Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Poetry: Under the stars
Leave behind the city lights
Come
Sit under a billion stars
Watch
A million galaxies spin above our heads
Under the stars we are small
Tiny people on a tiny planet
In our own little corner of this galaxy
And yet grace has come
Love has come
To us
Ancient constellations above our heads
Look
Solar systems become a speck
See
Shooting stars come falling down
How deep the universe
How deep his love for us
How far the stars
How far has he removed our sins from us
Come
Sit under a billion stars
Watch
A million galaxies spin above our heads
Under the stars we are small
Tiny people on a tiny planet
In our own little corner of this galaxy
And yet grace has come
Love has come
To us
Ancient constellations above our heads
Look
Solar systems become a speck
See
Shooting stars come falling down
How deep the universe
How deep his love for us
How far the stars
How far has he removed our sins from us
Maybe we should boycott the boycotts
I recently came across a campaign run by a large and well known Christian ministry which involved getting people to boycott stores where the staff said happy holidays rather than merry Christmas. There is a number of things that can and have been asked of such a campaign. Some of these include-
- The world is filled with injustice and suffering on a massive scale. Even in the retail sector there is problems like products produced by slave/exploitative labour, environmentally destructive production practices and severely underpaying staff. Is the greeting at the register really the issue we should be focusing on?
- The bible doesn't even command that Christians celebrate Christmas. On what grounds then can we insist on a very specific form of Christmas observance being mandatory on those who don't believe in Jesus?
- This time of year is likely busy and stressful for many retail staff. Shouldn't we be happy they are managing a polite greeting in any form?
- Christmas shopping has become incredibly consumerist and materialistic. How does altering the words used at the register solve the problem? Shouldn't we be looking for an alternative, rather than just changing the label of our existing problem? Can the real meaning of Jesus birth ever be found in a mall?
All these are important questions. One I haven't seen addressed much in all the commentary is what boycotts like this do to our Christian witness. I think we have good reason to be very concerned about the effects.
Picking such relatively petty things to fight against reflects badly on us as representatives of Christ. I don't know what the motives are of those who started this boycott. Maybe they had completely good intentions. The problem is all the good intentions in the world don't count for much if people perceive something else. By insisting that everyone else do even the smallest things how we would like them done we risk coming across as self interested and power hungry. It makes us appear (possibly rightly) to have really messed up priorities. Who would want to become a Christian when this is what we are showing them this is how being a Christian changes how a person acts? Sometimes loosing the battles graciously and letting others have their way will present a much more Christ-like witness that us winning and being able to implement the changes we'd like.
Because there are so many voices vying for everyones attention, most people have a quite short attention span for any group they are not already a part of trying to tell them something. This has serious implications for our witness. If we make ranting about the things we don't like the thing we communicate the loudest, people are not going to waste their time sticking around to hear more from us. We short change people when we use the short bit of attention they have granted us to tell them about our pet peeves rather than the gospel. Telling people to change the words they use to talk about Christmas celebrations does nothing to really help them. Even if we did get a non-Christian to completely agree with all those peeves (which is very very unlikely) without the gospel they would still be unsaved and in no better position than when we first got in their face. When there is actual sin involved (which i don't believe is the case here) the person will be in a much better position to hear and change once they have responded to the gospel and surrendered themselves to God.
Given what this kind of boycott does to our reputation and Christian witness I think maybe the thing that needs boycotting is not the stores but boycotts like this.
- The world is filled with injustice and suffering on a massive scale. Even in the retail sector there is problems like products produced by slave/exploitative labour, environmentally destructive production practices and severely underpaying staff. Is the greeting at the register really the issue we should be focusing on?
- The bible doesn't even command that Christians celebrate Christmas. On what grounds then can we insist on a very specific form of Christmas observance being mandatory on those who don't believe in Jesus?
- This time of year is likely busy and stressful for many retail staff. Shouldn't we be happy they are managing a polite greeting in any form?
- Christmas shopping has become incredibly consumerist and materialistic. How does altering the words used at the register solve the problem? Shouldn't we be looking for an alternative, rather than just changing the label of our existing problem? Can the real meaning of Jesus birth ever be found in a mall?
All these are important questions. One I haven't seen addressed much in all the commentary is what boycotts like this do to our Christian witness. I think we have good reason to be very concerned about the effects.
Picking such relatively petty things to fight against reflects badly on us as representatives of Christ. I don't know what the motives are of those who started this boycott. Maybe they had completely good intentions. The problem is all the good intentions in the world don't count for much if people perceive something else. By insisting that everyone else do even the smallest things how we would like them done we risk coming across as self interested and power hungry. It makes us appear (possibly rightly) to have really messed up priorities. Who would want to become a Christian when this is what we are showing them this is how being a Christian changes how a person acts? Sometimes loosing the battles graciously and letting others have their way will present a much more Christ-like witness that us winning and being able to implement the changes we'd like.
Because there are so many voices vying for everyones attention, most people have a quite short attention span for any group they are not already a part of trying to tell them something. This has serious implications for our witness. If we make ranting about the things we don't like the thing we communicate the loudest, people are not going to waste their time sticking around to hear more from us. We short change people when we use the short bit of attention they have granted us to tell them about our pet peeves rather than the gospel. Telling people to change the words they use to talk about Christmas celebrations does nothing to really help them. Even if we did get a non-Christian to completely agree with all those peeves (which is very very unlikely) without the gospel they would still be unsaved and in no better position than when we first got in their face. When there is actual sin involved (which i don't believe is the case here) the person will be in a much better position to hear and change once they have responded to the gospel and surrendered themselves to God.
Given what this kind of boycott does to our reputation and Christian witness I think maybe the thing that needs boycotting is not the stores but boycotts like this.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Book review: John Stott- Christian mission in the modern world
Christian mission in the modern worldJohn Stott
168 pages
Published by Intervarsity press
In Christian mission in the modern world, John Stott seeks to communicate the biblical meaning and importance of mission, evangelism, dialogue, salvation and conversion.
In one way this is a book for the specific time in the church’s history a few decades ago when it was originally written. Stott quotes and analyses heavily the books, conferences talks and academic papers that were having a significant impact on discussions of mission and evangelism. Most of these would be unfamiliar to most reading the book now which can make a few spots a little hard to get through.
While the voices have changed the arguments tend to stay the same. Even with the shift from modernism to postmodernism to wherever we are going next, questions like what it means to evangelize, how to understand the Christian responsibility for social justice and how Christians should approach dialogue remain important. Stott provides a solid, ballanced biblical analysis of these issues. It is particularly helpful in dealing with the currently fashionable idea that just doing good is an acceptable substitute for actually telling people about the gospel. On the flipside, it also rebuts those who would preach but not help with peoples practical needs.
Despite the dated content, I very much recommend it for an evenhanded look at issues of evangelism and mission that remain contentious but important today.
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Book review- The supremacy of Christ in a postmodern world
Edited by John Piper and Justin Taylor
192 pages
Published by Desiring God Ministries/ Crossway 2007
The supremacy of Christ in a postmodern world is a collection of transcribed talks from the 2006 Desiring God conference. John Piper, Voddie Baucham, D. A. Carson, Tim Keller, Mark Driscoll, and David Wells contribute chapters dealing with the truth and application of the gospel in contemporary society. The book ends with a series of interviews with the authors.
Don't be scared by the word "postmodern" in the title. Postmodernism is essentially the worldview that many people hold today in which there is no absolute truth, everything is relative and experience reigns. One thing I really appreciate about this book is rather than just being tips and methods for reaching postmoderns, it lays out the truth of the gospel to which we must cling regardless of any cultural shifts. Having contributors of very different ages and ministry experiences is very valuable in providing perspective on the challenges of postmodern culture. The chapters don't really flow together so there is no need to read them in the order they are in the book if you don't want to.
I highly recommend this book
Download the book for free
Download the talks the book is based on for free
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Critiquing consumer culture
This week a friend passed onto me an interesting little film called The story of stuff. If you've got a spare 20 minutes it is worth watching. You can watch it below or download it here. The download is probably a better option if you have a slow connection.
I'm no scientist so I'll leave the environmental claims right alone. As a sociology student, what I found facinating is the way in which our society has deliberately been molded to create a consumer culture. It is illogical how often we buy new stuff when we still have old stuff that works fine. At this time of year people get particurly sucked into the compulsion to buy too much. As you shop this Christmas (and afterwards too) it is worth slowing down and considering whether you are buying what you are because you have a genuine need or use for it or just because you've been taught to keep on buying. The extra stuff you would be buying probably won't make you happy for long, but not being in debt and being able to help others because you didn't buy stuff you didn't need probably will.
I'm no scientist so I'll leave the environmental claims right alone. As a sociology student, what I found facinating is the way in which our society has deliberately been molded to create a consumer culture. It is illogical how often we buy new stuff when we still have old stuff that works fine. At this time of year people get particurly sucked into the compulsion to buy too much. As you shop this Christmas (and afterwards too) it is worth slowing down and considering whether you are buying what you are because you have a genuine need or use for it or just because you've been taught to keep on buying. The extra stuff you would be buying probably won't make you happy for long, but not being in debt and being able to help others because you didn't buy stuff you didn't need probably will.
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