Video final project

02/11

Good lecture guys. Zizek's worldview in interesting since it is new to me. A lot of content in two hours so it's gonna take a while to process all that. One think that seems to be questioned to me is his conception that we have to step back from buying bio, fairtrade etc in order to think about a new way of doing thing without capitalism. My question is, if we do stop, WE can survive, but what about those people on the other side of the production process for who it is their only way of survival (even if they are exploited)? I don't think that we can just stop consumming without bringing an alternative to those people....well it's a really vast question anyway.

02/09

The ethical spectacles where interesting to study in a way that they can bring us to think about how the church can bring the gospel in different ways. I personally like the transparent spectacle (by the way good example in class) for its use of sarcasm to reveal truth. I would like to use that sometimes in my church for alternative services.

What my church might learn about this chapter: week 10

Peter Rollins: Chapter 3.
"God is nor revealed via our words but rather via the life of the transformed individual." This is something that might seems obvious and even be preached in most churches today. Why is it that we don't change our practices of evangelism then? I love that idea that being the salt should be more about leaving the other thirsty. Our way of living, individually and as a church, should be creating that wordless space in which God is able to speak of himself, a question without answer in which God only can be discovered. It reminds me of that saying by Luther I think: "share God with your neighbors and if needed use words."

Peter Rollins: Chapter 4.

The idea that we are all created with a Go-shaped hole inside of us is a view that I was holding untill recently and that I think many people in the Church hold. With that view, we attempt to bring God to other as the answer, as the one who fill the hole. IN the contrary if we consider God as the one creating the hole, the desire, we will be open to being evangelized by the other, christian or non christian. I think that it is a key view that the church should consider in its approach to "the world". What if instead as considering the other as the outsider, we would consider ourselves as the outsiders, as the one who have to learn from the other?

Peter Rollins: Chapter 5.

In the chapter, Peter talks about ethic and love. Ethic is a set of moral values drown from the text or the teaching, love is what goes beyond the ethic, the 3 miles as he illustrates it. If ever the teaching of Jesus to carry the package of a Roman for 2 miles when asked for one become a rule, Jesus would ask to carry it for 3 miles instead of 2. Love is the lense through which we ought to read everything. I think that my church as understand that in some ways by their 'ethical frame' idea. There is no rule that can be applied to all situation, but there are different situation from which will emane different rule in the light of Love.

Peter Rollins: Part 2. Service 1.
In this chapter, Peter describe a service about Holy Saturday that they set up at Ikon. The theme of the absence of God is at the center of the service and they attempt to bring different interpretations of that absence on the night that Jesus died. This service could be useful to my church in the sense that it give a good example of a service that mix different media, means of expression etc... My pastor asked me to think about different ways to do church when I go back for my internship and I think that this part of the book is gonna bring me new ideas to develop and appropriate.

Peter Rollins: Part 2. Other services.

Those example are gonna be really useful for me when I go back to my church. Not that they are guides to follow step by step, but because they open a lot of thoughts about how to lead a service in a "non-classical" way. I don't think that all those ideas would apply to my context. Personally I would try to make the services more participative. In a "open-mic" kind of way.
This book in general has been literally tranformative for me in my view of the church, evangelism, faith and our conceptions of God. It opened a lot of new insight and leads me on a new journey of questioning and living my faith.

02/04

The tension between modernity and post modernity in the church is something that we have to be aware of. It is impossible I think for my church to define if it is one or the other, I think that some people are more on one side and some on the other but as a whole community, nothing is really defined. I think that leaders who want to move toward a new form of church or even toward a new theology, but still stay in their structure, have to be cautious in how to do because of those different sensibilities.

Beyond Evandalism

I don't even know what to blog about, I think it's gonna take me a few days/weeks to process everything I've learned, questioned, discovered during that conference. It's been two really rich days, on both theoretical and practical ways. I feel like my conception of evangelism and church are beeing even more reshaped since I started this class and through all the readings, and this week-end was like an intensive workshop on that reshaping process.

What my church might learn about this chapter: week 9

Peter Rollins, How (not) to speak of God: Chapter 1
I think that no matter how much loving or how much graceful we want to be personally and as a church, we are always in danger of wanting to bring a singular answer. We must remain caution about the fact that we are always trying to understand God and pine things down so we can present him to others in order for them to understand what we consider as the truth. I think that in order to be missiologicaly relevant the church today has to be more welcoming of the other, with his ideas, conceptions, etc... and not afraid to jump in a discussion without wanting to teach or press its ideas on the other.


Gibbs and Bolger: Chapter 10

This chapter about leadership reminds me of that video of Peter Rollins. Even if my church is not really hierarchical, I think it would be interesting for us –as well as for any modern church- to review or rethink their leadership system at the light of the kingdom as we see in this chapter. Giving the voice to those who aren’t heard, empowering people and taking communal decision brings insecurities but I think that it worth trying. This require of course full participation and involvement in the community by members.

Gibbs and Bolger: Chapter 11
Last year I spent a week in a monastery in south of France, and i was really surprised to discover that most of my friends (christian and non christian) found that interesting and wanted to know more. I think that the problem with protestant churches is that we had put aside a bunch of traditions since the reformation because of their "catholic connotation". I think that we have a lot to learn from those traditions and that we should, as a church, be more open to those. I was happy for example to participate in a Liturgy for Pass-over last year in my church that tried to bring together really traditional forms, such as singing psalms, with really modern things such as multi-media experiences.

Gobbs and Bolger: Conclusion
I think that the example of the emerging church has to be taken into consideration by any church that want to be relevant to its culture and community. Those 9 practices developed in the book are applicable in some ways, even in a more "classical" frame of church. I think that they call us to live more close to the gospel, to the others and to ourselves. It is only by re-connecting to those practices that the church will be able to make a significant change in its culture, regardless of the form that it takes. I will definitely keep that book at reach and will try to share as much as I can with my church back home.

Peter Rollins: Chapter 2
The church is often to prompt at bringing answers and "helping" people understand who God is. I really like that quote: "the a/theistic approach can be seen as a form of believing in God while remaining dubious concerning what one believe about God." I think that it is an approach that I am too often scared to consider and being open to what others believe about God as a way to shape my a/theology is something that calls humility and willingness to abandon an understanding of God....