sustain:if:able kiwi

emerging church course content

I’m teaching a two day block course on contemporary ways of being church (September 23, 24) at BCNZ (Christchurch). I’ve spent today finalising course content and now the BCNZ office staff are busy pricing laptop hirage for on-line experiences and banquet costs. What this means is that the course is starting to click and starting to look like a seriously fun multi-sensory learning experience.

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What’s Going On Out There?

The church around the world is changing. From the way people meet, to the way people worship (multimedia, art, storytelling, neo-liturgy), it’s clear that this is not your mum’s or dad’s church anymore. So what’s happening on the edges of the church? What’s on the horizon and how fast is it closing in?

Contemporary Ways of Being the People of God (Taught D/M445C.505)

This course takes trips to the edge of the church envelope and sends back what Steve Taylor has found inside the emerging church around the globe. Topics include: Internet church, Christian festivals, resourcing spiritual seekers and selling worship. The course includes optional practical workshops on spirituality, worship and community. From the revival of ancient spiritual practices to the rise of multimedia, this course will explore the implications for being the people of God today.

Friday and Saturday, September 23 and 24, 2005, 9 -12 am, 2 – 5 pm.

Cost $50 for interest. To enrol or for more information contact Kathy or Steve, BCNZ, 70 Condell Avenue, Papanui, Christchurch, 643 354 4270

the DNA of mission

Getting Mission into the DNA of the Church – a discussion hosted by Lindsay Jones and Steve Taylor, with input from Chris Chamberlain, Fraser Campbell and you…

Opawa Baptist Church, Christchurch

Wed July 13th, 6-9pm aimed at church leaders and interested persons

Thurs 14, 9-11am aimed at pastors

Note: I certainly don’t feel that Opawa fully has mission in its DNA, but there are some stories of beginnings to tell.

Note: I love the fact that we are talking about mission in relation to an Opawa church that is 97 years old. Re-emerging is a word I find increasingly helpful.

first ever nz emerging church course?

Friday and Saturday, 23-24 September, I’m teaching what I think will be New Zealand’s first ever course on the emerging church, set within the context of cultural change and discipleship.

I will specific examples of current emerging trends; including online religion, Christian festivals, spiritual direction, social justice – and explore how they are affected by culture and what it means for discipleship today.

Anyhow, the reason I post this is … have you read any good books on on-line religion, cos I have a bit of hole in this area of my bibliography?

crossing cultures

I spoke to a group from Eastern Mennonite University. As part of their study, they have to go overseas – and so a group of 35 of them are here. I like that. A deliberate attempt to subvert being US/us[centric].

They asked me to talk with them about the emerging church in New Zealand. The whole conversation seriously disorientated me. I’m just back from stuff in the US, just back from having a funny accent and having to make cross cultural links.

Suddenly here I am, back in my home church, surrounded by American accents, suddenly having the same accent problems and having to make the cross cultural links. Talking “accented” mission, but now in my home patch! Categories of edge and centre; home and away; in flux.

teaching this semester

spirituality and film web resources

www.hollywoodjesus.com
http://movieguide.crosswalk.com
www.gospelcom.net/preview
www.damaris.org.uk
www.ntgateway.com/film
www.nzfilm.co.nz
http://www.nzvideos.org
www.shootthemessenger.com.au
www.textweek.com

Spirituality and film

At the movies we cry and laugh and see ourselves culturally. In 2004 the Academy laid out the red carpet of welcome to the New Zealand film industry, through films such as Whale Rider and Lord of the Rings. In 2004 we saw the release of Mel Gibson’s The Passion.

What was the impact? What other ways might Christians connect with film? In Acts 17, Paul stands in Athens and cites contemporary poets. If Paul wanted to connect with contemporary culture today, might he start with the latest blockbuster? How would he watch movies and think on what is true, noble, pure?

The BCNZ course Spirituality and film takes the movies that make us laugh and cry, and, with eyes wide open, chases a “reel” Christian spirituality.

Wednesday evenings, semester 1, 2005.

essential missiology

I’m busy marking student assignments. This is a complex task, that reflects both on me and my abilities as a lecturer, and students, and there abilities as students.

The Gospel and post-Christian assignments have, to date, been underpinned by missiology. Not reaction, not relevance , not cool but the awareness of mission, of being a language learner.

It’s a joy to read, because they have potentially grasped their lecturer’s passion – the gospel in post-Christian culture, the emerging church, as missionary engagement with the world that God loves.

O~day

Thursday 26th. The flights are booked. My PhD thesis on the emerging church goes under the microscope. I submitted it November 26 last year. It has now been read by 3 examiners, 2 in New Zealand and 1 overseas. They have given their opinion (which I don’t yet know), have written their reports and have prepared their questions. Thursday 26th I meet them face to face and find out who they are (identity is meant to be kept a secret). Then after the handshakes, they fire questions at me about my thesis and my 100,000 words, normally for about 2 hours.

After that, they tell me the result.
– Pass
– Pass with a few minor changes
– Rework and resubmit
– It would make a good Masters thesis rather than a PhD.
– Fail

I am looking forward to O-day. I am generally quick on my feet and I learn best by talking (one of the reasons I have a blog), so I am looking forward to significant growth on O-day as keen and trained academic minds probe my work.

Blogging from the bach

Wine glass full (Gisborne Chardonnay) and fresh garden salad open. I am at Auckland airport, at the bach café.

Bach . n. colloquial New Zealand term referring to secondary abode/beach house/temporary escape/sanctuary/

It has been an excellent week with the Church and Society class. However, 3 days lecturing 4 hours a day, and I am stuffed. Glad to be coming home.

Owen Marshall’s South Island Prayer
God
Don’t let me die in Auckland
Rotting in the heat before your
eyes are closed: a greasy take
away after the soul is gone.
Jesus, no.

From Spirit in a Strange Land: A Selection of New Zealand Spiritual Verse, edited by Paul Morris, Harry Ricketts and Mike Grimshaw..

The last hour of class today we went to Borders.
1. To explore Borders as a contemporary shopping experience – the creation of ways for people to interact, the multiplicity of choice, the democratisation of information – and its implications for both church and society.

2. For coffee, and to give space for students to interact with me in a different setting. Increasingly I am convinced that it is around informal settings that students really process material and that my task as lecturer is to both give material to process and create spaces for that processing to happen. Again today, as in my lectures last year, café space allowed far deeper learning and interaction to occur.

Ello comes to church and society

Ello-opolisgodly play.

Last week I offered a prize to anyone who could guess the link between Ello and Church and Society.

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Church and Society Summer schooling

First day of my lecturing Church and Society at the University of Auckland Summer School; 33 students, good cultural and gender and age mix. It is really nice to be doing it in the heart of Auckland; High Court just down the street, Old Parliament buildings across the street.

Today was introductions and learning styles; then how we can find God, not only in the Bible, but also in society and church communities. After lunch we explored the various ways that church has responded to society.
complete with a few case studies including Faithless, God is a DJ and this fascinating comment on contemporary attitudes to church;

It’s a pity their [church] withdrawal from society at large has become so complete they sought out a solution without communicating with society.

God is a DJ

Does anyone out there have a video of Faithless’s God is a DJ, from their Sunday 8 pm album? I need it for next Wednesday, when I start a 3 week intensive on Church and Society.

I spent today doing some shopping for the course, including buying Ello-opolis.

I will give a free book with an article I wrote on Douglas Coupland, community and church to the person who can tell me how Ello-opolis will be used as a multi-media learning tool in a Church and Society lecture.

PS This generous giveaway offer does not apply to those who have heard me lecture before, especially recent Mission to the Western Mind students!