Zombie Drive (w/ Peter Rollins)

Find out more about Peter Rollins HERE!

Interrogating Your Beliefs (w/ Peter Rollins)

Over the next week or so, we'll be posting a new series of videos/thoughts/challenges from Peter Rollins. 

{You can read more on Peter Rollins HERE}

You Gotta' Fight For Your Rights (or do you?)

I think that young folks today tend to think outside of the box more than the previous generation. We often look at a question, talk about it, and solve it in ways that seem illogical or wonky. This kind of thinking infuriated our parents when we were young and frustrated us when we took multiple choice tests. But now it has the potential to open up new possibilities for how we see the world and work to bring about God’s Kingdom.

I’ve lived in China for 9 years and during that time I’ve become really suspicious of our society and its love affair with “rights”. It seems like every argument in society revolves around rights – the right to life, the right to an abortion, the right to bear arms, the right to eat Grade D beef on a taco, etc. And a lot of the time when we find ourselves getting angry during the day it’s because someone has violated our rights, whether by intruding into our carefully painted lane on the road, breaking into line at the store, making us waste our precious time because they’re late, or worse.

And that’s why I love Paul’s words to some Christians in 1 Corinthians 6. The people he’s writing to are struggling with the exact same thing. They’re all caught up with defending their rights and arguing about who’s right and who’s wrong according to the law of the land. But Paul (in a very postmodern way) offers a totally different way of thinking. To those people caught up in the argument he says, “Who cares? Who’s right, who’s wrong – does it matter? Isn’t it better to just drop the issue and love each other?”

And as simple and unappealing as it might sound, I think there’s a bit of wisdom in there for us as Christians today. Instead of getting caught up in debates and trying to prove the other side wrong, I think that we can cut across the very current of the debates rather than getting caught up in them & we can short-circuit the whole situation by living out alternatives that are completely unexpected. What would it look like if Christians suddenly dropped out of the political debates surrounding gay marriage, guns, abortion, etc and instead started living out their answers? Is it realistic to think that we could actually address these questions in legitimate ways through love and creative action instead of arguing about our rights?

For too long, the typical response of the Church has been to dive head-first into these debates and try to prove our idea based on political ideas, logic, and “rights” language. But what if we just quit trying to be right and instead did like Paul said to those Christians in Corinth? What creative, love-filled, and Christ-like answers can you think of to the pressing issues of our society today?

**TODAY'S POST was written by PMP contributor Dale Taylor.  Dale is a Fuller Theological Seminary student, mission practitioner, and all around awesome guy...follow Dale here!

Driscoll = Robertson?

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You Are What You Art.

The hope of this blog is to continually push ideas and thoughts that connect the dots between art, creativity, beauty, spirituality, and everything in between. 

Today is no exception.

You all know the phrase, "you are what you eat."

It's 100% true.  The molecular properties of the foods you consume are brought into your body, alter your own physical and psychological makeup, and produce everything from growth to moods, disease to genetics.

Now consider this phrase: "you are what you art."

Art has always been something that compels, confronts, confuses, and creates new worlds.  Cultures change because of art; politics are overturned, and the world is changed forever.

The artist has an incredible role within humanity.  The true artist has always been on the forefront of creating culture - not simply reacting to it.

Which brings me again, to the new phrase, you are what you art.

Biologist James Zull writes, "Neuroscience tells us that the products of the mind--thought, emotions, artistic creation--are the result of the interactions of the biological brain with our senses and the physical world: in short, that thinking and learning are the products of a biological process…This realization, that learning actually alters the brain by changing the number and strength of synapses, offers a powerful foundation for rethinking everything."

Art changes the mind, which changes the biology in one's brain and the physical world.

Consider the following artist…the chef who refuses to use genetically modified plants and animals to create a dish that is sustaining the biology of the consumer, as much as he/she is sustaining the environment. 

The culinary artist is transforming how we think about food, how we consume it, and even our most basic genetic and biological synapses.

Now consider the poet or songwriter…he/she writes to provoke and change a once held truth.  Over time these ideas and hopes become reality.  There's an incredible amount of power in the words, chords, melodies, and textures that the artist is creating; so much so, that our biological synapses are modified and we become a different person (in thought, reaction, and as society).

Are you creating beauty and tension and words and worlds in the listener/consumer that is worthy of biological change?

Consider your art in these terms. 
Consider the power of what you create. 
Because you truly are what you art.

Peace,
Ross

The Parish is Perishing (PART V)

The Parish is Perishing
Because the structure of the traditional, parish-model, church in St. Louis hasn’t developed with the ever-changing cultures and surroundings, how it is able to effectively develop, disciple, and engage with its community is suffering.  This crisis is leading the average St. Louis church into a free-fall.  Churches are closing nearly every month, as young worshippers are leaving the church in droves.  Older worshippers are becoming more and more home-bound, moving to fixed incomes, and can no longer support church budgets, building campaigns, and missions.  Because the average worshipper in St. Louis is 61 years old (and getting older), the church is literally perishing. 

The spider-model of church structure has also prevented adequate development of future leaders.  The spider-model thrives with the paid-professionals, and as more and more congregations are laying off their staff(s), it is apparent that the model of Pastor or Priest determining belief, behavior, and belonging, has also prevented the laity from effectively developing a future plan, discipling others, or engaging their communities.  The heads are being cut off, and the organisms are dying.


Mosiacs, Busters, and the Future Church of St. Louis
Gabe Lyons, in his book Un-Christian, paints a picture of American Christian culture and perception by his survey work with Barna.  He shows the "Mosaic" generation (born 1984-2002) and "Buster" generation (born 1965-1983) as a growing un-churched population.  He focuses on the perceptions that have caused this fallout, as well as the reality of the future demographics of the “church,” should no changes be made to its definition, practice, and inclusion.  Lyons shows how changing the perceptions, definitions, and practices of the church among 16-35 year olds can dramatically change the future (Lyons 2007, 17-19).

Lyons’ surveying is especially important to the church-culture in St. Louis, because it correlates almost perfectly with the disconnect in the average age of those that claim to be churched.  Lyons shows an aging American-church, with a growing, younger un-churched population.  This is a portrait of St. Louis.  His surveying asked 16-35 year olds for their top ten perceptions of the church. Christianity's image problem is not merely the perception of young un-churched individuals either. Those inside the church see it as well -especially Christians in their early 20's and 30's (Lyons 2007, 18).  The survey of perceptions is overwhelmingly negative (Lyons 2007, 29-30):

Anti-homosexual: Un-churched-91% Churched-80%
Judgmental: Un-churched -87% Churched -52%
Hypocritical: Un-churched -85% Churched -47%
Old-fashioned: Un-churched -78% Churched -36%
Too involved in politics: Un-churched -75% Churched -50%
Out of touch with reality: Un-churched -72% Churched -32%
Insensitive to others: Un-churched -70% Churched -29%
Boring: Un-churched -68% Churched -27%
Not accepting of other faiths: Un-churched -64% Churched -39%
Confusing: Un-churched-61% Churched-44%
Table 2.0

Lyons continues, by better defining the backgrounds of those surveyed (Lyons 2007, 31-32):

1. Perceptions not formed in vacuum, most Mosaics and Busters have enormous experience with Christians and Christianity.
2. Experiences at churches, relationships, input from other religions, and what their parents have told them are all major factors.
3. Secular media does affect how outsiders view Christianity, but less than you might think. 9% of outsiders and 1/5th of young churchgoers said that Christianity has received a bad reputation from television and movies.
4. Painful encounters with the faith.
5. These painful encounters are more common with young people than the older.
Table 3.0

Background information matters, because it speaks to the structure of the organization.  Because St. Louis is primarily a spider-structure, younger Christians have little to no voice in affecting the change that will positively influence their futures.  Not only is there a disconnect between the young and the church leadership, but there isn’t a working culture to develop, disciple, and engage younger (potential) leaders.  As I have shown in previous sections, the traditional parish model places the formation of all belonging, belief, and behavior in the hands of the dwindling paid staff.  


Lyons’ data also shows us that in previous generations of churchgoers, these starfish models haven’t been as important, or even seen as necessary.  However, moving out of modernism and into post-modernism, culture is changing, and the Mosaics and Busters think, communicate, learn, and interact, very differently than their predecessors.  Finally, understanding the perceptions of Mosaics and Busters allows us to understand St. Louis in 2012.  The average age is 38 years old, and the future of the church culture lies in the fate of these groups.

**more to come in a few days!

Peace,
Ross

The Word.

[Today's blog is by Postmodern Priesthood Contributor, Kevin Syes - read his bio at the end of the blog]

John 1:1-2
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 
2 He was with God in the beginning.

Postmodernism is defined like this in “Stanford’s Encyclopedia of Philosophy”: a set of critical, strategic and rhetorical practices employing concepts such as difference, repetition, the trace, the simulacrum, and hyperreality to destabilize other concepts such as presence, identity, historical progress, epistemic certainty, and the univocity of meaning.

If that doesn’t make a ton on sense, don’t worry. The univocity of meaning isn’t on any life-exams anytime soon, but you might want to throw it out there in conversation just to impress your friends. Despite this crazy definition, at the heart of postmodern thought is a shift in the way people view language. From a postmodern perspective, words begin to lose their objective meaning as they are changed by each person’s framework of understanding. This is often referred to as a shift towards relativism.

Language is so important. Words give meaning and value to the world around us. Words have so much power. I don’t think we often fully realize the power words hold in our lives. Whole cultures are changed by words wielded by news agencies. The life of a person can be forever altered by a few choice words delivered by the right person.

When God sent his Son, he sent the Word. That’s interesting. There are many ways the Scriptures describe Jesus, but “the Word” may be one of the most compelling in my book. In a world that is forever tossed in a sea of uncertainty, here is a word that is always true. In a world lost in translation, here is a word that is always clear. In a world that is looking for meaning, here is a word that is truly significant. Jesus, the Word, who spoke the world into existence.

-Kevin Syes

::FOLLOW KEVIN HERE::

{***Kevin Syes is the Youth and Young Adult Pastor at Frederick Church of the Brethren, a large and vibrant congregation located in Frederick, MD with 1000 in weekly attendance. Kevin is also Contributing Editor at Crossings Book Club, the largest Christian book club in the country.}