Living Room Archives
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1 September, 2007 12:19 AM
Time for an update on LivingRoom - well overdue I know.
Over the last month we've moved into a transition period at LivingRoom as we consider our future as a community in a time of change.
At the beginning of this year V and I let the community know that we were feeling as though it might be time for us to move on from leadership of LivingRoom. We didn't know for sure but wanted the community to know where we were at and what we were thinking so that we could discern what to do together.
After a few months of reflection we felt that the time was right and a couple of months back we confirmed that we'd be moving on from LivingRoom at the end of the year (probably mid December). We did so in consultation with the Baptist Union and LivingRoom's leadership. I've not blogged about it until this time simply because we wanted the group to be able to begin to process the news and begin to explore what might be next before it 'getting out'.
Since that time a smaller group of LivingRoomies have been gathering together with a BUV leader to put together a way forward. This has involved a number of things to this point including a number of weeks 'looking back' at the beginnings of LivingRoom and hearing the stories of other local emerging communities.
The 'looking back' weeks came out of a realization that V and I were the only two members that remained from the very first group of 6 founding members and that we'd had a real influx of new people over the past year or two who hadn't heard the story of our beginnings and how we came to form our values, style and practices.
So we spent two weeks looking first at the story itself (with lots of story telling from different members sharing how they came to join LivingRoom, their first impressions and why they'd hung around) and the second week looking in a more focused way at our core values.
The idea of hearing stories from other communities (we're currently doing this for 4 weeks) is twofold. Firstly it opens up possibilities to connect with these other local groups but secondly it's interesting to hear what others are doing and we hope that hearing their stories will help us to discern some of our own future direction.
Why are we moving on from LivingRoom?
I guess the question that some might be asking is why V and I are moving on from LivingRoom. It's a natural one.
There are a number of reasons:
I guess ultimately we feel it's just time - time for us and time for LivingRoom. A number of things have come together to give us this feeling.
Family Life - We've moved into a new family stage (our little man is now 14 months) and V's gone back to work a couple of days a week. This means that Grandmas are generously helping to care for him on those days which means quite a bit of time in a car. We've also outgrown our home (who knew that someone so small could get into so many things!). We realized that it was probably smarter in terms of family to be closer to our extended family who live on the other side of the city.
Sense of Mission and Ministry - My own personal sense of 'mission' and 'calling' has evolved over the last 2 to 3 years. While I've not updated this blog much in the last year I suspect that some of you will have sensed this with posts on the topic like Thinking about 'Ministry'. I don't like to articulate everything about it in a public setting (for reasons that I mention in that previous post) however in general I'm feeling that my work is actually something that is closely aligned with my own personal call, mission and ministry. I'd be happy to articulate this more clearly to people individually if they'd like.
LivingRoom - Our goal at LivingRoom was always to have a group that was able to largely run itself and not need to rely upon any one person. For this reason we transitioned in the first two years from me in a paid part time position (funded by our denomination), into me leading on a voluntary basis, to last year a small team leading the group to this year the group running itself even more. In many ways much of the leadership for the group this year has been in the hands of others already.
As I look at my gifts and the needs/opportunities of the group I have been sensing for a while that perhaps someone else (or a group of people) could take LivingRoom to the next level more than I could for the last year or two. My passions and gifting are quite 'entrepreneurial' (I'm not sure it's the right word). I love to dream up and birth new things. I always have done this (since I was young) and much of what my role was in the first 3 years was in this. However when it comes to taking things that are established to the next level I'm not great. While I'm not one to give up - I've increasingly struggled with whether I might in fact be holding the group back from growth and development.
The decision was not a particularly easy one on numerous levels. I think most pastors who have resigned and moved on from ministries that they've invested a lot into would know the conflicting feelings that often face them at these times. However there is an increasing sense of it being 'right' for us to do and so we've moved forward with it.
What Next?
So what happens next for LivingRoom and for us?
in many ways there are unknowns in lives of both LivingRoom and the Rowse House. LivingRoom will continue it's process of discernment that I've outlined above. V and I have bought a new house closer to our parents (our new house is precisely between them) and are selling our current one this weekend (hopefully). The question of where we'll do faith in community is a question that we've been pondering a lot but the answer is probably a few months off (I suspect we really need to finish with LivingRoom before we'll really ponder it seriously).
I've been in 'ministry' of one sort or another now (mainly paid) for 11 or so years now and while I can't imagine not taking an active approach to participating in a community I suspect that a break in this type of leadership might be beneficial to me. While I thoroughly have enjoyed it I would be lying if didn't admit feeling 'tired' and in need of some personal rejuvenation as I consider my own spirituality. I'm very much looking forward to rediscovering what it is to be a follower of of Jesus without the tag of 'pastor'.
I'm sure over the coming weeks and months there will be more reflections to share on the process and transition that we're going through.
Please forgive me if I don't blog the ins and outs of decisions being made and directions being explored at LivingRoom (I've always taken the approach to blog about these sorts of things after they've been decided upon instead of as they are happening as I think it's healthier for the community).
Please do pray for us in this time - I'm sure the community as a whole would greatly appreciate your thoughts and prayers at this time.
21 June, 2007 5:20 PM
One of the things that LivingRoom has been focussing upon in the last few months is a great new resource produced by three mates of mine here in Melbourne titled The Trouble with Paris.
This DVD based resource is fantastic to helping a small group to explore how to live and make sense of faith in the crazy world that we find ourselves in.
The DVD is designed to work over four weeks and include times of discussion, some amazing video reflections, stories and more.
The Trouble with Paris emerged out of a series of talks that Mark Sayers developed a few years back - the talks were originally titled 'How Paris Hilton Made me a Better Christian' and they were responsible for hundreds of young adults rediscovering faith in pretty profound ways.
Bringing the concepts to video was genius and together with Ben Catford (and amazing young presenter) and Room 3 (a video and graphic design studio) Mark's developed something that I'd highly recommend.
It's perfect for young adults - but would be challenging for both younger (teens) and older adults also.
You can check out four of the clips from the DVD on the view page of their website.
I hope you'll find The Trouble With Paris as useful to your community (and your own life) as we did at LivingRoom.
19 November, 2006 2:45 PM
LivingRoom has had some great gatherings of late. I've been a little (or a lot) lax in keeping up to date with reporting on what we've done. So I'll try to do a little catch up and describe a couple of resent gatherings.
Last week our Sunday afternoon group had a great afternoon on the topic of 'everyday spirituality'.
Our leader (I'll call her 'E') started the gathering by pulling out a sock (I've never been in a church service that involved socks before). The sock was full of something/s and had a knot in the end of it.
E told us that inside the sock were 13 household items and that we had to pass it around and write down what they were as accurately as possible. We passed the sock around and over 5 or so minutes most of us had a list of 13 things. We've got kids in our group so this appealed to them and they got into it too.
After we'd compiled our lists E got the kids to open the sock and reveal the items and we ticked off what we'd got right and wrong. There was everything from a clothes peg, to a toothbrush, to a coin, to a wine bottle cork, to a phone plug/jack etc in the sock (I scored 12 out of 13).
Then with the 13 everyday household items in the middle of the group E handed out quotes to everyone. The quotes were all on the topic of 'everyday spirituality' and were from a variety of perspectives. Some of the quotes talked about finding God in everyday moments, others talked about how everyday spirituality 'watered down spirituality', others were people's own personal experiences of everyday spirituality.
After reading the quotes we were invited to choose one of the 13 items that represented something to do with everyday spirituality to us. We were then invited to share it and what it triggered for us.
What people shared was great and included some practical ideas on how people found God in the everyday, through to people sharing some of the personal things they'd been going through lately.
The three parts of the gathering appealed to me for a couple of reasons. Firstly they were inclusive of the kids (less so the quotes). We're still learning how to incorporate children into our gatherings and it was a good experiment and engaged with them well.
Secondly while the three parts of the gathering were quite separate they all added to it and engaged people on different levels. The sock exercise wasn't particularly 'spiritual' but it actually conjured up numerous ideas and thought processes for me.
14 September, 2006 8:55 AM
LivingRoom is now three groups again.
We've been through a number of versions over the past 3.5 years:
- We started as a small group of 7 (including 1 child) in February 2003 (our goal was always to multiply rather than grow into one large group).
- We then decided to test the theory of multiplying in May 2005 and moved into three groups (I think we were 25 in number - including 5 children).
- Earlier this year we merged two of the groups together as we had a number of people traveling.
- Last night we made the decision to move back to three groups as we now have 33 people coming along (including 5 kids).
Our groups were chosen this time largely on logistical and relational lines.
The groups are:
- Two Wednesday night groups - they'll continue to meet in the evenings over either a meal or dessert in a similar style to how we've previously met
- One Sunday afternoon group - we've had an increasing amount of people with kids interested in participating with LivingRoom but a midweek night meeting just hasn't worked for them. This group will be exploring what it means to do all age worship - trying to create space for interaction between kids and adults, creating space for kids alone and for adults alone.
While we don't generally advertise for people to join LivingRoom we do have people enquire about it quite a bit. If you're one of them (or have been thinking about it) now might be a good time as our groups are new mixes of people and will spend the next few weeks working out their new rhythms and relationships which might make settling in a little easier for new people.
If you're interested - have a read of our FAQ page for some information on who we are and what we do and then feel free to shoot me an email.
20 May, 2006 11:40 PM
One of the things that is becoming increasingly common at the moment is for me to get emails from people wanting to know more about LivingRoom. Most of these are coming in as a result of people searching for terms like 'Melbourne emerging church' or as a result of word of mouth.
I guess once a church has been around for a while it can be expected - especially when it has a web presence.
As a result I thought I'd compile a bit of an introduction to LivingRoom to give some basic information on who we are and what we do. Hopefully this will help people to discern whether LivingRoom is a church they'd like to explore journeying with. It will also be a bit of an update for people who've been following LivingRoom over the last year or so from afar.
What is LivingRoom?
LivingRoom is a a group of about 30 people living mainly in the northern suburbs of Melbourne Australia who are seeking to respond to the call of Jesus to Love God, Love one another and Love our neighbor as ourselves. We call ourselves LivingRoom because we want to be a life giving space both for those who are a part of our community but also those who we have opportunity to live among in our daily lives.
Most of us would use the word 'church' to describe ourselves but we've also been called a variety of other things ranging from 'missional community' to 'faith community' to an 'emerging church'. We don't get too hung up on working out what we are or are or even on a lot of the logistics of what church should or shouldn't be like - rather we're keen to explore what being a follower of Jesus looks like in the time and place that we live.
Is LivingRoom a part of a denomination?
LivingRoom is supported and recognized by the Baptist Union of Victoria and was actually planted by them in March 2002. The BUV has been a wonderful support to LivingRoom over the last few years and generously gave us money to get going and has been very supportive and also incredibly permission giving since we started. Our relationship with them has been one where they've allowed us to shape ourselves and have given us space to form on our own - yet one where they've gone out of their way to support and care for us.
Why Did LivingRoom start?
This is a big question and one that would probably be answered a little differently by each member of our community. I can only answer for myself. In short - my desire in being a part of the founding group was to explore what church might look like if it took seriously the central teachings of Jesus in 'the language of the people living in my neighborhood'.
This idea of doing church in the 'indigenous' or local language is something we've learnt as Church to do over the last decades as we think about starting churches in different cultures to our own. When we start a church in a different culture to our own these days we don't force them to teach or worship in our language, we don't make them dress like us, we find symbols and connecting points within their culture to explain the gospel etc.
I guess it was my desire to be a part of a church here in Australia that started with this in mind. What does a church that speaks the language of people living in the north of Melbourne look like? To be honest, I still don't know the answer to that question but I'm sure enjoying finding out.
What do we believe?
We spent quite a few months at the start of the LivingRoom journey asking questions around 'values'. We came up with three pretty broad ones which I explain here. They are not rocket science - in fact they are very similar to what most churches believe.
What do we think about other forms of Church?
This is a question I'm asked a fair bit. One of the sad things about the 'emerging church' label is that some people think that this means we think we're a superior form of church or that we are angry and bitter towards the 'mainline' or 'established' church.
This could not be further from the truth. The original members of LivingRoom were all very positive about church. We had all had both good, bad and indifferent experiences of church at different times of our lives (like most church goers). None of us were particularly angry about church, in fact most of us were very positive about it. Having said this we all also felt drawn to the idea of exploring what a fresh expression of Christian community might look like. This was not because we thought the other expressions we'd been a part of were bad - but rather mainly did so because as we looked around us in the places that we worked, studied and lived we all had wondered how church should connect in these places in more relevant ways. We all wanted to be a part of a community that explored this.
Since beginning we've grown in size. Those who have joined us have brought their own varied experiences of church with them. Some are very positive, some have had little experience of church and others have been hurt through their experience with church. However through all of this we've remained very positive about other forms of church and work at building relationships between us and other communities of all shapes and sizes.
What does LivingRoom do week to week?
LivingRoom currently meets in two groups most weeks. We got too big in 2005 to meet in the one home each week so multiplied (which was always our plan for growing). Our two groups meet in homes (one group on Tuesday nights and the other on Wednesdays) in the northern suburbs (it rotates a little although tends to be largely in the homes of families with kids). We generally eat either a full meal or dessert together to start the evening off.
After dinner/dessert we generally do some sort of activity. This varies from week to week considerably and might range from a bible study/discussion to a reflective or meditative exercise, to a story telling night, to a topical exploration, to a tour of a persons life with reflections along the way on their Spirituality to... well as I say - it varies a lot.
We generally stick to a seven week cycle of gatherings which I've described elsewhere on this site here.
Two things that is a little different for some people who come along for the first time that have experience in other churches is that we generally don't sing and we generally don't have a sermon. This is not because we don't agree with these things - rather one of the things LivingRoom started around was the desire to explore new culturally relevant ways of doing teaching and fresh ways of worshipping God.
Also every 7 weeks the two groups come together for a 'big gathering' (catchy name isn't it!). In these gatherings we usually do some sort of vision casting or teaching.
What is Leadership Like?
When we started LivingRoom I (my name is Darren Rowse) was paid (via a gift from the BUV) to be a leader of LivingRoom (part time). This was on a decreasing basis over two years. We did start with the desire to be a very participatory community with everyone pitching in and from the early days this was the case. However when you have a paid person it can become easy to let that person pick up a lot of the leadership (for many reasons - some of them good).
So after two years I moved out of a paid leadership position into a voluntary one. We've also since started a small group of 'representatives' from the two groups. They don't like to be called 'leaders' as such but in many ways they pick up much of that role.
Our 7 week cycle is very participatory and is designed so that different people can exercise their gifts and talents in leading us from week to week.
I still do pick up some leadership roles although have pulled back on the amount of time I'm able to give LivingRoom in the last 12 months to allow others to pick up more but also to concentrate on other work and projects.
What are the demographics of the group?
We range in age fro 2 to early 40's. We have a range of professions from students, to nurses, to lawyers, to small business operators, to electricians, to missions agency workers, to academics, to teachers, to social workers, to artists....
I would say we're a fairly youthful group with a fair bit of energy. We have a number of children in the group who participate at varying levels depending largely upon their age. We don't have a 'Sunday School' but have talked from time to time about how to include our children in what we do. To be honest this is an area we need to work more on and are learning from other groups on.
Do we allow visitors?
This is a question that we're asked a bit. We don't have a building or a sign with our 'service' times on it anywhere which makes us a little difficult to visit but we are open to visitors. You will need to contact us first though to find out where and when we're meeting.
One thing it is worth mentioning however - as we are a reasonably small group having visitors does have a bit of an impact on us. These days it's not quite as big an issue as it was in our early days (when we were a group of 7) but it is worth keeping in the back of your mind that while we enjoy visitors and encourage them that at times its more appropriate than others depending upon what we're doing and what impact it might have.
For example, some nights we do more administrative nights where we talk about issues the group is facing and these nights might not be as appropriate for a visitor as others. Also in the early days we had a lot of visitors just 'coming for a look'. This was a little disruptive for us being quite small.
As a result if we get lots of visitors for a number of weeks in a row we sometimes have 'closed shop' for a week or two just to help us get some momentum and flow back into things. It's not a big issue - but we do ask that if you'd like to come along that you let us know and together we'll work out when will be a good time for both you and us.
If you'd like to come along with the intention of seeing whether LivingRoom might be a community you'd like to be a part of we do try to catch up with you for a coffee first if it's possible. This isn't to check you out (it's not an interview or anything) but simply because we find that if you know some of who we are and what we do that it tends to be a better visit both for you and us. I used to do most of these catch ups but these days I try to refer you to someone to do it. It also means when you come along that you know a face and name which makes the night a little less awkward - we know how hard it can be to join new groups :-)
Contact us
The best way to get in touch is to email me via our contact form. Make sure you include you email address, other contact details and a little about you (where you live, your name and anything else you think might be relevant) and I'll endeavor to get back to you either myself or will ask another LivingRoomie to get in touch. We won't stalk you or anything - but rather would love to chat to you and discern together whether LivingRoom might be a place for you. If it isn't then we might be able to help you find other churches like us in Melbourne.
I hope that answers some of the questions that people have about LivingRoom. I'm sure there will be more and I'll update this page as I think of them. Feel free to ask more.
5 May, 2006 1:22 PM
The last two weeks at LivingRoom have been good fun.
Two weeks ago was our 'big gathering' where both groups come together. We had Kim Hammond from Forge Victoria come along to share his story. Kim is a great guy who has taken on Forge Victoria's leadership and is helping it as a network to continue to grow into new areas. He's also a church planter of a church called The Junction which is quite similar to LivingRoom but meats out in the South Eastern areas of Melbourne in a number of groups.
Kim shared his story of growing up, coming to faith and some of his more recent discoveries of thinking through mission and emerging church. Kim's actually heading to the US in the next month or so so if any readers happen to have an opportunity to hear him speak it's well worth while.
Then this week at our LivingRoom group we had a night on 'Everyday Spirituality' where one of our group led us through some reflections on different people's spiritual rhythms. He had asked us to do a little research on a prominent person's faith and how they connected with God in their every day lives. People presented on all kinds of people from contemporary musicians, to sports people, to philosophers, to family members, to prominent Christian writers to old monks from centuries ago. I found it fascinating to hear the variety of things that were brought to the table. It brought home to me the diverse group of people we've got in our little gathering.
19 April, 2006 5:42 PM
Tonight at LivingRoom we're doing another Everyday Spirituality Tour and tonight it's my turn to take the group on a tour of my life. For those unfamiliar with the concept I've written about them here and here previously.
Tonight's tour will start at our place and then progress to a local Vietnamese restaurant that V and I enjoy just down the road where we'll have dinner.
After dinner we'll come back to our place for a walk through my daily life - largely focussed around my computer and blogs. I'll be telling the story of how I came to be a blogger and how I've transitioned from a full time 'minister' to a full time 'blogger' and how in doing so I've discovered God at work in some rather unlikely places! The irony is that somedays I find myself involved in more effective 'ministry' than I felt I was doing as a minister!
Then we'll take a look at some of the photos I've taken in the last few months (another place I find God moving around me lately and an activity that I find leads me to worship).
Along the way we'll hopefully stop for prayer.
Should be a fun night
.
30 March, 2006 3:12 PM
I spent 45 minutes on Skype this morning with Jon from the Matters of the Heart recording a podcast. The focus of it was LivingRoom and some of the basics of how we run, how we started and how I view other forms of church etc.
Listen to it at Fascinating Approach to Church - Australias Living Room Church (it goes for around 40 minutes - sorry about the echoey recording - might be my microphone).
11 March, 2006 1:22 AM
This past week at LivingRoom was one of our big gatherings (where our two groups came together - something we do every 7 weeks).
The night was a first on two fronts.
Firstly we had a sermon/preaching for the first time in 3 years (since we began). Yep LivingRoom is largely a church without sermons!
It's not that we're anti preaching - we're just experimenting with different ways of communicating, teaching and learning. This has largely happened through discussion, dialogue and different methods of creative communication.
Having said that - we decided that this year we'd have a night occasionally where one person would prepare a presentation or talk on a topic in a more monologue (ish) sort of way. This week was our first time).
The second 'first' was that it was the first time we've talked about money at LivingRoom since starting.
We've mentioned it in passing over the years - but this week we spent the night exploring the issue.
The reasons we've not talked about money so far are numerous but the main two are:
1. We've had no real need to talk about money. We don't have a building, we don't pay any staff and apart from an occasional expense have no need to spend anything.
2. Some of us have been part of churches where money became something of an obsession (or a distraction) from time to time. Some of us have also seen situations where money has been the source of big problems in churches - problem manipulation, division and hurt. This is in a minority of cases of course - but is probably one of the reasons we've kept off the topic.
Despite these reasons we've also had a growing sense as a community that money is something that we should talk about. For one it's a topic that the world we live in talks about constantly and so to think about it from a faith perspective seems a worthwhile discussion to have. The other reason is that the more I read the teaching of Jesus (and other passage of the Bible) the more I see that he talked about the topic.
In fact he talked about money and possessions more than almost any other topic (it's second only to 'the Kingdom of God'). Of course his message was very counter cultural and had many layers (not something you can sum up in a night).
As a result this week we began tackling the topic.
I don't have time to type up what I said here right now - but will attempt to summarize it later in the week.
1 March, 2006 10:29 PM
LivingRoom tonight (our group at least) was another BYO Worship night where each person was invited to bring something along to talk about or lead the rest of the group through as Worship (more explaining how we do it here).
Tonight we did it without a set theme (ie everyone could bring whatever they wanted) but what we did do seemed to have some themes in it.
Our first two parts were both on Lent (one some teaching on what it is with some Ash being put on people's foreheads and the other being a visual representation of Jesus 40 days in the desert).
The next two parts were both guided imagination/meditation/wonderings from Luke (Luke 19: 37-44 and Luke 5:1-11).
They I shared some reflections on a poe by Edna St. Vincent Millay which Brian Mclaren shared last week at a session I attended (the poem is below).
Then someone shared some Tomato Relish with the group that she'd made (yummmmy) and our last part was the story of how one person is feeling drawn to worship though his involvement with sport, both in playing in a team and the involvement that this has opened up in his life and by an opportunity he has to coach a Cricket team of young kids.
All in all I found the night to be both interesting and challenging. I love these nights - to see what people come up with and how the different elements often come together in very complementary ways.
Next week at LivingRoom is our 'Big Gathering' where both of our groups come together (we do that every 6-7 weeks at present). These nights are always fun. I'll be sharing on the topic of 'Generosity'.
The poem from Edna St. Vincent Millay is below:
Upon this age, that never speaks its mind,
This furtive age, this age endowed with power
To wake the moon with footsteps, fit an oar
Into the rowlocks of the wind, and find
What swims before his prow, what swirls behind -
Upon this gifted age, in its dark hour,
Rains from the sky a meteoric shower
Of facts…they lie unquestioned, uncombined.
Wisdom enough to leech us of our ill
Is daily spun; but there exists no loom
To weave it into fabric.
24 February, 2006 11:50 AM
Just had an email question from someone who came across this site. it's a question that I've had on a number of occasions so thought i'd blog my answer:
'I've been traipsing around your site, (niceely constructed, by the way,) and impressed with both the sophistication and honesty of thought that i find. However as seems to be the case with a lot of emerging church talks, blogs etc, there's a lot of talk about mission and being incarnational etc but very little about anything practical that folks may have done....
I would love to have some practical examples of what real incarnational mission can look like.'
My response:
I think you're right in your observation but I would suggest that the reason why you probably don't see many examples written about (or at least it's why I don't do it) is for three reasons:
1. I don't write about this type of thing because the missional encounters that I/we have are with people that we love and care about who we don't really want to write in a public setting about. ie for me - a lot of my mission is done through my work which is in the 'virtual world'. Work leads me into all kinds of great relationships of different kinds and levels, but it's not really appropriate to talk about them in this setting (or perhaps any).
2. The other thing is that most of the mission LivingRoom people do is very 'ordinary' and 'everyday' type relational stuff and I suspect this is true for many. Perhaps the idea of writing about the coffees we have with people or the bbq we put on or the food we drop around to someone etc are not very 'bloggable' in most people's minds. It's a tricky one I guess because in a sense incarnation is about 'doing life' with those around you and sometimes that doesn't make very exciting reading :-)
3. Probably the third thing that I'd say is that to this point LivingRoom hasn't really engaged in any formal or program oriented missional activities. For us mission has been much more about the everyday. We're not anti programs, and have talked about doing mission in this way, but to this point we've had a different outworking of our outward journey of faith. Perhaps this is really the same as point 2 above, but I think it'd be easier to write about a program than actual relationships - maybe?
For these reasons I don't really have too many stories to tell.
What does mission and incarnation look like in practice? For me and most of LivingRoom mission is about friendship and relationship. It's about letting our world's collide with each other and getting to know each other's friends. It's about being aware of our community and the issues it faces and challenging ourselves to look for what God is doing around us and to find ways of joining in. It's about going about daily life attempting to find God in the everyday stuff of life - it's about living with 'holy intent' to coin a phrase a friend of mine uses a lot.
In practice this means coffees, bbqs, emails, IM conversations, talks over the fence with neighbors, getting involved with the local sporting club, parties and many other aspects of normal life.
18 January, 2006 11:31 PM
Today was a fun day.
The Australian Open (Tennis) is on and I spent the day with a mate in the sun enjoying some hard hitting.
I took along my camera and had a great time testing out it's zoom (I've posted a handful of the photos I took here).
Tonight was LivingRoom and we went to the Night Market at the Queen Victoria Markets. It was packed (being the balmy summer night that it is).
The night market was full of food stalls, stalls with all manner of handmade goods, entertainment (bands, clowning etc) and a section with an array of new age/spirituality/holistic health stuff going on (lots of Tarot, Readings, All kinds of Massage therapies etc).
I'd prepared a reflective exercise to do but due to the large crowds it didn't quite seem to fit the mood of the evening so we just wandered around, ate, shopped a little and had one of the best sorbet's that I've had for a long time. It was good to see a few of the group who've been away for a while.
I've included a copy of the reflection that I had prepared for us to do for those who are interested (below in PDF - click to enlarge). It was a bit of a rush job so please forgive that - but the basics are that it's something I've used before with groups to consider how God might be interacting in a place that might be seen as 'secular'.
I guess the challenge is to practice spotting what God might be up to around you in the everyday.
22 December, 2005 7:00 PM
This week at LivingRoom we had our Christmas celebration. The night was a good way to end the year.
Each of the three groups came prepared to lead the rest of us through a reflection/activity on Christmas. Our group focused in on Christmas Carols and had some discussion around what resonated (and didn't resonate) for us in a variety of carols. Another group brought a reflection on Christmas in the wider community and then looked at an acronym for the word Christmas (you can read it at Kitty's blog). The other group showed a visual presentation of images from around the world (places where many in that group have been traveling lately) with a reflection on Isaiah 61.
After that we had a thanksgiving time where we reflected upon the things we were thankful for in 2005 at LivingRoom.
Lastly we shared a Kris Kringle gift swap (I got an icecream shop voucher - wooooohoooooo!)
Now LivingRoom has a few weeks off as many are away for their Summer Holidays and the three groups are getting together in January as one larger group for some semi-social nights. We kick off again properly at the beginning of February.
15 November, 2005 11:18 PM
Tonight I went along with one of the LivingRoom groups to visit another church - Eltham Baptist - to talk about LivingRoom and the past two and a half years of doing community in the way we've been exploring it.
It was a great night of meeting new people - some great food - and sharing.
One of the things that talking about LivingRoom always does to me is to force me (us) to think through what we do, why we do it that way, who we are and how things are going.
It also always reminds me just how hard it is to put into words what your community is and how it operates.
All the questions we were asked tonight were asked graciously, insightfully and with a lot of thought and love - however sometimes it's just hard to find words to describe LivingRoom (I guess it would be hard to describe any church in an hour).
All in all though I'm really excited about the opportunity to connect with a more established larger church.
One of the things I've heard numerous newer emerging churches saying lately is that they feel they'd like to interact with other churches more - so tonight was fun and refreshing.
28 October, 2005 10:14 AM
This week at our LivingRoom group we did a BYO worship night.
Bring Your Own Worship is always a meaningful night where each person is invited to bring something to share around a particular theme. This week the theme was Passion.
The idea is that each person considers during the week what they could bring to the group to do for 5-10 minutes (depending upon the size of the group) on the theme. Previously we've had people sing songs they'd written, brought bible passages, brought things that meant something to them, get us doing something hands on and creative, read us passages from books, played us bits of video/cds, taken us on walks around the neighborhood or lead us in meditative exercises.
This week we had a variety of things including:
- A time of complete silence
- A discussion on Food
- A reflection upon Paul's passion in Acts as well as some video footage of Ephesus
- A reflection upon some of Paul's words in Timothy to 'fan the flame'
- A time of communion and reading of the Lords Supper
- Reading of a short article by Henri Nouwen titled From Action to Passion
I always love BYO Worship nights - they tend to be nights of surprises and nights where God's Spirit moves through the variety of reflections and personalities of the group.
22 September, 2005 11:40 AM
Last night at LivingRoom we continued through the Ignition course that we've been doing and I was struck afresh by this quote by the author - Mark Sayers on the topic of Incarnation.
“Jesus in order to complete his mission on earth chose to live amongst us. He lived the life of a human man in a particular time and place, he spoke particular languages and he lived in a particular culture. The gospel writers apart from his first and last few years see his life as so ordinary for that time and place that they do not even record it in any detail. When he begins to preach in his hometown people are shocked, and see him as only the carpenter’s son.”
The challenge was to consider how this might not only be the way Jesus went about life, faith and mission - but how it might shape our approach.
26 August, 2005 4:01 PM
I'd like to introduce my first podcast (or sorts) to LivingRoom. The MP3 file below (just under 4MB and 16 minutes long) is the first in a mini series of recordings that I've done with a good friend of mine - Mark Sayers.
Mark is a local guy that I've come to know and respect in the past few years that is involved in the starting of a new network of churches here in Melbourne called 'Red'. Red emerged out of a church named South Melbourne Restoration Centre (South Melbourne Church of Christ) which has had an amazing influence upon our city over the last decade or two under the leadership of Alan and Debra Hirsch.
Anyway - Mark's a brilliant thinker so when we stumbled upon the idea of recording some interviews with one another talking about our lessons of planting LivingRoom and Red I thought it was too good an opportunity to pass up.
This first recording is Mark interviewing me about how the Core Values of LivingRoom. We explore a little of how we came up with our Values and how we reinforce them etc. In part II of this series I ask Mark some questions about Red's values. I hope you enjoy this - it's pretty basic in terms of quality but we'd like to do more of them if people find them useful. here it is:
Core Values of LivingRoom.mp3
3 August, 2005 11:03 PM
I really enjoyed our LivingRoom gathering tonight. We decided a couple of weeks ago to go through the Ignition course again. I say 'again' because it's a course the original LivingRoom group did 2.5 years ago as founding members. Only V and I have ever done it from out group though so it seemed appropriate to go back and do it again.
For those of you who are not long term readers - Ignition is a 12 week course that walks a small group of people through the book of Acts. It looks at principles of Mission and gives a framework for participants to look at their own missional context by identifying a 'missional exploration or experiment' to reflect upon as they read Acts.
Each week there is a little reading and a reflection to do as individuals before coming together to discuss a different missional principle.
I've done it twice now and found it incredible helpful - especially as a new group meeting together and forming identity as its essentially an extended reflection on the first church and how they formed.
27 July, 2005 11:30 PM
Tonight at LivingRoom we continued to share our 'time lines'. It was V and my turn to share the significant moments of our lives with the group.
It's an interesting idea to walk through your life and to share the highs, lows, epiphanies and lessons from life. In doing so you revisit moments you'd put aside, confront patterns in behavior and hear others reflect back to you what they notice about your sharing.
It's also a real privilege to hear others stories and have your own heard.
It makes me realize just how little in our world people actually take time to stop and listen to the stories of others. It's a real honor to be heard like that - but also unusual and at times an uncomfortable experience - something I'm not used to in a sense. In a world of small talk to share deeply about your own life can at times be something we find ourself out of practice of.
Maybe it's just a male thing, maybe it's a minister thing (we tend to get good at asking others questions and avoid revealing much of our own lives) or maybe it's just a human thing for the time and place we live. Whatever it is it felt good to break through it a little tonight.
12 July, 2005 3:33 PM
I'm looking forward to tomorrow night at LivingRoom when two of our groups will be doing the Labyrinth with eddie from breathing space. Despite doing many similar activities over the years and recommending others go do it, I've not done it myself yet. Should be an interesting and meaningful evening.
7 July, 2005 12:19 AM
Tonight at LivingRoom we got together for our first 'big event' where our three smaller communities got together for the first time since multiplying. It was nice to see everyone (including my own group who we've missed gathering with since being away in June). We also had six visitors along which is always a nice thing.
We started the night off with a couple of people sharing stories from their life (we call it a minute with 'insert name here' - although it generally goes longer than a minute). We also fare-welled and prayed for a family who is going away for six months to Oxford on study leave (very sad).
After those stories we had dinner (soup, bread, wine, tart, salad) and caught up. After dinner each of the three groups talked about their first 5 weeks of meeting separately. The reports were generally positive although the groups being smaller now has both positives (more intimate and participatory) and weaknesses (it's hard when people are away to get things done). The groups have largely been doing some of the things we did when we first started LivingRoom 2.5 years ago. In particular one of the main things we've been doing is 'time lines'/storytelling of our lives to one another. This has been most enlightening for some.
After this sharing time we briefly talked about leadership and then had a time of reflection which I led.
I reflected on being in Turkey and hearing the call to prayer 5 times each day. I actually found the call to prayer to be a very meaningful thing whilst over there (as I have on previous trips to Islamic Countries). The idea of a daily rhythm of prayer that permeates each day is one that captures me every time I consider it.
I've been reflecting upon my own daily rhythms since returning home and wondering where the calls to prayer are in my own life. The calls to stillness, the calls to relationship with God and others, the calls to healthy living and life.
Coming home from holidays is an ideal time to think through one's daily rhythm and to make some changes.
After sharing on this for a while I played an Islamic call to prayer (one of these mp3s) and asked the group to reflect on their own daily rhythms. I also showed them an english translation which I find quite challenging in and of itself.
To hear something like this five times a day from before sunrise until after dusk could be a very meaningful experience that could really help draw one to God - I wonder how I could do something similar in my own day.
1 June, 2005 10:14 PM
Tonight was the first night that LivingRoom met in its new multiplied form (three smaller groups meeting in separate homes). It feels a little strange not seeing the whole group but also quite exciting to recapture some of the intimate aspects of a group of a smaller group. It's sort of like starting again.
It'll be interesting to see how the next few weeks unfold and how things are when we come back together as a large group in five weeks.
I wonder how the other groups went...
19 May, 2005 6:34 PM
I wrote a week or so back about how at LivingRoom we are testing our theory of Multiplication. When we first started as a group we wanted to grow by starting new groups rather than growing into a larger one - the time has come for that as a result of some numerical growth over the past year.
The question we were left with was not one of 'should' we multiple - but one of 'how' do you multiply?
After over two years of journeying with each other we find ourselves in an interesting place - a rich mix of people from different walks of life who've been sharing a few hours together each week in order to resource them for the rest of their lives together.
In thinking and praying about this dilemma I began to realize that the process of choosing how to multiply could become quite complicated. The choice of 'how' to form new groups could be based on many factors - but three main ones seemed to emerge in my thinking.
Logistics - whilst we all like to be postmodern and liquid in these types of communities the fact remains that sometimes we need to consider the life situation of people when making decisions. It's not very sexy I know - but factors like where people live, families (sometimes its easier to meet at the homes of families with younger children) and time availability come into play.
Relationships - there are a range of relational factors to keep in mind. On one hand people would like to be with people they feel comfortable with, that they share interests with, that they are in similar life circumstances to. People like being with people like them - I guess its part of who we are as humans. On the other hand we don't want to just split into homogenous, comfortable, like-minded groups. One of the things we've enjoyed about the journey so far is that we are a bit diverse - by gender, age, work situations, students, families, singles, marrieds etc. We all expressed a desire to find a balance between having diversity but maintaining relationships.
Mission - a couple of weeks ago we had a conversation where people shared their missional heart - the places that God was stimulating them to join him in. One of the suggestions that we've been playing around with was about forming communities around some of these passions, ideas and interests.
So two weeks ago I shared these three areas with the group and we began to sort through the different issues associated with each. The general initial feeling was that all were important, but that most of us were probably more leaning towards the missional and logistical side of things than the relational. I guess we realized that two years ago when we started we didn't know each other as a group and the relationships looked after themselves over time.
That night we came up with three draft lists of possible new groups to think about for a couple of weeks. In the mean time I invited people to give feedback and reactions to these groups via email or in person.
Last night I brought the feedback to the whole group and we tweaked two of the groups to align them even more towards along missional and relational lines. We now have three pretty firm groups!
So - I'm excited, apprehensive, curious and really looking forward to how it all goes.
Next week is our last week before splitting up - at which time we'll move into a new cycle of meeting separately most weeks and then coming back together as a larger tribe semi regularly (maybe monthly initially and then transitioning to every 6 or so weeks).
We still have to address some issues of leadership - but as I look at the three new groups I'm really excited about the mix of people in each. We've managed to keep an element of diversity yet some threads of commonality in each group and each group is made up of wonderful and capable people - each of whom could lead it in their own right.
5 May, 2005 9:48 AM
Last night at LivingRoom we met to talk about how we should grow.
Since starting just over 2 years ago we've grown numerically from a group of 7 (including one child) to a group of 25 (including up to 5 children).
The dynamics have obviously changed in this time - we've gone from meeting around a table to meeting around a lounge room. We've gone from an easy to organize meal to something that requires a roster. We've gone from an intimate group where all can quite naturally find a space to be heard to one where some personality types find it more difficult to speak.
These changes are not necessarily bad - they're just different and have led us to go back to rethinking some of the founding values that we started with.
This week I went back through the notes we made when we first started meeting and was interested to discover that we'd actually named 'smallness' as a value.
Ok - it never made it into our three core values - but it was talked about a lot early on.
I shared last night a little of why we initially valued smallness and as a result named right up front that we wanted to grow by multiplication (starting new groups) rather than by growing into a large group:
- Previous Experiences of Large Church - We were all pretty honest about our previous experiences of church in the early days. While most of us had had pretty positive experiences of churches of all sizes - one of the themes that emerged early on was that we'd seen things in larger churches that left us thirsting for something different (including some of the following). I don't think any of us were (or are) 'anti' large church - we just wanted to experience and try something different.
- Intimacy - We all desired to be in a group that was connected and able to share on a deeper level.
- Community - There was a real sense that people longed for an experience of shared life
- Local Focus - We all initially lived reasonably close to one another and had a real heart for the local area
- Commitment and Participation - Whilst we were keen not to let 'church' dominate and take us away from the rest of our lives - we also desired to be a community committed to one another - to participation (not just attendance) and to unashamedly growing in and exploring our core values.
- Accountability - The group felt that out of the intimacy, community and commitment would come a level of accountability between one another.
- Logistics - There was a desire that we not become a group distracted by the logistics of staff, buildings, resources etc. 'Simplicity' was a word that was used early on a bit.
These things are not impossible in a large church - and they are not guaranteed in a small one. However our theory at the time was that perhaps in a small setting these elements would be a more natural thing. It was an untested theory - but it was something we wanted to test and out of it we made a decision to be a multiplying group.
Nice theory - but is there any truth to it?
Last night we had some good discussion around this question and the general feeling was that as we've grown, these things have become more difficult. Of course as we've grown other wonderful things have happened (there is a sense of momentum, variety, freshness, diversity etc) - however there are some costs to these things also.
So the decision has been made to multiply.
I'll post at some point in the next few days about the dilemma of 'how to multiply'.
21 April, 2005 12:02 AM
Good night tonight again at LivingRoom. We did another Everyday Spirituality Tour of one of our community's members. Going from home, to local shopping strip, to child care centre to work place for a tour of where he spends his days.
I am always amazed at the things that these little tours reveal about people who do them that none of us would ever know without them.
30 March, 2005 5:42 PM
Tonight at LivingRoom we're going to do something a little different (when don't we) and watch the news together.
Its our 'topical' night and unfortunately the guest we were trying to line up to come and talk to us about abortion can't make it so at the last minute we're switching plans to see what the up to the minute topics of the day are. We'll video tonight's news bulletin from TV and replay it story by story with a pause between each one for a response from the group.
The responses might include any of the following (and more):
- a time of prayer
- digging into Scripture on the topic
- debate
- time of reflection
- discussion on values
- discussion on how we might respond
- asking where the Kingdom of God is present (or absent) in the stories
- ethical discussions
We might get stuck on the first story of the bulliten and go no further for the night or we might find its a slow news night and whip through them all really quick (lets hope there are not too many 'firemen rescue kittens stuck up a tree' stories.
The night could go anywhere depending what happened in the world today!
23 March, 2005 11:09 PM
I know this will freak some of my readers out - 3 posts in a day!
Tonight at LivingRoom we did the Easter thing - yes, in one night we did Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday - all in one.
I was tempted to just choose one aspect of Easter but in the end decided to take a step back and look at the bigger picture.
I printed off the last few chapters of each of the Gospels from (basically the stories from the Last Supper onwards) from Bible Gateway and then basically cut them up into short bite sized mini stories/passages. By 'cut them up' I literally mean I cut them with scissors.
So tonight after our meal together we all sat around in a circle (it was squashy tonight cause we had 6 new people with us) and in the middle of the room I placed all the bite sized segments from the four gospels - there must have been about 40 of them.
I invited people to choose one or two of the stories to contemplate for the next 10-15 minutes. The invitation I gave was as follows:
Take the next few minutes to quietly read over the story/ies that you've selected.
Read them over a few times and ponder what you hear. Allow your mind to go in whatever direction the passage takes it. You might like to use some of the following questions as starting points.
• What words or statements ring in your ears after reading this passage?
• What does it leave your wondering?
• What does it leave your feeling?
• Does it call you to some sort of response?
• Where do you see yourself in the story?
• What hadn't you noticed before?
• What does it teach you about God?
• What does it tell you about yourself and humanity?
At the end of the time of contemplation I invited people to read out one of their passages and if they'd like to share where their contemplations led them.
So as people shared we pretty much heard the full account of the last day of Jesus life through to the resurrection accounts (although we did them in a kind of random order - which was quite interesting in itself) along with people's impressions, ponderings, challenges. It was like a 20 point sermon (as there were 20 of us there).
I found the whole exercise quite interesting for a number of reasons. Firstly the reflection on a short passage was an interesting exercise as it really focused me in on one story quite intensely (I looked at the Garden of Gethsemane). But then to step back and hear such a variety of interconnected stories and reflections was quite powerful for me. I was struck by the amazing array of emotions that were expressed by different people featured in the stories - the rollercoaster ride that these few days must have been for Jesus, his disciples and those around them.
16 March, 2005 10:21 PM
At LivingRoom tonight we had a wonderful night of BYO Worship.
For newer readers of this blog who haven't come across the concept before - you might like to check out two previous descriptions of BYO Worship nights here and here.
In short, BYO worship is where each person is invited to bring a short experience, reflection, story, activity, reading, piece of music, song, art work etc for the group to do - usually on a certain theme. We generally fast on these nights - so instead of each person bringing something to the meal to share they bring something to the worship time to share.
Tonight's theme was 'Home' and I was really touched by the amazing array of experiences that were brought together in a beautiful way. Some of the elements of our night tonight included:
- Photos of one person's homes over the years
- A song 'come into my kitchen'
- Quotes on the topic of 'home'
- A couple of treasured heirlooms from a grandparent (an old battered cookbook and a fork and spoon) that reminded one person of home
- A reflection on John 15 - 'Abide in me and I will Abide in you' (or in the Message translation - 'Make your home in me and I will make my home in you'. Followed by discussion on the differences between a house and a home.
- An exercise on homelessness getting us to think of those who perhaps are without home.
- A song - 'I still call Australia Home' - with a reflection on one person's journey of moving to Australia
- Verses on God dwelling in/with us
- Verses on Us dwelling in/with God
- One person's Teddy Bear which had symbolized home for that person for many years
- One person's visitor book which each person that visits their home signs which has come to mean a lot to them
- A reflection on one family moving out of home temporarily to live with another family whilst their home is being renovated
- Someone singing us a song written about community
I have by no means done justice to the wonderful array of experiences that we had tonight. One of the things I love about our BYO Worship nights is the way in which the Holy Spirit takes a diverse group of experiences and activities and actually speaks quite powerfully to those there on a topic. It was fascinating to see the common threads running through the night as people shared - it was also really powerful to have each person share so openly of themselves - I think we all came away from the night having felt touched not only by God but also somewhat touched by one another and knowing each other a little better.
11 March, 2005 12:00 AM
Good night again last night at LivingRoom. We had a night talking through 'admin' issues including reworking our micro groups, talking about how we grow (it looks like we'll start a second group soonish) and reviewing our new cycle of gatherings (I think we're all enjoying the variety of themes and also people in leadership). We also talked through a number of other logistical issues and did a little planning for an upcoming weekend away.
One of the things we decided to do was to have a 'host' for our Wednesday night gatherings. One person each week will be given the role of keeping things moving and helping the night to run well. In a sense we've taken the idea from Cityside and Mark Pierson's 'Worship Curator' idea.
The nice thing about the current situation that we're in is that we're continuing to grow and seeing new people enquire about our group. Of course this brings with it new challenges but overall its a nice 'problem' to have. I'm looking forward to the new developments as they unfold.
3 March, 2005 11:15 AM
Last night at LivingRoom Rob led us in a bible interaction. He got us into two groups which had the task of pulling apart and arguing either for or against the following quote from Geoffry Magrasse.
'We can only be radical if we start with God. We cannot get involved with all the political issues of today. What we've got to do is try and make the journey we are making as Christ would make it.'
One group had to argue for the quote and the other had to argue against it - but using Scripture as a primary source for their discussion.
The groups then came back together and shared what they'd discussed - listened to each other and then reflected back what they liked about what the other group had said.
The discussion was rich and took us in a range of directions. It tackled some big issues like Christians in mainstream politics, the politics of everyday living and questions like can 'we start with God' or does 'God start with us'? Discussion went late into the evening and I'd be doing the group a disservice by trying to sum it all up here.
6 February, 2005 3:53 PM
One Wednesday night at LivingRoom we met to discuss the way we want our weekly gatherings to look this year. There have been a number of changes that have impacted the way we meet. For starters we are now regularly over 20 in number - if everyone were to show up at once it would be over 25. Secondly, some weeks we now have up to 5 children with us. Thirdly we're still toying with the idea of starting a new group and want to minimise the the amount of time and energy that goes into preparing for the time together (in my experience of church too much energy is often put into weekly gatherings that could be put into other areas). Lastly I've gone back to a voluntary leadership role and have scaled back how much time I have to offer the community and we've moved to a more group led approach.
As a result we decided on Wednesday night to trial a cyclic approach to our gatherings where each week will have a different focus and be lead by different people. Our cycle will be of 7 weeks which takes us through a variety of different nights. Of course there will be overlap between the different styles (for example we'll pray and read the bible most weeks but in different ways depending upon who is leading and what the focus is. The 7 weeks are as follows:
Week 1 - Spirituality Tour of the life of one of the members of the group. In these weeks we meet for a meal at the person's house and then get into cars and they take us to places that are part of their everyday existance which might include, work, uni, school, cafι, gym, the park, place where they volunteer, friends houses etc etc etc. They tell us about those places and what they do there - who they meet etc. They share the rhythm of their life and we pray for them along the way or at the end. I've written about these here, here and here.
Week 2 - Reflective Night - These nights will be more reflective in nature and led by a different person each time - or perhaps a few people together. They could range from simple nights reflecting upon an image, verse, quote to using reflections/meditations that we've done before like Examen, Lectio divina etc. They might be individualistic or corporate. Really depends on who is leading and what they feel they'd like to lead us in.
Week 3 - Bible Focus - again this could cover a range of things from a bible study, to a 'Godly Play' exercise to some teaching etc. It might focus on a passage or be more of a topical survey of different passages.
Week 4 - Vision/Logistics/Review/Planning nights - From time to time I've been aware that we probably are not putting enough time into thinking through our direction and being intentional about what we do. I don't want to become overly rigid but perhaps from time to time it might not hurt to be a little strategic and to think through direction. These nights might be anything from thinking through an issue of 'giving' or 'how do we multiply/grow' through to planning topics/themes for the next term through to talking about the nitty gritty of our food roster, micro groups etc. These nights could also include having some guests from other communities come and share how they do things.
Week 5 - Real Life Spirituality - from time to time we have done nights that simply give each other opportunity to talk about what has been going on for them in terms of their 3 journeys. Particularly we've focused upon our 'outer' journey in these times and shared about the opportunities we've had to join with God in what he's doing in the world around us. Maybe we could also make these nights a 'BYO worship' night where everyone is invited to bring something for the group - whether it be a story of their week, a short reflection, a short reading/bible focus, etc. Its an opportunity for us to each listen to what God might want us to bring to the group in a very informal way.
Week 6 - Topical Night - We've done a few of these over the two years and they have ranged from hypothetical topics through to topics like Food and spirituality, to Refugee issues, to sexuality etc. They could be a range of formats from visiting a debate/event on an issue to someone doing some teaching/bible study through to a guest speaker. Again the topics would depend upon the person putting up their hand to run them and the desires of the group.
Week 7 - Mission and the Outer Journey - These nights are more focused upon the Outer Journey of mission, justice and the world we live in. They might range from actually going out and engaging in some activity in the community around us, to a guest from another faith journey, to a sharing night on what God's doing around us in this area, to some learning/study/teaching on the area.
The 7 weeks might seem a little rigid but they are not intended to box us but rather to stimulate our thinking and help us to be intentional in cycling through the values that we've identified as a group.
We've done some planning on the first 7 weeks and each of them have been allocated to a different person to lead. I'm really looking forward to seeing how they unfold and go.
3 February, 2005 3:01 PM
Barb points to this helpful article on
Children and the Emerging Church which I'm going to keep on hand to point people to when I get asked about the topic (every few weeks it seems). It is written by one of my heroes - Neil Cole. He writes:
'In order to have a spontaneous church multiplication movement, we must not confine expansion with controls. For this reason, I don’t recommend that there is only one way to take care of kids in a simple church. In fact, we usually give two or three options and let churches decide for themselves. My experience shows, however, that there are better ways than others. Integration in church life has proven more powerful than segregation based on age....'
I think Neil is onto something here - we have 5 kids that come to LivingRoom from time to time and its something that has been on my mind for a while now. We talked again last night in our planning time about the idea of integration with kids and came to a decision that to do a specific kids ministry/Sunday School type thing was not where we were at. Instead for us we want to be very very intentional about our relationships with our kids - love them and make a real effort to engage them over our meal and community time.
We make a conscious effort to do all age friendly activities from time to time but at other times are fine with the idea of the kids going off by themselves to have a play and be themselves with one another while we do what we do.
One of the insightful comments a parent made last night was that if we work on the relationship that the kids will want to stay with us, even when we 'talk adult' together and that this is probably the best integration we can do.
17 January, 2005 12:45 PM
One of the questions that has been sitting in my inbox for a while now from a reader is on Tithing/Giving. A reader asks:
One thing that interests me is tithing. I've read some of your posts about money and the emerging church, and I wonder, how do you think tithing fits in the emerging church? If there's no building to maintain and no full-time staff, is a strict 10-per-cent-per-paycheck still the go? No quibbles that giving money per se is important practically as well as being an antidote to materialism, of course.... How does LivingRoom do things?
Good question. Actually giving is an area we're currently working on (and so the following is largely my own opinion and guesswork as to how we'll move forward). To this point its been very relaxed (perhaps too relaxed) and we've left it up to individuals to give as they feel led to do to whatever they want. If they want to give to LivingRoom we have an account that they can directly debit money into. But we rarely talk about it and we rarely spend it! I know individuals are very generous with other causes - giving to the LivingRoom account to this point has been quite small - probably because we have not pushed it at all.
I actually would like this year to have it higher on our priority list - not that we talk about it all the time or pressure people to give to LivingRoom but that we raise the profile of being a generous and giving group of people.
We don't and probably won't ever have a bowl that we pass around but I suspect that we will probably just talk about it more and talk about where we might give the money that is given more.
We don't actually have any expenses as a church - I don't draw a wage and we have few, if any overheads - as you say - no building, no staff, no expenses. This is exciting to me because it means that any money we get we are looking to give to other groups, ministries, community groups etc - especially missional stuff. This year we may use some of it to run some of our own missional projects.
So in answer to your question - its not a big deal for us and perhaps should be more of one (without becoming dominant).
My personal opinion on tithing is that 10% isn't really what God is after. He asks for everything and so we need to learn to live more in an attitude of that whether it be in our formal or informal giving/generosity. I'm not anti tithing or churches that practice it but would much prefer to see individuals seeking God as to how he wants them to use their resources (financial, time, possessions etc) and then responding to that. I'll keep you up to date here on the blog as to any decisions we end up making in the coming weeks/months on this area.
12 January, 2005 12:20 PM
Lucas from ::my four walls:: just emailed me to say that they're starting a little church where he lives in Texas and that after using some material from this site and chatting over it as a group that they've decided to call themselves 'The Living Room'. Wooohooo another one!
By my counting this brings the total number of new LivingRoom's that I know of in the last two years to five.
It is really exciting to see these little communities springing up all over the world (not just the one's named Living Room). I'm constantly amazed by the way that so many of them seem to have common threads and strands yet how diverse they can also be.
Our little 'Living Room' church has been on summer holidays from meeting face to face for a couple of weeks. Some of the group have been away on holidays, others have caught up informally and others have just taken a little break by themselves. I love that we're flexible enough to morph and change in this way.
Lucas asked in his email how big our church is and I thought I'd answer here.
I'll resist the normal emerging church response to this question of 'its not about numbers'. Whilst I agree that numbers are not the best or only measure of a church's health I have come to a point that its still not the evil/bad/misguided/unaskable question that some seem to think that it is. Numbers are important to me not to measure our success but because numbers change the dynamic of a group and can help give a picture of where a group of people are at. They can also (but don't always) give an indication of energy - ie one could say that a group that goes from one hundred to thousands (like on the day of Pentecost) might have something going on - there might just be some energy there that says something about what God is doing there. Having said this a small non numerically growing group of people can have incredible energy and God's movement going on in it also.
Ok - have I said enough qualifying statements to the most simple of questions?
How big is the LivingRoom. As of the end of 2004 our core group numbered fifteen people. This doesn't mean there is 15 there each week - our gatherings vary from half that to more than that depending on what is going on with people that week. We quite often have visitors and people are quite often away. There is also somewhere between 5 and 7 people on the edges of the group who are about to either join in the new year or who are 'checking us out'.
The dynamics of the group have changed as we've grown in the past (almost) two years. When we started initial core of 7 (all but one remain today) our gatherings happened around the meal table and were more intimate by virtue of being so physically close to one another. Now we are too big for any of the tables that our group has in their homes so we tend to spread out around a LivingRoom to eat and for our activities. Its also common now to leave our time together not having talked to everyone as deeply as you did when we first started. Of course there are positives to a larger number of people (the meal is usually easier to organize) and its a nice feeling to have a full room of diverse people.
2005 will likely see LivingRoom multiply for the first time. This is partly just for logistics but there also just seems to be energy in the group for a new one to emerge around a number of people within our core team. How this looks and the way it will happen is yet to be made clear but I'm looking forward to seeing where the conversations we're having will take us.
13 December, 2004 8:52 AM
Yesterday was the first LivingRoom wedding. Two of our much loved core group tied the knot in a really beautiful morning ceremony in the sunshine a couple of hours outside of Melbourne. It was a wonderful afternoon - very relaxed - very creative.
As I lay on a picnic rug at during the reception - nibbling on some wonderful organic vegetarian food and having myself a very nice organic beer - I looked around me to see a wonderful example of what community could be. There were 100 or so people there from all different parts of the happy couple's life - LivingRoom people were just one of many groups that included friends from school, previous churches, family etc. It was nice to see different groups connecting throughout the afternoon.
Instead of a sit down reception they decided to have a picnic where people were invited to come dressed 'as you are' - very relaxed. People brought their dogs and kids and sprawled out on picnic rugs and fold up chairs.
People were also given with the invitation to the event a small square piece of card which they were asked to make/draw/create something to represent a small gift for the couple. It was fascinating to see the variety of creative ideas that people brought.
It was a wonderful cruisey afternoon. Bring on some more LivingRoom Weddings - I could certainly do with that kind of afternoon a little more regularly in my life.
14 October, 2004 12:35 PM
We had a really interesting and worthwhile gathering at LivingRoom last night where we spent the evening talking through some of the issues that we face as a community.
We talked through four main areas and then set up working/dreaming groups for each to make sure that we move forward and don't just talk the talk. They will take the conversations we had last night as a basis for their more intentional thinking, dreaming, planning, researching and come back to the group with some ways forward.
The areas that we're thinking and praying through at the moment are:
Multiplication - How do we grow? What will be the benefits, risks, pain, excitement, logistics of starting a second LivingRoom type group in 2005? How will it work? Who will lead it? What will the relationship between the two groups be? Will it be a clone of what we currently are or a fresh expression? Do we base it around new people or existing people? What does leadership look like? What will my role be in the new and existing group? How do we decide who goes and who stays? What will be the impact of the move on the existing group? These are just some of the questions we've given to the working group in this area to tackle and work through - they'll hopefully come back to the group with some suggestions and ideas on how our multiplication will look next year and even looking further down the track for future mulitiplications.
Giving - I told the group last night that next year I do not need them to pay me anything and that I will continue to give a day or two (depending on the feeling of the group) to the work of LivingRoom. This releases us to give financially to other opportunities including mission projects we might want to run, seeding new communities, interns, gifts to other mission and community projects both locally, nationally and overseas etc. This working group will be thinking through some of the issues surrounding this and will come back to the group with some suggested ways forward.
Gatherings - This group will take a look at our Wednesday night and Micro Group gatherings and do some evaluation, planning and thinking about how we can make them a more enriching part of our journey. We don't want to be defined by what we do when we gather and don't want to be consumed by planning and running events but we do want our times together to propel us into our Core Values. We also realize that if we're multiplying that it might be useful to have a rhythm of gathering that is a little less reliant upon one person preparing and is more self sufficient and able to be led and sustained by a group working together.
Mission - We've talked over the last year and a half about mission a lot and to this point have not really done much on a corporate level. So far mission has very much happened as an extension of our lives. This group will do some thinking about corporate mission again and hopefully come back with some opportunities, teaching and ideas on how we can be more dynamic in our outward focus.
All in all it was a good night. We raise a whole heaps of questions and came up with some interesting ideas and thoughts that I'd not considered before that will give our four working groups a launching pad into some interesting dreaming and work.
11 October, 2004 1:33 PM
I just had a good MSN chat with a fellow explorer of all things church and he asked - 'any more wisdom to share concerning house churches?'
I'm not sure how wise I am - I'm a newbie to this planting of churches thing and am learning as I go along. I sprouted a few things off the top of my head that I thought I'd keep a record of and float here publicly for your thoughts, experiences and comments. By no means is what I'm sharing here definitive or universal - its just a little of what I'm learning in our context. It's not rocket science - but here goes:
1. Go Slow - It takes time to build relationships with each other and with the wider community. I've seen a number of people start churches who have gone in with guns blazing and the up shot of it was that it didn't last.
We spent a long time getting to know each other as a core group of people, spent a lot of time working on our values/dna and whilst I was a little frustrated at the time at the slowness of our growth (we had one new person in a year!) I'm really grateful for the strong foundations of values and relationships that we now have.
My online buddy asked me at this point about buildings and how early to start talking about them. I responded:
'I'm not against buildings - but I think they should emerge out of the dna and the opportunities that arise and that takes a lot of time to discern. If we'd got a building when we started it would have been the wrong building for where we are now.'
I'm not sure if or when we'll have a building - at the moment I doubt that we will - but if we do I'd hope that it emerges out of our missional activity rather than anything else.
2. Make it as connected as possible to people's real lives - We've really tried hard to ground what we do in our weekly gatherings in what people do in the other 98% of their week. I think the temptation when you are involved in a little group like ours is to hide away and be all 'spiritual' and 'holy'. So we don't do just 'spiritual stuff' - or rather we've widened what we see as 'spiritual stuff' and talk a fair bit about real life - work, friends, social issues. Our recent 'food' series was good in this way.
3. Don't just meet in Houses - This is related to the last one I suppose but I have been pondering it today. I think we can begin to break down the wall between the 'holy huddle' mentality that its easy to fall into the trap of and the 'everyday spirituality' that I talked about above by actually shifting the gathering space to an everyday space on a regular basis. I've documented some of our attempts to do this on this blog and I find it to be an incredibly rich experience every time we do it. I think its easy for a church to be defined by the building it meets in (house church, pup church, cafe church) and think its useful to mix things up a bit and to find other words to describe what you do (the reason why I rarely describe LivingRoom as a 'house church').
4. Don't let Church Dominate Life - Again this is related but its been such a big lesson for me personally. Its so easy to let Church become an overwhelming dominant thing in one's life. Now I've got nothing against church - as far as things go its probably on the good end of the spectrum of things that you could allow to dominate your life - but as a minister I think I've been guilty in the past of expecting my congregations to give every spare moment in their week to the programs and ministries that I run for them. In the process I created a monster that consumed people's lives. In the process I ran the risk of disconnecting them from their families, work places, social clubs, friends, neighbors and personal hobbies and interests and what God was doing around them in their natural rhythms of life.
I'm learning that if we allow people (and ourselves) time to live a little that they actually become much more effective in mission and that they find God and grow in their understanding and relationship with him in some amazingly surprising places!
Again - I have nothing against programs or ministries - but I think that we need to really take our time and ask some big questions about them before we rush into adding another expectation into people's lives.
5. Be Shaped by the Outsider - I'm reading a business book by Seth Godin at the moment called 'Free Prize' and today he talked about how when developing a new product you should focus your attentions NOT on your satisfied customers but those who were dissatisfied and who had a need. There is no point in developing a new product for your existing happy customers because they will probably buy it anyway - the way to expand your customer base is to focus on the dissatisfied ones. Now I'm not wanting to say that those who attend church are 'customers' - but it made me wonder who most churches spend most of their time and energies focussing upon.
I've got a friend who once said to me - 'What we do in our church is defined not by who attends it - but by who doesn't attend it.' In saying this he was advising me to spend time thinking about my culture, my neighbor, my work mate and allowing who they are to help shape what we do as a church. I think there is some real wisdom in those words. Not that we forget about those in our community when thinking about how we are shaped as a church - but that we also allow those on the edges and outside our community to shape it also.
I'm sure I'll think of more things as the day/week progresses as I'm in a bit of a reflective mood these days. Again - these are not meant to be definitive or 'the answers' but just some lessons learnt so far for us. Interested in others thoughts and experiences.
9 October, 2004 5:43 PM
Well I have refrained from blogging too many details of LivingRoom for the past few months apart from some descriptions of what we've been doing in our weekly gatherings.
I haven't done this intentionally (although I don't really believe in publicly documenting every thing we do, decide or talk about - not because we're hiding anything, but just because so much of what we do is about relationships and the struggles of life) but rather have not had a huge desire (or a lot of time) to document it. Having said all that I thought it might be worthwhile me making a few comments on the place that we as a community find ourselves now after over 20 months of grappling with responding to the call of Jesus in the context that we live.
Multiplication - one of the things that we all agreed on when the LivingRoom first began to come together was that we wanted to be a group that multiplied rather than became one large church. I don't think this was because anyone in our group has anything against larger churches - in fact most of us have had some positive and life giving experiences in them - however we felt that a smaller group setting would perhaps be a more appropriate one for our mix of personalities in the missional context we found ourselves in.
Up until now that has been a rather nice theory or ideal - but will it work? We're getting close to finding out as our numbers have continued to grow to a point where meeting around a table is pretty much an impossibility and even our larger livingrooms are getting a little small. So in the next few months, high on our agenda, is a focus on working through how our group will become two groups. Of course this will be a challenge on many levels - amidst the excitement of growth and new people is the pain of change, uncertainty as to how to manage the transition and a little fear as to what the impact will be. I'm excited by the possibility but wanting to proceed carefully and waiting for God to reveal a way forward.
Publicity - I'm not sure that the group as a whole feels this as much as perhaps I do, but I've definitely felt more eyes upon us in the last few months. Every week there are enquiries from people interested in knowing more. Sometimes it is because they want to explore joining in, but mostly its for other reasons. People wanting to find a model for their own context, others wanting to network, others just curious and wanting to learn, others wanting us to come and share with their own communities/churches and others who are somewhat concerned about what we're doing and want to lend their wise counsel.
I really enjoy most of these interactions and find that in most cases people are very supportive and gracious as I share and listen. I take every opportunity I can to share and learn from others and am keen to respond to as many as possible as it is a big part of shaping who we are as a group (and hopefully its a life giving experience for those we're interacting with as well).
At the same time I often feel awkward having this sort of attention upon us. You see despite the labels that are put upon us (like 'Emerging, Organic, Liquid, New Form, New Model') I personally don't see that what we're doing is particularly new or special. Don't get me wrong - I think its special in that as we've waited on God and moved forward that this is what he seems to wanting to do with us - but in terms of us being a model to look at - I think that what we do is pretty basic stuff and not at all 'sexy' or 'new'. In fact most of what we do at our core is pretty similar to many other churches, except that we attempt to do it in a language and form that is relevant to the suburbs we live in and the subcultures that surround us.
Anti Mainline? - I guess the other criticism that I'm hearing more and more about churches like ours is that we see ourselves as better than, superior to or in competition with or anti the 'traditional' or 'mainline' church. This is a growing frustration for me as it could not be further from the truth. I (and I'll only speak for myself despite suspecting that everyone in LivingRoom feels the same) LOVE the church - not just the bits that look or operate like we do - but all of it.
In fact if there is a segment of the church (and I don't like to segment it) that I seem to being drawn to more and more these days in my work outside the LivingRoom it would be the 'mainline' church who I have increasing opportunities to share with, learn from and build relationships with.
I don't particularly care if churches or people are Emerging, Traditional, Contemporary, Orthadox, Liberal or Fundamental - whether they choose to meet on Sunday mornings in a building with a steeple, Wednesday nights in a cafe or a home around a meal, Saturdays every second week at midnight in a night club or on a Monday morning around the water cooler at work - whether they sing hymns, songs, chants or choose not to sing at all - what I care about is that people are moving closer to God and that they are doing their best to help those around them to do the same (sorry for the rant).
I guess the question I'm left pondering is 'how do I (we) break down the misconception that we're anti church or are suggesting that WE are the only way forward? Or do we just keep getting on with the job at hand and ignore the critiques?
Everyday and Naturally Rhythmic Spirituality - I'm feeling more and more convinced that God seems to be doing something among us that is in the ordinary everyday lives that we lead. I find it hard to describe or put my finger on - but much of what we end up focussing upon at LivingRoom tends to come back to real life issues and how we hear from and respond to God in them. This was a strong thing in our recent focus upon Spirituality and Food - is very evident in our Everyday Spirituality Tours and regularly surfaces when we meet in our Micro Groups. I think we could do more to foster this exploration but am finding it to be a very refreshing learning experience.
Self Sufficiency - Most of you know that our denomination gave us a two year seeding grant which has contributed to my living expenses/wage over the past 18 months. I've written before about my worry and concern about what happens when that money runs out and in the last 6 months have worked hard at finding new income streams to allow me to continue to work with LivingRoom. The amazing thing is that it looks like the work, prayer and creative thinking have paid off and that I'll be able to offer my time to LivingRoom next year for free. I'm excited about this for a number of reasons (in addition to being able to pay the rent and put food on the table) - mainly because I'd really love the form of church that we have (and are planting through multiplication) to be able to sustain itself in future. I'm also excited because it will release the finances of the group for some exciting missional opportunities.
I'd always felt uncomfortable in previous settings that so much of the churches giving ended up being spent on caring for those inside the community (my wage as a pastor) and so little actually had an impact on those on its fringes. Whilst I don't have an issue with ministers being paid - I'm excited that we're in a position to be able to funnel more dollars into mission.
I think I might stop there. There is a lot more I could write - and I may do so in the week ahead before I head off on holidays next Saturday. I don't want to present LivingRoom as being all together, rosy red, the perfect model. Its not. However these are some of the things we're working through at the moment and I thought it would be worthwhile putting them on the blog with the hope that it might connect with others and that you might join in praying for us as we seek to move forward. I'd especially appreciate your prayers in the next week as we'll be getting together on Wednesday night to talk through some of these very issues as we look to 2005 and beyond. Thanks for taking the time to read my ramblings.
7 October, 2004 6:50 PM
Last night at LivingRoom we spent the night writing prayers. Up until this point we've been a group that has very rarely read or written prayers - our prayer has been much more of a meditative/contemplative or free flowing spoken nature. I guess growing up I reacted against the few experiences of liturgy or written prayers that I experienced and have rarely gone back to it until recently when I've begun to hang out with and be impacted by communities that have a very rich experience of God through it.
Anyway - last night we spent some time as individuals writing prayers on a variety of topics. At the end of the time we came back together and some of us shared what we'd written. I was quite amazed by the diversity of themes and styles of prayers written. It was quite a moving experience for some of us to hear what had been written, knowing the roads that people have and are traveling. We're going to collect the prayers that we write and begin a prayer scrap book so that we can look back on them and at times pray them again. I suspect prayer writing nights will become a more regular part of what we do from time to time.
update: Writing Prayers is a helpful resource for those wanting to explore the topic. I used the article in introducing the exercise last night.
1 October, 2004 9:00 AM
This week at LivingRoom we had another night of BYO Worship. These nights are always interesting - you never quite know what you'll get. For those of you who haven't heard me talk about them before - BYO worship nights are nights where in stead of everyone bringing an element of the meal that we normally share together at our gatherings - everyone brings an element of the worship time. No one knows what anyone else is bringing and spends time during the week preparing a 5-10 minute exercise, meditation, reading, teaching, poem, contemplation, story, prayer, creative project etc for us all to do.
We fast on these nights which gives us time for everyone to share/lead something.
This week we had a couple of stories, a Bonhoeffer reading, a writing exercise about encouragement, a reflection on a quote that led into thinking about Art and Spirituality, a couple of readings from the Gospels that led to a time of prayer about our missional contexts, some more reflections and prayers on our food theme, a meditative creative exercise on the Bigness of God and some time of silence.
It was interesting to see how a number of the things we did related strongly to one another. I love these nights because it is a truly participatory and interactive time of learning and worship. There is no leader in the centre, no expert, no passivity. We wouldn't probably do it every week but its a valuable part of the LivingRoom experience.
16 September, 2004 10:36 AM
Last night at LivingRoom we took a look at the topic of Jesus and Food (as mentioned a couple of posts ago). I ended up going with the messy/chaotic/overwhelming approach of tackling 25 passages of Gospel Scripture on the topic rather than just picking out one or two to examine. The way we did was to divide into groups of three and to divide the following list of passages up. Each group read their passages and spent a few minutes on each teasing out the implications/meaning/themes as a group. The groups then came back together to share their musings which we noted on a big sheet of paper or two. The passages we looked at were:
Jesus and Food
- Temptation Story β Matthew 4:1-4
- Salt of the Earth β Matthew 5:13
- Do not worry β Matthew 6:25-27
- Jesus Questioned about Fasting β Matthew 9:14-17
- Parable of the Yeast β Matthew 13:33
- Feeding 5000 β Matthew 14:13, Mark 6:30-44
- Yeast of the Pharisees β Matthew 16:5-12
- Wedding Feast Parable β Matthew 22:1-14, Luke 14:15-24
- Sheep and Goats β Matthew 25:31-46
- Lords Supper β Matthew 26:17-30, Mark 14:12-26, Luke 22:7-23
- Matthews Party β Mark 2:13-17, Luke 5:27-32
- Lord of the Sabbath β Mark 2:23-27
- Unclean Hands β Mark 7:1-23 - Feeding 4000 β Mark 8:1-13
- Jesus Anointed at Bethany β Luke 7:36-50 - Beatitudes β Luke β 6:20-26
- Fasting β Luke 6:33-39 - Glutton and Drunk β Luke 7:33-35
- Jesus at a Phariseeβs House β Luke14:1-14
- Parable of the Lost Son β Luke 15:11-32
- Zacchaeus β Luke 19:1-10
- Jesus Turns Water into Wine β John 2:1-10
- Samaritan Woman at the Well β John 4:1-26
- I am the Bread of Life β John 6:25-59
- Jesus feeds his Disciples Breakfast β John 21:1-14
I was interested to see the discussion that unfolded after our time in smaller groups. I won't attempt to summarize it here (do the exercise with a group and see where it leads you) but a couple of things stick in my mind today...they are related to one another...
1. Food and Mission - A number of times last night I found mysel
