sustain:if:able kiwi

a rich day intellectually and relationally

It’s been a wonderfully rich day here at the Future of Religion conference. Conversation has ranged from applying Christian martyrs to societal responses to the hijab, from ecological readings to women in eucharistic action in Mark’s gospel, from applying Lukan practices of welcome to asylum seekers to the place of lament in worship today.

A personal highlight for me was discovering the work by Peter Malone on Christ-figures in Australian film, including discussion of Rabbit Proof Fence and The Proposition. I learnt of Ecumenical Prizes awarded to value based films at Cannes, Berlin and Toronto Film Festival, a fascinating example of public mission and the long history of Catholic involvement in film, including the founding of SIGNIS, a worldwide Catholic engagement with film and faith/reel spirituality.

In between I reconnected with friends from Laidlaw College and here in Melbourne and finished the day with a fabulous dahl over a networking dinner with Darren Cronshaw, from Baptist Union of Victoria. We dreamed a few dreams and plotted a shared journal article on fresh expressions research here in Australia and New Zealand.

Fresh expressions formalised in South Australia: updated

Exciting weekend here in South Australia, with the Uniting Church Synod (council of all Uniting churches in South Australia), voting to accept a number of resolutions including the following:

• develop Fresh Expressions and Church Plants throughout South Australia
• develop a network/community of Pioneer Ministers
• ask the Uniting College (of which I am a part) to take the lead in developing training for Pioneer Ministry, both for lay people and for those wanting to live out their ordination as Pioneer Ministers

(Updated: full resolutions here)

So there we are – a church denomination making Fresh expressions a priority, and formally charging it’s training arm to train pioneer leaders.

It dovetails beautifully with the fact that as a Uniting College staff, we’ve been putting in hours of work in the last few months into developing a unique pathway by which to train pioneer leaders. This will be as part of our new B.Min degree programme. If our application is successful it will mean we are offering two training paths. One path will be a more conventional mission and ministry degree.

The other path will also offer a B.Min degree, but with a focus on innovation and pioneering. It will offer learning by doing, in situ in a fresh expression, observational intensives so people can broaden their vision and practice of ministry, expect mentoring – both individual and in community – along with integration through study in areas of leadership, mission, Bible and Christian discipleship.  So if you sense God calling you to train as a fresh expressions pioneer leader, we at Uniting College just may be able to help you.

All quite exciting.

resourcing baptism today: a baptist in a Uniting world

One of the peculiar parts of my current call is having to work out being Baptist in a Uniting denomination. I’ve got roots and life experience and intellectual convictions about being Baptist, but in the strange ways of God, get to express that within a Uniting context.  Which has made the last few weeks really fun, because as lecturer in a class called Church, Ministry, Sacraments, we’ve been looking at baptism.  And being Uniting – they baptise kids!  So, in order to honour the Uniting context, we’ve had some local Uniting folk in lead the class. It’s been quite rich to listen, learn, reflect.

As the topic drew to a close, I offered a few concluding comments to the class, as I’d listened to a rich range of discussion. The class seemed to find them very stimulating in terms of ministry practice, so I’ll blog them here.

Adult baptism should be normative. Please keep being profoundly disturbed by that.

As it says in the Uniting Church Basis of Union, “The Uniting Church will baptise those who confess the Christian faith, and children who are presented for baptism.” Infant baptism is NOT the only path. Where are your adults? If you don’t see them being baptised, please be disturbed.

Baptism is a means of God’s grace not the church’s grace.

It is easy to focus on who should be baptised, especially when people roll up wanting their kids baptised because their parents or grandparents had it “done.” It’s too easy for churches to start to see themselves as boundary keepers, when in reality baptism is God’s grace, never humans.

A person’s responsibility is ours to resource but never to expect.

Baptism invites a response, an ongoing walk of discipleship, an ongoing training and formation in being Christian. The church has a rich range of resources to nourish this. In the Uniting worship book alone, there are nearly 100 pages of resources: Pathways to discipleship like A rite of welcome; of calling; for all the Sunday’s in Lent. Or Reaffirmation of Baptism rituals for congregation and individual. There is no excuse for a people of the liturgical book to not be offering lots of rich resourcing.

Offer a variety of resources – both inside and outside the church.

This links with the above, but also applies to baptism itself. Birth of children is a rich time for people. Don’t just offer two options – baptism or nothing. Some people want naming ceremonies, others an excuse to gather friends to celebrate. In my ministry practice when it came to parents wanting something for their kids, I used to suggest two things

• can I come back at the anniversary to light a candle – and thus maintain pastoral contact
• how about start with a DIY approach to your child – I’ll provide you with resources but how about you have a first go at writing the service. This turns me from patroller of boundaries and doctrines, to ritual adviser.

As ministers and as churchs we have lots to offer – we work with words and worship, we regularly create safe spaces, we have heaps of rich symbols and ideas. Offer these as well as baptism. At Opawa we even once ran spirituality resourcing workshops in terms of birthing and parenting rituals.

mission-shaped “Grow and Go”

One of the things that appealed about becoming part of Uniting College was their intentionality in training the whole people of God. It is this weird tension where one expression of ministry is more formal than in Baptist circles, and thus has more formalised training pathways. Which then leads to a deliberate focus on all expressions of ministry.

Which means that this weekend is the annual “Grow & Go” training weekend. Training for the whole people of God. Their is a key note address on the Friday. Then nine learning streams – all day Saturday and Sunday afternoon. Shared breaks mean lots of chances for mixing and networking. People are coming from all over South Australia.

This type of thing is a pastor’s dream – every year heading off with leaders, to train and encourage and inspire them – to build shared memories – to invite potential leaders. The trip back, dreaming together with new insights, ideas, resources and inspiration. Every year, building lay capacity. Superb opportunity.

This year the theme is ‘being a mission-shaped church’. 
If God’s purpose of redeeming and renewing the world 
brought the Christian church to birth, what does it mean 
for mission to be at the heart of who we are and what 
we do as the people of God?

I’m leading one the nine streams, exploring mission-shaped community. (Others are exploring themes like mission-shaped leadership, mission-shaped community, mission-shaped worship, mission-shaped preaching, mission-shaped witness etc.)

So I am using the NCLS framework:

and will focus on the Inspirational qualities – of vision, leadership, innovation, and the Outward qualities of service, faith-sharing.

call stories

In the Scriptures there are some lovely call stories – Jesus calling disciples to follow. Each call unique, each person valued.

One of the things I’m loving about my new role here at Uniting College is a greater relationship with students. I was simply too busy at Laidlaw to have this privilege. So over the last few weeks it has been neat to ask students how God called them and listen to the work of God. God is still calling disciples to follow. Today, as well as back in the day!

What is striking is how unique each call is. No one size fits all. Just as in the Gospels, just as in 1 Corinthians 12 and 14, different parts of the body have different shape.

This has some quite profound implications for theological formation.

First, training must start with listening to this call. There’s a profound humility in the fact that we are only responding to what God is breathing into life.

Second, training can no longer be one size fits all. It must be flexible enough to build on the unique sense of call and the unique shape of the body parts.

Third, training needs to be life-long. A call is not sustained by 3 years of study, but a life of ongoing formation, of new learning, of reflection and reading.

Fourth, God is not just calling people to be church ministers. Imagine a church in which all call stories were valued? In which a lawyer could be heard, and shaped, for lawyer ministry, just as a pioneer leader or a school chaplain.

Uniting College is working really hard to assemble a range of paths and patterns by which training can happen – training that starts with call, that values uniqueness, that looks lifelong, that is for the whole people of God.

It’s like lego, trying to put together a range of building blocks, so that we can serve God’s call stories.

course planning: what skills to work across cultures?

We are in the midst of reworking the Bachelor for Ministry here at Uniting College. Our goal is to

Develop effective leaders for a healthy, missional church.

So yesterday I was meeting with some leaders from a cross-cultural mission organisation. Together we were reflecting on migration patterns, and the influx of world to Australian shores. Take Sydney, which would be a city in decline if it wasn’t for overseas migration.

So, having just emerged from a planning meeting in regard to changes in the B.Min (which are pretty exciting IMHO) I decided to do some market research. I asked them:

what skills are needed in order to work across cultures here in Australia?

What would you say if I asked you that question?

Posted by steve at 11:22 AM

masters of ministry and the revolution that is practical, not applied, theology

Yesterday included the beginning of the 2010 teaching program here in Adelaide with regard to the Master of Ministry (of which I am the Co-ordinator). It’s a quite unique post-graduate program that I am beginning to really admire.

Most post-grad qualifications are shaped around a variety of taught papers plus a larger body of work in the form of a thesis. The Master of Ministry here offers a number of innovations.

First, it is totally ministry focused, given that it can only be taken part-time, and after 4 years in ministry, making it only available to people who are actually in ministry. This brings a wonderful groundedness into discussion and interaction and into research.

Second, is the Program Seminar. Every student has to complete 21 Program Seminars over the duration of their study. Each seminar involves a student sharing some of their work and in response each participant must write a 1,000 word reflection piece. Thus it builds a collegiality, is constantly developing ability to reflect theologically on current ministry practice and potentially provides a rich source of written material on ministry today.

Third, is a paper titled Theology of Ministry Practice. This must be done early in the student’s study and simply expects them to write a 6,000 word thought piece describing their theology of ministry. This is such a valuable exercise, emerging not in theory, but out of their life experience that they bring to the table.

In recent years what was applied theology has sought to rename itself as practical theology. The change of name is about a revolution. Rather than a two-stage process, that of getting one’s intellectual ducks in a row (Biblical studies and theology) and then making application to ministry (applied), practical theology argues for a three stage process. First, to listen to lived experience that is the practice of ministry. Second, to reflect on that in light of Biblical studies and theology. Third, to bring that learning back to the practice of ministry (applied).

This is a revolution because it tips traditional study on it’s head. Rather than move from theory to practice, it suggests a move from practice to theory and back to practice again. That requires a new set of skills, practises and disciplines. It seems to me that the innovations implemented in the Masters of Ministry programme are a significant step in this direction and one I’m excited to be part of.

purchased: philosophers fingerpuppets, now wanted: theologians fingerpuppets

These little people are being ordered today:

the philosophers fingerpuppets, care of my Ministry Enhancement Allowance, in preparation for some upcoming input.

At Spirit of Wonder: imagining a church immersed in culture (part of the Adelaide Fringe Festival, more info here), I am providing two blocks of input. One is on imagination, leadership and culture, the other on the Spirit, the Bible and culture.

In a moment of mad randomness with Craig yesterday, I was talking about how imagination has a history and the need for us to find our story within that history. Craig, totally lateral thinker that he is, mentioned a shop that sold philosophers fingerpuppets. Nietzsche, Plato and Kant. Who all had things to say about imagination! Who all deserve to make an appearance at the Spirit of Wonder!

So that’s the creative spark that suddenly clicked the first session. Yes!

Which only leaves the second session – theologians fingerpuppets – like Moses and the tabernacle makers, like Deborah and Hannah, like Mary and the 70/2 anonymous in Luke 10, like Peter – who all also deserve to make an appearance at Spirit of Wonder, because they all have a lot to say about imagination and a church immersed in culture.

cultivating imaginative leaders

All this talk of fresh expressions and pioneer leaders, and of wood fired emerging pizza church, raises the ongoing, nagging question for me, of how we cultivate imaginative leaders?

Here’s what I think is a perceptive diagnosis:

“We are not trained to engage. We are trained to duplicate. We are often not able to read stories and allow them to ignite our local imaginations. Instead we try to mine stories for timeless principles that can be readily applied.” (Keel, Intuitive Leadership: Embracing a Paradigm of Narrative, Metaphor, and Chaos, Baker, 2007, 80)

It names something really important: the lack of capacity for imagination, the way that current modes of thinking work against the imaginative.

I think that like many things, leadership is both caught and taught, art and science. It is intuitive yet can be studied. It is a gift, yet can be honed.

Which still leaves the page bare, the canvas blank. How do we cultivate imaginative leaders? How do we help leaders discern the Spirit’s uniquely creative work in their own unique context.

The talk of pioneer leaders worries me.

I worry that it emerges out of pragmatism, out of decline. If so, we are more than likely to import pragmatism into pioneer training.

I worry that we might create a separate class of person, rather than simply name a charism that is perhaps not fully appreciated in our current contexts.

I worry that we might end up leaving mission to the pioneers and not to the mixed economy “ministers of the word.”

I worry that we will simply bolt a few more courses onto what is potentially a broken way of thinking, that has, and is, training people to “timeless principles.”

partnerships and possibilities

The letter arrived. Marked “personal and confidential” (only to be blogged be me so that the whole world might read), it was to congratulate me on my status.

Senior Lecturer, Flinders University.

This possibility, and the partnership that is signals, was for me one of the intriguing dimensions of the move to Uniting College. The College is part of Adelaide College of Divinity (ACD), alongside Anglican and Catholic church, housed at Brooklyn Park. As a body, the ACD then relates to Flinders University, some 10 kilometres away.  Hence the letter, approving my “status.”

It is an intriguing partnership. Flinders provides access to university libraries, human resource programs and research funding. (Together ACD and the Archaeology School have a dig in Turkey! where they are excavating Colossae!)

The partnerships raise some other intriguing possibilities. For instance,

• teaching, perhaps a course, taught at the University rather than Brooklyn Park campus, on Bible and pop culture or contemporary spiritual search
• chaplaincy linkage, in some shape or form
• research funding. For a time, the Centre for Theology, Science and Culture existed as a research centre at the ACD here at Brooklyn Park. Currently it’s just a sign on a wall and a bank account. But it’s history gives hope, of a genuine public theology, done not from a private ivory tower, but as part of the (funded) flow of university life. Perhaps linked with my research interest, around the everyday narratives of pop and contemporary culture.

one work week in

“What will you do today,” was the question asked at the Monday morning breakfast table. New job, empty desk, new possibilities …

So what did I do?

Firstly, teaching preparation. I’m teaching four courses in 2010.

• spirit of wonder – in March there is this wonderful block-course mix of art, worship and input, shaped around topics of creativity, leadership, spirituality and mission. People can come from around Australia and take it as Masters of Ministry unit.

• sociology of ministry – a weekly class that explores the impact of contemporary culture and context for ministry today

• church, ministry, sacraments – another weekly class, applying mission to the task of being church and ministry today.

• missional church leadership – encourages innovation (both inside and outside church walls) among leaders, providing Biblical frameworks, skills and capacities. Lots of support and time to focus on one’s own context.

So, especially with sociology of ministry and church/ministry/sacraments, there is a lot of work to do getting my head around new material, particularly the Australian context and Uniting church values.

Second, leadership stuff – this is a new role, that is keyed into a College that is on a journey of change. I read the following dream statement this week:

Our Uniting Churches are hubs for mission, safe places for spiritual reflection, homes for fresh expressions of faith, learning centres for discipleship and catalysts for growth.

Sounds like Opawa and I’m keen to see this become more and more a reality for all Uniting churches, esp the first (hubs for mission) and third (fresh expressions of faith). I have lots of ideas, but a priority in these days is listening. So the first weeks are about networking, setting up ways to be out and about, listening to people around their mission challenges.

Third, speaking – there have been lots of invitations to speak, including inter-state. If it’s preaching, I have a simple reply: “Love to, but not until we’ve found a church home.” There have been lots of other invites and I’m taking them on a case by case basis.

Fourth, research and writing – this is an important part/carrot of the role. So I’ve been squirrelling myself away in the library, reading and writing. This week it was producing an abstract for the Sarah Coakley symposium, Sydney, July.

So that’s “What I’m doing with my day/week”: In some ways a similar mix to a week in New Zealand – teaching, leading, speaking – but with fewer meetings, leaving more time to research and write. And the change focus is not a church, but a denominational system of churches.