Dave Tomlinson in the Waikato – Part 1

Paul writes – Well, Dave and Pat Tomlinson’s time in the Waikato

is drawing to an end and soon the tour begins (see this earlier post for the itinerary). It’s been a rich time, both at a personal level and in terms of the conversations that Dave facilitated amongst Anglican clergy and leaders at their annual Diocesan Ministry School.

The US-edition of Dave’s The Post Evangelical begins with the following quote:

 

“We have a choice between two attitudes toward the future… one of imagination, the other of nostalgia … it’s a choice between facing the future, and backing into it…” Stephen Toulmin, (Cosmopolis: The Hidden Agenda of Modernity, 1990, p. 203).

 

Both the UK and the US editions end with this quote:

“…When the forms of an old culture are dying, the new culture is created by a few people who are not afraid to be insecure…” German Ecologist Rudolph Bahro.

 

Both quotes serve as useful backdrops to the three key-note addresses that Dave delivered at Ministry School:

·         The first session began with reflections by the Diocese’s two Bishops – David and Philip – on parish life, innovation and missional engagement in the public arena. Their story telling picked up a number of themes: opening/becoming hospitable spaces; providing this space without needing to control it! Sharing resources. The need for experimentation and flexibility; the movement from a privatised faith (parish churches existing primarily for themselves & their Sunday worship being very “in-house” and often inaccessible) to a more open and public faith – church in the community and for the community – the church building is their (i.e. the wider community) building. The need to overcome the often dominant concern in aging congregations for self-preservation (at this point I thought again of the “rata tree story” – see this 2005 post) rather than missional engagement and change for the sake of better incarnating and contextualising of the gospel in a world that has changed, and will continue to change significantly. As Alan Roxburgh is fond of saying, “we live in an unthinkable world”. Archbishop David quoted Rabbi Hillel (30 bc to 9 ad.): “…If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am not for others, what am I?” “The church must run to keep up with God is doing in the world.” (Harvey Cox). We are argents of God’s Kingdom in the world. The growth of the church is the by-product not the goal of missional engagement. Dave (Tomlinson) then introduced himself, told the story of St. Luke’s in London, and built on the Bishops introduction by exploring “Changing Church in an Emerging Culture”: What sorts of churches are required for the 21^st century? And how can we produce them? Are traditional (parish) churches capable of making the necessary changes, and we can we begin? He drew; in particular on Chapter 3 of his latest book Re-Enchanting Christianity: Faith in an Emerging Culture.

Talk of “progressive orthodoxy” will always be problematic for some, and while it would be naïve to think that all who heard session 1 will have found it helpful, the majority of people I talked too over coffee seemed to have found it very useful and stimulating. The quality and quantity of questions seemed to me to validate my observations from the back of the room.  

 

Session 2 notes, session 3 notes and other thoughts will be posted over the next few days.