Wolfgang: imagine a church more like U2, Matrix, a life full of s*#! and an open fridge

From Wolfgang Simson's "Starfish Manifesto":

When the Stones Cry Out

There is a dimension of prophecy that is hardly ever recognized by Christians. It is when God, in absence of a suitable vessel among his own people, chooses to make his voice known by using other means and people. We all have read of the famous donkey of Balaam, which was able to speak the truth and see spiritual reality before the rider, who was supposed to prophesy (Num 22). And Jesus once said: “If these become silent, the stones will cry out.” (Luke 19:40).

And so, in times of prophetic silence, rather than the church prophesying to the world, the world prophesied to itself –
as well as to the church.

In the absence of the church being a prophetic voice to the world, it was often secular people, officially disconnected to God, but sometimes more
in tune with what God thinking than the church itself, who became prophetic voices...

The same is true for the creation of “coolness,” that show of unperturbed hip and emotional distance in the face of “a life full of shit” as any street kid in Harlem would say.

..Today God is using films with prophetic subjects like The Matrix, Braveheart, The Lord of The Rings and others to communicate prophetic messages around the globe. Or books by novelists, known and unknown. And again and again, God speaks through music and arts, most of it - in the absence of more guys like U2 singer and Christian prophet Bono - done by people not yet connected to God.



Yes, it’s not the full gospel; yes it’s not enough for salvation. But it makes folks hungry for more. And hundreds of millions are listening, most of them people who would never darken the door of a traditional church building. And it puts people into a search mode. Remember: first search, then find. Imagine a church out there, out where the questions are, the teens, the people in the clubs, concert halls, galleries, in the media, in politics, among the 300 million Dalits of India looking for identity, among the 27 million slaves we have today on the globe, in education, arts, sports, interpreting the prophetic dreams and healthy questions that today’s society discusses. And when we finish imagining, let’s do it.



Millions of people have Jesus-shaped questions - and Church-as-God-wants-it (hereinafter CAGWI), the church that he invented, is the vessel to harvest those people. However, most folks only know Church-As-We-Know-It (hereinafter CAWKI) and are perplexed, because they see the difference between Jesus and the classical church system very well, and wonder where to go. So they go back to more concerts, music, arts, and media. So why don’t you also, like a growing number of Christians who begin to see the connection, open your house, open your kitchen, open your fridge, invite folks with questions, forget all churchyness, and let the answers begin to sink in.
-Free download of book here

-Videos based on book viewable here

By the way, on that "open fridge"comment, Wolfgang himself once ended an email to me saying something like: "I had better sign off..We are stocking our refrigerator for a bunch of young people who are coming over to our house."  (: