Ron Cole : off the map...navigating life.

Moot's Mobsby, McLaren...muse future faith

In a cafe' in London in late June, Ian Mobsby of Moot Community sat down with Brian McLaren. In this podcast interview, Brian McLaren dialogues with Ian Mobsby exploring the future of church and mission. In conversation, a wide range of issues are discussed including new monasticism, mission to spiritual seekers, and the challenge of church in the twenty first century.

You can listen to the podcast...Here.

Brian McLaren live...dig deep

 

I thought, and I fought long and hard. I love Brian McLaren, I own, and have read every book Brian has written. I have wrestled with his musings on theology, and missiology...it has had a profound effect on my journey. But, the " live " Brian I can't afford at the moment, or really justify spending that much. Others in conversation this week have expressed the same comments.

Brian is coming to Victoria BC, to Christ Church Cathedral May 29th as keynote speaker on a conference titled, " Evangelism and Transformation in a Secular Society." I would have hoped that the conference organizers would have made the conference a little more progressive in terms of technology. Creating a site and live streaming the conference could have made the conference more accessible and affordable to a greater number of people.( Theology after Google streamed all their talks live...for free, and most recently Transform was free and posted the video talks to anyone interested in the conversation) In know in the past of having Brian on the island, by the time you add Ferry costs, and hotel, and meals...it's expensive. I know Brian is an advocate of using technology to increase the scope of accessibility to his teaching.

Evangelism is about critical mass...somehow if organizers had a greater imagination on connecting using the tools of the secular society they are trying to engage they could create more gravity.

Anyways, I'm not putting down Brian, in a church that struggles to find it's way in postmodernism and post Christendom he is a voice of wisdom, a voice that stretches and encourages. He calls all to an open table of conversation in humility, hospitality and grace. So, if you have 100$ hidden in the recesses of you pockets...go see Brian. Prepare to be challenged.

Be blessed Brian, maybe, in wild act of fate we'll bump into each other on the street.

Fresh Expressions...life boats of exploration in changing seas

A man I have really grown to appreciate, and respect over the past 10 years or so is Bishop Graham Cray of the Church of England, and his tireless work around Fresh Expressions that evolved from the Missional Shaped Church document.

He's got a great personality, a contagious imagination, humble...and a fantastic sense of humor. There is a glimpse of his funny side on the video at the end of the post.

At 62 years old, a lot of clergy would be in their retirement slump, but, Graham has a passion for the church and the gospel. He is on the go constantly encouraging new pioneers and entrepreneurs to build something on the fringe that will spark the imagination of a disengaged culture. 

There are many folks involved in Fresh Expressions, but, Graham from an idea that evolved out of the ( Missional Church Document ), ( Download Mission_shaped_church-1 ,  ) has, and continues to nurture the culture from which it's embryonic growth started.

The Archbishop Rowan Williams, says this about Fresh expressions...

But, to live with risk like this, we need to have a clear and robust understanding of what the Church really is. It is not, in the New Testament, a carefully constructed human society, organizing itself in local branches, with members signing up to a constitution. Instead, it is what happens when the news and the presence of Jesus, raised from the dead, impact upon the human scene, drawing people together in a relationship that changes everyone involved, a relationship which means that each person involved with Jesus is now involved with all others who have answered his invitation, in ways that can be painful and demanding but are also life giving and transforming beyond  imagination.

The ’strength’ of the Church is never anything other than the strength of the presence of the Risen Jesus. And one thing this means is that, once we are convinced that God in Jesus Christ is indeed committed to us and present with us, there is a certain freedom to risk everything except those things that hold us to the truth of his presence – Word and sacrament and the journey into holiness. These will survive, whatever happens to this or that style of worship, this or that bit of local Christian culture, because the presence of Jesus in the community will survive.

Fresh Expressions, I’ve suggested, has helped us see something of this liberating vision. It’s true, from one point of view, that this takes us beyond a concern with denominational identity; and for some this is worrying. Is it really Anglican, or Methodist, or Baptist?  What I hope is that, in the next phase of the work of Fresh Expressions, as it continues to enter more fully into the bloodstream of the churches, we start asking instead – of Fresh Expressions, but also of some of our inherited patterns – ‘Is it really Church?’

In the most recent podcast of Fresh Expressions (UK), Graham Cray has some sofa time sitting down in conversation with others talking about Fresh expressions...its' beginnings, present and future.

Without a doubt we know in post-Christendom, things are not the same, nor can the stay the same. " Church ", is in decline, especially in North America, and Europe. We've hit the ice berg! We can continue to rearrange the deck chairs, and have the worship team play on...or.

More than ever for the church to survive it will need to be sustainable, fluid and missional. Some ships, churches may survive the collision with the ice berg. But, many won't and perhaps it's time to put out some life boats, filled with dreamers, visionaries, entrepreneurs, pioneers and explorers into the changing waters of to day to explore and experiment to build in different landscapes.

I encourage you to listen to the podcast, it is filled with great questions and answers. But, most...I encourage you to dream, not to get lost in your dreams...but to build your dreams.

You can listen to the podcast ( HERE ), click ( 1. December 2009 podcast extra ). Also in the sidebar of my blog, under the heading of Bill Kinnon's Missional Videos, there are 2 excellent videos of Graham Cray in an interview at Wycliffe College in Toronto talking about Fresh Expressions.

Why the church must change or die...Diocese of BC

The following was written by the Reverend Dr. Gary Nicolosi, Diocesan Congregational Development Officer...

No more getting by, barely surviving, hanging on, doing ministry as we have always done it, remaining in our comfort zone, while being impervious to what is happening around us.

Everything is now up for review. There are no sacred cows, no hands-off issues. Nothing is off limits. No church or organization is immune from scrutiny. No job is guaranteed – not mine, not the Bishop’s – nobody’s.

Today’s church is running on institutional fumes and atrophying affinities. No organization, sacred or otherwise, can stem or reverse decline if massive membership and loyalty loses go on for decades. Quite frankly, we face challenges like none before in the history of this diocese.

So what needs to be done? As I see it, there are three essential elements to reversing decline.

First,

We need a critical mass of active members in every parish. What that critical mass is will vary depending on the community. [...]

What is crucial is that any size church has enough active members and enough money to do exciting, innovative ministry to draw young families with children, develops creative, needmeeting programs to attract and keep newcomers, impacts the community with outreach initiatives, and transforms lives as a place where people encounter God.

Second,

We need effective clergy and lay leadership in our churches. Most of our clergy are comfortable with a pastoral model of ministry. That model has served us well over the years. After all, by and large Anglican clergy are effective pastors who demonstrate a high level of caring and compassion for their parishioners.

However, in a post-Christian world where people no longer come to church, the church has to go to them. We need leaders who are proactive rather than reactive, initiators rather than responders, entrepreneurs rather than maintenance keepers, able to think and act beyond the box rather than within the box. This means expanding our pastoral model to a more missional model that actively seeks to reach non-churchgoers at their point of need and understanding. If divinity schools will not – or cannot – train our clergy in this model, then the diocese will have to do it.

Third,

We need a diocesan culture that promotes and fosters growth. In other words, we need the right structures to make the system work. If it is true that every organization is designed for the performance it achieves, then our task is to re-design the diocesan structure to obtain the results we desire. Structure follows strategy.

Read the full story in the October issue of the Diocesan Post

But what interests me here are some of the bold proposals put forth by Gary Nicolosi.  Great ideas, but as my Grandpa used to say, " it all might be a day late, and a dollar short." I was especially intrigued, and shocked by the idea that clergy compensation be tied to actual performance.  Wow!  What a novel idea.  If that doesn’t goad the clergy into drastic action (and scare their wives), nothing will.  But such fear can also become counter-productive, because frightened leaders do dumb things. But more than that, my concern is it puts the sole responsibility on the pastor. Surely all these issues should concern the " whole " faith community, and all should bear some responsibility. Having had been involved in the Anglican church for 20 years, I know how much they love their sacred cows. Everyone seems to have one roped, and not willing to release it back into the wild. A re-design of structure will be a real test of faith. Real faith will always stretch a community, real faith will never break it.

As Methodist pastor and church consultant William Easum put it so well in an engaging book a while ago, Sacred Cows Make Great Hamburgers.