way out west

Wellspring's Creed

A creed from our friends in Tomball (nr Houston) Texas

We believe in God – the creator of the universe:
God is full of mercy and grace,
God is just and loves justice,
God is love and is on our side.
God’s hope is to be in relationship with every person,
God’s plan is to restore all of creation to wholeness,
and to see his dream for the world
- his kingdom come.

We believe in Jesus the Christ:
Jesus is the human expression of God,
Jesus is the savior of the world,
Jesus is the living demonstration of God’s dream for the world.
Jesus came to put the world right again,
Jesus came to display the justice of God,
Jesus came to provide real & eternal life
- life as God intended it to be lived.

We believe in the Holy Spirit:
We believe that the Holy Spirit is here now,
The Holy Spirit guides us into truth,
The Holy Spirit empowers our lives
- as we seek God’s kingdom as our first priority.

We believe that God has a purpose for each of us, and so in faith:
We commit to recognize & honor God,
We commit to pursue a relationship with God,
We commit to embody the character of God,
We commit to align our lives with God’s dream for the world
- helping to make the world a better place.

Amen

Technorati Tags: alt.worship: Christianity: Emerging Church: Prayer: Spirituality: Worship

Franchise or Farming?

First there was "Alpha", then "Cafe Church", then "Godly Play", now it seems to be "Messy Church"... no doubt "Alpha" wasn't actually first and certainly "Messy Church" wont be the last, but all of the above have had their 15 mins in the spotlight, they  have been "the latest thing" at one time or another.

Recently I've been increasingly perplexed by this tendency to jump from one bandwagon to the next in the hope that each one will be *THE* answer.  Don't get me wrong their is nothing wrong with any of the above models, they all have things to contribute and questions to ask of how we do Church but non of them are *THE* answer in the way churches seems hope... sometimes the thinking seems to be, "If we only do... everything will turn around" 

So where's the problem?  It seems to me that what happens is almost abusive to the creators, the "model" is ripped from it's context, all the thinking, the exploration, the experimentation is ignored and only the ultimate expression is adopted... it reminds me of what I was taught at school, that having the answer was not the be all and end all, what was most important was being able to demonstrate your understanding.  My teachers used to say "It is as important to show your workings as to get the answer right"... all the theological, ecclesiological and missiological workings are actually far more significant and important than the end product.  They teach us more than the technique, they help us more than the technique, because instead of simply applying a rootless, thoughtless model they mean we have to look at the context, the culture, the people, Scripture etc. and think much harder about church and mission. 

There is nothing wrong with looking at what others are doing and learning from them, but one can't simply apply a model and expect it to work.  When you talk to arable armers you find they are not just experts in the crops themselves, they are first and foremost students of the soil... before planting seeds one needs to know about the soil, does it have the right nutrients, is it's ph level suitable for the crop, what is it's moisture content etc.  The one needs to understand the context, how much sun does the field get, what are the prevailing winds, what are the average seasonal temperatures for the region, how much rain is the area likely to get, what are the physical dynamics (contours, drainage, public rights of way etc.), what might effect the harvesting methods that can be used etc. etc.  Once the Farmer understands these things only then can He/She make decisions about the crop which will thrive best in the conditions... even then the Farmer will need to be able to adapt his/her techniques as the crop develops... the most important things the Farmer needs are the skills to be able to read the signs, reflect on all the factors, to learn and to be flexible... the chances are that if he/she simply plants what was seen growing fruitfully in a different part of the country the crop will fail.

Perhaps it time we began to learn from the world of organics rather than the world of consumerism?

Technorati Tags: Christianity: Church: Emerging Church: Fresh Expressions: Missional: Worship

Scouse Guerilla Worship

Our good friends from Dream Liverpool - who incidentally we will be working with at Greenbelt this year on a collaborative worship day (along with Grace and Feig) get featured on Ruth Gledhill's Times Blog doing some Guerilla Worship

Technorati Tags: Emerging Church: Media: Worship

Fresh Podcast and our story

If your not sick of my dulcet tones by now there is another Podcast interview - this time on the Fresh Expressions web-site - Link April 09 podcast - this one particularly focuses on being a lay pioneer - I haven't listened to it  yet... I wonder if they have included my comments about Ordination? ;) There is also an article telling the story of safespace - Link

Technorati Tags: Anglican Church: Emerging Church: Fresh Expressions: Missional: new-monasticism: Podcast

Something Beautiful podcast part 2

The second part of my podcast interview with Thomas Mathie of "Something Beautiful" is now on stream here

Technorati Tags: Christianity: Church: Culture: Emerging Church: Missional: Podcast: safespace: Sanktuary: Spirituality: Telford: theology

Christianity Magazine puts "The Emerging Church" under the magnifying glass

The UK based magazine... which has been on a long journey from Buzz to what it is today!... has a couple of articles (inc it's cover story) on "The Emerging Church" in it's April Issue - an interview with Brian McLaren and a piece by Scott McKnight...  the McLaren interview is disappointing as it focusses primarily on asking him to respond to others criticisms/views on him (including 2 questions on Abortion!?) rather than giving him space to talk about what is energising him right now... the final question (Do you think the church of the west is closer or further away from authentic Christianity compared to previous times over the past 2,000 years?) is interesting and on it's own would have made a far more interesting article! 
McKnight's article suffers from trying to say it all, to be Emerging Church 101, but  to be fair he does it well.  It's actually a condensed version of a lecture given at Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia.  McKnight takes the 9) signs from Gibbs and Bolger's "Emerging Churches" and distills them into 5...

1. Prophetic - challenging the status quo - calling the church to a more radical lifestyle of faith
2. Post-modern - he makes a distinction between ministering to post-moderns, ministering with post-moderns and being post-moderns to be honest I find this a bit unhelpful, I don't see the to as he puts it "seeing post-moderns as trapped in moral relativism and epistemological bankruptcy out of which they must be rescued" as being "emerging"... I'm not sure how one can minister with or be post-modern without questioning the precepts of modern christianity?
3. Praxis-orientated - McKnight does stress here that for emerging christians works are not the way to salvation but a direct (and necsessary) product of grace - what we are given we shall give, practising the "way of Jesus" as he (and Gibbs and Bolger) puts it. Are we truly reconciled with God if that reconciliation does not lead to lives of reconciliation!?
4. Post-evangelical - for McKnight this is a matter of inclusivity vs exclusivity both in terms of hermeneutics (the suspicion of systematic theology, of consensus, of static theology) and in terms of soteriology (with differing views!)
5. Political - left leaning, concerned with social justice, freedom etc.

This is a bit of a whistle stop tour and there is much that is left unsaid by McKnight and some which is said too simplistically (no criticism intended, it's only one article after all!).  On the whole it's a helpful introduction to some of the emerging scene, though it's a shame it is so heavily rooted in the US experience - of course McKnight is American but this is a British Magazine!  This is no more evident in the selected "KEY Influences within UK Emerging Church Circles" - McLaren, NT Wright, Steve Chalke, Rob Bell, Shane Claiborne and Erwin McManus - whilst I have the up most respect for these guys, I think it's fair to say that McLaren and Wright have been KEY influences, Claiborne a later but influential voice, the others whilst having important contributions to make are not what I would call KEY influences.  I would see names like Newbiggin, Nouwen, Bosch, Donovan, Tomlinson, Frost and Hirsch, Joseph Myers, Pete Rollins, Pete Ward and Jonny Baker etc. as be more notably influential "within UK Emerging Church circles".

Christianity Magazine

Technorati Tags: Christmas: Church: Emerging Church: Media

Talking about Pete Rollins talking to Phyllis Tickle

The first of these two videos talks about what Tickle calls "emergence christianity" (in an attempt to get past the Ermergent or emerging confusion) and goes on to explore what that looks like in community... I have to be honest I couldn't accept Tickles premise in "The Great Emergence" that there are these great moments in History every 500 years but I did find her observations themselves helpful... I'm privileged to count Pete as a friend and have always loved his bardic spirit, the way he captures truths in story and poetry not in propositions and arguments... in the first video there are two things that stand out for me... first, Lyotard's description of post-modernity as a condition not an ideology - it is something we feel rather than decide - Pete likens the what has become known as the emerging conversation/church to this - it is not something one joins or reasons but something one feels, something which emerges from all the elements; spirit, culture, person, scripture, story etc.  it's not an academic discovery but one from the heart.  For me (and for many I've talked to) I began to associate myself with the words emerging/emergent/emergence not because I was convinced by a writer/teologian but because I recognised myself in the way others used those words... so rather than following a leader I found myself being reflected back thus I felt myself a peer rather than a disciple of those speaking in the emerging conversation.  I didn't join the emerging church I am the emerging church!

Secondly, he describes the nature of community for him, I guess he is a little difficult to grasp on this.  Pete talks about a Donut Church - a church with nothing at the centre... "Oh but surely God is at the centre!" I hear you cry... but I think he is asking us to think about that.  What I hear is that the "Church" is not an entity in it's own right, there is no being called "the Church" which has responsibility for the people... we often perceive there is and that entity/centre being manifest in the leadership... "the Church" he says has no pastoral responsibility for you.  Pete says "we don't care about you" because their is no centralised "we" - there is only each other, as Pete puts it "the person net to you cares for you, if they don't your in trouble"... in other words the community does not exists other that in the net of relationships... In some ways this reflects Theseus's paradox otherwise told as the tale of George Washington's Axe, personally I like Terry Pratchetts version...

This, milord, is my family's axe. We have owned it for almost nine hundred years, see. Of course, sometimes it needed a new blade. And sometimes it has required a new handle, new designs on the metalwork, a little refreshing of the ornamentation . . . but is this not the nine hundred-year-old axe of my family? And because it has changed gently over time, it is still a pretty good axe, y'know. Pretty good.

Pete, I think suggests that we simply let go of the illusion of entity and see the significance of the interplay between the current parts... thus community is not held by the mythical entity embodied by a central leadership but by the network of individual commitment to care/love.  Therefore rather than saying God  is at the centre, we feel God in the synapses and moment that connect us.  Which sort of leads into the second video where Pete talks about the idea that God is not the desription/name we use to describe the effect of God, but the effect itself - the wind of a traumtaic event not the way we describe the event. We experience God like light - we percieve light because of the effect it has on objects not as an object itslef, light is beautiful because of the way it reflects off surfaces, colours, textures etc. We can say the same of sound, we experience sound because of the effect the waves have on our bodies.

There are a couple more videos which talk about the wrestling spirit of emergence christianity and it's relationship with the inherited church... the latter one has some important things to say, which Pete was exploring last year at Greenbelt, which I may blog about later... but I'll let you chase those down yourself ;-)

Technorati Tags: Blogging: Christianity: Community: Culture: Emerging Church: Fresh Expressions: Great Emergence: Missional Synchro-Blog: Post-Modernity: Spirituality: theology: Video: Web 2.0

Something Beautiful... Me!

I'm not blowing my own sartorial trumpet here... it's just that part one of my podcast interview for "Something Beautiful" is now available for download... listen here - http://www.somethingbeautifulpodcast.com/category/podcast/

Technorati Tags: Christianity: Culture: Emerging Church: Fresh Expressions: Missional: new-monasticism: Podcast: safespace: Sanktuary: Telford: Web 2.0

Scraping off the Shit - Maundy Thursday liturgy

Our Foot washing Liturgy from last year seems to be getting a load of hits at the moment... so to be helpful I'm bumping it :)

http://markjberry.blogs.com/scraping.pdf

It's included in "Navigatio" our book published by Proost

Scraping off the Shit
(A large bowl of water and Towels)

Jesus knew that the Father had put him in complete charge of everything, that he came from God and was on his way back to God. So he got up from the supper table, set aside his robe, and put on an apron. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the feet of the disciples, drying them with his apron. When he got to Simon Peter, Peter said, “Master, you wash my feet?” Jesus answered, “You don't understand now what I'm doing, but it will be clear enough to you later.” Peter persisted, “You're not going to wash my feet-ever!” Jesus said, “If I don't wash you, you can't be part of what I'm doing.” “Master!” said Peter. “Not only my feet, then. Wash my hands! Wash my head!” Jesus said, “If you've had a bath in the morning, you only need your feet washed now and you're clean from head to toe. My concern, you understand, is holiness, not hygiene. So now you're clean. But not every one of you.” (He knew who was betraying him. That's why he said, “Not every one of you.”) After he had finished washing their feet, he took his robe, put it back on, and went back to his place at the table. Then he said, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You address me as ‘Teacher' and ‘Master,’ and rightly so. That is what I am. So if I, the Master and Teacher, washed your feet, you must now wash each other's feet. I've laid down a pattern for you. What I've done, you do.
John 13v3-17

Scraping off the shit
Where we walk, we walk in the crap left by others, by ourselves, the mess of human lives, the comings and goings of a wasteful, corrupt and selfish world, we wallow in the dirt and the hurt, oblivious to the stink and the stains that we carry with us. God stripped off his finery, stepped in our shit, knelt in it, touched it, held our ugliest bits in his very hands and washed them clean.

Hands which formed matter; Pulse which set the rhythm of the planets; Breath which stirred life into being; Mind which dreamt the diversity of the species; Eyes which bore deep into the heart of humanity; Heart which yearns for us to choose peace; Feet that walk each step with us; Mouth which chides and comforts; Arms which embrace the hurting; Strength which sustains the weak; Life which was given up for love; Creator who scrapes the shit off my feet; God who serves.
Wash me clean

Where I judge others
Where I dismiss others
Where I abuse others
Where I ignore others
Where I ridicule others
Where I use others
Wash me clean

Where I elevate myself
Where I think only of myself
Where I want only for myself
Where I gather to myself
Where I hold to myself
Where I value only myself
Wash me clean

Where I seek for power
Where I seek for control
Where I seek for praise
Where I seek for status
Where I seek for fame
Where I seek for wealth
Wash me clean

This story of service and servant-hood begins by washing the feet of each other; we are a community of service, we serve each other, we serve the people we meet on the road, we serve the town in which we live, we serve the servant God, who as the God who became flesh and blood and lived amongst us chose to get right down and dirty in the shit and stink of human life to wash the feet of those he lived with. So we wash each others feet.
[Washing of feet]

What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Micah 6v8

The challenge for us is that instead of pointing to the rubbish others have accumulated from a place of “holier than thou” judgment, calling them to lift themselves out of the mire, we like Jesus bend and kneel amongst the dirt and the hurt, we get right amongst it, see it up close, feel it, smell it, risk its contamination… and wash the feet of those we serve.

May I become at all times, both now and forever
A protector for those without protection
A guide for those who have lost their way
A ship for those with oceans to cross
A bridge for those with rivers to cross
A sanctuary for those in danger
A lamp for those without light
A place of refuge for those who lack shelter
And a servant to all in need.

In that moment at the table Jesus was host and servant, head of the table and servant, honoured guest and lowest member of staff, holy and humble one. Stripping himself of all status and authority he calls us to a humility that flies in the face of modern culture and human logic, to a holiness that follows his pattern, to love in the name of the Servant God.

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An Upside down ecclesiology?

These are the people who conspicuously share instead of consuming. They practice Jubilee rather than accumulate wealth....They give without expecting a return...They love without regard to label or obligation. They penetrate boxes marked "Stigma." They express an unequivocal concern for the poor and destitute. They look and move down the ladder. They don't take their own religious structures too seriously...They serve instead of dominate. They prefer invitation to force...Love replaces hate among these folk. Even enemies are loved. Basins replace swords in this society. These people share power, love aggressively, and make peace. They flatten hierarchies and behave like children. Compassion replaces ambition among them and equality supercedes competition and achievement.

From  "The Upside-Down Kingdom" (Donald B. Kraybill)  quoted by Ginny Hunt  (NextReformation)

Technorati Tags: Books: Christianity: Church: Community: Emerging Church: Missional