sustain:if:able kiwi

No one can serve two masters: academy or church

“No one can serve two masters.” Matthew 6:24

Theological colleges are pulled two ways. The university demands intellectual rigour, PhDs, conference attendance and publications. Increasingly this includes multiple layers of academic compliance.

The church expects effective mission leaders, down to earth application, ideas with legs, lecturers who can walk the talk. Often this includes multiple process around selection, formation and mentoring of students.

The contrast became clear for me in a conversation this week. One of our local ministers, a highly effective ministry leader is also a seasoned and much loved part-time College lecturer in the area of worship.

He noted that there were over 40 new books in his subject area. Which as a minister he simply had no time to read. He wasn’t sure he would be able to continue.

Who would you rather have teach? A person who leads worship every week, an effective practitioner in a complex, growing, multiple congregational church? Or a person with time to read 40 books, a university researcher?

The ideal is both. The reality is we have to choose. Do we face the university? Or the church?

(Note – Practical theology offers a way to do both. John Swinton defines practical theology is critical reflection on the actions of the church in the light of the gospel. Church and university, actions and critical reflection. However, not every lecturer is trained in this way).

bread making in theological Colleges? a question (3) of Principal

This continues my “As an incoming Principal, I have plenty of questions” series – questions that I ponder as I begin a new role as Principal at Uniting College. (First question, with some responses is here and here).

Here is the third question I’m asking

What might bread making add to formation? What might happen if folk – staff and students together – gathered to knead and pray “Give us this day our daily bread” on a regular basis? How might it shape how Church, Ministry, Sacraments is taught, how New Testament is studied, how ethics is considered? How practical is such an idea?

All responses welcome. Because

yep

you got it ….

Sometimes a question, followed by a response helps one listen. Sometimes a question, followed by a response confirms an intuition. Sometimes a question, followed by a response simply reveals what the next question should be.

first team meeting

This week has been a endless string of firsts as Principal – first Leadership Formation day, first job contracts to sign, first email as Principal. Yesterday was the first leading of the team meeting, which happens weekly.

I was awake at 5.20 am, unable to sleep, which I suspect is some evidence of the stress being generated, my body needing to process the move from team player to team leader, my awareness of the giftedness embedded in the team and the skills that will be required to lead that giftedness with clarity and grace.

Some of my emotion and anxiety took me back to my first team day at Opawa, back in 2004.

It was my 1st day at my new church (Opawa) today. I asked the 4 other paid staff to gather.

I gave them all an egg – fragile, yet hopeful. I talked about the church as the bride of Christ … beautiful … hopeful … yet fragile and nervous.

I said that I felt a bit nervous and fragile in this new role. I said I thought people at Opawa were probably a bit nervous and fragile about having a new young minister on board. I said I wondered if the staff were a bit nervous and fragile, wondering how they would fit with this new young minister.

And so we prayed for each other, that in our fragility new life would emerge. (Here)

For the record, yesterday I asked each of us to bring a symbol of our work. We began, first, by reflecting on some thoughts from one of our colleagues from a chapel time earlier in the week, about the Kingdom vision which we all share. It was nice to begin with an insight from within the team.

We then read together the gospel reading for the week. Ironically (!!) it was Mark 6:1-13. Ironically, because it has echoes of one of my favourite missional texts, Luke 10:1-12. We shared what struck us, which included the need to let go and travel light, the invitation to recognise what was new, the sense of God calling us on a journey, the realisation that won’t be easy and that should not surprise us. Lots of richness and the realisation again of the uncanny way that Scripture reads us, rather than we read it.

We then shared our workplace symbol, something about ourselves and how our work life is an expression of the Kingdom vision with which we began together. Our practicality, our reality, in the midst of vision.

A good time, a rich time, a privileged time. Which leaves me hoping I’ll sleep better next Thursday.

a question (2) of Principal

This continues my “As an incoming Principal, I have plenty of questions” series – questions that I ponder as I begin a new role as Principal at Uniting College. (First question, with some responses is here).

Here is the second question I’m asking

How much, and what type of time, should a Principal give to students? Teach a class? Supervise a thesis? An initial connection and then as a student requests? Informal chats in a break between classes? Have them over for meals?

All responses welcome. Because

yep

you got it ….

Sometimes a question, followed by a response helps one listen. Sometimes a question, followed by a response confirms an intuition. Sometimes a question, followed by a response simply reveals what the next question should be.

a question (1) of Principal

As an incoming Principal, I have plenty of questions.

Sometimes a question helps one listen. Sometimes a question reveals most about the questioner, which in search of transparency, is no bad thing. Sometimes a question confirms an intuition. Sometimes a question simply reveals what the next question should be.

I’ve started a list of these questions. Here is the one I’m currently asking

– What is the most important thing a Principal needs to be for the sake of their denominational system?

All responses welcome. Because

yep

you got it ….

Sometimes a response helps one listen. Sometimes a response reveals most about the answerer, which in search of transparency, is no bad thing. Sometimes a response confirms an intuition. Sometimes a response simply reveals what the next question should be.

leadership formation as DIY knitting socks

Peregrinate. A verb, meaning to travel. As a verb, the word can be used either as transitive or intransitive. (To be used in the intransitive, requires a direct object.)

Peregrinate is a distinctive pattern in Celtic spirituality, in which individuals could undertake “peregrinatio pro Christo,” – leaving home, all that was familiar, out of love for a direct object – pro Christo – Jesus.

While some peregrini sought personal spiritual fulfillment, many were about mission. These include Brendan, Patrick, Columba and Columbanus, who during their peregrini spoke peace and saw new forms of church formed in new areas.

It is also a DIY brand of sock.

You buy not the sock, but the pattern. Hence DIY – using wool, following a pattern, but emerging out of your own craft.

Is that what theological colleges are about? They are about a journey. They link with historic patterns of Christian spirituality. They encourage travel, both in lifelong spiritual growth, and in lifelong exploration of mission. They offer not a ready made model, a “this-is-the-way-walk-you-in-it,” but rather a DIY experience, some patterns, some wool, lots of guidance and encouragement, both from those expert in knitting and those learning to knit, a community shaped by peregrinatio pro Christo,” out of love for a direct object – Jesus.

Do women do it – ministry and leadership – differently?

Do women lead different?

No.

And yes.

That is the conclusion from those who write in Presiding Like a Woman – Feminist Gestures for Christian Assemblies, a collection of 20 essays and 2 poems, reflecting on what it means to “preside”, to offer leadership in ministry, as a woman.

The argument of the book is that gender can be rejected – “Oh we’re all the same.” Or ignored – “It’s awkward, so let’s not talk about it.” Or explored, because, in the words of Ali Green, “By honouring sexual difference we can encourage and inspire others who … have felt excluded by their own culture, both within the Church and in wider society.” (109)

As I read, a number of themes seemed to keep appearing.

First, an embodied spirituality – for example the connection in so many essays to experience. In the words of Gillian Hill “women’s experience and an embodied approach challenge any retreat into abstract ideas.” (155)

Second, the whole of life – and to illustrate, a great example by Ali Green

“As well as being childbearers, woman are also oftentimes the carers and homemakers who look after the very young and old and put food on the table. Essentially, the Eucharist is a meal of companionship where everyone is invited to the table, and where the priest, representing Christ, feeds the guests. The woman presider offers a reminder of this very concrete and humble connection: the transcendent, unsearchable God, through the incarnation, becomes known to us in the basic staples of life.” (Green, 107)

Third, participation – a desire for interactivity and mutuality. A chapter by Nichola Slee explored this in depth, arguing that mutuality flourished when responsibility was taken up to attend to the care of the group.

“whether shared or exercised by one person, attention to the power dynamics within the group and careful management of those dynamics is essential if the community is to function well.” (160)

Four, leadership as gentle space-making – Grey describes how the presider is a midwife “that hears into speech, especially the inarticulate, the invisible, the excluded.” (55) This space-making is facilitated by an ethos of empowering leadership and the deliberate creation of safe space.

“The [teacher] does not create the community, but she is frequently the one to call the community together and to issue the invitation to the risky, adventurous process of learning.” (159)

What was fascinating was the chapter by Brian Barrett (one of the two male contributors) who placed this within a lovely mission frame. He argues that the traditional image of church as circle is not Biblical. Neither is the one person band.

Rather leadership is about movement, the constant shift between attending to the congregation and to the stranger on the margins;

to “move back and forth across and to the very edges and doorways of the space, enabling and encouraging the movement of others, and, in the process, making visible and tangible the ‘incarnational flow’ within the ‘space between.’” (Barrett, 173)

Much to think about in this book, as I lay it alongside Faith of Girls, Women’s Spiritual Development (here and here) and the emerging church data I am working with.

the stories we tell, the implications for change

I’m currently reading Gerald Arbuckle’s, Culture, Inculturation, and Theologians: A Postmodern Critique, 2010. It is an accessible overview of culture and the implications for mission. His argument is that issues around gospel and culture is the drama of our day. And being an anthropologist by training (as well as a Catholic priest), he is concerned about how poorly the church understands culture and is aware of the massive shift in contemporary analysis of culture.

Which makes us naive at best, dangerous and destructive at worst.

Anyhow, Chapter 5 Culture as Narratives Negotiating Identities (63-80) is really insightful. Arbuckle begins by arguing that while myths help a culture clarify a past, stories clarify the present. He then suggests seven types of narratives often present in cultures.

• composure – stories that, for the sake of peace, overlook painful parts of a past
• romanticism – stories that not only overlook a painful past, but do so in ways that re in fact inventions
• nationalism – stories that manipulate history in order to impose a current purpose
• minorities – stories in which identity is founded by placing oneself as on the edge, as marginal
• refounding – stories in which the past is told in a way that brings founding energy into one’s future
• marketplace – stories in which new insights are added to a past, often for the commercial advantage of a certain group
• grieving – stories in which loss in acknowledged

While Arbuckle is not explicit, my sense is that in terms of the church and change, he would encourage stories of refounding and stories of grieving, but is uneasy about the others.

As I read, I began to think of what stories the church is currently telling about itself.

• an email overnight from a colleague, expressing concern that his church was overlooking a painful present, in a sort of “it will be all right” type of process
• books that argue if we just return to the New Testament church, we will be alright, a romanticism that ignores the conflict in Corinth, the ethnic tensions in Acts 6 or the lack of response in Athens
• the placing of American flags in a church as a sign of nationalism
• a realisation within myself that I have placed myself (downunder Kiwi), and the emerging church, as a minority, in order to gain traction
• the commercialism of Christian music as a story of marketplace

And I think of the work of Andrew Dutney, who in the Uniting Church has offered a story of refounding, explored the Basis of Union as a mission document, around which much energy and potential for renewal has occurred.

ordination and the future: a question of mission

An email I sent to a friend, that I realised as I wrote it that I want to place on the blog for my ongoing reference. It is a processing shaped by the unique location in which I find myself – trained a Baptist, ministering as a Baptist minister, now serving in a Synod of the Uniting Church of Australia. In doing so, I point to the byline in the header of my blog “steve taylor … in process … all thoughts personal and provisional.”

I don’t see ordination as a functional thing tied to existence, or otherwise, of funding models via church.

I see ordination in the future as being a sort of mission order of the church. As families and society get more and more complex, we need a “training bar” that encourages self-awareness and skilled ministry. As society gets more individualised, we need networks that encourage catholicity, apostolicity and mutuality.

So I see ordination in the future as encouraging this sort of missional ordering – a way of being that exists to encourage training, to develop practices of collegiality and accountability, to enhance peer support and reflection, for apostolicity (starting new things).

Many ordained will be bi-vocational or voluntary, but then ordination has never surely, been simply a function of Christendom’s imagination of church as a building and a full-time presider.

We will also have non-ordination missional orders – and perhaps the Uniting church ministry category of “Pastor” is an ideally container for this. It too encourages training and points toward a sort of learning community in mission.

But this missional ordering is expressed as a more localised expression, more likely to emerge in one location and remain in one location. (Rather than ordination which seems to reference a belonging to the whole church in terms of placement).

So ordination beyond Christendom has a future, as one expression of the church in mission.

the task of forming leaders for mission

Here’s some current thinking. I reckon the forming of leaders involves three things and one direction.

The three things are

• skills – this involves the learning to do things – to preach, to influence, to care, to exegete culture
• vocation – this often involves increased knowledge, about our tradition as church, about the big tradition of the church in history, the shape of ministry
• personhood – this involves self-awareness and spirituality – who we are in the process of living and learning

The one direction is that of mission, that in our post-Christendom context, we need skills and vocation and personhood pointed toward a life lived for the world.

Now here’s my current theory, that in forming leaders, we all start in one of these places. Some of us start with skills (for example supervised field education or immersion experiences or homilectics or worship curating). Some of us start with vocation (for example the way many folk teach theology or Christian history). Some of us start with personhood (for example CPE or pastoral care or personality testing).

This leaves a place that forms leaders with four key questions

• Is the balance right? Some colleges are dominated by vocation type learning. Others are keen to teach skills. If all three are needed, then we need a curriculum that pulls all three into the mix.
• Is each starting point handing the person on – is skills pointing to vocation and personhood, while is vocation pointing to skills etc? Too often colleges default to a dualism of either practice or theory, when the challenge is to model integration, a spiralling between all three, in an ever deepening circle? Where we start is often shaped by personality and by our learning styles – we learn in particular ways, so we assume that others learn our way. Are we able to get beyond the way we learn?
• Timing? When in the formation of each unique individual, do they need to be in which sector? Which skills do they need at the beginning and which at the end? Which building blocks of knowledge are needed when and where? When is the best place to invite self-reflection?
• Is the direction clear? Is all our skills and vocation and personhood being shaped by a life lived for the world?

Thoughts? Have I named the task of forming leaders accurately?

contemporary ministry images in Rev

I’m teaching church, ministry, sacraments and enjoying watching the BBC programme the Rev for clips worth showing to the class.

The first half of episode 3 is fascinating, as within 12 minutes it explores the wide range of ministry and mission models possible

• ministry as carer – in this clip, with the great line “Soft touch for cash”
• also ministry as inter-faith dialogue – in the welcoming of Muslims to use the church
• ministry as Religious educator in schools
• ministry as prophet – in the challenging of the start of a local strip club next door to the local school
• ministry as funeral director – in the opening scene in which, being an inner-city parish, the hearse is towed away during the funeral

the theological prejudice against the word leadership

A lovely, provocative quote from the current College Principal, Andrew Dutney, summing up some of the resistance to Uniting College deciding to call itself in 2008 the Uniting College of Leadership and Theology.

Everyone knew that “leadership” was a worldly fad that a real theological college would have nothing to do with. Most of the literature (though not all) came from America – and especially the tainted world of business. Most of the Christian literature on leadership (though not all) came from evangelical and Pentecostal churches – and although we describe the Uniting Church as catholic, reformed and evangelical we don’t mean that kind of evangelical. Most of it (but not all of it) was a popular, exhortative style – heavy on anecdote and light on intellectual rigour. From the perspective of a real theological college “leadership” was almost a dirty word.

In Andrew Dutney, A Genuinely educated ministry. Effective leaders for a healthy, missional church. New Updated Preface, page 5.

growth in mission please

I’m fielding some lovely requests from folk inquiring about our Masters in Ministry (missional cohort). Pastors and leaders in context, just wanting to grow in their skills.

Like this one:

I would be very interested in pursuing a M.Min (distance) with you guys – your reputation is growing! – as I believe the practical, mission-focussed aspect of the College offers the type of environment I am seeking.

or this one

when S. approached me to discuss continuing education he was quite clear that he wanted to have the opportunity to grow as he has seen me grow [through the Masters programme) this year.

The goal is to add 4-5 new folk each year, and we’ve already got 4 solid enquiries for 2012, which is just great. (The logic is that because the Master of Ministry can only be undertaken by those in ministry ie part-time over 4 years, if 4-5 join each year, we develop a cohort of 15-20, an ideal size for the personal interaction we want to foster).

(I’ll blog some of our 2012 offerings in the next few weeks. In the meantime for more on the general shape of the programme go here).

Missional Masters

Missional Masters Yr 1

women finding voice in historically male gatherings

Has anyone got any useful resources
– personal experience
– research they’ve come across
– books they’ve read
– people they’ve heard
– processes they’ve experienced
on what it means for historically male dominated institutions to learn and re-learn ways of being that free women to fully find their voice?

I’m not thinking simply about equal representation, but the deeper issues around the ways genders form relationships, and relate, the ways issues are processed, what it means for folk to learn from, yet not remain in, prior history?