Overcoming incompetence

I have been reviewing this book for Regent’s Reviews …

here is a “blog response”.

Sunday, 22 April was “World Earth Day”. A colleague noted on his Facebook page that he had seen little reference about this day. There could be numerous reasons for this. One of them is what ethicist Willis Jenkins calls “moral incompetence”. This is no insult but the recognition that some issues appear so great that they leave people so “ethically overwhelmed” that it undermines our ability to respond in any meaningful way at all.

It is Ray Andrew Newson who picks up on these language and ideas and writes on this in his recent work Radical Friendship: The Politics of Communal Discernment(Fortress 2017).

Speaking explicitly about Christians he writes:

“To be sure, Christians have severely misdiagnosed threats throughout history – that is nothing new. But in such moments as well as today, what this represents even if only in retrospect is a failure of discernment – failure of the capacities of individual Christians and individual Christian communities to hear and articulate, what to do, or who to be in the face of moral threat” (Radical, 2017, p. xiii).

In this way Christians participate in the “moral incompetence” of wider society in the face of moral issues, questions, and threats.

In response Newson argues for the significant role that local Christian “communal discernment” can make to such situations.

I agree with the significant place that Newson would give to “communal discernment” not least in relation to a “baptist” congregational ecclesiology. I also resonate with his wider argument that this ecclesiological polity has trajectories towards a “radical democratic” emphasis on local participative politics as a solution to the reduction of “citizens to consumers” and participants to voters. While not really one of his themes, I am also supportive of integrating a variety of ideas that can foster and create a more active participation of all voices in discussions and discernment.

The above notwithstanding, I would want to highlight the ‘theological’ perspective of specifically Christian communal discernment. For this is not only discussion and decision but “discernment” . This is discernment not simply of the “mind of the group” but indeed of the “mind” of Jesus Christ himself. Oh, to be sure this requires that which may well be spiritual disciples as well as practical approaches such as actively listening and taking the time to hold together in a greater common purpose even as we disagree. But there is more. There is the expectation and faith that Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit is present, and accordingly will be creative and disruptive and not least active in what is going on.

Christian congregational discernment is not less but is certainly something theologically more than participatory local governance (even that in which we may see God at work). It is the context in which we want to be able to say that not only does it seem good to “us” but indeed to the “Holy Spirit and us”. Without that claim, rather, without that living Spirit reality, we reduce such gatherings to something less than they can be and ought to be, and need to be if we are to overcome both our “incompetence” or at times “overconfidence” in correct responses to complex issues. In saying this I agree with Newson that such discernment can be provisional as it is always forward moving and open to further development and correction from God and from others who are also seeking to live this way.

Leading and participating in such discernment takes time and energy and a commitment to such a process of formation and transformation. Perhaps as I have argued elsewhere this is why it is something that people are not willing to give time and attention to. See earlier post. I think though I am with Newson – this is a “moral” issue of how to do ethics in a context of threatening paralysis or over certain platitudes.

So back to where I began: “World Earth Day”, sadly another issue that remains discerningly unexplored in relation to the rich resources available to us in meeting together to ask what the living Jesus Christ may be saying to his Church here and now.

 

Who is my neighbourhood?

And so last night was the final night of the course on worship which I have been delivering in the Halifax Metro. It has been a good experience to engage with a range of people who have attended this course. As ever I have learned as well, I hope, to have taught.

Last night we explored specifically the topic of the extent to which our worship services were shaped by their neighbourhoods or wider communities.

 

This is a complicated matter. What is named as neighbourhood or community can be a contested topic. On the one hand, the neighbourhood or wider community can be the people in the geographical location around where the church is situated. On the other hand, for many whom attend the congregation, their neighbourhood or surrounding community of presence and influence may well be located in a different place, that is a place where they work or live and move and have their being.

Neighbourhood of friends

 

It may be necessary to recognize that neighbourhood for the church gathered may be different from the neighbourhood of the church scattered. This distinction, actually may be crucial to notice. When people in congregations are being asked to build relationships with the people in the surrounding neighbourhood (understood as the area around the church) they may actually be being asked to build relationships in a place where they actually spend very little time!

The question ‘who is my neighbourhood?’, therefore is a real one and points to neighbourhood as places of diverse encounter on the journey of life (kinda Jericho to Jerusalem stuff) rather than in a fixed geographical location.

Taking this matter of the church scattered in neighbourhood is also a strength of course with the attendant weakness of a Baptist ecclesiology of congregation as gathered (or gathering) rather than primarily geographically located.

Of course I am not denying or decrying the geographical significance of the location of a building in relation to its surrounding neighbourhood but this is certainly not the only neighbourhood in town!!!

To be sure from a congregational perspective it makes sense to give some attention to the geographical location and the people who live and work around where the actual church building is situated. To limit our understanding of neighbourhood, however, only to this geographical location may be to simply miss the opportunity of encouraging and enabling people to live as faithful Christians in the wide variety of other communities in which they are already situated and already have relationships. Perhaps, a greater recognition of the network of communities and neighbourhoods in which the church scattered has already is a better strategy – without completely negating the issue of the neighbourhood around the building.

In addition to the above, when we talk of a crafting worship for our neighbourhood we have to pay attention to the congregation who gathers as neighbourhood as well as the wider community as neighbourhood. The immediate neighbourhood in this understanding is actually the congregation who gather in their specific demographic make-up. In this respect, I frequently make the point that the cultural relevance of worship services does not need to be something targeted towards the not yet attenders. But rather cultural relevance is necessary for the meaningful engagement of the congregation who are already present.  It is indeed them who are going to scatter and worship services should enable, empower, and inspire them to live faithfully in the diversity of the contexts in which they live.

The above notwithstanding, I think that may be true to say, that many congregations do not represent in their worship an explicit sense of their physical locality other than in the most general of terms. This of course will differ from congregation to congregation and context to context e.g. a rural congregation

may be more shaped by the requirements of our farming timetable and the congregation in a multi-ethnic area (one would hope) may be more shaped by such demographics than a congregation which meets in the dominant cultural expression. This noted, I still think that may be true to say, but many congregations do not represent in their worship an explicit sense of their locality other than in the most general terms. In the Canadian situation this also relates to the wider question of the presence and nature of a Canadian identity.

With reference to our congregational gatherings for worship, the sorts of acts and activities in which our local neighbourhoods: gathered and scattered; congregational and wider could be more explicitly reflected are prayer, preaching, musical style, and in terms of the art represented in our buildings. Some of this will will require some work (some not – such as the intentional decision to pray for another local community group each week) I would argue, however, that the local crafted flavour is to be preferred to the bland global brand (either European Classical or Global North Contemporary) that many worship services can adopt.

 

 

 

 

 

Apples of gold in baskets of silver

FemalePreacher

Minister Preaching in Front of Gospel Choir

Bible thumping

Arguing that ‘Posture, Gesture, and Action in the Delivery of a Sermon‘ are certainly not everything, nineteenth century Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon, yet dedicates two lectures to this topic in his lectures to his students! I like his lectures, his metaphors perhaps because they are so dated are sometimes brilliant!

Oh indeed, Spurgeon argues, there is more to good preaching than appropriate gestures but concerning their value he writes:

‘Are not apples of gold all the more attractive for being placed in baskets of silver?’

or again

‘none of you would care to wear a pauper’s suit if you could procure better raiment, so you should not be so slovenly as to clothe truth like a mendicant when you might array her as a prince’s daughter’.

(See you can be a Princess of Preaching as well as a Prince!)

Spurgeon certainly makes an important point when he states:

‘It is not so much incumbent upon you to acquire right pulpit actions as it is to get rid of that which is wrong’.

Spurgeon, had his own list of things (‘oddities’) he considered problematic , indeed ‘grotesque’, such as those who would ‘hammer, hammer, hammer, without sense or reasons, whether the theme be pleasing or pathetic’.

 

We could perhaps include: rattling keys in our pockets, fidgeting with our hands, playing with our sermon notes, waving our spectacles about, repeatedly playing with our hair etc.

Of course, as with other matters what is acceptable and what is not will vary according to context, but we do need to be aware of that which distracts and indeed impacts our ‘ethos’ as preachers.

In a somewhat newer book we are are told:

‘From the first moment you come into the view of your audience, they are beginning to make inferences about you on the basis of what they see’.

[Duan Litfin, Public Speaking: A Handbook for Christians, 2ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1981), 317.]

As a consequence we need to consider general issues related to being on time, dress appropriate for the occasion, demeanor, and the way in which we approach and stand at the lectern, desk, pulpit, music stand. As with the spoken introduction this initial introduction can have an impact on people’s receptivity of what we are going to say. If in the ways we approach these things our body says we do not care, then we invite the listeners to dislike us and not to care either. Suitable dress (whatever that means) and a relaxed-confidence removes initial barriers – it is okay to smile at people when you first look at them.

Following on from the above, our body-language during our preaching is clearly also important. The goal here has to be that our body language works with our message and not against it.

Liftin writes: ‘Your posture, movement, and gestures should be orchestrated so as to serve your message. All of your body movements should complement what you are saying at the moment.’

On this Spurgeon writes: ‘Perhaps a man [sic!] is nearest to the golden mean in action when his manner excites no remark either of praise or censure, because it is so completely of a piece with the discourse that it is not regarded as a separate item at all.’

Some recent research into successful TED talks highlights the great significance of body language in enhancing talks: Body Language Survey. (This suggest that at least in terms of human communication body language is of greater significance than Spurgeon wants to allow).

Spurgeon may be right:

‘The sermon itself is the main thing: its matter, its aim, and the spirit in which it is brought before the people, the sacred anointing upon the preacher, and the divine power applying the truth to its hearers’ …

But…(this is great lol)

‘Small flies make the apothecary’s ointment to stink, and little foxes spoil the vines, and therefore small flies and little foxes should be kept out of the ministry.’

Since then ‘these minor matters of movement, posture and gesture may have that effect, you will give them your immediate attention’.

 

 

 

The Other Place

 

On Maundy Thursday evening I ended up in two places within the space of a couple of hour: a church and another place.

In both food was offered…

In Church there was bread and wine

In the Other place there was food and wine

In both there was music…

In Church mainly classical

In the Other place folk and contemporary

In both there was people

In Church manly elderly

In the Other place much more diverse

As I though about my prepared sermon script two things struck me.

First: How young relatively speaking were Jesus and probably many of the others involved in the events of last supper, arrest, torture, death, and resurrection: disciples, soldiers etc. and the yet apparently increasing divide between the Christian faith and various younger generations.

Second: That I should have probably spent much more time in the Other place writing my sermon because the Easter events did not take place and gain their significance and meaning by occurring in a building with people gathered in liturgical assembly but happened in the Other places of public, civic, social, economic, and political activity.

It is here in the Other places that the death and resurrection need again to gain traction and meaning. Yes indeed, Christ is Risen but what that means in the Other places and not simply in the Church places is the ongoing challenge for the post-resurrection witnessing Church. This challenge will not be addressed by simply shouting ‘He is Risen’ louder but by living in the faith of that claim and being able to articulate its significance for the lives of people (including our own) in all of their public, civic, social, economic and political activities.

We may not be behind closed doors for fear of anyone, indeed ours are open and we are trying everything we know as it were to compel them to come in – but I do not think that this is the direction of witness which is rather found as we place our bodies in the Other places knowing that the Risen Christ as with the incarnate Jesus (same person) is still be found in the public, civic, social, economic, and political dimensions of life.