Friday
Aug202010
Telling the Old, Old Story
Bernie Anderson
These days have found me (Bernie) spending much time at the Williamson County Public Library or Starbucks working on a couple of research papers I want to have finished by the end of the month.* This is not to say there are not other proverbial irons in the fire (I have this thing called “missions conference tour” that I keep hearing about), but that’s the focus at the moment. In reality, I’ve found the first months of home assignment to be refreshingly uneventful. I think ‘uneventfulness’ is something I needed more than I probably knew. Even recent mornings have found me waking up groggily at 10:00 AM, quite the rare event for those who know my early rising tendencies. Perhaps my perceived laziness is telling of my weariness. However, that said, it’s been a good couple of months to rest and write and think.
I’ve found my thinking often lands on the issue of community. Community, not in the sense of development or “centers”, but community in the sense of “living life together”.
Last week I went to a “Hutchmoot”. “Hutch” as in a cage for rabbits. “Moot” as in an old English word for meeting, used specifically with regards to the meeting of large tree-shepherds called “Ents” in the writings of JRR Tolkien. Strange name. Spectacular gathering (I almost wrote “meeting” but “meeting” could bring thoughts of board rooms and power lunches. This was more a gathering: dispersed people wandering to one place for an informal but glorious “moot”. Check out the web page and the Rabbit Room for more info and true etymology.) Weekend discussion focused on Gospel centered story telling through music, literature and other artistic expression. Lot’s of talk about books and music - which was fun. However, the core and essential matters, and the moments which moved me most were conversations which ended up centering on Christian community in relationship to Gospel storytelling. I came away with the seed of an idea that I am not sure I will ever move away from. The best ministry and creativity in a Christian and Biblical context will always sprout and grow to fruition in an environment of community. I am still playing with that sentence. I don’t know for sure. But I have this deep suspicion that it’s true. Truer than I know.
M. Night Shaymalan had a couple of decent films early in his career. The Sixth Sense and Signs were examples of good film-making; surprising, redemptive, even beautiful in their message and tone. That said, all of his films since those two have taken a serious turn for the worst. He’s become a “one-trick pony” and his recent films have been good examples of the uncreative and banal. In a recent conversation, we were discussing how someone could go from “Sixth Sense” to “Last Airbender” and I found out, interestingly enough, that Shaymalan works in alone. He writes alone. He has complete creative control of all his films, and does very little collaborating with others. He does not work in community. This answered many questions for me.
Community and creativity must walk together. Without community, creativity becomes a one-dimensional effort; limited; dull and what once was original becomes secondhand and worn out.
Contextual theology is creative work in much the same way writing a song or a novel is creative work. This is particularly true in a young church that doesn’t have 2000 years of church history to stand on. The Church in Mongolia is in the process of becoming “self-theologizing.” This is a critical and oft neglected aspect of mission. Right now Mongolian Christian theology has been nearly 100% imported. Some is fine. There are aspects of theology that are universal and timeless and cross all cultures. However, there is s great need pastors and teachers and thinkers and writers in Mongolia to learn how to theologize in way that is both Biblical and contextual. There is much more to be said about contextual theology than what can be put into a blog post, but I will say that this task of learning and doing will take a great amount of creative energy, much of which was sapped in Mongolia by seventy years of socialism. My Mongolian sisters and brothers will have to open new channels of thinking and creating in order to do the creative work of contextual theology. This is not a mere academic venture. It is as much artistic.
At the very center of this creative contextual theologizing, is a community of believers united by the Cross, the Blood, their faith and their story. Learning to live and work together, “striving to maintain the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace.” (Ephesians 4:3) A group who is called “the Body of Christ” (I Corinthians 12:27) and “the Bride of Christ” (Revelation 19:7), and even “brothers” of Jesus (Hebrews 2:11). A group that Jesus has prayed for very specifically. “...that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (John 17:21) This group is called to tell the unique story of Mongolian Jesus followers to this generation and to the next. No one else can tell their story. The story must be told. Together.
I have to confess that this kind of community is something I’ve only tasted a few times in my life. I’ve written about it before, and, in recent days, have had so many good discussions with good friends on this topic. However, it is something that I dream for the emerging church in Mongolia. We return in 10 months. My hope and prayer is that next term we will have the opportunity to begin walking with the Mongolian church to a new age: Community-based, Biblical, creative, contextual theology propelled through the culture in the conduit of proclamation, story and song.
My hope is that if we work together with Mongolian brethren, and the church works together in community, we will see stories and films and songs in the Mongolian language that will rival the works of Lewis or Tolkien or Chesterton in the English language (and perhaps very little of everything “The Last Airbender” represents).
Now back to the library. I have a paper to finish.
* For those who are not aware, I am doing graduate work through the University of South Africa. I hope to finish phase one of this work the first week of February. More on this in another post…
I’ve found my thinking often lands on the issue of community. Community, not in the sense of development or “centers”, but community in the sense of “living life together”.
Last week I went to a “Hutchmoot”. “Hutch” as in a cage for rabbits. “Moot” as in an old English word for meeting, used specifically with regards to the meeting of large tree-shepherds called “Ents” in the writings of JRR Tolkien. Strange name. Spectacular gathering (I almost wrote “meeting” but “meeting” could bring thoughts of board rooms and power lunches. This was more a gathering: dispersed people wandering to one place for an informal but glorious “moot”. Check out the web page and the Rabbit Room for more info and true etymology.) Weekend discussion focused on Gospel centered story telling through music, literature and other artistic expression. Lot’s of talk about books and music - which was fun. However, the core and essential matters, and the moments which moved me most were conversations which ended up centering on Christian community in relationship to Gospel storytelling. I came away with the seed of an idea that I am not sure I will ever move away from. The best ministry and creativity in a Christian and Biblical context will always sprout and grow to fruition in an environment of community. I am still playing with that sentence. I don’t know for sure. But I have this deep suspicion that it’s true. Truer than I know.
M. Night Shaymalan had a couple of decent films early in his career. The Sixth Sense and Signs were examples of good film-making; surprising, redemptive, even beautiful in their message and tone. That said, all of his films since those two have taken a serious turn for the worst. He’s become a “one-trick pony” and his recent films have been good examples of the uncreative and banal. In a recent conversation, we were discussing how someone could go from “Sixth Sense” to “Last Airbender” and I found out, interestingly enough, that Shaymalan works in alone. He writes alone. He has complete creative control of all his films, and does very little collaborating with others. He does not work in community. This answered many questions for me.
Community and creativity must walk together. Without community, creativity becomes a one-dimensional effort; limited; dull and what once was original becomes secondhand and worn out.
Contextual theology is creative work in much the same way writing a song or a novel is creative work. This is particularly true in a young church that doesn’t have 2000 years of church history to stand on. The Church in Mongolia is in the process of becoming “self-theologizing.” This is a critical and oft neglected aspect of mission. Right now Mongolian Christian theology has been nearly 100% imported. Some is fine. There are aspects of theology that are universal and timeless and cross all cultures. However, there is s great need pastors and teachers and thinkers and writers in Mongolia to learn how to theologize in way that is both Biblical and contextual. There is much more to be said about contextual theology than what can be put into a blog post, but I will say that this task of learning and doing will take a great amount of creative energy, much of which was sapped in Mongolia by seventy years of socialism. My Mongolian sisters and brothers will have to open new channels of thinking and creating in order to do the creative work of contextual theology. This is not a mere academic venture. It is as much artistic.
At the very center of this creative contextual theologizing, is a community of believers united by the Cross, the Blood, their faith and their story. Learning to live and work together, “striving to maintain the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace.” (Ephesians 4:3) A group who is called “the Body of Christ” (I Corinthians 12:27) and “the Bride of Christ” (Revelation 19:7), and even “brothers” of Jesus (Hebrews 2:11). A group that Jesus has prayed for very specifically. “...that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (John 17:21) This group is called to tell the unique story of Mongolian Jesus followers to this generation and to the next. No one else can tell their story. The story must be told. Together.
I have to confess that this kind of community is something I’ve only tasted a few times in my life. I’ve written about it before, and, in recent days, have had so many good discussions with good friends on this topic. However, it is something that I dream for the emerging church in Mongolia. We return in 10 months. My hope and prayer is that next term we will have the opportunity to begin walking with the Mongolian church to a new age: Community-based, Biblical, creative, contextual theology propelled through the culture in the conduit of proclamation, story and song.
My hope is that if we work together with Mongolian brethren, and the church works together in community, we will see stories and films and songs in the Mongolian language that will rival the works of Lewis or Tolkien or Chesterton in the English language (and perhaps very little of everything “The Last Airbender” represents).
Now back to the library. I have a paper to finish.
* For those who are not aware, I am doing graduate work through the University of South Africa. I hope to finish phase one of this work the first week of February. More on this in another post…
Reader Comments (3)
Great post, Bernie. Really glad you got to come to the Moot.
Thanks for the post, Bernie. I've added it to both the HM Hub at the RR and to the original one at my website.
http://www.sdsmith.net/2010/08/12/hutchmoot-hub-a-collection-of-all-hutchmoot-related-blogposts-websites-etc/
Also, I used to live in South Africa. Kind of cool you're doing university there (albeit virtual, if I read correctly).
It's great to connect with you!
Peace to you.
Thanks guys ... it was really great to participate and meet so many great folks. It was a privilege and pleasure.
Grace