sustain:if:able kiwi

community discernment

One of the challenges at Opawa (Sunday morning) is how to allow community discernment to play a part in our life. It has historically been a “preach” and go home church, which offers a fairly individualistic approach to the Bible. Further, our size works against us. There were over 200 people at our blended Sunday morning service last Sunday. So the church has basically doubled in size in the last 2 years. Unless we ask them to go away, we have to think carefully about the different dynamics this presents for a conversation.

We’ve made a number of shifts to date;

1) introducing communal interactive involvement in response to preaching (heaps of examples under this heading)

2) sharing a combined lectionary reading among pastoral staff and inviting the church to join us (for more go here);

3) a home group that uses my sermon as their basis for discussion;

But it’s just a start. Later this year I’m going to try another approach; in which we gather not for a church “business” meeting, but for a church “Scripture” meeting. We would hear a sermon. Then we will use a process to enable application to be discerned as a community. What emerges will then be integrated into our focus and vision for the year ahead. Here’s some more detail of what I presented to our ministry leaders today

congregational innovation and missional texts: a snip from an email I wrote today

great question: how might a ‘missional reader’ in a local church innovate the bringing into public discourse the real, lived narratives of the people in our local churches? For me there have been key biblical texts and “questions” around which great energy has been released at Opawa. They are texts that we have lingered with and keep returning to. Four that immediately spring to mind are;

1) Luke 1:39-45 – what is God growing and birthing – how do older bless younger – how to speak words of courage and hope?

2) Peter vs Paul – what would it look like to be intentional about evangelism to Peter’s ie process and the invitation to community discernment around this process.

3) Change is best sourced in organic metaphors rather than narratives of decline.

4) The different responses of Peter, Mary, Thomas, John to the Risen Jesus and what does it mean for us to create spaces that acknowledge this diversity and allow this contextual freedom of expression; as a pre-cursor to our multi-congregational model as a concrete way of bringing about change in an established church context.

But these are unique to Opawa. So how transferable are these “texts”?

Today is Saturday 11 March

Today is Saturday 11 March. There are people from Opawa Baptist;
: meeting in the foyer training in youth leadership
: meeting at the Christchurch Polytech to learn how to make coffee in the church coffee machine
: meeting in my office talking about global mission and prayer
: sleeping in over at the church tonight because they are fasting and raising money for mission through the 40 hour famine.

Photo via Jas

It’s a snapshot of our life as a church; diverse, caring, outward.

letters from a dying church

The big challenge, in the next few years, will be to develop the stories of those emerging churches that work within existing churches. In the US, we have very few examples of these… Link.

Two and a half years ago it was my intuitive sense that the future would need models not only of emerging church plants, but of transitional churches in which emerging congregations could be birthed as part of existing churches. It was one of the (many) reasons I moved from planting an emerging church called Graceway, to move to an established church, Opawa Baptist, to do this very thing. The above quote suggests I might not perhaps be as mad as many at the time thought.

I did not come with an agenda and have been amazed with some of the things that have emerged; new congregations, new forms of mission and spiritual formation. (for more explanation go here.) As part of the transition, I started a new blog category; “re-imaging at Opawa.” I was stunned to check my archives last month and discover that it now has 114 entries. That’s over 23,000 words.

Three denominations have contacted me recently asking me to share the story. So I’m considering writing some resources, perhaps titled Letters from a dying [Western] church.

1. If you have a question about transitioning a church into postmodernity and seeing emerging churches from within existing churches, drop them in the comments and they might become gist in a “letter.”

2. If you would like to read a draft of each “letter” before it goes public, and so help me shape – theologically, missiologically, practically – each letter, drop me a line and I will be in touch.

3. If you are a publisher who is happy to participate in an shared public domain project, ie you will let me publish the letters on-line and I will let you publish them as a book, email me steve at emergentkiwi dot org dot nz

4. I’m working on a half-time liver, so I am not making any promises about how often these letters will appear. But I suspect there’s enough material lying around for me to start.

passionate practices

We are passionate; God is passionate; The task of being Christian is to connect our passions with the passions of God – these are the words which are forming and re-forming Digestion, our evening service.

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spiritual formation in contempory contexts

Last night we held a Life Party in the foyer at Opawa Baptist. 25 people gathering to sip on lattes and sparkling grapejuice, to hear stories around Growth Coaching, and to leave cheese and biscuit crumbs on the carpet.

For the last 18 months I have been part of developing Growth Coaching. Most spiritual formation is book and programmed based; you take a course that is full of words. The content tends to expose a narrow understanding of spirituality. Turn up 2 weeks late and you have to wait for next time.

Growth coaching is one-on-one spiritual partnership. I wanted something that breathed of life to the full. It had to be relational. It had to encourage whole of life development. It had to be creatively adaptive, suitable for all types of learners, not just book-focused people. It had to be accessible, easy to enter, no matter where you where or when you turned up.

The first meeting involves a self-audit; 99 questions which are designed to enable a person to reflect on the whole of their life.

In a second meeting, a Growth Coach, having listened and prayed, tentatively offers a vision of a new future. If this vision resonates, then together a path forward is planned. Accountability steps and a timeline are inserted. This could include naming an “encourager”, a cheer leader type, who is invited to text, email or phone support. Each programme is tailored and unique.

Theologically this approach believes in the imago dei, that the image of God is inside humans. It believes in the Spirit to cause growth. It values the relational community, God at work through human partnerships.

At the Life Party last night we heard stories of how Growth coaching has grown people. Stories were shared; of love poems written to spouses and new ways of being spiritual and peacefully centred at work, of the courage to grow and the unpredictable Spirit at work. In a world of cynicism, last night was a rare privilege.

The Life Party will hopefully become an annual event at Opawa, a chance to celebrate growth. Growth Coaching is now one year old. We have trained 8 Coaches over a 8 week period and seen 8 people Growth coached. Last night 4 more people enquired about being trained as a Growth Coach and 5-8 others enquired about being Growth coached.

For a sermon on a biblical narrative of growth coaching (Luke 1:39-45) go here:

For an newspaper article on Growth Coaching, go here.

formed by scripture

Excerpt from a letter I sent to our church staff as we started a new year together.

I would like to see us deepen our sense of shared spirituality. I would like to make two suggestions in this regard.

This would not require anyone to prepare a devotional, yet would allow us together to be formed by the Scriptures. I really want this sense that together we are standing accountable, not to a person’s devotion, but to the Scriptures.

Update: Excellent further discussion by Nigel Wright here, where he offers the possibility of gathering around not only text, but music or image. Which is probably what we were doing with our Advent Art postcards in December; everyone in the church was given a postcard with an art image, ritual and Scripture. So this offered individual nourishment, and then in the services we invited artisticly inclined people to speak to the art, and a musician to play a piece of music.

Turn around churches?

Jordon Cooper wrote: Can you name me some mature churches that made big mid-course corrections? Ginghamsburg Church lead by Michael Slaughter comes to mind as does my old employer, Lakeview Church but after that, the list gets quite short.

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journey of the magi church service

Some ideas from Sunday’s service on the theme of Magi:

1. Question on large screen for people to consider as they arrive: Ponder this … To get to church today, did you travel from the North or South, East or West.

2. Sing O Come O Come emmanuel and use different languages for the first line of each verse. We used English, Korean, Tagalog and Maori. Make a verbal link to the Magi story, people who no doubt spoke a different language in their “coming” to Jesus.

3. Make stars in four different colours. Display again the opening question (Ponder this … To get to church today, did you travel from the North or South, East or West). Get the kids to give out the stars, a different colour for each direction. It takes a bit of time, but the kids love it.

4. Invite people to write on the stars something that might distract them from their journey toward Jesus this Christmas.

5. Place four Christmas trees at the compass points around the church. Have an appropriate coloured star on each one to help people’s direction finder. Invite people to place their stars on the tree in the direction of which they are heading home after church. Sing some carols while people do this. This allows space for lots of people to mingle and move. (175 people on Sunday.)

6. For the benediction, invite people to face “their” tree as they are blessed into their week of journeying toward Christmas.

All of this can be easily laced through singing, lighting of Advent candles, preaching, Scripture reading. All allow multiple ways to participate and response. Connections are made to people’s coming and going, with diverse cultures, with people’s hands and feet.

narnia church service

Sunday morning was a Take a Kid to Faith Church service (interactive, all ages learning together). We did a Lion, Witch, Wardrobe Church Service and also prepared a Movie Resource guide.

Here’s the environment: complete with real life wardrobe, fir tree, cradle and Advent candles. Note the use of rear projection to enhance the forest feel.

How to make a “forest”? Cut our bits of paper to look like trees and rear project using a Par 38 green light. Very simple. Works well.

We showed some movie clips from the BBC 1988 film. We had a Narnia quiz. We reflected on this Advent art piece, with the kids colouring in a photocopy of the art piece while the adults listened to this advent reflection.

We had placed blue and yellow ribbons on the seeds. By way of response, people were invited to welcome the Christ child by bringing their ribbon forward to lay a cloth for the cradle. We finished by offering a movie resource pack, to help families in their movie watching.

I love Take a Kid to faith services and that sense of doing alt.worship for all-ages and learning together. I loved this service and the sense that we are resourcing people in making connections between the film and their Christian faith. To see the whole congregation, from kids to those using walking sticks, laying their blue and gold cloths on the cradle was quite moving.

christmas not for church

Christmas doesn’t belong in church. It didn’t start in a religious building. Its message was for all of humanity, not just Christians.

Today we (Side Door, Opawa, Peter and Joyce Majendie, with help from some other churches) opened the Christmas journey in the square in the heart of Christchurch city. It sits outside major hotels and alongside the Christchurch Cathedral. Tourists stroll by, preachers shout and street kids loiter.

The Christmas journey is the brain child of Peter and Joyce Majendie and has been developing over the last 5 years. This year it consists of a landscaped path that guide people through 8 interactive art installations, housed inside 8 shipping containers, wrapped in material to look like the largest presents any kid could ever imagine getting.

It is wonderful to have Christmas outside the church and in the public domain. It is great to have the Christmas narrative, told through art and engaged with through interactive response. It runs 12 hours a day, 10 am to 10 pm, for the next 14 days.

Photos of last year’s Christmas Journey are here. An article by the Listener, a national secular magazine, is here.
Repackaging Jesus. Churches around the country are changing, diversifying and adopting marketing practices in order to attract new and particularly younger members … So, if you’re expecting what Rev Dr Steve Taylor at Opawa Baptist Church in Christchurch calls “a Mr Bean experience” – a mumbled sermon and badly sung ancient hymns, with people dozing off around you – think again. link.

brian mclaren speaking in New Zealand

Here’s a PDF if you want to read the fine print, want more information, to register, or to spread the word via the web; Download Mclaren publicity.

I’ve worked hard to make this a conversation rather than a monologue; 8 different local panelists responding to Brian’s input on the Saturday, 10 different workshops or book club options with local emerging church practioners, including Mark Pierson, Jenny McIntosh, Fyfe Blair, Pete and Joyce Majendie, Alistair McKenzie, Steve and Lynne Taylor; exploring work, Spirit, formation, art, worship curation. In my opinion it’s worth travelling from Aussie and the North Island for this.

If you want a paper poster for display in your church drop me an email; steve at emergentkiwi dot org dot nz

entering the biblical text or godly play in larger settings

Godly play is a wonderful way of engaging the Scriptures. It uses imaginative storytelling, pauses and offers space to “wonder” around the text, then concludes the story. I am still wrestling with how it can be used in larger congregational settings. How do groups of more than 40 people all have space to “wonder” together.

This following variant worked well on Sunday morning. I was working with the crossing the Jordan narrative. I printed up three wondering questions on different coloured cards;
I wonder what it felt like to face the Jordan?
I wonder what it felt like to cross the Jordan?
I wonder what it felt like to stand on other side?

(Download PPT file of 3 questions)

The story was read. I then divided the congregation into three sections and invited them to “wonder” in groups, and to write their wonderings on the relevant coloured cards. The kids got involved, carrying the cards to and the various groups, and then collecting the cards from the groups to lay on an “altar” at the front of the building.

In about 7 minutes, 180 people of all ages and stages, entered/wondered their way deeper into a Biblical narrative. (The service then moved into a dialogue sermon, two people applying the text to our life as a congregation.) Here are the congregational “wonderings”; which shows quite some depth of congregational engagement/wondering with the text.

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open home open year

At our church meeting in February, I presented the Annual Report to our church. 28 pages with written reports from all different parts of our church passed without comment. Hours of work and not a question. I came away, wondering if we needed a better way for the church to engage with the life of the church.

In the church year, tomorrow is the last Sunday. We’ve turned the building into a journey. People will be invited to wander through the building, on the way out to a barbeque lunch, taking the time to engage with the many facets of the church. So much has happened in the church this year.

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