sustain:if:able kiwi

Serenity film review

Here’s my latest film review: of the science fiction movie Serenity in which I explore the movie, the ethics of fundamentalism and the place of spirituality in science fiction.
Buckle in for a wild ride. The movie Serenity is a fast-paced science fiction thriller that weaves the viewer through the complex debris of space junk and intriguing moral choices …for more

This review is another of the monthly reviews I do for Touchstone magazine and ie reprinted here with their permission. Other reviews include;
The World’s Fastest Indian here;
Sedition, a New Zealand film about the fate of conscientious objectors in World War 2, here;
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, here

Further Serenity resources:
The official movie site is here; and the Serenity movie trailer is here.

Further film resources:
Film as a point of gospel engagement (PDF).
Film and spirituality web resources.
Why gospel and film?

spirituality and aotearoa new zealand

Just been phone interviewed by the NZ Herald on the general topic of spirituality in New Zealand;
are we more or less spiritual as a society? is going to a Crusaders rugby game a “spiritual moment”? is modern spirituality just pampering? what does this mean for churches
The article is due out New Years Eve, so it might be worth keeping an eye out for.

narnia church service

Sunday morning was a Take a Kid to Faith Church service (interactive, all ages learning together). We did a Lion, Witch, Wardrobe Church Service and also prepared a Movie Resource guide.

Here’s the environment: complete with real life wardrobe, fir tree, cradle and Advent candles. Note the use of rear projection to enhance the forest feel.

How to make a “forest”? Cut our bits of paper to look like trees and rear project using a Par 38 green light. Very simple. Works well.

We showed some movie clips from the BBC 1988 film. We had a Narnia quiz. We reflected on this Advent art piece, with the kids colouring in a photocopy of the art piece while the adults listened to this advent reflection.

We had placed blue and yellow ribbons on the seeds. By way of response, people were invited to welcome the Christ child by bringing their ribbon forward to lay a cloth for the cradle. We finished by offering a movie resource pack, to help families in their movie watching.

I love Take a Kid to faith services and that sense of doing alt.worship for all-ages and learning together. I loved this service and the sense that we are resourcing people in making connections between the film and their Christian faith. To see the whole congregation, from kids to those using walking sticks, laying their blue and gold cloths on the cradle was quite moving.

B-day offerings

christmas not for church

Christmas doesn’t belong in church. It didn’t start in a religious building. Its message was for all of humanity, not just Christians.

Today we (Side Door, Opawa, Peter and Joyce Majendie, with help from some other churches) opened the Christmas journey in the square in the heart of Christchurch city. It sits outside major hotels and alongside the Christchurch Cathedral. Tourists stroll by, preachers shout and street kids loiter.

The Christmas journey is the brain child of Peter and Joyce Majendie and has been developing over the last 5 years. This year it consists of a landscaped path that guide people through 8 interactive art installations, housed inside 8 shipping containers, wrapped in material to look like the largest presents any kid could ever imagine getting.

It is wonderful to have Christmas outside the church and in the public domain. It is great to have the Christmas narrative, told through art and engaged with through interactive response. It runs 12 hours a day, 10 am to 10 pm, for the next 14 days.

Photos of last year’s Christmas Journey are here. An article by the Listener, a national secular magazine, is here.
Repackaging Jesus. Churches around the country are changing, diversifying and adopting marketing practices in order to attract new and particularly younger members … So, if you’re expecting what Rev Dr Steve Taylor at Opawa Baptist Church in Christchurch calls “a Mr Bean experience” – a mumbled sermon and badly sung ancient hymns, with people dozing off around you – think again. link.

narnia quiz

I’m working on a Narnia Quiz for our Take a Kid to Faith service on Sunday.

Question 1. Ponder this … Who said, “Narnia is my favourite children’s book?”

a) Madonna
b) Paddington Bear
c) Shannon Taylor
d) Jeff from The Wiggles

Answer

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spirituality of coffee

The church now owns a coffee machine. But I didn’t want it as a status symbol or to be relevant or look cool. I wanted it because there is something about the spirituality of coffee making that makes the act of taking a break and the act of sitting with friends special. It can potentially re-enchant relationships and space.

We are training barrista’s in the new year. But I don’t want to just train them to make coffee. I also want to offer practices of hospitality and spirituality. Anyone out there done this? Any barrista’s out there have prayers and practices of blessing they use? Anyone thought about integrating coffee making into their Christian spirituality?

Are you Elizabeth?

I was moved to tears on Sunday by the simple words of an older woman. Its easy as you get older to get more fixed and firm in your ideas. Its easy as humans to judge the outside and not the inside. On Sunday I preached on Elizabeth and Mary and was struck by Elizabeth speaking words of blessing and hope to a scared, pregnant, teenager.

(For more on this art piece and for four art images to guide you through advent, go here.)

A number of things clicked for me.

1. I have been working a lot with the image of ministry as mid-wife over the last few years (in my out of bounds church? book and in spiritual formation). Elizabeth becomes another example of mid-wiving, of recognising pregnant possibilities and speaking words of courage and hope.

2. We introduced growth coaching at church this year; 1-1 intentional formation; person-centred, not programme-centred. Elizabeth becomes a wonderful example of a growth coach, naming potential in a person and going on a personal journey.

So on Sunday I preached about Mary and Elizabeth. Imagine what church would be like if our older woman spoke words of courage and hope to our younger woman? I invited all those women who wanted to be Elizabeth’s, who wanted to speak words of courage and hope to a new generation to stand. All over the church people did. I prayed for them with tears in my eyes.

There’s something in here that I am still not fully grasping. But it’s a vision for church that inspires me, to bless what the Spirit is doing by coaching Elizabeth’s and watching them bless Mary’s.

the emerging church and the Bible

John Hammet emailed and asked a very good question: What I think many would like to hear is a statement about how you teach your converts to regard the truthfulness of Scripture. Is it a message that is true for them and the world? I am not talking about crude Cartesian foundationalism or modernist rationalism. I am not talking about evangelistic strategy; it is entirely appropriate to start with people where they are and answer their questions. I am talking about the church and its teaching and discipling ministry.

It’s a great question. I am teaching a course on this at Fuller Seminary July 17-21 2006 and am working on a book about this very topic; how the emerging church use the Bible. Publisher negotations mean I have to be a bit coy about what I say and how much I can post.

I can’t speak for the emerging church, but perhaps what we did tonite at Digestion, our interactive more youth orientated service, is some answer (to the general question of the place of the Bible in the inner life of the emerging church).

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angel spotting

This worked well on Sunday evening; Context: Often the taking up of the offering on Sunday evenings becomes a time to chat and whistle, or worse, hum strange tunes!

With the start of Advent, I had placed a number of angels around the church. During the offering, I whipped up the following question on PPT; Ponder this … how many small golden angels can you see around this church?

People were looking all around, up out of their seats, counting and searching, a lot more connected than normal. The offering prayer then included a thankfulness for Advent and the presence of 8 angels in the church, and a gladness that God’s angel presence is with us all the time, inside and outside church.

A useful way to keep connection, build another layer into the service and encourage attentiveness to space and the church season.

brian mclaren speaking in New Zealand

Here’s a PDF if you want to read the fine print, want more information, to register, or to spread the word via the web; Download Mclaren publicity.

I’ve worked hard to make this a conversation rather than a monologue; 8 different local panelists responding to Brian’s input on the Saturday, 10 different workshops or book club options with local emerging church practioners, including Mark Pierson, Jenny McIntosh, Fyfe Blair, Pete and Joyce Majendie, Alistair McKenzie, Steve and Lynne Taylor; exploring work, Spirit, formation, art, worship curation. In my opinion it’s worth travelling from Aussie and the North Island for this.

If you want a paper poster for display in your church drop me an email; steve at emergentkiwi dot org dot nz

a southern response to a southern response

John Hammett, Professor of Theology at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, has offered An ecclesiological assessment of the emerging church. I glanced through it (just wish Carson was as easy to glance through) and have made about 10 brief responses.

Update: I emailed John Hammett to inform him that I had made this response to his paper on my blog and I’ve just had a warm email response, full of the intention to continue dialogue and a desire to keep it cordial and gracious. Hoorah for nice Southern baptists!

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sorry to those of you who comment here

It appears that on Friday I made a mistake and blacklisted “http.” Duh! Which has meant that anyone trying to comment and leaving their full URL has been denied by my spam filters. My apologies to you. No of course I don’t consider your website full of “objectionable comment.”

Why the missional church leaves me cold

In 1 sentence, it urges “too many oughts.” Click on the indicators of what a missional church will look like and there are so many things one ought to be doing. There are ideals and lofty hopes and plenty of “not yet rhetoric.” All of them I love and none of them I disagree with. It’s simply that there are so many “oughts.”

In contrast, let me quote from Euguene Peterson;
God’s great love and purposes for us are all worked out in messes in our kitchens and backyards, in storms and sins, blue skies, the daily work and dreams of our common loves. God works with us as we are and not as we should be or think we should be. God deals with us where we are and not where we would like to be. (Christ plays in ten thousand places, 75);

That’s not “oughts” but reality. This surely is the meaning of Christmas, that God is found in shit and straw, under oppressive tax regime and mis-spent dreams.

Abstractions and ideals leave my cold. Lofty dreams paralyze me. I’m not sure the gospel is a set of ideals. Rather it is the reality of people, honest in their inadequacies, not trying to be something or someone, but searching, seeking for the unique whisper of what God is doing within their unique set of circumstances. It is concrete practices expressed among real people.

Oh, what are the missional “oughts”? For the complete set, go here, but in summary …

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