A Foot In Both Places

I've moved!

2006-09-07T23:22:00.000-07:00

I've finally cracked it with blogger. It's just too crap. I've moved across to wordpress.com which is just super.

You can now read this blog at http://www.afootinbothplaces.wordpress.com/.

The new RSS feeds are:
Blog - http://afootinbothplaces.wordpress.com/feed/
Comments - http://afootinbothplaces.wordpress.com/comments/feed/

Hope to see you there.

Jesus' Discipleship

2006-08-31T22:53:00.000-07:00

I had to write an essay on Jesus' process of developing disciples and apply it to my context. I thought I'd post it so you can read it if you're interested.

Jesus’ Discipleship

As I read through the gospels I see Jesus engaging people from all spheres of society with his life and message of the kingdom of God. From the religious elite, to the average peasant, to those considered outcasts such as tax collectors and prostitutes, Jesus engaged and challenged them with the news of the kingdom. Wherever and whoever Jesus was engaging with there are signs of him calling people to become disciples. In some circumstances he challenged with the good news, in others he comforted with the good news, but he was always calling people to follow him.
If Jesus had a linear process that he used in developing disciples then he kept it to himself and the gospel writers didn’t try and tease it out. This isn’t to say that he wasn’t intentional about discipleship, he certainly was, I’m just not convinced that he had a clear process that he worked through with people to help them become disciples. As we observe Jesus it is apparent that he used different elements of the gospel with different people, depending on their situation. Some people’s circumstances called for incredible grace and mercy, others harsh words of judgement or challenge, Jesus met people at their point of need and engaged them with the gospel accordingly.
In surveying the gospels, particularly Luke, I found that Jesus uses several different means to develop disciples. He put forward hard challenges to encourage the recipient to step up to goals and ideals of the kingdom of God; he performed acts of power to display his authority and show signs of the coming kingdom of God; he spent his time teaching the vision and values of the kingdom of God; he lived a life modelling prayer and finally he empowered and gave tasks to those seeking to become disciples.
In an attempt to assess Jesus’ different methods of developing disciples I will explore each of these means listed above.

Hard Challenges.
From the very beginning of his ministry (Luke 4:14-30) Jesus was levelling hard challenges at those who saw themselves as assured of salvation. Jesus challenged them by reinterpreting what they thought to be God’s will and opening their eyes to the new covenant. Jesus used this approach of hard challenges with the Pharisees as seen in Luke 7:36-50. Here Jesus is anointed by a woman deemed to be unclean by the Pharisees while he is sitting at their table. When the Pharisees challenged Jesus’ behaviour he responded with a parable and reinterpreted their view of forgiveness and cleanliness. He called them to the new way the kingdom of God is bringing in and they are left asking a key discipleship question, “Who is this that even forgives sins?” (Luke 7:49).
Jesus challenges his own disciples many times, sometimes even harshly using rebuke such as when he says to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." (Matthew 16:23). He challenged all the disciples in Luke 8:22-25 when he calmed the storm after being woken by the disciples who were fearing for their lives. Once he calmed the storm he said to them, “Where is your faith?” (Luke 8:25) and once again a key discipleship question was asked, “Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.” (Luke 8:25)
Jesus put hard challenges to those who aspired to become his disciples. In Luke 9:57-62 we see him call into question the commitment of a couple of people who were eager to follow him. When these people ask to be allowed to tie up loose ends before following Jesus his response is hard and to the point, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:62) It’s not clear what the response of these people was, but text gives the impression that at this time they could not bear the cost.
Jesus used this method of hard challenges with the rich as is seen in the story of the rich ruler. After a rich ruler claims to have kept all the commandments Jesus calls him to sell all his possessions, give them away to the poor and then follow him. The rich ruler left dismayed because there was no way he could bring himself to part with all his possessions and therefore he could not follow Jesus. Jesus then extended his challenge from this one individual to all rich people saying, “Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of the needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” (Luke 18:25)
There are more examples throughout the scriptures of Jesus using hard challenges to develop disciples, it is a radical approach as people either rise to the challenge or otherwise find themselves turning away. It’s interesting that Jesus didn’t use this method of developing disciples anywhere near as often with the poor or outcast as he did with the rich and powerful.

Acts Of Power.
One of the methods Jesus used in his development of disciples was acts of power. Jesus healed the sick, cast out demons, controlled the weather and performed other miraculous signs of his power and authority. His acts of power were signs of the coming kingdom of God and displayed his authority for those around him to observe.
There are many examples of Jesus performing acts of power among the crowds as he journeyed and taught. One such example is found in Luke 7:14-17 where Jesus raises the only child of a widow to life as he is being carried out of the town. The response of the people there was very significant, “God has come to help his people.” (Luke 7:16) Jesus act of power had drawn them towards a realisation that God had come to help them, that he did care about them, a key lesson on their journey of discipleship.
Jesus used acts of power to develop his disciples into better followers of him. In Luke 5:4-11 we see Jesus instruct these fishermen to lower their nets after they had been fishing all night. In obedience, a crucial element of discipleship, the fishermen lowered their nets and caught more fish than they could manage on their own. Simon Peter’s response to this was to acknowledge Jesus as Lord, to recognise his own sinfulness before him. Jesus then called them to follow and they left everything and followed him. Clearly this act of power developed the disciples trust and belief in Jesus, allowing them to make such a bold step as to leave everything and follow him.
Jesus also used acts of power to challenge the faith and discipleship of the Pharisees. In Luke 5:17-26, while he was teaching as the Pharisees and many others were there listening, Jesus healed a man and forgave his sins right in front of them. Jesus used this act of power to display his authority and teach the Pharisees about forgiveness, to challenge them to acknowledge his authority. Differing from many other passages, this text doesn’t show us a negative response from the Pharisees, it’s not clear if they joined with the others present in praising God, being filled with awe and saying, “We have seen remarkable things today.” (Luke 5:26)
Jesus also used acts of power to encourage those powerful in his society to become disciples. Not only did he display his authority for them to witness and wonder at, but he also used these situations to teach them about the values of the kingdom of God, particularly his concern for the poor and outcast. We see an excellent example of this in Luke 8:40-56 when Jesus is on his way to a synagogue leader’s house to heal his daughter and is stopped by a woman very outcast by the Jewish culture. Jesus values and takes time with this woman and the synagogue leader’s daughter dies. Jesus goes on to display his power over death and raise the synagogue leader’s daughter to life, but the lesson that those who are outcast are valuable to God was not lost. It was a significant counter cultural action that Jesus used to teach the values of the kingdom of God.
There are many other examples of Jesus using acts of power to develop disciples throughout the gospels. It is significant to note that again Jesus uses this method in different ways for different circumstances. He gives people access to the kingdom of God in the way they most need it, whether that is restoring the life of a widow’s only son because without him life would have become much harder for her or letting a rich man’s daughter die so that he learnt God’s heart for the outcast.

Teaching.
One of the key methods Jesus used to develop disciples was teaching. Jesus taught using sharp pithy sayings (Luke 5:31-32), he taught by reinterpreting the law as it was meant to be understood (Luke 6:1-9), he taught in parables (Luke 8:1-18), he taught massive crowds of people who would sit and listen (Luke 6:20-49), he taught in the synagogues (Luke 4:44) and he taught his closest followers privately (Luke 10:38-42). Jesus taught pretty much anywhere at anytime and his topics ranged broadly. He taught using means and content that people would understand and not just for the sake of teaching but to challenge and encourage people to greater levels of discipleship.

Modelling Prayer.
Throughout Jesus ministry he regularly withdrew to spend time with his Father in prayer. Even though his ministry was successful and very public he regularly withdrew from the crowds to pray (Luke 4:42, 5:16, 6:12). Although Jesus does not appear to use this intentionally as a method to develop disciples his modelling of prayer and solitude with God must have had a significant impact on those around him. Particularly on the night before he was crucified when he asked his disciples to pray and he withdrew and prayed in anguish (Luke 22:39-46). Their failure to follow his example and command at such a crucial time must have had a significant impact.

Empowerment.
A key method in Jesus approach to developing disciples was empowering and giving them tasks, sending them out to “preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.” (Luke 9:2). While Jesus disciples went with him and no doubt joined in his ministry at particular times there are two specific instances mentioned in Luke that are worth noting. When the twelve were sent out with authority and specific instructions and a chapter later in Luke when Jesus sends out the seventy-two (Luke 10:1-17). This method of empowerment is significant as it enabled Jesus’ followers to participate in his ministry and further explore what it meant to be a disciple. In their task they would have been tested and challenged, providing opportunities for them to make steps forward in their discipleship. Luke 10:17 says, “The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.” They had participated in the kingdom of God through the authority of Jesus and experience the power of God, a significant formative experience as a follower of Jesus.

My Context.
I live, work, minister and play in a suburb of Melbourne called Preston. It’s a very diverse suburb with many religions, races, subcultures all mixed in together. It’s not a wealthy suburb, although there are more and more people with money buying older houses and doing them up to live in. There are significant issues in the areas of drug and alcohol abuse, housing, isolation and unemployment. People from our church live in this and the surrounding suburbs, we generally meet in Preston at my house. Our group is made up of mostly white middle class christians although as time goes on we are growing in diversity. Our missional focus is around the idea of creating safe spaces for people to come, away from their worry, their drug or alcohol addiction or their otherwise unhealthy living arrangements. We run a weekly community meal and are hoping to start a low cost housing arrangement with a focus on creating healthy transforming communities.
Under the headings below I will seek to address the question of how Jesus’ methods of discipleship might be integrated into my context.

Hard Challenges.
Most of the members of my church have been Christians for a long time. Over the years it is easy to become complacent and apathetic or arrogant and self assured in the faith. Following Jesus’ method of hard challenges is a very useful method of developing disciples with people in this situation. A concern may be that this method is open to abuse. Obviously Jesus employing this method is different to a fallen human employing it. If I was to adopt Jesus approach of giving people hard challenges in the hope of helping them develop in their discipleship I would want to make sure the challenges I was putting before them were only from the gospel, not add ons or extras to what Jesus requires. Too often in the history of the church people have been excluded for not taking up a challenge that really had very little do with the gospel.
As I noted when commenting on Jesus employing this method, it appears to be something he mostly used with those who were powerful, wealthy and self-assured of their place in heaven. Although the call to follow Jesus is significant for everyone, Jesus seemed to approach those on the margins of society with more grace than challenge, I too would want to adopt this approach. People on the fringe are often cynical of the church and don’t understand that Jesus wants to meet them. Hard challenges to people who already outcast is not a method of developing disciples I think Jesus modelled.

Acts of Power.
This method used by Jesus to develop disciples is one I find hard to know how to integrate into our life today. By demonstrating his authority and power Jesus was making it clear who he was and what God’s intention for humanity was, Jesus acts were signs of the coming kingdom of God. While I certainly believe that God intervenes in sometimes miraculous and powerful ways today, I’m not sure of exactly how this is meant to be used for discipleship in my context. I guess if God granted me the gift of healing or miracles then I would be able to use them to point towards the coming kingdom and God’s power, encouraging those around me to greater discipleship. However I don’t seem to have these gifts, nor do any others in our church. Maybe we should be praying for them and if God grants them, to use them boldly, calling people to follow Christ because of his power and love for them.

Teaching.
This method has certainly been the dominant approach under Christendom and although we don’t want to react too far against it we are seeking to find a healthy balance. Instead of having one professional teacher our church tends to share the task around and use different group learning techniques. Specifically we have adapted Lectio Divina
for group use and find that it enables group members to teach one another regardless of their status or education. Teaching is still a significant method of disciple development for us, occurring every week in our worship gathering and through the regular reading of scripture.

Modelling Prayer.
We’ve just begun a missional discipleship Order called the Kaleo Order. This Order is designed to pick up some of Jesus method of modelling prayer as an approach to developing disciples. In the same way that Jesus withdrew to spend time with his Father as fuel for his ministry and mission, we are encouraging people to do the same. The Order uses a particular method of bible reading and prayer that we think is appropriate for our specific context. Members of the Order are also required to meet in small groups fortnightly to share what they’ve learnt and keep one another accountable to our spiritual disciplines. These groups allow members to learn from one another, to model to each other and encourage each other to greater levels of discipleship.

Empowerment.
Empowerment is probably the easiest of Jesus’ methods of developing disciples to integrate into our context. As soon as people are a part of our community in any way we encourage them to participate in our missional activities. Of course those who are not Christians are not sharing the stories of Jesus with those we serve in our neighbourhood, but they are serving and loving those on the margins right along with us. They are participating in the kingdom of God and in doing so are drawn closer to Jesus and ultimately into discipleship. For those who already following Jesus they are empowered and encouraged to take bigger risks in mission, putting themselves in places where they must rely on God. This approach to developing disciples works very well in our context.

Conclusion.
Jesus didn’t have a linear process of developing disciples, but he did have several methods that he used repeatedly throughout his ministry. He leveled hard challenges at people, performed acts of power displaying his authority and intention for humanity, he taught the values of the kingdom of God, modelled a prayerful relationship with God and empowered those who sought to follow him with kingdom tasks. In our context we can and do seek to integrate these different approaches to developing disciples, empowering people to live out and experience the kingdom of God seems to be the most appropriate and successful.

There's a problem with a white Jesus ...

2006-08-28T18:58:00.000-07:00

I collect interesting images of Jesus from Flickr using tags and an RSS reader. Mostly it's good for a laugh and sometimes it's even helpful, but today a problem with Jesus being so white occurred to me. I was looking at this picture

and I thought. If people have this picture of Jesus in their heads when they read the stories about him then it's no wonder we find it hard to view him in his context. A white Jesus tells lies about who he really was, what he looked like and what he did. If we started picturing Jesus as more like what he really was then maybe we'd find it easier to make the jump back into 1st century Palestine when we are learning about him.

Just a thought.

Cricket - something of the kingdom of God

2006-08-26T18:10:00.000-07:00

So I'm sitting in the car doing some uni work while Gulinder (our refugee friend from Afghanistan) has his first cricket training session. I'm sitting here realising that for Gulinder this experience of cricket training is bringing forth some of the kingdom of God. For those of you who don't know him, Gulinder fits pretty clearly into the category of the marginalised. As a religious minority in Afghanistan his family was persecuted, Gulinder himself kidnapped and tortured by the Taleban before his family fled the country. He has since lost all of his family members in the journey to Australia and in many ways has nothing left. At his first cricket practice this morning I am watching him participate with a group of others who accept him as a person of value with something to offer. I know the kingdom of God is much bigger than this as well, but here I see a sign of God's transforming, restoring work of the kingdom of God. It's exciting and rewarding.

Creative Reflection

2006-08-25T21:46:00.000-07:00

I had to write a creative reflection for uni about what I would do mission/ministry wise if I knew the world was ending in five years. It's pretty long, but I thought I'd post it anyway.

What would I do if the world were ending in five years?

I believe that people’s lives are transformed as they are brought into contact with the Living God through community. People encounter Jesus through other people, not books or organisations. If the world were ending in five years time I would want to spend all my time and energy helping people encounter God through other people. I would want to motivate other Christians to take the journey with me and give ourselves to the task of creating transforming community housing. Houses where people with material needs can have somewhere to sleep, where people with social needs can connect with others, where people with emotional needs can be heard and where people with spiritual needs can meet with God.
In Preston, where I live, there is a housing crisis among the poor. Housing is expensive, if you are forced to stay in a boarding house you can pay up to $160 a week for a small and uncomfortable space. It is possible to rent private housing for the same price but only if you have the references, finances and know-how to make it happen. If you are eligible for government housing there is a 10 year waiting list, it’s unclear exactly what you are meant to do in the meantime.
All of this puts people in desperate situations. People stay in each other’s government housing illegally, they squat, they scrape together the money to stay in a boarding house but then don’t have enough for their other material needs - let alone trying to save anything so that they might plan for the future. Living in these kinds of desperate situations, with financial strain hanging over your head all the time, usually has very negative outcomes. People don’t cope well with the strain and end up making bad choices often in the areas of drugs and crime, putting themselves into worse situations. The strains continue to grow and the desperation spreads. Marriages and friendships break down because of the strain, mental illness and general health problems arise, participating in general society becomes harder as people become outcast.
There are government and other social solutions to these problems. There are systems in place to help people get access to support for housing, drug and alcohol problems, financial difficulties and even social support groups, but these solutions are not enough by themselves, the problems are not being resolved. People can get case workers who help them know who to contact, which places to go to and what to say, but the underlying issues aren’t being resolved. There is a housing crisis in my area, but the crisis goes much deeper than housing.
In many local councils the government seeks to find initiatives that will help develop healthy communities. Activities that will bring people together, programs that promote religious tolerance, projects increasing environmental awareness and sustainability. These initiatives are good things, but so often they are out of reach of those who are marginalised and who are truly in need of healthy community. These initiatives often only serve the middle class who of course also need healthy community, but are no where near as desperate as those on the fringe of our society.

In the hope of addressing some of this issue I am dreaming of a creating healthy transforming housing communities. Safe places of belonging that are created with the ideals and values of healthy community aimed at transforming their occupants. I would love to find investors to purchase properties in the houses of our street (there’s one for sale out the back of my place right now) and create low cost share housing with a intentional focus on healthy community, not just a place to eat and sleep. The houses would be run by people who come to our church and not just as staff but as live-in or live-out members of the households sharing life with the other occupants.

In an attempt to flesh out this dream a little more I have created the following headings that need further explanation.
Investors This project requires investors who have a desire to see their wealth used to support the underprivileged in Melbourne. These people would need to be willing to give their material resources to the project and not expect normal investment returns. Although this investment may bring some longer-term financial gains for the investor, the focus is on the gains for the occupants who currently don’t have a safe, secure or supportive environment to live in but would through the project.

Occupants A set of criteria would be applied to an occupant to determine if they are eligible:  - current housing situation - the applicants current housing situation would need to be deemed illegal or unsustainable.
- attitude - applicants have to be interested in exploring this as more than just a housing option. They must be willing to contribute to creating a healthy community and growing themselves. This is important as it helps the occupants take responsibility for their own lives.
- income - if an applicant has an income that is deemed to be too high then they would not be eligible.
- level of assistance required - applicants needing high level assistance and supervision could not be accepted. Occupants must be able to catch public transport, cook, pay bills, speak some English, be on the way to trying to get work, trying to do study, or trying to get full time volunteer work.
- illicit drug use - applicants must be illicit drug free for the last 6 months
- children - applicants would need to be deemed safe around children. A Police Check would be required – specifically for criminal acts involving children. Other criminal history would not prohibit or exclude the applicant.

House Carers + Assistants The role of the House Carers would be critical to the vision of creating transforming community houses. The House Carers, whether they lived-in or lived-out of the house, would be regularly available to the occupants and responsible for working with the occupants to create a healthy, safe and supportive living environment. If the House Carers did not live-in then they would need to be very close-by, either next door or at least in the same street. Proximity is one of the keys to creating community. The House Carers would be responsible for the day to day running of the house, they would be crucial to creating the environment that allows for transformation.
There would also be roles in assisting the House Carers: - Support Resourcing - this would require someone to focus on ensuring that the occupants are connecting with the various support services offered by the government and others in the local area. This isn’t a case management role, but someone who would inform occupants of where they can get support and encourage them to do so. This role is totally scalable based on the time and ability of whoever fills it.
- Financial Management - house finances is one area that may require quite a bit of oversight and guidance. Someone from the church community would need to volunteer their time to help occupants manage things like bills and shopping expenses as well as offering their services to occupants with their individual finances.
- House Maintenance - keeping the house in good working order would be an important role and someone with the gifts and skills to manage this would be required.
- Jobs Hunting - again this is not meant to be a replacement to existing social services in this area, but occupants may like some help applying for jobs, going to interviews and searching through papers, the internet, etc.
- Volunteer Work - in cases of long term unemployment where occupants are still seeking work but are also in need of something to fill their time volunteer work is a helpful option. Someone from the church community could help organise volunteer work for the occupants, either with Northern Careworks or elsewhere.

Community Meals One element of creating transforming community houses would be the community meals. A regular community meal would be a feature of the house with each occupant bringing something to the meal to share and spending the time with others in a healthy social environment.

Rent Rent for the occupants would be worked out as a percentage of their income. This is important to help occupants learn to budget, it would also help with some of the running and maintenance costs of the house.

Children While there is an element of danger in having children involved in a project like this there is also potential for incredible gain. Children can break down many social barriers and see the world in a different way from adults, they bring something to a community that just isn’t available if it’s all grown-ups.

Drugs and Alcohol It’s very likely that drugs and alcohol would be an issue in most houses. So that a safe environment is created all houses would need to have a no illicit drugs policy and depending on the circumstances houses may need to be alcohol free as well. On the alcohol issue it seems that allowing the household to come up with its own rules is significant way of encourage the occupants to make healthy decisions for themselves

Northern Community Church of Christ Northern Community Church of Christ is the church that Loam (our congregation that I am dreaming would run this housing idea) is a congregation of. Attached to Northern is Northern Careworks - the community concern/development arm of the church. These houses would come under the banner of Northern Careworks for legal, administrative, insurance and financial reasons, allowing us to focus on the day to day aspects of the work.
Northern Careworks also runs an Opportunity Shop which would be the source for the furnishing requirements of the occupants. The Opportunity Shop could either supply the items free of charge or at a reduced rate for the occupants.
Northern Careworks is mostly staffed by volunteers, occupants could volunteer their time to Northern Careworks if they were unable to find employment but were looking for something regular to do. This may also help with future employment opportunities.

Spiritual Input? Some attempting an endeavor such as this would demand some form of Christian input into the house and community that is generated there. I however think that this would send the wrong message. I am not dreaming about this so that people would just become Christians. I sincerely hope that people would meet God as they are served and loved in the context of community, but this is about a vision of the kingdom of God. As we live out the reality of the kingdom of God people are given access to a vision of who God is and what his agenda really is. Apparently the poor are the most over evangelised group in society. If we enforced weekly bible studies we would send the message that we don’t really care about them or their situation, we just want them to become one of us. It is my hope and prayer that as we serve, love and live with people who join these houses they would encounter God and seek to become like Jesus themselves.

My ‘heartburst’? Thomas Bandy’s book ‘Mission Mover’ speaks of heartbursts. The idea is that your heart bursts for a particular sub group of people. Whether they are connected by interest or by location is irrelevant. The key is that your focus is on them, you feel called to the particular task of serving, loving, sharing with them, no one else. Bandy says ‘"A heartburst is simply an urgent desire to help a clearly defined group of people experience Jesus."
, it is "a desire to connect that person with this hope."
Mine is clearly the marginalised people in Preston, the ones I know who live in dangerous and damaging environments with no hint of transforming community around them. These are the people I feel God drawing me to, he’s pulling my life in their direction and pushing me to live like Jesus with them.

A team?
"A true team is a small group that shares similar core values and beliefs, celebrates an enthusiasm for a mission, eagerly interfaces their skills to achieve that mission, and seriously holds one another accountable for the fruits of the mission."
Ideally this team would be our congregation Loam. We’ve already been talking about how we might make some of this a reality and there are some amazing people in that bunch that are keen to get stuck into this project. Particularly I want to work on this project with my wife Jay as she has some fantastic gifts in areas that I’m not so great in and I can see us complementing each other well. I’m also excited to work with another friend Kate who brings a depth of wisdom and discernment to every situation that would be much needed on this journey. I’m keen to work on this project with all of the people in our church, to encourage them to share the journey and take big bold steps of faith together.

Spirituality? At Northern we’ve just begun a missional-discipleship order that provides us with a framework of spiritual disciples plus a particular method of prayer and bible reading to use. I am hoping that this approach to the spirituality of Jesus would sustain us as we journey on this road. I am very aware however that this would grow and change as we do over time.

Character and Skills?
There is always work to be done on my character and skills, but specifically for this task I can see that I would need to become much more disciplined. Regular contact with occupants even when I don’t feel like it, making time and space for Jay and I in the midst of such an intense environment, encouraging the rules and guidelines we create in the face of protest, all these areas would prove to be a challenge to my discipline. Also, managing conflict would be a skill that I need to improve on. I am imagining that there would be the potential for lots of conflict in these houses and much of the resolution of that would fall to me.

Style of leadership?
Currently my approach has been one of taking people along on the journey with me. I imagine that this would continue to be my style of leadership in this environment. It’s unlikely I would change and become more authoritarian, although there would undoubtedly be hard calls that need to be made in some circumstances. So far the process of taking risks and encouraging people to come along for the ride appears to be working as a method of leadership in this environment.

A mentor?
"A mentor is someone who speaks from his or her own experience of life struggle, spiritual victory, and constant growth to help you overcome adversity, discern hope, and customize a learning path."
I can think of no one better for this role than Shirley Osburne who runs St Martin’s in Collingwood. She is a practitioner in this area with mountains of experience and the scars to prove it. She is warm and open towards Jay and I and only lives around the corner, practicing the same kind of hospitality and concern for the poor that we wish to.

Summary.
If the world were ending in five years I would want to spend the time working on building healthy transforming communities through low cost housing arrangements with people in my local area. I would want to do this with my wife and congregation Loam as my team and be mentored by a long term practitioner in this area Shirley Osbourne.

A community meal

2006-08-23T05:57:00.000-07:00

Inspired by a whole range of events, circumstances, truths, prophetic words, strategic thinking, obvious realities and God's heart for those around us, Loam has decided to host a community meal each week. We hope that in time our ability to serve our neighbours will grow. We hope that we will be able to take bigger and bolder steps of faith, risk more and be precious about less, but this seems like a good place to start.

On Sunday evening from around 5ish, at our house (146 Raglan St, Preston - if you're around feel free to drop in) we are having a meal. We're inviting neighbours of all flavours to join us. I'm really looking forward to it, something tells me it could be a bit messy and that it's another step along on our exciting journey together.

I'll let you know how it goes.

I don't want more Christians

2006-08-20T21:50:00.000-07:00

I don't want more Christians - I want more people around like Jesus.

Mission is not about getting more people to sign up to be in our club. It is about recognising the greatness of Jesus, seeking to be like him yourself and encouraging others to do the same. It's the about of the kingdom of God, about participating in the creation of that place where ultimately there will be no more tears, pain, oppression, abuse, poverty, loneliness, despair, etc.

I don't want more Christians because lots of Christians I know aren't actually that involved or even interested in this kingdom, I want more people like Jesus.

I realise this is just semantics, but it's also about perception. I realised today that when I think about Christians I don't think about people of the kingdom of God. I think about Christianese people, people from the world of Christendom, with their own little world they are trying to protect, their own culture, language, etc. It's sad that I associate this word so strongly, maybe I need to stop using it for a while ...

Part 5 of Jesus in the Margins

2006-08-09T06:05:00.000-07:00

Probably the best post in the series and this one gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling 'cos it was dedicated to us. :-D

"The Son of Man came exegeting Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22 and correcting the doctrinal errors of the Pharisees, and all the other factions in Israel."

Oops, that's the USAmerican evangelical approach to social change. "Preach the Word!" Too bad our Supreme Example didn't use that approach, eh?

Haha, I love a bit of prophetic inappropriate humour!

Whoever thought an ordinary table of people could be the place where heaven and earth meet?

Man I pray that we could start to get the sense that our tables might become these places ...

Whoever thought that eating together with the most unsavory of friends would reshape a nation's vision of holiness?

What are the revolutionary actions of the kingdom that are happening around us that we need to take notice of? Visiting refugees in detention? Opening your doors to drug addicts? Visiting lonely old people whose families don't care for them?

People at the margins might not be able to follow our fine, finessed, exegetically precise, "inner logic" trails to getting right with God, but they sure do know how to eat. And they'll eat with Jesus when he invites them. It was the spiffy, religious know-it-alls who were "too good" to mix with the dusty riff-raff. "Why do you eat food with unclean hands? Why do you eat food with homosexuals, terrorists, racy women and social rejects? God just wouldn't eat with people like that."

Jesus of Nazareth, gritty as he was, was and is and will forever be God.

It gets better still ...

Here's the clincher. Some of you will have to bite your tongue. There's no record that they had "to repent" to eat at Jesus' table. The fact that they came--tax-collectors, prostitutes, lame, blind, diseased--and ate and enjoyed Jesus' welcome was repentance enough.

Now, I didn't say that they didn't ever change, did I? I said there's no evidence that they had to change before they came to the table. There's a word that is really loved and lived by those in the margins. It's the word grace. Grace. Embracing Grace.

Wonderful isn't it?

For those of you who are part of our community I thought I'd also post John's prayer for us to encourage you.

Tim and Jay and your team of friends, may you know the deep joy of the Father's heart and experience the power of the Holy Spirit as you incarnate the living presence of Jesus the Messiah to those you love in your community. I truly admire and respect you.

Amen!

Part 4 of Jesus in the Margins

2006-08-02T06:52:00.000-07:00

John Frye continues his Jesus in the Margins series here.

When Jesus broke bread, he broke Israel.

With his meal-time habits, Jesus was speaking a new language and introducing a new world.

What in our culture is this powerful? Consumerism ... Meh, maybe. Lord give me the vision and insight into my culture that you had. Help me see where the fault lines of the kingdom lie.

Every meal Jesus ate in his ministry was a transformative expression, a here and now enactment of the presence of the kingdom of God.

I'm hungry.

Part 3 of Jesus in the Margins

2006-08-01T06:02:00.000-07:00

A few snippets below to encourage you to read the whole thing here.

Jesus didn't change the margins with ideas. He changed the margins with concrete actions. His meal-time practices were "provocative theatre." You could see the people, smell the food, hear the laughter, dip into the same dish with Jesus. You could actually live in the kingdom of God with Jesus. The last first, the least the greatest, the child the proto-type disciple. You could breathe deeply the grace of God and see shame flee away forever.

Following Jesus was, by his culture's standards, an R-rated action movie, not a purpose-driven Bible study.

We don't read about Jesus critics saying, "This man welcomes sinners and gives them new ideas." We read, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them."

We'd rather "believe" in Jesus than eat and drink him.

Surrender All: A Call to Sub-Merge with Christ. Ash Barker - Action Taken or Intended.

2006-08-01T04:05:00.000-07:00

Action Taken or Intended:

I feel that it might take a few years to process the contents of this book. So my plans for action at this point will be preliminary at best.

I need to spend some time reassessing my relationships with God. I’m convinced and convicted that there are areas where this relationship works more like magic than faith. I need to identify and repent of the areas where I seek to manipulate and submit myself to God’s will.

In my connection with the community I will seek out the seeds of the kingdom of God rather than simply becoming dismayed at all the evil in the world. I will hold tight to the coming reality of God’s reign.

Having moved into a neighbourhood I feel God call me to serve I will seek to stand with the poor more than tell them how to get their lives together. I will seek to become more a part of this community around me with the support and encouragement of the members of my church and order.

I will seek to further develop the discipling relationships that we are seeking to setup through the Kaleo Order at Northern Community Church of Christ.

With my congregation of NCCC Loam I will use some of the practical exercises to help us dream up a shared missional task.

Surrender All: A Call to Sub-Merge with Christ. Ash Barker - Personal Response Part E

2006-08-01T04:04:00.000-07:00

Part E - Re-integration: Practical Sub-merging

In this section Ash’s wisdom and insight into the practical implementation of these ideas becomes clear. Using the metaphor of the well to talk about the significance and timing of team health, presence, partnership, discipleship and worship made all these ideas seem somewhat achievable although still very daunting.

Packing a final punch before finishing the book the chapters on ‘Barriers to Sub-Merging’ and ‘The Challenge’ probe deeply and I found myself exposed and obviously wanting in some areas. It might have been possible to keep the ideas in the rest of the book at arms length but these two make it clear that this is a personal invitation.

Surrender All: A Call to Sub-Merge with Christ. Ash Barker - Personal Response Part D

2006-08-01T03:15:00.000-07:00

Part D - Re-creation: Identity and belonging below the surface

Poverty creates unhealthy identities for everyone. The poor see themselves as less than human because of their lack of power and the non-poor see themselves as gods because they have so much power. For God’s reign to come about both these identities need to be reshaped by him.6 The kingdom of God gives a new identity to the poor as it brings them from the margins to the centre and it speaks a harsh word of judgement on the non-poor who have marginalised others. If there was ever any question about whether God was for the poor Ash dispels it with a wonderful piece of logic, “Since God is just He has a priority for those facing injustice.”7

The question that then faces us is how we deal with these broken identities? How do we have them transformed so we can see God’s reign realised. Ash suggests that ‘discipling relationships’ are the key, “unless we can find and develop these discipling relationships, everything else we want to see happen will not have the necessary human resources.”8 I totally agree with him, without deep relationships that are intentionally about helping us follow Jesus better we will definitely fail. It’s when these kinds of relationships are weak in my life that I struggle to hold it all together.

Throughout history there as been committed communities and movements that have helped God’s people hold a vision of and work towards realising God’s reign. In different eras they have faced different challenges and taken on different forms, we need to learn from these and look to the challenges of our current context.

To be able to face the radical discipleship challenges of transforming neighbourhoods we are going to have reimagine some elements of how we’ve been doing church. Ash suggests we look to order to support and sustain us as we go about this challenge.9 Orders are a high commitment environment where there is a strong focus on formation in the context of community resulting in action. They rise and fall on the integrity of the members and their ability to live out their calling. They provide a strong discipling and support basis for radical action from their members.

Another area of church that Ash suggests be reimagined is the church as a social movement. A vehicle for action that is more open and inclusive and founded on a clear ideology.10 Ash compares these groups to tribes that do not have as close community bond, but share a common identity and purpose; they gather together and partner with other tribes.

Surrender All: A Call to Sub-Merge with Christ. Ash Barker - Personal Response Part C

2006-08-01T00:27:00.000-07:00

Part C - Re-location: Taking poverty personally as neighbours

There is no other way to get involved in the task of neighbourhood transformation than moving into the neighbourhood. This section is all about incarnation, as Ash says, “To only talk about the gospel of God’s reign domesticates it to another ideology. The reign of God must be lived out as a neighbour if it is to catch on in the hearts and lives of the poor.” It is clear that poverty is in many ways the result of bad and broken relationship. Relationship breakdown between man and God, man and creation and man and man. However as Christians we can offer hope and reconciliation through Jesus, not just with words but with our whole lives. As both poor and non-poor Christians we can offer this hope, but the greatest challenge is for the non-poor. Will we stand in solidarity with the poor, “joining our lives together to fight injustice, to have a stake in a common future together”?

Our example of the incarnation obviously comes from Christ himself, in being born and living amongst us on the earth he was literally the en-fleshment of God. We have a vision of the kingdom of God lived out through Jesus to model ourselves on. While this provides us with an incredible resource it also has limitations. Ash points out that we cannot be God and no matter how hard we try, those of us born non-poor will never be able to become truly poor. This doesn’t render the model of the incarnation useless however, because even though we cannot be God, when we form as the body of Christ we function this way and although we cannot become poor we can “stand in solidarity with the poor and movements ‘of’ the poor.”

This concept of being the body of Christ should open our eyes to the fact that this task is not one we go about ourselves or fit into our existing schedules. It requires us to be relationally and geographically amongst those we are seeking to serve and journey with as we carry out the task in community. We will have to work hard and be creative in the ways we build this community, intentionally making ourselves accessible and available to others.

Surrender All: A Call to Sub-Merge with Christ. Ash Barker - Personal Response Part B

2006-07-31T23:02:00.000-07:00

Part B - Re-orientation: God’s reign as an anchorage

This section is about the kingdom of God and Ash does an inspiring job of sharing the vision of God’s reign. I found the section on shalom very informative and helpful in my understanding of how the kingdom of God would have been understood then and should be now. Jesus as the hope of shalom is a powerful image for both the poor and non-poor alike. He is hope for the poor and in many ways threat to the non-poor. This hope was and still is politically dangerous, it overthrows and turns our world’s powers upside down.

With the kingdom of God transforming as it reconciles the world back to God, many elements of society are turned on their head, most notably the place of the poor and the marginalised. By the action and authority displayed throughout Jesus life, he shows us that it is possible for the reign of God to be brought forth here amongst us. “It will take all we have to see this authority of the kingdom beat off the powers of this world, but it is possible.”1

With Jesus as the hope of shalom our task must become focused on finding him and sharing him amongst those who need him the most. We must move away from spending our energy trying to work out who is in and who is out and instead share this good news.2

The kingdom of God does not stop with people’s individual lives, but goes on to transform the rest of society as well. This means that we as God’s people cannot stand by while governments, law, businesses and cultures are unjust. We must be engaged in the task of transforming these elements of our society.

Surrender All: A Call to Sub-Merge with Christ. Ash Barker - Personal Response Part A

2006-07-31T23:01:00.000-07:00

Part A - Diving in as disciples: A call to release

Although I’ve been involved in ministry to the New Age I’d never really considered the difference between magic and faith. “Magic attempts to manipulate spiritual forces so that the supplicant can get what the supplicant wants. But true religion is about surrendering to God so that God can do through the supplicant what God wants.” This definition brings to light much that is wrong with contemporary Christianity, so riddled with consumerism and individualism that in many ways it is no different from the New Age. It’s also a very helpful distinction to make with people who have journeyed spiritually for some time and are meeting Jesus for the first time, pointing them to surrender rather than manipulation.

While this distinction is helpful it’s also quite overwhelming as it brings to light how much of my walk with God is based on my attempts at controlling him rather than submitting to him. Thankfully Ash goes on to stress the need for community in the task of resisting this temptation which he further breaks down into the temptation for power over authority, the spectacular over God’s will and relevance over faithfulness.

Surrender All: A Call to Sub-Merge with Christ. Ash Barker - Summary, Appreciations, Reservations.

2006-07-31T22:58:00.000-07:00

I've just finished reading this book and have to write a review on it for uni, so I thought I'd post bits of it as I go.

Summary:
Surrender All is a call to radical discipleship. Ash Barker holds back nothing in his call for christians to give up everything and focus their lives on the kingdom of God. The challenge is to release all we have and reorient our lives in line with God’s reign, relocate and reintegrate others and ourselves with the poor others to serve in the task of recreating identity and belonging inside God’s kingdom. This work is filled with real stories from the journey of UNOH that inspire and encourage, practical insights into how these changes might be put in place and a depth and wisdom that only God provides. This is a book that should be read with caution, the reader cannot leave unchanged without knowing they are missing out on God’s kingdom dream and the hope for the world.

Appreciations:
The tone of a book which calls for a radical fresh approach to discipleship from its reader is a delicate balance between challenge and humility, particularly when you have an Australian audience well known for it’s ability at cutting down tall poppies. Ash finds this balance perfectly, he has the honesty to speak openly of his failings and the ability to laugh at himself which endears him to his readers. At the same time however he has an authority about his writing that stems from both his God-given prophetic gift and the experience of tough decisions made and consequences faced. He makes it very hard for the reader to dismiss or walk away from his words, they demand a response.
Another fine balance is struck within this book that many other writers fail dismally in their attempts to achieve. There is a theological depth and an intellectual rigor found right alongside very useful practical ideas. As someone who is constantly reading I found this very refreshing, finally a book that can stretch my brain and give me practical tools to help me work through its wonderful ideas at the same time.

Reservations:
I feel that there is very little to write in this section other than that this book was at times hard to follow. Particularly in the ‘Part D - Recreation: Identity and belonging below the surface’, there were terms used and not clarified, such as tribe, movement, clan and others, that made it hard to follow what was being said. It seemed that Ash was seeking to develop the idea of different types of structures working together, but a lack of clarity meant that this idea didn’t come across.

Part 2 of Jesus in the Margins

2006-07-31T17:34:00.000-07:00

More good stuff on Jesus in the Margins from John Frye here.

People say that the West is not a shame based culture and they are right to an extent, but we certainly do have some element of honour and shame operating in our culture. If a drug addict walks into a fancy restaurant or tries to make friends with the those above them in our social structure they are quickly shamed away with certain looks and harsh words, putting them back in their place. The honour and shame system might not have as much of a hold on the rest of our culture (law, politics, etc), but many people work hard to be honoured and not to be shamed.

What is our response as people who seek to follow Jesus' example? Do we seek to be honoured? Without realise it are we guilty of shaming those who are blessed in the kingdom of God?

Jesus in the Margins

2006-07-30T02:42:00.000-07:00

Cool post from John Frye over at Jesus the Radical Pastor on Jesus in the Margins.

I love the question 'Who is marginalised?'

Mission Shaped vs Mission Flavoured

2006-07-25T23:29:00.000-07:00

Found this article by a guy called Ken Morgan a while ago. I've been meaning to post it for ages.

I like this article because it helpfully pushes us to think about what mission shaped churches are really about. As with any idea that increases in popularity there will be lots of people who jump on the band wagon and use the terminology without really thinking about it. I feel several challenges to Loam from Ken's words.

The contrast between these statements causes me to wonder about how we go about thinking through our shared task of mission.

"Sought to discover and meet the needs of unchurched by engaging with them in relationship, then serving them in a relational ‘peer’ approach" and "Perceived the needs of the unchurched from a distance and opted for a ‘provider-client’ approach to serving them."

And I wonder how we are going at giving those who are new to the faith in our midst the authority to shape what we do.

"Allowed those new to the faith to influence its form and style." and "Designed its look and feel based on its own idea of what the community needed."

A helpful tool for keeping us remaining shaped not flavoured, thanks Ken.

The answers to Spiritual Formation?

2006-07-24T08:42:00.000-07:00

An interesting post on the Christianity Today Blog about spiritual formation. It's probably nothing new if you've been thinking about the possibilities of recapturing some of the power of the monastic movement. The idea is somewhat connected to what's been going on at Northern, which should get going properly next week. It's going to be an interesting experiment to be a part of, I'm very much looking forward to getting going and hope to post more of my thoughts as they happen.

Forge Intensive Tuesday - Marcus Curnow

2006-07-11T19:41:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd post up my raw notes from the intensive ... totally unedited I'm afraid, so please excuse anything wrong, offensive or unintelligible.

Marcus Curnow. The Economy of God.
Resourcing a spirituality of engagement: Living the Word on the Street

Message of Jesus into a bumper sticker.
- finding your life by losing it.
- Jesus is a bloke.
- Jesus, don't leave earth without him.

The economy of God

... is an attempt at capturing for our contemporary context something of the subversive power that 'the Kingdom of God', the central image of Jesus' teachings, had in a world of real kings and kingdoms.

The biblical understanding of "economy" is grounded in the ancient Hebrew spiritual exercise of 'keeping Sabbath'. It is neither solely material nor spiritual, but extends to encompass all aspects of what it means to produce and consume as a living being.

Beyond money, this economy includes elements of time, of energy, of work and of re-creation, of relationship with the spiritual, the created order and other people.

Embracing the economy of God involves a realisation that abundant grace underpins an ethic redistribution that is the only way out of the spiritual and material slavery that is so characteristic of the dominant economy of our world.

how do we view time? it shows us something about our culture.
- time is money
- time management
- time wasting
- passing time

redemption of time - making it sacred, it needs to be pointed and directed towards God

language of business ... we have an abundance of time - all eternity.

Alternative Economic Voices
- Vandana Shiva
- Wendell Berry

What does the dominant market economy fail to factor into its economics?
- Spiritual, Communal, Agricultural, Environmental etc.

Books:
The art of the common place - Wendell Berry

Sabbath Economics 101
Genesis 1: God as Creator who rests, Work that is Good.

Exodus 16:11 manna ... Sabbath first mentioned
- 16-18 Gather only as much as you need
- 19. Don't store any up!! Exodus 1:8-14 Store Cities
- Have a rest Day
- 33. Store it up for what - Worship ... Remember ... Central to their spirituality

Sabbath and Jubilee
- Leviticus 25:35-42 Releasing Community members from debt (Deut 15:1-11)
- Lev 25:13,25-28 Land to original owners
- Lev 25:47-55 Freeing Slaves (Deut. 15:12-18) Lev 25:42 The land is Gods and gods people aren't to be Egypt
- Isaiah 61 Ezekiel 46:17-18

Jesus and Sabbath
- Luke 4:19 Jesus wanted to renew this tradition
- Mark 2 Conflict with the Pharisees: Who you eat with, How you eat, Where and when you eat, Feeding 5000 etc.
- Matthew 6:The Lords Prayer ... again central to their spirituality

Early Church
- Acts Chapter 2, 4-6
- 2 Corinthians 8 : Paul's Ministry of Reconciliation has an economy

Empty throne ... the forgotten worship symbol of modern Christianity ... we have no king other than God.

How does a mother have a Sabbath with kids? So busy, etc.
- Jews did it through ritual, Friday night meal
- there is an ideal and a real ... what is realistic?
- community is essential - a very practical approach to this question

Economy of God is a paradigm - a new way of life

Economy of God and Proclamation
The economic dimensions of the parables of Jesus.
"Earthly Stories with Heavy Meanings:

What you factor into your bottom line.
How do you benchmark success?
What must I do to live a sustainable life?
Renounce your citizenship and change your standard of living
The successful takeover bid ...

What must I do to have eternal life?
- sustainable living? does that factor in?

What is good work?
Good work uses no thing without respect both for what it is in itself and for its origin. It uses neither tool nor material that it does not love.

It does not dissociate life and work or pleasure and work, or love and work or usefulness and beauty. To work without pleasure or affection, to make a product that is not both useful and beautiful, is to dishonour God, nature, the thing that is made, whomever it is made for. - Wendell Berry.

Economy of Urban Seed
- Good Work: Residents and Credo
- More than a Job we are a Mob ... but there is no mob without jobs
- Building economic alternatives
- maintaining freedom

Books:
- Pete Ward: Liquid Church and the commodification of religious product

New Monasticism ...

Danger for Forge Interns
- The only communities that work are those of necessity
- The problem of taking developing world mission models and applying them to Western cultures:
- You incarnate into a sub-culture but not an economy. Everybody still shops at the supermarket.
- Our effort at mission can appear successful but easily end up being marketing to increasingly fragmented society in a way which furthers the fragmentation rather than bearing witness to the economy of God.

What's working ...
- economic sharing
- living within walking distance
- shared sabbath
- shared work
- food coop

a taste of slow
www.atasteofslow.com.au
28 August - 10 September

www.fairwear.org.au
- rather no clothes than clothed exploitation

Make Affluence History
www.makeaffluecehistory.org

Some questions
- What are the economics of the community tI am working, amongst and alongside?
- How is what we are doing connecting and contributing to the local economy?
- How is what I'm involved with challenging the local economy and bearing witness to Good Work and the Economy of God.

Who, how, what, where you eat? How is the process of food production and consumption made sacred in your mission work and community life?

lord's prayer
abba (creator and sustain of our household)
Brand recognitiion and loyalty are yours
may your economy come,
may your way be sung on the sacred earth we know
sustain us this day in the simplicity of enough
reconcile our debts with your forgiveness as we seek reconciliation with our debtors
and lead us through the wilderness, away from the seduction of our vocation
that in the face of evil our life may be saved
amen

Forge Intensive Tuesday - Baxter Krueger

2006-07-11T19:40:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd post up my raw notes from the intensive ... totally unedited I'm afraid, so please excuse anything wrong, offensive or unintelligible.

Baxter Krueger.

God is over here, big gap in between us and him. - all other religions
Jesus has come and embraced us, covered the gap in between us and him. - Christianity

Christianity is not about receiving Jesus into our life, it is about us entering into the life of God because of Jesus coming himself into our lives. We have been given Jesus.

Our job is to capture this vision of the Trinitarian, Incarnational view of God and proclaim it to the world.

John 8:12 - ‚ÄúI am the light of the world (cosmos). Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.‚Äù
- Jesus makes a declaration - I am the light of the cosmos.
- exclusive, politically incorrect, arrogant ... true, fact.
- if we believe in Jesus we will NEVER walk in THE darkness, but will have the light of life.
- when we say who Jesus is then we are actually saying something about ourselves.

- the Jesus we've inherited from Western theology is very small, but in reality Jesus is bigger than all things.

John 1:1-3. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all people.

Colossians 1:16. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
- we need to remember that Jesus created all things and holds all things together. He did not set them in motion and is now hands off.

Hebrews 1:1-3. In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God‚Äôs glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.
- in, with, through.

- the church is being squashed by religion (which tells people they are separated from God) and secular humanism (which tells people they can fix it all themselves) and needs to be about the task of making space for people to recognise who Jesus is.

- Jesus doesn't tell us to have peace or joy. He gives us his peace, his joy, the peace and joy that come from within the Trinity itself.

- Father, Jesus, Spirit call us into participation with him, in all of life.

- Jesus is the Father's only Son and we are a part of the family. At this point our exclusivity becomes our inclusivity.
- Jesus received the Holy Spirit as a permanent gift, without measure. He is the annointed one in the Spirit.
- Jesus is the one in/with/by/for all things were created

- what does it mean that we are include into Jesus? All these things also become true of us. Also, when Jesus died rose and ascended, this is also happened to us.

Forge Intensive Tuesday - Alan Hirsch

2006-07-11T19:38:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd post up my raw notes from the intensive ... totally unedited I'm afraid, so please excuse anything wrong, offensive or unintelligible.

Alan Hirsch. Forge National Director.

How does the early church and chinese church grow so fast?

- there are many elements, but some don't relate to spirituality, so they will be dealt with elsewhere.

- today - community aspect of how they grew so fast
- victor turner - Al ripped off his terminology - cultural anthropologist - studied african rites of passage - how young boys transition into being young men - 'The Ritual Process'
- most african villages had two separate sections - female and male
- children are raised in the feminine part of the village but look forward to the rites of passage
- men come in to the female part of the village and take the boys to do the rites
- this is a time called liminality - danger, marginalisation, disorientation, ordeal
- boys find each other in a significant way through this process - this called communitas
- the type of community that develops when people are dealing with some kind of ordeal and they bond together to get over it
- being reintroduced into the village - the men's side - creates renewal as the boys (now men) tell their stories
- for the church liminality and communitas are normative for the church - china/early church experienced these ...

- September 11, Tsunami = global Communitas
- we all shared in the experience and were changed by it, bonded together
- Sports teams
- normally no relationship, no connection - give them a ball and some of the same shirts, they begin to experience ordeal and are bonded together.

- The church needs Communitas not Community
- Community is safe, secure and doesn't do well at bonding us together, Communitas is the opposite.

- Scriptural basis
- Abraham
- David and his band
- Exodus
- Exile in Babylon
- 12 disciples and Jesus

- You start with Community - experience Liminality - this results in Communitas.

- Middle Class - obsessed with safety and security, combined with Consumerism adds convenience. this is then a very difficult environment for liminality to be introduced.

If a church begins with a focus on ministry they pretty much never get to mission, but if a church begins with a focus on mission then they will undoubtedly get to ministry. This is because ministry is the means by which you do mission.

How do we get past the fact that we seem to be able to consume experiences and get a false sense of liminality? These experiences make us feel as though we have generated communitas ... but have we really?

Men stay away from the church because although it is run by men it is a feminine system - receptivity, attentive is the focus, not a cause. Men are side by side creatures, not face to face creatures. Men need a cause, the church doesn't provide this.

Living systems theory.
- all living systems tend towards equilibrium
- life = that which exists far from equilibrium
- to activate a system you take it to the edge of chaos, this way it has to adapt, it keeps it alive.
- disturb equilibrium

80% of kids who go from high school/youth group to university lose their faith in the first year. they are taken out of the fish tank and put into the ocean.

It's no wonder people can't manage when they go out into the real world. The people who run our churches are only taught how to manage things inside the church, not about how to deal with the real world, so they can't equip people to deal with reality. They are expert fish tank cleaners, they know nothing about the ocean.

Websites:
Second Hand Books - www.abebooks.com

Forge Intensive Monday - Daryl Gardiner

2006-07-10T04:50:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd post up my raw notes from the intensive ... totally unedited I'm afraid, so please excuse anything wrong, offensive or unintelligible.

Daryl Gardiner.

Matt 6 - the things we do in secret the Father in heaven sees and rewards.
- we are the people of the little things rather than the big things (in societies eyes)
- these little things should be a part of everyday lives and if we aren't then we aren't being true followers of Jesus

John 6:66 - Jesus had just fed the 5000 men, plus the rest ...
- Jesus does a really big miracle
- then the people are very impressed
- Jesus then preaches a sermon
- then all the people leave ... except the disciples and they would have if they could.
- at the cross he gets totally deserted

- This is so crucial is because:
- if we don't unpack the ideas of success in the eyes of society then we will have a different idea of success than the Father. We need to have the understanding of the Father.

- each of us should be hanging out with lonely people - that's where Jesus would be.

Larry Crab - 3 needs of people:
- significance
- this comes through sacrificially serving Jesus.
- "Well done good and faithful servant" Jesus.
- security
- self worth

- your heart follows your actions so get out there and do things so that your heart will follow.

Forge Intensive Monday - Mark Pierson

2006-07-09T18:47:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd post up my raw notes from the intensive ... totally unedited I'm afraid, so please excuse anything wrong, offensive or unintelligible.

Mark Pierson. Urban Seed.

Worship sustains people in the following of Christ in the world.
leader has a responsibility to sustain people in their place in the world. Not about pushing them into what you're thinking.

Worship leader --> Worship Curator
- responsible for overall shape of the whole service. absolutely everything that's involved is overseen by the curator.
- goal is to sustain people in their following of Christ in the world.

working definition of worship
- responding to god heart, mind, soul, strength.
- not just about taking on information, but responding

- something to take away is important ... paper vs digital

An Order of Service.
- opening ritual
- call to worship and prayer for blessing
- meditation or song/s (depending on participation this sometimes gets dropped)
- prayer of confession and worlds of forgiveness
- scripture reading and sermon
- (response)
- communion (brief) and offering (done with water for it's significance)
- prayer of thanks for gifts
- concerns of the church
- prayers for others (issues are shared and then 'Lord hear our prayer')
- song (depending on participation this sometimes gets dropped)
- benediction

- helpful to have a structure to hang things on, plus it becomes connected to the community.

Sustainability.
- having a liturgy/structure is helpful in terms of sustainability
- in mission.
- multifaceted - different for different people - individual paths
- scripture, prayers, journalling, retreats

Is Urban Seed a Christian organisation?
- the Christian faith, worldview, lifestyle undergirds what is done by Urban Seed rather than imposed over the top of it. It's not that it sets out to be a Christian organisation but rather that it happens to be.

Forge Intensive Sunday - Alan Hirsch

2006-07-09T06:18:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd post up my raw notes from the intensive ... totally unedited I'm afraid, so please excuse anything wrong, offensive or unintelligible.

Alan Hirsch

All vices are virtues misdirected. We must direct our life toward the One.

Christology.
- understanding that we have Jesus and his work on our behalf.
- Christology determines Missiology determines Ecclesiology.
- Christology lies at the heart of the renewal of the church.
- if the church wants to renew itself then it has to go back to its founder.
- Show me your Jesus and I'll show you who you are.
- Jesus doesn't go well with religion.
- Jesus is divine, but he is hidden, he invites us to discover him through his humanity.
- Christianity - Christ = Religion
- What is good about the Pharisees?
- they were bible people
- missionary minded
- holiness and purity were serious issues
- zeal, passion, put bodies on the line
- disciplined
- prayer life
- tithe
- feed poor - social justice - custodians of Israel
- believed in miracles
- We do these things as evangelicals, but the Pharisees are the people who put Jesus on the cross ...

- the great commission is actually about making disciples, not believers, it is not seeker sensitive.
- so the early church was actually obsessed with making disciples, it wasn't so focussed on making believers, it wanted people who would love and follow Jesus.
- raised the bar on discipleship, lowered the bar on church - Neil Cole.

- the Church is like a dandelion, we all are seeds, we have ecclesia within us. If God blew us and we were spread out over the earth, we would still be the Church.

- the connection between Jesus and the disciple is the critical connection. discipleship is about becoming like Jesus - becoming little Jesus'.
- the conspiracy that God has is that he wants little Jesus' on every corner.
- Christlikeness.
- it's about embodiment. we live it out. Jesus takes up residence in us.
- spiritual authority - this is directly related to our ability to embody our messages, which is directly related to Christlikeness.
- leadership - it is an extension of discipleship that is based on Christlikeness.

Forge Intensive Saturday - John Franke

2006-07-08T05:37:00.002-07:00

I thought I'd post up my raw notes from the intensive ... totally unedited I'm afraid, so please excuse anything wrong, offensive or unintelligible.

John Franke. Emergent. Seeks to bring missional thinking to the teaching of theology.

To talk about being missional is critical to the heartbeat of God. God's very nature is missional, he doesn't not only have a mission.

Objectives:
- we could gain a better understanding of God and his purposes. (head)
- to have our hearts grow in passion for God's mission. to desire to participate in that. (heart)
- to become more reflect and intelligent about the ways in which we are going to participate. (hands)

What does it mean to say that God is missional?
- most fundamental way to do this is through the Trinity.
- God is triune.
- but what difference does that make?
- well what was God doing before creation? what was going on?
- Augustine and friends. Preparing for people asking these questions ...
- God was giving, receiving and sharing love. In the Trinity God was doing this, through the three persons. This was concrete, real activity that God has been engaged with forever. Well God is love - love is a verb, God has been doing love for all of eternity.
- in this action God is relational, not solitary. God is a relational being, this is show in this action of giving, receiving and sharing love within the Trinity.
- God is missional.
- God extends this love from within the Trinity outwards - a missional activity.
- Creation is a missional activity because it is about sharing this love beyond God. Inviting us into this relationship for all of eternity.
- He created humanity in his image, people of relationship (Adam and Eve). Eve was created out of the very being of Adam, to participate in deep intimate relationship.
- Pericorosis (sp?). The relationship within the Trinity, total interdependence. Humanity was created into this environment. In this way we image God. Giving, receiving and sharing love. Humans were told to be fruiful and multiply. God's love overflows into an activity which multiplies, extends, creates this relationship.
- What does it mean for humans are created in the image of God?
- Rationality? Unlike other created beings, humans have rational capacities. But that suggests that each individual has this and can manifest it for themselves. Very individualist ...
- Exercise of dominion over the created order? - as God does this. Again this assumption comes from the framework of individualism.
- These views are from a western theological framework which tries to understand the Trinity and has an individualist bent.
- As individuals can we really image God on our own? Outside of community? We have been created for an in community, as individuals for community. Without community is there the image of God ...
- Sin entered the equation. Where did it come from? Problematic.
- Flaw entered but God's missional concern goes on. Things are not left in the state of rebellion/foobar. Because of His character of mission, God will not leave things at that. So he enters into covenant (maybe first covenant is in the garden - picture of Christ extinguishing evil). Israel's covenant - I will make you a great nation to bring blessing to all nations of the earth. Jesus comes to fulfill God's mission - "It is finished." Covenantal Climax in Jesus death and resurrection.
- Jesus delivers a surprise when he sends us into the world to participate in the bringing about of the Kingdom of God (John 20). He inaugurates the KoG (the already) and calls us to participate in foreshadowing the fullness of the KoG (the not yet).
- What is this mission?
- to be the community that God intended. Not just hanging out, but being the type of community (interdependent as imaged by the Trinity) that God intended.
- what kind of community?
- identity - interdependence - we see something of God in interdependent communities.
- one that doesn't live to serve itself - this is a Christian community because it is inherently missional
- one that wants to promote the gospel (which is - in Jesus Christ God is reconciling himself to the world)
- a community that is intentional about understanding who it is in Jesus. a missional community that is based in Christ. Christocentric in it's activities. Phil 2:5-11 for more thinking. Emptying self of rights and privileges of God, gives up for the sake of sharing life with us - What are the implications of this for us in the Christian life? Jesus even experiences death for the sake of sharing life with us (mission - giving, receiving and sharing life). The end of these communities is the things that Jesus is on about. Christotelic.

- How does being a Christian community influence our engagement with other beliefs/religions/world views?
- Newbigin - We are exclusive in the sense of affirming the unique truth of the revelation of Jesus Christ. But not in the sense of denying the possibility of salvation for those outside the Christian faith. Inclusive in the sense of refusing to limit the saving grace of God to Christians. But not in the sense of viewing other religions as salvific. Pluralist in the sense of acknowledging the gracious work of God in all other beings. But not pluralist in the sense of denying the unique and decisive nature of God's work in Jesus Christ. (this quote is found in the foreword of a Generous Orthodoxy - Brian McLaren.)

- The Christian community is not just about its specific community. The Body of Christ is global, all who are seeking to be disciples of Christ. 1 Cor 12 - speaks of body with variety of gifts given by the Spirit, given so that none can say it doesn't need the other. This is true on a global scale as well as a local one. A church is at its best when it knows how to give and receive gifts from other churches generously. Jesus prays that all would be one. John 17?

- Our mission is to proclaim/promote/live out now the KoG that will be consummated in the final return of Jesus.

- Bosch. Mission is participation in the mission of God to reconcile the world, wagering on a future that present experience seems to belie.
- will we be fools for Christ?

Questions:
- so what does the community as imaged by the Trinity look like in our context?

Mission - giving, receiving and sharing love.

- The terms we use to describe God (Father, Son, Spirit, Light, etc) are metaphors to help us understand. Analogies that help us understand who God is. God is a father, but a father unlike any father we know. God is a king, but again unlike any king we've known. These metaphors are important, but a single metaphor does not dictate and dominate all others. God has given them all to us. There are feminine metaphors also. Even the label God is a metaphor for Yahweh. God is God - yes, but unlike any other God that we know.

- all other characteristics of God are only expressed in relation to something that is not God (Holiness, Wrath, etc). Love is fundamental because it is primary - expressed first within the Trinity.

Who do we worship? God ... Yahweh, we need to be more specific.

Books.
The Doors of the Sea. Where was God during the Tsumani?

Forge Intensive Saturday - Mark Sayers

2006-07-08T05:37:00.001-07:00

I thought I'd post up my raw notes from the intensive ... totally unedited I'm afraid, so please excuse anything wrong, offensive or unintelligible.
Mark Sayers. Discipleship.
This intensive about our heart's motivation, not only our heart's but the heart's of those we seek to lead.

There has been lots of reshaping of how we meet and what we do, but very little discipleship, very little radical follower-ship of Jesus.

Are we producing robust disciples for our missional environment?
- often it seems that discipleship is measured by attendance at church programs.
- maybe we don't really have much of an idea about what a disciple of Jesus really looks like in the western world today.

Often the people who are leading emerging missional churches are on fire, but the people they are leading aren't that keen. So the key is to be able to engender in people a missional excitement, not just trying to to do it all yourself.

Our culture is full of supposed freedom, seemingly endless pleasure, but the reality is that people are often trapped.

So people in our churches hardly remember their call (conversion/call to mission) and they are distracted by this world that seems to promise everything but delivers very little.

The beginning of radical discipleship is by taking steps out into the unknown to begin with. People are standing back where you were, looking out at you walking into the unknown and wondering what to do. How do you encourage people to follow you out into the unknown? How do we challenge people to come with us on the dangerous journey into the unknown?

Often people grew up with a view of God that is either about Control or Conversion. God's love is linked to either of these things. But maybe now people have a more Contract sort of view, if I give to God then I'll get such and such back from him. A Contract view of relationships turns other people or God into tools for the individual to use.

We need to move away from the Contract view towards a Covenant mentality. Contract is based on 'if' - if you do this for me then I'll do this for you. Covenant says that each party will deliver on their promise regardless. The Covenant is done in a spirit of submission, a Contract is done in a spirit of greed. The Contract is about what you can get, the Covenant is about what you can give. A Covenant is about all of life, a Contract is limited. A Covenant is almost anti-individualist. A Contract is begun with the end in mind, a Covenant is eternal. Covenant is principle based and Contract is sort of law based.

Forge Intensive Saturday - Olivia MacLean

2006-07-08T05:37:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd post up my raw notes from the intensive ... totally unedited I'm afraid, so please excuse anything wrong, offensive or unintelligible.

Olivia MacLean. Spiritual Disciplines of Solace.

- Book. Remaking - a workbook for Spiritual Formation.

- Make manifest the glory of God that is in us.

- Solace exists to bring out the 'fabulousness' in people. And they believe that every person has that within them.

- Be remade, be part of remaking.
- The gospel is the invitation given by Jesus to join God in remaking the world starting with yourself. We do this with faith and in faithfulness.
- The focus is doing - discipleship based on a correct found of being and believing.
- In order to do and be in wholeness we are invited to belong first with God, within God and with other people.

- Jesus' focus is discipleship
- Why do you call me "Lord, Lord: and not do what I say? (Luke 6:46)

- Paul's focus is discipleship
- Col 2 and Gal 5 - only two examples
- No magic rituals but plenty of discipline
- Grace but not rules or cheap grace

- 4 important things we MUST NOT take as primary objectives:
1. External conformity to Jesus teaching
2. Profession of perfectly correct doctrine
3. Faithfulness to Church activities
4. Seeking specific and special experiences

- 2 primary objectives:
1. Be enthralled by God
2. Remove our automatic responses against God's community

- Action-Reflection Training
- 5 dimensions of the eternal kind of life
- love, confidence and reliance upon Jesus
- a desire to be his apprentice
- exploring abundance in obedience
- deeper inner transformation
- power to work the works of God's community

- The Ways that are explored by Solace
- The Way of the Everyday
- The Way of Contemplation
- The Way of Relating
- The Way of Learning and Understanding

Forge Intensive Saturday - Daryl Gardiner

2006-07-08T05:36:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd post up my raw notes from the intensive ... totally unedited I'm afraid, so please excuse anything wrong, offensive or unintelligible.

Daryl Gardiner. YFC NZ.

When we bring the things to God that we know are wrong/bad, he knows that, in fact he knows how they are even better than we do 'cos he sees sin as it really is.

In confession we are really just agreeing with God. When we do agree with God about our sin, he makes us clean.

We can use mission to give the appearance of a totally pure motive when in reality we're lucky if it's 10% ...

We talk about doing ministry/mission for Jesus, but in fact there is usually a whole bunch of other motives at play.
- romantic myth
- loneliness
- ambitious
- romance/pickup
- esteem/glory
- etc

If we are going to continue in ministry/mission without being honest about our motives then it's going to burn us. Our expectations, that we aren't honest about, don't get met and we get jealous, angry, disappointed, upset, etc.

Some people manage to survive this, often it seems by accident.

They move on to sticking around because of the team of people or because of the cause that you're on about.

One of the problems with causes is that people try and make their's look sexier than yours and so you leave to join theirs, but aren't honest about why you're really leaving.

If we stick at it for long enough then maybe we'll get to the point where we are doing it more for God.

What seems to happen is that over time the pyramid turns upside down. You move from doing it 10% for God, 20% for the cause/team, 70% for other motives to the opposite.

Is there burnout? Or is it just us not being honest for too long and that coming back to bite us?

When we say 'create in me a clean heart oh Lord'. What we really need to be saying is 'create in me a new way of looking at the world, show me the misbeliefs I have at the moment that I need to change, etc.'

The loneliest point in a person's existence is when they get the thing they desire most and find out that it doesn't satisfy. - Hindu Proverb.

We have many beliefs including some misbeliefs, we just don't know what those misbeliefs are yet.

Crossing Cultures

2006-06-27T07:15:00.000-07:00

Jay and I had some friends who are missionaries in Jordan come and have dinner with us last night. Hanging out with people who devote their lives to a culture so different from ours is always an interesting experience. They usually come across as being a bit weird. Fair enough though really, if they weren't then they probably wouldn't be any good at connecting with people in the culture they are seeking to serve.

Chatting with these guys reminded me how much I enjoy crossing cultures. In many ways that's what Jay and I do best. I seem to morph (hopefully with integrity) from a hippie to a nerd, to a theological student, to a refugee advocate, to a sporting fan to whatever else is required to participate in and connect with the culture. I love it too, the diversity of experiences and relationships is wonderful and the opportunities to connect and share the kingdom of God with different people abound.

I raises interesting questions for me about our congregation called Loam. Are we trying to create a space that connects well with only one subculture? Or are we seeking to create an environment in which many subcultures can engage with God and catch a glimpse of his kingdom to come? I'm not so sure I'm wired up to just focus on one ...

Gathering together

2006-06-21T18:42:00.000-07:00

Our Loam crew meet up on Wednesday night's for a time of worship, prayer and learning. Last night we spent some time using the Prayer of Saint Francis and then used a modified form of Lectio Divina to study Luke 6:39-49 and finished up with Saint Francis again. It was a great little gathering as we had some regulars away, but a visitor or two which added something different. The approach of Lectio Divina allows everyone to have input and aid the learning of the group. Whenever I am involved in Lectio Divina I'm reminded that it is God's Spirit who helps us understand the bible. Theological education and training is helpful, but the role of God's Spirit to draw our attention and give us understanding is irreplaceable and so often He speaks through those who we would expect Him to least. It's a beautiful thing.

It was a thought-provoking and encouraging evening, today I feel better able to live out the kingdom of God because of it.

Back to posting

2006-06-21T18:31:00.000-07:00

My life has been more crazy than normal in the last couple of months, but I'm hoping that things will settle at least a little for a while and I can think and post here a bit more.

Church Definition from Webber

2006-05-29T23:39:00.000-07:00

While working on yet another essay last night I read this great quote in 'the Younger Evangelicals' by Robert Webber. Thought I'd share it with you.

The church is where the Spirit of God is forming a people who are the expression of God's redeeming work in the world. They are the people in whom the dwelling of God is forming a new creation. They are God's witnesses in the world; they witness to God's victory over the powers of evil and are a sign of the ultimate reconciliation of all things.

Absent.

2006-05-21T07:16:00.000-07:00

I was thinking today about how I haven't really blogged at all lately. I've been kinda busy with some new people in my life that I'd like to share with you about.

At Easter Jay and I had a guy stay from West Papua, a young guy whose life has been pretty traumatic and the people who were looking after him thought it'd be good for him to stay with a family over the Easter break. So he came and celebrated Easter with us and our families, our lives haven't really been the same since. We had had some pretty impacting first hand experience of sharing hospitality with someone in a powerful way.

Not long after a this, a good friend who does a lot of advocacy work for refugees (and writes a great blog on it all at http://asylumseekernews.blogspot.com/) called and asked us if we could offer similar hospitality to another guy, this time from Cameroon. Again we did and found ourselves greatly blessed by the new friendship and joy we experienced at being able to care for someone in need.

The same day this guy left us I got a call from the Red Cross to ask us if we could have a guy from Afghanistan come and stay with us. Thankfully we were again in a position to offer hospitality and the last 4 weeks have been some of the most challenging and meaningful of my life. Without going into this guy's story I want to say that it is incredibly traumatic, i don't understand how he smiles, laughs or even gets through the day really. Whenever I talk to him about his story I just want to cry, the injustice and evil are heartbreaking. Yet in the midst of all of this God has been at work; bringing us into the picture and using us to bless this guy in a way that he finds unbelievable, sharing with us the privilege of serving and loving someone to bring about healing, challenging and stretching our understanding of love and sacrifice, bringing a depth of meaning to hospitality that we never knew existed and creating a new friendship based on love and trust.

It's been a joy and a blessing, also a pretty good reason for my absence here I reckon!

Key character qualities of a post-modern missional leader essay

2006-05-08T19:25:00.000-07:00

The last couple of days I've been writing an essay on the key character qualities of a post-modern missional leader. It's not due for a bit over a week but I've done my first draft (which is usually also my final draft) so I thought I'd post it and see what people thought. You can download it in .doc format here or I've posted it all below if you'd rather read it that way. Let me know what you think, what I've missed, where I've been heretical and what sucks if you feel like it.

Describe the key character qualities of a post-modern Missional Leader

The scriptures provide clear explanations of the character qualities required of leaders (1 Timothy 3 + Titus 1) and this essay does not seek to replace these requirements. Instead the intention of this essay is to support and expand on those requirements for the current post-modern context, specifically focussing on missional leadership and with particular reference to the critical elements of God’s essential nature.

In my recent reflection on the critical elements of God’s essential nature I wrote about how God is proactive, sacrificial/other person centered, relational, motivating and gracious. As we are made in God’s image and seek to be like him, I see these elements to be critical qualities that post-modern missional leaders should aspire to. For the purpose of this essay I will tag each of the key character qualities of a post-modern missional leader with the critical elements of God’s essential nature from my recent reflection to show the relationship between them.

Missional leaders should be relational, not dictators (tags - sacrificial/other person centered, relational, motivating). Due to the changes in how authority works in a post-modern setting, as opposed to a modern one, the missional leader ‘must be less positional and far more relational than in previous generations.’1 This means that the leader cannot afford to make top-down decisions and use authority simply on the basis of their position. The leader must work hard to build credibility through evidence of competence, relational connectedness with those they are seeking to lead and also a sense of calling from God. ‘Authority does not come with a position and a title but ... it has to be earned. It is established on the basis of trustworthiness and competence ... leadership emerges as power is shared rather than as authority is exerted. That power may arise from the application of one's area of expertise, but it is based on trust and is reinforced as personal relationships are deepened and extended.’2

Missional leaders must also be permission-giving rather than simply delegators. Many leaders delegate work to others but never actually give away power, they are simply passing on work that needs to be done. Missional leaders need to be confident enough in themselves that they don’t have to make themselves indispensable, confident enough to give others who have the capacity, the tasks and the authority to carry them out. They need to give permission for others to take leadership.3

The leader’s approach to decision making must also reflect this change away from the bureaucratic tendencies of previous generations of christian leaders. A more honest attempt at building consensus is required from post-modern missional leaders. The executive decision making approach disempowers and devalues those being led; leaders need to work on developing the context for healthy consultative or consensus based decision making to occur.4 It should be noted that consensus based decision making is not without its problems as it requires all members of the group to agree on a particular path before advancing on it, obviously this opens the group to being held back by a small minority. Simon Hall from Revive has a helpful description at how this difficulty can be overcome, ‘We try to distinguish between “I think this is a bad idea, but you’re my community, and if you want to do it, I’ll still back you,” and “I really believe God is against this.” If we get any of the latter (and we have occasionally), we don’t make a decision.’5

God’s personhood and desire to have healthy relationships with people must give shape to our approach to leadership. The Holy Spirit resides in us, prompting and encouraging not pushing or demanding. God gives us the privilege of serving along with him, he chooses to use us even though we are broken and get things wrong. He doesn’t delegate and then take things away from us when we fail, he empowers and encourages us, enabling us to get it right. His rules are not enforced on us in this life, we have the freedom to choose, even when he, the powerful one, does not like our choice. He is eager to listen and to act. Our leadership needs to be shaped by this strong relational element that God demonstrates in how he leads us.

Post-modern missional leaders need to be completely honest and accountable (tags - relational, motivating, gracious) because current generations are so cynical, able to sniff out hypocrisy wherever there is the slightest whiff of it. Gibbs writes, ‘postmoderns want above everything else to experience authenticity. They are interested not so much in our truth claims as in the extent to which our lives correspond to the truth we proclaim.’6 For this reason missional leaders need to be accountable to those they are seeking to lead, not setting themselves up as beyond question or challenge. They must lead lives that are transparent, easily visible to those around them, sharing their wins and their losses their joys and their struggles. Notions of a private life and a public life are not good enough; unless a leader is willing to make themselves vulnerable and accountable to others they will not truly gain the privilege of leading.

Part of post-modern missional leaders being honest and accountable is in how they model discipleship. Post-modern missional leaders desire people to follow Jesus, they want people to become and grow as disciples. An essential factor in them being successful at this is their own lives of discipleship. More than ever it seems critical that leaders model radical lives focussed on following Jesus. Leaders must live lives of humility and submission in a culture of pride and independence, selflessness and integrity in a culture of greed and corruption. If leaders want to see people making hard choices to follow Jesus then they must lead the way. If they want people they lead to serve the poor then they must do so, if they want people they lead to share the stories of Jesus then they must do so and if they want to see the people they lead devoted and in love with Christ then they must be that way also. The significance of the leader modelling radical discipleship cannot be overstated, it is essential.

Missional leaders need to be culturally and spiritually connected (tags - proactive, motivating). The context in which we seek to be faithful to God and his kingdom agenda continues to change at a very rapid rate, unless leaders have their finger on the pulse of the culture they will fail in their attempts to engage it with gospel. However a finger on the pulse of the culture is not enough, leaders must also stay connected to the Source of all life, if they stray they will become syncretistic and very quickly unfaithful. ‘The role of missional church leadership includes the examination of the community it is trying to reach and the teaching of biblical truth to a local congregation.’7 This will require leaders to spend time in the culture they are seeking to reach, authentically immersing themselves in it to develop a deep and rich understanding. Post-modern missional leaders will also need to spend time connecting with and understanding God. If they wish to influence a culture with the truth and power of the gospel then that must become their story and experience. Leaders need to be trained and developed in their understanding of who God is and what he has done as well as what that might look like in their context.

Post-modern missional leaders need to be people who can tell and live the alternative story of the kingdom of God. They need to be enthralled themselves with God’s transforming dream and spend much of their time seeking to be used by God in bringing that about. With those they lead they need to share this dream and articulate this alternative reality. If these leaders are not sharing God’s kingdom view of the world with those they are seeking to lead and influence, then where are they people leading to?

The reality that surrounds us is in many ways mediated to us by all kinds of influences. The media, business and many other influences control how we see and understand reality, this is simply part of life for people these days. A leader needs to take up some of the task of mediating reality and meaning for those they are seeking to lead. A leader needs to be able to perceive the stories and journeys our culture is encouraging us to pursue and help people see that in the light of the kingdom of God. Leaders require great insight and discernment as they seek to be culturally and spiritually connected enough to guide others in the current context.8

God acts before us, without his act to first love us we would not be in relationship with him, leaders must take note of this and be proactive also. Cultural and spiritual engagement require us to be proactive, it is essential that leaders follow the characteristics of God in this way. Leaders also need to follow God’s character to motivate, God’s transforming love gives purpose and meaning, it gives hope and light where otherwise there is only darkness. His gracious and merciful nature motivate people to try again when they fail, they give the courage to act even when it looks like failure is certain. God’s trustworthiness is inspiring because it gives something to fall back on when we reach high and don’t make it. As leaders seek to cast the vision for the kingdom of God and help others understand God and the world they live in they are following this characteristic of motivation.

Post-modern missional leaders need to be servant-hearted (tags - proactive, sacrificial/other person centered, gracious). Often people refer to Jesus style of leadership as servant leadership and clearly he was a servant of all, but many people misunderstand the nature of Jesus’ servanthood. Jesus did not come to comply with everyone else’s wishes, but to do the will of his father (John 6:38). This needs to be kept in mind by missional leaders as they seek to imitate Jesus model of servant leadership, they are a servant to the Father and in turn servants to those they seek to lead.9 It is crucial for post-modern missional leaders to be servant-hearted because so much of the leadership that has gone before them has had no element of this characteristic. There is a cynicism in current culture towards leaders, that they are only after power for themselves, that while they may talk about caring for others they are ultimately only interested in their own agenda and well being. Leaders will have to fight against this cynicism and mistrust with authentic servant-hearted leadership that breaks down these barriers and gives people a glimpse of God’s character.

Leaders need to be servant-hearted because it reflects the character of God. The key example of this is when God acted at his own cost in Jesus, he sacrificed himself for us. Even though humanity’s response to him has so often been rejection he still does not delight in our failures but only desires what is best for us, He cares for those who are poor and lowly and blesses all despite their response to him (He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. Matt 5:45). Acting from his own motivation God gives gifts to those who don’t deserve it, he is gracious and kind. This is the model for servant-hearted post-modern missional leaders.

As stated at the beginning of this essay the scriptures make clear the requirements of leaders. The characteristics discussed in this essay (relational, honest and accountable, culturally and spiritually connected and servant-hearted) are not a replacement but an expansion on those given to us in scripture. This essay has shown that leaders need to follow God’s example as they seek to bring influence and guidance to other’s lives in a post-modern context and with a missional agenda.

A leader is ...

2006-05-04T21:20:00.000-07:00

A whole bunch of quotes from the first chapter of LeadershipNext called Redefining Leadership, not surprisingly these quotes are focussed around defining leaders and leadership. I should point out that they are not quotes directly from the author, they are mostly quotes in the book also.

A Christian leader is a person with a God-given capacity and the God-given responsibility to influence a specific group of God's people toward God's purpose for the group.

I like the focus on God giving capacity and responsibility although I have to say that I wish there was a less loaded term than influence to use.

Leadership is your capacity to guide others to places they (and you) have never been before.

Initially I felt uncomfortable with the added '(and you)' here, but I guess it is right. My Forge coach tells me that when I'm going through rough things, one the ways to look at it might be that I'm learning and that's good because I can't lead others where I'm not willing to go. I guess the '(and you)' doesn't have to mean at exactly the same time.

Leadership involves a person, group, or organisation who shows the way in an area of life - whether in the short - or the long-term - and in doing so both influences and empowers enough people to bring about change in that area.

There's that pesky word influence again, although it is well balanced by the description of the influence coming from 'show the way' ... not so loaded. I like the element of empowerment here also.

If by leader we mean one who holds a position of authority and responsibility, then every Christian is not a leader. Some are - some are not. But if by leader we mean a person who enters into a relationship with another person to influence their behaviour, values or attitude, then I would suggest that all Christians should be leaders. Or perhaps more accurately, all Christians should exercise leadership, attempting to make a difference in the lives of those around them.

This is a wonderful little quote as I think it helpfully pushes us on the issue of who is a leader. I like it!

True servant leaders are those who are prepared to take the initiative. But before embarking on a course of action, they listen to God and to the voices around them in order to determine what God requires of them. They are committed for the long haul, maintaining faith and hope, patience and fortitude. They also make time, no matter how busy their schedules, to withdraw from the relentless demands of daily life in order to refocus and renew their strength. Such discipline enables servant leaders, who are all too aware of their limitations, to demonstrate foresight and anticipate their next steps. As they exercise discernment, servant leaders are constantly making connections between isolated pieces of information, looking for a coherent pattern to emerge.

I think this is the best description of servant leadership I've come across. I've had years of hearing about leadership being about servanthood but then still seeing them push on with only their agenda. Or talking about relying on God, but actually relying mostly on their own ability and ego. I want to lead like this.

... authority does not come with a position and a title but ... it has to be earned. It is established on the basis of trustworthiness and competence ... leadership emerges as power is shared rather than as authority is exerted. That power may arise from the application of one's area of expertise, but it is based on trust and is reinforced as personal relationships are deepened and extended.

I also long to lead like this, to lead by sharing power rather than exerting authority. That building and deepening relationships of trust might be more important than having position and title.

The leaders of the future must grow and flex with a changing context. They recognise the need to respond rapidly to the unexpected. They are risk-takers who maintain a low profile because they take so much 'flack'. They are also individuals committed to change precisely because they recognise the need for change within themselves. Motivated by their insatiable curiosity - a curiosity that drives them to see connections between apparently unconnected pieces of information - leaders of growing organisations are committed to lifelong learning. This in turn results in a refreshing humility; rather than simply make statements, they admit the limitations of their knowledge and continually ask questions. Leaders are constantly growing and making course corrections as they incorporate their new insights. If they stop learning, they eventually stop leading.

In the last few years as I've struggled to come to terms with what it means to lead I've often been drawn to pray for humility. I'm not sure I've got much of it yet, but I think I've come to understand what this quote above is talking about. I'm recognising the necessity for change precisely because I know that I need it myself so much. I'm recognising the need to change direction as I'm being taught new things. I'm recognising the need to keep learning, to be humble enough to face the fact that there is always something I have to learn.

The chapter finishes with a bunch of sections under the heading Leadership Challenges

Beyond preserving the inherited institutions: Leading a mission-focussed community of disciples
Beyond ideology-driven evangelism: Leading a value-based community of disciples
Beyond dispensing information: Seeking spiritual formation rooted in Scripture
Beyond the controlling hierarchy: Leading empowered networks of Christ followers
Beyond weekly gatherings: Building teams engaged in ongoing mission
Beyond a gospel of personal self-realisation: A service-oriented faith community
Beyond the inwardly focussed church: Leading a society-transforming community of disciples

Just chucked these in there 'cos they're interesting statements.

A tragedy in theological education

2006-04-27T18:48:00.000-07:00

I'm reading another Eddie Gibbs book for uni at the moment called LeadershipNext, it's the follow on from ChurchNext which I've posted on previously.

I couldn't pass up posting this quote as it is a particular concern of mine.

One of the greatest tragedies in theological education has been the separation (to their mutual impoverishment) of ecclesiology from missiology. This separation has resulted, on the one hand, in a missionless church and, on the other, in a churchless mission.

It's my opinion that these things must be brought back together in our theological institutions, churches, mission organisations and individual lives if we wish to follow God faithfully.

Discerning a healthy community

2006-04-21T17:58:00.000-07:00

More from Sam Metcalf over at Under the Iceberg. In a recent post he provides this list of questions to help discern whether our community is healthy, whether it is a context that nurtures healthy emotional and spiritual relationships.

1. Does the context use me or develop me?
2. Can authority be questioned?
3. Is conflict resolved or repressed?
4. Is it an inclusive or exclusive environment?
5. Is an inordinate amount of time required to maintain the community as opposed to ministry outside?
6. What is accomplisihed other than “presence” in the greater society?
7. Is it easy to leave?
8. When we are in over our head with relational pathology, are qualified pros available and accessed, ie, counselors, pshychiatrists, therapists, and spiritual directors?
9. Is leadership accountable?
10. Is diversity embraced or is uniformity enforced?

I'm not sure it's an exhaustive list, but it's a good start ...

Good missiology tells us ...

2006-04-09T08:21:00.000-07:00

In an insightful post entitled Two Cultures, Sam Metcalf over at Under the Iceberg brings this fascinating list of things that 'good missiology tells us'. The context is a contrast of the new culture and the old in America which of course has some parallels here, but I'm particularly interested in the missiological principles he lists.

1) The new won’t be influenced by imposing cultural norms from the old.
2) The old, like nearby cultures the world over, will only be marginally effective, if at all, in influencing the new.
3) The new requires fresh, indigenous expressions of authentic biblical reality.
4) These new expressions, if they are effective, will probably not be recognized as stereotypical “church” by both the secularists of the new or the religionists of the old.
5) These new expressions will require missionaries, in the classic sense, who can cross language, cultural, and in some cases, socio-economic barriers to incarnate the gospel of Jesus in a holistic way and stimulate the emergence of these new expressions.
6) Not every follower of Jesus is a missionary, i.e., not everyone has the skills, gifts or calling to do this.
7) Missionaries need missionary structures if they are to be effective.
8) Missionary structures are not the same as followers of Jesus gathered in these new expressions for community, mission, and nurture (i.e., local churches in the truly biblical sense).
9) Therefore to have a sustainable movement in the new, both the church in its local form and the church and its missionary form must be present and play interdependent roles.

I feel like I could write a page on each point but for brevity's sake I'm particularly encouraged by 1 because I'm devoting myself to a task based on that assumption, 5 because that is what I feel God is challenging me to become and 7 because I'm also convinced it's true. I'm challenged by 4 because some part of me wishes the religionists of old would recognise what we are doing as church, 6 because I'm not sure about it (maybe my definition of missionary is a bit broader here) and 9 because it seems like we've got a long way to go to get to that place.

The Constant Gardener and the Kingdom of God

2006-04-09T08:06:00.000-07:00

I just finished watching The Constant Gardener. I'm feeling a little overwhelmed really. It's a very well made movie, I haven't read any reviews of other people's thoughts, but I thought it was excellent. It pushed my buttons in so many ways and brought me back to that question you constantly (no pun intended) face if you invest any time and energy in seeking to understand (let alone do something about) the many significant issues we face on a global level.

I thought I'd post on it because of how it got me thinking. There are so many global issues humanity is facing. So many that it is overwhelming. More often than not they are complex and grey, not black and white. The complexity can often be scary and challenging, leaving you feeling like there is nothing you can do or that if you could do something it would be so insignificant that it wouldn't be worth doing anyway. As I continued this train of thought I realised that my understanding of and relationship with God should have a significant impact on how I deal with this situation. If God is really sovereign and His kingdom really is breaking into the world then I don't have to worry about all these issues. I have a responsibility to be concerned, to learn and act on them, but they are not my issues to worry about. God doesn't expect me to try and solve them all, but to play my part in His plans for restoration and ultimately recreation.

This reality doesn't take away the complexity, the greyness or even the overwhelming situation we find ourselves in in this global village, but it does open up a pathway forward. As people passionate about and focussed on the kingdom of God our responsibility is significant and we need to take up the part we are to play, however we serve a king who reigns and will restore all things so that at his appointed time 'He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things ... [will have] passed away.' (Rev 21:4)

Open and Closed?

2006-04-07T09:50:00.000-07:00

I've been speaking to a few people lately who are interested in joining our community. All of them Christians. It's caused me to wonder what we should do when Christians want to join Loam.

Should we just let anyone and everyone who is interested join?

What does it mean to join?

Is there a danger that we'll find ourselves working hard to keep Christians 'happy' at the expense of focussing on mission?

Is that a danger?

Can/Should we really close ourselves off to Christians so that we can focus on others who don't know Jesus?

These are some questions floating around my head at the moment. Some of them might appear to have simple, straightforward answers ... but I'm not so sure that they do. Very much thoughts in progress!

The challenge of creating community in our culture.

2006-04-07T09:32:00.000-07:00

Possibly my last post using a quote from Emerging Churches. I was plagued by this issue at my previous church and suspect it will be an ongoing challenge, both personally and in terms of our church plant.

Creating a vital community is a challenge in our current cultural context. People are both hungry for relationships and yet at the same time ill prepared for the costs involved. In a culture in which casual relationships or contractual relationships are the norm, it is difficult to build relationships on deep foundations that can survive disagreements and disappointments. People are more prone to walk away when the going becomes difficult than to work through a crisis point where a new depth of understanding is reached.

I can't imagine anyone disagreeing with this statement for our context here in Australia. As I reflect on my personal response to conflict in relationships and disappointment as well as the many times I've observed these events in other's lives, it's clear we find it easier to just walk away. However walking away doesn't cut it, we don't grow, we lose what we have invested in community and God is not glorified by our behaviour. I found the following categorisation that was also made in the book a helpful (if very basic) grid to use.

Consumer church - a place where people shop to get their spiritual needs met.
Communal church - family where relationships continue regardless of how people are feeling.

God help us to get over ourselves, commit to each other and press on when things seem too hard!

Theologically what is the relationship between the Church and the Kingdom of God?

2006-04-07T09:22:00.000-07:00

This is a question I've been reading, thinking, dreaming, strategising about quite a bit lately. I thought this bit of theological basis from Emerging Churches was helpful.

The reign of God existed before the coming of the church, and it will replace the church at the consummation of all things, when Christ will reign supreme and unchallenged. The church, for its part, is a servant and a sign of the coming kingdom, which was inaugurated with the coming of Christ and was established, in its provisional form, with his ascension into heaven and the imparting of his Spirit. The church, as a servant of the kingdom, constantly points beyond itself to the Lord who is its head and who requires unreserved and comprehensive submission.

First and foremost is the kingdom, and the church follows. To ask church questions without reference to the kingdom is fruitless.

Do emerging churches need to be small to be authentic?

2006-04-07T09:18:00.000-07:00

I've had many conversations where people have commented that 'emerging churches think they have to be small and struggling to be authentic.' It always seemed a bit of a cheap shot, so I was pleasantly surprised to read this recently in
Emerging Churches

Joel McClure (Water's Edge, Hudsonville, MI) looks to the future of their groups with some disquiet. "If we grow, we are not sure what we will do: get bigger or create smaller units." But McClure points out that "small is not the answer, and big is not the answer. It is about faithfulness."

This is how I feel about it. If it makes sense in your context to be church in a big way then go for it. If it makes sense to be church in your context to be church a small way then do that. The question is not about size, shape or style, but about being faithful to God in the place he's given you.

Traumatic day at the office

2006-04-06T03:30:00.000-07:00

Because I don't get paid to run Loam I have to do something else to get money. I run a work for the dole project for Mission Australia at Northern Community Church of Christ. Today at Northern I had the most horrible day so far. Without going too much into the details of my day it was traumatic. Basically I was pretty seriously verbally abused by a volunteer (not a work for the dole participant) in what a colleague massively understated as an overreaction to something reasonable I'd done. I don't think I could make up what this guy sprayed at me as he threatened physical violence, and I've done my fair share of cussing. After he was dragged away by another volunteer he came back in and quit his position as a volunteer. This experience was traumatic at many levels and I feel the need to reflect on it here 'cos it's a very real and raw part of mission that I'm experiencing.

Obviously this experience was traumatic because I don't like to be abused, I don't like to be scared and I don't like to be embarrassed in front of a whole room full of people. My initial reaction was a bit of shock and eventually some tears (I don't mind crying if I feel the need). So this bit was hard but nowhere near as hard as the greater repercussions of the day's events.

A colleague who spoke with this guy later on in the afternoon said that he 'knew he didn't hurt me'. I realised that this is totally false, in fact he couldn't have hurt me much more. I don't like running work for the dole, I don't like the system - I feel at many levels it is unjust, I don't like the type of work very much - I run a hospitality program and I'm pretty useless at hospitality. However I do my job because I feel that we need to love and care for people, particularly people that are having a hard time, for whatever reason. I care about the relationships that I have with people there, they are real, they teach me lots and I hope I make a difference in their lives. By responding the way he did and particularly walking away from the place, this guy took away the very thing I am seeking to help happen, people becoming more whole as they come to know God through a compassionate community. I realise the thing that saddens me the most in this whole situation is that the brokeness that is evident in this person's life is stopping him from drawing close to God and there is pretty much nothing I can do about it. My interactions with him seem to have aggravated this broken part of his personality to the point that he is going to remove himself from what I would hope would be a place of healing. That's the hardest part.

NT Wright Gems

2006-04-04T07:40:00.001-07:00

I sat and listened to NT Wright speak for a day and a bit recently. For some of the time I bothered to take notes, this is what I wrote down ...

people don't understand the Christian faith, particularly not anything about the Christian perspective of the afterlife

death does matter, a culture that says that it doesn't is in denial, it is hugely significant ... problem is that Christian's often don't know what to say ... is the main aim really to go to heaven when you die? it's not so in the scriptures, the Christian church has often colluded with the modernist world

death is nothing at all ... sounds comforting, but really isn't

death is real, it isn't nice, but after it we will be raised again to live eternally and death itself will be killed

death is the last enemy, but in Christ it is the defeated enemy

the KoH is not a place where God rules, but the fact that God rules

heaven and earth are not miilions of miles away from one another, they are the overlapping spheres of God's creation

your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven

the jewish and christian hope is that in heaven you will be even more the person you are now, not less, not lost in a sea or eternal pulse. in the fullness of God's new world you become who you truly are

resurrection is not life after death, it is life after life after death

part of being a Christian is to grow up in your thinking ... there are lots of bit of Christian theology that are hard but we can't just sink back into some fluffy folk religion because it is too hard

creation
justice
resurrection
- they go together, they triangulate

the vocation of easter is the getting on with the new creation
resurrection is the beginning of the new week, the beginning of the new era

as the church we are called to stand in pain at the place where the world is in pain and seek God

the Spirit groans in the church that groans in the world which is groaning.

God - the heart searcher
The One who searches the hearts

God's future has come forward into the present to transform your muddled praying ...

You don't get to share God's life without getting some wounds

We are called to be the renewed renewers of God's creation

Holiness is not about obeying a bunch of rules in the old creation, it's about getting involved in the new creation and working out what's going on.

It takes spiritual discernment to see what is the genuinely new creation and what is just the old creation dressed up.

Love is not just our duty, it is our destiny. It is the language that is spoken in God's new world, we are called to learn it here so that we will be fluent in it in God's new world.

Love is about learning to look at the world and people in the light of Easter. We are called to see others as what they are and as redeemed through Easter.

If you're not forgiving others then you will not be able to receive forgiveness yourself. It's like we close a door that forgiveness flows through and we stop God's forgiveness from reaching us.

ACOM Missional Leadership Intensive with Stephen Said

2006-04-04T07:40:00.000-07:00

The other week I had my first ACOM Intensive. Stephen Said was the facilitator and it was on the subject of Missional Leadership. I'm not a great note taker, in fact I really just wrote down things that interested me or that I was asked to. Anyway here are my notes ...

One of the first things we did was watch the movie Molokai. The intention was to see if he was a good missionary and if so why, my basic reflections were ...

- impressed by his faithfulness, even while enduring much suffering and injustice
- inspired by his love
- challenged by his sacrifice
- tired of the institution and its capacity to hold back God's work

We spent quite a lot of our time in discussion about the kingdom of God (or as Stephen likes to call it God's Transforming Dream). This was a great discussion including issues such as what is heaven and its relationship to the kingdom, what is the gospel and a bunch of other stuff that I remember being good but can't think of right now. :-p

The two things I found the most helpful would probably have been the time we spent talking about key practices of missional leaders (notes below) and working on the approaches to discipleship in a modern context compared to a postmodern one.

Key practices of missional leaders.

Critical Contextualisation
- observe one area of culture,
- engage with scripture on that issue,
- build the interpretive bridge.

Telling the story of the Kingdom of God - God's transforming dream - understanding and articulating an alternative reality

Mediating Reality/Meaning
- we suffer a crisis of meaning because we've had the mystery explained away by scientific reasoning
- we live in a mediated reality - certain people control our reality through media, etc
- missional leaders have a responsibility to help people understand the real world

Embodiment
- you cannot separate the missionary from the mission
- against the darkness: a transforming vision St Francis of Assisi in an age of anxiety - Richard Raw
- Jesus does not call us to have the answer, Jesus calls us to be

I wish I'd taken better notes, but I never do, I always get lost in the conversation.

My definition of Missional Leadership at the end of the three days was:

Missional leadership is the action of influencing other journeyers to follow the God of mission by discerning, telling the story of the KoG, mediating reality and embodying the KoG with them.

Literature Review - Emerging Churches - Eddie Gibbs and Ryan Bolger

2006-04-04T07:17:00.000-07:00

I've done a literature review on the Gibbs and Bolger book I've been reading Emerging Churches for uni. I've posted it here if you're interested. Although I do want to say that I feel like the word limit forced me to say a lot of nothing rather than a whole bunch of something that I feel like I have to say on the book. Trying to review a whole 340 page book in 2500 is just a joke. Even still I'd be interested to know what you think if you do read it.

Neil Cole Seminars

2006-03-29T14:58:00.000-08:00

From all accounts this should be fantastic. Go and let me know how it is ... I have to work. :-(

Embracing both Transcendence and Immanence

2006-03-19T04:54:00.000-08:00

It seems today is just one of those days where I keep coming across explanations for things I've felt but not ever really understood.

On a section in Emerging Churches about transcendence (God is beyond human experience and understanding, transcending the physical universe) and immanence (God actively participate in creation) Gibbs and Bolger say the following ...

Secular modernity pushed religious practice to two extremes. Whereas in pre-modernity God was both transcendent and immanent, in modernity, God could be either transcendent or immanent but not both. In this regard, both conservatives and liberals are equally modern: Conservatives stress the transcendence of God, and liberals stress God's immanence. In modern conservative churches, it follows that God is experienced outside material reality.

Gibbs and Bolger go on to say that Emerging Churches try to embrace both the transcendence and immanence of God. I've grown up in a conservative evangelical context and all this rings pretty true to me. Deep down I know that these elements of God's character need to be brought together and balanced, but that hasn't been my experience so far, it's always been weighted towards a God who is beyond human experience and understanding. Now that I understand why the influences that have caused me to experience God the way I have, the challenge is to not throw the baby out with the bath water, I need to know and follow God as he is participating in creation while continuing to recognise and worship him as beyond me.

Protestantism and Print Culture

2006-03-19T04:11:00.000-08:00

Something else from Gibbs and Bolger's book that I'd never thought about before ...

The Protestant church itself was a contextualisation into print culture, a new form of church created for those who built their worlds around the printed page.

With the invention of the photograph in the mid-nineteenth century, the seeds of the print era's demise were planted. Since that time, the visual and aural aspects of culture, including radio, TV, motion pictures, and the computer, have had a more significant place. These forms of media were warmly received, much to the dismay of the elite literary culture. The modern church, born in a literary age, has had trouble making a shift from a print to an image-based culture.

Protestant church forms were created by a literary age that no longer exists. It is hard to imagine what their particular traditions would look like without a literary, modern emphasis. The Protestant church has sided with elite print culture historically, and now there exists a great disconnect between those in the culture who venerate print culture and everyone else. The elitism that is so prevalent in the church has created a chasm between the church and popular culture.

I guess one of the things that bothers me a bit is whether there are going to be cultural shifts that we will find ourselves fighting against. And if our culture is changing so fast do we already need to be on the look out for things that we have become so precious about that we can't let go of for the sake of the kingdom of God?

I find it really helpful to think about the context the established church was formed in. It gives me insight into why it does the things it does. It helps me make sense of those things that happen that really don't seem at all logical or in any way smart. I think it helps me be more generous and loving towards it.

The danger of the secular realm.

2006-03-19T01:44:00.000-08:00

More thinking about the sacred/secular idea.

Gibbs and Bolger write

The creation of the secular realm during the period of modernity led people in the West to seek control over their world. When they perceived that they were in control and not God, they organised and systematised all reality.

When I read this memories came flooding back of a tension that once occurred within me. For years I struggled to deal with the elements of my life where "God couldn't go", spaces I enjoyed being in (particularly rave culture) that I didn't think God could deal with 'cos he was only in the sacred spaces. During this time mission didn't make much sense, given that there was such vast elements of life that God didn't inhabit. Only when I started to grapple with the fact that God was the creator and redeemer of all things, grasped concepts like his omnipresence and watched Jesus go into all the 'wrong' places did I realise something was seriously messed up with my perspective.

It seems a little crazy to me that the church just swallowed this element of modernity and (as Gibbs and Bolger put it) became the chaplain for society. No wonder there are so many people who see their faith as a private thing, not to be taken into the public realm or who think that faith has nothing to say about politics or business or any of these other 'secular spaces'. The harder we work to live as though every element of life is impacted by the kingdom of God the better.

Sacred and Secular?

2006-03-18T19:37:00.000-08:00

I've never been able to work out why some things are considered sacred and others secular. There never seems to be decent theological reasons why elements of life are regarded as one or the other, it always appears that someone has just decided for us and that has never sat right with me.

So often when I read about postmodernism I feel like the writer is explaining something about me that I've never articulated, this was another of those times. In Emerging Churches, Gibbs and Bolger write about how modernism introduced the sacred/secular split and now postmodernism is trying to pull it back together, they call it Sacralization (being an aussie I'm tempted to change that z to an s - it just looks so wrong!). And so again it appears I've found a word to describe the process that I and many of my fellow journeyers engage in regularly. Taking things which are secular (out in the "non-Christian" space) and using them to engage with God or redeem something. It happens mostly without thinking because it doesn't make sense that if God created the whole world there are things that aren't able to be used by Him or elements of life that are more sacred than others.

It wasn't until I read it today in this book that I realised how big a shift this is for the established church, it just seems so natural and normal to me to try and make all things sacred again, to reject the modernist dualism.

From a Sunday meeting to community formation

2006-03-16T18:39:00.000-08:00

I've been too tired and busy to post lately (lame I know) but I've been reading all these great bits and pieces in Church Next and Emerging Churches. I felt that I had to share this quote from Emerging Churches as it manages to put a few words around the sense I've been picking up at Loam and with other churching planting buddies that pulls away from a church-meeting focus and towards a forming community focus.

In Christendom, the Sunday meeting was the center of corporate spiritual expression for the community. In a post-Christiandom context, a church-meeting focus ceases to be indigenous to the culture or necessary to be faithful to the gospel. Instead, the practice of community formation itself is more central than the church meeting. Thus, an emerging church community seeks the kingdom in all realms as it serves as a way of life for its people.

For me a quote like this makes sense of comments I hear and feel like making myself such as 'I want a faith that is everyday, connected to real life.' It legitimises them through a recognition that the church-meeting focus is no longer 'indigenous to the culture' or 'necessary to be faithful to the gospel'. I have to say I feel a great sense of encouragement and relief at this.

Am I postmodern when it comes to truth?

2006-03-07T06:16:00.000-08:00

More quotes from Gibbs (you should probably just read the book!).

In a pervasive atmosphere of cynicism, postmodernists look for the motives behind truth claims.

Postmodernists have abandoned the illusive search for truth - or, more accurately, they have redefined truth in terms of consensus and 'whatever works for you'. They reject propositional certainty as the ploy of the powerful, who exert their influence by disempowering those who hold to a divergent view. Rather, they claim that we should celebrate diversity, and the regard ambiguity as providing fertile soil for continuing creativity. There is no 'metanarrative', no grand story to inspire a people, no explanation of everything, no meaning or purpose to life awaiting discovery at either the cosmic or the personal level.

Usually when people are describing the shift to a post modern world I feel like I could do the talk. Not because I'm being an arrogant prick but because I feel like they are describing me. (In truth I couldn't do the talk at all, but they are articulating things I seem to inherently know and understand.)

These quotes interested me though, some of the things Gibbs talks about I resonate with and others I don't. I find myself looking for the motives behind claims for truth, but I don't buy into the 'whatever works for you' idea, personally I think it is a sellout. I've seen propositional certainty abused so much that I often reject it without thinking and look around for those people who are being marginalised to see what they have to say. I like the idea of celebrating diversity and using the space to hear new thoughts and dream new ones, but I certainly believe in a metanarrative, the grand story that inspires me and helps me answer some of the big questions.

It'd be nice to say that I've critiqued the post modern view on truth with the gospel and taken these positions, but I haven't, I've just sort of found myself here. I wonder where I need to be critiqued?

We don't seem to know when to just wait a little

2006-03-07T06:03:00.000-08:00

Another great quote from Gibbs tonight.

Our technical knowledge has advanced far beyond our wisdom to know when to refrain from applying what we know in humble recognition of the limitations of our knowledge. We lack the moral courage to restrain our compulsive urges to do what we know how to do with reckless disregard for the human and environmental consequences.

I love technology just as much as the next guy, in truth probably more, but I love this quote. I feel the urge to just rush in and do things when I finally have the ability to and sometimes it gets the better of me. (In fact I can't count the amount of times I've stuffed things up 'cos I was a bit keen and didn't wait until I had thought it all through, at these times I wish I was more like my brother-in-law who takes his time and makes well measured decisions before acting.) However we have to get control of ourselves, will we ever learn to think through the repercussions before we act? Will we always be so proud of our achievement that we don't stop to think about the possible consequences if it isn't as we think? Haven't we learnt that we don't know everything and that just because something looks like it works doesn't mean that we should do it?

I guess the first step is for me to learn it and seek to practice it as much as possible.

Maybe this is why evangelicalism has always felt a little forced ...

2006-03-07T05:55:00.000-08:00

I've been doing some reading for uni (as you do after midnight when you have to be at work by 8:30 the next morning ...) and couldn't sleep without jotting a few things down.

In a chapter called 'From living in the past to engaging with the present' Gibbs in Church Next says the following

Modernity is an understanding of the world through autonomous human rationality. Evangelicalism arose with that context, which meant that it had to confront the challenges of humanism and rationalism. In so doing it was itself influenced, more than it realised, by the modernism it combated. In response to the questionable assumptions and reductionist explanations of Darwinian evolutionists and Freudian psychologists, Christian apologists had to employ the tools of their opponents in order to engage in meaningful debate. In so doing they became unwittingly subverted by the assumptions they made in debating with their opponents. Christian apologists argued for the reliability of biblical texts based on their consistency and inerrancy defined in terms of modern 'scientific' criteria.

There was no place for revelation; such was the confidence in the self evident, universal truths available to all through unaided reason. There was little place for the 'mystery' of the gospel of Jesus Christ. For it was beyond the powers of human reason to reconcile a holy God with sinful humankind. That message could be known only through God's revelation in Jesus Christ and through the proclamation of those who had encountered the truth and linked their personal stories with God's salvation story.

The separation of life into public and private spheres and its compartmentalisation into specialised areas resulted in the marginalisation of religious faith from society and its reduction to a privatised matter for like-minded individuals to pursue without imposing their views on the public sphere. Religious faith becomes relativised, helpful as a resource for coping with the crises of life, but having no legitimacy in claiming public truth.

Obviously there is a lot there, but what this little section pointed out to me was perhaps why I'd often felt that evangelicalism was a little forced for me. The challenges Gibbs mentions in the first paragraph that evangelicalism had to combat and was also influenced by are not things I have really come up against. The necessity to have things bedded down that was so crucial for Christian apologists in this time is not something I face and I've always felt a little uncomfortable about the fact that evangelicals are often trying to get it all sorted out before they act (that might be a little harsh, but it has been the majority of my experience).

I've also been concerned about the lack of space for revelation, the lack of room for the mystery of the gospel, not understanding why there was a pull away from these things. I have much to explore in this area. I wouldn't say my understanding of the place of scripture is well formed, at the moment I am still simply standing on the shoulders of those who discipled me. I really need to get down and have a look for myself, but I am pretty convinced (from experience) that God is speaking today and that we are to listen, any belief that denies this doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

The final section rings so true it's scary. The frequency with which I have encountered public/private issue is greatly concerning, but Gibbs explanation makes sense of the desire within me and my peers to bring these things back together. To have an everyday faith where there is no distinction, to have a faith that won't stand for 'getting an A in orthodoxy and an F in orthopraxy' (that's something Brain McLaren said during his recent visit.), to see faith much more than a coping mechanism, but a framework for all of life.

Not that I care much for names but I've always been under the evangelical banner. I think now I would consider myself post-evangelical even though I have so much in common theologically with progressive evangelicals (whatever that means!). These common threads among evangelicalism are things I respond very negatively towards and are keen to shift from.

How do we nurture and encourage one another without just becoming all the same?

2006-03-06T18:32:00.000-08:00

The other week at Loam we were having a chat about how it's all going to work and someone asked this question.

How do we nurture and encourage one another without just becoming all the same?

A big part of our discussions so far have been around enjoying and celebrating the diversity of our group, not having to become all the same to follow Jesus. So I guess it's natural for a tension to arise when we start talking about how we are going to seek to grow together. There seems to be the idea that different people grow in different ways and if we are seeking to grow together we will all just end up becoming the same.

I'm not sure I agree with that premise. As we seek to grow together I think our diversity will enrich us and challenge us, but I can't see us becoming all the same by seeking to nurture and be accountable to one another.

Am I missing something? What are the dangers that we will all become the same? How and why does that happen in churches? How can we guard against it?

How do you disciple a core of radical missionaries while maintaining an open accessible community?

2006-03-06T07:30:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking about this question a lot lately. It seems to me to be a major challenge for people wanting to have missional communities. I'll try and explain the question a bit more before I attempt a solution.

Missional communities attempt to be outward focussed, open, inclusive and generally welcoming if people want to join them for worship/community/etc. (Obviously some missional communities go a lot further than this and take the idea of the incarnation really seriously and take church to the people rather than expect them to come to 'church', but that's not the issue here.) Now it's great for missional communities to have this as a goal, but it raises a problem when you try and put it in to practice.

If you have your gatherings open, inclusive, welcoming, non-jargonised (I think I just made up a word), culturally appropriate, etc, then how are the people at the core of the community (the radical disciples of Jesus who are trying to make this thing happen) being nurtured, discipled and kept accountable? I'm sure these people will benefit from the open gatherings, but they are also going to need a space where they can be loved, stretched, asked the hard questions and have the bar raised for them.

So here is the problem. How do you keep raising the bar for the core while giving others the opportunity to taste and see without being threatened or confused unnecessarily?

I have to say that I don't think I have THE answer to this question, I'm not sure there is one. If there is I'm pretty certain that I haven't nailed it, but I feel like I've got a bit of an idea about how to move in the right direction.

The shift needs to be around the place of responsibility for the discipleship of the core. In most of my experiences of church, the responsibility is talked about being with the individual but is often run by the church (the organisation that gets called the church, not the real church, if you know what I mean). Discipleship is designed to happen through the services, ministries or small group run by the church, not really to be taken up by the individual. I think that needs to change. People need to take responsibility for their own discipleship and as a result take up spiritual disciplines (I could use the word things instead of spiritual disciplines, 'cos all I'm really trying to say is take up things that will help you grow in your relationship with God, but spiritual disciplines just seems to work better) that will help them become more like Jesus.

Now that sounds like a nice idea, but to do it all on your own seems a bit unrealistic. So why not do it in pairs or triplets where you can keep each other accountable and be around for one another if things fall apart?

If people are practicing spiritual disciplines that relate to a holistic (nice little buzz word there) view of discipleship and they are being kept accountable by some peers who are equally committed to them then I think we've gone a long way towards dealing with the issue. The core is sustained by regularly engaging in a range of spiritual disciplines that will help them become more like Jesus and other members of the core are keeping them accountable to that. And the other times (when people gather for worship or a meal or some act of serving or compassion in the community or whatever) are enriched because people from the core can go along and contribute freely, focussing on others because they are not anxious about their own needs for discipleship going unmet.

Well that's all I've got in me for 2:30am, please leave comments picking apart this idea, I think it's going to be crucial for us at Loam and I have other friends who are grappling with it too.

We've become policemen for each other rather than support.

2006-03-05T06:56:00.000-08:00

Tonight at our Forge Cluster we spent some time talking about accountability. It was an insightful discussion as some people have been being asked the question, "How are you being kept accountable if you aren't connected to an Established Church?" We spoke about whether it was true that the established models of church had better accountability in place than emerging models. Of course there was much discussion around this issue and given the group it is not surprising that there was quite a bit of support for emerging models of accountability. But the reason I wanted to post on this issue was because of a comment by a guy in our group called Tom. He pointed out that in our attempts to keep each other accountable, it's almost as if we have lost sight of the fact that we are on the same team. That accountability should be motivated by love for each other, not about catching each other out. His point was that 'we've become policemen for each other rather than support.' This statement very sadly rings true to so much of my experience of what accountability looks like in the church today. We have to reimagine accountability, rethink it and remember that we are trying to help each other grow and become more like Christ, we aren't in competition, we are in partnership.

Never doubt in the darkness what God has told you in the light.

2006-03-05T06:10:00.000-08:00

Tonight I was at my first Forge Cluster gathering. We had dinner at the Rev's place and he was sharing a bit of insight with us when he gave us the following pearl. 'Never doubt in the darkness what God has told you in the light'. A pretty helpful little tidbit I think.

Generally I develop pretty strong convictions, ideas and strategies tend to get knocked around in my head until I'm pretty comfortable they're right, I often have a sense that God is revealing something or leading in a particular direction. But this little pearl makes a lot of sense to me, because regardless of how convicted I am, when I find myself in dark places I naturally tend to doubt. It doesn't seem to matter how sure I was previously, when those dark places come, I start to wonder if I ever really heard from God in the first place. I know that I need to learn to trust God when He speaks and go on trusting, regardless of how I'm feeling at the time. Thanks Rev!

Lent at Loam

2006-03-03T23:40:00.000-08:00

When we met on Wednesday we followed the church calendar by observing the beginning of Lent. I found a whole bunch of resources online (background and history, prayers, readings, reflections, etc) that we used to create a space for us to engage with the idea of this season of Lent. We prayed, read, reflected, discussed, performed the ritual of putting ashes on one another's forehead and spent some time in silence. It seemed like a good time of reflection on our humanity before God, repentance and building community with one another as we focus on Jesus. I also distributed the Henri Nouwen booklet called Renewed for Life which people seemed keen on, so hopefully that will be a helpful tool to reflect during this period of Lent. I'm looking forward to this opportunity of journeying together as we look ahead to Easter.

Are we adding to each other's mission or are we building something else?

2006-02-23T23:51:00.000-08:00

One of the guys in our team asked this great question the other night.

Is what we are seeking to do by planting a church and committing to mission about adding support, encouragement, challenge and skill to where we are already participating with God in mission or is it about building something else?

It really is a fantastic question of clarification. One that has been spinning around in my head for a couple of days now. I think we are trying to do both. I think we are seeking to teach, encourage, support, equip, challenge, stretch and champion (a nice Forgeism I just picked up) each other in the work of mission where God has placed us. However we are also seeking to commit to a shared missional task, not just so that we can build something, but so that we can practice together, so that our process of discipleship includes an opportunity to live out together what we understand to be the Kingdom of God. This way when we stuff it up or fall down or are blessed and succeed we can celebrate and learn from it together, rather than experiencing it alone.

I guess there are other models of missional churches who don't have a shared missional task, but I think the process of discipleship is weaker without it and if we don't work as hard as we can to follow of Jesus in this area then we will miss out on so much of what he offers us as a missionary God seeking to lead a missionary people.

Reading, reading, reading.

2006-02-23T17:04:00.000-08:00

I mentioned previously that I'm studying at ACOM this year. In this first trimester (they have three not two blocks of study during the year) I am doing a subject called Missional Leadership for which I will be reading 'Church Next' by Eddie Gibbs and Ian Coffey and 'Leadership Next' by Eddie Gibbs. I'm also doing Forge accredited through ACOM which I need to read 'Emerging Churches' by Eddie Gibbs and Ryan Bolger for, as well as 'The Shaping of Things to Come' by Alan Hirsh and Michael Frost - thankfully I've read that before. Anyone notice a bit of a theme coming through here ... I'm going to be all Eddie Gibbs'd out in a few weeks. Anyway I guess I'm going to be posting a bit more about these things over the next little while, thought I'd give you a heads up and let you know what was filling up my brain.

Modern/Post Modern, Colonial/Post Colonial, Industrial/Post Industrial, etc

2006-02-22T20:06:00.000-08:00

I've been listening to Brian McLaren this last week (Tuesday afternoon and Thursday) and he has spent quite a large amount of the time assessing culture, its change and some of the implications of that for us. It's been pretty interesting (although it's hardly a new topic) and obviously a skill of McLaren's, I feel like I've learnt some valuable things.

The thing that has been bothering me though is the fact that there wasn't really any mention of the fact that these are not hard and fast categories. In a sense they aren't real, no one is actually post-modern or modern, everyone is a bit of a mix. So when we think about these categories, see people acting in particular ways and start to classify their behaviour (and therefore them) we have to be careful, because no one will actually live out all of a perspective. Just because someone exhibits some post-modern behaviour doesn't mean they will always act in 'post-modern' ways, they will no doubt break the rules from time to time.

This is a really important point to consider when we are working in the realm of relationships and not just in the world of ideas.

Praying in each other's space

2006-02-22T16:22:00.000-08:00

Last night at loam we did an exercise where we paired up (randomly) and drove to someone else in the group's house and prayer walked the area. The goal was to bless and encourage each other and to get a sense of each other's context so we can support them in their attempts to bring the Kingdom of God to that place. So Steve and I went to Kate's house (which won't mean anything to you because you either have no idea who these people are or are confused by the fact that our group has three Kates and two Steves) and walked and prayed in her space. We hung over her fence, walked up and down the court of her street and prayed for her faith, housemates, evangelism, service and ability to love God and those around her. Others did similar things and I think we'll do it again, it was great to get out and see each other's space. To seek to understand where they spend so much of their life and bless that element of their lives.

More than something else to fit in your calendar

2006-02-21T21:06:00.000-08:00

One of the shifts I've noticed which is significant for people starting or joining mission-shaped churches is the shift from church being something that fits into your life to your life being something that fits because of mission.

In my experience many people can't make sense of their faith in this consumer driven, self-oriented society because they struggle to have lives focussed on the Kingdom of God. Instead they try and squeeze what they understand to be Christian things (sunday church, small group, bible reading, prayer) into already very full calendars and balance the values of the Kingdom with self centred (but due to the culture seemingly reasonable) concerns of their own. Of course this doesn't work very well; the worst case scenario is that it all falls apart and they lose their faith, but normally what I've noticed is that people lose their passion for God and his missional agenda and just become pew warmers while they experience a shallow Christian (mostly consumer) existence.

So for people beginning or joining a mission-shaped church, this is quite a shift. They've often come from a context where people asking for commitment means having to squeeze something else into your week rather than challenging you to follow Jesus more radically. And often I find they're quite cynical about what is possible, they don't feel able to dream big dreams because previously they've been promised a lot and had little delivered.

Well the vision of the Kingdom of God is a big one, one that requires big dreams and big sacrifices to achieve those dreams, so somehow people have to regain the ability to dream, to sacrifice, to hope and trust that as they lay their lives down in service and mission for God, they will be fulfilling His purposes.

Learnings from the garden 3

2006-02-21T06:27:00.000-08:00

The lesson of the lettuce is the third lesson from the garden and it's title should be 'Don't push it too fast or you'll kill it'.

I raised some lettuce from seed this spring and I was very excited to see it rise up from the dirt and form beautiful little green leaves. These leaves grew and eventually gave way to a second set of leaves that were clearly lettuce leaves. Apparently it's about this time that you should transplant from the seed raising trays to a garden bed. However (as I learned the hard way) the garden bed still needs to be a safer place than what they'll experience when they are more mature. I put my young seedlings into a garden bed at the back of my house that gets full sunlight pretty much all day and unfortunately at that time we experience three 30C+ days in a row and my poor little lettuce died. It seemed like no matter how much water I put into those little suckers they just kept dying. I managed to save about 5 out of the 30 I planted (which turned out to be more than enough in that garden bed anyway), but the casualty rate was high.

Reflecting on this experience I feel God saying to me 'Don't push it too fast or you'll kill it.' Now for some people this would be an obvious point, but I kind of like to make things happen and get them done, I'm not really one to wait around until the right time, I get frustrated when people can't keep up and I like to push it along. It's interesting how God has been gently teaching me things that I find hard to hear through gardening, it's quite cool really.

loam

2006-02-17T14:53:00.000-08:00

Finally we have a name. The lovely Jay managed to guide us through a complex maze of an email voting system (which in ended in an old skool vote with pen and paper) to choose the name loam. For those of you not familiar with gardening terms this word probably means very little to you so I'll help you out. Loam is a rich fertile soil that is good for growing things in. Seems like a pretty appropriate name for us to me.

My Personal Development and Training Changes

2006-02-06T22:13:00.000-08:00

I've been studying at Ridley College for the past four years doing a Bachelor of Theology. I've built some important friendships, been taught some wonderful truths about God and gained great insights into how to read and understand the bible. However I've realised that I'm going to need more than that if I want to engage our world with the news about the kingdom of God and lead others who are passionate about this. As a result of this, as well as issues of flexibility and learning style, I've enrolled at ACOM this year and applied for credit for the Ridley subjects I have done so far. This is a significant change as ACOM is more of a correspondence model with a 3 day residential for each subject and a focus on mentoring and coached practical work. I'm excited about the change as it seems to fit my learning style much better and the subjects I'm taking will help me in the areas of mission and leadership I'm looking for training in. Another bonus is the fact that I am able to combine the Forge Internship I am doing this year with my studies and gain credit for it.

So it all seems to be fitting together quite nicely and hopefully it will inspire me with interesting ideas and questions to post about!

Where are we up to?

2006-02-06T21:54:00.000-08:00

Given it has been so long since I posted on what is happening here in Preston I thought a general update might be helpful.

Jay and I have officially finished our work at our old church. We finished with a level of sadness as God has used this community greatly to shape us and encourage us over the last 7 years, but also with a level of excitement as we are now released to really throw ourselves into some new ventures we are passionate about.

There are 10 (actually 11 if you add together the two partially grown children inside a couple of team members bellies!) people in our team which is in the process of planting a mission shaped church in the suburb of Preston. We all live pretty close together and are passionate about living and sharing the gospel.

We are working hard to hold together the tensions of sharing the gospel story and proclaiming the kingdom of God (probably what most people would call evangelism) and living out the reality of God's Kingdom in our world (maybe what some people would call social justice). Only the other night we were talking about how a right understanding of our position before God naturally draws us to a place where we seek to live out the reality of His kingdom in this world (Matt 19:30 - but many who are first will be last, and the last will be first).

We are also really keen to hold together the threads of mission and discipleship. To be a Christian and not be engaged in God's mission to the world does not make any sense and if you are seeking to be used by God in his mission then you have to become more like Jesus. We want to be building a church that focuses on helping people do these things together well.

We are officially a congregation of Northern Community Church of Christ. More than we yet realise, I believe this is going to be a huge blessing for us as a new community of God's people. Northern is a diverse mission focussed church whose mission is to be the hands and feet of Jesus in the Northern suburbs. I am an unpaid ministry team member and Jay is a Northern Intern (Kaleo Team Member), these positions are providing us with a strong framework of support and accountability.

We hope to build a community garden in Preston as a means to serve and connect with people in Preston. There are many ways we could focus ourselves but as we look around Preston and see how people are already connecting in gardens there is something about them that just seems to work here. So we are in the very early stages of investigating and planning how this might become a reality, it would be wonderful to find some other local partners in this project.

Recently we decided that it would be good to meet up at least twice a week. Once for a time of worship (the shape of which is yet to be decided) and the other to share hospitality through a meal (either brunch, lunch or dinner whenever in the week the host chooses). It's early days on this decision so we will see if this format enables us to live out the values we are seeking to hold, otherwise we'll change accordingly. That said it seems like a good start.

We don't yet have a name, there is an email based poll happening, but if you have any suggestions then please post them here in the comments.

I think that kinda spells out where we are up to, if there is anything else you are interested to know please ask.

Back in Australia

2006-02-06T21:10:00.000-08:00

Well after a couple of months of pretty intense travelling Jay and I are back in the country. We were in Egypt for most of December, travelled through Jordan and Syria in January and came home for a few hours only to leave to go to Rainbow Serpent Festival and hang out with our hippy/raver friends. Finally we are back in Preston (Melbourne), loving being home and getting stuck into building community with our neighbours and fellow church planting buddies, gardening, theological studies (for me), nursing (for Jay), dreaming and scheming in hope of a community garden project, running a work for the dole project for Mission Australia (for me), working on a bible for people who connect with the New Age subculture (for Jay) and enjoying the beautiful Aussie summer.

It's a crazy time when it seems that every direction we turn there is something new happening, so excitement and apprehension abound. It's also a really important time to rely on God and not on our own strength, to know that only as we put our faith in Him will we enjoy the privilege of being used to build His kingdom. If you like to pray then this would be a great point to bring to God for us - thanks.

I'm looking forward to more blogging in the days, weeks and months to come as our relationship with Northern Community Church of Christ begins to unfold, our church plant team makes some more solid decisions about the shape we will take, our lives become more entwined in the culture and relationships of the north and God blesses us with the privilege of doing His work in this place. I find it very encouraging that people are excited enough about what God is doing to follow along here and engage with me as I seek to make sense of it all, thanks for sharing the journey.

Middle Eastern Mission

2005-12-04T19:47:00.000-08:00

Thought I should let you know that I'm likely to be out of action for a little while. Jay and I are heading over to the Middle East in a couple of hours to spend two months thinking and doing mission in that part of the world.

For the first few weeks some people from our old church will be joining us in a type of exposure tour running through Interserve. After that we'll be on our own seeing the sites, catching up with missionaries and looking for opportunities to talk to the locals about God.

I'll have internet access from time to time and if I'm inspired I'll write, but if not then it might be even quieter than usual around here until Feb.

Just in case you don't hear from me then have a great Christmas/NY/Holidays.

Joining the Northern Ministry Team

2005-11-29T06:17:00.000-08:00

I'm down on the Peninsula this evening for a Ministry Team Retreat for Northern. It's a strange feeling to be away on this kind of retreat with people that I mostly don't know. Strange because the issues being faced are similar to some that I've come across before in other ministry positions and strange because there is a whole different relational dynamic at work in this staff team to the one I have only just finished up in. A good strange though, I really like reflecting on situations and trying to work through what is happening in the context of a team and this is a whole new group of people and situations to do that in. So I'm here for tomorrow as well and then heading back to Melbourne for an anniversary dinner date with the lovely Jay. It certainly is an exciting stage of life and ministry at the moment!

In need of a new boldness

2005-11-28T15:35:00.000-08:00

I've been feeling the need for a new level of boldness lately. My 'ministry' work up until this point has sometimes been challenging but never really risky. The worst thing that could have happened to me was losing face over a crappy sermon or a poor leadership decision. But with this church plant taking shape I am increasingly aware of the risks we have taken. I'd like to say I'm comfortable with the risks and I guess at one level I am, but in another way I sense that I'm going to need a fresh level of boldness to really be able to make this happen. In part this boldness will be a new level of reliance on God, but also I think I'm going to have to develop a willingness to put myself out there a little more, to try things that I am not good at and then try them again if it doesn't work. I've got that feeling that I will learn a whole bunch of new things about God, life and myself in the next little while if I keep taking steps of faith and trusting in Him.

Learnings from the garden 2

2005-11-07T06:26:00.000-08:00

When we moved in to our house the garden hadn't been weeded since the day we bought it 2 months earlier so the weeds were starting to go a little crazy. So Jay and I got out amongst it and started ripping up weeds everywhere we found them. Once this was done we gave the garden a good water using some liquid fertiliser as well. After this we mulched, we used some mulch from a friend's house who had a tree fall down and had it chipped to be used on the garden. This whole process was really not that fun, to be honest weeding really sucks the rest wasn't too bad, but it caused me to reflect on the discipline of preparing the soil in my own life. For my garden to grow well I needed to put the time into preparing the soil. I needed to weed, water, fertilise and mulch if I wanted things to grow well over the coming months. I couldn't see the benefits while I was doing this work, I just had to trust that they would come as time went on. It seems to me that much of life is like this, particularly spiritual life. We need to spend time preparing our own soil, we need to take up disciplines that will enable us to grow well as time goes on.

For me personally this has always been something I've struggled to make happen, it feels like a lesson God has shown me in theory and now practically through the garden. I just need the boldness and discipline to really put it into practice myself.

A new beginning

2005-11-07T06:25:00.000-08:00

Well tonight was the first time our new team met to get to know one another a little better and begin planning for the launch of our church plant in early 2006. I'm very pleased to say it was great. A really encouraging time of learning how we each came to the point of joining this team, we heard some people's frustrations, past hurts and disappointments as well as their dreams, hopes and excitement about the possibilities ahead.

There were many positive and inspiring things, but the level of maturity on issues of success and failure was something I found particularly encouraging. There are no easy answers on the subject of measuring success or failure in churches. I've seen a few methods and usually they pick up on some important issues but miss others or even when they appear comprehensive you still get the sense that something is missing. Well tonight we didn't talk directly about measuring success but we did talk about the elements of our plant that were important. And that even though our plans for the community garden may or may not work, what is important is the way we relate to one another in the process. These relationships will be the witness to those we interact with, not how well the community garden project goes. It is through these relationships that people might get a glimpse of God (and hopefully a whole lot more than a glimpse!). I hope and will pray that our relationships with God and with one another might bring light and the fullness of life that God desires for the people of Preston.

Some other notables were people's desire for a church and expression of their faith that was everyday, not removed from normal life and a strong passion for connecting with the marginalised in this area. I think we all feel a sense that Jesus worked at the margins and we see the need to follow that path. Also, as with many house church expressions, there is an excitement around the potential for strong community due to our size and proximity to one another. So it was a great beginning and personally I felt a sense of God's presence and blessing which is very affirming.

This means that we have a church plant beginning in 2006 that is local to the area of Preston, desiring to be mission-shaped, focusing on a community garden as the means by which it will seek to connect with the community and also formally a part of Northern Community Church of Christ.

I don't think I've mentioned this last bit until now as it has only recently been confirmed, but we have been working with the guys at Northern to develop a connection and our plant will be one of the congregations of this church. This is a very positive step as we seek to engage the community of this area because Northern already has great connections with the community and a very strong mission focus. In terms of details, I will be an unpaid staff person and my wife (Jay) will become a member of the internship program known as the Kaleo Team. Jay and I met with the leadership team of Northern recently and were very encouraged by them, the fit with Northern is a close one, another instance of God's hand at work.

Learnings from the garden 1

2005-11-05T05:51:00.000-08:00

I've mentioned that I am working with a bunch of people with a view to planting a mission shaped church in Preston and that I hope a clear focus of that plant will be a community garden project through which we will connect with our local community. Well things have been happening there and I will post an update on that soon, but I want to share with you some learnings from the garden I've been experiencing in a series of posts.

I haven't been much of a gardener in the past ... well actually I haven't been a gardener at all. But I've always been interested in the things we can learn about God from his creation and I feel like He's been teaching me a few lessons from my new experience as a gardener. (FYI - I consider myself in training for the community garden project so I'm starting with my garden at home. I've been weeding, mulching, watering, pruning, mowing, raking, preparing the soil, sowing seeds, replanting seedlings, fertilising and more. There is so much to learn!) This new pastime of gardening allows for much day dreaming and introspection, but it also provides time for healthy reflection and the genesis of new insights I have not yet uncovered.

a bit of disclaimer - there might not be anything earth shattering for you in these learnings, so don't get too excited, however there is a depth beyond the concept as a truth learnt as an idea is never as powerful as a truth discovered through action

My first gardening task on arriving at the new place was to prune the roses, apparently I was a bit late, but better late than never it seems as they are now in a glorious full bloom. I'm not sure if you've ever pruned roses before but it's quite a serious task. You don't just snip off the edges of the branches that look a little crappy, you really hack into the thing. To be honest I wasn't quite sure about the advice I was getting from various quarters, but after some reading on the web (the only truly reliable source of information!?), I was convinced that a good hacking was what was required. So hack I did, and they went from slightly leafy bushes to pretty tiny stumps. Okay, that's a bit of an overstatement, but I probably reduced their size by about a third at least. It's really quite a traumatic experience and caused me to reflect Jesus words on the vine and the branches ...

John 15
1"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.
2He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.
3You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.
4Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
5"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
6If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.
7If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.
8This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

The process of pruning my roses gave me some insight into what it means for the Father to be the one who prunes. There is a mixture of positive and negative feelings. Negative because you are cutting parts off, but positive because you know it is necessary and will bring growth. God doesn't have a sadistic or vindictive personality, he prunes us so that we will bring more fruit. He does this even though the process might be painful for both us and him I believe. I love the depth of God's character, doing things that might be unpleasant or even painful to himself for our good.

What is the gospel?

2005-10-17T19:07:00.000-07:00

Scot McKnight over at Jesus Creed has just finished another fantastic series called 'What is the gospel?'. In my experience this is a question that not many Christians ask themselves, but one that is foundational to who we are as the people of God.

If you're bold enough I'd like to suggest you head over and check out this series. (The easiest way to get to each of the posts is by this link.) But be prepared to have some things you might consider basics a little shaken up and helpfully put back together.

Also I think this is a crucial question for anyone seeking to have a missional focus in their lives, because your understanding of the gospel will shape the content of that missional focus.

Happy reading and let me know what you think.

Please, no more doing church for 'them'

2005-10-13T22:31:00.000-07:00

For a few years I've thought that Seeker Sensitive Services are useless. I don't think I've ever been to one that I really liked or would be happy to take a not-yet-christian friend to. Even the idea that the church can put on a service/show that would engage effectively engage my friends seems ridiculous. And so I've thought that the place of the Sunday service is really for Christians to gather and encourage one another through remembrance of who God is and what he has done. Given those feelings I was very pleased to see a recent post from Ryan Bolger at TheBolgBlog titled 'Please, no more doing church for 'them'. He manages to gracefully articulate some of my feelings for me. I've included my fav bits below, but go and read the whole post here.

Relevant churches are rarely even closely relevant. Most Christians don't even like them. They might be better than Mom and Dad's morning service, but they usually are quite irrelevant to the outsider. The church person cannot 'guess' what the seeker wants, undoubtedly getting it wrong.   A focus on the church service as connecting point perpetuates the idea that following Jesus is about going to church. The community's life takes the form of American congregational religion rather than the fluid practices of the gospel, and this emphasis presents quite a barrier to the 'seeker' outside, as they need to be converted to the values of American religious congregationalism before they can come to faith. Thus, virtually all of those who are attracted to the relevant service were raised in church or are currently going to another church -- they are not the never-churched. In contrast, a missional congregation connects with those outside the faith by, well, connecting with those outside of the community in their world. Connecting happens not in a 'come to us' CHURCH service, but through 'go and dwell' church SERVICE, i.e.
Mission happens in the 'world', in the world formerly known as secular, on their 'turf' -- not ours. As servants, the Christian connects with the seeker through service in their world.

Love your neighbours

2005-10-13T21:59:00.000-07:00

Over at Signposts Phil has posted this great quote which I feel fantastically critiques much of the way Christians approach their faith today.

Jesus took the command to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, and pushed the definition of who is our neighbor, out, out, and still further out, until it reached to the ends of the earth and included all of humanity—all of God’s children.

Because Jesus’ teachings are so challenging and radical, it is much more comfortable to focus on a quiet, private, personal relationship with him than it is to follow his teachings that call for a public prophetic witness.
 Alvin Alexsi Currier

I can't say I've ever heard of Alvin Alexsi Currier before, but I'd be interested to read more of his work if he continues to speak this powerfully. How often do we 'find' ourselves distracted by things that don't really matter so that we don't have to take a hard truth seriously?

Love purely because love is right

2005-10-08T00:18:00.000-07:00

Scot McKnight over at Jesus Creed is doing a series of posts called Doctrinal Statements and the Emerging Movement. In it he is reviewing Emergent Village's response and it's certainly worth a read. One thing particularly struck me was the following quote.

There is rhetoric here that seeks to rectify the “in” vs. “out” mentality of lots of evangelicalism, where “mission” is seen as evangelising others to become “in” people instead of “out” people. Emergent Village sees the process as a missional relationship of love: Christians are to love other not just because they are Christians out on a mission to get the “out” folk into the “in” folk, but because love is of the essence of God. I see an attempt to rectify “love purely for the sake of evangelism” instead of “love purely because love is right.” In other words, if God’s trinitarian essence is love rather than “getting love back” from the other persons of the Trinity, then the Christian is to love because love is the essence of what Christians are and are to do and be.

I love this, it cuts straight through any argument or debate about friendship evangelism which has bugged me for a long time.

Helpful posts for church planters

2005-10-04T18:38:00.000-07:00

A couple of great posts for church planters over at Steve Addison's blog.

Check out these ones:
10 fatal errors in church planting
10 best books for church planters

Aren't we all Cross Cultural Missionaries?

2005-10-03T21:06:00.000-07:00

I've spent the weekend at a Short Term Mission Training Program run by Missions Interlink. Jay (my wife) and I are taking a team to Egypt in December with Interserve. The course was certainly insightful and great training for Short Term Missionaries, but key for me was the thinking about cross cultural mission.

I'm more and more convinced that all Christians (not just overseas missionaries) need to take the principles of cross cultural mission seriously. In fact I would say that we all need to view ourselves as cross cultural missionaries. Our culture is so diverse that any time we speak to people we are (consciously or not) faced with cross cultural issues. Christians need to be particularly aware of the Christian culture (which I affectionately refer to as ChurchLand) that they are a part of if they want to engage others with the Jesus. The cross cultural issues are often more subtle that the ones faced if you go to spread the gospel in tribal Africa, but they are still real and have a big impact on our effectiveness.

I often wonder if the Church here will ever take this seriously?

Nutting out a 'partnership'

2005-09-28T16:02:00.000-07:00

I have to say that I think most 'partnerships' I've seen between churches and other organisations are fairly shallow. It seems that mostly they just tend to be financial transactions with little to no relational component. So the process of working out what it will look like for our church plant to be in partnership with the church that we are currently working at has been interesting.

I had a good meeting on Tuesday with the other senior staff from my church, explaining what it was I was intending on doing and asking them to think about what a partnership might look like. There were some good questions raised and some thoughtful insight which pointed out that partnerships take time to grow, it might be that we begin with some sort of financial arrangement and the intention for healthy regular relationship and see where that takes us.

The meeting on Tuesday was followed by some time with the Senior Pastor on Wednesday chatting through these things. He is very supportive of our intentions and in many ways has offered an open hand. Some of the practical ways we spoke about our church supporting the plant is in payment for training that my wife and I will do, an initial gift or seed money for a mission project like the community garden I've mentioned previously, providing for a monthly session with the counselling centre that runs out of the church for me (to help keep me sane) and providing an opportunity to come back and share with the staff and key volunteers about what is happening with the plant throughout the year.

I'm really happy with these options as they recognise that a financial component to the partnership makes sense and is real, but they also open the door for ongoing relational partnership. I'm really keen for our church to learn about church planting, to learn to relate well to plants that come from it so that it can plant healthy churches in the future, so I think this list is a start in the right direction.

I'd be interested to hear other ideas of partnership or practical suggestions I could explore.

Finding the Sunday Service unhelpful.

2005-09-23T18:53:00.000-07:00

So I've been finding Sunday church kind of unhelpful for a while now and it's really been bugging me. I haven't been able to work out why exactly. It just hasn't felt right, I used to enjoy it and I still find a good sermon helpful. But the stand up sit down style of meeting with God seems to be missing something now.

Finally as I was sitting in church on Sunday night I realised why. Since I've become passionate about planting a church I've started to focus on what would be helpful for the context I'm planting in. Almost everything seems to get viewed through that lens, it has taken over. I'm even trying to develop my own spiritual life along those lines. How would the people I'm seeking to reach connect with God? Could I also connect with God that way? Could that be the norm for me? Maybe that would help me to become more authentic and effective with these people I am seeking to reach ...

So it's not that church on Sunday has suddenly become crap or that I've been somehow enlightened and can see the true way now. All of that is an ignorance and arrogance that loses sight of the context. It's just that God has been drawing me towards something new, something different. It feels like I'm being prepared for that. If I want to make the most of Sunday church while I'm still going then I should consciously think about the lens I'm using to interpret it. In a sense I could take off the mission focussed lens and view it for what it is ... but maybe that would be counter productive ... maybe I should just live with the tension for the next few months, trying hard not to get bitter or twisted and thank God for the new perspective.

These thoughts are just developing, I'm interested to hear other perspectives and experiences.

A garden church?

2005-09-18T07:44:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted for a bit and that's a sign that I've been thinking a lot but not coming up with any quick answers. I've spent a while praying and thinking about what it might mean for this mission-shaped church plant we are planning to take seriously the concept of incarnational mission. In some ways it'd be easy just to set up a house church style plant, try out some cool worship stuff each week and work to build community, but to be honest if I wanted to do that then I'd just stay at an established church and run a cool small group. The reason I want to plant a new church is because I see amazing possibilities for mission. Mission that takes its context seriously, mission that listens and responds to what God is already doing in the culture it finds itself in, mission that is connected to people's understanding of church and what it means to be the people of God. I think God is already working in this fine suburb of Preston where I now live, our task is to find out where and see how we can get involved.

It is that question of where and how that I have been pondering and I feel like God has been prodding me towards an answer. Before we bought this great house we are in now I was not at all keen on gardening, in fact I wanted to buy a place that had no garden so that I wouldn't have to worry about the maintenance. It seems that in the process of buying I forgot about that and we ended up buying a place with a nice small garden in the front. The strange thing is that ever since we moved in I've spent about a day a week working out the front. I've been weeding, watering, mowing, mulching and even planning to take out some plants and put in some indigenous ones. It appears as if I've developed a passion for gardening totally out of the blue, very strange. All of this does feed into the question of how we might effectively connect with people in Preston because it seems that the garden might be the perfect place for it. When I met my first neighbour here he didn't introduce me to his wife or take me into his house he took me out the back of his place to show me his garden. We spent ages out there while he talked me through all the different trees, bushes, vegetables and flowers he had planted, the style of the garden, the quality of the soil, it went on and on. Only after we'd exhausted the possibilities for garden talk did he realise that I hadn't met his wife so he rushed me inside for a chat ... but it was the garden that was so key to us connecting. The next neighbour we met was similar, he was working in his front yard and my wife was mowing the lawn, he got all excited because there was someone else out working on their garden and we spent the next hour or so chatting about his garden and all the work he had done and planned to do in the future. The garden is a real place of connection here in Preston.

I think the garden has a bunch of other things going for it as well. The bible is full of garden/plant/creation imagery and story, gardening can be a highly relational activity as you work and enjoy it together, being in the garden connects you with God's creation and points us to the Creator, gardening crosses the socio-economic divide (you don't have to be poor or rich to have a garden), the garden is not age specific and the list goes on. It seems that the more I think about it the more it makes sense. So I'm interested in exploring some shared projects we could get involved in with the community such as a community garden or maybe even some kind of gardening service in the community further down the track. I think building relationships with people in the community around something as rich as the garden would be an excellent way for the people of God to effectively reach out to the people of Preston with God's love and truth. What do you think?

Encouraging and insightful words for cross-cultural missionaries

2005-09-07T10:42:00.000-07:00

I've just reread a great post over at TheBolgBlog called Advice for Modern Leaders, "Let Go". For those of us interested in cross-culturally reaching a world very much untouched (in positive ways) by the church, it is a wonderfully affirming message. Often I have found myself as an 'outsider' in cultural contexts I have been trying to reach, but more recently I have been placed in situations where I am an 'insider', these words are a real encouragement.

Bevans and Schroeder also have encouragements for insiders to the culture. "The main spiritual task is to speak out -- to have confidence in themselves and in their own understandings of their cultural and/or social context, and to risk ways of encounter between gospel and context. Only very slowly should they heed criticism of their culture and let go of their intuitions and instincts." Insiders must feel free to create within that culture, to speak out from within. As insiders, they can push hard on the sides, offering prophetic embrace and critique as those who are truly part of that community. Outsiders may offer support to insiders in this creative task. Where this kind of rare support happens, amazing ministries within postmodern culture are planted.

The rest of the post is also great, and will put the above quote in its context, go read it.

Jesus on being missional

2005-09-07T09:23:00.000-07:00

Scot McKnight over at Jesus Creed has been doing a fantastic series called Jesus on being missional using Matthew 9:35 - 11:1 as his biblical basis.

I highly recommend following it as he has some excellent biblical and practical insight.

Some of the pearls I've read so far ...

- All missional work is shaped by the missional work of Jesus himself.
- A missional orientation will only be genuinely missional to the degree that it is prompted by compassion.
- The power of the missional work is from God.
- Missional work is done in dependence on God and for God’s glory and in the context of God’s good people.
- Missional Kingdom activity is a personal thing: it finds people to trust.
- Missional work involves a balancing act of innocence and shrewdness.
- Genuine Jesus missional work is prompted through and through by the Spirit.

While these quotes seem quite straight forward in some ways, the extra content and process Scot uses to extract them from the life and words of Jesus is helpful and inspiring. Go read!

The seed of the gospel

2005-08-24T10:06:00.000-07:00

I read this awesome quote tonight over at Steve Addison’s blog » World Changers. Before I mention the quote I want to recommend Steve's blog. I've found it very helpful, wise and insightful. If you are reading mine and haven't read his then you've got them in the wrong order. :-D

“The gospel is like a seed, and you have to sow it. …Now, when missionaries came to our lands they brought not only the seed of the gospel, but their own plant of Christianity, flower pot included! So, what we have to do is to break the flowerpot, take out the seed of the Gospel, sow it in our own cultural soil, and let our own version of Christianity grow.”

D.T. Niles of Sri Lanka

This is fantastic, exactly what I think mission-shaped churches need to be considering. Let's be bold enought to break the flowerpot, take out the seed of the Gospel and do the hard work of working out how to sow it in our own cultural soil. It's very obvious that the soil has change a lot since it was originally planted in this area. I wonder what our own version of Christianity that grows now will look like?

In, up, of and out

2005-08-20T22:46:00.000-07:00

Another snippet from emergingchurch.intro on the idea of 'In, up, of and out' as core dimensions of the church.

- An "up" dimension towards God. As the community reaches up to God in sacramental, word-based or other forms of worship, God comes "down" to transform individuals' lives and make them more like him in character.

- An "in" dimension, as the community fosters high quality relationships between its members. The community seeks to become inclusive, like the Trinity, with room for everyone.

- An "out" dimension. The community goes out to the world to care for it and redeem it. Evangelism is one aspect of holistic mission. Just as the Spirit constantly moves out to the world and in towards the Godhead, so does the church.

- An "of" dimension, as each community identifies with the whole church - "We are part of the church flowing through history, lapping round the world today and rushing forward to eternity." Might this also be an "around" dimension, as Christian communities look around to make links with their wider family?

I find this framework very helpful. Simple, clear, easy to hold up against ideas. It also seems balanced and well-rounded, plus it includes a recognition of the connection to the broader church which is something I feel quite lacking in the emerging church. Any comments?

A U-Church for an I-World

2005-08-20T22:35:00.000-07:00

A U-Church for an I-World is the title in the chapter of a book I'm reading at the moment called emergingchurch.intro. It's talking about how consumer culture has infected the church, that many people become reliant on getting what they want or feel they need to grow spiritually from church, particularly the Sunday service. Now in part there is nothing wrong with the church providing what people need for their spiritual growth, but as this book says 'The trouble is that it has often bred an over-dependency.' People don't take responsibility for their own spiritual growth, it's not a part of their everyday existence, it's just something that happens when they experience worship or a sermon or the sacraments. We 'grow up with a faith disconnect: belief is not part of' our everyday lives. We go on Sunday or to small group and get a fill up. Our spiritual health is not our own responsibility, we see it as the church's and when things go wrong ... we blame the church. Something is definitely wrong here.

I guess this is some of what I am keen to challenge when planting a mission-shaped church. I think the church has a key role in encouraging and increasing people's spiritual health. We need to help people grow in their relationship with and understanding of God, but we shouldn't take that responsibility away from them. We need to empower people by equipping them to grow, resourcing them to grow and giving them opportunities to take it beyond theory into the reality of their lives. I guess this is another reason why I think the church today needs to take the practice of mission more seriously. If we aren't modelling a walk with God that puts into practice what we believe then 1) it becomes mostly theoretical 2) it so easily becomes a consumer add on to their lives. I want to plant a church that draws people away from thinking that being a Christian is only about their personal relationship with God and what value it can add to their lives and guides them down a path where they start to see God's agenda and helps them to think about what they can do to further that.

Established and Emerging Tension Points

2005-07-31T23:13:00.000-07:00

Tall Skinny Kiwi posted this on the tension points between the established and the emerging church. While it seems like a reasonable analysis to me, I can't help but think much of the path to resolving these issues is clearer communication. So much tension and threat results from lack of communication and a sense of us and them which doesn't need to be the case. I wonder what the forum for this communication might be?

Responses to comments

2005-07-31T07:59:00.000-07:00

A wise friend Ross sought to change my questions a bit which I've found helpful. He asked ...

What would you want an 'established' church to offer? Even more generically what would you want from any other group of christians? I think what you could get from another group is a function of what you want to do.

I think I'm looking for some real sense of partnership between established and emerging churches. So I'm not looking for anything particularly, but more trying to search out what each could offer the other.

Ross also asked What is there about a church which qualifies it to be called 'established'? Is it inherited patterns which are deeply ingrained? Is it physical resources? Is it a certain size? Is it to be defined by what it lacks - missional dna for example?

My use of this term is in reference to churches that have an established approach to doing/being/running church. I see established churches as places that operate using existing or more traditional approaches while emerging churches are seeking to develop new approaches as a result of changes in the culture/s they are seeking to reach. As I noted elsewhere, the most helpful term I have come across is mission-shaped church. I've been using this term in my thinking for our plant next year.

Mark Berry asked where I was from ... I'm in Melbourne, Australia.

Digger asked if I went to the Forge Conference ... but unfortunately I had a bunch of personal commitments that weekend that stopped me from getting to any of it. A damn shame as I'm sure I would have learnt heaps.

All work and no blogging makes Tim a quiet boy

2005-07-31T07:48:00.000-07:00

Haven't posted in ages as I've been flat out working on both my job at the established church I'm in and some plans for planting a mission-shaped church next year. I have holidays from my normal job now and I'm taking a semester off uni to prepare for next year, so hopefully there will be lots more posting to come.

What can the established church contribute to the emerging church?

2005-06-08T07:49:00.000-07:00

I've been working on starting a mission shaped church next year. In the process of planning I've been chatting with people at the church I work at about the role that a more established church could play. I think there are some obvious possibilities like prayer support, financial support and possibly even people support in the beginning. But are there others? If the established church is less missional in its approach to church than the emerging church (which I see as very mission focussed when it is healthy), then what kind of things can the established church bring to a partnership with an emerging church?

I want to point out that this is certainly not an us and them type of discussion. I'm just trying to think through the practicalities of established/emerging partnerships.

This question obviously also raises its opposite. What can an emerging church bring to a partnership with the established church? Prayer support, a better understanding of how to connect with the world around us, encouraging stories of God's transforming love at work through His people changing lives as well as eternal destinies?

I'm keen to hear other ideas, particularly from anyone who is trying to work in a partnership between the emerging and established church.

Discipleship vs Mission

2005-06-02T08:21:00.000-07:00

A comment from my wife caused me to begin reflecting about discipleship and mission this evening. Basically she was kicking around ideas about how the tension between discipleship and mission in the life of a mission-shaped community worked.

As I reflected I've recalled something that has really pissed me off in mainstream Christianity. People seem to believe that discipleship and mission are somehow able to be separated. Maybe it's because of the formulaic approach we sometimes have to evangelism/becoming a christian, but people seem to think that if someone becomes a believer then they should focus on growing as a Christian for a while before they think about doing mission. This seems crazy to me.

It is often after a powerful encounter with God that people have the most energy for mission. They have engaged with the almighty, powerful God and they want to share that with others. They have connected with the ultimate source of love and cannot keep it for themselves. So what does the established church so often do with them? Take them right away from the world and put them through a discipleship process which seems to manage to beat the enthusiasm right out of them so they are just like the rest of us. Apathetic and self focussed!

Surely there has to be a better way. Yes it is dangerous to put new followers of Christ out amongst 'the great unwashed', but God is powerful enough to see his will happen through these fresh people of his. They might be a little green when it comes to the Christian living, they might not have their key doctrinal issues worked through, they might not have been through an evangelism course, but if they have a passion to share God with the world then we should be empowering and encouraging it!

I've learnt more about God as I've sought to engage with his work of mission than I have in any church program I've ever participated in. I think the perfect place for the discipling of new followers of Christ is out in the world as they seek to make sense of this new found relationship with God that they have.

NOTE: I recognise that there are many issues that I haven't covered here. Areas such as overcoming sin that is infuriated by the temptation of a worldly environment, appropriate training and equipping, and many other issues certainly need to be seriously considered. But they are not reason enough to selfishly withdraw from the world we are called love, serve and witness to.

Empowering Leadership

2005-05-23T19:05:00.000-07:00

The church I work at uses a tool called NCD (Natural Church Development) to help us measure the health of our church. Measuring health in churches is a hard thing to do and if you are a big church this tool seems quite useful. One of the eight quality characteristics that NCD measures is 'Empowering Leadership'. This got me thinking because so often leaders act in ways that aren't empowering. So often we make top down decisions that don't include the church (the people) at all.

With NCD I believe that Empowering Leadership is a key to church health. If we have controlling people making the decisions themselves because that is safer then people are never going to take initiative and start living for God themselves. We might call it empowering leadership, but what we are actually doing is teaching people to sit and wait until we make the right call that they can then follow.

Even when leaders are making those decisions which are hard and seem to need to be top-down they should go about them in a way that is consultative and empowering.