My first O(rientation) Week as chaplain has now come to a close. Because of it I haven’t posted anything for a while. But now I’m back! Went to a Brian McLaren (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_McLaren) conference yesterday which was quite helpful – helpful enough, in fact to prompt me to buy a couple of his books. I hope to say more about it in future posts – but not today.

Today I want to talk a little bit about the groundedness of (Christian) faith and practice which is inextricably woven into lives of leaders and followers. Recently I talked about the inadequacy of trying to distil an timeless ‘essence’ of Jesus’ person and ministry out from the Gospel accounts. And I think we tend to try and do the same thing with contemporary ‘heroes’ in our world. Take for example Martin Luther King Junior, Mother Theresa, Archbishop Romero and Archbishop Tutu. The actions and change these people brought about is almost universally acclaimed amongst those who hold justice and equality dear, Christian or not. These were great people who did great things.

Unfortunately many admirers fail to make the connection between an ‘orthodox’ (or even conservative) and deeply personal faith that inspired and undergirded the actions of these people. The four saints were not regarded as heretical or super-liberal in theology. Though they annoyed political and religious authorities, this was not because their God-words were heretical. It was rather that they truly tried to put the Gospel into practice. These guys were not Spongs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spong), nor Foxes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Fox_%28priest%29)

nor even Funks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Funk).

And so I get a bit narky when I come upon the idea that the next great transformers of the world will certainly be secular or spiritual humanists – people who have ‘progressed’ from primitive and pre-modern faith. There are some wonderful people in this boat who do wonderful things – but I do not think they have a stranglehold on the future of the world. And for us Christians: rather than finding a ‘new’ Gospel let's work a bit harder on being a people of the ‘old’ one.