Future Stock!

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.!.

This article first published in Benchmark Magazine (http://www.benchmarkmag.com/).

Barbie: Fairytopia

Pensions! Does anyone still believe that the pension system is functional? Do any of us think that pensions will provide for us when we retire? What is going on?

Surely the point of retirement was originally to provide for those who were too unfit, through age, to work? Pension was society’s provision of an income for those who could not provide for themselves due to, age related, forced retirement from useful work.

Somewhere along the line we confused this pure vision of care for the elderly and developed a selfish vision of escaping the ‘horror'(!) of our working lives and living out a leisure fantasy that we surely deserved!

Be Kind Rewind

Well, living as a community just isn’t like that! We all have a responsibility to do good for one another. John Calvin once said that Christians should “choose those employments which yield the greatest advantage to their neighbour.â€?

Fortunately, you and I both know people who seek to redeem their retirement, doing community work, caring for people and many other positive activities that contribute to the strength of their community. Perhaps, if we take Calvin’s advice, we can only truly review our activities at any point in our lives if we seek to break through the distinction between paid work and other forms of work.

Aside from all this there is a need for us to recognise where our provision is coming from. We should always seek to provide for ourselves and only rely upon our communities (the state) to provide for us if we are unable to do so.

Looking at the state of retirement pensions today we see two kinds: We see taxation of workers to provide for retirees (as per National Insurance) and we also see workers saving up for retirement (as per pension funds). We have looked at the former of these two in the brief comments about a community’s provision for it’s dependants. Savings, however, are a very different matter.

We recognise that we live in a changing world. We know that there is no such thing as 100% security. We see pension funds going to the wall, with pensioners ending up losing all of their life’s savings. We also see the risk of prolonged recession eating into our savings, we also live in an age of fantastic medical advances where if we live to be 100 years old we will only have done paid work for half of our lives! Compare this with an era (or even other parts of today’s world) were economically productive work starts at around age 5 and continues until you die aged 43! That would be 88% of your life working!

Are we going to insist that the our children pay for our retirement? Are the young going to rise up against the old and refuse to pay, or is our ageing population going to ensure that any democratic decision is in favour of the retirees?

Setting Up Church

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Is it possible to ‘set up’ a church? I’m not sure.

If you ‘set up’ a church then there is immediately a sense of heirarchy, the founders and the invitees – you also immediately have other structures and practices such as a meeting place and a meeting time. I’m not sure if these things are fundamentally important to being church. I wonder how much they get in the way?

Spider-Man 2 on dvd

To me, church is about being friends with other people who are also part of Christ’s body. I’m tempted to think that this means I am church with whatever Christian’s I spend time with… even if they already ‘go to a church’ (how bizarre is the term ‘go to a church’?! How can one ‘go to a church’?).

I wonder if the term ‘church planting’ was first coined to overcome this problem of whether it was possible to ‘set up’ a church? The basic concept of the term ‘church planting’ is surely merely the concept of being church, mixing with brother’s and sister’s and then church emerging from that basic root.

Be Kind Rewind movie

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Lets listen to fill the vacuum

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There is a great discussion going on with tall skinny kiwi here here and Jesus Creed here sparked by DA Carsons forth coming book.
But more importantly the discussion could be the beginnings of a genuine dialogue between the edge and core, the missionaries and the academics. At times I feel very frustrated that academia don’t seem to hear the stories unless written in academic form. So it was surprising yesterday to hear “Meet them where they’re at� was on the reading list for an MA in Evangelism and Mission. To kick things off I thought Skinnys Reflections on Acts 15 is great and is very helpful to the process.

Skinny says, Peter, an authority figure, got up and said the new stuff was really important. That shut everyone up. They were listening.
2. Barnabas and Paul, the missionary-travellers-eyewitnesses-storytellers, told stories about what God was doing out there where the action was. They listen to the stories.
3. James, the teacher, whips out a can of Old Testament Teaching and locates the present situation in the Scriptures. They listen to his counsel.
“Then the apostles and elders, with the whole church, decided to choose some of their own men and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas” 15:22
Here’s the deal.
1. In the past 7 years, we have had key authority figures rise up and give their blessing to the emerging church – Rick Warren, Len Sweet, Thom Wolf, E.B. Brooks, Tom Wright, Eddie Gibbs, Rowan Williams, etc, – and the whole church has been called to listen.
2. Right now, missionaries who travel and bloggers from around the world, are reporting that the new churches are emerging out of the global postmodern culture with the blessing of God and the good fruit of changed lives and reconciled communities. Thats where I put myself – as one of those storytellers, eyewitnesses, and participants.
3. The teachers are rising up and locating what God is doing in the present with Biblical precedent and historical memory. Thats why if you want to follow this story to the next installment, you should shift over to Scot McKnight’s blog Jesus Creed.

In some ways I have a foot in both camps (academia and mission) and regularly get frustrated, so I hope to blog around this subject again, particularly around rethinking church and the theological vacuum that post Christendom culture and emerging church is creating. However it may take me a day or two to put it together.

Huge volcanoe destroys town

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I have been trying to catch up on some work very behind hence the lack of blogs recently. My son (aged 10) has been drawing a huge volcanoe with molten lava, and flying rocks destroying a town. He is waiting for lift to a mates house for a sleep over, it is a very good but I wonder what the motivation was for the picture. He has asked me the question “is it true that when they are not erupting they are freezing inside before you get to the lava at the base you freeze?” I don’t think so but if you have been inside a volcanoe recently let me know!

Reluctance to Change

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Stuart Murray’s ‘Post-Christendom’ has got me thinking!

I wonder if there is reluctance to change in the church for this reason:
If dramatic change takes place, anyone who is in a position of power or influence in the church (or ‘a’ church) is likely to find themselves on a level with others, without an advantage. They would find themselves beginners again, unfamiliar with their newly deconstructed/reconstructed environment.

Does this mean that such people might resist change? I wonder…

Apathetic immigrant children and church unity

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Hi, you never forget your first time… Something from the Swedish front. It´s really interesting to recogise the unity of the church in Sweden at the moment. Almost every church from the official Swedish Lutheran church to the Pentecostal are participating in a huge “Easter Appeal” regarding immigrant children. The thing is that we have lots of children of immigrants who have become apathetic due to the time it takes to receive the permission to stay (or not to stay)in the country. This is not good for a country which regards itself as a human country… Churches of Sweden have reacted in relation to this together – maybe it will be several thousands (maybe hundreds of thousands) who sign will this appeal. I really like this because when we have this real question – we see some kind of unity between the churches for the sake of humans!!! It gives me hope!

The blessed mourners

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Some of the young people I work with have recently lost a good friend in a tragic accident. As youth workers we are confronting the issue of how we respond to this. We want to offer hope, comfort and space to reflect on, and deal with, the situation. We don’t want, in any way, to abuse or manipulate the situation (sadly something which I believe could easily happen in some faith based youth work contexts). Whilst praying and thinking about the situation my thoughts inevitably found their way to Jesus’ sermon on the mount. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” What does that mean? How is it really experienced in a way that makes any lived and felt difference to these lads lives? I realised I don’t have a clue what the answers are to these questions. I also realised that this is the answer to my earlier question about how we should respond. How can you be manipulating someone if you are in a position in which you have the questions and they may just have the answers? They are the ones who are mourning (I am very sad about this young life cut short, but I didn’t actually know him). They are the ones who may just be experiencing this ‘comfort’ that Jesus talked about. These lads are often seen and labelled as anti-social, criminal, in need of learning and changing. In at least this situation though, it is me who needs to learn from them. I think I’ll go and ask them what on earth Jesus was talking about.

Post Easter Reflection

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I always thought it was significant that Jesus first appeared to Mary, a woman. Prompted by the Easter readings I was intrigued by Jesus many appearances and how in some ways they mirrored the relationships restored through the cross. Jesus and Peter by the lake – Man to himself, Jesus and the fishermen – Man and creation Jesus and the disciples with Thomas – Man to Man Jesus and the road to Emmaus – Man to God. What do you think?Hellraiser: Hellworld psp

Why I may or may not vote

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Because I havent read all the information.
Because I am generally pro labour but I was against the war and was let down.
Because Blair seems to have lied
Because Howard’s conservatism seems further right than he says
Because I am unsure if Kennedy would last long enough to see things through
Because the other options would be a wasted vote
Because The Lets have another party Party don’t seem to standing a candidate in the area.
Because I was challenged by Marks reasoning for not voting (see post below).
Because I am idealist and a realist and unsure which way to fall.
Because I am unsure what Jesus would do (WWJV)
Because I think a really turn out may help the under 18s get the vote next time around
Because I haven’t worked out how not vote in an effective way
Because of Mandela, Ghandi, Pankhurst and others
Because I am an activist, but mostly an undecided

Why I’m Not Going To Vote!

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The General Election has been announced and I am, admittedly, following it with interest. However, I am not going to vote. This may surprise you, but I have good reason to take this course of inaction.

Society needs government to ensure order and prevent anarchy. We even see that God is behind the appointment of governments (Romans 13:1 – Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.).

The rule of government is the establishment of laws which must be obeyed by the society. In the case of democracy it is the imposition of rules by a society upon itself. Such rules only have relevance because of the power behind them – the power of punishment. After all, if there were no punishments then laws would only be suggestions! Ultimately punishment is only enforceable because of the threat of violence to those who do not toe the line. Even if you do something as small as shoplifting the only way they can stop you from walking away free is to use violence against you, in order to apprehend you and then punish you. Violence is only unnecessary when the kindly criminal is happy to co-operate – and if there is no threat of force then the criminal will happily walk free.

I am a pacifist and therefore refuse to participate in physical violence. I see no record of Jesus being physically violent or even encouraging it – in fact he is recorded to have opposed violence.

Christ did not come to free his people from the Roman occupation. There were many injustices in his society and Jesus did not participate in those injustices, he practised justice. However, he did not spend his time trying to force change on society, instead he invited individuals to change. He did not come to set slaves free in the natural sense, only in the ‘real’ sense of setting people free (by opening up the possibility of us a relationship with God).

Christ did not come to establish a moral law in society which everyone would have to abide by. Christ came to establish the law in our hearts, to change us from the inside – he recognised that change could only come from God in our hearts and not by law from the outside. He recognised the failings of ‘The Law’ and came to make the most incredible change in the history of mankind, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Democracy is the idea of finding a common morality to abide by. All members of a democracy are prevented from doing what they want to do – whether that be speeding, murder, being noisy, dropping litter, meeting in large groups etc. Democracy also imposes taxation on the society – money is redistributed according to the democratic choice. I’m not hear to make enemies by forcing people to do my will, or even by forcing people to do God’s will (is that even possible?). I will make enemies if I impose morality on people. Why do you think politicians are widely despised?

We have a tendency to judge how ‘good’ a society is by our own set of human values. ‘Good’ however, is in God’s eyes, not ours. ‘Good’ is only when we do God’s will. People cannot do God’s will by following ‘Christian’ laws, they can only do it by knowing him and loving him. Our mission is to show God’s love to people and be an example of this counter cultural way of life.

I am not going to vote in the elections. I am very happy for society to decide for itself what they want to do, but I’m not here to be part of that system. I am in society, but I hope that I’m not of it.

Vote for God’s love – don’t vote in the elections! Serve, don’t rule.