Emersion Books

Stones: By Kester Brewin

Stones

If we could all

just stop throwing stones,

and stoop, knees bent

and write in the dust,

we'd see that the dust

was once stone -

grand, and hard, and proud, and tough -

now ground and dissolved

in grace and tears.

So... how much better

to be a grain of dirt

on that kind prophet’s hands

than a stone

in the cold, accusing Temple

of the pure?

© KB 2007

I wrote this poem out of anguish, I suppose. Anguish at the terrible propensity we have for throwing stones at one another, when deep down we all know we are all worthy of accusation. I simply love that passage in Scripture, where Jesus ‘writes in the dust’. I quote in the book how Rowan Williams discusses this passage in his short meditation on being in New York on the morning of September 11th 2001.  He writes that Jesus “does not draw a line, fix an interpretation, tell the woman who she is and what her fate should be. He allows a moment, in which people are given time to see themselves differently precisely because he refuses to make the sense they want. When he lifts his head, there is both judgement and release. So this is writing in the dust because it tries to hold that moment for a little longer, long enough for some of our demons to walk away.

Soliton 2007/ Kester's Release Party Photos

There are photos on Flickr from Kester Brewin's Release Party and Soliton 2007.

Kester Brewin speaking at Soliton. Click Here to see more photos...

The Falling Man | It is Finished

By Kester Brewin

Some time ago in the UK, Channel 4 showed a documentary (based on the by Tom Junod) about Richard Drew's horrific photograph from 9/11, which became known as 'the falling man.' Released and used by some in the press in the immediate reports, it then 'sank without trace' soon after in an act of seeming self-censorship.Esquire article

The documentary was a moving and challenging exploration of the history and impact of the photograph. While coroners and others appeared to be trying to revise history and deny that anyone had jumped from the towers, the programme proposed that the image ought to stand as a defining image of the absolute horror of the attacks.

Among the interviews of relatives of those who had died was one with a man who knew his wife had jumped. "After the suffocating smoke, the intense heat and lack of air, to jump must have felt like blessed relief. She would have felt like she was flying." Others didn't agree. The jumpers had 'committed suicide', and thus condemned themselves to hell. They had somehow been cowardly, not thinking of their loved ones.

Personally, I was deeply moved by the horror of the decision these people were forced to take. In one sense, this became for me a meditation on violence and technology (which I have posted on before here). In the face of an act of horrific violence, with a huge jumbo-jet slamming into a structure that had lifted people 107 stories into the air, with the smoke and heat of aviation fuel, pinned in place by broken lift-shafts and burning stairwells, these people had to chose to whether to stay and face certain death after some unknowable wait among hot steel and choking flames, or let go and chose their own exit.

Perhaps they jumped out of sheer terror. We cannot know. But the 'falling man' image, with its almost serene and calm descent, offers us the possibility that it was as a brave act of self-determination that these people stepped out into the peace of clear air, away from the terror and technology that had rounded on them. That rather than be killed by those who brought suggest terrible weapons against them, they denied the terrorists' desire to kill, and chose to take their own lives.

And thus we are turned to reflect on the other falling man, pinned in place by a terrible and crude technology, who chose to let go, defied our violence against him, opened his hands and exerted this great act of sacrificial self-determination. "It is finished," he announced, choosing his own moment to descend into hell, "And breathed his last."

Signs of Emergence Reviews

Here are some early reviews about Signs of Emergence by Kester Brewin (In-Stores July).

Ryan Bolger:

Kester Brewin is one of the sharpest thinkers on the emerging scene. For years, his community, Vaux, created worship spaces that engaged forbidden cultural and theological themes. His upcoming book, due out in July, Signs of Emergence, continues in this pattern and doesn't disappoint. Brewin combines psychology, urban theory, and complexity theory with biblical reflection on church and leadership. The result? Brewin produces a fresh look at the contemporary scene with an innovative approach to leadership in the church [...]

To view Ryan's complete review visit: http://thebolgblog.typepad.com/thebolgblog/2007/03/signs_of_emerge.html

Jordon Cooper:

[...] I think I have read The Complex Christ (the UK version of Signs of Emergence) probably 20 times and I will soon retire the book as soon as Signs of Emergence comes out in North America for no other reason to give it's battered binding a must needed break. If I had a list of the ten most important books for the emerging church and for the church in general, I think this one would definitely be on it. You can pre-order your copy from Amazon.com now, you will be glad you did. [...]

To view Jordon's complete review visit: http://www.jordoncooper.com/2007/01/book-3-of-53-signs-of-emergence-by.html

Kester Brewin & Signs of Emergence (part 2)

Kester Brewin, author of the upcoming emergent book Signs of Emergence, is a writer and pioneering church planter based in London, England. In emerging church circles he is best known for working with a collective of artists and city lovers to create the experimental, alternative worship group Vaux. Brewin has worked in an advisory role at Fuller Theological Seminary, helping them to think about new ways of training Emerging leaders.

In the previous post I tried to outline something of where the book Signs of Emergence came from. So what’s it about?

A few years ago, as Vaux, the group I was part of, was exploring different models of organization, I was given a book called Emergence by a New York science writer Steven Johnson. It’s a wonderful book, full of amazing stories of systems, both in the natural world and in our cities, that have no top-down hierarchy, that organize themselves. It is a principle that has more recently driven the idea of "the wisdom of crowds" with such projects as Wikipedia. Such systems are said to have "emergent" properties. Their wisdom emerges from the ground up, not from some distant hierarchy. They are highly flexible and adaptable.

The thesis of the book is simple: two thousand years before we discovered the science, God "re-emerged" in Christ. In the incarnation we see God doing away with the top-down, hierarchical system of the Temple, and being born as a tiny baby. God refused the cries of the people to rain down revolution in the form of a military messiah, and instead decided on evolution as the mode of change. Slow. Gentle. Adapted to the local environment. Networked.

This is what Vaux has been trying to do. We came from a place where “church practices were accommodations to a society that no longer existed”, and have slowly been trying to evolve into something different. It’s been no bed of roses, but I feel that with the institutional, national face of Christianity so widely derided the body of Christ in this time and place has a great deal to learn from this model of incarnation, of emergence.

By exploring the birth, ministry, and passion of Christ, the book thus explores what an "emergent" church might look like.

Signs of Emergence opens with some analysis of the current situation, and then pleas for us to stop and wait before acting, just as God metaphorically did in the inter-testamental period. There is then some thinking about what the character of an emergent church would look like, compared to a top-down church and a totally anarchic church. This is important: self-organization doesn’t mean no organization!

In the second half of the book, I try to look more closely at a few aspects of this emergent body of Christ, with reference to three key areas: the city, the gift economy, and dirt.

Finally, the book explores how Christ’s death and resurrection are perhaps the clearest signs yet of God’s passion for the emergent principle. We still celebrate this in the Eucharist: like Christ’s body, one centralized bread is broken and distributed. Its "disappearance" means it cannot be destroyed. The curtain is torn. The phial is broken. The virus of God has escaped, and we, the people of the Spirit are now called to live as the distributed people of God.

I hope you enjoy the book and, to continue the emergent principle, I look forward to continuing to engage the issues with you at the Signs blog: http://kester.typepad.com/signs

Kester Brewin & Signs of Emergence (part 1)

Kester Brewin, author of the upcoming emergent book Signs of Emergence, is a writer and pioneering church planter based in London, England. In emerging church circles he is best known for working with a collective of artists and city lovers to create the experimental, alternative worship group Vaux. Brewin has worked in an advisory role at Fuller Theological Seminary, helping them to think about new ways of training Emerging leaders.

With the forthcoming release in the US of Signs of Emergence, Baker and Emergent have asked me to write a couple of posts about who I am and what the book is about.

So a brief outline: I’m mid-thirties, and I live and work in London. By the time you read this I’ll have two kids. One’s just turning three. The other’s just turning around and around. I teach math and religion, which is a nice summary in itself. My dad was a math teacher who turned minister. I’ll stick with the day job for now ;-)

I have been involved in ‘"leadership" in various ways. Mostly with a group called Vaux. Nearly ten years ago I was part of a very large, successful church of bright young things in central London. But, even though there were writers and film-makers and dancers and actors and designers and artists everywhere, because they didn’t preach or play the guitar or sing, they were redundant. It seemed to a few of us that these "church practices" were accommodations to a society that no longer existed as Ryan Bolger would put it.

So Vaux was an attempt at getting the church to exist for the society that hosted it, not one that died fifty years back; we played with the boundaries of what faith and worship would look like in a context that took the urban experience seriously. And like all such projects it was exciting, dangerous, failing, dysfunctional and inspirational in equal measure.

It was a desire to put something of the Vaux journey on paper that inspired me to start the book. We had covered themes such as gift, dirt, self-organization, waiting, Christ in the city--and I didn’t want to lose those things when Vaux had run its course.

Vaux did run its course. It too became a practice to accommodate a society that didn’t exist. We had no choice: we deconstructed it. We stopped meeting. And just now we’re starting again. Small. Gentle. Evolving something new that fits. Jubilee style.

This was easier for us than many other groups because Vaux very much lives within its means. No one works for it. We never borrow or ask for money. We’ve never had a building.

These things are important to me: if you read the book, you’re not reading something by someone paid to be a Christian. You’re not reading something by an academic stuck in a dark library. I teach math in high schools in London. I make short films. I read Pynchon and Eggers. But I’m also passionate about practical, dirty theology forged in the everyday.

So I hope you’ll find the book one you can connect with. It was not sent down from on high with impossible demands, nor written in some theological laboratory. It’s just the thoughts from a group of normal people, living busy lives in a wonderfully crazy city and trying to work out, beyond the conventions and national dramas and high-level church politics, what being a Christian is about.

Signs of Emergence Book Description

Many in the church are recognizing that traditional top-down structures are no longer functional. The church is seen as an institution that is out of touch, ignored by the very people it seeks to serve, and unaware of the opportunities for ministry that exist as interest in things spiritual rises. Signs of Emergence challenges the church to face its fears and take a bold step toward doing things in a completely new way to adopt an evolutionary, rather than revolutionary, approach to change.

Drawing on the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Christ, as well as urban theory, art, and social practice, Kester Brewin calls the church to dispense with tired structures and re-emerge as a networked, bottom-up organism that is responsive to the needs found in the urban environment. This unique book will be of interest to pastors, church leadership, and consultants.

Kester Brewin is a writer and pioneering church planter based in London, England. In emerging church circles he is best known for working with a collective of artists and city lovers to create the experimental, alternative worship group Vaux. Brewin has worked in an advisory role at Fuller Theological Seminary, helping them to think about new ways of training Emerging leaders.

Signs of Emergence Sample Booklet

Download in PDF format: Brewin_Emergence.pdf

The Sample Booklet includes the book cover, table of contents, introduction, and the chapter entitled Emergence.