Glocal Christianity

Against Mediocrity

Have you ever heard the expression, "The group hikes at the speed of the slowest person"?

I heard someone use that the other week, as a compassionate excuse for slowing down for people who're slow to adapt to change. My thoughts? Sounds very wise ... if you consider mediocrity a virtue … and if you're ok with the church not being here in twenty years.

Tell me, would you let the slowest surgeon set the schedule for an operating theatre … when patients are dying? Or, would you let the slackest footsoldier set the pace for an army … in an actual combat situation? No, God no. That would get you all killed. If the soldier was injured you'd pick him up and carry him. If he was incompetant … well, you'd hope he was already weeded out in basic training. In any case, mediocrity won't do. Too much is at stake.

So why should we consider mediocrity acceptable in church? Why should we let the prayerless person set the benchmark for prayer or the mission adverse person set the benchmark for mission? Mediocrity wasn't acceptable for Jesus. He warned people to count the cost, he called people to push themselves. Yes, we need to guard against legalism. But our commitment to generosity and grace does not mean their won't be times we have to brush the dust off our feet, so to speak, and leave the recalcitrant behind. Where slow people are open to being carried, we should carry them, but where they're not, well, move on. Yeah, some may be lost along the way, but consider the many more who'll be lost if we let the lazy and insular lead.

Sound harsh?

Unity in Community

What does it mean to be a unified Christian community? It's interesting to note that when the issue of unity comes up in the Acts of the Apostles, musical conformity NEVER rates a mention. Nor does language, dress, social structure or even, dare I say it, theology.

So what does rate a mention? Read it for yourself, "All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need."

To be unified was to share one hope and one wallet, to share one love and one way of life.

In a sense I exaggerate, there is a sort of theological conformity expected here. But it's  theology of a very basic and very practical kind, a theology that requires no college degrees, that even a child can understand. To be unified as Christians means to trust in Christ and to live like Christ, together, with one another. Our unity should be gauged by how we live Monday, not by how we sing Sunday.

Is Jesus the Christ?

This morning I was reading the Acts of the Apostles, reflecting on what it had to say about the good news and the practice of evangelism.

In the course of the book, the author recalls, "Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ."

Think about that. Stripped to its simplest form, the good news is nothing more and nothing less than the announcement that Jesus is the Christ, that Jesus is the Messiah. Whenever we call Jesus "Christ", whenever we call Jesus "Lord", we're evangelising.

This brings into very sharp focus the anti-Christian nature of any attempt to drive a wedge between Jesus and Christ. Whenever a distinction is drawn between the "Jesus of history" and the "Christ of faith" by secular historians, or between "Jesus of Nazareth" and the "Cosmic Christ" by Hindu gurus, therein lies another gospel, a counter Christian gospel.

Too often it is assumed this is too obvious. I wonder how that would affect our practice if most Christians were more deeply conscious of how less than obvious it is for many.

Summarise the Bible in five statements

My friend Sally tagged me: Summarise the Bible in five statements, the first one word long, the second two, the third three, the fourth four and the last five words long. Or possibly you could do this in descending order. Tag five people.

Here's my Bible summary:

1. Revelation
2. God acts
3. Jesus changes everything
4. Spirit calls us forth
5. Now, how will you live?

I tag Nadia, Jamie, Jarred, Brad, Steve

Atheist Ad Blooper

Times Online has reported that the children chosen to front the latest Atheist Bus campaign as icons of humanism are actually from a Christian family, evangelical in fact.

Their former pastor says, “I think it is hilarious that the happy and liberated children on the atheist poster are in fact Christian.” Given the campaign slogan of "Please don't label me", their bemused father says he finds the atheist labelling "ironic". Ooops!

C S Lewis on Tyranny and War

Here are some quotes I have collected from C S Lewis on the topic of tyranny and war. I found some of them quite surprising and thought provoking.

That is the key to history. Terrific energy is expended -- civilizations are built up -- excellent institutions devised; but each time something goes wrong. Some fatal flaw always brings the selfish and cruel people to the top, and then it all slides back into misery and ruin. In fact, the machine conks. It seems to start up all right and runs a few yards, and then it breaks down.

Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victim may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated, but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

War creates no absolutely new situation: it simply aggravates the permanent human situation so that we can no longer ignore it. Human life has always been lived on the edge of a precipice.

A man may have to die for our country: but no man must, in any exclusive sense, live for his country. He who surrenders himself without reservation to the temporal claims of a nation, or a party, or a class is rendering to Caesar that which, of all things, most emphatically belongs to God: himself.

'Useful,' and 'necessity' was always 'the tyrant's plea'.

If war is ever lawful, then peace is sometimes sinful.

Do not waste time bothering whether you "love" your neighbor; act as if you did.

There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, "All right, then, have it your way”

Wii Pray

Get down on your knees with this awesome new Wii app :-)

Blocked Comments

It seems my spam filter has been overzealous this week. Thanks for those who brought this to my attention. As you correctly surmised, I don't normally censor. You should find your blocked comments published now. Now I need to do some digging to find out why. 

Community, let's get real

Did any of you catch Bob Hyatt's article, Virtual Church is STILL a Bad Idea? I must say, my own experience leaves me inclined to agree. Virtual conversation can compliment real community, but it can't substitute it. Virtual conversation can open up new possibilities, but those possibilities becomes most crystalized in face to face communion. I say this having met up with a few "facebook friends" in the flesh only last week. Meeting in the flesh is not equivalent to meeting in cyberspace, it's far better.

Cosmetic Cruelty

The caption reads: For long eyelashes, this is how 300,000 lab animals suffer each year.

What do God have to say?

Genesis 49:6 - Let me not enter their council, let me not join their assembly, for they have killed men in their anger and hamstrung oxen as they pleased.

Exodus 23:12 - Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work, so that your ox and your donkey may rest and the slave born in your household, and the alien as well, may be refreshed.

Proverbs 12:10 - A righteous man cares for the needs of his animal, but the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel.