What Do You Think About The Modernizing Of The Faith?
What Do You Think About The Modernizing Of The Faith?
I am not sure that I am the right person for this question. I do not really identify with current efforts to update, upgrade, modernize or scale the faith. I think that there is a reason that Jesus came when he did and packaged the message in a somewhat old fashioned reality. He did not seek out the glamorous or the popular but the outcasts and the unspectacular. He did not leverage his standing in eternity but took on the form of a servant. The branding was heart-wrenching kindness, folksy wisdom and supernatural interventions, not personality, modishness or staging. A vital ingredient was the embracing of human fragility and feebleness, and not ‘clout’. In recent history, feverish efforts in the pursuit of mass-influence have only brought embarrassment, regret and humiliation. All that said, if the modernizing of the faith means building a culture that is more hungry to learn than to influence, if it emphasizes a preoccupation with the ordinary more than the flashy, and if it entails an embracing of the fact that Jesus does not need our help to make the faith more palatable, I am 100% onboard.
Malcolm du Plessis
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"I found this cutting many years ago. No doubt there are countless such stories throughout history. So much food for thought." (Malcolm du Plessis)
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"It will quickly become obvious to you that Common Hymnal is multi-ethnic." (Malcolm du Plessis)
"Make contact with the rest of the team prior to the writing session, identifying a leader to set the stage and guide the team through potential challenges along the way.” (Malcolm du Plessis)
“This business is named “Music Publishing” because of the way that songs were publicized and monetized before the invention of the LP. Back in the day, songs were spread by being transcribed onto sheet music, and printed, promoted and sold by Music Publishers.” (Malcolm du Plessis)
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"It has felt, increasingly, like I moved from South Africa to South Africa, excepting, in my old South Africa, we knew we had a problem." (Malcolm du Plessis)
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