Postkiwi Duncan Macleod

Day 31 - Using Your Personality

You shaped me first inside, then out;
You formed me in my mother’s womb.
Psalm 139:13 (The Message)

Rick Warren introduces the P of SHAPE: Personality, by saying that each of us has a unique set of DNA. There has never been anybody like us. God loves variety.

Rick talks about introverts and extroverts, thinkers and feelers. These categories come from the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, developed by Katherine Briggs and her daughter Isabel Myers during World War II, following the theories of Carl Jung as laid out in his work Psychological Types.

The Introvert/Extrovert category looks at how a person orients and receives his/her energy. The Sensing/Intuition category indicates how person perceives or receives data. The Thinking/Feeling category relates to how a person judges or makes rational decisions. The Judging/Perceiving category reveals a preference for linear approaches or subjective options. This last category would link in with Rick’s reference to routine and variety.

Rick Warren says that there is no right or wrong temperament for ministry. He refers to Peter as being ’sanguine’, Paul as ‘choleric’ and Jeremiah as ‘melancholy’. These references are straight from the work of Tim and Beverley LaHaye who popularised the theory of the four temperaments among Evangelicals in the 1960s and on.

Theories relating to the four temperaments have their origins in Greece around 400 BC. It was thought that the bodily fluids yellow bile (choler), black bile (melancholic), phlegm and blood were linked with health and temperament. the take their names from the body fluids.

Tim La Haye designed the LaHaye Temperament Analysis, a tool for self analysis and improvement. Tim has written a number of books on the subject, including Transforming Your Temperament, Spirit-Controlled Temperament, and Understanding the Male Temperament.

Rick refers to the huge number of books and resources that can help people engage in a healthy approach to personality. David Keirsey, for example, has written a large number of resources relating to personality types, character and temperament.

A resource often used by churches in Queensland is the DiSC Profile. DiSC Profile was developed by William Moulton Marston using four dimensions of Dominance, Influencing, Steadiness and Conscientiousness. DiSC tests and assessments are used in hiring and recruiting, diversity training, time management, team building and personal growth. The Biblical Profile is designed especially for Christian settings. See Educating Christians for more details.

Looking around the internet I’ve found a few writers who have seized on this part of the Purpose Driven Life as evidence that Rick Warren has sold out to paganism. In some quarters there is a deep suspicion of anything that’s come out of ancient Greece or modern psychology. Jung, because of his interest in the occult, has been written off by some Christian writers. Clearly it is important not to become obsessed or stereotyped by the personality typologies of anyone, Christian or not.

What’s important here is that people don’t try and copy somebody else’s personal approach to ministry or mission. People who work behind the scenes are not likely to thrive in settings preferred by people who like to work ‘up front’. Rick encourages Christians to ‘work with the grain’ rather than against it. We have the freedom to express our gifts in different ways.

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Rick Warren on Life 2.0

I’ve just received an email from Forbes promoting Rich Karlgaard’s book, “Life 2.0: How People Across America Are Transforming Their Lives by Finding the Where of Their Happiness.” It’s the story of Karlgaard’s flight across America in a small plane visiting people who have moved to small towns.

What caught my eye was the fact the email’s subject begins, “Rick Warren Recommends Life 2.0″.

Rick Warren writes:

Never in history has any other group of people had as much freedom to choose where they want to live as Americans do today:

• Our government gives us the liberty to live wherever we want.
• Our prosperity gives us the capacity to live wherever we want,
• Our technology gives us the ability to live wherever we want, and,
• Our diverse American landscape gives us the opportunity to live wherever we want. You can choose practically any climate, any environment, and any population density and still live in America.

This is a privilege that should not be wasted. There is no reason for most Americans to live in a place they dislike, or is harmful to their health, their soul, or their family. We are free to move.

How poignant, how ironic, in the wake of the forced exile of thousands of residents of New Orleans. Many of those residents will find it difficult to live where they want - back in New Orleans. Not all of us have the capacity to get up and move where we want.

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Uniting Church in ABC Religion Report

Tomorrow’s Religion Report on ABC Radio (Wednesday November 16, 8.30 am and 8 pm) will be featuring the Uniting Church in a couple of ways.

Industrial Relations

1. The President of the Uniting Church in Australia appeared this week before a Senate Inquiry into the government’s industrial relations legislation - and spent a good deal of time justifying to the Committee why he was there.

I heard Dean Drayton on the radio talking about the danger of protecting only preferential options for the rich. Good stuff Dean. There’s more on Dean’s presentation at Journey Online.

Church Property

2. Disaffected Uniting Church members are campaigning to change state laws so they can keep church property if they split from the denomination.
This is precisely the reason state laws were written for the Uniting Church - to protect it from such raids.

A transcript of this week’s Religion Report, with links and references, will be available by 5pm Wednesday.

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Translating Gospel into Generational Culture

The most recent session in the Generations in Conversation course focused on translation as an approach to contextualisation. As a theological text we used Darrell Guder’s book, “The Continuing Conversion of the Church”.

We started with Darrell Guder’s background, working in Presbyterian and Lutheran settings, providing oversight for Young Life and developing theology in theological seminaries in the USA. He’s currently teaching at Princeton. See my post on Guder’s material at GodPost.

Guder starts by talking about the development of concepts of mission and evangelism as Christendom came under question. He invites us to found our understanding of mission in the nature of God - a relational God who lives in the tension of trinity - a missionary God who sends, is sent and lives in context.

Guder writes that
“Mission is to be a continuing process of translation and witness, whereby the evangelist and the mission community will discover again and again that they will be confronted by the gospel as it is translated, heard and responded to, and will thus experience ongoing conversion while serving as witness.”

At this point I thought that it would have been good to start with a context for Guder’s questions. I’d tried to do that by looking at recent television commercials and their attempts to translate into youth culture. What would make this session more effective is some insight from Guder on contexts in which he personally has encountered the need for translation.

Despite having photos, and powerpoint presentations, the use of quotations almost always leads to glazed eyes, particularly after lunch!

Having said that, we had a look at the challenge of translation without the sin of control, as well as the inevitability of reductionism in which a form of Christianity is made out to be normative and becomes a distortion. See my notes at GodPost for more.

We took seriously Guder’s assertion that the basis of the Christian gospel is the Christ event rather than a set of ideas about Jesus.

Boomer Translation
As we had a couple of Boomers in the group we started out with an analysis of ways in which the Christian gospel has been translated into Boomer culture.

Informality rather than formality. Entertainment as a value. People and personality count. We are now used to the use of movie culture in gatherings of Christians, not only in the use of multimedia but also in the sense of storyline and multisensory experience. We have developed product placement without a strong sense of awkwardness. Think of the Purpose Driven campaigns.

The message of the cross has been developed in ways that help Boomers discover and explore meaning, destiny, purpose and personal fulfilment. Jesus gives me meaning in life. He’s my master - giving me purpose and direction. He’s mate, providing me with friendship and intimacy. He’s helps me matter, helping me make a difference.

We talked about the reductionism that was emerging with these translations. We were seeing the loss of values of sacrifice, generosity, and community for sake of community rather than �me�. Giving was often promoted by Boomers as a good investment. Time was now more valuable than dollars.

Post War Translation
We now went back a generation to explore what the gospel might mean for those before the Boomers. We looked at the values espoused and lives by those who carried the values of the Uniting Church Adult Fellowship. This was a generation who found meaning and purpose in service, helping others, often in formal ways such as the Blue Nursing Auxillary. These were people who often had very few resources but had gifts of time. Fundraising was carried out by using the skills shared by Adult Fellowship members. Meetings were associated with information sharing and enfranchisement. The election of a woman as the President of the Adult Fellowship was not just a case of filling a gap. It had emerged in a time when women had little formal say in the wider church. We noted that many people in the seventies were struggling to make the transition from fellowship group to small groups focused on discipleship, prayer, personal sharing and Bible Study.

The Christian Gospel for these earlier generations, was often linked with having a place, a job, or a role. There was a sense of following in the way of Jesus who helped people and gave them a job to do, caring for the widows, the orphans and the poor. We noted the development of organisations such as Lifeline and Blue Nursing as expressions of this translation of the Christian gospel.

As leaders we explored what the Christian good news might be now for older generations coming to terms with the growing complexity of life in the community. What might the good news of Jesus be for people as they experience generational dissonance? Their contribution to an intergenerational handing on of faith was participation in the gospel. As we connected older and younger together in mentoring and shared work projects the gospel would take on new meanings for both. We noted the trend of developing child care centres in aged care centres.

Gen X and Y Translation

We talked about streams and key leaders in the emerging generations. We were seeing a growing sense of creativity in the electronic and digital fields, linked with the visual arts, rock music and ethnic diversity. Culture was being mixed (as in hiphop) and created.

As an aid to considering fresh expressions of the gospel for these emerging generations we considered the resource, 10 Gates to the Cross, based on John Driver’s book, “Understanding the Atonement for the Mission of the Church.” A Mennonite missionary, Driver has worked hard to develop understandings of atonement that take seriously the contexts of ethnic origins, socio-economic situations, life searches and personality.

The ten New Testament ‘gates to the cross of Jesus’ are outlined by Gordon Miller in a translation of Driver’s work for the New Zealand environment. They are deliverance, suffering, leadership, martyrdom, transformation, cleansing, service, peace, forgiveness and family. Forgiveness is the one approach that we were used to using to guide people into making a life-changing connection with Jesus. On reflection though, we realised that many people did not fit that gate when they were led through the ’sinner’s prayer’.

We looked at images of the cross in terms of Gen X and Y cultures.

Rather than just talking about Jesus winning a conflict and leading us into victory, we talked about Jesus struggling on our behalf to win us freedom and release.
The image of Jesus as our represenative, the leader, lent itself to the concept of modelling for us the re-invention of our lives in the image of God - helping us discover our true calling to life life with passion, desire, beauty and engagement with the Earth. We looked at the Earthy resurrection body as a key focus for starting again, following the Human One.

Another expression of Earthiness was the call to reconciliation in the context of peace, justice and ecology, being one with the land.

We examined the concepts of new ownership and slavery referred to in the New Testament. In the emerging generational context young adults were relating to Jesus as their mentor and coach rather than as their owner.

We explored the concept of adoption into a new family. This was good news for many young people who were longing for a community or context in which they were not alone.

We explored the New Testament concepts of cleansing and covering. Could this be linked with the relationship with God - ’someone who will look after me’. Or were were we looking at the removal of shame � the �feeling of being dirty� � linked with abuse? The development of a new state of purity, a fresh start, the removal of stigma and the development of a new identity? Inner healing and emotional wholeness.

We played with the images of bubble bath and flotation tank as well as the current trend to develop a ‘cleansing diet’. Could these be linked to explorations of the good news of Jesus?

The good news for emerging generations would need to include an experience of faithfulness. We looked back to the television advertisement for AIDS awareness, in which a woman has many partners before she finds the right one. Fidelity was an experience that was linked with the good news of Jesus.

The flotation tank took us to the exploration of the gospel in terms of 21st century justification. “I am free to be rather than achieve.”

We considered what this generation might learn from the pre-Boomer generations. Perhaps the capacity to live lives that involved sacrifice, community-related values and servant leadership. We are called to be helping others, even at a cost to our own happiness or comfort. We talked about examples of emerging missional church in which young Christians were developing a radical counter-cultural alternative to self-protection. There was a resonance with Jesus’ call to �make a difference�. We were called to be giving of ourselves in a non-sexual way.

We finished our time together buzzing with the good news of Jesus.

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Personal Values Assessment

In the Generations in Conversation course we acknowledged that healthy engagement between generations happened best when people related with poise.

Once again we drew on Rick and Kathy Hicks who say that sharing from personal experience helped participants understand their unique values, giving them something to compare and discuss with others in their life. They stress that it is best for people to do their own assessment. We were assured that we may not related to the dominant values of our own generation, perhaps because we had aligned with particular Biblical values or because of a unique experience of growing up. We were given the challenge of developing an enjoyable process of sharing answers and telling stories, listening with open hearts and minds. Our goal was to understand not judge the values of others, not trying to persuade them out of their values.

As a group we talked through ten questions for reflection and discussion.

1. Where did you grow up during your childhood and teen years? Did your location have any particular impact on your values? How?
2. What was your family situation like during your growing up years?
   What was the status of your parents’ marriage?
   Describe your siblings and how you related to them
   Did you have any extended family members closely involved in your life?
   How would you describe the emotional climate in your home?
   How was discipline handled in your family?
   What was your family’s economic situation? What was your family’s attitude toward money? How was the reflected in your values?
   What was your relationship with your parents like when you were a teenager?
3. What role did religion/church/faith play in your upbringing and value development?
4. Were there any significant people in your life (outside your family) who had a significant influence on your? Who were they and what did you learn from them?
5. What events in your growing-up years had an impact on you (personal, political, social, economic, inventions/new technology, etc.) and how did it affect you?
6. What were the schools you attended like? What factors in your school environment had an impact on your values, and how did they affect you? (educational methods, racial mix, economic factors, teachers, extracurricular activities, personal success or lack of it, etc.)
7. When you were about 10 years old, who were your heroes (or who impressed you)? What did you want to be when you grew up?
8. What forms of media were you exposed to most in your growing up years? What types of TV shows, movies, music etc. did you enjoy most? What were some of your favourites? How do you think they influenced you?
9. Who or what in your life most influenced your attitudes or beliefs about the following:
   Marriage/family, Money, God, Work, Education, Government/authority?
10. Have you had a significant change in any of your values as you’ve grown up? What caused that change?

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Formation of Generational Values

The Generations in Conversation course recently looked at the formation of values, with the role of parenting, family styles and environment on those values. Our concern was that much of what we read about generational formation glosses over the distinctive values developed in different settings. A clear example for the course members was the difference between those growing up on the coast of Australia (East for us in Queensland) and those growing up in the country (West).

We took a look at the work of Rick and Kathy Hicks in their 1999 book, Boomers, Xers and Other Strangers. Hicks outline eight factors in the development of values: family, formal education, other formal & informal teachers, religion, media, friends, income and geographic location. Rick and Kathy draw on Morris Massey’s book, “The People Puzzle” to outline the chronological development of values. In the first seven years children are likely to be imprinting by observation or patterning. From eight to thirteen years of age children are likely to be modelling through heroes or identification. In the teen years socialisation by peers or significant others. From the age of 21 and on early adults are likely to be influenced by significant emotional events in the changing or replacement of values.

Sexual Attitudes and New Generations
We asked why we were seeing changing attitudes to sexuality. Education and the media certainly played a significant role. But even more so parents played a significant role in the development of values in emerging generations.

We considered the impact of sexual abuse on under sevens. Recent studies had shown that even though schools had developed vocabulary and training for children at a young age, even pre-school, it was the parents who needed to be developing an environment in which children could safely talk about what was happening for them. We heard about Australian and NZ research on
sexuality training for mums in preschools in the 1980s and 1990s. The development of the Life Education van on campus took sexuality education out of the hands of parents.

We talked about the impact of school environments on children. A text for the conversation was a recent awards night at an independent school. Awards were given to a select few from each level for achievement in academic work, sports and community service. We reflected on the values espoused by the school, with particular reference to a culture of conformity. What would happen if a school promoted values of social justice as much as academic excellence?

The reality for most young adults was that as they left school they realised that the values of high school education were not all they were ‘cracked up to be’. The high pressure to perform for Year 12 was rejected by many who chose different priorities. However there were those who carried the high-achievement culture through into a life time of workaholism and materialism.

Gen X and Y
We looked at some of the emerging faith-related values being developed by churches focused on Generation X and Y. We were seeing more alternative faith communities that did not buy into the cult of largeness. Spirituality was being emphasized rather than conformity to orthodox beliefs. We noticed that Gen X expressions of church in the Uniting Church were more likely to focus on participation rather than spectacle. Communication was more likely to be through interactive dialogue rather than monologue. We noticed the development of a smorgasbord spirituality in which people could pick and choose the elements of their own version of faith.

Creation of culture
I told the story of the funeral of my daughter. As a family we had experienced a wide variety of Polynesian grieving processes and put together our own version of a tangi (New Zealand Maori). Rather than meeting at home or the ‘marae’ we held a three day extended funeral at the church in which young people and family lived, ate and slept in community. Kristen’s body was able to be seen and touched during the day. People could come and go. The Samoan, Cook Island, Maori and Irish communities knew what this was all about. However there were those who were puzzled that this model did not fit with the orthopraxy of any one culture. We were creating culture.

We explored the concept of orthodoxy - a concept that is usually linked with the survival of the institution. One generation’s view of orthodoxy could be threatened by the cultural creativity of emerging generations. What was needed was a sense of self awareness for members of each generation - a sense of history, personal story and ongoing value development.

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Sphere of Influence

A Story about Three Servants
The kingdom is also like what happened when a man went away and put his three servants in charge of all he owned. The man knew what each servant could do. So he handed five thousand coins to the first servant, two thousand to the second, and one thousand to the third. Then he left the country.

As soon as the man had gone, the servant with the five thousand coins used them to earn five thousand more. The servant who had two thousand coins did the same with his money and earned two thousand more. But the servant with one thousand coins dug a hole and hid his master’s money in the ground.

Some time later the master of those servants returned. He called them in and asked what they had done with his money. The servant who had been given five thousand coins brought them in with the five thousand that he had earned. He said, “Sir, you gave me five thousand coins, and I have earned five thousand more.”

“Wonderful!” his master replied. “You are a good and faithful servant. I left you in charge of only a little, but now I will put you in charge of much more. Come and share in my happiness!”

Next, the servant who had been given two thousand coins came in and said, “Sir, you gave me two thousand coins, and I have earned two thousand more.” “Wonderful!” his master replied. “You are a good and faithful servant. I left you in charge of only a little, but now I will put you in charge of much more. Come and share in my happiness!”

The servant who had been given one thousand coins then came in and said, “Sir, I know that you are hard to get along with. You harvest what you don’t plant and gather crops where you haven’t scattered seed. I was frightened and went out and hid your money in the ground. Here is every single coin!”

The master of the servant told him, “You are lazy and good-for-nothing! You know that I harvest what I don’t plant and gather crops where I haven’t scattered seed. You could have at least put my money in the bank, so that I could have earned interest on it.”

Then the master said, “Now your money will be taken away and given to the servant with ten thousand coins! Everyone who has something will be given more, and they will have more than enough. But everything will be taken from those who don’t have anything. You are a worthless servant, and you will be thrown out into the dark where people will cry and grit their teeth in pain.”

Matthew 25:14-30 Contemporary English Version

Reading this through to the end leaves me with a few questions. The master doesn’t sound like God. Looking at the Greek for this passage there’s no reference to the ‘kingdom of God’ at the beginning. So, as one friends asks, is this Jesus talking about the way the world works or the way God’s kingdom works? And if he’s using the story to talk about the kingdom of God, what’s the heart of the story? The crying and gritting of teeth in pain? Or the challenge of taking what we’re given and working with that, no matter how insignificant we feel that to be?

Working with fellow leaders through this passage we took the phrase ’sphere of influence’ as one of the keys to the parable. We’re each given a sphere of influence. We don’t need to copy someone else’s sphere. It’s unfair of a travelling evangelist, with a sphere of thousands across the country, to project his or her hopes onto the lives of people who stay in one place and influence the lives of a few who live nearby. Likewise it’s just frustrating for a person with widespread ministry to try and squeeze it into one place.

One of us first heard the phrase, “fear of influence”. In some ways that is what’s going on in the story. The guy with one thousand coins is afraid of what he might achieve and what he might not achieve. Fear of failure paralyses him. And perhaps fear of making a difference in the lives of others.

Back in June I used a quote at Pacific Highlander when writing about spiritual gifts:

“Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate, but that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us. We ask ourselves, “Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, handsome, talented and fabulous?” Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us. It is not just in some; it is in everyone. And, as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Marianne Williamson
Return to Love

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Australian National Anthem and God

Lachlan Heywood wrote an article in Friday’s Courier Mail outlining an emerging debate among politicians around the words of the Australian national anthem.

A PUSH is under way to insert a reference to God in Australia’s national anthem. Several god-fearing federal MPs say it is time that Advance Australia Fair was amended to reflect the nation’s Christian values. Our national song does not mention God, unlike the anthems of New Zealand, the US and the UK. Queensland Liberal MP Peter Slipper told Parliament the “importance of God” and Australia’s Christian foundations deserved to be recognised in the national anthem.
“Most people, whether practising Christians or not, would accept that Australia is a Christian country and that, as a nation, we have our roots in the Christian faith,” he said. Other parliamentarians, including Family First’s Steve Fielding and the Nationals’ Barnaby Joyce and Bruce Scott, yesterday voiced support. Any amendment is likely to be hotly debated.
High-profile Christian and Labor MP Kevin Rudd and Queensland Liberal MP Michael Johnson said a God reference was not needed. “In the 1890s the sons and fathers debated about whether or not to establish religion in the Australian constitution,” Mr Rudd said. “Wisely they decided not to. The same intelligently applies to our national anthem.”

Advance Australia Fair

So what about the verses we sing now? They don’t start too well, with the assertion that we’re all young and free, though I do like the thought that we have plains to share with those who come across the sea.

Australians all let us rejoice,
For we are young and free;
We’ve golden soil and wealth for toil,
Our home is girt by sea;
Our land abounds in Nature’s gifts
Of beauty rich and rare;
In history’s page, let every stage
Advance Australia fair!
In joyful strains then let us sing,
“Advance Australia fair!”

Beneath our radiant Southern Cross
We’ll toil with hearts and hands
To make this Commonwealth of ours
Renowned of all the lands
For those who’ve come across the seas
We’ve boundless plains to share
With courage let us all combine
To advance Australia fair
In joyful strains then let us sing
Advance Australia fair

Peter Dodds McCormack, the writer of Advance Australia Fair, was choirmaster at Scot’s Church in Sydney at the turn of the twentieth century. However it appears as though he did not write any words to that song that referred to God. See this interesting post on the subject.

Christian Lyrics Added

I’ve been to a number of places of worship where the ‘Christian’ verse is sung:
With Christ our head and cornerstone,
We’ll build our Nation’s might.
Whose way and truth and light alone
Can guide our path aright.
Our lives, a sacrifice of love,
reflect our Master’s care.
With faces turned to heaven above,
Advance Australia fair.
In joyful strains then let us sing,
Advance Australia fair.

The words may be appropriate for worship settings attempting to connect the Australian context and Christian spirituality. However we do live in a pluralistic society in which the Christian discourse is one of many. And what’s this about faces turned to heaven above?

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More Advertisements at Duncans TV

I’ve posted a few more television commercials at Duncan’s TV Adland over the week. Usage of the TV Adland site is climbing, with an average of 900 distinct visitors a day. I’ve added a search facility through Google Adsense, which is much more reliable than the search facility provided by Blogger at the top of the page.

Finnair Reindeer Poro
I saw this ad on Fox TV while staying in a motel in Hervey Bay last weekend. Several times. But it’s got a nice feel to it.

Tupperzik Three Music
One of the kids showed me this a month or so ago. It’s a classic case of “Asian Cool” - the pop culture adaptation of Japanese and Chinese media.

Pepsi Samba Dancing Legs
It’s coming up to summer in Australia - the best time to launch a new drink. Which is why Pepsi is trying out “Samba” downunder.

Bigpond Beach Holiday
I had an email from the director of this video clip, with an mp4 version of the clip. He thought I might be interested. Indeed I was. I’d always wondered where it was filmed as it reminded me of the beach and road right next to the airport in Wellington. It turns out it was filmed in St Maarten in the Carribean.

Mr Kipling Nativity Play
This ad popped up on the Youth Multimedia Discussion List (Yahoo). I had the challenge of tracking it down to a decent quality version. The protest against this spot in the UK reminds me a bit of protests against Monty Python’s Life of Brian. It’s having fun with the genre of nativity play, not with the person of Jesus.

Mentos Sheep
As an ex-shepherd I like the concept of sheep who are inspired to give the dogs a taste of their own medicine.

Virgin Blue
I had friends fly over from New Zealand to visit Queensland this month. I thought it was an appropriate time to write up the adverts that say, “If only you got Virgin Blue service everywhere”. Though the funny thing is that Virgin Blue’s service, while being friendly and informal, is not always smart. I remember being on a plane where a client bought a set of earphones from the stewardess. Minutes later the stewardess was called back and asked where the earphone jacks were. “This plane doesn’t have that service sir.” “Then why did you sell me the earphones?” “I thought you might want to use them on another flight sir.”

Viagra
I’m sick of bogus email spam trying to sell me Viagra. Much more interesting would be the television advertising campaigns that subtly and humorously introduce the product.

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Alan Jamieson on Christian Stagnation and Growth

The last couple of months I’ve been doing some work for a church developing a ‘discipleship pathway’. The leadership team have a belief pathway that helps them lead people from cynical through sceptic and seeker stages to new believer, growing believer and mature believer. They also have strategies for reinvigorating ’stagnant believers’.

My brief has been to outline what people should be able to know and do at each of the believers stage, outlining short courses that could be used to equip Christians. There’s an obvious connection with my reviews of resources at Educating Christians.

However the deeper I got into this the more questions I had. In our conversations we found ourselves examining our assumptions over what makes a Christian ’stagnant’. Is it withdrawal from church activities? Is it losing enthusiasm for worship? That would be the institutional view. But what about loss of passion in relationships at home and community? What about loss of effectiveness, graciousness and clarity in engagement with the wider world?

I’ve found Alan Jamieson’s book, “A Churchless Faith” helpful in exploring why people drop out of Evangelical, Pentecostal and Charismatic churches. Allan interviewed a number of people who had left churches, most of whom still had some form of Christian faith. He enquired into the factors of disillusionment, boredom, burnout and growth in faith. (See Prodigal Kiwi, a blog Alan shares with Paul Fromont in New Zealand)

To explain what he means by growth in faith Alan draws on the work of James Fowler, especially as it’s found in “Stages of Faith: The Psychology of Human Development and the Quest for Meaning”.

1. Innocent (Intuitive-Projective).
   Little awareness of belief patterns - typically found in very young children.
2. Literalist (Mythical - Literal)
   Security is found in literal beliefs, rules, and authoritative teaching. Usually found in the faith patterns of children.
3. Loyalist (Synthetic-Conventional)
   Belief is conformist, acutely tuned to expectations and judgments of others. There is a strong sense of the peer group, expressed in belonging in the church community. Belief is often expressed in dualisms - us and them, right and wrong. Usually found in teenage patterns of faith.
4. Critic (Individuative - Reflective)
   There is an emergence of new sense of self taking responsibility for actions, beliefs and values. Often this is a painful experience. There is a new objectification - the examination of beliefs, values and expectations that have been received up to now. Often young/early adults develop their own sense of faith or drop it altogether in this stage.
5. Seer (Conjunctive)
   Belief develops again, with the capacity to hold together polar tensions. There is a growing awareness and acceptance of ambiguity, complexity and paradox. Once again the believer is able to engage in symbol and myth. There is an openness to other traditions and communities. This is a point usually reached in mid life and can be the result of ‘mid life crisis’.
6. Saint (Universalising)
   Preservation of self is removed from the centre or focus of an individual’s life. There is a shift in motivation to complete acceptance of the ultimate authority of God in all aspects of life.

It seems to me that most Evangelical churches, particularly program-oriented congregations, when considering their Christian education needs, are working on the stage three level. Participation in the congregation’s programs is valued highly. Lone rangers are considered with suspicion or concern. Approved curriculum is preferred over open questioning and exploration.

So how does a congregation support the development of new Christians at the same time as revitalise the faith of people moving through stages 4 and 5? Do new Christians need to go through a literalist black and white phase?

As we look through this situation one thing becomes clear. The development of mature leadership is closely linked with the capacity of people to engage in levels 4 and 5.

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