it was a joy celebrating with pioneer students at cms the completion of various durham university degrees and awards through their training. this photo shows the first graduates from the african christianity route through the masters programme with harvey and joseph who lead it. congratulations to everyone who completed an award - it's no mean feat. cathy has written up a blog post on the graduation old, new and unexpected treasure graduation 2024
when we refocused our work and team in post christian britain we retained our mission focus at the edges encouraging pioneers and pioneering churches. that is what we have done well and are passionate about. but we also discerned three particular areas to prioritise and encourage - younger people, people experiencing poverty and diasporas.
i am excited to let you know about a new piece of work that has grown out that third focus of our cms team in britain - acts 11. acts 11 is a centre for global witness and human migration. harvey kwiyani is one of our team leaders and is the visionary who has developed the idea. we have a launch event over two days - 26-27 september. the first day is a conference aimed at anyone interested. the second day is a conversation for those involved in theological education or missions organisations. all the details and how to book are here. you can book into one or other or both days. you can also sign up virtually too.
at cms we often say the gifts of the world church are already here and celebrate that. but we then don't seem to quite know how to make the most of that. it's been my friendship with harvey that has helped me work out how to practically put some legs on that. the fruit of that has been adding in an african and asian pathway to our training (and we hope latin american in the future too), and now this acts 11 centre which will be involved in resources, research, training, gatherings, networking and so on. we hope the fruit is also new understandings of collaboration, decolonised mission and so on.
we had lined this up before the riots in the uk in august. but now this seems more timely and more important than ever. please do come. and do spread the word about it. you can book here
i am so delighted to be able to let you know we have added an asian christianity route through the masters degree at cms. nuam hatzaw has joined our team to lead it. we have 6 bursary places offering 3k each towards it (which is half the fees or thereabouts). read more about it here where you can see more info, watch an interview with nuam and find out how to apply. word of mouth is our absolute best means of letting people know so please spread the word. we'd love to fill those places for september.
there is an open evening on august 6 - see page for info
this issue of anvil just out, makes my heart sing. all of the articles are from cms students. i guess it gives you a snapshot into the sorts of questions, conversations, explorations, theologising they are doing with us.
i stumbled across a podcast i was interviewed for last year which i realise i never listened back to. it's called pivot and considers faith and innovation, how the church can adapt and respond in the changing landscape she finds herself in. in it we discuss pioneering, fresh expressions of church, culture change. it's hosted by dwight zscheile and terri elton who are based at luther seminary in the usa. i met them when they were visiting harvey kwiyani in oxford as he did his phd there back in the day.
this article was written for and posted on the cms pioneer blog. i am also posting it here because i have learned over the years things disappear when sites get revamped and i like to keep the archive of things i have written...
When I visited Palestine in 1998 I visited a centre for Palestinian liberation theology. I bought a book on the Bible and colonialism. I discovered that for Palestinians the story of the Exodus doesn’t resonate in the same way that it does for other liberation theologies. It’s obvious now but it wasn’t to me then. They identify with those in the story who dwell in the land and get driven out, the Canaanites.
When I landed at CMS a few years later, hungry to learn about global theologies and mission, one of the first books my then boss Paul Thaxter gave me was called Voices From The Margins, a collection of essays. The one I remember the most is by Robert Warrior, a First Nations member of the Osage tribe (which you will know about if you have seen Killers of the Flower Moon). The chapter was called Canaanites, Cowboys and Indians. In it he says this:
“The obvious characters in the story for Native Americans to identify with are the Canaanites, the people who already lived in the promised land. As a member of the Osage Nation of American Indians who stands in solidarity with other tribal people around the world, I read the Exodus stories with Canaanite eyes. And, it is the Canaanite side of the story that has been overlooked by those seeking to articulate theologies of liberation. Especially ignored are those parts of the story that describe Yahweh’s command to mercilessly annihilate the indigenous population.”
In CMS I found there was actually a gold mine of this sort of stuff if you were prepared to do some digging.
Rewinding a bit further back, while I was at university I joined a group called Men, Women and God. In that group we read passages of the Bible that seemed on the surface to present traditional views of the roles of women and men. We were helpfully steered through them by those who had explored the texts, theologies, culture and so on. They were reading ‘with women’s eyes’ and that opened up a whole new vista of partnership, freedom and liberation for women (and men). That group was such a relief, so helpful!
If you grew up in a Eurocentric worldview you probably unwittingly have learned that your take on the Bible is the right one and other people’s is dodgy!
Reading the Bible from the edges, through other people’s eyes, fit well with the so called shift to postmodern times which we were discussing back in the 90s (and which has not gone away). It was a shift away from one dominating (Western) story of modernity with its objective rational truth to something more akin to a meal where there is a conversation and those round the table have a number of takes, stories. The best thing you can do is to share your take with humility and listen well to others and you’ll likely discover some things you had not seen before, which will give you a bigger picture. Sadly, I fear the post-modern table was not all it was cracked up to be – or at least issues of domination do not seem to have gone away.
If you grew up in a Eurocentric worldview or church you may have to get over some fear or worry because you probably unwittingly have learned that your take on the Bible is the right one and other people’s is dodgy! Interestingly it applies whether you are liberal or evangelical. I have come to think they may just be two different kinds of superiority that belonged to the modern era. You may even have learned to call your view ‘biblical’ or more latterly ‘orthodox’! That is simply a ruse. We have learned some odd things and can feel very defended about our ways of understanding and knowing. What makes this a bit more complex now is that you can get very Western ‘reads’ of the text in all sorts of places round the world, in some cases dogmatically so, which is a confusing legacy of empire. But again, dig a bit and you’ll find those who are doing the edge work.
I have read the Bible most days of my life and it never ceases to puzzle me, intrigue me, undo me. And I love it when someone opens up a new angle or possibility…
If you like the sound of this sort of approach to reading the Bible it’s more readily available than ever, though you’ve still got to do some digging. Here’s a few of the books I have been enjoying and/or challenged by recently. I have picked some that are on the Bible, not just contextual or intercultural theology more generally.
Bible Blindspots edited by Jione Havea, and Monica Jyotsna Melanchthon has some great chapters looking at Bible texts. ‘Samaritans and Empire’ by Nestor Miguez is incredible – this sermon I preached last year was inspired by that. In a similar vein Jione’s chapter on ‘Egypt Reframed’ is also wonderful in the flip it gives you on Egypt in the narrative. It is so helpful to get a take from the perspective of those who are ‘enemies’ of the story teller.
I have been very inspired by First Nations people and their worldview and spirituality and doing a lot of reading around that. On the Bible end, the First Nations Translation of the New Testament is amazing as way of reading the Bible. You get a flavour here of the gorgeous version of the beatitudes.
Unsettling the Word is a collection of Bible experiments in decolonisation written from Canada. It’s not all indigenous writers but nonetheless is also really good. The pieces are quite short so makes a good devotional book. ‘Destroy Everything’ by Derrick Jensen is a rewrite of Deuteronomy 7 and in the light of Gaza right now it could not be more pertinent. Another chapter by way of example is ‘Prayer of the Sent Away’, an extremely moving reflection by Ryan Dueck on Ezra and the ethnic cleansing that takes place.
Lastly the commentary Romans Disarmed by Sylvia Keesmaat and Brian Walsh is brilliant. I add it here because they definitely read Romans with the lens of Empire and First Nations people front and centre. It really is up there for me as one of the best and most creative commentaries I have ever read. And they have these wonderful targums, as theu did in Colossians Remixed, a sort of improvised rereading of particular passages. I hope to review all these over on my blog at some point.
Reading the Bible from all manner of edges enriches it for me, whatever context I am in.
In Romans Disarmed, Keesmaat and Walsh discuss clobber texts. This is a way of saying that some people (for example women, LGBTQ+, black and brown people who have been enslaved, indigenous people whose land has been stolen) have had the Bible used over and against them. They have been clobbered by it. The example that springs to mind is a scene in the film 12 Years A Slave where the text ‘slaves obey your masters’ Is being read out by the slave master at a church service.
Take Back The Word is a collection of essays that are a queer reading of the Bible. This is another edge to read the Bible from. It’s such an important edge right now to try and understand and feel the perspective of. They too discuss clobber texts. The thing that caught my attention the most in that book was the appeal in the introduction to those who have been clobbered by the Bible to find a way to make it their friend again. I thought that was a lovely exhortation, though how easy a journey that is I don’t know. My favourite chapter was ‘Reading The Bible From Low and Outside’ by Virginia Ramey Mollenkott.
If you prefer a podcast there is a series SheToo produced by Bible Society that looks at seven texts which include violence against women.
For pioneers the most important voice may well be to enable the Bible to be read from the edge where you are pioneering – maybe with spiritual seekers, young people, a working class estate. I wonder what that will look like. But actually I have found that reading the Bible from all manner of edges enriches it for me whatever context I am in and whatever context I am pioneering in.
In Deconstructing Whiteness, Empire and Mission, Anthony Reddie suggests that the tactics of reflexivity, decentring whiteness and finding new voices for the norm might be a start to decolonise the curriculum of theological education. I couldn’t agree more and I so appreciate his voice. Those three tactics are also good for reading the Bible. I have read the Bible most days of my life I think and still do. It never ceases to puzzle me, intrigue me, undo me. And I love it when someone opens up a new angle or possibility that deepens my appreciation or threatens my world. Maybe you can find the voice of someone at the edges and read the Bible from the edges with them, through their eyes.
the latest episode of the emerged podcast series has contributions from a few places round the world that were experimenting in the emerging culture back in the 90s and 00s. it was great fun to have an excuse to chat with tony jones after many years and some of our conversation features in the episode around leading the way in decline, alternative worship, emerging church, fresh expressions and the labyrinth in a can! i laugh a lot listening back to it. it was great to hear sivin kit, jason clark, graeme codrington, pete rollins and dave andrews on the same episode. i am enjoying the series - loved that season. makes me want to kick on further into that whole movement really. the work is not done, though to be honest i have kept at it.
come along to an open day and find out about our training at cms for pioneers, ordinands, lay ministers, youth, children and family workers, pioneers in new housing areas, those exploring african christianity and mission in the west and so on.
this page lists all the open day dates at the moment and has some student interviews about how they found it. there is one on feb 26 in person and feb 27 online for example. i love love love what we do and seeing the journey students go on as they explore that blend of who they are, their dream for what they sense their call is, discovering a world of global and local theology and mission that both deconstructs and opens up imagination for what's possible. there's a sort of pragmatism out there at the moment which seems to want to get to work with as little training as possible. my advice is get to work but train while you do. i have observed over the years that those who dive a bit deeper seem better able to do the imaginative work especially if you want to be future facing.
we know because students tell us that the training gives people confidence, a community of fellow travellers, language and skills for mission and ministry. and as jo says for many "it blows them away"!
we have recently had an inspection - we are part of a wider set up with ripon college cuddesdon. think ofsted equivalent for theological education. you can read the 60 page report on the church of england web site (yeah right!). but to save you the trouble the inspectors had very positive things to say about what we offer at cms. the quote above is the short version! last year we managed to get a few funded places for youth minstry which we will try and pull off again (no promises).
if you join the next year intake you might be the 1000th student to have joined in some training with us!
i have been thinking this week about our charism or what is the unique gift we offer which we have summarised as true north. but of the nine facets of that, the one right at the heart of it is freedom. we will do out utmost to help you be free to be the person you are and pioneer out of that freedom.
no wastelands: how to grow seedbeds of shalom in your neighbourhood by ash barker is a wonderful book. it pulls together so many threads distilling his and anj's experience, practice, wisdom, theology.
i have taken groups of pioneer students to visit ash and anj in winson green over the last 7 years and they always come away challenged and inspired. the reason is simple – they are living out the gospel in their neighbourhood in ways that are bringing visible change, visible good. ash's word for that is shalom - life flourishing in a place. ash has so much experience having done four cycles of living in urban neighbourhoods round the world facing multiple challenges. no wastelands distils the wisdom of that experience, practice, and theology into one accessible volume. it’s a mix of inspiring stories, gritty honesty, practical ideas, advice and frameworks, spiritual practices, theology and missiology, combining into an amazing handbook to guide anyone else wanting to follow in this direction, of which I hope there will be many. it is rich and deep. ash’s passion for enabling innovative leaders and changemakers from inside those neighbourhoods shines through – that’s the thing that has grabbed me personally the most. I will be coming back to this again and again and passing it on to others.
it is available from amazon or ash
we have a day (which will advertised shortly) for the pioneer network on march 21 most likley in bristol. ash will be at that so do pout that in your diary. he is also out and about round the uk as follows:
19 Jan - Nazarene Theological College’s Cafe, Manchester
27 Jan - Seedbeds Centre, East Ham, London
28 Jan - Lodge Road Community Church, Birmingham
<15 Mar - Kelvinside Hillhead Church, Glasgow
16 Mar - Forge Conference, Perth, Scotland
17 Mar - St Augustine Church, Edinburgh
21 Mar - CMS Gather day (location tbc)
12 Apr - The Church on the Corner, London (tbc)
23 Apr - Dublin
26 Apr - Forth Spring, Belfast
25 May - Holy Island, UK
7 Jun - The Message Trust, Manchester
contact seedbeds to find out more and i will add details of the march 21 day as soon as i have them.
this is a personal reflection on how we have got to where we are w.r.t. mission and the church. it was written for a think tank group in the church of england on mixed ecology (which means the ecosystem that can contain multiple ways of being church especially embracing new forms that relate to those outside of church cultures). in other words it is an english perspective, not attempting to give a global overview, and it is related primarily to the church of england. it was written as a discussion starter so reads as a set of notes rather than a crafted article. i wrote it in the wake of covid. but now seems a good moment to publish it prompted by the emerged podcast. after I had written a draft of this I came across a chapter written by graham cray in cultivating missional change which was a book published in south africa which gives an excellent overview. i have opinions on what i have written but have tried to resist commenting or critiquing at this juncture. i think it best to be generous and see these threads as part of a whole, a wider movement.
Mixed Ecology: How Did We Get Here?
This is inevitably a take and there will be many other takes and lots to fill in. So think of this as a conversation starter and something that others can add to or possibly write other takes. There is a question of how far you go back and why but I think 50 years is probably a reasonable window.
Two environmental factors
Culture - the world changed significantly whatever way you describe it - post modern, emerging, post Christendom, post Christian even. One significant factor aligned with this is digital and communication technology which has changed so much more than we realise. Some writers see the change as a threat and some as opportunity but the change is not really contested.
Decline - I remember a staged walkout at an event in the 90s of 300 young people which at the time was the stat leaving the UK church each week. Whatever way you come at it church was declining which created anxiety and pressure.
Four tributaries
Urban areas - there is a long history of engaging in poorer areas - worker priests and so forth but the marker that sticks out is the Faith in the City report in 1985 which made an impact. The reason it’s worth mentioning is it raised questions about resourcing, liturgy, young people, race, culture, mission and so forth. It probably didn’t use the term but was asking contextual questions.
Charismatic renewal - there are various tributaries of this but a lot of the same issues we talk about now were in the renewal conversations though talk of new churches came later. Whatever your tradition that movement softened the church and generated openness to the Spirit in a fresh way, and emphasised ministry in the body of Christ rather than being too clerical. There was some threat in this too in that many left and set up other things but a lot stayed and quite a lot came back. Festivals and conferences led to various networks addressing questions of church and mission in a range of ways. The likes of Graham Cray, for example, were quite shaped by that movement. John Collins who was the modern founder of HTB was too. A later tributary though less Anglican was the coalition of youth led initiatives that were part of house church movements and mission agencies from the 1990’s. This included in particular Ichthus and Pioneer along with NGM, Youth For Christ, Frontier Youth trust, Oasis, New Wine and YWAM England. This was a fusion of alt worship exploration and mission impulse. Events such as Greenbelt and Remix explored the objective of reimagining faith in the cultural commons with art and justice themes. This laid the ground for catalysing a number of other significant sub movements including, cultural shift, 24/7, the Factory, Soul Survivor and so forth.
Global missions - Lesslie Newbigin is probably the most famous voice from when he returned to England from India (1974) and drew on issues of mission and culture to say that we needed mission that took the gospel and culture in the West seriously. Another thread from missions was contextual theology which is a relatively new concept growing either out of liberation theology in S America and S Africa. The postmodern turn questioned the West’s overarching domination and narrative in theology as much as in other disciplines so global voices and other voices from the margins became very important. Contextual approaches fit this new environment well. CMS first engaged in Britain as a mission context in the 1970s. And then engaged in a new way following a report in the 2000s recommending engagement with what it described as the emerging culture.
Youthwork - as noted above the decline in young people was a lightning rod for the church’s anxiety around decline. Pete Ward made the link between cross cultural mission and youth ministry in his book Youth Culture and the Gospel in 1992. Youth ministers began experimenting and developing youth church (which they were not able to call that at times). Oxford Youthworks and Frontier Youth Trust pioneered in that space, with some iterations of YFC on board.
Some chapters in the story
Decade of evangelism. The Church of England’s efforts in the decade of evangelism (1990s) haven’t gone down that favourably in history - a review said that it had probably slowed decline at least. There was a lot of effort but not a lot to show for it. That partly fuelled questions of what a better approach was and what might come out of it. At the conference ACE99 reflecting on it, a memorable moment was when John Drane shared a cross cultural approach with spiritual seekers at new age fairs using tarot cards that seemed to polarise the room - one half excited about contextual mission and the other thinking they were hearing some new heresy.
Theology. It was not just a pragmatic movement. A re-theologising was most certainly taking place, with a significant level of thought leadership and theological reflection. Missio Dei became a widely received theological idea that flipped peoples understanding (albeit it had emerged in the 1950s). More broadly there has been a turn to context and a new appreciation of the incarnation in theology – inculturation or contextualization are two ways of expressing it. Trinitarian participation is another way that has been opened up of understanding mission. There has been a new emphasis on the Spirit in mission. Ecclesiology is also an area that has had a lot of attention, notably Rowan Williams introduction to MSC setting the tone for that. And more latterly a whole conversation has kicked off around decolonising mission and deconstructing whiteness.
Church planting. There were several ways into this but church planting became a growing area of interest. Growing indigenous expressions of church was a logical outcome of mission that drew on cross cultural approaches - youth churches grew from this understanding in the 1980s. Anglican Church Planting Initiatives was founded as a charity in 1996 though I imagine was doing things from around 1991. Interestingly in the late 1990s and early 2000s (I think) the annual conferences that they hosted showcased anything and everything new - congregation plants, alternative worship, cell church, youth church. It was only much later that the language of planting became more polarising as it seemed to be the preserve of more conservative approaches to both theology and church.
Alternative Worship. This was a movement that engaged imaginatively with postmodern culture in quite radical ways in the 90s both in terms of the structure of church and worship but also exploring theology in ways that seemed to fit postmodern sensibilities - black, eco, feminist and liberation theologies were all at the table. Intriguingly it also seemed a playful turning away from modernising moves of the charismatic movement towards a blend of more ancient with urban club culture. Greenbelt festival was home to this and then a range of other new forms that were picked up and shared.
Emerging church. The issue named by emerging church seemed to be that it was not simply about changing worship but about the whole - discipleship, spirituality, church, leadership and so on all needed exploring in light of the new environment. In 2002 ACPI, Church Army, CMS and others to agree to start a web site to catch some of the stories of what was emerging and emergingchurch.info was set up to do that. Perhaps a significant book (though not well received by some Anglicans) was The Shaping of Things To Come by Hirsch and Frost which catalysed a lot of conversation about what being missional meant. Some started to call their church expressions missional communities, others drew on monastic patterns and claimed a new monasticism.
Mission Shaped Church. In 2004 this report named the surprise of the bubbling up of fresh expressions of church around the edge, said it was a good thing and named the mixed economy of church in the intro by Rowan Williams. Messy church started that year I think which became one of the most widespread fresh expressions.
Fresh Expressions. The Lambeth Partners funded fresh expressions under Rowan Williams wooing and persuasion and that quite quickly diffused across the church. For example at one time I think Mission Shaped Ministry, a course in fresh expressions had run in 40 dioceses. Other denominations got on board - Baptists, Methodists, Salvation Army, Congregataional Federation, URC to name a few. It also generated a lot of interest in other parts of the world. For example I know MSC was translated into Korean. FX was keen to appeal across all streams of the church and notably published books relating to the sacramental traditions. It has always struggled to shake off accusations of being overly evangelical which is slightly odd given Rowan’s leadership. Several years later the Church of England backed off funding FX - I think because the view was it had become embedded or mainstream but also the funding through Lambeth Partners stopped with a change of Archbishop from Rowan to Justin. Other denominations still support it. The argument in defence of this will be that it is embedded in the strategy now. I will resist commenting at this point.
Church Army and CMS (two of the mission communities or sodalities of the C of E) - Church Army and CMS have been players all the way through the above both contributing to the thinking and theological imagination as far back as the likes of John Taylor but also through publishing, being on the group that wrote MSC, developing training and so forth. Other newer charities or groups have since emerged (CCX, Myriad etc). Dioceses have really needed the sodal structures to call the church forward and to work in partnership with.
Pioneer Ministry. It was a recommendation in Mission Shaped Church that the kind of ministry that was starting new things should be seen as a new designation and pioneer ministry was what it was called. Another recommendation was that training for pioneer ministry should be done through a cross cultural lens which is why CMS for example were invited by the church to design training. Stephen Croft the first Fresh Expression worker under Rowan managed to do the policy work for a recognition of a designation of pioneer ministry and also worked to change the pastoral measure so that it was possible to plant church across parochial boundaries.
HTB. It is probably worth singling out HTB as a passionate advocate of church planting - hosting the church planting conferences above but also developing a model of planting in London by taking on churches that were low in numbers to revitalise them. I am less familiar with the timeline on this and how the trajectory developed into the Resource church model over time.
SDF - the Church Commissioners shifted how they gave surplus money towards dioceses. Dioceses could bid but one large area of funding needed to be tied to mission and ministry that grew the church. Whilst there have been a range of bids Resource church has been in vogue with the SDF board so a lot of investment has gone into larger city centre church plants.
CCX - London appointed a Bishop of Islington in 2015 to oversee church planting which was a fairly radical idea at the time. Out of that CCX and latterly Myriad have grown with a focus on encouraging planting.
July 2019 C of E Synod - A report was presented at Synod in July 2019 15 years on from Mission Shaped Church . Research from Church Army has been done at various points on fresh expressions and the report The Day Of Small Things showed that fresh expressions was probably the most effective means of reaching those outside the church that the church had seen for quite some time. A motion was presented and passed encouraging every parish to explore adding a contextual expression of church.
C of E Mixed Ecology Vision - The C of E has a new vision for a church of missionary disciples with Jesus at the centre and a mixed ecology of church. This seems a logical extension of all the above.
COVID. In July 2019 it felt like momentum was really there but the church is now emerging the other side of COVID more anxious and resource stretched. It remains to be seen how that vision is to be embedded and carried forward into the next 50 years.
[a slightly more expansive view of the last twenty years and my personal take on it is in this baker's dozen 13 reflections celebrating twenty years at cms]
a new podcast series kicked off this week - emerged podcast
it is available on the usual platforms of course. hosted by tony jones and tripp fuller it is a look back at the emerging church movement in the usa - what was known as emergent back then. i really enjoyed the first episode - it's fast paced, lots of interviews, very well put together. i was interviewed by tony so imagine at some point i will pop up to give a perspective of what was going on in the uk and how the two ran in parallel, collided, enjoyed friendship and exchange. i enjoyed those exchanges very much back then and occasionally my paths still cross with people who were involved. i look forward to following along. they are collating an archive which will be interesting - it will be accessible to members. in the first episode they look at where it all began or what catalysed the conversation. they point to the bigger postmodern shift in western cultures and the significance of youth ministry as critical factors. i am delighted they are doing it in such a rich way. i hope it sparks both wider conversation and catalyses some newness. that wider shift has not gone away, the death throes of the old order are still going on, and we need dreamers of the future living against the odds more than ever.
i'd love there to be a similar conversation/reflection in the uk. it's twenty years since mission shaped church so i i expect there will be at least some opportunity for that though msc and fresh expressions came on the back of at least a decade of innovation in youth ministry, alternative worship and emerging church.
in a previous post there are lots of african names for god in the invocation. i stumbled across a new one today - the great trickster! i was following a trail in a footnote that mentioned an article called tricksters in the bible by carole fontaine which of course caught my attention. if you know me, you'll know i love the trickster myths and character. anyway i managed to track it down to an episcopal church magazine called witness in 1998. wonderfully it is online in an archive here. the article is by carole fontaine who i don't know much about but like immediately! i have taken the liberty of lifting out that article so you can take a look here but i found the whole magazine pretty interesting with articles by the likes of walter wink.
"When the power-brokers simply will not listen, when the center forgets the margin — well then, a trick may be in order."
it's the beginning of term. a new year is always both crazy busy but hugely energising. at cms in oxford we have around 100 pioneers doing some training with us at undergrad, post grad and doctoral levels. it's such a joy and privilege meeting them and encouraging them in who they are, their sense of vocation, their learning and practice. i teach a couple of modules at undergrad level. one is an introduction to practical theology and reflective practice. we had the first day of that yesterday where amongst other things we discussed theology as a quest, as faith seeking understanding, as conversation about god, as something for everyone and not justan elite educated crew, as something lived, as something contextual and local and intercultural, as something global and not just western and so on. one of the ideas we came back to was theological homelessness (scroll through this edition of anvil and you'll find an article by me and cathy ross on it).
as you would expect, for every module there is a reading list. one of the books on that is theology brewed in an african pot by agbonkhianmeghe e orobator and an essay option is 'what does theology look like brewed in the pot of your community?' which i think is a fun title (i am not so sure students think it's fun writing essays mind!). i have always loved learning from other cultures and contexts and putting my western learned sense of things in conversation with that - it's a gift cms has given me. it's such a relief to find that wesrern theology (ies?) are a local theology rather than universal and will be enriched in conversation with other theologies. i'll never forget john mbiti sharing names of god he had collected from his travels in africa and he had over 300 names. orabator has various prayers and liturgies in the book, one of which is inspired by john mbiti. it's called an african invocation of divine names and i found it online here and am taking the liberty of posting it below (largely because i have learned over the years of blogging that links eventually don't work!). what does theology look like brewed in the pot of your community i wonder?
Ancient deity,
Unbreakable stone,
Consoler and comforter providing salvation,
Grandfather who alone is the great one,
Watcher of everything who is not surprised by anything,
Piler of rocks into towering mountains,
Divider of night and day,
Response: We praise You!Sun too bright for our gaze,
Eye of the sun,
Artist-in-chief,
Drummer of life,
Owner of our head,
Large and deep pot,
My feathered one,
Mother of people,
Response: Bless us!Great nursing mother,
Great eye,
Great rainbow,
Great personal guardian spirit,
Unsurpassed great spirit,
Great source of being,
Great mantle which covers us,
Great leopard with its own forest,
Great healer of eternal life,
Great water-giver,
Great well,
Greatest of friends,
Great spider, the all-wise one,
Response: Enlighten us!Controller of destiny in the universe,
All-powerful, never defeated,
Father of laughter,
King without blemish,
Possessor of whiteness,
Whiteness without patterns,
Caller-forth of the branching trees,
Unique great one to whom one can take petitions and requests for counsel,
Response: Hear us!The first who always existed and will never die,
The only one bull in the world,
The one who sees both the inside and the outside,
The one we meet everywhere,
The one who is in all ages, everywhere and at all times,
The one who turns things upside down,
The one who has power to destroy completely,
The one who makes the sun set,
The one who gave everything on this earth and can take everything away,
Response: Guide us!Axe that fears no thistle,
Hoe that fears no soil,
Ram of majestic sinews and majestic carriage,
Hero who never flees before the enemy,
Big boundless hut,
Victor over death,
Response: Protect us!Compiled from John Mbiti, Introduction to African Religion (London: Heinemann, 1975); Robert E. Hood, Must God Remain Greek? Afro Cultures and God-Talk (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1990); Joseph Healey and Donald Sybertz, Towards an African Narrative Theology (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1996), and other sources.
Agbonkhianmeghe E. Orobator - Theology Brewed in an African Pot
i am adding this as a worship trick - yes i'll be getting those going again sporadically.
lay pioneering and thriving in mission is a new grove booklet by james butler. it's the result of reaearch in focus groups with a range of lay pioneers. it's very well done and super interesting what surfaces. it's hopeful and a reminder that pioeering arose as a result of a lay movement of the spirit in the world. he explres some of the challenges and inevitably this leads to some discussion on the relationship with local churches. for me it confirms some of my hunches and ponderings about the way church is constructed and how it simply does not work for huge numbers of people. so perpetuating the idea that if we do it better or do more of them the church will grow may well be a bit delusional. or may be one among many things that might be worth experimenting with. or at least it will work for a natural fringe only. lay pioneers are world facing and inhabiting the neighbourhood or parish differently. with a little bit of imagination it's not hard to see how wonderful that is and how it is good news and the yeast of the kingdom. anyway all that is to say have a read - grove booklets are about 8000 words usually and very accessible. i explore some of my own thoughts on reimagining church in the chapter 'leap over the wall or perish' in imagining mission with john taylor - this reminded me of that, which is still one of my favourite chapters of things i have ever written. have a read. and thank you james butler.
the latest issue of anvil journal is really wonderful - exploring the emancipation of indigenous theologies in light of the rise of world christianity (and it's free). i read it on the ferry on my phone on the way back from the netherlands last week and found i wanted to read all of it! i have so enjoyed various things related to indigenous spirituality, community, theology over the last few years - visiting maori and reading hui comes home in NZ; braiding sweet grass; first nations version of the new testament; rescuing the gospel from the cowboys by richard twiss etc... so it was a joy to be able to host some articles and conversation in the cms journal. big thanks to everyone who contributed. i also really liked the book reviews this time round - they all sound interesting. do read jay matenga's article. I thought that was particularly helpful at a time when the c of e could do well to stay in for the difficult conversations. i took some quotes from that and the editorial and put them with photos i took when i was in new zealand. see my word - indigenous
at cms there is a library and new books are on display. one caught my eye a few weeks ago - ecclesial leadership as friendship by chloe lynch which i took home to have a look through. ever since i have been wanting to write a review and not found the time! so this isn't a review - more an enthusing.
i should say first up that it's an academic book, it's a work of practical theology that is amazingly thorough, well researched and written. it's not popular level if you know what i mean. she uses walter brueggenann's prophetic imagination (which is one of my favourite books ever and one that changed my life) as a framework for the book. this in itself is wonderful - i intuitively did something similar many years ago for an essay on my MA.
she offers a critique of leadership in the church as it is - i completely welcome that. she particularly lays into the managerial culture and language, but interestingly looks at other ways of framing leadership such as servant and suggests they fall short. incarnational mission and ministry is central for her which i love and agree with (i have returned the book by the way so can't check exactly how she puts it). she then offers leadership as friendship as a model or way of thinking through church leadership. i think it is a very original piece and i warm to the notion a lot. i read steve summer's book on friendship years ago where he explores the idea of church as a community of friends and the eucharist as a meal with friends. i loved that and it felt to me that this builds on that - she does reference steve in passing but i was surprised that link wasn't built on further. i am very drawn to ignatian spirituality and at the heart of that is the idea of friendship with god as at the heart of faith. if you put all these things together friendship becomes a really interesting way of reflecting on following in the way of christ together.
the big question i have is to do with power. is it possible to be in a leadership role and maintain friendship? it's a good aspiration. chloe does address that but i wanted more. steve summers does explore that in more depth in his book - his angle is whether friendships can work across different social strata.
evangelicals are in crisis i think when it comes to leadership and they are not alone - how many more cases of controlling, abusive leadership are going to come out? so it might seem weird to suggest friendship when it also feels like you can't trust people in leadership. but i think the problems are in large part to the way the cultures of churches are set up whether an overly clerical paradigm or an overly super hero paradigm where you don't question the leader (or whatever the big evangelical church leader paradigm might be). the problems too are to do with the heart being deceitful of course. but positing friendship as a paradigm for being a community opens up a different kind of culture. it's easier in a small community which to be honest i have always preferred and been part of. and it does open up some questions too.
at cms in theological education we try to create that sort of a culture with our team and with students and pioneers who have trained with us. i have wondered whether it is feasible to do but have often said i primarily like to think of students as friends who are fellow travellers in mission. this too is counter cultural to the expert or to notions of formation which seem to me to largely be about control and create almost parental kins of relationships between teachers and students.
anyway all that to say i wanted to mention and enthuse about the idea and the book and chloe lynch (who i don't know). being academic it's not a cheap book and sadly routledge are still not on perlego .
an advocate for pioneers, lover of all things creative and an explorer of faith in relation to contemporary culture
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