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| What’s your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com |
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| You scored as Emergent/Postmodern
You are Emergent/Postmodern in your theology. You feel alienated from older forms of church, you don’t think they connect to modern culture very well. No one knows the whole truth about God, and we have much to learn from each other, and so learning takes place in dialogue. Evangelism should take place in relationships rather than through crusades and altar-calls. People are interested in spirituality and want to ask questions, so the church should help them to do this.
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I took this entertaining quiz, what is your theological worldview?
Pretty funny stuff, as probably the two spheres I operate most in are the charismatic/pentecostal and the reformed evangelical… ho hum.
ht: hamo
I enjoyed the conference on New Monasticism, jointly organised by the Anabaptist network, and the Northumbria community.
Not being part of either of these networks, but interested in both, we went along without much of an idea of what the event would be like. We found it both encouraging and inspiring.
The morning sessions included a time of worship led by the Northumbrians who took us through their morning office. Then Pete Askew of the community introduced Stuart Murray Williams of the Anabaptist network, and Roy Searle of the Northumbria Community. Roy plays cricket with my old P.E. teacher!
There followed two talks - one about Anabaptism, which I went to, and one about the Northumbrian community which Kel went to. I found the explanation of the history of Anabaptism very interesting, and was able to corner Murray Williams at lunch time to quiz him on whether Anabaptists, with their adherence to non violence and peace making, can take an active part in politics outside of anarchism. His answer boiled down to: “there are a number of different opinions about that!”
I also bumped into Mark Berry, the emerging church leader from Telford, who I recognised from his dodgy hair do. It was nice to have a chat, after having commented on his blog occasionally and read a lot about what he’s doing over there.
Other emerging church types knocking about included Ian Mobsby from Moot in London, and Ian Adams from Maybe in Oxford among others.
Brother Samuel from the Aglican order of Franciscans added a touch of gravitas and extra dollops of wisdom. Although he’s not a ‘new monastic’ it is fair to say that his order is less than ancient itself! I really agreed with his remark that one of the key things for a committed ‘monastic’ type community is that they work together manually. His comment ‘there is some very deep spiritual wisdom in making bread’ is so true.
After lunch there was a choice of workshops - I went to a discussion between Ian Mobsby and Brother Samuel - conparing and contrasting the old monastics and the new. Just how monastic are the new monastics? Good question. One of the main themes coming out, and well made by Mobsby and others, was that its more about being frianrs than being monks.
The distinction being that Monks tended to seclude themselves, while friars went out into the community to live out their faith. This is true to a degree, but of course only really applies to certain streams of monkism. Anyhow, I liked the concpet of ‘re-friaring’ the church, but it’s easier to say re-monking!
This session allowed more of a discourse between those in the meeting and the speakers than the first session had - which was very valuable.
More conversations and question and answer sessions followed, with a final session of worship in an Anabaptist style, which included a lovely way of singing the Shema Yisrael among other things.
In all, Kel and I were both really encouraged by what we saw, and the people we met. There were a lot of different types of people there, from the rather posh, to the decidedly not posh - from the emerging church smoothies to the Jesus Army. I’d have liked to have seen some more of the missionary community there, and perhaps some of the 24/7 folk, but that would have just been more icing on an already rich cake.
Well done to all the organisers, I thought it provided a good platform for those who are interested in finding out what others are doing in this area, but arent perhaps able to make all of the connections themselves! Looking forward to more.
there’s a really good interview with Pete Rollins, of the Belfast based Ikon, on the Wittenburg door at the moment. It’s well worth a read, as it is fair to say he’s ‘quite clever’.
For example, when askedabout his ‘belief that the truth in Christianity is not described but experiential?’ he responds: “In a sense I would not even want to say that the truth of Christianity is experiential in so much as the truth of Christianity is life and life is not experienced.”
hmmm. yup, good point.
Or when asked what it means to be a Christian: “It means entering into a journey of becoming one. It does not mean accepting a world view but rather entering into a healing journey of life. To be a Christian also means that one is committed to exploring this life through the Judeo-Christian tradition, wrestling with it, learning from it and being transformed by it. Being a Christian means learning how to be the opening of life into the world.”
nicely put.
I first heard about this on Jonny Baker’s blog, but since then I’ve seen it mentioned elsewhere too. Well worth a read.
Steve Hayes, writer of ‘Notes from Underground’ has been around the block a few times. Occasionally he writes lengthy and fascinating reminisinces of life in Southern Africa, and today he has provided one such, which gives a really valuable insight into the heritage of ‘new’ monasticism.
With vivid detail he recounts stories of past experiments with community living of different kinds, and the ways that some of these have ended (in most cases not well!) Perhaps one of the most fascinating accounts he gives is of early encounters with the ‘Children of God’, which took place before the move into flirty fishing, and so on.
But I think the most valuable part of this particular post, is just the depth it gives to some of what we talk about today, as if it were a new thing. It’s almost as if between the ancient and the present, nothing existed with any life, but this post reminds us of the ways in which folk have experimented and tried out different things, all of which is enormously valuable in terms of learning how to live in intentional community.
I strongly encourage keeping a watching eye on Steve’s blog, there is some real good stuff there.
The Anabaptists have got a great looking conference coming up in May, in the hope that there are still plenty of places, I’ll give it a plug here, they are running it in conjunction with the Northumbria community, and it’s called: ‘New Habits for a New Era? Exploring New Monasticsim.’
I’ve just printed off the booking form and providing we can make the necessary logistical arrangements, Kel and I will head up to Coventry in May, to hear what is said.
I thoroughly reccomend you investigate it…
in 1978, when I was just one year old, a hairy young groovester by the name of Brian McLaren was making records… I think after all the names he’s been called by people over the last few years, he’s extraordinarily brave publicising the fact that one of his old albums has recently been put up for a free download here, let’s just say that despite it’s vintage… well it aint quite punk.
Groovy! Nice jumper Brian.
It’s been great reading the guest blogs on backyard missionary from Jarrod McKenna - who has written eloquently about Ghandi - and the outworkings of what he said. The latest addition to the series is no exception!
McKenna seems an interesting an intelligent guy - and I was able to take a few minutes to read more about the work he does in Australia this morning. Seems like he’s in the same line as Shane Claiborne - the prominent activist from the US, and indeed the two reference one another here and there.
McKenna’s thoughts make inspirational and encouraging reading for anyone who wants to embrace the radical nature of the Christian faith - just as Shane’s book provides a good platform for those who want to learn what it means to live a Jesus following life - rather than just ‘be a Christian’. I did enjoy McKenna’s comment that if he were to write a book, it wouldnt be ‘how to live as an ordinary radical’ but rather “A how [not] to”.
McKenna also quips that: “Maybe our book would be called ‘The Resistible Revolution’ or ‘The Very Resistible Revolution’.”
I particularly like the focuses on peacemaking and community which both of these guys espouse - in my view this is integral to Christianity.
I would encourage anyone interested to read more about what Jarrod has to say in his guest blogs on bym, and to take a closer look at both the Simple Way community and EPYC in Oz.
one of the many happy tasks I’ve been plugging away at recently - is planning the UK conference, which we will hold on the 4th to 6th of January 2008, at Cefn Lea Park - nice place - especially if it snows.
so from the look of the graphic below - can you tell we’re devloping a celtic theme this year?
We’d love you to come, I’ll post more about it as time comes along, and you should be able to read more on the World Horizons UK website…
We did a half hour devotional on thursday - based around the idea of journey, and using the voyage of saint Brendan as an outline model - I’ve pasted it below in case anyone would find it useful.
Our guys found this a really useful exercise - good for relationship, good for personal reflection - good fun, worth a try!
As followers of Jesus, we are all on journeys, both as individuals in our personal spiritual walk, and as a group – on an adventure together.
Navigatio…
Today’s devotional time is based around the concept of journey, and we’re going to use as a starting point the story of Saint Brendan the Navigator, who sailed from Ireland to America in a small boat made of animal skins.
To follow the voyage of Saint Brendan, we are going to split into groups to take our own journey. Each group will be given a number 1 to 5, and they will each start at the corresponding station in the journey (group 1 at point 1, etc.) At the sound of the bell, each group will move to the next station on their journey, one person should read aloud to the group whatever is on the sheet found at that station.
At each point there will be a small piece of the story of Brendan the Navigator’s journey, and an exercise to do, either individually or as a group.
After the 5 points have been visited, the groups will return to the meeting room.
Text for station 1) Brendan set sail from Ireland – not knowing for certain where he would end up. He embarked on a journey – desperate to reach the promised land. His desperation led to him setting sail into the unknown, in a boat made of wicker and cow hide.
Reflect for a moment on what lengths you would go to, in order to pursue God’s calling. Are there places you would refuse to go to, or lengths to which you would not extend yourself? Ask God to reveal these to you, and ask him to help you face your fears.
Text for station 2) Brendan chose fourteen monks to accompany him on his journey, but as they were about to set off, three others asked to join them. Two of these were motivated by wrongful thoughts, and were found out.
Reflect and ask God to reveal to you any wrongful motivations for things you are involved in, and ask him to root out of you any pride, selfishness, or desire for earthly gain.
Text for station 3) The story of Brendan’s journey was long regarded as totally fanciful, until someone attempted a similar voyage, and found it is actually possible to sail across the Atlantic in such a boat.
Reflect on the inadequacy of human knowledge – how little we know of the world around us, and how much less we know of God. Ask God to help you to hold your own beliefs in humility, and respect others – even when they seem crazy.
Text for station 4) One of the amazing parts of Brendan’s voyage is a story of finding Judas Iscariot on a rock in the middle of the ocean.
Share with the group the one Bible character (excluding Jesus) that you would wish to meet and talk to today…
Text for station 5) Brendan the navigator set sail with no map, no gps, no rescue service as back up. He relied on the courage of his firm convictions, and a dogged belief in his mission.
If you feel able, share with the group a challenge that you would like the courage to take on. Keep it short, and don’t elaborate too much – allow others to share the burden with you.
Note: If you are interested in reading about the voyage of Saint Brendan yourself - the translation of his famous account can be found here.
A few people have asked me about the group meditation material we have been using at World Horizons UK as part of our corporate devotional times.
So in case anyone wants to use it, I’ve pasted one of the recent scripted meditations below.
In explanation - this is written by me, but based on what has gone before - visualised meditations that I have read - as written by others. I think its great to share these things, and if anyone wants to mash this one up a bit - please do - I’d love to hear about it if you do. Should say too that its obviously based on the kind of visualisation exercise that Ignatius of Loyola was keen on.
These kind of meditations only form a small part of the wealth of ways of approaching the Bible and Jesus - so use them sparingly is my advice - and be sensitive to who you have in your group - these things will upset some people whose imaginations are particularly sensitive!
You might find it useful to use some quiet ambient music in the background when you do these things - but it must be really unobtrusive to avoid disturbing the multi sensory approach - you could make something in ableton live to do the job - I did that today and it seemed to work quite well. If not - the old Late Late service CD’s may hold useful stuff, as well as the stuff coming out of Grace in London [via proost] - and others too.
I prefer not to use secular material for the following reason - not because I think it is intrinsically bad, but because I think that in this situation it can prove to be a stumbling block to some… they might be wrong, but this is not an appropriate time to deal with that.
So anyway - here’s the text, hope its useful.
Sea of Galilee meditation
This is a led meditation, where we are going to put our minds into the place of a character from the Bible, the aim of the exercise is to experience an encounter with Jesus.
In this one we’re going to use the story leading up to the call of the first disciples, found in Luke chapter 5. (Read passage.)
It’s important to find yourself a comfortable position where you can relax and concentrate on your meditation. Try a straight back and feet flat on the floor - or kneeling. If you find yourself losing concentration, just rest for a moment and then refocus yourself.
If you can’t get on with the meditation at all, don’t worry, but please sit quietly so that others can concentrate more readily.
Close your eyes.
Take a moment to acknowledge the darkness, to get used to seeing nothing.
Let the darkness clear…
You are in a boat on the sea of galilee, you and your brother.
Picture the boat you are in…
Can you hear the waves rippling past you? The wood of your boat creaking?
Can you feel the boat rock beneath you?
Dip your hand into the water, is it cold to the touch?
What can you smell in the air?
You are on the way back from a long hard night of fishing.
What are you doing in the boat now? Where is your brother?
Is the sun shining above you?
Can you feel wind against your face?
It’s early morning, you’ve been fishing all night, how does your body feel?
You are heading to the shore, feeling the wind straining at the sail, you are almost home, nearly finished your fishing trip, looking forward to a rest.
As you look at the shore, you can see a crowd of people, listening to a rabbi teach.
The young rabbi you can recognise as Jesus, you have heard of him, a bold preacher – a radical, someone worthy of great respect.
But you are a nobody, you weren’t good enough to be a rabbi’s disciple, so you’ve become a fisherman, working the sea of galilee with your partners.
And you’re not even a great fisherman, last night you caught nothing.
How do you feel in your heart?
What can you taste in your mouth as you consider your failures?
Look up, someone is calling out to you – it’s Jesus.
How does he look at you? What do you see in his eyes?
He wants you to let him in to your boat, he’s being pressed to the water’s edge by the crowds.
Feel your tiredness melt away as you rush to serve the holy man.
What do you need to make ready in your boat?
And the rabbi is approaching, wading through the waves to your boat, as you reach out to help him on board – how do you feel?
As he settles himself in the boat, to continue his teaching, what are you thinking?
You, the failure, the scruffy fisherman with a reputation for being a bit rough and ready, the man who wasn’t good enough to be a rabbi’s disciple, not good for much except working the sea…
Now you’ve been given a front row seat for the biggest show in town, this is the guy who everyone is talking about, and he’s in your boat!
Jesus has finished teaching and now he’s looking at you again – what is he saying?
He wants you to go back out into the deep water – and put your nets out….
Time to confess your failure – you’re a rubbish fisherman – how does your stomach feel as you admit your failure to the master?
Why does he want to show you up again? What is he trying to prove?
But you cant go against the rabbi – you lower your nets into the deep water, as the nets sink, feel the sinking feeling in your heart too – you know what is coming….
Then feel the strain on the nets…
Feel your muscles tense, there’s something in the net…
The nets are beginning to tear… feel the adrenalin rush through your body…
You wave wildly to the other boat to come and help you, there are so many fish the boats are going to sink – your heart is pounding – look over at Jesus, what is he doing?
What is going through your mind?
Who is this man?
What would you say if he asked you to abandon everything, even this massive catch of fish, even your boat, even your family, to follow him?
is this one by Andy Wilson of 24/7 prayer, who has moved to Canada to found an urban monastery. Monasticism and community expression of Jesus following has been something that has captured my attention very much recently, we’ve been delving into some of the old style meditation patterns at World Horizons, so expect more of that soon…
many moons ago I lived in Manchester and Salford, in fact Kel and I got married while we were students there. I was both a student there for three years, and also worked there as a hack for while longer - learning the craft from some serious old timers.
Anyway, I digress - one of the first people I knew there was a girl called Liz, we had both been on gap years with Oasis Trust, so we had stuff in common. When I was a fresher Liz introduced me to people and got me in to the CU etc, she’s a great person.
So when Kel and I flew out from Manchester in July, it was an obvious opportunity to see Liz, who we get to see much too little.
And it turns out that Liz and others who I used to know are now part of a cafe church thing going on in Manchester, she told me the name, but I cant find any trace on the web. It’s not Sanctus 1, who seem to be pretty well represented on the internet, but another outfit. The reason I found this particularly interesting anyway, is that its indicative of how so many of us, with similar backgrounds, but quite independantly have ended up going down this same road.
There seems to be a genuine consensus from people of my generation that what we are looking for in Church is no longer to be found best represented in the traditional situations - and so we improvise, getting messy with loose structures, and non hierachical leaderships - maybe there is something in this whole generation thing after all… even though depending on whom you read I’m either a Gen X’er or a Millenial, or even a Gen Y’er, or if you listen to the Jesus Army, I’m Generation J….
Whatever anyway, its encouraging when you find people you respect have come to some of the same conclusions as you, and I respect Liz!
While we were in Cambodia, I was reading Shane Claiborne’s book, The Irresistable revolution, which I can thotoughly reccomend as an interesting and challenging read. I am thinking of reviewing it here, but I am sure you’ll find interesting text about it easily enough yourself.
One of the main points it left me thinking about is community and relationship, and how we live Christianity. Interestingly enough Maggie Dawn writes about that on her blog at the moment.
Good gracious, there was me thinking they were busy hiding in caves and plotting Jihad, but in fact they are reading Brian McLaren and posting comments on tallskinnykiwi, in a desperate attempt to muddle us so much, we are incapable of resisting their tyranny!
And here’s me just wanting to talk about carbon footprints…
Yes, if you didnt know this, read all about it here, thanks to mr skinny kiwi for the tip off!
Now if you dont mind some muslims are keen to establish a Kaliphate in my backyard, and I want to check they are paying the workers a fair price for weaving those headscarves and veils….
In case you cant be bothered to read the article (who can blame you) here’s a highlight: “If the world is to be saved from Muslim conquest, it will be America who does it. And if America is to be saved, only conservatism can do it. And if conservatism is to be saved, it will be those Bible-believing patriots who do it–those conservative, evangelical Christians who are the bedrock of the American way of life.”
Cool huh!
a good interview with Jonny Baker is available on the Allelon site, Jonny is interviewed by Alan Roxburgh, who is an intelligent and insightful interviewer - although looking at him on his site, he does look a bit like Hannibal out of the A team!
Again this is a good listen, as was the earlier interview with Andrew Jones, which proved to be very illuminating too.
I do like the description of Jonny as a ‘younger leader’, very tactful… younger than who would be my question…
I must say though - Jonny may not be ALL that young, but he’s certainly a great thinker, a great do-er, and a great writer, great leader, I reckon he’s probably a great guy altogether… typical!
I picked this link up from Mark Berry’s great blog the other day, and only got a chance to listen to it tonight. It’s a challenging call to a radical lifestyle which eludes most of us, including me.
If you read about him, please dont be put off by people calling him naff things like ‘the coolest Christian ever’ he has something important to say, and I dont get the impression that he is so ‘cool’ he’s stuck up his own orifice, on the contrary, living in community probably helps him have a very healthy sense of self.
I personally find voices like Claiborne’s both encouraging and convicting at the same time, his is a call to a very different way of living, one which presents massive challenges to all of us.
While I like to think I identify with what he says, in my heart I know that I fall way short of the standard that he and others in his community set in terms of how they live together, I guess he’s a kind of John the Baptist voice, he looks a bit like him too. With glasses though…
Perhaps because I’m ignorant, or just not well enough versed in the right literature, but while I am well aware of the phenomenom of ‘new monasticism’, I hadnt heard of Claiborne before, I am glad I now have. Well worth checking this out.
He also has his own homepage, should you wish to read more, and cant be bothered to google him…
Talking of Mark Berry, by the way, I think he will be hooking up with us in South Wales sometime in the autumn, to lead an evening of prayer/worship. Should be fun.
The excellent Steve at Emergent Kiwi asked a few days ago whether there is a place for the mission agency. I think the question was, ‘is there a mission agency for the missional church?‘ That original post has been followed up by this one and this one.
This has provoked some interesting responses, not least from Jonny Baker, whose opinion is always worth hearing (in my experience) and whose blog is great.
Jonny seems a little defensive of his position as a mission agency worker, Steve felt that he was going to be got at by mission agency people for saying he doesnt think there is a place for the mission agency in mission.
Its interesting, especially for people like me, who are so called missionaries. I work for World Horizons, which is in a sense a mission agency, except that we arent.
We are a movement, a group of people who work together, from various different places around the world, and have a common cause, to bring the good news to the unreached, and most importantly to follow our God.
We are a distinct community within the church, as we share a common culture, (across denominational, national, ethnic and etc boundaries), but does that make us para church? I dont see how.
We are all part of the church, most of us are linked to at least one local fellowship, usually more than one. We generally work in the context of local fellowships, but we work beyond that too, we’re one with the global body of Christ.
Jonny’s agency, CMS, have been around a lot longer than us, (about ten times as long) and they have their own perhaps more distinct identity. But the way I look at it is this, in any fellowship I have been part of, no matter how small or large, there are always delegated tasks, someone to wash up, someone to write stuff down, someone who leads some prayer… etc.
I agree that the idea of an agency existing completely outside the church is dodgy, that’s a sect isnt it? but lets be clear, there arent many of them knocking about - I dont think anyhow.
Missions are more or less relational, WH is very relational, to the point where we’re somewhat inefficient. others are very efficient, some have lots of money, others none. Some like CMS pay people, others like WH dont pay anyone.
But the thing of it is, that we’re all in this task together, we as the church are in it. It makes sense to use specialist skills where they exist, and to consolidate things where we can. But its not good to consign as para church groups which exist as part of the church.
I dont think this is what Steve Taylor was doing by the way, my impression of him is that he is a great guy, who is pioneering a wonderfully missional fellowship in new Zealand. I am sure he uses resources from time to time in order to take their expression of mission forward, and those resources will be produced no doubt by specialist groups.
I must say though that both Steve and Jonny are much better versed in all this sort of thing, especially the language and meanings than I am, and I may have missed some vital points along the way… forgive me if I have. Just my two pennorth (never shy of giving that - ho hum.)
Driving back from the a meeting a few weeks ago (May 10th), I was listening to Material World on BBC radio 4. It’s a great programme, which makes scientific matters interesting and accesible even to dullards like me.
In this particular edition, they were discussing cafe scientifique, which I had never heard of before (shame shame shame).
Cafe Sci, for any as ignorant as me, are informal settings where anyone can go and hear about some scientific topic, and enter into open discussion. There is probably one near you, see the Cafe Sci website.
So there were a few key quotes that made me laugh, because of how they echoed things I have heard about new expressions of Church.
Here’s a couple of great examples:
“… lets get away from the stuffy way of presenting…”
“… its really difficult to get an audience… we put a lot of effort into trying to reach folk… its easy to reach academics and students, but we want people who have never thought of science before… reaching them is the challenge…”
“… people may never cross the threshhold because of prejudices and past experiences…”
“… the japanese government think that cafe scientifique is a way of getting people to like science again, and its very much not that, its not a science establishment attempt to recruit support, its about making science democratic, and letting the citizen contribute…”
“… we have to constantly tweak it…”
“… some scientists are much better than others at talking!”
All good stuff.
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