simplicity and complexity April 2, 2007
Posted by Cobus in theology.3 comments
Found this quote a few days ago :
“Simplicity on the near side of complexity is uselss; simplicity on the far side of complexity is priceless”
This really summed up a part of my personal struggle with theology and faith, and with people’s views of theology. Simplicity is great. But if we reach simplicity by ignoring the complexity of life, it’s useless. If we reach simplicity through struggling with the complexities of life, that is priceless. Any thoughts? What’s your initial feeling when you read this quote?
institutional church #4 – something from the NT April 1, 2007
Posted by Cobus in church, Emerging Church, theology.5 comments
#4 – It’s not really like me staying on something for this long. Maybe I’ll break for a few days, hear some thoughts on the institutional church thing, don’t know. But I will finish in a couple of days (remember the De La Rey thing, won’t take that long, although that might have been a good thing). But first, some more thoughts. This is the thoughts I wondered if I it should be placed before those of yesterday.
I already mentioned some stuff from the first century ad yesterday; this is just some more things we should at least keep in mind. (more…)
institutional church #3 – the early church March 31, 2007
Posted by Cobus in church, Emerging Church, Emerging Culture, Journal, theology.2 comments
I’ve been working on an assignment on Psalm 24 the past two days, except for Thursday evening when the library was closed. But since Maryke flew to Cape Town on Friday morning, and since I had to finish some stuff at res before leaving on Friday morning, I decided not to spend that time blogging. But, the assignment is almost done, again I kind of didn’t keep to the way I think we are supposed to do exegesis*, but saw something interesting, and then worked on that. But I’m happy with what I did, will see what the lecturer think. Just some finishing touches, most formatting, that I’ll do in the next two days somewhere.
I’m back with some thoughts on the institutional church. I’ve been struggling to decide which post to do first, this one of the next one. Well, obviously this one won:-) After I’ve done the next one, I would like to know which one you think make more sense to do first. (more…)
institutional church #2 – the internet and blog-o-sphere March 28, 2007
Posted by Cobus in Blogging and church, church, Emerging Church, theology.2 comments
Most propably these posts won’t follow a very strict logic, but I’ll touch on a few different aspects. OK, so tonight. I started reading a little on what the internet and blog-o-sphere has to say on the institutional church. Now, anyone who has ever tried something like this would know, you will never have a finalized list. So if you come accross something interesting, leave a comment. And if you’ve written something yourself, definitely leave a comment or trackback.
This is not a systematic and complete review of everything (more…)
theology and medium March 22, 2007
Posted by Cobus in Blogging and church, Emerging Church, Emerging Culture, theology.2 comments
OK, so before I even start on this one, I need to make this clear. I’m not out to get Rob Bell. I know this will be the second time in two weeks I say something critical while talking about Rob Bell, but it’s nopt against him. OK, that said…
Got thinking about this while jogging the other night (maybe I should go jog more often, then I’ll think more ofter). It’s interesting what the relation between how your theology is percieved and the medium you use to spread it is. In one of the podcasts from Emergent Village where Tony Jones and Doug Pagitt talked, they touched on this as well. (more…)
on excelent church services and realness March 21, 2007
Posted by Cobus in church, Emerging Church, theology, Youth Ministry.5 comments
The whole baby thing yesterday reminded me about something else that’s been bothering me a lot lately. It’s kind of the hip-thing in our church these days to go for excelent church services. In the name of “we must give our best to the Lord”, a well-polished end product becomes the objective, and we judge it in the same manner we judge a theatre show, movie or concert. (more…)
De La Rey 3 – some other songs, and no final words March 19, 2007
Posted by Cobus in church, Emerging Church, Politics, South Africa, theology.12 comments
It’s been a month since I last posted on the De La Rey issue. Since then it seems like Shaldean Human took some of the talk about De La Rey, maybe it’s just my perception, but it seems like there is a bit less talk about it than 6 weeks ago.
OK, I want to tell you about a few songs, they are all in Afrikaans, so if you can’t read Afrikaans you’ll have to trust my interpretation, or someone will have to give another one, but here goes. (more…)
on random thoughts and following leaders March 16, 2007
Posted by Cobus in Emerging Church, Journal, Missional, theology.add a comment
Today was one of those very interesting days, I think I can blog for a week about all the thoughts that was triggered by events today. First, I attended a little lecture someone gave on the emerging church. Now, we all know how difficult it is to try and put this into words, so maybe I shouldn’t be to hard on him, but what I heard, didn’t really sound like what I experienced the past couple of months. But, more on this experience later. (more…)
institutional church – emerging church March 14, 2007
Posted by Cobus in church, Emerging Church, theology.1 comment so far
I visited a friend today, who is the reverend of one of the more conservative congregations of our denomination in Pretoria, but I have a lot of respect for him, and he is really trying to figure out the future for his congregation as well. We started talking about the emerging church a one stage, and then he got me thinking.
He told about someone who told him that the emerging church, and emerging congregations, is not an institution, and that it will never become an institution. Now, a lot of us are mad at the institution. Is that what bind us into the emerging conversation? (more…)
unspoken words March 13, 2007
Posted by Cobus in Emerging Church, Emerging Culture, theology.1 comment so far
Along with so many others, I’ve been struggling with the whole post-modern thing. Yip, so that’s the unspoken word. When starting the blog I made a vow to myself that I will not use the concepts pre-modern, modern and post-modern, but would rather try and explain what I mean by it. But, if you are reading, and not sure what the words mean, don’t feel bad, join the struggle. If you believe you do have the meaning sorted out, well, then read on and tell us how you see it.
The thing is, post-modern is the new buzz-word, everyone is using it, everyone in their own way though. Modern on the other hand, is the new place where you don’t want to be, a few years or decades ago, you would have been riding the wave, now, being called modern is not a compliment. At least not in the circles where I move, and in the faculty where I study. (more…)
emerging South Africa 