benedson

My Entrepreneurial Suspicions

There has been a lot of talking over the past year or so regarding the role of the entrepreneur with the emerging church, and i have to confess that I'm quite uncomfortable with it. I'm not sure why and I'm not convinced that I'm right, but i do think that there needs to be a debate and a discussion about this. It seems that the role of the missional entrepreneur has been developed and promoted by missional entrepreneurs who, arguably, have a vested interest. This post is not directed at anyone but written to stimulate debate, many of my friends are missional entrepreneurs and i affirm them in their vocation.

Firstly, i think that it is excellent that we have some entrepreneurs, however i have reservations about setting the vocation of the entrepreneur with the prophet or the poet. I have at times being called a prophetic voice, and in all honesty i confess that it massages my ego. This is a personal failing of mine - i acknowledge it, seek forgiveness and move on. The prophets of the OT were reluctant prophets because they knew that it would make them unpopular within their religious communities, our Entrepreneurs are not unpopular but praised and paid by the institution...

Mark Berry, in his excellent article here gives this quote from two business leaders:

'In a chaotic world, people cry out for individuals who can provide meaning for their… lives.' - Ridderstrale and Nordstrom. My reservation is that the role of the Christian leader is not to be the individual to provide meaning, but to point to Christ who provides ultimate meaning. The danger with this kind of personality based leadership is that it is open to abuse. The entrepreneur needs to be aware of this tension, they need to be constantly be pointing away from themselves and to the person of Christ.

Finally i think that it is right that we have a culture of experimentation within church, try new things be creative and be innovative. But also remember that we are dealing with people; many vulnerable, broken wounded people who are not there to be experimented on. Some people will love the ride, others will be broken by it. The entrepreneur has a pastoral responsibility to care for those that they engage with, or else the short term entrepreneur creates long term pastoral casualties.

Technorati Tags: emerging church, Prophets, entrepreneurs, theology

The Hefted Church

The hefted holiday maker is a phrase that Julian Baggini comes up with in his book Welcome to Every-town. He distinguishes between the herded, the hefted and the individual - When i reflect on Church I find them three rather useful terms.

The herd is obvious, you follow the crowd you go with the majority, because that is the easiest. Choices are removed as you climb on board the coach and the coach takes you to all the places that you could possibly want to go. However, you sacrifice choice and spontaneity for convenience. We don't really get any students at Sanctus1, and the reason why is because the majority of them are herded. They'll go where the other students go because it's convenient...

At the other end is the individual, those independent free spirits who seek out the unusual places just because they don't like the herd or being herded. This is, of course, over simplistic - the 'independent traveller' is also herded - just in a different way. They are herded by the rough guide or lonely planet...yes, they have a degree more choice, but they are still herded.

The heft is very interesting and reminds me of the flea circus. A heft is an unfenced area of a field that sheep learn to keep themselves in. This was originally taught to them by a Shepherd, but as time goes on the sheep pass it on to each other - they no longer need shepherding they have been hefted...the territorial boundaries become blurred and more flexible, but they rarely stray beyond them and there are no fences to keep them in.

Need I say more?

Technorati Tags: Ben Edson, emerging church, Hefted Herd

Hard Questions: John Drane - Looking for Maturity in the Emerging Church

Here are my notes on John's talk:

Three usage of the term emerging church:

• For some it’s just a repackaging i.e. Alpha!
• Grows out of dissatisfaction with Church life i.e. post-evangelical
• Creative individuals that are deeply embedded within the tradition.

Emerging from what?
World of difference between those who are emerging for Evangelical sub-culture, and those who are having an open conversation between gospel, culture and tradition.

Maturity – stage of intellectual development that we move through – linear –change is measured, gradual and dependable.

Historically maturity was defined by relationship to the past. Maturity – is past its sell by date. The organisations that look to as mature are in the past, they are struggling. We need to look to the future...

What is the new maturity? Maturity is something that is found by those who look to the future rather than the past. Creative class as a driving force – cultural creatives.

Emerging church has an abundance of people who are looking to the future – people who match the profile of the creative class. Groups who look forward rather than backwards.

Four things that seem to be central that might point us to spiritual maturity:

Concern for organic way of being: Firmly rooted in the realities of a globalised culture. Distrust of institutions, just because they are institutions – many people in the emerging church question whether we need ‘denominations’ and ‘labels’. People have no interest in the denominational structures, they are simply Christians.

Look back on our own story to find answers to the future. – when the emerging church looks to ancient models and remodels them it’s an ancient practice. Being Christian places you within a long term story.

Spirituality in everyday life – breaking down of the secular/sacred divide. 1932 Barth Missio Dei, foundational platform of thinking. No place can be a no go area for God. Have we grasped the radical reality of this.

Inclusive - Not about sexuality. Quote from Sanctus1 website 'who we are' - Inclusivity with vengeance. Not syncretism – welcoming the stranger

Living in the story – Stories are events of life, if you start with our inherited ecclesiology then you inherit the structures.

Perpetuate the patterns of Christendom, the vast majority of emerging churches are bastians of male ways of leadership.

Thinks that we find maturity in the emerging church!

Technorati Tags: Fresh Expressions, Hard Questions Tour

A mixed ecology

Yesterday at the Hard Questions day Angela asked that we moved away from the business language of a mixed 'economy'. She saw it as aggressive language. She therefore suggest the more organic phrase 'a mixed ecology'. Which i rather like...

Technorati Tags: Fresh Expressions, Hard Questions Tour

Hard Questions Tour: Angela Tilby

I've been at the Hard Questions day in Manchester today. Angela Tilby was exploring Catholic ecclesiology and contemporary mission. Here are my notes and thoughts on what she was saying.

I thought that the picture of the tradition church that she was painting was a utopian christendom ideal, it was a picture of a church that existed outside of culture, and culture did not have an influence on it. She felt that there was not much that we could gain from sociology and that we should be looking to the past more.

The church lives in time, it runs in time, history is formative, theme running through history from the beginning – history, church and mission go together. I wondered where the future hope was in this...

She commented that there seems to be either 'a theme park' approach to tradition, where we just pick at it without really understand it or a fundamentalist approach to it where it takes over and people become fundamentalist in their approach to history. She was looking for a third way...

She felt that Fresh Expressions were not liturgical enough and that the body of Christ is formed in it’s liturgy. Robust belief that worship and liturgy forms identity. However, I commented that i thought that she was being too narrow in her understanding of Fresh Expressions. She had not recognise the creative ways that the emerging church is engaging with liturgy.

She was calling for a disengagement with culture and paradoxically through that transform it. My comment would be that the catholic movement is not a disengagement with culture it is still engaged with the culture of christendom...

Technorati Tags: Fresh Expressions, Hard Questions Tour

The failings of the New Testament Church.

It's a slightly provocative title but i often think that the New Testament model of church is praised as the one that we should all aspire to, when really i think that it has some fundamental flaws. Christian's often turn back to Acts 2, saying that this is the model of Church that we should be seeking to replicate. This was the original model so it must be the best. Now, whilst i recognise that there are some very positive aspects to this particular model I would also argue that it is not the right model of church for today.

The people of New Testament Church believed they were living in the end times and that the parousia was imminent, therefore their concern was the immediate eschatological event rather than the long term sustainability of the community and bringing about God's kingdom on the earth. The emphasis was apocalypic rather than prophetic. Due to this there was an urgency about the New Testament Church simply because they believed that time was against them. Whilst i would agree that we need to recapture this sense of apocalypic urgency we also need to recognise that the church has a prophetic role to play in seeking to bring God's kingdom to the present. Prophetic in the way that it fights against institutional injustices, against racism and campaigns to bring about ecological change. It seeks to bring about the Kingdom.

I think that my point is that the New Testament Church was so concerned with the immediate that they thought the long-term was not important due to the imminent parousia. My concern would be that if we focus on the New Testament model of church to much then we will forget that we have a theological responsibility to fight injustices and work for the long term good of the planet. We will forget the Kingdom on Earth.

Technorati Tags: church chat, Kingdom Values, Redemptive violence

ecclesiogenesis and emerging church

I'm reading, amongst other things, Ecclesiogenesis by Boff at the moment. I cannot help but make connections between the base communities of south america and the emerging church. Boff said that - We are not dealing with the expansion of an existing ecclesiastical system, rotating on a sacramental, clerical axis, but with the emergence of another form of being church, rotating on the axis of word and the layity. Base communities have at their centre a communitarian ethic, they are characterised by the absence of alienating structures, by relationships, by reciprocity, by deep communion, by mutual assistance, by communality of gospel ideals, by equality among members.

Can anyone tell me of any studies that make connections between the base communities and the emerging church?

Technorati Tags: Base Communities, emerging church, Base Communities, Ecclesiogenesis

missional and inclusive?

A few days Malcolm posted on the tensions of a missional community. I thought that i'd pick up on a few of his thoughts, really to question whether an ethical community can ever really be missional and inclusive.

An ethnical community needs definition and there appear to be two ways that this definition is sought, one relies on patriotism and the other on nationalism: Patriotism gives people a choice about joining the ethical community, to join the ranks all that is required is that one makes the right choice and remains loyal to it through thick and thin for ever after.

Nationalism, on the other hand, is more like the Calvinist version of salvation or St. Augustine’s idea of free will: it puts little trust in choice – you are either ‘one of us’ of you are not, and in either case you can do nothing to change it

There is a subtle but important distinction here; patriotism welcomes a diversity of people into the community and then assimilates them, nationalism, on the other hand, rejects people who are not like them. Whilst patriotism is, at least on the face of it, more hospitable and tolerant it still seeks homogeneity. Patriotism seeks homogeneity by assimilation whereas nationalism seeks it be exclusion. Both ideologies have a remarkably similar result as neither of them allow people to belong whilst staying attached to their differences; to belong you must become like us. You could argue that by being patriotic for the church you we are being missional - you are encouraging people to make life choices that affirm that they are like you: a follower of Christ.

However this is not how unity is best achieved. It is best achieved without nationalism or patriotism but through a process of negotiation and conciliation of our natural differences. Therefore, rather than seeking to assimilate or exclude others we except the diversity of living in a modern pluralist society and you become a totally inclusive community with no boundaries.

Which one should the church seek to be?

Technorati Tags: missional, ethical community

Cloak room community vs Alternative community

What is your church community like? Here are two examples of community - Cloak room community as suggested by Bauman and the Alternative community as suggested by Bruggemann:

Cloakroom communities need a spectacle which appeals to similar interests dormant in otherwise disparate individuals and so bring them all together for a stretch of time when other potentially divisive interests are temporarily laid aside and put on a slow burner of silenced altogetherness. Cloakroom communities offer temporary respite from the struggles of everyday life as individuals withdraw into this temporary community. The theatre, football match or mega-church provide this temporary community, where a similar interest brings a disparate group of people together. There are a number of problems with such communities and rather than bringing social cohesions they do, in fact, break it. Cloakroom communities scatter rather than condense the untapped energy of social impulses, they therefore contribute and perpetuate the solitude so often felt in contemporary society. Cloakroom communities are a symptom of the social disorder specific to contemporary society and this symptom is also manifest in faith communities.

The Alternative community aims to dismantle the dominant consciousness rather than conforming to it. The alternative community of Moses had at it’s centre ‘God’s freedom as an alternative to the static imperial religion of order and triumph and a politics of justice and compassion as alternative to the imperial politics of oppression’ (2001, 9). The community of Moses is not about freeing a small band of people from their oppressor, it is about establishing an alternative community that provides an alternative social order to that of oppression and exploitation.

The alternative community is the antithesis of the cloak room community. A community that is radically engaged with society, committed to justice and to working for justice.

Polarizing is fun!!

Technorati Tags: Alternative community, Baumen, Brueggemann, Cloak room community, theology

Bonfire of the Brands

I saw this on the news yesterday and here is the blog - It's about a man who destroys all his branded products. Fascinating; on the news they had the video footage and as the products were being both burnt or smashed up with a sledge hammer a few people came along and nicked the products before they were destroyed.

The rise of the brand over the past fifty years has highlighted how selective consumption has become a process of identity construction, Naomi Klein said that successful corporations must primarily produce brands, as opposed to products. Disney, Nike, Apple, Swatch and numerous other brands have all become means of constructing identity rather than the product. Anita Roddick says that her stores aren’t about what they sell, they are the conveyers of a grand idea – a political philosophy about women, the environment and the ethical business.

Our ways of consuming create social bonds and distinctions; this is the role of the brand. Social groups seek to classify and order their social circumstances and use cultural goods as a means of demarcation, as communicators which establish boundaries between some people and build bridges with others’. Even companies such as Howies and Innocent, which aim to be the antithesis of multi-national companies, are part of this process as they define themselves against the brand. Brand construction and personal identity becomes focused on the anti-brand.

Technorati Tags: Current affairs, emerging church