Glocal Christianity

Contextualizing Christianity at Christmas

Commenting on pro vs anti Christmas debates amongst Christians, Christopher Van Huss observed: "Christmas, or the celebration of it, has become a part of our culture, good or bad. The key I believe is to accept its presence and use it as an opportunity to contextualize the gospel message."

In other word, between simple acceptance and simple rejection is space for a third way: thoughful engagement. In line with this I would say, together, let's rediscover the echoes of the lifestyle and message of Jesus in the Santa Claus / Saint Nicholas story. It only takes a bit of scratching below the surface.

How ecumenical is Ecumergent?

Okay, call me a cynic, but there seems to be a distinct lack of diversity amongst the voices at Ecumergent. The tagline at the Ecumergent facebook page asks, "Are there dynamics of emergence in all of the great traditions? nonChristian included? Let's explore!" I'm scratching my head as to how one does that without equitable representation of each of the traditions, nonChristian included. Seems to me its mostly Protestants and syncretists talking about other traditions than talking to them. Not that these voices should be dismissed, but a few Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu teachers of equivalent status would not have gone astray. I actually would have said this on the site but, um, even after joining it seemed closed to comments from non-core members. ???? Not exactly a round table.

Is contextualization just glorified approval seeking?

Commenting on the decline of the mainline, Kevin DeYoung suggests it their “Oh, please, approve of me” message, which makes a poor substitute for the gospel. 

I tend to agree. You can't make a difference in the world if you're no different from the world. But the obvious question is, "Well, what then do we make of missional contextualization?" Is it just glorified approval seeking?

I say no, but I would support that by arguing that there are two sides to missional contextualization: that of being in the world, but not of the world. The “Oh, please, approve of me” message is what happens when you only take notice of the first half of that Jesus equation and forget the second. What mainline churches are doing when they chase after approval for approval's sake is not genuine contextualization.

Andrew Jones says goodbye to Emergent Village

Now that I'm back I've been catching up on the Emergent chatter and am left pondering what to make of all this:

Village Idiots - Pyromaniacs

Emerging Church Movement (1989-2009?) - Tall Skinny Kiwi

Goodbyes to Emergent Village - Tall Skinny Kiwi

and what seemed to spark it all...

A Response to Tony Jones - Tall Skinny Kiwi

Not sure I've ever seen so many comment deletions in a single web conversation before.

What is missional?

Just been reading Scot McKnight's summary of the Three Central Missional Conversations according to Alan Roxburgh and M. Scott Boren. My transliteration:

Conversation 1: Understanding the West is now a mission field

Conversation 2: Rethinking the gospel in terms of God's mission

Conversation 3: Recasting the church as a contrast community

And Scot's addition:

Conversation 4: It's home brewed nature

Personally I think this summary has a lot going for it, especially Conversation 1. Because if you don't get that you're not going to get any of it.

Caste Discrimination and Missional Tribalism

I was reading in the news that, "As the United Nations has made a small but significant step forward towards declaring caste-based discrimination a human rights violation, Indian Christian leaders have called on the churches to confess that the caste system is still being practised also within them."

Now, before we tut, tut the continuance of caste discrimination within the Indian church, have you ever considered just how much missional ecclesiology is drawn from the experience of Indian missionaries? The experience that growth is faster Christians contextualize into the subcultures (aka castes) rather than challenge subcultural boundaries? Have you considered that the homogenous unity principle was hashed out in a caste situation?

Now understand, I am not saying contextualization is of no value, I think it has much value. But part of the contextualizing process should surely be contextually challenging cultural boundaries?

An (ana)Baptist explores Deep Church and wonders

Over the weekend I've been devouring Jim Belcher's new book "Deep Church: A Third Way Beyond Emerging and Traditional", which I won't be reviewing today, but will be reviewing shortly. Instead, today is for processing, for reexamining my own engagement with the emerging church conversation. The question: how would I describe my own ministry?

You see, in many ways my entire journey has been beyond emerging and traditional, whilst being immersed in both. Of the three streams Belcher refers to - relevants, reconstructionists, revisionists - I clearly swim with the "reconstructionists". Yes, I tend to be influenced by Anabaptist "resident aliens" perspectives, and yes, I am actively exploring postConstantinian (note,  contra Belcher I would not say preConstantinian) church models. But I am doing so from within a semi-traditional, sem-contemporary church, so what does that mean? How do my 'reconstructionist' tendancies manifest in my traditional church activity?

Well, since moving into the role of Ministry Leader for Mission and Evangelism late last year I think it's been most obvious in my insistance that all ministries need to become more missional, that my calling is to equip the church for mission, to lead the church into mission, not to do all the mission. It's been in my efforts to help our "Kid's ministry" events to become more missional in preference to running separate "Evangelism ministry" events (which is a way of saying mission and cultural engagement is unavoidable, not a "special" thing for some). It's been in my pushing for ministry meetings to be opened up so different ministies can work together (which is a way of saying worship and witnessing should be explored in more holistic, less fragmented ways). Unlike the "relevants" I seek more than stylistic change, I seek structural change, and I am actively working for it.

But I am not seeking structural change through the founding of house church networks or new monastic communities as some within the reconstructionist stream strongly advocate. Not only is this not so practical for me, not being a recognised minister and all, but I am not so sure church planting is the only way forward anyway. Many reconstructionist leaders have spoken as if all we should do is plant new missional churches and wait for the old unmissional ones to die. Given church planting receives little support in established suburbs, yet established suburbs still need missional churches, I ask, why not consider church transformation as a valid option for some of us? After all, this insistance on planting good, transition bad, could that not be a subtle manifestation of the consumerism reconstructionists might otherwise protest against?

So in summary, I think there's a place for opening up traditionals to "resident alien" perspectives, for exploring third ways. Or is it a third way? No, I'm getting ahead of myself, I'll leave that for the review.

Blackstump, McLaren and the Sines

Ok, so I am finally sitting down to write about Blackstump 2009, or at least my experience of it. For those of you who don’t live in Australia, Blackstump is the down under equivalent of Greenbelt, a four day festival of Christian music, art and teaching.

I wasn’t there for four days though, just last Saturday, but what a packed Saturday it was. In the morning it was a Bible study with Brian McLaren. McLaren spoke on the barriers that divide us and had some interesting insights into the gospel of Matthew that I hadn’t picked up on before. He explored the confronting encounter between Jesus and the Syro-Phoenician woman, but then linked this to the second feeding incident and Deuteronomy 7. His synopsis? If we resist the temptation to water down the text, we can see how, in overcoming his own barriers, Jesus models this for us. My synopsis? I give a thumbs up to anyone who can surprise me and get me wrestling with scripture in new ways.

After this I caught up with friends, Lucy and Andrew (HT for photo), who had organized a small, informal gathering over at the Genesis Lounge for people interested in missional arts and dancing. Good conversation.

After this, I caught some electives, the most inspiring of which was a talk by Andy Flannagan on Just Worship. Andy affirmed poets and artists as worship leaders, encouraged us to explore all of God’s character in worship, and inspired me to delve deeper into how I can lead others into poetic worship through my own.

Then some dinner with Simeon and Rosemary, friends from my Mind Body Spirit Festival days, and down to Mars Hill Café, where I joined a conversation with Tom and Christine Sine, Dean Tregenza, Ben Weatley, and a few others. Four or five hours later … after the lights were turned out on us … I turned into a pumpkin.

In the process though, I accepted an invite from Dean to be on the Sacred Space team next year. Keep posted.

Keep posted also because one of the things I haven’t mentioned previously, but may as well now, is that Tom and Christine Sine will be joining us for dinner in Pendle Hill towards the end of October before returning to America. One of the things I appreciate about Tom and Christine is that they seem to have more appreciation than most for the diversity in the emerging / missional conversation. I’ll be keen to see how their experiences here shapes that.

Top 10 reasons the church planting movement in North America is in trouble

Back in August Brad Boyson posted his list of the Top 10 reasons the church planting movement in North America is in trouble. Very good list. Number 4 and 5 pick up on some of my own recent complaints about insular teaching and practice. Number 6 on consultants got me thinking too. Now I am wondering if there is anything i would add.

Beyond tribalism

The problem with most churches is not that they're uncontextual, its that they're too contextual for too narrow a segment of our culture. They are contextual for the tribe of white, aspirational, family-orientated people who like to play life safe. And consequently, not so contextual for people who are not. This segment is a significant segment of our culture, but only a segment.

The alt-tribal church

Now, one solution that has been suggested by the missional crowd is more tribal churches. To shift from a geographic focus to a demographic focus. But I have found geography has not been rendered irrelevant by globalization. Place still matters. Tribal churches greater chance of success where geography and demographics reinforce one another. For example, Goth friendly gatherings have more chance of success in dingy inner city suburbs than in leafy outer suburbs. Pagan friendly gatherings have more chance of success in Salem and Nimbin. Café churches have more chance of success in Café strips. Place still matters. When people wish to gather offline and not merely online, when people start bringing families and not just themselves, they don't want to migrate half a city away every week. Even when they belong to the tribe, the tribal church may be too distant for more than an occasional visit. Place still matters. So tribal church is only half a solution.

The multi-tribal church

The other half of the solution, as I see it, is multi-tribal church. Genuine multi-tribal and not just white, aspirational mono-tribal masquerading as multi-tribal in their rhetoric. Multi-tribal needs to be modelled at every level, beginning with the leadership level. Multi-tribal needs to celebrate, and not just tollerate, tribal diversity. But when you have genuinely multi-tribal church, everybody, even the tribless, are in a cross-cultural situation ... together.

Our church

It's this latter approach that I see as necessary for my context. We live in one of the most multicultural suburbs in Sydney, which is one of the most multicultural cities in the Southern Hemisphere. We have over 50 languages spoken in some of the schools in our area. We have only a bit over a hundred people in our church. Even if we dispanded the church and sent out every man, woman and child in pairs we would not have enough to send someone to every tribe. And of course, not everyone is a gifted apostle or evangelist, so this is a rediculous expectation. What we can do though is learn how to be more embracing of any and every tribe. And be missional amongst whoever God places in our path.

But don't think these approaches are unrelated. They are the two extremes of a broad spectrum. And contextualization is needed along the whole spectrum. Where is your place?