Vintage21 Church in Raleigh, North Carolina, has a satirical video series on YouTube originally developed for a four week teaching series on Jesus developed in 2003. The four videos dub satirical voice overs on scenes from a classic Jesus film, highlighting what are regarded as preconceived notions from a staunch starched Sunday School era of the past.
Hide and Seek
“No Peter I wasn’t playing hide and seek. I only told you that so you would leave me alone. You see I’m an important guy…”
Church Meeting or Football
“Rule number two. You’re not allowed to have any fun unless you’re laughing at how dumb the devil is”.
Naming the Sinners
“Frank we all know what you did, but I can’t repeat it…because I’m Jesus”.
“John you drank too much wine the other night, not way too much just enough to make me angry”.
Jesus in the Temple
“Okay get me off this thing, if i can walk on water i can walk to the door”.
Doug’s well known for his role in Solomon’s Porch, a ‘holistic missional Christian community’ in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He’s one of the founders of Emergent Village, a social network of Christian leaders based in the United States.
A Christianity Worth Believing is a solid introduction to theology in development, carefully crafted with story, personal reflection and quotes from the Bible, the creeds and Protestant confessions. Pagitt begins the whole book with the story of his family background (explaining his need to stir) and his conversion. It’s the conversion story that sets up the tension that runs through the book. Deeply moved by his experience of a gospel play, a sixteen year old Doug responds with a life changing faith. But within two weeks the guy’s been introduced to the narrow version of Christianity contained in brochures, diagrams and statements of faith focused on Jesus dying to deal with sin so that God can connect with Doug.
Doug takes us on a journey with him as he reimagines what Christianity might be about. He introduces us to contextualisation through the Celtic adoption of the wild goose when talking about the Holy Spirit (rather than the traditional dove). He traces the modern obsession with uniformity back to the Greco-Roman adoption of Christianity in the time of Constantine. Today, he says, we’re still interpreting the story of Jesus through the lenses developed for a world dominated by Greek dualism and gods that needed to be appeased.
I like the way Doug writes about the Scriptures. “It’s in the way that you use it”, he says. Why is it, he asks, that the inerrancy concept is hauled out when we talk about certain emotive issues such as homosexuality but is abandoned when discussing other critical matters? When Paul talked about the Word of God being a sword did he really mean for us to use it as a weapon in our efforts to show that we are right and others are wrong? Doug is inviting his readers to think, really think, about the way they read the Bible, not as a one-dimensional instruction book, but as a resource that brings meaning and inspiration to us at different times and places.
Doug challenges us to take another look at what our focus is about. Is it about getting up and out of here, off to heaven, or out of the world into a safe place? Is that what God is about? Or is it about being down and in, thoroughly integrating faith with every part of our lives in a way that leads to being embedded in our communities? Do we take the incarnation (in the flesh) of Jesus seriously enough that we put it into practice ourselves?
Doug takes a crack at the atonement debate by beginning with the concept of original sin brought into mainstream theology by Augustine of Hippo in the fourth century. He suggests that the new Christendom model needed a compelling reason for citizens to turn up at the church. What better than to say that everyone was totally depraved and heading for hell without the intervention of Jesus, and of course the church as agents of Jesus? As Doug points out, even those who talk about original sin find it difficult to reconcile that approach when visiting maternity wards.
So is Doug a wishy washy theologian who now believes that Jesus was just a nice guy who had some useful things to say about life? Doug doesn’t think so. He admits that he’s had to do some hard thinking about alternatives to the penal substitution (Jesus died to take the punishment meant for us) explanation of Jesus’ life and death. He does this in the book by going back to the Jewish roots of Jesus, exploring the Hebrew concept of Messiah in contrast to the Greek understanding of Christ. Jesus is the fulfilment of what people are meant to do and be (The Human One or Son of Man). But more.
The final chapters deal with our historical obsession with heaven. Once again Doug grounds Jesus’ teaching on the kingdom of God in the Jewish concept of integration of all life together, here and now. He suggests that the Jewish scriptures don’t point too much to the future. In some ways I disagree. The Apocalyptic writings, and some of Jesus’ teaching, do indicate an interest in the long term future of the world. However we’d be hard pressed to find much in the Bible that focuses on what happens to us as individuals after we die.
Doug’s final chapter on future hope and heaven in some ways was a disappointing end to the book. It was like a chapter in progress, not as fine tuned as the earlier work. But maybe that’s a useful framework in itself. Doug’s presenting us with where he’s at now, recognising that he’s still exploring. As the father of a little girl who died at 18 months, I resonate with the story Doug tells in this section. I have a confidence that as we finish in this dimension we are held by God. But I’m not preparing for an ethereal bodiless stint in the heavenly choir.
Doug often refers to the Greeks as the ones who have given us the narrow faith perspectives we have today. I wonder what his Greek friends think of that! The reality is that society has moved along a little since the time of Augustine (as have the Greeks) but still is informed by some of the frameworks established then. The whole modernism/postmodernism phenomenon is in some ways an expression of a society that is critiquing the assumptions provided by those frameworks.
I imagine that A Christianity Worth Believing will be a useful tool for people wanting an alternative to the pre-packaged fundamentalism they’ve encountered in the church, not only in books but in the preaching, songs and explanations of what it means to become a Christian. I’d be interested in seeing or even developing a discussion guide for people talking through the book as they read it. Doug has a Facebook group set up for this purpose.
However I am sure that A Christianity Worth Believing will also become one more weapon in the ongoing culture wars of the church. The book will be quoted as evidence that Emergent and anyone associated with the emerging church really have gone off the rails and become liberals (read apostate). Those who take all their cues from the Westminster Confession will be thoroughly cheesed off by the number of times Pagitt points to the distortions found within. However many Presbyterians will be in total agreement with Doug! It was for this very reason that the Free Church of Scotland in 1892 passed the Declaratory Act.
Final thought. As much as Doug’s book is about belief, I get the sense that he’s presenting us with a Christianity worth living and worth sharing.
Film director and photographer Peter Rodger is working with composer Alexander van Bubenheim to shoot Oh My God, a film set in over 22 countries, exploring the different ideas and thoughts people from around the world have on God. Rodger is treating the film as a work in progress and has released a four minute trailer based on filming already done in India, Kenya, Israel, Palestinian territories, Morocco and the United States of America.
Peter explains some of the background to the Oh My God project.
“We are experiencing days of religious turmoil, of fundamentalism, fanaticism and the breakdown of spirituality through technology and reason. After the collapse of the piety that was rooted in myth, cult, occult, ancient myths and religions, I ask the question, “What is God?” It’s not so much “Who is God”, but “What” is God?”
“I want this question to be answered from the mouths of many different people - from religious leaders to a peasant child; from an industrialist to a fisherman off the coast of India; from a Hollywood celebrity to a Maasai Warrior.”
Peter says that many of his subjects were stimulated by the question, “What is God?” to start thinking, in some cases coming back to ask for a second interview to express new insights.
The trailer is available to download in HD Quicktime,
Tony Jones, national director of Emergent in the USA, has started up a video series on YouTube, featuring some of the people and thinking found in his book, “The New Christians”. The first features Trucker Frank, a guy who tells it like it is. Frank discovered that Jesus focused on what we do now rather than life after death. Frank got kicked out of the church he was pastoring for talking to the people who had left. The act that tipped the scales was throwing down a fake plant, in its pot, and telling the remnant that they were as fake as that plant…
Being a prophet is an exciting calling but it’s hard to find people who will pay you to live it out.
Tony will be in Australia in October, for Black Stump Festival in Sydney. We’re in conversation about the possibility of a visit to Queensland.
Ben Elton provides a cutting critique of cultural trends at the beginning of the 21st century in this novel set after the flood. Global warming has led to much of Britain being submerged. FaceSpace culture has led to the disappearance of privacy. The Temple (combine massive manipulative Evangelical rallies with Mormon and Anglican structures) are in control of law and order. Trafford, the protagonist, discovers privacy, vaccination, books, humanism and evolution. Somewhat reminiscent of 1984 and Brazil the novel presents darkness and hope together.
This post-apocalyptic world combines elements of technology from today with a loss of standards of living. It’s hot in the UK - so hot that people have virtually given up wearing clothes. Modesty is a thing of the past. Turning up at a physical work space is a novelty. Trafford works for the government, in NatDat, finding new kinds of ‘degrees of separation’ between members of the population.
Vaccination, regarded as a dangerous meddling with nature, has been abandoned. And so the infant mortality rate has skyrocketed in the face of measles, mumps, tetanus, cholera, smallpox, bubonic plague and so on.
Every moment of life, including every sexual encounter, is captured on the WorldTube in a combination of exhibitionism and voyeurism. All foods are sweetened. Women are pressured into breast enlargements. Marriage is not as important as ‘getting married’.
Elton provides a tongue-in-cheek critique of the “Save the World” rock concerts and Evangelical faith gatherings. Faith Festivals in Blind faith are held in Wembley Stadium, with global satellite coverage.
“It was most inspiring to live in a world where ‘people power’ could mean so much, where a single concert could change the world irrevocably for the better, where things could be improved just because the people wanted them to improve. Simply by massing, cheering, listening to music and eating enormous amounts of takeaway food, everyone knew they could make a real difference”.
Time and time again Trafford and his newly found friends reflect on the contrast between reasoned humanism and irrational blind faith. The God of the Temple, Everlasting Love, is portrayed as one who is responsible for both wonderful miracles and the terrible suffering experienced by grieving parents. This is the God who created everything in six days. “Any God who kills a child to punish its parents is not worth worshiping!” Trafford argues.
Elton provides important warnings for us today. It is too easy to sacrifice a capacity for privacy in the quest to develop an online identity. Is it possible to retain the ability to write material that only we will ever read? With the move towards utilitarianism on the internet will we know when we’ve lost the capacity to reflect deeply, to think, to celebrate life, to form our own fantasies? Or will our superheroes of the future be the people who tell us to make money, become famous and look young and sexy?
The dark controlling nature of the religious institution in Blind Faith is only too possible when power and faith are combined in an environment of fear and ignorance. We have the Spanish Inquisition, John Calvin’s merciless rule in Geneva, and the complicity of Martin Luther in the quelling of the Peasants Revolt to keep us humble and alert.
In reading Blind Faith it’s important to remember that satire, by nature, exaggerates and amplifies the follies of a society’s existing weaknesses. There are individuals and groups who even now exhibit the disturbing behaviours and beliefs described in the book. It’s our responsibility to live, think and act in a way that ensures that these distortions of faith and reason do not become the norm.
I’m preparing a briefing paper for people training as coaches in the Uniting Church in Australia, Queensland Synod, focusing on the distinctive theological setting in which we work rather than attempting a generic approach that fits all. However there will and should be some resonance with other traditions. I’ve included quotes from the Uniting Church in Australia Basis of Union (1977).
1. Relational Framework.
We enter into one another’s lives aware that God is relational in nature. As Christians we perceive the being of God expressed in the relationship of Father, Son and Spirit, or, in a non-gendered framework, Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer. We see in that relationship the relational characteristics described by Paul in Galatians 5: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, and self control. In our coaching, we are called to take part in God’s reconciling engagement with the world in which we live, doing so with respect for boundaries, seeking to empower rather than control, aware of our own strengths and limitations, always recognising that we are witnesses and supporters of the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit.
“Jesus of Nazareth announced the sovereign grace of God whereby the poor in spirit could receive God’s love. Jesus himself, in his life and death, made the response of humility, obedience and trust which God had long sought in vain. In raising him to live and reign, God confirmed and completed the witness which Jesus bore to God on earth, reasserted claim over the whole of creation, pardoned sinners, and made in Jesus a representative beginning of a new order of righteousness and love. To God in Christ all people are called to respond in faith. To this end God has sent forth the Spirit that people may trust God as their Father, and acknowledge Jesus as Lord. The whole work of salvation is effected by the sovereign grace of God alone.”
2. Incarnational Framework
Our participation in the people of God is founded in the life of Christ. Just as Jesus entered the every day challenges of life, filled with the Spirit, we are called to participate in the mission of God in every part of our lives. This is explored in processes that engage body, mind, spirit and soul.
“The Church as the fellowship of the Holy Spirit confesses Jesus as Lord over its own life; it also confesses that Jesus is Head over all things, the beginning of a new creation, of a new humanity. God in Christ has given to all people in the Church the Holy Spirit as a pledge and foretaste of that coming reconciliation and renewal which is the end in view for the whole creation. The Church’s call is to serve that end: to be a fellowship of reconciliation, a body within which the diverse gifts of its members are used for the building up of the whole, an instrument through which Christ may work and bear witness to himself.”
3. The Whole People of God
We believe that participation in the ministry and mission of Christ is open to people of all ages, whether employed or not, whether in a recognised position or not. Coaching is a process that can be used to support people in their unique way witnessing, worshiping and serving.
“The Uniting Church affirms that every member of the Church is engaged to confess the faith of Christ crucified and to be his faithful servant. It acknowledges with thanksgiving that the one Spirit has endowed the members of Christ’s Church with a diversity of gifts, and that there is no gift without its corresponding service: all ministries have a part in the ministry of Christ.”
4. Faith as a Journey
We are a pilgrim people. Together we are discerning what it means to follow Christ, day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year. Faithfulness, perseverance, courage and humility are required as we constantly reassess our response to the dynamic leading of the Spirit. Coaching pilgrims involves listening, recognition of movement and progress, the capacity to encourage steps of faith in times of ambiguity and uncertainty.
“The Uniting Church’s Basis of Union draws on the motif of our being a people on the way: “The Church lives between the time of Christ’s death and resurrection and the final consummation of all things which Christ will bring; the Church is a pilgrim people, always on the way towards a promised goal; here the Church does not have a continuing city but seeks one to come.”
Heavenly Sanctuary, a Christian conference organisation focusing on the character of God, have stirred public opinion with a set of posters showing Jesus washing the feet of international leaders.
In the poster Jesus kneels at the feet of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, former English Prime Minister Tony Blair, former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, US president George W Bush, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and Jiang Zemin, former president of China.
The poster was designed by Lars Justinen from the Justinen Creative Group for use on posters advertising the conference. Different versions of the posters had captions such as “Follow the Leader,” “God IS Great,” and “Jesus - Still Too Radical?” Heavenly Sanctuary had the posters in several Seattle malls but had to take them down after complaints from the public about the inclusion of Osama Bin Laden in the line up.
Greg Boyd
Greg Boyd reflects on the negative reactions to the poster by suggesting that many Christians have tragically allowed their patriotism to co-opt their faith.
“They have allowed their American citizenship to take priority over their Kingdom citizenship, despite the New Testament’s instruction for disciples to consider themselves “foreigners” and “exiles” wherever they happen to live (Heb. 11:13; I Pet 1:17, 2:11) and to consider their real citizenship “in heaven” (Phil 3:20). Many American Christians seem to want a Jesus who will defend their country and hate their national enemies as much as they do. Many want the Jesus of the Middle Ages whom Crusaders called on to help them slaughter, not serve, their Islamic enemies. Many seem to want to reduce Jesus to just another version of the tribal gods that have been called on for centuries to bless tribal battles. Most wars throughout history have been fought under the banner of some god or another.”
Greg goes on to write about the real Jesus who wrapped a towel around his waist and washed the dirty, smelly feet of people he knew would deny and betray him in a couple of hours.
Kofi Annan
What I find interesting is that Jesus is actually washing Kofi Annan’s feet. The guy who’s been responsible for challenging, rebuking, negotiating, supporting and resourcing world leaders, is the first to have his shoes off and treated to a foot bath by the one many would consider to be the ultimate expression of God’s character in the flesh. The others know that they’re possibly next in line for this treatment. They’re being taught a valuable lesson in leadership and character, a radical alternative to the survival-focused model of rule or be ruled.
George Barna has just released the results of his research into the connection between religious beliefs and commitment to global warming and environmental protection in the United States.
Evangelicals Skeptical about Global Warming
Barna says that most “Born Again Evangelicals” are very skeptical about global warming and that viewpoint mirrors a general lack of enthusiasm for investing in environmental priorities. When it comes to recycling some product or material in a typical month, evangelical engagement is average.
Non-evangelical born agains put more emphasis on environmental protection than any other faith segment, yet their recycling is below average. They are not particularly resonant to the issue of global warming, though they assign climate change much more significance than do evangelicals.
Adults who are part of a faith other than Christianity, as well as atheists and agnostics are more active in recycling than are other Christian segments. Interestingly, a greater percentage of non-Christians perceive global warming to be important than say they believe environmental protection is “absolutely necessary.”
Notional Christians, the largest faith segment in America, are “average” all around. They perceive climate change and environmental investment as equally important and their recycling is better than born again Christians but not as advanced as non-Christians.
Why?
This raises significant questions doesn’t it. What about being “Evangelical” leads to a reluctance to do something about protecting the environment?
“Born again Christians” are defined as people who said they have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life today and who also indicated they believe that when they die they will go to Heaven because they had confessed their sins and had accepted Jesus Christ as their savior. Respondents are not asked to describe themselves as “born again.”
When Barna talks about “Evangelicals” he means those who meet the “born again criteria” (described above) plus seven other conditions. Those include saying their faith is very important in their life today; believing they have a personal responsibility to share their religious beliefs about Christ with non-Christians; believing that Satan exists; believing that eternal salvation is possible only through grace, not works; believing that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth; asserting that the Bible is accurate in all that it teaches; and describing God as the all-knowing, all-powerful, perfect deity who created the universe and still rules it today. Being classified as an evangelical is not dependent upon church attendance or the denominational affiliation of the church attended. Respondents were not asked to describe themselves as “evangelical.”
A number of these beliefs could lead a person to renege on responsibility for the environment.
1. Belief in “eternal salvation through grace, not works” can place a believer in double jeopardy. The focus on eternal salvation can lead to a downgrading of the “here and now”. The focus on grace means that Jesus is the one who did the most important work - getting me into heaven. Anything we do is really about preparing ourselves and others for life after death.
2. Describing God as the all-powerful can lead to the feeling that God is in charge of everything, including controlling the weather. Why should we do anything when God is already heating up the earth?
Maybe the “Evangelical” concept that Barna is perpetuating is part of the problem. What he’s describing is an American sub-culture that goes together with being Republican, economically downscale, churched and living in the Mid West.
Brian McLaren’s new book, Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Change and Revolution of Hope, is coming out in October. He’s provided a few samples from the book on YouTube.
The first video comes from the introduction. Be aware that the last 50 seconds of the video allow you time to reflect on what you’ve just heard…
A reading from chapter 24, reflecting on materialistic culture and the pressure to keep up with the latest.
An explanation of the title of the new book…
Brian talks about some of the examples of deep shift he’s been looking for…
From Brian McLaren’s Deep Shift site, he explains the background to the book and the speaking tour he’s doing around its publication…
We Are In Deep Shift.
A time of transition, rethinking, re-imagining, and re-envisioning. A time for asking new questions
and seeking answers that are both new and old, fresh and seasoned, surprising and familiar.
What does it mean, in today’s world, to be a follower of God in the way of Jesus?
What does it mean to be a faith community engaged in the holistic, integral mission of God in our world today?
How do we, as individuals and faith communities, respond faithfully to the crises facing our world?
What is our duty to God, ourselves, our families, our neighbors, our enemies, and our planet in light of Jesus’ radical message of the kingdom of God?
How can we engage in personal formation and theological reformulation for global transformation?
Forge Missional Training Network Queensland held the second half of its intensive on sustainable spirituality, discipleship, sustainability in a consumerist culture in Brisbane this last weekend.
Steve Said, on loan from Tear Fund in Melbourne, provided some helpful models for development of faith practices related to just lifestyle. He provocatively suggested that many approaches to prayer are more pagan than Christian, treating God as a source of goodies that can be manipulated through magic formulas (my words). He finished Friday with a session on the art of critical contextualization.
My sessions on Saturday focused on generational values and the ways in which we embed the gospel, connecting the Biblical narrative, the context we find ourselves in, and motifs. One of the interesting reflections was the way in which models of church reflect the generational values of those who start and promote them. We contrasted the early Baby Boomer large regional churches with the small alternative communities being started by Gen Xers.
One of the resources that got us talking was John Driver’s Gates to the Cross model, explored earlier here at Gospel Notes.
A highlight for each Forge gathering is the telling of stories from alternative approaches to church. We heard from Joshua Tree on the Sunshine Coast (Steve & Felicity Turner, Kelly Edington) and Pathway (Steve Drinkall). That’s Steve Drinkall on the left below, and Steve Turner on the right.
Duncan Macleod posts on life, faith and culture in Australia, drawing from his involvement in the creative industry, the Uniting Church, the blogosphere, generational research, the emerging church and life on the Gold Coast.
This post-apocalyptic world combines elements of technology from today with a loss of standards of living. It’s hot in the UK - so hot that people have virtually given up wearing clothes. Modesty is a thing of the past. Turning up at a physical work space is a novelty. Trafford works for the government, in NatDat, finding new kinds of ‘degrees of separation’ between members of the population.
