You should definitely get yourself over to IAmJoshBrown.com and check out his most recent post on consumption:
I don’t watch television. The only show I watch is LOST. So maybe 2 hours a week. Tops. I tell myself I’m an intellectual and that I’m a better person for reading books rather than watching American Idol or Dancing With The Stars or insert any other reality show here. I am a saint. I tell myself this myth to make me feel better about my self. It’s a shame that we bought a $600 flat screen HD television to watch LOST and play the Wii. And I spent more time on my computer than 10 average people combined. I am a hypocrite. I am my own worst enemy.
(Over Indulgence: My Confession | IAmJoshBrown)
I don’t think this post needs you to comment. But have a read of the whole post, and it’s worth taking a really good look in the mirror on this stuff.
I was having a conversation with a friend recently about her mum’s thoughts on being a Christian in middle class suburbia and how both natural and difficult it is. (Some of these are my extended thoughts).
The Church and Christian events such as conferences are exceptional at preaching the ‘go get out there’. There is nothing acclaimed what-so-ever about living to your fullest from your house in the suburbs in your everyday job. We uphold these ‘Christian’ Heroes as those who have gone long and far and done big things.
I am not saying that there aren’t individuals that should wind up as overseas missionaries - because I grew up in a household where that was precisely the case and it’s something that has deeply influenced who I am now. There is a need for cross cultural mission. And it’s not as glamorous as it sounds.
Likewise, we shout the praise of working in a church, as a pastor, youth pastor, as someone who runs some enormous ministry. And we jump on the assumption that many church ‘attendees’ are just that. Attendees on Sunday. And many of them are.
I would like the encouragement put there for the majority of Christian suburbia. To actually be effective right where they are.
Yes I help lead a youth group. A very strangely small youth group for the size of our church, but it’s not the role that I love. Geoff tells me that I fluctuate a lot in how much I like leading youth. There is usually several times a year I swear not to be involved any more and hate rocking up on Friday nights. But I love, I love the kids I’ve gotten to know. I love seeing their growth and maturity. It’s so much more important.
Just be interested in people. Just love Jesus and what he’s on about. What more is there to being a Christian? The collective claim positives on fame, but individuals don’t give a rats at position really.
And position is so far from the point, church is sometimes a scary place.
Take risks at home.
(This post has is an edited extract from “Suburban Christian” at all said and done)
I’ve been reading the very very good book “A Community Called Atonement” by emerging blogger/theologian Scot McKnight. I was deeply struck by the following passage:
“We are not being fair to the Pauline texts on the cross if we narrow them simply and woodenly to resolution of my sin problem. The cross addresses our sin problem - “our” in the sense of yours and mine and the Western world’s and the Eastern world’s and the northern and southern hemisphere’s problems. It addresses the world’s captivity by evil” (emphasis Scot’s)
This goes into the basket of “I know it is true as soon as I read it, but I don’t think that’s how I live”. Because I don’t think that I have believed that God’s response to the problem of the Holocaust is the cross. It’s easy for me to see forgiveness as a product of the cross, but I’m not sure that it’s anywhere near as simple or as easy to recognise that a huge part of the work of the cross is in the example of the cross.
“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.” 1 John 3:16
“Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Matthew 16:24
What does it mean for us to follow the example of the cross? In the christianese cultural bubble, it is so easy to see these passages as wonderful and lovely expressions of how nice God is to us, but that don’t require us to participate at all. But that can’t be what it really means to be crucified with Christ.
So what does that look like for a twenty-something IT Nerd in his comfortable 21st century existence: to die for those who are still sinners? Does this thought both excite and frighten anyone else? Feel free not to assume that I’m being rhetorical.
It is a difficult thing to talk about Christianity in Australia. So much of the Christian tradition, structure and even culture in this country has been imported: historically from Britain and Europe and more recently like the rest of the western world from the US of A. It’s a difficult thing to do, therefore, to put your finger about what Christianity in Oz actually looks like.
The problem can’t be a lack of intelligent voices speaking into the local context. Guys like Hirsch and Frost are at the centre of the emerging/missional conversation, at the other end of the spectrum we have guys like Jensen and (dare I say it) George Pell who are at very least opinion leaders even if you happen to disagree with them. Likewise the contribution of Hillsong and Brian Houston. So the people are there, we’ve matured as a nation to the point of being able to participate meaningfully in the wider Christian dialogue, and yet there’s still this feeling that anything or anyone that has come from America must surely be better and brighter than anything home-grown.
But the world is changing. While most Christian conferences would hesitate to proceed without an international guest to bring in the crowds, there is a recognition amongst some that it’s often the local voices that can best speak to what it should mean to be a Christian in the local context.
Because this is a unique place to be a Christian. The challenges of “being religious” (a term which I don’t like but it seems like we’re stuck with from the rest of society) in a nation whose reaction to any significant belief system can often just be pure apathy, need to be discussed. When the message of the Kingdom can’t be heard because calling your messengers “church” or “Christians” brings too much baggage, the methods of advancing God’s Kingdom must therefore be a whole bunch more creative.
There’s hope. As long as people are asking these questions, and as long as there are people trying things, this country has a chance to see God’s kingdom advancing.
This post is part of the Christianity In Australia synchroblog which a number of Australian Christians are participating in to celebrate Australia Day. For more on Christianity in Australia see:
Posted in Church, Culture |
I’m back from honeymooning, and we’ll be kicking back off here soon. But to keep you interested, I thought I’d better post this tidbit from the wider blogosphere:
I recently heard someone say that the motto of Christianity nowadays is
“And now these three things remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is truth.” - From “The Corner”
Feel free to discuss as you feel necessary.
Posted in Church, Quotes |