The Heavenly Good of Earth Work (1)
Posted by Paul | Filed under work
I’m coming to the end of the book ‘The Heavenly Good of Earth Work’ by Darrell Cosden. It’s a very interesting read & I’m inspired to attempt a multi-part review. It neatly falls into three parts, so we’ll try and follow those…
In the first part of the book Cosden looks at the problems we have with ‘secular’ employment. In a very good analysis he talks about the frustration that Christians in everyday work feel and the reasons for this.
His argument is that we have a conflict. On one side we affirm that all are called by God and that every calling is equal — it sis simply that some are called to ‘secular’ jobs and some to ‘full-time Christian ministry’.
People typically think that God frees up a few believers to focus their energies on the ministry more directly than others who have a different, more general calling.
All fine… until we bring in our beliefs about eternity. We believe that things of heaven and eternity are ultimate. So, things related to these are of ultimate importance. But, what do we consider will last into eternity? Most likely, not the products of everyday work. It’s the explicitly Christian activities that we believe count long-term.
But if we follow this path we begin to see an implicit hierarchy in roles and potential for the majority of Christians to feel second-class. After all, why has God called me to a job that has minimal eternal impact, when there are other possibilities? Cosden develops this with an entertaining description of the hierarchy of jobs and a look at why we approach things this way.
The analysis seems pretty accurate to me, both in looking at my own feelings and in noticing the way people around me talk. Obviously we have a problem…
In my last post I talked about mis-matches in our theology when you start from the beginning or the end. It seems to me that this is what is happening here (obviously the book influenced the previous post!) — ‘we are have equal callings’ comes up against our eschatology and doesn’t quite fit. You have to wonder if there is a hole in our theology somewhere…
Tags: books, eschatology, The Heavenly Good of Earthly Work, theology, work
thinking in two directions
Posted by Paul | Filed under uncategorised
Listening to a recent talk by Tom Wright, I was interested by a comment he made that we can go both directions on our theology of the cross: we can start with the cross and find our way to the resurrection, etc. Or we can start with God’s aim of new creation and work our way back to the cross. The hope is that the two meet up in the middle.
I guess this is the case for all our theology — we can start at the start of the story and work forward or we can start at the end and work back. I think that the second is probably less frequent in our current intellectual environment, because we are more interested in cause and effect and less convinced about our knowledge of the end purpose. (Or whether there is such a thing as purpose.). But from a Christain point of view we always have the option to do either — or both. Of course, the problems arise when we go from both ends and find we can’t join the two up in the middle! Then we have to look at where our theology has gone wrong.
Tags: theology
Girlfriend in an (eschatological) coma
Posted by Paul | Filed under uncategorised
For some reason Douglas Coupland’s ‘Girlfriend in a Coma’ came to mind the other day…
(Umm, warning, there may be spoilers ahead. But then it’s not a thriller 
…and it struck me that this is really an interesting example of how eschatology should influence life. In the book some friends live to see the end of the world. They then have the opportunity to go back and live in the light of what they have seen. For them it was a world that ends in a whimper — with all slowing going to sleep. So, their ‘living in the light of’ was to live against this.
It seems to me that, for Christians, there should be a similar ‘living in the light of’ the future. We should allow the prophetic imagination to shape ours. Then we live in this context and allow it to shape how we act. Of course, for us the future vision is different – we live with the hope that God will put the world to rights and re-creatre all things. Consequently, we live for rather than against our vision. But the parallels are interesting.
Tags: eschatology, imagination, story
Big, disruptive churches
Posted by Paul | Filed under uncategorised
While thinking through the last post, I had a slight revelation about big churches. To be honest I had never quite got the point of having large numbers. Of course, large numbers implies lots of Christians, but for me a lot of small churches often looks preferable. (Maybe this is because I am an introvert and worry that I’ll never get to know anyone again…)
But it stuck me — if we have big churches, then we can do things we couldn’t do otherwise. For instance, if we have a big church then we can marshall enough capital to provide interest-free loans for those in debt. If we are to act as the agents of new creation, then the possibilities open up when we combine. Small churches, with limited connections, have restrictions on what they can do.
So… I’m almost sold on the idea
Tags: church
disruptive grace/distructive debt
Posted by Paul | Filed under uncategorised
When reading Irresistible Revolution and Resident Aliens (see previous post), I got to thinking about ways that the church can act in ways that deal with problems in radical ways; ways that are based on the belief that Jesus came, rather than simply fitting in with the surrounding culture; ways that exhibit ‘disruptive grace’. I don’t think we’re all called to live in community in poor areas, but we are called to step outside the mainstream to take part in an alternative community. The question is, what does this look like in real terms?
I started pondering about the problem of personal debt, so lets use that as a thought experiment. If we are in any way touching a cross-section of society, we have to expect that people are going to come into the with substantial personal debt. What do we do about this?
Well, we can go for debt counceling. This is important and I have nothing to say against it. (I have friends who do a great job in this area.) But… is it really radical? Does it show the disruptive approach of the gospel? In the view of Resident Aliens — is it an approach that depends on people believing that Jesus has come and changed everything? I don’t think it goes that far.
Perhaps a step in the right direction is this — if you are debt-ridden in our church, we will provide interest-free loans to enable to you to be free.
Perhaps a further step is this — if you are debt-ridden in our church then we will pay off your debts.
After all, don’t we follow someone who proclaimed freedom for captives – in a culture where many captives are their due to debt. Don’t we follow a book that instituted the startling concept of a Jubilee year, where all debts are written off? Can we think in smaller terms?
I know, ‘risk’, ‘taken advantage of’, ‘doesn’t make sense in our culture’. But isn’t that the point? Again, following the gist of Resident Aliens — if we only do ‘sensible things’ (from the perspective of our culture), then what difference is our belief making?
Tags: church, provocations
A random walk over culture, art, christianity, etc. with occasional photographs...