Analog Rituals

Over at 99%, Scott Belsky makes some interesting points about what he terms 'analog rituals' and the value of repetitive actions - what he terms "the granularity of prioritization".

It strikes me that there's a lot of (unintended) biblical wisdom in the article, in particular the creational nature of 'analog' experiences: we were made not simply as able to see & think but also to touch & taste. Whilst the digital lifestyle offers much, it also has the capacity to remove, by making redundant aspects of sensory perception.

The 3 Best Books I've Read This Year

There were other very worthy contenders, but here's my pick of what I've perused during the year:

Tim Keller, Counterfeit Gods

Peter Steinke's A Door Set Open (seemingly only available on Kindle)

The Best Kept Secret Of Christian Mission by John Dickson

Learning from 'Ten Timeless Persuasive Writing Techniques'

It makes for an interesting article on its own - but maybe more so if you ask yourself the question, How do those suggestions apply to the task of preaching?

How to preach badly

I know - I don't need much help on that score! But this is good.

Doing the main thing

"Given the contents of the New Testament, one might expect local congregations of Christians to be entirely devoted to the spiritual formation of those in attendance. What we actually find in most cases is constant distraction from this as the central task: By the demands of the organization; and by the requirements of our 'faith and practice'—our traditions. Often there is the recognition that what we wind up 'having to do' is not what we really feel it should all be about."

Dallas Willard, quoted by John Ortberg

Pamela Stephenson: reflecting on Strictly, life and work

From an article in today's Guardian, a couple of paragraphs worth pondering by those engaged in ministry:

My experience on Strictly has highlighted two difficult truths in my life: first, that, although it is an important developmental task for my age group, I am not finding it easy to face my own mortality, and dancing gave me brief respite from that painful, inevitable process. Second, over the years, the job I do has taken its toll on me – as it has on many of my colleagues. Mental health professionals are on the frontline of the war against human anguish, angst and antisocial behaviour. However well trained and capable we are, it is impossible to be a receptacle for the shadow side of humanity with absolute impunity. I have been surprised to receive many positive messages from colleagues. I had thought they would ignore my flight into fantasy, but rather, they have let me know that dropping my professional demeanour and giggling like a seven year old in public has actually found their favour. In a strange way, I may even have acted out some of their own fantasies of escape and soothing. Anyway, it's healthy to get fit, to laugh, to do something you enjoy, to dance.

Dancing is the physical expression of our emotional selves, and personally I have found it to be a life-affirming path to a new-found style of happiness. I have only one regret from the entire experience – I never got to dance my Argentine tango (which would have been in the final round). But I believe it's good to have one dream left unrealised; it keeps hope alive, and the longing can remain poignant, omnipresent and painfully bright.

Logos 4 & Customer Service

For years I've had a number of great resources in Logos format (Libronix) - Word Biblical Commentary (60 vols); IVP Reference Library; Theological Journal Library and more. Trying to load them onto my Windows 7 PC was proving to be hard - well, impossible, truth be told.

An email to Logos Customer Services has resulted in all being sorted - and sorted very quickly - so I now have access to all those great resources once more and in the hugely-impressive format of the new Logos 4 (see below).

What can I say but: kudos, Logos!

The use of 'Christ' in Peter's first letter

Peter refers several times in his first letter to ‘Christ’. Almost universally those references are focussed upon the sufferings of the Messiah, the exception being 5:14.

Is Peter simply specifying that Jesus suffered (which of course is true) or is his language intentionally incorporative? That is to say, is he using 'Christ'as shorthand for ‘the Messiah and his people’?

with head bowed

I'm taking a few moments just to bow my head and give thanks for my Dad, who passed away 5 years ago today. I sat with him whilst he took his final breath - nothing could have been more painful, yet strangely privileged too, commending him to God's care.


He was flawed, but warm and loving and always wanting to make others smile.

I miss him lots.

managing the creativity of ministry

This article by Cal Newport is not ministry focussed but has some helpful principles for managing the creative demands of regular ministry

The Moon in Lleyn (R S Thomas)

The last quarter of the moon
of Jesus gives way
to the dark; the serpent
digests the egg. Here
on my knees in this stone
church, that is full only
of the silent congregation
of shadows and the sea's
sound, it is easy to believe
Yeats was right. Just as though
choirs had not sung, shells
have swallowed them; the tide laps
at the Bible; the bell fetches
no people to the brittle miracle
of bread. The sand is waiting
for the running back of the grains
in the wall into its blond
glass. Religion is over, and
what will emerge from the body
of the new moon, no one
can say.
            But a voice sounds
in my ear. Why so fast,
mortal? These very seas
are baptised. The parish
has a saint's name time cannot
unfrock. In cities that
have outgrown their promise people
are becoming pilgrims
again, if not to this place,
then to the recreation of it
in their own spirits. You must remain
kneeling. Even as this moon
making its way through the earth's
cumbersome shadow, prayer, too,
has its phases.

i think i should start saving my pennies now

Fujimura - 4 Holy Gospels from Crossway on Vimeo.

friday night spotify: dazzle ships

Having enjoyed the duet with The Masked Badger on 'Great Albums...', here's something a bit different and worth a listen: the commercial failure that was OMD's fourth album, Dazzle Ships.

It's quirky but tuneful.

Welcome back, 1983; we missed ya.

the great albums (xv) - rumours

So, the last great album in my list - what a lot of fun this has been. There are so many others that ought to have been on here but Spotify isn't playing ball - Blood on the Tracks (Dylan); Blue (Joni Mitchell) and many Beatles albums, for example. Others are near misses - Plastic Ono Band (Lennon); Achtung, Baby (U2) spring to mind.

But I'm opting to include - for all the reasons given in the Spotify review - the all-time high-point for Fleetwood Mac. Some would even say that Rumours in the high-point of all AOR and I wouldn't take them to task if they did.

Full of tension and tunes, it deserves every accolade it ever received. It was in the album charts for years and crept up on me in late '84/early '85. Maybe it tails off towards the end but that would be entirely in keeping with all that it's handling.

Finally: enjoy!

whichever way you look at it...

this is a (Kindle) bargain:


For the Fame of God's Name (essays in honour of John Piper)


27 essays for £5.97 = 22p per essay!

the great albums (xiv) - innervisions

Stevie Wonder was a regular part of my Radio 1-filled days back in the 70s. I liked some of his singles a great deal; others were just ok. Always a good tune. But he never really figured for me in terms of albums (unsurprisingly, I wasn't buying albums when he was making his most celebrated ones).

So I'm late to the party - but I'm really glad I made it. Especially for the sake of Innervisions. It's got great tunes, anger that is gritty and righteous anger and a shot of (somewhat unfocussed) hope. The kind of album you don't play for ages and, when you give it a spin, wonder why on earth you haven't.

the blue nile

Only 4 albums in 26 years (so far). And, as far as I can see, no vast reservoir of bootlegs to expand the canon. Which means that in The Blue Nile you have a band that is manageable; compassed and defined. But the music on those 4 albums just won't be constrained: its emotional range and musical delicacy defies you to try.


Well I, for one, won't.


A Walk Across The Rooftops
Hats
Peace At Last
High

skinny river

If you had to cut-down Springsteen's sprawling double-album, The River, what would you keep and what would you ditch? And how would the survivors line up?

Here's my version of a skinny River.

the power of a rhetorical question

Whilst reflecting on the life and ministry of Francis Schaeffer, Martin Downes asks a rhetorical question that reminded me just how powerfully they can be deployed: noting that Schaeffer's ministry was largely undertaken in obscurity, Martin asks,

How did we ever get into the mess of thinking that the best men to follow are easy to spot because they occupy the biggest platforms?

No answer needed.

the great albums (xiii) - sweet dreams (are made of this)

It was their breakthrough album, after the interesting but transitionary In The Garden. And it may be surpassed in some minds by the next-up Touch; for me, their final album (to date) Peace is the equal of this choice, but (getting to the point) Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) is Eurythmics at their most stunning - far warmer than Touch, witty without being clever -  confident and positioned, soulful and unafraid.

It has weaker moments, of course, but the whole is definitely greater than the sum of the parts. Go listen!