sustain:if:able kiwi

An inconvenient truth?

EARTH DAY: 22 April, 3pm-5.30pm
Opawa Baptist Church

Reflections on the science, theology and personal responsibility of climate change
* For anyone who saw Al Gore’s movie and was challenged or has questions
* For anyone who hasn’t yet seen the movie
* For those who want to know how they can better care for our earth
* For people who don’t think we need to care for the earth, but are willing to have their view challenged

With special guests:
Prof Geoffrey Savage (Lincoln University), Rev Dr Steve Taylor (BCNZ)

3-4.40pm Movie showing of “An inconvenient truth”

4.45-5.15pm Questions including:
How credible are Al Gore’s claims? Is global warming a given? How about the hole in the ozone? How do the CO2 calculations work (2.5 kg of CO2 seems a lot from 1 litre of petrol)? How concerned should I be to reduce my carbon footprint? As Christians should we care? Are we going to inherit a new heaven and a new earth? Therefore shouldn’t we feel free to trash the old one? Does God love the physical world, or only the “souls” that inhabit it? What does Colossians 1:15-17 mean for us as Christians as we consider climate change?

5.15-5.30 Questions from the floor (if time)

Concluding with Sustainable Living information packs.

creative play

Just working on a lecture exploring the place of imagination in the emerging church. For me, a critical missional issue is whether our emerging imaginations are formed by our negative experiences of church past. Or whether they are grounded in the creative and Kingdom story of Jesus. (The lecture includes drawing on a email conversation between Al Roxburgh and myself here).

So it was nice to get this blog comment:Hey Steve, on a separate topic, just wanted to mention that I used your tile painting along with moby idea, and it was a fantastic experience for everyone. And then click this link to find this:

So I found some old unwanted tiles underneath the deck of my friends’ home, left discarded by the previous owner.

Somewhat inspired by Steve Taylor’s “The out of bounds church”, everyone was asked to silently reflect, imagine, and paint as I read from Genesis 1, while Moby’s track “God moving over the face of the waters” was playing.”

It is so encouraging as an author to get feedback like this, so thanks so much Lon. And what a great metaphor for imagining God’s redemptive work, taking old, discarded tiles and creatively redeeming them, bringing colour and vibrancy into the world God loves.

critical missional issues in the emerging church

I am flying up to Auckland tomorrow to lecture a Masters intensive course titled Critical Missional issues: Emerging church. I am doing 3 days this week, and 4 days in October. (More info about the course is here.)

In the course I will be asking students to read the emerging church by analysing the everyday practices of local emerging church communities, rather than relying on the books and the blogs. I am then flagging what I think are some critical missional issues facing the emerging church.

Now, if you were teaching this course, what issues would you raise? What do you think are the critical missional issues facing the emerging church? (So as not to spoil your fun, I’ll wait until later in the week before telling you what I raised.)

an American manifesto

Just browsing my way through my nice, new, shiny, hardbacked copy of An Emergent Manifesto of Hope.

It includes the following quote from Brian McLaren: “So I am hereby giving notice that I’m not interested in arguing with anyone about modernity and postmodernity, but I would very much like to engage in honest conversation about colonialism and postcolonialism.” (143).

Well said Brian. One of 25 chapters, written by 25 different authors. Oh. All American. Yahoo. 25 American voices starting an “honest conversation about colonialism and postcolonialism.”

Update: I have just realised the Easter irony. I write this on Easter Monday, the day after the Easter story was first encountered, and first told, by a Middle Eastern peasant woman. How truly post-colonial.

he is risen indeed

It’s Easter Sunday and this morning we sat in the Easter Garden, on sofas, and among the New Zealand native trees. Sparking grape juice in long stemmed wine glasses were passed around and people were invited to share the stories of life. It was very cool to sip the sparkling and listen to story after story, told among the people of God. We proposed toasts:
: to invited neighbours moved to tears by the Easter Journey,
: to fathers who play with their children,
: to the differently able we work with who are being re-integrated into the community
: to cleaning up garages and realising that
: it is Jesus who makes it possible to start again, and again, and again.

Over a 1,000 people walked the Easter Journey. Photos to follow.

on Saturday God wept

God cried
a icy tear rolled down

i sat in my grey room
trapped

all colour
reds, whites,
greens and blues
leached

depressed
lonely

dark skies out my window
earth weeping

On Saturday God cried
with all those,
who lost sons
with all those,
trapped in their grey room

If this poem means something to you, or you would like to pray it with someone, feel free to leave your initials in the comments.

the politics of palm sunday

Palm Sunday and
Jesus enters the city
A hot bed of religious fervour and zealous passion

Some wanted him dead
Some wanted him to take up arms against the oppressor
Some simply wanted a son
alive
once the shouting was over

Jesus what if you were mis-
under-
misquoted, stood?
shot with words
manipu
lated,
riddled with emotion
domesticated,
to a dominant agenda

Jesus give me the courage to keep saying yes
to your call
and your Kingdom
no matter how many people shout
wave, holler

If this prayer means something to you, or you would like to pray it for someone, feel free to leave your initials in the comments.

an easter journey

My latest radio viewpoint, going live today.

… The church has killed the Christian gospel with words. Blah blah blah from pulpits every single Sunday. It’s time we started truly following Jesus. It’s time we embraced all the 5 senses that God gave us… for more:

(more…)

updated: why am I a vegetarian?

Should all Christians be vegetarian? Yes.

Will meat eaters get to heaven? Yes.

Over the weekend I was asked by two different people why I am a vegetarian. Last nite I went to a vegetarian cooking evening, to learn about tomato tarts, pumpkin and kumara balls, tortilla stack. It seems an appropriate time to narrate my conversion, which occured in 2001. The following processes were significant.

A Bible conversation: When I was 20, I led a team of Christian young people to Nicaragua. We deliberately chose to partner with group from Universities in Australasia. One of the group, not a Christian, was astounded to discover that I, a Christian, ate meat. He pointed out to me that the Garden of Eden was meat-free. I still savour the irony, me a Christian, getting a Bible lesson from a non-Christian. Since then I have been forced to consider the reality of Isaiah’s vision of lion and lamb together. I am currently writing a paper on animal spiriuality in light of theology of creation and sacramentality.

An essay on population growth in my first year of university: I learnt that humans have protein needs that can be met by both beans and beef. But you can grow lots and lots of beans in the space it would take a graze a cow. In other words, if humans ate more beans and less beef, than more humans would have their protein needs met. In a world of hunger, I became increasingly uneasy about my meat consumption.

A conversation with a dietician and my family: I did not want my change of eating habits to negatively impact upon a young and growing family. A dietician told us that one meat meal a week, supported by good amounts of vegetables, provides a balanced diet. So if all the Taylor family ate less meat and increased the amount of beans, nuts, spinach eaten during 6 days, then I could go totally vegetarian, without disrupting our growing children, who could still enjoy meat if they wanted.

An emerging spirituality issue: I was becoming increasingly aware that many in the emerging culture were vegetarian, and that good, contextual, missiology would want to consider Paul’s words “to the Jew I become a Jew, to the vegetarian, I become a vegetarian.”

So I went vegetarian. One of the upsides for me has been a far greater link between my everyday life and my spirituality. My Christian faith feels more entwined with my lifestyle and I am made constantly aware of the justice issues around human consumption every time I eat. I need that.

The second upside is a much more interesting diet, as our family have discovered beans, lentils, chick peas, couscous. Anyone for tortilla stack, tomato tarts, pumpkin and kumara balls?

A downside is that I tend to forget to tell people I am vegetarian when they invite me for dinner. This has lead to some embarrassing moments for all concerned.

Update: support, with some expansion of the argument, from here. And then here (I particularly liked the point about the consumption of meat in Jesus times being for economic neccessity, in contrast to the extravagance of today.)

what lurks in Jesus wallet

This is the 7th, and last, of our Practising our faith series. (The 7 week series, with accompanying takehome resource and small group study guides, has worked really well). The Biblical text is Jesus entry to Jerusalem. The art image wonders what Jesus would have carried in his wallet? The practice is the invitation to empty one’s wallet and consider what the contents reveal about one’s priorities, relationships and values.

In response the symbols – chalk (black/white); coins; rock; nails; plumbline; flower; bulb – I wrote the following meditation (concept inspired from the Grace Lent blog):

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Jesus the good woman

Luke 15:1-7 presents Jesus as like a good shepherd, searching for a lost sheep. Luke 15:8-10 presents Jesus as like a good woman, searching for a lost coin.

The church has been very happy to tell me about the first, Jesus as good shepherd. But why has the church been strangely silent about the second, Jesus as a good woman?

Strange, because a feature of Jesus is the way he includes both male and female. 27 times the writer of Luke matches a story about a man, with a story about a woman; starting with the angel appearing to Zechariah and Elizabeth in Luke 1; followed by Simeon and Anna blessing the baby Jesus in the temple in Luke 2; through to men and women being present at Jesus death and resurrection. 27 times.

As Kenneth Bailey, Finding the Lost, notes, Jesus is remarkable for the way he affirms both women and men as “full and equal participants in the kingdom of God.” Surely this pairing has something to say about women in ministry.

to do at easter if you are in christchurch

Here is a higher resolution version if you would like to put up a poster in your church/workplace.

what should a preacher preach?

On Sunday I preached a sermon. Nothing unusual about that. What was perhaps unusual was that it engaged with a public issue by asking a question: would Jesus smack children?

The sermon had the following sort of outline:
1. invitation to engage with a Biblical text: Luke 18:15-18.
2. question – would Jesus smack, followed by explanation for the question – that New Zealand is engaged in intense current debate about anti-smacking Bill
3. implication one – should Christians protest against this Bill (I gave 3 reasons why you might).
4. implication two – should Christians smack, and an exploration of some Bible verses often used to support smacking
6. some exploration of the question, would Jesus smack
7. some pastoral comments about the complexity of life and of parenting
8. pastoral prayer for parents (prayed by my partner, Lynne)
9. chance for talkback with me after the service if people wanted (about 10 people did and it was a good, robust discussion).

There is that old saying, religion and politics don’t mix. So why Steve, why on earth did I mix them on Sunday? These were factors I considered.

1. The whole discussion is so much in the New Zealand public mind. Christians are being asked for their opinion. Christians need to have an opinion. To not preach is making a statement – that the Bible has nothing to say about our current society. Equally, preaching on it might provide an example of how to think Christianly, and thus how to respond in conversation.
2. The topic of how to parent did fit in with the Biblical text and a baby dedication.
3. We have a privatised religious culture (a fruit of modernity). The longterm result of Descartes declaring that “I think therefore I am”, is a Christian faith that is offered expressed as individual and internal and intellectual. Yet the Jesus of the Bible seemed to me to make claims that were global and societal and practical. Surely the gospel needs to impact on all of life, including how we parent.

These were the reasons why I might preach. I also considered the reasons why I might not preach.

The dangers as I saw them there were
1. Pulpits can be misused as places to make dogmatic statements. I ran the risk of doing a bad job, of misusing a privileged, public platform and thus marginalising people.
2. Of exposing myself. It is far easier to keep quiet and stay safe.
3. That I would start a process whereby the energy of church might be distracted from our current community mission focus.

Three for, three against.

4 days later, still feeling drained after the stresses of preparation and prayer and anxiety, I am still pondering the wisdom of my decision. Was I plain dumb to mix religion and politics on Sunday?

easter scattered

From Opawa church newsletter:
As a pastor, I always struggle with Easter. It is the highpoint of the Christian year and one that I believe that all Christians should engage with. Yet it is the last holiday before winter and for those who work hard, an important time to re-create.

So, whether away or present, we are asking you to join with us in this high point of the Christian year. If you are going away for Easter, simply order an Easter Bach Pack (Friday or Sunday or both) from the office.

Note to blog readers: I had hoped to offer this as a resource over the internet, but Easter is simply coming too fast. Never mind. There’s always next year.