Elizabeth Gilbert on the concept of genius & creativity

This video has proved to be very popular amongst my fellow students on the M.min course. I’ve deliberately not read through their posts yet, so as not to influence my initial reactions. Gilbert delivers a heart felt, and genuinely warming speech on the pressure of genius, and the pressure of simple creativity.

As a guitarist primarily influenced by blues and rock artists, as well as being a worship musician, I’ve always been attracted to the “tortured artistic soul”. The lone guitarist standing at the Crossroads, doing a deal he may regret. Memories of Robert Johnson, John Lee Hooker, Clapton, Hendrix, Lennon; all my heroes had lives filled with tragedy, self destruction and a good measure of insanity. This is the music I’m attracted to, raw, intense, soulful.
Gilbert, in this video sums up what every creative artist would love to say, but instead, usually just gets bitter or empties another bottle down their neck. Oh that we would be honored for, “Just showing up” as Gilbert suggests. In the church our job is doubly hard because we perceive, sometimes rightly, often wrongly, that we aren’t “allowed”  or expected to express frustrations or fears, especially fears. Quite rightly we need to have integrity, self control and seek righteousness. The Keith Richards school of chemical intake and sexual prowess is not a good model for worship leaders (or really anybody). But perhaps he (Richards) has kept creating so prolifically for 40 years because of his authenticity and that he seems to have laid aside the pressure to be anything other than who he his. What really struck home for me with this video was the sense of release and permission that Gilbert gives creative artists, by just telling it how it is. Often the worst enemy of the artist is the artist themselves, constantly beating ourselves up and setting impossible goals. Although she may attribute it to “fairies”, where genius is concerned, I am reminded of the parable of the Talents, and of a quote from NT Wright in “Surprised by Hope”,

All the skills and talents which we have put to God’s service in this present life….will be enhanced and ennobled and given back to us to be exercised to his glory.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/453

Different Perspectives

Its amazing what can be communicated through the unlikeliest of sources. I watched the “monster” movie Cloverfield the other night. Flawed as it was, I thought it was ok, some good ideas in there, the suspense and sense of constant peril was well done. However it wasn’t after I had watched it and started delving into the interviews and special features that I was floored with an interesting concept that the film introduces. Cloverfield is shot from a very narrow viewpoint. There is one camera, operated by one character. During the movie, there is a scene where we see thousands of people on the Brooklyn bridge trying to escape Manhattan. For a moment we see someone else filming, and that’s where the question is raised. This is a generation where almost everyone in the western word has some kind of camera with them constantly; we have Youtube, Flickr, Facebook etc. The point was made that in the context of the film, is that there is the possibility of hundreds of thousands of different viewpoints, experiences and “movies” within the movie. If you do a search on 9/11 on Youtube, you’ll see the day’s events from a multitude of different vantage points. The Gospels are like this too. One of the arguments against the authenticity of scripture is that there are differing emphasis’s and details. But for me, that proves its authenticity. If the Gospels were fiction then surely they would be exactly the same, you know the phrase, “getting your story straight”. This worldview also gives us hope for the church, yes we have different vantage points and views, the details differ, but the fundamentals are the same.

Relevant scripture: Mark 7 (Jesus shifts someones paradigm about the law and tradition)

A new season and new questions

We are in the midst of a new season in the life of the Vineyard in Colchester. Its a season of building planning and setting foundations, a season of new questions and change. This is church at its most exciting, when there is an air of expectancy in the air. This also causes us to look at how church leadership works and how we can best serve the people God has given us.

Also, I’ve just finished reading “The Great Emergence” by Phyllis Tickle, a book that describes the huge shifts in the church over the last 2000 years and discusses the current shift into post-modernism. I’m still processing some of the thoughts and ideas, but I’ll be putting up a video response in the next few days.

An Update

Well, I haven’t bogged for ages, and so much has happened. So, whilst I get back in the habit of feeding the blog monster here’s a bullet point summary of the last couple of months:

• Went to New Brunswick, Canada for a module as part of my M(min) degree
• Colchester Vineyard now meeting every Sunday
• Been having a few major paradigm shifts (more on that later
• Been promising myself that I’ll write the blog more often

Jesus

There but for the grace of God

I received a heartbreaking email from GodTV the other day containing a public statement that Todd Bentley and his wife are experiencing marital difficulties  and have separated. This is after over 150 days of powerful meetings in Lakeland (which I spoke about in previous posts). There are two things to be learned here. First of all for all of us who are in leadership, we NEED to protect our marriages and families. God always comes first but ministry ALWAYS comes after family. Todd was at almost every meeting, 7 days a week, which must have put huge strain on his family life. In our western corporate styled church we work our leaders and evangelists hard and often treat them either as one dimensional celebrities or as people there for our benefit. We consume, like customers of McDonald’s or Starbucks,  and I’ve seen leaders get consumed and sucked dry. Leaders are partly to blame too, being flawed human beings. We are often goal orientated, single minded and insecure and eager to please.

Secondly I’m just waiting for the “I told you so” judgments from the church. I’ve been saddened over the past few months at the venom of the church in how it judges. Often Christians show the least mercy and love when we should be showing the most. We should use this opportunity  to break this spirit of judgment (which comes from our own corrupt insecurity) and bless and pray for our brothers and sisters who fall, or are having a hard time. Jesus is all about restoration and grace. The measure we use to judge others is how we will be judged, be careful. It can happen to any of us. So, when you pray tonight, pray for your leaders and pray for their families, remember leaders are human too.

Seeker Sensitive…..really??

There has been a good hearted move in recent years to make church more accessible to non-christians. The principle is a good thing. We do it ourselves by having breakfast and newspapers before Sunday worship, and making the service itself easy to understand. Paul the apostle talks about this principal; Jesus spoke in the cultural language of whoever He was addressing. However one of the unfortunate things that has happened in the church is that we have dumbed down and sometimes hidden the supernatural stuff. Now there are rules in scripture for sharing prophecy, tongues etc in a gathering, and also some boundaries that we have to set to protect people. That’s not what I’m talking about. What I’ve observed is that ministry is often ushered to the side, worship cut short (when the people are clearly engaging with God), manifestations, whether Holy Spirit or demonic can be seen as embarrassing  and quickly suppressed, rather than explained and dealt with. Sometimes I’ve seen God’s presence really strong in a gathering and the people just want to engage but the “programme” is put first.

Now this is often done with a genuine heart to make it more comfortable for non-Christians, in case they think we’re weird. Here’s some news folks, they already KNOW that we’re weird. In fact just across the street from my house is a leisure complex with a theatre. Later  in the summer there is a spiritual medium coming to perform. I know it will sell out just as all those kinds of meeting do. He’ll charge each person about £15 for the show, and his stuff doesn’t even come from God. We have it for free, and much more powerfully, yet we dumb it down and hide it.  The world is hungry for the supernatural! Jesus saw an issue or a situation and usually solved it supernaturally, or showed His compassion supernaturally. He even saw fit to create some wine at a wedding where the guests had already drunk the rest of it. Now “where’s the fruit” in that?? I think God is just generous and extravagant and always acts through love. Often our intentions are good but we miss the point. We need the balance I spoke about previously and we need to embrace the supernatural an make it as common in our walk as everything else. And if God decides our services are boring and wants to mess things up, who are we to say no?

The Radical Middle

It’s all about balance!

Depending on what day it is, an observer could describe my theological standing with equal accuracy as, conservative evangelical, charismatic, liberal, fundamentalist, alternative or old-fashioned. I like to think of that as balance. On my iPod I have tons of podcasts, from a diverse range of teachers and commentators. Just last night on the way to work, I listened to Todd Bentley followed by Tony Campolo. Both of these guys are at opposite ends of the theological spectrum and both get criticized for what they teach. I like some of what both of them are about, but disagree with them both on some points too. However I can get blessed  by both of them. The diversity gives me balance. I like the faith and “out of the box” thinking of Bentley but also the social gospel and down to earth academic approach of Campolo. Likewise I love the laid back authenticity of the Vineyard, but love the ceremony and beauty of a catholic mass.

Its all about balance! Besides, it’s not healthy just to eat chocolate ice cream all the time, you need strawberry too.

Power, Passion & Revival

I’ve been catching some of the recent Todd Bentley healing meetings on God TV over the past couple of weeks. What really shocked me was my cynical reaction to it all. This was especially compounded when I thought back to the Vineyard meetings of 15, 20 years ago, where this stuff happened every week (even locally, never mind conferences). Regardless of what we think of the style or method, people are getting healed, saved and blessed. For whatever reason, in our movement, as time went on, these kind of genuinely powerful outpourings became less and less. Perhaps we just got used to it? No, I don’t think so. I think it was because the Lord needed to teach us to be Outward Focussed before He’d release it to such a degree again. If we are just soaking for meeting after meeting, but not taking it into the marketplace, feeding the poor, comforting the widow and passing on the blessing then its pointless. That said we need to remain hungry for this stuff, its what Wimber called, “Power Evangelism”. The gospel is spread with both the Word & the Works, its all the Kingdom of God.

Sometimes I think we try to be cool and relevant (when we’re really not), instead of just being real and ourselves. We should never dumb down the supernatural, or write it off with our cynicism. Likewise, when God pours it out, we should be running out of the doors to give it away. It was never just for us, we get to give away!

Asking what you are for

I would dare to say that across  the world, most people aren’t doing the job they dreamed of when they were kids. Often insecurity, bitterness and resentment comes from feeling hopeless and out of place. God made all of us for a specific purpose and we all have a role in the Kingdom. We are all sons and daughters of the King. During the run up to Easter, my encouragement is to ask God what you are for, and then go do it. In the Vineyard one of our principles is that “everyone gets to play”, gifting needs to be used, and no matter how insignificant you may feel, you have gifting, most people just don’t know what that is.