sustain:if:able kiwi

prayers please

I am speaking 6 times over the next 6 days; Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday on the future of the church in Christchurch, then flying to Auckland to speak (with greenflame) Thursday, Friday, Saturday on theology and real life.

It is part of Kingdom Builders, a national conference. All this is on top of a significant pastoral crisis and a some book editing pressures.

I’m feeling a bit pressured and would be glad if you could hold me before God.

am I an unspiritual pastor?

I fear I am unspiritual. You see, I have some pastor friends. Before they speak, they get up early and pray.

I don’t. I try to get a good night’s sleep. Another pastor friend I know even goes so far as to ask people they speak to, to prepare prior, by fasting. I don’t. I am not nearly this spiritual. In fact, here’s my unspiritual thinking.

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listening

I was so busy thinking about listening today,
that I forgot to listen.

the day my wife left me

I finished the final edit of my PhD here, this time a year ago. (Thanks Tim for the place and the pic!)

My wife drove me there, muttered something about love and not returning until I finished, and left me. No car. No phone. No internet. Just the view and a final draft to edit.

I started my PhD with the basic question; how missionally effective is the emerging church. I wanted to explore this both in relation to the church and the culture.

These new forms of church; how do they relate to church over the last 2000 years; these new imaged based ways of worship; how do they shape our faith; postmodernity; and how are we using the culture?

I’ve had 21 requests to buy it … the offer remains open to 24th September …

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storytelling the kingdom

This is a story I wrote yesterday. It’s a missional reading of Matthew 13:44; The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a person found it, they hid it again, and then in their joy went and sold all they had and brought that field.
It’s called the Brown paper bag.

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when a blog becomes indulgent

Adam Clayton from U2 once described their album Passengers as indulgent. I took from the comment a sense that perhaps success had made them less hard on themselves and their music. They needed to learn again to be ruthless on themselves and their craft.

I have been blogging less over the last week, because I have been editing my book. A book with emergentYS/Zondervan goes through three edits; not just for grammer, but also for content and flow.

I have decided that a good editor is a gift. Hard at times, but a gift. Having to defend my work, having to read my work expressed in a slightly different way, being asked for a story here or more evidence there is a wonderful, wonderful experience.

So does blogging become the equivalent of U2’s Passengers? Indulgent and asking me to be harder on myself and my words.

lit cross on opawa church wall

emotionally violent worship

an electric guitar played well – that is pure and discordant – is an instrument of emotional violence.

so much of church music is soft and schmaltzy. to hear an electric guitar solo on Sunday evening, in the midst of a worship song, was a superb reminder of the emotionally discordant violence that is the death and resurrection of Christ.

and loud, so loud, the electic guitar solo must be played, if we really do believe that this event changed human history.

all that we are; responding to all that God is.

my colour today is yellow

The weather this week has been appalling. Freezing cold, rainy and wind. The drive is muddy and we have to carry the kids to the car. Everywhere is damp and cold.

On Tuesday I ordered a new, bright, yellow, corflute signboard for the church. It went up yesterday. Bright, cheery, springtime yellow.

Christians are people of hope, who follow a springtime Jesus. Today my colour is yellow.

what colour is God today?

from here

I have had an increasing awareness of the place of colour in spirituality. Today I leafed through some colour charts on the kitchen table.

Shallow Water; Pale Citrus: a sense of calm and a hint of warmth.

this is what I need from God for today.

Graduation special

On Saturday I graduated Doctor of Philosophy. In celebration, I am offering a limited edition A5 size copy of my PhD, A New Way of Being Church.

How do religious groups respond to cultural change? Recent global events have seen a hardening along fundamentalist lines.

A New Way of Being Church is a world first, an indepth academic exploration of how the emerging church responds to cultural change. It asks the question; how effective is the emerging church as a postmodern expression of faith? It takes one particular church, the innovative Cityside Baptist Church in New Zealand. It surveys 48 members and discusses three months of worship innovation. It deeply engages with themes of community, creativity and culture, in dialogue with the gospel and with postmodern thinkers. It draws on interviews and visits with 13 alt.worship communities in UK.

The thesis argues that in response to contemporary cultural change, people are, in the words of French philosopher Michel de Certeau, “making do,” engaging in transformative processes to creatively subvert their surrounding context.

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Destiny marches and some questions need asking

On Monday a new church group in New Zealand, Destiny Church, marched in protest against the Civil Unions Bill. They marched in black, they shouted in unison, and they caused a lot of media attention. For a report on the march, go here. I would not have marched in the march and my views on the Civil Unions Bill are expressed here and here.

However the march did raise for me the following questions;

does the fact that most of Destiny are Maori alter one’s views on the march? are people not actually concerned about angry, black men, but about angry, black, Maori men? are there in fact some levels of racism involved in responses to the march?

is it inconsistent for the counter protest-marchers to talk on the news about tolerance and diversity, when in fact any protest march should be applauded as an expression of diversity? or does tolerance only mean certain types of tolerance?

similarly, was not the shouted statement by Georgina Beyer; “your hatred is intolerable” also a contradiction? again, does tolerance only mean certain types of tolerance?

is it inconsistent for the news media to express concern about the use of children in the march, and then for the media to then ask children why they marched? did the news media gain parental consent? or are their different rules for media using children than religious groups?

church is people

At the carpark before church I met B. who has been a Christian for about 3 months, and C. who has been a Christian for 2 weeks.

At the door we were greeted by A, a local community kid, roped in by D. to help welcome people.

In worship we thanked God for C.P.’s first haircut since recovering from leukemia. T. thanked God for her rest home, a milestone for her as she has struggled with this particular life transition. A. wanted to thank God for her parents. She is 8, so neat to have her voice shaping our worship. S. who is also 8, re-told a Bible story on the hot text seat.

After the service S., another community kid, faced smudged with tears, needed a sticking plaster for a grazed army.

This blog spends a lot of time re-imagining church. All good stuff. For me, the re-imagining has one main point; to connect people with God and each other.

Or the Maori proverb says so eloquently: What is the most important thing? It is people. It is people. It is people.

some mondays are hard

This was me catching some space with God on Monday …