Pursuit of Happiness March 12, 2007
Posted by Cobus in Movies, theology.1 comment so far
storbakken , thanx for the comment of a sabbatical, maybe that’s exactly what I needed. But I wan’t to get back to blogging, maybe not this week, but within the next couple of days. For now, some thoughts on this happiness thing.
We went to see pursuit of happiness over the weekend. Touching story, how many of us have ever really gotten to the point where we knew that if we don’t get money today, we simply won’t eat? And having to know that if I don’t get money today, my kid won’t have anything to eat… (more…)
The “true” church February 27, 2007
Posted by Cobus in church, Emerging Church, Missional, theology.3 comments
Luther said that the marks of the true church is :
- correct preaching of the Word
- the right use of sacraments
When last have you used these markers to check if a church is “true”? When last have you identified a church as “untrue” because they used the sacraments differently than you are used to? When last have you identified a church as “untrue” because of incorrect preaching of the Word? OK, I’ll admit, this happens quite often for some, but for others this might really sound weird. Well, I guess for a lot of you the whole idea of marking churches as “true” or “untrue” is a bit weird, maybe you never even thought of it. But, there you have it, some people do.
At this point I need to first mention someone. Her name is Maryke Redelinghuys, and we have been together for about 4 years now. (more…)
Doing theology February 23, 2007
Posted by Cobus in Emerging Church, theology.4 comments
OK, I’m not sure why I’m writing this, and in all honesty, I don’t know if I should dare to formulate an idea on this topic. Now I know some of you that is reading this blog, and I’ll try not to use words that is not part of our common language without explaining them.
Now, I’m not going to start of by giving a explanation of the greek words comprising theology, helpfull as that might be. I see theology as the way we are trying to figure out how we think about God, how we understand our own faith in / relationship with God, and how we understand the way God is working in this world, also working through us.
But that said, how do we do theology? (more…)
De La Rey 2 – Giving meaning to words February 19, 2007
Posted by Cobus in Politics, South Africa, theology, Youth Ministry.20 comments
I’m not even sure when De La Rey came out. I heard about it somewhere in the second half of last year, and from the first word I heard that this was a racist song. But one evening one of the guys on our corridor played us the song that was beginning to make history. Immediately one of our friends were on his cell phone and reading us the history of General Koos De La Rey from Wikipedia. And we had to conclude that we can’t really see the problem with the song. But I guess that has changed… (more…)
split personality theology February 17, 2007
Posted by Cobus in Emerging Church, theology.4 comments
Stephan’s comment triggered some thoughts I’ve been having for a while now. Theologians sometimes have this idea that if you know enough about a persons ideas on certian topics, then you can predict what he’s opinions will be on something else. This was actually claimed by one of my lecturers once.
But I doubt if we can keep on doing this, especially if we stick to the traditional categories, (more…)
1 Cor 14 and church services February 14, 2007
Posted by Cobus in church, Emerging Church, Missional, theology.add a comment
A few nights ago, after a meeting at church, I started chatting to a friend, or she started chatting to me, don’t really know, we had a chat. We talked about God, about theology, we talked about questions that neither of us would dare to ask in most contexts, but it’s questions we are seriously struggling with. Somewhere along the line we talked about the church. We specifically started talking about Sunday church services, and what people would think if they were to walk in. (more…)
De La Rey February 12, 2007
Posted by Cobus in church, Emerging Church, Emerging Culture, Journal, Missional, Politics, South Africa, theology, Youth Ministry.20 comments
To anyone in South Africa, even non-Afrikaans speaking people. The words of the title will have immediate meaning. To anyone not from South Africa, of not following South African news, you probably would have to be a student of South African history for this to mean anything to you.
Now something about this blog. I’m Afrikaans, but write in English because I believe we have to take part in a conversation bigger than that which we can have in Afrikaans. But I’m South African, and therefore need to react to South African questions. And I think I’m still an Afrikaner, although this is kind of putting the cart in front of the horses (wonder if there is such a saying in English). And therefore the words of the title have meaning to me, a lot of meaning. (more…)
Do we need to be a person of faith to have strong moral convictions? February 10, 2007
Posted by Cobus in church, theology.1 comment so far
This was the question we posed to the engineering students during the week. The specific formulation was : “Must an engineer believe in some faith/ God to have strong moral convictions?” (Afrikaans : “Moet ‘n ingenieur ‘n gelowige mens wees om sterk morele oortuigings te besit?”). The class was devided into two groups, who had to debate this. Now, this was the first discussion of the only semester they have in ethics, but to me it opened some interesting questions.
In both groups I facilitated someone from the group defending the idea that you need to be a person of faith to have strong moral convictions said that any faith system work on the basis of punishment and reward, and that is what will cause an engineer to have strong moral convictions. But the problem is, is it really moral convictions if based on the idea of punishment or reward? On the other hand, I facilitate the Afrikaans class, which means that by far the most dominant religion is Christianity. This is the perception people have, that our moral convictions is based on punishment and reward. (more…)
difficulty expressing myself February 8, 2007
Posted by Cobus in Emerging Church, theology.4 comments
I wrote this a very long time ago, but was a bit wary of publishing it. But now it’s out…
I don’t know if you have experienced this, but I’m experiencing it more and more. I get into conversations about theological stuff, usually sort of dogmatic stuff, and usually conversations where concepts like Sin, Hell, Heaven, Redemption etc. are used. And suddenly I get the feeling that I’m at a distinct disadvantage. (more…)
Some troubling conversations February 7, 2007
Posted by Cobus in Emerging Church, theology.1 comment so far
Had a conversation with one of my classmates yesterday. This is actually a story of hope. We’ve been having some differences, some mayor differences theologically over the past 4 years. What binds us is our love for God and the world. The story of hope, for me, is the fact that we are still sitting around a coffee table and talking, and as long as that may continue, for me there is still some hope.
But yesterday was kind of a bad experience, because I felt like sitting in the accusation chair. I was bombarded with questions on historical factuality of certian biblical passages. Now, don’t get me wrong, I do believe that there is a real life history behind the Bible stories, just not that the Bible is simple history. (more…)
emerging South Africa 