Saturday 31 July 2010

Economics Of Rebirth


Chapter 6 of Irresistible Revolution starts with Shane's story about a wealthy business man he met. The man had been "thinking about following Christ and what that means" - the result was a custom-made What-Would-Jesus-Do engraved bracelet of 24-karat gold. It's kinda funny, but also sad. It's the materialistic culture that engulfs us, even as we try to follow Jesus.

The chapter challenges us to be more generous with the excess we have (as Jesus suggested). After all, we pray for our daily bread - not for a lifetime supply. One example of generosity came (ironically enough) from someone with very little.
One of the beggars in Calcutta approached me one day, and I had no money on me, but i felt a piece of gum in my pocket, so I handed it too her. I have no idea how long it had been since she had chewed gum, or if she had ever even had the chance. She looked at it and smiled with delight. Then she tore it into three pieces and handed one to me and one to a friend so we could share the excitement.

Groups of families are discovering the blessings that come with sharing possessions. The funt that comes with doing things together and spending time with each other. Of course, poor people have known this for some time. Shane suggests this is why Jesus states the difficulty for rich people to enter God's kingdom. Personal wealth acts as a blindfold, blocking the vision of an "interdependent community, dependent on God, and on each other".
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"There is enough for everyone's need, but there is never enough for everyone's greed" - Ghandi

Proving It

One of the stock-standard mission statements (or slogans) for a church is "Loving God, Loving [X]", where X can be "others", "the community" or the geographical area of the church in question.


But this one from Courageous Church goes a bit further, and (i think) a bit more biblical. It starts out like all the others, but the difference here is the last line - "Prove It".

While the activity of many churches seems limited to sitting, listening or singing; Courageous Church challenges itself to put love into action by doing things that actually help people, and make God's love visible.

Thursday 22 July 2010

Room Cleaning Christianity

OK, this is my latest fave phrase from Jon Acuff, as he uses it to explain why Christians are jerks.

Just like a student decides to clean up their room rather than work on the big assignment that is due soon, so we can sometimes focus on things make us feel better, but really aren't that important.

Whether it's finding faults in celebrities who are Christians, branding large segments of the community as 'sinners' (as if we're not), or lamenting the low number of people who attend church - all of them make us feel a bit more self-righteous, but don't actually involve loving our neighbour ... the assignment Jesus gave us.

Thursday 15 July 2010

Another Way Of Doing Life

ask people what Christians believe, they can tell you ... ask the average person how Christians live, they are struck silent.
Shane Claiborne reckons this is because we haven't shown anything different, that "Christians live pretty much like everyone else; they just sprinkle a little Jesus in along the way". As a result he reckons "spiritual seekers have not been able to hear the words of Christians because the lives of Christians have been making so much horrible noise.
Sometimes people call those of us in our community radical. Most of the time though, I think that if what we are doing seems radical, then that says more about the apathy of Western Christianity that about the true nature of our discipleship.

I experienced this kind of thing recently when i did something mildly generous and a friend complimented me for "radical discipleship". He meant it well, and i took it that way - but part of me shed a tear that my actions were considered the exception rather than the norm.

Shane quotes Dorothy Day as saying "Don't call us saints; we don't want to be dismissed that easily" and implores us to allow Jesus to change our actions as well as our beliefs. Just as he did for Zaccheus, and for Levi, and for countless others. Such discipleship is not only more rewarding, but is also a greater help to those around us.
We can believe in CPR, but people will remain dead until someone breathes life into them. And we can tell the world that there is life after death, but the world really seems to be wondering if there is life before death.

Wednesday 14 July 2010

Lying To God

I'm not a huge fan of lying. Same goes for lying to God (which i figure is extra dumb because God would know a lie when hears one ;) Anyway, i think this makes me struggle with 'worship' music. Singing a lie doesn't make it true. And they can put a whole bunch of E-minor chords around a lie - it's still a lie. One of my 'faves' is from I Want To Know You More...
pushing every hindrance aside (out of my way) 'cause I want to know you more

because i think most of us could name at least 5 things we've done today that we could have ditched in order to "know God more" (but we didn't). Meanwhile my list of things that i actually have pushed aside is looking quite short.

I don't know why we do this. Is it just to make the words fit the melody? ("Occasionally pushing selected hindrances aside" would be a real mouthful.) Or is it to give ourselves a chance to brag about our (inflated) holiness in front of other churchgoers? Or is it to make newcomers feel insecure and inferior as they compare themselves to our over-exaggerated claims about ourselves?

Whatever the reason, i can't really stomach it. So i was comforted (and amused) when Jon Acuff did his piece on Overcommitting to God. He even includes a template for making your own dodgy lyrics ... and the comments are full of hilarious creations :)

Sunday 11 July 2010

When Comfort Becomes Uncomfortable


The title of this chapter of Irresistible Revolution comes from the saying "God comforts the disturbed and disturbs the comfortable."

Shane talks about feeling increasing disturbed by God - while living in the comfortable suburbs. And the more he read the bible the less comfortable he felt - especially with the fake Jesus that he feels American Christianity produces.

He tells the story of being on a short-term mission trip, and a group of children (preparing a skit from a gospel story) came up to him and said "Shane we need you to play Jesus, because you are white and from America."

Or as George Bernard Shaw puts it..
God created us in his image, and we decided to return the favour.

Friday 9 July 2010

Outsider Interviews

You may have read my thoughts on unChristian - the book that analyses what 'outsiders' think of christians. Well now Jim Henderson (author of "Jim and Casper go to Church") presents the Outsider Interviews. It's a DVD and book of face-to-face discussions with 'outsiders' and 'insiders' - and sometimes it's hard to tell which is which :)



One young woman says that now she even hesitates to call herself 'Christian' (because of what that has become associated with). Scarier still was that the question these people were asked...
If you thought Christians would listen, what would you say to them?

Doesn't it say something that we even have to preface questions that way?

Thursday 8 July 2010

In Search Of A Christian

"I am not a Christian anymore"
Shane Claiborne was shocked to hear those words, until his friend continued...
I gave up Christianity to follow Jesus
It sounds like a contradiction but Shane explains using the words of Danish philospher Soren Kierkegaard
The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act accordingly.
Shane tells the story of when he embarked on a journey to find someone actually following Jesus. It's an amazing story, and along the way he meets someone who literally sold all he had to help the poor (Luke 12:33) and wonders what it might be like if we truly believed that we no longer live, but only Jesus lives in us (Gal 2:20).

Tuesday 6 July 2010

2 Billion Minutes On YouVersion

Ok, so there's a few online bibles around. My favourite one to read is YouVersion. It's available in many translations, and in many languages (the latest - Norwegian). It has community features so that people can communicate online and share their thoughts on bible passages. It also has reading plans that provide you with a regular dose of bible goodness - right there on your computer.

But today i'm talking mobiles. The people at YouVersion have recently calculated that their users have racked up 2 billion minutes of bible reading using the mobile devices.


That calculates out to 33 million hours, or 38 centuries - which is a fair amount of bibley goodness made available to people on trains, in cafes, in church - or practically anywhere. In fact in June alone, over 650,000 people installed the Bible app on their mobile device - that's one every 4 seconds.

So good on you, YouVersion - truly an achievement of Biblical proportions! ;)

Monday 5 July 2010

Resurrecting Church

How can we worship a homeless man on Sunday and ignore one on Monday?
That was the banner outside the disused cathedral where some homeless people had taken refuge. Shane Claiborne remarks, "the media jumped on the story and made it look like the church was kicking homeless people out (which wasn't a stretch, since the church was kicking homeless people out).

Meanwhile, in an eye-opening adventure, Shane, his college buddies, some local firemen, and the mafia(!) were out-doing the "church" at following the teaching of Jesus.

As Shane was losing hope in 'the church', a friend reminded him that church is a group of people following God.
You haven't lost hope in the church. You may have lost hope in Christianity, or Christendom or all the institutions, but you have not lost hope in the church. This is the church.

What summed it up best for me was Shane's description of his own state of mind at the time:
I felt so thirsty for God, so embarrassed by Christianity, and so ready for something more.

Friday 2 July 2010

Jesus Walks

How does one answer the question "Hey David, what's your favourite worship song?". I didn't know to break my friend's illusion that to be a Christian means joyously frolicking around the house listening to hours of church music. Or was i meant to be quietly keeping my own scorebook during church? Who knows?

Anyway, i don't remember how i got out of that one, but what i wish i'd said was "Jesus Walks by Kanye West". I probably would have got a blank look, because it's not something that fits the pink box version of church. The film clip has a shot of a man holding a bottle of alcohol - there's a swear word - and "hell" is said twice in one line. (Gasp!)


But if we can be less superficial, there's a tonne of heart in this song that can put a lot of worship music to shame.

For what it says about Jesus
My moma used to say only Jesus could save us

To the hustlers, killers, murderers, drug dealers, even the strippers - Jesus walks with them.

about the human condition
We are at war with terrorism, racism, but most of all we are at war with ourselves.

I don't think there's nothing i can do now to right my wrongs. I wanna talk to God but i'm afraid because we ain't spoke in so long.

searching for God
Now hear ye, hear ye, wanna see thee more clearly
I know he hears me when my feet get weary

God show me the way 'cause the devil's trying to break me down

It's kind of a shame that such rich lyrics and authentic expression are kept away from our delicate church ears.

Thursday 1 July 2010

When Christianity Was Still Safe

Turns out that there's way too much goodness in The Irresistible Revolution to do full-on summaries of each chapter. So what i'll probably do is take a few quotes that really resonate with me.

In this chapter, Shane talk about growing up (physically and spiritually) through high school and into college.
I wasn't sure the church had much to offer. Of course, I didn't dare stop going to church, convinced that "going to church" is what good people do, and I didn't want to become like "those people" who don't "go to church." Heathens. Ha. So I sucked it up and went every week, often cynical, usually bored, but always smiling.

Pretty sad, huh? And i'm not immune from the thoughts of the first and last sentences. But what about the middle? Is that what church has reduced to? Something people do to pretend they're better than someone else? A perfunctory activity we endure in order to grant ourselves some kudos? As i examined my motivations for 'going to church' i continued reading...
I saw the messiness of church politics and egotism. I was driven mostly by ideology and theology, which isn't very sustainable even if they're true.

I was a bit thrown by this statement. Why would being driven by theology bad? I mean, it's about God isn't it? But i think i found my answer right at the end of the chapter...
I found that I was just as likely to meet God in the sewers of the ghetto as in the halls of academia. I learned more about God from the tears of homeless mothers than any systematic theology ever taught me.