Aug 5 Jordan Majeau Speaks “Run Boy Run”
Jordan is taking a clergy sabbatical August 2012 returning Feb 2013
After seven years of credentialed clergy ministry Jordan is taking a break to refresh and revision his ministry vocation. This means we won’t see much of Jordan and Tammy August through January
We are taking a love offering for Jordan  this Sunday August 5 to honour His commitment to Urban Bridge. Please come prepared to give something extra. If you are not able to be with us use our online giving atUrbanbridgechurch.com and mark it “sabbatical”

John, Marie and April moved to Edmonton from Vancouver a year ago in order for Marie to complete her PhD studies. We have benefited so much from their presence in our community.

They are leaving us in August. John is an award winning conductor and has  been appointed Assistant Professor of Music at the Wheaton College Conservatory of Music where He will serve as Conductor of the Concert Choir. 

Sunday He spoke insightfuly and powerfuly  about the role  music plays in our lives in relationship to Christ. The following is a transcript

We have, as our family of three, really enjoyed our time here. The Urban Bridge experience has been novel for me. For example, this is the first time that I’ve attended a church that doesn’t meet in a church building.  It didn’t take long for April, who is always very happy to learn on Sunday morning that it’s the day we get to go to church – to begin to tell me as we stepped out of our car and saw the towers of Grant MacEwan University rising above us; “Look Daddy, church!  Steeple!” I love it when she does that, because of course this institution, as do all created things tangible and intangible, belong to God.

When I nearing the end of my Doctorate in conducting, and was studying for my comprehensive oral exam in music, I got a little bit freaked out by the design of the exam.  In a comprehensive music exam, the five-member committee gets to ask you anything they want – certainly anything about music, and pretty much anything about anything else too.  It’s closed book, and while they may know what they’re going to ask you, you do not. My very wise intervarsity Graduate Christian Fellowship staff worker suggested that along with all my other studying, I also learn the famous passage from Colossians chapter 1.  I want to read it this morning, both to justify the thoughts about this space that I’ve just shared, and also because it led to the start of my – for lack of a better word, “preaching” – not inside the church, but outside of it.

 15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

In the end, that comprehensive exam was itself a spiritual experience, and played an important part in my finding my vocation as a Christian in music, about which more later.

Along with having been a member of Urban Bridge this past year, I also have the distinction of being a member of the Theologizers smaller group, and far and away the one with the worst attendance record.  So I was not a part of the three-sermon series presented by the Theologizers, though I heard them on-line, and was even here for one of them.  I think Burl and I have only been at perhaps two meetings at the same time, so I was delighted to get to know him through the poem that he wrote for one of those sermons.  It resonated quite strongly with my own experience, as good art will often do, and I asked his permission to read it again this morning:

  Openness: A Poem for Pentecost

God speaks in the tongue of song and story.
He cannot be known
from harvesting the grain of thought alone.
Drum and dance show his pride and his glory.

You cannot escape from his presence.
The spirit’s rain
is so soaked into the pure mundane,
a wave of the hand glows with hot transcendence.

He hums the tune of the unexpected.
Something new
will always be accompanying you.
You will not know ‘til it comes how his will is perfected.

God captains his boat by the winds of surprise.
You cannot say
exactly what he’ll do today.
There is no trick. We can but live with open eyes.

Burl Horniachek

 A bit about me:

 For most of my formative years, I expected to pursue a conventional and financially rewarding career, most likely as a lawyer. I thought I would buy a large house in the country, somewhere near the ocean, which was also where I would moor my large sailboat.

For those of you who take seriously the Pentecostal worldview, that God always has the option of doing something new and unexpected, it will not surprise you to learn that I find myself now as a professional musician.  There were a number of important turning points along the way, many of which were partly, or entirely, spiritual in nature.  While I enjoy telling those stories, in fact perhaps I enjoy telling them too much, I won’t do so this morning. I’ll just say that when I finally released the white-knuckled death grip I had on the steering wheel of life, the main motivation for maintaining which was a deep and abiding fear that if I allowed myself to consider a future in music, within a year I would be very hungry, living outdoors, and sleeping under my piano to find shelter from the rain, and that my piano would be ruined by the rain…when I released that tight grip, I found the steering wheel turning very clearly towards a life in music, which had always been my passion.

Ok, enough about that.  Now back to how I started giving sermons outside of the church.

You see, in my day job I am privileged to spend most of my time working with choirs and orchestras, performing some of the greatest music ever written. And a very large proportion of the best music written for choirs, and of the best orchestral music involving choirs, is sacred music.

Frequently, it falls to me to speak to groups and to audiences about this music that I love so much.  It’s also part of my job to speak to performers about the music, helping them understand its meaning, and how the composers own deep beliefs led them to write as they did, and how we can reach into that depth and reveal what the composer laid bare in the music.

I don’t mind telling you that the act of sharing this aspect of the music was something I entered into cautiously.  After all, I work in a very secular environment, and preaching is out of place.  But what I’ve learned is that people want the truth…many people come to the music I do for a living because of its incredible intrinsic beauty and a sense of deep meaning that it seems to, and I believe does, contain.  And most often these same people, whatever their spiritual background, want to hear the truth about why this music is as it is.  And they are not truly engaged, or truly satisfied, until someone addresses them as mature people…until someone stops downplaying the spiritual connection, and addresses it as seriously as the composer has done.

So, it was after finding myself in situations like this time and time again that I began to wonder if there might be a place within the Christian community to talk about such things as well.

Over the past three years, I have been speaking to groups of people about music, especially sacred music.  I started doing this in the secular world, and more recently have been doing it in the church, and then in the Christian academy.

This morning, I just want to share very briefly some of my favourite bits of books that I read to gather a community of musical receptivity.  Human beings are exquisitely designed to receive music, but many of our fellow humans have forgotten this, or have been told it is not true of them – which is a lie.

First, I’d like to read briefly from

Thomas Dubay: The evidential power of beauty

 pg 18: To become psychologically and spiritually men and women, what has to happen within us personally, individually, communally? First of all, we need to begin to wonder, to be alive to reality, to respond to what surrounds us.  Self-encasement is death, sooner or later.  God loves to astound us, for every single thing he has made is amazing…

Healthy people seek explanations.  Beauty is crucial to the human enterprise because it triggers wonder.

We need, secondly, to experience delight.  God made us for ecstasy, “A joy so glorious that is cannot be described” (I Pet I:8) This is our final destiny, the beautific vision, says Revelation.  One cannot imagine a more splendid doctrine.  And more: we are to experience foretastes of it in this life, on both the natural and the supernatural levels.

 pg20: In this masterpiece, The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoyevski placed on the lips of one of his characters the observation that “Beauty is the battlefield where God and Satan contend with each other for the hearts of men.”  The one is supreme Glory (the biblical name for supereminent beauty) the other is supreme ugliness. Though our free wills make the choice, it is beauty that provides the powerful attraction to the only victory that ultimately matters in this peak of all combats.

Next, I’d like to read some excerpts from Jeremy Begbie’s book Resounding Truth: Christian wisdom in the world of music: …for the Christian, the world we inhabit can never be seen as just there, a naked fact, to be treated as a neutral boundary or (worse) as something that is basically an impediment ot a fulfilling life.  The cosmos did not have to be.  It is made freely, without any prior constraint or necessity superior to God’s nature or will.  It is given, and given in the rich sense: as an expression of divine love, the love that is God’s own Trinitarian life…there is a huge difference between regarding the harmony in which musical sounds are grounded as simply a bare fact or as an outpouring of love…music making and music hearing are ways we engage a sonic order: there are sound-producting materials, sound waves, the human body, and the reality of time.  These interacting components with which music deals have ultimately arisen through the free initiative of God’s love – they are part of the ordo amoris [Augustine’s term, meaning ordered love, or loving order].  To treat them as given in this full sense has a series of radical implication for understanding music…here we need only underline that the most basic response of the Christian towards music will be gratitude.  This does not mean giving unqualified thanks for every bit of music we hear, but it will mean being thankful for the very possibility of music. It will mean regularly allowing a piece of music to stop us in our tracks and make us grateful that there is a world where music can occur, that there is a reality we call “matter” that oscillates and resonates, that there is sound, that there is rhythm built into the fabric of the world, that there is the miracle of the human body, which can receive and process sequences of tones.  For from all this and through all this ,the marvel of music is born.  None of it had to come into being.  But it has, for the glory of God and for our flourishing.  Gaining a Christian mind on music means learning the glad habit of thanksgiving.

Begbie goes on to discuss time:

Let us pull out three implications of this ability of music to throw into relief time’s goodness and reality.  First, through its intensive time involvement, music can demonstrate that change and order can go together, that change need not imply chaos – something the church has often tended to forget.  From the beginning, there was change in the world; nowhere in Scripture is it suggested that change in itself is harmful or an enemy or order.  Yet the fear of change – any change – lurks in many churches: the belief that the less something changes the more valuable it is, that what is truly of worth will endure without change (or at least with relatively little change). A piece of music, by contrast, is constantly changing, and its notes do not come with precise and stable meanings.  Yet at its best it is ordered, beautiful, and stirring.  Music demonstrates for us, in and through physical realities, that change need not bring chaos….

Second, music challenges the belief that the longer something takes, the worse it will be. Things that happen instantly are better than things you have to wait for – so we often assume.  Hence the craving for the instantly accessible, the immediately buyable, here-and-now credit.  Music, in a very concentrated way, tell sus that something can take time and be good. Music takes time to be what it is, and as such can be glorious.  It can remind us that it is not a failing of the created world that it reaches its fulfilment only through time.  This is part of the way God made things.  The created world takes time to be what it is.

Following from this, third, music invites us to enjoy a positive kind of patience and waiting. Not so long ago, a psychiatrist told me that one of the marks of an adult who has never properly grown up is an inability to wait, and a whole therapeutic movement has been built on that one insight alone.  Because music takes of demands our time and depends on carefully timed relations between notes, it cannot be rushed.  It schools us in the art of patience. Certainly we can play or sing a piece of music faster.  But we can do this only to a very limited degree before the piece becomes incoherent. Given today’s technology we can cut and paste, we can hop from track to track…flip from one song to another, and download highlights of a three-hour opera.  But few would claim they hear a piece of music in its integrity that way.  Music says to us “there are things you will learn only by passing through this process, by being caught up in this series of relations and transformations.”  Music requires my time, my flesh, and my blood for its performance and enjoyment, and this means going at its speed.

The overtones create the different characters of intervals, consonant and dissonant, both on a spectrum.  Not a binary thing, but a spectrum.  And of course, each makes the other make sense.

I want to end with a quote, a very honest quote, from a famous 20^th century art critic and atheist named Marghanita Laski:

“Since the Renaissance…it’s been all too sadly apparent that in all the arts there has been no inspiration comparable with the inspiration that religion gave.  There have been no words for secular music to compare with the music of a Mass.  I certainly think that belief in God and the religions that arise from belief in God did give a shaping and a pattern to life for which I can see no conceivable substitute.”

 

 

God, who is sovereign, choses not to be compelled to honour  the letter of a failed law, or so it seems: Well then, has God failed to fulfill his promise to the Jews? No, for not everyone born into a Jewish family is truly a Jew! Romans 9:6 

Paul writes:1In the presence of Christ, I speak with utter truthfulness—I do not lie—and my conscience and the Holy Spirit confirm that what I am saying is true. 2My heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending grief 3for my people, my Jewish brothers and sisters. I would be willing to be forever cursed—cut off from Christ!—if that would save them. 4They are the people of Israel, chosen to be God’s special children. God revealed his glory to them. He made covenants with them and gave his law to them. They have the privilege of worshiping him and receiving his wonderful promises. 5Their ancestors were great people of God, and Christ himself was a Jew as far as his human nature is concerned. And he is God, who rules over everything and is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. 6 Well then, has God failed to fulfill his promise to the Jews? No, for not everyone born into a Jewish family is truly a Jew! 7Just the fact that they are descendants of Abraham doesn’t make them truly Abraham’s children.

The Old Testament Covenant Laws were given to guide the Hebrew nation so that they would be in right relationship with God.

Unfortunately they came to respect the law over the law giver – becoming legalistic and missing the spirit of the law completely. And God, who is sovereign, chose to not to be constrained by the letter of a failed law.

Later in Romans chapter 9 Paul writes: 30Well then, what shall we say about these things? Just this: The Gentiles have been made right with God by faith, even though they were not seeking him. 31But the Jews, who tried so hard to get right with God by keeping the law, never succeeded. 32Why not? Because they were trying to get right with God by keeping the law and being good instead of by depending on faith. They stumbled over the great rock in their path. 33God warned them of this in the Scriptures when he said,

“I am placing a stone in Jerusalem that causes people to stumble,

and a rock that makes them fall.

But anyone who believes in him

will not be disappointed.” Romans 9:30-33 NLT

God dropped a rock (Christ) in the middle of the law, his hope was that they would stumble over the rubble, look up, see the promised Messiah and refocus on the giver of the law. By and large, they rejected Christ as Messiah and continued to live by the letter of the law rather than the spirit of the law.

God will have mercy on whom he chooses to have mercy: we cannot demand that God honour a contract  in other words I have obeyed every line of every law, therefore you are required to give me my inheritance. E.g Let’s say you has  wealthy parents who run a very successful business. You are the heir apparent, you know every detail of the business, in fact you love developing policies, but you have absolutely no feel for the business and they know if you take over it will fail and many employees will be out of work. So rather than turn if over to you, they make the employees share holders of the business

Israel failed to obey their own God-given law which was designed to point them to Christ the Messiah. Their remedy was to develop a  theological rational to honour or circumvent the true intent of the law. ie. Sabbath laws – the sabbath is a day of rest

According  Jewish law, the operation of a motor vehicle constitutes multiple violations of the prohibited activities on Sabbath. Though Jewish law is based on texts that existed long before the existence of the automobile, various writings prohibit during Sabbath the actions that take place as a result of driving.

The Torah  prohibits driving on the basis that a labor is being performed by the act of operating a motor vehicle. The vehicle’s ignition combusts fuel, which by some is considered to violate one of the 39 prohibited activities on Sabbath, as well as creating a spark, which is likewise considered to violate a related rabbinic prohibition-Igniting a fire.

How about this: A Sabbath pedestrian crossing or hands-free pedestrian crossing is an automatically controlled device which allows Orthodox Jews to use pedestrian crossings on Sabbath. The first such crossing is to be installed in the north London suburb of Finchley.

The need for such a device arises for Jews who observe Sabbath laws and are prohibited from operating electrical machinery. Instead of having to press an electric button to operate the crossing system, every 90 seconds, traffic lights will automatically turn red giving a chance for pedestrians to cross. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Laws_of_Shabbat

You and I are not Christian because we are involved in social action and justice

You and I are not Christian because we may be persons of integrity

You and I are not Christian because we prayed the sinner’s prayer

You and I are not Christian because we were christened or confirmed

You and I are Christian when by faith we accept that Christ is the Messiah and his law is in our spirits.

God may be working in all things for the ULTIMATE good of those who love God and are committed to serving Him, but  what is good?

And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.   Romans 8: 28NLT

Paul is writing to  Christians in Rome. To those who have trusted Jesus Christ as God, telling them about the life they should anticipate.Paul writes as one who knows: Paul would have an amazing face to face encounter with Christ. He would also survive three ship wrecks,  be adrift at sea once, be lashed with a rod twice, stoned once and escape an assassination attempt on his life.  He would experience both poverty and financial stability, He would also see incredible success as a leader in the church yet because of his success would suffer imprisonment and finally martyrdom.

Life for Paul was dynamic to say the least. Should we expect any less?

I don’t believe Paul is telling us that all things ARE good. It is clear that there are many things in life that are not good.  Nor does he say that this “good” that God brings about is according to our definition of good. When he says that God causes all things to work together for good, these things may also include the trouble we experience.

One of defining qualities of our interaction with the Creator is that we can choose to worship His son or not. But in this choice, let us understand that membership does have its privileges, God is working in all things for the ULTIMATE good of those who love God and are committed to serving Him.

And what is good?

I believe that God most often defines “good” as that which moves us in the direction of Christ-likeness. Those who believe in Christ and those who do not, experience essentially the same life. The difference is that for the Christ follower God uses the experiences of life to shape us into the image of his Son

Our responsibility is to trust patiently and confidently.

http://www.soniclight.com/constable/notes/pdf/romans.pdf

http://www.unionchurch.com/archive/101704.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Bible says all Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It straightens us out and teaches us to do what is right. 2Timothy 3:16 NLT. Is this really so. How do we contextualize for today?

A verse that confounds us: “The truth is, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. John 14:14 NLT

The Author whom many believe to be John the son of Zebedee one of Christ’s disciples was writing to 2nd and 3rd generation Christians. The church had already begun to philosophize about Christ, losing the sense of his divine personhood. John was also facing opposition from Cerinthus a contemporary leader and opponent of John. Cerinthus denied the divinity of Jesus believing him to be just a man. According to Cerinthius the spirit of Christ came to Jesus at baptism, guided him in his ministry, but left him at the crucifixion. Cerinthus.  The writer’s response is to emphasize the divine nature of Christ and our relationship to Him. (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/, The Expositors Bible Commentary Volume 9)

John is recording what Christ knew and what his disciples would not understand till later. After Christ’s ascension from earth and from the day of Pentecost forward Christ’s disciples, filled with His spirit would continue Christ’s work of proclamation, discipleship and social change in preparation of Christ’s Kingdom to come.

 8Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and we will be satisfied.”9Jesus replied, “Philip, don’t you even yet know who I am, even after all the time I have been with you? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking to see him? 10Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I say are not my own, but my Father who lives in me does his work through me. 11Just believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Or at least believe because of what you have seen me do. 12“The truth is, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. 13You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, because the work of the Son brings glory to the Father. 14Yes, ask anything in my name, and I will do it! NLT John 14: 8-14

They would travel farther, perform more miracles, suffer more and have more influence than Christ himself during his time on earth. The Holy Spirit of Pentecost continues to work through the church, Christ’s disciples to this day. What do these greater deeds look like in Urban Edmonton and what impedes us?

If one the author’s goals was to affirm the deity of Christ and if one Christ’s goals was to disciple his followers to fulfill what we call the great commission, what does it mean for you to do even greater works?

Joel is a performance poet, writer, educator, youth worker, thinker and activist based out of Melbourne, Australia. He is the founder and Co-director of ‘The Centre for Poetics and Justice’ (www.cpj.org.au) View his art http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vCtEqyYkfk

And they will know you are Christians by your…. We hiked Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument this morning. Part way up we met two women coming down. Rattled at the site of a rattler they were done until they saw us going up. They asked if they could follow along – and could I walk in front -:) Hiking stimulates friendship and conversation. They were, I learned,  both lawyers and both Jewish. Their faith was volunteered in response to my vocation – clergy. Saying clergy begs context. In the U.S. the closest thing to my denomination is a conservative Pentecostal denomination. Their first two questions for me were: “do you ask for money?” (read televangelist)  and, “what do you think of Gays?” Really? This is what they identify with one of the great faith movements of the past 2000 years? In the remaining 5 minutes of the hike one of the women, a successful litigator began to share some deep pains of her life and primary reason for her trip. Then we arrived at the  trail-head and our cars, they thanked me for beating the bushes and we waved goodbye. We had a fun time together and it was a stimulating conversation but I resent that I had to  spend most of the hike untying those two knots. More than ever i am commited to my faith in  Christ but it makes me wonder, If the prophet Ezekiel was alive today would we be the reason he would lie on his side for  390 days? We need to answer the why of our faith. And they will know we are Christians by our ….   .

ReHuman-Relationships

High Tech  or Hi Tech

-       Kevan Lyons

I am lost in a world

That I do not know

For no one stops to greet me

Or to say hello

The spoken word has disappeared

Replaced by a machine

As people sit transfixed

To a computer screen

 They text each other

On the train I ride

Using passwords and names

Their identities to hide

Have we got to the point?

We’re always on the phone

What is so important?

We cannot be alone

The art of conversation

Has begun to fade and die

Most of us have given up

We do not even try

It is all the rage

This social media trend

I wish it would all crash

Coming to an end

So as I look about

I begin to realize

If we all turn into robots

It would be no great surprise

Though it may be

A very useful tool

I will not let it govern

Or my life let rule

For most, technology is indispensable in cultivating relationships. Technology in one form or another has always influenced relationships. And If technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines and techniques, in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function then stone age etchings in caves were our earliest uses of technology to tell our story, to share a part of our lives.

When Egypt developed the earliest form of paper our ability to share improved significantly.

Lets remember that technology in one form or another allowed for the recording, preserving and communicating of Scripture.

The arrival of the printing press significantly shaped how we communicate and form relationships.

With electronic technology we are again compelled to re-jig how we communicate.

Rogers Canada just completed a survey on the impact of technology on relationships

Women, significantly more than men, felt strongly about the use of technology to manage relationships with their friends, families and partners. It helps them to avoid anxiety and positively benefits their overall lives.

Two-thirds of women (67%) cannot imagine their lives without technology as opposed to 49% of men. Fifty-six percent of women feel that staying connected with technology is essential to their well-being, while only 39% of men felt the same.

Forty-four per cent of women say it’s nearly impossible to go a day without connecting with friends compared to 28% of men.

One thing both genders agreed upon was feeling irritated when a text was not responded to within an hour,

Young adults spend two-and-a-half hours per day on average communicating with their boyfriend or girlfriend.

Two-thirds of young adults (67%) state the availability of such technologies as texting, social networking, email and instant messaging allows them to have better relationships with their friends, partners and family.

Nearly one-half of respondents (46%) feel staying connected with friends are a top priority in their lives. A similar proportion feels that using technology to stay connected is essential to their personal well-being (47%).

http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/922529/new-rogers-survey-shows-staying-connected-with-family-and-friends-as-vital-to-canadians-as-eating-and-sleeping

Those of you who have been at Urban Bridge since the beginning are aware of how Joseph Myer’s book “The Search to Belong” has influenced how we understand relationships.

It is how the term smaller groups came to be.

He talks about the various myths of belonging. He believes that More proximity = more belonging is a myth

“It is true that people who live in close geographical proximity may connect with one another, but “close proximity” need not be geographical. Consider, for example, the significant connections that are made digitally. Online bulletin boards and chat rooms, instant messaging, and mobile phone text messaging do not require close proximity to establish significant connections among people.“  Joseph Myers book The Search to Belong

That is a strong endorsement for the use of technology to support relationships.

So lets have another perspective

Sherry Turkle is the Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at MIT. Her expertise is in mobile technology, social networking, and sociable robotics.

She invites us to consider is the human cost of our social media engagement which seems all the more relevant as networks like Google+ and Facebook arm us with new tools to become even more effective online storytellers inspiring us to spend more time there.

SM: Hi I’m Simon Mainwaring, here at the IVOH World Summit in the Catskills, New York, and I have the great pleasure of being here with Sherry Turkle, who is the professor of Social Studies of Science and Technology at MIT, and the author of the critically acclaimed book, Alone Together.  It is such a pleasure to chat with you, Sherry. Thank you for your time. Now, one of the things I talk about when it comes to social media is that I believe that technology is teaching us to be human again, yet the thesis of your book might actually go against that proposition. Do you think that’s true or not?

ST: I think that’s a complicated story. That is to say, we are now using technology in some ways that are distancing us from each other, but I’m optimistic because I think so many of us are starting to realize that something is going amiss when we have dinner with friends and everyone has a phone on the table and interrupts conversations in order to take those calls. When I walked the dunes of Cape Cod that Thoreau walked, and everybody is walking those dunes with their heads down to those devices, something is going amiss.  When everyone is answering emails instead of talking to colleagues at work, something is going amiss. So it’s good, but we need to make it good for us.

SM: What would you say is being lost, and what is the cost of that?

ST: Well, I’ve interviewed hundreds of young people and hundreds of older people and I think that one of the things that is being lost is the ability to tolerate solitude. In my own studies I call it, “I share, therefore I am.” That is to say, you go from a position where you say “I have a feeling, I want to make a call,” to a position where you say “I want to have a feeling, I need to send a text.” So what’s being lost is the ability to experience your thoughts and feelings without immediately sharing them and you lose the capacity to collaborate because collaboration is infusion. You need to come to collaboration with a sense of self, with your own ideas and confidence in yourself. You lose the capacity for certain kinds of leadership because, again, leadership requires an ability to lead, not just to poll.

SM: So you feel like we’re losing the ability to be present because we’re in such a hurry to pass on that experience that we almost cut ourselves out of the equation.

ST: Yes. And we’re substituting connection for conversation. I think that’s very important. This move from conversation to connection, and we’re almost forgetting how nurturing conversation is. Over and over I’ve interviewed people who basically tell me “Don’t call.” In Alone Together I have a chapter titled Please Don’t Call. The last thing they want is a telephone call. It would take too much time. It’s too dangerous. Too much might show. They don’t want to be interrupted. It’s easier to send an email or send a text and not have the risks of showing themselves in a conversation.

SM: Would you characterize this as a function of the need to now live in public at all times, to always be “on”?  Is that the challenge that we’re all facing now, because, given the opportunity to do it with social media and these other platforms, we feel obligated to do so?

ST:  There are several things. We’ve given ourselves an opportunity to hide. Social media, for all of it’s bounties—and I’m very enthusiastic of all the bounties of social media—it also gives us an opportunity to hide. We perform ourselves on social media, and that is different from being ourselves on social media. That ability to perform yourself is also an ability to hide. It leads to something that I call “Fear of missing out.” You’re always watching what other people are doing and you being to be jealous because their showing their best selves and you’re showing your best self. You almost become jealous of the life you live on Facebook. You have to remind yourself that it’s your life because you’re showing your best self.

SM: Let me ask you a question about that. How different is that to the version of ourselves that we present in the real world, albeit only to one or two or five people at a time? Is it worse because we can reach a mass audience?

ST: No, it’s worse because…we’re sitting here together and, of course, I’m in a role and you’re in a role, but because we’re here together, certain things show. We’re animals, we’re human beings and, really, by the fact that we’re here together, we show ourselves to each other, we reveal ourselves to each other. On the network, we can fake it. We can perform ourselves in a way where there is a more polished self. I interview people who really describe to me the time and the care they take on what they present in their social media presence. It’s like we’re playing avatars of ourselves.

SM: If you had to characterize it in two ways, the long term effects on this, what is the best case scenario, the upside, and the worst case scenario. Give us the spectrum of consequence.

ST: Best case scenario… My favorite line in my book is, “Just because we grew up with the Internet, we think the Internet is all grown up, and it isn’t, and it’s time to make the corrections.” I think we’re at a turning point now where we’re ready to reassess and live a saner and healthier life. I think the corporate world is ready to be more attentive to the social and emotional needs of both its consumers and its workers. I think that people are ready to be more attentive to living a saner life in their online presence. We don’t want to be interrupted. So the plus side is that we’re at a moment where we’re going to be able to enjoy the bounties of this technology and minimize its cost. The downside is that we are somehow, just like there’s a fog of war, there’s a fog of technology. Teaching at MIT for 30 years, I can tell you that technology can make us forget what we know about life, and one of the things that we’re forgetting right now is the importance of conversation and of truly being with each other in the ways that matter.

SM: Yet you’re still optimistic. Why are you optimistic? What gives you hope?

ST: I’m optimistic because I think human beings want to be with each other and realize the nurturance and the sustaining effects of being with each other and communicating with each other. I think that there’s a movement I see in the resonance in my work and in the work of other people who are starting to have this kind of message, including yourself actually, that there’s starting to be a convergence in the corporate world and consumer world of realizing that these two worlds have interests that are starting to come together by using this technology in more humane ways, in ways that are better for the social good.

http://simonmainwaring.com/social-networking/sherry-turkle-of-mit-how-social-media-impacts-to-your-identity-part-2/

For her book http://alonetogetherbook.com

Recommended viewing: Sherry Turkle Connected but alone Ted Talk  http://www.ted.com/talks/sherry_turkle_alone_together.html

So how do we best interface organic relationship with inorganic technology to improve relationship with ourselves, others and God?

I am rethinking the influence of Joseph Myers and “The search to belong” for my life and our community.

A significant connection may be part of being in relationship but it is not enough, to be fully part of a meaningful conversation we need to be present

The Apostle Paul understood the importance of physical presence. In his letter to the Galatians he says

Use Bible:

I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone, for I am perplexed about you. Galatians 4:20 NLT

To the church in Corinth:

I urge you, then, be imitators of me. That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church. I Corinthians 4: 15-17 NLT

Paul understood what Marshal McLuhan recently stated – The medium is the message. Christ in his embodiment of human form lives this truth: So the Word became human and lived here on earth among us. John 1:14 NLT

Proximity, physical presence, face-to-face real time conversations are essential. This is one reason why so much of my pastoral life is spent in coffee shops and restaurants. It is one reason why Cheryl and I host so often in our home

The time we spend chatting, texting, friending and tweeting with people online takes away from face-to-face conversations.

And It’s great that we have hundreds of friends on face book, but you really can’t maintain those relationships. According to “Dunbar’s Number” named after Robin Dunbar a professor of evolutionary anthropology at Oxford University, brains can really only handle 150 friendships. Incidentally, Facebook says that the average user has 130 friends.

“Is Technology Taking Its Toll on Our Relationships”?        Ki Mae Heussner http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/technology/2010/03/is-technology-taking-its-toll-on-our-relationships/

I use blogs, email and social media a lot but it cannot replace face to face conversations. I have been active on social media since last August. I begrudgingly became a part of it out of necessity, to better understand, to better communicate with my world. Now I risk becoming another social media statistic.

I am one who puts his phone on the table

My head is often down, texting

To often I allow for email and twitter interruptions

I am one who is being seduced: I wanting to have the feeling so I give a status update

Nearly 40% of Americans spend more time socializing via the Internet than in real life.

I am not yet there

But I have done this:

Almost a quarter say they have missed out on important moments because they were, ironically, distracted by trying to share those moments on social networks.  -  ahhh the seduction of instagram.

But I am not yet this:

Nearly 20% say they actually prefer to communicate electronically via social network or text message than talk over the phone or face-to-face.

Social Networks: are they eroding our social lives – Sam Laird Social Networks: Are They Eroding Our Social Lives? [STUDY]

Some are responding by leaving the world of social media

Sam laird writes: what I’ve actually enjoyed about being off of Facebook that has surprised me most. I spend less time on my computer without Facebook’s source of infinite content. During real life experiences, what is or isn’t worth sharing on Facebook no longer lingers in the back of my mind, so I spend more time simply enjoying the present. And the false comparisons between others’ curated digital self-presentations and my own naturally widespread sources of pride, fulfillment, dissatisfaction and insecurity no longer exist. My Life Without Facebook: A Social Experiment Sam Laird

There is no doubt that technology shapes and influences us and that it has the capacity to support even  improve relationships with others and Christ but to passively accept technology without an informed, spirit-led critique is a mistake.

Neil Postman  writes in Technopoly – the surrender of Culture to Technology”

“A resistance fighter understands that technology must never be accepted as part of the natural order of things, that every technology from the IQ test to a computer is a product of a particular economic and political context and carries with it a program, an agenda, and a philosophy that may or not be life enhancing and that therefore require scrutiny, criticism, and control.”

As followers of Christ we need understand those aspects of technology which may or not be life enhancing and  require scrutiny, criticism, and control.”

Paul in the same letter to the Galatians shares the essential qualities of the follower of Christ : But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and …self-control. Galatians 5: 22 NLT

We absorb these qualities through relationship with the Holy Spirit and others of like spirit.

These qualities are caught as much as they are taught, and that means more than a meaningful connection.

Authentic, unfiltered real time relationship is essential, which is why physical proximity is important, and why conversations of more than 140 characters matter.

Technology unrestrained can interrupt undermine, even destroy these relationships so essential to our well being.

Thomas Brauer gave me permission to use this picture from his book the Devoted Image. reflect on the image as I share his devotional:

Coiling, and bending, stretching and growing, this plant first echoes it’s environment and then overwhelms it with life, as springs of iron are replaced with springs of growth, and naked wire sprouts verdant leaves. Thomas Brauer The Devoted Image-http://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/347770

1            Pause and ask yourself before engaging technology: social media, texting etc. Am I doing this because

I have a feeling, I want to send a text or I want to have a feeling, I need to send a text.

2            Pause and ask yourself before sharing via instagram, twitter, etc do you risk missing the moment you are trying to share?

3            Solitude: Set aside at least one time to be without any technological distractions.

 

 

Following with a Pure Spirit

 Here we go again, I thought as I dropped my tools and urgently made my way out of the mission house—to the out-house. I have always prided myself on having a cast iron stomach, but I was learning many lessons in Africa. This was yet one more; everything that entered my mouth had to be purified. It wasn’t that I was ignorant or unconcerned. My doctor had warned me, and the literature handed out with our inoculations cautioned me. If that wasn’t enough, a lifetime of missionary stories was sufficient to scare the recklessness out of me.  Oops, moving as quickly and as cautiously as possible—so as not to stir up the churning contents of my innards, I made yet another sojourn to the room with the pink toilet paper. Until I had experienced the effect of unpurified food it was just head knowledge. Our bodies are not designed to dispense with food that quickly or with that much disruption. Impure food created this abnormal motivation, and the resulting action was not life giving. In extreme situations I may have died. It is the illustration that graphically conveys the effects of spiritual impurities in our lives; the state of our spirit will dictate our motivations and, ultimately, our actions.

God’s words through Jeremiah are ringing in my ears, “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.” (Jeremiah 17:10)

Some years ago when our church changed leaders, we assumed incorrectly that things would be the same. Know this: things are never the same when leaders change. Over the next months, we experienced significant staff turnover. Things went from bad to worse and it seemed as though this leader was running parallel to the church, but rarely intersecting. I would frequently go as Paul instructed and speak to this leader: unfortunately, little changed. One day I was faced with yet another problem. This problem was the straw that nearly broke my back spiritually. My motivation was correct, and my actions were commendable, but the spirit that gave birth to these steps was impure. I was angry, disillusioned and tired of the weaknesses that were causing our church to stall. The Lord searched my heart and discovered an impure spirit. He looked into my mind and found a flawed motivation. So He gave me the fruit of my deeds. Christ did what He does to those He loves: He disciplined me.

Robert Kelly identifies the qualities of effective followers

First, effective followers manage themselves well.

Secondly, effective followers are committed to the organization and to a purpose beyond themselves.

Thirdly, effective followers build their competence and focus their efforts for maximum impact.

Finally, effective followers are courageous, honest, and credible.

Kelley, R.E. (1988). In praise of followers. Harvard Business Review, 66, 142-148.

I was all of this and more, still I failed to be a truly effective follower, because followership begins in the heart.

Heart                        mind                      deeds                        fruit            

How do we ensure that a pure spirit drives our motive and action?

Verses to ponder: 1 Samuel 16:7, 1Chron. 28:9, Psalm 139:23-24, Proverbs 17:3 Romans 8:27 Revelations 2:23

1            How do we develop a pure spirit?

Remain sensitive to HS

Take in only that which is good

Keep a clean account regarding immorality, anger, bitterness, lack of forgiveness etc.

2            How do we keep a pure spirit?

Respond to conviction of HS immediately (See David 1 Sam 24:5-8 2 Sam 24:10)

3            How do we recover a pure spirit?

Submit to discipline of the HS (2 Sam 12:13, 14)

Regardless of the motivation and corresponding action, it is our spirit that will determine the outcome. A pure spirit strengthens the church and an impure spirit tears it down.

The Empowered Follower

According to the Institute of Behavioral and Applied Management. One of the reasons followers haven’t been researched is that there is a stigma associated with the term “follower”. Followership may be defined as the ability to effectively follow the directives and support the efforts of a leader to maximize a structured organization. However the term “followership” is often linked to negative and demeaning words like passive, weak and conforming. Pg 304The assumption that good followership is simply doing what one is told, and that effective task accomplishment is the result of good leadership, doesn’t amplify the merits of the follower role…. leaders only really accomplish something by permission of the followers. Pg 305 A Fresh Look at Followership: A Model for Matching Followership and Leadership Styles Kent Bjugstad  Comcast Spotlight Elizabeth C. Thach, Karen J. Thompson, and Alan Morris Sonoma State University © 2006 Institute of Behavioral and Applied Management. All Rights Reserved.

 A number of years ago, I took a university course called “Feminist Theology.” For the duration of the course, I understood what it meant to be marginalized and discounted because of my gender and beliefs. It was very unsettling to have my words filtered and misinterpreted and to be accused of holding opinions not my own. Two things stood out from that experience. First, most of the class was women; and many of them had come from traditional Christian denominations. The majority of them had rejected Christianity and Christ because they saw it as a male religion. Tragically, while all agreed with the teachings of Christ, they rejected Him because He was male. Second, I learned that they made their decision as a direct result of being marginalized in their Christian traditions because of their gender.

Ultimately, followers are empowered by Christ. And as empowered followers we see each other as equals, and as followers of Christ we are prepared to give up our rights. Fairness and individual rights and freedoms may guide our decisions but they must not dictate them. According to tradition, all remaining eleven disciples experienced suffering for following Christ. The Apostle Paul went against the advice of men choosing instead to follow Christ with the full realization that he would be killed because of that decision. (Acts 21:12-14). We are all followers and ultimately, we are second to none because we all follow Christ—equally. The Apostle Paul recognized that a flawed world order imposes itself on us “Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all” (Colossians 3:11). It must grieve God to see that abuses in the church cause people to reject Him. Still, the empowered follower is second to none—but Christ. While we may not be equal in society’s eyes, we are the same in Christ. We are on equal footing with everyone else. It is that very distinction that empowers each of us.

I believe that one of the reasons Moses and Aaron made such an effective leadership team was because of Aaron’s submission to God first and Moses second. Aaron was called and empowered by God, not Moses. (Exodus 4:14, 15). Moses was clearly the leader by position and mandate, yet God treated them as equals they both suffered their disobeying (Numbers 20:7-12.

The account of Samuel, the prophet of Israel, stands out as a model of the empowered follower (1 Samuel 3). He was dedicated to serve God under the leadership of Eli, yet very clearly, Samuel followed God first and Eli second:

So Eli told Samuel, “Go and lie down, and if He calls you, say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place. The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” Then Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening” (1 Samuel 3:9-10 NIV).

The Church often assumes that leaders are a distinct group appointed and set apart by God and that this call of God is made to a chosen few. Not so; God chooses all believers and we all follow, though some may have the distinction of leading others as they too follow. God recognizes and endorses leaders based on a tenet of following: a commitment to surrender fully to Him. Moses’ success as a leader was as a result of his readiness to recognize God’s voice and follow, not his desire to lead (Exodus 3:10, 11). Contrast this with the insubordinate attitude of Pharaoh: “Pharaoh said, ‘Who is the Lord, that I should obey Him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go’” (Exodus 5:2

It has always been God’s intention for His people to be second only to Him. 1 Samuel outlines God’s perfect plan gone awry:

Samuel summoned the people of Israel to the Lord at Mizpah and said to them, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I brought Israel up out of Egypt, and I delivered you from the power of Egypt and all the kingdoms that oppressed you.’ But you have now rejected your God, who saves you out of all your calamities and distresses. And you have said, ‘No, set a king over us.’ So now present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes and clans (1 Samuel 10:17-19 NIV).

Scripture details the agony of the Israelites as they suffered under many kings who refused to follow God.

Leaders who honor the principles and truths of Scripture are easy to follow. But if they fail and they often do and we have given our allegiance to that person or institution, then we too may fail. Still our failures cannot assigned to others because ultimately followers are not empowered by men. How can we trust individuals whose last line of authority is not the leader or organization but Christ? As empowered followers, second to none, each of us will give an account of our lives to God (Romans 14:11, 12). If we must stand alone before God, then we must ultimately take responsibility for our lives and our actions.

The empowered follower may be victimized but does not remain a victim. Christ exemplified this in the lead up to His death:

Then Pilate took Jesus and had Him flogged. The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on His head. They clothed Him in a purple robe and went up to Him again and again, saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” And they struck Him in the face. Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews, “Look, I am bringing Him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against Him.” ”Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?” Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above.” (John 19:1-11 NIV).

 Followers who empower

The Bible says that that the Lord would speak to Moses as a man speaks to his friend (Exodus 33:11). I would love for people to say that about me. How did Moses become a friend of God? Moses was raised as an Egyptian, a pagan. Moses was royalty in Egypt but after murdering someone he fled to a land called Midian where he would be safe. The priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came and drew water, filling the troughs and watering their father’s sheep. When some shepherds came and chased the girls off, Moses came to their rescue and helped them water their sheep.

“When they got home to their father, Reuel, he said, “That didn’t take long. Why are you back so soon?” “An Egyptian,” they said, “rescued us from a bunch of shepherds. Why, he even drew water for us and watered the sheep.” He said, “So where is he? Why did you leave him behind? Invite him so he can have something to eat with us.” (Exodus 2:15-21 The Message)

Moses remained and married into the family

This part is really neat; Scripture refers to the Midian priest Jethro by a different name, Reuel, which means, “A friend of God. It was Reuel, a friend of God who befriended a pagan/Egyptian and stranger called Moses. It was Reuel who influenced Moses to become a friend of God. Moses as we know, eventually leaves the covering of Reuel and the land of Midian but we also know that though Moses exceeds Reuel in influence, Reuel continues to mentor Moses.

Walter Wright says: Mentoring is more about following than leading. This is important, the persons we choose to follow become the persons who shape who we become- the character that forms our leadership. Leaders begin as followers. This is true for all life. We begin life by following parents teachers and coaches. Who we follow contributes to who we become. For leaders, the importance of mentoring lies in the reality that who we choose to follow shapes our leadership. Leadership emerges out of followership. Title: Mentoring: The Promise of Relational Leadership Author: Walter C. Wright, Jr. Publisher: Paternoster Press Date: 2004

 Running

I’m 56 and slowing;

keeping time out of habit,

A younger me whooshed by

& became my rabbit.

Darrell Muth-I am a follower

1            Barbara Kellerman 5 types of follower: Which Type most represents you

Isolates – these are people who care little for their leaders and will rarely respond to them regardless of who they are. These people tend to keep a low profile, they want to stay out of the way and just get on with their job without ‘interference from above’.

Bystanders – on the other hand are the sorts of people who will offer little support to any leader. They will follow passively and really just observe things from the sidelines, rarely getting involved in very much. They differ from isolates in that they tend not to hide from being led or managed nor do they resent it like the isolates can do.

Participants – do care about the organization and do usually want to make an impact. If they agree with the leader they will actively support them, however if they think that the leader is wrong they will actively oppose them, sometimes behind their backs.

Activists – have strong beliefs both about the organization and their leaders. They will actively engage depending on how they see both. If they like what they see they will engage and help create even better conditions. If they don’t they will actively try to get rid of the leader.

Diehards – have the highest level of engagement in the organization and with the leaders and have high passions. If the leader is going (in their opinion) in the right direction they will dedicate all to them and become a disciple. If they think that a leader needs some help to develop they will engage with them, however if they think that the leader is destructive they will set out to destroy the leader. Followership: How followers are creating change and changing leaders Barbara Kellerman

2            Rate the followership qualities of Daniel ( see wk 2) in your life : low, medium or high

God first

Loyalty

Integrity

Humility

Deference to position

Truthfulness

JBAM_7_3_5_Followership

Rethinking Followership Robert E. Kelley

 

“We can no longer keep up with the speed of change and we are rarely surprised by it but  If we are asking questions about the future of technology, our focus is on entirely the wrong pixel. We should be asking about the future of _us_.”