While God’s words are eternal and unchanging the tools we use to access those words do change, and those changes in technology also bring subtle changes to the practice of worship. When we fail to recognize the impact of such technological change, we run the risk of allowing our tools to dictate our methods. Technology should not dictate our values or our methods. Rather, we must use technology out of our convictions and values.
An evangelical is someone who is transformed by the person and work of Jesus Christ, finds the Bible to be authoritative for life and doctrine and practice, and actively works to make the world better.
Kurt Fredrickson - Fuller Theological Seminary
Fredrickson’s is a definition of ‘evangelical’ that I can get excited about.
Check his post out about why the term evangelical has been hijacked by a group of judgemental people with their own agendas, and why we need to recover a much richer understanding of what it means.
Moralistic Therapeutic Deism…
What the hell is it?
It’s a way of understanding who god is:
- Moralistic - the need to do good things and not bad ones.
- Therapeutic - the need to feel good about ourselves.
- Deism - A ‘deity’/god who is ‘far away’ and doesn’t actively intervene into reality.
Some Moralistic Therapeutic Deist beliefs might look like this:
- “A god exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth.”
- “God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.”
- “The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.”
- “God does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.”
- “Good people go to heaven when they die.”
There’s a worry that this actually sums up the beliefs of a lot of people who describe themselves as Christians pretty well.
What does the god you follow look like?
Does he look like the ideas above, or does he look more like this:
- A God who saves, forgives and liberates us from the power of sin and death?
- Unsettles and challenges as much as patting us on the back?
- Is active and at work in our lives and in his world?
The Story of Everything
A great video from showing the narrative arc of God’s story, from one of the students on the CMS Pioneer Leadership Course.
HT: Jonny (again…)
The deepest level of communication is not communication, but communion. It is wordless. It is beyond words, and it is beyond speech, and it is beyond concept. Not that we discover a new unity. We discover an older unity. My dear Brothers [and Sisters], we are already one. But we imagine that we are not. And what we have to recover is our original unity. What we have to be is what we are.
The Relationship between Desire and Reason
A week ago at our Sunday night Lab gathering I shared about the need to be constantly cultivating within ourselves a desire for more intimacy with God (you can listen again here). As part of preparing my thoughts for preaching, I often end up with lots of off-cuts of material that didn’t quite make the cut. I thought I’d begin to share some of this extra, bonus material on the blog.
Here are some thoughts on Desire that didn’t make it into the final cut - how classical and modern philosophy has tried to make sense of the relationship between reason and desire.
Trailer for Blue Like Jazz: The Movie.
Really excited by this. Blue Like Jazz by Don Miller is one of a few books over the last few years that have really spoken my language - it’s incredibly honest and humble in the way it’s written.
Blue Like Jazz: the Movie is now nearing release, and is probably the biggest fan funded film to be released so far. After it failed to get enough investment from the film industry, fans of the book stepped in to make up the difference. Doubt it will make cinemas in the UK, but if I can hold of it I’d love to do a showing for The Lab somewhere.
Theological Reflection on the Eucharist & Fresh Expressions of Church
Interesting article from Nigel Scotland in the Church of England Newspaper, as this is something that has affected The Lab as we’ve grown as a community:
For several years now the term ‘fresh expressions’ has been on the lips of many Anglicans including those in the corridors of power at Westminster and elsewhere. ‘Fresh expressions’ or ‘emerging church’, as some prefer, are clearly needed and are to be commended. However one aspect of this which seems not to have been significantly touched is the way in which we practice Holy Communion. The structure and ethos of our Common Worship is still largely set in a 16th century time-warp which is derived from the medieval mass. For many this appears to have been a sacrosanct given that cannot and should not be changed.
Yet now in this period of exploration may be an appropriate moment for some serious reflection on the matter.
Jesus' death killed the consumer
Just occasionally the Resurgence blog comes out with something insightful and thought-provoking. This is one of those:
God’s action in the world never revolves around the immediate satisfaction of wants and needs. His action is focused on reconciliation. The amazing news is the God of the Bible incurred all the cost of reconciliation himself. He paid our debt in full to restore us to his family. And when we see the God of the heavens lay aside his wants and needs to serve us, we can make the much smaller sacrifice of laying aside our own.
Contextualising this into a consumerist culture, you could argue that Jesus allows himself to be consumed on the cross - the price for our consumer debt - in order for us to be free of the dissatisfaction of a life bound by consumerism.
Don Miller (writer of Blue Like Jazz) has also been posting some interesting ideas on Consuming vs. Creating on his blog this week.
For some of my own thoughts on consumerism, see my dissertation from last year: Christian Community in a Consumerist Culture.
