Review: Finding Our Way Again Part I

Finding Our Way Again: The Return of the Ancient Practices
Author: Brian McLaren
Publisher: Thomas Nelson, 2008.214 pages
Reviewer: Leonard Hjalmarson
Brian McLaren is becoming a prolific author. I don’t have every volume he has written, but my shelf boasts five of his books, and this marks number six. On the whole they have been helpful, inspiring, thoughtful, and occasionally convicting.

Finding our Way Again is the first in a series of eight books that will be called The Ancient Practices Series. The books will be written by eight different authors, reflecting on the practice and application of spiritual disciplines. The series is timely, representing a growing desire for depth in our quick fix culture, and in particular, a desire to reconnect with the broader wisdom of faithful communities through the centuries. The next in the series is In Constant Prayer (to be released in May), followed by Sabbath; Fasting; Sacred Meal; Sacred Journey; The Liturgical Year; and wrapping up with Tithing, in February, 2010.

Brian McLaren kicks off the series by assessing our current need, and then explaining the role of spiritual practices from ancient days to now. This introductory volume paves the way for the next seven. We’ll consider Brian’s work and also assess his approach, which is a little unusual.

Report on MiWCP Zambia: Colin Greene

Third Annual Consultation in Lusaka, Zambia of the Mission in Western Culture project (2-9th August 2008)

I always seem to require a week at least to both intellectually and emotionally process my trips to Africa and this time I asked myself why? I have come to the conclusion that travelling to sub Saharan Africa and really experiencing the enormous economic and social transitions that are presently going on as well as enjoying the natural hospitality of the African people is probably a picture of what it was like to move into London or Manchester during the industrial revolution of the 19th century. All around you watch and experience the disorientating effects of modernization while still enjoying, for the time being at least, traditional African values and ways of life.

Lusaka seemed to me to be much like Nairobi or Johannesburg. On every street corner there is much evidence of those who have found their way into the new world of economic success and social mobility juxtaposed with mind shattering and gruelling poverty and injustice. Dusty streets choked with exhaust fumes; women and children breaking rocks by the roadside; expensive new hotels and government buildings often sponsored and built by the new colonialists, the Chinese; sprawling shanty towns and piles of degradable rubbish. Taxi’s crammed full of people on their way to low paid jobs. Young boys forlornly endeavouring to sell plants or meaningless modern bric a brac by the roadside and everywhere, just under the surface of the vibrant hustle and bustle of city life, the daily pressure and ocean of sorrow and heartache associated with a worldwide pandemic, HIV/AIDS.

Report on MiWCP Zambia: Paul Fromont

What has Lusaka got to do with Mission in Aotearoa New Zealand…? Well, quite a lot as it turns out. More in fact than I had expected or anticipated as I left early on Friday 1st August bound for Lusaka, Zambia. This was at the invitation of the Allelon sponsored Mission in Western Culture Project.

Participants:

1. (Rev. Dr.) Alan Roxburgh, Allelon, Canada.
2. Sara Jane Walker, Allelon, Canada.
3. (Rev. Dr.) Colin Greene.
4. (Rev. Dr) Martin Robinson.
5. Rev. Andrew Menzies, Melbourne.
6. Neil Crosbie, Chief Executive of Lifewords, London, UK.
7. Paul Fromont, Businessman, Cambridge, New Zealand.
8. Rev. Moses Chung. South Korea. Moses was present as an observer.
9. Rev. Ilkyu Park. South Korea. Ilkyu was also present as an observer.
10. (Dr) Frederick Marais, Stellenbosch University, South Africa.
11. (Prof.) Jurgens Hendriks, Stellenbosch University, South Africa.
12. Helen Hendriks, South Africa.
13. (Dr) X. Simon, Stellenbosch University, South Africa.
14. (Dr) Japhet Ndhlovu, Kenya.
15. (Dr) Uma Onmunta, Nigeria.
16. (Rev) Vacso Katchipapa. Malawi.
17. (Rev) Christopher Munikawa, Moderator Secretary of the Reformed Church of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe.
18. Esther Kayombo, Circles of Hope / HIV-Aids campaigner, Zambia.
19. (Rev. Dr) DT. Banda, Zambia. Dr. Banda is the Principal of the Justo Mwale Theological College that hosted us for the first four days of our time together.

ecumenical and a “third principle”

LeRon Schults writes in his draft article, “Reforming Ecclesiology in Emerging Churches,”

“.. the “ecumenical” efforts of emergents are aimed at both reconstructing the “identity” of the church mediated by encountering “alterity,” and reforming the communal practices within and across de-nominating boundaries.  Ironically, this attitude of ongoing reformational engagement with “others” has opened up interpersonal space and time for deep and authentic dialogue about and within differences, and fostered the practice of collaborative networking, more effectively than many of the efforts of official representatives of various ecclesial hierarchies.

“Emergents are multiplying, and for most of those participating in the movement this multiplicity is not perceived as a challenge but as an opportunity for forging transversal differentiated networks oriented by and toward reformative communion that empowers persons to share in the self-giving love of Jesus’ way of acting in the world.  Isn’t this what church should be?”

In these paragraphs LeRon obviates the need for a “third principle” of leadership, toward which Wilfred Drath and crew have been working as reflected in The Deep Blue Sea (part I of my reflections HERE). The need has also been obviated by Alan Roxburgh in The Missional Leader and in The Sky is Falling - the need for a creative commons). The question asked by Drath is this: “When there is shared work among people who make sense of that work and the world from differing worldviews, how can those people accomplish the leadership tasks while holding those differing worldviews as equally worthy and warrantable?” This question is somewhat prescient, and incredibly relevant in a world that is tearing itself apart.

leadership lenses

We all wish for a world that is un-mediated, where all experience is both direct and “real.” Unfortunately, that world only exists for rocks and animals; the rest of us carry mental constructs of reality with us that filter our experience and help us “make sense.”

We call these constructs mental maps, frameworks or paradigms, and we all employ them all the time. The maps I’m interested in lately are mental models of leadership. Those maps are often transparent to us, and one of the great values of education is to make them obvious. Until we take that step and move closer to something like a hermeneutic of suspicion,we are merely colonized by what has gone before or what is, without any ability to stand apart and imagine a different future. Instead of showing us a world of possibilities, our unreflected maps of leadership only bind us to the world we know and prevent us from recognizing new forms of leadership as they arise.

In this first post, I want to consider maps and models of leadership as social constructs that both empower us and hold us back. Then I’ll use the work of Wilfred Drath to form a new question about leadership and the potential of creative partnerships of missional engagement in our communities. The questions we engage will have implications for the ongoing conversation about leadership and mission as well as for our practice of mission in a post-colonial and pluralistic landscape.
***

Fully Present

A few weeks ago I spent 48 hours a St. Andrews Abbey, a Benedictine monastery on the edge of the Mojave Desert, about an hour’s drive from my house. During my time at the Abbey, in addition to praying five times per day with the monks, I wrote in my journal and read a wonderful little book by Joan Chittister entitled, Wisdom Distilled from the Daily: Living the Rule of St. Benedict Today.

One of the practices that I have found to be extremely important to missional life in our late-modern, globalized world is what the Benedictine’s refer to as “stability.” The monks, of course, take vows that require the commitment of a lifetime. In our highly mobile and contractual world, nothing is for life anymore. Even most marriages do not last a lifetime. Everything is mobile and unrooted.

But the gospel calls us to stability as well. Luke 10:7 says,

Don’t move around from home to home. Stay in one place, eating and drinking what they provide. Don’t hesitate to accept hospitality, because those who work deserve their pay (NLT).

In our congregation we speak of this as the spiritual practice of staying put. Quite a challenge in a city like Los Angeles where most everyone is from somewhere else and only here for a while. Most people in Hollywood are here to use the city. In this environment, staying put is a counter-cultural practice.

Hamilton Summer Institute Report

Formerly a CIBC Bank branch, The Freeway is now not only a church community, but a Coffee House that reaches out to the neighbourhood of downtown Hamilton as a missional third place. Under the direction of Pernell Goodyear, the focus of the venture is to provide an excellent coffee shop, on-the-job-training for disabled people who need some work experience to enter the job market, a meeting place for all sorts of groups and people, a stage for local musicians, a gallery for local artists, and a place for the community of people moving back into the neighbourhood to gather for worship. Meeting onsite, the participants in the Allelon Summer Institute at the Hamilton/Toronto ATC enjoyed the convenience of the coffee house for the breaks, and the participants also enjoyed the international restaurants nearby. In every way, the Freeway was a happening place in those early days of this July.

Alan Roxburgh taught the course 5.1 Mission-Shaped Groups: Structures for Missional Change during the mornings, and Pernell Goodyear taught 1.1 Missional Church: Its Nature and Purpose during the afternoons. Over lunches and suppers, further meetings and conversations naturally took place, and on Thursday evening as many as were able gathered in the Goodyear family yard for a barbecue and further socializing. Many experienced a sense of building relationships and connections that would continue in the future. Some were asking what other courses and topics would be available and when, which is always a good sign that we’re on the right track.

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