sustain:if:able kiwi

new service called soak

starting Sunday evening, happening monthly, lots of space for stillness, including body massage prayer, creative space, communion, Biblical meditation.

Grow one week old

kicked off on Sunday evening. Excellent start, real buzz around the place, new faces, and faces we had not seen for a while.

It’s only week one, so it’s too early to evaluate. What we are trying to do is to offer a whole variety of angles on a topic. So for 3 weeks it is Grow through gardening and on the first week we played a scene from the movie Over the Hedge where the animals meet “the hedge”. We then offered a history of gardens in ancient times. We guessed who owned a number of Opawa gardens. We interviewed a flower grower. We explored why the Bible starts with a garden.

We then invite people to process together. The set up is in table groups. As someone said, you have created collectives, not rows. To get people talking we are trying 3 basic questions – as you listened who is God? who are humans? how then should we live? We hope these will provide an ongoing framework.

We encourage people to write up their exploration and they are then placed on the web. We hope this encourages people that their learning is being taken seriously and they can see what they, and other’s wrote, over the week. The first responses, are, IMHO, quite encouraging.

There are other bits built into Grow (gathering ritual, new approach to offering, response, take home projects), but I’ve explained enough for now. We are simply following our intuition – that people learn in different ways and asking the question – how can church can be a better learning/forming environment.

Christmas Journey of Peace

Latimer Square has a reputation as a more seedy part of Christchurch. It is a central city park that needs light and invites prayer that all of humankind will indeed find Christmas peace.

This Christmas, visitors to Latimer Square will encounter a 24 hour night light in the form of an outdoor Peace Labyrinth. The aim is to provide a still point in the midst of the busy Christmas season.

The Peace Labyrinth will consist of 700 straw hay bales, arranged in the pattern of a labyrinth, an ancient practice which invites one to find peace as they walk a guided journey, during which they encounter various stations focused on themes including peace at home, at work, in the environment and with God. A stable at the centre of the Labyrinth will proclaim the centrality that is found in the Light of the world.

The Peace Labyrinth is a continuation of the ministry of conceptual artists Pete and Joyce Majendie, in partnership with Opawa Baptist, Christchurch City Council and other local churches.

Their outdoor Christmas art installations have been the Majendie’s Christmas gift to the city of Christchurch for the last ten years. In the last three years they have moved location from Opawa Baptist into the central city, enabling them to reach far more people. Over 8,000 people visited their Christmas Journey, located in Christchurch Square, in 2005.

The Majendie’s ministry is based on using interactive art stations. Such forms of mission are essential in a culture in which so much contemporary communication is visual and participatory. A refugee station invites people to sit in a boat and consider what one thing they would take with them if they had to flee as a refugee to Egypt. A census station invites people to place a pin on a world map, indicating how far they had travelled to get to the Christmas journey. Rob Kilpatrick, then Director of tranzsend, upon seeing the world map in 2005, commented that the Christmas Journey was reaching more countries than the entire ministry of the tranzsend missionary society.

Thousands of “driftwood people” will be scattered around Christchurch shops and given to Christchurch schools. Made from driftwood, and fixed with two eyes, to look like people, they will come with a tag attached. “If you find me, please take me to the Peace Labyrinth.”

A website is being developed that will offer practical peace resources, including ways to bring peace into our relationships with family, work, creation and God. A promotional video, of the “driftwood people” moving from work and play toward Latimer Square, has been shot and finance is being sought to show this in local movie theatres.

In 2007, the Peace Labyrinth will be operating in Latimer Square from 7pm Friday 21st December continuously through to 9am Monday 24th December. All are welcome.

back into stoning the prophets

We are back into Stoning the prophets again. We took a week’s break last week, to give us all a breather, and today we’re at it again, hearing the prophet Nahum read aloud from start to end. (Ever heard the prophet Nahum read aloud in church? The Bible declares that all Scripture is inspired, but based on our usage, some Scripture is obviously more inspired than others!)

As part of each Stoning the prophets we invite everyone to pick up a stone from a pile in the centre and to reflect on what struck them. Participants are invited to name this and then throw their stone back on the pile. It is a very powerful moment as one by one rocks thud onto the pile.

Here are the verbal reflections on the prophet Micah:
– such a gloomy book
– such a poetic book
– the stone chosen was significant (white bit on top). Links with Lord of the Rings as a battle, like Micah battling wickedness, yet prophetic promise that God’s mountain will rise, like a white bit on top of a rock!
– Micah is seeing a whole picture – past, present and future of earth
– Doom and gloom, yet glimmers of light bursting forth.
– How can we today live Micah 6:8?
– stone is smoothed, shaped by life forces
– redemption in Micah occurs in dark places. What does it mean for us to seek redemption in dark places?
– redemption and grace casts sins into depths of sea

digestion is dead

I killed our evening service tonight. It has been struggling all year, lacking focus, leadership and genuine engagement. Unless a seed falls into the ground and dies. So as the service ended I gave out handmade packets of seeds: titled “new beginnings”, with some information inserted. The soundtrack was “Seeds” from the new Salmonella Dub album with the lyric “Feel the season change.” Each handmade seed packet had a seed inside.

We had a group of teenagers being silly at the front. One of them, trying to be THE smartist, simply ate his seed. I hope his guts are OK tonite.

Next week we start Grow. Here is the blurb:
We learn in different ways. Some by watching, others by reading, more by hearing, less by writing. Grow aims to feed the whole person: mouths and minds, hands and hearts, eyes and ears.

7-8:10 pm, Sundays

So it’s a whole new season, with a whole new service to play with. Songs and sermon are gone. What will grow? What will be required to nurture the growth? Do I have the space to give this the time it needs and build the team it deserves? Watch this space.

pastoral appointments and scholarship opportunity

This was one of the outcomes of our church meeting last nite

Opawa Baptist Church is a multi-congregational church situated in Christchurch. We are committed to mission into our local and wider community, as well as to holistic growth in our personal lives.

We are seeking expressions of interest for two new staff positions, starting late 2007/early 2008:

Mission Resourcing Pastor (1.5 days per week)
Support and enhance our current mission initiatives; ask “mission” questions of all we do, and “next step” questions of our mission programmes; work with lay people to establish additional mission initiatives; equip lay people to be missionally engaged in their workplaces and support the establishment of new congregations reaching different people.

Discipling Pastor (1.5-2 days per week)
We want someone to help us grow people by providing next steps for discipleship in all faith stages. This will include resourcing and enhancing existing activities including assimilation, pastoral care, spiritual growth, small groups, growth coaching, training, baptism and membership classes.

Missional church scholarship
Opawa Baptist Church is a multi-congregational church situated in Christchurch. We are committed to mission into our local and wider community, as well as to holistic growth in our personal lives. We want to continue to resource this direction of our church mission and so are offering a full fees scholarship in 2008 to a student training in a three year ministry degree program. We are seeking a person with a sense of call to ministry and a passion to express this call in pioneering mission in Western culture.

In exchange, you will use your fieldwork to participate in our church life and internship programme as part of a congregational planting team. This scholarship is awarded annually but can be awarded to the same applicant for a period of up to 3 years.

Expressions of interest to Rev Dr Steve Taylor, steve at emergentkiwi dot org dot nz

stoning the prophets: kickoff

Stoning the prophets kicked off today. And an excellent kickoff it was. The space was wrapped in black cloth. River stones were piled in the middle along with a big black bible. Grass tussocks and box lighting added to the environment.

A brief welcome and a warning, that this could well be hard work. We so very rarely engage with the prophets in church, let alone large chunks of Scripture, let alone large chunks read aloud.

With that warning, we listened to the prophet Hosea. From chapter 1 to chapter 14. It took nearly 50 minutes, simply listening to the power of a long gone poetic voice.

Then the invite to pick up a stone from the pile in the middle and to share what struck us. People shared and then tossed their stone back onto the pile. There is something very primal about the sound of stone striking stone. There is something rich and powerful about being among a community taking the word of God seriously, as a community and not from a preaching expert.

Stoning the prophets continues for the next 11 weeks, from 5:30 pm, upstairs, in the Friendship Centre. It is designed to partner a 12 week preaching series on the minor prophets happening in our morning congregation. And it makes me wonder why we don’t do this every week, simply gathering to listen to large chunks of Scripture being read in community.

tasting the Kingdom again

Here is another taste of the Kingdom. Last year, we spent a church meeting gathering around Scripture. Instead of me as pastor coming up with vision, I read a Scripture, offered some exegetical background, and invited each person to consider how Opawa could practise this Scripture in 2007. We then entered into community discernment and 7 ideas were generated. (For more detail, go here.)

One was that of workplace blessings from Opawa to people who work locally as a “thanks” for the work they do. Over 2007, this has slowly gained legs. A month ago books were given to a local kindergarten. (In return, they made us a card and then a group of them rolled up and joined us for our monthly family night. Quite cool really). This month, a cake baked for our local school, with a card from us, the church, to them. They have just been through a Department of Education review, so the cake was perfect timing.

In Luke 10, the disciples of Jesus are sent to speak peace among the towns and villages. I wonder if giving books and making cakes is a 21st century way of speaking peace into the communities around our church.

Photo from (here, as part of the picturing of 30 days in September series).

stoning the prophets

A chance to listen
to the minor prophets, as they are read aloud

A chance to learn
from the minor prophets, through reflective space.

…dramatic reading aloud from the minor prophets
…candle light among river stones
(You are welcome to dress as a prophet)

Twelve Sundays, 5.30-6:45 pm
From 23 September – 16 December (with a break on November 4)
Opawa Baptist Church Friendship Centre (A frame building opposite the church)

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one church, many congregations and one member

I wrote the blurb below for our church newsletter today. I post it here because it gives some insight into our life and into how we are reworking traditional concepts like church membership into our multi-congregational approach. Note also that there’s a whole lot more thinking about how to innovate and free mission within existing systems that lies behind the multi-congregational approach. For us, its not a formula, but a way of pursuing the mission of God.

At Opawa Baptist we are one church with multiple congregations. I find it helpful to think of it as an umbrella, a shared handle and a shared shelter, under which different congregations huddle. We are one church as we share vision and values, pastoral leadership, all-church events, teaching, shared prayer, growth coaching and training, etc.

Under this one umbrella different congregations can stand. A congregation is seen as a place to develop community, to grow in Christian life to the full and to extend Jesus love. A congregation will express these values in different and unique ways. For example, people grow in Christian life through sermons on a Sunday morning, or through engaging with art at Side Door or entering into discussion at Espresso, or hymns and soup at the Hymn congregation.

Practically, at a church forum in 2004, we noted that this would mean:
1. Working at all-church celebrations that gather the whole church.
2. Building discipling and pastoral structures that could fit any congregation.
3. A newsletter suitable for all congregations.
4. Members are welcomed and people are baptized in either their congregation or at all-church celebrations, with the use of technology to share highlights from other congregations e.g. baptisms, membership.
5. All congregations seen as equally valid.
6. All congregations have appropriate ways to contribute financially to the whole.

I note this because Tuesday night will include a historic moment for our espresso congregation, as it welcomes IM as a church member. Other church members attend espresso, but this is the first time someone has been welcomed into Opawa Baptist membership at espresso.

Why welcome IM at Espresso? Because espresso is the congregation by which IM found his way into Opawa. Equally, for IM, becoming a church member is an expression of his sense of belonging to the whole Opawa church.

For more on our multi-congregational model go here.
For information on each congregation, check down the sidebar here or here.

chip off the old block

We are chips off the block, shaped by our parents, moulded by their attitudes and behaviours. The church I pastor has an old building and a new building. The old building, built in 1953, is an A-frame.

[Photo of church under construction, 1953]

It is quite rare to see an A-frame house in Christchurch, let alone an A-frame church. So this week the pastor from back in that day was contacted and asked “Why? Why an A-frame?”

Looking back I think the church realized that to replace the
former church, built in 1916 and founded in 1924, the new church had to be
of a design, outside the square and would revolutionize the way churches
would be built in the future.

That’s a great chip to carry on our shoulders into the future.

leadership dreams and congregational reality

I was in working late on Thursday night, trying to clear some piles of paper from my desk. As the Irresistible Evangelism course finished I poked my head in, asking them not to set the church alarm since I was still working in my office. It was their last evening and the co-leaders were beaming.

I sat and listened to them tell story after story, of how the Irresistible Evangelism course had given people new insights, of how people had put the teaching in practise and actually been able to talk about Jesus in their social settings.

It was a high point for me as a pastor. At our church members meeting in August last year, we spent time asking “what is one thing Opawa Baptist could do to put Ephesians 4:3-16 into practice in 2007?” 7 ideas were generated and affirmed by those gathered.

At the start of the year we committed ourselves to 3 of these ideas:
– Every person be given the opportunity to mature in one area of discipleship
– Workplace blessings
– Everyone to know (be taught) how to lead someone to become a Christian

The Practicing our Faith preaching series and take home cards were one practical response to the first idea. Their is a group of people discussing how to make the second idea an integrated part of our church life. And now the first Irresistible Evangelism course was complete. And so together we brainstormed next steps: how to report back to the church, how to hold people accountable for their learning, how and when to run the course again, given it’s effectiveness.

I like it when our dreams and plans become reality. I like being part of a church that takes the Bible seriously and let’s it shape our life. I like see different gifts working together as a church body. I like being part of an outward looking church community.

Written for front page of Sunday’s church newsletter

just a reminder of our justice weekend

Derek Lind and Amy Hay: Café night
Saturday June 30, from 7.30pm, $5, Opawa Baptist Church (café open: cash only please). All proceeds to TEAR Fund. Come, relax and enjoy an entertaining cafe night with Derek Lind, one of New Zealand’s greatest singer/songwriters and winner of NZ’s Tui music award, and our own Amy Hay

Amazing Grace (the movie)
Sunday 1 July, 6.30pm Rialto cinema, $10/adult, $8 school-age (pre-purchase tickets from church) (The movie is rated PG). Amazing Grace is based on the life of antislavery pioneer William Wilberforce. Opawa Baptist has taken a punt and block booked the Rialto for a special advance screening this Sunday night. Following the movie, people can move to local cafes to discuss the movie, using our specially pre-pared discussion guide.

come holy spirit

renew your church, for the sake of the world.

Our Pentecost 07 festival, the third Festival we’ve done at Opawa, is over (info on our Norwest festival 05 is here, and Spirit of Life festival 06 is here). In 2007 our focusing text was Ephesians 4:23-4: Let the Spirit change your way of thinking and make you into a new person. You were created to be like God, and so you must please him and be truly holy.

and over the Festival weekend,
we laughed: at Mr Bean and with a Trivia night

we thought: hard, as I did some teaching around “Who God is at Pentecost?” and “Who humans are at Pentecost?” Teaching notes are here (120K) and here (120K) if you want.

we integrated: applying teaching through videomaking, creating doves, making and painting model airplanes the colours of the Spirit, crafting music to reflect Jesus ascending and the Spirit descending.

we appreciated God’s good gifts: in musical performance with Shooting Stars, Sunburn, Amy Hay.

So why would a local church throw a Pentecost festival?

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