Tuesday, November 13th, 2007
Compass, the ABC religious affairs program, presented a documentary on the theological tensions within the Uniting Church on Sunday night.
“In 2007 the Uniting Church turns 30. Our third largest Christian denomination (after Catholic and Anglican churches) is a uniquely Australian institution formed in a spirit of ecumenical unity and strong social justice ideals. It combined the Methodist and most of the Presbyterian and Congregationalist churches. But over the past decade its constituency has divided and fractured: many different expressions of faith are today lived under one church banner. How can it survive? Compass examines the unfolding story of a modern and dis-united church.”
The documentary attempts to report on the tension of a denomination struggling to live with both progressive and conservative wings in tension.
From the Assembly of Confessing Congregations pole (previously EMU and Reforming Alliance) we have national spokesman Max Champion, with John and Marion Morrison, a retired couple who lead Boys and Girls Brigades at Bondi in Sydney.
From the Progressive pole we have Rex Hunt, minister at St James in Canberra, along with a few members of St James. There’s a connection with a younger generation with Alison Proctor, a young woman attracted to the liberal progressive theology at St James.
We have excerpts of a sermon by David Gill, former General Secretary of the Uniting Church Assembly, and an interview with Philip Hughes, Christian Research Association (somehere in the middle of the divide).
Take a look at the transcript at Compass, and watch out for the typo in which Max Champion advocates belief in reincarnation rather than incarnation! The transcript doesn’t include the narrator’s unfavourable contrast between the inaugural citywide service in Sydney in 1977 and a local congregational celebration in 2007.
Responses
Overall I found the doco disappointing. There was little sense of engaging with the ‘messy middle’, nor with the emerging young voices I’m in touch with regularly. The documentary helped me understand the importance the Assembly of Confessing Congregations places on adhering to orthodox statements of beliefs - a ‘confessing stream’ within a contextual church.
Darren Wright’s written a bit of a rant on the Compass program at Planet Telex.
Tags: Television, Uniting Church
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Thursday, October 25th, 2007
A discussion list (Theology and Worship) in the Uniting Church is currently discussing cafe worship style. Here’s 12 pointers I posted today. I’m aware that the recommendations here fly in the face of what is accepted as theologically acceptable worship. But my contention is that much of our preciousness about order of worship is based not on theology but on setting.
1. Visit popular cafes to explore best practice ambience.
2. Communal singing works best when people are standing close enough to each other to hear other voices. It doesn’t work well when people are sitting around tables or at a bar (or scattered around a church building for that matter). For that reason I’ve preferred to either drop the singing or make it a time when we get together around the piano like a choir. Communal singing means more when people have had a shared experience - and so I prefer to schedule it at the end rather than the beginning.
3. Up front teaching without dialogue works best in lecture theatre settings. So what works best in the cafe or restaurant setting? Eating, conversation, casual reading.
4. People come and go in cafes and restaurants, not all at the same time. So I’ve allowed a good 15 to 30 minutes at the beginning to allow for the development of conversation, the enjoyment of food and drink. Likewise - I like to allow the same kind of time at the end.
5. After we’re warmed up we might then introduce a fresh conversation starter - whether that be a Nooma DVD, a music video clip, a drama or dramatic reading of Scripture, a real-life story interview or a clip from a movie.
6. Look around the well established cafe and you’ll find newspapers and magazines, maybe wireless internet access, table activities for kids, and perhaps arty advertising postcards. I’ve put the Sunday newspaper on the tables to allow for introversion time as well as conversation starters later. In some cases we’ve put newsprint (butchers paper) on the tables with felt pens and invited people to doodle. Or we’ve put out activity sheets.
7. In some cases we’ve invited each table to contribute to the worship by preparing a prayer or dramatic Bible reading.
8. In one setting we divided into interest groups part way through - the craft group, the prayer group, the deep and meaningful discussion group, the music group, the kick a ball around outside group.
9. Clarify the contract. People usually expect ‘church’ to fit certain criteria - starting and finishing time, teaching from the front, singing at the start etc. So right at the beginning - for those who are gathered ready to go, I’ve learnt to explain how the next 60 to 90 minutes will proceed and why.
10. Consider meeting outside the usual church environment. The typical church building (even if it has movable chairs) elicits expectations of what church is like. Meeting in a hall, cafe, restaurant or bar frees that up.
11. Get some decent food and drink. It doesn’t have to be coffee. Quality juices, herbal teas, soft drinks, water, along with nibbles make all the difference.
12. Consider meeting less often. Doing cafe church can be a bit draining on the financial and time budget.
Tags: alternative worship, Uniting Church, Worship
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Tuesday, October 9th, 2007
Steve Drinkall in Brisbane has launched Postcard Radio, a podcast site focusing on emerging missional church in Queensland, sponsored by the Churches of Christ, Queensland Baptists and Uniting Church in Australia.
Postcard Radio is committed to discovering and interviewing those brave souls who are finding innovative new ways to communicate an old message. All of the people interviewed on the site live, serve, work and play in South East Queensland and all have a passion for helping ordinary Australians connect with the person of Jesus.
I’m one of the first three interviewees, along with two Baptists…
Billy Williams is serving and reaching urban aboriginal people in Brisbane’s northern suburbs. As the founders and leaders of Dhiiyaan , Billy and his wife are reinventing what it means to be the church at a park on any Sunday afternoon.
Mick Cross, youth pastor at Reedy Creek Baptist on the Gold Coast, has taken the challenge of multiplication seriously in his youth ministry. He has restructured everyone into “Tribes” and allowed student interests to dominate where they meet, what they do and who will lead them.
Some of the ideas here are small, some are large. Some involve thousands of people, some involve just a handful. Some require lots of resources and some are completely free. We hope that these stories and ideas will create a new movement of innovation in living and sharing the message of Jesus with people in our region. Tune in, switch your brain on and imagine what else we could do…
www.postcardradio.com
Tags: Australia, Brisbane, Church Planting, Emerging Church, Podcasts, Uniting Church, Youth Ministry
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