Ok, this has nothing to do with "ethos."
I watched a few moments of a youtube video the other day. The only reason (Joe) that I only watched a few moments had nothing to do with a dislike for the video itself, but during the video a life had to be saved or something. Remember, I'm in the life-saving business. Actually, I help others lose their life so that it might be saved, but now we are dealing with semantics. On second actually, a lot of my time is spent listening to those who just "need some help with some assistance" because they came here for work but lost their job because of an injury and they are without a place to live because they had an argument with the person they were staying with but they just started a new job however they won't start until Monday and then won't get paid until after that. Oh yeah, and they have to get back to Knoxville because their mother/aunt/daughter/dog is real bad sick and is going to have surgery/about to die and could I just give them some gas money to get back there by tonight? I forgot, they are also hungry because they haven't eaten since yesterday so anything I can give would be fine. The other thing is that they will probably be at church this Sunday.
On the youtube video (link here), I learned about "thinking about thinking." I am thinking about thinking about thinking about it right now. The side note is that I am impressed and soothed by the announcer voice. The idea in the video that struck me was that when reading to children you need to work to keep them interested in the story, or (and this is the greatest part!) convince them that they are interested in the story itself helping them realize that the story "matters." In spite of the overuse of italics, I think you see why this fascinated me. I know that this sounds arrogant, but I am convinced that most don't know that they are supposed to care. In other words, they don't care to care. How do you make someone care? About anything???
I will go back soon to watch the rest of the video to find out!
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Ethos, What is Our Role? (cont'd)
To continue, I believe that the first answer that needs to be found is if the Church knows it is mostly irrelevant to society OR if the Church even cares if it is irrelevant. I posed this question to our local congregation nearly seven years ago:
(1) I believe that most congregations really don't know that they have lost touch with the world around them. Their idea of the Christian walk is to attend "church" on Sundays and Wednesdays, and discuss the fact that those in church ought to do good, and how big a shame it is for those outside the church to do bad! Perhaps they believe that some will just walk into the door begging to be changed. I am not denying that this has happened at times, and it is unexplainable except for the drawing grace of God; but this is definitely not the norm. I believe that most congregations really don't know that the world doesn't know about them! Unless they have the biggest building on the square, the general population probably doesn't even know where the church building meets. The phrases on the sign mean nothing to the general populous, and they don't know all of the in's and out's of what is going on in your building. The city is not talking about who your pastor is, and they don't want to listen to your music. This is sad, but the world doesn't give a rip about most local congregations and the congregations are, I believe, totally unaware of this fact. They want their city to be saved, but they don't realize that the city doesn't know them, so how can the city know Jesus?
(2) I believe that there are some local congregations who don't care that they are irrelevant. Notice that I changed the number to "some." (if that is actually a number... kind of like the meeting I was in yesterday when the lawyer on the board said we all needed to determine how many a "majority" was. Wow!) I really believe that this is the fringe and we probably need to be content to let them handle snakes or whatever else they do. I will discuss them no further.
The issue is that whether we know that the Church has become irrelevant or not, we need to be relevant. I believe that we need to go further than that, however. I believe that we need to be "culture changing." This is not a matter of marching in the streets or protesting some cause, but to truly follow the example of Christ in the real world. Christ did not spend much time simply protesting all of the bad in the world (except for the religious people, but I digress), but he spent time showing the better way. In Biblical vernacular, He did not curse the darkness, but He shined His light and the darkness was gone. You know, it has actually been said that there is not such thing as "darkness," but that the dark was simply an absence of light. With this being said, I believe that the Church needs to be proactive in society rather than just reactive. We're great as taking those who have fallen and leading them to repentance, but when is the last time we actively worked to keep those same from falling in the first place? Being proactive means that society will start looking to the Church of ideas. We are great as taking what is going on in the world and adapting it for our needs (music, teaching methods, etc.), but when is the last time the world looked to the Church? Where is the new style of music that has never been heard before until it comes from the church? Where is the book that has never been written? Where is the method that the Church comes up with that businesses and MTV has to try to mimic?
The idea of MTV and something that came to my mind will be the work of the next continuation...
If we as a local body of believers did not exist, would it matter?I can honestly say that a lot of times it would not matter. To the question of the irrelevance mentioned above:
(1) I believe that most congregations really don't know that they have lost touch with the world around them. Their idea of the Christian walk is to attend "church" on Sundays and Wednesdays, and discuss the fact that those in church ought to do good, and how big a shame it is for those outside the church to do bad! Perhaps they believe that some will just walk into the door begging to be changed. I am not denying that this has happened at times, and it is unexplainable except for the drawing grace of God; but this is definitely not the norm. I believe that most congregations really don't know that the world doesn't know about them! Unless they have the biggest building on the square, the general population probably doesn't even know where the church building meets. The phrases on the sign mean nothing to the general populous, and they don't know all of the in's and out's of what is going on in your building. The city is not talking about who your pastor is, and they don't want to listen to your music. This is sad, but the world doesn't give a rip about most local congregations and the congregations are, I believe, totally unaware of this fact. They want their city to be saved, but they don't realize that the city doesn't know them, so how can the city know Jesus?
(2) I believe that there are some local congregations who don't care that they are irrelevant. Notice that I changed the number to "some." (if that is actually a number... kind of like the meeting I was in yesterday when the lawyer on the board said we all needed to determine how many a "majority" was. Wow!) I really believe that this is the fringe and we probably need to be content to let them handle snakes or whatever else they do. I will discuss them no further.
The issue is that whether we know that the Church has become irrelevant or not, we need to be relevant. I believe that we need to go further than that, however. I believe that we need to be "culture changing." This is not a matter of marching in the streets or protesting some cause, but to truly follow the example of Christ in the real world. Christ did not spend much time simply protesting all of the bad in the world (except for the religious people, but I digress), but he spent time showing the better way. In Biblical vernacular, He did not curse the darkness, but He shined His light and the darkness was gone. You know, it has actually been said that there is not such thing as "darkness," but that the dark was simply an absence of light. With this being said, I believe that the Church needs to be proactive in society rather than just reactive. We're great as taking those who have fallen and leading them to repentance, but when is the last time we actively worked to keep those same from falling in the first place? Being proactive means that society will start looking to the Church of ideas. We are great as taking what is going on in the world and adapting it for our needs (music, teaching methods, etc.), but when is the last time the world looked to the Church? Where is the new style of music that has never been heard before until it comes from the church? Where is the book that has never been written? Where is the method that the Church comes up with that businesses and MTV has to try to mimic?
The idea of MTV and something that came to my mind will be the work of the next continuation...
Friday, July 06, 2007
Ethos - What is our role?
First of all, let me say that when I say "our" in "our role" (see title) I am referring to the Church. As way of setup let me define some terminology:
the Church - this is the body of actual believers and followers of Christ, namely "Christians". This is not a denomination or an organization... or a building.
Christian - Again, believers in and followers of Christ (the Messiah / Son of God / grew up in Nazareth). He is both the Savior and forgivers of sins for these believers, and their master (or Lord), which means those same have actually turned from their own will and placed Christ direction and purpose above their own.
ethos - the defined culture for a community, group, or geographic region.
culture - Not just what you say you believe, but what you actually "practice" as a belief system.
Now, are we supposed to fit into the culture and work to be an agent of change, or are we supposed to develop our own culture that is truly a better option, and then invite the world to experience the new? I think the Church should be struggling with this question. This should be one of the fundamental questions that plague the leadership and the layman in the Christian community. Let me say as I begin that I think the answer is really "both", but it's not even quite as simple as that.
The church has swung on the pendulum for so long that all we deal with are extremes, and never really work to define what our proper role and thinking is. Most of modern belief system is not because believers have set in a room and prayed about how God would truly work through us, but it is because leaders were working to counter some whack-job who went off the deep end with an issue. All too often in response, leaders would go so far the other direction with their thinking to counter the "heresy" that some new whack-job belief would result on the other side. Thus, the pendulum. This has resulted in an "either / or" Christianity (where Christianity should probably be in quotes as well) rather than an "and" Christianity. The fundamental (which I realize is a loaded word) base of what Christ was all about and thereby what we Christ-followers should be all about is actually pretty much set. It is a Christianity that speaks out for what is right AND reaches out to actually do what is right. However, the pendulum swings from one to the other, with outcries on either side declaring that the others have gone too far. The reality is that all of this has had a tendency to make us (the Church) irrelevant to society in general. We don't like to hear it, but it is certainly true!
Ethos - What is our role? will continue at the next post...
the Church - this is the body of actual believers and followers of Christ, namely "Christians". This is not a denomination or an organization... or a building.
Christian - Again, believers in and followers of Christ (the Messiah / Son of God / grew up in Nazareth). He is both the Savior and forgivers of sins for these believers, and their master (or Lord), which means those same have actually turned from their own will and placed Christ direction and purpose above their own.
ethos - the defined culture for a community, group, or geographic region.
culture - Not just what you say you believe, but what you actually "practice" as a belief system.
Now, are we supposed to fit into the culture and work to be an agent of change, or are we supposed to develop our own culture that is truly a better option, and then invite the world to experience the new? I think the Church should be struggling with this question. This should be one of the fundamental questions that plague the leadership and the layman in the Christian community. Let me say as I begin that I think the answer is really "both", but it's not even quite as simple as that.
The church has swung on the pendulum for so long that all we deal with are extremes, and never really work to define what our proper role and thinking is. Most of modern belief system is not because believers have set in a room and prayed about how God would truly work through us, but it is because leaders were working to counter some whack-job who went off the deep end with an issue. All too often in response, leaders would go so far the other direction with their thinking to counter the "heresy" that some new whack-job belief would result on the other side. Thus, the pendulum. This has resulted in an "either / or" Christianity (where Christianity should probably be in quotes as well) rather than an "and" Christianity. The fundamental (which I realize is a loaded word) base of what Christ was all about and thereby what we Christ-followers should be all about is actually pretty much set. It is a Christianity that speaks out for what is right AND reaches out to actually do what is right. However, the pendulum swings from one to the other, with outcries on either side declaring that the others have gone too far. The reality is that all of this has had a tendency to make us (the Church) irrelevant to society in general. We don't like to hear it, but it is certainly true!
Ethos - What is our role? will continue at the next post...
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