tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-358890712024-03-14T06:19:35.889+13:00Vision of ChristinaChristinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14082276379247223119noreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35889071.post-57682800143765265882009-10-14T21:52:00.003+13:002009-10-15T07:58:58.981+13:0015th October - Global Wave of Light<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.babyloss-awareness.org/images/BLA06_Logo_Website_Banner.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 159px; height: 177px;" src="http://www.babyloss-awareness.org/images/BLA06_Logo_Website_Banner.JPG" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />Over the past years it has occurred to me how unfair it is that in our society although you can be a motherless daughter you can never be a daughterless mother (or father). Today - October 15 is Pregnancy and Infant Loss awareness day (officially declared so by the US House of Representatives in 2006). It is a day when we acknowledge those mothers and fathers whose much loved and carefully nurtured children never made it to life beyond our wombs. It is a chance to publically share the untold stories of these short lives. So often these children of ours are invisible, their names left unused and unspoken, their rooms unlived in. October 15 is a day when together we can find the strength to speak their names, a day to remember the dreams and hopes that we had for our children. It is a day when we have permission to give tangibility to the life that nestled within our care for too short a time. It is an opportunity to acknowledge that the grief and loss that we feel is as real as the life that was lost. <br /><br />An awareness day is about reminding each other that we are not grieving alone. Part of the awareness campaign is the Global Wave of Light; we all light a candle as a symbol of remembrance for our babies and in solidarity with others. In New Zealand we get to start off the Global Wave of Light when we light our candles (and leave them burning for one hour) at 7pm. For more information about pregnancy and infant loss awareness day see: http://www.october15th.com/ or http://www.babyloss-awareness.org/<br /><br />Give voice to your unvoiced dreams – what were the dreams and hopes for your child that you have never shared?Christinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14082276379247223119noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35889071.post-23355779710130381092009-09-23T16:19:00.003+12:002009-09-23T16:38:35.669+12:00Nuture your inner Four Year OldI came across this quote which I liked and wished to share. (It's too long for twitter! <br /><br />"A good case can be made for nurturing your inner four-year-old. From four to five we are all romantics; we are all embryonic royalty, budding ballerinas, or intrepid astronauts; we are all fearless, open, affectionate, and beautiful." <br /><br />George Vaillant cited in Warren Bennis and Robert Thomas. - Geeks and Geezers.<br /><br />What did you want to be when you were four?Christinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14082276379247223119noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35889071.post-77650765128762579822009-06-05T18:58:00.001+12:002009-06-05T19:00:18.105+12:00The Call of the TuiThe warble of the tui. <br /><br />Every since I was a child I have enjoyed the sound, I can remember my mother always prompting me to stop and listen to the tui and try and get a glimpse of its glossy black feathers. Recently in the winters we have had more Tuis around the house, and thankfully I have never seen the cats catch one. <br />For me the call of the Tui is a call forward, a pull towards our country of New Zealand and a cry of identity as New Zealanders. The Tui has a distinctive cry; it is instantly recognizable and unique. <br /><br />As kiwi-Christians do we have a recognizable and unique cry? <br /><br />From the times of the early church in Paul’s day Christians have gathered to discuss their dual identities as citizens of the Kingdom of God, and of the culture they live in. If however we do not have a robust identity as kiwis how does that impact on our ability to wrestle with our dual identity. In Revelation 5 we read of the “saints from every tribe and language and people and nation” worshipping Jesus. In the most basic of interpretations of this passage we can see that our identity as citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven does not need to obscure or negate the distinctive of our cultural identity. If we take the position that Jesus came to transform culture not to stand against culture (Paul Hiebert), then how does that change the way we look at our kiwi identity. Perhaps part of how Jesus would and does transform our culture is by solidifying our identity. Our diversity and uniqueness is something that delights God, and should be celebrated and affirmed. <br /> <br />In New Zealand our Christianity has a base of Victorian English missionary involvement, the first sermon was preached on the beach at Marsden cross in 1814. We have therefore inherited a Victorian English form of Christianity, the church here in NZ being sustained by imports from the UK from 1814 until the present! I believe that these roots (that I have deep respect for) have left Christians without an authentic expression of spirituality that we could call kiwi. Dependency has therefore developed the equipping and empowering of the local culture to develop an authentic expression of spirituality that is true to its identity never occurred. Kiwi Christians are now overly dependent on Christians in other countries to form our faith. We have no place to wrestle with the issues of what it means to our cultural identity as kiwis to be Christian and what it means to our Christianity to be kiwi. We can no longer go on uncritically imposing an anglicized and Americanized form of Christianity on NZ. <br /><br />My challenge is that we stop looking to the traditional countries of US and UK for inspiration and information. It is time to shake off their colonial hold over us and our dependency on them. My challenge is that you go for one year without reading anything written in the US or UK. How will that inform and reform our ecclesiology and spirituality. How can we be informed by and learn from Maori spirituality? How can we begin to develop something that is really us, that feels that it comes from within and wells up from who we are, that is dependent on the bible and yet expresses and celebrates our uniqueness as kiwis? <br /><br />well I could go on but I want to hear from you first ... <br /><br />ChristinaChristinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14082276379247223119noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35889071.post-83797155009429387972009-04-22T13:07:00.003+12:002009-04-22T14:07:37.260+12:00Lost PreachingOn Saturday I attended Towards a Kiwi Made Preaching (TKMP) an event organised by Paul Windsor in his new role as associate director of preaching for Langham Partnership. I came away from the event once again saddened and frustrated by the lack of creativity and imagination in the NZ Church. I was deeply upset by the lack of will among older people to really engage with generational issues and to shift from their modern mindset into something that will reach post-moderns. <br /><br />Now before I go on I must offer the following things to take into consideration. Firstly the organisers recommended that I stay for the full day as they envisaged progression and flow throughout the day and I unfortunately had to leave at lunch time. Secondly I chose topics I was interested in, this meant that I had already done reading and thinking about the area and was several steps ahead of most of the participants. Thirdly engaging post-moderns is my passion, it’s what gets me out of bed in the morning and it’s the lens through which I view the world, the church and the world. I have to acknowledge that this is not everyone’s call and focus.<br /><br />Paul Windsor started the day by bringing to our attention the many different words used for ‘to preach’ in the New Testament and the wide variety of methods of communication, and the variety of places that communication occurred. I found that encouraging and challenging. We then went into a wide variety of electives (so my experience will not be everyone’s experience). In contrast to Paul’s initial session, in the electives that I attended, the predominant preaching paradigm that seemed to be in people’s minds was a man, standing at the front, offering a monologue to a church filled with Christians. One of my disappointments (shared by some others I spoke to) was that TKMP was advertised as a forum, a place for ‘synergies to flow’ ‘to probe questions’ and ‘to explore’. However it was actually a regular seminar format, with a short time for questions at the end, and not a lot of encouragement to engage with each other. In fact all the rooms were set up in rows with the presenter at the front, which did not facilitate easy interaction between participants at all. <br /><br />So if my experience was that frustrating why did I go at all? Well deep down I am committed to a Kiwi-made Biblical preaching, it is just that my idea of what that looks like is very different to what it looks like for the majority of those that attended. Going into analogies I long to see preaching like Lost, whereas what I am mostly seeing (and hearing discussed) is preaching like a 1960’s news broadcast. <br />Lost is a current TV series (that I don’t actually watch so feel free to jump in with corrections dear readers), it follows the lives of plane crash survivors who are struggling through life on an island. Both the current lives of the characters on the island are followed as well as storylines from their lives before the crash. It is one of those series that you don’t really know what is going on, little by little more of the plot is revealed. Watchers are drawn into the story, they are engaged in figuring out what is happening, they gather to watch the series in pubs. Watchers discuss the plot with friends in an attempt to figure out what is happening and they watch reruns in order to increase their ability to predict what will happen. There is a gradual unfolding over time (5 series), with drama and suspense, it makes you feel clever when you work out some of the mystery, and as a watcher you have a sense of ownership and involvement in the story. <br /><br />Contrast that with an old-fashioned TV News (who watches the news anymore? Not post-moderns who prefer to get their news with the immediacy provided by the internet) broadcast. You have a single (male) anchor, in order to increase his trust and respectability he wears a suit. He presents the news as a series of statements or propositions. The anchor expresses very little of his personality and none of his life or opinion, there is no engagement with what he presents. The news is presented in one 60 minute slot, all there is to be told is said in that time frame. The preaching I see again and again and that was the predominant image in participants minds on saturday reminds me of this. <br /><br />We need more lost preaching - Can you imagine, people engaged with the gradual revelation of God’ story? Discussing it with their friends (and in online forums)? Exploring the mystery with their friends? Caught by the suspense and drama? Presenters who are excited, involved and caught by God’ story and share the awareness that it is their story? <br />What would it take to uncover more Lost Preaching? What would it look like in our churches? what would it look like in out lives?Christinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14082276379247223119noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35889071.post-42758430190148153112009-03-22T10:26:00.000+13:002009-03-22T10:27:03.785+13:00Who's Listening?Last night I had the privilege of seeing The Who perform live. Unlike my friends who are a bit older than me (and who claim that the Isle of Wight was their best concert ever) this is probably the only time I will see this influential band. For those of you who are (young?) unfamiliar with this band you probably know them as doing the theme songs for the CSI programmes. You guitarists might like to know that Pete Townshend was influential in the invention of the Marshall amp, apparently the fender wasn’t loud enough and so he used to wander down to the Marshall workshop and convince them to make it a bit louder!<br /><br />The concert led me to ask is there any work that I do today that I would be proud to stand up and present in a stadium full of people in 39 years time? In today’s disposable world are we creating anything that will have longevity? In today’s hurried world do we thinking about the quality and influence of our work? <br />On the other hand is the plethora of reunion tours pandering to baby-boomers who are sentimentally clinging on to their misspent youth, and failing to move with the times? <br /><br />How do we find the middle ground between moving toward a different future that allows each generation to express itself, and yet creating things of influence and worth?<br /><br />Talk to me friends- What are you thinking? <br /><br />ChristinaChristinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14082276379247223119noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35889071.post-89600668406131772512009-03-12T15:46:00.000+13:002009-03-12T15:47:36.352+13:00More Than Words Can SayAs part of my theology class last year I began exploring the topic of sacraments, most of us evangelicals do not have much knowledge or experience of the role of sacraments and symbols in our faith, one person in my class had even never heard the term sacrament before. Even Anglicans who tend to be more sacramental in their approach rarely have a good understanding of the sacraments (unless they have studied). I have been wondering ever since if we have lost our ability to express our faith and our community through sign, symbol and sacrament and what impact this loss is having on our faith. <br /><br />A sign is an arbitrary reminder or expression of something invisible (a green light). In a sacrament the symbolic is linked more overtly to the invisible concept it expresses (e.g. blood and wine). Originally the word ‘sacrament’ came from secular usage of the term ‘sacramentum’. This was the oath of fidelity and obedience to one’s commander sworn by a Roman soldier upon enlistment in the army. Or the term could designate bond money deposited in a temple pending the settlement of a legal dispute.” So sacraments give us an opportunity to reaffirm our oath of fidelity to God and our community of faith but there is more to them than that. They have also been described as outward signs of an invisible grace, and they are an opportunity for divine interaction and action. Symbols signs and sacraments can usefully mediate God’s truth to our human understanding. In the pre-reformation church there were seven sacraments: Baptism, Confirmation, Penance, Marriage, Ordination, Last Rites and Communion. After the reformation this was reduced to two: communion and baptism. Post-reformation (particularly due to the reformers emphasis on the word) and assisted by the rise of modernity our faith came to be word oriented and rooted in conceptual language. Robert Weber states: “the use of imagery, symbols, and even subtle language is relatively unknown among many of us. We have locked ourselves into discursive speech as the preferable, if not the only form of communication.” One reason why we evangelicals prefer verbal communication over symbolic speech has to do with our view of the Bible. We see the Bible as a book of words. It is God’s written revelation. This emphasis on the written words of Scripture coupled with neglect of the symbolic forms of communication (which constitute a large portion of Scripture) cause a loss of understanding.” <br /><br />This loss of understanding is reflected in our attitude to the two sacraments that are left to us. It seems (especially for Baptists) that communion and baptism become became memorial events focussed around the words we speak and the actions themselves are not understood or seen as having as much importance. Robert Weber again says: “Baptism has become the means by which the converting person declares his or her faith; the Lord’s Supper has been reduced to an intellectual recall of Jesus hanging on the tree. We have reduced the ritual of water and of bread and wine to understandable actions. The mystery is gone.”<br /><br />When faced with situations that defy verbal description, when words cannot express our relationship with God, when we are left in a place where God’s action seems incomprehensible the Church has not given us the space or tools to express ourselves. Yet our faith is one that contains a great deal of mystery, signs, symbols and sacraments are one way that the mystery can be expressed. Do we gather together as Christians just to talk or to be talked at? Grenz suggests that our gathering should be more than that “we gather to tell and enact the story and to go forth to live by the Christian metanarrative”. <br /><br />It is time to expand our ways of expressing ourselves and our mysterious faith. I and many (post-moderns) that I know are looking for a holistic faith, one that is not just based on the rational that engages more than our minds. Robert Weber says “We now live in a new communication era. Communication is shifting from conceptual language to symbolic language. Information is no longer something that can be objectively known and verified through evidence and logic. Knowledge is more subjective and experiential. Knowledge comes through participation in a community, and in an immersion with the symbols and meaning of the community.”<br /><br />Are words enough to express our faith? What role can and should other forms of expression play in our gatherings?<br /><br />ChristinaChristinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14082276379247223119noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35889071.post-49102226619790426902008-09-09T18:05:00.000+12:002008-09-09T18:06:20.481+12:00Mamma Mia“You are the Dancing Queen, young and sweet only seventeen, Dancing Queen<br />feel the beat from the tambourine, oh yeah you can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life… la la Dancing Queen.” <br /> <br />I saw Mamma Mia (the movie) about a month ago, for a few weeks I danced around with the tunes of ABBA ringing in my head. (btw U2 do a pretty good cover of Dancing Queen). After the tunes had faded I thought more deeply about the show. <br />Mamma Mia is fun, light and enjoyable (although the stage show was funnier and more engaging) yet there are some subtleties I would like to discuss. The show is obviously written by men with traditional values, and the gender issues raised need to be critiqued. <br /><br />There are some surprising contrasts in this movie. Women are the primary characters in the movie; the men are left to play goofy sidekicks (I’ll let you guys complain about the implications of that). However the roles the women are given are merely the traditional three female archetypes that women have been protesting since the rise of feminism in the 1970’s. In Mamma Mia we have the traditional Mother, Virgin, Whore roles. Yes the roles have been updated for 2008 – the good mother no longer has to be married, the virgin is no longer sexually innocent, but is innocent in her values, approach to and experience of life. The 2008 Whore has married for money and is a sell out to brand names and capitalism. In Mamma Mia they are joined by the latest addition to the traditional roles for women, the intelligent, plump man-less best friend. The roles hardly present a challenge to the acting ability of the cast and I’m surprised that these actors who were mothers of freedom and choice for women settled for roles that promote such stereotypes. <br /><br />Meryl Streep (one of my favourite actors) plays Donna an ex singer who runs a hotel and has a daughter (Sophie). Admittedly she isn’t just a mother – she runs a hotel too. However she has no passion for her business, she dreams of a man whisking her away to idle luxury on a super-yacht (money, money, money). She has worked hard on her hotel for 20 years, but is portrayed as being unable to make a success of it without a man. Sophie also needs a man to affirm her identity and to tell her that she’s good at drawing before she has the courage to experience the world and leave her mother to further her art. <br /><br />There are some quite serious identity formation issues that are explored by the movie, and I don’t want to minimise the importance of these in any way. But there are some subtle messages that are spread by Mamma Mia that concern me. The first is that women are to passively wait to be ‘saved’ by a man who will ride in on a white horse, and rescue them. The passive waiting to be rescued role is surfacing more and more in movies lately, or perhaps never truly went away. Secondly we have the idea that a woman cannot be successful without a man, and if she is successful (like the plump best friend) she will be undesirable to men. Women also need to have their work recognised and declared good by men before they can be confident enough to take it to the next step.<br /> <br />The backwards movement in the representation of women in Movies and the media in general has also been observed by other commentators. Susan Faludi for example states, “A reflexive response to 9/11 was that the feminist movement had emasculated the American male and reduced his effectiveness in his primary role as head of the family and protector of vulnerable women and children. The media collaborated with politicians in reincarnating this old myth of masculine heroes and distressed damsels.”<br />Women’s representation in the media must be more strongly critiqued if we are not to fall back to traditional limited roles, that do not reflect the opportunities for and aspirations of today’s women. I want to see women who want to be successful and to take an active role in their own lives and in changing the world, not sitting passively waiting to be saved. The critique of women’s representation in the media needs to be advanced by younger women, ageing feminists like myself are ready to pass the baton on – however we do not see younger women stepping up to the plate. Who do you want to be? What images of women do you want your younger sisters to see? Are you happy that their heroes are those who have sleaze and style over substance or even talent? <br /><br /> <br />Waiting for your comments<br />ChristinaChristinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14082276379247223119noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35889071.post-60658639047824194312008-08-19T12:05:00.002+12:002008-08-19T12:09:28.954+12:00Mammaries in MGs.It’s that time of year again when the city council argues about the merits or otherwise of the ‘boobs on bikes’ parade, while a pornographer stands up for women’s ‘human rights’. Yes he claims that it is women’s human right to bare their breasts in public. Since when has a porn maker stood up for women’s rights? In all the arguments for and against the parade one issue has not been raised. In my ongoing quest for authenticity the issue that crops up for me is how authentic are the boobs on display? Is displaying a real boob different to displayed a fake boob, the parade is associated with advertising for the erotica expo but really I feel it is a better advertisement for the skill of the plastic surgeons. <br /><br />To protest the synthetic ness of the parade I propose an alternative – Mammaries in Mgs (name provided by Mike). Real women show what it means to ride topless in topless cars, open to women with next to nothing up top, to the old and droopy, the scarred, the reconstructed, but only open to those with the genuine natural article. <br /><br />Well my proposed parade is of course tongue in cheek, but it raises an important point, would the same fuss be caused by everyday fat, thin, old women riding around topless? It might raise a few eyebrows but I don’t think it would get the same media coverage. This clearly points to the problem of boobs on bikes – that it is simply not a celebration of the female form in all its god-given beauty. It is blatant sexualisation and objectification of the female body. The name of the event points to the objectification of a single part of the female anatomy - it suggests boobs floating on bikes unattached to women. Sexualisation of women in our society is rampant and unhealthy, particularly for young women who are still forming ideas about body image and sexuality. <br /><br />I fail to understand why women go along with it and participate in such events, our foremothers did not fight for sexual freedom so that we were free to go along with men’s exploitation of our bodies and call it choice. On Sunday I saw the Dark Night in this movie the ‘girlfriend’ of Batman is a hotshot lawyer of such a calibre to be an assistant District Attorney. However she wears tops to work that are so low cut I doubt any judge would let her in a courtroom. In the struggle to be taken seriously as an intellectual equal in the real world of work, women cannot afford the slightest glimpse of cleavage. I can’t help but think that professional women on TV and in Movies are sexualised to try and neutralise the threat that they pose to some men who still feel rather insecure about professional women. <br /><br />However I find the opposite view is not compelling either and once again does not lead to the healthy formation of body image and sexuality in young women. This view also over-sexualises the human (particularly female) body, and says that it should never be displayed in public, because it leads to and is associated with (usually) sexual sin. <br /><br />Surely there is a middle ground that can be found, where a female body is viewed with respect and delight because of the wondrous beauty of its form. Some of the old masters paintings of naked women express some of this. Surely a woman is and can be beautiful without being a sexual object, her body can be celebrated for its wonderful form and design, whatever its size. This would help young women to develop a healthy relationship with the beauty of their bodies, and perhaps they would no longer need to have sex just to feel good about themselves. <br /><br />p.s. If I did organise a mammaries in MGs parade it would not be in the cold winds of winter either. <br /><br />Keep thinking, and young women learn to stand up for women's rights - don't let a pornographer claim to speak for you! <br /><br />ChristinaChristinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14082276379247223119noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35889071.post-55048472361284234072008-04-02T15:35:00.003+13:002008-11-14T15:08:09.171+13:00The Stamp of Authenticity<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI1nu-NU1g6TYdUv04pWg4ZtCj9Dvtm9mTdFdqoN64FRUh-aOogVN9vY9O3zluwSsLSJrY8-tZ25OCun1d_ARSQ85E0iknOivm0-Gw0V0KeNS-WK5CTASuUVb7wW7ICrC5Sr8rTQ/s1600-h/stoliad.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI1nu-NU1g6TYdUv04pWg4ZtCj9Dvtm9mTdFdqoN64FRUh-aOogVN9vY9O3zluwSsLSJrY8-tZ25OCun1d_ARSQ85E0iknOivm0-Gw0V0KeNS-WK5CTASuUVb7wW7ICrC5Sr8rTQ/s400/stoliad.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5184471947031718098" /></a><br /><br />I couldn't help but be stimulated to ponder authenticity again when I came across this ad for Stoli in Rolling Stone. <br /><br /><br />Authenticity is now an important marketable quality of a product. The question that arises is who decides what is authentic and how is that expressed. In the Stoli ad there is a stamp in the corner. I don’t have a clue what that means and its in Russian so I don’t understand it. But it looks official so I guess it gives it an air of formal approval. <br /><br />Some questions arise from my pondering:<br /><br />Is it more authentic to drink ‘authentic’ Russian vodka, or a more authentic cultural expression to drink 42 Below? <br /><br />What is the ‘stamp of authenticity’ that we need to express our faith to a suspicious world? <br /><br />Looking forward to hearing your thoughts <br />ChristinaChristinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14082276379247223119noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35889071.post-25465295519575020942008-02-13T13:28:00.000+13:002008-02-13T13:30:07.715+13:00The Challenge of Being Authentic.I am currently reading Go Put Your Strengths to Work (by Marcus Buckingham). In the book Buckingham makes the point that we often research or discover things by working out what they are not. So we find out about health by researching disease we find out about function by researching dysfunction. I am still thinking about authenticity and I’ve been noticing an inclination (including myself) to define what is inauthentic rather than what is authentic. We seem to instinctively know what is inauthentic, but struggle to describe what is authentic. However Buckingham’s point is that if for example we research disease and do or achieve the opposite we don’t necessarily get great health – we just get not diseased. <br /><br />If we try to achieve authenticity by using our instinctive ability to recognise what is inauthentic and doing the opposite, we run the risk of achieving a mediocre polite middle ground that is not inauthentic but isn’t wonderfully and creatively authentic either. As Christians we have in Jesus and in the biblical narrative our inspiration and guide for living authentically. <br /><br />A Christian understanding of what it means to live authentically must be rooted in a rich understanding of what it means to be created in and called to live as the image of God. . To live authentically is also embedded in Jesus’ call to follow him. As we seek to follow and imitate the one who said “I am the way, and the truth and the life” we are called to live with an authenticity that reveals the image of God in us, and points to the revelation of truth that is the person of Jesus. In our sound-bite, image conscious society living authentically is as radical as it was in the society of Corinth in the early days of the church. I want to finish with a quote from an address by Vinoth Ramachandra, he tells the story of a Russian philosopher who became a Christian and moved to the US, the contrast between Christianity in the US and Russia was great and led her to state, <br /><em>“For the first time I understood how dangerous it is to talk about God. Each word must be a sacrifice – filled to the brim with authenticity. Otherwise it is better to keep silent.” </em> (Tatiana Goricheva)Christinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14082276379247223119noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35889071.post-73432706961087048152008-01-07T10:37:00.000+13:002008-01-07T11:00:35.684+13:00Understanding Learning TodayI love this video clip from KSU, it explains so much of what it is like to work with students today. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o</a><br /><br />As well as helping to explain some of the challenges facing tertiary students today, it raises a lot of challenges. For example "if students learn by doing - why are they sitting in class?" My feeling is that tertiary students are dissatisfied with the learning that they encounter at University. The whole learning system is based on 'modern' principles of information and learning, that are on the whole no longer relevant or effective. Students now are searching for a greater engagement with their studies and critical thinking that is relevant to their lives. They are searching for guides not instructors. This is a huge challenge to the church and to TSCF - are we being proactive about reading and responding to changes that I predict are coming in the education sector. We need to critically assess the way that we are teaching the bible, leadership and doing evangelism. It is no longer enough to talk at large groups of people, when research into teaching shows that passive listening is the least effective way of learning. Students are longing for genuine engagement in their lives and with their issues and for mentors and guides that can teach them by getting alongside them and helping them to learn to read the patterns of life, to read the bible, to know Jesus and to be fully who they were created to be. <br /><br /> I pray that the church (and TSCF) can remain proactive and ahead of the game on this issue.Christinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14082276379247223119noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35889071.post-89006830976447620372007-12-21T18:41:00.000+13:002007-12-21T18:42:07.562+13:00Peace on Earth - Yeah RightAs we enter the last days of the Christmas season, my thoughts turn to previous Christmases. Some of the Christmas’s that are imprinted in my memory are the ones I spent as a Counsellor. I decide then to always remember that Christmas is not the season of hohohos and wonderful times with the family for everyone. This is loosely related to my thinking about authenticity. I think that it is a time of year when it is easy to become inauthentic, we can easily get caught up in the false jollity that is expected of us. <br /><br />I want to call us to remember those for whom Christmas is not easy, those under financial strain who cannot afford gifts, those whose family is full of pain, tension and hate, those for whom Christmas brings back memories of past trauma or abuse, those who are having a first Christmas without a loved one or after a divorce, those who are alone and lonely, those on the other side of the world who could be fed for a month on what we consume in a day. Above all I want to call Christians to remember that this is not the season of overeating and overspending rather it is the season to remember that “the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14). Immanuel – God with us. There are many people this season that need reminding that God is with them. As Christians we must take this call seriously – I want to encourage you to make an effort to not become overwhelmed with the expectations and tasks that are on you, take the time to stop and look at what’s happening in the lives of those around you. Take the time to remind them that God is indeed with them this Christmas.Christinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14082276379247223119noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35889071.post-64522220265352787562007-12-14T14:18:00.000+13:002007-12-14T14:22:52.878+13:00Living in an Unreal WorldIn a world where reality is fake and a commodity on which TV shows are based, how do we understand what it means to be authentic? Culturally and generationally authenticity is crucial to those I work with, but what does it actually mean?<br /><br />I’ve wanted to blog about authenticity for a few months now. I either seem to get stuck or end up going off on a (sometimes significant) tangent. I’m hoping if I share with you some of my thoughts, you can respond and hopefully we can help each other think through some of the issues. I have been as guilty as anyone who works with young adults of overusing the word (partly because it is in all the trendy missional books I read) without stopping to think through all the meanings and implications of it. I was challenged to think a bit more deeply about this because I needed to explain what it was and why it was so important to my students to my colleague (who is from the US). He is particularly interested in who gets to decide what is authentic and what is not, and how that happens. One thing I have noticed is that authenticity is not simple, it happens on a myriad of levels all at once, this makes it hard to explain and hard to understand.<br /><br />Let us start with the dictionary definition of authenticity: not false or imitation, true to one's own personality, spirit, or character<a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=35889071#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1">[1]</a>. I’m happy with that definition, which is generally what I mean when I use the word authenticity. The reason I have picked up on this from my reading and use it so often is that it resonated as important for me and those I work with. Part of this is a reaction to shallow pop culture, and mass production and mass marketing (thanks Richard for pointing this out). Michael Frost claims that “In a world of hyper-reality, there is an emerging search for authenticity, the championing of real food, culture, politics (rather than Realpolitik), and entertainment.” Kiwi cultural traits also cause us to value authenticity, we love informality, equality and down to earthiness, (what can be more authentic than camping!). The result of this is that we see formality, hierarchy and euphemistic speech as inauthentic. It’s fascinating however that our authenticity only goes so far (probably some of our inherited English reserve), we like to call a spade a spade as long as we are talking about a spade and not our feelings! I get to this point and I am left with the question: Why is the longing and search for authenticity more pronounced among post-moderns (or young adults) than other generations? Perhaps it is just what they have been exposed to and reacted against, I sense it is more than that however.<br /><br />So the questions I am pondering are: What is authenticity? Why is it important to post-moderns, (Ys, young adults whatever label you want to give them)? Who defines what is authentic or inauthentic?<br /><br />That’s a start. Next week I want to post some thinking about authenticity and our faith and the presentation of our faith, and what the longing for authenticity means for organisations and churches.<br /><br />Christina<br /><br /><a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=35889071#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1">[1]</a> Merriam-Webster online dictionaryChristinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14082276379247223119noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35889071.post-71983435854324437402007-10-25T15:27:00.000+13:002007-10-25T15:29:16.411+13:00How Well Do I Know You?What does it mean to be an authentic Christian friend in a world where we are faced with advertising such as the Shortland St billboard that asks – How well do you really know them? This line hangs above pictures of two of the main Shorty St characters at an intersection where I am often stopped at a red light. I find myself sitting there pondering this concept. How can I know them? They are just characters in a TV show. It raises this question for me -Are our neighbours so lonely that they think their friends are those ‘people’ that they see on the TV screen five nights a week? I am challenged to ask myself -Can we honestly say that we see any of our friends as often as we see the characters in our favourite TV show? <br /><br />My students were discussing what the implications of being a radical Jesus follower means for our friendships. We are coming together each week to challenge and support each other to live more radically Christ centred lives. We feel that part of this is considering the way that Christian friendships are different from those who are not yet Jesus followers. <br /><br />One of the challenges for our Christian friendships is how we use modern communication technologies well. Is scoring 10/10 on a facebook quiz about superficial aspects of people’s lives really knowing them? Rather it is through those late night conversations about disappointments, hopes, dreams and experiences or absences of God that we get to know someone. Our friendships now often revolve around communications technology and they can be wonderful ways of connecting us to people in between face to face contact, yet I worry that facebook is taking over from having coffee with someone and that texting is taking over from going to visit someone. The result of this is that friendships are remaining superficial and never getting to the deeper level which enables lives to connect. People are desperately searching for community and friends yet they don’t want or don’t know how to make the commitment and effort needed to reach beyond the superficial. <br /><br />As Christians we need to be challenged by the action of our God, who loved the world so much that he amazingly chose to become human, to be incarnated, to be able to stand face to face among us, so that the world could see and know God at a deeper level and to connect our lives with his. In turn, how do we live among our friends in such a way that our lives connect with theirs, and in turn we are able to connect their lives with Jesus?<br /><br /><br /> ChristinaChristinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14082276379247223119noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35889071.post-76072471223986138592007-06-25T11:15:00.000+12:002007-06-25T11:16:01.432+12:00Leading in CreativityI have been thinking a lot about what it means to image God, and to be fully alive (inspired from the Leadership block course I did in May). I have been relating this to the creative arts, as our God given ability to be creative comes as part of our imaging our immensely creative Creator-God. Now I have to be careful here as my involvement in the creative arts is mainly as an appreciative audience (our ability to appreciate beauty also images God who was able to look at the world and say it is good). I don’t think as Christians that we are really living up to our full potential in this area. Centuries ago the church was in the forefront of creative arts: “From the church proceeded philosophy, music, art, and literature.” (Robert Webber). <br /><br />Why are those days gone? As Christians we should be delighting in our creativity and leading the field in innovation in music, art, poetry, sculpture, architecture and anything else. . However our music tends to be boring and derivative. We have a tendency to see that a certain thing is popular and then try and jump into the trend. For example there is a lot of hero worship of Brooke Fraser, (and she makes a strong stand for her faith which is admirable) but frankly girl with a guitar fluffy pop music has a certain following so she has managed to enter that rather safe and dull market but without changing anything or increasing the interest or quality of that genre of music. Over and over I see Christians being reactive instead of proactive, as Christians our call is to set the trends to lead the way in creativity, not to follow the existing trends. Why are we as Christians so often just plain boring? What is stopping us living up to the fullness of creativity that God had placed in us? <br /><br />ChristinaChristinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14082276379247223119noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35889071.post-35952476441543686622007-06-11T12:50:00.000+12:002007-06-11T12:52:25.331+12:00Lighten Up!<div align="center">Do we have enough fun as Christians? </div><br />Sometimes it is hard to have fun as a Christian – I know for myself that as a Christian I am more engaged with the pain of the world than some non-Christians are. Sometimes that can prevent us from having fun. Predominately however I see Christians sitting at one extreme or the other. Either we are too deeply intense and serious, or we come across with a superficial Hollywood style –Christians are Happy all the time attitude. <br /><br />I have been thinking about this in the context of evangelism. Do we actually have fun sharing our faith or is it something we do because we think we should? Often the people who share their faith are the ones who come across as overly intense and serious. I’ll never forget being out with a Drug Arm team and one of the women that we were serving a hot drink too, said that she never understood the trinity – The body language of the three people I was with changed immediately. I think the best simile would be that they were like a pack of wolves moving in for the kill. How intimidating for the poor woman who had a question about the trinity! Often we talk about challenging people to ‘move out of our comfort zone’ to do evangelism. I think we should be talking more about how we can share our faith having fun rather than scaring people out of where they are comfortable. <br /><br />I have also being thinking about this in relation to the bible. Why don’t Christians find studying the bible fun? Recently I heard of a Christian who discouraged a non-Christian friend from going to a bible study ‘because studying the bible is boring’. As Christians do we find the bible less exciting than non-Christians? This is a challenge to those of us who teach the bible. How well do we express how exciting it can be to discover things about God in its pages? <br /><br />Our task then is to have fun with evangelism and the bible, but without going to the other extreme of thoughtless superficiality. <br /><br />ChristinaChristinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14082276379247223119noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35889071.post-49169464293583437152007-01-15T11:39:00.000+13:002007-01-15T11:40:43.075+13:00The Challenge of Our Favourite ThingsFabulous shoes and gorgeous cakes are some of my favourite things, so I was delighted by Sofia Coppola’s latest film creation: Marie Antoinette. It is a visual extravagance of shoes (Manolo Blahniks), cakes and colour. Over the weekend I have been wondering if there is more to this film than first appears. There has been some criticism directed at the film as it treats Marie Antoinette sympathetically as a naïve child, it doesn’t attempt to portray much of the political situation at the time or contrast the poverty stricken situation of the peasants with the excesses of the royal court. Some critics have seen this as a Hollywood celebration of its own excesses. . I don’t know whether Coppola’s intentions were to simply celebrate lavish spending and partying, or whether something deeper is occurring. Coppola’s use of modern language and modern music connected the film firmly into our time and this left me with some heavy questions. It is so easy to be critical of the excesses of 18th Century Royalty because we would never waste money fighting a war overseas when there were people starving around us would we? Even more personally there is a challenge to our ignorance of poverty - are we living in our protected little bubble while people around us are struggling to find enough money for food? Are we more concerned with what is happening overseas and unwilling or unable to see the (emotional and physical) poverty that is closer to us than we think? Just before Christmas I helped deliver food parcels for church and I was struck again by peoples genuine struggle to survive even here is Auckland and particularly how close to me they live and yet how little opportunity I have to interact with them and hear about their lives. The final challenge for me and although amusing is also very serious do I really need another pair of shoes when so many people in the world don’t even have one pair? <br /><br />ChristinaChristinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14082276379247223119noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35889071.post-50689777510124753952006-11-09T17:14:00.000+13:002006-11-09T17:15:08.897+13:00Meditating on Movies.I spent last week in bed with bronchitis - all I could really sum up the energy for was watching DVDs. Today as I returned the 5 DVDs to the store I was struck by how easily I had watched 4 (one remained unwatched) DVDs in a row. This used to be something I would struggle to do. I think this is another example of how extensive our consumer mentality has become - a movie is something to entertain us in the now, something to be consumed and then discarded. An hour or a day later to be returned, forgotten, leaving us unchanged and untouched. <br /><br />When was the last time you saw a movie so good that you needed to think about it for a week before seeing another one? Ok - so maybe movies being about image are not designed to promote thinking, but when was the last time you saw a movie so beautiful that you wanted to remember it and appreciate its quality for some time before moving on to the next? <br /><br />Perhaps our lives have become too busy to appreciate things around us. I encourage you to take the time to appreciate the movies you watch – and if you find there is not much in them to appreciate perhaps we (I include myself in this too) need to be more discerning about what we watch.Christinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14082276379247223119noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35889071.post-3626958742358515342006-10-25T14:27:00.000+13:002006-10-25T14:32:10.763+13:00Who is the me generation?“This generation is the most selfish generation – they can have anything they want at the touch of a button”. Three weeks ago a speaker to whom I was listening made that statement. It has been buzzing around in my head causing me to reflect ever since. My initial reaction was the young adults that I work with would say that the baby boomers were the most selfish generation! Of course such generalised statements need to be applied with caution – what do we mean by “the current generation”. When I say the current generation I mean the educated intelligentsia between 18 and 25 years old that I work with – they are not necessarily representative.<br />Yet I see a reaction against being able to have everything –coupled with a distrust of advertising and the media.<br /><br />The thoughts I have been having are along a similar line to Paul Windsor’s recent post: peace corps revisited (<a href="http://www.carey.ac.nz/pauls_blog/2006/10/peace-corps-revisited.html">http://www.carey.ac.nz/pauls_blog/2006/10/peace-corps-revisited.html</a>)<br />Among the young adults I work with there is a new dedication to reaching out, to being involved in issues of poverty, justice and human rights. When I think back to when I was their age my friends and I had vague hopes of “wanting to help people”. But really we wanted to get great jobs and wear great suits and be yuppies (hey it was the late 80’s). Of course there are plenty of young adults who still have an essentially superficial faith, but those that are concerned with these issues have a level of commitment and passion that leads to action (yes practical application even in the educated intelligentsia). It also leads them to be vocal for their concerns and to try to influence the values of those around them.<br /><br />I am concerned about what this means for the church. University students have always had a hard time with the church – yet this goes further. Now we have a strong educated dedicated subset of young adults who have different values to the mainstream church that is still primarily controlled by baby boomers. I have experienced two examples of this over the past few weeks. One is the importance of fair trade to young adults. The University of Auckland is all set to become a fair trade campus (in terms of coffee provision) - and yet our church is still not willing to supply and use fair trade coffee in spite of campaigning by the lovely young adults I know. This is a clash in values – fair trade is not seen as an important issue for the Christians who are decision makers, but by the young adults it is an important expression of their faith to care about the exploited workers in developing countries. The other issue is the realisation of young adults that as a church we should be emphasising people over programmes. They are feeling frustrated over the churches current focus on programmes to the detriment of authentic relationships both within the church community and reaching to those around us.<br /><br />If these young adults have substantially different values to the current church leadership they are going to end up frustrated and disillusioned, where will they go then? I do not think that the emerging church will hold them either it is to full of disillusioned gen xrs (like myself) who are to busy trying to heal the hurts that the church has done to them (please forgive the gross generalisation) to adequately take action on the values of 18-25s year olds.<br /><br />There is a challenge in this for all of us over 25 – are we still teachable enough to listen and be influenced by the young adults we know. As churches are we humble enough to put them in positions of influence – because they will change our churches and it will be for the better. I trust these young adults because I see in them a new dedication to the Bible, (perhaps that’s just after I’ve had three years with them!) coupled with an authentic desire to not just believe it but to put what they read in the bible into radical action. I’m excited about where the church will go if we place it in their hands and I’m willing to do that, are you?<br /><br />ChristinaChristinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14082276379247223119noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35889071.post-1160623360398430392006-10-13T12:18:00.000+13:002006-11-06T09:21:18.768+13:00WelcomeHi<br />Today is the first time I have blogged, how exciting that I now get to share my thoughts with the whole world, rather than just people who I buy coffee for so that they listen to my ponderings!<br /><br />This blog is called Vision of Christina in tribute to Christine de Pisan who is considered one of the first feminist writers. She wrote an autobiographical work called Vision of Christine in 1405. She also wrote a book called The Book of the City of Ladies in which she details a vision for a "utopian city for women inhabited by powerful, educated, and influential women both of antiquity and of her own time".<br /><br />My vision is to encourage the growth of powerful, educated and influential christian women.Christinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14082276379247223119noreply@blogger.com3