Smart casual

Here you go, my contribution to Gillian's Flickr Tranny Day

This is the outfit I considered wearing for Transpocalypse 2007, but decided not to, as it was a bit flashy for a restaurant.

Check out my Flickr Stream for a few more photos, including my retro Eighties look. (Lopsided ponytail and white stilettos!)

Easter Explanations cont. - The Resurrector

Having been prompted, I've put some further thought into some of the biblical theology behind my Easter presentation to kids (mentioned in my last post). Because its general personal theology stuff I've put it on my other blog.

Trans-thusiam

Gillian has declared on her blog that due to the trans-apathy around, she is committing to posting a picture of herself in girls clothes on Flickr.

Inspired by Gillian's enthusiasm I have taken this pledge too, and today took my pictures. They will be posted on Flickr on Saturday 29th March 2008.

Don't worry, I'll do a blog entry to remind you!

Easter Explanations

This is another little mention of a "positive proclamation" - how do we take our "doctrine" and "what we believe" and "make it sing" for the generation and people we are seeking to reach.

Yesterday we had our annual "Good Friday for Kids" service. We find that providing a specific children-focussed event on Good Friday afternoon is worthwhile. There are a lot of people who are going away for the Easter break but who want to bring their kids to something "spiritual." There is teaching and interaction with the kids, and we top it off with a shared meal of fish and chips - and so it is a community-building and relationship-forming time as well.

Of course, the age-old problem is "how do you explain the cross to pre-schoolers"? There's a lot of ways that I find unsatisfactory: The "Jesus will get you into heaven" method - which explains the outcome of the cross but not it's reason. And there's the "Jesus rose again just like little lambs and so God loves you" method - which engenders, perhaps, the right feelings and thoughts of trusting in God because of Jesus - but doesn't really get to the facts of the cross - especially the fact that Jesus had to die.

So, for what it's worth, here is the text of my attempt that we used last night. It latches onto the truth of how the substitutionary nature of the cross can be accessed through an understanding of Christ "representing" us. A fuller study of this (another blog! [Now done and available]) would pick up on what it means for the act of atonement for us to be "in" Christ as opposed to being "in" Adam (Romans 5), and also the incarnational impetus of what it means for the act of atonement for Christ to count himself as one of us, a perfect person including himself in sinful humanity.

That's for another day - the text below used lots of pictures and animations on the screen (including the trike shown at top - named "bike man" by the children). For your thoughts and comments:

When I was little I used to have an old tricycle. It wasn't one of these teeny tiny ones. It was a big one with blow-up tyres and proper brakes.

And even though I was little, I was still old enough to ride my tricycle around the quiet streets near my house and up to my friend Marcus' house.

One day I was riding home after playing with Marcus and his slot-car tracks. I was looking down at the pedals and not watching where I was going.

What do you think happened? (Animation of crash on screen)

That's right! I crashed into the back of a parked car.

How do you think I felt?

I felt bad. I felt wrong. I felt guilty. I had done something wrong.

Has anyone felt like that?

I also felt scared – what would the owner of the car think?

What do you think I did?

I went and got my mummy.

And what did my mum do? She TOOK RESPONSIBILITY for me.

She found the owner of the car and she talked to him.

I don't know what she did – but I guess she might have paid for the damage. And I guess she said sorry – because I was her responsibility.

And then, when she had finished, she picked up my tricycle and we went home, and she said - “It's OK. I've paid for it. Everything is fine."

Now, we've already heard that Easter is all about Jesus. And we know that Jesus died on the cross and rose again – but why did he do that?

Well, the story about my tricycle and my mum, tell us something.

When I crashed my tricycle I felt bad. I knew I had done the wrong thing. And my mum took responsibility for me.

When we look at the cross, what Jesus is saying is “I'm taking responsibility for everybody who believes in me – and everything that they've done wrong.”

Because, we know that's not just about bike accidents. Everyone of us does things that we now are wrong. And we feel just as yucky on the inside.

And just like my mum didn't leave me on the road to try and pay for the damage to the car – Jesus doesn't leave us, feeling yucky, and knowing we've done the wrong thing but not being able to do anything about it.

When Jesus dies on the cross, Jesus is saying – I'm going to take responsibility for all the bad things in the world – and I'm going to the pay the price – even if it means having to die.

And so we know that Jesus died – to take our bad things and make them right.

Can you remember my story? What happened after my mum had paid for the damage – did it work, was it OK? Yes it was?

Well it's the same. After Jesus died, they put his body in a grave. And three days later, he rose again.

He was dead, and now he was alive.

And it's like God was saying “It's OK, the price has been paid. The bad things have been fixed. Everything will be OK.”

Galactica

Fighter launch, originally uploaded by PandoraCaitiff.

I've recently finished watching the second season of Batlestar Galactica on DVD. As well as making me sad, angry, jubilant and excited all at the same time, it also rekindled my interest in space battles.

As a result I dug out some cardboard space craft I had made a long time ago for Ground Zero Games' "Full Thrust" game. They were a bit ratty, and had crudely made stands, so I gave them a touch up with paint, gave them a light wash of black paint to show "battle damage", and then a white drybrush to highlight the edges.

Once I'd done that, I noticed that the fleet was a bit lacking in smaller support craft so sat down and designed, assembled and painted some more based on the same stylistic principles as the existing ships.

Finally I just had to create a few civilian ships and two Cylon-esque carriers for enemies.

My plan is to referee a game at my local club where the not-Cylons ambush a small fleet and have to cause as much damage as possible before the FTL drives come online and allow the fleet to jump away.

For more pictures, see my Flickr set "Gaming"

"I'm glad it had a happy ending..."

Remember last summer I had a little hoo-hah with V, the proprietor of Rasputin's nightclub?

(Don't worry if you don't, Although I'm not going to link to it and open old wounds)

I went into the club last night for the first time in several months. And late in the evening V called me aside for a little chat. It seems that while Googling her club's name she found my post, and the responses. And was none too thrilled.

Which actually has led to something good.

With the benefit of hindsight, and several months of cool down, we have now made our peace; and the ladies loo is available to me as long as I ask.

Job's a good-'un.

Po-mo-ecclesiology

I received a comment with regard to a previous post which included this question:

...I will take the bait and ask: Will, would you share with us your general views and perspectives on the postmodern church?

*Cough*, ahem, a good question - and one that relates well to the Connections project, although here I will give my general $0.02 worth.

Firstly - the term "postmodern church" needs unpacking. Unlike other adjectives which speak to the nature of the church (e.g. "holy church" or "church of God"), this adjective should more properly (or perhaps firstly) be used to refer to the situation of the church (e.g. "The medieval church"). The postmodern church is the church that exists in the context of postmodernity and deliberately engages with that context.

And that's important because that engagement has two sides - parts where the church and the context are "in phase" and parts where they are "out of phase." In other words, the postmodern church is sometimes cultural and sometimes counter-cultural when it engages its postmodern context. The debates, views, and perspectives that surround the "postmodernity & church" issue in the end come back to an argument as to how the cultural/counter-cultural engagement needs to be balanced or expressed.

Let me seed my thoughts by considering some "tenets" of postmodernity which I have abridged from Millard Erickson's Postmodernizing the Faith. This is not an exhaustive or precise list.

• Knowledge/truth is subjective/experiential
• Abstract knowledge is uncertain
• All-encompassing theories are impossible and inherently evil (all “metanarratives” “totalise”)
• Better knowledge ≠ Better life
• “Progress” is rejectable: Ancient is good.
• Truth is discovered in/through relationships
• Science is questionable.

And let me launch into my thoughts by referring firstly to the issue of "knowledge and truth" - that the postmodern context asserts that knowledge and truth is subjective/experiential, and that abstract knowledge is uncertain.

The postmodern church is in-phase with this notion because the gospel has always been _more_ than just doctrine, and salvation has always (meant to have) been something different to passing an exam, or agreeing to a sequence of propositional truths. The gospel is meant to be experienced - salvation is about rebirth, regeneration, attaining the blessings of being in Christ by the grace of God the Father - these truths are not meant to be examined but met, embraced, grasped, and enjoyed with conviction, joy, trembling, thanksgiving etc. etc. etc. The postmodern church does not shy away from the experience of the gospel. In fact, it's something that the postmodern generation is crying out for. When trying to explain this to pre-postmodern people I often tell this story (link).

Of course, the church speaks counter-culturally, as well, in regard to the issue of knowledge and truth. We remain insistent that the truth we experience is not a purely subjective truth but a truth that is grounded in reality, in history - and is therefore exists outside of our agreement or disagreement with it. Someone once asked me - "Will, do you actually believe in Jesus, or just in the idea of him?" We actually believe.

Similarly the church is "out of phase" with postmodern culture when it comes to "all-encompassing theories" (or "metanarratives" in the jargon) - we do not and can not reject the all-encompassing reality of God and his work in the world.

However, the postmodern church is "in phase" when it recognises the postmodern rejection of "metanarratives" is based on a framework of assertions of power. And the church is therefore sympathetic when it recognises how the lies of this world have been used to assert the power of sin and human rebellion. Pick an "ism" and the church will at least have a critique of it - capitalism, communism, humanism etc. etc. - all are or have been used by a sinful humanity to assert a view and lend power to a few.

Many would assert that the church has been guilty of the same thing. And we must ask the question - Do we assert a worldview so that we can have power over people? The sad fact is, that when the church loses the gospel, we have been guilty of this - systems of sinfulness and sacraments are set up so that the church has power of life or death, membership of society or not - the Christian metanarrative has been used to "totalise" - i.e. to assert the totality of reality and so force people to submit to powerful "ministers" and "mediators" of salvation.

But the gospel, while universal and objective and indeed a "metanarrative" for history and human life is, in truth, unique in that it does not work on the premise of power assertions. It's easy to get lost in weird and wonderful philosophical analogies, but the call of Christ is not so much "match your narrative to mine, submit, submit!" but "see how our narratives interact?" The gospel is the interaction between two people in the end - God made man, and the ones to whom he calls - and so is a transaction based on relationship, not assertion of power.

It is at this point that the postmodern church faces it's greatest difficulty. The postmodern generation (in its search for experience) is one of the most spiritual generations in history. Yet to suggest that spirituality can be found and expressed in church just simply doesn't compute. Church is about power, not about spirituality, in the popular postmodern mindset.

In the end, the postmodern Church, is the post-Christendom church, the church that exists without any power and status except that of the gospel alone. And because of that dependence on the gospel, the postmodern church excites me.

There are many places where postmodern culture resonates with the gospel - or at least provides a means of communicating the gospel. Let me finish with a couple of points:

• The postmodern church engages the cultural value of "Better knowledge ≠ Better life" because God has chosen the weak and foolish to show that he is God. And the knowledge we are to grow in - a knowledge of God - is relational.
• The postmodern church engages the cultural value of relationship and "authentic community" as a valuable means of engaging with truth. The communal and collegial nature of Christianity is obvious in Scripture.
  
• The postmodern church engages the cultural rejection of human optimism - that human progress is not always good (in fact often idolatrous), that science cannot give all the answers - because we all have a need of Christ.
  

EPIC epochs

When Connections first started one of the things we had to interact with was how we arranged/targeted a Sunday gathering to engage with and be accessible to the younger generation we were trying to reach. This wasn't about the content of the gathering - expounding the ever-relevant truth of God's Word is the never-changing root of Christian spirituality - but about the style.

"Back then" (an ironic statement really - we're talking only two or three years) the whole "postmodern thing" was starting to be accepted and talked about - with varying degrees of insight. I was reading books like Ancient-Future Faith by Robert E. Webber and had already engaged with books like Postmodernizing The Faith by Millard Erickson. I was particularly moved by Gerard Kelly's RetroFuture and had attended a seminar of his in Launceston where, after a number of months of being stuck in post-war-church-of-england-curate-land, I felt like someone had given me a glass of sweet ice water in a very dry desert.

Remind me to blog about postmodernity in general some other time - the point for now, is that after engaging with the "postmodern thing" we picked up a little catch-cry for creating the style of our services: Our services were to be EPIC - Experiential, Participatory, Image-driven, and Communal (or Connected). I can't remember where we picked up the phrase - it's certainly not original to us, and a quick google shows its use is widespread now. A brief glance indicates that that the article at this location (link) is a good summary. Briefly, from my point of view, the essence is this:

• E = Experiential. For the postmodern person truth is determined primarily from experience (not argument or logic etc.) If you can experience it - it is true. An experiential service engages all the senses - the "primal pathways" as I have been known to call it - either directly through having something tactile, auditory, olfactory etc. in the service, or through narrative and creative words etc.
• P = Participatory. The postmodern person is dialogical - that is, they want to be engaged in dialogue and debate, not passive listeners to a monologue etc. Discussion times, non-rhetorical questions are a part of that, as is high-involvement of people in the running of the service.
  
• I = Image-driven. Previous generations have found that the prayer-book speaks to their heart through the use of wonderful, engaging words. The postmodern person engages more readily with images, received in parallel (all at once) - not words received serially (one after the other). Images don't need to be explained, they simply evoke.
• C = Communal/Connectedness. Religion used to be a very private thing - you came to church in silence to give each other space to be alone with God. Now communal gatherings are just that - gatherings of community - and we learn together, engage with each other, and help each other grow. (I think Hebrews 10:24-25 might support this one).

And so we embraced "EPIC" as a stylistic framework: lots of images on the screen, dialogical sermons, emphasising "authentic community" as a missional strategy, having lots of people involved in leading the service, using old and new things in an engaging way etc. etc. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't - but it was and is a good framework.

There's a couple of issues that relate to it, however. Firstly - it is very easy, when energy levels go down, when time pressures go up, to construct a service so that it is "EPIC" only in ways that you (the service leader) engage with. It takes time and energy to think through and implement what other "learning styles" or "primal pathways" exist in the congregation, and engage with them. Personally, in recent months when I have been stretched so thin with two half-time jobs, I have slipped down this slope somewhat. Now I am full-time at Connections this is something I want to address.

Secondly - the growth of a congregation necessitates a change in how an EPIC framework is applied. We are moving to a different "epoch" - we were an embryonic sized church three years ago and then we were a family-sized church (around the 40-50 mark including children) recently, and now/soon it is the community-sized church (theoretically the 70-100 mark) that we are becoming. Implementing the EPIC style in a larger sized church is different to a smaller one. Dialogue is more difficult, "experiential" elements are harder to implement and manage, the community is a number of smaller groups (rather than individuals) and so not as easily tapped into - perhaps the only thing that doesn't change so much is the "image-driven" bit as we still make use of the data projector in some reasonably creative ways.

What we need to do now is put some work into re-considering and re-applying the EPIC framework. It is possible to do things differently - a case in point is Mark Driscoll (of Mars Hill Church fame) who despite giving hour-long monologues as sermons (you can't easily field questions on the fly and to-and-fro dialogically with a 1000's strong congregation) does participatory things like using SMS and Internet polls to shape what topic he speaks on etc. - I'm not saying we should do that, but we can just simply note that we can be more creative.

What doesn't work is a hard-and-fast absolute application of a "style." Sometimes a didactic sermon is required. Sometimes the experience needed is visual and auditory silence. Sometimes people need to simply sit and receive from God rather than get up and do.

We are in something of a state of flux. I'm sure we will have new service leaders and preachers over the next few months as newcomers grow into the Connections community and through the necessary (but slow) proceedings of safe ministry accreditation and other formalities. Every new member is a new "input" into the service (whether leading it or not). And so we will be figuring out, again, what it means for us to take the Word of God and express it in EPIC fashion.

What's in a name?

Sent out this morning to all person's officially accepted into the beta team was an email confirmation. For those who received this email, congratulations and welcome aboard!

Now down to the nitty gritty, so to speak.

Also included in your email was your first task, to suggest some names for this browser. Andromeda Media Universe is the default name we're going with for lack of anything better, and since the programmer and I cannot actually come to a consensus on what to call it, I'm turning to our Beta Team to do what they do best - help us guide the direction of the project.

Andromeda Media Universe is my idea, and there are a handful of ideas from the programmer (Tim) as to what it should be called. He personally hates the name Andromeda Media Universe, and since I don't think any of his suggestions have that "staying power".. ya know, that magic word or phrase that manages to sum it up, isn't tacky, and sounds good, I'm putting this in the hands of the Beta Team.

So send in your name suggestions - things you think would be better than Andromeda Media Universe. If any of the names can actually be agreed on between myself and the programmer, then we'll go ahead with that instead of Andromeda for release.

If we can't agree on a name, we'll be defaulting with Andromeda Media Universe as it is right now.

Prayer Points

Here is an abridged version of the prayer points that I have sent out on our prayer partners email list. If you would like to receive the prayer points via email - email me and let me know and I'll add you to the list.

1. Praise God for the beginning of the Imagine Project, launched and commissioned on March 1st at the Diocesan Gathering. This is a significant boost for Connections as we come under this project, the leadership of Bishop Ross Nicholson, and a funding arrangement with Bush Church Aid (BCA).
2. Consequently I have now finished up in the Parish of Wynyard. Saying goodbye was a moving time for me, but the time ended well and I can look back on the two and half years of ministry in Wynyard with a great deal of gratitude. Please pray for the Parish of Wynyard as they enter a time of transition.
3. At Connections itself, God has brought a number of people to us and we have gained a number of families and young adults in the last few weeks. This something to thank God for, and to be grateful for the privilege that God is at work in us and through us. Please pray for all of us (newcomers and oldcomers) and particulary for wisdom for myself and the leadership so that we can best care for, pastor, empower and release this growing congregation.
4. Please pray, in particular, for the playgroup - Time-Out - as it is goes through a time of transition with new leaders picking up responsibility for it. Please pray for the new leaders, for good relationship, purposeful conversation and interaction - and for persistence etc. as they complete safe ministry checks, and engage with the task at hand.
5. Please pray for a new small group of musicians and others who are to commence meeting on Saturday evenings. They intend to practice music and to have all that soaked in the joys of Bible study, fellowship etc.

A passage that has touched me recently is from 1 Corinthians 2 - particularly verse 12 - "We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us." Please pray for our region, that the Spirit would move, bring people to faith and an understanding of the wonderful gift of salvation that is in Christ Jesus.

Demarcation

I've decided to bring a little bit of order to the chaos. This blog will now be for Connections related musings only. My personal rants and raves can be found here.

The journey of a church plant will be in this blog, enjoy this alone, or subscribe to both!

New picture

Thanks to my friend Chrissy B I now have a better picture of my outfit.


I'm much happier with that picture. Its clearer, and you can see the whole outfit.

Anyone interested in making their own falls should check out the advice at MookyChick, a fantastic website for all us babes with attitude.

The Desert of New Things

Tomorrow I am off for two days of retreat with a number of other pastors - we get together a few times a year for overnight get togethers and then for a whole week once a year. It's a refreshing and uplifting time.

Early this year at Connections we had a series on the importance of the "desert" or "solitary place" (we even put the Greek word ερημος up on the screen and talked about it). We looked at how Jesus deliberately went to "solitary places" - and how the theme of "wilderness" is often at play in the Bible when it talks about God meeting with his people.

In the end, the "health" of a Christian walk is not measured by how well someone acts at church, or how readily they volunteer - it's who they are when they are alone, laid bare before God. That is the "desert" we are talking about. It is in such solitary places that some of the more intangible works of sanctification are done - especially as we turn to the Bible at such times. It is there that we are convicted of sin, assured of forgiveness, comforted, guided, and can consider the wisdom of God at work. It is there that we are matured, helped, strengthened as individuals who follow Christ so that when we return from that place of solitude we are effective and purposeful as God's agents in the world and in church.

2008 began with a call at Connections for people to seek God and to take the discipline of daily bible reading, prayer and solitude seriously and joyfully.

Our church has been blessed in recent weeks with a number of new people attending and committing to being part of us. This is a joy - but also a time of change and enquiry. What is God's heart for our ever-forming church? Who will we be together? What things need to change? In what way do I pastor and serve? What are we called to in this season, and how do we implement it?

Soon this will mean a time of planning and doing, visiting, relating, befriending, enjoying. In some ways this has already begun - our vision is to be a community forming people to be and do what Christ has intended - and community-building requires positive action. So we will be having BBQ's and picnics, opportunities to relate, know and belong etc. etc. etc.

But the next two days, for me, are a time to be alone with God, shaped around brothers in ministry, and to lay this blessing, and all other things in his hands. To hold what has been given lightly, and to store up his word in the deepest place. Then whatever comes next - a leap or a fairy-step - it will be well done in faith.

Imaginating

Today was the day of the triennial Anglican "Gathering" that brought over 700 Anglicans from around the diocese to meet in one place for seven (seven!) hours of entertainment, fellowship, input, envisionment, and (I know it's a clichè word), celebration.

One of the purposes for this blog is an opportunity for me to gather my thoughts in reflection. So allow me to reflect on The Gathering 2008.

Firstly, let me reflect on the Gathering itself. There were a lot of positives. The day was well run. The children's activities were fantastic, the venue was excellent, the entertainment parts of the program were professional and very enjoyable. There was a great atmosphere and a high degree of "participation" even from those in the audience. You could look around, see kids singing, groups chatting, youth laughing, Paul Cavanaugh stressing (joke) etc. etc. and say to yourself "you know, I actually like who we are as a church in Tasmania." That's no small thing.

Perhaps the only thing was that, before the event, I wasn't exactly sure why we were having it. The "Imagine" slogan seemed empty - and it wasn't until the Bishop preached today - very personally, and vulnerably, and empoweringly (a very apostolic gift I think, but more on that in some other post), that I began to see what "Beyond Imagination" was meant to mean - not our ability to imagine, but the ability of God to work in us in ways unforeseen.

Which brings me to the second part of my reflection (hang in there, I'll come back to the "Imagine" meaning in a minute) - what the day has meant for Connections.

The main part of the day for Connections was a time when the Bishop and the new Missioner Bishops were interviewed with regard to the "Imagine Project" (of which Connections is now a part). +John spun the Imagine Project vision. +Chris declared his desire for many people to come to love Jesus, even as a result of many meetings (he is the Mission Bishop for Stewardship after all). And then +Ross spoke about the three Imagine Project mission projects. He got me on the stage to talk about Connections.
And one of the questions he asked me was along the lines of "what's the plans, things that are going to happen in the future?" So I sold our vision for reaching out to people who need community and of re-engaging the de-churched (again a topic for another post) and sold the vision as best I could in that unfamiliar spotlighted setting.

But let's come back to the "Imagine" meaning above - that its not about our ability to Imagine, but about God's ability to work in us in ways unforeseen. Without strategies, goals, purposes, plans etc. we stagnate. But without that sense of "God will do the unimaginable" we get stuck in a rut of our own devices and limited expectations.

And that's what it feels liks at the moment. The Connections project is on the brink of something. Who knows what God will do? Who knows where his Spirit will lead us? Who knows who God will send our way to change us and mature us into He who is our head? Who knows?

Even in our recent growth, the questions of how to pastor and be church well - integrate, enfold, care for, receive the new, and grow together - seem to have only fuzzy answers. Well perhaps that good - for clarity that is forged in the furnace of dependence seems to be the best. The learning curve is steep right now.

And so I'm grateful, that at this Gathering, we were commissioned, and prayed for. We'll need it. Who knows what God has planned...