::Observations-Gen Xodus - Gen X Has Left the Building... II I recall a class given by my Theology Professor, John Capper (even after I graduate, I call him my professor, I guess he still is in many ways). He described the difference between the philosophical frameworks in Europe (where he studied for a few years) and Australia. It was fascinating to watch my fellow students as he described the philosophical driving force behind their world view, namely "Pragmatism".

The last two Australian Federal elections were fought on the grounds of, and well within the sphere of Pragmatism. "We'll give you cheaper mortgage repayments and slash taxes!" And which Australian can possibly forget being reduced from an individual person to "an economy" for the duration of both elections?

I recall sitting with Lindsay Tanner, federal member for Melbourne while he was still in opposition. We were discussing Australia's aid budget as part of the Voices for Justice Conference. I remember being quietly inspired as Lindsay talked about his colleagues on both sides of the house of representatives, saying that even though challenging Australian citizens to be generous and to share our national wealth with poorer nations was definitely *not* a vote winner, sometimes you just had to show leadership and do what was right. "Who knows? the conversation went on, you just don't know what consequences moral imagination and leadership might be responsible for in the long term? He went on to say, however, that this kind of work was difficult, whilst Australia's political landscape was one defined by Pragmatism.

Australia's world view is largely Pragmatism. "How will this action/activity benefit me/us?" Or may I use the crude term which I am constantly challenged with in Secondary and Tertiary schools and colleges... "Is this going to be on the exam sir?"

What is the consequence? What is the result? In a poor philosophical environment like Australia's, Pragmatism is further reduced to the notion "What's in this for me?"

The world view of Boomers and consequently Gen Y is largely that of Pragmatism. It is the philosophical framework that under girds the dominant world view.

The philosophical framework of Gen X was largely Existentialism, a philosophical framework that begins with the human condition. It was not about outcomes. It was about the living, feeling, acting human totality.

Whereas Boomers/Gen Y seem focused on the who, what, where, when and how of existence, Gen X'ers seemed to penetrate such conversations asking the vexing question "why"? Not in a pragmatic sense, rather in a deeper search for truth. Both as it pertained to the individual and to the greater whole which, as a given, was considered to be entirely inter related.

For all sorts of reasons, Gen X'ers were shown the door, and/or left the building. I fear that what also left the room were the kinds of conversations that could profoundly shape and influence the church in ways that are currently lacking.

I wonder to what degree an idealistic and altruistic voice is missing? I wonder what the church could be if it were to seek to reconcile with this missing generation. I wonder how we are the poorer for it?

(I need to make the obvious point that I am speaking in broad general terms, and am making assumptions about individuals and groups,knowing full well that there are exceptions all over the place. Please keep this in mind before you comment!)

Labels: Church, Culture, Gen X, Gen Y, Missiology, Mission, Philosophy

  Posted by Stephen @ 9:23 AM   5 comments

::Observations-Gen Xodus - Gen X Has Left the Building... I was listening to a radio program the other night (as I do driving home at odd hours) and the subject was Gen Y and the political process. They three people (one was the interviewer and the other two representing various aspects of the political process) were discussing if and how Gen Y engages in Australian politics. At one point in the discussion, a question regarding Gen X (the previous generation) and the nature of their involvement in the political process was asked.

They commentators begain describing how Gen X largely abandoned the political process. When asked "where are they", one of the commentators suggested that Gen X had largely forsaken the corporate approach (to everything) en masse and had taken up residence in the NGO sphere, as well as being found in areas of innovation and creativity. The values that drive Gen X (continues the commentator) tend to be more altruistic rather than monetary as in the case of Boomers (the generation proceeding Gen X) and Gen Y.

The conversation continued along this vein for a few minutes. While it did, my mind wandered to two other incidents.

The first was when a colleague of mine, Brian Holden (seen in this picture wearing his Liverpool FC shirt, poor misguided lad) was involved in a ministry exposure trip. As part of his theological education, the students spent some time in two of Australia's biggest cities, visiting all sorts of churches: some of the mega variety, medium and smaller sized churches as well as various church related ministries. The most glaring observation for him was that Gen X was by and large absent. As he tail ends Gen X, he was looking for those involved in ministry who are Gen X, and his comment was in all of the churches he visited, there were none in significant positions of influence, if at all.

The second incident, or more accuratley, phenomenon, is that of the bulletin board. I speak at any number of bible colleges and theological institutions throughout the year, in all parts of the country. On the bulletin boards, there are often advertisements for ministry positions, seeking students or soon to be graduates. The number of advertisments for ministry vacancies looking for people in the age bracket that is essentially Gen X (roughly 28 to 40 year olds) is quite significant.

I started to think about the implications for the church that essentially is missing the better part of a generation. When I move around mission training agencies and organisations in the NGO sector, it seems as though these parts of the church were the "promised land" of the Gen Xodus.

I need to reflect further what the implications for this disproportionate representation mean for the future of mission and ministry in Australia, and possibly elsewhere.

Your thoughts?

Labels: Church, Gen X, Gen Y, Ministry, Mission

  Posted by Stephen @ 8:49 PM   2 comments

::Resources-Structural and Institutional Sin Firstly sorry to those who have tried to access this flash presentation. I have had no problems in the past converting Powerpoint files to flash, yet this one seemed to break my converter! Sheesh.

Anyway, I have exported this file as a pdf. Due to my work agreement with Tear, I have had to make the file available as a locked presentation. So you can't edit or reproduce it, but hopefully you will understand and be sympathetic.

This presentation is from a class at Tabor College Melbourne on Saturday the 10th of May this year. It is on the subject of Structural and Institutional Sin. Get it by clicking here...

Labels: Missiology, Mission, Notes, Resources, Tabor Melbourne, Theology

  Posted by Stephen @ 7:29 PM   0 comments

::Resources-Structural and Institutional Sin These are the notes for the class I taught last Saturday morning at Tabor Melbourne. For those not there, it is an exploration of the notion of institutional and structural sin/evil.

It was a great class. The thing that made it great was the passion and quality of questions and conversations with the participants. Thanks so much for letting me be part of your learning journey guys!

(Note: You have to click on the white box above to advance the presentation one page at a time.)

Labels: Missiology, Mission, Notes, Resources, Tabor Melbourne, Theology

  Posted by Stephen @ 1:04 PM   0 comments

::Rants-Social Justice is the new Emergent Social Justice is the new black. Apparently.

Seems as though (in the Australian context anyway) that "cool" for Christians is involvement in social justice. Emergent has worn off a while ago it would seem.

The problem I find with interest in social justice is (as I have blogged before) it's consumed just as quickly as any fad. "Social Justice" becomes another t shirt, wrist band or some other consumer product that gives someone a feeling of involvement.

In the same way that social commentators refer to Gen Y's experience of community as "pseudo community", so too the social action engaged in is "pseudo social justice".

The issue, once again becomes the ability to hold the information or an idea in our head whilst living out contradictory actions, and at some level considering this to be belief.

One of the biggest issues I find is the long term nature of living a life in response to the injustice that grips so many levels of our world. It requires continuous action, every hour of every day. Our purchases, our interactions with people, our interactions in the systems which we inhabit, it is never ending.

In this context, I find Paul's encouragement to "not become weary in doing good" (Gal 6:9). There is recognition that the task of remaking the world is a long term one, requiring several million small acts each week, that may at certain points, really annoy you because you sometimes will feel like giving up and buying into the prevailing culture.

Labels: Culture, Discipleship, Mission, Rants, Social Justice, Spirituality

  Posted by Stephen @ 10:34 AM   7 comments

::Rants-Theologising for the Emerging Church I have used this section of Amos in a number of presentations for all sorts of age groups. It is taken from Eugene Peterson's "The Message" paraphrase of the bible.

"I can't stand your religious meetings. I'm fed up with your conferences and conventions.

I want nothing to do with your religion projects, your pretentious slogans and goals. I'm sick of your fund-raising schemes, your public relations and image making. I've had all I can take of your noisy ego-music. When was the last time you sang to me?

Do you know what I want? I want justice—oceans of it. I want fairness—rivers of it. That's what I want. That's all I want.

Amos 5:21-24

As you can imagine, it generates strong feelings and great debates.

I am often struck by paraphrases like Peterson's.

Recently, I had to address an "Emerging Church" gathering. (I use quotation marks because I find it is not that helpful a phrase and consequently I do not use it anymore).

I thought, "how could I structure the passage so it would be as striking and prophetic to this crowd, as Peterson's is to his?" So here was my rendition of the same phrase.

"I can't stand your cool cafe gatherings. I'm fed up with your networks and conversations.

I want nothing to do with your social justice programs, your global trade rhetoric and fair trade purchases. I'm sick of your candles, your art installations, your alt.worship services and deep spirituality spin. I've had all I can take of your clever narrative theology. When was the last time you obeyed me?

Do you know what I want? I want justice—oceans of it. I want fairness—rivers of it. That's what I want. That's all I want.

Amos 5:21-24

What do you think?

Labels: Emerging Church, Lifestyle, Mission, Rants, Theology

  Posted by Stephen @ 11:43 AM   7 comments

::Rants-Still in Queensland In Brisbane at the moment. I have been involved in the Forge Intensive on Spirituality for Mission. It was a great conversation held at Bracken Ridge Baptist.

On Sunday night, I spent the evening with Joshua Tree, Steve Turner's tribe on the Sunshine Coast. It was a good evening, having conversations around money and mission, and catching up with some old (and new) friends.

Yesterday morning I had breakfast with the crew from City Wesleyan, the community presided over by the luminous Ken and Leanne Baker. Had a great time conversing around the artificial gap placed by the Western Church between Evangelism and Social Justice.

Today I spent the morning at YMIS. We reflected theologically on the nature of conversion and its practical ramifications, as well as
some good reflection on the Kingdom of God narratives understood by the early church.

I am getting to the point of exhaustion. So I am really looking forward to meeting up with Ralph (ex-Tear) and then picking up Lisa and Harry from the Gold Coast Airport tonight. I have not seen either of them since last Thursday and miss them crazily.

So I will be signing off for a week and a half, devouring re-runs of the X-Files on my laptop and reading the 14 books I have brought with me on holidays!

Labels: Blogging, Discipleship, Events, Itinerary, Mission, Theology

  Posted by Stephen @ 1:27 PM   2 comments

::Chuch-Why we make it hard for people to come... I have had quite a few discussions (dare I say arguments?) with people recently regarding the way we go about doing missio Dei. I was having an email conversation with someone about this (don't worry, it was quite civil) and I wrote this to respond to some of their questions. I thought it would make a good blog entry...

We use some strange terminology, like initiation, I know. One of the main reasons we do this is because a few of us do a bit of public speaking and preaching outside of our community. Consequently it is easy to attract Christian people who want to check things out. If we are not careful, it would be pretty easy to get a crowd of Christians who want to come and consume what we are trying to do. Before we know it, we will be running services for Christians coming from other churches. After a while, they will probably move on, and then we find ourselves with something that we shaped for Christians moving through.

We wanted to put priority on engaging with unchurched people in our local communities. We hope that Christians who want to connect with us, realise that the gathering is not a place of excitement and entertainment, rather it is a place of intentional formation that is contrary to the culture in which we find ourselves.

Over the years, inspired by the old monasticism, we are trying to develop what is being described globally as new monasticism. A set of simple practices that help us to continue to be oriented towards the least, the lost and the last. These practices hopefully not only challenge and change our behavior, but also our beliefs and understanding.

We have had uninitiated people come into community gatherings in the past, and the conversation moves very quickly to "what I need" or "what I am looking for in a church". So we find that right from the outset, we have discussions about better sermons, more teaching, better worship etc.

We decided early on that this is not what we were called to do. So initiation is about trying to orient people to a missional life style before they begin to participate in the gatherings. Once people get oriented, and start to experience their world in terms of being called by God to create something of his Kingdom here on this earth, well, let's just say that when they participate in a gathering *after* initiation, the conversations are very different.

Labels: Church, Culture, Discipleship, Lifestyle, Mission, Spirituality

  Posted by Stephen @ 2:14 PM   0 comments

::Rants-APEST in practice II I must admit, I am wondering if APEST is the best place to start?

Probably the biggest issue is trying to redeem the meanings.

Case in point: Evangelist. "Ah, so this is the person who will (a) lead everyone to Jesus and/or (b) bring everyone into the meeting/gathering."

Al's definitions are helpful, but also quite limited. If you have three people, from three different traditions in the room, well, let's just say that it it is going to be a long afternoon.

Let's not even begin to examine the implications when hierarchical presuppositions are super imposed over the whole process.

Labels are bad. But labels are good. I have always maintained that just because something has created damage in the past, does not necessarily mean you jettison the whole. Redemption is just that. The thing needs to be redeemed.

So, the difficulty in trying to use APEST has let to some confusion regarding definitions (baggage etc) and then the whole idea of a hierarchy within (upon, around, choose your issue) also can complicate matters.

One straight up problem we struck that is worth noting is that people can behave differently in different contexts. For example, in my work with Tear and teaching in theological institutes, I would be received profoundly as Prophetic (no jokes about that being misspelled please!) no if's but's or maybes. So P first then T.

However, in the context of missio Dei, I seem to be received primarily as a T and secondarily as an A. I feel far more comfortable as a P, a little less comfortable as a T, and to be honest, we are having a hard time trying to define what an A is (again, keep your funny comments to yourself!).

I am sure that there will be at least on person who would like to give a go at helping us define what an A is, and I would keen to hear from you, but keep in mind that the reason we are stuck is not lack of information. If anything we are swimming in it. The challenge is sifting the information to find a meaningful definition that honors the biblical and historical tradition, and that makes sense to us today.

Will keep you posted in a few weeks on this one. Will probably post on leadership in the next few days as these two issues seem to be closely intertwined for us.

Labels: APEST, Church, Leadership, Mission, Theology

  Posted by Stephen @ 11:24 PM   4 comments

::Rants-Leadership in Incarnational Missional Community This post is a response to a comment left on this post. You might want to check it out in the context of the other comments. I thought it was a good enough rant to warrant posting in it's own right. Thanks to Bec for the ever thoughtful comments that act as a foil. You have helped me many times in refining my theology and praxis!

It is problematic Bec, which is why you have to, and I believe we are, in the process of redefining leadership in the same way that we have (and will need to continue to) redefine the word "church".

When I say "church", I mean a group of people called out from the crowd to articulate an alternative vision of what the world could be like, and I continue to restate this until the word has new meaning.

It is the same as leadership except that this is more recent for me. I know what leadership is not. In terms of the exercise of power, it is not dictating to others what they have to do, particularly in reference to my realising my dreams for an organisation through others. Nor is it a provision of services.

Leadership currently has strong overtones of both of these definitions.

I think leadership does exist. People are always leading in different ways. Whilst I can't define it, I find Aesop's fable regarding the North wind and the sun the most helpful metaphor for leadership.

I think that biblical leadership is not like the North wind that blusters and tried to blow the jacket of the person walking through the village. I reckon it is more like the sun, that shines, and when people feel the warmth, they of their own volition, take their jacket off.

Leadership is about creating an environment where people feel the courage to change and to dream. Leadership is also about helping people move from intent, to action as well.

I think it also needs to be named.

However, it will always be problematic, as whenever a leader rises, as well as the dysfunctions of the leader, there is the dysfunction of the community that wants to be led in ways that are not healthy, which is what the story about Israel wanting a king instead of God is all about.

However, I have always maintained that a healthy response to something is not the absence of that thing, but the redemption of that thing. So the goal is as redeemed a leadership as is humanly possible, this side of the total realisation of the kingdom.

Labels: Church, Leadership, Mission, Theology

  Posted by Stephen @ 4:43 PM   4 comments

::Rants-APEST in practice If anyone has spent any time around Forge hearing Alan Hirsch talk about leadership, or if anyone has read either "The Forgotten Ways" or "The Shaping of things to come", you will be aware of APEPT (or as Al is referring to it now, APEST).

APEPT is an acronym for the discussion regarding leadership in the church. The letters stand for the list that Paul gives in Ephesians, Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor and Teacher.

Al has moved to the APEST acronym instead, replacing the second P (Pastor) with S for Shepherd.

The idea is that a leadership team should be composed of the diversity of roles that Paul outlines, with the observation that in the majority of churches, leadership teams are dominated by Shepherds and Teachers.

missio Dei are moving into a space where we are needing to think about being a little more intentional about our leadership structure. So with APEST as a framework, we tried to think about functional structures around this.

The big question was, how do you engage in this kind of exercise in a way that:

1. is humane, and does not roughly pigeon hole people,
2. does not create a situation where an individual can impose a view of themselves upon the group,
3. does not impose upon an individual a "group think" label and finally,
4. is open to a discerning process?

With this in mind, Lisa and I mused over it for a few weeks, having lots of conversation, reflection, discussions with others within missio Dei and outside of our community. We finally settled on the following process...

1. We spend a gathering talking about the process that we were about to enter into. We asked people to take a few weeks (we meet in a larger group fortnightly) to prayerfully consider others in the community. We gave a list of names to everyone and asked them to start to make notes against all of the names on the list, including their own name, being prayerful as they did so.
2. When we gathered, we spend some time on each of the roles, trying to get a working definition of each. We utilised a number of different perspectives and definitions, not just the ones that Al outlines in his book. After discussing each role, we asked people to look at their lists again, and make any changes or notes to what they had already made to their list.
3. After we went through each of the roles, we then distributed a number of pieces of A4 paper. On the front of each piece of paper was the name of one of the people in missio Dei.
4. Everyone then had a few minutes to take one last moment to reflect on the person. When they had decided which two roles that person most exemplified, they selected two sticky notes. There were five different colors, each representing one of the roles.
5. When you selected the two pieces, you could either simply place them inside the folded piece of paper, or you could write something on the sticky note, indicating the how any why, ie: "you often include people, and ask questions that make us think about those who are not here yet but need to belong to a faith community, therefore I chose evangelist" or some such.
6. Once you placed your two, different colored sticky notes inside the folded piece of paper, you closed it and then passed it to your left.
7. The process was repeated until everyone had a chance to comment about others in the group.
8. If you got your own, you didn't open it, you just passed it immediately to your left.
9. We included the children in this process as well.
10. If you were stuck for roles, we encouraged people to write something to help the group discernment process.

When we finished, each person was handed their piece of paper, we were pretty excited to find that the majority of people, had mainly two colors in their little booklet. We let people take some time digesting what they found, including the comments that people had written. There was one rainbow instance (one person who had multiple colors) and one instance with little written inside of it.

In both instances, the suspicion was that these people were not really well known by the group, and therefore the process for them would take a little more time.

Once people had time to digest, we went around the group, asking people what they felt. It was by far and away, a very affirming experience for people. It was affirming in two ways. Firstly, there were those who had some idea of what their contribution was, and to have this confirmed was very affirming and encouraging.

Secondly, there were those who had some idea, and were pleasantly surprised by an aspect of their personality and life that they had not considered. At the conclusion of that gathering, everyone was asked to take away their little booklet and spend another two weeks reflecting on the contents. When we gather this week, well, I just might have to wait to see what happens and then I will write up the upshot.

If you have any experiences of trying to work out APEST, I would love to hear from you!

Labels: Church, Forge, Mission

  Posted by Stephen @ 8:31 PM   8 comments