Sunday 28 November 2010

A Fishy Tale

The good folks at IE Day put together this little video parable.



Just like a Jesus parable, there is so much truth in it; and is very well told.

Tuesday 23 November 2010

Making God Sound Stupid

Saw this bit on the Colbert Report recently. He takes a satirical look at the two of the candidates for Chair of the Energy and Resources Committee in the US Congress.


If I wasn't laughing (because of Stephen Colbert's comedic talent) I'd possibly be crying (over the way some politicians paint God).

I think this blog best described the effect, describing Mr Shimkus's use of scripture as "foolish, ignorant, selfish, and unreasonable", and that it "illustrates how people use religion to impose their own biased and uninformed beliefs onto the rest of society."

But apart from using religion to impact politics, he is (possibly unwittingly) using politics to impact religion (negatively). When the words of God are portrayed in such a painfully ridiculous manner, it makes both Christians and God sound stupid - neither of which is helpful for anyone considering following Jesus.

Wednesday 17 November 2010

Fear Of The Word

One of Dave Murrow's main disappointments with the church is that we don't strive to be Christlike as much as we strive to be ladylike. Expecting people to behave like princesses is a sure-fire way to fail with men.

Local mischief-makers

I was reminded of this recently when my local church's noticeboard was "creatively rearranged" overnight. This is what it originally said:


The sign is one of those double-sided ones, so the prankster had a bunch of letters from the other side to choose from to alter the message. Here's the other side and the letters they could have used (despite an E going missing).


What to choose?

If their intent was to annoy, ridicule or embarrass the church, they could have easily spelt out S-A-T-A-N or D-E-V-I-L (using the D from the dog). But instead, they substituted the word "dog" in the original message with another word. The letters they used were P,E,I,N and S .... though not in that order. ;)

It seems that in the minds of the impromptu sign-changers (and perhaps the general public) none of the words describing Jesus's arch enemy would startle or alarm church-people as much as the sight of a 'rude' word. (Sad thing is they're probably right.)

When our sense of morality seems to be sourced more from Jane Austen than Jesus Christ, is it that surprising that we struggle to be relevant to the policemen, footy players, mechanics and truck drivers in our world?

Monday 15 November 2010

Who Are You?

Bloom is a community of people being part of each others lives; helping, encouraging and learning from one another. They're a little bit different from an average church, and were named as one of the 2010 Firestarter churches. But they warn against the "copy the great stuff we're doing" philosophy.


Instead of trying to be like "every other church that's out there", Luke suggests that churches find their own identity, reflect who they actually are (instead of trying to be someone else).

It strikes me that if this happened, then maybe there'd be a whole bunch of different types of churches - and a greater range of people would be able to discover Jesus.

that doesn’t mean you should all look and speak and act the same. Out of the generosity of Christ, each of us is given his own gift.
Ephesians 4:7 (Message)

Sunday 14 November 2010

Blessings of Anger and Tears

The other day i wrote about how church can tend towards bench-sitting rather than action. Then a friend showed me this old benediction (seen on Mark Hyatt's blog). What if we had the courage to pray this kind of thing today?
May God bless you with discomfort
At easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships,
So that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger
At injustice, oppression and exploitation of people,
So that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless you with tears
To shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger, and war,
So that you may reach out your hand to comfort them
And turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless you with enough foolishness
To believe that you can make a difference in the world,
So that you can do what others claim cannot be done
To bring justice and kindness to all our children and the poor.
Amen

Tuesday 9 November 2010

Bench Believers

CMS has a great article on Bench Believers. The term is a reference to the Soccer World Cup, and Nike's Write the Future campaign.


By contrast the church's message seems to be less about passionate pursuit of ambitious actions to create a glorious future (which you might expect it to be) and more about seeking refuge in the safety of a holy huddle.

The vibe of church is "Come, sit and stay", as opposed to Jesus's "Go, tell and do".

On a side note, it also makes me wonder if this is another reason that the church's message struggles to inspire men, while the message of Jesus excelled at it.

Thursday 4 November 2010

"God Hates Figs" :)

Something that depresses me is when anti-homosexuality masquerades as Christianity (for why, see here). But something that pleases me is intelligent good-humoured people with a heart full of fun and love (rather than animosity). So I quite enjoyed finding out about the "God Hates Figs" parody campaign - satirising the similar-sounding (but more aggressive) campaign that actually exists in America.


Also, there is a God Hates Shrimp parody campaign - which humorously demonstrates the absurdity of picking obscure verses out of Leviticus.

Hehe - comedy gold!