Quote of the day!

You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.

Jeremy Corbyn included this quote from Maya Angelou in today's speech

Autumn Leaves

I have always loved autumn.

When I set up by Sabbatical I hadn’t really thought through the implications of it concluding in that season

During a walk in Derbyshire it came home to me again that the season of 'mellow fruitfulness' is both a beginning and end. That's so true as I prepare for the last two weeks of this Sabbatical journey.

Yesterday I reflected a bit on the book by Leonard Sweet and his comments about poetry and music lyrics. I'm no poet but my Derbyshire musings created these lines:

Autumn leaves

questions

gently falling.

Nuisance or Nascence?

Ending or Beginning?

Death or Life?

Pondered on an autumn Derbyshire Day September 2015 

Pictures, Poetry and Parables

In his 2012 book ‘Viral’ (How Social Networking is Poised to Ignite Revival) Leonard Sweet challenges those of us who have been more used to learning from books, communicating by landline, using libraries and watching TV as its broadcast. He draws distinction between ‘Two tribes’

The Guttenburgers – named after the founder of printing. Whilst recognising the enormous societal change brought about by the invention of printing in the 1400s, he suggests that many in today’s church still inhabit mind-sets that are mechanistic, responsive, physical, linear and hard-wired.

Googlers, on the other hand use internet, mobile technology, social media etc to gather information, make connections, create news and form relationships.

Guttenburgers must learn from Googlers:

Christians must learn about connecting with others from the experts – those who can’t seem to stop texting, IM (Instant message)ing, tweeting and updating their status on Facebook. What would happen if Christians devoted less attention to strategy and paid more attention to pursuing relationships? (24)

The book makes two pleas: first for those who feel that social media, internet etc. culture has passed them by to take this revolution seriously; second to consider how the use of new forms of media can provide opportunities for mission and connection with those for whom this approach to communication is de rigour.

So in relation to my theme:

PICTURES

Sweet refers to Googlers as the TGIF generation. Twitter, Google, IPhone and Facebook.

Many of these media use words. However, I was interested to read in Guardian on 24^th September that Instagram has overtaken Twitter in terms if world wise users. There are now 400 million Instagram users who post thousands upon thousands of pictures to describe their opinions, activities and lives. Pictures are becoming the new means of communication. This is in just three years since Sweet’s book was written!

POETRY

In his section on Google Sweet goes off at something of a tangent to promote the cause of poetry. It might be tangential to his central argument but is nevertheless helpful to mine! He draws parallels between the greatest poets and some of today’s songwriters:

If you enjoy music you enjoy poetry (119)

Quoting Eugene Peterson he appeals to those who lead churches to:

Treat words with reverence, stand in awe not only before the Word but words, and realise that language itself partakes of the sacred (119)

Poetry can shed light, challenge, introduce shade, touch the emotions and leave space for interaction in ways that prose or narrative often cannot.

It is not without reason that so much of the Bible is written in poetry. Contemporary songs also connect with the sacred, the spiritual in a way that other media messages cannot. As we abbreviate more and communicate less formally perhaps lyrics have an ever –increasing part to play in drawing attention to what’s really going on in people’s lives and heads?

PARABLES

Sweet suggest that Jesus would have easily adapted to the TGIF world and I think also to the use of pictures. After all that’s what parables are about – bringing eternal truths through pictures of daily life. Jesus surely was the master at working within the popular culture of his day to make his point!

Sweet points to two parables to illustrate this:

The parable of the mustard seed. This is an annoying wed which once it starts growing, is almost impossible to stop. It harbours all sorts of pests within its leaves. A bit like Japanese knotweed. That’s what the kingdom of heaven is like – a sprawling, growing, pervasive network that harbours all sorts of life, including the flotsam and jetsam of society!

Then there’s the leaven – a small amount of wheat germ which when exposed to the right conditions grows and grows and becomes the central and essential ingredient to life-sustaining food.

The imagery of connectedness in the body is also updated in the network connectivity and relationship forming that exits within social media.

The book is called Viral for a good reason; viruses and experienced in the cyber and natural worlds are normally considered negative influences but the idea of infectious faith is central to the future for Christianity:

The Jesus movement began virally and viral was the Jesus way of living. Like any life-beginning and life-affirming process, the Jesus movement revives itself again and again with a period of first incubation, then relationality, replication and a bursting forth of multiplication that cannot be contained. (189)

The potential for the church is nothing less than revival through the TGIF generation, making use of social media to spread the word:

Christ is alive and moving in all generations and cultures, whether or not our immune systems can handle a new breakthrough. (191)

The Big Question for Guttenburgers is whether or not they will be part of this breakthrough?

I might add and if so how? It’s tempting to say that new forms of church which are for and by TGIF people are the way forward - but can we whose teeth are longer (and hair greyer)  consider how we might  use social media to enhance our understanding of the world in which we are living, God’s world.

Not Quite Everest!

No This is a snap of intrepid Borkett at 500ft above Burbage Moor!

Earlier this week I went to see the adventure film Everest. Its based on the true story of events in 1996. Kiwi Mountaineer turned entreprenuer Rob Hall started a business taking amateur climbers up Everest. Others soon muscled in and before long the ascent starts to resemble a busy highway.

As the drama unfolds, Rob leads a disparate group of experienced climbers in what starts out as ideal conditions. As the weather  deteriorates most climbers come off the summit but one is desperate to reach the highest peak having failed twice before. His dream is to show his school class that ordinary people can achieve anything. Rob goes against his better judgement and all the  advice - instead of turning back from the final stage he presses on so the team member can achieve his dream. They make it but immediately the weather closes in. The consequence is excruciatingly inevitable to the observers. As a direct result of this decision, Rob and three other  team members loose their lives to  the mountain.

Reflecting on this on my very much less adventurous stroll in Derbyshire, I was reminded of the leadership theory of John Adair which has always been my favourite model of management. He uses three interlocking circles labelled Task, Team and Individual .  The leadership task is to hold all three areas in equilibrium as represented by three circles of equal size. If too much attention is given to any one of the areas there will be inbalance and inevitable problems. Rob's Task was to bring the Team down the mountain safely. Tragically,  he paid disproportionate attention to one Individual and as a result - disaster .

The three interlocking circles are great ways of describing all sorts of situations:

Father, Son, Spirit,

In terms of the church's concerns:Local, National, Global

For me, during this sabbatical I have been conscious of the need to balance:

Personal life/ Discipleship, Ministry, Superintendency.

Frost and Hirsch in The Shaping of Things to Come use the three circles to illustrate the missional task of the Missional Incarnatonal Apostolic mode of church which they promote throughout the book. Here the three circles are labeled:

God,  World,  Church.
The places of overlap relate to their four main themes (197)

Balance and equilibrium are definitely Biblical principles!

Lament!

As I’ve been reflecting on lyrics of the songs that I have been listening to I guess there has been a few themes emerging. Putting to one side the frequent topics of love and loss, I’ve previously commented on those lyrics that are searching for meaning in life - either with a spiritual dimension or the desire for wholesome relationships.

Another theme that runs throughout popular music is that of lament or protest. In the 60s, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez et al cornered the market in protest songs about war and peace, justice and the threat of nuclear Armageddon - to mention just a few (‘where have all the flowers gone?). Such concerns continue to be explored by present-day lyrical poets. Now of course there are other issues such as the disparity of wealth and power between western nations and the two-thirds world; ecological threats/disasters and increasingly the emergence of new threats coming from fundamentalist interpretations of religion.

In his slim but powerful volume ‘Subversive Christianity’ Canadian academic Brian Walsh writes about ‘Imagining God in dangerous times’. The first edition came out in 1992 and was set against the backcloth of the demolition of the Berlin Wall and the ‘end of communism.’  Walsh looked at the complacent writing of US bureaucrat Francis Fukuyama who believed that the world was entering the era marked by ‘the end of history’ where consumerist, materialistic, western democracy would spread across the globe.

Walsh critiqued this view with reference to two prophets. The contemporary Canadian songwriter Bruce Cockburn and the ancient prophet Jeremiah. Both prophets used the culture of their times as a vehicle to express anguish at complacency, exploitation and injustice. Both point to the catastrophic effect of deserting the one who provides stability, justice and hope; whose rejection leaves a void that is filled by forces of evil.  Jeremiah is speaking to God’s people in exile and to some extent God’s people are still in exile. The holistic view of the Jewish faith of course means that when the prophet condemns the religious leaders he is also speaking out against political authorities – there is no distinction. Prophecy, Walsh concludes still has a part to play in life today and popular culture.

The particular aspect of Walsh’s thesis that I wish to take up is the need for lament:

The church is called to mourn and only out of our lament might hope be born.  Only in a context of lament will we find a path of faithfulness in the midst of collapse (119)

Walsh makes a strong case that the church has been ‘sucked into our secular culture’ (29):

The dominant world view, the all pervasive secular consciousness, has captured our lives… While we were fighting with each other […] we were asleep to the secularisation of our lives and of our most fundamental values. We simply bought into the materialistic, prestige-orientated, secular values of our age without ever noticing that that (sic) is what was going on. The church is asleep, to her own cultural entrapment. (29)

He suggest that the church has become numb to its real situation and it needs to be ready  to critique and face opposition and thus rediscover the prophetic task of cutting through complacency and numbness:

Prophecy refuses to allow those who say ‘peace, peace’ or those who say ‘the-Church-is-OK-so-don’t-rock-the-boat’ to keep us in the perpetual numbness of a dream world where everything is OK and nothing ever changes. (37)

He considers that the church’s task is to give public expression to pain and grief, very much following in the footsteps of Jesus when he taught ‘Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh,’ and ‘woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.’ (Luke 6: 21,25)

Public expressions of grief, mourning and tears are of themselves radical critiques of the present order in the way they confront brokenness, oppression, failed expectations and empty promises. That’s why the church has a part to play when there are national and local disasters - and long may this continue.

Walsh wrote a postscript in 2014 when the world was of course a very different place from 1992. The predicted benign conquest of western-style democracy spearheaded by USA looked very different after 9/11. The economic crises of 2008 brought new threats to global security. Reading this in September 2015, with the daily stream of refugees crossing our TV screens and the various political blandishments that follow, the need for lament is surely even greater.

So how does this impact upon my theme of encountering spirituality in popular culture?

One reaction to Walsh’s work is to ask whether the church, its preachers (and me?) are taking our prophetic role seriously? Are we too complacent about the state of the church, the state of the world, of our communities? What’s the role of lament in our worship and church life? Are our internal preoccupations making us numb to real needs, threats and pains?

It occurs to me that to some extent, the task of prophecy has been outsourced to those outside the church. I thought it might be interesting to look at some of the lyrics of the bands I listened to over the summer again. I didn’t have to search too far to find words of lament and prophecy.  Surely one thing that we (I) can do, should do, is to discover what are the current issues that concern people in our culture? What makes people lament today?

I just took a walk through the checkpoint

Past columns of poor Arab sons

They queue through the day for a chance to make pay

For something to put in their mouths

He can’t sleep at night without gunfire

The lullaby puts him to sleep.

(The Eight Stations of The Cross Kebab House – Belle and Sebastian)

While were living

The dreams we have as children/ Fade away

(Fade Away – Noel Gallagher)

Images of perfection, suntan and napalm

Grenada – Haiti – Poland – Nicaragua

Who shall we choose for our morality

I’m thinking right now of Hollywood tragedy

Big mac: smack: phoenix r: please smile y’all

Cuba, Mexico, can’t cauterize our discipline

Your idols speak so much of the abyss

Yet your morals only run as deep as the surface’

(IfwhiteAmericatoldthetruthforonedaytehworldwouldfallapart – Manic Street Preachers)

Libraries gave us power

Then work came and made us free

What price now for a shallow piece of dignity.

(Design for Life – Manic Street Preachers)

Don’t leave me here this place is for savage

Shot to pieces back in the heaven

Back in hell fire and running the gate

Starting a riot and plan an escape

Babies growing up asking questions

Looking for help for life and lessons.

(The Wonderwhy – Wolf Alice)

I predict an earthquake up in here

Cause we throw bombs on it.

(Earthquake – Labrinth)

And this was just a random selection! Plenty of lament but sometimes (often?) without much hope. Today’s prophets are quite open about the perceived failure of the church to address their concerns:

Just looking for a protector

God never reached out in time

There’s love, there is a saviour

But that aint no love of mine.

(Silk – Wolf Alice)

Cause somewhere in the bible says that we’re all sinners

Now far away from what I believe, the world is fade

And I’m with the sheep

So recreate me, and make me pure

Maybe I’ll be half the man I was before.

(Under the Knife – Labrinth)

Remember these are the songs that are joined in with gusto at Festivals, danced to and listened to on ipods. The words of our modern prophets are the soundtrack of our generation. But where is the hope?

Turning again to Jeremiah, Walsh points out that even in the desperation of captivity and the hopelessness of Israel’s situation, he did a simple thing – he bought a field in enemy territory. This was a powerful symbol of hope that one day that land would be restored. The prophet also offered the sign of a new relationship with God, the new covenant that would be written on people’s hearts:

We live our lives in terms of hope. And if there is no possibility for renewal, return, reconciliation, if there is no hope for redemption, then in the face of exile, despair is the only option. (88)

God calls God’s people through the words of Jeremiah to make the best of their exile by buying land, building houses, marrying and having children; but at the same time they are never to lose sight of the promise that one day they will be restored to become again the people they were destined to be.

Such engagement with the culture of our day is I feel essential if we are to make sense of what it means to be Christian people in 21^st Century. We need to listen to the lament of popular culture, we need to rediscover the importance of prophecy; we need publicly to shed tears for what the world has become. But at the same time we must make connections between what is, what might be and what can be, as we live out the hope that is within us.

The Shaping of Things to Come

The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21^st Century Church

Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch 2013 Baker Books

Here’s a brief summary of this book that I’ve referred to before. It’s by two Australian writers who share a broadly Evangelical outlook and have experience of working with new missional projects in Australia. The section on Jesus as Messiah is particularly relevant for my theme.

As I’ve been reflecting on our need to engage with popular culture throughout this Sabbatical one thought keeps coming to me. The established dying (Western) church needs to live out the sacrifice of Christ by releasing their resources so that a new generation might believe.  The time has come to say to those who wish to hold onto their buildings, established but failing patterns of being church,  that it is time to let go, to give thanks and praise for all that has been accomplished, but then to release what they have for those who are being and becoming church in new ways. As previous generations risked all in missionary endeavour funded by the established church, so must today’s cross-cultural missionaries who risk much be supported in prayer, money and good will by those who cannot do the work themselves but can allow it with their blessing and support.   With these thoughts in my head I turn to the book itself:

Frost and Hirsch call the church to see itself as a missionary movement, not an institution (the Methodist Church in UK has been trying to refocus itself in this way for a number of years now!). An oft-repeated theme is that we must engage in culture without compromising the gospel:

The Church that Jesus intended was meant to be a permanent revolution and not a codified civil religion; mere chaplains to the prevailing Empire (31).

The writers argue that today’s church is still living in the outmoded Christendom model (where the church had power and influence across the globe). This sees the church as

·        Attractional (expecting people to come to its buildings to receive the gospel)

·        Dualistic (living with a separation between spiritual and earthly things:  Christian life and community is separate from the world).

·        Hierarchical in its organisational and thinking.

The church needs to become:

·        Missional

·        Incarnational

·        Messianic

·        Apostolic

Provocatively, the writers state:

...the death of Christendom and the emergence of postmodernism and the new global culture have highlighted the bankruptcy of the existing church and its inability to have a positive effect on Western society. (86)

The book uses example, Biblical material and other insights to unpack each of these four aspirations.

MISSIONAL

Quoting from Gerard Kelly the writers point to what the church should become:

The Church will focus on core faith, on minimum essential order, on people and their gifts, on flexible patterns of life held together in communion and on a shared sense of community. (33)

Several examples are given of church as shared projects, community enterprise and emergent faith community.

Again the writers stress the importance of holding onto gospel values and the need for the missional church to combine the liberal emphasis on community development with the evangelical desire for personal and community transformation. As a way of understanding this, they offer the model of church as ‘Green space’

Green is of course made up of yellow and blue.  Yellow space represents a personal Christian spirituality: Bible study, church attendance, personal moral/ethical behaviour. Blue space represents other-focussed Christian spirituality: justice seeking, social concern, public moral/ethical behaviour.

Green Space, created from blue and yellow is occupied by Green People where ‘story and context, the individual and the communal, the interior world and the exterior world, the religious and non-religious, find genuine  meeting. (46, emphasis added)

INCARNATIONAL

The enfleshing of God in Jesus is the central motif of our faith yet we have so often separated Jesus into the Spiritual and the earthly; this dualistic thinking has seeped into church life, order, doctrine and teaching over generations. It is foundational thinking for many if not most Western Christians.

The incarnational church will do as God did in Palestine 2000 years ago, enter into our world (John 1). As God’s people, the church needs to enter into the context of the people among whom we live. There is a role for gifted evangelists (specialists) but also a significant role for all believers in both supporting these specialists and engaging with others day by day.

The incarnational church is one where the church can relate to a people group in their context, recognising their culture, identifying with them and living among them without compromising the Gospel:

To identify incarnationally with people will mean that we must try to enter into something of the cultural life of a ‘people’; to seek and understand their perspectives, their grievances and causes; in other words their real existence, in such a way as to genuinely reflect the act of identification that God made with us in Jesus. (57)

Drawing on agricultural life in Australia, Frost and Hirsch point to the metaphor of Fences and Wells. Operating across thousands of acres it’s almost impossible to keep herds in one place by erecting fences although many try and are thwarted in the attempt.  The Christendom model church is good at defining its limits; who is in and who is out; it has a ‘bounded’ sense of its own identity.

The missional church however is ‘centred.’ A more effective way of working with the herds is to dig wells that draw the animals to the centre. This model of church has a clear identity, strong Jesus-based core values which provide refreshment and nourishment and encourage people to go out into the wider world knowing that they are free to return to that centre. There are no defined outer limits.

An incarnational church is one that is contextual and goes beyond cosmetic changes to seating, worship content and music in an attempt to draw people into a traditional ‘Sunday slot’:

To contextualise is to understand the language, longings, lifestyle patterns, and worldview of the host community and to adjust our practices accordingly without compromising the gospel. (111)

MESSIANIC SPIRITUALITY

In this section a contrast is painted between Jewish and Greek spirituality. So much of the early and subsequent church’s thinking has conformed to Greek patterns which favour aesthetic thought and practice over the Jewish approach which is essentially earthy, practical and holistic. The ethereal dualism between body and spirit, embodied in the creeds has done a disservice to the God who dirtied God’s hands by becoming human. Ironically we are at a point in history where people are often attracted to the historical Jesus but not to a church which focusses on the aesthetic, spiritual practices of religion:

We need [Jesus’] model of holy laughter, of his sheer love of life, of his infectious holiness, of his common people’s religion, for our day. We want to say that being Christ like is not only hard work; it is a load of fun. At its best, worship is play. (145)

The section on ‘The Redemption of Pleasure and the Missional Task’ chimed with me especially as from time to time during my Sabbatical (and on these pages) I have wondered if my topic was too trivial, not sufficiently weighty for serious theological reflection and contemplation. As I enjoyed myself at festivals I even felt tinge of guilt….

Frost and Hirsch strongly argue that the disconnect between God and pleasure has resulted in droves turning away from the church as our message appears out of touch, oppressive and negative. Is it any wonder that many people associate Christianity with a list of things that shouldn’t be done or enjoyed, that we get into so many tangles about what happens in the bedroom? People can meet with God in and through their experience of, and love for, life itself. Pleasure can be a greater motivator for God than pain or threats:

Missionaries and leaders do well to learn that people are motivated by their deepest pleasures, and if we can connect these to God, we will have established a vital bridge into the lives of ordinary people. Clearly Scriptures teach us that God not only made the orgasm and the taste buds and the spices and garlic* but that we should enjoy what he has given us within the framework of his moral will revealed in Scripture. (157)

(*I might add camping, popular music, street food and dancing to the list!)

So here’s a call for the rediscovery of the Messianic or Jewish roots of who Jesus is. This means finding God in the everyday, in all aspects of life and certainly in the unexpected.  It’s time to stop drawing false distinctions between secular and sacred; spiritual and practical; active and intellectual. The Lord our God is ONE!  Therefore deeds are as important as faith. Whilst the writers do not argue against the centrality of salvation by faith they have no time for aesthetes who are disengaged from the daily reality and struggle of life:

The reclamation of the deed as a means of grace is vital if we wish to sustain a vigorous missional engagement in our respective contexts. (163)

Such spirituality requires us to accept the challenge of Jesus to go out into community in twos and threes, to integrate God, world and church in our daily lives working as partners with God, remembering that wherever we go, God is already present ‘wooing, forever courting, constantly wowing, and acting redemptively by drawing people to himself’ (200)

APOSTOLIC LEADERSHIP

Drawing on Ephesians 4: 1-16, the writers call for a rediscovery of distinctive five-fold leadership gifts in the missional church APEST*). They offer both theological and sociological insights to these gifts which they argue are essential to the missional church and can be found in both lay and ordained people:

*Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Shepherd and Teacher (APEST)

Frost and Hirsch combine theological and sociological thought to produce a scheme and I’ve mapped some of Belbin’s leadership styles just because I’m more familiar with them:

PROPHET – QUESTIONER Knows mind of God on issues related to church and speaks to community effecting transformation and growth. Disturbs, agitates.  PLANT

EVANGELIST – RECRUITER  Passionate communicator of organised message, recruits to the cause                 RESOURCE INVESTIGATOR

SHEPHERD- HUMANISER Carer, social cement/glue COORDINATOR/TEAM WORKER

TEACHER – SYSTEMISER Philosopher, translator IMPLEMENTER

APOSTLE – ENTREPRENEUR Moving the church forward. Pioneer, strategist. Innovator, visionary SHAPER

https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_83.htm

Frost and Hirsh stress the need for these aspects to co-exist and to relate to one another:

Paul seems to be saying that without a fivefold ministry pattern we CANNOT mature.  If this is true, it is impossible to estimate what terrible damage the church has done through the loss, even active suppression of this crucial dimension of New Testament ministry and leadership. (209)

The importance of leadership is stressed as is the recognition that a good minister is not always someone who has the gift of good leadership.

Their final section highlights the need for imagination which is perhaps to be prized above knowledge if we are to see a new beginning for the church;

And it’s one of the core tasks of leadership to help the community to dream again. (271)

This must involve empowering people, listening deeply to their longings and dreams – the management of meaning.  Nothing less than paradigm shifts will do. Keys to making this possible are: Encouraging Holy dissatisfaction, embrace subversive questioning, becoming a beginner (reverting to a child-like mind-set rather than donning the position of expert), taking more risks and creating a climate of change.

MY FINAL THOUGHTS

When I read books like this I am left with the sense that we must get on with it, yet also a little nagging doubt as to how on earth we can get from where we are to where we want to go. The book concludes with some church planting models which are interesting but in many ways less radical than the examples and thoughts that have gone before. There’s a call for the raising up a generation of new leaders which is pivotal and timely:

Much of our future lies in the precarious hands and hearts of a generation that finds it a difficult task to decide and commit. Our heartfelt prayer is that our youth will find the necessary courage to break with the enslaving power of the habitual and familiar. (281)

True and Amen to that BUT what about the existing established church? How can we just write off years of tradition, generations of faithful witness and building up of resources? Risk taking entrepreneurs are not confined to the younger generation in church. Indeed in some churches it’s very hard to find the younger generation. Where they exist, they are so often busy people but they are also amongst those who are disengaged from the structures of the church. The very people who according to Frost and Hirsch hold the future in their hands, are the people who are living in the contextual world of popular culture where the incarnate Jesus is so often hidden.

So what’s to be done?  I return to my opening thought that a resurrection church which believes in the sacrificial death of the Incarnate God needs to challenge itself to practice what it believes, to be willing to sacrifice the resources that we have built up because they are not ours to keep, to free these up so that those with Spirit filled vision and imagination can be released to explore new ways of creating an innovative and imaginative incarnational mission church for 21^st Century. A contextual church that lives within, celebrates and enjoys popular culture and discovers afresh the living Jesus who goes before and offers life in all its messiness but also in its abundant glory?

Generation Z

Generation Z:Their Voices, Their Lives

Chloe Combi 2015 Windmill Books

An essential read for anyone trying to make sense of popular culture in 2015! Journalist and consultant on youth issues Chloe Combi spent the best part of a year travelling round the UK visiting schools, homes, hospitals, mental institutions, young offenders’ institutes, prisons, parties, churches, mosques, synagogues and  festivals interviewing a real cross-section of people born between 1995 and 2001.

The book reproduces faithfully the words she heard, often making it necessary to consult the useful glossary (I now know that ‘bare’ means ‘a lot of’; ‘moist’ means ‘horrible or bad’ and ‘sick’ of course means ‘good or great’. I’ve learnt a lot more beside….)

The chapters are grouped around the themes that emerged most often: Family, relationships, body, sex, school, race, gender, technology, class, crime with a final section; ‘Looking to the future and Advice for the Next generation’ I thought this final chapter was a really clever way to engage with how the young people thought about themselves)

The rear cover blurb sounds sensational but is a good summary of what the book contains:

‘Today’s teenagers are growing up in a world of widening social inequality, political apathy and economic uncertainty. They join gangs, are obese, have underage sex, watch porn, drink and are a menace to society.  But they are also curious, kind, creative and worried about the future.’

I couldn’t help notice how certain themes were present throughout the chapters; the all-knowing presence of the internet for good and ill; the impact of drugs; the reality of bullying (because of gender, sexuality, body shape, gang membership and interest amongst others), the challenges of disintegrating family life, and sexual inequality. Chloe interviewed rich and poor teenagers, country l and city dwellers and the themes were remarkably similar. Only those living in very remote farming communities seem to have escaped some of the greatest pressures.

A couple of quotes about music and festivals are worth noting:

Richard and Skye (14 and 15, Milton Keynes):  Music is so important. It tells you everything you need to know about a person. The music we listen to is inclusive. You can be white, black, Asian, gay, straight, fat, thin, pretty, ugly. There’s no abuse. I love that.

Farzana, 19 (Sheffield): My boyfriend took me to some gigs and festivals. I thought it was the coolest thing ever… I went to Glastonbury for the first time this summer, and it was so happy and free. Like a great big rainbow tribe. Maybe they should send ISIS to Glastonbury.

Katherine 16 (Kent): Music is another thing I love, although I think it is quite sad that you have to have money now to actively follow it. I’ve been to Glastonbury twice now and spent thousands of pounds… Once you’ve figured in clothes, food and alcohol, as well as the ticket price it’s a really expensive weekend. But it was SO worth it. It was one of the best weekends of my life… I don’t think many kids whose parents are on benefits could afford it. Which is just really sad.

On the use of internet as a parallel reality:

Sally, 15 (Gloucester):  You can sort of create this character for yourself that is more appealing than your own… I love the places I go to on the Internet. It makes me feel safe and like I’m part of something. I find it quite hard to cope in real social situations, because I’m so shy. I find it easier to make friends on the internet.

Julia, 17 (Reading) who had the experience of being groomed by a much older man: Don’t make the internet your life. So many teenagers, including my friends, don’t have any interests any more outside the web…. We are definitely a generation completely dependent on the internet. Addicted. I don’t think any addition is good, is it?

Although there isn’t a specific section on religion it does feature. A couple of Christian interviewees advocate a wait before sex lifestyle; another actively supports women’s issues. The stresses associated with inter-religious relationships often feature. Some Muslim teenagers react against the generally bad press given to their faith.

Abdul, 19 (Manchester) argues that Muslim boys are signing up for ISIS because they are tired of living in poverty, just like many white working class boys join the Army to escape their lives. It’s nothing to do with religion: Maybe I’m wrong, But if you take any white kid with a comfortable family who’s going to Oxford to study law and ask him to join the Army and go and fight in Afghanistan, how interested do you think he’s going to Be!? Not at all. Why would it be any different for Muslim boys? You take a Muslim kid, stick him in Chelsea and give him a load of money, fast car and a pretty girlfriend. He’s not going anywhere near Syria even if he’s the most devout Muslim in the world. Trust me on this one.

As if to back up Abdul’s thesis Paul, 17 from Wolverhampton says:  My old man found a load of drugs under my bed… He gave me a choice. He was either going to take me to the police or I had to enlist in the Army. I got in. I start next month. So I’ve stopped being a drug dealer and I’m going to be a killer. F….. great system, innit?

I could go on quoting forever but urge anyone who reads this to get hold of the book for themselves.

A final word in the book and in this blog goes to Rita, 17 (North London) using some New Testament terminology : What are our big challenges? So many. Few jobs, unaffordable housing, growing tension between races and religions, deciding what our relationship should be with the internet, anger at the government, poverty. All these things and more. Who knows what crosses the next generation will have to bear? ... I don’t know if things will be worse or better for the next generation, but they’ll have to make their own way and pull through and survive just like we are. The  thing is, most things do, sort of, work out OK in the end.

Festival Insights

I’ve highlighted here some of the things that have been published about the demographics of festival attenders and the importance of community and escapism which I have referred to in my festival reflections. With festivals attracting huge numbers of mainly younger people who enjoy music (and those stirring spiritual lyrics I’ve mentioned) they surely have something to say to the Church in 2015 as we seek to engage with those who have little notion of who we are and what we believe!

In an earlier blog I estimated that 500. 000 people attend festivals each year. Woeful underestimation:

This statistic displays attendance at music concerts and festivals in the United Kingdom in 2012 and 2014. Attendance at UK festivals grew from 2012 to 2014. In 2014, roughly 3.5 million people attended music festivals in the United Kingdom.

http://www.statista.com/statistics/282032/music-concert-and-festival-attendance-in-the-uk-by-attendee-type/

Here are some other interesting insights from The Festival awards Market report 2013

The annual UK Festival Census has concluded another survey of 3,380 British festival-goers – a sample of geographically and demographically representative respondents who answered questionnaires

Of the 3,380 people that responded to the UK Festival Census 2013, 42% were male and 58% were female. Two-thirds (60%) are under 30, with 17% aged 31-40 and 20% aged 45-65. The remaining 3% were 16 and under, or over 65.

Why do people go to festivals? Mostly it’s the music – 53% of people said it that was the thing they love above all else. A further 22% go because they can “escape from normal life “and 11% love hanging out with their friends the most. Festivals are indeed a unique experience, which combine people’s passion for music with a sense of community – something which is borne out away from the festival itself via social media. Many festivals have fully engaged fans all year round, people they have conversations with and communicate with at all times of the year. It’s this opportunity to escape from normal life that is so wonderfully compelling. The escapism offered by festivals can be seen in a beguiling array of expressionism on-site. From fancy dress to silly hats, exploring new music to just sleeping in a tent, British people love throwing off their day-to-day routine and having new experiences.

Generally people are all very positive about their festival experiences. When asked what is the biggest downer for them at a festival, the largest proportion say nothing was bad. Following that, 16% feel the biggest frustration for them is when their favourite bands clash on the bill. Otherwise, there’s a fairly even spread (at about 6% for each factor) mixed between having to rough it without clean showers or toilets, the price of tickets, the cost of food and drink on-site, muddy conditions, overcrowding, and restrictions on what you can bring in.

http://www.festivalinsights.com/wp-content/uploads/UKFA2013_SHOWGUIDE_MarketReport.pdf

A Footnote – on clubbing

When I say I went clubbing, I suppose it wasn’t the real thing! Across the No6 site after 11pm,  4 or five stages were transformed into dance venues with loud music, DJs, lights and lots and lots of people on the (muddy) dance floors. Having avoided clubs until this point in my life, I felt I should experience something of this phenomenon in the relative safety of a festival setting. As I have repeatedly said in this blog – why not!

Club DJs have enormous kudos and status. Here is a whole popular cultural life to be explored and reflected upon – I only spent a couple of hours engaging with it so this could be the subject of a whole new piece of work (probably not by me!)

So based on my limited experience here are a few reflections some of which borrow from Marsh and Roberts ‘Dominant Themes’ (see earlier blog: On the importance of listening)

First, a comment about the characteristics of the music. Drum and bass of course feature heavily with electronic melodies; the beat is attractive, maybe hypnotic because it quickly draws people in whether lithe young clubbers or portly middle age observers; it’s almost impossible to keep still when the music plays. Lyrics are minimal with occasional (oft repeated) samples or phrases from a collaborating vocalist (collaboration is a BIG thing). The crowd don’t do much joining in with the songs as in a pop gig, but there are some phrases that are sung out loud every now and then.

Clean Bandit (you know them don’t you?) send up the repetitiveness of house/club/techno music brilliantly in their song ‘Mozart’s House’ in which Wolfgang Amadeus’s String Quartet No 21 is cleverly counterpointed with strong drum and bass techno samples and lyrics which incorporate some classical musical terminology. The song opens:

So you think electronic music is boring?
You think it's stupid?
You think it's repetitive?
Well, it is repetitive!

I don't know, skip a beat! (We use special tricks with the computer)

And it’s loud! The lights are as important as the music and the presence of a DJ is clearly significant

Now to Marsh and Roberts;

Transcendence: There’s a real sense of clubbers being drawn out of themselves, moving in unity with one another and the music. Again I turn to Clean Bandit for a commentary:

When I walk into the club and my feet start to rub
Everybody thinks I'm weird but the truth is I'm not
When I'm in the studio and the 808* pops
Everybody thinks I'm weird but the truth is I'm not
Gonna let the music take control of me and let the bass rush through me
808* pace to make, I love the state I'm in, it's mind blowing
All the feelings that I'm feeling, loving everyone it's amazing
I want to stop until I drop I know I'm on top and now it's time to bop
(Cologne)

* I’m reliably informed (by Wikipedia) that The Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer (a.k.a. the "808") was one of the first programmable drum machines. Introduced by the Roland Corporation in the early 1980s, it was originally manufactured for use as a tool for studio musicians to create demos.

Embodiment. A pulsating closeness of bodies on the dancefloor. We are reminded that our faith is one that is centred on en-fleshment!

Connectedness. A degree of mutuality in dancing together but it’s also quite permissible to dance solo. At the floating dance floor, strict crowd control limited the number of people dancing at any one time but when a new cohort joined in they were invited to enter through an impromptu arch of raised arms to enthusiastic  whooping and applause.

Ritual. Certain hand gestures and moves are associated with particular beats, samples and DJ intros. An unpublished code for those on the inside?

I would add:

Stimulation or perhaps stimulants.  Plenty of alcohol certainly and an inescapable sexual undercurrent in moves and the beat. Possibly some chemicals too? Less easy to connect this one with Christian worship but not impossible - think about incense and the contents of communion?!

Identity I guess the clubbing outfits were more muted than in a regular setting but there were certainly some extravagant costumes; face paint and masks helped to conceal individual identity and the darkness/light changes did the rest.  To some extent it was apparent that festival-goers value the opportunity to escape from their regular identities for a weekend or two; clubbers perhaps do this more frequently. Yet they take on a new identity which has a degree of uniformity about it

.  Of course this was here set in ‘The Village’ where No6’s attempts to establish his true identity framed much of the festival.

So here are some resonances for those of us who strive seek transcendence, embodiment etc in worship and connection with the Other. I’ll need to think differently about those clubbers that I met so many weeks ago with the Street Pastors!

Festival Reflections No. 6

Should anyone have been meticulously following these blogs (as if!) they will think they’ve caught me out! The last reflection was number 3 so what happened to 4 and 5?  Well, No 6 was the title of the festival that I’ve just attended in the grounds of Portmerion Village North Wales. Number 6 as everyone must surely know was the number allocated to the Patrick McGoohan character in the 1960s cult TV series ‘The Prisoner’ set in the village (more of that later). 

As mentioned in the last blog, I prepared for this festival with a degree of ambivalence, reflecting upon national and international events, a refugee crisis and terrorism threat (which has got even worse - as I write this on the morning we learned about a drone attack in Syria which killed two British citizens- turned ISIS fighters). However my subject is my subject. Popular culture shouldn’t be separated from wider issues of the world. Indeed at various points these situations were brought home to me – in the experience of being a stranger amongst so many Welsh speakers, in the (very minor) irritation of coping with a damp tent and in keeping abreast of the news. There were also collecting points for those in need throughout the festival. So on we go….

 

ABOUT FESTIVAL NUMBER SIX. /WORLDVIEW

Now in its fourth year, it claims to be ‘A festival unique, unlike any other; in a place like any other.’ True! The ‘boutique’ nature of No6 limits the size to around 15,000. Like Latitude and Greenbelt, it bills itself as an arts festival. There are live music and DJ stages scattered throughout the village and surrounding areas but also poetry reading, comedy, talks, films, discussions, street theatre and all sorts of unexpected happenings! Children are catered for in their own area and many came with parents to the various activities. There were fewer school age children, this being the first week of school for many. Whilst the bands generally were not from the TUPF (Topping Up their Pension Fund) bracket, quite a large number of festival goers were from the SUPF (Spending Up the Pension Fund) bracket)! So I didn’t feel out place!

This is the blurb from the festival website which sums it up better than I can:

Welcome to a festival like no other, in the most stunning festival setting in the world.

The picturesque Italiante village of Portmeirion is our home, and was the original inspiration behind our desire to create a new type of festival. Arriving in Portmeirion for the first time it’s easy to feel overwhelmed… surrounded by sub-tropical vegetation and surreal Mediterranean architecture, there is a distinct sense of being somewhere serene, spiritual and very, very special.  (Note the use of ‘spiritual’)

Headline acts tended to eschew the big crowd-pleasers (I had wondered if this was to do with money….) in favour of the quirky, so we had Metronomy (electro-pop). Belle; and Sebastian (blending electro-glide baroque balladry with giant sized European-hooks - unique and unpredictable;  and Grace Jones (multi-sensory assault of disco, pop and punk and everything in between). I’m quoting the programme here of course; even I couldn’t be that pretentious!

There were plenty of other acts to enjoy; a real eclectic mix from string quartet to hip-hop; male voice choir to disco; folk to techno and everything between and beyond.  One of the sheer delights was just walking around the site, through the village and into the woods and experiencing different musical genres at every point; often finding them merging into one wall of sound. For eclectic music lovers (a group into which I dare to place myself) it was quite magical (yes! I use that word with care).

MY No.6

As suggested above, I had a listen to most things. I counted up 20 bands and 12 other performances. Highlights included James Bay,  Belle and Sebastian, Gaz Coomes, Rae Morris, Slow Club, Ghostpoet and the Gypsies of Bohemia (look them up!) and the stunning spectacle of 60 strong Brythonaid Welsh Male Voice Choir singing traditional Welsh anthems as well as songs by New Order, Happy Mondays and Elbow (see later for a spiritual note).      Street parades and entertainers were also captivating. And for the first time,  in my 60^th year I went clubbing! That deserves a blog of its own.

Probably my least enjoyable camping experience, on a slope, noisy field and poor sanitation but as I mentioned above NOTHING compare with what many are enduring day after day.

A word about food. No 6 prides itself on the range of cuisine on site. There are Michelin star long-table banquets as well as permanent Portmeirion hotel restaurants. I stuck with the equally appealing range of street food on offer. All the festivals I have attended have had really good, varied world cuisine available for reasonable prices. There must be a whole industry out there supplying such events with cuisine from Mexico, France, USA, Vietnam, Spain, Italy, Thailand, India and of course UK….. The list goes on.

Another unexpected feature of No6 is the space. It was quite possible to escape the crowds and go for a walk in the woods or on the beach and see no one else. I was thus able to go for a prayerful walk through the woods on Sunday afternoon.

A few other reflections: this was very much a Welsh festival. Forgive my English chauvinism but I hadn’t really appreciated just how important the Welsh language is. I have driven through the country and seen bi-lingual signs without really giving second thought. However No6 deliberately sets out to showcase Welsh acts and attract local people and many of them are Welsh speakers. So often I was surrounded groups of people speaking a language I couldn’t understand. As mentioned this made me reflect on being a stranger and sojourner. There was also a contingent of Scots, equally proud of their flag and heritage. The English flag is sadly often seen as a symbol of narrow-minded nationalism. I felt a pang of envy; it’s hard to imagine how ‘Englishness’ can be turned into a positive ethnic identity.

Then costumes. No6 makes a big thing about getting people to dress up. Many had glitter face paints but quite a number of festival goers donned complete outfits – everything from animal onesies to Red Indian chiefs, harlequins to matadors. There were at times resonances of an exuberant Gay Pride march.

And movement. At all the festival music events without exception there is constant movement. This initiaqlly took me by surprise. People are coming and going, edging farther toward the front; sometimes a snake-like procession of dancers holding hands weaves itself through ever-decreasing spaces to get closer to the front; there is often conversation and beer-drinking going on all around; people vote with their feet if a particular act doesn’t appeal, knowing that there is a different experience to be had on the other side of the field. How different from the experience offered in most church services! (Maybe that’s an unfair comparison; you wouldn’t expect such behaviour at classical concerts, theatre or lectures.)

Then of course there was ‘The Prisoner’ I have been an avid watcher of the series whenever it has appeared on TV. It’s the story of an unnamed secret agent who resigns his commission, returns home and prepares to leave the country, falls asleep then wakes up in his bedroom that has been mysteriously transported to a strange Village. The agent is given number and warned that the village authorities want to extract information from him. The series which becomes ever more surreal as it goes on, shows the various attempts made by the village authorities -embodied in its constantly changing leader, number 2-  to extract information and no6’s various foiled attempts to escape. He strives to express his individualism amidst the cloying niceness of village residents who all seem content with their numerical lots in life. His trademark slogans ‘I am not a number I am a free man’ and ‘ I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, debriefed, or numbered. My life is my own!’ say much to 21^st century Cameron-land about the quest for identity and individualism. I’ll ponder on that a bit more when I reflect on my clubbing experience.

There were two performances of a Prisoner ‘3D Immersive’ with actors, music and various reinactments from the TV show. Great fun and some serious messages. I was captivated (excuse the pun!) to be spending time in No6’s very own Village. (Yes, I admit to being sad!)

GOD AT NUMBER 6

A reminder that the festival itself claims:  there is a distinct sense of being somewhere serene, spiritual. There was a Spiritual thread with ‘Yoga, Sacred Female Space, Earth, dance, windflow and Cacao ceremonies’ on offer. (No I didn’t)  Interestingly the architect of the Portmeirion Clough Williams-Ellis made a point of excluding a religious building. Although the village included a cupola and he was asked by various denominations to have the church consecrated, he refused. Having asked Bertrand Russell to lay the foundation stone, he felt this would be hypocritical!  So Portmeirion is essentially a secular domain.

 

There were no Street Pastors or Samaritans present this time.

However God can be found where God is sought and I did experience God’s presence at various points:

*As mentioned in the solitary prayerful walk, enjoying the beauty of the woods, sea and mountains.

*In conversations. I found this was one of the friendliest festivals I had attended. A couple of conversations backed up the ‘Spiritual dimension’ because people recognise that the music, the atmosphere, surroundings and village itself merge to give one a sense of ‘something beyond’

*In life affirming song lyrics.

*Specifically when the Male Voice Choir sung ‘Amen/This little light’ to rapturous applause and cheering. Immediately afterwards, a woman from the crowd asked the conductor to announce that she had received a proposal of marriage (during this song?)

* In a flier handed out to all festival goers by a DJ/rave/dance collective which included ‘A universal prayer’ with a direct quote from Genesis 1

* When standing in the middle of the arena with three different styles of music being played, people enjoying the experience, lights, costumes and celebration. Incarnation!

FINALLY

Yes, this is my final festival. So much to think about. I estimate that something in the order of at least  500.000 people must attend festivals each year in the UK then there are thousands of staff. I have glimpsed something of what draws them. I think I can learn from the experience as can the church. I am sure we know a God who loves Festivals – the Bible is full of them; occasions when people gather and enjoy one another’s company, rediscover  themselves, give thanks, eat and drink together and celebrate the presence of the Divine in their midst. More thinking and reflecting to be done… (More research and writing????)

During my Sabbatical I have had to be reminded that this is primarily a gift to equip me as a follower of Jesus Christ which may in turn help my ministry. The temptation so often is to reflect on where the church is now and what needs to be done and then so often to feel powerless to make any changes. However as I draw these festival reflections to a close I must record something that I read whilst at No6 and it chimed with me although coming from a very unexpected place and from someone who I would never normally wish to quote or be openly in agreement with. However in an article about the Queen’s 63 year reign in The Independent on Sunday (sorry I don’t have the writer’s details) David Cameron (no less) is quoted – he has written a preface to a book about this long reign:

In the 1950s, it might be hard to imagine, but the UK has become a country where a woman can become Prime Minister; where gay people can get married […] In just 60 years we have made huge progress in building a multi-racial, multi-faith democracy.’

That’s the world in which today’s UK church exists. This is our context. Those festival goers with their quest for shared experience and identity, their  pick and mix approach and openness to something intangibly spiritual, symbolise the world of popular culture which is so often outside the walls of our churches; however they are the people that God loves as much as regular pew-sitters. The challenge is for us to wake up to the reality of that permanent change, to celebrate it and express God’s love within it.

I’ll leave the last word to a woman in the 7.00 am Monday morning queue for the bus to get back to the car park. As her friend was wiping away the last traces of glitter facepaint, she sighed ‘Ah well, back to normal now’

Or is it?