Mark Pierson
Mark Pierson is the Executive Director of Urban Seed (otherwise known as the Receptionist).
« December 2004 | Main | June 2005 »
An intuitive introverts guide to starting a church 5.
May 23, 2005
Trinity Sunday. Fittingly also our third Sunday of meeting. Tonight felt very familiar – we needed a car to carry down to the venue the gear we wanted to use! We’ve passed the point of easily carrying stuff on the tram. Hopefully we’ll find some storage to use at the venue so we won’t have to carry it all back and forward. Took down a portable table for an altar, glasses for communion, floor lamps, candles, fabric and so on. We could call ourselves the IKEA Church. Or Flatpack Church. They sell everything a church needs! (Except a table cross. We’re having that made.)
At our start time of 5.30pm a trinity of us was present. (Wasn’t last week humbling enough God?) By 5.35pm - my latest start time regardless of numbers – we were seven; by 5.45pm 12 of us were gathered.
We pushed the order of service out a bit more. We’re building it up week by week. As well as being Trinity Sunday the day precedes a National Day of Healing in Australia on Thursday. This ‘Sorry Day’ is in recognition of the decades of Government action that forcibly separated indigenous children from their families, leading to the ‘stolen generation’. So our worship picked up on those dual themes.
Marcus led us in a great song. He had rewritten the words to the worship classic ‘Shout to the Lord’.
Why Jesus? Why favour
Those who do not like you?
All of my years
I cry bitter tears
I wonder where’s your mighty love?
And so on. It was a recognition of the dissonance that is created when we follow Christ. Picking up on the Psalms of lament rather than those of praise in the original version of the song. (You can read more about this on Marcus' journal entry for 23 May.
For the first time we shared communion together. I was very nervous about this as I plan to use bread and water as the elements. We will also have communion weekly in a short form and monthly in a longer form.
Why water instead of wine? Well, most Baptist Churches only use coloured water anyway, but my thinking is around three collections of stories. The stories of European settlement in Australia tell us how the early explorers would have died if the Aboriginal people hadn’t shown them where the water holes were (they repaid this generosity with poisoning and fencing some wells). Water was life, and still is.
In contemporary Victoria, as in much of Australia, there is longstanding drought. Australia is the driest continent on earth after Antarctica; and the highest per capita consumer of water. Every day media remind us of the water shortages in Melbourne.
Then there are the biblical stories about the ‘water of life’ in John 4 and Revelation 21 and 22.
Many other levels of connection are possible with bread and water and the compulsory detention of refugees, people in prison etc. It also means that anyone with an alcohol problem isn’t treated differently to everyone else in the worshipping community when it comes to this most central ritual of the Christian faith.
So water will be our communion ‘wine’. Will we encounter the mystery of the risen Christ in it? Why not? We’ll try it for a few weeks and see what the response is. It will always be iced water and always in a tumbler rather than a thimble. It needs to be refreshing and plentiful.
The words of institution will be ‘…Jesus took what they were eating and said….Then in the same way he took what they were drinking and said….’
We’ll see how it goes.
Here is the third and final part of the list of some of the values that will be important to us as we move forward:-
(The previous list was numbered one letter out)
x. Be institutionally minimalist and actively committed to minimising institutional inertia…
y. …and therefore create structures only when they are deemed by the community to be needed, and in a form that best meets those needs at the time rather than follows traditional institutional expectations.
z. See no distinction between ‘clergy’ and ‘laity’ in authority or practice.
aa. Be committed to grace and listening.
bb. Not mind controversy or difference in dress, theology or perspective and encourage variety of opinion and expression in worship and all aspects of the life of the community.
cc. Provide a safe place for struggle, failure, and to be ones self.
dd. Be committed to exploring questions rather than giving answers. ‘Thinking allowed. Thinking aloud allowed.’
ee. Integrate awareness and response to issues of justice, ecology and politics into its worship and teaching/preaching.
ff. Have a high view of the Eucharist.
gg. Celebrate the Eucharist weekly.
hh. Be Christocentric. Theologically conservative at its core.
ii. Provide pastoral care and a range of ritual making services to its congregation and broader community.
jj. Put minimal pressure on any of its members to do or be anything or attend anything.
kk. Take seriously the demise of Christendom, and the postmodern, secularised multi-faith environment in which it and its people operate.
ll. Seek to party extremely well.
Mark Pierson May 24, 2005. www.urbanseed.org
(This column also appears at www.sacramentis.com)
Posted by markp at 06:49 AM | Comments (2)
An intuitive introverts guide to starting a church 4.
May 18, 2005
Second Sunday in and four people turned up to talk values and move a little further into the order of service. (Marcus and I who are working on the project, plus my wife, and a visitor we expected and who had a reason for coming that night and no reason to return!) At this rate of reverse growth we have a shelf life of about a week! It was good to be kept humble. It still felt good to start the ‘service’ on time and work through more of the new liturgy, with a Pentecost flavour.
Popped popping corn in (my) good Pentecost tradition. Due to using only a small amount of popping corn the ‘spray’ effect was disappointingly unspectacular. Definitely my most subdued Pentecost experience yet. (Note for next year: an electric popcorn maker is too noisy and takes too long to get popping. It also needs a full load to shoot popped corn up in to the air. Go back to using a wok and gas ring). The building worked well and we picked up some things we want to do with lighting and stations etc. Pentecost reminded us that it is the Spirit of God who will do whatever happens here. We’re just along for the ride.
Continuing the values list from last time.
Urban Seed:church will:-
l. Strongly value and encourage the integration of creativity and the arts in all aspects of its life and worship.
m. Be trusting and strongly committed to artists in all fields of creative endeavour, looking for uncensored and non-controlling ways to have them use their gifts to communicate and interpret the message of the Gospel as they see it.
n. Be irrevocably committed to a model of worship curators, who would…
o. …enable multiple people to participate in leading elements of the set pattern of worship each week…
p. …constantly invite and encourage participation in leadership by any member of the community in any aspect of worship. Participation that is given authority as well as responsibility and which can literally shape the community. This includes ‘preaching’, which would be contained in the middle of the service of worship and not given elevation in significance above any other element of worship…
q. …expect that the ‘stuff’ of the everyday life and culture of membersn of the community will be incorporated into its worship ie music, movies, passions, hobbies, pastimes, stories, objects. Worship may not include singing and is more likely to include a recorded track by Tom Waits than Hillsong.
r. Shape its overall pattern of worship around the Christian Calender.
s. Draw on the best of historical and traditional practices of Christianity, reframing them for contemporary practice.
t. Encourage any one in the community to start any project, homegroup, small group, mission or ministry at any time without any hurdle or process beyond announcing that intention to the community.
u. Own and fund no programmes or projects beyond it’s worship and administrative life. Beyond this will be the responsibility of individuals and groups within the community who have the vision and Call to do something.
v. Appreciate beauty.
Mark Pierson May 18, 2005. www.urbanseed.org
(This column also appears at www.sacramentis.com)
Posted by markp at 07:06 AM | Comments (3)
Tear Fund 'Grass Roots' Night Friday 13 May 2005. Credo 8pm.
May 14, 2005
Last night in Urban Seed's Credo Cafe I led a reflective devotional for Tear Fund as part of their 'Grassroots' programme. Below is what we went through. I used a slide of the Fontana painting and unfortunately haven't been able to source a digital copy anywhere.
Theme: Act Justly
Prelude: Track: Track #11, 8, Moby, ex Songs.
Handouts: John 4 text, song lyrics, art title.
1. Candle Lighting liturgy to start reflection.
2. Image: project Lavinia Fontana image, Christ and the Woman of Samaria, 1607.
3. Rant: As you look at the image you might like to think about what the artist has chosen to paint…
What is included? Excluded?
What moment in the story has the painting frozen,
Why did the artist choose this moment?
What does the artist want the viewer to know about this incident?
(1-2 minutes reflection)
Introduce Image: Figures are in the foreground, almost obscuring the well.
Jesus looks weary, unenthusiastic.
Woman is bursting out of the painting. Concentrating.
Her gaudy coloured clothes and loose hair suggest a scandalous past.
Sensual, almost sexy image.
(Allow 1-2 minutes for reflection)
4. Read biblical text John 4
This is a remarkable story. Who is this woman?
The woman that medieval writers gave the name Photina. I wonder what Photina really ooked like?
How old she was? What she was wearing this afternoon? How was her hair done?
Was she wearing any makeup? What she had been doing earlier that morning?
According to the cultural and religious rules of his day Jesus shouldn't have been talking to this woman.
First of all a good Jew wouldn't talk in public to a woman he didn't know, and a woman alone at that…
Then he shouldn't have been talking to a Samaritan.
They were despised by the Jews as being inferior and not very nice (To put it mildly).
Then he asked her if he could drink from her water container. A real no no. He was asking to use utensils and bowls that weren't ritually clean. That was against his religion. It showed he either didn't understand what being Jewish was all about, or he was deliberately flouting the deeply ingrained ways of doing things.
And all this from a supposed religious leader . A teacher. A Rabbi.
This is no ordinary encounter.
No wonder the disciples were surprised when they saw what was going on.
Think about this woman for a moment.
We can see how this artist saw her.
How do you see this woman? Is she a first century JLo?
Often, perhaps usually, this story is read with the implication that the woman is almost prostitute-like – after all she’s had 5 husbands and is onto her 6th relationship!
Maybe she’s some kind of sex-addict. Poor woman. Can’t help herself.
That seems to be how this artist has understood her.
I think that is character assassination of the worst kind. It’s a prejudiced, judgemental response that is totally unjust. And it isn’t supported by the biblical text. We assume verse 27 says she’s a ‘scarlet woman’ but that reflects the moralistic, sex oriented perspective we bring to the text. The returning disciples could just as likely be referring to her status as a woman and a Samaritan. Someone on the margins.
It is possible, though perhaps unlikely, that her 5 husbands died on her – in which case we should have compassion on her.
But even if that didn’t happen, there is no way in the culture of her day that she could have divorced one husband, let alone 5.
It was a mans world. Women had very few rights.
The right to divorce wasn’t one of them.
This woman didn’t have 5 husbands. Five men had her.
She was more likely a severely abused woman.
How often do we make judgements about people we meet or read about when we really have no idea what their story is?
Acting justly requires us to suspend judgement, to listen, to look inside ourself before we act.
5. Link: Perhaps if the woman had been at the well in our time she would have used these words to describe how she felt, how she saw Jesus…perhaps they are the words that you and I would want to use as our prayer tonight. (TRACK…)
6. Track: 'Bring Me To Life', by Evanescence ex Fallen, track 2 (laptop)
7. Linking Rant: God our Creator, the one who always acts justly toward us, wake us up inside so that we see people and situations as you see them and learn to act justly, just as you do. Amen.
8. Blow out candle to signify end of reflection.
Posted by markp at 08:42 AM | Comments (0)
An intuitive introverts guide to starting a church 3.
May 13, 2005
Last Sunday was our first gathering of the clan. Fourteen adults and two children turned up, most of them not people I had expected! It was also twice the number I anticipated. This was an unadvertised (but not closed) night of sitting around talking with a core group about the ethos and values and some of the practices that I want to build Urban Seed:church on. I did most of the talking. We met for less than an hour by the time people had arrived and had tea and coffee. The Mission to Seafarers building worked well and will become a great asset I think. People like it’s ‘olde worlde’ style. Last night I moved from being very nervous to quietly excited. We will continue to talk about values and move increasingly into our order of service over the coming weeks before opening it up to the wider public.
To help people grasp the ethos I want for the church I have tried to write down some of the values and practices that are important to me. These have been an important discussion point for people. They’re not well written, not exhaustive, nor in any order, and there is some overlap, but I’ll list the first third of them below, and the others over the next couple of times I write.
Urban Seed:church will:-
a. Make a deliberate and sustained effort to resource Christian spirituality among people who consider themselves to be post-modern or part of the emerging cultural milieu.
b. Exist only to sustain its community in following Christ in the world and actively decline to institutionalise that.
c. Cease to exist if at any point the gathered community no longer finds Urban Seed:church helpful. Programmes and projects that lack leadership or support will cease immediately no matter how important they are seen to be by others.
d. Shape everything it does according to the goal of ‘sustaining and resourcing Christian spirituality in the world’.
e. Provide a smorgasbord of resourcing events for its community but have low expectations of anyone as to attendance and participation at any event.
f. Create a fluid and liquid form of church and church life that is creative about how it resources Christian spirituality for groups and individuals within and outside its gathered community.
g. See it’s community in the broadest terms ie those connected by geography, interest, world wide web, occasional attendance, attendance at specific resourcing events.
h. Be committed more strongly to encouraging spiritual desire than meeting spiritual needs.
i. Encourage spiritual consumerism and a smorgasbord approach to nurturing Christian formation.
j. Understand that the ‘Sunday Worship’ event is only one element among many resources offered to them and to the wider community.
k. Assume in everything we do and say that someone listening/reading/observing/ participating doesn’t have the background to understand/participate fully without clear explanation and non-jargoned gender sensitive language.
l. Have a raw urban edge and feel to it. Be risk takers and boundary pushers in worship, mission and ministry. Be involved in the market place of work, leisure and the arts in the Melbourne CBD.
Mark Pierson May 09, 2005. www.urbanseed.org
(This column also appears at www.sacramentis.com)
Posted by markp at 03:19 PM | Comments (0)
An Intuitive Introverts Guide to Starting a Church 2
May 11, 2005
We have some money!! The Baptist Union of Victoria has granted us enough money to employ Marcus for one day a week plus a bit more for the promotional and spiritual resourcing/consumer spirituality projects we will do over the first year. It has come from a very innovative fund they established to resource new missional communities. Urban Seed will auspice the venture and handle the funds. No funding for the church will come from Urban Seed; in fact I hope that funding will eventually flow the other way. My time with the church is voluntary but may overlap at some points with my role as Executive Director for Urban Seed.
The ‘resourcing consumer spirituality’ aspect of what we propose to do has generated a lot of late night discussion. It’s semantics really. If I dropped ‘consumer’ it wouldn’t be a problem. But it isn’t just semantics. It reflects a deliberate effort to resource spirituality from a Christian perspective, outside of the gathered community of faith, and beyond the scattered community of faith as well. As Pete Ward puts it in ‘Liquid Church’ (a very significant book) ‘I suggest that we need to shift from seeing church as a gathering of people meeting in one place at one time – that is, a congregation – to a notion of church as a series of relationships and communications…a network or web rather than an assembly of people.’ So I see resourcing or funding spiritual formation as a vital element of the life and mission of Urban Seed:church, and one which is achieved both within and outside the gathered community of faith.
I hope to achieve this over the next year partly through a focus on several of the major festivals of the Christian Year; events that are at the core of the Christian story. We will produce some experience that will be solidly connected to the Story and yet linked to the everyday lives of people living and working in the culture. So I’m thinking that we will produce a set of Advent in Art postcards for Advent and link them to the ‘sermons’ those Sundays. These cards will carry an image from the art world, biblical text, a reflection and a ritual. They will be available to people in our community of faith for their personal use and to give to friends and colleagues. Likewise I’d like to do something at Lent, Easter and Pentecost as well as a couple of the citywide festivals that are celebrated here. At Easter we may put together a contemporary art installation based on the traditional Stations of the Cross. This would be open to the public in a downtown venue.
These consumer-spirituality resources will have a multi-layered effect. They will help to connect the spirituality of our congregation to their everyday lives; they will provide opportunity to connect the Christian story with people who haven’t previously connected with it; they are a useful advertising and promotional tool that also has a strong brand awareness element to it; they say something significant about the ethos of Urban Seed:church and how we see ourselves in the wider community; they make a strong statement to artists and creatives about the way we understand Christian faith and creativity; they are a non-threatening way to raise spiritual awareness and engage in conversation. Or if you feel the need you could frame that in language that says they are ‘missional tools that engage the culture’ or ‘pre-evangelistic strategies’, but I don’t feel that need!
Mark Pierson May 4, 2005. www.urbanseed.org
(This column also appears at www.sacramentis.com)
Posted by markp at 07:51 AM | Comments (0)
Urban Seed:church. An intuitive introverts guide to starting a church.
May 03, 2005
I feel like I did when I was a teenager going on a date. 35 years later I’m no longer pacing the room but I am feeling very nervous and finding sleep difficult. This time it’s not a girl but a church that’s keeping my mind so active. The soon-to-begin Urban Seed:church, set in downtown Melbourne, Australia.
Twelve years ago I started working with a dieing congregation in Auckland city, New Zealand. Last year I transitioned out of that now stable, strong church (www.cityside.org.nz) and moved countries to work with an inner city mission organization, Urban Seed (www.urbanseed.org).
Urban Seed is a wonderful organization, with outstanding staff, who have been working with marginalised people for more than a decade. It has a strong community ethos and a clear mission focus. What it lacks is a focus on spiritual formation and discipleship. It has no easily accessible worship event or gathered community of faith for either it’s staff, for others who identify with Urban Seed, or for people Urban Seed forms relationships with who are looking to make changes in their life.
Starting one seemed like a good idea – until now! How do you ‘start a church’? I have no idea. Cityside had an existing building, congregation (albeit very small and struggling), and access to funds to employ me full time, at least initially. Urban Seed church has no building to meet in, no funds, and no ready made congregation. So how to begin?
I’ve been talking about the concept to people in and around Urban Seed for almost a year, so the decision to do something in May is no surprise. Through that time I have been discovering people who were post-church and interested in exploring something new. A few staff are interested. I’ve been talking with those people about what I have in mind for the ethos and practice of this new church. Refining and rewriting the proposal. Visiting post-church people who might be open to something different to their previous experiences of church. My best find is Marcus, one of Urban Seed’s Education Team. He has good skills in preaching and teaching and is keen to work with me in shaping up and delivering this new venture.
We trialed a few special services in Advent last year and Lent and Easter this year to build up some expectation and to get a feel for who might be interested in joining us. Around 30 adults and a few children showed up after minimal advertising, so we may have a quorum. Since Easter I’ve been working up an order of service and basic outline of the philosophy that we will start with. I want this community of faith to build on what I have learnt from 12 years at Cityside, so it won’t be much like any other church that people have experienced and that isn’t easy to communicate quickly. I don’t have the luxury of a slow build of the ethos that I had at Cityside. Here we need to have it pretty clear from the start and be able to communicate its subtleties – as well as practice them! I’m uncomfortable with a clear plan as I want what we do to reflect the community we gather. So there won’t be one.
Alongside these preparations there have been ongoing discussions with the parent church of Urban Seed. These have been prolonged and quite difficult at times. This well established church that is proud of its traditions and traditional forms has concerns about Urban Seed:church affecting what they offer. They have stated clearly that they would like us to meet well away from the time and location of their services. In the end we can only do the latter, but they have generously still blessed our proposal.
We plan to meet at 5.30pm – it suits families and means we can go out to eat after if we want to – on a Sunday. The venue – at least initially – will be in the Mission to Seamen building at the other end of town in a developing area. Not ideal but pretty good. Our intention is to start by gathering just the six or eight people who have indicated a strong interest in the church and meet with them for a few weeks while we shake down the order of service and some of the ethos, before opening up to all comers. May 8 is opening night! There is still a lot of work to do and I have opening night jitters.
Mark Pierson www.urbanseed.org
(This column also appears at www.sacramentis.com)
Posted by chris at 01:44 PM | Comments (3)
Reflections on Worship Arts and Liturgy Conference and Travel, April 2005 – Mark Pierson
May 01, 2005
America, culture of contrasts: where 47% of all meals are eaten outside of the home; 20% are eaten in a vehicle; new houses are often built without kitchens; and the average cost of home kitchen renovations was USD43,800 in 2002! America, where the states that gave most support to George Bush’s morals-led re-election also have the highest divorce rates. America where Kentucky is the home of Bourbon and parts of the state prohibit sales of alcohol at any time.
The contrasts at the ‘Worship, Arts, Liturgy and Preaching Conference’ (www.walp-ec.com) at Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky weren’t quite so stark. While it was run under the Emergent-USA banner I was attracted by the lineup of speakers that was in contrast to the usual Emergent conference. It offered Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox as well as Protestant, and several female speakers. Emergent is a network of churches and individuals interested in or belonging to the stream of church life that is variously described as ‘emerging’ or postmodern, post-colonial, or post September 11. (www.emergentvillage.org) It was an exceptionally worthwhile event at many levels.
First up I was surprised by the number of people there who I had encountered (or who had encountered me) in other parts of the world via Prodigal Project or Fractals or some seminar or other. It’s always encouraging, humbling and surprising to hear stories of the positive impact that something I’ve written or said has had on another person. I never quite come to terms with it.
Then there was the wide range of excellent speakers and seminar leaders. Under the title of ‘Public Worship as Spiritual formation, Brian McLaren gave 10 good reasons for going to church; Maggi Dawn gave a standing-ovation address on how we should look at the Bible in our current context; and Claude Nikondeha from Burundi was outstanding talking about the ‘Just Worshipper’. All of these addresses (and the others not mentioned) should be available on CD and by download from the website soon.
In Kevin Callahan’s workshop (‘Body Language: the art of ekklessia’) I was delighted to meet an architect who knew something about worship spaces and the effect they have on worship. If I ever build a worship space I’ll have Kevin design it. Joe Myers unpacked some of the material in his very helpful book ‘The Search to Belong’. Barry Taylor gave us a rapid-fire overview of the global explosion in spirituality and the need to design a spirituality for the twenty-first century.
Artist Kevin Nolly from Tribe in LA had produced a stunning series of Stations of the Cross pieces that were exhibited, and Lily Lewin and friends set up a series of stations constantly available for reflective worship. They were based on different Christian traditions in worship eg Charismatic had us laying our hand on a tablecloth, drawing around it and writing prayer requests inside. Later others would come and place their hand over the request, pray for it and draw around their own hand to indicate what they had done. Nice. Also covered Mainline Protestant, Roman Catholic, Evangelical, Anabaptist.
Worship led by Tribe and their fantastic hand-drumming circle, and by Corey Nelson were highlights.
But, as is usually the case at these events, it was the casual conversations over meals and in the lounges late at night that were the most stimulating. WALP gave plenty of space for this.
People were very interested in Urban Seed and how it went about its ministry. It was great to meet Geoff and Sherry Maddock who are part of an intentional community near Asbury Seminary. Geoff is a Melburnian and knows Urban Seed well.
WALP was framed with a prelude weekend in Denver hanging out and having very stimulating conversations with my friend Sally Morgenthaler (sorry about flooding your bathroom – twice Sally!), and a postlude weekend in Bowling Green, Kentucky with friends Steve and Elizabeth Ayers. On Saturday I went with them to Hillvue Heights Baptist Church ‘Single Moms Oil Change and Car Wash’. It was incredible. Any single mum can bring her car in and get a free oil filter and oil change. Then the car is safety checked and brakes, fanbelts, tyre pressures etc before being washed. While this is happening the mothers and kids are inside having free haircuts, manicures, back and foot massages, choosing free clothing, food, children’s activities etc. They do this every three months! At 7am 15 cars were lined up waiting for the 8am opening. They shut the gate at 2pm and the last cars take another hour or so to process. 238 cars were done, 66 went through the 11 oil change bays in the first hour. It costs the church about $3000 each time. 140 volunteers work on the cars, in the café etc, not all of them Hillvue or church people. Around 600 people come through. Seeing people work together, the responses of the mums helped, hearing the conversations was, very moving and I cried almost constantly! It was a humbling experience to see the impact this church was making with very practical mission and service.
Sunday morning I attended two out of the three services (and went to an adult study group in between). Although a Southern Baptist Church (‘We don’t do it very well.’) it was not at all like usual SBC services. What impressed me most was that they have many of the same values that Cityside Church and Urban Seed have been built on. The choir sings once a month and has 100-150 participants. They sang beautifully but there was no formal-excellence about their style and all shapes and sizes, ages, education and work backgrounds and ethnic groups were represented. The lead singers were a long way from the look of Hillsong, although they sang as well. (One singer was told by a major ‘Christian’ recording label that while she had a magnificent voice she had no future in the business because she was ugly) The congregation is very mixed and many come from addictive backgrounds. They seek participation before excellence.
Hillvue draws about 4500 people to 4 services over the week, from a pool of about 8500. Fourteen fulltime pastoral staff and a budget of USD1.8 million. They are debt free and will not go into debt for a building project. There are no reserved parking spots for the lead-pastor or any other pastoral staff. In fact Steve parks his car at the back of the carpark in the spot farthest away from the door. He likes to talk to people as he walks through the parking lot. None of the pastors or elders sits on the stage during worship. The band comes and goes as it is needed. Steve preaches for 35 minutes with no notes! Their message is that Christ offers hope and change in the midst of the pain and failures of life, so they attract a lot of addicted and broken people (cocaine being the drug of choice). They have retained their original chapel on site and return to it regularly to retell the story and early struggles of Hillvue Church. They loved hearing about Urban Seed.
At Easter they set up a labyrinth, and offer reflective worship spaces and events alongside their usual stuff.
It was helpful for me to see a church that was successfully connecting with it’s culture in very different ways to most ‘emerging’ churches, and to put the material I speak about in my seminars (about curating worship, new ecclessiology etc) up against Hillvue. If what I am saying really is principles then it needs to be applicable in this context too. Lots to think about here.
Bizarre coincidence: Mark Hale, Executive Pastor at Hillvue has been rostered to do a report for week ten of his Drew University doctoral programme - on the CDROM I produced, 'Fractals: alternative worship resources for the emerging church'. I am staying at his house when his report is due!
So all in all it was a worthwhile 10 days away, mostly because it gave me some perspective on what I am doing in Melbourne. It put that work in a wider context and helped me to reflect on both the ministry of Urban Seed and the potential place and value of Urban Seed:church in the bigger picture. I remain convinced that the future of the Church in the West doesn’t lie in the Emerging Church movement. The value of this movement is to influence and provoke the inherited church forms into change rather than to replace them. Still a vital role.
Posted by markp at 08:22 AM | Comments (1)
