column :: changes
Posted by Paul | Filed under columns
A little context is probably in order for this column from 360 magazine: This issue came out alongside some organisational changes in the church, hence the theme and especially the last line…
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In his recent book Culture Making, Andy Crouch points out that every cultural change is two-edged. On one side, they open up new possibilities; on the other, they often make some parts of life far more difficult than they used to be.
For example, think of cars: their invention has given us amazing freedom to travel, but at the same time it has become increasingly impossible for people to live car-free. Or how about supermarkets? They have given us incredible convenience, but you have to wonder if we lost some community that came with local bakers and corner shops. And as for music — I have vinyl in my garage that I fear will never make it onto my iPod, but I know which I’d rather carry around…
But, it not just big changes that work like this, is it? We all have cultural shifts in our lives. We’re constantly making old routines difficult for the sake of a new set of possibilities. It might be getting married, having children, changing jobs, or even someone suggesting two services on a Sunday…
mp3s galore
Posted by Paul | Filed under web sights
A couple of useful mp3 finds…
I discovered over the weekend that L’Abri have now put an amazing number of their lectures on-line. Think of a topic and there is probably at least on talk that covers it. Well, maybe. The L’Abri Ideas Library is at www.labri-ideas-library.org.
Also, Redemeer in New York have put out a podcast of Tim Keller sermons. They seem to be adding files faster than anyone could possibly listen to them…
Tags: mp3s, web sights
column :: purpose
Posted by Paul | Filed under columns
Another column from 360 magazine. In fact, due to large overlap with the lead article, this one never got used. Nice to be able to get it out in some form before Lost vanishes from our screens…
There seems to be a current trend for TV shows in which no one has a clue what is going on.
Take the series ‘Lost’. If you haven’t seen it, it features a group of air crash survivors who are trapped on a desert island. For many, many episodes the characters discuss and explore without really getting closer to understanding their predicament.
Or how about ‘Heroes’, in which a number of ordinary people suddenly find they have developed super-human powers. They don’t understand why this has happened and most of them can’t quite figure out what to do about it.
Maybe these shows reflect something in our culture — a general feeling that we don’t really know ‘what on earth we are here for’. We find ourselves in this universe but we don’t know why, or what we are supposed to do.
But here’s the really interesting part: through it all we can’t seem to give up the idea that someone, somewhere knows where the stories are heading.
Mission and work
Posted by Paul | Filed under work
Another post rediscovered in the process of moving to Wordpress. This one is a great quote from Tim Keller, taken from The Missional Church. I found the paper as a whole really helpful, but particularly in explaining why thinking about all of life from a Christian perspective has (or has to) moved up the agenda:
In ‘Christendom’ you can afford to train people just in prayer, Bible study, evangelism — private world skills — because they are not facing radically non-Christian values in their public life — where they work, in their neighborhood, etc.
In a ‘missional’ church, the laity needs theological education to ‘think Christianly’ about everything and work with Christian distinctiveness. They need to know: a) what cultural practices are common grace and to be embraced, b) what practices are antithetical to the gospel and must be rejected, c) what practices can be adapted/revised.
In a ‘missional’ situation, lay people renewing and transforming the culture through distinctively Christian vocations must be lifted up as real ‘kingdom work’ and ministry along with the traditional ministry of the Word.
Tags: mission, Tim Keller, work
Workplace as formation
Posted by Paul | Filed under work
I wrote this back in October, but forgot to post it. It follows on from the post about Miroslav Volf’s book Work in the Spirit and connects into James K.A. Smith’s Desiring the Kingdom (the intro is downloadable from the Baker website) The two spark interestingly off each other. Let’s start with Volf’s observation:
Economic alienation … often directly or indirectly causes alienation from God. We read in Exodus, for instance, that the oppressed and exploited Israelite slaves “did not listen to Moses on account of their … cruel bondage” (Exod 6:9). Economic alienation hindered their believing God and grasping the promise of liberation.
Smith’s point is that we are not just formed intellectually, via worldviews and ideas, but we are formed by practices. Using generalised liturgy as his focus, he suggests
…we are the sorts of animals whose orientation to the world is shaped from the body up more than from the head down. Liturgies aim our love to different ends precisely by training our hearts through our bodies. They prime us to approach the world in a certain way, to value certain things, to aim for certain goals, to pursue certain dreams, to work together on certain projects. In short, every liturgy constitutes a pedagogy that teaches us, in all sorts of precognitive ways, to be a certain kind of person.
But if we bring these two observations together, I think we are led to conclude that our work, employment, daily activities become part of our formation. They are not simply value-free actions, but they change our underlying perspective of the world. In the case of the Exodus story, the oppressive work formed the Israelites in such a way that they could not hear the message of liberation. Which brings up all sorts of questions: how does our workplace form us? Can we operate in a way that makes it positive rather than negative? Etc.
Tags: formation, Miroslav Volf, work
column :: glory
Posted by Paul | Filed under columns
Another column from 360 magazine…
Has it ever struck you just how flexible the world around us is? Think about trees: pick the right bits and they can be painted, shaped, carved, eaten, played on, played in, played with… The possibilities could fill this whole column.
It is part of the incomparable glory of God that he hasn’t just made a world with ‘everything in its place’, but one that can be endlessly shaped, worked on and developed by others. And taking part in that shaping of the world is one way in which we bring glory to God; by exploring the possibilities He has left for us.
What does this mean? That we have the opportunity to worship whenever we sing, listen, play, paint, eat… In fact, whenever we explore the possibilities in creation. Now where did I put that stick?
A random walk over culture, art, christianity, etc. with occasional photographs...