Why do a doctor of ministry degree?
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Great review of the Global Leadership Perspectives D.Min from outgoing Student Andy Campbell. Andy gives you a taste of his course and the possible experience of a Doctor of Ministry Degree.
Filter Bubbles: As google gives us all increasingly the same stuff from our searches, we are missing out on the important stuff of life.
“Here’s the challenge: as more and more people discover news and content through Facebook-like personalized feeds, the stuff that really matters falls out of the picture. In the Darwinian environment of the hyper-relevant news feed, content about issues like homelessness or climate change can’t compete with goofy viral videos, celebrity news, and kittens. The public sphere falls out of view. And that matters, because while we can lose sight of our common problems, they don’t lose sight of us.” Eli Pariser
Come and See: Church in the Congregation
I spent the weekend speaking to a couple of hundred Vineyard Church leaders and pastors from the North of England.
The theme and focus was to help leaders think about whether their church is one to which people can easily be invited - “come and see” - and to equip people to actually leave the building and share their faith in their local communities and the market place - “go and tell”.
I was tasked with talking about the ‘come and see’. I made two sessions the first about the false dichotomy between the congregation and the sharing of faith with others, and then about the nature of worship for formation and evangelism.
I also spoke at the Leeds Vineyard Church, about the power of the gospel for transformation, related to these other talks. The talk was titled, ‘finding myself in the gospel’.
As I promised everyone over the weekend, my talk notes and audio from the Saturday and Sunday are all here online. The audio is recored on my iPhone so not that great. If I get the proper recordings I’ll put them online as replacements.
Game theory suggests current climate negotiations won’t avert catastrophe
After my last post, interesting article sent to me by a friend, using game theory that reveals something about human nature.
It seems that even after agreeing to all contribute to avoid catastrophe, human nature got the better of participants, and they protected themselves.
Whilst the experiment concluded;
‘Tests with real people confirmed an inability to resist temptation: The players proposed that everyone pay enough to make catastrophe unlikely, but then they pledged a bit less than that. And when it came time to pony up, they contributed far less still. Every time, the planet broiled.’
Christians have an understanding of that human nature, of why we are intrinsically bent on pursuing our own desires above all else. Yet all too often Christians desire God as a support to those desires.
Desiring God should lead us to consuming the world in the way God would have us. Learning to love and use the world rightly.
Climate change doesn’t seem to interest most people anymore
So governments continue to break undertakings for climate change. The pressure of the credit crunch seems to eclipse all other concerns. We couldn’t address climate change when the economy was booming, and self interest and protectionism ensure we won’t now.
Necessity is the mother of all invention, and until climate change forces governments and people to respond, I suspect we won’t.
The BBC have this informative and easy to follow animated journey of climate change.
‘It’s Right for God to Slaughter Women and Children Anytime He Pleases’: Peter Enns responds to John Piper
Peter Enns has written a thoughtful response to this piece by John Piper.
That is not a God I could worship, or give my life to. If the nature of God requires us to support such a belief, then it is something I personally can’t embrace. If God is like that then my short life would be spent set against such purposes and nature.
Women bishops?
The UK news and media have been full of comments and editorial on the surprise rejection of women bishops by the Church of England. I was surprised too and disappointed, whilst I found my wife tearful on watching the new break.
The senior leadership of the Church of England seem appalled and shocked as much as anyone.
Steve Clifford who heads up the EA has written a thoughtful post on some of the issues. He highlights that in an extensive survey, 71% of Evangelicals in the UK seem to support women in all levels of leadership.
Mind you the comments in his post show some of what is at stake. One side who are adamant that scripture rejects women in leadership (I do find it strange when people talk about offending scripture, as if the bible was a person of the godhead), whilst others take the opposite view. Those fighting it out in the comments miss the point of Steve’s post alas.
The Church of England is an established church, part of our legal and governmental structures, and is unique in that situation for the UK. Because of that, I have sympathy with the MP Ben Bradshaw, who wants to see the Church of England’s exemption from the equality act removed.
And Bishop N T Wright has weighed in with an article in the Times that the need for women Bishops is not about ‘progress’ but is about the bible.
The benefits of being in a denomination?
I’ve been part of Vineyard Churches UK for the past 25 years, more than half my life.
One way I understand my cycles of engagement with life and relationships is the ‘romance-disillusionment-joy’ motif. The first flush of a relationship that gives way to a realisation that the honeymoon is over, where false understandings fall away, that then leads to the rebuilding of relationship around better understandings, insight, growth, and joy.
I’ve found there is no way around this process, no matter what we are engaged in and with. Church planting has seen me go through many cycles of romance-disillusionment-joy, and the same goes for being part of a denomination. And I think that process is normal and healthy, the move from dependence to independence and into interdependence.
In our post-Church environment where participating in a church for Christian identity and formation has been going the way of the dodo, the relevance of denominations has become even more remote and unpromising.
Yet I find myself 25 years later discovering again the ‘joy’ of being in a denomination, and making a quick list of some of the immedaite benefits that I am re-discovering:
1. Shared beliefs & values: Having others who share the basics of what you think church is about, is so vital. Some of the most important values our community has, are the DNA of our denomination and movement.
Can we be truly missional?: My article in the New Missional Church Network Journal
The Missional Network have a new online journal, and first issue is now online here.
I was asked to write a response to an article by Martin Robinson. You can read my response/piece here.
An obstruction of professors? What is the collective noun for 10,000 gathered academics
I’m in Chicago at the AAR and SBL annual meeting, as a first time participant.
I’m a little overwhelmed at the scale of it all. The size of the event, the sheer choice for seminars and presentations, the number of people in attendance, and that the event even has it’s own iOS/android phone app.
As I have been wondering what the collective noun for a gathering of 10,000 academics might be (An obstruction of professors) I have also been amazed that I keep bumping into people I know form the US and UK.
So a great event, with back to back meetings around each meal time. From PhD supervision with Luke Bretherton, catching up with George Fox colleagues and students, and time with Vineyard pastors and some of my church planting coaches.
The Essence of a Pastor: Five pastors share stories about the core of their calling
From Christianity Today
“Why are you in ministry? At times it’s hard to remember, isn’t it? Especially when you’re bogged down by dull or difficult tasks. Sometimes it takes a little reflection to remind you of what’s truly important. We wanted to rediscover the core of the pastoral calling.
So we asked five church leaders to each describe one experience that illustrates the essence of being a pastor. We trust their stories will prompt you to do some reflecting of your own, and reignite your passion for ministry.”
Read the responses here.
Culture eats strategy and vision for breakfast
“Culture Eats Strategy For Breakfast,” is an observation attributed to Peter Drucker and popularized in 2006 by Mark Fields, president of Ford Motor Company.
This axiom reveals something we’ve all experienced. That you can have an inspiring vision and brilliant strategy to get there. But that will never be realised if you have a culture that doesn’t support that.
We can have detailed vision and strategy plans for church. Teach about what the gospel should be be, and have a road map for change. But if fear, anxiety, protectionism, self interest, distrust are our culture, our best plans and visions will get ‘eaten for breakfast’ by that culture.
The LEAD academy recommend a book to me that addresses this challenge, Cracking Your Church’s Culture Code. Despite the optimistic US title that grates a little on my UK ears, it’s a great book. It explores how culture’s are formed in organisations and what processes bring real changes for culture.
So our church is exploring how with all the wonderful culture’s we already have, how there is a culture we want to change. A survey the LEAD academy took for us, showed that our church family have very low confidence in sharing their faith in anyway with their friends, family and work colleagues.
Against that habitat/culture I can teach about the great commission until the cows come home. If the daily experience of our church family is one of being unable to share their faith no amount of teaching will change that. So we need a new environment, habitat and culture, and that takes time.
So that’s something our church is putting it’s focus into the next few years. For the survey we took also showed that our church members were widely and deeply connected to the outside world. And one of the highest motivations listed by our members was to be able to share their faith with others.
What a wonderful opportunity to enter into and explore together.
94% of UK young people will never find faith of any kind
Isolationism. One-fourth of 18- to 29-year-olds say church demonizes everything outside church, including the music, movies, culture, and technology that define their generation.
Shallowness. One-third call church boring, about one-fourth say faith is irrelevant and Bible teaching is unclear. One-fifth say God is absent from their church experience.
Anti-science. Up to one-third say the church is out of step on scientific developments and debate.
Sex. The church is perceived as simplistic and judgmental. For a fifth or more, a “just say no” philosophy is insufficient in a techno-porno world. Young Christian singles are as sexually active as their non-churched friends, and many say they feel judged.
Exclusivity. Three in 10 young people feel the church is too exclusive in this pluralistic and multi-cultural age. And the same number feel forced to choose between their faith and their friends.
Doubters. The church is not a safe place to express doubts say over one-third of young people, and one-fourth have serious doubts they’d like to discuss.
—Adapted from a list by David Kinnaman in You Lost Me: Why Young Christians are Leaving Church … and Rethinking Faith
