I like to start my day with exercise, physically and spiritually so that the sails of my life with God are adjusted and trimmed to catch the wind of his grace needed for the day ahead. I also like to be informed by watching the morning news so that I can mull over what’s going on that might affect my world and the world of Carey students.

Lately so much of the news has been about the financial crisis. Questions such as how will this affect our banks, our jobs and the prices of houses are being asked? We want to know when this will all end and when we can get on with life as normal. We want to know what the government and the banks are doing about it, and why hasn’t there been action taken to help us out? But there is a more important question we need to be asking. We should be wondering how this crisis will change us? How will it change the way we think, act and live? How will it change the way we do business?

This crisis appears to be more than an economic one. It is also a spiritual crisis. Not only do we have to look at the way we handle money and wealth, we need to look at what underlies our attitudes and values in this area. One way of viewing why we have got into this mess relates to Mahatma Gandhi’s list of social sins: “politics without principle, wealth without work, commerce without morality, pleasure without conscience, education without character, science without humanity, and worship without sacrifice”.

Could it be that at the heart of the crisis is the loss of a business and work ethic based on the selfless and timeless values of Jesus?

What is a Christian response to a deepening economic crisis? What are the responsibilities of our churches to the communities we are involved with? Can we explore creative opportunities and new solutions to the problems that are exposed by this crisis? What about our preaching and our pastoral care? Will this be any different? This could be a time of prayerful self evaluation, a change of direction, and an opportunity for new relationships within and outside our church communities that reflect the love and hope Jesus gives in all the seasons of life.

If we learn nothing from the hardships this crisis brings, all the stress and pain it causes will be wasted. Lets be prepared to learn new habits and ways of being so that what results might be redemptive. If we regain a way of seeing through Jesus’ eyes and find new ways to evaluate our success, this crisis could become an opportunity for change. There is more to life than making money. Jesus encourages his followers to “store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:20-21). Let this thought capture us in a fresh way and direct us in the months ahead.

Staub continues “I will be vigilant in my association with the church, recognising that it often falls into the unhealthy patterns of cocooning from, combating, or conforming to culture and today’s Christianity-Lite too often mirrors popular culture; yet because I recognise the church’s impoertance and potential, I will take my place as an active participant in it.”

The church is full of normal people who struggle and fail like the rest of society. The difference should be that it should be full of people who have the potential to be fully human because of a unique inter-relationship with the God of the universe who created everything. We lose site of that too easily in our attempts to be attractive… falling into the consumerist traps that allow us as church goers to think that the church serves our interests. How much we need grace to be a community that listens to and and obeys the God who has our true humanity; our potential at heart. How will our fellow pilgrims break free from self centredness? How will it be turned around? Prayer… relying on God… good teaching… discipleship, community, worshiping the King.

“I will be vigilant in my consumption of popular media culture, recognising that it is often characterised by superficiality, soullessness, and spiritual delusion; yet because I recognise its importance and potential, I will actively take my place as a cultural particpant healthily, not as a cultural glutton or a cultural anorexic.”

It is so easy to feed the wrong things in our exploration of media. Vigilance is a good word in this area. It would be easy too to avoid interaction with internet media and blogs like this because of the rubbish proliferated on it, yet real people with genuine needs are behind the masks seen in the posts and names. Do we need our eyes opened to see that these people are more like the Samaritan women that Jesus met by the well and to whom he shared that he could give her real water- the water of life. I see in the expressions proliferated a thirst for life. Jesus’s answer to the women at the well (John 4:13) is ‘those who drink the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water i give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’ Find the real deal in following Jesus.

The creed continues in its third paragraph… “I will go into the world as a loving, transforming presence, holistically fulfilling my calling to counter culture like an alien, to communicate in culture like an ambassador, and to create culture like an artist, honing my skills of discernment, discovery, and dual listening.”

That first clause is a real challenge. As Christians we often shirk the responsibility of being present in culture and so we lose the opportunities that raise themselves that allow the transformation process to begin through us. Is this robbing our joy too? I want to be a loving, transforming presence wherever I am. To be this in the world means I need to be this in all the communities I mingle with- with Christ followers and with the Christless. To be present in all aspects of life, not just being a plumb-line or ruler where others feel convicted of their wrongs, but being present in such a way that others see us as light, guides in the darkness, and salt; adding flavour to the often tasteless banality of everyday living. Staub calls us to be counter cultural. Christians have the opportunity to see things from the outside and yet to speak from within culture. This is so difficult for those with the mentality that we ought to be protecting ourselves from the ‘world’ by retreating  into our Christian schools, clubs and churches. These have there place, but so often we cocoon ourselves from the world in such a way that our witness is blunted. We must be concious that we are to be communicating in culture like ambassadors. This means that we need to be involved in our communities. God is at work ‘out there’. Lets join him. The Christian church has led the way in creating culture in the past. Today we are so quick to mimic the culture in trying to get our message across. We need to recapture our ability to be culture shapers and creators. Staub’s encouragment is that we hone our skills of discernment, discovery, and dual listening. To do this effectively I need to be out there with my neighbors and with my teenage children. To be in the places where life is lived and be with people, in their joy and despair available as salt and light in their transitions of life. At the same time I need to be reading my Bible and listening to God’s voice in all of this. This takes time… something that I need to carve out. Lets pray together that we do that.

“I will pursue a deep mystical union with God, whose loving, transforming presence is to me what the metamorphis from a caterpillar is to a butterfly; I am changed and being changed into a full human, again aglow with God’s spiritual, intellectual, creative, relational, and moral presence, reflecting God’s image for God’s glory.” (Staub)

What is it with the word mystical that makes some suspicious? There is something about it that suggests there is more to a relationship with God than agreement with a set of propositional statements, or even a heart felt, deep seated awareness of God’s presence. God’s presence cannot be explained easily. Does this mean we can be off searching for some experience that might be defined in terms of an experience with God? I don’t think this is what Dick Staub means. He is talking about a union with God which we cannot easily describe or understand. It is, in this way, mystical. This union with God is one that brings transformation. As God invades my inner being he is shaping me. I would suggest that if we use the langauge of Paul the apostle, we are talking about the “mystery of Christ” (Ephesians 3:2-13). God’s presence is made alive in us through Christ “dwelling in your hearts through faith” (Ephesians 3:14-19).

Our prayer should be that we begin to grasp how incredible the love of Christ is. Paul suggests that this is something that goes beyond knowledge (propositions). This has something to do with God’s power being at work in us. I hunger and thirst for this. For a deeper grasp of the love of Christ- a knowing that goes beyond knowledge… What does this mean? …. So that I may change and reflect more of the image of God for his glory.

While I am balancing life as a father, husband and Dean at Carey Baptist College, I’ve recognised the importance of being into daily habits of Bible reading and prayer.. I’ve also been reading some great books. Dick Staub’s The Culturally Savvy Christian is one of those books that begin to answer some of the questions developing about how to shape Christian life in an increasingly post-modern and post-Christian world. Over the next few posts I want to reflect on the creed that Dick wrote at the end of his book (pages 200-201) and what living it out might mean for me and those in our churches.

The first paragraph reads “I will make God of central importance, digging a deeper well through nurturing God’s loving, transforming presence in my life, denying self, no longer conforming to culture, and renewing my mind through the daily practice of the spiritual disciplines, fully committed to discovering and doing God’s will in daily life.”

The world I live in is sinking in the idea of the importance of the self. As we rush around seeking for that which satisfies this hunger we dip our lives into the wells provided by the culture we live in. These wells are of varying quality. Looking for instant gratification we move from one to another. We get into the habit of dipping and moving without soaking and drinking deeply because what we find doesn’t satisfy our deep cravings. Jesus meets us and wants to give us water that satisfies. He wants us to soak ourselves in him. He wants us to recognise and feel his transforming love in the middle of life. His love and transforming presence are not something found as we conform to culture or cocoon ourselves away from culture. As followers of Jesus we are to nurture God’s loving transforming presence by renewing our minds through prayer, Bible study, meditation and fasting (Private disciplines). Adding to these the more observable disciplines of simplicity, solitude, submission and service and the communal disciplines of confession, worship, guidance and celebration we become counter-cultural. We dip and dwell in the well Jesus provides throught the Word and the community of Jesus follwers he has given us. We are captivated through the relational power of the Holy Spirit empowered by His transforming power to be the people God wants us to be.

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