Last Tuesday Bono edited the Independent to help launch teh Red campaign. I regret not having got hold of a copy [could have made a cracking profit ... am I missing the point?!].

There is nice little profile here at LICC:

The first thing the U2 frontman did was to ask Damien Hirst to provide a fitting image to replace the usual front-page splash. He chose a red field, of course, and imposed on it a cross made of icons: a skull, praying hands, a syringe, some pills and, at the apex, a dove.

‘Celebrity is ridiculous,’ Bono admitted in another article. ‘But it is currency and I want to spend mine wisely.’

See a less favourable comment here at Complex Christ, particularly in response to the RED phone. Good points i thought:

As you know, I’m a fan of the concept of ‘gift’, and this idea seems to me to be anti-gift. We buy the phone because we are buying into a brand. Not because we really care. If the only way we can get people to help those in dire need is to have to offer them something cool in return for their pennies, then I think there’s something very wrong.

What do I think? I think that Bono is changing the way people think about the AIDS and Africa issues. I find it inspirational and challenging. I do wonder though whether I am buying the celebrity in with the package?

Last Tuesday Bono edited the Independent to help launch teh Red campaign. I regret not having got hold of a copy [could have made a cracking profit ... am I missing the point?!].

There is nice little profile here at LICC:

The first thing the U2 frontman did was to ask Damien Hirst to provide a fitting image to replace the usual front-page splash. He chose a red field, of course, and imposed on it a cross made of icons: a skull, praying hands, a syringe, some pills and, at the apex, a dove.

‘Celebrity is ridiculous,’ Bono admitted in another article. ‘But it is currency and I want to spend mine wisely.’

See a less favourable comment here at Complex Christ, particularly in response to the RED phone. Good points i thought:

As you know, I’m a fan of the concept of ‘gift’, and this idea seems to me to be anti-gift. We buy the phone because we are buying into a brand. Not because we really care. If the only way we can get people to help those in dire need is to have to offer them something cool in return for their pennies, then I think there’s something very wrong.

What do I think? I think that Bono is changing the way people think about the AIDS and Africa issues. I find it inspirational and challenging. I do wonder though whether I am buying the celebrity in with the package?

My brother reminded me last night that I had promised more stuff on the conference. So I feel suitably spurred on. My previous post covered the first half of the first session [of 7, and each session was 3 hours!! The Germans, eh?!] by Gerard Kelly. He did one other session which I want to mention. I will do more of the stuff by Alan Hirsch, but not session by session [hopefully!].

Firstly he suggested 3 shifts since the millenium:

1) A philosophical Shift
The main point here was that he thought that there was a more positive outlook generally. From teh end fo the world feelings at the end of the millenium [Independence day etc] to the ‘open space’ of a new millenium. I want to agree with him on this, but I am just a little bit skeptical. Someone challenged him about it and he was fairly defensive! Maybe he also thought he was pushing it to say it was a ‘cultural shift’.

What was good at this point was his retelling of 1 Kings 19 and Elijah’s confrontation with the prophets of Baal. He focussed on what happened next: Elijah is fearful and runs for his life, and then is deeply depressed. He followed the story all the way through to Elijah wanting the presence of the Lord - but it wasn’t in the mighty wind, it wasn’t in the earthquake, it wasn’t in the fire, it was in the whisper. From the Drama of Mount Carmel to the Whisper of Mount Horeb. Now that is something I have never heard preached on that story!! Gerard related this to a required change of mindset and models.

This is a journey of GENTLENESS. Not of confrontation, not narrow triumphalism where we feel good because we have made our point. But finding those people open to the work of God in their lives - they are out there in millions. They are asking the question but don’t now Jesus makes the difference. They can’t engage on Mount Carmel because it is too loud and brash, but rather find God in the whisper.

2) A sociological shift
From the obligations of Christendom to the freedom to consume. Sociologist Grace Davey says the biggest cultural change for Europe is the collapse of the state churches. A huge number of people who have opted out of state religion. People no longer want to go to church because they think they ought to. Bu8t we have tended to keep the people we have through obligation and draw others through guilt!!! When you remove Christendom model of going to church because they ought to, there are spaces for new kinds of churchwhere people go because it does them good. [interesting note: apparently in Scotland they made charitable status of organisations dependant on the good that they do for the community. And guess what: some churches protested!!]

3) A theological shift
This I really liked [although not strictly theological!!]: A shift from what is true to what is real. In todays world in order to discuss truth you must discuss what is real. Therefore we must root our theology in what is real; Real experiences, and hopes and fears, real creation. Truth must be lived out in authentic human relationships, to demonstrate its reality.

Here was a great illustration of what reality deos for you. The artist Caravaggio painted two pictures of the Supper at Emmaus. The first was in 1601 at the height of his ‘playboy’ lifestyle.

The second in 1606 after he was in exile from his own country. The paintings reflect this reality shift, the nature of gritty realism.

Here’s a [real] truth: It is when things go wrong that people see what your faith means.

[Hmmm this conference thing to take a while to get through!! Anyone actually interested?!]

A couple of things to make you laugh and one to make you think!!

First of all here is the link to the “German Coast Guard” advert that I showed on Sunday. Just thought you might like to watch it again. For me it just gets funnier!!

Secondly, Adrian showed me this extruciatingly funny recording of a voice mail message left for a church pastor. Honestly I chuckled. My favourite line: “I have written a book of 1400 things that God has told me” [you probably need to listen to it...]. Also whoever set it to music was inspired.

And finally… Choose your words
I found this interesting, a little article at LICC about the use of words. It does seem to me that words can become cheap and meaningless, spoilt by overuse. I often try to use other words, other language to express truths. But then I sound obtuse!! I am sure partly because of my lack of skills as a ‘wordsmith’. But people want and need to hear the familiar words it seems, they make them feel safe and secure. We m8st remember that words are not a thing, they are merely windows to help us make sense of the world, they are suitcases stuffed full of meaning. But when the suitcase is empty we better stop using the word [that's what I tell my 8 year old anyway]. And when one person’s suitcase is full of stuff quite different from your stuff you have a communication problem … And that, it seems to me is why learning in community is essential, as it allows you to form meaning together. And also why it is such a problem, because you end up with your own little language…

Now what was I saying? Oh yeah the article. A couple of quotes:

When I interviewed Eugene Peterson for Church Times recently, the author of The Message had a few choice words for Christians who speak jargon without thinking. “A cliche is as bad as a blasphemy,” he observed. That’s a serious allegation, which, if true, means that all of us probably need to wash our mouths out with soapy water on a regular basis. He picks out such well-worn phrases as ‘Jesus saves’, ‘born-again’, ‘God is love’ and ‘All things work together…’ as ‘pious conventions’ which, once they’ve lost their freshness, lead to us taking the name of God in vain.

‘Passionate words of men and women spoken in ecstasy can end up flattened on the page and dissected with an impersonal eye,’ he warns. ‘Wild words wrung out of excruciating suffering can be skinned and stuffed, mounted and labelled as museum specimens.’