Passion

You don't have to go far in the blogging world to find people blogging about what is wrong with the church. Some say it is bad theology, others a lack of prayer, I tend to bang on about the need to be missional, while others comment that we need to take a marketing approach, some point to hypocrisy, the failure to deal with issues of justice, a lack of love for the poor, failure of community - too much community etc.

I think they are all right, they all point to failures, and as we might expect dealing with these issues may well help reverse the trends, while at the same time highlighting others. One thing is for certain in organisational dynamics whenever something begins to fall over - the knives often turn inward, we look at someone or something to blame.

Another institution which I have a great deal of interest in is my home Football Club, Middlesbrough FC, now when I was a kid living in the north east I was a Liverpool supporter, however when I came to NZ, MFC became a way of me connecting with the bigger picture of who I am, the team gave me sense of connectedness, roots. The Tees is my river, the riverside stadium is my mountain – this is how I know what home is. Middlesbrough like the Church in general has issues they are struggling, the fan base is faltering, they lose when they should win and make stupid mistakes constantly – I said they were like the average Church. They have some real issues, and the knives have turned inwards – it's the manager, it's the goal keeper, it's the lack of strikers, it's the weak midfield, and the heave handed defence, it's the lack of money at the club. While all these reasons for failure are right and dealing with them (like the Church) may reverses the trend I think they also highlight other inadequacies.

The solution the club has come up with I think is brilliant – rather then turning the knives inward they are calling for people to renew their passion for the club, to scream, yell and roar their support so that when teams come they are playing 11 men plus 30000 on the bench. They are encouraging people to be passionate – to do this they have put out a video with a young guy who embodies the club, he's a local lad made good and in that represents 1000 and 1000 of teenagers in and around Middlesbrough. He isn't the most eloquent speaker, nor is he a 'pretty picture' but he embodies passion. I watched it and got shivers down my spine, while it won't make me go out and buy a season ticket, it does make me proud to be part of something bigger.

Passion for the gospel – as good news for all seems to be one thing I see missing in the Church, I myself often find myself feeling ho-hum after attending Church, and I know that many feel that way – things aren't going that well and the passion seems to have gone. I still love Jesus more than ever but sometimes hanging around with his bride can be a little dull. I wonder whether we could reinstall some passion in each other through a similar approach to MFC and put the knives away…

Video link is here: David Wheater - Passion

Have yourself a Hallmark Christmas – NOT!

I have some pet hates – but possibly the biggest is Hallmark sentimentality and it's bastard child the Hallmark Christmas and Hall mark Christianity – it's the sort of thing that comes out with stupid statements like -Jesus loves you because you are really special. What drivel.

Humbug to Hallmark Christmas greetings!

Christmas Pageants?

I am not sure how many Christmas Pageants/nativity plays I have witnessed but some things always seem to stand out – Joseph is normally a good 30 plus years older than the 7 year old Virgin Mary (I always got the impression Joseph was older but surely not a paedophile). The angels look like they are queuing for a Spice Girls reunion concert. The kids looked board and the shepherds have tea towels on their heads (I wonder whether the average Pakeha has thought how culturally offensive that is to Maori). And this is the Church telling the world about the incarnation – God made Flesh, is suspect that we largely miss the plot. Its theology inspired by Christmas cards not the bible, and I sincerely hope that we can do better…

The Image with this post is an email card sent by a friend – it's a 'mick take' of my home town (it's called Nativity in Middlesbrough) which has one of the highest crime rates in Britain, but probably speaks more of the need for the Church to incarnate itself and come alive in our culture than a 1000 bad nativity plays.

Well Something’s Emerging (HOPE).

About 13 years ago I attended Parachute Festival, along with copious amounts of Christian bands I ended up at several workshops and worship events that sparked a light in me. The speakers that really hit me were the Ozzie Biker Dude John Smith, Futurist Tom Sine and a worship event ran by some people from Cityside Church in Auckland – Parallel Universe. It opened me as a very young Christian up to a sea of possibilities, and a new slant on my faith journey – I was introduced to things like; being incarnational, community and taking the ordinary things of life and making them sacred – three themes that the scriptures are full off but I had not heard much of in Church… From there I have been challenged to think missionaly, to try and see where God is at work, etc.

Not only did I see passion for Jesus through this Trinity but possibilities for creating, embracing, and promoting a view of spirituality that made a lot more sense to me – at the time it filled me with hope, but over the last 13 years that hope has often tasted like despair. The journey took me through many experiments, good and bad till I have come to a place where – I think I can see God at work, and I think I understand more of how we get alongside that work.

Like maturing cheese it's taken a while but something good is emerging because not only does this make sense to me I have over the past few years helped others see s view of God's work in the world that is new to them and makes sense to them. I guess for me something has emerged and as I look around NZ I can see something emerging for others too. Dare I say it I believe the future looks promising for the Church, I am full of hope for what God is doing and for the ability of the Church to get on board with God's Work. I guess just like there is no resurrection without Good Friday so a journey of hope needs to come through and navigate a valley of despair…

What shape (youth) ministry?

In my current role I get to reflect upon the shape that youth ministry can take in the life of a church – it can be exciting to dream possibilities but also frustrating to know that largely they remain dreams. I am hanging out to go back to pastoral ministry but not as a youth pastor. My hope is that I can help guide a Church into being mission focused, how will I do that? Well largely through many of the reflections I have made based on my practice and others of youth ministry… It seems to me that in order for a church to grapple effectively with mission it needs to 'see the waves coming' and then surf them… Youth ministry seems to feel the waves before the wider Church, it's the prophetic edge, the missional edge. I believe that a church that utilizes and embraces and builds an effective youth ministry can also reach the wider community more effectively. A church that learns how to disciple young people will effectively be able to disciple the wider community too…

Sometimes it's fun being a youth worker for Jesus J

 

PS my spell checker wants to change the word missional for fissional, interesting movement?

Toru leadership reflections

 

When I think about leadership much of my understanding and approach is shaped by my understanding of scripture and theological themes. I come from a cultural background where leadership is and class are connected 'done by others, it is not done by us we merely take orders.' Leadership is what the foreman, the principle, the government did (class system) – there was no concept of leadership or expressions in my family – 'working class people are not leaders'. To come into the Christian faith then was to come into contact with a stream of thought that not only challenged the world I had grown up in but faith offered an opportunity to challenge and change my life direction. The role of leadership and the type of leadership that I gravitated to then was essentially shaped by my early life and what I read in the scriptures.

Leadership for me also comes with a high level of tension on one hand I don't want to be a leader, and on the other I realise that there is a call only life to lead others and that whether I like it or not people look to me for leadership. This entails I have no issue with being lead by others when the need and the situation arises. Leadership and the call to be a leader come then for me from a call to ministry, and an understanding of ministry. When I talk of leadership the word could just as easily be replaced by ministry or even discipleship – as at the end of the day one is a reflection of the other. Discipleship is the task, ministry is the context and leadership is the means necessary to disciple others. Leadership for me is about encouraging developing others to become leaders also

 

Theological themes:

Missio Dei - Incarnation: One of the earliest themes we are introduced to in the creation account of Genesis one is the God that broods over the water – A God that is present in this world, a God that has a mission. The incarnation is the New Testament realisation of this God has moved into the neighbourhood – in fact he has always been in the neighbourhood and continues to be at work creating recreating hiding in the whispers of this world. In terms of leadership this for me means that I am not alone – that God is with me and the leadership/ministry/discipleship task is to look for God's foot prints to make sense and give meaning to what is happening - God is at work – he calls the church to work alongside of Him in this task. Leadership then is about; interpreting, listening, visualizing for others, relationship

Imago Dei – Kingdom of God: A second theme is of God making humanity in His image, while this can be interpreted in many ways one that speaks to me is that of the image of the statue at the gates of the city, in ancient time a person would know whose city/village this was by the image of the founder at the city gates. That is what I believe it means to be an image bearer that the world should be able to look at us as image bearers and see whose 'city' this is. Jesus further strengthens this with his call to people to become part of the Kingdom of God, as I would understand it in Luke's Gospel, Jesus talks about the Kingdom being present when the, blind see, the lame walk etc... The role of the church then is as statues to the living God, and as activist in making this place God's place, the Kingdom of God, whenever God's work is being done then there is the kingdom we are signs of that reality and agents in making that reality happen. Leadership then is about; influence, activism, doing justice (which cannot be separated from judgement), pointing other towards the reality of God in their midst. A leader is a sign post/statue that point others to Jesus (the role of John the Baptist would be crucial in demonstrating the role of the church too).

Vision/Prophetic: As a person I have been gifted/cursed with long sightedness, both physically and spiritually – I tend to see what is far off but miss what is under my nose. It's the gift of vision being able to point out possibilities, to think of implications to dream possibilities for myself and God people. This is also coupled with a call to be prophetic – God's mouthpiece to the Church. As a minister I have realised very early the best way to mute a prophet is to make them a priest – it is difficult to challenge from within unless you are prepared to be part of the solution. I have a love hate relationship with the Church as an institution. Leadership is about, imagining possible futures, standing on the fringes, listening to God and making sense of the situation, it is looking for opportunities in crisis and not being able to risk it all or to admit failure, challenging, understanding the past (the context of others) in order to lead them to the future.

Staying sane/ staying rooted: As a person I have often found ministry stressful, a major reason being related to the Peter Principle – where a person is often promoted beyond their level of competence. For me I came into ministry though an ability to relate/share the gospel with those who did not hang around churches. As the prophet is muted by becoming a Priest the evangelist is also muted in the same way. This for me lead to a huge stress I was outside of my comfort zone. So for me to stay rooted in what God has called me to and to demonstrate leadership -to encourage others to become committed disciple I spend a lot of my energy in encouraging others to go into the world. But I need to put my time and energy into that too, being surrounded by no one else other than Christians wears me down it makes my leadership ineffective. I call others to get involved but also get involved in the world outside church doors as a spiritual discipline. To lead others I need to be an example, rooted and renewed.

 

 

Leadership

Last week I was on a training course on leadership, as part of that course I was asked to reflect on my views of leadership, doing stuff like this I find interesting mainly because my journey into leadership has been an odd one – I come from a very working class family – and am proud of the fact that but part of that background recognises that leadership belongs to other classes. You are born into leadership by virtue of your class. So for me to have leadership thrust upon me is not something I aspire to or am ambitious for – it's just not my 'default' wiring…

However when I became a Christian I felt the call to make disciples and that is precisely where my leadership understanding and function comes from – the call of Christ not to be a leader but to make disciples – which by its very nature entails leadership.

 

All in all it was a worthwhile course – well done Toru..