The Plenitude

During the last year of his life, Rich Gold wrote the text for what would become his book The Plenitude: Creativity, Innovation, and Making Stuff. Part of John Maeda’s Simplicity: Design, Technology, Business, Life series (MIT Press), the book is a convergence of the mind of a artist/scientist/designer/engineer - and his thoughts on the ecology of created stuff (The Plenitude).

It’s a quick and enjoyable read (only 110 pages). A sort of hodge-podge of information from an innovative and brilliant thinker - the book serves as a sort of essay on what it’s like to be a creator of stuff - and how a creator should respond to the ever-growing pile of that stuff.

Gold begins by examining the four creative hats he has worn (artist/scientist/designer/engineer) - looking at their interrelationships (both their love for and hate of each other). For “creative types” it is a nice treatise on the creative mind - and how we exist within the four boxes, and both the contradictory and complimentary nature of the four types.

Gold continues by laying out seven patterns of innovation - valuable pieces of knowledge. But, it is the the Plenitude that consumes most of this book. Gold commits half of the book to a discussion on the “stuff.” To write a very coherent examination of this discussion would be futile. However, Gold’s thesis on the Plenitude is worth the reading.

More than an examination of the wealth of stuff, The Plenitude serves as lessons from the creative professions. It is equal parts memoir, exposition, and essay on moral philosophy - a must for any creator.

The Myth of a Christian Nation

In his book, The Myth of a Christian Nation, Gregory Boyd evaluates the effect of joining religion and politics and argues that, in a pursuit to merge the two, Evangelical Americans are destroying both institutions. The book was incredible and deserves the attention of anyone in the evangelical church. Boyd argues that we can never combine the “power-under” kingdom of God with any “power-over” kingdom of the world:

“We have lost the simplicity of the kingdom of God and have largely forsaken the difficult challenge of living out the kingdom. We have forgotten, if ever we were taught, the simple principle that the kingdom of God looks like Jesus and that our sole task as kingdom people is to mimic the love he revealed on Calvary.” (p. 64)

The book is a liberating [sic] experience for those of us in the church who do not necessarily always tow the “Christian Conservative” line. At the same time, it is a powerful, and biblical, argument as to why the church (American, European, whatever) should never become co-opted by governments or kingdoms of the world.

“My critique is rather toward the American church. We expect nations to be driven by self-interest, but we shouldn’t expect kingdom people to applaud this fact, especially when the national self-interest involves taking lives! Isn’t our central calling as kingdom people to manifest the truth that this old, self-centered, tribalistic, violent way of living has been done away in Christ? Are we not to display the truth that in Christ a new humanity has been created, one in which there are no ethnic, nationalistic, gender, social, or economic distinctions? Aren’t we called to ‘live by the Spirit’ and thus put away all ‘works of the flesh’ - including aligning ourselves with various sides of ‘dissensions [and] factions’?” (p. 90)

While Boyd asserts that the kingdom of God shouldn’t be combined with any government, he doesn’t advocate an uninvolved or pacifist mentality. He says that our beliefs should inform the way we vote and our political views - but, we can never fully place our faith in our political systems. We must pursue a better world, through law and order - but as Christ-followers, we must always remember that the only kingdom we have total allegiance to is that of God. We must always keep in mind that our mission is to reflect the love exemplified through Calvary. In fact, in the example of Jesus, we find a person who wasn’t out to topple the worldly kingdom…but rather, he chose to change the world from the bottom up - by serving the poor and caring for the unwanted:

“Did Jesus spend any time and energy trying to improve, let alone dominate, the reigning government of his day? Did he ever work to pass laws against the sinners he hung out with and ministered to? Did he worry at all about ensuring that his rights and the religious rights of his followers were protected? Does any author in the New Testament remotely hint that engaging in this sort of activity has anything to do with the kingdom of God?” (p. 92)

Seriously…an amazing book.

Movies…and Being Seeker-Sensitive

Rod’s committed the next few posts to discussing the idea of being “seeker-sensitive” in the church world. As he wrote, we’re entering a really high-impact season here at Journey - one where we’re being very strategic in the programming of our Weekend Services.

God at the Movies is one of our most popular series - and the only recurring series we have done. Entering it’s fifth year, we’ll take a look at films like Juno, 3:10 to Yuma, I Am Legend and three others; and examine how each story intersects with God’s bigger story. I am looking forward to a really cool six weeks - and, judging by crowd response, so is our church.

But, at the same time, we still hear grumblings about the idea of being “seeker-sensitive” (but, the number of those who grumble is getting fewer and fewer). Journey is, unashamedly, seeker-sensitive. We are constantly aware of and reaching out to those who attend our services that do not yet call themselves “Christ-Followers.” We understand that at one-point, all of us who call Journey our home, were far from God - and it is because of churches like Journey, that we are engaged with our Creator.

I think our Teaching Pastor, Ed Noble, said it great this past weekend:

“There’s always discussion about this whole seeker-sensitive deal…It’s not about marketing. It’s about love. It’s about loving people enough to speak in a way that they can get it. It’s about loving people enough to go ‘Look, we’re trying to understand each other’s contexts here. Let’s find a place that we can meet together, and talk about and see how our stories intersect – see how your stories and God’s stories intersect.’ That’s what loving people do – they understand, they take time to understand.”

I couldn’t agree more. I hope that we (the community at JCC) does everything out of love. If it weren’t for the love of others…for others reaching out and showing love, most of us wouldn’t be where we are today.

So, here’s to a church that is openly seeker-sensitive; here’s to a church that reaches out and loves; here’s to a church that cares enough to meet people where they are at; here’s to a church that takes the time to understand. I, for one, wouldn’t have it any other way.

By the way…God at the Movies V. runs May 16th through June 29th. (Fridays at 7:00 PM, Sundays at 8:30 AM, 10:30 AM). Click here for directions.