NZ Spring 2004
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Finding God in Pop Culture

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Brendan Boughan writes in SMACA "Before we Christians living in a postmodern world collectively die in utero, let's breathe in the amniotic fluid of the pop culture that surrounds us and see if we really can be born again."

Let's face it. When it comes to offering timeless spiritual food-for-thought to the world, the Church has largely rendered itself redundant. Craig Detweiler and Barry Taylor have brought this charge into sharp focus in their book A Matrix of Meanings: Finding God in Pop Culture. They describe pop culture as the 'amniotic fluid' of our lives.

"Unlike those who decry the decline of Western civilization, we believe a profound, profane, honest discussion of God, the devil, death and the afterlife is sweeping pop culture," they say. "The stones are screaming loud and proud, giving God all kinds of unorthodox and creative 'props'. We can curse culture, ignore it and hope it goes away, or we can wake up and raise the questions to which people want answers."

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WHAT'S NEW

This will be the last futuresnewz unless a new relationship with the Methodist Church is established.

I am hopeful that the project will continue, but this can not be assumed.
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Emerging

Church

and

Gays ...

Where does the emerging church see itself in relation to the battle raging between conservative evangelicals and the liberal anglican church? How much more welcoming are emerging churches to people of different sexualities? Have we our own prejudices - or is this something we can't agree on either?
Ali
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fractals ....

Its here.... a fabulous collection of NZ based alternative resources for the emerging culture

mark pierson and friends from Cityside in Auckland have gathered together the story of their community and its worship, along with a heap of practical resources on this CD ROM.
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At the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we first started and know the place for the first time. T.S.Elliott

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