reachingtokyo

Relationships are NOT a means to an end.

"Therefore, to understand the events and generalities of life's pathway, we must go beyond principles of evolutionary theory to a paleontological examination of the contingent pattern of life's history on our planet - the single actualized version among millions of plausible alternatives that happened not to occur. Such a view of life's history is highly contrary both to conventional deterministic models of Western science and to the deepest social traditions and psychological hopes of Western culture for a history culminating in humans as life's highest expression and intended planetary steward.

Science can, and does, strive to grasp nature's factuality, but all science is socially embedded, and all scientists record prevailing "certainties," however hard they may be aiming for pure objectivity. Darwin himself, in the closing lines of The Origin of Species, expressed Victorian social preference more than nature's record in writing: "As natural selection works solely by and for the good of each being, all corporeal and mental endowments will tend to progress towards perfection." "

STEPHEN JAY GOULD teaches biology, geology and the history of science at Harvard University, where he has been on the faculty since 1967. He received an A.B. from Antioch College and a PhD. in paleontology from Columbia University. Well known for his popular scientific writings, in particular his monthly column in Natural History magazine, he is the author of 13 books.

I see a general theme in discussions concerning intelligent design, creationism, and evolution. The general attitude is that creation is not a reputable solution to the initial cause issue. That all things related to religeon are myth and only stupid people or people who are superstitious and behind the times as far as the thinking process is concerned. The central issue is the initial cause of the universe. How did it begin? What are the convincing and reasonable answers that the eveolutionary theory brings to the table? Where does matter come from? there is a chain of cause an effect but it only goes back so far there has to be an initial cause. I am certainly not an expert. A creator God is still a viable solution to the question. It is resonable because it fully answers the question. Science cannot prove what happened because nobody was there to observe the beggining so we have to look to other tools.

The good we gain from events needs to be implemented in the everyday- I believe in order to do this we need to be separated / a cold break from events for a while- to actually practice it. We expect a lot of things to happen at events because we prepare, we pray, we work hard. What if we had the energy and focus to do this for everyday activities. The preparation part would not really be the same it would be more by doing that we would prepare. The emphasis would be greater because we would finally see the purpose of each moment as an opportunity for God to work- These moments would be the new definition for “events”. We would expect more. Giving new life to the common place- I believe God designed our everyday activities to be fruitful in the kingdom but we have forgotten this. We can all imagine how eating together is from God but we still see it as less than Sunday morning and Sunday morning as less than the retreat. Why? We need to rethink it all. We are missing opportunities while trying to create new ones.

I believe we simply need to be realizing the daily opportunities we have- thats not too exciting and is lonely most of the time. But its funny how people cant see that as ministry. It is obvious they have been taught differently and so have we but we are trying to break out of that lifestyle and way of thinking- and teach people to do the same. We all like to talk about ministering rather than doing it and we seem to think of only some things as real ministry- God doesn't- he is waiting for us to realize the potential in average things and make the most of them .... Alot of times people become christians not because they find Christ but because they find a community to belong to or a solution to their problems. In other words they are just part of the group and think by doing so they are truly Christians. In this way our events become obstacles because in most areas of society this assumption is true. If you go to a soccer club and play soccer you are a soccer player. If you play guitar and join a band you are a bandmember. The church event mentality also teaches people that church is an event and a place and not a community- you only have to look to american and most western cultures and our own families to see this misconception. Community and church can be understood as one and the same with the evnt system but it requires people to think about the events in a totally different manner than anything else they are a part of in the rest of their lives. anyway too much to go into right now its a paradigm shift...

Do we get discouraged because we expect too much or not enough? I think both.
When I used to run I would set landmarks, say the 3rd telephone pole to break up the monotony in long runs. I think we do the same in life. We use landmark events to break up the monotony. We look forward to these events withy great expectations. Somepeople take this to an extreeme. Sometimes college graduates expect they will make it big if they could only just get to graduation. Usually they are let down when they graduate. The just spent 4 years looking forward to this new life, this something great that would happen. Marriage- same for many. Some spend their whole lives preparing not really for marriage but the ceremony. Did we expect too much? maybe

I am realizing its also because we don't expect enough. I am talking about overlooking the smaller events that lead up to these big ones. We have all heard a life is made up of a bunch of days. Sometimes we so caught up in looking forward to some big event that we attach more meaning to it than to each day. This tends to make each less meaningful and I believe can lead to discouragement. If we can learn to value each day as a distinct opportunity instead of basing our definition of opportunity on size of change or size of ceremony then we might be able to avoid discouragement.

I guess its just seize the day- but even that creates this picture that some great event might happen today if you nmake it happen. not really what I am saying. I am saying we need to take a second look at the average and reevaluate. And "make the most of every opportunity"

An argument for the existance of God from the existance and perception of beauty. Any thoughts?

We just want to be a part of something. Sometimes anything will do. Religeon can be come this "anything" for us and it will cause our relationship with God to become a religeous experience instead of a personal experience with a personal God. We have to be careful not to make God out to be our own "personal impersonal god". God ends up being impersonal. This makes Jesus, the Christian God out to be the same as all the other God- at least from our practice and mindset. This often happens subconsciuosly or at least subtly. The problem is Jesus is a personal God not an impersonal one which means we are not worshipping Jesus at all but an idol. By personal i mean separate from our own minds and the material universe, etc. (The concept of a personal God, although simple can be better explained by someone else).

The point is through our daily lives and especially through our meetings as Christians
are we reflecting who God really is? and Are we really meeting with God or just doing "something"? Is what we do training us or moving us closer to Him over the years or merely maintaining a social norm?

If you like your church then you certainly don't want to leave it. What do you like about it? And what are we really talking about? The Bible says church is the people, but our concept of church is not about people. "What church do you go to?" "How was church?" "What time are you leaving for church?". I never, or rarely hear people talking about people as the body of Christ when they are speaking of church. We have a fixation, a paradigm, a direction of thinking, a concept that we just can't seem to break free of. Some might say "why should we break free? Break free from what? I am happy with my church experiences, why change?". If Church was supposed to be about personal and social enjoyment I would say we don't have to break free.

The Church are believers. If you believe Christ is God then you are a part of the church body. If the ear says he is not part of the body does it cease to be a part of the body? no. Let me shift to the concept of church as a gathering of believers. What is the purpose of structure in the church? To get the tasks and the overall duty, responsibility(joy), job, etc- to complete the Great Commission.

Acts- when the number of beleivers started to grow some of the duties were getting neglected- taking care. The apostles saw fit to choose or should i say administrate the Holy Spirit's choosing of some men to help with this task. meanwhile they would concentrate on Prayer and the teaching of the word. Great there was a need the community gets together and decides what to do.

This is the early church- they met together often, not just to study the Bible(which was part of their lives before they became Christians anyway- itwas a common social activity to go to the synagogue for some at least), they ate together, shared land etc. Now the Church today says "look this is why we meet 2-3 times a week and maybe more because this is the model we follow". Except they kind pick and choose what they want to do- I dont see anyone sharing all there possesions. It was for a season and most people thought the end of the world was comming. This sort of stuff happens after natural disasters, this sense of urgency and goodwill etc. Its not necessarily Christian. I agree there was a move of the Holy Spirit which made a unique set of circumstances and also responsibility in light of what the Spirit had revealed to them. Did it last?

No. In fact only a short time after the only Christians left in the city were the Apostles. Why? If God didn't move people out of that city Christianity would havce stayed there and probably died there. Persecution created the dispora- scattered believers. This is my point that "retreat mentality" is healthy to build up believers but only for a season after a while we get stale and selfish and we just get addicted to spiritual feelings, emotions, and events related to or sounding or feeling like the events or times we experienced God.

Notice I didnt say we get addicted to God but the things that surround Him. We end up trying to recreate it instead of letting Him create those times- here is key- WHEN, WHERE, and with WHOM, He wants.

In short we get complacent and we never grow even if we might like it.

Church services and meetings have become like College for us. College is good for learning (it depends what you put into it) for 4 years but after that you have to move on. Its a good time, an easy place to make friends who are like minded, its challenging, there is a large support group, etc.

What happens socially after people leave college? Its harder in this diaspora society we live in. Now we are surrounded by people from different life experiences etc and its difficult to find a niche because unlike college people arent having orientation and playing name games and having programs to encourage the social environment to grow.

This is a good thing- its time to grow. Find new ways to make friends etc- find a new way to live. IT SHOULD NOT BE THE SAME AS COLLEGE BECAUSE IT ISNT.

As church people its like we have never left the nest. we have a certain - very predictable method of weekly, biweekly, monthly, yearly scheduled and litergical meetings that we teach the world is "CHRISTIAN" its not! It is religeon a system.

For all the people getting into the defensive mode by now that they have to protect the church- What are you protecting? other that your confortable way of life. Its nice to know on sunday you will go to the same schedule etc etc. After 15 years?

My growth happens in one on one conversations and sometimes with a person who doesn't follow Christ. When I speak with Christians it rarely about who God is and more about an event they want me to goto, a complaint about an event, and event they are so busy preparing for they are irritable and dont have time to meet me for real fellowship, etc.

Its not Church its a "cristian lifestyle" and a very western one at that. Its no different than non christian events- which brings me to my next point why not just join a knitting class! Instead of a ten week sermon series on how to reach the lost- just go have a real conversation. That is hard to do.

We often decide on what church to go to after examining the churches in our area- I have been doing this for a year now. I live in Tokyo and whats funny is they all look pretty much the same as each other and like the ones in the US or Germany. Some have a Hawaiian style, some have an Austrailian upbeat style, some advertise for the "people who don't want just entertainment and want to really study the Bible". The world is laughing at us. Some might say "who cares, we are not here to please the world"- true but they are not laughing at us because we are radically serving Jesus.

Yes we need to hear the word of God- more important to STUDY it! That takes time and effort and is really a simple process of the Inductive Method- which shoyuld be taught to every church member in the first year-. But thats dangerous because then they will realize they doint really need the pastor to preach the word because they will be learning through the HS and a little effort, wrestling with the issues in the context of real life amoung the probing questions of non-believing friends.

Yes we need other believers for fellowship, encouragement, etc etc etc- but really although I met those friends in a church setting I the real fellowship happened when I risked my time and energy to see them outside of church and not just members of the opposite sex. I helped them move- or sat for coffee- gave them a ride to the airport (which is what jesus would have done if they had airports).

Church should be a training camp that we graduate from and move onto the practicum- The real world- its is still very much a ghetto- plain and simple in the classic sense of the word with the welfare attitude nurtured until we all have so many Christians self-help books on the shelf and so many event T-shirts in at our yard sales that need to -fill in the blank with any funny anecdote ---

Were stuck in a rut- and a rut is---- a grave with the ends knocked out (i stole that from Nick Fatato- who is not responsible for any of my extreme viewpoints- or is he?)

We should be teaching Christians to think for themselves but that is dangerous. What if they start cults or - oh no a new church?

Is anyone getting what I am saying?

Ill be clear- I am FOR the Church not Against- Non of the prophets were against the church- I am not a prophet- just stating the obvious. We need to drop our reliance on the system. The system needs to become less and He need s to become more becaus e the system has too much of us. We need to think more and take each whatever and bring it before God and get off autopilot. Its painful to leave the things we know but I beleive the missionary mentality needs to return back to church thinking.

I dont beleive I have said anything abusive against God or His people and this commentary is not an attack on any pastor or leader but more a cry(in the wilderness) to examine the task of the Great Commission, drop our plans and ask God what He requires for us to be doing in our unique situations and not just what everybody else is doing.

Are there any leaders out there that sense something stirring or just not right about the way weve been opperating as a church?

Some pics from the summer festival in asagaya, Tokyo. The bottom is a game kids play, they try to pic up the cupie and balls with a wand like instrument that looks like a tiny tennis racket, but it has really thin paper that can break. The top picture is someone playing the taiko drum.