Just musing here

Hey folks. After a week of not posting I'm not exactly refreshed, but hey I'm back!

The Missional Manifesto. I think it's a useful correction or re-orientation, working against the persistent therapeutic model which dominates so many churches today. Meanwhile, Ed Stetzer has been working his way (thoughtfully) through the document (here, here, and here).

I've not been keeping up with the Christian blogospheric conversation lately (although that word "conversation" is used loosely here). All the to-do over Rob Bell just turned me off. What amazes me lately is just how many voices are involved. That is, just how many people have national/international ministries, glossy websites, books, speaking schedules, podcasts, marketing plans, etc. All of them claiming to have some special angle, or a unique message to help the vast needy masses become un-needy at last, achieve that great triumph they've been dreaming of (or that they've been trained by marketers to think they must achieve, or else life will not be whole). It's a great big house of cards, that's what I think.

Social media has weighted these "conversations" against the local and in favor of the "digital." In other words, a lot of digital voices talking among themselves, agreeing and disagreeing, having their weighty say, while down at the street-level there's relative silence. So it seems to me.

Just musing here, but what if we all just, well, shut up. I mean, we don't really need more books, do we? More and more and more every year? We don't need more marketing? We don't need more promises . . . if you'll only attend the conference, buy the book, sign up for the daily edevotional. What maybe we need is "faith working through love," (Gal. 5:6) which happens relationally, locally, after we put down the book, look up from the smart phone, close the lap top, and actually talk to the person next to us.