Director in Missiology

M.Min, D.Min Co-ordinator, Uniting CollegeSenior Lecturer, Finders University B.   Hort. (Lincoln), B. Theol (Auckland), M. Theol (Auckland), PhD (Otago)

Tel: 08 8416 8421

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My Website: http://www.emergentkiwi.org.nz

I live with three neat women and enjoy dub music, coffee, reading and wine (Kiwi whites and Australian reds). I love vegetable gardening and come to Australia fascinated by what might grow in this (new for me) climate. I come to Uniting College at the start of 2010 excited by a College and Synod willing to go on an adventure that seeks to make central God’s mission as it takes shape in Western culture. 

Apparently I have an accent, which is news to me, but coming from New Zealand, and being trained as a Baptist pastor, it is to be expected. 

Teaching and research
From a background in horticulture, I became fascinated by growing people as well as plants. I began ministerial training at Carey Baptist Culture with a mission focus, only to be blindsided by Lesslie Newbigin and the mission challenge of Western culture. 

I planted a church (Graceway Baptist), which could be described as “emerging” before it was a US brand.  This was mixed with post-graduate study, a Masters in contextual mission as it applied to theology and a PhD in contextual mission as it took shape in new forms of church.  That mix, of experience and study, morphed into The Out of Bounds Church? Learning to Create a Community of Faith in a Culture of Change, (Zondervan), 2005. 

In 2004 I became Senior Pastor at Opawa Baptist with a call to help them transition into a new mission future.  The result was six wonderful years, developing a multi-congregational model that allowed a mixed-economy approach to church, creative “spirituality-2-go” resources and a local community focus. Structurally the team became multi-staffed and we undertook a major building project. 

Throughout my fifteen years of pastoral ministry I have lectured, first at Carey Baptist College, then at Laidlaw College (Christchurch).  That included pioneering in-service training in areas of missional leadership. 

Increasingly I have found myself working with a variety of denominations around issues of mission, change and leadership.  These include Anglican, Baptist, Churches of Christ, Presbyterian, Salvation Army and Uniting Church.  I also write monthly film reviews, for Touchstone and blog regularly (since 2002), at www.emergentkiwi.org.nz. 

As the MMin/DMin Coordinator, I am responsible for post-graduate research for those involved in Christian ministry. My personal research interests includes reading popular culture, how indigenous cultures read the Bible, missional leadership, cultural change, gospel in post-Christian context and emerging church. 

Print Publications

2009
“Reading “pop-wise”: the very fine art of “making do” when reading the Bible in bro’Town” in The Bible in/and Popular Culture: A Creative Encounter, edited by Phil Culbertson and Elaine Wainwright, Semeia Studies (forthcoming). 

“A Pneumatology for an Everyday Theology: Whither the Anonymous Spirit in Luke 10:1-12?”, Reading Scripture and Constructing Theology with the Holy Spirit, edited by Myk Habets, Pickwick Publications, (forthcoming) 

2008
“A Kiwi Emerging Church? Yeah Right!” in New Vision, New Zealand Vol III (2008), ed. Bruce Patrick, Tabernacle Books, Auckland, 2008, 311-324. 

2007
“Even The Dogs Eat the Crumbs That Fall From Their Masters’ Table”: A Contemporary Reflection on The Sacramentality of Communion” Colloquim 39, 2 (November 2007), 209-225. 

2006
“Emerging, established or re-emerging? A Trinitarian reflection on church and ministry today,” Ministry Today, 2006. 
“A Branded Spirituality: Global Youth Culture and a Branded Identity,” in Culture Yeah Right! Ed. J.Sewell, CYMA, 2006.

Participation and an atomized world: A contemporary reflection on Christ as representative New Adam” in Proclaiming the Scandal of the Cross, edited by Mark Baker, Baker Academic, Grand Rapids, 2006, 103-110.  

“The Post-Evangelical Emerging Church: Innovations in New Zealand and the UK,” International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church, 6, 1, (2006): 49-64 (co-authored with Matthew Guest) 

2005
The Out of Bounds Church? Learning to Create a Community of Faith in a Culture of Change, Zondervan, 2005.

“Looking closer at Sieger Koder’s The Last Supper: Who will take this cup?” in Farben des Lebens, Schwabenverlag, 2005, 154-160.  

“Midwiving and the practices of Theological Education,” Ministry, Society, Theology, 19, 1 (2005): 173-188. 

2004
“Choosing Creativity,” Reality 63 (June/July 2004). (co-authored with Lynne Taylor) 

“Co-authoring Christianity” Stimulus (July 2004): 10-15. 

“Open Letter to Mel Gibson,” Reality 62 (April/May 2004). 

2003
“Doing practical research downunder: a methodological reflection on recent trends in Aberdonian practical theology,” Contact 142, 1 (2003): 2-21. 

“Celebrating a Postmodern Pentecost,” Reality 57 (June/July 2003). 

2002
“Romeo and Juliet and alternative worship,” www.sevenmagazine.org, (October 2002).  

“Review.  Beyond Foundationalism.  By Stanley Grenz and John R. Franke,”  New Zealand Journal of Baptist Research 7, (2002): 106-7.  

2001
“Scars on the Australasian Heart:  Anzac Day as a contextual atonement Image,” New Zealand Journal of Baptist Research 6, (2001): 48-74.  

“Contest, conquest or combination?  Te Kete Tuaatea of Cityside Baptist Church,”  APRU Doctoral Conference Proceedings, 2001, (CD or http://www.usc.edu/ext-relations/news_service/apruwww/StudentPapers/FinishedPapers/TaylorPaper.html).  

“It’s Church Jim, But not as we know it.” Reality 42 (December 2000/January 2001): 35-40. 

2000
“A New Generation … A New Millennium.”  Reality 41 (October/November 2000): 12-18.   

1998
“Pai Marire: Mission and Cultures in Technicolour,” New Zealand Journal of Baptist Research 2, (1998): 25-46.

Supervised Field Education Coordinator   

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I am an all or nothing sort of guy.  If I go on a diet, I am fully engaged in what I can and can't eat and I stick to it.  If I am not on a diet I will eat what I want when I want. It just seems that is part of my nature, and it comes with positives and negatives, as do all our natures.

I am extremely passionate about God, my family, the local church and sport.  Hense I am fully engaged with all of these things giving them my best focused attention.  What makes this easy for me is that my children, who all love sport and my wife Viv, who tolerates my love of it, are all involved in the local church and are all in love with God.

We as a family worship at Hope Valley Uniting Church, where I also pastor part time.  It is an amazing joy to be part of that community of faith who endeavour to reach out into a hurting world with love and grace, sharing their love of God in practical ways.

I am not passionate about computers, mobile phones, synchronized swimming, negative people, brussel sprouts and gardening.  So don't talk to me about those things because I don't give them a lot of attention.

One of my dreams is to see people reach their full potential in Christ.  So my goal here at college is to see students become the best they can be as people of faith, and the best they can be as practitioners of ministry.

A verse of scripture that has become a life verse for me is Galations 5:6

'The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love'.

If I am known as a person whose faith is expressed in fully loving God and fully loving people, then I will die a happy man.