The Survival of People

I have an odd relationship with history. Most of it holds no real interest for me, but then there events or trends in the world's past that fascinate me. How does a culture thrive, dominate and then disappear entirely? And it's not like lost civilisations are an uncommon phenomenon in our world's history.

Yet I feel like understanding history simply for the safe of creating object lessons for the present is a really cheap motive. I just wanted to express that somewhere.

If I had a bunch of clones I could command at will, I would tell one to brush up on history and keep me informed of everything important I need to know. Unfortunately that will never happen, so I will have to go without knowing. There's too much for me to even start. Seriously!

The Sexy Church

For a good while I have wracked my brain for a way to use marketing principles to apply to the church. How do we make church sexy? Suddenly, this very morning, the reason this is such a challenge dawned on me. It's because the world's metaphors -- and often its style -- have been co-opted from the church itself. And our culture has become quite sophisticated and successful at it, I would assert more so than the church. Now we've got Jesus competing with "Brand X", and we're not doing so hot.

Okay, consider the following slogans. "The pursuit of perfection." "The power of dreams." "The real thing." Often they don't even begin to imply the products they support, but slogans speak of supreme sufficiency like all you need is [blank]. Or they offer strong, positive humanistic messages like you'll be so empowered if you buy ____. (Oops, not 'buy', that implies cost, and we want to avoid that association. At all costs. Oops.)

In missions, I'm finding that it's not enough for me to dangle a carrot in front of people -- I also have to be a carrot salesman. "Look how orange it is. It's so orange!" "You want crunchy? You got it!" "And talk about nutrition!" But the allegory breaks down here: Missions not a product. It's not even an experience. It's nothing that I can point at and sell. It's God's, and like God himself it's beyond definition. (Hmm... "Missions: Beyond Definition." It has potential...)

We had it first. Spiritual truth, the concept of supreme sufficiency, and the value of humanity. That was the message we were entrusted with. We are made in the image of the God that desires and has facilitated a relationship with us. (Now there's a dense sentence.) And somehow every day, that message gets adulterated, polluted, and convoluted. The church cries foul, and fusses about how misrepresented it is. But where is its own voice? Wouldn't it be cool if the church could get together and advertise in magazines and on TV right beside the messages we're trying to contest? Not in a this-message-brought-to-you-by-so-and-so kind of way. And not in a knee-jerk-reactionary-kind-of-way (insert your favourite Christian hobby horse not to ride here). But with original, kick-butt material that we can all agree on. I've got some killer concepts if you've got a few thousand bucks...

But here's what I don't want, what I want to avoid at all costs. I don't want to give the church lipstick, liposuction and breast implants, and call it good. I'm striving to figure out what Christ thinks is sexy, and point us in that direction. We are supposed to be His bride, after all.

Christian Censorship?

Having you heard about Christian movie rental companies who are offering edited movies to appease Christian sensibilities? My opinion: Taking out the "iffy" parts of movies for a Christian audience is a ridiculous endeavour. Comments have been published that even G-rated movies have stuff like "evil" and "sexual innendo". The question I would ask is what rating would you give the Bible? You don't have to look too far in the Bible to find evil, and we're way beyond innuendo here.

Truth is hard. Sin can be fun, but immorality has consequences. Denying either is wrong, and how are you possibly going to tell those stories without "going there"? I don't care about the legal ramifications, the issue of censorship, or even staying true to the creator's original intent. I'm stuck on the squeamishness of Christians. I've heard people say things like "It was a great movie, but it had nudity." And I've heard others say "If it has nudity, how could it be great?" Both perspectives dodge the important questions. Is the story true? Or, if you prefer: Is it honest? Equally, is it important? And finally, is it told well? If those criteria are satisfied, then I strongly assert that the rest simply doesn't matter!

On a slightly different tack, I'm glad that films like Hotel Rwanda and The Passion of the Christ are out there. I think they are important stories that the world needs new awareness of. They are (mostly) honest. I also have a pretty good sense that they have been told well. But I've chosen not to watch them. They are just too close to home. Everyone has to draw his own line. To say that I would watch a tamed-down version to avoid the soul-pain seems like an odd cop out.

Frankly, it all comes down to one question: Are you invested in participating in culture, or do you just want to be stultified by it? If culture is just for entertainment, then Christians have nothing to offer it. And it has nothing to offer them.

Missionary POV: Successful Return

I'm back safe and sound, and perhaps almost in sync with Langley time. I didn't get out of the hotel in Vienna. I came up with a term for how I was feeling: novelty fatigue. I've been so immersed in "new" (new language, architecture, people, perspective) that when offered a good night's sleep between flights, I caved. The 5:00am wake-up call was in German -- well I hope it was a wake-up call. The only thing in German I'd be able to recognise besides "thank you" and "good-bye" is the phrase "My bicycle is broken." I don't know, it's something my parents used to say. (Come to think of it, if it wasn't a wake-up call, then who on earth is calling me at five o'clock in the morning, speaking German no less? That's some prank; I'll have to keep it in mind...)

The updates from this trip aren't over. For one thing I've got a bunch of pictures to post. Now that I'm back with my own computers and internet connection, it will be no problem to post them. I just need to get the film developed (I'm praying it didn't get fried by the numerous x-ray exposures), and go through those and the digital pictures to see what's worthy of posting here.

And as I work through what I learned and how I've been affected by this trip, I'll be including those thoughts here too.

Missionary POV: Grinding Sparks

I wrote this a few days ago, but never got the chance to post it.

I feel like I’ve being given a thorough grinding. When you apply a grinder to a piece of metal it usually becomes brighter and sharper. Oh, and smaller. It’s been a good experience, and one that I will never forget. And I’m still deep in the thick of it.

I went on walkabout yesterday, getting pictures of Dnepro that should give a good sense of the cityscape. That may be my last opportunity to get the “B roll” stuff. Mushtrutki (definitely not the proper spelling, these are public transit passenger vans), taxis and trolley busses were on the regimen, as well as the classic Ukrainian architecture, and park scenes in the sprawling downtown core. This seems like the perfect venue for outdoor concerts, something to keep in mind if I'm ever in a band that goes anywhere.

I’m officially over jet lag. That happened two nights ago, after I stayed up really late simultaneously watching TV and reading trying to tire my brain. It worked, although in retrospect, I was probably just due. That’ll hold me for the four sleeps that I have left.

As the departure date looms closer there are two things pushing forward in my brain. One is that I feel the need to capture everything, and there is still much to get. And the other is I have no idea how I’m going to get all of this condensed down to a presentable size. I’ve captured some pretty neat stuff (and there is a lot that I wonder if I got, and there is some that I just wasn’t rolling camera on -- oh well), and I’m already trying to mentally edit the piece together into a cohesive package.

And here’s some good/weird news. The digital camera that I feared had died, didn’t. It would have been very nice to have that handy today at the grad (a great celebration, by the way), but by trying about 5 widely varied sets AA batteries I was convinced that it had joined the choir invisible, and that it would be due for a warranty return when in Canada. Trying one more set of batteries today it came alive ready for action. Now I feel dumb. On the other hand, this little episode gave me the opportunity to shoot film, and to use my own cameras that I’ve lugged around for about 6,000 miles. An oldtimer would probably snicker to hear this, but the sound of the shutter slapping, instantly followed by the auto film winder makes me feel like a real diehard photographer. I can feel the camera reacting in more than one way to my instructions, and that connects me physically with the process. Once again, digital is inevitable, but I’m not entirely happy about it.

I hope you are all well, that you are warm, and surrounded by the people that you love.