Sunday, 7 July 2013
Sunday, 30 June 2013
Every Member Contribution 1 Cor 14:26
Every wonder why TV news presenters are always smartly dressed, and these days have a laptop on their desk? Especially as they never use the laptop!
I believe it has to do with a key principle noted by social commentator McLuhan in the 60s, who coined the phrase "the medium is the message". You trust the news because of the way it is presented - the laptop in our culture subconsciously confirms the credibility.
What do we communicate in our churches? Jesus is Lord, we hope! Yet looking at the medium typically used, with its emphasis on the gifted preacher broadcasting a monologue, might we be communicating that only a few, special, properly qualified experts have what it takes to do God's work. With such a weekly diet might you end up believing God can't speak through others, e.g. someone who is not so eloquent, someone not trained, or a woman, or a young person ...
God was 2000 years ahead of McLuhan: 'He so loved the world that He gave His only Son ...'
Jesus came in person: the medium is the message!
What is the medium later in the New Testament? 1 Cor 14:26 (with echoes in Eph 5:18-19 and Col 3:16) suggests that as well as obvious preachers like Paul or Peter, it is spirit-filled community. 'When you meet each has different things to offer ...'. The medium is 'each other', conveying the message of 'Christ at work in you'.
That's much more healthy!
I believe it has to do with a key principle noted by social commentator McLuhan in the 60s, who coined the phrase "the medium is the message". You trust the news because of the way it is presented - the laptop in our culture subconsciously confirms the credibility.
What do we communicate in our churches? Jesus is Lord, we hope! Yet looking at the medium typically used, with its emphasis on the gifted preacher broadcasting a monologue, might we be communicating that only a few, special, properly qualified experts have what it takes to do God's work. With such a weekly diet might you end up believing God can't speak through others, e.g. someone who is not so eloquent, someone not trained, or a woman, or a young person ...
God was 2000 years ahead of McLuhan: 'He so loved the world that He gave His only Son ...'
Jesus came in person: the medium is the message!
What is the medium later in the New Testament? 1 Cor 14:26 (with echoes in Eph 5:18-19 and Col 3:16) suggests that as well as obvious preachers like Paul or Peter, it is spirit-filled community. 'When you meet each has different things to offer ...'. The medium is 'each other', conveying the message of 'Christ at work in you'.
That's much more healthy!
Sunday, 9 June 2013
Why We Meet - Hebrews 10:11 - 25
Embraces, intimate moments, undefined by normal wall clock time. Rare for us in our time pressed lives; on average we give our kids just 36 minutes quality time per day. So when it comes to embracing God, do we fall into God's loving arms for however long it takes, or go for just a quick peck on the cheek?
Tuesday, 28 May 2013
Vision for Worship
Our vision for worship at the Countess is
Learning to live lives as worship. Stopping to see God at work in the regular, even in the small things. There may be both joys and trials, but in either if we look we can see how God makes the ordinary extraordinary.
Paying attention to rhythms, we learn to God-orientate our lives. Inevitably that involves becoming sensitive to God's heart, thus to justice and poverty issues in whatever context we are in. We get involved, we serve, not because we ought - but because we worship. Full stop.
We are invited to come close to God, to gaze on Him. We desire to be intimate with the ultimate.
So our corporate gatherings (currently our Sunday mornings) become an overflow of these lives of worship. Leading these then becomes about facilitating expression of this - in whatever ways make sense. Three key phrases are helpful here:
It doesn't need us all to be extroverts, but it does bid us to come open and desiring, allowing things from the week to bubble up as we gather together.
All of us for all of Him
Learning to live lives as worship. Stopping to see God at work in the regular, even in the small things. There may be both joys and trials, but in either if we look we can see how God makes the ordinary extraordinary.
Paying attention to rhythms, we learn to God-orientate our lives. Inevitably that involves becoming sensitive to God's heart, thus to justice and poverty issues in whatever context we are in. We get involved, we serve, not because we ought - but because we worship. Full stop.
We are invited to come close to God, to gaze on Him. We desire to be intimate with the ultimate.
So our corporate gatherings (currently our Sunday mornings) become an overflow of these lives of worship. Leading these then becomes about facilitating expression of this - in whatever ways make sense. Three key phrases are helpful here:
- Providing 'stop points' - enabling us to pause, to reflect, to take in, providing moments of decision and surrender
- Encouraging us to 'Enter in' - bringing the trials and joys of the week into the arena before God
- Helping us to 'Gaze on God' - using music, words, art, post-its ... whatever we find helpful.
It doesn't need us all to be extroverts, but it does bid us to come open and desiring, allowing things from the week to bubble up as we gather together.
Monday, 27 May 2013
Meaningless Offerings
Which is more likely to be the life of true worship? The guy who wanders the slum praying for insight, and is led to open a school and feeding station for children in a dis-used local pub, or the person who attends the prim & proper organised worship week by week?
Sunday, 19 May 2013
Hope II
The OT Law can helpfully be understood as a hard boundary over which God's people should not cross. Kind of like the walls of a play-pen - outside is simply unsafe, so best stay inside.
Monday, 13 May 2013
Hope
The OT prophets contain all kinds of passages dropped in, sometimes in the middle, sometimes towards the end, that speak of HOPE. Hope that one day God will act, will change things, will correct wrongs, will restore.
Sunday, 12 May 2013
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