“The Relational-Orientation of Vineyard Ecclesiology: Depth and Frailty in Our Relational Practices,” by Steven Lawrence Hamilton

We are pleased to open the second session of the SVS Workshop! This time we have a paper from Steven Lawrence Hamilton that comes from a larger project he is working on. Steven spends much of his time working with the Vineyard Justice Network. In this paper he is exploring immediately relevant ecclesiological questions from the perspective of “social poetics” using the methods of practical theology. This material is both timely and fascinating. Enjoy reading, and then join in the discussion!

Abstract

This project has sought to perceive the challenges present in the expressed relational ecclesiology in the Vineyard with regard to structure, relational practices, dynamics and contexts/ecologies.  This project emerged from my work on another project considering discernment in the Vineyard.  At the Vineyard Seminarians Summit in June 2011, Miroslav Volf said something that has resonated deeply within many of us in the Vineyard since hearing about it, “…our practices are often smarter than our ideas.”  Inspired by this, I have been researching the newer insights and applications of “social poetics” and relational practices as applied by social science researchers and organizational gurus.  Part of the genius of Volf’s observation at the Seminarians Summit is that if we can perceive our practices, they are capable of showing us what metaphors we actually are living in coherence with, and not just those we have thinly-dressed in our own concepts.

Of the three primary ecclesial trajectories – toward God (upward), toward those in the world(outward), and toward those in the church(inward) – regarding the Vineyard and our relational ecclesiology, this project explores the least explicit, that is, the inward trajectory.  As VineyardUSA has been transitioning and re-structuring in recent years, yet the actual practices that continue or emerge in this re-structuring – and the primary metaphors used to engage that re-structuring – will influence relationships and the formation thereof through relational practices and the ecclesial ecologies we create.  Is this something obscured by being assumed or implied in our ecclesiology?  Are there evident primary and secondary metaphors for the Vineyard movement and its communities of churches that have been made explicit or do they lie mostly implicit with possibly confusing outcomes?  How does the Vineyard create opportunities for fostering relationships and seek to engender relational resilience in the ecclesiology of the Vineyard movement?  These are some of the questions considered herein.

Questions for the workshop

1. Is the introduction to social poetics, relational practice and the social research thereof accessible to the reader?  Are the distinctions vis-à-vis relational practices, dynamics, contexts and ecologies clear?  What needs more upfront clarification?
2. Do you have recommendations for scriptural and theological focal points that might prove useful besides those engaged at-present (i.e., leitourgia, imago dei, the trinitarian-orientation, etc.)?
3. Regarding the Vineyard’s inherent relational ecclesiology, are the tripartite trajectories – upward/outward/inward – relevant and resonate with what you know of the Vineyard’s ecclesiology at local/regional/national/international spheres?

Interested to read more? Head on into the Workshop.