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Sometime in June 2005 Israeli blogger Nir Ofir had a realization: the date 3108 (or August 31st) looks suspiciously like the word “Blog.†He also wanted to do something about the fact that despite the notion of blogging being something available to so many, what happens is a few people link to the same blogs, all the time, and most new blogs never get an audience.
Just as church circles are self referencing, blogging is largely the same. So Nir started Blog Day on 31st August 2005. I missed posting for it by a day, but at his suggestion here are 5 posts to blogs you might not know about.
As a meme, the idea is if everyone does this once a year on Blog Day, 3108, then the blogging world would open up a lot more. So 5 blogs for you, and why not pick up the meme and post 5 on yours, with the Tag ‘blogday’.
AMY GAHRAN: The Right Conversation
Chris Tilling: Chrisendom
Dave Richards: Defeating Global Poverty
Pete Rollins: Ikon
Presentation Zen
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I have blogged before about Conrad Gempf, and how we had him at our church weekend away this year, reading some narratives. In fact the MP3 we made of his time with us is the most downloaded item from our church site, so much so we had to increase and pay more for our bandwidth.
If your a fan of Conrad, or want to get a taste there is some great news. Conrad is giving away the content of his book ‘Jesus Asked’ in serialized audio book form. He’ll be reading 10-15 minutes each week and you can download the files for free and play them on your computer or mp3 player. You can make as many copies of them of you like and give them away too.
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A big thank you to my guest authors, Paul Mayers, Dean Whisnant, and Alan Mann, for covering me over my holiday and for such great post, conversations and interactions. I hope you’ll be hearing more from them here.
It was fun to see from my stats and info package how many new links were made to my site and their posts, but sadly attributed to me! I’m glad their posts were sooo good :-). Paul Mayers has his own blog here
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After a windswept and rain drenched two weeks in cornwall, we’ll be wending our way home trying to avoid the other 30 million cars on the road this bank holiday weekend.After hearing so much about it, we got to finally visit the Eden Project. A few months ago I wrote about the environmental and ecological exploration our church was hoping to make. Our visit to the Eden Project just inspired me more about the necessity of connecting our spirituality to care for our planet.
I got to use some cool stitching sofware to combine these three images of the Biomes at Eden.
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I’ve spent the last week reflecting on the subject of women and church, it seems every where I turn recently I have come across something or someone that makes me stop and think a little bit more about the subject. Whether it was in some of the brilliant conversations that arose after my post on where have all the good men gone? or in conversations such as here, here, or even here. It is clear from reading these comments that this is an emotive subject: women telling of their different reactions to them leading and teaching; in some cases the struggle with the call to lead and reconciling that with the teaching they have grown with that they are not too; the frustrations, the pain, and indeed the hope and postive experiences as well… Men’d reaction feeling similar to the womens’s i.e. confused, worried, wondering what is permissable to be culturally relevant but still biblical.
A generously inclusive but diverse conversation?
I would like us all to contribute to this conversation and I have some overall questions to consider before we go diving in… Can we explore this subject together in a loving, caring, respectful, safe and generous way? Can we look at the context and culture of the western world, at least, and explore together a missional biblical based narrative view of the role of men and women in the (emerging) church? And even after seeking together what if we decide to disagree, can we do so in a loving, positive way that builds each other up rather than tearing each other down? I ask these questions as I need to base my thinking on more than an emotional gut feeling, on more than trying to avoid confusing emotional charges of cultural accommodation, or more than teachings that I learnt as a boy. But I acknowledge I also need help in my thinking, that I don’t have many of the answers and I welcome the opportunity to learn together from our diverse perspectives.Jesus: the example of how women should be treated
I think one helpful aspect of the conversations on the subject of the role of women in church has been the way it has taken me back to reading the bible and looking at how radically Jesus treated women compared to what was typical of the culture of his day. I have not come
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I have a question, when did you last experience something miraculous? I ask not as a sceptic but someone who believes in an active Divine God, and who has experienced what I think are miracles in my own life. A good friend asked me that question the other day and I could not remember seeing or hearing about anything miraculous in the last couple of years. So how about you?
It’s not even like I have given up asking God for his intervention in my life and in the life of my friends. I have prayed and prayed and prayed and still see marriages falling apart, people sliding deeper into depression, childless couples still unable to conceive and all the hurt, pain, confusion and questioning that comes with it.
I am part of church stream that sees signs and wonders as a normal part of Christians advancing the Kingdom of God – the words and the works of Jesus being done at the same time. I have seen a lot of sighs and wonderings of late (including a few examples of it is that God or just coincidence) but few signs and wonders. I have felt the disillusionment of why bother praying, what is prayer going to accomplish other than another unfulfilled expectation. I have heard apologetics for prayer, like it’s not a case of all or nothing it’s a case of more/less healing, that it’s our job to pray and God’s to respond – and although I agree with them after awhile they sound like an excuse.
I am never likely to be a poster boy for prayer but then again I don’t what to be post-prayer either. So why do I still pray then even if it is with sighs and wonderings, for me it is two things:
1. Being part of a caring community of God: being able to pray and be prayed for means that I am living a life which is open with people who care/love me enough to bother. It means I am involved in loving people, in caring for people to pray and to be involved in their lives – one of my favourite questions is what can I pray for/practically do for you? I’m also learning to let people ask that of me and to even accept their practical help rather than just their prayers. I am inspired for example by the early Christian Church in Rome who though persecuted and unable to escape the city themselves when plague broke out cared not only for their own but for those who had been abandoned and left behind as the city fled. They didn’t pray for a miracle that they would be spared at the rest of the city’s expense and thousands of christians died from the plague. However, the miracle as the author of this article describing those events in the Roman Empire puts it was that:
“in the midst of intermittent persecution and colossal misunderstanding, and in an era when serving others was thought to be demeaning, the “followers of the wayâ€â€”instead of fleeing disease and death—went about ministering to the sick and helping the poor, the widowed, the crippled, the blind, the orphaned, and the aged. The people of the Roman Empire were forced to admire their works and dedication. “Look how they love one another,†was heard on the streets.â€
2. A normal part of an honest faith: I look at examples like Jesus and even Paul and how they are examples of people whose prayers were not answered to avoid pain, struggle with life and even death. I see rather than a “trinket God and a magic show religion†their honesty before God, their grief and their acceptance of moving from this is what I want to let your will be done in me – and the grace that comes with that. As my friend Tim reminded me recently, the only persons free will we can surrender is ours. How many of our prayers for miracles contravene this and therefore ask God to rescind the free will of someone else?
The miracle of incanational involvement…
Yes I agree that the words and works of Christ can bring healing and hope but the bible also reveals that it is also through his wounds that we are healed”. I believe that it is an incarnational God who saves us, one who involved himself in the sufferings of the world – a man of sorrows as well as a party going friend of us sinners. Jesus’ modus operandi was involvement and his motivation seemed to be compassionate service, even in the face of his own suffering and death.
I will continue to hope and pray for miracles but whether that’s the miracle of a lasting peace in the middle east, a break through in the treatment of the AIDS epidemic, ending poverty or just being a friend who cares enough to get involved… I think the answer to those miracle will come through God inspiring and equipping us to be peace makers, to love our brothers and sisters, to be involved and to care. Maybe that is miraculous enough in itself…maybe it isn’t -I’d love to hear your thoughts?
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www.superbrands.com/uk have just announced what they believe to be the strongest brands here in the UK (though they do this internationally, so if you’re not a UK resident and you’re interested, you can check out what’s what where you are).
According to Superbrands, effective branding can create immediate perception and expectation, merely by the mention of its name. Successful brands are not about loyalty, per se, but about their ability to get us identifying with them, aligning our lifestyles, aspirations and intentions with those proffered by the brand. They are like contemporary icons, in the sense that they offer to us far more than a two dimensional image. We are lead to believe that there is ‘something’ beyond the logo, a ‘something’ that we connect with. It’s about building an emotional bond between brand and consumer, about defining the personality of the enterprise. In short, it’s about ‘identity-creation’.
This reminded me about a conversation I had about a year ago regarding Emergent and whether or not Emergent could be considered a brand, or was it something else? Certainly, on that occasion, the consensus seemed to be that there was something about the term ‘brand’ that didn’t fit comfortably with those present. However, reading this report and witnessing the exponential growth of Emergent in the last year and recognising that the word ‘Emergent’ increasingly means something to people within the international Christian community, I’d like to revisit this discussion – but this time on-line.
So come on – what does Emergent ‘mean’ to you? Is it a brand, a movement, a network, a reformation? Is it beyond defining? What does Emergent conjure up for you? What do you ‘expect’ from it? Why do you identify with it? What are your aspirations and hopes and does Emergent feed these or reflect them back to you?
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I try not to be judgmental, but the TV show Big Brother, makes me despair for the future of the human race. On the way to our vacation/holiday, my eldest duaghter asked me why I didn’t like it, our conversation went something like this.
Jason “Just suppose Aliens come to earth in search of intelligent life, wondering whether to help us or destroy us, and pick up on our TV broadcasts and tune into Big Brother?”
May daughter paused for a teenage second and replied, “We’re toast”.
But for those of you watching the last day tonight, and if you are one of the punters who have collectively wagered £5million pounds on the show’s outcome, good luck!
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…is a question posed by Bonnie Tyler but I believe the question that the church should be asking is where have men gone, good, bad or indifferent ? Look around in many churches in western culture and the women out number the men (in the USA for example on average women make up 60% of the congregation). I did my own research to check this out and in a quick head count at church this morning the women out numbered the men 3:2 (3 women for every 2 men). This is in stark contrast to every other major religion in the world where male and female participation is in equal numbers. Far from being a male institution the church’s work is mainly carried out with the support of women, they attend on a Sunday, they volunteer themselves for the churches programmesand they care practically for the church community around them. So where have the men gone? Why are the ones who do attend so bored and disengaged? Why do so many men never wish to venture through the doors of a church in their lifetime and indeed fear doing so?
Not so much a case of women leaving the church but men never arriving
Jase in his post on the seminar he attended on the decline of the church in the UK suggests that the empowerment of women in culture did not happen in the church and therefore women opted out taking their husbands with them. One of the commentators on this post suggested to me a book called why men hate going to church by David Murrow. I have not yet had time to get hold of the book but my father-in-law had passed me a copy of a talk based on this book which I listened to today. Having heard the talk I really want to get hold of the book and read more as it seems to suggest that rather than women stepping out of church and taking men with them that the church for centuries has become adapt at reaching women, children and old people for the simple reason that they show up i.e. the are the punters in the pews. David Murrow argues that rather than calling men back to the church it is in fact time to call the church back to men.The church culture thermostat is set to feminine
Murrow believes that as women make up the bulk of the church that they set the thermostat for the churches values firmly to feminine, for example safety is valued over risk, stability over change, preservation over expansion and predictability over adventure. Church becomes sweet and sentimental, nurturing and nice – an environment in which women thrive but men wilt. Murrow contrasts the thermostat of films aimed at men – a hero saving the world from impossible odds – with that of films aimed at women – having a relationship with a wonderful man – think Gladiator (saving Rome) vs Bridget Jones (finding Mr Right). So is it no wonder then that churches emphasise a relationship, especially with a wonderful Mr Right named Jesus and few model male values of risk/reward/accomplishment/sacrifice/action and adventure…? And even if a man tried to do something like that he would get into trouble within 5 minutes – and spend the rest of his time in grudging silence – he just isn’t sure about falling in love with a wonderful man, even one named Jesus.
10 male fears about church
Murrow suggests that men value being/feeling competent (we don’t stop and ask for directions cos we want to be competent navigators) and we don’t feel that competent in a church environment which values qualities of expressing feelings, understanding emotions and singing songs. Men also value competition and realise that we can’t compete with women in this environment so we’d rather not come than compete in something so stacked against us. Murrow highlights 10 things that men therefore fear about church:
1. Being outshone by women who thrive in the feminine climate.
2. Singing in public (look around next time the singing starts at the difference in engagement between men and women).
3. Having to check their minds at the door, not being able to ask questions or use their brains.
4. That the church will brain washing their boys into becoming sissies.
5. Having to become a super husband, their wives love Jesus who is already perfect so how can we compete with that?
6. Church is synonymous with homosexuality – from images in the media off the effeminate portrayal of clergy to sex abuse scandals and then we make man hug, sing and hold hands…
7. Getting less sex – church to them is portrayed as promoting a Victorian attitude towards sex and many Non-Christian men suspect that Christian mates get little sex as a result.
8. Having to get dressed up at the weekends – men like to be scruffy and not sure churches really allow that.
9. Men appreciate excellence and don’t expect to find it in a church.
10. There’s already an alpha male in residence called the pastor/minister/vicar – fears that he will never be able to use his own talents in any way that could possibly outshine the dominant male.Calling the church back to men?
I’m a man and I really value church but I find myself agreeing that I am not very engaged by it. The most engaging thing about church this morning for me was arranging to go out on friday to drink Guinness and talk theology with another man.
So that all said it poses some questions – men what do you honestly think about church and what Murrow is suggesting from his research? Women do you wonder where all the men are? how can men and women find adventure in church? How can the thermostat be adjusted (other than Jase giving up his pink shirts ;)? How can men and women be engaged, excited, competent church practitioners? How can not only these fears be addressed but a balan
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One of the values that I love about the emerging church is that of humble realisation that we don’t know much about anything, that there is so much we can learn from each other and that healthy conversation is more helpful than competing for the right to be right…
A safe space for diverse and healthy conversation
I only have to spend a few minutes reading the generous, considerate, loving and thoughtful comments of the people responding to a pontetially contriversial subject that Jason posted on this blog on who gets into heaven to see this value being modelled live. Jason’s hope/dream/purpose for this blog is “to make safe spaces for diverse and healthy conversations about church” and I for one have really learnt and grown as a person and a follower of Jesus by sharing my thoughts on here and learning to listen, engage and see from the view point of others, so a big thank you from me to all of you who read/post/reflect on here. and maybe its a chance to also thank Jase for providing and tending this space with such aplomb!
Living out the great commission one conversation at a time
I have found that one of the benefits of learning to listen, of hearing what people say and trying to surpress my urge to tell people what I think is that it makes me so much better at living out the great commission. Knowing that I do not have all the answers, that there are hard questions that are worth thinking about as a fellow questioner rather than an expert with the answer and that there is room for mystery and marvels as part of a live faith in triune God makes it for me much less about a “them vs us/God” and more about us and God. In Jeus commissioning the disciples to “go and tell, I see a faith where I am given to permision live and invite others to join me in a daily life of love, service, conversations, compassion, encounters, confrontations, prayer, miracles, suffering and exitement. A faith that is symbolic in the new life of baptism and marked with grace, generousity, kindness and a willingness to be part of this world as an agent of reconcilliation rather than rebuke.
Conversations from a different perspective
In my last post I reflected briefly about the dangers of blindspots, biases and baggage and the encouragement that I have had from becoming more self aware. The value of learning to see ourselves in the light of both God’s truth and love and being a part of that for each other – the awakening of self awareness. For me one of the most recent helpful eye opening encounters I have had was the ebay athesist project which Jase blogged about here. What I loved about this was seeing the world from a postion of people with a strong faith that there is no God and the generous conversations and mutual curiosity/insights that flowed between both sets of believers. The ebay atheist project may have finished but the space for this sort of conversation continues with the setting up of conversations on the edge.
Coexisting in communities of conversation
Such healthy dialogue especially in this polarised age makes me wonder what other meeting places for conversations could be created? It reminds me of seeing Bono in concert last year, during the song Sunday Bloody Sunday, symbolically touching putting his hand to his headband and pointing to each religions icon in the message CoXisT that was written on it and saying:“Jesus, Jew, Muhammad, it’s true… all sons of Abraham. Father Abraham, speak to your sons. Tell them, No more!”
For me it was a powerful plea to abandon hate, fear, suspicion and emnity and to consider instead that we might have things to learn from each other, that I as a christian am not so much about escaping off earth to heaven but involved in bringing humanity down to earth. That Jesus command was to love not to hate, to pray rather than join the persecuters. The need to extend the hand of friendship and share a space to listen and share is more pressing than ever. Maybe you are aware of some conversations or perhaps you’ve been inspired to create a space for such a conversing caring community – whether on-line or on your street…if so please do let me know…
Paul Mayers
guest blogger (and sometime conversationalist)
