So.. yeah. I went and saw Dave Murrows. He was crass and "funny" and loud. I didn't like him. Yes, some of his points were valid - I can see why guys by the age of ten have learnt that they loose at church and church isn't for them because they can't sit still, answer questions and memorize Bible verses quite like the girls can. But is what we need trips to the junk yard rather than male Bible studies?
The guys I talked to about it seemed to like what Murrow said though. Maybe I'm just being female? But I wouldn't go to a church where he was the preacher (he isn't one though). I can see that the church has become feminised and when asked does he not think that that is because society in general has become more feminised Murrow replied saying "Maybe in ten years it won't matter then."
I did like his comments on (musical) worship - we have songs now that say "Jesus I am so in love with you" rather than the "Onward Christian Soldiers" of a few decades ago. He asked where the blood, the sweat, the battle imagery had gone? I back that comment. Although I don't want to sing a Saving Private Ryan-esque song. He said this had to do with the female desire for relationships and out of this the "we want to date Jesus" worship movement sprang.
My issue with these songs that sing about being in love with God is that sometimes we aren't in love with God - sometimes we're cross with him, sometimes we can't understand what's going on or where He is. And it has taken me years to realise that God is so much bigger than my emotions - and He still loves me even when I don't love Him. But I'm not saying get rid of all these love songs.
I realise this may not be a representative view of what he said and please don't take this as an objective view on Murrow or his book, which I have not read. Ultimately the reason I left not liking him was his response to one of the last questions (this completely contradicts the report I'm doing at the moment about impression formation which states that people retain their first impression of someone, regardless of subsequent behaviour).
My CU sends teams out to Malawi each summer and the organiser of these teams asked how he can get more guys excited about this mission trip (which involves practical work, so it's not like it's all relationship-y) when he had six girls applying for each one male applying. Murrow's answer was "Why don't we get the girls going to stand up and the guys can see who they'd be going with."
Yeah, I know, male readers are probably now chuckling (as Bowman did when I told him on the phone). But that is not the sort of attitude to have from the pulpit. What a demeaning thing to say - for both the girls and the guys. Stereotypes do not need to be reinforced.
I'm sorry, but I almost immediately lost respect for this guy. I wouldn't go to a church he preached at and if I ever had the opportunity to see him again I probably wouldn't take it (like the old football saying "If they were playing in my back garden, I'd pull the curtains.").
But the guys loved it. And loved him. Maybe we do need Murrow's breed of different churches that men will want to go to. But would women go to these churches? Murrow argued that time and time again it's shown that if you get the men, you get the women for free (this is certainly true of minister's and youth worker's wives - you pay the guy a salary and get the woman free) but does that mean we neglect the women? Maybe we just need seperate churches?
Anyway... This week is Mission week! I'm very excited. 8am prayer meetings each morning which means me getting/lifting myself/levetating/moaning myself/falling out of bed at 7am - which is before the SUN is up. I think the rule should be nothing before the sun is up - when the sun sleeps, we sleep. I realise this proves trickier in winter when we have two hours of sunlight (I live in Northern Ireland/Wales - there are weeks I don't see the sun at all) but I say we bring back hibernation. Nothing really interesting happens in winter - I'll happily celebrate my birthday on my half birthday and Christmas Day is totally moveable as none of the Gospels say Jesus was born on December 25th (and even if they did calanders have changed since then).
But.. I digress...
There are then lunch time talks on the Big Topics (design/suffering/purpose/the Bible) in a pub. And there are evening events four nights too. And during the day there are times of flyering and questionnairing.
I was thinking/praying about mission week and I got thinking about Gideon (I am using the Message: Solo devotions [thank you Paul and Val! Awesome Christmas pressie] and I'd read about Gideon this week). God could have used an army of 32 000 Israelites to beat the Midianites but He used 300! Three hundred. That's almost how many people sit in my lecture theatre each day. And how did they do it? With horns, clay jars and torches.
God did this to remind the Israelites that this was HIS victory, not theirs - verse two says:
The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many warriors with you. If I let all of you fight the Midianites, the Israelites will boast to me that they saved themselves by their own strength.
So often we forget that what we require God's strength for everything.
"With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God."
Mark 10:27
This (meaning mission week, mission in general) is God's work. It's His Strength that achieves it. And it is His victory. ("In God we make our boast all day long" - Psalm 44 v 8).
This is our verse/theme for the week. (And the design of the hoodies! Which I am wearing as I type this).
Labels: Cardiff, church, CU, faith, God, uni, worship
