This pic is my second most viewed pic - as at time of typing I have 557 photos in Flickr and use the tool obsessively. This pic, entitled "my toys" has been viewed, a time of typing, by 376 different people, with 4 people considering it good enough to be one of their favourites.
I am chuffed... no doubt about it... that this silly wee spur-of-the-moment pic has become so popular... but it has made me think long and hard about my toys and the church.
I am materialist in my thinking... I love having stuff - I love my toys! As I type on my G4 iBook, I have my SE K750i & P910i, and 4th gen iPod beside me. I try not to covet stuff... I am glad when my friends get something special that I personally love - Joannie (Rosco's sis and Janey's bridesmaid-to-be) got a 30gb 5th gen iPod today. I wish her well and will give her some free-to-distribute content.
What I worry about is other people's impression of me. I don't worry that they think I am a geek because I AM A GEEK AND PROUD... More about accessibility... ie you need an iPod to be in my gang. This is nonsense - I like my toys but LOVE people more.
I then started to think about the whole "emerging church" movement and a comment that Gordon C made recently on his URBANarmy blog. He expressed a hope that the emerging church was for the non-designer folk too... I worry that this kind of movement gets bogged down in its own creativity and is seen as inaccessible to non-designer/ non-creative types.
But then one of Mosaic's guiding principles is that we are all creative and can worship God through our creativity. If I compare myself to the Soos then I am not creative - his art, photography and graphics for GTA are top dollar. Dunc, too, is a graphic genius. I am not even on the same page as them... but I do things they don't in ways that mean they are not even on my page. I don't like to big up the blog but it is a form of expression and creativity that I am getting into... Its my thing...
We are all creative in some way... The emerging church is not a label for the alt.worship movement with all their fancy VJ projections and ambient electronic prayer and alternative worship... Its an expression of a new kind of church... one based on community, creativity, and social justice. Kind of where the church should be.
You don't need an iPod to be part of this... You just need Jesus... and you!
1 comment:
You make a great point, Headphonaught. Wouldn't it be ironic if the very movement that sought to (among other things) embrace all people as God's children was actually isolating them?
It is true that emergent places a heavy emphasis on community (especially local community), but this community is not to be had at the exclusion of others.
Scot McKnight says that one of the potential problems of the emerging movement is that "in spite of all its talk about being 'for the world' and 'for the church,' [it] tends to be a niche-seeking ministry to white, middle-class postmoderns. There are signs of change, but my read is that it is in need of expansion." (Article here)
Although I bought a 30gb 5G iPod, it is not the reason I am a Christian (or a part of emergent); I am a Christian because I, along with the rest of the world, was bought with the blood of Christ.
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