sustain:if:able kiwi

mission, change, leadership course in Christchurch

After taking my Missional Church Leadership course on the road, to Auckand, Hamilton and Adelaide, in the last year or two, it is being offered back in Christchurch this year (2009).

The course mixes lecture input, reading with on-line engagement and practical projects based on one’s ministry context. Because it is monthly and because so much is on-line, I have had students travel for up to 5 hours to attend, so if you are anywhere in the South Island, don’t dismiss it immediately! 🙂

My ideal is to have a mix of denominations, mix of people in ministry and students and a mix of pioneers and established church ministers. Steve Graham, Dean of the College, just mentioned that the course was consistently mentioned in exiting student feedback as the one that joined lots of ministry dots for them, so that was encouraging.

Practically, it is on Thursday’s, 9:15 am-12:15 pm (5 March; 2 April; 7 May; 4 June; 23 July; 13 August; 3 September; 8 October; 29 October)

More info here (more…)

stray missional thoughts

community development is like velcro, creating lots of relationships to help things stick

our task is not to offer answers, but to be honest about our shared ache – that our kids grow up whole, that our grandchildren have a planet, that our lives might find a work/life balance – and our commitment to go on a journey with fellow travellers in search of healing.

if i’m not there, start without me

I coach leaders in two cities, Auckland and Hamilton, around missional leadership issues. The contract is for a package that includes 10 gatherings, supplied reading with internet engagement, work around missional practices; integrated through two projects that open up the possibility of change within churches and communities.

It’s personally demanding, but fun to be helping leaders in other cities explore change in their patch. On Friday my plane was delayed and I arrived late. I entered to find the group reading Luke 10:1-12 together and preparing to Dwell around this Bible text. If I’m not there, start without me. Both courses are coming to an end, and both courses have decided to keep meeting. I have never before lectured classes that have wanted to continue without me! It says something about the richness found in each other and the need to keep working at the missional issues. It also says something about the way the class has been taught, giving practices and modelling ways to lead that cultivate organic group processes, rather than creating a dependency on the leadership by one.

As I write on the lecture notes by way of definition: “Missional church is not about programs and projects but about the gathering of people concerned with God’s purpose into the wider community. Students will explore the Biblical paradigms, skills, imaginations and capacities required to lead a missional church. The course is heavily focused on ministry contexts and deliberately designed to suit people in ministry.”

After Friday it could read; Missional church is not about lecturers and outside experts but about the gathering of people concerned with God’s purpose into the wider community. Students will explore among themselves the Biblical paradigms, skills, imaginations and capacities required to lead a missional church.

I am having communication with various bodies about next year: and me running similar courses in Dunedin, Christchurch, Auckland and Hamilton again. I always look for a mix of denominations and contexts, so if you want to explore missional church leadership and this – ignore the dates, which were for 2007/8 might work for you, drop me a line.

lost sheep and good shepherds and luke 15: missional revised version

Updated: I thought this was a really thoughtful post that would get some good comment going about our images of mission and the place of the Bible. The silence is deafening. Oh well!

In preparing to speak at the Sharpening the Middle yesterday (my 3rd full day of speaking in 8, and I am stuffed), I began to wonder if Luke 15:3-7 is actually a profoundly unhelpful text for the missional church.

Mission is named as the church who sends out the shepherd. Fine so far. But it reduces mission to the responsibility of the one, paid professional. The shepherd finds the sheep, which is returned, and so the congregation rejoices. But the congregation is reduced to passivity, almost to voyeurism. Equally, the process of mission, of searching and seeking, is reduced to an event, the moment in which the lost sheep appears. Mission becomes the “altar call” moment.

So here’s my Missional revised version of Luke 15:3-7. In offering this, I am not wanting to downplay Scripture. Rather, I am wanting to invite us to consider how our imaginations are shaped by Biblical texts, and the impact of that upon our paradigms.

Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t she leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until she finds it? And when she finds it, she joyfully sits down. Then she calls the friends and neighbors of the lost sheep together. And as this moment, as a new missional congregation is planted, the shepherd and existing congregation burst out ‘Rejoice; the lost sheep is found.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

facing the mission challenge

I think I’m in a Wellington phase of my life cycle. I am up there 2morrow at Sharpening the Middle with the Baptists. Then April 22 at the Wellington Diocese Clergy Conference. Then May 21 at the Executive Leaders conference of the Salvation Army for New Zealand, Fiji and Tonga Territory, on the topic of New forms of church and mission.

I was working on some notes today and was reminded of the quote below, quoted George Lings. It is not easy affirming what is, providing appropriate next steps, without dumbing down the enormous implications of this quote.

Few churches
• have experience of this profoundly different shape to mission
• know how to travel out from Church in “go” or apostolic mode
• can envisage how to be fresh imaginings of church at the end of the journey

plotting healthy mission conversation

Sharpening the middle kicked off on Saturday in Auckland, and was one of the best mission events I’ve been at in a long time. It is not often I return from a full day of work with my heart singing, but I did yesterday. Here is why ….

Intersections – mission history, then mission theology was followed by 4 mission stories. The day then ended with two people, designated listeners, who sought to name some of the Biblical narratives heard during the day. In other words, practioners were listened to by Biblical missiologists, and enlarged by wider ranging contextual overviews. This mix provided a wonderfully rich set of conversations. So often Biblical missiologists talk to each other at one conference, while practioners listen to practioners at another.

Space – each bit of input was followed by time in groups, processing the implications. A highlight was seeing church teams, pastors surrounded by lay leaders, grappling with mission in their place. Input was given time to take root.

Breadth – we heard stories from ordinary churches through to established churches in transition, through to incarnational missional communities (groups of young adults living in community in poor streets). All were affirmed and sat easily alongside each other. We’ve moved well beyond one size fits all in mission.

Team – this was not a one guru-show. It involved 7 different speakers, ensuring diversity. Yet all spoke in humility and in ways that affirmed a diversity of approaches.

Denominational ownership – this was Baptist run and Baptist funded. People in the room included the Baptist national leader, the national consultant, the President and denominational lecturers. Resourcing for mission currently lies at the heart of our denomination.

Sharpening the Middle continues in Wellington on Thursday, then Christchurch on Saturday. It is being vidoed, and a DVD will be released, along with a discussion guide, for use by church groups. This could end up being a highly significant Kiwi resource – a sort of homegrown Fresh expression type mix of history, story and Biblical frameworks. I am also working on writing it up as a paper (given that I was both one of the listeners and one of the storytellers).

defining your missional life

So in Luke 10, Jesus sends out the 70/2 in mission. And he suddenly looks around his empty church. Stink. This won’t look good next Sunday. Who will do sound? What will visitors say? What will the denomination think?

And then he wakes up in a cold sweat. Can those 70/2 be trusted? What if they don’t get the mission right? What if they aren’t faithful in gospel transmission? What if they don’t come back?

So much of our life and identity as church has historically been defined by Sunday. Yet missional church is about following Christ outside the building, about inviting ordinary disciples into God’s purposes in settings beyond are physical control.

It suddenly occurred to me this morning that so much of Opawa’s life actually now happens outside Sunday morning church.

Every year the denominational statistical sheet arrives. They want to know our attendance and our baptisms. Yet you can no longer simply can’t define us by Sunday. You need to count the community kids enjoying mainly music or watch us at the Waltham Community Fair on Friday. You need to note the visitors at the family movie night. You need to check out our other 4 congregations. You need to interact with the God at work group, quietly practising spiritual practices in their work place. You need to be part of the Thursday nite youth forum, and watch parents, pre-teens, grandparents, youth group leaders and community youth, multiple small groups all over our church foyer, talking, dreaming, praying.

How are those things named? How do we keep Sunday morning up to date with all of this energy? How do we share the sheer enormity and diversity of these stories when we gather? What practices sustain this type of scattered energy?

an A to Z beginners guide to the missional conversation: 3rd and final part

OK, here’s the 3rd, and final installment in the A to Z beginners guide to the missional conversation. Thanks for all the positive feedback. If you like to start your alphabet from A, go here.

O is for ordinary. In Luke 10, the disciples are not named. The task of mission to given not to the high profile disciples, but to everyday folk. Missional church seeks a similar attention to the ordinary and the everyday. It believes that in the suburbs and at the urban street corners, among the lay and the old, the young and the inexperienced, God can be at work. Which is why it seeks to cultivate an open and participatory conversation at the tables of everyday life.

P is for participation. The future of God is among the ordinary people of God. Thus the missional church seeks to cultivate an environment in which these people are able to name the Kingdom. By nature, people are polite. They go quiet in the presence of experts. Hence the missional conversation is aware that entrepreneurs and CEO’s can silence people, the very people who might have the story that allows the Kingdom to be named. So the missional conversation seeks practises that get the table talking.

Q is for questions. The chain of questions set of by that one question: “Can the West be won?”

R is for Roxburgh, Alan. Author. Pastor. Consultant. And director of Allelon, who are involved in two significant missional projects – the Mission and Western Culture project and the Schools project. Both worth keeping an eye on.

S is for spiritual practices. Descartes gave us the dictum: “I think, therefore I am.” And so theology was offered to the head. Yet Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life. So Christianity is a relational way of living. In other words, spiritual practices. Practices overcome the separation of head from heart; of theology from practioners; of seminaries from churches, for what we do and how we act are expressions of theological belief. Missional conversation cultivates spiritual practices; like dwelling, like listening, like receiving hospitality.

T is for tables. That’s where you sit when you follow Luke 10. Tables takes the missional conversation from buildings and Sunday and places it in homes, amid relationships, with everyday conversations. Tables celebrates diversity, for the 70 disciples of Luke 10 went to different table in diverse villages. Thus the missional conversation asks you to consider the unique tables at which you sit.

W is for Western. Cultures of European origin, marked by a set of literary, scientific and philosophical ideas. It is in this context that modernity began to flourish and which exerts such enormous influence on our world today and in which the missional conversation seeks the Incarnational Christ.

W is also for women. At the risk of stereotypes, women tend to be naturally better at creating relational conversations and, thus are more likely to intuitively be missional leaders.

U is for …..; V is for ….; X is for ……..; Y is for ……….; Z is for ………. I am stuck on these, (along with G). Suggestions appreciated.

More links
For A to H of missional conversation, go here.

For I to N of missional conversation, go here.

For an A to Z of emerging church, go here

an A to Z beginners guide to the missional conversation: part 2

OK, here’s the second installment. If you like to start your alphabet from A, go here.

I is for Incarnation. God is present. In Jesus yes. In the Spirit yes, present in the towns and villages of Luke 10, present in our world today. This is not a looking for God in the past, nor a looking for God in charismatic leaders, but a looking for God in our world today.

I is also for imagination. While the missional church listens to it’s culture, it is not seeking relevance or liberalism. Rather it is seeking the Kingdom. Which is easier to say than to define. Jesus defined it with stories of mustard seeds and coins lost, by pointing to lives changed and tables overturned. Hence I is for imagination, defined by the words, stories and actions of Jesus.

J is for justice. Luke 10 invites the disciples into towns and villages. They are to eat and drink at workers tables in which the labourer is worthy of hire. At these tables, the talk includes the hire of labour. A deep listening to not only the micro-, but the meso-, and macro- will include discernment of the economic structures, the powers and principalities that stand against the imagination of Jesus.

K is for Kingdom. Which we discussed under I is for imagination. So it only remains to simply note that missional conversation is way bigger than church and worship and Sunday.

L is for listen. How else can you hear what God is doing in the world around you? Jesus commands them to take no bag, no purse, no sandals. No sandals has echoes of Exodus 3 and the command to Moses to take of his shoes, for he stands on holy ground. Thank God that Moses put aside his bag and purse and sandals, listened and found God in a desert place.

L is also for leadership. Our world today offers us competing visions of leader. The entrepreneur who can start things and the CEO who can control things. Luke 10 offers us a very different vision of leadership as one who listens, as one who discerns what God is already doing, as one who names a Biblical imagination. The missional conversation gathers this job description with phrases like “cultivating environments” and the belief that leadership is about S is for Spiritual practices that cultivate I for Imagination, as unique I for Incarnation, needed for every T is for Table is unique.

M is for missional. Note the a and the l. Missional is different from mission. Mission has historically been, “I, over there.” In other words, individuals sent to other countries. Missional is about, “we, here.” In other words, the whole church sent to the context in which it is planted. Mission often had the odour our cultural imperialism, the belief in superiority. Missional has a humble questing belief that being sent to the towns and villages relies on our ability to be changed.

N is for Newbigin. A bishop in India for many years, who returning in retirement to his home in Birmingham, was shocked by what he saw. He wrote a chain of books, wrestling with the realisation that he had left a Christian nation but was returning to a non-Christian nation. It was he who first gave voice to the question: “Can the West be won?” The missional conversation continues to wrestle with Newbigin’s question.

N is also for narratives. When you sit at tables, you hear stories. Stories name identity, values and worldviews. They carry culture. In other words, stories are what you hear as you L for listen and D for discern.

More links
For A to H of missional conversation, go here.
For an A to Z of emerging church, go here

an A to Z beginners guide to the missional conversation: part 1

Faced with requests for clarity around the question of defining missional church, I recently road tested the A to Z beginners guide with 2 groups of church leaders. It seemed to be helpful. Here is the first installment.

A is for adaptive change. A survey of 200 university students noted that “When I graduate I will probably have a job that does not exist today” in a world in which “I did not create the problems but they are my problems.” This is adaptive change, the awareness that the skills and habits and training of today are of little help in the world of tomorrow. Missional conversation wants to wrestle with this context of adaptive change.

B is for Biblical. Missional church is resourced by close attention to Scripture. A recurring Scripture is Luke 10:1-12. Jesus sends out unnamed disciples. Their task is to accept the hospitality of their culture, by eating and drinking at the tables of local towns and villages. As they dwell deeply, the expectation is that they will catch sight of the unique fingerprints of God. These signs of the Kingdom are named as an invitation to the local community to participate in the ongoing work of the Kingdom.

This Biblical story of ordinary discipleship nourishes so much of the missional conversation: going not attracting, ordinary not guru, accepting the gifts of the culture not marketing seeker services, relationships not programmes, wholism of the Kingdom not narrowly focused agendas.

C is for context. It could also be culture. Or contextualization. All three “C” words remind us that Christian faith has always existed in a particular time and place. Hebrew is different from Greek, which was different from Latin, which was different from English. Which sounds different in the mouth of a New Zealander than in the mouth of a Canadian. And behind language lies values and behind values lie worldviews. The missional conversation pays attention to this reality. It asks what the speaking of Christian faith will look like in our particular time and place.

When I think of C, I think of my backyard. It is surrounded by fences, which provide shelter. It looks out to the Port Hills, which often catch cloud. My backyard is shaped by being part of the Canterbury plains, a stretch of land known for hot dry summers exacerbated by the influences of global warming. In other words, where I stand has multiple influences. The technical words are micro- (backyard), meso- (Port Hills) and macro (Canterbury Plains and global warming). Missional church pays attention to these multiple influences on context.

C is also for cultivate. But we will get to that under L is for leadership.

C is not for church. But we will get to that under K is for kingdom.

D is for discern. What is God up to? It is a question asked by those ordinary disciples in Luke 10, as they looked for signs of the Kingdom already present in the towns and villages. Missional conversation asks this question of our world today. It relies on some simple theological beliefs: that the Spirit of God is active in our world and that this Spirit of God points to Jesus. Discerning this Spirit is a gift and a practise, an art and a skill. Jesus trusted the disciples as the disciples learnt by watching Jesus.

D is also for dwell. And deeply. Dwell deeply. The missional conversation invites us to this deep dwelling in a Biblical imagination and in the lives of ordinary people. The missional conversation is aware that modernity has made us magpies. Magpies are a type of bird that likes to collect bright and shiny things, which it places in its nest, only to go looking for yet more bright and shiny things. Dwelling deeply is an awareness of our instinctive search for bright and shiny things; new program, new leader, new technologies.

E is for emerging. Missional and emerging should overlap. They overlap as they share a passion for mission in Western cultures, the belief that God is at work in our world and the commitment to discovering God’s future. Missional and emerging can also clash, especially when emerging church declares that everything old is bad because only the new is good.

F is for future. Missional conversation looks forward, believing that this is not as good as it gets. They draw on the Lords prayer; Your kingdom come, your will be done. As this prayer is prayed, so hope is affirmed, for we are called to participate in God’s ongoing work in the world.

H is for hospitality. Aware of Luke 10, missional inverts our notions of hospitality. It asks us not to invite, but to go. It suggests a need to receive hospitality in our culture. It does this because of I, for Incarnation.

More links
For I to N of missional conversation, go here.
For an A to Z of emerging church, go here

starting another missional leadership coaching course

Today (with a mix of nerves and excitement) I’m flying up to Auckland for the afternoon, and expecting to meet 14 church pastors and embark on a year long missional church coaching journey with them. (This will sit alongside the 18 who are part of the same course in Hamilton, which started in October and is purring along nicely).

Essentially the course is a mix of input from me over 10 sessions on missional church issues, some reading, on-line engagement and then two action projects, which allow leaders to actually ground missional church learning in their context while among a supportive community (me and the others in the class).

In this case I’m grateful to the Auckland Anglican Diocese, who have taken the risk of advertising and pushing this.

rereading luke 10 in Dunedin

Sorry the blog has been a bit quiet. I’ve been down in Mosgiel, Dunedin, very well hosted by the Anglicans, speaking about mission and church and leadership.

It’s the 4th group of Anglicans I’ve worked with this year and you’d think I’d have it down pat by now. But I can’t help myself and after listening to the hopes and conversations of the group that invited me, I was up until past midnight the night before, re-framing the entire day.

I was using Luke 10:1-12. So I used (four) concepts within that Biblical text, of
– sending,
– going with no agenda,
– listening at the tables of our culture,
– naming the Kingdom
to frame my four sessions. Then within each session I followed a repeated cycle of
– God’s story;
– my story;
– your story.
This cycle allowed me to start each session with God’s story and then to explore how this has shaped my ministry as I have provided leadership. And then space for them to consider their story, and what God might be calling them to in their context.

I was pleased with the pattern. Much of the content remained, but it seemed to provide a frame that was coherent and allowed a fertile mix of Biblical and theological engagement, practical grounding and space to earth and apply.

They worked me hard (speaking for 8 hours). I was stuffed, and arrived at the airport only to find my flight delayed. Sigh. Two hours to rectify an engineering fault meant I missed being able to put my kids to bed. Stink.

PS I’m aware that there’s something funny with my comments. Sorry. They don’t have internet in Mosgiel and then with my flight delayed, I crawled into bed at midnight and …. yeah, yeah …

PSS One of the wierdest things was queueing for the toilet and meeting Aussie visitors who had first heard about me via my time with Craig Mitchell and the Uniting Synod in South Australia. A small world with very few degrees of separation.

PSSS I got asked some of the astutest questions I’ve been asked in a long time yesterday. This is when, for me, speaking becomes gift because it opened new doors and growth for me. Thanks people.

hamilton missional coaching

Saturday was the kick-off of a year long missional church coaching initiative I am running at the invitation of the Anglican Diocese of Waikato. I flew up on Friday evening (staying with a fine host) and back on Saturday afternoon.

12 attendees plus 3 apologies equals a group of 15, which for me is the ideal size. A mix of three denominations, which will add richness to the room. People are driving over 3 hours from places like New Plymouth, Taupo and Tauranga. We will be meeting monthly face to face around the following topics:

missional theology
missional leadership
reading local narratives
finding God in the Other
discerning the Kingdom
change processes
missional worship
missional imaginations
missional church

with learning enhanced by on-line interaction and grounded assignments, as all participants are required to present case studies of their listening around the tables of their community and their imaginings of a missional project.

The venue is great: St Francis Cooperating Parish. We are meeting in a room with full length windows which look out onto a public thoroughfare. For a class focused around the belief that God is present in the stories, it is so apt to have people continually walking past.

missional church coaching on the road

About a year ago I started working on a dream, a way to explore missional church leadership with existing pastors in context. Rather than expect leaders to come to my training institution, what would going to them look like?

I designed a course that mixed coaching, on-line learning and action projects and started field testing it with a group of 14 pastors, students and church planters here in Christchurch in February. So far I am delighted with the growth that is happening in lives, and in ministries, as we read, think, talk and listen together.

My input in the last few months into Anglican Clergy Conferences has resulted in an invitation to take the course on the road and to work with groups of church leaders as follows:

Waikato: 13 oct, 26 oct, 25 nov, 19 jan, 8 mar, 3 may, 7 jun, 5 jul, 2 aug.

Auckland: 7 dec 07, 18 jan 08, 7 mar 08, 4 apr 08, 2 may 08, 6 jun 08, 4 jul 08, 1 aug 08, 5 dec 08.

Canterbury (still taking shape): 8 dec 07 (2 hour introduction in town), 26 jan, 1 mar, 19 apr, 10 may, 31 may, 28 jun, 9 aug, 6 dec.

(There is still space for about 3 more people in Waikato and 6 more people in Auckland. Canterbury is still very fluid).

For more information on the course download file. I have also put together a 6 minute video presentation introducing the course, which I’m happy to send to interested parties. Let me know.