sarah masen
Miller and Sweet
by mike on Thu Jun 24 10:30:40 +0000 2004 in Unveiled Faces
Yeah, there was a ton of McLaren books at Sweet’s seminar, and I picked up “Adventures in Missing the Point” which McLaren co-wrote with Tony Campolo. Interesting read.
Sweet seems to believe that our society is polarizing to extremes. Politically, there are few moderates— mostly liberals and conservatives. Likewise, in a worship service if you try to please everyone, you will please no one. Therefor Sweet thinks we need to approach worship services that way… either a really traditional service, or an ultra-contemporary service (loud guitars, dj’s, etc), because no one really wants a worship service that sounds like a KLove radio station.
That may be true in metropolitan areas, but here in Visalia, we’re the epicenter of California’s bible belt. I imagine we are much like Nashville or Colorado Springs in that most people go to church, and actually want a moderate, KLove worship service.
But he has a lot of good things to say about living systems. The Body of Christ is a living system, so you have to treat it as one. If something isn’t functioning properly, you can’t disect it like a toaster… you have to care and treat the Body as a whole. Also, Scripture is a living system and there is much simultaneity (probably mispelled) in Scripture. One example is that the first and last instructions given to man by God are “eat freely” (Gen 2:16) and “drink freely” (Rev 22:17). In between we read about the bread of life and living water, so that tells us what to do with the Word.
Interesting stuff, and it makes a little more sense in the context of the whole seminar.
Mike
PS- Just read “Sexy Carrots” in BLJ. I’m liking it. I think I no someone who is a sexy carrot.
