One of the biggest obstacles according to Brennan Manning that unbelievers have from engaging with Christians is Christians “who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and then walk out the door and deny him by their lifestyle …”
And I have to admit that as a Christian that loves the church and loves being a part of a community of followers of Jesus I also find myself struggling to believe sometimes. Continue reading
We’re fast approaching the most wonderful time of the year to quote Andy Williams and I am especially looking forward to Christmas year as my Mum, Sister and niece travel to Detroit to spend Christmas with us. A time of the year when if you are lucky enough to have a loving family, close friends and a little food, then you are doing just fine.
Yet, there are those who will not experience anything like that this year. There will be those who have no tree overlooking gifts or homes filled with laughter. It is a time where we should remember that everyone has the right to a life that brings meaning, to a community of people who surround them with love and to have the most basic of human needs met.
In short, Christmas is for everyone.
Yet this is not the message that many of you will hear from us Christians.
We will shudder at the sound of those wishing us a Happy Holiday just so they don’t offend anyone who doesn’t hold the same beliefs we have. We will villainize those who seek to strip Christ from Christmas. We will lament the loss of our Christian voice from public life. 
I have to admit that I have never been one easily offended by anything poking fun at Christianity. Maybe because it’s easy to see the absurdness of some facets of Christianity from right in the middle of it but also for the fact that our collective voices as followers of Jesus can never be restricted by labels or what message we print on our Christmas cards.
The question of who Christmas is for is an important one in dealing with the influence that Christians have in the world as a whole.
Usually, when the word ‘Christian’ comes up in the media it will refer to someone or other who is protesting some sort of loss of ‘Christian’ values. It will generally be to describe someone who doesn’t believe in gay marriage, who will be yelling about immigration or who thinks that Muslims are slowly planning on taking over the world.
These are the voices that are generally heard and the ideas that many people will take as being Christian. So when people look in at us and see us preparing for a fake war against Christmas that only exists in our minds, they don’t see the hope and the peace and justice that are the true tenants of Christianity, but a fear, paranoia and defensiveness.
But this is not the whole story. These are not the voices of all Christians. Actually, these are the views of a very small number, a number that despite it’s size still gets most recognition.
When we look back in recent years we can quickly see how we spend much of our time fighting for our rights as Christians, especially here in the West. We have been given a message that if we don’t speak up for Christian values quickly and loudly we are at the risk of seeing secularism taking over.
I’ve heard the phrase, “the Christian faith being removed from the public sphere” a lot recently.
But is this really possible? Is any faith or belief system really up to much if it can be so easily destroyed by semantics or the inability to be allowed to wear small versions of execution devices around our necks in the work place? Doesn’t belief or faith have to point to outside of itself to be truly life changing, rather work to defend itself?
The main reason that we should be worried (if we should be worried at all- more on this later) that our Christian voices are not being heard is because much of it points into itself rather than outwards into the world.
When we spend most of our time shouting down those who don’t use the word Christ in Christmas we miss the point that Christianity is only powerful when it is directed outwards.
When we spend so much time fighting for Christian values we lose the value it has for everyone. (Share this)
Because being a Christian at Christmas is not about making sure everyone uses the correct terminology for Christmas. It is not about ‘remembering the reason for the season’.
It is about our ability to welcome those who are different, who are hungry and who need justice.
Truly loving our enemies is the only way in which we will keep Christ in Christmas. (Share this)
The only stage in which Christians will lose their voice in the public sphere is when we lose our ability to love. It is not some outside force or group of people or store or Christmas advert that are the biggest risk to the true message of Christmas being lost. Christians are the biggest risk to removing Christ from Christmas.
Love is free, always and so Christian influence is not dependent on all the things we have made it out to be. Like gay marriage, or other religions or keeping ‘Christ’ in Christmas.
And Christ is too big to be contained in a word and can only truly be alive to the world when the things that were important to Him become important to us also.
If we don’t see that, we’ve missed the point.
And maybe in the end, that is what will really keep Christ out of Christmas.
The one thing that we Christians love more than quoting verses or Jesus Juking the heck out of situations is to come out with Christian cliches. We can’t help ourselves. They’re so engrained in our minds that sometimes it’s easy to forget where they came from in the first place.
The problem with cliches is that where originally there may have been some truth and wisdom in the meaning, they have become so overused that they are applied in situations which don’t require them at all. Or at least, aren’t very helpful.
It’s time to stage a Christian cliche coup d’é·tat. (Tweet this) I’m taking back Christian cliches and all that they stand for. Beginning with these four (and probably ending with these four too if I’m honest) Continue reading
This weekend on twitter in a conversation with someone I didn’t know, I made a statement that was pretty ignorant, lazy and simply untrue on my part. To the person I was talking to’s credit they continued to engage with me and we had an open and respectful dialogue about the Asher’s case which was at the forefront of religious news in Northern Ireland last week.
(You can check out my take on it here)
But when they made it clear that what I had written was untrue, I apologized.
And I’m going to be honest, it felt amazing to say sorry. It got me wondering though why so many of us have a difficult time apologizing to each other. And when I say ‘us’, I mean Christians. Specifically online.
When much of Christianity today especially online, centers around debates on theological positions about things that really don’t matter that much in the grand scheme of things, it’s not much of a surprise that we can’t bring ourselves to say sorry.
Christians online, perhaps more than most groups of people love to be right. Our identities are so cemented in what we believe that when someone comes along with an opinion that differs from our own, instead of engaging with them respectfully and listening, our posture is one of defensiveness.
Our chests get tight, our heart rates increase and we attack our families (because that is what we are) in ways that will make our next family reunion slightly awkward.
But there has to be a better way.
I’m not saying we always have to agree. How boring would that be? But the way we engage has to be so open that we all feel free and safe to know we won’t get lambasted for our opinions.
It’s actually surprising how little Jesus is mentioned when online discussions involving Christians are concerned. The next time that friend that loves causing debate for the sake of controversy on Facebook starts a post, have a quick search for Jesus. He’ll probably be hiding somewhere embarrassed.
Nevertheless, I think in our approach to how we engage with people that disagree with us, Jesus is our best bet to look to for guidance.
What we often forget is that when Jesus did debate it was with the religious folk who were more concerned with power and maintaining the status quo than love. When it came to the people who the religious leaders said were dirty, wrong, worthless and sinners; people like the poor, the sexually immoral, the homeless and the people from other faiths entirely, He entertained them, He sat with them, He listened to and He cared for them.
Jesus did not call us to be right, but even if we are, our highest calling is always love. (Tweet This)
If He had wanted us to take correct theological positions He wouldn’t have had his best friends be a bunch of people from different belief systems, often doubtful, always confused, screw ups. He wouldn’t have spent so much time railing against the religious leaders of his day. He wouldn’t have spoken using stories that made very little sense a lot of the time. He wouldn’t have talked most highly about the people that everyone else had written off as being essentially wrong by religious standards of the day.
Even, on the evening of his arrest, when he was about to face the biggest injustice anyone has ever faced and had more of a right to stick up for being correct about something than anyone since; He healed one of his captors after they were wounded by Peter.
But…when someone disagrees with our view on homosexuality, or predestination, or money, or church, or swearing, or the use of violence, we quickly reach for our swords. To make matters worse, most of the time, it isn’t even our enemies (who we are called to love relentlessly anyway, sorry) we are attacking, but our family.
It’s almost as if Jesus first reaction to someone who was actually wrong to attack Him was to heal them. To borrow a turn of phrase from Jesus Himself, how much more then should we love those who just think differently than us and not feel the need to defend ourselves?
Do we believe that it’s up to us to save Christianity, or do we believe that it’s already been accomplished 2000 years ago?
Something to ponder.
Then, next time we decide to knock down and attack someone because we feel our belief system is being threatened it might be worth asking, was it ever that strong to be begin with?
And if that makes you uncomfortable well,
I’m sorry.
There is a fundamental problem with the term ‘Christian’ which is that it doesn’t have a concrete definition. You can be a Christian and believe very different things than others who also call themselves Christians. Continue reading
This is a post on a topic that I haven’t spent a lot of time writing about of late but it is something that I have been pondering on a lot recently.
The question of creativity. The dreaded blank page. Where to start. You’ve been there I know you have. I found a great book that has helped me immeasurably with this and I want to share some of what I’ve found in it with you.
The book is called “A Technique for Producing Ideas” by James Webb Young 
Essentially there is one key aspect of James’s technique that has changed everything about how I look at creating.
If you are like me you are a procrastinator. You know the work you have to do but somehow you can’t bring yourself to actually sit down to do it.
It’s the age old question for anyone who has some sort of work to do. Do you..
Have to say something? Or..
Have something to say? (Thanks Rob Bell)
Is the task you face having to sit down and come up with a great inspiring blog post everyday, or writing a paper, or coming up with a book idea or having to think of a new sermon series because it’s due in a few days?
Or…. is the task you have, being so excited by an idea or a thought, by something that you noticed on a walk or something you read in a magazine or a sign you saw on your drive home that caught your attention or a picture that made you think about ‘that’ in a different light, or a story about someone giving their life for someone else which opened your eyes to a new way of thinking about generosity and what that means for your marriage, or a word which when you had the original meaning explained to you made you sit up and realize there was a whole new meaning to ‘this’?
So you made a note of it, or took a picture, or created a folder, or memorized it, or held it, or picked it up, or took it home and placed it on your mantlepiece.
Then after a while you began to discover how a few of these things that seemingly had no connection came together in a way that you couldn’t see coming. This connects with that, and that can be illustrated perfectly by that postcard you saw in the shop.
So when you go to sit down you’re not staring at a blank screen but bringing all these connections and ideas to the table, ready to surprise and delight us.
Are we hoping that inspiration strikes us every morning when we sit down to work or do we have an openness to the world where we are constantly being alert to those ideas or images or words that make us think, “that’s interesting”.
Maybe we use it or maybe we don’t. That doesn’t matter. All that matters is that it was enough in that moment to be of interest.
Editing comes later. Being aware and collecting begins now.
So that when the time comes to do the work, we’re ready.
So when we sit down to work, our blank white screen is already full of color.
A lot of the time when we read the Bible we come away even more confused than we did going into it. For a ‘Christian manual’ it makes all the sense of an instruction diagram in an IKEA flat pack. (Hang on why does screw 163758 look exactly the same as 384912? Why does that weird cartoon alien guy still look happy doing this? I think the cupboard’s done… wait what’s that weird noise and where is the cat?) Continue reading
A lot has changed for Britt and I during the last year. We have left our community and family in Belfast to move to Detroit. We have deepened already existing friendships here and made new ones. We haven’t found a church in a traditional sense that most people mean but we have found church in people and places that encourage us (and hopefully vice versa) everyday.
We’ve also made extremely good use of Skype.
But perhaps on a more personal level a lot has changed about what I believe about God. Continue reading
There is a song on Gungor’s “Ghosts Upon the Earth” album called “Wake Up, Sleeper”. It’s groovy, folkish, liturgical prog feel (as in what’s your favorite groovy, folk, liturgical prog band?) is interrupted about half way through by an electronic sounding baseline that seemingly doesn’t fit into the song. The first time I heard it, I was caught completely off guard. Not only was it unlike anything that Gungor had produced before it was almost as if I hadn’t really been listening to the song. But once the baseline kicked in I was alert to the song in a new way.
It took on new meaning. It took on new life. I felt an energy in the song that made me want to listen to nothing but this baseline ever again.
If it was an intentional attempt to have the music correspond with the theme of the song, it worked beautifully.
I only bring this up because I want to talk about porn (you didn’t see that coming did you?) Continue reading
A couple of weeks ago, just before the Scottish referendum I read an interesting tweet from someone which basically said that since God was on the side of those campaigning for No vote, they were going to win.
It was a pretty bold statement to make but immediately got me thinking.
If God was on the side of everyone on the No campaign does that mean he was against everyone on the Yes side?
Does that mean everyone on the side of No understands what God wants but everyone on the Yes side is deluded or at best mistaken?
What about those on the side of No who don’t even believe in God, is it possible that they could be doing His work without even realizing it?
What about those who on the Yes side believe that actually it was they who were doing God’s will? Were they wrong and did the end result where No eventually won show that indeed God was on the side of No all along?
Or what about all the political powers and corporations that win every single day at the expense of the poor and vulnerable? Does that mean God has no desire to see the poor freed and the weak given strength?
And what exactly was the meaning of the ending of Lost? (No I still don’t know either).
There is a big problem when we state categorically that God is on one side over another in that it actually raises so many questions about who God is; which happens to be the exact opposite of what those sure they are correct believe. We argue whose version of God is more real and because we’re dealing with God, if someone disagrees with us it’s not something we can let go of easily.
But perhaps most damaging is that it creates a huge gulf between the group who believe they are right and the group who they believe are wrong. A short look through history will quickly reveal countries, Governments and individuals who have taken this route with devastating consequences.
Take my home of Northern Ireland for instance.
From the early 1960’s where people like the Reverend Ian Paisley were at the core of movements that coined phrases like “For God and Ulster” it’s obvious the damage that can be caused when the belief that we are doing God’s will results in the idea that the other side are the anti Christ. Violence, bombs, hatred and thousands of losses of life. All because one side thinks they are right about God.
Until it becomes nothing to do with God or even beliefs and all about fearful, unwarranted attitudes about those with a different “label” to you. Eventually, until the point when there is not a lot to distinguish between the two sides, except a common hate for ‘them’.
Sooner or later, one side’s belief that they are completely right about God will often lead to a violent and angry reaction towards those who they disagree with.
So how ultimately do we decide what God is like?
One obvious way is to go to the Bible.
That rich library of books consisting of many different genres, written by a lot of different writers, who each have often very conflicting ideas of God. Middle Eastern writers from incredibly diverse backgrounds with different aims, writing for different groups of people, each with their own unique traditions and beliefs. Words and poetry and stories and long lists of names which describe the journey of a diverse group of people, with vastly different ideas about God which pull and push in a millions different ways, stretched out over thousands of years. People struggling and messing up as they try to make sense of life and their faith in God. Confusing imagery and perplexing stories of fish swallowing men and people prepared to murder their own sons and talking donkeys.
That last one is not made up I promise.
Yep, the Bible is a perfect place to start and make sense of God.
Of course the best way we can understand what God is like is to look at the Gospels and to the words and actions of Jesus. Here we find a very clear and easy to follow set of rules for how to be a good Christian and understand what God is like. (Ok I’m sure by now you know where this is heading but just go with it).
Things like giving all your wealth away. Or loving those whose main goal in life is to destroy you. Or taking off all your clothes and giving them to someone who is also trying to take your money. Or letting someone hit you twice. Or ideas about being poor and actually being wealthy in ways you won’t necessarily understand at the time and may never fully get.
Or how about stories Jesus told about women turning their homes upside down for one solitary coin they lost and farmers leaving 99 of their sheep unguarded, open to attack from predators just so he could find the one who went missing (Some interesting economic applications in there for sure).
Parables which sound like riddles and stories that are just plain mental.
Then there was the way that Jesus upset the establishment which held ideas about God they had worked hard to cement. Upsetting groups like the Pharisees who tried their best to silence and control this rogue Jewish rabbi who called himself the Son of God.
(This is also what the Roman Emperor called himself so you can imagine the kind of stir when Jesus, a poor Jewish carpenter took the name for himself. Also, even our commonly held understanding that all Pharisees were against Jesus shows just how much we get it wrong sometimes. There were some like Nicodemus who stood up for Jesus.)
Then there’s the controversial Jesus who did radically shocking things like talking to a Samaritan woman (mortal enemies of Jews) at a well about her sex life. The simple fact that it was not a man who first proclaimed that Jesus had risen but actually a woman. (And to this day we many churches tell women they can’t preach). Then when even some of Jesus best friends, the people who knew Him best didn’t believe that Jesus was alive and kicking. And we wonder why we struggle to make sense of all that Jesus said and did.
Constantly, Jesus demonstrated a complete disregard for how everyone thought the savior of the world should act. He turned everything upside down forever. He made a fool of those who though they knew what was happening and delighting the very people that were considered the worst people on the planet.
So when it’s pretty clear from the scriptures that Jesus ended up doing the exact thing that was not expected of Him, always keeping his followers on their toes and using weird stories that usually made as much sense as a David Lynch movie, why do we believe that we are so often correct about God?
Time and time again Jesus commands us to do things that just do not make any sense. Ideas so out there that even today with years and years of Biblical scholarship we still don’t know what a lot of it means.
A God who is so difficult to pinpoint to a certain ideal that He is still revealing Himself in new and wonderfully exciting ways through the very people we think we think don’t deserve a second chance.
It seems that the very moment we assume we hold the most correct ideas of God and faith and life that we are missing the point. We can find so many enriching and truths about God in the Bible but over and over it becomes apparent that sometimes the best that Jesus can even come up with is vague ideas about what God or Heaven is ‘like’ rather than concrete truths.
Which when you think about it is beautiful and allows us to flourish in our full creativity and explore God in new ways that could give us new meaning and a new hopefulness.
And then it could bring us to a place where instead of holding tightly to what we think is correct about God we are open to the possibility that in the person who we think is wrong, a truth that causes us to love each other is brought into the light.
This is what real truth looks like. This is what true love looks like.
And something tells me this is what God looks like too.
paulrobinsonwrites 