Monday, July 02, 2007
lovely anglicans
I am up to Auckland today, to speak at the Anglican Clergy Conference around themes of mission, church and leadership for 3 days.
And my family come with me. YEAH. First time ever. YEAH. The Anglicans have paid for their travel, our accomodation and even booked a rental car so that the family can go play while I talk. YEAH. Aren’t they lovely?
Which only leaves the question asked by my 10 year old at lunch today: Why would the Anglicans want [to listen to] a Baptist pastor?
Posted by steve at 02:40 PM
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It’s a good question Steve ! But I for one am chuffed you’ve come up to speak to us… I’m looking forward to finally meeting you. Hopefully we can get some time to chat over a weak, lukewarm Anglican coffee ?!
Comment by Rich Johnson — July 2, 2007 @ 4:49 pm
I got twoo for you, mi amigo:
1. Anglicans seem to be defined by our fond-ness for ordered worship, often embodied in a book (the BCP).
What impacts for mission, church and leadership are there in a post-literate, spatially oriented universe ?
2. A small yet influential aspect of Anglicanism is its religious orders and communities. What do new models of community have both to offer & to draw from faith communities that are out of bounds ?
Comment by bob carlton — July 3, 2007 @ 7:08 am
I’m neither Anglican nor Baptist. Yet I think that’s outstanding that the two denominations would work side by side! You guys are getting it right over there on the other side of our planet. We’ve got 288 churches locally and it’s like pulling teeth to get two to work together sometimes.
Comment by Will — July 3, 2007 @ 10:05 am
Interesting question
I wonder if in part it is a structural issue.
Firstly as a Church body there is a certain security, a safety net if you will in numbers. If congregational numbers are dropping in an area we can reassure ourselves that we are not the only ones and wait for some direction from above (no not necessarily that far above). We risk buying into a cultural norm.
Also I think that the fears that we carry at times over how things really are dont have a place to be expressed. After all we are a very polite people at times.
I am thinking of a talk I heard recently you gave where you talked about where your church had been using the example of a Green light, Amber or Red Light system.
I experienced a real sense of relief in people hearing your story which so honestly showed how difficult things had been AND that there was a way through this. For many people I think they were so familiar with what it meant to be a part of a Church in the Red that they had never realised that there were actually ways of evolving into something new. And here you are placing another possibility before them.
Comment by Megan — July 4, 2007 @ 5:38 pm