Pentecostal Discussions

Theology & Film - Podcast Lectures 4 & 5

Well… the theology and film podcast lectures have certainly been an interesting ride so far. To start with, we looked at the medium of film quite broadly and discussed how a theologian might go about reviewing film.  Now, in these latest lectures, we begin to look at some of the more specific issues raised by particular films or groups of films.

In lecture four, Dr Shane Clifton discusses Christ films and the cultural influences which have impacted the way in which Christ has been portrayed. Following this, lecture five presents Shane, together with Dreu Harrison, engaging in discussion surrounding the Nietzschean influence on contemporary culture and subsequently on modern and postmodern film. In this discussion they focus specifically on the 1957 classic, The Seventh Seal.

In addition to these podcast  lectures there are also film reviews available for you listening pleasure. All of the above lectures and reviews can be found here. Enjoy!

Theology & Film - Podcast Lecture 3

In this lecture Dr Shane Clifton looks at reviewing film by using Bernard Lonergan's eight functional specialities.

To download the podcast and view comments please go to
http://scc.typepad.com/theology_and_film

Absent Concerns 4: 'My First School'

by Mark Hutchinson

[from C S Lewis’ ‘Notes on the Way’, Time and Tide, vol. XXIV (4 September 1943), p. 717]

Every now and then one stands and looks at oneself in the now as compared to what we have been in the past. Perhaps a photo falls out of a box, perhaps we meet an old friend after many years of separation, perhaps we have a conversation with someone younger who wakens in us a memory…. whatever the spur, we are left thinking, “this is me as I was, and I am because of that, but that is not what I am”.

Theology & Film - Podcast Lecture 1

by Shane Clifton

As you may have heard, I am teaching a new unit this semester, theology and film.  Students will be watching a series of films in class (listed below), and i will be delivering the lectures via this podcast.  If you are not a student - please feel free to join us and listen in (apart from these lectures, i will be posting a series of mp3 film reviews which should stimulate some interest).

Download film_lecture_one.mp3

For those of you who use itunes and ipod, I am trying to get this mp3 audio into the itunes podcast feeder. I am somewhat technologically incompetent, so give me a few days.

Finally, everything that is good about this podcast, is the work of Kate Tennikoff - who had to sit through my initial recording disaster, and then edit the current version.  Everything that is tacky about this podcast is my fault.  Feel free to leave whatever feedback you deem appropriate on the comments below (students - that can be your first podcast assignment - since i forgot to include one in the lecture).

If it is at all possible, enjoy,

Absent Concerns 1: Chivalry and the Cultured Self

by Mark Hutchinson

In August of 1940, C S Lewis published an essay in Time and Tide called 'The Necessity of Chivalry'. The following is a reflection on this essay, later republished in Present Concerns, as the first in a series of reflections on Lewis' work and their 'currency' for Christians engaged in thinking about popular culture.

In the shadows of the Battle of Britain, C S Lewis put pen to paper on the need for Chivalry.  The setting was suitably ironic. The roaring of Spitfires overhead left little doubt as to the contrast between medieval organicism and modern machinery. His question, however, was not about machines, but about men. In those days, one could still talk about ‘men’ rather than ‘people’, intending both the biologically masculine and the generality of humans. Lewis does not seem to have conceived of a time when such a definition would become a matter of personal preference.  The ‘necessity’ of which he spoke was partly driven by a sense that there were certain ‘natural’ elements to human life which were fixed in stone.  There were good men, and bad men, and hard men and soft men, and like categories for women. The idea that one might interchangeably choose to be man, or woman, or both or neither, at a legal or surgical whim, was just not in his calculus.

The Emerging Missional Church: A SWOT Analysis (Part 6)

by Deborah Taggart

Conclusion

Having examined some of the major strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the EM church, what now? We can rejoice in its strengths: the variety and experimentation, the intentional engaging with culture, the emphasis on building community, the culture of self-critiquing, and the space allowed for mystery within an integrated, holistic faith that leads to personal and social transformation. We can embrace the opportunities that our current setting presents: the cultural change around us and the newness and adjustability of the EM movement.

 

But what about the weaknesses? What do we do with a movement without clear definition and direction, which is prone to unfair stereotyping, false dichotomies and exclusivity? If we pause to put this in historical perspective, we can then acknowledge that the church has never been perfect in practice (as a quick glance through Paul’s letters to the Corinthians might remind us) or theology (as we can see in the disagreements between Paul and Peter in Galatians).

The Emerging Missional Church: A SWOT Analysis (Part 5)

by Deborah Taggart

Threats

While many aspects of the EM church’s environment offer opportunities, there are also threats to be overcome on the journey to healthy, sustainable development.

 

Common Threats to Church Plants

Firstly, as most EM churches are new churches starting from scratch, they will face many of the same threats as any other church planting team. George Lings and Stuart Murray^[1] identify some of the issues that are often unexpectedly troublesome: the pressure of keeping motivation alive; the attrition of weekly setting-up; ceaseless creativity in worship; a constant multifaceted learning curve; a widening agenda as the church matured; and a misunderstanding by surrounding churches.

The Emerging Missional Church: A SWOT Analysis (Part 4)

by Deborah Taggart

 

Opportunities

Not only are there strengths and weaknesses within the EM movement itself, but there are also outside factors which can help us examine its potential.

 

Cultural Change

Many people see the EM church poised to reach several of the needs and orientations that people now have due to cultural change in Western society. Michael Moynagh^[1] lists various key changes, such as:

• the fading out of churches – churches that pop up ‘outside of the box’ can attract people’s attention;
• the urban struggle for time and money – churches can revise what expectations are placed on their congregations and how they find and use their financial and human resources;
• hyper choice (personalised consumerism) – people are looking for churches that meet them on a personal level and share their values (this would also need to be challenged, as an encounter with Christ and his church should challenge some of our values, not simply cater to all our personal preferences);
• spiritual spending – people’s consumer choices are often towards ‘products’ in which they hope to find “identity, acceptance, belonging, connection to the whole and meaning”^[2] – all of which the church and faith in Jesus can supply. Another inroad for EM churches is their emphasis on social justice – the secular world is becoming increasingly sympathetic to ‘good causes’, and they are more likely to connect with churches who want to ‘make poverty history’ than with those who are only pointing their fingers at “litmus test issues as homosexuality and abortion”^[3];
• experience economy (shopping, eating, and activities are geared toward not just another boring consumption, but creating atmosphere and memories – ‘an experience’) – there is an opportunity to create churches that don’t just have ‘services’ comprised of standard segments, but instead where rich experiences can be created, where the synergy of creativity, atmosphere, community, transformation, service and symbolic actions combine to help people enter into an experience of God’s Kingdom “on earth as it is in heaven”[4];
• liquid lives (people live flexibly with transitions, ages, expectations and life choices) – times, demographics and expectations can be remixed into a surprising ‘church cocktail’; and,
• relational recreation (people’s relationship-building is shaped by their choices of leisure and consumption) – so church groups can gather and evangelise enjoyably, centred around relationships and shared leisure preferences, rather than having to approach people with whom they have little in common.

 

The Emerging Missional Church: A SWOT Analysis (Part 3)

by Deborah Taggart

 

Weaknesses

Having discussed the main strengths of the EM movement, we now turn to examine some of its weaknesses and how they may be overcome.

Lack of Clear Definition and Direction

The newness of the EM church and the nature of its reaction against ‘5 steps to church success’ and ‘one-size-fits-all’ models has meant that many EM churches are hesitant to define themselves or lock themselves into a certain method, description or category. While this can be helpful and allow a church to move forward rather than stagnate; it can also be counterproductive to have a lack of direction. As Kim Hammond admits, “my fear for the emerging church is that it defines itself by what it isn’t”^[1]. Alan Roxburgh points out, “in too many ways, it is still reacting to the immediate past of the church in the West, and no movement of reaction brings real innovation”^[2]. It is all too easy for many EM churches to identify the flaws of other church models and practices, but their real fruit will show as they continue to move from simply protesting about problems to creating and implementing positive solutions.

The Emerging Missional Church: A SWOT Analysis (Part 2)

by Deborah Taggart

Strengths
Variety and Experimentation
Firstly, a major strength of the emerging missional church is their willingness to be flexible with culture and experiment with something new, all part of what Sweet identifies as “our continuing struggle, as followers of Christ in a changing culture, to live out the meaning of the incarnation”^[1]. This flexibility and experimentation leads to a wide variety of EM churches (hence the definition problems discussed earlier), so Moynagh writes of an Anglican church in Halifax, England, that has started a Monday Lunch Box (communion and lunch service, attracting people who don’t go to church on a Sunday, and are asking to be baptised) and also of Saddleback church in California where they have a video café service (offering a choice of worship styles, smaller crowds, and videotaped sermon)^[2]. Although these churches differ in structure and style, both have decided to move beyond the traditional forms of church to create a worship gathering that will resound with local people. Variety in types of church is important not only contextually, but also culturally – moving away from one-size-fits-all church models is an important step towards reaching out to the growing numbers of people who, wearying of the standardisation that came with modernity, are looking for personalisation^[3].

The Emerging Missional Church: A SWOT Analysis (Part 1)

Last year (on the way to a babysitting gig) I was introduced to the movement known as the emerging or missional church (let's just call it the EM church from hereon in). Hearing just a few examples of what it can be like had me salivating; this was the kind of thing I had been dreaming about creating in my church-to-be. 'You mean to tell me there are other people out there who have these kind of crazy unusual random ideas about doing church differently?! Like really differently??!' So Shane suggested I do an independent guided study....which means a whole subject's credit for reading and writing about the things I dream about, plus an excuse to go on a research trip to Melbourne! As you can guess, I did it! So what follows is my essay, broken into a five part series. Part 1 deals with the (lack of) definition, parts 2 and 3 look inside the EM church, examining its strengths and weaknesses; parts 4 and 5 look at its environment, noting opportunities and threats; and part 6 is a conclusion which I may have to rewrite depending on how much you and all your comments enlarge me! So, read and comment away on part one...

Rebuilding 'The House' III: Martha's House

All the above said, there is nothing as powerful as a properly functioning, healthy church community. It was this that turned over the Roman Empire, revolutionised Western Culture, gave the world an inestimable heritage of service and value. What is it that makes such a thing work? Systems theorists tell us that all social organisms need maintain the balance between task and maintenance. Task is the exciting stuff – it is the stuff that ‘we are here for’, it is what pastors love throwing vision at. It is assumed to be the task of the leader, whether in the business corporation, the NGO or the church. Maintenance is what holders of such conceptions of leadership like to leave to others – it is the vocation of the ‘pastoral care’ pastor, the ‘administration guy’, the facilities and programs director. The systems theorists, however, would point out that vision is not the only task of leadership. The task of leaders is to act as the cut out switch, the holder of the balance between the demands of maintenance and task. To set task without reference to maintenance is to invite burn out and the phenomenon of the ‘big back door’; to set maintenance without reference to task is to freeze into self-satisfied irrelevance. The reaction of Pentecostal churches in particular to the latter model of church has meant a distorted preference for the former model of leadership – the model which leaves the leader with the task of vision, but no responsibility for what happens in the rest of the organisation. This flows through into what our ruling metaphors for church will be: house or Temple, home or mission. Any one of these models can be made to work – the trick is for it to know what it is, and to do that well, without denying the vitality of the other metaphors.

Diving in the Pneumasphere II

This combination of reference points necessarily takes the Christian life out and beyond the ‘statusphere’. Physical life, which we share, is supported and implied by the biosphere. The discursive, cultural life implied by being a living human is described by the statusphere – and indeed, much of the biblical record is dedicated to dealing with the problems which arise when one places physical life in culturally charged settings. But the biblical record also deals with the interactions of physical and humano-cultural life with a higher sphere, that of the spiritual order. Coming from a Pentecostal worldview, one could look at much of Jesus’ earthly ministry as being dedicated to the declaration of a ‘pneumasphere’, a ‘third economy’ where the actions of physical and enculturated life take on new meanings because they are submitted to the will of God. Jesus calls this state ‘the Kingdom of God’. Like the biosphere, it is coextensive with the statusphere (ie., one must be physically alive to be a subject within the statusphere, and likewise, ‘it is given unto man to die once’ – one must also be physically and culturally located for the Kingdom of God to come among amongst us, ‘Your Kingdom come, Your Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.’ The Kingdom includes those who are disembodied, but their fates with regard to the Kingdom are not the business of those who are embodied – it is among those who are embodied participants of the three spheres that the Kingdom is coming, as opposed to having already come.) And like the statusphere, the function of the pneumasphere constrains the range and quality of choice and self-construction. Dogs struggle for priority in the barking order in order to maximize their chances of survival; humans struggle for priority in the statusphere, in order to maximize their opportunities for self-actualisation; seekers embrace disciplines in the pneumasphere because ultimate actualization is not actualization of the self, but of finding fulfillment of the self in the Other. In the statusphere, I judge my own liberty, in the pneumasphere, my liberty is judged by others: ‘Conscience, I say, not thine own, but of the other: for why is my liberty judged of another man's conscience?’ (1 Cor 10: 29) In the Christian view, we cannot simply choose to be like God. Humanness is embedded in bodies; Godlikeness is imbedded in Personhood – and Personhood implies otherness. We must choose Him who first chose us. In the statusphere we wrap who we are in the products of the biosphere so that who we are might be reflected in ways which are then reflected back to us. In the pneumasphere we are reflexively made by our experiences of projecting the ‘will of God in us” into the statusphere. We wrap ourselves in revealed knowledge, in prayer, in spiritual disciplines, song and sacred hymns, so that we are likewise reflexively made by the rules of that sphere. And thereby are we citizens of both, made by choice and desire of the things of God: “All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.” (1 Cor 10: 23)

Diving in the Pneumasphere - part I

by Mark Hutchinson

This blog, I am told, is a place to do our ‘stream of consciousness’ stuff – you know, the ideas we have when we are not really thinking about anything, the things which just drop into your head while reading a book and looking out a bus window. Me, I am an Australian-born, Christian social scientist who is married to someone from an infinitely older culture than my own (Italy). As I teach and think, I am a reticulating experiment in observing myself – my life regards my faith and my discipline, my faith my undisciplined life, and my discipline my living faith. It constantly escapes nice dualities, logical dialectics. And that is how I started following this particular idea by one of America’s (many, various and seemingly omnipresent) public intellectuals, Tom Wolfe. As a church historian interested in Italy, I was reading on Savonarola and the Bonfire of the Vanities, a term which I knew had been used by Wolfe as a book title. It seemed an apposite thought in a religious tradition (Pentecostalism) more marked by shiny new PDAs than Franciscan apostolic poverty. And so the ideas come together and spark off one another…