The Revd Mark Beach: Team Rector of Rugby, Diocese of Coventry. Doctor of Ministry student King’s College London. This title of this paper refers first to A Strategy for the Church’s Ministry written in 1983 by John Tiller, the Chief Secretary of the Advisory Council...

T. D. Atfield, University of Birmingham & The Queen’s Foundation, Birmingham I think the art of academia is taking a paragraph and turning it into a monograph [Laughter] and certainly I'm going to have to make heroic virtue out of dire necessity because I realised...

Paper read at Being Surpriced by God conference in Utercht June 2010

Three Lines of distinction

I would like to give some lines of distinctions of my research by telling three different experiences that have influenced me in the choices I have made during this research project. At this moment I just finished the empirical part of my inquiry. So the lines of thinking are at this moment only preliminary and I really would enjoy if you would feel free to give all kinds of reaction or feedback.

The first one is about the place and importance of organizational discourse within the practice of congregations and also within congregational studies.

Organizational discourse versus theology

I have a background within organizational science (organizational analysis) and when I started with the education program for ministry, I really was surprised when I noticed the debates in congregations about the best ways of organizing them. When in organizational science a lot of attention is going to the role of spirituality, the centrality of meaning within organizations and building of relations of trust, conversations in congregations were characterized by topics as professionalism, strategic purpose definitions or how to implement plans and find volunteers for this work. In a same way, this dominance of organizational discourse was traceable within a lot of theories around church development in The Netherlands. What was surprising for me was the carefree and pretheoretical way of speaking about organizations.
Within organizational science, the last forty years are dominated by a lot of disputes and discussions about the role of concepts and the use of it. It resulted in a wide range of different schools, concepts and approaches. While at the same time, in congregations terms as leadership, the organization or the importance of a clear mission are used in a self-evident way like there never was any form of reflection about it. Maybe the flood of so-called managerial literature –  all the management books you can buy at the airport for example – plays a part in this. I think, the most important disadvantage of this managerial use of organizational concepts is that it doesn’t take into account how it also can function in a very reductionistic way. The assumptions behind these models are neglected and the reductionistic influence on the local theological processes stays often implicit. In my opinion a more reflexive approach could be very fruitful. Especially because the theological particularity of congregations could be much more valued and taken into account. That’s why I was looking in the last years for possibilities for a more integrative approach in which the richness and pluriformity of different schools within organizational science and the theological field could be used. By using this organizational deconstruction in practice, I think new possibilities can be found for valuing a theological contribution within congregational studies and for the role of meaning in organizational processes.

A second line of distinction can be given by telling about the first three months of my research project

MF Norwegian School of Theology
harald.hegstad@mf.no

On the Different Modes of Ecclesiology

Utrecht, 22 June 2010

As theologians we face certain challenges when defining our enterprise. A fundamental challenge is the common experience that theology has the tendency to fall apart into different autonomous disciplines. Another problem is the division between theology as an academic and theoretical project on the one hand, and religious and ecclesial practice on the other. We therefore need models for keeping the parts together.

A fruitful contribution in this respect is the model proposed by Don S. Browning in his book A Fundamental Practical Theology (Browning 1991). Understanding the theological project as essentially practical, he distinguishes between four movements in the theological enterprise: descriptive theology, historical theology, systematic theology and strategic practical theology. The merit of this model is twofold: It attempts to keep the different theological disciplines together in a comprehensive understanding of theology, and it proposes a way of relating practice and theory to each other. Theology is not understood as theory divided from practice, but as reflection built on practice, and related to practice. It starts from practice and returns to practice. It starts with the descriptive movement to describe and interpret empirical realities. This descriptive work then leads to theological questions that have to be worked with in the light of Christian history, tradition and doctrine. In historical theology questions from practice are related to central texts and events of the Christian faith, including the biblical texts. In systematic theology a critical and philosophical perspective is added to the questions, discussing normativity and the validity of truth claims (Browning 1991, 47–54).

Building on the accomplishments of the three first phases, strategic practical theology “brings the general fruits of descriptive theology and practically oriented historical and systematic theology back into contact with the concrete situation of action” (ibid., 55). It asks the question for means, strategies and rhetoric that should be used in the concrete situation. Contrary to the traditional view, this phase of practical theology is not to be understood as an application to practice of theology as a theoretical discipline, but rather “the culmination of an inquiry that has been practical throughout” (ibid., 57).
My aim in this paper is not to go into the details of Browning’s model – nor discuss strengths and weaknesses. What I would like to do, is to use it as a framework for understanding the field of ecclesiology. As a central theological field, ecclesiology should be positioned within the four movements of Browning’s model – we may thus speak of a descriptive ecclesiology, historic ecclesiology, systematic ecclesiology and strategic, practical ecclesiology. Ecclesiology is not a subject that may be restricted to one of the theological movements or disciplines, e.g. within dogmatics.

The Missiological Significance of ‘Christ in us’ and ‘We in Christ’.

Hans Raun Iversen

Abstract:

Living in “he time of authenticity”(Charles Taylor) western people only recognise something as true when they experience it as a first person or at least trough an other first person with whom they can identify. Therefore Christ is what he is to the individual! Generally speaking we can not be Christians in the way of the church before they have become ’Christians in my own way’. This calls for a reconsideration of the Lutheran concept of pro me. To Luther faith is the personal trust that a person has in Christ, whom he has met and experienced as loving and trustworthy, present in His words, blood and body. What matters is how Christ matters to the individual, pro me. This sort of faith in Christ is a mighty thing that changes people and their criteria for acting in the world. As Christians are growing in Christ – as Christ is growing in Christian people – also the awareness of Christ as the King of the Kingdom of God and thus the universal and communal dimension of Christianity as it is reflected in congregational life may grow. But “Christ in us” is prior to “we in Christ”.

Christ in us and we in Christ

Jesus did not come to organize the church or call for church attendance Sunday morning. He came to raise signs of and faith in the Kingdom of God in which he himself is the king. “I have sometimes felt that the real purpose of church services is to enable the clergy to count the congregation”, Pete Ward tells us.   In his ground-breaking book Liquid Church from 2002 he considers whether church could be understood not just as people gathered in a solid fellowship or institution, but more as a process, as something people carry out in a fluid movement. Ward suggests that our concept of ‘church’ should shift from being a noun to being a verb.  We “church” whenever we “church”. With this in mind, he reflects on Paul’s Christological interpretation of church or congregation in the following passage: Paul sees our union with Christ as his presence surrounding and indwelling the believer. This relationship sustains and establishes the believer in relationship with God, but also it forges a wider community base to faith. The shared experience of the Lord unites into one body all of those who are in Christ.

The Local Church as Liberating Community round the Word

Paper for conference ‘Being surprised by God’; Embodied ecclesiology in local context, Utrecht, June 22, 2010

1. Introduction

The ecclesiastical community can be observed as an important link in the salvation and conversion of human individuals, who by Martin Luther are represented as by nature ‘curved in on themselves’. Encounter with the others in the local church can be a factor in the liberation of homo incurvatus in se.

In these terms I will explore the redemptive potential of the local church as a community around the Word.

I will do so first by arguing for individualism as a presupposition of true community, this in debate with Charles Taylor and in appeal to Luther (section 2). The local church is approached as a place where individuals encounter God and each other. The starting point of my approach is not the church as  a community, nor the Word which creates this community, but the self-centred individual, who in the community round the Word is opened for God and other people.

In the third section I will concentrate on the reflection of the German-Jewish philosopher Franz Rosenzweig (1886-1929) on the double conversion of the closed self by a twofold call on the individual. This call on the self comes, according to Rosenzweig, firstly from the loving God, and secondly from the neighbour who waits for love. According to Rosenzweig, it is the naturally egocentric individual who is called to do acts of love. This happens fistly in the event of God’s Self-revelation to man and secondly in redemptive moments of encounter with the other.

From this perspective I will try to sketch the local community round the Word as a place of calling and salvation (section 4).

Alister McGrath, Professor of Theology, Ministry and Education, and Head of the Centre for Theology, Religion and Culture at King's College, London.Prof  McGrath's is known for his approach to Christian theology and the interaction of the natural sciences and...

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ABSTRACTS UTRECHT JUNE 2010

PLENARY SESSIONS

PLEN. 1 Alister McGrath

“Theology, Worship, and Ministry: The Consummation of Theology in the
Life of the Church”

PLEN. 2 Harald Hegstad

“From congregational studies to congregational development. On the different modes of ecclesiology.”

PLEN. 3 Mary McClintock Fulkerson

“Redemptive Disruptions and the Social Implications of Eucharistic Memory”

PLEN. 4 Nick Healy

“A (Somewhat) Chastened Ecclesiology: Ethnography, the Trinity and the Doctrine of the Church”

PLEN. 5 Chris Scharen.

“Ethnographic Notes Towards a Carnal Ecclesiology

PLEN. 6 Helen Cameron

“Theological Reflections on Third Place Church: New forms of church in deprived urban communities in England”

Being surprised by God conference The conference is to bring together different methodologies. We hope for contributions that combine empirical and theological approaches/perspectives, but systematic and historical papers will be permissible. We also invite papers...

Die konferensie Leef die Gestuurde Roeping is gehou ter ere van Pat Keifert vir die bydrae wat hy gemaak het tot die totstandkoming van die Suider Afrikaanse Vennootskap vir Gestuurde Gemeentes (SAVGG) Pat is 'n kleurryke figuur wat intens lewe en sy roeping met...