notes from final wrap up

As the conference ended, participants were invited to voice anything they might want to say to the group as a whole. Here are my notes, what I heard, ears blocked with flu at the back of the room. If I did not capture your contribution fully, please leave a comment and I will make the adjustments:

- power of technology to allow connections

- a passion for the internet communication to humanise our connections. a potential criteria for our communication is "does this humanise?"

- a conference recognises the strength in networking. a conference continues to make potent

- are we children or adults. are we sitting at home (child) waiting for a newsletter vs being an adult (go searching yourself) through the website

- another conference - on weekend - involvement of creatives -- art, music, etc -- to colloborate.

- another conference that people can watch the creation of something (image of artist - 2 weeks working on something and then you go to the exhibition).

- another conference sometime. it needs someone saying "it's about time, we're going to do it." a bit like child/adult, it needs people to make it happen rather than wait for it to happen.

- a catalyst could be a visiting author/speaker. however that is always not a positive experience. needs framing right. it could be like curtain raiser/baptist assembly ie 2 conferences.

- it's not either/or -- how to communicate network information without assuming all of us are in that networks

- social justice -- digital strategy -- whole lot of govt funding now available with the purpose to connect people -- many poor need access and need support

- localised gatherings can start at any time

- be pro-active -- futurechurch networks need to step beyond church. ask community to share with you please. honest responses needed.

- don't expect those who have moved out of the church to come back in.

heart to edge

At the hub exchange of Friday, participants were asked to place themselves on a continuum - the heart of the tradition at one end, the edge of the tradition at the other. In groups people were then invited to consider what questions they would like to each the other end of the continuum. Here are some of the questions:

How are you going to ensure you don't lose anything vital?

Do we have anything we can help sustain you with?

Do you still need us to be here?

Is the tradition willing to engage with the new story of the Kingdom?

How can we better support each other?

How are you prepared to affirm our ministry?

What prevents you from permitting me to explore new ways of doing?

Can we see the tradition as a resource?

What tools can be used to better communicate between the pole?

How do you define "tradition"?

Which way do you want to be travel?Do you want to travel toward or away from where you are now?

WEDNESDAY

Gathering. Steve Taylor will lead us in a gathering ritual.

Whalerider, Emmaus and Jacob - our relationship to the Tradition

Disconnected? Our relationship with the tradition
Futurechurch conference, Wednesday, 12 October, 2005
Steve Taylor's animation to this session

(copyright, please ask permission from steve@emergentkiwi.org.nz before reproduction in any form).


The movie that springs to mind is Whale Rider. And that poignant scene when young Paikea asks her grandfather, Koro about her family past, her tradition.

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The scene becomes a metaphor for the movie. Perhaps a metaphor for our topic here tonite?
If you get asked to speak on disconnection, then someone must be holding a broken rope.
Perhaps many of us have experienced sitting in the church and feeling a strong sense of disconnection from the faith practices of our parents. Perhaps many of us have wondered how to link past church with futurechurch.
In the movie, Paikea re-weaves the broken rope. Her joy tends to hurt as Koro rips the rope from her hand. How many of us have felt the ropes ripped from our hands, been told “it’s dangerous” to read that author, embrace the part of popular culture.

Poignantly, Paikea is a woman. Perhaps another layer of disconnection? What are our leadership experiences of disconnection.

Disconnected. To help animate

Dictionary definition: Animate: breathe life into; enliven

To help animate our discussion, let me offer 2 Biblical narratives, one that might animate and challenge Koru and one that might animate and challenge Paikea.

To potentially animate Koru, I offer Luke 24.

Art image, called Kitchen Maid at Emmaus.

Leading up to this art image, Jesus has preached, laid out extensive exegesis from the Prophets and the Law, and still the disciples remain unaware of revelation.

And then around table, eating, the disciples recognise who Jesus is. And it is this table conversation, this moment of divine knowing, that perhaps has captured the attention of the Kitchen Maid. In the art piece, her head is turned. She’s attentive. She’s listening. She’s been drawn into the Jesus conversation.

The challenge is: What would Koru do if the Maid entered the dining room and asked to participate. Is there room for a woman? Is their room for the kitchen maid, around the table with Jesus? Could those at the table find a chair for the outsider and the marginalised? This is the challenge for Koru. This is the challenge for the tradition. Is their room for the future of the church? A text, an art text, to animate and challenge Koru.

And a text to animate and challenge Paikea.

To young Paikea I would offer Genesis 28. Jacob is on the run. He has won his birthright, but must flee for his life.

While on the run, Jacob sleeps. As he sleeps, he dreams. A revelation; of a stairway to heaven and angels, a revelation of, I am the Lord, the God of Abraham and Isaac.

So I offer Jacob’s ability to dream as a challenge to the young Paikea’s of the emerging church. You see, there’s often a cynicism, a weary, arms-folded defensiveness, about the emerging church, the post-evangelical, the alt.worship conversation.

Douglas Coupland, in his book, Polaroids from the Dead, tells the story of a enchanted city that has lost it’s power to dream. There’s no rain and the city falls into ruin. The artists, those normally full of creative dreams, die.

And a skeleton keeps visiting the city. Keeps telling the city leaders “You have lost your ability to dream dreams of the afterlife.”

And so what does it mean for the young Paikea’s, those holding the bitter edge of the disconnected rope, those who’ve been yelled at by Koru, “Don’t touch that, it’s dangerous …. don’t touch that author, don’t touch that way of reading Scripture, don’t visit that aspect of pop culture.” Young Paikea’s, who feel like they’ve been thrust into the wilderness. Will we become cynical and arms-folded bitter? Or can we, like Jacob, still dream dreams of the afterlife?

And the 2nd animation, the 2nd challenge for young Paikea’s, is that Jacob meets Lord, the God of Abraham and Isaac.

If the rope is disconnected, what would it mean to re-weave to the Lord, the God of Abraham and Issaac? What would it mean to re-weave in a way that does not totally disconnect from our texts and our traditions and our whakapapa back to the Lord, God of Abraham and Isaac.

Zaiddhin Sardar a Muslim sociologist living in the UK, has written a book, titled Postmodernism and the Other. A whole chapter is dedicated to lamenting forms of Christianity that in Sardar’s opinion, have disconnected. He laments an embrace post-modern culture that is so extreme, that Paikea and Koru can no longer be considered relations.

And so the challenge for young Paikea, from the Jacob story. How to re-weave in a way that enables her dreams to connect with the ancestors, with I am, the God of Abraham and Isaac?

In the Whale Rider movie they can. The movie ends with the village launching a canoe, a symbol of their new future. Leadership is provided by both Koro and Paikea, by both young and old, male and female.

I think that the Kitchen Maid at Emmaus and the runaway Jacob would have applauded as that canoe sailed into the future. But perhaps that’s just the movies?

WEDNESDAY

7:30 PM. Disconnected? Our relationship with the tradition. Margaret Mayman and Steve Taylor

THURSDAY

Gathering time:
Worship with Susan Jones.
Storytelling with Jenny McIntosh (church leavers), Trish McBride (her book), Paul Barber (spirited conversations).

THURSDAY

Workshops:
Cosmic Walk
Connecting with Kiwi Culture
Issues of gender and leadership in future church.

THURSDAY

Hub exchange.

THURSDAY

Workshops and conversations:
Writing our faith
Creating spirited conversations
Respect for planet earth; the healing arts
Re-imagining God in order to live more justly

THURSDAY

7:30 PM. New Zealand metaphors in theology. Brenda Rockell, Glynn Cardy, Antony Nobbs.

FRIDAY

Gathering time:
Worship with Margaret Mayman.
Storytelling with Evan Sherrard (TA and theism), Brenda Rockell (Transitions), Kevin Ward (future of mainstream Protestantism)

FRIDAY

Conversations:
Traditional church as futurechurch
Being Christian and belonging nowhere
Cafe-style worship, community involvement
Liturgy, creative worship, evangelism, festivals

FRIDAY

Hub exchange

FRIDAY

Workshops:
Emotional Intelligence and spirituality
Spirituality2go and texting Christianity
Spirituality/traditional church: commonalities/differences
Ritual making

FRIDAY

7.30 PM Strange bedfellows? Evangelicals and progressive christians. Kevin Ward, Susan Jones, Rosemary Neave facilitates this conversation

SATURDAY

Plenary Forum - Keeping it pumping: where to from here?

SATURDAY

Poroporoaki - taking our leave