sustain:if:able kiwi

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

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.

a break

i am taking a break from this blog in order to process some stuff. i set up this blog to be a conversational space. if, as maggi has commented, it is in reality a publishable space, then i am forced to rethink my energies.

i would love, in the kingdom, to be able to give all my work away. that was my dream in the creative commons license. but it appears i am required to be more careful. i am not sure i want a “careful” blog. appreciate your prayers.

missiological encounters

that new pastor, bit of a wag.

life to a 7 year old

Are you Shannon’s dad?
Yes.
Would you speak to her school class [of 7 year old’s]? Would you tell them what you do for a job?

Uh …. sure.

Sitting in car 5 minutes later.
Next Friday. Hmmmm.
How on earth do I explain my pastoring, my teaching, my writing, my wwwing, to a group of 7 year olds?

Suggestions welcomed.

growing in ministry

How has your PhD affected your ministry? I was speaking to a group of ministers yesterday and this was the final question. I have continued to mull it over.

1. I am more aware of the complexity of our society and the mission task that is ours. We live in a very fragmented and diverse world and need to resist simplistic approaches to mission.

2. A greater awareness of the need for imagination as essential to church and ministry.

3. A deeper respect for a theology of creation. I am searching much more for life images in the Scriptures and in people’s lives.

4. My study has given me a much deeper respect and love for the Spirit. I am seeking to be much more attentive to the work of the Spirit in the world, much more eager to fan what God is doing.

stages of faith

when one’s starting out on the spiritual journey and making a serious attempt to understand a complicated major religion, one needs certainties in order to find a patch of firm ground to stand on; the sophisticated approach can come later. I had reached the stage where I had dug myself in on a patch of firm ground but had so far been unable to work out how to move on.
:: Susan Howatch, The Heartbreaker.

superb

this is great. it has just become my home page.

nz music

the feelers
in the sun
by the sea
with good friends

this is
as good
as it gets

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.

be cool with your space

Back up in Auckland again, for the second week of teaching in the Church and Society, University of Auckland intensive. It’s been my 5th flight in a week and I am starting to tire.

It is listening to the music of Salmonella Dub that keeps me going. The first track of their album, One Drop East, has had the most profound impact on me. It celebrates travelling on
we all you knew you had to go
to spread your wings and let the wind take your flow
and relationships;
its good to see you again my friend (call out to Stephen and Rachel who I get to see today)
its been a long, long time

and has such a great chorus;
dont you fall from grace
be cool with your space
check your pace
it ain’t a race

This is hard to explain and deely personal and I might not make any sense, but I’ll have a go. Often I feel placed in a dualism regarding time – you can either be busy or not be busy. If you have some deadlines, somehow you are bad because you are not taking time to relax, to attend to family and spirituality. It happened yesterday. I was introduced as a busy person and the guest spent the next 5 minutes checking the state of my marriage. A very intimate introduction which I found way too intense. And the dualisms were at work; oh you’re busy, your marriage must be stressed.

Well the Dub song says to me that you can be not busy while busy. It is about one’s internal clock, how you manage the pace in the midst of letting the wind take your flow, how you treasure relationships in the midst of boarding calls. It’s not either or, but God in the midst of. Does that make any sense?

Coffee whore

I have been in Christchurch just over a week. Already I have 3 different coffee cards in my wallet, from 3 different cafes. And I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.

Part of earthing for me is finding a good local cafe. In Auckland we had Ultra; retro and friendly, and from that emerged storytelling nites.

Where is my “ultra” in Christchurch – accessible, good, relational and a place from which to start public creative missional events?

New soils

I walked my new garden in the cool of the morning. The weeds and plants are different here. In new soil, in new environments, different things grow.

I walked on excited, expectant. What will God grow in me, through me, with me, in this new environment.

Deeper question: So how important is environment to one’s spirituality?

PS. I loved the comment made by Stephen Garner; Your presence there also changes the environment into something new – a place of new possibilities sourced in you being there at that time.