Sunday 27 March 2011

Crazy But Not Alone


We have to remind each other that we are not crazy, or that if we are crazy, then at least we're not alone.
For the record, Shane Claiborne doesn't think he's crazy - except maybe in the same way that the people of Jesus's day thought Jesus and the disciples were crazy. Or to put it another way:
If we are crazy, then it is because we refuse to be crazy in the same way that the world has gone crazy
He talks about the crazy way our world operates, but also laments the numbing effect it has on us - using the metaphor of eyes adjusting to the dark. He says that "the darkness of the world will try to smother the light, so we have to surround ourselves with people who makes us shine brighter.

At the end, he gives an "alter call" - a call for us to "alter our vision from the patterns of this world and create new ways of living."

Saturday 26 March 2011

Clare Bowditch

ABC's Compass program did a great 1-on-1 with Australian singer songwriter Clare Bowditch. It covers her religious upbring, her beliefs, her absence from church (despite still being close to God) and how she sees things now.


Some of Clare's thoughts (though i recommend seeing the whole chat for a better sense of where she is coming from):
God is ... the source of longing and question and compassion and this impulse in us to want to do good; to want to be kind to our fellow human; to protect; to nurture.

So I think what the world is for me is a series that presents a series of choices. So what do we choose? What do we believe? What do we focus on? What do we spend time on and what do we get caught in? And it is always looking to the question of a higher ideal and what that is and where it's hiding.

It's been difficult to find a priest who I can relate to, to be honest. So that's one of the problems I've had.

I don't know if there's a home for people like me in the Catholic Church any more to be honest.

But if you're a questioning Catholic, the question today that you ask is, can the church open its heart to difference?

Some of the most interesting and curious and thinking and intelligent and heartfelt open hearted of people I know are atheists, are agnostics. No church has a monopoly on what it means to be good. But I think the conversation has to be broader.

We can't be in a world that divides people on points of sexuality or gender or so on. Those things are really disruptive for people who want to believe in god and then feel that they don't have a home for their faith because their religion doesn't allow that kind of difference.
The interviewer asked "Imagine that you could change three things within the Catholic Church that would make it feel like home. What would they be?"
I think the issues that are most urgently in need of being addressed and that I see people hurting over are really the question of sexuality, same sex marriage and the legitimacy of love between humans who happen to be the same sex. And also the question of the role of women in the church. And of course there's that heartbreaking one which is the question of, well the question of how do we encourage what seems like such a closed institution to open up and tell the truth and be transparent.

Thursday 24 March 2011

Growing Smaller And Smaller


The chapter title "Growing Smaller and Smaller ... Until We Take Over The World" seems a bit like a riddle at first. Surely to be effective we need to grow bigger. Not so says Shane Claiborne.

He compares the church's desire to grow big and powerful to the temptation Jesus faced in the desert (the only difference being that Jesus resisted) and quotes Mother Theresa "We can do not great things. Only small things with great love." and another woman who told him "If the devil can't steal your soul, he'll just keep you busy doing meaningless church work."

He despairs at the spending on massive new buildings, while neglecting the poor - comparing it to a father who builds a mansion while failing to feed his children. He realises the point of view that growth enables more good work to be done, but says that in reality, the bigger a church grows, the more its budget focusses inward on its own operating expenses.

Shane suggests this is part of why offerings are small. We have an inate passion for the poor, and if the church cares more about facilities, then we donate less to the church and find more effective ways to give to those in need.

The other thing is that having 'corporate' space keeps us at arm's length from each other. Our private property becomes just that - private. We don't gather in kitchens, around dining tables, in lounge rooms or backyards because we don't have to - and our community is weaker for it.

The chapter finishes by looking at the mustard seed featured in parables. It doesn't grow into a towering tree - just a small bush. But it's a bush that pops up everywhere, and is quickly all over the landscape.

Tuesday 22 March 2011

Investing For Life

Last week i was at an ethical investment / superannuation seminar. Turns out there's ethical investment that is "against" stuff (ie. it's just normal investment, but avoids cigarettes, alcohol and gambling companies (the "sin stocks"). But there's also ethical investment that looks at what would make the world a better place, and invests in companies that can make that happen.


This struck me as an interesting parable for living a life following Jesus. If we view our life as an investment (as Jesus did in one of his parables). We can duplicate the life of those around us - just subtracting x, y and z (because they are immoral) or we can focus on the positive things that Jesus is about - and help make them happen. One of these paints Christians as a bunch of people who are anti-everything, and the other gives people a glimpse of the kingdom of God.
--
ps. you might have noticed that this has been a bit of a recurring message to me recently - to be positive, or to be "for" something. It started a few weeks ago with the movie Chocolat where the townspeople measure holiness by what they avoid. Then in chapter 11 of Irresistible Revolution which talked about defining ourselves by what we are for - and that positivity and celebration is crucial in a world that is starving for joy.

Monday 21 March 2011

Making Revolution Irresistible

In chapter 11, Shane talks about the spirit of revolution. He tells of how as a younger man, he was "dumbfounded and outraged by the apathy of the church", but in the protest movement found an aggressiveness and judgementalism reminiscent of that in the church.
I began to feel a self-righteousness mirroring that of conservative christianity. I handed out flyers to convert people to the movement and felt as coercive and detached as I did handing out Christian tracts at the mall.

I should point out, for clarification, that Shane is not saying we should avoid protesting. "While most activists could use a good dose of gentleness, I think most believers could use a good dose of holy anger." Instead he believes that the revolution can be done in a different way - and tells a striking story of a conversation on a plane that started with some homemade cookies.

He includes the church when saying "There are plenty of people who define themselves by what they are not, whose identity revolves around what they are against rather than what they are for.

He suggests the problem is that we have forgotten how to laugh - which is important in a world that is starving for joy. "Most people are aware that something is wrong. The real question is, What are the alternatives?"
I take great courage from the fact that many of us are taking steps toward a gentler revolution. ... Celebration is at the very core of our kingdom, and hopefully that celebration will make its way into the darkest corners of our world - the ghettos and refugee camps, and the palaces and prisons

Saturday 19 March 2011

Evensong??

Recently a church near me invested in one of these changeable block-lettering signs. With their building being located at an intersection, of a high-traffic road with quite a few bus routes, this is a great opportunity to put out a message to the general public. The people who don't normally hear from you.


But sadly this is the kind of thing it displays. Evensong!?!? How many passing motorists even know what that means? I'm not sure i know what they mean.

It's just one of these sad symptoms of people who live in "churchworld" (a place where "evensong" and "eucharist" are words that everybody knows) and have no idea of the real world, where their insider-language is utterly meaningless to 95% of people.

As a result, the only real message they are giving to the bypassing public is that the church is irrelevant to their life.

Friday 11 March 2011

Saturday Night Worship / Party

I've talked about Mars Hill before, and their creative thinking. This video promoting their Saturday night worship in Downtown Seattle would be considered outside-the-square in lots of churches merely for worshipping on a Saturday, let alone having a video to spread the word. But the reasons behind it are where it gets really missional.


Based on Paul's speech to the men of Athens, they figure that in some ways their city today is quite similar to Athens in Paul's day. So, after the Saturday night worship, the people of Mars Hill are invited to
continue the worship by going out into the neighborhood to restaurants, bars, and other gatherings. More than merely showing up, we want to encourage all to share the love, grace, and celebration of the gospel with the people in the places where they do their worship.
Essentially, they see their Saturday night worship as a celebration of Jesus, and after the 'service' they take the party to the city.

Thursday 10 March 2011

Extremists For Love

Hang on a second, aren't extremists bad? Maybe not. Perhaps it depends on whether it is extreme hate or extreme love. This is Shane Claiborne's point in Chapter 10, as he starts by looking at the effect of church on people.
I looked around and watched the news and found a church full of sick people and a world that had some decent pagans. My (sociology) studies taught me that the higher a person's frequency of church attendance, the more likely they are to be sexist, racist, anti-gay, pro-military...
It was enough to make him think "If that's what it means to be Christian, I wasn't sure i wanted to be one" and to wonder why "Jesus didn't take back his religion".

He and a friend created a video by interviewing people on the street, and doing word-association. They did number of words, and when they asked "Christian" they got responses of "fake", "hypocrites", "church" and "boring" - but not a single person associated the word with "love", "grace" or "community".

Shane gives a few more negative examples, summed up by the quote:
The greatest cause of atheism is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips,then walk out the door and deny him with their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world finds unbelievable.
before then inspiring us with a numerous examples of people who were extreme in their love, and extremely closer to the example of Jesus.

Wednesday 2 March 2011

Video Discussion on Video Preaching

Recently i wrote about video preaching and the possibility of using it to help struggling congregations, and to free up some time for pastors in all congregations to be more involved in community and mission.

Then i saw this video by Mark Dever, Mark Driscoll, and James MacDonald:

Apart from discussing how video preaching allows the congregation to be more active in mission, they also realise its value as a church-planting tool. It's a hard enough job to start a new church out of nothing, without having the extra load of preaching. Video preaching gives new churches the chance to get off the ground.