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Thanks everyone for the great discussion going on with the previous posts. I am travelling back from my graduation, and will get some replies and more thoughts up when I get back.
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There are important cultural realities the church must understand related to how the culture communicates, dresses, values music styles, and other aspects. The church must understand, inhabit, and incarnate ecclesiastical methods that connect to the culture. Throughout history, Christianity has had an almost limitless ability to harness its message to nearly every facet of popular culture. If there is a song to be co-opted, a style to be transformed, a ministry will seek to do just that.
Two distinct groups seem readily engaged in this sociological response: those churches that revamp their services with relevant cultural tools, and those who have broken with the modern church and create new ecclesiastical forms in their own spaces. The two groups value cultural relevancy toward postmodern culture, and lack the means to communicate the message in relevant ways. Continue reading »
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Marshall McLuhan (official site), was one of the founders of the study of media ecology and is today an honorary guru amongst technophiles, and is often qouted in emerging church circles. One of his most famous dictums that I hear regularly is ‘the medium is the message’.
Usually this is used by people wanting to argue that we need to change the mediums of church, for our changing culture, and that in doing so we change the message appropriately.
But this dictum, that the medium is the message, has become a misunderstood paradigm about how individuals connect with the church. McLuhan’s assertion was made in the context of demonstrating how the user of media is the content. McLuhan did not mean that the content of messages is unchanging, but that the way individuals communicate them reveals the message to the user. Continue reading »
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I’m traveling to George Fox University today. I have my ‘Hooding Ceremony’ on friday where I get to practice putting on all my gear, and then Saturday I have my graduation ceremony. I’ll put some photos here later.
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This year, instead of the annual London Emergent UK conference, we have co-ordinated a series of events throughout Europe, at which many church leaders will gather to discuss various issues concerning ‘emerging church.’ Continue reading »
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I’m teaching at a course at CWR today. The course is a Postgraduate Diploma in Pastoral Theology with Leadership, and my topic with the students today is their Missional Church module. I’m hopefully helping them focus on evaluating the cultural context within which the contemporary church is operating and to consider the kind of responses churches can make within this context.
Here is my outline, my main teaching notes, student handout and suggested bibliogpraphy.
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John Drane is the author of Do Christians know how to be Spiritual? The rise of New Spirituality and the Mission of the Church (Darton Longman & Todd 2005). Olive Fleming Drane is the author of Spirituality to Go: Rituals and Reflections for Everyday Living (Darton Longman Todd 2006).Both are adjunct professors of Practical Theology at Fuller Seminary, California.
blah… is a series of conversations hosted by CMS on mission, worship, church and Christianity in today’s rapidly changing culture. For information about further further blah… events see the blah site
Wednesday 10th May | 6:30-8:30pm | Drinks and refreshments provided | Admission free
Venue: CMS Partnership House, 157 Waterloo Road
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Some images from our communities good friday service.
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Those of us involved with Emergent, have been regularly, and increasingly accused of ‘playing fast and loose’ with the truth, and the unsubstantiated spin is ‘those emerging people don’t believe in the truth any more’. Which is so untrue!
My common reply is that I/we still believe in the truth, in fact we take it more seriously than ever and have a higher view of it. The problem is that we have had too low a view of truth, not too high.
Many people still seem to think that unless you approach the issue of ‘Truth’ as an absolute, that you have to be a raving liberal, and relativist. And in doing so, I think many misunderstand the nature of truth. The fact that we have to put the word ‘absolute’ in front of the word truth, begins to shows us that we have different ways of approaching truth.Here is an approach to truth that I have found helpful:
1. Absolute:There is absolute truth, and it is Jesus. He is the location of absolute truth. Some of the things I believe about him might be absolutes, but I do not possess, complete absolute truth about him, or I wouldn’t need him. Then I have my theories about that truth, but they are theories, subject to doubt, and question, and are not all absolute. Jesus is the way the truth and the life, and I confirm that absolutely! I don’t follow Jesus because I posses the truth about him, I pursue Jesus because he is the truth, and the one who leads me into truth Continue reading »
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I have recommended this book to lots of new christians and increasingly to anyone wanting an overview of the bible.
Book Description
The 100-Minute Bible summarises the Bible, dividing it into 50 short readings of about 400 words each; each section should take about two minutes to read. 26 sections are given to the life of Christ, 17 to the Old Testament, and 7 to the later part of the New Testament.
