Allegory through modern culture

Been meaning to post this one up for a while

How do you know when you are a Christian?

Happy Christmas

The day is easier to define - not necessarily accurate but at least it can be arbitarily set so that everyone can point to it and know when it a) is and b) is not.

Being a Christian is another matter all together. There is no easy yes/no definition from the Bible. Jesus discussed many aspects of following Him, yet no one clear 'this is how you do it and this is how you don't.'
Even worse He gave no clear way of recognising 'them'. Of course we can know them by their fruit and whether they are wearing wolf's clothing or not... but this is pretty much subjective. Everyone has their own benchmark for judging other's quality of spirituality.
The Catholic church havea good system where by you are born into the church and so it you can be sure you are a Christian by association of birth.

Do you?
Do you have to pray a prayer?
Do you have to make a confession with your mouth?
Do you have to believe with your heart?
Do you have to be baptized with water?
Do you have to be baptized in the Spirit?
Do you have to be re-born?
Do you have to do good works?
Do you have to sell all you have?
Do you have to tell someone you have become a Christian and attend a Sunday meeting and one weekday meeting?
Do you have to believe Jesus is the Son of God?
Do you have to believe Jesus' work on the Cross?
Do you have to renounce Satan and all his works?
Do you have to believe the Westminster confession or the Nicene creed?
Do you have to believe Creationism?

Like a mortgage?
Like the type of mortgage used by self-employed people: a 'self-certification mortgage', it must come down to:
'We are if we believe ourselves to be'

In the same way that the mortgage has inherent risk of not being able to back up in the long term what we said we could pay, we need to be able to back up in Christ what we have claimed.

Give a man a fish

I was reading Matthew 15-16 I was pondering about the role of a parable.

Pete Rollins has written some interesting parable in 'Othodox Heretic' but then I thought up the following proverb (since I cant manage a whole parable yet):

"Give a man an answer and you will feed him spiritually for a day,
Give a man a question and you will feed him for a lifetime."

Grasping the wind

This one comes courtesy of Pete Rollins - one of the themes that he brings out currently is the idea of Christianity being the enemy of Religion. This idea suggests an ever turning and evasive 'religion' (with a small 'r') that refuses to be caught, boxed or appropriated. When it is, it immediately becomes lessened in power.

I like this because it seems to relate to the images we have of the Holy Spirit: of Fire, of Wind and a slightly mysterious manifestation of God that appears and disappears in a moment.

Who can 'grasp the wind' or capture fire? once taken it almost by definition ceases to be what it was before you captured it.

So what?
Well, it keeps us moving and following God, rather than any attempt to co-opt of domesticate God.

Some cool videos

Some videos I've been meaning to flag up for a while:




I noticed a vague comparison with Job? The sort of repetitive intensity of dialogue

"You that built the towers
It was You that invented bombs, and the fear that comes with them
And it was You that invented money, and the corrupt economic systems
You invented terms like just-war and terms like friendly fire
And it was You that didn't know when to stop digging deeper, when to stop building higher
It was You that exhausted the resources I carefully laid out on this earth,
And it was You that even saw these problems coming but accredited them little worth
It was You that used my teachings for your own personal gain
And it was You that committed such tragedies, even though they were in my name"

Whereas in the book of Job it's from the other side - God saying 'Can you?'

eg: 'Do you have an arm like God's,
and can your voice thunder like his?

...

Can you pull in the leviathan with a fishhook
or tie down his tongue with a rope?

Can you put a cord through his nose
or pierce his jaw with a hook?

Can you make a pet of him like a bird
or put him on a leash for your girls?'

I don't think Scroobius Pip had this in mind however...

I just figured what the Emerging church should really be called!

So heres the amazing thing. I've always hated the term 'Emerging Church' or 'Emergent Church' since it describes absolutely nothing - Any new form of anything can be called 'emerging'. And even worse, pretty much like now since you could argue it has now done 'emerging' - then what?

'The emerged church'? Yeah great until the next one.

As I've read all the books on emerging church, it struck me that its not so much a denominational effect, along with certain theological emphasis, but just an approach to every aspect of engaging with God that is humanly possible.
Slightly post modern, but critical of post modernity.
Creative
Engaging with history
Seeking the path of the new growth..

'artistic church'

To me (and I'm not an artist) its about an approach that is strikingly similar to that of so called 'Emerging Church' .

Its ill defined, but based on known things. It expresses the inexpressible and communicates things that we never knew we didn't know.
It can show is new things that could only be seen when you tear down the old dead wood.
It builds up in the open space where the dead used to lay, something better, deeper.

It honours Christ and history, not dismissing the steps that have been trod by the Saints before.

Diversity?

Couldnt resist this from graphjam.com ...

I don't know what church looks like

I don't know what church looks like. I like church. I like it a lot, but it confuses me.
Because it's an organisation and there is such a diversity of possible structures from the current world, sometimes the church follows, sometimes leads.
















One meeting per week is the focus. Everything else is a bolt-on. House groups, outreach groups.
Sit and be fed - and oddly many of the sermons are about mobilisation of the church - irony much?



The leaders carry a lot of power. They seem to hold the job of interpreting the bible, Rabbinical style. Certainly they need to teach, but teach what?

Structure
Structure can hold back members. Just what structure have we been saved into? Surely you wouldn't hardly know or care? Moreover, what are we trying to save people into? Saved into a culture of meetings and teachings.



Invertion
I went to a church meeting today that at once talked about not needing so much teaching to be effective for God but at the same time kept emphasising the benefit of meetings.
He was definitely a good guy but the building, the service and the 'ecclesia' seemed to be pretty much interchangeable in his speech.

The rituals of modern-day Christendom are enshrined in culture, both popular and Christian. Just check the TV if you are not sure of this. Soap-opera Christians and God TV, it's all there.

Who wants this? Very few to if you have ever talked to your friends about church. The cost of following Jesus is heavy to be sure. Is all of this cost of Jesus' doing or our own?


Invert the church.
Meetings
Large meetings are the exception. Smaller the rule.

Geography.
Be anywhere you can but in a church building. If the church is expanded inside-out then even the most down-trodden in the land can be included.
Also it will be bigger than even the largest church building you can try to build...

Am I doing it wrong?

I'm thinking that I should be using twitter for some short nutshell comments. Woops I'm doing it wrong. Take a picture of me and put it on the Internet for amusement.
Emergence has been the most intellectually liberating influence on my thinking ever. The things that were previously 'shoe-horned' into a box that didnt quite fit are now allowed to take their own happy shape.