John Calvin, Virtual Church Pioneer

I welcome to brownblog Douglas Estes, author of Sim Church: Being the Church in the Virtual World, (due out October).  Douglas writes about John Calvin who celebrates his 500th birthday, although word is he cannot make the party.  And he comes at Calvin from a very interesting angle!

Douglas writes:

John Calvin was not only one of the church’s greatest trailblazers; he was also one of the virtual church’s leading pioneers. In fact, John Calvin was all about virtual churches. Even though Calvin lived almost a half-millennium before the first virtual church was born, were he alive today he would be a fan-though he also would be unsatisfied with the direction that most virtual churches are taking.

Calvin was a pre-Enlightenment Christian, meaning that he was born before the modern ideal became the mindset in the Western world. As such, he held many non-modern viewpoints about the church. Let’s look at two examples.

We Westerners squabble over aspects of the ‘church’ that would seem less important to pre-moderns like Calvin. While every generation struggles with culturally-based views of the church, the idea that the church is a physical, tangible object seems to be most felt during the modern era. Our language betrays that we think a church is a physical building or a place. But even those who understand that a church is not a building still overplay the physical nature of what a church is. While there are physical aspects to a church (cf. Calvin’s Catechism of the Church of Geneva, where he likens the church to the ‘body’ of believers), a church is, and by nature must be, primarily a spiritual thing. Calvin understood this when he wrote:

“Hence the form of the Church appears and stands forth conspicuous to our view. Wherever we see the word of God sincerely preached and heard, wherever we see the sacraments administered according to the institution of Christ, there we cannot have any doubt that the Church of God has some existence.” (Institutes, trans Beveridge; 4.1.9) Continue reading »

Can a 1950s Church Serve a 21st Century Society?

Wonderful to welcome Bishop Randerson to Brownblog.  In this guest blog post Richard challenges the 1950’s style thinking of many churches.  Here is the good Bishop:

Can a 1950s Church Serve a 21st Century Society?

No! is the obvious answer, yet in too many places that is what we are trying to do. I’m a product of the 1950s Church. I started training to be an Anglican priest in 1958. In the course of 45 years of ministry I served as parish priest, industrial chaplain, social justice officer, bishop and cathedral dean.

Looking back, I see that churches of the 1950s were based on folk coming along on Sundays. Clergy were flat out with church-based activities which were well attended. Church was the place to be. In fact, there weren’t many other places to be in those days. Shops, cinemas, sport were strictly Monday-Saturday.
But by the time I was ordained priest in the mid-60s, society was changing fast. Sunday church was in decline. In 50 years some churches have made creative changes, but many are still operating a 1950s “come to church on Sundays” model with little else, and experiencing the law of diminishing returns.
I firmly believe that the Christian Gospel, expressed in ministry exercised compassionately, creatively and with an essential community rather than church focus, still has huge impact on people’s lives. The essentials are : Continue reading »

The New West - Gabe Smith Speaks

I welcome to the blog a new friend of mine Gabe Smith who is one of a few pioneer thinkers on church in the virtual realm.  So grab yourself a nice cup of coffee and enjoy…  Gabe writes,

Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau were a pair of pioneers. You may not know their names, but they changed the world every bit as much as two of their more famous brethren; Lewis and Clark. They may never have ridden in a covered wagon, or crossed the Rockies while carrying their boats, but their contribution to the world has fundamentally impacted almost everything that most of us do on a day to day basis. Continue reading »

What makes a great blog? Huge question with a simple answer.

Scott Magdalein writes a very cool, very practical blog on blogging. So if you have an interest in blogging head over to his place by clicking here.

I asked Scott what makes a great blog? Check out his thoughts below.. nice work Scott.. nice: Continue reading »

Heaven Almighty

I welcome to my blog a good mate and Christian filmmaker, Russell Brown (no relation!). Russell has recently released a superb doco called Seven Days about a missionary in Zambia. Well worth checking out.

Recently I saw the movie, Evan Almighty and I was quite impressed with it until I heard that it was the most expensive comedy ever made. This grated with me. So I invited Russ to write a piece on the movie. As usual his ideas are thought provoking and challenging.

Russ writes: Continue reading »

Grace in your Face

I welcome guest blogger Dan Lee, brains behind MinistryCamp and one of the guys who inspired me to have a serious look at blogging. So you should blame him really.

Dan shares his heart about God’s Grace… Continue reading »

The Longing for Relationship..

I have the pleasure of welcoming a good mate of mine to the blog, The Very Revd Frank Nelson. I heard him preach this message recently and it really connected, so I asked him to create a shortened version for brownblog…

I take you… to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health….

“We were made for each other.” Every happy couple feels that as they Continue reading »

The poet who loves plumbing

On occasion brownblog will welcome guest bloggers. These are people who I think have something fantastic to say. The first guest blogger is Peter Barney who is Director of Scripture Union in Western Australia. Peter gives his take on leadership…

Continue reading »