Join - Participa - Participez!!! 1 FEB 2007

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Turn lights off on FEB 1st for 5 min 19h55 to 20h!

The organisation Friends of the Earth (Les Amis de la Terre) are organising a huge international action in order to bring our attention to the global warming problem. It is not enough to see Al Gore's film ;-) but we can do something. The idea is to turn off all lights at 19h55 on February 1st, and during 5 minuts give a relief to our already overheated planet. Why that day? because the expert's report on the environnement will be presented on February 1st.

As Christian, I believe that the Earth is the good creation of a Good God. And I also believe that according to His amazing plan, this planet is our inheritance. Humanity has received the stewardship on creation ... unfortunately, due to our lack of involving God in our "ruling" we see the disasters. I think of the following Bible verse

The nations were angry; and your wrath has come.
The time has come for judging the dead,
and for rewarding your servants the prophets
and your saints and those who reverence your name,
both small and great— and for destroying those who destroy the earth.
Revelation 11.18

I also think of our responsibility as children of God on the preservation of the Earth and the creation ... Romans 8.19 clearly states that

The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.

If you are a Christian, and you read this please turn off your lights for five minuts at 20h of February 1st, wherever you are!.

This post is evidence of my full adhesion to this action. The picture is a bit old, but still valid ;-)

'n knuffel voor 'n truffel

That means "a hug for a chocolate" ... and that was the name of the action that I witnessed Tuesday at Gent-Sint-Pieters station. This action was organised by Youth for Community Action or Maatschapelijk Jongeren Actie in Dutch. I visited their site, and apart from promotion of safe sex -must be read read there as "condom use"-, it tries to understand the needs of youth, and take action. It is a good intention, to my understanding, however, without pointing straight to Jesus-Christ, I don't think they will meet the true needs of this generation. Call me whatever fundamentalist, but that does not change this truth. Young Flemish people are starving for true love, and of course away from Jesus they won't get their needs met, even if they try hard.

The whole situation made me think of the "free hugs" action started by some australian guy. The difference of course, was that MJA was offering a chocolate in trade for the hugs. Those who know me, know already that I freely hug my relatives, friends and Church acquintances (a good Christian habit, btw) therefore, I found it not only strange but silly to offer a chocolate in exchange of a hug. What was even stranger was the little reaction they got from the travellers. I had the opportunity to speak with one of the MJA girls, we commented on the "free hugs" story, and we eventually agreed that hugs should be free :-)

Anyway, does love or affection can be bought? I don't think so. Probably that's why they got so little response from the public.

This post celebrates also ONE YEAR AS BLOGGER

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!