girls and boys (and mark driscoll)

I’ve recently been thinking about the difference between the emerging church and the “fresh expressions” movement – one difference that I’m currently accepting is this , which I interpret as the idea that fresh expressions are a new take on the ways of doing things within an established church and emerging church largely as a group of people coming together with the freedom to push the boundaries and do their own thing a bit more.

However, I was talking to someone about this, and they reminded me that one of the problems with the term “emerging church” was the connection with Mark Driscoll. Even though he now says he has distanced himself from the emerging church his views have still tainted the definition.

Mark Driscoll makes me angry for a number of reasons:

- he preaches that women are unfit for church leadership because “they are more gullible and easier to deceive than men” and frequently jokes about women in leadership

- he stated that women who “let themselves go” physically are partially to blame for their husband’s infidelity (please note, this does not apply to men “letting themselves go” – apparently women don’t understand or experience lust the way men do)

- he does not accept the idea that God could be genderless – or, to quote him, the idea of “God as a chick”

I could go on, and on. And on…

Why does he say these things? He probably believes that he’s just applying biblical principles. This is a pretty old argument - there’s plenty of commentary on the bizarre rules in Leviticus that people choose to ignore, whilst jumping on the statements condemning homosexuality, for example. But I’m still trying to figure out why he’s so misogynistic, bigoted and plain offensive:

- some people say that he’s trying to attract “macho men” to the church, and is doing this by putting down women and gay people to do so.

- Is it because he is fighting against this view: “Some emergent types recast Jesus as a limp-wrist hippie in a dress with a lot of product in His hair, who drank decaf and made pithy Zen statements about life while shopping for the perfect pair of shoes”. And thinks that women in leadership will just encourage this kind of effeminate, ineffectual person within the church?

- Perhaps he has personal issues with female/gay people and he’s using attack as a form of defence?

Speaking as a psychologist (although, for that matter, anyone with an iota of common sense), it is wrong to assume that people have particular skills/capabilities on the basis of only their gender or sexuality. There are stereotypes, many of which have an element of truth (otherwise they wouldn’t be stereotypes), but there are many, many exceptions to this. I’ve attended churches (albeit briefly) where women are not allowed to lead men and it’s particularly frustrating to listen to a poor presenter/preacher whose (apparent) only justification for leading the session is the possession of a penis.

In addition to this, a number of studies have found that, when reminded of the gender stereotypes related to performance (in this case performance in school subjects), students tend to underestimate their own abilities in this area, to conform with the stereotype. Perhaps the lack of female leaders in Driscoll’s church and his constant chauvinism is reinforcing this belief that women are not capable.

Outside of church, the world is slowly changing. Women are being accepted more into senior roles and both men and women can be openly gay without facing discrimination within many workplaces – although there is still a long way to go before gender/sexuality is no longer an issue. But I find it particularly frustrating that people still use outdated gender/sexuality stereotypes as reasons to limit people in how they can contribute to society and community.

Even in the emerging church (as I know it) there is predominance of men over women in leadership, so - on a practical "money where your mouth is" level are we any better than other organisations? Even if we’re not Mark Driscoll…

community

"The word community has many connotations, some positive, some negative. Community can make us think of a safe togetherness, shared meals, common goals, and joyful celebrations. It also can call forth images of sectarian exclusivity, in-group language, self-satisfied isolation, and romantic naïveté.

However, community is first of all a quality of the heart. It grows from the spiritual knowledge that we are alive not for ourselves but for one another. Community is the fruit of our capacity to make the interests of others more important than our own (see Philippians 2:4).

The question, therefore, is not "How can we make community?" but "How can we develop and nurture giving hearts?"


Paul Fromont on community

(HT: Mark Berry)

Counter-Terrorism and the right to take photographs

The Government have given the police new powers, which are likely to be used to prevent anybody taking photographs of police officers. The rationale is that such information could be useful or used by terrorists.

From The Register:
The new law makes it an offence to elicit or attempt to elicit information about an individual who is or has been a member of Her Majesty’s forces, a member of any of the intelligence services or a constable, "which is of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism, or publishes or communicates any such information".

However, the police, who are more than happy to photograph and film people taking part in peaceful protests, demonstrations and marches, are notoriously reticent about other people filming them at such events. They will now be able to use this law to prevent people turning the cameras on them, and arresting those who continue to so do.

Meanwhile, that nice Mark Thomas has produced a handy cut-out-and-keep card that can be produced and proffered to a police officer in the event of a stop-and-search being intrusive, unlawful or malicious. He is also leading a protest at New Scotland Yard next week, against the new law. As this is within the parliamentary exclusion zone, and people will probably bring cameras with them, we will have to see how the police chose to use their new powers.

Blah...Manchester with Pete Ward! - It's tomorrow!

Participation and Meditation: A Practical Theology for the Liquid Church

How do we encounter God through Culture?
Is liquid Church just an abstract academic ideal?

We are delighted that Dr. Pete Ward will be joining us for a day entitled 'Participation and Meditation: A Practical Theology for the Liquid Church' to explore these questions and many more. During the day we'll be exploring how participation and meditation in culture offers a distinctive approach to the way that we understand God and the church.

Pete Ward will suggest that to make sense of the contemporary nature of the Church we must understand the way that encounter with God is mediated by cultural expression.He offers a theoretical approach to practical theology which will be of use to practitioners rather than merely to other practical theologians.

About the Author: Dr Pete Ward is Senior Lecturer of Youth Ministry and Theological Education at King's College, London. He is also Adjunct Professor at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, CA.His earlier book 'Liquid Church' sold 10,000 copies

Practicalities: The day is on 12th February. It begins at 10:30 and finishes at 16:30 with an hour for lunch (lunch is not provided). It will be in the conference room at the Nazarene Theological College, Didsbury.

The cost for the day is £8.50, to book please visit: http://peteward.eventbrite.com/

Place are strictly limited so please book quickly.

This event is brought to by Blah...mcr and Think.

Brian Eno declares this Greenbelt festival open

Standing In The Long Now is the theme of the 2009 Greenbelt festival.

I've just read on the website of fellow radio bod Barrie Stephenson that the quote is taken from Brian Eno. It means taking a longer view as opposed to the "now” culture in which we live.

Read more on the 'long now' philosophy at the Long Now Foundation - or experience it when you're in the car queue to get into the event.

Brian is, to the unitiated, is a musician, kind-of-a-music-philosopher, and the father of modern ambient music. He is a hugely important cultural figure if you've ever listened to U2, watched David Lynch or, at one point, started up a computer.

So after me openly criticising Greenbelt for their lack of electronic music (and writing to them without much success), and am now in thrall and brimming with sparkling anticipation.

Incidentally, I once summed up Brian Eno's production career in a hugely influential and genre-bending diagram. It was so good, no-one has drawn a diagram since. I called it a Bri Chart.

40 days of public solitude application form

A few weeks ago I posted about a project that we're running in Nexus for the 40 days before Easter called '40 days of public solitude'. If you'd like to apply please download and application form from the website: www.40days.info