“to say that we are a missional community is to say that we are not the end-users of the gospel, our belief in God and our living in the way of Jesus are not for our benefit alone. Rather we receive these so that we may be equipped and sent into the world to love our neighbours and serve “the least of these.” In this sense, Solomon’s Porch doesn’t have a mission it is missional.”

I’ve recently completed reading the story book “Reimagining Spiritual Formation – A week in the life of an experimental church” by Doug Pagitt and the Solomon’s Porch Community. I’m calling it a story book because if I were to call it a normal book, or a resource book I’d not be giving it enough credit… in fact, I’d feel as if I were doing it some injustice.

I hate reading, a part of that comes from my inability to write book reviews (so if this sucks don’t blame me) and my general distaste for my old english and classics education. This particular story book however was very easy to read, infact I kept on going back for more and more. Drawn illustrations are non-existent and photos are few and far between but the story is shaped in images that are developed by it’s authors.

“Service isn’t how we act out our spirituality; it’s how our spirituality gets shaped. And as such, it’s not reserved for the elite of faith.”

Doug’s story telling of the community, its day to day happenings, the reasons behind the happenings and more importantly the story behind each day’s happenings are surrounded by illustrations by members of the community in the form of their diary entries.

Erin, Dustin, Jim, Carla, Sarah and Javier share a piece of themselves in the form of journal entries which are woven around, in and on the side of Doug’s writing.

The aim of the book is not to tell you how to run an “Experimental Church” but instead to paint a picture of their community, the people within it and the daily rhythm of the community’s life together in worship, service and community. As you read through the book you can start imagining the activities, the community’s life, the people, the community in which they live and as you begin to imagine, the people and the stories begin to take form and speak to you.

“our confidence does not come from being successful at creativity; it comes from being certain that when we fail, things will be okay and we will continue to make things new.”

They share themselves, the real, truthful, sometimes funny, honest, damaged, thoughtful, loving, caring, inspired selves in their story, letting you travel along with them during the week.

As someone who’s traveled with an experimental church I felt that I could relate to the issues and stories of some of the travellers, and Doug’s words sometimes just rang through my head for ages as my mind, heart and imagination began to put the story together, the worship space, the community, the studies, the meals, the people and the life of the community which is really trying to live out their spirituality in a way that is useful in the world.

“belief is formed when information finds a partner with people’s hopes, experiences, ideas and thoughts.”

The journals, emails and letters let us meet some of the people who are participating in the life of the community, for many places they are people that we’d already know, people who are struggling in their walk, who are not afraid to try, to share, to do this stuff together, to be themselves and to use the gifts and faith in the community in which they live.

These are real people sharing their real lives, real fears, real cares and concerns, real struggles and real blessings.

“nearly every Christian I know grew into the faith long before they knew a whole lot about it.”

Doug takes us through the days of the week as they fit in with the rhythm of the community life, as he does you realise that this is a community with a clear idea of it’s daily rhythm and why they do each thing that they do:

Sunday – spiritual formation through worship
Monday – spiritual formation through physicality
Tuesday – spiritual formation through dialogue
Wednesday – spiritual formation through hospitality
Thursday – spiritual formation through belief
Friday – spiritual formation through creativity
Saturday – spiritual formation through service

“I don’t even like getting milk because it’s a two-week commitment”

I enjoyed the story telling nature of this book, how it sometimes read like a blog or a website, I could read a few paragraphs, hit a journal entry and be swept away some where else for a little while and then come back to the journey that Doug was taking me on. If you’re after an instruction manual then this might not be the best book for you, if you’re looking for people to share some of their stories and let you inside the week of a church community of people struggling to be people of God in their local community then this is EXACTLY the book for you. And if you’re after inspiration to help you vision possibilities for a church plant, your own community or looking for hope in the future church then check this out also.

“i swear, when people are willing to be vulnerable, it cuts through the crap so quickly”

Writing a novel is easy, asking someone to travel with you is difficult and writing a story is for those rare people that god has blessed with the skill, talent and honesty to do so.

Thank you to the community and to Doug for sharing.

Link : Solomons Porch Community
Link : Doug Pagitt”s Blog

Book Information
Title: Reimagining Spiritual Formation: A Week in the Life of an Experimental Church
Author: Doug Pagitt
Paperback: 176 pages
Publisher: Zondervan (February 1, 2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0310256879
ISBN-13: 978-0310256878

Also Released as:
Title: Church Re-Imagined: The Spiritual Formation of People in Communities of Faith
Author: Doug Pagitt
Publisher: Zondervan (August 5, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 031026975X
ISBN-13: 978-0310269755

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

This book makes a significant contribution to the discussion about the malaise of the church. Unlike the host of mostly USA remedies being proclaimed – bigger and better ways of doing church – this New Zealand researcher has done the hard yards of sociological research to find out, and make sense of, the reasons people leave evangelical, pentacostal, charismatic (EPC) churches.

He bears good news, but not to those who are convinced by the myth that the decline in church attendance can be redressed by either becoming ‘more spiritual’ or more conservative (aren’t we told they the growing churches?). Jamieson’s leavers, mostly 30 – 45 year olds, are in fact those who have been leaving such churches, mostly from extended involvement in positions of significant leadership. He finds little evidence to support the ‘backslider’ stereotype, though the process of leaving was often traumatic. Rather, their churches were not able to recognise and cope with the leavers’ need to move on in their faith development.

Jamieson refers to the work of American sociologist Helen Ebaugh who describes a four stage leaving process: first doubts, seeking and weighing alternatives, negotiating turning points, developing a new sense of identity and leans heavily on Fowler’s work on Stages of Faith Development.

Jamieson’s original and most helpful contribution is his identification of four categories of leavers, (while emphasising that the process of leaving is dynamic and fluid and not as ordered and sequential as the categories might suggest).

Disillusioned Followers

They have left because they have specific grumbles about direction, leadership or level of care offered by their church.

A dependent relationship
They may have left a particular church but they continue to be dependent on the wider EPC community (tapes, videos, radio etc) and maintain their personal devotional practices.

A received faith.
The faith they received from their church remains unquestioned. It is a ‘faith-package’ based on a process of conversion, external authorities such as a fairly literalistic interpretation of scripture or the teaching of some respected Christian leader and tending to be dualistic, with clear divisions between what is ‘true’ and ‘untrue’.

An unexamined faith
The taken-for-granteds of the EPC faith remain reinforced through external trusted, unexamined authority.
A bold faith

They remain sure, confident and bold in their explanation of both their faith and their decision to leave the church. In fact, they see themselves as the true believers, not those remaining in the EPC church.

Reflective Exiles

They have left because they have begun to question the core beliefs, values and expected behaviours of their church – a realisation of its inadequacies in the light of their wider experience. They are pursuing a more satisfying sense of ‘truth’ and see themselves as exiles.

Counter-dependent relationship
They push against the previous authority and basis of faith they had held in their EPC church.

A deconstruction of faith
The questioning process becomes a process of deconstructing the faith they had received. It is a destabilising process both for them and those around them.

Ongoing reflection
Each component of their faith is critiqued on the basis of whether the individual will appropriate it as part of their own personal belief or value system or not, or put in the ‘don’t know’ basket. Many mention a new awareness and trust in their own feelings and intuitions.

A hesitant faith
The energy demanded to de-construct what was once taken for granted, and ensuing counter-dependence, lowers self-motivation and urgency to find ‘answers’.

Transitional Explorers

This group have moved through the reflective phase of critical distance to a new engagement with their faith, a re-appropriation of elements they have tested and found to be valid to their own satisfaction. The focus is on beginning to find a new way forward.

Inner-dependency
There is a growing sense of the validity and nurture of one’s own faith and innerself-care.

Reconstruction of faith
While some faith elements from their former EPC church may be re-appropriated, new understandings, values and behaviours are also incorporated which are outside the typical EPC faith-package and therefore act for exclusion from their EPC church.

Emerging self ownership
Transitional Explorers have an emerging sense of what their faith entails, and a new acceptance of this as their own faith system.

A strengthening faith
People are more prepared to give time and energy to exploration of their inner life through courses, reading etc. Many would see themselves involved in a future church, but as independent persons.

At the transitional explorer phase, some make a transition to an alternative faith, representing a move to a new faith basis.

Integrated Wayfinders

While there is a sense in which the integrated faith is open to constant redefinition, their major faith examination is complete and integrated into the whole of life.

An interdependent faith
The integrated faith of Integrated Wayfinders is characterised by a new inter-dependence on both inner nurture for the life of faith and renewed connections with others who also provide the individual with nourishment and support in their faith. The new networks into which they connect represent a wider diversity of belief, values and expectations than the church they left previously. Making renewed connections with other faith groups provides a context for the individual into which to contribute to others’ lives or the life of a community. The desire to contribute, support and give to others is a growing desire among Integrated Wayfinders.

Integrated faith
They have built a coherent faith system which is not reductionist or simplistic but incorporates and is relevant to all aspects of their lives.

An autonomous faith
It is a faith that is self-governed, functional and articulate.

A strong faith
They have a renewed willingness to use their time, energy, skills and resources in pursuit of their faith, in service, theological study etc.

For them church would be welcoming, more egalitarian and free of authoriarian power structures, allowing freedom of thought and conscience and freedom to disagree without penalty.

Jamieson then relates his categories to Fowler’s Stages of Faith Development, which he sees as a map to bring the discussion of the faith journey together. The summary of Fowler’s work is excellent.

Likewise the next chapter on “jumping ship” contains some useful insights, for example, in Church isn’t changing – I am!:

People often try to reduce these feelings of dissatisfaction by changing either themselves or some aspect of the church so it better suits their perceived needs. Either they try to wake themselves up and find more enthusiasm and zeal for their faith or they try to change the church. Both inevitably fail to solve the problem. When you’re tired of life on board the liner and no longer find it enjoyable, no end of pepping yourself up or trying to convince yourself that it is where you should be can change the underlying feelings of disgust, boredom and irrelevance. Yet, equally, trying to change some of life on the cruise ship will not satisfy your growing need to sail your own vessel. You can change the menu, alter the daily onboard newspaper, rearrange the entertainment, even work to alter the itinerary but in the end you are still not sailing yourself. And ultimately you won’t be satisfied until you do…. Now isn’t the time for you to change the church. It is time for deep personal change. Even if you are successful in changing the worship or some other aspect of church, in the long term it will not change the internal feeling of deep soul unease. In time similar feelings of unease will move to some other aspect of the church or the faith package of the church. Your time of helping to bring change within the life of a church may come later.

What the leaver needs now is time, space, resources, understanding, validation and support for their own inner journey.

The most helpful thing anyone can give a person experiencing this phase of the Christian journey is to tell them it is normal. What they are experiencing doesn’t mean that they are losing their faith. It doesn’t mean at they are backsliding. What it does mean is that they are coming to a new refining and defining of their relationship with God, themselves and the world. The work that needs to be done at this point is internal work rather than trying to give energy to changing the structures of the Christian community to which they belong.

People seriously thinking about leaving the church need to know that for many Christians, part of their faith journey is travelled in small yachts rather than big cruise ships.

A reference to Job provides some hopeful insights into the journey from apparent certainty of creed and doctrine through despair, darkness and silence towards a transformation that embraces the two.

As Jamieson moves toward some conclusion, he makes a very useful distinction between marginal groups (defining themselves in relation to someone else’s centre and therefore focussed more on dealing with the past, what one is leaving) and liminal groups (signifying an in-between, ambiguous nature and focussed more on the future, looking to build and nurture an ongoing faith). He suggests that a fruitful conversation might be had between EPC churches and liminal groups based on what he perceives to be the strengths of each.

Liminal groups:

• have an inherent connection with the emerging postmodern culture
• have given prioiry to the questions of a new age
• have learnt from the journey of exile
• indicate other ways of structuring Christian community
• have an openness to people who think differently
• have a broad eclectic approach to liturgy and worship
• point to a difficult journey ahead for the EPA churches

EPC churches:

• perceive a priority to mission
• perceive a priority for evangelism and conversion
• perceive the need for investment in the faith of the next generation
• perceive a need of somewhere to belong
• have a preparedness to learn from the classics of the faith
• perceive the need to maintain connections with other larger conglomerations of people
• perceive the need for energy and risk taking in the name of faith

As one who has been involved in providing “touching place(s) for those who find mainstream church alienating or inaccessible” these last six years, I would suggest that the future for Christian community is far more pluralistic than Jamieson suggests.  I think we need such a variety of worshipping styles and cultures as there are stages of faith journey and modes of expression. The major issue is therefore not so much dialogue between liminal groups (why “groups” and not “churches”?) and institutionalised churches, which may easily fall foul of the modernist temptation of the ‘big fix’ to ‘solve these problems’, but in promoting a theology that accepts diversity as the norm and an attitude to others that is less judgemental. It is to take whole congregations on the journey of faith from Fowler’s Stage 3 to 4 and beyond.

In that Jamieson’s work is framed within the EPC ethos, his book will be a source of hope and direction for many Protestants. It would be interesting to see how his findings might stack up against similar research among Catholics and Orthodox. I suspect it would be enriched rather than modified, though perhaps these more sacramental traditions might understand and allow for a freer movement in faith development. I happen to think that in fact those ancient traditions may hold more clues than either liminal or EPC churches might realise.

Review Written by Geoff Boyce
December 2001

Book Information:
Title: A Churchless Faith
Author: Alan Jamieson
Paperback: 208 pages
Publisher: Spck (July 1, 2002)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0281054657
ISBN-13: 978-0281054657

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

This is an interview I did with Steve Taylor, author of the book “The Out of Bounds Church.”

I’ve also written an in-depth review of the book on this website (in the book review section). I think the book has been one of the better YS-Emergent released of the past two years. I may be a little biased here, but I think it’s exciting to see one of these books coming from the southern hemisphere, and that Steve’s put together a phenomenal text that not only shares stories from other communities around the world by also continues to do some theologizing about what on earth is going on in the weird missional fringes of the church.

I’d like to thank Steve for putting the time and energy into this interview, I’d thrown a lot of questions at him and he’s done well to answer many of them…

Umm, well, I started the interview a little lightly, I didn’t want to stress the NZer out with a heavy question straight off, and instead wanted to ease him into the harder questions…

So, Steve… what’s your favorite type of cheese?

• Camembert please.

I jokingly mentioned the beers that were “supporting” my review of your book, what takes your favour? Red wine, white wine or beer?

• It depends. New Zealand have these two great boutique beers called Blonde Mac and Summer Ale that I love. Then I am into red wine, pinot thanks.

Are you a mac or pc person?

• PC.

Phew, Mac people are hard to talk with sometimes… What’s on your mousepad?

• I have a laptop, so its black trim.

I’m intrigued… What possessed you to write this book, what was your inspiration?

• I never thought I’d be a writer. But one day a visitor to my weblog told me they thought I should write a book. What’s more they had emailed a publishing company on my behalf and here was the contact email. True story honest! I was in the midst of PhD research on the emerging church and did want more people than my research supervisor and 3 examiners to read the fruit of 4 years work. So that was the motivation.

You included “postcards” that you’d written from faith communities all over the world to start each chapter in your book, where would you like to get postcards from now?

• Firstly Europe. I’d love to see the emerging church turn back the tide of secularity in Europe. Secondly, a mixed ethnic church plant in Serbia. I’d love to see the emerging church embrace mission in a country riven by religious and racial tensions, like Serbia.

Are there any communities that would you like to visit now and write postcards from?

• Three places. Pernell Goodyear’s café in Canada. Mark Berry is the first CMS missionary to the UK. I’d love to write from his lounge. And Cheryl Lawrie’s Advent womb in Melbourne sounds a wonderful space to write from. Does it have wifi?

You’ve been writing a number of movie reviews on your blog, what’s your favorite movie and why?

• The DVD of U2 Go home. I can watch that for hours. I love the spirituality and the interactivity.

I’ve just got tickets for the U2 tour in Australia, are you going to see U2 in Auckland?

• Too right. I stood in queues, while my partner got on broadband at the church and somehow in the internet crush we scored tickets. I’m actually dreaming of running a live “U2″ church service on the top of One Tree Hill the Sunday night after the two concerts, but I’m not sure I’ve got on the courage.

What’s your top 3 cds at this point in time?

• Fat Freddys Drop, Based on a True Story (NZ phat beats)
• Dub Conspiracy, (more NZ phat beats)
• U2, All that you can’t leave behind. (We played “Beautiful Day” straight after we got tickets).

What are you currently reading?

• I’ve nearly finished Merton’s Intimate Diaries and I’m trying to start Beldon’s Landscapes of the Sacred. Being in New Zealand, the whole issue of what following a God of reconciliation means for colonialism and land issues is stirring me. I’m watching movies like Whale Rider and In My Father’s Den and I’m feeling like Jacob, wandering through a strange land in which I find a “holy” place (Genesis 28:11 in the Good News). Since Jacob has never been there before, he’s possibly found a holy place from the religion of his day. So, what does it mean for me, like Jacob, to find a stairway to heaven in someone’s else’s land?

Some friends of mine have noticed that there seems to be an absence of interest in the Hebrew Scriptures in the conversations around missional churches. These conversations seem to speak about needing to start with Christology, with Jesus and in many cases the Old Testament seems to be missed out, to what extent can the Hebrew Scriptures offer new models to the Church that is emerging?

• Ahh, and I have just mentioned a Hebrew Scripture like Genesis!:) More seriously, it’s interesting that the mission-model of most of the Hebrew Bible was centripetal, going up to Jerusalem. Then in the New Testament it becomes more centrifugal, going out from Jerusalem. In the simple binary opposites of some of my modernist friends, this becomes attractional vs incarnational. But then you read someone like Brueggemann, who wrote this fantastic little essay about mission in the Old Testament. He delves into all these fascinating nooks and crannies; cities of refuge in Deuteronomy and taxation in Solomon’s time and hope in Hosea. And boom. Suddenly mission is vast and contextual and wholistic. You can spend a lot of missional time in the Hebrew Scriptures.

In what ways can the church may be able to support, tend to and provide a service to new forms of mission?

• I was amazed doing research as part of shaping the Out of Bounds Church? book, that the overwhelming answer to this was one word “relationships.” Young leaders and new “missionaries” wanted people who would listen, laugh, cry, encourage them. Sure money and space would be nice, but nothing seemed to beat a hug of encouragement.

You use the term “midwife” to describe the role that Gen Xers and the emerging forms of church are requesting from the church, why do you think this is the case?

• I love the image because it gives dignity to the emerging church, honour to the birthing Spirit of God, and a vital role for existing forms of church. The image keeps the focus on the health of the baby. It suggests that God might actually know what God is doing among new forms of church. It encourages relationship and reminds us that intervention can be required at times.

I had no issue with the conversations in your book, I heard the message loud and clear, but I wonder if that was/is because the book is written about me, about my friends and my peers, about my generation. I wonder what we can do with the generation beyond me, do you know of authors or people who are dealing with similar issues with Generation Y, and to what extent does the book speak about how we can minister with Gen Yers?

• I used to joke that the emerging church I planted, Graceway, was a bunch of U2 fans growing old together. We were, and so we all laughed. But I did it deliberately, because it reminded us that our kids might hate our music. So the true mission challenge for Graceway would be allowing the space for our kids to express faith in their language. So in terms of what Xers can do for Gen Yers; the challenge will be for the emerging church to not just be mid-wived, but to mid-wife.

I’m interested in the matriarchal language of birth, midwifery and creation, particularly that the language is coming out of a largely patriarchal system, men are coming up with the models and terms.
To what extent do you find new forms of church addressing issues of gender balance?
To what extent do you see female leaders being encouraged to explore similar issues to those written in your book?

• Oh, you have read the book closely. Well done. I prefer the term “feminine” to “matriarchal,” since I’m not sure replacing one model of “archy” with another model of “archy” is a step toward equality. Certainly the feminine images were deliberate. I believe one of the major challenges for the church is to re-balance and re-capture such dimensions and the feminine language was part of that process for me. It’s a huge mission issue, and all the time we hold a subversive set of Scriptures that speak of God as birthmother. But at times I wonder if the emerging church has made much progress. This year I’ve listened to women over coffee about 3/4s of the way through conferences and I got quite depressed. I am not sure I have many answers, but certainly the use of more feminine images was my attempt to speak to the issue and to encourage a more Biblical missiology.

Someone once said to me that “the only people that can minister to Xers are Xers.” If that’s really the case, then where midwifes come from might be as important, if not more important than offering the support to a community. In what ways do you think we can source, train and encourage people into midwife roles?

• I don’t agree that only like can minister to like. Yes, incarnational expressions of faith do emerge best from those within the culture. But the midwife image encourages anyone, no matter their age, to give love and time, with the goal of letting birth attain it’s full potential. Pete Ward, who writes about youth ministry in the UK, said something I found really helpful. “Don’t you dare learn the technology. Let your teenagers do that.” That’s midwifing. That’s being in ministry, but letting the Incarnational forms be shaped by the next generation.

You explore a number of images of God in the book, God as musician and composer, God as designer and dresser, God as architect and builder, and God as crafter and artesian. Since writing the book what image has become central to your ministry, and have there been any other images that have come to mind that could feed into the book’s imagery?

• We used all those images in worship a few weeks ago. We showed images of architectural work and crafts to Moby’s “God moved over the waters” and then invited people to express how their work that week might link with any of these images. We collected them up along with the offering. It was nice.

Your book suggests that the role of the church is therefore to act as guides, to act as resources for spiritual tourists, what difference do you think there is between seeing people as consumer or as tourist?

• It gives people dignity. “Consumer” is a dirty word in Christian circles, which is strange because we all consume. So rather than demonize consumption, we need to find ways to consume Christianly. I wish I’d had the space to write a chapter on this in the book. (But there is an edited book on youth ministry in New Zealand called “Culture – Yeah Right” coming out soon, in which I got a chance to write about this.) So for me, tourist offers another way of looking at people. It gives them space to move and grow. It challenges us to Incarnation, to cast our spirituality into the waters of our culture. It asks us to let go of the results.

Do you think that the role of DJ a missiological calling? If so, how does the church recognize people with the gift, encourage and train them?

• No, we all DJ. For example, most Christians have opinions on Harry Potter and Santa. That’s being a DJ. The question is, how good a DJ are we? So, the church trains by offering models. If you go into a church with blank white walls and you never hear talk about how the church or minister engages with a piece of culture, then congratulations. Your church has given you no insights into how to engage with culture. It is raising up untrained DJ’s. The trouble is, you then go home from the church service past bus shelters with advertising and to school to listen to your friends discuss TV programmes. Congratulations, your “white walled” church has given you no training to DJ.
The church trains by modeling how to engage with the culture we live in, how to subvert and applaud and challenge. It provides examples of how to DJ in culture. It explores the variety of ways the Scriptures DJ. It shows movies and offers art and enhances people’s interpretive skills.

You have spoken about the problem with NZ “seeing a new generation of leaders emerge”. How would you work towards improving the situation?

• It was part of the reason I left Graceway, the church I planted. I wanted to offer young leaders opportunity. I was also offered a chance to work at the Bible College of New Zealand on training for the emerging church. Alongside that I became pastor of a 96 year old declining church (Opawa Baptist) and we are moving into mentoring and internship models. We have people from US and UK joining us and we have just called one of the interns, a young woman, into pastoral leadership in the church.

You write: “Rather than move from theory to practice, the emerging church has simply practiced, sometimes without much theory. The emerging church needs the space to keep practicing, yet it also needs to be theological about it’s practices. We need to move from emerging by being all about candles to emerging by being a truly new kind of life with God.” (pp161)
What are some ways that the church that is emerging could be more centred on theological reflection?
Are there people who have inspired you in this way?

• It’s strange, but I pick up a vibe of anti-intellectualism coming out of the emerging church in Australia. Maybe I’m wrong. I just think we called to love God with all ourselves, and that includes actions and minds. I’m not talking about the myths of theology as angels dancing on pin heads or cloistered in ivory towers. I’m talking about good rigorous examination of what we do, in light of other churches (tradition) and in light of the Scriptures. I’m talking about questioning ourselves in the presence of our friends. I’ve been inspired by Mike Riddell and encouraged by Olive and John Drane. I love the work of French mystic Michel de Certeau, and the way he explored how cultures respond to change.

Much of the book was taken from your phd studies, is it still possible to get a copy of your phd?

• Yes, just drop me a line.

Are you writing something else at the moment, is there another book in the works?

• As an author, I have this paranoid fear that my writing is a waste of trees and a readers time. But in my more confident moments I am working on a book on how the Bible is used in the emerging church. Many of us have seen it used badly, yet our cultural shift is giving us opportunity to embrace multi-sensory, subversive, interactive, communal ways of engagement. So I’m writing around that. And I am playing with a book on leadership. I am fascinated by the way Paul uses 7 images to describe his leadership in 1 Corinthians. That suggests huge diversity. I’d like to explore how they apply to all of life – in our homes and workplaces and schools. But I’m not sure I’m wise enough to write that particular book.

What, if any are some of the differences both theologically and missiologically do you see between the church that is emerging in Au, NZ, US and UK? and what opportunities might these differences present?

• Ah, the last question. How honest should I be or how far can I put my foot down my mouth? UK are strong in incarnational worship, but weak because they emerged from a resistance to evangelical charismatics. They are also coloured by the strength of Anglicanism in the UK. Being a state church, this is a structure that tends not to encourage innovation. It is also an ecclesiology focused on worship rather than community.
US are loud in word (book and blog) and so have focused much attention on the missiological imperatives of our time. But they are weakened by the fact they live as a culture at the centre rather than the edge.
Aussies are strong in can do and have taken missiology seriously, but are weakened by their cultural captivity to mateship, which breeds an insularity, a herd mentality and an anti-intellectualism.
Kiwis have been innovative but have been damaged by some of their denominations and are weak in seeing a new generation of leaders emerge.
There, I’ve probably put my foot too far down my throat. Overall, there’s too much swagger in the emerging church and not enough humble listening, to the culture, to the edges, to each other. There, have I swaggered enough?

Cheers Steve,

Thanks for your thoughts and your time in putting this together…

Once again I’d like to encourage people to pick up the book “The Out of Bounds Church” and give it a good read, perhaps you can join in on the conversations on Steve’s blog, or the book’s blog.

Also after sending Steve the interview questions he’s started a series titled “emerging church postcards” where he’ll be receiving and posting images and stories from emerging faith communities from all over the world, except for the US…

I’ve decided to pick up Steve Taylor’s new book “The Out of Bounds Church: Learning to Create a Community of Faith in a Culture of Change” and give it a read. I’ll review each chapter one by one and include my own thoughts as well as describing some of the major themes in the chapter.

Spend some time checking through my thoughts, but please do go out and purchase the book as it’s a good read with some great suggestions and theological discussions for people, for the church to think through.

Links:

• Steve Taylor’s Blog
• Purchase the book from Amazon.com
• The Book at Zondervan

Postcard 1 – Beyond Romeo and Juliet

When I go on holidays and send a postcard (ok, I send emails, postcards are too slow) to friends and family I usually begin by talking about the latest places that I’ve been, about the differences in the place I am, about the people I meet. I describe the culture and the feel and the food…

In a sense that’s what Steve does in this chapter, he describes the landscape, the people and the culture. He uses two versions of Romeo and Juliet, the one by Baz Luhrmann and the one by Franco Zeffirelli to describe the changes in the world today. One using slow pan’s and dialogue and the other using multiple cuts and changing the cultural setting where the movie is set.

Steve talks about Identity, Tribalism, postmodernity and fast/cutting all in a handful of pages, it’s full of great quotes and cultural observations. This chapter is all about the place we’re living in, and as such it is enlightening, encouraging and easy to read.

Interesting Quotes:

“When you spend your life immersed in the fast/cutting of text and image, fast/cutting becomes the way that you process and learn. Suddenly, the slow camera pan and the monologue become artificial, fale, hard to follow. When you’re used to surfing from image to image, three point sermons start to sound like archaic King James English.” (pp21)

“In many ways, body modification is the natural offspring of a culture in which identity is found in how we look and the experiences we live out” (pp26) “Identity is also about making our life stories public; I define myself as I tell you who I am” (pp26) “In our contemporary world, individuals are now choosing to come together for the purpose of finding meaning in their lives; the community has become a tool for the individual.” (pp28)

Things I’ve been thinking about while reading this chapter:

a) I’m beginning to hate using the term postmodern. I think it’s because I hate being boxed, and by calling me postmodern, I’m boxed. I used to like the idea of post-postmodern until I read a piece by Brian Mclaren a while back on “why I still use the term postmodern” where he spoke of the eras of prehistoric, medieval and modernity lasting centuries. I’m beginning to lean back to where I spoke about “the time that we’re in” rather than postmodern… I also wonder if people in the modern era used to speak of themselves in similar ways…

Person 1. “I’m modern, I like facts and believe there is an ultimate truth”
Person 2: “ahhh that sounds like me, I’m modern too, I like going to church and being preached too…”

b) “The remote in one hand and the Gospel in the other” says Steve prior to referring to Karl Barth’s legendry statement about needing the Bible in one hand and the Newspaper in the other. Two things struck me.

1. While I’m permanently attached to my remote (that is when I can remember where I put it last) I wonder if it’s now more relevant to speak about having Google.com in one hand, or the internet. I spend more time online than watching tv, and maybe that’s just me, but I don’t know many people who use the newspaper to check the weather or movies anymore…
2. There’s an absence in the conversations of the mission-centred church. We often speak about needing to start with Christology, with Jesus instead of Missiology or Ecclesiology, but I think we’re missing something. Steve writes the “Gospel of Jesus” in one hand, the Forge training I did spoke about Jesus and Christology. For me, there’s an absence of the Hebrew scriptures when we fail to use it in these discussions. I understand why it’s done, but I am concerned about it.

c) Steve talks about movies a lot. I’m a movie person, but I’m GenX. I had a conversation with Fuzz Kitto the other day where I asked if we’ve now moved from a time where the ears were the primary receptors (and we were happy to hear things), to a time where the eyes became the receptors (and we needed to see things) and if now we’re in a time where our stomachs, our guts have become the primary receptors. We need to be moved, to feel things, that would explain the need for sub woofers in cars and in home stereos. I wonder if in the GenYers and beyond we’re seeing a change where our gut’s are our primary receptors.

So in one hand I hear the conversation loud and clear, because he’s talking about me, my friends and my peers, but I also wonders about those beyond me, who this may still be alien to…

Then again Steve’s writing this to us, and to church people who are trying to figure out wtf is going on, but it’s an observation about me…

d) He quotes Andela McRobbie “The reason why postmodernism appeals to a wide number of young people…” Let’s just get this straight, postmodernism doesn’t “appeal” to me, it just is where and when I live, I don’t really choose to be modern or post… This line of thought and quotes like this annoy me, as I assume it does others.

e) “Because of the world of music, teenagers are apt to be more connected culturally to teenagers on the other side of the world than to their parents in the other room” (pp29)

It’s interesting that music has this separating/bringing together power. Music is now so sub-culturally biased that most teenagers are more apt to being connected to people across the word than in their own classroom. It’s interesting that music can do this, and the more that music becomes aimed at sub-cultures the more segregation there will be…

Postcard 2 – Edges of Culture

This chapter primarily discusses some of Michael de Cereau’s research on culture and the community’s dialogue with it.

Rather than seeing culture as something that comes from the top down and is imposed on people Steve uses Michel’s research to talk about how people, often people on the edges of the society respond, reflect, use and subvert the culture of the society.

Steve coins the term “cultural DJs” where each and every one of us are in the process of cutting, mixing and representing the culture in which we live, Michel uses the terms “strategy” which is the process that businesses and institutions seek to organise society and “tactics” which are the resources and skills that the people use to dialogue, interpret, deal and subvert the strategies.

This chapter’s about the edge being the space of cultural creativity and subversion, about the edge being the space where leaders need to be and emerge from, about challenging the Church to see this shift as an opportunity rather than a crisis.

Interesting Quotes:

”Discussion on cultural change should focus not only on the content of the video or the TV program. It must also consider what people do with what they watch, how they use the remote and the video recorder, how they verbally respond and later reflect over the workroom table.” (pp36)

”Dominated but never conquered, groups combine. They keep alive their memories. The creatively take the imposed frames of reference – including those imposed by the church – and reemploy them for their own identity”(pp36/37) ”1999 – Matrix 1: Within a week of its theatrical release, we Emailers had a discussion that continued for 2 months.
2003 – Matrix 2: Within a week of its theatrical release, we Bloggers posted a single weblog entry that added to our interpretation and appreciation of the movie. It lasted a few days.
2003 – Matrix 3: Within a week of its theatrical release, we VJ’s had access to enough footage to reuse the video in our own presentations. Even before its release, we could download the movie trailer files, edit, modify, and reuse in totally different ways.
2004 – Matrixonline.com: Within a week of the matrixonline.com game release, we Gamers will have another playground, another world, another community in which we can play and live.
Within 6 years, we have moved from Consumer, to Commenter, to Co-author, to Citizen” from tallskinny”

Things I’ve been thinking about while reading this chapter:

This chapter was very easy to read, it explained Michel de Certeau’s thoughts very simply and was able to really start to figure out where we’re called to be and where the edges are. I wish I’d had this chapter a week or two ago when we were doing the “youth, culture and mission” course, I’d have used some of it for the session on culture.

I was also interested in the conversation about becoming cultural DJs, cutting and mixing everything around us. It’s an interesting idea that moves from the traditional understanding of not only media as imposing it’s agenda but also the concept that all postmoderns can do is deconstruct. To mix and playback one needs to be able to reconstruct.

Postcard 3 – Koru Theology

This chapter, Koru theology is about creating, about re-birthing and about supporting the birth of a new expression of community. Steve talks about the God of new beginnings, the God of creation and how much of the new forms of community and church could be seen as God and us recreating. The Koru is the unfurling fern. The theologizing primarily reflects on the life-giving actions of God.

The second part of this chapter reflects on how the church may be able to support, tend to and provide a service to these new forms of mission. Steve uses the term “midwife” to describe the role that Gen Xers and the emerging forms of church are requesting. That these people want friends, mentors, encouragement rather than strategic plans, books or formulas.

Interesting Quotes:

”labor and birth are unique to each person. No two are the same each needs to be traveled through and approached differently. The midwife needs patience to allow the labor to unfold and progress.” (pp54)

”new birth is intrinsic to resurrection. God is portrayed as experiencing labor pains and in the resurrection of Jesus we hear the first cry of life. Birth, or koru theology, is essential to god, who acts in creation, in Israel and in Jesus’ teaching, death and resurrection. (pp49)”

”the experience of being human is not that of being in common, but that of being separate.” (pp51)

Things I’ve been thinking about while reading this chapter:

Often in the EC scene I feel that we’re not doing enough theologizing about the what’s and why’s and how’s we’re doing things. Perhaps that a bit of our impatience, our passion for things to happen now, which may be a reason that many of the theologians that I’m starting to find coming out and writing interesting things are females. The men seem to want to “do” the mission and to do it now.

But I have to ask, what about the environment, eco theology, what about liberation theology, what about the wider thinking of a church of faith that in much of the EC stuff seems to be lacking. We start with the doing, then if it lasts we’ll get to the thinking later. Perhaps a part of this midwifing role needs to include theological reflection. Note, I don’t mean Christological reflection, although that may be a large part of the process.

Perhaps Theology is seen as an institutional role, and is therefore feared by postmoderns and Xers, this is partially frightening…

I’m also interested in the matriarchal language of birth, midwifery and creation. I’m interested because the language is coming out of a largely patriarchal system, men are coming up with the models or terms, the church as a mother when it’s primarily male dominated hierarchy.

I wonder if the new forms of church are always going to be doomed to being male dominated.

I was glad to see Maggi’s voice in amongst this conversation, she offers some great theological reflections to the EC that I feel sometimes is lacking.

I have also been reflecting on something that came up in a conversation with Fuzz Kitto the other day when he said that he thinks that “the only people that can minister to Xers are Xers.” If that’s really the case, then where the midwifes come from might be as important, if not more important than offering the support to a community.

Postcard 4 – Creativity Downloaded

This chapter continues the ideas and thoughts that are raised while thinking about a creative God, about creation and about the place that being creative and artistic have in a community of faith. Steve begins to develop a theology of playfulness and creativity in this chapter, this theology is hoped to inform and encourage the church to be more playful.

Steve explores several themes:
- God as musician and composer, the one who creates music and who encourages and orchestrates it, the one who rejoices and composes it.
- God as designer and dresser, the one who designs clothes but also the one who dresses us as a people of faith to be able to live in the world.
- God as architect and builder, the one who lays the foundations and the one who creates an architectural project so massive that noone else would ever conceive attempting.
- God as crafter and artesian, the one who is both potter and painter.

Steve also plays with the image of God at play. In doing this he introduces the reader to the idea and process of Godly Play, a process that I’ve used with children and in a way have also used within congregational settings… by playing we invite the playful God into our midst.

Steve’s basic concept for this postcard is that the task for the missional church is to create spaces and frameworks in which people can play and be creative, where artists and artisans and architects all of a fractured culture to meet with a creative and playful God. The arts is a major part of this, the need to be able to play with the image of God, with the stories of God, with each other’s story of God and with each other.

Interesting Quotes:

”In many ways, the emerging church is a community at play. Rather than sticking with an existing or inherited theology, the emerging church understands theology as a place for innovation and the fresh breathings of God.” (pp54)

”God plays with creation. All that is play that the deity gives itself. It has imagined the creature for it’s pleasure. (pp49)” ”Thus the question is not “will we construct God in our own image?” It is “will we let the image of God construct us?” It’s not the images that are the issue, but the faithfulness of our image making.” (pp51)

Things I’ve been thinking about while reading this chapter:

I love the idea of a playful God, infact it’s probably why I’ve stuck with youth and children’s ministry so long, I feel that I’m not able to play with the text enough when I’m in a congregational setting, I’m not allowed to dream of new ways of being, or that I am allowed it’s just that the paint brushes and mixers have been hidden and locked up so as to keep them safe from being broken. In ministry with youth and children though there are so few people who are wanting t play with them that there’s always a space and time to bring out the paintbrushes and play dough without being told of or the fear of breakage.

The church definitely has forgotten the power of the arts, the playfulness of a God who is both potter and molder, who is able to get god’s hands messy and clay all over the workplace. We’ll sing the song lyrics but heaven forbid if we bring out a clay wheel. We’ll talk about the beauty of a painting but no way will we place it wher the banner that the children’s club created 25 years ago sits…

And we wonder why the most creative people in many congregations are the elderly ladies who do the flower roster. Where are the artisans who created our stained glass windows? Where are the painters who painted the cathedrals, where are the sculptures that made our crosses and icons and candelabras? Art has become too messy for our clean churches to handle, and as such we’ve lost connection with many of the people who like to play, who are created to create.

Steve offers an interesting beginning to a theology of the arts and culture that I’d like to see him develop more… I’d have preferd Steve to write less about the missiology stuff and continue with this line of thought, this is the interesting stuff, this is the playing that I’d like to see in the theological halls and congregations.

Postcard 5 – Spiritual Tourism

In this chapter Steve talks about Spiritual Tourists and the possibilities for the (emerging) church if they are to see people as tourists. No two tourists are alike, some are experiential, searching for meaning in cultures, others might be experimental looking for new meaning and others have found meaning and have relocated to the space where they’ve found it.

If spiritual tourists are on a spiritual journey, then a part of our mission as a church is to help the tourists orientate themselves. Traditionally the signposts have been pointing back into the congregation but to guide all that wish to walk. The role of the church is therefore to act as guides, to act as resources for tourists. This line of thought moves us beyond gathered worship towards the business of souvenir making.

Steve also speaks of the Internet as a form of tourism, cybertourists all have equal access tot eh internet’s resources and communities. On the internet the call of Cybermonk is a calling that many people are hearing and taking up as a new missionary calling.

Interesting Quotes:

” If we hold that all people have a spirituality, spiritual tourism is not an act of consumption, but an alignment with a heart that is restless until it has founf it’s home in God.” (pp97)

”Walter Brueggemann describes the task of mission in a postmodern world as one of funding, of providing the bits and pieces out of which a new world can be imagined. ” (pp92) ” Spiritual Seekers stroll the pick-and-mix supermarket of spiritual options, looking for spiritual practices. They search out ritual and mystery, hoping for relevance and cultural coherence. They want an individualism holistically connected with others.” (pp51)

Things I’ve been thinking about while reading this chapter:

Tourism is an interesting metaphor… The usual metaphor to describe “seekers” is consumers, not tourists. Tourists aren’t generally shopping for items, for souvenirs, instead they’re interested in seeing things, meeting people, taking photos, eating food and building stories to share with their friends and families. Tourists generally tell people all about their journey, word of mouth is very important.

I’ve often contemplated developing a Not-So-Lonely-Guide for “spiritual tourists” and I think Steve’s writing has nudged me again to re-think how I’d do just that. Developing signposts and tour-guides for people who are searching and touring the spiritual landscape.

The real question for me is how we move people from being tourists to being guides. At Uni I had a lot of mates who would take up the role of tour guide for new students, many of the guides had been in university for years. One friend in particular had been in and out of 3 or 4 different bachelor degrees, and while not having completed any found that he could now tour guide for some added cash. Tourists don’t have to cease being tourists in order to guide, but is there a place where they need to be connected to a home-base? Is the role of tourist a missiological calling?

Postcard 6 – Redemptive Portals

With the definition of redemption as “the purchase back of something that had been lost” and the definition of redemptive practices as “safe space, hospitality, shared lives, finding Christ in the stranger, welcoming diversity and embracing difference” Steve challenges the church to become a redemptive community.

Steve retells the story of the road to Emmaus where the husband and wife, while walking home meet a stranger who was also walking (a tourist?) and was also unaware of the tragedy and death that had just occurred. Yet the two continued to walk along and offered hospitality to the stranger and eat with him and recognize him in the breaking of the bread. For Steve community is a place where God is revealed, community is necessary.

Steve speaks of his community’s tradition of using a bar stool as a place where people can share their stories with the community, where people who might not be of the faith may still be able to use the space. He also speaks of a conversation with a group of people in the church where he was asked “how do you control the barstool?” His response was that there is no control over the barstool, I like the idea that authority is based on a fear of the might lead to human subjectivity and emotion. I wonder how much of that is true with everything that we do.

This chapter is about a God who is found in community, a redemptive community and about the people that are seeking out that type of community.

Interesting Quotes:

”The concern about authority in community is based in the fear that the barstool, and all that it entails, might lead to human subjectivity and emotion. However Christianity is uniquely placed in response to this concern. ” (pp105)

” The task of the church is to live the story of the gospel, preaching not only in words, but in the actions of the community. Love is heard, but love is also felt and observed through too much of the community. (pp106)” ” personal narrative is validated only through incorporating the values of the religious community into that narrative, and in effect, making the community narrative one’s own.” (pp102)

Things I’ve been thinking about while reading this chapter:

I’m having caffeine withdrawal, this headache’s getting worse…

When I think about my experience in the TOLLS community and place it alongside this chapter a number of things ring true. We gathered and shared our stories and it was in the sharing that the community’s narrative grew, but we each picked up each others stories and made them a part of our own. TOLLS for a number of us was about redemption.

I like the idea that the Kingdom of God becoming vibrant and diverse the more that we see redemptive communities being our goal. I also find resonance with the idea of creating portals of redemption, places that network people with redemption and redemptive practices.

Postcard 7 – Missional Interface

In this chapter Steve explores ways in which we might be able to create communities flexible enough to weather the constant introduction and leaving of new tourists and those who are wanting to commit to a community.

This chapter primarily deals with two different types of communities.

Peg Communities. Peg communities provide a focus (a peg) that disconnected individuals can focus on together. Examples include rock concerts, festivals, once off events.

Ethical Communities. Ethical Communities are built on long term commitments. Examples include house communities and monasteries.

Steve explores several examples of these communities and how they fit into the two types of communities.

For more information:
- A post on these communities on the old Steve Taylor blog – A post on the Mike Riddell website titled “Beyond Ground Zero”

Steve also provides some possibilities for the church to take on that might provide some new ways of connecting with tourists.

Interesting Quotes:

”our notions of community are no longer found in a family related by blood. Instead, individuals search for communities of choice in which they can belong and make sense of their lives. ” (pp116)

” Cafes are unique social spaces where people go specifically to be with others and yet be seperate. (pp116)”

” Festival spirituality offers much to a postmodern world. It allows smaller ethical communities to be nourished by the variety and choice of large-scale celebration. It allows those on the fringes – on the outside – of our communities to peg with us and sample our lives” (pp123)

Things I’ve been thinking about while reading this chapter:

This is probably my favorite chapter in the book, it provides some practical thinking about the formation of communities. I think that the church by large has relied on a mutated form of the ethical community, the bare bones of the community might have been an ethical community but over time it’s mutated.

This chapter was very important to me as lately we’ve been thinking about Sacred Space at Blackstump. Sacred space is a touching point, an alternative worship space at the Blackstump festival. I’ve jumped into a group of people coordinated by Dean Tregenza to discuss the possibilities for the up and coming festival. When I compare Steve’s thoughts on festival spirituality and my thoughts of trying to provide people with resources to take home and to educate people, to provide them with souvenirs and practices to take with them I’m really encouraged. I’ll have to spend more time thinking about this section at a later time, but for now I’m encouraged and inspired by Steve’s thoughts here. (Dean, if you’re reading this we need to read this stuff together)

Speaking of Blackstump, I liked the Fuzz Kitto quote (I assume it was Fuzz, he said the same thing to me last week) that some kids are naming Blackstump as their faith community. If that’s so, then we really need to provide more thought to the spiritual souvenirs, practices and artifacts that we provide young people to take home. For me this means that the stuff that we’re doing at Sacred Space actually becomes almost more important than the main speakers.

Emerging, emerging, emerging… Just an observation, for once I’d like to see Steve write “the Church” and not “the emerging church.” I currently have an issue with the term emerging church, especially as it’s used so much in the book. When we refer to “one holy and apostolic church” I mean everyone together, the good, the bad and the emerging.

Postcard 8 – Culture Samplers

Steve’s already written that we are all cultural DJ’s, in this chapter he starts a conversation about how the church can become DJs, we need to be able to DJ the gospel and culture, remix the gospel and culture. He continues to explain the role of the DJ as mixing two sounds to create one musical piece. Steve outlines some biblical references to cultural DJing, using writings from Peter he presents us with ways that the writers of the bible used culture DJing to get the message of Christ to them.

The role of the DJ however does not stop there, Steve goes on to talk about DJing worship, using stories and liturgies from worship services in communities in NZ as an example Steve points us to a space where our worship is handed to the DJ who is able to mix liturgies and culture and the gospel to create spaces for people to worship.

Moving on Steve speaks about how DJing has implications on how we do mission and begins to spell out a number of issues that we need to keep in mind when becoming cultural and Missional DJs, as he outlines these issues he provides practical examples of how this might affect mission, worship and community.

Interesting Quotes:

”It is not Christ or culture, but Christ imaged in culture . It is a missional engagement that practices both connective expression through images while allowing subversion and resistance.” (pp139)

”we are born into a culture. One with messages, norms and expectations that we know simply because we live with them every day. We can’t ignore them even if we want to. (pp144)”

” Ours is not the task of finding a complete story. Ours is the task of funding, of facing mission one sample at a time.” (pp51)

Things I’ve been thinking about while reading this chapter:

I like the idea of djing, infact it’s basically what I’ve been doing for the last 6 years of my life, yet there’s a gut feeling that I have that makes me wonder if there’s something more to this than just what is presented in the book. DJing today is not just about finding two sounds, its about finding multiple sounds, about finding the appropriate beats, the appropriate rhythm, its about creating a space, it’s about being adaptive and feeling the sounds, it’s about seeing the sound in places where no one else does, it’s about being original, it’s about hunting through second hand record collections…

A while back DJing was about combining two sounds, but then came the pc and artists who saw the entire kit as a musical instrument as a whole, not just the combining of music, but the creation of music, not of something new, but of something that has never been heard before. Scratching is an art to itself…

And then there’s VJing, which adds a visual element to this thought. What’s the role of the VJ in a church full of DJs?

I wonder if there’s such a thing as bad DJs and great DJs, if great DJs are like artists who are constantly seeking inspiration, constantly seeking audiences, constantly recording new sounds. If they are, then the call of a DJ is not necessarily one that each of us can take up, but we need to be seeking out, recognizing gifts and supporting the growth of DJs. We need to buy the material for them to use, the tools for the job, we need to provide dance halls and lighting…

I actually don’t think that anyone can DJ, it’s a calling. I’m not saying that Steve’s suggesting that we all can, but I do want to say that we need to take DJs more seriously than the original DJs were ever taken.

Postcard 9 – Keeping the Campfire Burning

Most people end trips by sending a postcard saying “I’m heading home, I look forward to seeing you soon.”

Instead Steve writes his last postcard from home, it’s purpose is to encourage the (emerging) church and to wish new travelers well.

And that’s how he ends the book, by telling a story then wishing us all well and asking us to keep the home fires burning.

Interesting Quotes:

”Rather than move from theory to practice, the emerging church has simply practiced, sometimes without much theory. The emerging church needs the space to keep practicing, yet it also needs to be theological about it’s practices. We need to move from emerging by being all about candles to emerging by being a truly new kind of life with God.” (pp161)

Things I’ve been thinking about while reading this chapter:

It’s ended it’s ended!!!

Tallskinni said he read it in the bath, yet it took me a number of beers and three days to get through. I’ve enjoyed the journey with Steve as he traveled the world and met people, shared their stories and began to ask theological questions about the ministry and mission of the communities and the culture in which we live.

I do think that this is still a part of the beginning of something, this is a part of the calling for us to rediscover a theology of mission and of the calling we have. It’s not an ending and so I look forward for further travels.

I love the way that Steve has written this book, its been fun, enlightening and thought provoking. I really enjoyed the sections on community; it’s given me a language to describe my feelings and experiences.

I am left wondering about the generations beyond X, this book has highlighted to me the centeredness of mission to Xers that the emerging church seems to have… Is it self serving? If so, is that bad? If so, what about the generations after X? Where will that conversation happen?

I’m also left increasingly miffed at the constant use of “emerging church” and not “church.” I personally think that while it may be a helpful marketing tool, (to pick the emerging church market) but it may also mean that the larger church ignores the messages that Steve offers the wider community. I continually ask when the emerging church will stop describing itself by what it is not (Church) and start to embrace it’s place as a part of the holy and catholic community that we are each a part of.

And as for the use of postcards… I like the idea, and in this book it works really well but who uses them nowdays? If we’re wanting to connect with people at home and say hello then, im many countries we can just sms them, email them, send digital photos by phone or by email, we can use msn or skype or if we’re lucky Voip. Postcards nowdays are forms of cultural advertisements, small enough for people to wander up to think “hey that’s cool” and pocket them, they’re not to tell people how you are but a way that products now connect with people. In a way postcard advertising is a way of “pegging” people into the community of people who own the product. I havent bought a postcard in about 10 years, and even after moving I send people e-postcards with photos and text in an email… something I took, something I created…

All up this book has been a lot of fun, challenging, enlightening, encouraging, easy to read and it’s been one of my favorite reads of the last year or so, I’d like to encourage everyone to pick up a copy and give it a go, then to continue the discussion that Steve has started, it is a process of emerging afterall…

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Plan B seems to be the logical response when what we’ve thought to have been Plan A has failed.  An interesting thing about a good Plan B is that it’s sometimes the original Plan A, but was deemed to be too difficult at first leaving an easier plan to be developed in it’s place. As I sit here tonight with this on my mind I’m reminded that we often seem to put off the best plan over and over and over again in the hope that we’ll find something easier, less costly, simple and perhaps a plan that will allow us to not change so much or ask too much of ourselves.  Soon, very soon the obvious plan slides down our “to do” list and becomes Plan C, D, E… and continues to slide in favour of plans that will eventually fail.

Basically, I think we all know what needs to be done, but are either…
Too afraid to do it
Too lazy to do it
Too indifferent to do it
Too apathetic to do it
Or, perhaps we just don’t know where to start

Dave Andrews knows this all too well, and in his book “Plan Be” he reminds us of a plan that was once shared with us by a carpenters son who preached on a mountain top about a simple way in which we can all focus on what really matters and remember what it really means to be fully human.  As he delves into the beattitudes (the Be-Attitudes) we’re reminded that it wasn’t meant to be a list of things that it’d-be-nice-for-us-to-do-but-are-possibly-too-hard-for-the-average-person but instead were meant to be a liberating release to people enslaved by an ideal that was way too hard to live up to.

We’re reminded that the beatitudes are asking of us some simple questions and begging for some simple actions that, if adopted can change our community and perhaps our world.

Plan A, Dave reflects was to “treat others as they treat us,” Plan Be however directs us to a simple alternative, one that asks me to change myself to live and act along it’s be-attitudes.

I wonder if our youth ministries, if our churches have been aligning themselves to a mysterious other Plan B, and if so, what that may be?  I’m assuming that in different spaces and communities different plans have been hatched, perhaps your plan involved getting a data projector and new seats, or possibly it was to get some Xboxs and a few copies of Halo, maybe it was to start playing the latest in Hillsong music and have a youth band, you may have decided to start a new youth service or youth group, or maybe your plan has been to do things the way that they’ve always been done.

What is your current plan?

I continue to wonder what our youth ministries, our churches, our communities would look like if we were to base them around the Be-Attitudes, what would we be doing, what would we abandon?

What would our ministries look like if we were to base them around these simple attitudes?

To focus on the poor
To grieve over the injustice in the world
To get angry but not getting aggressive
To seek justice (not vengeance)
To extend compassion to all in need
To be wholehearted in a desire to do right
To work towards peace in a world at war
To suffer for just causes

These attitudes can be broken down to include humility, empathy, self-restraint, righteousness, mercy, integrity, non-violence and perseverance, attitudes that could transform all our youth ministries if they were wholeheartedly embraced.

Is it time for us to have another look at our many alternative youth ministry plans and to refocus? Is it about time that we started a movement of youth ministries that adopted these attitudes as a foundation for what we’re on about? What do you think this’d look like? How would we live, how would we worship, where would we meet, what games would we play, how would we pray?

I know, that in a world that seems to suggest that our youth ministries need to have the next-big-thing to survive, (or at the very least an Xbox or PS3) this could be confronting.  It’s always confronting to re-focus, but it’s not as hard as it sounds.

You see, one of the scandals of the be-attitudes is that it starts off by asking us for simple changes, it’s about changing myself first, my own attitudes, my own focus and attentions.

And the other scandal of these be-attitudes is that anyone can do it, it’s not just a Christian endeavor, but one that everyone can adopt, you don’t first need to be a Christian to suffer for just causes, or to extend compassion or to exercise humility.  Which should be seen as something that frees us up to get others in on the idea.

For me, one of the burdens of youth ministry has been the idea that we have to convert first, then re-focus people onto changing their lives, (occasionally we call this the old bait n switch).  In this way we’ll hold the huge events, the camps, the games night in order to attract people into the group with the hope that we’ll get onto the other stuff (you know, the stuff that doesn’t sell so well) at a later date.  One thing about this model is that from experience we rarely get onto the “other stuff” and seem to remain on the games and camping without asking what it means to really follow Jesus.

These Be-attitudes however, if adopted by our youth ministries would dramatically change our focus, perhaps this refocusing may not be as easy for our churches, (Plan A seems so alluring and is marketed very well) but for us as individuals it’s asking of us a few small steps that make radical changes.

Over the coming year I’m hoping to put some flesh to these ideas as I ask what a youth ministry/church would look like if we were to take on these attitudes seriously.

What do you think it’d look like in your locality if your communities started adopting these attitudes?

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

unChristian is the second Barna Group book that I’ve read in the last few months, it’s been sitting on my bookshelf for a while now, and since it was mailed to me for free a number of months ago I thought I’d write a bit of a review from my reading.

The book, written by David Kinnaman (Barna Group) and Gabe Lyons (The Fermi Project) is the result of a number of studies interviewing young (American) adults from the age of 16 through to 29 commissioned by The Fermi Project and conducted by The Barna Group. The research was attempting to find out what these age groups thought of the Church and of Christianity, registering their impressions, thoughts and experiences of Christianity.

The title of the book, unChristian is therefore a reference to these impressions, not a reference to those who were interviewed.  The authors would contend that Christianity has, in many ways become, and is definitely seen by this demographic as un-Christian, something that does not reflect it’s own subscribed practices and beliefs, and definitely something that is either anti, or at the very least does not reflect the practices and teachings of Jesus.

The book is sectioned into a number of chapters, each chapter dealing with one of the top perceptions raised by the study and then, after reflecting on the perception the authors offer an alternative to that perception that could/should be aimed for by those who would call themselves Christian.  These perceptions and alternative perceptions are:

Perception: Christians say one thing but live something entirely different
New Perception: Christians are transparent about their flaws and act first, talk second.

Perception: Christians are insincere and concerned only with converting others.
New Perception: Christians cultivate relationships and environments where others can be deeply transformed by God.

Perception: Christians show contempt for gays and lesbians.
New Perception: Christians show compassion and love to all people, regardless of their lifestyle.

Perception: Christians are boring, unintelligent, old-fashioned, and out of touch with reality.
New Perception: Christians are engaged, informed, and offer sophisticated responses to the issues people face.

Perception: Christians are primarily motivated by a political agenda and promote right-wing politics.
New Perception: Christians are characterized by respecting people, thinking biblically, and finding solutions to complex issues.

Perception: Christians are prideful and quick to find faults in others.
New Perception: Christians show grace by finding the good in others and seeing their potential to be Christ followers.

I don’t want to harp on about the book much more, instead, as an outsider – I’m definitely not American, and do not see myself to be a participant in either of the camps that the authors seem to be conversing with, (being either “born again” or evangelical) I wanted to add a couple of reflections.

First of all, if you’re not American, don’t bother about reading the book, it’s full of American culture, reflections, political references and definitions of faith.  The book also is a study of a demographic that is American, the studies were not based in the UK, or Australia, or for that matter anywhere else, so the interviews, results and stories will not be accurate to your situation. Yes, I read it, but the reality from the first chapter for me was that it was describing a completely alien culture to that which I’m a part of and familiar with.

Secondly, if you wanted to know what this demographic really thinks about Christianity do you need a book to find that out? I mean, seriously, get out of your own bubble and do your own “research” but instead call it “conversation.” It’s not hard for me to tell you what young adults in that demographic around me really think about Christianity because I know a lot of them, it’s not hard, and if you go into the conversation really interested and truly and honestly wanting to hear their voices and stories (and not in order so you can know how to convert them next week) then you may find a number of new friends and stories that can continue to be a part of your own growth and story.  The sad reality that this book is needed at all is a bit concerning, Christians obviously don’t know what others are thinking, hence all the reviews out there saying “wow, this is really raw and challenging stuff.”

Thirdly and finally, one of the great disappointments I’ve had in reading the Barna Group books has been the level of theological reflection that ties the book together and that helps the author move from the perception at hand and the alternative that the authors propose would be better.  It seems that they’re trying to develop an idea about an alternative perception without really providing me with a reason as to why the alternative is any better, instead, it’s more like “this seems like a nicer idea.” I wanted the authors to go deeper into the stories and perceptions and, after a while  I wanted to be able to ignore the alternative ideas, sure, that could have left the American readers a lot more depressed, but possibly with a better read. Had the book continued to delve into the alternative models it would have helped to have invited in a better theological partner in order to help develop the themes and possibilities.  Chapters on sexuality, politics, pride (as well as the others) were not dealt with to my satisfaction, the stories shared by the young adults were real, while I found the resulting “alternatives” to not be that “alternative” at all, and actually a little more the same old reaction that’s lead to these impressions in the first place.

To be fair, I write this review as a 30-something year old Australian Youth Worker, living in rural Australia, working within the Uniting Church in Australia and I’d like to think that most of my readers (if I still have them after this length of time) would be from Australia.  This book was not written for me, and that’s why I found it a hard, and relatively bland read, if you’re an evangelical American wanting to know what the other side really think of your faith system (and don’t feel the need to actually leave the living room) then this book is probably more suited to you.

Sorry, that was a fairly negative review wasn’t it?

I think I should write a more positive review before I look at the other book from the Barna Group that I finished a while back…

Links:

• Purchase: unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity… and Why It Matters
• Official Website: unChristian.com
• Barna Group
• The Fermi Project

My Rating: 1 out of 5 stars

This week I’ve had a chance to look through “Exilio” the new resource by Forge Australia, a “24 week small group study” based on the book “Exiles” by Michael Frost. The resource was officially launched at the Forge 2008 “Grassroots Festival” only a week ago, some people might have already grabbed a copy, or ordered one, or been sent one to review, but I’ve not seen many reviews of the resource online so thought I’d throw my two bobs in for those of you who might be keen on a resource to help your church or others work through issues of mission in a community, in a world that is post-Christian.

Michael Frost speaker on things missional, post-Christian and Jesus. His book Exiles was released back in 2006 asks people to think about how they live a life of mission in a society that is by large post-Christian, it reflects on the radical life and voice of Jesus is the Professor of Evangelism and Missions as well as the Founding Director of Centre for Evangelism & Global Mission at Morling Theological College in Sydney, he’s written a number of books and has become one of Australia’s best known, the scripture’s call for a radical life and how the (C)hurch can get beyond it’s doors and recapture that kind of vision that we read about and hear about in the early days of the Christian Church. People who read the book are encouraged to grasp this old vision and re-imagine it in today’s world, in their community.

“Exilio” is a resource that gives communities, friends, churches, mentors, strangers, monastic communities, young adult groups, youth workers, chaplains mission workers and ministers a process to explore their faith, ecclesiology, understanding of Jesus’ message and how they can connect with the society, the culture around them.

The Breakdown:

The package includes:

• 1 DVD with 4 series of lectures by Michael Frost on
  • Dangerous Memories
  • Dangerous Promises
  • Dangerous Criticism
  • Dangerous Songs
• 1 copy of the book “Exiles” by Michael Frost
• 1 copy of the Facilitators Handbook
• 1 copy of “Ignition” a 12 week study on the book of ACTS by Mark Sayers

The Course:

Essentially the course is broken up into 5 meetings over the space of 24 weeks (approximately once every 6 weeks), each gathering focusing on one section of the book Exiles, some sections are longer than others (as far as it might take to read, not in as far as it might take to discuss). So each time you meet you will be able to connect with each other, reflect on the scripture, discuss your reading material, discuss your journaling and notes from your experiences/reading/prayer (journaling is an essential part of the learning process), watch a session from the dvd pack, ask questions, be set up with homework for the weeks ahead, prayer and be sent out.

Each participant is also given some homework to do during their time apart, action and reflection is encouraged in this course.

One of the homework items it to participate in, or lead a small group through the Ignition study, some people might be able to lead a small group while others may find it hard to do, so facilitators are encouraged to work through those issues as a group, or prior to running the course. So, along with reading the material and meeting together every six weeks participants are asked to also coordinate Ignition with perhaps a meeting every 2 weeks with a small group.

At the end of each week’s session participants will be given two specific challenges that will connect with the week’s readings, challenges might include interviewing people about a specific issue or question, bless one person each day for one week, watch a movie, host a meal for people, connect with and participate in a community group’s activity… These activities are designed to help people connect with their reading and exploration.

So basically we’re talking about Gathering, Story Telling, Reading, Listening, Reflection, Prayer and Action.

Ignition:

Ignition is a 12 week study of the book of Acts, each week providing a time for gathering, story telling, reflection, scripture, discussion, listening and prayer, and much like the Exilio sessions each meeting asks people to journal and do some homework (perhaps 1.5 hours) between sessions.

Ignition is for people who want to discover effective and biblical ways of sharing the gospel within a culture in the midst of massive change. It is for people who want to understand the missional nature of God and desire to move their faith to an “action” footing. Ignition is for people who want to live the message of Jesus outside the four walls of Sunday Christianity.

The Sessions:

1. Introduction
2. A World of Change
3. Church in Society
4. The Mission and Heart of God
5. The Kingdom of God
6. The Incarnation
7. The Plan of God
8. Sharing The Gospel
9. Transforming Mission
10. Spirituality of Mission
11. The Missional Church
12. Where To From Here?

As with the Exilio course participants get a bit of homework to do each session, from journaling, interviewing people, going on a prayer walk, reading, prayer, reflection… Unlike the Exilio course, Ignition asks the participants to each decide on what it calls a “Missional Experiment” which participants take up during the course as a part of their study, this experiment is reflected upon in their journal and in the time doing the course.

Missional Experiments could include ideas like joining a community group, connecting with neighbours, running community activities, addressing social issues, starting a community vegetable garden, connecting with a community of people that participants have a passion for connecting with.

Where It Fits With Exilio:

Participants in Exilio are asked to facilitate a small group through Ignition during their participation in Exilio as individuals or in pairs, or if there might be issues with leadership skills and small group skills to participate in the study alongside the course.

Running Exilio and Ignition:

I’m looking at this package and wondering how I would use it i my setting, and I’ve a number of ideas, I’ll list them here for people to add to their thoughts re facilitating Exilio in their settings.

• 24 weeks to run Exilio might seem like a long time, from looking at the course I think you could get away with meeting once every two weeks, expecting people would read 2 chapters a week (13 chapters, 13 weeks). This would only work if you had a group able to handle the reading, journaling, thinking and acting in the two week blocks. The dvd lectures then would be screened whenever you crossed from one section to another. In doing it this way you might find that running Ignition as a part of the course is a tad over ambitious, perhaps then you might want to have participants run Ignition as a response to Exiles, and as a promotion for the next time you run Exilio rather than running it during the time you’re doing Exilio.
• Ignition is a decent stand alone study, you don’t need to run Exilio in order to facilitate it, I’m going to use Ignition with a group of youth / young adults this semester, we might move towards looking at Exilio next semester.
• The Exilio dvd lectures are good enough to show without running Exilio, you might want to run them in a small group, but that might hinder you if you want to run the course with them at a later time. But perhaps if you’re working with people who aren’t readers, then you might be able to run the dvd lectures alongside Ignition and get away with with it, but that being said as a whole it would work best running it in the format that it’s designed.

Cost:

• The entire pack costs $99.95AUD + Postage, but you also need to remember that as it’s designed each participant would also need to have their own copy of both Ignition and Exiles, this ups the price if you’re considering providing the material rather than having participants purchase their own copies.
• Individual copies of Ignition cost $9.95 AUD + Postage and Handling
• Individual copies of “Exiles” by Michael Frost are $19.95AUD through Forge and $19.95US (currently $13.57US) + Postage through Amazon.com
• You might also want to take into account publicity, catering, how much people might spend on setting up missional experiments..

Links:

• Order Exilio and Individual Resources via Forge
• Order Ignition through Uber Ministries (Can also get from Forge)
• Order Exiles By Michael Frost via Amazon.com
• Forge Mission Training Network Australia
• Uber Ministries
• The Exilio Website

It seems as if the Church of England has decided to release the entire “Mission Shaped Church” report as a pdf file…

They’ve pdf’ed all 189 pages of the report, so if you havent purchased the book but are interested in giving it a read you can now own an electronic copy…

Society in Britain has changed dramatically in the last 30 years, especially in terms of our understanding of community and how we relate to one another. One of the responses of the Church has been to plant new churches and create ‘fresh expressions’ of church; churches that relate to our changing context.

This detailed, practical and well-researched book:

* gives an overview of recent developments in church planting
* describes varied and exciting ‘fresh expressions’ of church
* offers practical help and advice
* looks candidly at where lessons can be learned
* proposes a framework and methodology for good, effective church planting
* includes recommendations to make possible the visions of a vibrant future Church

Each chapter has a set of questions and challenges to help local parish churches engage with the issues.

With a foreword by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, Mission-Shaped Church is a crucial tool for all who care about God’s mission today.

Download the Mission Shaped Church Report (pdf)
Props to the Prodigan Kiwi(s) for the news.

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars