benedson

The Spirit Level and Self-Promotion

One of the things that manages to wind me more than anything else is self-promotion.  Okay, I admit that on one level having a blog could be seen as a form self-promotion, so I'm probably talking to myself as much as anyone else when I write this post...

I'm constantly aware of the self-promotion of the web - sometimes facebook status updates make me cry out, 'Does this person have no shame!' as they blatantly self promote.  I'm sure this is true of me too!

I was also listening to a talk from GB a few days ago, it lasted about 30 minutes and the person did nothing but self-promote.  And no, I'm not going to tell you who it was...I was embarrassed listening to them!

Don't get me wrong, I think that it's right to celebrate what we do well but a level of honest humility is needed too.

Anyway, I was reading a book recently that was recommended to me a Greenbelt, the book is called 'The Spirit Level' and explores inequality within society and suggests that a more economically equal society is better for all people, those at both the top of the income scale and those at the bottom of it.  It argues that many of the problems in society, from obesity to education are due to inequality, but and most significantly that this effects the whole of society not just the poor.  The rich are also less content in an unequal society.  Their levels of anxiety, depression and health also get worse.

Anyway, one of the conclusions of the book was about self-promotion, arguing that one of the consequences of an unequal society is 'Evaluation Anxiety'. 

'Greater inequality seems to heighten people's social evaluation anxieties by increasing the importance of social status.  Instead of accepting each other as equals on the basis of our common humanity as we might in more equal settings, getting the measure of each other becomes important as status differences widen.'

The result is that in a society where there is greater inequality there is greater self-promotion, as people are  threatened by the social order.  There will always be a person above you and in order to catch that person people need to self-promote. 

Tags: self-promotion, Benedson,

Redemptive violence and the twin towers ship

This is all wrong. 

I heard about this on the news a few moments ago, steel from the twin-towers has been salvaged and used in a war ship - The USS New York.  Immediately it reminded me on Walter Wink's myth of redemptive violence; it is as if by using the steel to create a war ship the steel is being redeemed.  Relatives have commented that it is a way of honoring those who died, I think the memory of those who died is being violated.

Not only that, it is also provocative to the extreme, it says even though you attack us we will use the wreckage of that attack to attack you back.  Even though you destroy our buildings we will use the wreckage to destroy you. 

I know that many will argue that war-ships bring peace but sorry, I don't believe that through violence we find peace.  Why could the steel be used to create something of beauty?  I am reminded of the Gun Sculpture commissioned by Christian Aid a few years ago, where the guns were put out of use and made into a beautiful sculpture.

Tags: BenEdson, Redemptiveviolence, twintowersship

Leaving Sanctus1 - Final Post - Goodbye and what next...

I've left, ben@sanctus1.co.uk has been deleted, I've signed off the email lists, posted my final post on the Sanctus1 blog, I've had my final night, I shed a few tears and said goodbye to the community that I have been part of for the past eight years.  I feel content and that I've done a good job.

It's a strange feeling saying goodbye, there were people there on my final evening who have been there for the last eight years and people who have only been there for a few weeks, and of course a researcher!  I have to say I feel slightly liberated, not in a negative way, but that something that I have been responsible for has been handing on in a responsible way.  The hand over is complete and so are these posts. So what next? 

Well Immediately, I'm off on holiday on Sunday.  Myself, Ruth, Jude and Lily are going down to Devon to stay with my parents for a few days and then after that I have another three weeks off.  During this time I'll be going away to St Deniols for a few days to write.   The rest of the time will be spent both writing and doing a bit of DIY. I think that the office and upstairs bathroom need sorting out...

After that well, it's all a bit secret at the moment, and that makes it sound more exciting than it really is!  But I've been told to keep it under my hat for a bit longer.  I'll still be half time at Brunswick Parish Church so still in Manchester, I'm hoping to finish my PhD in the next year, I'm also in conversation with a publisher about a book, I'll still be programming worship at Greenbelt, still networking and thinking and mission and church in contemporary culture, still doing work for Fresh Expressions and MTAG.  So I'm not going to be bored.

But now a rest...

Tags: BenEdson, Sanctus1

Nick Griffin - Texts of Terror - Immigration

Question time last night was monumental.  A commentator on Radio 4 this morning equated it to Frost/Nixon, personally I think that's stretching it a bit but it was fascinating political viewing.

Nick Griffin's view were repulsive.  I was expecting to be repulsed, I was expecting him to be a racist, islamaphobic, homophobic bigot and he proved that he was.  Yet, none of these areas attack me personally, I am a white Christian straight guy - I watched as my left liberal self, ideologically and theologically opposed to what he was saying but never feeling directly attacked. 

And then he called used the word 'Christian', when defending why he thought that Islam was 'Wicked' claiming that the British wanted a country based on 'Christianity' and this in effect us what he was offering. 

When talking about sexuality he said 'that a lot of people find the sight of two grown men kissing in public really creepy. understand that homosexuals don't understand that but that's how a lot of us feel, Christians feel that way'.

I feel my faith has been violated by the hatred of this man.

I was struck by the way that he selected particular texts from the Koran, divisive texts, texts that will breed hatred.  Texts taken out of context, not just of the Koran but of the faith tradition within which they were placed. Yet, his use of them was still powerful,  none of the audience of panel responded directly to his three 'texts of terror'.  They were ignored and by doing do I feel that they bred hatred, fundamentalisms and division.

Sayeeda Warsi managed to wind me up aswell with her views on imigration.  Her views were that Britian needs the most skilled and gifted imigrants so that we can use their skills, my views are that we need the most broken and marginalized imigrants so that we can restore their human dignity.

And as for Jack Straw...what a blithering wreck.

Tags: BenEdson, QuestionTime.DickGriffin

Leaving Sanctus1 - Post 5 - The changing UK churchscape

There are a number of task that I am doing at the moment that seem to be quite cathartic.  For my PhD I've had to write up a lot of the Sanctus1 story, this has helped me reflect and be thankful for our journey.   I've been asked by someone who is part of Sanctus to produce a soundtrack of the music that I've used over the years, and yesterday I had to write the title of my MA dissertation on an application form for a professional body, the title was: 'A critical and theological assessment of post-modern models of church in relation to ‘life-cycle’ & evangelistic strategy'.  I wrote this in 2001, and as I read the title I smile that the language of 'emerging church' and Fresh Expression was not in common currency.

I've been part of Sanctus1 for eight years.  That's the longest I've lived anywhere and the longest I've been part of a church.  During that time there have been a number of significant shifts in the UK churchscape, Mission Shaped Church was seismic, an affirmative shift in the churchscape, we were affirmed rather than tolerated - Sanctus1 was mentioned in the report and our profile was raised, other reports and books of the time mention Sanctus1 and over the next few years 2004-07 there was a massive interest in the emerging church...we were the next big thing. 

There is a temptation to believe this, but the reality of all church communities is that we are not the next big thing, it's just spin.  Spin that is very tempting to get involved with, spin that if believed can mean a loss of focus on that which is important.  Spin that is not the reality of eight years experience. 

I've been reflecting a lot on the language of church recently, originally Sanctus1 called itself a Christian community then when the language of emerging church emerged we started to use that language as it was an accurate description of what we were doing.  However, it is also a ecclesiastical legitimator - the church likes the language of church arguably more than the language of mission.  So by using the language of church, in this context Fresh Expression, we are legitimated, affirmed, brought under the wing of the Church.  I am still unsure whether this is a positive move or not...

Pete Ward talked about when he was in Mcr recently, and he wondered whether the shift in the language of church has had a negative effect on mission.  Have we become too focused on re-imagining church as the institutions are encouraging us to do this?  Sold our souls to the language of church at the expense of mission...I'm polarizing but sometimes that's helpful.

In 2007-2009 the interest in Emerging Church seems to have peaked.  The innovators and early adopters are now being overtaken by the early majority.  This is positive, but personally I'm energized by the innovation and so it's time to hang up my three candles and move on...

Tags: BenEdson, Sanctus1,

Leaving Sanctus1 - Post 4 - Days I'll remember all my life...

Leaving Sanctus1 - Post 3 - Networks and virtual paper trails

In the olden days when a vicar left a church they would move away and in theory have very limited contact with their ex-parishioners.  I think that in the Methodist church when a minister moves on they are instructed to have no contact for a year.  I can see why both of these make sense - they allowing the new minister to settle in without having the previous minister looking over their shoulder all the time.  This was the case when communities were geographically defined, however within a networked and internet savvy community how can one have no contact?

I could commit internet suicide - killing my profile on Facebook, Ning, Twitter and the blog...but by doing this i remove myself from all my other networks.  I could de-friend people on facebook etc. but this feels slightly aggressive.  So the reality is that my internet presence will remain the same.  Meaning that I will read others peoples fb status', tweets etc. and through that know a little bit about what is going on in Sanctus1.  I'm sure some of it will please me other will make me roll my eyes but as I've said before 'It's God's church not mine.'

I've been reflecting on leaving withing a networked culture and I'm starting to think that the ongoing virtual connections could be positve.  One area that I think is important within leadership is authenticity -  I'm ofter aware of this when I'm blogging, what I write here could be used against me at any point - I cannot move from one place to another, adopt a different persona and snuggly fit into that context.  I am who I am.  Networks and the virtual paper trail that we leave mean that who I am now, is part of who I will be in the future.  This means that when I leave Sanctus people will be able to see that who I was in Sanctus was not a persona adopted for that context but the authentic me.    

Tags: BenEdson, Sanctus1

Leaving Sanctus1 - Post 2 - Managing Transition

Sanctus1 is a very transient community.  I think that people stay around, on average, for about 4 years.  Then due to jobs, partners, age profile etc. people tend to move on.  There seems to be a big change every three years or so, with the pattern being the following:

1 - Grow to about 50-60 people. Transition begins.

2 - People leave numbers drop to 30 people.  Crisis of Identity.

3 - Conversations, reflections etc. on who we are as a community.  Decisions made.

4 - Sanctus1 stabilizes and grows again...

Strangely this has happened three times since I've been part of Sanctus1 - the third one is happening now.  There were a number of factors that triggered it, one being children and another was my announcing that I was leaving.  I have been leading Sanctus1 since it started, and so as I move in it is not surprising that this is a significant change for S1.  This is the case when many pioneers move on. 

The past six months, since I announced my leaving, has felt like I am walking a church through an interregnum period.  A time where people reflect on where they are going and where they want to be.  Due to this there are different agenda's and view points put forward.  These viewpoints were there before, but as I move it creates a vacuum for those views and aspirations to move into.  In the past I have occupied that vacuum, directing, encouraging and shaping where we are going, holding and trying to encompass those viewpoints and agendas.

This is an interesting reflection on leadership, many would rather that vacuum were left empty, a leaderless group.  The pioneer who hold and tells the story of the community, knows more than anyone else about the community - they hold the narrative - and so when the pioneer moves on, the community must seek to know and owns the story.   It means that community holds the narrative and becomes the story teller.   The new leader then becomes a person within a bigger story, rather than the person who carries the story.   It seems to me that this is healthy. 

Sanctus is now moving from Stage 2-3 in this process of transition.  Some people are at stage 3, others at 2, but encouragingly there have been signs of stage 4 in the past few weeks.  The new paid leader has started, he'll shape Sanctus1 in a different way to me, again this is positive as the community becomes bigger than the original pioneer.

I'm aware that I've used language of leadership and pioneering in this post that many will recoil against.  My take on this is that leadership is far more dangerous when it is not owned and accountable.  I hear of leaderless groups and on further investigation I see that there is leadership, however, this leadership is not named and often unaccountable, creating a rather dangerous environment...

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Tags: BenEdson, Sanctus1, Transition

Christmas by Colour

Okay it's only October, but you need to check out Christmas by Colour. A not-for-profit organisation that looks at the colours that shape our Christmas.  I've just ordered the poster...

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Tags: BenEdson, ChristmasbyColour

Leaving Sanctus1- Post 1 - Personal connections

As many readers of this blog will know I'm leaving Sanctus1 in less than a fortnight.  As I prepare to leave I thought that I would do a series of posts on the process of leaving and personal reflections on the past eight years (the time that I've been at Sanctus1). 

Sanctus1 is an emerging church in Manchester city centre that I've been leading for the past 8 years.  I was brought in by the Diocese to start 'new ways of worshiping' in response to the ever changing city centre of Mcr.  It became clear quite quickly that we needed more that simply new ways of worshiping, but that we needed new ways of being church and Sanctus1 was born.  This post is going to reflect on my personal connections with Sanctus1 and my identity, as the pioneer, has at times been too closely tied to Sanctus1.

My spiritual director is a wise woman, she once said to me, 'Ben, It is not your church, it's God's church'.  The sense of liberation that I felt at this was significant - yes I knew this but sometimes it needs to be said before the penny drops - as I prepare to leave Sanctus1 this is the mantra that is running around my head.  It's liberating as often the pioneer is looked at, scrutinized, researched and questioned about what you are doing and why you are doing it.  This can mean that you are over-protective of the church community, always wanting to celebrate the good aspects of it as people are always looking. You are in the ecclesiological gold-fish bowl, always on show...Recognizing that  the pioneer is just a small part in the jigsaw of God's Church rather than the saviour of it is liberating.  Sanctus1 is God's church. 

As many will know I was ordained Priest in the summer.  Romantically, the first time that I presided at communion within Sanctus1 was the beginning of the end for me.  Theologically, communion is a significant for me and so to be able to lead communion in the church community that I have been involved in starting was an important moment.  Part of me wanted to preside at communion only once - Bread bread and go - as it would have signaled the end point as my personal vocation evolved with sanctus1.  Getting ordained also emphasied my connection and authorisation with the wider church, I started to get involved with the church where I'm doing my curacy and so this connection and sense of the bigger picture has helped me to detach myself from S1.

However, my comments about presiding at communion only once concern me as they suggests an over-romaticised connection with Sanctus1.  It becomes too focused of me, as the pioneer, and this reveals one of the greatest tension about pioneering  - it becomes part of your life blood.  You invest too much time, energy and love into the community as you are passionate about it.  You get frustrasted when people do not show the same passion and energy that you do...but they know that because of your passion and energy that you will always make sure that it doesn't fail, always be there to pick the pieces up, always be there to make things happen.   This seems to have happened with most of the people who were involved at the beginning - an unstainable connection with Sanctus1 that needs to change.   So the pioneer must move on, break this attachment and move the community forward in a way that it can be self-reliant. 

Stylistically, I have led the way that S1 is going.  The worship is to my taste, the theology reflects who I am and the graphics and copy are largely written and designed by me.  Fortunately people like what I like but it needs to broaden out so that the worship and theology can be more diverse.  This is the role of the next person, to take Sanctus in new directions, these may or may not be to my taste but that is all part of recognising the breadth of the church.

There is tension in being both the mid-wife and parent.  You work with God to bring the church to life and then you nurture it.  You are the midwife.  Then you grow it, but the parent needs to let go at some point and see if it flies, if it does great if not, well it's God's church anyway. 

When I first told Sanctus1 I was leaving I was quite emotional.  The community has given me so much, I know that it has it's failing, I know that we could do things better but it has been life-giving to me.  I will miss it, but equally I know that it is the right time to move on.

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Tags: BenEdson, LeavingSanctus1,