Why people take spiritual advice from Hollywood

This is really a carry on from my second last post and comments I made to that post.

The question is why would people take spiritual advice from Hollywood stars?

The answer, I think is that Hollywood stars are genuine spiritual travelers. Unlike a church whoever they don't have a barrow to push and could be Buddhist one week and Greek orthodox the next. The point is that they are spiritually lost and have no idea but, they are getting the best advice money can by. For example, they get to meet with the Pope or the Dalai Lama in person rather than get it third hand from a congregation of followers.

D.I.Y church

I tried this at home yesterday and loved it (taize music in the background)

1) light candle and read the psalm for the week (the candle is my God candle that I light whenever I want to remind myself that God is in the room with me)
2) Reflect for a while (occasionally writing thoughts down in my journal)

3) Read the Old Testament reading for the week
4) Reflect for a while (occasionally writing thoughts down in my journal)
5) Read the New Testament reading for the week
6) Reflect for a while (occasionally writing thoughts down in my journal)
7) Read the Gospel reading for the week
8) Reflect for a while (occasionally writing thoughts down in my journal)

9) Confess my sins to God
10) Read Luke 22:14,17-20 and have communion

11) Pray for myself
12) Pray for friends and family
13) Pray for the world

14) Wash the feet of another (think of how I can serve God / others this week)
15) Have my feet washed by another (think of how I have been blessed be God / others this week)

16) Finish by saying the prayer of St Francis
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace; where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy; Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand, to be loved as to love; for it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

It's time to listen if we ever want to tell

Q. Would you trust a…
Bank Manager to tell you what to do with your money?
Used car salesman to buy a car from?
Amway sales person to tell you what a good product is?

Why not?

(STOP READING AND ASK YOURSELF WHY NOT)

A. Now all of these people have two things in common. The first is that they are experts in their field. The second is that they have a particular line or product to push. Most of us do not trust these people because they will try to tell us that their product is regardless of what is actually best for us.

Now imagine you are not a Christian…

Q. Would you trust a Christian to tell you about spirituality?

A. No because Christians have a particular line or product to push. Most people do not trust Christians because we will try to tell people that our faith is best regardless of what is actually best for the person.

The problem with Christianity is that we are a telling religion. And, because of that no one will ever want to listen to us. We need to become a listening and seeking faith. I believe that if we were to give up trying to tell people what we believe and start to listen to them and, as a fellow pilgrim walk along side them always with the premise that we can learn from each other and that neither of us has the ultimate truth that they have to impart upon the other, then and only then people might want to listen to what we have to say.

Life table

I've been trying to work out how to structure my life a bit.

These are my initial thoughts...

1. Spiritual
a. Individual:
i. Morning ritual Monday: O.T Lectionary reading, Tuesday: Pray for Self, Wednesday: N.T Lectionary reading, Thursday: Pray for family & friends, Friday: Gospel Lectionary Reading, Saturday: Pray for World
b. Small group: i Start a small group that meets once a fortnight
c. Congregation i. Go to church once a fortnight
d. Networks i. be involved in 3 Xn networks: Reframe, TEAR and Amuc

2. Intellectual Health
Read a fiction book every 2 months (Amy Hempel will be first on the list)
Read a non-fiction book every 2 months

3. Artistic / creative
Play more guitar

4. Physical Health
Exercise 3 times a week

5. Relationships
a. Marriage
i. Have a night/day just with wife every week
ii Go away for the weekend every 2 months
b. Friends
i. try sticking to 6 good friends and treating them well

6. Social Action
a. Politics
i: Be a part of 3 social action networks: An Aboriginal reconciliation group, The Greens, Amnesty international
b. Environment
i. save up for grey water recycling
ii. save up for Solar Power for electricity
iii. Aim to grow 50% of our own food

7. Finance
a. Use 10 point buying guide (Do I really need it? Can I buy it second-hand? Can I grow it? Can we buy it in bulk? Can I borrow it? Is it cheaper to hire it occasionally? Can I make it myself? Does it harm the environment? Can I share it? Can we own it as a group?)
b. Buy ethically where ever possible

Church Surf 5

Still in the classic sing talk pray announcements morning tea evangelical mold, but really friendly, relaxed and trying really hard to be contemporary and reach the local community, which I am not a part of. The church is a bit of a drive but worth a 2nd visit for sure.

A friend moves towards faith

After many years doing the whole clear gospel presentation thing and getting nowhere I have been trying to stick to just being living and loving as best I can and hopefully that might make a difference. Well it does I just a friend out of the blue ask for a Bible to start reading, previously I had a friend who just started going to church one day (and they put down it down mainly to me) Now this are both exciting first steps but the question is where to from here? I am a post evangelical, in that I grew up evangelical and then moved to something else. I am still in the process of finding that somewhere else. Which is fine when it is just me, but now I have people who want to join me there, somewhere.

After some delays in posting I feel some pressure to work this stuff out, at least enough that I can say hey this is what I believe and this is how I express it.

Church Surf 4

Aggh the time on the website is one hour later than when the Church now meets. Grrr

Yellow space Green space Blue Space... Just Space

Okay, there is a theory that goes something like this...

Church or Xy has it's own culture (Blue space) and a non Xn person is part of a different culture like a skater or rave culture (Yellow space) and if we want them to be a part of church we need to create a Green space for them.

I don't think this is true. I think for them most part everyone in a western society lives in multicoloured spaces. They are skaters and they go to raves, they are business people and they go surfing. What is more they don't consider any of those things exclusive that is, you can be a raver and a surfer.

Rather than think how do we make a Green space for the Yellow people. We need to think how do we create a Blue Space that in no way exclusive enough to eliminate the possibility of also being in other spaces simultaneously. A space that multicoloured people - if you like - can be a part of, because the reality is we a re not a culture made of lots of different coloured (cultured) people. We are a culture made up of multi coloured (cultured) people.

Church Surf 3

This one was hard. A nice place with the theology skewed to sound attractive to the younger audience, at first I glossed over this. A kind of Jesus was a big out there rock star of his time so lets be like Jesus and all be like that, kind of message. It wasn't till I started driving home that I thought hang on Jesus was not the King of his day, he was the servant (Hence Jesus our Servant King). Mmm, I might give this another try but it did feel like they were trying a little to hard to be big cool and rock.