sustain:if:able kiwi

bible days

Been working on this little project for a while, a way to increase Bible engagement both off-line and on-line. it’s going public to Opawa over this weekend, so here goes ….

Increase Bible knowledge by providing a helicopter overview of selected Bible books.

Link the Bible with life and mission in New Zealand today

Discuss in community with others

7 Saturday afternoons (3:30-5:30 pm)
John (Feb 21)
1 Peter (April 25)
1 Corinthians (May 30)
Acts (July 25)
2 Samuel (Aug 15)
Ecclesiastes (Sept 19)
Mark (Oct 3)

Cost: $5/Bible day (free for participants of Opawa Baptist Church)

FAQs
Why these books? They link with the Daily Bible reading plan used at Opawa Baptist. The aim is to create interest and a greater depth of Bible reading by mixing this teaching overview with daily reading. Different books will be offered in different years.

Who will be teaching? Some of New Zealand’s leading Bible teachers and theologians have been asked to speak on books they are passionate about. These include Paul Windsor from Carey College, Steve Graham and Bob Robinson from Laidlaw College, Paul Trebilco from University of Otago and others. Each has been asked to provide an overview, allow room for discussion and point to highlights that might shape mission life.

What happens after each Bible day? Daily reading of the book is a natural next step. The Opawa 24/7 prayer room will have books for further study. Ongoing discussion, on-line and off-line, will be encouraged through a “post-it” note concept.

Can I come to just one Bible day? Yes.

What if I am busy that day? The plan is to make all Bible days podcastable and available online after the event.

So I could become part of this, even though I don’t live in Christchurch? Yes. Simply ask (includes an annual administration fee).

summer worship: sustainable rather than attractional or missional

Often Kiwi churches die after Christmas. I was reflecting on the inherent lack of logic in this: we make a big effort for Christmas, then all head off on holiday. If Christmas visitors were genuinely seeking God, then we provide precious few resources once our Christmas benediction concludes. This could run the danger of being attractionable, yet could also be a shout-out for sustainable and the need to offer ongoing spiritual resourcing. Equally, people are tired and need holidays. So again this becomes a shout-out for sustainable, for finding patterns that map seasonal life with authenticity.

Sometimes I wonder if both attractional and missional are simply middle-class. They suit people with some get up and go, some energy, some ability to resource themselves, whether coming or going. Yet ministry occurs among people with real and present needs. Like the person who asked us to meet her parents after the Christmas service, and calmly announced. “Oh, you’ll be the first Christians they’ve ever met.” There are levels of support required here that are above and beyond a “see you after we’ve all holidayed.”

So this year we’re trying the “Summer Delight” series. Visually, the church is decorated with jandals/thongs (“Soulmates” from our local service station) and people are encouraged to come in sun hats, shorts and jandals. We start the service with a cup of tea/coffee, and end the service with a bring-your-own picnic. All low-key, but lots of chances to relax and catchup. Input wise, we are opening up themes like pilgrimage, faith outdoors, spiritual friendship. All this is part of deeper challenge, for Kiwis to throw of the imperialism that is the Church year, shaped by Northern Hemisphere seasonal patterns, in which advent candles work best in winter dark, Easter lilies really do bloom in spring and Pentecost can be outdoors. I mean, what would a Church year look like if Jesus had been born in Southern summer heat?

Christmas caring with

… pastoral worship. Once again the Blue Christmas service became a space and a place on which to sit with all that can make a person blue come Christmas. Never an easy service to curate and one that always comes with lots of tears and hugs. (It’s quite disturbing to start with a welcome and a “hello, my name is Steve…” and have people reach for a tissue :)) But amongst the glitter and relentlessly upbeat carols, it’s becoming a significant and important part of Opawa’s Christmas ministry.

… cake. In what is becoming an Opawa tradition, we make a Christmas cake together at our December communion service. Then the Sunday before Christmas, pieces are wrapped up and the names and addresses of our elderly, unable to be with us at Christmas, are noted. People are asked to take a piece, and sometime before Christmas, drop it into rest homes around Christchurch, with Opawa love. This is not just the staff team caring, but the staff team providing concrete ways for Opawa to be caring, for people to connect with people, younger to connect with older. One piece is even been driven 3 hours, to be given to the Fairhalls, along with our prayers for them this Christmas.

an encouragement

From a visitor a few Sunday morning’s ago, someone whom I respect immensely: I so enjoyed coming to Opawa. Rich liturgy. Real involvement of congregation. Thought provoking, stimulating messages. Quiet peace. Warmth. Laughter. Reality! It was like having an excellent meal at a very good restaurant!

peace labyrinth 2008 latimer square

This is where a lot of Opawa’s energy goes in the weeks leading up to Christmas

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The peace labyrinth opened in Latimer Square, Christchurch, at 7 pm tonite, and is open 24 hours a day until Christmas eve. 900 hay bales, set out in a labyrinth, invites a peaceful, healthy walk in an inner-city park. 8 stations allow reflection on peace – including the home, workplace, with oneself, with the environment, among the poor. Brain child of Pete and Joyce Majendie. Lighting this year included advice from Bruce Ramos, U2 lighting director, who, along with family flew over from Melbourne for the weekend. He’s also shooting a video of the installation.

Tonite I watched a cop walk in, then walk out and say “I just realised I could try a Christmas service this year.” If you’re in Christchurch, check it out. More pics from 2007 here, promotional video here, interactive installation website here

Opawa blue christmas service 08

The Press on Tuesday called Advent 2008 the season of grief, noting the death of taxi driver Abdulrahman Ikhtiari, the recent Air New Zealand crash, needless road accidents and the Elim School tragedy in April. Amid the joy of Christmas can be pain and sadness, as we remember absent friends, difficult circumstances or the death of a loved one. The Blue Christmas service will make a “blue tent” in memory of all that makes us blue. It will also use prayer, symbol, silence and a personal story of a blue Christmas, to affirm that Emmanuel God-with-us cares and loves us in our blue times.

West Wing Church foyer, Opawa Baptist, 7:30-8:30 pm, December 17th.

a hard day and a harder week

The week past has not been one I’d want to repeat. Immensely challenging, one of my loneliest in leadership. I’ve had excellent friends and a wonderfully supportive Board, but am still tasked with carrying some cans.

I’m not sure about posting what follows or not, but given the ability of humans to second guess and insinuate, the need for facts is important, so I am placing the following two statements on my blog and also on the church website. Statements – updated – (from Fairhalls and church were available for a period, then taken down.)

And below this is the accompanying verbal announcement that I made to the church today:

The Fairhall family want to take up a 9 week interim pastoral position (December/January) with Oamaru Baptist Church, effective Sunday 30 November. This means Craig is unable to fulfill his responsibilities here at Opawa and therefore Craig has chosen to resign. We regret this situation and how it has evolved.

Given the short notice, we are asking Craig and the family if they would be willing to return for an evening in February 2009. We want to acknowledge to them that what has happened is not ideal and to thank them for their ministry among us.

The Board realise this might raise questions and a range of emotions. To help us process this Steve and various Board members will be available, informally
after service today, 30 November, West Wing, 15 minutes after morning service
after service next Sunday, December 1, West Wing, 15 minutes after morning service
Tuesday evening, December 9, church auditorium, 7-8 pm

Now, please, before you hurry away, pause and pray for all those impacted by this – Fairhalls and Opawa, myself and Oamaru, church staff and God’s Kingdom. There is so much life around Opawa at the moment – people finding faith and significant wider community transformation – and nothing should steal away from that.

creatives at work: open home open year

(For theological/liturgical rationale go here)

As part of our open home, open year service, I asked 3 of our creatives to paint throughout the service. Each one took one side of our “building the Kingdom house” which had been covered with white paper in preparation. As the powerpoint rolled, as testimonies were shared (story after story of community impact), as 2 sermonettes were preached, as prayer was uttered and worship given, they expressed visually what they were hearing.

After the service they then stepped back and looked at each other’s work. This is what they saw:

The best moment was during the last song, when Sam, 2 years old, ran inside the house, turned to face one of the artists, and waved. Boy and artist just grinned at each other. That’s what God’s doing through us at Opawa – creating places of colour and safety in which generations engage. It’s such a privilege to be part of it.

looking forward, looking back

This Sunday morning is our annual Open Home Open Year service. We will look back at the year past and celebrate what God has been up to. We will ask the question, “How has grace been at work amongst us?” A team of artists will paint our “Building the Kingdom” house, as ministry leaders share. (Following the service, those who’ve booked for Guess who’s coming to lunch can continue to reflect on the year past with their mystery guests/hosts).

(Also, if you have any photos of things the church has been up to in the past 12 months (December 2007 – November 2008), please email these through by Saturday at 3.30pm so they can be included in a presentation looking back at the year past.)

Rationale:
As a church, we start our year in February. Refreshed by a summer break and inspired by our church annual meeting, we choose one Bible text, which might shape our year and our vision.

This year it was the book of Philemon and the phrase “Building the Kingdom.” Philemon is a tiny book buried in the back of the New Testament. It is the story of a broken relationship, a slave in dispute with his master. The slave runs from conflict, only to encounter the unexpected and life changing grace of God. The slave is transformed. He realises he needs to face his past. The letter of Philemon offers us a gracious, practical, relational, honest Christianity, in the real struggles of our life.

To help us focus on the theme, a house was built and placed at the front. Each week it has stood before us, asking us to examine our priorities. How are we, as a church, building the Kingdom in living a gracious, practical, relational, honest Christianity?

To also help focus on the theme, each person was given a house to take home. It was smaller and made of card. They were invited to make the house and to examine ourselves, as individuals, in our homes and workplaces, building the Kingdom in living a gracious, practical, relational, honest Christianity?

Kiwi’s tend to lose December in a blur of Christmas shopping, end of year functions at school and work. So come late November, as a church we pause and reflect on the year past. This is our task today in this Open home, open year service. How has the the book of Philemon and the phrase “Building the Kingdom” shaped and challenged our life this year? How has grace been at work among us?

building ministry

About 4.5 years ago I started as a change agent pastor at Opawa. It’s been a turbulent and exciting ride, walking with a 96 year old church, with lots of history, into a new mission future.

I realised the other day that I don’t do linear change. I don’t do that whole “here’s the vision and the goals and the plan.” Instead I do more spiral change, I keep circling over things, running an experiment, seeing the feedback, gathering energy to run another experiment. I like spirals more than linear and reflecting on the journey, I think there’s been 7 spirals going on. Here they are:

A – Renewal of Bible in our congregational life, through interactive preaching, discussion groups, sermon questions, stoning the prophets, lectionary

B – Resourcing a scattered faith, through God at work services, short courses and God at work groups, practices, takeaways, Lenten and Advent resources

C – Multicongregational approach, through planting espresso, hymn service, refresh (did not last), Grow, Soak

D – Formation of mission action teams, including Koru, film nite, evangelism groups.

E – Discipling structures, through Growth coaching, block course teaching, Lectionary readings

F – Staffing aligned our mission life, including part-time team, appointment of mission pastor, discipling pastor, community chaplain, family hub developer

G -Building aligned with our mission life, including couches, coffee machine, and building project. This one has been the biggest surprise and was furthest from my mind in coming to Opawa. But our environments speak and our building was hampering much of the above 6 spirals of change. So we asked ourselves some hard questions as a leadership and a church over a 9 month period. Then over the last 9 months we’ve seen $400,000 in funds raised, for the following – (This 8 minute video was put together for our 2008 church meeting, as an attempt to communicate and link our mission and ministry with the practicalities of our building changes. Enjoy!)

Room by Room – Opawa 08 from opawa mac on Vimeo.

Growing Biblical engagement around Opawa

I am currently reading the history of the Bible Reading Fellowship in the UK in early 1900’s. One idea that struck me was how, as well as providing regular Bible notes, they had a monthly evening to introduce these notes. I began to think about how we engage the Lectionary here at Opawa, the “what next?” conversations that emerged from our recent “How to Read the New Testament” course and my wheels started to spin …

A proposal: That we encourage Bible reading and we encourage the Lectionary by doing one-off “Introduction to the book” on an Opawa evening, whenever the Lectionary gets to that Bible book. This would take about 90 minutes (7:30-9pm), this would be shared among the pastoral team, and that any resources we have are also placed in the Opawa 24/7 prayer room for further study, along with a whiteboard/postit notes, on which people can write “what struck them? what questions they have?”

Advantages:
This could
– build a culture of Bible literacy
– over time, we would end up covering lots of the Bible
– serve as a regular advertising reminder of lectionary
– adds layers to the weekly lectionary reading we are now practising at church, reading the Bible for it’s own sake
– honours “how to read the Bible” courses we have run, creating links and ongoing community around these

The detail:

(more…)

exciting church meeting as we discuss family hub ministry

“A church meeting I will never forget” and “so exciting” where some of the comments as people left the church meeting on Wednesday evening.

We commissioned a missionary into long term service, a part-time youth worker and a part-time community chaplain.

But what caused most excitement was the discussions and dreaming around what we are calling, for a lack of a better word “family hub.” In essence, we want to try a new form of mission/church, in which the concerns about being a family are a starting point for spirituality. We want to provide a focus of energy around life, and life to the full, body, mind and soul, for families, particularly into our local suburb which has the highest % of solo families in all of Christchurch. We want to provide resources to help families table talk and build faith, to support each other through the hard places and sleepless nights.

Key steps that have guided us this far are as follows:
1. The interest in parenting, both inside and outside the church, generated by my sermon last year on “Would Jesus smack?” and here. There is a need, both in the church and outside the church, to provide family resourcing.

2. A clarifying conversation with a New Zealand Families Commissioner who, on hearing about our church building plans, commented “Oh, Opawa could become the family hub of your community.”

3. Talking with Board, staff and ministry leaders over April to July.

4. In June, we reach our $400,000 fundraising target needed to start Stage 2 of building project (cafe facilites, more multi-purpose foyer space, more staff offices, toilet upgrade, fire and building code compliance). This means we need to start thinking about ministry into Stage 3 of the building changes (childcare and youth facilities).

5. A gifted individual, sensing a new season in their pastoral ministry, hears about the “family hub concept and is “excitedly cautiously curious.”

6. On Saturday, in a pastoral conversation, I mention that I might have a gifted person, but not the money. A significant financial offer from community business networks is made, giving the “family hub” project time to seek further funding.

And so there was a rush of talking and processing over the last week, which allowed the concept to be considered on Wednesday evening. (I attach the vision paper and the first draft job description. They simply mark a point in the process, not necessarily the finished product: Download file). We feel like things are going WAY to fast, (and boy, were the southerly winds blowing on Wednesday nite as we prayed as a church) but sense that we need to be willing to trust God in this season of seemingly rapid change for the church. The decisions at the church meeting were unanimous: keep following the wind of the Spirit.

a shifting mission?

Currently, three evenings a week, smaller gatherings occur at Opawa. They provide a snapshot of our changing mission

: Tuesday is espresso, a conversational congregation. Over the last few years, it has provided a place for those inside and outside Christian faith to talk, argue, learn, laugh.

: how to read the Bible is a 8 week block course on a Wednesday, that includes a number seeking faith and wanting to consider the place of the Bible.

: Sense making faith is on a Thursday and has a different set of participants, who bring with them existing spiritual experiences outside of organised religion.

It is fascinating to realise how mission has shifted for us as a church: away from Sunday attractional services to smaller, more relational groups. Each group has a different interest, funds a different type of conversation, engages with a different way of spiritually searching – questioning place, thinking place, experiencing place.

In saying this I do not want to advance an Incarnational VS Attractional divide. Sunday remains important because it is our most visible place and people often start there.

The image I use is of a physical presence. Most businesses have shops, most clubs have clubrooms, most cafes have seats. Without these, you would struggle to find them. So mission as the funding spiritual search needs a place in which people can “land.” But what is key for us is the development of multiple spaces, so that when people “land,” they are not offered a one size fits all, but a variety of ways to continue their search.

communion: a step too far?

This was what I did for worship at Grow last nite:

– white cloths to close off part of the church foyer
– two slide images, one titled “life”, the other a Coptic church icon,
– communion at end, lit by scented candle
– on black squares on way up were post-it stickers, naming various “black areas of our life” – various sins against creator, redeemer, sustainer
– on white squares on way back were another set of post-it stickers with various “white areas of our life” – fruit and gifts of Spirit
– we read a confession of belief
– then people were invited to walk up, considering the black squares and allowing Spirit to search them,
– to enjoy communion and
– to walk back, considering the white squares and the fruit and gifts of Spirit we might need for week ahead.
– Updated: playing Radiohead’s “Everything in it’s right place”

I wanted to avoid a rush and squash, so suggested people walk up one by one, and those gathered pray for the person as they walked.

I was quite pleased with the space. But only about half the people responded. Which is not normal. Was it a step too far? too much focus on the individual? And if so, does it matter? Could there be times when we invite people into a more challenging practise of communion?