One pUnK under God! This is not your grandma's Church...
Saturday, December 16, 2006 at 5:49PM CAUTION: This post has a few out links please check them out once you've read this entry and posted some comments!
A post by my good friend Dr Bentley got me thinking. Read his post it is a well reasoned and thought provoking challenge to those of us (myself included) who feel the need to 'defend' God (and the Church).
The converse to his argument is the following very interesting CNN article on Jay Bakker (son of Televangelist Jim Bakker). He has become so concerned with how the religious right have damaged Christ, and Christianity, that he has formed a 'self styled', relevant, counter Christian culture (note NOT counter Christian, just counter conservative Christian cultural) expression of Church.
Here's a very short (30 second) video clip that will give you some idea of this young tatooed Christian evangelist. (It is a flash based video, so if you're on dialup just start it and come back in two or three minutes and it will completely loaded).
As he rightly says, "this is not your granny's Church"! Do yourself a favour (if you have broadband) and do a search for Jay Bakker on youtube.com. There is a fascinating 3 minute documentary on his Church. It seeks to be inclusive, to hold back on judgement, to share the love and acceptance of Christ, to preach peace, agitate against war (in fact it seems to take a stand against just about everything that his dad, and other conservative evangelicals in the USA stand for).
One punk under God! What do you think? Could this kind of Church work for you? Would it make a difference among young people in our context?
PS. I have been trying to convince Megie to let me get just ONE ARM in a sleeve tatoo! Somehow she won't let me! Maybe she's too sensible! Ha ha. Heck, you don't get more proper than a minister, with a doctorate....
Reader Comments (1)
A new movement in the Dutch Reformed Church have gone to the other extreme. They call their movement "Die Nuwe Hervorming" (Book by the same title available - published mainly by UNISA theologians). This movement shuns dogma and proposes that to Jesus question "Who do you say I am?", any answer will be correct. It is strongly influenced by postmodern thinking.
I don't know if Hauerwas is correct, but I think he is onto something when he says that God is killing the church (institutional).
Thanks for the reference.