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The joys of digital serendipity
A few moments ago a tweet alerted me to a talk given at a conference on the other side of the world. I didn’t have to go looking for it – it just found me through my Twitter feed.
The vast majority of organizations today are less than the sum of their parts. There are so many capabilities, so many resources, that are not accessed. Companies need to tap the networks, to access expertise, to bring together people who can learn from each other.
What a fabulous analysis of 1 Corinthians 12, don’t you think? What a great way to sum up the situation in many churches. Except that it wasn’t a sermon and he wasn’t talking about churches. This came from a talk given by futurist and entrepreneur Ross Dawson at a conference for internet broadcaster Viocorp. I cannot imagine any circumstance in which I would have sought out a record of the proceedings at such a gathering. What I do with it now, and how I connect it with my world and my expertise is up to me. The joy of digital serendipity is that it takes me outside my professional orbit into a place where I collide with the professional expertise of others and the creative sparks fly.
Just recently I met someone on Twitter who often asks her followers “what is inspiring you today”? Today, my answer would be Ross Dawson.
What about you?
Reflections on the Church iPad 2
Found some publicity in my pigeon-hole this morning for such exciting digital trinkets as a digital lectern and digital music stands with four-way splitters. The piece de resistance though, retailing at a mere £1595.00 was a church iPad 2. On further inspection it could apparently offer me 2000 hymns & songs with backing tracks, email software, presentation software and a calendar package. Even with all of that I’m still not sure that it has all it needs for the church leader. Surely there are some other apps which should come pre-loaded:
- Knocktheirheadstogether – church dispute resolution package
- Verseselecta – finds the most apposite verse for the most awkward pastoral situation
- Budgetplus – generates church funds at the touch of a finger
- Virtual youth group/ Sunday school leader (delete as applicable) – new staff on demand
- Sermonator- generates a sermon on a topic or text of your choice
Which app would get your vote, and what apps would you add?
Whose story is it anyway?
There was lots of discussion coming out of #medialit11 last week about telling stories. As a narrative preaching enthusiast I couldn’t be happier. Stories have the power to get under the defensive radar of scepticism and unleash their payload in the heart. Ever since Nathan the prophet told his cautionary tale to the king and Jesus his provocative parables to the crowds, the Kingdom has been growing on the back of good stories. The trouble is, we don’t always notice that we have them right in our midst.
Last year when on holiday in Dorset, I paid a visit to the Tolpuddle martyrs museum. Built on the edge of the village of Tolpuddle, it commemorates the story of six local men in the Nineteenth Century who formed an association (which was illegal at the time) to protest about workers’ rights. They were later transported as punishment, and out of their courageous stand the modern Trades Union movement was born. Today the museum is something of a ‘shrine’ to Trades Unionism. This is hardly surprising. However, five of the six men were Methodists, two of them were lay preachers, and it is apparent from reading the sermons of these two that their actions were driven by a profound faith. Their rebellion against their treatment was driven by their view that the treatment itself was an offence to God. How have we allowed such a story to slip through our fingers and become a story about politics rather than Gospel?
One of the many topics of discussion at yesterday’s hefty missiological gathering was the need to treat the workplace as a serious mission opportunity. If the kingdom is to grow then this is, of course, vital. In order to do this, though, we must hear and celebrate the stories of God at work at work. We need to forge stronger links between that part of our lives which we see as church and those parts which we see as ‘other’. Like the synapses, or neural pathways, in the brain – these links get stronger with use and help us to develop a more holistic worldview.
In our church we have a wall-to-wall weekly programme. Every day the building is busy, both with groups run by the church and community groups too. In a light-hearted attempt to make the link between these things and the church’s core purpose, we put the following sign up. Within a couple of hours three people had commented on it. Makes you wonder how well we have been telling our story?
All talked out
One hundred and one years ago, there was a very important conference in Edinburgh. One hundred years later there was another conference in Cape Town inspired by the conference in Edinburgh. Today there was a conference in London talking about the conference in Cape Town and its development of the themes from the conference in Edinburgh.
The findings of the conference about the conference were presented in a shiny book, and helpfully annotated at today’s conference by the extremely capable theologian who had put it together. The book has two principal thrusts, sixteen major sections, and between them they have one hundred and thirty-five subsections, along with a few further sub-divisions on the next level down. The bits which I have read are insightful, challenging, thoughtful and profound.
However, when a plea was given from the front by a senior figure behind both conference and book that we should ‘take it to our churches and pass on the insights’, my heart began to sink a little. Would my church really want to hear about, much less study, the one hundred and thirty-five subsections, I wonder? And if so, which of the regular weekly activities or pastoral concerns would be put on one side whilst they did so? Church always holds heavenly aspiration and earthly reality in tension- but at that moment I felt it particularly acutely.
There has to be a place in the Kingdom for big-picture thinking and hard theological questioning. I’m all for it, in fact. However, there also has to be some realism about how and where that thinking strikes the ground of the local mission field.
What do you think?
All-age Bible special
Back in the chilly days of last Winter when I was planning this quarter’s programme, it looked like a really good idea to hold a bible marathon, a bible exhibition and an all-age Bible celebration in the same week. When it came to it, the whole thing proved to be something of a marathon – but worth a whole lot more than a laurel crown.
This morning’s service started with the construction of a Bible tower from Bibles brought into church from home- evidence of our Biblical wealth, and a reminder of the need for a sure foundation. After that there were contributions from many different groups, including a Bible cover designed by 10-13 year-olds, testimony about our Bible School and then my personal favourite – the Biblefresh Dragons’ Den. With the use of a projected backdrop and the programme’s theme tune, the scene was set nicely for our teenage youth group to slip into their roles as the Dragons. Each of our adult ‘pitchers’ were allocated 3 minutes to pitch their fail-safe scheme to get people reading the Bible.
Zoe, a marketing analyst, pitched her idea for the ‘nifty’ (NIVT) which was an NIV watch with integral Bible text – so as to make the wearer on time but also spiritually equipped:
The NIVT - click on image for close-up
Next up was Mike, a project manager for a multinational, who had spotted a gap in the market. Bible apps and equipment are available for reading the Word on train or plane – but what about on a bike? His Bible cycle helmet would certainly turn heads on the street, although it would be unlikely to win any prizes for road safety:
Click on image for a cyclist's eye-view
Of course neither idea is likely to make it to market any time soon, but they certainly made a point. The family of God provides a wealth of enthusiasm and skill from which to encourage and support each other in tackling God’s word. In this, different age-groups can learn from each other.
What would your sure-fire scheme be for encouraging others to read the Bible?
Global Smurf Day
Today, in 12 different cities around the world, crowds will gather, many of them painted head to foot in blue. This is not a woad-fest, nor a gathering of fans to celebrate James Cameron’s epic Avatar, with its important themes of greed and ecology. No, this is a day set to celebrate the little blue people whose origins lay in the mispronunciation of the word ‘salt’ over lunch. Belgian artist Pierre Culliford and his friend were sharing a meal when Pierre forgot the word for salt and said ‘schtroumpf’ instead. Thus the ‘schtroumpfs’ (or smurfs) were born.
As a person who dimly remembers the little creatures, ’3-apples high’ from my childhood, I can’t say that I have ever thought much about the profound themes of Smurfdom. My principle recollection is of their annoying theme song. However, in print and on the worldwide web today you will find interpretations of smurf society as everything from an anti-Semitic and misogynist hell to an even handed and exemplary community paradise (And these are only the ones I have found before 9am!)
As a preacher I try to abide by a code of hermeneutics which is honest about those elements of my own experience which colour me. I also seek some degree of rigour in the interpretative task. Today,on a day when my hermeneutical skills are not required, I shall watch other people going about the task, and probably smile as I do so.
Image: toyday.co.uk
Laughing at ourselves
339 posts and 4732 tweets on – it would be dishonest to claim that I am anything less than fond of social media. It connects me swiftly with people around the world, stimulates my imagination, informs my mind, and frequently challenges my prejudices. All the same, it is good to recognise once in a while how silly it all looks to those not involved. The video below is an advert for the forthcoming English National Opera’s production of Two Boys.
Enjoy…
An exile in Paradise
Regular readers of this blog will know that I have a somewhat loose relationship with navigation. Maybe it is for this reason that I feel some degree of sympathy for the Emperor Penguin who took a wrong turn and ended up over 2000 miles away from the Antarctic on Peka Peka beach in New Zealand. The poor creature has been attracting worldwide attention, and although it is feeding itself from the sea, there is a real danger from thirst. Penguins usually ingest snow so that it melts in the stomach giving them water. So far this disorientated creature has not worked out that wet sand does not function the same way – exile can be an uncomfortable place.
Image: Belfast Telegraph
Walter Brueggemann, surely one of the most poetic and incisive theologians of our era, has dwelt much on the image of Twenty-First Century Christians as exiles. Like the Old Testament exiles, we find ourselves abroad in a place where we don’t belong, with the needle of our spiritual compass constantly swinging towards an unseen North. Like those exiles, it is not new theological truths that we need but rather we need to feel differently about the old ones. A careful reading of the exilic prophets reveals very little by way of theological innovation – rather theirs is a poetic plea to shift the heart’s centre of gravity back to the God of the ages of ages.
The world will doubtless watch to see whether this particular exile survives in a strange land. What does it see, though, when it looks at us other exiles, I wonder?
The evolution of a word
‘Evangelism’ is one of those words which probably sends a shiver down the spine of those inside and outside the church in equal measure. Years ago Rebecca Manley Pippert described it as ‘something you wouldn’t do to your dog, let alone your best friend’, and Adrian Plass describes some painful examples of it outside his local chip shop in his first Sacred Diary. Listening to a discussion at #medialit11 today, I am reminded of the word’s origins.
- Originally the word described the duty of a runner, who would be sent back from the front line to the folks back home to tell them how the battle was going.
- Later the Romans took the word over, and monopolised it as an official announcement of the birth a new (and godlike) Caesar
- The Christians then monopolised it again, melding both former meanings into one – whereby it became both the announcement of a battle won, and the fact that there was a new supreme ruler on the block – namely Jesus.
Which of these definitions are in our minds when we discuss the word today, I wonder?
Looking back on #biblemarathon
When I was a little boy, pushing my toy car round the imaginary motorway under the sofa I reckoned I made a pretty impressive engine sound – at least to my young ears. Taking the car outside, though, it was a different story. Out there, in the big wide world, the sound was tinny, overwhelmed and slightly pathetic.
As yesterday’s Bible Marathon got under way, reading the opening chapters of Genesis to a largely empty street, I was aware of the same feelings all over again. As a preacher I am accustomed to reading out the Word of God in a purpose built environment, with suitable amplification, before an audience who have expressed their interest in it by turning up. Out there, in the street, things could not be more different.
On the whole, readers found it to be a positive experience. Many of those reading, either directly under our tent in Teddington or remotely via skype from Durham had to overcome their fears in order to do so. Most felt it was a privilege to read out the often private Word of God in the public space. Like a new Christian voicing their belief for the first time, it deepened the sense of conviction by saying it out loud. For those who were supporting the readers it felt good to hear the word out on the street too. Not only that, but it connected the Bible together by doing it all in one 12-hour session. Mid- morning I heard Ezekiel’s description of the trees in the temple with their leaves for the healing of the nations. Shortly before 8pm I heard it all over again – this time from Revelation.
On the whole, responses from the public were positive. Some stopped to listen, others slowed down as they drove or walked past, and one person even removed their ear-buds so that they could hear better! There were very few who sought to disrupt or mock, and most seemed to respect the conviction which motivated the readers. We had conversations with a Zoroastrian, a Muslim and a new Christian wanting to know more about the Bible and many others. One child who overheard the readings from her pushchair went straight home and asked her mum to get the Children’s Bible out. The overall feeling at our closing celebration was that this had been a very worthwhile investment of 12 hours.
I leave you with two pictures from a memorable day – one of older Joan and one of younger Anna: both caught up in a task bigger than themselves.
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