Postkiwi

Forge Mission Training Network held its second national Australian summit this last weekend.

I flew in to Melbourne from Brisbane on Friday night, so only got into The Factory (Mitcham Baptist) in time to hear Sons of Korah performing. I missed Alan Hirsch introducing the conference and Mike Frost’s keynote address on dirt and soil. Alan and Deb are off to the western coast of the United States for a few years, sponsored by CRM to resource the missional church scene there.

More on Mike’s book, Exiles, and Alan’s book, The Forgotten Ways, in later posts…

Brian McLaren provided an inspiring and gracious challenge to the churches of the 21st Century, helping us recognise the key narratives found in humanity, such as domination, victim, shame, economic bargaining and withdrawal. Each of these approaches, Brian explained, can be found in the setting in which Jesus operated. So what does the alternative look like? Brian gave us the beautiful story of an outdoor jazz concert in Sydney in which a young boy is joined by others as they celebrate life in music.

I was able to attend sessions led by Wolfgang Simson (hyperbolic metaphoric storyteller enthusiastic about small and effective missional communities), and Geoff Westlake (community developer in WA focusing on the concept of ‘ecclesia’ as community development council).

I enjoyed the session on theological issues for the ‘emerging church’ led by Stephen Said and Randy Edwards.

Stephen Said provided a challenging analysis of the theological strengths and flaws found in the renewal of missional church in Australia. Key themes (strengths) coming through are the connection of Missio Dei (the other-focused nature of God) with the local context, bridging the secular and sacred, recovery of kingdom ecclesiology, and the reminder that mission is integral to Christian community. Holes identified by Steven were in some ways about the same themes. We can too easily separate missional and incarnational. With our ‘can-do’ focus on method we’re still missing out on the Spirit’s role in mission. The Holy Spirit’s work was rediscovered by many churches during the charismatic renewal days but for many there’s not much awareness of the Holy Spirit working outside the worship service. We’re still separating evangelism from social justice. In Australia we tend to have a suspicion of philosophy. We’re too easily caught up in the prevailing consumerist metanarrative of our time - addiction to the collection of experiences.

Another helpful observation in the theology elective, made by Randy Edwards I think, was that we have been over-valuing leadership. It’s almost as if everyone must be in a leadership position of some sort. “You’re not fulfilling your potential unless you’re influencing someone else.”

Here’s another quote from Randy Edwards that stuck with me…. “Protestants don’t know how to give. They only know how to invest”. This was in response to the observation that experimental groups are jettisoned when it appears as though they are not producing high numbers of church members. Permission to achieve is not the same as permission to try and fail.

I attended an all-too-brief interactive panel focusing on consumerism and faith. We could have spent the whole weekend unpacking this subject. Unfortunately we had less than an hour. I was reminded by Dave Andrews (earthy radical discipleship sage) that bold claims to be bucking the trend are revealed as posturing when we compare our incomes and lifestyles with those living in the seventy percent of the world’s population.

Darryl Gardiner, fellow Kiwi bald guy from Wellington, lightened up the atmosphere with his humorous but gritty introduction of the “Dirty Christ”, the one who was born in an earthy stable. Darryl’s carrying on the tradition of Barry Crump, NZ author, with his exploration of “bastards I have met”.

Saturday evening finished with the delightful comedic and insightful poetry of Cameron Semmens, the author of 26 Tales from the Testaments - alliterated Bible passages in every letter of the alphabet.

I must admit I spent most of Sunday in conversation with various people, missing many of the sessions and workshops. I did get to Brian McLaren’s reflections on what we can learn from Emerging Church movement in the United States. This wasn’t one of those “it’s all happening in America” workshops. It was helpful to hear about what other people are learning through trial and error, bitter criticism and collaboration across denominations.

It’s always interesting to hear the the Presbyterian, Methodist, Episcopalian and United Church of Christ described as the ‘liberal’ denominations. I heard one of the presenters at Forge introduce himself as the pastor of an “Evangelical Uniting” church. Clearly for some it is really important to be known and regarded as “Evangelical”. It helps people know what you believe, I guess. The problem is that people who see things differently just become “liberal”. I think we need to upskill in our capacity to relate to Christians who come from different places.

I must say it was refreshing to be part of, and on the edge of, a movement that is morphing. Social justice, concern for the environment, and an honest re-exploration of the Christian gospel, were all included in an agenda in which there was room for ranters, story tellers, poets, evangelists, coffee-makers, conversationalists, multi-media artists and musicians. Forge, like the rest of the Australian church, continues to struggle with the gender balance of its speakers and facilitators. Speaking of facilitators, we could have done with less content and more time to process in small groups.

As with the first Forge Dangerous Stories summit, we didn’t start each session with a time of ‘praise and worship’. I wasn’t sorry about that, though I do enjoy the occasional bit of God-focused “Christian karaoke”. I’d like to see the re-emergence of corporate singing in this kind of environment, modelling some of the broad missional themes being explored by Forge. Another time, another place…

More to be posted here in due course…