sustain:if:able kiwi

harvest festival

Sunday was so much fun, as in our morning congregation we brought back an ancient Opawa tradition, the harvest festival. It was nice to bring back to life something that had been lying dormant in the church for years and the display looked fantastic.

I preached from Ruth 2, an ancient harvest festival during a credit crunch, and the need to celebrate production and the challenge to consider distribution. What would gleaning look like in over-developed Western economies?

We offered 3 practical ways for people to live the Ruth text.
1 – Join twoshirts and start sharing our extra stuff (and we’ve set Opawa Baptist up as a group)
2 – We printed off “thanks for making your garden look so great” postcards and people were invited to take them and post them in the letterboxes of gardens they admired.

3 – We made soup. And more soup. And more soup. Over 150 litres of homemade vegetable soup to replenish our foodbank. About 20 people cut and chopped most of the afternoon and had a thoroughly rich experience of community for mission.

And a question to ponder. And so a harvest festival challenges us to think about distribution. How on earth do we care for the unemployed and the migrant in New Zealand? How on earth could we do business, so that any struggling migrant could find work?

This food will go toward our foodbank. This afternoon we’re having a soup-working-bee. It would be easy for us as a church to stop there. To feel good about ourselves. Wow, we had a harvest festival and we’ve replenished Opawa’s foodbank with some nourishing vegetable soup. What a practical thing for a church to do in a credit crunch. But that’s not harvest according Ruth 2. In Ruth 2 we’re asked some much more fundamental questions. How we live, so that the unemployed can find meaningful work?

discernment online

The lectionary reading for today comes from Matthew 11 and John’s disciples are seeking to discern if Jesus is the One. Jesus reply is to point them to what they see – lives healed. I wonder what this notion of seeing means for us in an on-line age.

In other words, if Jesus was a blogger, how would he respond to John’s disciples. Would he put up blog posts of lives healed? Or is Jesus demanded a deeper level of seeing?

Over the last few months I have spent a fair bit of time in the comments responding to people who, like John’s disicples, are seeking to discern- is body massage prayer a twisting of Bible to suit, is use of U2 in church OK (discussion still bubbling along!), is throwing plates at cross evidence that I/Opawa has been deceived. All of these are about discernment.

Which has me wondering how we discern online and what I might learn from Jesus invitation to see.

Here on this blog, I (always in a rush) pen a few words. They are a form of “seeing” yet invariable are a short phrase that in it’s brevity strips out context and relationship and enviroment. Are my blog words enough to allow discernment? If not, am I being irresponsible by only posting in brevity and should I only post if I have time to blog something more fully? But how much can you truly “see” something online anyway? Did Jesus demand anything from John’s disciples and if so, what should be expected of blog readers/commenters in their seeking to discern?

And what level of relationship is needed? For me, values of community and relationship are essential. Words that are not wrapped in body language are notoriously hard to discern. But how does that work online?

Questions, questions, questions. How does discernment operate in our online world?

Note: This post is a general reflection on the issue of discernment online and what it might mean for blogging. I am not trying to get at, or silence, or have a go at anyone who has commented.

doodling around church as songs and sermon

Today I was doodling with what is now traditional church worship:
fast songs
break
slow songs
sermon
altar call
go home

I was messing around with what I am calling “Grow”: wondering about creating a template that would allow the use of whole variety of ways to learn and engage, working across age ranges; maintaining singing and sermon, adding in food, all together with the aim of growing people through a range of ways to participate. I tend to think through my keyboard, so here is what I typed. (Note that I used a theme to try to keep my doodling grounded, and that theme was “gardening” ie we are like plants. We need to be planted, weeded, watered.)

Welcome and introduction

Benediction

I sort of liked it. It seemed to me to offer lots of ways to learn and engage. I could see bits of the service being picked up by other people, thus increasing the sense of ownership. It felt accessible at a range of levels.

I began to wonder what it might “grow” into 🙂

marketing as pastoral care

I really appreciate good marketing. Usually it’s marketing as creativity – the spark or storytelling flair that shapes a good advert. My theory is that marketing is one of our contemporary art forms. Historically artists would have patrons. Now you have marketing firms. Both demand a fair bit of soul selling (Doesn’t most work at some point?), but do provide a creative outlet in society.

But every now and again I catch a glimpse of what I call marketing as pastoral care. Yesterday I got a letter from a book store. A new book in a series has come out. I had brought earlier books in the series from them. Would I like to buy the next book in the series?

I just think that’s really smart marketing. Someone is trying to read my needs and is making a “stamped” effort to help me. Nicely written and I can always say no.

It felt like marketing as pastoral care. I said yes, as much in appreciation of being pastorally cared for and innovatively connected with, as for the product. This sense of marketing as pastoral care seems to be to be heading toward the “experience economy.” The terms come from Pine and Gilmour’s The Experience Economy.

It’s one of the most provocative books I’ve read in terms of my thinking on worship. They argue that we have shifted from
commodities
to producing goods
to consuming services
to experiences
They explore how experiences need not only entertain, but can also educate. (There is more on this in my book; out of bounds church? book) Which opened some windows for me into thinking of worship as teaching and formational. If Jesus could use experiences to transform in Luke 24; breaking bread at Emmaus and showing his hands to Thomas, then what does that mean for worship and formation today?

everyday spirituality

Latest youth research on spirituality from UK:

Nevertheless, young people do not feel disenchanted, lost or alienated in a meaningless world. “Instead, the data indicated that they found meaning and significance in the reality of everyday life, which the popular arts helped them to understand and imbibe.” Their creed could be defined as: “This world, and all life in it, is meaningful as it is,” translated as: “There is no need to posit ultimate significance elsewhere beyond the immediate experience of everyday life.” The goal in life of young people was happiness achieved primarily through the family. Link

Some comments
1. Fascinating that the report did not consider this spirituality; when it wrote; THE Church of England has debunked the widely held view that young people are spiritual seekers on a journey to find transcendent truths to fill the “God-shaped hole” within them.

2. In contrast, I note the three categories of contemporary spirituality in John Drane’s Do Christians Know How to be Spiritual. (I posted about the book on Tuesday.) John argues that spirituality today is expressed in 3 different ways; one of which is Lifestyle. John describes a book Complete idiots guide to Spirituality in the Workplace the book as “fairly typical of a whole genre of recent writing on ‘spirituality’ … a kind of ‘secular’ spirituality, focused almost entirely on living the good life within a more or less materialist paradigm. Being spiritual is about the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the sort of attitudes we adopt, the relationships we make.” Which sounds to me like the spirituality found in the report.

3. So the missional task becomes an exploration of WWJE- what would Jesus eat; everyday rituals and community. On Monday night a number of people gathered out my house and we formed the Angel Wings Trust with the aim of providing spiritual resources for everyday life. At Pentecost 2006 at Opawa I’m running a seminar on ways to make new-born life spiritual. It’s based on insights from Olive Drane’s Spirituality to go: rituals and reflections for everyday life. I am really excited to be a Christian today, born for such a time as this, part of a church accessing lifestyle spirituality.

Spirituality resources birthed

Paul met God in a dramatic encounter. Peter met God step by step, in process. Which raises the question; how do we be intentional about connecting with the Peter’s we know.

To do so would value;
– Variety; creative, adaptive, flexible; issue and audience focused.
– Celebrate small; if we had lots of variety, then success would be 1, not 99.
– See people as pre-Christian, not anti-Christian; believe that God can be active in people’s lives before they were Christian. And this would change our conversation. It would not be us and them. It would be, how can any person, take a next step toward Jesus.
– Keep focused. Our activities would need to invite people into relating with Jesus.

Today I met with a group to bat around two concrete ideas in relation to spiritual resources;
– spirituality courses that explored spiritual practices in a small group setting
– rituals of change – offering a spirituality and rituals around birthing, including the 9 month preparation, birthing boxes, capturing emotions, baby room’s “dedication” prayers, prayers for sleepless nites, adoption rituals, grandparent rituals (memory book, symbolic actions), naming (home or church, formal or informal):

The five in the room (with four apologies) then discussed the following:

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Christmas blame

Emergentkiwi is boarding a bus in town today, following a morning off with family. As a crowd surge toward Bus no. 28, the following conversation occurs;

Bus stranger: It’s organised chaos.

Emergentkiwi: So is most of Christmas.

Bus stranger: I blame Santa.

Emergentkiwi: I blame the baby Jesus.

Bus stranger: I blame the father not using a condom.

The crowd moves on, leaving emergentkiwi pondering how prevalent this rather crude notion of sexuality and the human/divine connection is among Kiwis this Christmas.

how secular is new zealand?

Hat tip to New Zealand Post. These are the 2005 Christmas stamps. New Zealand post have very nicely sent us the orginals as computer files. We wanted to use the stamps as contextual, everyday visual images for our Christmas services, and their images on the web were too small. A few phone calls later and many MegaBytes later and we are ready to roll with some great powerpoint to rear project on white sheets around the auditorium.

Looking at these images yesterday caused me to wonder;
how secular is New Zealand when our national stamps still carry a Christian message?
how diverse are New Zealand spiritualities when our national stamps carry the Christian story?

spirituality of coffee

The church now owns a coffee machine. But I didn’t want it as a status symbol or to be relevant or look cool. I wanted it because there is something about the spirituality of coffee making that makes the act of taking a break and the act of sitting with friends special. It can potentially re-enchant relationships and space.

We are training barrista’s in the new year. But I don’t want to just train them to make coffee. I also want to offer practices of hospitality and spirituality. Anyone out there done this? Any barrista’s out there have prayers and practices of blessing they use? Anyone thought about integrating coffee making into their Christian spirituality?

formational environments initial reflections

I posted yesterday asking the question: what has formed us spiritually?. I’m really appreciating the comments. We had a church Board meeting last night, and we finished the meeting by asking each other the question. It was a great discussion and confirmed for me why I am at Opawa. The values of journey and spiritual growth that radiate from the church Board are great.

And I got passionate. Wouldn’t it be great to be part of a church known in the city for forming people spiritually. Go there and you’ll grow.

Two initial reflections on the comments and feedback I’ve been getting.

1) The importance of hard times. Some strands of Christianity invite you to leave your problems at the door, or offer you a good-times Jesus. Yet if people are saying that hard times are part of spiritual formation, what does that do for the need for truth telling in our church environments.

2) No-one has mentioned sermons yet. But then I thought about the influence of people, who I often first met through their preaching. So preaching becomes the meeting of a person and being shaped by their passion, rather than imparting information.

Update. When I thought about my key people who had influenced me, i realised that almost all of them had spoken/preached/taught to me at some time. Their influence was mainly through the time they gave me and their gift mix which spoke to my gift mix. But their influence was magnified and increased because of things they said.

formational environments

I’ve been thinking recently about “spiritual formation.” How do we grow, how are we shaped into the image of God? Coming to a long-established church, so much seems adhoc, a group here or a sermon there. So I have been pondering what it means as a church to become “formational environments”?

It’s such a big question and I have not even been sure where to start. So this morning, I personalised the question. What has “formed” and grown me over my life?

I identified some key people – with names like Peter and Marjory and Mike.
I noted the importance of being given opportunity – in ministry and with encouragement.
I recognised the necessity of space – which for me was theological seminary and the PhD process.
And somewhere in there are regular habits – of reading and reflection and prayer.

people + opportunity + space + regular habits; together these have been for me significant formational factors.

But my experiences are not necessarily universal. So, I’d value your input. Over your life, what have been the key events/circumstances/things that have formed you spiritually?

horoscopes and Christianity

so if the “wise” in Matthew 2 were star followers, and most likely Magi (magicians), does that not mean that horoscope reading and UFO spotting and magic is potentially a spiritual search?

and how can we keep the Christ at the centre, while encouraging such spiritual search that could lead people to the Christ?

and is this Christmas text therefore actually hugely subversively missional?

or am I making too many logical jumps?

resourcing spirituality this christmas

The Overview: Christmas is a hectic season and each year we are faced with the challenge, the opportunity, the question – how to wait, how to prepare spiritually, amid the end of year rush? The Advent Journal is an attempt to encourage personal preparation for Christmas.

The concept:

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life transitions and resourcing spirituality

This week, Beth, part of the church, turns 5. Last week, Matt, part of the church youth group, got his driving license. A month ago, Helen and Ray, church stalwarts, went into a retirement home.

These are significant life transitions for each of them: new environments, new freedoms and responsibilities, times of change and letting go. The question is how the church honours these transitions. On Sunday I am planning to give Beth a sticker, for her to put on her lunch box. In the shape of a heart, it can remind her of God’s love and the love of the church community.

going to school
getting a driving license
retiring and retirement homes.

What other key life transitions should the church be honouring?

If we live in a spiritually alert world, then part of the mission of the church can be to resource the spirituality of these life transitions. What about “retirement packs,” filled with resources to engage the spirituality of those going into aged care?

And how? I know about 5 year olds. What should be done to spiritually resource first time drivers, or to let God be part of the saying goodbyes that are part of retiring?