sustain:if:able kiwi

deconstruction is a space

this post links deconstruction, and then applauds the opening of space. interesting that the comments then focus on whinging.

3 Christianese responses to deconstruction
smooth putty :: this response hurries to paper over the cracks. sometimes the putty is named God, or unity, or mission. But the effect is the same, a cheap makeover.

stuck in a moment :: this response opens up a space, but stays investigating the frayed edges of the movement. sometimes the stuckness is named liberalism, or post-evangelicalism. But the effect is the same, a picking away at old scabs.

the minute of space creation :: this response appreciates just how deeply ingrained and calcified is modernity. The effect is to appreciate the diversity of the now, while resisting the urge to smooth putty or stay in a moment. This is a resolve to follow the God of the cracks into the space of a postmodern future. This is the realisation that the wormhole is deep, the way unclear, but a recognition of an uncertain confidence in the God of tomorrow; God I believe, help me to believe.

easter joy

new life walks on.
just back from graceway’s easter dinner. mark’s sermon was superb – about finding new life in unexpected places. there was a good crowd, and a good time had by all 🙂

a deconstruction of Incarnation

Incarnation is the new buzz word. (Alongside missional). Words are power, so in the spirit of deconstruction;
we are Incarnational because Jesus was Incarnational? Right.

Of course …
So Incarnational mission is retreating from people …
as Jesus did lots when he sought the quiet to pray?
So Incarnational mission is a geographic immobility and a snobbish attitude to other cultures …
as Jesus did when he focused on Israel and only very reluctantly blessed the Syro-phonecian woman?
So Incarnational mission is refusing to share the Messianic secret …
as Jesus instructed people he healed to do?

No, of course not. So what is Incarnational?

(more…)

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

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?

Email to Andrew Jones

Andrew you are probably being drowned under a mountain of words. I pray wisdom and generous grace for you as you attempt to hear God and ponder the way forward. For what’s its worth;

1. One of the key insights of postmodern thought is that language is power. The words we use to name are very easily words to control. The emerging church has lived, has been birthed on the edge of the modern church. We know what it’s like to be named as
“alternative” when our motivation was hearing the heartbeat of God
“emerging” when our motivation is following God
“small” when our motivation is communal
“pagan” when our motivation is Biblical.
“liberal” when our motivation is missionary.
We know what its like to feel language used in ways that define us unhelpfully. It is time we took our experiences and used then to listen to those who currently feel marginalized in the emerging church. If they say the name is unhelpful, then it is up to us to change, out of respect for their voice, their gifts, their insights.

2. One of the key insights of postmodern thought is that context is essential. The experience of females in the church in China is a very different context from that of females in the emerging church in the West.

3. One of the key insights of the postmodern thought is the power of a story. A seeking woman walked into a worship experience. She left, never to return, saying “I’m not interested in being part of an experience in which one man tells people what to think.” The missionary listens attentively, not for the sake of political correctedness, but so that by all means we may win some.

do you speak German?

Found this link to my A-Z of emerging church;
Darf ich hier mal eine kleine Frage stellen? Wer weiß eine gute Übersetzung für den Begriff ’emerging church’ und alles, was dahinter steckt?
Wer sich darunter noch nichts vorstellen kann, dem sei der verlinkte Artikel empfohlen, bei dem versucht wird mit Hilfe eines ABCs den Begriff näher zu definieren.

Can anyone translate it for me?

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…)