I have collated my recent trilogy of posts for my article into a Word doc (Download a_leaf_that_never_knew_it_was_part_of_a_tree.doc ) for those who prefer this medium... comments still very welcome. Next stage will be a re-read next week and some re-editing of my own. Now done so I have updated the document to its final submitted form.
Book and film rights still very much up for sale :)
The Bayler University Religious survey makes fascinating reading, although it is US survey I think it still makes great reading for us in the UK. From the press release:
"One area that emerged from the survey that has excited the researchers is what they call the "Four Gods." Depending on how engaged people think God is in the world and how angry God is with the world.
If you think about people perceiving God as high in anger, low in anger, high in engagement, low in engagement, it results in four different types of gods.
What researchers found was that the type of god people believe in can predict their political and moral attitudes more so than just looking at their religious tradition.
Researchers found that none of the "four gods" dominated among believers. The data showed:
I have been asked to submit a piece for consideration to be published in new Emergent (UK) Magazine. This is final part (III), well all the best things come in trilogies. You can read Part I here and Part II here. I’d really appreciate your honest feedback/comments/discussion on anything that you think would improve this (content/readability/structure etc).
Finding a forest called emergent?
“I think I should speak now (why won't you talk to me)
I can't seem to speak now (you never talk to me)
My words won't come out right (what are you thinking)
I feel like I'm drowning (What are you feeling)
I'm feeling weak now (why won't you talk to me)
But I can't show my weakness (you never talk to me
I sometimes wonder (what are you thinking)
Where do we go from here (what are you feeling)” Keep Talking, Pink Floyd
As I said in the introduction it is hard to point at the emerging church, it is not so much a denomination or a movement but rather a collective co-operative complement, exploring theology and practice. It is therefore hard to point attribute how I first began to engage in that conversation. I suspect it was a stumble in cyberspace or a tip-off from a friend that led me to find that the whispers I heard in me were in full blown conversation, I realised that this leaf had discovered the following ways of seeing the trees.
I have been asked to submit a piece for consideration to be published in new Emergent (UK) Magazine. This is part II, you can read Part I here. I’d really appreciate your honest feedback/comments/discussion on anything that you think would improve this (content/readability/structure etc).
Echoes of trees “I like the sound of my own voice, I didn’t give anyone else a choice, an intellectual tortoise, racing with your bullet train” All because of You, U2 For most of my life I grew up in a leaf pile that was made up of leaves like me, we were all the same shape and colour, we agreed that we were what leaves should look like and there was no thought of trying to go back to life on a tree or indeed that there were any other leaves other than our own. A Christian that did not conform to our shape was a leaf in transition, either becoming like us or was once like us but had decayed and crumpled. We were pretty sure that life in the leaf pile was a life of safety, together we were protected, a leaf venturing out on its own in the forest might get blown who knows where.
I have been asked to submit a piece for consideration to be published in new Emergent (UK) Magazine. The deadline is the end of the month but I realise 2 things... 1) that I am a born again procrastinator so had better start now (hence the part 1 designation) and 2) i'd actually really appreciate your fhonest eedback/comments/discussion on anything that you think would improve this (content/readability/structure etc). This is part I, you can read part II here and part III here.
Someone once said that a person who does not know their history is like a leaf that never knew it was part of a tree. I have a lot of sympathy for that leaf, especially as I reflect on what my experience with emerging church and my own faith joureny. A leaf has a lot of lattitude, it knows its a leaf and that is about all it needs to know, imagine then the pardigm after shocks of realising something about the tree of history of faith from which I have sprung! It is a disturbing encounter and in that sense emerging church has for me been both a shock absorber as well as a shock creator. I will try and look at something of this life of the leaf, what I have been, something of the growing realisation that I was more than this and begin to explore what life of being connected to a tree of 2,000 plus years of Christian faith might mean in the 21st century leaf life context.
Five years on and this is still something too big for me to process, there is no easy answes and even the hard ones still seem to feel cheap and ring hollow. Today is not about me, today is about the ones for who today is a day of mourning, a day of missing loved ones who will not be coming home. Today, even as I ask God why, my prayers are that those who mourn will be comforted and for peacemakers to rise up who will heat the hurts of communities and nations...
These words/poem/reflections by Adrian Plass help me a little in the face of the question 'why God', I hope they help you too...
I seem to have been thinking a lot about the environment and the work of God in us to transform not only my personal environment but that of society and nature as well. God working in us and through us to be more loving and generous, to take a stand against injustice and oppression and to care for this whole planet on which we live. The work of God is partly captured by U2's homage to grace...
What once was hurt
What once was friction
What left a mark
No longer stings
Because Grace makes beauty
Out of ugly things
Personally I have so many hurts and scars that God is making beautiful. God is the ultimate recycler, the ultimate transformer, there is nothing he cannot touch and change so that it becomes a blessing rather than a curse - especially in honesty, in weakness, in the midst of me modelling imperfection I find God's grace at work.
But God is about more than just me - I read something like Paul's description of Jesus as the...
Hope in 20 languages
I am noticing that there are some words that are getting really trendy - take meme for instance - I had no idea what it is but trust me drop it into your next conversation/blog post/comment and you'll be most memorable :).
This has got me thinking though how often I come across theological terms that leave me scratching my head and wondering why someone can't say church instead of ecclesiology for instance. Clearly it is a term used to communicate a specific idea but are we all on the same page with what we mean when we use such terms? I had a similar experience trying to explain what I meant by missional theology, what I thought was a short cut on the way to a conversation turned into the conversation. It all reminds me of the Coldplay lyric:
Continue reading ""Well I feel like they're talking in a language I don't speak..."" »
Rather than reproducing my thoughts here, please allow me to kill 2 birds and direct you here to the blog 'Adventures in mercy 'to read some considerations on the subject. Thus allowing you the pleasure for your self of discovering Molly and her excellent blog as well as contributiong your own thoughts and insights to the conversation...
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