Sayings of a Traveller*
On the credit crunch...
Reckless lending and reckless borrowing spurred one another on to ever greater recklessness. The money had to run out sometime. The problem is, nobody has any idea how much bad debt there is in the system. Nor do we have much idea where it all is, because of the way much of it has been repackaged and sold on; banks simply do not know what their liabilities are. Losing sight of your liabilities is serious enough at personal or household level. But when the very guardians of the world's liquidity have no idea of the scale and whereabouts of their exposures, it hardly needs to be said how serious that is. So economists and policymakers are left guess-timating how bad things really are, and what the likely consequences will be.
During the 'party' years, lenders became intoxicated by the cleverness of their financial instruments, and borrowers by the apparently never-ending supply of cheap and easy money - addiction on both sides. So what we have here is just one result of the tyranny of mammon, which promises freedom but delivers servitude. Bad as things are in September 2008, I suspect the hare has a long, long way to run, especially with rising commodity prices squeezing even more money out of the system.
The credit crunch represents a massive challenge to the church, because this is the context in which it will need to shape its mission for a long time to come. In many parts of the UK, almost an entire generation of children have grown up with no first hand experience of recession. Generations above these have bought into the idea that the bad times - the recessions of the 1980's and early 90's have gone for ever. Neither are equipped for the storm now lapping our shores. Much of the confidence of the last decade was built on, well, confidence. Now that confidence is evaporating fast. There is now no escaping the fact that financial uncertainty is one of the certainties of our time.
On our culture...
'Wherever lovelessness increases, addiction abounds...'
On the environment...
The impact of different cultures on the environment could be summed up thus: the more wealth, the more waste.
On mission and the church...
Inspirational churches are often aspirational churches.
'Missionary churches will sometimes be missionary-supporting churches. But it doesn't follow that a missionary-supporting church equates to a missionary church. These distinctions are often confused. Churches therefore face a choice whether to be missionary churches or missionary-supporting churches.'
On church and culture...
'One of the biggest challenges facing church in the culture today is not the ability to maintain, but the ability to morph...'
'The more post-modern 'church' becomes in its structures and activity, the more it will operate according to New Testament patterns of mission and ministry...'
On church planting...
'Healthy church plants arise, not from leakage, but from overflow...'
On discipleship...
'There are none so stuck as those who think others need to move, none so full as those who need to eat...'
On being truly global, truly local...
'In mission, being truly global enables us to be truly local, and being truly local enables us to be truly global. How is that that we have managed to separate and compartmentalise each to the detriment of both? It is time to recover the Biblical vision of mission...'
On the credit crunch...
Reckless lending and reckless borrowing spurred one another on to ever greater recklessness. The money had to run out sometime. The problem is, nobody has any idea how much bad debt there is in the system. Nor do we have much idea where it all is, because of the way much of it has been repackaged and sold on; banks simply do not know what their liabilities are. Losing sight of your liabilities is serious enough at personal or household level. But when the very guardians of the world's liquidity have no idea of the scale and whereabouts of their exposures, it hardly needs to be said how serious that is. So economists and policymakers are left guess-timating how bad things really are, and what the likely consequences will be.
During the 'party' years, lenders became intoxicated by the cleverness of their financial instruments, and borrowers by the apparently never-ending supply of cheap and easy money - addiction on both sides. So what we have here is just one result of the tyranny of mammon, which promises freedom but delivers servitude. Bad as things are in September 2008, I suspect the hare has a long, long way to run, especially with rising commodity prices squeezing even more money out of the system.
The credit crunch represents a massive challenge to the church, because this is the context in which it will need to shape its mission for a long time to come. In many parts of the UK, almost an entire generation of children have grown up with no first hand experience of recession. Generations above these have bought into the idea that the bad times - the recessions of the 1980's and early 90's have gone for ever. Neither are equipped for the storm now lapping our shores. Much of the confidence of the last decade was built on, well, confidence. Now that confidence is evaporating fast. There is now no escaping the fact that financial uncertainty is one of the certainties of our time.
On our culture...
'Wherever lovelessness increases, addiction abounds...'
On the environment...
The impact of different cultures on the environment could be summed up thus: the more wealth, the more waste.
On mission and the church...
Inspirational churches are often aspirational churches.
'Missionary churches will sometimes be missionary-supporting churches. But it doesn't follow that a missionary-supporting church equates to a missionary church. These distinctions are often confused. Churches therefore face a choice whether to be missionary churches or missionary-supporting churches.'
On church and culture...
'One of the biggest challenges facing church in the culture today is not the ability to maintain, but the ability to morph...'
'The more post-modern 'church' becomes in its structures and activity, the more it will operate according to New Testament patterns of mission and ministry...'
On church planting...
'Healthy church plants arise, not from leakage, but from overflow...'
On discipleship...
'There are none so stuck as those who think others need to move, none so full as those who need to eat...'
On being truly global, truly local...
'In mission, being truly global enables us to be truly local, and being truly local enables us to be truly global. How is that that we have managed to separate and compartmentalise each to the detriment of both? It is time to recover the Biblical vision of mission...'
cries of a Seagull...
// church 'n' culture zone
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The zones offer stories, pictures and comment related to the work Paul is involved in at home and abroad.
All zone items can be accessed via the
site map, which you can reach here or via the menu links on each page on the site.
If you'd like to comment on any zone item, or you want to find out more, please email Paul.
All zone items can be accessed via the
site map, which you can reach here or via the menu links on each page on the site.
If you'd like to comment on any zone item, or you want to find out more, please email Paul.
*Explanatory Note:
Sayings of a Traveller is a brain dump - my musings on church, culture and mission. The 'sayings' are not arranged in any particular order, but the newest will tend to come first.
Sayings of a Traveller is a brain dump - my musings on church, culture and mission. The 'sayings' are not arranged in any particular order, but the newest will tend to come first.