sustain:if:able kiwi

hugging the lampost

i am in one of the busiest pieces of time i can remember. one thing after the other. not super stressed, but constant. trying to juggle, trying to remain centred. i have heaps to process. heaps to talk about. and normally the blog is a space to do this.

but not today. i don’t seem to have the space to do that. i trust you understand. any spare time i am trying to spend walking with my two year. yesterday she gave me a purple flower, hugged a lamp-post and raced me to the corner.

first sunday in advent

Two years ago, I learnt to walk again. I used to walk from A to B. Fast. That was the Steve Taylor walk.

Kayli, who was two at the time, taught me to walk again. For a two year old, a walk around the block is never getting from A to B, fast.

For a 2 year old, a walk around the block
is to walk at a new pace
to balance along a block wall
to jump off the block wall to investigate a snail
to backtrack to chase a leaf
to pause because her legs are sore
to sprint for the corner yelling “race yah”
walking with a two year old is learning to walk at a new pace.

To walk with a 2 year old around the block
is learning to listen to the detail
to ask, Dad can I walk along the wall?
to ask, Dad how did the snail die?
to ask, Dad can you carry this leaf home for me, and this flower, and this stick?
learning to listen to the detail.

Two years ago, my 2 year old taught me to walk again. This Advent, we face the choice, to walk from here to Christmas fast, or to learn to walk again, with a new pace, and listening for the Christmas detail.

please read the white space

The most fundamental fact of human existence is that because people are embodied they are always ‘somewhere.’ Philip Sheldrake

I reckon that the internet rips away our margins and our contexts. All we see is text or image on a page. We forget the white space, that words and images emerge from somewhere. When those words are somewhere else, they are best understood from somewhere else rather than from your screen. Tricky aye.

We slam people, we get angry, we expect all the world to be like us. It ain’t. Sorry.

This is not a bad thing though. This offers us the gift of ‘somewhere’, the chance to move beyond our place to another place.

Next time you want to flame someone, practise the discipline of white space. Read the words again from somewhere else.

access

did any of you have trouble accessing my blog yesterday? i couldn’t (so couldn’t post), but thought it was problems with my computer. then a friend said emails to me were bouncing …

worship treat

I was quite pleased with this.

It took about 20 minutes to make;
Two boxes;
Seal a red light in the top box.
Cut a cross in the top of the bottom box.
And so the red light shines through the cross and falls on the communion elements.
As you reach in for communion, the light of the cross falls on you.
The idea was sparked by thinking about Moses and the burning bush. The fascinating thing is that the bush is not burnt. So the text carries that sense of God + nature rather than God denying nature.

God does not burn us up, but in love and warmth reveals who we really are. So as you reach for communion, let the love and warmth of God reveal who you really are.

resourcing spirituality this christmas

The Overview: Christmas is a hectic season and each year we are faced with the challenge, the opportunity, the question – how to wait, how to prepare spiritually, amid the end of year rush? The Advent Journal is an attempt to encourage personal preparation for Christmas.

The concept:

(more…)

three baptisms on Sunday

on the road again

I am flying up to Auckland for 2 days, to speak twice at a youth leaders conference: on
global youth culture, identity and implications for the church

and once at a theological educators conference:
applying the notion of midwiving to theological field education.

I feel quite unprepared, so if you are ironing ….

Update: feel free at any time to read my blog carefully, in other entries in regard to prayer I have been known to say “I’ll take my share of prayer…”

networking

The local school has a new principal, so we invited him down for morning tea today, to welcome him to the area. It was neat to have him sit with the rest of the staff, to talk about his transition and about the needs he sees in the community.

It went so well, that I am thinking of doing this regularly with local community leaders.

everyday spirituality of ironing

One of the neat things about ironing,
is the chance to pray for those who wear the clothes,
in a whole range of life and work situations.

why are ministers important

OK. So the guest preacher gets up to speak. Good friend, so no bagging him.

He challenges the church to pray for me every day. “Steve would not ask you to do this, but I want you think about praying for him every day.”

He’s damn right Steve would never ask that. Why me? What about the person next to me, who cleans tables. Why not pray for him every day? Why is the church, the minister, more important than anyone else.

I’ll take my share of prayer, but surely this is just a pedestalising that denies the importance of the Kingdom, of life spent in Incarnational mission in the world God loves.

with a passion for community and discipleship

“Congratulations on just appointing a great, great pastor.”

Opawa unanimously, yes unanimously, voted to call Jason King to join the team and focus on developing people.

endings and beginnings

it is finished. the end of semester. the end of my first year of lecturing at Bible College of New Zealand. no need for preparation until February 23. it’s been a hell semester, way overloaded. my desk is a mess, my brain is fried and my notes lie in messy piles.

time to repile.

time to speak, three times in Auckland next week.

time to write; an article on place and theology (the foreshore and seabed issue), on globalisation and alternative worship, on contemporary mission images. and if i go well,

time to work up a second book proposal.

media times they are a changing

Waiting for a take-away coffee today, I picked up a copy of a free magazine called the cityscape. The cover article concluded “For the full story, see” and pointed to the magazine url.

Normally print based media are very slow to adapt to internet technologies. Web use is the poor cousin. Articles are limited, wait listed or non-existent.

It’s the first time I’ve seen print media used to point to web media. Watch out magazines, the times they are a changing.