Frontier Leadership?

I attended a national conference titled ‘Frontier Leadership’ earlier this year. With good intentions the title inspires us to seek new ways and new ideas of pioneering new initiatives for the future. I fear ‘Frontier Leadership’ has become yet another cool catch phrase like ‘Fresh Expressions’, ‘Emerging Church’, ‘Future Directions’ and the like.

I have been part of these conversations actively for around 7 or 8 years as a Christian minister working with Churches of Christ. While I wrestle with all the realities and challenges that face the Church in the 21st century, I’m not convinced that the mainstream churches are coming up with anything radically new to inspire younger leaders for Christ’s mission to a radically different world to the one we constructed our churches for.

I am a minister of a church that has been established for 95 years, I fit into the category of traditional ministry within a traditional church model. I’m not sure that our church would fit into any of the titles I’ve stated above but I live with the belief that the Spirit of God who actively moves among us can create new things from the old, can bring forth new inspirations and stir in the hearts of the faithful people of God. Whether we are ‘emerging churches’ with cool names or traditional congregations established for a long period of time we must live with the belief that through available and faithful people God can create something new and use us to usher His kingdom into the 21st century. All is not lost, the church is not dead or dying, God is refining and reshaping for something new.

I have begun addressing some of these challenges through my Masters studies and my ministry with Blackwood Church of Christ. I have attended numerous conferences and participated in even more conversations and I’ve come up with a theory – although not all conferences I’ve been to support this. The theory is; there is no one solution, there is no big idea, no program, no 10 steps or 12 steps for that matter. There is no one answer to the challenge we face.

Frontier Leadership is this: being available to the pioneering Spirit of God who moves among us and goes before us. We seem to forget that God’s done this before. This is not the first time human beings have come to the point of realizing we don’t have the answer or the map to give us directions into some promised future. Our answer in the past, which worked for a while, is to look to the guru with the answer. That guru leader provides the vision, inspiration and way forward. The risk in looking to this as Frontier Leadership is that we suppress the grassroots movements of the people of God, we neglect the priesthood of all believers and we make idols out of the guru leader listening to the voice of the leader over the stirring of the Spirit.

Yes the old constructs are being deconstructed and maybe for our own good. What I’m seeing beginning to emerge is the imagination of the people of God once again daring to go to the margins and provide leadership in places the church has been absent from. But here’s the critical realization. There is no one big thing! There’s lots of little things each one of us can do and do well. When we engage God’s mission to the world with the conviction of the Holy Spirit we see Christ’s promise come to life, we can achieve immeasurably more than we can imagine.

Watch this space because I want to start telling the stories that are emerging in and around my ministry context. Stories of grassroots movements, the small yet meaningful ways people are engaging God’s mission to the world; the stories of what I think are modelling frontier leadership.

Shalom, Mark

Faithfulness

I renamed this blog around the theme of radical discipleship because at the time, discipleship for me was about radical action. I haven’t changed my mind about that, however since this year began I’ve been reflecting on discipleship a little differently and, I think, engaging with it on a deeper level.

I think what lies closer to the heart of radical discipleship is radical faithfulness. I’m not exactly sure how many other themes will resonate with me around the heart of discipleship and i don’t have a plan to blog about it daily or weekly. but just musing out loud whenever God lays something on my heart and if this sparks conversation then i am happy to engage with it. however I’m not looking for solutions or answers or the next 10 steps program. I’m looking for people willing to engage the conversations that lie at the heart of our faith communities. What ought to shape us as the people of God and what does that look like?

Faithful discipleship, the more I think about it and attempt to practice it, is actually quite radical and counter cultural.

Tonight I was prepared to run a service we call Sacred Space. We started this in October last year out of a need within our community to have a worship space that wasn’t busy but reflective and prayerful. There are lots of spaces to listen for God and space to be. Each Wednesday evening at 8pm  6 or 7 people (sometimes more, sometimes less) would enter the space for half an hour. We would pray, listen, hear scripture read out loud, light candles and share communion. It was healing and life-giving. We had a break over Christmas and recommenced this month.

At our first service for the year one person showed up. So I went through the motions of the service, sharing readings and prayers and sharing communion together. The next week (last week) 3 people showed up. Tonight, no-one showed up. So what did I do? I ran the service. i read out loud the welcome and the prayers, the scripture readings and then my own unscripted reflections about communion and relationship with God through Christ, all out loud. Am I crazy talking to myself? No actually it didn’t feel like that at all.

Maybe the old me would have packed up and gone home disappointed that no-one showed up. By the conviction God has laid on my heart is faithfulness. i think faithful discipleship is responding to a call even if no-one shows up, even if no-one recognizes you, even if all seems lost. Radical discipleship is about being faithful.

The them of tonight’s sacred space was radical enough from the Gospel reading Matthew 5:38-48. The prayers and reflection, the space and communion were all based on the theme of loving our enemies and praying for those who persecute you. But God did a work in me because I was available and faithful. The space was essential for me, i needed to be there even if no-one else was. And so I was grateful to be there in the half hour space hearing the words of scripture out loud and communing with God out loud. And if anyone were to walk in late they could still join the space .

So what does it mean to be faithful and how counter cultural is it really? What sorts of things are we faithful to? What demands our attention and where do we give it? Does God deserve our faithfulness?

 

Shalom

Mark

Blogging

I’ve been absent from the blog for a few months because since the launch of Advocate, Verity and I became first time parents. Daniel was born on May 28th 2010. Now we are settling into parenthood i thought I would come back to the blog and let you know about 2 more blogs I am writing for.

More than Sundays

How often have you stood there in a church service, singing a worship song and in the middle of the song you ask yourself…’what on earth am I singing about?’ Furthermore, what are we all doing here standing in rows, facing the front and the back of each others heads in uniform like robots? This may not be the case in some more charismatic/pentecostal churches, but when you look around it seems you in a room full of stunned people going through the motions

Do you see me?

With 10 days to go until Verity’s CD launch I thought I’d better get cracking on this blog and continue reflecting on some of her songs. There is something subversive about messages contained in a song delivered with a sweet voice and a beautiful face. We receive the message differently to if we were told in a speech or written in a blog. Verity’s messages are piercing to the heart, confronting to our comfort zones, yet there is something that intrigues me to listen again and again. There is something that tugs at me to want to respond.

Vox Congo celebrate this Christmas

Friends I bear great news!!!

Etienne and Adolphe have their Permanent Residency! I spoke to them both last night just as they found out and they are ecstatic! It overshadows the news Verity and I announced just a couple of days ago that we are having a baby! For those of you who don’t know yet, yes we will become first time parents in June next year. It was just a couple of days after we made the announcement to everyone that we’re having a baby tht Etienne called me with the great news.

Some of you know them as the lead singer (Etienne) and bass player (Adolphe) of Vox Congo, while others have come to know them as dear friends, family even, who have been fighting for their right to live free from oppression, their right to be protected and their right to be reunited with their families.

Verity and I first met Etienne, Adolphe, Martinse and Papy in mid 2002, 4 asylum seekers from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We were living on campus at the Churches of Christ Theological College (CCTC) next to fellow students Keith and Sharon Briant. Keith was working with Urban Neighbours Of Hope (UNOH) through the Asylum Seeker Assistance Project (ASAP) and I was about to commence as senior minister at Knoxfield Church of Christ. One day while pottering in the garden Keith approached me and asked if our church would consider housing 4 asylum seekers UNOH had been working with, in our church manse which was currently vacant. It’s amazing what can happen from a conversation around the garden outside the units on campus at college.

From there we invited Jon Owen (UNOH worker) and Adolphe to come to a service at Knoxfield to not only meet but raise awareness on Refugee Sunday about the plight of refugees and asylum seekers. A couple of weeks later they were living in the church manse and so began an amazing relationship between the church and the guys but even more so between the guys and Verity and I.

As I began advocacy campaigns for them Verity spent time teaching them English. We had countless meals with them sharing stories, some very difficult to talk about. The church provided shelter, clothing and food. UNOH paid their utility bills. And over the 9 years I led 4 advocacy campaigns involving letter writing and visits with MP’s and Senators. Countless times the guys were rejected and depression set in, so we shared in the tears and the fears of what next, imagining the worst, to which Adolphe would say, ‘we need to be faithful, God is good’. Many people joined the fight at different stages of the joueney and some come and go, Verity and I knew they needed some constant friends to sustain them in the journey.

(hospitality with Vox Congo in our home, playing around at Glenelg beach & sharing the stage at a church gig)

I was talking with Keith Briant today celebrating the news. We acknowledged that it is almost 9 years since they arrived on our shores and began the process of applying for asylum. We remember there were times when both of us would sit with them and break the bad news about the reality of what they were facing. Especially after exhausting all avenues of appeals to the courts and refugee tribunal and still getting responses of rejection I remember sitting there with Keith and the guys with our hearts breaking telling them the fight was over, it was time to face reality. But here’s a lesson in faithfullness and hope in the face of hopelessness. Adolphe especially would look us in the eyes with the utmost respect for us as pastors of the church and say ‘Pastor, this is not the end. God will do something and give us a testimony to glorify his name’. Constantly each one fo teh guys would remind us of this whenever we hit a road block.

Not long after we met, Vox Congo was born and I became their manager working with them in getting gigs all over Melbourne, then Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide. I worked with them as they produced their first CD and we used their CD and the gigs we organized to lift the advocacy campaign for them and raise money to support their living.

It wasn’t long before my whole family had adopted each of them as sons and brothers, (the guys call my parents ‘mum’ and ‘dad’). My family always has a place for them, they have joined us at the Christmas dinner table and at family events, and now my parents house in Adelaide is a favorite retreat.

In July 2004 I married Papy to Rebekkah (they now have 3 kids) and in June 2007 Papy called me to let me know his Permanent Residency was approved. I cried, he cried and we waited for good news for the others. In February 2005 I married Martinse to Carmen (they now have a daughter Grace) and in January 2008 Martinse received his Permanent Residency. In July 2008 all of us exhausted, constantly harassing immigration to respond favorably to Etienne and Adolphe, we all felt like giving up. Once again Adolphe’s optimism and message of faithfulness rang in our ears. So we launched one more campaign to get 1000 people to write 1000 letters and we launched it at the UNOH Surrender conference. We got our 1000 letters and sent them off through their immigration lawyer. That was over 12 months ago and I thankyou you all for your participation. Now after a few technical glitches that held up the system we can finally celebrate with Etienne and Adolphe.

The most amazing part of this story is the faith journey they have been on, through the crippling lows particularly and their attitudes of hope, their faithfulness and their optimism. We have discovered the value of true friendship together and what it means to stick with your mates through the crap. Now we look forward to the party and celebration of a hope realized. Last year my mum was able to visit Adolphe’s family living as refugees in Kenya and Verity and I were able to visit Etienne’s son who was living in Paris. Now the guys have plans to visit their families in person. Oh and did I mention that last month Papy changed his name to David after he became an Australian citizen!

In the words of Adolphe, “Praise God! God is good!’

Amen

May shalom reign this Christmas.

Mark

P.S. Check the tags for related Vox Congo stories over the past 5 or 6 years and I just rediscovered a bolg I started some time ago which I haven’t touched in a while with more Vox Congo stories on it. Follow the journey at www.voxcongo.blogspot.com

Chocolate back on the menu

Cadbury’s dairy milk chocolate is back on the menu for Stopthetraffik fairtrade chocolate campaigners according to a press release sent out 2 weeks ago.

I know I’ve been a bit slow to respond to this on my blog but I have been a very active campaigner of fairtrade products and particularly fairtrade chocolate through World Vision’s ‘Don’t Trade Lives’ campaign.

The press release from Stopthetraffik is very encouraging because it goes to show that the tireless campaigning of people like you and me against the practises of the mega giant corporations and companies who use unethical practices to source and produce their products, can actually bring about change! Please read the PDF file and be encouraged. Cadbury’s are switching to faritrade this year! Who can now eat Cadbury’s chocolate and feel good about it! Here’s the next challenge. To date Mars and Nestle (Mars being the biggest and most powerful chocolate producing company in the world) still refuse to budge. However Cadbury’s move may have an impact on this.

Here’s what you can do. If you enjoy eating Mars and Nestle chocolate then make sure you write to them and let them know how much you want to enjoy their product if only they changed to fairtrade practices. With Cadbury’s move and consumer pressure you would think that they would start to listen. You can pray for a change of heart but even if they change their practices purely for competitive reason, that’s still a leg up for the thousands of child slaves in Africa used by these companies to source their cocoa.

I’ve included helpful links to assist with informing you of the dire situation of slave trading and how you can respond, below.

World Vision ran a very public ‘walk against slavery’ campaign in Adelaide end of last year headed up by Tim Costello and Sen. Chris Pearce. Sen. Pearce’s agenda is to get fairtrade chocolate into vending machines in Commonwealth buildings, while Tim is campaigning more for the abolition of slavery in the chocolate industry in this particular campaign. It was a great day to raise awareness.

Before I finish this post let me ask you a question. Will you be buying Easter eggs or other Easter chocolate related products this Easter? If so do you ask yourself deliberate ethical consumer questions like…where does this chocolate come from?

My challenge to you: Don’t just buy your favorite chocolate, or the cheapest chocolate, let ethical consumerism inform your choice and choose fairtrade. Feel good about eating chocolate this Easter and go fairtrade, it feels better and tastes better – it’s only fair!

So, where do you get these fairtrade chocolate bunnies and eggs from? Check out the Chocolatier at your local David Jones store, the Oxfam shop in your city and most Woolworths and Safeway stores will also stock them. This link will give you more information about where to shop.

Here are some helpful links where I have been involved in my campaigning that will infom and guide you to make ethical choices.

Don’t Trade Lives

Stop the Traffik

Ethical shopping guide

Have a ‘fair’ Easter, don’t trade lives, stop the traffik, make poverty history, make a massive difference through simple choices.

Shalom Mark

‘Dear Westboro Baptist Church’

I was updating my video bar to reflect some of the footage taken of the National Day of mourning service when the YouTube link I’ve posted below poped up in the search. I wonder what you make of it. I’m kinda scared and a little bit freaked out by it, no wonder I saw no sign of Westboro Baptist Church at the service. This cute little animated puppet is one scarey dude. Have you seen Child’s Play with little Chucky?

Seriously though, how helpful do you think this is? I link this post back to my post on foolish compassion. Sure we don’t agree with the inhumane and outrageous views of a small minority that call themselves Christians yet hate everyone. There is something seriously wrong here and I mean some serious pshchological issues going on there with Fred Phelps and his followers.

It’s interesting that I note within myself that I think I was more fired up about ‘Pastor Danny’s’ comments from ‘Catching the Fire Ministries’ than I am by Fred Phelps. I just find it hard to take that guy even remotely seriously but he explains the bushfires in Australia quite simply saying, ‘God hates Australia’. Of course he links it to the film Heath Ledger stars in when he played a homosexual character, saying that Australia is full of fags and we deserve it. I know I used to get angry too but I just can’t take this guy seriously enough to get angry with him anymore.

Back to this video link however. What disturbs me is the assumption of attack by Australians and the condoning of violence against anyone who aligns with this thinking. We are Australian and we are better than that…I hope. Otherwise we may be just as bad as the people of the Westboro Baptist Church.

Remember the words of Jesus to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. These are the actions I would hope we as Australians would aspire to over violence and revenge. Let’s have a conversation about what that kind of love and compassion look like rather than ways in which we can hurt people who enrage us with their views and opinions.

Check the video and if you really want to see what the Westboro Baptist Church are saying you don’t have to look far to find out.

Foolish Compassion

As everyone is well aware by now, the man charged with arson over the Churchhill fire is probably the most disliked person in Victoria. Here is yet another example of poor journalism, the court has ordered his identity be protected yet the media in all their wisdom pretty much hand him to the public on a silver platter guiding them to sites like facebook and myspace where his picture and details are in full view.

Greg Barnes who is a human rights lawyer has criticized the media saying not only have they hurt his opportunity of getting a fair trial and possibly destroying the investigation all together but he has been horrified at how this tragedy has brought out the worst in Australians. He said with every tragedy you get to see the best and the worst in human nature. While the best has been seen, yes we are seeing the worst with the reaction to accused arsonists with hateful threats of violence and suggestions on how we should treat such people.

Well I have a suggestion, how about we treat such people with compassion? I don’t mean we ignore the actions or even that they shouldn’t face justice, but no amount of revenge or hate will reverse or the circumstances or satisfy hurt and anger. Revenge is not justice, it’s just another crime.

I suggest compassion because it was to choice of Jesus to act with compassion towards people. Sure Jesus got angry at circumstances but never did he seek revenge. He urged his followers to do outrageous things like love their enemies and pray for those who persecute them. Jesus’ sermon on the mount is probably the most famous yet outrageous sermon recorded in his ministry. It’s a mission statement for his ministry and his suggested way of life. While a natural reaction to anger and feelings of injustice is to react and get even, the Jesus model is quite the opposite.

Christians are called to stand for far reaching love, outrageous grace and foolish compassion. It may not make sense but it is the only alternative to a world of people who still insist of solving problems with revenge attacks, violence and getting even. In all of human history these methods we insist on are yet to be fruitful and work. So as a Christian, a follower of Jesus I join the voice of many who have gone before me and ask that you tune in to the values of the kingdom of God try a method that takes patience and understanding.

True compassion comes from a changed heart, one moved with pity for a person who finds themselves in a tragic place, either by their own doing or through some other circumstance. Have compassion and let the justice system determine the punishment.

Shalom Mark

Nooma – a just voice for the feminine

I love the Nooma DVD presentations featuring Rob Bell. Since I’ve been on Facebook I have signed up to be a ‘fan’ of Nooma which means I am invited to watch the premieres of each new video they release. They usually have them available to watch for free for 2 days then they take it off and the only way you can see it is to buy the DVD.

The latest Nooma DVD is called ‘She’. It’s hard to say which is my favorite Nooma but this one certainly grabbed my attention. I think it actually gives a welcome and liberating voice to the women of this world who have suffered marginalization and oppression at the hands of the church (dominated by men in leadership). I am grateful for Rob’s voice of justice and I know many women (and men) who would welcome this message. Sadly I know many women and men who would not welcome this and i hope they would be open to dialogue and teaching on this issue.

Rob Bell speaks of a number of feminine images and metaphors use in the bible to describe God that may come as welcome relief to those who feel alienated by the dominant masculine images we have of God. Is that attributed to the male dominated leadership we have had over the centuries? We have only been taught a half truth about who God is and now our language and our songs refer to God in the masculine where in fact much reference to God in scripture is gender neutral language or as Rob says, ‘God transcends and yet includes what we know as male and female’. He talks about how in the Genesis ‘poem’ created man in the image of God and female in the image of God. There is a masculine dimension to God and there is a feminine dimension to God.

I think it’s a shame due to the constant oppression of women in all levels of church leadership that we have in a sense being robbed of much teaching and pastoral ministry expressing the fullness of the nature of God. What’s worse is that the bible in which we find so much Good News about the equality of gender and the diversity of the gifts, has been used against women to shut them down and hold them in a lower class when it comes to authority on scripture, teaching and expressions of ministry as gifted by the Spirit of God.

And what about women in leadership? If you get a chance in the next 12 hours to view the screening of this presentation ‘She’, have a look at how Rob describes women as integral to the leadership of the early Christ movement. And if you think the Apostle Paul is against women in leadership i encourage you to not only read your bibles again but take some time to learn about the context into which he is speaking and the culture. We do great injustice to scripture when we can’t be bothered even with a little exegetical work. Rob Bell even argues that Paul was the first person in history to argue for the equality of the sexes when he writes to the Galatian Church stating that ‘in Christ there is neither male or female.’

Rob says, ‘if you don’t have her perspective, if you don’t have her wisdom, if you don’t have her leadership, you’re not just missing her, you’re missing out of something central to who God is’. He goes on to apologize to women who have been made to feel second class by the church. Good on ya Rob, we need more voices like yours.

If you are female and reading this and can relate, I want to encourage you. We desperately need more women taking up ministry with the church. We need more women preachers, teachers and pastors. I look forward to experiencing something more of the fullness of the expression of who God is through God’s people.

Shalom
Mark