Over at the ArmyBarmy blog (see Saturday 19th January 2008 entry) Captain Stephen Court says that we need to ensure that we:
assert a healthy SALVATIONIST culture and CHANGE the national culture
rather than adopting too much of a culture that is similar to the mainstream churches that most of the population have switched off to. I would tend to agree!
The problem is that too much of what many perceive to be Salvationist culture is actually a hindrance to the gospel in some places. We have fixated on certain early techniques and maintain them today, even when they are demonstratively ineffective today. There seems to be a belief, in some circles, that changing the way we do things in order to be more effective in today’s culture is tantamount to abandoning our cultural heritage.
Let’s think though what our true heritage is. Firstly, it is an openness to the leading of the Spirit. The reason that the early Salvation Army was so effective was that we were led by the Spirit. There was an openness that seems to have been replaced with a closed mind. The second aspect of our heritage was our openness to adopt things from the culture we were in and ‘redeem’ them. So we see people writing Christian lyrics to music hall songs, and those arriving in non-British cultures attempting to live in culturally relevant ways. There are more elements to our heritage of course, but these two are some of the main reasons we were so effective.
This is the wonder of the transformational power of the Gospel. If we are led by the Spirit and through him act in ways that redeem culture then the Kingdom will be seen at work in our lives, and that in turn will make our witness more attractive.
I love Market Day!
This morning as I stood in Godalming market selling the Warcry and talking to the people who were kind enough to stop in the steady drizzle, I spent quite a bit of time chatting to Chris, the market’s butcher. During the course of the conversation we got onto the subject of religion, something that often happens on a Friday as I talk to the stall holders around me.
Today, Chris challenged me with one of the normal statements that we hear; most of the wars that have ever been were about religion! If we look at the bloody history of Christianity alone we have to admit that many of the wars across the ages have been carried out in the name of religion. However, few involving Christianity at least, have actually been about religion.
Almost without exception they have been about power. More particularly they have been about man’s wish to gain more power.
As I spoke to Chris I tried to get him to see that true Christianity is about peaceful transformation. Its about transforming our lives and our futures, not by force but through the love and grace of Jesus. Chris listened and then a customer came and when he finally got another chance to chat the conversation moved onto another subject. Maybe we’ll return to the subject next week!
I love Market Day!
Every day in my Google Reader I receive a quote from the Inward/Outward blog. Today’s offering was timely as it’s something that has been on my mind over the last few days! It’s a quote from Archbishop Oscar Romero, assassinated Roman Catholic Archbishop of San Salvador:
A church that doesn’t provoke any crises, a gospel that doesn’t unsettle, a word of God that doesn’t get under anyone’s skin, a word of God that doesn’t touch the real sin of the society in which it is being proclaimed - what gospel is that? Very nice, pious considerations that don’t bother anyone, that’s the way many would like preaching to be. Those preachers who avoid every thorny matter so as not to be harassed, so as not to have conflicts and difficulties, do not light up the world they live in.
What a challenge to anyone who finds themselves in the position of regularly preaching. Whilst Romero was talking about the responsibility to preach to society as a whole, a position into which he found himself thrust because of the situation in El Salvador during his life, it is surely just as important for us to seek to constantly challenge those who we try to teach. We should not be seeking to give lead people to a comfortable experience, but instead to one that leaves them feeling uncomfortable because they have been challenged to dig deeper into faith and consequently be a better disciple.
Let it be so for me!
Those of you who have followed my blog for a while will know that I have mentioned my concern over the attitude of Western Christian’s to what is being called Christianophobia. Now don’t get me wrong, I do believe that this does exist, especially in places in the world that see Christians prevented from worshipping or being truly persecuted. I’m just not sure we can count things like “Jerry Springer - The Opera” and the fact that some aren’t allowed to wear crosses outside their uniforms as real persecution.
Two things have brought this subject back into the forefront of my mind. Firstly, an article by my former colleague, Jonathan Bartley, written just after Christmas. Picking up on the fact that there was the normal avalanche of stories in the lead up to Christmas about the downgrading of the season due to over political-correctness, he suggests that this was in reality achieved years, if not decades, ago. His conclusion is that:
Christmas is offensive, and for ever will be. It legitimates the undermining of those in authority. But it is also about looking after not just those who are “deserving” of our love, but those who may appear disreputable and unworthy.
The second was a piece by Nick Tomlinson in the September issue of Zoe’s Women Alive magazine which arrived from Latvia earlier this month. Tomlinson suggests that the typical suburban lifestyle is all about comfort. This striving for comfort is really the complete opposite to what real Christianity is about. One telling comment that leapt of the page as I read it is this:
…radical love and forgiveness become invincible weapons of evangelism when the Church is under fire. But when the Church is comfortable and safe, it becomes hard for its members to understand how to apply Christ’s commandments to daily life.
He goes on to suggest that maybe rather than responding by acting as if a slight on Christianity is a terribly offensive thing and insisting our status is protected from these slights, we should see an opportunity to publicly forgive and bless our ‘enemies’. Now that’s counter-cultural!
The next couple of days seem to be all about Bees.
Today I discovered Adobe Labs Bee application, which is based on the Adobe Air application. This is basically a blogging application that allows me to write a blog post offline and then have it ready to publish when I go online. In fact I’m actually writing this particular post using the software and although am at home I’ve turned my wireless card off! If you can read this on my blog then you know it works. I’ve tried a few of this sort of thing, but have always found them to have some problems, so we’ll wait and see how this works out!
The other Bee thing is about tomorrow. Zoe is away this weekend at The Salvation Army’s “The Gathering” prayer event in Swanwick. Whilst she’s taken Abigail with her, Sian & I are staying at home. So tomorrow we’re having a Father & Daughter day out and amongst other things are going into Guildford to watch The Bee Movie at the cinema. It’ll be the first time we’ve been since getting back to the UK and I am really looking forward to it. While we were in Latvia, or at least before Abigail was born, Zoe & I shared the responsibility of looking after Sian pretty much 50/50. Since Abigail’s birth Zoe has been at home all the time and since arriving here I’ve not spent the same length of time with Sian as I used to. So two days together is going to be great!
I’ve been working my way through Paul’s letter to the Romans over the last week in preparation for our corps’ Commitment Sunday this weekend. Now Romans is one of my favourite books in the Bible but something I’ve never noticed before is the sheer build up that is part of the whole book. Throughout the first 11 chapters Paul builds and builds showing how great God is and what He has done for those of us who choose to follow Him.
Paul seems to reach a climax to this discourse in his Doxology in Romans 11:33-36
!
And then there is almost a long pause before he quietly says seems to say, “Therefore, what are you going to do in response?”
It’s a masterful piece of writing and when read like you would any other book, this is far more evident than the way we usually read the Bible, by chapter and verse!
Another thing I noticed is just how effective Paul is at putting some substance on the teaching of Jesus, not that His teaching really needed substance. Something I’ve been trying to encourage in the short time I’ve been here is the idea of being “Salt and Light” outside the church walls, because I believe this is where this is supposed to be done. Paul’s teaching in Romans 12 seems to take Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount and put substance onto the concept.
Maybe this is old hat to some, but for me this role that I am in is giving me new insights into the depth of scripture all the time, and I simply cannot get enough of it!
Those of you who aren’t reading this post in some sort of RSS feeder will see that I’ve changed the theme of this blog to a new one. I wanted something that would be fresh and new and feel that this new design gives a bit of that to the site!
On another note you will see a new link to the left under Navigation called ‘Reading’. For ages I’ve wanted to record the books I read in some central place and this seems as good as any. I’m also going to try to review the books I read, mainly for my own reference but hopefully it’ll be useful to others as well. I’m not the words greatest reviewer though!
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