sustain:if:able kiwi

making news: Director of Missiology appointed: updated with pic

The following is a write up from the Uniting Church of South Australia, in regard to my new role. It even includes a picture of me, taken a few weeks ago, of me beside a gum tree!

It was with great excitement that Uniting College for Leadership & Theology announced their latest appointment to staff – Rev Dr Steve Taylor as Director of Missiology. Many in South Australia will remember Steve from Presbytery and Synod meetings held in 2007 and 2008. Steve lives in New Zealand with his wife Lynne and two daughters. They will move to Adelaide in 2010 when he begins the position.

With 15 years of ministry experience (planting and leading congregations) under his belt along with a PhD and a passion for writing in the area of contemporary missiology, Steve brings a wealth of experience and wisdom to this role.

Steve took a few minutes out from his schedule to share a little of who he is with us: Could you give readers and idea of your ministry background? I first pastored at Graceway Baptist church and then became Senior Pastor at Opawa Baptist. I’ve always done this congregational ministry part-time, while lecturing, first at Carey Baptist College then Laidlaw College, in areas of being Christian at the interface of church and society.

What will you do as as the new Director of Missiology? The role will include lecturing, writing, building a team of lecturers, serving the wider church and formation of leaders, both ordained and lay. My wife and I see this as a missionary call, a season in which our talents might serve God’s mission work in Australia. We consider ourselves Baptists on loan!

Why did you accept the position of Director of Missiology? At Pentecost this year, I preached on the theme of being surprised by God. That week Andrew Dutney phoned, asking me to consider the role. As I talked with Andrew, I sensed that my gifts and life experience could fit what was needed. I sort of had to take my sermon personally!

So we talked about it with our children, asking them to pray with us over the week. Each of us built a list of positives (Cibo, Ikea) and negatives (leaving family, friends and a great church). When we met a week later, our youngest suggested we read the lectionary text for the day, which was John 1:43-50. Closing the Bible, our oldest announced, “To me it sounds like God is calling us to Adelaide.”

Over an hour, as we talked and prayed, there was an overwhelming sense that we needed to trust God into a new adventure. We’re scared and nervous, worried we won’t find any friends and that everyone will laugh at our accents. But as a family we sense we need to practice what we preach; to follow God’s voice – to risk, adventure and trust.

What do you look forward to most in your new position? Listening. I come as a stranger to a country in which God has been at work. So I want to listen, to indigenous peoples, to those outside the church, and finally to those inside the church.

When you’re not directing Missiology or writing on your blog site, where can you be found relaxing? In my vegetable garden. I make a great vegetarian lasagne, often with up to seven types of vegetables from my garden. So I am keen to see what will take shape in the gardens of Adelaide.

Rev Dr Steve Taylor, self-confessed enjoyer of coffee, art, ‘dub’ music and lover of vegetable gardens, will commence his role as the new Director of Missiology at Uniting College of Leadership & Theology in 2010.

made it: updated

24 hours of flying. a few unexpected moments, but sailed through LAX inside my 55 minute transfer.

exhausted. shower and bed, here I come.

But first: fresh fruit and muffins procurred from local supermarket (always cheaper than hotel and in case jetlagged person has munchies at midnight). And a Starbucks to confirm this really is America.

I’ve found grace inside the sound: a benediction of incarnation

“I found grace inside the sound,
I found grace, it’s all that I found”
Breathe, from U2’s NLOTH album.

This works for me today as a benediction of Incarnation. Bono has made his career from “sound,” living inside the rock world all his adult. While initially warned to avoid “the secular world” of rockmusic, while enduring scorn and criticism for his actions over the years, here he sings of finding grace inside that “sound”. Unexpected favour. That is my prayer today: that in the midst of my life, my uncertainties, my insecurities, in my taking decisions to follow Jesus, grace is what I found.

There is a strong personal note to this blogpost. It’s now my 7th day on the road and I’m missing home. My three speaking engagements have been enjoyable, fulfilling and gone well, but have all been demanding and nervewracking. Today I begin my odyssey/long weekend road trip to the US for the U2 conference and concert. All exciting, but it will involve about 40 hours of flying and 10 airport connections. I have 55 minutes in Los Angeles and I will be lucky to make the connection. Yesterday I had 5 appointments, meeting key people in relation to my new job. I came away excited, but also quite daunted by the processes of change I am stepping into. In the last days I’ve had visits to 4 schools and phoned 2 more, keen to find supportive learning environments for my two “migrant” daughters next year. I’ve started to look at home and rentals and simply been overwhelmed by the choices facing us and the complexity of unknowns we as a family face. I’ve started to doubt the wisdom of our decisions. In other words, I’m needing today to be placing my hope in finding grace, inside the sound of US travel and Adelaide migration, and at a whole range of personal and ministry levels.

Rather than fret, I need to, as Breathe begins:
Walk out into the street,
Sing your heart out.

PS. I actually hate Breathe as a song. Love the lyrics, don’t like the tune.

For more U2 NLOTH reflections see here and here.

we go to a new land downunder

“change or newness is most likely to come from having people work at both the centre and the edge” Jonny Baker.

Which serves to introduce a pretty big move for the Taylor family. Over the last days we have been announcing to church, jobs and school that we are moving to Adelaide, Australia at the start of 2010 to take up a role as Director of Missiology at Uniting College.

Organisationally, I am intrigued by their desire to make a clear focus on developing leaders for a missional church, and feel that my experiences and training might add strength to that. I like their suite of teaching: under-grad and post-grad; lay and ecclesial; distance and on-site. I am fascinated by the way they are seeking to make context their primary forming place (cf the classroom). I’d like to explore the possibilities of what could happen when the seminary of a mainline church places mission not as an extra or an addon, but at the centre of it’s intention.

At a personal level, the job offers me more time to write. It continues my lecturing focus and my leading focus, building a team of lecturers. It offers some new leadership stretch, including working on a personal dream, of gathering critical reflection around missional experiments (hopefully through post-grad offerings). There is encouragement to continue in congregational ministry, but that would need to be as part of a team, not as the primary can-carrier.

At an emotional level, it’s a big change and we’re all pretty nervous. But it’s very much been a family decision. We were very comfortable, very settled, loving our current life. But at Pentecost I preached on God as a God of surprise and that week took a call, asking me to consider the role. As we’ve prayed together as a family, there was an overwhelming sense that we need to trust (again) the God who has given us such good friends and church here in New Zealand.

Our “Opawa” announcement letter is here and includes more of our discernment process, including our kids participation. Everyone at Opawa has been so gracious and caring. However it is fair to say we are all pretty disappointed, because we as a church are in the midst of such a good season. So we are all pushed back to trust God.

So if you’re the praying kind – Taylor’s need to find a house, 2 new schools and move our lives across the Tasman sea. We also need to find a church community, ideally something nourishing for our kids, yet also something that lets Lynne and I play, cos we’re both keen to be part of (not carry the can for) a team in a missional context. Lynne will need to find a job once the children are settled. And Uniting
College/denomination need to get used to a Kiwi baptist. Our extended families need God’s love and assurance. That’s lots to pray.

no line on the horizon u2 album launch party

A fun nite with friends – celebrating the launch of the new U2 album. No line on the horizon, in the background, bbq on, corn, celery and potatoes, from the garden. Finished with wild blackberries, foraged from a spot we’ve found down by the river. I’ve got lots of thoughts on the album, it’s a joyous, diverse, mix that has echoes of Boy, Unforgettable Fire and Achtung Baby. It’s an album from a band very comfortable in their own skin. It’s an album, superbly crafted and woven (compared with a few singles and a some backing tracks cobbled together) . And, based on this album, Bono’s lyrics deserves an honorary theological doctorate. More on this another time ….

u2 conference postponed

The global credit crunch bites and the U2 conference has been postponed. I’d already paid for my tickets, so it’s rather expensive personal news, let alone the fact I was really looking forward to it, my paper was looking good and I was really happy that I would be connecting face to face with Pernell Goodyear and the Cultivate gathering.

do you want your toys with that?: updated

It’s our church annual meeting tonight. Which means for me, today is one of the more stressful days of the year. There is a huge amount of work, done by lots of people, needed to make a night like this go well – finances done, budgets agreed, ideas prepared with clarity and accuracy. An organisation has history that it brings to annual meetings, let alone the history that a baptist church might bring. That history can include people throwing their toys!

This is my 6th annual meeting at Opawa and to date they’ve been great – cordial, positive, smooth. But who knows what could happen at this time around.

Some of my missional and emerging friends pooh, pooh meetings. For me, I consider them essential to healthy living. I was listening to a friend raving about their new church that meet in a home and how great it was that together they talked about how they were going to distribute money that people gave. At which point I couldn’t help myself and cheekily suggested it sounded just like a church meeting. I then asked what would happen if 2 people had different ideas on spending the money. In the silence, I said I had some written guidelines about what to do at that point. Called a constitution of course! My point, amid the banter, was that all groups need ways to be talk and be accountable and do life together. Which makes finances and budgets and motions an essential part of healthy living.

So tonite Opawa gathers. And I wait, wondering how the agendas of a diverse and complex group will meet on this particular nite, amid this particular season, with all its particular pressures and joys …

Updated: Ok, if you are interested highlights included (more…)

the fine art of mediation

I’ve spend the last three days learning about Mediation. Hosted by Resolve, and led by David Newton one of Australia’s top mediators. He’s done over 1000 cases, so had an amazing breadth of experience and life skill to pass on.

Long days, 8:30-6 pm. So practical, with opportunity to actually mediate and negotiate our way through a range of “real life” situations – redundancy payouts, construction dispute, parents meeting to repair the damage of a child badly hurt in an accident, marriage breakups, medical ethics.

What a breath of fresh air – to watch someone else teach, to be offered a range of skills that work in so many areas of life (parenting to lecturing, being married).

What was particularly refreshing was to be in what was for me a very gospel environment, yet one that so rarely discussed church. (Although David did suggest that the most difficult places to mediate in, from his experience, where religious communities. Him and I had a long lunch chat about that, and he began to see a different side of church as I talked about the linkages between change, life, health and conflict as essential in a positive way.)

So often I am part of conversations about how to change church, wheras this was about how to restore, how to speak truth, how to enhance compassion for the other – all deeply gospel and deeply part of church. But great to come at them from such a different angle.

It reminds me of the story of Ruth. In Ruth 2:12, Boaz prays a blessing on her: “May the LORD repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.” Then in chapter 3, Ruth goes to see Baoz, asking him to spread his cloak over her. The word she uses (kanaph) is exactly the same word as is translated “wings” in chapter 2. I wonder if Ruth is challenging Boaz to ground his theology. He can pray good prayers and speak fine words. But she is still hungry and so is her mother-in-law. Will Boaz make his prayer practical, actual do something and live different. Or will he just keep praying fine words. That is the challenge of mediation for the church, to actually put legs on faith and make reconciliation not just a prayer word, but an action word.

auckland to learn not to speak

Yah. I’m off for 3 days of professional development in Auckland. I am embarking on a Mediation course, taught by David Newton, who is one of Australia’s most experienced mediators.

Resolving conflict has been an increasingly important part of my ministry in recent years, whether it’s working with marriages, among families and in churches. I don’t see that as negative, since reconciliation is at the heart of the gospel. Healthy things grow and that inevitably brings the need of change and resolution. So when I saw this course advertised, I know that although I didn’t have the time, but I needed to make it a priority.

3 days to be a student, to sit and watch and grow. Yah!

summer delight

Time off in the last few weeks has focused around converting the back lawn into 5 new no-dig garden beds, including one each for the girls. Lot of work, lot of satisfaction.

Updated: plantings include lettuce, boysenberries, peas, beans, pumpkin, tomato, celery, flowers, corn, peppers, onions, red onions, basil, chives, carrots, radish, potatoes (any day)

face to face: a mask too far?

I hate being a projection of people’s past. If you’ve got a problem with pastors then that stinks. But why dump that on me?

I was talking yesterday with a group and the blessing in Numbers 6:26 came up – May the LORD turn his face toward you, and we talked about what it might mean to really be face to face with someone.

And when you place a “mask” on me, constructed by your previous experiences of religion, then surely that makes it hard to have open and honest communication, simply because you are not actually talking to me face to face, but to a projection of what has been? Or is that too hard an ask, and in fact all our human encounters are coloured by our past, and we’re all putting masks on each other?

lovely anglicans

I am up to Auckland today, to speak at the Anglican Clergy Conference around themes of mission, church and leadership for 3 days.

And my family come with me. YEAH. First time ever. YEAH. The Anglicans have paid for their travel, our accomodation and even booked a rental car so that the family can go play while I talk. YEAH. Aren’t they lovely?

Which only leaves the question asked by my 10 year old at lunch today: Why would the Anglicans want [to listen to] a Baptist pastor?

painting a print

Keith sent me this:

his painting of my blog header picture. The blog header picture is of a sea shell lying on a New Zealand beach and came from the invitation to the baptism of a good and dear friend. Keith made the following interpretation “I sorta made it where the shell is on safe ground but things are tough on the horizon.”

help

desperate plea from one of our pastoral team …

I have a problem.

Help.

Head on over if you might be able to help.