I’m going to misapply my favourite line from Chicken Run to the whole enterprise of changing the world:
What if the way to ‘get’ the most number of people possible to follow Jesus, wasn’t to try and get the most number of people to follow Jesus? How would that change what we do?
I’m not suggesting we do nothing (as the character in Chicken Run was), but rather the something we do might be a different something
That’s because creation itself is saved.
We’ll be here, the world will be here.
Sure it will have been renewed, sure it will be (largely) unrecognizeable, but it will still be this world, and it will be here – not there.
Like when you get a ‘new’ kitchen. There may be almost no trace of the old, but the new still inhabits the same space, and still has some continuity to the old.
As Stuart Heath indicated on his blog, he and I are in the process of writing about work & wealth. He’s called for stories. I thought I would road test our (provisional) outline.
Good Work: A Labour of Love (thanks to Nigel Gordon for the title)
1. About Work:
2. The Good of Work Itself
3. The Fruit of Work (i.e Money & Wealth)
4-5. The Context of Work (e.g. Organizations, industries, economies, the environment and so on)
6-7. Work & Hope (The relationship of Christian and Secular work, the relationship of work & rest)
8. The Worker
9. Finding Good Work
Let me know what you think?
I live in a part of the world where just about everyone is pro-immigration but anti-property development. We are very keen that Australia welcomes lots of new people, especially vulnerable people – but less keen it seems to house any of them near us.
I take it that those of us who follow Jesus will be with our culture on the first part, but distinct on the second. We will delight that our nation has been blessed with wealth to share, and can become home for those that have none. But we won’t stop there, we will notice that Sydney is expensive to live in, and that there is a shortage of housing, and so will gladly welcome new housing for new people.
Oh, and we won’t resent the profits the developer makes, will we? Because that would be envy. And besides, developers are doing a social good, and their profits are in proportion to their risks – risks we probably wouldn’t be willing to make.
What is the idol in the Inner West of Sydney?
Every culture has idols. Every culture has things it places above God and worships. And these idols present a twin challenge to a Christian seeking to bless and witness in a particular place. On the one hand they can function as a barrier ensnaring those who don’t follow Jesus to a particular way of life; if you are addicted to acquiring status via accumulating ‘cool’ goods, you will not be able to welcome Jesus or his message. But secondly it presents a direct challenge to Christians. The prevalence of an idol can mean that a Christian immersed in a culture immersed in an idol can themselves be tempted to fall victim to that idol.
Now of course all idols are wrong, and all idols present an empty way of life, and so all Christians everywhere will face these twin challenges to some extent.
But some idols are less empty than others.
Let me explain.
Some years ago I watched a Dr Phil episode (embarrassing to admit) featuring two engaged couples who were struggling because the men in the relationships were so consumed by pursuits outside work. In both cases the men were inappropriately consumed for someone hoping to be married, but their pursuits were very different in quality. One was an obsessive Dallas Cowboys fan; the other a coach in an evening basketball tournament designed to give teenagers an alternative to wandering the streets at night. Both had an ‘idol’, but one ‘idol’ was better than the other.
Which brings us to the Inner West of Sydney.
Here
it is Ok if you are not especially connected
it’s Ok is you are not especially wealthy
it’s Ok if you don’t have absolute physical beauty
It’s Ok if your not into sport
It’s Ok if your not in a family
It’s Ok if your not powerful
But God help you if you’re boring. God help you if you’re not living an interesting and meaningful life
Of course you don’t have to be completely interesting, that would start to look predictable. So for example I can offset the fact that I like commercial television with the fact that I live above a shop. Or I can balance the fact that I don’t mind McDonalds (notice I couldn’t quite admit to liking it) with the fact that I know what a piccolo latte is, and hang out at Coffee Alchemy more than I should.
Clearly I am tempted by this idol, but why is it ‘less empty’?
Because we go beyond what is seen to what is unseen, we admit there is more to life than survival, more to life than possessions, we all believe that work should contribute and not just pay, and you are welcome here no matter where in the world you come from – as long as you are interesting.
Most folk here are living their salvation, and have a hard time seeing why they need another one. And we Christians know they are wrong, but have a hard time feeling it. After all we love the same things they love. The solution is not, I think, to start drinking International Roast, we should continue to welcome the good things that come with interesting people – it is relatively easier to build friendships for one. No, I don’t think we need to stop loving our part of the city, but we do need to love Jesus more, much more – and we can still live lives that look different from those around us even if it is perhaps more difficult to do so.
A number of our family are afflicted with what we have affectionately called ‘Phoenix Fever’.
In its mild form it is simply the condition of not being able to put down whatever installment of the Phoenix Files you happen to be reading. It’s a little more serious when you are up to date and need to wait for the next book to come out, but it is terminal when you have to wait for someone in your family to finish reading one of the books.
Chris Morphew’s Mutation is now being read by the third person in our family. I am fourth on the list.
Nothing spectacular, just an after dinner stroll with the family.
We set off via a local supermarket, picked up two blocks of chocolate, walked 10 or 15 minutes, dropped in on some friends, shared blocks of chocolate, drank wine, declined coffee and tea, walked home again, enjoying the almost spring air.
1. Russell Crowe guest posts for Ben McLaughlin
2. And again from Ben On Vomit
3. And On The Value Of Walking
And this all in the last week. Ben has a gift, and now he needs a book deal.
I’d be dead…
or at least in a coma…
or maybe just plain rude
Do job titles matter?
A friend of mine – I’ll call him Steve – recently started a new job. This was good news, he had been retrenched, and it was great to have any job, but more than this, he had by God’s grace landed a job with increased responsibility – Steve had a team of five to lead.
A good job, with some lead lining – two of the team had wanted his job, as had another older man in the organization.
For the two in the team there was no shortcut, just consistent good leadership and communication, hoping over time to win them.
But for the older man – let’s call him Bruce – Steve was able to do something more immediate. He realized that the Bruce didn’t really want the job of Team Leader. That is, he wasn’t particularly interested in leading people and it wasn’t a matter of money – he was already getting paid more than Steve as the team leader. Rather Bruce wanted role because he wanted the respect that came with the role.
So Steve negotiated with his manager to give Bruce a new title. At first Bruce was coy about the change – there is no respect in admitting you would like respect – but this was soon replaced with appreciation.
Of course if the title change had been an attempt to create an appearance where there was no reality, it would had been received as a fraud. But Bruce was older the team Steve led, he was more experienced, more skilled and was certainly paid a lot more – yet he shared the same title with them. The new title gave everyone a way to say what they already knew to be true. The new title gave respect.
Steve had tapped into two great truths: the sheer goodness of respecting those who are older; and the power of words – to at once express and reinforce reality.
