foolish network

Mark 14 tells one of my favourite little stories in the Bible. The writer tells us about a women who pours an expensive bottle of perfume over Jesus as a display of worship to him. I love the lessons that we can learn from this ladies heart. However, the other day, whilst reading this passage, I noticed something very significant in the setting of this story.

Verse three of Mark 14, can at first appear to be merely a trivial piece of information for the reader, however, it is in actual fact loaded with relevance.

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I think I’ve always wanted to be cool. When the Fonz entered the room in Happy Days the audienced cheered just because he turned up. It was early on in life that I realised I was never going to be the Fonz, I could never pull off the leather jacket look. Thankfully my quest for coolness was aided by the late nighties/early norties acceptance of geek chic. I finally felt there was one trend I could aim for and potentially achieve, I think my friends might say I achieved on the geek part but it was never really chic or cool. Our desire to appear cool is often about being accepted or recieving love or adoration from our peers. Cool is also attractive, we are drawn to cool things and when we feel cool it can lift us, my favourite part of going to a wedding is seeing all my mates in suits and pretending in my mind that we are part of a mafia or something and the whole time I’m thinking ‘How cool are we?! ‘

Like so many things in life cool is defined by having an opposite, uncool. (more…)

Here’s a little quiz that I came across which I found kinda interesting to do.

What’s your theological worldview quiz

So I spent too much of this bank holiday weekend watching television, well actually video. I tend to watch a lot of US drama and I’ve recently been making my way through the new series of Battlestar Galactica. I apologise for those who may groan at the thought of science fiction but this series has really highlighted to me how good sci-fi can be. Science Fiction is a relatively modern genre but by it’s nature it allows you to pose lots of hypothetical ethical and philosophical questions. In the new Battlestar Galactica the enemy cylons who are robots now have the ability to create robots that behave and look like humans. I’ll try not to give too much away but the main philosophical theme of Battlestar Galactica is the nature of humanity. What does it mean to be human?

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I passed my driving test a few years ago and since then people have often asked me when I am going to buy a car. As a teenager I’d always wondered how people paid for cars and was amazed when my brother explained to me the concept of ‘Finance’. Knowing the traditional Evangelical view on debt I came to conclusion I would never own a nice car. I still haven’t bought a car though I might need to at some point in the future. I’ve always fancied a car with character like an old Mercedes, BMW or Land Rover Defender but then my desire to care for the earth that God has given us gets in the way of purchasing a polluting machine. If I purchase a new car then I get something that is greener and economical but would almost certainly get me in to debt. You may think “Why on earth are you going on about this?”, well I think that as christians it’s important that we wrestle with issues instead of following the crowd whether that be those within or outside the church.

I thought I’d highlight some guys who are wrestling with this very issue in an active way. They call themselves the Junky Car Club and they’ve decided that instead of getting fancier and fancier cars that they will instead buy cars outright and use the money they would have spent on a monthly finance deal to support social justice projects or organisations helping the poor. It’s a simple but great idea, we know that following Jesus costs a great deal, some like to philosophize that away to such an extent that it isn’t an actual real monetary cost, not these guys. Check it out here www.virb.com/junkycarclub

Just to let people know that Rob Bell is touring the UK in June this year. Rob’s sermons, books and videos have been a great inspiration and source of challenge over the past 3 years. I first saw the Nooma film Flame when I was at University and was amazed that someone had actually created a credible piece of Christian Video with content to match the visuals. Then a while later I found that Mars Hill Church (where Rob is the teaching pastor) puts all their sermons online for free. Rob has also written two books Velvet Elvis and more recently Sex God. I read Sex God last week whilst away on holiday and found it an easy yet revelational read in a world that seems to have lost it’s way defining what it means to be sexual.
Calling All Peacemakers will mainly be in venues associated with rock gigs, tickets are available here and a £1 from every sale goes to the Turame Microfinance Project. Might see some of you at Wolverhampton.

How many times have you been in a conversation with someone, and they say something like, “I have no idea what I want to do with my life,” or “I’m just gonna do this job for a few months until I decide what I really want to do.”

I for one, have been in that conversation plenty of times, and admittadly, most of those statements have usually come from my side of the dialogue.

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As a University student, which is fast becoming some time ago, I was quite involved with establishing a Christian Union (CU). I went to a small art college in what I would call a small, remote, ostracised city, others call it Carlisle. Finding other christians was tricky but eventually a group of about 5 got together, assisted by a gentleman called Tim from an organisation called Operation Mobilisation.

There was some debate as what the group would be like, some thinking a social get together for like minded religious folk and others a more conventional CU with meetings, cell groups etc. Eventually we asked a larger christian students organisation to get involved and we met our local workers. It was great to get some support but we had a meeting and the conversation will stick with me forever. At the time the organisation’s values were promoted as Mission and Maturity and we were challenged on how we went about these, particularly mission. As I understand it from friends who studied elsewhere the traditional campus mission goes a little like this. A week long series of events that are mainly social and fun, building to an evangelical meeting where the gospel is preached or even a series of fun events with a ‘God-spot’ or epilogue tagged on the end.

The new CU didn’t have the resources or people to put on a week long series of events like larger campuses but our real difficulty was this concept of what constitutes mission. (more…)

…but not everything is beneficial 1 Cor 10:23
This weekend I just had an idea shoot in to the forefront of my mind that actually occured a while ago. It seems that those looking in on our faith are often preoccupied with the rules. Christians can’t drink, can’t smoke, can’t have sex before marriage, can’t have fun and so on.
Chatting to some of the young people in church and at some wider church events I’ve noticed we actually get a version of this same type of thing. ‘Is it ok for us to drink? ‘Can I watch 18 Certficate films?’ ‘What can I do with my girlfriend?’ ‘Can I date a non-christian?’
It strikes me that the real question is often ‘what can I get away with?’
I don’t believe this is unique to teenagers, I think our approach to church is similar, what is the minimum requirement? 2hrs on a Sunday morning? mid-week homegroup?

Imagine if you fell in love with someone, got married had an awesome honeymoon and the week you got back and settled in you approached the marriage by thinking, what’s the minimum housework I can do that will keep the wife off my back, or the what’s the maximum amount of time I can spend with my mates before she starts to complain … doesn’t really strike you as an the most loving of relationships.
Why are we like this with God and how can we change that?

If we picture God as this keeper of scores then we will always be focused on what the rules are, learning to play the game, fighting our case, finding the get out clause. If we see our relationship with God as a contract then we are stuffed because we would never have the ability to keep the terms. I would love to hear some suggestions but the one solution I see is that we need to see God as our Maker, the One who knows what is best for us, who knows what is beneficial. We need to see ourselves as the bridegroom, perhaps then we will focus on becoming the most beautiful wife in the world.