Archive for January, 2005
Thursday, January 27th, 2005
Work on generational theory in Christian circles was largely abandoned at the turn of the century in favour of coming to grips with postmodernity. We’ve had seminars telling us to be postmodern worship planners, postmodern church planters and postmodern interpreters of the Bible. But I’ve come across few people who’ve really had a finger on the deeper thinking that’s associated with postmodernism. A lot of material published in popular journals and books has succumbed to surface generaralisations that focus on the ‘how to’ of narrative, image, experience and relativity.
Mind you, I don’t blame anyone. There are layers and layers of writing to get into.
You could try getting through Lyotard’s The Postmodern Condition” published in French in 1979 and translated from into English in 1984. - exploring modern and postmodern understandings of the nature of the ’social bond’, the pragmatics of scientific knowledge, the narrative function and the legitimation of knowledge, deligitimation, research, education and performativity.
More on this as it starts making sense…
Posted in Worth Reading | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 26th, 2005
While Jesus was walking along the shore of Lake Galilee, he saw two brothers. One was Simon, also known as Peter, and the other was Andrew. They were fishermen, and they were casting their net into the lake. Jesus said to them, “Come with me! I will teach you how to bring in people instead of fish.”
Right then the two brothers dropped their nets and went with him. Jesus walked on until he saw James and John, the sons of Zebedee. They were in a boat with their father, mending their nets. Jesus asked them to come with him too. Right away they left the boat and their father and went with Jesus.
Matthew 4:18-22
Speaking with people this last week I’ve found a number who are motivated to follow Jesus’ call to ‘fish for people’. But there’s a shared cringe factor that’s hard to place.
The idea of friendship evangelism is appealing - building friendship networks that make it possible to share faith in a natural way. But what do you tell your friends? It’s almost like selling Amway - “I’ve got a business deal but I can’t tell you all about it in case you’re put off by the name.”
The danger we can fall into in casting out our ‘nets’ is that people become like fish - objects for our consumption.
I spoke about this with the core team at Pacific Parks this last weekend. We talked about the networks we’d developed with teenagers (youth group) and with parents of toddlers (playgroup). Some people had connected up with God over the last two years. Others hadn’t shown very many signs of doing so. But the lasting impact of those networks was positive. We’d invested in people as people, not just as potential converts or conscripts. At least we’d like to think so!
We’ve been upfront about who we are and why we offer our services. That includes making it possible for people to experience God in a positive way - without any barriers. I wonder if I could tell my friends on the edges of the church the same thing about where I’m coming from, without the cringe factor. I think so…
Posted in Gospel | No Comments »
Monday, January 24th, 2005
God has restored our relationship with him through Christ, and has given us this ministry of restoring relationships. 2 Corinthians 5:18 (God’s Word Translation)
Once again Rick Warren brings our attention to a basic challenge of Christian community: reconciling.
I like Rick’s reality takes on Jesus’ beatitude:
Jesus didn’t say “Blessed are the peace lovers” because everyone loves peace. Neither did he say, “Blessed are the peacable” who are never disturbed by anything. Jesus did say “Blessed are those who work for peace”. Peacemaking, Warren reminds us, is neither avoiding conflict nor appeasement.
Reading this through reminds me of people with whom I don’t see eye to eye, and probably never will. What’s important to me is the capacity to recognise the other person as a person who is valued and valuable. But I don’t believe I am required to be on good terms with everyone. I am not commanded by God to be the friend of all people. It’s just not possible. But I sense a call to keep the air clear - making sure that my attitudes are clean of resentment. And of course there will be times when I need to collaborate with others who are different to me - and that will require me to work at being a reconciler.
And also, there’s the challenge of living out God’s vision of a unified humanity - based not on uniformity, but on reconciled diversity. A couple of weeks ago I was at a conference in Adelaide where 400 of the 1500 delegates were Aboriginal people. One of the speakers challenged us to treat one another as partners in the emerging future rather than as objects. In this case, it’s not a matter of trying to restore relationships that were going well before. Here it might mean overcoming societal blocks to forming friendships in the first place.
Having said that, I come back to Rick Warren’s seven challenging steps towards restoring relationships.
1. Talk to God before talking to the person.
2. Always take the initiative.
3. Sympathise with their feelings.
4. Confess your part of the conflict.
5. Attack the problem, not the person.
6. Cooperate as much as possible.
7. Emphasise reconciliation, not resolution.
Posted in Purpose Driving, Worth Reading | No Comments »
