sustain:if:able kiwi

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?

contemporary ministry images in Rev

I’m teaching church, ministry, sacraments and enjoying watching the BBC programme the Rev for clips worth showing to the class.

The first half of episode 3 is fascinating, as within 12 minutes it explores the wide range of ministry and mission models possible

• ministry as carer – in this clip, with the great line “Soft touch for cash”
• also ministry as inter-faith dialogue – in the welcoming of Muslims to use the church
• ministry as Religious educator in schools
• ministry as prophet – in the challenging of the start of a local strip club next door to the local school
• ministry as funeral director – in the opening scene in which, being an inner-city parish, the hearse is towed away during the funeral

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.

thinking in straight lines

I am currently teaching an intensive on Church, Ministry, Sacraments, which is a compulsory course for Uniting Church candidates. Co-teaching actually, working with Michelle Cook, from Congress.

As part of the course, we are experimenting with a different approach to tutorials. (I have written more about this here, where I first sketched the idea). Here are the instructions given to the class on the first day.

The tutorials will have the following format:
• each tutorial the lecturer will offer a case study statement/question, along with some readings and resources.
• each tutorial the lecturer will stand at the board and prepare to take notes on the student discussion
• each tutorial discussion will evolve using the following framework. Each student will be given a set of cards and be expected to play one of their cards (an experience, or a Scriptural reflection, or an insight from tradition, or some reason, or an artifact from creation/culture)/tutorial.  All must be in relation to the case study question and should expect discussion and interaction by all the class.
• in the last 20 minutes the class will switch from discussion to reflection on the overall process. Overall, how do the “cards” integrate? Are there missing or overabundant parts? What are the implications for our processes as minsters and leaders in theological reflection?
• Student will write up one of the tutorials. This will involve providing a one page response to the case study statement/question. This should be in form of “Pastors’ paragraph.” While references are not expected in this, a separate Bibliography is expected. The one page is to be handed in one week after the tutorial. Students will gain extra marks if they show evidence of extra research over and above the set readings and class discussion. In other words, if a class finds a weakness in one tutorial in say tradition or Scripture, and the student goes away and does extra work in this area, more marks are gained.

The approach is based on the Wesleyan quadrilateral – experience, tradition, Scripture, reason.

(Hat tip: Diagram from Scott McKnight). However we’ve added a fifth element, culture, because it’s so significant in how we do theology and so often unrecognised.

Here are the five Church, Ministry, Sacraments tutorial questions Michelle and I drafted, based on what we think are current issues facing the church:
1 – “It’s not that the church of God has a mission, but that the God of mission has a church.”
2 – Is Uniting Care church?
3 – I’m not into the word leadership because I’ve seen too many leaders misuse power.
4 – All of life is a sacrament.
5 – We restrict the Spirit if we only baptise those who have been through a discipleship process.

With two tutorials over, it is proving a great way to teach. Students are highly engaged and seem to be reading more than normal. The discussion is wide-ranging and robustly critical of each other. There is an evident and growing appreciation of what it means to think in straight lines, using the breadth of the Christian resources. Which is essential, because as folk head into ministry, the tutorial questions will change as society changes. So the skills needed are not in knowing content, but in knowing how to work with content in the face of life’s changing questions.

transition pack: an everyday spiritual resource

Moving house isn’t easy. There’s the hard work of moving, the disruption of routines and patterns, the things that are misplaced. But it’s also fun, a chance to change a room, to explore new places, to find new things.

We’re in the process of moving, which involves not just a move, but a lot of work to get the new location liveable.

To help our kids in the move, on Saturday we gave them both a “transition pack.” It was a brown paper bag, with the name on the outside. And inside was some things that might make the move more fun.

• their very own paint brush, to be part of painting their own room,
• their very own paint roller, brand new for their room
• colour charts for the choosing of colours
• flowers seeds for their patch of flower garden
• vegetable seeds for their patch of vegetable garden
• a creative project idea.

It was a fun moment, which helped them to thing about some of the enjoyable parts of moving. And it was interesting to note how the “transition packs” got immediately packed in the car, and taken over to be put into use.

A simple idea, but one that seemed helpful.

(For more examples of “transition packs” and their use in church ministry, see here.)

Daily prayer for Waitangi Day

Today I was leading our 20 minute daily prayer service here at Uniting College. Being Waitangi Day in New Zealand, a day to reflect upon the Treaty of Waitangi and it’s implications for today, I decided I would name some of my cultural heritage and make it a basis for our daily prayer. (Other worship resources I’ve shaped for Waitangi Day services are summarised here). So last night I DJed a few elements together – something tactile in the shape of a puzzle piece, some Scriptures, a prayer and an active intercessory response. For those interested, here tis (more…)

the project is prayer: a renovation spirituality

Two weeks ago, we took possession of a project. It is a real mission – every room but the bathroom and laundry needs work. Some rooms had holes in the walls, others had no ceiling.

It has meant an enormous amount of effort, removing previous occupiers animal odours, pulling up carpets, gibbing, plastering, building. We have a deadline in which to be out of our current place, and ideally would like to have at least a few rooms we can sleep in, and store our stuff in.

Today, tiredly, I faced another day of “house work” and wondered what God was up to in all this?

And as I waited, I reflected on the idea that work is prayer. I have some things that greatly concern me, and I realised that the house was connected to these concerns. In other words, every minute I work on the house I am actually responding to the things that concern me. This means that “house work” is literally prayer.

Now the danger is that I think my work will help. And thus prayer simply becomes me trying to resolve the things that concern me.

Yet I began to wonder if there is a deeper way to appreciate the hard work? If work is prayer, then every scrape of sandpaper, every swing of a hammer, is an embodiement of “Give us this day our daily bread”/God resolve these concerns I bring to you.

I left for work with a different, more prayerful, angle on which to find God in the days activities.

(This is another entry in dictionary of everyday spirituality, under the heading R is for renovation).

fantastic read: From chaos to mission

On the plane yesterday to Sydney I started reading Gerard Arbuckle’s From Chaos to Mission: Refounding Religious Life Formation. It is fantastic.

It is not exactly recent (1997), but Jonny has often mentioned Gerard, so last year I brought a copy and it arrived earlier this week.

Gerard is a Catholic, yet his writing has so many echoes – the priority of context, the call for pioneer type ministry, the challenge to face society rather than church. In From Chaos to Mission: Refounding Religious Life Formation he explores these themes in relation to training – (in Protestant speak) how to train missional leaders.

He does this out of personal experience, having tried to reshape a Catholic Seminary for mission. He uses cultural anthropology as a lens, what is happening in the shift to post-modernity and how this influences both the task of mission and those who candidate; plus the cultures of what is happening within organisations, how they respond to change.

For myself, working at Uniting College, which has embarked on a change process around leaders in mission, it was like I’ve found a kindred spirit, albiet from a totally different space. When I become Principal, I think I might suggest we as staff and as a leadership council read it together as a way of looking at ourselves from another perspective.

Oh, did I forget to say, Arbuckle is a Kiwi (but currently works in Sydney, for the Refounding and Pastoral Development unit!

a day’s retreat with Uniting world

Today I am spending the day with Uniting World, who are the overseas mission arm of the Uniting Church of Australia. My task is to input into the 19 staff, who have gathered on retreat. (It means a long day, as they are meeting in Sydney, so a 5 am start, back in Adelaide by 7 pm).

I think I will frame my time with them around two questions.

First, what do we do with the word “mission”? I will tell a couple of stories that might be a window into the current mission state of the Uniting Church. One will reflect on how church folk are shaped today by their previous experience of mission, the other on our tendency to reduce mission. I hope that will provoke some discussion on how we frame, imagine and talk mission today.

Second, I will ask them about the Uniting Church Preamble, and what is the missiology embedded in it, and what that might mean.

I also have some global mission stories, which I have prepared as takeaway postcards, along with some recent non-Western mission thinking, which perhaps I might salt through the conversation.

I am not at all sure what and who I will find, and my brief has been fairly vague. So I’m feeling a tad nervous, but am praying that some connection points get made and that we all leave a little richer.

Is it time to change the word “mission”

Let me give one story. Last year I worked for a year with a local church. This involved meeting 4 times with their leaders, preaching once, designing for them some Lenten listening-in-mission exercises and facilitating two forums.

In other words, quite some time.

As the year ended, I asked for an informal catchup, a chance to reflect on the year and what had worked, and what had not.

During the conversation, one of those present suddenly exploded. “I have no time for this black arm band stuff,” he announced. And out poured a long passionate speech, about how busy he was, about how much he prized good relationships with his neighbours, about how there was no way he was going to tell them they needed saving, about how talking to them about god in the hope of getting them church to grow was a sick motivation for being a good neighbour. It was a passionate, articulate speech.

Given that I had preached on mission, I asked him if that was the type of mission he had heard me articulated. When I preached, I had used Luke 10:1-12.

• Who is God? the Sender.
• Where is God? in 3 places. First in the church, second in the towns and villages of our communities.
• What is God up to? seeking relationships, speaking peace and in the seeing of lives changed.

I thought I had done my level, preaching best to offer a contemporary understanding of mission – God is at work in the world and we are invited to participate. Here’s an excerpt from the sermon:

So mission doesn’t starts with us. Not our bright idea. Not something we do because we need a few more people to join our church. It’s simply because God is sending God. Who chooses all types of ordinary, everyday people.

So mission doesn’t starts with us. Not our bright idea. Not something we do because we need a few more people to join our church. It’s simply because God is sending God. Who chooses all types of ordinary, everyday people.

But the stereotypes, the previous bad experiences, seemed to loom to large for what I said to be heard.

Hence my question: Is it time to change the word “mission.” Do we keep trying to redeem the word? Or is it so damaged, that we need to find a new word, a new language?

God in Libya

I’m really enjoying reading Thomas C Oden’s Early Libyan Christianity: Uncovering a North African Tradition. The book began with an invitation for Oden to address the Da’wa Islamic University in 2008.

Like any decent academic, he began to do some research. And discovered that buried beneath the sand was a vital Christian presence in Libya. For example, in the 190s AD, Libyan’s were at the heart of Christianity – a pope (Victor the African), a leading theologian (Tertullian), and a key diplomat (Synesius).

Or in this summary statement (pages 84-85):

1. An African was present on the road to the crucifixion.
2. Africans were present in the Cyreniac synagogue in Jerusalem.
3. Africans were present in the first missionary journey north toward Antioch predating Paul
4. An African … was present in the first missionary journey south toward Ethiopia.
5. Africans were present in the debates leading to the major decision about circumcision for Gentile believers.
6. Africans were present in the growth of the first international church in Antioch.
7. Africans were present in the preparation and ordination of Paul to be apostle.
8. Africans were present in Rome before the arrival of either Peter or Paul.

The implications are important: that Christianity is NOT Western. A common caricature – heard in phrases like “Trinity is a Greek concept” or “Jesus was a white person.” Faith has been multi-cultural, growing in diversity in diverse cultures.

Early Libyan Christianity: Uncovering a North African Tradition is a nice partner to Philip Jenkins, The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia–and How It Died which I read back in 2008 and have summarised here and here.

being earthed, as a spiritual practice of being permanent

Today I planted a chilli plant at our new house/project. It suddenly felt quite profound and I realised, as I pushed the soil down deep, that it was the first time I’ve handled Adelaide dirt in a gardening sort of way.

From the first week that team Taylor, arrived in Adelaide, I’ve been gardening. It began with finding some plastic pots on the side of road. We then brought soil and started growing lettuces.

Since then, the plastic pot garden has grown. I’ve now got around a metre square of large pots, and have enjoyed lettuce, tomato, silver beet, onion, pepper, carrot, peas plus a range of herbs like parsley, basil, chives, oregano, sage.

But a plastic pot has, well, plastic, between it and earth. More, you can move a plastic pot. Somehow, it feels less permanent, less earthed.

Today, as I worked the soil, I realised that I won’t be taking this chilli with me. It’s here to stay. It’s part of a spirituality of being permanent. I’m not sure what this means, but it was interesting, and deeply spiritual, to work the Adelaide soil today.

being 12: a birthday car-hunt

One member of Team Taylor turned 12 today. Being a Sunday, it meant a whole day to fill with pleasure and enjoyment. We decided to try and have a treasure hunt using the car. We identified 7 fun things/favourite spots. We then created a number (3 or 4) clues for each, from hard to easy. The challenge was to use the clues to identify the spot, which we then drove to, to enjoy a treat. Once enjoyed, the next “spot”/set of clues could be requested.

It turned out to be a fun and creative way to spend some time as a family celebrating a birthday. Here’s the clues, and I will put the answers in the comments. (It mostly took about 2 clues to guess the spot, although one confounded both children). (more…)

what is mission? a story of paying attention to the missing

The question is not: what is the church? but who is the church? (Natalie Watson, Introducing Feminist Ecclesiology).

What is mission? As a missiologist, I am always looking for ways to answer this question clearly. I can give you the definitions. Like this one from the Commission on Mission of the National Council of Churches in Australia.

Mission is the creating, reconciling and transforming action of God, flowing from the community of love found in the Trinity, made known to all humanity in the person of Jesus, and entrusted to the faithful action and witness of the people of God who, in the power of the Spirit, are a sign, foretaste and instrument of the reign of God.

But they tend to make some people’s eyes glaze over. So what about this for a story from a local pastor, working with an elderly congregation, as a way of defining mission?

The pastor thought a lot about who in the community was missing from the church. And how to help the church remain attentive. This generated the idea of making some life-size cardboard cuts out of people typical of their community, but missing from their congregation. In their case, a boy aged 5, a girl aged 11, a parent aged 35.

The pastor found some photos, blew them up life-size, printed them in colour, stuck them on some plywood, cut them out and built a stand. A boy 101 cm tall, a girl 132 cm tall, an adult 163 cm tall.

And then the pastor began to take these 3 figures to every leadership meeting. And when key discussions were being made, the leaders would be asked to stop and consider the impact of the decisions on those 3 cutouts, the people absent from their church.

And the pastor also took these cutouts to church. So that as they gathered, and when they prayed for others, their prayers would include those figures, the people in their community.

Which is commendable because we follow a Jesus who paid attention the missing.

(Hat tip)

What is mission? Mission is the deliberate act of paying attention to those who are missing. It does this through inviting our prayer, our time, our talent, as individuals and as a communities.