sustain:if:able kiwi

spring clean action

movement in mission

Tomorrow represents my first mission initiative at Opawa. Tomorrow for Opawa is spring clean day.

I have invited the church to gather at either 9 am or 1 pm … and to work together in groups, either spring cleaning around the church, or spring cleaning into the community … picking up rubbish, mending broken fences.

About a week ago we letterboxed, letting people know we were coming.

On Sunday is spring clean Sunday, exploring the spirituality of de-cluttering our lives, wiping our interior surfaces, being wholebodied.

It is this mix of community, servanthood and spirituality, that I hope will become a hallmark of Opawa in mission.

I’m nervous … will people come … are we organised enough … are we disorganised enough …

Transitioning church in contemporary culture

7 months ago, as an emerging church pastor, I moved to a 94 year old declining conservative church in a poorer part of town. Many people thought I was mad. I was returning to what many in the emerging church are deconstructing and railing against. I was deciding to live in what many had dismissed as lifeless and immovable.

Over 7 months there have been some great encouragements;
a more open, questioning, relaxed, creative, relational approach to faith.
innovation and change
people finding faith
new people

Over 7 months I have been:

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emerging life

Sunday nite
3 baptisms
pool spot lit
rainbow coloured back cloth, sign of spring life in our midst
rose petals in water, placed by the community, a gift, a sacrament of communal love

I talked about extreme discipleship;
do you follow Christ?
do you repent of your sins?
do you renounce evil?
the call to risk, to growth, to stretch,
in contrast to Christianity lite, sweet, fluffy, and with no substance

allie eagle and me

“Allie eagle and me” a film by Briar March, is being shown at Opawa Baptist, 4 pm, Sunday 19th September. This 55 minute (Christchurch film festival movie this year) follows feminist separatist turned Christian artist Allie Eagle. The film is the true story of how Christianity changes lives and politics. Good coffee, free pop corn and possibly a discussion with Allie Eagle to conclude.

lit cross on opawa church wall

Development pastor

The church I pastor is looking for another person to join a staff team of 4. All 4 work part-time, and we want to continue this ethos (0.75 of full/time), as a way of respecting the workplace ministry of church people.

Ethos and context: After a number of rocky years, the church has made significant changes and is looking to a new future. Our vision is to enable people to walk and grow with Jesus, reflecting his love in our communities and beyond.

Our 3 year focus includes the training another generation of leaders, communicating into the community and developing wholistic lifestyle teaching as part of our mission.

We want to employ a Development pastor to:
– Share communication load in Digestion, our evening service
– Network with church community ministries
– Develop leadership
– Develop people spiritually
– Enhance community within church
– (plus some slush for the passion of the person.)

You will need to be able to work with the existing team, be committed to Opawa’s journey of mission and change, be a realist and a people lover, who can work with what is and who is and have a sense of humour when things go wrong.

Drop me a line if interested, or if you know of someone who could fit the bill.

emerging values

a weekend away + pictures of our local community + postmodern culture through the lens of coffee cups + hand drawn pictures of where we would like our church to be in 5 years = 1st go at a set of re:emerging values for a church on mission to a postmodern world

We honour God as energiser of our life and mission.

We place the cross at the centre. We want the gospel at all places in our life and all of our life to bring the gospel into focus. We want a discipleship that mirrors Jesus, that is relational and serving and gospel basic.

We value where we have come from, the heritage and history that has shaped us.

We value lives transformed, in such a way that witnesses to those close to them and to the community.

We value step by step processes in mission. We want to provide multiple stepping stones into the church community.

We value wholistic well-being and lifestyle discipleship. We want people to leave a legacy. We want deep foundations through training, whole-life coaching and spiritual disciplines.

We value transparency and open communication. We want an information highway through the church and into the community. This will include the use of media and internet.

We want to connect with our world and our community to connect with us. We want mission to be a two-way flow, to change us and our architecture and our appearance.

We value a workplace reality. We want a bi-vocational pastoral team and our worship to engage with life 24/7.

We value all age and socio-economic groups. We want the elderly to have a purpose. We want all age groups to “age well.” We want a flow of shared resources in which all groups – the addicted, the digitally impoverished, the wealthy – enhance and challenge each other. We want to be a place that offers participation, in which people are encouraged to “buy-in” to resource a Kingdom vision.

numbering up

I arrived as Pastor at Opawa Baptist about 5 months ago. The church had been in decline for a while. It had lost 400 people in 10 years and 150 in the last 5 years. When we arrived there were about 150 people at 3 services.

Over this week, there have been 300 people at 5 services. That’s twice as many people as last year. Now this was not an average week, and I don’t expect that many people around next week.

And Opawa has a long way to go. Nevertheless, it is quite amazing what has happened in the last 5 months. It is neat to see new faces. It is neat to cruise outside after church and see people smoking! It is neat to see people with no church background wondering when they will be baptised.

life-giving metaphors

I ran a thinking about baptism evening this week. We did a “dry, dummy, run”, then sat around and talked about what baptism means.

I find images of weddings, funerals and baths helpful.

A wedding is an outward statement of inner intent. You’ve been in love for a while, and you gather publicly, with your friends, to outwardly mark a growing inner journey. A funeral, as we participate in the death of Christ, as we go down into the waters, and trust in the “baptiser” to raise us to new life. A bath, a sign of washing and renewal.

Anyway, 9 people turned up. 5 of them are new to the church since we arrived less than 5 months ago. Which is very, very cool.

I love baptism because it is such a life-giving metaphor. There can be a deconstructive, cynical smell around some emerging church discussion. There can be a lot of Easter Friday, Stations of the Cross, woe is the church rants. Rants and cynicism have their place. But so does the celebration of life.

growth trails

Art trails. The notice caught my eye. I thought about the way that art trails thread one-off, stopping places into a journey.

So why not spirituality trails?;
meet at the start of a period with your spiritual coach
select a range of stopping places – courses, seminars, books
meet at the end of a period to celebrate learning.

You could have leadership trails, worship trails, mission trails, parenting trails …. and so many events can be threaded together in a range of personal choices.

Now that would be an exciting approach to spiritual development.

insane burning and extreme worship

jonny baker labels this act of worship insane.

by a total co-incidence, I have been humming Ben Harpers, Burn one down, all week. Suddenly takes on a whole new meaning.

of course, us downunder kiwis are happy to take such insane risks, because we also have insane amounts of water.

enfolded love – trinity worship

Everyone got a bead as they walked in – a range of choices, they choose the bead that suited them. I talked about Genesis 18 and Rublevs trinity. Strangers are welcome, there is space at God’s table.

Then we made friendship bracelets – three strands for Creator/Redeemer/Sustainer – woven together. And the invitation to insert their chosen bead, because they are welcome at God’s table.

Then I VJed around Rublev’s icon, and the person beside us tied the friendship bracelet onto our arm – to St. Patrick’s breastplate – I bind unto myself today the strong name of the Trinity.

pentecost evening

yesterday i blogged about pentecost morning and the risks.

pentecost evening got even more risky: lots of real fire and me laying aside my planned sermon to trust the spirit.

For more …

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