St Johns Nottingham, where I studied in the 1990s, has just announced some radical changes. Basically, they will stop taking in full time residential ordinands from 2016. Here's part of the statement.
The Church of England is currently reviewing its patterns of ministerial education, and St John’s recognises the call of this review to match the needs of the church with available resources. After many months of prayerful consideration, the college Council and Directorate are ready to take the bold step of remodelling the college to meet the future training needs of the church. This plan will see an end to the admission of any new full-time residential students at the Nottingham campus from September 2015, and the development of new models of ministerial formation and training for discipleship. Recruitment of new full and part-time students on all Midlands CYM and Extension Studies programmes will continue as normal.
Sarum college in Salisbury did something similar a few years back, with the closure of the old Salisbury and Wells theological college, it's still the regional base for part-time training of ordinands, but runs a host of other training courses too.
It's sad to see the 'old' St Johns go fewer residential training centres means fewer choices for potential ordinands, but full-time training is costly, and a lot of training is much more effective when done in context. Probably the best bit of vicar training I did was the Arrow Leadership programme run by CPAS, which is designed for people in full-time Christian leadership already, and is designed to be done whilst 'in context'.
There's also something to be said for many of the trainers to be contextually based themselves. Academic faculties can be good and creative places, but they can also get detached from the realities of church leadership which they were intended to serve.
It's a courageous move, and I imagine there's been a lot of prayer and agonising. Fresh expressions of training?
Ian Paul, former tutor at St. Johns, has written on this in much more depth, and looks at the wider issues of theological training. Well worth a read.
Showing posts with label theology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label theology. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 12, 2014
Wednesday, June 25, 2014
A theology of terrible things
"In the course of this month I’ve lost most of the use of my right hand because of a stroke, together with something akin to neuralgia, also connected with the stroke, which causes a continual, throbbing headache. It’s a long haul, and the future is uncertain, but medication and hard work are already beginning to show results. The thing I want to make clear, though, is that, however shitty things get, they will never be a measure of God’s love for me or those who are close to me. Terrible things happen to Christians. They die in car crashes. They become paralysed. Businesses fail. Dreams plummet. Nightmares become reality. Our leader was crucified. If we can’t beef up our puny little theology by embracing and incorporating these inescapable facts we might as well give up our ridiculous faith and join the Ember Day Bryanites. They do coffee and biscuits. They’ll do.
Not for me. I’m in for the long haul..."
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Toxic texts and Christian-Muslim relations. In Dorset, of all places.
a couple of events coming up soon at nearby Sherborne Abbey, as part of their Insight programme. Venue is the Digby Hall in Sherborne, and I think you have to pay a few quid, but should be worth it:
The Bible is the source of many much loved Sunday School stories, David & Goliath, Samson, Adam & Eve and others. But there is a darker side. Do genocide, ritual mutilation and retributive justice have any place in a Christian book? In this lecture Casey Strine will discuss parts of the Bible many Christians prefer to avoid, including the war narratives of Joshua and Judges and the polemic of some of the Psalms.
God in Muslim-Christian Encounters:
Are we talking about the same thing?
Wednesday 26th June 2013, 7.30 PM
The Toxic Narratives
Dr Casey Strine
War in the Old Testament
Wednesday 19th June 2013, 7.30 PMThe Bible is the source of many much loved Sunday School stories, David & Goliath, Samson, Adam & Eve and others. But there is a darker side. Do genocide, ritual mutilation and retributive justice have any place in a Christian book? In this lecture Casey Strine will discuss parts of the Bible many Christians prefer to avoid, including the war narratives of Joshua and Judges and the polemic of some of the Psalms.
Coming soon:
Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali
God in Muslim-Christian Encounters:
Are we talking about the same thing?
Wednesday 26th June 2013, 7.30 PM
Bishop Michael is amongst those church leaders who have argued most strongly for a clear understanding of the differences between Christianity and Islam. He was General Secretary of the Church Mission Society 1989–1994 He was appointed Bishop of Rochester in 1994, and in 1999 entered the House of Lords as one of the “Lords Spiritual”, the first religious leader from Asia to serve there.
He retired as Bishop of Rochester in 2009 to take up the role of Director of the Oxford Centre for Training, Research, Advocacy and Dialogue.
He retired as Bishop of Rochester in 2009 to take up the role of Director of the Oxford Centre for Training, Research, Advocacy and Dialogue.
Friday, May 24, 2013
Church Growth and the CofE: the role of the national church.
Ok, last post in the series from the Diocesan Church Growth Strategies conference last week, see all the rest here, including case studies from several dioceses, research on church planting and church growth, Justin Welby and more.
Paul Bayes (PB: bishop of Hertford) and Rachel Jordan (RJ, national mission and evangelism adviser) talked us through how the national CofE is engaging (or not) with the church growth agenda
1. The National Picture
Rachel took us on a tour of lots of encouraging things that are happening within the national CofE to promote mission, evangelism and church growth. A few snippets:
3. Young people and the church (RJ)
Paul Bayes (PB: bishop of Hertford) and Rachel Jordan (RJ, national mission and evangelism adviser) talked us through how the national CofE is engaging (or not) with the church growth agenda
1. The National Picture
Rachel took us on a tour of lots of encouraging things that are happening within the national CofE to promote mission, evangelism and church growth. A few snippets:
“We have all that we need within (the church) but it’s often
that we don’t put the jigsaw puzzle together. We often reinvent wheels that
don’t need to be reinvented” (RJ) Is there another Messy Church out there, that isn’t
spreading so fast because it’s pioneers aren’t as well connected as Lucy Moore?
Messy Church combines network and neighbourhood, and is repaying the
long term investment in mother and toddler groups. Of 30,000 such groups in the country,
27,000 are run by local churches (amazing stat!).
Partnership with other denominations gives leverage: e.g.
Jubilee Bible for last year was done with other national churches and agencies, it sold 750k copies, which was 5x the initial estimate, and was really easy for people to give away and share. It wouldn't have happened without national partnerships.
World War 1 will be a big thing in 2014, how can churches
help councils and schools with this?
We have a lot of retraining and recruitment to do: “we have
a missionary task, we need to reach 90% of the population. We have a workforce
that’s very good at looking after 2% of the population.” (RJ) A study of the priorities and time use of 700 clergy discovered that mission was 2nd bottom of clergy time use, and of
what they felt called to do. They also didn’t feel equipped for it: “if the
task is now a missionary task, re-imaging ministry is utterly key”
Comms department spends most of its time dealing with
difficult stories, e.g. child abuse etc. “don’t rely on national church
communications to preach the gospel for you, that’s your job.” (PB)
2. Theology of Church Growth – PB
“No-ones got a problem with spiritual growth, it is
numerical growth that causes headaches… we do not know as a whole church
whether we should be up for this.....there is no agreed narrative in the church about what
counts as growth. you can have as many strategies as you like but until the
theological heavy lifting is done (to convince people that growth is a good
thing) then we are stuffed”
George Lings – wants reproduction to be an agreed mark of the
church alongside one holy catholic and apostolic. (I wonder if we need a better and more dynamic definition of 'apostolic' - is it static and based on bishops, or dynamic and based on mission. Is it about being sent, or being sat?)
Anglican mood music is that “God wants to grow the church
accidentally, and if you do it on purpose then you’re not reading the Bible
properly”
In Lichfield, the large churches who worked with Bob Jackson
grew, those that chose not to declined.
“we are moving forward, but the risk is that we’re moving
forward because we’re desperate”
We need a robust theology of church growth and the kingdom, so that mission is taken as seriously on our agendas as pastoral care and finance. All too often the mission people are given time on the agenda just to entertain the troops after a long and depressing finance item.
The stated national priority is 'to take forward the numerical and spiritual growth of the Church of England'. Spiritual growth isn't contested, numerical growth is. Instead of finding an agreed way to talk about growth, we have gone for a variety of practical strategies and plans. "at every stage our corporate conversations are hindered because the theological groundwork has not been done." (PB)
Comments:
- I'm aware that this kind of conversation must look simply incredible to people from New Frontiers,
Vineyard or one of the newer church planting movements.
- I completely understand where Paul Bayes is coming from on. There seems to be a lack of theological and spiritual respectability in talking about church growth - or 'bums on pews' as the common derogatory term has it.
- But we also need a better case than pure pragmatism: yes a larger church will be more effective and more able to achieve it's goals, but mission and making disciples are not a means to an end, they are the end in themselves. The church seems to think that Jesus departing instructions were too simple and straightforward, and we've done a great Pharisee job on them of turning them into a hefty system of law and structure which almost completely loses the point of the original mission.
Most younger people are ‘no religion'. 50% of the old are
CofE, 5% of the young.
“We have tried to educate people in the faith but we have
not given them an experience of God” (on education). We’ve failed to do this
for generations of children, even though we had the chance. There are tiny
numbers of children who believe in God, and the idea that ‘they will show up
when they grow up’ is a myth. The longer we leave it, the less chance they’ve
got of coming to faith.
91% of kids who grow with 2 non-believing parents will stay
non-believing
46% of those with 2 believing parents believe. 20% with just
1 believing parent.
how will we address this?
Comment: there is a big elephant in the room here, and it's the CofEs involvement in education. Why are we involved in education? There are lots of big numbers which we can wave about and congratulate ourselves upon, but what difference does it actually make? What would happen if we invested those resources in other ways in childrens discipleship and mission? Do we dare ask that question, or is there a standard presumption that we can't touch this?
Wednesday, December 05, 2012
Venn Diagram Theology
Just what we need. Now, where's the one on women, leadership and episcopacy?
From Theologygrams, this one's a Venn of Pauls letters. I thought Colossians was fairly happy myself.
From Theologygrams, this one's a Venn of Pauls letters. I thought Colossians was fairly happy myself.
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
'5 Deeply De-Christian Doctrines'
Joe has tagged me with this challenge:
List 5 doctrines that are taught within the Christian church that you believe to be deeply de-Christian.
I may be a bit flexible with 'taught', as some of what's below is about practice, and what's taught by inference as well as explicitly.
Ok, here goes.
1. That its ok to sing songs expressing 200% devotion to God, even if you are half-hearted and lukewarm.
2. That the gospel can be reduced entirely to Jesus' death on the cross.
3. That mission can be reduced entirely to human activity for justice
4. Red letter bibles, which put all Jesus words in a different colour, thus giving the impression that Jesus main job was to dish up words. Christian discipleship is thus all about doing what the words tell you, and Jesus incarnate life as a human being, and what he did, isn't really that important.
5. That you shouldn't interrupt what's going on at the front because, clearly, these people are more important than you.
5a that to be a really anointed Christian leader/get onto the speaking team at major festivals (which is pretty much the same thing?) you need brown shoes, faded jeans, a pinstripe shirt and a large church. Being a man helps.
I tag Doug Chaplin, Lanky Anglican, Gary Alderson and Zoomtard
List 5 doctrines that are taught within the Christian church that you believe to be deeply de-Christian.
I may be a bit flexible with 'taught', as some of what's below is about practice, and what's taught by inference as well as explicitly.
Ok, here goes.
1. That its ok to sing songs expressing 200% devotion to God, even if you are half-hearted and lukewarm.
2. That the gospel can be reduced entirely to Jesus' death on the cross.
3. That mission can be reduced entirely to human activity for justice
4. Red letter bibles, which put all Jesus words in a different colour, thus giving the impression that Jesus main job was to dish up words. Christian discipleship is thus all about doing what the words tell you, and Jesus incarnate life as a human being, and what he did, isn't really that important.
5. That you shouldn't interrupt what's going on at the front because, clearly, these people are more important than you.
5a that to be a really anointed Christian leader/get onto the speaking team at major festivals (which is pretty much the same thing?) you need brown shoes, faded jeans, a pinstripe shirt and a large church. Being a man helps.
I tag Doug Chaplin, Lanky Anglican, Gary Alderson and Zoomtard
Friday, September 04, 2009
Perspectives on Evil and Suffering: Wright, Bauckham, Ward
Great to find this collection of vids posted by St. Johns Nottingham, Tom Wright on the Resurrection, Richard Bauckham on how the NT was put together. It's a good day for online video resources (see previous post).
For a taster, here's the first of a two parter on evil and suffering, recently posted, featuring Keith Ward, Tom Wright and Richard Bauckham.
some of the blurb from the college:
As well as a number of the Extension Studies DVDs being showcased, featuring;
Tom Wright, Richard Burridge, James Dunn, Graham Stanton and Stephen Travis,
we also have extracts from a number of videos that will be used in our multimedia Interactive Timeline project. They feature Richard Bauckham, Karen Kilby, Anthony Thiselton, Larry Hurtado, Tim Hull and Ben Fulford, introducing Jurgen Moltmann Von Balthasar, Karl Rahner, Paul Ricoeur , Wolfhart Pannenberg and Han Frei.
We are at this moment trying out a provisional web version of our timeline, that focuses on 20th and 21st century theology and modern thought, where you can see how some of the above videos are going to be used. This link will follow in due course.
Also soon to follow, we hope there will be extracts of videos, featuring Keith Ward discussing the problem of evil, William Lane Craig discussing Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion and many more.
excellent. Watch this space.
For a taster, here's the first of a two parter on evil and suffering, recently posted, featuring Keith Ward, Tom Wright and Richard Bauckham.
some of the blurb from the college:
As well as a number of the Extension Studies DVDs being showcased, featuring;
Tom Wright, Richard Burridge, James Dunn, Graham Stanton and Stephen Travis,
we also have extracts from a number of videos that will be used in our multimedia Interactive Timeline project. They feature Richard Bauckham, Karen Kilby, Anthony Thiselton, Larry Hurtado, Tim Hull and Ben Fulford, introducing Jurgen Moltmann Von Balthasar, Karl Rahner, Paul Ricoeur , Wolfhart Pannenberg and Han Frei.
We are at this moment trying out a provisional web version of our timeline, that focuses on 20th and 21st century theology and modern thought, where you can see how some of the above videos are going to be used. This link will follow in due course.
Also soon to follow, we hope there will be extracts of videos, featuring Keith Ward discussing the problem of evil, William Lane Craig discussing Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion and many more.
excellent. Watch this space.
Missing the Joy?
"Adults who can't play aren't really mature enough"
"We think the world can't get along without us. One day a week it's good to discover that it does just fine."
Great meditation on Sabbath, rest, creativity and community.
If you were after an alternative to Nooma, this might be it. Really provocative series of videos - this is No. 15. HT Evangelist Changing, who posts a really moving clip featuring my old theological college principal, John Goldingay.
"We think the world can't get along without us. One day a week it's good to discover that it does just fine."
Great meditation on Sabbath, rest, creativity and community.
Missing the Joy from The Work Of The People on Vimeo.
If you were after an alternative to Nooma, this might be it. Really provocative series of videos - this is No. 15. HT Evangelist Changing, who posts a really moving clip featuring my old theological college principal, John Goldingay.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Swine flu and sacraments
Sorry to get theological, but this news prompted me.
If it's really holy water, then how come it gets infected? (a point made here)
Reflecting on the recent child abuse scandal in the Irish Roman Catholic made me wonder about communion too. Official Catholic theology is that Jesus is really present in the bread and the wine. If that's true, then how come it makes no difference? Some of the people committing the abuse had imbibed their own bodyweight in Jesus during the course of their lives, and yet they went ahead and did evil anyway.
Transubstantiation always seemed a bit iffy to me, and I just wonder how Catholic theologians interpret what's supposed to happen at Communion and what clearly fails to happen to the people who recieve it?
A colleague tells the story of a high church vicar who was distraught that somehow a dog had managed to gobble up a consecrated wafer that had fallen on the floor. He rang a senior clergyman for advice and was told "If God was clever enough to get in there in the first place, then he's probably clever enough to have got out again before the dog ate him."
anyway, back to that holy water, everybody sing along now...
I go down to speakers corner I'm thunderstruck
They got free speech, tourists, police in trucks
Two men say they're Jesus one of them must be wrong
Theres a protest singer singing a protest song - he says
"they wanna have a war to keep us on our knees
They wanna have a war to keep their factories
They wanna have a war to stop us buying japanese
They wanna have a war to stop industrial disease
Theyre pointing out the enemy to keep you deaf and blind
They wanna sap your energy incarcerate your mind
They give you rule brittania, gassy beer, page three
Two weeks in espana and sunday striptease"
Meanwhile the first Jesus says "I'd cure it soon
Abolish monday mornings and friday afternoons"
The other ones on a hunger strike he's dying by degrees
How come Jesus gets industrial disease?
If it's really holy water, then how come it gets infected? (a point made here)
Reflecting on the recent child abuse scandal in the Irish Roman Catholic made me wonder about communion too. Official Catholic theology is that Jesus is really present in the bread and the wine. If that's true, then how come it makes no difference? Some of the people committing the abuse had imbibed their own bodyweight in Jesus during the course of their lives, and yet they went ahead and did evil anyway.
Transubstantiation always seemed a bit iffy to me, and I just wonder how Catholic theologians interpret what's supposed to happen at Communion and what clearly fails to happen to the people who recieve it?
A colleague tells the story of a high church vicar who was distraught that somehow a dog had managed to gobble up a consecrated wafer that had fallen on the floor. He rang a senior clergyman for advice and was told "If God was clever enough to get in there in the first place, then he's probably clever enough to have got out again before the dog ate him."
anyway, back to that holy water, everybody sing along now...
I go down to speakers corner I'm thunderstruck
They got free speech, tourists, police in trucks
Two men say they're Jesus one of them must be wrong
Theres a protest singer singing a protest song - he says
"they wanna have a war to keep us on our knees
They wanna have a war to keep their factories
They wanna have a war to stop us buying japanese
They wanna have a war to stop industrial disease
Theyre pointing out the enemy to keep you deaf and blind
They wanna sap your energy incarcerate your mind
They give you rule brittania, gassy beer, page three
Two weeks in espana and sunday striptease"
Meanwhile the first Jesus says "I'd cure it soon
Abolish monday mornings and friday afternoons"
The other ones on a hunger strike he's dying by degrees
How come Jesus gets industrial disease?
Friday, July 10, 2009
Childrens Questions about God
Had the taxing experience yesterday of 40 minutes with Year 6 at our local primary school, fielding their questions about God. They included:
- Who made God?
- How can we be God's children?
- Is God a man or a woman?
- How can God be a Trinity of 3 different people?
- Do you believe in heaven?
- Is there such a thing as ghosts?
- Is God real?
- Have you always wanted to be a vicar?
- Can you prove God exists?
- If you're bad do you go to hell?
Followed by a couple of 'deep' chats in the staff room. Good fun, but hard work, really having to think on your feet, and translate major bits of academic theology into things that an 11 year old can follow.
Took a survey of the 60 children there: roughly 1/3 believe in God, 1/3 don't, and 1/3 weren't sure. More of them believed in ghosts, and not that many thought there was any kind of life after you die, most seemed to think that was it. There was probably some peer pressure in the hands that went up, but it was interesting to see the diversity of views.
- Who made God?
- How can we be God's children?
- Is God a man or a woman?
- How can God be a Trinity of 3 different people?
- Do you believe in heaven?
- Is there such a thing as ghosts?
- Is God real?
- Have you always wanted to be a vicar?
- Can you prove God exists?
- If you're bad do you go to hell?
Followed by a couple of 'deep' chats in the staff room. Good fun, but hard work, really having to think on your feet, and translate major bits of academic theology into things that an 11 year old can follow.
Took a survey of the 60 children there: roughly 1/3 believe in God, 1/3 don't, and 1/3 weren't sure. More of them believed in ghosts, and not that many thought there was any kind of life after you die, most seemed to think that was it. There was probably some peer pressure in the hands that went up, but it was interesting to see the diversity of views.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Does bad Theology empty the Church?
Found this 2 minute snippet very thought-provoking. What do you think?
From Man of Depravity, who argues from this that we need to be a church which takes human sin and confession more seriously. Ht Tyler Braun on twitter.
From Man of Depravity, who argues from this that we need to be a church which takes human sin and confession more seriously. Ht Tyler Braun on twitter.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
'Test of Faith' - new science and faith resource.
Test of Faith is a new site on science and faith, linked to an upcoming film and book. It's been put together by the Faraday Institute for Science and religion, and promises a release of materials on July 3rd.
The site says:
There is a huge need for accessible materials on science and Christianity for churches, and others who are interested in these issues. With the Faraday Institute starting up at the beginning of 2006, this was the ideal opportunity to fill the gap.
It already has an excellent links section, and promises of short articles, film clips, materials for use in church, interviews with scientists etc. Youtube section here with the above clip, plus other materials. Looks very promising.
Ht Evangelism UK.
The site says:
There is a huge need for accessible materials on science and Christianity for churches, and others who are interested in these issues. With the Faraday Institute starting up at the beginning of 2006, this was the ideal opportunity to fill the gap.
It already has an excellent links section, and promises of short articles, film clips, materials for use in church, interviews with scientists etc. Youtube section here with the above clip, plus other materials. Looks very promising.
Ht Evangelism UK.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Tom Wright: Christmas sermon extract
The NT Wright page (maintained by a fan, I think) has served up some great background reading for Christmas sermons. In amongst it all, is this searing passage, preached 2 years ago:
Because it really is dark out there, and alas sometimes in here too. The great revolution of thought which happened in Europe over three centuries ago, associated with Descartes in particular, was the attempt to grasp truth as it were from scratch: by doubting everything, we would see what we could be sure of and build out from there.
We would know the facts, and the facts would set us free – free from God, free from any responsibility except to our own self-interest. There’s a straight line from Descartes to Dawkins: we can doubt God, but we can’t doubt the facts, the empirical evidence.
And the results of that arrogant attempt to possess truth are all around us, etched in the horrors of the twentieth century and now already the multiple follies of the twenty-first, as we in the West blunder blindly on, believing firmly that because we know the facts and have the technology we can do what we like with other people’s countries, other people’s stem cells, other people’s crops, other people’s money, other people’s lives.
And meanwhile the worm in the apple has hollowed it out more or less completely: the ‘truth’ which we thought we knew has been eaten away not just in theology and philosophy but in its heartland of physics, by Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, and in its deeper heartland of the human being, where Descartes began.
We have become a society paranoid about truth: so we make each other fill in more and more forms, and set up more cameras to spy on each other, to check up on one another because we want the truth, we want an audit trail, we want more and more Enquiries and Judicial Reviews and Investigations, but we can’t get at truth because Descartes’ experiment has itself made it impossible, has generated a world of suspicion and smear and spin.
and it's not just society...
But if the world has tried to have truth without grace, the church has often been tempted towards grace without truth – as Dietrich Bonhoeffer put it, ‘cheap grace’.
God has become a benevolent old softie, ready to tolerate everything, to include everyone, to throw away all those unpleasant old moral standards and say it’s all right, do your own thing, if it feels good it must be OK.
And once again the results are all around – both in the anti-moralism of the arch-liberals and the anti-authoritarianism of today’s new conservatives, who don’t realise that they are simply producing an ecclesiological parody of the do-it-yourself morality they so detest.
Because it really is dark out there, and alas sometimes in here too. The great revolution of thought which happened in Europe over three centuries ago, associated with Descartes in particular, was the attempt to grasp truth as it were from scratch: by doubting everything, we would see what we could be sure of and build out from there.
We would know the facts, and the facts would set us free – free from God, free from any responsibility except to our own self-interest. There’s a straight line from Descartes to Dawkins: we can doubt God, but we can’t doubt the facts, the empirical evidence.
And the results of that arrogant attempt to possess truth are all around us, etched in the horrors of the twentieth century and now already the multiple follies of the twenty-first, as we in the West blunder blindly on, believing firmly that because we know the facts and have the technology we can do what we like with other people’s countries, other people’s stem cells, other people’s crops, other people’s money, other people’s lives.
And meanwhile the worm in the apple has hollowed it out more or less completely: the ‘truth’ which we thought we knew has been eaten away not just in theology and philosophy but in its heartland of physics, by Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, and in its deeper heartland of the human being, where Descartes began.
We have become a society paranoid about truth: so we make each other fill in more and more forms, and set up more cameras to spy on each other, to check up on one another because we want the truth, we want an audit trail, we want more and more Enquiries and Judicial Reviews and Investigations, but we can’t get at truth because Descartes’ experiment has itself made it impossible, has generated a world of suspicion and smear and spin.
and it's not just society...
But if the world has tried to have truth without grace, the church has often been tempted towards grace without truth – as Dietrich Bonhoeffer put it, ‘cheap grace’.
God has become a benevolent old softie, ready to tolerate everything, to include everyone, to throw away all those unpleasant old moral standards and say it’s all right, do your own thing, if it feels good it must be OK.
And once again the results are all around – both in the anti-moralism of the arch-liberals and the anti-authoritarianism of today’s new conservatives, who don’t realise that they are simply producing an ecclesiological parody of the do-it-yourself morality they so detest.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Condensed Creed
I've been issued this challenge by David Ker:"Can you write a meme in less than 140 characters, the equivalent of a Twitter “tweet,” that results in a statement that every Christian could confess?
If someone sincerely confessed this creed you would:
- Consider them to be a brother or sister in Christ.
- Believe that they are true believers and inheritors of eternal life. "
Apart from US election night, I've never used Twitter, so I've been putting this off for a few days. There are some pretty good examples on David's original post already:
"Jesus is Lord"
"Jesus Christ God's Son Saviour" (the original Ichthus acrostic)
"I try to follow Jesus"
here: "We follow Jesus, who lived, died, and rose again to save us. He tells us to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves."
here: "God created and redeemed mankind and creation through His death and resurrection, granting mercy and eternal life that we may be like Him."
and
"God created and Christ redeemed mankind and creation, through death, resurrection and ascension, granting mercy, justice and eternal life. (both produced by gradual filleting of the Apostles creed)"
But I'm not happy. 2 months ago I wrote this:
Last night we had an evening looking at early church history, and one thing struck me powerfully. 2nd century church worship is described thus by Pliny
“They were accustomed to meet on a fixed day before dawn and singresponsively a hymn to Christ as to a god, and to bind themselves by oath, notto some crime, but not to commit fraud, theft, or adultery, not falsify theirtrust, nor to refuse to return a trust when called upon to do so"
A couple of hundred years later, things have changed - the commitment to living a life of integrity and honesty has gone, and been replaced by the reciting of a creed: commitment to an intellectual version of Christianity, in place of a practical one. Subsequent church history shows how much of a mistake this was, sparking repeated attempts by monastic movements to spell out a 'rule of life', a way of living, a practical programme of Christian ethics.
What bothers me about our traditional creeds is that they are intellectual: they were developed to counter heresies, and so they focus on what facts and theology we believe, rather than on how we live. I would be looking for a creed which combined belief, experience and lifestyle, because a creed which exists purely in the mind isn't a creed of salvation. Which is just what Kouya thinks (ht also for the cartoon above).
So here's my initial stab, which I may come back to and amend, comments welcome:
"Love and worship God, trust and follow Jesus, love and serve others, make disciples."
and then a very large book of footnotes on what 'sincerely' means....
I'm not going to tag people with this: if you fancy the challenge, have a go!
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Mission blogs
recently found mission blogs, well worth a look.
Tim Chester, especially like his recent post on Communities of Grace vs Commuities of Performance. Tim is based in Sheffield (hooray!) and is involved in a 'household church' there, part of a creative missional church network called 'The Crowded House'. "Like conservatives we emphasis the centrality and sufficiency of the gospel word. Like emerging church we emphasis the importance of the gospel community". His site's also worth a visit for a good collection of articles on mission, church, spirituality and theology.
Kouya Chronicle, based at Wycliffe Bible Translators
David Couchman at Facing the Challenge, which is a fascinating site - anyone used their courses? Good collection of articles on culture, and Biblical reliability. First stumbled across when looking for details of the BBC's 'soul of Britain' survey, done a few years back to explore British attitudes to spiritual issues.
JR Woodwards primer on missional church: Ht to the last 2 blogs above, absolutely superb post bringing together a library of internet links on mission and missional church. Sections include:
- defining the missional church
- book reviews
- theology of mission
- recent history
- ecumenical mission statements
- mission practice
- mission blogs
- mission resources
- mission studies.
Obviously its impossible to keep on top of all of this stuff, and you'd need a couple of weeks study leave to browse all the links, but he's done an excellent job of pulling all this together.
Tim Chester, especially like his recent post on Communities of Grace vs Commuities of Performance. Tim is based in Sheffield (hooray!) and is involved in a 'household church' there, part of a creative missional church network called 'The Crowded House'. "Like conservatives we emphasis the centrality and sufficiency of the gospel word. Like emerging church we emphasis the importance of the gospel community". His site's also worth a visit for a good collection of articles on mission, church, spirituality and theology.
Kouya Chronicle, based at Wycliffe Bible Translators
David Couchman at Facing the Challenge, which is a fascinating site - anyone used their courses? Good collection of articles on culture, and Biblical reliability. First stumbled across when looking for details of the BBC's 'soul of Britain' survey, done a few years back to explore British attitudes to spiritual issues.
JR Woodwards primer on missional church: Ht to the last 2 blogs above, absolutely superb post bringing together a library of internet links on mission and missional church. Sections include:
- defining the missional church
- book reviews
- theology of mission
- recent history
- ecumenical mission statements
- mission practice
- mission blogs
- mission resources
- mission studies.
Obviously its impossible to keep on top of all of this stuff, and you'd need a couple of weeks study leave to browse all the links, but he's done an excellent job of pulling all this together.
Sunday, July 06, 2008
WATCH with Mother
The General Synod vote on women bishops is tomorrow (Monday), and I hope that it goes through, with some satisfactory framework for people who can't agree with it. I'm in favour of women bishops for 2 reasons:
1. Women are found in church leadership in the New Testament, a fact made all the more striking by their low social status. If you look at the practice of the early church alongside their teaching, their theology of women and authority clearly didn't bar women from church leadership.
2. I'm not entirely sure we're right to exalt bishops so much anyway - again, the New Testament sees churches led by small teams of people, and terms like elder, presbyter and overseer are used pretty much interchangeably. The idea that the order of deacons was founded in Acts 6 is slightly hilarious - 2 of those appointed sit so light to their job description that they'd be sacked under the Clergy Discipline Measure: Philip abandons the food programme to do mission work to foreigners, and Stephen does lots of miracles then gets himself killed.
My main caution over women bishops is when I look at some of the people who support it. There is a lot of wafer-thin theology which talks more about the rights and experience of women than about God. Women and The Church (WATCH) is one of the main campaigning groups. Their website has quite a thorough and concise digest of the main arguments in the bishops debate. They probably cover quite a spectrum of people, but one of the papers on the website, on inclusive language, caught my eye. Here's an extract:
God, Christology and the Church
The constant and uninterrupted use of language which is exclusive
and used repeatedly can be intimidating or even aggressive:
Almighty God, Lord of Power and Might, Everlasting Father,
Dear Lord and Father of Mankind. Intimidation and aggression
do not give life to the people of God called to grow in wisdom
and understanding. We need to use the full range of biblical
images for God, the tender and nurturing as well as the powerful.
Yet we must recognise that our growing includes encouraging
fresh expressions of language for each new generation. The
gospel always has a reforming, reinterpreting edge to it.
“Almost all of the language used in the Bible to refer to God is
metaphor, with the possible exception of holy...There is no point
in pontificating what metaphors like “God as father” ought to
mean. If God metaphors become problematic for a significant
group of people, it is pointless and patronising to tell them they
ought to understand differently”. (What Language Shall I
Borrow” by Brian Wren). God reveals the Godself to us throughout
the scriptures as mother, father, friend, love, wind, fire. And
for some God is more than static noun: God becomes dynamic
verb. We may leave words behind entirely: “The more I walk
with God, the less words about God will do” (John Spong). The
best God metaphors are those that move us deeply and enable
us to encounter and be encountered by the dynamic dance of
incandescent love that Christian experience names as Trinity.
Aside from having a vague worry about anyone who quotes Spong as an authority in theology, there are a number of problems with this approach to language, God and prayer:
1. The problem is not with the language, it's people's interpretation of it. Fair enough, a bad experience of fatherhood will make it more difficult to relate to God as a loving Father, but the idea that the hymn 'Dear Lord and Father' is intimidating or aggressive is bizarre. It's beautiful. These titles belong to the God who is on the side of his people: 'the Almighty God is our fortress' (Psalm 46). What's more, fathers can be 'tender and nurturing' too, and women can be aggressive and intimidating. We don't do ourselves any favours by caricaturing the genders.
2. I've no problem with finding fresh expressions of language, but they have to be anchored in the right harbour. Yes there are plenty of metaphors in scripture, but there are some key ones, and when Jesus teaches his disciples to pray 'Father', that's not something we can ignore. 'Leaving language behind' can become just a pretext for leaving the language behind which we don't like. The best God metaphors are not those which move us deeply, they are those which are true. Something which moves us deeply can be simply a good bit of manipulation. There are films which move me deeply, but most of them are selling a subhuman myth - the revenge Western, the overblown romance etc. They move me because they manipulate me through image, words, music and mood. Does truth come into the equation at any point?
3. We can't leave words behind - words carry meaning, and God has a big history of using words to communicate with us. God uses meaningful words because he wants to communicate with us, to establish a relationship. If there are no words, there is no revelation, and we are completely in the dark about God.
4. God has revealed himself to us in particular ways. If I introduce myself as 'David' and the other person immediately calls me 'Dave', I get slightly irked. Part of human dignity is being able to name ourselves, and not have other people decide what to call us. If God has spoken, and revealed himself to us, we're not at liberty to ignore that and just find names which we like saying.
and a couple of wider concerns
a) Orwell noted in 1984 that control of language is key to control of thought. If you can outlaw certain bits of language, you make it impossible to think in particular ways. I'm aware that I may be just as guilty of this as the WATCH paper, but we need to be careful with this stuff, and not assume that anyone who calls God 'Father' or 'Mighty' is an unreconstructed patriarch.
b) In terms of fresh expressions, we will find new ways to communicate the gospel to a changing culture, but how do we make sure we stay faithful to the gospel? We can't redefine God completely according to human experience - this experience is limited and touched by sin. God has shown himself to us in scripture and in Jesus, so we must stay anchored to this, whichever direction we paddle in.
1. Women are found in church leadership in the New Testament, a fact made all the more striking by their low social status. If you look at the practice of the early church alongside their teaching, their theology of women and authority clearly didn't bar women from church leadership.
2. I'm not entirely sure we're right to exalt bishops so much anyway - again, the New Testament sees churches led by small teams of people, and terms like elder, presbyter and overseer are used pretty much interchangeably. The idea that the order of deacons was founded in Acts 6 is slightly hilarious - 2 of those appointed sit so light to their job description that they'd be sacked under the Clergy Discipline Measure: Philip abandons the food programme to do mission work to foreigners, and Stephen does lots of miracles then gets himself killed.
My main caution over women bishops is when I look at some of the people who support it. There is a lot of wafer-thin theology which talks more about the rights and experience of women than about God. Women and The Church (WATCH) is one of the main campaigning groups. Their website has quite a thorough and concise digest of the main arguments in the bishops debate. They probably cover quite a spectrum of people, but one of the papers on the website, on inclusive language, caught my eye. Here's an extract:
God, Christology and the Church
The constant and uninterrupted use of language which is exclusive
and used repeatedly can be intimidating or even aggressive:
Almighty God, Lord of Power and Might, Everlasting Father,
Dear Lord and Father of Mankind. Intimidation and aggression
do not give life to the people of God called to grow in wisdom
and understanding. We need to use the full range of biblical
images for God, the tender and nurturing as well as the powerful.
Yet we must recognise that our growing includes encouraging
fresh expressions of language for each new generation. The
gospel always has a reforming, reinterpreting edge to it.
“Almost all of the language used in the Bible to refer to God is
metaphor, with the possible exception of holy...There is no point
in pontificating what metaphors like “God as father” ought to
mean. If God metaphors become problematic for a significant
group of people, it is pointless and patronising to tell them they
ought to understand differently”. (What Language Shall I
Borrow” by Brian Wren). God reveals the Godself to us throughout
the scriptures as mother, father, friend, love, wind, fire. And
for some God is more than static noun: God becomes dynamic
verb. We may leave words behind entirely: “The more I walk
with God, the less words about God will do” (John Spong). The
best God metaphors are those that move us deeply and enable
us to encounter and be encountered by the dynamic dance of
incandescent love that Christian experience names as Trinity.
Aside from having a vague worry about anyone who quotes Spong as an authority in theology, there are a number of problems with this approach to language, God and prayer:
1. The problem is not with the language, it's people's interpretation of it. Fair enough, a bad experience of fatherhood will make it more difficult to relate to God as a loving Father, but the idea that the hymn 'Dear Lord and Father' is intimidating or aggressive is bizarre. It's beautiful. These titles belong to the God who is on the side of his people: 'the Almighty God is our fortress' (Psalm 46). What's more, fathers can be 'tender and nurturing' too, and women can be aggressive and intimidating. We don't do ourselves any favours by caricaturing the genders.
2. I've no problem with finding fresh expressions of language, but they have to be anchored in the right harbour. Yes there are plenty of metaphors in scripture, but there are some key ones, and when Jesus teaches his disciples to pray 'Father', that's not something we can ignore. 'Leaving language behind' can become just a pretext for leaving the language behind which we don't like. The best God metaphors are not those which move us deeply, they are those which are true. Something which moves us deeply can be simply a good bit of manipulation. There are films which move me deeply, but most of them are selling a subhuman myth - the revenge Western, the overblown romance etc. They move me because they manipulate me through image, words, music and mood. Does truth come into the equation at any point?
3. We can't leave words behind - words carry meaning, and God has a big history of using words to communicate with us. God uses meaningful words because he wants to communicate with us, to establish a relationship. If there are no words, there is no revelation, and we are completely in the dark about God.
4. God has revealed himself to us in particular ways. If I introduce myself as 'David' and the other person immediately calls me 'Dave', I get slightly irked. Part of human dignity is being able to name ourselves, and not have other people decide what to call us. If God has spoken, and revealed himself to us, we're not at liberty to ignore that and just find names which we like saying.
and a couple of wider concerns
a) Orwell noted in 1984 that control of language is key to control of thought. If you can outlaw certain bits of language, you make it impossible to think in particular ways. I'm aware that I may be just as guilty of this as the WATCH paper, but we need to be careful with this stuff, and not assume that anyone who calls God 'Father' or 'Mighty' is an unreconstructed patriarch.
b) In terms of fresh expressions, we will find new ways to communicate the gospel to a changing culture, but how do we make sure we stay faithful to the gospel? We can't redefine God completely according to human experience - this experience is limited and touched by sin. God has shown himself to us in scripture and in Jesus, so we must stay anchored to this, whichever direction we paddle in.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Wells Cathedral Autumn Lectures
in this mornings inbox:
Autumn Series of Lectures Wells Cathedral
23 September The State of Play: why children need to play in their early years
Marjorie Ouvry Consultant in Early Years Education
30 September The Bible as our Playground: what happens if we go out to play beyond the boundaries of the text?
Trevor Dennis Vice Dean of Chester Cathedral
7 October Play and Narrative: the freedom to roam and play
David Fickling Children’s book editor and publisher
Autumn Series of Lectures Wells Cathedral
23 September The State of Play: why children need to play in their early years
Marjorie Ouvry Consultant in Early Years Education
30 September The Bible as our Playground: what happens if we go out to play beyond the boundaries of the text?
Trevor Dennis Vice Dean of Chester Cathedral
7 October Play and Narrative: the freedom to roam and play
David Fickling Children’s book editor and publisher
Tom Wright on Heaven
A mark of a good theologian is whether they can put their ideas across on a chat show. Thanks to Ruth Gledhill for posting this link. Also, the good thing about a video clip is that you can pause Tom Wright when he talks too fast, which is quite a lot of the time!
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