One for the road...

It's a sin...

I've managed to go and get Jason Clark's blog on a watch list with this little heretical number... A few people have shown up to denounce the post and the emerging church and demand repetence (for intellectual pride, leading souls astray and preaching a false gospel etc) and a return at once (do not pass go) to the one true faith (theirs).

It sort of reminded me of the Pet Shops Boy's lyrics:

When I look back upon my life
It's always with a sense of shame
I've always been the one to blame
For everything I long to do
No matter when or where or who
Has one thing in common, too

It's a, it's a, it's a, it's a sin
It's a sin
Everything I've ever done
Everything I ever do
Every place I've ever been
Everywhere I'm going to
It's a sin

I'm the first to admit i am flawed, sinful human being who needs to do a lot of repenting/rethinking - i've got a lot of things wrong and will continue to do so - i'm a cracked pot who leaks goodness but somehow manages to abound with selfishness.  Then again that always struck me as one of the main reasons that I grateful for the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit - for changing me and continuing to change me, to help me be more loving, kind and generous.

But what I find equally as arrogant as anything i would write is that folk will turn up and label a whole group of people without a single question or attempt to engage in conversation - it's either  there way or the highway to hell.  It's all a sin. 

I can see the irony of writing a post about encouraging conversation with faith grps and being denounced by some of my fellow christian brothers and sisters, who want less conversations and more conversions.

Of course i've been there, got the shirt and tie set myself so i can understand where they are coming from and now i can't say that at least i (and you if you go look) was warned...

Creating community through interfaith conversation and interaction?

The UK government earlier this week launched a consultation on how they can best support faith communities' engagement with one another and with their local communities. 

Addressing a reception attended by over 200 representatives of Britain's faith communities, including the archbishop of canterbury, the secretary of state, Hazel Blears, Secretary of State said:

"Faith groups are a key part of the way we respond to the challenges we face from building strong resilient communities to tackling anti-social behaviour.

"This consultation provides us with an opportunity to find out how Government can best support dialogue between faith groups and the circumstances in which inter faith activity is helping to make a positive difference to communities around the country..."

There are a number of organisations in the UK such as interfaith (for faith dialogue) and faithworks (for faith groups who want to help their comminity) that already lead by example, providing encouragement, support and guidance but the government is clearly interested in what is taking place at a local level and what they can do to help this.

The consultation will look to discover what is needed to widen and deepen inter faith dialogue and social action. In particular it will seek to:

1. Understand how to best build confidence in the benefits of partnership working and develop a greater understanding of the contribution that faith communities can make

2. Discover to what extent local authorities and other public bodies are already working with faith communities

3. Understand better the structures which facilitate interaction and social action and how can these be best developed

4. Learn about some of the barriers to inter faith activity - especially in connection with the involvement of women and young people - and how we might best work together to overcome these

So in terms of your own faith/local community, your experiences, networks etc I'd love to know please how would you respond to the consultation questions - what is happening where you live and work that you or your community is involved in? What would make it easier or more effective? What are the barriers but also the success stories that inspire you?

If you are not from the UK it would still be great to pleae hear your thoughts and experiences as we can learn from what is happening in other parts of the world and be inspired.

Please do let others know about the consultation and if you intend to respond to it as well...

(NB: I've also just posted this as a guest post on Jason's site as I think it is an opportunity that we should seriously consider responding too...)

In our culture/context what does christianity and the church mean to you?

Jason Clark has this thought provoking post which i think is asking what does church/christianity means to us in a world where we define ourselves as individuals first, with the power to do what we want, when we want?  Where are expectation is that the world is shaped for us, tailored to our own individual needs, where for a price we can have it "our way" because "we're worth it."

For me it provoked 2 questions/thoughts and I'd love to hear what you think/feel:

1. what is the point of the church? As Jason points out the move to agency (us operating as individuals) means that we can chose to have a life of faith outside the church. This particulary resonates as being a reasonable appropach where salvation is seen as crossing a line, chosing Jesus and then waiting around to die and go to heaven. Once the deal has been sealed so to speak what need is there for church? Afterall once i have Jesus why do i need anyone/anything else..? church maybe is like breakdown cover/insurance, there in case anything goes seriously wrong and in most cases hopefully they can get me back on the road quick smart.
2. what is the christian identity anyway? How do you define being a christian (if you are one)? what is it about being a christian that makes me/us distinct from any other concerned citizen on planet earth? What difference does it make? After all to do good, to care about the planet, or the poor, or justice i don’t need to be a christian so what difference does it make unless it means being connected to/part of something more than my own concerns/interests?

How would you respond? What questions/thoughts/reflections/experiences does this have for you?

Speaking of faith...

Ok ,in this case it's listening to speaking of faith - which is US public radio show discusing religion, meaning, ethics and ideas. There are some amazing looking interviews/conversations on here and I will be signing up for their iTunes podcast when I get back on broadband (my advice is steer clear of Orange!)

I have to thank Mak for putting me onto SoF! Even in these dial up troubled times which restrict a lot of my blog reading, swinging from the vine is one place I make a priority to read and interact with people on. For me Mak is one of the most interesting, fun and challenging thinkers/writers/livers around the christian blog world and is forever helping learn more and do more.

And i will certainly be taking Mak up on her latest challenge to us progressive guys (once my technology catches up again with me in the 21st century)...

Lemme ask you a question...

well two questions please, if you don't mind me taking liberties with your goodwill ...

1) I'm stuck! What do you think Jesus meant when he said:

" I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."

I'm asking this question and looking for help in my guest post on Jason Clark's blog: 'Throw me a mountain?"

and...

2) What does deep church mean to you? If your answer is :

• huh?
• nothing?
• confusing?
• oh great another '&^$% label! etc

...than we'd especially love to listen and talk with you.

Jason and I are in the process of tying down where we think deep church fits into the emerging church conversation and how it can help it. In the meantime, before we sink ourselves deep in concrete, we'd love some input from you here: what does deep church mean to you?

If you'd rather post your thoughts here than please do so. And thank you very much!

negative about christians... positive about christians... ( a meme)

I was nominated by emerging grace to take part in the 3 things –tive and 1 thing +ive about Christians meme.

I found this quite a challenging meme to be involved with – not least because I feel that as soon as I start pointing towards a faceless group of Christians out there I start feeling morally superior and that I am no longer part of the problem (if only these other nameless/faceless Christians would be like me!). So true to form I have personalised it – here are 3 -tives about me as a Christian and 1 +ive too…

Negatives:

1. So often I miss the friend in my enemy: I struggle to listen to anyone else who is different from me. I do this with the people I am closest too, not that Debs is an enemy but I really struggle to listen and understand where she is coming from, so often we seem to be looking at exactly the same issue and seeing it in 2 completely different ways.

The same is true with my faith – i move in a broad clique of mutually reinforcing blogs, books, personalities and struggle with any form of critique/criticism of that which I hold dear. I have deliberately kept the challenges small and the challengers few to my own faith. Rather than welcoming the critique of an view the opposite of mine or the struggle to love in a way that costs – that makes me lay down my right – i instead get cranky, frustrated, afraid.

I miss the friend in my enemy and instead emphasise what makes us different rather than what we have in common. In doing so I miss the wonderful opportunity for my character to grow, for my faith to grow and for true community to grow – and that frustrates me!

It also scares me! I think the answer is not merely believe harder, pray more often, be more missional even but to follow Jesus. Following Jesus in his radical mission to include those that I would exclude from God's love. If that wasn't hard enough the scary part is that Jesus was even being prepared to die for their right to be included - am I?

2. Lock in/Lock out – I am also aware that I am still very much embedded in a culture of dualisms, where the position I chose is one where an opposite point of view can be argued against it. However being locked in too one mind set means that I lock out these other view points. I am often frustrated by how much this makes me equally guilty of those who irk my “righteous” anger and frustration – my actions therefore often are no different in practice from those who I disagree with. Despite the best of my intentions I am often still more concerned with being right than being good!

I am also locked in to my own postmodern [which is still heavily modern influenced] cultural narrative – as such I am often a cultural collaborator – constantly collapsing my faith into a world where I am king, consumer and the self centre! This means I often operate in ways that are no different to the rest of the first world in seeking for my will to be done in my own way for my happiness and contentment – a full separation of faith and my state of affairs!

3. Comfortably zoned – I am noticing how often I stay in my comfort zone. Which makes for a comfortable life but not one that is maybe of less honesty and limited creativity as a result. For example: one of the questions that bugs me the most theologically is the question of universal salvation – I’ve come to an accommodation with it which removes the tension and allows me to get on with life. I don’t find it satisfactory but then again I don’t find any of the other positions that satisfying either. So I leave it alone [along with other such struggles like sexuality; atonement etc].

Maybe I should engage and pursue this further – maybe that would help me with the struggle/frustration I expressed in 1 and 2 – maybe the fact that there is no easy answer would help engage with God and others and wrestle in an open community way? Maybe the act of love and giving is not the ability to give an answer but to struggle to be present with people who are asking difficult challenging questions who I can’t readily connect with? Just like in my marriage when we find it hard to hear each other, the fact that we try and try and try demonstrates that we love each other not whether we ever succeed in doing so…

Positive

Deep church: staring to discover the depth of the christianity, across time and traditions - this is really been helpful to me both in having more confidence/engagement in my faith, the rhythm of good times and bad, immediacy and mediation, ordinary and liturgical time...

So what are some negatives and positives about your own christianity???

The journey of constructive deconstruction and reconstruction: celebrating stuckness and other successes...(part 3)

The process of deconstruction takes us out of our comfort zones and I often find myself as a result either removing myself from the process or getting too ambitious and therefore demotivated when i realise the futility of my ambition. Is there a better way for us to engage in the process of deconstruction and reconstruction; Who and what can guide/help us on this faith journey? And what does success feel like?

This is part 3 of 3 of a mini saga looking at to help explore the proces of decontruction/reconstruction and how we can engage in it together as healthy and constructive process.

Part 1 sets out some of the background to this, seeing a journey of deconstruction and reconstruction as part of a healthy cycle of faith.

Part 2: took a brief peak at how stepping out of our comfort zones can help in the process but also how that in itself is challenging as our minds lock in on the values that we believe are important and urgent to us, creating our own blindspots in the process by locking others that are perfectly valid out,

Celebrating stuckness...

In many ways celebrating success of our faith becomes not very clear cut - if there are people who are at various stages of their faith journies then maybe it is not so much about setting a simple faith or a deconstructed faith as the ideal but maybe how we help each other - collaborating together to cheer each other on.

A colleague was telling me of a former headmaster who was speaking at a Parent/Teacher event who recomended that we celebrate stuckness. His point was that a child who can do 10 sums and get them all right hasn't learnt anything as she already knows how to do them. The real learning occurs with the child who tells the teacher that he is stuck. That is the YES! moment as now the child can learn something.

I wonder if we can take that into our faith - when we get stuck we celebrate that as now we can be in a place of learning and growing

Maybe that is why God neve r seems to mind people asking him questions and wrestling with him - maybe Qs like why God? where are you God? etc make him yell a big YES! of delight as well?

But I think being stuck is only half the journey. Deconstructing is half the tale. Dishing the dirt on the problems that make our faith struggle can become a new comfort zone - we can settle there having concluded like the child in the picture above that the door will never open, no matter how hard I push...

But what if someone passing by and hearing of my stuckness suggests I try pulling instead of pushing? What if as Fernando suggested in the comments on part 1, that we try a different action rather than just a different thought?

Here's a suggestion, why not chose something outragiously opposite - struggling with church left behind [CLB] well why not try struggling with a church going too [CGT] instead? Can't find a church that you like that does what you think a church should be doing - well why not start going to the one that offends you the least and start doing what you think should be done?

And like me when you hear the 'yes but...' realise that is our comfort zone urging us to sit back down again.

Good guides for the journey

Celebrating our stuckness is a good thing, it is a good space for deconstruction but I also think we need to celebrate the reconstruction and reengagement of our faith. Maybe a more constructive approach is to help guide/mentor each other through both deconstruction and reconstruction to allow it to be as constructive and healthy as possible.

The danger for me is that we are in a deconstruction phase we surroud oursleves with like minded people and together as collectively reinforce what we already see in the world. Conversely as i move into a time of reconstruction and reorientation my mind is quick to forget the difficulties of the struggling/questioning faith - again the temptation is to gravitate towards those who see the world as i do. Simply by celebrating with each other stuckness and movement we may be allowing our comfort zones to be challenged - neither getting too cynical or too triumphant, being both leader and follower...

This makes me think of the advice that Jesus gave on being and chosing guides/mentors:

"Don't pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults— unless, of course, you want the same treatment. Don't condemn those who are down; that hardness can boomerang. Be easy on people; you'll find life a lot easier. Give away your life; you'll find life given back, but not merely given back—given back with bonus and blessing. Giving, not getting, is the way. Generosity begets generosity."

"He quoted a proverb: "'Can a blind man guide a blind man?' Wouldn't they both end up in the ditch? An apprentice doesn't lecture the master. The point is to be careful who you follow as your teacher."

I am only now beginning to realise how grateful i have been in my periods of both deconstruction and reconstruction for having good guides. People who have helped remind me that what I focus on determines what I miss but are also willing to walk with me in the place of tension, not afraid of my stuckness but suggestion ways of trying to stay in my comfort zone. I am also glad of their present in my reconstruction allowing me to find new perspectives that suddenly seem to make the world make sense again and explore a constructive rather than destructive space.

Your recomendations:

I am curious to know:

• who are the guides/influences that are you are finding are helping you from staying in your comfort zone?
• How do you celebrate stuckness and success on the journey of faith with others?

The journey of constructive deconstruction and reconstruction: why we see the same things differently (part 2)

Why would anyone want to deconstruct anything when the process can be so uncomfortable? Why is that we find it so hard as christians to agree on the same views? Why is it that when we look at the church some of us see everywhere the faults and failings that make us doubt and question and yet others can see exactly the same and see strengths and benefits?

This is part 2 of a 3 part sage that I am doing to help explore the proces of decontruction/reconstruction and how we can engage in it together as healthy and constructive processPart 1 sets out some of the background to this, seeing a journey of deconstruction and reconstruction aspart of healthy cycle of faith. Part 3 makes some suggestions about how to deconstruct and reconstruct within healthy community relations.

Learning best outside our comfort zone

We really start to learn once we enter a space of cognitive dissonance, where what we believed starts to conflict with what we are finding [otherwise known as stepping out of our comfort zone or in Matrix speak falling down the rabbit hole] - we can either chose to remove the tension by keeping our orginal belief or pushing through it until we find a way of solving the problem.

It is one of the reasons that something like a short term mission is so powerful. We become like Alice down the rabbit hole or Neo coming into the world outside the Matrix: we go to some place where we don't know the cultural rules with a group of people we often don't know well and have to do things we may not feel so qualified to do - and precisely becaues of all the questions that we find ourselves asking/being confronted by [why is my faith not like these people? why am i so dependent on material possesions? where is God? etc etc] we learn/grow like topsy.

The challenge of course is coming back and finding ourselves snapping back to our previous ways of being rather than continuing in the new.

Lock in/lock out

Ever had the phenomon of buying a car and then suddenly noticing that everyone seemed to be driving one or buying a dress and seeing so many other people wearing it as well? Well that's because the part of our brain [the reticular activating system] that alerts our conscious mind to what is important or urgent to us has been triggered thus drawing it to your attention when you see that car or dress where before it was not important to you and not noticed [how is your right foot btw? were you aware of it before i mentioned it and drew it to your conscious attention?].

What has that got to do with deconstruction/reconstruction - well mainly it means that what is important to us is what we lock into [in a proces called lock in/lock out] and therefore when we look at the world around us what we see will reinforce what we believe. If we're struggling with a particular aspects of our faith we will lock onto evidence that supports this without even thinking about it.

Sceptical, ok what do you see in the image below?

An amorous couple or 9 dolphins? No for a long time i couldn't see dolphins either :). However if you have a young child around that's what they will see (or mermaids in my son's case) because they have not been exposed to such images before i.e. they lock in on the dolphins as they recognise them but we lock in on the couple - both images are there but we have locked one out and can only see one...

By locking in we therefore have blindspots which we struggle to see - we might see one or two dolphins when we are told they are there but still struggle to find all of them. If what we focus on determines what we miss then we could potentially be missing out on a lot. That is a humbling thought that makes the process for me less about my view is right and your view is wrong to one where we have different perspectives on the same picture.

Knowing that challenges me in 2 ways:

1. it reminds me again that critique/challenge is vital, that generousity and humility are crucial and that ultimately it is about whether it helps us be good rather than just right; and
2. it suggests that there is a lot of benefit in making this journey in a community of different voices, that i will naturally lock on to those who reinforce what i see and struggle to hear those who seem to see something different. Can by opening myself up to doing this processs in a community help me grow in character [love/patience/kindness for those who see things differently] and can i [to paraphrase St Paul] also rejoice with those who are reconstructing and understand the tension of those deconstructing?

What do you think of these 2 challenges from your own experience? What others have you experienced?

The journey of constructive deconstruction and reconstruction: is it all in the mind? (part 1)

This post is for me vital as we grapple with forming/reforming our faith in post modern times [and why others seem untroubled and happy with the faith they've always had]. What lies behind the deconstruction of our christianity? How does it fit with how we learn, grow, develop? After the deconstruction what then - construction?

I find it is all too easy, especially with my more cyncical postmodern world, to celebrate deconstruction but don't we also need to celebrate reconstruction - in other words deconstruction for a purpose other than for its own sake. So how do we move between deconstruction/construction in a way that is healthy to us?

My plan is to put this into 3 posts:

1. looking briefly at the cycle of learning/faith and how the mind is wired to deconstruct before it reconstructs (what follows below);
2. how cognitive dissonance or being out of our comfort zone helps us grow and avoid getting too locked in to pattern thinking and its hidden blindspots; and
3. celebrating stuckness and other successes on the journey of faith, particularly how we can help each other as a communities of growth/experience.

Life cycle faith learning

Deconstruction is a helpful and healthy process in the cycle of faith - it fact it is something that educationalists like Fowler for instance suggest in his 6 stages of faith: simple/childlike => questioning/deconstructing => simple again.

In other words, churches (or other institutions) which try and keep people in stage 1 (try harder/believe harder/pray more/read your bible/trust God/don't rock the boat) will be trying to undertake a Canute like task for anyone who finds themselves moving into a questioning/deconstructing phase - it is a tide that cannot be turned back/fought against [conversely we can't force people to leave a simple faith stage and we can begin to understand why people in either phases misunderstand each other so much]...

What we believe we see...

Social cognitive theory, which i've had the chance to become into contact with over the last couple of days on a creativity course, suggests something similar. What we have engrained as the truth in our subconscious will be constanty reinforced by what we see in the world around us [an extreme example would be an anorexic girl who may be emanciated to the point of death but since she believes she is fat when she looks in the mirror she will see a fat girl looking back].

The experience that you might be familiar of talking to somone and wondering what planet they are on and vice versa, even whilst looking at exactly the same event/story is a result of this - you can both look at the same thing and see totally different things, depending on the world view of truth, values etc that you have inside you [the only way to see that person's pov is to enter that person's world, values, experiences .

[Which as an aside maybe why Jesus asks to believe in him, rather than just believe things about him and why repentance is about rethinking, learning to become like Jesus and spiritual disciplines are so vital: practice makes permanent]...

It is said that we therefore cannot believe in two completely opposite truths at once - so our cognitive system keeps us sane by always forcing us to accept one version of the truth. Those of you who have seen the Matrix may already be familiar with idea - you cannot be told what the Matrix is you have to see it for yourself. This clip is actually very helpful to try and explain more what i mean (in two languages as well!)...

I wonder if you could help me please with your thoughts on:

• what you feel about faith being a cycle of deconstruction and reconstruction?
• Where would you say you are in that cycle?
• how in your own journy do you resonate wth the idea that we can't be shown [told] a version of the truth of our reality but have to experience it?

What do you do if your Emergelical? Evangamenalist? Fundamergent????

The hilarious JonBirch strikes again...

In the meantime who's for some Q&A??? ;)

HT to Fernado for the title