Rebellion

I went to a conference on Friday full of world class speakers on global leadership. There was a guy that really stood out to me called Seth Godin. He spoke about the need to innovate, do be creative, to do something for the first time. Our culture is changing before our eyes, Godin claims we are entering the death of the industrial age. We used to live in an age where the people that owned the means of production controlled the world- the factory owners, the publishers. Today the means of production is the small humble laptop. Until relatively recently, I would have had to get this published for anyone to notice it. But now anyone, anywhere can get their voice heard. Godin claims we are entering the age of the artist, what will get noticed, what will make a difference is those people that are doing things that no one else is doing, not those doing what everyone else is doing.

That is pretty counter cultural, we've become so institutionalized, we're so used to doing what we're told, that it takes a pretty strong will to act against it. The thing is, there is no map anymore. There is no right way of doing things. There is no right way of being unique, of being an artist. It's an open plain field to create the future. I don't know if that excites me or scares me silly.

The  question is, if Godin is right, if we're on the brink of a new revolution- of recreating society, where is the room for the Church? To put it bluntly, the Church needs to adapt or die. Church has reflected the culture for the last two thousand years. Godin describes the Church in recent times of being in the business of "teaching people to fit in so we can ignore them". That has pretty much been the message of society too- buy nike, buy coca cola, be like everybody else. Creativity has been squashed. Everyone has become ordinary.

There is opportunity like no other to stand out. To be heard. To think differently. But it involves risks. It involves thinking outside of the box, being controversial. "Everyone has seen brown cows. If we just make more brown cows, no one will notice it, everyone is making brown cows. We need to make purple cows". As I see it the Church has tried to reinvent itself- it has tried fresh expressions. And sometimes it's paid off, sometimes it's achieved fresh, relevant Church which isn't compromising on the truth. But I still think we're making brown cows- we're taking the model of the "talk, worship song sandwich" and putting it in a pub, putting it around tables, putting it on the beach. Is this the only way to proclaim truth, is this the only way of making purple cows? Surely it can't be.

I was talking to a Church leader at the conference with a dying congregation of 25 eighty year olds, who weren't interested in doing things differently, being radical, being missional. And he was so fustrated about how to make a difference. He also told me about a pancake event he put on when he gave away 400 free pancakes to people in the community. I asked him if any of them came to Church, he told me they hadn't. I wonder, what would it take for his pancake event to be 'Church'. In some ways, it was more Church than his preaching the lectionary and singing 4 hymns to 25 stubborn old ladies- it was missional, it was serving the community. If he kept giving away pancakes every week, and then found some way of sharing truth, whether it was by conversations, by media, or maybe even preaching- he would have himself a thriving Church. But we need to dare to be.

We need to dare to fail with the Church. We need to dare to be challenged. It is pretty obvious that the Church is dying in a lot of places. I think the reason for this is primarily stubbornness. "The world needs to change and not us. We're doing things the 'right' way." The truth is- the Church needs innovators desperately. But no one is going to pick you. Stop waiting to be picked. Step up, pick yourself and dare to do something no one has done. Dare to be radical. There is a new time dawning and it needs new leaders. Are you going to sit back and watch others lead, or are you going to dare to put yourself on the line? 

Switching Off

Last night I got into the bath at about 1am with a nice glass of The Balvenie 12 year old single malt after a long day. The combination of hot water, strong alcohol and reading really helps me switch off. I decided to peruse my bookshelf for an interesting read for the bath. I'm pretty good at starting Christian books but by the time I get to the last 100 pages I can never be bothered to finish them. So I decided to start yet another book. My mate (who I respect philosophically) had recommended me The Reason for God by Tim Keller a while ago so I bought it and never started it. So I sat in the bath and started to read. The introduction is really good.

One thing he said particularly stuck with me: "I urge sceptics to wrestle with the unexamined 'blind faith' on which scepticism is based, and to see how hard it is to justify those beliefs to those who do not share them. I also urge believers to wrestle with their personal and culture's objections to the faith. At the end of each process, even if you remain the sceptic or believer you have been, you will hold you position with both greater clarity and greater humility."

That's really a challenge that I think we need to take to heart if we want to do 'mission', if we want to share faith with those who have doubts. All too often we take a dogmatic line to faith; I have the right answer & anyone's objections must be wrong on these grounds. Or sometimes we don't really engage with people- we construct a straw man opponent; all atheists must be as aggressive and closed minded as Richard Dawkins. In my experience most atheists are well thought out, intelligent people who would love to believe in God if he existed. They just don't think he does.

I think it is easy to be dismissive of doubt and of genuinely well thought out sceptical arguments. But unless we really engage with doubt, unless we understand the perspective of the sceptic and identify with why they believe what they do we can't expect them to really listen to us.

And after all I'm not a blind follower of Jesus Christ- I'm a seeker of truth. I just believe that Jesus Christ offers me a true fulfilment of truth. If something I believe isn't true, I want to root it out. I think it's a real challenge for how we do mission.

Do we believe the truth? And on what grounds? Unless we're prepared to properly engage and understand scepticism and disbelief I think we are in danger of alienating a whole generation of people who just can't believe.

Takeover

I was sat in a Merleau-Ponty lecture this morning and my mind wandered from the topic of an phenomenological approach to the problem of other minds (as it does...) and I started thinking about this weekend. I went away with a bunch of blokes from our Church and I was really challenged that we need to step up, we need to reignite the sleeping Church, to start reaching men and showing them what it means to be followers of Jesus. But I'm not entirely sure how much of a 'follower of Jesus' I really am. I need to figure this out before I can model it properly to other people. And so I wrote this prayer on my notes: Jesus, be part of my study, be part of my imagination, be part of my concentration, my reading, my lectures, Amen.

I am starting to realise how important it is to make following Jesus not just about praying more, reading more of the Bible more, going to Church more but starting to let Jesus transform the mundane. Being part of Crunchy nut cornflakes and belgium beers. Being a part of 15minute showers and 2hour lectures on consciousness. It's easy to write prayers like that, it's not easy to see what that looks like in actuality.

I have a mate who told me that he had a conversation with some friends the other day who said to him "you always bring Jesus into every conversation don't you" to which he replied "that's kind of the point isn't it?". The point of being a follower of Jesus is not that we live enhanced, that we live 'better' like we're living on a kind of upgraded life to everyone else. Jesus says (matt 16:25): "For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it."

Living a life focused on following Jesus is about living every part of our lives for him. The exciting, the mundane, the Churchy, the cheeky kiss with the girlfriend, the coffee with your friend, the phonecall with your mum, the bank account, the DVD collection, the degree. God is interested in all of it. And unless we learn to know what making God a part of all of that, unless we learn how to 'lose our lives' for Christ, we won't ever find our real lives, our Christ centred lives.

We can reinvent Church a million times over, have a preach in a pub, preach in a coffee shop, sing coldplay instead of matt redman, have interesting table discussions, we can pioneer all the forms of fresh expressions we like, grow as many cell groups and clusters as we can. But unless we start modelling real discipleship, real following in every aspect of our lives, we won't grow.

We might have more people in meetings, more 'converts'. But I think there's a definite difference between converts and disciples. I'm not satisfied being a person who turns up to Church every Sunday and cell group every Thursday just to go on living and acting like everyone else. I want Christ and the kingdom movement to infest every aspect of my life. Otherwise I will lose my life.

I don't know entirely what it looks like to be honest, but I think it starts with realising that we cannot segment our spiritual and normal lives. If we've given up our entire live to follow Jesus- the pint in the pub with my mate is just as much living a life focused on Jesus as the two hour sermon on Sunday. The reading a great novel, listening to a great album is just as much worshipful (or at least should be) as singing Tim Hughes songs on a Sunday. We need to start seeing God in more things rather than less things. Otherwise it's going to be impossible to live devoted, Christ centred lives. I'm not suggesting that we all stop meeting in Church meetings, that we stop preaching sermons, stop writing crap worship songs (ok maybe I am suggesting we should stop this...) But rather that it just isn't enough. It's not enough for a Christ centred life to just do these things more.

We need to stop the attitude which says the only things that are of value, the only things that are worshipful and the only things which are focused on Christ are the things of organised 'Church'. I'm challenged to rethink what 'Church' is, what following Jesus means and how I can make that prayer I wrote on my lecture notes an outworking in my life. That's what I'm striving for.

Shine a Light

I think often we have this idea as Christians that people look at us and see in us something they want. That just being around us is enough to make them realise that we’re ‘distinctive’, that there’s something different about us that they want for their lives and then they become Christians. I’ve heard this idea preached about and talked about so many times. But honestly, I’m not sure how true it is. Firstly, it doesn’t obviously work; if it did then there wouldn’t be as many people that were close to us that weren’t Christians. Surely they would have ‘seen the light’ by now. But as far as I can see, I’ve got plenty of non-Christian friends who are quite happy with their lives, and don’t particularly want what I’ve got. They’re quite happy for me to believe what I believe but they don’t want it. Should my job be to convince them that they need to change?

Jesus says that we’re called to be ‘light of the world’, that we should be distinctive and shine goodness where there is darkness, to show people the glory of the kingdom of God. My worry is that we’ve not got something the world wants anymore. What does the world see in Christian living that it wants? Often I think it sees only frigid, self denying, uptight, sexually frustrated hypocrites. That’s not to say that this is always the case, I think that there are genuine ‘lights’ out there. But I’m not one of them. It’s a little ignorant of us to assume that if our friends were all a little more like us and believed what we did that they would be better off. I think if we have the idea that just by being a Christian we’re a ‘light’ into their lives, we’re mistaken. Of course it could be that the world just can’t realise how much it needs what we’ve got. I’ve often heard the idea that we’re somehow ‘deep down’ happier and more content in a way that a non-Christian can never be. But I know plenty of miserable, grumpy Christians and plenty of genuine contented non-Christians. So what is it that I’ve got that makes me so ‘distinctive’; that makes me ‘light in the darkness’?

God’s promise to Abraham and his descendents was:

“I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse, and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

I think this still is the promise God makes to us today. That because of the blessings he pours on us, that we can be a blessing to this world. The Jews had something that everyone wanted; victory assured in battle, security from their enemies. Today I think the perception of Christianity is that it’s all about moderation and abstinence. We become Christians and believe in God so that we can ‘go to heaven’ when we die, then we live our lives not having sex until we’re married, not getting drunk, not swearing and living by a bunch of out dated moral rules. Basically having less fun than everyone else but not being much different other than that. I think it’s summed up quite well in a Laura Marling lyric: “I sold my soul to Jesus and since then I’ve had no fun”. Rather than looking at Christians and thinking that they’re missing out on something I think most people think that it’s us that are somehow missing out.

If we’re no different to our friends who don’t know Jesus, then this isn’t really surprising. If the difference is that I go to Church on a Sunday, read my bible every day, drink a little less and don’t have sex then I don’t think we really understand ‘distinctiveness’. This isn’t something that the world wants to pursue. And to be honest, I don’t really blame them. If this is the only difference, then how am I in a position to tell someone they should live differently? When Jesus is talking about Salt & Light, I don’t think this is what he meant. The light of the world is not watered down, easy comfortable Christian living. It isn’t living like everyone else with a ‘secret guide’ telling us how to do it better than everyone else. Sometimes we have the tendency to think that Christian living is about living how others live but with our own built in sat-nav telling us what to do next.

If we don’t start seeking real kingdom transformation in our lives then we’re in danger of losing all relevance to this generation of people who are happy with what they’ve got. How can we expect people to change, how can we expect that we will be a blessing if we’ve got nothing to give? The kingdom of God is not an ‘ad-on’ to our lives, an enhancement to what we’re already doing, it is radical transformation. It is denying yourself to seek God's kingdom. Until I can see transformation in my life, I don’t expect anyone to notice what I’ve got, and why should they?

I think the imagery of ‘light’ is quite significant in what Jesus says. If we spend all of our time in comfortable Christianity it’s no wonder we’re not particularly distinctive. Try lighting a candle and putting it outside in the middle of summer. That’s not distinctive. Being ‘light’ requires us to shine in darkness. If we don’t seek darkness, it’s pretty difficult to know how light we’re shining. The whole idea of ‘blessed to be a blessing’ is that we become real change seekers. Not waiting for people notice what we’ve got, but taking light to the darkness. We should become the people that say ‘it’s not right that there are people are sleeping on our streets while we’re sleeping in beds’, ‘it’s not right that people are being trafficked in our cities’, ‘it’s not right that people die of curable diseases every day’. I long to be more radical in my living, to really seek kingdom change, but at the moment I live shining comfortably in the light.

Think of the darkest place you know. The place where there is a real absence of God, where people are just longing for change but can’t get it. Be light there. That’s distinctive. I long to live like this, but honestly most of the time I’m either crippled by doubt or fear. But this is what I think distinctive living really looks like. I want the world to look at me and see a change seeker, a justice seeker, a blessing, a light. At the moment I don’t think it’s any wonder that people don’t want what I’ve got.

The idea that people see something in me that they want can be a real catalyst to laziness, a motivation to stop seeking kingdom change, and just living comfortably among people hoping that they will notice. This is not what I want for my life.