Hippies & Pomos: Thinking on Christian community a generation apart
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
My pal David had sent me a link a while back about the remastering and re-release of the original Phil Keaggy tour de force, The Master and The Musician from 1977. This wonderful landmark in instrumental music is available here. Do yourself a favor and get a copy.
In the course of looking over his web site, I ran across a detailed history of the project, which included a fair amount of detail about the Christian community Keaggy was a part of in the early 70s leading up to and shaping the project (Love Inn, which is now represented by this very modest church web site).While I don’t have a thoroughly researched hypothesis on this, I can recall several other Christian communities that produced Christian artists and sounded like similarly structured communities (Servant, Resurrection Band, to name a couple others I'm aware of). It seems this was a pretty common alternative expression of the church in that era—consistent with aspects of the counter-culture that the Jesus People movement reflected.
From reading Keaggy’s commentary I get the feeling that such an experience didn’t end well for him. What I’m wondering outloud is what is different today about how Christians view community, simple church, house churches, etc., versus the experience of those who lived in these 70s-era Christian communities or communes. (A offshoot question could be how these respective generations view music ministry.) I can see an earnest attempt to reclaim a truer New Testament expression of the church in both eras.
My snap judgment is that there was probably a little too much unhealthy paternalism and legalism wrapped up in the community approach of the 70s, and perhaps a little too much individualism in today’s mindset. Is this just a pendulum swinging past the ideal? I really have no business writing about this, but I do tend to get sidetracked. I find the Christian Hippie scene of the 70s fascinating.
Other speculation?
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Today’s news from tiny minds
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
In my PR work I ran across a wire news release for the The Itty Bitty Bible. This company has miniaturized the entire Bible onto a wallet-sized card, only readable via a microscope. They’re even giving away 5,000 copies to our troops for the holidays. Such a thoughtful gesture on their part. I can see a brave soldier, hunkered down in an armored vehicle, perhaps under enemy fire, pulling out a microscope so she can read her Bible. Thanks Amazing Faith, for the best idea since Testamints—evangelism that freshens your breath.Here’s hoping their profits are as tiny as their thinking.
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Vinyl Christianity
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
I love a good metaphor. This one struck me while reading a piece in Wired on the resurgence of vinyl media for music
When we allow the pattern of Christ to be reproduced in the grooves of our being, we can more fully express the depth of His love and His Kingdom. The CD and its MP3 offspring are symbolic of modernity’s promise. All of the digital information—the data to reproduce the Kingdom is encoded exactly on the medium, but somehow the warmth and presence suffers when it is played back. All of the information about Jesus and His radical, beautiful, scandalous love for us can be encoded in our minds, but until we “put on love”—live in it and act in it—we’re just a cold, digital facsimile.I’m probably recycling a metaphor someone else already thought of, but I thought it was a cool way to think about it.
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Where have you been?
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Apologies. Keeping up with my posts has been more of a challenge in the past two weeks. I’ve been ratcheting up my thesis research—finding a bunch of new sources, along with an increase in overall busy-ness. Plus, I’ve been more prone to relax or sleep rather than post in my down time. You may see me post in more bursts, rather than a regular pace. Hope this is okay for the time being.
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