Here is a link to Michael’s page that lists all of his blog postings from Renov8, including one where he lists all other bloggers he was aware of.

Very well done.  Thank you Michael. You are a gift.

In the meanwhile, for those of you in Edmonton area: You are invited to an experiential, missional focused, spiritually formational alternative worship service. A group I lead, Interface Worship, has an event on Saturday, Nov. 21 at 7:00, at St. Paul’s Anglican – 145 st & Stony Plain Road. For details…

Reign of Christ the King: Interface Worship and St. Paul’s Anglican church will close the church year and celebrate the Reign of Christ the King with an alternative worship service exploring the themes of ‘God rules from the wood of the Cross‘ and ‘Our adoption into God’s Royal Family”. This service will include poetry by Mark Polet, graphic art by Reverend Thomas Brauer, prophetic painting by Lori Youngman, music led by Kathleen Pate, the Altarwalk devotional exercise, meditative time, open art tables, and the extensive use of original symbols, rituals, and imagery.  The Eucharistic liturgy allows worshippers to embody the themes in a unique sacramental ritual of enduring quality and significance.

Interface Worship blends ancient spirituality with innovative expressions to create spiritually formational worship experiences. “The Reign of Christ the King” is part of the Throne Room series, which celebrates major points in the church year. Other Throne Room services include Epiphany, and the Rending of the Veil (Easter), and a fourth is in development. 2009-10 is St. Paul’s sixth year of hosting Interface Services.

Saturday, Nov. 21. Doors open at 6:30, service 7:00 – 8:45, at St. Paul’s Anglican. 145 St. & Stony Plain Road

Vital Church Planting has two events coming in 2010 – one in Toronto February 2 – 4, and the other in Edmonton May 18 – 20. See the link for details.

‘I’ll be put in the ground there’, David stated without flourish. A simple fact. An honestly and earnestly reached conclusion.  Now I stand to be corrected on this, but I am suspicious that if someone is committed to living out their days with a particular people in a particular place, that this commitment becomes foundational to all of that persons daily choices, foundational to loving their neighbour as themselves, and foundational to their seeking shalom.  I believe David would endorse these thoughts of Thomas A’ Kempis:

Keep yourself at peace first, and then you will be able to bring peace to others. A person who is at peace with himself does more good than someone who is very learned. A person beset by conflicting passions turns even good things into bad, and he is quick to believe any malicious gossip that comes his way. Some who is good and at peaceful on the other hand, sees the good side of everything. If you are truly at peace with yourself, you are suspicious of no one, but if you are unhappy and upset, you will be tormented by endless suspicions; you will not be at peace with yourself, nor will you allow others to be at peace. You will often say what you should not, and you will leave undone those things you should do. You will often pry into other people’s business and neglect your own. So, first keep a careful watch over yourself, and then you may be properly zealous for your neighbour.

Nigel is the founder and creator of MoveIn – a movement of prayer and presence into communities of immense need that takes its name from that well known Message translation of John 1:14 about God moving into the neighbourhood (John 1.  Its unique from other most other ‘moved-in’ expressions of the church in that its primary focus is people who come from unreached nations, which Nigel defines as missiologically unreached nations – people who have little or no ethic/cultural/national exposure to Christianity. The call to this demographic is not why I think Nigel is New New.

Nigel states that this is a population of two million, and that evangelicals in Canada are not having much of an impact on these people.  What is having the impact? Pluralism, consumerism, materialism, self-centeredness. Stepping into this gap is not why I think Nigel is New New.

Nigel is bi-vocational – he has a small, online book business. ‘I managed to shrink that part of my life…’ This ministry lifestyle is not why I think Nigel is New New.

MoveIn is an expanding network, currently of 14 teams in three cities that has formed over the past eighteen months… teams of 5 to 10 people, who are committed to praying for the transformation of their neighbourhood ‘patch’ – an area that is typically no larger than 500 x 500 meters, and often smaller, but note that a patch of this small size might house up to 5000 people.  This methodology is not why I think Nigel is New New.

I asked Nigel about process – hear! are my notes:

(i)                   finding a team – how do you find a team?

Answer: God sends them – they hear about us from twitter, facebook, website, friends – they hear what we are doing, they contact us…

This is why I think Nigel is New New.

(ii)                Form and function of the community?

Answer: Team members are responsible to find their own housing within the patch that they commit to… and to pray as a group for an evening a week… to see what God wishes to birth in the neighbourhood. There is an expectation of action towards a realization of the Kingdom of God, but only propelled as made known – however he may be shaping it.

This is why I think Nigel is New New.

(iii)Progress measurement –

Nigel – you speak of ‘… the Kingdom of God, however he may be shaping it.’ How do you know when you are manifesting the kingdom when it is not defined?

Answer. “When the neighbourhood is transforming in ways that glorify God”.

This is why I think Nigel is New New.

John de Yepes (St. John of the Cross), as paraphrased by David Hazard in You Set My Spirit Free, p 82 – 83 joins our conversation:

The light of God goes beyond understanding scriptural doctrines. His light is meant to dawn within you, so that you can embrace with your heart the truth of God, and find it coming alive inside you. Then you will know how to shut out the voices of the world – keeping your eyes of faith focused on God, and keeping your inner ear tuned only to his voice. In this way, you will know that He is infusing you with spiritual sustenance that refreshes your innermost soul.

If you learn to walk this way of the Spirit, you will be flee of those soulish means of trying to ‘work up’ a spiritual feeling. For we must learn that the ‘works which were finished from the foundation of the world’. And ‘we which have believed do enter into rest’ (see Hebrews 4:1-6, KJV). In fact, it is by entering into this inward rest that we gain the strength to rule over all circumstances, whether good or bad…

Indy came to Canada as a refugee from Burma in early 1997. Though he became a believer in his native Burma, the transformation of Indiana’s person into being a Shalom kingdom agent was another process altogether. In Burma, his Christianity was secondary to his pursuit of the excellence in kick-boxing and martial arts. As a national champion, the young Indiana punished his body to achieve personal glory… and gained skills and prowess that enabled him to kill another at will.

And then a bomb entered his life. Literally.

The expression of Indy’s Christianity was sufficiently nominal that when he was expelled from Burma, it was as a political dissident rather than a religious one. In a truck with 50 others, Indiana crawled to safety in Thailand. Crawled? – Yes crawled. The forty miles of road had so many land mines that the normally one hour long trip took three days and three nights of slow, persistent, but constantly interrupted travel. At the mid-point, a rocket propelled grenade landed in the back of the truck. Though it miraculously had not hit anyone or exploded, its immanent lethal latent potential was obvious to all.

Epiphany. Dependence. Transformation began. The discipline, force of will, and physical prowess that had combined to create one who could defeat any adversary could do nothing to save him or his fellow passengers. A terrified passenger asked Indy if he had a faith – ‘Christian’ he replied. ‘Pray for us!’ was the response. Grace prevailed. The grenade did not explode, and the group crossed safely into Thailand.

During his years as an illegal immigrant in Thailand, old patterns continued to dominate Indy’s survival tactics. Ultimately, his time in Thailand led to further revelation of the love of God, a baptism, and the application of the gifts of discipline, will and physical commitment to the service and glory of God, but now under the motif of dependence.

Fast forward to Canada, 2009. Indy is now National Coordinator of Chin Christian Fellowship of Canada www.chinchristianfellowshipofcanada.com, and a part time staff with Vision Ministries. As well, Indy co-pastors a congregation in Winnipeg called City Church. His congregation of more than two hundred fifty is composed of about 20% white Canadian, the balance being almost all refugee status immigrants from Burma (Karen, Kareni, Chin, Shan, Arakan linguistic and ethnic groups) and the Republic of Congo, Burundi, Rwandan, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eretria and other countries. Indy’s congregation of refugees have found a home in a Kingdom that allows them to provide Peace and Refuge, in all of the dimensions discussed in the prior post… spiritual, emotional, social and physical.

Indy’s work through Vision Ministries is assisting in creating nine other churches or fellowships of Burmese Chin immigrants throughout Canada as they create an indigenous expression of Chin faith within a Canadian context.

Indy is writing a script of Peace and Refuge. The damage to his body from years of rigorous, extreme training now affects his walking and arm movement. He lives in significant pain. But the will of Indy has been redeemed and now is applied to effect his passion in spite of the pain. There will be many acts to his play.

It is all very well to declare that I exist in order to save my soul and give glory to God by doing so. And it is all very well to say thon in order to do this I obey certain commandments and keep certain counsels. Yet knowing this much, and indeed knowing all moral theology and ethics and canon law, I might still go through life conforming myself to certain indications of God’s will without ever fully giving myself to God. For that, in the last analysis, is the real meaning of His will. He does not need our sacrifices, He asks for our selves. And if he prescribes certain acts of obedience, it is not because obedience is the beginning and the end of everything. It is only the beginning. Charity, divine union; transformation in Christ: these are the end.                       Thomas Merton, No Man is an Island p. 63

The Thursday morning session again featured Stuart Murray and Juliet Kilpin — really a great combination of question, wondering, and putting forth theology and frameworks: a great blend of academics and on-the-ground experience. It leads me to hope that Urban Expressions should publish a book about what they are learning.

Stuart opened yesterday’s plenary by pointing out a shift in the last ten years. In years past when we went into a neighborhood we assumed that God had not been there until we showed up. Now we assume the opposite — that the Spirit goes before us and has already been at work. So we look for signs of the kingdom and we watch and listen to see and hear what God is doing.

The second shift. growing out of the perspective above, is that increasingly we do not focus on building a congregation but on partnering with what God is already up to. As Juliet later pointed out, this translates into saying “yes” to many things we would have considered distractions in the Christendom frame of church planting. We say “yes” to participate in neighbourhood initiatives, “yes” to hospitality, “yes” to lending and borrowing equipment, yes to helping neighbours with projects, and yes to advocacy. We find ways into the warp and woof of neighbourhood life. The feel is more like chaplaincy with missional intent, entering as priests of a parish where the buildings are our homes.

One of the implications, often pointed out by David Fitch, is that planting missional communities will take much longer, and metrics along the way will be completely different. Instead of quantitative, they will be qualitative, found mostly in stories of belonging and care.

As a result, the scope of church planting is both larger and smaller than we previously thought. It is smaller — so much is already happening and our part is only to attend, to notice what God is already doing and join with him. Moreover, the kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is beyond our vision.

It is larger — it moves toward shalom with the wide scope of the meaning of that word — reconciliation, justice, peace, sharing, beauty, healing, and no one left behind.

In this morning’s session Juliet pushed at some of the things that restrain us from embracing a missional vision. Our Christian sub-culture has increasingly assumed that safety is one of God’s gifts to us — this in spite of the nature of the sacrifice that brings us to a common table. We have become risk averse — and more so as we and our structures age. The more we attain, the more we might lose. She used a clip from “The Bucket List.” The patient is on a death-bed — do we simply call it quits or do we try to find the joy again?

Stuart called us to STOP starting with church. Missiology must precede any renewal of ecclesiology, and this is going to call for a freedom to experiment and attention to context. His thoughts here reminded me of Hugh Halter’s take on process in The Tangible Kingdom. Our temptation is to begin with structure — structures are familiar, offer a sense of control, and provide a sense of safety. But if we begin with structure we will limit what God can do (the problem of wineskins). Instead we must start with people and listen to the Spirit. Forms will follow function and relationships built in the context of kingdom life.

This isn’t easy for people who are used to success via tried and true methods, who are used to being at the center and not on the margins. Yet there is so much GOSPEL here.. leaven in a lump, the mustard seed that is small and annoying and persistent. Much of the push back we hear during an event like this comes from men and women who want a new method handed out in a box.. a quick fix.. or a three step solution that allows things to remain more or less as they are. Sadly, we don’t have this luxury. Instead we are invited into a risky adventure with God — called to lose our lives in order to find them, called to the same vulnerability that characterized Jesus incarnation. We are called to a city we have not seen. Newbigin writes of Roland Allen that,

“[his] charge against modern missions was that they had been tempted by their alliance with colonial powers to act as though the mission of the church could be pursued in the style of a cultural educational campaign, as though the object was to multiply replicas of the sending churches. In contrast Allen rightly saw that in the New Testament portrayal of mission the central reality is the active work of the living Holy Spirit himself. It is the Spirit who brings about conversion, the Spirit who equips those who are called with the gifts needed for all the varied forms of ministry, and the Spirit who guides the church into all the truth. The Spirit is not the property of the sending church or the missionary who is sent. It is not part of the missionary’s duty to mold the new church in to the style of the old. The Spirit is sovereign and free…”
Newbigin, The Open Secret, 130

Peace and Refuge. Related, corresponding and intertwined, but not identical concepts. Peace and Refuge. There are spiritual, emotional, social and personally physical aspects to each of these.

Act 1, Scene 1, Pre-conference

Peace and Refuge have been coursing through my mind since Monday, thanks to Rev. Thomas Brauer, who is in attendance at this conference. Thomas has explored these themes through photography and graphic art, and has lent eight pieces to me for an upcoming worship service. In placing the art, we sought a configuration to stimulate thoughts about the interplay between Peace and Refuge.

Act 1, Scene 2, Pre-conference

Sensitivity to this was heightened on Tuesday when I swung by the King’s Fold Retreat and Renewal Centre to pick up some items and meet with friends. King’s Fold has a well established ethos of ministry through hospitality, rest and retreat – and in a very real way provides a place of Peace and Refuge in all three contexts spoken to in the preamble. My short visit there stirred further thoughts: Thomas’ pieces – beautiful photographic art with gorgeous graphic layouts – reflections on Peace and Refuge – mountains, islands, rainforest scenes, wading birds. I presumptuously assume that my resonance with Thomas’s art is something of a cultural norm… that we would all readily see Peace and Refuge in Thomas’s art, and then ponder: ‘How is it that I do not imagine of churches as symbols of peace and refuge, let alone places of Peace and Refuge?

Act 2, Scene 1, Conference

Michael Frost – Wednesday keynote presentation: ‘If your church was taken out of your neighbourhood, would the neighbourhood grieve, mourn the loss – would it even notice?’ I wonder: ‘If churches were perceived of as places of peace and refuge, would their absence be grieved or noticed?’ I wonder: ‘Do the churches fail to be places of peace and refuge? Is that why their absence is at risk of not being noticed? I wonder: ‘Do people living in our consumer driven, spectacle distracted, addiction riddled, narcissistic society even know there is such a thing as Peace, or Refuge? If not, how does that shape a starting point in our missional task? Can we consider the birthing of awareness and desire through a foretaste as being mission enough for the present moment?

Act 2, Scene 2, Conference

Stuart Murray & Juliet Kilpen: ‘Who are the shalom seekers in your neighbourhood?’ We are encouraged to make them our Kingdom allies.

Act 3, Scene1, A theme I have aspired to, that I wish to share. To be read slowly.

‘True justice is the harvest reaped by peacemakers from seeds sown in the spirit of peace.’  (James 3:18 NEB)

Act 4, Scene 1

What script do we write?

Of course not — that is one reason why we must be sensitive to both space (social imaginary) and place.

Another question – why do we look to the UK and Australia – how do we know just how similar we are or if we are following in their path?

We don’t need to know this because we are not looking to copy their example per se – but rather learn from the way they have applied missional theology in similar circumstances. We still need to do our own theological work and then engage in our contexts. Our desire to skip to the action and application point only means that we are less likely to embrace a renewed theological vision of the church in mission… We have some unlearning to do before we move ahead, and if we fail to do that work we will remained mired in pragmatism.

The next things to cross my path – Michael & Glenn – see Len’s posts for a glimpse of the content.