Wednesday, October 5th, 2005
Some of my interview with Jenny Swan from ABC Central Queensland, is online in an article by Kim Lester: Church for those who don’t like church. I was in at ABC Coast FM when the producer Anita suggested I do a phone hook up with Rockhampton next. Jenny was keen to explore alternatives to spending lot of money on cathedrals and other purpose-built worship spaces.
Part of my thinking on this was stimulated by an experience I had when training for ministry. We had a Taize service in the park - in a rotunda much like the one pictured here. The atmosphere was great. But afterwards we realised that the content of the service had made no reference at all to the environment we were in. We’d just translated an inside experience to the park.
So what would an ‘in-the-park’ experience be like if it was designed for that environment? There might be more awareness of the sounds of silence for a start. And perhaps more use of the metaphors of the greenery.
It’s all there at ABC Capricornia.
Tags: ABC Radio, alt worship, Taize
Posted in Worship | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, September 27th, 2005
Jim Mein, moderator of the NSW Synod, Uniting Church, was interviewed on The World Today, on national ABC radio yesterday. Roy Edmund interviewed Jim on the proposal to sell traditional buildings and invest in new congregations. The interview concluded with a few comments from Tim Costello, relating to the way in which Hillsong is able to operate in a non-traditional approach.
JIM MEIN: I think it’s a crisis for the community. Certainly, we’re seeing that spirituality is probably at its highest ever. But Christianity is not necessarily seen as a spiritual option. So we need to look at ways to remove the image that has the church in stained glass buildings to being a church that’s people moving around and through the community.
EDMOND ROY: But isn’t that what the church actually sold: a unique proposition, as it were, that you actually go to church on a particular day at a particular time?
JIM MEIN: Yes, that’s correct for worship, but our concern is that many of our church buildings are only used on Sundays for worship. And that we’re trying to encourage our people to actually see churches as seven days and nights witness, and that that witness means moving around in the community sharing their faith.
EDMOND ROY: Which means, what, going into pubs, theatres, that kind of thing?
JIM MEIN: That sort of thing where people are.
Tags: ABC Radio, alt worship, Hillsong, Uniting Church, Worship
Posted in Spirituality, Uniting Church, Worship | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 27th, 2005
I had an interview with Tricia Duffield on ABC Brisbane Radio this morning, talking about churches that meet in cafes, pubs and restaurants. There’s a fair bit of media interest in this right now, mostly from a press release that’s come from the New South Wales Synod of the Uniting Church.
I talked about the need for forms of church that do not rely on the two skills most usually needed in Sunday morning worship: public singing and listening to long speeches. People involved in cafe/pub/restaurant churches are able to connect spirituality with everyday life, through eating and drinking together, sharing stories and learning in an interactive way.
The Sydney Morning Herald published an article yesterday on Jim Mein’s challenge to building-bound congregations. “Road to Salvation Could Lead to Pub”
Jim’s quoted as telling the NSW Synod:
“The emerging church will need to be a movement again which can inspirationally attract people, develop their faith and spirituality, and build faith into genuine relationships, many of which will be one on one. The gated-estate image of God being locked up in ancient temples is not the base for developing the emerging church.”
This approach to church is now getting air time in the press. Since my interview this morning, the phone’s running hot from reporters and from ministers being asked for comment by reporters.
Tags: ABC Radio, alt worship, contextualisation, Emerging Church, Mission
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