ANDY WARHOL'S SECRET: More than one seemingly religious person's secret sins have been exposed at their death; Warhol's secrets were that he went to church and served at a soup kitchen." by James Romaine |
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fractured or networked - depends on the lens you look through!
one of the most thoughtful mission thinkers out there in the blogosphere in relation to mission and the emerging culture is mark sayers who i really enjoyed meeting last year. he has just posted a piece that i have been thinking about for the last 24 hours:initially i thought he was writing as though this was a problem but on re-read i'm not exactly sure. maybe he is just trying to map something...
here's my thought on this. if you look at this through an old lens - denominational or tribal - it looks like a problem. but if you look at it through a network lens it's exactly what we should both expect and hope for (though i wouldn't use the word fractured as that sounds very negative). i blogged previously about small world theory which i don't want to go over at length again. but to recap a couple of points. people can only hold a certain number of meaningful relationships, most people are locally focused (in their small world), it only needs one or two people in any small world to be connectors to other small worlds and suddenly the insights across the various small worlds (or movements as mark calls them) can flow around the network.
the key point therefore for any movement is having a particular edge and practice, connecting with others but then encouraging some to focus externally so that that movement isn't insular
Quite ironic in that years ago we/I would have said those were two signs that a conference was a washout."I truly believe this was one of the more important moments in the history of the church..the next chapter in the reformation."
"If that's all we do (reduce everything to a problem to be solved, and fix and figure),
we become myopic, managers and mechanics of what is immediately before us, with no peripheral vision and no horizons. We miss most of life."
-"The Unnecessary Pastor," quoted in Seamands, "Ministry in the Image of God," p. 104
"the modern church simply is not cut out for the unprofitable servant role. But the question remains whether any group not in that role can claim to be the church of Jesus Christ.
-Eller on Ellul
(It was) a big thrill (that) joining us was Salmon Ahmed, founder and lead guitarist of Junoon. Labeled by fans and music critics around the world as 'the U2 of Asia'-Bono is in fact a fan of the band-Junoon is unquestionably the biggest rock band of history east of Berlin (millions of albums sold, but, sadly for band members, mose of them pirated). Organizing and impromptu all-star jam session is always a risky proposition. Luckily, our potentially discordant group of musicians-Lebanese, Moroccan, Pakistani and American; Muslim,Christian and Jewish--clicked from the moment we took out our instruments and began to play. 'Isn't this what msic is supposed to be about?,' Salman asked rhetorically after the show, as audience members lingered around to meet the band.
Salman's happiness at playing a good set was overshadowed by the news that several members of his family were missing and presumed dead in a massive earthquake that had struck Pakistan earlier that day..'My uncle is digging for them right now, but it is probably too late,' Salman expressed with a calmness that caught me by surprise. 'What am I supposed to do? I'm a Sufi, so I have to believe that whatever happens does so for a reason, and all we can do is remember our loved ones and honor them by bringing joy to others. Let's play some music. '
We hit the stage...He explained to the crowd what had happened to his family earlier in the day. With that, he called out U2's 'With or Without You,' and started strumming the chords. I am not sure any of the rest of us had performed this song live before, but by the second verse, it had taken a life of it's own.
By the time the second chorus was over, much of the audience, and the musicians as well, were in tears. It remains one of the most intense and meaningful performances I've ever been a part of. Yet it was only a prelude to what was for me the most important moment of the night, The Kordz's Arab-metal version of Pink Floyd's 'Another Brick in the Wall.'
As I tried to play an Arab-sounding yet funky rhythym under guitarist Nadim Sioufi's Arabesque version of David Gilmour's famous guitar solo, it suddenly hit me that one of the most hopeful visions of the future of the Middle East I would ever come across was standing-well, headbanging--before my eyes. As I watched the reation of an audience full of Lebanese, and foreigners of various persuasions to the somg, the idea of rock n roll helping to move a country away from violence and authoritarianism and toward greater tolerance, peace and democracy, seemed not just plausible but natural.
It also became clear that the anger exploding from the lyrics to 'Brick' was never intended to indict merely the stifling conformity of post-World War II Britain. It was equally relevant to the post-Civil War Lebanese political system. In post-Cedar Revolution Beirut- a city that Pink Floyd founder Roger Waters holds close to is heart, and has named a song after ('Leaving Beirut')-the wall evoked by the song is the one that has long closed various Lebanese communities off from each other, denied Lebanon and independent future, and sealed the Arab/Muslim world off from the rest of the world. As Moe pointed out a few hours later as we stood outside an all-night hummus-and-chicken shack ordering food, when the crowd pumped their fists in unison with 'All in all, you're just another brick in the wall,' they were declaring their refusal to continue , as cogs in the machine of the occupations, violence, corruption and repression that for so long defined Lebanon."
-p. 146-147
"You MUST watch this incredible video. I get goose bumps every time I watch it.
The lead singer of Flyleaf is at a secular concert - the massive Austin Festival - and at the end of the band's set - she does a worship song and worships God ... in front more than 20 thousand non-Christians. "
-Hervict Jacobs, link
when all else fadesIt hit me that as much as I love "No Line," and agree with Beth that "it's an album -- which almost makes me want to say, 'If U2 were to quit after this, it would be all right,
The Embarrassment of Premature Evaluation
[Yes, the innuendo is intentional.]
When I was a student pursuing my Masters degree, one of my history professors used to warn us against what he called “diachronic historical enquiry,” by which he meant comparing the thoughts of a prominent figure in one period with those of another who lived many years earlier. The reason for this danger, he insisted, was that when a few centuries separate the men under consideration, it’s very difficult to compare them with any objectivity due to their different time periods.
The same is true with U2 (to a much smaller degree, of course). The desire to compare and contrast NLOTH with The Joshua Tree or Achtung Baby is almost impossible while NLOTH is still so new. The reason for this, I think, is that not enough time has elapsed for the new songs to take on the iconic, even mythical qualities that surround the tracks on JT and AB. In other words, many of the same criticisms that people are leveling upon NLOTH (especially when comparing it with U2’s two masterpieces) could have, and probably were, made about all their albums when they were brand new...
continued
"But all this is not just easy triumphalism; it's rooted in the 'every day' task of getting up and doing what needs to be done in a world that is as crazy as those verses."
I am not here to offend anyone unnecessarily."That Jesus died naked was part of the shame which He bore for our sins. " -link
All plans and knowledge and the reason for the war
(spoken):
Every mark and movement in the crack upon the floor
One day, any day, the time before the dawn
All knowledge brought before scattered on the lawn
I know everything
So, weak and tired and looking for the key?
Well look no further, you've just run into me!
We'll walk beyond that door, we'll love and dance and sing
Last time I looked around, I knew everything
I know everything
-link
{the album suggests that] liberty is found in faith in God rather than in a certainty about God..
From Bono’s call to “get over certainty” in “Stand Up Comedy” to the acknowledgment in “Moment of Surrender” that we are “too smart to be / In the realm of certainty,” the role that faith should play is clearly contrasted to the modernist (and ultimately failing) search after certainty. In this reminder, which frames much of the album, the fact that we find our fulfillment as human beings in a relationship of faith rather than intractable certainty means that we find our hope not in our limited selves, but in the God who created us...
As Bono continues the verse, he decries choosing knowledge and will power over faith when he sings, “While I’m getting over certainty / Stop helping God across the road like a little old lady.” This double challenge—(1) dropping the search for certainty in favor of faith amid the intelligent design debates and (2) allowing God to, well, be God—becomes the liberating truth for the protagonist of the song.
-link
Explaining belief has always been difficult. How do you explain a love and logic at the heart of the universe when the world is so out of kilter with this? Has free will got us crucified? And what about the dodgy characters who inhabit the tome known as the Bible, who hear the voice of God? Explaining faith is impossible: vision over visibility; instinct over intellect. A songwriter plays a chord with the faith that he will hear the next one in his head.
By framing the human condition musically (“We are people borne of sound”) rather than imminently (winners of “the DNA lottery”), and by embodying hope, faith, and love rather than purveying some objective doctrine that merely affirms those traits, U2 is calling humanity to a comedic revolution par excellence. As music, we embrace a kenotic release from the fixation of self and are freed from isolation and estrangement. As song, we see ourselves as imminent and transcendent, neither bound to this world nor the world that is yet to come. The protagonist in “Get on Your Boots” kicks at the door of the music (“Let me in the sound”), and this refrain is repeated as a sample in the musical prelude for “FEZ—Being Born,” but as the album begins to close, “Breathe” reminds us that this “sound,” this liminal mystical union with that which never fades and is sustained on the voices of generations, is what we are to the very core. We are beautiful, we are sound, and ultimately, we are loved.When my brother and I were in college, for a leadership class, he had to navigate a whole day
-Jeff Keuss, link
Thus everything is assumed to be in order with regard to the Holy Scriptures--what then? has the person who did not believe come a single stop closer to faith? No, not a single step. Faith does not result from straightforward scholarly deliberation, nor does it come directly; on the contrary, in this objectivity one loses that infinite, personal, impassioned interestedness, which is the condition of faith, the ubique et nusquam [everywhere and nowhere] in which faith can come into existence.
Has the person who did believe gained anything with regard to the power and strength of faith? No, not in the least; in this prolix knowledge, in this certainty that lurks at faith's door and craves for it, he is rather in such a precarious position that much effort, much fear and trembling will indeed be needed lest he fall into temptation and confuse knowledge with faith. Where as up to now faith has had a beneficial taskmaster in uncertainty, it would have its worst enemy in this certainty. This is, if passion is taken away, faith no longer exists, and certainty and passion do not hitch up as a team.
-Soren Kierkegaard,
Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments
lifted from Tommy's blog
--
"...this is not saying that there is something wrong with the traditional church. Trad church is often a faithful expression of Christian community. But my friends would have to culturally commute from who they are to who the trad church is."Reminds me of the Gaithers on crack.
link
Why do we ask peoples to do the ridiculous/impossible/what we would never do:
to culturally commute from who they are?
I would like to hear more from Adele, who comments on Adam's post:Very true that indiscretion happens because of what's happening with the people. But doesn't context/culture/structure ever play a part in piggy-backing on what's going on in the people.
i really do not think it matters what kind of leadership model/structure you have as sexual indiscretion happens because of something going on with the individual people. If it’s going to happen, it does not care what leadership model exists. i hope i make sense.
"...As it was 60 years ago, when radio was the new media opening up new possibilities for virtual church, the Americans remain focused on the evangelistic potential of the new media and the Brits are focused on the pastoral potential. Americans want to reach the lost and Brits want to shepherd their extended flock. A generality, perhaps, but its seems to fit."
-Tall Skinny Kiwi
people live..Religion has historically explained reality dualistically, meaning it has separated spiritual and physical reality, and never the two shall meet. This dichotomy has had many names; 'the spirit and the flesh,' 'heaven and earth,' and my least favorite: 'the church and the world.' That just smacks of judgement, doesn't it?-p.32Einstein reframed our picture of physical reality.. in less than a month in 1905.-p. 43(In particle-wave duality....the photon exists in two dimensions...This is what I like to call the proof of the possibility of being in two places at once. (48)... Here is where our parabola serves us well...This is the land of being in two places at once. You are simultaneously in the physical earth realm and in the metaphysical Body of Chist. (61)I never under any circumstance ask the question 'What denomination are you?' The Lord taught me to refer to denominations as expression of Him. So I am incorporating that into my awareness and the way I speak. (80)Strangely, the five ...solid, yet separate String Theories remind me of the current state of the fivefold Christian ministries: apostolic, prophetic, evangelical, pastoral, teaching...What the manifold ministries need is a unifying convergence-a singularity. I believe with all of my being that this place of unity is called 'in Christ Jesus.' (p 109)
In the circles I am connected with, everywhere I turn I am hearing folks talk about cutbacks. There is a lot of fearspeak, and although I am usually a glass-is-half-full type of guy, I believe it is warranted. The question I am most interested in knowing the answer to, and am constantly asking others is, “Is God doing this?” My hunch is that He is.
Hebrews 12:26-29 (The Message)
So don't turn a deaf ear to these gracious words. If those who ignored earthly warnings didn't get away with it, what will happen to us if we turn our backs on heavenly warnings? His voice that time shook the earth to its foundations; this time—he's told us this quite plainly—he'll also rock the heavens: "One last shaking, from top to bottom, stem to stern." The phrase "one last shaking" means a thorough housecleaning, getting rid of all the historical and religious junk so that the unshakable essentials stand clear and uncluttered. Do you see what we've got? An unshakable kingdom! And do you see how thankful we must be? Not only thankful, but brimming with worship, deeply reverent before God. For God is not an indifferent bystander. He's actively cleaning house, torching all that needs to burn, and he won't quit until it's all cleansed. God himself is Fire!
I really sense that the Lord is taking a hold of systems, structures, institutions, and individuals, and He is purging and cleansing. I am really concerned about leaders that are trying to prop things up, re-arrange the deck chairs, and generally…are just keeping their head in the sand. When you do that, something very tender is left exposed and very kickable. (He that hath ears…). We are living in a significant cultural shift that is changing the mentality of the masses. The social network phenomena, along with open-source expectations regarding all things on the world wide web [THE dominant psycho-paradigm shifter] have set the tone and table for a true priesthood of the believer reformation. Notice the proliferation of newspapers that are shutting down their print operation or shuttling everything altogether. The blogosphere has given voice and capability to anyone that feels they have a message; even if their moms are the only ones that will read it. I suspect that book publishers are very nervous. What with the ability to self publish today and the fact that the Internet will give you all the publicity you need. (Witness The Shack phenomena).
Duct tape and bailing wire will not hold this church thing together. And in my many-times-wrong-but-sometimes-right opinion, there are tons of church guys and gals out there that are drunk on church & leadership addiction while Jesus modeled, proclaimed, and commanded servanthood, followership, and disciple-making. Why don’t we just do what He said to do?! People throughout Western culture are spiritually hungry and we continue to churn out churchburgers instead of giving them Jesus, incarnate in our lives.
-Churchburgers and Shakes by Lance Ford
"The heavenly motions are nothing but a continous song for several voices (perceived by the intellect, not the ear), a music which, through discordant tensions, sincopes an cadenzas as it were (as men employ them in imitation of those natural discords) progresses towards certain pre-designed quasi six-voiced clasuras, and then sets landmarks in the immeasurable flow of time."As has been pointed out already, it seems clear to me that "the sound" is one central metaphor. We have three "let me in the sound" requests, as well as "I found grace inside a/the sound" and "people born of sound," all of which have an essentialist, palpable ring (especially if you want to argue for a vague John 3 echo in the last one.) Along with these, there are more evocations of sound per se as granting some kind of mysterious access to the ultimate: "hear the universe," "roar on the other side of silence," and "the rhythm of my soul... that yearns to be released from control." And don't forget this album's ineffable soundscapes themselves, such as the one that begins "Unknown Caller." Because of all that, I am more inclined to understand "sound" in NLOTH as pointing to mystical communion with God now, rather than as looking forward to songs sung by others in heaven.
While we also get several specific mentions of people themselves vocalizing ("Sing your heart out," "I was born to sing for you," "listen for me, I'll be shouting") it's the sense of sound as sacred essence that intrigues me here, as if Pop's "looking for a sound that's gonna drown out the world" quest has been fulfilled in a sound-baptism by immersion on NLOTH...
-U2Sermons
"particles defy time and space..so does music"
-Joseph Eger, "Einstein's Violin: A Conductor's Notes on Music, Physics and Social Change,"
p. 39, 214.
sound physics.Following Scripture, Reformed theology has always placed great emphasis on the ear over the eye. The gospel is called by Paul "the word of faith," a message that produces belief "by hearing the Word of Christ." The opposite of faith, of course, is not doubt but sight. A person is most faithless, therefore, not when disbelief is mingled with his belief, but when he demands to see, to experience, to feel the truth before he'll believe it. "We walk by faith," says Paul, "and not by sight."
Go ahead and roll your eyes, but I maintain that Bono understands this.
...his theme is prevalent on their new release, No Line on the Horizon, as well. In the song "Moment of Surrender" Bono sings:
At the moment of surrender,
I folded to my knees;
I did not notice the passers-by,
And they did not notice me.
At the moment of surrender,
Of vision over visibility,
I did not notice the passers-by,
And they did not notice me.True surrender, in other words, can only happen with "visibility" is relinquished.
-Jason Stellman
This is another angle on
"Moment" includes a phrase that's close to sacred for Bono: "vision over visibility". ...Bono: "It's like Martin Luther King's speech - the moment when you see the place, but you can't see yet how to get there."
-Rolling Stone
"By faith, Abraham left home, completely clueless about where he was going'
. Heb 11.8"
"Bach wrote in the margin of his 'Canon por Tonos,'
'As the modulation (sound) rises, so may the King's glory.'
To emphasize this canon's potentially infinite aspect, I like to call this 'The Ever-Rising Canon.'
..And perhaps to experience that sense of wonder and awe is more satisfying than having an answer...at least for awhile."
-p.10, 548
Who do these songs address? Cathleen Falsani is surprised that critics read "I was born to sing for you" in "Magnificent" as a boast to Bono's audience. But the "you" in U2 songs has long been ambiguous. The list of suspects grows longer each album: Is "you" God, a woman, the individual listener, the audience en masse, Bono's bandmates, or Edge's guitar?
The very structure of No Line's best songs reinforces the sense that the true answer is "all of the above.
-Angela Pancella
to that in the first song,"It hits me that of course you could immediately invoke the title cut of "No line" as partaking of the standard U2 apophatic spirit: "Time is irrelevant/it's not linear"; the farthest we can imagine, "infinity," is nothing but a "place to start." However, I find it interesting (and very U2ey; let's not over-spiritualize this one! But still...) that we're told the bearer of this message immediately becomes physically intimate with the narrator."
-Beth Maynard
Time is irrelevant, it's not linear / Then she put her tongue in my ear." The "she" in these lyrics could be referring to a woman, a female personified thought, God, etc. Who knows with U2! In any case, Bono gets his kicks from the sense that time is not linear. In non-linear time, there is no such thing as past and future. There is only continuous flow of "now." The "past" is simply a former "now." The "future" is simply a coming "now." The only time that exists is "now." There is no great origin that we're moving from. There is no final conclusion we're moving toward. There is no coming eschatological time on the horizon. Or said in a different way, "there is no line on the horizon." There is only "now." Living fully in the "now" is ultimately important. Now is the only time we have. Now is life. Now is our home. Now is the time to enjoy life. Now is the time to fall in love. Now is the time to live life to the fullest. Now is when God is. Now is sacred. Now is the moment of eschatological hope. Marty Haugen emphasized the theological importance of "now" in his hymn, "Here In This Place." The lyrics read: "Not in the dark of buildings confining / Not in some heaven, light years away / But here in this place the new light is shining / Now is the Kindom now is the day." When Haugen and U2 agree on something, it must be right! Time is truly irrelevant when the only time that matters is right now. And that is a sexy thought. I can see why it feels sensuous like someone licking your ear.
-Sara and Brian, emphasis mine
