jonnybaker

grand challenges for theology for the 21st century

grand challenges for theology for the 21st century (apologies for my lame contribution!)

sinead o connor theology

i have always liked sinead o connor. she never takes a preditable path. her voice blends a beauty, a frailty and has a passionate anger that rails against injustice that can only come from someone who has suffered. i remember seeing her at glastonbury several years ago and when she sang famine feeling like i was listening to a prophet.

she has suffered abuse at the hands of religion and famously ripped up a picture of the pope on stage and has vented her anger in public at her abusers. but she has also sought refuge in the solace of spiritual traditions and the mercy, grace and healing that come from finding a god of compassion, mercy, justice and kindness who is unlike those who claim to represent him. she calls god jah or U, and seems to have found inspiration and comfort with rastafari. there is a whole tradition of setting the old testament to music in reggae and sinead aligned herself with that tradition in her last album musically.

her latest album theology is just out. i bought it on impulse not having heard anything on it, intrigued by the dedication on the sleeve to a theology professor for his classes on jeremiah who suggested to sinead that she set some scriptures to music. well thank god he made that suggestion. because theology is pretty much that - a range of old testament scriptures woven tenderly into song. it's pretty, beautiful and powerful. i'm sure sinead must have read walter brueggemann in her classes? at least she fulfills the two roles of the prophet as he describes it - to evoke grief/lament about what has been lost and where we have become numb and to evoke amazement about god and the new world that is possible of healing, justice, and mercy.

the album has two CDs - one session recorded in dublin with just an acoustic guitar and the other in london with a wider range of musicians. i love the acoustic one. i don't listen to much music like this either. but this has so much soul it almost brings me to tears when i listen to it. it will be hard to beat though i kind of hope people do some remixes of some of the tracks too.

sinead seems to have stolen a bible from somewhere in desperation one christmas eve (judging by the lyrics of something beautiful) and found healing in the pages and poems of scripture. she thinks god agrees with her that it should have been free anyway... fair point! and it makes perfect sense that she has found a companion in jeremiah as he walked a path of suffereing in his own life out of which his message was hewn. there are songs that draw on psalms (33, 91, 137 and 104 i think) and songs of songs as well. as well as tender lament and love songs celebrating god's mercy she still has a few choice lines as do all the prophets for the oppressors who distort the name of god for their own ends.

i've heard religion say that you're to be feared
but i don't buy into everything i hear
and it seems to me you're hostage to those rules
that were made by religion and not by U

you can listen to a few tracks on sinead's myspace pages if you want to check it out. as well as her own songs she covers by the rivers of babylon and i don't know how to love him, as well as a curtis mayfield track.

the album opens with the lines

i wanna make
something beautiful
for U and from U
to show U
i adore U
oh U

you succeeded sinead - thanks. and may you continue to find the healing and mercy of god. [i'd love to hear what you make of the new testament and the person of jesus sometime as he carries forward the traditions and wells of spirituality you are drinking from and they 'broke his windows' for it]

heard a rumour that she was invited to greenbelt but sadly can't make it as there's something else in the diary. i hope she makes it another year.

the whole album is worship trick 7 [series 3]. virtually every track fits to be played and listened to in worship.

Technorati Tags: sinead o connor, theology

discussing pete rollins book

churchandpomo is beginning its series of 5 engagements with pete rollins book. the conversation really happens in the comments so you need to visit the site and not just your newsreader...

i have had conversations with people who love the book and people who have serious reservations about it so i hope that this is a space that really gets stuck into the issues.

everything the church uses was stolen from somewhere else

the july-september 2006 journal crucible has a focus on the church and popular culture. there is an interview with tom beaudoin and one of the questions asks him to reflect back on his book virtual faith. i love his reply...

i still think the basic claim of the book is right... people can and do use popular media culture as a way of working on their own spirituality to constitute meaningful symbols for themselves and their communities...the fact that popular media culture is an imaginative palette for faith - not to mention how we interpret what that means - suggests that theologians have their work cut out for them... the church has to take that imaginative palette seriously... if part of the pastoral task of the church is to communicate god's mercy and god's freedom in a way that people understand then you have to use the language that they're using, you have to use the metaphors and forms of experience that are already familiar to them. you can't ask people to believe in something their own experience forbids them to believe; that's just elitist ministry. we still have that going on in some places, where it's believed people need to be converted from one cultural system to the church's cultural system. i believe there's a lot of value in the church's cultural system and i would defend it a great deal. but all the aspects of the church's cultural system itself - its candles, its mass, its worship, its songs - were at one time secular cultural systems. everything the church uses was stolen from somewhere else and turned in an ecclesial direction for the sake of the gospel. so i am not asking the church to do something the church hasn't already done!

slog - churchandpomo

i recently stripped a whole load of blogs out of my newsreader. when i started blogging there weren't too many to follow but now it's like holding back the tide!...

but even so occassionally a new blog comes along that grabs my attention.

churchandpomo is the latest to do so (thanks jason for the tip off). the aim of the site is

to bring postmodern theory and contemporary theology into conversation with concrete faith and practice of the church. The posts and articles at churchandpomo.org will, from different angles and with different questions, undertake to answer questions such as: What does postmodern theory have to say about the shape of the church? How should concrete, in-the-pew and on-the-ground religious practices be impacted by postmodernism? What should the church look like in postmodernity? And how might the church understand and acts within contemporary society (politically, economically, symbolically, tangibly).

jamie smith whose book i blogged about is one of the people behind the blog. his book is part of a series on church and postmodern culture which has some very interesting looking titles forthcoming (e.g. caputo: what would jesus deconstruct). they are calling it a slog (slow blog) which i kind of liked. and in august will be introducing a series of engagements with jamie's book. then in september are setting up a dialogue with pete rollins around how (not) to speak of god . i'm looking forward to that. i actually love jamie and pete's books even though they have different takes on how to respond to postmodernism.

so a blog with a lot of content by the looks of it - if that's your thing sign up to the feed or join in the conversation. i have linked, subscribed and all that...

how (not) to speak of god

congratulations to pete rollins on his first book (the first of many i suspect) - how (not) to speak of god. the book is in two halves. the first 'heretical orthodoxy' explores a/theology of the emerging church. the second looks at the outworkings of that in the ikon community in belfast with outlines of several of their worship services. it's a fabulous contribution to the emerging conversation... pete draws on christian mystics to offer wisdom for how to live in the way of christ in a postmodern world. as a philosopher he also offers a way of engaging with the postmodern deconstructionists. it is a fascinating and original take. he has a way with words often seemingly speaking in paradoxes and riddles. though it's a short book it's one with weight and one you need to read a few times (at least i did). language makes the world and pete is definitely weaving the universe in a different way with a new vocabulary.

when i first read about postmodern culture and thought several years back, christians were all very defensive about truth - the postmodern critique of big stories captured in lyotard's famous quote 'i define postmodern as incredulity towards metanarratives' was seen as threatening, opening the way to relativism. in contrast i was actually quite energised by it. the notion that objective truth simply isn't available to us because we are all situated/embedded and so can't possibly have an objective view is a big relief and pretty obvious! it also explains why the christian church at times while claiming to have the truth clearly hasn't - it has at times legitimised oppression in the name of god. so a critique that says that all our claims on truth are limited as we can only see in part makes sense. but what it doesn't mean is that truth doesn't exist. we just can't grasp it fully... i concluded back then that minimally christians needed a lot of humility about truth claims and they needed to be lived out rather than shouted out.

pete shares this postmodern insight. we need our theology (speech about god) but all the while recognising that this very speech will fail to define god. it is our speech after all... god is the god beyond god. humility or to use pete's term a powerless discourse should characterise our way of being. here's a piece that suggests how christians should be in the world...

In this way the emerging conversation is demonstrating an ability to stand up and engage in a powerless, space creating discourse that opens up thinking and offers hints rather than orders. In short the emerging community must endeavour to be a question rather than an answer and an aroma rather than food. It must seek to offer an approach that enables the people of God to become the parable, aroma and salt of God in the world, helping to forma space where God can give of God. For too long the church has been seen as an oasis in the desert - offering water to the thirsty. In contrast, the emerging community appears more as a desert in the oasis of life offering silence, space and desolation amidst the sickly noursihment of western capitalism. It is here in this desert as we wander together as nomads, that God is to be found. For it is here that we are nourished by our hunger.

brian maclaren writes a foreword in the book in which he says this is one of the most rewarding books of theology he has read in ten years! there's a recommendation (and i'm sure pete must have danced round his kitchen when he read brian's generous foreword). way to go pete! good luck with the book and the conversations it sparks...

theology of kissing

theology of kissing

how (not) to speak of god

how (not) to speak of god
pete rollins is doing a weekend with the othona community in dorset june 11-13. more details here.

looking forward to pete's book of the same title later this year.

musings on the stranger

at CMS today we had the privilege of meeting dr anthony gittins who has done a lot of theological reflection on the stranger. i must get his book. here's a few notes I jotted from his presentation...

In an increasingly multicultural world isn't it time to stop thinking of ourselves at the centre and realise we might just be marginal or irrelevant? So let's start by thinking of ourselves as the other rather than the other as the other. What advantage would this displacement give us theologically and missiologically?

Matt 25 sheep and goats story has a passage which describes Jesus as a stranger. We have taken that to mean we should be kind to the stranger rather than become one.

Luke 24 Emmaus road story. At heart of the story Jesus presents himself as the outsider, the marginal, the stranger. In other words Jesus accomplishes something as a stranger that they couldn't get on their own.

In what way can a missionary be the stranger? not in the centre and no longer in charge? There is a dangerous assumption that the missionary should become assimilated or at the centre. Maybe this is flawed thinking! Sometimes when a missionary feels a stranger they try and overcome that and flip into a controlling mechanism.

The purpose of the Christian life is a kenotic(?) one - Philippians - an emptying of myself that I might be filled up.

The sociology of the stranger.
1. The stranger is never self defined. He/she is always defined by the host who in fact determines how the stranger will be treated.
2. The stranger is acutely ambiguous. The stranger must learn to live with ambiguity. As soon as the stranger can't live with ambiguity and tries to control things they become irritating to the host. Many of us who are highly trained find it difficult to be appropriate strangers and live with this vulnerability. In many languages the word for stranger is the same as guest. We can easily get confused. We are OK with being a guest but not so comfortable with being the stranger.

In anthropological literature, the stranger is the person who is on the very evry edge of somebody else's life. They stand to gain a lot from them if they are a resourceful person. But they stand to lose a lot if they look nice but have a hidden agenda/gun/knife. So scrutinising the stranger is very important before inviting him/her across the threshold.

Three phases of the process...
a) preliminary - before you get to the edge
Very short lived. Lots of cultures have proverbs about strangers smelling sweet on the first day, but it doesn't last long. A few days later they want to know if you are willing to reciprocate and play your part.
b) the edge - limin
You are neither in or out. It's predictable unpredictability. You think you are beginning to learn but you keep falling flat on your face. It brings you to your knees emotionally, physically and in every way. You have no idea what to do. The people who were there for you before are no longer there. The local community are still checking you out wondering when will this stranger let go control and ask for help? (move from control to mutuality). Maybe living in a state of mutual indebtedness is one of the great fruits of this liminal phase.
c) post liminal/incorporation - still an outsider but no longer a stranger (aside - we need to accept that we will never become an authentic insider)
This is the stage of being an outsider participant - the best possible thing a stranger can be (An outsider non participant is only a tourist).

What is the advantage then of the stranger?
a) for the stranger?
b) for the host community?

Technorati Tags: the stranger, mission, hospitality, theology

changing theological education

i have just got back from a 24 hour meet up between CMS, fresh expressions and theological educators (colleges and courses). the background to this is that there is a proposal for a new route/pathway to ordination which will recognise pioneer ministers - in practice this means people who will lead missional/emerging/fresh expressions of church. rather than expecting them to be the pastor/teacher type there is a recognition that there is a different gift/skill set and training requirements. you can read more about it here and download the guidelines  if you are interested. this goes to the house of bishops in january and is pretty likely to be approved. we were discussing what training is appropriate for this group. then there is the wider issue of training for all sorts of people (not just those likely to get ordained) who are involved in and leading fresh expressions. it was an interesting time, good to catch up with the fresh expressions team and others and to meet new people. things are definitely changing.

Technorati Tags: theological education, emerging church

princeton

princeton has been good... this time of year the colours on the trees are amazing reds and yellows and browns. i got a couple of e-mails recommending small world coffee as an essential part of the princeton experience so have duly checked that out.

the first evening was an emergent cohort - i.e a get together in a bar - triumph is the local microbrewery. was a great evening and good to catch up with friends from emergent - doug, karen, tony, adam, tim and to meet some new people. adam has posted some pics - i look terrible...

brian maclaren met with the faculty who had read his book generous orthodoxy. there was some discussion around that and then a lecture for students and staff to attend. i thought brian was on great form - gentle as ever but had some hard hitting lines. i think it's significant that this conversation is impacting these kinds of institutions...

i have then been taking part in a conversation between emerging church and theological educators from princeton theological seminary and wesley theological seminary who have jointly sponsored the event. we have a similar conversation at the beginning of december in the uk. i presented what the church of england has been doing with the mission shaped church report. it seemed to go down well. it will be interesting to see what outcomes there are from this conversation. i have put my notes here if you are interested... one of the things that seemed to touch a chord was a comment bob hopkins had made when i asked him what advice he would give a mainline denomination seeking to change - his comment was the need to encourage loyal radicals.

last night i led a worship service with karen ward - it was a communion. a few people have asked about music tracks, liturgy and video loops. most of the liturgy was from the book alternative worship that i put together with doug gay and jenny brown - the breathing exercise, creed, eucharistic prayer etc. several of the video loops were from the CD ROM that accompanies the book. the video loops projected on the side wall were from highwayvideo i think (karen put those together). the loop on the tv was done by andy, a friend of adam,  and the music playlist was as follows.

before the worship:
so beautiful - urban myth club
i never question god - ikon

worship:
azzolini and the branch brothers meet being - two lone swordsmen
space and time - baker/birch from alternative worship:spirit of the new
hush - eucharist
all our ancestors - TUU
swear word - martin wroe
14:31 - global communication
one perfect sunrise - orbital
table of christ - baker/birch from spirit of the new
eucharistic prayer - eucharist

during communion:
yearn - ikon
living bread - sister gertrude mixed by king britt

here is love - old hymns in dub
love theme - ikon

after:
everything in its right place - radiohead
far i have come - arsenal on idjut boys album press play

Technorati Tags: princeton, theological education, alternative worship emerging church

journal focusing on emerging church

international journal for the study of the christian church has a special issue focusing on emerging church edited by john drane. you can order it here - thanks steve

Technorati Tags: emerging church, theology

Re:source new course starts Jan 2006

download a pdf of the brochure

re:source begins a second course in january 2006. i am on the core group for the course and am excited about it. the first time we ran the course it went really well. this time it will be even better as we have learned from the first year and hopefully improved on it.

if you are involved in leading an emerging church/fresh expression of church/church plant or are thinking about starting one this could be a great course to sign up for. it is aimed at people who are doing it i.e. practitioners.

it consists of 5 weekends through the year, each in a different location, on the themes of mission, culture, leadership, church and transformation. like all these kinds of courses as well as some teaching, discussion, reflection, coaching and so on, one of the huge benefits is meeting a bunch of other people on similar journeys round the country to learn from each other. mentoring and assignments are also part of the course.

the stated aims/aspirations of the course are that by the end of it you will:
• be equipped to create church in emerging culture
• develop mission strategies for your specific context
• explore and apply skills in leadership and discipleship
• develop your capacity for spiritual and personal growth

full details are in the brochure. if you would like a brochure sent to you e-mail beth who now works part time to make re:source happen and is doing a fab job and she will send you one. you can also download a pdf of the brochure here (approx 500k). one of the challenges with all of this emerging stuff is that it is often tucked away so if you know anyone you think would be interested please pass on the info/pdf - these kinds of things spread best by word of mouth and we haven't got a huge advertising budget anyway. the course is pretty good value i think at £420 (plus £200 if you want us to provide accomodation).

there is a re:source web site but it is in the process of being updated so look back there in a week or two.

CMS are one of the partners helping run the course, hopefully offering some nous and experience about mission into the mix. i am intending to be at all/most of the weekends so maybe see you there?...

Technorati Tags: emerging church, theological education, resource

happy birthday emergingchurch.info

happy second birthday emerginghcurch.info!

to celebrate there is a beginner's guide to help people new to the scene/idea/site, and a new story each week through the month.

ian mobsby shares some insights from his MA suggesting emerging church is on to a distinctive theology

anne dannerolle longs for church to emerge into one that is full of the marginalised and disenfranchised and shares her experiences of mission amongst women on the streets in hull

Technorati Tags: emerging church, theology

in response to maggi

maggi has a post entitled resentment and theologians which has a lot of comments. it is a follow on/response to the debate on moot (make sure you look at the comments)...
i have tried to post a comment on maggi's but got a message saying i am only allowed 100 characters (in which space i can't say anything!) - seems a bit weird... anyway i am posting my response here. it won't make a lot of sense unless you read the original discussion...

all this blog activity at the moment - what is going on?!

great post maggi... only just caught up with it. i was one who specifically mentioned ivory towers on the moot blog. i am still uncomfortable with theology as it is framed in lots of academic institutions. i feel like kester and i are two lone voices here against the rest of the blogosphere. so am happy (well i'm probably lying) to be proved wrong... but let me try and articulate my problem
it's not with theology or study or specialisation - i have had my imagination funded by many a theologian and am thankful to those who have given their lives to it.
but it is with detatchment from the real world. (maybe all i am doing is arguing the case for practical theology?) the best theology always engages with life and i appreciate that you have hung around academic circles and are saying this is going on but i simply don't believe it's as wonderful as you say.
let me try and give a specific example (and risk getting my head bitten off) relating to  theological education - people go and train for being vicars for three years - most of what they do is theology - OT, NT, systematics etc - the theory is that they will learn the practical stuff on the job later on as i understand it. well to put it bluntly the sytem doesn't work. or it has massive problems. why? because there isn't the connection between theology and real life - it's too abstracted. it doesn't equip people to engage with theology in the market place or the city or pop culture. in terms of emerging church it is difficult to persuade people to get ordained - or at least via a route that requires being shut off from the world for three years. why? because they want to be trained where they are. and the training and theology needs to relate to the questions/struggles of real life. this is compunded by the fact that most people coming out of theological colleges are not equipped with the right skills to lead emerging churches - why? because they've spent most of their time doing theology and being trained to be teacher/pastors - very little missional stuff. dare i say sytematic theology is tired and dull? this is what i mean by detachment and i think that the establishment/institutions are perpetuating it. of course i am overstaing the case to make a point. i know loads of wonderful vicars and people who have learned loads through their training and relate it to real life. but those same people often still bemoan the lack of connection.
here's why i think everyone is loving your argument - you are an exception. you are theologising in the blogosphere listening to the struggles/questions many practitioners are asking - what a gift!... but show me the rest of the theologians who are doing that. i know there are some but i suspect that there are a whole lot more still commfortable in their ivory towers :-)
i'm with kester - i want to reframe the debate about god outside of the categories....
shoot me down

theology and ivory towers

interesting discussion going on in the comments following this post at moot. make sure you look at the comments....

Next Blah... with Barry Taylor 9 November

God is in the house: theology and pop culture in dialogue

Modern theology allowed sections of society to go uncontested, creating territories 'independent of god'--the current task is to reclaim the world by encompassing its activities and interests within a theological framework--to visit the sites where secularism is heavily invested and resituate them from a Christian standpoint. Pop culture is a key arena for new theological discussion.

Barry Taylor has recently co-authored the book A Matrix of Meanings: Finding God In Popular Culture. Rather than seeing adverts, music, film, celebrities, art, fashion, television and sport as ‘worldly’ Taylor suggests that they are all sites where we can join in the theologising already taking place, spot divine fingerprints, and uncover a surprising search for spiritual meaning. Barry is a Brit living in LA teaching theology and pop culture at Fuller. He is also a musician and one of his claims to fame is that he toured with AC/DC. We’re delighted he is able to join us for a Blah.

This is the fifth of a series of conversations hosted by CMS in 2004 on mission, worship, church and Christianity in today’s rapidly changing culture. It’s a time to keep listening, chatting and reflecting as God beckons us into the future.

Tuesday 9 November | 6:30-8:30pm | Drinks and refreshments provided | Admission free

Venue:  CMS partnership house, 157 waterloo road, london
[Nearest tube Waterloo - follow signs from station to Old Vic. Go past Old Vic and Partnership House is on the same side opposite the ambulance station]

It would help us to know numbers in advance so if you're coming please e-mail joyce