sustain:if:able kiwi

thin spaces

It was the baptism of Kelli today. She is a young woman, an unchurched atheist, until about 6 months ago. She has a strong environmental heart and it has been a joy to see her grow and unfurl over the last months. She was presented with a bone carving of a koru – a Maori symbol of new life and growth.

She was baptised at the beach. The new minister of Graceway, Mark Barnard, talked about the Celtic notion of thin spaces, where the gap between heaven and earth is no more. The sun shone and the waves lapped. Some fish even jumped. Various Graceway kids could not resist the lure of the water. It was indeed a thin space.

nz music

the feelers
in the sun
by the sea
with good friends

this is
as good
as it gets

2-day

My partner flies up to join me for the weekend and we share in a friends baptism at graceway on Sunday. We’ve had 4 days apart, every week for the last 3 weeks. I am looking forward to a weekend with her, without the kids, and on Valentine’s Day.

O~day

Thursday 26th. The flights are booked. My PhD thesis on the emerging church goes under the microscope. I submitted it November 26 last year. It has now been read by 3 examiners, 2 in New Zealand and 1 overseas. They have given their opinion (which I don’t yet know), have written their reports and have prepared their questions. Thursday 26th I meet them face to face and find out who they are (identity is meant to be kept a secret). Then after the handshakes, they fire questions at me about my thesis and my 100,000 words, normally for about 2 hours.

After that, they tell me the result.
– Pass
– Pass with a few minor changes
– Rework and resubmit
– It would make a good Masters thesis rather than a PhD.
– Fail

I am looking forward to O-day. I am generally quick on my feet and I learn best by talking (one of the reasons I have a blog), so I am looking forward to significant growth on O-day as keen and trained academic minds probe my work.

A to Z of emerging church

In Genesis 2 – “adam” is invited to name creation. The desire to name the emerging church could thus be part of our God-given ability to use language to describe and understand. While “adam” named creation, yet no companion was found. “Adam” remained incomplete. A certain humility is therefore intrinsic to naming. To name is not an act of limitation, but an act of partiality, part of a search for completeness.

We seem reluctant to name the emerging church. Perhaps our naming yet lacks an alphabet. We need some A, B, C’s before we can spell the word. So in a spirit of Genesis 2, and in partiality;

A = artistic, and so the emerging values the creative, the visual, the non-rational as essential to communication and being.
B = blogging, and so the emerging tell stories and learns from the stories of others. We listen, we ask, we grow through the wires of the internet

(more…)

I need a life

I have visited 15 countries, only 6% of the world!

create your own visited country map

PS This post probably needs a context.
1. I need a life because I had just finished a long day and it was a real
fun website to play with, clicking boxes and seeing the graphic result. I
need to play more in life.

2. I need a life because I am lecturing a group that is quite culturally
diverse and I have so appreciated new perspectives; migrants, indigenous
people, island cultures. It made me realise again the ease with which I slip
into my well worn cultural grooves of thinking. Other cultures are gift. Travel helps one get a life.
one way to appreciate this gift is travel.

Liquid church

Take liquid church by Pete Ward. Road test it by asking 30 students from a wide variety of backgrounds, spiritualities and ethnic backgrounds to write a critical review. Hone this reflection by asking them to debate the moot; Liquid Church will drown the Church. In the process the book has to preform a number of road tests.

(Note that these comments are my reflections on the class interaction and feedback and are in no way a comment on any individual student’s work.)

Naming Test: Many students felt the book named

(more…)

Flying again …

Auckland bound again … it is a major logistical feat to navigate 12 hours of prepared teaching up and down the country. Last time I forgot my toothbrush, this time I forgot some shirts. I will stinketh by the 3rd day … (no Lazarus jokes please)

I am dumb

Emerging church. I had always used the term to refer to the widespread cultural shift from modern to postmodern and God’s missionary desire to birth new life in new cultures. The church emerging, like a seed, from postmodern soil.

I’ve been reading the blogs and the discussion kept revolving around church. I couldn’t get it. Just read phil and dan/dan and phil and the penny clicked. I have been dumb. Apparently the term is to do with old and new ways of being the church. Duh. I do feel stupid.

OK, so to capture this missionary impulse I quickly need to find a new term and a new name for my blog. Cos I want to follow God in the culture, fan the coals of mission, see unchurched postmoderns find faith and community, not get stuck in dodging the flack and fire between different parts of the church world.

postmodern monastery

A while ago I wrote a paper on a postmodern monastery and a number of you asked for a copy. It’s sketchy and dreamy and I want to do more work on it. But you can now download the paper on a postmodern monastery here.

Usual creative commons copyright – you can’t make money from it and if you use it you need to acknowledge the source. Usual rules of courtesy apply – if you download it, email to say thanks and give me some feedback on it, so that I grow as part of the process.

How does that sound?

consume the body

jez commented “the biggest pity is that Borders is such a bad model if you’re concerned about justice, muliplicity and diversity or the local and the specific. I won’t bleat on about Borders’ purchasing policies nor about the impact of Borders on small business and local community but whatever Borders might be it is hardly the kind of organic, local, just community i’m looking for to nourish my spirit”

We all consume. We can’t live without consumption. Some then become aware of the impact of their consuming on the third world, on the local, on the diverse. But we are all still enmeshed in a web of consumption. We need a third way, a theology of consumer resistance.

We need the 10 commandments of a healthy consumption
consume no logo
consume fair trade
consume adbusters
consume organic
consume no meat
consume shade coffee
consume 5 loaves, 2 fish and have 12 bags of waste
consume the body of Christ …

Futures group

I start my new job as pastor at Opawa Baptist in 10 days time. I am looking forward to a 3 day/week job that is 10 minutes walk away, rather than an 80 minute flight. Amid the busyness of commuting to Auckland, I start to think about my new role.

I bring to a long established church my 9 years of planting an emerging church, my teaching gifts, my creativity and my PhD study on the theology of the emerging church. I have a commitment to both nurture what is, and to encourage what might yet be. How to listen and respect what is, while sharing of my hopes, dreams and experiences?

One idea I have had is to start a futures group, a gathering with no official status and no set agenda, yet the space to talk and dream. Meeting say fortnightly. An open invitation to anyone at Opawa to join a conversation; to reflect on postmodernity, to experience new ways of worship together, to talk about what this might mean for Opawa and for those outside church in Christchurch.

What do you think? Any suggestions for an appropriate name? Any other ideas of ways I might respectfully blend my insights, passions and dreams with God’s story already woven in, and through, a group of faithful servants?

Whalerider

We watched the movie Whalerider in Church and Society class this week. The class consists of about 30 people, including Maori, Pacific Island and Indian.

Question: What are the issues facing contemporary Maori society?

Issues identified included;

(more…)

a lighter note: my forgotten toothbrush

5th plane trip in 7 days and I’m getting sloopy. I forgot my toothbrush.

this company will help: Don’t Forget Your Toothbrush Ltd., dfyt, is a registered company that offers you, its customer a subscription-based service, delivering your toothbrush directly to your door.

And this is a genuine story I can read my class about a turtle who also forgot his toothbrush: The story of “How Turtle Flew South” appears in many cultures. This version is a combination of Native American tale and a Chinese Buddhist version.