Thursday, January 19, 2006
the election.
For anyone who wants to know what Stephen Harper is really up to...these may be the funniest commericals I have ever seen- no jokes. Yum Yum is my favorite, but this one is good too!
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
Jack
1143 times. That is the amount of times that someone has asked me if my middle name started with an "S". Imagine if it did? Two C.S.Lewis' in the world- no way! Unfortunately, or otherwise my middle name does not begin with an S. The only reason I bring this up is because I chose a class specifically devoted to the writings of C.S.Lewis as my very last class at Tyndale- the last one! Where does the time go...
I think over the next little while much of what makes in onto this blog is going to be devoted to sharing what this 20th century literary artist has to say. I begin with a quote from book one of Mere Christianity,
"The most dangerous thing you can do is to take any one impulse of your own nature and set it up as the thing you ought to follow at all costs. There is not one of them which will not make us into devils if we set it up as an absolute guide. You might think love of humanity in general was safe, but it is not. If you leave out justice you will find yourself breaking agreements and faking evidence in trials 'for the sake of humanity,' and become in the end a cruel and treacherous man."
Absolutism... it's destructive. Thinking that I am right, that I have all the answers to the most pertinent questions is destructive. Now, there are things that I believe to be absolutely true and I don't think that Lewis was essentially arguing for an absolute principle. But in the context of the church...here is exactly what I wrestle with: who is right, who is wrong and does it really, honestly, truly matter? At the moment, I'm not convinced that it does. Of course, if someone started baptizing in a church with pig's blood while wearing little to no clothing...my 'not caring' would probably go out the window and I'd look for some sort of standard by which to function as the body of Christ. The bible you say? I just need to talk to Nathan Colquhoun about this...
Jokes. Really, he's a great guy who's asking some questions too.
In other news, I'm also going to be giving a thesis report every now and again. So far in terms of page numbers I'm 0/70, but that's not terrible...it could be worse, right? I could not have a topic... well, let's not get into that.
I think over the next little while much of what makes in onto this blog is going to be devoted to sharing what this 20th century literary artist has to say. I begin with a quote from book one of Mere Christianity,
"The most dangerous thing you can do is to take any one impulse of your own nature and set it up as the thing you ought to follow at all costs. There is not one of them which will not make us into devils if we set it up as an absolute guide. You might think love of humanity in general was safe, but it is not. If you leave out justice you will find yourself breaking agreements and faking evidence in trials 'for the sake of humanity,' and become in the end a cruel and treacherous man."
Absolutism... it's destructive. Thinking that I am right, that I have all the answers to the most pertinent questions is destructive. Now, there are things that I believe to be absolutely true and I don't think that Lewis was essentially arguing for an absolute principle. But in the context of the church...here is exactly what I wrestle with: who is right, who is wrong and does it really, honestly, truly matter? At the moment, I'm not convinced that it does. Of course, if someone started baptizing in a church with pig's blood while wearing little to no clothing...my 'not caring' would probably go out the window and I'd look for some sort of standard by which to function as the body of Christ. The bible you say? I just need to talk to Nathan Colquhoun about this...
Jokes. Really, he's a great guy who's asking some questions too.
In other news, I'm also going to be giving a thesis report every now and again. So far in terms of page numbers I'm 0/70, but that's not terrible...it could be worse, right? I could not have a topic... well, let's not get into that.
Friday, January 13, 2006
surprise additions
Beth Veale has been added to the list of conference workshop leaders. Don't know who Beth Veale is? She is a principle at a gradeschool in Toronto, and in the words of Darryl Silvestri, "she's money baby, money". Also, Jarod Siebert has been added as a workshop leader- I believe he was part of a church plant a while ago called Next Church in Kingston. Now he works for the Mennonite denomination as a church advisor. Everything is coming together...and REGISTRATION IS OPEN!
Thursday, January 12, 2006
church practice.
I heard a story the other day. Apparently the underground church in China is exploding. The first thing that struck me as different from church in the West in that this church is led almost entirely by women. The reason for this is largely unknown, however its speculated that the native men may think that the Christian faith is the equivalent of being a panzy and so they stay away. This sounds funny coming from a country where freedom of religion doesn't really exist.
The second thing I heard about the underground church in China is that a lot of the churches (which are unconnected) have their own little quirks that sound fairly ridiculous to us. For instance, before embracing Christ, one of the current leaders of a church spent three days in mourning because of their sin. And so the church that this person leads requires each person to spend three days in mourning once they choose to follow Jesus. Another leader vomitted just before conversion. Apparently they thought this should be common place and so now the true mark of a Christian for this church is to vomitt at the point of conversion.
This sounds ridiculous and totally unbiblical but...
Think about our churches. Is there anything we do that is like these traditions? Think of this- the altar call. We know what it means. It is not unexpected in some of our churches and it is usually associated with a conversion experience or the first step towards salvation. The altar call was first used by Charles Finney as a way to sign up recent converts to fight for the abolition of slavery. Of course, the altar call experience is not found in Scripture but somehow we manage to make it a focal point of our evangelism services. Oh well, I guess that's just part of becoming a Christian...right... no?...
The second thing I heard about the underground church in China is that a lot of the churches (which are unconnected) have their own little quirks that sound fairly ridiculous to us. For instance, before embracing Christ, one of the current leaders of a church spent three days in mourning because of their sin. And so the church that this person leads requires each person to spend three days in mourning once they choose to follow Jesus. Another leader vomitted just before conversion. Apparently they thought this should be common place and so now the true mark of a Christian for this church is to vomitt at the point of conversion.
This sounds ridiculous and totally unbiblical but...
Think about our churches. Is there anything we do that is like these traditions? Think of this- the altar call. We know what it means. It is not unexpected in some of our churches and it is usually associated with a conversion experience or the first step towards salvation. The altar call was first used by Charles Finney as a way to sign up recent converts to fight for the abolition of slavery. Of course, the altar call experience is not found in Scripture but somehow we manage to make it a focal point of our evangelism services. Oh well, I guess that's just part of becoming a Christian...right... no?...
Thursday, January 05, 2006
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