Tag Archive for 'culture'

Consumerism and discipleship

Published
by
Graeme
on February 13, 2008
in Community, My Pilgrimage and discipleship
. 0 Comments

As I was catching up with some online reading the following caught my imagination.

We live in a culture that has the name of Christ on its lips but that does not know what it means to live a life of radical discipleship - people are unaware that the virtues of consumerism and the virtues of faith in Christ are quite opposed to one another.
read more here

Although I couldn’t put it quite as eloquently as this, its something I’ve felt for a long time now. I know I’m a victim of this in my own way as I love gadgets, and recently succumbed to the temptation to buy an iPod Touch. I didn’t really need it, but even so I did!

Consumerism and materialism are all pervasive these days. It is almost impossible to read a paper or watch the TV without having the senses assaulted by advert after advert, usually offering things we don’t really need for amounts we can’t really afford. They are fuelling the incredible amount of debt that is being racked up day after day, and which causes so much concern to so many people.

This is having a knock on effect within Christianity as well. Many of the people I meet within the local area are not attending their own local church. They are commuting to the church that best suits their personal needs and freely confess that they’ve moved church numerous times to fit the needs they have at the moment. I’ve been part of that process myself in the past, passing numerous corps to get to the one that I was going to enjoy most, rather than attending the one that was nearest to where I was living.

Without a doubt this is an extremely consumerist and individualistic approach to our church-going. What is wrong with going to the church nearest to our place of living? How are we going to reach out to the communities which our churches are placed in if Christians who live within those communities travel away from them to the more popular or, dare I say it, trendy churches?

On being public disciples

Published
by
Graeme
on January 31, 2008
in My Pilgrimage
. 0 Comments

I cannot state enough how challenging I am finding Graham Cray’s Disciples and Citizens book. It is all about our lives being ones of ‘public discipleship’; lives that are not split into the sacred and secular. Instead Cray says,

“…witness to Christ involves being an example, embodying what he did and taught into our daily lives.”

This is achieved by living in a particular way, not only individually, but also as a congregation of the Church. As Christian’s we can do one of three possible things in our walk with God. Firstly, we can choose to opt out of society completely. We then withdraw into the ivory towered safety of our churches and homes and wait until we either die or Christ comes again. Secondly, we can embrace society and throw our lot in with it and slowly but surely allow culture to subvert our beliefs until we are barely indistinguishable from the rest of society. Finally, we can choose to go the incarnational route. This would see us being immersing our church community into the community around us, and then work for transformation both in the lives of the individual as well as the wider community. This third option is the one Cray, and of course many others, says is the truly Christian way of living.

Cray’s strategy for this way of living is based on two headings; involved distinctiveness and subversive engagement. These ideas are pretty obvious as to their meaning, but I think his definitions will stand repeating.

Involved distinctiveness can be summed up as a call to be a countercultural community which also seeks common ground with its society whenever possible - a community involved in, rather than withdrawn from, society.

Subversive engagement involves a proactive community, actively doing good in its society (because the good can last, in the light of the kingdom of God), while subverting many of its society’s key social values (because they cannot last, in the light of the kingdom of God).

What is particularly pleasing about the book is that it is grounded firmly in scripture and promotes both good theology and good practice, the balance of which is essential in all that we seek to do for the Lord.

Redeeming culture

Published
by
Graeme
on January 20, 2008
in The Salvation Army
. 0 Comments

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.