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This event at Trinity School for Mission, near Pittsburgh, USA, June 4-6th is so good that even if I wasn’t being asked to help plan, lead and speak at it, it would be the one event I would choose to go to this year.
Why?
1. Topic & Theme: With a focus on these following questions, it’s some of the key ones on my radar for our church, and my one reflections and learning
“How do Anglican “insiders” welcome young evangelicals, post-evangelicals, and emergents who are attracted to the “Great Tradition”? How do inquiring “outsiders” perceive or participate in the distinctive anamnesia (memory) of Anglican worship and mission? How can the exchange between insiders and outsiders bear fruit in Anglicanism today? How will this emerging conversation stir the mind and heart of an Anglicanism in renewal?”
2. Primary Input: An amazing line up of guest teachers, who are on the front line of responding to these questions
- Simon Chan, Professor of Systematic Theology at Trinity Theological College, Singapore, is author of Liturgical Theology: The Church as Worshiping Community
- Tony Clark is Chaplain at Lee Abbey Community (UK) and teaches ethics and philosophy at Friends University.
- Edith M. Humphrey, is Professor of New Testament at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.
- D. Stephen Long, Professor of Systematic Theology, Marquette University, is author of Theology and Culture: A Guide to the Discussion.
- George Sumner is Principal of Wycliffe College, Toronto and author of The First and Last: The Claim of Jesus Christ and the Claims of Other Religious Traditions.
- Andrew Walker, Professor of Theology and Education at King’s College, London is co-author of Living Orthodoxy in the Modern World.
- Samuel Wells is the Dean of Duke University Chapel and Research Professor of Christian Ethics at Duke Divinity School
- Daniel H. Williams teaches patristics and historical theology at Baylor University and is author of Evangelicals and Tradition.
3. Mode of interaction: If that all sounds too heady, whilst these folks will be giving input of key material, it’s not a series of lectures, but to provide materials for a conversation amongst church leaders, practitioners and academics. How will that look in practice at the event?
a. Worship: Using the book of Common Prayer, worship will be a background to the event
b. Cohorts: People can group at the event around shared interests and experiences and needs
c. Interaction: The headline teachers will provide input, but they will face questions by different church practitioners that we are calling ‘missioners’, and open questions from the other people attending the event.My role along with Holly Rankin Zaher will be to provide and initial response to all the presenters, pushing back, and teasing out ideas, trying to join the dots to church practice, then to facilitate the questions from the panel of ‘missioners’, and lastly to enable a bigger informal conversation amongst all of us in the room, as well as some summation of the discussions.
There is a blog for the event, giving more information and discussion in the lead up to the event. Would be great if you could spread the word and link to the event.
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Now that I’ve institutional agreement for the new D.Min that I’ll be leading, it’s time to get the course materials together and I want to ask for your help. George Fox, have now got the course up on their site for people who are interested in applying.
The first module for the course is D.Min 517, ‘Church, World and Leadership Overview’. This first term is about getting an overview of how the world has changed in these three domains. Before we get down to key themes and challenges, this module is about getting a big picture view, historically, economically, theologically, culturally.
So if you had any books, and resources to recommend for this topic what would you suggest? I’m asking people to post into the Wiki that I’ve set up in the GML Ning learning community site for this programme. I’ll be posting my initial ideas there too.
So if you have some great ideas and resources, click here, add your stuff to our Wiki, and help us get the Global Missional Leadership learning community for reflective practitioners under way.
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According to Mint, my stats tracker, 35% of readers on this site, are from the USA, and 42% of those readers are in California.
So for all you reading in California, or near to California, here are two events, with two hugely influential people, that you might want to catch/find out more about.
N. T. Wright in Southern California:
N. T. Wright will be speaking on February 26 at Lake Avenue Congregational Church at 7:00 PM on the topic, “Learning the Language of Life: New Creation and Christian Virtue.”
Bishop Wright will also be speaking on Saturday morning, February 28 at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach from 9:00 to noon on the topic, “Paul for Tomorrow’s World.”
Dallas Willard in Newport Beach:
Dr. Dallas Willard will be speaking at St. James Anglican Church on March 24 from 3:30 to 5:00 PM on the topic, “The Importance of Teaching in the Pastor’s Call” (see attachment for details).
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I have a supervision for my PhD later today, which is an opportunity for me to stand back from the reading I have been immersed in and look at what I have learned, and most importantly ask what direction and shape is my research taking.
With each book I read, there opens up so many new and alluring avenues of possible exploration. So how do I keep focused, on track, and see the wood for the trees, with something that can address the problem I am exploring, in a meaningful way?
So I thought I’d take a big step back, and see if I could blog a summary of what it is I am trying to address, and how, and as ever value your input as this research takes shape. I’m two years into a 6 year process, looking at my starting point, it’s amazing (to me at least) how far my thinking has been shaped, and at the same time, how some of the original ideas I started with remain in focus.
So here we go…
1. Problem
There are so many problems the church faces, and within those I have picked one that has surfaced in my life and role as a church planter. That no matter how much we are theologically and culturally engaged as a church, people are largely unable, and unwilling to convert to Christianity (at least in a european secular consumer context).People engage with us socially, and pastorally, they may even experience what they see as answers to prayer, yet once the moment of that experience has passed, they seem to turn back to a higher reality, of life as usual, away from a life around Jesus with others. No meaning making worship aesthetic, or experience with Christian spirituality and mission, leads to the awareness, and desire to convert, to hand over their reality for life and being to one around the mission of Jesus with his people.
Continue reading »
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I’ve mentioned TED here before. It’s an outstanding learning community, with a huge catalogue of online talks and mission based around, ‘a clearinghouse that offers free knowledge and inspiration from the world’s most inspired thinkers, and also a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other’.
I was listening to the most amazing short talk by Barry Schwartz, on the call to ‘practical wisdom and virtue’, and moral heroes.
As TED have been profiling this talk, it is so redolent, of what I think church should be, schools and habitats for moral virtue and formation of virtuous people and institutions. Are non church institutions going to make the turn to virtue, and how will the church respond?
Knowing we need to turn to virtue and wisdom is a start, but it left me with the big question, what and whose virtue do we turn to?
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If you are used to receiving a weekly summary of all the posts on this blog, I have just moved blog to email providers, from Zookoda (now closed down) to Mailchimp.
So please make sure you look in your spam folder in case the new weekly summary, going out today, has ended up there, instead of you inbox.
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Elizabeth writes… Today I noticed a local church sign announcing their service times as “Traditional Service – 8:00 am; Contemporary Services – 9 and 10:30 am.” I chuckled inside as I contemplated the idea of a traditional service in a church tradition that has only existed since the early 1900s. I’m sure they are referring more to the style of music than anything else in their labeling of services as traditional or contemporary. But what if someone in the USA wants to connect with a deeper church tradition, where would they go and what would they expect to find?
Well, that is quite a conundrum for us at times – sure, there are Lutheran churches, Catholic churches, and Episcopalian churches to name a few that have deep historical roots. But personally, I am excited about a new, yet old thing that is happening here in the Pacific NW as Rev. Dr. Todd Hunter has become the Director of West Coast Church Planting for The Anglican Mission in the Americas:
Continue reading »
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I’m having such a great time with this group of baptist ministers/pastors/leaders.
Their willingness to think, and question, and commitment to resourcing their local churches, is a breath of fresh air and encouragement.
Receiving communion together was a highlight, having so much in common with people I have just met. It made me wonder again where in a secular society do people meet and have a shared understanding of life, that is as deep, rich and that opens us up to each other at the most profound levels of trust and sharing.
My keynote/slides that I am using are below. I’ve been talking (as asked to) on leading in our emerging culture, and then about spiritual formation, drawing on my work on consumerism as a religion.
Heba Church Leadership & CultureView more presentations from Jason Clark.
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@Caffeine_Addict, just tweeted about this great article, titled ‘10 Ways Social Media Will Change in 2009′.
Worth a read if you want to review where social media is and is moving to.
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Today and tomorrow morning, I am speaking to the Heart of England Baptist Association (HEBA) Minister’s Conference, at the Hayes Conference Centre, on issues of church and culture.Given I converted to Christianity aged 17 in a baptist church, it always feels like going to meet family, when I get together with Baptists.
My friend, Keith Judson, who has walked the path of exploring the Emerging Church as a baptist over the last few years, invited me. I’m looking forward to the opportunity and to catching up with Keith.
