mountain masala

what is prayer?

here's a neat little animation explaining prayer from KORE, a christian resource website in the UK.

Kore: Roots

spirituality, creativity and culture

in march next year we'll have jonny baker and cheryl lawrie here, partnering with steve taylor (who will then be a 'local') and tim hein for a week of seminars, public conversations and art installations titled "a spirit of wonder."

A Spirit of Wonder: Brochure (1.2mb)

a central part of the week is an Adelaide Fringe Festival event. called "the landscape of desire", it will be an interactive, multi-sensory installation space at Pilgrim Uniting Church in the centre of the city. jonny and cheryl will curate it with support from me.

really looking forward to the whole thing. if you like the look of it, come along or send some people.

daily headspa

jana and paul have started daily headspa - a blog about finding a deeper, balanced, enjoyable and purposeful life. perhaps that sounds cliched, but for them its about spirituality as part of everyday life in ways that are imaginative, practical and fulfilling for ourselves and others.

paul is from adelaide, jana from the US (trying to remember which state!). i've known paul for years, stayed with both of them in london briefly, and they're now in darwin ministering at nightcliff UC.

they are remarkably creative, relational, well-grounded human beings. part of their ministry is life-coaching individuals and groups, bringing their christian spirituality to bear on that, but in a way that respects other people and their life stories. in other words, this is not unsubtle evangelism by any means, but rather seeking to help people know life in all its fullness.

locals will also know that paul is the dad of half of the pop duo lover's electric. that half being david and the other half being eden. jana is a "foodie" and blogs that here.

i wish they were here in adelaide but i suppose the northern colony is close enough.

bible study #3

for bible study #3 at ncyc we took the theme for the final day  -"diverge" or being sent. we recreated the lake galilee pool with blue cloth and stones, made a cross with the black cloth and decorated it with fairy lights, candles, pot pourri and bread rolls (hot cross buns actually - in january!). previously people had been seated in groups of four. on this occasion the seats were around the perimeter and we asked people to sit with someone they hadnt met before.

bible study #2

session 2 of the bible studies on mark took the theme of discipleship being costly and counter-cultural.

the entry experience featured a loop of the start of "powaqqatsi" of workers lugging sacks of dirt up a muddy hill, with a second pair of screens showing the "eye" loop from one small barking dog's "in motion" dvd. the music was "breath" and "float" from david bridie's "act of free choice".

we had set a black cloth with two kinds of fairy lights and candles at the front (you can see a "light" thing coming, can't you....)

the start sequence was the miniature earth animation.

i haven't blogged all year....

i'm still officially on holidays, but its been a bit quiet.

back from 10 days in melbourne, including a week at our national christian youth convention, aka ncyc, featuring a cast of thousands... (you know who you are...). we went over as a family - the twins at their third ncyc and me leading a bible study - there were nine options.

from what I heard there were about 1100 young people aged 16 to 30 and about 400 adults. an excellent week - good weather, good spirits, some great input. a large proportion of samoan and tongan people gave the event a different, lively and loud flavour - an excellent experience for we monocultural south australians.

upper room

I spent this morning with Robin Pippin and Sandy Miller from The Upper Room. (I'm staying next door at their "Pathways House"). We had a long conversation about resourcing the spiritual practices of young people, the positive and negative impact and possibilities of electronic media to assist with this, and electronic publishing and Web 2.0 in general. We also talked about how Devo'Zine and The Way of Pilgrimage series are going. They have just released a DVD to introduce the latter to leaders and groups and its very good overall. I think I'll use some bits at NCYC. I've been writing for both of these resources, the former for about 10 years, so I have a strong interest in this particular approach to resourcing youth spirituality. I also talked about what my interests and projects.

We did a quick tour of the Upper Room facilities and I found the bookshop that I will have to avoid (posted another box of books back home today!). Then a quick visit to the Guitar Centre where I picked up an Electro Harmonix Stereo Polyphase pedal (and played a few Martins), lunch at a Caribbean cafe, and then Sandy dropped me downtown.

youth spirituality seminar

my next trip blog entry is here......

youthspirituality.com/

more middle eastern food...

I'm visiting Minnesota for about 10 days - here at Luther Seminary and staying with Prof. Roland Martinson. Luther is a big place by Australian standards, with about 70 faculty and over 700 students. So far I've met with Dr Andrew Root who teaches youth ministry and authored Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry: From a Strategy of Influence to a Theology of Incarnation. Andrew did his PhD at Princeton with Kenda Dean, and his book has been receiving rave reviews. I've bought a couple of copies and look forward to reading it. He draws on Bonhoeffer to develop a solid relational theology of youth ministry, something we sadly lack. We had a great conversation about a range of issues, including youth ministry in a post-youth group church. I'm going to see if I can get a video interview with him before I leave.

Luther has developed an MA program in Children, Youth & Family ministry based among other things on the Exemplary Youth Ministry research which Rollie directed. I'm meeting Terri Elton, the Director of the program, on Monday. The program is proving immensely popular. How envious I am of a seminary that takes vocational education in this area seriously.

I had a great middle eastern lunch with Mary Hess, who is Associate Professor of Educational Leadership. Mary has been part of the International Study Commission on Media, Religion and Culture and has a strong interest in the use of media in education. We had a wonderful conversation about all manner of things including my proposed research. Mary is interested in theologies of communication, which will be a key area for me to explore further.

a discernment retreat

we're hosting an overnight discernment retreat to provide a prayerful space for people seeking direction for Christian service and ministry. it's friday 18 and saturday 19 july at nunyara in belair. john blanksby and jenny ducker are leading the retreat. If you're in the period of discernment or considering it, this is a great opportunity for you.

people can live-in or live out. there's a cost, and you can get financial assistance.

here's a flyer with details.

Download discernment-retreat-2008-www.pdf