emergent
kiwi
In Liquid Church, Pete Ward takes a deep swim in postmodern waters. While many are just trying to dog paddle, Ward explores ways for the church to incarnationally flourish in our contemporary culture. At times the theologian in me wonders if Ward’s theology is so liquid he ignores Divine person, and thus the importance of gathering. At times the practitioner in me wonders who will fund Pete’s dreams. But the insights around spiritual desire and the creative and missional possibilities around shopping for meaning are worth the price alone. It is a provocative book in which the missionary heartbeat is undeniable. The book is well written. It is concise. It handles well. If you’re serious about being church in the postmodern world, it is worth taking the plunge.
liquid church
Coming:
Olive Drane, creativity and the image of God
Christchurch, January 04
Going:
Taylor's to Chch, Jan04
Church and Society, Auckland, Feb04
Stuff I've written:
Celebrating a Postmodern Pentecost
Sketching a postmodern missiology
Romeo/Juliet/altworship
DJing salvation
Piglet reads the Bible in a postmodern world
Coupland/community
cultural
wildflowers
1 Peter:mysogynist
or feminist
New generation/new
millenium
Church
in a global world
My further reading
art and spirituality
church ministry
postmodernity
Generation X
popular culture
gospel and culture
faith in aotearoa new zealand
Conversations that enhance me:
andrew jones up close
small ritual
douglas rushkoff
jonny baker
God-n-
club culture
paul fromont
darren rowse
Christian greenie
God-n-club culture-2
human in london
intellectually gritty
rachel cunliffe
jordon cooper (mentioned my blog 3x)
mark barkaway
Interview with:
Archives:
June 2002
July 2002
August 2002
September 2002
October 2002
November 2002
December 2002
January 2003
February 2003
March 2003
April 2003
May 2003
June 2003
July 2003
August 2003
September 2003
October 2003
November 2003
December 2003
January 2004
Thursday, January 15, 2004
Huh?There's a lot of traffic at this site. I think I might have stumbled into an evangelical canon here ....
The excitement seems to be over my quote - The danger is that the emerging church is a re-run of evangelicalism, but with powerpoint, which I made here, and the response is; “This movement has to be stopped!”. I don't think they like it but I am not yet sure.
posted by spirit2go team at 1:45 PM
Tuesday, January 13, 2004
Blog shift
I am now blogging out here, at www.emergentkiwi.org.nz. I am keeping this blog as a record and reminder.
I am moving because lots of people have problems with my comments software, the URL on this blog (www.graceway.org.nz/stevedownunder.php) is very hard to give out at conferences where I speak, I have moved from Graceway and it does not seem fair to remain under their web hosting agreements and because I want to create more of a portal into the nz emerging church scene.
If you're a regular reader who wants to follow my journey, please update your links and tell the world.
Peace and goodwill to you all. Thanks to blogger for all the help. I've learnt a lot from you.
posted by spirit2go team at 11:40 PM
Monday, January 12, 2004
Idea for Church#1
A lot of Kiwis like to spend Sunday morning over the newspaper, with good coffee in their hands. (Is this just Kiwis, or are there similar patterns elsewhere?).
So, church=
->lots of newspapers, muffins, coffee, cafe tables
->open for about 2 hours on a Sunday am
->a number of stations set up that relate to sections of the newspaper. As people read a section, then they have the opportunity to go to the relevant station, where various responses - confession, intercession, praise - are offered.
->a regular liturgy of coffee, in which God is thanked for her gifts
->followed by a 20 minute interview with 2 people, in which the weeks events are reflected on from a Kingdom perspective. So various articulate, witty people get to help all us poor newspaper readers make sense of the news. They would have to be both well read, yet quick on their feet, because the newspaper is setting the agenda.
->a small, regular, set liturgy ends this.
What do you think? Church? Spiritual? Sustianing? Sustainable?
posted by spirit2go team at 11:14 AM
With a blush
Pakaso, bless his heart, voted my blog "Most significant blogsite in terms of stimulating my missional thinking and reflection". My blog will blush accordingly for the next 48 hours.
Yeah, bright red blush aye.
posted by spirit2go team at 1:31 AM
Sunday, January 11, 2004
New soils
I walked my new garden in the cool of the morning. The weeds and plants are different here. In new soil, in new environments, different things grow.
I walked on excited, expectant. What will God grow in me, through me, with me, in this new environment.
Deeper question: So how important is environment to one’s spirituality?
PS. I loved the comment made in the comments, by Stephen Garner; Your presence there also changes the environment into something new - a place of new possibilities sourced in you being there at that time.
posted by spirit2go team at 12:11 AM
Friday, January 09, 2004
embody
I grew up thinking that God was mainly about church. Yet ...
May God's glory fill the whole earth - Psalm 72:20.
Today, I will walk,
and enjoy creation, art, people, architecture, oddity, intelligence, hills and earth.
As I do this, this verse becomes reality.
posted by spirit2go team at 11:58 AM
Tired but safe
John and Olive Drane arrived today (sorry, I only have a photo of John).
John is professor of practical theology at Aberdeen, my PhD supervisor and author of umpteen books. He has been absolutely key in my thinking, especially in areas of creativity.
Olive is creative. She has been such an encouragement to me, swapping worship rituals until late at night, eyes sparkling as we bounce off each others creativity.
It is a joy to have them with us. We celebrated with Summer Ale and Jonny Walker.
posted by spirit2go team at 1:15 AM
Thursday, January 08, 2004
Sorry, we're full!
We've had to stop taking registrations for the Olive Drane, storytelling workshop. We've got 33 registered and Olive doesn't want more than 30, in order to facilitate decent storytelling and community and interactivity.
I mean how wierd is that. This is January. All of New Zealand is meant to be on holiday, sunning, beaching, reading, unwinding.
posted by spirit2go team at 12:46 PM
!st day of !st (of 2) new jobs
Dear God
please help daddy find the right answers
to answer the good questions.
Amen.
Prayer from my 6 year old as I headed out to my !st new job (I am not sure about "the right answers", but I'm certainly keen on "the good questions".)
I am lecturer in practical theology (2 days/ week) at a local seminary, Bible College of New Zealand. It has a track record of educational innovation and they, and I, hope for innovation again in the name of training for the emergent.
Not sure of the exact form yet; block course/distance/weekend workshops/mentoring/regular papers/mix of everything. This year is a settling in year. So you, O wise blog reader, have a year to help shape my thinking.
What will be the shape of postmodern pastoral leadership development?
posted by spirit2go team at 11:06 AM
Wednesday, January 07, 2004
to settle v.t & i.
alight, descend as sediment
to settle.
1. find good coffee on way to work
2. find local cafe to make home
3. get new library card
4. locate post office box
5. orientate to service stations
6. redirect mail, mine and former owner
7. install phone
8. find lost wife among endless white boxes
9. soothe mother, who is having dreams/nightmares about unpacking those endless white boxes.
10. find where sport is in new local newspaper
11. identify strange, new, plants in local garden
12. try and find nearest Subway
13. locate and sample from nearest icecream shop
Note to self :: don't ever move again. Note to tallskinnykiwi :: don't even think about moving from Prague.
posted by spirit2go team at 11:01 AM
Tuesday, January 06, 2004
U2 in fake alt-worship furs
4. The new album will be pirated and leaked to the Internet one month before its official release, but the band will have the last laugh when U2 hits the shops and it's something totally different! This will explain why it took them years to record it -- not only did they have to write a dozen new U2 songs, they also had to come up with twelve additional fake U2 songs.
5. The fandom will divide into two camps: those who prefer the fake U2, and those who prefer the official U2.
taken from this U2 fan site.
BYW - didn't the post-evangelical movement start with Bono singing "I still have not found what I'm looking for"? If so, does this mean that alt.worshippers are by and large U2 fans growing old together?
posted by spirit2go team at 1:46 AM
Re~new~ed
I'm back. Yee-ha.
I've been to Melbourne, and Gisborne, and Rotorua. I've packed an office and a house. I've holidayed. I've driven a 3 year old and a 6 year old 900 kilometres from Auckland to Christchurch. I'm about to start 2 new jobs. I have boxes strewn all over our new house.
Thanks to Colin who did some guesting while I was gone. All part of the re~new~ing process.
I'm re~new~ed. I promise a new blog, new thoughts, new ideas, all in the name of Love.
posted by spirit2go team at 1:15 AM
Tuesday, December 23, 2003
[grid blog :: union]
Christmas :: God
made flesh. God enters humanity.
Mike Riddell used a sexual metaphor to describe the union. He developed it in his novel, The Insatiable Moon. The ethics of the union ended his tenure at (Mike's union with) Carey Baptist College.
But the theology was superb. The embodied God, united with human flesh. Divine consumation.
Oh the dignity of humanity
Oh the joy of bodies.
Christmas=Union, of God and human.
posted by spirit2go team at 3:23 PM
Sunday, December 21, 2003
having blogger problems folks
sorry for the slow publishing
posted by spirit2go team at 2:46 PM
Saturday, December 20, 2003
Actually it's Colin (not Steve, I'm back to guest blog, after an technically induced absence
Good on Ya Steve,
I knew you'd come to the party.
One win98 rebuild later, the guest is back.
The Sidedoor Christmas journey is off. A labrinyth of hay bales, A car with a naked manequin wiseman (and the cards (3 kings) on the bonnet has crashed into the star, stick men walk the journey with you. There's Gold, (well almost), and a bus filled with T.V. Screens, slide projectors and cushions.
Took the family around it yesterday, invited a heap of friends for the next few days.
last year it turns out one of my daughters friends ended up joining a church because of it.
The shops are packed, the carparks are getting hotter and over the buzz of an overheated city, I can hear the surf calling my name...
Two christmas thoughts..
Dessert is just stressed spelled backwards.
A child overheard Praying...
Forgive us our christmasses as we forgive those who christmas against us.
As for LOTR, Steve will beat me there. Bit it'll happen. Mordor's time has always been under threat. The little people will inherit.
posted by spirit2go team at 5:58 PM
[grid blog :: source]
The source of life {Trinity}
Out::sourced life {Incarnation}
So that we might re::source Kingdom life {Ecclesiology}
Which means that mission, life for others, is at the heart of Trinity. Which means that church, wagons circled, defensive, enjoying itself, enjoying its worship,
is a disjuntive, disordering, misrepresenting of the Source of Life.
posted by spirit2go team at 5:44 PM
Sunday, December 14, 2003
The return of the king: [grid blog :: stretch]
Late in December
Looking to release
Return of the King
Wait
Anticipate
Prepare
Advent in December
Looking forward
Return of the King
Looking back
Birth of the King
Wait
Anticipate
Prepare
Lord of the Rings pre-release = Advent waiting
Or is that too much,
Of a [:: stretch]?
posted by spirit2go team at 6:42 PM
Saturday, December 13, 2003
LOTR
One of New Zealand's finest exports coming to a screen near you soon. Lord of the Rings shows that Kiwis are not just beautiful and scenic, but creative and innovative.
For some Kiwi insights a theological perspective on LOTR, try here, and also here, but you have to download it to view it.
At Graceway, they have run Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, extended, DVD version, over this weekend, in order to help tune the community back in.
posted by spirit2go team at 12:41 PM
Monday, December 01, 2003
Ki Ora,
Looks like I'm the guest blogger. Not sure if I can do it justice.
Steve rang me just before he shot off on holiday (Have a great one Steve), and tagged me as his fill-in.
In Kiwi land pre-Christmas is nutty, we do the same 40% of sales that the US does in those 4 weeks before Christmas, but we follow it up by almost completely shutting up shop in January.
It's the middle of Summer, days are long. The sun shines and crisps any unprepared skin. The grass needs mowing more and most colleges, and Universitys are shut.
Sounds great once January hits, but it means everyone wants everything done before Christmas. Nothing like a bit of pre-christmas stress.
How I'm going to manage to put anything of worth on here remains to be seen...
Plans for this Advent sunday at Ilam are to look at the domestication of Christmas. How it's been turned inwards and de-politicised into a sacharine hallmark card. Going to try to play with the political overtones of Mary speech and look at what a 'Wild side christmas' might look like. I found "Christmas unwrapped: consumerism, Christ and Culture" edited by Richard Horsley and James Tracey a fascinating read for this.
The last few years a chap down in Christchurch has run an Christmas Labyrinth with stations and art spots. Just found out I'm outfitting a derelict bus as part of this, with a focus on journeying. I'm planning to black out the inside of the bus, throw some bean bags around, and have a series of T.V.s rolling Christmas journey quotes. So if there are keen people reading this, I'm looking for quotes, funny or otherwise that might be linked to Christmas journeys.
If it turns out that people keep reading this in Steve's absence (he'll be back in Jan) I'll fill you in on who I am and what I'm doing... Til then
posted by spirit2go team at 6:54 PM
Sunday, November 30, 2003
Holiday
It's summer down~under. To celebrate, I am on holiday for a while. Colin Wood will be guest blogging for me while I'm gone, giving you a down~under perspective on the flower and heat of the Christmas rush.
Yeeh Colin.
posted by spirit2go team at 3:07 AM
[grid :: brand]
Context: grid blogging>{and probably the 1st grid blog in the world due to the wonders of timezones}
sweat shop
tattoo
high on left thigh
nike
swooshed on left ankle
hot tin roof
10 hours later
pay
so you display
stitch in nike time
makes nine
cents for me
bucks for you
enjoy your holiday home
on my tropical beach
mr brand
mr brand
posted by spirit2go team at 3:04 AM
New conversations
Readers of my blog have noted that I am on the move. I've left Graceway, the church I planted. I've left Carey Baptist College, the place that trains Baptist pastors in New Zealand. I've left Auckland, the city in which I've spent the last 11 years.
I and the family are moving to Christchurch.
One: I am moving to Bible College of New Zealand, with a specific aim of developing training in emerging church.
Two: I will be (in February) the Senior Pastor at Opawa Baptist church. Two images of Opawa - their signboard and their attendance figures - might give you some idea of what this means.
Alongside these images are some real innovation and some really neat people who are prepared to trust a 35 year old with 3 earrings.
I have moved because I like a challenge and God is calling us onward. One of our family core values is to risk, and we need to keep doing that.
I have moved because I want to start some new conversations - what does mission mean in a new setting; what does it mean to help existing churches transition into a new millenium; what does it mean to do postmodern leadership training.
posted by spirit2go team at 2:02 AM
Saturday, November 29, 2003
The task of mission in a new millennium
Spent time with about 50 people from Opawa Baptist Church today; The task of mission in a new millennium. I used video: Romeo and Juliet in 2 versions, Lord Of the Rings, What Dreams May Come - to explore pilgrimage, imagination and community.
A good time. Lots of thinking, lots of interacting ... what I hope is the start of a long conversation about mission.
posted by spirit2go team at 12:14 AM
Watermarked PhD
So I posted my Phd. Via Fastway Couriers.
And it arrived - wet! 100 pages water damaged. Thanks Fastway.
But it is drying. And the text isn't compromised. And the Research Office are still happy for me to submit a watermarked PhD.
posted by spirit2go team at 12:11 AM
Thursday, November 27, 2003
We brought a house in Christchurch
97 year old villa, modernised, 3 bedrooms, magically electric colour scheme, conservatory. It is better than we ever dreamed. We can't believe. Lynne grins every 5 minutes and I keep pinching ourselves.
posted by spirit2go team at 6:37 PM
Wednesday, November 26, 2003
Weekend workshop - Our stories, Bible stories, God’s story: Creativity and the image of God
We all have a range of life experiences. Being human and being spiritual invites us to integrate these with God’s story. We are made with eyes and ears, touch and taste. Being made in the image of God involves all of us to integrate with all that God is. This weekend workshop will deepen our awareness of our own stories. It will enhance our ability to be fully present to the God. It will explore the place of creativity in helping us meet God.
Spirituality
Story
Creativity
transcendence
Ritual
Everyday life
Olive Drane is a clown and storyteller. She teaches Creativity and the Bible at Fuller Theological Seminary and has a Masters in Mission (Aberdeen). She has authored books on family, creativity and the arts, ritual and everyday life. She speaks widely throughout UK and USA. This is the only opportunity to hear her in New Zealand.
Friday evening (6:45-9:30 pm), Saturday (9:30 am - 4:30 pm), January 16 & 17, 2004.
Cost $20/person. (Friday will start with a shared meal).
Bible College of New Zealand.
Condell Ave, Papanui.
Organiser: Steve Taylor, Lecturer BCNZ, Pastor Opawa Baptist Church
RSVP by January 10 to steve@emergentkiwi.org.nz
Supported by e~merge, Bible College of New Zealand, Opawa Baptist, Angel Wings.
posted by spirit2go team at 5:21 PM
Spotlighting: Who shots who?
Here’s another take (my retelling, from memory, of a James K Baxter story I heard told once).
There was once a story of a man who wanted to hide from the world. He stored a lifetime of provisions and locked himself inside a corrugated iron tank. All was well and the man was happy. No problems, no poverty, no pain.
Suddenly one day a volley of bullets hit his tank. The man ducked. Furious the man yelled, and silence returned. Shaken, relieved, the man resumed his self-imposed hermitage.
The next day, the volley of bullets returned. Again the man ducked, and yelled, and the silence returned.
Everyday the pattern was repeated. A volley of bullets; the man enraged, then silence.
Over time, the man began to gain a certain sense of satisfaction from the habit of the daily routine. He began to notice the sunlight that clinted through the holes. Peering out, he could see kids playing and the blue sky.
The bullets continued to strike. The tank grew more and more holey. The self-imposed hermit grew more and more fond of life around him. One day the volley of bullets brought the tank crashing down around the hermit. He emerged, arms up.
“Shoot me,” he yelled to the man with the gun. “But first, tell me why, why did you shoot at me every day.”
Silently, the man dropped his gun and extended his hands. Sunlight glinted through his nail scarred hands.
posted by spirit2go team at 12:56 AM
Spotlighting possums: who shots who?
I got quite passionate about my post about strategy for reaching postmoderns. It became a rant on radio.
I was being interviewed for a Christian magazine in America over the weekend. It was a bit of buzz really, an overseas magazine interested in little wee New Zealand.
Their parting question really got me thinking. They asked “what is your strategy for reaching postmoderns.”
To be honest, the first thing that came to mind was the practice of spotlighting. For more go here
posted by spirit2go team at 12:53 AM
Monday, November 24, 2003
The art of Ahi kaa: creativity and the home fires
Found this neat article on the relationship between creativity, community and ahi kaa. There is an art and design course that teaches how Mäori (the indigenous peoples of Aotearoa New Zealand) are now using pit-fired clay to express beliefs, history and values.
Woodshavings are used, which produce temperatures high enough to give the clay pots a ceramic glaze. Tutor, Mr Taepa noted, it is was a low-tech process, just as valid as the high-tech and computer mediums. “Through the pit-firing component of the workshops, students and staff are rekindling the home fires that link people to the land.”
posted by spirit2go team at 10:15 AM
Ahi kaa: keep the home fires burning
Context: It's been a weekend of farewell's as I've said goodbye to the church I've planted and pastored for the last 9 years. Rachel blogs about it here, and so does Pakaso here. And thanks to greenflame and jonny baker for best wishes to the moving pilgrims.
Shopping list for last sermon:
glow sticks
cellophane paper
wood
lots of tears
Groove Armada, Remember
I used a Maori saying: Ahi kaa = "to keep the home fires burning and talked about what I'd learnt about relationships, space and spirituality, linked to Colossians 1.
The last sermon:
Permit me to reminisce, to gaze longingly back into time and “say I remember when”
It was 10 years ago this month that Lynne and I drove through Ellerslie looking for a place to plant a church. We were looking for a suburb with a community feeling,
looking for a suburb with lots of 20-35 year olds.
Ellerslie looked a good place to plant a church for our age group and a church that loved its community. New Age looking shops, few cafes, lots of 20-35 year olds.
So Lynne and I started to light a fire. For more click here
posted by spirit2go team at 2:04 AM
Sunday, November 23, 2003
Press Control P
Just printed 4 copies of my thesis; to be sent to the examiners via the University bindery.
posted by spirit2go team at 5:46 PM
And for bablyon 5 groupies
"It was the year of fire. The year of destruction. The year we took back
what was ours. It was the year of rebirth. The year of great sadness. The
year of pain. And a year of joy. It was a new age. It was the end of
history. It was the year everything changed..." via
posted by spirit2go team at 3:16 AM
content analysis
they said goodbye to a
spindoctor
who enjoyed a beer or 3
and forgot his bible
posted by spirit2go team at 3:06 AM
Saturday, November 22, 2003
Marketing postmodern
Context: David Hopkins reacts strongly to reaching postmoderns. Dan Hughes spews over postmodern marketing.
In rural New Zealand people go out “spotlighting”. They take a spotlight and a rifle and go out hunting the local pest, a possum (a small, brown, furry animal that is decimating forests). Possums freeze when they see a bright light. So you turn the spotlight on a possum and it freezes, and you take your shot.
The language of “a strategy to reach postmoderns” sounds a bit similar. There is a danger that we reduce mission to postmoderns to methods to “freeze” those outside the church long enough to let loose our gospel volleys.
To be honest, sometimes I catch more glimpses of God among postmoderns than in the church. I see more community, more search for spirituality, more creativity, more respect for God’s creation in cafes than in churches.
My “strategy” is to seek for what the Spirit of God is doing in our world. Where are the “Athenian” poets? What can I learn from those around me?
I wonder if God might need to reach me first, before I am able to be part of seeing postmoderns "reached".
posted by spirit2go team at 6:09 PM
Last nite
was very special. i felt very loved. thanks to everyone who came, who told a story, who set up, and set down
pakaso tells more.
posted by spirit2go team at 6:01 PM