My name is Peter and I am a D.Min. student here at Tabor. I am gradually working towards my doctorate with an emphasis on the word "gradually."
I grew up in a Methodist/Uniting Church family although I spent close to 20 years in Pentecostal churches. For nineteen years I was with the same church which went through exponential growth several times and also went through a couple of church splits. Out of this one small church hidden away in the back streets of Mitchell Park grew two of the largest churches in Adelaide (Coastlands and Southside which is now Edge Church). I was on staff for six years at Southside and then part time for a couple of years at Bethesda.
I went to the AOG's bible college in Katoomba where I completed an American degree and then spent three years at a Christian & Missionary Alliance Seminary in Canada where I completed a Master of Divinity.
Over the years I have seen it all - the good, the bad, the ugly, the amazing and so on. Then God led me back to the Uniting Church. In some ways I was surprised but God has his reasons. For the past few years I have been involved in adminstration and keep myself busy with some lay preaching. And as for "The Ministry" God will work it all out in his time.
The Uniting Church has some great things happening at the moment. However we do have a problem with aging and declining congregations. From an evangelical perspective there is also the problem of theological liberalism which when combined with post-modernism creates an interesting ministry environment. I'll be diplomatic and leave it at that but hopefully the course I am doing this week will provide some insights.
1 comment:
Thought # 2. Peter, getting back to you with another thought about the place of visuals in worship. All sensory worship is a bit of a challenge, and then there is of-course the protestant suspicion of anything ‘Romish’, but it does remind us that all our senses can be engaged in worship. Johnny Baker’s encouragement to move from a ‘deductive to an inductive approach’ reminds us that not all people keep in tune to a rational three point sermon and that many people engage differently.1)
Consequently, your thought about using art is a good one. Art is something that most ages respond to; whilst preferred artistic styles will differ of course. Art invites us to be our own interpreters of the images provided by the artist: a good example of this Graham Sutherland’s reflection on the ‘Noli Me Tangere’ theme in Giotto’s fresco.2) Whilst it does assume some prior knowledge of the ‘Christ story’ it nonetheless invites the observer to reflect on the artistic images and their meaning. The sermon therefore need not be left an ‘an oral experience’ but with careful guidance with the use of images and text the ‘interpreting community’ can discover for themselves Christ ‘the spiritual presence in our hearts and minds’ 3). Art has an ability to move beyond rationality and intellectualism, though it engages both, to an affective and more sensual experience.
All the best Peter with your experimentation.
Chris McLeod
1) Baker J, ‘Preaching – Throwing a hand grenade in the fruit bowl’ P.5
2) Harries R 2004, The passion in art, Ashgate studies in theology, imagination, and the arts, Aldershot, Hants, England, Ashgate. Pp. 122-125
3) Harries R 2004, The passion in art, Ashgate studies in theology, imagination, and the arts, Aldershot, Hants, England, Ashgate. P. 125
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