benedson

God is a Manc...

I was at a gathering about 9 years ago in Manchester, when a well known evangelical in the city declared, in a cocky Mancunian way that 'we all know that God is from Manchester...' well it appears that he was right.

The Fantasy Cyle and Fresh Expressions: Death Wish

So we reach the end of the cycle.  I'm fascinated that the end is 'death-wish' rather than actual death.  Does the wish for death, mean that it is inevitable?  Or does the death-wish mean that the FX carries on but in a dead form?  I'm all for death, I think that it can be liberating, but I think that we should not assume that death means that there will be a resurrection.  Death is Death.



I also think that the 'death-wish' maybe something that different people go through at different times, in part depending on your role within the community.  For example, my leaving Sanctus1 was in some ways a 'death-wish' a death of my life in that community, yet the community carries on.  The community is bigger than the pioneer.  The death-wish was individual rather than corporate, the danger is making a personal death-wish corporate.

However, there is also a time when a personal death-wish needs to be worked through for the sake of the community.  A time where we put out struggles and frustrations to one side as we're in a different place to the rest of the community.   If we don't we'll drag the community down with us.

When the death-wish is corporate I think that is when it needs to die.  The cycle has come to a close and the community ceases to be.  Death is death.

So we reach the end of the cycle.  As I've said before, I think that the cycle can be broken but the key piece of discernment is when to break that cycle, and what to move into...

The Fantasy Cyle and Fresh Expressions: Frustration

So to move onto Frustration, the one that you've all been waiting for...I think that it's no surprise that Frustration comes straight after dream.  In many ways the dream opens our eyes to the possibility of what could be - perhaps in a somewhat utopian way -  but never-the-less it still opens the eyes, and once the eyes have been opened there is no turning back.  Frustrations come because the dream will not last for ever, and hence I think that the first point of learning is to let people know that!



The challenge is negotiating a pathway through the frustration that does not necessarily lead to death.  We accomplished this a few times in Sanctus1 by reinventing ourselves, this would happen through a change in group set-up or venue, and what this seemed to do was to re-energize people and bring the dream stage back.  However, this was temporary and we still remained in the cycle, the real challenge is breaking it and moving into something more permanent.

I'm becoming more convinced that the way in which the cycle will be broken is by a process of aggregation with the wider church.  An aggregation process that involves both parties learning together, so that the FX can move out of this cycle and move towards something more permanent.  BMO's, Parish Share, whatever it maybe are ways in which a FX can break the Fantasy Cycle.  Without this reference to something other I think that the FX maybe too self-absorbed and too concerned about reclaiming the dream.

Victor Turners thinking is good on this, he uses the language of Aggregation when a group has gone through communitas. The process of aggregation needs working on within the context of a FX.  What are the rituals of belonging?  BMO's maybe a half-decent bit of legislation but how do we create rituals of belonging that move a BMO beyond the legalities and into relationship.  A relationship of a shared journey, of a mixed economy. 



 

The Fantasy Cyle and Fresh Expressions: Dream

Just to remind you the cycle goes like this: Anticipation - Dream - Frustration - Nightmare - Death Wish



The dream stage is not when you're dreaming about all the possibilities, it's when you're living the dream.  It's all going so well that you can hardly believe that you needed to go through all that training, if an OPM, to do this.  The FX is flourishing, there is energy and excitement about what the future holds and all that you seem to touch turns to gold.  Please note...it doesn't last!

There are a great deal of opportunities in the dream stage as it is a time where foundations can be built for the future.  The dream time is when you get asked to do everything!   You're perceived as a success and it seems that the Church is attracted to success.  The temptation for the pioneer is to believe the hype, but as Public Enemy remind us don't believe the Hype, and more importantly make sure that the community doesn't believe the hype...

However, the problem with the dream stage is that it creates unrealistic expectations as to what the FX will be like in the long term.  People start to think that it will always be like this; always be easy and hence when things change - as they will - the memory of what has been becomes a powerful comparison to the present.  I would often meet people in Sanctus1 who would say, 'It used to be like this...' presenting a memory of a utopian dream that in reality was very different.  The dream is an unstainable phase, it attracts the consumer rather than the disciple and hence the dream needs to be a phase of high cost discipleship.

The dream stage is one that we encountered at different points in Sanctus1 as the cycle is more cyclical than the linear way in which it is laid out.  We'd hit frustration, and then we'd change things and for a while the dream would be reignited and energy levels high again.  Then due to the transient nature of the context and hence the community the dream would end.

The hard part is breaking the cycle of dream to frustration.  If this is broken the fantasy cycle gets broken and we move into something more permanent.  However in a transient context, where different people enter at different points, the dream and frustrations are different depending on the time you entered the cycle.

Frustrations can lead to real growth in a community, but I'm going to leave my thoughts on frustrations for another few days...
 

Virtual Choir

Choirs are on the up.  I know a number of people who have joined community choirs as a way of getting to know people and forming a sense of community and belonging.  Anyway I came across virtual choir this morning:

185 People across 12 countries all singing along at home to their webcam.

Community building or virtual community at the expense of real community?

Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir - 'Lux Aurumque'

FX and Mission Training and Learning Events in Mcr

I'm involved in a number of courses and training events over the next month.  If you're interested in coming along to any then drop me an email and I'll send you more details.  Here they are:

Mission Shaped Intro: Starting tomorrow evening (15th Sept) in Manchester Cathedral.  It's a six week course that I'll be co-leading. 

2nd October: Sheffield Diocesan Development Day - I'll be leading a seminar on life stages in a FX.

4th October: Catalyst Training Event: Church and Culture.  Luther King House 12:30-2:30 Lunch Included, cost £10.

9th October: Interested in Exploring Ordained Pioneer Ministry? I'll be giving a presentation at the Diocesan Living Stones vocations day.

11th October - One in Christ day at St. Peter's Chaplaincy - I'll be leading a couple of seminars on FX.

Mission Shaped Ministy:  A year long course that I'll be co-leading in Manchester with input from Graham Cray and others from the FX team.

Fresh Expressions - resistance or legitimating

Greenbelt Festival is finished for another year and since then I've been reading a bit about how identity is constructed in a network society - Castells stuff.  Castells identifies three ways in which identity is found, two of the three different forms of identity are 'resistance identity' and 'legitimizing identity.  These two identities do what they say they do, one resists the dominant culture and the other serves to legitimate it.  As I've been reading this I've been thinking about Fresh Expressions and the Emerging Church...

A lot of the conversations that have been taking place around the Emerging Church movement seem to suggest that identity is found in resistance.  Kester talks of Pirates, a force in resistance, Pete talks about Heretics, again a force in resistance and this resistance seems to be against the church.  Whilst I think that we need some pirates and heretics I think that missionally our place of resistance should not be against the church - its too self-referential.  If we are to find our identity in resistance then this should be in resistance to the dominant ideologies that serve to strangle humanity and the planet.

On the other hand legitimizing identities serve to legitimate the status quo.  This is perhaps what Fresh Expression do - serve to legitimate the church.  They say that the church is trying, it is reaching out, it is making an effort and hence it's okay for things to carry on exactly as they are.  As Castells' puts it they 'rationalize the sources of structural domination' - now I think that's stretching it a bit.  Something that I observed during my time with Sanctus1 was that some people wanted our identity to be found in resistance and others were far happier to legitimize.  I wonder if the MSC church report served to legitimize that which was in resistance and by doing so became self-legitimating.

Other - A Review

Other has been sat on my desk for the past few weeks waiting for a review... I've found it hard to formulate my ideas on the book, partly as I know Kester, but also because I found the book somewhat of a roller coaster ride.  There were parts that I enjoyed, parts I hated, parts I was stunned at the depth and parts I thought naive.  Overwhelmingly I found it a provocative book, at times slightly preachy, but also one that needs a critique as I am unsure about some of the idea within the book.  That critique has not be delivered yet so here goes...


The title of the book opens it to critique from the start, my question throughout was: How is this modelling the love of the other?  For example, how does the book model a love for Israel when it is clearly pro-Palestinian? How does it model a love for conservative evo's when it's clearly coming from a different perspective?  I think that this is a meaty topic and whilst I think that Kester brings come fascinating insights to it, the book does not share any long term experiences that Kester has of engaging with the other and whilst these may be in his experience, his omision of them is seriously problematic.

The book is divided into four sections:

Loving the Other within Self
Loving the Other within God
Loving the Other within Society
Loving the Other in Praxis

Loving the Other within Self is in my opinion the strongest of the four chapters.  I like the movement between philosophy, theology and the social sciences...even if the biblical studies is weak!  (On a side note he draws a lot from the book 'The Spirit Level' which has been seriously challenged in the past few days.) I found the thinking most interesting in the section on technology, 'the liquid self' and the section on the 'fantastic self'.  In the section on the liquid self he highlights how our online identities are essentially fantasy identities, where we project the image that we want others to see of ourselves.  I've commented about this before in a post a while back entitled 'what do our fb status' say about us'  And Kester develops this to look at the whole question of our online self.  I particularly like the metaphor of Manuel de Landa, endo and exoskeletal, does technology give us a new way to move or does it provide a place for us to withdraw into. 

The fantastic self is also a strong section where Kester introduces The Neophiliacs by Booker, I find it a helpful framework for my understanding of church and within this section there is a glimmer of the vulnerability of Kester in his experience of Vaux.  Vaux throughout the book is painted in an extraordinarily positive light and here we get a glimmer that things were hard at moments, and I warm to the humanity of that.  The memory of something can be stronger than the reality, I'm experiencing that with Sanctus and here we get a glimmer that Vaux wasn't perfect...

Loving the Other Within God:  In this chapter Kester plots a part between the immanent and transcendent natures of God.  He moves into an exploration of the separate and bounded trinity and I think that he is starting to develop an interesting line of thought but for me he needs to develop it further, I would at this point have liked to see him engage with Moltmann and Barth and their Trinitarian theologies, rather he moves to Zizek.  I've not read Zizek, and I doubt many others who have read the book have, but I do know that the Trinitarian theology of Moltmann in particular is far more influential in contemporary theology and hence I feel that an engagement with Moltmann at this point would have be interesting.

Kester also touches a little bit on a few gospel and OT stories in this chapter, I like Kester's interpretations, but I do think that they lack the depth of the rest of the book.  Many aspects of the book use some heavy philospohy, but the biblical studies in the book is somewhat the weaker partner in the book.  At times it feels like the biblical stories are being interpreted to support Kester's arguments.

Loving the Other Within Society:  Okay this is where the book really started to wind me up!  The section that did this was the section on Temporality - now don't get me wrong, I think that permanence is problematic, but I think that the swing towards TAZ - Temporary Autonomous Zones - is also problematic.  I've highlighted this with Kester and, fair play to him, he highlights the limitations of TAZ within the book.  I'm amazed that a number of people have been lauding the TAZ concept, Theo Hobson, and Paul in the review.  I think that TAZ is problematic as it's too middle class and arty!  Now I'm a middle class arty person and TAZ works for me, but I work in an area of  social deprivation and TAZ wouldn't hold any weight their.  Esther Baker highlights that in her work in prisons people need both boundaries and permanence - structures of security - if these structures are removed chaos will reign.  To operate with TAZ you need to operate from a position of individual security and I fear that the move towards TAZ will only work for people who have this personal security, and in my book this is not Gospel.

In a blog exchange where I raise this point Kester points to Jesus' feeding of the 5000 as a TAZ.  I disagree.  The feeding of the 5000 points us back to the experience of the people of Israel in the wilderness where God provides for them.  Therefore this meal points toward the permanent faithfulness of God, it injects hope into the people, it says that God's faithfulness is timeless and that Jesus is part of this plan.  The moment is temporary but the narrative that it connects with is permanent.

I also disagree with Kester that Greenbelt is a TAZ.  Greenbelt is an institution, it has paid staff, a hierarchy, the Archbishop is the chair person...so whilst for a consumer coming on the weekend it is a TAZ, for the people who make Greenbelt - me and Kester for example - it is more than that.  It aspires to be a movement and relies on volunteers to make it happen, without the commitment of these volunteers it would not happen.  It is a TAZ for the consumer but a movement/hope for the people involved in the process.   I fear that this is indicative of TAZ - it works for the consumer.

Loving the Other in Praxis:  Okay by this point I was really wound up by the book and nearly quit.   I feel that the Praxis in this book is weak and for a book like this to work it needs to be rooted in Praxis.  Kester gives couple of examples where he is engaged with the other, walking more in a meditative way - a good practice - and playing football, as reminder of his weaknesses - again is helpful to be reminded of our short-comings.  However, this is not enough to give the book the integrity and authenticity that it needs, I want to know how the author is engaging with the other in society, the broken and vulnerable, how his thinking and engagement with the other is bringing about transformation.  Kester points to others who are doing this Street Pastors, Esther Baker and Sara Miles, this may be a noble piece of self-deprication or it may not...

I'm also concerned how Ikon's approach to pastoral care is lauded as a good model.  'We don't care about you' is Ikon's approach to pastoral care.   There hope is that the community will care for people rather than any trained pastoral team.  Unfortunately, this doesn't work.  Many people have be told all their life that they are not cared for, not loved, not valued and for the church to be saying that as well is once again not Gospel.  It is the antithesis of 'you are loved as a child of God'.  It's middle class idealism, it is hoped that the community picks up and cares for people - my experience in Sanctus was that this happend to a degree, but where there are people who are hard work, people who nobody really wants to be with, people who don't add to your sub-cultural capital, then they get excluded, their needs do not get cared for.  Hence, it was important to have some structures which made sure that those who society has told many many times 'we don't care about you' were loved and cared about.  I've often asked people involved with the EC how do you do pastoral care and the usual response is 'we're a bit crap at that'.  That is no way to love the other.

Okay, that's the book!  I would say buy it - it's provocative, you may not agree with it but it will stir you thinking up.  And as Kester says at the start of the book:

[I may be wrong]

 

The Silent Pilgrimage: Greenbelt 2010

The Silent Pilgrimage: A meditative journey through the physical space of the festival.

The temporary architecture of the Greenbelt site shapes our festival. Do we view the site merely functionally or through it can we encounter the Divine? The Silent Pilgrimage is a site-specific sound installation that takes the participant on a reflective journey around the festival site. Moments of reflection, celebration and blessing held within the common framework of the site around us all.

Away from the festival the physical environment that we inhabit shapes our being.  Whether the city or hamlet, the countryside or the town the presence of God is within them all.  The spiritual is physical; the physical is spiritual.  Do we view the environment that we inhabit functionally or is it an icon into the Divine.  The Silent Pilgrimage opens these questions exploring sideways encounters through the physical.

We have commissioned five groups to write the meditations: Frunt, Molten Meditation, Beyond, Spirit Walk and Gloppy Music. The meditations, of both words and music, will provide a unique soundscape for the site this year, reflecting on both the site location and also on a particular stage of the silent journey. 

Don't forget to book your tickets for Greenbelt

Archbishop at FX changing the landscape day.

I'm at the FX day conference that looks at the future of FX.  The Archbishop has just spoken, and hre are my rambled notes if you're interested.

Overarching theme – Moving into the space that is opened up by Jesus.

 AS FX gets more widely known it is important to remember that it is not about capturing a new market for a product; not about membership but about transformation:

 Humans into Christ likeness

 Church into a fuller expression

 Pushing back against trivialization

 For all we know we are still the early church.

 Static and infantilising styles of discipleship are not just the preserve of the established church.

Church is fundamentally what happens when JC is around. Church is a verb before a noun – ecclesial: a calling together.

Church is what emerges under the presence of Jesus’ presence.  The church is an eco-chamber for the divine word.  Resounds in us from our inner being – Christ needs to be audible and visible.

Point is not to treasure a memory or rever a personality it is to be changed by the spirit.  Church has often succumbed to the temptation to a memory of the late great Jesus of Nazareth. It takes time to be a Christian.  There are things that are instant but things that rather painfully push their way into you heart.  Both for individuals and groups. 

FX is not a quick fix.  It takes time.  Some initiatives are short term – that’s okay, perhaps they’ve done what God wants them to do.

 Groups that evolve as they change. Groups that find their way into the local church, having done the job that God asked them to do.

Messages to churches and their leadership – This will take the time it takes don’t rush it.  Don’t force it – it takes time.

Terrible curse of an imposed rhythm of time.  Not a good model.  Has to be a patience and respect that allows God’s work to unfold in a way that’s right.

Beware of messianic fantasies – we’ve got it and they haven’t.

Beware of forces that require us to rush.  Find ways together (inherited and emeregent) to grow together.  This respect involves leadership not washing their hands or over managerment.

Sheer variety of timescales and outcomes.  We hope that we learn the patience needed. Flexibility and the light touch vital – or a willingness to be gladly surprised by what God get’s up to in church.

One of the failing has been an unwillingness to think about the time that it takes to be  Christian.  What di we need to do to keep on challenging us to be more rooted.  What do we need to put out roots down more firmly.  Learning to be a disciple is about learning to be a learner.  Learn for the one who is our teacher.

The process of growing requires us knowing the stories that we want to share.  In the last 10 or 15 years are finding that stories from the old mainstream are coming alive in new ways.  John Morgan Cron – Following Francis.  Gradual discovery of St Francis.

Transcendence - Real encounter with the holy

Community - real mutuality of being responsible for each other

Beauty - Clearly apart of manifesting something of God’s creation.

Dignity – Passionate commitment to revere the human face and spirit

Meaning – individual life is held in meaning.

 Enemies of renewal:

1: Entertainment - what people want is to entertained.  Give them a God that distracts them, rather than be left naked before God.

 2: Problem Solving -  The gospel message takes a life time to solve problems, we do not do that.  Paul when converted, his problems were just beginning.

3: Fit God around the edges rather than letting God shape you from the inside out.  God renews us from the heart not the edges.

If we want the church to grow we need to be testing for these things.  Keep ourselves honest to the measure that we began with – the measure of the fullness of Christ.