No life in the Moon but is that necessarily a problem?
No life in the Moon but is that necessarily a problem?
April 20, 2012
Moments after finishing my piece on the importance of presence for Ref21, a reader emailed me a link to a quite bizarre story: Olympic organisers in London had apparently been hoping to have Keith Moon play at this year's opening ceremony. The only hitch, of course, is that Keith has been dead since 1978. The lesson? One really should not plan such an event without at least one classic rock consultant on hand -- and I happen to know one who is ready and available for a relatively modest fee.
But then my mind wandered to a post that was brought to my attention last week, outlining Mars Hill's plans for the future, something which looks rather like a bid for a corporate takeover of the young, restless etc etc. world.
It is hard to know where to begin critiquing the plan. The usual things are all there: no detailed reference to any form of biblical ecclesiology, a preoccupation with numerical size and growth, the insinuation that lack of such is the result of being staid, the implicit equation of faithfulness with numbers and with 'change', and, of course, the fact that, if you take the deal, you will only have live preaching 'some of the time' -- though growth, if not guaranteed, would appear to be quite likely.
So, drawing on this wisdom, here is what I would like to suggest to the organisers of London 2012: it is very clear in the church today that immediate presence of the man at the front is not important; if immediate presence is not important, then we can reasonably assume that all of the usual accoutrements of immediate presence -- a real body, a heartbeat etc etc -- are not important either as long as somebody somewhere has them on DVD or Blu-Ray and there is a decent sized flatscreen which everyone can see. And, wouldn't you know it?, I just happen to have an excellent DVD of The Who rockumentary, The Kids are Alright, which has some fantastic scenes of the boys -- not just Roger and Pete but also the late John and Keith -- all playing together. As an act of selfless generosity, I am prepared to rent out this DVD to you at a negotiated price. So, despair ye not: Moon can be at the opening ceremony after all. The age of miracles is surely still with us.
In the meantime, the rest of us can step down from our pulpits and go off and do something else. Once we have ten thousand videos of the top boys preaching, we can just keep recycling them -- long after they have gone to their eternal reward. Reminds me of a David Bowie song I once heard.....
But then my mind wandered to a post that was brought to my attention last week, outlining Mars Hill's plans for the future, something which looks rather like a bid for a corporate takeover of the young, restless etc etc. world.
It is hard to know where to begin critiquing the plan. The usual things are all there: no detailed reference to any form of biblical ecclesiology, a preoccupation with numerical size and growth, the insinuation that lack of such is the result of being staid, the implicit equation of faithfulness with numbers and with 'change', and, of course, the fact that, if you take the deal, you will only have live preaching 'some of the time' -- though growth, if not guaranteed, would appear to be quite likely.
So, drawing on this wisdom, here is what I would like to suggest to the organisers of London 2012: it is very clear in the church today that immediate presence of the man at the front is not important; if immediate presence is not important, then we can reasonably assume that all of the usual accoutrements of immediate presence -- a real body, a heartbeat etc etc -- are not important either as long as somebody somewhere has them on DVD or Blu-Ray and there is a decent sized flatscreen which everyone can see. And, wouldn't you know it?, I just happen to have an excellent DVD of The Who rockumentary, The Kids are Alright, which has some fantastic scenes of the boys -- not just Roger and Pete but also the late John and Keith -- all playing together. As an act of selfless generosity, I am prepared to rent out this DVD to you at a negotiated price. So, despair ye not: Moon can be at the opening ceremony after all. The age of miracles is surely still with us.
In the meantime, the rest of us can step down from our pulpits and go off and do something else. Once we have ten thousand videos of the top boys preaching, we can just keep recycling them -- long after they have gone to their eternal reward. Reminds me of a David Bowie song I once heard.....
