Author Archives: Alan Roxburgh and Martin Robinson
Leading in a New Space: Part 1
These long, disruptive months have been more than a hiatus, a hard-pandemic space that will soon rectify itself. Many in the churches sense that we’re facing something more challenging than managing congregations through a pandemic. We’re awakening to the reality that our world is changing in unprecedented ways and we are woefully unprepared for what lies at our doorsteps. These threats to our ways of life mean huge changes to how we live but we don’t know how to go about such transformations.
Leading in a New Space: Part 2
We’re in a moment of institutional and structural unraveling. We want to lay out proposals for addressing what we might do. But, first, we have to be clear about what’s at stake in this call for a refounding of congregational life and its leadership. As we looked for ways to describe the scope of these transformations, the reflections of farmer James Rebanks, in his book Pastoral Song, continue to offer a helpful perspective.
Proper Confidence: Being God’s people in a New Era
This is an anxious time across the churches when they must find a ‘proper confidence’ to guide their responses. This confidence, rather than in an immediate search for ecclesial survival, lies in our engagement with the mission of God. How will we reweave a future rooted in the mission of Jesus? What is our ‘proper confidence’ based in as we plan and act in this massive unravelling of church and society?
Webinar- From Exile to Earthquake: Metaphors for Mission in a Post-Pandemic World
The context of this conversation, as Alan Roxburgh explains, is the Covid-19 crisis and the question from church leaders and others: ‘What’s next?’ In the light of this Alan and Martin Robinson reflect on the metaphors leaders have used to understand mission and the place of the church...
‘Practices for the Refounding of God’s People.’ Part 1: Modernity’s Wager.
To engage the modern west with the gospel we need to understand that it has been shaped by ‘modernity’s wager’: the belief that life can be lived well without God. According to Alan Roxburgh and Martin Robinson in this conversation...
‘Practices for the Refounding of God’s People’: Part 2: Practices for Refounding.
The British and European church has benefitted from the arrival of Christian migrants from Africa and Asia, a ‘blessed reflex’ from the early days of mission. According to Alan Roxburgh the Canadian church has benefitted from the wisdom of First Nations indigenous peoples who have embodied an appreciation of the land...