What is the Good News? In your words
So, how have you been finding God's story this week? How have your consumption habits been? Integrity? Forgiveness? Grace to others (who aren't deserving of it)? Have we been good news this week? To others? To God's creation?
Well, I hope you'll continue to reflect and "preach in actions" this week.
It's interesting the comments we've been coming up with in class. For example: "Being Christian doesn't give people licence to be mean." If you're worried we're going to rip into what it means to be Christian, and how evangelical Christians are living, don't worry (at least for much longer). We've been doing a lot of "deconstructing" so far. Although these first couple of weeks are Scriptural Foundations (which implies building), we're tearing down a lot of assumptions and baggage that hold us back from moving on. So in "po-mo" (postmodern)-speak, we're deconstructing a bunch of ideas. However, we'll also be constructing a fresh picture of faith in this age. Like my friend Brian Lim's comment last week on my blog, these ideas seem new to us, but in fact are deeply rooted and developed in many of the Christian traditions. So, it's not "new" and crazy ideas we're after! We hope it's fresh and challenging.
So let us give you a tentative schedule and outline.
| Date | Topic, discussion themes |
|---|---|
| June 22 | Social Consciousness of the Old Testament: Scriptural Foundations section: sacrifice and religion, jubilee and righteousness, what God desired, his word through the prophets. |
| June 29 | Social Consciousness of the New Testament: Scriptural Foundations section: Video clip, serving the poor, Jesus on riches, the big picture of Jesus' sayings and deeds |
| July 6 | First World ideals: values, apparent and hidden goals, the lies in the pursuit of happiness |
| July 13 | Consumerism and the Media: How much is enough? decoding media. |
| July 20 | The Other Voice of the Media: The positive aspects of media in culture, society. Satire - speaking out to engage. |
| July 27 | The Ethics of the Hero: Heroism reduced to fame? Honour = loyalty to the group? Messiah syndrome vs. "Why bother?" complex |
| Aug 3 | Swords into ploughshares: wars, militarism, terrorism, peace, connections to the economy. Making a positive difference: MSF, World Vision, etc. |
| Aug 10 | Creation groans: Ecology and environmental stewardship, conservation, sustainability |
| Aug 17 | Courage and Wisdom in Authentic Dialog: Speaking the truth in love. Politicking and false diplomacy. |
| Aug 24 | Vocation and the Workplace: choosing to be good news, choosing careers in bringing forth shalom. |
| Aug 31 | Practicum: TBA |
Keeping this week's email short, here's a translation of Matthew 6 (from The Divine Conspiracy, by Dallas Willard) to inspire you:
Make it your top priority to be part of what God is doing and to have the kind of goodness he has. Everything else you need will be provided.
Comments
wow that looks really interesting....great stuff.
Posted by: Darren | July 1, 2003 10:07 AM