sustain:if:able kiwi

seachange and Australian spirituality: updated

(Updated after email conversation with Wendy Snook.)

On Sunday afternoon, our youngest suggested that we think carefully about our church participation in Adelaide. What about inviting people to walk the beach and give them different things to think about and do. Then we could all meet afterward at our house and share together. A creative idea from our youngest.

And then to stumble this week across a fascinating article by Wendy Snook, “The Gospel and Sea Change/Tree Change Cultures,” in Reimagining God and Mission: Perspectives from Australia, 179-198.  The title is a play on the ABC TV programme, Sea Change, in which a high flying city lawyer undergoes a ‘Seachange’ and moves to a smaller beachside community. Snook argues that this migration pattern is a major driver in Australian culture and as such, has considerable implications for mission in Australia.

Sea change and tree change migration is a significant event in Australian spirituality, demography and the Australian landscape. People going through a sea/tree change are searching for major transformation, physically, mentally and spiritually.

She argues for a shift in Australian identity, from outback to out-beach. Australian identity has shifted to the edges and “that here is the place of creativity and potential for individuals and nations.” (Snook, 181). She notes that in the last 35 years more than a million people have left cities for smaller seaside towns. Many are under 40, most are Australian-born Anglo.

She then argues that there are six types of “sea change/tree change” people, resulting in diverse lifestyles. She names the following:

• daily commuters, in which home is a rural fortress from urban stress
• weekend migrants, in which people maintain two homes, “vege” out by the sea over the weekend and take a long time to integrate into the local community
• wealthy alternative lifestylers, perhaps with large investment incomes, with time and who often enter with great gusto in the local community
• service providers, seeking economic opportunities as populations increase. They tend to fit easily into communities although their children often leave for higher education
• retirees on fixed income, often asset rich but cash poor
• lower income welfare recipients and unemployed (including radical alternative lifestylers).

These six groupings have shared concerns, including a concern for the environment a hunger for the natural environment and “often a search for an experienced spirituality” (192).

However, these groupings are also quite diverse and Snook now believes (personal communication) that this has major implications for minister and ministry. These groups can be chalk and cheese and the usual rural pattern of one minister for a number of grouped communities will lead to conflict. What is required is the proactive placement and nurturing of leaders, ideally local, to match the groupings present.

She gave the example of St Georges Uniting Church, in Eden, where careful leadership development has resulted in much innovative life, including the Garden of Eden project. This looks a superb missional long-term experiment in community development, including

• places for organic food growing, bush tucker, and a cob oven
• a semi-Circle Garden with local flowering natives gives a beautiful entrance to the Church and Garden
• a mud brick shed, with our own mud bricks!
• spaces for reflection, meditation and worship
• arts and crafts, such as mosaics, murals and sculptures
• cultural heritage, such as the “Eden Heritage Garden Trail” that links with other gardens in Eden

So, returning to my introduction, my youngest is on to something. Seachange – sea-and-change – is an important strand in Australian spirituality. It will demand though, a careful listening, in order to discern the variety of factors that push and pull people, and to consider how “life, and life to the full” can be nourished.

mate, that church is freezing and boring! australian religious identity

Some fascinating perspectives on Australia and religious identity, from Philip J Hughes, “Religious Trends in Australia,” in Reimagining God and Mission: Perspectives from Australia, 27-43.

While the Pentcostal growth has been significant in relation to the history of religious groups in Australia, the overall growth in relation to the picture of the Australian population is small. Only one percent of the population identify with the Pentecostals. Many people try them for a short while and move on. The Pentecostals are not taking over. They are attracting a small portion of the population, but leave many Australians cold.  Many people are wary of the enthusiasm, commitment and attitudes to authority within Pentecostal churches. (Hughes, 30)

Only two-and-a-half per cent of all Muslims in Australia were born of Australian-born parents … All of these [Islamic] groups will weaken over time. They are struggling to adapt to their new cultural milieu. (Hughes, 33, 34)

The militant forms of secularism and atheism, which show their faces from time to time in the mass media, are rarely found in the younger proportions of the population. (Hughes, 37)

Much has been made of the rise of spirituality in the Australian scene, in contrast to the decline in religiosity. However, the size and importance of this movement has been considerably over-emphasized. The actual proportion … [is] about two-and-a-half percent of the total population … While few are antagonistic to spirituality, for comparatively few Australians it is even on the radar – despite the small and enthusaistic numbers who fill classes in some university courses on it. (Hughes, 36, 37)

In other words, Pentecostalism, Islam, new atheism and the rise of spirituality have been over-hyped.

Q. What is going on?
A. The “whatever” of postmodernity

Since the 1960s and 1970s, there have been huge changes in the nature of culture. Globalisation and the Western emphasis on the individual have contributed to culture becoming more fluid, created by individuals rather than being tied to ethnicity … Most engage with religion if they find it helpful … many are put off religious services because they find them boring and irrelevant. (Hughes, 38, 39)

Hughes also notes the notable absence of the following groups from churches:

• those in non-nuclear family groupings ie de facto, separated, homosexual
• working class ie those whose lives revolve around production, service and skilled trades. “There is very little of what happens in churches which relates to the world in which these people work and earn their living.” (Hughes, 40)

Immediate “missional church” responses as I read Hughes:
1. Offer CHOICE. Multiple pathways including diverse services, block courses, study groups, spirituality days, take home resources.

2. Get rigorously critical of your church services. Take the “Father Bob” test – earthy, humour.  Because we’re boring!

3. Ask each other “So what?” In the “lucky country” how on earth does God/faith/spirituality shape your everyday life? Hughes writes that “The spirit does affect every other dimension of life.” (43). So keep asking each other the “so what” question and then find ways to chatter that in the public domain (video on the internet, postcards, billboards, storytelling in church).

first day at work welcome accessories

So here’s a snapshot of the various “welcome to Uniting” accessories provided by way of welcome. They might even say something about core values and priorities!

• a genuine aussie lunchbox
• worship (not only in book, but CD as well)
• research on leadership development
• academic handbook
• “Theology for pilgrims. Selected theological documents of Uniting Church”

PS The genuine “Taylors Promised land”, local South Australian wine, is missing – CIA – consumed in action

a piece of a puzzle? (or a piece in a puzzle?)

I start a new job today. After 10 days of settling, being with and around the kids as they start school, it’s my turn to pack my play lunch and head off!

I’ve been in quite a few times already – to use the internet, to gain some role clarity, to attend to some admin things and on Friday, for a staff meeting. But today I start.

On the way through Sydney airport I picked up a piece of a puzzle. It reminded me of this prayer that I wove together. It involves holding a jigsaw piece and considering how;

• each is unique and each is different.
• each is essential. Lose one and the jigsaw will never be complete.
• it is actually up to the Jigsaw Maker to put the puzzle together. That’s the Christian hope. Your kingdom come, Your will be done. We’re puzzle pieces and God is at work putting the puzzle together.

I’ve been part of a puzzle at Opawa and in New Zealand and among the Baptist family. Now, in the strange twists and turns of God, I’m in South Australia and among the Uniting family.

Today I’m holding my piece and praying this prayer, slightly adapted, by Nakatenus, 17th century priest).
God of Christ Jesus, the task of loving every neighbour as we love ourselves has become too big for us. The world is now too small, it’s population too large, the burden of its evil and misery too enormous. Therefore we pray to you for common sense. Let each of us be ready to do what can reasonably be done, play our piece in your puzzle, and leave you to put the jigsaw together. Amen.

Religion in (Aussie) public spaces

While channel surfing last nite (looking for the tennis) I heard the announcement, that a “Father Bob” was the upcoming TV feature.

“Father Bob.” The name sounded potentially religious, and since my interests are in how church relates to society, I thought I’d pause the tennis and check out this “Father Bob.”

Sure enough, on came Father Bob. He was an elderly gentleman. Full of cheer. Who seemed to be linked to a church. Who had a news assignment that, of checking out the Big Day Out. Cruising around, checking out the merchandise, interviewing band members (Powderfinger) and Big Day Out concert attendees, asking what would it take for them to come to his church. Then back to the studio and Father Bob continues his dialogue with the panel.

My mouth is hitting the floor.

You’d never seen anything like this on New Zealand TV. Priests and ministers only appear in the public media in relation to scandals and moral issues. They’re on the back foot, under the pump. Yet here, on prime time Aussie TV, at a prime time slot (7 pm), is a priest. Being portrayed in a human, humane and humerous way, helping carry a news story.

Is this unique to Father Bob? Or does this actually suggest that Australia is less secularised than New Zealand? And that the church has a much higher acceptance in the public (Aussie) space?

Oh, and the answer to Father Bob’s question: “What would it take for them to come to his church?” (Man I hate that question and the way it reduces mission to church attendance and spirituality to come-to-us consumption)

Question: What would it take for them to come to his church?
Ans: Music. Get some bands in. Entertain the back row. Get your hands in the air.

Australia Day 12 months on

Today is Australia day. A year ago, I participated in the Australia day synchroblog, an (excellent) initiative of Matt Stone. My personal contribution was a review of a book on Australian missiology: Credible Witness by Australian Darren Cronshaw (published by Urban Neighbours of Hope in 2006). Here’s what I wrote:

It’s an excellent missional resource. It takes Australian context seriously. It asks what the Spirit might have already been doing in that place. In the case of Credible Witness, it trawls Australian history and the place of chaplaincy, of shepherds, of advocates for the marginalised, of servants and of generous hosts. What I love is how it refuses to stay with history, but suggests contemporary expressions of these images.

At the time, I had NO idea, that in 12 months time, I’d be living in the great red land. But I did quote a prayer, by Michael Leunig, for myself and for Australia on Australia Day 2009, that in hindsight, looks quite remarkably prophetic:

God help us to change. To change ourselves and to change the world. To know the need of it. To deal with the pain of it. To feel the joy of it. To undertake the journey without understanding the destination. The art of gentle revolution. Amen.

To read the entire Australia Day 2009 post, go here.

grief

is unexpected. it creeps up on you when you’re not watching. it found all the four Taylors at the same time, in the same place, on Sunday morning.

we’d gone looking for a church home and five minutes into the service, we were all crying. nothing to do with the church. at ALL.

just this sudden realisation – that the songs were not Opawa songs and the people were not Opawa people. and so the tears flowed, for loss.

which is fine for us. but i couldn’t help wondering what the worship leader, what Australians in general, think of people who get all teary eyed in public places?

earthing

The plan was to look for accommodation and an internet search threw up a range of possibilities.

Outside one house was a collection of hard rubbish – tenants obviously busy packing. And chucking, based on what was lying on the verge. Including things like dead plants. In pots.

My eyes light up.

Pots. Now, a person can plant things in pots. Like vegetables. And a person can take pots with them, from house to house. Especially a person who’s traveling light, carrying only 23 kg of luggage, the allowable airline allowance.

A polite enquiry and YES! the pots are mine.

Later, a visit to a local plant shop, for some renewed potting mix, plus a few plants and seeds.

And so our earthing in Adelaide continues, hands in soil, and now growing basil, parsley, rocket, spinach and mesculun lettuce. Just a few pots, just a few plants, all great for spicing up salads.

So a beginning. And as that great Aussie theologian sings: From little things, big things grow.

new migrants landed

safely, tiredly, sleeply

day 1 – gained aussie bank accounts, checked out new office, scored food for first nite

day 2 – forecast 40 degrees, kids seen new school ….

on urgent list still to get – car (under 2 litre, hatch, low kms, manual, ) and house to rent to Marion area or close to trainline

book review: After the Church. Divine Encounter in a sexual age by Claire Henderson Davis

After the Church. Divine Encounter in a sexual age. Claire Henderson Davis, Canterbury Press: Norwich, 2007, is a fascinating book. I’d like to give it to people I met outside the church and say “Does this make sense? If so, lets have an ongoing conversation.” It’s short, at 77 pages. It is divided into 6 chapters, each of which has a theological title – Fall; Babel to Pentecost; Incarnation; The Trinity; The Body of Christ; With My Body I Thee Worship.

Each chapter does theology, well-written, interesting. It even quotes large chunks of Scripture, but in a fresh voice, that resonates with the 21st century. This is an attempt at faith that seeks to make sense of Christianity within the cultural frameworks of today. It’s what you would imagine Paul doing, Acts 17 style, if he was here today.

It weaves insights from pyschology with the author’s own life – growing up outside the church, and slowly making sense – through study and personal work – of a coherent Christian faith for herself. Consider the Parable of Samaritan.

“The duty of a Christian is not to seek out people in distress and prey on their needs, but to wait and prepare for that unexpected encounter with the other that reveals the shape of God by making our own limits clear, and, in so doing, offering a path towards greater wholeness.” (55, 56)

This is because the audience would identify not with the Samaritan, but with the beaten man. Thus the challenge is to be open to receive help from the “other”; the one who might well surprise and challenge us.

It is a superbly hopeful book. It invites us into relationships with the Christian church and with each other as humans: not as child to parent, nor as a bored and cynical teen, but as adults – as equals, who in process of encounter, find new forms emerging.

“The real alternative to advertising is not a dull and self-righteous moral rectitude that denies the pleasure and importance of the material world, but a form of storytelling that charts a real course between where we are now and the possibilities that exist for human fulfillment and transformation. This discipline requires that we attend closely to our present reality, and cultivate, in hope, an expectation of where it may lead.” (73)

new blog name?

A recurring question, with our shift across the Tasman, is “What will you call your blog?”

It started out as “emergentkiwi” and that is still it’s URL. That name felt appropriate at that time, a signifier of a search for forms of faith that made sense for Kiwi’s in a globalised, millenial culture.

Last summer, while keeping the URL, I renamed it “sustain:if:able kiwi“; because it was summer. And with my garden an increasingly important part of my spirituality, I wanted to reflect on issues around sustainability – still of (emerging) faith and spirituality, but with an earthed feel, and linked to a more scattered spirituality.

But how does that translate with a trans-Tasman shift:
kiwi-in-exile?
taylors4life?

any helpful suggestions welcomed, as we wing our way Aussie-ward ….

opawa farewell

Today we are farewelled by Opawa. It will be sad time. Yet perhaps also a God-honouring time, as we become thankful for the work of God’s spirit through God’s people at Opawa over the last 6 years.

So the Taylor family sat in a cafe and asked each other what we’ve appreciated about Opawa. In no particular order:

• the welcome, initial and ongoing. We’ve found people at Opawa to be consistently warm and open, captured in the the big hug from Ngaire, waiting to greet me on my first Tuesday of work.
  a willingness to change. You at Opawa said you were when you called us and mostly you have demonstrated that. One small way has been your willingness to try new things, different ways of responding to God in worship.
• the way you have welcomed our kids, taken the time to appreciate them as individuals and as people, sent them cards, prayed for them.
• KIDZTIME. It works. It’s age appropriate and interesting. And lots of effort is put in by the teachers.
• People at Opawa get on and do stuff. People make an effort and things happen at Opawa.
• Koru (the intermediate youth programme) is really good for community people, but being there has helped our kid grow and gain in confidence.
• you said there weren’t any “pastor’s wifes” expectations and that has been Lynne’s experience. She didn’t do anything for a season and that was OK. Then she became increasingly involved and that was OK too. (Please extend that “no expectations” courtesy to the next “spouse”
• The kids have had opportunities to serve – to help with data projector and speak at Grow, to welcome people at door, help with the kids at Grow and sing upfront
• the space to do and try lots of things – adding congregations, ministries, Bible days etc.

Opawa, you’ve been our church family for the last 6 years and we, the Taylor’s have loved being among you. We’ll miss you.

my saint francis moment

So Sunday I went looking for gathered worship. Being on holiday, being in unfamiliar terrain, it meant checking out the signboard on the nearest local church for the start time. 10:30 am Sunday’s it said.

Next day I duly arrived. Disconcerted, I noted a distinct absent of cars. Now I know that country churches can be small, but this was wierd. Perhaps, the minister and the loyal locals parked around the back. So I drove around the corner, but still the street was deserted and the church doors remained locked.

I checked around the buildings and noticed the noticeboard, advertising the Christmas services. So their was life in the buildings. And then, looking closer, I noticed the fine print – that start times for January were in the “Echo.” Of what the “Echo” was, there was no indication.

So the large sign gave a time, the fineprint gave a sign, but both were useless and the street remained empty. So much for the hospitality of the gospel in this local manifestation of God’s body!

I noticed a seat. Seeing I’d driven about 20 minutes, I decided to take a moment. The seat was large, comfortable, out of the wind and in the sun. I nice play to settle and still.

After a few minutes, there was a large, defiant quack. Mother duck emerged from the creek a few feet away, protesting loudly.

Beside her were eight ducklings, who deemed mother’s protest a trumpet call to charge. The ducklings waddled across the gap and began to circle my feet and then settle companionably. One brave duckling pecked my shoe. Another, braver, began to nibble my socks. It felt like Saint Francis, and much closer to heaven than any church service I could imagine.

To add distinctiveness to my holiday spirituality, I had grabbed When I Talk to You: A Cartoonist Talks to God. It’s been a great aid for prayer and reflection. And Leunig uses a duck to express his feelings about prayer. The duck symbolises many things, including nature, instinct, feeling, beauty, innocence, the primal, the non-rational. He concludes: “A person kneels before a duck … The person is praying.”

It seemed to find physical expression in this St Francis moment. The church building might be locked, God’s love expressed in the body of Christ, absent. But God’s love in creation, outside the building, is nuzzling at my feet, reminding me that love exists in the world, and can be experienced through unexpected stillness and undeserved trust.

atheist delusions. part 3. so how might Christianity live in times of “new atheism”

Christianity offers values of compassion, truth, justice, beauty. It has a wise understanding of human nature, as capable of reflecting the divine and of cruelty.

The question is what world new atheism will offer. What values will it draw from, and how might these nurture a more just and humane society? Hart notes that ““memes” like “human rights” and “human dignity” may not indefinitely continue replicating themselves once the Christian “infinite value of every life” meme has died out.” (237) While we await, Christianity can, for Hart, set about the following.

1. Be accurate apart our history. “Christians ought not to surrender the past but should instead deepen their own collective memory of what the gospel has been in human history.” (17)

2. Make our whole concern the simplicity of love God, love neighbour.

3. Take hope from monasticism

“Even so, it may be the case that Christians who live amid the ruins of the old Christendom – perhaps dwelling on the far-flung frontiers of a Christian civilization taking shape in other lands – will have to learn to continue the mission of their ancient revolution in the desert, to which faith has often found its necessary, at various times, to retreat.” (241)