Connecting. Communication. Collaborating.
Have you been to our new website yet?
These three ‘C’ words are behind the new shape of this website, and soon, the brand new eNews. Quite simply we recognise that we want to do this Connecting, Communicating and Collaborating better than we have in the recent past.
The three words, and the theological notions underpinning them, are important to us in Churches of Christ. Gathering in big events has been (and continues to be, look at State Youth Games!) a rich part of our story. Journals and literature (and other communication tools) have been an important part of what binds us together. Christian unity, the gathering and working with like-minded and like-Spirited people was a driving force for our emergence in the 19th Century. It’s one reason why we’ve chosen to call ourselves a ‘Conference’ of churches: Connect. Communicate. Collaborate.
In late 2010 we sought views around possible alternatives to the collective ‘Conference’ title of our family of churches. The words most commonly suggested reflect these same three ‘C’ words: Network. Association. Alliance. Fellowship. Community. Union.
So welcome to your new website: it’s a safe place to Connect, to Communicate and to Collaborate.
The role of the ‘Conference’ of Churches of Christ in Victoria and Tasmania is to serve all those affiliated with it. This site can link you and your church to those points of service. We pray it will be a connection point to serve people, churches, agencies and departments, as together we fulfil the Common Mission of Churches of Christ:
To be a movement of the people of God gathering around the central figure of Jesus Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit, living out his Way in our local contexts and inviting others to do the same.
But for it to work, we need your participation. Go for a wander around the site. You’ll notice there’s something for Everybody, as well as some things for certain groups, like Ministers and Church Leaders. There is this blog for you to interact with, stories to read, a library of resources and a shop to explore. There’s an expanding list of ways you can get involved in Christian growth and Christian action. You can catch up on the latest news, find a church, as well as discover links to our Movement around the corner, around the country and around the world. There’ll even be space for you to consider some big ideas others are having about God and life and the world and faith and sharing faith too.
We need your participation to continue beyond one quick search too. Tell us some stories of what God’s been up to in your world, in your church. Enter into the dialogue on the blog. Vote in the Poll. Contact us. Ask questions. Share prayer and praise points…and please, pray with us.
After all it is your site. Make yourself at home and share your thoughts with us. We’ll all be better off if you do.
The lawsuit is in the mail…
Well maybe not yet, but one might be on the way soon!
In the Council report in the current 2011 Report book we commented:
Council notes with concern the amount of time and energy spent by various Partner Department staff in conversation (and sometimes intervention) with churches. This includes…churches that fail to appoint Ministers according to the Terms and Conditions (examples include churches whose ministers are without a position description or an appointment agreement and churches who fail to maintain legally required employment, leave, LSL and superannuation records)….. And we could’ve added “the ministers who fail to take fair and appropriate responsibility in this relationship” too.
It has been said that “we are remembered for how we finish”, rather than all those good things that might have been achieved together in our place of employment (or ministry). While this is a true statement, so are these, “how you start is how you will finish” and “how you train is how you will play”…and maybe “how you finish, is how you’ll start”…
So what am I saying?
Sometimes ministers and churches are both way too fast (even desperate…) in how appointments are made and how those appointments are documented. Position Descriptions and Ministry Agreements (or ‘contracts’) are sometimes left until later, Sometimes church leaders can forget to complete them. Ministers can forget too. Either side can “not get around to signing” documents that have been prepared. Either side might think “it’s not worth rocking the boat” about these sort of things. Worse still, such documentation can be considered ‘ungodly’ or ‘worldly’ and therefore are never even written up, let alone signed.
Local budget constraints can mean that some of the statutory responsibilities are left unmet. Reviews of a church’s ministry (and the leaders and the minister) are either not done, or end up being unproductive episodes. Keeping records can seem too hard. Timely and appropriate salary payments can be forgotten. Inexperienced (or even unaware?) leaders may not know some of the things that should be done.
And everything is fine, until it ceases to be fine.
It can be complicated to reconstruct these documents when the relationship changes or concludes, in a timely manner or otherwise, as sometimes happens. It can be impossible for some churches to back pay a few years of Long Service Leave or superannuation. It can be tough to remember how many holidays the minister actually had over those years. It can be too hard for both parties to finalise all these matters quickly and sensitively when the time demands it. It does need to be noted that this difficulty can be created from either side of the church and minister relationship.
The Terms and Conditions of Employment of Ministers document (to be re-written this year) is clear about what constitutes good employment practice. This document, of necessity based on relevant Federal and State laws and regulations, is an appropriate expression, for churches and ministers, of ‘The Church as Employer’ policy recommended to all churches in 2010. That policy included the following statement:
These recommended policies are based on the belief that Churches of Christ in Victoria and Tasmania exists and carries out all its activities as an expression of the Christian faith, demonstrated by love of God, and love of our neighbours and ourselves. We believe that all human beings are valued and loved by God and that life involves responsible relationship with others as an essential part of what it means to be human involving the physical, emotional, social and spiritual dimensions of life.
Churches of Christ have a foundational commitment to creating a just, caring and participatory society for all people, a commitment that is integral to the church’s role and responsibility as an employer.
A basic recommendation is that Churches of Christ congregations, Partner Departments and agencies will meet legislative requirements, be a fair and just employer, reflect appropriate community standards, and create workplaces that are living, dynamic expressions of the church’s mission and values.
All I know is that too much energy (locally and globally) that could be used in “living out the way of Jesus and inviting others to do the same” can go down the toilet when these kind of messy situations arise.
Back to that Council report I quoted from above…The Properties Corporation and Mission and Ministry are equipped and available to proactively serve churches in these important areas. Such support is accessible to all affiliated churches.
While Council is concerned about the amount of resources involved in ‘reactive’ situations, we are most concerned about potential legal and financial liability implications for churches if these matters are not managed well.
Indeed, the lawsuit might soon be in the mail…
How are you—as a minister, a church leader or a church member—fulfilling your responsibilities and obligations in your church?
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Paul Cameron
Executive Officer
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PS Later in 2011 Workshops based around these themes will be held throughout Victoria and Tasmania.
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First People—Picking up the Baton
From Paul Cameron, EO:
Today is ‘Sorry Day’ 2011. It seems an appropriate time to comment on a number of steps the All Churches Summit-AGM and Conference Council have taken in seeking to express our newly adopted Justice Value in the area of Indigenous Ministry.
At the recent All Churches Summit-AGM we adopted a new Statement of Purpose. It included a Common Mission—To be a movement of the people of God gathering around the central figure of Jesus Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit, living out his Way in our local contexts and inviting others to do the same.
One of the consequential Values also adopted is Justice—We value the dignity, equality and inherent worth of all persons regardless of gender, race, economic standing or belief system. Therefore, in announcing the Kingdom and expectant of its arrival, we will work for social justice, equal opportunity for all persons, and the responsible care and management of the environment.
The All Churches Summit and the May 25 meeting of Council approved a number of steps that seek to express this Value in the area of Indigenous Ministry, as we work towards the fulfilment of our Common Mission. Council has been considering these actions for some time, and counts it a privilege to be providing servant leadership in this way.
PLEASE READ ON FOR THE GOOD NEWS!
But FIRST, let’s put it all in context. Back in February some of us participated in an event at Thornbury church—Partners: Celebrating Indigenous Ministry. A diverse group of people from city and country gathered to take part in this important partnership conversation.
Stories of past and present were shared by Dennis and Maureen Atkinson (AEF), John and Ruth Saulo (Dareton), and Tony and Francine Riches (Footscray). Song items were presented in the heart language of some of the indigenous people there, and everyone was invited to join in and learn a new tongue.
Those present were encouraged (and challenged) by the wise words of Dennis after he shared two inspiring stories of indigenous leadership: “We could tell so many sad stories…through all the sadness and discrimination these pastors still had a love for God that overcame all that; they still evangelised indigenous and non-indigenous people…their ministry has survived because of God in their lives—despite the other stuff…Australia will one day be held accountable by God, but meanwhile let’s preach the gospel, together, for and to our people…”
Federal Co-ordinator (Craig Brown) and I were also invited to speak. Together we acknowledged the great heritage of indigenous ministry in Churches of Christ, of how the baton has been dropped, significantly dropped at particular times over recent years, but that together we are moving into a new time and a new day, that it is time to be picking up the baton once again. Indications were given of proposed future actions that would assist in the realisation of this new era.
As stated above it has been Council’s privilege to have been working at raising the profile of Indigenous ministry in Vic/Tas. Among other things, Council has involved a key national indigenous leader (Billy Williams) in an AGM, opening up his participation in a range of other activities in Melbourne and beyond; supported, with M&M, two new ministry initiatives at Dareton and Footscray; co-hosted (with Thornbury church) the dialogue and story-telling event mentioned above; taken the initiative to table the idea of a Preamble to the Constitution acknowledging a range of issues related to the First People of this land; resolved to invite all churches to implement a practical, down-to-earth Indigenous Ministry Engagement Kit that will assist them in their participation in Indigenous Ministry in their context or elsewhere; and sought to find new funding streams for Indigenous Ministry in Vic/Tas.
At its May 25 meeting Council resolved to invite the Mission and Ministry Board to form an Indigenous Ministries Task Group and to appoint its inaugural members. M&M and the Group will design a Purpose Statement and any necessary lines of accountability and reporting. The roles of the group could include (among other things) facilitating regional and local conversations around the proposed Preamble to the Constitution, history gathering and recording, the creation of a Indigenous resource centre and library, the facilitation and management of Indigenous Ministry Engagements and Church Partnerships via the Kit approved at the AGM, holding periodic Pastor Sir Doug Nicholls and storytelling events, and other areas of ministry and community service, action and justice that M&M consider fits the Group’s purposes.
The Task Group will also, in partnership with M&M, manage the distribution of the income of funds newly set aside in the Church Development Fund for Indigenous ministry. These funds have been released by Council (as flagged in February, and in the Indigenous Ministry Review Report) through the establishment of an Indigenous Ministries Trust within the Church Development Fund. The Trust has been opened with an initial capital sum of $500 000 (around 16% of the proceeds of the sale of the former Ashburton church’s property) and income generated will be available to support Indigenous Ministry. We will be open to receive further donations from churches and individuals, as well as bequests, as contributions to the Trust’s capital.
The M&M Board when considering the membership and the leadership of the new ‘Indigenous Ministries Task Group’, will give a high priority to the participation of Indigenous people, and/or those involved directly in Indigenous Ministry.
We are picking up the baton. We invite all churches, their ministers, leaders and members to do the same.
It is a practical and life- and world-changing way of living out our Values, of fulfilling our Common Mission, of announcing the Kingdom.
~
What Sort of Movement?
Churches of Christ are known to be an invitational movement, an inclusive, and (from a position of servanthood rather than of power) an influential movement. This has formed some of the background thinking to the work of reimagining a new Statement of Purposes, including the new Common Mission.
The Common Mission is To be a movement of the people of God gathering around the central figure of Jesus Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit, living out his Way in our local contexts and inviting others to do the same.
Let’s look at our Common Mission, piece by piece:
“To be a movement of the people of God”
What sort of movement? A movement of the people of God. Building and experiencing community, conversation and trusting relationships are important to us. But so is being constantly renewed by God, fluid and organic about non-essentials, yet firm and centred on the essentials.
It looks a bit like this: Message >> Method >> Mission Context
Our Message never changes. Since the beginning one of the ways this Good News of the Kingdom has been summed up in John 3:16. We hold firm to the Message. It never changes.
Our Mission Context is constantly changing, often in rapid and discontinuous (or unexpected) ways. We no longer live in earlier centuries. We now live in the 21st Century. It is different to earlier times. We all live in different contexts too.
Our Methods must be completely flexible so that the unchanging Message can be heard, understood and received in the changing and different Mission Contexts we find ourselves.
Prayerfully,we will be a movement characterised by Steve Addison in his book Movements that Change the World, so we will have: White hot faith, a commitment to a cause, contagious relationships, a capacity for rapid mobilization and to implement adaptive methods.
“gathering around the central figure of Jesus Christ”
For the movement known as Churches of Christ, it’s all about Jesus. He is central to everything we are on about, for “nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus”. We gather around nothing and no one else.
It will always look like this for us: Christology >> Missiology >> Ecclesiology
We must always get our understanding of Jesus, our Christology if you like, right before we look at anything else. More than that, we must get our relationship with Jesus right. We must discover and express this in the biblical ways of faith and repentance and confession and baptism and receipt of the Holy Spirit. Through faith we must place ourselves in him, and allow him to be Lord of all we are and hope to be, and all we have and hope to have.
When we get our Christology right, our Missiology will emerge spontaneously, and any necessary Ecclesiology (the shape of ‘church’ and gathering together as the called out people of God) will also emerge in ways that are right for each context.
“empowered by the Holy Spirit”
As a movement of the people of God, gathering around the central figure of Jesus Christ, the words of the prophet Zechariah ring true: “He said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts”.
We become the movement God wants us to be not by human strength or wisdom or imagination, or through manmade systems or structures, but through the empowering of God’s Spirit; we are drawn to the central, saving figure of Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit; we are united together (interdependent like the human body) by the Holy Spirit; we are gifted and impassioned to live out the Jesus Way (and to invite others to do the same…) by the Spirit; and we will be daily renewed by the same Spirit.
“living out his Way in our local contexts”
It is important to see that the movement of the people of God we are committed to being does not follow our way, but the Way of Jesus. And his Way is the Way of the cross, of selfless, sacrificial service. The Way commanded that we be people who are loving God, and loving people; people who are living as Christ lived, as outlined for us in the New Testament, including rather starkly in texts like Philippians 2:1-11.
As noted above, all local mission contexts are different. We are called to live out the Way of Jesus where God has located us; to discern where God is already at work in our neighbourhoods; and to announce his presence, the presence of the Kingdom, and how this is best understood and lived when in relationship with Jesus Christ.
Our Message is the same (which is the basis for the unity and interdependence of our movement), but the Methods used to live the Message out will be different in almost every local context (which provides the rich beauty of our movement’s diversity).
“and inviting others to do the same.”
The deep story as Churches of Christ is that of a movement of the people of God with an invitational culture. This deep story incorporates endless stories of inviting people: into a relationship with God the Father, Son and Spirit, through Jesus; to be baptised by immersion as believers; to ‘break bread’ and to participate in the Lord’s Supper, which is always an ‘open table’; into a relationship with all other like-minded and like-spirited Jesus-followers around the corner and around the world; to receive the gifts and the fruit and the passion of the HS, releasing all people—women and men, young and older—into life- and world-changing ministry and mission.
I’m excited to part of this movement. What about you?
~ Paul Cameron, Executive Officer ~
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Renewal Tension: Not Just ‘Us’. Not Just ‘Now’.
From Paul Cameron—Executive Officer:
This photo shows an old, hollowed out tree trunk, out of which is emerging a new green sapling. When I see that tree image, I see new beginnings. I see fresh starts. I see renewal. I see Christians and communities of Christians changing and being transformed. I see new emerging from old. I see the older nurturing and releasing the younger and newer. I see life emerging from death. I see energy emerging from tiredness, lethargy and apathy. I see love emerging from hatred. I see unity emerging from division. I see future emerging from past. I see wholeness and wellbeing emerging from brokenness and ill health. I see the past, the present and the future. I see reformation and restoration and renewal, all happening at the same time. I also see the conflict that can emerge from deep life- and world-changing renewal.
In the consideration of issues, the making of decisions, and the cultivation of a culture, it is easy to think that there is only the ‘now’ and the ‘us’, as we gather in a particular location, at a particular time, as a particular group of people.
Yet it is never just ‘now’. Or just ‘us’. We’re always ‘surrounded’ by a great crowd of witnesses[1]. People who have gone before, sometimes too early, sometimes on time. Founders. Spiritual ancestors. Mentors. Friends. Parents. Siblings. Lifelong partners. And of course, we will one day become part of that great crowd for the generations that follow…
Churches are an interesting mix of past, present and future. In the middle of that, churches are always in need of renewal, or change. That’s “because the human beings who make up the church are always in need of reform. In the 16th Century someone coined the Latin phrase, ecclesia reformata et semper reformanda—the church, reformed and always reforming”[2]. We could say, in the current conversation, the church, renewed and always experiencing renewal. Healthy churches seeking to be a sign, witness and foretaste of all that God has for the world through Jesus Christ, maintain a balance between past, present and future, because of a common history, a common present and a common future and hope. Sometimes of course these can be in conflict.
It is through the breaking of bread (or if you like, the Lord’s Supper) that I often sense this bigger picture, this crowd of witnesses. As Harper and Metzger so clearly enunciate it, “The church is not only a multi-cultural community, but also a historical community, one that finds its identity in the same God revealed in Jesus Christ… a community in living union with believers of all time, coming to the same table to meet the same Jesus encountered by the disciples…2000 years ago”[3].
The breaking of bread also reminds me of conflicts that led to the Easter narrative: conflicts between people, theologies, ideologies, histories and practices; conflicts between light and darkness, hope and hopelessness and finally, between life and death, crucifixion and resurrection.
Conflict is normal, where there is growth. Conflict is expected when Kingdom business is being transacted. Conflict occurs when there is change and transition, and as followers of Jesus we are all about change and transition.
It is never just ‘now’. Or just ‘us’… To pretend that it is denies the realities of the old and new and not-yet-birthed stories that we hold in tension, as followers of Jesus in these crazy days of the 21st century; people whose work includes announcing the Kingdom and living in expectation of its arrival, at some unexpected time.
What do you think?
Identity, Purpose and Belonging
In mid-2005 then Mission and Ministry Executive Director John Gilmore and I travelled to the US. Our plan was to observe how several different Christian ‘tribes’ were engaging a transition towards being mission-shaped. We met with two Presbyterian Synods and two Mennonite Conferences, as well as a number of church leaders from a Capella Churches of Christ that coalesce around Abilene Christian University. It was a formative time in the reimagination of Churches of Christ in Vic/Tas as a tribe aligned around mission. That process was ignited by a range of voices, including FORGE, the International Missional Team, and an ongoing conversation with Alan Roxburgh.
One of the key things we noticed in the US was each group’s willingness to seek clarity around identity and purpose.
In 2006 Dean Phelan as Conference President took up this conversation. He wrote often on themes of identity and purpose. In late 2006 the Conference Council, in its first year of operation, had a Dreaming Day from which emerged 4 Challenges for Churches of Christ in Vic/Tas. The 4 Challenges are: Leadership, Growth and Health, Spirituality, and Identity and Purpose. The Growth and Health Challenge included the notion of “strengthening the connectedness between Partner Departments, churches and communities”. The Identity and Purpose Challenge included issues related to “who we are and what we’re doing here”.
These 4 Challenges have set the agenda for Council and the Departments since then, with a particular focus in this period on identity, purpose and belonging.
In October 2007 the first Vic/Tas Dreaming Day was held, facilitated by Dean. Background papers engaging the challenges were released. Churches were invited to dwell on the themes of the Challenges around biblical texts and contemporary writings. Ideas shared and questions raised were opened up for further dialogue via an ongoing blog.
At the AGMs of 2008 and 2009 four Affiliation discussion papers were released and responses sought and received. The two 2009 papers included extensive background to the notions of a covenant for affiliated churches (including a list of benefits and responsibilities) and a percentage basis for Affiliation Fees. In late 2009 Regional Conversations were held in city and country, and feedback was collected. A second Dreaming Day was held in October 2010, followed by further Regional Conversations in early 2011. All this was supported by other papers and an ongoing blog conversation.
Throughout this period there have been many conversations, formal and informal, planned and unplanned. We are committed to listening each other into free speech. Whatever some may say, you can never have enough conversations! Of course as ever, it is impossible to get everybody in the room (or on the same theme) all at once. We accept that not everybody has been present in the conversation. We have therefore always worked on the principle of “the people there are those who want to be there, those who need to be there, and we will work with whoever is there”. Every conversation, including the tense ones that looked to some people a bit like disunity, added (and still adds) something helpful and unique to the process.
Notwithstanding all this, we understand that some churches and church leaders require more time to better (or further) consider who we are, what we’re here for, and what it means to belong to Churches of Christ in Vic/Tas. That’s why we are seeking ‘in principle’ support for the Affirmation document as the basis for an agreement at the AGM on May 14, and why we are proposing to hold a Special General Meeting on a suitable date in October to decide its final shape.
Thanks for being part of the conversation.
Paul Cameron—Executive Officer
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And have you seen the items in our last blog post?
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Affirmation
A snippet from the FAQ’s regarding the Affirmation of Affiliation:
“The recent Regional Conversations gave those who participated an opportunity to be in meaningful conversations with each other about who we are, what we’re here for, and what it means to belong to Churches of Christ in Vic/Tas. People had the space to ask questions and express opinions. We hope that all churches, whether they attended the Conversations or not, will have accepted the invitation to engage the material. Offers are open for Churches of Christ leaders to meet with church leaders and/or ministers to take the conversations further.
Dialogue about ‘belonging’ and our ‘identity and purpose’ has been underway over the past four years, at Annual General meetings, Dreaming Days (2007 and 2010), as well as a round of regional conversations in 2009.
This dialogue, as well as other conversations, formal and informal, planned and unplanned, have informed the thinking of Council and helped shape the Affirmation document that will be presented at the AGM [available below]. Many changes to wording or concepts emerged; significant changes were made and they are generally outlined in this FAQs paper; some, while important, are too minor to note here.
To give all churches an opportunity to better (or further) engage the issues raised in the Affirmation document, Council is proposing ‘in principle’ support of it as the basis for an agreement at the AGM in May, and that a Special General Meeting be called for a suitable date in October to decide its final shape. Suggestions for initiating local conversations about the Affirmation will also be available.”
See the Affirmation here.
See the FAQ’s regarding the Affirmation here.
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Unity and Diversity: Debate is not Disunity
From Paul Cameron, EO:
I was strangely attracted by a recent article in The Weekend Australian by Labor Party elder and luminary, John Faulkner. Putting politics aside (and I hope all readers have the capacity to do so, and to engage the principles espoused that resonate with us), the article contained reflections that connect with our deeper story as a renewal movement and could therefore be read this way:
“in a healthy political party (or church or network of churches), all voices are heard”. Churches of Christ “has long known that unity is strength. But debate is not disunity. Debate is diversity. And if unity is a (Churches of Christ) strength, diversity is (our) wealth”…
Or, to put it another way, and to quote from Jürgen Moltman, “the church is on the move in free solidarity and critical fellowship”, (The Church and the Power of the Spirit, 2nd. Ed., SCM, 1992).
What I wrote last year in the Annual Report, as background to the 2010 visual theme, also deserves another run:
‘Unity in diversity’ is one of the old slogans of our movement. There’s no doubt we have the diversity. Most Sundays I find myself in a different church affiliated with Churches of Christ in Vic/Tas. And every one is different! That’s all part of the richness of the Churches of Christ story. It’s like a phrase I read this year in a book by John Franke, ‘interdependent particularity’. To me that well describes our family of churches. Autonomous and individual, but not isolated and independent; a better word is interdependent. Individual and particular, because each church is located in its own particular context, with its own history, and its own opportunities, aspirations and challenges; but at the same time connected to the other, giving strength to each other and receiving strength from each other as we carry out God’s mission together.
Hence this year’s visual theme of a strong rope. It contains many strands. Each is unique, and each is valuable in their own way, but particularly in what they are together. Without one strand, or if one strand is stressed in some way or the other, the rope is not able to fulfil the purpose for which it was designed. Over time, as other strands are woven into the rope, it is further strengthened and further enriched.
For biblical reflections on these themes, see 1 Corinthians 12:12-26 and Ecclesiastes 4:9-12.
At times I wonder if rather than living out the Way of Jesus with a healthy and rigorous “interdependent particularity”, we instead fall for the spirit of this consumerist, militaristic, self-focussed age, and seek to live with an “independent pecularity”.
The latter may be a sin we need to repent of, on our way towards fulfilling our Common Mission: To be a movement of the people of God gathering around the central figure of Jesus Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit, living out his Way in our local contexts and inviting others to do the same.
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How does debate feel to you in your church? Like diversity? Or like disunity?
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The wheel turns…
From Martin Boutros, Mission & Ministry Executive Director:
Many years ago, a small group of believers challenged the reactionary autocracy that the mainline Church had become. The church had imposed a creedal legalism on the people that effectively separated the ordinary man and woman from the simple but life-changing message of New Testament faith in Christ.
This new radical movement wanted to by-pass the religious and clerical constructs of the day and call believers to a simple Spirit-directed, bible based faith. They studied the Scriptures together; they relished their common unity around the bread and the wine, and they proclaimed Christ – not the rituals and intrigues of established religion. The ‘brothers’, as they were known, coined the phrase: “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; and in all things love.”
The fearless preaching of their leader disturbed the Church and the religious culture of his day so much that he was put to death by the religious establishment of his day. I speak, of course, of Jan Hus and the Moravian movement of the 1400s. Though their legacy was to pave the way for the first large-scale protestant mission movement and for the Reformation a century later, the entrenched church culture of the day pushed their little movement to the very margins.
The Scripture narrative by which we live is about the conflict between two Kingdoms and their respective cultures – The Kingdom of this world with its powers and principalities versus the Kingdom of God, so radically proclaimed by Jesus.
The story of redemption is about ‘culture change’ – it’s being birthed into God’s kingdom, a new heart and a new mind leading to new attitudes and new behaviours. Discipleship is about the lifelong, intentional reflecting on one’s attitudes and behaviours in the light of God’s calling. “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
The people of God are to be this peculiar ‘halfway’ people – journeying from Egypt to the Promised Land with God. Learning to put off the mental bondage of captivity and becoming the free covenant people of God – a Light to the nations. And yet the Bible is marked by struggle, failure, grace and redemption. The people of God are always struggling to leave behind the gods of Egypt and Canaan. Every Judge and every King of Israel struggles with entrenched culture. Which god are we serving? Which belief system? The tribes and clans of Canaan are married into and slowly their culture becomes endemic and Yahweh is marginalised. All through the stories of the Judges and Kings there is a downward spiral ending in exile to Babylon – and then grace, and God grows a new shoot from the dead stump.
In the New Testament most of the letters are written to deal with cultural issues – almost none of the Pauline epistles are about ‘vision’ or ‘governance’ or ‘programmes’ – it’s all about Jewish legalistic culture or Gentile permissiveness or Gnostic super spirituality or the spirit of Rome – humanity’s greatest attempt at heaven on earth contrasted to the Kingdom of God’s culture – and it’s very painful for Paul and the other leaders. Two steps forward, one step back!
The history of God’s church is the same – the slide into Christendom with Constantine through the valiant resistance of martyrs like Jan Hus, culminated in Martin Luther’s nailing his 95 theses to the Wittenberg cathedral door and unleashing a chaotic, powerful reaction to the decadent culture of the medieval church.
The evangelical movements or ‘Awakenings’ of the 18th and 19th century revolted against the immovably, traditional, nationalistic state churches of the era. You see it in the evolution of the various movements such as the Wesleyans, the Salvationists, the various Disciples, Adventists, Brethren, and Baptists. These various ‘waves’ – overseas missions, Pentecostalism, the para-church movements, church growth, and the emerging church all emerged in response to decadent and inflexible church culture and each birthed fresh, fluid expressions of faith.
Our own tribe tumbled out of such turbulence. How wonderful that the radical Moravian slogan of four hundred years before should also mark our movement of two hundred years hence! “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; and in all things love.” The rich chaos of the Spirit of that time spawned many related but divergent movements. Movements always diverge and differentiate into more sharply defined entities. Out of the happy chaos of the book of Judges, comes the sombre orderliness of Kings! Movements have always become ministries and then machines and then slowly un-noticed by their now conservative guardians, they freeze into stone monuments … But God in his grace sows seeds into the cracks of the weathering stone and new green shoots emerge.
And now the wheel has turned again and in the 2000’s the fresh new movements of 200 years ago are almost monuments themselves. Movements tend to be chaotic! Their members ‘live a conviction’ rather than ‘go to work’. They are highly relational, green-zone, fluid, self-managing, team focussed. The leaders proclaim the story rather than the policy. They are prophetic. They are imaginative culture-shapers – and their people interpret and build the new forms, experimentally, under-the-surface, in poverty, by faith, with passion. They expect resistance and difficulty, and learn to negotiate the possible. Sometimes they die prematurely. Often it’s the dominant system and culture that asphyxiate them.
We in Mission and Ministry are leaders in a small and relatively healthy network of churches, and we see that many inherited paradigms are failing. Australia is not a Christian nation. Australian church numbers are declining and aging, and, for most of the younger people in our society, churches are way out of touch. This is no longer about us helping service our ‘going concerns’ but with urgency praying for renewal and creatively going out on a limb. This is risky, but that’s the life of faith.
We don’t wish to imitate the good proprietors of Cobb and Co anxiously peering out at the noisy T-model Fords puttering along asphalt roads and then turning to design a better horse. Cobb and Co exists no more. In a few years Ford with its carbon unfriendly metal beasts will either be in terminal decline or will have re-invented itself for a new age. We pray for a cultural shift. Our churches are often either immersed in consumer modernity or fortressed off from the world in a 1950s bubble.
What we aspire for our churches is cultural shift: a missionary paradigm; a bible-narrative from which to live; a contextual mission mindset; a centripetal culture; a discipleship culture; an incarnational mindset; an empowering leadership; a ‘sent’ membership and so on. This is not about change of programs but change of paradigm.
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How is your church’s paradigm responding to the changing world around us?
The important next step…
We truly appreciate the response of so many churches and the opportunity for dialogue we have had in the months since last year’s Dreaming Day:2. We have received a lot of feedback via the Regional Conversations, on this Blog and many other formal and informal gatherings.
Thanks to all of this input we have been able to do some significant reshaping of the Motions and the consequential “Relationship Agreement” that will be released following the April 13 Council meeting. The draft Motions and the discussion paper were simply that, drafts and for discussion. The purpose of the Regional Conversations and others was to arrive at something that was closer to something we could more formally share.
It is very important to ensure that your church considers the final versions of these items and not the draft/discussion versions in your deliberations in the lead-up to the 2011 All Churches Summit on May 15.
Paul Cameron–Executive Officer, Robyn Millership–Conference President, Greg Warmbrunn–Council Chair, and other members of Council are happy to meet with your church’s leadership team, board or elders to discuss these things in coming weeks. If you would like to do this however, please keep in mind that there are only 6 weeks until the Summits and many things to be done between now and then so please request a meeting as soon as possible in order to assist with our forward planning.
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