Prodigal Kiwi(s) Blog

MissioRelate: New from M. Scott Boren

M. Scott Boren (most recently referenced on this blog here / a podcast) has a new book out shortly: MissioRelate: Becoming a Church of Missional Small Groups. It’s a companion title to Missional Small Groups coming out in a couple weeks. It speaks to pastors and small group champions in churches. 

Here’s the “contents” page. You can find the introduction (PDF) here. 

Table of Contents

Preface: How This Book Was an Accident Introduction: A Brief History of Small Group Ministry 

Part 1: A Vision that Changes Everything

1 “Normal” Groups or MissioRelate?

2 The Four Stories of Small Group Life

3 Why We Need These Stories

4 How the Four Stories Change Everything 

Part 2: What Leaders Can Do To Change Everything

5 Ask Different Questions

6 Gather Around the Presence

7 Focus on Discipleship

8 Deal with Reality

9 Help People Answer their Questions

10 Encourage Experiments

11 Equip People in Relational Intelligence

12 Empower Elders

13 Practice Mission

14 Embrace Mystery 

Part 3: A Process for Changing Everything

15 Aim the Journey at MissioRelate

16 Aim Worship Services at MissioRelate

17 Aim Connecting Experiences at MissioRelate

18 Make the Path to MissioRelate Clear 

Appendix A: Implementing MissioRelate Appendix B: Going Deeper with Additional Resources Appendix C: Going Deeper with The Relational Way Appendix D: Community Practices

Scott also co-wrote (with Alan Roxburgh) the very good introduction to the so-called “missional church”. I highly recommend it: Introducing the Missional Church. 

 

Joining in on what God is doing already

Chris Smith, who if my memory serves me accurately – it was a good few years ago – mailed me my first William Stringfellow book. Now, in a recent post for the Englewood Review of Books he offers a great review of Alan Roxburgh’s latest book: Missional: Joining God in the Neighborhood (2011). I add my own recommendation to Chris’ review, and remind Waikato readers that Alan is here later this year at the invitation of the Anglican Diocese of Waikato and Taranaki. 

Here’s an excerpt from Chris’ review: 

“…Roxburgh emphasizes that God’s Mission in the world is not just about us as churches.  Indeed, it is clear that he is working from a reading of Scripture that has a deep sense of God’s reconciliation of all people and all creation.  From this reading of Scripture, Roxburgh calls us to seek the particular sorts of reconciliation that God is already orchestrating in the places in which we dwell, and from this pursuit to become engaged in deep and significant ways with our neighbors.  What he offers us here is not the sort of random “external focus” that others have proposed for churches to adopt, but rather an intentional way of being with and caring for our neighbors in ways that bear witness to the particularities of God’s reconciling mission in our specific locations.

After challenging us to let go of our church ideologies, Roxburgh sets the stage for the book by offering an overview of Lesslie Newbigin’s work and an accompanying explanation of why Newbigin’s work has been so helpful in understanding the “Missional Conversation,” between church, gospel and culture.  He contends that too often our undue focus on church drowns out the voices of gospel and culture in this conversation.  He follows this introductory material with an “intermezzo” that overviews philosopher Charles Taylor’s concept of “social imaginaries,” which serves as a foundation for introducing the concept of a “language house,” the linguistic set of stories, practices and expectations that help a community live within in particular social imaginaries and acts as a sort of interpretative lens…” 

You can read the full review here.  Chris concludes his review:

“Missional: Joining God in the Neighborhood is a brilliant and challenging book whose roots run deep, and yet it – very intentionally – is not an academic work, but rather a theological work that demands our attention, our reflection and our transformation as communities gathered for life together in the way of Jesus.  If Roxburgh’s message here is taken to heart by Western Christianity, as it should be, it will undoubtedly have a transformative effect, guiding our church communities from the stale recesses of institutional survival to the vibrant conversational life (as if around a table) of a gathered people who bear witness to our neighbors of God’s work reconciling all creation!” 

Thanks for the review Chris.

Update: 30/04/11

Len Hjalmarson also offers a review of Alan's book. A more recent post from Len is also relevant.

 

Tell Stories…

I recently dipped into a book I hadn’t looked at for many years; it was a book by Walter Wangerin. In it he has a chapter on preaching and reflects the following thoughts to his readers. There is much that resonates for me around the importance of the experiential and the multi-sensory. Both reflect that as human beings we are always more than simply “rational”. 

Wangerin writes: 

“…Despite what we may think, and despite the freedoms we experience in some many areas of our culture, we remain, where religion is concerned, a people of the priest. By those singled out for the office we meet and perceive our God: the meeting is a conscious desire; the perception is an unconscious shaping; the consequence, except the priest be careful, is the contraction of God and then God’s abstraction from the whole of life… 

…Contraction [reduces God] to place, time, and special rites, [i.e.] to temples, festivals and ceremony… people believed that the Limitless had found limits and therefore [Wangerin’s emphasis in this instance] was approachable… 

…Abstraction, on the other hand [had the effect of] removing God from experiential life and permitting [God] truly to dwell in analysis alone, is a present-day problem… our priests themselves participate in this problem… because so many of us consider preaching to be their most significant function; preaching seems to us the clearest access to the divine. Therefore, the shape of preaching most shapes our God. And what is the shape of so much preaching today? Why, it is the shape of the classroom: teaching. And teaching is always (in our consideration) one step removed from experience and from the “real”. It is an activity of the mind. It prepares for what will be; or it interprets what has been; it is separated from both. The God who is met in doctrines, who is apprehended in the catechesis, who is true so long as our statements about [God] are truly stated, who is communicated in propositions, premise-premise-conclusion, who leaps not from the streets, nor even from scriptural texts, but from the interpretation of the scriptural texts – that God is an abstract, has been abstracted from the rest of the Christian’s experience… so long as [God] remains a doctrine alone, a truth to be taught [and believed in], immanence itself contains an abstraction… 

…The province of God is all creation, all space and time, all things and all events, all actions of humankind, the all the whole human [her/himself]… [God] acts within them! [God] uses them as instruments, the experience of people. [God] participates mot fleshily… [God] is not only transcendent; but by [God’s] own will and power [God] cracks into our histories and there [God] works [God’s] works…” 

He concludes: 

“… I tell you the story, dear brothers and sisters, to say – tell stories. It is the fullness of witness.” 

Walter Wangerin, Ragman and Other Cries of Faith (First Edition, 1984), pp. 72-74, 82.  

 

Dear Lulu… From the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams

Thanks to Ben Myers (who by the way is writing a book on Rowan Williams – not sure of the publication date), on the other side of the Tasman, for directing my attention to a great little (blog) story in the UK’s Telegraph newspaper. The story, by Damian Thompson, is told under the heading: A six-year-old girl writes a letter to God, and the Archbishop of Canterbury answers. The blog story has received over 500 comments.

Lulu’s teachers asked her to write to God and ask: “How did you get invented?” 

…Lulu’s Father “could have told Lulu that, in his opinion, there was no God; or he could have pretended that he was a believer. He chose to do neither, instead emailing her letter to the Scottish Episcopal Church (no reply), the Presbyterians (ditto) and the Scottish Catholics (a nice but theologically complex answer). For good measure, he also sent it to “the head of theology of the Anglican Communion, based at Lambeth Palace” – and this was the response: 

Dear Lulu, 

Your dad has sent on your letter and asked if I have any answers. It’s a difficult one! But I think God might reply a bit like this –

‘Dear Lulu – Nobody invented me – but lots of people discovered me and were quite surprised. They discovered me when they looked round at the world and thought it was really beautiful or really mysterious and wondered where it came from. They discovered me when they were very very quiet on their own and felt a sort of peace and love they hadn’t expected. 

Then they invented ideas about me – some of them sensible and some of them not very sensible. From time to time I sent them some hints – specially in the life of Jesus – to help them get closer to what I’m really like. 

But there was nothing and nobody around before me to invent me. Rather like somebody who writes a story in a book, I started making up the story of the world and eventually invented human beings like you who could ask me awkward questions!’

And then he’d send you lots of love and sign off. 

I know he doesn’t usually write letters, so I have to do the best I can on his behalf. 

Lots of love from me too. 

+Archbishop Rowan. 

If you missed the link above, you can find the complete new story here.  

 

God Is Not a Christian And Other Provocations

This will interest a number of you. Soon to be released (May 2011) is Desmond Tutu’s God Is Not a Christian And Other Provocations

“Biographer John Allen collects the Archbishop Desmond Tutu's most profound, controversial, and historic words in this inspiring anthology of speeches, interviews, and sermons that have rocked the world. An unforgettable look at the South African pastor’s deeply rooted empathy and penetrating wisdom…

Arranged by theme and introduced with insight and historical context by Tutu’s biographer, John Allen, this collection takes readers from the violent apartheid clashes in South Africa to the healing work of the Truth and Reconciliation Committee; from Trafalgar Square after the fall of the Berlin Wall to a national broadcast commemorating the legacy of Nelson Mandela; from Ireland’s Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin to a basketball stadium in Luanda, Angola. Whether exploring democracy in Africa, the genocide in Rwanda, black theology, the inclusion of gays and lesbians in the church, or the plight of Palestinians, Tutu’s message of truth is clear and his voice unflinching…”

 

Rowan Williams on the Wonder and Depths of Narnia

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams’ continues his practice of delivering thoroughly fascinating lectures over the course of Holy Week. This year the 2011 Holy Week Lectures are on the topic of the Narnia stories of C. S. Lewis.  The lectures are available online: 

Lecture 1: ‘Not a tame lion’

Lecture 2: ‘I only tell you your own story’

Lecture 3: ‘Bigger inside than outside’. 

In previous Holy Week lectures, Williams has explored the creeds, the Bible, prayer, the role of the saints in spiritual growth and looked in depth at Mark’s Gospel story of Jesus’ life.

This year, Williams, a Narnia fan, turned his attention to the Christian themes found in the Narnia novels. Dr Williams explained: “The Narnia books of C.S. Lewis continue to intrigue and inspire many, and the recent very successful films have shown that they still have wide appeal. Lewis certainly intended them to be vehicles of Christian teaching. But in an age less familiar with Christian images and ideas than his, how can we best draw out these themes?”

Speaking about the pertinence of the novels to the Easter story of resurrection, the Archbishop commented: “These lectures will look at some of the most important themes in the novels and ask how far Lewis succeeds in giving new life to traditional Christian ideas about sacrifice, forgiveness and resurrection, doubt and faith, the divine presence in Jesus and the final goals of human life.”

 

All the Possibilities of Resurrection

Richard Rohr and the Centre for Action and Contemplation

“The journey to happiness involves finding the courage to go down into ourselves and take responsibility for what's there: all of it.”

—Richard Rohr 

I was recently reading through Franciscan Catholic Priest Richard Rohr’s latest (small format) book (Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life) last week and noticed the “Mission” and “Core Principles” for Rohr’s Centre for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, USA. I hadn’t read it for a good period of time so appreciated the opportunity to sit with it again, and thought as a result I’d share it. It says a number of things I’d want to include in a “rule”, and certainly it touches on a number of what for me would be characteristics of a way of being a local expression of church rooted in the soil of the Christian tradition, but deeply engaged with and in conversation with its local context. I love the way the centre holds together “action” and “contemplation”, and its emphasis on the experiential.

The Centre for Action and Contemplation

Our Mission

“We are a center for experiential education, rooted in the Gospels, encouraging the transformation of human consciousness through contemplation, and equipping people to be instruments of peaceful change in the world.”

Our Core Principles

• The teaching of Jesus is our central reference point. (Criterion)
• We need a contemplative mind in order to do compassionate action. (Process)
• The best criticism of the bad is the practice of the better. Oppositional energy only creates more of the same. (Emphasis)
• Practical truth is more likely found at the bottom and the edges than at the top or the center of most groups, institutions, and cultures. (Perspective)
• We will support true authority, the ability to "author" life in others, regardless of the group. (Non-tribal)
• Life is about discovering the right questions more than having the right answers. (Primacy of discernment)
• True religion leads us to an experience of our True Self and undermines my false self. (Ultimate direction)
• We do not think ourselves into a new way of living, but we live ourselves into a new way of thinking. (Praxis over theory)

 

David Tacey, Jung, and a Perspective on Physical and Mental Wellbeing

Dr David Tacey is Associate Professor and Reader in Arts at La Trobe University in Victoria, where he teaches literature, spirituality and Jungian psychology. He is the author of five books on spirituality and culture, including Edge of the Sacred and Re-Enchantment: The New Australian Spirituality. 

Recently he was interviewed on ABC’s The Spirit of Things about his latest book God and Diseases. Here’s the “blurb” for the interview: “The secular world is killing us, says David Tacey. The Jungian scholar and author of Gods and Diseases believes that living an entirely rational existence seeks its opposite in intoxicants and other forms of escape, which lead to depression and self harm. The mid-life crisis is another casualty of a life devoid of spiritual fulfillment. Aboriginal initiation rituals, he believes, offer a clue for renewal.” 

You can download or listen to the interview here. 

While not without criticism (and you can be critical) I always find Tacey an interesting and stimulating ‘conversation’ partner, so any chance to hear him, as in this interview, is a delight. He offers some interesting thoughts of sexuality & spirituality; mental health; psychotherapy; and mid-life. See what you think. 

Gods and Diseases: Making Sense of Our Physical and Mental Wellbeing. Published 2011. 

Book Description 

“…There are many problems in today′s society that cannot be resolved by the applications of reason, logic or medical science. These include child abuse, alcoholism, drug addiction, and suicide. Numerous mental health problems such as anxiety, depression, and phobias, are rising dramatically and there seems to be no solution in sight. In this book, David Tacey argues that the solution lies in breaking free from the confines of modern medicine. Instead we must turn to spirituality, and to what Tacey calls ′meaning-making′, to make sense of our physical and mental wellbeing.” 

Have a look inside the book. 

Pete Ward: God’s Behaving Badly

A UK friend of mine, Jason Clark, helpfully directed my attention to an essay in The Other Journal by Pete Ward. It’s adapted from the introduction to his recently published book Gods Behaving Badly: Media, Religion, and Celebrity Culture. It was published in 2011. Ward is the Senior Lecturer In Youth Ministry and Theological Education, King's College, London 

In addition, Jason asked Ward a few questions about his book, and these can be found here in written form on Jason’s blog. Thanks Jase. 

Here are questions 2 & 3 in their entirety:

“…What are you trying to do with this book, any hopes for what your writing will help people see and understand?

I see two main areas where I hope this book makes a contribution.  At a basic missiological level I think we need to understand the popular culture that the Church shares with those around us.  It is not simply a case of understanding ‘them’ but the need to understand ourselves as part of this soup of communication.  I think we tend to leap much too quickly to criticism or some kind of Christian or theological fix when we talk about popular culture.  As a result I think we can fail to learn or we miss the point.  So my main aim with this book is to try and listen or interpret in an empathetic way. 

My second concern is to try and contribute to the discussion concerning theology religion and popular culture.  There’s a real growth industry in books about theology and film or theology and television. In many ways I feel these appropriate the popular to a Christian framework. On the other side there are religious studies people who are keen to interpret popular culture as religion.  I am kind of disagreeing with both of these.  My approach wants to see what is going on in popular culture and what I have concluded is that celebrity ‘worship’ is not religion, but it has theological elements that are used as metaphors in the ‘discourse’.  I call this para-religion. 

How does this book relate to your previous writings and work? 

At a very fundamental level all of my writing and research has grown from the experience of being a youth worker with unchurched young people.  This experience made me realize that we need to be culturally attuned if we want to do mission.  In particular in my Liquid Church book I was following this idea and saying we need to see encounter with Christ and thus Church emerge from the spirituality and the practices of non-churched people.  So basically my beef with Emergent/Fresh Expressions is that it starts by trying to reshape Church rather than by trying to connect with where those outside the Church are already spiritually active and engaged.  This book fits with this point, but its main contribution is to urge caution about theological metaphors and expressions in popular culture – they are not what they seem.  They may not be a starting point or any way as significant as questions of identity, relationship and family – all of which are evident as key notions in celebrity coverage…”