Colourful Dreamer

I am sitting in Auckland airport about to fly off for 4 weeks. Firstly I am in england for a week and a half at the International Agnlican Youth Network conference at High Leigh. then I go to the Bronx for a few days, even preach there, and then attend the Ministers meeting for TSSF for a week, before returning home for a three tikanga meeting with the Bishops. Wahoo is all I can say. I will try to keep blogs going during that time, even photos maybe peace JOhn

Mission Shaped Youth Ministry: Conference in Australia: To be honest I was a little underwhelmed and disappointed with this. But I suspect that was more my fault, with too high an expectation really. AS a result I did nto engage as much as I had hoped. But that was my problem. I often (I discovered in Dunedin) try to persuade people, and maybe I did not have the platform to persuade people of my great ideas. That is a little humbling. But I did gain quite a lot of insights and have some really good conversations. • I really liked the honesty and frustration about just how successful the emerging church stuff in England is, and eh fresh expressions/mission shaped church initiatives. It is early days. It is small. Who knows how long lasting it will be, or effective in reaching people who know nothing about Christianity? • I enjoyed the beginning of the discussion on what the rich Anglican tradition offers mission. I was also frustrated at the level of engagement with that. It seems this ...

Some thoughts from the Leaders in Congregations course with Kevin Ward: • How can you be alone with your own/God’s thoughts wired with someone else’s? • The role of leader in the future is to identify, mentor, resource and trust young people to create church for themselves and their peers. Through this we might learn what church might be, rather than what church is now. To do this we must not fear the future. That reminds me of something Steve Taylor said at a thing he did earlier in the year, that we are a resurrection people, not a crucifixion people, so rather than focussing on the immanent death we should focus on the new life that God is bringing through this death. ( at least I think that is what he said) • I was struck by how often church leaders (and maybe others) identify the problem that needs fixing, and then the solution, and then they set about persuading others to act ion it. I have to say from my experience, that the problem is not quite accurately identified, and the so...

It has been awhile. I have been pondering this comment and question from Ben. I think it is a great question, and I am not sure I have any easy answers. BTW - following on from your thought about having large chunks of scripture read out in church and re-installing that in our evening community I can report back that people have really taken to it and it's become a highlight of the service for me (and others I suspect) and as an aside to your post I have come across one recent frustration and that is people who say that they want "deeper teaching" in the service. As we explore that idea more I discover that they want more teaching on peripheral Scriptural themes rather than just constantly hearing the central gospel themes. My frustration comes when I don't feel like they/me/we have really got a grasp on "living out" as opposed to just "knowing" those central themes - do you keep banging away until people seem to get it and live it? Do you move on ...

About a month ago I went to the Solomon Islands in my capacity as Minister Provincial of Third Order, Society of Saint Francis. A big part of what we (The Minister General, Dorothy Brooker also went) did was to lead some studies for the local TSSF members. Here are some fo my thoughts from the first of these. What was Francis’s foolishness? Well many things really: One was to not only read scripture, but to pray and to be shaped and moulded by scripture, especially the gospels. This meant he was not only open to the bits be liked, but also the hard bits, like Jesus’ invitation. To the rich young man to go, sell everything he has and “come follow me.” We tend to gloss over that one. Or the story of the Good Samaritan, (which is not about good neighbourly behaviour, but answers who is my neighbour….people I do not normally include in that) As an aside, at a conference I was at yesterday, someone talked about a t-shirt he had seen which said “Jesus loves porn stars” There was great mirth ...

I am in Dunedin at a leadership in congregations course for my Otago M.Min. Some random thoughts: • As I watch young people walking down to university and work with their mp3 players/ipods plugged in, I wonder what the cost will be of people never being alone with their own thoughts. Their world is filled with others thoughts in the music. Will people be able to sit alone with only themselves and their thoughts? Will the be able to sit in silence with God? If not, what will that do to their soul, and our society. • As we struggle to introduce and manage change in our churches, will it be enough? I listen to leaders talk about gearing up for the next change, and think of my own pseudo Gen X frustration with the lack of change. And I am old. Our change is so slow and laboured, compared to what young people swim in. Will it eve be enough? Or should we stop trying, and instead of trying to change what we do, should we just change people’s imaginations so that they can allow new things to e...