Mals Meanderings

If you're wondering how this blog came to be called Mal's Meanderings, then the following will provide the answer. It is the first issue of a spot I am writing in our church newsletter. I quote:

Arthur has suggested that I begin to write a section in The Messenger as a note from the Pastor. The first topic was to have been my thoughts on our weekend at the Ears to Hear conference at Marysville. This is a good suggestion, but unfortunately it came a little late for me to do it justice this month. Let me say, however, that the weekend away together was a pivotal one in the life of this church, and I will share more about it later.

Instead, for this month I would like to talk about the very idea itself of this pastor's section in the paper. Why have I called it Mal's Meanderings? The inspiration for this came from Michael Leunig, the famous satirical cartoonist. Some months ago I spent the morning at a Rev-Up with Michael. He was to speak on the relationship between humour and theology, which he did, brilliantly, but not in the way we expected.

Michael began his talk by describing how he begins a new cartoon. He sits and stares, pencil in hand, at an empty piece of paper, often for some considerable time, with his mind also empty (metaphorically speaking), waiting for something to happen. This sounds just like many of us at the start of a school examination. And this is exactly how he began his lecture. He came completely unprepared, and quite unapologetic about it, and invited us to take a meander through his mind to see what would happen! Well, lots happened. The talk was hilariously funny, deeply moving, and richly inspiring. I came home knowing that something very special had happened between Michael and we who had been listening. We were all left with something of Michael himself in our hearts. Interestingly enough, although I now remember little detail of what he said, I still laugh when I think about being there!

The idea of being able to communicate one's very being in this way has captured me, which is one reason I have started a blog (weblog, for those of us who don't yet keep mice on our desks) on the church's website, called Mal's Meanderings. It's address is www.bethtephillah.com/weblog/blog.html It's simply me thinking aloud in public. So, I thought it would be appropriate for this monthly spot to be a small serving of the same cake.

Of course, nothing in the workings of God is disconnected completely from everything else. Tonight we begin our investigation of hearing God's voice through journalling, and I think you will find that this is an example of exactly what I have just been writing about. David did it in the Psalms, Isaiah did it in his prophetic book, John did it in Revelation,…. I'm sure we can do it too!

Love Mal

Well, there it is.

The Unnecessary Pastor

This morning I felt like taking a short break from my exploration of being the church in a postmodern society (a postmodern can do this - just switch worlds for a while), and begin reading a book I've wanted to read but hadn't got around to. This is Marva Dawn and Eugene Peterson's "The Unnecessary Pastor: Rediscovering the Call" (Eerdmans 2000).

It took as far as the first two pages of the introduction to the first chapter to meet the first challenge. Let me read it to you - it's a bit long so get comfortable:

"We begin with the obvious: the gospel of Jesus Christ is profoundly countercultural. 'I came to cast fire upon the earth,' said Jesus; 'and would that it were already kindled!' (Luke 12:49).

"There are powerful cultural forces determined to turn Jesus into a kindly, wandering peasant sage, teaching us how to live well, dispensing homespun wisdom, arousing our desire for God, whetting our appetite for higher truths - all of which are good things. These same forces are similarly determined to turn us, the church's pastors and leaders, into kindly religious figures, men and women who provide guidance through difficult times, who dole out inspiration and good cheer on a weekly schedule, who provide smiling reassurance that 'God's in his heaven . . .,' and keep our congregations busy at tasks that bolster their self-esteem - also good things.

"And if they don't turn us into merely nice people, they turn us into replicas of our cultural leaders, seeking after power and influence and prestige. These insistent voices drum away at us, telling us pastors to go out and compete against the successful executives and entertainers who have made it to the top, so that we can put our churches on the map and make it big in the world.

"In such a culture, it is continuously difficult to cultivate an everyday identity that derives from the crucified and risen Jesus Christ. No matter how many crosses we hang around our necks, paste on our bumpers, and place on our churches, the radical life of repentance and baptism is mighty hard to sustain.

"But the Christian is a witness to a new reality that is entirely counter to the culture. The Christian faith is a proclamation that God's kingdom has arrived in Jesus, a proclamation that puts the world at risk. What Jesus himself proclaimed and we bear witness to is the truth that the sin-soaked, self-centered world is doomed.

"Pastors are in charge of keeping the distinction between the world's lies and the gospel's truth clear. Not only pastors, of course - every baptized Christian is part of this - but pastors are placed in a strategic, countercultural position. Our place in society is, in some ways, unique: no one else occupies this exact niche that looks so inoffensive but is in fact so dangerous to the status quo. We are committed to keeping the proclamation alive and to looking after souls in a soul-denying, soul-trivializing age.

"But it isn't easy. Powerful forces, both subtle and obvious, attempt to either domesticate pastors to serve the culture as it is or to seduce us into using our position to become powerful and important on the world's terms. And so we need all the help we can get to maintain our gospel identity."


Well - there it is. I wonder if it challenged you at all, and if so in what way? What are the forces that most push you around? In my case, certainly my denomination (Baptist) doesn't seem to really understand what we are doing at Beth Tephillah. Oh, they don't actually resist us, but neither do we feel kosher in some hard to define way. And, of course, society at large generally dismisses us, but that ceased troubling me long ago.

No, in my case it is the expectations of the congregation (in general - no one in particular, and certainly not everyone) which most affect me. I WANT to do what I truly believe Jesus intends for the church in this time, and I TRY, but people are hesitant to go with me. Don't you get tired of simply meeting people's needs, keeping them comfortable and happy, trying to "take away the pain", when all along you know, because it's how Jesus has dealt with you, that if they would only stick it out a bit longer, and take their eyes off themselves and focus on him and the life he offers, they could probably take the "pain" away themselves, and most likely someone else's as well. Or the "pain" would no longer seem the most important thing in their lives.

Jesus didn't come to make us comfortable, but to stir up a hornet's nest. Perhaps, to light a fire under us, would be a better metaphore. Or, better still, to light a fire within us! Luke 12:49 begins to take on some meaning. And perhaps my writing this will stir up a hornet's nest in my church which will make ME uncomfortable!

Writing for God

"If you write for God you will reach many men and bring them joy. If you write for men - you may make some money and you may give someone a little joy and you may make a noise in the world, for a little while. If you write only for yourself you can read what you yourself have written and after ten minutes you will be so disgusted you will wish that you were dead."
Excerpted from New Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas Merton (I'm indebted to Jordan Cooper for this one).

Welcome to Mal's Meanderings

In this blog I plan to talk about many things, but to get the ball rolling I want to begin a series about books that have changed my life.

I don't know how legitimate it is to define one's life in terms of a sequence of significant events. It sound more modern than postmodern, but hey, if it works for me! Now, that's more postmodern. There probably won't be a chronological order to these events, more a meander through what comes to mind at any particular time when I feel the need to blog. Often it will be the book I'm reading at the time, other times the result of something the Lord has brought back to my mind for me to deal with - something from the past. I might even dream about books that haven't yet been written and perhaps should be!

As we go along, and the blog's literary, intellectual and emotional structure begins to emerge, I will probably then feel inspired to do something about its unattractive physical appearance. Here's hoping. Back soon. Mal.