Guest posting at All Groan Up on having fun on a budget

Today I'm excited to be guest posting at All Groan Up, a fantastic blog by Paul Angone on surviving your twenties (and the quarter life crisis that often goes with them). His blog makes me feel less crazy, or at least crazy in a less unusual way. If you are visiting from All Groan Up, thanks for visiting! Please do stick round and feel free to introduce yourself.

If you aren't in your twenties, don't zone out because over at All Groan Up I'm writing on something lots of people of all ages need to learn: how to have fun on a budget. Here's how it begins:

Being newly all groan up can do terrible things for your fun levels if you aren’t careful. No longer do you have access to all the cheap or free stuff happening on your college campus but quite likely your budget can’t yet accommodate $80 concert tickets. As depressing as these deprivations are, you don’t have to miss out on having fun as an almost/completely broke twenty-something.

 Head over to read the rest at All Groan Up.

Mars, modernism and mission

I can say from experience that the job market is tough these days. But even after many frustrating experiences of over-competitive recruitment processes, one I saw lately still managed to astound me. The recruiters were looking for people willing to take on very long, unbreakable contracts to do dangerous work in very tight confines in a geographically isolated place. Sounds unappealing but 78,000 people and counting have applied. Maybe because the job in question is going to mars to do scientific research and start a human settlement which admittedly is cooler than the average job.

As a Sociology nerd, so many questions come to mind about an endeavor like this. Things like how you frame your nationality and ethnicity would change when living on another planet, how social hierarchies would develop in such an unusually intense environment, how art and creativity would develop on Mars with limited resources for such things and what raising emotionally well adjusted kids in a martian colony would take.

A few things questions about the theological and ministry implications of the movement to get people to Mars also struck me.

If you believe those who say that we moved past a modernist approach to the world and into a more postmodernist view a couple of decades ago, our culture is largely cynical of metanarratives (big over-arching stories that explain everything) and of the idea that humanity is advancing, becoming better and more refined. While I think postmodernism does put forward some ideas worth pondering Watching some of the application videos made me wonder whether we weren’t quite as postmodern as some think. I was struck by the emphasis some of them had on the possibility this mission held out for moving humanity forward and solving some of our problems by bringing us together. As technology continues to advance in impressive ways through efforts like this, the Christian community will need to be especially mindful about how such hopeful attitudes about the potential of human endeavour to solve problems shape how people view their need for the gospel (or perceived lack thereof) at an individual and societal level.

While it is entirely possible that this scheme to get to Mars won’t be successful, I think it is reasonable to assume that sometime in the next century or so, people will make it to Mars.  When that happens, we’ll have lots of questions to work through to about applying theology and Christian tradition to the new environment of life on another planet. How would being one of a few or maybe the only Christian on your entire planet change how you went about practicing faith? How would a Christian ethic of caring for creation impact how you used and modified the previously untouched martian environment? How might the fact that God’s previous dealings with humanity had played out in another part of the solar system impact how you were inclined to think about them? These sound like somewhat absurd questions now, but it might not be that many decades until they are live issues.

What questions about society or faith does the Mars mission prompt for you?

Lessons on shame from Brene Brown

Today I wastched Brene Brown's recent TED talk on shame (a sequel to her previous hit talk on vulnerability.) Brene is always interesting to listen to/read, but listening to this talk made me ponder how some of her ideas can help us create more healthy Christian communities. I've posted some thoughts below the embedded video. I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments if you watch the video or have read her book on the topic.

• "Shame is a focus on self, guilt is a focus on behavior. Shame is "I am bad." Guilt is "I did something bad.""
  We often seem to use the ideas of shame and guilt interchangeably. In the talk Brene points out that they are different- shame is about who we are at the core being bad and is related to all sorts of destructive patterns. Guilt on the other hand is about what we did being bad and can be a positive motivator for change.  Given the importance of repentance and change towards right behaviour in Christian discipleship, I think this is a crucial point to keep in mind when we or others mess up. We don't want to fall into destructive shaming, but nether do we want to insulate people from guilt which is uncomfortable but often serves a productive purpose.
• "Shame, for women, is this web of unobtainable, conflicting, competing expectations about who we're supposed to be. And it's a straight-jacket. For men, shame is not a bunch of competing, conflicting expectations. Shame is one, do not be perceived as what? Weak" I think there is a few things we can take away from it. One is that other people (especially of the opposite gender) may experience shame for different reasons than we do. Because of this, caring for them may be learning and being mindful about their triggers. I think the other take-away from this is to be careful that we aren't overloading people with cultural (rather than biblical) expectations of everything they should do and be as a Christian man or a Christian woman that drive them into destructive shame when the inevitable failure to live up to it happens.
• If you put shame in a Petri dish, it needs three things to grow exponentially: secrecy, silence and judgement. If you put the same amount of shame in a Petri dish and douse it with empathy, it can't survive. The two most powerful words when we're in struggle: me too."
  I've seen this be true so many times. Admitting your own struggles to some else who is or might be struggling sometimes doesn't seem very significant or much like a ministry, but it can make such a huge difference. Jon Acuff calls it "the gift of going second", meaning that when we take the hard step of being brave enough to share our shame and struggles first, we make it easier for those who go second.  Imagine how much healthier our communities would be if people knew it was safe to bring their sins, shame and struggle out into the light to deal with and get help for because they were so used to seeing others do the same?

Interview: Matt Appling (Author of Life After Art)

One of my favourite Christian bloggers is Matt Appling (from The Church of No People). His writing is the right kind of provocative- he says the things that need to be said about Christian culture and life in general in a way that gets you thinking. Matt has recently put his talents to good use writing his new book Life After Art. He was kind enough to answer a few questions for us.

For readers who don’t know about you, what’s a few interesting things about yourself? 

 Well, I'm an art teacher with a seminary degree, a pastor who supports himself in the classroom. I'm an art teacher, pastor and writer, and my wife and I live with our two dogs in Kansas City. If you don't know where that it is, we're right in the middle. Every weatherman in America stands right in front of Kansas City as they gesture around on the map.

 How would you sum up Life After Art in a sentence or two?

 Life After Art is a journey, not toward becoming an "artist" per se, but more human. These are all of the spiritual truths that I discovered were waiting for me to relearn when I stepped into the art classroom as a teacher. How has art changed you the most? Art has always been a love of mine. I was always a child artist, and there's some little anecdotes in the book about how art has intersected with my life. I think with writing the book, I've realized just what a metaphor art and creativity is for the rest of our lives. I don't want to give too much away, but to me, "creativity" is much more than just making pretty pictures.

 What do you think the most common misconceptions about art and creativity in the church are? 

For some reason, a whole lot of the church is removed from art, and vice verse. Maybe it's because art isn't always need and concrete, with definite boundaries and lessons. But I think the wedge has been driven deeper by a belief that art is not for everyone. We put it in the hands of a few elite people while the rest of us sit back. We do the same with our spirituality as a whole. A few are qualified to preach and pray and serve while the majority sit silently, feeling that they cannot do the same.

What would you say to people who don’t think they are artistic or creative types? 

You are in the majority. When I talk to people who aren't happy with their jobs or some part of their lives, I ask what kinds of creative pursuits do they engage in, and the answer is almost always that they aren't "creative." Creating isn't something that just a few of us get to do. It's what we were made to do! It's something you deserve to do. It's not a contest. You don't have to turn whatever you do into a business. Just do something!

What creative mediums do you most enjoy working with? 

When I was in high school, I did a lot of painting. In college, I fell in love with graphic design. And in my later 20s, writing became my creative outlet. I've probably poured 450,000 words into my blog over four years!

You can get Life After Art  at Amazon, Book Depository or other stores with good taste in books. You can read more from Matt at his blog The Church of No People.. 

Some thoughts on Bread & Wine by Shauna Niequist (part 2)

Last week I shared some thoughts about what I’m learning through Shauna Niequist’s new book Bread & Wine and some of my own journey in learning about hospitality and cooking. Today I want to share another bit of the book that has been challenging me.

“I tend to think that when everything is going well I have the margin to do hard things, to make good choices- to read instead of watch TV, to eat well instead of eat poorly to engage in deep conversation instead of chatter about other people. It’s the making of those harder, better choices right while everything’s a mess that makes the mess a little more manageable. I wanted nachos upon nachos last night, like a wheelbarrow full. But this morning I would have had to add a sense of failure to my already bruised spirits. I’m not saying I woke up feeling all better. But I do know I could have made it so much worse, that I could have added self-loathing to my tiredness, and that wouldn’t have made it easier to bear. I’m realising this after what seems like a lifetime of saying to myself, “Well, you can’t be expected to do something hard on a day like this, can you?” I did expect more from myself, and I did do something hard, and I’m thankful.”

I’ve kept thinking this passage over since I first read the book a week or two ago. It is the kind of idea which in some ways I wish I could find a reason to disagree with because that would be easier. But I think she is indeed onto something that while hard, is true and helpful. I often try to convince myself that after making it through a hard situation/day/week that I deserve to be and do less than I would in my better moments. It seems to be a common problem.

Lots of writers and speakers say that often when they decide to write or speak about a topic that they will inevitably get opportunities to learn about it first hand. That has held true when working on a post about this idea. I need to exercise more so recently started getting up early to exercise. The week I started ended up being a hard, disappointing week in other areas of life. Staying in bed (or going back) to hide from the world was a very tempting proposition, but when I did it I felt guilty and lazy. But instead, most days I thought about Shauna’s advice and got on with it. The days I got up and exercised didn’t feel great. I started to wonder if what I’ve been told about exercise giving you endorphins which make you happy was true. But knowing that I’d successfully done something hard already made the rest of the day a bit easier to bear. It made it a bit easier to exercise ordinary courage in other ways. It made me feel like I was making progress on something, even as other things felt like they were slipping backwards. I’m glad I did the hard thing.

Some thoughts on Bread & Wine by Shauna Niequist (part 1)

I used to be one of those people who did not cook. In my defense, I was a student living on campus who had to put up with sharing a kitchen with 15-20 people, only being able to buy what I could carry home on the bus and only having a very very tiny freezer compartment. As a result, I ate lots of diet microwave meals and canned soup. It was close enough to nutritionally sound but not very inspiring. Extra issues like campus parking permits and not knowing what state the shared kitchens would be in made showing hospitality difficult.

When I graduated that all had to change because I moved into a house with four other young adults where it was expected that we would all take turns with the cooking and where showing hospitality to the many visiting friends of various members of the household was a regular occurrence. And so I had to learn to cook and bake. It happened slowly, with a great deal of mess, quite a few under or overcooked dishes, some questionable ingredient choices and occasional use of more food dye than is likely healthy.

I would probably read almost anything by Shauna Niequist. She is the kind of author I quote in wedding cards and babble about when asked in job interviews about books that have had an impact on me. The coming together of my long standing love of Shauna’s writing and my newer interest in cooking and hospitality in her new book Bread and Wine had me very excited to get my hands on the book. Instead of posting a more traditional review, I thought it would be fitting to post some reflections over the course of several posts on some ideas in the book that have resonated with me.

“One friend promises she’ll start having people over when they finally have the money to remodel. Another says she’d be too nervous that people wouldn’t eat the food she made, so she never makes the invitation. But it isn’t about perfection, and it isn’t about performance. You’ll miss the richest moments in life -- the sacred moments when we feel God’s grace and presence through the actual faces and hands of the people we love-- if you’re too scared or too ashamed to open the door. I know it’s scary, but throw open the door anyway.”

“But entertaining isn’t a sport or competition. It’s an act of love if you let it be that. You can twist it and turn it into anything you want- a way to show off your house, a way to compete with your friends, a way to earn love and approval. Or you can decide that every time you open your door, it’s an act of love, not performance or competition or striving. You can decide that every time people gather around your table, your goal is nourishment, not neurotic proving. You can decide.”

One of the ideas running through the book is that cooking and hospitality at their most meaningful are not a performance but an unpretentious way to love other people amidst our imperfect homes and imperfect lives. This is so important but something we forget so often. Our culture is overloaded with glossy food and home magazines and here in Australia at least, cooking reality TV shows with their impossibly complicated recipes and astoundingly talented chiefs rule the airwaves. Personally I have to fight the tendency to compare my still developing cooking skills to those of friends who cook well and to banish memories of stressed tidy ups that somewhat dampened the joy of having people visit our house growing up.

Certainly there are times where it is great to show your love for someone by making the effort to cook something special, but I’m learning is that as much as possible it is better to put my heart and soul into engaging with the people I’m spending time with, not into trying to make sense of complicated recipes full of ingredients I hadn’t heard of until my treasure hunt like quest through the grocery story to find them. People don’t usually notice or care if the meal is made from a simple combination of ingredients or if there is two week old newspapers on the coffee table. Although many of my friends are good cooks, I mostly only have vague recollections of what was served at meals at their houses over the years and I have no recollection of how tidy their houses were. What I do remember is meaningful conversation and feeling like I belonged. In the end, that is what matters.

Part 2 coming soon.....

Featured music: Page CXVI- Re-Hymns

Yes, more hymns as my featured music pick! If you like what you hear in the widget below, you can download every album Page CXVI has ever released for free this month at noisetrade

The cost of education verses the cost of ignorance

Something I heard a guy called Dale Beaumont say at a marketing seminar a few weeks ago has stuck with me. He said “If you think the cost of education is expensive, you haven’t considered the cost of ignorance.” In the context he was talking about the costs of not getting educated about how marketing tools work and about how to design a sound marketing strategy can have negative business consequences. However, I think it is a more broadly applicable statement worth pondering.

Education can be expensive. It can be expensive in a financial sense if you are pursuing education in college or formal training sense. It is also easy to spend a lot on books. It costs time to learn things. No matter how many good study techniques you have mastered, anything that is substantial and worth learning will probably take time. Getting educated can also cost energy. If you’ve got a lot on the go, it might be hard to muster the energy to read or listen to lectures. It is easy to let continuing to learn get pushed down the priority list as a result of the stresses of life.

These costs of education are real, but so are the costs of ignorance. You don’t have to look too far to find examples in the Christian community where insufficient learning has consequences. Examples that come to mind include situations where a poor grasp on theology contributes to the giving of questionable advice to people who are struggling, a shallow understanding of sociological issues leading to ineffective attempts to fix social problems or a poor grasp on science finding its way into some apologetic arguments.

Some will argue that educational attainment can become a source of pride. This can be true but doesn’t have to be. Others will argue knowledge is not the same as wisdom nor can it serve in its place. This is true but not the whole picture. As Christians, learning can serve our discipleship and witness by helping us do a better job at dealing wisely with the dilemmas and decisions we face. Knowledge gives wisdom something to work with. Although most of us probably won’t be solving big problems like designing public policies to reduce poverty, we all have things we can learn that will help us better serve God and people. Read some books, attend some lectures, join a class or do whatever else it takes. Getting educated on the right things is worth the cost.  

Quotable: A multidimensional picture of the life of Jesus

"All four Gospel writers painted the life of Jesus Christ in different lights. In their own unique ways they emphasized different aspects of His life because they were writing to different audiences. Matthew paints Christ in the morning. He begins with a long genealogy and birth story. Mark paints Christ in the afternoon. He takes no time to sketch the early years but hits the ground running at the hot height of Christ’s ministry. Luke paints Christ in the evening. It is the longest gospel, coupled with Acts, meticulously portraying the Last Supper and the evening in the garden of Gethsemane. John paints Christ in the midnight. When all the world was dark with sin and doubt, Jesus Christ pierced the blackness and showed Himself as the light and hope of humanity. On its own, each gospel appears isolated and disconnected, but when viewed together, as the Holy Spirit delivered them to us, they represent a multidimensional picture of the life of Jesus, a three-dimensional portrait of His nature. And such a work of art demands our response of admiration and worship."

From  Sex, Sushi, and Salvation: Thoughts on Intimacy, Community, and Eternity by Christian George

Recommended music: Covenant Life Church- How Sweet The Sound

I have been listening to the album How Sweet The Sound by Covenant Life Church a lot lately. Hymns are great for reminding yourself about what is true and important. It is beautiful music too. You can download the album for free using the widget below

On love, grace and sunglasses

I have a game I like to play when shopping where I try to find the most absurd item or advertisement I can. It is great fun in second hand stores. It is also often a disturbingly interesting exercise in Christian bookstores! This week however, I ended up spotting something so ridiculous in the window of a sunglasses store that I didn’t even have to go inside to know that I’d spotted my winner.

“Give Sunglasses, get love”....It seems so blunt and so very ridiculous to think that giving someone sunglasses is the key you need to being loved. I have to wonder though, if this is just an excessively blunt manifestation of an underlying logic of love being earnable we are sometimes seem too quick to swallow. When it comes to romantic relationships, ever heard something like to the effect of person A deserves better than person B? As I’m sure many other Christian singles can attest, being told you need to achieve contentment or some other Godly character trait before you get romantic love is so common it has become a bad cliche. Then there is all the people (probably most of us at some point) who slip for a time or permanently into thinking they need to clean up their act or be doing more for God to love them. In so many ways we somehow end up missing the truth by assuming that love is something you can deserve for your awesomeness (or not deserve for your lack thereof)

Perhaps being Valentine’s day this week it would be a good chance to remember that real love is not something we get because we are awesome or do the right things or have it all together or give the right sunglasses. If what you are getting is just a response to something you do or give, at best you are getting polite acknowledgement. Love is so much bigger than that. We are loved by God because he is gracious and by people when they imitate a bit of God’s grace (whether they know it or not) in extending love to imperfect us. That is so much more precious than just earning what we deserve. And as we remember the grace behind the love given to us, may we be mindful to extend that grace to others regardless of how deserving or otherwise they seem.

Maybe leadership is overrated

Leadership appears to have become a topic of huge interest in the Christian sub-culture and the wider culture lately. It seems there is always new leadership conferences, books, blogs, experts and techniques.Good leadership can be the difference between success and failure for an organisation so it isn’t an entirely unwarranted focus. Undoubtedly there are many people called to leadership of the formal or informal variety who are benefiting from this focus which obviously is a good thing.  

However, I have found myself wondering lately whether we are focusing on leadership excessively at the expense of other giftings.. Faithful service to the kingdom of God and helpful contribution to society can take so many shapes, some of which don’t look much at all like the leader mold. It is okay that not everyone has the skill on inclination to lead. It is okay that some people would rather follow the vision and direction of a trustworthy leader than being the one out front blazing the course. It is okay that some people people function better out of the spotlight. It is okay that some people are content to stay where they are on the hierarchy, doing a good job at whatever it is they currently do. Such people are as necessary as the leaders. If everyone is upfront trying to lead things, who will do all the supporting work to make things happen? Often such people have a myriad of less flashy but extremely valuable things to contribute that they may get less of a chance to if they are pushed towards acting as a leader. “How to quietly serve a few people really really well” doesn’t make for such an exciting conference theme as leadership but maybe it also deserves discussion and celebration.

What do you think? Do you think the focus on leadership is appropriately balanced? How can we support and affirm those whose gifts are in areas other than leadership?

Book review: Chris Evans- Fruit at work

Fruit at Work
Chris Evans
Buy the book

There seems to be quite a few books coming out lately about how Christian faith should shape how we think about and undertake our work. This interest in the topic is a great development as there has been a tendency among Christians to undervalue “secular” work. Chris Evans adds to the discussion in Fruit at Work by exploring how the fruit of the spirit as found in Galatians 5 can be put into practice in a workplace environment. Following a few introductory chapters, a chapter is dedicated to each of the fruit of the spirit. He provides explanation of what the bible means by each of the fruit and explanation of how it might be applied in the workplace, along with plenty of helpful real life examples.

 An interesting line of argument in the book is that demonstrating fruit of the spirit can actually be a positive professional move by making you a better employee and contributing to better professional relationships. While I think it is important to make sure that honouring God is a much higher priority in spiritual discipline than our own gain (something Chris does discuss), I think this aspect of the book could be really encouraging for Christians tempted to cut ethical corners in their attempts to meet their career goals.

 While the target audience of the book is those engaged in formal employment, I think the book has a lot to offer to those who are not as well. This is because it shows how the fruit of the spirit are not abstract, super-spiritual or sentimental virtues but as principles that provide a viable way to live and act in the sometimes challenging real world.

 Overall, I think this book makes a good contribution to Christian thinking about both applying faith in the workplace and to how to exercise fruit of the spirit in everyday life.

Why Christmas makes mission and ministry make sense

I'm involved in a missions trip to another part of my own country that starts two days after Christmas. Planning for the mission trip and planning for Christmas at the same time have gotten me thinking about the relationship between Christmas, ministry and mission. Certainly we are used to thinking about Christmas as an opportunity for ministry. That is valid and important. However, I think we often overlook the fact that the incarnation is what makes all of those things make sense.

 If Christmas was just celebrating the birth of someone born an ordinary kid with an ordinary fallen human nature, then going on a missions trip (and most of our Christian activity) would make no sense. Even if the kid had grown up to have some great ideas or noble principles, it would still be largely dubious. There are lots of people who have managed that- a search for philosophy books alone on Amazon gets you 220,951 results. Add in the social sciences, various streams of religious thought and other fields pondering big questions and you have a lot of people with a lot of ideas. If all we had was more ideas to contribute, then why bother with most of what we do? Why would you make the sacrifices to go on a missions trip, to serve faithfully at Church or to contribute financially to mission just for the sake of an ordinary guy who who had some good ideas while living on a different continent a few thousand years ago? I'm sure everyone involved in some form of Christian service has other things they could be doing with their time and resources.

 The fact that the first Christmas not simply a birth, but God incarnate entering the world makes all the difference. That God would come to us, not as a voice echoing from the heavens, but as a man who lived among normal people, experiencing their sorrows and joys, makes our effort have meaning. If Jesus was willing to go from heaven to earth with all that it entailed for our sake, then our going for his sake makes sense in a way it wouldn't if he'd just had good ideas. That holds true whether that be going to another country, another city or just going out of our comfort zones right where we are. That something so history shaking as God coming to dwell among us has happened, with such huge implications for ourselves and for everyone is something to sustain and motivate us when ministry gets tough as they inevitably will. Christmas rightly understood puts the inconveniences and sacrifices of following God's call into their right perspective.

Interview with Mary DeMuth

I'm really excited to bring you an interview with author Mary DeMuth about her book Everything.

In a few sentences, what is your new book Everything about?

I wanted to discover why some people grew like crazy in their walk with Jesus and others got more and more bitter as the years wore on. What I discovered is that those of us who need control are most likely to push out Jesus. (Ouch.) I am one of those people. So Everything is a book about how to let go of your control so you can grow like a weed. It helps people uncover the whys of their spiritual growth path, why they grow, why they don’t. It’s not a book about how I’ve conquered this, but more of a story about how I struggle and learn to give Jesus my everything.

What was the most interesting or surprising thing you learned in the process of writing the book?

Once again I realized that Jesus doesn’t save us so we can keep a spiritual list of do-good things. He saves us for Himself. He saves us so our hearts will be His. So often I’d rather rely on formulas for Christian growth. Instead, He asks us all to hand Him our hearts, which is both harder and easier than list following. Harder in that we have to realize that apart from Him we can do nothing of eternal significance. Easier in that Jesus does a much better job changing the world through us than when we try to manufacture that change.

Who do you think will benefit most from reading Everything?

Anyone who has felt stale in their walk with Jesus, who is longing for something more, who sees other Christians who grow and change the world with their infectious enthusiasm and longs to be that way.

Other than the bible, which books have had the most impact on you?

I actually wrote a post about that a few weeks ago. Here are my top ten: http://www.marydemuth.com/2012/11/10-amazing-spiritual-growth-books/



You can find out more about Mary at her website, follow her on twitter and buy Everything at amazon.com

A big thank you to Mary for taking the time to answer my questions.