focus on doing things differently when we gather together. If we continue to think that church is something we come to, then we will fail to realise our potential for being the church God sends out into the world to work in partnership there. What sort of spirituality will support the ministry of all God's people the other six days?
Emerging church and post-colonial mission: A discussion of how the emerging church discussion could stimulate mission in non-Western, post-colonial contexts.
March 04, 2006
brian mclaren session 3: spiritual formation in practice
Opawa Baptist has wifi. So these are notes, what I heard Brian say, [with a few editorial comments by me], as Brian spoke for a day on the topic of spiritual formation.
He is offering 16 practical ways for embrace spiritual formation. I have added in some practical examples which I think are happenning at Opawa.
1. Seeking both/and and recycling "failed" or "worn" approaches. Eg. Re-finding altar calls as a call to commitment without the abuse.
2. Emphasis on hospitality. Eg. Being together in homes for meals and informal interaction and conversation. This is disciple-making.
3. The use of queries. Eg. Spiritual friendship or spiritual direction. Any Christian can learn to ask queries - ask; listen; say "tell me more"
4. Engaging the arts. Eg. Both enjoying and creating.
5. A focus on practices. [check passionate practices on my blog]. Eg peripatetic prayer (walking around prayer, reflecting on Scripture as you walk), practicing God's presence, responding to the poor, using "Jesus prayer," fasting, feasting, silence, journalling. What spiritual practices should I do? The ones you need. How do you find out? Gain a spiritual friend (3). Practices should be liberating. What do we want our people to "do;" eg how to watch a movie as a spiritual experience?
6. Conveying the Biblical narrative. As a redemptive mega-story containing arguments, discoveries, regressions, recoveries, mistakes, insights, and more. Eg Stations of the cross. Eg Christmas Journey Eg. Godly play.
7. Re-visioning spiritual gifts. As "ours" not "mine" ie Help new believers discover what is their church's spiritual gifts. As for mission "out there" not just ministry "in here."
8. Trading heroes among traditions as part of the Tradition. Reading biographies and repeating sagely stories. It's like a stack of trading cards that we share with other traditions. Eg.
9. Increasing transparency, so leaders are known as learners and strugglers. Leaders need to be sharing the practices that are sustaining them in this season.
10. Rediscovering the Bible for more than sermons or analytical studies. There is something harmful about using the Bible only for sermons. You can only deal with an episode, yet the Bible is a narrative. Eg. Reading the narrative. lectio divina, ignatian readings, memorization, meditation, centering prayer
11. Experimenting with fixed-hour prayer and the church calendar (seasons and holidays).
12. Seeking orthodoxy but not alone; adding orthopraxy (right practices) and orthopathy (right feelings). There is an emotional dimension to discipleship.
13. Making pilgrimages, retreats and mission trips, which are short-term monastic practices.
14. Redistributing energy from church work to the work of the church. Eg Alistair McKenzie's books, like Where's God on Monday?
15. Working for justice by demonstrating, civil obedience, working for global justice isses. What if prophetic stands were an everyday part of discipleship?
16. Simplifying to the Greatest Commandment, the Lords Prayer and love.
brian mclaren session 2: forming disciples : panel
Panel 2: Lyn Campbell, Alan Jamieson, Kathy Mayes. They are not experts. They are helping us contextualise and process what Brian is saying and what it means for us.
What is resonating:
You learn by doing. The gap is supervision, we lack "disciple makers." Kiwi's are "can do" No. 8 wire people. The danger of this is that we don't pass on what we learnt. Young people need not "can do" No. 8 wire people, but people to walk beside them.
Do indigenous cultures offer us better apprentice models than Western cultures?
The church must re-think mission so that people can learn by doing. There are some wonderful things happening in New Zealand but boy, we have a long way to go.
What does it mean for families as models of "doing" and apprenticeships?
So many families talk about spirituality in our culture. Families in New Zealand are around parenting and work/life balance. Can the church take our families with us to meet these needs; and see a gathering mission momentum?
Most Christian diet today is simplistic. Churches go for lowest common denominator. We are simple. We need to talk about complexity, let alone perplexity. Life is more grey than church is making out, because people notice that our reality is grey.
Churches are greedy of people's time and money. We suck people dry and so they are stressed.
The rule of the art of discipling: What is one way in your context people could pick up the "art.":
Pastors invest in people. Rabbi's class - every fortnight to talk about whatever with pastoral leaders.
To do is to make mistakes and to learn. We are in a "perfect" society; body, family. We need to learn to let each other make mistakes.
The art of discipling is not cloning. It is helping them be true to themselves.
There is a dearth of Christians in "public" places. How do we as churches and families open up our children and young people to think about working in difficult places?
Who are our mentors? We seldom get to see people thinking out aloud. We only hear them report the solution. [are blogs a way of hearing people think out aloud?] It's time to stop portraying perfection and to be honest and keep speaking aloud. We need leaders to model not being all together.
brian mclaren session 2: forming disciples
Opawa Baptist has wifi. So these are notes, what I heard Brian say, [with a few editorial comments by me], as Brian spoke for a day on the topic of spiritual formation. These are notes on the art of forming disciples.
Spiritual formation is for mission.
"It's easier to give birth than to raise the dead." Only a male could say that. Paul uses childbirth to "raise" the Galatian church. All leadership - planting or re-forming the established - will be hard. This is formation.
Revivalism cheers the start. It lacks attention to long distance formation.
Disciple = "student of the art." Disciples are apprentices of Jesus.
Micheal Polanyi, Personal Knowledge
Stradivarius had "elbow knowledge," he was 4th generation violin maker. The art of apprenticeship has been lost in modernity. You learn to follow your master even when you can't analyse or account for the detail. You watch and learn unconsciously, even those rules not explicitly known to the master.
This knowledge does not reside in books; "Idiot's Guide to Violin's." It can only be assimilated by surrendering uncritically to the imitaton of the master.
"Practical wisdom is more truly embodied in action than expressed in rules of action." Practical Knowledge, pp. 53-54. Could Christianity have become pre-occupied with words? Could we have lost this wisdom and the art of disciple-making?
You would have to go from church tradition to church tradition to try and put the lost fragments back together. It is an art learned by training.
What if the church risked everything to train in the art of discipleship?
We need a triangle of community; spirituality; mission.
In history spiritual formation has occurred in the following ways;
attraction; does not equal perfection
induction/initiation; becoming part of the group
transformation; you start to change
mission; you start to work this out in practice
transmission; you need to pass on the art. Mission is not the same as transmission.
One fragment; AD 200; Hippolytus.
Seeker - you could not become a Christian in AD 200 unless you knew one. This is attractional mission. You would come to a meal, experience the hospitality of the community. Then you would be dismissed. To stay you would be interviewed -- not on 4 spiritual laws, but on your behaviour. Do you want to live our way of life?
Hearer - experience the whole service, including Apostles Creed and Lords Prayer. To be part of communion, you need to be interviewed. You would be assigned to be catechised, to prepare for baptism.
Kneeler - you would memorize a theology based on the Lords Prayer and to preform exorcism. For more, see Robert Webber's Journey to Jesus
Transformation for mission - another fragment is the early church 3-fold way as stages of spiritual formation;
stage 1; purgative way - catharsis of sex, money and pride, not to get them out of your life, but to face sex, money and pride and to recognise how driven you are internally.
stage 2; illuminative way - having pulled back the curtains of my inner life, to be bathed in light. Practices include daily prayer - ie bathing in front of God, breath prayers (Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me a sinner), singing, etc. We begin to absorb God.
stage 3; unitive way - the goal is to experience the filling of the Spirit, to be awakened to God, to be a Christ-bearer.
These stages are a spiral, that you keep learning and deepening, and recircling.
Religious groups can malform and deform a person. What does it mean for us to explore spiritual re-formation?
Churches are like tortoises. They can only get ahead when they come out of their shell and stick their neck out.
brian mclaren session 1: spiritual formation: panel
Panel: Murray Robertson, Dave Atkinson from Primal, Jenny McIntosh. They are not experts. They are helping us contextualise and process what Brian is saying and what it means for us.
What has resonated with you?:
We as Kiwis are so often made to feel inferior by Americans, Brian's humble approach is so refreshing.
Love the deep ecclesiology. Love the move beyond consumerism of Christianity.
What about the tension between not being formed by our consumer culture and yet the need for enculturation of faith?
Will in the emerging church be less guru focused and trust the Spirit (and each other?)?
How has the panel seen self:church:world circles being reshaped?
Is emerging church niche and alternative or deep ecclesiology? The church needs to be permission giving and should promote church:world engagement.
Young people need space to do ministry. Hierachies don't allow this and thus we lose spiritual formation.
Danger of emerging church is it being viewed as church re-packaged. It needs to be theology re-packaged. For example women leaders, for example empowering leadership not dominating leadership. The church emerging must grapple with church domination by white, males and the move to "bewildering diversity."
Panel: What are our dreams for the future ie emerging church?
Church for people by people. Relational. Creative. Incarnational. Inclusive not box ticking.
More appreciation of different ways of being church. More encouragement of new leaders and less criticism.
Seeing church as more wholistic, less niche.
Next 20 years are hugely crucial, as mainline church in New Zealand dies. Crisis will be huged. Church today is so mixed; so vital; so grim. Will enough churches grasp an outward vision. It is so hard to do this when a church is in decline.
brian mclaren session 1: spiritual formation
Opawa Baptist has wifi. So these are notes, what I heard Brian say, [with a few editorial comments by me], as Brian spoke for a day on the topic of spiritual formation. Here is the introductory session.
Spiritual formation is caught in our history of protest and desire to be the next new thing.
Spiritual formation a substitute for things like evangelism, discipleship, teaching.
Semper reformanda -- always reforming.
We have inherited a cognitive process to convey information. We place people on a conveyor belt -- unsaved; saved; serving. We formalised Sunday Schools. We filled in blank booklets.
Matthew 28:18; Go and make (spiritually form) disciples (apprentices). So few of our churches see themselves as initiating life-long learners and providing life-long formation opportunities. What does wholistic transformation look like?
Pentecostal/charismatics trade on intense experiences. But you can still beat your wife.
So we need a holistic approach and a different understanding of the gospel. Our practice problems relate to our bad theology.
[Really funny slide] Gospel = how to get to heaven (self) in large bold type; attend worship (church); with smaller and smaller type, harder and harder to read, ending with social transformation (world), can hardly read.
What if; God loves the world; and so has called a group of people to work with God in loving the world; and what if you could be converted to life participate in this and thus live outside yourself.
Mark 1:16 - Kingdom of God does not equal heaven. It is a public/social and personal/spiritual. We need an interior castle and a growing Kingdom.
The most significant idea about spiritual formation is that it is not about self but about participation in what God is doing.
What would it look like if we risked everything on making disciples of Jesus formed by the gospel of the Kingdom?
brian mclaren session 1
Opawa Baptist has wifi. So these are notes, what I heard Brian say, [with a few editorial comments by me], as Brian spoke for a day on the topic of spiritual formation. First he is talking briefly about the emerging church.
Defining emerging church using Gibbs and Bolger's emerging church.
Too much emerging church talk is talk about church, church, church. If we keep the kingdom at our centre, it reminds us of the world and saves us from talking only about ourselves.
The emergent church should not mean looking for the one new model. Rather we are in the middle, in cultural transition, and moving toward the churches of tomorrow.
The emerging church is not a slice of the existing church pie - evangelical; pentecostal etc. Rather, think of a tree. It is a new ring emerging in a new climate.
Brian is raving about tallskinnykiwi [praising New Zealander's in New Zealand -- very cunning :) ], and the term "deep ecclesiology" as a way to honour the church in all of it's forms. This is part of the true ethos of emerging church.
Apartheid Museum in South Africa; to illustrate the need to move beyond historic polarities and colonial patterns, to a new mission statement with new values. And so we are needing to rethink spiritual formation.
