HRG 1.3 Do people really want anything more? (Keith Howard)

3. Based on study of Dave Gibbons, The Monkey and the Fish.

“...what many people around the world see is a version of Christianity created in our own cultural image, a Christianity with diminishing power and influence and filled with a lot of pride, self-centeredness, and wrongheaded metrics. Being part of the Western cultural machine, churches tend to gravitate towards the gods of pragmatism, materialism, and consumerism.... The global village is longing for something deeper.” (p. 22)

Do you think this is true?

HRG 1.2 Three Cultures (Keith Howard)

2. Based on study of Dave Gibbons, The Monkey and the Fish.

Do you find Gibbons’ description of the three cultures helpful (p. 39)?

“First culture is the dominant homogeneous culture you live in. First culture tends to be more preservation-oriented, but that doesn’t mean people don’t take great risks....Second culture is the culture of those who aren’t quite comfortable with the first culture and often react to the first culture’s ways ...Third culture is being able to live in both first and second culture and even adopt an entirely different culture.” (See also, p. 93)

Hospitality Reading Group Session 1 Question 1 (HRG 1.1) (Keith Howard)

Based on study of Dave Gibbons, The Monkey and the Fish.

One of the fundamental convictions in this book is that the church is now immersed in a world that is undergoing some profound changes. One way to view the place of the church in this changing world is to use the language of culture, where culture refers not to ethnic origin but to a complex of language, customs and beliefs.

So hospitality – and perhaps all ministries – now becomes an intercultural or cross cultural enterprise.

For example, the interactions of those born before 1948 with those born after 1980 are not just conversations between younger and older but between members of different cultures.

Do you think this is true?

To the extent that it may be true, what are some of the implications for us at Oak Bay United?

Intercultural hospitality (Keith Howard)

Ran across this article on the intercultural nature of hospitality.
It is focused on the U.S. but, as always, our question is: What can we
at Oak Bay United learn from this?

http://www.faithandleadership.com/qa/soong-chan-rah-freeing-the-captive-church?

What is Reasonable to Expect of People (Keith Howard)

The Faith Communities Today research project has released a new report probing factors that influence church participation. In many ways, their conclusions are very familiar. The two leading obstacles are school and sports activities and conflict with work schedules.

The observation I found most helpful was made by Lovett H. Weems Jr. in this week’s Lewis Center For Church Leadership Update e-newsletter. He draws attention to the distinction Gil Rendle makes between problems and conditions. “Our normal inclination is to see everything as a problem that we can fix.  Sometimes we face a new context that is not a problem susceptible to our repair but rather a new condition we must engage.”

Clearly many of the things we in the church tend to define as obstacles to getting the church back to what it should be – as defined by our youth – are more accurately termed conditions, part of a new reality.

Hospitality in the Business Sector (Keith Howard)

One of the books of which I have long been fond is Susan Scott's Fierce Conversations. Her company, Fierce Communications, has put out a  SHORT white paper on the role of good conversations/relationships viewed from the business sector. I think there is lots to learn here for the church. Turning Conversations in a Driving Force for Growth and Success.
These quotes from Business leaders struck me.
Fierce President and COO Halley Bock puts it this way: “If you improve conversations, you
improve relationships, which has a positive impact on key areas … including the bottom line.”

Starbucks’ Schultz has said his company is not in the coffee business, but in the people
business serving coffee, and he built the company and its success squarely on his belief in
the power of engaged employees.

“People directly affect the quality of products and services our customers receive,” Schultz wrote. “People will determine the ultimate success of Starbucks. Products are inert. You
have to hire great people [and] celebrate their passions and their skills, and give them the
freedom to do their jobs right.”

Six spots remain in Hospitality Reading Group (Keith Howard)

Hospitality has always been something of a struggle for me. The roots of this unease lie in my personality type and family practice but nonetheless it remains true. During my five years working with the Emerging Spirit team it became increasingly obvious that hospitality needs to be one of, if not THE, pre-eminent practice of the church, including our congregation, in this time. It was one of those “I know someone (else) who should hear this sermon (but I’d prefer not to)” moments.

The theological rationale for a ministry of hospitality is straightforward. God reaches out to us and connects with us and we are called to the same rhythm. At a deeper level, our conception of God, as Christians, is of God as Trinity which means we envision God as three persons yet one. Part of what this means is that relationships lie at the very core of who we understand God to be. Abundant life, godly life, resides in relationships.

Strategically, for the church as an organization, this could not be happier since, the larger culture now is all about relationships. Businesses no longer seek clients but partners; and for those under the age of 45 relationships are the axle around which their lives whirl.
In terms of the mission of the church, we should be rejoicing since part of who we are/called to be lines up with the current cultural environment.

For me, wrestling with the biblical meaning of hospitality has involved letting go of some things while accepting some others.

Hospitality DOES NOT equal friendliness. It may include this but radical hospitality, in the Biblical sense, involves more than being pleasant or non-offensive. Christian hospitality means seeing the other in a different way. This often involves some conversion on our part individually and as a community to not see “new people” as a customer, fresh meat, fuel to keep the church machinery running or perhaps even as visitor to “our” house.
Hospitality is not only the task of extroverts. When I have a role and a script it is much easier and it has gotten easier with practice but, in my core, I am not a person who seeks out crowds. A party for me could be up to five people! Nevertheless I am not excused from the call to Christian hospitality.

During the next couple of years a group of us have committed to increasing our understanding of the Christian concept and practice of radical hospitality. On the third Sunday of each month the Hospitality Reading Group shall meet for a couple of hours to pursue conversation sparked by our reading.

The original goal was for 12 conversation partners; six spots remain so speak to Gaye or I if you are interested in one of the remaining six places.

The initial book we are reading is Dave Gibbons, The Monkey and the Fish: Liquid Leadership for a third-culture Church. Zondervan Carr Books (Jan 26 2009). Those who do not get a spot among the group of 12 or who can not make the meeting time are welcome to read along and comment through the Oak Bay blog. As we read along, I will try and post comments, questions and wonderings that emerge.