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, May 29, 2003
Suburban bliss
I live in a quiet suburb. Honestly.
It was just that today the local courier company called. They had wanted to deliver a parcel to our house. We live down a long drive. A car was parked in the drive and when the courier driver asked them to move, he was threatened and the group started to throw stones.
Needless to say the courier driver retired and rang instead. We've called in the local police.
Anyone keen to come for dinner at our suburban bliss!
posted by spirit2go team at 4:27 PM
Heads up to follow the white rabbit
I saw a white rabbit. Yesterday, driving to work. Well, driving to the training institution I contract for, Carey Baptist College.
I was sneaking in the back entrance (yes, perhaps yet another metaphor of my relationship with said institution). There, in the leafy, gardened driveway, I saw a white rabbit. I kid you not. Young and full of life, hopping toward me. It stopped and looked at me cautiously.
The words of the matrix are ringing in my ears. Follow the white rabbit. It looked at me, innocent. This has become quite a spiritual moment for me. The words of Jesus are ringing in my ears - consider the lilies - and I am wondering if this is a God encounter, a revelation of Jesus in creation.
It turned and bounced off the path, over the edge, into the wilderness of the neighbouring trees, plunging down the slope.
I do not follow. My car is not designed to plunge down leafy gulleys. A chaser and scarer of innocent rabbits, I will not be. Thoughtful, honoured, I tear myself away from this divine moment.
Interpretations please?
posted by spirit2go team at 2:10 PM
Tuesday, May 27, 2003
Enliven
For more info.
posted by spirit2go team at 8:01 PM
God in Manchester: Interview with Ben and Ruth
Ben and Ruth dropped into Manchester, UK about 2 years ago with a dream of church in their eye.
The gleam of a dream has become Sanctus, a Christian community based in the city centre of Manchester and engaged in a journey of exploration into faith, worship, evangelism, friendship and lifestyle. Sanctus mets every Wednesday for discussion and debate, reflection and challenge, study and worship. Once a month on a Sunday evening they run a creative worship service that reflects the community’s focus, using contemporary music, art, film and imagery to recognise glimpses of God within them.
The service tries to create a sacred space in the heart of a very busy city. Fairly chilled and using a lot of ambient music and visuals, it's all about creating a environment in which people can experience God.
Ben and Ruth, what have you learnt from alt.worship as you've planted Sanctus?The main lesson that I've learnt is not to define ourselves as an alt. worship group. We are not, we are a Church. It is profoundly unhelpful to be defined by your style of worship.
Having said that the style of worship that we offer is alt.worship, however, that will evolve into whatever people within Sanctus need to connect with God.
An area that we've struggled with a bit has been praise within an alt. context. Praise is something that we need to re-imagine, it has so often been associated with being loud and in ya face whereas real praise should be far broader. I also think that our culture struggles to praise, both one another and ourselves, and therefore praising God can be culturally alien. We've tried a few things, some have worked others haven't but we evolve.
Sanctus has been going for nearly 2 years now. What have you learnt about life and about mission in the last 2 years?It takes a lot of energy. We at Sanctus are privileged to have a full time worker, thanks to Church Army and Manchester Diocese. For groups to really grow, qualitatively and quantitatively, then this level of commitment is needed by Church authorities.
Mission within this context is very different. Old styles of mission and evangelism will not work. Manchester city centre is very fluid, 100,00 people use the city centre every day, the residential population has grown from a few hundred to 14,000 in 8 years. Some of those people just have a flat in the city and a house in the country for weekends, others just work in the city - it is a very fluid context and mission needs to reflect this fluidity. Therefore mission needs to happen to networks of people rather than geographically defined areas.
Our growth has come through networking and limited publicity. Our mission is to our social networks, one area is the arts network that we are forging links with but, of course, these things take time. The problem with this is that this potentially creates a homogeneous church, a tension that I am aware of and try to work against.
What are some of your future dreams for Sanctus?Long term I would like Sanctus to be more than just an experiment. I would like us to be a fully recognised church, this means financially paying our way and also gives us a voice on church boards, panels and bodies. To some this may sound like a nightmare!! However, the only way to change the institution is to be a prophetic voice from within.
God of the dream and gleam
breathe
on Manchester, on Sanctus, on Ruth and Ben
posted by spirit2go team at 4:32 PM
Monday, May 26, 2003
Storytelling
"Hey, do you have any advertising?" asked the local cafe owner. "You see, I have been telling a number of my friends about your storytelling nights and they are interested in coming. Is that all right?"
I started working on the storytelling area at Graceway last year. I was following an intuitive hunch. I had a vague idea that in the mix of telling stories was a creative and a participatory community vibe that I was keen to connect with. I ran a course and we've held 2 public storytelling evenings.
On Sunday, I listened to the local cafe owner tell me how he was basically advertising on my behalf, inviting his friends. There was a real sense of missional engagement and of authentic connection with contemporary culture.
Monday June 2, 7:30 pm,
Rob Kilpatrick, collector of stories from Fiji, Bangladesh and the jungles of Manukau City Council.
Followed by open mic.
Ultra Cafe and Bar, 275 Onehunga Mall
posted by spirit2go team at 6:30 PM
Sunday, May 25, 2003
Eating McDonalds in a pavalova paradise
This is the title for my paper at the Mission to New Zealand conference. I have been preparing this over the last few days. (To tell the truth, I've probably been preparing it for a lifetime. It includes Masters and Phd and 8 years emergent ministry at Graceway.)
I have found the whole process very scarey. I am so anxious that I have sent the paper out to about 6 valued friends around New Zealand for comment. First feedback came last night; "Bloody Hell Steve, that's great !"
Pheww!
posted by spirit2go team at 4:19 PM
Lind live
Derek Lind is live on Radio Rhema ( local Christian radio station) at 12:40 today. He's promoting Enliven on Graceway's behalf. Thanks Derek.
I am really excited about Enliven. Enliven happens on Pentecost Sunday. It uses seminars and art projects to celebrate the Spirit outside the walls of the church. It is great to have Derek Lind involved with the art side. Hopefully today he'll help spread my excitement and Enliven's potential. Go Derek.
posted by spirit2go team at 4:05 PM
Friday, May 23, 2003
I am not busy
People keep emailing me telling me I very busy. I am not. I am cruising from event to event as living proof that image does not match substance.
posted by spirit2go team at 3:22 PM
Sinead OConnor
Sinead is giving up music to mother and theologise.
About 5 years ago I went thru a Sinead OConnor phase. She was an incredibly important part of my spiritual journey as I trained for ministry. She helped me realise that, shock, horror, there is lots of God talk outside the church and in the culture.
Sure, wierd. Sure, disjointed. But the Spirit of God is not church bound. Thanks for all your music Sinead and for the way God has used you in my life.
posted by spirit2go team at 3:20 PM
Thursday, May 22, 2003
Mission to New Zealand 2
June 17-20 will be VERY significant for New Zealand Baptist. The denominational leaders have called a 3 days conference to focus on mission. It's by invite only and 70 leaders and key players will gather to focus solely on mission. It is a great idea and could be of huge significance for our family of churches. It could also, like the first one 5 years ago, become corrosive and bitter.
I have been asked to present one of the 4 major papers. I have 40 minutes to speak on cultural trends as they relate to mission. (the other 3 papers are theology, missiology and youth).
I have called my paper "Eating McDonalds in a pavalova paradise". I will use Romeo and Juliet to explore fragmentation, identity in shopping and the rise of the ethnic edge. I will explore God's missional gifts of pilgrimage, creative play, DJ sampling and the borderlands.
After I speak, a really onto it church planter called Nettie Holm will respond to my ideas. I have been preparing my talk this week, to give Nettie lots of time to plan her response. She is awesomely vibrant and I am thrilled to have her tear my work to pieces.
I am honoured to have been asked. I am nervous and excited. I really want to be part of moving our family forward in mission. I would really appreciate all your prayers as I prepare over the weekend.
posted by spirit2go team at 2:55 PM
Does God have bowel motions?
I do not ask this question disrespectively at all. But I am thinking. Jesus was fully human and therefore presumably did, well, poohs. Now when Jesus rises from the dead he can do some wierd stuff eg walk thru walls. But he is also flesh and blood, so that disciples could touch his wounded side. So when Jesus cooks the disciples fish in John 21, does he eat it, and if he does, does he then do bowel motions?
posted by spirit2go team at 2:47 PM
Wednesday, May 21, 2003
Enliven =
think + create + coffee
Spirit, flame of fire, wind of God, gift of life
Spirit, sent to Enliven
Spirit, help us listen, may we think, let us create Life
in God’s image,
in world, environment, neighbourhood
Enliven is a mix of seminars, creativity, coffee and worship, celebrating the Spirit beyond church walls.
Input :: Brenda, Mark Laurent, Brian Hathaway, Derek Lind, Lois Bellingham, Mark Barnard
Reflecting on :: Spirit at work, in our neighbourhood, in film, in the environment
Sunday, 8 June, 1:30 pm -7:30 pm, Graceway Baptist
Summary :: Pentecost celebrates the Spirit beyond the walls of the church, in our everyday lives, in our neighbourhoods and work places. Enliven affirms this tradition. It offers a range of seminars to better help you live with the Spirit in Aotearoa New Zealand. It offers an art project that lets you express the Spirit in our world today. This is designed to, upon completion, be made into a combined art piece that will be placed in the community. If you want to be Enlivened in Aotearoa New Zealand today or if you like to listen, think or create, then Enliven is for you.
posted by spirit2go team at 2:45 PM
Interview with Ian Mobsby
Inbetween studying for Anglican priesthood and massage, Ian Mobsby is planting his 2nd alt.worship congregation. I recently caught up with him.
Ian, how would you describe moot to someone who's never been?
a place for spiritual questing, a space for stopping, a place for co-journeying with God and others. An oasis in the city, that sort of thing. But most of all, it is about being a rare and precious place. Its about a small contribution about being a new way of being church, in an emerging culture. A place of friendship and belonging in a world of uncertainty and fluidity.
Its about moving from being a tourist in life to being a new spiritual pilgrim. The film the Matrix is a great metaphor for this, (except that it buys into the myth of redemptive violence). Its started well this moot thing, so we will see how it goes.
Ian, moot is your 2nd alt.worship church plant. What have you taken with you and what have you left behind?
My first was epicentre, which lasted for around 9 years. It was a good group. In its time it did a lot. For me the highlights were running the epicentre arts cafe at Greenbelt which was huge success - with over 3000 visitors in a weekend.
It contained a gallery, cafe, worship space, workshop space, and a late night performance cabaret. Second to this was a number galleries we did in Battersea where we again did the performance and cafe thing. I take with me dreams of cafe church and some experiences of what seems to work and doesn't work.
I leave behind an unhealthy at times amount of cynicism. Negativity of that order can become paralysing if it goes on too long. I also want to leave behind a total inability to make decisions. I like models of community, but overly consensus models allow an unrealistic and unrepresentative minority to make decisions.
So what has alt.worship meant to your Christian faith?
It has been a life line. For me I became Christian in a Church that such a negative understanding of the world and culture. There was no sense of God being human, a spirituality of God the big aggressive brute, and a faith of guilt of who I was. They really don’t understand grace.
In the rave culture and dance scene, I found a new community. I first sensed an integration when gospel garage happened. Suddenly I was worshipping God in a club, in a farm. My Christian World and culture met head on, and it felt so healthy. From there I experienced the alt worship group called Warehouse then in Northern England. I joined it, and although I was still quite angry with Church, I had some of the most creative experiences of my life. I got involved. On return to London after University in 1993, I went back to London and with a group of mates, set up the Epicentre Network. I then with a number of others gave this a significant amount of my life, and have grown through the sense of theological exploration and belonging to a spiritual community.
So where do you see the future of alt.worship?
I think it has moved on from alt worship to new forms of being church. There is a growing network, internationally of emerging churches. In my travels round the UK, Australia and New Zealand, there are many experimental churches that are broadly a hidden new disparate movement, developing a way and theology of being church.
Worship was the first step. An important first step, but never the less a central place to sustain a way of being Christian, but we soon need to think as creatively about being a new form of Church.
For more info on all of this, see moot.
posted by spirit2go team at 1:21 AM
Monday, May 19, 2003
Steve's travel budget
would like to thank the following.
1. University of Otago, who finance one overseas speaking trip per 3 year phd course, as their commitment to research.
2. Kings College, London, who are committed to facilitating reflection on gospel and contemporary culture
3. University of Aberdeen who know how to retain links with postgraduate students
4. CMS, UK, who believe in the future
5. Lynne's faith in my ability to network with a range of groups and resources.
6. Graceway, who are such a spacious community to be part of.
7. Mike Crudge as part of the pastoral team at Graceway.
I propose a toast to enterprise and enterprising groups.
posted by spirit2go team at 5:46 PM
Today
In this body that walks
this Onehunga town
Among this Taylor family
In this New Zealand country
And this postmodern culture
And with this baptist Graceway community
On this rainy day
With these loud living neighbours
May I be fully present
O God
posted by spirit2go team at 2:23 PM
digital video
i'm thinking about buying a digital videocam so i can play with more video.
any suggestions on
a) digital cameras?
b) vid editing software?
posted by spirit2go team at 1:25 AM
Friday, May 16, 2003
home
I left Aberdeen at 7:30 am on Wednesday. I arrived at Auckland at 12:30 pm Friday. Even taking off 12 hours time loss, my bottom is sore and I am sick of travelling.
Highlight - an empty plane between Heathrow and Bangkok.
Lowlight - my fellow passenger from Bangkok to Brisbane. She was so wide her fat rolled into my space. I kid you not.
PS Lynne loves her GREAT present.
posted by spirit2go team at 9:02 PM
Thursday, May 15, 2003
7 personal highlights
1. Catching up with Gracewayites in London. I was describing this depth of relationship and global connectedness and John Drane says, "Graceway sounds like a monastic order", people are detached all around the world, yet life flows back and forth in various ways. Perhaps my dreams of a postmodern monastic order have already been conceived?
2. Buying Lynne a GREAT present in Edinburgh
3. The coffees at EH1 in Edinburgh.
4. Looking up from one of those great coffees to "Hi Steve", the voice of my brother and his wife who had popped over from Ireland to spend the weekend with me. Very cool feeling.
5. The peace of John and Olive Drane's house and the rural view from their conservatory.
6. Being John and Olive's therapist as they described previous bleak Australasian experiences. Dear God, please help them see the light as they come in January 2004.
7. Renewing friendships and contacts - Gordon Lynch, Mark, Matt Guest, Hector, Steve Brun, Pete and Tess Ward, Jonny Baker, Steve Collins, Jenny Baker, Ian Mobsby, Stuart Murray, Gerard Kelly and sorry if I've forgotten anyone.
posted by spirit2go team at 1:37 AM
7 professional highlights from my 10 days in UK
1. evaluating alternative worship and sharing my research for 3 hours at Kings. Good discussion.
2. Working with the movie Romeo and Juliet with Pete Ward's Masters Class. Excellent group. Lots of laughs. They really connected with Romeo and Juliet as a way into popular culture.
3. CMS gig with jonny baker. Shuffling questions like " do you use the Bible like John Stott" to "does the expository preacher have a future in a postmodern world" to "you have a highly developed pneumatology". Lots of diversity in that crowd.
4. John Drane, one of my 3 phd supervisors (I need lots of help, hence I have 3) likes my thesis. Only editing changes to do.
5. Discussing pastoral theology method with post-graduate students at Aberdeen. Defending the accusation of being a modernist on the slippery slope to liberalism as jack hammers pounded outside. Quite surreal. Quite Matrix like.
6. Telling my story to John Drane's Masters in mission class. Excellent discussion of mission and ministry.
7. Matthew Guest arriving with a 2 page book proposal, and 2 potential publishers for a sociology of religion book on alternative worship as a global event. He'd like to co-edit.
posted by spirit2go team at 1:31 AM
airport prayer rooms
auckland airport has a very traditional oldstyle christian prayer room. crosses, sterilised, devoid of personality. i nearly wrote in the visitors book that they need sofas and coffee.
i went looking for the prayer room at heathrow. i like to utter a lords prayer before i travel. heathrow was full of brightly coloured carpet squares and muslims kneeling to pray. ive never prayed with muslims before. but it was certainly the more spiritual experience - the colour, the diversity, all helped my connection with God revealed in Jesus.
posted by spirit2go team at 1:25 AM
Tuesday, May 13, 2003
sars leper to return home
i start back to nz tomorrow. i will blog more regularly then. i promise.
my speaking things have gone well in aberdeen. very well. i am pleased. i will be even more pleased to be back in nz.
rich wants to know which of the people in jonny bakers photos is me. the good looking one of course!
ian mobsby who is planting a 2nd alt.worship community is on the left. he is a legend, planting not just one, but 2 new communities. i am in the middle and jonny baker is on the right. jonny is also a legend.
posted by spirit2go team at 1:59 PM
Monday, May 12, 2003
exhausted photos
jonny baker has pics of me looking exhausted in london. he also says nice things about the exhausted things i said. this is very nice of jonny.
posted by spirit2go team at 12:28 PM
this man likes my phd
posted by spirit2go team at 12:07 PM
Friday, May 09, 2003
lost in london
my 3 year old wants a tweenies hat as an overseas present from her dad. it is the hat that bella wears on the tweenies.
before i left nz, she took me to the tv, fastforwarded the video to the scene and pointed. the hat is purple and has yellow flowers and looks like a school cap.
i have searched hamblys, marks and spencer and through every teen girl shop in oxford circus. i have seen clothes that i never knew could exist. but i have not found a hat. can anyone help me?
posted by spirit2go team at 12:28 AM
please let me sleep
its been a long time since ive been this tired. i spoke twice yesterday. i was exhausted before i started. i was more exhausted after i finished.
posted by spirit2go team at 12:25 AM
Thursday, May 08, 2003
ruffling the waters
spoke yesterday to about 18 people, evaluating alt.worship. a good mix of people, from lecturers to practioners, and including folk who'd travelled down from birmingham. nice to see some old friends. the only downside was that only 1 or 2 alt.worshippers showed, so the conversation lacked a bit of zing!
some great quotes
"alt.worship was like punk - it has cleared the space for a whole new scene"
" alt.worship is a good therapy group for post-evangelicals"
then i sent to 5 angels at the millenium by bill viola at the Tate modern. jonny bakers recommendation. it was amazing. 5 video screens, great colours, so peaceful. a wonderful multi-media experience, as these "angels" ruffled the waters of life.
O God, let it be in me and through me,
Amen
posted by spirit2go team at 1:38 AM
Tuesday, May 06, 2003
sars leper live in london
spent the day at the musuem of london with graceway-ites in london.
we talked a bit about community. People struggle to find good church homes when they leave graceway to do their OE. I guess its a compliment to Graceway and says something about how real and connectional Graceway is.
But we also reflected on how that is actually harder. it makes it harder to leave. and what happens when church-as-community doesn't go well. community is great when the sun is shining. but when the inevitable tensions arise and when people come and go, it makes life much, much harder. it demands greater community skills.
posted by spirit2go team at 1:34 AM
Monday, May 05, 2003
i am a sars leper
the person who sat beside me from bangkok to london had, you guessed it, a mask on. he wore it the whole way.
i have realised the truth
I AM A SARS LEPER
posted by spirit2go team at 11:40 AM
and bangkok
whenever i sneeze, people jump and look accusingly at me. i need a sign, "i am not a sars, leper"
posted by spirit2go team at 11:39 AM
Saturday, May 03, 2003
via sydney
sydney airport is good. it has free internet.
the man beside me has a mask. he is seriously scared that i might cough. he looks nervously at me when i clear my throat.
watch... see him flinch.
my web host is doing some more maintenance. if i disappear it is not because i fell asleep with jetlag in london or that i have sars, but cos of technology back in nz
posted by spirit2go team at 10:34 PM
To UK
I leave for London today and am away for 12 days. There will be a lot to blog about - lots of talking about mission, worship, creativity, culture. Hoping to post back but it depends on cyber cafes and jetlag and head space.
Oh, I will have a beer for you all, don't worry.
posted by spirit2go team at 2:46 PM
Friday, May 02, 2003
He phoned
He has been a Christian for many years and had wanted to be a missionary. But the intellectual questions; the uniqueness of Jesus, what about Western imperialism, how to have truth claims in a pluralist world are sapping his faith. He feels disillusioned, fragmented and alone.
I can blog all I like about whether this culture is modern or postmodern or about whether CSI is proof of cultural shift or not. At the heart of it, postmodernism is a word to describe the total disorientation that my friend is feeling in a world of relative pluralism and multiple centres.
Now we start to drink coffee and deal with the real issues - how to sustain faith in our postmodern world.
posted by spirit2go team at 1:16 PM
Sample chapter posted
Yesterday I posted my first sample chapter of the book I am working on Postcards from the Edge to the publisher.
It's been consuming me for the last 2 weeks, so my blogging has been slightly down. Thanks for Paul, Karen and Simon who read drafts. Its a book on the emerging church, so its nice to have emerging church leaders from NZ, US and UK giving feedback. It makes the writing process feel more authentic. I hope the publishers are as positive and encouraging and excited as you three were.
posted by spirit2go team at 1:05 PM