Roger Saner's blog

Amahoro: a gathering exploring post-colonial Christianity in Africa

Roger Saner — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 08:03:03 +0000

2010 is a big year for us South Africans - World Cup and all. It's also the 4th Amahoro Gathering, in Mombasa from May 3 - 10. I've been to two Amahoro Gatherings and have found them immensely significant, since Amahoro is on the other side of the coin to the emerging conversation (taking place in Western contexts) as it looks at the impact of the colonial narrative on the Gospel, and where that leaves us now.

Brian McLaren spoke about "Post-modern and post-colonial": two sides of the same coin, in Johannesburg just before the first Amahoro Gathering, in 2007. It's one of the 3 best talks I heard that year.

There are many things I like about Amahoro: the family reunion feel, the people, the diversity, the topics we address, and that we're taking theology developed in Africa by Africans seriously. Kenzo Mabiala is the resident theologian of Amahoro; he completed his doctorate under D.A. Carson before returning to the Congo to head up a theological college.

Carson asked him why he was interested in the emerging church conversation (primarily happening in the West), and Kenzo answered that the emerging church is asking the right questions.

For more information: The Amahoro website.

And now to encouraging comments on this post: why is it important to understand how the Gospel was shaped by the rise of the colonialism, and what are the implications for those who live in post-colonial contexts?

The emerging church blends into the mainstream?

Roger Saner — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 08:37:34 +0000

I like Andrew Jones. He's a missionary who's been around for ages, and probably has the most complete history of the emerging church movement (blogged, not in a book).

I'd like to draw a few quotes from him, firstly from Emerging Church Movement (1989 - 2009)?:

"In my opinion, 2009 marks the year when the emerging church suddenly and decisively ceased to be a radical and controversial movement in global Christianity. In many places around the world, the movement has already been either adopted, adapted, or made redundant through the traditional church catching up or duplicating EC efforts."

"In 2009, the emerging church either grew up, stopped being offensive, switched gear from experimental to normal, became the new mainstream, or a bit of each."

Andrew fleshes it out a bit more in his 10 types of emerging church that will no longer upset your grandfather, which he lists as:

Culture-based communities
GenX, Postmodern, and "Emergent"
The new-monastic orders and intentional communities, as well as Celtic churches
House churches, simple churches, organic churches
Cyberchurch and virtual online communities
Alternative worship/fresh expression/new-liturgical churches
Pub churches and coffee shop churches
The contemplative prayer movement
Christians who dont go to church, sometimes called "Churchless" Christians" or "believers who don't belong"
Social enterprises leading to missional communities

Andrew is wondering what the contribution of the emerging church is now, or if its contribution has already been made (by affecting the mainstream) and that now there isn't a necessity for its existence.

I've always thought that the value of the emerging church conversation is because it operates at a higher/more abstract/more general level than theology/church/practice. The conversation (at its best) is about how we have a conversation with others who are different to us, about how we hold our faith, about how we approach our theology, and about how the bigger stories which we live within shape us and our faith.

I'm glad the conversation has helped contribute to new forms of church, but the conversation isn't done.

Technorati Tags: Emerging Church

How faith is different from action

Roger Saner — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 23:17:03 +0000

Telling someone to simply believe and it will be so seems problematic to me, and an awful lot like The Secret. Initially it might seem like an encouragement to believe in the power of G-d as a demonstration of childlike faith and a refutation to the wisdom of the world because we are entering into a trusting relationship with G-d the same way a child would. However, if/when G-d doesn't do what the person is trusting Him to do, the person is left to draw the following conclusions: either G-d doesn't love me (or worse), or I do not have enough faith (because "he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind" - James 1:6), or G-d is saying "No" or "Not yet."

None of these are good options, except perhaps the last one, which at least assumes that the person has a strong enough frame of belief to know that G-d loves them and that they have enough faith.

In addition, we cannot have faith that G-d will help bring about what we're asking for without us doing something to help bring it about ourselves. I do not understand why some Christians say that "God does all of the work; we do none of it." I do not know why these same Christians pray, "Thine Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven," as if the only role of the Church is to pray for G-d's kingdom to come on earth while doing nothing to help usher that kingdom in themselves.

I define faith as the hope that G-d is who He says He is and He will do what He says He will do (filtered through subjectivity and postmodern criticism, of course). I do not see faith as something to be employed in asking for a skill which G-d then imparts, which is why we make a category mistake if we pray, "Lord, help me score 100 runs today," when we haven't been to cricket practice in 3 years! It's also a category mistake thinking it's "faith" to ask G-d for knowledge: "Lord, give me the knowledge to pass my maths exam." (Pity, that last one - maybe I wouldn't have failed 2nd year maths at varsity then!).

So what is faith, then? "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." - Hebrews 11:1. Faith is a belief, and as such is operating at a higher logical level than an intervention (which is a skill), which is why we can involve G-d (via faith) in a modality (like coaching or therapy) and have that process be consistent with Christianity.

Prayer is an action we can take which can be imbued with faith (again, they're operating at two different levels).

Now, if only there was a model we could use to explain this...

Modalities of (transformative) intervention

Roger Saner — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:22:03 +0000

Continuing from my last post on transformation I'd like to suggest that are different methods of intervention (or "modalities") when we're talking about a person intervening (professionally) with another person/s. These are: training, consulting, therapy, mentoring, coaching.

Consulting is when I have the skills and am hired to do the job (and there's no imparting of skills/knowledge).
Training is when I can't necessarily do it, but can show other people how to do it (like an international rugby coach who's an excellent coach but hasn't played at international level before).
Mentoring is when I know how to do it, and I show you how to do it, ideally by walking alongside you for a period of time.
Therapy is when some part of you needs healing, and we fix it.
Coaching is the process of answering the question, "What do you want, and how will you get there?"

(Note: these are the definitions I use, and I've heard plenty of others use some of these words interchangeably, so feel free to disagree with my usage).

I've listed some modalities of professional interventions above (if you'd like to add anything to the list please do so in the comments) which I hope makes the following point: when somebody wants to be transformed, it's important to know which modality is appropriate to use.

For instance, asking someone the core coaching question, "What are you going to do about that?" when they've just uncovered a traumatic childhood memory is an inappropriate application of the wrong tool - therapy would be better suited to address that issue.

Or making sure you've trained someone to have the skill of presenting better without addressing their beliefs around their capability when in front of an audience (which a good coach would check) might impart the skill, but do nothing to ensure the person actually ends up presenting!

Which brings me back to the role of G-d in transformation. Assuming that G-d has some influence on the process (i.e. it's not something that lies 100% with us), how might we address the question of faith? Is faith about believing that what we want is in accordance with G-d's will and will therefore come to pass? And what is the relationship between faith and transformation?

Technorati Tags: coaching consulting God intervention mentoring therapy training Transformation

Transformation - two approaches

Roger Saner — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:57:30 +0000

The whole concept of "transformation" has fascinated me for a while now. To transform is to make a thorough or dramatic change in the form, appearance, or character of something. The field of personal development is focused on personal transformation and many Christians speak about transformation: of people, of society and of the planet.

In addition Christians believe that G-d transforms human lives when He is invited to co-habit "inside" someone.

I'm not so much interested in the fact of transformation as I am in the process and in the "how". How does somebody get transformed? Does it happen very quickly or much slower? Should we count on instant transformation of lives as something to be expected of God (and call it "faith") or is there some kind of "working with" G-d which happens - and if so, how does that "working with" G-d work? What sorts of things should we expect to happen, and how will we know once they have? Can we ask G-d to work specific things in us, or is the outcome completely determined by Him and Him only?

In particular, I'm interested in Christian approaches to specific issues in people who've requested transformation. Like, "I want to stop being an alcoholic," or "I want to stop my addiction to porn," or "I want to stop emotionally abusing my wife."

These are things which are specific enough to be measurable, which means we know when any sort of intervention has worked, which gives us a good way to assess the effectiveness of different approaches.

The Christian approach to these which I have experienced is twofold. The first is to attempt prayer, Bible-reading and an appeal to willpower (masquerading as "faith"). The second is to send the person for some sort of counseling (which is sometimes seen as a failure of the first option). Some Christians view any kind of psychology as non-Christian, and since lightness and the dark have no fellowship together, Christians therefore have no business going to psychologists (and "Christian psychologists" are oxymorons).

After all, if we believe that "only G-d transforms people" then why bother with any other approaches? It's like a guy I heard about some years back who said that if he's in a terrible car accident, everyone should gather around and pray for him to recover, rather than trying to get him to hospital. A marvelous demonstration of faith, right? The first approach puts faith in G-d (through prayer, the Church and the Bible) and the second approach puts faith in man (through human interventions like counseling and psychology).

The "how" of the first approach mystifies me. It seems to be saying, "Read your Bible, pray every day, and somehow G-d will transform you. You will somehow start having the mind of Christ." The "somehow"'s in there bother me because I'd like to understand those more than simply sticking them in a box of "We don't know" and leaving it at that. The "somehow" isn't very comforting when someone is looking for a specific transformative intervention (i.e. "Help me to stop smoking") and a Christian says, "Well, I know that G-d transforms people but He does it in His own time, and you just need to be close to Him and (barring an instant miracle) at some unspecified point in the future which may or may not occur, He might transform you."

If I asked someone about a specific counselor and they told me that about them, I'd look for someone else!

Technorati Tags: faith psychology Transformation

Finally, a decent explanation of emergence

Roger Saner — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:14:36 +0000

Do you know what emergence is? Finally, a cartoon which explains it!

(D)Tuning the heart strings

Roger Saner — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 13:03:26 +0000

My friend Jacques posted a great article comparing the heart with a guitar (in the category "reasonate" - I love that!). He writes,

We can make music in such a way that it draws others in — in creating a loving space where all contribute and get a chance to shine. May we learn to listen to the Music. May we learn to listen to our hearts again, and learn to play again. May we learn to make music together!

I find it interesting that many guitarists (myself included) seem to stop learning after a while, like we’re happy with the set number of chords and songs we can play, and we settle into a rhythm of predictability. It’s like, “I’m good enough for now...” And then there are others who go on to discover alternate tunings, and jazz chords, and what playing in a duet is like, and perhaps a band...and maybe going on to record...or even playing next to the campfire, singing the heart out.

And so the metaphor is complete :)

Technorati Tags: music

Amahoro blogged

Roger Saner — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:34:39 +0000

Cobus van Wyngaard writes:

I’m back, and I’m a different Afrikaner than I was a week ago. I’m back, and I’ll be going in a slightly different direction theologically than I did a week ago. The change was in identity, in the direction that I take in my personal story. It’s the kind of change where I know that most probably nothing will change today, or tomorrow, or in the next week even. But in weeks to come, I will have to process the experiences, the challenging conversations, the meaning of the new relationships, the emotions, the thoughts on my people, my history, my culture, and in a years time, maybe something of what happened this week would become part of who I am on the deepest level.

He continued with I am an Afrikaner, I owe my being to this continent.

The Beeld newspaper picked up the scene of reconciliation between Adriaan Vlok (former Apartheid Minister of Law and Order) and Sean Callaghan (former member of Koevet, an anti-terrorist unit). The journalist was amazed that Sean has returned the act of foot washing in an act of asking forgiveness for using Vlok's name as a swearword.

Barbara Hillaker blogs:

Following a brief history of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, there was a panel discussion which included a man named Adriaan Vlok. Mr. Vlok spent 10 years as minister of police for the apartheid government. Yesterday afternoon, he shared how God had moved his heart toward reconciliation. He told some amazing stories about the ways God has led him to seek forgiveness and reconciliation with people who suffered deeply as a result of his actions as minister of police. On several occasions, Mr. Vlok has washed the feet of those who've been wronged by apartheid, as a symbol of humility and service.

Cori Wielenga writes:

But perhaps more than any of the stirring talks, I appreciated all the spontaneous conversations I had with Kenyans, Burundians, Ugandans, Rwandans, Zimbabweans, Australians, Americans and South Africans I would normally not speak to. These conversations, normally over meals, were more transformational than any planned event at Amahoro.

Melanie Lorenz from Nieu Communities says that Sometimes I really hate being “white.” as well as reflecting on The ministry of presence.

Joe Reed from Nieu Communities:

Up front, I have to tell you… I have NO idea how to explain what God has done in the last week here. My jaw is still on the ground in awe of what He is stirring in my heart, what He is doing across the continent, and how He is bringing MASSIVE healing to deep wounds everywhere. For me personally, it’s changing a lot of deep deep things that I have no words for. All I can do is share you this story. There’s much more to process in the coming days, weeks, months, and years ahead. (yeah, it was that big of a deal).

Tom Smith askes, "What does it mean to be white and African?"

Mark Riessen from Australia has given some initial thoughts as well as some context.

The prolific Steve Hayes started with Amahoro: cultural imperialism, continued with Amahoro Gathering 8 June 2009 and More on Amahoro and Truth, reconciliation and smelly feet all of which are worth reading. Steve was Apartheid enemy of the State number 1628, and this conference was significant for him too. Steve has proposed a syncroblog.

Andries Louw posted Amahoro Africa conference: The African Reformation and Amahoro Africa: family reunion of change agents:

The Amahoro Africa gathering has surpassed my wildest expectations. I was moved, challenged and encouraged. I was networked, connected, inspired and lifted up to a new viewpoint of hope and vision for this beautiful, tragic, struggling, bleeding, pulsating, dancing, dynamic, big-heart continent which I have the privilege of calling home. This was not a conference. It really was a family-reunion of visionary, thinking and praying doers who welcomed me as a new member. I now have a responsibility towards my new family to follow conversations up with action and prayer. I can’t wait to get started.

Brian McLaren sends A quick note from chilly South Africa. His poem from Burundi last year about a visit to a Batwa village (where the chief is called "No name") is worth reading. He posted Claude Nikondeha's reflections on Amahoro Rwanda last year. He also has a beautiful story of reconciliation from Burundi.

There are resonances with what Amahoro is all about with a piece in Sojourners last week: A Woman's Right to Fish.

For those of you connected to the emerging church conversation in the States, the Invitation to Amahoro Africa tells why this African conversation is so valuable to those outside of Africa. Tim Keel posted the video from Amahoro Rwanda, which is here: Amahoro Africa

Nic Paton compares postmodernism and postcolonialsm:

But it’s becoming clearer now, as my understanding of (post)colonialism has grown. So what I really want to say here is why I am a European Postcolonial.

Firstly, I am European not because I am white, but because I identify with Europe. It’s not a function of family either, my brother for example sees himself as primarily African. And many other whites, especially Afrikaners, feel the same. It’s a matter of cultural identity.

Most importantly though, there are 2 theological reasons why I wholeheartedly now call myself postcolonial:
- An identity of superiority has been replaced by an identity of incompleteness.
- The dominion theological mandate has been replaced by a stewardship mandate.

Technorati Tags: Amahoro

The drive home from Amahoro

Roger Saner — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 12:23:31 +0000

Amahoro ended yesterday and I headed back to Joburg, giving a lift to a few people. First, we dropped Philbert Kalisa off at Khotso House, which was significant in itself. Khotso House is where the South African Council of Churches is housed. Their website describes their mission:

"As a National Council of Churches and Institutions, the SACC, acting on behalf of its member churches, is called by the Triune God to work for moral reconstruction in South Africa, focussing on issues of justice, reconciliation, integrity of creation and the eradication of poverty and contributing towards the empowerment of all who are spiritually, socially and economically marginalised."

The SACC was hardly mentioned in my formative Christian years, and if it was, it was always in the context of "those Christians who had lost the plot of what Biblical Christianity was all about" - and that they were working for things which Jesus wouldn't have cared a whole lot about, because what was really important was preaching the word, evangelism, discipleship and a personal quiet time, not all that other stuff.

Khotso House was bombed in 1988, with the aim to make the building unusable. Adriaan Vlok was ordered by former state president PW Botha to do so, and was granted amnesty by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. He spoke this week at Amahoro, and was part of a powerful scene of healing with a member of Koevoet, a notorious Apartheid-era death squad.

Philbert (who organised last year's Amahoro Gathering in Rwanda) was going to a meeting with the person who is in charge of bringing together perpetrators and victims with the aim of reconciliation.

"Amahoro" means "peace" and it reminds me of the angels' proclamation at Jesus' birth: "Peace on earth and goodwill to all men." If Christianity is not about this, it is worthless, like salt that has lost its saltiness. It will be thrown out into the street, to be trampled by the feet of the people.

Andries Louw writes about Philbert:

Philbert Kalisa, founder of Reach Rwanda (see also here) told me about their work in reconciling warring tribes with each other who then build houses together in “villages of hope”.

Amahoro. Peace. The Gospel of Christ which brings peace and hope, not war and strife.

After dropping off Philbert at Khotso (the Zulu word for "peace") House, I took Curtis Love and Paul Kiviiri back to my parent's house. Curtis and I have a few similaries: we both studied at Baptist Theological College in Randburg, he's an apprentice at Nieu Communities this year (I was there last year), we both sustained a long-distance romance while being at Nieu Communities, we both blog (Curtis blogs at http://curtisamongfriends.wordpress.com/) and while both feeling a call to some kind of ministry, we can't exist inside current church structures. Curtis spoke at Amahoro on his perspective on Christianity and reconcilation in South Africa (and unfortunately it was the only time during the entire conference that our recording software crashed. I'm trying to source the audio from Reggie, who was recording on a video camera).

I first met Paul Kiviiri in Uganda at Amahoro 2007. Andrew writes:

For the past 10 years Paul has been working to build bridges across tribal divides and establish new forms of church among southern Uganda's marginalised, nomadic Tutsi tribes people. He is part of a new generation of post-colonial African Christians living the good news of Jesus in Uganda. He gets some donations from overseas partners which helps to maintain an orphanage in the north of Uganda, and puts the money to good use. He showed me the photos of what they're doing, and what they've been able to build.

Talking with Paul reminded me of Kampala in Uganda, and of how I'm drawn there still.

We were asked to bring a symbol of reconciliation to Amahoro, perhaps to exchange with a new friend. I had no idea what to bring. I haven't been involved in much reconciliation, and so to bring something symbolic seemed to me to be...cheap (in the same vein as "cheap grace" for those who are familiar with Dietrich Bonhoeffer). The only thing I could think to bring was something I didn't want to give away.

When we did our field trips at Amahoro in Uganda, we could either go to Rwanda, Kenya, or Kampala. I chose the latter, and so was part of the smallest group. That's where my friendship with Luc Kabongo was solidified, and where we continued to laugh at me for eating goat (which is delicious, if properly cooked!).

Luc reflected on the first Amahoro here: http://www.emergingafrica.info/amahoro/luc-kabongos-reflection-amahoro. He now lives in Soshanguve with his wife Petunia as part of InnerCHANGE, a missional order amongst the world's poor.

One day in Kampala we had some free time, so Luc and I walked into Kampala from the Anglican guesthouse we were staying in, and submerged ourselves for an afternoon in the city. I loved it! On our way back, we passed a woman on the street who was selling rosaries, which I'd discovered as a very helpful way of staying focused while praying. I bought one from her, and have kept it with me since then as a reminder of Uganda, Amahoro, and my friendship with Luc.

I didn't want to give this rosary away, but it grew upon me that it was increasingly appropriate to give it to Paul, not because it was a gift to him from me as much as it is a symbol of when I will next see it, which will be in his house in Uganda when I come to visit him.

Amahoro is about belonging to a family. We're incredibly diverse: in age, culture, race, worldview and country. What binds us together is a love of Jesus and a love of peace.

Amahoro be with you.

Technorati Tags: Adriaan Vlok Amahoro Curtis Love Nieu Communities Paul Kiviiri peace Philbert Kalisa Rwanda Uganda

Talks from the Amahoro Gathering (so far)

Roger Saner — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 00:47:50 +0000

The Amahoro gathering is going really well - we've had some fantastic conversations and some demonstrations of deep reconciliation. I'll post more about that later. I've been recording the talks - here they are so far (in order) with:

Edward Simiyu - The ministry of presence (2.67 MB)

Kelly Nikondeha - The Amahoro story (2.44 MB)

Transfiguration - Claude Nikondeha (17 MB). Claude's notes are here and his powerpoint presentation is here.

Postcolonialism and why it matters - Dr Kenzo Mabiala (21 MB). Kenzo's notes are here: What Is Postcolonialism.pdf.

Intro to "New Wineskins" - Monte Wilson (1.12 MB)

A 10 minute broad sketch of Apartheid - Muzi Cindi (4.08 MB). This is a commentary which runs alongside this presentation.

The Church and Apartheid - Moss Nthla (8.63 MB)

The legacy of the TRC and the reformation of SA society - panel with Adriaan Vlok (25 MB)

[Added: 10 June 2009]
The African Reformation - Brian McLaren

Questions to Brian McLaren about his talk - The African Reformation

The Reformation of the Church - Paul Verryn (13 MB)

Panel discussion on Xenophobia (chaired by Trevor Nthlola) (19 MB)

Amahoro in a global context - Brian McLaren (1.94 MB)

[Updated: June 11]

Meet the Amahoro board - Claude Nikondeha (1.50 MB)

The Del Camino Network for Holism - Roberto Guerrera (3.58 MB)

The Transformation of the African Child - Spiwo Xapile (9.68 MB)

[Updated: 12 June]

Women and the reformation of communities - Rene August (17 MB)

Mohinda's story of the Congo (6.34 MB)

It's almost a disservice to post these talks without further explanation, but it's 2:30am and I'd prefer to get them online for those who want them than to worry about blogging about each of them. Some of these talks were much shorter than others (as they served as introductions to other talks, or talk snippets in the context of a longer workshop).

The atmosphere at Amahoro is great - conversations are happening all over the place, the sessions are really significant, and we're re-forming relationships with friends from all over the world. There have also been some (unexpected) transformative experiences: Adriaan Vlok spoke this afternoon about his role in Apartheid, and sharing the stage with him was my friend Sean Callaghan, who was conscripted into the South African army during Apartheid, which had a long-lasting deep negative impact on him (to understate it). During Sean's dealing with these issues, he was advised to personalise his experience of the army to a particular person - and he chose Adriaan Vlok (whose name he uses in his house as a swearword up till this day). There was a moment of confession and forgiveness as Sean risked telling Adriaan that, who responded with grace and asked Sean to forgive him - and also offered to wash his feet, which Sean accepted, and returned the act of humility. The significance of a white South African who was in the army, washing the feet of the former Minister of Law and Order was an experience of great depth. Tears streamed down my face as I watched this: it was no forced moment of grace; it was genuine. Other people were deeply affected, not least of whom were some other South Africans who had done army service, and shared the same story as Sean. Reconciliation and forgiveness has many faces, and I was grateful to witness this moment of grace, a glimpse of heaven.

Neels Jackson from the Beeld newspaper is running the story in today's paper, I believe. A photo (and a blog post in Afrikaans) is at Cobus's blog.

If you're at the Amahoro Gathering, please don't download the talks off the net! The wifi network at the campsite probably won't handle it - just come and find me (I'm the guy with the red glasses by the sound desk) and bring me a memory stick, and I'll give them to you.

Technorati Tags: Adriaan Vlok Amahoro Brian Mclaren Claude Nikondeha Edward Simiyu Kelly Nikondeha Kenzo Mabiala Monte Wilson Moss Nthla Muzi Cindi postcolonial Rene August Roberto Guerrero Sean Callaghan Spiwo Xapile Trevor Nthlola