e~mergent kiwi

where is church in Luke 10?

I have asked classes on Saturday and on Wednesday the following question;
Where is community? Is this church? I have then read them Luke 10:1-12.

1After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. 2He told them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. 3Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. 4Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road.

8"When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you. 9Heal the sick who are there and tell them, 'The kingdom of God is near you.' 10But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, 11'Even the dust of your town that sticks to our feet we wipe off against you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God is near.' 12I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.

Think about the question in relation to the text and then feel free to add your comments and insights to our reflections...

Where is community? Is this church? Community was identified in two places;

Firstly, in the dialogue between the Lord of the harvest and Jesus, which ushers in the missio dei of being sent out to where Jesus intends to go (verse 2).

Secondly in "table fellowship" in the practices of dwelling, eating and drinking among cultural networks. The gathered include the strangers (or Others in postmodern discourse).

The gathering allows the practices of gift-giving; as the visitor shares their gifts of "peace" and "healing" and the locals share their food and hospitality

The "table talk" includes the intentionality of an agenda of peace (wholistic shalom); given and (potentially) received, and the Kingdom proclaimed in word and deed.

The "table talk" of the house (v. 5-7), is related and in dialogue to the talk of the town (v. 8-12); for there is a textual echo between house and town.

The "table talk" is caught in the tension between grace and judgement. Will peace be received or returned?

The "table fellowship" is not isolated, because they are linked to "sending" community. Thus we are offered a vision of church as local yet with a global horizon. Equally, they are a table with an eschatological view, for the "table fellowship" is waiting in anticipation for the coming of Jesus.

Conclusion: Luke 10:1-12 is a fascinating text within which to reflect on missional ecclesiology.

podbible

This looks great; Bible podcast. It starts last weekend in October, with a marathon effort to try and podcast the entire Bible.

This means you can download the "oral" Bible onto your iPod for your walk, gym, ride on the bus. So I listened to Mark 1. My only critical comment is that the podcast I heard had no clear break between the Scripture reading and the three devotional application questions. Or perhaps this is a claim for divinely authoritative devotionals!

An unexpected joyful moment was that straight after the podbible reading, it suddenly randomed into U2's "Miracle drug." "What an awesome podcast" I thought, only to realise it was on my computer! But the lyrics were SO appropriate.
"I want a trip inside your head
Spend a day there
To hear the things you haven't said
And see what you might see
I want to hear you when you call"

(Oh, the joy of song devotionals rather than word devotionals).

church notices

I'm still processing whether church notices are curse or gift.

A sacred vs secular divide would see notices as secular, mundane, needing to be rushed through. An integrated view of God in everything would discern notices as just as spiritual as prayer or worship.

All groups have them - if you're small in number it might be which pub after the church service or notice of a house warming. If you're larger in size, they can be long and tedious. They can also be manipulative, guilt-inducing sales pitches. Yet if done well they can be creative and insightful.

Are they an impediment to worship? Should they come at the end of a service, after the benediction, as part of the movement of God's people into the world?

Or they actually an essential part of community? A chance to "peek" into the mission life of a church? An opportunity to participate?

Still processing.

festival spirituality and road trips

At the risk of upsetting a few respected friends; let me put up some ruminations about spirituality of road trips (or pilgrimage), festivals and large Christian gatherings.

But first some context. Their have been two recurring themes among Baptist youth ministry across New Zealand in the last few years. These are
a) the rise and succcess of easter camps as they grow each year
b) the rate of 20 plus's leaving the Baptist church, either drifting to large, Pentecostal churches or totally out of church.

Could it be that these two are related; that what is happening at Easter Camps is contributing to the loss of young adults to church?

Let me explain the possible connection. Easter Camps become a high point in people's lives. So God is found through large, worship settings, and with dynamic speakers. The larger the Easter camp grows, the more the "professionalism" of the large gatherings grows. Then kids return to ordinaryville-Baptist Church, on a high but absolutely stuffed. They have connected with God in the big tent. But the big tent is not likely to be found again at ordinaryville-Baptist Church.

But it could be found at large-city-centre-Pentecostal church. That replicates in some way the Easter Camp experience, large, professional, younger. So in the dryness of ordinaryville-Baptist Church, why not try to reconnect with God by checking out large-city-centre-Pentecostal church?

A side-effect of Easter camps for ordinaryville-Baptist Church is that their Easter becomes harder. Easter still has some connectivity with the wider, unchurched community. Not as much as Christmas, but still some. So an alert, missionary church will be wanting to make connections with the community at Easter. Yet how to do this with their young people away, thus affecting numbers, music and creative life, vitality and age range. Thus Easter becomes more impoverished at ordinaryville-Baptist Church. This is great for the sake of easter camp, but harder for our mission to wider society.

Now, I'm not necessarily calling for the loss of Easter Camp. Back at Opawa/ordinaryville-Baptist Church, I will be encouraging our kids to go.

But I wonder if we could frame an Easter Camp slightly differently. In the Old Testament, we do see a mix of large gatherings and small gathering. Groups come to Jerusalem for festivals. They enjoy the large, the big, the spectacle. It gives them a sense of being part of something bigger. What is interesting is that these gatherings are in the context of pilgrimage - hence Psalms like 120, 121, 122, 123, etc. The festival spirituality of the Old Testament includes a road trip spirituality. (There is more on this in chapter 7 of my book, The Out of Bounds Church: Learning to Create a Community of Faith in a Culture of Change).

I wonder if Easter Camp could be framed in the context of a road trip spirituality. Easter Camp starts not on Easter Thursday, but at the start of Lent. Easter Camp partners with ordinaryville-Baptist Church to provide each year a road trip spirituality that integrates the themes of Easter camp with the ongoing life. This starts well before Easter Camp and finishes well after Easter Camp. The life of ordinaryville-Baptist Church becomes an essential building block in the road trip spirituality of Easter Camp. Easter Camp is poorer without the road trip resources, pre and post, and thus God being found is woven both into ordinary-villeBaptist and into "the Jerusalem" that is Easter Camp.

Just some thoughts. I'm not wanting to knock the value of Easter Camp, but to ruminate aloud about some potential connections and offering another perspective or metaphor for thought. I could be way off beam and if so, am happy to be drawn back into the light.

G X E = spiritual growth

While debate still rages over the extent to which we as humans are shaped by our gene pool (G) and/or our environment (E); many people now suggest we are a mix of both.

So apply this with regard to spiritual growth;
G = (a mix of our "made in the image of God" + "being transformed into the image of Christ through the power of the Spirit.")

E = (our communities; disciplines; growth coaching; practices; spaces).

Churches can't do much about G; but they can do a lot about E. How to maximise our churches and relationships as E-growth-zones?

the kpi cringe

KPI = business = modernity = vomit.

Yet cringing at the cringe, nose wrinkling in distaste, still begs the question .... what is important? When you pour your life into something, what makes it worthwhile?

If we go organic, and reject modern KPI, surely we are still faced with "what is important?" Bodies do grow. The doctor can, externally, check my internals ... take my blood, pump my pressure, ask me to pee into a little yellow pottle. So organic images can still be bodily tied to external indicators.

Such indicators can be harder to assess, but surely they are still part of our discourse, modern or postmodern?

key performance indicators in postmodernity

There was a delightful piece in a local newspaper on Wednesday. The employment section was titled "working for the ultimate boss," and explored ministry as a employment prospect! Tongue in cheek, it asked what where God's Key performance indicators (KPI's). Which got me thinking.

In modernity, I would suggest the KPI's of the church were:
: church attendance
: offerings
: members.

In postmodernity and with a more renewed theological vision, what might the KPI's be. I am proposing:
: influence in wider community, leading to transformation
: generosity in time, talents and money
: wholistic growth.

Am I missing any other KPI's?

women and the future of the church

I have been teaching a class on preaching in the postmodern. It has been a huge success, as I re-worked an existing seminary course with an in-service training option.

The class has totaled 26 participants. 8 of the students are training for ministry, while 18 are in ministry, most pastors, grappling with communication in our changing world.

Of the 18 in ministry, only 3 are women. Of the 8 training for ministry, 5 are women.

Is this hope? Or is this a reality check; that for women a huge gulf exists between dreaming and training and between the reality of ministry?

church as holy internet

church as fluid and interlinked
church as honouring of the small, innovative
church of the Long Tail
the back catalog, older albums still fondly remembered by longtime fans or
rediscovered by new ones. There are live tracks, B-sides, remixes,
even (gasp) covers. There are niches by the thousands, genre within
genre within genre: From Wired Magazine, available online at:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/tail.html?pg=2&topic=tail&topic_set=

And for an potential image (warning 31K);
in The Holy internet: Communication between Churches in the First Christian Generation, Michael Thompson.

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.

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."

textures of worship

How much of our worship is flat walled and mono-coloured?
What would it mean to create textured worship, multiple layers, unexpected swirls, differently weaved and woven patterns.

mark this gap

I believe that on the edges, in the fragments, among the absence is where God is most. Words that are much easier to write than to live. Leaving graceway, the emerging church I planted in Auckland was really hard. What was God doing with me? What was God doing with Graceway? what would leaving mean?

This, perhaps is part of an answer. (I scored this interview off mootblog).

Mark is the new pastor of Graceway - a Baptist new form of being church and alternative worship community in Auckland. I met Mark the last time I was in OZ when I was moving around doing Godly Play as a form of worship. Mark has a background in theological studies and in particular servants, a christian liberational project in asia.
Mark has taken over after the input of Steve Taylor who has finished his PhD and Mike Crudge who is now touring around spiritual tourists and students in North & South Island.
Mark, things are changing on the Auckland scene - with Mark Pierson going off to Melbourne, Steve Taylor off to Christchurch and Mike touring - sounds a tough time to start being a minister when everyine else seems to have gone liquid - what led up to this decision and what is Graceways vision now that Steve has moved?

Hi Ian!, I think i remember telling you that I was never going to be a Baptist minister- oops. i am now! Things are going ok. Really I’m just kind of settling into the job-seeing how things work etc. there seems to be a pretty good feeling around the place so far, and i haven't had an affair with secretary yet- oh yeah we don't have one!

Answering your question, a tough time in one sense, a good time in another. Now is a good time for new leaders to come through to start/keep on dreaming and doing stuff. There is sooo much scope here in Auckland to be involved in missional work. On the other hand losing Mark and Steve is like losing for want of better example, lets say Martin Johnson- a leader who has been there, done that, and then inspires those around them to do the same. And although they are still around in one sense it's not the same. The void will be there for some time and will be recognisable. I'm not trying to downplay what others are doing or contributing- just wanting to acknowledge the huge contribution made by these two.

My own decision to step into this role came out of a year that didn't really happen to plan- to cut along story short, i had plans of being involved in the community in which i live as a youth/community worker- it was all go then went pear shaped. I went to the Philippines- wanting to listen to the stories of the poor and hear from God in that context. On my return, I flt a strong sense of call to graceway- one thing led to another. Here I am.

My vision for graceway...ah, um. Good question. I could get very spiritual at this point and say 'my vision, don't you mean God's?' but you would probably see straight through that! My vision is developing- in process. Steve, Lynne and God, did a great thing at graceway. Weathered some heavy storms and kept it alive. I want to honour what they have done, build on it and help to make the changes and adjustments as they are needed. I guess i have been thinking along the lines of 'authentic worship- authentic mission'
the idea that as people are given the space to worship in authentic ways- then i think we will be more inclined to engage in mission which is authentic. Sounds hugely idealistic now that i write it down but we'll see how we go.

Regarding my role- i don't want it to be about maintaining structures- doing what we have always done just because.. but more of a facilitation role- helping the community to function well. Maybe a d.j. rather than a rock star- how bout that, i like that. There are plenty of rock stars around, you know what i mean?

I come from a fundamentalist background, so I don't have a lot of time for bollocks. i've seen too may damaged and battered people to want to be involved in the power games. In saying that i personally haven't had any problems. I'm happy to be part of the Baptist movement and I'm happy to be part of a larger grouping- in fact i think it's essential. Independant churches are independant of who exactly? I think i'll just do what i do hang out with my mates and let other people get on with what they are doing- i have never been a great fan of conflict!

A big part of what I will be doing is resourcing- ideas, gatherings, events- why reduplicate stuff all the time- i'm fully keen on sharing! I guess this where the net is a huge resource. It is always goo to network. I love networking, having coffee, talking. If people are here or there we need to connect- it is so important to me!

made my day

the internet and blogging world has been a hard space for me the last month. this email was a positive to add to the negative.

Email today:
the Diocese has given us the go-ahead to begin a new alt.church community in Oxford - we are called mayBe - and much thanks to you for the inspiration to get us started.

great name. wierd to think that one can be "inspiration" in a birth on the other side of the world. puts a whole new spin on virtual sex!

mel and the atonement

A hallmark of evangelical christianity has been the Jesus who suffers, taking our sin, for the world. Mel's movie dines out large on this image. Lots of "splatta" theology. A good long look at 1 perspective, but in doing so, many other ways of viewing the cross are missed.

Jesus as the integrator of the planet
Jesus as the builder of the new community
Jesus as the non-violent freedom fighter of the Kingdom.

One of the gifts of our postmodern context will be some new insights on the atonement. I am looking forward to that.

emerging church

My A-Z post on emerging church is on emerging church, (here to be precise) along with a whole lot of downunder stuff.

(warning - joke coming. It's quite neat to see such a nod to the colonies. Next month back to the centre of the universe, ay chaps! warning, truly this is just a flippant early morning remark)

I am dumb

Emerging church. I had always used the term to refer to the widespread cultural shift from modern to postmodern and God's missionary desire to birth new life in new cultures. The church emerging, like a seed, from postmodern soil.

I've been reading the blogs and the discussion kept revolving around church. I couldn't get it. Just read phil and dan/dan and phil and the penny clicked. I have been dumb. Apparently the term is to do with old and new ways of being the church. Duh. I do feel stupid.

OK, so to capture this missionary impulse I quickly need to find a new term and a new name for my blog. Cos I want to follow God in the culture, fan the coals of mission, see unchurched postmoderns find faith and community, not get stuck in dodging the flack and fire between different parts of the church world.

define emerging church

Andrew Jones is trying to define emerging church. Here is my second attempt (I did this last year in an email to jonny baker, but deleted it (and so did jonny I imagine)):

Define emerging church (theologically) - a journey toward a corporate expression of Jesus Christ birthed in the amniotic fluid of postmodern culture. Note that the sheer diversity of postmodern culture means that while characteristics of community, participation, imagination, cultural awareness and appreciation are shared, their expression is diverse.

PS Riley Kern likes this definition also. Thanks Riley.

church, belonging, membership .. more

A couple more comments on church, belonging and membership.

1. I don't think it's fair to juxtapose community formation and membership. Don't they go hand in glove ie membership is a way of expressing community formation?

2. The easy answer is to say, have no "membership". But that franky, is bollucks. For 2 reasons. Firstly pragmatic, when you want to make decisions, who decides. You have to have some criteria and "membership" should be as closely aligned as possible with that criteria. Secondly, even opensource (thanks Nate for the url), have "membership", its called entering your log-in. The question is how we can make accurate and real our levels of participation.

3. I would not want to read membership as inwardly focused. At Graceway, one of the survey form options including mission, both stuff we did as a community and people's involvement in their workplaces. In other words, your sole "membership" commitment at Graceway could be service in God's world.

4. I have a nagging question. If we tie membership to involvement, are we reducing spirituality to doing - ie you are noted because you do something in this place. And sometimes I wonder if this is the opposite of grace?

Churches, belonging and membership

I shared a coffee with Nate Cull recently. The conversation roamed around to the way the internet builds community. We applauded open source communities; places like open office, and the way they build community.

Nate mentioned some research done on open source communities and how participation follows a sort of bell curve; very committed at the core who give lots of time, through the whole range of involvement, to those on the very fringe, who give very little.

He then dropped in what I thought was a stunning observation;

most churches don’t have bell curve commitment, they have flat commitment. You are either in or you are out. There is not way for grades of commitment. In fact, most community volunteer groups are like this and most community groups struggle to retain members.

Kevin Ward wrote a great paper on traditional sporting clubs membership, which was plummeting in New Zealand (even worse than the church) and the rise in popularity of touch rugby as a summer sport – which much lower and much more casual commitments needed.

So I thought about this in relation to Graceway, the community I planted. We made some effort to move toward a bell curve. We had two categories; “members” and then “friends” of Graceway.

The “friends” were a category for people who might not be physically present but liked our ethos, and cheered, prayed and encouraged from a distance. The “members” filled out a survey form when they joined, and could contribute to a varying degree – lots to little. And each year we gave the survey forms back and said that we recognised that life commitments changed (children, interests, jobs) and so people could decide afresh what they might contribute. So there were some gradients.

But what about you out there? How can we shift church belonging from flat to bell curve, and take account of the huge variety of ways contemporary people express belonging?

From conversation 2 catalyst

Over the weekend I hosted a storytelling workshop, run by Olive Drane. It is not the recommended way to start in a new city, running a conversational event 12 days after you arrive.

But it was ...smashing. 40 people. Huge denominational range. Olive was excellent; warm, sensitive, encouraging. A really, really good event.

The aim of the weekend was to get people creatively in touch with their own stories, telling their stories, as a way of "telling" the story of God in our life. If we believe God is in all, it's time we told of all.

We concluded with a telling, and the magic of God's spirit in community and creativity was present.

Best of all, about half of the group were keen to meet again, to listen again, to tell again. So within 12 days of arriving in a new city, I just might have been part of catalysing a regular storytelling group.

(Andrew Jones taught me this: hold conversational events in order to become a catalyst)

Idea for Church#1

A lot of Kiwis like to spend Sunday morning over the newspaper, with good coffee in their hands. (Is this just Kiwis, or are there similar patterns elsewhere?).

So, church=
->lots of newspapers, muffins, coffee, cafe tables
->open for about 2 hours on a Sunday am
->a number of stations set up that relate to sections of the newspaper. As people read a section, then they have the opportunity to go to the relevant station, where various responses - confession, intercession, praise - are offered.
->a regular liturgy of coffee, in which God is thanked for her gifts
->followed by a 20 minute interview with 2 people, in which the weeks events are reflected on from a Kingdom perspective. So various articulate, witty people get to help all us poor newspaper readers make sense of the news. They would have to be both well read, yet quick on their feet, because the newspaper is setting the agenda.
->a small, regular, set liturgy ends this.

What do you think? Church? Spiritual? Sustaining? Sustainable?