Tomorrow is my last day officially working on the UBS project I’ve been involved in for the past 4 years. It has been an interesting time; I have learned a lot about banking processes, medium-sized project teams, and some new technology too. The time has come for a change, though, and I’ve been working part-time on a project for the local government in Basel for the past two months. From Wednesday, I’ll be working full-time to prepare the prototype for a presentation mid-March, at which point we hope to win the contract to integrate several systems under an intranet UI. The switch has been hard, because we’re using a promising 3rd-party framework with too little documentation and a significantly different structure to the framework I’ve been using for the past 4 years. Things are looking good, though, and I’m optimistic that we’ll be able to present a convincing prototype. Working in Basel would also mean 3 hours less travelling every day, which I would certainly appreciate.
Month: February 2006
I’m not jealous. Really!
Reading Marc’s and Alexander’s reports from South Africa doesn’t make me jealous. Really. I mean, who wants to go to South Africa, of all places, and meet a load of interesting people? I’m glad I didn’t have to go.
Accident magnet?
Is our car an accident magnet? The year started with a young woman riding her bike into it. Last week, someone rear-ended Mary-Anne as she slowed down at a give way sign. She wasn’t hurt, thankfully, but the car is in the workshop for the second time in two months. This time, it’s more than just scratches – I haven’t seen the damage, and the garage owner says it’s not so bad, but Mary’s description makes it sound dramatic.
Make disciples or plant churches?
Over at simplychurch.com, Jeff Gilbertson asks “What do missionaries do?”. He lists a number of activities which people mention when asked this question, but concludes that what they really should be doing is planting churches. I attended one of Neil Cole’s Greenhouse sessions last week (as did Mike Bischoff, who wrote a good summary (in German)). One of the things which I noticed – for the first time, as far as I can remember – is that the Great Commission does not even mention churches. Our job is to make disciples, and churches are the natural consequence of that. Now, we may spend quite some time making sure churches function well as support systems for the members, but our aim must be that those members grow in their faith.
Have I consumed too much Neil Cole recently?
The shaping of things to come
I’ve finally got around to reading “The Shaping of Things to Come” – only just in time, because FocuSuisse is involved in organising the Forum Gemeindeinnovation, where Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, the book’s authors, are the headline speakers. Several people had recommended the book, so I was curious to find out what they had to say. It deals with the changes in society, and changes which the authors see as necessary if the church is to fulfill its commission.
The book starts off with a brief analysis of church history, examining how the current situation – “Christendom” – arose. The authors then ask what the church is supposed to be and do, in contrast to what it is and does. They constantly ask questions to make their readers think, and suggest new approaches, both methodical and conceptual. One major and very interesting part is an analysis of Greek and Hebrew spirituality.
It is our contention that by focusing on development of the speculative doctrines, the early church lost the vital focus on the historical and practical implications of the faith. Mission and discipleship as such became marginal to theological correctness. Orthopraxy gave way to orthodoxy… Many great theologians have “thought” rightly about Christian teaching, but their lives have not necessarily mirrored their beliefs… Seminarians’ minds are filled with propositional truth for up to four years and then they are sent to ministry in local churches. And while many have found that the shift from Christian living to Christian belief is a natural one, the opposite shift from belief to action isn’t quite so natural. (pp. 120-121, my emphasis)
I think we can all relate to the advantages of learning by doing. I generally find it easier to learn theory (or, in this case, theology) by doing something and discovering the relevant questions instead of first learning a load of theory, and then having to find some way to put it into practice.
One of the observations which particularly made me question my thinking was this:
The other main form of theological dualism was fought over the issue of whether Jesus was really a man or if he only seemed to be one… These doctrines seem strange to us, but they are still very much part of Christendom in various forms. Marcionite and Docetist assumptions abound in more subtle forms and in many ways. So many Christians struggle with the humanity of Jesus. For them Jesus was above humanity; he simply could not have had to go to the toilet and undergo the same humbling task of daily defecation. He couldn’t have any sexual stirrings at all, and therefore had never experienced sexual desires.
Although I’m certainly no Docetist, I still found these thoughts somewhat foreign. Does that reveal a difference between my intellectual and practical theology? It certainly made me pause for thought, and is something I need to beware of – perhaps something of which we all need to beware?
They mention that in Greek thinking, ‘truth’ is a concept, whereas in Hebraic thinking, it is an action. That links to Jesus’ words in John 14: I am the way and the truth and the life. That equates truth with a person, not action, but how do we assess people, if not on the evidence of their actions?
Is truth visible in our actions?
More on The shaping of things to come later.