sustain:if:able kiwi

ordination and the future: a question of mission

An email I sent to a friend, that I realised as I wrote it that I want to place on the blog for my ongoing reference. It is a processing shaped by the unique location in which I find myself – trained a Baptist, ministering as a Baptist minister, now serving in a Synod of the Uniting Church of Australia. In doing so, I point to the byline in the header of my blog “steve taylor … in process … all thoughts personal and provisional.”

I don’t see ordination as a functional thing tied to existence, or otherwise, of funding models via church.

I see ordination in the future as being a sort of mission order of the church. As families and society get more and more complex, we need a “training bar” that encourages self-awareness and skilled ministry. As society gets more individualised, we need networks that encourage catholicity, apostolicity and mutuality.

So I see ordination in the future as encouraging this sort of missional ordering – a way of being that exists to encourage training, to develop practices of collegiality and accountability, to enhance peer support and reflection, for apostolicity (starting new things).

Many ordained will be bi-vocational or voluntary, but then ordination has never surely, been simply a function of Christendom’s imagination of church as a building and a full-time presider.

We will also have non-ordination missional orders – and perhaps the Uniting church ministry category of “Pastor” is an ideally container for this. It too encourages training and points toward a sort of learning community in mission.

But this missional ordering is expressed as a more localised expression, more likely to emerge in one location and remain in one location. (Rather than ordination which seems to reference a belonging to the whole church in terms of placement).

So ordination beyond Christendom has a future, as one expression of the church in mission.

encouraging better practice in teaching

practising teachers should be encouraged to use reflective journal writing as part of their daily professional teaching experience. Nooreiny Maarof, “Telling his or her story through reflective journals,” International Education Journal, 2007, 8(1), 205-220.

My brother from New Zealand is staying for the weekend. A trained high school teacher, with a deep passion for education, and a particular focus on outdoor education and life skills, I always enjoy hearing what he’s thinking and wrestling with.

Today, we discussed the place of student feedback. As we were sharing notes, he commented on a new initiative among high school teachers in New Zealand. Teachers are being expected to keep a journal, in which they reflect on their daily teaching.

It struck me as a brilliant initiative and I began to think about it in terms of tertiary education, and in particular for us teaching staff at Uniting College.

I have often reflected how you need no qualifications to be a tertiary educator, other than expertise in a particular field. Which potentially makes for some very, very bad teaching. Sure, in a tertiary institution, we receive feedback from students, in the form of class evaluations. But this is often highly individual, a teacher receives it, but it is up to them if they do anything with this information.

Last month at Uniting College, we added a quality management step, in that we are requiring teachers to, upon receipt of feedback, complete a one page form reflecting on what they did well and what they might like to change.

But that occurs at the end of a course. What if it was supplemented by the use of a journal, in which teachers reflected on what they hope to achieve in each class, what actually happened, and what they are learning about the art of teaching? For us at Uniting College, it could also include linking to our particular focus on forming leaders. How did what we do – in class and informally – help us in the task of leadership formation? How did it build on what students already bring to the class? What “sacred moments” were we part of creating?

This could then be shared with a peer on a regular basis, throughout a semester, for discussion and mutual support. It would not be tied to performance, but simply a way to encourage reflection on practice and with a peer.

Advantages could include a constant reminder of why we exist, reflection on our practice, peer support in our task, and learning from the best practice of each other.

Thoughts? And what other ideas have you come across for encouraging better teaching practice at tertiary/Seminary level?

we’re “calling”

Uniting College seeks a Director of Missiology (0.5) and a Post-graduate Studies Coordinator (0.5). Both positions are crucial for developing effective leaders for a healthy missional church. The Director will lead, teach (undergraduate and VET) and coordinate pioneer leader cohort. The Post-graduate Coordinator will organise, teach and supervise (postgraduate level). Joint applications are encouraged. Enquires to Craig Bailey – craig dot bailey at flinders dot edu dot au. Applications close 11 May, 2012.

More specifically …

Director of Missiology (0.5 FTE)
Uniting College is seeking a leader and lecturer to develop missiology within the life of the Uniting Church in South Australia and the College. This position will suit a person keen to play a role in developing leaders who are passionate, Christ-centred, highly skilled, and mission oriented practitioners.

Tasks will include:
1. Developing the missiology stream at under-graduate and VET level
2. Lecturing (areas may include systematic theology, mission history, missiology)
3. Co-ordinating the B.Min practice stream including the Pioneer leader cohort
4. Participating in the life of the College

Post-graduate Studies Co-ordinator (0.5 FTE)
Uniting College is seeking a lecturer to strengthen our growing and dynamic post-graduate Master and Doctor of Ministry studies programme.

Tasks will include:
1. Teaching at postgraduate level in areas of specialisation (areas may include practical theology, ministry practice, Christian education or leadership)
2. Tutoring in research skills
3. Supervising post-graduate students
4. Developing administrative structure and research capacity
5. Co-ordinating the Journal of Ministry Practice

Joint applications for this position and the Post-graduate Studies’ Coordinator position are welcomed. Applications close 11 May 2012, with expected commencement at the beginning of Semester 2, 2012.

the task of forming leaders for mission

Here’s some current thinking. I reckon the forming of leaders involves three things and one direction.

The three things are

• skills – this involves the learning to do things – to preach, to influence, to care, to exegete culture
• vocation – this often involves increased knowledge, about our tradition as church, about the big tradition of the church in history, the shape of ministry
• personhood – this involves self-awareness and spirituality – who we are in the process of living and learning

The one direction is that of mission, that in our post-Christendom context, we need skills and vocation and personhood pointed toward a life lived for the world.

Now here’s my current theory, that in forming leaders, we all start in one of these places. Some of us start with skills (for example supervised field education or immersion experiences or homilectics or worship curating). Some of us start with vocation (for example the way many folk teach theology or Christian history). Some of us start with personhood (for example CPE or pastoral care or personality testing).

This leaves a place that forms leaders with four key questions

• Is the balance right? Some colleges are dominated by vocation type learning. Others are keen to teach skills. If all three are needed, then we need a curriculum that pulls all three into the mix.
• Is each starting point handing the person on – is skills pointing to vocation and personhood, while is vocation pointing to skills etc? Too often colleges default to a dualism of either practice or theory, when the challenge is to model integration, a spiralling between all three, in an ever deepening circle? Where we start is often shaped by personality and by our learning styles – we learn in particular ways, so we assume that others learn our way. Are we able to get beyond the way we learn?
• Timing? When in the formation of each unique individual, do they need to be in which sector? Which skills do they need at the beginning and which at the end? Which building blocks of knowledge are needed when and where? When is the best place to invite self-reflection?
• Is the direction clear? Is all our skills and vocation and personhood being shaped by a life lived for the world?

Thoughts? Have I named the task of forming leaders accurately?

City soul as invitations to community

This is fabulous. A project in Sheffield UK, which invites folk to participate in mapping the spirit of their city. An empty warehouse, a collective of artists and the invitation for April, May and June,

For these three months we will be using a large open plan space to build a model of Sheffield. Anybody can come to make a building to include in the city – not only artists but also passers by, community groups, schools and businesses are all welcome to come and create.

Choose a building or a part of the city that holds significance for you, that is part of your story, and make it in as simple or elaborate way that you like (we have plenty of art materials to use) then put it in place along with everyone else’s creation. In this way the piece of art will grow and evolve with our different stories just as the city itself has. The model city will develop in unpredictable ways as we interact with each other and offer our unique contributions and we will record that exciting process on our website.

I love the mix of creativity, open-endedness, participation and invitation to consider spirit. One of my hopes as the incoming Principal at Uniting College is to create art projects over a semester, a different theme and a different medium each semester, which can create engagement, remind us that we are humans as well as heads, and be a way of building community.

This type of thing sparks creativity around these processes.

Update: Olive Fleming Drane commented, asking for more ideas regarding campus community formation. Well, there is another in Ethnography As A Pastoral Practice: An Introduction which describes a Diversity quilt project. A table was set up and individuals invited to design a square with their name. Creative resources were supplied. Some students were doing a Art Practicuum and their “assignment” (working with an artist) was to assemble the quilt and hang it publicly. It seems participatory, communal, creative and above all, do-able ie it is not an idea but a description of an actual project at Wesley Theological Seminary, US.

Any other ideas that people have experienced?

crossing cultures for leadership formation

Great day at Uniting College yesterday, with our candidates exploring crossing cultures, through the eyes of indigenous peoples of Australia.

A highlight was chapel, in which we sung in a number of languages, heard the Lords Prayer in local Kaura language, and affirmed God in many cultures.

AFFIRMATION OF FAITH (from Uniting Church National Worship Working Group, in consultation with local church indigenous people)
We say God created the universe,
and the world we live in,
and every living thing on this earth.

We believe the Creation shows us the power and presence of God,
and makes us want to praise and give thanks to God,
and take good care of the earth God has made.

We are full of joy that across the world
different peoples have their own culture and language,
and that in God we are all united together as one.

We say God is Spirit, breath of life,
who is always working to bring people to life in God.

We believe the Spirit has been alive and active in every race and culture,
getting hearts and minds ready for good news:
the good news of God’s love and grace that Jesus Christ revealed.

We are full of joy that from the beginning the Spirit was alive and active,
revealing God through the law, custom, and ceremony
of the First Peoples of this ancient land.

We say Jesus is Saviour and Lord,
and that he began the church,
and prayed that the church might be together as one.

We believe that in the risen Jesus we are all brothers and sisters in the one great family of God, and that God calls us to live in faith, hope, and love
for the sake of the Kingdom of God here on earth.

We are full of joy that we can learn, grow and serve together as a pilgrim people in the name of Christ.

It was very, very rich, almost emotional to sit in that space and hear the indigenous languages of this country honoured.

Then in the afternoon students headed to the Living Kaurna Cultural Centre, to enjoy the beauty and hear the stories.

Pray God it’s not an event, but part of a process in which crossing cultures and respect for local contexts becomes imprinted in our DNA; as a College, as students, as humans.

love feast an intensive ending

I’ve been team teaching with Michelle Cook an intensive for the last two weeks. The photo is from a student desk, the key texts (!), Basis of Union on top, Bible on the bottom. A seeking of integration, not a statement of priority!

It’s been a great few weeks. The new approach to tutorials has worked really, really, well. Students have not only been very engaged. They have also experienced processes around how to think. More importantly, they have also experienced the richness of thinking processes in community – that together we are so much more informed than in isolation. For students training for ministry, this seems to me to be such an essential skill, learning to work in and with groups cf solo minister.

During this week of the intensive we have been offering daily communion, each different, wanting to give students an experience as well as a lecture, wanting students to appreciate the rich diversity in communion practices. Monday was from Uniting in Worship. Tuesday was alternative worship with stations. Wednesday was an adaptation of Orthodox communion. Today was a love feast.

It was the final day of class, so folk were invited to bring food to share. As people arrived, a prayer inviting the Spirit was prayed. Bread was served. We were then ate the shared lunch around tables, enjoying communion of and with each other. During this time, a Bible story was told (thanks Sarah), about Jesus eating practices. As we moved into dessert, the communion cup was offered, followed by prayers of intercession. The benediction was chocolates, the invitation to take the love feast that is God’s communion sweetness into the world.

It was a lovely end to a great few weeks.

What is a sacrament?

This week the intensive class is exploring sacraments. Rather than begin with the history of what is a sacrament, I decided to begin with two video clips. One of Archbishop Sentamu baptising publicly on Easter Saturday, another of an outdoor worship service, including communion, lasting six minutes. (I’ve blogged about this here).

and then ask what is a sacrament.

The responses were fascinating. Words included “public”, “witness”, “planned spontaneity”, “connecting to God.” Using the videos opened up a different space for discussion, about how the sacraments are part of the living mission of the church.

The depth of discussion grew this morning in our tutorial. The statement was “all of life is a sacrament” and readings included

• Acts 10:1-48
• James 1:17
• Pinnock, Clark H.,Flame of Love: A Theology of the Holy Spirit, pp.113-147, and 264-268.
• Geoffrey Rowell, “The significance of sacramentality,” in Rowell, Geoffrey and Christine Hall, Gestures of God: Explorations in Sacramentality, pp. 21-36
• Taylor, Steve, “Even the Dogs Eat the Crumbs that Fall from their Masters’ Table”: A contemporary reflection on the sacramentality of Communion, Colloquim 39, 2 (2007), pp. 209-225
• Bouma, Gary, Australian Soul: Religion and Spirituality in the 21st Century, pp.86-105.

The discussion was excellent. I suggested the following summary:

The Reformers argued for two sacraments, baptism and communion. Celebrating these has the effect of making all of life sacramental. Reformation theology had a particular emphasis on Christ and the events of Easter, especially Friday. Themes of creation and eschatology can enrich our theology and greatly enhance the mission of the church today.

serving who? the point of higher education

I’ve just been sitting with one of our post-graduate students. They are on the final stretch of their Master of Ministry thesis, in which they have reflected on the recent mission journey of their church. They’ve taken some brave moves, to sell a building, to relocate into a urban deprived area. In the process they have discovered the power of hospitality as mission.

The thesis is a reflection on that journey and it is a rich, provocative and helpful resource.

But it is a thesis. And very few people, apart from examiners, read a thesis.

The student also has two Guided Reading topics to complete. Guided Readings are like “empty boxes” in which an individual learning contract is designed. It can be a set of books to read, or an intensive to undertaken.

So, I made a creative suggestion. Why not prepare 6 Bible studies on the theme of hospitality as mission. Write 6,000 words not of essay, but of study resource. Weave in some Biblical texts, some key quotes from books you have read and insights from your journey. Take your thesis and turn it into a “so what? and how could my community do this?” And then take it to your wider denomination and ask them if they’d like it as a resource? Because other churches might want to learn from your story?

The student grinned. And left very excited. A thesis. Should it serve the student, helping them grow? Or should it serve the wider church?

the theological prejudice against the word leadership

A lovely, provocative quote from the current College Principal, Andrew Dutney, summing up some of the resistance to Uniting College deciding to call itself in 2008 the Uniting College of Leadership and Theology.

Everyone knew that “leadership” was a worldly fad that a real theological college would have nothing to do with. Most of the literature (though not all) came from America – and especially the tainted world of business. Most of the Christian literature on leadership (though not all) came from evangelical and Pentecostal churches – and although we describe the Uniting Church as catholic, reformed and evangelical we don’t mean that kind of evangelical. Most of it (but not all of it) was a popular, exhortative style – heavy on anecdote and light on intellectual rigour. From the perspective of a real theological college “leadership” was almost a dirty word.

In Andrew Dutney, A Genuinely educated ministry. Effective leaders for a healthy, missional church. New Updated Preface, page 5.

Spirit-ed Missiology for a Global Church

Really excited about this, just one of our Missiology stream offerings for 2012 at Uniting College.

How can we tell which to reject, what to support and who we can cooperate with in our mission? How do we discern the movement of the Holy Spirit among all the other spirits? 

In our complex, plural postmodern world we inhabit a world of many spirits – good, bad, indifferent. These are movements, forces, personalities, cultures we have to negotiate. This unit will explore how attention to the Holy Spirit in mission enables us to minister faithfully in local contexts while connected to the church worldwide and the greater purposes of God in Christ.

Kirsteen Kim is Professor of Theology and World Christianity at Leeds Trinity University College, UK and author of Holy Spirit in the World and Joining in with the Spirit.

Topics will include

• Mission in the Spirit
• A world of many spirits
• Movements of the Spirit
• Spirit-uality
• Interaction: Indigenous voices
• Discerning the Spirit among the spirits

July 23-27, 9:00 am – 4:30 pm. Available at both Bachelor and Post Graduate level. Adelaide College of Divinity Campus.

mission and leadership postgraduate offerings 2012

These are the postgraduate (Master and Doctor of Ministry) offerings for the Uniting College of Master and Doctor of Ministry, just emailed to our postgraduate students, plus are in Uniting church ministers mailings all over South Australia over the weekend (Full PDF download go here).

I am really pleased with them, especially the focus on mission, leadership and culture and the range of voices (including from interstate and overseas) and approaches we’re building into the programme. A highlight is one of the world’s leading ecumenical voices on the Spirit and mission, Kirsteen Kim, author of the fabulous Holy Spirit in the world , who will be teaching an intensive – Spirit-ed missiology for a globalised world – from July 23-27, 2012.

Mission and evangelism network

Over these 3 days, I’m hanging with the Assembly mission and evangelism network. It’s a gathering from around Australia of Uniting church folk who at a state level, provide leadership in areas of mission and evangelism.

The folk are mainly Synod workers and I’m the only person from a Uniting College. Not sure whether that is a random fact, or whether it says something about me or the network or the other Colleges or Uniting College.

The gathering meets twice a year and becomes a place for relationships, for sharing of resources and for engaging current issues. For me, it helps keep me grounded among the real life issues of the church and what it might mean to be a training place that serves those needs. Plus the group are fun.

growth in mission please

I’m fielding some lovely requests from folk inquiring about our Masters in Ministry (missional cohort). Pastors and leaders in context, just wanting to grow in their skills.

Like this one:

I would be very interested in pursuing a M.Min (distance) with you guys – your reputation is growing! – as I believe the practical, mission-focussed aspect of the College offers the type of environment I am seeking.

or this one

when S. approached me to discuss continuing education he was quite clear that he wanted to have the opportunity to grow as he has seen me grow [through the Masters programme) this year.

The goal is to add 4-5 new folk each year, and we’ve already got 4 solid enquiries for 2012, which is just great. (The logic is that because the Master of Ministry can only be undertaken by those in ministry ie part-time over 4 years, if 4-5 join each year, we develop a cohort of 15-20, an ideal size for the personal interaction we want to foster).

(I’ll blog some of our 2012 offerings in the next few weeks. In the meantime for more on the general shape of the programme go here).

Missional Masters

Missional Masters Yr 1