¡Finalmente los Cristianos se pusieron las pilas en Bolivia!

“Los principios bíblicos nos permiten respetar al ser humano y cuidar del bien público, sólo son dos elementos para pensar en un mejor país sin exclusión y sin corrupción” (Franklin Santander, La Razón 29/03/2009)


Acabo de leer las noticias (La Razón del 29/03/2006) y me entero que los cristianos tomaron la sabia decisión de participar en la Asamblea Constituyente y hacer escuchar la voz de este grupo de personas, que según los datos de la Encuesta de Hogares 2001 oscilan entre el 20 y el 25% de la población boliviana. Evidentemente, tienen algo que decir pues esta presencia en el país no es despreciable.

Ya le he solicitado a una buena amiga que me consiga una copia (de preferencia pdf) del documento que los cristianos han preparado, y que inclusive la Conferencia Episcopal (de la iglesia de Roma en Bolivia) está considerando con seriedad, y si puedo haré comentarios en este sitio.

Creo que el modelo Cristiano es fundamental para traer soluciones a la crisis actual boliviana. Si los principios del Reino de Dios se aplicaran en la patria, se podría esperar una convivencia mucho más fraternal entre bolivianos. Uno de los principios que quiero resaltar hoy es justamente el de saber vivir en comunidad. Creo que la iglesia es una pequeña muestra de ello. El Reino está presente cuando personas que no tienen nada en común (por intereses distintos, doctrinas, educación, cultura, nivel socio-económico, idioma, raza, pasatiempos, filosofías, etc.) pueden reunirse y compartir en lo que tienen en común que es Jesús. Pero, ¿no es una maravillosa evidencia del Reino esta capacidad de convivir y colaborarse unos a otros pese a las diferencias? Y más aun, ¿amarse y respetarse los unos a los otros, valorando los aportes de cada uno? (Juan 13.34 y Juan 17.20-21)

Este estilo de vida diferente también implica solidaridad. La religión pura y sin mancha (Santiago 1.27) es pues ocuparse de las viudas y los huérfanos, ergo, de los más vulnerables de la sociedad, de los que no pueden valerse por si mismos. Este principio tiene que aplicarse también a los “pobres”, y como en uno de mis estudios he identificado a quienes son los más vulnerables del país, por ejemplo a la inseguridad alimentaria: personas que viven solas, ancianos y en el área altiplánica. Claro que esto no se hace de forma paternalística (digamos dando limosnas), pero invirtiendo solidariamente en el bienestar de todos. Una palabra para los empresarios es que paguen salarios justos y decentes ... conforme a la escritura, no conforme a cualquier otra filosofía humana ... Santiago 5.1-6 habla claramente al respecto, no me lo estoy inventando.

En un mundo que se está recalentando, es pues nuestra obligación el cuidar los recursos naturales, en el área que nos ha sido dada como herencia y sobre la cual ejercemos mayordomía. Independientemente de la forma, este aspecto no puede pasar desapercibido en la Constituyente. Es un principio del Reino el trabajar por la conservación de la tierra, porque Dios mismo juzgará a los que la destruyen (Apocalipsis 11.18).

En fin, ya era hora, y lo celebro.

Link al artículo

Armandoke

An atheist point of view on Christians

The following article has been published in The Guardian last year. Interesting comment on how Christians are perceived by non believers or declared atheists. Worth to read, just click on the link below, or on the link to The Guardian.

Link to the article

Some fun

I was blogging some minutes ago, and found the blog of Maggi Dawn, who makes a list of reasons why men should not be ordained. I found it hilarious, and deserving being linked here!

Enjoy the week!

Antenna06 Day, my notes on Filip Tregunna's session

Hereunder the questions and comments rised by Filip Tregunna with his marketing-oriented approach. I would say that his understanding brings practical answers to several questions or frustrations. Kingdom is indeed applying the professional knowledge also for church issues!

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In marketing it is important to know the target group. The message should find a link with the real life of people. Observe and look around is important to get the culture and societies point of view. Messages need to be communicated to a rapidly changing society. Publicity world is looking for a way to communicate in that context. Products do not change, while the message and the people do.

Top down communication does not work any longer, one-way

Another shift is that the most reliable source of information is a person “like me” (58% in 2005) People are more interested in what people at their side belive, not the leaders {Comment: This makes me think of vulnerability as a tool to communicate with the church and outside it}

How do people cope with information? How can I trust the one telling the truth? It is not that people don’t believe the truth, but they don't trust the source.

a person needs to hear a message from different perspectives, not only once. They (people) have to be submerged in the message, that they are part of it, and that they are part of the truth that is being brought to them. Gospel message should be relevant to the country, so my message should change according to those people. What happens in the church is nice, but outsiders cannot connect with the Church.

The word of God is unchangeable, so how to show them it is relevant for the population. Danger with the rapid changes happening, more than trends and hypes only ... What are people doing with the knowledge they get?

Suggestions:

NO more “them and us” approach.

Belonging, believing than behaving: Do I fit here? Is there any connection with the people of the Church? People want to belong, to feel welcome the way they are, and if there is a connection, they will learn to believe and believe accordingly. We do want to break out the Christian subculture. The danger: copy-cut-paste culture, BUT you cannot convince people with this approach. Church has been always at the foreground of culture (painting, etc.) WE should be a Christian culture for the world, not really being a Christian culture for the church.

Antenna06 my notes on Jason Clark's session

Hello there, finally I could recover my notes from the Antenna06 day, and want to share the points that I found the most important from the speakers. So, hereunder, what Jason Clark shared. I hope comments will come afterwards, since he lifted up several subjets deserving further conversation.

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Diagnostic of the same problem: how do we express our faith in a way that naturally attracts people, and involves Jesus in all areas of life.

What is the emergent church/ (missional church)

Difficult to define, because it is very broad

Approach: “our best”; the way of saying things is key. If it’s rude, nobody wants to go further. So, for discussion, a kind of respect should prevail.

Market place: Where are the spaces & places where the church should be?
Sunday event model: Two extremes in the emergent thinking: The Kingdom is present in the service, and focus on formality, or do what is pleasant, focusing on informality. Within the emergent movement there is the propensity towards a very informal model (meetings in Strabuck’s, golf playing, etc.) This is not right either.

The Church mission is to invade the world, every space and place. How do we bring whole life discipleship to private life, to friendships, to congregations, to the work and other?

Church is the places where you meet people you don’t like, or you won’t have normally fellowship with, or those that are different to you, and have love for each other nevertheless.

The Medias: How do we communicate?

We have to communicate with narrative, histories, and pictures. Communication is moving to a world where a picture is worth of 1000 words, the largest truth is the image of Christ at the Cross.

The message: What do we communicate? What do we believe?

Gospel is not the information to get people into heaven when they die. Accept intellectually this information. This approach may be called “Gospel of selfishness”.

Maybe the problem is that people are rejecting the way we communicate the gospel. Reformers faced church and culture. We think that we arrived there, and there is nothing in front. The job of church is to take the truth of the gospel and communicate/reinterpret to the population.

How do we bring the reality of Jesus to a society that has been changing so rapidly?

What does that look like?

Christianity should invade all of my life, engage with it with other Christians

Important remark: Some of us are called not to change but to preserve!
We need each other, because, and despite all, the Church is still the Body of Christ!

Antenna06 (First impressions)

The so long expected day of the Emergent Conversation in Belgium Antenna06 arrived. It was on Saturday March 18th, at the Brussels Vineyard Church in Evere. It gathered arround 50 people from different backgrounds, ages, denominations, and places in Flanders, Belgium.

The guest speakers were Jason Clark from the UK, Rogier Bos (from The Nederlands), Filip Tregunna and Filip de Cavel from Belgium. It was of course a great opportunity to know others and share our visions, frustrations and strategies to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to the post-modern society in a relevant way.

Our Church had a very important presence: David, Dirk, Jeroen, Michael, Steven and myself. I believe because being relevant for the present generation is one of the subjects that keep our minds busy. And because each of us has a different opinion on how things should be done and how to go further together, blessing Gent and Belgium.

In general terms, it was an eye opener for many who were present at the Antenna06 day. Although we share the same frustrations, particularly the fact tha we, as Church (in the inclusive sense), failed to communicate with the post-modern society, we were not all aware of the recent developments and the need of a change in paradigms. Therefore, the conference was indeed very helpful to present to the audience what emergent truly is, and the challenges that changing our paradigms bring to the Church.

I enjoyed particularly Filip DC's presentation, where he showed clearly the boundaries between postmodern thinking and modern (or post-enlightment) thinking, with all its variants within the scope of the Christian Church in Flanders. Filip T's presentation was also challenging: how to communicate the gospel in a very fast changing society. And I loved that all the presentations were done professionally. The guests also did a good job, particularly by explaining what emergent is or is percieved by some people.

The afternoon session was devoted to small groups discussions, that promoted participation and gave the opportunity to many to bring their concerns and hopes to the group. I hope i will be able to write more about this interesting day in the future.

Blessings,

ARMANDO

PS Filip, I hope you don't mind I use your picture, but the batteries of my photo camera were flat on Saturday and could not make my own pictures!