Check your facts...

You may be one of a number of ministers/pastors who, over the years, have told your congregation/listeners, that the two Chinese characters that make up their word for 'crisis' mean danger and opportunity.

If you want a long and interesting/entertaining explanation of this (and an additional bit of information at the bottom of the post that has absolutely nothing to do with Chinese characters...you've been warned) have a look at Cecil Adam's explanation on The Straight Dope.

You can see a more detailed explanation on our old friend, Wikipedia.

Why am I offering you these opportunities to go chasing after the 'real' meanings of a Chinese word? Because in an article written by John Ortberg in the Leadership Online Journal, I came across this rather extraordinary statements, which just goes to prove, I suspect, the reality of the Chinese Whispers game.

'It is a little known fact that in Chinese, the word crisis is made up of two characters: "life" and "stinks."'

I suspect it's a 'little known fact' because it's pretty much incorrect - or, at best, a very loose translation! Which goes to show that if you're going to put information on the Net, or preach it to your congregation, it's best to get it right...

Jargonese

“We must learn the language of our audience,” [C S] Lewis wrote. “You must translate every bit of your theology into the vernacular. I have come to the conclusion that if you cannot translate your thoughts into uneducated language, then your thoughts are confused.”

On his blog, Mike Wendland quotes Lewis in a post called 'Let's watch our Christianese.' (Blogger's spellchecker doesn't think that's a word - or didn't until I informed it that it was.)

Mike talks about how our Christian jargon/language is often misinterpreted by those outside the church. We may be saying something with good sense - to us - they hear 'born again' as 'fundamentalist/cultist/religious extremist' or 'love offering' as possibly involving an orgy.

Personally I hate being asked to 'please be seated.' Who talks like that in real life? And there are heaps of other jargon phrases that many churches use, perhaps with the intention of sounding more liturgical. Let's move these archaic expressions on - or at the very least explain them to those who might be visiting.

We had one of our leaders 'explain' Communion the weekend before last - I suspect that more than 50% of our congregation had their eyes and ears opened as a result. Regular explanations like that are worth doing, and perhaps more useful than telling the people who've been attending for 20 or 30 years that they need to remember that Christ died for our sins, the sort of thing we actually know - because we've heard it several thousand times....

Listening to the 'right' preacher

One of the interesting points made on more than one occasion at the Calvin Conference held over the last couple of days was that Calvin was reluctant to have his sermons published because he preached them to a specific congregation at a specific time. He felt they were a very focused Word of the Lord.

Elsie McKee spent a good deal of time in one of her talks discussing the way in which Calvin, in 1541, had translated his Latin version of the Institutes from 1539 not just into the French equivalent, but into a French that was explanatory of points that would have been obvious to the Latin academic reader, that changed examples and proverbs to ones more familiar to the unacademic audience, and that removed classical references where there might be difficulties in leaving them in.

There has been some comment made recently on other sites about the way in which people can now listen to the 'best' preachers on their Ipods, perhaps to the detriment of the local minister who preaches in their own church. But what came out of the Calvin lectures was that this is not necessarily the most healthy way to hear preaching. Your own minister should be - will be? - speaking to the needs of his particular congregation, and with the help of the Holy Spirit, will be encouraging his church to grow. The preacher on the MP3 will have been talking to a totally different congregation in totally different circumstances. This isn't to say that his preaching won't be used by the Holy Spirit to speak to you, but there is the possibility that it will speaking along lines that suit you, and not along lines that you need.

Advice to New Pastors

Jason Goroncy, on his blog, Per Crucem ad Lucem, has recently culled together four posts written by William H Willimon, and given them the collective title: Advice to New Pastors.

One of Willimon's main themes here is what might be called the 'cultural divide' between ministers freshly minted from seminary, and their congregations. Each often talks a different language, and have to learn how to hear each other. The ministers have to learn how congregations function, how this particular social group works, what its needs are and so forth; many of the things learnt in the seminary will not have prepared the minister for this.

In talking about his first congregation he writes:
I was impressed that they knew more about some things than I. Mostly, they talked and thought with the Bible. They easily, quite naturally referred to Scripture in their conversation, freely using biblical metaphors, sometime referring to obscure biblical texts that I had never read. If they had not read the masters of my thought – Bultmann, Tillich, and Barth, then I had no way to speak to them. I had been in a world that based communicating upon conversations about the thought of others, rather than worrying overmuch about my own thoughts. I realized that my divinity school had made me adept in construing the world psychologically, sociologically (that is, anthropologically) rather than theologically. The only conceptual equipment my people had was that provided by the church, whereas most of my means of making sense were given to me by the academy. Their interpretation of the world was not simply primitive, or simple, or naïve, as I first thought. Rather they were thinking in ways that were different from my ways of thinking. I came to realize that we were not simply speaking from different perspectives and experiences; it was as if we were speaking across the boundaries of two different worlds.

Webinar & Book

After reading an article on the number of words being introduced to the English language on a daily basis - one about every hour and a half, (culminating in some million words in the language by the end of April this year) - I've just been introduced today to the word, Webinar, which is apparently a seminar conducted on the Web. You pay your sub, and you're then allowed access to the real-time audio-visual. In the case I have in mind, it will be conducted from Dunedin by Lynne Baab, a North American Presbyterian minister living here in the city. The webinar is being hosted by the Alban Institute, and the blurb states:

Words, photos, graphics, and links work together on websites to communicate the values and priorities of the congregation creating the website.

Most leaders of congregations are experts in using words for sermons and newsletters but have less experience with the ways in which photos, graphics, and links can express a congregation's values and priorities. In addition, websites require some different strategies in the way words are used.

In this webinar, we'll look at the ways words, photos, graphics and links can be used effectively on websites to meet the needs of congregation members as well as reach out to potential visitors.

The webinar starts on Tuesday, February 24, 2009 3:00 p.m. Eastern (American) time. Amusingly, if you click on the link called Registration Information, you'll find a note saying:
Unless otherwise indicated, our events start on the first day with lunch served at 12:00 noon and close on the last day with lunch served and departure immediately after lunch.
I'm guessing lunch won't be on the agenda for this webinar, although it doesn't actually say so (LOL!)

And one other thing. Lynne published a book in 2008 which relates to her webinar. (I keep repeating the word so you'll remember it!) The book is called, Reaching Out in a Networked World: expresssing your congregation's heart and soul. I've just received a copy today and am looking forward to reading it.

Māori youth health and wellbeing improves

But there are still concerns.
Results from a 2007 study on youth in NZ, 2007, show that Māori secondary school students are happier and are less likely to drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes and use marijuana compared to Māori students in 2001.
However, Māori students are more likely to experience socio-economic hardship, be exposed to violence and have higher health needs like being overweight and experiencing emotional health concerns than their Pakeha peers.
Māori students have more health issues but are also more likely to experience difficulty accessing health services when they when they need them.
Nevertheless, Māori students report many strengths and assets. Almost all report being proud to be Māori, and over one-third speak and understand te reo Māori. Most Māori students say they want to stay at school till year 13 (form 7), and almost 90% of Māori students said that their parents care about them very much.

These are significant steps forward. If the coming generation of Māori can lift the status of their people in New Zealand, the next twenty years will hopefully be brighter. For the full media release, click here.

Shopping for God

James Twitchell is interested in "how religious sensation is currently being manufactured, branded, packaged, shipped out, and consumed."
Most of what we read about ministry leadership, outreach, and management is infused with a heavy dose of spiritual language. Twitchell propels the pendulum the other way. By removing God language, he asserts that most of what we assume to be fueled by divine power may actually be the result of market forces. Today, the way people choose a church is almost the same as how they shop for groceries.
The next generation won't accept the mega brand, because the "pastorpreneurs" that launched [megachurches] are mavericks, impossible to replace. The same market forces that created the megachurch may ultimately be its undoing.

Extracts from a review (by Skye Jethani) of Twitchell’s Shopping for God: How Christianity Went from in Your Heart to in Your Face.