Sunday, April 04, 2010

Evolving Church

13 comments:

LittleBird said...

nice one bro. liking this.

by the way, i also liked ::the left hand of darkness::
it's devastatingly good stuff. i owe you one.
i liked it so much in fact that i'm currently writing a paper inspired by it (and some other feminist science fiction) for school.

keep this up.

Unknown said...

Thanks for this. Think I'm finally beginning to understand this cosmic plainspeak business. Start in the inflatable kiddie pool before the Atlantic.

Happy Easter

Unrelated?:
http://videos.onsmash.com/v/y2XUKh82LWrpUrYr

Kory said...

Thanks David. Great thoughts. It is wonderful how artists are witnesses to God's Kingdom. I feel truly blessed when I read classic literature, that I am growing closer to God and his kingdom and seeing things a fresh and new.

Variations On A Theme said...

Yes! Music and words touch some divine truth. You call it the Kingdom of God. I call it...uh...I don't know, but it's beautiful. And when the veil is particularly thin and I am moved even further toward that divine, I call that "the goose-bumpy feeling."

jdaviddark said...

I think "the goose-bumpy feeling" is an awfully good way of characterizing the way we find ourselves receiving the counsel or witness of a good word/image/montage/story/whatever. Thanks to everyone for jumping in with kind responses. It's a freaky feeling video-ing oneself into a computer. I wonder if I could get used to it.

steve said...

Thanks for the introduction David.
Dig that phrase 'cosmic plainspeak', and can't wait to hear your full talk at The Evolving Church conference this Saturday.

mjaneb said...

I'm in a Bible as Lit class this semester at San Jose State. Within the first week the professor told the class that we were not taking the label of Sacred from the Bible, but were recognizing that people wrote the book. People wrote this book. It hit me like a slap on the head. People wrote the Bible. People. like me. I could write the Bible! I could write anything. How did this book become THE Bible? Someone wrote something and through people, somehow it became the Bible. COOL!!

ok. So... everything in the Bible is not God's direct line to text. The book wasn't just entered into someone's mind one day then appeared (the person left with a tired arm in the morning, like you said in The Sacredness of Questioning Everything). "Spiritually-inspired" is how my mom always talked about the Bible. No, not like people were posessed by a foreign spirit claiming all-knowledge and all-authority that demanding a book on the subject. NOt at all. Spiritually-inspired because people have spirit. Because we have to witness and make up stories and write and share.

And if you read the Bible, it doesn't make any claims to be some united, God-book. It's just a union of books about God, not a one-person-deal. I mean, there are so many tectonic plates in the Bible. It doesn't claim to be above the works, minds, spirits of people. Why did I grow up thinking it did? It's enough to drive me mad.

So, now I'm listening to the Questioning book by you, and it just keeps giving me more words and resources to process these things I see in the Christian culture, myself, and the BIble. It's been really cool. David Dark, you have fucked up my world. And it was due.

J. Andrew Camp said...

I like the idea of doing more vloging from you, sir. Hadn't heard that southern belle of a voice since Charlie's house many moons ago.

Derek said...

i am a bit late to this but, for what its worth, love it and hope you will do more of the video provoking and calling us to greater attention to what is going on in our world and lives...thanks

Mark Petersen said...

We are looking forward to having you here. See you Friday.

mjaneb said...

Hey David Dark, what do you say when people ask you if you are a Christian? What if they ask you if you are a believer? And what if they ask what you believe? I feel like these questions are usually just asked when someone is trying to inquire as to your religious group. You know what I mean? whenever I'm asked I feel like I can't answer honestly with an answer that fits the question's designated answer mold. I guess that's a good thing. Break out!

jdaviddark said...

SO glad to hear from all you sweeties. Mel, I believe I discern a question or two from you. I will now take a stab at responding.
One response to the "What do you believe?" question is....I live in hope and expectation of a kingdom that's coming, a grand turnaround that's kind of already here and also not yet. It's the good news (gospel) of this order/kingdom/way-of-doing things that Jesus spoke, lived, and died over. I view his good news as an inescapably social invitation and the pursuit of faithfulness to this kingdom as an ongoingly demanding, difficult, but powerfully joyful and invigorating task. I understand that I can’t effectively seek this kingdom apart from a communities committed to discernment, encouragement, support, and mutual transparency. Sometimes these communities call themselves Christian. Often they don't....In a real-life conversation, I'd've never made it this far w/o a steering question-interruption, but this is the sort of thing I'd have in my head for startsies. Make sense?

mjaneb said...

thanks for this. So if someone asked you if you were a Christian? I never know what to say to this. No... but yes.... I was raised as one, so yes... but I don't like sitting through most "sermons." and I don't want to sing. And who cares? What does it matter? Or better articulated; what are you really asking?

And thanks for letting me do this back and forth ramble/conversation here. Let me know if there is a better venue.