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...

Institution Racism?

I've been on the blah... tout for this past week, it's been superb. Really good to connect with people and be able to share the story of Sanctus1 and to offer some theological reflections on it. At the end of each day we've been taking questions and the question that we've had each day is 'Is this just a movement for white, middle class people?' There is deep validity within this question, my response is to say that we need to ask the question to the wider church as well as the emerging one and then to comment that Sanctus1 reflects the place in which it is situated...However, I'm becoming more and more uncomfortable with my answer.

One of the nine practices that Ryan mentions in the book emerging churches is being welcoming. I think that this is where the challenge lies for emerging churches - yes, we are welcoming on the individual level, when a new person comes along we give them coffee, muffins, chat with them etc. However, I am wondering whether as an institution there are patterns and practices that make it harder for people who are 'not-like-me' to access the emerging church. In short has the emerging church unintentionally become institutionally racist? For example Is the music and film that we use sourced from a diversity of ethic and cultural backgrounds? If not then it will favour one ethnicity above another and these practices can exclude.

I'm pondering this one as I'm not sure - institutional racism maybe putting it too strongly, but i think that we need to reflect on our patterns and practices and ask the question corporately and individually.

Technorati Tags: emerging church

International Journal For the Study of the Christian Church

Last year I got an email from John Drane inviting me to contribute an article to a forthcoming theological journal. I wrote the article and sent if off and was pleased to hear that it had been accepted. A couple of days ago I received another email to say that the journal is in the final stages of editing and will be published later this month or early next month...I'm a bit nervous now...I've never had my thoughts published before...Anyway you can buy it online here.

The list of contributors is impressive and includes:

SCOTT BADER-SAYE
Improvising Church: An Introduction to the Emerging Church Conversation
BEN EDSON
An Exploration into the Missiology of the Emerging Church in the UK Through the
Narrative of Sanctus1
GLADYS GANIEL
Emerging from the Evangelical Subculture in Northern Ireland: An Analysis of the Zero28 and ikon Community
MATHEW GUEST & STEVE TAYLOR
The Post-Evangelical Emerging Church: Innovations in New Zealand and the UK
ALAN JAMIESON
Post-church Groups and their Place as Emergent Forms of Church
PHILIP HARROLD
Deconversion in the Emerging Church
KEES DE GROOT
The Church in Liquid Modernity: A Sociological and Theological Exploration of a Liquid Church
GEORGE LINGS
Unravelling the DNA of Church: How Can We Know that What is Emerging is ‘Church’?

As well as this the following books are being reviewed: Eddie Gibbs & Ryan K Bolger, Emerging Churches: creating Christian community in Postmodern Cultures; D A Carson, Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church; Kester Brewin, The Complex Christ; and Steve Taylor, The Out of Bounds Church?