Category: Faith Explorers Recent Topics

We reviewed 2 further signposts of renewal in Mainline US Churches.

Discernment  This is defined as being open to God’s will, searching for answers to ‘what does God want me to do?’  The author suggests developing the practice of asking ‘God’ questions in place of ‘I’ questions.  This requires openness and time and then interaction with others to ‘test’ the authenticity.  If one is to develop an ‘inituition’ about a subject, one needs to immerse oneself in the subject area – we felt this also applied to discernment through immersing oneself in God and thereby being open to the leading of the spirit.

Contemplation  The author’s main requirement here was quietness, silence, being still.  This chapter complemented Discernment as quietness is a key tool.  She advocates silence during communion and as ‘white spaces between words’.  Silence allows for assimilation – for our minds to sort out and order ideas.

Ian Harris

In this book the author sets out to discover ‘Mainline churches’ in the US that are growing and thriving and to identify what they doing to achieve this.  She mourns the loss of the church society in which she grew up – it has just disappeared.  After some introductory chapters, she identifies 10 ‘signposts of renewal’ exploring these in separate chapters with examples from the churches she visited.

Tonight we looked at Hospitality.  We know it’s hard to enter into unfamiliar buildings, groups and rituals, so we should be very aware of new comers and make a particular effort to be welcoming and putting ourselves in their shoes.  Efforts to make children welcome and ease them quickly into peer groups are especially appreciated (by parents and children) and effective in creating a sense of belonging.  Allow freedom to be themselves ie don’t pressure to conform, be non-judgemental, eating is a key activity where the division between guest and host can become lost.

Other signposts will be reviewed in subsequent weeks.

This is a DVD of a discussion between 4 atheists – Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris.  The discussion is wide ranging, informative (whether agree or not) and measured.  This is not a rant against religions but reasonably measured arguments.  Their principal issue is that religion removes individual’s ability to think for themselves – the church or the leader tells what to believe and the members accept what is offered at face value.  This they suggest is very dangerous and can lead to extremes of thought and action by manipulative leaders.  Totalitarianism is innate in all religions!

They do acknowledge however that the church has and can be an instrument for good, there is a certain mystery to life, that faith has resulted in majestic cathedrals, religious art and music eg carols at Christmas – which they sing!

This makes challenging and stimulating viewing!  A little ‘academic’ but worth the effort to hear what atheists think.

Ian Harris

This was given as the Knox Centre for Ministry and Leadership Inaugural Lecture 2012

This is a demanding read which yields much to those willing to search, discuss and ponder.  Mark notes that previous ‘fixes’ to arrest numeric decline of (Presbyterian) churches have not worked long term.  His view is that we are blinkered by our imaginations (essentially how we see the world) and this has disabled church leaders and members by:

–          The way the church is organised – often with the presbyter as the ‘CEO’

–          Denominational structures which limited (controlled) imagination and practices in a rapidly changing environment and resulted in new churches outside the established denominations

–          Disembodied spirituality – the rise of the individual which didn’t need the church as an anchor.  A separation of faith based values from ‘real life’ issues.

Mark then goes onto to suggest some pathways which might be explored by leaders to make the church fit and able to meet the requirements of the present.

To round off the year we watched this video which talked to people from many faiths about their understanding or experience of their God.  Sincere people with views that reflected the whole gambit of religious belief or no belief.

Our group was unsettled by the analysis and conclusions outlined in this book.  It shows that from an analysis  of many countries, that those with a more even distribution of wealth have less societal problems and so overall, the whole of society – including the more wealthy – is better off.  The challenge is how to re-balance wealth when incomes have a very wide spread.  According to the author’s research (from UN data), NZ has one of the largest wealth gaps between the poorest and richest 10% of the population. The authors suggest two options

–          Increased taxes on higher incomes

–          Compressing the income earning gap

The latter seems less feasible than the first.  The social unrest seen in UK, Greece and Spain this year reinforces the impression that all is not right with unfettered capitalism and the ‘market’ is not always right or yields outcomes of benefit to all.  A disturbingly good read which should prompt a rethink by all people especially those who are ‘religious’ and those with an ability to redress the gap.

Ian Harris 23 Nov 11

Particular concerns that the politicians are not focusing on: eg increasing inequality, asset sales can equal asset stripping as per railways and Telecom, ethical investments, employment – where are the jobs?, greater support for pre-school education and health care at no cost (we spend much less on children than other developed economies with more costly consequences later on), concern that we will trade away Pharmac under US pressure to gain a Free Trade Agreement, need to promote a greater sense of social responsibility.

This is the third and final episode that we’ve watched in this series.  The presenter, Jeremy Bowen, painted a number of scenarios to support a fairly literal interpretation of the record of the week as portrayed in the Gospels.

He noted that Jesus had targeted the sick, the poor, the disabled, and ‘all those regarded as sinners’.  Pilate would not have tolerated any sign of trouble making by the Jews.  Caiaphas was ‘in Pilate’s pocket’ as a means to keep a lid on any protests.

The upper / guest room where the Last Supper was held, was likely to have been in a house of a wealthy owner and supporter. The garden of Gethsemane is half way up Mt of Olives.

These interpretations were then followed by explanations of sweating blood (under extreme stress), a claim that Judas handed Jesus over to the Temple Priests just as Jesus intended. This was supported by the claim that Jesus could have escaped but didn’t try to.  This was followed by literal investigations of the physical details of the crucifixion and the resurrection.  These attempts at a literal interpretation of the Bible didn’t impress me; the Roman occupiers were very well practiced at crucifixions – it was a slow, painful, tortured death as a public deterrent not make trouble or the same fate will happen to you! A physical resurrection raises more questions than answers and contributes nothing to the Christian message of new life, fresh starts.

Ian Harris  5/10/11

This started off with a claim to have found where Jesus was baptised as its the site of a 3rd century church which is interpreted as being part of a shrine as people would have remembered where John was baptising. Exposing and removing the corruption in the Temple was Jesus’s mission. So rather than an initial direct challenge he built a people power base from those on the margins of society which he then used to challenge the Temple priests. His main weapon was proclaiming ritual cleansing for those otherwise outcast. This outraged ordinary Jews but incensed the Priests as it removed their ‘skimming’ operations from the Temple cleansing process/practices. The Good Samaritan story is more political swipe than good neighbour!

This series takes a fairly literal interpretation of the biblical texts and uses recent archaeological finds and 2002 era computer animation, to place the stories in real places, time and context. So we see Caesarea the port built by Herod and where he lived, a creation of the stable where Jesus was born (and the actual shrine) and an explanation for the star that guided the 3 wise men! (Some basis in astrology plus Jupiter in the dawn sky).