Lama's log

I've just come back from Greenbelt and frankly, it was brilliant. I thought I'd mention some good bits. I really enjoyed hearing for the first time a guy called Frank Schaefer, a son of a founder of the religious right in America. He was great although was obviously still struggling with some of the stuff he grew up with. A couple of things that he talked about which resonated were around Christians doing things well and for their own sake rather than with the hidden agenda of propaganda.

That hit home and if we follow through on this would impact mission well. So, write a song but primarily set out to write a good one not necessarily one which must advertise Jesus. Feed people, but not in order to get them into church etc etc. It sounds like common sense but how much of our church work really is about propaganda and how much is about excellence through the love of Christ?

He also talked about returning to the language of belief rather than knowing and this theme was picked up in a session with Ikon and with Brian Mclaren. The speakers wanting people to move away from Christianity as a rational and towards Christianity as a lifestyle and 'being'. Ikon described an activity they had done to try and enable people to hold their most precious beliefs 'lightly' and there give room for God to move and for transformation.

Brian Mclaren talked about the knowledge you gain through apprenticeship which you would be unable to gain through a book. My own example for this was my Grandmother who was from Italy. She would often make gnocchi and as a child I would help her. When I would ask how to know when the dough was ready she would frustratingly tell me, ' it will feel right'. I eventually learned but it wasn't through rational. If we read the Bible we can know about salvation, Mclaren made the point that if we live it we can be saved. We 'get it' in a way beyond our constructs, structures and denominations.

Frank Schaefer too talked about a moment of realisation for him when he was questioning someone about the validity and appropriateness of giving a child communion. He asked how this could be OK when a child cannot understand what they are doing. He was asked if he understood what he was doing when he took communion. Our self imposed rules then become absurd.