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: Nightmare

As we move towards the end of the cycle the nightmare kicks in.  However, I want  to say right at the start that the nightmare doesn't necessarily lead to death wish.  The cycle is still breakable and death is not predestined.  Nightmare comes on the back of frustration and I think that it is a stage that we need to go through - everything will not always be rosy...

It's hard to qualify what exactly a nightmare is, it could be caused by a variety of different things but my experience was that is was not one thing but a building of a variety of different factors, until the realisation hit that things were tough.  You'd been suspecting it for a while but all of a sudden you're fire-fighting and those hopeful dreams seem so far away.  I think that the nightmare is the hardest stage to break, because usually there will be pastoral crisis' that need dealing with as well. 

It's not simply a case of re-ordering, as that just papers over the cracks, it's doing the hard work with your community that exposes you to the brokenness of the cross. It's the time that you cry with people in their brokenness and your brokenness, it's the time that you realise that it's not all easy, it's when you encounter the cross. Yet, perhaps the hardest thing about this stage is that you still get the 'tourists', still get the people looking to see the dream and they don't find it.  They find a community working out it's identity in their brokenness...

I think that we hit the night-mare stage once in Sanctus and managed to move away from it into a new phase of life.  Yet, it was a tough, tough time but I learnt so much through it.  I discovered the church for the odd-balls, the excluded, the marginalized and the most broken.  In this brokeness the brand, the image, the gloss was just that, gloss.  I also discovered the loneliness of leadership and the cost of making hard decisions.

The night-mare is a real stage, we often move over it to quickly into death and don't really process the pains of it.  We want to die in a blaze of glory, rather than writhing in pain and struggling for breath on the cross. 

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...
 

The Fantasy Cyle and Fresh Expressions: Anticipation

I led a workshop on Saturday at the Sheffield Diocesan Development day where I explored life cycle and Fresh Expressions.  The framework that I used for this was the fantasy cycle that Kester pointed me to in his book.  I warmed to it because it doesn't end up in global domination but ends in a death wish, and as I've reflected further on it as it has enabled me to process some of my experiences over seven years with Sanctus1.  

The cycle goes like this (btw it's not very cyclical...):

Anticipation - Dream - Frustration - Nightmare - Death Wish.

This is not the only cycle, but a helpful one and a key moment within this cycle is when it gets broken and how it gets broken.  I'm convinced, that in some contexts it cannot be broken if the church is genuinely contextual and in other contexts the possibly of breaking the cycle is very possible.

So I thought that I'd write five posts over the coming week or two about the Fantasy Cycle in relation to Fresh Expressions of Church.



Anticipation

I think that there is the danger that we front load with anticipation in Fresh Expressions and this front loading can create problems.  Typically a person, if training to be an OPM, will do 2 or 3 years theological training before they actually start something.  This is all time in anticipation, they're dreaming about what will be, what will happen...anticipating.  At the same time a person like me, or a parish priest, PCC, Bishop etc is dreaming up possibilities - anticipating what will be and what could happen - anticipating...

One obvious problem with this is that immediately when the pioneer comes they are in a gold-fish bowl of their own expectancy and the expectancies of the Church and Diocese.  I was fortunate when I was employed to experiment in the city centre of Manchester, there was no MSC, no FX and no expectations!  Just realistic hopes. 

If the community is indigenous then this anticipation is part of the formation of the church, the anticipation happens in the birthing community rather than in a way that is somewhat detached from the context.   If anticipation is part of the cycle then I think that it should be done in context, it is a time of dreaming in community of working out the possibilities but above it is about trying to live that anticipated dream.  I think that when you start to live the anticipated dream the dream starts to happen, and when the dream has been anticipated it is all the more dreamy! 

That takes us nicely onto dream...but that's a post for later this week.

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.

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.