I’ve written a summary of the presentation by Alan Roxburgh at the seminar held recently in Brisbane. His comments are certainly challenging to consultants, church leaders, speakers and authors.
I wrote the summary first for the benefit of my colleagues in the Uniting Church Queensland Synod Mission Resources Network Team. The Mission Resources Network team is the name given to the growing collaboration occuring between Gary Adsett and Scott Guyatt (Property and Resources Strategies), Graham Beattie (Mission Consultant - Leadership and Congregational Growth), Michael Jeffrey (Youth and Childrens Ministry Unit), Andrew Johnson (Justice and International Mission), Ann Warren (Human Relations), myself (Vision for Mission) and Jenny Tymms (General Secretary).
Forge Missional Training Network Queensland held the second half of its intensive on sustainable spirituality, discipleship, sustainability in a consumerist culture in Brisbane this last weekend.
Steve Said, on loan from Tear Fund in Melbourne, provided some helpful models for development of faith practices related to just lifestyle. He provocatively suggested that many approaches to prayer are more pagan than Christian, treating God as a source of goodies that can be manipulated through magic formulas (my words). He finished Friday with a session on the art of critical contextualization.
My sessions on Saturday focused on generational values and the ways in which we embed the gospel, connecting the Biblical narrative, the context we find ourselves in, and motifs. One of the interesting reflections was the way in which models of church reflect the generational values of those who start and promote them. We contrasted the early Baby Boomer large regional churches with the small alternative communities being started by Gen Xers.
One of the resources that got us talking was John Driver’s Gates to the Cross model, explored earlier here at Gospel Notes.
A highlight for each Forge gathering is the telling of stories from alternative approaches to church. We heard from Joshua Tree on the Sunshine Coast (Steve & Felicity Turner, Kelly Edington) and Pathway (Steve Drinkall). That’s Steve Drinkall on the left below, and Steve Turner on the right.
Mark Driscoll, pastor at Mars Hill Church in Seattle, has hit the emerging church blogosphere this week, with a video clip he provided for the National New Church Conference Church Planting conference in Miami last week. Mark wasn’t able to get to the conference and so sent a videotape of him speaking.
Mark focuses on 2 Timothy 2, the passage in which church planter Timothy is encouraged to be focused, hardworking and able to endure hardship.
“You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others. Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs�he wants to please his commanding officer. Similarly, if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not receive the victor’s crown unless he competes according to the rules. The hardworking farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops. Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all this.”
Mark delivers his rant from a military cemetery, with a video closeup to the firm-wristed gun-toting soldier statue. He paints the church planting scene in terms of battleground and body count. He believes that selecting the ‘right man’ is critical to the success of a church plant. He suggests that the core mission is to find men to serve, put them through boot camp, instruct them, and through God’s grace force them to be people who will live as God’s people. “If you want to win a war you have to get the men.” The message, Driscoll says, is Jesus the warrior, king and hero who has fulfilled his mission: leaving his throne in heaven to live a life without sin, dying for our sin, rising from the dead triumphant over Satan, sin and death, and ascending into heaven. The message, Driscoll says, is not about some marginalised Gallilean peasant hippie in a dress rocking out to the Spice Girls in a cabriolet hoping to meet nice people to do aromatherapy with while drinking herbal tea. The snapshot from John in Revelation is of Jesus in his glory returned home as a triumphant warrior and victor.
Interestingly Mark’s video was just before Bill Hybels presented the closing address for the conference. Hybels simply suggested that church planting needed women in leadership before proceeding on to his talk.
Clearly the soldier image does it for some men. And some women. However the writer of 2 Timothy goes on to use the image of athlete and farmer as well. The early church would have had a healthy percentage of pacifists for whom the military connotations would have been repugnant.
I don’t agree with Mark’s commitment to use only men in church leadership roles. But I can sympathise with his efforts to develop a concept of church that will equip and inspire people with the Y chromosome. So are there models and metaphors that provide the sense of challenge and focus needed by men today?
Denny Weaver, in his book, Nonviolent Atonement, works with the Christus Victor concept in a way that clearly portrays Jesus as an alternative to the stereotypes of ‘macho marine’ and ‘gay hippie’. I’ve written a brief review of his Nonviolent Atonement at GodPost this week.
If we want to talk about being focused, hard working and enduring hardship we can learn from sportswear companies like Adidas. I’m aware of the questionable work practices of these companies, but we can learn from their advertising agencies!
Adidas, in its latest ‘Impossible is Nothing’ campaign, invites sports and adventure role models to talk about the toughest times of their lives, using art, animation and gritty honesty. They’ve interviewed women and men, young and old, and enabled each to cross the artificial boundary between creativity and gutsiness. Adidas doesn’t need to ignore women to attract male customers.
