Postkiwi

Make Poverty History One Campaigns

Over the weekend I put up a post at Duncan’s TV Adland on the Make Poverty History and One television advertising campaigns. My attention was drawn to this campaign by the request of Rob Hanks, a youth ministry colleague, for quotes by Nelson Mandela.

Mandela’s appeal to the world over poverty can be seen at Sun’s site: http://www.sun.com/one/mandela/ though I must warn that it’s a fairly substantial size - 60 MB

The Make Poverty History campaign appears to be focused on Europe at the moment. The One campaign is definitely a North American campaign. Which leaves us Down Under people out of it. Anyone know if there’s an equivalent for Australia and New Zealand?

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Comunidad De La Gracia

Spent an hour or so this morning with Beatriz Skippen who is forming a Spanish-speaking Christian community with the Uniting Church in Australia. Beatriz herself is a Spanish-speaking, Portugese-speaking and Italian-speaking native of Argentina. She has a background in church planting both in Latin America and Victoria, Australia.

It’s early days still. Beatriz and her family are gathering a team around them as they build connections with the Spanish-speaking communities of Brisbane. They’re negotiating a venue with one of the Uniting Church congregations of inner city Brisbane.

It’s fascinating to explore the need for both attractional and incarnational approaches to Christian community here. Many Spanish-speaking people come from a Catholic background and thus look for the feel of traditional church while hungering for a personal and passionate experience of God expressesed in community.

We talked about the need to inject life into the Spanish community here. We’re talking about the Spanish clubs, the soccer scene, and the festivities linked with events such as Argentinian independence.

The Uniting Church can offer a unique niche ministry alongside our partners in the Catholic and Pentecostal traditions. Hopefully soon I’ll be able to provide a link to the new web site. In the meantime it’s a matter of prayer, training and resourcing.

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Day 29 - Accepting Your Assignment

It is God himself who has made us what we are and give us new lives from Christ Jesus; and long ages ago he planned that we should spend these lives in helping others.
Ephesians 2:10 (Living Bible)

I glorified you on earth by completing down to the last detail what you assigned me to do.
John 17:4 (The Message)

We’re on to the fourth out of four purposes of the purpose-driven life, service. Rick Warren tells us we’re here to serve God, with five points…

1. You were created to serve God
2. You were saved to serve God
3. You are called to serve God
4. You are commanded to serve God
5. You will be evaluated on how well you served others with your life

Reminds me of Bob Dylan’s song, “You gotta serve somebody.”

I appreciate Rick’s challenge to live in a counter cultural way - living our lives to serve rather than consume. Likewise the reminder that we’re saved for service, not by service.

Rick introduces us to the idea that God gives everyone a ministry in the church and a mission in the world. Hmm. I wonder why we put service in the context of Christian community and not in the wider world. Is it a reflection of the mood of the New Testament church? The early Christian community was an illegal sect of Judaism. It would be natural for believers to focus on pouring their energy into supporting one another rather than people outside the Christian community. But where I live, we’re in a different context.

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Total Surrender

If you love your father or mother or even your sons and daughters more than me, you are not fit to be my disciples. And unless you are willing to take up your cross and come with me, you are not fit to be my disciples. If you try to save your life, you will lose it. But if you give it up for me, you will surely find it.

Matthew 10:37-39 (Contemporary English Version)

Back in 1985 I led my youth group through a role-played wedding. We had a mock ceremony complete with bride and groom dressed up for the occasion, with their attendants. The ‘wedding’ was followed by a mock wedding feast with speeches. At the end of the feast, the bride stands up and tells us how wonderful it is to be married. And now she’s going back home. She’s looking forward to catching up with the groom at church on Sundays!

Of course we could see that this was no commitment. This ‘couple’ were role playing the beginning of a meaningless marriage. Neither the bride nor groom was really prepared to give up being single in order to be with each other.

It’s this kind of scenario that Jesus addresses as he raises the challenge. Are you prepared to come with me now? Will you put loyalty to me before other relationships? It’s a challenge for people considering the cost of following Jesus for the rest of their lives. What would happen if the ‘love of their life’ does not want to follow in the footsteps of Jesus? What if their kids would think they’re weird? What if Mum and Dad don’t approve?

Now this translation of the scripture is much kinder than the traditional one, in which Jesus demands that we hate our father, mother, sons and daughters. I think it’s a helpful way to frame the challenge to our idolatry of family.

But I’m also wondering about the other idols we have that may come between us and total surrender. The idol of having everyone thinking the same. The idol of freedom of thought. The idol of recreation. The idol of work. The idol of success. The idol of relaxation. The idol of popularity. The idol of being counter-cultural.

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Postmodernism is not the Antichrist for Gen X Missionary

Paula Harris, in the book, Postmission: World Mission in a Postmodern Generation, writes the chapter, “Postmodernism is not the Antichrist”. Paula at the time of writing was working with Urbana, the student mission convention of InterVarsity. In 2004 she co-authored the book, Being White: Finding Our Place in a Multiethnic World. In this post I’m providing a summary of Paula’s writing on postmodernism and mission.

I remember writing on a discussion list about engaging with postmodern approaches to Christian faith. In particular I wrote about the need to approach some parts of our lives with humility, fearlessly allowing for ambiguity and uncertainty. One response came back with what I can only call horror that I might be considering a postmodern point of view. It’s that kind of response to postmodernism that Paula engages here.

Paula starts her chapter by reminding us that postmodernism grapples with modernism, not with Jesus and the Gospel. As missionaries entering a postmodernist culture it makes sense to listen, learn and find ways of applying the gospel in a new context.

How many stories?

Harris introduces her readers to The Postmodern Condition, the work of Jean Francois Lyotard. Lyotard’s resistance to the dominance of one metanarrative comes from the perspective of a Europe traumatised by the Holocaust, an action that rolled out of the idolatry of efficiency. Zygmunt Bauman’s work on the Holocaust and Modernism ties in with Lyotard’s seminal work. The distrust of metanarratives is probably the postmodernist trend that most worries Evangelical Christians. But if they could see through the eyes of the traumatised they might begin to see the danger of idealising versions of reality in ways that require defence by force, perpetuation by violence and instruments of power.

Harris points out that postmodernity undermines metanarratives by exploring and listening to local narratives, the other voices that have been marginalized by the dominant culture. This has happened in the North American continent, not just in Europe, Africa and Asia. Harris points to the Spanish brutalisation of Latinos in Mexico, and the forced southern migration of Mexicans by English settlers.

She cites Stanley Fish of the New York Times for his article,”Condemnation without Absolutes”, exploring a postmodern perspective on the attacks of September 11, 2001. Fish writes that people are bothered by… “the idea that our adversaries have emerged not from some primordial darkness, but from a history that has equipped them with reasons and motives and even with a perverted version of some virtues”

Christian Apologetics
Paula Harris writes that Christians in mission must answer the accurate critique that Christianity provided the metanarratives for slavery, womens’ oppression, apartheid, the Jewish Holocaust, the cultural genocide of indigenous people, the Crusades, and stolen generations.
Apologetics for Harris is not just a matter of being right. It’s also about being humble enough to be wrong. She asks, “Am I holding my understanding of the gospel with humility? Does my faith express itself in gentleness, kindness, concern for justice?”

Morality
In the modern era, Harris writes, morality has been seen as a distinct and autonomous domain. Millard Erickson in his book, Truth or Consequences: The Promise and Perils of Postmodernism, says that the modernist approach to morality has been primarily a matter of rules and these rules have been negative prohibitions. Harris says that in a multicultural era we cannot afford to equate morality with the impropriety of violating cultural customs such as attending cockfights. She makes the link with the dilemma faced by the emerging church of the New Testament. In Acts 15 the Jerusalem give simple prohibitions: avoid idolatry, avoid fornication and avoid food with blood in it. “Which of these is still important?”, Harris asks.

Deconstruction & Poststructuralism

Harris draws our attention to the inadequacies of language. Truth cannot be simply transferred from person (writer) to another (reader). Postmodern approaches to communication tend to reject the idea of pure representation and authorial intention. Language fails to completely master, control or contain truth. The words we use never accurately convey the complexity of our intentions.

Différance
Paula Harris frames “differance” as an approach to mission that recognises people as subjects rather than objects of a Christian perspective. Repeating and reframing categories and names reframes and limits their power. For example, talking about the categories of non-Christians, pagans, seekers, the lost, raises the question of who is defining whom.

Pluralism
Harris points out that the early church & missionaries were not afraid of pluralism. Indeed they had very little choice.

Idols of Modernist Christianity

Harris refers to David Bosch on church and mission under modernity, found in his book, Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission.

• Reason has supplanted faith as the beginning point
• The Enlightenment’s Subject-object separation applied to theology creating an ‘ugly ditch’ of history separating us from past
• Church and mission have been captivated by a philosophy of progress
• Christians have come to believe that all problems are solvable – pushing God to the margins of human knowledge and ingenuity, attempting to ignore or resolve the problem of evil.
• The Church has disintegrated into a loose gathering of emancipated, autonomous individuals.

Four Shifts in Modern to Postmodern Culture
Harris cites an InterVarsity USA group studying student culture in Reaching the Coming Generations.

1. Objective to subjective
2. Autonomous individual to community
3. Metanarrative of progress to micronarratives
4. Word to image

Paula finishes with the challenge of entering a postmodernist culture, living there and eventually having the discernment to recognise the idols of postmodernist culture.

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Training a sacramental team

Spent Saturday morning training four members of Pacific Parks Uniting Lay Ministry team - with a focus on the Eucharist. I’m ordained as a minister but in my local church I’m part of a ‘lay ministry team’. The Uniting Church in Australia in 1995 made provision for lay presidency of communion and baptism in situations like ours where we celebrate the sacraments in house churches without relying on a ‘Rev’ to be there.

We spent the first half of the morning looking at the sacraments from a Uniting Church perspective. According to the Basis of Union, a sacrament is a visible act that proclaims the gospel, given as a norm by Jesus, through which Jesus acts through the Holy Spirit. We looked at the two symbolic acts Jesus explicity told his disciples to carry out, but made a note of the many sacramental actions that we see pointing to the gospel as well. We looked at the ways in which Christ acts in our worship, noting that an action sheet for a worship experience may have action from the leaders, action from the participants, but always action from the Holy Spirit.

The second half of the morning we spent looking at a traditional communion service, working through the Uniting In Worship service. At first glance it looks like a hymn sandwich. But as we explored the meaning behind the rubrics we found ways we could develop a relaxed, relational and relevant experience of the Lord’s Supper that holds the richness of two thousand years of litrugy. We noted the freedom throughout Uniting in Worship for the local people to choose what kind of bread and grape juice (fermented or unfermented) they’ll use. There’s freedom about who distributes the elements.

One interesting point of theological reflection was the place of the confession. Traditional Presbyterian understandings of communion tend towards a feeling that only the worthy should take part in communion. It’s an interpretation of Paul’s warning to the Corinthians not to participate unworthily. I believe, with Gordon Fee, that Paul is referring to the relational side of the communion services in Corinth, not to the individual sense of worth. We need to take care that our experience of the eucharist really does reflect our prayer that the Holy Spirit will make us one.

Some of us grew up with an approach that said we could not take part in communion until we really understood what it was all about. This interpretation of Paul’s phrase,”discerning the body” in 1 Corinthians 11 assumes he is talking about the bread being the body of Christ. But what if he’s talking about us being the body of Christ? Discerning the body in this case means we should take care to be inclusive rather than exclusive. Our inclusion of children from an early age fits with the latter approach. Knowing that ‘Jesus loves me’ and following in his way is a simple enough grasp of the communion service.

Gordon D. Fee, The New International Commentary on the New Testament: The First Epistle to the Corinthians,, Eerdmans, 1987.

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Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary

I took Barbara (sister), Eric (brother-in-law) and Lachlan (son) to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary on Saturday afternoon. It was an opportunity to connect with Australian wildlife in a safe environment. Saltwater and freshwater crocodiles, pythons, a Tasmanian Devil, kangaroos, wombats, koalas and so on.

Highlight of the afternoon would have to be the feeding of the wild rainbow lorikeets. At 4 pm they fly back to the coast from their feeding forays, to roost in their night colonies. On the way a huge number of them call into Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary for a drink. It’s a bit like six o’clock swill at the pub. The attendants hand out aluminium plates to the onlookers and then fill them with the ’swill’.

This particular day there were hundreds waiting for a feed. It’s winter here so perhaps they’re getting hungrier than usual. I took this photo with three lorikeets on my head, a couple on each arm and eight drinking out of the plate.

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Book Tag Meme

John Scotwise Brown at Scotwise has tagged me to take part in the latest blog meme. It’s a game that should do wonders for the interconnectivity of the blogosphere. Just trace back the links through the referees listed in each blog.

Anyway here’s my response to the tag…

1. Total number of books I own
2. The last book I bought
3. The last book I read
4. Five books that mean a lot to me
5. Tag five people and have them do this on their blogs.

1. Total number of books I own would be about 2500. This would include a selection of books relating to mission, theology and church leadership, generational theory, Bibles and Bible commentaries, NZ church history, science fiction and fantasy, detective novels, cartoons, photography, recipe books, and childrens books. We gave lots of books away before moving from New Zealand to Australia. We’re about to give away most of our books designed for young children.

2. The last book I bought was Edward de Bono’s “The Six Value Medals“, published by Randomhouse in March 2005. I was in Brisbane International Airport waiting for family to arrive from Auckland. Discovered I had an hour or two to wait so took a look in Collins Bookshop. The shelves were half empty. Apparently a change in ownership was due and stock was being emptied out. As it turned out I didn’t get a chance to read the book immediately as my guests walked into the terminal just as I walked out of the bookshop.

3. The last book I read was “A Passion for Evangelism” edited by Bronwyn Hughes and John Bellamy for NCLS and Willow Creek Association Australia. I’ve got a review copy for Australian Theological Forum. There was some hold up in sending me the copy but I’m finally reading it and writing my 1000 word article for the ATF Book Review. The book addresses the connections between styles of leadership and shared personal motivation for a visionary missional lifestyle.

4. Five books that mean a lot to me…

This is a harder one to answer. Perhaps I could write about the five books that have influenced me most during my life.

1. Fritz Ridenour’s “How to be a Christian without being religious” first published in 1967. I read the book in 1977 as a fifteen year old. Fritz takes his readers through the book of Romans helping them discover the heart of Christianity as a relationship rather than a set of rules. I enjoyed the humorous approach. And I’ve found myself using that relational approach to faith ever since. I’ve moved a lot in my approach to life since then and I wouldn’t sit comfortably with Fritz’s worldview but I still appreciate the gift he gave me back in my formative years.

2. John Powell’s “Why am I afraid to tell you who I am?“, first published in 1969. I read the book as a shy sixteen year old growing up in a family affected by alcoholism. I didn’t like the rules of alcoholic culture, “Don’t trust, don’t feel and don’t talk” and snapped up this book as an alternative. I enjoyed Powell’s introduction to psychology, especially as the conservative Evangelical church environment I was in discouraged interest in such things. Powell’s five rules for ‘gut level communication’ were life savers for me.

3. J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” which I won as a prize for music in my last year at high school. I read it in the small hours of the mornings during the University holidays in 1981 while I was singing in the NZ Opera Company’s “Marriage of Figaro” in Dunedin. I remember thinking at the time that Tolkien’s Middle Earth felt a lot like New Zealand. It was a pleasure to see the Peter Jackson films in 2002, 2003 and 2004 - it was like seeing postcards from home.

4. Eugene Petersen’s paraphrase of the Bible, “The Message“. I’ve found each release of The Message significant. First of all the New Testament. Then the Psalms and Proverbs. And finally the Full Old and New Testaments. Don’t think Petersen’s worked on the Inter-Testamental writings. Reading Petersen’s fresh words and phrases has been like reading the Bible for the first time. The whole translation process used by Petersen has resourced me in developing a contextual approach in my own communication.

5. Practicing Our Faith, edited by Dorothy Bass, is the fifth in the list, although it comes fairly close in significance to the Renovare Spiritual Formation workbook. Practicing Our Faith outlines an earthy life-affirming approach to spirituality, with enough questions to get me engaged in practical application of Christian faith. Most ’spiritual practices’ I grew up with involved withdrawing from the world to get in touch with God. I’ve often thought that this seemed strange when Jesus embodied the opposite. Sure, he took time out by himself for renewal and solitude. But that wasn’t a withdrawal from the world as much as it was changing environments.

OK - now I get to pass the baton to Ennis at Too Old to Blog, Craig at Mountain Masala, Darren at Planet Telex, John at Forming Faith, and Peter at Go Grow Get Together.

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Spiritual Gifts Deconstructed

I’m in the middle of re-publishing a course on discovering and using God’s gifts. The course was written by a colleague back in 1998 so it needs a bit of updating.

However as I start re-packaging the material I realise there are some questions I need to explore.

First of all. Why do we talk about ’spiritual’ gifts? Aren’t all gifts from God? Do we need to have a distinction between a natural inclination to provide backup help and a supernatural capacity to provide backup help? I’m wondering if we might be continuing an unnatural division that started when Paul attempted to correct an over-emphasis on supernaturalism in the Corinthian church?

Does every Christian have at least one spiritual gift? I’m told this comes from the passage where Paul says “and to every one God gives a different gift”. I have a hunch that Paul was outlining the fact God equips the church in many many ways. No one is the same. Each person is unique and offers a distinct contribution to the people of God’s work in the world.

Do individual Christians possess spiritual gifts? Or do they belong to the whole church and get shared around as the Spirit enables people to respond to need? Obviously some people specialise in certain areas.

What are spiritual gifts for? From my time in charismatic circles I was taught that spiritual gifts were for the building up of the body. “For what?” I ask. What’s all the body building designed to strengthen us for? It’s for engaging in the mission of God in the world surely. And that’s where the gifts of God really come into play. Not just in worship services and home groups.

Should we stick with the inventories provided by Paul in Romans, Ephesians and 1 Corinthians? Or can we start recognising the huge varieties of giftedness that God creates in the 21st century church?

Milton Stanley’s posted some of these questions over at his Transforming Sermons site.

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Colin Stoodley from Pines Training Centre

This morning I had coffee with Colin Stoodley at North Lakes Shopping Centre. Colin’s recently started as Associate Director with Pines Training Centre in Buderim on the Sunshine Coast, working two days a week there. The rest of the time he’s continuing as Pastor at Rochedale Baptist. What he didn’t tell me is that he’s a talented songwriter, theologian and recording artist (see his profile at Adore Ministries). He has a background with the Salvation Army in NSW. He moved up to Brisbane and planted a church in New Farm with the Baptists before moving to his present roles.

Pines Training Centre is offering discipleship and mission training courses at Certificate IV, Diploma and Advanced Diploma levels:

Advance Diploma of Planting & Growing Vibrant Churches
Assessment & Workplace Training
Certificate IV in Planting & Growing Vibrant Churches
Diploma of Planting & Growing Vibrant Churches

Colin and I this morning talked through the possibilities of cooperation between Seeds of Hope (Church Planting Movement in Uniting Church in Australia Queensland Synod) and Pines Training Centre. As always, this begins with strong relational networks. I’m keen to talk to graduates who’ve connected up with Uniting Church missional communities.

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