02.08.10
Posted in formation, learning at 1:43 pm by len
I’ve been listening with a different set of ears to sermons since entering this world more intensely myself. Up to three years ago I averaged a sermon a year: now I average twelve. And this number is gradually creeping upward as I not only preach but am invited to teach and speech.
So I am late to this dialogue at the practitioner’s level. And I am realizing that the dance between relevance and biblical content/literacy is a tough challenge. I wish we could dialogue in every setting, but it’s not always practical. So how does one engage a biblical passage with a gathering of a hundred and fifty people?
This past weekend I listened to a gifted brother work through the first half of Ephesians 2. I knew it was coming, so I was curious to see what he would pull out, where he would focus, and how he would take that focus and translate it so that his hearers could engage. I listened with the awareness that the crowd was diverse, that twenty-five minutes is simply a drop in the bucket for the first half of Ephesians 2, and that the challenge is to connect both cognitively and affectively-imaginatively.
All this to say, reflections from other preachers most wanted and welcome! I ran across this recent post at Jesus Creed while looking for something else. Scot mcKnight reflects on “narrative” preaching through the lens of a very gifted preacher/teacher named Tom Long. Tom is the author of “Preaching from Memory to Hope.”
Q. What do you think of when you someone says a preacher is an advocate of “narrative preaching”?
“It seems to me that use of stories is not the point. Instead, the major idea is that the structure of the sermon is less “old homiletic” or “inductive” or “point-by-point” or “propositional” with a “defense,” but instead the sermon is shaped with a plot (character, conflict, resolution — a person who wants something and has to overcome obstacles to get it).”
Long thinks sermons need to do what Augustine said: teach, delight and persuade. Narrative can do too much delight and not enough teaching and persuading, but it can’t be abandoned. He argues four points:
1. Narrative as dress rehearsal, where the preacher embodies the activity of God in human events.
2. Narrative as congregational canon, where stories being told shape a community.
3. Narrative as means for remembering the lost and silenced.
4. Narrative as process for coming to faith…
More..
If narrative sounds like the “Hero’s Journey” .. a mythic structure.. it’s because it is.
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Posted in pilgrimage at 1:28 pm by len
Jason writes on “Four things we need to face.”
As a longtime friend of the Vineyard and ex-Vineyardite myself, I’m encouraged by the awareness of the shift needed. And really hope and believe the best for my Vineyard friends.
“Four Things.” includes six causes of the wintering of the movement. Helpful reflections Jason, every blessing as you and the tribe meet these challenges.
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02.07.10
Posted in complexity/systems, ekklesia, formation, leadership, mission, transition at 5:00 am by len
Debates about the nature and purpose of leadership will continue to rage. It’s probably important to affirm that the NT recognizes diverse forms. The wineskin seems less important than the wine. In diverse cultures leadership will look different.
So what is critical? What can we glean from Scripture about leadership? What is critical is ETHOS relative to the NATURE of God’s body and the TELOS of God’s intention. We all know the passages that hit at this, and the example Jesus set for us.
There are ar least four streams that need to feed into the renewal of our leadership paradigms.
1. biblical admonitions re: character and biblical direction re: telos. God is creating a people in Christ’s image — a new humanity — toward the renewal of creation.
2. the best pastoral theology. I have in mind in particular Henri Nouwen, Eugene Peterson, Jean Vanier, Dallas Willard etc.
3. the best practices from the business world that affirm life and empower creativity toward God’s intention in redemption.
4. the best analysis from organizational science of complexity and change because the challenges of renewal we face involve not just people but organizations that are embedded in a particular culture.
One of the best summary statements I have found in the literature of leadership and change, toward the challenge we face, is in “Presence.”
Senge, Scharmer, Flowers and Jaworski detail the seven movements in the process of transformation.. of what many of us would now call “emergence.” They write that a new spiritual path, or a new vision of leadership, will emerge “from building three integrated capacities:a new capacity for observing that no longer fragments the observer from what is observed; a new capacity for stillness that no longer fragments who we really are from what’s emerging; a new capacity for creating alternative realities that no longer fragments the wisdom of the head, heart and hand.” (p 218)
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02.06.10
Posted in books, leadership at 4:00 pm by len
Jimmy Long’s new book is reviewed by Ken Castor.
“In his book Long passionately presents the leadership tensions facing organizations like churches that rely upon multi-generational investment. Existing leaders are caught with having control of organizations and having difficulty in giving that control over to emerging leaders for a myriad of reasons. The most glaring reasons could be that existing leaders can’t find emerging leaders who are ready to accept their positional authority… and emerging leaders don’t want to receive the type of leadership that existing leaders have to give. Up-and-coming generational trends are shifting from a top-down reliance upon a singular leader towards an environment of shared leadership, trust, giftings, and actival-mission.
“Churches need to prepare for this. What’s needed is a cultural shift of typology where existing and emerging leaders partner in valuing the past and adapting for the future…”
The IVP site is HERE.
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02.05.10
Posted in books, formation, learning, pilgrimage, theology at 5:00 am by len
Paul Fromont points to another interview with Jamie Smith.
“There’s a kind of bodily know-how you’ve absorbed by other means. I suggest that, ultimately, our action and behavior is “driven” by our desire and longing for what really matters, what we love. And that desire is sort of “pre-rational” (though it’s NOT anti-rational) and is formed or “aimed” by, affective- imaginative means more than intellectual data.
“So what’s the upshot of this? My concern is that the church has clung to an intellectualist anthropology while Disney (and Hollister and Apple and VW, etc.) have appreciated that, in fact, our actions and behaviors are driven by something more affective. So they steer or aim our desire in more affective ways, shaping our desire through stories and images and “icons” of the good life, while the church keeps pouring rather abstract ideas and beliefs into my head. It’s not that the beliefs and ideas are wrong, it’s just that they’re not reaching the center-of-gravity of the human person. The church strategy is an insufficient counter-measure. If we’re going to counter the formation of desire we absorb through secular liturgies, then Christian worship and Christian education needs to be equally affective and holistic. Discipleship takes practice.”
See also “Heart, Mind and Strength”
and “Romantic Theology“. Read the review at CT here..
And you can download the introduction here..
Elsewhere, in case you missed it, NT Wright did an interview with the Wittenburg Door.
Elsewhere, nearly 2 years back, NT Wright interview on the Resurrection.
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02.04.10
Posted in leadership, mission, transition at 5:00 am by len
I have more or less finished a walk through of this new title from Alan Roxburgh and Scott Boren. It was worth the read. There isn’t a lot new here, but the book pulls together some significant thought and practice. I’ve been trying to decide whether to write a formal review or just post some excerpts. Since my week filled up quickly .. for today it’s an excerpt. The following is a summary of page 76-77.
“Most of us know the stats — we don’t have to repeat here the losses shaping denominations and the aging of the church. Church systems engage the missional conversation becasue they are scared and looking for a lifeline. Across the continent people are telling us that their church organizations are approaching a tipping point where local churches won’t be able to afford full-time, seminary trained pastors. The confusion, stress and anxiety are high among full time leaders…
“Some counter this data from the perspective of the megachurch phenomenon. There are more prominent churches of 5,000, 10,000 etc which might lead us to think the church is playing a MORE significant role in the culture.. But you can’t build a future on this model. Just from the perspective of leadership, these megachurches are created by people with leadership gifts that few have. To see this as an ‘answer” is to tell 98 percent of churches and their leaders that they have no future. But the issue is not .. how many churches are shutting down.. we are in a new world and the church as we have known it has to become very different in order to journey to this new place.
“The philosopher Charles Taylor calls our a ’secular age,’ in which ‘our present dondition is to say that many people are happy living for goals which are purely immanent..’ People’s primary concerns are for success in this life – they rarely ask questions about the transcendent. At the same time, they are feeling terribly insecure .. Witness the recent financial crisis and the stress created.. People go to church looking for words of security and a sanctuary.. but this is the problem. Churches give people what they want: [an escape] and comfort. The church is called to be what people really need: a foretaste of God’s new creation, a movement of people who change hte world, not escape it.
“In the midst of all this transition a missional church is formeed by people who are starting to own thaty they are no longer living in a safe place.. Just as Dorothy had to learn new skills to navigate in Oz, we too must learn new skills to be missionaries in this new place.”
See also this POST
“Introducing The Missional Church” is published by Baker Books.
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02.03.10
Posted in community, gospel, mission, pilgrimage at 1:15 pm by len
50 Ideas for Connection in a Disconnected Age
By Christopher Smith
“This little book aims to offer practical solutions that by the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit may help move us away from the disconnectedness that often overshadows our lives, as churches and individuals.
“Scot McKnight has described Growing Deeper: “Fantastic practical ideas that most local churches can do to help connection and fellowship.â€
“The author, Chris Smith, is a member of the Englewood Christian Church community on the near-eastside of Indianapolis. He is also the editor of The Englewood Review of Books. He regularly writes and speaks on topics related to church, community and God’s reconciliation of all things.
“Growing Deeper is now available on the Englewood Review website. The following link offers readers a quick preview of the eBook, as well as a bio for the author.”
LINK
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Posted in complexity/systems, gospel, leadership, learning, pilgrimage at 5:00 am by len
“In nature,†writes Margaret Wheatley, “change never happens as a result of topdown, preconceived strategic plans, or from the mandate of any single individual or boss. Change begins as local actions spring up simultaneously in many different areas.â€
What can we learn from this? According to Wheatley, we learn that the world “doesn’t change one person at a time. It changes as networks of relationships form among people who discover they share a common cause and vision of what’s possible.†They realize all of sudden that they make up a forest, an ecosystem—a community.
“.. the small group, not the large group or the individual, is the most potent focus. The best place to begin is in having a good conversation and cultivating relationships.
“For Wheatley, all of the truly marvelous changes wrought by humans can be traced back to “some friends and I started talking and….â€
“One of the most important things we need to do is find time for reflection. “This kind of time has disappeared from our lives, and we need to reclaim it,†she says. “We must have time where we start to feel centered, peaceful, focused.†Out of that space, we can cultivate a real relationship and start a conversation”
From “Complexity, Chaos, Collapse” by Barry Boyce.
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02.02.10
Posted in culture, family, life happens, the arts, transition at 9:48 am by len
Where the earth shows its bones of wind-broken stone
And the sea and the sky are one
I’m caught out of time, my blood sings with wine
And I’m running naked in the sun
There’s God in the trees, I’m weak in the knees
And the sky is a painful blue
I’d like to look around, but Honey, all I see is you.
The summer city lights will soften the night
Til you’d think that the air is clear
And I’m sitting with friends, where forty-five cents
Will buy another glass of beer
He’s got something to say, but I’m so far away
That I don’t know who I’m talking to
Cause you just walked in the door, and Honey, all I see is you..
Stan Rogers
This past winter we picked up Loreena McKennitt’s second Christmas album and enjoyed it greatly. It includes a beautiful love song titled “seeds of Love.” And if I thought about it a while I could pick some really great ones by Bruce Cockburn also, like “All the Ways I Want You” on Dart to the Heart. But I think my favorite is still this one by Stan Rogers. All three of these are Canadian singer-songwriters.
As I listened.. probably the last time before December 2010.. to Mckennitt yesterday I thought how profoundly Christian these love songs are. Or maybe, more exactly, how profoundly incarnational they are. They celebrate one of the deepest relationships we can experience. And every human love, as CS lewis was fond of point out, reflects something of the love of the Creator – in vulnerability, in something akin to worship, and in the bond that is integrative, reaching every part of our being. Read the rest of this entry »
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02.01.10
Posted in books, life happens at 10:15 am by len
This week we get our house back after nearly four months of sharing it with a mom and her daughter in transition.
Last September our youngest daughter moved out on her own; we were launched into the empty nest phase. It lasted about four weeks. We invited a woman to live with us who desperately needed stability, and counsel, and safety, and peace. In December her daughter, 20, joined her, needing similar space for different reasons. It’s been a busy household, sometimes stressful, particularly for my wife who has carried the lion’s share of the counselling and guidance needed.
It will seem very strange.. and will be very welcome.. to have our own space again. We’re a little tired, but glad we could provide a quiet and stable environment and some home cooking.
* * *
I am nearly finished the first draft of my “gospel and culture” project, slated for publication with Wipf and Stock. When I get the first section tuned up I will likely post it here in PDF format. I described the project as “An Emerging Dictionary for the Gospel and Culture.” But really, it is more like an anthology of current use, in the particular conversation that I have been immersed in for the past six years. It is “Wishful Thinking” meets “Soul Survivor” meets “A for Abductive” – with the tone of McLaren in A Generous Orthodoxy. Fun project, and now nearing its end.
But I have two other projects in process. The first is a fieldbook similar in design to the Tangible Kingdom Primer. The intended audience is spiritual seekers who are still “churched.” They may no longer be comfortable there. Some are merely bored. Many know there is much more, and they are ready to be led into a different way of seeing.. and practicing.. the good news of the kingdom. This project is now complete in its first draft and will be field tested and then shipped off to a publisher. Two publishers are looking at it.
The third project is now well underway, and I’ll talk more about it as we get into spring.
* * *
Lately I have felt a restlessness and I’m beginning to have some inklings of what it is about. In church life Betty and I have always been volunteers. We have been elders, teachers, and counsellors on a voluntary basis. Last year that changed for Betty. I’m beginning to think it may change for me. I have mixed feelings about it, but I have felt the Lord say that I need to be open to this. And in particular I have felt him say that change and risk are the way it will be. I am anticipating that I am going to feel out of my depth in new ways in these next few years — but it will be an adventure and engage my gifts and passion in very vital ways.
This may all be in relation to FORGE — I really don’t know. But I have also felt it would be a huge challenge and great adventure to lead a large church in transition. I have read so much on leadership and change in the past five years — I feel prepared, and even shaped, for that road. At the right time I believe I’ll be walking on it and leading a community of people into new territory. Coincidentally — I am reading Carly Fiorina’s memoir, “Tough Choices.” It’s a good read about a fascinating lady who took substantial risks, refused to be marginalized, and walked with integrity in some high powered circles.
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