I have posted the article that YOUTHWORK magazine ran on Off the Beaten track. I was looking at the simple church site which got me thinking again about missional church and definitions. So I thought I could post up the article if anyone was interested as it also gives a fair description of where I am coming from. Youthwork are inviting comments so feel free.
Tacking.doc
Today I will be mostly be feeling tired and grumpy. That’s not in reference to two of the seven dwarfs. Last week I also invented reverse winking where you start with eyes closed and open and close one. My creative side must be in full flow.
Just watched the Robert Beckford documentary that was on over Chirstmas. Who wrote the Bible. It was great intro to the historical context of the writers and writing, and raised some good issues. The links to Bush as an evangelical Christian were very interesting. Beckford made some excellent comments about where the Spirit is in the Bible today after his findings that related to the selective inclusions by the authorities who put together the final cannon.
I got my first dose of this MTV show today. Whilst i liked what they did with the cars, the positive use of the word pimp reminded me of a link to the F word site that had a great article questioning the corruption of the word pimp into something associated with style, fashion etc. It reminded me to post the link.
One bonus of spending Christmas at the inlaws is the option to check out the web. Not having broadband at home this seems like a good way to keep my head down the chaos that is Christmas. So far I have linked up to Banksy and a new christain manifesto from SoJo. Also they have sky and we watched Rabbit Proof Fence last night, great film.
Angel by banksy
I have put a new link to a missionary guy Keith Smith who is blogging as part of his site. Under the acacias is his site and he recently posted around the 10/40 window and emerging church. It got me thinking about how now we are more missionary minded in the west and the amount we “borrow” from the missionaries. I have been massively influenced by Donovan’s Christianity Rediscovered but it was only after Keith’s post that I got thinking about the amount I have “borrowed”. I wondered if I have been guilty of the same colonizing attitude of the past that I so often criticise. It got me thinking about how and in what ways this can be countered.
Great night out on Wednesday. The blokes I go to the pub with decided for a Christmas meal. In the end five of gathered for a sharpener in the local, then we taxied to the Cat in the Head (is this the weirdest name for a pub) Great food and five bottles of wine later we returned to the local for a swifty before closing. After good food and conversation we decided to try a new exploit and that in the new year we would inaugurate a pipe smoking club. (not that kind of pipe for all you youth workers on the edge out there) There was lots of conversations about which pipe would suit which person, (suggestions please). In the end we decided that we all main thing that drew us to the concept of pipes besides it general kitschness was we all liked the thought of tapping the pipe. It was ascertained I should be the chairman and in the new year we will have the first meeting of “the tappers�. That’s if anyone else remembers the conversation. There is also a couple of group who didn’t like the idea of smoking and my idea that they could have a liquorice pipe didn’t go down to well, so I need creative input on a way of including those who don’t smoke, any ideas along the tapping line.
Ben raises some good points (see comments on last post) and the praxis issue got me thinking. Thanks Ben I love your input keep it coming. So two points.
1. Ben raised a great point about people doing the restorative kingdom thing and that maybe that can only be described/labelled as church. But in someways Bens description of this, reinforces the need to move beyond labels that are used for shorthand. He laid out a case and his description of church is quite long, needs unpacking and processing through an irratative praxis that roots out what is really meant. This will lead to diversity, and growth.
2. I agree with Ben about the need for praxis, but just as the process (in bens terms the need for a powerless revolution) can change or corrupt the label, the DNA of the reflective cycle will mean the label can equally change or corrupt the process.
So are we back to the need for the long hand, labelless approach that starts with a clean sheet process, rather than a labelled process? Is this back to the post on constructive deconsruction? Hope all that made sense I have just got back from a retreat.
I have been thinking there is a link between our need to label church and the laziness of labels and how that post (labels) this links with the last post on painting over the cracks. I have been reading another Susan Howatch novel and in this one, one character refers to Jesus as the bloke, because as you read you have got to know the character Gavin, and you have got see his construct of Jesus, the bloke label fits perfectly – you understand Gavin’s worldview, and because of the process it becomes useful as a label rather than lazy shorthand. The Bloke language is also outside our names for Jesus so only works if know the process – maybe there is something here about re naming church. I always liked the names like Vurch as it resonated with the past label but was clearly something else. The issue/problem maybe when we go to the next stage to explain Vurch and use labels like emerging church
