Join us for a week exploring Celtic spirituality

On September 20-24 we will be leading a course on Celtic Spirituality as part of Fuller Seminary’s DMin program.  Based on the island of Lindisfarne, off the coast of Northumberland, we will have sessions on Lindisfarne history, spirituality, as well as hands-on workshop on Celtic art, worship, reflection on mission issues, and sharing stories.   In addition to sessions led by us, we have recruited some significant speakers who live and work on Lindisfarne itself. 

As well as those who are formally enrolled in Fuller’s DMin program, we can also accommodate others as ‘audits’ (which roughly speaking means you have the experience without doing the work – and pay a lot less for the privilege!).  For details, see http://www.fuller.edu/uploadedFiles/Academics/School_of_Theology/DMin/SP764%20Drane.pdf   And to enrol (or enquire more), email Julia at dmin@fuller.edu

Search for an authentic church

Jim and Casper go to Church is the title of a fascinating little book that came our way recently.  Written by two friends, Jim Henderson and Matt Casper, the book documents their visits to churches of all shapes and sizes in their US homeland.  Nothing surprising in that, you may think, except that Jim is a fervent Christian and Casper is an atheist.  They agreed to suspend their preconceptions and to engage in honest dialogue about their experiences.  Their trip included megachurches such as Saddleback and Willow Creek, as well as more ordinary traditional congregations and some emerging ones (Mars Hill, among others).  Amazingly, they managed to keep their bargain, and the book is one of the most honest dialogues you could imagine.  They both learn something along the way, but the most interesting thing is Casper’s take on what he experiences.  At Saddleback he tries to roll the stone back from the door of the replica of Jesus’ tomb, only to discover it’s locked – and wrly expresses the hope that they will unlock it in time for Easter (yes, they really do have a life-size replica of Calvary perched on top of an artificial tomb).  At Mars Hill, he finds himself somewhat repelled by Mark Driscoll’s aggressive style and is puzzled as to why ’he likes to talk about sex a lot … at least once every minute’ (p102) when he could be talking about Jesus.  And at those two and all the others they visit, he wonders why there is so much emphasis on self-improvement when his reading of the Gospels suggests that disciples are supposed to care for other people, not themselves – summed up in his big unanswered questions addressed to Jim, ‘Is this what Jesus told you guys to do?’  Jim, for his part, is challenged because all the things that churches do to make themselves more attractive to outsiders actually turn Casper off – not just the kitschy environment at Saddleback, but the drumkits, noisy music and worship leaders that seem to be everywhere.

By way of a contrast, this online volume came through our computers this week.  The brainchild of Australian Jay Jeffries, it is billed as a Bible for spiritual searchers, and is gradually being released on the website in installments.  We both contributed to it, so we have a stake in seeing how it goes – but we can’t help wondering what Casper would make of it.  Because there are a lot more like him than there are Jims in this world.

Jim and Casper go to Church is written by Jim Henderson & Matt Casper, and published by BarnaBooks: ISBN 978-1-4143-1331-2

Tattoos and spirituality

David Beckham has a new tattoo.  To add to his already extensive collection, he now has one based on a painting by Matthew R Brooks, entitled ‘The Man Of Sorrows’ and depicting Jesus in a reflective pose.  It’s not his first Christian-inspired tattoo (he already has a cross and a guardian angel), though the religious significance is evidently not important to him.  His spokesperson is quoted as saying that he ‘has an appreciation of religious art and iconography and the new tattoo reflects that’, while adding that ‘unlike a lot of his other designs, there is no specific meaning behind it’.  Further down the same article, though, the same friend assures us that ‘Each tattoo he opts for is very carefully considered’, before adding that ‘It’s more than a hobby for him – it’s almost spiritual’.

So there you have it, direct from one of today’s style icons: Jesus has no particular [religious] meaning but just may have something to do with being spiritual.  Some Christians have been trying to convince us recently that the culture is becoming more secular than spiritual (and by implication that we are making this stuff up).  Actually, we couldn’t have said it more eloquently ourselves, and where celebrities lead others invariably follow.

Writing spirituality

On the train on the way home from the Society of Authors summer party.  We had lots of interesting conversations and connections – it seems like you just have to say you write about spirituality and everyone’s dying to give you half their life story – well, the bits they regard as spiritual anyway.  We are old enough to remember a time when mention of such a topic would either have been the end of the conversation, or people would have been eager to tell you which church they went to, either in real life or their imagination.  Not a single one of today’s conversations went in either of those directions - nobody turned off, but plenty of stories about fairies, angels, inner search, etc.  Some of them more believable than others but it seems like everybody who’s anybody needs to have at least one angelic encounter these days.  In fact so many of them at this event that we’re thinking of proposing a spirituality writers group.  Which could either come under fiction or non-fiction, but would certainly be fascinating.  If any society members are reading this, let us know what you think.

Church Leavers

In February 2007 we were teaching at Fuller Seminary, Pasadena, and a couple of students asked if they could create a website as their assessed work for a course on ‘Theology and Culture’.  They did, and both got A’s for the course.  Their intention was to research reasons why people leave church, by inviting such people to share their stories.  What we (and quite likely they) did not begin to imagine was that the site would still be up and running more than two years later, and still going strong with responses and stories from people who were leaving church – but (and this is the interesting part) mostly were not giving up on faith.  To learn more (and maybe share your own stories), go here.

It’s an interesting reflection to think that if we’d been inflexible about what assessed work in a graduate school should look like, a significant resource for wounded people would never have existed.

Midsummer delights

We took a couple of days off this week, thinking that June might actually be summer in Scotland.  How wrong can you be!  It wasn’t just all four seasons in the proverbial 24 hours, but all four of them in the space of about 40 minutes.  The drive to Glasgow on Monday started in dull, though dry weather as we left rural Aberdeenhire, but by the time we were passing Stirling there was actually snow at the side of the road.  We had to look at least twice, but sure enough – not hailstones, but real snow.  Not to mention a sky as black as night and flooding all over the place.  Then just 15 minutes later, bright sunshine, which continued all the way to Glasgow and for the rest of the day.  Still, it was just as well that the main attraction was not outdoors.

And it was well worth travelling through fire and brimstone to be there!  The main attraction was a concert by The Priests, three Irish priests who’ve just shot to fame from nowhere in less than 12 months following the release of their first album last Christmas.  

In an obviously unscripted dialogue, their informal laid-back style of conversation throughout the concert was something else.  Fun, faith, spontaneity, and a lot of easy talk about God and the spiritual, not to mention their fantastic singing just made it a great occasion.  And where else would you find a concert where the most prominent projected icon is a cross?  And it wasn’t all a bunch of old grannies either: we sat next to a couple of twenty-something young women who must have been first in line to get there, and whose excitement at seeing The Priests in person was … well, infectious.

Next day we went to see an exhibition of Edvard Munch’s work, which (as we expected) evoked the exact opposite set of emotions, with his obsessions with failed love affairs, death and, of course, stress – most famously expressed in his painting The Scream. 

But as well as that there are various versions of his Madonna on display, along with an intriguing portrait of Nietzsche, and a striking self-portrait.  The exhibition runs till September, and is free so well worth a visit if you like that sort of thing.

After that, a walk down the street to the Kelvingrove Gallery to take (yet another) look at Salvador Dali’s Christ of St John of the Cross,

and while we were viewing that we had an unexpected (and free) organ recital.

Of course, all this was interspersed with new conversations, about the meaning of life, faith, spirituality, theology … and how cool it would be to have The Priests as pastors.  And on the way home we called by this interesting studio.  A two day outing doing these things probably tells you something about us …

When things come together

 

Don’t you just love it when things work out – and the last few days have been like that for us.  It started when a car that had been out of action for more than five weeks was finaly sorted just when we were starting to think it might be finished, or might be very expensive to repair.  That was a particular bonus for us, as we needed to be in two different places today, separated by 120 miles or so, and for various reasons both needed cars to reach our respective destinations.  It’s been an interesting emotional journey, working out how to share a car, especially when we have taken it for granted in accepting engagements that the two of us could be in different places at the same time.  Only magnified, of course, by the fact that we live in the middle of nowhere, five miles from the nearest public transport.  A test of patience on our part, and a mark of patience on the part of the workshop mechanics.  It eventually came down to an electronic component that cost peanuts …

So, we got to our engagements today: one of us in Edinburgh, leading a workshop on clown ministry in a deprived neighbourhood, and the other in Aberdeenshire with the Diocese of Aberdeen.  No prizes for guessing who was in which place!  In different ways, both events were transformational, and not just for us.  There’s always something specially rewarding about ministry in a deprived space, and seeing how the Gospel lifts up and empowers those who are so easily marginalized.  And that’s just the church leaders – who are increasingly disempowered and discouraged by the realization that what they have been doing isn’t working any more.  The Episcopal Church is a minor player in Scottish church life, but there was a remarkable degree of openness and expectancy among the folks from Aberdeen diocese, and some meaningful conversations and engagements.  And – in both places – no angry people.  That has to be good news.  All too often, those who are struggling, for whatever reason, become embittered and angry – and show it whenever they get the chance, blaming whoever happens to be in the firing line.  Not doing that surely has to be a spiritual gift in itself.  It is certainly a sign of growing spiritual maturity.  And that must be an evidence of hope and faith in the future.  Which, when you think about it, is what Pentecost is all about.  So on Pentecost eve, how encouraging to be able to blog like this at the end of a day well spent, in which we both found encouragement – and signs of God at work – in such diverse spaces.

Sound bites

Back in October last year, John preached a sermon in the chapel at the University of St Andrews, entitled ‘Sound bites can damage your spiritual health’.  A sound bite that we heard at a meeting last night has pushed that question a bit further for us: can sound bites also damage your theology?

The sound bite in question came at the end of an impassioned address about mission and (appropriately enough since we will be marking it at the weekend) mentioned Pentecost as a model of how we all need to hear the good news ‘in our own languages’, otherwise  we don’t hear it at all.  That sentiment must have been repeated thousands of times, as a way of asking ‘what are the languages people today speak?’ – cultural languages, often, rather than the spoken word.  The talk in question ended with a great sound bite, in which the speaker spoke of a ‘silent Pentecost’ that he believed is already happening in some churches.  Which gave the two of us plenty to talk about.  A ‘silent Pentecost’ sounds slick and neat, but what does it mean?  Indeed, does it mean anything at all?  Is the adjective ‘silent’ not a contradiction in terms when placed alongside almost anything to do with mission, not least in connection to that explosive event which most commentators regard as the birth of the church?  Those who know us even casually will be well aware that we are more than happy to promote non-verbal explorations of spirituality and faith.  And still reflection (silent, even) can be part of that.  But people whose lives are touched will always want to speak about what they have discovered.  And at the heart of any sort of practical theology is reflection on the practice, as (at a minimal level) we exchanges notes with other people.  Sound bites have their place (and we’ve coined quite a few ourselves).  But they can also be used to undermine good theology in a subtle way that makes nonsense look like wisdom.  Surely that has to be the case with this one.  It certainly isn’t one that we’ll be adopting for ourselves.

Is anything worthwhile emerging?

We spent the weekend with a stimulating house guest, Kevin Ward from Knox College in Dunedin, New Zealand.  Like us, Kevin has an interest in emerging church, and in his inaugural lecture asked the question whether some of the emerging movements could really qualify as being ‘church’.  To find his answers to that question, go here.  So no prizes for guessing what the conversation has been about for the past 48 hours.  It was the sort of conversation that is more about comparing notes than anything else, because the three of us are pretty much on the same page on all this, which could probably be described as being encouraging of emerging church, combined with big questions about some of the groups that think they are ‘emerging’ – and the underlying question ”what are they emerging from?’  Too many such groups are still emerging from dissatisfaction and anger with traditional church, which inevitably clouds the agenda and turns something that could have missional potential into what easily becomes a forum for grumbling about past hurts (real or imaginary), and an over-concern with individual’s own agendas and opinions.  Of course, there will always need to be a space for people with issues – but that is a therapy space, not a missional space!  Which is the crucial difference between ‘real’ emerging church, and those who are only playing at it and adopting the terminology because it seems to be trendy.  The only sort of emergence that is authentic is that which comes from a spiritual encounter with gospel, culture, and the values of the Kingdom.  Once that engagement is lost, then however worthy other concerns might be, they are going to struggle to be regarded as authentically church (or even Christian) in any deeply rooted way.  We were also reminded again of the importance of being theologically grounded in any reflection on what church might be for the 21st century. 

That’s not the first time we’ve said all that, of course.  But thanks to Kevin’s visit and conversations we have seen a few new angles on it.  And, of course, had our insights (or prejudices, according to some) affirmed.  But then, isn’t that what friends are for?

Stress on the cards

Hard on the heels of our post about food being instilled with spiritual virtues comes news that Psychic Sisters, who have had a concession n the famous London department store Selfridges since 2006, are seeing business ramp up in the current recession as hard-up stressed-out executives consult them to try and plan their future.  For all the details, go here (another HT to Time magazine!).

The virtues of the Jesus Deck have already been praised by at least one of the contributors to the Sheffield conference, Reaching out in Mind, Body and Spirit.  So this has to be a missional no-brainer: whose church will be the first to offer debt advice and counselling, along with readings from the Jesus Deck?  Just remember you read it here first!