sustain:if:able kiwi

tolerance, hospitality and the future of the church

A thought provoking series of posts over at heretics corner; here, here and here, on the extent of hospitality offered at the emergent table. (Link from maggi dawn). The posts are glad of the emergent conversation, but critical of how truly hospitable it really is. “Wearing a white wrist band is easy. Practicing radical inclusion of all the people of God in our communities is harder.”

I’m linking to the conversation, having just spent a week at the futurechurch conference and hoping to capture some thoughts swirling through my head. The conference was both an incredibly hospitable place – with voice given to women, gay, and lesbian – yet also at times quite an inhospitable place, in which I was stereotyped as “Baptist, male, clergy” rather than Steve Taylor, person.

1. All people, evangelical and liberal, can be intolerant.

2. I wonder if the emerging church and the progressive liberal church share a common dialogue around feelings of marginalisation from the church. The marginalisation might be for different reasons, but it has created some shared dialogue.

3. Marginalisation is not automatically missional. In fact marginalisation (and I am naming my experience of the post-evangelical discussion at this point) can be negative and cynical, which is not always healthy for those seeking a life-giving spirituality. I wonder if, and how, narratives of exclusion need to engage and draw energy from the Jesus story, to turn them from marginal to hospitably inclusive.

4. Such missional engagement is not easy for groups (whether post-evangelical or gay/lesbian) who start by feeling excluded from a conversation.

5. Perhaps paradoxically, it is the energy of this discomfort that helps hold me in such conversations. Debates around right and left, evangelical and liberal, don’t hold much energy for me. Nor do stereotypes. But open dialogue with discomforting people is hard, disconcerting, but something worth hanging out for.

journal articles on emerging church

Matthew Guest & Steve Taylor, The Post-Evangelical Emerging Church: Innovations in New Zealand and the UK. A journal article I have co-authored has just been accepted for the International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church.

The entire edition (Volume 6, Number 3) is dedicated to the Emerging Church. That says something quite significant about the place of the emerging church in contemporary Christian thought. There are 9 articles under headings of Introductory overview, Contextual studies, Joining and Leaving and Theological reflection. The editorial by John Drane explores an underlying question about the nature of ‘emerging church’, namely ‘emerging from what?’ (eg from post-modern culture, or from the Christian tradition – or a mix of the two – highlighting issues of how the Gospel should be contextualized, Christian attitudes to cultural change, etc).

Due out December 2005. You can order it here (scroll down a bit).

Further:
A list of emerging church post-graduate research (masters and PhD) is here.

espresso ending

For our “ending” ritual at espresso last nite; we were offered crayons and one blank sheet of paper and all invited, together, to draw. It somehow captured the values of espresso; community and the value of each other in order to bring colour and meaning.

slowly emerging

Hi folks. I’ve been gone from the blog for a while. Wednesday last week I flew to Auckland, ears blocked, to the futurechurch conference. I lead some worship (remixing some art and theology voyaging and adding in some boatmaking). The out of bounds book launch went well (I ended up selling out of books), with a great “launch” prayer by Brenda Rockell and Mark Barnard. (Oh, I met the first person who liked the title of my book. Needless to say he was an American!)

Wednesday night I “animated” a conversation on the relationship between church, tradition and mission (mixing a Whale Rider, two biblical texts, Sardar’s Postmodernism and the Other and Coupland’s Polaroids from the Dead. (Craig blogs about it here).

Stayed and re-connected with friends; Tony and Jan. Tim and I had a great coffee and argued about money. Who should pay for spirituality; the user or the organisation? It was a question that “nagged” into the Friday workshop I led: spirituality2go and texting communion: selling out or sold out? I continue to ponder and work with Postcard 5 from my out of bounds church? book. How far can Incarnational mission go? So much of Incarnational misson is locked into physicality. Which is fine and necessary, but I believe is currently limiting our mission vision. What does it mean for Incarnation to be atomised into hyperlinks and 24/7 cyberspace? Surely that is the Incarnational challenge of this millenium.

Then a very restful weekend at the beach with Paul. Flew back home on Monday. My ears are still blocked. It’s actually a necessary season. I am living life half-tuned outwardly as a commitment to inward re:centring.

I hope that helps fill in some of my blogspaces from the last 7 days.

go little book

Go
into the world, little book
and wherever you go,
may you stimulate wise and sensitive discussion.

God be with your author, your readers, and all those who are touched by your message. In the name of Christ, your inspiration, Amen.

Prayer by Brenda Rockell at the Auckland out of bounds book launch.

future church conference

Just about to fly to auckland for the future church conference. Check out the conference blog, (which I will be able to develop, if blogger will just remind me what my password is!) I am leading the gathering ritual this afternoon. Then there is a book launch of my out of bounds church? book. Later this evening I then help “animate” (Dic: bring life to, enliven) a conversation around the theme Disconnected from our traditions. I am bringing the movie Whale Rider, and two animating Biblical texts.

I’ve been in bed for 2 days with a head cold, so I’m not the best. And my laptop powerpack died on Saturday. 2nd time in 18 months that my Acer 290 powerpack had died.

evangelism as process part 2

On Sunday at Opawa I laid out my stall. I asked the question: what would a church committed to evangelism-as-process look like? I used the image of lounge and kitchen and offered about 5 concrete ideas that I thought could work out Opawa.

The sermon is here and is part two of a two-part series. (The first one is here)

Note some things:
The aim: to allow the Biblical stories (of Peter and Paul) to release missional imagination among the people of God.
Us not them: I wanted us to take seriously the issues in our community. I want the church to be a resource for people reaching their friends. I have been wondering if mission as radical discipleship, while a wonderful ideal, actually disempowers us from reaching the people in our networks and workplace. So I wanted to sow “us” ideas not “them” ideas.
Could not should: practical suggestions not finger waving guilt.
We not I: possibilities that would suggest people working together.
Grounded not pie-in-the-sky: and so on Sunday I brought with me a Further Reading Handout for those interested. I was delighted to see all 10 reading handouts disappear. As a concrete next step I am planning to hold an “evangelism as process” brainstorming time Saturday, 29th October, 4-5:30 pm in the church foyer.

Richard Peace’s book, Conversion in the New Testament, has been very helpful.

sweetness of travel

Given the fact that I am travelling to Auckland this week; this piece of news will make the trip all the sweeter.

podbible

This looks great; Bible podcast. It starts last weekend in October, with a marathon effort to try and podcast the entire Bible.

This means you can download the “oral” Bible onto your iPod for your walk, gym, ride on the bus. So I listened to Mark 1. My only critical comment is that the podcast I heard had no clear break between the Scripture reading and the three devotional application questions. Or perhaps this is a claim for divinely authoritative devotionals!

An unexpected joyful moment was that straight after the podbible reading, it suddenly randomed into U2’s “Miracle drug.” “What an awesome podcast” I thought, only to realise it was on my computer! But the lyrics were SO appropriate.
“I want a trip inside your head
Spend a day there
To hear the things you haven’t said
And see what you might see
I want to hear you when you call”

(Oh, the joy of song devotionals rather than word devotionals).

out of bounds book launch Auckland

You are invited … to an Auckland book launch of Steve Taylor’s book, The Out of Bounds Church? Learning to Create a Community of Faith in a Culture of Change, Zondervan, 2005.

Wednesday 12 October, 2005, 7-7:30 pm, The Community of Saint Luke, 130 Remuera Road, Remuera.

There will be
: Books available ($25) for author signing
: Drinks and nibbles
: Big ups to two Auckland church communities (Graceway and Cityside)
: Prayerful commissioning
: No charge

The Out of Bounds Church? book launch is occuring as part of the futurechurch conference. Following the book launch (from 7:30 pm) Steve Taylor and Margaret Mayman will “animate” a conversation around the theme: Disconnected? Our relationship with the Christian tradition. You are more than welcome to stay for this session. (It costs $5).

To book your nibble, RSVP by leaving a comment Tuesday 11 October.

food and mission

Espresso, our Tuesday evening discussion-in-community congregation, was EXCELLENT last nite. The opening question was: Why do Christians eat meat? If they can justify that, surely they can justify anything? It’s a question that I have faced from a number of spiritual seekers.

To kick off the discussion, I used the following rant from circle of pneuma. Lot of laughter around this quote:
Your neighbourhood new ager and neo-pagan is likely a vegan or vegetarian (just participate in a new age festival and you won’t find a hamburger in sight)? And consider that in their eyes the [barbeque] just might look a bit like food offered unto idols (i.e. the repugnant idols of intensive factory farming and consumerist capitalism), and so they will be repulsed at the outset from even feeling “welcome”?

It was such a rich discussion: food, hospitality, Biblical ethics, Pharisaical and fundamentalist vegetarians. I just wish I had “podcasted” it. It has prompted me to add another verse to my bread liturgy.

Give us today our daily bread.
Matthew 6:11

ALL: You are the bread of life
Yet in a world where many lack daily bread
Help us eat justly, consume wisely for our world
Bread for all our journey.

whale rider, women and leadership

The 2002 movie Whale Rider is set in a small New Zealand coastal village. Yet the themes are universal. Dare I suggest the movie should be compulsory viewing for anyone interested in both the emerging church and the future of the church? … As the movie explores the struggle of a young woman to express her leadership, could we in turn dare to explore the place of women in the emerging church?

An article I wrote, titled Women and apostolic leadership and reflecting on women and leadership in relation to the movie Whale Rider and some New Testament data is now online here.

The short history is that I preached some of it as a sermon at Opawa, at Digestion, our evening congregation. Then I decided to blog it, because the issue of women and leadership is really important to me. Then Next wave editor Charlie Wear somehow caught a sniff of it and asked to use it. I added in a bit from the movie Whale Rider, to hopefully make a more accessible introduction and to add some more layers to the New Testament.

Somewhat ironically, there is also a review of my book, out of bounds church?, in the same next wave issue. Roger Overton is mostly complimentary (heck, “for anyone looking to find out what emerging church is all about, this is the book to read … a far more interesting read and a far more accurate description of what’s going on in emerging churches” [than McLaren’s Generous Orthodoxy] is high praise). However, in the out of bounds church review, Roger has a “problem [with] the way Mr. Taylor exegetes scripture.” That’s me. Mr Taylor 🙂 So I like the irony of being considered problematic around Scripture by Roger, yet offering something Scriptural the Whale Rider article at the same time, in the same issue.

evangelism as process and event

My Friday blog post – found bears – became a sermon that compared the apostle Paul and the disciple Peter, conversion as event and conversion as process (Download file). Next week I want to explore the question: what does a church look like that takes seriously both event and process? For this week I just wanted to affirm that bears and people are found in unique ways. So much of contemporary evangelism seems to miss this point.

can’t comment

I’ve had a number of emails saying people can’t comment. So I’ve had a bit of a tinker and I think it’s now fixed.