I am pleased to say that I have now submitted my first draft to Paraclete Press for my draft book “The New Monastics: Building Ecclesial communities out of contextual mission in the third millennium. I have also submitted a chapter in the Book Andrew Walker leads with Continuum about Spirituality in the City.
Somewhat Ironically, both these chapters resonate with the film I have just watched with my friend David, ‘The Miles North of Molkom’, which is a docu-film expressing the stories and lives of a number of spiritual seekers, at a summer festival in Sweden. It was an amusing, sad and moving account of people attempting to make sense of their lives in our painful overly-individualistic and consumptive world. This resonated with some work I did today, for the Diocese of Rochester where I supported Graham Cray of Fresh Expressions, where the Suffrogen Bishop talked of “Politics being defeated by Shopping”. Too true. So I commend the film if you doubt that our culture is spiritually seeking.
In this months moot podcast, there is a remarkable recording of the wisdom of Jean Vanier, one of the most important new monastic inspired activists in the world. To listen to it, click here
Recently I spoke at the Resource training course weekend representing the Moot Community, where we explored mission to a post secular culture of spiritual seeking and new monasticism as a particular model. Mark kindly bought my book I think to follow up what I talked about.
He has now written a couple of blogs concerning my book “The Becoming of G-d” exploring what I looked at last year. To see what he has written click here
I am currently attending a residential training course on preparation for incumbency through the DIocese of London. It is an excellent course, and I found it interesting how the concept of managing chaos and complexity returns to the themes of a fluid understanding of life, and some of the elements of a Trinitarian Ecclesiology which was so elemental in the book “The Becoming of G-d”. So very interesting how our learning takes us similar cycles revisiting things as life and vocation changes.
A new friend I have made recently by the name of Tim, noticed that I love the American TV programme Alias. He also intuitively made the connection between my sense of the need of Christians to abide more by a disposition of openness to the Spirit and therefore mystery, with my love of the programme, (sounds crazy but I think it is right). He pointed me to a podcast of JJ Abrams, the Director of Alias, on the whole subject of mystery. So please see a really interesting podcast on mystery below.
Well its now a new year, and I am now well on the way to completing the manuscript for my next book exploring New Monasticism, which I am writing for Paraclete to be submitted by the end of February 2010.
Writing this book has really helped me think quite deeply about this important model of church, and I have enjoyed interviewing a number of people including a Benedictine Abbot, a Franciscan Friar and a number of new monastics including Shane Claiborne, Mark Berry, Ian Adams and others.
I have also written a chapter in a book exploring spirituality in the city, which is a multi-authored book which I think is being published by Continuum. In this chapter I explore the increasing phenomena of post secular spiritual tourism, and in particularly that evidenced by the many flower shrines you see where people have died. It names something very important symbolically. So I hope that contribution assists people to explore the subject.
I am also pleased to let people know, that I am involved in three other books. All three are all multi-authored books in the Ancient Faith Future Mission series published with Canterbury Press. These will cover Fresh Expressions and New Monasticism, the Kingdom of God and Small Missional Communities.
So I seem to have become involved in a number writing projects!
I was really moved by a blog entry by Heather Cracknell concerning my book the becoming of G-d. She talks about re-appropriating an understanding of the Trinity to open up the gospels. To see the entry see here.
It has been good for us in the Moot Community to get the input from Jemma Allen, on the whole focus of the Christian life on friendship. Rightly she has come and challenged us Brits about our language for God and the faith, which remains still very much based on power language and Christendom. I for example, was quite immune to the number of times we use the word Lord. Sometimes it takes an outsider to help you see what is right before your eyes.
What Jemma has reminded me of, is the connection for the need of deep friendships as a sign of a healthy ecclesial community, and the core focus of the Christian faith. it is the depths and commitment to relationships and seeking friendship that is an outward sign of the Kin-dom of God, and follows some of the approach of Christ in gospels. Friendship then is the medium for transformation, hope giving care. It is therefore the work of God, through friendships that we become more human, taking off our masks and pretending to be other people.
It reminds me of the work of Ryan Bolger, in his PhD on the Emerging Church, where he summarised the qualities of the emerging church as: the desire to imitate the life of Jesus; transform secular society; emphasise communal living; welcome outsiders; be generous and creative; and lead without control.
So the significance then of Church is not right teaching, or about perfect worship, or the slick liturgy, it is about the people and their relationships to one another as a medium for the outworking of God. So many churches have lost this focus. I am reminded of this in the call of the Ministry of Reconciliation in 2 Corinthians 5 11-21:
11 We know what it means to fear the Lord, and so we try to persuade others. God knows us completely, and I hope that in your hearts you know me as well.12 We are not trying again to recommend ourselves to you; rather, we are trying to give you a good reason to be proud of us, so that you will be able to answer those who boast about people’s appearance and not about their character.13 Are we really insane? It is for God’s sake. Or are we sane? Then it is for your sake.14 We are ruled by the love of Christ, now that we recognize that one man died for everyone, which means that they all share in his death.15 He died for all, so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but only for him who died and was raised to life for their sake.16 No longer, then, do we judge anyone by human standards. Even if at one time we judged Christ according to human standards, we no longer do so.17 Anyone who is joined to Christ is a new being; the old is gone, the new has come.18 All this is done by God, who through Christ changed us from enemies into his friends and gave us the task of making others his friends also.19 Our message is that God was making all human beings his friends through Christ.[a] God did not keep an account of their sins, and he has given us the message which tells how he makes them his friends.
20 Here we are, then, speaking for Christ, as though God himself were making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf: let God change you from enemies into his friends!21
Last Thursday, I did my first lecture using skype to Ordinands training within an American Lutheran Seminary called Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri. The original plan was for me to fly out, but illness prevented this. But the result was stunning. They had kitted out a lecture room with microphones, projectors and lighting so that I could and talk to 30 odd people in a lecture using powerpoint whilst talking directly to students. I am very impressed with this set up, and it has to be a way forward, to reduce costs and more importantly to reduce carbon emissions. So if you have skype facilities as discussed above, and you want to explore my contribution to a lecture programme, please do let me know, as I am more than interested. The great advantage is that this can be anywhere in the world. So let me know.
It is not often I read a book that gets me excited but this new book by Pete Ward really did in this book Participation & Mediation. In this great book Pete unpacks in well reasoned and analytical form the journey he went on from Youth Worker to Practical Theologian. This is the same journey that many of us went on starting from different places, some from Youth Work others from involvement in mission initiatives evolving out of early emerging and fresh expressions of church. I began from involvement in alternative worship with a passion to make these new forms of church accessible and contextual to those outside the church. Pete unpacks the journey that many of us have also made. It starts from where people are - from cultural analysis, missional and contextual theology, the centrality of the Trinity and patristics, perichoresis through to pastoral and practical theology. I have never talked this through with Pete, but I am amazed how in synergy his thinking is with my own experience and the experience I know of others. His book is a credible and authentic understanding of the place of pastoral and practical theology for those involved as practitioners in emerging and fresh expressions of church. It is no coincidence that I completed an MA in Pastoral & Practical Theology as part of my ministerial education, from where I started from, becoming a Christian through an Alternative Worship Community in York. I just wished this book was around 10 years ago - it would have made my life easier!
In many ways Pete’s book echoes, reflects and forms the bedrock of the process I follow in my explorations of Trinitarian Ecclesiology and Emerging & Fresh Expressions of Church in my book ‘The becoming of G-d’.
So this book not only offers a really practical way for practitioners to engage with pastoral and practical theological reflection of what they are doing, it also offers a model and process to help practitioners work through doing complex mission in a complex culture. Pete Ward’s book is a really helpful tool to assist Pioneers to build ecclesial communities out of contextual mission. So I highly recommend this book to all those who are seeking to be lay and ordained Pioneer Ministers, Youth Workers and all those passionate about building emerging and fresh expressions of church.
What is fascinating, is that Pete’s analysis also has synergy with the central core process of Fresh Expressions which is drawn from Roland Allens and Vincent Donovan’s work. See below:
So thanks Pete for such a great book. A must for all those seeking depth and reflection in what they are doing with emerging and fresh expressions of church.
I am pleased to say that I have now submitted my first draft to Paraclete Press for my draft book “The New Monastics: Building Ecclesial communities out of contextual mission in the third millennium. I have also submitted a chapter in the Book Andrew Walker leads with Continuum about Spirituality in the City.
Recently I spoke at the Resource training course weekend representing the Moot Community, where we explored mission to a post secular culture of spiritual seeking and new monasticism as a particular model. Mark kindly bought my book I think to follow up what I talked about.
