as i was going straight to australia the day after running the dekhomai stand at the london mind body spirit festival i haven’t offered much by way of reflection. but patrick gavigan who was helping on the team has written a piece on the cms site seekers after heaven in ordinary.
i notice sanctus 1 are stopping running a stand in manchester with misgivings about hit and run/lack of follow up and the consumerist nature of spirituality in the market place. ben reflects here | here | here .
i want to give this some more thought but my view of the first is that we are not running a stand to persuade people to join something. we offer what we do as a gift and that’s it. the idea that it is hit and run seems to assume we want to do a whole lot more. we’re neither hitting anyone or running from anyone. the challenge we face is that people now approach spirituality and religion very differently to the way we think they should and they don’t want to join our clubs! grace davie has qualified the current re-shaping of the european religious scene as a shift from obligation to consumption – the demise of christendom does not mean the demise of religious practise, it means the end of faith as duty (thanks to gerard kelly for reminding me of this at RUN this week). in this environment rather than lamenting it in our enclaves put stuff out there for people to access. most of jesus ministry was gift – he didn’t say i’ll only heal you if there is a nurture group to join at the end of it…
on the second point, this is a real tension. but i think in that light that offering what we do for free in that marketplace as a gift is a sign of the kingdom in its own way. it’s subversive. we have had a lot of people really appreciating that not just for selfish reasons. i understand the risks involved but would rather be there than not, but understand ben’s concerns. i hope that he makes some of the suggestions in his third post tangible and real rather than just withdrawing from the scene… i also think i have a different view of how christian faith and incarnation might get played out in a consumer culture. it’s the water we are swimming in so faith is inevitably remade and relocated in that cultural environment. it’s not always a bad thing. the challenge is how to resist and engage simultaneously. the church always seem to get on its high horse and overplay resistance to culture whilst wearing clothes, listening to music, shopping at supermarkets, typing on computers all bought in the marketplace. as tom beaudoin put it – we live after purity…
i was also thinking about some of the primal vision points i reflected on in australia in relation to mind body spirit fairs…
risk letting go of control and trust god
holy ground of another culture
adventure of the imagination
do it from the inside
failure of only meeting people in their best clothes (or clothes bought at eco right on shops?!)
never call another’s light darkness – sin is the last truth to be told…
Cheers for thoughts, pleased to stimulate some thinking about this…
Re Hit and Run – Its a fleeting moment, that i hope can have a really impact on peoples lives, and encounter with something other. My desire at MBS is to give people a positive experience of Christianity –I hope that positive encounter sticks with them for the future.
I’ve thought about the gift thing and yes we are giving gift, but maybe gift is a more about the exchange that takes place and maybe we get more from giving than they do from receiving? I’m wrestling with this one, think it’s important that we are there but want to push our critical thinking on it. Also don’t like it being ‘us and them’ – How can we receive in this context?
I also think that there is a place for confession within this, consumerism is rife within out church, emerging church included, and as barry taylor suggested on my blog – perhaps we started it all. Also think that we need to confess our failings in the places that we have taken the spirituality out of Christianity…
“a shift from obligation to consumption” – it interests me to reflect on the changing images of self within the change from obligation to consumption.
and to some extent i think this change has transformed the way ministers see themselves. no longer content to quietly serve, the leader wants to be seen as the guy who’s got it.
we live in a world holding up mirrors of ‘how to look good’, and cope with more personal criticism on a more personal level than was possible prior to photography. (is this what Jesus refers to in Matt. 5 – ‘You have to choose to live one-eyed or else be dumped on a moral trash pile.’)
how can the church respond to this wounding of our self-esteem? i know the answer is to love in a way that listens, and knows and loves, – except i can’t do it! (“In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognise that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other.” John 13)
Thoughtful post Jonny… It raises some interesting issues. Thanks.
I pushed this new book on the Asbo Jesus site – “Wild”, by Jay Griffiths, Penguin, £8.99 – rude as hell about Christianity, but as everything she finds in the best hunter/gatherer paganism is what I’ve found in the best of the gospel, I commend it to you. (The book comes plastered with great reviews, so you can be sure it captures the crest of at least one current cultural wave.)
More pertinently, though, you’ll find sublime, up-to-date and accessible writing on Aboriginal cultures around the world. Most of the book reads like the emerging church conversation – in a good way, of course! – trickstering, subverting, living wild and kindly. The challenge in the end is to let go of the distinction between church and non-church, tame and wild, and go love instead…