Marginal Christianity

April 24, 2018 ·  Fr. Stephen Freeman   I stumbled into the Tolkien novels as a teenager (in the 60’s). They were a gift from an Aunt and so collected dust on a shelf for a year or more. A virus turned me into a shut-in for a short season, and I dusted them off out of sheer boredom. I extended my illness for a couple of weeks until the whole series was finished. It was a journey into another world, one that had a way of changing the world I lived in. There were no elves that suddenly appeared nor was there an army of orcs invading my town. But there was an ache that I felt as I read that seemed to match an ache in my life. It took some years to discover the connection. People have told stories from the earliest days of our existence. We do not have the words of the earliest stories, but we have seen their illustrations, recorded on the walls of caves. No one knows what how the stories went, but they seem to involved animals. The beauty of those animals tells us that ...

December 12, 2016 by Jag Bhalla 1. It is in our nature to need stories. We arrive “biologically prepared” for them. They were evolutionarily crucial. We feel and think in story-logic (story-causality configures our reaction-biology). 2. Like our language instinct, a story drive—inborn hunger to hear and make stories—emerges untutored (=“biologically prepared”). 3. “Every culture bathes its children in stories " (to explain how the world works, to educate their emotions). . . Read more at http://bigthink.com/errors-we-live-by/how-stories-configure-human-nature

by Ben Sternke on May 4, 2015 I have been in Christian ministry for 21 years. As I look back, one of the major themes that comes to the surface is that I have always had a relentless drive to bring positive culture change to whatever situation I’m in. From my early days of leading worship to church planting, from coaching pastors to consulting with churches large and small, I’ve always been interested in how to see cultures change for the better. Of course, I did this VERY poorly at first, but God’s been helping me, as slowly as I seem to learn. (I joke with pastors that I suspect “ministry jobs” are God’s remedial program for people who can’t follow Jesus the normal way.) So here are, in no particular order, and probably without nearly enough explanation, 8 things I’ve learned about bringing culture change to an organization. 1. Never argue. Never. I have spent SO MUCH TIME arguing with people about theology and ministry, thinking that if they just had this new informati...

http://www.religionnews.com/2014/07/15/commentary-8-things-church-needs-say/?utm_content=buffere6ee4&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer Tom Ehrich | July 15, 2014 | 19 Comments        (RNS) If Christians stopped bickering about church, presenting sex as a first-order concern, telling other people how to lead their lives and lending our name to minor-league politicians, what would we have to say? We need to figure that out, because we are wearing out our welcome as tax-avoiding, sex-obsessed moral scolds and amateur politicians. In fact, I think we are getting tired of ourselves. Who wants to devote life and loyalty to a religion that debates trifles and bullies the outsider? So what would we say and do? No one thing, of course, because we are an extraordinarily diverse assembly of believers. But I think there are a few common words we would say. We would say the name “Jesus.” We might m...