QUESTIONING...

Just a quick moment of self-reflexivity to look back on my own hypocrisy.
It seems the further I get into 'the conversation' the more I wish I'd never stumbled upon it.
Here's a query for myself and others in our quest to know how much critique is too much...

People of a similar ilk to me will often argue the two following points:

a.) That the 'Way of the Master' method of Evangelism is off. That to ask people to turn-or-burn is wrong because scripture tells us that it is the job of the Holy Spirit to convict people of their sin, not ours.
b.) That if we do not critique and discuss issues with other ministries our brothers and sisters will create a distorted presentation of who Jesus is. That critique is an essential part of us giving the best we can to this world.

Here's are my questions:

Q:Why is the Spirit enough to convict non-christians of their sin, but not enough to convict Christians of their errors within ministry?

Q:Why do we trust God will prompt those who don't know him, yet feel such an urgency to tell other christians how they should present him to the world?

Interested to hear your thoughts...

A LITTLE RESPECT FOR MR. LUCAS

Okay, so I agree he totally botched Episodes I-III, but this Tuesday the 29th of May commemorates 20 years since the original Star Wars (Ep IV: A New Hope) was released to worldwide acclaim in 1977.



This trailer is also a convenient distraction from my lack of wisdom, insight, or thought to add to the blog community at the moment. You didn't notice did you?!

WORK

Work is crazy at the moment. Currently I'm trying to juggle about 15 concerts. 5 of them throughout the North Island, 5 of them in Wellington High Schools, and the last 5 back at Zeal. One of these mini-tours involves an amazing performer named Kimbra. Enjoy!

PRIMAL WELLY

Why I loved my time at Primal Wellington last Thursday night...

"...there's more to it than just mission; most great movements of mission have inspired significant and related movements of renewal in the life of the church. It seems that when the church engages at the fringes, it almost always brings life to the centre."
Alan Hirsch, 'The Forgotten Ways', p.30

www.primal.net.nz

SESAME STREET CRUSADE 2007

Over the last couple of months I've started listening to Tony Campolo's podcast, 'Accross the Pond'. Each week he works through a current issue in the media and discusses it from a Christian point of view. He made an interesting point a few weeks ago when discussing the Media's influence on young people.

When a 4 year old wakes up in the morning the first thing they may tune into is Sesame Street. On the surface the show is great. It introduces them to letters and numbers in a fun and accessible way. Rather than the letter 'A' simply being written on a chalk board, it has a little song and dance to go along with it. 'A' may even have the enormous honour of appearing alongside child royalty such as the Cookie Monster or Elmo (who in my opinion requires far too much tickling to maintain safe boundaries in youth work).

Now 'A' has as much right to a song and dance as any other letter, but what happens when the observer (your son, daughter, niece or nephew) turns 5 and heads to school? The letters and numbers no longer dance, the animals no longer talk, and one must face the stark reality that Elmo has a hand up his ass! Campolo argues that because young people are raised with an understanding of the alphabet soaked in stimuli and sensory bombardment, they struggle to engage with the actual reality of the alphabet. In other words, anything outside television now appears boring.

It's an interesting idea which I'm still wrestling with. Immediately I start to think about one of the highlights of the Soul Survivor New South Wales conference I was at in Sydney a couple of weeks ago. Mike Pilavachi (a visiting speaker from the UK) made a fantastic call on the last night of the festival:

"I don't care for big shows, big sounds, and big lights. If God doesn't show up at one of our meetings we should be saying 'That was a crap meeting!'" (paraphrased)

What a beautiful way of putting it. It gets me thinking, perhaps often our relationship with God is somewhat similar to Sesame Street's relationship with the letter A. The letter is the not the way the medium of television needs it to be, so they sex it up! The letter A doesn't make you wanna dance, so they put a soundtrack to it. It seems to me much the same as some of the ways we do services today.

I would argue that there is a fear in some faith communities that God may not turn up the way we want him to. He may not be able to be heard, felt, smelt or seen, so we create a sensory experience just in case. Could it be that our extravagantly put together services are merely a reflection of a lack of faith that God will move in a Godly manner, not necessarily the in the way we desire him to. How many pastors out there are actually content to have what appears to be a 'crap service' every now and then? Where maybe God doesn't show himself the way we understand him, but still ministers to our hearts at a level our minds just can't understand?

I believe that God will often move in ways we can experience tangibly. I am not denying the importance of God moving through understandable feelings or a sounds. But can we accept God for who he is? Is God still God to us when we strip away the packaging? Nearly every experience we have in life is mediated by someone. The information is passed-on, repackaged, and rejigged to suit our circumstances.

Are we happy with a second-hand saviour?