Theology of Public Presence
about a year ago over at open source theology Andrew started a thread entitled "towards a theology of public presence" i immediately responded with some questions which were answered in the following quote.
"""Paul, thanks for your comments – it’s certainly good to push this in a more practical direction. Let me just make it clear, though, that we are complete novices at this. We have taken a couple of steps forward and seen some small things begin to happen – but it could all die tomorrow. So I’m reluctant to draw too many practical lessons from our experience at this stage – still, here are some bits and pieces of ideas, values, principles, that are beginning to coalesce in our minds.
Be there: it may simply be that we have had to learn the hard way by going right back to square one, but I think that we must get it into our heads that being there is far more important than doing things; we have tried to arrange ‘events’ that haven’t come off and as a result we were simply left there with nothing to do – except buy a few drinks and talk to people.
Be consistent: I don’t think we will get very far if we regard this as a means to an end; it may be that church-like gatherings will emerge out of this sort of public presence, but I would suggest that the long-term objective is still just to be there, a puzzling, godly presence in people’s lives. In my view, the overriding need at this point is for the church to regain trust (relationally, ethically, intellectually) – which means that the church must become trustworthy (relationally, ethically, intellectually), and this takes time.
Be accessible, open, friendly: again, we have sometimes felt torn between doing something that we had planned and responding to whatever happens relationally on the night. But really it’s not that difficult to keep a balance between maintaining a sense of identity as a distinct body of believers and being open to developing friendships with others.
Be transparent: this is hard – Christians can get very secretive and underhand in their relations with the world. We are looking for a ‘discourse of faith’ that works both amongst believers and between believers and non-believers. We don’t want to be perceived as having ulterior motives, a hidden agenda. As it is, I feel uncomfortable writing even in such very general and vague terms about what we have been doing: I don’t really want to treat these friendships as an experiment in mission, create a meta-dialogue around them from which the people themselves are excluded.
Be underwhelming: we have rarely had more than seven or eight of us round a table: I would like to see it grow, and there may also be ways of bringing a larger group (from an established church, for example) into this sort of environment on a regular basis, but for now I suspect a larger group would disturb the fine balance between inward and outward relationships: either the group would close in upon itself and become a clique (get too many Christians together and they will stop talking normally and start speaking their own peculiar religious language) or it would become a rather overbearing, disruptive Christian presence. Perhaps we just need fragments of Christian community that will feel incomplete until they have connected with people around them.
Be creative: we are always on the look out for creative ways of stimulating thought, engaging people in conversations, discussions: for example, we passed round some questionnaires on personal happiness that elicited some interesting responses, opened some windows into people’s lives; we’re thinking about planning an evening of short entertainment items with some of the regulars. This will be a big part of the challenge – finding the paths that will get people walking across a spiritual landscape."""
The whole discussion can be found here
and why reinvent the wheel when a fellow canadian has done further work on this. you can find a pdf at this link
"""Paul, thanks for your comments – it’s certainly good to push this in a more practical direction. Let me just make it clear, though, that we are complete novices at this. We have taken a couple of steps forward and seen some small things begin to happen – but it could all die tomorrow. So I’m reluctant to draw too many practical lessons from our experience at this stage – still, here are some bits and pieces of ideas, values, principles, that are beginning to coalesce in our minds.
Be there: it may simply be that we have had to learn the hard way by going right back to square one, but I think that we must get it into our heads that being there is far more important than doing things; we have tried to arrange ‘events’ that haven’t come off and as a result we were simply left there with nothing to do – except buy a few drinks and talk to people.
Be consistent: I don’t think we will get very far if we regard this as a means to an end; it may be that church-like gatherings will emerge out of this sort of public presence, but I would suggest that the long-term objective is still just to be there, a puzzling, godly presence in people’s lives. In my view, the overriding need at this point is for the church to regain trust (relationally, ethically, intellectually) – which means that the church must become trustworthy (relationally, ethically, intellectually), and this takes time.
Be accessible, open, friendly: again, we have sometimes felt torn between doing something that we had planned and responding to whatever happens relationally on the night. But really it’s not that difficult to keep a balance between maintaining a sense of identity as a distinct body of believers and being open to developing friendships with others.
Be transparent: this is hard – Christians can get very secretive and underhand in their relations with the world. We are looking for a ‘discourse of faith’ that works both amongst believers and between believers and non-believers. We don’t want to be perceived as having ulterior motives, a hidden agenda. As it is, I feel uncomfortable writing even in such very general and vague terms about what we have been doing: I don’t really want to treat these friendships as an experiment in mission, create a meta-dialogue around them from which the people themselves are excluded.
Be underwhelming: we have rarely had more than seven or eight of us round a table: I would like to see it grow, and there may also be ways of bringing a larger group (from an established church, for example) into this sort of environment on a regular basis, but for now I suspect a larger group would disturb the fine balance between inward and outward relationships: either the group would close in upon itself and become a clique (get too many Christians together and they will stop talking normally and start speaking their own peculiar religious language) or it would become a rather overbearing, disruptive Christian presence. Perhaps we just need fragments of Christian community that will feel incomplete until they have connected with people around them.
Be creative: we are always on the look out for creative ways of stimulating thought, engaging people in conversations, discussions: for example, we passed round some questionnaires on personal happiness that elicited some interesting responses, opened some windows into people’s lives; we’re thinking about planning an evening of short entertainment items with some of the regulars. This will be a big part of the challenge – finding the paths that will get people walking across a spiritual landscape."""
The whole discussion can be found here
and why reinvent the wheel when a fellow canadian has done further work on this. you can find a pdf at this link
posted by Paul Seburn at Tuesday, May 31, 2005
4 Comments:
I would have to agree that the church is not very good at invitation, and furthermore, I don't believe the church should be in the business of bringing people into church buildings. It seems that the only thing churches do well in this area is set up fancy programs or outreaches that draw people with flashiness. Then once the conference is over there is little left and people fizzle out. It's a very "now" focused agenda. Make quick converts, move on to the next town. As the original post talks about we need to build and cultivate as a garden. People need to hear and see and practice and experience the things of God, as seen in our lives. Church programs don't do that, people do.
you just spawned my next blog post......organic gardens
BOGDAN SAYS, "DRIEK SAC BEARD KIT" WOULD BE CONSIDERED A LEGIT FORM OF EVANGELISM
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