Wednesday, March 31, 2004
made my day
the internet and blogging world has been a hard space for me the last month. this email was a positive to add to the negative.
Email today:
the Diocese has given us the go-ahead to begin a new alt.church community in Oxford – we are called mayBe – and much thanks to you for the inspiration to get us started.
great name. wierd to think that one can be “inspiration” in a birth on the other side of the world. puts a whole new spin on virtual sex!
Tuesday, March 30, 2004
resourcing life
A danger of Christianity, of church, of the emerging church, is that we focus all our energy on making church right.
While there is a lot to put right, ultimately we exist to resource people in their following of Jesus, and most of this happens outside church. So we need to provide models of integration.
This Sunday I launched “Resourcing work” prayers at Opawa. Our vision to encourage people to walk and grow with Jesus. One way we can do that is to pray for people in their work situations.
This week we rang up people at Opawa who worked in the health professions nurses and radiographers. We asked them about their job what they liked, what frustrated them, what we could pray for.
They brought a symbol of their work and so on Sunday X-rays and catheters and bandages sat at the front of the church. And we prayed …
God
You are the healer
You heal through medicine and through miracle
You heal through people.
We thankyou for all those who work in the health field nurses, radiographers and health professionals.
around table
i have been under a lot of pressure recently … 2 new jobs …. phd ending … trying to finish my manuscript for emergent … new city ….
good friend and fellow-blogger paul was down for the weekend. i ducked out of church commitments and together we wandered the art gallery, browsed the book shops, roamed a few cafes, wined and dined, talked, caught up …
.. it was a very important space and it is a very important friendship. To quote the dubmasters …
making our own direction
we will never forget our connection
whenever you’re down remember your crew
Sunday, March 28, 2004
the preparation
preparations began today for the 2004 contemporary passion of Jesus …. removed half the church pews, hung a white frost cloth ceiling, laid down metres of black polythene plastic in preparation for 3 tonnes of sand to be laid in the church …..
It is amazing how changing the physical environment changes the feel of the space. The youth service tonite will be on cushions on a black polythene screen with Bill Viola visuals.
Saturday, March 27, 2004
easter art
2004
CONTEMPORARY
PASSION OF JESUS
the 2004 CONTEMPORARY PASSION OF JESUS
a series of contemporary interactive art installations
that reinterpret the ancient Stations of the Cross
and the last hours of Jesus life
leading up to His death
7pm-11pm, Monday, 5 April to Thursday, 8 April
1pm-11 pm, Friday, 9 April and Saturday, 10 April
Opawa Baptist Church, cnr Wilsons Rd & Hastings St East
Worship amid the art, 10:30 am Good Friday, Easter Sunday
* stations explored, 9 pm nightly,
a guided discussion of the impact of the imagery
Friday, March 26, 2004
life
The passion. 12 hours of decision and death. Does the life count for much?
What are the implications if Jesus had just parachuted in for the day. Left his parachute in the Garden of Gethsemane and stepped into the Passion?
What is the effect on our salvation if Jesus had amnesia, had forgotten about his birth mother, lost his childhood memories, forgotten his 1st job?
What is the effect on our theology if Jesus is just a human who got “possessed” at baptism, as in The Last Temptation?
Does the life count for much?
Thursday, March 25, 2004
mel and the atonement
A hallmark of evangelical christianity has been the Jesus who suffers, taking our sin, for the world. Mel’s movie dines out large on this image. Lots of “splatta” theology. A good long look at 1 perspective, but in doing so, many other ways of viewing the cross are missed.
Jesus as the integrator of the planet
Jesus as the builder of the new community
Jesus as the non-violent freedom fighter of the Kingdom.
One of the gifts of our postmodern context will be some new insights on the atonement. I am looking forward to that.
Wednesday, March 24, 2004
the local
School just down the road from the church – must write to offer support.
THE PRESS – STORY : New Zealand’s leading news and information website
There is no key .. yet
Lots of you have asked for the key and some of you might wonder why you have not yet had a key cut.
Please relax. There is no key yet. Correction. There is a physical key, but my philosophy has not yet allowed me to turn the key. I am still not convinced a key is the right way to go.
Never resign in the middle of a row.
Never take strong action in the middle of a reaction
So I am bidding my time, letting the days tick and normality return and the questions ponder. Current questions include
1. Can I be bothered running two blogs?
2. There must be a better way to protect my stuff than locking some of it away?
3. If I am a real Kingdom person, surely I should be glad if my stuff is borrowed. Should I not offer two articles to everyone who cut and pastes one?
4. What is author anyway? Am I not a postmodenist who believes the author is dead and the only authority is communal?
5. A blog takes a lot of energy. How can I create re-energising blogging processes?
6. What is the point of a blog anyway?
Tuesday, March 23, 2004
integrating our flashbacks
Jesus did not descend at 30 to do ministry and save the world. Jesus was born somewhere … Jesus was 12 … Jesus had a 1st job.
Birth, childhood, work, are essential to incarnation and faith.
So an integrated Christian faith must include us sifting, integrating, our birth, childhood, work.
Sunday, March 21, 2004
needing visual help
the new church i pastor has …
a) a paid staff team of 5
b) a board who provide accountability
c) a range of ministry leaders.
the new church i pastor has a signboard with …
a) photos of the staff team at the top
b) photos of the board in the middle
c) photos of the ministry leaders below
the new church i pastor needs a signboard that shows …
how the staff team, in accountable relationship with the board,
and in team with a range of ministry leaders and pastoral interns
sustain the ministry of everyone in the church in the world.
how do i visually re-present this, using photos, on a signboard?
Saturday, March 20, 2004
a jest at floating language
the little boy emerged from the mud grinning.
soundbites were stuck to his ears and
video loops were scribed to his fingers
he was followed by a community of other grinning kids.
they had found life and were having a ball.
new games to live in
fresh expressions of church to narrate
some older kids pointed and laughed.
a Calvanist kid called the mud disgusting.
an evangelical kid though he recognised the Bible
a liberal kid spotted the outline of human experience
the theology police sauntered by
the black batons of barth and rahner
slapping against slick black leather thigh
“labels please
how would you describe your play
in non-modernist terms”
the little boy picked some mud from his ear
“i am not sure i am in the right place.”
he grinned
“would you like to play” he asked.
and with twinkle in eye
returned to the mud
Friday, March 19, 2004
floating labels
in response to theology police …
liberal … evangelical
modernist terms to describe a
game played in a modernist field
… any takers for nancy murphy and beyond
foundationalism and a full
e~mmersion in a postmodern
pool where the old labels might well
wash away in the missiological
waters of incarnational
mission?
Thursday, March 18, 2004
bruised but
A blog break = no abuse from nameless punters … no emails to wade thru … no complex and ethical decisions about what to blog and what not to blog … no feeling like I am a baby in the matrix energy factory, with nameless people sucking me dry.
I have really enjoyed the break and have been very tempted to keep enjoying it. I found out one of the people who emailed on my stuff was a person I had helped in cyber and that was more bruising that finding out it had happened in the first place.
But then, a blog break = no meeting you … no expansion of my world … no interesting comments that open my mind … less public processing of God in my life …
OK, OK, so I will return … I will need a few more days for the bruising to die away and to put in place some lessons learnt.
At this stage I am working on 2 blogs: a publishable blog and a conversational blog.
One, the publishable blog, you can take what you want and use it to power your matrix.
The other, the conversational blog, well, if you are willing to sign up to tread carefully, speak clearly and take nothing with you, then I can throw you the keys to the front door of the conversational space. I keep your “email” promise on file and if you flog my stuff, I throw away your keys, or worse throw you to the lawyers. Sort of like a private dinner party where we all work together to enhance the conversation. We give energy and in exchange we go away richer.
You get the keys by requesting so in my publishable blog, which remains pretty much its usual self, just a bit lighter at times cos the real oil is in the conversational space where I can trust ya.
What do you think?
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