{neurotribe.net}: ::Rants-Reflections on the UNOH Conference

::Rants-Reflections on the UNOH Conference

I spent last Friday at Surrender 08 conference. Then on the Sunday, some of us from our community, missio Dei spent the day there also. It was a great time to reconnect with some old friends in the radical discipleship movement, as well as a time of making some new ones. It is a time/place/space where, if I may borrow a phrase that Marcus Curnow often cites, I feel I am with "my people". As a matter of fact, Marcus was there!

I am coming to appreciate how calling a special time to come together to hear stories old and new, and to be inspired again, can be quite important. Lisa and I came away recommitting to being more intentional about our attempts to live a life of mission, committed to embracing those who live on the edges. So did a few of the missio guys also. It was a wonderful time.

Two of the highlights for me are as follows:

Harry (our almost 4 year old) is getting real curious about Aboriginal Australians. In my attempt to try and treat him as a person, instead of an utsy cutsy kid, I tried to explain to him about how Aboriginal people have been dispossessed of their land, and consequently their culture and dignity. He handled it pretty well, although my analogy of someone stealing someone else's house, while it worked, disturbed him a little. On the Sunday afternoon, the Jar Jum dance troop from Sydney closed the gathering, and Harry sat enthralled, as he experienced some of the rich culture of Australia's first people, for the first time. He is still talking about it. This encounter has done more in ne afternoon, than most of my attempts to tell him this part of Australia's history and story. So I am really pleased that it was transformational for Harry.
The second reason it was somewhat moving for me, is, quite frankly, I am trying to figure out exactly how I understand and relate to the Holy Spirit, as a post charismatic/pentecostal. Notice the word "post", not "non". I am trying to figure out what it means to value Gods kingdom, and pursuing the values and principles of this Kingdom (like justice, compassion, mercy, love and forgiveness) in a charismatic/pentecostal way. I struggle with allot of the ritual that the charismatic/pentecostal experience is saddled with. So I have been on a journey of trying to figure out what a new pneumatology would look like. The focus of my reflections is the question, what would a life in the spirit, that pursues the invisible city of God look like? So it was with a deep sense of profundity, I listened to Jackie Pullinger. She talked about walking through the walled city of Hong Kong, and how, if she was to be involved in a sustainable ministry, she needed to see not only the city as it was, but the city as it should be. This was her metaphor. She would have had no idea that she was speaking straight into my question. A life in the spirit, has it's origins in being able to see not just what we would ordinarily see, but life as it would be when the invisible city of God eventually is established here on this earth. For me, it was a moving pointer to the beginnings of trying to flesh out a post charismatic, post pentecostal pneumatology. (In Christian theology pneumatology refers to the study of the Holy Spirit.)

Thankyou UNOH for helping me take another few steps on the journey.

Labels: Discipleship, Justice, Missiology, Pneumatology, Spirituality, UNOH