What happened to October?

A good question, that in our case is easily answered: we had too much to do and not enough time to do it in.  Well, not absolutely no time – but none for additional activities like blogging.  And that’s not quite true either, because we continued to read other people’s feeds, which presumably is a less demanding thing than creating new material ourselves.  A good month, though, with meeting lots of new people at conferences and seminars – and travelling an enormous number of miles (almost 2000, which doesn’t seem much if you’re in the US or Australia, but in the UK that’s a serious number of miles).

One piece that we did read is this report from George Barna in the US.   It has some interesting statistics about different generations and how they read (or don’t read) the Bible, but we were surprised by his surprise that the younger you are the less likely your are to read the Bible.  One thought that occurred to us was that it’s quite likely that if you’d asked the generations about reading (whether the Bible or any other book), you might have come to the same conclusion – that the younger you are, the less likely you are to read any sort of book that isn’t required for school or study.  Then we also wondered what is meant by ‘Bible reading’.  Does listening to it being read count, for instance?  Since most people in the first century only encountered the Bible when they heard it read out in synagogue or church gathering, you could argue that reading it in private is a less authentic way of encountering it.  It certainly owes a good deal to the Enlightenment  emphasis on individualism.  But what if you have a Bible app on your iphone?  Or subscribe to one of the many messaging services that send ‘thoughts for the day’ direct to your phone or computer?  Or watch a movie with Bible themes, or ….   Well, you get the idea.  And it’s not just an American issue, because in the UK publishers who produce daily reading guides have seen a huge fall in their subscriber numbers over recent years – so much so that some now make them available for free on their websites, because there’s a diminishing market for printed versions.  And yes, the younger you are, the less likely you are to read those as well.  A bit of lateral thinking might suggest that the perceived problem is not so much with the young who don’t read the Bible, but with the form in which the message is put out there.  Remember that in the first century the letter form was innovative, that the early Christians more or less invented (and certainly were the first to use widely) the codex (sheets stitched up the side like a book), and that the Reformers made such rapid headway because they harnessed the power of the recently-invented printing press.   If the medium really is the message, then maybe we should be asking different questions about people’s reading habits.

A feigy good read

It’s not often (well, hardly ever) that a book is so good that we read it through from cover to cover in one sitting – but that’s what happened with this one.  The story of how Michael Volland, with help from one or two others, brought feig to birth as a fresh expression of church in partnership with Gloucester cathedral.  The combination of a personal story really well told with reflections on how and why certain things happened is a winner.  So thanks to Michael for giving us the book.  One to be cherished – and full of wisdom, humour, and spiritual insights.

Intimate prayers

A regular reader of this blog sent us this link to a prayer specially written to be said before having sex.  Since getting it, we haven’t tried it (the prayer, that is), but it made for an interesting conversation piece because on the one hand all our instincts tell us that prayer and a sense of the divine presence should infuse the whole of life.  But praying like this before getting down to the business?  We’re tempted to ask, ‘is nothing sacred?’ – but that would be altogether the wrong question!

Ecumenical encouragements

This blog has been quiet for a while – a combination of some complicated family situations, intense writing to meet deadlines, summer weather and the garden needing attention, and a whole lot of preparation needing to be done for engagements in the next month or two.

One of the more encouraging events we’ve been part of recently was with a Roman Catholic group who are exploring creative forms of mission.   It reminded us (as if we needed it) of the many ways in which churches of all sorts, and in all parts of the world, are wrestling with the same things as we all try to work out what it means to be spiritual and Christian in a fast-changing culture.  We shared what we thought we know, even led worship for them, but of course there’s always an elephant in the room when Catholics and Protestants meet.  Known as the mass, eucharist, communion, whatever.  It’s not the first time we’ve been to a RC event and been unable to participate in the mass, of course, so we knew what to expect.  But there’s something very odd when you’re invited to be the main speakers at an event and still banished from the sacraments.  A bit like taking the food to a party, even setting the tables out – and then being sent to the naughty corner because some long deceased ancestor had a fight about something nobody really remembers.  Not that this would prevent us going to similar events in the future – but somebody somewhere needs to realize that this is itself a missional issue.  Paradoxically, the other place where we could regularly expect to be similarly excluded would be in Plymouth Brethren type churches, which also think (for roughly similar reasons) that they are the only ‘real’ Christians on the planet.  Two traditions united by an odd mixture of self-confidence and fear.

Writing spirituality

On the train on the way home from the Society of Authors summer party.  We had lots of interesting conversations and connections – it seems like you just have to say you write about spirituality and everyone’s dying to give you half their life story – well, the bits they regard as spiritual anyway.  We are old enough to remember a time when mention of such a topic would either have been the end of the conversation, or people would have been eager to tell you which church they went to, either in real life or their imagination.  Not a single one of today’s conversations went in either of those directions - nobody turned off, but plenty of stories about fairies, angels, inner search, etc.  Some of them more believable than others but it seems like everybody who’s anybody needs to have at least one angelic encounter these days.  In fact so many of them at this event that we’re thinking of proposing a spirituality writers group.  Which could either come under fiction or non-fiction, but would certainly be fascinating.  If any society members are reading this, let us know what you think.

Apostolic and episcopal

An interesting statement of intention from the new bishop of Shrewsbury here about local clergy needing to be more episcopal, and bishops needing to be more apostolic.  Of course, there will always be the McDonaldized systems to struggle with, but we’ll not be the only ones watching to see if he manages to put it into practice.

Life in the mousehole

We haven’t done much blogging this month – not because we’ve been slacking on vacation, though.  Actually we’ve been rather busy.  John has just completed a major revision of his book, Introducing the New Testament – all 200,000 words of it (and then some).  And started on its Old Testament counterpart (3 chapters done, 10 more to go).  Olive has been working flat out with a church reassessing its mission activities in the community.  And for fun, we’ve remodelled the garden, which is a sizeable enterprise in itself (the picture only shows less than half of it).

Garden for a mousehole

Finding piles of wonderfully flat stones on a local beach has provided a great supply of materials, but by the time we’ve filled one bag of them we’re both struggling with the weight – plenty of time to reflect on other weights we all carry around in life.  And also to get rid of some of ours by throwing smaller stones into the sea with a ‘and that ones for him‘ sort of prayer (write your own script).  It may sound mad, but it’s a great way to de-stress and put awkward people in perspective.

Oh, and on top of all that, we now have a hive full of honey bees buzzing round the garden – who of course need lots of tlc and who also provide a great deal of fascination and fun.  And are amazingly docile – not a sting in sight, nor even an angry bee in fact.  Nice to know that we must be in tune with nature.

This week we’re off for a 24 hour trip to the Edinburgh Book Festival, for a Society of Authors event hosting the great and the good of the worlds of books, politics, civic life, etc.  More on that on our return.  Well, if it’s as good as the publicity suggests, otherwise there’ll be nothing to report on.

Church Leavers

In February 2007 we were teaching at Fuller Seminary, Pasadena, and a couple of students asked if they could create a website as their assessed work for a course on ‘Theology and Culture’.  They did, and both got A’s for the course.  Their intention was to research reasons why people leave church, by inviting such people to share their stories.  What we (and quite likely they) did not begin to imagine was that the site would still be up and running more than two years later, and still going strong with responses and stories from people who were leaving church – but (and this is the interesting part) mostly were not giving up on faith.  To learn more (and maybe share your own stories), go here.

It’s an interesting reflection to think that if we’d been inflexible about what assessed work in a graduate school should look like, a significant resource for wounded people would never have existed.

How not to go to church

This news item tells its own story: 6 year old steals his dad’s car to avoid going to church.  Draw your own conclusions – about the kid, the parents, the church, or all three.

The wisdom of the elders

An interesting article in the Guardian caught our attention, partly because it was written by former US president Jimmy Carter, and partly because in it he draws attention to what he labels the abuse of women by religious bodies of many sorts, including the church he was once a member of (Southern Baptists), but left over this very issue.  The article itself is well worth a look: go here.   What is equally noteworthy is that it is also highlighting a group that Jimmy Carter is a member of – the Elders, a group of people like himself drawn from many different political and religious persuasions and brought together by Nelson Mandela to cast a critical eye on world affairs and offer the benefit of their considerable wisdom.  A rough estimate shows that between them all, they represent well in excess of a thousand years of experience!  For more on their reflections, see their website.  And don’t for a moment imagine that just because they’re old they are all reactionary traditionalists.  Quite the opposite: they could teach some far younger folk a lot about life, including faith and spirituality.