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Category: Theology

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Dec72010

Have a Subversive Christmas

There is an interesting article in The Guardian entitled “Red Mary” that seeks to highlight the disparity between The Church’s fluffy Christmas message and that of the events it attempts to represent.  Jonathan Bartley contrasts the words of Mary in the magnificat declaring that The Lord “has brought down rulers from their thrones” and “lifted up the humble” to the point where the Magi are rebranded as “Kings”.  Once the church and state became entwined, Bartley argues, much has been reimagined “to create a close association with power, rather than a challenge to it”.  Have we now removed the world-changing challenges that the Christ Child brings and instead rebranded and sanitized the fuzzy Christmas as “the “Little Lord Jesus”, so gentle, meek and mild”.

Those who really understand Mary’s take on the nativity will realise that Jesus’s birth is not just good news for the oppressed, but a threat to all those who seek to restrict and control. It tells us that those who crusade for Christmas will end up losing the very festival they would defend.

Nov232010

Hallelujah! | The Invisible Church

Many sources are keen to point out that “Christians are being marginalised” within society.  As I said in a recent blog people have become increasingly disconnected from their neighbours, their tangible, real world communities.  This can result in a sense of spiritual isolation and of being the only follower of the way present in each daily encounter you have.  This in itself fosters and reinforces the feeling of marginalisation and as some have [wrongly] said, persecution.

I suspect that this shift in society has resulted in us missing the reality around us as we are disconnected from it:

Nov222010

Fresh Expressions | Fishing Net or Safety Net

I recently blogged concerns about Fresh Expressions moving people from one form of church to another rather than reaching new people.  Share the guide has blogged a brief introduction to a forthcoming grove booklet by Matt Stone asking the question “Are fresh expressions actually being fishing nets and reaching the unchurched, or are they merely safety nets, picking up disenchanted and bored churchgoers?”.  There are some interesting statistics that the study highlights.

Over 87% of those surveyed in every expression, and 100% in three of the expressions, had attended a church before. Hence, they were primarily churched or dechurched, rather than unchurched.

If this is an accurate assessment of Fresh Expressions I have some further questions about the consequences of this. 

  • Is it a problem that Fresh Expressions are reaching the churched or dechurched? 
  • Is this just plugging into the consumerist society in which we are currently living and turning God into a product that we are repackaging?
  • If this is a problem, how can Fresh Expressions more effectively reach the unchurched?

This grove booklet should make some interesting reading.