eternal sunshine for the Transformed mind

I was reading the other day and I came across this statement from some genetic researchers: “Our story-telling brains are what makes humans unique.”  So let’s start with a story.

There’s this movie that I really like.  It’s called Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.  It was a very well-written film, but it didn’t do well in the theatres, probably because Jim Carrey wasn’t funny, Kate Winslet wasn’t sexy and Elijah Wood wasn’t a Hobbit.

It’s not written or produced by a Christian, but it has an interesting premise.  Jim Carrey’s character, Joel, receives a card in the mail, explaining that his girlfriend, Clementine, has undergone a process whereby she has had Joel erased from her memory.  Joel struggles with this for a little while and then decides that his life would be easier if he underwent this process as well to have her “unwritten” from his memory.  Of course, it wouldn’t be good drama without a conflict and that arises as, during the process, Joel realizes that he really doesn’t want to forget Clementine, because, even though the memories are shaded now by sorrow, they have helped form who he is today.

The title comes from a line in the poem by Alexander Pope, “Eloisa to Abelard:”

“How happy is the blameless vestal’s lot!

The world forgetting, by the world forgot.

Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!

Each pray’r accepted, and each wish resign’d.”

The thought of this stanza of the poem, as well as the film, is that by simply forgetting and/or being forgotten, we are healed and all is right with the world – all is sunshine and bright.

The text you will be reading for our Bible study over the next week is Romans 12 & 13 and it has a slightly different take on things.  If you would take out your Bibles – and turn with me to the 12^th chapter of Romans.

If you’re unfamiliar with the Bible, Romans is in the New Testament, about 3/4ths of the way into the Bible, following the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts, Luke’s continuing saga of Christ’s followers.  Romans is teh sixth book, right after Acts.

Paul is writing to the Christians in Rome before he arrives and he spent the last chapters explaining to them that the Jewish people were not to be scorned, but rather prayed for, because they are the original benefactors of God’s mercy and favor.  In fact, he goes as far as to say that God has closed the door to sacrifice, imprisoning all men in sin, Jew and non-Jew alike, so that all may come to grace through Jesus Christ and be blessed by His mercy.

Continuing in Romans 12, starting with verse 1:

¹Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. ²Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…

Theologian Wesley Kort tells us that there are two ways we should embrace our study of the Bible.  First, we read it Centripetally.  Centripetal force is moving or directed toward a center or axis.  That is, we immerse ourselves in the reading and becoming transformed.  But, we also must read it, Centrifugally.  Centrifugal motion is directed outwards – in Kort’s writing, we return to our world after being immersed in the Bible. But when we return, we return as different people, and our world appears to us in a new way—“somehow invisibly infused with the kingdom of God.”

You see, too many Christians, I think, read the Bible and follow Christ Centripetally, spiraling deeper and deeper into the Scripture and isolate themselves more and more from the outside world.  We must, at some point, move back out, spinning away from the axis, into the world, in service, in mission, in relationships.

Our bodies are meant to be living sacrifices – but not on an altar in a church where no one can see us, but in the world, acting as servants, becoming Christ to a dying world.  True Christianity contains three elements: it is Missional, it is Relational, and it is Incarnational.  You see, we cannot just accept God’s mercy and keep it for ourselves.  We must take that mercy and extend it to our brothers and sisters.  Paul even hints earlier in Romans that one of the reasons the Jews were separated from God’s covenant – by their own act, not God’s – is because they hoarded His mercy.  Yet – yet, Paul writes in Romans 11, if their flaws led to the salvation of the entire world, how much more will the whole world benefit from Israel’s return to the mercy of God in Christ?

Leonard Sweet writes,

“I heard the story of a member of the church approaching their pastor and telling him that they had been called into full-time ministry. The pastor did not respond in the manner they were expecting when he said, ‘Oh, I thought you were a Christian.’

“This set the member back a bit. He answered that of course he was a Christian. Then the pastor said, ‘Then, too late…’ by which he meant that when we became disciples of Jesus, we accepted the call into full-time ministry.

“So much of the time we write a check and think we have done our part. Or, if we are really trying to be spiritual, we may go on a mission project for a few days a year. In reality Christ turns us into ‘Mission 365,’ as my friend Tom Ingram calls it. We are in mission in the car, in mission at the grocery store, in mission at Starbucks, in mission on Twitter.”

Being a Christian means we are living sacrifices – or in the words of the Blues Brothers – “We’re on a Mission from God”

Returning to Romans 12, verses 9-13:

⁹Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. ¹⁰Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. ¹¹Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. ¹²Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. ¹³Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. ¹⁴Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. ¹⁵Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. ¹⁶Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.

Live in harmony with one another, bless those who persecute you, rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn.  It’s not an accident that this passage follows Paul’s exhortation to be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  This is what happens when your mind is renewed.  This is the proof in the pudding, as it were.

Did you know that every day, more text messages are sent than the entire population of the world?  We have FaceBook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube, Bebo – all sites dedicated to “social networking,” yet we’re more distant, father apart than we ever have been before.  Tell me, when was the last time you spoke to your neighbor – or even waved at him from your front yard?  We have e-mail, voice-mail, cell phones, Instant Messages, text messages, Voice-Over-Internet, but how often do we consciously choose to use technology over actual face-to-face interaction?  How often do we choose e-mail over even having a telephone conversation?

There is an African concept called ubuntu. The philosophy of ubuntu says: “I am related, therefore, we are.”

How often are you relating to people?  Christians shouldn’t be people who follow Christianity.  Christians have to be people who follow and fall in love with Christ.  But how much time do we waste trying to get people to follow our particular rules, regulations and traditions, rather then trying to help them fall in love with Jesus?

Rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn.  Christianity is meant to be lived in relationship.

There is an old Jewish proverb that the story is the highest form of truth.  Being an incarnational Christian is all about context.

Let me ask you a question.  Are you a mirror or a prism?

In Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, there’s a scene where Clementine is trying to explain her philosophy of life to Joel:

“There’s all these emotions and ideas and they come quick and they change and they leave and they come back in a different form and I think we’re all taught to be consistent.  Y’know?  …You choose to do something with your life  — that’s it, that’s what you do… And my feeling is, that’s how you die, because you stop listening to what’s true and what is true is constantly changing.  You know?”  (written by Charlie Kaufman)

And if you think about it, Clementine is right.  Not that truth is not constantly changing, but that our perception of that truth is constantly being changed, developed, better understood.

There is a Jewish learning exercise called Hevruta is the practice of studying sacred texts with a partner.  Jewish scholarly life is built around people sitting around a text, reading it aloud, and then engaging in conversations and stories about that text.

The traditional study of Hebrew scriptures is with a partner, with whom head-to-head, nose-to-nose debate, dialogue, even shouting-at-the-top-of-your-lungs, is part of the learning process. They don’t ask, “What are you studying?” But, “What are you learning?”

Studying infers a solitary, sedentary ingestion of information. Learning is a social, active, exercise—a dialogue that must necessarily engage two or more persons in order for true learning to be accomplished. In the Jewish tradition, “learning” is a verb, a never-finished action.

Leonard Sweet writes, “Truth is best discovered in conversation; and truth needs multiple perspectives for it to be trusted.”

Sweet also writes,

“There are three alternatives for living a unique Christian way of life.  One is to imitate Jesus; two is to follow Jesus’ principles, whether found in His teachings or His stories; three is to be in such a relationship with Christ that you begin to share his life, his spirit and his presence.”

We are not called to be imitators of Christ, but rather implanters and interpreters of Jesus for the world we live in.  Jesus didn’t come to teach us how to be “like God,” he came to teach us how to be true humans, living in communion with the Father.  And just like Jesus used parables that took an agricultural approach – the sower, the vine and the branches, etc., because that related to his audience, so I can use an R rated film to make a point to an audience who relates to it.

We have gotten so caught up in being the church that we remember and like, the traditions and customs that sometimes we separate ourselves from the very people we are supposed to be trying to reach.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I like many of the traditions of the church, but that doesn’t make them Biblical doctrine.

A little while back, I interviewed Phil Cooke, a Christian TV producer and media guru, and I asked him if he had an opinion on why it seemed that most of the time, atheists create more realistic and believable Christian characters than Christian film and TV writers often do.  His response was at first surprising, but the more I considered it, the more sense it made.

He quoted a California Pastor named Erwin McManus.  McManus, speaking to an audience of Christian media creator-hopefuls, pointed out that he was more moved by the death of Mufasa in The Lion King on Broadway than by the death of Aslan in the film version of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

The point he was making was that Christians often become lazy.  They forget that they are speaking to a world that is outside their circle – a world that doesn’t know the conventions and concepts of the church.  They create a Pastor and because they know how he is supposed to react, they assume everyone else will too.  I myself used to wonder, when reading the Left Behind novels, how these people who’d never darkened the door of a church prior to the Rapture, somehow learned how to speak like Southern Baptists.

Meanwhile, the atheists – at least the ones I counted off to him – were committed to excellence, so they took the time to research and develop three-dimensional characters, rather than take any shortcuts or make assumptions about the viewers knowledge.

Being incarnational as Christians is often the hardest thing to achieve, because it means going completely outside your comfort zone, meeting and learning where people are, whether they’re in the jungles of Africa or the concrete jungle of Los Angeles.  But we are called to be transformed, to renew our minds and become a living sacrifice – which involves being willing to live for your faith more often than being willing to die for it.

Back to our question – are you a mirror or a prism?  A mirror simply reflects the light – a single instance of the light – and only back to the person or image standing in front of it.  A prism takes the light in and refracts it into a rainbow of colors that spread much larger and much farther than a mirror image ever could.

As we learn to be more missional, relational, and transformational, we become better Christians – we become more loving, more giving, more Christ-like and more effective.

You see, in the movie, as Joel goes through the process of erasing Clementine from his life, he realizes that he can’t live in a world without her – even if he can’t be with her.  In many ways, it reflects the true human condition – as the mathematician Blaise Pascal stated, “There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every person, and it can never be filled by any created thing.  It can only be filled by God, made known through Jesus Christ.”

We know inherently that we need Jesus, just as Joel realizes, in his sleep that he needs Clementine, even the broken, sorrow-filled remembrances of her.

Think for a moment about your memories. What you remember is not personal, but social. Your “memory bank” is full of relational moments, not isolated, individual personal recollections. We find out who we are only in connection with others.…

So I encourage you, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.

Take what you have learned and take it to the world who so desperately needs it.

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Love all and serve all, be a friend to the friendless, love your enemies, bless them that persecute you.

And in loving Jesus, rather than imitating him, invite him to live in your heart and transform you from the inside out.

Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Amen.

Franklin T Bell: An Open Letter To President Obama

An interesting perspective from a businessman in Maryland.  Of course, his opinions, as expressed, are his own, but there is a reason I chose to reprint this here (originally posted with permission at RedPill):

April 9, 2009

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington , DC 20500

Mr. Obama:

I have had it with you and your administration, sir. Your conduct on your recent trip overseas has convinced me that you are not an adequate representative of the United States of America collectively or of me personally.

You are so obsessed with appeasing the Europeans and the Muslim world that you have abdicated the responsibilities of the President of the United States of America.

You are responsible to the citizens of the United States. You are not responsible to the peoples of any other country on earth. I personally resent that you go around the world apologizing for the United States and telling Europeans that we are arrogant and do not care about their status in the world. Sir, what do you think the First World War and the Second World War were all about if not the consideration of the peoples of Europe? Are you brain dead? What do you think the Marshall Plan was all about?
Do you not know or understand the history of the 20th century?

Where do you get off telling a Muslim country that the United States does not consider itself a Christian country? Have you not read the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution of the United States? This country was founded on Judeo-Christian ethics, and the principles governing this country, at least until you came along, come directly from this heritage. Do you not understand this?

Your bowing to the king of Saudi Arabia is an affront to all Americans. Our President does not bow down to anyone, let alone the king of Saudi Arabia. You don’t show Great Britain, our best and one of our oldest allies, the respect they deserve yet you bow down to the king of Saudi Arabia. How dare you, sir! How dare you!

You can’t find the time to visit the graves of our greatest generation because you don’t want to offend the Germans but make time to visit a mosque in Turkey. You offended our dead and every veteran when you give the Germans more respect than the people who saved the German people from themselves. What’s the matter with you?

I am convinced that you and the members of your administration have the historical and intellectual depth of a mud puddle and should be ashamed of yourselves, all of you. You are so self-righteously offended by the big bankers and the American automobile manufacturers yet do nothing about the real thieves in this situation, Mr. Dodd, Mr. Frank, Franklin Raines, Jamie Gorelic, the Fannie Mae bonuses, and the Freddie Mac bonuses. What do you intend to do about them? Anything? I seriously doubt it.

What about the U.S. House members passing out $9.1 million in bonuses to their staff members — on top of the $2.5 million in automatic pay raises that lawmakers gave themselves? I understand the average House aide got a 17% bonus. I took a 5% cut in my pay to save jobs with my employer.

You haven’t said anything about that. Who authorized that? I surely didn’t! Executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be receiving $210 million in bonuses over an eighteen-month period, that’s $45 million more than the AIG bonuses. In fact, Fannie and Freddie executives have already been awarded $51 million — not a bad take. Who authorized that and why haven’t you expressed your outrage at this group who are largely responsible for the economic mess we have right now.

I resent that you take me and my fellow citizens as brain-dead and not caring about what you idiots do. We are watching what you are doing and we are getting increasingly fed up with all of you. I also want you to know that I personally find just about everything you do and say to be offensive to every one of my sensibilities. I promise you that I will work tirelessly to see that you do not get a chance to spend two terms destroying my beautiful country.

Sincerely,
Franklin T. Bell, CFM, RPA, FMA
7239 Swan Point Way
Columbia, MD 21045

Credit Card Accountability

While I’m never really one for government regulation (yes, I’m a Reagan conservative), I have to praise the President for his recent legislation forcing more transparency from the credit card companies.

I want to be clear about this:  Credit card companies provide a valuable service; we don’t begrudge them turning a profit.  We just want to make sure that they do so while upholding basic standards of fairness, transparency, and accountability.  Just as we demand credit card users to act responsibly, we demand that credit card companies act responsibly, too.  And that’s not too much to ask.

And that’s why, because of this new law, statements will be required to tell credit card holders how long it will take to pay off a balance and what it will cost in interest if they only make the minimum monthly payments.  We also put a stop to retroactive rate hikes that appear on a bill suddenly with no rhyme or reason.

Every card company will have to post its credit card agreements online, and we’ll monitor those agreements to see if new protections are needed.  Consumers will have more time to understand their statements as well:  Companies will have to mail them 21 days before payment is due, not 14.  And this law ends the practice of shifting payment dates.

Lastly, among many other provisions, there will be no more sudden charges — changes to terms and conditions.  We require at least 45 days notice if the credit card company is going to change terms and conditions.”

I would disagree with some of what President Obama said.  For starters, I think his ongoing domestic policy proves that he doesn’t “…demand credit card users to act responsibly,” and I am afraid to praise too liberally (pun intended) this new policy, as I am sure that there are some provisions that are not necessarily for the benefit of consumers.

Further, if you’re going to force some regulation, I would have liked to see a strengthening/tightening of the bankruptcy rules again.  Obviously, the most recent changes didn’t help as bankruptcies were on the rise even before we got into this time of “economic challenge.”

And I’m still waiting to see someone in Washington or the media start looking at our economic futures positively – there is a future, things will get better, but only if we stop wallowing and start telling people they can have hope – REAL hope.

Well, at least he’s not using the regulation as leverage to take over Mastercard, Visa & American Express… At least not YET.

Finding Economic Confidence

Our friend Phil Cooke has just published an article on his site entitled, “How Confidence Can Change Everything in this Economy.”  He points out what economist Ben Stein (yes, he is much more than the teacher from Ferris Bueller) has said that many in our media and government seem to want to forget, that our financial system isn’t built on printing money or regulation, it’s built on confidence.

It’s a perception issue. When investors feel confidence in the market, it soars.

Of all people, Christians should be the most confident, because even in the worst circumstances, our hope isn’t in money.

Take a moment to check out Phil’s article here, then become an example of encouragement and TRUE hope in this time of economic distress.

New Sale Items Posted

I just posted a number of new Christian books and music on my Amazon reseller site, including a rare Mylon LeFevre and Broken Heart cassette, “Crack the Sky,” still sealed in shrinkwrap.  I’m dating myself here, but I remember buying the album before it was commercially released, at their concert back in 1987, with the NewsBoys.  Boy have times changed.  Take a moment to check out my Amazon site if you’re looking for Christian music or books, old or vintage.  Thanks!

Getting ready for Saturday’s Job & Finance Fair in Cape Coral, 10-2 at Family of God Church: www.Familyofgod.us

Carl Emerson: Delusional Debt

Carl Emerson, over at Freedom Analysis, posted an extremely insightful article on the “stimulus” debate that I wanted to share with my readers.  Regardless of your political leanings, this is something you need to consider…

The Kool-Aid is flowing in Washington, D.C.

Sadly, lawmakers are actually batting around the notion of passing what is currently being estimated as an $800 Billion “stimulus” package.

First let me say that if we actually had $800 Billion “in the bank,” as it were, my opinion on this might be different. But the fact of the matter is that we are talking about borrowing this money… on top of all of the money we’ve already borrowed.

And before you write off my opinion as somehow “partisan” or otherwise neatly in support of one “side” or the other in this debate, let me hit you with a bit of common sense:

You can’t borrow your way out of debt.

This is a lesson learned the hard way. I’ve tried it. Let me tell you… it simply doesn’t work.

A National Addiction

We — as a nation — are addicted to debt. And so far we — as a nation — have not felt the sting of it. Sure… many families have learned that excessive borrowing against an asset which varies in value can land you in foreclosure.  That stings.  But as a nation, we’ve not yet faced the painful consequences of all the borrowing that we have done.

This is precisely why we continue to debate this bill as though it were actually a plausible solution.

Once you realize that you have a harmful addiction, you must do any and everything in your power to end the addiction. No matter how painful it may seem (or actually be).

But we — as a nation — have decided that more of our destructive vice is preferable to detox.

The fact is that it used to be a shame to “mortgage the farm.” It meant that you had managed things poorly. It meant that you had not planned well enough for the future. It meant that you weren’t planning well enough for your heirs.

Granted, in an agricultural enterprise, there are years (and sometimes series of years) where drought or other conditions affect the crops and things go badly. But everyone knows this and it’s all the more reason why shrewd farmers plan for it by storing things up.

But our pattern of handing off responsibility every few years and electing leaders — at the national or state level, in all branches of government — who are more concerned about short-term results, their approval ratings and their “legacies” than they are about the real impact of their decisions has made it all too easy to dig ourselves deeper and deeper into this devastating hole.

And whether it’s been done ignorantly or with complicity, we the people have enslaved ourselves through the actions of these leaders.

It’s been done by Republicans and Democrats alike. It’s been done by Independents and others. It’s all too easy to simply borrow more than it is to address the real issues. And as anyone who treated their home equity like an ATM machine during the real estate boom years can tell you, it’s all fine and good until you can’t borrow anymore.

And then the pain of dealing with the real issues is far greater because of the multiplied impact of the debt.

As the ancient proverb says:

The borrower is servant to the lender.

We have enslaved ourselves. And most of us don’t even know it yet. We’ll realize it one day when we wake up with the sting and the scars of the whip extracting its “pound of flesh.” And we’ll have no one to blame but ourselves.

Pastor Andy McQuitty: Character & Taxes

This morning, I am reposting an interesting e-mail I received from Pastor Andy at Irving Bible Church, outside of Dallas, Texas.  Please enjoy his thoughts on character & taxes:

Pastor Andy McQuitty

My Dear Friends,

I’ve been watching with fascination the machinations of several nominees to our new administration’s cabinet in taking a run at confirmation while gamely dragging the boat anchor of unpaid personal income taxes.

Yesterday Tom Daschle, former senate majority and minority leader, withdrew his nomination as health secretary after revelations of unpaid back taxes ($140,000). This is the same man who said in a 1998 debate: “Make no mistake. Tax cheaters cheat us all, and the [Internal Revenue Service] should enforce our laws to the letter.”

This move comes after the resignation of Nancy Killefer, President Obama’s choice to fill a new job of chief performance officer, also over tax arrears. And THAT move comes a few days after Tim Geithner, his Treasury secretary, was confirmed in his job (which ironically includes oversight of the IRS!) in spite of strong opposition after he disclosed that he had cleared more than $40,000 in back taxes.

It’s annoying to me that people who wanted to be part of an administration committed to raising my taxes are evidently none too keen on paying their own. But my subject in this little screed today is not abject hypocrisy, so I shall move on.

What fascinates me about these folks is that, having been informed that they were being considered for high office, they did actually pay their taxes and got their houses in order—and thought that this Johnny-come-lately action made their prior cheating OK. It’s like a bank robber who gets nabbed during the getaway, gives the money back to the bank president and asks, “Hey now that we’re all square, I’d like to put in my application for that open teller position…”

It would seem that the words “integrity” and “character” in our day have taken on a whole new low in definition. It’s no longer “do right ‘till the stars fall”, but do what you want ‘till you get caught, then do right if you have to (and then maybe you’ll still get what you want).” Perhaps this is just one of the thorns in the side of our fallen human race—the default mode of constructing a righteous façade to conceal the unseemly reality, and then in time, coming to believe the facade instead of the reality.

This weekend IBC is considering what it means to be a true disciple of Jesus. Now there’s a subject that has to include the Christian’s proclivity to pretence. Yes, I believe that the same self-justifying rationale of “I’ll do the right thing if I have to” afflicts the Body of Christ as well as the Body Politic.  So does the hypocrisy thing. I know it afflicts me. I admit it: your pastor is never all that he seems, even to himself! (What did you expect? I’ve been working on my facade for about 40 years now…)

Nevertheless, Jesus’ gracious invitation comes to me and to you and to all His followers to, well, follow Him. Do what He does, be what He is. It’s not so much about how we look, but who we’re becoming. The comforting thing is that though none of us has arrived, our Lord is always thrilled that we’ve embarked on the journey of matching an attractive and honorable “what we appear to be” with a sincere and authentic “what we truly are”.

Oh, that reminds me to recap our “Here We Stand” message last weekend in case you missed it. It’s about what IBC believes with regard to finding relationship in the Body of Christ. . . . At IBC we believe that all Christ followers are called to build missional community by cultivating relationships with other believers. In this community we learn to know and love God, each other, and the world more deeply and accomplish our task of building Christ’s Kingdom more effectively. Claiming our place in significant relationships in the Body of Christ and using our gifts to build others up in that Body of Christ is not an optional activity for those who happen to choose it, but a command (John 13.34) and corporate calling from our Lord that we are individually responsible to fulfill.

Blessings all, I’m going to leave now and start preparing my tax return early this year,

Pastor Andy

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Trevin Wax: Discerning Reader Review of Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling

I wanted to repost this excellent review of a fantastic new book on Culture and how it shapes Christians and we shape it.  It comes from Trevin Wax at the new Discerning Reader.

Let’s reclaim the culture for Christ!  We need to transform the culture!  Let’s redeem the culture!  We should resist the culture!

What do these phrases really mean?  What do we mean by “culture” when we talk about transforming it?  Is it our Christian calling to redeem “culture?”

Andy Crouch’s new book Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling is a landmark work that will create a new culture of its own within evangelicalism. Crouch points out the areas where evangelical thinking about culture-making has been counterproductive, and he charts a new path – one that would have evangelicals understand culture in more tangible ways.

Crouch points out the fallacious ways in which we conceive of “culture.” Christians too often think simplistically about “culture” – as if it were some nebulous, overarching thought system in our world. Crouch believes we are wrong to talk of “culture” in this way. Instead, we must start thinking of culture as specific cultural goods.

Culture is what human beings make of the world. And these things we make eventually affect the world we live in. We cannot withdraw or escape culture because it is what we were made to do.

Analyzing culture does not substitute for the creation of real cultural goods. “The only way to change culture is to create more of it,” Crouch says.

Crouch sees much of evangelicalism’s desire to “engage the culture” as well-intentioned but often misguided. We tend to take certain, appropriate gestures toward cultural artifacts and make them postures – our position towards all cultural artifacts. Crouch points out several ways that Christians relate to “culture:”

   1. Condemning
   2. Critiquing
   3. Copying
   4. Consuming.

Each of these may be appropriate positions to take toward certain cultural items. After all, there is nothing we can do with pornography except condemn it. There is also a place for strong critique of culture. Likewise, there are times when copying culture is appropriate. And of course, we can consume culture without any guilt at all when such action is glorifying to God.

But Crouch warns us against making these appropriate gestures into postures. When we turn gestures into postures, we assume a certain outlook regarding all culture. Crouch sets forth a different model. Instead of reacting to culture as it is, Christians should concentrate on creating and cultivating culture as we want it to be. We are to be artists and gardeners – creators and cultivators of cultural goods.

Crouch describes concrete ways that we can be creators of culture. He shows us how cultural artifacts change the culture. (There is a fascinating section on the difference between the river and the highway.)

Readers will discover that an emphasis on humility pervades the book. Crouch warns against thinking that we can change the world.

“Changing the world sounds grand, until you consider how poorly we do even at changing our own little lives… Indeed, I sometimes wonder if breathless rhetoric about changing the world is actually about changing the subject – from our own fitfully suppressed awareness that we did not ask to be brought into this world, have only vaguely succeeded at figuring it out, and will end our days in radical dependence on something or someone other than ourselves. Beware of world changers, they have not yet learned the true meaning of sin.”

Crouch bases his thoughts on culture-making within the creation narrative and the gospel story of redemption. He dodges the question of historicity of the creation accounts by talking about the importance of the story, not just the historical details. (I find this evasion most peculiar, because he treats the biblical text as fully accurate throughout his book.)

Crouch is right to show that heaven too will have a culture. “Culture is the furniture of heaven.” This leads us to the thought-provoking question about our cultural artifacts: Can we imagine this making it into the new Jerusalem?

Crouch critiques the emphasis that “worldview thinking” places upon analysis and thought. He believes we need less critics of cultural goods and more creators of cultural goods. But considering the fact that a great number of Christians simply consume culture without critically thinking about the messages of these goods convey, I believe we could use more creators and critics of cultural goods. It is true that too much analysis can keep us from purely “enjoying” art, but I’m not convinced that enjoyment and thinking critically are necessarily opposed to one another. I’m also concerned that some evangelicals might take these words from Culture Making as a free pass to watch or listen to whatever they want and to dismiss the idea of worldview-critique.

What I love most about Culture Making is the theme of hope. Crouch believes we can start creating culture in small spheres (our family, for example). He points out the importance of small groups. Culture is not always made by the large crowd. We can all get busy fulfilling the creation mandate to create and cultivate.

Culture Making is filled with grace. We recognize that our ability to create or cultivate culture is rooted in God’s grace. “Where are we called to create culture? At the intersection of grace and cross.”

Crouch’s conclusion?

“So do you want to make culture? Find a community, a small group who can lovingly fuel your dreams and puncture your illusions. Find friends and form a family who are willing to see grace at work in one another’s lives, who can discern together which gifts and which crosses each has been called to bear. Find people who have a holy respect for power and a holy willingness to spend their power alongside the powerless. Find some partners in the wild and wonderful world beyond church doors. And then, together, make something of the world.”

Amen. Now, let’s get busy!

Phil Cooke: Get Your Ideas Heard – and Appreciated

Reposting an insightful article from my friend Phil Cooke at The Change Revolution on how to be heard among the noise of life:

Phil Cooke

Have you lost the ability to keep people’s attention?  Are you noticing that no one is paying much attention to what you have to say anymore?  Because of the barrage of media messages we’re subjected to each day, the pacing of normal conversations has increased.  Check it out – most of the people you speak to on a daily basis talk much faster than they did a few years ago, and it seems like the younger generation is talking faster than ever.  But along with that, comes the flood of “you know,” “like,” “and so,” plus other phrases that are used over an over – sometimes in every single sentence.  The problem is – if you’re one of those people, you need to understand that after the seventh “you know,” your listener starts tuning you out.  The repetition drives people crazy.  So how do you fix it?  How to you stop the racing conversation, and the repeated phrases, and become more articulate once again?

Here’s a few suggestions:

1)    Force yourself to speak more slowly.  In your haste to get your ideas across, your mouth is moving faster than your brain.  You feel like you need to be saying something, so you toss in meaningless phrases such as “you know” or “like” just to keep talking.  Slow it down.  Practice speaking more slowly so you have time to actually think about what you’re saying.

2)    When you finish the thought, stop talking.  I have a friend who just can’t seem to end a thought, so he inserts phrases like “…and so…” – letting the conversation drift off, rather than end.  When the thought is over, STOP.  Don’t keep engaging your mouth.  If there’s nothing left to say, then leave it.

3)    Learn to listen.  This is becoming a forgotten art.  Most people don’t actually listen, they’re just thinking of the next thing they want to say.  But if you force yourself to really listen, you’ll find yourself thinking of far better things to say, plus, it will give you time to organize that next thought.  You want to be more fascinating to people?  Then shut up and listen.  Trust me – for most people, letting them talk will make them think you’re the most interesting person in the world.

4)    Before you speak again, think about what you’re going to say.  This will also help you slow down the conversation.  Actually consider the thought before you open your mouth.  Think it through before you engage your voice, and it will make a huge difference in how well you articulate the response.

5)    Stop interrupting.  Sure you have a great thought.  Sure you’re excited to share it.  But it’s the height of rudeness to interrupt someone.  Wait until they’ve finished before you jump in.  For serial interrupters, this will be tough – so be prepared to fight the impulse.

6)    Make notes.  This will seem awkward unless you’re in a meeting with multiple people, but I use it even when talking to a single person.  When a thought comes to you, just jot down a word or two.  This will help keep you from interrupting, but keep you from forgetting the thought.  It will also force you to consider it, and help you articulate it better.  

While some of these suggestions may sound trivial – trust me – they really will help you stop these annoying habits, and get back on the road to articulating your thoughts – and once again, commanding people’s attention.