Prodigal Kiwi(s) Blog

Missional Challenges in a Dying Church: Stuart Murray Interviewed

Paul writes – In November 2009, Canadian friend and fellow wayfarer Len Hjalmarson interviewed one of my pioneering and very thoughtful mentors (by way of his must read books, e.g. this one – Murray has a new one out next month / March 10 (thanks for letting us know Len) Stuart Murray. If Len has previously posted the interview, I missed it. But, I’ve now read it. It’s a good one.

I was particularly struck by this statement [there is a great need to “…develop mission strategies to engage with the burgeoning 'never-churched' rather than the diminishing constituency of the 'de-churched'…” As someone who is largely “de-churched” (my natural missional focus, being the “de-churched”), it struck me that I’m a “diminishing constituency” because the never-been-churched group grows ever larger, generation-by-generation, while my grouping becomes less – less unchurched people will join established churches so less will leave. As Murray notes, this provides a huge missional challenge for Canada, and maybe more so for New Zealand. Unchanging “established” churches will largely die as their aging memberships die, while more and more will be the need for deeply rooted (in the diverse traditions and heritage of Christianity) mission-shaped outposts that engage contemporary culture while at the same time nourishing and nurturing their distinctiveness creatively, humbly, compassionately and creatively.

More and more urgent is the needed for Rowan Williams notion of “mixed economies” with missional change happening in established churches and partnerships being formed between (creative and courageous) established congregations and new “mission-shaped” church plants and congregations. As Williams and others note, this will not be a quick fix – it will take years for the transition to occur and for new ways of being “ancient-future” church to take deep root in contemporary and future cultural contexts.

The need to start this journey is urgent. In the ten-to-twenty years it could take, a majority of aged established churches will have closed their doors because, within them, there will have been no mission-shaped change and revitalization – no time taken to discern “the future of God amongst the people of God”. Today’s 75-year olds will be 95 in 20-years time. And scarily, I as someone who’s been a part of this conversation for a decade or more will be well-passed middle aged. Will my children do any better?  

Here are a couple of excerpts from Len’s interview (Murray's responses in italics): 

“…Len asks: Along similar lines, what seem to you to be the pressing questions Canadian leaders are asking?

In Canada I encounter an issue that is familiar from my visits to Australia - a history of reliance on US models and methods and a growing suspicion that these do not translate very well into the Canadian (or Australian) context. A British voice is welcomed into the discussion as an opportunity of hearing a different perspective. Canadian Christians will soon be facing the challenge British Christians are already facing - developing mission strategies to engage with the burgeoning 'never-churched' rather than the diminishing constituency of the 'de-churched'. This will likely spark a debate between the leaders of large, successful, modernistic churches that continue to flourish but engage only with a relatively small (and decreasing) sector of the population and pioneers of emerging and missional communities that presently look far less impressive and are as yet unproven, but which might have the capacity to connect with the post-modern, post-Christendom society that Canada is becoming…

Len asks: How are UK churches faring in raising up and equipping the next generation of leaders? What is the greatest challenge you face in that task?

Another legacy of the Christendom era is the preponderance of pastors and teachers in all aspects of church life and the continuing marginalisation of those with pioneering gifts - evangelists, prophets and apostles. We need to recognise such ministries, provide proper training processes for them, develop effective support and accountability structures, and enable them to flourish at local, regional and translocal levels of church life. Perhaps the greatest challenge we face is raising up indigenous leaders in urban communities…”

Thanks for making the interview available Len. You can read the whole interview here. 

Community in Suburbia?

Paul writes – One of the things you can’t escape in suburbia is neighbours – in our case neighbours in pretty close proximity on three sides of us. One of the longings I had when moving into suburbia was the development of a sense of community, of having a connection with your neighbours - of fun, shared interests and activities etc.

To that end I make a point of always greeting them, of talking to them when you see them (though with 6ft fences surrounding properties in this suburb, that’s easier said than done, especially when every house has an internal access garage with automatic door openers – hence you never get out of your car until you’re inside). We’ve invited neighbours on either side of us to a BBQ. One couple was able to make it, the other wasn’t. We enjoyed the experience, but then the neighbours you feel some sense of – “we could enjoy getting to know these people and we share some common interests etc”, sell their house and move, and the person who buys it is a member of the “Exclusive Brethren” so you know you’re going to have nothing to do with them because they don’t mix. 

Then you have neighbours you wave and smile at, but they ignore you. Or you have neighbours focused solely on themselves, who close down opportunities for some kind of connection, sometimes through self-sufficiency, but oftentimes through rudeness, lack of manners (it doesn’t cost a lot to ring and say “thankyou” does it? I’d think it was a good excuse to build some connection if relationship and community was useful to you), and the seemingly pragmatic sense that neighbours are only of value when you need them to do something for you – and that “something” involves money.  

So, you get all kinds of neighbours – and typically, you get no say in who your neighbours are.

Simon Holt recently posted a link to a fascinating newspaper article. The article got me thinking, and it got me lamenting – it’s really hard to build community in suburbia without the catalyst of good relationships with your immediate neighbours. These “core” relationships then model the kind of interchange and shared practices (and sometimes values) that can have a ripple effect through the wider community. We’ve taken little steps to build community and we’ve been open to those opportunities if and when they emerge. But, when you struggle with your immediate neighbours, and in some cases just don’t like them – plain and simple – it gets really hard to instigate and encourage the kinds of practices that the newspaper article lists.  Thus suburbia becomes a lot less than it could be in terms of community – it can become a kind of hell on earth, from which you want to escape.

Have a read of Simon’s post, follow the link, read the newspaper article and see what you think. 

Mark Berry Reflects on the Challenges of New Imagination and Fresh Expressions

Paul writes – Blogging friend and fellow wayfarer, Mark Berry reflected earlier in the month on General Synod in the UK and offers some thoughts on “fresh expressions”

“…Graham Cray told General Synod last week that a crucial factor in the spread of fresh expressions has been 'a new imagination about the form or shape of church'. He is right. We have seen over the last half decade an exploration emerge which concerns not just the stylistic aspects of our gatherings - music, dress, structure, location, etc - but concerns the very substance of what it is to be church. The question is, if this is good, how deep are we willing to go?

At the heart of the matter is how we have sought to be community and how this journey has led us into a new romance with the God who is by nature community. We have had a new encounter with God as Trinity, not a hierarchical Trinity with God the Father as the CEO, Jesus as middle management and the Spirit on the factory floor, but with the Trinity as the root of radically mutual community ... of the meal table, not the boardroom table!...” 

“This is changing how we see and do leadership within communities, where we put the emphasis on the flow of gifting rather than the authority of a title or position…” 

You can read his whole post here.

We've taken Berlin!

Paul writes - Congratulations to Tom Burstyn (Director of Photography on The Insatiable Moon) and Barbara Sumner. I'm late again, but just picked up the news off Mike Riddell's blog. A low budget labour of love, NZ documentary - This Way of Life - won a “special mention” at the 2010 Berlin Film Festival. It's a stunning achievement and it’s a stunning film. I watched it three times late last year and was significantly moved and challenged by each viewing. It’s a very very special and extremely well-crafted film. Wellie and Colleen Karena - son and mother respectively - from the family that the film features, both attended the festival along with Tom and Barbara.

It's a remarkable film and a stunning and very well deserved recognition. Incidentally, it made my top 10 or 11 films of 2009 - the full list can be viewed here. 

If you're a kiwi living in NZ you can and should catch the movie when it's rolled out to New Zealand audiences from March 11th. I might watch it a fourth time, but at the very least I'll be adding the DVD to my library. For a full list of winners from the festival, click here (PDF). 

Gareth Higgins and Barry Taylor featured it in their line up at Beyond Cinema: Film and Spirit gathering in LA in January 2010. You can read about it here. How did the audience experience the movie Gareth and Barry? More on Tom and Barbara’s blog here. 

The picture accompanying this post is Tom Burstyn (on the right) and UK Producer Pip Piper in discussion on set of The Insatiable Moon in Dec. last year. Double-click o enlarge.

Rowan Williams and Steve Taylor on Church and Mission

Paul writes - I've been under time-pressure for sometime now, and haven't had much opportunity to listen to a whole range of fascinating interviews / podcasts. I have a backlog, including the podcast that Steve Taylor blogs about here. I could have put up the link, but not having listened to it, I wouldn't have felt that I could make any comment on it's usefulness or otherwise. 

So, as I did recently, on the off-chance that our readership is a little different, I just want to draw your attention to Steve's post. To whet your appetite, I include some of his post. You can read the whole thing, by going here. You'll also get the link to the podcast.

Steve (not me) writes:

"... Church is people encountering Jesus, with others, in a life changing way. This happens through the baptism and communion (sacraments). This has also happened in the past, and thus we have the tradition of the church. The task of ministry includes the gift of discernment - of seeing God giving gifts to the church, both in contemporary culture and historically in the tradition - and of learning how to use these gifts - God’s gifts to the church - creatively and well..." 

Sounds like the podcast is well worth a listen, especially, but not exclusively, if you're an Anglican. Church doesn't have to be about unchanging / unreflective practice disconnected from it's cultural context. Missional adaptation will require both/and approaches to the gathered and dispersed life of local churches.  

Having written a little piece on Williams for another context, I shall make time to have a listen this week.

Kiwi Eats and Mission

Paul writes

– I listened to a great little interview on Radio New Zealand National today. The interviewee was Peter Janssen, author of the book Great Kiwi Eats. It was a fascinating interview in its own right, but as I listened, I couldn’t help thinking of French Philosopher Michael de Certeau’s description of the practice of “making do”, Steve Taylor’s book (especially his reflections on the significance of “festivals”), and the whole conversation around cultural engagement, story-telling, the importance of listening, mission and change.

 

 

Listen to how Janssen describes the ways that “kiwi” food has changed and been adapted, how food-makers have listened in their various cultural contexts, listened to their customers, adopted adaptive strategies to re-work and re-mix received and imported food cultures, practices and traditions, while at the same time both preserving the important “kiwi” tradition in respect of recipes etc, and yet also being willing to experiment with modifications. You don't have to be a kiwi to appreciate the implications. You could probably tell food stories in your own contexts.

 

You can listen to the interview here (scroll down). It’s downloadable as an Mp3.   

More churches should listen to and engage these kinds of conversations; reflecting as they do on their received tradition and the missional opportunities of a change cultural and historical context.

Alan Roxburgh – Leadership Development Needs and Mission

Paul writes – Today I just want to highlight a couple of statements by Alan Roxburgh, and the fact that he has a very useful new book out. I remember some conversations with him a couple of years back while he was writing the book. It should be very very useful for leaders wanting to grapple with the challenges of missional leadership in a Post-Christendom Western Culture – cultural contexts that are themselves mission-fields. 

It’s a good looking and well-published book, one which I’m looking forward to reading, against the backdrop of conversations with Al, and the challenges he and others have been working hard to try and address through workshops and teaching, his must-read earlier book in this leadership series (The Missional Leader: Equipping Your Church to Reach a Changing World), and the learning’s that are part of projects such as the Mission in Western Culture Project.  

“…We are convinced that the new leadership we need to cultivate isn’t primarily about more knowledge and content; it's about how you form learning communities that are apprenticed into new skills and habits…”

Alan Roxburgh – Read the full post here. 

“…Missional for me is about how we rediscover a radical engagement between Scripture and the strange, changing culture(s) in which we find ourselves. It's about God, not us or the church. When I work with church groups I try to use language that grounds missional in ways they understand. For me, then, it's discovering what God is up to in the neighborhoods and communities in which we live, and seeking to join with God in those places…”

Read the rest of the short interview with Alan Roxburgh (about his latest book Missional Mapmaking: Skills for Leading in Times of Transition) here.

Lent: Trimming the Soul and Scraping off the Sludge of Life

Paul writes – with the season of Lent having started with Ash Wednesday on, funnily enough, Wednesday of this week, I thought I’d post a quote that I find helpfully evocative in terms of framing Lent and its significance.  

“Lent is the time for trimming the soul and scraping the sludge off a life turned slipshod. Lent is about taking stock of time, even religious time.  Lent is about exercising the control that enables us to say no to ourselves so that when life turns hard of its own accord we have the stamina to say yes to its twists and turns with faith and hope…. Lent is the time to make new efforts to be what we say we want to be.” - Sister Joan Chittister

Also, in terms of Lenten reading I highly recommend friend, Maggi Dawn’s Lent book Giving It Up: Daily Bible Readings from Ash Wednesday to Easter Day. It’s an excellent resource to take with you on your Lenten journey. It will be accompanying me. 

Working with our Ego’s

Paul writes – Chris Erdman offers an interesting series of posts on the ego. Below is an excerpt from his post on The Ego and the Spiritual Life.

“…The ego is not bad (I do think I’ve said this). It must not be eradicated. Rather, it’s to be healed, restored, returned to its proper function. The ego, as I understand it, is a God-given faculty within us . . . part of the image of God. But because of the Fall (whatever that is), it’s not healthy. It does not properly mediate between the Id and Superego, but too often is nearly completely identified with them.

This is central to our problem as human beings, to our spiritual practice, to the union with God that is the mystery we are all intended to experience. I think sin is to a large extent this deep and “original” (that is, at the core of our being) misidentification of ourselves with our unhealthy egos. I’ve a hunch St. Paul might identify this wounded, broken ego with the “flesh” in his writings—”flesh” that is not to be discarded or abused or despised, but healed by it’s gathering into Jesus Christ. The Incarnation informs us here too…” 

You can read his full post here, and an earlier one on the ego here. 

I’ve posted a little on related subjects here, here and here. 

Also worth a read is the Ann Bedford Ulanov (and Alvin Dueck) 2008 publication (Eerdmans) The Living God and our Living Psyche: What Christians Can Learn from Carl Jung. She co-wrote the fascinating Primary Speech: The Psychology of Prayer.  Ulanov is a Professor of Psychiatry and Religion. Franciscan Monk/Priest Richard Rohr is another writer I’d recommend for people wanting to explore, from a Christian perspective, issues of ego, psyche etc. For a useful introduction to Jung you could try David Tacey's introduction to him - How to Read Jung. For a good overview of why we should engage Jung's work, Tacey's essay The Role of the Numinous in the Reception of Jung in The Idea of the Numinous: Contemporary Jungian and Psychoanalytic Perspectives. 

“It’s life Jim, but not as we know it...” Listening to the voices of four postmodern faith groups in Aotearoa / New Zealand by Craig Braun

Paul writes - The latest issue of the Spirited Exchanges (UK) newsletter (PDF) – Issue 14 / Feb. 2010 – is out (and attached at the bottom of this post).

 

While always a fascinating and informative read, this month’s is particularly good. Why? Because it features an article by a Kiwi, Craig Braun, in which he reflects on his research amongst, and in conversation with “four postmodern faith groups in New Zealand. I came across Craig very briefly a few years ago in Wellington. It’s good to get a sense of the trajectory of his research.

 

Here’s an excerpt:

 

“In March 2009, I interviewed four faith groups as part of a theology honours degree. I wanted to explore ways these groups engaged with local communities increasingly shaped by what Leonard Sweet calls the culmination of three “culturestorms”; post-modernity, post-Christendom and one Sweet calls post-scale; the very real possibility of planetary self-annihilation. I wanted to better understand how the experience of these groups interacted with Christian faith as a developing and living religion with some 2000 years of history. Several writers explore this sense of development as a form of living treasure, or to use a New Zealand Maori word Taonga, passed like a runner’s baton down from one generation to another (Rae and Davidson).

 

As a point of difference the project placed emphasis on local experience as the starting point of theological reflection. Taking local experience as a point of departure finds cohesion with the sorts of issues faced by early Christian communities in the twenty years immediately after the death, resurrection and ascension of Christ.

 

Glimpses of this period by writers such as Wright, Crossan, Stark, Bauer, Green and Wilken seem to suggest that expressions of Christian faith during this period of inauguration were varied, localised and dynamic in the sense that they evolved or developed in response to the lived experience of early followers. Several of these writers conclude that during this initial period of Christian history, the New Testament and a distinctive Christian tradition emerged and functioned differently in the first twenty years than they have in the last fifteen hundred years.

 

Two of the groups were based in Christchurch and were attached to one particular church. They functioned as small communities where the physical space of the church auditorium was transformed to offer a variety of worship experiences. Their emphasis was engaging with Christian faith through the experience of reflective installations. The remaining two Wellington based groups were not affiliated to local churches. They were based more on friendship and the exploration of non-evangelical forms of worship and engagement with contemporary urban living. All four groups used a

number of pre-modern Christian rituals as part of this engagement. These include; Lectio Devino, The Examen, Stations of the Cross and the Compline (Night Prayer)…”

 

You can read the full reflection by downloading the PDF version of the newsletter attached below.

 

Spirited Exchanges UK - Issue 14 - Feb 2010