At the Occassion on the 8th we had a excellent version of the Labyrith and Road the two ideas were combined and set out in a Flower shape with stations and areas many of which a creation theme. It was Sarah’s first ever trial with this sort of thing and it was great.
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Went to look at some houses today and saw a great one just need to sell ours. The state of flux around moving has been triggering all sorts of thoughts about church. Dropped in on some friends in Chard and Mark came out with the statement as joke that we need to be “in the church but not of the church”. Reflecting I was unsure whether it was the right way around. The alignment of church and state, the issues around what church has become, and the need for a new theology of church, has all caused me concern over the past few weeks. I want to be around the people and explore and grow towards community but am not sure of the current associations. All this reminded me of the Anabaptists, and I came across the article by Anne Wilkinson-Hayes
“>The key task of the church in this era is to reinvent herself for mission With the history of the Anabaptist’s I was encouraged to see the continued movement that the title of the article suggests. Following on this theme I am really into a notion that I am currently calling Process ecclesiology that sees the missionary endevour (when well thought out and open ended)as church. I am yet to fully develop the concept but began to explore it in Off the Beaten Track. But I think Howard Snyder is spot on who states “The church needs liberating from it has become in order to be that which God intends.â€? Whilst the concept is hard to address in brief the key points would be
1. Holistic mission is about changing society, ourselves and individuals.
2. Mission should happen in-front of church not out-from church, and the danger is the latter holds back real change and reinforces control.
3. An acceptance of the Regnocentric position means that Tacking is about helping society and individuals become fully human which is also being and growing church.
4. Church is a broad concept that is about process and outcome, and tacking is church.
5. All of this is framed by the ethics of Christ with Orthopraxis being a key concept.
So where too next with Process ecclesiology?
Since Off the Beaten Track was published I have been having some interesting conversations around emerging church and redefining church. I am in the process of putting something together around the issue. I asked Jonny Baker for his thoughts about my thoughts of the need for a more radical rethinking of church and how this fits into what is currently going on. His reply was “There is no emerging church take on church… It is a range from trying to transition existing churches to a complete reimaginging of church. It’s a series of conversations people are having. If you don’t think it goes far enough you just join in the conversationâ€?
I guess my feeling coming from a missionary minded perspective is that a lot of the “reimagingingâ€? if far more about what is DONE in church (which a friend described as rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic) than a true reimagining of WHAT IS CHURCH. There is very little evidence of a wholesale paradigm shift rooted in theology that is “reimaginingâ€? what church is. Off the Beaten Track led to more of this reimagining and the metaphor – “church is both the city on hill and the journey to that cityâ€? So to get me in on the conversation and to get a broader view I have taken the first story from the book and posed a question.
A highly skilled draughtsman decided to try to turn his hand to portraits. After all he was able to reproduce technical drawings in minute detail, and he reasoned that if he applied the same skills to his painting, the likeness would be accurate and exact. He started with his family and sure enough the reproductions were exact, as good as a photograph and yet he and all who saw them knew there was something missing. On meeting a famous painter one day he explained the problem and was advised that he needed to start with the soul not the image. “What do I paint then� asked the draughtsman.
“Forget the rules and the reproduction, remember the past, embrace the present but realise and paint the future� replied the artist.
What do we need to paint in relation to church?
Is the emerging church just painting over the cracks?
I came across a quote by Soren Kierkegaard who said “life is lived forward but understood backward�. On one hand it could be just hindsight, but I like the intentionality of living your life forward, rather than just passing through. I have posted up the info about The FaSt Game which we developed over 5 years ago. At the time I was getting loads of stick for wanting to call it a form of church. It is interesting reading the reviews it got at the time and how there was nothing else like it around. In some ways they still isn’t, but to call it what it was designed to be is no longer heresy. Or have I just got thicker skin than all those years ago?
The Fast Game.doc
By way of a bit of an intro I have posted an article called Why Sundays papers which goes into some of the reasoning for the blog and what you may find.
Why Sunday Papers.doc
It has been great to follow some discussion on Mission and alt worship on Steves blog at Smallritual (see new link posted)stirred by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch. Their book “the shaping of things to come” has a lot of good stuff, but I find their view of church too narrow for the missional context we are in. (for an extract check out http://www.blahonline.net/features.php) I talk more about this in “Off the Beaten track” sorry about the shameless plug if you want to get a copy check out link to OFF THE BEATEN TRACK.
I love that Steve’s notion that alt worship is missional and about reconnecting church to people and he is honest in about the limitations of current stuff (often a bit too high brow culture for me anyway). In a chat with him at Greenbelt he was open about grace needing the time find their way in worship and now they are asking the questions about mission. However I cant help thinking this is church before mission and may hinder rather than help mission. I advocate Mission INFRONT of church, rather than mission outfrom church. Perhaps if we see church growing out of mission context we will answer some the issues Steve raises in the blog on fight club for introverts
I was pointed to a site the other day http://www.wearewhatwedo.org/ small actions to change the world. I wonder if we have disconnected church, mission, and action. Jonny Baker is asking on his blog What is mission? In Off the beaten track i talk about as church as BOTH the city on the hill AND the journey to the city on the hill. Questioning both concepts mission and church which are so fluid, dynamic, undefinable is great but maybe the answer can only come in the actions we do as we seek to define them. And actually the mistakes we will make along the way are probably more a part of the answer than the successes. So here’s to making mistakes.
