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3.17.2011
Hipster Church
Christianity Today had a great article on "hipster churches" back in September - both the encouraging and the annoying aspects.
1 comment:
Syd O
said...
"Things like soul-winning and going to heaven are downplayed in favor of the notion that heaven will come down to earth and renew the broken creation. Thus, the world matters. It's not a piece of rotting kindling that we will abandon for heaven one day. It's the site of a renewed kingdom. All of this informs hipster Christianity's attention to things like social justice, environmentalism, and the arts, because if God is building his kingdom on earth, then it all matters."
It's the best part of the article.
I've thought about this a lot lately. What do want as a community? What laws really run a community? Are we satisfied today wiht how our communities are constructed? I would say thi s ground is ripe for either major revisions or a large dose of maturity or the need for lengthy timeouts from each others biz.
People need to have community. We evolved with it, a collection of people with the same goals, customs and laws. To do this successfully requires much smaller groups then one would think it could support without devolving into class systems.
Hipster churches also underlines many of the silly irrationalities and insecurities of humanity. Original religions focused more on the natural forces that actually affected peoples lives, rain, sun, earth, etc. Newer religions tend to focus on human problems, ie hipsters needing references to fashion and underground. (Were apostles hipsters, I mean there was only 10 of them. Pretty select.) Other churches go likewise, hatred of gays, importance of personal success, and all other fallable facets of human nature.
1 comment:
"Things like soul-winning and going to heaven are downplayed in favor of the notion that heaven will come down to earth and renew the broken creation. Thus, the world matters. It's not a piece of rotting kindling that we will abandon for heaven one day. It's the site of a renewed kingdom. All of this informs hipster Christianity's attention to things like social justice, environmentalism, and the arts, because if God is building his kingdom on earth, then it all matters."
It's the best part of the article.
I've thought about this a lot lately. What do want as a community? What laws really run a community? Are we satisfied today wiht how our communities are constructed? I would say thi s ground is ripe for either major revisions or a large dose of maturity or the need for lengthy timeouts from each others biz.
People need to have community. We evolved with it, a collection of people with the same goals, customs and laws. To do this successfully requires much smaller groups then one would think it could support without devolving into class systems.
Hipster churches also underlines many of the silly irrationalities and insecurities of humanity. Original religions focused more on the natural forces that actually affected peoples lives, rain, sun, earth, etc. Newer religions tend to focus on human problems, ie hipsters needing references to fashion and underground. (Were apostles hipsters, I mean there was only 10 of them. Pretty select.) Other churches go likewise, hatred of gays, importance of personal success, and all other fallable facets of human nature.
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