The Exuberant Church - More than a Review

Categories: uncategorized

Date: 07 September 2011 14:15:23

The Exuberant Church by Barbara Glasson has just been read at one sitting, at 131 pages this was not too difficult, particularly as I had heard her give a synopsis of the main arguments in her talk at Greenbelt. What will take much longer is processing what I do with the thoughts digested and how this book might be used to facilitate conversation with people in the future. In this post I am going to briefly review the book, and then I am going to outline my inital thoughts. Before I start I should explain I could never be neutral on this book. Glasson is somebody whose work I have lots of time for and who has been very encouraging to the mad person who failed to buy a copy at Greenbelt, then could not find a copy to buy in the Cathedral bookshop in Durham and so had to e-mail her with my final chapter to ensure I had not plagursised without reading the book because I thought there was overlap, which she is satisfied there isn't...and then was lent a copy by somebody when I went to our church bookgroup last night. Anyway I digresss, back to the review. The book takes the theme of "coming out" and looks at how this experience which the LGBandT community, survivors and the disabled might be useful for the whole church, not to engage in inclusion but rather to engage in something more radical - true transformational practice. It's a book by a practioner for practioners and also for everybody - as she said at Greenbelt the whole point is all of this is about "us" and "we" not "them and us". Within this she takes various biblical passages and highlights how these are transformational expereinces with elements of "coming out" associated with them. Firstly, the real positives of the book. This is not an academic talking about something they know little of - this is somebody who has been engaged in transformational practice working with the sorts of people of the sort who Carter USM sang about in The Only Living Boy in New Cross - ie all sorts of people from all different backgrounds but many who have been marginalised by either mainstream society or, (more often), the church. As such it is rich with real experience and lacks patronising material. It's also a book which has something genuinely positive and new to say and it's a book which helps build knowledge and understanding rather than pouring more fuel onto an already, at times, out of control fire. She also discusses "safe-enough" space in a way which is useful for those of us engaging in transformative groups. Finally, it is a book which does not seek to sugar coat uncomfortable truths but neither does it deny the " very hungry catapillar story" expriences - (note here this image is very special to me and TOH). Indeed the metaphor of the catapillar who metamorphosises into the butterfly is a key point within the book. The only criticism I have of the book is that it largely fails to talk about one specific coming out experience which the church can learn from and use to connect "the visible" and "spoken about" with the "invisible" and "denied".  The coming out I refer to is that which preachers and the ordained have gone through in order to offer to be preachers, ministers or deacons within the church. I am now going to briefly outline my argument, in part talking through my own experience. Ok, regular readers and those who know my story will know that I have in my life come out in various ways quite regularly over the last 20 years. When my husband left and I came to terms that he was not coming back and that I was going to remain the main carer I had to "come out to people" as a single mum. This "coming out" has been something I have had to do in various ways over the years, in different situations. As somebody with dyslexia and some other stuff I have to sometimes "come out", often when I cannot cope with using screens to sing  hymns in church and I have to request a large print hymn book. My "falling apart period" when I was younger means that when going for a new job and filling in health questionnaires I have to "come out" about the depression I have suffered. As a gay Christian I have had to do various "coming out" over the years relating to both my sexual orientation and my faith, particularly when I started up a local group for LGBandT Christians and those who want to explore the Christian faith more. Most recently I have had to "come out" about the call(s) I feel I have from God. In my "coming out" about my call(s) to local preaching and most recently about the call I think I have, which I and the church are currently testing, to ministry within the Methodist Diaconal Order there has been elements which have overlapped with my other "comings out" and which relate to what Glasson talks about. Firstly, in coming to terms with God might be calling you to preaching or candidating there is a feeling of "not fitting in with the normal role and having different callings" which emerges. Let me emphasise it is not that you feel called to be "better than others" or anything, rather you feel nudged that the usual going and sitting in the pew to recieve is not what you are. You are aware that you are called to serve, just as we all are, but the vocation and service you are called to do in the church is not one which you can send an e-mail volunteering for in the normal way. It requires for you to hear the call yourself, and so "come out to yourself" and then disclose that call to other people for it then to be taken forward in relationship. It requires exactly the same kind of risk and vulnerability as coming out as LGBandT to somebody....trust me on this one - I've done both. The risk you face is of mockery or rejection on one level or perhaps more scary on another is acceptance and encouragement. There is also the element of having to get your head around exactly what it is you are called or made by God to be. This is something I think Glasson could have explored more because it is something which means that there is a point of connection where local preachers and "the clergy" can understand those who have "come out" in other ways . That said I would recommend this as the most useful book I have read this year and one to put on Santa's list if you can't get hold of a copy before.