An ex-bookseller dares to speak...

As a Baptist who works with a bunch of people who adhere in their own Presbyterian way to the Reformed tradition (indeed, the catchphrase of the last Moderator was 'Reformed and Reforming') I sometimes have to help them see beyond their Reformed borders. (As, no doubt, they try to help me see beyond my Catholic/Pentecostal/Baptist borders.)

Which is why I'm linking to a piece David Fitch has done on the Out of Ur blog in which he asks, Is the New Calvinism really New Fundamentalism? He makes a good case as having some serious concerns that it may be, and indeed even in New Zealand I've heard the occasional piping Presbyterian voice talking about the 'essence of Presbyterianism' with the kind of (dare I say it) smug tone indicating that Presbyterians (Reformed) have pretty much got it right and most others have got it wrong. Whatever 'it' actually is.

Shoot me down as a hybrid Catholic/Pentecostal/Baptist-ex-Christian bookseller who's been exposed to far to many different Christian viewpoints. That's fine. At least David Fitch appears to making sense.....

Decreasing....

I prefer normally not to reprint entire blog posts from elsewhere, as that seems to be leaning towards copyright invasion. However this post by Bill Kinnon is so short that in this case I'll make an exception:

Why Aren't Big Name Christian Leaders Decreasing?

John the Baptizer, said this about Jesus in light of John's own "ministry",

He must become greater; I must become less. [John 3:30 NIV]

What would it be like if the cycle of ministry was for those who rise in prominence to disappear into the worshiping body as Jesus is exalted? Decreasing while Jesus increases.

Rather than building ever increasing platforms capable of supporting their egos ministries.

I'm just asking.

Before you quote statistics...

In a short piece on the Associated Baptist Press site, Roger Lovette (he's the chirpy looking chap on the right) talks about a group of 13 pastors of various ages who've all been dismissed from their churches.   In the middle of his article he writes: 

The best statistics tell us that 1,600 ministers are dismissed or forced to resign every month in America. Leadership magazine reported more than a decade ago that nearly 23 percent of all ministers will be forced out before their careers end -- and that 67 percent of those affected will face forced termination more than once. Various indicators suggest these percentages have continued to climb. The Barna Institute says that in the United States a pastor is forced out every six minutes.

I've posted on here before about the 'best statistic' above, except that when I last read it, it was 1,500 pastors burning out every month.  I guess someone has now concluded that since that stat is supposed to be a few years old, another 100 pastors needed to be added into the mix.  

In a month of 30 days there are 43,200 minutes.   Now if a pastor is forced out every six minutes, as Barna's figure is supposed to claim, in a month that's a total of 7,200 ministers leaving their churches.  Does something strike you as a little odd here?   Barna's figures are four and a half times more than the 'best statistics.'    

I keep reading about these 1500 or 1600 pastors doing something every month, and the more I read it the more irritated I get.   Use statistics by all means - I do it in my job all the time - but for goodness sake check your facts.   As Bradley Wright points out in his book, too many statistics are badly read, poorly reported, and go on to perform a statistogynistic (think misogynistic) role in life.  Let's start nipping the worst of them in the bud.  

STAANZ Conference Starts Next Week

We mentioned the STAANZ Conference some while back when it was still in its planning stages. It's now ready to roll and takes place next week on the 19th and 20th (November).

There will be a small charge of between $10 and $15 to cover the cost of the hall (not quite sure why that's still ambiguous) and the venue is the Ponsonby Baptist Church at 43 Jervois Rd in Auckland. There is also morning prayer at All Saints in Ponsonby - this is just around the corner at 284 Ponsonby Rd, and starts at 8 am.

The Conference starts each day at 9.00 am, and will go till around 5.30 in the afternoon. On the Thursday night there will be dinner at various local restaurants.

Here's a list of the participants and their topics:
Day 1 -
“Holy Spirit in the theology of Walter Kasper” – Hugh Bowron
“Backgrounding Walter Kasper’s Early Thought”—John Dunn
“Wandering between two worlds: 19th Century Reflections on Hope and Hell” - Carolyn Kelly
“Completing Barth? Helmut Thielicke in the Spirit” – Martin Sutherland
“The Spirit and Longing” --Judith Brown
"Conscious Awareness of the Spirit in Symeon the New Theologian" –Jim McInnes
“Searching for Embers” –Susan Adams & John Salmon

Day 2 -
“Abortion, Harm and Eschatology” –Matt Flannagan
“Infant Salvation: Is God’s Mercy Enough?” - Myk Habets
“Participatory Glory : The Eschatological Direction of Karl Barth's Theology of the Cross”—Rosalene Bradbury
“Time’s Redemption, a pneumatologically orientated Christology”– Bryden Black
“Filioque, Personhood and Ecclesiology” –Scott Kirkland

It looks as though a couple more speakers are yet to be announced, or maybe some time has been left for questions.

If you'd like any more specific detail, please contact me on missionadmin@maxnet.co.nz

STAANZ Conference

After much debate about dates and venues, Nicola Hoggard Creegan from Auckland, and Hugh Bowron from Christchurch, have decided to organise a STAANZ (Systematic Theology Association in Aotearoa New Zealand) conference in Auckland on November 19/20. Venue is to be the heart of Ponsonby, at Ponsonby Baptist Church Hall - so they can enjoy the cafes for lunch and dinner.

The theme for the conference will be eschatology and pneumatology. Nicola and Hugh would be happy for you to circulate this information to other theologians, and also to graduate students who might be interested.

So far, the following people have already promised papers:

Hugh Bowron "Holy Spirit in the Work of Walter Kasper"

Martin Sutherland "Completing Barth? Helmut Thielicke the Spirit"

Myk Habets "Infant Salvation?"

Linda Paterson, Antony Glading, and Judith Brown have also promised papers.

Please send paper proposals to:
Nicola Hoggard Creegan at nicolahc@laidlaw.ac.nz or
Hugh Bowron hugh.bowron@xtra.co.nz

Proposals should be sent if possible before the end of September. A programme will be circulated by early November at the latest.

Clean-up

The Sunday after Easter, around 1500 people gathered in the Dunedin Town Hall for a Resurrection service. There were plenty of young people, but also a large number of oldies, and the enthusiasm was full on.
During that service, Bruce Elder, from Dunedin City Baptist, called for volunteers to help with a number of 'service projects' around the town. The aim was to get around 800 Christian people going out into the community to pick up on jobs that needed doing, but wouldn't get done otherwise. These varied from street cleaning, to painting playgrounds at schools to restoring the Wakari Hospital's duck ponds.
The project had been advertised at various churches around the city already, but another bunch of people signed up for it at the Resurrection service.
In the end the number who went and worked was about half the number called for, but most of the projects that had been set up got done - and the weather stayed fine for the afternoon...

St Kilda

People tell me that it’s not always easy to be part of a church these days. We’re busy and overworked, and (some) churches feel more like hard work than we’d like them to. When I quote from Philip Yancey’s Church: Why Bother? or Alan Jamieson’s A Churchless Faith I look around the room and see nodding heads and looks of recognition.

So - why do we bother?

The lines above come from the website of the St Kilda Baptist Church. Rev Carolyn Francis goes on to say why the people at St Kilda do bother, and her statement stands as an excellent way of thinking about the value of being with other churchgoers. The site also talks about a couple of houses St Kilda runs, one for four young (otherwise) homeless people, and one for a nearly twenty people with psychiatric problems. It's interesting that a church that talks about whether to go to church or not is also well involved with mission work.

More on rural churches

From Geoff Baggett's blog, there's a report of a rural church that's completely turned around:

He writes:
Baptist Press reporter Kay Adkins published an interesting report today that focused upon utilizing methods normally thought of as “for the city” to plant and reinvigorate churches in rural areas. The story highlights the growth of the Brand New Church in rural Bergman, Arkansas. The church is a “re-start” of the former Southside Baptist Church in Lead Hill. The former 31-member congregation now averages over 1,000 in attendance each week … in a town with a population of 407. The incredible turnaround has occurred in less than four years.
"The Brand New Church utilizes many of the methods we associate with urban church plants - praise music, high-tech video, and casual dress. But, in reading the story, I thought the most interesting aspect of the church was its approach to Baptist polity. Indeed, when pastor Shannon O’Dell came to Southside (prior to re-starting as Brand New Church), one of his requirements was that the church needed to understand and be willing to be “pastor-led. He believes that God has structured the church: ‘… to be led by an under-shepherd or pastor” for the sake of Kingdom growth. “Most churches are structured for it to be congregationally led or democratic.’”

Click on any of the links to get more of the story.

Good old ecuminism!

There's nothing new under the sun, as they say, and what you think it is a good idea is often pre-empted by someone with a similarly good idea. Nevertheless it was still good to come across the NZ Methodist Church's blog with a very similar name: Mission:Resourcing. It treats the topic of Mission Resourcing in a slightly different way to us, but the best part about it is that they too are being missional. The more the merrier.

The reason I discovered their blog was that they were advertising Lynne Taylor's seminars on using data from the 2006 Census to give pictures of the community in which parishes work. Check out the details here.
Lynne actually works for the Baptists, and is based in Christchurch. She works part-time doing statistics and logistics.
Our office has done a bunch of similar work, and very shortly the Presbytery Stats (which were sent out on DVD to all the Presbyteries early this year) will be available on the Presbyterian website.

The Number One Christian Porn Site

Got your attention?

Yes, there really is a number one Christian Porn site, and the link is to a post about Craig Gross' trip to Australia and New Zealand in March this year. Unfortunately most of the post is about the Australian leg of the trip (sounds like the writer was too tired to write any more once he got to his NZ bit). However, Gross did come to NZ, to Northpoint Baptist Church, where they had a weekend discussing the plague of porn that's affecting men around the country and around the world. The senior pastor of Northpoint says, "Porn is a plague in our society, and the church must respond lovingly and proactively."

The church invited fathers to bring their sons to the Porn and Pancakes evening, and then next day they held a Porn and Parents night. On the Sunday, two services addressed the issues of porn in NZ society. Unfortunately further news about the weekend is no longer available on the Net (as far as I can tell) and the church's own website doesn't mention it.

Good Childhood

Results released in late February as part of The Good Childhood Inquiry—an ongoing study into the modern-day childhood—has shown that consumerism is having a negative impact on the mental health of children. This research illustrates the need to protect the innocence and vulnerability of children, rather than treat them as mini-consumers.

You can read The Good Childhood Inquiry Report on lifestyle here.

The Children’s Society in the UK has the Archbishop of Canterbury as its patron, and submissions come from a wide variety of groups, including the Baptist Union.