A few days ago “Grace’s” posters were all over the blogoshere. I thought, wow, she really nailed some of those hard to explain bits of terminology that I love to use, but have a hard time defining (briefly, that is.) So, I join the ranks of the multitude and say, thank you, Grace, for a superb creative bit of explanation and inspiration!
Now here is the part that I didn’t know until I read Julie Clawson’s post. These beautiful posters were a response to some posters meant to ridicule we who are refugees from Church As We Know It and are doing a little “re-dreaming.”
I wonder why one who loves Jesus, but disagrees with some of his followers would be motivated to ridicule them without even knowing them? Where is Jesus in that?
Do we postmodern types do the same thing to those who are committed to the church culture… or, at least, think about it on occasion?
While everyone probably falls off the wagon at times and rants (I know I do,) why not try to take the high road, like Grace, and extol the beauty of the Gospel?
When you see something virtuous, you see something of God in it. Other times when you see something, even within the context of Christianity, while it may be clever, it is obvious there is a different spirit at work.
Here are some cool poster additions from Bob Hyatt
Addendum: Paul Mayers: Why Id Settle For Being A Kind Kinda Christian
Oh, those posters weren’t mine. They are from Bob Blog
http://bobhyatt.typepad.com/bobblog/2007/08/posters.html
Maybe I should make the link bigger on my post!
Heather.
By: Heather on August 8, 2007
at 4:47 pm
Heather… Fixed it. My fault!
By: Glenn on August 8, 2007
at 5:13 pm
i think you are on to something here glenn, not least how we in ther emerging church can treat people in the modern church in a way that we would not treat any other grp nor want to be treated ourselves [which is probably why we react as we do].
Now we could just say: bad dog! and consign these posters to attacks on our emerging churchness, suspect bad character and lack of grace as a motive…
Or, as I am feeling drawn more towards, wonder if these posters reflect something of how we sound to this part of the christian world? this is impression that we can give – the worst part of how we can come across – which i think makes a beautiful contrast with the best of how we can be – which Grace so beautifully highlighted.
So for me I like both sets, a reminder of the best/worst of the communication of the conversation, something to aspire to but also something to learn from… so that people can hear better what i mean by what i say/do and the effort i make to understand better as well as trying to help make myself understood…
By: Paul on August 9, 2007
at 7:15 am
Paul…
You brought up the other part of what I wanted to say, but didn’t. It is…”This is what we look like to lot of people.” That causes me to ask these questions: Is there any truth to what these posters say? Are there areas where we need to shore up our beliefs, or the way we communicate them?
By: Glenn on August 9, 2007
at 10:21 am
I think they are great questions to ask ourselves, what do you think?
i’ve kinda posted a memo to myself on it over at my blog, but i’m interested to hear others perspectives…
By: Paul on August 9, 2007
at 2:46 pm
this whole discussion isn’t really helping me much. Here’s why: I found the posters mocking the emergent church quite entertaining. I’m half an insider in the emergent church, and I found them entertaining from my insider side. I already *knew* that’s what we look like to … some people. the reason I knew is because I tend to look at whatever group I happen to be in from an outsider’s perspective, and mock it a bit. This always gets me in trouble, in every institution, group, etc. that I ever end up in.
All that to say, god I wish people would just relax a little, and enjoy the mockery. I like to mock, and I like to be mocked. And I don’t get so sold on anything that I start to bristle at some half true mockery.
It’s an american thing, I think. my lovely aussie wife finds it annoying. Aussie’s are much better at mocking one another and themselves, and bagging out things in general, and not being so unbearably serious and important. I’m thinking Brits are better at this too. I was surprised by Julie’s post, and again here. Oh well. No doubt I’ll get in trouble again with this comment. Which doesn’t really freak me out too much =)
done ranting now =)
By: benjamin ady on August 15, 2007
at 8:01 am
Benjamin… No need to apologize. I am a cynic, too. So, I undestand. The discussion goes deeper over at Paul Mayer’s blog. He has a great post that I linked to in the article.
By: Glenn on August 15, 2007
at 9:43 am