Fragments of the Spirit. Walking on the Edge of the Inside

UPDATED - 10th Nov. 2009 (text of this post and the handout)

Paul writes – A warm welcome if you’re visiting (maybe for the first time) from Waikato Anglican Diocese group that I had a great time with on Saturday. It was a fascinating journey – a lot of it (as it turned out) uncharted and therefore hopefully a reflection of the diverse perspectives and experiences that each of you brought to the conversation as we ‘walked’ together. Thanks for all that you did share, some great stories, for a lot of honesty, for some great questions, and for a willingness to have someone on “the outside of the inside” spend time with you. 

Feel free to wander around the blog and help yourself to anything that you might find useful or interesting – there’s lot of words, some Mp3’s, interviews, video etc. Follow some of the links and listen into to some of the Global and Kiwi “voices” that have been journeying with me for a good many years now.

As promised, here’s some of the material we took along with us, and some links that you might find helpful if you want to continue exploring. The handout is at the bottom of this post (a PDF), as are a couple of articles by good friend Alan Jamieson (we only got a chance to touch on Alan’s “churchless faith” research – and for some of you this research might be very useful and eye-opening. You’ll find (purchase) links to all of Alan’s books in the left hand column.

Click on the following hyperlinks for the document being linked to.

Fr. Neil Darragh’s very useful September 2009 CIT Pompallier Lecture – Where to from Here? A Present and Future Church. While written from within the Roman Catholic tradition, it has lots of relevance for Anglican’s and the future health and vitality of the Anglican tradition.

Something Old, Something New: Combining Traditional Liturgies and Current Culture Leads to Worship that’s Fresh but Rooted by Jonny Baker. I also talked a little about Grace, the church community that Jonny is a part of. Also worth a read is this paper by Jonny in which he reflects on his time with CMS and his involvement with mission, gospel and culture engagement and new ways of being church that are both deeply rooted, but relevant and authentic. 

My interview with Graeme Greene can be found online here or here  (1MB) as a PDF. In the photograph attached to the PDF Colin Greene is standing immediately beside me, and Martin Robinson is beside him. I highly recommend Colin and Martin’s book Metavista – though it can be a technical read in places.

Visit EmergingChurch.info. It’s got some great stories, stories that will encourage you and stimulate you own imaginations as you sit in your (missional) contexts.

Also worth visiting regularly (or subscribing to the newsletter) is the Roxburgh Missional Network blog. It was Alan Roxburgh that I quoted when I said that “The Future of God is Amongst the People of God”. It’s within them and between them as they talk, tell stories and discern God at work amongst them. 

I recommended that you watch the movie The Spitfire Grill. I would also recommend Lars and the Real Girl (I’ve reflected a little on this movie here), The Truman Show and the Swedish film As It Is in Heaven (I’ve reflected a little on the movie here). All offer wonderful opportunities to reflect on church and to talk about it’s role and mission. Watch these movies with some people from church or with friends who don’t go to church. All three movies should be readily available, but in part that depends on how well stocked your DVD shops are. Also in the handout, I encouraged you to watch the great NZ movie Whale Rider through the lenses of leadership, the significance of "the edge", and a hermeneutic of surprise - God is a God of surprises (I reminded you of Gerard W. Hughes excellent book God of Surprises). Heres some great questions you can reflect on (sorry, I didn't remember Jonny's post until today (10/11/09). They're questions that Jonny Baker asked a similar group as yours in the UK and you may find them useful. Enjoy.

If the subject of mission in Western culture interests you, you read, and you’d like to take a journey here’s a pretty comprehensive list of books (PDF). The list was current as at June 2008. 

If the television series My God, of which the Glenn Colquhoun interview was an episode, was something that interested you, you can find out more information about what screened as part of this series, and can order the DVD’s here. 

Download Alan Jamieson - A Churchless Faith

Download Alan Jamieson - Ten Myths about Church Leavers

Download Paul Fromont - Handout - Fragments from the Borderlands between belonging [updated version - 9th Nov 2009]