Landscapes of practice: a model to enrich our understanding Christian ministry?

ABSTRACT

This article explores how the concept of landscapes of practice can be related to the work of the Christian minister. It introduces the meaning of landscapes of practice in the work of Etienne Wenger-Trayner and identifies some general connections between Wenger-Trayner’s approach and the practice of ministry, paying attention to the theological motifs of giftedness and strangers. Wenger-Trayner maintains that landscapes are political, flat and diverse and these themes are explored in more detail with reference to examples of ministerial experience. This leads to consideration of the possibilities of boundaries and some tentative proposals about the value of the insights of landscapes of practices for the work of ministry.

KEYWORDS:

• Landscapes of practice
• Wenger-Trayner
• ministry
• giftedness
• strangers
• boundaries‌

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributor

Martin Hodson is a doctoral student at Glasgow University. He served as a Baptist minister in England and Scotland before taking on a national role supporting continuing ministry development, which became the subject of his current research. In 2019 he became the General Director of the Baptist Union of Scotland and now spends much time encouraging churches to embrace the triple priorities of transformations, generations and innovations.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 Known previously as Etienne Wenger.

2 Formerly known as Wenger.

3 Studies on the role of ministers typically apply an inventory of tasks which belong to the minister’s own community of practice, see for example Randall (2011).

4 The same principle is expressed in Deuteronomy 16.11, with particular reference to drawing strangers into the annual festivals.

5 This topic is explored extensively by e.g. Pohl (1999); Hawkins (1987); Nouwen (1975).

6 American educationalist Parker J. Palmer proposed a similar idea in A Company of Strangers (1986).

7 Even if this were the case, according to Wenger-Trayner, it would not deny the flatness of the landscape and the ownership of the practice by its local producers. He writes, ‘A mandate may give rise to a practice, but it does not produce the practice: the practitioners do. It is their practice even if it is produced in compliant response to a mandate’ (2015, 16).