City on a Hill

As a boy I attended Mont Albert Primary school, who can count amongst their alumni the great Australian historian Manning Clark. Another person who is a former student of Mont Albert is Guy Mason, with whom I caught up for lunch the other day. Guy is the leader of City on a Hill  church, which is doing some great stuff in the Docklands precinct of Melbourne, check out their new site and what they are up to here.

Endorsements for the Vertical Self

Well the release date is getting closer for my new book The Vertical Self. When you write a book it is a bit like submitting a giant essay, except there is not one marker but many. So when other authors take time to write endorsements for your book it is always exciting. These early endorsements have come through this week.

“Every age has a unique way of distorting our sense of Self and we often only recognize our mistakes in hindsight. Many are able to identify the pitfalls of modern  individualism, but Sayers insightfully examines the our self obsession in a timely manner and offers a biblical path to transformation. I love this book!”

Chris Seay – Pastor of Ecclesia Houston and Author of Gospel According to LOST

“Cool, as defined by postmodern culture, is an unstable and artificial construct, which is defined only horizontally by ephemeral and mercurial cultural vanities. Mark Sayers has a better idea, a biblical idea: the self should be defined and lived out vertically before the ultimate reality of God himself. This culturally-informed, well-written, biblically-rich, and practically-helpful book makes holiness both imperative and attractive.”

Douglas Groothuis, Ph.D. – Professor of Philosophy at Denver Seminary and Author of Truth Decay and The Soul in Cyberspace

“This timely and insightful book, The Vertical Self by Mark Sayers, is exceptional. Well written, remarkably wise, and brimming with sound spiritual discernment, the book is a must read if we are going to find a way out of the confusing maze of cultural icons and ideologies that are detrimental to our faith and life in Christ. Sayers’ assessment and critique of these purveyors of a false self is perceptive and fully on target, while his call and challenge to cultivate a true self is deeply grounded in the reality of God and scripture. Revolutionary Christian thinking, so necessary in an age like ours, is a trademark of Sayers, and The Vertical Self is not merely relevant, but highly urgent.

In my experience of over twenty years of teaching, advising, and wrestling through tough issues with thousands of people at Swiss L’Abri, it has become exceedingly evident to me that loads of them struggle with a devastating attachment to a cultural idolatry, all too often, and most unfortunately,powerfully mirrored inside churches. I believe that Sayers’ compelling book will have an enormous impact in helping many turn away from this deathly deception, as it points us to the living God and to the need to embrace the ways of life and truth that only the gospel can provide. Take, read, and apply The Vertical Self.”

 Dr Gregory J. Laughery - Author of several books including, Living Spiritual Rhythms For Today, and Director of L’Abri Fellowship, Switzerland.

How To Have a Rich and Meaningful Life

When you spend time with people who are in the last months and weeks of their life you notice that they gain a unique perspective on life. That which is marginal and unimportant drops away, and two things come into a sharp focus, the spiritual and their closest relationships.

Recently I saw a documentary about an Indian Christian man who survived the attacks on the World Trade Centre. He was trapped with around twenty people in a stairwell in of one of the burning towers. As the group realised that their chances of escape were minimal, people began to ring those closest to them. Parents, spouses, and children were called in order to say goodbye as the spectre of death brought that which is most important in life into perspective.

As the group began to hear the tower begin to lose its structural integrity, the man addressed the other twenty people. In his thick accent he told them that as they were seconds from death, and that if any of them wanted him to pray for them to know Jesus that he was ready. Without exception everyone asked him to pray that they would make their peace with God. As they stood on the precipice between life and death what was most important was crystal clear.

One day as you face your own death, things will also become crystal clear for you.

On your deathbed you will not wish that you spent more time playing computer games.

On your deathbed you will not wish that you had a cooler car.

On your deathbed you will not wish that you had spent more time travelling.

On your deathbed you will not wish that you had downloaded more music.

On your death you will not wish that you had watched more DVD series.

On your deathbed you will not wish that you had spent more time in front of the computer.

On you deathbed you will think of God, eternity, your family and those you are in covenantal relationship with. Why not learn from those who are close to death, those with the clearest view and change your focus, to look at your life differently? The great French novelist Marcel Proust once wrote,

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”

So why not give up trying to make your life work by seeking new landscapes, by trying to find meaning through consuming externals? The writer Stephen Covey has taught us to begin with the end in mind, so why not learn from those who are closest to death, those who have the clearest perspective and to now begin to give your life completely over to God?

Why not now begin to cultivate and commit to the life-long covenantal relationships that will enrich your life? After you finish reading this article why not turn off your computer, find a blank piece of paper and a pencil and write down five things that you need to do now in order to follow God and to build those covenantal relationships. When you do this you will have a fantastic foundation upon which to build a rewarding and meaningful life.

Celebrity Culture Wanes

the market for unauthorised photos of the stars has plummeted with the result that now, “a typical celebrity shot sells for 31 per cent less than it did in 2007″. In some cases, far less than that. Two years ago exclusive rights to a photo of a drunken dishevelled Lindsay Lohan sold for $US150,000, but these days Lilo shots typically fetch between $US500 and $US1000. Meanwhile, in the same period, celebrity obsessed American newsmagazine US Weekly’s overall photo budget has fallen from $US8 million to less than $US5 million.

 I think that what we are seeing is a waning of a type of celebrity obsession that characterized the early 21st century economic boom, the kind of celebrity worship that was epitomized by the wall to wall media coverage of ’stars’ such as Lindsey Lohan and Paris Hilton, who seemed to be famous for simply being famous.

I think that what we will see is a continued obsession with stars but just in a different guise. For example as I write the global media is going into a frenzy of speculation over what happened as Tiger decided to take a late night drive as his wife followed on foot with golf club in hand. Anyways the article is still worth a look. Read full article here.

Marrying Your Virtual Girlfriend. Or how men checked out of culture.

This morning we discussed on my radio spot (Listen or download here) the recent story in the news of a young Japanese man who married his virtual girlfriend (You can read the article here). Whilst I suspect that the story is a publicity stunt by the public relations wing of Nintendo, I think that it hits on a theme that is becoming more and more prevalent in our culture. That is that young men are simply checking out, or losing themselves in a fantasy world. 

Men have always needed their cave or shed to retreat to. I think that men do need time alone in order to get their thoughts together, to process their lives, to work on a hobby or project - that is simply how men are wired. In the past men on a saturday afternoon retreated to the shed to work on a project, they might have gone to the football for a couple of hours with their friends, or played golf etc. Of course after these excursions they would return to the real world of relationships and responsibility. However a profound shift has occurred in the last ten to fifteen years. The shed has become the house. 

What I mean is that the world of responsibility, engagement, commitment and relationship is the new shed, a place that is occasionally accessed. The world of escape is the new norm. That is young men live in the shed and make short forays into the house.  Instead of a couple of hours on the golf course or a few hours in the shed, we now have computer games which require a 20 hour a week commitment, wall to wall sports coverage, endless gadgets and boys toys to play with, thousands of hours of DVD series to consume. All of these things require massive commitment, and sadly means that more and more young men are entertained out of their brains but are also finding their lives in emotional deficit as they retreat into make-believe worlds.

So the Japanese young man who married his virtual girlfriend is really a harbinger, a portent of a the endgame of consumer culture. That is complete objectification. Where we prefer relationships with material objects and computer generated fantasies than with actual humans. This is Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World realized.

So where to from here? Well back to biblical discipleship I say. We need to rediscover the two R’s that feature so prevalent in the biblical imagination. Firstly the bible is a story of radical relationality, we see this not only in the story of the people of God, but also in the story of God’s desire to be in relationship, a desire so strong, that the God who created the universe is prepared to die upon a cross of torture in order to be in relationship with humanity. This kind of biblical relationship calls us to engaged commitment, to find truth in the other person, to not run from relationship and the responsibility that it brings but to run towards it.

The second R is Reality. One thing that is deeply shocking about the bible in contrast to other religious scripture is just how grounded in reality it is. Yes there are encounters with demons, and occasional visits from angels and rare visions of heaven. But the vast majority of the story of the people of God plays out in the ordinary rhythms of family, work, relationships, commerce and trade, politics, war, poverty and human brokeness. The landscape of the bible is not one in which there is a demon or god behind every tree. Rather the narrative of the bible moves us to reality, it moves us to encounter God in the context of real life and the real world.

Thus if we are not to lose a generation of young men to an apocalypse of passivity. We need to desperately rediscover and model radical relationality and a re-encounter with God in the context of the rhythms of real life.

 

Cool new feature

If you look to the top of the right sidebar of my blog you will notice a cool new feature. All you have to do is click the button to subscribe, and whenever a new post goes up on this blog it will be directly emailed into your inbox. How easy is that? If you are nice I will attach a set of steak knives.

Censoring Fairytales and ‘the facts of life’

Recently as I have read some children’s stories to my daughter I have noticed how some fairytales have been cleaned up. That is that death, violence and references to evil have been removed from the original stories. A classic example of this is the story of Little Red Riding Hood, most modern versions of the tale remove references to the wolf eating little red riding hoods grandmother, one of the earliest versions of the story has little red riding hood unwittingly eating her grandmothers remains.  

The removal of references to death and evil from traditional fairytales illuminates contemporary cultures discomfort with these very real parts of human life. This discomfort is in contrast to increased calls in our culture for sexual education to be given to younger children, the rational for such a move is always justified by the fact that sex is a part of life that children need to be educated about it order to make the right decisions. But is not also death a very real and present part of life?  No human is not touched by death, parents, siblings, grandparents, friends and even pets all die.

Each one of us must walk through the gates of death at some time, even some children must face death. Thus it seems totally illogical on the part of our culture to brush death under the carpet. Is it any wonder that so many young people in our culture die through drug and alcohol abuse, or dangerous driving, tragedies in which a sense of invincibility seems to play a contributing factor. Maybe a greater understanding of the place of death and our own mortality amongst young people would actually save lives?

In his excellent book Tortured Angels Rodney Clapp quotes from a seventeenth century book for parents in which the author advises parents to take their children aside at the age of eight and to have ‘the talk’ about the facts of life. However the talk is not the facts of life as we know it, rather the parent is advised when giving their child ‘the talk’ to

“Make known to them that they must daily prepare themselves for their death and consider their mortality. After all, they know that they must die, but not when. Speak with them about the fragility of human life; how it is like a flower of the field, a vapour, a shadow; how swiftly life passes.”

Now obviously in the seventeenth century in europe infant mortality was much higher, but it is an interesting piece of advise. One cannot but note that part of our cultures reluctance to discuss death is because secularism has failed to give us an answer or a platform with which to process our own mortality and impending death.

Part of the good news of Christian faith is that death is not the final act in our human drama, yes death can be frightening, it can be painful to be separated from those whom we love, yet the believer also knows that death is simply a portal into eternity. Death does not win in the end.

Shortcuts to Happiness

‘The belief that we can rely on shortcuts to happiness, joy, rapture, comfort, and ecstasy, rather than be entitled to these feelings by the exercise of personal strengths and virtues, leads to legions of people who in the middle of great wealth are starving spiritually. Positive emotion alienated from the exercise of character leads to emptiness, to inauthenticity, to depression, and as we age, to the gnawing realization that we are fidgeting until we die.’  

Martin Seligman in Authentic Happiness

From Marriage to Weddings

Because we live in a post-covenantal culture, contemporary society has had to re-frame the concept of marriage. Therefore our cultures emphasis has shifted from crafting a marriage to the creation of a an outstanding wedding ceremony. In the past the wedding ceremony was a simple affair in which the main focus was a public oath of covenantal fidelity.

However as we as a culture have moved away from the covenantal to the contractual, the wedding ceremony has changed it’s function, and has come to reflect other cultural values. Thus the wedding has become a kind of amalgam of some of the dominant themes of our culture. The sky rocketing cost of weddings reflects our cultural value of conspicuous consumption. The wedding also betrays our obsession with celebrity culture, with weddings offering the chance for the bride and groom to be ‘celebrities for a day’. The wedding also points to our obsession with image, with almost more effort being put into capturing the ‘right’ image for posterity rather than enjoying the wedding in real time.

Uber Update and Book Excerpt

Uber is now sending out a newsletter which keeps supporters and friends informed of what we are up to. The first edition also contains an excerpt from my new book. If you would like to receive a copy of the newsletter, simply send an email containing the word subscribe to this address keepmeposted@uberlife.com.au

Online churches draw believers, critics

‘The debate is an extension of a wider argument over social interaction in virtual environments versus the physical world. But because practices of faith are involved, both sides are deeply invested in the outcome, seeing it as a statement on the nature of the Christian person’s relationship with God.

Supporters of online churches have a common response to their skeptics: Try before you criticize. The virtual experience goes far beyond using live chat rooms to exchange emoticons instead of hugs and handshakes, they say.’

But critics believe virtual worship separates followers from a trinity of spiritual essentials found in brick-and-mortar Christian churches: community, Communion and connection with Christ.

From CNN read full article here

De-Selfing and the Church?

Humans have always been self-centred. You just have to read the book of Genesis to be reminded of the fact that self centeredness is not just a modern phenomenon. However many of us sense that we have reached a new level of obsession when it comes to ourselves.

Why is this so? One of the main reasons is that the natural rhythms of life contained mechanisms that forced us to take the spotlight off of our selves and to focus on others. Such mechanisms could be work, responsibility, periods of suffering, marriage, or children. However today we have begun to flee from these mechanisms. Cultural Commentator Anne Manne describes how as a culture we have begun to fear the de-selfing mechanisms of child rearing.

“We prolong adolescence, a time of self-centredness, well into middle age. We are skittish about children, a project that, to be done well, requires investments of time and energy not in the self, but in another human being. We delay their arrival indefinitely, or look around when the do arrive for someone else to take responsibility for rearing them.”

 So in a culture that runs from that which makes us less narcissistic, the church faces some interesting and weighty challenges. For one of the greater purposes of the Church is to make us more Christlike and thus less self focused. Therefore just as our culture fears and keeps at a distance anything which make take the focus of ourselves, often the church will also be kept at a distance, particularly elements of church life such as commitment, community life, and the spiritual disciplines.

This is where ministers, pastors and church leaders face an ethical challenge, do we keep the elements of church which works against our selfishness or for the sake of perceived success soften them? Does the church remain as a mechanism which helps us to de-self and become more Christ like, or do we change the church into something which expands the individual, giving self-help with a christian veneer?

‘Christian’ or ‘Christ Follower’?

Increasingly the debate rages around calling oneself a christian or a christ follower. Jason Byassee weighs in with a great article. Jason writes,

This is especially important to reassert when we are tempted to say we’re with the head, but not the other parts of the body. We are all tempted to pick and choose our fellows, buffet-style. “I’m with Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela, and Mother Teresa, but not the Southern Baptists.” No! We’re part of this body, with all its dazzling glory and all its tragic flaws, and cannot claim the former without the latter. Further, we are responsible for those parts presently misbehaving, and for its misdeeds through time—if we want credit for its virtues.

This is the part that really irks me the most on eschewing “Christian.” It’s as though we get off scot-free for historical Christian sins (the crusades, racism, you name it) by just calling ourselves something else. Christians believe there is a way to forgiveness and purity—but it passes through confession, restoration, and repaired relationship. The much more costly way to disassociate from those who have done ill in Christ’s name is to set about loving as fanatically as they hated.

Thanks to Tim for pointing this out. Read full article here.

Yuk

How is this for a garbage dump?

Advertithing?

Another great article by Andrew Shamy over at Compass Conversations. Check it out here

New Pop Culture Podcast: Luxury Goods

This morning on my radio spot we continued our imaginary journey around the mall and explored the concept of the luxury good. To listen click here.

Why I have given up serving the poor

My old friend Nick Wight (surrender) pointed me to this very interesting article by Claudio Oliver entitled Why I have given up serving the poor. Check it out here

New Podcast: More than Me

In this podcast we look at the story of ‘legion’ from the gospel of Mark, we explore the concept of trying to become more like Jesus, and ask a dangerous question ‘What is it to live a life of sanity in an insane culture?‘ Download or subscribe here.

You can download or subscribe through itunes here

The Rise of the Casual Christian Tribe

Religious researcher George Barna has named a new Tribe on the religious spectrum, the Casual Christian. Barna writes,  

“Casual Christianity is faith in moderation. It allows them to feel religious without having to prioritize their faith. Christianity is a low-risk, predictable proposition for this tribe, providing a faith perspective that is not demanding. A Casual Christian can be all the things that they esteem: a nice human being, a family person, religious, an exemplary citizen, a reliable employee – and never have to publicly defend or represent difficult moral or social positions or even lose much sleep over their private choices as long as they mean well and generally do their best. From their perspective, their brand of faith practice is genuine, realistic and practical. To them, Casual Christianity is the best of all worlds; it encourages them to be a better person than if they had been irreligious, yet it is not a faith into which they feel compelled to heavily invest themselves.”

Read Full article here

New Pop Culture Podcast: What the Shopping Mall teaches Us. The Coffee Shop

Last Friday on my radio spot Clayton and I continued our imaginary wander around a shopping mall and this time we stopped at the Coffee shop. We discussed the cultural meanings behind Coffee and the Coffee shop. You can listen or download here.