So we have a new Arch Bishop of Canterbury.
Justin Welby officially confirmed by the PM today, but it wasn't a very closely guarded secret it seems.
As a relatively new member of the Church of England, I'm taking a much greater interest in his appointment than I probably would have before and will look forward to seeing where he leads the 'Anglican communion'.
What ever happens under his leadership in the next few years, one of my hopes is that Christians, no matter what denomination they are part of, will develop some serious communication skills, especially when relating to those outside of the Church looking in.
I don't pretend to be the greatest communicator or have all the answers to help the Church at least appear credible to vast swathes of society for which the church can sometimes appear as something of a joke, an outdated, power hungry killjoy.
Obviously that's not my opinion, I love the Church, often I struggle to for various reasons, but I am part of it, and I believe Jesus loves the Church, I believe the Church can be the most powerful force for good in the world if we take Jesus' challenge seriously.
I take the Bible seriously and I believe we can know God personally and that the whole world needs to at least hear about that, so I guess I roughly fall under the evangelical category of Christian types, though I've always been loathed to label myself too much.
Bishop Welby is also described as evangelical and I imagine that we probably hold similar views on some issues of theology and practice, one of them being that the Church must be outward looking in nature, to exist for the benefit of the wider world. Great... but...
It seems to me that some Christians, and it does tend to be evangelical Christians, have a tendency to communicate in ways that are sometimes difficult for non-Christians to understand. Let me give you an example that got me thinking about this.
Yesterday, when the rumors were gradually being confirmed, I was listening to radio 4, as you do when you're shut up ill at home (well I do). Someone was interviewing a lady who had been part of the selection panel for the new Arch Bishop. She was an evangelical Christian and was very straight about what she believed and what she thought was important about the new appointment. Nothing wrong with that, it's good that she knew her own mind and wasn't afraid to talk about it, my problem with what she said was more about the way in which she said it.
There were phrases used like 'proclaiming the gospel', 'using the whole armor of God', 'brothers and sisters in Christ'. Now I understand these phrases, they're biblical and they're things I think are important, but as I listened my heart sank as I imagined what people were actually hearing as she spoke. In my minds eye I was picturing Bishop Welby parading around in chain mail and a full suit of armor armed with a loud haler urging people to join his obscure family. Whilst these phrases might be OK to be used in church services or when you're discussing the Bible with fellow Christians - or even if you had enough time to actually explain what they meant, it may not have been wise to use them on a much listened to program on radio 4.
We have a constant challenge as followers of Jesus, to take what he said and did seriously and then act appropriately. There is important and good news to communicate, but we need to do it intelligently and with sensitivity to our culture. We have to have our finger on the cultural pulse, which, to make things more difficult is probably changing faster now than ever before and will be different according to where you are in the world or even in a different part of the same city!
In a recent interview in LST's student magazine (highly recommended), Mike Pilavachi, pastor at Soul Survivor church Watford, said that whilst the content of the message of Jesus will never change and should never change, the way in which we communicate that message must constantly be changing (not his exact words). Why? because people will switch off and make completely understandable judgements about the Church if we carry on using language in the way that we do.
Jesus himself used noticeably little jargon, he spoke to farmers about farming and fishermen about fishing and in that way was able to communicate his message in a way that people not only understood, but responded to one way or another. This doesn't mean that the same language will do the same job today, we can make Jesus' words themselves jargon if we're not careful.
The message of Jesus is divisive, it's meant to be. Let's please allow the message to elicit a response - not the way it's communicated.
Justin Welby officially confirmed by the PM today, but it wasn't a very closely guarded secret it seems.
As a relatively new member of the Church of England, I'm taking a much greater interest in his appointment than I probably would have before and will look forward to seeing where he leads the 'Anglican communion'.
What ever happens under his leadership in the next few years, one of my hopes is that Christians, no matter what denomination they are part of, will develop some serious communication skills, especially when relating to those outside of the Church looking in.
I don't pretend to be the greatest communicator or have all the answers to help the Church at least appear credible to vast swathes of society for which the church can sometimes appear as something of a joke, an outdated, power hungry killjoy.
Obviously that's not my opinion, I love the Church, often I struggle to for various reasons, but I am part of it, and I believe Jesus loves the Church, I believe the Church can be the most powerful force for good in the world if we take Jesus' challenge seriously.
I take the Bible seriously and I believe we can know God personally and that the whole world needs to at least hear about that, so I guess I roughly fall under the evangelical category of Christian types, though I've always been loathed to label myself too much.
Bishop Welby is also described as evangelical and I imagine that we probably hold similar views on some issues of theology and practice, one of them being that the Church must be outward looking in nature, to exist for the benefit of the wider world. Great... but...
It seems to me that some Christians, and it does tend to be evangelical Christians, have a tendency to communicate in ways that are sometimes difficult for non-Christians to understand. Let me give you an example that got me thinking about this.
Yesterday, when the rumors were gradually being confirmed, I was listening to radio 4, as you do when you're shut up ill at home (well I do). Someone was interviewing a lady who had been part of the selection panel for the new Arch Bishop. She was an evangelical Christian and was very straight about what she believed and what she thought was important about the new appointment. Nothing wrong with that, it's good that she knew her own mind and wasn't afraid to talk about it, my problem with what she said was more about the way in which she said it.
There were phrases used like 'proclaiming the gospel', 'using the whole armor of God', 'brothers and sisters in Christ'. Now I understand these phrases, they're biblical and they're things I think are important, but as I listened my heart sank as I imagined what people were actually hearing as she spoke. In my minds eye I was picturing Bishop Welby parading around in chain mail and a full suit of armor armed with a loud haler urging people to join his obscure family. Whilst these phrases might be OK to be used in church services or when you're discussing the Bible with fellow Christians - or even if you had enough time to actually explain what they meant, it may not have been wise to use them on a much listened to program on radio 4.
We have a constant challenge as followers of Jesus, to take what he said and did seriously and then act appropriately. There is important and good news to communicate, but we need to do it intelligently and with sensitivity to our culture. We have to have our finger on the cultural pulse, which, to make things more difficult is probably changing faster now than ever before and will be different according to where you are in the world or even in a different part of the same city!
In a recent interview in LST's student magazine (highly recommended), Mike Pilavachi, pastor at Soul Survivor church Watford, said that whilst the content of the message of Jesus will never change and should never change, the way in which we communicate that message must constantly be changing (not his exact words). Why? because people will switch off and make completely understandable judgements about the Church if we carry on using language in the way that we do.
Jesus himself used noticeably little jargon, he spoke to farmers about farming and fishermen about fishing and in that way was able to communicate his message in a way that people not only understood, but responded to one way or another. This doesn't mean that the same language will do the same job today, we can make Jesus' words themselves jargon if we're not careful.
The message of Jesus is divisive, it's meant to be. Let's please allow the message to elicit a response - not the way it's communicated.
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