Missional Anthropology

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Rev TC and I have been discussing a couple of projects we are involved in. The project I am involved in is called Church on the edge (working title) and is a partnership project between FYT, CMS, and Local churches. It has always been part of the plan to blog the journey, so I have borrowed Rev TCs term, Missional Anthropology as a category title for this section, as the church on the edge title is only a working one and I hope to broaden this section out as we get others’ insights.

A sample from the project outline is below. The project came about through reflecting on the links between the detached work I have done before which resulted in what we then called relational based expressions of church, developing stuff like the FaSt game and how since the growth in the emerging church scene peoples understanding around what is church had changed and that it was time to look at what we can learn from one another (missional youth workers and emerging church). It connected with some my questions about the how truly missional in nature of some the emerging expressions were which is why I love Rev TC’s phrase and nicked it.

So the shape for the next few posts are:-
Introduction to the Detached Process
Update on the story so far
5 or so Posts on the process we are looking at
A Contacting Community
A Growing Community
A Connecting Community
An Exploring Community
An Ecclesial Community

A unique approach to emerging church and young people at risk that has at its’ heart the intentionality of growing church with young people on the edge as a missionary endeavour.

Aim:
Building on the partners strengths and knowledge of working with young people on the edge of society to develop a fresh approach to challenging young people’s behaviour through good youth work processes with the critical intention to grow a relevant expression of church with marginalized young people.

To identify the key issues in establishing church with marginalized young people through the process and disseminate this through the Christian community in the UK to facilitate locally grounded and resource light expressions of church.

The project will to seek to work within a professional framework and believe good youth work is participatory, empowering, educative and promotes equality of opportunity. We seek to enhance the personal, social, emotional and spiritual development of young people that they may realise their full potential.

Objectives:
1. To build meaningful and purposeful relationships with young people in three areas through detached youth work and/or a mobile drop in facility.
2. To build a sense of community with the young people through a variety of means including, regular contact, mutual support, activities and trips, and residential experiences.
3. To identify and develop a second step project, where young people go through (with the worker) a wilderness or rite of passage experience, that consolidates them as a group and develops a sense of openness to one another and desire to change/grow.
4. To work with the young people through action research to develop a culturally relevant expression of church.

Love fear and detached

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Tony and I have been having a bit of a chat (if comments after a blog constitute a chat) based on some his reflections on Zacceus. It started about Jesus inviting himself to the party and making the first move, but for us this is a fearful thing to do. Tony commented on 1 john 4:18 says that perfect love casts out all fear. If God is perfect love, then there is no room or even possibility of fear in him. so, if he loves us perfectly, then why would he be afraid to make the first move?

Got me thinking about the link with detached work and how it’s the cold contact thing that people still find most frightening. I was wondering about some sort of image people based on jn 4.18 that people could hold when the make those first tentative steps towards a bunch of young people. Yet whilst this could help it is the experience of God’s perfect love that can’t be pinned down to an image that will release us from fear. In the training how do I communicate that personal experience, of God meeting with you personally and perfectly that sustains the whole of life not just enables the cold contact. Maybe it about my story being part of the story and people discovering their own part in the story, and not something that can be communicated.

Slope and Control

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With regards to Richard’s piece on ‘slope‘ and the comments about it:

I was thinking about the time I spend with the youth of our local church. Am I:
1. Running a group with the agenda of communicating Christ to them
OR
2. Running a group with the sole agenda of enabling them to be a group and have their own agenda’s, and just being Christ to them.

Certainly the pressure is on me (from tradition) to do (1) and sure I hope that I do communicate Christ to them, but is that my agenda?

Hmmm, is there a condition that I attach to attendance that they must allow me to control a certain amount of the time we spend together? If so, do they come in spite of that? If so, is that a positive thing?

Would it be better to relinquish any attempt to control and just to be there on their terms?

Whilst I’m tending toward the idea of a lack of control I’m not sure that this is a lack of slope. Surely if I practise ‘being Christ to people’ then I am always a slope, always a way in?

But this is slope without hidden agenda, without control, without events – just me being the new me.

Hmmm…

Can Words bring change?

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Words and definition of words shape our meaning and response, and the outworking can corrupt the meaning of words. I am throwing out a challenge for us to rethink how we use certain words to be more authentic to their orginal meaning and stop misusuing them. I am thrinking particularly of the christian words that have been corrupted, so tomorrow I am going to meet with the CHURCH, where we may do some singing, but this will not be a time of WORSHIP any more than eating lunch later that day will be. I wonder if enough of us took more care with our language how quickly peoples perception of these two misinterprited concepts would be reclaimed or redeemed?

Feeling uneasy

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Finally moved house. Blogging has been on a low due to the various issues associated with moving, now we just have masses of decorating to do, not to mention the conservatory/office and extension we hope to to build. Anyway a few recent conversations have made me feel uneasy. A few years ago we conciously opted not to be part of established forms of church and to try different things, all of which was great and the process helped me in my understanding of church and mission, and is in many ways where I still am.

Changes meant moving and as such we started going to church, which at the time was a fairly mission shaped event happening at a local school, we went to build some relationships, get to know the area before moving and importantly as a way for the children to build relationships in an area where they are at schoolwise. (life is so complex) The church then regrouped with its parent in another setting and the more traditional approach and culture has swampped the little mission shaped event.

Now we have landed in the area I think the time to reevaluate is fast approaching. I guess we will see how the discussions with the misson group pan out but the people have been great to us and I am not of the mindset to jump ship, but struggling with the growing uneasiness and what questions I need to ask myself and the family regarding church. Maybe four days from moving it is the wrong time to ask any questions anyway! The trouble is if I dont do it soon the process of getting sucked into a way of being church that I can no longer authentically and wholeheartedly agree with will happen weather I like it or not. In the mean time seeing the process as part of the DO -BE – DO approach to church helps, so thanks to those of you who have helped promote the uneasy feelings by questioning my involvement.

Chard Mission Group

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Welcome to anyone who has found their way here. The links I mentioned last night are on the right hand side of the page under the emerging church category. You may also like to read the link to sunday papers which explains more about the metaphor we discussed.
If you have any questions or feedback you can type them as a comment below.

Structures and Kingdom

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Two contrasting recent experiences. Both working with structured organisations, but one willing to use the structure for accountability that does not get in the way of building kingdom and one where the structure got in the way of kingdom and then using the structure as defense. I can live with structures and like accountability and even understand the need for some but find it hard when people cant see beyond the structure to the opportunity. Then I find myself on the precarious on the edge of being judgemental of people whose hands are probably quite tied. The freedom of the kingdom is a spacious place, but the different approaches remind me of the now and not yet.

Update from Dave and Isla in SA

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Do you ever find yourself wondering ‘how on earth did I end up here in this situation, in this place, at this time?’ We have found ourselves thinking this often since arriving in South Africa three months ago but for me (Dave) never more so than on Saturday morning just gone. Before I had even had a chance to feel reasonably awake I found myself with the responsibility of refereeing our new football team’s first ever proper match. Yes, the team with surely the longest name ever (Elsies United Rhenish Church AKA One Love) played a friendly against the Church Council. Those of you who are even vaguely familiar with me will know that I have let my knowledge of the beautiful game slip to an embarrasing degree since I stopped collecting Panini football stickers in 1986. I was always bound to make a bad referee, but add to my ignorance a serious lack of linesmen (none) and, indeed, an equal lack of lines, and there was a recipe for disaster. My decisions generally went with the team who was shouting at me the most and seemed the most likely to turn on me or bare a long term grudge. The final score was 5-0 to Elsies United, to the delight of our coach, Jeremy (one of the young people) and I only had to give one yellow card! You can see a photo of both teams, attached.

So what else have we been up to since our last update? We have just come to the end of our summer programme of activities. This included some great day trips to various beaches, beauty spots and ice-rinks! (Our attempt to scale Table Mountain was unfortunately hampered due to bad weather.) These trips provided useful opportunities to get to know the young people well in a short space of time, which has been essential. From these relationships we have been able to develop the football team, which has really taken off and is a great opportunity for the young people involved to develop physically and socially. Jeremy has really risen to the challenge of being coach and is slowly developing in self-confidence through this role. We have also been working together on creating a youth lounge in one of the church rooms. This has involved brainstorming what kind of atmosphere we want to create and what we want to use the room for (including providing space for friends to come and chill and make links with the church). Since agreeing on these issues we have been busy painting and making banners and the room is coming together very nicely.

We had a fantastic break with our good friends the Wiles’ who came to spend Christmas in Elsies River. The Turkey finally arrived at sometime after 5:00pm on Christmas day because Dave Wiles forgot to turn the oven on! Nevertheless, we had tongue, tripe and trotter to keep us going (apparently traditional South African Christmas day food) and even some edible things too like ham, roast pumpkin, seafood curry and Christmas pudding. It was an interesting mix of South African and British traditions and the afternoon was spent swimming in the pool and opening presents sent from our families. It was certainly an unusual Christmas day but the good company of friends from home and new friends (the pastor and his family spent the day with us) lestened the homesickness.

We enjoyed being tourists with Dave and Donna and the family, finally making it up Table Mountain on the cable car, which was spectacular. (Attached is a photo of us at the top looking out over the northern suburbs, we are staying somewhere in all that!) We also visited Robben Island, the Cape of Good Hope and various other beautiful places. Dave Wiles and his son Dan decided all this wasn’t enough excitement and jumped out of a plane. When Dave reached the bottom he looked even whiter than the day he arrived at the airport!

It was hard saying goodbye to friends from home and settling back into life and work in Elsies. However, we are back in the flow of things now and have some exciting plans for our remaining time here. We plan on spending a large portion of our time and energy on training the youth exec and on recruiting adults from the church to invest their time in young people. We will also be doing some training with youth leaders from other churches in Elsies River, helping them explore issues for local young people and how they might respond. We have been asked to present a council of 40 local church leaders with a proposal for the employment of a Youth and Community Worker for Elsies River. The possibilities here are very exciting.

Other opportunities we are exploring are a cultural/educational exchange. Two or three people from the Rhenish Church in Elsies with an interest in youth work will hopefully come and spend a week or two sharing their stories in schools in the UK and visiting youth projects. A couple of young youth workers from the UK will then come and visit Elsies in 2007 and explore issues of justice, equality etc with the young people and youth workers here.

One of the most exciting possibilities we are exploring is a social action project of some sort in one of the black townships (‘Khayelitsha’). Our hope is that a group of young people will be given the opportunity to volunteer with a children’s project. Historically there is some tension and prejudice between the coloured and black communities and the hope is that these volunteers will return to coloured churches and tell the stories of the people and children they meet through the project. We are just starting to discuss this idea, so it’s early days, but it could be great.