View From The Basement

Pastoring in a media age

“In an earlier age the pulpit has, as one Victorian preacher expressed it, been ‘newspaper, schoolmaster, theological treatise, a stimulant to good works, historical lecture, metaphysics etc. all in one’. But no longer was this so” John Briggs, "From Christendom to Pluralism" in Wright, David, Essays in Evangelical Social Ethics, 1978.

The above quote chimed with me as I'd been thinking a little about how people who go to church are formed and informed in their Christian experience. It seems that - as is so often the case - 'Christian' media is following the 'world' in that there is a growing diversity of information streams/media outlets (of which blogs are a part of) and which inform and shape the average Christian punter. Add to this mix of different media streams 'God Tourism' and one has to conclude that the local pulpit is one voice among many.

Pastor's therefore need to wake up to the fact that their sermon is probably not the only sermon many of 'their people' will listen to. They may have listened to a podcast, watched a DVD like the Nooma series, turned on the God Channel (personally I have a problem with the name never mind the content, but there again I am developing into a grumpy old man), watched clips of church services on YouTube, read a Christian blog or two, and bombarded their ears with CCM. Some of this will be good, some of it poor and some of it bad.

So how are pastors to respond to this? I'm not too sure... but have a few tentative thoughts.

Shepard's not gate keepers. I don't think and authoritarian stance whereby Pastors act as gate keepers barring peoples way is an appropriate response. Pastors need to be Shepard's both helping lead people through the new Christian media age and also equipers helping people grow in discernment.

Respect diversity. Pastors need to respect diversity - there are people in your congregation who every week like to swing from the chandeliers, but they also need moments of quite and thus during the week listen to Taise.

People also need to think about what they are listening to and experiencing. Too much rich food can give you gout, likewise junk food well it tastes great but destroys you from the inside out. A balanced diet is needed.

the king in kelvingrove

Saw Jim Gordon in Waterstones, but went home with Charles Taylor

I had a gift certificate for Waterstone's given to me for my birthday back in March that I had not used.

I'd to do some bits-and-bobs in town so popped into Waterstone's to see if anything took my fancy. I had considered getting a nice hardback copy of War and Peace, but headed for the 'Christianity' section (Watherstone's don't have a 'theology' section).

Was please to see on their shelves Jim Gordon's book on Denney. That said, tempted as I was, I didn't buy Jim's book but went for Charles Taylor's magnum opus, A Secular Age.

Fernando noted a while back that theology books are getting thinner, well at 5cm think and 851 pages (including end notes), Taylors book bucks this trend, if indeed it is a trend. (Ok I'm perhaps blurring the distinction between theology and philosophy to say Taylor's work is a theology book - perhaps it would be more accurate to say that it is a philosophy that includes theological insights?)

NB - Taylor teaches at McGill University in Montreal. It's founder was James McGill. There is a plaque on a rather ugly building on Stockwell Street here in Glasgow to state that this is where James McGill founder of McGill university was born. I'll try and remember to photograph it next time I pass bye.

The hydrogen car is here

This is very cool - see here

Portraits of Jesus

I passed by the gallery in the Gallowgate area of Glasgow last night that keeps Peter Howson's works.

I find his images of Christ compelling and stopped to look and took a picture of one with my phone.

Howson states that "as an artist, one should always be communicating". His pictures of Christ and the stations of the Cross certainly communicate - the question is what?

If you've ever seen a photo of Howson himself then you will recognize that the above picture of Christ is something of a self portrait. Is this wrong, is this blasphemous? Today reactions to such a question, even from those theologically trained would be shallow, at least compared to the deep theology that the Eastern Church has in connection with icons. Given we live in a visual culture and increasingly use visuals in church, perhaps we need to connect with and learn from this tradition and the Iconoclastic controversies of the 8th and 9th Cents?

Suggested reading;

St. John of Damascus, On the Divine Images

Jaroslav Pelikan, Imago Dei. The Byzantine Apologia for Icons

Ouspensky and Lossky, The Meaning of Icons

Ouspensky "The Meaning and Content of the Icon" in Clendenin (ed.) Eastern Orthodox Theology (2nd ed.), 

Saving Money when you drive

Perhaps the first thing I should say is that this is not my car! It's simply the only photo of a car I have that I also have the right to use.

The recent hikes in forecourt petrol prices have exposed (if ever it needed exposed) our addiction to oil and our reliance on the car. We try and use our car wisely for both economic and environmental reasons. My wife and I even had a conversation recently about whether we could do without a car. The answer at this point of time is no - we still need a car - but yes we are committed to reducing year on year the mileage we do.

That said there are things that can be done to reduce the petrol you use and therefore the amount of emissions you make. So here's my list...

(1) Take your bike rack, roof rack, canoe rack etc off the car when your not transporting your bike or canoe etc. It's simple aerodynamics and even an unloaded rood rack will add to your fuel use. While I'm on the point, why do people need bike racks? I thought the idea of a bike was to cycle it, not stick is onto your car! Ok, perhaps you want to cycle somewhere different - well take the train somewhere different and cycle home.

(2) Make sure your tire pressure is correct.

(3) Given the amount of energy needed to move anything is connected to its mass make your car lighter. Now I'm not suggesting that you remove bits of your car, but if your car is anything like ours then the boot becomes a storage point and you end up driving around with a boot full of stuff adding to the weight of your car.

Why not go for what I'm calling the double bonus - lose some weight - that way you save on your food bill plus your car does not have to work so hard to move you from A to B as you weigh less.

The reduce your weight idea also applies to how much fuel you put in the car each time you fill it, so try and run with your tank less than 1/2 full.

(4) If the journey is less than 2 miles then you really should not take the car. Ok so this is a little more difficult if you've small kids or a lot of stuff to carry, but in the first two miles or so your car is at its most inefficient and just guzzles the fuel.

(5) Stick to the speed limit, especially on the motorway. Now we should all be doing this anyway, but if you sit at 70 on the M-way then you know that there are a lot of people who are not. Fuel efficiency drops dramatically after approx 60 mph, so if your on eof those people who power along the M-way at 80+ then your costing yourself and the environment.

(6) Don't be a boy racer! When the green lights come on at traffic lights your not at Silverstone. Move away smoothly. When I was a kid we sometimes borrowed a relatives car. My Dad got far better miles per gallon than they did because he's an old smoothie and does accelerate aggressively.

Along with this select the right gear so your engine is working at its most efficient.

(7) AC in a car seems to be an ambiguous one with experts saying it does or does not add to your fuel bill. What there does seem to be agreement on is that for short journeys, say less than 20 mins then its not worth putting your AC on, just to leave your car to get all hot again. For long M-way journeys having a window open is going to cause so much drag that it will out weigh any saving made from not using AC. What we try and do on a long journey is have the AC on to cool the car down. Once the car and the air system is cool switch to the normal air vent system.

Anyone else got any bright ideas?

narrative accounts of important events.

I got an email from a PhD student at Queen’s University Belfast. She's doing a study on narrative accounts of important events and is looking for people to interview. She's finding it hard to find Christians to interview and asked if I could see if any of you lot out there in the blogosphere would be up for this.

I've participated and to be honest found it quite fun.

Unfortunately the web link I was given does not work, but if your interested leave a comment and I will forward it on.

After Capitalism?

Here in the UK the Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his chancellor Alistair Darling (both Scot’s) are meeting oil industry chiefs to discuss the ‘soaring’ oil prices. There is however wide agreement that high oil prices, that is prices over $100 a barrel are here to stay. Indeed there are some who are predicting that $200 a barrel is on the horizon.

There reasons for the rise and rise of oil prices are multifarious, but nevertheless linked. Globalisation has a huge part to play. As one analyst stated on Radio Scotland this morning, “globalisation is a thirsty beast.” Thus demand in other parts of the world are pushing up prices here in the UK. This is in part due to the exponential growth of the Chinese economy, which has also pushed up other raw commodity prices such as steel. India is also a growing factor in this equation.

Actual oil production is perhaps less of an issue in the short to medium term, as the bottle neck which pushes up prices is the capacity at the refineries. Simply pumping more oil out the ground will therefore not solve the problem as there is not the refining capacity to deal with any large increases in supply.

All this worry about oil and how is effects the rest of the economy has got me thinking if we are in the throes of a larger structural economic change?

Since the eighteenth century Capitalism has grown to be the dominant economic model and we have seen it effortlessly transition from local, national, regional to global markets, conquering all and unifying all in its way. We have even seen it shift, at least here in the West from ‘heavy Capitalism’ to ‘light Capitalism’. Indeed we could call the commodity and financial markets ‘virtual capitalism’ and acknowledge that unlike ‘heavy capitalism’ (which has heavy industry as its base) and ‘light capitalism’ (which has service industries as its base) ‘virtual capitalism’ (based not on the exchange of ‘real money’ but of stocks and shares) does not obey the traditional economic rules but is spooked by rumour and confidence.

Yet to say that Capitalism has been a success is a statement given from a particular perspective. It’s the voice from the top, the rich elite to whom Capitalism has brought unparallel success. The trickledown effect of Capitalism whereby even those on the bottom are lifted our or poverty and enriched is one of the many myths of the system. For the majority of the world’s population global Capitalism has not, is not nor will it ever be a success.

The other great myth of Capitalism is that it can continue ad infinitum. If the whole debate about global warming has awoken us to anything it is that we live on a world of limited resources. Oil is a prime example, both in respects of how much is in the ground and how much at any one time we can refine. The world ecologically just cannot survive an economic system that is predicated on the consumption of ever more products faster and faster. Thus humanity cannot survive Capitalism in its present form.

We need to shift to ‘After Capitalism’. What this will look like I’m not sure. While technology may play a part in this shift it cannot provide all the answers, there needs to be more fundamental changes in how we consume. What I am sure about is that if we do not shift to something ‘after Capitalism’ then there is going to be severs economic hardship for many, many people. A shift to something ‘after Capitalism’ will also I think prove very difficult, and may also cause many to suffer. Yet, this seems to be the lesser of two evils if both humanity and the world we live on are to survive.

Not sure what to call this post

Art?

Staying with the food theme, here's a picture of a red cabbage which I think is a work of natural art.