A blessing... and a curse...

I have recently been to a 'Conference' it was only one day, so it was bearable!

The guy who spoke (Brian Mclaren) is well known for what might come across as being a bit too controversial. But, needless to say I find comfort in that. I feel more at peace with a theology that seriously looks at how we interact with the social systems of our day as opposed to the monotonous thrashing of abstract and specualtive doctrines...

So it was good on one level... he had some good stuff to say... but I've read most of his books and his talks were basically a summary. And this I think is where the 'curse' get laid down...

We have in part, not all of us I might add, become obssessed with the next best idea, the next best speaker and the newest book. I love books and ideas... but this is all too much. No point going to seminars about a 'practical' theology. When does it become practical, all it does is fuel our apologetic cannons so that we can one up that guy at church who is set in his ways (ok that was a bit of an exaggeration!). But what now do we continue to go to seminars, do we continue to read books, do we continue to go out for a coffee, do we continue on talking about the most revolutionary ideas in history and just sit on our hands while time keeps passing us by?

The answer is pretty simple right? We'd love to shout out a resounding, "NO!" But it's not that easy, is it?

With all that said, this is actually the blessing of going to one too many conferences. We get frustrated, we get aggitated, some of us might just be apathetic to the cause. But I had some really cool conversations with really good friends of mine, that is a blessing. For me, and I hope it is the same for you, the milling of ideas that subvert the current way things are done inspire new practical ways of engaging, prosperity, equity and security.

If anything, I will probably go to more conferences in the near future because there are great people to meet, ordinary people who are looking for some inspiration and it's in those conversations with those people, not the lecture from the pseaker up front, that I get some of the divine inspired ideas I have ever come across...

Conferences, books, talks...

It's a blessing and a curse...    

AndyC

oh yes I have another blog as well, criticalpixels.blogspot.com , I reflect on art, film, images and culture in a light hearted manner...

It's often easier to escape reality...

It’s often easier to escape reality… because…

It means…

I don’t have to face the facts…

What I don’t know doesn’t affect me…

Children suffering on the other side of the world mean’s nothing to me…

Why should I care?

You see, it’s just often easier to just escape reality… sit on the couch… and just escape.

I heard it said that religion was the opiate of the masses, but I say we’ve missed the point!

Televisions

And

Couches,

These are the ‘opiates’ of our time.

It goes without saying that religion is no longer a dominant factor in mainstream society.

Tv’s, computers, fashion…

Images.

Images.

And more images.

These are the dominant factors of our society.

Because,

It’s

Just

Easier to escape reality…

We long for deeper relationships.

We want to make something of our existence.

We want to be good citizens, active members of our community.

We want the best for those closest to us.

These are legitimate ‘wants’, these are want’s that long to express that thing inside us that tells us to live.

We want to live.

Yet!

We consume,

We oppress,

We exploit,

We ignore the very fabric and pattern of life that enables us to live.

We fail to see that the very things we consume stop us from attaining these legitimate ‘wants’.

We fail to see that the very things we are told that are meant to bring us happiness and fulfilments are the same things that drive us apart.

This is the irony of technology.

This is the irony of televisions.

It is also the irony of social networks.

It is even the irony of this blog.

In that I am trying my best to connect you with my ideas, my thoughts and my feelings. And instead of being able, as I would if we personally spoke face-to-face, to see your reaction, hear your voice and to feel your physical presence with me in a space.

We are now

Limited

By one sense,

The one that we need to read.

By words that convey limited meaning and,

Express

NO

EMOTION. [still not sure about this bit :D]

If this is the only way that we communicate we will only experience intimacy to certain degree.

And,

NO

MATTER

HOW

MUCH

We find out about each other our relationship will not be real.

Because, even though we know what we ‘want’ and need,

We

STILL

Escape Reality…

[Just a little disclaimer: The post is both an exploration of 'space'and also a journey in finding out what, "The Medium is the Message" means. IT JUST AN EXPLORATION :D <3]

Love's New Reign [Spread the love like marmalade]

You call me crazy
Our worlds cascaded
Life’s not arrived
Till Love’s new world has invaded.

Broken lives, and
Pumping fists
Even Love’s new reign
Is enacted in this.

Faith, hope and love
Ingredients brewing to be made
The recipe’s sweet taste, to
Spread the love like marmalade.

The power of the Spirit...

"The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." (Luke 4:18-19)

Jesus continually moved in the power of the Spirit. Sometimes it would truly be ‘powerful’, like when he healed people and told blind men and women to see and lame women and men to walk. Other times it was really subtle, like when he called young children to sit by him and he said things like, “Whoever becomes like a child will know what the kingdom of God is like”.

Then there were times when he was really, really subtle and he’d say, ‘Do you see the lilies in the field, even they possess the wonder and beauty of the Creator!’ Jesus, I believe, was aware of the significance of living every moment as though it were drenched in the presence, creativity and beauty of God.

Imagine what it would be like if you were aware of the significance of living every moment as though it were drenched in the presence, creativity and beauty of God. Imagine your conversation’s with friends at work.

I know it’s just an imagination exercise, but how would you describe the feelings and thoughts that accompany this awareness of the divine?

How is this different from the real world you live in?

Are your eyes open to the beauty of the creator in everything you do?

What is the biggest thing stopping you from being freely missional? What is the thing that stops you from being able to say, ‘My life is my mission’?

AndyC

Giving and receiving - an attempt to make sense of the greatest story ever told. [Pt. 1] God gives first.

‘In the beginning…”

We’re made aware of this God who creates, who acts, who makes things and says they’re good. In the beginning …if we take seriously the nature of God, the understanding that we have gained through the resultant search of many before us, that God has no beginning, he just…is.

Then the creation story is somehow also about a God who wants to be involved, who doesn’t just want to sit back and wonder what it would be like to create. He actually does it.

So God, starts, he begins, he makes, he decides to act, and from the beginning we see that this God takes the initiative.

Could this be one of the building blocks to understanding what God is like? If God decides to create, to begin something, he has to give. God gives first.

GOD

GIVES

FIRST.

What would compel God to give?

What compels you to give? More often than not when we give something away, we somehow expect something in return.

Is this God’s motivation? Is God expecting something back?

When God creates he simply tells what he has created to keep on creating to multiply and expand and grow. It’s almost as though this God, receives pleasure when his creation keeps on giving. Somehow when this divine principle of giving is practiced by the Creator’s creation the Creator receives. When creation gives, the Creator receives. When you give, God receives.

AndyC...

P.s. I wouldn't blame you if you thought my writing and phrasing in this article has a Rob Bell feel to it, I read and listen way too much to his stuff :D

Oh yes and this is just a random experiment on my part to make sense of the bible it's not a hermeneutical expose, it's just random thoughts that make sense to me, I hope they make sense to you.

So what 2... (pictures of faith)

I've been really humbled in recent weeks by the lack of love I've been able to show to fellow followers of Jesus! It is really frustrating...

I've found that cynicism has robbed me of genuine intimacy in the body of Christ. I've found that I do not have it all together. I've found that at times I've been blind to love of God in the very people of God. I've found that my deepest struggles are not with people and what they believe, but with my own insecurities, my own feelings and thoughts of wanting to be right.

At the moment I'm compelled to go on my knees, but often find that I lack the words and will to be honest with God, Jesus and myself. What do I say when I'm so convinced and convicted of the shortcomings in my life? How do I pray to Jesus in this moment of tremendous awareness of my unwillingness to love, when I know I should? So what do I say, what do we say to Jesus at that moment?

There is a story in Mark 10 that sheds some light on this, its in a totally different context to the one I find myself in, but still fills me with hope, expectation and a longing to more faithful.

The story in Mark 10:46-52 goes like this:
Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (that is, the Son of Timaeus), was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" Jesus stopped and said, "Call him." So they called to the blind man, "Cheer up! On your feet! He's calling you." Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus. "What do you want me to do for you?" Jesus asked him. The blind man said, "Rabbi, I want to see." "Go," said Jesus, "your faith has healed you." Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.

What an encounter, right?! I think it's when Bartimaeus hears that Jesus of Nazareth is walking by, is in his midst, that he is filled with hope. But it's really interesting that he doesn't ask Jesus straight away to restore his sight. In his moment of hope and expectation Bartimaeus shouts! "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" Everyone else in the area then immediately tries to get him to shut up, 'but he shouted all the more, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"

And Jesus responds.

It seems that no matter our situation whether we be blind to the love of God, calloused by our cynicism or overcome by our hurt and pain and disillusionment, when we call on the mercy of Jesus he responds. For Bartimaeus Jesus ultimately repsonds by restoring his sight. Bartimaeus' faith healed him. So what does faith look like for Bartimaeus? It looks like calling on the mercy of Jesus with expectation and hope.

Maybe faith isn't as complicated as I make it out to be? Maybe faith is as simple as calling on the mercy of Jesus to meet me in this moment. If there ever was an aspect of faith that we could be totally sure about, it would be that Jesus will respond to us with his mercy! Jesus will respond! Perhaps his mercy might be shown by restoring your sight or it might be totally different from what you expect. But be assured, he will respond and you will know his mercy. Call on his mercy!

AndyC

So what!

Jesus...Faith...Doctrine? As I mentioned in a previous post, when looking or trying to understand faith from Jesus' perspective we'd be better off looking for how to live out faith instead of just...trying to understand? Does that make sense. Ok I'll get to it!

In Mark, chapter 9 to be exact, there's this amazing story. There's just so much to see, like Jesus for instance you basically feel the tension and heartache, maybe even anger in his words, "O unbelieving generation," Jesus replied, "how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you?..." It's like he's just waiting for people to get alongside him and be part of what he's doing!
But when Jesus talks about "unbelief" what does he mean?

Then theirs the dad and his kid! The Dad sheds so much light on what faith could be considered to look like. After Jesus asks him what wrong with his son, the dad exclaims, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!" What does Jesus do?

He heals the Boy! Not only does the dad struggle with "unbelief" he is taking on the faith of his son. So, two things, the first; having faith is not about conjuring up magical powers from God to know, that you know, that you know that everything will be ok. No, it seems that faith consists of being honest with the way things are, not pretending that you feel like crap, or that you doubt whether or not God will show up. But faith is not just wallowing in those unredemptive feelings and thoughts.

Secondly, having faith is not all up to me! Do you know how good that feels? I don't have to be all good all the time, I can be honest, I can be human, I can be me. I can rely on friends and family, when I just...don't....have the strength to pull through those times when I doubt and curse and can't see God in the situation. It's not all up to me, I have my part, but I don't need to pretend anymore.

I'm not suggesting that what I've written is 'the' model of faith, but I do think it's part of it. Why else would that story be in the Gospels?

AndyC

What Now? pt. 2

I have a tendency to go in circles especially when I'm struggling with something! This time it's faith... how do we express it? How do we define it? Do we define it? Is it something we're absolutely sure about? Or is there room for doubts? There I go again! Maybe the only way out of this downward spiral or bottomless pit or any other metaphor you can come up with that isn't good, is for me to look at Jesus, his example, his life.


As with all the things Jesus teaches us, and I think the apostles have come to this conclusion too, is that inevitably all of Jesus' teachings are undeniably active. The Hebrew 'idea' or better yet the Hebrew way of knowing truth is to express it. For something to be true, it is expressed, it's lived, truth has meat and bones in the Hebrai worldview. So, for Jesus and the people in his time, the line between (their idealogical musings with) the doctrine of faith and faith itself does not exist, atleast not for Jesus and those who walked with him in the 1st Century. Might it be fair to conclude that nowhere in Jesus' teaching we'll find an exact doctrine of 'faith'? Perhaps we would, and I'm just putting this out there, be better off looking for a praxis of faith? A way to live faith out, instead of keeping it to the amount of 'will' I can conjure up in a trying time?


So the next best question to ask, i think, is: What does faith look like? At times it can appear as the calculated brush strokes of an accomplished artist, or like your first attempt at learning a new dance and then there are other times when it's just plain messy, and even ugly, undefined and out of control.


Can faith really be so many things? All at once, for different people or even the same person? Or do we need a strict definition or atleast a biblical-hermenuetic of the scriptures that pertain to the notion of faith in the believer?! Another formula perhaps, will this help? I don't know, can I just get that off my chest, I really don't know! Perhaps the Gospels will give us a better insight...yes we'll look to Jesus!

Next time...

AndyC

What now?

Things have been really frustrating lately. Ever feel like things are just not adding up? Like everything, ok some things, don't make sense anymore. Yeah? Well, I don't know what to make of church, God and even Jesus sometimes. More recently, these feelings, these thoughts have come up more often than I'd like to admit to. Like this feeling or thought of me having to have it together in order to fully follow Jesus, to fully be in awe of God. To fully be Christian.


What do you do when the Jesus you follow isn't the one portrayed by mainstream, or more accurately the majority, of Christianity? What then? What now? Do you just throw in the towel? Do you conclude that, I don't know, you might not have an accurate or right picture of God? Would it be possible to feel like you're not following the Jesus of the Bible, because you're not too sure? Does struggling with unbelief constitute that you don't believe? What do you say? What do you do? What do you conclude?


Is this the way of Jesus? To have fool-proof answers to everything? To be so sure that you're right and that everyone else is wrong? That your picture of God is the right one. That you have it all together. Is this right? Is it wrong? Is it faithful to scripture?


Me asking these questions, is it faithful to scripture? Does believing in Jesus allow me to have doubts when, I don't know, when I don't feel like I have it all together? When I don't feel or think that following Jesus is worth it, worth the struggle, worth the fight? I have these thoughts, I have these feelings, I go through those times.

One things for sure, if I stay in this place, having these thoughts, stuck in this rut, with these feelings then it won't be long before... before I actually throw in the towel. So what now? Where to from here? What do we, what do I, conclude?

Maybe it's worth asking what Jesus has to say or teach about this? About living with your doubts, fears and imcompetencies... What do you think he'll say? How will he react?

So I've asked these questions...what now?

AndyC

Would you like to throw the first stone?

There is a story in John, chapter 8, which has intrigued me lately. It's that one where the Religious leaders bring the woman that has just committed adultery to Jesus, and I just love Jesus' response! "The sinless one among you, go first: Throw the stone."

But just before Jesus’ unarming response it’s interesting to note that the “Religious teachers” tried to justify the stoning by saying, “Moses, in the Law, gives orders to stone such persons. What do you say?” By the way, while all this is happening Jesus is drawing in the sand. So, after Jesus’ response they all start walking off, one by one. Who was left to condemn her? No one. “Neither do I”, says Jesus, "Go on your way. From now on, don't sin."

So many times we "Christians" want to throw the first stone, we want to condemn and bring judgement upon those “unrighteous ones”. But how many of us haven't sinned? How many of us then have the right to bring judgement upon them? Maybe we have to look at ourselves first? Maybe the Church needs to sort out its own sin, before we go condemning people about theirs! Does Matthew 7 ring a bell? "Don't look at the splinter in your brother's eye, when you have a log in your own eye".

So my question is, why point out people’s personal issues when there are bigger things to worry about like the gap between the rich and the poor, consumerism, climate change or the Aids crisis in Africa?

Would you still like to throw the first stone?

Andy Crowe

Why do Christians s**k? by Tom Davis

I found this article and thought that it would be quite a good article to post and to see what other people think!?

Why Do Christians Suck?7/17/2008by Tom Davis

Each Sunday, millions of Christians in America gather to worship the God who commands us to “love our neighbor as ourselves.” We belt out praises to the God who tells us that “pure and undefiled religion is caring for widows and orphans in their distress.” We kneel in pious prayer before the Almighty God of the universe who describes Himself as loving, gracious, merciful, and generous. Then, we walk out the back door of the church, step into a world in need, and proceed to withhold the love, grace, and mercy that’s extended to us.
We might as well give God the middle finger. Outside of a tiny minority of Christians, we have become a self-centered group of priggish snobs. In short, we suck. Before you pick up a rock and throw it at me, think about this: I could have used other words that aren’t as nice as “suck.” Like “white-washed tombs,” “brood of vipers,” “fools,” or the ever ego-inflating, “Get behind me Satan!” Jesus used all of these choice phrases to describe religious leaders and some of his closest of followers. But calling someone a white-washed tomb just doesn’t cut it anymore. "We suck" is a much better choice for our cultural context. Poverty sucks. Divorce sucks. And, unfortunately, some Christians suck, too.

Here are the facts: Eighty-five percent of young people outside the church who have had connection to Christians believe present-day Christianity is hypocritical. Inside the church, forty-seven percent of young people believe the same thing. And why wouldn't they? We’re pretty stingy with our money:

- 80 percent of the world’s evangelical wealth is in North America.
- Giving by churchgoers was higher during the Great Depression than it is today.
- Christians give an average of $13.31/week to their local church.
- Only 9 percent of “born-again” adults reported tithing in 2004.

And let's take a peek in on our neighbors:

- More than 1 billion people live in absolute poverty.
- 500 million people are at the edge of starvation.
- 200 million children are being exploited as laborers.
- Half of the human beings on the planet live on less than $2/day.
- 1.5 billion people do not have enough money to buy food.

This is information that anyone can collect from the Internet, just as I did. Any reasonable person could make this simple conclusion: Most American Christians do not care about what God says in the Bible.We pick out the scriptures we like, as if we were dining at a five-star buffet. We conveniently ignore the scriptures that talk about caring for the poor, giving away material possessions, and loving money. Scriptures like:

- Anyone who sets himself up as "religious" by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of religion is hot air and only hot air. Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world.” (James 1:26-27)

- Dear friends, do you think you'll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, "Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!" and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup—where does that get you? Isn't it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense? (James 2:15-17)

- "If you have two coats, give one away," [Jesus] said. "Do the same with your food." (Luke 3:11)


When Christians care about their political views, what sexual preference someone has, or their bank account more than they care about the millions of people who die in the world because they don’t have five dollars to buy the medicine that would cure them, something has gone drastically wrong. These kinds of Christians suck. What can we do to stop sucking? I think the answer is relatively simple. It's found in the Bible:

“Do not merely listen to the Word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says” (James 1:22).Give away material possessions to those in need, love the unlovely, take care of the widow and orphan. This is not rocket science. It just takes a heart committed to doing the things God said to do. Want ten simple steps? You got it.

Christians, listen up: People are tired of being criticized, judged, and listening to the lip service we are so great at giving. Instead, why don’t we commit to making the changes we can make? Christianity needs a renewal of the principles that made it great. It needs to be more like Jesus—compassionate, self-sacrificial, unconditionally loving, and caring for those who are most in need. That kind of lifestyle allowed twelve men to change the world. It will help you change yours, too.

*This article was originally published by Beliefnet.