Gerard Kelly's Blog, page 9

End of the Habitat Generation

It was announced today that the era of Habitat is effectively over. The retail revolution launched by designer Terence Conran in the late 1960's - that by the mid 80's had changed the shopping habits of a nation - draws to a close as most of the brand is placed into receivership. In his heyday Conran was accused by a fellow-designer of 'wanting everyone to have a better salad bowl'. The comment was intended as a mild reproach, but captures perfectly Conran's vision: to break good design out of it's elitist, super-rich mould and pour it into everyday products. With principles later taken even further and massively popularised by Ikea, Habitat raised the aesthetic bar for millions. Conran wasn't alone in this, but he was a pioneer. Figures like James Dyson and Jonathan Ive, the genius behind the MacBook, iPod and iPad, might never have achieved what they have without the foundations laid down by the likes of Conran. From the post-60's 'boomer' generation, through Gen X and into the Millennials, there has been a steadily building wave of aesthetic sensibility: so that today's young adults will make major decisions on purely design criteria. Churches have largely missed this revolution, and still see design as an 'added extra' in their communication: the icing rather than the cake. But the polarity of content and creativity - in McLuhan's prophetic language medium and message - has now fully switched. An older generation will say 'you can't reject a church just because it has a bad web-site or a hideous notice board!'. A younger generation will reply, 'that's exactly how we decide!'. Churches that fail to give attention to aesthetics will fail entirely to reach the generation of Conran's grandchildren.

Pretension or Perez?

Still reading through the story of David and Saul. Fascinated by David's use of 'perez' - the idea that God 'bursts out' in all kinds of ways (2 Sam 4, 5 and 6). Even after Saul's death David's love for the God of breakthrough was contested by the former King's controlling and pretentious use of power. Michael, Saul's daughter and David's first love, sees her husband behaving strangely when the Spirit 'breaks out' over him. Dancing around in his underwear, David is abandoned to the freedom and grace of worship. This is too much for Michal, who thinks he should show more a little more kingly dignity. Like her father perhaps? But it's not her father God has established as king, David reminds her. It is him. Pretension, control and power have not been enthroned in Israel. Simplicity, faith and freedom have. How much more, in King Jesus, is grace enthroned where dignity dies? David and Michal's marriage was never the same after this. The 'long war' between the spirit of David and the spirit of Saul goes on…

It's Not the End of the (publishing) World

Sailors training at Sagres in Portugal used to believe they faced the end of the world. Looking out to the Atlantic they saw turbulence around what later proved to be submerged rocks. They decided the sea was boiling and that a few miles west the world ended. They would have enjoyed reading, a few days ago, the announcement by Amazon that for the first time they are selling more e-books than print. For 6 weeks downloads have outstripped traditional sales, even when you include print books with no e-version and exclude free e-books. In the span of such a turning history is made. Some think this is game over: just as a few thousand Christians waited to be raptured on Saturday. But it's not the end of the world. Beyond the boiling sea e-books will flourish. Print books will become hand-made, precious and beautiful. Ultimately both writers and readers will win. Publishing will never be the same. But it will not die. My advice? Get a boat and join the adventure.

Saul's Rave, David's Cave

I've been reading these past few days through the epic saga of Saul's hatred of David. Saul the King becoming more and more paranoid and violent as the years go on. David, the warrior, hiding in caves and escaping to the wilderness; recruiting a Robin-Hood style band of malcontents and debtors.. The narrative makes no secret of who's side it's on - history and the text are all about David. But in the cave he couldn't have known that. In the cave he was a fugitive, his future uncertain and his reputation in shreds. A General unable to provide for his men. A one-time hero washed-up and burned out. A non-event hiding in the desert while history was being written elsewhere and his wife was being given to a stranger…

David couldn't have known how things would end. He knew only two things: who he was, and who his God was. And as it turned out those two things, alone, were enough.

Yess to Bless 2011

We've created a great new way to support the work of Bless at Bethanie through JustTextGiving by Vodafone. 

To make a £10 donation to Bethanie, simply Text 

"YESS11 £10"  to 70070

This only works for UK mobiles at present. If you are a UK tax-payer, you will be able to Gift Aid your donations.

Bethanie itself is brick-built. Both the houses on-site and all the barns attached to them are made from hundreds of individual bricks. It's one of the oldest systems we know of (the Hebrew slaves were in the brick-making business), and it still works. Might we provide the support network for this ministry through hundreds of different 'people bricks' - individuals saying 'yess' to bless?

Gracewell

We prayed this morning around the well at the heart of Bethanie. We opened it up a few days ago to find it more or less functional: old and overgrown but still in good order. We prayed that Bethanie will be a source of refreshment and blessing to all who come. Wells, in Hebrew thinking, symbolise 'living water'. They don't stagnate because they have both an inward and an outward flow. We draw from them and their supply is self-renewed. No wonder ancient cultures thought of wells as magical places. For Bethanie we want this to be a symbol of grace: God's embrace unconditionally offered to all who join us here. We reflected on two ancient stories - Samuel in 1 Sam 7:5-8, assembling Israel and pouring out well-water as a symbol of God's presence and blessing, and Jesus in John 4 holding a historic conversation around the most ancient source of them all, Jacob's well. How many people need to hear that despite everything they are eligible to become a source of God's liberating and life-giving presence?

The £12,000 Lunch

My Bible reading this morning included the Feeding of the 5,000 in John 6:1-13. Here Philip claims (v7) that at least 200 Denarii would be needed to buy lunch. What is wonderful is that this claim is so accurate. A Denari was a labourer's wages for the day - say €60 at €7.50 per hour. So 200 days wages stacks up to €12,000 today. Depending on how many women and children were present, that's between €2.40 and €1.20 per lunch - a very fair price for a mass catered picnic meal. So Philip is not just pulling a figure out of the air. He's thought about it, and he's quite skilled at estimating catering costs on a large scale. What he proves is: we can't do this. We are weeks away from providing for these people. Even if all 12 of us work at it, by the time we have the money we would have needed to provide a further 17 days worth of meals for the people waiting for their lunch. Disaster. The figures just don't stack up. It's beyond us. "Exactly", says Jesus. "Now get these people sitting down. We're going to have us some lunch…"

More Desert Anyone?

Having thought about being 'found in the desert' I also read, this week, a brief extract from Dallas Willard's 1988 classic "Spirit of the Disciplines'. In it Willard considers the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness before confronting temptation and evil and a face-to-face battle with the enemy of his soul. Because we see the desert as negative and fasting as deprivation, Willard says, we think of Jesus as reduced to his greatest place of weakness before this confrontation takes place. But what if the reverse is true? What if the Holy Spirit takes Jesus into the desert to make him stronger for the battle? What if the 40 days is a boot-camp, detox and fitness regime rolled into one, bringing Jesus to tip-top, world-beating warrior condition to face his foe? What if the place of silence and retreat, of fasting and discipline and being alone with God - the wilderness of prayer and encounter - is precisely where we need to go to be made strong? How might that change the way we view the disciplines today?

Found in the desert

We did a great prayer exercise at Bethanie this week, based on an idea borrowed from Sam Hargreaves. Using words and images, we focussed on the four places or conditions used by Matt and Beth Redman in their song 'You Never Let go': "sun shining down on me"; "streams of abundance", "road marked with suffering" and "found in the desert place". The idea is that whichever of these describes your current condition, God is with you.. But something else struck me as I read these words. Looking at the two more negative experiences - suffering and the desert, I noticed how well Matt and Beth had chosen their words. If you are in a desert place, what could you possibly want more than to be found? If there is suffering in your life, what could be better than that it mark the road of your progress and growth? Here is the reassurance that the God we follow loves us. Though we be lost in the desert, he will find us. Though we suffer, he will turn our pain into milestones of growth.

Sad Demise of the 50ft Woman

Yvette Vickers, the actress and Playboy model whose image was used in the iconic poster for the 1950's film 'Attack of the 50ft Woman' has been found dead at her home. Though neighbours insist she still had friends and received correspondence from all over the world, Police believe that the 82 year-old may have been dead for up to a year. She was only found here because they notices that letters stuffed in her post box were going yellow and that cobwebs had formed at the unopened doorway…Vickers was rumoured to have had affairs with both Lee Marvin and Cary Grant in the 1960's, and appeared briefly alongside Paul Newman in "Hud". Yet she still died alone, and lay unnoticed for a full year - so much so that her body has naturally mummified. All this in Beverly Hills, perhaps the world's most prestigious address. If ever there was a measure of the shallowness of celebrity culture and the loss of community in our post-modern world, this is it. If we measured success and afforded fame in terms not of money and adulation, but of relational wealth, our world would be a more comforting place by far. SOURCE