sustain:if:able kiwi

Guest post: Praise God from whom all economies of scale flow part 3

Over the last week this blog (here and here) has been probing whether the growth of supermarkets might parrallel the rise in large churches. On the way we have explored competition vs cooperation and asked why we go to church.

Here’s another guest post I’ve been sent that I think adds some thought to the debate.

Just some thoughts taken from a book called Sustainable Leadership by Hargreaves and Fink. Although a book based in the world of education, I believe it’s message is transferable, and relevant to this discussion.

Hargreaves and Fink state that few schools [change to churches] are islands. The fates of schools are almost always intertwined. Outstanding teachers, leaders and pupils are drawn toward the high performing schools, and at the same time, they are drained away from the rest. For the education system to be sustainable long term, school leaders need to think beyond their own school.

In other words: should we accept that some churches will be “outstanding” and will grow. As they do, they will inevitably attract the best and brightest. In doing so, what disciplines might they introduce that will help them think beyond their own school? Or, using the categories of my initial post, how might “supermarket” churches care for the “corner diary” churches?

other priorities

I realise that debate on this blog has been hissing and fizzing away. Nevertheless, I have deemed other priorities far more important: 17 years of marriage needed to be celebrated in style with 3 day break in beautiful Queenstown.

Guest post: Praise God from whom all economies of scale flow part 2

My post praising God from whom all economies of scale flow has caused a flurry of comment and interaction on and off-blog. Here is a guest post from a keen eyed watcher of world and church, wanting to be known simply as “the consultant”

One key issue facing Christian Church(es) in the modern environment seems to be the whole question “cooperation versus competition”. In other words, are
the different churches competing with each other, as opposed to working for
the ‘common good’. For example, if a church says that it is involved in
“church-planting” on a polytech or university campus, what does that
actually mean? Prima facie, everyone assumes this means that the church is
attracting new people, who would not otherwise be involved in a church;
(evangelising, to use the old term). However, my impression is that, in
practice, what tends to regularly happen is that the new church mainly
attracts people away from their existing churches to something that is
currently new and exciting – at least, it’s new and exciting for a few
months. You could rather bluntly, call it “congregation stealing”. The net
gain, across the overall Christian community however, may be quite small,
and instead we’ve just shifted existing people from one place to another.

Perhaps a true test of whether we are focused on our own interests, or those
of the wider Christian community (and the people we are working with), would
be if we were prepared to create new links with (evangelise) people – but
then, be prepared to let those people go to other churches. I somehow
suspect that this is the approach that the “great people” of the past like
Wesley would have taken.

Looking forward to the pushback from all students and blog readers involved in church planters and those involved in student ministry.

Praise God from whom all economies of scale flow

So “big city church” is growing. Excitedly, I am told of growth and expansion and new building plans. Size obviously matters.

At the same time, I hear of two neighbourhood churches, small, struggling, that have closed in the last 6 months. Both have encouraged their people to attend “big city church”. In other words, growth in “big city church” has come from the death of corner church.

What does the Christian church do with these realities?

I drive home thinking about supermarkets. And the slow death of corner diaries, driven to the wall by the advent of cars, the ease of transport and the economies of scale.

And let’s be honest. We’re all part of it. We all shop at supermarkets. We all appreciate cheaper prices and greater variety and we all gladly absorb anonymous service and ease of parking.

So is this the future of the Western church? A few lucky ones getting larger and larger, filled with punters reassuring themselves that nameless growth is surely evidence of God being present and Christianity having a future? Size matters. And surely it’s easier to sit and soak in a high quality band than listen to the tuneless two-piece band at the corner diary? And surely large leads to economies of scale and ensures good programming can be absorbed by both toddler and teen.

Is this gathering of crowds of consumers, praising the God from who all economies of scale flow, really the Kingdom vision that Jesus lived and died for?

If not, what do we do? And who will lead the revolution? You?

Or the consumer next door?

For more on this topic see here:

blessed are the peacemakers

Howard Zehr, speaking in Christchurch on restorative justice 10 – 11.30 a.m., Thursday 13 September, Wheki 302, 3rd floor, University of Canterbury’s Dovedale Avenue site.

Howard is the Co-Director of the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University, Virginia, and is the author of many books including Changing Lenses: A New Focus for Crime and Justice and The Little Book of Restorative Justice.

turn this post into a prayer

I needed this today: a post written by the female emergentkiwi, who is undertaking a most excellent spiritual discipline, that of paying attention to God’s world by taking a photo a day for a month. Anyhow, here is the post that I am turning into a prayer:

Piano tuners must have the awesome ability
to hear what is becoming, not just what is.
To listen and tune for the future
and not be put off by the current dischord.
A useful skill for anyone
who works with people and things
that are less than perfect
and yet capable of more.

And here is the picture:

preaching on fathers day

I am not sure about my sermon from today. It is Fathers Day here in New Zealand and we are in the midst of a 3 week series on Bible families, looking at the family system around King David. (We did a similar type of series last year, looking at the family system around Abraham).

So I preached on David and son, particularly in relation to Absalom. Here is the sermon (download file)and here are the post-sermon questions I am continuing to ponder:

1. Is this too tough to preach on Fathers Day? Don’t men get enough of a hard time about parenting?

4. What do visitors think of this type of sermon? Is this being hospitable to them?

worship participation on fathers day

As a way of gaining participation around Fathers Day, we have been inviting people to fill these postcards in – THE BEST SEAT IN THE HOUSE Father’s Day First Class Seating, and send them to us. (Click to enlarge – 80K).

It’s a bit of thankful fun, with 2 fathers being given the best seats in the house: lazy boy armchairs, complete with free espresso and glass of bubbly and a Sunday paper. It’s also participation in worship, as we will be weaving the reasons on the response cards into our prayers and communion visuals. For me this is what liturgy as the work of the people is all about: it is not repeating words (whether sung or spoken) dictated from the front, but it is allowing people’s words and phrases to have voice in our worship.

turn the page on poverty: book buying for justice

This is a great idea:

Every time you buy a book from Goodbooks – any book – we contribute all profits to Oxfam to help fight its global battle against poverty and social injustice. There is no extra cost to you. We do not mark up our books to cover this contribution; our prices remain among the lowest you will find; delivery worldwide is completely free, and with over two million titles in stock our range is one of the largest you will find. Help us open a new chapter in the fight against inequality.

Check out the great little animation here; with Kiwi and literary icons mixing it among an African village. Hey, you can even buy my book, The Out of Bounds Church? Learning to Create a Community of Faith in a Culture of Change.

what is worship when our psalms are living?

This needs some good kicking around. From here

Is our Jesus fully human as well as fully divine? Are we fully human with Jesus? She used an analogy for worship of going to have coffee with Jesus – “If you had coffee with Jesus do you think he would want you to be real with him? Or would he want you to sit across the table saying ‘Jesus you’re high and lifted up. I glorify you. I love you. You are great.'” Would Jesus take delight in having his ego stroked? Or would he prefer that we were real with him, sharing our joy and pain, troubles, fears and victories with him? Donna used the analogy of parents with their children. Taking your child for a fluffy, do you want your kid saying ‘I love you mummy and daddy. You’re so awesome. I love you so much.’ Or do you do you want to see your children loving the fluffly, enjoying life, talking with you about the great things of life, sharing their worries and concerns, even sharing when they’re angry at someone or even you their parent!’ She used the quote from Irenaeus – “The glory of God is humanity fully alive” What does it mean to be fully alive? And what are the implications for worship?

For me, one implication for worship was kicked around and grounded here at Opawa on Sunday evening. We were looking at God’s Big Story (6 part series) and so it was time to explore the Psalms. They can be grouped into 3; as happy, grumpy, surprising.

I had set out 3 stations, with different coloured cloths (yellow, black, unexpectedly patterned purple). Each station had different symbols (globe and Bible, salted water, happy face) and different Psalms as examples (Psalm 8 and 1, Psalm 13 and 137, Psalm 40 and 118).

I talked about how Psalms were living (used the Carpe Diem clip from Dead Poets Society – can we lean forward and hear the whisper of people/psalm writers long dead)?) and so they have shaped worship for over 3,000 years.

So, as part of shaping our living worship, we took some time to name things we were happy and grumpy about. Some people were willing to have them read aloud, so we mixed their experiences with a line take from a Michael W. Smith song. So here was our living Psalm, mixing our worship today with a psalm and with communion.

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an economic playing with the Biblical text

This was last Sunday. At the door, everyone got given a card (about 5 cm by 7 cm). There were 7 different cards in total. 4 were Biblical characters – Micah, Joseph of Arimathea, Zaccheus, the sower. 3 were saints – William Wilberforce, Mother Teresa and our church treasurer.

So, here for example is Zacchues (click to enlarge):

I started the sermon by reading aloud a creative piece I had written, a contemporisation by re-writing the Parable of the talents in Matthew 25.

I then invited people into groups, and one by one, to show their card and to reflect on what that person might say to our contemporary economic issues.

An open mic session allowed group learning to be shared with the whole and their was lots of good feedback, as people moved between Biblical text and contemporary economic context.

made in God’s image? guest post by Mark Stevens

A post of mine, large people and airplane seats, has set off a hailstorm of comments, and left me reflecting on how our Christian faith does, or does not, shape our perceptions of body image. How to talk about body size? Am I (Steve Taylor) personally hateful of fat people, as I have been accused of being? Why are we so sensitive, when our churches blithely proclaim we are “made in God’s image”? What on earth can “made in God’s image” mean in our world today?

So I have invited a number of people to guest blog around the theme of “made in God’s image.” Here is the first guest blog, by Mark Stevens. I welcome any other guest contributions, as we keep trying to talk (in contrast to shout) with each other about an issue that is deeply personal.

“Why, if Christians are made in the image of God, is it so hard to look at ourselves n*ked in the mirror?”

[1] The Australian Magazine, Being Angelina, p18, August 18-19 2007

why missional is as easy as changing two letters

I suddenly realised how easy it was to become missional. The publicity brochure arrived from the historical denominational seminary. They used to train missionaries and pastors. Now they were missional and pastoral. So easy. Simply add “a” and “l” and you’ve got missional.

Contrast this with some reading today; “Integral Leadership can be taught“:
“Heifetz’s methodology implies that leadership can be taught, but it is not an easy task. It requires two major changes: methodological change and change of attitude toward learning. Given the second requirement the new methodology places the participants in the midst of what’s happening. Involvement is the key.”

In other words missional leadership is not a theory, nor a set of readings, nor a program. It’s a whole lot more than adding an “a” and an “l”.

Practically, today, as I prepared for my next Missional Leadership class, I am emailing asking one student to lead Dwelling the Word. I am emailing another student asking if we can use their assignment (a reflection on their real church community) for a case study that I will have to interact and engage with on the day.

Let’s not add two letters onto our slogans until we’ve done the hard working of placing participants – real church communities and real church leaders – in the middle.

a lemon a day keeps the teacher at bay

I walked out of class today to find a bag of lemons in my pigeon hole, a gift from a caring student, who had noted a lecturer with a head cold (and sore ears). A student who could have gained top marks if only it was a pastoral care class!