In Season 2 of the podcast of the urban mystic we feature phenomenal guests in order to get to know them and their journey. We use the same basic framework and a patterns naturally emerge. There are a lot of episodes so far with more to come. So far two cycles of deconstruction are well represented and we are about to begin the third. This makes it a good point to provide an orientation for those entering the conversation late. You may want to explore a particular kind of deconstruction and, if so, this kind of orientation will be helpful.

The series so far naturally evidences:

1. Those who deconstruct their calling, reinvent their careers, and stay committed to the institution of the Church. Here the contributors insight into the institution and the problems therewith are not only insightful. You can, literally, hear their deep emotions as they reflect on their journey as professionals in ministry. They both recognise that their calling differs to their careers as professionals in ministry within the institution of the Church and go about redefining themselves. There is a real heartfelt tension between their career as template provided by the institution of the Church and their calling by God. Contributors include Christopher Harrison (link) and Dion Forster (part 1 and part 2).
2. Those who deconstruct both their calling and the institution of the Church. This is a cycle that takes people through the deconstruction of their own calling and into deconstructing the machinery of the Church. Here they recognise the institution as denominational machinery and business machinery. And though we call this machinery “church” it is, in fact, not who the church is. And so they deconstruct their calling and the institution of the Church and offer alternatives. Richard Jacobson who best known for his thinking around unchurching, which mirror the concept of unschooling. Richard has long focused on stripping off the institutional dimension in order to focus on people in face-to-face community without the institutional and business machinery. Listen to his TED Talk (link) and the podcast (part 1 and part 2). John van de Laar is perhaps still best known as a Methodist minister, but has left the Church in order to explore community online for people leaving the church. John is at work building an online community. He recognises that genuine community takes place wherever people meet, including online. You can catch our conversation with him (part 1 and part 2).

Being the conversationalists we are, we continue our conversation in light of the conversations above. We pick up from our conversation with Chris and Dion to reflect on why we deconstructed our own calling (link). And we pick up on their shared critique of spirituality to deconstruct spirituality (link). We will be sharing our conversation following on from the second cycle of deconstruction next week.

Be sure to catch the upcoming episodes of the podcast of the urban mystic.