Christian Blogging Redux

Some time ago, I read an entry on a blog that debated the merits of whether all Christians should blog... or just those who are proficient in theology and/or debating skills.

The conclusion that was reached favoured the latter view.

At the time, I remained silent but it has always niggled me because this is the very antithesis of my position.

I do not believe in elitism. I accept that there are risks with every Tom, Dick and Harry writing about their faith... there are bound to be errors of judgement in theology and composition, because we are all on a journey.

I can't accept or sanction the idea that evangelism and spiritual encouragement are only the remit of a select few (many as the people within that "few" are). The apostle Paul encountered many charlatans, heretics and people who were preaching the Gospel for a mixture of motives. Whilst he fought diligently against deliberate heresy, when his enemies preached the Gospel, he did not oppose them... in fact, he actually recorded his attitude towards such people in his letter to the Philippians:

"It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The latter do so in love, knowing that I am put here for the defence of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice."

Philippians 1:15-18

Essentially, Paul didn't care who preached the Gospel... so long as it was preached. In more recent generations, someone coined a famous saying:

"We are not all called to be evangelists, but we are all called to evangelise."

So while many may not be educated strongly in theology or even well rehearsed in scripture, if they have even a basic relationship with God through Christ, they have the knowledge of Jesus' sacrifice and resurrection... and why it was necessary for the salvation of mankind. This is central to the gospel message.

Furthermore, Paul (greatly informed apologist that he was), did not regard eloquence and intellect to be of the utmost importance when it came to his own message:

"When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power."

1 Corinthians 2:1-5

Some of the greatest preachers and apologists the Christian faith ever had... began their journeys hearing the words of some obscure man or woman of faith and being inspired by them. I think we would be fools to limit the field. People connect on all sorts of levels. A man of great wisdom and intellect... even a spiritual man, might totally miss the mark where gentle words of innocence might succeed. Every one of us is unique, we each bear a personal testimony that is not shared by another... who knows what part of our own individual stories might be used by the power of God, in order to inspire the lives of others. Or have you not read the Parable of the Mustard Seed?

I think people are being way too analytical and are injecting human management styles into what is essentially God's work. We are called to sow... we cannot know where the seed falls in the hearts of the people we speak to, we can only be faithful in sharing what we have. Evangelism is merely one beggar telling another beggar where he may find bread... and living bread at that.

To try and control who speaks for God on the Internet, is to put human rules and regulation in the way of the Gospel. My own personal attitude is to fling wide the gates... let all who know Jesus speak of him... and if I do come across anything that is at odds with the Gospel message in my own meanderings on the web... to gently point this out where necessary.

So for those who have been encouraged to abandon their keyboard, I equally encourage you to take it back up again. Your walk with Jesus is unique to you, and you do not know whose heart you may set on fire, simply by sharing it.

Speed Preaching

I spent the best part of today at the preaching workshop that I touched upon in my previous post. During April and May I'll be brushing up on my skills (sure, I technically "preach online" a lot, but it is only on very rare occasions that I get the opportunity to "go live" in front of a crowd of people), I'll be hearing speakers talk on various aspects of the subject... will test preach to others on the course and eventually be set loose on the unsuspecting public in an unfamiliar church.

Today was pretty much a foretaste of what to expect... and it was quite fast paced.

In the morning we heard a tale that had parallels with the Easter story. It was about a boy who becomes withdrawn from his group of friends... and who when confronted by his concerned father, reveals that he is embarrassed about his mother... who had scarred hands. The father shares with his son, how his mother became scarred. When he was two years old his mother left him in the front room for two minutes... and he managed to fall upon the open fire they had. His mother hearing the horrific scream, ran in... pulled the boy off the fire and - having nothing else to use, patted the flames out with her bare hands. The boy walked away unscathed, but the mother (despite surgeons' best efforts)was left with badly scarred hands. Upon learning this story, the boy makes a point to show his friends his mother's hands whenever he can... realising that it demonstrates in practical terms, how much she loved him.

Of course the Christian parallels in that tale are obvious. Christ himself has scarred hands... from dying on the cross to save us from sin.

We were asked to recount the same story in our own words, within small groups. Having a slightly similar tale to the fictional boy (though it was me who was scarred due to boiling tea... and not my mother), I was a little distracted. Kind of weird how out of all the anecdotes that could have cropped up... it was that one.

Following on from this, we all took a bible reference at random from a basket. All of these scriptures were parables from the synoptic gospels. We had to read the parable in story form using own language and then summarise what we felt God was saying to us through it. We were given just a couple of minutes to put it together... in other words,we were "speed preaching".

I was given The Parable of the Unjust Judge, a tale that Jesus used to stress the importance of praying and not giving up.

I was in mischievous mood.

The room we were using had a picture of one of the former CPAS presidents (we were using their offices in Warwick). I decided to use this poor moustached gentleman to represent the titular unjust judge. In reality the guy was anything but this, he gave up his land for charity... not exactly the kind of person you could describe as not fearing God or caring for men. I was very animated in my talk... but it seemed to go well. For me this was the most memorable and beneficial experience of the whole day and I think that when we go through the training properly... when I have to speak in front of others who are assessing me, I'm still going to treat the message I bring with the same kind of fervour or zeal I would use if I were writing here, or talking in a genuine church environment. To me, it's all the same... it is still a very real opportunity to share something I feel that God has said.

I'm looking forward to the experience.

The whole notion of what I jokingly called "speed preaching" has got me thinking though. Whatever could be next? I have an idea....

"Extreme Preaching".

Think about it... what a great way to spread the gospel in the modern world! You already get adrenaline junkies who scale mountain tops or jump out of aeroplanes to do their ironing. Think of the media exposure a pastor/vicar/preacher could get if they decided to preach the Word miked up and hanging off a cliff face.... or skyboarding.

I'd give extra cred to any clergyman who dared do such a thing whilst fully frocked up!

I seriously think it should be explored. Maybe I should start writing to young impressionable vicars!

What do you think? If you know of any vicars who regularly pull fast stunts like this... let me know and I'll gladly record their exploits here.

Preparation, Preparation, Preparation

I'm going to be taking part in a preaching workshop on Saturday... which will eventually lead to me going on a short weekly course. I received a confirmation email about it yesterday and there were some preliminary questions for me to answer, to help the people who are in charge of the workshop prepare.

I thought it would be fun to post my answers up here. Now for some reason they thought people would be concerned about the answer they gave to the second question; they said they would not make it public... but I don't really care, it's not an issue for me. I thought maybe I could start it as a Meme, if you want to copy it go for it... though I think there is very little point in you posting an answer to the final question. I've never generated a Meme from scratch before so this'll be a first!

1: How many times have you preached, approximately?

I think about 30 - 50 or so times but not many of them have been recent.

2: Who is the most effective preacher you have heard?

Probably Tony Campolo.

3: Why did you choose them?

I like the way he makes observations from real life stories, personal experience and anecdotes and converts them all into mini parables or illustrations about the point he is making. I also like his philosophy of being "as conservative as God's Law, as liberal as God's love" - I think there is volumes of stuff you can take out of that short statement.

4: What is your favourite movie?

I used to be a media student sooooo many films! I also tend to blog a lot using examples from film...but I'll list a few personal favourites in no particular order:

Lord of the Rings
Unbreakable
Signs
Lady in the Water
The Star Wars franchise
The Miracle Maker
Amelie
Deja Vu
Amazing Grace
The Princess Bride
Starman

5: What is your favourite music? I'll keep this list shorter ;-)

U2
Coldplay
Original film scores and some Classical
Rock/Alternative Rock/Adult Contemporary/Acoustic

6: If you could only take one book from the Bible to a desert island, which one would you choose?

I think it would be John's Gospel...some of Jesus' most potent and outrageous claims/statements are in there. I'm particularly fond of Jesus description of himself as the Good Shepherd as he tells people plainly what is going to happen to him well before time. I just love it that he tells his critics with audacity exactly who he is, why he has come, that it's going to cost him his life and that he is going to come back.

7: What do you hope for from the Preaching Workshop?

I hope to be able to be in a position to use what I learn more often. To have more opportunity to serve God by sharing my own experiences of who he is and what I believe hear him saying, and see him doing.

Have fun... and for the record I'm tagging Alastair, Andrew, Benny, Chrissie, Helen and Milly for this... just to get the ball rolling.

Feel free to poach this!

Conformity

Yesterday's Doctor Who was highly enjoyable. Not only did we have the return of the drone like Cybermen (with a new twist to their name as well), but at last we have a plausible explanation as to why the Doctor is limited to travelling only along our own timeline and not that of parallel dimensions. It had been niggling me... the idea that the idea that the Timelords were all but extinct, when surely there must be Timelords in alternate universes that have not been destroyed. now we know why the Doctor feels so alone - he can't get to the other universes to visit their versions of Gallifrey.

Anyway there were a couple of interesting points in yesterday's episode that could easily be used as allegory for Christian theology.

Firstly you have the "Preachers" led by Ricky (the parallel universe's Mickey), so called because they believe in the Gospel Truth (they don't believe in receiving information and data from bluetooth headsets invented by Cybus Industries, and with good reason for the owner of the company John Lumic is using the technology to further his own agenda of upgrading humanity with his technology and turning them into emotionless automatons trapped in steel bodies - the Cybermen.

Then you have the whole attitude of the Cyberman "race" to the rest of the populous. You must conform or be deleted. This is obviously setting them up with a showdown with the preachers who are the very antithesis of this. True to form the Preachers show up and try to gun down the Cybers with normal ammo - which fails to have any effect (long term Doctor Who aficionados will know that you need gold plated weaponry or ammunition as it messes up the run of the mill cyberman's respiratory equipment).

However the cliffhanger leaves the Doctor, Rose, Mickey and the Preachers surrounded by cybermen who are ready to "delete" them for not being compatable.

That is the world's attitude to Christianity. If you don't conform, you are incompatible and risk deletion. If you do conform, you lose your identity in Christ and become just another face in the crowd. OK, so you might not be trapped in a steel body deprived of all emotion, but you become something less than what you were designed to be, cut off from all the promises and potential that god had set aside just for you.

I'm going to leave you with a few scriptures to ponder and a challenge:

"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." Romans 12:2

"For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory." Romans 8:13-17

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29:11-13

and:

"I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh." Ezekiel 36:26

So what are you going to be? A Cyberman or a Preacher. are you going to be a conforming tin man or a spiritually liberated child of God.

The decision is yours...

N