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Over the last few years we have tried to introduce silence into some of our services. Not laughing, chatting, whispering or quiet music…just a bit of stillness in the face of God.Stillness and quiet in the modern church been seems to have been demoted from services to early in the morning and called ‘a quiet time’, not that there is anything wrong with a quiet it’s just some of us are not good first thing in the morning. On the occasions I have tried it I had just about mastered the art of sleeping sitting up rather than some deep and meaningful time with God.
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When Jim Henderson of Off The Map was still a pastor he started paying people to go to church. Jim wanted to know what outsiders thought of his church so he offered them $25 to visit and give him feedback. You can read more about that in the opening chapters of Jim and Casper go to Church.Off The Map now has a site ChurchRater where anyone (outsider or insider) can rate churches. We’re hoping it will encourage constructive dialog about how Christians ‘do church’.
(Note: if you rate churches outside the U.S. please put the city and country in the city field and leave the state field blank.)
It’s interesting to see how people react to the concept of rating churches. What do you think?
- Is rating churches appropriate or inappropriate?
- Is it too subjective to have any meaning?
- What about outsiders rating churches?
- Should Christians care what outsiders think of their churches?
by Helen Mildenhall, Guest Author
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We never seem to have enough time to do everything that we want to do, either having to cram in more or sacrifice something else. Our time has become are most valuable resource – we sell it in exchange for money in order to be able to afford the things that we want to do and that in turn has sporned a whole host of phrases such as ‘working for the weekend,’ or ‘dying to be on holiday.’ ‘Me’ time and ‘quality’ time have become so important, time to do what i want, when i want and where i want. We often dream about winning the lottery, getting that next promotion etc until we reach that nivarna of having enough money that we don’t need to keep selling ourselves and can escape full time into our day dream world.
I am increasingly convinced that in our western lifestlye, our time has become comodified, for example, we talk that:
time is… money
time is… precious
time is… in short supply
time is… something to be invested
time… needs to be managedWhat is our response to this as christians? I’d like to suggest three possible areas and hear your own thoughts on this:
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I’m away from my blog for a few days, but some friends will be posting here to cover me.
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Well today I travel to Malmo (third largest city in Sweden) for the Comedy Zone. My Seminars are on saturday, the theology and spirituality of humor. What have I gotten myself into? Gulp!
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A Brief Guide to Ideas, William Raeper & Linda Smith
UK – £13.99
USA – $19.99I got this book from amazon, second hand for next to nothing, and have been carrying it around with me as reference book. In my reading as I stumble across the names of so many famous thinkers in history, and discussions based on their thoughts, I have found my recollections and knowledge of philosophers, and theologians, their beliefs and interconnectedness woeful. This book has been a great help.
It could have been titled, the dummies guide to the history of philosophy, philosophers, theologies and theologians, and their connectedness. Superb.
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As promised I’m following up the post below with some responses to Tobias Jones, who spent time travelling and living in different communities, to understand and explore the oft expressed desire of people for ‘authentic community’.
Taking his findings I’ve reworked some of them as suggestions for church community, let me know what you think of them.
1. By-Product: Gathering for and to achieve ‘community’ is a conceit, and illusive, we need a focus other than ‘community, it is byproduct of doing something meaningful together.
2. Need: We don’t need each other any more in a consumer society, and community is about needing. We can get by without each other any more, consumerism means we can buy the things we need. We gift ourselves to each other, as we need others.
3. Renounce Choice: Community cannot be built if you are going to leave. The closing of choices, of choosing finality leads to community. How many of us think we are going to somewhere better later, and we hold ourselves back in the meantime. Consumer choice, the holding open in non commitment, be it where I live, my relationships my job, stops community.
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I recommended the Magazine Sublime back in November last year. I just got the 2nd issue, and it really is superb. It’s worth getting just for the interview with Brian Draper from LICC with Tobias Jones, author of Uptopian Dreams, a research project on what makes authentic community. I’ll be teaching at London School of Theology with Brian, for a short course on Emerging Church and culture in June.
I’m going to post some thoughts sparked by the article and book tommorow, on the implications for church community.
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I’ve been thinking lately about what it means to be a Christian and maybe even more so, what it means to see the world as Christian. And while this post isn’t about to be an exhaustive, i hope it stirs up some conversation about the diversity in what it might look like to be a christian in the world, or maybe even, how we can see people and activity in the world as distinctively Christian.I must admit, I far too often hear people say, ‘to be a christian, you need x” and yet, when i look around the sorts and colors and practices of Christ in the world, they seems to be made incarnate in all kinds of people and activities. And isn’t it the Spirit of God working in and through people for the redemption of all things that which defines ‘Christian in the world’ and/or even the world as Christ’s cosmos?
I’ve beem thinking of three (potential) ways of seeing ‘Christian’ in the world:
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In my small group last night, I led a reflection based on the seven “I AM†sayings of Jesus. You can read the full refection on my blog.I was conscious when I was doing it that I often approach worship from where I am and try and spiral my way up to God. This can have the downside of making the worship very me centric and indeed I can end up worshiping a God who I have cast in my own image. I was therefore trying to find a reflection where the starting point was God and his self revelation that then comes down and picks me as part of his story rather than trying to make him part of mine.
Jesus, is for me, part of the ongoing self revelation of God. Reflected in Jesus saying things like: ‘if you’ve seen me you’ve seen the Father’, and, ‘I only do the will of the Father etc. Jesus, who is fully human as well as fully divine [altho emptied somehow, denying himself access to the divine credit card], was empowered to live this life through the Holy Spirit. In that way Jesus is the perfect human, the untainted image bearer, who reveals what true humanity is like.
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